District 10 Democrats

To:                  All Interested District 10 Democrats

From:             Rivko Knox, Secretary, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   602-942-6436

 

MEET D 10 DEMS NEWEST PRECINCT COMMITTEEPERSON (PC), MARY SCANLON 

Mary says: “I was born and raised in Arizona. I grew up in Douglas, down on the border. Douglas is a predominantly Mexican-American community & living there gave me a deep affinity for Hispanic culture.  While attending Stanford University I lived in the African-American dormitory for two years. The experience gave me a more nuanced view of race relations, and of the great challenges our country still faces with regard to tolerance. I first registered as a Democrat while in college. I have been back in Arizona since 1991. I work as a self-employed graphic designer. My husband and I have two college-age daughters.  I have watched with dismay over the last several years as the state’s governance has become increasingly reactionary, small-minded and exclusionary. When I received a phone call soliciting my participation in the Democratic Party, I knew it was time for me to get involved. I’d like to do what I can to help the state regain more balanced, fair-minded representation.

            P.S.  Although only a PC for less than a month, Mary has already volunteered to represent D 10 Dems in the Maricopa County Democratic Party’s Party Building Committee, which goes out on canvasses monthly!!   Thank you Mary for your activism!!!

————————————————

Upcoming Events in 2011 – Get Your Calendars Out!!!

            *** The AZ Independent Redistricting Commission.   Get on www.azredistricting.org to receive e-mails re meetings etc. etc. 

            *** The AZ Redistricting Coalition is dedicated to encouraging Arizonans to work toward the most competitive districts possible (30 Legislative & 9 Congressional) by getting actively involved in the process.  http://azredistricting.com/redistricting-contest/   

            ***  July 13-14, 5-9 p.m. Dem For Am training, The DFA Action Summit brings local activists, advocacy organizations & community leaders together for 2 nights of intensive issue advocacy training. Professional trainer will help you plan & execute a winning grassroots strategy. Training agenda at: DemocracyforAmerica.com/actionsummit    www.dfamc.com for details

            *** July 16, 2011 – NW Democratic Breakfast Club.  Breakfast at 8 a.m., Speaker at 8:30 a.m., RSVP to hredwine#DLRGroup.com or 602-258-3221.  The Board Room at the Beatitudes, 1620 W. Glendale, Phx, 602-995-6100

            *** August 2, 2011, 6 -8 p.m.  Labor Teach-In.  UFWC Local 99 in partnership with the AZ Dem Party:  2401 N. Central, 2^nd Fl; RSVP to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  How Much Do You Know About Labor?  Labor Core Values? Union Branding?  Their Power in AZ? How They Influence Elections in AZ? 

            *** August 4,5,6,7.  Stanton for Phoenix Mayor Phone Banks and Canvassing.  Contact Nate Levinsky at 602-435-9117 for details or just show up at Rivko’s house, 3134 W. Gelding Drive or 602-942-6436;  5-8 p.m. phone banks on Thursday and Friday; 9 a.m.- 9 p.m. canvassing and phone banks Sat., and Sunday. ).  www.stantonformayor.com or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

            ***  Tues., August 9, D 10 Dems Monthly Meeting, 7-9 p.m.  Please join us at Cholla Middle School Library (NW corner of 31^st Avenue and Cholla, which is about half way between Cactus and Peoria).

            *** Thurs., August 11, D 10 Drinking Liberally.  4-7 p.m. at Finnegan’s Irish Pub, N of Dunlap into Metro Center, 9201 N. 29^th Ave.       Inexpensive appetizers and drinks, good company!!!

            *** Sat., August 13 – MCDP Strike Force.   The MCDP Party Building Committee will meet at the MCDP Office at 8 a.m., to discuss strategy and then canvass at 9 a.m.  Five volunteers are requested from each District to work in heavily Democratic/but low participation areas.

            *** August 20/2011 -Arizona Democratic Party summer State Committee Meeting in Flagstaff.  Location:  Flagstaff High School, 400 W. Elm; election of a new male DNC representative.

            *** Phoenix (vs LD 10)  Drinking Liberally - every other Thurs, George & Dragon Pub just N. of Central & Indian School (4240 N Central Ave.) near light-rail. 7pm on. Look for the red, white & blue sign “Drinking Liberally”. We’re usually in the large dining room to the right of the main entrance.

            *** Vets & Military Families Caucus – meets at 7 p.m. on the last Tuesday of each month at MCDP office; LD Vets reps should plan to attend along with any other vet or military family member.

********

Appreciate what D 10 is doing?  Wanna help but don’t have the time??

Please make a secure donation at:

https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/entity/27306?refcode=directory

 

***********************

TAKE ACTION – let them know how you feel!!!  If you don’t tell ‘em, the others will!!! 

Gov. Jan Brewer –       602-542-4331;    AZ Rep. Jim Weiers –  602-926-4173 & This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ;   AZ Rep. Kimberly Yee - 602-926-3024 & This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ;   AZ Sen. Linda Gray – 602-926-3376 &  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it    Congressional District 2: Rep. Trent Franks  623-776-7911/202-225-4576;   Congressional District 3: Rep. Ben Quayle – 602-263-5300/202-225-3462;   Senator John McCain:  602-952-2410/202-224-2235;  Senator Jon Kyl:  602-840-1891/202-224-4521;  President Barack Obama: The White House: 202-456-1414

**************************************************************************

AZ Dem Party (ADP) Chair Andrei Cherny On the National Scene: Spread the Word!!!

            On June 15, 2011, the Center for American Progress (CAP) announced that Andrei Cherny will be a Senior Fellow. Cherny is the co-founder & president of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas,…(a policy & ideas journal)…his policy work will explore how to help create jobs, generate economic growth, reform local governance & enhance citizen decision making in public services. “For over a decade now, Andrei Cherny has generated fresh ideas to solve our country’s most persistent challenges…He is a widely-respected author, thinker & policy wonk… At CAP, he will continue his work in creating the next generation of economic & domestic policy proposals.”   He is the author of The Next Deal: The Future of Public Life in the Information Age… & The Candy Bombers: The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America’s Finest Hour…Cherny has written frequently on global economic policy, politics & history for publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and Investor’s Business Daily. A former Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and a former Assistant Arizona Attorney General, Cherny also served in the Clinton White House as a senior aide to Vice President Al Gore. Cherny’s writings include co-authoring President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign policy book, Change We Can Believe In. He is an officer in the United States Navy reserve & lives in Phoenix with his wife, son & daughter. He graduated with honors from Harvard College and from the University of California Berkeley Law School.

———————————–

What Has Obama Done? Did You Know??(by John Thrasher)
> How many people have asked you, so What has Obama done? A postal man
> asked me this and I said, he’s kept the Postal Service open so you
> could have a government job, retirement, social security and Medicare.
>
 Did you know?  Obama has signed the largest increase for Veterans in 50 years! Bush
> took away $8 Billion from Veterans during his administration.
>
Obama signed laws providing 30,000 with health care, most never had any at all before that.
>
> Obama works to help the world too, but does not leave the U.S. without like Bush did.

> Are you driving a Chrysler? Well you wouldn’t be without Obama’s
> bailout and saving 140,000 jobs and nearly a million suppliers.
=================================>
Interesting statistics–Jobs created

In the last 50 years Democratic Presidents have created over 20 million more jobs than Republicans even though they have been in office for 8 fewer years.

 

President(D)                 Jobs Created                Yrs in office      Total yrs in office 

H. Truman                    8.4 million                     1949-1953                   4

J. Kennedy                   3.6 million                     1961-1965                   4

L. Johnson                    11.9 million                   1965-1965                   4

J. Carter                       10.5 million                   1977-1981                   4

B. Clinton                     23.1 million                   1993-2001                   8 

                                    57.5 million                                                       24 yrs in office

 

President (R)                Jobs Created               Yrs in office      Total yrs in office 

D. Eisenhower              3.5 million                     1957-1961                   4

R. Nixon                      9.4 million                     1969-1973                   4

G. Ford                        1.8 million                     1973-1977                   4

R. Reagan                    16.0 million                   1981-1989                   8

H. W. Bush                  2.5 million                     1989-1993                   4

W. Bush                       3.0 million                     2001-2009                   8  

                                    36.2 million                                                       32 yrs in office

———————

The GOP’s Plan for (Un)Shared Sacrifice Jun 24, 2011 | By ThinkProgress War Room

… the GOP’s willingness to keep paying the bills we started racking up as a result of Bush-era policies… the core issue is the GOP’s unwavering devotion to protecting (and even expanding) tax giveaways for the wealthy, Big Oil, and other special interests. These giveaways have been put on the national credit card, and now the GOP wants to forward the bill to the rest of us or simply not pay it at all. (Good luck getting a decent loan for a new house, a car, or a student loan if they go down that road.). We thought we’d keep it real simple and break down who gets to sacrifice and who gets off easy if the GOP gets its way.

ON the GOP’s chopping block:    

•  Medicare     Medicaid      Social Security     Tax cuts for people making less than $500,000
• Government programs and services that tens of millions of Americans depend on each day

NOT on the GOP’s chopping block:    

• Tax giveaways to Big Oil    Tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas    Tax loopholes for hedge fund billionaires     Wasteful tax loopholes used by huge corporations to avoid paying their fair share
• Tax breaks for yachts and vacation homes     Tax breaks for people making more than $500,000

In one sentence: The GOP is willing to risk another economic calamity when we can least afford it if that’s what it takes to protect tax breaks for the wealthy, Big Oil & huge corporations — tax breaks paid for by ending Medicare, slashing Medicaid/Social Security & cutting the government programs/services we depend on each & every day.

============================

The Extreme Corporate Agenda, Know Your Enemies.

From AFCSME WORKS, Spring 2011

ALEC,CCA, GPS, CofC — sound innocuous? So do “Americans for Prosperity, Americans for Tax Reform, Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation and FreedomWorks. The reality: they are all part of”…an entire network of anti-union, anti-workers organizations that want to cut public services workers’ pensions and health care benefits, and dismantle collective bargaining rights…” To be prepared, you have to know the players:

            *** ALEC = American Legislative Exchange Council, formed by Paul Weyrich in 1973, the father of the modern conservative movement. They don’t disclose their membership or financial backers but they create ‘model legislation’ that helped form SB1070 and many other AZ laws. What is known about ALEC is that their corporate members include representatives of ExxonMobil, Pfizer Inc. Reynolds American and Kock Industries Inc, whose billionaire owners, Charles and David Kock, are the major financial backers of the Tea Party.

            *** CCA = Corrections Corporation of American, that pushes (very successfully in AZ due to ALEC — get the connection??) to privatize prisons.

            *** GPS = American Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies. This is affiliated with Karl Rove, and the President , Steven Law, was the general counsel for the US Chamber of Commerce and Bush’s deputy secretary of labor.

            *** CofC = Chamber of Commerce is the largest business lobby organization, and the leading foe of collective bargaining rights, workplace safety, equal pay, and the Employee Free Choice Act.  Grover Norquist was the Chamber’s chief speechwriter in the 1980s.

            *** Americans for Prosperity = Founded in 2004 by David Koch; Scott Hagerstorm, the Michigan Executive Dir, stated “…to take the unions out at the knees, so they don’t have the resources to fight these battles.”

            *** Americans for Tax Reform = Founded in 1985 by Grover Norquist; with the goal “…to cut government in half in 25 years , to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”  Author of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge that seeks to get candidates to pledge NOT to raise taxes on people or businesses.

            *** Cato Institute = A DC think tank established in 1977 with money from Charles Koch with David Koch on the Board.

            *** Heritage Foundation = Founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich with money from the Coors folks (see also ALEC).

            ***FreedomWorks = Headed by former House Majority Leader Richard Armey (R-Texas), is a major player in the Tea Party.

——————————————–

Emergency Labor Network Crafts Program to Reverse the American Tax Shift

Sunday 10 July 2011  -by: Jack Rasmus, Truthout | Op-Ed

            This writer was recently asked to provide a keynote speech to the important new grouping within the US labor movement called the Emergency Labor Network (ELN)…I was asked to suggest an alternative tax program…make the wealthy & corporations pay &… not only resolve the deficit but expand social wage benefits such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid & jobs. The program offered & discussed at the ELN conference was dubbed the “RATS Tax Program,” an acronym that stands for “Reverse the American Tax Shift” of the past 30 years. The shift has occurred on three levels. 1) in the personal income tax - from the “top 10%” wealthy households/investors enjoying capital gains, dividends, carrying interest & rental income, to the 100 million “bottom 90%” households, whose income is almost exclusively “earned” from wages, salaries & pensions. 2) Since 1980, a tax shift in favor of capital incomes benefiting the top 10% of households - together with a 50% decline in tax incomes from the corporate income tax (from about 20 to 10% of federal tax revenues) & 3) a doubling of payments into the payroll tax (from roughly 20 to 40% of federal tax revenues).  All this has resulted in a total annual shift in income by 2011 approaching $1 trillion a year. In other words, a “Great American Tax Shift.”

            The RATS Tax Program is the response to this shift…in terms of a slogan: “I don’t give a RATS Tax About the Rich!” The ten points the RATS tax program adopted by the conference are as follows:

1. Repeal the Bush tax cuts on all capital incomes (capital gains, dividends, interest, inheritance) & related corporate tax cuts for accelerated depreciation and credits.
2. Restore the capital gains & dividends tax rates, from their current 15% to the 70% in 1980.
3. Restore the top income bracket personal income tax rate to the 70% from 1980.
4. End tax loopholes for corporations & millionaires.
5. Lift the annual income cap on the Social Security payroll tax for all earned income (wages & salaries) above its current $106,800 ceiling. Extend the 12.4%t payroll tax to all capital incomes over $100,000 per year. (Note: per the Social Security Trustees, this would provide 150% of what is needed to resolve all funding issues for Social Security retirement & disability benefits.)
6. Increase the Medicare payroll tax by 0.25& from its current 1.45% for both employees & employers over the next 10 years. Add a second 0.25% for each in 2022. (Note: per the Social Security trustees, this would resolve all funding problems for Medicare.)
7. End multinational corporations’ offshore tax fraud. Make multinational corporations bring back their $1 trillion current cash hoard in their offshore subsidiaries & pay their 35% tax. If they refuse, place a 50% tariff on all their imported goods to the US.
8. Repatriate wealthy investors’ $4 trillion illegally sheltered hoard now in 27 offshore tax havens identified by the IRS & pay their legally required taxes. If they refuse to repatriate within 90 days, impose 10% penalties for consecutive 90 days. If the 27 countries’ tax havens refuse to cooperate in the repatriation, freeze their assets in the US until they comply.
9. Stop the states’ corporate tax cut competition & tax revenue “race to the bottom.” Introduce a federal “State Corporate Relocation Equalization” tax to even out state-to-state corporate tax differentials. Use the federal revenue from the equalization for state job training.
10. Tax the banksters (commercial & noncommercial banks). Levy a three-part financial transactions tax as follows: a) A tax of 10 cents on all common stock trades. b). A tax of $1 per $1,000 value for all corporate bond sales. c) A tax of 5 cents per dollar value on all forms of derivatives trading & swaps by counterparties.

===============

The Ideological Crisis of Western Capitalism  - Sunday 10 July 2011

by: Joseph E. Stiglitz, Nobel Prize Winning Economist;  Project Syndicate | Op-Ed

            Just a few years ago, a powerful ideology – the belief in free and unfettered markets – brought the world to the brink of ruin. Even in its hey-day, from the early 1980’s until 2007, American-style deregulated capitalism brought greater material well-being only to the very richest in the richest country of the world. Indeed, over the course of this ideology’s 30-year ascendance, most Americans saw their incomes decline or stagnate year after year.

            Moreover, output growth in the United States was not economically sustainable. With so much of US national income going to so few, growth could continue only through consumption financed by a mounting pile of debt.           I was among those who hoped that, somehow, the financial crisis would teach Americans (and others) a lesson about the need for greater equality, stronger regulation, and a better balance between the market and government…has not been the case. On the contrary, a resurgence of right-wing economics, driven, as always, by ideology and special interests, once again threatens the global economy – at least the economies of Europe & America, where these ideas continue to flourish.  In the US, this right-wing resurgence, whose adherents evidently seek to repeal the basic laws of math & economics, is threatening to force a default on the national debt… to cut back expenditures now, in the midst of an ongoing crisis brought on by free-market ideology, would inevitably simply prolong the downturn.

            A decade ago, in the midst of an economic boom, the US faced a surplus so large it threatened to eliminate the national debt. Unaffordable tax cuts & wars, a major recession & soaring health-care costs – fueled in part by the commitment of George W. Bush’s administration to giving drug companies free rein in setting prices, even with government money at stake – quickly transformed a huge surplus into record peacetime deficits.

            The remedies to the US deficit follow immediately from this diagnosis: put America back to work by stimulating the economy; end the mindless wars; rein in military & drug costs & raise taxes, at least on the very rich. But the right will have none of this…pushing for even more tax cuts for corporations/the wealthy, together with expenditure cuts in investments & social protection that put the future of the US economy in peril & that shred what remains of the social contract. Meanwhile, the US financial sector has been lobbying hard to free itself of regulations, so that it can return to its previous, disastrously carefree, ways.

            But matters are little better in Europe…There is an alternative: an economic-growth strategy supported by the European Union & the International Monetary Fund. Growth would restore confidence that Greece could repay its debts, causing interest rates to fall & leaving more fiscal room for further growth-enhancing investments. Growth itself increases tax revenues & reduces the need for social expenditures, such as unemployment benefits. And the confidence that this engenders leads to still further growth.

            Regrettably, the financial markets/right-wing economists have gotten the problem exactly backwards: they believe that austerity produces confidence & confidence will produce growth. But austerity undermines growth, worsening the government’s fiscal position, or at least yielding less improvement than austerity’s advocates promise. On both counts, confidence is undermined & a downward spiral is set in motion.        Do we really need another costly experiment with ideas that have failed repeatedly? …

++++++++++++++++++++

********************************************************************************************

Some Inconvenient Truths About the National Debt

Jun 1, 2011 | By ThinkProgress War Room

How’d We Get Here?

As we draw closer to August 2, the drop-dead date by which the nation’s debt ceiling must be raised or the U.S. will risk economic calamity by defaulting on its obligations, Republicans continue to play political games with the economy. ….have collective amnesia about how we got into this mess in the first place, here’s a handy chart from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP):  As our friends at CBPP note, “without the economic downturn and the fiscal policies of the [Bush] Administration, the budget would be roughly in balance over the next decade.”

 

####################

Where the GOP Wants to Take Us: More Tax Cuts for the Wealthy & Big Oil, Less Health Care for Grandma

                In order to raise the debt ceiling to pay for the debts we’ve already incurred as a result of these Bush-era policies, Republicans are demanding that the president accept elements of their disastrous — and extremely unpopular — budget plan, which includes:

• A permanent extension of the Bush tax cuts, which (along with two wars) make up almost half of the debt we’ll owe by 2019 under current policies
• A new tax cut for the wealthy that would lower the top rate by almost one-third
• A new tax cut for corporations — including Big Oil
• Ending Medicare as we know it and slashing Medicaid
• A hidden tax increase on the middle class

Missing from the GOP plan? Any new revenue for the government or any serious deficit reduction over the next decade.

 

WEB SITES.   Please visit us frequently at www.district10dems.com The site is updated on a regular basis so check for new information rather then just waiting for an e-mail from me. Please HELP ME Make This YOUR E-letter.  Please send suggestions, articles, letters to the editor (published or not), comments etc. to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Please also visit www.maricopadems.com  and www.azdem.org

 

NOTE:  Please note the opinions reflected in this E-letter are those of the editor & contributors & not of the D 10 Democratic organization per se. If you want to read ‘different’ stuff, send it to me please!