Thanks Winford for the heads up on
this.
Click on link below to sign petition.
"No
Budget Deal on the Backs of the Elderly, the Children, the Sick and the Poor"
“Grand bargain could be grand
sellout By Senator Bernie Sanders
The media appear
fixated about when and if a so-called “grand bargain” on our economy will be
reached. Wrong question! The question we should be asking is: What should be in
a “grand bargain” that works for the average American?
At a time when the middle class is disappearing, 46 million Americans are
living in poverty and the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing
wider, we need a “grand bargain” that protects struggling working families,
not billionaires.
With corporate profits at record-breaking levels while the effective
corporate tax is at its lowest level since 1972, and 1 out of 4 profitable
corporations pays nothing in federal income taxes, we need a grand bargain that
ends corporate loopholes and demands that corporate America starts helping us
with deficit reduction. We must not balance the budget on the backs of the
elderly, the children, the sick and the poor. We must not cut Social Security,
disabled veterans’ benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, education and other programs
that provide opportunity and dignity to millions of struggling American
families.
Before we pass a grand bargain, we have got to take a hard and sober look
at what’s happening economically in our country today. In doing so, we must
acknowledge that the United States has the most unequal distribution of wealth
and income of any major country on earth and that inequality is worse today than
at any time since the late 1920s. Today, the wealthiest 400 individuals in this
country own more wealth than the bottom half of America — 150 million
Americans. The top 1 percent owns 38 percent of all financial wealth, while the
bottom 60 percent owns just 2.3 percent. Incredibly, the Federal Reserve
reported last year that median net worth for middle-class families dropped by
nearly 40 percent from 2007-2010. That’s the equivalent of wiping out 18 years
of savings for the average middle-class family.
The distribution of income is even worse. If you can believe it, the last
study on the subject showed that all of the new income gained from 2009-2011
went to the top 1 percent. ALL of the new income!
In America today, the average middle-class family has seen its income go
down by nearly $5,000 since 1999, adjusting for inflation. Real unemployment is
not 7.7 percent, it is 14.3 percent, counting those workers who have given up
looking for work or who are working part time when they want to be working full
time. While youth unemployment is exceptionally high, millions of young people
are struggling with student loans they can’t afford to pay back. While we talk
about the need to strengthen the middle class, we have to understand that more
than half of the new jobs that have been created since 2010 are low-wage jobs
paying people between $7.80 and $13.80 an hour.
That’s the economic reality facing a large majority of our people, and
that’s what has to be taken into consideration when we discuss deficit
reduction and a “grand bargain.”
As a member of the Senate Budget Committee, here are my priorities:
We need a budget that puts millions of Americans back to work in
decent-paying jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and transforming
our energy sector away from fossil fuels and into renewable energy and energy
efficiency.
We need a budget that keeps the promises we have made to our seniors, veterans
and the most vulnerable by protecting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
benefits.
We need a budget
that makes sure that the wealthiest Americans and most profitable corporations
pay their fair share of taxes. We must end corporate loopholes that allow Wall
Street banks, large corporations and the wealthy to avoid more than $100 billion
a year in federal taxes by stashing their profits in the Cayman Islands and
other tax havens. A federal budget is not just a set of numbers. It is a value
statement of what we, as a nation, stand for. We must fight for a grand bargain
that stands for justice, opportunity and the needs of our middle class. We must
reject any approach that continues the economic assault on working families..”
Register To Vote
To vote in Texas, you must be registered. Simply pick up a voter registration application, fill it out, and mail it at least 30 days before the election date. Get your application here.
VOTER REGISTRATION
Registration Deadline: To vote in an upcoming election, the properly completed voter registration form must be postmarked 30 days before the upcoming election to be valid. In person registration must also be completed 30 days before an election.
Party Affiliation: Texas primary elections require no declared party affiliation, but once you vote in a party's primary you can only attend that party's caucus thereafter through the end of the year.
QUALIFICATIONS
Age: Must be at least 18 years old (you may register at 17 years and 10 months)
Citizenship: Must be a United States citizen
Residency: Must be a resident of Texas and the county in which you will vote
Mental Competency: You have not been declared by a court exercising probate jurisdiction to be either totally mentally incapacitated or partially mentally incapacitated without the right to vote.
Felony Convictions: You are not a convicted felon (you may be eligible to vote if you have completed your sentence, probation, and parole)
ID Requirements: Your voter application asks for one of three identification numbers. If you have not received any of these, you are still eligible to register to vote, but you will be required to provide proof of your identity at the polling place. Acceptable identification includes:
-A driver's license or personal identification card issued to you by the Texas Department of Public Safety. You may also bring a similar document issued to you by an agency of another state, even if the license or card has expired;
-A form of identification that contains your photograph and establishes your identity;
-A birth certificate or other document confirming birth that is admissible in a court of law and establishes the person's identity;
-Your United States citizenship papers;
-Your United States passport;
-Official mail addressed to you by a governmental entity; or
-A copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows your name and address.
OBTAINING A VOTER REGISTRATION FORM
Online: Texas Voter Registration Application
In person: You may pick up a registration form or register at any of the following locations:
-Voter Register's office;
-Libraries;
-High Schools;
-Texas Department of Public Safety offices;
-Texas Department of Human Services offices; or
-Post offices.
By mail/ in writing: Mail the online registration form or send in a request to have a voter registration form mailed to you to fill out.
VERIFYING YOUR VOTER REGISTRATION STATUS
Online: Texas Voter Registration Verification
Phone: Contact your local voter registrar for more information.
ABSENTEE BALLOT QUALIFICATIONS
Who can vote absentee:Any registered Texas voters can vote early in-person (absentee).
In order to vote early by-mail one of the following must apply:
-You will be away from your county on Election Day and during early voting;
-You are sick or disabled;
-You are 65 years of age or older on Election Day; or
-You are confined in jail, but eligible to vote.
OBTAINING AN ABSENTEE BALLOT
Online: Online application for early voting by-mail
In Person: Obtain an in person absentee ballot from your Early Voting Clerk, or Secretary of State's office.
By mail: Download an application to mail or request an absentee ballot application be mailed to you and mail either form completed to your county voter registrar.
Military and overseas voting: Military and overseas voters are welcome to use the regular registration and early voting by mail process available to all voters away from their home county on Election Day. However, there are also special provisions for military and overseas voters.
Emergency Voting: If you experience a death in your family on or after the third day before an election - and you can no longer vote in person - you can request an emergency absentee ballot. Complete the Texas Emergency Absentee Ballot Application and hand-deliver it to your early voting clerk on or after the 3rd day before election day and before 5pm the day before the election.
SUBMITTING AN ABSENTEE BALLOT
Location and time: The early voting clerk must receive your marked ballot by 7 p.m. on Election Day or by the 5th day after Election Day if your ballot is submitted from outside the United States.
EARLY VOTING
Early voting qualifications: Any registered voter may vote early in person without further application or qualification.
Other information for early voting: Generally, early voting in person begins the 17th day before Election Day(if a weekend, early voting starts Monday) and ends the 4th day before an election day. To vote early you only need to show up in person during the prescribed early voting period.
VOTING SMART
Verifying Registration: Texas Voter Registration Verification
Deciding how to vote: http://www.votesmart.org/
Time off to vote: The employee is entitled to take paid time off for voting on election days, unless the employee has at least two consecutive hours to vote outside of the voter's working hours.
Polling Place: On your Voter Registration certificate, you will see a precinct number. Your residence is located in a specific "precinct" or area within the county where you will vote on Election Day. In some cases, precincts may be combined to accommodate joint local elections, so always consult your County Elections Office in the days before an election for the address of the polling place where you're to vote.
ID Requirements: You are required to show your voter registration certificate in order to cast your vote. If you have lost or misplaced your certificate, you must show another form of identification. Acceptable forms of identification include:
-A driver’s license or personal identification card issued by the Texas department of public safety
-A similar document issued to you by an agency of another state, regardless of whether the license or card has expired
-A form of identification containing a photograph
-A birth certificate
-U.S. citizenship papers
-U.S. passport
-Official mail addressed to you from a government agency
-A copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows your name and address
-Any other form of identification presented by the secretary of state’s office.
How to Vote: Texas Voting Guide
-Optical scan
-DRE
-Paper ballots
Getting your vote counted: Texas Voter Rights
Problems with voting: Texas Voter Complaint Form
Verifying provisional ballot status: Provisional voters will receive a notice in the mail by the 10th day after the local canvass advising them if their provisional ballots were counted, and if they were not counted, the reason why.
Verifying absentee ballot status: Contact your County Clerk or call your Secretary of State toll free at 1-800-252-8683
_____________________________________________________________________________________
April 26, 2012
Senate Republican Men Say Violence Against Women Is OK
31 GOP Men Don’t Think Domestic Abuse Victims Deserve Protection
In the end the renewal easily cleared the Senate on a 68-31 vote. 15 Republicans joined all members of the Democratic caucus in voting yes. Notably,
the 31 Republicans who voted against renewing VAWA are all men.
All Republican women voted for the renewal.
__________________________________
____________________________________
916 anti-woman bills have been introduced by the GOP since March 2011
Source http://www.guttmacher.org/media/inthenews/2012/04/13/index.html
_________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Click Here for Redistricting News
We’ve known it all along, but now we have numbers. New Poll Finds That Those Who Rely On Fox News
Are Less Informed Than Those Who Watch Jon Stewart Or No News At All
Click Here for More
________________________________________________________________________________________
The Republicans like to tout my own home state of Texas as being an "economic miracle". They would like for Americans
to believe that the recession didn't hit Texas as hard as other states, and that is because of the corporate-friendly
Republican leadership in the state. That's simply not true. Texas was hit hard by the recession, and at least half of the
states in this country have a lower unemployment figure than Texas.Texas has the largest number of minimum wage
jobs in the country -- both in number of minimum wage jobs and in the percentage of the state's jobs that pay minimum
wage. That means Texas has more full-time workers than any other state that are living below the poverty line.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Our Wise County Republicans think America is a republic and not a democracy.
Click on the link below for our thoughts.
America A Republic or Democracy
__________________________________________________________________________________________
“What did liberals do that was so offensive to the Republican Party?
I’ll tell you what they did. Liberals got women the right to vote.
Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote.
Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty.
Liberals ended segregation.
Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act.
Liberals created Medicare.
Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act.
What did Conservatives do?
They opposed them on every one of those things, every one. So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, ‘Liberal,’
as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty,
something to run away from, it won’t work, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor.”
—Lawrence O’Donnell Jr.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
What it means to be a Democrat
Democrats stand for Hope, Equal Opportunity and Fair Play.
These are the values Texans share in our personal lives and
the values we expect to define our economic and social policies.
Texas Democrats are building a better state and a stronger nation where
those who work hard and play by the rules can achieve their American dream.
We believe:
In equal opportunity for all citizens.
In rewarding honest, hard work with a living wage and in a tax system that is fair.
In family values that are more than a political slogan.
In quality education that gives all citizens the opportunity to reach their potential.
In freedom from government interference in our private lives and personal decisions.
That individual strengths in our diverse population are a benefit.
In security in our homes and safety on our streets. Criminals should face swift and certain punishment.
In separation of Church and State to preserve the freedom to pursue our beliefs.
In a strong United States - morally, economically and militarily.
In reasonable reforms that give us cleaner and safer air and water.
