Keeping In Touch with politics and other issues in Central Virginia .....The Virginia 22nd Senate District and The 6th Congressional District......Vote Democratic for a Better Future....Protect Your Benefits

Democratic Committee Meeting

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

April's Meeting

There is good News to Report

The meeting came off slick and clean with some members flying cross country but arriving promptly before starting time.

David chaired the meeting and laid out the challenges that lay before us.     We are filling positions and conucting a membership drive and all things proceed well on those fronts.

Great ideas for recruitment literally poured fourth when David asked for suggestions from the floor.

Looks like a good year lays ahead for Amherst County Virginia Democrats.

The new officers are busy and handeling the responsibilities of their offices with glee.

The May Meeting will be on the 10th, always the second tuesday of the month.

Check with the Amherst County Virginia Democratic News for details of meetings and locations, special guests and ect.

As we move toward using the new media in our communications please note that ACVDN has a facebook page.

Also David is text messaging meeting reminders to those equipped to receive the text and as always the old standbys, email, telephone, remind a friend and lastly snail mail.


                        

You are always welcome to join us and the May 10th meeting would be a great time to begin.     You will meet and make friends with Democrats from all over Amherst County.

Jeff was in Chicago but the photo above is from a prior meeting.

Lets see what's happening in Amherst County.


And in Virginia


Lets look closely at Bob Goodlatte and how he represents the people who elect him over and over.     If you are 55 years of age or older you are out of luck if you are voting for Goodlatte.     Goodlatte votes against seniors and their issues.

Bob Goodlatte on Social Security


Voted YES on raising 401(k) limits & making pension plans more portable. (May 2001)


Voted YES on reducing tax payments on Social Security benefits. (Jul 2000)

Voted NO on strengthening the Social Security Lockbox. (May 1999)

Rated 10% by the ARA, indicating an anti-senior voting record. (Dec 2003)
Reduce taxes on Social Security earnings. (Sep 1994)
Voted YES on raising 401(k) limits & making pension plans more portable.

Comprehensive Retirement Security and Pension Reform Act of 2001: Vote to pass a bill that would raise the amount individuals may contribute to traditional and Roth Individual Retirement Accounts and to 401[k] plans and make pensions plans more portable


Reference: Bill sponsored by Portman, R-OH; Bill HR 10 ; vote number 2001-96 on May 2, 2001


Voted YES on reducing tax payments on Social Security benefits.


Vote to pass a bill that would reduce the percentage of Social Security benefits that is taxable from 85 to 50 percent for single taxpayers with incomes over $25,000 and married couples with incomes over $32,000. The revenues that would be lost for the Medicare trust fund would be replaced by money from the general fund.


Reference: Bill sponsored by Archer, R-TX; Bill HR 4865 ; vote number 2000-450 on Jul 27, 2000


Voted NO on strengthening the Social Security Lockbox.


Amending the Social Security Lockbox bill to require that any budget surplus cannot be spent until the solvency of Social Security and Medicare is guaranteed.


Reference: Motion to Recommit introduced by Rangel, D-NY; Bill HR 1259 ; vote number 1999-163 on May 26, 1999



Rated 10% by the ARA, indicating an anti-senior voting record.

Goodlatte scores 10% by the ARA on senior issues

The mission of the Alliance for Retired Americans is to ensure social and economic justice and full civil rights for all citizens so that they may enjoy lives of dignity, personal and family fulfillment and security.     The Alliance believes that all older and retired persons have a responsibility to strive to create a society that incorporates these goals and rights and that retirement provides them with opportunities to pursue new and expanded activities with their unions, civic organizations and their communities.


The following ratings are based on the votes the organization considered most important;   the numbers reflect the percentage of time the representative voted the organization's preferred position.


Source: ARA website 03n-ARA on Dec 31, 2003


Reduce taxes on Social Security earnings.


Goodlatte signed the Contract with America:


[As part of the Contract with America, within 100 days we pledge to bring to the House Floor the following bill]:


The Senior Citizens Fairness Act:


Raise the Social Security earnings limit, which currently forces seniors out of the workforce; repeal the 1993 tax hikes on Social Security; and provide tax incentives for private long-term care insurance to let older Americans keep more of what they have earned over the years.


Source: Contract with America 93-CWA9 on Sep 27, 1994

Bob Goodlatte has a special poster made just for him and the one above is it.     Bob has been in Congress for 10 terms and is looking at a retirement in the $150,000 a year range funded by the taxpayers.     As little as he has done for the people of the 6th District he should be consumed with shame to accept it.     His Republican trining has taught him to back up to a paycheck and laugh all the way to the bank.      Really why should he care, the votes elected him over and over for the past 20 years.     If they don't know any better why not stick it to them.

Bob Goodlatte on Energy & Oil


Voted NO on enforcing limits on CO2 global warming pollution. (Jun 2009)


Voted NO on tax credits for renewable electricity, with PAYGO offsets. (Sep 2008)


Voted NO on tax incentives for energy production and conservation. (May 2008)


Voted NO on tax incentives for renewable energy. (Feb 2008)


Voted NO on investing in homegrown biofuel. (Aug 2007)


Voted NO on removing oil & gas exploration subsidies. (Jan 2007)


Voted NO on keeping moratorium on drilling for oil offshore. (Jun 2006)


Voted NO on raising CAFE standards; incentives for alternative fuels. (Aug 2001)


Voted NO on prohibiting oil drilling & development in ANWR. (Aug 2001)


Voted NO on starting implementation of Kyoto Protocol. (Jun 2000)


Rated 0% by the CAF, indicating opposition to energy independence. (Dec 2006)


Bar greenhouse gases from Clean Air Act rules. (Jan 2009)


No EPA regulation of greenhouse gases. (Jan 2011)


Set goal of 25% renewable energy by 2025. (Jan 2007)


Include agricultural products in renewable fuels. (May 2009)

Only YOU can Stop Bob
 
See You Next Meeting
                                                                    ACVDN







Senator James Inhofe Named "Pilot of the Year" by the GOP
"I am a Great Pilot"

A senior Senator deliberately landed his private plane on a closed airport runway   “scaring the crap”  out of workers there, according to newly released documents.
Any Landing You Can Walk Away From


Sen. James Inhofe touched down and then  “sky-hopped”  over six vehicles and a crew working on the runway, according to the report released under a Freedom of Information request from the website The Smoking Gun.
I Thank The GOP for This Award


Inhofe, 76, a third term Republican from Oklahoma, agreed to complete a remedial training program rather than face charges, the documents reveal.    In a January 4 certified letter to Inhofe, FAA aviation safety inspector Robert O’Keefe said   “the matter will be expunged”   after two years.
Another Great Inhofe Landing

The senator, a licensed commercial pilot, was landing his twin-engine, six-seater Cessna C340 at Port Isabel-Cameron County Airport in southeast Texas on October 21 last year.    The main runway was shut down for repairs and had a large  “X”  on it.    Inhofe was aware it was closed according to an FAA investigation.


“When pilot did notice the “X” panel on the threshold of the runway on short final, he still elected to land avoiding the men and equipment on the runway,”   says the FAA’s   “pilot deviation report.”
Taking Off Easy, Landing Not So Much


Sidney Boyd, construction supervisor on the closed runway, called the FAA to report the incident.     During the call, which was recorded by the agency, Boyd said Inhofe had  “scared the crap out of” the workers and the plane had “damn near hit”  a truck.


“I think (the truck driver) actually wet his britches, he was scared to death,”  said Boyd.     “I mean, hell, he started trying to head for the side of the runway.    The pilot could see him, or he should have been able to, he was right on him.”

Boyd also said it  “was not the first time this kind of thing had happened.”  and the inspector reported that both Boyd and airport manager Marshall Reece  “were familiar with”  Inhofe’s plane.

Senator James Inhofe Named  "Pilot of the Year"  by the GOP.



Jon Kyl...JOKE

Jon Kyl's parents were so poor they couldn't afford the alphabet letters to give him a complete name but they brought their son up to tell the truth about anything he discussed and intended to be a factual statement.     Most everything that Kyl speaks about is  "not intended to be a factual statement.”

Stephen Colbert had a ton of fun destroying the comment from Sen. Jon Kyl’s spokesperson that the Senator’s claim about Planned Parenthood  (“90% of its services are abortions”)  was  “not intended to be a factual statement.”     Three per cent of what Planned Parenthood does is related to abortion and NONE of that activity is supported by tax dollars.    Wrong Way Jon Kyl wasn't even close to the ball park and thats not unusual for the musings of the near senile Republican Senator,   “not intended to be a factual statement.”


It may be a silly joke, but we all know how bad Internet jokes can be for politicians.     Hopefully, for Kyl, the whole thing will blow over.     Until then, he can keep his mind off of it by polishing his Nazi memorabilia collection.

um, that last sentence?     Yeah, you know, was   “not intended to be a factual statement.”
2 Republicans Jokes in one Photo

Unfortunately Jon Kyl is only one of many jokes in the Republican Party and that is intended to be a factual statement.

Thats Paul Ryan above holding the sick joke the Republicans call a budget plan.     Below are the thoughts of  Paul Krugman on the Republican plan.
Paul Krugman

Nobel Prize winner (in Economics) Paul Krugman eviscerates Paul Ryan's so-called "plan" for reducing the deficit.    In fact, according to Krugman, "people who actually understand budget numbers" know that Ryan's plan is: not "serious at all," "a sick joke," a series of "savage cuts in aid to the needy and the uninsured, huge tax cuts for corporations and the rich, and Medicare privatization, " and in general "pure fantasy."     And, I'd add, President Obama was 100% correct when he slammed Ryan's plan as leading to  "a fundamentally different America than the one we've known certainly in my lifetime."

Apparently, that was too much for the delicate flower Paul Ryan, who is having a major  "hissy fit" (Krugman's words)  that someone has  "called Mr. Ryan's bluff."     Apparently, Obama hit a raw nerve among Ryan (and other Republicans), who prefer to dwell in a fantasy land where we can have everything (their favorites are favors to corporations, polluters and rich people; as well as to the military-industrial complex), without paying for it.


The core Republican problem is very simple:   as this article explains,  Republicans have a near-theological belief that you nevereverevereverever raise taxes.     But really, what the Republicans' mindless, buy-stuff-without-paying-for-it mantra is all about is politics, namely, holding together  "every wing of the party" - theocrats, aristocrats, etc.     It's also about not incurring the wrath of anti-tax enforcers like Big Bad Grover Norquist, "perhaps the country's most influential anti-tax advocate."
Grover  "Put the Load on the Poor, Conservative Nut Job, Something for Nothing Republican Kook"  Norquist

ACVDN   Bottom Line
Republicans are sick in the cabesa, mentally deficient and living in a dream world funded by the big business interests they support and represent.      Normal, everyday working people are crazy as hell to be voting for a party that laughs at them behind their back.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Blog Archive