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Hi all...
Ten reasons here to join us for a house party at Lee Jamison's lovely home (on a bluff overlooking the Hudson!) this Sunday (Nov. 20th) from 2 to 4 pm at 18 Riverview St. in Stuyvesant (12173)-- it's time for us (the 99%) to take back our government from the likes of Congressman 1% Gibson:
[many signed up already for this; see: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=239932239400471 ; note, too-- no time like the present to start getting these facts below out to newspapers: letters to editor!]
[can't join us Sun.? send what you can: Joel for Congress, 324 Browns Pond Rd. Staatsburg NY 12580!]
1. Fact: According to the Center for Responsive Politics OpenSecrets.org database, Gibson already this year has raked in $10,150 in from Wall Street securities and investment firms, $15,700 from the insurance industry, $22,500 from the military/aerospace industry, and $7000 from electric utilities, besides the $2000 he got from Goldman Sachs last September, $5000 this July from Eric Cantor's PAC (and $13,000 last year from the insurance industry)-- disgusting (I refuse donations from all of these!).
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycl...e=2012&cid=N00031998&type=I&newmem=N
2. Fact: Even the Wall Street Journal reported April 4th this year that the Gibson/Cantor/Boehner "Cut, Cap, and Kill" legislation would "essentially end Medicare" while eliminating 700,000 jobs; meanwhile, Gibson and his staff continue to lie about this to anyone calling his offices-- unconscionable.
[ http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/08/truth-re-gibson-anti-senior-anti.html ]
3. Fact: Gibson refuses to support Obama's American Jobs Act-- and he also refuses to support Rep. Jan Schakowsky's even better "Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act", which would create 2.2 million jobs rebuilding our infrastructure and hiring in our schools, hospitals, child care centers, parks, police officers, firefighters, weatherization, and recycling-- by raising taxes for Americans who earn more than $1 million and $1 billion, by eliminating subsidies for big oil companies, and by closing loopholes for corporations that send American jobs overseas.
[see: http://www.AmericanJobsAct.com ; recall my http://www.PetitionOnline.com/JobsNow effort]
4. Fact: Gibson's signing on to Grover Norquist's "no new tax" pledge means Congressman 1% will continue ignoring an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll in March finding that 81% of Americans support taxing millionaires to solve federal budget problems-- not putting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security on chopping block (send me to Washington-- I'll be an even louder voice telling both GOP and Dems to save all 3 of these from cuts; see just below-- new United for a Fair Economy update on this.
[recall-- infamous Town Hall forum Gibson hosted in August in Millerton-- folks are upset(!)...I was there]
[ http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/7333/what_americans_want_the_peoples_budget ;
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/invoke-the-14th--and-end-the-debt-standoff/2011/07/01/gHQAUif8yH_story.html ; http://www.PetitionOnline.com/ILikeIke ;
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/08/26/305451/citizen-slams-gop-rep-over-anti-tax-pledge-we-are-your-consituents-not-grover-norquist/ ]
5. Fact: Gibson voted last month for only $3.65 billion in funding for FEMA for Tropical Storm Irene relief for homeowners, businesses, and our communities-- even after the Senate had just approved $6.9 billion for FEMA in strong bipartisan majority.
[ http://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/10/shame-on-gibsonhayworth-only-26-billion.html ]
6. Fact: Gibson voted last month to kill more American jobs by extending so-called "free-trade" agreements to Korea, Panama, and Colombia-- though we've already lost 5 million jobs from NAFTA.
[ http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/83832/tonko-gibson-at-odds-on-trade-agreements/ ;
http://www.americanjobsalliance.com/content/new-free-trade-pacts-will-hurt-middle-class ]
7. Fact: Gibson voted this February to eliminate $300 million in Title X Planned Parenthood funding-- even though "Title X funding can only be used for family planning services including birth control, life saving cervical and breast cancer screenings, HIV counseling and testing, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, and education. The funding cannot and is not used to provide abortion services. Under the proposal, 48 percent of Planned Parenthood patients nationwide would be cut off from their source of health care for these essential services. Ninety-seven percent of the services provided by Planned Parenthood are preventive, most of which are women's gynecology services."
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/newsroom/local-press-releases/representatives-gibson-hayworth-vote-block-funds-planned-parenthood-would-cut-health-care-milli-36335.htm
8. Fact: Gibson voted last month for HR 358-- legislation that "would allow a hospital to deny a woman lifesaving emergency abortion care-even if a doctor deems it necessary. It would also take comprehensive health care coverage away from women and create loopholes that states and insurance companies could exploit to undermine the new requirement that insurance companies provide birth control with no co-pays or deductibles."
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/newsroom/local-press-releases/rep-gibson-votes-deny-lifesaving-emergency-health-care-women-38215.htm
9. Fact: Gibson's allegiance to Grover Norquist jeopardizes national support for farmland protection.
As Rhinebeck resident and Scenic Hudson Senior Vice President Steve Rosenberg noted this morning on WAMC, it's crucial that even the small amount of federal funding for farmland protection ($100 million) now in the the farm bill about to be re-authorized be maintained-- the fact is this becomes more and more impossible with Norquist acolytes like Gibson in office who reject progressive taxation.
[ http://www.riverkeeper.org/news-events/news/stop-polluters/pollution-enforcement/outlining-vision/ ]
10. Fact: Gibson refuses to push for a wide variety of common-sense progressive initiatives that have broad populist support, as evidenced repeatedly by many polls-- a statewide ban on fracking (and immediate national moratorium), a liveable minimum wage, Medicare for all, Clean Money Clean Elections campaign finance reform, amending the Constitution to make it clear corporations aren't people, taxing Wall Street, breaking up the big banks, bringing back the Glass-Steagall Act, ending the speculation driving gas/oil prices up through the roof, bringing our troops now from Afghanistan, Iraq, and all over the globe to save $125 billion a year for taxpayers (and redirect $ home to our needs)-- and he refuses to lift a finger to join Sen. Bernie Sanders in seriously challenging the $16 TRILLION the Federal Reserve recently lent out to practically every major financial institution and corporation around.
[ http://www.AMillionFrackingLetters.com ; http://www.FrackAction.com ; http://www.ToxicsTargeting.com
http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=9e2a4ea8-6e73-4be2-a753-62060dcbb3c3
http://www.freespeechforpeople.org/node/75 ; http://www.PetitionOnline.com/FDRagain ;
http://www.thinkprogress.org/2011/05/11/afghanistan-get-out-59-percent ]
ENOUGH!
Donate online at the secure PayPal connection @ http://www.JoelforCongress.org -- or...
Again-- send what you can to: Joel for Congress, 324 Browns Pond Road, Staatsburg NY 12580!...
It's become more and more apparent to me over the last four months since I launched my campaign that I really can lock down the Dem nomination to run in the 20th c.d.-- and then beat Gibson...
We just need to pull together to make this happen-- we ARE the real majority-- let's do this!...
[pass it on...unless you want to wait for the anointed Blue Dog to be Dem nominee; up to you all, folks]
Joel
845-444-0599/876-2488
joeltyner@earthlink.net
http://www.JoelforCongress.org
http://www.DutchessDemocracy.blogspot.com
[join 200+ already @ http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Joel ]
p.s. Unlike Gibson, at MoveOn Jobs Not Cuts rallies in Albany and Saratoga Springs, I endorsed the ten-point Contract for the American Dream (embraced in July 2011 by over 130,000 Americans at over 1600 house parties)-- members of the national RebuildtheDream.com coalition include MoveOn, AFL-CIO, SEIU, Working Families Party, Campaign for America's Future, Planned Parenthood, True Majority, Progressive Congress, Progressive Democrats of America, United for a Fair Economy, Yes Magazine, Move to Amend, and dozens of other prominent progressive organizations from all over U.S. [ http://www.RebuildtheDream.com ]
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[more info here from Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee]
From http://www.DCCC.org/races/district/new_yorks_20th ...
[note, too-- much, much more on this-- http://www.scribd.com/doc/67943256/Chris-Gibson-Clipbook ]
House Republicans voted for a radical budget that ends Medicare rather than ending taxpayer giveaways for Big Oil or tax breaks for the ultra rich.
Republicans' [Chris Gibson's] plan would be devastating to seniors in the district who are currently enrolled in Medicare:
* Increase prescription drug costs for 11,200 Medicare beneficiaries in the district who would be caught in the "donut hole."
* Eliminate new preventative care benefits for 117,000 Medicare beneficiaries in the district.
Republicans' [Chris Gibson's] radical plan to end Medicare would also affect those 54 or younger who are not currently enrolled in Medicare:
* Deny 480,000 individuals age 54 and younger in the district access to Medicare's guaranteed benefits.
* Increase the out-of-pocket costs of health coverage by over $6,000 per year in 2022 and by almost $12,000 per year in 2032 for the 125,000 individuals in the district who are between the ages of 44 and 54.
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Endorsers so far for my campaign for Congress include:
-- Dutchess County Democratic Elections Commissioner Fran Knapp
-- Columbia County Democratic Elections Commissioner Virginia Martin
-- "Gasland" Director Josh Fox
-- Billy Easton (Ex. Dir., Alliance for Quality Education; gave great speech Sat. @ Occupy Pok. rally)
-- Jeff Cohen (founder of FAIR.org, EXTRA!)
-- Former Hyde Park Town Board Member Doris Kelly
-- Dutchess County MoveOn/RebuildtheDream.com Coordinator Matt Rosenberg
-- Chatham Democratic Chair Ernest Reis
-- Copake Town Boardmember Bob Sacks
-- Claverack Democratic Chair Deborah Shakotko
-- Stockport Democratic Chair Carl Roby
-- Kinderhook Democratic Committeemember Devin McConnell
-- Rosendale Town Boardmember Manna Jo Greene
-- Progressive Democrats of America National Field Director Conor Boylan
-- Dutchess County Legislator Steve White (D-Poughkeepsie)
-- Rhinebeck Democratic Committee Co-Chair Barbara Hugo
-- Former Rhinebeck Village Boardmember Barbara Kraft
-- Former Rhinebeck Village Boardmember Kevin Rheden
-- Clinton Democratic Chair and Assembly Candidate Alyssa Kogon
-- Former Amenia Town Supervisor Janet Reagon
-- Former Dutchess Interfaith Council Executive Director Rev. Gail Burger
[note re: above-- organizations listed for identification purposes only]
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Have been consistently quoted by local media...(standing in solidarity w/Occupy Poughkeepsie, CWA):
"Occupy Poughkeepsie Holds Rally in Park" [YNN this past Sat.]
http://hudsonvalley.ynn.com/content/top_stories/563630/occupy-poughkeepsie-protestors-hold-rally-in-park/
"Workers Support Occupy Wall Street Protest" [YNN this past Sun.; see http://www.CWA-Union.org !]
http://hudsonvalley.ynn.com/content/top_stories/563707/workers-support-occupy-wall-street-protest/
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Recall below, too-- tons of other press coverage so far on my campaign from all over the 20th c.d.:
"N.Y. Democrats: Economy is key in 2012 congressional races" by Brian Tumulty
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20111109/NEWS01/111090314/N-Y-Democrats-Economy-key-2012-congressional-races
[see this blog post from Post Star's Maury Thompson recently-- "Tyner Meets with DCCC" (8/26/11):
http://poststar.com/blogs/all_politics_is_local/tyner-meets-with-dccc-touts-his-hio-hop-politics/article_cca0fb8a-001f-11e1-bfbc-001cc4c002e0.html Post Star: daily paper Saratoga, Warren, Washington co.'s]
From http://www.cityhallnews.com/2011/10/heard-around-town-oct-27-2011/ ...
October 27, 2011 10:18 am
Heard Around Town, Oct. 27, 2011
By City Hall
* Expect Medicare to be a top issue for Democrats in 2012, said Joel Tyner, a Dutchess County legislator aiming to oust Rep. Chris Gibson next fall. Tyner was among a handful of New York candidates in Washington, D.C., for yesterday's meet-and-greet with over 100 fellow Democratic challengers from across the country, and he noted the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee put a big emphasis on Medicare as an issue where it sees the Republicans as vulnerable.
"What happened in the 26th with Kathy Hochul, she talked about the real Republican agenda: let's take away everything that grandma and grandpa ever had, dismantle Social Security and Medicare, and feed tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires," Tyner argued.
Other candidates who made the trek from New York to D.C. include Mayor Matthew Alexander of Wappingers Falls and Cortlandt Town Board member Richard Becker, who are targeting Rep. Nan Hayworth; restaurateur Alex Borgognone, who has filed to run against Rep. Michael Grimm; and Brianne Murphy, a Syracuse attorney exploring a run against Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle. The National Republican Congressional Committee dismissed the gathering as a group that wants to be the next "Obama-Pelosi rubber stamp."
More media coverage so far on the campaign:
"At Wet Rally, Tyner Walks Water" [Register Star 9/6/11]
http://www.registerstar.com/articles/2011/09/06/news/doc4e659df08e272569821191.txt
"Dutchess Legislator Tyner Launches Bid for House Seat" [Daily Freeman 8/13/11]
http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2011/08/13/news/doc4e455ed1b0d75988729644.txt
"Demonstrators Bring Wall Street Protest to Glens Falls" [10/5/11]
http://poststar.com/news/local/demonstrators-bring-wall-street-protest-to-glens-falls/article_627eef56-ef9d-11e0-aa8b-001cc4c03286.html
"Dutchess County Legislator To Challenge Gibson"
http://adirondackdailyenterprise.com/page/content.detail/id/526425/Dutchess-County-legislator-to-challenge-Gibson.html?nav=5008
"Tyner Announces Bid for Congress" [YNN 8/14/11]
http://hudsonvalley.ynn.com/content/all_news/553524/tyner-announces-bid-for-congress/
"Tyner to Run for Congress" [8/12/11]
http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2011/August/12/Tyner_run-12Aug11.html
"Tyner To Launch Congressional Campaign Today" [Register Star 8/12/11]
http://www.registerstar.com/articles/2011/08/12/news/doc4e44b8619d971701241619.txt
"Democratic Congressional Hopeful Tyner to Tour District" [Post Star]
http://poststar.com/news/local/democratic-congressional-hopeful-tyner-to-tour-district/article_5bbb8c22-d27b-11e0-88f2-001cc4c002e0.html
[also recall: http://209.98.77.34/albanyproject/diary/9550/joel-tyner-a-serious-progressive-for-ny20 ;
http://www.politics1.com/ny.htm ; http://blog.seeinggreene.com/2011/10/politics-2012.html ;
http://rebuildthedream.com/blog/2011/08/26/chris-gibson-cant-handle-the-truth/ ]
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From: Lee Farris | UFE
Subject: TAKE ACTION NOW for a Fair Deal in the Super Committee!
Date: Nov 16, 2011 9:27 AM
Democrats on the Super Committee have already offered $400 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, even though Republicans still refuse to raise taxes on the wealthy. In fact, they want even more tax cuts for the wealthiest households.
A bad deal is worse than no deal at all. Your senators need to hear that you want a deal that will serve our country as a whole, not just the rich.
JOIN THE WEEK OF ACTION!
Please call your two Senators right now at 888-907-1485. Tell them:
1. At least half of the total deficit reduction package should come from increased revenues that would improve tax fairness by increasing taxes on wealthy people and corporations.
2. At least half of any spending cuts should be made by reducing unnecessary military expenditures.
3. There should be no cuts that impact beneficiaries of key social programs (such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, education, and other programs that help middle- and low-income families).
4. Any proposal that does not meet these principles should be rejected.
LEARN MORE:
If you'd like to learn more before you call, register for today's update on the Super-Committee with Senator Al Franken. This 20-minute educational phone/web event begins at 4:00 p.m. this afternoon (Wednesday, November 16) and is hosted by our friends at the Coalition for Human Needs.
This call will provide you with an overview of ongoing Super Committee negotiations, which includes disastrous plans to further reduce tax rates for millionaires, while slashing Medicaid and other essential programs and raising the Medicare eligibility age to 67. None of this does has to happen. Register now to learn more:
https://chn.peachnewmedia.com/store/seminar/seminar.php?seminar=10021
UPDATE:
Hundreds of individuals from 47 states signed our open letter to the Super-Committee:
http://faireconomy.org/enews/sign_on_to_pressure_the_super_committee
Yesterday, we issued a press release noting that over 100 high-wealth and upper-income people were among our signers:
http://faireconomy.org/press_room/2011/wealthy_taxpayers_to_supercommittee_tax_us_more
We're actively working to publicize this effort with several members and supporters of Responsible Wealth. The letter is being hand-delivered to Congress today.
It's not too late to add your voice! Call your two Senators right now at 888-907-1485.
Thanks for taking action,
Lee Farris
Federal Tax Policy Coordinator
United for a Fair Economy
P.S. If you can't join the call with Sen. Franken, check out this helpful summary of the Super-Committee proposals:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/all-the-supercommittee-proposals-and-counterproposals-in-one-post/2011/11/15/gIQAUepEPN_blog.html#pagebreak
P.P.S. A lot is on the line with this Super-Committee deal. Please help us spread the word by sharing this alert via email and all of your social networks and by encouraging your friends, family and colleagues to participate. Use the buttons above the banner to get started.
Support our work for tax fairness and an economy that works for all:
https://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1500
29 Winter Sreet, 2nd Floor | Boston, MA 02108 US
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[recall below-- Obama didn't have to put a trillion dollars in cuts on table; he could have used the 14th!]
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Invoke the 14th - and end the debt standoff
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/invoke-the-14th--and-end-the-debt-standoff/2011/07/01/gHQAUif8yH_story.html
On its current course, the United States is four weeks away from defaulting on its debt for the first time in its history. If that happens, businesses will fail. Financial institutions will fail. Home values will decline. Mortgage rates will skyrocket.
Spending and investment will all but disappear. Social Security checks will stop being mailed. Everything from military pay to food inspection will be compromised, if not fully cut off. The millions upon millions of Americans who are unemployed or underemployed will be joined by millions more.
Across the world, America's second financial collapse in three years will drag down already fragile economies in Europe, Latin America and Asia, potentially creating a "worldwide depression," as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid described it. In short, we would be thrown back deep into economic turmoil - only this time with even fewer tools to crawl our way out.
In theory, this is unthinkable, and it will be remedied by reasonable political parties making reasonable concessions across the negotiating table. But Republicans have been negotiating in bad faith, unwilling to compromise even an inch on their extremist and absolutist positions. Some are no longer willing to come to the table at all.
With that backdrop, President Obama may find that there is only one course left to avoid a global economic calamity: Invoke Section 4 of the 14th Amendment, which says that "the validity of the public debt of the United States Š shall not be questioned." This constitutional option is one that the president alone may exercise.
If the Aug. 2 deadline arrives and no deal has been made, Obama could use a plain reading of that text to conclude - statutory debt ceiling or not - that he is constitutionally required to order the Treasury to continue paying America's bills. In that sense, this is not just a constitutional option, it is a constitutional obligation, one even the Tea Party will have trouble denying.
There are reasons why such a solution is less than ideal. There ought to be some concern about executive overreach; the very idea of the president deciding which laws are and are not constitutional has disturbing ramifications. And to the extent that the goal of the move is to prevent market panic, it remains an open question as to whether it would succeed. But market panic will surely come with the failure to reach a deal altogether. The consequences of default are simply too severe - and too long-lasting - to take this option off the table. It may not be ideal as an elective choice, but as an option of last resort, it is a necessity.
If Obama does choose to move forward, he will be doing so on strong legal footing. In Freytag v. Commissioner (1991), the Supreme Court held that the president has "the power to veto encroaching laws .?.?. or to disregard them when they are unconstitutional." The final word still may lie with the Supreme Court, but in the interim, the president need not wait for its opinion. "As a simple matter of constitutional logic, the president can refuse to enforce a statute he believes violates the Constitution," said Professor Barry Friedman of NYU Law School in a telephone interview with me. "In fact, he is sworn by oath not to enforce it," added Friedman, author of the book "The Will of the People: How Public Opinion Has Influenced the Supreme Court and Shaped the Meaning of the Constitution."
It is also unlikely that the action would be successfully challenged in court. Only Congress would have standing to sue, but doing so would require a joint resolution, something a Democratic-controlled Senate would almost certainly block.
President Obama should commit to exercising this obligation - as a last resort. And he should commit publicly, as soon as possible.
Doing so will give him the leverage he lacks in the debt-ceiling negotiations. Right now, Republicans' willingness to let the economy default, consequences be damned, gives them enormous leverage. But presumably, if a deal is not reached by the deadline, and the president is forced to exercise his constitutional obligation, Republicans will get nothing at all. Not the trillion dollars in cuts already agreed to.
Not the additional trillion in cuts they are seeking. The threat, alone, of invoking the 14th Amendment defuses the bomb Republicans have strapped to the hostage.
Most would agree that taking such a step would be out of character for a president who has avoided this brand of confrontation. But great leaders adapt to adverse circumstances, and this is no exception. The president doesn't just have a political and legal obligation here; he has a moral one, too. A default would be wrenching for the poor and middle class, stripping families of their jobs, their homes and programs they depend on for survival. A debt deal, negotiated entirely on Republican terms, would be devastating too - for everyone who isn't a hedge-fund manager or private jet owner.
That leaves the president with two choices: He can give in to unthinkable Republican demands or he can choose, instead, to exercise his constitutional authority, end the debt-ceiling standoff and craft a new budget deal, defined, finally, by shared sacrifice.
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