Dean to Frist: "a question of values, priorities and choices"

[madfloridian]

Please remember all the battles our Democrats are going to have to fight this next week. I could list them, but I doubt anyone here would pay attention anymore. Not just the estate tax battle, but Roberts' confirmation hearings, and the outrage from Katrina. I have lots of anger, but I also right now see that sometimes moderate is a little better when people are still dying there.

This statement refers to just one battle they face. He ties it in to the lack of storm preparation.

http://press.arrivenet.com/pol/article.php/688791.html

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean released the following statement in response to reports that Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will push for a vote on Repealing the Estate Tax when the Senate returns on Tuesday:

"Countless thousands of our fellow Americans throughout the Gulf Coast region continue to suffer in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. While some have begun the painful task of rebuilding their lives and coping with the unfathomable loss, so many still await help. And the cost of this disaster in human and material terms remains unknown.

"It's simply irresponsible for Senator Frist and Ken Mehlman to even think about spending our tax dollars on breaks for millionaires at a time when our top priority must be to ensure we have the resources needed to address the long and short term costs associated with rescue, recovery, and rebuilding in the wake of hurricane Katrina. Not to mention the vital lesson we learned this week about the deadly cost of diverting funds at the expense of the safety of the American people. These costs also come at a time when our nation faces a massive deficit, and mounting costs in the ongoing war in Iraq.

"There is also a question of values, priorities and choices. Tens of thousands of our fellow Americans have literally lost everything; we have a responsibility to put their needs first. Frist should join Democrats in Congress who understand that our priority as a nation must be to focus our energy and resources on determining how we help the victims begin to rebuild their lives and addressing the long term issues we face as a nation in the aftermath of Katrina.

"Perhaps seeing the images on television was not enough this time for Senator Frist and having now had the chance to actually look some of the victims in the eye, he'll be able to better diagnose the situation, get his priorities straight and recognize that the victims of this crisis, and providing the resources to keep our people safe in the future, must be our highest priorities."

[Totally Committed]

1. Thank you for posting this!

nominated.

TC

[JNelson6563]

2. He's just getting warmed up

Ready to be the Chief SAKAL. :toast:

Julie

[madfloridian]

6. It is good he reminded us what else they face this week.

I had forgotten this issue, and you can bet your bottom dollar the GOP has not. They will push it through and declare victory and laugh at those who suffer.

[ananda]

16. Wtf is SAKAL?

huh?

[madfloridian]

20. Strategist and Ass-Kicker At-Large...actually I agree.

Many of us never wanted him to be chair, but now that he is we hope for the best. He is not really known for keeping silent too long...so fingers crossed.

http://www.hellblazer.com/archives/2004/11/dean_for_sakal.html

LiberalOasis hears that you are interested in being chair of the DNC.

Don't do it.

To be sure, you'd be great at it. But so would others, like Simon Rosenberg and Donna Brazile.

And there's another job that's currently open that desperately needs to be filled.

It doesn’t pay anything, but only you can do it.

It's a job that has never had a formal title associated with it, but let's give it one:

Strategist and Ass-Kicker At-Large, or SAKAL for short.

. . .

On the other hand, if you were DNC chair, you will not have the necessary freedom to push the envelope on message and strategy.

Anything edgy out of your mouth would ricochet throughout the right-wing media machine, twisted and distorted, and spin out of control.

Already wimpy Dems would go into meltdown mode, calling for your head. You'd never last.

But we need you to last."

[Writer]

3. Thanks for posting this. I was wondering what Dean was doing.

Unfortunately his words are being dwarfed by the news and by the strong words of Louisiana Democrats.

[madfloridian]

4. The other battles will affect all of us greatly. They are not going away.

No, he won't be heard. Katrina is only the beginning if they get their agenda through this next week.

If everyone would stop screaming at the Democrats to start screaming, they might think for a minute of the huge battles we face right now.

The right wing is not going to back down on their agenda just because it is unpopular. What is coming up now will affect us all for generations. Katrina is just the beginning.

[calimary]

15. That's okay. He was down there in Louisiana a few months ago,

buttressing the Louisiana Dems, fundraising for them, bucking them up, and giving them new hope. Before, they'd all been written off because they were in a purported "red state," and had been treated with benign neglect by the DNC. But "Hollerin' Howard" went down there to give 'em an infusion of vitamin and calcium supplement, and got them re-energized, lifted out of their doldrums, and up and running. THAT'S why you'll be hearing strong words from Louisiana Democrats. The Good Doctor made a house call and gave 'em all booster shots.

[madfloridian]

31. And Jim Dean was there as well recently, Beaucoup Blues.

He was there for DFA, organizing.

http://www.blogforamerica.com/archives/006669.html

One of the organizers was a student named Monisha Sujan. She is on the right in this picture.


Monisha and her family are now evacuees, and she posts of her journey at the DFA blog.

It's Friday in Mississippi.
http://www.blogforamerica.com/archives/006831.html

"We spent the day driving through Mississippi and many of the areas we drove through had hurricane damage. On Highway 61, there are houses blown completely open (I think, by tornado damage) and many of the billboards are completely tattered. It is so heartbreaking to see people (many who seem to be poor African-American New Orleanians) walk empty-handed on the side of the road or pile into the backs of trucks. The lack of gas, ice and other provisions and the boil water order throughout the state remind me of stories of sub-Saharan African civil war. We've only seen two gas stations that have been open throughout the state and the lines are hours long and patrolled by four police cars each. I'm not honestly sure how riots and violence will be prevented. Personally, we have less than a quarter tank last night and hoped that gas will arrive during the night and plan on an early and lengthy visit to the pumps. My dad is on a pump run.

I've seen the news and have started receiving information from friends today. I'm heartbroken and angry that at the aftermath of Katrina is so devastating."

And a later update:

Relocating to NC
http://www.blogforamerica.com/archives/006838.html

"In Mississippi, we met a man who had biked (using his wife's mountain bike) from the Cotton Mill Apartments in New Orleans' CBD to Baton Rouge on Wednesday. He says that there are still six families barricaded in the complex who thought it was too dangerous to leave. His wife picked him up in Baton Rouge and then had trouble getting gas to make it to northern Mississippi. We met another person (a former resident of Chalmette who has lived in Alabama for 14 years) desperately trying to find a relative in Thibodaux. (Thibodaux is supposedly fine.)

Today, we moved on to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to stay with old friends. These friends first housed my parents when they arrived in the United States twenty-five years ago. Tonight, they are housing my parents, their two kids, our two cats and our fish. We accompanied them to a birthday party and it was incredibly odd to be at a "normal" event, where gas and water procurement and personal stories of lost friends are not primary to everyone. It's funny how calamity becomes normal."

[Harry S Truman]

5. Now if we can just make this man

the 44th president.

[madfloridian]

28. I could go for that....but it won't happen.

:hi:

[salin]

7. hey Howard - throw in a reference to the timing of when the bankruptcy

law goes into effect - and how many victims will be further victimized - compared to the timing of how many (relatively few) folks will benefit from the repeal of the estate tax.

Just a suggestion for driving the priorities theme even further home.

[madfloridian]

8. That bankruptcy bill was perfectly timed...

for the upcoming downturn in our economy.

[salin]

9. DeLay and congress are on the way... to cut more taxes and rush ANOTHER

energy bill through. Grrrr.

[madfloridian]

10. Reid also speaking out on this. Tying it to Katrina. And a FL. Repub.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301065.html

Republican leaders intended to return to work with a dream agenda for small-government conservatives: permanent repeal of the estate tax, an extension of deep cuts to capital gains and dividend taxes, the first entitlement spending cuts in nearly a decade, and the advent of private investment accounts for Social Security.

But Congress and the White House are on the spot to respond to Hurricane Katrina's historic Gulf Coast destruction and skyrocketing gasoline prices, and the leadership is feeling pressure to set aside or jettison parts of that well-laid agenda.

Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) implored Republicans late last week to drop plans to take up permanent repeal of the estate tax soon after Congress returns to work. "With thousands presumed dead after Hurricane Katrina and families uprooted all along the Gulf Coast, giving tax breaks to millionaires should be the last thing on the Senate's agenda," Reid said.

I am proud to see Mark Foley, the GOP congressman from Florida, begin to question these continued tax cuts.

"How do you do tax cuts when your budget is straining to save lives?" asked Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla). The Ways and Means Committee on which Foley serves had been set to pass a package of tax cuts and spending cuts by the end of September, followed by broad, controversial Social Security legislation. Katrina "is going to have a tremendous impact," he added."

[Cha]

11. Sounds like a blessing that a repub

is stricken with a conscience for his country!

I'm wondering what "controversial Social Security legislation" they are trying to ram down our throats?

[madfloridian]

13. They are planning on privatizing bypassing congress.

I don't know all the details, and not sure I understand it...but they have the plan in place to do it. I think they can, since they control it all. I read about it somewhere, but it did not really sink in. Nothing has this week.

[madfloridian]

25. Here you go, zidzi, the McCrery Bill.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/25/145610/620

So you thought privatization of SS was dead? So you were pissed off by the nuclear option and recess appointments? Catch this from the Washington Bureau of the Dallas Morning News, we learn that the Republicans are planning a devious strategy of sneaking in private accounts, doing it in a way which will not require Senate committee approval:

Congressional Republicans, persisting in hopes of enacting some form of private Social Security option despite opposition from the public and the Democrats, are considering the same kind of maneuver that enabled them to pass a controversial Medicare drug bill two years ago.

The House bill is apparently going to be the McCrery bill:
"Rep. Jim McCrery (R-La.) has introduced a bill (H.R. 3304) that privatization proponents are trying to pass off as a new idea to stop the “raiding” of Social Security by Congress. That’s baloney: The McCrery bill is the first step toward President Bush’s plan to privatize and ruin Social Security—nothing more
When Congress comes back from vacation in September, the push for private accounts will begin quickly with the House Ways and Means Committee taking up the McCrery measure. The bill creates private accounts, cuts guaranteed benefits and increases the national debt. And it does nothing to stop the raids on the Social Security surplus or keep the program solvent."

The Morning News explains the need to bypass the Senate committee:

...insufficient GOP support in the Senate Finance Committee and a solid wall of Democratic opposition that ensures enough votes to sustain a filibuster have forced them to look first to the House.

Solid Republican discipline there has enabled the party's narrow majority to prevail on vote after vote in recent years, most recently on the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).

None had as torturous a path to enactment as the bill to create a prescription drug program. It only passed in 2003 after three hours of early morning arm twisting and the help of misleading cost estimates that soon proved to have been understated.

Because the Senate had passed a similar bill, Republicans could take the measure to a Senate-House conference. By excluding most Democrats from any role, they crafted the kind of bill they wanted in the first place.

That would appear to be their hope for private Social Security accounts - pass a bill in the House authorizing private accounts, accept any Social Security vehicle in the Senate that gets the issue to conference and write a final version letting the White House proclaim success."

[chomskysright]

12. Calling all Yeller Dog Dems: GET THE GOP OUT OF THE SOUTH

uSE THIS HOWEVER YOU LIKE (AND WE HOPE RANDY NEWMAN DOES NOT MIND):

(paraphrased from Randy Newman's song, Kingfish: Good Ole' Boys: 1974: This is about Huey P. Long, LA famed governor, who took care of business when the Federales moved too slow during the 1927 flood that over ran NOLA: KICK THEIR ASS BLANCO)

NEVER FORGET NEW ORLEANS

There's a hundred-thousand BushMen in New Orelans
In New Orleans there are BushMen everywhere
But your house could fall down
Your baby could drown
Wouldn't none of those BushMen care.

Everybody gather round
Loosen up your suspenders
Hunker down on the ground
I'm a cracker
And you are too
But don't I take good care of you

(HERE WE'D NEED TO SUBSTITUE WHAT BLANCO/ MAYOR NOLA, LANDREAU ARE DOING)

Who built the highway to Baton Rouge?
Who put up the hospital and built you schools?
Who looks after shit-kickers like you?
The Kingfish do.

Who gave a party at the Roosevelt Hotel?
And invited the whole north half of the state down there for free.
The people in the city
Had their eyes bugging out
Cause everyone of you
Looked just like me

Kingfish, Kingfish
Everybody sing
Kingfish, Kingfish
EVERY MAN A KING

Who took on the Standard Oil men
And whipped their ass
Just like he promised he'd do?
Ain't no Stnadard Oil men gonna run this state
Gonna be run by little folks like me and you

Kingfish, Kingfish
Friend of the working man
Kingfish, Kingfish
The Kingfish gonna save this land.



(I think you can substitute 'Bush Men' for 'French Men' here; French Men, meant to imply the upper class in LA, is what Newman was alluding two as re: his research; the King Fish, of course, was Governor Huey P. Long who, in 1928, JUST LIKE BLANCO IS DOING, told the Federales to stick in their pipe and smoke it as they were moving way too slow for him and the people. Later labeled as a 'dictator', he was a populist. A crazy dentist assasinated him about 10 years later in the marble halls of the Louisiana State Capitol. Its a great album all the way through, documenting seminal events in the South).

Below also is the link to a site that Gov. Blanco has set up in order to pull in money for the clean-up and restoration, keeping it out of the hands of BushCo. Look down after the lyrics of Newman's song. Pass this around please.

KICK THEIR ASS BLANCO: KEEP THE SPIRIT OF THE KINGFISH WRAPPED TIGHT AROUND YOU



The Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation has been established in order to help provide immediate assistance to our citizens in need through a network of Louisiana charities, non-profit and governmental agencies, including clearinghouses like the Louisiana VOAD (Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster). The Foundation is also designed to support long-term family restoration and recovery by focusing on education, housing, health care, legal assistance and jobs for Louisiana families whose lives have been altered by Hurricane Katrina.

By postal mail, please make donations payable to Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, Inc. and mail to:

Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, Inc.
Fed. Tax ID No. 20-3399944
c/o Division of Administration
1201 North Third Street, Suite 7-240
P.O. Box 94095
Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9095
Inquiries may be directed to: [email protected]

http://www.katrina.louisiana.gov/donate.htm

[Stockholm]

14. Did not Dean speak about "two Americas"

in the primary?

Must be some decent quotes there.

[satya]

17. Nice tie-in to Schiavo: "seeing the images on tv was not enough this time

...and having now had the chance to actually look some of the victims in the eye, he'll be able to better diagnose the situation..."

Go get 'em, Dr. Dean!

[Carla in Ca]

29. That is the line that got me, too

and having now had the chance to actually look some of the victims in the eye, he'll be able to better diagnose the situation,

That was a direct hit! Go Dean!

[Douglas Carpenter]

18. recommended

[Gregorian]

19. Can we just shut down the government?

It seems that would be the least harmful of all choices. There appears to be nothing but a downward spiral this administration is forcing upon this once great country. Can't the Democrats just go on strike, or something? I seem to remember Nute Gingrich (or whatever the fuck his name is) doing this for some frivolous reason.

Oh, I forgot. We're in the tiny minority.

[madfloridian]

21. Kick because of another Dean should do this or that post.

Kick.

This is getting tiresome. These guys are facing huge battles next week.

I am thankful for the ones who speak out, but each will do it in their own way.

[Disturbed]

22. Two Americas-John Edwards

This was a consistent theme in his bid for Pres.

Yes! There are at least two.

The RW is Hell bent on turning Amerika into a Feudal Police State.

[madfloridian]

23. I like very much what Edwards is doing.

I signed up for emails from him. He is right about the two...and then are some caught up in between who are just catching on.

[mcscajun]

24. Get 'em, Dean!

Nail 'em to the fuckin' wall if they try more tax cuts...especially cuts for the wealthy.

Nail 'em down, hard!

[kath]

26. This sentence was fokkin' BRILLIANT:

"Perhaps seeing the images on television was not enough this time for Senator Frist and having now had the chance to actually look some of the victims in the eye, he'll be able to better diagnose the situation ..."

Insert knife and TWIST! Way to go, Howard! Great way to resurrect memories of the Schiavo debacle.

[madfloridian]

27. I don't think many caught that. You are right.

I liked that little dig a lot.

What Dean said about what Frist said about Terri Schiavo.

"For Senator Frist to say he could make a diagnosis based on the videotape certainly is not medically sound," Dean said. "I would not want my doctor making any diagnosis of me on videotape, and I'm speaking as a doctor."

It was a nice dig.

[Robeson]

30. Also, Dean is a doctor. Using the term "diagnose" is a backhanded...

...slap from one doctor to another. As in, "I assume you DO know how to diagnose?"....