As I sit waiting to fly out of LAX, secure in the knowledge that while most of our money is going into the greatest effort the world has ever seen to make most of its people hate a particular nation, everyone around me has had to take off their coats and shoes and display their toothpaste, except for the people living on the streets of Los Angeles who aren't part of the airport traveling world, and -- this ought to help things -- Lynn Woolsey came to this city yesterday to support Jane Harman.
Marcy Winograd is one of the very few serious, viable, progressive challengers to a Blue Dog in Congress. In the California 36th congressional district, Winograd, who has spent a lifetime as an activist for progressive causes, is taking on Blue Dog Jane Harman.
Please join Congresswoman Jane Harman in welcoming Congresswoman Lynne Woolsey Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus for a special evening of conversation and hors d'oeuvres with Lynne and Jane in support of Jane's re-election to Congress!
Danny's Venice
23 Windward Avenue
Venice, CA 90291
Saturday, January 16, 2010
4:00pm to 6:00pm
A cash bar and discounted parking will be available (two lots: one next to Danny's or on Speedway just south of Windward)
For more information, please contact Marc Saltzberg at XXXXXXXX or Email: Harman_Woolsey@yahoo.com
Please join us at this extraordinary event, a fund raiser for Congresswoman Harman in an historic Venice location.
To ensure everyone has an opportunity to attend, Democratic Club members can attend for as little as $36. Not a Dem Club member? You can still attend with a small donation of $50!
Aarrgghhh!! Come on Progressive Caucus!! A little help? Even Progressive Caucus leaders are supporting Blue Dogs in primaries against prospective Progressives? Do the Progs even want to have more influence in Congress?
This is not even to mention that Jane Harman is the third wealthiest member of Congress, with a net worth of $112 million. She doesn't need any additional funding for her re-election campaign--she could self-fund another 20 re-election efforts. What she needs is progressive credibility to cover up her Blue Dog membership and past endorsements from Republicans. In that regard, Progressive Caucus Co-chair Lynne Woolsey is happy to deliver.
If you live in the Los Angeles area, I would strongly suggest that you attend the above meet and greet. Show up and challenge Representative Woolsey for undermining attempts replace Blue Dogs with Progressives. She should be working to increase Progressive power in Congress, not limit it. And why should we be working to support the Progressive Caucus if the Progressive Caucus leadership actively undermining our efforts to strengthen the caucus?
Here's something everyone in Congress needs to see as they consider President Obama's $83.4 billion supplemental war funding bill. National Priorities Project (NPP) just released The Cost of War in Afghanistan, a report examining the exorbitant human and economic costs of this rapidly expanding war, which estimates the war has currently cost taxpayers over $172 billion. When you factor in the projected costs of long-term military occupation, interest, and veterans' benefits, we're talking about a war that will cost close to $1 trillion. "All told," the report concludes, "this is more than the size of the recent bailout of Wall Street and rivals the historic economic stimulus bill just passed by Congress."
NPP is tracking the costs of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq using an individual cost of war counter, calculating the state-level numbers and trade-offs of supplemental war spending. In my home state of Pennsylvania, for instance, taxpayers will have to pay $2.9 billion of the proposed $83.4 billion tab. Want to know what $2.9 billion could do instead of fund more war? NPP claims it could provide:
725,689 People with Health Care for One Year OR
3,533,713 Homes with Renewable Electricity for One Year OR
29,863 Affordable Housing Units OR
460,546 Head Start Places for Children for One Year OR
46,575 Elementary School Teachers for One Year OR
The list goes on and on. The fact is not nearly enough members of Congress are seriously considering the cost and impact of more troops, both in the U.S. and Afghanistan. According to NPP Executive Director Jo Comerford, "The purpose of this resource is to help people across the United States reflect on the current Afghanistan war and its proposed expansion."
I didn't really follow the race for progressive caucus chair, but it has apparently ended with the election of Raul Grijalva and the reelection of Lynn Woolsey (who was going to step down but thought better of it recently). I don't really know Grijalva, but I suspect his ascension has to do with a sense that Hispanics needed representation within the progressive caucus leadership. Keith Ellison was running to replace Barbara Lee as co-Chair of this group (Lee left to step up her work with the CBC) and I suppose that I'm a bit surprised he didn't win, though I actually have no reason to be surprised since I didn't actually follow the race. Other CPC leaders are listed here. The challenge for progressives in the caucus is to become as organized as the Blue Dogs and New Democrats, and hopefully Grijalva will help make that happen.
Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, and Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., today introduced a bill which would provide four consecutive years of funding to strengthen existing programs already underway to foster reconciliation among Iraq's societal factions...
Shays said H.R. 5925, based on a recommendation of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, would allocate $20 million annually for four years to the USIP, which since 2004 has been working to prevent sectarian violence at the local level; develop leaders in schools, universities, government, and civil society; promote the rule of law; engage women in public life; and increase regional stability.
So is this post-partisanship? It's a good and necessary bill, but Lynn Woolsey is helping Chris Shays retain his Republican seat where he is free to vote against real progress in Iraq. Is this what you mean by post-partisanship? Let's cosponsor a bill and keep a seat in the hands of a Republican instead of a progressive Democrat like Jim Himes? There is no way this bill is passing until at least 2009, when Himes could be in office.
Lynn Woolsey, the founder of the Out of Iraq Caucus, made a bit of news this week with her endorsement of Hillary Clinton.
Woolsey told the Marin Independent Journal Wednesday that Clinton "is the one who can take what she says and turn it into reality once she's elected president.
(She's in the first third or so of the call, whence she's replaced by Jim 'MBNA' Moran.)
Now, not being one of the sphere's big kahunas, I've no experience of these calls. But, to judge from Woolsey's contribution to this one, waffle is the main dish on the menu.
"The truth is we don't have the votes to end the war," said Democrat Kent Conrad of North Dakota, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee.
"We're going to try to move the things that we can move on domestic issues like student loans, education and children's health care and energy. These are places where we can have tangible accomplishments. And we hope to give people greater confidence in what Congress is doing."
Fresno peace activists are taking it to Jim Costa. A coordinated effort from throughout the region is coming together
to "pressure Democratic Representative Jim Costa to vote NO on the September bill to continue funding the occupation of Iraq." [Peace Fresno president Bill] Simon wrote that "each group will take one day a week to picket in front of Costa's office and perhaps to go into the office to say 'No more funding'. We will also encourage passers by to call their Congressman and Senators."
STATE BLOGS
