Daily Archives: November 18, 2014

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Just Does Not Get It

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If you needed any further proof that most of the Democrats in Congress just don’t get it, here is the email that proves it.

They could have started with “Remember none of these good statistics apply to the bottom 90% of wage earners where most of the votes for Democrats would be expected to come.”

Most of the bottom 90% does not invest in the stock market, an unemployment rate of 5.8% is still historically at recession levels, just about all of the GDP growth went to the top 1.0% of the income earners, the bottom 90% actually lost ground, a falling deficit is the last thing you want to see when we are still trying to recover from a recession, and where were those confident consumers in this recent election?

I can hear some of those bottom 90% appreciating the rise of the Dow-Jones average. “Yeah, now the market goes up after I had to cash in my 401(k) to save my home from foreclosure. So what should have been my stock market profits went to the top 10%. Go ahead and rub it in. Where was my bailout?”

Other than that, you can see why the Democrats in Congress won’t really have to pay attention to what Elizabeth Warren is trying to tell them.

How on earth can we deliver this message to Congress in a way that they will hear? Perhaps my previous post Announcing Time For Elizabeth Warren will give you some ideas. Just the idea of her running might wake them up.

Of course, if all the Democrats who happen to be in the top 10% of income earners could just understand what the bottom 90% see, maybe they would realize why they didn’t succeed with these facts that only apply to them.

The American Prospect

This paid advertising message from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is being sent to you via The American Prospect

This is what a successful Presidency looks like:

President Obama Took Office
(January 2009)		 Today
7,949 The Dow Jones Index 17,573
7.8% Unemployment 5.8%
-5.4% GDP Growth 3.5%
9.8% Deficit GDP % 2.8%
37.7 Consumer Confidence 94.5

In 6 years under President Barack Obama, we’ve made incredible progress as a country.

Often in the face of incredible obstruction, the President has continued to fight for us and lead us forward.

Will you add your name now and say that you’re still standing with President Obama in his final two years in office?

Sign your name to say you’re standing with President Obama:
http://action.dccc.org/i-stand-with-obama

Paid for by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee | 430 South Capitol Street SE, Washington, DC 20003
(202) 863-1500 | www.dccc.org | Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

The American Prospect does not endorse any political candidate, political organization, commercial product, process, or service. The views expressed in this communication do not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by the American Prospect.

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Announcing Time For Elizabeth Warren

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Here is the email that I got explaining the three month effort to get Elizabeth Warren into the race for president.

Action Network Email

Hey there Warren fans, ready to get to work? Today, we’re launching Time for Warren, a three-month campaign to get Elizabeth Warren into the race for president.

This is a long email, but it has some mission-critical information about our strategy and how you can be part of this.

Before we get started, we want to make a promise about all of our emails going forward: We will always respect your time and tell it like it is. We’re not going to yell about deadlines or final notices, there won’t be panic or doom and gloom. You’re part of the team, and that means a lot to us.

Now, here’s what Time for Warren means: We’re not just Ready for Warren — someday. We want Elizabeth Warren to run for president — without delay.

Income inequality is nearing record levels. Big banks and corporate special interests are treating our government as a cash register, and elections as an inconvenience. For millions of us, the American Dream seems like a nice idea from very long ago, something that belongs on an old episode of “I Love Lucy,” but has nothing to do with life today.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that sometimes a leader emerges at the exact moment when her ideas are needed most.

This is Elizabeth Warren’s moment. Between now and President’s Day on February 16th, our Time for Warren campaign will make exactly that case. And step one is to get every last Warren supporter to say you’ll help. I can’t emphasize this enough — our greatest strength is what we can do together when we decide to take action and stand up for the kind of future we want to see.

So before I say anything more, say you’ll join the Time for Warren campaign and help draft Elizabeth Warren to run for president.

First things first, I’ll address the elephant in the room: Hillary Clinton is almost certainly running for president, and she’ll be the early favorite. She has the money, the profile, and the backing of the party’s power brokers. But it’s possible to like Clinton and still think it’s time for Warren. The greatest problems facing America today are the exact problems that Elizabeth Warren has dedicated her life to solving. That’s rare.

There is a precedent for getting Warren to run. A few years ago, she had her heart set on being the head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — an independent agency that she created to protect regular people from predatory financial institutions. When that fell through, tons of people got together and encouraged her to run for Senate. She resisted at first. But more and more people kept saying, “Run, Liz, Run!” — and she did. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel here. We just have to get organized in an even bigger way.

Now here’s the plan to get Liz to run:

1) Get 100,000 supporters to write to Warren and ask her to run
We’re going to organize letter-writing parties across the country over the coming months, where supporters will write personal notes to Warren and ask her to fight for us as president. And on President’s Day, February 16th, we’ll deliver a whole boatload of people’s names who have signed our “Run, Liz, Run” petition on ReadyForWarren.com.

2) Make a lot of noise in the early states
Part of Liz Warren’s appeal is that her ideas are popular everywhere. But as always, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina are super important in a presidential year. Showing Democratic excitement for Warren in those early states will make a Warren candidacy all the more credible.

If you have friends in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, or South Carolina, forward them this email right now.

3) An aggressive and creative media strategy
Our new deputy campaign manager, Kate Albright-Hanna, was President Obama’s online video director in 2008, and most recently was part of Zephyr Teachout’s campaign for governor of New York. Teachout’s campaign was creative and nimble, but more importantly, it focused on the issues that matter. On Election Day, Teachout defied expectations and won a third of the vote despite being out-spent and out-advertised — with your help, this is exactly the kind of strategy we’re going to use.

Democrats already love Elizabeth Warren. Americans of all stripes are inspired by her ideas. We just need to show there is a viable movement that will stand behind her if she runs.

If you truly want to see Elizabeth Warren run for president, these next 90 days are key — we’ll soon be one year out from the Iowa caucuses. It’s Time for Warren, and we’re ready to show it. Say you are too:

https://actionnetwork.org/forms/time-for-warren-join-the-campaign

Let’s do this! Thank you!

Erica, Kate, and the Ready for Warren Team

We’re a volunteer-driven, grassroots movement to draft Elizabeth Warren to run for president — and we couldn’t do it without your support. Donate to Ready for Warren here.

Paid for by Ready for Warren Presidential Draft Campaign, ReadyForWarren.com, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
Sent via ActionNetwork.org. 



I signed on and donated.  


    

    
                                    

                                
                                                            
                                                                    

                                        
    

              

          
Matt Stoller: Lobbying Used to Be a Crime: A Review of Zephyr Teachout’s New Book on the Secret History of Corruption in America
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Naked Capitalism has the book review Matt Stoller: Lobbying Used to Be a Crime: A Review of Zephyr Teachout’s New Book on the Secret History of Corruption in America.  The review concludes with the following paragraphs:


Americans broadly speaking would probably agree with Teachout’s interpretation of corruption, rather than that of those who authored Citizens United. Americans see the revolving door of lobbying and believe Congress and the government as institutions are corrupt. They have, in other words, a structural sense of what corruption means. It is not just bribery, it is a set of incentives that are not per se illegal, just unethical. Teachout shows, through painstaking historical research, that this popular conception of corruption is actually far more consistent with the intent of the Constitutional framers than the odd and anomalous John Roberts-led Hobbesian majority.


Corruption in America is a book worth reading, almost as much as Teachout is a person worth following. Reorganizing America is a large task, and many of us are seeking to do that. But first, in some sense, we must reorganize our own thinking, trapped as many of us are in Robert Bork’s nightmarish Hobbesian world of hopelessness. This book will help us take that first critical step.


One of the most surprising things I found in the book review was this discussion of the ‘Yazoo’ controversy.


The first significant test of the revolutionary anti-corruption doctrine was the 1795 ‘Yazoo’ controversy, when a Georgia legislature sold a massive land grant to speculators who had, as it turns out, bribed lawmakers. Voters turned out the legislature at the next election, and the newly elected lawmakers voided the deal. The case generated widespread controversy and went to the Supreme Court, where in 1810, in Fletcher v Peck,the court said that the sanctity of the contract must be upheld even in the face of corruption. In a nod to today’s logic of brutal tolerance of corruption, the court argued that corruption may be problematic, but there was nothing the state could do about it. This was a highly consequential decision, and prioritized contract rights over anti-corruption.


This just so violates my sense of justice.  I have always believed that if you agree to something under duress, then you cannot be held to that agreement.  Although, come to think about it, we hear of violations of such principles often enough.  A criminal defendant can and frequently is convicted on the basis of a confession that was admittedly coerced.


Why I even think this was mentioned in our Constitution as the Fifth Amendment.


No person shall be … nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.


The issue is one of being compelled.  It is forbidden.




Here is a link to purchasing the book Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United.