A great deal of good reading and information on the site!

Are you ready to vote in the upcoming Primary? Your Candidate Listing is linked below and the February issue of Citizen’s Call has some excellent information to help educate you on your choices.  Vote - it’s really important! Your vote is your voice.

One of the sidebars on the left gives details on the Candidate Forum to be hosted by  the Democratic Women on February 22nd. If you can’t be there in person tune in to KFYN to listen to what your candidates have to say.

I’m sure you’ve read quite a bit about the ‘changes’ proposed by most Board of Education members in the Texas curriculum. It has made us the laughing stock of the rest of America, which really isn’t desirable. Here are two stories worth reading on the subject .....

Published on Saturday, February 13, 12010

Our Founders were NOT Fundamentalists by Harvey Wasserman. The closing point is excellent as is the rest of the article.

“Faith-based tyranny is anti-American. So are dishonest textbooks. It's time to fight them both.”

Published  Sunday, February 11, 2010

How Christian were the Founders? by Russell Shorto - New York Times Magazine.

I'd recommend taking a few minutes to watch this fairly devastating segment from last night's (February 9) Rachel Maddow's show.  Republican lawmakers reject ideas they support and reason has lost all meaning. Their weird attitudes and posturing have been labeled ‘Cash-and-Trash.’ You’ll see why.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, presented a plan this week that would (eventually) balance the budget by eliminating Medicare and privatizing Social Security. It's so far out there that Ryan's GOP colleagues don't even want to talk about the proposal.

But Dems apparently want to do more than just talk about the Republican budget blueprint --

they want to start floor debates over this, too.

House Democrats are going to force their Republican colleagues to vote on a resolution opposing the privatization of Social Security. The move shows Democrats are putting their full political muscle into painting the Republicans as enemies of Social Security and using the chief GOP budget writer

Rep. Paul Ryan's plan to cut benefits as evidence.

Your Candidate Listing is posted just click here

Worth Watching ....

           

an e-mag on citizen information

(To get your monthly newsletter in your in-box, just email Gene Marshall at jgmarshall@cableone.net to be added to the list.)

Dear Democrats of Fannin County,

I want to dedicate this issue of Citizen’s Call to the March 2nd Democratic Primary.

Why do Fannin County Democrats need

to Vote in the Upcoming Primary?

1. There are four important contested State races on our Ballot.  We need to nominate our strongest Democratic candidates for the November 2nd General Election.  

 

2. Our local Fannin County candidates, though unopposed in the Primary, need our expression of support now.

3. Democrats need to demonstrate to the other citizens of this county that we intend to win elections in November.

4. It is important for Democrats to begin now interrupting the Republican obstructionism.

I want to say more about each of these points.

For Democracy in the U.S.A.,

Gene Marshall

County Chair

Fannin Democrats

1. There are four important contested State races on our Ballot. We need to nominate our strongest Democratic candidates for the November 2nd General Election.  

 

It is important that we not underestimate the importance of the March 2nd Democratic Primary Election.   There will be four important contested races on our primary ballot.   The most important one is selecting our candidate for Governor of Texas.  It is important that we select the candidate that can win this race.  I have studied this race pretty well, and I conclude that Bill White is our strongest candidate, a person who can be elected as our next Governor.  While one or two of the other six names on the Governor ballot are gifted enough to attract our attention, only Bill White has a statewide organization, the name recognition, the executive experience as Houston Mayor, and the political skills to actually win in the General Election.  Also, Bill White has a good ecological record, a competence in governing, a willingness to do the work it will take to defeat the ongoing scams of Texas Republicans.  We need to encourage all our friends to vote on March 2nd at their polling place or Early Vote at the Court House February 16-26.

In the Lieutenant Governor Race, I prefer Ronnie Earle even though Linda Chavez-Thompson has strong labor union experience and support.  Marc Katz is a relative unknown.

In the Commissioner of the General Land Office race I prefer Hector Uribe over the less experienced and less well known Bill Burton.

In the Commissioner of Agriculture race I prefer Hank Gilbert for his ability, even though Richard “Kinky” Friedmann may have stronger name recognition.

Please do not simply trust my views, check these candidates out for yourselves.

2. Our local candidates, though unopposed in the Primary, need our expression of support now.

We need to show our fellow Democrats, Fannin independents, and Republicans too, that we are serious about electing these local candidates in the General Election this November.  For County Court of Law Judge, Joe Dulaney Moss is an extraordinarily experienced and capable choice.   Both Stan Barker who will be unopposed in November and Pat Hilliard, who will have a Republican opponent, also need our support now.  And we need to retain both of these experienced County Commissioners in November.  Tammy (Skidmore) Rich is surely one of the best county clerks in the entire State.  If we are concerned with local office competence, she should certainly be retained.  For County Tax-Assessor-Collector Ronnie Rhudy is doing a good job.  We should work to keep him.  Joe C. Dale, though unopposed, is a very fine Justice of the Peace we need to support with our March and November votes.  Jennie Burns is a newcomer running for Justice of Peace in Precinct 2.  Her managerial  skills and enthusiasm makes her a competent choice.  Kevin Mayberry is our candidate for Constable in Precinct 3.  He is an experienced police officer and a charming guy.  We need to elect him too.   I feel content to encourage all these persons with my Primary vote and to vote a straight Democratic Ticket this November.

3. Democrats need to demonstrate to the other citizens of this county that we intend to win elections in November.

Some have argued that we Democrats can no longer win local races in Fannin County -- that the 2008 election proved that this County has permanently turned Republican.  This is not true.  We have the potential to win any local race.   We have done so in the past, and we can do so now.   The 2008 Election was warped by a great deal of misinformation and insidious Republican scare tactics that awakened prejudices and confusion among Fannin voters about Barack Obama, who will likely become one of the best Presidents this country has ever had.  In any case, we are not electing a President this year, we are electing a Texas Governor.  And in this Governor’s race, neither Rick Perry nor Kay Bailey Hutchinson will will be able to provide down-ballot coattails if they are facing a fine candidate like Bill White.

4. It is important for Democrats to begin now interrupting the Republican obstructionism.

First of all, let us notice that our local Republican party cares more about promoting their club than they do about competent leadership for our County offices.  As an example, the local Republican Club is running a grossly inexperienced person who is also named “Tammy” against our current County Clerk Tammy (Skidmore) Rich (who has done a remarkable job that almost everyone appreciates).  It seems this second “Tammy” selection was done to confuse voters and perhaps bring incompetence and confusion to this very important county office.  

Also, we need to notice the horrific behaviors of the National Republican Party, and we need to share that information with our uninformed Fannin citizens.  Have we forgotten that it was the Democratic Party who gave us Social Security and Medicare?   Do we realize that most Republicans still want to do away with those crucial supports?  Surely, there are Republicans in this county, who if they knew the facts about their Party, would cease their support.

Here is a prime example of what I mean:  Five Republican-appointed Supreme Court Justices (Roberts, Alito, Kennedy, Scalia, and Thomas) recently overruled the other four Justices in making unconstitutional that aspect of the McCain/Feingold bill (and earlier bills) that put limits on the amount of investors’ money corporation managers can use to finance candidates of their choice.   This opens a floodgate for corporation money to enter the electoral process.  This is not personal money.  A corporation is not a person; it is a piece of paper issued by a State Government.  What we now have with this Supreme Court ruling is permission for corporation managers to use money directly from their corporation treasuries (investors money, other people’s money) to support candidates for public office.  This “achievement” is part of a long-standing Republican strategy to replace citizen democracy with a moneyocracy, with a government ruled by those who control the big pools of money assembled in corporation treasuries through the hard work of all the citizens, but controlled by an elite power-hungry few.  This is oligarchy, not democracy.  The defenders of this Supreme Court action claim that it protects free speech for these “mistreated”  corporations.  But corporations have many means of saying their piece, they do not also need unlimited power to buy our politicians.  This action may support the election of more money-bound Republicans and even a few more money-bound Democrats, but it warps the entire electoral system away from citizen power toward centers of power that are willing to take one step after another toward what amounts to fascism.

Surely, we the citizenry can no longer trust the judgment of these big corporations after noticing how banking companies have behaved in wrecking the economy and how they still oppose laws that would prevent them from doing this again in the future. Similarly, the health insurance corporations have successfully used their pools of  money to water down and perhaps defeat entirely a much needed health care reform.  Do these corporations need still more money to shift government policy toward their narrow interests?  Furthermore, in this global market many of those corporations are owned and controlled by foreign money. Can a genuine U.S. patriot stand for our government to be bought and controlled by foreign interests?  By their votes and statements the Republican Party infer: “These big money sources are our base.  We do whatever they say.  We are their representatives.  We don’t care what citizens want.  We tell citizens what they ought to want with lies that protect these big-time financial supporters.”

At the present time only the Democratic Party has the power to restrain this trend toward big money rule.  No Republican can be trusted to do this.  Some Democratic politicians have also sold their souls to the big money scam.  We need a Democratic Party that believes in government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Here is another example of Republican skullduggery.  The Acorn organization made the news recently after a Republican sting team made a video (after several unsuccessful tries) that seemed to imply improper conduct by one of the employees of the Acorn organization.  The video was obviously doctored, and even if it were true, it need not implicate the whole organization.  Nevertheless, this video was used to cut off government money to this organization.  Why did the Republican operatives go to this trouble?  Acorn is a citizen group that has registered thousands of new votes who lean Democratic.  Acorn has tipped several elections by its remarkable success with the promotion of some grass roots democracy in some neglected places.  This got Republican attention, for they actually oppose democracy, especially in those Democratic leaning and poorly represented sectors of our society.  So they were panicked to discredit this organization.  And they finally succeeded in frightening even some gullible Democratic Congresspersons into supporting the withholding of federal funds from this organization.  Court actions are likely to reverse this scam, for nothing illegal was actually perpetrated.   Further, one Senator, Bernie Sanders, has pointed out that to be consistent we need to apply this cutoff criteria to military and other corporations who have actually been convicted of illegal actions involving billions of dollars.  If we are going to withhold government funds because of minor infractions by a citizen organization like Acorn, then we should treat the real criminals with similar strictness.  This view did not sit well with the Republican scammers.

These and thousands of other such examples should inform open-minded citizens that the Republican Party is not to be trusted with our democracy.  Any citizen or citizen group can be smeared by their underhanded tactics.  Why would any awake person support such a Party?  Personally, I am ashamed to be part of a nation that has such a Party, and that has citizens that support such a Party.

Democrats, we are important for the preservation of our democracy.  We need to get out there and twist the dials for Democratic candidates, in spite of whatever limitations we may think they have.

GOP Is Overjoyed At The Unprecedented Influence Corporations Will Now Have In Federal Campaigns

From ThinkProgress.org - 1/21/2010

During the 2008 presidential campaign, the conservative group Citizens United made a movie critical of Hillary Clinton but was barred from distributing it on local cable systems because federal courts said it “looked and sounded like a long campaign ad, and therefore should be regulated like one.” The Supreme Court then took up the case and in its much-anticipated decision, today ruled 5-4 to allow corporations and unions to spend unlimited funds in support for, or opposition of, federal candidates. The monumental ruling throws out a “a 63-year-old law designed to restrain the influence of big business and unions on elections.

click here for the rest of the story ......