Cross-Posted at Project Vote's Voting Matter's Blog

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

by Erin Ferns

Despite the 2008 election showing that the minority and low-income voting bloc is quickly growing, the effort to keep voters from actually casting a ballot persists through the introduction and passage of restrictive election reforms, wrote syndicated columnist and former state representative, William A. Collins in a recent opinion piece. "As we all know, becoming and remaining a voter is not just a theoretical exercise. At least in this country that right is hotly contested in hard-fought political combat. He who controls the voter lists often controls the election."

From TPM:

Democratic senators are still emerging from their closed-door briefing with Obama economic adviser Larry Summers ... but a senior Democratic senator, Iowa progressive Tom Harkin, just gave me a dire buzzword: trickle-down.

"There's only one thing we've got to do in this stimulus, and that's create jobs," Harkin told me. "I'm a little concerned by the way Mr. Summers and others are going on this ... it still looks a little more to me like trickle-down."

Likening Barack Obama's economic recovery plan to the failed supply-side excesses of the Reagan and Bush years is a bit of a Cassandra moment. But Harkin didn't back down. "What I'm hearing from Mr. Summers is that they've got a different approach -- tax breaks, and this and that," he said. Harkin warned that, much like the outcome of George Bush's $600 stimulus package last year, recipients of quick tax cuts "are going to be salting it away, not spending it."

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsm emo.com/2009/01/harkin_fears_trickle-dow n_stimulus.php

Damn, I love Harkin. A Dem willing to stand up for working people.

Congress will have to fix Obama's plan.  This is why many of us criticized Summers when so many on Daily Kos said Obama made policy.   Whether it's Obama or Summers, or both, it's too much trickle down and it's the wrong way.

Meanwhile, Pelosi stepped up.  Now, I know people are disappointed with her on impeachment and other things, but she is to the left of Obama:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Thursday that she wants to see the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy repealed "as early as possible."

The call for repeal may place Pelosi at odds with President-elect Obama; during the campaign he called for repeal but his aides have since indicated that due to the deteriorating economy, he was leaning towards allowing them to expire.

Asked again after her press conference about the tax cuts, the Speaker said she is "urging repeal."

Pelosi noted that the Congressional Budget Office has determined that the tax cuts are the biggest contributor to the ballooning deficit. "Put me down as clearly as you possibly can as one who wants to have those tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans repealed," she said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/08 /pelosi-parts-with-obama-o_n_156260.html

Science may be returning to the White House this month, but anti-evolution forces are still hard at work trying to undermine science education in the public schools. And things are heating up right now in Texas and Oklahoma.

A bill has just been introduced in the Oklahoma Senate that would open the door for the teaching of creationism and intelligent design (not to mention "alternative" approaches to climate change and cloning).

In Texas, the news is better, but a big battle is looming. Educators have finalized improved curriculum standards that would protect the teaching of evolution, but the proposal is headed for a showdown with the creationist-packed State Board of Education.

Today, President Elect Obama anointed Tim Kaine as the new DNC chief. Someone was missing.

The New York Times asked "Where was Howard Dean?"

MSNBC's First Read says "Obama's transition office insists they aren't snubbing Dean here. But the current chairman's absence is hard to explain away."

At the ceremony, Obama called Dean a "visionary and effective leader" but to me, it felt like a completely empty gesture.

The number of deaths (over 200 of the Gaza victims are children) are deliberately not reported in the mainstream American news (see immediately below the fold), and I believe the horrible facts are important for Americans to know. We make Israel's outrageous behavior possible through our government's active support and the uninformed and/or sit-on-our-ass silence of most of the rest of us.

UN halts Gaza aid after convoy hit

The United Nations aid agency has suspended its operations in the Gaza Strip in the wake of a series of Israeli attacks on its personnel and buildings.

"UNRWA decided to suspend all its operations in the Gaza Strip because of the increasing hostile actions against its premises and personnel," Adnan Abu Hasna, a Gaza-based spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, said on Thursday.

The move came after Israeli tanks shelled a UN convoy earlier in the day, killing a Palestinian UN worker and injuring two others, as lorries were travelling to the Erez crossing to pick up humanitarian supplies meant to have been allowed in during a three-hour suspension of fire. . . .

Richard Miron, the UN spokesman, said the Israeli army had been notified in advance about the movements  of the UNRWA convoy. . . .

Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Gaza City, said that 50 bodies were recovered during the three-hour lull, raising the death toll of Palestinians in Gaza to at least 763, including more than 200 children, since air raids first began on December 27.

More than 3,121 people have also been wounded. Eight Israeli soldiers [three killed by friendly fire - fairleft] and three civilians have died in the same period.

elan magazine, the premiere voice for young Muslim professionals, has announced a special edition commemorating the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President.  

The Inauguration Edition explores the "hopes and aspirations" of Muslims in regards to the new President including a look at the diversity the man brings to the position.  The edition includes various commentary, as well as "exclusive features written by Ilyasah Shabazz, a daughter of Malcolm X, and by Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Muhammad, a civil rights leader."

"Young Muslims today are eager to make their voices heard and to promote a better understanding of Muslim contributions to contemporary culture," affirmed Moniza Khokhar, publisher of elan.

Published by Wahid Media Ventures in New York, elan is distributed throughout the U.S., Pakistan, Indonesia, Canada, Qatar, United Kingdom and the U.A.E., while an online version is available at www.elanthemag.com.
Cross Post:
http://www.obama-mamas.com/blog/?p=142

According to media reports Rep Conyers has written to his Democratic collegues to oppose the nomination of Dr. Sanjay Gupta as surgeon general.

According to Conyers Gupta lacks the required experience:

Conyers, the veteran Judiciary Committee chairman, writes that Gupta "lacks the requisite experience needed to oversee the federal agency that provides crucial health care assistance," and requests that fellow Democrats join him "in signing a letter to President-Elect Barack Obama that Dr. Sunjay Gupta not be nominated for the post."

Here's the bulk of the Dear Colleague letter:

I join in opposition with respected Noble Peace Prize award wining economist Paul Krugman, who has very serious concerns with having Dr. Gupta be the nation's Surgeon General. [...]

Also, there are highly experienced medical professionals who question whether Dr. Gupta has the necessary experience or even the medical background to be in charge of some 6,000 physicians or more who work in the United States Public Health Service. Gerard M. Farrel, Executive Director of the Commissioned Officers Association, stated in the January 7, 2008 Washington Post that Dr. Gupta will certainly face a "credibility gap" because he never served in the National Health Service Corp, and furthermore, does not have the "experience or qualifications to be the leader of the nation's public health service." Clearly, it is not in the best interests of the nation to have someone like this who lacks the requisite experience needed to oversee the federal agency that provides crucial health care assistance to some of the poorest and most underserved communities in America.

Obviously Conyers has no faith in the judgement of President elect Obama or his transition team. He does not even want to wait for Obama to nominate the good doctor. I have not seen him pre judging any other Surgeon General nominations before.  

Like many others in this country perhaps John Conyers believes that Dr Gupta blongs in a 7-Eleven

So you only have one President at a time, and clearly, right now, the President is Barack Obama who is standing up and attempting to do something about the economic situation here in the United States, a situation which is worsening by the day.