Every time someone walked by handing – or throwing – candy to the crowds standing along the streets, kids would literally go bonkers.

While one particular snake in the grass Republican candidate (list of them here: http://clarkcountygop.org/content.htm?area=cand) walked by trying to shmooze the kidlets, my heart swelled with pride when kids literally starting throwing the candy BACK – ANGRILY – at the candidate. Now this was really, really weird. Not because there was a weird collection of candidates running for local seats that all had last names that sounded like the f-word (last names like “Heck”, “Vick”, “Peck”, etc). The name of the candidate who got pelted with candies from local kids was none other than ED ORCUTT.

This little hamlet of Battle Ground showed a lot of signs during the parade that it was changing its stripes and broadening its horizons. The literally clapped and cheered for Democratic candidates. And I saw the candidates actually engaging with people in the crowds to talk about issues.

Pretty neat.

With the passage of the unlawful gift given to corporations to fund any pro-corporate candidate they want (which will further drive down wages, jobs and living standards), the left will need to push unions to fight fire with fire. They have been deemed the same right as corporations to fund candidates with unlimited amounts of cash. We need to be doing some serious push-back in our country – against the powers that be.

Pushing back is exactly what the Fox News created, corporate-owned astro-turfers over at the Tea Party have been doing – and have made fools of themselves by showing off their racist, hatred, pro-violent agenda. They are nothing less than offensive – and the corporate-owned media has given them nothing less than the royal carpet treatment in showing off their disdain for health care and public services.

It’s time to fight back by creating a third part on the left. It’s not enough to have the Green Party today. It needs to be about more than the environment right now. It needs to be about protecting the middle class – and rebuilding it. Rebuilding the middle class will rebuild our country. Trickle-down economics destroyed the middle class, by exporting jobs and rewarding the rich by taking away from the poor. The Reaganomics proponents have argued that helping the rich helps the poor – by allowing money to flow downward. The truth, as has been proven over the past 40-years, is that it doesn’t flow downward – it flows sideways – by flowing to other countries, bleeding jobs and the economy dry of its once wealthy middle class.

The truth is, that’s exactly what the neocons WANT – to see very few with an excessive amount of capital. In other words, they want to see a return to a monarch-like class system – where you are literally born into wealth, and only those with the proper bloodlines (i.e. white), can have a chance at fighting for what might be left to gain from.

We are well on our way to becoming such a nation. And the Republicans are only interested in “playing the system” in order to make wealth happen – instead of “playing by the rules” (which they deem is “only for pussies”). There needs to be a stronger fight for the middle class. The Democrats are too disconnected, even though their intentions are still more honorable than those on the right. It’s simply not enough.

OMG… I’m soooooo relieved

Anyway…I saw this little write-up on Kucinich on Crooks and Liars and simply had to re-post it.

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/new-kucinich-program-aims-create-mill

Putting those of us who are middle-aged out to pasture with Social Security is not such a great solution for the people whose retirement accounts were decimated by the market crash – not to mention, of course, the president’s plan to allow a bipartisan commission “suggest” Social Security and Medicare cuts in the near future.

But hey, at least Kucinich is at least trying to do something about jobs — which is more than you can say for most members of Congress:

CLEVELAND — An Ohio congressman pushed for a new program to add a million new jobs Monday.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich unveiled his plan Monday afternoon at his Lakewood office.

Kucinich proposed offering early retirement with social security benefits and health insurance subsides to people as young as 60 years old. He said that will free up as many as a million new positions in businesses that have already shed jobs.

“In every business, people are cutting to the point of where they’re not functioning the way they used to. So, this gives business a chance to get new blood in. At the same, be able to do it in a way that they don’t have to have access more money to do it,” Kucinich said.

Kucinich said he’ll introduce his Kucinich job plan bill this week on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Kudos to the ORP for trying. Their taglines were pretty edgy – but still very deceitful. Oregon voters saw right through it all. Thank God.

Some examples:

* Stop Job Killing Taxes *
* Unions are Buying the Elections *
* Measures 66 and 67 will hurt Oregon’s economy and employment *

My favorite: A funky little animation/video they have on their website, titled: “It’s your Ox they’ll Gore”. I guess they were hoping it would go viral or something.

Anyway, I’m so glad that Oregon didn’t go down the way Massachusetts did…. Whew!

TEN DOLLARS PER YEAR

The Republicans tried their almighty best to frighten everyone into believing that taxes would go through the roof if these measures passed.  The ads were incredible. But people ignored them, anyway.

Yesterday, Oregon voters passed “yes” on Measures 66 and 67, which allows for an increase on taxes for corporations that reside within the state.  Actually, it is a small tax increase on all forms of businesses that reside within the state.

And now with this increase in the flat tax rate, the annual amount will jump from ten dollars to… (drum roll, please)

ONE HUNDRED and FIFTY DOLLARS PER YEAR

That’s it — $150 is all Oregon businesses will have to pay.  And it’s a FLAT TAX.  That’s  .41 cents per day.  And it has no bearing on how big or small you are.  Large corporations will pay exactly the same as a small mom and pop business.  Frankly, large corporations should be paying WAY MORE than that obscenely amount.  Especially compared to the even more obscenely low rate of $10 per year (which is bank-busting rate of… .02 cents per day).  And they complained about that, too.

But is there any celebration by the neocons on having to pay so little? Of course not.

One right wing idiot said on the radio that “Republicans will work even harder to reign in out-of-control spending.” Like? “.excessive benefits given to employees for child care.” (uhm.because taking care of employees’ kids is simply not a good idea.???) and my favorite “.wasteful spending on energy saving windmills.”.

And they really do wonder why they’re so unpopular in this part of the country.

- Obama is cracking down on over-paid CEO’s on Wall Street who received Bailout Bucks from taxpayers (of course, you know the tea party people will complain about THAT part of Obama’s policy – not about the CEO’s getting too much money – but the part about Obama doing something about them to begin with – I can almost hear them chanting it… “Let them eat cake! Let them eat cake!”)

- A bill to protect people who’ve been raped by their employers got passed (Al Franken’s baby).  Namely, Halliburton – which is protecting their babies from being sued by the women they gang-raped, locked in a storage container, and left her for dead.  Over 30-right wing Republican Senators were against the measure, saying that it was unfair to vilify Halliburton like this in public.  Nevermind the woman who was gang-raped… let’s worry about the mega-billion dollar conglomerate who is sucking our treasury funds into a black hole every singled g-damned day. It’s almost too hard to believe why a bunch of psyco-path senators want to protect Halliburton at all.  Including KBR.

On the bright side – someone is finally doing something about it. That someone is:  Senator Al Franken.

But my favorite story was this one:

The activist group – called the Yes Men – a group which makes fun of – and creates awareness of – corporate greed in this country – pretended to represent the U.S. Chamber of Commerce at a fake new conference, and announced that because they were losing so many members have decided to reverse their position on Climate Change.  (The Chamber of Commerce is *against* Climate Change legislation – because they represent Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Agra, etc etc)

All of this was reported as a REAL story on Fox Business News Channel.  Then the real Chamber of Commerce caught wind of the story (which I’m sure has plans to sue “The Yes Men”) and interrupted Fox’s broadcast by stating that they were NOT reversing their position on Climate Change.

So why is this such a big deal?

It basically puts the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in a VERY bad position.  They are indeed losing many, many of it’s members.

Why?

Because the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is nothing more than a GIANT lobbying group for companies that only wish to screw the average Joe Workingman.

They can’t handle the idea that someone like me might benefit from making $19/hour again.  Nope.  They want to keep things the way they are: an “Employers Market” – Where they can pay you whatever f*cking low wage they want.

Hell, they’d LOVE the idea of being able to rape you, leave you for dead in a storage container, and then have a White House and rightwing administration PROTECT you from prosecution.

But, they don’t have that anymore.

Law and Order is finally cool again.

The Chamber of Commerce is finally being bumped – by their constituents:  The Consumer.

What’s basically happening is:

Obama has been meeting privately – individually – with the many executives who have been relying on the Chamber of Commerce for representation.  Obama is cutting out the middleman and going straight to the business owner.

He’s convincing them that:

- Healthcare is a VERY good way to bring jobs back to this country

- Happy employees = Happy profits and loyal customers

- Happy customers = longterm prosperity

It seems that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been VERY baaaaad under the Bush Administration.  And it’s time to finally CLEAN HOUSE.

It’s a good day