Nader: Street Warrior?

I just come across this article. Nader is accusing Obama of "talking" white and should focus more on the poor in the inner cities. I believe that Nader is missing the point and perpetuating a stereotype. Obama is trying to appeal to all Americans, not just African Americans. Poverty strikes not only in the inner city here in Missouri, but also in poor rural areas. Poverty does not discriminate. I know I just gave Nader more attention than he deserves. His 1/2 of one percent vote intake in 2004 is evidence of his irrelevance.

Maybe if Obama started to talk "street" Nader would then, only in his mind, lend crediablity to Obama's candidancy? Probably not.

Judy Baker applies for DFA endorsement

Over the last ten years, the Missouri 9th Congressional district has been represented by one of the strongest supporters of the Bush administration policies of economics and war. This election year, Kenny Hulshof will not be running for Congress and instead decided to enter Missouri 's gubernatorial race. This leaves the 9th open for anyone who has at least attended a social studies class in junior high. Now over the years, the Democrats put up candidates against Hulshof, but it usually ended up that our candidate getting close to the Democrat base vote in each of those elections. This was due, for the most part, to the lack of fund raising and support these candidates received.

However this election cycle was different. With Hulshof still in the race, Judy Baker decided to challenge him. In a matter of a few weeks, she raised over $100,000 before the New Year. She was a serious challenger and was going to take the fight to him. We all knew what happened next. Kenny decided to run for governor and 3 primary challengers joined Baker in vying the Democratic party's nomination.

So why should DFA endorse Judy for Congress, there are 7 main reasons

1. Judy has amassed at least 250,000 dollars in this race.
2. She is a unabashed progressive and served in the state legislature
   
3. She is running for an open seat.
4. She has received the endorsement of Emily's list, a rather large and influential PAC.
5. Being married to a pastor, she will have appeal to those independent rural swing voters.
6. She is one of ActBlue's top ten fundraisers
7. This one is the most important, she entered the race when the fight was on. Her challengers entered the race when it was easier.
   

To me, the 50 state strategy of leaving no republican unchallenged is the credo of Howard Dean and DFA as well. There is no other candidate that illustrates this more clearly than Judy Baker

That Liberal So and So

Here in the MO-9, there are many local pundits and political scientists making prediction based on past performances, a fair way to access a race at first blush. However what seems to be happening is that some democrats are running away from the liberal title, believing that rural voters will cringe at the sound of the word and run to the Republican party. But what are they running from and more importantly, what are they running towards? By virtue of the Republican echo chamber, the word liberal has been defined as gay-loving, baby killing, gun stealing, tax and spenders. We need to take back the word liberal and embrace it. Health care, jobs, and sustainable energy are values that all Missourians care about and Democrats need to embrace. Enough of the crony state. Encourage all democratic candidates in Missouri to take back the issues.

The Inadequate Black Man: A Missouri blogger's memory of his New York roots.

Over the weekend, the DNC Rules committee met to discuss the seating of the Florida and Michigan delegates. Emotions ran high and the press was there to report it. This video:



has been shown on a lot of blogs and people have commented on it. This is in no way accusing Hillary supporters are racist. I personally know many Clinton supporters that have fought for progressive causes for decades and really believe that Hillary is the best person for the job.

This post is really not about Clinton supporters, though I don't know how Manhattan got disenfranchised. It is about how a blue state like NY can be one of the most racist states in the nation.

I was born in Queens. I lived there until I was nine. Even at a young age, I noticed that certain people had their own neighborhoods and it wasn't a good idea to wander into them. The Jewish people had their neighborhood in Kew Gardens, the Puerto Ricans lived in a section of Richmond hill and the Irish and Italian families pretty much lined the homes and apartments of 118th st. Seeing a black person was a rarity. In my neighborhood, I could count on one hand the times I saw an African American. When one was seen, they were met with suspicion and contempt. My own mother told me to stay away from "them" because one of "them" murdered a white kid on a bike by the Mc Donald's on Jamaica Ave.

When I moved to Valley Stream in Nassau county, things were not very much different. I spend 8 years in Valley stream and during my time in the public school, I saw only one (1) black student and he was an exchange student from South Africa. What really got me thinking is when he started to talk about apartheid, most of us were pretty appalled. however it opened my eyes to what was sort of an apartheid in how we lived. Black and Latinos families were red lined away from white neighborhoods and shown only homes in "their" neighborhoods. Racism in New York takes on a territorial nature when this practice was encouraged. It is also a covert form of racism, since clashes tend to be rare and the facade of peace is put forth.

In 1983, I moved to Columbia, Mo. It was a culture shock indeed. Stores closed to early and couldn't find a decent pizza (still can't). however I noticed that among those in the same socioeconomic class, black and whites lived in close proximity and mingled together with relative ease. This was unheard of where I had lived before. Don't get me wrong, there was plenty of racist crud about. But it was an overt form of racism. You knew who hated who and there was no facade. In NY, it was hard to see how people would react with an intra-racial situation when they never would have the opportunity to be in one.

The video brought back memories and history to me. Too bad, history is repeating itself

Why the heck is State Senator John Griesheimer endorsing Brock Olivo

Sure, I read the news release stating that he has known Olivo for 15 years and he is a person he can trust. However what is bugging me is that the other Republican primary candidates have more legislative experience than Olivo, but the senator chooses a candidate that is a "recovering apathetic" who has never voted. This is not an election for Homecoming King. The MIZ-ZOU chants can go only so far. Maybe the powers to be feel they can control Olivo and set the agenda for him.

After the embarrassment of Olivo fumbling on answers to tough questions like "Why are you running". I can't believe that some Republicans are standing by him and they are trying to convince others that this is the person to represent the 9th Congressional district. Mr. Olivo needs to "carry the water" for his local constituents first and maybe vote one in a while. Maybe then he might have the experience to serve other than being a frequent attendee of a social studies class

Democracy For Missouri's own Wayne Brekhus receives the William T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence

Democracy For Missouri president Wayne Brekhus received the William T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence on April 1st. This award is given out to 5 outstanding teachers each year at the University of Missouri. This honor also comes with a monetary reward of $10,000 and a visit from the university's top brass. Many of us from Democracy For Missouri knew that Dr. Brekhus was someone special, what took the university do long :)

Emily's List spurned by McCaskill?

In an AP article that was in the Columbia Tribune it stated that Senator Claire McCaskill as well as Senator Klobuchar from Minnesota had spurned Emily's List, an organization that supports pro-choice woman candidates. I have a problem with this type of reporting. There was no official statement from Emily's list that I could find criticizing these 2 woman for their support of Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton has been Emily List candidate for quite a while now and no one could foresee the way the primary has been shaking out. It looks like the AP wants this to be an issue where no issue had exist. This is nothing more than trying to create news so one can report it. It looks like every single action from a candidate lately is being reported on and editorialized.

The above mentioned senators are a triumph for Emily's list and they should be proud that these pro-choice woman sit in positions of great power. I hope they will not fall into the trap that the news starved media has set out for them

Judy Baker's An Evening with Judy

Just a small note on the Judy Baker's fund raising dinner. She is running for U.S. Congress in 9th Congressional District in Missouri. It was well attended and half of the Democracy For Missouri steering committee was there including Wayne Brekus, president, Bill Monroe, Obama National Delegate, and myself. She gave a short speech and mentioned the 50 state strategy and how she was the epitome of it. It calls for fighting Republicans in all 50 states and not let a Republican seat go uncontested. Judy got into the race when Hulshof was still in office and she was ready to take the fight to him.

Columbia School Board Races and Tax Levy

As April 8th approaches. an increasingly number of people have said to me that the school board has really lost touch with it's constituents. Over the last year with the new math curriculum and the whole high school site fiasco, many parents and non-parents alike have started asking questions on how the district's affairs are run. To add to this discontent, there is a 54 cent property tax levy to make up for some "shortfalls"

The general sense I get from the person "on the street" is that the tax levy is going to go down hard and Preis might not be re-elected. To his credit, he did invite Phylis Chase to one of our Democracy for Missouri meetings to hear a presentation from the Leave My Child Alone project. This project exposes a sneaky provision in the No Child Left Behind law that forces schools to give military recruiters personal information on students unless they opt-out. A few weeks later, we received a letter from Chase that these opt-out forms will be in student's orientation packets and the beginning of the next school year.

Though it looks like Ines Segert is the front runner, the other two slots can come from any one of those candidates, save Arch Brooks.

Family Leave Act - Clay Sr. says Hillary had nothing to do with it

William Clay Sr., former Mo congressman, was one of the chief sponsors of the bill back in the 90's. He claims that Hillary Clinton had nothing to do with it. In a St Louis Dispatch article, Clay Sr. said there wasn't really much os a need for lobbying.

You know, she might of "help" Bill Clinton write a speech or provide some unofficial advice. Is this one of those resume exaggerations? Sure it is. But it is not the blatant lie about landing in sniper fire and being whisked away when it is clear you were not. We have to be careful not to equate an exaggeration with an outright lie. One is clearly different from the other. A lot of people, especially Clinton supporters, are pointing to Obama's "exaggerations" to some how excuse Hillary's Bosnia lie. This is very Karl Rovian in the sense that he would deflect any criticism from the administration by pointing to his critic's alleged bad behavior. Never mind that he was comparing apples to walruses, that didn't matter.

Medicaid Drug Testing: A Conservative Attempt at Intimidating the Poor?

An AP story appearing in the Columbia Missourian titled Medicaid drug tests eliminated reports that a measure to randomly drug test medicaid recipients was strap due to the fact that such a message would cost the state millions in federal monies. However one must wonder why someone would want to put in a drug test in order for someone to receive medical care? Is it perhaps to intimidate those who are poor and might be struggling with drug addiction?

Besides violating the fourth amendment's protection from illegal search and seizures, it is also denying the poor the proper care they need to fight their drug abuse. Society and particularly the state need to realize that substance abuse is a medical problem and cannot be solved by cutting off their medicaid.

As a side note, the state of Missouri is projecting a 200 million dollar surplus, but instead of restoring the cuts that were made in 2005 and getting those who lost their benefits back on Medicaid, the Republicans want to cut taxes and give it to the wealthiest of Missourians. It is a shame that many Republicans in this legislature at best feel philosophically that helping the poor and disabled is not the role of government and at worst show contempt towards them.