GREETINGS FELLOW DEMOCRATS!





Mark July 21 on your calendars...

...for the Hispanic Forum Banquet.





Democrats Set to Defy Bush on War Bill

By CARL HULSE
May 6, 2008

WASHINGTON — Defying President Bush, House Democrats are preparing to forge ahead with a war spending measure that would include extended unemployment assistance and new educational benefits for returning veterans.

After a meeting Monday evening of House Democratic leaders, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she hoped to bring a $178 billion measure to the floor this week. What could be a contentious debate on the matter is likely to be held on Thursday, aides said.

Ms. Pelosi, of California, did not disclose details of the proposed bill, which will be presented to rank-and-file Democrats at a closed party session on Tuesday. But Democratic officials, who did not want to be identified since the bill was still being put into final form, said the legislative package would include provisions requiring a significant withdrawal of troops from Iraq by December 2009 and measures that would force Iraq to share more costs of its reconstruction.

Democrats also intend to make veterans eligible for new educational assistance if they have served from three months to three years or more on active duty since Sept. 11, 2001. The aid would be equivalent to a four-year scholarship at a public university for those with three years or more service, with payments prorated for those with less time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/washington/06house.html?_r=1%26oref=slogin%26ref=middleeast%26pagewanted=print





To: Brazos Valley Coalition Against the War and Friends

Re: URGENT! Call Congress now! Rep. Chet Edwards: 202-225-6105

Phone calls and e-mails to your Congressional Representatives are needed now!

"Vote NO on any more funding for the Iraq War."

A huge $178 billion war funding bill is expected to be brought to the House floor on Thursday.

Please CALL or E-MAIL your members of Congress on Wednesday.

Contact information for all U.S. Representatives and Senators can be found at: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

The phone number for the Congressional Switchboard is: (202) 224-3121
Toll-free number for Congress: 1-800-828-0498

Ask to be connected to your Representative's office. Or call Congessman Chet Edwards's office directly at 202-225-6105.

Our message to members of Congress is simple: Vote NO on any more Iraq War funding. End the war!

Now is the time to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Bring the troops home now!

The best way to support the troops is to bring them home ALIVE and INTACT NOW!

The only effective way to end the war and bring the troops home is to STOP FUNDING WAR AND OCCUPATION NOW!

It is critically important that we encourage everyone to call their U.S.

Representative on Wednesday to tell them to Vote NO on any funding for continuing U.S. military operations in Iraq.

Please forward this message widely.

Thanks,

David (for the Coalition)






Defining The Voter

From the Air America Website

By American Street

So now what?

Well, for one thing, I’d like an end to this media theme about Democrats taking their votes to McCain if “their” candidate doesn’t win. Look, if they do, then they can not really call themselves Democrats. They are independents, fence-straddlers or Republicans. If they are conditional Democrats - meaning they want to vote for a woman or an African American no matter which party they belong to - then they aren’t really Democrats.

So let’s be clear, anyone who votes for McCain in the general election must believe that we’re on the right track, that the policies of Bush Co. are good and deserve another four years. As he has doggedly ingratiated himself to the Bushies, McCain has demonstrated just how much bullshit that “Maverick” mantel is. Everything the man has said recently proves that with him we get four more years of Bush Co. policies. That should be simple enough for even the least knowledgeable voter to understand.

Notice I did not say anything about being stupid. Uninformed or misinformed does not equate stupid. But if you’re going to be willfully ignorant of the process and the candidates’ positions on important matters (read: the economy, foreign affairs, reproductive choice, health care, education), then the least you can do is understand the difference between the Republican and the Democrat. John McCain may not be the most conservative Republican, but he’s no Democrat. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama may not be the most liberal Democrats, but neither deserves to be abandoned by real Democrats simply because they won the primary.

And as for those angry white male voters who the media is crowing about, well, prove them wrong. Show the world that you are not small-minded, mean-spirited, short-sighted frightened voters. Show them that you are no more defined by your gender and skin color than is Clinton or Obama.

No matter how the media and political spinners define you, slice you and dice you and paste you neatly into a demographic category of fearful guns, God and gays voters, we know you for who you really are. We live with you, were raised by you, work with you, and love you. Oh, yeah, we know you. You’re just like us. You’re people who care about your country, the Constitution, the environment, the economy, health care, justice, the future, the young, the elderly and peace.

When it comes time for the general election, do us all a favor and show them who you really are. We need you. And you need a Democrat in the White House.





Learning >From Europe’s Regions: Climate Change Makes It Urgent

Neal Pierce

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Are Americans up to shedding their mental blindfolds to learn powerful climate-change strategies from Europe’s metropolitan regions?

Or put another way: Can we afford to wait any longer?

The issue was front and center earlier this month as the first-ever joint conference of major U.S. and European regional councils met in Northern Virginia. The regional leaders adopted a Declaration of Cooperation focused on innovative strategies to promote a raft of climate-friendly development practices.

Areas in which Europe has outpaced the United States include energy efficiency, renewable sources such as wind, solar and geothermal power, green buildings, more transit and less car use, and smarter land use practices.

The Alexandria setting was fitting because the Northern Virginia Regional Commission -- through a decade of exchanges with counterparts in Stuttgart, Germany -- has been inspired to adopt a range of conserving strategies. Among them: pedestrian-friendly streets and traffic-calming measures, car-sharing, low-impact storm water management, and steps to make the entire Washington capital region a national leader in green rooftop gardens that consume carbon dioxide.

But such success stories are rare. Too often, when our local government officials travel overseas to observe other practices, political opponents and/or our local newspapers pillory their trips as "junkets." Our city and county budgets allow a fraction of the amounts Europeans regularly allocate for foreign trips and contacts. Federal and state governments work to sell U.S. products overseas but rarely lift a finger to explore areas in which we lag -- Europe's leap ahead, for example, in perfecting (and making money on) solar and wind power systems. Only the German Marshall Fund of the U.S. even makes an effort to support exchanges.

Bottom line: We lose out, lagging both environmentally and economically. In today's fiercely competitive and dangerously warming world, it seems high time to kick our superior attitudes of American exceptionalism. That's the notion that since we led the world on every step from the Declaration of Independence to winning two world wars and putting men on the moon, we're inherently superior and don't need to learn from others.

Another European advantage is the Network of European Metropolitan Regions and Areas, or METREX, formed in 1996 in Glasgow, Scotland. Today METREX has grown to 50 member regions – I’d call them citistates -- spread from Moscow to Lisbon, Helsinki to Rome. And it's adopted strong values: clear, unified planning to achieve compact, transit-accessible metropolitan cities and towns, promote both economic and social inclusion, and aim for rounded, environmentally sustainable development.

Now METREX is reaching out to begin exchanges with the United States and China, focusing especially on global warming issues, says Bernd Steinacher, METREX president and director of Verband Region Stuttgart. And why? Climate change," he told me, "is the biggest challenge we humans have ever faced. It needs our best technology, fighting our prejudices and comfortable mindsets.

The European Commission is offering financial support to METREX. That alone is a glaring comparison to the United States. We do have a National Association of Regional Councils, representing rural as well as urban areas. But we lack any organization really focused on the big citistates whose economy and environment will determine so much of our future.

Some current moves might, though, lead in that direction. A Cool Counties initiative, kicked off last year by 12 mostly heavyweight counties including King (Seattle, Wash.) and Fairfax (Va.), is aimed at helping counties become climate resilient. King, under its climate evangelist, County Executive Ron Sims, is hosting a May 20 meeting of an Urban Leaders Adaptation Initiative including Miami-Dade County, Nassau County (N.Y.) and the city of Chicago.

The Alexandria conference saw areas as disparate as Helsinki and Philadelphia review their region-wide efforts. Both citistates bemoaned their land use sprawl, their need to expand public transport, and still continuing rises in greenhouse gas emissions.

But while Helsinki could point to national government support for two new rail lines, Philadelphia and most other U.S. regions are rarely so fortunate.

What could be reported by Barry Seymour, director of the Philadelphia region's Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, was a sharp rise in interest -- among utilities, local officials, the public -- in climate-change projects.

Indeed, said Seymour, "climate change gives us a new way to package" an array of measures that his planners have long recommended but Philadelphia area leaders ignored. Among them: promoting walkable communities, creating more transit-oriented development, and saving open spaces and natural systems in the path of development.

Finally, said Seymour, the value of such progressive ideas has reached mass consciousness.

But it’s hard to imagine real solutions gaining enough traction to match the immense and complex challenges of climate change unless our regions open their minds, reach out and learn from the achievements of top-achieving citistates around the world.

http://www.postwritersgroup.com/archives/peir080420.htm





Brazos County Democratic Party
P.O. Box 4568
Bryan Texas 77805
979-779-5600 Fax 979-779-5601

America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.
Harry S. Truman, Democrat, President of the United States of America