Wednesday, August 30, 2006

MEET REP. BRAD MILLER (D-NC), ONE INCUMBENT REALLY WORTH GOING TO THE MAT TO KEEP

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Today at 5:30 PM (EST), Brad Miller will be the featured live guest on the Blue America series. He'll be talking about his race and about his work in Congress and he's open to answering any questions you might want to ask. So, just show up at 5:30 and go to the comments section of Blue America.

When I mentioned to my friends that I was interviewing a Democratic congressman from North Carolina I got a collective look of skepticism. A Dixiecrat? Of course not. But someone who doesn't understand North Carolina politics might think so. The state gave Bush 56% of its vote in 2000-- and 56% of its vote in 2004 despite the fact that the state's senior senator, John Edwards, was running for vice president and despite having seen Bush in action for 4 years! And the state's two current senators, the famously, even embarrassingly, incompetent Liddy Dole and the Stepford rubber stamp kook Richard Burr, are both far right extremists. And speaking of extremists, North Carolina has the distinction of being able to claim both the congressman and the congresswoman with the most reactionary voting records in the entire House of Representatives: Patrick McHenry and Virginia Foxx. And the 5 other Republican House members from North Carolina can all be described as being on the far right fringes of the Republican Party.

On top of that, even the Democrats aren't exactly shining examples of progressivism... except for two: Mel Watt and, the reason why we're here today, Brad Miller. When it came to the vital issues effecting middle class Americans, DMI examined the voting records of the North Carolina delegation and rated each incumbent. All 7 Republicans' voting records merited F's. The 6 Democrats rated B's and C's, an F... except Watt and Miller, both of whose records got A's.

Brad's the first incumbent we've invited to come over and blog with us here at Blue America. You may wonder why? The fact that he was also the only incumbent congressman to take part in Yearly Kos might give you a clue. But even more to the point, read his diaries at Kos (here too) and you will immediately recognize a kindred spirit. I found him extremely down to earth, brilliant in a policy-wonk kind of way and a man grounded in a solid set of progressive values. And then there's Vernon Robinson.

What can one say about a man who brags that he's "the Black Jesse Helms?" Remember I mentioned above that North Carolina has the most reactionary congresswoman in America, Virginia Foxx? Her voting record makes the most far right extremist loons like Mean Jean Schimdt, Tom DeLay, Adam Putnam, Ernest Istook, Lynn Westmoreland, Steve King, and J.D. Hayworth look almost mainstream! Well, in 2004 Robinson ran against her and attacked her as a liberal and ran TV ads with her face morphing into Hillary Clinton! In short, Vernon Robinson is probably the single most extreme right wing, bigoted maniac running for Congress anywhere. He's actually far worse than his hero-- and supporter-- Tom Tancredo.

I don't think I've ever asked you to look at a Republican candidate's website before. If enough people examine Robinson's, he won't have a chance to win. Take a look and watch his psycho videos: The Twilight Zone, his I hate Mexicans and gays clip and his crazy and offensive Beverly Hill Miller ad.

So why would anyone even think twice about an opponent like this, someone who is so obviously deranged and outside even the Republican mainstream? One word: money. "Two years ago he raised $3 million," Brad told me. "That amount of money is kind of scary... He taps into the most extreme sliver of the far right. It's like Ann Coulter. Most people, regardless of political party, find what they say repugnant but the sheer outrageousness appeals to that sliver. Over 80% of the money he raises comes from outside North Carolina; almost none comes from the district."

Aside from being a crank candidate and an extremist gadfly, Robinson doesn't have any real career. He runs a fake advocacy "group" that favors vouchers over public schools but when the "group" raised an annual total of $107,000, Robinson's salary was $104,000. Jack Kemp, a Republican corporate whore who will endorse anyone who favors vouchers, endorsed Robinson and then, on seeing his bizarre, xenophobic and fanatical positions, publicly withdrew the endorsement.

Obsessed with homosexuality and Hispanics, Robinson hasn't found a way to claim Brad is Hispanic (yet) but he pulled the same dirty Republican trick on Brad and his wife that Ken Blackwell tried pulling on Ted Strickland and his wife. Both homophobic Republicans had sleazy surrogates claim their opponents didn't have children because they are gay and have marriages of convenience. The blowback in Ohio seems to have ended Blackwell's chance to be taken seriously. There hasn't been polling in the 13th CD, so no one knows what effect Robinson's idiotic charges have had.

When I asked Brad what issues his constituents are most concerned about, first up were jobs and health care. Not only are people losing jobs, the wages aren't keeping up with inflation. He started a bipartisan caucus for community colleges because he sees it as a way for people to learn new skills to compete in a changing marketplace. But when it comes to healthcare, he told me affordability was just one part of the issue. "People are amazed at how hateful the whole system is to deal with." (Envision Bill Frist.) And, of course the other issue he hears about over and over is Bush's foreign policy blundering, namely the war in Iraq and the instability of the world and of energy supplies.

His committee work has had him dealing extensively with consumer protection, predatory lending and the issues around scientific integrity and the manipulation of science by policy makers. I'm going to leave the specifics of these issues for the live discussion with Brad in the comments section below. You can volunteer for Brad's campaign here and you can donate here.

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1 Comments:

At 6:19 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

WHAT COSTS MORE PER YEAR THAN THE IRAQ WAR???

Be sure to read the 14 reasons at the bottom.
Social Security Change For 2008
The United States Senate voted to extend Social Security Benefits to Illegal Aliens beginning in 2008. The following are the senators who voted to give illegal aliens Social Security benefits. They are grouped by home state. If a state is not listed, there was no voting representative.
Alaska : Stevens (R)
Arizona : McCain (R)
Arkansas : Lincoln (D) Pryor (D)
California : Boxer (D) Feinstein (D)
Colorado : Salazar (D)
Connecticut : Dodd (D) Lieberman (D)
Delaware : Biden (D) Carper (D)
Florida : Martinez (R)
Hawaii : Akaka (D) Inouye (D)
Illinois : Durbin (D) Obama (D)
Indiana : Bayh (D) Lugar (R)
Iowa : Harkin (D)
Kansas : Brownback (R)
Louisiana : Landrieu (D)
Maryland : Mikulski (D) Sarbanes (D)
Massachusetts : Kennedy (D) Kerry (D)
Montana : Baucus (D)
Nebraska : Hagel (R)
Nevada : Reid (D)
New Jersey : Lautenberg (D) Menendez (D)
New Mexico : Bingaman (D)
New York : Clinton (D) Schumer (D)
North Dakota : Dorgan (D)
Ohio : DeWine (R) Voinovich(R)
Oregon : Wyden (D)
Pennsylvania : Specter (R)
Rhode Island : Chafee (R) Reed (D)
South Carolina : Graham (R)
South Dakota : Johnson (D)
Vermont : Jeffords (I) Leahy (D)
Washington : Cantwell (D) Murray (D)
West Virginia : Rockefeller (D), by Not Voting
Wisconsin : Feingold (D) Kohl (D)

http://rense.com/general79/seniors.htm
I hope the following 14 reasons are forwarded over and over again until they are read so many times that the reader gets sick of reading them. I have included the URL's for verification of the following facts:
1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year. http://tinyurl.com/zob77
2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens. http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens. http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English! http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html
5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare and Social Services by the American taxpayers. http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html
9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two-and-a-half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US . http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html
11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the Southern border. Homeland Security Report. http://tinyurl.com/t9sht
12. The National Policy Institute, "estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period." http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf
13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin. http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm
14. "The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States ". http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml
Total cost is a whooping... $338.3 BILLION A YEAR!!!
If this doesn't bother you then just delete the message, but on the other hand, if it does raise the hair on the back of your neck, then forward it
Snopes is provided for doubters:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/bankofamerica.asp

SEND THIS TO ALL YOU KNOW. THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES NEEDS TO KNOW THIS INFORMATION, UNLESS THEY DON'T MIND SHARING THEIR SOCIAL SECURITY WITH FOREIGN WORKERS who didn't pay in a dime.
LET US SHOW OUR LEADERS IN WASHINGTON "PEOPLE POWER" AND THE POWER OF THE INTERNET. IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU ARE REPUBLICAN, DEMOCRAT OR INDEPENDENT! KEEP IT GOING!!!!

 

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