VISIT NOW

TEXANS UNITE AGAINST THE WAR ON WOMEN

We are shocked and angered to see a radical and well-funded fringe element attempt to roll back the clock, not just a generation, but a century, to a time when family planning was considered outrageous and brave women went to jail to secure the freedom and sanctity of their own bodies.

We, the clear thinking citizens of Texas and the United States of America, believe that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness includes the following:

•The right of every person to make medical decisions independent of legislative whim.

•The right of every worker to have equal access to health insurance coverage,

regardless of an employer’s personal beliefs.

•The right to family planning as a completely personal decision.

•The right for doctor patient consultations to be private.

•The right to autonomy of one’s own body. Nothing is more basic.

IT IS ALREADY THE LAW

In 2000, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that that prescription insurance plans may not discriminate on the basis of gender, and this was upheld in court in 2001. (Erickson v. The Bartell Drug Co.)

Why, a dozen years later, has this become a controversy? For a few politicans’ personal gain.

THESE ARE DANGEROUS TIMES FOR PERSONAL FREEDOM

•Allowing employers to pick and choose insurance coverage is wrong.

•Using taxpayer monies to support a political agenda at the expense of people’s health is vicious and contemptible.

•Legislating doctor patient conversations and mandating medical procedures is a shocking reversal of history and law.

LIBERTY AND JUSTICE REQUIRE THE FOLLOWING:

•Enforce the EEOC ruling of 2000, because it rules simply on gender equality.

•Repeal the Texas Sonogram Law because it is an abhorrent invasion of privacy.

•Make funding for women’s health care appropriate to the need, not based on political agendas.

WE DEMAND PERSONAL FREEDOM AND PRIVACY. AND WE VOTE.

All in one day on Capitol Hill, House Republicans voted for the Romney-Ryan-Republican plan to end Medicare as we know it and Senate Republicans voted to protect $24 billion in tax giveaways for Big Oil.

Here they go again: taking away Medicare to give more taxpayer money to Big Oil.

After a lifetime paying into Medicare, our seniors deserve the peace of mind to know they can count on the health care they’re owed. Washington Republicans don’t get it. Instead of strengthening Medicare, they keep trying to take it away. Instead of getting rid of taxpayer handouts to Big Oil, they want more of them.

Nothing’s new: yet again Congressional Republicans voted to end Medicare as we know it to pay for more tax handouts for their Big Oil campaign donors.Americans want their leaders to preserve Medicare for their retirement and for future generations — not give handouts to millionaires and oil companies.

When you’re standing at the gas pump, remember: Republicans refuse to ask oil company CEOs to give up their tax giveaways, but demand we give up Medicare we pay into with every paycheck.

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ATTACKS AND RESPONSES

CLAIM: "The GOP budget tackles our generation’s defining challenges and doesn’t hide from tough decisions."
RESPONSE:

• They talk tough on deficits, but the latest GOP budget would actually make the debt worse. They talk about making tough decisions, but their budget is only tough on struggling Americans.
• This comes down to our national priorities. Do we really want an America where more gets taken from seniors and working families just so the richest few who bankroll politicians can pay less?
• Actually, the GOP plan would mean that by 2050, our federal government won’t exist aside from Social Security, health care, and defense — that’s not the kind of country Americans want to leave for our kids and grandkids.

CLAIM: "The House GOP budget heroically and gutsily takes on entitlement spending."
RESPONSE:

• Letting seniors go bankrupt and taking food away from vulnerable children to avoid asking your wealthy campaign donors to pay their fair share? That’s cowardly.
• Courage is standing up to the wealthy and powerful special interests funding their campaigns — but Washington Republicans won’t do it. They actually want more giveaways for the 1%.
• Do we really want America led by politicians who’ll show courage only when their corporate campaign donors give them permission?

CLAIM: "The GOP budget spurs economic growth with bold tax reform."
RESPONSE:

• We tried trickle-down economics and all we’ve got to show for it are massive deficits, scarce jobs, and a shrinking middle class.
• The GOP plan would throw millions of Americans out of work, take money out of the pockets of regular Americans, and give up on investments that make America competitive in the world.
• Tax giveaways for the richest 1% don’t get the economy moving or create jobs because millionaires and billionaires don’t need or spend the money — they just hand it over to their hedge fund managers.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

• The GOP budget would actually make the debt worse by giving $3 trillion in tax handouts to corporations and the richest few — giving millionaires over $250K more in tax giveaways on top of the over $100K they’d get from the Bush tax cuts.
• In the last six years, Republicans got 7 out of 10 Congressional campaign dollars spent by corporations that benefit the most from tax loopholes passed by those politicians.
• At the same time, the GOP budget would end Medicare as we know it, throw millions of Americans off their health insurance, and cut more than $1 trillion from programs like school lunches that vulnerable families rely on.
• 70% of Americans, including the majority of Republicans, want to keep Medicare as it is today, instead of replacing it with coupons as the House GOP and Mitt Romney have proposed.
• The Senators who voted yesterday to protect $24 Billion in giveaways to Big Oil have received $24 Million in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry over their careers.

Since 2011, Senate Republicans have voted seven times to protect their Big Oil campaign donors and against clean energy three times.

My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom Hardcopy: http://amzn.to/dt72c7 Kindle: http://amzn.to/lUFQCV iPad/iTunes: http://bit.ly/qB88Lk Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies

On March 25^th, 2012 there was a very well attended multi-ethnic, multi-denominational rally that took place to demand justice for Trayvon Martin. There were several prominent speakers and politicians present including Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee, Congressman Al Green, Reverend William Lawson (civil rights leader), Mary Ramos (LULAC), Richard Shaw (AFLCIO), Dr. Zedicki (Islamic Society of Greater Houston), and Elliot Gershenson (Interfaith Ministries).

The rally had a certain feel that I had not felt in years. People seem to be getting ready for an outpouring of action. There was a lot of camaraderie and resolve but not a feeling for vengeance.

This unjustified murder is serving as a catalyst to galvanize our thoughts and resolve for action. This is bigger than Mr. Zimmerman. Trayvon Martin is proof positive that laws passed by Republicans are generally not thought out and can actually get American citizens killed.

Last week this event moved me to write a blog titled “The Death of Trayvon Martin – A Reminder We Have More Work to Do”. It received a lot of coverage at the Coffee Party USA site. Give it a read and leave a comment.

I made several videos at the event and they may be used by CNN on their ongoing Trayvon Martin coverage. I got the most important sound bites from most of the speakers in order to make it a video you could listen to in a few minutes.

I also saw Erica Lee and Jolanda Jones hanging around the stage so I decided to ask them their impressions as well. They gracefully gave me compelling statements.

Rally

Trayvon’s Mother Calling Into The Rally Live!

Interviews with Erica Lee and Jolanda Lones

See What They Are Saying About This Video on CNN iReports

My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom Hardcopy: http://amzn.to/dt72c7 Kindle: http://amzn.to/lUFQCV iPad/iTunes: http://bit.ly/qB88Lk Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies

My Book– Follow Me– Visit Me

As we mark the two-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, a new report showing women still pay more than men for the same health insurance underscores the critical need for the law.

Women want control over their health care. Don’t let politicians put insurance companies back in charge. All of us — men and women — deserve the same quality health care that Members of Congress get.

Twenty million women with private insurance have already taken advantage of the health care law’s prevention benefits. Now millions will get no-cost mammograms, contraception, and health check-ups starting this summer. Republicans in Congress want to take away these protections.

If it was up to them, insurance companies would be allowed to keep charging women more than men and denying them coverage because of "pre-existing conditions" like pregnancy or having been a victim of domestic violence. Do Republicans in Congress really think their health care is good enough for them, but too good for women who’ve had children or been victims of domestic violence?

Women want control over their health care. Don’t let politicians put insurance companies back in charge.

EYE ON THE RIGHT

LIE:

 "There are $1 abortions in Obamacare."

DEBUNK:

• There’s no such thing — this is yet another right-wing scare tactic. And it’s based on a provision they fought to put in the legislation!
• In fact, if you don’t want a plan that covers abortion, the health care law makes sure you can choose a plan without it.
• The health care law also increases access to contraception, which means fewer unintended pregnancies and fewer abortions. If they wanted fewer abortions in America, they should focus on reducing them instead of making stuff up.

LIE:

"There’s a new CBO report that says the health care law will be double the cost."

DEBUNK:

• Actually, the new CBO report shows the health care law will cost LESS than originally thought — $50 billion less. Taking it away — even just parts of it — will INCREASE the deficit.
• The new law does essentially everything experts say we need to hold down health care costs. We can’t afford to go back to the broken system we had before.
• If they really cared about containing health care costs, why do they keep trying to force wasteful private insurance plans on all Americans or take away parts of the law designed to get rid of waste and abuse in the system?

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

• The Affordable Care Act is working. The health care law’s benefits for women include:
  • Ending the insurance industry’s practice of charging women up to 150 times more than men more for the same coverage — costing women $1 billion more a year.
  • Banning insurance companies from denying women coverage due to "pre-existing conditions" like having been pregnant or a victim of domestic violence.
  • Providing comprehensive coverage of basic preventive services without extra cost, such as mammograms, pap smears and contraceptive coverage.
  • Requiring all new health plans to cover maternity and newborn care.
  • Getting rid of lifetime coverage limits for 40 million adult women and 28 million children.
• For state-by-state data on how the health care law is already working for America’s women, please click here.
• Americans strongly support many individual parts of the health law:
  • Nearly 80 percent support the insurance exchanges that will allow more than 30 million Americans to get affordable health insurance.
  • Over 70 percent support preventing insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.
  • Nearly 60 percent support letting young adults stay on their parents’ plans until they turn 26, while they finish college or look for a job.
  • Nearly 60 percent support requiring insurance companies to reimburse subscribers if they don’t spend at least 80 percent of their revenues on care rather than overhead or profits. This year alone, patients will get up to over $300 million in these rebates.
  • Over 60 percent of Americans support the individual responsibility provision after they’re informed most Americans would still get their health coverage through their employers and thus wouldn’t be affected by the mandate. Their support goes up even more the more they learn about it.
• What’s unpopular is the health care system we had before — Americans overwhelmingly agreed it was broken.
  

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  My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom Hardcopy: http://amzn.to/dt72c7 Kindle: http://amzn.to/lUFQCV iPad/iTunes: http://bit.ly/qB88Lk Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies

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My fellow Democrat Deborah Mowrey sent me an email last night with a link to the article below titled “5 Words And Phrases Democrats Should Never Say Again”. The article is well written and is a must read. The GOP has been destroying the middle class for the last 30 years yet because of the words they use people consistently vote for them. The charts on the left says it all.

There is also a book by Drew Westen, an author I met at Rebuild the Dream, that explains this phenomenon and how to address it named The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation. His major tenet is that we must get to the emotional level of those we are trying to enlighten in order for them to listen and then see the truth.

There is also a great book by Dylan Ratigan named “Greedy Bastards: How We Can Stop Corporate Communists, Banksters, and Other Vampires from Sucking America Dry” that explains in every day English what these guys have done and how they get away with it. I am still reading it but find it very fascinating in that he breaks down what our legal crooks, our titans of finance have been doing to America; one phrase; Capital Extraction.

And if I may self promote a bit I wrote the book “As I see it: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom” that pretty much ties things up in simple terms.

CONTINUED

5 Words And Phrases Democrats Should Never Say Again–MUST READ

What Has The

President Done For The

People Of The United

States Thus Far?

Saved the Auto Industry from Complete Collapse
Ordered steps to help Veterans find Jobs
Protected the Economy from going into a Depression
Led the way to 2 straight Years of
Private Sector Job Growth
Gave the go-ahead to Find & Kill Osama Bin Laden
Brought the Troops Home from Iraq
Expanded Healthcare Coverage to millions of previously uninsured Americans
Supported Israel Better than any other President
Sent Congress legislation to accelerate
Small Business Growth
Gave Hardworking American Families a Payroll Tax Cut, helping the average family save $1500 a year

….and SO much more!

Re-Elect Barack Obama 2012
Visit www.pbcdemocraticparty.org. Sign up. Get involved.

Kingwood Area Democrats attended a rally at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast in Houston Texas. It was a well-attended event bringing attention to Governor Perry’s actions that materially affects the healthcare of women who use Planned Parenthood for their services.

There were many speakers and politicians at the event. I got the opportunity to interview Congressman Al Green of Texas about the potential ruling of the Supreme Court on the Affordable Care Act. He brought up an excellent point with regards to a negative ruling’s effect on how Medicare is funded.

My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom Hardcopy: http://amzn.to/dt72c7 Kindle: http://amzn.to/lUFQCV iPad/iTunes: http://bit.ly/qB88Lk Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies

by John Robert BEHRMAN

Peter Voser, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, notes that the “natural gas revolution is by far the most significant energy development in decades.” I would add that the second-most important is development of a few deep, large fields by a few large, multinational firms, like Shell, ExxonMobil, and BP but, also, by state-owned firms outside remnants of the old the Anglo-American cartel. None of these developments is providing or will ever provide “energy independence” or “cheap gasoline”. But, they are surely good for the Houston economy.

Moreover, these latest are more developments of petroleum engineering than exploration since shale gas was known and large offshore “blocks” were surveyed and leased long ago. What we have is testament to both private and public investment over a huge range of technologies for a very long time, everything from digital signal processing to low earth-orbit global communication and sensors.  

But, editors of the Houston Chronicle seem to think that such progress is “despite the efforts of the Obama administration to minimize … discovery of abundant oil and natural gas resources domestically.” No, that is just lobbyists griping. They are jackals, not wildcatters.

Actually, Democrats – notably Bill White and Bill Clinton but, really, going back to late Bob Eckhart and Charlie Wilson – very consistently supported sustained development, in particular, of natural gas in Texas as an alternative to coal and, I would add now, to heavy, sour bitumen or “tar sands” as they are called. The Democrats I stand with have been fair to the big players but remained sweet on the small ones — independent oil and gas firms located in Texas, “Little Oil”, as we say.

Moreover, for a long time, Texas Democrats, notably “Major” Jubal Randolph Parten, applied conventions of admiralty and state laws of common carriage to mitigate both monopoly rent extraction (by large firms) and environmental depredation (by small firms). To my mind, that is the best thing Texas Democrats ever did besides, of course, patriotically supporting the victory of democracies over the course of the Great, World, and Cold Wars.

More recently, President Obama ended the “War for Oil” or … “Whatever” in Iraq – certainly the stupidest war Anglo-American financial interests ever ginned up since, … well, since doing pretty much the same thing in the same place during World War I.

Some of what Democrats are doing today involves sustained preferences for domestic oil exploration and development but also industrial policy. These favor petroleum-related technology development and exports as well as “green” technologies that will increasingly substitute for imported oil. What we can reasonably expect from all that is a worldwide industry centered here in Greater Houston and supported by our cosmopolitan and creative culture.

The main problem we have going forward are not with not “energy” but with “power”. It is a breakdown of traditional common carriage regulation of large monopolies, of small “fly-by-night” operators, and of scam artists great and small. This is the oldest story in the “oil patch” and nothing the GOP has proven interested in or capable of doing anything about.

On the contrary: Even as Voser was writing in the Chronicle, the Financial Times of London was reporting that another Bush-era complex financial bet by Energy Future Holdings was about to blow up and take down TXU. This is the way it goes in our deregulated power casino: As one of the original investors in this deal admitted that, “once the hedges roll off, it’s all over (since) the single thing we got wrong was gas prices, no one saw shale gas coming”.

That is the whole problem with an unregulated deal-culture of get-rich-quick financial scams where there used to be a Texas Railroad Commission. Under Democratic leadership, Texas had the science-based planning and regulatory authority that got and, until recently, kept Texas in a leading position in world markets where all capitalists and socialists, pirates and tyrants compete under admiralty laws enforced or not.

Actually, Texas Democrats’ long-term and President Obama’s short-term record on sustainable oil & gas development is outstanding. Another war in the Middle East or, for that matter, another rogue operation in the Gulf like Deepwater Horizon could mess it up. But, President Obama has provided exactly the kind of hope and change voters here were promised supported countywide in 2008. That is infuriating, no doubt, to ex-Democrats like Rick Perry. But, who needs him or his ilk? Not that many Republicans and no Democrats, for sure.