RETURN to Home page
RETURN to
Newsletter Archive
CLINTON
"I believe that the great Creator has put ores and oil on this
earth to give us a breathing spell. As we exhaust them, we must be prepared to
fall back on our farms, which is God's true storehouse and can never be exhausted.
We can learn to synthesize material for every human need from things that
grow." — George Washington Carver
http://www.clintoncountydemocrats.org
May 6, 2007
COMING EVENTS
Sunday, May 6 –
2:00-5:00 P.M.
Cinco de Mayo Fiesta and Fund Raiser featuring Los Mocambos – live mariachi music.
Great Mexican food, beer and pop.
ALL PRESIDENTIAL
CANDIDATES HAVE BEEN INVITED.
Hosted by Rita Vargas and Bill Gluba’s campaign committees.
Suggested donation = whatever you can do.
At our Hall of Fame
Dinner in April Congressman Bruce Braley paid tribute
to the work of Bill Gluba in the Democratic
Party. The morning after the election
Bill called Bruce and offered to do whatever he could to help. Bill attended the swearing in ceremony for
Bruce in
He deserves our strong support!
Thursday, May 10 – 7:00 P.M.
OBAMA CAMPAIGN ORGANIZATIONAL
MEETING
(John Keig,
Obama Staff Coordinator for
Tuesday, May 15 – 7:30
P.M.
The Clinton County Democratic Central Committee will meet at
Democratic Headquarters.
Democratic Party meetings and events are open to everybody who
would like to attend.
DON’T PUMP GAS ON MAY
15TH
This summer
gas prices are expected to exceed $4.00 per gallon. In April 1997 there was a "gas out"
conducted nationwide in protest of gas prices. Gasoline prices dropped 30
cents a gallon overnight. On May 15,
2007 if all internet users don’t go to a gas station
in protest of high gas prices, it will send a message to the oil tycoons. Gas is now over $3.00 a gallon in most
places.
There are
73,000,000+ Americans currently on the internet. The average car takes about 30 to 50 dollars
to fill up. If all users did not go to
the pump on the 15th, it would take more than two billion dollars out of the oil
companies’ pockets for just one day. So,
please don’t go to the gas station on May 15th and lets try to put a dent in the Middle Eastern oil industry
for at least one day.
FACTS ABOUT THE
The
Democratic Party
- is a permanent organization that
sponsors activities throughout the year not just during elections.
- helps facilitate activities for all
Democratic candidates.
- promotes citizen participation in
elections.
- sponsors public forums and brings
prominent speakers to
- promotes citizen involvement in civic
affairs.
- works with groups of young democrats
to help develop our future leaders.
- sponsors caucuses that determine the
policies and platform of the Democratic Party.
- organizes workers during political
campaigns.
I Voted My Moral Values:
Pro-Environment Pro-Peace Pro-Education
Climate Change
Pressures to Regulate: A chilling report on global warming
“Climate pressure
continues to build over the White House.
The Supreme Court has unraveled one of the Bush administration's
principal legal arguments for opposing federal action on climate change by
ruling that carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases could be regulated
under the Clean Air Act. According to the act, the EPA must regulate emissions,
in this case those from automobiles, which ‘may reasonably be anticipated to endanger
public health or welfare.’ To date, the
EPA has denied petitions to consider whether or not greenhouse gases contribute
to climate change. In a split 5-to-4 decision, the majority ruled that the Bush
administration offered ‘no reasoned explanation’ for its refusal.
“Then the United Nations'
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change offered a chilling, some might say
apocalyptic, report on the impacts of global warming-months after announcing
humankind was "very likely" to blame for the problem. Scientific
forecasters say warmer weather and increased carbon dioxide could boost
agricultural yields and spread crop production northward, but the odds of
catastrophic effects on oceans and ecosystems are greater. Already changes are
occurring worldwide: The rising sea level is damaging wetlands. Warmer water is
killing coral reefs. Tropical frogs are dying en masse
“Democrats are taking the
opportunity to push for action. The House of Representatives will hear from a
panel of the scientific authors of the United Nations report in April. Senator Barbara Boxer, chair of the Senate's
Environment and Public Works Committee, promptly announced she will summon EPA
officials to explain "how they plan to use their authority under the Clean
Air Act to begin to address the challenge of global warming." If history
is any guide, she won't like the answer.”
(This story written by Bret Schulte appears in the April 16, 2007
print edition of U.S. News & World Report.)
THE HYPOCRISY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
The Amish Example:
“Many articles
discuss Amish forgiveness of last fall's tragedy ‘that transfixed the world’. What if, instead of seeking vengeance, we had
stood together in human pain, looking honestly at the shared sin and sadness we
suffered? Won't work, many would have said, but on the other hand, will
anything short of radical forgiveness ever end the violence and create
peace? The Amish would argue that
forgiveness is the central teaching of Jesus. They will take you to the Lord's Prayer-if
you don't forgive, you won't be forgiven.
Religious leaders appealed to President Bush for a more Christian
response to 9/11 and attempted to dissuade him from the invasion of
Comment: Vice President Dick Cheney might say: “These teachings are hog wash”.
“Issues like poverty are our test and we have a moral obligation to make
sure we pass. In
(Senator John Edwards at
the National Press Club, June 22, 2006)
http://www.clintoncountydemocrats.org
May 13, 2007
COMING EVENTS
Tuesday, May 15 – 7:30
P.M.
The Clinton County Democratic Central Committee will meet at
Democratic Headquarters.
The
agenda will include an evaluation of the Hall of Fame dinner, an election of a Camanche central committee member and planning for summer
events.
MEMORIAL DAY
Monday, May 28
We cherish too, the Poppy
red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.
(Moina Michael – 1915)
Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a
day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service.
While
HOUSING NEEDED FOR
SUMMER INTERNS
The Obama
campaign
is looking for a couple of people who would be willing to house our
DON’T PUMP GAS ON MAY
15TH
This summer
gas prices are expected to exceed $4.00 per gallon. In April 1997 there was a "gas out"
conducted nationwide in protest of gas prices. Gasoline prices dropped 30
cents a gallon overnight. On May 15,
2007 if all internet users don’t go to a gas station
in protest of high gas prices, it will send a message to the oil tycoons. Gas is now over $3.00 a gallon in most
places.
Lets try to put a dent in the Middle Eastern oil
industry for at least one day.
GRASSROOTS
ORGANIZING WORKS, NO MATTER THE POLITICAL ODDS
DO THE RICH REALLY
NEED A TAX BREAK?
v The Internal Revenue Service
estimates that it is able to accurately tax 99 percent of wage income but that
it captures only about 70 percent of business and investment income, most of
which flows to upper-income individuals, because not everybody accurately
reports such figures.
v Data understates the widening
disparity between the top one percent and the rest of the country. In addition
to rising incomes and reduced taxes, the equation should take into account cuts
in fringe benefits to workers and in government services that middle-class and
poor Americans rely on more than the affluent. These include health care, child
care and education spending.
v “The nation faces some very tough
choices in coming years. That such a large share of the income gains are going
to the very top, at a minimum, raises serious questions about continuing to
provide tax cuts averaging over $150,000 a year to people making more than a
million dollars a year, while saying we do not have enough money to provide
health insurance to 47 million Americans and cutting education benefits.
v A major issue likely to be debated in
Congress in the year ahead is whether reversing the Bush tax cuts would slow
investment and, if so, how much that would cost the economy.
v For Americans in the middle, the
share of income taken by federal taxes has been essentially unchanged across
four decades. By comparison, it has fallen by half for those at the very top of
the income ladder.
v Because the incomes of those at the
top have grown so much more than those below them, their share of total income
tax revenue has risen despite the reduced rates.
v
The top 10 percent of Americans collected 48.5 percent of all
reported income in 2005. That is an increase of more than 2 percentage points
over the previous year and up from roughly 33 percent in the late 1970s. The
peak for this group was 49.3 percent in 1928.
v
The top 1 percent received 21.8 percent of all reported income in
2005, up significantly from 19.8 percent the year before and more than double
their share of income in 1980. The peak was in 1928, when the top 1 percent
reported 23.9 percent of all income.
v
The top tenth of a percent and top one-hundredth of a percent
recorded even bigger gains in 2005 over the previous year. Their incomes soared
by about a fifth in one year, largely because of the rising stock market and increased
business profits.
(By DAVID CAY
JOHNSTON,
At Least The War On The Middle Class Is Going Well!
"Let
every individual and institution now think and act as
a responsible trustee of Earth, seeking choices in ecology, economics and
ethics that will provide a sustainable future, eliminate pollution, poverty and
violence, awaken the wonder of life and foster peaceful progress in the human
adventure." — John McConnell,
founder of International Earth Day
http://www.clintoncountydemocrats.org
May 21,
2007
MEMORIAL DAY
Monday, May 28
In
By:
Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian
Army
McCrae's "In
IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between
the crosses row on row,
That
mark our place; and in the sky
The
larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce
heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved
and were loved, and now we lie
In
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you
from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye
break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In
Although he had been a
doctor for years and had served in the South African War, it was impossible to
get used to the suffering, the screams, and the blood here, and Lieutenant
Colonel John McCrae had seen and heard enough in his dressing station to last
him a lifetime.
War
is horrible. The decision to go to war should not be taken
lightly, especially by leaders who have avoided military service. All avenues of diplomacy and international
cooperation should be thoroughly tried before making the final fatal decision.
ACTION NEEDED ON GLOBAL CLIMATE
CHANGE
The U.S. National Academy
of Sciences and scientific groups from ten other nations are contending that
the scientific evidence on global climate change is now clear enough for
government leaders to commit to prompt action.
The Academies of Science from eleven major nations called on world
leaders to identify cost-effective steps to take now to contribute to long-term
reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. A
delay will increase environmental damage.
The President of the British
Royal Society called the
What Can We Do With Carbon Dioxide?
Ø Scientists are trying to find ways
to convert the plentiful greenhouse gas into fuels and other value-added
products.
Ø Carbon dioxide (CO2) is
nontoxic, nonflammable and essentially free for the taking.
Ø CO2 could be a great
feedstock for making commodity chemicals, fuels, and other materials.
Ø The technology to capture large
amounts of CO2 and sequester it deep underground or under the
seafloor probably is going to be necessary if humanity decides it wants to
reduce the gas's expected effects on the planet's climate.
Ø Scientists are optimistic that much
good could come from a more focused research effort to find new ways to utilize
CO2 as a chemical feedstock.
Ø Industrial processes can in
principle be developed to have a positive influence on atmospheric CO2—we
don't have to bury it all to have an impact, but the products would have to be
in high demand
Ø Bulk chemicals already produced
routinely from CO2 include urea to make nitrogen fertilizers,
salicylic acid as a pharmaceutical ingredient and polycarbonate-based plastics.
Ø Carbon dioxide could be used more
widely as a solvent.
Ø CO2 could be used in oil
and gas recovery, enhanced agricultural production and ponds of genetically
modified algae that can convert power-plant CO2 into bio-diesel
fuels.
Ø Scientists are working on catalytic
processes for reducing CO2 to formic acid (HCO2H). Formic
acid has potential to power fuel cells for electricity generation and
automobiles and as a precursor for other fuels and commodity chemicals,
including polymers.
Ø Chemists are uniquely positioned to
make fundamentally important contributions to climate change and reduction of
carbon dioxide.
Ø Biomass, methane and carbon dioxide
are huge renewable carbon resources for organic synthesis.
Ø Catalysts can be used to incorporate
CO2 into biodegradable polymers for food packaging, foam-casting to
make automotive parts, electronics processing applications and in polyurethane
foams used for insulation and seat cushions.
Ø Researchers are working on artificial
photosynthesis which involves designing photocatalyst
systems that use solar energy to reduce the CO2 gas to hydrocarbons.
Ø Large quantities of methanol or other
hydrocarbon fuels could be produced directly from CO2. This approach has the potential not only to
help alleviate global warming but, more important, to address the problem of
our rapidly depleting fossil-fuel reserves.
Ø One goal would be to develop a system
that converts CO2 directly to methanol or a similar compound that could
be used as a fuel.
Ø If catalytic systems were designed to
produce fuels during periods of excess energy production from solar, wind or
nuclear energy, chemical fuels could serve as a form of large-scale energy
storage. In non-fossil-based systems of
the future, it will be necessary to reversibly interconvert between a variety
of fuels and electricity as needed using inexpensive catalysts.
A
major world conference on the utilization of greenhouse gases will take place
six months before the next
(Excerpted from an
article by Stephen K. Ritter in Chemical & Engineering
News, April 30, 2007)
COMMENT: The Bush/Cheney Administration and their Republican
supporters have cut back on grants for chemical research. They have also hampered the research by
making it difficult for foreign graduate students to work in the
Science & Religion Should Fight
Ignorance Together
http://www.clintoncountydemocrats.org
May 22, 2007
SENATOR JOE
BIDEN WILL BE IN
A TOWN HALL
MEETING
Sunday, May
27, 2007
7:00 – 8:30 P.M.
He’ll be speaking about his plans for
Senator Biden is chairman
of the Senate foreign relations committee.
For more information call Adam Dunstone
at 515-440-2008
A FEW FACTS ABOUT SENATOR
JOE BIDEN
At age 29,
against almost impossible odds, he became one of the youngest people ever
elected to the United States Senate, beating an incumbent Republican.
For
three decades, Joe Biden has served on the Senate's
Foreign Relations Committee, becoming its Chairman in January. He immediately
began holding high-profile hearings on
He has been the Democrat's leading voice against the Administration's handling
of the war, and is the only Presidential candidate to issue a plan for bringing
home America's troops, without leaving chaos behind in Iraq. He is respected at
home and abroad for his well-informed and common sense approach to the
complexities of American foreign policy.
"The next Democratic leader, and this is what the presidential election is
all about, has to challenge the American people, tell them the truth, and trust
them."
"The power of the Executive to
cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and
particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree
odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or
Communist." --Winston Churchill, November 21, 1943--
http://www.clintoncountydemocrats.org
May 27,
2007
MEMORIAL DAY
"These heroes are dead. They died for liberty-they died for us. They are at rest. They sleep in the land they made free, under the flag they rendered stainless, under the solemn pines, the sad hemlocks, the tearful willows, the embracing vines. They sleep beneath the shadow of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine or storm, each in the windowless palace of rest. Earth may run red with other wars-they are at peace. In the midst of the battles, in the roar of conflicts, they found the serenity of death." -- Unknown
"We must be prepared to make heroic sacrifices for the cause of peace that we make ungrudgingly for the cause of war. There is no task that is more important or closer to my heart." -- Albert Einstein
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS THE PARTY THAT PROMOTES PEACE
COMING EVENTS
Sunday, May 27, 2007
7:00 – 8:30 P.M.
SENATOR JOE BIDEN WILL
BE IN
Thursday, May 31
2:00 – 3:00 P.M.
DOES SENATOR GRASSLEY REPRESENT ALL THE PEOPLE OF
Last week I received an invitation from
United States Senator Charles E. Grassley to attend a town hall meeting at the
DEMOCRATIC EVENTS ARE OPEN TO
EVERYBODY WHO WOULD LIKE TO ATTEND!
SUMMER PARADES
During the summer Democrats will have the
opportunity to publicly demonstrate support for the values of the Democratic
Party. There are several parades coming
up where we can march to show our patriotism and strong support. There is a parade in DeWitt on July 4th;
River Boat Days parade in
At the March 31 Democratic Caucus held at
Ø
All
National Guard and Reserve units on active duty should receive full G.I.
benefits.
Ø
All active duty veterans should qualify for Veterans Administration
hospital benefits.
Ø
A veteran should be discharged from a medical facility only upon
successful rehabilitation.
Ø
Remove
means testing from veterans benefits.
IT IS CRIMINAL TO SEND
OUR MEN AND WOMEN TO WAR
AND NOT FULLY SUPPORT
THEM WHEN THEY RETURN!
HELP BUILD A
STRONGER
Join A 2007
Club!
_____ $25.00 Give ‘em Hell Harry Good Old Boys and Girls Club
_____ $50.00 Andrew Jackson Cabinet
_____ $100.00 Thomas Jefferson Cabinet (includes a ticket
to the 2008 Hall of Fame Dinner)
Send your checks to Jean Pardee,
GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING WORKS, NO MATTER THE POLITICAL ODDS
THE IMPUDENT CANDIDATE
“Americans are tired of distinguishing between
Sunnis and Shi'ites and tired of our disastrous
involvement overseas. Americans want an
end to the
(Carol
Manning,
“THE NEW AMERICAN
STORY” ACCORDING TO BILL BRADLEY
“The New American Story” says that we can solve
our problems—whether it’s
health care, education, reforming democracy, if we put country ahead of party
and we tell people the truth. If you have bold solutions, you can solve our
problems. A leader who’s bold enough to tell the
people the truth will find an audience ready for bold solutions. (Senator Bill Bradley discussed his new book
and offered his views on the issues confronting our country and the world, on
MEET THE PRESS with Tim Russert.)
WHAT YOU NEED TO BELIEVE TO BE A REPUBLICAN
The best way to improve military morale is to praise the
troops in speeches, while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.
Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which
include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.