Progress Now Action

In some great news for progressives and the GLBT community, a new Harris Interactive poll commissioned by GLAAD finds that Coloradans overwhelmingly approve legal recognition of same-sex partnerships.

• About eight out of 10 Colorado adults (83%) say that gay and lesbian couples should either be able to marry, have all of the same rights as marriage, or be able to form domestic partnerships. Only 15% say there should be no legal recognition.
• A slight majority of CO adults (51%) favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to legally marry. This represents greater support than among U.S. adults, where, according to the recently released national Pulse of Equality survey, opinion is evenly split.
• Coloradans support gay and transgender-inclusive hate crimes laws (63%) and employment, housing and public accommodations non-discrimination laws (56%) for gay and transgender people. Such proposals are similar to those already enacted in Colorado, signaling clear public support for those policies.
• Nearly three out of four (73%) of Coloradans also oppose attempts to ban qualified gay and lesbian couples from adopting. This finding suggests strong support for existing Colorado law that allows for second-parent adoption in the state.
• Two-thirds of Colorado adults (66%) favor allowing openly gay military personnel to serve in the armed forces.

Looks like all of your effort in 2006 and beyond has really paid off.

cross-posted at ClimateLaws.org

Under the neo-classic pen name, Justinian, several yet to be revealed policy and climate experts have released a blueprint of strategies for the incoming administration to consider with regards to climate change.  The lynchpin of these tactics is that they can all be undertaken without the need for immediate congressional action.  Like the Roman Emperor Justinian’s attempts to bring Rome out of the Dark Ages with, among other things, a complete revision of the Roman law code – the authors’ proposals offer a dramatic administrative shift in US priorities for climate change.

While some of the recommendations are fairly well known, some are wonkish administrative priority setting such as strategies within federal agencies that will permit a far greater amount of environmental policy changes to successfully navigate the myriad of interagency hurdles they often face.  Two of the more public and well known recommendations include having the US join a binding international agreement on climate change, and granting California’s exemption to EPA regulation of auto emissions essentially letting that state and 18 others raise emissions standards on automobiles. 

Some other suggestions include....more after the jump

I'm with Chris Bowers, OpenLeft.com, if news reports are correct from corporate media that Obama is going to keep Robert Gates on as SecofDef. Bowers states:

This should be an open and shut case. If there was one message that Obama ran on loudly, clearly, and indisputably, it is that he was going to bring "change" to Washington, D.C. If Gates were kept on as Secretary of Defense, it apparently would also mean that all of his top advisors would also stay on, and that it all happened because long-time D.C. operatives said it should. Keeping the same guy and all of his advisors at the behest of old establishment types is about as far from change as possible. Secretary of Defense is the big enchilada. Arguably, due to the vast percentage of federal spending it receives, it is more important than all other cabinet secretaries combined. The President may be Commander in Chief, but it is the Secretary of Defense who is decides how most federal revenue is spent. We need change in the Department of Defense, and keeping Gates along with his entire team of advisors and assistants doesn't fit the bill.

ProgressNowAction, a Denver-based progressive advocacy network, said the organization has signed a pledge of support for the Pickens Plan, calling for Congress to enact an energy plan within the first 100 days of President-elect Barack Obama's new administration.

The pledge has been signed by many, including 168 mayors across the country.

In Colorado, Farris Bervig, the mayor of Alamosa, and Lionel Rivera, mayor of Colorado Springs, have signed the pledge, according to the Pickens Plan website.

Democratic U.S. Sen.-elect Mark Udall signed the pledge while he was campaigning for the seat, according to an Oct. 6 announcement.

Backed by billionaire businessman T. Boone Pickens, the Pickens Plan pushes for efforts to cut America's use of imported oil by boosting the amount of electricity produced by wind farms, a renewable energy resource. The new, wind-driven power would replace electricity generated by natural gas -- which in turn could be shifted to fuel cars, thus cutting the nation's need for oil imports.

The plan requires a big spending effort to build more big transmission lines from the central plains, where the wind is plentiful but people are not, to big cities with plenty of customers on the nation's coastlines. Money is also needed to get more natural gas-fueled vehicles into the market, as well as support systems such as refueling stations.

"I am pleased to have the endorsement of ProgressNowAction; Coloradans have always been forward-thinking about energy, and a state so abundant in domestic resources will play a significant role in solving our energy dependence issues," said Pickens in the announcement. "President-elect Obama has voiced commitment to reducing foreign oil imports over the next decade. With over 1.3 million Americans in the Pickens Plan army, we have solid support going to Washington, and are confident we will be able to work with the new Administration to enact true energy reform."

"No challenge is greater, or more important to our country, than ending our dependence on foreign oil", said Michael Huttner, executive director of ProgressNowAction, in a statement. "Shifting our consumption to abundant American energy sources will make our nation more secure, add millions of new jobs, and protect our planet from the threat of climate change. We need energy independence, and we need it now."

The Pickens Pledge can be found at www.pickensplan.com/thepledge.

For several years now the evidence of the Alberto Gonzales gang's manipulation of the Federal Civil Service within the Department of Justice has been well publicized. The fact that right-wing political ideologues were being approved for career professional positions based on social issue orthodoxy, rather than competence and qualifications, is yet another blight on the scandalous legacy of the current occupant of the White House.

Today's report in the Washington Post reveals that this practice of burrowing right-wing political operatives into the Civil Service is also in-place in the scientific agencies. Perhaps this is the mis-administration's strategy for making permanent the Republican obsession for combating the truth of science with their twisted political and social priorities.

The Center for Public Integrity is soon to release their "Broken Government" study. The fund-raising teaser release promises 120 specific cases. This kind of investigative effort to hold the Bushies accountable as the mis-administration fades into oblivion is crucial.  Revealing and acting on the depth and breadth of this conspiracy is vital to the success of any reforms and corrects to the offenses of the past eight years.

The Obama-Biden Administration will be stretched and tested to uncover and flush-out these right-wing activists who have burrowed their way into the Civil Service like so many termites. The evidence of these infestations must be met with quick action.

Executive appointees selected for positions above these people must be prepared to take every possible action within the laws and regulations of the Civil Service structure to either get them dismissed, or make it too hard for them to stay and accomplish their nefarious goals. Attention to the selection of the Administrator of the Office of Personnel Management will be a key to success in this area.

Various Executive agency inspectors general must be supported in investigating these political opportunists. IF they are found to be substantially unqualified for the job description that they were hired to fill, then it should be clear grounds for dismissal as an unlawful appointment.

The Obama-Biden appointees who are saddled with these burdens must enforce clear, precise and enforceable performance standards. When confronted with qualitative requirements to enforce and perform based upon laws and regulations that these infiltrators are likely to hold ambitions to undermine and avoid, could more easily force them to resign.

Even in its demise the minions of the current mis-administration are appearing to be increasingly unwilling to follow the current occupant of the White House and the vice out of Washington. This certainly adds to the challenge and urgency of establishing the new administration's executive leadership. Too many months and too many acting, caretaker, leaders in the executive departments will make it all the harder to untangle the tentacles of the Bush parasites.

Failed U.S. health care is a major contributor to our systemic economic crisis. Indeed, the excesses of Wall St. and the subprime mortgage catastrophe mirror U.S. health care policy – both are typified by privatized profit (for investors and insurers), and socialized risk (for taxpayers and consumers). Inflated U.S. health care costs – 16% of GDP and rising – are major contributors to an inflationary economy. Redress of this single aspect of an out-of-control U.S. economy would lift all boats. Comprehensive health care reform would improve the economic status of all, relieving health access concerns of families, individuals and businesses, large and small.

So-called "legacy costs" alone, comprised largely of retiree health and pension benefits, have contributed significantly to General Motor’s negative cash flow, prompting yet another request for government bailout. In 2005, costs of health care coverage to GM amounted to $5.6 billion for 1.1 million employees, retirees and their dependents. In 2005 BusinessWeek reported that legacy costs added $1,600 to the cost of each GM vehicle.

It’s time to confront the crippling economic effects of employment-linked health coverage that reduces competitiveness of businesses in the world marketplace, reduces effective employee take-home pay, and adds to the costs paid by all for goods and services (note above cost added to each U.S. -made car). State and city budgets, too, are depleted by escalating health costs for employees and retirees.

Progressives leaders must do a better job of promoting civic discourse while clearly defining issues, like health care reform. Democrats shoud cease parroting right-wing framing and code words intended to distort the issue, e.g., "government health care" or "socialized medicine," as a couple of recent Colorado candidates have done. We need to refute Republican "free-market" advocacy that treats health care as a commodity to be exploited for maximum profit, with top-skimming of over 25% of health care dollars for private insurance shareholder profits, CEO salaries, excessive administrative costs, marketing, lobbying, etc. "Free-market" health care is as perverse an incentive as free-market police and fire protection would be, leaving everyone vulnerable, at the mercy of the marketplace.

Barack Obama showed promise broaching issues during the campaign. He made a start at explaining the high cost of privatizing Medicare (13% higher than traditional Medicare), and the failure of Medicare prescription drug reform that prohibits negotiation of bulk drug rates, as the VA does to save money. The 2003 reform was a giveaway to insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies, with billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies and inflated costs to benefit their bottom lines. Now is the time to make the case for an improved Medicare for All - a public insurance with true free choice of providers and hospitals. By contrast, for-profit insurance choices are narrowly limited to "in-plan" providers, necessitating change of providers with change of insurance.

Comprehensive health care reform shoud be part of a broad economic remedy. U.S. health costs are almost double those of all other industrialized nations, and growing; yet we still experience worse overall health outcomes. Increasing numbers of underinsured pay escalating costs for decreasing coverage. Taxpayers currently pay for over 60% of health care costs, including 70% of legislators’ health coverage. By many accounts, that is enough to provide single-risk-pool coverage for all.

In fact, single-payer health care is the only model of reform that has demonstrated in over 20 federal and state studies the capacity to save money and provide comprehensive coverage for all.

It is time for reform that benefits the worker as well as the CEO.

First posted on Huffington Post 11-13-08

Aren't there just as qualified people who are not elected officials to fill out Obama's top positions in his administration?

From DailyKos.com today:

SusanG reported earlier, via the Washington Post, that Arizona's Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano is President-elect Obama's pick to serve as the next head of the Department of Homeland Security.

Napolitano is a solid pick on the merits, and should be easily confirmed. For party building, however, the pick is problematic for two reasons.

First, Napolitano is the front-runner for the U.S. Senate race in 2010, for the seat currently held by John McCain. She is probably the only candidate who can beat McCain head-to-head, and he has announced his plans to run for reelection....

It seems to me that Hillary, Bill and Janet are very qualified but do we really want to have to replace them?

ProgressNow has called on Colorado State University Board of Governors to reject Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., as chancellor of the university system.

At the same time, the board said that while it appreciates Allard's interest in the position, it has not had a chance to meet to discuss the roles, responsibilities, qualities and characteristics the chancellor might have.

Michael Huttner, executive director of ProgressNow, a group whose "mission is to provide a strong, credible voice in advancing progressive solutions to critical community problems," said Allard would be "a disaster for CSU," in a press release.

"Allard has been completely ineffective as a senator and that is the last thing CSU needs in a time of dire fiscal needs," Huttner said in the press release. He pointed out that in 2006, Time magazine ranked Allard as one the country's five worst senators and said the magazine reported that Allard "almost never plays a role in major legislation.

"With the new dynamics in Colorado and DC, the last thing we need is a right-wing ineffective senator," Huttner said in the release. "Allard has proven that he has ineffective in bringing back money to Colorado as a senator, how will be any better in helping CSU fiscal needs as a former Senator?"

The statement released from the office of the board of governors said "It's great to have an experienced public servant express an interest in CSU; however at this time it's premature to start a list of applicants. The board of governors has not had a chance to meet to discuss the roles, responsibilities, qualities and characteristics of the CSU System Chancellor position. The board will likely start discussions at their next meeting in early December."

If piracy is a major problem, or is becoming one, on the high seas then will it become a necessity to begin convoys of commercial vessels?

From AP today:

NEW DELHI – An Indian naval vessel sank a suspected pirate "mother ship" in the Gulf of Aden and chased two attack boats into the night, officials said Wednesday, yet more violence in the lawless seas where brigands are becoming bolder and more violent.

Yesterday AP had a story about the capture of a Saudi oil supertanker:

"This outrageous act by the pirates, I think, will only reinforce the resolve of the countries of the Red Sea and internationally to fight piracy," he said during a visit to Athens. "Piracy is against everybody. Like terrorism it is a disease that has to be eradicated."

As mariners have known for decades that the Pacific rim of fire has been a fertile ground for piracy, especially for private yachts and smaller commercial vessels.

A solution for larger commerical enterprises would be to begin convoying those vessels.  It would be a U.N. sponsored multinational naval force because no single country's navy could handle it.  The effect would be two fold: Greater cooperation with nations against piracy and insurance rates would go down, which should bring the cost of goods and consumables down too.

This is beyond the pale- Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson, testifying on the House side, defended the administration's handling of the massive $700 billion bailout for the financial industry and said it should remain off-limits for Detroit, no matter how badly the automakers need help.

This is what U.S. auto executives testimony on the Hill said, from AP:

WASHINGTON – Detroit's Big Three automakers pleaded with Congress on Tuesday for a $25 billion lifeline to save the once-proud titans of U.S. industry, warning of a national economic catastrophe should they collapse.

From the NYT:

Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the banking committee, said he would not support legislation to aid the auto companies and seemed prepared to let one or all of them collapse...

“Spending billions of additional federal tax dollars with no promises to reform the root causes crippling automakers’ competitiveness around the world is neither fair to taxpayers nor sound fiscal policy,” Mr. Boehner said in a statement.

But for the Bush and the Republicans it is all about politics.

I had read about why federal agencies may not be responsive to the incoming administration.  This is why, from TPMmuckraker.com:

In one example of what some Washington veterans call the "headless nail" phenomenon -- in which political appointees quietly move into career jobs ithin their departments, making it hard for the incoming administration to remove them -- David Bernhardt, the top lawyer for the Interior Department, has shifted six of his deputies into senior civil service positions. One of these, Robert Comer, was found by an internal DOI report to have struck an agreement on grazing with a Wyoming rancher "with total disregard for the concerns raised by career field personnel." Another, Matthew McKeown, has attracted criticism from environmentalists for promoting grazing and logging on public lands.

From leaving executive orders and writing new guidelines or redefining laws to allow for greed and avarice by individuals and corporations to plunder the lands of America and to consciously harm the health of Americans this is just another way for Mr. Bush to leave his "legacy".

From Talkingpointsmemo.com:

Source: Dem Leaders Will Propose Slap On The Wrist For Joe Lieberman

At the Senate Democrats' caucus meeting tomorrow, the leadership is likely to propose that Joe Lieberman keep his powerful homeland security committee chairmanship but lose his lesser chairmanship of an environment and public works subcommittee, a source tells TPM.

This is why Reid needs to be replaced.