Sunday, May 10, 2009

Mother's Day, Marcy Runs, Sheila's Choice

From: Loretta Ayeroff
Sent: Friday, May 08, 2009 10:20 AM
Subject: Loretta//Mother's Day 1870 Peace Proclamation+Greetings =0)


Dearest fellow mothers, and daughters, brothers, sons, fathers.....
Have a wonderful celebration on Sunday! For those of us Boomers, lucky
enough to still have our moms, like my mom Pauline, enjoy those precious
moments...With love+peace to you and your families, Loretta***

Mother's Peace Day
The first person to fight for an official Mother's Day celebration in the
United States was Julia Ward Howe. You may be more familiar with her name as
the writer who wrote the words to the Civil War song, The Battle Hymn of the
Republic. Howe was born in New York City on May 27, 1819. Her family was
well respected and wealthy. She was a published poet and abolitionist. She
and her husband, Samuel Gridley Howe, co-published the anti-slavery
newspaper The Commonwealth. She was active in the peace movement and the
women's suffrage movement. In 1870 she penned the Mother's Day Proclamation.
In 1872 the Mothers' Peace Day Observance on the second Sunday in June was
held and the meetings continued for several years. Her idea was widely
accepted, but she was never able to get the day recognized as an official
holiday. The Mothers' Peace Day was the beginning of the Mothers' Day
holiday in the United States now celebrated in May. The modern
commercialized celebration of gifts, flowers and candy bears little
resemblance to Howe's original idea. Here is the Proclamation that explains,
in her own powerful words, the goals of the original Mother's Day in the
United States...


Mother's Day Proclamation of 1870
Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."
From the bosum of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

***

From: Anthony Saidy

Winograd4congress@gmail.com

Sent: Friday, May 1, 2009 9:11:37 PM
Subject: [Winograd-blog] Please Endorse Winograd for Congress
2010 - Email Winograd4congress@gmail.com


Dear Friends & Supporters:

It's official. I have declared my intention to challenge the
Queen of Wiretaps, Jane Harman, once again -- this time in 2010 (or sooner,
should she follow Specter's lead and switch parties!). Please note I
promise I will not accept any $$ or favors from AIPAC or Alberto Gonzales.

With the election a year away, we have time to make this
happen. I have been meeting with grassroots activists in the 36th to
discuss issues and strategies and am excited about the possibilities.
Please share the message below with friends and family members and get
involved in what promises to be a stimulating campaign. I welcome your
endorsement at winograd4congress@gmail.com, your donation at

https://etribute.durkeeandassociates.com/c.php?c=mwinograd, and
your volunteer hours and talents.at winograd4congress@gmail.com If you
email me your endorsement, please list: name, occupation, community
affiliation, city of residence.

Thank you for your support.

In peace,

Marcy Winograd

------------------------------------------

Send Marcy Winograd to the House. Send Jane Harman home.
Enough of Harman's wiretapping woes, AIPAC favors, and Republican shilling;
The 36th congressional district ( Venice to San Pedro) deserves a real
Democrat for the people. Help Winograd unseat Jane Harman. Donate to the
Winograd for Congress 2010 campaign. Click on the link below to donate:

https://etribute.durkeeandassociates.com/c.php?c=mwinograd

Marcy Winograd teaches high school in South Los Angeles .
Unlike Harman, Winograd wants to redirect our bloated war budget to fund
critical needs in education and health care. To endorse the Winograd for
Congress campaign, send an email to Winograd4congress@gmail.com and include
the following: name, city, title/occupation, and a comment. If you live in
the 36th congressional district, please include that, too. Click on
Winograd4congress@gmail.com to endorse and/or volunteer or offer a special
skill, talent, or insight.

Concerned about lawmakers in the pocket of special interests?
To read what Winograd has to say about Harman's collusion with AIPAC, click
on the Huffington Post link below:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marcy-winograd/harmans-wiretap-woes-and_b_189588.html

To read more about the Harman scandal, click on
<http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2009/04/28/calamity-jane-harman-shoots-herself-in-the-foot/

Winograd received almost 38% of the vote in only three months of
campaigning against Harman in 2006. With over a year until the next
election, Winograd can collect enough endorsements and dollars to win and
champion a NEW New Deal. Send a donation, however small, and support a
candidate who wants to employ Americans on alternative energy projects,
bring the troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan, promote a lasting and just
peace in the middle east, protect our constitutional rights, safeguard our
environment, pass the Employee Free Choice Act, and provide Medicare for
all. Click on the link below to donate to Winograd for Congress.

https://etribute.durkeeandassociates.com/c.php?c=mwinograd

As co-founder of Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles, a chapter
of Progressive Democrats of America (pdamerica.org), Winograd organizes
educational forums, constituent delegations, and grassroots testimony to
shield our schools from budget cuts, save our coast from dangerous liquified
natural gas terminals, and protect our vote from easily manipulated e-voting
machines. Click on the link below to donate:

https://etribute.durkeeandassociates.com/c.php?c=mwinograd

Send Winograd to the House. Send Harman home!

www.Winograd4congress.com
_______________________________________________
Winograd-blog mailing list
Winograd-blog@svpal.org
http://mailman.svpal.org/mailman/listinfo/winograd-blog


Dear Friends & Supporters:

I invite you to join me next Monday, May 11th, at 4 PM, at the VENICE PIER
(Washington Blvd. and Ocean Front Walk/Boardwalk) for the kick-off of the
Winograd4Congress 2010 race to unseat "This conversation does not exist"
Jane Harman.

You can park on Washington Blvd., a side-street, or in the pier parking lot
($5.00).

For those who want to avoid parking fees, meet up at 3:30 pm sharp with
members of the Westside Progressives at St. Bede's Church in Mar Vista. You
can carpool from there.

Please come to the Venice (not Santa Monica!) pier and bring friends to
show your support for a grassroots movement for change in the 36th district.
Enough of Harman's support for wiretapping and perpetual war. Let there be
a new day in Congress, a day when the needs of the people for jobs, health
care, and housing come before the interests of the corporations and banks.
Together, we can make this happen!

Please RSVP (winograd4congress. com) if you can make it and spread the
word among friends, bloggers, and possible endorsers.

Thank you so much for your support.

Best wishes,

Marcy Winograd
www.Winograd4congress. com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 00:50:31 -0400
From: kuehl.website@gmail.com

Subject: Essay Six: Props 1A, 1B and !C

Props 1A, 1B and 1C
by Sheila Kuehl

This is the first of two essays presenting the content of,
and analysis on, the six propositions on the May 19 ballot. You have
received it either because you joined my general essay list or someone
forwarded it to you. If you received it by forwarding, this essay is from
former California State Senator Sheila Kuehl. If you want to subscribe to
these essays, please go to my website at www.SheilaKuehl.org. If you want
to unsubscribe, there's an easy button at the bottom of this email.

A number of people have asked me to write a quick summary
of the propositions and to make recommendations as to votes. I think the
arguments on both sides of 1A, 1B, 1C and 1F are, in their own ways,
supportable and try, below, to set out information so you can judge for
yourselves. At the same time, I've indicated my opinion on all of them,
because, after all, you have to end up somewhere.....

What I Think
It seems pretty obvious that, whether the propositions
pass or fail, they create a significant, but different, problem for the
state. The total monies brought into the current budget by all the
propositions together is about 6 billion dollars. However, over $5 billion
of that revenue comes from the sale of the lottery. This makes Props 1D and
1E virtually unnecessary. Prop 1A brings significant monies in three and
four years out from the current budget, but creates a badly-thought-out
spending cap. The problems created by the passage of the propositions
simply to gain a small amount of one-time money and a bigger theoretical
rainy day fund in the future are, in my opinion, too much of a price to pay.
Therefore, I intend to vote no on all of them, except maybe the lottery
proposal for reasons set out below under Prop 1C. Unfortunately, there is
no right answer, so long as we must garner a few Republican votes to pass a
budget and raise a tax. I apologize for the fact that the descriptions of
the propositions are a bit simplified, but I hope you might find them
helpful.

Proposition 1A
Proposition 1A amends the State Constitution in a number
of ways, most of which have not been discussed in the press:

Prop 1A would require that all revenues and resources
coming into the state would have to be identified as to whether they are
one-time or ongoing. Theoretically, this provides a tool under which the
legislature may choose to limit the expenditure of one-time money to
one-time spending, which is a good idea.

If Prop 1B is approved, Prop 1A creates a new account in
the Constitution called the Supplemental Education Payment Account, a
supplemental rainy-day fund for the schools which will be used to pay down
the monies owed to the schools caused by the current and past underfunding
of Prop 98 requirements--about 9.3 billion dollars. A portion of the monies
in excess of the cap created by 1A goes into this Fund.
Prop 1A significantly raises the amount to be held in the
Budget Stabilization Fund (the so-called Rainy Day Fund) from 5% of revenues
to 12.5% of revenues except for the monies paid to education under Prop 1B.

Perhaps most importantly, Prop 1A caps the amounts of
revenues and resources that may be spent in any fiscal year and directs that
any monies collected over that amount must be deposited into either the
Budget Stabilization Fund or the Supplemental Education Payment Account.

The spending cap is calculated using a regression model,
which, most simply, draws a kind of straight line (or closest to it) through
all the tax revenues of the previous ten years, then continues this line
into the current year. Where that trend line crosses the eleventh (current)
year, that is the cap on expenditures from General Fund tax revenues for
that year. Any extra goes into the "rainy day fund" and the new education
fund to pay off what is owed to the schools because of underpayment of Prop
98 minimums.

What's Not in Prop 1A
Among the 33 budget bills voted on in both houses and
signed by the Governor in February is one that extends the increases of the
sales tax, personal income tax and vehicle fees for two years beyond the two
now adopted. The extra two years' tax, which are to be collected three and
four years out from the current budget, would bring in about 16 billion
extra dollars, with some of it going to the schools via Prop 1B. You won't
read that in the text, but it's tied to Prop 1A.

What Else Dropped Out of the Budget When They Agreed on
Prop 1A
The oil industry lobbied very forcefully to eradicate a
proposed 9.9% oil severance tax. California is the only oil-extracting
state without such a tax.
The liquor, beer and wine industry pushed mightily to
shelve any increase in alcohol taxes.
The California Teachers' Association pushed for Prop 1B in
order to grab some of the new revenue from the two-year tax extension for
the schools. In exchange, they agreed to push for Prop 1A, as the two are
tied.

My Opinion on Prop 1A
I don't like the idea of a spending cap, even calculated
on the regression model. I would prefer the ability of the Legislature to
spend one-time money on one-time expenditures and calculate ongoing
expenditures separately, without an automatic cap, and a growing rainy day
fund. With such a cap, there will never be enough monies for the schools,
even with a small portion of the monies over the spending cap going into an
education fund. In my experience, all programs get short-changed when a
robo-cap like this is enacted.

Prop 1B
Prop 1B requires to state to pay school districts and
community college districts $9.3 billion in lieu of the maintenance factors
that would have been applied because of Prop 98 for 08-09 and 09-10. It
also requires deposit of a portion of the amount over the spending cap into
the Supplemental Education Payment Account in future years. Prop 1B does
not go into effect if Prop 1A fails to pass. These two measures were tied
together to keep the teachers' union from opposing the spending cap.

My Opinion on Prop 1B
I don't think the education funding is a sufficient reason
to enact the permanent spending cap proposed by Prop 1A in the state
Constitution. Other teachers' organizations oppose Prop 1A and have
indicated, since they believe the state already owes the 9.3 billion, they
will simply sue the state for it. Which would, of course, create even more
of a hole in the budget. There needs to be a sure hand with authority to
pass an adequate budget without gimmicks, which is why I support an end to
the 2/3 requirement.

Prop 1C
Prop 1C authorizes the legislature to sell the future
revenues of the Lottery, as well as the legal right to receive that revenue,
to an entity authorized for these purposes by the Legislature. Prop 1C also
authorizes the sale of bonds for that purpose. It increases the minimum
guarantee for payouts, encourages more aggressive marketing and amends the
Constitution so that the General Fund must pay education an amount equal to
the amount they received from the Lottery in 08-09, adjusted for inflation
and attendance.

My Opinion
This is the one proposition I'm tempted to support. Of
the six billion current dollars estimated to come from all the propositions
combined (not counting increased tax revenue three and four years out), more
than five billion is estimated to come from the sale of the lottery
receipts. Although I do not support increased encouragement for gambling,
this income could be the least damaging.

It's also interesting that the casino-operating tribes
made sure that the measure avoids any new games that could threaten their
operations.

Next-(and fairly quickly)-Props 1D, 1E and 1F

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