Testimony – Sandra Fluke

Two nights ago the Econ Committee had it’s first meeting of 2012. This is a great year for Econ and in the next 360 days we’re going to delve into some of the greatest questions of our day with experts, politicians and, most importantly, the real people who have to live with the answers. Please join as we tackle these issues and develop the policy stances MYD, the Young Democrats and our allies will be fighting for in 2012.

Also, being economic geniuses that we are, we came up with a way to host a free open bar event.

Intrigued yet? Want in? Get involved! Email econ@gomyd.com (although please pardon if the reply is a bit tardy as the keys to the account haven’t been handed over just yet).

The title says it all but you can read more about here. If one or both of your Senators are among the 6, call and thank them. If they are not; call and lambaste them. Phone numbers are here.

Read what is truly a tragic story here.

11. The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy. They use isolationism as a slogan to conceal their own selfish imperialism. They cultivate hate and distrust of both Britain and Russia. They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.

Oh, but while you’re up there, Mr. President, let’s put the Bush tax cuts back on the table. This doesn’t mean you get a pass for being a crappy bargainer.

Read the full article here.

The Tea Party often pays lip service to the benefits of giving back power to local communities.  But what happens when a community uses that power to do something the Tea Party doesn’t like?

Thanks to Senator Greg Ball, we now have an answer: they go nuts.

Instead of using his office to deal with the many grave issues facing New York State, Greg Ball has attacked his own constituents in the town of Phillipstown to demonstrate his fealty to the gun lobby and his tea party base.   Ball began his latest crusade after the town board modestly proposed banning concealed guns from town buildings.  The ban was proposed in response to an incident that took place less than a week after the Arizona shooting at a January town forum in Phillipstown where a man criticized the Town Board and added that he was “packing.”

Ball, in true Tea Party fashion joined with the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association (NYSRPA), an affiliate of the National Rifle Association (NRA), to intervene in a local matter and intimidate his constituents with a rally outside Town Hall on Thursday.  To make this spectacle all the more outrageous, Ball and his fellow travelers chose to rally for the “right” of gun-toting fanatics to deter public participation and bully their fellow citizens the same week that the state capitol was inundated with e-mails threatening to “pull a Gabby Giffords.”

The planned Astroturf Ball/Tea Party/NRA rally had been promoted aggressively to attract ideologues from around the state, many outside of Ball’s district (the Orange-Sullivan Tea Party openly recruited for the rally, as well as the responsible citizens at AR15.Com/AK47.Net) and outside of Phillipstown in an attempt to pressure the board.  Greg Ball, for his part, sent out the predictably inflammatory mailer above.

Carl Paladino was widely ridiculed for threatening to clean up Albany with a baseball bat.  Greg Ball, apparently, has decided that the thuggery of Paladino was too tame and has opted for weapons of a higher caliber.