From an email by ChangeCongress:

We've got great news to report about our campaign shaming Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) for taking $700,000 from the defense industry and Chamber of Commerce and then siding with them against rape victims and his constituents. Thousands of people have signed our national expression of outrage and told their friends to sign -- and the national and local media are reporting on our campaign!

We need to keep the momentum up. Can you check out our petition and sign today?

From the National Journal:

Reform group Change Congress launched a campaign yesterday to shame Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., for voting against legislation that would help ensure victims of rape have the right to bring their case to court. The government reform group hit cyberspace with an email asking people to sign a 'national expression of outrage.' Citing $700,000 in campaign contributions from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the defense industry, Change Congress accused Burr of putting special interests before rape victims.

The more signatures we get, the more the media will report on his campaign. We need to keep publicly shaming these politicians one by one until Congress realizes it's time to replace special-interest-funded elections with citizen-funded elections.

Until they do, Americans will continue to ask: Did you vote that way because it made good sense, or because it raised special-interest campaign dollars?

Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue gave an interview to the Politico yesterday, the majority of which is your basic claptrap posturing after the White House put the Chamber of Commerce in its place and called it a lobbying group: the White House is wrong, membership is stronger than ever, yadda yadda yadda. Apparently, all those companies that have left the CoC, like Nike, PG&E, Exelon, PNM Resources, and Apple over their climate change stance are just penny-ante companies not worth worrying about.

But showing that they are firm in their resolve to not budge from their 20th century industrial age thinking here in the 21st century, I noted this little nugget from Donohue:

Under pressure from MoveOn.org and other groups, Apple, PG&E and Exelon have left the Chamber over the issue — and Nike resigned from its spot on the board. And pressure on others to follow suit is often intense.

Donohue refused to say if he believes the science behind global warming. “Is the science right? Is science not right? I don’t know,” he said.

Interesting. Especially considering his comments last week:

“We have not, are not and will not” challenge the science behind climate change, he added, noting that the Chamber has for years called for comprehensive climate legislation “that is workable.”

Uh huh. We go back to yesterday's Politico interview:

What he does know, though, is that he’ll fight anything that the Chamber believes would unfairly harm business, especially if the Environmental Protection Agency moves forward, while Congress haggles, with its authority to regulate the release of greenhouse gases.

“If we got the EPA one, then we are in deep sh-- as a country,” he said. “You want to see unemployment? You will see some.”

Good to see your priorities straight. Who cares about poisoning the planet (and us with it) if it means unemployment?

MoveOn's campaign encouraged Prius-owning members to send pictures of their cars to Toyota to express their displeasure with their continued membership in the CoC. If you're a Prius driver, you may want to consider adding your picture as well.

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Countdown's Worst Persons for Oct. 19, 2009 with winner Tom Donahue of the Chamber of Congress. Runners up Bill O'Reilly and Jack Kingston.

Adam Green finds this gem.

Does this ad from the Chamber of Commerce make you furious?

There are like only 200 views of this hideous ad. I hate to post it, but I think some of you who have donated to our Blanche Lincoln action need to be aware of what you have supported and the conservative forces that stand against us. The Chamber of Commerce supports the squishy Conservadem Blanche Lincoln (who is squatting the with Backus Dogs) with a new ad that actually has the audacity to say she's standing up for working families. If she were, then she'd be on board with the public option.

This is our ad running against it right now in heavy rotation in Lincoln's back yard.

As Howie Klein says: The ads run for another 8 days and they are running on CNN, Fox (minus Glenn Beck) and MSNBC in every part of the state.

This ad is part of our Blue America's Campaign for Health Care Choice.
We need your support and have several more actions on the way.

TheZoo: How dare the president bid for the Olympics!

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NotionsCapital: Blogs With Bite

East Bay Express: ACORN foresaw the foreclosure crisis in 2001

EnviroKnow: Nike staement on departure from the U. S. Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors

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(Oddly, still is)

Since its enactment in 1947, the famous (or infamous) Taft-Hartley Act (or Slave-Labor Bill as some call it) has been in an almost constant state of proposed revision. But never getting off the ground. Initially vetoed by Truman in 1947, it was overridden and set into law by the Republican led 80th Congress. Amendments have been proposed ever since.

In 1949, part of the America United Series, moderated by David Brinkley, approached a panel consisting of a young Eugene McCarthy newly elected Congressman, Thruston Morton, Anthony P. Alfino from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Tom Harris who represented the CIO.

Tom Harris (CIO): “The question you ask, ‘How Should The Taft-Hartley Act Be Amended’ is an easy one in our judgment to answer. It shouldn’t be amended at all but should be replaced with an entirely different statute, along the lines of the Wagner Act. That is essentially what the Thomas-Lezinsky Bill does. We think that should be done because the approach of the Wagner Act to industrial relations was sound. While that of the Taft-Hartley Act is wholly wrong. The ideas behind the Wagner Act were very simple; they were first, to permit workers to form strong unions if they wanted to. Secondly, to require employers to deal with those unions on wages, hours and so on. The authors of the Wagner Act hoped by these means to promote industrial peace and to raise the living standards of workers. With consequent benefit to the entire community. The idea behind the Taft-Hartley Act is also very simple; it’s to weaken unions. The men who wrote the Taft-Hartley Act just didn’t believe in labor unions. The Taft-Hartley Act is a composite of all the anti-union devices which reactionary congressmen were able to think up during the years of the New Deal. When they got into power, briefly as it turned out, in the 80th Congress, they wrote these numerous devices into law. That’s the Taft-Hartley law. And its bad in its entirety and should be stricken from the books.”

In 1949 they wanted to amend it. It's 2009 - still waiting.

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(Blue Cross to America - Don't Get Sick)

Why don't they get it? Why is it, every time the question of Universal Health Care comes up a wave of hysteria breaks over the country like an Indonesian Tsunami? It's been that way in 1941. It's been that way in 1945. It's been that way in 1948. It's been that way in 1949. It's been that way in 1961. Do I have to go on?

You get the picture - everybody reading this blog gets the picture. Everybody with half a brain gets the picture. And we all know who the enemy is. The ones thumbing their noses and laughing and dreaming hysteria up.

I've been running entries regarding the historic aspect of this argument for months now. I am always turning up new items that point out just how old this question is and just how insane the argument against it has become, and just how scared the Insurance industry has become and how well entrenched they are to wage war.

But in case you were curious to hear more - I found an episode from the radio series "America United" which was moderated by a David Brinkley. This show is from November 13, 1949. It features CIO spokesman Harry Reid (no relation), Nathan Robertson of the Labor Press Association, A.L. Kirkpatrick of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and W.R. Williamson, referred to as a "consulting actuary"(in actuality, a spokesman for the Insurance Industry).

Reid kicks it off:

Harry Reed (CIO): “Well, of course we have arrived at this present situation that confronts us for the simple reason that the group that has assumed responsibility for medical care has completely failed to live up to that responsibility. Any group that assumes responsibility, any voluntary group in our country, is required by the people to carry out the responsibility. The American Medical Association, to which you referred, has stifled the overwhelming desire of the medical profession itself throughout the country to give the people health care. So now the people are turning to the only agency that is left to them and that is the Congress to obtain this needed health care. Inasmuch as Free Enterprise has failed in this instance, we turn to our government for assistance. That is the time-honored method of the American people.”

Sixty years ago. The argument and the fears are the same - exactly the same. Only the faces are different and the check books are fatter.

Other than that. The Health Insurance lobby and their warm regard for people boils down to this - "We like your money - it's you we're not crazy about."

Don't get sick.

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Part 1

Part 2

From GoLeftTV:

Thanks to an almost complete lack of regulation, the executives on Wall Street were able to gamble our economy for their own personal gain, ignoring ethics and in some cases the rule of law along the way. And while Congress is still trying to figure out whether or not to take action, the labor movement in America has decided to take matters into their own hands. Mike Papantonio of Air America's Ring of Fire talks with Richard Trumka, the secretary treasurer of the AFL-CIO, who has some big ideas on how to reign in the corruption and greed that has become too commonplace among Wall Street insiders.