Jackson County Democratic Committee

Obama for America and Organizing for America are looking for bright, motivated people for our Organizing Fellowship Program — a 12-week program that will be held three times in 2012: during the spring, the summer, and the fall.

Here’s why you should think about it, or pass this along to someone who might be interested in applying: If you’re an Obama organizing fellow, you’ll gain hands-on campaign experience and strengthen your leadership skills, while working in a fast-paced environment. You’ll also learn firsthand about the grassroots efforts that drive this campaign — including recruiting volunteers and developing relationships with supporters in communities across the country.

You’ll also be on the front lines of the work that it will take to win on November 6th, 2012.

If you or someone you know might be interested, apply here or encourage your friends to.

We know that our power lies in the individuals behind this movement, and there’s nothing more important than the one-on-one conversations they have in this campaign — whether while knocking on doors or leading voter registration drives on the weekends. It’s hard work, but it’s one of the most meaningful ways to build this movement.

That’s what we’re looking for in our organizing fellows. And that level of dedication is why many join us as full-time staff after their fellowship is over. I’m living proof of that. Having started as an intern in 2007, I worked my way up through the organization to where I am today — heading up our national training programs.

Applications are being accepted and processed on a rolling basis until the program is full, but it always fills up quickly. Get started here to apply for an organizing fellowship in your state, or make your friends owe you one by passing on this link:

http://my.barackobama.com/Organizing-Fellows

I’m looking forward to hearing from you, feel free to give me a call if you have any questions.

David Caicedo
Regional Field Director
Organizing For America|Kansas City|Missouri
816-590-3473
DCaicedo@OFAMissouri.com

Congress is in town for a little more than a week. That’s it.

Time is running out for more than 33,400 Missouri residents who can’t find work and are relying on emergency unemployment coverage.¹ They’ll lose their lifeline in January if Congress fails to act.

These are real people with real stories. People like Cil from St. Louis. She’s not only unemployed—she’s responsible for caring for her elderly, infirm parents—and unemployment is all she’s got.

Instead of voting for a clean extension of unemployment for people like Cil, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to cut unemployment for jobless workers, cut pay for public employees, cut preventive health services, reduce premium assistance for low- and middle-income individuals buying health insurance and raise premiums for many Medicare beneficiaries.

Now, the fight moves to the Senate.

Tell your senators: Don’t pick on people like Cil—the 99%—make the 1% pay their fair share.

In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, when there are more than four unemployed workers for every one job, it would be stunningly cruel for Congress to cut off—or cut—this vital lifeline. But it really might happen.

Missouri communities are relying on every penny of unemployment—and every penny in cuts shrinks the economy and destroys jobs. Missouri will lose $8,050,736 each week that Congress does not extend unemployment coverage—and an extension with cuts still would take millions of dollars a week out of the state’s economy.²

Tell your senators to do the right thing and extend unemployment with no cuts and no strings attached.

Thanks for all the work you do.

In Solidarity,

Richard L. Trumka
President, AFL-CIO

^1,2 http://uistories.aflcio.org/files/fact_sheets/MO.pdf

From Progress Missouri

Senate Leaders Make Real Priorities Clear: Tired Attacks on Workers, Not the Jobs Crisis

Radical Politicians Still Focusing on Ideological Agenda Instead of Job Creation

Jefferson City, Mo. – Progress Missouri has been closely watching the legislation filed for the new legislative session, and is extremely concerned with radical politicians’ continued focus on attacking the rights of workers.

In 2011, a bipartisan coalition of elected leaders worked together to defeat Right to Work for Less, Paycheck Deception, and the suspension of Missouri’s Prevailing Wage. Sadly, the same bad actors are at it again, making it clear that ideological attacks on behalf of greedy CEOs and the wealthiest 1% are their top priority — not job creation and economic development.

Here are just a few of the bills legislators have pre-filed for the legislative session to begin on January 4 that attack the rights and freedoms of Missouri’s working families:

· SB435, Paycheck Deception, Sponsored by Sen. Jason Crowell
The 2012 version of this legislation is nearly identical to last session’s SB 202, which would have prohibited public employees from choosing how to spend their own paycheck. It attempts to silence public workers like teachers, firefighters and social workers, and would interfere with the right of members to voluntarily pay dues and belong to a union of their choice. As it stands, union members have a choice. No worker can be forced to fund a union’s political and legislative activities, and SB435 is a blatant attempt to silence working families and give corporations and their right-wing backers increased influence in the political arena.

· SB438 / SB514, Right to Work for Less, Sponsored by Sens. Rob Mayer and Jason Crowell
Even though voters and legislatures in Missouri and across the country have rejected Right to Work for Less, some Missouri politicians insist on continuing their divisive and unnecessary attacks on workers. Backers of this legislation deceptively term it “Right to Work,” but studies have found that in Right to Work for Less states, the average wage of workers is reduced by $5,333. Right to Work for Less legislation also harms workers by weakening unions that continually work to ensure worker safety by fighting for strong health standards. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the rate of workplace deaths is 51 percent higherin states with Right to Work for Less where unions are unable to speak up on behalf of workers. Missouri legislators should be striving to put workers back on the job instead of attacking their rights and ability to organize.

· SB439, Suspension of the Prevailing Wage, Sponsored by Sen. Rob Mayer
Prevailing wage laws protect communities and workers from unscrupulous contractors low-balling bids on taxpayer-funded construction projects by setting wage rates to the local or prevailing standard. Politicians in Missouri are using natural disasters and tragedies as an excuse to eliminate prevailing wage laws that protect working families. Defeated more than once in the 2011 legislative session, anti-worker politicians are again attempting to attack middle class workers who only want to have a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. In their attempt to eliminate the prevailing wage, politicians are using tragedies, such as the Joplin tornado, to payback their corporate backers who are willing to trample on the fair wages of working families in an effort to see increased profits.

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In First TV Interview: Spence Misleads Voters,Says He Didn’t Serve on Bank Board During Bailout.

Bank Received Bailout in 2009, Spence Helped Lead the Bank Since 2005

Jefferson City, Mo.— In his first television interview as a candidate for Governor, David Spence once again tried to hide facts from voters about his role at Reliance Bank, implying that he had no involvement in its2009 TARP bailout, despite strong evidence to the contrary.

“I was a shareholder…I was not on the board, I did not vote for it,” Spence told Fox’s Charles Jaco.

In fact, at the time of the bailout, Spence had already been a board member of the bank’s main subsidiary for nearly four years. Not only that, but Spence was on the parent company’s board when it later decided to stop making payments on its TARP debt.

“David Spence obviously doesn’t want Missouri voters to know that he helped run a bank that took a $40 million bailout, but voters deserve the truth. Not only did Spence serve on the bank’s Board and fully support the $40 bank bailout, but he was part of the gang that ultimately decided the bank would stop paying back the TARP funds. It’s bad enough to cost the taxpayers $40 million, but the least David Spence can do is start telling the truth about it,” said Caitlin Legacki, Missouri Democratic Party spokeswoman.

Today, the Missouri Democratic Party calls on Dave Spence once again to stop misleading voters about his role at Reliance Bank and tell Missourians the truth about his involvement in the bank’s decision to accept the bailout and then stop repaying the $40 million in taxpayer funds.

In the interview, which aired Saturday, Spence implied that his involvement with the bank didn’t begin until after the bank accepted TARP funds in 2009, despite the fact his involvement began in 2005, nearly four years prior to the bank’s bailout. [St. Louis Post Dispatch, 5/13/05]

Watch the full interview here. [Bailout section at minute 2:50]

DAVID SPENCE’S RHETORIC VS REALITY:

RHETORIC: “I was a shareholder…I was not on the board, I did not vote for it.” [KTVI, 12/10/11]

REALITY: Spence Joined Reliance Bank Board in 2005. As reported by the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Spence joined the board of directors of Reliance Bank, the main subsidiary of Reliance Bancshares, in 2005. He served on the board of Reliance Bank until 2009, when he joined the board of the parent company. Reliance Bank was “the largest part of Reliance Bancshares.” [St. Louis Post Dispatch, 5/13/05; St. Louis Business Journal, 9/17/04; Reliance Bancshares, SEC filing 14A, 4/15/09]

REALITY: Spence Served on Board That Decided to Stop Repaying Bailout Funds. Spence was serving on the board of Reliance Bancshares when, in February 2011, “its Board of Directors…determined that it will” stop making payments on its TARP debt. [Reliance Release, 2/11/11; SNL Bank Weekly Midwest, 3/21/11]

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“Do all you can with what you have
In the time you have in the place you are
Do all you can – Do all you can”-Written By Devotion

I am not only the Executive Director of this County Democratic Party; I am also a minister and trained chaplain. I feel a sacred responsibility to make a positive difference through personal example and active service.   That is exactly why I do what I do, that’s what God wants me to do.  I’m not “supposed” to talk about religion and politics, but I often find that those two are so intertwined, it is almost impossible to separate them.

Matthew 7:12 

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law

Luke 6:31 ESV / 16 helpful votes

And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

Mark 12:31 ESV / 11 helpful votes

The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

If service to God is really about the “golden rule”, then the question really should be where should our kindness end ?

My favorite story in the bible comes from Luke

THE GOOD SAMARITAN

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

²⁵ And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” ²⁶He said to him, ”What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”²⁷And he answered, ”You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” ²⁸And he said to him, ”You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

²⁹But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” ³⁰Jesus replied, ”A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. ³¹Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. ³²So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.³³But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. ³⁴He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵And the next day he took out two denarii^[a] and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ ³⁶Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” ³⁷He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, ”You go, and do likewise.”

Reading this story, about the state of the GOP makes me wonder, do any of these people, the candidates or the participants have any connection what so ever to the principles of Christianity that the majority of them espouse.  Just wondering.

 H/T FiredUpMissouri

Senator Danforth Embarrassed by Own Republican Party

Submitted by Parker on December 1, 2011 – 12:22pm

On KTRS yesterday (FF to ~7:00), Former Sen. John Danforth had some choice words in describing his fellow republicans, especially those running for president:

I’ve been watching some of these republican debates and they’re just terrible. Terrible.  How many have they had?  Something like nine, ten, something like that, it seems like every week there’s a debate and, uh, and it’s embarrassing for me as a republican to watch this stuff.

Tell us, sir, what exactly has been so embarrassing about your fellow republicans?

What have been the big applause lines in these debates? Well, a statement that the governor of Texas is responsible for killing 234 people on death row.  Or that we favor torture. Or that we’re creating a fence on the Mexican border that electrocutes people when they try to cross it. Or when people show up at the emergency room at hospitals and they’re not insured don’t treat them. And that, I mean these are the big applause lines, people just hoop and holler when they hear all that.

Yep. I have to agree, those are some pretty despicable and embarrassing statements coming out of the mouths of your fellow republicans.  I’d be ashamed, too.  But by all means, do go on.

It doesn’t have anything to do with the republican party that I was a part of. This is just totally different. And all of these people who are saying this, y’know, and claiming that, y’know, they’re for all this stuff, they also sort of ostentatiously say, “Oh, we’re very religious people.  We really, we’re just very pious, Christian people.”  They were for torture, and electrocution of the people on along the border and all of that. That doesn’t have anything to do with, is contrary to the Christianity that I understand.

Let’s just stop right there.

This isn’t the party Danforth was a part of?  He didn’t endorse Ed-Minuteman-Martin in 2010? Pretty sure he did.

Instead of distancing himself from the republican party he claims to be embarrassed by, why doesn’t Danforth start by calling out the extremists republicans in our own home state like Martin? Or Akin, who thinks that, “At the heart of Liberalism is a hatred for God.”

Danforth claims later on that he dislikes divisive politics, but let’s be honest, he’s continually endorsed candidates who do nothing but spread fear and division across Missouri and our country.

Senator Danforth, start reforming your party with constructive criticism instead of continuing to endorse the same divisive republican politicians you claim to be embarrassed by. Show some leadership.

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