Senate

It was great to see over 500 supporters turn out for Cal’s hometown campaign kick-off event in Lexington last night. It felt like a big family gathering, and Cal even led folks in singing Happy Birthday to a member of his staff. He spoke directly with the community that helped to raise him and reiterated his commitment to work on their behalf in the U.S. Senate for a prosperous economy, better schools, and a restoration of American values abroad.

On Monday evening, Durham for Obama held its candidate forum (along with an endorsement straw poll), featuring these Democratic Senatorial Candidates from North Carolina: Lexington native and former State Senator and Captain in the U.S. Army Reserves, Cal Cunningham, Durham Attorney Ken Lewis, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall and Lumberton attorney Marcus W. Williams.

The primary winner will face incumbent Richard "Bank Run" Burr in the fall.

Hi everyone, hope you're having a great week. I wanted to drop by real quick and pass on the third part of our campaign's "Meet Elaine!" series. It's entitled "Making a Difference" and it's Elaine straight to camera talking about her experience and why she continues to fight for the people of North Carolina. Here is the video:

Barack Obama is getting down and dirty and I am personally loving it. He is on the campaign trail, not for office but for passing needed health insurance reform legislation. He is going after the insurance companies and, to me, this should have been the strategy all along. His most recent speech is a heavy duty assault.

The polls with regard to how the american people feel about this issue or this bill vary depending on the poll source. But, EVERY poll on the issue of how Americans feel about health insurance companies shows there is obvious disgust and overall ire at these company's dealings.

This strategy by Obama is a good one. We must turn the public opinion tide so that our wavering democratic politicians in D.C. will feel comfortable coming on board to get this thing done.

Hello friends.

We just released the second part of our "Meet Elaine" series, and I wanted to make sure you got a chance to see it. It's called "Experience" and it talks about who I am, what I've done, and what kind of Senator I'll be for the people of North Carolina.

Thanks for your friendship and support.

Learn more:
http://ElaineMarshall.com

Make a contribution:
http://ElaineMarshall.com/donate

Become a fan on Facebook:
http://Facebook.com/Elaine4NC

As we all drink our morning coffee and digest what this latest change-up means for the Senate, let me be the first to say - I continue to be hopeful that the Senate will take action on climate change.

The signs of momentum for a clean energy and climate bill outweigh any signs that come from the Massachusetts special election.

Take, for example, that this week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reiterated that he wants to pass the bill this spring, and that the bill has the tri-partisan support of Senators Kerry, Graham, and Lieberman.

In a little more than 6 weeks, 1221 businesses have called for strong action on climate via American Businesses for Clean Energy.

According to the Senate website--

Can we PLEASE avoid the circular firing squad in this primary?

Burr, with his billionaire backers across corporate America, is going to be tough enough--and we NEED to replace him. Any of the three announced Democratic candidates would be light-years ahead of our current echo chamber for right-wing talking points.

Is fiscal responsibility good if it creates a filibuster proof commission with the final say on cuts to Medicare and Social Security?

It seems that a dozen Conservadems (including Hagan) think so and signed a letter supporting the creation of a fiscal responsibility board.

...it would create budget legislation, including deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare. As Conrad has written the proposal, the Senate could only have simple majority (upperdown) votes on this legislation--no filibusters. It would hand over a huge amount of Congressional authority to an unelected, unaccountable commission, all in the name of "fiscal responsibility." Sadly, a dozen Democrats signed onto a letter to Harry Reid yesterday, stressing their concern over deficits.

When will the time come that Climate Change talks will start considering Human Rights over Business rights?
There is a growing group of people in our world who are in a legal limbo,
Environmental Refugees.
Even though there are hundreds to thousands of people currently being displaced by Climate Change, they do not have a defined status as a group, hence they are not really 'refugees.'
And according to current predictions by Oxfam International, by 2050 there will be 75 million Environmental Refugees displaced due to Climate Change. Other models are predicting up to 250 million people.

Last week, Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake reported that Democratic plans to push for a "public option" for health care reform -- a publicly-financed plan to compete with private insurance -- were hitting an unexpectedly difficult wall: newly-elected Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina.

Out of the Senate Finance committee it comes ... dripping with the slobber of corporate lap dogs. It is not what AHIP wrote. It is not as generous to Americans as the plan AHIP wrote. I kid you not. I just read it at dkos. Go read for yourself.
Baucus' Health Care Plan is worse than the AHIP plan  

Digby says: 

It's a good day to be an insurance company CEO. An mandate from the
government forcing people to buy your product and no serious competition from anybody but your monopolistic buddies in the industry, all of whom look after each other very, very well.

Senate Vote on H.R.627: Motion to Waive CBA Sanders Amdt. No. 1062; To establish a national consumer credit usury rate.

In a nutshell what was proposed was an interest rate cap on Credit Cards.

So while banks are free to get into mortgage backed derivatives, hedge funds and any other manner of unsavory business that would mar the credit of other businesses; they are still permitted to loan shark their customers for flippant reasons.

Thanks a lot Senator Hagan. This two-party electoral system should just be called "Dumb and Dumber."

{First, a cheap plug for my blog Senate Guru.}

Even in North Carolina, I'm sure you've heard plenty about what's going on with the still-unsettled Senate race in Minnesota.

While Republican Norm Coleman prolongs his endless and pointless appeals, cementing his admission into the Sore Losers Hall of Fame, progressive organizations Democracy for America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee have introduced a new effort: NormDollar.com, "A Dollar a Day to Make Norm Go Away." Very simply put, commit to contributing just one dollar per day for every day that sore loser Norm Coleman refuses to concede.