Tuesday, October 11, 2011
"HANDS OFF-NO CUTS" Campaign is Rolling!
See our MEDICARE/SS page for details on this important movement led by The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (www.ncpssm.org). Our club has materials to participate, including protest cards to mail to Senator Toomey.
Club to picket Shuster's Chambersburg Office Noon Oct 18
We have signs, and will gather at 11:30 (place to be announced). Then a march to his office. Sheldon Schwartz is coordinating this.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Bridges are Failing and So Are Our Politicians
In Pennsylvania, 5,906 bridges are deficient—and 22,773,880 vehicles cross those bridges every day. Meanwhile, 8.2 percent of Pennsylvanians are jobless.
With so many Pennsylvanians out of work and so many bridges and other pieces of critical infrastructure in need of work, there’s a simple solution: Congress must pass legislation putting jobless Americans to work fixing critical infrastructure—bridges, schools, roads, ports and more.
Call Representative Shuster. Tell him that America is ready to get to work on our bridges, transit, rail, airports, highways, schools and the rest of our failing infrastructure.
These projects don’t just create good jobs for the people who do the original work—though that’s a big part of why they are important right now. They also make our economy perform better in the long term by increasing productivity. And they make America and our state better, safer places to live.
When you fly to Shanghai, you land in a brand-new airport, you have high-speed broadband access from the moment you arrive and you can get on a high-speed train in the arrival terminal that will take you directly to downtown Shanghai at speeds faster than 100 miles per hour.
This just isn’t available in any U.S. city. But we can change that. We can meet these standards—and beat them. But only if our leaders rise to the challenge.
With so many Pennsylvanians out of work and so many bridges and other pieces of critical infrastructure in need of work, there’s a simple solution: Congress must pass legislation putting jobless Americans to work fixing critical infrastructure—bridges, schools, roads, ports and more.
Call Representative Shuster. Tell him that America is ready to get to work on our bridges, transit, rail, airports, highways, schools and the rest of our failing infrastructure.
These projects don’t just create good jobs for the people who do the original work—though that’s a big part of why they are important right now. They also make our economy perform better in the long term by increasing productivity. And they make America and our state better, safer places to live.
When you fly to Shanghai, you land in a brand-new airport, you have high-speed broadband access from the moment you arrive and you can get on a high-speed train in the arrival terminal that will take you directly to downtown Shanghai at speeds faster than 100 miles per hour.
This just isn’t available in any U.S. city. But we can change that. We can meet these standards—and beat them. But only if our leaders rise to the challenge.
Friday, October 7, 2011
You Can Participate in the Wall Street Protests
Take part in the national movement to bring equality to the market place by participating in the anti-Wall Street protests "virtually". Check out the web site: http://www.marchonwallstreet.org/
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
What a terrific send off
Fellow Democrats: thanks for the wonderful send off for this editor and her spouse. We will be back to campaign in 2011. Lee Scott will be taking over the website management and making some improvements.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
September Meeting Change of Time and Venue
The Greencastle Antrim Democratic Club will be having our usual monthly meeting on Monday, September 12, at 7:30PM. We are planning to meet at Casey's Bar & Grill (www.caseysatbat.com) 155 S. Antrim Way, 717.597.8383. This is a change of time and venue. More details will follow later.
Were you there? The Franklin County Democratic Party's sun fest at the Roy Pitz Brewery was a great success. Great music? Great refreshments? and wonderful people from all over the county.
Were you there? The Franklin County Democratic Party's sun fest at the Roy Pitz Brewery was a great success. Great music? Great refreshments? and wonderful people from all over the county.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Corbett's Advisory Group Asks For Tough Gas Pipeline Regs
According to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Governor Corbett's advisory commission on the Marcellus Shale called on the State to become the first to regulate gas pipelines in rural areas. Pennsylvania is the only natural gas producing state in the US that does not have any regulation on the companies that drill in the well fields.
The pipeline industry has successfully fought any regulations for years. earlier this year both houses passed different versions of a bill giving the Pennsylvania State Public Utility Commission the authority to oversee pipeline in populated areas. But, according to the Inquirer, the panel's report calls for regulation even in the most rural areas.
The pipeline industry has successfully fought any regulations for years. earlier this year both houses passed different versions of a bill giving the Pennsylvania State Public Utility Commission the authority to oversee pipeline in populated areas. But, according to the Inquirer, the panel's report calls for regulation even in the most rural areas.
Democratic Summer Event August 20
Don't miss the Franklin County Democratic party. Join us at the Roy Pitz Brewery in Chambersburg on Saturday August 20, 3-8 pm. Two local bands, good local beer and lots of fun. Admission is $10. for adults and $7. for students and includes beer for those 21 years of age and older. Good food will also be available. Time to regroup and reenergize for the tough political battles ahead.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Yard Sale Great Success
Thanks to the generous contributions of our members and the many willing hands and hearts we were able to have a very successful yard sale as a fundraiser. Our treasury is a bit richer and we will be able to buy into the cooperative campaign items buying group.
Several readers have asked how to make comments on the blog. Just click on comments and write.
Do you have an idea for a Greencastle Antrim Democratic Club program, speaker or event? Write it here or send an Email.
Several readers have asked how to make comments on the blog. Just click on comments and write.
Do you have an idea for a Greencastle Antrim Democratic Club program, speaker or event? Write it here or send an Email.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Obama Campaign is Hiring
Tell your friends -- employed and unemployed -- that the campaign is seeking creative people with experience in design, film/video, writing and editing, organizing, direct response marketing, data analysis, digital advertising, creative planning, developers andweb producers and project managers. apply at:
http//my.barackobama.com/Work-For-Us
http//my.barackobama.com/Work-For-Us
Saturday, May 21, 2011
There's Value in Your Attics and Basements
Join in the fun and bring your unused and gently used objects to the GreencastleAntrim Democratic Club Yard Sale. This includes political memorabilia, posters, books, cds, plants, adult clothing, furniture, books, small electronics, etc. The sale will be held on Saturday June 18 (rain date Saturday June 25) at 169 S. Antrim Way in the parking lot of Erie Insurance. We thank the Erie Insurance company and Mikie's for allowing us to use this space. We will be collecting items the week before the sale. The address of the drop off point is 38 N. Linden, off Baltimore Street. To volunteer send an Email to ruthjcommunications@comcast.net. or call and leave a message at 717 685 8005.
Officers Elected, Forum Draws Candidates
The Greencastle Antrim Democrats re-elected Sheri Morgan, president, Karin Johnson, Vice President, and Michele Emmet, treasurer. Our new secretary is Cameron Schroy, we welcome him to the executive board.
The forum drew a full roster of candidates for the school board and, despite the low attendance, inspired a very lively debate and discussion. The candidates' conversation quickly moved from their views on taxes to their experiences as consumers of education. It showed that the school board has a long way to go in communicating with parents and engaging students, teachers and tax payers in the educational process.
The forum drew a full roster of candidates for the school board and, despite the low attendance, inspired a very lively debate and discussion. The candidates' conversation quickly moved from their views on taxes to their experiences as consumers of education. It showed that the school board has a long way to go in communicating with parents and engaging students, teachers and tax payers in the educational process.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Monday,May 9, 2011 Election Meeting and Candidates Forum
Bring your neighbors, friends and anyone else interested in the Greencastle School Board election to the Presbyterian Church tonight. Our election meeting for members is at 6:30 pm promptly!
The forum begins at 7 pm and seven of the nine candidates for the School Board will be there.
Hope to see you then!
The forum begins at 7 pm and seven of the nine candidates for the School Board will be there.
Hope to see you then!
Friday, April 22, 2011
Who’s hurt by Paul Ryan’s budget proposal
The GreencastleAntrim Democratic Club was privileged to have Harold Meyerson speak to us a number of years ago. Here's one of his latest columns from The Washington Post that's very much worth reprinting.
By Harold Meyerson
If it does nothing else, the budget that House Republicans unveiled Tuesday provides the first real Republican program for the 21st century, and it is this:
Repeal the 20th century.
Republicans have never particularly warmed to the American social contract that governed most of the past hundred years. Its central elements, enacted during the presidencies of Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson, assumed a level of collective national responsibility for the well-being of the elderly and children, the two groups who could not benefit directly from employment, through such programs as Social Security, Medicare, funding for schools and for college grants and loans.
The logic behind these programs wasn’t simply humanitarian. It was also economic: Bolstering the purchasing power of the elderly increased economic activity and enabled the adult children of the elderly to invest more in their own children. Enabling more people to get good educations straight through college created a more productive workforce. A similar dual logic — both humanitarian and Keynesian — informed the programs that aided the poor and unemployed, such as Medicaid and food stamps.
Conservatives have never cottoned to this contract. They argue that a laissez faire economy can produce even greater or at least similar levels of prosperity and economic security, despite a striking lack of historical or economic data to back up this contention. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) made that claim Tuesday in presenting his budget proposal. But Ryan’s pieties notwithstanding, his budget is a prescription for diminishing prosperity and security, a road map, in fact, for national decline.
Ryan achieves the bulk of his savings through sharp reductions in projected spending on Medicare and Medicaid, converting the former into a right-to-purchase private insurance, subsidized up to a point, and the latter into a block grant program. (Scrapping Social Security remains, for now, a bridge too far.) Skyrocketing medical costs are the chief factor in rising government expenses, but rather than have government bring down those costs by, say, negotiating with drug companies on the price of their products, Ryan simply forces the elderly, their children and the poor to pick up more of those costs. As the number of retirees with defined-benefit pensions continues to shrink (thanks to corporate America and, this year, Republican governors), an increasing number of seniors will be unable to purchase the medications they need.
Ryan’s budget would also reduce projected spending on discretionary domestic programs — education, transportation, food safety and the like — to well below levels of inflation. That not only ensures that high-speed rail won’t be built but also means that potholes won’t be filled.
A decade ago, some conservatives were still talking about “national greatness conservatism.” Ryan’s budget is a manifesto for national puniness conservatism.
The cover under which Ryan and other Republicans operate is their concern for the deficit and national debt. But Ryan blows that cover by proposing to reduce the top income tax rate to just 25 percent. He imposes the burden for reducing our debt not on the bankers who forced our government to spend trillions averting a collapse but on seniors and the poor. The reductions in aid to the poor, says the budget blueprint that Ryan released, will be made “to ensure that America’s safety net does not become a hammock that lulls able-bodied citizens into lives of complacency and dependency.” That’s a pretty good description of America’s top bankers, but Ryan’s budget showers them with tax cuts.
Republicans can’t take sole credit for creating a vision of a diminished America. Most of the Washington-based commentariat has focused on the debt over the past year, ignoring both the persistence of high unemployment and the absolute stagnation of wages even as profits have soared. Those who applaud the macroeconomics of Ryan’s cuts should at least be compelled to explain how ordinary Americans, whose incomes haven’t risen since the late ’90s, can take up the slack, in their own purchasing and in the nation’s economic activity, created by these cuts. They might even want to think about raising taxes on profits and capital gains, since these forms of income are rising even as wages flatline.
And, finally, there’s talk that we have a president who’s a Democrat — the party that created the American social contract of the 20th century. Initially, he focused on reshaping and extending that contract into the 21st. Now that the Republicans want to repeal it all, he’s nowhere to be found. Has anybody seen him? Does he still exist?
meyersonh@washpost.com
By Harold Meyerson
If it does nothing else, the budget that House Republicans unveiled Tuesday provides the first real Republican program for the 21st century, and it is this:
Repeal the 20th century.
Republicans have never particularly warmed to the American social contract that governed most of the past hundred years. Its central elements, enacted during the presidencies of Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson, assumed a level of collective national responsibility for the well-being of the elderly and children, the two groups who could not benefit directly from employment, through such programs as Social Security, Medicare, funding for schools and for college grants and loans.
The logic behind these programs wasn’t simply humanitarian. It was also economic: Bolstering the purchasing power of the elderly increased economic activity and enabled the adult children of the elderly to invest more in their own children. Enabling more people to get good educations straight through college created a more productive workforce. A similar dual logic — both humanitarian and Keynesian — informed the programs that aided the poor and unemployed, such as Medicaid and food stamps.
Conservatives have never cottoned to this contract. They argue that a laissez faire economy can produce even greater or at least similar levels of prosperity and economic security, despite a striking lack of historical or economic data to back up this contention. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) made that claim Tuesday in presenting his budget proposal. But Ryan’s pieties notwithstanding, his budget is a prescription for diminishing prosperity and security, a road map, in fact, for national decline.
Ryan achieves the bulk of his savings through sharp reductions in projected spending on Medicare and Medicaid, converting the former into a right-to-purchase private insurance, subsidized up to a point, and the latter into a block grant program. (Scrapping Social Security remains, for now, a bridge too far.) Skyrocketing medical costs are the chief factor in rising government expenses, but rather than have government bring down those costs by, say, negotiating with drug companies on the price of their products, Ryan simply forces the elderly, their children and the poor to pick up more of those costs. As the number of retirees with defined-benefit pensions continues to shrink (thanks to corporate America and, this year, Republican governors), an increasing number of seniors will be unable to purchase the medications they need.
Ryan’s budget would also reduce projected spending on discretionary domestic programs — education, transportation, food safety and the like — to well below levels of inflation. That not only ensures that high-speed rail won’t be built but also means that potholes won’t be filled.
A decade ago, some conservatives were still talking about “national greatness conservatism.” Ryan’s budget is a manifesto for national puniness conservatism.
The cover under which Ryan and other Republicans operate is their concern for the deficit and national debt. But Ryan blows that cover by proposing to reduce the top income tax rate to just 25 percent. He imposes the burden for reducing our debt not on the bankers who forced our government to spend trillions averting a collapse but on seniors and the poor. The reductions in aid to the poor, says the budget blueprint that Ryan released, will be made “to ensure that America’s safety net does not become a hammock that lulls able-bodied citizens into lives of complacency and dependency.” That’s a pretty good description of America’s top bankers, but Ryan’s budget showers them with tax cuts.
Republicans can’t take sole credit for creating a vision of a diminished America. Most of the Washington-based commentariat has focused on the debt over the past year, ignoring both the persistence of high unemployment and the absolute stagnation of wages even as profits have soared. Those who applaud the macroeconomics of Ryan’s cuts should at least be compelled to explain how ordinary Americans, whose incomes haven’t risen since the late ’90s, can take up the slack, in their own purchasing and in the nation’s economic activity, created by these cuts. They might even want to think about raising taxes on profits and capital gains, since these forms of income are rising even as wages flatline.
And, finally, there’s talk that we have a president who’s a Democrat — the party that created the American social contract of the 20th century. Initially, he focused on reshaping and extending that contract into the 21st. Now that the Republicans want to repeal it all, he’s nowhere to be found. Has anybody seen him? Does he still exist?
meyersonh@washpost.com
Nancy Pelosi Stands Up for Basic American Values
Here's a terrific video of Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on the floor of the House speaking truth to power.
http://front.moveon.org/nancy-pelosi-demolishes-republicans/
http://front.moveon.org/nancy-pelosi-demolishes-republicans/
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
We're Back And On the Move
GreencastleAntrim Democrats are back on line and we have a number of key announcements to make.
Are you interested in serving as an officer of the club? Do you know someone who would like to serve? Please send names of nominees to dbjordan25@comcast.net. Members will vote on new officers at the
May 9th meeting at the Greencastle Presbyterian Church. The voting will take place at 6:30 pm prior to the candidates forum. PLEASE be there early so we can carry out our business before the forum begins.
School Board candidates forum at 7 pm at the Greencastle Presbyterian Church on Monday May 9. Please tell friends it may be the only pre-election forum of its kind. If you have questions for school board candidates, please submit in advance to ruthjcommunications@comcast.net.
Don't forget the primary election on Tuesday, May 17. Key vote for county commissioner spots.
GA Democrats are planning to unlock hidden treasures from their attics, basements and garages. We're having a yard sale in June to raise funds. Don't throw away that beautiful lamp from Aunt Hilda...We'll sell it. Date and place and time to be announced. Watch this space.
Honor your Mother , mother earth that is. Join volunteers at Marie's garden on Saturday,9:00 am on April 23. Rain date: Monday, April 25.
Are you interested in serving as an officer of the club? Do you know someone who would like to serve? Please send names of nominees to dbjordan25@comcast.net. Members will vote on new officers at the
May 9th meeting at the Greencastle Presbyterian Church. The voting will take place at 6:30 pm prior to the candidates forum. PLEASE be there early so we can carry out our business before the forum begins.
School Board candidates forum at 7 pm at the Greencastle Presbyterian Church on Monday May 9. Please tell friends it may be the only pre-election forum of its kind. If you have questions for school board candidates, please submit in advance to ruthjcommunications@comcast.net.
Don't forget the primary election on Tuesday, May 17. Key vote for county commissioner spots.
GA Democrats are planning to unlock hidden treasures from their attics, basements and garages. We're having a yard sale in June to raise funds. Don't throw away that beautiful lamp from Aunt Hilda...We'll sell it. Date and place and time to be announced. Watch this space.
Honor your Mother , mother earth that is. Join volunteers at Marie's garden on Saturday,9:00 am on April 23. Rain date: Monday, April 25.
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