Do you have your Saturday mop ready?
First, check out this ad by Blue America for Democratic House candidate Billy Kennedy, which nails wingnut Virginia Foxx (R-Crazystan) as "Crazy, Cruel and Ignorant"
But of all the terrible, idiotic things Virginia Foxx has said, Blue America left out the worst one.
More on this moron below the fold, and what you can do about it.
Crossposted at The Progressive Electorate.com
I come to you today to detail the wankery that is Virginia Foxx, and to present to you a sane alternative for 2010, in Democratic candidate Billy Kennedy.
There are many words that one could use to describe NC-5 House Rep Virginia Foxx, but "Tar Baby" would never be one. In fact, I would think the average person would never use the phrase "tar baby" to describe anyone or anything in the year 2010, unless that person were a bigot, or Republican Virginia Foxx, the slack jawed yokel.
So, how hard would it be to put together a campaign ad around this quote?
Because, when you are an out of touch, bought off shill for Corporate America, "Tar Baby" isn't just a racial slur from the pre-civil rights era!
(Oh, and the fact that we have our first black President has nothing to do with anything!)
Now, as your alternative to the crazy, pre-civil rights relic that is Virginia Foxx, I'd like to introduce you to the ideas of Billy Kennedy.
JOBS
The past ten years have been some of the worst for the American worker. We work harder for longer hours and for less money. There has been literally zero net job creation since the decade began. Many of the larger corporations are reporting strong profits, based often on layoffs and reduced labor benefits. Our economy relies on consumer spending for two-thirds of its growth. If Americans don’t have a paycheck, or a reduced paycheck, consumer spending just doesn’t happen. It’s a vicious cycle.
Middle-class households made less in 2008 than they did in 1999. Today, one in five of us is underemployed or without a job at all. One in nine of our families can't make the minimum payments on our credit cards. One in eight of us are in trouble on our mortgages, and one in eight of us is now on food stamps. The current Great Recession "disappeared" more than $5 trillion from our retirement accounts and savings.
We the people of the American middle class believed in civic duty and in hard work, and we believed that politicians in Washington were dedicated to our interests and respectful of our important contributions.
We were wrong.
Politicians of both political parties have spent their time tearing our country apart and listening to lobbyists for the biggest, most powerful corporations.
In 2001, Washington politicians passed tax cuts for "all" Americans. What they really did was give two-thirds of all tax cuts to the richest Americans. As a result, we went broke while Wall Street got rich, and government revenues dropped in 2004 to the lowest level since 1950, causing huge budget deficits. There’s no money to rebuild our schools, provide job retraining, or shore up Medicare for our seniors. Americans find out that even though they have health insurance, it won’t pay for their cancer treatments.
The chickens came home to roost in late 2008. Washington "solved" the crisis by giving huge bailouts to the very banks and other institutions that gambled away our retirements and savings on Wall Street. Washington placed little accountability on that bailout money and didn’t take away the right of Wall Street to gamble. Instead, Washington "encouraged" banks to lend to small businesses. They didn’t. They hoarded our money for themselves. Now our small businesses, the ones who hire workers, can’t get money even to start projects.
This brings us to February 2009. Congress passed "The Stimulus Package." It spent on things like infrastructure, education, and research, and it tried to jumpstart our economy with some state aid and tax cuts. The stimulus has helped. So far, contracts, loans, and grants for North Carolina’s 5th District have amounted to $168,291,173, creating 209 new jobs. But the stimulus was mostly damage control-saving thousands of jobs for teachers, fire departments and police.
The "Jobs Bill" that Washington is currently fighting over appears to be yet another band aid over a huge wound. It is a very limited package of small-business aid, unemployment benefits, and corporate tax credits.
No single "fix" will get us out of this mess. Neither the government alone nor the private sector alone can solve the jobs problem. Instead of calling each other names across the aisles up there in Washington, why can’t our representatives do something for both short-term and long-term job creation?
1. Like it or not, we live in a global economy. To compete, we must make investments in research, our crumbling infrastructure, and education. Failure to commit to a quality public education for the next generation of American workers will sink us further and further. We must consider upgrades to our infrastructure.
2. We must invest in new technology and renewable energy because new American jobs depend on it. China has now jumped ahead to become the world’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines and solar panels, and they are now adding 100,000 new jobs a year in renewable energy as a result.
3. We have to become more export-oriented. We need to stop giving tax breaks to American companies who move our jobs overseas and instead provide tax incentives for companies who bring or keep those jobs right here at home.
4. We need to focus on creating jobs for rural people. Farm- and eco-tourism have promise. So does the "local foods" movement. We need small lending programs for rural entrepreneurs to start small businesses or encourage high-tech jobs in our rural communities.
5. We must address the price of health-care. Spiraling costs are dragging down American companies.
Here’s how we can pay for some of this:
1. Tax cuts to the richest among us have cost our treasury $1.35 trillion in revenues. We should repeal those tax cuts and use the savings to cut taxes for low- and middle-income workers; provide a tax credit for small businesses that hire new workers; and provide tax incentives for businesses wanting to enter into technology and renewable energy projects in rural America.
2. A person who makes $1 million in wages pays the same Social Security tax as a person who makes $106,800 because of an unfair "cap." We should drop the cap on Social Security taxes to keep it solvent for future generations.
3. We can link private and public investment money which could do what America’s banks currently won’t: make low-interest loans to good ideas and small businesses.
America is in a major crisis, and it’s time those in Washington stopped the partisan bickering and did something. Our country’s future depends on it.
billykennedyforcongress.com/pages/issues
Some of Virginia Foxx's greatest hits in living in the past include denying that Matthew Sheppard was killed because he was gay with his mother in the audience. After the incident, civil rights hero and House Representative John Lewis (D-GA) had this to say of Foxx.
"She should be ashamed," said Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), himself a victim of a hate crime during the struggle for civil rights. "That is unreal, unbelievable. The law enforcement people and almost every reasonable person I know believes he was murdered because he was gay."
But Virginia Foxx has no shame. When she isn't using racial offensive terms or fighting to make the world safer for hate inspired criminals, she is out spreading lies about fake "Death Panels".
Rep. Foxx: The Republican plan would "make sure we bring down the cost of health care for all Americans and that ensures affordable access for all Americans and is pro-life because it will not put seniors in a position of being put to death by their government."
politicalcorrection.org
Demonizing minorities, denying reality, and using fear to mislead American voters, the rightwing trifecta!
Now, on a late Saturday afternoon, we can do one of two things about Virginia Foxx and her crazy, corporatist, wedge issue heavy agenda.
a. Do nothing.
Or
b. Take 5 minutes to Support Billy Kennedy
Because Billy Kennedy sees right through this wedge issue, divide and conquer nonsense.
Even when a candidate or political party wins an election through the use of a wedge issue, once they arrive in Washington they do nothing to further its cause. That is when it becomes painfully clear that the candidate never had any real commitment to the issue itself. The candidate simply used the issue to try to fool the people and win the election at any cost.
I will not be distracted from what is most important to voters!
billykennedyforcongress.com/pages/issues
So, here is your choice. We can have a Representative for North Carolina's who thinks the term "Tar Baby" is appropriate in the year 2010, or we can have a Representative who wants the Government to work (GASP!) for what is best for everybody, not just the Corporations, the rich and the special interests.
Seems like an easy choice to me.
So, what are YOU going to do?
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. In this case, the solution is to help elect Billy Kennedy to Congress!
Check out Billy Kennedy's campaign website
You can follow Billy Kennedy on Twitter here
You can follow Billy Kennedy on
facebook as well
Because we know what the alternative is going to look like . . .
And most importantly, if you can, make a small donation and send some love to Billy Kennedy with ActBlue
Because elections are about choice, and when Billy Kennedy is choosing his words the term "tar baby" is NEVER an option.
Cheers, and peace and love to all!
Follow me on Twitter @JesseLaGreca
