Newsflash:
The End of the Perpetual War President Obama’s speech on Thursday was the most important statement on counterterrorism policy since the 2001 attacks, a momentous turning point in post-9/11 America.For the first time, a president stated clearly and unequivocally that the state of perpetual warfare that began nearly 12 years ago is unsustainable for a democracy and must come to an end in the not-too-distant future.       Read the Full Story
Banks’ Lobbyists Help in Drafting Financial Bills WASHINGTON — Bank lobbyists are not leaving it to lawmakers to draft legislation that softens financial regulations. Instead, the lobbyists are helping to write it themselves. Read the Full Story
Elizabeth Warren: Trade talks could weaken bank oversight Sen. Elizabeth Warren raised concerns Tuesday that negotiations over new trade agreements could be used as a backdoor way to water down financial regulations. Read the Full Story
Exclusive: Why I Spoke Out at Obama's Foreign Policy Speech On why Obama's policies themselves, not those who speak out against them, are rude Having worked for years on the issues of drones and Guantanamo, I was delighted to get a pass (the source will remain anonymous) to attend President Obama’s speech at the National Defense University. Read the Full Story
Pivoting From a War Footing, Obama Acts to Curtail Drones WASHINGTON — Nearly a dozen years after the hijackings that transformed America, President Obama said Thursday that it was time to narrow the scope of the grinding battle against terrorists and begin the transition to a day when the country will no longer be on a war footing.       Read the Full Story
New Terror Strategy Shifts C.I.A. Focus Back to Spying WASHINGTON — For more than seven years, Mike — a lean, chain-smoking officer at the Central Intelligence Agency’s headquarters in Virginia — has managed the agency’s deadly campaign of armed drone strikes. As the head of the C.I.A.’s Counterterrorism Center, Mike wielded tremendous power in hundreds of decisions over who lived and died in far-off lands.       Read the Full Story
Boy Scouts End Longtime Ban on Openly Gay Youths GRAPEVINE, Tex. — The Boy Scouts of America on Thursday ended its longstanding policy of forbidding openly gay youths to participate in its activities, a step its chief executive called “compassionate, caring and kind.”       Read the Full Story
PDA, Allies March Against Fracking in Maryland More than 100 "Fracktivists" rallied for clean air and water outside the Democratic Governors Association meeting in Maryland yesterday. Concerned about the controversial practice of extracting methane gas from shale rock formations known as hydraulic fracturing or "Fracking", Progressive Democrats of America, Food and Water Watch, MoveOn, Progressive Neighbors, and Progressive Cheverly members and others gathered to hear speakers and then matched chanting outside the high-level meeting. Read the Full Story
Congresswoman Barbara Lee Responds to President Obama’s Call for AUMF Repeal, Introduces Legislation Creating Greater Oversight of Drones Washington, D.C.— Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) released the following statement in response to President Obama’s speech focusing on drone warfare and national security. In advance of the speech, Congresswoman Lee introduced related legislation, The Drones Accountability Act. Read the Full Story
Obama Heckled During Speech On Drones, Gitmo (VIDEO) President Barack Obama was heckled during a speech at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. on Thursday. Read the Full Story
IMF Sounds Warning on U.K. Austerity LONDON—The International Monetary Fund urged the U.K. government to counter the effects of its austerity program by raising spending on infrastructure projects to avoid long-term damage to the nation's growth prospects. Read the Full Story
Congresswoman Lee Introduces “No More Ghost Money Act” Washington, D.C.— Today, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced the No More Ghost Money Act of 2013. The bill would prohibit illegal payments to foreign officials and would require a report to Congress on payments made by the CIA to employees, officers, and elected officials to foreign entities. Read the Full Story
image The End of the Perpetual War
image Banks’ Lobbyists Help in Drafting Financial Bills
image Elizabeth Warren: Trade talks could weaken bank oversight
image Exclusive: Why I Spoke Out at Obama's Foreign Policy Speech
image Pivoting From a War Footing, Obama Acts to Curtail Drones
image New Terror Strategy Shifts C.I.A. Focus Back to Spying
image Boy Scouts End Longtime Ban on Openly Gay Youths
image PDA, Allies March Against Fracking in Maryland
image Congresswoman Barbara Lee Responds to President Obama’s Call for AUMF Repeal, Introduces Legislation Creating Greater Oversight of Drones
image Obama Heckled During Speech On Drones, Gitmo (VIDEO)
image IMF Sounds Warning on U.K. Austerity
image Congresswoman Lee Introduces “No More Ghost Money Act”
Monday, 11 July 2011 00:00

Arizona’s New Democrats: Wenona’s Historic Bid Inspires Bipartisan Campaign Against Radical Tea Party Rep. Gosar

Written by  Jeff Biggrs | AlterNet

In one of the largest Congressional districts in the nation, stretching across the rural heartland of eastern Arizona from the Four Corners region to the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, the historic candidacy of Wenona Benally Baldenegro for the Democratic nomination for Congress is marking a new era in Western politics.

For Arizonans exhausted by the extremist Tea Party machinations of freshman Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), who many view more dedicated to the Tea Party’s beltway defiance of the Obama administration than the creation of jobs or protecting health care and investments in education, the hands-on rural American experience and Main Street platform ideas of public interest attorney Benally Baldenegro have galvanized a bipartisan campaign across the district’s diverse constituency.

“We’re extremely disappointed in Rep. Gosar,” said Vera Skorupski, a long-time registered Republican from Sedona, Arizona and a campaign supporter of Benally Baldenegro. Citing Gosar’s lack of support for Medicare and health care reform, Skorupski praised Benally Baldenegro for not ignoring the “compassionate conservative” tradition abandoned by “radical” Tea Party activists like Gosar and bringing together Democrats, Republicans and Independents.

Raised in the mining town of Kayenta on the Navajo Nation, the Harvard-educated attorney Benally Baldenegro will also be the first female American Indian member of Congress, if elected.

Hailed as one of the state’s rising political stars, the Flagstaff-based Benally Baldenegro has been on a fast track to success in Arizona. As the first Native American to graduate from Arizona State University’s prestigious Barrett Honor’s College, she attended Harvard’s Law School and then earned a Masters in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Over the past decade, she has worked in Washington, DC, Portland and Tucson, Arizona, serving as a project specialist at the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona (ITCA), developing tribal self-reliance initiatives and dealing with federal health care legislation and regulations, and as a public interest attorney and expert on business, lending and rural development issues.

Link to original article from AlterNet

Read 3557 times Last modified on Saturday, 21 January 2012 20:48

PDA In Your State