Hi As a Loyal Democratic Party Member and believer in your mission and ideals, I wanted to relay a note I sent to my Congress-person Niki Tsongas, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and to the White House. I hope you will embrace the challenge and support the need for regulation of the Oil Industry. Oil Companies need to be regulated IMMEDIATELY ... there is NO WAY for anyone to Budget if the Oil Companies can raise the costs just based on their addictive need for more PROFIT. No one can Budget ... not the Federal or any State Government, the Military, the Airlines, the Auto Makers, the grocery stores, the guy on the corner or ME or YOU ... even if we budget a contingency amount needed to survive, it could be gone in a month if the Oil Companies can raise the price of FUEL at their own whim. How crazy is this that Saudi Arabia can raise the cost of Oil based only on the fact that demand has dropped ... they believe that Americans and other Global Citizens should fund their extravagant lifestyle.

Single-Payer “Not for Profit” versus Multi-Payer “For Profit” Healthcare
Stephen Falgout, Psy.D and Joanna Clark

So long as heath care is attached to employment and the profit-driven insurance racket the U.S. will remain at a competitive disadvantage, but here we have President Obama touting the established tradition of employment-based insurance, saying we must build on what we have. It’s like adding a second story onto a house that's already riddled with termites.

Today we remember those who have served and died in the
line of duty.

Thank you.

Nationwide Rallies for Improved Medicare for All

Join thousands of single-payer supporters in a nationwide week of action to support improved Medicare for all (HR 676). Single-payer activists will be gathering all over the country to say, "Healthcare, yes; Insurance companies, no," and to show solidarity with demonstrations at the AHIP (American Health Insurance Plans, a private health insurance lobby) conference in San Diego.

If an action isn't already in your city, plan your own day of action! It can be a town hall meeting, demonstration in front of a local insurance company, film showing, vigil, or your own unique idea. Let us know what you'd like to start planning by contacting info@healthcare-now.org.

I don't know if any of you are familiar with Sodahead.com or not, but I posted a question there:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ronald Reagan or Ray Charles? Ronald Ragean died June 5, 2004. Ray Charles died June 10, 2004. Both were American icons for differenet reasons. But Ray Charlse's death was over shadowed by the death of Ronald Reagan. Who did you feel the greatest personal?

Hello, I am currently working on a book project about Washington D.C.
now that Bush is out office, and how his impact has remained.  I have
an agent who is potentially
interested in my work, but is concerned I do not have the connections
necessary to write the book. I feel this book would be very important
as it would contain information about how to best go about creating a
progressive future in our country. I am looking for help from the democrats.com community to get this book off the ground. I need help from
people who may connections to anyone who works in D.C. This book will
be groundbreaking, but I need assistance from all of you to get this
book onto bookshelves and in the hands of readers, so people will
really know how work is done in our nation's capital. Thank you.

DemocracyFest is a political festival for liberal/progressive activists which features trainings, speakers and entertainment; teaching people how to make a difference and have fun doing it! Prior DemocracyFests have been held in Massachusetts, Texas, California, New Hampshire and Virginia. Over 4,000 activists have been trained to help on campaigns and make a difference in their communities.

The 6th Annual DemocracyFest will be held this summer, July 17-19, 2009 at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center in Burlington, VT!

More information about the event can be found at http://www.DemocracyFest.net

Crossposted from Hillbilly Report.

After suffering through eight years of the tedious ramblings and narrow-minded failures of Dick Cheney, one really had to hope with the end of the failed Bush Administration at least we would be through with "Shotgun". After the numerous failings he spearheaded, it really seems as if he would have wanted to sink into the oblivion that history will eventually create for him. When you have gotten away with all the sweet hundreds of billions he and President Bush have milked for themselves and their rich friends it seems like retirement would be in order. Why not enjoy golfing, and hunting, and spraying elderly men with buckshot??

But now it seems as if Cheney is anything but retired and that he still clings to his failed ideology. After the total failures in Homeland Security and Foreign policy spearheaded by him, Cheney still seems to think he is some kind of expert.

     A popular lament among Conservatives is the so-called "decline of conservative values."  In fact, Dr. Jo-Renee Formicola, a professor of mine at Seton Hall University, a self-proclaimed "flaming conservative," referred to Obama's election as a "referendum on conservatism."  Hate to burst their bubble, but this shift to the left has been going on for quite some time.  In fact, it's been happening since 1776.

    I was visiting my grandmother in a nursing home yesterday for mother's day when I saw a TV commericial in which Bill O' Reilly was bragging about how he "policied the mainstream media, took on left-wing loons and battled the city of San Francisco."  I thought  Fox News was "The Only Fair and Balanced News Network in America?"  Just who is "policing" O' Reilly anyway?