Comments from my corner of the Corner House in the southwest corner of Minnesota. My thoughts about the events of the day, politics, social issues, cats, dogs, kids and whatever comes to mind. Oh, yeah. Turn up the sound!
Some 2.1 million union members, or 14 percent of all union members, are veterans of military service. The AFL-CIO is bringing together union leaders and members who are veterans to speak out to and hold government officials and candidates accountable to the needs of our returning heroes—not only for Labor 2008, but beyond.
The event coincided with similar events in Milwaukee, Denver, Dayton, Ohio; and Charlston, W. VA. WorkdayMinnesota covered the event and has this quote from MN AFL-CIO President Ray Waldron:
Like all working people, veterans are worried about our future and our children’s future. Our country is headed in the wrong direction,” said Minnesota AFL-CIO President Ray Waldron, who participated in Thursday’s event. “The first-ever union veterans council will bring union veterans together across Minnesota on the issues that matter most to veterans, our families and all working people. And we’re starting by working to elect leaders who will put working people’s concerns first.”
Public News Service Minnesota also has this story and audio with MN AFL-CIO Communications Director Diane O’Brien.
The AFL-CIO will be running tv ads in selected states featuring Jim Wasser, a Vietnam veteran.
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Speaking of veterans issues, Ollie OX at A Bluestem Prairie has two posts up today:
The Veterans Council is a welcome addition to the AFL-CIO and will help bring together veterans to focus on issues and to elect reperesentatives( like 1st District Congressman Tim Walz) who will be responsive and accountable to their constitiuencies.
In my previous post I mentioned that today would be a national call-in day to let Congress know it is time to act and to pass the mental health parity legislation. Here is the information from David Wellstone of Wellstone Action.
Today is a National Call-In Day to pass the Wellstone bill.
Last week, I sent you an email listing all the things we’ve accomplished together in the last five years as we’ve fought for mental health and addiction parity legislation. Now that the House and Senate have agreed on a compromise bill, we are so close.
I know we’ve asked you to do a lot. Believe me, I never expected this common-sense legislation would require so much navigation through the quirky ins and outs of Washington. But in the last few months, I’ve seen how my voice, backed up by thousands of yours, has made a difference. So I need you to pick up the phone one more time.
>> Call your Senators and Representative today. You can be connected to them by calling (202) 224-3121<<
Tell them:
I am calling to let the Senator/ Representative know that I support immediate Congressional action to end insurance discrimination facing people with addiction and mental illness by passing the Mental Health and Addiction Parity bill.
Please ask the Senate/House leadership to find the money to fund this historic bill and pass it before Congress goes home for recess at the beginning of August.
An email from David Wellstone alerts us to the possibility of a compromise and final vote on H.R. 1424, the ”Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2008”. From the Wellstone Action website is this description of the bill:
The Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act is legislation that would end the practice of insurance companies discriminating against people suffering from mental illness. Sponsored by Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Wellstone’s friend Representative Jim Ramstad (R-MN), the bill would compel insurance companies to treat mental illness the same as physical illness, given the overwhelming scientific evidence that mental illness is a disease every bit as real and serious as physical illness. This practice is often referred to as “mental health parity.”
David Wellstone had this to say:
…the final touches are being put on a compromise between the House and Senate, and we believe that a bill could go to the President’s desk next week. But, if it doesn’t happen then, it’s likely we’d have to start all over again with the new Congress next year.
The Senate and House have passed different versions of the legislation and have been working on settling their differences since the House passed its version in March of this year. 1st District Congressman Tim Walz was a co-sponsor and supporter of this legislation. Representatives John Kline (R-MN2) and Michele Bachmann (R-MN6) were both in the NAY column, continuing their tradition of voting against the best interests of their constituents.
Many business groups have long opposed coverage parity, saying costs could drive up premiums substantially. But one estimate by the Congressional Budget Office concluded the impact would be relatively small: a 0.4 percent premium increase for group health insurance. In addition, the federal employees’ health plan has had a parity policy since 2001; one study found no significant cost increase as a result. Part of the explanation likely lies in the value of treating mental conditions early and avoiding expensive complications and hospitalization later.
Many states already have laws in place that provide some protection for patients struggling with mental illness or addiction. Minnesota has one of the strongest. A federal law would not preempt those laws. What it would do is make sure no one falls through the cracks. Mental disorders are one of the most devastating diagnoses families can face. Their health insurers should work with them –not against them — at this difficult time.
A final call-in day to members of congress will is scheduled for Wednesday, July 9. Stay tuned for details on the call-in!
David Wellstone testifies before Congress in March of this year:
I, like many other Americans, spent the day enjoying my time off from work, doing some odd jobs around the house, having some hot dogs and beer with family and then capping it off by perusing the blogosphere to see what was being said on the subject of Independence Day. There is a lot of good material to read and I would like share two commentaries from the People’s Weekly World on-line edition.The first, Struggles and Fireworks, is from the PWW editorial board while the second essay, Should the left celebrate the 4th of July, was written by Santi Suthinithet. Both essays offer a viewpoint that you probably won’t see in your hometown newspaper.
It’s that time of year when Americans of all cultures and creeds take the day off (if they can) to barbecue, watch fireworks and maybe drink a few beers or soft drinks.
It’s the Fourth of July, a time to celebrate America — our history, and our future.
The history of the American people is a history of struggle and progress. The American Revolution established the world’s first democratic republic. Yet it was a flawed one, stained by slavery, extermination of Native Americans, suppression of women, and class oppression
But, while the tasks of establishing a just society weren’t finished, neither was the struggle for progress. The American people went on to overthrow slavery in the Civil War — often referred to as the Second American Revolution — and then to secure the rights of African Americans and women to vote and to end Jim Crow segregation.
American working people built a massive labor movement in the 1930s, one that is resurgent today. They fought for and won sweeping social reforms such as public education, wage and hour laws, ending child labor, health and safety measures and environmental protection.
The struggle to protect and extend civil rights and liberties is as old as the birth of the republic, and continues sharply today. From the beginning, this was a nation of immigrants as well as native-born. From the beginning too, there have been struggles to make our country a beacon of multi-ethnic, multinational inclusiveness.
While the ruling class has often involved this country in immoral wars, the American people often rise to stop them. Such was the case with the Vietnam War, and such is the case with the Iraq war today.
We can see this tradition continuing today. Most strikingly, we’ve seen millions of people of all races and nationalities, young and old, male and female, cast their ballots either for the first African American or the first woman president in our history.
We saw more than 60,000 people, mainly white, pour into the streets in Oregon to support Obama — the largest political rally in our nation’s history. And we seem poised to elect our first Black president and oust the ultra-right.
So let’s celebrate our country and struggle: past, present and future.
Should Independence Day be a cause of celebration for Americans? What does this commemoration of the Declaration of Independence really mean in a nation whose history is tainted with criminal wars, greed, racism and slavery?
On July 5, 1852, the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass didn’t mince words in his landmark speech “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro”:
“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?” he asked. “A day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.” He went on to call slaveholding America’s celebrations “a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.”
Yet he went on to conclude:
“Notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country … I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age.” He was referring to the growing abolitionist movement, which would triumph with the abolition of slavery only a decade later.
We are all still paying for the savagery of slavery and racism in America.
But at the same time the Declaration of Independence — and America’s foundation — is built on continually progressing — and revolutionary — principles as well. We are a country with a noble history of struggle for equality, secularism, liberty and civil rights.
It is too often forgotten that a radical internationalist and revolutionary named Tom Paine played a leading role in the American Revolution. Paine urged the end of monarchy, poverty, war and slavery from the beginning. His brilliant pamphlet “Common Sense,” issued on January 10, 1776, was considered the manifesto of the revolution. It strongly influenced Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence six months later, which in turn became the guiding principles for the French Revolution’s Declaration of the Rights of Man.
Karl Marx saw the American fight for independence as “the first impulse … to the European revolutions of the eighteenth century” and said its declaration “informed the whole world of the foundation of an independent great Democratic Republic on the American continent.” He called it the “first Declaration of the Rights of Man.”
Almost two centuries later in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh called the opening words of the Declaration of Independence “immortal.”
And look where we are today — what has been accomplished.
An excerpt from Barack Obama’s groundbreaking “Towards a More Perfect Union” speech represents what is truly great about this country—and yet is still too often taken for granted.
Obama, noting his ancestors and diverse background, said, “For as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.”
He did not skirt over the contradictions between the founding ideals of America and the realities of our past and present, yet he pointed to the potential at our nation’s core:
“The answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution — a Constitution that had at its very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.”
No words on a parchment would be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights as citizens of the United States. Generations of Americans fought hard — through protests and struggles, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk — to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their times.
Unfortunately, in some circles on the American left, it’s not politically correct to take pride in America and our shared history.
Obviously, there’s a big difference between being a proud American and being a vulgar chauvinist or jingoist.
But not one democratic or socialist movement or revolution in history inspired its people by encouraging them to hate their country.
During the Russian Revolution the Bolsheviks’ slogan was “Bread! Peace! Land!” not “Screw Russia!” They did not direct their anger at Russia or its people but at the autocratic and corrupt czar and his allies.
And of course, love of country and national unity played essential roles in the revolutionary movements of countries such as Cuba and Vietnam.
So, for the Fourth of July, Independence Day, let’s remember the true revolutionary traditions of America.
My previous post about the new GI Bill noted that it was part of the 162 billion supplemental war appropriations legislation. It is unfortunate that it became part of the compromise to continue funding the occupation of Iraq. The human, societal, and economic cost of the occupation of Iraq continue to rise but it is sometimes hard for everyone to understand.
“Eighteen months ago, we began with the simple concept that those who have been serving since 9/11 should have the same opportunity for a first class educational future as those who served during World War II. Today, we have accomplished that goal.”
Senator Jim Webb of Virginia spoke those words on June 26th after the Senate passed the 21st Century GI Bill that was part of the 162 billion war supplemental spending measure. The legislation passed 92-6 with 2 not voting. Today President Bush signed the measure into law and in a press release from the White House the President spins all the positives and thanks numerous people for their work. One line from the press release did raise my blood pressure.
“And I want to thank members who worked hard for the GI Bill expansion — especially Senators Webb and Warner, Graham, Burr, and McCain.”
Graham, Burr, and McCain? This is the same trio that opposed the 21st Century GI Bill and introduced legislation in an effort to sabotage Senator Webb’s bill. GOP presumptive nominee John McCain is now jumping on the bandwagon and trying to take credit despite the fact he was a vocal opponent and didn’t even bother to show up for both of the votes on this bill. McCain has proved that he is consistent in one way-having it both ways!
Ollie Ox at Bluestem Prairie has the press release from 1st District Congressman Tim Walz who has been consistent, vocal and hard working on veterans issues. In the statement he notes that over 20,000 men and women from Minnesota have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. The Congressman also offers up the assistance of his Rochester, MN office (507-206-0643) for veterans that are experiencing difficulties with their benefits.
With the passage of the 162 billion Iraq war funding bill last week it appears that the 21st Century GI Bill will become law. The Senate still needs to act on it but the White House has indicated it would sign the legislation. The GI Bill was included in the war funding along with a 13 week extension of unemployment benefits, disaster relief in the amount of $2.65 billion for the Midwest affected by the recent tornadoes and floods, additional money for the construction of military hospitals and some important Iraq policy provisions as noted by Minnesota Central in the comments section.
Senator Jim Webb, co-sponsor of the GI BIll, expressed his gratitude to supporters:
“I would like to again express my appreciation to the veterans’ service organizations, many of whom communicated their support of this bill directly to a skeptical White House, and to the 58 Senate and 302 House cosponsors of this landmark legislation. This bipartisan coalition consistently rejected the allegations of this Administration, and of Senators McCain, Burr and Graham, among others, who claimed that the bill was too generous to our veterans, too difficult to administer and would hurt retention.
“It has now been nearly seven years since 9/11 — seven years since those who have been serving in our military began earning the right for a proper wartime GI Bill. I am looking forward to the President living up to his word, and signing this legislation at his earliest opportunity.” Read the entire statement here.
A Bluestem Prairie covers 1st District Congressman’s statement on the passage of the new GI Bill and also comments about the process of getting the legislation passed:
“Like the final passage of the increase in the federal minimum wage, final approval of the New G. I. Bill came–eventually–at the cost of continuing to fund the war in Iraq. Those who feel that Congress should quit funding the war and pull out immediately will be disappointed with Walz’s vote for another amendment to the bill that continued money for the war in Iraq.”
It has been said that making laws is a lot like making sausage. Well, I work in the meat industry and I would consider that an insult. It is tragic that the continued occupation of Iraq was the price to pay. Just about everybody (416-12) in the House of Representatives will be able to pat themselves on the back for supporting the GI Bill. How many more GI’s will they be making eligible for the benefits?
Now it is ‘time out’. Minnesota 1st District Congressman Tim Walz (D) announced that he is co-authoring legislation (H.R. 6239) with Republican Congressman Sam Graves called the ”NCLB Recess Until Reauthorization Act”. This proposed legislation will in effect suspend sanctions against schools that are struggling to meet the requirements of the underfunded NCLB act until the legislation can be fixed. Representative Walz released the following statement:
Statement on HR 6239
Walz-Graves “NCLB Recess Until Reauthorization Act”
By Congressman Tim Walz
June 21, 2008
Today, I’m here to announce that I’ve introduced legislation with my Republican colleague, Sam Graves of Missouri, that will give schools and teachers a ‘time out’ from ill-conceived sanctions imposed by the No Child Left Behind law.
I’m disappointed that this bill is even necessary, because Congress was supposed to take time this year to work with the President to fully fund No Child Left Behind and to fix what isn’t working with the law.
Unfortunately, Congress didn’t do its job this year. And as a result, children, parents, teachers and schools all across the country must continue to operate under a law that nearly everyone agrees should be fixed.
Well, if Congress and the President can’t or won’t take action this year, then I will work across party lines to protect students and schools from being penalized by bad policy for yet another year. I believe that it’s time that Members of Congress hold themselves as accountable as we hold our students and schools.
Many of you remember when No Child Left Behind became law in 2002. Since that time, much has changed for educators and students in America.
Teachers have provided more information than ever before to parents about the educational progress of our children and students are working harder than ever before to master new skills.
The intent of this law was to make schools accountable for providing a first class education to our children, but the unfunded, cumbersome mandates of the law have resulted in frustration and diverted attention away from the best practices that we know are beneficial to our children.
As a longtime public school teacher, let me state clearly that I fully support accountability in education and I know that most teachers share my desire to do whatever it takes to see our kids succeed. But the same law that triggered these positive changes also penalizes schools that, while making progress, don’t meet an arbitrary bar set by the Bush Administration.
Everywhere I go in southern Minnesota, I hear from constituents like those here with me today about the problems with No Child Left Behind. As the only teacher in Congress with experience teaching under the unfunded mandates of No Child Left Behind, I believe I have a unique perspective on this law – I celebrate its achievements, but I cannot sit idly by and allow our children to be penalized while we wait for a new President to work with the Congress to fix what is broken.
This bill freezes in place the penalties imposed by NCLB. That means that schools who are about to be sanctioned for not reaching the arbitrary benchmark will have another year to improve their scores, while schools already being sanctioned will not receive additional penalties. However, schools that are already taking corrective action to improve their performance will continue with that plan – students will still receive extra tutoring, teachers will still receive extra professional training and other efforts to improve schools in American will not cease.
My bill simply puts a hold on additional penalties until Congress and the new President can fix and fund NCLB, or until the conclusion of the 2008-2009 school year.
Congress should have fixed NCLB this year, but this President stands in the way of real reform. But just because it didn’t get done doesn’t mean that our kids and our schools should have to suffer through more bad federal education policy for another year. That’s why it is only fair to take a time-out from these penalties until Congress can provide parents, teachers and students a better plan to improve America’s schools – a plan that truly sets high expectations for all students and rewards results in the classroom.
This is one more example of Congressman Walz working for the people of the 1st District and educators and students nationwide. Our current president likes to talk about reform but falls short when providing the funding to get the job done.
DFL Senate candidate Al Franken stopped in Luverne last Thursday as part of his “Standing up for Minnesota Tour. He spoke at the Coffey Haus and toured the local ethanol plant. Lori Ehde from the Rock County Star Herald has the story here.
With summer like weather finally here its time to make hay while the sun shines. We have been busy working in the garden and clearing our heads of all the noise from the world events. I have put together a little music video of the results of our labor.
