As you may recall, Marcelas Owens learned at a young age to turn pain into progressive change when at the age of seven he lost his mother, a health-care activist, after she lost her job and insurance.  He quickly became an advocate himself, first working with USAction affiliate Washington Community Action Network, then telling his story to Senator Patty Murray, launching him onto the national stage.  (Quite literally – he was right next to President Obama when the health care bill was signed!)  Touring the country during the battle for health care reform, Marcelas said “I don’t want any other kids to go through the pain that our family has gone through. My grandma and I want Barack Obama and Congress and everybody to come together and to help get the health care bill passed.”  An example for the movement, he has also shown us how to take jabs from the opposition in stride.  He once said that, “my mother always taught me they can have their own opinion but that doesn’t mean they are right.  They are not going to stop me from my fight.”

Because of his tenacity and courage that go well beyond his eleven years, USAction is proud to be honoring him at our 2010 Progressive Leadership Awards on September 29, 2010. Keep an eye out for posts profiling our other honorees – Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, National Campaign Manager of Health Care for America Now! (HCAN) coalition Richard Kirsch and its entire Steering Committee and staff.  Please consider joining us for the event in Washington, DC to recognize the incredible and inspiring work of Marcelas and the other honorees.

No two people could be more opposite: King sought to unite the nation with nonviolence, compassion, and dialogue in the face of racist oppression and hate. Beck egomaniacally wraps himself in the flag to recklessly use inflammatory demagoguery to smear people who he believes are unworthy of being Americans, especially President Obama.

Their own words show how far apart their visions are in inspiring a better tomorrow for Americans.

King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and in his Nobel lecture on Dec. 11 talked about the promise and progress embodied in the Civil Rights Act. King preached nonviolence and love as the tools for peace in the global family. Violence is an immoral all-destructive force that abandons brotherhood and understanding, he said.

Beck famously said on Fox News last year that the nation’s first biracial president is racist with “a deep-seated hatred of white people or the white culture.”

Meanwhile, King argued that his movement means

“we do not want to instill fear in others or into the society of which we are a part. The movement does not seek to liberate Negroes at the expense of the humiliation and enslavement of whites. It seeks no victory over anyone. It seeks to liberate American society and to share in the self-liberation of all the people.”

Beck has also said the NAACP, the Justice Department, and others “need a race war” to rip people apart to achieve their means. He has many times loosely used “slavery” to criticize the administration and progressives, and has tried to tie Obama with the Black Panther Party, calling it part of Obama’s “army of thugs.” (How honorable.)

King said in his Nobel lecture that a symbol of the nation’s strides since Brown v. Board of Education a decade earlier was the crushing defeat of Sen. Barry Goldwater - a Civil Rights Act opponent - in that year’s presidential election. 

“Another indication that progress is being made was found in the recent presidential election in the United States. The American people revealed great maturity by overwhelmingly rejecting a presidential candidate who had become identified with extremism, racism, and retrogression. The voters of our nation rendered a telling blow to the radical right. They defeated those elements in our society which seek to pit white against Negro and lead the nation down a dangerous Fascist path.”

Beck’s incendiary rhetoric is not limited to paranoid rants alone; despicable allusions to violence are also common. He joked about poisoning the speaker of the House and compared himself to “Israeli Nazi hunters” by saying, “To the day I die, I am going to be a progressive hunter.” In one April 2009 show, Beck poured “gasoline” on a Fox News staffer representing an “average American” while mocking Obama and saying, “President Obama, why don’t you just set us on fire?”

In his letter from a Birmingham, Alabama, jail in 1963, King was dismayed by the inaction and indifference of “white moderates” and churches that may have opposed Jim Crow but disagreed with King’s movement; critics branded him an extremist. “So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love?” he concluded.

A few weeks after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Beck scorned both victims of 9/11 and Katrina because of what he saw as selfishness. “You know it took me about a year to start hating the 9/11 victims’ families? … And when I see a 9/11 victim family on television, or whatever, I’m just like, ‘Oh shut up!’ I’m so sick of them because they’re always complaining.” He felt it was unfair that New Orleans and those who stayed behind garnered all the attention. “And that’s all we’re hearing about, are the people in New Orleans. Those are the only ones we’re seeing on television are the scumbags.” (Beck insisted he only meant some, not all, victims for both tragedies.)

On the anniversary of such a proud American event, will Beck change course and stop inciting division?  We know what King would have done.  He addressed the rise of militancy in some black communities arguing that blacks and whites must stand together.

“In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrong deeds,” King said. “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.”

If we win, we’ll spend the money promoting health care access. Beginning next month, a key provision in the new health care law will allow millions of young adults to remain on or be added to their parents’ health insurance plans until they turn 26. Many are unaware of this potentially life-saving opportunity for heath care coverage.

You can help us win.

We’re asking you to sign-up to be a daily voter for USAction Education Fund, the 501(c)(3) sister to USAction.

As a daily voter, you’ll receive a short email each morning in the month of September with a link where you can go and cast votes. Voting takes a few seconds and the potential to help progressive causes is more than worth it. Please sign up now.

Earlier this year the Senate failed to pass a bill, introduced by Senator Sanders (I-VT), which would have cut tax-breaks for Big Oil. The good news is that this fall we another chance to demand that our Congress stands with us, the taxpayers, and not Big Oil.

Why?

Because Big Oil is taking us for a ride…

After devastating the Gulf region, BP is aiming to get a $10 billion bailout to recoup their loses despite ruining the economy of an entire region. Exxon Mobil made record breaking profits last year, managed to pay NO income tax, and was able to pocket $46 million from the IRS.

How is this possible?

Big Oil has a strangle hold on Congress.

The oil and gas industry have given over $3,097,000 to U.S. Senators during the current session. As stated by Steve Kretzmann from Oil Change International, Senators that voted against Senator Sanders bill took at least three times the money from the oil and gas industry than those that voted for the bill.

Find out how much your senator has taken.

BIG OIL IS SHAKING US DOWN

Over 65,000 people have already signed on to USAction’s “Stop the Big Oil Bailout” petition, demanding that Congress close the billion dollar tax breaks and subsidies to oil companies like BP and ExxonMobil. After launching this petition drive with the support of other groups like CREDO and Democracy for America, USAction and its online arm TrueMajority will be stepping up the pressure by taking this fight to targeted election districts as we head into the final two months of election season.

It’s time to demand that our senators stop taking dirty money from the oil and gas industry, and start doing what is best for the tax payers. Sign the petition and stay tuned for events near you.

It doesn’t take someone with an MPP degree to figure out that Glenn Beck is no civil rights leader, he continuously uses racially charged rhetoric.

In response, Celebrate the Dream - Reject the Nightmare, a coalition of progressive artists and activists, including TrueMajority and USAction, is countering Beck’s hate by erecting a remarkable four-story high sculpture — a people’s memorial to MLK — on the National Mall on the same day.  And we want YOU to be a part of it. Click here to see a 3-d model of the memorial and get involved

All this has me wondering, what is the Tea Party?

They seem to be libertarian and all about small government. I’ve heard Tea Party activists say is, “this is a movement without leaders,” or something to that effect. But the party is getting to the point where it should better define itself it it’s going to last.

Michael Gerson asks three questions of the Tea Party:

First, do you believe that Social Security and Medicare are unconstitutional?

Do you believe that American identity is undermined by immigration?

Do you believe that gun rights are relevant to the health-care debate? Nevada Republican U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle raised this issue by asserting that, “If this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies.”

Michael Gerson was the chief speechwriter for President George W. Bush and I assume wants the Tea Party to resolve some issues so that it can have a positive impact on the Republican party. I’m not a fan of *most* of what the Tea Party or Republicans stand for, but I appreciate him asking these questions. I mean really, how many Tea Partiers are not descendants of immigrants?

Either way, I am not a fan of a two-party democracy, so I’m happy to see another party come along. But if the Tea Party doesn’t resolve some of these questions, it’s going to end up as relevant as the Reform Party or Green Party.

Not really, of course…not quite. Instead they are examining this notion:

“Essentially, when polling people who dislike candidate X, the specifics of the questions are almost irrelevant. As long as they’re negatively inclined — e.g., “Is Obama a werewolf?” — you’ll get a certain core percentage willing to say yes.”

The topic yielded this hilarious response (hat tip for finding this, Sarah Sawtelle):

Correction: Obama is half werewolf.
Same thing, really, as his father was the werewolf. Like Judaism, where Jewishness is carried on the mother’s side, werewolfishness is carried by the father. This isn’t about the werewolves’ “rights” under the 1st Amendment to worship the moon. This is about sensitivity to the victims who were attacked by mummies on 10/31. Allowing a werewolf to live in the White House is like letting a frankenstein live in the lab. And we shouldn’t let werewolves serve in office until Saudi Arabia lets non-werewolves serve in theirs. And we can’t have illegal were-immigrants sneakin’ over the border, dropping their anchor-cubs and sapping and impurifying all of our precious bodily fluids. Yes, yes, I know that liberalactivistjudges say that the 14th Amendment so-called “guarantees” the right of American-born werewolves to live among us, but we have to reexamine the 14th and take its interpretation back to what it was before it existed.

Posted by: Modusoperandi | August 24, 2010 11:03 AM

This reminds me of a poll that was taken once, years ago, asking Americans if they felt the U.S. should invade Canada. A plurality of respondents said, why, of course!

Originally found here.

Republicans and conservative Democrats… rejected every suggestion that we do more to avoid deep cuts in public services and help the ailing economy.

But these same politicians are eager to cut checks averaging $3 million each to the richest 120,000 people in the country.

Krugman goes on to note the total cost of these giveaways:

What’s at stake here? According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, making all of the Bush tax cuts permanent, as opposed to following the Obama proposal, would cost the federal government $680 billion in revenue over the next 10 years.

That’s right, $680 billion.

We must not forget that these are the same deficit frauds who fought tooth and nail over extensions of unemployment and COBRA insurance, aid to states, funding for education jobs and myriad jobs bills which could have helped to put America back to work.

In this economy, amidst devastating unemployment for workers and families struggling to get by, Republicans and some of the most conservative Democrats are preaching the same trite, “rising tide will lift all boats” supply-side economics that got us into this economic mess.

Queue Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, of my home state of Kentucky, who seemed clueless as to why David Gregory would be asking how tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans should be paid for:

MCCONNELL: What are you talking about, paid for? This is existing tax policy. It’s been in place for ten years. [...]

GREGORY: For a final time, I’ll go back to my question which is, the extension of the tax cuts would cost $3.2 trillion. That’s borrowed money, that adds to the deficit. Do you have a plan to pay for that extension?

MCCONNELL: You’re talking about current tax policy. Why did it all of a sudden become something that we, quote, ‘pay for’? (Via Think Progress)

This is the governing philosophy of modern conservatism.  We need not pay for wars or tax cuts for the rich.  But strengthening the safety net, funding teacher’s jobs or assisting struggling states during this Great Recession must be paid for, no matter how dire the economy.

I guess we can’t expect much more from folks who want to take our government and drown it in a bathtub.

In the video below Deana Knutsen, President of the WCAN board and Secretary Treasurer of USAction spoke about the protest of the health insurance lobbyists. 

Check out the album Health Care Advocates Disinfect Big Insurance Meeting on the USAction Facebook page for great pictures from the action, like the ones below.

Activists and advocates for consumers have been counteracting the industry’s lobbyist army in the fight over implementation of health care reform.  All the efforts have paid off as Ethan Rome, Executive Director of HCAN, noted on their blog earlier this week:

Today the NAIC took a step toward ending the health insurance companies’ stranglehold on our health care. The top state insurance regulators from across the nation voted to put patient care above insurance company profits. This decision moves us closer to more affordable health care for families and businesses and will help ensure that the new health care law fulfills its promise. Advocates have battled every step of the way to hold the insurance companies accountable, and we will continue to do so.

Many challenges remain before we can declare victory in the MLR fight. Pivotal aspects of the technical rules discussed today in Seattle remain unresolved, including crucial decisions on how to treat federal taxes and agent/broker fees. The NAIC still has work to do, and it should finish its deliberations soon so the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) can swiftly develop final rules that take effect on schedule for 2011 health plans.

This is a positive step towards justice and a fair health care system in our country.  The insurance industry wields their power by spending hundreds of millions to water down reform and protect their outlandish profits.  The NAIC decision is clear evidence that your voice matters and that we have the people power to hold the insurance industry accountable.