Alan Grayson Fights for US!

[FayeforCure]

On Sunday, in connection with the Academy Awards, the staff sent out an email identifying some of our accomplishments this past year:

(1) Explaining the Occupy Wall Street movement to a national audience on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, and earning the first standing ovation for a guest in the show's 10-year history.

(2)Seeing that clip become the second-most-watched news video in the world during the following week, the third-most-viewed fact-check on Politifact during all of 2011, and then a popular song.

(3)Pointing out on Rachel Maddow’s show on MSNBC the inconvenient truth that America has the fifth most unequal distribution of wealth in the world, a statement that became Politifact’s most viewed fact-check of 2011.

(4) Documenting what the Bush tax breaks for the rich are worth each year for Rush Limbaugh ($2,689,135), Glenn Beck ($1,512,352), Sean Hannity ($1,006,352), Bill O’Reilly ($914,352), Sarah Palin ($638,352), Newt Gingrich ($247,352) and George W. Bush himself ($187,552).

(5) Collecting more than 100,000 signatures on a petition to oppose any and all cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits, and then personally delivering that petition to the White House staff.

What the staff graciously didn’t mention, of course, is that all of this happened after I lost the 2010 election.   Which helped to confirm a view that I’ve always had:  win or lose, there is always something useful to do.

If the staff’s list represents the screenplay for the year that we had, then I think that Maya Angelou’s beautiful poem “Still I Rise” was the score.  Here is an excerpt:

You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise. . . .  Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops. Weakened by my soulful cries. Does my haughtiness offend you? Don't you take it awful hard 'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines Diggin' in my own back yard. You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I'll rise....   Out of the huts of history's shame I rise Up from a past that's rooted in pain I rise I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise.

Courage,

Alan Grayson

[bill]

On Sunday, in connection with the Academy Awards, the staff sent out an email identifying some of our accomplishments this past year:

(1) Explaining the Occupy Wall Street movement to a national audience on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, and earning the first standing ovation for a guest in the show's 10-year history.

(2)Seeing that clip become the second-most-watched news video in the world during the following week, the third-most-viewed fact-check on Politifact during all of 2011, and then a popular song.

(3)Pointing out on Rachel Maddow’s show on MSNBC the inconvenient truth that America has the fifth most unequal distribution of wealth in the world, a statement that became Politifact’s most viewed fact-check of 2011.

(4) Documenting what the Bush tax breaks for the rich are worth each year for Rush Limbaugh ($2,689,135), Glenn Beck ($1,512,352), Sean Hannity ($1,006,352), Bill O’Reilly ($914,352), Sarah Palin ($638,352), Newt Gingrich ($247,352) and George W. Bush himself ($187,552).

(5) Collecting more than 100,000 signatures on a petition to oppose any and all cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits, and then personally delivering that petition to the White House staff.

What the staff graciously didn’t mention, of course, is that all of this happened after I lost the 2010 election.   Which helped to confirm a view that I’ve always had:  win or lose, there is always something useful to do.

If the staff’s list represents the screenplay for the year that we had, then I think that Maya Angelou’s beautiful poem “Still I Rise” was the score.  Here is an excerpt:

You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise. . . .  Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops. Weakened by my soulful cries. Does my haughtiness offend you? Don't you take it awful hard 'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines Diggin' in my own back yard. You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I'll rise....   Out of the huts of history's shame I rise Up from a past that's rooted in pain I rise I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise.

Courage,

Alan Grayson

As long as we are laughing at stupid quotes from this nutjob here are a few more

•“Don’t get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly.”
â€" House Floor
•“I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven’t voted sooner to end this holocaust in America.”
â€" House Floor
•“I have trouble listening to what [Dick Cheney] says sometimes, because of the blood that drips form his teeth while he’s talking … He’s just angry because the president doesn’t shoot old men in the face.”
â€" Interview on MSNBC Hardball with Chris Matthews
•“Rush Limbaugh is a has-been hypocrite loser who craves attention … Limbaugh actually was more lucid when he was a drug addict.”
•“Comparing what Joe Wilson did to what I did â€" it’s not the same. What I did is like a Bob Dylan protest song. What Joe Wilson did is like a belch.”
•“Here I am the only member of Congress who actually worked as an economist, and this lobbyist, this K Street whore, is trying to teach me about economics

[Dog Walker]

Narcissistic Personality Disorder shows no preference for one party or the other, but falls on politicians indiscriminately.

[FayeforCure]

On Sunday, in connection with the Academy Awards, the staff sent out an email identifying some of our accomplishments this past year:

(1) Explaining the Occupy Wall Street movement to a national audience on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, and earning the first standing ovation for a guest in the show's 10-year history.

(2)Seeing that clip become the second-most-watched news video in the world during the following week, the third-most-viewed fact-check on Politifact during all of 2011, and then a popular song.

(3)Pointing out on Rachel Maddow’s show on MSNBC the inconvenient truth that America has the fifth most unequal distribution of wealth in the world, a statement that became Politifact’s most viewed fact-check of 2011.

(4) Documenting what the Bush tax breaks for the rich are worth each year for Rush Limbaugh ($2,689,135), Glenn Beck ($1,512,352), Sean Hannity ($1,006,352), Bill O’Reilly ($914,352), Sarah Palin ($638,352), Newt Gingrich ($247,352) and George W. Bush himself ($187,552).

(5) Collecting more than 100,000 signatures on a petition to oppose any and all cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits, and then personally delivering that petition to the White House staff.

What the staff graciously didn’t mention, of course, is that all of this happened after I lost the 2010 election.   Which helped to confirm a view that I’ve always had:  win or lose, there is always something useful to do.

If the staff’s list represents the screenplay for the year that we had, then I think that Maya Angelou’s beautiful poem “Still I Rise” was the score.  Here is an excerpt:

You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise. . . .  Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops. Weakened by my soulful cries. Does my haughtiness offend you? Don't you take it awful hard 'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines Diggin' in my own back yard. You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I'll rise....   Out of the huts of history's shame I rise Up from a past that's rooted in pain I rise I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise.

Courage,

Alan Grayson

As long as we are laughing at stupid quotes from this nutjob here are a few more

• Republican Health Care Plasn: “Don’t get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly.”
â€" House Floor
•“I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven’t voted sooner to end this holocaust in America.” 45,000 people die each year from lack of health care insurance
â€" House Floor
•“I have trouble listening to what [Dick Cheney] says sometimes, because of the blood that drips form his teeth while he’s talking … He’s just angry because the president doesn’t shoot old men in the face.” Dick Cheney shot his friend on a hunting trip
â€" Interview on MSNBC Hardball with Chris Matthews
•“Rush Limbaugh is a has-been hypocrite loser who craves attention … Limbaugh actually was more lucid when he was a drug addict.” Rush abused prescription drugs
•“Comparing what Joe Wilson did to what I did â€" it’s not the same. What I did is like a Bob Dylan protest song. What Joe Wilson did is like a belch.”
not sure about this one
•“Here I am the only member of Congress who actually worked as an economist, and this lobbyist, this K Street whore, is trying to teach me about economics" sooooooo true!!!

Actually, all of these quotes are true. Grayson has the guts to tell it like it is.

But of course it is much more ok to offend all women by telling them to put an aspirin between their legs as a contraceptive 

[FayeforCure]

Lies, Lies, Lies and Money rule Republican strategy, nowhere more than right here in Florida:

A few people have asked me why we are doing a “Fight Corporate Smears” Moneybomb this week.



The answer is that we have to.  We have to.  There is no alternative.



Right in front of our eyes, the right wing in America is strip-mining the political landscape, polluting it with wave after wave of hateful propaganda and lies.  First the radio, then the newspapers, and now TV are virtually all right-wing, virtually all the time.  And that’s just the “news” coverage; the paid ads are even worse.



In 2010, I was the target of over $5 million in “sewer money” smears.  A few weeks before the election, the newspaper Politico calculated that almost 20% of all of the “independent expenditures” in House races in the entire country had been spent against me.  And no cavalry came to my rescue â€" certainly not the imaginary “liberal media.”



All of the big money is on one side â€" the side of Big Money.  After the 2010 election, the Center for Media and Democracy reported that spending by outside groups had risen by “at least 500 percent.”  Pro-Republican groups had outspent pro-Democratic groups by 7 to 1.  Public Citizen calculated that in the 53 House competitive districts where Karl Rove and his allies outspent Democratic groups, the Republicans won 51.



The right-wing has only one tool, and it needs only one tool â€" the slanderous attack ad.

I don’t know what’s worse:  the fact that Karl Rove and the Koch Brothers dictate what voters see and hear in September and October of each election year, or the fact that it’s all lies, lies, lies.  Completely unconstrained by reality.



And now it has started again.  Already, the typical voter in Orlando has seen another one of those vicious, malicious anti-Grayson ads ten times during the month of May alone.  Politifact and Factcheck.org both proclaimed the ads outrageous lies.  The other side couldn’t care less.



So what are we going to do about it?  Unlike the Republicans, I can’t auction off tax breaks, bailouts, subsidies, regulatory exemptions, government contracts and other goodies to the highest bidder.  I can’t, and I won’t.



We have to find some other way to fight back.  And that involves you.



The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision unleashed the dogs of this one-sided war.  I was in the courtroom during the decision.  That night, on national TV, I said, “If we do nothing, you can kiss this country goodbye.”



When I said “we,” I meant you.



The only way that we can fight back against corporate smears, and win, is if you contribute to this campaign. There is no alternative.  We need your help, and we need it now.



Courage,



Alan Grayson

[tufsu1]

Grayson is just as controversial (some may say crazy) as his replacement, Daniel Webster...what amazes me is that district first voted for a far left-winger and then replaced him with someone as far to the right as can be.

[BridgeTroll]

He certainly sounds a bit... um... er... emotional...

[FayeforCure]

He certainly sounds a bit... um... er... emotional...

If someone gets emotional about giving the 99% the protections they need as well as access to opportunity, I say bring it on!!!

You will never see me get emortional like the teabaggers/Republicans get about protecting the 1%, and their preferential treatment for corporations over small businesses.

[FayeforCure]

It's important to make a distinction between strong emotional statements that are true vs those that are LIES, as the Chamber of Commerce is doing against Alan Grayson:

U.S. Chamber tells seniors that 20 million could lose coverage under the health care law

http://www.politifact.com/florida/article/2012/jun/28/fact-checking-florida-health-care/

[fsquid]

isn't he the nut who said Republicans wanted people to die?

[FayeforCure]

isn't he the nut who said Republicans wanted people to die?

Grayson said: Republican Health Care Plan is: “Don’t get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly.”

IOW, if people die quickly when they get sick while insured, there is less loss and thus more profit for insurance companies........what's not to like for Republicans about that?

Besides, Republicans don't mind leaving 50 million Americans uninsured, and another 50 million Americans under-insured at risk of death or bankruptcies.

Republican Mitch McConnell even proclaims that coverage for uninsured Americans is 'not the issue,' and the 72 deaths per day, or three per hour (26,000 per year), doesn't faze him a bit.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/20/us-usa-healthcare-deaths-idUSBRE85J15720120620

Makes Republican priorities sound nutty now, doesn't it?

[NotNow]

isn't he the nut who said Republicans wanted people to die?

How would that make him a nut?

By saying,  or even repeating, something as obviously stupid as that.


Your website has fallen to the point of just publishing the fundraising letters of left wing nuts.  Kind of sad, really.

[ben says]

isn't he the nut who said Republicans wanted people to die?

How would that make him a nut?

By saying,  or even repeating, something as obviously stupid as that.


Your website has fallen to the point of just publishing the fundraising letters of left wing nuts.  Kind of sad, really.

So why do you continue to visit and post here?

[fsquid]

isn't he the nut who said Republicans wanted people to die?

Grayson said: Republican Health Care Plan is: “Don’t get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly.”

IOW, if people die quickly when they get sick while insured, there is less loss and thus more profit for insurance companies........what's not to like for Republicans about that?

Besides, Republicans don't mind leaving 50 million Americans uninsured, and another 50 million Americans under-insured at risk of death or bankruptcies.

Republican Mitch McConnell even proclaims that coverage for uninsured Americans is 'not the issue,' and the 72 deaths per day, or three per hour (26,000 per year), doesn't faze him a bit.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/20/us-usa-healthcare-deaths-idUSBRE85J15720120620

Makes Republican priorities sound nutty now, doesn't it?

And for all the lip service liberals pay to not taking food out of babies' mouths and the like, the actual programs they establish seem in most cases to be at least as effective at keeping the poor trapped in poverty as at helping them. Keep them dumb, poor, and voting democrat.

A pox on both their houses.

[fsquid]

And please stop with this "they fight for us" bull shit.  The longer they can keep up the charade, the money and power they can extract from us. It's a game to them, they're winning, and we're losing.