I've signed up for the We Campaign because I believe that by working together, we can solve the climate crisis. Will you join me? Just click on the link below to sign up and add your voice to the million-plus call for an end to global warming

www.wecansolveit.org/join

The We Campaign is an effort launched by Al Gore and the Alliance for Climate Protection to promote solutions to the climate crisis. It's an urgent issue, but the climate crisis is also solvable if we work together and unite our leaders around solutions like renewable power and enhanced energy efficiency. We can leave the next generation a healthy climate. Please add your voice by joining the We Campaign today:

www.wecansolveit.org/join

My name is Asher Heimermann and I am the host of a live internet radio broadcast show called "Asher Speaks Live". My show brings; authors, elected officials, candidates, and local celebrities "on air" as special guests to talk about their life and current events.

Asher Speaks Live attracts about 200 and 300 listeners each month. We discuss the latest national and political news as well as topics such as; news, sports, weather, and much more. Asher Speaks Live is a new innovative approach.

Noted guests on Asher Speaks Live include Larry Nelson, George Phillies, Kat Swift, and Judy Stock, just to name a few.

Archives of Asher Speaks Live can also be heard on my official website that is located at www.asherheimermann.com as well as my profile on MySpace, which can be found at www.myspace.com/aheimermann.

Please feel free to contact me for more information or to inquire about booking to be a special guest on the Asher Speaks Live radio program. You are welcome to visit my website to learn more about me and my radio show.


Mr. Asher Heimermann
asher@asherheimermann.com
http://www.asherheimermann.com
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/asher

I have officially endorsed Senator Barack Obama. I have posted my endorsement on my blog, which is is located at www.ASHERHEIMERMANN.com and click on Blog.

Please feel free to comment on the endorsement and to vote for the Senator in the 2008 Presidential Poll that is on the right side of the blog.

If you have any questions, please e-mail me at asher@asherheimermann.com. Comments should be left on the blog.

I would like to wish you and your family a joyous holiday season. I was pleased to meet so many of you this year, and I could not be more proud of the successes we enjoyed in 2007.

As we gather together with our family and friends, let us all take a moment to reflect on the meaning of this season, and to recommit ourselves to keeping the holiday spirit alive. And most of all, for peace on Earth.

From myself and everyone at Asher For America, we wish you a Happy Holidays and a joyous New Year!



Mr. Asher Heimermann
Independent for America
www.ASHERHEIMERMANN.com

I've just downloaded the 116-page Federal Election Commission Campaign Guide for Nonconnected Committees. Now, to wade through it to see what I need to do to stay out of trouble as I phone solicit all the wealthy of America.   Read More »

Since 2000, the progressive grassroots have slowly (sometimes TOO slowly) been getting their act together. We often started with little idea what we were doing and have kind of bumbled through to 2006. By 2006 I saw a marked improvement in the organization of the grassroots nationally and it had a huge effect on elections. Many groups contributed to the growing infrastructure of the progressive grassroots. Wellstone Action was one such group.

Wellstone Action was founded to carry on the work of Senator Paul Wellstone after his death. One of the things they do is train activists. Their training sessions include:

Camp Wellstone, a dynamic weekend-long training program that teaches progressives how to win on issues and elect good candidates;

Campus Camp Wellstone, a training specifically designed for college students interested in getting and staying involved in progressive political activism;

Camp Sheila Wellstone, training for advocates and citizens working to end domestic and sexual violence;

Wellstone Action's Labor Program (WALP) partners with progressive labor organizations committed to building infrastructure, leadership and capacity within local unions and with community partners.

These training sessions have been exceedingly successful. You too can sign up and become a more effective activist.

Here is the schedule for the next few months:

2/23 - 2/24/07 Campus Camp Wellstone: Washington University

2/27 - 2/28/07 Camp Sheila Wellstone - Indian Country
Camp Sheila Wellstone in Indian Country will train 75 Native women on the skills to organize to change the high rates of domestic and sexual violence in their communities

3/9 - 3/11/07 Camp Wellstone: Seattle, Washington
Camp Wellstone returns to Seattle! Register today!

3/16 - 3/17/07 Campus Camp Wellstone: North Carolina State University, Raleigh
Campus Camp Wellstone: North Carolina State University, Raleigh

3/23 - 3/24/07 Labor Training: MAPE
Labor Training with the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees

3/30 - 3/31/07 Campus Camp Wellstone: University of Minnesota, Duluth
Campus Camp Wellstone: University of Minnesota, Duluth
4/6 - 4/7/07 Campus Camp Wellstone: Northern Arizona University
Campus Camp Wellstone: Northern Arizona University

4/6 - 4/7/07 Campus Camp Wellstone: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Campus Camp Wellstone: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

4/6 - 4/7/07 Campus Camp Wellstone: Wellesley College
Campus Camp Wellstone: Wellesley College

4/13 - 4/15/07 Camp Wellstone: Denver, Colorado
Registration will open six weeks before the camp.

4/16 - 4/17/07

This issue is dedicated to one more round of celebration over our big win this month, discussing some of the ideas and goals of the Democratic Party nationally and in various states. Anytime you hear someone say the Democrats have no ideas, remember the ideas and goals outlined here. I also have my usual discussion of America's creation myth, the myth of Thanksgiving.

Hope everyone is having a nice rest and has enjoyed a solid gloating about the election. For those who want some extra gloating, I recommend reading about a major Arab conference giving the elder Bush grief about his less-than appreciated son.

Table of Contents:

THANKSGIVING

A DEMOCRATIC PLAN FOR AMERICA

A DEMOCRATIC PLAN FOR NEW YORK STATE

A DEMOCRATIC PLAN FOR BROOKLYN

A DEMOCRATIC PLAN FOR IOWA

A DEMOCRATIC PLAN FOR WISCONSIN

Carl Levin fof President. Is there a better candidate for the dems? Blue Dog(will capture purple voters)+Senator from Michigan(Swing State)+30 years expierence+Born in Detroit+Chairman of Senate Armed Services Committee+big fundrai$er=PERFECT CANDIDATE

I have been content for the past month to tour the country in support of the candidates I feel can win our government back tomorrow. I have concentrated my efforts on doing constructive, grass roots activities that I believe are necessary to earning the privilege of governing this great country of ours. I have left the "sidelines" to the bloggers, wanna-be's, almost were's, and "will be someday if they ever get up the energy to do something other than move their mouth and fingers"... That was until I read this post on one of the political forums I perused while researching my WEEKLY RANT Election Special airing tomorrow. This is the mentality we are up against people:

"Don't let this country go down the tubes, vote Republican and ensure that we are safe from terroisim, strong economicaly, and not perverted by Hollywood values."

I can't help it. You asked for it, GBLINN, whoever the hell you are. So you're now going to get IT. I also hope you don't mind I left your fine display of spelling skills in tact, as well. Why should people only think you're stupid?   Read More »

Volunteering to fight for the economic future of the middle class!   Read More »

The Census Bureau released new numbers that don't shock, but they do sadden. There can be no argument that we live in the wealthiest nation on the planet, and yet:

12.6% live below the poverty line - that's 37 million Americans. The number of Americans living in poverty has increased every year since Bush took office, except this most recent one. The 2004 number was 12.7%, which unfortunately is a statistically insignificant drop, according to census officials. (For what it's worth, in the last year of the Clinton administration (2000), 11.3% were living in poverty.)

46.6 million Americans have no health insurance. That is an increase of 1.3 million over the 2004 numbers.

The numbers speak for themselves. Poverty has either increased (or remained statistically unchanged for 1 year) while the number of people without health insurance has skyrocketed every year since 2000.

We're spending a reported $250 million a day in Iraq. It's not unfair to ask how much better things would be if that money was spent here at home. If we're going to bankrupt the future with $300 billion deficits, I'd rather do so by providing universal health coverage and lifting the poor we have today out of poverty.

Isn't it great having healthcare these days? Don't you just love it when you have to pay a high monthly premium, and you still have to pay a copayment for doctor visits and hospital stays? There's nothing I'd like better than to wake up from a coma, and have a large bill shoved in my face. We need campaign finance reform and to expand Medicare and Medicaid for Universal Health Care (1).

(1) Norman Goldman filling in on the Ed Schultz Show on AM 950 Air America Minnesota.

Phillip Morris representatives began unveiling a new promotion at their displays across California today. The display consists of a new poster and card-board stand-ups warning about Proposition 86, an Anti-Tobacco measure which will increase taxes on tobacco related products, including an excise tax on every pack of cigarettes.

The display alerts consumers that smokers are being unfairly targeted for 2.2 billion dollars for new bureaucratic programs. According to the representative responsible for attempting to install the display at my place of business, she had been given a pamphlet stating that, "40% of the money would go to hospitals so they can charge whatever they want in the emergency room."

The organization responsible for the store display is 'No on 86 - Stop the $2 billion tax hike' and bills itself as "a coalition of business, law enforcement, and taxpayer groups, Philip Morris USA and US Smokeless Tobacco Company." These consist of various industry groups that obviously stand to lose revenue from the increased prices, as well as the California Chamber of Commerce, The Deputy Sheriffs Association of San Diego and the Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs (both of which claim that the proposition would increase the foothold of Link crime rings of interstate cigarette smugglers trying to raise money for terrorist organizations like Hezbollah), the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce, and a short list of taxpayers associations backed by think tanks like the Cato Institute. Daniel Griswold of Cato@Liberty announced yesterday that, "Wal-Mart and other price-conscious discount retailers are really a working family's best friend."

"They operate in the marketplace as representatives for millions of consumers, ensuring that they get the best and lowest prices possible from wholesalers and producers. Tens of millions of American shoppers vote with their feet every week by visiting their local Wal-Mart."

In other news, trees produce more pollution than cars do.

The opposition also claims that there is no oversight or accountability (of which there is a remarkable amount), that it will increase our deficit over time (I consider the lost revenue from decreasing tobacco sales to be an investment on the lives of our citizens), that it will increase crime (see also: Hezbollah), that hospitals will pocket millions of dollars (to cover the cost of uninsured citizens suffering from smoking related illnesses), and is sponsored in the Argument in Opposition by an OR nurse, a public school teacher, and el Presidenté! of the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce, Jaime Rojas.

This powerhouse of civic-minded intellectuals is going to be a tough act to follow for the sponsors of the proposition, who only managed to recruit Carolynn Rhee (chairperson of California's division of the American Cancer Society, President of the American Heart Association's Western States Affiliate (P.K. Shah, M.D.), and a board member of the American Lung Association of California (Timothy A. Morris, M.D.) to back its proposal.

I spent a few minutes pouring through Prop 86's legal text, argument in favor, and rebuttal. According to the proposal itself, this is an update to the California tobacco tax which was established in 1999 and has not been increased since then (after 8 years of nothing, a 300% jump isn't really isn't such a big deal). This establishes a state "Tobacco Trust Fund", in essence creating a pocket of unscheduled funds for the purposes of funding additional tobacco prevention and treatment programs.

By "unscheduled" I mean to say that the funds themselves are not apparently bound to any fiscal year the way most funding is provided. Instead, the trust fund holds the money and doles it out to a broad number of programs and organizations. It's major purpose is to fund an unspecified amount towards programs established under Proposition 10, the California Children and Families First act of 1998.

If the advertisement is to believed, other groups supporting 'No on 86 - Stop the $2 billion tax hike' include frumpy young adults, a young school teacher and her classroom full of enthusiastic grade-schoolers, confident grocers, agonized grandmothers, and generic police stock footage state-wide.



-Jess

Yeah, we know. Bush is an idiot. He's stupid, a moron, he's the most immoral moralist we've ever seen, if he had one more brain cell it would be lonely. We know this.

We all miss Bill Clinton, who could speak on a wide range of topics and even breaking news without a teleprompter and without having to plant people to ask the "the right questions" - meaning only the 2 he can answer.

Here's Clinton's latest speech, in case you missed it:

Link

But we need to stop playing the broken record. Even Republicans are starting to realize that their fearless leader is a moron.

It's time to put the issues out there and discuss them amongst ourselves so we can address them when we're accosted by the unthinking neocons who have been "framed" into thinking that they're Republicans.

We have to focus on Iraq, Lebanon, Iran, health care, education, election reform, tax reform, global warming - the REAL issues facing this country. We can't allow the Neocons to take our eyes off the ball with their talk of terror and fear. We also can't keep focusing on Bush's incompetence. We have to fight for the real issues and we have to win back Congress in November.

How does one go about making an introduction on an outlet such as this? My personal quirks are going to prove substantially insignificant if I manage to correctly do what it is I have set out to accomplish with this blog.

I support neither big government nor small government, but rather what you might call Net Government if you were going to reduce it to a talking point. This is local, county, state, and federal resources woven together to create a translucent government which supports a large populace by evenly distributing the economic pressure of social needs.

What exactly that means, and our best options for moving towards this "perfect storm" of functional, people-oriented goverment, is something that you and I shall discuss heavily in the days to come.

Courtesy of The Daily Rant

They say the Democrats aren't united. They say the Democratic Party hasn't put out any clear platform for the voters to grab a hold of as an alternative to the Neo-Con dynasty that has resulted in an Administration that starts World War III, lies to the American people and Congress about why it was necessary, participates in killing of innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan, and simply watches it happen in Darfur and now Lebanon without doing a damn thing to stop it.

We have a leader who can say in one breath that every single life is important when pulling his trump card veto on stem-cell research, at the same time dropping the hammer on 100,000 Iraqis, killing 2,567 brave American soldiers, and watching 500 innocent Lebanese get pummeled by Israeli bombers, while the genocide in Darfur continues to rage. But that one life….

How many Republicans have to be indicted, convicted, and thrown in the hole before the alternative automatically becomes preferred over a party that CANNOT distance itself from SEC fraud, money laundering, treason, perjury, bribery, and illegal spying? I don't quite see those traditional American family values, that high moral fiber, or good ol' Christian virtues in effect in the current Neo-Con foreign or domestic policies. Do you?   Read More »

I have concluded that all those who would loudly protest against all things they have no present need for, e.g., Stem Cell Research, that when their own time of need arrives for what they have so strongly protested against, they will excuse all their previous objections to satisfy that personal and prevalent need.
Tom Nass
5th Marine Division - WWII

I apologize for being a bit spotty on The Daily Rant lately. I can see from the number of times people have hit the site that you are pissed off when you click on me, then I'm not there to bitch with… and you get more pissed… and that's exactly the way it should be. I thank you for that. But sometimes there are responsibilities that require re-direction and checking off the play at the line of scrimmage. This week has been one of them.

After witnessing one of the most heart-warming sites when my father was laid to rest this week as a hero in Fort rescans National Cemetery with full honors, color guard, a version of taps that made my blood run cold as I thought of how many times that "Taps" is played everyday in Iraq…. And certainly not while looking over the San Diego Bay with a cool ocean breeze to dry the tears. Unfortunately, our poor young men and women who continue to die by the 3's, and 5's, and 7's each and every day of this cursed "war", they don't get to feel those ocean breezes. Or college. Or marriage. Or parenthood. Or life.

My father lived until age 89, a ripe age and a good life. And I chose to deposit him eternally where he can always see the ocean, and the beautiful San Diego Harbor skyline. He can talk it over with all his ol' buddies who went through the same hell as he did in WWII. But it was different. He was always proud that he was able to defend his country. He was willing to die for it and knew that when he signed up. I dare say that most of the men and women dying daily in Iraq… well, that thought never crossed their mind. And I'm not sure what they died for. Or what they'll say to each other around Arlington. That was Tuesday…and now I will move on as we all must. I'm not so sure about the families of those young men and women, however. I think they're still awaiting answers from Washington.   Read More »

Courtesy of The Daily Rant

Of the three R's, reading apparently isn't the only skill that Junior hasn't mastered despite sitting through four years of class at Yale. He isn't much better at 'rithmetic either. Understating or underestimating statistics and time frames has become the modus operandi for his administration.

First, it was the six months maximum that Dubya and Rummy put out there as the time table to bomb Baghdad, plant their seeds of democracy, get big wet kisses from the Iraqi people for liberating them, and ducking out in time to be home for Christmas.... plus or minus three years. Then, there was that simple math error that turned a billion dollar surplus into a $ 3 trillion deficit... plus or minus a few billion.

If there was any doubt about Juniors math competency, today we learned from the Iraqi Health Ministry that the actual death toll of Iraqi citizens since our invasion in 2003 is not the 30,000, plus or minus, Junior has been rolling out to us since last year. According to the stats just released in Baghdad, the number is actually over 50,000... And that doesn't include Kurdistan, which doesn't bother to report body counts to Baghdad, nor Al Anbar, the most troubled province of them all in western Iraq.   Read More »