A thought about campaign finance reform

What do you think about this very simple idea? You (person, company, organization, whatever) can only donate to candidates that you can actually vote for.

Who the heck are Americans for Job Security?

It seemed that all of a sudden we are seeing these anti-Altmire ads from American's for Job Security like this one:



I was curious who the heck they were, so I did a little digging and found this New York Times article about them: Under a Tax-Exempt Cloak, Political Dollars Flow. The weirdest thing about the article is that it starts out talking about them pouring $1.6 million dollars into a referendum to restrict the development of a mine in Alaska.

Rather than some kind of grassroots organization they are simply another well financed group pretending to be out for out best interests. The reality is that the only jobs they want to secure are their own and the people that are really paying for it. They share offices with Crossroads Media, a Republican consulting firm. In Alaska, they were fronting a wealthy Alaskan who was really paying for the advertising.

The people of our district are pretty smart, and have gotten to know Congressman Altmire and his long list of accomplishments for our district over these last two terms. We have seen boilerplate commercials like this about him for just as long. Those commercials haven't worked here before and they won't work now.

Democrats Need To Show Some Guts

While the Republican's fear and smear campaign has riled up their base, it has also intimidated Democrats. The Democrats have been on the defensive it seems since Obama took office. However, there is a lot that the administration has accomplished that we can be proud of.

President Obama and the Democrats accomplished a great deal in the less than two years since he took office:

• Stabilized the economy through a stimulus package whose benefits are all around you if you just take a look.
• The same stimulus package included a tax cut.
• Saved the American auto industry. In the long run the tax payers may actually make a profit before it goes back to the private sector.
• Passed health care reform that we will start the see the benefits of on Thursday.
• Passed credit card reform.
• Moved most of the combat troop out of Iraq.
• Actively working on a peace plan for Israel and Palestine.

And this is just off the top of my head. There is probably more that I didn't think of.

The economy is still a work in progress, and there is a lot to be done.

President Obama has accomplished more in less than two years in office than in President Bush's two terms. Why would we ever want to go back?