The democratic base understands the nature of the current DNC....Third Way corporate and global...and I agree she fits right in with that group. These are the people who look you right in the eye as you demand the fraud be addressed across all business sectors and they all say 'what fraud'? I listened to a APM Marketplace interview with the Mayor of Miami......a city that rivals Baltimore in fraud and corruption and just as with Maryland's O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake he attributed all of the government watchdog reports of malfeasance a 'problem with paperwork'. This has become the code for 'I'll do anything to advance the interests of the 1% no matter the costs to the general public. That is the Third Way corporate democratic stance and it is why O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake has a national stance.......they are rampant team players with this!!
Those looking at these Maryland politicians know what it takes to be in this crony political environment and as an extension can imagine why they have been selected to move forward in the DNC. THE PROBLEM WITH ALL OF THIS INEQUITY, CRIME, AND CORRUPTION STARTS WITH THIRD WAY POLICY. LABOR AND JUSTICE MIGHT NOT BE CRIME FREE IN ANY SENSE, BUT THE FOCUS IS ON PEOPLE AND NOT CORPORATE INTERESTS!
Think of how just these two pols have spoon fed the Baltimore Development Corp and have article upon article published as to crime, corruption, and unaccountability..........IS THAT WHAT YOU REALLY WANT IN YOUR FUTURE LEADERSHIP?
VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE!!!!!
RUN LABOR AND JUSTICE CANDIDATES IN THE NEXT ELECTIONS!!!
The bad news for these two leaders and for the Third Way corporate caucus is that the democratic base has caught on even as mainstream media tried its best to cover for them. The democratic base represents 80% of the democratic party to the 20% of corporate Third Way types so these Third Way are a dying breed. It takes a while to organize in a captured media environment but as with Europe who is seeing an overwhelming shift from corporate liberal to labor...yes we can!!!!
Rawlings-Blake to take leadership post at DNC
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake as Mayor of Baltimore as she is sworn in by Frank Conaway Sr. (Lloyd Fox, Baltimore Sun / December 6, 2011)
By John Fritze, The Baltimore Sun 11:10 a.m. EST, January 21, 2013
WASHINGTON — Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake will become the secretary of the Democratic National Committee on Tuesday, giving her a prominent role in national politics.
The appointment, which has not been formally announced, will give Rawlings-Blake a voice in the party's national political apparatus at a time when President Barack Obama is beginning his second term and several Democrats — including Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley — are thought to be jockeying for the 2016 nomination.
"My hope is that we can carry forward the momentum of the Obama administration and that we can continue to grow the Democratic Party," Rawlings-Blake said Monday in Washington, where she was attending Obama's second inauguration. "It's about making sure that we activate the majority of the people in the country."
The move comes as former Obama campaign aides are launching a permanent advocacy group called Organizing for Action that hopes to marshal the volunteer muscle that twice elected him to the White House. Some Democrats have questioned whether the group, which will accept donations, could cut into the party's influence.
A DNC spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
The most public role the party secretary performs is to call the roll of delegates at the national convention — a largely symbolic act of recognizing each state on the floor to determine which candidate its delegates will support. Behind the scenes, the secretary is responsible for scheduling meetings, distributing talking points to members and, occasionally, campaigning for candidates across the country.
Rawlings-Blake, 42, has served as Baltimore's mayor since 2010 and has presided over the city at a time of historic lows in homicides and fire deaths. A former president of the City Council, she also has led the city through trying budget times.
The daughter of the late Del. Howard P. Rawlings, she helped change the direction of city and state politics when in 1999 she convinced her influential father to back O'Malley, a white councilman from Northeast Baltimore, in his bid for mayor of a majority-black city. O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake have remained close allies.
The current DNC secretary, Alice Germond, has served for three consecutive terms — predating Obama's first term. Active in the party for more than four decades, Germond is married to longtime political writer and former Baltimore Sun columnist Jack Germond.
"I wish her very well," Alice Germond said of Rawlings-Blake. "I've enjoyed being the secretary for a long time. It's a tremendous honor."
The decision, which must be confirmed by what is expected to be a perfunctory vote by party leaders, appears to have been made quickly. Rawlings-Blake said she first learned of the appointment Sunday when she was in Washington attending a reception for Vice President Joe Biden's official inauguration.
Baltimore Sun reporter Luke Broadwater contributed to this article.
_________________________________________________
The state budget's turnaround has everything to do with mortgage and bank fraud settlements that just get put in the State General Fund and do not make it to the people who were victims of the frauds and it does not make any attempt to rebuild the non-existing white collar criminal agencies as is directed in all settlements. Maryland has a habit of making it impossible for its citizens to seek damages for fraud on their own and when the state or federal government makes even a cursory settlement it rarely makes it to the people.
What is important to remember is this:
The state owes $1.5 billion at the very least to Baltimore City Schools per law suits; $700 million needs to go to underserved communities from mortgage fraud so they can decide how to spend the money; the public sector pensions need to be fully funded as we are not going to watch them disappear through neglect; the transportation fund which we all are sure was a victim to budget balancing now needs to be replenished without taxing average citizens or Wall Street credit bond instruments as the Muni-market is getting ready to implode.
So, there really isn't a balanced budget there is just a deliberate decision to not pay people what the state owes them and calling it a closed case.......which isn't first world and it is not democratic.....it is a campaign stunt.
Big improvements for Md.'s budget Our view: Gov. O'Malley's spending plan still has some soft spots, and dangers lie ahead, but it represents a remarkable turnaround in the state's fortunes
2:35 p.m. EST, January 17, 2013 Baltimore Sun
Amid the boasting typical of a governor's budget proposal, Gov. Martin O'Malley's new spending plan includes this peculiar claim to fame: The O'Malley administration has managed to effectively eliminate Maryland's structural budget deficit not just once but two times. This is a bit like bragging that you've married the same person twice — it suggests you've gotten to the right place in the end but glosses over some unpleasantness in the middle.
The fiscal unpleasantness, in Mr. O'Malley's case, was particularly severe, and to be fair, not really his fault. When Mr. O'Malley came into office in 2007, the state had a substantial cash reserve, thanks to the real estate bubble, but obvious underlying budget problems. That fall, Mr. O'Malley pushed through a package of new revenues — tax increases and slot machine gambling — and new spending that, on balance, should have put the state on sound footing. Then the global economy melted down, and the state was in worse shape than ever.
The climb back has been long and painful, but it is nearly complete — at least for the moment. The state's structural deficit — the chronic imbalance between projected spending and revenue — falls to just $166 million, according to the Department of Budget and Management. Considering the gap for this year was estimated at one point to be almost $1.9 billion, that's quite a turnaround, and little of it came easily.
The O'Malley administration and the General Assembly approved income and alcohol tax increases, shifted some teacher pension costs to local government and benefited from some modest improvements in the economy. The bulk of the improvement, however, comes from holding spending to a much slower rate of growth than had been expected — thanks in no small part to innovative efforts in the health department to hold down Medicaid costs. That the governor has managed to do that during such difficult economic times while maintaining historic investments in K-12 and higher education is remarkable and a testament to his priorities.
Still, it's not time for celebration just yet. Mr. O'Malley uses his budget book to tout Maryland's recovery from the recession and its record of job growth in recent years, but that progress is exceedingly fragile. A failure by Congress to raise the federal debt ceiling could ruin the economy again, and Maryland is more vulnerable than almost any other state to the kinds of spending cuts that will be required to bring the federal budget deficit back to a manageable size.
Meanwhile, there are some soft spots remaining in Governor O'Malley's budget. He is proposing that the state not make this year's installments in its plans to repay an income tax reserve fund the state raided during the height of the recession, or open space funds diverted by the Ehrlich administration. Each move saves the state $50 million. And Mr. O'Malley is proposing to continue for the next five years his practice of shifting real estate transfer tax funds from their intended purpose, land preservation programs, to the general fund, and instead paying for those programs through capital funds. Such a maneuver is legal, and previous budgets relied much more heavily on it and tactics like it. They got us through the recession, but their long-term cost is becoming apparent.
Debt service payments have increased from $654 million in Governor O'Malley's first year in office to a projected $984 million next year. By 2022, annual payments are expected to approach $1.5 billion. The state portion of the property tax is dedicated to making those payments, and it is expected to grow only modestly during that time. Before long, the state will likely have to raise the property tax rate or start dedicating money that could otherwise go to pay for schools, health care or other operating expenses to pay off the bonds.
The new spending and tax breaks the governor is proposing for next year are relatively modest. He is asking for a 3 percent pay raise for state workers, perfectly reasonable given the pay freezes and furloughs of recent years; a $25 million investment in school safety; $1.5 million for a much needed-study of the environmental and economic costs and benefits of allowing hydraulic fracturing in Western Maryland; and an assortment of new or expanded tax credits designed to boost employment in cybersecurity, the film industry and other sectors.
Still, legislators should carefully examine them and the rest of the $37.3 billion spending plan. The General Assembly could easily cut enough to wipe out what remains of the structural deficit, but that need no longer be the major focus. Given the uncertainty created by federal budget deliberations and the costs the state put off during the last few years, lawmakers need to concern themselves with increasing the resiliency of Maryland's finances. Governor O'Malley wisely proposed to increase the state's rainy day fund from 5 percent of revenues to 6 percent, and he is leaving another $236 million in unallocated funds. Legislators should seek to go further to help the state withstand what could be more difficult times ahead.
______________________________________________
THE ONLY WAY THAT JAMES CLYBURN COULD ADVANCE INTO THE HOUSE LEADERSHIP WAS TO JOIN THE THIRD WAY CAUCUS. THOSE OF US WHO WATCH THIS STUFF UNDERSTAND THAT CLYBURN WAS NOT THIRD WAY BEFORE HE ASKED FOR THIS LEADERSHIP POSITION.
THIRD WAY HAS CAPTURED OUR DEMOCRATIC PARTY LEADERSHIP AND THE DEMOCRATIC BASE OF LABOR AND JUSTICE MUST REPLACE THIRD WAY IN THE MAJORITY AND LEADERSHIP TO REVERSE THIS HOLD CORPORATIONS HAVE ON CONGRESS!!!!
Third Way Home
Third Way Co-Chair James Clyburn
US House, South Carolina
President Barack Obama has said he is, “One of a handful of people who, when they speak, the entire Congress listens.” As Assistant Democratic Leader in the 112th Congress, the number three Democrat in the House, James E. Clyburn will be the leadership liaison to the Appropriations Committee and one of the Democratic Caucus’ primary liaisons to the White House. Working with the internal caucuses, he’ll play a prominent role in messaging and outreach.
His humble beginnings in Sumter South Carolina, as the eldest son of an activist fundamentalist minister and an independent civic minded beautician, grounded him securely in family, faith and public service. He was elected president of his NAACP youth chapter when he was 12 years old, helped organize many civil rights marches and demonstrations as a student leader at South Carolina State College, and even met his wife Emily in jail during one of his incarcerations.
When Clyburn came to Congress in 1993, he was elected co-President of his Freshman class and quickly rose through leadership ranks. He was elected Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1999, and his reputation as a leader and consensus-builder helped him win a difficult three-way race for House Democratic Caucus Vice Chair in 2002. Three years later, he was unanimously elected Chair of the Democratic Caucus. When Democrats regained the House majority in 2006, Congressman Clyburn was elevated by his colleagues to House Majority Whip.
As a national leader he has worked to respond to the needs of America’s diverse communities. He championed rural communities supporting the development of regional water projects, community health centers, and broadband connections. He has supported higher education by leading the charge for increased Pell grants; investing millions in science and math programs and historic preservation at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He has encouraged economic development by securing funding for Empowerment Zones; investing in green technology development such as nuclear, wind, hydrogen and biofuels; and directing 10 percent of Recovery Act funding to communities 20 percent under the poverty level for the past 30 years. Clyburn was instrumental in advancing into law measures to resolve historic discrimination issues, significantly reducing the statutory disparity in cocaine sentencing and compensating African and Native American farmers who suffered racial discrimination under the USDA loan program
Jim and Emily Clyburn have three daughters, Mignon, Jennifer Reed, and Angela Hannibal; two sons-in-law, Walter Reed and Cecil Hannibal; and two grandchildren, Walter A Clyburn Reed and Sydney Alexis Reed.
_______________________________________________
Third Way corporate democrats are represented in policy by the Brookings Institute. Here you see that this think tank is and has always been about global interests and is the source of Reagan's and Clinton's move to break the Glass Steagall wall to build global corporate empires. THESE ARE NOT PEOPLE WORKING FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE'S INTEREST.......YOU AND I ARE SIMPLY SOMETHING THAT HAS TO BE PLACATED IN THIS RUSH TOWARDS EMPIRE BUILDING.
We must take back the democratic party if we are to make these industries accountable to the American people rather than the reverse!!! Run and vote for labor and justice these next elections!!
Terrible Imperialism
The Brookings Institution: a Think Tank of Good Feelings
The Brookings Institution is generally presented as Democrats’ main think tank (a usually political center of research, propaganda and spreading of ideas), though it is mainly a representative entity of moderate elites which favors a limited economic regulation opposed to the American Enterprise Institute’s libertarian patters. Today, it is very active in foreign policy and, as well as neoconservatives, it suggests the use of force but for humanitarian reasons and as a duty and not based on a democratic evangelism or a biased enthusiasm. Half of its researchers were former members of the National Security Council or the White House.
Voltaire Network | 30 June 2004 français русский Español Just before U.S.’s entry into WWI in 1916, businessman Robert S. Brookings and his friends financed the creation of an institute of governmental research that would be called Brookings Institution. Since they were convinced that good management is not based on political decisions but on the quality of its technical capacity, they identified a group of six researchers, including a professor of Political Sciences of Princeton University, to work with the President of John Hopkins University.
During the war, the institute worked for the National Defense Council and once it ended, it analyzed the budgetary consolidation of the country. In the 30s it advised candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt though its New Deal project was criticized. During WWII, the Brookings Institution worked on prices control and war economy. Later, in 1946, it focused on rebuilding Europe and made all necessary economic assets for the Marshal Plan as a complement of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) political studies [1].
In the 50s and 60s, the Brookings Institution increased its financial sources and signed major research contracts with the federal state, always to study economic issues. Its position is recognized as a center-right institution and progressively identified with the Democratic Party although many of its members were and still are republicans. Consequently, its funds and influence depended on the White House. It was powerful during Kennedy and Johnson but Nixon’s administration did not renew its contracts. Nevertheless, it flourished again under Carter’s though languished during Reagan’s to reemerge again during Clinton’s.
Today’s Brookings Strobe Talbott In 2002, Strobe Talbott became the sixth president of the Institute whereas John L. Thornton was the head of its Administration Council, among which Teresa Heinz was included. Talbott was Time Magazine’s former director of foreign services, Under Secretary of State, and a man Bill Clinton, his old roommate at the university, trusts in. As a member of the troika [2] that was supposed to negotiate with Yugoslavia the prevention of the war in 1999 he became internationally renowned. On the other hand, Thornton, professor of economics, is the President of Goldman Sachs. Teresa Heinz is Senator John Kerry’s wife [3]. It seems that all members of the Administration Council were approved by the Council on Foreign.
In 1998 and with the purpose of reaching a consensus, Brookings Institution -considered as a Center Right entity - came to an agreement with the extreme right wing American Enterprise Institute (AEI) [4] to set up a joint program for studying the federal rules on economic regulation. Its analyses were reviewed by the Council of Economic Advisers of the White House.
Brookings Institution has also studied international matters and they are currently a third of its researches. It has three main working groups: The Center for the Study of Northern Asia Polices: it monitors Japan and Korea but it is mainly focused on the simultaneous relations of America with China and Taiwan. It is directed by Richard C. Bush III, former director of the North American Institute of Taiwan, and supervised by J. Stapleton Roy, former American ambassador to China and Henry Kissinger’s business partner. Among its researchers, Michael O’Hanlon has become a figure in television studies and Congress hearings, extremely loquacious on North Korean nuclear danger.
The Center for the Study of U.S. and Europe: Previously the Center for U.S. and France, it was extended to study Turkey, Russia and Italy. It is directed by Philip H. Gordon and mainly financed by the federal State, through the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and industrial Daimler-Chrysler.
Philip H. Gordon This Center is linked to an equally called program directed by Guillaume Parmentier at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) which is completely bipartisan though neoconservatives have their own niche.
Guillaume Parmentier The Saban Center for Middle East Policy: Its analyses are made from American and Zionist perspectives. It is directed by Martin S. Indyk, former American ambassador to Tel Aviv and co-founder of WINEP, a think tank of Likud. It was name after his sponsor, Jewish millionaire Haim Saban, co-owner of Fox TV, and was inaugurated by Abd Allah, King of Jordan.
Haim Saban One of Brookings Institution’s employees is Kenneth M. Pollack, author of a reference book on the Iraqi war which was written before the hostilities. According to it, certain conditions should have been met before launching the attack. Even though it could have been used by war opponents, the author has become a justifying-the-war-intellectual.
Other researchers have programs of their own, like Susan Rice, for instance, former assistant to Madeleine Albright, who is working on the threat weak states constitute to American security. Another example is Nigel Purvis, who along with the Pew Center, is working on the possibilities of using U.S aid and cooperation to the Third World to pressure them to make concessions on ecological matters.
Such activities are very impressive for their quantity and the quality of its experts. However, Red Voltaire has noticed that these intellectuals have something in common though they never say it: even when economics and not international politics is their main focus, more than half of Brookings Institution currently 142 researchers seem to have worked for the National Security Council or the White House. The fact that its Council of Administration, composed of multinational patterns, favors companies such as AT&T or Chiquita (former United Fruit) which key role in the National Security Council secret operations is well documented, is quite remarkable.
In the year 2003, Brookings Institution’s goods were assessed at 197 million dollars and a donation of 10 million dollars was added to its profits. The institution budget was calculated at 39 million dollars. 275 persons worked at the main office plus 40 additional researchers abroad. Brookings Institution published 27 reports and 50 books in 2003.
Those looking at these Maryland politicians know what it takes to be in this crony political environment and as an extension can imagine why they have been selected to move forward in the DNC. THE PROBLEM WITH ALL OF THIS INEQUITY, CRIME, AND CORRUPTION STARTS WITH THIRD WAY POLICY. LABOR AND JUSTICE MIGHT NOT BE CRIME FREE IN ANY SENSE, BUT THE FOCUS IS ON PEOPLE AND NOT CORPORATE INTERESTS!
Think of how just these two pols have spoon fed the Baltimore Development Corp and have article upon article published as to crime, corruption, and unaccountability..........IS THAT WHAT YOU REALLY WANT IN YOUR FUTURE LEADERSHIP?
VOTE YOUR INCUMBENT OUT OF OFFICE!!!!!
RUN LABOR AND JUSTICE CANDIDATES IN THE NEXT ELECTIONS!!!
The bad news for these two leaders and for the Third Way corporate caucus is that the democratic base has caught on even as mainstream media tried its best to cover for them. The democratic base represents 80% of the democratic party to the 20% of corporate Third Way types so these Third Way are a dying breed. It takes a while to organize in a captured media environment but as with Europe who is seeing an overwhelming shift from corporate liberal to labor...yes we can!!!!
Rawlings-Blake to take leadership post at DNC
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake as Mayor of Baltimore as she is sworn in by Frank Conaway Sr. (Lloyd Fox, Baltimore Sun / December 6, 2011)
By John Fritze, The Baltimore Sun 11:10 a.m. EST, January 21, 2013
WASHINGTON — Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake will become the secretary of the Democratic National Committee on Tuesday, giving her a prominent role in national politics.
The appointment, which has not been formally announced, will give Rawlings-Blake a voice in the party's national political apparatus at a time when President Barack Obama is beginning his second term and several Democrats — including Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley — are thought to be jockeying for the 2016 nomination.
"My hope is that we can carry forward the momentum of the Obama administration and that we can continue to grow the Democratic Party," Rawlings-Blake said Monday in Washington, where she was attending Obama's second inauguration. "It's about making sure that we activate the majority of the people in the country."
The move comes as former Obama campaign aides are launching a permanent advocacy group called Organizing for Action that hopes to marshal the volunteer muscle that twice elected him to the White House. Some Democrats have questioned whether the group, which will accept donations, could cut into the party's influence.
A DNC spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
The most public role the party secretary performs is to call the roll of delegates at the national convention — a largely symbolic act of recognizing each state on the floor to determine which candidate its delegates will support. Behind the scenes, the secretary is responsible for scheduling meetings, distributing talking points to members and, occasionally, campaigning for candidates across the country.
Rawlings-Blake, 42, has served as Baltimore's mayor since 2010 and has presided over the city at a time of historic lows in homicides and fire deaths. A former president of the City Council, she also has led the city through trying budget times.
The daughter of the late Del. Howard P. Rawlings, she helped change the direction of city and state politics when in 1999 she convinced her influential father to back O'Malley, a white councilman from Northeast Baltimore, in his bid for mayor of a majority-black city. O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake have remained close allies.
The current DNC secretary, Alice Germond, has served for three consecutive terms — predating Obama's first term. Active in the party for more than four decades, Germond is married to longtime political writer and former Baltimore Sun columnist Jack Germond.
"I wish her very well," Alice Germond said of Rawlings-Blake. "I've enjoyed being the secretary for a long time. It's a tremendous honor."
The decision, which must be confirmed by what is expected to be a perfunctory vote by party leaders, appears to have been made quickly. Rawlings-Blake said she first learned of the appointment Sunday when she was in Washington attending a reception for Vice President Joe Biden's official inauguration.
Baltimore Sun reporter Luke Broadwater contributed to this article.
_________________________________________________
The state budget's turnaround has everything to do with mortgage and bank fraud settlements that just get put in the State General Fund and do not make it to the people who were victims of the frauds and it does not make any attempt to rebuild the non-existing white collar criminal agencies as is directed in all settlements. Maryland has a habit of making it impossible for its citizens to seek damages for fraud on their own and when the state or federal government makes even a cursory settlement it rarely makes it to the people.
What is important to remember is this:
The state owes $1.5 billion at the very least to Baltimore City Schools per law suits; $700 million needs to go to underserved communities from mortgage fraud so they can decide how to spend the money; the public sector pensions need to be fully funded as we are not going to watch them disappear through neglect; the transportation fund which we all are sure was a victim to budget balancing now needs to be replenished without taxing average citizens or Wall Street credit bond instruments as the Muni-market is getting ready to implode.
So, there really isn't a balanced budget there is just a deliberate decision to not pay people what the state owes them and calling it a closed case.......which isn't first world and it is not democratic.....it is a campaign stunt.
Big improvements for Md.'s budget Our view: Gov. O'Malley's spending plan still has some soft spots, and dangers lie ahead, but it represents a remarkable turnaround in the state's fortunes
2:35 p.m. EST, January 17, 2013 Baltimore Sun
Amid the boasting typical of a governor's budget proposal, Gov. Martin O'Malley's new spending plan includes this peculiar claim to fame: The O'Malley administration has managed to effectively eliminate Maryland's structural budget deficit not just once but two times. This is a bit like bragging that you've married the same person twice — it suggests you've gotten to the right place in the end but glosses over some unpleasantness in the middle.
The fiscal unpleasantness, in Mr. O'Malley's case, was particularly severe, and to be fair, not really his fault. When Mr. O'Malley came into office in 2007, the state had a substantial cash reserve, thanks to the real estate bubble, but obvious underlying budget problems. That fall, Mr. O'Malley pushed through a package of new revenues — tax increases and slot machine gambling — and new spending that, on balance, should have put the state on sound footing. Then the global economy melted down, and the state was in worse shape than ever.
The climb back has been long and painful, but it is nearly complete — at least for the moment. The state's structural deficit — the chronic imbalance between projected spending and revenue — falls to just $166 million, according to the Department of Budget and Management. Considering the gap for this year was estimated at one point to be almost $1.9 billion, that's quite a turnaround, and little of it came easily.
The O'Malley administration and the General Assembly approved income and alcohol tax increases, shifted some teacher pension costs to local government and benefited from some modest improvements in the economy. The bulk of the improvement, however, comes from holding spending to a much slower rate of growth than had been expected — thanks in no small part to innovative efforts in the health department to hold down Medicaid costs. That the governor has managed to do that during such difficult economic times while maintaining historic investments in K-12 and higher education is remarkable and a testament to his priorities.
Still, it's not time for celebration just yet. Mr. O'Malley uses his budget book to tout Maryland's recovery from the recession and its record of job growth in recent years, but that progress is exceedingly fragile. A failure by Congress to raise the federal debt ceiling could ruin the economy again, and Maryland is more vulnerable than almost any other state to the kinds of spending cuts that will be required to bring the federal budget deficit back to a manageable size.
Meanwhile, there are some soft spots remaining in Governor O'Malley's budget. He is proposing that the state not make this year's installments in its plans to repay an income tax reserve fund the state raided during the height of the recession, or open space funds diverted by the Ehrlich administration. Each move saves the state $50 million. And Mr. O'Malley is proposing to continue for the next five years his practice of shifting real estate transfer tax funds from their intended purpose, land preservation programs, to the general fund, and instead paying for those programs through capital funds. Such a maneuver is legal, and previous budgets relied much more heavily on it and tactics like it. They got us through the recession, but their long-term cost is becoming apparent.
Debt service payments have increased from $654 million in Governor O'Malley's first year in office to a projected $984 million next year. By 2022, annual payments are expected to approach $1.5 billion. The state portion of the property tax is dedicated to making those payments, and it is expected to grow only modestly during that time. Before long, the state will likely have to raise the property tax rate or start dedicating money that could otherwise go to pay for schools, health care or other operating expenses to pay off the bonds.
The new spending and tax breaks the governor is proposing for next year are relatively modest. He is asking for a 3 percent pay raise for state workers, perfectly reasonable given the pay freezes and furloughs of recent years; a $25 million investment in school safety; $1.5 million for a much needed-study of the environmental and economic costs and benefits of allowing hydraulic fracturing in Western Maryland; and an assortment of new or expanded tax credits designed to boost employment in cybersecurity, the film industry and other sectors.
Still, legislators should carefully examine them and the rest of the $37.3 billion spending plan. The General Assembly could easily cut enough to wipe out what remains of the structural deficit, but that need no longer be the major focus. Given the uncertainty created by federal budget deliberations and the costs the state put off during the last few years, lawmakers need to concern themselves with increasing the resiliency of Maryland's finances. Governor O'Malley wisely proposed to increase the state's rainy day fund from 5 percent of revenues to 6 percent, and he is leaving another $236 million in unallocated funds. Legislators should seek to go further to help the state withstand what could be more difficult times ahead.
______________________________________________
THE ONLY WAY THAT JAMES CLYBURN COULD ADVANCE INTO THE HOUSE LEADERSHIP WAS TO JOIN THE THIRD WAY CAUCUS. THOSE OF US WHO WATCH THIS STUFF UNDERSTAND THAT CLYBURN WAS NOT THIRD WAY BEFORE HE ASKED FOR THIS LEADERSHIP POSITION.
THIRD WAY HAS CAPTURED OUR DEMOCRATIC PARTY LEADERSHIP AND THE DEMOCRATIC BASE OF LABOR AND JUSTICE MUST REPLACE THIRD WAY IN THE MAJORITY AND LEADERSHIP TO REVERSE THIS HOLD CORPORATIONS HAVE ON CONGRESS!!!!
Third Way Home
Third Way Co-Chair James Clyburn
US House, South Carolina
President Barack Obama has said he is, “One of a handful of people who, when they speak, the entire Congress listens.” As Assistant Democratic Leader in the 112th Congress, the number three Democrat in the House, James E. Clyburn will be the leadership liaison to the Appropriations Committee and one of the Democratic Caucus’ primary liaisons to the White House. Working with the internal caucuses, he’ll play a prominent role in messaging and outreach.
His humble beginnings in Sumter South Carolina, as the eldest son of an activist fundamentalist minister and an independent civic minded beautician, grounded him securely in family, faith and public service. He was elected president of his NAACP youth chapter when he was 12 years old, helped organize many civil rights marches and demonstrations as a student leader at South Carolina State College, and even met his wife Emily in jail during one of his incarcerations.
When Clyburn came to Congress in 1993, he was elected co-President of his Freshman class and quickly rose through leadership ranks. He was elected Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1999, and his reputation as a leader and consensus-builder helped him win a difficult three-way race for House Democratic Caucus Vice Chair in 2002. Three years later, he was unanimously elected Chair of the Democratic Caucus. When Democrats regained the House majority in 2006, Congressman Clyburn was elevated by his colleagues to House Majority Whip.
As a national leader he has worked to respond to the needs of America’s diverse communities. He championed rural communities supporting the development of regional water projects, community health centers, and broadband connections. He has supported higher education by leading the charge for increased Pell grants; investing millions in science and math programs and historic preservation at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He has encouraged economic development by securing funding for Empowerment Zones; investing in green technology development such as nuclear, wind, hydrogen and biofuels; and directing 10 percent of Recovery Act funding to communities 20 percent under the poverty level for the past 30 years. Clyburn was instrumental in advancing into law measures to resolve historic discrimination issues, significantly reducing the statutory disparity in cocaine sentencing and compensating African and Native American farmers who suffered racial discrimination under the USDA loan program
Jim and Emily Clyburn have three daughters, Mignon, Jennifer Reed, and Angela Hannibal; two sons-in-law, Walter Reed and Cecil Hannibal; and two grandchildren, Walter A Clyburn Reed and Sydney Alexis Reed.
_______________________________________________
Third Way corporate democrats are represented in policy by the Brookings Institute. Here you see that this think tank is and has always been about global interests and is the source of Reagan's and Clinton's move to break the Glass Steagall wall to build global corporate empires. THESE ARE NOT PEOPLE WORKING FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE'S INTEREST.......YOU AND I ARE SIMPLY SOMETHING THAT HAS TO BE PLACATED IN THIS RUSH TOWARDS EMPIRE BUILDING.
We must take back the democratic party if we are to make these industries accountable to the American people rather than the reverse!!! Run and vote for labor and justice these next elections!!
Terrible Imperialism
The Brookings Institution: a Think Tank of Good Feelings
The Brookings Institution is generally presented as Democrats’ main think tank (a usually political center of research, propaganda and spreading of ideas), though it is mainly a representative entity of moderate elites which favors a limited economic regulation opposed to the American Enterprise Institute’s libertarian patters. Today, it is very active in foreign policy and, as well as neoconservatives, it suggests the use of force but for humanitarian reasons and as a duty and not based on a democratic evangelism or a biased enthusiasm. Half of its researchers were former members of the National Security Council or the White House.
Voltaire Network | 30 June 2004 français русский Español Just before U.S.’s entry into WWI in 1916, businessman Robert S. Brookings and his friends financed the creation of an institute of governmental research that would be called Brookings Institution. Since they were convinced that good management is not based on political decisions but on the quality of its technical capacity, they identified a group of six researchers, including a professor of Political Sciences of Princeton University, to work with the President of John Hopkins University.
During the war, the institute worked for the National Defense Council and once it ended, it analyzed the budgetary consolidation of the country. In the 30s it advised candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt though its New Deal project was criticized. During WWII, the Brookings Institution worked on prices control and war economy. Later, in 1946, it focused on rebuilding Europe and made all necessary economic assets for the Marshal Plan as a complement of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) political studies [1].
In the 50s and 60s, the Brookings Institution increased its financial sources and signed major research contracts with the federal state, always to study economic issues. Its position is recognized as a center-right institution and progressively identified with the Democratic Party although many of its members were and still are republicans. Consequently, its funds and influence depended on the White House. It was powerful during Kennedy and Johnson but Nixon’s administration did not renew its contracts. Nevertheless, it flourished again under Carter’s though languished during Reagan’s to reemerge again during Clinton’s.
Today’s Brookings Strobe Talbott In 2002, Strobe Talbott became the sixth president of the Institute whereas John L. Thornton was the head of its Administration Council, among which Teresa Heinz was included. Talbott was Time Magazine’s former director of foreign services, Under Secretary of State, and a man Bill Clinton, his old roommate at the university, trusts in. As a member of the troika [2] that was supposed to negotiate with Yugoslavia the prevention of the war in 1999 he became internationally renowned. On the other hand, Thornton, professor of economics, is the President of Goldman Sachs. Teresa Heinz is Senator John Kerry’s wife [3]. It seems that all members of the Administration Council were approved by the Council on Foreign.
In 1998 and with the purpose of reaching a consensus, Brookings Institution -considered as a Center Right entity - came to an agreement with the extreme right wing American Enterprise Institute (AEI) [4] to set up a joint program for studying the federal rules on economic regulation. Its analyses were reviewed by the Council of Economic Advisers of the White House.
Brookings Institution has also studied international matters and they are currently a third of its researches. It has three main working groups: The Center for the Study of Northern Asia Polices: it monitors Japan and Korea but it is mainly focused on the simultaneous relations of America with China and Taiwan. It is directed by Richard C. Bush III, former director of the North American Institute of Taiwan, and supervised by J. Stapleton Roy, former American ambassador to China and Henry Kissinger’s business partner. Among its researchers, Michael O’Hanlon has become a figure in television studies and Congress hearings, extremely loquacious on North Korean nuclear danger.
The Center for the Study of U.S. and Europe: Previously the Center for U.S. and France, it was extended to study Turkey, Russia and Italy. It is directed by Philip H. Gordon and mainly financed by the federal State, through the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and industrial Daimler-Chrysler.
Philip H. Gordon This Center is linked to an equally called program directed by Guillaume Parmentier at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) which is completely bipartisan though neoconservatives have their own niche.
Guillaume Parmentier The Saban Center for Middle East Policy: Its analyses are made from American and Zionist perspectives. It is directed by Martin S. Indyk, former American ambassador to Tel Aviv and co-founder of WINEP, a think tank of Likud. It was name after his sponsor, Jewish millionaire Haim Saban, co-owner of Fox TV, and was inaugurated by Abd Allah, King of Jordan.
Haim Saban One of Brookings Institution’s employees is Kenneth M. Pollack, author of a reference book on the Iraqi war which was written before the hostilities. According to it, certain conditions should have been met before launching the attack. Even though it could have been used by war opponents, the author has become a justifying-the-war-intellectual.
Other researchers have programs of their own, like Susan Rice, for instance, former assistant to Madeleine Albright, who is working on the threat weak states constitute to American security. Another example is Nigel Purvis, who along with the Pew Center, is working on the possibilities of using U.S aid and cooperation to the Third World to pressure them to make concessions on ecological matters.
Such activities are very impressive for their quantity and the quality of its experts. However, Red Voltaire has noticed that these intellectuals have something in common though they never say it: even when economics and not international politics is their main focus, more than half of Brookings Institution currently 142 researchers seem to have worked for the National Security Council or the White House. The fact that its Council of Administration, composed of multinational patterns, favors companies such as AT&T or Chiquita (former United Fruit) which key role in the National Security Council secret operations is well documented, is quite remarkable.
In the year 2003, Brookings Institution’s goods were assessed at 197 million dollars and a donation of 10 million dollars was added to its profits. The institution budget was calculated at 39 million dollars. 275 persons worked at the main office plus 40 additional researchers abroad. Brookings Institution published 27 reports and 50 books in 2003.
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