The Observation Deck

So, I'm watching Fox News and I see that our congressman, Dennis Kucinich, is going to be doing an interview with Judge Andrew Napolitano on his show Freedom Watch on the Fox Business Network. I turned it on to see what good old Dennis had to say.

The interview was only a few minutes long, but I got something quite interesting from it. Did you guys know that Dennis was in Madison, Wisconsin supporting the unions and is going back there in a couple days?

This, I must say, surprised me. It also got me thinking.

Who does he serve?

I thought he served us, as our representative in Congress. That would, to me, mean he should be:
1. in Washington, representing us on the floor of the House.
2. on some Congressionally assigned fact-finding journey related to a committee post.
3. in his district getting feedback from his constituents.
4. in Columbus representing people...but that's a stretch.

Instead, his trip to Wisconsin shows me something else:

Service Employees International Union- $45,000
American Federation of Teachers- $50,550
National Education Association- $63,250
American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees- $58,500

I guess this also explains why it takes well over a month for those form letter replies to get emailed to me (currently waiting for a reply to a message sent on Feb. 13th).
He's busy with "other duties."

I see a book on his desk entitled "To Serve Man." If you open it up, you may find its actually a cookbook.

While I would agree I would rather see him in Colombus fighting to protect the rights of workers in Ohio, I would also agree that for whatever reason Wisconsin has become the focal point of the national debate on the rights of workers so it seems that if Republicans can be driven back there, it strikes a blow to the Union Busting movement that can have ramifications even in Ohio. I would have argued that Ohio should have taken the national focus because Kasich moved way faster than the folks in WI (but no less shady...replacing Republican no-votes 2x to move things along faster seemed a bit underhanded...technically legal but if you want to act like it is a real mandate, then go with the vote, not fix it) but the national media attention is in WI so there the support should be.

Of course he is paid from Unions. Many Democrats are! Why do you think the Republicans are swinging so hard on this? This has nothing to do with budgets (those can be fixed without busting Unions). This has everything to do with creating a power grab that will basically bust Unions from sea to shining sea and in one great blow towards the working folks in America will bust one of the last, powerful voices for the working class and funding sources for Democrats, too. What a coup! It was extremely well played. The Republicans are AMAZING at what they do. These times feel more REPUBLICAN than they did under the Bush Rule and Democrats are in the WH and half of Congress! Workers rights being attacked, Pro-Choice rights around abortion being seriously attacked, and so on. Amazing.

Roy, do you seriously think this has anything to do with balancing the budget? Strickland already proved you can cut and slash a budget all to hell, freeze wages, cut staff positions, etc. without busting the Unions. I can't speak for Ohio employees but I work for the County and know how things look at that level. Ask most Cuyahoga County employees when they last had raises? If they still have jobs, of course. Ask how many of them are liking their unpaid furlough days and tell me how they are causing the problems with the local economy.

denny serves only one master - named - denny do nothing kucinich

If there is not a TV camera filming whatever - denny is MIA

denny shows up wherever he thinks he can get some "Pennies for denny " Pres III funding . Note 98% of his last funding came from outside NE Ohio - who do you think he "serves" Aside from "cashing" his $175k paycheck in "NE Ohio" he like skindell does zip for District 10 while skindell does zip for Parma . Both useless "reps" . At least for denny Census 2010 will get him , so he can run 24/7 for "denny in 2012/ 2016 etc " and maybe get 1.5% of dem vote . USELESS and PATHETIC .

denny shows up on regular basis in Wisconsin , Calif , Maine , Washington state, Hawaii with his hand out yet when was the last time he fielded a local ( Parma )town meeting ?? 3 years ago - Useless and Pathetic but you lakewood dems vote this "rep" back in every two years . IF Pay for performance were followed in Congress , he would be "making" min wage .

Useless and Pathetic

Dennis J Kampe wrote:denny serves only one master - named - denny do nothing kucinich

If there is not a TV camera filming whatever - denny is MIA

denny shows up wherever he thinks he can get some "Pennies for denny " Pres III funding . Note 98% of his last funding came from outside NE Ohio - who do you think he "serves" Aside from "cashing" his $175k paycheck in "NE Ohio" he like skindell does zip for District 10 while skindell does zip for Parma . Both useless "reps" . At least for denny Census 2010 will get him , so he can run 24/7 for "denny in 2012/ 2016 etc " and maybe get 1.5% of dem vote . USELESS and PATHETIC .

denny shows up on regular basis in Wisconsin , Calif , Maine , Washington state, Hawaii with his hand out yet when was the last time he fielded a local ( Parma )town meeting ?? 3 years ago - Useless and Pathetic but you lakewood dems vote this "rep" back in every two years . IF Pay for performance were followed in Congress , he would be "making" min wage .

Useless and Pathetic

I thought I might have wandered onto the "other" site for a moment, but then I checked the url.

I think if the Republicans decided to support the 90% of Americans that work, will work, or have worked their entire lives they would probably get some union contributions too. And truth be told, many Republicans actually do get union contributions.

I took a short look at the opensecrets website and what I discovered so far is that Speaker Boehner spent TEN TIMES as much on his campaign in his safe district in Southern Ohio as our Dennis. His contributors? AT&T and first energy, stuff like that. No surprise there.

So, net-neutrality is a big complicated issue going on right now. You like your freedom to browse the internet and not have huge corporations that control the access to the internet steer you a certain way or limit what you can and can't do or spy on you? You think Boehner and his money from AT&T is going to maintain those freedoms?

Like Dennis or don't, he's a good check on the neo-conservative corporate oligarchy which is quite important to our freedoms and our democracy.

Ellen Cormier wrote:So, net-neutrality is a big complicated issue going on right now. You like your freedom to browse the internet and not have huge corporations that control the access to the internet steer you a certain way or limit what you can and can't do or spy on you? You think Boehner and his money from AT&T is going to maintain those freedoms?

Like Dennis or don't, he's a good check on the neo-conservative corporate oligarchy which is quite important to our freedoms and our democracy.

I plan on responding to this, but as to not distract from this discussion, I'll start a new thread. Let me do a little research and I'll come back to it.