The Waxman Effect

When Henry Waxman speaks, it’s like listening to my Uncle Henry in the old days. The message is straight forward, honest, and carries a sort of authority that is rarely seen in todays political theatre. I’m sure that he has an agenda, but it seems to be about accountability, a trait that is sorely lacking in most representatives of the people. If Steney Hoyer or, on the Repugnican side John Boehner, was on the podium, my thoughts would immediately turn to* “6 lobbyist’s for every congre$$man”. I’m sure that Waxman has a few hanging around too, but I bet they have plenty of respect, and maybe even a little bit of fear, when approaching the man who tells it like it is.

Fighting Back: Defending Our Public Health

Representative Henry A. Waxman

March 7, 2011, 10:00am – 11:00am

About This Event

The recent unrest in the Middle East has sent oil and gasoline prices up, yet another reminder of our vulnerability from imported oil. Oil and America’s other persistent energy problems demand attention—reducing oil use, protecting our health by reducing air pollution, and boosting our economic competitiveness. Rather than address these challenges, however, House Republicans have substantially cut programs that safeguard public health and invest in clean technologies, and seek to strip the EPA’s authority to limit mercury, smog, and carbon pollution. Their proposed disinvestments in energy efficiency and renewable technologies would wave the white flag of surrender in the international race to lead the clean-tech industry in the 21st century.

Full video of the event can be found… ~HERE~

Waxman: ‘All That Seems To Matter Is What Koch Industries Think’

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Obama’s Heckler: Rep. Joe Wilson- His Real Name Is Addison Graves Wilson

14 Things You Need to Know About Obama Heckler, Rep. Joe Wilson

By Adele M. Stan, AlterNet. Posted September 11, 2009.

He was mentored by notorious racist Strom Thurmond, he’s taken hundreds of thousands from the health industry, and “Joe” isn’t even his real name.

South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson was pretty much a nobody until his outburst Wednesday during President Barack Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress and the American people on the subject of health care. Here are some things worth knowing about Mr. Wilson, including his most recent video appeal, at the end of this list, where he continues to characterize the Democrats’ health-care plans as “government-run,” saying he will not “be muzzled.”

1. Like his ideological counterpart known as Mr. The Plumber, his real name is not Joe. It’s Addison. His middle name is Graves. That makes him Addison Graves Wilson.

2. Wilson is a member of the organization, Sons of Confederate Veterans, reports Dave Niewert of Crooks and Liars, which “as the Southern Poverty Law Center has detailed assiduously, has been taken over in the past decade by radical neo-Confederates who favor secession and defend slavery as a benign institution.” (Not that Wilson’s affiliation has anything to do with his unprecedented heckling, during a presidential address before a joint session of Congress, of our first African-American president.)

3. Wilson served as an aide to the late segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond, who is credited with conducting the longest filibuster in Senate history — against the 1957 civil rights bill.

4. When Thurmond’s bi-racial daughter, fathered out of wedlock with an African-American teenage girl, came forward in 2003 — after Thurmond’s death — Wilson castigated Thurmond’s daughter, saying he did not believe her story. Essie Mae Washington-Williams was conceived of a union Thurmond had with his family’s 16-year-old maid. Thurmond was 22 at the time. “It’s a smear on the image that [Thurmond] has as a person of high integrity who has been so loyal to the people of South Carolina,” Wilson said, according to TPM. Wilson later apologized to Washington-Williams.

5. A large percentage of Wilson’s campaign contributions come from the health sector, according to OpenSecrets.org. Over the course of his eight-year congressional career, Wilson has collected $414,000 from the health sector, topped only by contribution from what OpenSecrets calls the “finance, insurance & real estate” sector, from which he has gleaned $455,000.

MORE HERE

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