Attention Oregonians

From Attorney General John Kroger
 
The Oregon Department of Justice Consumer Hotline today has received a surge of complaints about telephone calls from an entity claiming to be from the Bank of the Cascades. The caller is telling consumers that their bank records have been compromised and that they need to verify the consumer's bank account number. This is a phishing scam.
 
Never provide your bank account number over the phone or by email. No legitimate financial institution will call you and ask you for your bank account number or other sensitive financial information. The scammers are trying to trick consumers into turning over their bank account numbers to they can empty the bank account.
 
The Consumer Hotline has received more than 20 telephone calls from Central Oregon about this scam. At least one consumer fell prey to the scam and lost $515 immediately after providing their bank account number. This is a significant number of calls for such a short period of time.
 
Anyone who believes they have been approached by a scammer should contact the Oregon Department of Justice Consumer Hotline at 1-877-877-9392 or www.oregonattorneygeneral.gov.

Here is the list of the millionaire senators who voted against helping middle class, working Americans who needed COBRA extensions, unemployment benefits, etc.

They were even willing to have Federal employees furloughed.

Why?  They say it had to do with fiscal stuff – but if that were true – they would have voted against all of George Bush's ideas – and I doubt they did.

If you know of ones here who voted against Bush's deficit  increases – please let me know.

Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Coburn (R-OK)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)
Johanns (R-NE)
McConnell (R-KY)
Risch (R-ID)
Sessions (R-AL)
Thune (R-SD)

These millionaires vote only for the rich and the rest of us be damned!

Please comment….thank you

Frank Rich has a great piece on our home-grown American terrorists and American terrorism.

The Axis of the Obsessed and Deranged

Yes, we have groups, our own home-grown American terrorists, who are just like the Taliban or al-qaeda – yet we ignore them or worse, give them support by not condemning them!

Who does not condemn them?  The party of NO!

Taxes are a necessity for running a government.  It's the price we pay for "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness"  and to  "establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity."

There may be other ways to finance our government but I don't think the American terrorists have any ideas except destruction of everything – and that is not a solution!

Another in a long and growing list of:

"why am I not surprised"

"health" insurance companies make 12 BILLION [yes BILLION] in profits last year…

How?

By dropping 2.7 MILLION people

http://bit.ly/bb7rMD

and – oh yeah – by RAISING premiums for subscribers!

The UDC David A. Clarke School of Law and
Jamie Raskin, Professor of Constitutional Law, American University

Present

Andrea D. Lyon  (Antioch School of Law, 1976)

Author of "Angel of Death Row: My Life as a Death Penalty Defense Lawyer"

RSVP on line at http://www.law.udc.edu/event/Angel_of_Death_Row

Andrea Lyon is Professor of Law, DePaul University, and nationally recognized death penalty expert.

Copies of Angel of Death Row: My Life As a Death Penalty Defense Lawyer will be available for purchase, and Ms. Lyon will sign books. A wine reception will precede Ms. Lyon's talk.

This trail-blazing attorney pioneered unconventional ways to defend clients against society's ultimate punishment. Nineteen times, Ms. Lyon has argued to save a convicted murderer's life, and 19 times she has succeeded.

Come to hear her answer to the perennial question, "How can you defend these people?"

Angel of Death Row: My Life as a Death Penalty Defense Lawyer is the harrowing memoir of the first woman in the United States to head a death penalty defense team.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010
6:00 p.m.
the UDC David A. Clarke School of Law
4200 Connecticut Ave. N.W.
Building 39, Room 201
Washington, DC 20008

At the Van Ness-UDC station on the Red Line.

This event is free and open to the public.

RSVP on line at: http://www.law.udc.edu/event/Angel_of_Death_Row

Published January 5 by Kaplan Publishing.

"Riveting stories" – Kirkus Reviews

"Reads like a thriller with real life-or-death consequences" – Bookselling This Week

"…timely, important, and a page-turner to the end." – Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking

"…must reading for anyone who wants to see how the capital punishment system really dysfunctions…" – Ronald J. Tabak, Chair, Death Penalty Committee of the American Bar Association

I love JibJab and this was supposed to go out sooner – but the best laid plans – [you know how it is]

Oregonians:

Ballots will begin arriving in less than a month, but most voters still don't know there's an important election in January that will decide the fate of Oregon's schools and critical services.

Watch the video ad from Yes for Oregon

Share this post

Donate at ActBlue: http://www.actblue.com/page/onthebrink

The news over the last two weeks has made it crystal clear that Measures 66 and 67 will have a direct impact on the lives of every Oregonian.

The Oregon Legislative Fiscal Office has detailed what critical services would likely have to be cut without the funding that Measures 66 and 67 provide. Here are just some of the news reports about what is at stake for Oregon's students, seniors, and families:

Report outlines deep cuts if Oregon tax measures fail

"Among the projected cuts: more than 15,000 seniors with disabilities would lose Oregon Health Plan coverage; 3,000 families with two unemployed parents would lose monthly payments; and the Department of Corrections would close three prisons and release 1,600 inmates."
Associated Press, December 1

Lawmakers release spending-cut options

"Potential spending cuts, which lawmakers released late Monday, could reduce aid to public schools and universities, result in less help for families and seniors, close three Salem-area prisons and trigger layoffs of state troopers and court workers."
Salem Statesman Journal, December 1

Agencies outline effects of cuts

"[S]pending cuts would likely mean less support for [university] courses and the elimination of faculty and staff positions. Given that the universities are experiencing the largest student enrollment levels in state history, such cuts could delay graduation for students, many of whom may drop out because of the higher cost of remaining enrolled while waiting to take required courses."
Eugene Register Guard, December 1

State considers more budget cuts

"Further cuts to Oregon's already decimated budget could lead to severe cutbacks at Oregon Health & Science University, slash $47 million worth of community college programs and cause counties to lose $24 million in general fund revenue annually."
Portland Business Journal, December 1

SAY YES FOR OREGON

VOTE YES on 66 and 67

Last week I read this article about America without a middle class by Elizabeth Warren and am still digesting its and my thoughts.

Today, one in five Americans is unemployed, underemployed or just plain out of work. One in nine families can't make the minimum payment on their credit cards. One in eight mortgages is in default or foreclosure. One in eight Americans is on food stamps. More than 120,000 families are filing for bankruptcy every month. The economic crisis has wiped more than $5 trillion from pensions and savings, has left family balance sheets upside down, and threatens to put ten million homeowners out on the street.

We are becoming a country of wealthy and poor – a 3rd world country wherein the rich get richer, the poor get poorer,  and there is no longer any middle.

How many families are homeless, working 2, 3 or even 4 jobs just to make ends meet?  And how many of those are without health insurance or skimping on needed health care or medications and/or eating poorly?

I wrote recently about seniors using soup kitchens and soon those seniors will be taking their children and grandchildren with them so all can eat. 

We need to stop being a 3rd world economy,  if it is not already too late, and help middle America become middle again so they too have a chance to save, invest, be less stressed and hopefully get richer.

If you are a Democrat – you just have love this SNARK from Rep. Luis Gutierrez [D. IL - 4th District].  In a politely sarcastic way he tells the repugs just what he thinks of them and their lies, lobbyists and inability to read!

Watch and enjoy – then wish more Dems in the House and especially the Senate were this sharp.

The wingnuts tend to scream SOROS when they attack progressive positions – as if Soros funds all the people and organizations they so dislike.

It's part of the wingnutia malady and it is again projection.  Always watch what the wingnuts scream about – because it means they are doing exactly what they scream and complain about democrats and progressives doing.

So – they scream about Soros and Think Progress has a great post [http://pr.thinkprogress.org/]  on the billionaire brothers, David and Charles Koch,  who DO fund the hatred and the types of programs they accuse Soros of funding…

These two play both sides – they give money to the arts, cancer research and the Smithsonian while also channeling funds to organizations that are trying to stop progress on clean energy and health reform.

Read the post – it is a good one!