Thanks to the hard work of DFA members, our work to protect our students just got a huge boost.
Senators Tammy Baldwin and Kirsten Gillibrand have signed onto our campaign to keep student loan interest rates from doubling -- joining more than 100,000 other Democracy for America members demanding we treat our students as well as the big Wall Street banks.
As the parent of two college graduates, I know exactly how much of a burden paying for higher education has become for so many students and families. It is a disgrace that Congress could even consider raising student loan rates at a time when an entire generation's economic opportunities have been blown up by the Wall Street recession.
That's why Tammy's and Kirsten's support couldn't have come at a better time for students across the country. Without Congressional action, federal student loan rates will skyrocket to 6.8% --all while the federal government gives money to the big Wall Street banks for a piddling 0.75% interest. That's a 900% discount for the same banks that wrecked our economy in the first place.
DFA members worked their hearts out to put Tammy and Kirsten in the Senate. Now they're doing exactly what we elected them to do: Going to the mat for America's working families and students.
Virginia's GOP nominated EW Jackson as their candidate for Lt. Governor - let's take a closer look:
Jackson's a pastor and the founder of Staying True to America's National Destiny (STAND), as well as the STAND America PAC. His rise in Virginia's GOP has been polarizing and unapologetic. After the GOP's VA convention, he came out as their nominee for Lt. Governor.
Here's a rundown of what he believes:
1. Compared Planed Parenthood to KKK
Jackson made the claim that Planned Parenthood has claimed the lives of "tens of millions" of unborn black babies.
2. “Obama clearly has Muslim sensibilities. He sees the world and Israel from a Muslim perspective - influenced by a strain of anti-Semitism"
Jackson's stance Obama is made clear quite easily in a piece published by BuzzFeed where he aligns Obama with the Muslim Brotherhood, and claims that the president shares sensibilities with radical Islam, even if he doesn't declare it.
This is only the start. Right Wing Watch (Source) in October, 2012 where he lays out just how far to the right he is on gay rights.
3. Gays and lesbians have “perverted” minds and are very sick people psychologically, mentally, and emotionally.
Jackson believes the notion of “love” really means “sex” in the LGBT community. His tirade goes on to claim that advocacy efforts aren’t about civil rights or acceptance, but about legitimacy. He claims that the fight is so they can perpetuate a lie that homosexuality is not, indeed, a sin.
The list goes on...
4. Perpetuating the myth that homosexuality and pedophilia are one in the same...
[Homosexuality] attempts to poison our children, divide them from their parents and teaching of the church and basically turn them into pawns for that movement so that they can sexualize them at the earliest possible age.
5. The LGBT campaigns for societal acceptance are “authoritarian and totalitarian”
“It’s an authoritarian, totalitarian spirit that has decided they know what’s best for everyone, they know that homosexuality is just great and just fine, forget about the Bible, forget about your faith, forget about what God has taught us, forget about what nature reveals to us and go along with them. If you don’t, you are the enemy and they want you declared a hate group, they want you declared a far-right-wing nut who needs to be perhaps even put in jail. This is one of the concerns I have with a party that is affiliated with this kind of extremism."
6. Jackson believes CNN's Don Lemon is gay because he was abused as a child
During the interview with Peter LaBarbera, the subject of CNN anchor Don Lemon’s homosexuality came up. The argument was posed that Don Lemon was gay because he was abused as a child. Jackson agreed to the argument, and phrased it just so that people who are abused...
“[are] hurt and wounded, [and] instead of seeking deliverance from it, they perpetuate that wound and they transmit it to others...”
Actually, check out this awesome video from CNN Headlines News!
7. Blames socio-economic troubles in the black community on homosexuality
A common thread in the GOP is to tie single-moms to every problem in society. EW Jackson took a step further by claiming that young black men turn to homosexuality because they are in fatherless households.
There’s something that is going on in the community and I think fatherlessness has contributed to it greatly because if you haven’t been loved by your father, just like young ladies do, young men can do the same thing. They can make the mistake, particularly if they are recruited into it, they find a man who will love them and give them what they’re looking for but sexualize them then they end up for the rest of their lives end up looking for love in all the wrong places.
Candidates like EW Jackson represent everything that's wrong the GOP's radical right-wing, and why Democracy for America members in Virginia and across the country are working to turn the state from Purple to Blue .
The tragic events of 5/20 will leave their mark on Oklahoma for years to come.
With 24 already found dead and hundreds injured, the citizens of Moore, OK could be living with the burden of rebuilding on their own.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has already come out saying that the only way emergency disaster funds can go to his own constituents is if there are budget offsets elsewhere. Coburn, who has has long voted against disaster relief across the country, from funding after the Oklahoma City bombing to the Northeast's recovery after Hurricane Sandy, has shown once again that he is unwilling to help those in desperate need after disaster strikes.
John Hart, Coburn's spokesperson has already made the Senator's stance clear:
[Coburn] makes no apologies for voting against disaster aid bills that are often poorly conceived and used to finance priorities that have little to do with disasters.
Senator Coburn's stance on offsetting new spending by cutting existing spending is not always consistent. Coburn has voted for a raft of legislation that funded the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, for Hurricane Katrina relief, and the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). ThinkProgress' list of bills from 2005-2008 total $314 billion in new spending, which does not include the TARP bill.
Coburn's dedication to offsetting spending on disaster relief, and taking a principled stance against large deficits has not added up over the years, and his "principled" stance to spend on wars and Wall Street has made it clear his views are not going to be consistent with the needs of those digging out in Oklahoma.
MSNBC's David Gregory not only burned Mitch McConnell on the IRS scandal, but let the Senator respond by admitting his own accusations aren't based in fact.
Gregory calls out McConnel for his arguments depending on a in at 1:27, and at 1:47 Mitch McConnell admits to his accusations not being based in fact.
You can't miss this - Gregory takes McConnell to task on his accusation.
GREGORY: …that’s a leap that can you make as argument, but you don’t have fact to back it up.
SEN. MCCONNELL: I– I don’t think we know what the facts are. All I can tell you is…
GREGORY: But that hasn’t stopped you from– from accusing.
Jackson believes the notion of “love” really means “sex” in the LGBT community. His tirade goes on to claim that advocacy efforts aren’t about civil rights or acceptance, but about legitimacy. He claims that the fight is so they can perpetuate a lie that homosexuality is not, indeed, a sin. 
Senator Coburn's stance on offsetting new spending by cutting existing spending is not always consistent. Coburn has voted 
