Blue America Welcomes Carol Moseley Braun, Candidate For Mayor Of Chicago

Blue America has had a running battle with Wall Street shill Rahm Emanuel for as long as we existed as a PAC. Our enthusiasm for Carol Moseley Braun is not about Rahm Emanuel though. Yes, electing him mayor is the worst thing that Chicago could possibly do to itself, but Carol Moseley Braun would be a formidable candidate no matter who the opposition was. Today she's coming on to Crooks and Liars for a live blog session at 3:30pm (CST; 1:30 on the West Coast). When I spoke with her on the phone a few days ago and asked her about the sleazy, relentless and very effective way Emanuel has undermined her in the minds of so many voters, she was eager to talk about her own reasons for running, not about him. She did agree with me, however, and said she's "had to deal with negative racial and gender narratives all through my career. They're not about substance; just about slinging mud and hoping it sticks... In all my years in public service I have never leveraged my elected office or any political connections for private gain." That, of course, is the exact polar opposite of the Rahm Emanuel model, an exemplar of a high level revolving door that has left him a multimillionaire many times over based on one thing and one thing alone: political access.

When Ambassador Braun left the Illinois House of Representatives, where she had been Assistant Majority Leader and an effective champion of progressive causes-- even when it meant going up against powerful conservatives in her own party-- she was dubbed "the conscience of the House." In fact, when she ran for the U.S. Senate, the impetus was to hold conservative Democrat Alan Dixon accountable for an unconscionable and shortsighted vote to confirm Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. In beating Dixon, and going on to win the general election, she became the first woman to defeat an incumbent senator in an election, the first and only female Senator from Illinois and the only African-American woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate. Those are incredible achievements and she has had to fight with some heavily armed opponents every step of the way.

With the withdrawal of state Senator James Meeks and Congressman Danny Davis from the mayor's race-- both have endorsed her-- Carol became the consensus candidate with an actual shot at beating the Big Business-backed Emanuel. Despite Emanuel's very focused disinformation campaign with the corporate media, to Carol and to Chicago reformers with the ability to see past that, this election is a referendum on inclusiveness and transparency in Chicago politics and on what Markos would clearly see as outsiders crashing some of the highest, most forbidding gates in political America.

If you'd like to help Carol Moseley Braun, you can do it at our Blue America page we set up specially for this race. I might add that the first 10 contributions today will elicit a gift from Blue America in the form of Jordan Rubin's powerful new book on healthy eating The Raw Truth.

Carmona Not Glue, Part II-- Saving Americans' Bones From Osteoporosis

Back in July of 2007 I never imagined there was going to be a Part II of Carmona Not Glue... or that DWT would be dealing with the root causes of bone loss in senior citizens. Please click the link above and read about one member of the George W. Bush team whose goals were about actually doing a job or Americans, not for Karl Rove warped vision of right-wing jihad tat drove nearly the entire Bush Regime. Admiral Richard Carmona was Bush's Surgeon General from August 2002 until July 2006. Although he's an unapologetic Republican, Carmona is probably best known-- as much as he's known at all-- for having been highly critical of the Bush Administration once he left office. He was outraged that Rove's strategies led to the systematic interfering with and suppressing scientific findings which conflicted with the Regime's deranged ideological agenda.

An NYC Puerto Rican high school dropout, Carmona enlisted in the army, where he became a combat-decorated Vietnam veteran and began his career in medicine as a Special Forces medic going from registered nurse to physician, hospital CEO and Surgeon General. He's the guy who, much to the chagrin of John Boehner and the lobbyists in Boehnerland GOP, dealt the death knell to tobacco by issuing the definitive report on the toxicity of secondhand smoke which underlined the unacceptable risks and encouraged indoor smoking bans: "The debate is over. The science is clear: Secondhand smoke is not a mere annoyance, but a serious health hazard." Rove and Boehner and their cronies worked hard to undermine Carmona and in 2007 he accused the Bush Administration of preventing him from speaking out on a wide range of public health issues from embryonic stem cell research, global climate change and emergency contraception, to the idiocy of abstinence-only sex education, where Rove's political calculations conflicted with scientific and medical opinion. "Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried."

Bush and Rove weren't especially concerned about osteoporosis and didn't interfere, as far as I know, with Carmona when he released his groundbreaking 2004 Bone Health Report. But the media, all caught up in the electoral battle between Bush and Kerry-- and with the first Boston Red Sox World Series win since 1918-- ignored it completely. The corporate food industry was satisfied and it didn't even cost them anything to bury a document that could have/should have caused them endless trouble.

Carmona, singled out as one of the "health legends" in Jordan Rubin's newest book, The Raw Truth, warned that if we don’t change our lifestyle habits by 2020, half of American citizens older than 50 years of age would be at risk of fractures from osteoporosis. We're almost there and we haven't changed our eating habits and lifestyle, certainly not in the way Dr. Carmona was advocating.

We tend to think of bone health as it relates to the elderly, but bone health-- and more appropriately bone mineral loss-- should be a concern at all ages of life. So, if you are over 30, the age that is associated with the end of the “bone growth” stage of life and the onset of normal age-related bone mineral loss, then the Surgeon General’s report should be particularly alarming to you. Thankfully, Dr. Carmona and his team of medical experts laid out a three-part plan to address the alarming trends described in this report.

The plan includes improved diet, exercise and health literacy. Particular attention was paid to calcium and vitamin D. The FDA concurs evidenced by its approved health claim that adequate calcium and vitamin D intake, when combined with physical activity and a healthful diet, may reduce the risk of osteoporosis later in life.

Of course, many people looking to boost their bone health choose to supplement their diets. It is in this area that one of the most common myths associated with bone health is found.

If you want healthy bones, all you need is calcium, right? That is the sum total of many people’s knowledge on bone health nutrition. Thousands of manufacturers of calcium supplements would happily have you believe that first statement. That alone should make you wary. When thousands of companies profit from a single widely-held belief, it’s probably time to question that belief.

Here is the truth.

No calcium supplement, taken in the absence of other vitamins and minerals and without proper diet and exercise, has ever been proven in clinical studies to help you strengthen bones. The best that can be said is that calcium supplementation helps slow down or stop bone loss. While slowing bone loss is a great goal, it’s a far cry from making them stronger and healthier by increasing bone mineral density.
As you will learn, there are several factors that go into actually building bone mineral density or growing bone. The source of your calcium is a key factor. Did you know that most calcium supplements are ground-up rocks or oyster shells? Of equal importance to the source of calcium are a host of other vitamins, minerals and trace elements that help calcium achieve its ultimate goal in the body.

...Sun-drenched and teeming with life, our bodies thrive on the nutrition that plants provide. The same will never be said of rocks. Additionally, and of particular importance for bone health, when you take a plant-form calcium supplement, you’re getting far more than just calcium.

The consumption of bone-building co-factor minerals such as magnesium, silica, boron, vanadium and strontium have all been linked to healthy bones. And all of them are naturally occurring in the RAW Calcium algas calcareas.sp.

...Be sure to also eat a diet rich in calcium and vitamin D, and chances are that by 2020, no matter what your age, you’ll be more likely to have strong, healthy bones.

Would you like a free copy? Help save Chicago

Yesterday Paul Krugman was ruminating about soaring food prices and potentially disastrous shortfalls. Americans who don't have to worry about there not being enough food, have to worry about what kind of food they're eating. Coke and Pepsi aren't food; they're poisonous substances that cause disease. And, regardless of Ronnie RayGun's 100th birthday, ketchup still isn't a vegetable. But making and distributing them are very profitable. Alas, this isn't the kind of stuff our public officials are interested in. At least most of them aren't. There are always exceptions-- like Jared Polis in Colorado. And the woman who's running for Mayor of Chicago, former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun, against Wall Street's candidate (Satan), actually runs an organic food company in real life. Carol is going to be a live Blue America guest at Crooks and Liars on Wednesday afternoon and we're going to be talking with her about health as well as politics. I hope you'll come over and meet her. Meanwhile, the first 10 people who donate at least $25 to her campaign fund at ActBlue will get a free copy of Rubin's book, Raw Truth as a healthy thank you gift from Blue America.

Will Wall Street Mafia Completely Take Over Chicago Now?

Yesterday Blue America tried to help Carol Moseley Braun get going with some national grassroots fundraising. As you can see, we raised around $7,500 for her. But we also discovered that Chicago progressives are so riven and so focused on Rahm's slick, pervasive, negative narrative about Braun that it's nearly hopeless that Emanuel can be stopped. Worse yet, Emanuel and the Big Business interests behind him are working behind the scenes to also win a conservative majority on the City Council. A Daley/Emanuel operative has put together a new PAC, which has already raised a million dollars from anti-family/anti-consumer forces to help bring about a take over that will be more complete and more devastating than anything Al Capone-- or Richard Daley-- ever contemplated.

Greg Goldner, who worked as campaign manager for Daley in 2003 and Emanuel’s first congressional campaign in 2002, is listed as the chairman of the new For A Better Chicago PAC, according to documents filed Friday with state elections officials.

...The effort appears to be an attempt to counter the enormous participation in local politics of organized labor, which was the biggest campaign donor by far in the 2007 council election. Goldner said For a Better Chicago would provide its endorsed candidates with “direct mail, survey research, voter education and get-out-the-vote efforts in wards throughout the city.”

Carol was fighting back against Rahm's slurs this morning. No one could doubt who exactly she's referring to, could they? Only one candidate for Mayor took some time off from work in DC, got a "job" as a bankster, went to work for Wall Street for a few months and was handed tens of millions of dollars to help him build power to further advance their interests!


Stop Rahm!

Chicago CAN Stop Wall Street's Candidate Rahm Emanuel

When Carol Moseley Braun left the Illinois House of Representatives, where she had been Assistant Majority Leader and an effective champion of progressive causes-- even when it meant going up against powerful conservatives in her own party-- she was dubbed "the conscience of the House." In fact, when she ran for the U.S. Senate, the impetus was to hold conservative Democrat Alan Dixon accountable for an unconscionable and shortsighted vote to confirm Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. In beating Dixon, and going on to win the general election, she became the first woman to defeat an incumbent senator in an election, the first and only female Senator from Illinois and the only African-American woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate. With the withdrawal of Rep. Danny Davis from the Chicago mayor's race-- and his endorsement of her-- she becomes the consensus candidate who has a shot at beating the Big Business-backed Rahm Emanuel. She has also been endorsed by state Senator James Meeks, the other credible African-American candidate, who withdrew last week.

"I am totally dropping out of the race. I am supporting Carol Moseley Braun with every ounce of fervor that I have," Davis said. "I am even going to give her some money. I am going to try to get every person who thought that they might support Danny Davis to switch their support to Carol Moseley Braun. In fact, I will start tonight."

Blue America is backing her as well, and you can donate to her campaign through the new ActBlue page, StopRahm.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson brokered a roughly four-hour meeting Wednesday night with Davis and Braun at his Rainbow PUSH headquarters that was also attended by several ministers, business leaders and politicians. Among them was U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, who is backing Braun, and state Sen. Rickey Hendon, who is backing Davis.

Where does this leave Rahm Emanuel?

With a unified black political community behind Mosely Braun, her chances of winning just shot up substantially. It is significant that the Rev. Jackson brokered this agreement given the factionalization of the black vote in the past between west side and south side African Americans. For the first time since 1983 when the city's only black mayor-- Harold Washington-- was elected, the African American community will head into primary day backing a single major candidate.

For Emanuel, this negates any opportunity he had to use Mayor Daley's very successful game plan in winning the primary. With the black vote usually split, Daley successfully courted the growing Hispanic vote while siphoning off just enough black machine votes to add to his astounding margins of victory in working class white neighborhoods. For Rahmbo, the Hispanic vote is expected to split between two major candidates and it is doubtful that Rahmbo will be able to run up the 85-90% margins in Bridgeport and other white communities in the city that Daley was famous for.

Might Rahm's former boss take a hand? Bill Clinton offered to come to Chicago to campaign for Emanuel and had his face slapped by black leaders for even thinking about it. And the African American community, while supporting Obama to the hilt as president, no doubt recalls some of the betrayals the former state senator effected when Obama was part of the regular Democrats prior to his run for the presidency. His tacky deal with Daley to support his mayoral re-election (over a qualified African American candidate) in return for Daley's support in his bid for the White House did not sit well with many in the "reform" community, or among rank and file blacks. Obama's "help" may be no more welcome than Clinton's.

Now Mosely Braun has the opportunity to employ Harold Washington's successful strategy of uniting the black community while exciting the liberals in Hyde Park and along the lakeshore to back her candidacy. Her name recognition will also help immensely. She will have decent funding, an army of dedicated volunteers, and the opportunity to portray Rahm as a carpetbagger.

Are Chicago voters ready for her plain spoken truth-telling? She says she'll fire the Police Superintendent if she's elected. And she hasn't pulled any punches when it comes to Emanuel either. At a press conference last week she pointed out the one-eyed aunt in the attic-- "everybody in this room knows [Rahm] doesn't live here"-- and she criticized Clinton's endorsement of his sleazy NAFTA-crony Emanuel.

"We know that Mr. Clinton and Emanuel have a relationship," Braun said in a statement. "But if Rahm is going to invite his buddies to Chicago to campaign for him then he ought to invite his friend Bart Stupak, who along with Rahm took a woman's right to choose out of the health care bill. He ought to invite his buddy Tom Tancredo who blocked the Dream Act. Or he can have his friend Leland Brendsel stop by. Brendsel was in charge of Freddie Mac and played a huge role in the mortgage meltdown, and was a major Rahm contributor."

Powerful stuff-- which Emanuel whined is "divisive." Emanuel has one constituency: Big Business/Wall Street. There isn't a worse or more dangerous Democrat anywhere in America. He's very much a part of the Conservative Consensus that dominates the GOP and has been gradually taking over the Democratic Party as well. When George H.W. Bush couldn't get enough Democrats to pass the job-killing legislation of all times, NAFTA, he left it to Bill Clinton, and Clinton charged a little-known Chicago political thug, Rahm Emanuel, with the task of forcing it through. It succeeded, and the middle class was on the road to ruin. Emanuel was rewarded with a cushy sinecure from Wall Street, and tens of millions of dollars, and later he was further rewarded with a rotten borough congressional district, which he used to force his way into congressional power. As head of the DCCC he backed conservative Blue Dogs and ruined the party brand in the minds of millions of Democratic voters. Obama couldn't wait to name him chief of staff.

And now Emanuel is campaigning to bring his brand of Big Business politics to Chicago. The only credible candidate who has a shot at stopping him is former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun. Please consider donating to her campaign fund.