Win A Signed Van Halen Poster Right Now

As we mentioned this morning, Blue America would like everyone who can to chip in-- even if it's just a small amount-- to the congressional campaign of Chris Donovan. You should do it because he's been a kick ass Speaker of Connecticut's House, probably the most effective progressive leading any state legislature in America. But there's another reason too.

Chris rocks... literally. His band is called the Bad Reps. They never quite made it to the stature of Van Halen. I used to work at Van Halen's label, Warner Bros and while I was there I managed to get a Van Halen poster signed in magic marker by all 4 guys in the band. I'm happy to give that poster away to someone today. I'm going to write on a piece of paper all the names of the people who contribute to Chris Donovan's campaign here at the Blue America ActBlue page, put them in a hat and pick one randomly. That person gets the poster (5.5" x 8.5" from the Blaisdell Arena show in Honolulu on October 16, 1998). Pretty easy. And it doesn't matter if you contribute $1.00 or $1,000.00; everybody gets the same chance to win the poster, a kind of a thank you from DWT for caring about America. So... JUMP!

Chris Donovan Is Doing In Connecticut What We Need Congress To Do In Washington

As Congress (more on them below) remains stuck in neutral on a jobs bill to fix the one issue that is-- or at least should be-- on top of the priority list for Democrats, and anyone who cares what's happening to the 99% of Americans who aren't wealthy Wall Street fat cats, there's some more good news coming out of Connecticut.

Blue America-endorsed candidate for the open 5th CD seat-- Connecticut Speaker of the House, Chris Donovan-- has led the fight in the Connecticut General Assembly to pass two jobs measures to help the struggling Connecticut economy. The first, which passed almost unanimously, targets smart spending at programs designed to create jobs immediately: bridge repairs, green energy retrofits for home heating, workforce development, tax credits to encourage hiring of the unemployed, small business loans and angel investor seed money to help jump-start entrepreneurship, and a streamlining of the permit and regulation process to help speed projects like brownfield clean-up and development. (The one "NO" vote was a right-wing kook who's running for Congress against Democrat Joe Courtney and he wanted to make a point that he'll always vote with the 1% against the 99%. Every other Republican voted "YES.")

The second bill, which passed with largely Democratic support, will create roughly 7,500 jobs-- many of them immediate-start construction jobs-- with modest spending over 10 years to enable a research company to open at the site of the UCONN Health Center. The lab is part of the Connecticut Democrats' push for Bioscience Connecticut, an emerging research triangle anchored by Yale in New Haven, UCONN in Storrs, and the UCONN Health Center in greater Hartford that will be the base for the state emerging as a leader in the growth bioscience industry.

This story is a good insight on why we need CAN DO progressive fighters and leaders like Chris in Congress. Congress can't seem to pass an overwhelmingly popular jobs bill, but Chris is able to get two jobs bills through his legislature, despite not being able to print money and having to live within the confines of a hard budget, with Republican support. Chris:

“Connecticut families want jobs and a strong economy. We targeted small businesses and the unemployed. Because we worked together, people will go back to work. This bill gives them more than hope. It gives them a program that invests in their future. It fosters an environment that will create jobs, help small businesses grow, spur innovation, educate and train our workforce, and make Connecticut competitive again.”

His Republican opponents on the other hand, are anxious to get to Congress so they can join Boehner and Cantor in saying no to commonsense job bills that would help the 99% of us that aren't their insider corporate donors. Andrew Roraback, card-carrying member of the 1% fresh from saying that $800,000 will buy you "a pretty nice house" where he comes from and for voting against money to build a playground for disabled kids, voted against the laboratory project, despite it being in the congressional district he is running to represent. Not to be outdone, millionaire nursing home and golf course magnate Lisa Wilson-Foley sent out a press release attacking the jobs-creating project in her own district using phrases like "big-boy pants" and saying that politicians who disagree with her "belong in diapers." Yes, really. I wonder if she's met David Vitter.

Yesterday we talked to Members of Congress and to Democratic candidates who were angry about the sell-outs of the SuperCommittee who say they are willing to bargain away Medicare benefits. Chris was one of them. He told me that "Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are part of what makes this country great. In times of economic turmoil like what we are facing today we should be thinking of expanding these programs, not cutting them." We need Chris in Congress-- to fight for jobs, to fight for the rights and the dignity of the 99%, and to fight against boneheaded plans to give up on 80 years of support for overwhelmingly successful, and popular, New Deal programs like Social Security (and Medicare and Medicaid). We need good, progressive Democrats with the right values and the experience to fight for us, and to win. Please join us in supporting Chris today. In fact, anyone who does contribute to Chris' campaign at our ActBlue page today will get a chance to win a totally rare old Van Halen poster signed by each member of the band (complements of DWT). Even a one dollar contribution makes you eligible for the little thank you gift. You know Chris has a band too, right?

Rock'n'Roll vs John W. McCain's Racist Campaign

Red Rocker, 61, hearts McCranky

When the McCain campaign first decided to use the Heart classic, "Barracuda," to mythologize the toughness of their moose-shooting but otherwise inadequate vice presidential stunt, the Wilson sisters may have been horrified but they reacted in a measured way. Since politely asking McCain's lobbyist-driven campaign to stop using their song didn't have any effect, they have upped the ante a bit. Courtesy of TRex, who says he got it from Gawker (though I can't find it on either site):

Unfortunately, you continue to blast "Barracuda" in defiance of our wishes. God knows why we thought you’d listen to us, two strong, creative women-- I guess we’re all just “trollop-faced” cunts to you. Speaking of Cinday, who can blame her for hitting the pills? We’d need a Demoral epidural to live through five minutes of her conjugal duties-– you sloshing your saggy ass between her legs and chomping at her breasts with your little yellow teeth. We’d rather rim Meat Loaf. Seriously.)

Now that's an escalation from this kind of stuff. And it isn't only Heart who McCain is pissing off. He's stealing music right and left and, other than KKK-oriented country artists, like half of Big and Rich, and buck toothed rednecks, no one wants their songs sullied by being identified with McCain's racist campaign. Van Halen was understandably angry when longtime Republican and one-time Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar encouraged McCain's camp to use embarrassingly mediocre "Right Now," from an era when the band was having a severe creative lull. This story I was able to find at Gawker:

John McCain's first mistake was trying to seem "hip" and "with it" by blasting Van Halen's atrocious song "Right Now" at a stump stop in Ohio. His second mistake was not getting permission to play the treacly Sammy Hagar track from the band, the members of which are not so old that they actually support the grim candidate. The band's publicist says, "Permission was not sought or granted nor would it have been given." It's like the time when Reagan's campaigners totally misunderstood "Born in the USA" and tried to use it as their theme song until Bruce Springsteen told them to cut the crap.

I'm guessing McCain would rather see stories about disgruntled rockers in the press than stories about how his campaign manager was paid a couple million dollars by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae for access to McCain's saggy ass so they could "persuade" him to keep the Senate from regulating the banking industry.

Don't forget our Blue America Pick A Senate Candidate Contest where all of them understand the dynamics between unbalanced power and the need for government to protect individual consumers and workers from the predatory excesses of unbridled capitalism and Bush-style fascism.