Yay!!

Especially now that Weiner's gone, this is great news:

ORLANDO, Fla. -- WFTV learned on Monday that former U.S. Congressman Alan Grayson is running for office again.

On Monday, Grayson said he doesn't plan to do anything different. He said he's running again because of all the people who have reached out and asked him to. Grayson already raised nearly $100,000 in donations before filing his paperwork on Monday.

"We need somebody who's gonna stick up for what's right. Somebody with guts," Grayson said.

During Grayson's last campaign an ad referred to his opponent, Daniel Webster, as Taliban Dan. Grayson lost his District 8 Congressional seat to Webster after a highly controversial campaign. And Grayson's take on the Republican health care plan caught national attention.

"Republican plan: don't get sick. And if you do get sick, die quickly," said Grayson on the floor of Congress..

Looking back, Grayson said he has no regrets about his campaign.

"What went wrong with my campaign, and Democratic campaigns all over the country, is that Democrats didn't vote," said Grayson.

Grayson said he's proud of his track record, from jobs, to helping Central Florida's housing crisis.

"When I started, there were 3,000 families every month losing their homes in Orange County. We got that number down to 1,500," said Grayson.

Grayson said his approach this time around depends on the circumstances, but for the sake of supporters who sent him donations before he announced he's running again, he said he has no plans to hold back.

"We're fighting for our survival. We're fighting for our jobs, our homes. We're fighting for Social Security and Medicare," said Grayson.

Grayson may not be running for his old seat with redistricting under way right now, he may end up running for a newly created seat for Orlando. It's still to early to know who he will be running against.

At least there'll be ONE actual Democrat in the House.

UPDATE: Grayson's announcement e-mail:

I’m in.  I’m running for Congress.


I’m running because I  promised Charlaina and Rick that I would.   Charlaina called me a few weeks ago, from the hospital.  She told me that her husband, Rick, was suffering from multiple organ failure – lungs, kidneys and liver.

Rick was 56 years old.  That’s three years older than me.

Rick was a veteran.   But the Veterans Administration wasn’t covering his hospital bills.

Rick had had a bad liver  since he was 30, when he contracted hepatitis.  No insurance company would go  near him.


Every day Rick survived, his  family owed several thousand dollars more to hospitals and doctors.  And  they had no way to pay it.

I told Charlaina how sorry I  was.  And I told her that I wasn’t in  Congress anymore, so I wasn’t sure how I could help.

She said: “You can run again.”

“You are the only person who ever cared about people like us.  Rick wants people in Congress who can’t be  bought and sold.  Rick wants you to run again.”

A dying man wants me to run  for Congress.  What exactly could I say?

I promised that I would run.

Rick died on June 30, 2011,  at 5:55 p.m.

I’m keeping my promise.   I’m in.

For the four million people in Florida who can’t see a  doctor when they are sick, and  the fifty million nationwide, I’m in.

For the 70% of all homeowners  in Orlando who owe more than they own on their home, and the 25% nationwide who  are “underwater,” and feel like they  are drowning, I’m in.

For the six million Americans who haven’t worked in  six months and are seeing their  benefits running out, for the eight million more who are unemployed, and for  the eight million on top of that who can find only part-time work, I’m in.

For the millions of parents  who have absolutely no idea how to  pay for a college education for their children, I’m in.

And for everyone who is  appalled by the prospect that we may cut Social Security and Medicare benefits  as we spend more than $150 billion a  year on three unnecessary wars and almost  $100 billion a year on the Bush tax cuts for the rich, I’m in.


I’m in.  And  I’m going to need your help.  Are you in?

Click here to contribute to my campaign

The only Democrat I will give money to in this election cycle

And it sure looks like he's running:

Now who looks like the raving lunatic here? (Hint: It isn't Grayson.)

Since when does the desire to have a job make you an unreasonable money-grubber who wants a pony and a baseball team?

Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone

I know. But the denizens of Florida's 8th district, when their theocratic new Congressman votes to screw them over ten ways to Sunday, are going to miss this guy:

Hey, Florida 8th District Schmucks! You're going to miss this guy before it's all over

One mo' time:

Sorry, but Alan Grayson was right in substance

Bill Maher and others have excoriated Alan Grayson for taking Daniel Webster out of context in a recent campaign ad with remarks about a wife submitting to her husband. The clip WAS taken out of context in that particular instance, but the moniker "Taliban Dan" used to describe a religious fanatic who believes in an extreme religious canon that he would take with him into public service and which shapes his views on policy is not in the least bit an exaggeration, as this Alternet piece (which you should click through and read in its entirety) on Webster's ties to the Christian Reconstruction movement demonstrates:

Daniel Webster’s association with Bill Gothard’s Institute For Basic Life Training has continued into the present, and a speech Webster made at a Nashville IBLP conference in 2009 has now become a source of controversy due to a new Alan Grayson campaign ad. Grayson is currently taking a media drubbing because of an ad campaign ad that calls Grayson’s political opponent, Republican Daniel Webster, “Taliban Dan.”

An assessment from Factcheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, has charged that a new Grayson campaign ad attacking Grayson’s political opponent, Republican Daniel Webster, takes out of context statements Webster made in a speech at a 2009 conference of a religious organization called the “Institute of Basic Life Principles.”

But die-hard religious right researchers at ReligionDispatches.org are raising questions about Factcheck.org’s charge, and Religion Dispatches editor Sarah Posner calls out Factcheck.org in turn for its benign depiction of Bill Gothard’s IBLP, noting that “Factcheck.org fails… to describe what the IBLP is really about, describing it as a “non-denominational Christian organization that runs programs and training sessions.”

Many across the political spectrum appear appalled by the Grayson campaign’s “Taliban” label but Daniel Webster’s nearly three-decade long, intimate involvement with the Bill Gothard and the Institute For Basic Life Principles suggests that the label may be less than hyperbolic.

More on Bill Gothard and Gothardism

As described in a February 18, 1999 story in the Broward/Palm Beach New Times, by Bob Norman, Bill Gothard’s Character First! curriculum, now being taught in public school systems across the United States, teaches an extreme form of submission to authority. As Norman’s story begins,

One of the lessons for today is obedience, and the first graders at the school inside the First Christian Church building in Fort Lauderdale sing about it quite obediently.

While the students at the Charter School of Excellence are divided fairly evenly between blacks and whites, they dress alike, with the boys in dark blue pants and green buttoned-up golf shirts and the girls wearing white blouses under plaid jumpers. All eyes are focused on their young and attractive teacher, Mrs. Blocker, who leads them in song:

Obedience is listening attentively,
Obedience will take instructions joyfully,
Obedience heeds wishes of authorities,
Obedience will follow orders instantly.
For when I am busy at my work or play,
And someone calls my name, I’ll answer right away!
I’ll be ready with a smile to go the extra mile
As soon as I can say “Yes, sir!” “Yes ma’am!”
Hup, two, three!

A July 20, 1995 story in the Dallas Observer, by Julie Lyons, underscores the authoritarian nature of Gothard’s programs and also corroborates Alan Grayson’s charge that Daniel Webster indeed referred to a Gothardite doctrine of female submission in his 2009 Nashville speech. As Lyons writes,

“It is one of the stranger sights in South Dallas: each day, when the weather is fair, 125 teenage girls stream out of the Ambassador hotel and cross the street into Old City Park. The girls are dressed almost identically, in navy blue smocks and skirts and crisp, lace-collared blouses, their long hair cinched with bows or bands. All but a few of the teens are white.

[...]

No, these teens aren’t part of the exhibits at Old City Park, or some lost tribe of Girl Scouts. But they are vestiges of values past, students in an eight-week religious finishing school–works in progress at a factory seeking to build pure and perfect teens. The program is called EXCEL, which stands for “Excellence in Character, Education, and Leadership.” It costs $900 per teen.

The girls, who range in age from 15 to the early 20s, come to Dallas from all over the country for the year-old residential program at the Ambassador. Though they hail from a variety of evangelical and fundamentalist churches, they’ve all been nurtured in the “basic life principles” of well-known Bible teacher Bill Gothard–principles that include unquestioning obedience to their parents, future submission to their husbands, eschewing rock music and television, and remaining chaste.

A January 9, 2006 In These Times report from Silja J.A. Talvi suggested that Bill Gothard’s approach  has changed little if at all since then, and other news reports have  also underscored the same authoritarian, anti-feminist streak in Gothard’s teachings.

Dan Webster's affiliation with Bill Gothard IS a legitimate campaign issue, and Webster owes it to the citizens of his district to make clear just what his intentions are in terms of bringing Christian Reconstruction to Washington and work to enact its tenets as policy for all to follow.

Dear Wussy-Ass Democrats: THIS is how you do it

Any questions?

I want to be a producer....

Ever want to be a producer? Now you can; not of a Broadway show, but of a documentary film about Alan Grayson:

Help the directors keep filming until the election here.

So I wonder how many Floridians will think they're voting for the Daniel Webster they used to read about in history class

I have no doubt that there were people who voted for George W. Bush in 2000 because they thought they were voting for his father. Perhaps I'm wrong, but then I live in New Jersey's Fifth Congressional District, where people pull the lever for Scott Garrett every two years but still think Marge Roukema is their representative. So I'm not sure that the Willfully Ignorant who seem to comprise an increasing portion of the American population are even paying enough attention to know who they support. But now in Florida, we have a Republican nominee for Alan Grayson's seat whose name is Daniel Webster. And I wonder how many people will think they're voting for this one, when in reality they'll be voting for this one.

This is OUR guy:

Yes, he means 18th century, not 17th, so let's not have any comments about that, please. But what's important here -- having a real Democrat in Congress who isn't afraid of Republicans vs. a theocratic nutball? Or semantics.

You know what to do. Do it. Now.

Alan Grayson shows you don't need bankster money when your message works

It's well-known that unlike Mitch McConnell and the other Republicans who are taking bank bribes to filibuster financial reform (thus making the world safe for the kind of financial chicanery that nearly brought down the world economy in 2008), Alan Grayson doesn't suck up to bankers and corporate interests.

So where does Grayson's money come from, and how did he generate over $800,000 in campaign contributions last quarter? Well, 93% of it comes from about 25,000 individual donors -- an average of $32 per donation:

The often-polarizing Orlando Democrat expects to report raising $803,000 in the first three months of 2010, a haul that will likely eclipse what all his Republican opponents have raised combined and leave him with $1.5 million in cash-on-hand. It's also enough to outpace nearly every other member of Congress for the second quarter in a row.

[snip]

During the last quarter of 2009, Grayson raised $861,297, a total exceeded among congressional incumbents only by the $890,387 reported by U.S. Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., according to the Federal Election Commission. Berman, a staunch defender of Hollywood interests, is heavily backed by TV, music and movie donors.

But instead of tapping media interests for money, Grayson uses them to promote his brand of progressive pugilism. Grayson made a national splash in a House floor speech last fall, sarcastically blasting Republicans for a health-care reform plan that he said amounts to urging Americans to "die quickly."

He made more waves recently by taking on a Mount Dora doctor who put a sign on his office door urging Obama supporters to "seek urologic care elsewhere."

Grayson is also a brutal critic of Wall Street and the Federal Reserve. A staunch defender of health-care reform, he's filed a so-called "public option" bill that would allow all residents to buy into Medicare.

All this, plus regular appearances on left-leaning TV talk shows, has enabled Grayson to build a nationwide base of small contributors. A March 27 Internet "money bomb" appeal netted roughly $470,000; a similar Nov. 3 event netted about $514,000.

Grayson's camp said the latest totals reflect nearly 25,000 individual givers, who account for 93 percent of his donations. The average gift, he said, is $32, with more than half of his total coming via the Internet.

Yes, Grayson is a self-made multimillionaire, but that hasn't stopped other candidates with huge financial resources (*cough* John McCain *cough*) from sucking up to corporate interests, promising action in exchange for cash.

Grayson's message ought to be boilerplate for any Democrat (I'm talking to you, Mr. Obama) who is looking for middle class mainstream Republican votes. You don't get the votes of non-crazy Republicans by moving further to the right, you get votes by telling the truth and by believing passionately in something. That Grayson is beloved by the liberal netroots AND is simultaneously the top choice among Republicans in his district ought to tell you something.

Thursday Alan Grayson Blogging

You can call me Betty if I can call you Al.

Thursday Alan Grayson Blogging

When you're working 7 days a week you miss stuff like this:

GRAYSON INTRODUCES PUBLIC OPTION ACT
Bill Opens Up Medicare To Anyone Who Can Pay For It

March 9, 2010

Washington, DC

Congressman Alan Grayson, D-Fla., today introduced a bill (H.R. 4789) which would give the option to buy into Medicare to every citizen of the United States. The “Public Option Act,” also known as the “Medicare You Can Buy Into Act,” would open up the Medicare network to anyone who can pay for it.

Congressman Grayson said, “Obviously, America wants and needs more competition in health coverage, and a public option offers that. But it’s just as important that we offer people not just another choice, but another kind of choice. A lot of people don’t want to be at the mercy of greedy insurance companies that will make money by denying them the care that they need to stay healthy, or to stay alive. We deserve to have a real alternative.”

The bill would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish enrollment periods, coverage guidelines, and premiums for the program. Because premiums would be equal to cost, the program would pay for itself.

“The government spent billions of dollars creating a Medicare network of providers that is only open to one-eighth of the population. That’s like saying, ‘Only people 65 and over can use federal highways.’ It is a waste of a very valuable resource and it is not fair. This idea is simple, it makes sense, and it deserves an up-or-down vote,” Congressman Grayson said.

In keeping with the “Grayson style,” the bill is clear and concise. It is only four pages. You can read the bill here.

In case you hadn't heard, Alan Grayson is leading in the REPUBLICAN primary race in his district.

Tuesday Alan Grayson Blogging

As important as Alan Grayson pointing out former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's "$700 billion conflict of interest" is the continuing rehabilitation of Eliot Spitzer. As this country's financial debacle continues to unfold, it's looking more every day like Spitzer was targeted specifically and wiretapped by the Bush Administration because he was getting too close to the truth...and that he will ultimately have the last laugh.

Tuesday Alan Grayson Blogging: What the echo chamber isn't telling you

Alan Grayson may not be a shiny new object, but he reminds the media that's so busy fantasizing about fucking Sarah Palin that there's a populist who brought in a shitload of money in individual donations last month who isn't a racist, xenophobic, Christofascist zombie:

The story that everyone wants to tell is that the Democratic Party is disheartened and disintegrating. Teabagger Republicans are juiced up and on top. Or so the media says, over and over again.

But the House candidate who raised the most money in the entire country during the last FEC reporting period -- $860,000 in three months -- is not a teabagger. He is not boosted relentlessly by Fox News. He's not even a Republican. He doesn't think that the Earth was created 6000 years ago, that President Obama was born in Kenya, or that global warming is a hoax.

This House candidate also, remarkably, had the largest number of contributors. Over 15,000 individuals contributed, many of whom have given time after time, whatever they could. The House candidate who raised the most money did so without French-kissing lobbyists, without flattering the idle rich, and without reaching into his own pocket.

The House candidate who raised the most money, from the most people, is an outspoken populist who tells it like it is on the war, on jobs, and on health care. His website is called CongressmanWithGuts.com. In the 100,000 e-mails that he has received this year, the most common refrain is, "You are saying what I've been thinking."

I know who he is. Because he's me.

But no one has reported that the House candidate who raised the most money, from the most people, is a proud Democratic populist. No one.

[snip]

The political reporters camped out in D.C. often act like a giant Xerox machine for the fib factory known as the national Republican Party. Recently, they saw fit to report (and repeat, and repeat) the Republican Party's crackpot claim that we are withholding a secret poll with bad news in it for us. (We aren't; there is no such poll, but the Republican Party is soooo good at manufacturing plausible lies.) Not one word from those reporters, though, about what would seem to be an irresistible "feel good" story -- that thanks to People Power, that brash, plain-spoken Democratic Congressman from Orlando is the Number One fundraiser in the country. Nothing about that.

The fact that an unapologetic progressive Democrat could amass such support, not by trading favors for money, but by striking a chord with so many ordinary people, refutes the pervasive meme of Democrats divided and despondent. Particularly when it's a Democrat who says that "you can't beat a Republican by being one."

Here's Congressman Cojones on Wall Street pay:

Tuesday Alan Grayson Blogging

I don't know about you, but I've been pretty bummed about the state of this country lately and I needs me some Alan Grayson:

A rare bright spot in a year of Democratic sellouts

The Year of the Franken.

And yeah, this guy too.

Alan Grayson Tells it Like it Is! Pap on the Healthcare Debate

Ring of Fire's Mike Papantonio may be one of the only couple of good things left on Air America these days, and here Pap Attacks the health insurance corporations with the help of Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla,) who is so refreshingly logical that he makes me want to cry.

Why is it so hard for Americans to get their minds around the concept of shaking up a corrupt industry in order to help our neighbors stay healthy and alive? How could we have gotten to a point where we are more interested in protecting huge corporations and when did we decide that we would prefer these same corporations to be in our lives and running our health care into the ground while stealing us blind?

It must be that people are bamboozled by the lobby's doublespeak...it has to be that people think they are saving on taxes or something, and cant see that in the big picture there will be savings all around. But, honestly, if that is really what its about, then there is something wrong with America. All of the religious folks out there who feel like they do their duty by going to church on Sunday or Temple on Saturday or Mosque whenever, have to reassess what is important in their lives. We cant just let people be sick and die, some 44,000 per year, so that we can have a tax break. No one is more deserving than anyone else; we all rely on luck in this country, and every one of us stands, in some way, on the shoulders of the person who went before us and who stands beside us.




To learn more about Grayson's background listen to part 2. This is a guy with the kind of prior experience to be a profound force in the progressive movement, and hopefully an important player in higher office. What has he done to block fraudulent contractors from receiving funds via contracts from our government?
What do we need to do to effect real change? Grayson explains it all here:



h/t to Go Left TV for bringing us video coverage of many of the high points of the debate out there. Go there and subscribe to their feed!

c/p RIP Coco

Friday Alan Grayson blogging

Cats are cute, but Alan Grayson is awesome. And you can never have too much of Alan Grayson speaking truth to idiocy.

Wednesday night he recited the number of dead from lack of health care in each district represented by a Republican who plans to vote against reform:

Thursday Alan Grayson Blogging

Because you can never have too much Alan Grayson. Today, a litany of the dead:

Grayson/Franken 2016

Or Franken/Grayson. Or screw it, how about 2012? If, as I'm reading elsewhere, Barack Obama is willing to sell out public competition for insurance companies on the altar of the worship of Olympia Snowe, then the hell with it. Let's run these guys in 2012 and get our country back already:

(heh. "Captain Cojones.")

And for those who would say, "What about a woman?" Sorry, but mere presence of a uterus in the Oval Office isn't going to guarantee that this government is run for the people rather than lobbyists.

Friday Alan Grayson Blogging

Alan Grayson schools Rep. Paul Broun of Georgia, a man in the United States government who is ignorant about the very Constitution he's sworn to uphold, about what's in that document:

It's frightening that Republicans who know absolutely nothing about the Constitution are allowed to create law in this country.