DC Dem Profiles: Ward 5

This Summer, Sum of Change will be bringing you extensive coverage of D.C. local elections. To kick it off, we've been invited by D.C. for Democracy to film their pre-endorsement candidate meet n' greet on Wednesday, June 2. In preparation, we put together some bios on all the candidates that will be attending. Bios for Republican candidates for these seats will be coming shortly. To find all our current DC candidate bios, please visit our 2010 DC Election Page.

These are the Democratic Candidates for the Ward 5 Council

Councilman Harry Tomas, Jr. (incumbent)

From his website:

Harry “Tommy” Thomas, Jr. campaigned for and successfully won the D.C. Ward 5 Council seat in November 2006. He was sworn into office in January 2007. Councilmember Thomas is Chair of the D.C. City Council’s Committee on Libraries, Parks, and Recreation. He sits on four additional committees: Finance and Revenue, Housing and Workforce Development, Government Operations and the Environment, and Aging and Community Affairs. Councilmember Thomas is the son of late three-term Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas, Sr., and former D.C. Public School principal Romaine B. Thomas. Councilmember Thomas attended D.C. Public Schools and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School. He holds a degree in Public Relations/Marketing from Bowie State University. Councilmember Thomas was Vice President of Public Affairs for the Public Benefits Corporation (formerly D.C. General Hospital)...

Councilmember Thomas is a former Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner, and has served as Chair of the Woodridge Health Clinic. He is a past President of the D.C. Young Democrats and a former At-Large elected member of the D.C. Democratic State party, for which he coordinated local and national events. Councilmember Thomas has worked for the national Democratic Party, holding the office of Treasurer. He has also served as the Adult and Youth Chair of the Neighborhood Planning Council. Councilmember Thomas is a member of the YMCA, NAACP, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, and Woodridge Boys and Girls Club.

Kenyan McDuffie

From his website:

Kenyan worked as a trial attorney for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he conducted investigations and managed cases throughout the United States regarding enforcement of key federal civil rights statutes, including defending the rights of the mentally ill, nursing home residents, and persons with disabilities, and also working to reform the policies and procedures of police departments throughout the country. Prior to joining the Justice Department, he worked as an Assistant State's Attorney in Prince George’s County, where he prosecuted misdemeanor and felony cases in District Court and on appeal in Circuit Court. He also served as a judicial law clerk for an Associate Judge on the 7th Judicial Circuit of Maryland...

Kenyan, an experienced attorney and civil rights advocate, is a proven community leader whose campaign, like his life’s work, is focused on your future. For more than a decade, Kenyan has dedicated himself to improving the lives of Ward Five residents and the collective life of the Ward Five community.

DC Dem Profiles: Shadow Representative

This Summer, Sum of Change will be bringing you extensive coverage of D.C. local elections. To kick it off, we've been invited by D.C. for Democracy to film their pre-endorsement candidate meet n' greet on Wednesday, June 2. In preparation, we put together some bios on all the candidates that will be attending. Bios for Republican candidates for these seats will be coming shortly. To find all our current DC candidate bios, please visit our 2010 DC Election Page.

These are the Democratic candidates for Shadow Representative

Shadow Representative Mike Panetta (incumbent)

From Mike Panetta's official online bio:

Mike Panetta has been the District of Columbia shadow representative since 2007...

Panetta has run several high-profile campaigns for D.C. representation, including starting the District of Columbia Olympic Committee and leading efforts to rebrand RFK Stadium as “Taxation Without Representation Field”.[2][3] Panetta has pledged to make District of Columbia voting rights a national issue that is embraced by progressive activists across the country.

Panetta was reelected in 2008, facing no opposition in the Democratic primary[4] and defeating D.C. Statehood Green Party candidate Joyce Robinson-Paul in the November election by 86 to 13 percent.

Nate Bennett-Fleming

From Nate Bennett-Fleming's official online bio:

Nathan's work in public service was launched in 2001, when Nathan was a staff assistant and intern in Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton's office. After learning from Congresswoman Norton, Nathan has worked on several national, state, and local campaigns including the Ben Cardin for U.S. Senate campaign, where he was a regional field coordinator and the John Kerry for President campaign, where he was the deputy national director of African-American Religious Outreach.

In 2009, Nathan worked on crafting a comprehensive strategy to achieve statehood and congressional representation with the D.C. Councils Special Committee on Statehood and Self Determination, chaired by Councilmember Michael A. Brown. In addition, Nathan has gained legislative and legal experience as a summer attorney at two Washington D.C. law firms. Nathan also has finance experience gained as an summer analyst at the Wall Street investment banking powerhouse, Goldman, Sachs & Co. The variety and depth of Nathans professional experiences leaves him as the best qualified candidate to advocate for self-determination and to represent D.C.s residents as a liaison to the United States House of Representatives.

Jon Kuhl

From Jon Kuhl's official online bio:

Having always been passionate about civic involvement, Jon works as the Speaker and Congressional Affairs Manager at the Congressional Youth Leadership Council, a non-partisan organization that runs leadership conferences for students from across the country. In addition to managing the organization’s relationships on Capitol Hill, Jon organizes weekly visits to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives for groups of high school students. As part of his work, Jon also moderates a bi-monthly webcast featuring former members of Congress discussing various topics designed to give high school students a better understanding of how our government works.

Jon believes strongly that the District of Columbia should have full voting rights in Congress, and is intent on building a national coalition of support to end our city’s taxation without representation. Unsatisfied with the status quo, Jon wants to engage his fellow Washingtonians in an effort to increase pressure on Congress. With Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, and with President Obama in the White House, now is the time to demand representation.

Making States More Green

cross-posted from Sum of Change

The question on how states and local level governments can assist the green wave is commonly considered, especially when discussing the current job market and nation’s economy. Michael Fedor, the Pennsylvania state director for Repower America, and Adam Graber, PennEnvironment, bring up various ways to support this process.

The following clips were filmed at the 2010 PA Progressive Summit, held this last January in Harrisburg, PA. In the first video, Fedor and Garber answer a question regarding the Maglev System (a budding green friendly train system appropriate for state wide and city commuting) and how to gain federal funding for a project such as this. In the final video, Garber and Fedor specifically address plans to decrease coal dependency in Pennsylvania, another solution to help states become greener.

For more info on the Pennsylvania Progressive Summit and it's organizer, Keystone progress, please go to paprogressivesummit.org and keystoneprogress.org

"We're Not Out Of The Woods Yet"

cross-posted from Sum of Change

History repeats itself. It is 1948. Not literally of course, but we are about to relive a moment of U.S. history. A moment in history when our government, with the President leading the charge, took steps to remove a form of bigotry from our armed forces. For several years leading up to that point, the government had experimented with integrated units, providing black soldiers with a chance to serve in the normal people's army (kind of).

As the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy (the homosexual's equivalent to experimental desegregation) takes center stage amidst reports of a potential deal, the folks from Get Equal are cautioning people not to celebrate too quickly.

This language shifts responsibility for repeal from Congress to the President, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- two-thirds of whom were not elected by a supportive American public.[1] Repeal hinges on a subjective study to ensure that our presence in the military won't have a negative impact on the military, there is no date given to end military discharges of LGBT servicemembers, there is no change to the DADT law right now, and there is no guarantee that repeal will happen -- whether or not the conditions on the amendment are met.

We're happy that Congress may take the first step this week in repealing this discriminatory legislation -- but we're not out of the woods yet.

If there is one thing we have learned from recent fights, the Republican party is going to use every available avenue to derail this legislation. This debate is just beginning and the debate will be ugly. We know the debate will be ugly because we have lived through this before.

We have seen how the conservatives react when liberals attempt to use the armed services as a vehicle to drive a radical, social experiment.

They told us that "To change would destroy morale and impair preparations for national defense...no experiments should be tried . . . at this critical time."

They told us that "Experiments to solve social problems would be 'fraught with danger to efficiency, discipline, and morale'."

These were the rational arguments they made the last time the nation took steps to remove bigotry from our military. Those calmly stated arguments in favor of bigotry were matched by lone wolf attacks on black service members and their families.

So, while Democratic leaders may be getting giddy over a possible deal, I have to agree that "we're not out of the woods yet." But for the first time since this President has taken office, I am confident that we are going to have the chance to really have this fight. And for the first time, I am confident that we are going to see an end to Don't Ask Don't Tell, a major step forward for the LGBT community.

Jean du Preez on the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty

cross-posted from Sum of Change

Back in April, we spoke with Dr. Peter Wilk of Physicians for Social Responsibility about the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). That treaty has been hailed as a major step forward in the interest of arms reduction. Yet arms reduction is just the tip of the iceberg. To deal with this issue, we need to not only reduce armaments but conceptually rethink our entire policy regarding nuclear arms.

There are many aspects of nuclear non-proliferation where action is seriously needed. We are going to delve into some of these areas, but today I would like to talk specifically about the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty. This treaty was signed in 1996, but the United States Senate failed to ratify it. President Obama has pledged to work aggressively getting it ratified by 2011.

For more context, and a little bit of looking forward, check out this interview with Jean du Preez:

You can find a lot more information about nuclear non-proliferation from the good folks at NPT TV, a student run operation to shed light on these issues.

Ex-Presidents and Former Presidents

I get emails from all kinds of folks. I make it a point to get emails from both liberal and conservative groups, and I make it a point to actually read as many of them as possible. So, there was nothing strange about me scanning over the roundup of "headlines" from LifeNews.com. I got distracted right away when I saw them refer to President Clinton as "ex-President Bill Clinton."

I thought it interesting that they used the word "ex" instead of "former." My immediate thought was, they are trying to attach a bad connotation to him. It implies that his exit was... well... not-so-nice. I would love to say that the petty word tricks like this do not work, that it is usually best to ignore it. But they do matter. The Republican National News Network, you know, Fox, understood that calling it the "government option" instead of the "public option" would have an affect on its popularity (ultimately, they were a little late to the game and the term "public option" was far too ingrained into common rhetoric to simply be replaced because some news anchor wanted it so).

Back to LifeNews.com. I decided to employ the awesomeness of google and do a little analysis of their use of the terms "ex-President" and "Former President." The latter was used almost exactly the same number of times to describe Republicans and Democrats. Nothing really to note about that. Yet their use of the term "ex-President" tells a different story.

That term has, as far as google knows, only been used thirteen times at LifeNews.com. Once, was quoting FORMER President Jimmy Carter speaking about himself. Every other time, they are speaking about FORMER President Clinton.

I am sure that the partisan nature of the anti-choice movement has nothing to do with this. It is simply a coincidence that while LifeNews.com more often than not refers to past U.S. Presidents as "former President," 100% of the times they have used the term "ex-President" it has been in reference to a Democrat who served two full terms and remains popular to this day.

PA-Sen Primary Eve: Recap from PA Progressive Summit

cross-posted from Sum of Change

As Pennsylvania gets ready to vote in, arguably, the most-watched primary of the year, we thought folks might appreciate one last look at the two candidates, Senator Arlen Specter and Congressman Joe Sestak, back-to-back on the issues. (Videos from the PA Progressive Summit)

--Question 1- What Do You Think of a Partial Spending Freeze?

--Question 2- What Would You Do To Increase Manufacturing Jobs in the US?

--Question 3- What is Your Opinion of Same-Sex Marriage?

--Question 4- Will You Vote For The Employee Free Choice Act With Card Check?

--Question 5- What Are you Going to do About the Trade Deficit?

--Question 6- Do You Support Comprehensive Immigration Reform?

--Question 7- What Should We Do About the Filibuster?