Susan Smith Wants to End Florida School Grading System

Susan Smith has started the Democracy For America campaign You Power. The goal of You Power is to have Gov. Rick Scott, the State Board of Education, and the Florida Legislature to permanently end the the grading system. I have written before that the grading system wasn't designed to improve public schools but place children in for-profit private schools.

The scandal involving former Florida education commissioner Tony Bennett is a classic example. In emails reported by the Associated Press, Bennett raised the school grade of Indiana Republican donor Christel DeHaan.

"This will be a HUGE problem for us," Bennett wrote. "They need to understand that anything less than an A for Christel House compromises all of our accountability work."

The Jeb Bush education reforms are all about breaking up the teachers' union, campaign dollars and crony capitalism. Go sign the You Power petition.

Democracy For Now Supports Students Loan Fairness Act

Democracy For America is running a petition in support of Elizabeth Warren's bill Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act.

Get this: Student loan interest rates are about to double to 6.8 percent. But big banks? They’re getting a sweet deal on borrowing money from the Fed: 0.75 percent.

No, that’s not a typo. Students will be paying 900 percent more than the biggest banks on Wall Street to borrow money.

Our biggest banks don’t deserve another sweetheart deal. And educated young Americans looking for jobs, and looking to build a future for themselves, don’t deserve to see their interest rates skyrocket.

The text of Warren's remarks.

Warren's legislation would direct the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to make available low interest student loans available through the Federal Reserve System. Warren's concern is that students will be buried in debt if Congress allows student loan rates to increase. On July 1st, student loan rates will increase from 3.4 to 6.8 percent. President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats should hammer Republicans on this issue. Republicans can't afford to lose more young voters.

Democracy For America sent out this email to its supporters.

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.

Let's see how many more Democratic senators Democracy For America and activists can get on board.

Democracy For America Chat

Democracy For America will have an online chat with Howard Dean and The Nation's Ari Berman. They will discuss how the Democratic Party needs to rebuild itself to move forward. If you are interested in paticipating in the chat hit the link below.

Sign up to participate in the live online discussion -- Thurs. Nov. 11 at 7:30pm Eastern Time.

A School For Twiiter?

This is too funny. Democracy For America is having an online night school to teach progressives how to use Twitter.

DFA Night School is back to help you master the emerging art of Twitter. This new medium is rising faster than any other social networking platform, but is it destined to be overloaded with celebrity gossip and trivia or will it become a revolutionary tool for social change? We will explore it's strengths and limitations as we work to separate the hype from Reality on using Twitter to organizing online.

Let me save you the time. Say something interesting, be funny and have useful links. That is the best way to use Twitter. Twitter.com/pushingrope is an offshoot of the blog. Most of the successful progressives on Twitter are bloggers. We all tweet each other back and forth. Don't worry about being part of the cool kids groups. Just be interesting and humorous. Don't just regurgitate information or post incoherent nonsense (see Atrios.) Be original.

Obama & Dean Using Netroots

President Barack Obama is using is vast netroots coalition to mobilize support for his budget. Obama is asking supporters to call Congress and to canvass your neighborhood.



Howard Dean founded Democracy for America. The PAC changed the way political campaigns are run. Dean is using DFA to drum up support for Obama's health care plan.

DFA has a petition to voice support for universal health care.

Netroots Nation Scholarship Winners

Democracy For America has announced the winners of the Netroots Nation Scholarships. Kenneth Quinnell is one of the winners.

DFA Presidential Poll

Democracy For America released their results of their online poll.

Representative Dennis Kucinich - 31.97% 49364

Former Vice President Al Gore - 24.77% 38242

Former Senator John Edwards - 15.6% 24078

Senator Barack Obama - 13.86% 21403

Senator Hillary Clinton - 4.21% 6504

Governor Bill Richardson - 4.09% 6309

Other - 2.05% 3171

Senator Christopher Dodd - 1.56% 2415

Senator Joe Biden - 1.12% 1723

Former Senator Mike Gravel - 0.77% 1182

The poll shows is DFA voters support an Ohio Congressman with no chance of winning. Their second choice is a man with no intention of running. It then breaks down to John Edwards, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Bill Richardson polls well for a candidate running for Sec of State. DFA members would rather vote for another candidate than the three grey-haired guys that cancel each other out.

Bush Democrats

Democracy For America is targeting Dan Lipinski (D-Il). They are supporting Mark Pera. They call Lipinski a Bush Democrat. His voting record is nothing to brag about he looks like Paul Wellstone compared to Bill Nelson.

Lipinski voted with Bush 49 percent in 2006. Bill Nelson voted with the Decider 60 percent in 2006. It's sad to think Nelson is the more popular Senator. That says much about Mel Martinez.

I don't have a stake in the Lipinski/Pera race. I'm just making an observation on how conservatives Democrats are in Florida.

Party For Alberto

Now this is hysterical. Democracy for America Miami is holding a going away party for Alberto Gonzales. The official name for the event is "A 'Gone-zales' Going Away Party."

Event Date: Friday, September 14, 2007
Event Time: 6:00 PM Eastern

Venue Name: Tobacco Road
Address: 625 S. Miami Ave.
City: Miami
State: FL
Zip Code: 33130
Handicapped Accessible: Y