Steve Sinton's out-of-the-box campaign for Congress in GA-06 continues to gain steam.
Having recently routed first-term incubent Tom Price at an AARP Candidate Forum, taken up campaign headquarters residence at Newt Gingrich's old offices, and, oh yeah, setting a 10-year record for Democratic votes in the 6th District in the primary, Steve caught up with Joel Foster of 920am WGKA, an Atlanta-area news/talk/opinion station.
Here's why Steve is running, in his own words: 920am WGKA Audiophile Spot. Please check it out, if your computer has speakers (and yes, it's completely safe for work).
Steve is a pragmatic candidate with common sense values that ought to transcend party lines, even here in the deep South. Highlights of the WGKA interview include:
Steve on fiscal policy:
We need to inject common sense into Washington. We have a $9 billion debt. We need to fight to get back to the surplus we had six years ago. Congress ought to be ashamed.
Steve's opponent, Tom Price, just voted to award Paris Hilton and her friends a tax break worth at least as much as "183 years of the income of a full-time minimum wage earner." - John Irons, Director of Tax and Budget Policy, Think Progress.
At the same time, despite "record low approvals of Congress," Price has voted along with the pack to keep on raising his own salary, as noted in this MSNBC Article and Congressional Roll Call Vote.
Nicely done, Tom.
As my grandpa used to say, "You can't be part of the solution if you're part of the problem." It's time for us to help our friend Steve Sinton do some problem solving, I think.
Steve on healthcare:
We need affordable, quality healthcare that can't be taken away.
Price? He's a physician who is opposed to stem cell research. Hmm.
Steve on The War on TerrorTM:
Terrorism's not an enemy, it's a concept, it's an idea. We don't fight 'overthere' so we don't fight 'overhere': ask the Brits and the Spanish about that - they'll tell you all about that. To fight the terrorists, who are the enemy, we need to overhaul our intelligence...We need human intelligence, on the ground, that penetrate these cells and go to work for us.
And then, of course, as history has shown, we actually have to read the reports when they arrive in Washington.
Because the reports were ignored.
Steve on the Department of Homeland Security:
Washington needs to be overhauled. It's broken and we need to fix it. the Department of Homeland Security was supposed to consolidate all these agencies and bring them together under one banner. It did, but it didn't bring them together. They're all independent, there are intense rivalries, and they don't work very well in what we used to call in business 'cross-platforming.'
In other words, if this thing's going to work, there has to be the right structure and there has to be the right leader, and we have not had the right leader in Homeland Security. Neither Ridge nor Chertoff...I'd like to see Wesley Clark do this.
I think a General, who has had this kind of experience, and one who knows the psychological, the technological, and the physical aspects of fighting this kind of battle ought to be the guy to lead this effort.
Now there's the kind of common sense I'd like to see in Washington.
As you all know, it is incredibly important to turn the tide on a national scale in 2006. Just look at some of the stakes from today's news:
Civil War in Iraq
Gen. John Abizaid, the Commander of the U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Iraq may be on the brink of a civil war, noting that the violence in Baghdad was worse than at any point since he assumed in July 2003.
Think Progress
Global Warming
Continued Republican House and Senate majorities would likely mean more of the same on climate. House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said he would oppose global warming mandates if Republicans control the 110th Congress. "I think the information is not adequate yet for us to do anything meaningful," he said.
Think Progress
Unsurprisingly, Blunt is wrong on global warming.
50 percent of the extremely warm temperatures of the North Atlantic Ocean in the summer of 2005 that spawned the record-breaking 2005 hurricane season was caused by global warming.
Think Progress
Things are looking up here in GA-06, but the Sinton campaign needs help getting its message out. To do that, word of mouth and financial contributions are absolute MUSTS. Please do what you can, and spread the love and the wealth at Steve's Campaign Website.
As always, thanks much.
UPDATE: Ashaman makes a great point in the comments. Please recommend this diary - if we can get it bumped to the REC list, we'll make lots more noise. Thanks!