Emma Berry

Archive for the ‘Sam Johnson’ Category

You hear the pundits going on and on yammering about “respecting” the 9/11 victims.  That is nothing more than a mask for their vile hatred of Muslims.  These people do not give a rat’s ass about the victims of 9/11 anymore than they care about the victims of rape or incest.  [If you want to see where they stand on rape victims look no further than the Senate votes against Jamie Leigh Jones--a young woman who was raped by Halliburton contractors in Iraq.  Republicans voted en mass for Halliburton's right to hold court on the case in an arbitration court as opposed to a U.S. Court of Law.]  Or you could look to Republican Candidate Sharron Angle’s suggestion to young women who may be pregnant from incest with their father:  Ms. Angle suggests that they just” make lemonade out of lemons.”  If this is “Christian”, then bring on Satan because he could dispense more kindness than Ms. Angle I’m almost certain.

If they really cared about the 9/11 victims, they would also care about the first responders to 9/11.  When does the Republican party abandon 9/11? When it’s time to provide $7.4 billion in medical treatment and compensation to first responders and residents sickened by the toxic dust after the September 11, 2001 attacks at the World Trade Center. In July the House’s 255-159 vote (243 Democrats and 12 Republicans supported the measure; 155 Republicans and 4 Democrats voted nay) fell short of the majority needed to pass the long-debated James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2009.

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AND PEOPLE IN THE US CONGRESSIONAL THIRD DISTRICT OF TEXAS.  YOUR REPRESENTATIVE SAM JOHNSON CARES MORE ABOUT PROTECTING HIS REPUBLICAN PEDIGREE THAN HE DOES ABOUT DOING THE RIGHT THING.

SAM JOHNSON WAS AMONG THE REPUBLICANS WHO VOTED AGAINST HELPING OUT THE 9/11 FIRST RESPONDERS–MANY OF WHOM ARE DYING WITH LUNG DISEASES.

SOME HERO YOU ARE SAM JOHNSON.  WHAT A FAKE.

Last week, MoveOn members and its coalition partners sent more than 30,000 faxes to Congress asking representatives to sign the coalition’s Social Security Promise, which commits them to:

• Oppose any cuts to Social Security benefits
• Oppose increases to the retirement age
• Oppose any effort to privatize Social Security

And it’s working! Representatives across the country—from Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona¹ to Earl Pomeroy in North Dakota² to Alan Grayson in Florida³—have pledged to protect Social Security from cuts and privatization.

But we haven’t heard back from Rep. Johnson yet. So we need to keep the pressure on, and the best way to do that is to follow up the faxes with phone calls.

Can you call Rep. Johnson right now? Ask him if he’ll sign the pledge so voters in Texas know that he is committed to protecting Social Security from all three threats: benefit cuts, raising the retirement age, and privatization.

Representative Sam Johnson
Phone: 202-225-4201

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Tell Sam that you read where he thought it was a good thing to raise the age to 70years on Americans ability to collect Social Security. [Sam is 80 so he doesn't have to worry.]

Ask him if that is true.  Did he say that? [Yes he did. He said that in an interview with the Dallas Morning News this spring.]

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THEN GIVE HIM A BLAST OF THE TRUTH DON’T ALLOW SAM JOHNSON THE “SOCIAL SECURITY” OF HIS REPUBLICAN CLICHES.  START CONFRONTING THESE PEOPLE ON THEIR BS AND OUTRIGHT LIES:

Myth: We have to raise the retirement age because people are living longer.Reality: This is a red-herring to trick you into agreeing to benefit cuts. Retirees are living about the same amount of time as they were in the 1930s. The reason average life expectancy is higher is mostly because many fewer people die as children than did 70 years ago.³ What’s more, what gains there have been are distributed very unevenly–since 1972, life expectancy increased by 6.5 years for workers in the top half of the income brackets, but by less than 2 years for those in the bottom half.⁴ But those intent on cutting Social Security love this argument because raising the retirement age is the same as an across-the-board benefit cut.

Tell Sam Johnson it’s time for him to go home and sell his plantation in Washington DC.

“Tweaking” Social Security is only one of Sam’s bad ideas for the majority of his constituents.  Frankly he must think that the majority of his constituents live in his neighborhood in Plano.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Sam really should get out more often.  In the past six months, I have knocked on over 10,000 doors in my Third Districts and I’ve talked with over 3,000 of Sam’s constituents.

Sam has been in office for twenty years.  Many of these people have lived in the district for even longer.  YET NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON I HAVE TALKED TO SO FAR HAS EVER HAD THE EXPERIENCE OF SAM JOHNSON KNOCKING ON THEIR DOOR!

Sam Johnson is good at politics.  He should be!  He has over 20 years experience in the special interests beltway.  He has not lived on Main Street for over 20 years!   His approach to decimating the Social Security fund is to take a seemingly “sensible” approach and dismantle it a little bit at at time.

HERE IS AN EXCERPT FROM AN ARTICLE BY TOM BENNING OF THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS July 16, 2010 [Benning needs to get the facts straight about Social Security himself.  It is NOT as Benning wrote, on the brink of failure nor is Social Security in ANY WAY connected with the national debt.   By law, Social Security funds are separate from the budget, and it must pay its own way. That means that Social Security does not and has not  added one penny to the national debt or any deficit for any year in its history! ]

“.   .   .    Republican Sam Johnson of Plano joined a growing number of prominent lawmakers Thursday pushing Social Security benefit cuts as a way to shore up the entitlement program’s teetering financial future.

Johnson cautioned that any proposals should not affect current or soon-to-be recipients, [of course he said that because that's the majority of his constituents--the over 65 crowd] but he said that scaling back some Social Security benefits was more sensible than continuing to increase payroll taxes.

“We have learned that raising taxes or increasing the amount of income taxed does not ensure solvency forever,” he said. “We gotta find a better way forward.”  [This is nothing but pure BS from Johnson's mouth.  He does not know what the hell he is talking about.  We have not learned any such thing.  In fact, quite the opposite.  Social Security is totally solvent until the year 2037.  After that it would still be able to pay 75% indefinitely--even if a jackass like Sam Johnson didn't touch it.  However, if all Americans paid Social Security taxes on ALL of their income instead of only the first $106,000, Social Security would be solvent well beyond any foreseeable future.]

BOTH SAM JOHNSON AND TOM BENNING NEED TO STOP PUMPING SMOKE AND GET THE FACTS  STRAIGHT ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY!  Here are a few sources for them:

“Social Security is sustainable” Economic and Policy Institute, May 27, 2010
http://www.epi.org/analysis_and_opinion/entry/social_security_is_sustainable/

“The Straight Facts on Social Security” Economic Opportunity Institute, September 2009
http://www.eoionline.org/retirement_security/fact_sheets/StraightFactsSocialSecurity-Sep09.pdf

Sam’s mailers are more about what he does not say than what he says. Read the KEY words to the campaign advertisement that Johnson sends out to you.

Sam Johnson thinks we can grow the economy by “freezing non-defense” discretionary spending.  In other words, Sam Johnson supports freezing just about ANY spending that might benefit ordinary Americans like you and me.  He wants to make sure there is plenty left over for the good ole boys that he hangs out with.

Sam Johnson sells ordinary Americans down the river every year. Anything but cutting off Sam’s good ole boy buddies, the defense contractors—the same ones that rob American taxpayers blind year in year out with their corrupt no bid contracts. Sam Johnson’s son even captured one of those multimillion dollar no-bid contracts–it was handed to him by Collin County Commissioners in 2006.  Our defense budget has reached absurd ballooning and waste. Budget breakdown for defenses spending for 2011 is $1.003–$1.223 trillion but you don’t see Sam Johnson bragging about reducing this $1.223 ANNUAL TRILLION DOLLAR WASTE—do you?

If you really believe that spending over a trillion dollars every year while allowing our roads and bridges here at home to crumble makes us safer, then  you go ahead and vote for Sam Johnson because that is what he supports.

If you believe that taking care of those at home first is the answer then you have a better choice than Sam Johnson.

Vote for someone who will represent you

Vote for EMMA BERRY

http://emmaberry.org

SAM JOHNSON AND OTHER REPUBLICANS ARE PROUD TO TELL YOU WHAT THEY VOTED AGAINST, BUT WE DON’T HEAR THEM BRAGGING ON WHAT THEY DID VOTE FOR DO WE?

For example, Sam Johnson voted against American workers and for the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act of 2005.

What was wrong with that?

Well, you can begin with the fact that it was sponsored by a man who was soon to be a convicted felon, Tom DeLay. Next, the trade agreement, modeled on the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, would eliminate most export tariffs between the included countries while also increasing protection for pharmaceutical patents and other intellectual property.

Increased international trade can contribute to economic growth, but the way trade rules are formulated in agreements like NAFTA and DR-CAFTA means that the benefits of trade are distributed very unevenly, ultimately undermining the middle class and aspiring middle class in both the U.S. and the nations it trades with.

A central problem is that DR-CAFTA empowers businesses and investment capital to cross international borders more easily, providing a decisive advantage over working people who are not so internationally mobile and whose rights are not equally well protected in all of the nations covered by the agreement.

One result is that CAFTA is expected to increase the outsourcing of U.S. jobs – from manufacturing to reading x-rays and operating call centers – to Central America. U.S. workers are also likely to see their wages eroded as they are placed in more direct competition with poorly-paid Central American workers who lack strong labor protections and rights in the workplace. At the same time, Mexico’s twelve years of experience with NAFTA suggest that the average person in Central America will also see their standard of living decline under these conditions. In the U.S., the experience of NAFTA also suggests that more jobs will be lost due to displaced domestic production than will be gained due to export growth.

WE SHOULD THANK YOU SAM JOHNSON FOR VOTING TO OUTSOURCE JOBS FOR AMERICANS?

WE SHOULD THANK SAM JOHNSON FOR LEAVING THE INTERESTS OF ORDINARY WORKING MEN AND WOMEN OUT IN THE COLD?

WAR AND MURDER ARE SAM JOHNSON’S ANSWER TO EVERYTHING!

Sam Johnson is only against “big” government spending for you and me.

I just got one of Johnson’s slick mailers yesterday.  I suppose they will be coming fast and furious in the mail from now until November.  The copy is standard Republican fare that they have been dishing out for thirty years. Some things never change.  It’s amazing that some people continue to fall for their clap-trap.

Sam Johnson voted against the $787 Billion stimulus and brags about it as a reason for why ordinary Americans should vote for him–is he nuts? – We are supposed to thank Sam Johnson for voting against a bill that allocated $27 billion for highway projects to repair our aging infrastructure; $340 million for watershed and flood protection;  $150 million for economic development assistance programs; $21 billion to aid laid off workers; $19 billion to aid poor families;  a tax credit of $400 for low and middle income individuals and $800 for families.  Do you want to thank Sam Johnson for voting against that bill?  Apparently he thinks you should because this flyer with his name on it brags about it as if that is an accomplishment.

Sam Johnson voted against the Health-Care Reform Bill and brags about it. But Sam Johnson has been enjoying taxpayer sponsored health care almost his entire adult life.  It’s OK for Sam to live off government welfare–just not you and me.

Sam Johnson voted against what he calls the “$300 billion housing bailout” and brags about it. That was one of Bush’s solutions, not Obama’s.   As for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout–that also was orchestrated by Mr. Henry Paulson of the Bush Administration.   What Sam Johnson doesn’t mention on his brag sheet is that he doesn’t think that people who live on Main Street deserved to have their homes saved and he proved it by voting against H.R. 1106 “Helping Families Save their Homes Act.”  This bill authorizes bankruptcy courts to modify the terms of mortgages made on home owners’ primary residence–a practice which is barred by current laws.

Yes, while the current bankruptcy law allows rich people to restructure loans for their vacation homes and yachts, it excludes ordinary American from restructuring loans for their homesteads and Sam Johnson is just fine with this inequity.

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BUT WHAT YOU WON’T HEAR SAM JOHNSON BRAGGING ABOUT OR READ IN ANY OF HIS SLICK ADVERTISEMENTS:

You won’t that Sam Johnson , over the twenty years that he has enjoyed the free ride of the taxpayers, that he has also rubber-stamped trillions of dollars worth of legislation for military appropriations for his buddies, the war contractors.- You won’t hear  him admit how much HIS votes have contributed to our national debt over the 20 years he had been in office.  You won’t hear Sam Johnson say a word about the huge war contractor bailout that continues to flow as fast as the BP spill.  $1.3 trillion for fiscal year 2010. And we never could have gotten to that level of debt without the help of Sam and other Republicans and Democratic corporate centrists as well.

As far as Johnson is concerned, ordinary Americans can starve to death as long as there is enough of our taxpayer dollars left to support the war industry and his son who was awarded a multimillion dollar contract by Collin County Commissioners to run the North Central Texas Fusion Center--a data-mining center  that spies on citizens in the region.

ISN’T IT ABOUT DAMN TIME TO STOP VOTING FOR OFFICIALS LIKE SAM JOHNSON WHO VOTE AGAINST US?

AND WHY SHOULD HE WHEN HE CAN USE HIS OWN INFLUENCE TO SEE THAT HIS SON NAILS A NO-BID MULTIMILLION DOLLAR CONTRACT WITH COLLIN COUNTY TO RUN THE NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS FUSION CENTER.

Sam’s family, like that of  many incumbents can mainline all the help they need from the taxpayers.

Sam Johnson voted against H.R. 1106 Helping Families Save their Homes Act of 2009–A bill to prevent mortgage foreclosures and enhance mortgage credit availability–a bill that has become law, but no thanks to Sam Johnson.  AND NO SURPRISE EITHER.  Sam Johnson has taken over $60,000 from the special interest groups who opposed the bill.

This bill authorizes bankruptcy courts to modify the terms of mortgages made on homeowners’ primary residences, a practice which is barred by current law.  However the current Bankruptcy law permits such restructuring for vacation home and yachts.

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ISN’T THAT JUST DANDY?  Your elected official Sam Johnson thinks its OK for rich folks to restructure loans on their vacation home and yachts, but when it comes to ordinary Americans restructuring the loans on the only roofs over their heads, well that is a different story.

Until we kick out some of these incumbents and make sure to not replace them with more of the same from either party–we can expect to continue to see the upper 5% represented to the exclusion of the rest of us.

HAD ENOUGH OF SAM JOHNSON’S IGNORANT CONVENTIONAL “WISDOM”?

HAD ENOUGH OF PARTY POLITICS?

VOTE FOR AN INDEPENDENT!

The House endorsed overturning the federal law banning openly gay individuals from serving in the U.S. military, handing a second major victory in a matter of hours Thursday to gay-rights groups and other opponents of the policy.

Lawmakers voted 234-194 to adopt the proposal by Rep. Patrick Murphy to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy as part of the fiscal 2011 defense authorization bill. Sam Johnson voted  against lifting the ban on “don’t ask, don’t tell.

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“If it ain’t broke, let’s don’t fix it.  We can’t stand for any changes in our policy regarding homosexuals.” News Conference July 16, 1993

EMMA COMMENT: First of all Sam Johnson, any time lying is part of ANY policy of the USA, it IS broken so you are wrong even before your horse is out of the chute.  Also, Mr. Johnson, you need to remember that the Israeli military, which few will argue is not among the most efficient and toughest fighting machines as has existed in modern times does not bar gay men or lesbians from service.

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ADDITIONAL EMMA COMMENTS:

SAM JOHNSON SHOULD REALLY GET TO KNOW HIS DISTRICT.  MAYBE IF HE WALKED AROUND AMONGST THE PEOPLE INSTEAD OF ATTENDING COUNTRY CLUB EVENTS IN COLLIN COUNTY, HE MIGHT HAVE A BETTER UNDERSTANDING.

Thus far he has alienated all Hispanics and all members who hail as immigrants from the middle East–Could they seriously accept a congressman for their representative whose primary solution for immigration issues is to put people in jail?  Could those from the Middle East seriously consider a congressman who has suggested more than once that a solution of our problems with other nations such as Syria and China is to “nuke them”?

AND NOW IN HIS LARGESS OF PREJUDICIAL THINKING, HE HAS ALIENATED THE GAY COMMUNITY OF HIS DISTRICT!

Too bad that Sam Johnson is not able to crawl out of his amber casing.  If he were, he could see the world as it really is.  According to the Williams Institute, a gay think tank at UCLA, Dallas has the ninth largest concentration of same-sex couples in the nation. [ From a Time Magazine story—the Lavender Heart of Texas]