Center for Policy Alternatives conference - random musings and nuggets of insight

On the Treo so forgive the typos. A DC conference for progressive state legislators see www.stateaction.org for details. Several ILL reps here many speaking on their successes. Barack sent a video greeting as a former state legislator. Nice quote: the Republicans do not let common sense get in the way of ideology. Dems took over Montana with populist message. Perhaps we should fund the treatment of addictive disorders with a sin tax on booze and nicotine. Be tough on crime not just tough on criminals. Lots of people with mental health problems are getting incarcerated. Mandatory minimums a bad idea for sentencing. . .I wonder what ho Illinois stacks up. Dukakis spoke and said the following. 1. Reagan's second term had a burst of progressive state initiatives and maybe Bush II will too. 2. Kerry ran a good campaign except on volunteer mobilization. Every single door in the country should be knocked on by a Kerry volunteer. Every single precinct in the country should have a captain. There were 2 million Kerry contributors and they were not asked to be a precinct captain. There are only 160,000 precincts in the country. We have enough people willing to volunteer if they are asked and taught. 3. The present health care system is an anti-business mandate system. If you insure your employees you pay for the health care of your competitor's employees as well because the cost of free or emergency room care gets passed onto those who do buy health insurance. He does not understand why the businesses that buy health insurance do not see this and scream about it. 4. What's the excuse for Wal-Mart not paying for health insurance for their employees? So make them. Retail jobs are not going anywhere. 5. Minimum wage vote in Florida got 73 percent and Nevada vote got 68 percent. Pretty cool guy.