Last night, I attended the December meeting Christmas Party of the Montgomery County Central Committee at Democratic HQ on Wilknson Street.

During the business meeting, the Central Committee voted to implement a provision of Ohio Revised Code that allows the party to simplify the requirements for Central Committee candidacy.  Previously, in order to qualify as a candidate for the Central Committee, prospective candidates were required to file a petition with the signature of five registered Democrats living in the candidates precinct.  Because of last night’s vote, this signature requirement has been nullified.

For the May, 2010 Democratic Primary, Central Committee candidates will simply need to fill out a simple application with their signature only.  No additional signatures of other Democrats will be required.  Each precinct may elect one member of the Central Committee.

Central Committee elections happen every four years.  Immediately following the election is the key Reorganization Meeting, where a County Party Chairperson is elected to a four year term.

Nan Whaley spoke in favor of changing the Central Committee requirements, and seemed to be its biggest endorser. Nan’s point was that the change would make it easier to solicit candidates. In the voice vote, there were only a few lone voices in opposition.

Deadline for filing the application, in order for one’s name to appear on the May Democratic Primary ballot, is mid-February. I will post the exact date later.

The Montgomery County Board of Elections has consolidated precincts.  Ohio Revised Code says precincts may not exceed 1400 register voters.  Previously there were 548 precincts in the country,  in this next election there will be only 360 precincts.

I spoke up suggesting that the County Party spend some money on advertisement — in order to alert Democrats of this opportunity to become active in the party. My motion that an advertising committee be empowered to spend up to $500 to promote finding new candidates for the Central Committee went nowhere.

My motion, in fact, failed to get a second, and so there was not even a discussion. Wow, do I feel unpopular. And most disturbing, the one person who earlier in the day had promised to second my motion, when it came down to doing so, pooped out.  Instead, Chair Mark Owens instructed the Membership Committee to suggest a plan for increasing the number of candidates.  As it stands now, most of the 548 precincts are not represented.  At the last Reorganization Meeting, in 2006, only about 100 Central Committee members were certified to vote.

Robert Reich has expressed his discontent with the Senate’s proposed healthcare legislation in his blog. According to Reich, the legislation would establish monopolies and result in a constant rise in healthcare costs. He believes that the proposed system, which relies on private insurers, would offer no motivation to control costs of medical providers and pharmaceutical companies. For those seeking affordable and efficient healthcare services, https://www.mydocurgentcare.com/ could be a viable option to consider.

Reich says, “Without some mechanism forcing private insurers to compete, we’re going to end up with a national health care system that’s controlled by a handful of very large corporations accountable neither to American voters nor to the market.”  Other Excerpts:

1. The public option is dead, killed by a handful of senators from small states who are mostly bought off by Big Insurance and Big Pharma or intimidated by these industries’ deep pockets and power to run political ads against them.
2. But we still end up with a system that’s based on private insurers that have no incentive whatsoever to control their costs or the costs of pharmaceutical companies and medical providers.
3. If you think the federal employee benefit plan is an answer to this, think again. Its premiums increased nearly 9 percent this year. And if you think an expanded Medicare is the answer, you’re smoking medical marijuana. The Senate bill allows an independent commission to hold back Medicare costs only if Medicare spending is rising faster than total health spending. So if health spending is soaring because private insurers have no incentive to control it, we’re all out of luck. Medicare explodes as well.
4. Private insurers barely compete against each other. According to data from the American Medical Association, only a handful of insurers dominate most states. In 9 states, 2 insurance companies control 85 percent or more of the market. In Arkansas, home to Senator Blanche Lincoln, who doesn’t dare cross Big Insurance, the Blue Cross plan controls almost 70 percent of the market;
5. In light of all this, you’d think the insurance industry would be subject to the antitrust laws … But no. Remarkably, the Senate bill still keeps Big Insurance safe from competition by preserving its privileged exemption from the antitrust laws.
6. Private insurers are exempt from competition. As a result, they are becoming ever more powerful. And it’s not just their economic power that’s worrying. It’s also their political power, as we’ve learned over the last ten months.

The Peace Museum is planning a special public meeting tomorrow, December 10, that will include listening as a group to President Obama’s acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize.  (See text of Obama’s acceptance speech  here.) The fact that President Obama is expanding the war in Afghanistan by over 30,000 soldiers makes a strange counter-point to his acceptance of a “Peace Prize.”

I received an e-mail from Gary Steiger with a copy of the letter below.  Gary made these comments:

• For a “peace museum” that never declared its opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan I hope this is a turning point. It’s past time that the “Peace Museum” be turned into an “Anti-War Museum.”
• To celebrate Peace without actively opposing the wars we are engaged is nothing short of  hypocrisy. And,  hiding behind a 501c(3) tax exemption as a reason not to speak out specifically against the horrors we are bringing, and will continue to bring , under Obama’s plan, to the Afhghan people  is worse  than hypocritical, it is sanctimonious bullshit.
• A “peace” museum without an active anti war stance is just another museum.

What follows is the letter from Jake Schlachter, Executive Director, Dayton International Peace Museum

Dear Friends of the Dayton International Peace Museum,

On November 7th, the Peace Museum announced that it would be holding its first annual Nobel Peace Prize Celebration, timed to coincide with the awarding of the prize in Oslo on December 10th.  The Museum was excited that, in its first year, the celebration would honor US President Barack Obama for his aspirations to change the global climate of conflict resolution and restore diplomacy to the forefront of US foreign policy.

At the time of the award’s announcement, President Obama — also the US president who inherited two wars begun by his predecessor — was in the middle of a full review of US strategy for the war in Afghanistan.  Last week, at the end of that review and one week before receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, President Obama announced that the United States would be escalating the war and deploying an additional 30,000 US troops to the conflict.

This has not been an easy week at the Museum.

It’s fair to say that President Obama’s speech last Tuesday dampened enthusiasm among some Peace Museum supporters for a celebration to honor him as the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.  I would be dishonest if I said that I predicted attendance would be as high as at our November 18th event, when the Museum added President Obama’s portrait to our Nobel Laureates exhibit.  It’s important that we acknowledge that the emotions of our community are very high right now, and fairly so.  There are no issues we should be more passionate about than those of war and peace.

But I believe it would be a shame to confuse the celebration of peace with an endorsement of war.  Though the timing is coincidental, the sentiment is certainly not.  The Museum first held an event on December 10th of last year to honor Sister Dorothy Stang, who was on that date posthumously awarded the United Nations Human Rights Prize.  The decision to turn that day into an annual day of celebration for peace at the Museum has been a long time coming.

The Museum continues to celebrate and promote a culture of peace, nonviolence, and diplomatic resolutions to conflict, whether that be between warring states, political parties, or family members.  When the Nobel Committee awarded the Prize to President Obama in October , it did so “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.”

That statement is as true and as important today as it was in October, as is the cause of Peace that the Nobel Prize was founded to further.

I hope you will join us at the Museum for the First Annual Celebration of the Nobel Peace Prize Award, Thursday, December 10th at 12pm.  We will have a toast to Peace at 12:30 pm, a reading of distinguished historian Irwin Abrams’s essay on the founding of the Prize, and then watch President Obama’s acceptance speech in Oslo.  His speech will specifically address his own feelings on the juxtaposition of receiving the Peace Prize in a time of war.  I will look forward to being surrounded by friends and fellow peacemakers while I listen to his speech, and I hope you will, too.  May you also please forward this email to friends and supporters of the Peace Museum, that they may join us for a celebration of Peace.

Thank you for your resolve, your dedication, and your passion for a peaceful future,

Jake Schlachter
Executive Director, Dayton International Peace Museum
http://www.daytonpeacemuseum.org
director@daytonpeacemuseum.org