All Posts Tagged With: "Peter DeFazio"
Reps Blumenaur and DeFazio vote no on Patriot Act extension
Nevertheless, the House sent the Patriot Act Extension to Obama for signature with just a few minor revisions.
Key provisions of the nation’s primary counterterrorism law would be extended for a year under a bill passed by the House Thursday evening after Democrats retreated from adding new privacy protections.
The House voted 315 to 97 to extend the USA Patriot Act, sending the bill to President Barack Obama. Without the bill, the provisions would expire Sunday.
Rep Earl Blumenaur tweeted yesterday
Voted NO on Patriot Act extension! We must thoughtfully rebalance the scales between safety and essential civil liberties.
According to an earlier tweet from Blumenaur so did Peter DeFazio (Peter does not appear to tweet). Thank them both!
DeFazio sloughs off White House heat
Peter DeFazio (D-OR) received a terse call from White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel scolding the Congressman for not towing the party line, or more accurately, the Obama line.
The White House chief of staff last month expressed frustration with DeFazio’s resignation calls for President Barack Obama’s top two economic aides — Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and White House chief economist Larry Summers” and appealed for cooperation, according to DeFazio.
DeFazio has brushed off pressure from Al Gore and Nancy Pelosi as well
He has emerged in recent months as one of the most vocal liberal critics of the Obama administration, blasting the president’s team for not getting tough enough with Wall Street. He’s also taken on his own party for failing to move left-leaning legislation through the Congress.
Personal calls from Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and former Vice President Al Gore couldn’t persuade him to vote for the Speaker’s climate change bill. He also opposed the $787 billion stimulus, citing concerns that only 7 percent was devoted to infrastructure spending.
As regards the stimulus, the only part of the stimulus that has really worked to stimulate the economy is that 7% spent on infrastructure, one of my favorite topics.
Maddow – DeFazio on jobless rate
Stimulus spending on infrastructure has worked! Non infrastructure stimulus spending has not worked. Oh, and big wind generators are built overseas, not in the US.
DeFazio tells the House what is really scary
One hundred thirty two days ago the Republicans promised a health care bill. It still isn’t here because big pharma and the health insurance industry are the biggest benefactors of the Republican side of the aisle. To see what each congressmember has received and the stats on the districts they represent, look here courtesy of The Washington Post.
Maddow – The truth about ACORN
The mainstream media fail the public again by not reporting the whole story in the ACORN dust up. Rep Peter DeFazio, by the way, voted to cut off federal funding to ACORN. Read the report on ACORN here
DeFazio Coos Couty town hall updates UPDATED
All in all Peter DeFazio’s August recess town hall in North Bend stayed well in control with minimal shouting but there were some interesting characters worth noting. 
A scrubs clad Christy Dresell who says she lives in Coos Bay and works for South Coast Orthopedic stood up to tell the Congressman that she believes people qualifying for Oregon Health Plan are dripping in diamonds and fine clothing while she, a college graduate and mother must go to pubic meetings in scrubs. The crowd cheered.
An elderly gentleman stood up clutching a copy of Koos News and quoted from the first page and asked DeFazio about ‘death panels’. Yep, the Koos News thinks nothing of terrifying old people by spreading this ridiculous myth just to sell advertising.
Remember how the editor lied to his radio program listeners claiming Bob Main knew about the road department layoffs when I challenged him to list a quote or name a person? Main was furious to have quotes attributed to him that he had not made. Hardly surprising the Koos News would scare old people too.
One strong indicator of how ill informed Coos County residents are capable of being was when on angry veteran stood up to ask what would happen to his veterans services at the local VA clinic if Obama’s nationalized medicine takes effect. Golly, doesn’t he know the VA is nationalized health care?
As requested a pic of the former police chief Mike Reaves attending the town hall sitting behind our commissioner Bob Main and next Coquille Councilor Bruce Parker
DeFazio town halls victimized by bussed in protesters UPDATED
Just got some reports on DeFazio’s town hall in Corvallis today and will receive updates on Grants Pass by tomorrow morning. Apparently, protesters, tea baggers if you will, some from as far away as Vermont! are disrupting local town halls including DeFazio’s. Word is that DeFazio handled the event pretty well.
Who the hell do these people think they are disrupting OUR TOWN HALL MEETINGS and intruding on OUR opportunity to talk with OUR Congressman?
Evidently they arrive two hours early to secure the best seating and they take over the meeting.
UPDATE: From AP
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio ran into a buzzsaw of fear and misinformation about federal health care reform proposals Wednesday on his first day of town hall meetings during the Congressional recess.
At a stop in Grants Pass, the Springfield Democrat repeatedly had to call for quiet and correct people on what the proposed legislation actually says regarding end-of-life care, illegal aliens and other issues.
DeFazio noted that the bill before the House has Medicare pay for the elderly to talk to their doctor about what kind of care they want at the end of their lives. He characterized fears that it would promote euthanasia as “phony arguments.”
(hat tip/Jody)
DeFazio moves town hall meeting to North Bend Community Center
Anticipating large (and hopefully peaceful) crowds, DeFazio has moved the location to the more spacious Community Center at 2222 Broadway Ave tomorrow at 5:15 PM. See you all there.
DeFazio town hall meeting August 13
To be held at the North Bend City Hall at 5:15 – be there or be square…
V-LIM turbine moving along more quickly after moving to a new location
Rogue River Wind, Ltd moved the V-LIM wind generator to a new location with 12’ rollup door in order to do the final assembly. We have three full time workers now, four if you add me, winding coils, rolling copper and buffing, drilling, tweaking, measuring and calibrating.
We also have a four-member capstone team at Portland State University working out the motor control circuitry and data collection sensors and parameters. Everyone is working feverishly now to make of for time lost awaiting one part delayed by, of all things, weather.
The WOW (Western Oregon Wind) Project is making its way through the House subcommittee on Energy and Water and has garnered a lot of support around the state. There are still hurdles to cross before we secure federal funding for the 40% cost of WOW but thus far we are clearing every one.
The smart/micro-grid proposed in the WOW project has some very high-powered technical brains working in the background to help make WOW a reality and provide alternative funding for our local schools. We have engineers in Portugal and Washington State along with experts in Brussels and Virginia all contributing to this unique concept.
Coos County is blessed to have such abundant renewable resources and so many willing and capable contributors to bring a wide scale renewable energy model to fruition here on the coast. Things are beyond busy for me right now hence the brevity of this week’s column but I can sure the excitement for those of us working on this project is reaching a fever pitch.
Brian McAndrew, a bright young journalism student from the University of Oregon, interviewed me today. We talked about the LIM and the WOW project and how important it is to invest in our youth as well as our infrastructure. For this reason, once again, I urge everyone to write or call Congressman Peter DeFazio and thank him for carrying the WOW project to committee. His contact information locally is
Congressman DeFazio
125 Central, Suite 350
Coos Bay, OR 97420
Phone: (541) 269-2609
Final draft of public disclosure for appropriation requests from 4th District
More than 200 request totalling $730M were submitted and DeFazio submitted 62 of those or $71M less than 10% to the House Appropriations Committee. The WOW project was one of those selected and it is very exciting to be moving forward. Here is a list of the Final Public Disclosure Memo
From Coos County, the International Port of Coos Bay, SCINT and Coos Historical and Maritime Center are the only requests along with WOW to head to committee.
Please send a big thank you to Congressman Peter DeFazio for supporting our local schools!
Maddow – DeFazio on the budget
Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) discusses the GOP budget proposal.
Earth Hour in Coquille… someday, hopefully
This week I met with Congressman Peter DeFazio in his DC office about the Western Oregon Wind Project a 5MW renewable energy smart/micro-grid to generate $2 million in alternative funding for local schools. Happily, he agreed to carry the request to the House Appropriation’s Energy and Water Subcommittee but cautions it is a very competitive arena and he has received $800 million in requests from the 4th District alone.
In Coos County the unemployment rate has reached almost 14% and Coquille Schools are facing an $850,000 budget reduction next year. More than ever our local leaders need to start looking for alternatives for our greatest resource, our children. Oregon already has one of the shortest school years in the nation while at the same time spending more on corrections than higher education. There is a correlation between poor education and crime and prisons.
Studies have indicated for a family of four to make ends meet and have one stay at home parent requires $24 per hour. The WOW will save or create 196 family wage jobs right out the gate and because the $1million now being exported out of the local economy to import power will stay local many more jobs will spring up. Repeating the WOW template ten times will generate, over ten years, $310 million to put back into Oregon schools.
Additionally, $35 million in federal stimulus money is being set aside for projects in Oregon that reduce fossil fuel emissions and energy use. Coos County can harvest electrons through its rich wind and solar resource and sell those electrons just exactly as it harvests timber and get paid extra to do it by helping the state achieve carbon neutrality.
Before returning to Oregon I am meeting with the US Department of Energy to learn how best to bring these and other federal energy stimulus dollars into our area working through the Oregon DOE. Opportunities are abundant despite the dire news and if we work together, organize and maintain pressure on our federal and state representatives to support decentralized power generation in rural Oregon and beyond our children can expect the same or better educational benefits of every other child in America.
Last year Dian Courtright and I observed Earth Hour at my home by turning off the lights and appliances for one hour and walking around Coquille to see who else might be making the gesture. This year in Alexandria, Virginia many lights went out and the nation’s Capitol did make an effort, as did other major cities around the world, to dim the lights and hold candle light vigils for our planet.
Pubs served drinks by votive candle and restaurants brought battery-powered lights into restaurants and drums beat softly amidst the cherry blossoms as I walked around the city. Hopefully, next year Coos County and Coquille will join the increasing number of communities each year that celebrate Earth Hour by turning off the lights.
Western Oregon Wind Project with DeFazio in DC
So far we are good to go. Congressman DeFazio has agreed to carry our request to committee with the caveat that Energy and Water appropriations are highly competitive and not to get our hopes up. Additionally, he notes the current climate for ‘earmark’ projects like WOW is not good no matter how practical or financially sound they might be. His office received $800M of appropriation requests for the 4th district so I was quick to point out the $2M we are seeking is a mere pittance in the grand scheme of things.
Best picture I could put up at the moment, my eyes closed and all… hard to believe I am actually shorter than Peter DeFazio.
Those of us working to bring this project to fruition are choosing to stay optimistic despite DeFazio’s pessimism for success and will be drafting talking points for his office and developing a letter writing campaign for citizens and civic leaders to put some pressure on the committee. These will be posted here and distributed throughout Coos County because public pressure is needed now to help replace O&C monies with projects like WOW.
Did I just hear you say "little" Trinity? I think not ! She's half-grown !
Congratulations to you all ...
http://www.larryvanelsberg2010.com/index.html 
Thanks, Den, this is very useful 