2000

This is post number 2000.

The only real significance is it is 150 posts more than where Tommywonk stopped exactly one year and fifteen days ago…

If some future historian looks back, I can only guess they may kindly make some note of the quality of thought that underlies these efforts, but my guess, is no one will ever notice…

Irregardless, as long as the urge to put thoughts down for others continues, we will go on. As usual, with no goal, no direction, and no ulterior motive. Probably upon reflection, my biggest surprise, right here, right now … is that I still enjoy it so much, and can’t wait to jot my thoughts down, click the button, and send them off to where ever cyberspace and the vast internet ocean, lets them drift….

For each of you who have become regular over the years, … thank you friend…

Gross Inconsistency In All Polling

I’ve commented on a lot of local blogs today. There is a common theme that needs pulled up for discussion.

Can we trust today’s polls?

Chart Courtesy of Michael Brogan, Political Forecaster(right click for full view)

I say no.

First, the numbers being given do not match the 80% support Obama has on the street.

Second, with today’s technology, it is rudely simplistic to assume that polls aren’t being tweaked. Even as simply as choosing who to call, That one factor can throw a poll off the deep end. And don’t think, you’re cookies don’t tell everyone how you vote…

Hmmm, who should we call to represent Delaware… kavips? … or Ms. Evans?… it is that easy.

Third. The average national poll consists of 700 people. That means 7 people can throw a percent; 4 people throw it, if you round up or down. And you tell me you can’t “randomly” find 4 more conservatives than progressives, or vice-versa?

Fourth. The polling organizations are companies that pay out dividends to someone. People buy stock; they want results. Obviously reporting that a race is over in August, does little to generate more polls. More polls equal more revenue. There is considerable pressure to keep a national race appearing closer, than it really is.

Fifth. Who checks the veracity of pollsters? No one. There is no watchdog exacting penalties over fake results. So how do we trust it is real? Exactly. We can’t…

That is enough. Polling is only believable if it fits in with the general scheme of things as we see it.. If 80% of the population is hopeful this recovery is real, and happy about YAY! JUST PAID UNDER $3.50 FOR A GALLON OF GAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, then any poll not showing Obama leading 80 to 20 is simply a fabrication of one’s imagination…..

And in local elections? Forget it. Ask your neighbor who their county commissioner is? Yep. Exactly.

In A Perfect World….

Call it temporary insanity but let’s pretend, let’s just say, …that at one moment in time, if I chose to donate my youth out for my country, to be compensated back in the form of low pay; to completely and unjudgingly offer my fate up to the will of bureaucrats, all for the loss of my own self esteem, all for unending stretches of boredom, sparsed with interludes of a few intense seconds, that fortunately thorough my reactions and training, enabled me to continue living as I do today………….

I could reasonably be expected to be honored for that service to my nation, right?

In a perfect world, that is….

One would think, that in a perfect world, as needs were being debated across the universe of public funding, that a hierarchy resembling this, would sort of be the guideline, if not the rule?

National Heroes…..

over

We, The People…..

over

LLC corporations….

After all, if it weren’t for us, there’s a good chance those LLC. corporations wouldn’t be able to do business in a free and prosperous society, you would think?….

One would think, that if one of these heroes needed medical care, with the tremendous amounts of money being thrown away by our government daily, in the forms of corporate tax breaks enabling corporations to make “record breaking profits”…. that they would be put at the top of the list.. don’t you think?

Sorry, CEO… your operation will have to wait… We have a veteran who is in dire need ahead of you….

In a perfect world….

One would think, that a voucher system would be in place, or a blank check, where any veteran could walk into any hospital, and get immediate, necessary medical attention, have his prescriptions filled as a privilege for his service, and that the bill would be willing be paid by those with monetary resources more than adequate for their own needs?

One would think, (right?)… that it would be CEO’s, those who give pink slips so they can break profit records, those who cut benefits so they can break profit records, those who don’t invest in America so they can break record profits, ….who should be the ones finding themselves regulated to CEO hospitals, where they would then have to settle in on a waiting list for the next opening to occur, where they had to endure budget cutbacks and go without life-saving medicine because there was no money left in the CEO fund, perhaps because it had all gone to Veterans to pay THEIR expenses?

In a perfect world…..

In a perfect world, veterans would need no freebies…. They would not need welfare, or a pension, or a humble stipend to eke an existence… They would be working, contributing to society, in any way they could… If they had no legs, they would be outfitted at corporate’s expense, so that would not be an issue… If they had no arms, they could be outfitted at corporate’s expense so that was not an issue. If they had psychological damage, (and who wouldn’t?) they could be treated at corporate’s expense… so that was not an issue.

If they were so badly damaged that they create an efficiency drain on society, they could be honored for their sacrifice, and a useful voluntary capacity could be created to honor that commitment once made so long ago… Perhaps speaking about serving one’s country in every class, in every school, in every county? Can you think of any better civic’s lesson?

There’s a lot that can be done…

The problem is that veterans are deemed as just another expense…. Because to corporate America, that is just what they are… An expense, an obligation to be met that gets in the way of their making more money…

Unfortunately, our Congress is owned by Corporate America….

What should and does need to happen, is this relationship needs to be exposed. We need to call them out on it…

Republicans and Democrats are both complicit in allowing corporate raiders this unprecedented power. But Republicans are the symbol of Corporate America. Republicans are the ones who championed the Corporate Takeover. Republicans are the ones who dismanteled the safeguards that had been put in place to prevent that takeover from happening. That is why they need to go. Disappear… Whoever is left, the remainder, most likely after seeing the elimination of a large majority of their peers, will think twice before following their Dark Lord, now a soul less wanderer eking existence.. ……

In a perfect world…

Unfortunately, today we need to contend with obscene amounts of money saying Corporate is Good; Government Fairness is Bad….

But we have our lives telling us the opposite… It will take courage and strong will, to override all the overload of sensory data being pipelined into our soul, but we still have hearts, and those hearts are attuned to what makes America special. great, and the best place to live on this earth….

WE can still dream….

And those dreams should include a perfect world… one we CAN make happen, at least for those without whom we would not have the freedom, the resources, the nation, we have today….

Here’s to a perfect world?

How To Properly “Handle” Virginia

Hurricane Irene is scheduled to blow into North Carolina, sucker punch Richmond, then follow I 95 up the Eastern Seaboard….

When the storm is over, out come the cries for Federal Assistance to cope with damages. Of course, due to Richmond’s representative Eric Cantor, this time there will be a historically low amount of assistance dollars available to be dispensed among all those states needing help….

The proper way any administration should handle these incoming and overwhelming requests, would be to say: since Delaware has always understood the interfacing required between the Federal Government and states; they will get what we need. Richmond,on the other hand, has not. Perhaps they might like to give Eric Cantor a personal call and ask him and his supporters to assist them with their finances?

Definition of Stimulus Plan….

Definition: Where American spending was brought up to the level where it should be, without the necessary revenue to support it.

(As evidenced by 154,000 private sector jobs being created in July.)

The problem is not with spending. The problem is the lack of taxing of the top 1%. The spending seems to be doing its job.

A Quick Reminder…..

…..as we roll into June…..

Tax cuts need to be off the table.. They are a perk.. not a sustenance….. If the economy is roaring, if everyone is doing well, then…. perhaps, perhaps considering the fact that the government is taking too much and giving back too little might be considered…

But in truth, the government is our most efficient method to disperse goods and services…. The analogy of the toll roads is an adequate example… Your portion of the taxes you pay that go to keeping up the non toll roads, is far less per mile than what you spend on on driving from Maryland to the Delaware Memorial Bridge and paying $4 for the privilege…

Health Care that is NOT private is far cheaper than health care that is.

Medicare costs less than private insurance.

College loans directly from the Government, cost less than from banks being used as middle people….

Because of the economies of scale, our government can perform more for less, than any corporate of private entity….

It is time for every naysayer who complains about government inefficiency or waste, to find a private entity who will be responsible to the people for services offered, and do it for less..

Problem with their argument, is that it can’t be done… After all, what private corporation would build a highways absorb the cost and not make a penny on it, just be happy that people could drive faster around the bottleneck that had previously occurred.

Again, what corporation would lend money at no interest to allow a student to undergo four years of undergraduate college, because it would make them better citizens and more productive for the benefit of the country as a whole?

Again, what corporation would pay your medical bill, not so they could recoup back more from you than they paid out, but…. so you would not die.

Again, what corporation would give you medicine at cost, so you could leave a happier life….

The problem is none… Which in the end, is why we need government.

Sometimes we need less government… but other times we need more….

Sometimes a government interferes with the economy, slowing it down by the impact of its actions upon the economies we all depend on to keep our head above our bills..

This is not that time…

Instead, tax breaks to the wealthy, have been proven over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and
over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and
over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and
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over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and
over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and
over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and
over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and
over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and
over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and
over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and
to interfere with the economy, slowing it down by the impact of its actions upon the economies on which we all depend. to keep our heads above our bills..

When the economy is working, when unemployment is at a reasonable level, when every quintile has hope they will be making more next year instead of less, when our pockets are flush that we can buy items we want, creating more jobs to fill that demand, …. then, then, then, then we could possibly consider a tax cut…

Until then, tax cuts need to be off the table….

Both at Delaware’s state level…. and most particularly at the Federal Debt Crises level…

The idea that we will backrupt America because we are too timid to raise the rates on those who have so much money they can’t even dream of ways to spend it to benefit the economy, is just wrong…

There should be this mantra….That if you can’t spend your own money fast enough to benefit the American economy, then… the government, (WE THE PEOPLE) should help spend it FOR YOU…..

Ceasar Rodney Money Trail

Tomorrow House Bill 86 goes before John Kowalko’s committee:… The House Energy Committee….

House Bill 86 wants to roll back Delaware’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative… According to Delmarva Power itself, the above Greenhouse Gas Initiative WILL save you and I, the power-bill payers, at a minimum, and this is their grudgingly acceded scaled back total, … a minimum of $1.8 to $4.3 billion dollars over the next ten years!

What? Who in their “effin” right mind would fight against saving Delawareans (and others) $1.8 to $4.3 billion dollars?

The Ceasar Rodney Institute, … that’s who…

They say the Regional Gas Initiative costs every Delaware resident $500.

Hmmm. Let’s go shopping… Oops Tommy got there first.

“In fact, during the last three auctions of carbon-dioxide emission allowances under RGGI, the market price has been less than $2 per ton of CO2. That corresponds to about 0.2 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity produced from coal and about 0.1 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity from natural gas. These are about 1 percent of the retail cost of electricity — about 15 cents per kilowatt-hour from Delmarva Power for residential customers — adding less than $1 a month to a typical home electricity bill”...

Ok, (thanks Tommy for the heavy lifting)…. let me see if we hear this correctly? According to the Ceasar Rodney Institute, The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative will cost me $500 more a year; the actual data shows it costs $1 more a month or $12 dollars a year in my price of electricity, but according to Delmarva Power, it will save us all between $1.8 to $4.3 billion dollars?.. Hmmm .. hard choice: Cost of $12 dollars on one hand; savings of $1.8 billion on the other hand… Cost of $12 dollars on one hand; savings of $1.8 billion on the other hand.. Hmm, that is a tough choice; Cost of $12 dollars on one hand; savings of $1.8 billion on the other hand….

It’s too easy; there’s got to be a trick… How much per Delaware resident will that $1.8 to $4.3 billion yield? 🙂 Ah, I think I’m on to those liberal tricks now….

WHAT? The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative will save every Delaware Resident between $2000 and $4750 dollars? You mean this Peterman Bill, House Bill 86 will cost me, a Delaware resident at the minimum, $2000 minus $12 dollars, and at the maximum $4750 minus $12 dollars? It will cost me? I will lose all of that money if this bill goes forward?

Who on earth would propose such a ridiculous piece of legislation, one that could potentially cost me $4738 dollars? ARE THEY NUTS?

Yes, they are the Ceasar Rodney Institute, and yes, I’m afraid they are nuts… Well, not really, .. They are doing their best to persuade this legislation to inch forward in order to transfer real money from out of your pockets, into the pockets of THEIR benefactors…… So no; they’re not nuts. They’re sneaky…

The Ceasar Rodney Institute is a shell organization that is really part of the State Policy Network which is really part of the Ruth and Lovett Peters Foundation whose deep pockets fund the Heritage and Cato Institutes as well. The State Policy Network was started by businessman and Reagan administration insider, Thomas Roe, who himself served on the Heritage Foundation Board of Trustee for two decades.

The Ceasar Rodney Insititue is basically the local office of the Adolf Coors, Jacqueline Hume, Ruth and Lovett Peters [ phonetically pronounced RUTH ANN LOVE EAT PETERS], Castle Rock Foundation, Bradley Foundation,.. SPN uses THEIR contributions to dole out annual grants to member groups, ranging from a few thousand dollars to $260,000, according to 2009 records… The 2010’s records will be out shortly, and with the $4 billion spent to get the Tea Party into Congress, it should be quite interesting. You know, that sort of explains the craziness of the Tea Party candidates. They got hired by big business; if they can’t produce for their boss, they’ll probably lose their job… Of course they don’t care about public opinion! They have to focus on making their bosses happy, or since these creeps are never happy, they are focused on trying to keep from getting fired!

So lets see what’s really going on here….

People with tremendous amounts of wealth, understandably who want to keep it, spend lavish amounts of money, hire people to write papers, to cozy up in legislative offices, to argue the case that there should be not rules applied to the wealthy…. Rules are for unruly masses. Wealth makes it’s own law… People should be “free” to do what ever they want, “free” from government, “free” from public opinion, “free” from any taxes whatsoever….

History has actually had times like that.. They were called the Dark Ages… The only limit to your power was if someone more powerful killed you first. Anyone who has read accounts (there are few) from that time, would certainly never wish to return… Civilization simply stopped for 900 years… Today one can find similar conditions to what these Libertarian minded people wish upon us, in countries like Angola, Chad, Paraguay, Bhutan, Burma,… basically a ruling class that is insulated from the poverty shared by the entire population…

Since it is very hard to convince people to voluntarily return to times like these, these organizations like the Caesar Rodney Institute, argue instead, … topics like: the dissolution of labor unions will improve the education of our school children; or that since the economy is in peril, we need to fire government employees to make it better; or that money saved from firing people, then given right back to the wealthy as a tax cut, will create millions of jobs; or that solar and wind power will raise energy prices through the roof, whereas coal and gas will keep them low; or that invading Libya which produces a pinprick of 1.3 million barrels of oil a day, is cause for gasoline at the pump to approach $5.00 a gallon; or that the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative will cost $500 dollars a year to every Delaware resident…..

How do they get away with it? By being the only voice in the room. You and I have to work to pay our bills, we have to take care of our families, we hardly have time to lift up a phone to leave a voice message to our legislator, who according to John Kowalko, would probably rather hear from us 100 times more than listen to the sycophants sent to lick their ass… But we, just don’t have the time….

But with billions at their disposal, these groups can spin off papers and call them research (who’s going to double-check? The News Journal??? ), they can walk over to legislative hall, and take members out to shoot some pool over some ice cold Adolf Coors Lite in a frosted mug, they can sit upstairs in the local Senate and House Chambers and probably make more than you and I put together….

MR POTTER: You see, if you shoot pool with some employee here, you can come and borrow money. What does that get us? A discontented, lazy rabble instead of a thrifty working class. And all because a few starry-eyed dreamers like Peter Bailey stir them up and fill their heads with a lot of impossible ideas. Now, I say . . .

So…. You see, it’s not “truth” their dispensing. Their motive is to cover up the truth…. In reality, they are nothing but hired hands, sent to confuse, puzzle, obfuscate, muddle, disrupt, and delay the inevitable… you know, like those 1970’s spokespeople for the cigarette companies? How many years did they save before the inevitable finally caught up? Twenty? Thirty? How many lives were lost because of that delaying action? 10 million? 20 million?

So when these guys say you will pay $500 more for this initiative when you really could be saving $4750, you know something is up!

That’s what’s going on here…

Quick Solution to Debt Ceiling Crises

Today the White House issued this Executive Order.

“Should the debt ceiling not be lifted in time by May 16, in order to prevent the Treasury from running out of funds, I am hereby using the emergency powers given to the Chief Executive by the Constitution, to temporarily suspend the Bush Tax Cuts until: 1) either we can legally borrow the funds to continue paying on our commitments, or 2) we bring our debt down to the 2008 level by having much more tax revenue pour in.

This is in effect, immediately, and I have instructed the IRS to recalculate all 2010 tax forms over the level of $2 million dollars, and asses those individuals and companies, for the differences.

We must take this action because Republicans want to pay politics with your lives. As Chief Executive, I am responsible to you, not them. I won’t let that happen.

With these tax cuts out of the way, and with our austerity programs already in effect, that windfall of profit the Treasury will receive, will be entirely funneled towards the paying off our debt.

This policy will continue until Republicans can act reasonably and in a productive fashion.

Barack Obama.

Two Years! A Study of Comparisons

January 20th, Inauguration Day 2009.. Wow, it’s been two years…..

So…. what did he accomplish? And what did the Republicans accomplish by Inauguration Day 2002? At the same point in their tenure?

The answers are damning for Republicans, that’s for sure…

First of all, we must all remember. One president walked into a budget surplus, full employment, a roaring economy, and took over the nation that was the most respected in the world. ( That of course would be the Republican, because he had the good fortune to come in after 8 years of solid Democratic leadership ) The other president, took office that was deeply in debt, the economy was in a massive free-fall, we were losing two wars simultaneously, GM and Chrysler were belly-up, all our banks had collapsed, people could not keep up on their mortgages, and health care was out of control with insurance dropping paid-up people off their roles, simply because they got sick………..

One president had the world handed to him; the other came in owing the world….

At the end of his midterm, George W. Bush was rated by historians as the worst ever… Among some of their reasons… were:

the doctrine of pre-emptive war, crony capitalism/being “completely in bed with certain corporate interests,” bankruptcy/fiscal irresponsibility, military adventurism, trampling of civil liberties, and anti-environmental policies.

On the contrary, the Obama administration drove and got passed, the Recovery Act, which is the largest infrastructure investment since Eisenhower, the largest educational investment since Johnson, and the largest clean energy bill, since….. George Washington.

Similarly, with the help of Delaware’s Ted Kaufman, the Obama administration enacted Wall Street Reform, which empowered both investors and consumers, stopped predatory lending practices, brought trades into light, and…. ended tax payer funded bailouts…

The Recovery Act also reduced taxes for 95 per cent of working families. Very necessary unemployment benefits were extended for those who lost their jobs through no fault of their own.

Credit Card Reform banned retroactive rate hikes, implemented new protections for young people who were enticed to spend more than they could afford, and required credit card companies to explain their terms in plain language. It also stopped banks from manipulating your balance to trick you into going over your limit, then socking you with excessive amounts of late charge fees.

New clean emissions standards and new mileage requirements rejuvenated the auto industry, causing it to undergo rapid development and growth in that sector, making America’s cars the envy of the world again. America’s auto industry was on it’s deathbed when Obama took over. Now, that sector is doing well, even better than Toyota.

At the midpoint of his first term, …George W. Bush, had at this time, ……….

Presided over the loss of approximately three million American jobs in his first two years in office, the worst record since Herbert Hoover.

Overseen an economy in which the stock market suffered its worst decline in the first two years of any administration since Hoover’s.

Transformed almost universal respect for the United States into worldwide condemnation. (One historian made this point particularly well: “After inadvertently gaining the sympathies of the world ‘s citizens when terrorists attacked New York and Washington, Bush has deliberately turned the country into the most hated in the world by a policy of breaking all major international agreements, declaring it our right to invade any country that we wish, proving that he’ll manipulate facts to justify anything he wishes to do, and bull-headedly charging into a quagmire.”)

Misled the American public about weapons of mass destruction and supposed ties to Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Failed to follow through in Afghanistan, a military situation where we won, then abandoned that area allowing the opposition to regroup and become more powerful than ever. We are in Afghanistan today, solely because we did not finish what we started.

Insulted and ridiculed other nations and international organizations and now has to go, hat in hand, to those nations and organizations begging for their assistance.

Completely miscalculated or failed to plan for the personnel and monetary needs in Iraq after the war, so that he sought and obtained an $87 billion appropriation for Iraq, a sizable chunk of which is going, without competitive bidding to Haliburton, the company formerly headed by his vice president.

Inherited an annual federal budget surplus of $230 billion and transformed it into a $500+ billion deficit in less than three years. This negative turnaround of three-quarters of a trillion dollars is totally without precedent in our history.

Cut taxes three times, sharply reducing the burden on the rich, reclassified money obtained through stock ownership as more deserving than money earned through work. The idea that dividend income should not be taxed—what might accurately be termed the unearned income tax credit—can be stated succinctly: “If you had to work for your money, we’ll tax it; if you didn’t have to work for it, you can keep it all.”

Severely curtailed the very American freedoms that our military people are supposed to be fighting to defend. (“The Patriot Act,” one of the historians noted, “is the worst since the Alien and Sedition Acts under John Adams.”)

Called upon American armed service people, including Reserve forces, to sacrifice for ever-lengthening tours of duty in a hostile and dangerous environment while he rewards the rich at home with lower taxes and legislative giveaways and gives lucrative no-bid contracts to American corporations linked with the administration.

Proclaimed himself to be a conservative while maintaining that big government should be able to run roughshod over the Bill of Rights, and that the government must have all sorts of secrets from the people, but the people can be allowed no privacy from the government.

Against that negative backdrop, in two years Obama has done what progressives since Roosevelt have wished for: Health Insurance Reform, a simple law that returns decency and forces humanity back into the insurance industry. It returns things like they used to be.

It used to be.. if you got sick, your insurance would cover you. Thanks to Obama’s Health Insurance Reform, it is that way again. It used to be… that insurance would cover your check ups to keep you from getting sick. Thanks to Obama’s Health Insurance Reform, it is that way again. It used to be, that one’s children in school, were covered under their parents insurance… Thanks to Obama’s Health Insurance Reform, it is that way again. Since Obama’s Health Insurance Reform brings back the benefits of the Health Care we had growing up,… it is truly, the true conservative Health Care bill.

SCHIP was increased to cover 4 million more American children. Healthier children, lower medical expenses for all of us… in the future.

As for national security? Whereas Bush led us into fighting two wars, one completely unnecessary as well as a complete failure, since we didn’t get any legal oil from out that country, ( it still goes to Europe and China), under Obama, we have removed 100,000 troops from Iraq, and are currently reinserting ourselves into Afghanistan, to undo the damage that Republican president created.

In education, Obama saved American taxpayers 68 billion on student loans, over the next ten years, by making student loans more affordable and less profitable for banks. Under Bush, banks were pocketing most of the Federal guarantee money covering very high interest rates.

Whereas under Bush, we had “no child left behind” which meant that “no child ever moved forward”, under Obama, we have initiatives like “Race to the Top”, “Educate to Innovate”, which have a better chance at giving our nation’s students a competitive edge against the Chinese.

Like Harry Truman, the new GI Bill makes education more affordable for our veterans. Whereas “W” Bush sought to cut veteran’s benefits, as every veteran can attest from their real life history, Obama has tried to improve the lot of America’s finest…

Likewise, Obama ended “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, provided law enforcement new tools to deal with hate crimes, and made it easier for women to challenge unequal pay practices.

And to do all that? Obama in the worst of times, has added $201 billion to our deficit. The policies of Bush “W”, are responsible for the other $1.862 Trillion spending spree towards of this nations deficit, half of which is owned by our good friends, the Chinese. Thank you China for saving our ass from what the Republicans did to our nation…….

In just these two years, it’s obvious that we have a really great man… versus the Republicans abysmal failure…

Truth talks.

(Plus I just invested a big chunk into Kimberly-Clark, the maker of Depends, because obviously, … a lot of republicans are going to be needing them……… )

Change of Staff

It was announced Monday that Vice President Biden’s deputy press secretary, Annie Tomasini, will leave at the end of the year for a position at Harvard.

Her position will be filled by Amy Dudley, who was the Great Delaware Sen. Ted Kaufman’s press secretary.

The White House gave a brief description

Amy Dudley comes to the White House from Senator Ted Kaufman’s office, where she served as his press secretary. Prior to the Senate, she worked in the public affairs office of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), where she helped to develop media strategies to highlight the organization’s efforts to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide. Dudley began her career in Washington as a staff writer for The Hotline, National Journal’s daily briefing on politics, where she covered the 2006 midterm elections and the run-up to the 2008 presidential primaries. A native of Brookfield, Connecticut, Dudley graduated from Colgate University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and Peace and Conflict Studies. :