It's that time of year again.  The annual Johnson-Rayburn-Richards dinner is Saturday, October 22, at the Bayou City Events Center, 9401 Knight Road.  This year's theme is "Faces of Victory: Making Lives Better for All, Not Just the Privileged Few."  That theme is especially poignant this year as the economic crisis drags on.  The Republicans would have you believe that Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other programs designed as society's safety net are the core problem.  The dyanic duo of  Bachmann-Palin would have you believe that cutting corporate taxes to zero would be an instant fix.  Of course, we all trust Pfizer, Merck, H-P, and Ford to repatriate jobs if they get a zero tax rate, right?  Well, not so much.  According to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) the 2005 tax holiday, which allowed those same companies to repatriate $71.8 billion, ended up with a loss of over 65,000 domestic jobs.  The companies who benefited directly from the tax holiday held mass layoffs almost immediately.  But of course, the shareholders of the companies did well.  (See NBER paper at this link: http://www.nber.org/papers/w15023).  If we don't stand up for the vast majority of Americans who are not shareholders of multinataional corporations, who will?  If we don't speak up for what's right, and fair, who will?  Democrats, let's do the work to make lives better for all -- aren't we in that "all" designation?  If your budget will allow, please buy your tickets now for the JRR Dinner (see the Harris County Democratic Party's website: http://www.hcdp.org/get-involved/jrr2011/  for tickets) and commit yourself to work for the election of Democratic candidates this year.