Big labor doesn’t endorse in race for governor; backs Saidel

Pennsylvania’s organized labor community can’t come to a consensus in the four-way Democratic primary for governor.

The state AFL-CIO, the state’s largest umbrella union organization, overwhelmingly endorsed former Philadelphia City Controller Jonathan Saidel for Lieutenant during a meeting of its executive committee over the weekend in Pittsburgh. But no top-ticket candidate was able to garner the two-thirds vote needed for a formal endorsement.

An AFL-CIO official couldn’t be reached for comment. But a labor insider said the votes were, for the most part, “well distributed” between Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato and Auditor General Jack Wagner, with Onorato faring well with the building trades and Wagner finding support from public employee unions. Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel also found patches of support.

Continue reading PA AFL-CIO: No Endorsement for Governor →

Joe Hoeffel Picks up Two More Endorsements from Western Pa.

by Bob Schmetzer

April 19,2010

 Duquesne University, Pittsburgh PA

The Mayor and a resident of Dish, Texas came to town to inform Pennsylvanians of some problems their community experienced from fracking style drilling that is now coming to Pennsylvania.

Mayor Calvin Tillman and Tim Puggiaro explained with a slide show and examples what made the people in their town sick. The community leaders complained to Texas state agencies for over a year about foul air.

The state let the drillers try to find out what the problem was. The drillers claimed the smell was from the odorizers. The problem got worse.

It took 2 years for the state to go to the compressor sites for air monitoring. 94 sites at 44 locations showed benzene was present and an imminent danger. A continuous air monitor was installed.

A health questionnaire was distributed to the residents. A biological test was given to 75 households who participated. What were found in their blood and urine were the chemicals coming out of the drill site. They were Chloroform, 1,4 Dichlorobenzene, toluene, styrene, oxylene, ethylbenzene, and others. 

Continue reading Texas Mayor visits Pittsburgh to Expose Predatory Gas Drillers: Everyone in Dish, Texas is Sick from Toxic Gases →

Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts says that Massey Energy Co.’s continued inaction on safety violations at its Upper Big Branch Mine, where 29 West Virginia coal miners died in an April 5 explosion, should send Massey CEO Donald Blankenship to jail.

In a speech at the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO convention yesterday, Roberts said, “If there is any justice in America,”

U.S. Marshals should go to where he lives, get him, handcuff him, put him in chains, take him to jail, set his fine at $40 million.

He told the delegates the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) inspectors had “shut this mine down over and over and over again.”

They brought the men outside, they brought them to a safe place. But as soon as they left the same thing happened again and again. They didn’t correct the violations.

Continue reading UMWA: Jail for Massey CEO and Tea Party moneybags Donald Blankenship →

Healthcare not Warfare vs. TeaParty

by Randy Shannon

The Peace Links weekly vigil at the County Courthouse to Bring the Troops Home Now and for Healthcare not Warfare has stood at 1:00 pm every Saturday for six years. The need to convert war spending to social spending for jobs and healthcare is more critical than ever. The need to support the unemployed and the hungry, to protect our workers on the job, to provide healthcare to all is now critical to more people than ever.

The tea party is calling for another hate and lies rally at 1:00 pm on Saturday April 24th on the steps of the Beaver County Courthouse. Its their right to be there, even though their message borders hate speech and is filled with lies and distortions.

The wealthy elite has funded the tea party movement and used their media pawns to build it. An outstanding example of a tea party moneybags is Don Blankenship, the President of Massey Coal, a mining company that kills workers as a cost of doing business. Those who fund this so-called movement use it  to oppose workers’ safety, to oppose state and local government services, to support war, and to incite race hatred. The tea party followers include John Birch Society and Ku Klux Klan members. This movement is as much a threat to civil society as Massey Coal is a threat to miners who work in their criminally neglected mines.

Peace Links and Progressive Democrats will stand our vigil across the street at 1:00 pm at the Courthouse. Our theme will be “Everyone In. Nobody Out.” If you supported change in 2008, you can defend the small gains we have made and help to create an environment where future gains are possible by joining us this  Saturday.

by Randy Shannon

The Pennsylvania 4th Congressional District Chapter of PDA unamimously endorsed Joe Hoeffel for Governor. In a letter mailed to its members, Chapter Chairwoman Tina Shannon asked that members and friends work together for a Hoeffel victory.

Hoeffel is the only candidate in either party that is not owned by the wealthy elites in Pennsylvania. A Hoeffel victory will break the corrupt stranglehold of corporate money in Pennsylvania politics and set the state on a path of growth, justice, and equality for working people.

Hoeffel is the only progressive candidate running for any statewide office this year. He campaigned for President Obama in 2008. He deserves the undivided support of Pennsylvanians who want to continue to work for real change.

The PDA endorsement letter is on the following page.

Continue reading Progressive Democrats endorse Joe Hoeffel for Governor in Democratic primary →

Pres. Obama’s Statement on Mine Disaster

April 15, 2010

Good morning, everybody.

On April 5th, the United States suffered the worst mine disaster in more than a generation. Twenty-nine lives were lost. Families have been devastated. Communities have been upended. And during this painful time, all of us are mourning with the people of Montcoal and Whitesville and Naoma and the Coal River Valley. The people of West Virginia are in our prayers.

But we owe them more than prayers. We owe them action. We owe them accountability. We owe them an assurance that when they go to work every day, when they enter that dark mine, they are not alone. They ought to know that behind them there is a company that’s doing what it takes to protect them, and a government that is looking out for their safety.

Continue reading Obama: Justice Department will be involved in investigation of murders by Massey Coal Co. →

Where We Are Now on Health Reform

 
Dr. Quentin Young
The Huffington Post
March 30, 2010

With the passage of the Democrats’ health bill, Congress and President Obama have created a new (and not so new) legislative framework for health care finance in the United States. Now that we’ve officially entered the post-legislative period, it’s worth noting how we got to where we are.

The for-profit insurers and their health industry allies sunk their claws into the legislative process early and hung on to the very end. The new bill largely reflects their handiwork. Stock prices for virtually all the leading private insurers remain high and have been trending upward. Investors are also bullish on the promising prospects for the drug companies and for-profit hospitals in the wake of the bill’s passage.

The attacks on the Democrats’ bill from the right-wing Republicans and their proto-fascist allies, including many so-called tea-baggers, were fierce, sometimes absurd and frequently despicable. The racist and homophobic assaults on supporters of the bill set a disturbing, new low for contemporary U.S. politics.

Politically, it can be argued that Obama and his administration squeaked through a highly significant victory, made so by the shameful strategies of the Republicans and their allies. It’s a fact that a defeat for Obama engineered by these reactionary forces would have poisoned the climate of political discourse seriously. Nevertheless, the bill is full of pitfalls that harbinger ill for the American public as patients. Continue reading Where We Are Now on Health Reform →