One Picture, One Thousand Words: What if Generals Told the Truth?
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How About A Bail-Out for Young People?
Students in Dire Need of Debt Relief:
Government Vastly Undercounts Defaults
Photo illustration by Ron Coddington
By Kelly Field
Chronicle of Higher Education
July 11, 2010 – The share of borrowers who default on their student loans is bigger than the federal government’s short-term data suggest, with thousands more facing damaged credit histories and millions more tax dollars being lost in the long run.
According to unpublished data obtained by The Chronicle, one in every five government loans that entered repayment in 1995 has gone into default. The default rate is higher for loans made to students from two-year colleges, and higher still, reaching 40 percent, for those who attended for-profit institutions.
The numbers represent thousands of students like Lourdes Samedy, of Boston, who ended up defaulting on about $7,000 in student loans after completing a nine-month-long medical-assistant program at Corinthian Colleges Inc. Everest College, and now cannot get a job.
Our Power vs. Their Power: USW’s Leo Gerard Interviews Acuff on Taxes and Jobs
Leo W. Gerard
International President, United Steelworkers, July 6, 2010
Q&A with Veteran Labor Organizer Stewart J. Acuff
Leo W. Gerard: Stewart, you talk about power in a book you’ve written with economist Dr. Richard A. Levins. You called the manual, “Getting America Back to Work.” What’s the relationship between power and getting people back to work?
Stewart J. Acuff: A big part of the problem we have with this economy or the biggest problem is that most of the money has gone to the Financial Elite — and the power as well. To get America back to work we have to reinvest in our country and our workers. That necessarily means that the Financial Elite get less of the wealth generated by the economy and workers will get more. If you intend to take wealth from the richest people in the history of the world, you have to have enough power to do so.
Gerard: You say in the introduction that there are two kinds of power: “The first is lots of organized money. That is the kind of power the Financial Elite have used to bring the rest of us to our knees. The other source and form of power is lots of people: organized, mobilized, united, and taking action.” Do you really think that organized people can succeed in a wrangle with the financial elites?
Acuff: Absolutely! The economic history of the twentieth century is crystal clear. When unions were strong, working people had the lion’s share of income and the economy worked well. When unions were weakened, we have seen the Financial Elite take over and run the economy into the ground.
Continue reading Our Power vs. Their Power: USW’s Leo Gerard Interviews Acuff on Taxes and Jobs
Warning: GOP, Tea Party and Blue Dog ‘Solutions’
Kucinich: We Are Losing Our Nation to Lies About the Necessity of War
WASHINGTON – Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today made the following statement on the floor of the House concerning an expected vote on a $33 billion supplemental war funding bill:
“In a little more than a year the United States flew $12 billion in cash to Iraq, much of it in $100 bills, shrink wrapped and loaded onto pallets. Vanity Fair reported in 2004 that `at least $9 billion’ of the cash had `gone missing, unaccounted for.’ $9 billion.
“Today, we learned that suitcases of $3 billion in cash have openly moved through the Kabul airport. One U.S. official quoted by the Wall Street Journal said, `A lot of this looks like our tax dollars being stolen.’ $3 billion. Consider this as the American people sweat out an extension of unemployment benefits.
“Last week, the BBC reported that “the US military has been giving tens of millions of dollars to Afghan security firms who are funneling the money to warlords.” Add to that a corrupt Afghan government underwritten by the lives of our troops.
“And now reports indicate that Congress is preparing to attach $10 billion in state education funding to a $33 billion spending bill to keep the war going.
“Back home millions of Americans are out of work, losing their homes, losing their savings, their pensions, and their retirement security. We are losing our nation to lies about the necessity of war.
“Bring our troops home. End the war. Secure our economy.”
See the video here: http://www.youtube.com/djkucinich
Green Jobs Now! Dept: Steelworkers, Wind Energy Group Join Forces
Steelworkers, wind energy group join forces to create jobs
by: Mark Gruenberg
People’s World
June 29 2010
Photo: Workers finish a turbine blade at the Gamesa plant in Pennsylvania. PW/Teresa Albano
WASHINGTON (PAI) – The Steelworkers union and the American Wind Energy Association have signed an agreement on working together to develop the wind power industry, emphasizing the need for alternative energy devices – windmills and wind turbines generating electricity – produced by U.S. workers in U.S. factories.
Key parts of the pact include lobbying for a national standard ordering U.S. utilities to purchase a set percentage of their power from renewable sources – wind, solar, hydro, etc. – and for tax incentives to ensure the parts for the wind turbines and associated power plants and transmission lines are manufactured here, not overseas.
“We expect this framework will help advance the promise of green jobs being key to our future. The nation cannot continue to fall behind other countries on clean energy manufacturing,” said Steelworkers President Leo Gerard.
Continue reading Green Jobs Now! Dept: Steelworkers, Wind Energy Group Join Forces
Support the TSA Workers June 24 at Noon! Rally at Main Terminal 4th Floor.
Regional Industry Is Getting Benefits From Obama Manufacturing Stimulus Programs
Obama touts Stimulus Payoff
at Ohio Seamless Tube Plant
By DAVID SKOLNICK
skolnick@vindy.com
Youngstown Vindicator
President Barack Obama didn’t come to V&M Star with money for economic development in the Mahoning Valley or an offer to provide assistance to help the area’s struggling economy.
But Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams said Obama is helping the Valley.
Just by coming to the area Tuesday to highlight V&M’s $650 million expansion draws national attention to what’s happening here and what the area has to offer to businesses, Williams said.
“There’s this notion that a city like Youngstown is to be written off; our better days are behind us,” he said. “I refuse to believe that.”
Obama, a Democrat, talked about areas like the Valley with long-standing financial struggles collaborating as a region, and receiving state and financial help to progress.
“He talks of communities like Youngstown moving from surviving to thriving,” said Williams, a Democrat. “For years, we’ve been barely surviving. At some point in the future we’ll be out of survival mode. I do believe this community can indeed thrive.”
Continue reading Regional Industry Is Getting Benefits From Obama Manufacturing Stimulus Programs
Be Sure to Vote Today!
4th CD Progressive Democrats of America activists greet Joe Hoeffel, Candidate for PA governor, In Vanport
Don’t Miss Anne Feeney in Ambridge, April 28
Beaver County Blue: Voice of the 17th CD of Progressive Democrats of America 