Former One Term Congressman Mark Critz Joins Astroturfed Energy Firm

When will the revolving door in politics stop spinning?  No one may never know, but in the mean time, former Congressman Mark Critz just became the latest corporate democrat to sell out and become a lobbyist.  Mr. Critz has found a job with EIS Solutions, a “grassroots (according to PoliticsPA) energy lobbying firm”.  According to Politics PA, he’ll be a Senior VP in right smack in the middle Shale Country – or Johnstown, PA.   Here’s an excerpt from the article.

 “As a former Member of Congress and district director for Congressman John Murtha, Mark Critz has the experience and relationships at the local level to help difficult projects get approval,” EIS Solutions President Wade Haerle said. “Mark knows how to navigate local politics and governmental bureaucracies at the state and federal levels and will be an asset to clients seeking to build local support for energy related projects in the coal and natural gas industries.”

“It was an honor to serve the people of Western Pennsylvania in Congress where I had the opportunity fight for jobs and economic development,” Critz said in a company press release. “Development of our energy resources is vital to growing our regional economy and making our nation independent of foreign sources of energy. I look forward to working to make sure that our region develops these resources in a safe, responsible manner while working to grow our economy and meet our energy needs.”

What Politics PA fails to mention is that Mark Critz was fairly generous with the natural gas industry in PA.  While in the House, his voting record energy issues included him voting “yea” on the: “No More Solyndra Act,” “Stop the War On Coal Act,” extending the Keystone XL Pipeline, and to amend the Clean Water Act.     Over the past year I had a couple of twitter battles with Critz and one time he stated something along the lines that solar energy production is worse for the environment than fracking for natural gas.  So it looks like that this is a match made in heaven for the “democrat.”  Mr. Gibson also fails to mention that this “grassroots” effort that Critz is joining an astroturfed – an energy funded – lobbying group.

Continue reading Defeated Rep. Mark Critz to Work as Energy Lobbyist →

10 arrested as coal miners, supporters protest in St. Louis over Patriot bankruptcy case

AFSCME President Slams Pat Quinn, Michael Nutter As ‘Turncoats’ Who Must ‘Pay’

WASHINGTON — One of the top labor leaders in the country ripped into two prominent Democratic lawmakers Monday morning, calling them “turncoats” and unfavorably comparing them to high-profile anti-union Republicans.

Speaking at the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees’ Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., AFSCME President Lee Saunders devoted a large portion of his address to Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, promising political retribution for the tough-on-labor policies both Democrats have imposed.

The remarks, delivered at a private gathering and sent over by a labor source, are below:

I am sick and tired of the fair-weather Democrats. They date us, take us to the prom, marry us, and then divorce us right after the honeymoon. I am sick and tired of the so-called friends who commend us when they’re running for election, but condemn us after they’ve won. I am sick and tired of the politicians who stand with us behind closed doors, but kick us to the curb in front of the cameras. I’m here to tell you that’s bullshit and we’re not gonna take it anymore.Many of you know some of the people I’m talking about. Mayor Michael Nutter in Philadelphia. Governor Pat Quinn in Illinois. We’ve come to expect union-busting, anti-worker tactics from ultra-conservatives like Scott Walker and John Kasich. But now, everybody’s on the bandwagon.

Look at Nutter. AFSCME members in Philadelphia haven’t had a contract in four years, and Sister Baylor knows it. What does the mayor do? He goes to the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania Supreme Court to get a legal decision that would let him shove his contract down our throats. He’s no different from Governor Snyder in Michigan, who went to his state’s Supreme Court to get legal cover for cutting school employees’ pay. Different political parties, same political games.

Look at Governor Quinn. He has waged a relentless war on state employees – slashing pensions, driving down incomes and wiping out jobs. Last year he took the unprecedented step of terminating our contract. He is the first and only Illinois governor, Republican or Democrat, to take such a blatantly aggressive action.

I have had enough of these turncoats, and it’s time to make them pay.

Hostilities between organized labor and some of the nation’s most prominent, state-based Democrats are hardly a new phenomenon. Before Quinn and Nutter rankled AFSCME, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo did the same with unions in his state.

But the swipes in Saunders’ speech are notably sharp — especially the ominous pledge to “make them pay” — and they illustrate the extent to which these hostilities are no longer confined to closed-door budget fights. With states and cities feeling the pinch, lawmakers have been going after organized labor with greater frequency, altering pension plans to be less generous, changing retirement age laws, or, in several cases, targeting collective bargaining rights.

In Nutter’s case, a battle over the mayor’s push to impose contract terms on the city’s largest union is being petitioned up to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Saunders’ grievance against Quinn, meanwhile, is based on the governor’s decision not to renew Illinois’ contract with AFSCME this past November. Quinn had been pushing for a pay cut for state workers, as well as a wage freeze and a new policy that would have employees paying more for their own health insurance coverage.

Neither Quinn’s nor Nutter’s office immediately returned requests for comment.

Continue reading AFSCME President Criticizes Corporate Democrats →

You are probably hearing that the Post Office is “in crisis” and is cutting back Saturday delivery, laying people off, closing offices, etc. Like so many other “crises” imposed on us lately, there is a lot to the story that you are not hearing from the “mainstream” media. (Please click that link.) The story of the intentional destruction of the U.S. Postal Service is one more piece of the story of crisis-after-crisis, all manufactured to advance the strategic dismantling of our government and handing over the pieces to billionaires.

Here are a few things you need to know about the Postal Service “crisis”:

• The Postal Service is the second largest employer in the United States after Walmart. But unlike Walmart, which gets away with paying so little that employees qualify for government assistance, the Postal Services is unionized, pays reasonable wages and benefits and receives no government subsidies. (Good for them!)
• Republicans have been pushing schemes to privatize the Postal Service since at least 1996. In 2006 Republicans in the Congress pushed through a requirement that the Postal Service pre-fund 75 years of retiree costs. The Postal Service has to pay now for employees who are not even born yet. No other government agency – and certainly no company – has to do this.
• Unlike other government agencies (like the military) since 1970 the Postal Service is required to break even. Once more: the Department of Defense is not required to break even.
• While required to break even the Postal Service has to deliver mail to areas that are unprofitable for private companies to operate in. A letter sent from a small town in Alaska is picked up and transported across the country to a farm in Maine for 46 cents. While the Internet and recession have eaten into some of the Postal Services letter business, magazines, books, newsletters, prescriptions, advertising, DVD services like Netflix and many other services still depend on the Postal Service for delivery. And many people for one reason or another still send letters. In a democracy these people are supposed to count, too.
• But along with requiring the Postal Service to break even, Congress has restricted the Service’s ability to raise rates, enter new lines of business or take other steps to help it raise revenue. In fact, while detractors complain that the Postal Service is antiquated, inefficient and burdened by bureaucracy, the rules blocking the Postal Service from entering new lines of business do so because the Postal Service would have advantages over private companies.For example, Republicans in Congress forced the Postal Service to remove public-use copiers from Post Offices and even blocked the Postal Service from setting up a secure online system that allowed Americans to make monthly bill payments.

The Postal Service is a public service for We, the People, not a business. The Service is hamstrung by people who pretend it is supposed to compete and then won’t let it. They won’t help with taxpayer dollars and say it has to compete in the marketplace (again: the Department of Defense is not required to break even.) Then they give it rules that no private company could survive. Then when it gets into trouble, say that government doesn’t work, start laying people off, selling off the public assets, and saying it has to be “privatized” (so all the gains will go to a few already-wealthy people instead of to the public).

Continue reading Austerity: the Postal Service Outrage →

Robert Wade

The current dispute between China and Japan over a few barren islands inhabited by goats – called Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese – looks at first sight to be a mere territorial spat. But it has escalated to a very dangerous level in recent months — first words, then actions of police forces, now actions of air forces, and, behind all these, both sides have mobilised all their military, political, economic, diplomatic, and cultural energies to engage in the dispute. It is more fundamental than normal territorial disputes, because the very identities of the two countries are at stake.

A strong narrative has taken hold in the West and much of East Asia about China’s behaviour, which starts with the proposition that China is the provocateur. Examples include, “China sows new seeds of conflict with neighbours”;^[1] China has adopted an “increasingly sharp-elbowed approach to its neighbors, especially  Japan”;^[2] “China…has launched a new campaign of attrition against Japan over the Senkaku islands…. Beijing has sought to challenge Japan’s decades-old control, despite the risk that an accident could spiral out of control”.^[3]

Continue reading China vs Japan Island Dispute →

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Mine helmets and painted crosses were placed at the entrance to Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch coal mine as a memorial to the 29 miners killed there.

Jeff Gentner/AP

Nearly three years after a deadly mine explosion in West Virginia, a former Massey Energy mine superintendent has been sentenced to prison and federal regulators have toughened a regulation that could have helped prevent the disaster.

Today in federal court in Beckley, W.Va., former Upper Big Branch coal mine superintendant Gary May was sentenced to 21 months in prison and ordered to pay a $20,000 fine.

The sentencing was part of a plea agreement in which May is cooperating with federal prosecutors as they continue to investigate the April, 2010, explosion that killed 29 coal miners at Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine.

May pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and admitted to ordering a company electrician to disable a methane monitor on a mining machine so it could continue to cut coal without automatic shutdowns. The monitor is a safety device that senses explosive amounts of methane gas and automatically shuts down mining machines when dangerous levels of gas are present. The incident was first reported by NPR in July, 2010.

U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin says the sentence sends “a powerful message to this mine manager and other mine managers who would put profits over safety: if you violate mine laws and put miners at risk you will go to jail.”

May also pleaded guilty to deceiving federal mine safety inspectors and hiding safety violations.

Continue reading Massey Mine Boss Going to Jail →

A Peoples’ Inauguration

The Progressive Democrats of America plan to bridge

the gap between Capitol Hill

and the progressive grassroots.

Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), the self-described “grassroots PAC operating inside the Democratic Party, and outside in movements for peace and justice” is gearing up for its third Progressive Central, a one-day gathering of politicians from the left wing of the Democratic Party and prominent activists from the labor, anti-war and environmental movements.

The “Peoples’ Inauguration” in Washington, D.C., scheduled for January 19, two days in advance of the more prominent inauguration to be held a few miles across town on Capitol Hill, is intended to kick off PDA’s lobbying and organizing efforts for the next four years. In a national political context dominated by talk of austerity, PDA is aiming to keep popular progressive demands on the agenda in Congress—issues like universal single-payer healthcare, ending the wars while slashing the defense budget, and implementing a financial transactions tax. Emblematic of the group’s “inside-outside mission” of translating the demands of existing social movements into action from sympathetic members of Congress, the event on Saturday will feature a mix of Democratic representatives and leaders.

Continue reading People’s Inauguration →