Tom Morello is a member of the band Rage Against the Machine.

by Randy Shannon

Treas. PA 4th CD Chapter, PDA

The fight to protect social security from the bankers and their hyenas in Congress is not over. The two articles below update developments. Sen. Harry Reid has demanded that Social Security be “off the table” in discussions of deficit reduction. However President Obama announced that “talks” have already begun and did not state that Social Security was off the table.

In the meantime newly elected Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut has announced that he is joining the Defending Social Security Caucus in the US Senate. That makes 14 Senators committed to defending Social Security. We need 41.

I can understand why the Wall Street Poodle Toomey is not in the caucus. But where the hell is Sen. Robert Casey? Pennsylvania has one of the biggest retiree populations in the US. Now that our pensions have been stolen by Wall Street banks, most people are surviving on Social Security.

With unemployment at 9% officially and 16% unofficially and many unemployed giving up looking for jobs it looks like a lot of people are going to need Social Security in a few years. Someone 50 to 55 years old may have to beg to get by until he/she turns 66. These crooks want them to wait until they’re 70. Say what?!!!!

I’m going to call Senator Casey and tell him that I want him to join and support the efforts of the Defending Social Security Caucus. Add your voice, pick up the phone, call, and keep calling 866-802-2833.

Continue reading Defend Social Security: Call Senator Casey →

Team 4 Investigates: What’s Spewing Into The Air We Breathe? – Pittsburgh News Story – WTAE Pittsburgh.

Promises Broken: Where is the focus on jobs?

During the 2010 elections, Tom Corbett and the leaders of the General Assembly told us their number one priority was creating jobs and healing the economy. Since they took office they have ignored those promises.  Instead, they have pursued a highly partisan, radical agenda to turn back the clock on education, healthcare and civil rights.

To date, neither the Senate nor the House has held one hearing on creating new jobs or promoting Pennsylvania’s economy.  So what have they focused on?

• The first hearing of the new session focused on cutting healthcare for women.
• SB1 will cut funding to public schools by diverting tax money to parochial and other private schools.  This will mean either raising property taxes and/or cutting local education programs.
• Governor Corbett plans to sell off the Commonwealth’s assets to the highest corporate bidders.  He plans to start with the Wine and Spirit Shoppes, resulting in the loss of 4,500 good paying jobs.
• Even before his new term started, Rep. Daryl Metcalfe began his annual campaign to enshrine bigotry in the Pennsylvania Constitution by banning same sex marriage.

This doesn’t look like a focus on jobs to me. It looks like the same old partisan, ideological focus on wedge issues.  That’s why we’ve started a petition asking Gov. Corbett and the Republican leadership in both chambers to fulfill their promises.

We demand that Gov. Corbett and the House and Senate leadership fulfill their commitment to us and focus their attention on jobs and the economy. Sign our petition and add your voice. No more broken promises!

In Solidarity,

Michael Morrill
Keystone Progress

by Randy Shannon

4th CD Chapter PDA Treasurer

The article below shows that two savvy investors who bought up land in Pennsylvania will now sell it to gas drillers for up to $14,000 per acre. If they sell at $6,300 per acre they will net between $5 billion to $6 billion in profits. Of course they will pay a capital gains tax on their fleecing of Pennsylvania landowners.

Let’s focus on the tremendous price that the gas drillers are willing to pay for drilling rights – no less than $6,000 and up to $13,000 per acre. And that is before the land is cleared, the pads are constructed, the well is drilled, the local water supply is sucked dry, the poisonous fumes are released, and the toxic mud is dumped in our rivers.

Billionaires To Sell Marcellus Gas Stakes

The news came out Thursday that billionaires Trevor Rees-Jones and Phillip Anschutz had put their natural gas fields in the Marcellus Shale up for sale. We confirmed yesterday with a source close to the Anschutz Company that the acreage, thought to be roughly 500,000 acres is indeed on the block. Rees-Jones too has some 500,000 acres for sale.

It’s incontrovertible that these two men own more of the Marcellus than anyone other individuals. That they’re both looking to sell at the same time is fascinating. So why now?

Taxes, for one. The capital gains tax rate is set to rise from 15% to 20% next year. Ready buyers, for another. We’ve been watching the wave of consolidation in the Marcellus, including big buys by Shell and Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, and anticipate even bigger deals to come for land-long, cash-short independents like Range Resources. When the ducks quack, feed them.

For Rees-Jones, the payday could very well equal or even surpass the $2.6 billion he grossed in 2006 selling his Barnett Shale acreage to Devon Energy. A source with some knowledge of Rees-Jones’s Marcellus investments says that he acquired some 650,000 acres on the order of $100 an acre, long before the land grab heated up.

Late last year he and JV partner Tug Hill did a deal with Enerplus, which farmed in on 165,000 acres for $400 million, including $160mm in cash up front and the rest to pay drilling costs. That implied a value of $2,500 per acre. That’s a lot less than deals since then, which have gone as high as $14,000 an acre. Ambani’s last deal was for $6,300 an acre.

If Rees-Jones can fetch $6,000 per acre for his remaining 500,000 acres, that’ll be $3 billion. Even if his costs were $1,000 per acre ($500 million), Rees-Jones’s hypothetical gain would be on the order of $2.5 billion.

That’s a lot of reasons to sell now. Considering that the federal capital gains tax is set to increase from 15% to 20% in 2011, by selling before the end of the year he could presumably hold on to something on the order of $125 million that would otherwise go to Uncle Sam. Now that’s a motivated seller.

http://blogs.forbes.com/christopherhelman/2010/08/20/billionaires-to-sell-marcellus-gas-stakes/?partner=yahootix

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Conyers:  We Need a Job Creation Rally Speech in Today’s SOTU Address

Conyers Calls On President Obama to Enact A Bold And Effective Emergency Job Creation Plan

(Washington) –Today, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) called on President Obama to boldly and decisively address national job creation and further economic recovery initiatives in this evening’s State of the Union Address.

“President Obama must now provide bold and decisive leadership and move this nation forward with an effective and targeted national job creation program that will put millions of unemployed Americans in my district in the rest of the country back to work,” Conyers said.  “I encourage him to lead the country in investing in more initiatives that spur and invest in creation, innovation, and infrastructure.   We cannot allow politics to brush these major issues under the rug any longer.  We must face them and fix them.”

Continue reading Rep. Conyers: We Need a Jobs Program in the SOTU Speech →

Remarks by AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka

 “America’s Choices: Why the Conventional Wisdom Is Wrong”

National Press Club
January 19, 2011

Good morning and thank you. I’m honored to stand beside firefighter Stan Trojanowski, who responded to a 9-1-1 call from the World Trade Center moments after the terrorist attacks in 2001. As America grieved, Stan returned to the scene day after day, first in the hopes of rescuing those trapped in the rubble, then to recover remains of those who had perished. Today, he continues to deal with the terrible aftermath of that terrible day, as he deals with the toll his bravery and commitment have taken on his health.

Last month, Stan and other firefighters, police officers and construction workers who answered the call that day—who ran into the fire and into the dust clouds—posed a question to our elected leaders: What kind of country are we?

For seven years they had pressed for a law that would do one simple thing—take care of the heroes who got sick because of their selfless acts, who suffered because they said yes, without hesitation, when America needed them. But for seven years, our leaders would not say yes in return.

Congratulations, Stan, for finally succeeding.

The question of how our political system treated our 9-11 heroes like Stan resonates still in this new year: What kind of country are we? A country of isolated individuals fending for themselves or a country with shared values and a shared vision? A country with scant resources, fading glory and no choices? Or a blessed nation with the potential to do right by its people and be a leader in the world?

The conventional wisdom in Washington and in statehouses around the nation is that we cannot afford to be the country we want to be. That could not be more wrong.

We can and should be building up the American middle class – not tearing it down. We should be honoring the heroes of 9-11, not turning them into scapegoats for a partisan political messaging operation. We should act like the wealthy, compassionate, imaginative country we are – not try to turn ourselves into a third-rate, impoverished “has-been.” The labor movement hasn’t given up on America – and we don’t expect our leaders to either.

Continue reading AFL-CIO President Calls for Massive Infrastructure Investment →