by Randy Shannon

November 4, 2010

As AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka has said, this election was about jobs. This election was also about health care and the progressive change that was promised but not delivered. The voters punished the corporate Democrats who helped block legislation to help working people, the unemployed, and those without health care.

The Republicans promised jobs. We won’t be satisfied until they deliver. Let’s start with extending unemployment benefits, Child Nutrition programs, and tax cuts for working families, and blocking cuts to social security in the lame duck Congress that starts November 14th.

Of the 88 co-sponsors of HR 676, the Medicare for All bill in the 111th Congress, 81 ran for another term in Congress. One ran for Governor of Hawaii. 79 of the 81 were re-elected to Congress by large margins. The candidate for Governor also won. Hawaii and Vermont now have Governors who support single payer health care.

The Blue Dog Democrats, like Jason Altmire, who worked in committee to water down the healthcare bill and block the public option lost over half of their seats. 28 of 54 Blue Dogs were defeated. 4th CD Congressman Altmire who worked in committee to gut the health care bill and then voted against it was re-elected by a margin of less than 2%.

All of the Democrats who voted against extending unemployment benefits for victims of the recession caused by the criminal bankers were defeated.

Of the 69 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) 66 were re-elected to Congress. Progressive Democrats of America works closely with the Congressional Progressive Caucus on legislation and elections.

Continue reading Medicare for All Co-sponsors Returned to Congress by Big Margins →

Trumka: Tuesday’s Vote Was About Jobs, Not Republican Agenda by James Parks, Nov 3, 2010

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America’s voters are angry about the economy and the lack of jobs, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said this morning during a discussion at the National Journal’s “The Day After” conference. And if Republicans don’t listen to what the voters were saying, they will be thrown out in 2012.

Trumka said the Republicans would be making a big mistake if they believe voters endorsed the Republican agenda. The votes in fact were a rebuke to the party in power, he said. Speaking to Mike Duncan, chairman of American Crossroads, the Republican mega political action group, Trumka said:

The America people know the economy doesn’t work. They’re suffering and they’re angry because of that and you’re going to have to come up with a way to create jobs and get the economy back on the move. They’re frustrated not because too much was done, but too little was done. But now that you’re in the governing structure, you just can’t say no.

He pointed out that 63 percent of voters in the 100 congressional races that swung the election oppose tax breaks for people who make more than $250,000—a key plank in the Republican’s Pledge to America. Nearly two-thirds (62 percent) oppose privatizing Social Security—another Republican proposal, and a large number do not want the retirement age raised to 70.

The union movement’s massive mobilization effort worked, Trumka said. Union members received information or contact with their union 15 to 20 times during the election cycle. As a result, unions counteracted the huge sums spent by corporate front groups like American Crossroads, which spent tens of millions on the election, including $3 million alone on a dozen House races. When union members heard the real facts, they voted for progressives in large numbers.

Duncan even acknowledged that the Republicans this year copied the union movement’s model for getting out the vote, although he told Trumka, “We’re not as good as you are on the deployment.”

Trumka advised Democrats and President Obama to do “what we’re going to because beginning today we’re going to have three priorities: jobs, jobs and more jobs.”

We are going to be pushing our five-point plan to create jobs. I think the President should do that and put these guys to the test. They said they could do it. Now let’s make them do it. And I wish you success because for every job you create there’s an American out there who’ll be able to make a living.

He said he would tell Obama and Democrats to work with Republicans, but not to compromise their principles.

Federal Reserve Rains Money On Corporate America — But Main Street Left High And Dry

Shahien Nasiripour

Huffington Post

Bill Gross will be one of the few to benefit from the Federal Reserve’s announcement this afternoon.

The legendary money manager, who oversees more than $1.2 trillion at Pacific Investment Management Co., stands to profit off the plan hatched by the nation’s central bank. The Fed announced that it will buy between $850 to $900 billion of U.S. government debt, also known as Treasuries, through June to spur the recovery. Over the coming months, the Fed will then communicate its specific plans well ahead of any such purchases, allowing wealthy investors and firms a chance to buy those assets first so they can sell it back to the Fed at a profit. Folks like Gross will be the biggest beneficiaries.

When it comes to helping Wall Street and corporate America, the Federal Reserve spares no expense.

It expanded its authority and bailed out securities and insurance firms. It tethered the main interest rate to zero. It more than doubled its balance sheet to $2.3 trillion by purchasing mortgage-linked securities and U.S. government debt. To arrest the free-falling economy and jolt it back to life, the nation’s central bank has engaged in an unprecedented campaign to ensure banks have cash and corporations access to credit.

Continue reading Banks Steal Another $1 Trillion after Buying the Election →

As reported by http://masscare.org/

Massachusetts voters have, for the second straight election, overwhelmingly affirmed their support for single payer health reform by turning in majority ‘Yes’ votes in all fourteen districts where local single payer ballot questions appeared yesterday.

The ballots spanned 80 different cities and towns in a state of 351 municipalities, winning in every city and town reporting results so far except two.

Five of the districts backing single payer reform yesterday voted for Scott Brown in last year’s special senate election, which was largely seen as a referendum on national health reform. This shows that the goal of improved and expanded Medicare for All is supported by a diverse range of communities across the state.

Continue reading Massachusetts Voters: YES to Medicare for All Referendum, YES to Democratic Candidates →

ABC DROPS Andrew Breitbart From Election Night Coverage

UPDATE: Andrew Breitbart spoke to Politico about ABC’s decision to remove him from its Election Night coverage. Breitbart said that ABC had shown “cowardice” and had bowed to “left-wing pressure…they know they can do it at any time and any place and ABC will bow to pressure.”

ORIGINAL POST: ABC News announced Tuesday that it is dropping controversial blogger Andrew Breitbart from its Election Night coverage.

The network announced late last week that Breitbart, who made headlines for his role in the Shirley Sherrod affair, would be a guest during its coverage of the midterm election results. After howls of protest from outside commentators and reports of dissension from within ABC’s own newsroom, the network sought to make it clear that Breitbart would only appear in an online forum and would never be seen on any television broadcast.

In response, Breitbart posted internal emails sent to him by ABC producers on his website. He claimed that the emails showed that he would, in fact, be appearing on the air during the network’s Election Night broadcast.

On Tuesday, ABC’s executive producer for digital news, Andrew Morse, released a letter he had sent to Breitbart, informing him that he was being dropped from its coverage:

Dear Mr. Breitbart,We have spent the past several days trying to make clear to you your limited role as a participant in our digital town hall to be streamed on ABCNews.com and Facebook. The post on your blog last Friday created a widespread impression that you would be analyzing the election on ABC News. We made it as clear as possible as quickly as possible that you had been invited along with numerous others to participate in our digital town hall. Instead of clarifying your role, you posted a blog on Sunday evening in which you continued to claim a bigger role in our coverage. As we are still unable to agree on your role, we feel it best for you not to participate.

Sincerely,
Andrew Morse

Liberal groups immediately cheered ABC’s move. James Rucker, director of the African American political website ColorOfChange.org — which, along with CREDO Action, sent a petition with 125,000 signatures to ABC and blanketed the network’s offices with calls in protest of its initial decision to host Breitbart — praised the reversal, saying in a statement that the network had “taken a giant step in helping to wash our collective hands of the fear mongering and race-baiting that have no place in our political discourse.”

In another statement, David Brock, head of Media Matters — which was the first to report that Breitbart would be ABC’s guest — said that he was “pleased that ABC finally came to its senses and realized that nothing good can come from associating in any way with Andrew Breitbart.” Brock added that he was still confused about why ABC had decided to include Breitbart in its coverage in the first place, labeling him “poison.”

IVAW responds to Wikileaks’ Iraq War Logs

The latest release by Wikileaks of the Iraq War Logs is the largest leak in U.S. history and reveals in extensive detail what Iraq Veterans Against the War has been saying since our founding in 2004.  The U.S. has presided over a bloody occupation for seven years where war crimes are a common offense, civilian casualties have been grossly under-reported, and corporate contractors run amok.  See our official statement on the Iraq War Logs below.

IVAW Statement on the Iraq War Logs – A Call for Accountability

Dear Friends,

Remember Andrew Breitbart? He was the man who used selectively-edited video to paint Shirley Sherrod as a racist, to smear the NAACP, and to accuse the Obama administration of reverse racism. It was all a big, premeditated lie.

Unbelievably, ABC News now plans to have Breitbart participate in their Election Night coverage, despite his history as a deceitful operative who distorts, lies, and race-baits.

ABC’s decision is a slap in the face to Shirley Sherrod, to Black America, and to everyone who believes in the value of telling the truth. It’s unacceptable. It’s why I’m joining ColorOfChange incalling on ABC News and its parent company Disney to drop their plans to include Breitbart now:

http://colorofchange.org/abc/?id=2129-1245241

Continue reading Call on ABC News to Dump Racist Liar from Election Coverage →

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_706627.html

By Joe Napsha, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, October 29, 2010

Natural gas exploration and production companies will have a difficult time meeting new standards for limiting pollutants in wastewater dumped in the state’s waterways, experts said yesterday.

“That’s a real daunting challenge,” John W. Ubinger Jr., senior vice president of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, said at an event focusing on the risks and opportunities of developing the state’s Marcellus shale natural gas reserves.

About 70 companies are involved in the exploration and production of natural gas in the state’s Marcellus shale reserves. Almost 1,100 wells have been drilled since January, and 2,350 permits have been issued in the first nine months of this year, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

In January, the DEP is set to implement standards that will not permit the discharging of any wastewater that contains more than 500 milligrams per liter of total dissolved solids — such as salts and other minerals — into the state’s watershed. Water used by natural gas drillers to fracture Marcellus shale formations to release the gas has much higher levels of the dissolved salts as well as other minerals and chemicals used in the process.

Continue reading PA DEP to Regulate Fracking Wastewater Discharge →

by Tina Shannon

Dear Fellow Progressive Democrats,

Do you think it is important to participate in this election?

We progressives are just beginning to find our voice. People are starting to want to hear what we have to say. Here in Beaver County the regular Dems invited us to their Annual Fundraising Banquet even though we bring no significant monetary resources. We were invited to participate in the One Nation coalition of labor, the NAACP & community leaders that took 4 buses to the October 2^nd rally in DC. Our public events to discuss important issues are well attended.

To continue building in Beaver County, in the 4^th Congressional District, we must use our growing strength to help stop the far-right from taking power in this election. All the races are close. If our effort makes the difference, we can build a stronger progressive movement. If we help the 2 Democratic labor candidates for State Representative get elected then we have a relationship with them as they move into power.

Pat Toomey is to the right of Bush. Toomey & Corbett are test cases for Tea Party politics. We might be disappointed that we haven’t made as much progress as we wanted for health care, peace, jobs, and the environment. But we must ask ourselves; do we want to be ruled by the likes of the Tea Party? If we do the work that prevents the Tea Party from gaining ascendancy in our country it may feel like the status quo goes on like usual. But we will have made a tremendous contribution by building the foundation for future progress.

Continue reading Appeal to Progressives: Join the Nov. 2nd Battle against Austerity →