elections

Defend Social Security: Call Senator Casey

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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 →

labor, Right Wing, Youth and students

Our Egypt Beginning? 12,000 Workers & Students Hit the Streets in Madison

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Thousands Gather at Wisconsin Capitol

to Protest Gov.Walker Anti-Union Bill

By CLAY BARBOUR
Beaver county Blue via Wisconsin State Journal

Feb 16, 2011 – In one of the largest protests in recent memory, thousands of angry union supporters gathered at the state Capitol on Tuesday to oppose a bill by Gov. Scott Walker that would greatly weaken organized labor in Wisconsin.

More than 12,000 protesters gathered in two separate rallies outside the Capitol, many of them carrying signs and chanting "Recall Walker" or "Kill this bill." Thousands more crowded inside the rotunda and watched TV monitors broadcasting a public hearing on the governor’s proposal.

Capitol Police officers, Department of Natural Resources wardens, UW police and state troopers provided beefed-up security, but the crowd remained peaceful — if loud.

Cheers erupted every time someone in the hearing voiced opposition to the governor’s bill, aimed at erasing a $137 million deficit in the current budget. Unveiled Friday, Walker’s plan would remove collective bargaining rights for most of the 175,000 state and local government employees, allowing most workers to negotiate only over salary.

Continue reading Our Egypt Beginning? 12,000 Workers & Students Hit the Streets in Madison →

Banks, Right Wing

If the Banksters Are Worried About Deficits, Let Them Close up the Gap

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No Mr. Boehner, America is Not ‘Broke’

By Robert Creamer
Progressive America Rising via Huffington Post

Feb 15, 2011 – Once again on the Sunday news shows, Republican Leader John Boehner declared that "America is broke" — his premise for why we "can’t afford" important investments that are critical to America’s future.

In fact, of course, America is far from "broke". It is the largest economy in the world. After collapsing as a result of the recklessness of the big Wall Street banks — and Republican economic policies in late 2008 — the economy has, in fact, grown for six consecutive quarters. The stock market has almost doubled since the crash — regaining most of its value. Corporate profits are soaring. And American corporations are now sitting on close to two trillion dollars in cash.

What’s more, we still have the same highly-skilled, productive labor force and the same stock of plants and equipment that we did before the financial meltdown — the same ability to create the goods and services that are the real measures of economic wealth.

The problem isn’t that America is "broke." The problem is that economic growth is not being shared with most Americans. The problem is that the very rich are wealthier than ever and everyone else is falling behind. Not only does that mean that the massive store of wealth that we create today is not widely shared. It also means that — taken together — we have less wealth as a nation because so many Americans who could be creating goods and services are unemployed, creating nothing.

Continue reading If the Banksters Are Worried About Deficits, Let Them Close up the Gap →

Environment, labor, unemployment, Youth and students

Green Jobs: Frustration with Neoliberals over ‘Industrial Policy’

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‘Good Jobs, Green Jobs’ Conference 2011:

Green Jobs Organizers Collide with

Neoliberalism’s War & Austerity Plans

By Carl Davidson

Beaver County Blue

Nearly 2000 people gathered at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel over three bitterly cold days in Washington, DC Feb 8-10 for the 4th Annual ‘Good Job, Green Jobs’ conference. The attendees were a vibrant mixture of seasoned trade union organizers, representatives of government agencies and young environmental activists waging a variety of battles around climate change and the green economy.

“We want everyone to work at a green job in a green and clean economy,” declared David Foster, executive director of the sponsor, the Blue-Green Alliance, opening the first plenary. “But what stands in our way?” The answer was a new Congress stalemated by neoliberal resurgence centered in a bloc of the GOP and the far right. “It’s not going to be easy. We’re going to have to fight for it the old-fashioned way, from the bottom up, brick by brick, and floor by floor.”

The Blue-Green Alliance today is a coalition of hundreds of environmental groups, trade unions, and green business enterprises. It was founded less than five years ago, largely by the efforts of Carl Pope of the Sierra Club, one of the largest U.S. environmental nonprofits, and Leo Gerard, international president of the United Steel Workers, one of the country’s largest industrial unions.

“We’ve come a long way,” said USW’s Leo Gerard, the next speaker up. “Today we have dozens of affiliated sponsors and members with a combined membership of 14.5 million. Those fighting harder against us are going to meet some serious resistance.” The participants at the conference represented more than 700 organizations and came from 48 of the 50 states.

Continue reading Green Jobs: Frustration with Neoliberals over ‘Industrial Policy’ →

Media, Right Wing

Fox: The Twisted Source of News for Most in Beaver Country Exposed as Dangerous Sham

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FOX NEWS INSIDER: ‘Stuff Is Just Made Up’

By Eric Boehlert
Media Matters

Feb 10, 2011 – Asked what most viewers and observers of Fox News would be surprised to learn about the controversial cable channel, a former insider from the world of Rupert Murdoch was quick with a response: “I don’t think people would believe it’s as concocted as it is; that stuff is just made up.”

Indeed, a former Fox News employee who recently agreed to talk with Media Matters confirmed what critics have been saying for years about Murdoch’s cable channel. Namely, that Fox News is run as a purely partisan operation, virtually every news story is actively spun by the staff, its primary goal is to prop up Republicans and knock down Democrats, and that staffers at Fox News routinely operate without the slightest regard for fairness or fact checking.

“It is their M.O. to undermine the administration and to undermine Democrats,” says the source. “They’re a propaganda outfit but they call themselves news.”

And that’s the word from inside Fox News.

Note the story here isn’t that Fox News leans right. Everyone knows the channel pushes a conservative-friendly version of the news. Everyone who’s been paying attention has known that since the channel’s inception more than a decade ago. The real story, and the real danger posed by the cable outlet, is that over time Fox News stopped simply leaning to the right and instead became an open and active political player, sort of one-part character assassin and one-part propagandist, depending on which party was in power. And that the operation thrives on fabrications and falsehoods.

Continue reading Fox: The Twisted Source of News for Most in Beaver Country Exposed as Dangerous Sham →

elections

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

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

elections

Governor Corbett Where are the Jobs? Please sign petition.

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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

elections

Marcellus Shale Drillers in PA Out of Control

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Guiding principles or guiding platitudes?

Natural gas companies haven’t set real standards for drilling in the Marcellus Shale

Thursday, February 10, 2011
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Mike Benard

The Marcellus Shale Coalition, representing nearly 40 U.S. and foreign gas and oil companies, announced with great fanfare its seven “guiding principles” in October.

To date, neither Kathryn Klaber, president of the coalition, nor former Gov. Tom Ridge, paid adviser and spokesman for the coalition, can explain what specifically the shale gas industry will do to fulfill its guiding principles.

This is significant for the industry coalition, headquartered in Canonsburg, because the drilling technique it advocates — high-volume, slickwater hydraulic fracturing — is highly controversial, and rightly so.

I’ve been met by silence when I have repeatedly posed the question: What will the shale-gas industry do to implement its principles?

In particular, the Marcellus coalition’s second guiding principle states: “We implement state-of-the-art environmental protection across our operations.”

Continue reading Marcellus Shale Drillers in PA Out of Control →

elections

Billionaires Will Reap 7,000% Profit on Marcellus Shale Lands while Republican Legislators Jim Christiani and Jim Marshall Oppose Gas Severance Tax

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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.

Aug. 20 2010 – 1:45 am |

Billionaires To Sell Marcellus Gas Stakes

By CHRISTOPHER HELMAN
The Marcellus is the nation’s biggest gas field. Image via Wikipedia 

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