On Wisconsin! The Faces and spirit of Solidarity!
Solidarity! 80,000 Pour into the Streets of Madison, Standing Up against the Banksters and the Right
On Wisconsin! The Faces and spirit of Solidarity!
Battle Against GOP Union Busters Spreads to Ohio
Ohio: Collective Bargaining Union Protesters Clash at Statehouse with Tea Party Supporter of anti-Union Bill
Vociferous throngs attend hearings on Senate Bill 5
Thursday, February 17, 2011
By Jim Siegel
The Columbus Dispatch
JONATHAN QUILTER | DISPATCH Photos
Supporters of Senate Bill 5 rallied today outside the Statehouse . . .
. . . as the bill’s opponents rallied inside.
Thousands gather for Senate Bill 5 hearing
More than 3,000 enthusiastic supporters and opponents of the Senates proposed collective-bargaining overhaul enveloped the Statehouse this morning with cheers of kill the bill and yes on 5, prior to the latest hearing on Senate Bill 5.
The spacious Statehouse atrium was packed mostly with public union workers outraged at efforts to end collective bargaining for state workers and significantly weaken the ability for local workers to bargain for their pay, benefits and working conditions.
Unions made a strong showing for the bill’s first two hearings, and they were joined today by more than 200 red-shirt clad tea party activists pushing for the bill’s passage. The mix verbally clashed in the Statehouse rotunda, where each side did its best to drown out the other.
Continue reading Battle Against GOP Union Busters Spreads to Ohio
Defend Social Security: Call Senator Casey
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.
Our Egypt Beginning? 12,000 Workers & Students Hit the Streets in Madison
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
If the Banksters Are Worried About Deficits, Let Them Close up the Gap
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
Green Jobs: Frustration with Neoliberals over ‘Industrial Policy’
‘Good Jobs, Green Jobs’ Conference 2011:
Green Jobs Organizers Collide with
Neoliberalism’s War & Austerity Plans
By Carl Davidson
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’
Fox: The Twisted Source of News for Most in Beaver Country Exposed as Dangerous Sham
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.
Team 4 Investigates: What’s Spewing Into The Air We Breathe? – Pittsburgh News Story – WTAE Pittsburgh
Governor Corbett Where are the Jobs? Please sign petition.
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
Marcellus Shale Drillers in PA Out of Control
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
Beaver County Blue: Voice of the 17th CD of Progressive Democrats of America 