Jasiri X's new video: "America's Most Livable City."

Jasiri X's new video: "America's Most Livable City."

"America's Most Livable City" highlights the city of Pittsburgh's recent honor, despite according to the U.S. Census Bureau, having the highest rate of poverty among working age Black people in the United States. This is the Pittsburgh they don't show when you're watching the Steelers, the REAL Pittsburgh.

To see more footage of these poor undeserved communities and the Black Men stepping up to provide solutions go to http://www.youtube.com/1hoodmedia to view our series, "Is Pittsburgh America's Most Livable City?"

Here are the links to Pittsburgh being named "America's Most Livable
City" and having the poorest black community according to the Census

America's Most Livable Cities
http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/29/cities-livable-pittsburgh-lifestyle-real-est...

Regional Insights: High black poverty a shame
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10185/1070089-432.stm#ixzz1FvtAzTLm

LYRICS
Welcome to America's Most Livable City
Please ignore the invisibles with me
See Pittsburgh rebuilt it's economy
But we still lead the Nation in black poverty

Welcome to America's Most Livable City
Just ignore the invisibles with me
And state ya business, cause here the place ya living
depends on ya race and privilege

They call it Clipsburgh Pistolvania
Where block dictators will launch missiles to bang ya
Where hot metal come whistling out the chamber
To maim ya twisting you like wrestlemania
And what's crazier the bishop wont pray for ya
Ya families so poor they can't even afford a crate for ya
And in them skyscrapers Brah they can't wait for us
To move out the hood so they can take it lace it up
Transit cuts a brother can't even take the bus
This is the ugly truth no need to make it up
Then some magazine comes along and places us
As most livable in the USA what?
Say what? Guess they didn't survey us
Cause life is cut shorter than razors where they raise us
Judges are racists and quick to hang us
And police taze us until we never wake up

Welcome to America's Most Livable City
Please ignore the invisibles with me
See Pittsburgh rebuilt it's economy
But we still lead the Nation in black poverty

Welcome to America's Most Livable City
Just ignore the invisibles with me
And state ya business, cause here the place ya living
depends on ya race and privilege

And downtown it's a bunch of new buildings
Glass and steel cathedrals the cost a few million
They make billions to treat a dudes illness
With medicine and pharmaceuticals so who's dealing
But the schools are failing screw children
Just make sure the office has a see through ceiling
Pitt University and CMU killin
classes cost thousands I don't see you fill em
How we gonna get a job in biotechnology
if all we ever learn is survival psychology
and why we so poor if yall revived the economy
but we don't get nothing besides and apology
Tear down the projects and put up a target
then build new homes so they can stimulate the market
But move us out the neighborhood so we can never harvest
the only thing we guaranteed in Pittsburgh is charges


Welcome to America's Most Livable City
Please ignore the invisibles with me
See Pittsburgh rebuilt it's economy
But we still lead the Nation in black poverty

Welcome to America's Most Livable City
Just ignore the invisibles with me
And state ya business, cause here the place ya living
depends on ya race and privilege

Complete, Unedited "Pentagon Papers" Released

(from C-SPAN) Forty years ago on this date, the New York Times published the first installments of the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret assessment of the Viet Nam war authorized by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1967. The 1971 Supreme Court decision in New York Times v. the United States validated the newspaper's decision to publish the papers.

http://www.c-span.org/Events/Complete-Unedited-Pentagon-Papers-Released/10737422187/

Tom Ridge discusses Marcellus Shale on Colbert

The Colbert Report
Tags: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Equality PA challenges Phillies and Pirates to create “It Gets Better” videos

Last week, EQPA challenged the Phillies and the Pirates to create “It Gets Better” videos.

They would be joining the San Francisco Giants, the Chicago Cubs, and the Boston Red Sox who have already stepped up to the plate and agreed to make videos. When you have two such great teams in one state why shouldn’t we make the pitch, and you can help.

Take a minute today to encourage the Boys of Summer to make a video. Tell them this is important and that strong public support like this is crucial to letting LGBT teens know that it gets better.

Since the beginning of this project, tens of thousands of personal videos have been recorded offering hope to vulnerable teens and over 350,000 people have pledged their support to end hate and intolerance. We think it’s time for our baseball heros to join this effort.

Call the Philadelphia Phillies (215-463-6000) and the Pittsburgh Pirates (412-323-5000 – CHOOSE EXT. 8) and ask them to speak up for LGBT teens and make an “It Gets Better” video!

And while you’re at it, write them a message on Facebook or on Twitter, and make a request there too!

www.Facebook.com/Phillies www.Twitter.com/Phillies

www.Facebook.com/Pirates www.Twitter.com/Pirates

Daily News Clips- June 13, 2011

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News Clips from America Votes

Monday, June 13, 2011

COLORADO: Denver Mayor-elect Hancock names co-chairs for transition committee

Anthony Cotton for the Denver Post

Mayor-elect Michael Hancock on Saturday announced the co-chairs for Denver Forward, his transition committee, a team that includes three sets of honorary co-chairs — current Mayor Guillermo "Bill" Vidal and his wife, Gabriela; former Mayor and current Gov. John Hickenlooper and his wife, Helen Thorpe; and former Mayor Wellington Webb and his wife, Wilma.

Ten general co-chairs were also announced, a mix of political, civic and business leaders: Dawn P. Bookhardt, Cole Finegan, Pat Hamill, Anna Jo "Happy" Haynes, Walter Isenberg, Cary Kennedy, Barbara O'Brien, Theresa Peña, Daniel L. Ritchie and Ruben Valdez.

"Michael has stressed community involvement and inclusion as we make recommendations for his administration,"

Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/politics/ci_18256986#ixzz1P9tHDcui

FLORIDA: At Democratic gathering, Rick Scott gets most of the attention

Adam Smith for the St. Petersburg Times

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — Forget Barack Obama. The fellow really firing up Florida Democrats is Rick Scott.

On Saturday, Democratic activists who gathered in Broward County for their annual Jefferson-Jackson fundraising gala invoked the name of Florida's unpopular, hard-right governor at least as often as Obama.

"He's our number one supporter. What would we do without him?'' joked Ron Mills, president of the Dolphin Democrats club of South Florida. "You see the energy here? That's thanks to Rick Scott. We didn't have that in 2010."

Read more: http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/national/at-democratic-gathering-rick-scott-gets-most-of-the-attention/1174878

MICHIGAN: FEC rejects Michigan cases

Marisa Schultz for the Detroit News

Washington— The Federal Election Commission rejected two complaints from Michigan that alleged campaign finance law violations in the 2010 election cycle, according to commission findings made public Friday.

The FEC closed the cases filed last year by the Michigan Democratic Party and by Andrew "Rocky" Raczkowski, who lost his bid for Congress, finding no reason to believe violations occurred.

The Michigan Democratic Party accused the GOP of violating election laws in 2010 by evading contribution limits.

Read more: http://detnews.com/article/20110611/POLITICS03/106110352/FEC-rejects-Michigan-cases#ixzz1P9u4z6td

MINNESOTA: Marriage vote sparring begins

Eric Roper for the Star Tribune

Just off the main drag in Pine City one recent Sunday, the seeds were being sown for what promises to become a grueling, 17-month campaign over Minnesota's gay marriage amendment. Signing up volunteers at one of the country's only rural gay pride festivals, organizer Donald McFarland said he is heeding the advice of predecessors in other states.

"Everyone has said 'start today, start today, start today,'" said McFarland, a veteran Democratic political consultant now running Minnesotans United For All Families, a coalition of groups trying to defeat the amendment that would enshrine only heterosexual marriage in the state constitution.

Amendment supporters haven't moved as quickly or as publicly, but they plan to tap a statewide network that includes 1,600 churches and a mailing list of more than 300,000 social conservatives.

Read more: http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/123694924.html

MINNESOTA: State shutdown would be a leap into unknown

Baird Helgeson for the Start Tribune

Minnesota's state parks: Closed.

The state lottery? Frozen.

Minnesota's most violent prisoners? Held back by a skeleton crew.

Taxes? Not so fast. Minnesotans would still be paying those.

In 19 days, Minnesotans could endure the most wide-reaching government shutdown in state history, with little sense of when it might end.

Across the vast enterprise of state government, agency heads are scrambling to come up with closure plans. State leaders have no real playbook for blinking off such an enormous government machine, so they must wade into an array of wrenching decisions and legal scuffles, knowing they risk turning Minnesota into a national spectacle of partisan gridlock.

Read more: http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/123693874.html

NEVADA: Anger left in wake of film tax bill’s demise

Joe Schoenmann for the Las Vegas Sun

When Bruce Willis and a Hollywood crew shooting “Lay the Favorite,” a movie to be released next year, left Las Vegas a few days ago, it wasn’t because this isn’t a great place to shoot a film.

“They loved the talent we had, loved the people they worked with,” said Tony Gennarelli, business agent for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 720, which boasts 1,600 members. “But Louisiana has the tax incentives; we don’t.”

Louisiana offers a 30 percent tax incentive for movies whose budget includes spending of at least $300,000 in production in the state. Another 5 percent credit applies to the payroll of state residents hired for a production.

Read more: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/jun/11/anger-left-wake-film-tax-bills-demise/

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Unusual agreement gets ball rolling in NH budget negotiations

Kevin Landrigan for the Nashua Telegraph

Score round one in the state budget battle for House Speaker William O’Brien, R-Mont Vernon.

The first meeting of state budget conferees wasn’t confrontational and didn’t amount to a House “gotcha” over state Senate negotiators.

But contrary to tradition, it began with how the state budget compromise is put together, precisely how O’Brien has been saying for months it must be done.

Read more: http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/newsstatenewengland/922529-227/unusual-agreement-gets-ball-rolling-in-nh.html

NEW MEXICO: Learning Curve: Education reform is focus of summit

Robert Nott for the New Mexican

About 150 parents, teachers, students, and civic leaders are expected to attend today's Mobilization for Education Excellence summit in the Jemez Rooms at the Santa Fe Community College on Richards Avenue.

The summit runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and is designed to develop strategies for a community plan for educational reform here. It is co-sponsored by New Mexico First and the United Way of Santa Fe County, which have already joined forces to release a preliminary report for summit participants.

That report, based on about 25 community meetings with some 300 people, did not offer too many surprises: more quality early-education programming will help; reading is the main building block for academic success; parental and teacher involvement are vital to the process, and so on. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out today and how the participants work to address these issues — something summit organizers will do on Tuesday in response to today's event.

Read more: http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Education-reform-focus-of-summit

OHIO: Ohio Senate tucks policy changes into massive state budget

Aaron Marshall for the Plain Dealer

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- State budgets are nothing more than vehicles for spending money. At least that's how they draw it up in government class.

In reality, the proposed spending plan for 2012-13 passed by the Ohio Senate on Wednesday does much more than direct about $112 billion worth of spending over the next two years. Policy changes galore are tucked into every nook and cranny in the sprawling 5,000-or-so-page document.

Anti-abortion activists will be pleased with a pair of provisions designed to help curb public funding of abortions. Union members will cheer another amendment that only slightly raises the prevailing wage project exemption threshold.

Read more: http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2011/06/ohio_senate_tucks_a_variety_of.html

PENNSYLVANIA: Dahlkemper is weighing another run for old seat

Daniel Malloy for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

WASHINGTON -- Erie's Kathy Dahlkemper has been weighing a run for her old seat in Congress and said she will decide by early summer whether she will enter the race.

Washington Democrats have been courting Ms. Dahlkemper, who served one term before losing her seat to Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, last fall, but she said personal and political concerns are keeping her undecided.

Ms. Dahlkemper, 53, said the mammoth time commitment of a Congressional run as well as the hard-to-gauge political climate in fall 2012 are the key considerations in making her decision.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11163/1152915-178.stm#ixzz1P9yDIcBP

WISCONSIN: GOP leaders agree on basics of budget bill

Jason Stein for the Journal Sentinel

Madison - Republicans' plan to balance the state's budget by slicing aid for schools and local governments is largely written and set to come before the Assembly Tuesday, but compelling questions about it remain.

Top GOP lawmakers and Gov. Scott Walker agree on the broad outlines of the bill to close a $3 billion deficit in the state's main account over the next two years by holding the line on spending and cutting some taxes for corporations and investors to spur economic growth.

The wild card remains Walker's legislation to eliminate most collective bargaining for most public employees, which was passed in March but struck down by a Dane County judge. Republicans expect the state Supreme Court to weigh in any day on the judge's decision. But if the high court doesn't restore the law, GOP lawmakers would likely be forced to pass the measure again as part of the budget.

Read More: http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/123726829.html

MONTANA: Tea Party advocate makes run for control of Montana Republican Party

Associated Press

HELENA — A Tea Party advocate is making a run for chairman of the Montana Republican Party as the GOP faithful gather later this week in Butte to pick leadership in advance of the critical 2012 election cycle.

Republicans are gearing up to back undisputed GOP leader U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg in his challenge to U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, and Rehberg's speech on Saturday will highlight the event.

But first Republicans will have to sort out a challenge to the current Montana Republican Party chairman, Will Deschamps. Tea Party advocate Mark French of Paradise says the GOP has not done enough to protect individual liberties.

Read More: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_8eb5cf97-f375-582b-86bc-23e3422519a2.html

IDAHO: Prospects improve for deal for redistricting in Idaho

Staff for the Idaho Statesman

Democrats came to the Capitol last week acting like whistlepigs with hawks in the sky — wary, dodgy and fearing for their lives.

Allen Andersen, the former teachers union leader from Pocatello elected to co-chair the Redistricting Commission, said on the first day he figured the Republican strategy was my way or the highway. “You need to come over to our side, or we’re not going to settle,” was Andersen’s read.

After three days of map training, a compromise on a hearing schedule and some one-on-one chats with GOP Co-Chairman Evan Frasure, Andersen began to relax.

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/06/13/1686718/prospects-improve-for-deal-on.html#ixzz1P9yg16yb

WASHINGTON: Mainstream Republicans embrace McKenna

Staff for the Seattle Post Intelligencer

Mainstream Republicans of Washington have endorsed Attorney General Rob McKenna’s newly minted campaign for governor, in language so effusive you’d think they were adopting him.

“Rob McKenna truly represents the values of Washington State and is one of the most intelligent and genuine leaders I have ever met: We have never made so early an endorsement before but no one has deserved it more,” said former U.S. Rep. Sid Morrison, the group’s chair.

Mainstream Republicans hangs on to the heritage of the party back in days when it elected governors, captured U.S. Senate seats, and had a “bench” of political prospects.

Read More: http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2011/06/10/mainstream-republicans-embrace-mckenna/

MAINE: Gov. LePage to sign bill trimming regulations

Associated Press

AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage will be joined by Maine legislative leaders as he signs into law a bill that gets the distinction of being Legislative Document No. 1.

The governor on Monday will put his signature on a bill to streamline state regulations. The law will establish an environmental self-audit program, strengthen business assistance efforts, streamline permitting and trim the size of the Board of Environmental Protection from 10 to seven, among other things.

Some of the provisions in the legislation were introduced through a series of "red tape" workshops held throughout Maine earlier this year.

Read More: http://www.pressherald.com/news/Gov-LePage-to-sign-bill-trimming-regulations-.html

FLORIDA: Maddow: Allegations against Buchanan ‘a mess’ for him ‘and for the Republican Party’

Cooper Levey-Baker for the Florida Independent

Rachel Maddow devoted some of last night’s program to the Federal Election Commission lawsuit against a former business partner of Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, and a former dealership co-owned by the congressman. As our Virginia Chamleereported last week, a judge fined the dealership $67,900 for what the Election Commission called an “extensive and ongoing scheme” to funnel “secret, illegal contributions” to Buchanan’s 2006 and 2008 campaigns.

Maddow also examined similar accusations against Buchanan and related companies that had surfaced before the Election Commission lawsuit, as well as his role as finance vice chair for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Read More: http://floridaindependent.com/33493/rachel-maddow-vern-buchanan

MICHIGAN: Snyder won’t issue gay pride month proclamation, attend events

Todd Heywood for the Michigan Messenger

Michigan Pride will be hosting its annual pride events Saturday in Lansing, but don’t expect to see Gov. Rick Snyder there, or for him to issue a proclamation about gay pride month.

Geralyn Lasher, communications director for the Republican governor, said that while Snyder was invited to speak at the annual rally on the steps of the Capitol, his schedule prohibits it.

Lasher also said Snyder will not issuing a gay pride proclamation — something Democratic Gov. Jennifer Graholm did every year she was in office.

Read More: http://michiganmessenger.com/49776/snyder-wont-issue-gay-pride-month-proclamation-attend-events

Questions For The GOP Field At Tonight’s Debate

Great questions from our friends at the Progress Report:

Questions For The GOP Field At Tonight’s Debate

Jun 13, 2011 | By Alex Seitz-Wald

Tonight, Republican presidential hopefuls will gather in New Hampshire for the first real debate of the 2012 election. The CNN/WMUR/Union Leader-sponsored event will help introduce the seven candidates to the country and offer the first chance for the field’s top candidates to go head to head, as the front-runners skipped May’s presidential forum in South Carolina. While much remains to be learned about these candidates, here are the questions we’re hoping they each get asked tonight:

FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: You’ve positioned yourself as a leader on job creation, releasing a web video today attacking President Obama on the bleak jobs picture. But while you were governor, Massachusetts was ranked 47th on job creation. While you were at Bain, the company slashed jobs. And in 2009, when hundreds of thousands of jobs were on the line when General Motors and Chrysler were struggling for survival, you penned an op-ed titled “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.” The government’s rescue of these companies helped return them to profitability and save jobs. Given your record, how can Americans trust you on job creation?

FORMER MINNESOTA GOV. TIM PAWLENTY: Last week, you presented an economic plan that would dramatically cut the top individual income tax rate and the corporate tax rate, depriving the government of up to $7.8 trillion in tax revenue. And that’s on top of the $2.5 trillion cost of extending all of the Bush tax cuts. You’ve said you would pay for the cuts with a nearly unprecedented economic growth rate of 5 percent a year for 10 years that even you yourself say is an “aspiration.” But, in case we are unable to achieve that growth rate, how would you balance the budget with these massive new tax cuts, especially since you’ve taken military cuts off the table?

REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R-MN): You voted for the GOP Medicare privatization plan, but later said there is an “asterisk” by your vote because, you said, “I’m concerned about shifting the cost burden to senior citizens.” Indeed, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says seniors would pay thousands of dollars more each year for their health care starting in 2022. By now, nearly all of your potential opponents have come out in support of the plan — do you fully support it? If not, why?

FORMER SEN. RICK SANTORUM (R-PA): Several recent polls show that a majority of Americans are in favor of gay marriage. Republicans here in New Hampshire have veto-proof majorities in both chambers, but chose to not pursue repealing gay marriage to focus on jobs and the economy. Was that the right decision?

FORMER GODFATHER’S PIZZA CEO HERMAN CAIN: In March, you said youwould not appoint Muslims to a Cain administration’s cabinet and then, just this past week on Fox News host Glenn Beck’s show, you called for special loyalty oaths for Muslim political appointees, which you would not give to members of other religions. You’ve also publicly calls on Americans to “re-read” the Constitution, but isn’t your singling out of Muslims unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment?

FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER NEWT GINGRICH: Before later backtracking, you famously said that the GOP Medicare privatization plan was “right-wing social engineering.” You later disavowed those comments and pledged support for the plan. But now, given the fact that numerous polls showing the plan to be unpopular, theblowback Republican lawmakers faced in their home districts over it, and the results of the special election in New York’s 26th Congressional District, were you right the first time?

REP. RON PAUL (R-TX): You have been very outspoken about your interpretation of the Constitution, passionately arguing that most of what the federal government does today — including Social Security and Medicare — is unconstitutional. As president, would you work to completely repeal these social safety net programs? You’ve also suggested the Civil Rights Act was an unconstitutional encroachment on property owners. Would you work to repeal it? What about similar laws like the Voters With Disability Act or the Voting Rights Act?

New video from the Juliettes, "Hooray, You're Gay!"

Just in time for Pride Festivals across PA.

The movie the coal companies don't want us to see

We’re going to see The Last Mountain on opening weekend. Who wants to join us?

The Last Mountain opened on June 3rd and was a big hit. Now we have a chance to see it & help ensure it's seen in theaters nationwide. Coal companies aren’t pleased, because the film exposes Big Coal’s destructive, poisonous “mountaintop removal” in Appalachia. They are watching ticket sales very closely.

In the film industry, box office sales during opening weekends dictate two critical things: 1) whether the film is held over a second week; and 2) whether theaters in other cities show the film. So, our task is simple: let's go see The Last Mountain when it's in Philadelphia June 17-23 at the Ritz at the Bourse.

And, by the way, it’s a great movie! Click here to see the trailer.

The Last Mountain is a Sundance-acclaimed documentary with the potential to change the landscape---or protect it, as it were. The film documents an Appalachian community's fight to stop “mountaintop removal”, wherein mountains are literally blown up, waterways poisoned, and communities destroyed for the sake of King Coal’s profits.

There are usually 4-6 screenings per day, starting on Friday through Sunday. Each screening has approximately 100 seats, so about 1,600 people in each city can determine whether millions of others have the opportunity to see the film. If we all see The Last Mountain and round up a friend or two, we can change the fate of the Appalachian Mountains and help shift our nation’s energy debate. Seriously.

This is an easy way to make a difference. Let’s send a message to the powerful coal companies (and theater owners!).

This is the movie coal companies don’t want us to see. So let’s see it.

Bush tax cuts, wars account for nearly half of public debt by 2019

Ten years ago today, President George W. Bush signed into law an unsustainable package of tax cuts that continue to pile up the national debt. “Simply letting the Bush tax cuts expire on schedule (or paying for any portions that policymakers decide to extend) would stabilize the debt-to-GDP ratio for the next decade,” a new analysis of Congressional Budget Office data reveals. So will Congress act?

• Following the Bush tax cuts, “Overall monthly job growth was the worst of any cycle since at least February 1945, and household income growth was negative for the first cycle since tracking began in 1967.”
• The only people for whom the Bush tax cuts did much good was the wealthy. According to EPI, “the top 1% of earners received 38% of the breaks in the 2001-08 tax changes; 55% of the tax breaks went to the top 10% of earners.”
• “From 2001 through 2010, the cuts added $2.6 trillion to the public debt.”

The Bush Tax Cuts After Ten Years

The Bush Tax Cuts After Ten Years

Impacts on People in Your State
State Fact Sheets and Analyses from Citizens for Tax Justice

Ten years ago, on June 7, 2001, President George W. Bush signed into law the first of several tax cuts that drove the balanced budget he inherited from President Clinton deep into the red. Last year, Congressional supporters of Bush’s policies pushed through an extension of these tax cuts through the end of 2012.

Many lawmakers want to extend the Bush tax cuts again into 2013 and beyond, which would almost double the federal budget deficit.

The Bush Tax Cuts' Impact on U.S. Taxpayers
(figures for all U.S. taxpayers)

Read Our Press Release

You can also click on your state below to see a fact sheet on how the Bush tax cuts would affect people in your state.

http://www.ctj.org/bushtaxcuts10yrs.php

Tell the Presbyterian Church leadership to treat its workers fairly

Tell the Presbyterian Church leadership to treat its workers fairly

Sometimes a small event can have outsize consequences. In the 1950’s, an African-American woman in a small southern city refused to give up her seat to a white person and sparked the Civil Rights Movement. In Tunisia earlier this year, a previously unknown merchant set himself on fire to protest government malfeasance and started a revolution that is still sending shockwaves throughout the Middle East.

I met some workers today who may not have the same international impact as the examples I cited above, but they certainly have their courage.

Last year, healthcare workers at Broomall Presbyterian Village voted to form a union at their nursing home. But in that year, their church-related employer has done everything they can do to bust their union, using tactics one would expect from notoriously anti-worker corporations like Wal-Mart. The workers, represented by Service Employees International Union Healthcare PA, have worked for this period without a contract.

The Presbyterians have not negotiated in good faith, offering the newly unionized workers a contract which gives them even less money than their not-yet-union co-workers. The Presbyterians have also proposed cutting the union employees retirement plan below what is being offered to other, not-yet-union employees. In the meantime, these low-wage workers have not had a raise in over two years. The

Presbyterians have even hired a union-busting law firm to manage their campaign against the low wage workers.

Things have gotten so bad that charges were filed against the employer with the National Labor Relations Board alleging that the Presbyterians are retaliating against workers for forming a union.

Today, the workers took the very tough step of going out on strike. Striking is always a difficult decision, but it is even harder when the workers are barely eking out a living. When low wage workers go out on strike, the situation has to be extremely dire because they have no safety net. Missing even one day's pay can mean a family could lose their home.

“We didn’t want to go on strike, but we need to stand up for ourselves and our residents,” said Sandra Hutson, a certified nursing aide (CNA) who has worked at Broomall Presbyterian for six years. “Management is trying to punish us for forming a union, when all we want is to be able to support our families and improve the quality of care we provide our residents.”

This anti-union campaign is being led by Judee Bavaria, the CEO of the Presby’s Inspired Life. Broomall Presbyterian is owned by Presby’s Inspired Life, a nonprofit which describes itself as “a regional leader in senior living, providing continuing care and affordable housing to more than 2,600 residents in 25 communities through the dedicated, compassionate work of nearly 1,100 employees.”

Why is Bavaria attacking low wage workers? It doesn’t make sense, especially when her church has a reputation for standing up for workers.

Is it a case of standing up for middle class workers (like the state employees in Wisconsin), but ignoring the concerns of the working poor? The workers at Broomall Presbyterian are mostly people of color, largely immigrant and almost all are women. And, as you might expect, they are the lowest paid workers at the nursing home.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly has a Statement on Labor Relations that strongly affirms the right of workers to organize. It states, in part, "Justice

demands that social institutions guarantee all persons the opportunity to participate actively in economic decision making that affects them. All workers ... have the right to choose to organize for the purposes of collective bargaining."¹

The PCUSA reaffirmed that stance in March, 2011 in reaction to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s attack on workers, saying “As Presbyterians we base the rights of all workers, corporations and governments in a doctrine of covenant or mutual accountability that undergirds all contracts and includes our social contract in the United States. We share with many people of faith the conviction that collective bargaining is a concrete measure by which burdens and benefits are shared in a manner deeply consistent with both our faith and our democratic values.”²

The Presbyterians talk a good game, but their actions at Broomall Presbyterian do not match their words.

The workers at Broomall Presbyterian have made a courageous choice to stand up and stand together for justice. Now the Presbyterians have a clear choice to make. Will they be on the side of justice so eloquently proclaimed in their statements? Or will they join the ranks of Scott Walker, Tom Corbett and Glenn Beck in vilifying workers and exploiting low-income workers?

History, and higher authorities, will be their judge.

Michael Morrill

(You can write to Judee Bavaria, CEO of Presby’s Inspired Life by clicking here. Tell her to treat the Broomal Presbytarian workers with the justice and fairness they deserve.)

¹ Presbyterian Church (USA) Selected Social Witness Policies on Work as Vocation, Unions and Collective Bargaining

http://www.pcusa.org/resource/selected-social-witness-policies-work-vocation-uni/
²PCUSA Stated clerk backs public employees’ collective bargaining rights http://www.pcusa.org/news/2011/3/3/stated-clerk-backs-public-employees-collective-bar/

School Voucher and Tax Credit Dollars Used to Teach Creationism and Disrespect for Other Religions and Cultures

This intolerance and intentionally taught ignorance is what Tm Corbett has in mind for PA's schhols.

See article on AlterNet here.

Hypocrisy Watch

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Corbett to Speak at Right wing Group Dedicated to Destroying Public Education

Pennsylvania’s public schools are under attack by a group of multi-millionaires. Their plan? Privatize education, so that every family has to send their child to private schools.¹

This radical movement believes the first step toward their goal is a scheme called “School Vouchers.” Gov. Tom Corbett is one of the backers of this program. In fact he believes in it so strongly that one of the most radical groups supporting privatizing education is having Corbett as their keynote speaker on Monday.² He’s being joined at the event by Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, he of the effort to destroy collective bargaining rights.

Tom Corbett is betraying the public interest by joining in this effort to destroy public schools.

That’s why Keystone Progress and PennAction are going to Washington on Monday to tell him that he needs to stay in Pennsylvania to protect public education instead of allying himself with people who have vowed to destroy our schools.

Please join us in Washington on Monday. We’re holding a rally outside the Washington Marriott from 11:30 AM until 1:00 PM. We have free transportation leaving this Monday, May 9 at 8:00 AM from Harrisburg, 7:00 AM from Bucks County and 8:00 from Philadelphia. We’ll be home by 5 or 6 that evening. Send us an email at info@keystoneprogress.org to reserve your spot.

Don’t need a ride to DC? Let us know you’re coming by registering on Facebook here.

Can’t make it to Washington? You can stop the plan to privatize public schools by sending emails to the key State Senators.

AND…

Making a contribution to Keystone Progress to help us continue the fight to protect public education and to work for working family values.

Thank you for your support.

Together we will win,

Michael Morrill
Keystone Progress

¹Rachel Tabachnick, Talk to Action, http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/4/20/232844/831/
²American Federation for Children, http://www.federationforchildren.org/articles/296

Tonight’s GOP Pre-Debate Sponsored By Extremists: John Birch Society And The Oath Keepers

Tonight’s GOP Pre-Debate Sponsored By Extremists: John Birch Society And The Oath Keepers

In Greenville, South Carolina tonight, five presidential contenders will meet for the first GOP presidential primary debate. According to the pre-debate event’s official program, it is sponsored by several extremist groups, including the Oath Keepers militia group and the radical anti-communist John Birch Society. You can see a picture of the program here. Here’s the John Birch Society’s booth at the site of the debate:

See whole article at Think Progress here.

New AFSCME Report on Private Prisons: “Making A Killing”

A new report exposes how the private prison industry thrives in a pay-to-play culture; making our communities less safe and more prone to violent crime

WASHINGTON — This Wednesday, May 4, 2011, as correctional officers from around the country arrive in Washington for National Correctional Officers week, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) released a new report entitled, “Making A Killing: How Prison Corporations Are Profiting From Campaign Contributions and Putting Taxpayers at Risk.”

Each election cycle, America’s largest private prison companies pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into the campaigns of governors, state legislators, and judges, in the hopes of advancing their political agenda—establishing more private prisons and reducing the number of public ones. The report tracks the flow of money from the companies to the people in power, and details some of the worst cases of violence and death in the nation’s least safe facilities.

“Private prison companies have one goal, and that’s to maximize profits,” said Ken Kopczynski, Executive Director of the Private Corrections Working Group. “States considering privatization should be clear about the problems associated with these corporate facilities—high rates of violence, high staff turnover, lax security, and routine mismanagement. We should be securing our prisons, not selling them off to the highest bidder.”

“Making A Killing” was released on a press conference call today by Ken Kopczynski, Executive Director of Private Corrections Working Group, Glen Middleton, Chair of AFSCME Corrections United, Tom Jones, former Senior Manager of Quality Assurance at Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), and Marty Hathaway, Correctional Officer at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville.

The report is now available at the following url: http://www.afscme.org/prisonreport

VIDEO: Cheyney U. Students walk out to say "WTF!" (Where's the Funding)

Stop the cuts. Take action here.

DeVos talks about stealth school voucher strategy

School Voucher leader talks about their stealth strategy back in 2002 before the Heritage Foundation. The Devos family is part of the cabal that funds the astro-turf group Students first and others. Text of excerpt, and link to full speech, follow below. H/T to Bruce Wilson.

“Where’s the battle going to be fought, for the future? In my view it will be, and at this point it needs to be, fought at the state level--utilizing vehicles such as GLEP and others nationally but ideally these organizations must be constructed locally. They need to be constructed with individuals such as the staff we had in Michigan, who were intelligent and connected with the local grassroots politics of what was going on, that had the relationships, the insights, and the political sensitivity to know what was happening.

And so while those of us on the national level can give support, we need to encourage the development of these organizations on a state-by-state basis, in order to be able to offer a political consequence, for opposition, and political reward, for support of, education reform issues.

That has got to be the battle. It will not be as visible. And, in fact, to the extent that we on the right, those of us on the conservative side of the aisle, appropriate education choice as our idea, we need to be a little bit cautious about doing that, because we have here an issue that cuts in a very interesting way across our community and can cut, properly communicated, properly constructed, can cut across a lot of historic boundaries, be they partisan, ethnic, or otherwise.

And so we’ve got a wonderful issue that can work for Americans. But to the extent that it is appropriated or viewed as only a conservative idea it will risk not getting a clear and a fair hearing in the court of public opinion. So we do need to be cautious about that.

We need to be cautious about talking too much about these activities. Many of the activities and the political work that needs to go on will go on at the grass roots. It will go on quietly and it will go on in the form that often politics is done - one person at a time, speaking to another person in privacy. And so these issues will not be, maybe, as visible or as noteworthy but they will set a framework, within states, for the possibility of action on education reform issues. “

--Richard DeVos, speech at the Heritage Foundation, December 3, 2002

Link to full speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt9FmMrvJ3A

Our Responsibility to Struggle With Determination, In the Company of Others Without Timidity

Brothers and sisters, companeros, working people of the world. Thank you for this opportunity to celebrate together one of humankind’s greatest social achievements: the fight and victory for the eight hour working day waged by our predecessors in the streets of Chicago in 1886.

Much has changed since then. American workers, and workers across the globe – won the right to organize, to have dignity in the workplace. Women won rights. Children were not longer forced to work. Working conditions improved and so did society. As species on this planet, we moved forward. We adopted new norms of behavior with one another. We gained leisure time to pursue other human interests, to reconnect with the nature and the world outside of us. We strived, slowly at times, to be true to our spirit.

In these United States, the organizations of working people –those at the workplace and in the communities – were beacons of hope, symbols both of progress and security. And for many years, we believed that those hard-won gains, those solidified essential rights were built into the foundation of what America is, the very essence of its being, the organic components of its existence.

And for many decades, many in the organized labor movement of these United States, perhaps by design or happenstance, became both complicit and complacent with the economic system that at one time considered them to be nothing more than articles for the production of wealth for the few.

I believe you can trace this back to the cold war era, when the leadership of the American labor movement bought into and promoted a class collaboration policy abroad, to deny solidarity to workers in other lands who were still drawing inspiration from the struggle at Chicago’s Haymarket Square. May Day was then, and is still today, a national holiday in every country around the world, except here in the place of its birth: the United States. Those calamitous policies that harmed workers in other lands laid the foundations for the decline and rising ineffectiveness of the labor movement at home. It could not struggle against racism at home while collaborating with racist policies abroad; it could not defend against attacks by the bosses here while it cooperated with the bosses of other countries and US multinational corporations against the struggles for representation by workers in the developing countries; it could not advance in strength and numbers while it applauded the crushing of the national liberation movement in former colonies and neocolonialism in newly independent states.

That is history.

We have learned. A new generation of labor leaders and activists understands this inglorious past.

The world has changed. And so have we.

Today we fight against the most widespread, the strongest and most dangerous assault on working people in modern times. Our parents and grandparents cannot recall a greater threat.

Our very survival, as a class with the ability to defend ourselves and our children and communities, is at stake.

We have two choices. We can accept and oblige. We can behave, as we have learned to do over the last three decades, to be timid, to go at it alone, to demand less, to diminish hopes and aspirations. We could, today, as we have done in the past, use the language of our oppressors and say, for example, we cannot demand a single payer healthcare system in these United States because it is not the time for that. It is what we want, what the country needs, but it is not the right time. We could today – when immigrant families are torn apart, the rights of immigrant workers trampled, when people who speak with an accent and have tint on their skins are humiliated, beaten, shot and killed – today we could say, it is not the time for a comprehensive immigration reform change. Instead, we let racist Arizona-style laws proliferate and spread like cancerous cells throughout every institution in our society

We could be passive, accepting, and unimaginative and allow the education of our children to be offered up to the highest for-profit bidder while the courageous men and women who educate our children are considered criminals and treated like pawns. We could allow the new Roy Innises or Jonas Savimbis of Philadelphia to go to the side of vouchers to destroy public education, and treat those men and women as if they were still on our side just because once many years ago they voted with us for some piece of legislation. You know in the 70s and 80s they de-industrialized America. In this decade, they want to de-brain America.

We could be docile, individualistic, self centered, egotistical and go drink on our sorrows. But that is not who we are as a people. It is not reflective of the community we live in. It is not part of the dreams we still have and share.

It is not, and will never be us. We are like the people of Wisconsin who have risen up to inspire the nation and the world. We are like the people of Egypt, who despite being told “it is not the time”, have responded with a resoluteness bordering in the obtuse that “we are making our time”. We are like the indigenous people of Bolivia and Peru who for the first time in their modern history are taking matters into their own hands.

I am profoundly inspired by the actions of the young people of Tucson, Arizona, who this week chained themselves to the seats of the school board to protest the decimation of their right to be instructed about their cultural heritage. That is action, bold, determined, collective, untimid and effective. A lesson to us all as we move here in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania to regain our status as men and women with dignity and purpose.

I am reminded of the words of the great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda speaking of the duty of a writer, an artist, an observer of human activity. He wrote “I determined that my posture within the community and before life should be that of in a humble way taking sides. I decided this when I saw so many honorable misfortunes, lone victories, splendid defeats. In the midst of the arena of America’s struggles I saw that my human task was none other than to join the extensive forces of the organized masses of the people, to join with life and soul with suffering and hope, because it is only from this great popular stream that the necessary changes can arise for the authors and for the nations. And even if my attitude gave and still gives rise to bitter or friendly objections, the truth is that I can find no other way for an author in our far-flung and cruel countries, if we want the darkness to blossom, if we are concerned that the millions of people who have learnt neither to read us nor to read at all, who still cannot write or write to us, are to feel at home in the area of dignity without which it is impossible for them to be complete human beings.

This friends, is our challenge today.

Thank you.

Pedro Rodriguez is a Keystone Progress Board Member.