People Before Profit blog

Romney repeats Republican lies

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 16:35:00 +0000

TAMPA, Fla. - Mitt Romney's acceptance speech at the GOP convention here Aug. 30 confirmed once again his apparent decision to lie his way into the presidency of the United States.

"They've spent an entire week not talking about their ideas," said Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod after the Romney speech, "because they know their ideas are unpopular.

"But worse than what Republicans have not said," Axelrod added, "is what Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan have said: a compendium of demonstrable lies. It's lying as a campaign strategy. The number of falsehoods and misleading statements from the Romney campaign coming in for independent criticism has reached a level not typically seen."

Romney, hoping voters will forget his plan to voucherize Medicare, repeated the lie that President Obama has taken $700 million from seniors to fund the Affordable Health Care Act.

It is the Republicans who will kill Medicare, said Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman after the Romney speech. "The question now is whether voters will understand what's really going on. Mr. Ryan and his party are betting that they can bluster their way through this, pretending that they are the real defenders of Medicare even as they work to kill it. Will they get away with it?"

"Romney said next to nothing about what he would actually do," wrote the Daily Beast's Peter Beinart after the speech.

The GOP nominee described in his speech how his father had placed a rose in his mother's bedroom every morning and how, on the day that she saw no rose she realized her husband was dead.

"Personal details were not the answer," wrote TBR's Noam Scheiber. "I don't think I've seen a better Romney delivery this campaign. But they all suffered from the same basic flaw: Though they succeeded in showing a bit of humanity, they never connected that humanity to what he might do as president."

The Romney lies last night came in a variety of ways.

He again vowed, for example, to create 12 million jobs in the next four years without, of course, explaining how. Most economists agree, however, that 12 million jobs are what the economy will produce over the next four years even if nothing is done to stimulate the economy.

Jackie Tortora, a spokesperson for the AFL-CIO's political action department, noted contradictions in Romney's speech: "He touted his business experience, despite his business record as an outsourcer. He called out divisiveness, despite proposals that would provide bigger income disparities and he ignored Republican obstructionism for the past two years.

"Although Romney claims he would reduce the deficit and balance the budget he has no plans to end the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, which is the major contributor to the deficit, and tax analysts say his plan to overhaul the tax code doesn't add up.

"We need solutions that strengthen the economy, health care and education for working families," said Tortora, "not a Romney-Ryan plan that betters the 1 percent at the expense of everyone else."

Pro-labor analysts say the Romney-Ryan vision is one of tax breaks for the rich and corporations paid for by cuts in Social Security, Medicare and other programs for seniors, the poor and working-class families. It is paid for, they note, with cuts to meaningful investments in the future.

Romney spoke movingly last night of how Neil Armstrong, "a real American," was first on the moon and how the American flag he planted there was still standing. He failed to mention NASA, the massive government program that got astronauts to the moon, however, and he failed to mention how the economy, including private business, continues to benefit today from the job creation and the technology that came out of the space program.

Photo: Protesters marching in a parade during the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., August 29. Alex Menendez/AP

Vote in solidarity with Congress Hotel strikers

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 13:59:00 +0000

Listening to candidates Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan is hard to take when you think of what their agenda means for real working people. They are truly the voice of big capital. While they claim the opposite, every plank of their program is harmful to the working families who keep our country going.

While watching Romney's speech at the Republican National Convention, I couldn't help but think of the courageous members of UNITE HERE Local 1. For nine years these hotel workers have maintained their strike at the Congress Hotel on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. It is the longest hotel strike in our country 's history.

Romney bragged about founding Bain Capital as a young man, which he said has done so much for the economy. It turns out that the family that owns the Congress Hotel also controls Gelmart Industries, a textile producer for Kmart, one of the companies connected to Bain Capital.

The owners' other investments have allowed them to subsidize the Congress Hotel during the strike in hopes of breaking the union.

But the housekeepers and other staff will not be broken.

They continue to stand firm in order to uphold the wages and benefits of all hotel workers. They continue to strike even while holding other jobs so that every hotel owner will know that if they refuse to bargain in good faith they, too, could face a strike.

The common values of America are not, as Romney says, tied up with big business. It is the strikers at the Congress Hotel who are upholding the common values of equality and fairness upon which our nation was founded.

What a contrast with Barack Obama who walked the picket line with the Congress Hotel workers when he was a U.S. senator.

I had the honor of walking on that picket line one evening a few weeks ago while attending a conference in Chicago.

Each worker told a story. One woman who had worked as a housekeeper remembered how her son was a small boy when the strike began, and now "he is all grown up."

We chanted, "Don 't check in - check out !" In an effort to alert travelers around the country to boycott the hotel while a strike is under way, supporters are asked to circulate the website hotelworkersrising .org and spread the word about how the workers went out on strike on June 15, 2003, because the owners decided to freeze wages and slash benefits.

The best way to honor America's ideals, as Romney claims he would do, is to insure that workers have a voice on the job with decent wages, benefits, dignity and respect. Somehow that didn't make it into the Romney-Ryan five-point plan.

"The sacrifice the strikers have made to go out on the line daily speaks to not only their dedication, but to the intense belief these individuals have for what they're doing," said Henry Tamarin, UNITE HERE Local 1 president, on the nine -year anniversary. "The strikers know their dedication to the boycott will help working families now and in the future."

One more reason to make sure and vote this year, and get family, friends, co-workers and neighbors to make it a record-breaking turnout, is to show solidarity with the Congress Hotel strikers and working people who are standing up for what truly makes our nation great.

Photo: Supporters join Congress Hotel picket line, Aug. 17 in Chicago. James Raines/PW

Democratic Party platform backs workers' rights

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 13:59:00 +0000

CHARLOTTE, N.C. --The Democratic Party platform, up for adoption at the party's convention just after Labor Day in Charlotte, N.C., strongly backs workers' rights - so strongly that it virtually endorses the Employee Free Choice Act, even if it doesn't actually utter those words.

In an interview with Press Associates Union News Service, Barbara Easterling, the longtime Communications Workers Secretary-Treasurer who is a top union rep on the party's platform committee, read the stout pro-worker words of the Democrats' document.

"The American middle class is under assault," the platform declares. After a prior GOP "administration that was bent on destroying unions, the president and the Democratic Party believe in the right to organize" and in "supporting American workers with strong labor laws."

While platforms are usually filed and forgotten, they are indexes of party principles at that point in time. And a recent academic study showed, surprisingly, that platform promises were later written into law more often than expected.

That makes the Democrats' strong endorsement of worker rights, while not unexpected, welcome. The Employee Free Choice Act, with the provisions the platform backs, would have helped level the playing field between workers and bosses in organizing drives and in bargaining first contracts. A planned GOP Senate filibuster killed it.

"Democrats believe the right to organize and collective bargaining is a fundamental American value," the platform says. It pledged the party to fight for "laws that provide a fair process to choose union representation and for increased penalties" for labor law-breakers. Both concepts were key sections of the EFCA.

And the platform declares the party's opposition to "attacks on collective bargaining that governors and states are undertaking" - a thinly veiled reference to GOP-run state governments that killed collective bargaining rights for public workers (Wisconsin) and tried to do so (Ohio).

The labor provisions went through without objection, Easterling added.

The platform committee's final session, in Detroit last month, saw approximately 100 amendments initially offered, but most were withdrawn. None dealt with labor issues. A few on issues such as reproductive rights - where abortion opponents objected to the party's language - were debated openly and courteously, she said.

"The platform meeting really went well and they listened to anyone who had something to say on an issue that wasn't going to go through," Easterling added.

Besides the strong endorsement of workers rights, the platform also:

Says workers have "a right to fair wages for a fair day's work."

Says if Democratic President Barack Obama is re-elected, his administration will expand and intensify its current drive against employer misclassification of workers as "independent contractors." Misclassified workers, in construction, trucking and elsewhere, lack labor law, minimum wage/ overtime law and workers' comp protections. They also pay the employer and worker shares of Social Security and Medicare taxes.

Pledges to fight to extend collective bargaining rights for public workers - praising teachers, Fire Fighters and police specifically - in states that now ban such bargaining. North Carolina, the convention's state, has the most comprehensive ban.

Says the party will propose raising the minimum wage and then indexing it to inflation. Labor strongly backs Democratic-sponsored legislation to raise the wage in three 85-cent jumps from its present $7.25 per hour to $9.80 hourly, over two years.

Unions, led by SEIU, campaigned for the hike and indexing, starting in August.

Opposes schemes to ban workers from political participation through the workers' own voluntary contributions. GOP-run states have pushed such bans. GOP operatives put one such ban, with an innocuous name (they dare to call it "paycheck fairness"!), on this fall's California ballot as an initiative.

Hundreds of unionists are delegates to the Democratic convention, September 4-6, unlike at the GOP convention the week before. But labor will have a lower profile in Charlotte than at previous Democratic conclaves.

That's because the AFL-CIO decided not to invest money in such things as buying skyboxes or hosting events and most other unions followed suit. Instead, it's plowing the funds into its own political program.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will chair a labor delegate caucus meeting on Sept. 4.

Photo of the convention website.

Immigrants, lawmakers seek probe of Border Patrol

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:36:00 +0000

DETROIT - Alarmed by reports of profiling at the hands of U.S. Border Patrol agents, immigrant advocate groups and 11 members of Congress have asked the Government Accounting Organization (GAO), the governmental independent watchdog, to audit Border Patrol practices.

Their letter, announced at a Tuesday telephone press conference, asks the GAO to investigate Border Patrol activities that "undermine immigrant communities' trust in law enforcement, violate people's civil rights and adversely impact public safety."

Jacki Esposito, advocacy director of the New York Immigration Coalition, criticized one common practice undermining that trust: using Border Patrol agents both on 911 calls and as interpreters. This creates a chilling environment in immigrant communities, she said.

It can also lead to horrible tragedies and crimes. Jesus Martinez painfully recalled how his son, Alex Martinez, a U.S. citizen, was shot dead by Border Patrol agents in front of him and another son on the front steps of their home in the state of Washington.

Jesus Martinez said Alex had mental problems, and he called 911 requesting that his son be taken to a hospital. Border Patrol agents responded to the call, and when his son came out of the house carrying a flashlight, he tripped, fell on an agent and was shot dead.

"They said he had a hammer. They were lying. It was a flashlight," said the father.

"It's evident there is a systemic issue regarding racial profiling not only at the southern but also the northern border as well," said Dawud Walid, the Michigan executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Walid said American Muslims, legal residents and citizens, without evidence of any wrongdoing, have been subjected to hours of detainment re-entering the U.S., including being separated from their children, handcuffed, and having guns brandished at them.

Walid said some have been asked invasive religious questions such as, "Do you pray? How many times a day do you pray? Which mosque? Who is the imam of your mosque?" Freedom of religion and freedom of association, our "most precious of rights," are compromised for all when such abuses occur, he said.

Although complaints have been filed with the Department of Homeland Security, they were told nothing could be done, Walid said.

Detroit, a border city with Windsor, Canada, just across the Detroit River, is one of the hotspots. Congress members signing the letter included Detroit-area Democrats Hansen Clark, John Conyers and Gary Peters.

Ryan Bates, director of the Michigan Alliance for Immigrants Rights, said that after years of internal investigations, "it's become clear that Border Patrol can't police itself."

He said even former agents have documented abuse. Most notable was the testimony of a former agent and whistle-blower presented in a two-part PBS "Need to Know" documentary.

"It's time for an independent watchdog to help get Border Patrol under control," said Bates.

Photo: Rep. John Conyers, D - Mich., and Dawud Walid speak at Detroit rally against profiling. John Rummel/PW

"Won't Back Down" draws controversy

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 16:44:00 +0000

The soon-to-be-released film "Won't Back Down" is already drawing criticism from teacher and public school advocates.

"Won't Back Down," starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis, seems to be following in the footsteps of "Waiting for Superman," a 2010 documentary which was strongly criticized as blaming teachers for students' and schools' problems. It sparked a critical website, Not Waiting for Superman,

"Won't Back Down" is fiction, but, its producers say, is based on real-life situations.

David Weil, CEO of the Anschutz Film Group whose Walden Media subsidiary produced the movie, told Education Week that the story is "'not tied to 'any one law or event,' and that the film depicts a number of parents and teachers collaborating in making changes to a school, not doing battle. Several key characters, he said, 'are teachers and are central heroes to the story.'

"'We believe that teachers are the unsung heroes of our society and they represent our hope for the future as a nation,' Weil said."

However American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten called the movie "divisive," saying it "uses blatant stereotypes and caricatures to blame teachers and their unions for all of the problems facing our schools. These stereotypes and caricatures are even worse than those in 'Waiting for 'Superman.'"

"One can't help but be moved by the characters and story portrayed," she said in a detailed Washington Post commentary, but "I don't recognize the teachers portrayed in this movie, and I don't recognize that union."

The film "could have been a great opportunity to bring parents and teachers together to launch a national movement focused on real teacher and parent collaboration to help all children," Weingarten said. "Instead, this fictional portrayal ... is divisive and demoralizes millions of great teachers."

"Won't Back Down" is a story of parents and teachers using a "parent empowerment" law, better known as "parent trigger" legislation, to take over a bad school. But Leonie Haimson, a longtime public school parent activist in New York, says actual efforts to use parent trigger laws "have been driven by billionaire-funded supporters of privatization, and have sparked acrimony and division. None of these efforts has actually improved a school." Haimson is a leader of Parents Across America, along with other public school activists.

Parent trigger laws have been promoted by the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), she notes.

"Won't Back Down" is reportedly being screened this week at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, and at next week's Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.

Michelle Rhee's anti-teacher-union "StudentsFirst" group, which cloaks its agenda in pro-student language, is promoting the film.

The Anschutz Film Group and Walden Media are subsidiaries of the Anschutz Company, whose chair and CEO is billionaire Philip Anschutz. Anschutz funds right-wing groups and ballot initiatives. According to a New Yorker profile, he is a frequent contributor to the anti-union National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, and is close to the far-right Koch brothers. He is tied in with Big Oil, having served on the boards of the American Petroleum Institute and the National Petroleum Council.

An Aug. 14 "Teachers Rock" celebrity concert in Los Angeles, presented as simply a tribute to teachers, was part of the film 's publicity campaign leading up to its Sept. 28 opening. The concert was sponsored by "Won't Back Down" and Walmart. Walmart's Walton family owners, through the Walton Family Foundation, handed out $159 million last year for charter schools and vouchers. The concert was headlined by Garth Brooks, Carrie Underwood, Morgan Freeman and Josh Groban among others. A CBS broadcast of the event also featured Meryl Streep.

Education advocate Diane Ravitch has called the film a "sneaky push for privatization" and said, "It's sad to see Viola Davis involved ... I remember when she won the Academy Award in 2010 and announced that she was proud to be a graduate of Central Falls High School, right at the time that all the corporate reformers were gloating about the threat to shut it down."

Photo: People's World

Ryan perfects the Big Lie

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 15:35:00 +0000

TAMPA, Fl - At his party's convention here last night GOP Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan rolled out, Orwellian-style, what just might be the biggest lie yet in the 2012 election campaign.

He labeled President Obama's cutting of waste from Medicare as a takeaway of $700 million from seniors. What really happened, of course, is that the Affordable Care Act cut overpayments to private insurers and hospitals that were making billions in profits and reinvested the money in traditional Medicare. Seniors have seen major improvements in Medicare services as a result.

Ryan labeled his and Romney's plan to end Medicare as we know it by turning it into a voucher program as a plan to "save Medicare for our seniors and for future generations."

Not content with just trying to float a few lies about Medicare, Ryan blamed Obama for the closing of the GM plant in Janesville, Wisconsin, Ryan's hometown. The fact that the plant closed in 2008, before Obama even took office, apparently made no difference to Ryan or to the delegates who cheered when he made the claim.

Ryan said Obama "began with the country having a Triple A credit rating and is ending his term with a downgraded America."

Standard and Poors actually lowered the credit rating because Republicans in Congress, led by Ryan himself, were threatening to shut down the government in a budget fight.

The program that Ryan laid out last night is being widely described as a nightmare for American workers.

The Romney-Ryan budget blueprint dumps huge responsibility on the states and repeals the Affordable Health Care Act.

The Congressional Budget Office says that, if adopted, the proposed budget would shut down all government functions except defense, Social Security and Health Care.

That includes, says the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, education, medical and scientific research, highways, Medicaid, national parks, border patrols, police and fire protection, food safety and many other programs.

The vision Ryan spoke of last night endorses more tax breaks for the wealthy and for corporations, all paid for by cuts in Social Security, Medicare and other programs that working people depend upon.

Photo: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney checks to determine whether Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan' pants are on fire during a campaign speaking event. Mary Altaffer)/AP

Hurricane Isaac stalls over Big Easy

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 16:38:00 +0000

NEW ORLEANS - Hurricane Isaac crawled slowly inland from the Gulf of Mexico with floodwaters spilling over a Plaquemines Parish levee, leaving people stranded in cars and in homes under more than 12 feet of water.

The storm blew ashore exactly seven years after Katrina.

People here are not taking too much comfort in the fact that the storm is far weaker than Katrina, which crippled the city. Although this is a Category One rather than a Category Three hurricane, the city is still dealing with dangerous storm surges and with what could end up being more rain than was dumped by Katrina. Rain was expected to last for up to 24 hours or more and accumulate to as much as 20 inches in places.

As of mid-day Aug. 29 Army Corps spokeswoman Rachel Rodi said the city's revamped levees are withstanding the attack from Isaac.

"The system is performing as intended as we expected," she said. "We don't see any issues with the hurricane system at this point."

There had been problems earlier in the day with pumps not operating at the 17^th St. Canal, the same spot where the levee was breached by Katrina, but the pumps have been repaired, according to Rodi.

Reminiscent of the days after Katrina, rescuers in boats are patrolling the southeast part of the state and actually rescuing people already stranded by floodwater.

Power is out for at least 500,000 people and authorities are fearful that there may already be many people who need rescue and whose predicament is yet unknown.

In Plaquemines parish the storm waters flooded over one of the reconstructed levees. People who did not evacuate are being rescued, according to reports. Officials say the reason they cannot give totals about the number in need of rescue is that it is too dangerous to send crews in to check on people.

"A lot of people are being caught with their pants down," said Jerry Lapenter, sheriff in Terrebonne Parish, which is near Plaqueminnes. "This storm was never predicted right since it entered the Gulf," he said. "We hope it loses its punch once it comes in all the way."

The storm made landfall 90 miles south of New Orleans last night but then looped back out to sea and back in again, maintaining its strength by taking in more moist air over the sea. Even the "landfall" term is not entirely accurate because the "land" in that part of the state is very moist wetlands which allow storms to maintain their strength longer than if they had crossed onto dry land.

Lapenter said that in his parish armored vehicles had to be used to save a family whose roof was ripped off their house.

Sheets of wind and rain whipped New Orleans all day with forecasters saying that skyscrapers downtown will be subject to gusts up to 100 mph.

In Mississippi, the main highway that runs along the Gulf, U.S. 90, was closed by storm surge flooding.

Photo: People play in the storm surge from Hurricane Isaac, on Lakeshore Drive along Lake Pontchartrain, as the storm nears land, in New Orleans, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

New Jersey Governor targets workers and unions in RNC talk

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 14:29:00 +0000

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, in his keynote address at the Republican National Convention Aug. 28, offered no solutions to the economic crisis and instead bashed both workers and their unions.

Teachers and public sector workers were singled out for special attacks.

Speaking of the Democrats, Christie said: "They believe in pitting unions against teachers, educators against parents, and lobbyists against children. They believe in teachers' unions. We believe in teachers."

"Christie evidently believes teachers should be seen and not heard - they may be important, but not their views on what they need to help kids," said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, after the speech.

"Anti-union statements like Christie's will only work to energize working families and union members to get out and vote this November for candidates who support improving the economy for all, not just the 1 percent." Said Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO.

After the Christie speech Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts, defended the role of unions in the country.

Noting that Christie had spoken extensively about the Greatest Generation, Warren said, "Lets talk about what really made the Greatest Generation so great."

By way of background, Warren said that, coming out of the Great Depression, America was at a crossroads, with the future of both democracy and the economy at stake.

"We made a decision together as a country," she said, "to invest in ourselves, our kids, and in our future and for nearly half a century, that's just what we did. And it worked. For nearly 50 years, as our country got richer, our families got richer - and as our families got richer, our country got richer.

"And then about 30 years ago, our country moved in a different direction," Warren said. "New leadership attacked wages. They attacked pensions. They attacked health care. They attacked unions. And now we find ourselves in a very different world from the one our parents and grandparents built.

"We now live in a world in which the rich skim more off the top in taxes and special deals, and they leave less and less for our schools, for roads and bridges, for medical and scientific research - less to build a future."

Christie's speech was one of many last night set up to convince the public that Republican leaders are really just like the nation's working-class majority.

Although viewers were hard pressed to see anyone resembling racial minorities in the vast audience the GOP put the former Democratic Congressman Arthur Davis, an African American now backing Romney, and the tea bagger Senate nominee from Texas, Ted Cruz, on the speakers stand.

Most of the big-named politicians who spoke had to reach pretty far back into their ancestral past to find a grand parent or perhaps a great grandparent who qualified as a bona-fide member of the working class. (Anne Romney's grandfather, the Welch miner, Christie's great grandfather, a worker from Ireland, Rick Santorum's grandfather, a miner in Pennsylvania with "large rough hands covered with thick skin," sticking out of his sleeves as young Rick knelt by the coffin.)

A feature of the "Diversity Hour" speeches was the theme that Obama is letting welfare recipients collect checks without having to work, in clear violation, the Republicans said, of the welfare reform law signed by Bill Clinton, who was described as a "forward-looking, better Democrat." (No one mentioned how Republicans had impeached him when he was in office.)

Several of the speakers made the claim about Obama and the welfare work requirement despite it having been rejected now by scores of fact checkers. But in combination with oft-repeated stories of how hard their immigrant ancestors had worked with out ever asking for government "handouts," the clear aim last night was to ignite as much anti-Black resentment as possible.

Photo: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie addresses the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., on Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Labor against extending tax cuts for top earners

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 15:11:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - The AFL-CIO is "strongly against" extending the Bush tax cuts for the top 2 percent of the nation's earners, but fears congressional Democrats may blink on the issue, Legislative Director Bill Samuel says.

In a recent interview, Samuel said he sees the Obama White House "holding firm" against extending those cuts and even envisions the president sending a tax revision package up to Capitol Hill when the new 113^th Congress enters on Jan. 3.

But before that, Samuel adds, the two major political parties are engaging in a game of chicken over the nation's fiscal and economic future. And labor fears the Democrats may cave in to GOP demands to let the tax cuts be extended for a year.

The pressure on the two parties to do something about the looming fiscal train wreck - expiration of the tax cuts, ending of extended jobless benefits and billions in cuts in government spending - grew on August 22: The director of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office testified that if Congress does nothing before the end of the year crunch, the tepid recovery will become part #2 of a double-dip recession.

CBO also forecast that official joblessness would stay above 8 percent through 2012.

"Sequestration ought to be postponed or cancelled altogether," Samuel says, referring to the budget cuts in both defense and domestic spending. But that should occur only if lawmakers do one of two things, he said: Be "willing to add to the federal deficit for a year" to help continue to haul the nation out of its recessionary hole of 2007-09, or "package this with tax increases" on the rich.

Cutting spending would cut demand for goods and services, and the jobs that providing those goods and services create, he explained.

But accomplishing those goals require congressional leaders to move off their ideology-induced positions, especially the Republicans' absolute demand that the tax cuts for the rich be made permanent and no new taxes - not even anti-loophole provisions - be enacted.

""Someone's going to have to give in and it shouldn't be the Democrats," Samuel says. "It's a high-stakes gamble included in these decisions" to stand firm, he adds.

"The responsible thing would be to let the tax cuts expire and them close the loopholes" with a comprehensive tax overhaul next year.

"But I don't put a lot of faith in the leadership of this Congress being responsible," he concluded.

Photo: Demonstrators march through the streets of Tampa, Fla., in protest against the platform of the Republican National Convention, Aug. 27. Dave Martin/AP

On Mars: Viewed from space Earth has no borders

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 14:41:00 +0000

Exploration of space is an essential modern scientific endeavor. Many budget conscious conservatives and socially conscious liberals question the social necessity of esoteric scientific research, especially the high cost of sending instruments into the reaches of the solar system and building powerful telescopes that are ever more ambitious.

But there is a great deal that is gained by having vibrant research programs in all areas, though the $2 billion cost for the Mars Science Laboratory, nicknamed Curiosity, might seem excessive. Launching this robotic probe the size of a small SUV off the surface of the Earth to have it land feather light onto a dusty, barren, rust-colored rock millions of kilometers away is an opportunity for discovery.

A generation of children growing up in a society that puts value in curiosity will be inspired to explore. Because Curiosity exists, because our society supports research with seemingly elusive benefits, we show that questions can be asked boldly. A space probe may excite some with the idea of becoming a NASA engineer but many others will be inspired to go on to chemistry, biology, medicine, ecology, engineering, even the arts and humanities.

Taking a longer view, our use of technology that opens space to exploration and colonization creates an opportunity that future human society may be able to inhabit artificial environments spinning in orbit, with access to power and resources that could theoretically wipe out scarcity. With the right incentives, we might be able to protect Earth's ecosystems by outsourcing mineral and metal mining to asteroids, While immediate, practical applications of the research being done with Curiosity and other current NASA missions are few, the long-term benefits to society of having that research done are many.

The Curiosity mission itself is impressive because of the innovation that went into creating and coordinating the approach and landing of the rover.

Mars is half a billion kilometers away and has a much thinner atmosphere. In order to compensate for the difficulties of landing on such a planet, NASA engineers had to come up with an innovative way to slow the rover's approach from kilometers per second to reach the surface safely.

First, the heat shield protected the capsule as the atmosphere decelerated it to 1,450 kilometers per hour (kph). Next, a parachute stage slowed its descent to 450 kph. Then, rocket thrusters slowed it further, to hover 30 meters above the ground. In order for the rover to actually touch down, a crane, still supported by rocket thrusters, lowered it to the dusty ground, setting it down gently on its wheels.

Thousands of people worked thousands of hours, spending millions of dollars packing the rover with delicate instruments, designing the delivery system from scratch and taking into account as many of the ways that the probe's journey could go wrong as possible.

All of this was for the sake of roving about a crater, shooting rocks with a laser and examining samples of soil, in the hope of finding some fossilized microbes.

Curiosity is being put through its paces on Mars. It will allow scientists to make discoveries that they could otherwise only dream of. For these scientists and their colleagues, Curiosity represents an important step up in interplanetary science. For some it is a step further in the hope that eventually humans will walk on Mars, that we might make it another home for human beings. With this endeavor we can better understand the way our solar system formed and both Earth and Mars came into being.

That any human society has achieved this - or made some discovery, unlocked the technological potential of a material, developed a model for sustainable use of resources - is not a national achievement, it is a pan-human one that every person benefits from in the long term.

Photo: A chapter of the layered geological history of Mars is laid bare in this postcard from NASA's Curiosity rover. The image shows the base of Mount Sharp, the rover's eventual science destination. Image via NASA.

California legislature passes bill to ease deportations

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 14:18:00 +0000

As California's legislative session races to the finish line this week, three bills to ease restrictions on the state's undocumented immigrants are making headlines.

The TRUST Act, AB 1081, introduced by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, has already passed both legislative houses. Governor Jerry Brown has not yet indicated whether he will sign it.

AB 1081 would lower the level of California's cooperation with the federal Secure Communities (S-COMM) program. Under it, California law enforcement agencies would only honor Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requests to hold detainees who had been convicted of felonies or other serious crimes.

Observers say this would return S-COMM to its original stated goal of dealing with violent and serious criminal immigrants.

Now, when law enforcement agencies in the state share fingerprints of arrestees with ICE and ICE finds a match, it asks the agencies to hold the immigrant, supposedly for two days but often much longer.

The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department recently found that immigrants held after an ICE request stayed in custody about 20 days longer than they otherwise would have, costing the county over $26 million annually.

Since the S-COMM program started in 2009, over 75,000 people have been deported from California; nearly 70 percent had no or only minor criminal convictions.

AB 1081 passed both legislative houses on partisan lines, with some members of each party abstaining.

The TRUST Act is supported by the state's Catholic bishops, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Santa Clara County's sheriff, and Oakland and Palo Alto police chiefs. LA County Sheriff Lee Baca and other California sheriffs threaten to defy it.

The issue hit the news cycle earlier in the summer when Juana Reyes-Hernandez was picked up by police as she sold home-made tamales in a Sacramento Walmart parking lot despite warnings about trespassing. The single mother of two, in the U.S. for 15 years with no criminal record, was jailed for nearly two weeks, and her children were put into foster care.

Reyes no longer faces deportation, after the trespass charge was dismissed and an immigration judge closed her case.

Speaking on radio station KPFA Aug. 27, Ammiano referred to Reyes' situation, saying "we're asking the ICE agents to distinguish between someone like her and some of the more serious gang members, people who do have felonies on the record." He called the matter both a fiscal issue and a "moral imperative to watch out for the people in our state" who contribute greatly to its economy.

Two other immigrant rights measures were introduced into the legislature at the last minute, late last week. Each would have to pass both legislative houses by Aug. 31 to move to the governor's desk for signature.

One, by state Senator Gilbert Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, would let young undocumented "DREAMers" eligible for President Obama's deferred action program apply for driver's licenses. Under AB 2189 applicants could present any federal document they receive under the federal program as proof of legal presence for the purpose of applying for a driver's license.

Cedillo has worked for years to reinstate undocumented immigrants' eligibility for California driver's licenses, banned by law in 1993.

The other, the "Safe Harbor" bill, by Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes, D-Sylmar, would create a five-year pilot program to allow undocumented immigrants who pay state taxes to receive state protection from federal immigration enforcement. Supporters say the measure would net the state some $325 million in revenue. For the program to take effect, federal authorities would have to agree to place the immigrants in the lowest category of enforcement.

Photo: Marilyn Bechtel/PW

Truncated GOP convention to feature Ann Romney and Chris Christie

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 14:08:00 +0000

TAMPA, Fla. - The GOP will squeeze both Ann Romney and Chris Christie onto its prime-time agenda tonight in a convention already cut short by what some say is the wind and rain-swept wrath of God.

As Hurricane Isaac bears down on New Orleans on the anniversary of Katrina the Republicans are stuffing their key speakers into prime time in case they have to shave a day or two off the latter part of their convention. Remembering President Bush and his lack of response to the Katrina disaster they also fear television images of Republican delegates partying while a disaster named Isaac strikes millions along the Gulf Coast.

Republican spokespeople have said that the party shuffled its calendar because Ann Romney's remarks are critical to her husband's candidacy. They hope her speech will get voters to see her husband as she does.

Considering the huge number of voters who see Romney as an enormously wealthy tax cheat and as an outsourcer of jobs, it would seem Anne Romney has her work cut out for her.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's speech will showcase, presumably, how the GOP ia able to fit under its tent a popular northern governor from a normally liberal and Democratic state.

His task too will be difficult because there are an uncomfortably large number who remember how, on taking office, Christie cut state aid for education by $1.1 billion, slashed property tax relief for senior citizens and shredded government worker pensions. When he originally campaigned for the governorship he had promised, in each of those three cases, to do the opposite.

"Christie's personal and political ideology has cost New Jersey billions of dollars in federal aid for education, transportation and women's health funding," N.J. State Sen. Barbara Buono noted in a Politico interview yesterday.

Christie will try to portray tonight that he has put New Jersey on a sound fiscal path - cutting spending, holding the line on property taxes, fighting off tax increases, investing in education and laying the foundation for a so-called "Jersey Comeback."

In reality, New Jersey ranked 47^th in economic growth in 2011 and its economy shrank that year by 0.5 percent. There are 175,000 fewer jobs today in New Jersey than there were in December 2007, when the recession began. Las moth New Jersey lost 12,000 additional jobs.

As for property taxes for the average New Jersey family: They were at a 20 percent net increase during Christie's first two years in office, up from $6,244 to $7,519.

One thing for certain is what the big speakers will not discuss tonight - the GOP platform. The new platform just adopted voucherizes both Medicare and Medicaid: "The first step is to move the two programs away from their current unsustainable defined-benefit entitlement model to a fiscally sound defined-contribution model," the platform reads."

"That means that instead of Medicare as we know it, which pays your medical bills, you'd get a lump sum which you can apply to private insurance - they'll yell when we call it a voucher but that is what it is," said economist Paul Krugman yesterday.

Underlining the continued race to the right by the Republican Party, Bloomberg Insider said yesterday: "Today's Republicans would call Ronald Reagan a socialist."

Photo: Stock image of Gov. Christie. Melissa Babin // CC 2.0

Workers in Tampa say “no” to the Romney economy

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 12:05:00 +0000

TAMPA, Fla. - Even before the official opening of the Republican Convention here Aug. 27 workers have been targeting the places where GOP delegates gather to voice opposition to Mitt Romney's prescriptions for the economy.

Hundreds of minimum wage workers and employees of Bain Capital-owned companies including Staples, Dunkin' Donuts and Sensata Technologies in Freeport, Illinois have marched to the places where delegates gather to send their message of opposition to the Romney economy.

Protesters are carrying signs, banners, balloons and flags and they are blowing horns and whistles whenever they get near Republican events.

At Gaslight Park they unveiled large ice sculptures of the words Middle Class which were allowed to melt away. Many of those who made and unveiled the ice sculpture are also involved in a petition drive calling on Congress to increase the federal minimum wage.

At a "red-carpet" event for delegates minimum wage workers laid down on the sidewalk Sunday afternoon, blanketing themselves under their own red carpet. "We are showing how the Republicans, with their economic policies, are trampling over workers," said Catherine Murell, a StandupChicago organizer who dropped to the sidewalk with a contingent of workers from Dunkin' Donuts and Burlington Coat factory, both owned by Bain.

Some 300 workers posted protest signs on the chain-link fence beyond which anyone who is not a delegate to the convention is allowed. "We want the message of America's workers to be the last thing they see before they go into the convention," said Murell.

Many of the signs posted on the fence by the minimum wage workers, unemployed, students and seniors call upon Romney to cease his support for more tax cuts for the rich and focus instead on creating good jobs and raising the minimum wage.

Minimum wage workers in the crowd come from a variety of fast food and restaurant jobs, in addition to the companies owned by Bain.

Cheryl Randecker, a soon-to-be outsourced employee of the Bain-owned Sensata Technologies was among the marchers. "What was really outrageous," she said, "was how we had to train our own replacements who will do our jobs at the new overseas location. It was like having to dig your own grave."

Workers at her plant have been struggling to save their jobs for a year, with Bain planning to outsource them in December. They have been calling upon Mitt Romney, Bain's founder and a current investor in Bain-owned Sensata, to use his influence to stop the outsourcing of their jobs.

"He has been saying he is out of the company," said Gaulrapp, another Sensata worker protesting in Tampa. "But to this very day, as a big-time investor in Bain, he is clearly profiting outsourcing our jobs."

Workers in Tampa say people held fundraisers back home to help them pay their way to come and protest at the Republican Convention.

Photo: StandUp Chicago

Disney, big biz, fight Florida sick-time measure

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 10:22:00 +0000

ORLANDO, Fla. - Progressive forces here have put a ballot initiative mandating paid sick time for workers in Orange County onto the Nov. 6 ballot. Disney World and other big business interests are going all-out to block it.

The county supervisor of elections verified on Aug. 17 that Citizens for a Greater Orange County, the coalition spearheading the initiative campaign, had collected over 50,000 valid signatures (6,000 more than necessary) for the measure to be on the ballot. In total, about 74,000 signatures were turned in over a three-month period through the efforts of volunteer and paid canvassers.

Mark Shipley, an organizer for the community group Organize Now!, said he was "very excited, although not exactly surprised with the overwhelming support earned sick time has had in Orange County." Organize Now and Central Florida Jobs with Justice have been mainstays of the coalition. The National Council of La Raza, Mi Familia Vota and other groups, along with organized labor, including the Communications Workers and IBEW, have supported the coalition as well.

If the measure passes, any employer in Orange County (population 1.2 million) with 15 or more workers would have to provide employees with one hour of paid sick time for every 37 hours worked, up to a maximum of 56 hours (seven days) per year.

Under the county charter, commissioners must hold a public hearing on the measure within 30 days of certification at which they can either pass it as an ordinance, or do nothing and allow citizens to have their say.

Since all the commissioners and Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs have already expressed opposition to mandated sick time, the hearing will be a pro forma exercise. Nevertheless, said Shipley, sick-time proponents will attend the Sept. 11 hearing "to show a good strong force and support for the issue."

The coalition's campaign for passage of the measure will emphasize continued "voter awareness," said Shipley. "At this point, most people are very aware of the issue and with an over 70-80 percent public approval rating, depending on the polls you use, I think our main drive is just going to be: turn people out to vote."

That overwhelming support may be eroded somewhat under an onslaught from corporate interests, including the restaurant and tourism industries, along with the Greater Orlando Chamber of Commerce and other pro-business forces. The Orlando Sentinel reported that even before the certification there had been "a flurry of lobbying by Walt Disney World lobbyists and other opponents who have pushed Orange leaders behind the scenes to torpedo the petition drive."

According to the newspaper, after three days of lobbying by Disney, the area's largest employer, "five of six Orange County commissioners penned ... similarly worded memos urging Mayor Teresa Jacobs to take the maximum 30 days allowed before they have to order that the question be placed on the ballot." The hope was that running out the clock would cause the measure to miss the deadline for getting the county's ballot to the printer.

The Sentinel also reported that county visitor logs indicate that a Disney lobbyist met with Jacobs and the county attorney on Aug. 13 to talk about "charter questions." The same lobbyist signed in the next day for meetings with all commissioners and their aides for discussion of "possible agenda items." About 40 percent of Disney workers don't have paid sick time.

Pro-business forces appear ready to spend big on a propaganda campaign that they hope will induce workers into turning down something that if passed would improve their lives, especially those in low-wage service jobs, and would build worker power in Central Florida. According to the ballot initiative coalition, 40 percent of private sector workers nationally and 81 percent in the lowest-paid jobs don't have sick time.

A confidential email sent on July 27 to local chambers of commerce by the head of the Central Florida Partnership, a group under the aegis of the Greater Orlando Chamber of Commerce, included an attachment intended to give recipients "some idea of what a 'full-blown' campaign will cost." The email was leaked to a local media outlet and subsequently obtained by a People's World reporter.

The two-page document from Consensus Communications, a local public relations and political consulting firm whose founding partners have long histories of involvement in right-wing politics, recommended the use of focus groups, polling, direct mail and TV spots in a potential campaign against the measure. The firm also offered a range of media plans - Bronze ($1.4 million), Silver ($1.9 million) and Gold ($2.2 million)- depending on the number of direct mail pieces and TV ads. Each plan includes a $25,000 consulting fee for Consensus.

The business community already has gone to court to stop the initiative. In a lawsuit filed Aug. 1, plaintiffs including the Greater Orlando Chamber of Commerce, the Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association and the Home Builders Association of Orlando claimed that the measure's language is "misleading" because it implies that non-profit entities would be exempt from it.

Stephanie Porta of Organize Now! told the Sentinel that "this initiative has undergone thorough legal scrutiny, and we have had no objections raised by the County Commission or the Supervisor of Elections or anyone else." Porta characterized the lawsuit as "a stalling tactic designed to stop Orange County voters from strengthening our local economy and providing stability to workers."

Photo via Vote Yes on Question 1 Facebook page.

Government paid to influence Cuba 5 jury

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 14:11:00 +0000

The U.S. government has taken extraordinary measures to defeat the Cuban revolution and undo Cuban independence. For sheer wrongness, the most notorious include the Bay of Pigs invasion, terrorist attacks, medical supplies blockaded, and persecution of the Cuban Five political prisoners. Now proceedings in the latter case take up previously neglected material confirming its place on the short list.

On August 20 lawyer Martin Garbus filed an affidavit with the trial judge in the Cuban Five case on behalf of prisoner Gerardo Hernandez, who is serving two life sentences. His earlier appeals having been denied, Hernandez filed a Habeas Corpus appeal on June 14, 2010. The affidavit is part of that process. It details a story of illegality and arrogance.

Garbus and Bill Norris, lawyer for prisoner Ramon Labañino, participated in an August 20 telephone press conference organized by the National Committee to Free the Five. Summarizing the affidavit, they indicated that the Miami Herald, Nuevo Herald, and other Miami area newspapers and television outlets blanketed the region with reports and editorials directed against the Five before and during their trial that ended in 2001. The affidavit demonstrates, they said, that the U.S. government's Broadcasting Board of Governors (previously USIA) paid the responsible reporters, editors, and broadcasters, ostensibly for services to Radio Martí, the propaganda outlet beamed at Cuba and based in Miami since 1996.

The idea, Garbus said, was to influence the community, sway the jury, and convict the Five, who came to Florida as Cuban agents in the 1990's to monitor and report on private groups carrying out anti-Cuba terror attacks. They were arrested on September 12, 1998.

The court never considered the issues of government money and U.S. assistance to the prosecutors. "The defense team had absolutely no knowledge... we were not able to do anything that would have protected our clients." lamented Bill Norris. Asked about legal precedents, Garbus explained that although cases of harmful publicity are legion, there has never been "a case where you have seen so much government involvement in trying to influence a jury." This one "stands by itself."

According to the affidavit, El Nuevo Herald published 806 prejudicial articles during 194 trial days; the Miami Herald, 305 articles. "The entire community" knew who the 12 jurors were. Most of the factual material contained in the affidavit had been unearthed by the National Committee using the Freedom of Information Act.

Separate but overlapping Habeas Corpus pleas are underway for four of the prisoners still in jail. Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labañino, and Gerardo Hernandez received one life sentence each for conspiracy to commit espionage. On appeal, Guerrero was re-sentenced to 21 years, 10 months, Labañino to 30 years. Convicted on lesser charges, Fernando González and René González received 19 and 15 year sentences, respectively. Fernando's sentence was reduced to 17 years. René González was released on probation in 2011. Hernandez' second life sentence stems from conviction on a murder conspiracy charge. .

Hernandez' habeas corpus appeal filed in 2010 calls for his conviction being vacated on grounds of ineffective counsel, a biased trial venue interfering with due process, prosecutorial misconduct, governmental failure to disclose evidence favoring Hernandez, and a "separate denial of due process resulting from the Government's payments to journalists."

Defense lawyers, unable to introduce new facts into their habeas corpus appeal like payments to journalists, took steps. On June 6, 2012, Hernandez' lawyers filed a motion asking for "an opportunity for discovery prior to an evidentiary hearing." Garbus filed the affidavit in support of that motion. It produces the facts he wants on the record. The motion "asks only for discovery [on] the claim relating to paid journalists." It leaves Hernandez' other claims for another day.

Garbus' affidavit, which follows a government critique of the June 6 motion, covers the journalists' personal histories, how much U. S. money they received, and what their articles, editorials, and broadcasts said. Radio Marti is castigated for illegally serving as a conduit for domestic propaganda. The affidavit notes prosecutorial and defense agreement that the government did make the payments.

Concluding the affidavit with the essence of Gerardo's legal claim, Garbus writes: "Every dollar for every article, image, radio or television show that was spent on this secret program violated the integrity of the trial."

That the Miami atmosphere remains poisoned five years after the trial was clear following the Miami Herald's publication on September 8, 2006 of a report titled, "10 Miami Journalists Take U.S. Pay." Author Oscar Corral and his story were discussed at the press conference and in the affidavit. For disclosing facts elaborated upon in the affidavit, Corral was accused of being a Cuban spy and threatened with death. Forced to move to a secret location together with his family, he soon resigned from the paper.

Photo: A billboard with images of the "Cuban Five," in Havana, Cuba, around the time Rene Gonzalez, whose photo appears third from left, arrived in Havana after a Florida judge granted him permission to visit his gravely ill brother. Franklin Reyes/AP

Anti-nuclear weapons activist returns to prison

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 11:17:00 +0000

DUBLIN, Calif. - With prayer and song, dozens of supporters saw anti-nuclear weapons campaigner Susan Crane back to prison Aug. 22, as she prepared to serve an additional 60-day sentence at the federal women's prison here. The new sentence came on top of 15 months she had already served after participating in a 2009 Disarm Now Plowshares nonviolent direct action at a Washington state naval facility where nuclear-armed Trident submarines are based.

Crane, a 68-year-old retired teacher and member of the Catholic Worker movement, was joined by supporters in a four-day, 40-mile peace walk to the prison gates from a Lockheed-Martin facility that makes the nuclear warhead-carrying Trident II D-5 missile the Trident submarines carry.

Before the "Walk for Nuclear Disarmament: From Lockheed to Lock-Up" began, Crane reminded supporters that the eight Trident submarines deployed from the Washington state naval base "constantly threaten to unleash nuclear holocaust ... It's unlawful and against the law of naval operations to prepare, threaten or use such weapons because they indiscriminately kill civilians, cause radiation burns, poison the environment, and create sickness and genetic damage for generations to come."

At walk's end, as he stood just blocks away from the prison gates, Father Louis Vitale, a San Francisco priest and longtime anti-nuclear activist, called Crane "a totally committed person" and said the protests in which she and others have engaged are "a way of calling attention to the urgency with which we need to disarm."

With today's vast system to produce, maintain, and deliver nuclear weapons, Vitale said, "doom is just a mouse click away."

As Crane disappeared through the prison gates, her fellow walkers clustered outside, calling out messages of support.

Susan Crane was among five Disarm Plowshares activists who entered Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, near Seattle, Wash., early on the morning of Nov. 2, 2009.

Carrying banners reading "Disarm Now Plowshares: Trident, Illegal and Immoral," the protesters cut their way through chain link and barbed wire fences to reach the grounds of the bunker area they say holds the U.S.'s largest stockpile of operational nuclear weapons.

There they hung the banners, scattered sunflower seeds, and prayed until they were arrested at dawn.

The five were sentenced to terms ranging from three to 15 months in prison, followed by a year of supervised release. Crane, who served her original sentence at the Dublin Federal Correctional Institution, did not comply with some terms of the supervised release, and was sentenced to 60 more days as a result.

Disarm Now Plowshares, rooted in the Catholic Worker movement, is part of a broad network of Christian pacifists that grew out of 1980s anti-war actions led by former priests Daniel and Philip Berrigan. The movement says about 100 Plowshares Nuclear Resistance Actions have taken place worldwide in the last 30 years, based on the Old Testament scripture, "And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. And nations will not take up swords against nations, nor will they train for war anymore."

In another recent action, three Transform Plowshares activists - 82 year old Sister Megan Rice, Greg Boertje-Obed, and Michael Walli - slipped past four perimeter fences July 28 at the Y-12 nuclear facility at Oak Ridge, Tenn.

After hanging banners and red crime tape on the highly-enriched uranium manufacturing facility deep within the complex, the three were arrested. Their trial is set for Oct. 10, in Knoxville, Tenn.

The three extended a warm message of support to Susan Crane as she began to serve her new sentence.

Photo: Marilyn Bechtel/PW

Pa. voter coalition fired up by repressive ID law

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 11:04:00 +0000

PHILADELPHIA - The non-partisan Pennsylvania Voter ID Coalition field office is up and running at 310 W. Chelten Ave. in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. Over 100 diverse organizations from throughout Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley have joined forces to protect people's right to vote and to get out the word about how to obtain the photo IDs required for voting November 6.

This includes helping voters assemble the documents required for obtaining photo IDs, transporting people to Pennsylvania Department of Transportation offices, as well as assisting with voter registration. The DOT is the agency that issues driver's licenses.

Pennsylvania lawmakers may have awakened a sleeping giant. The coalition has mushroomed. Calls are coming into the Chelten Ave. office from all over the city, and from coast to coast, with offers to help. Community groups are hosting information sessions, volunteers are canvassing neighborhoods, and a call center has been set up.

While Republican-dominated legislatures in several states have passed voter ID laws, Pennsylvania passed a particularly restrictive law that attempts to disenfranchise particular groups of voters: women, youth, minorities, and the elderly.

The majority-Republican state legislature passed the onerous legislation in March, which was signed by Governor Tom Corbett - also a Republican. Little thought was given and no resources were set aside for the task of getting photo IDs into the hands of the close to one million Pennsylvanians without driver's licenses. As of August, there was no signage in Pennsylvania DOT offices, nor had Penn DOT been informed about the new regulation.

It's ironic that in the Middle East, democratic movements in the spring of 2011 overthrew repressive governments and demanded voting rights for all. At the same time, right-wing legislatures in the U.S. were cooking up plans to make voting more difficult.

The Committee of 70 is a century-old non-partisan organization whose mission includes assuring fair elections. It provides a wealth of information about the Voter ID Coalition, the new voter ID rules, the lawsuit against it, and necessary voter forms. The Committee of 70's hotline can be reached at 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683).

To volunteer for literature drops or office work, or to provide transportation, contact the Committee of 70, or the Coalition's Chelten Ave. office at 215-848-1283.

Photo: The Committee of Seventy Facebook page

Musicians, shooting victim react to Mustaine’s anti-Obama rant

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 16:15:00 +0000

Dave Mustaine, frontman of thrash metal band Megadeth, has recently generated much controversy with his continuous flow of hateful, right-wing comments. But at an August 7 show in Singapore, he downright outraged musicians and an Aurora massacre victim when he suggested that President Obama was somehow responsible for various recent U.S. shootings.

The 50 year-old born-again Christian remarked, "Back in my country, my president is trying to pass a gun ban, so he's staging all of these murders, like the 'Fast and Furious' thing down at the border, and Aurora, Colorado, all the people that were killed there, and now the people at the Sikh temple.

"I don't know where I'm gonna live if America keeps going the way it's going, because it looks like it's turning into Nazi America."

The singer-guitarist, who outed himself as a birther in March when he stated he believed President Obama was not born in the U.S., once again deeply enraged and embarrassed many members of the metal community, who rushed to handle damage control and explain that these right-wing remarks were not representative of the music genre on the whole.

Nikki Sixx, of glam metal band Motley Crue, took to his Facebook page and responded, "Dave Mustaine is [an] assh*le. I can't even imagine how deep this cuts the victims' families of these shootings. He owes every family an apology as well as our great country.

"Hey, Dave, if you think America is turning into 'Nazi America,' as you are quoted saying, move out."

Oderus, frontman of metal band GWAR, got on Twitter and said of Mustaine, "I don't need to berate him to make him look like an assh*le. He does fine just by opening his mouth. To say something as ignorant and insensitive as Obama 'staged' the recent U.S. mass shootings ... I just can't think of anything [worse] right now off the top of my head."

This was not the first time Oderus, known for being extremely vocal about his opinions, criticized the singer. During March, he suggested that Mustaine keep his mouth closed and play his guitar. He added, "We don't want to hear about how Obama was 'born in Africa;' we don't want to hear about how Rick Santorum is your man - he hates heavy metal."

Mustaine, apparently embarrassed by criticisms that came his way, later retracted his birther statement, saying, "I don't want to talk about my president," and admitting he was going to "have to do some more homework on where Obama came from."

The ultra-right conspiracy theories of Mustaine mark a drastic change from the musician when compared to his political positions many years ago. During the 1992 presidential election, Mustaine reported from the Democratic National Convention for MTV News at New Jersey's Madison Square Garden, supporting Bill Clinton.

And prior to that, the singer-guitarist had written the lyrics to the politically-charged song "Foreclosure of a Dream," which heavily criticized the policies of the George H.W. Bush administration.

His complete flip-flop on politics has confused many Megadeth fans and musicians, but Mustaine said his change of views came after he "ditched alcohol and became a born-again Christian."

Since then, he has spoken in interviews with conspiracy theorist radio host Alex Jones' Infowars show, repeatedly supported Rick Santorum while he was running as GOP presidential candidate, and apparently continues to advocate right-wing ideologies.

Perhaps the most important and profound reaction to Mustaine's statements came from one of the Aurora shooting survivors - Carli Richards. "Some people think the president is a good scapegoat," she said. "But he didn't shoot me. This is obviously absurd, and people who make up conspiracies just want attention."

Richards said that the only person who ought to be blamed for the Aurora shootings was the shooter himself. "I don't think people realize the consequences of not being responsible for their own actions," she concluded. "James Holmes needs to be held accountable for his - to whatever way the justice system deems fit."

Photo: Though highly regarded for his musicianship by metal fans, Mustaine has recently drawn intense outrage for his insensitive, right-wing comments. Flickr

New report: America’s workers living on the brink

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 15:43:00 +0000

America's workers are living on the brink of disaster, with 40 percent living paycheck to paycheck, according to a new CareerBuilder survey.

Even worse than that, 37 percent say they sometimes need to rely on the next payday to make ends meet.

Although the percentage of those living for payday has decreased from 42 percent in 2011 and from 46 percent in 2008, the height of the recession, the news is not good.

The survey also found that women (44 percent) are more likely than men (36 percent) to be living on the paycheck to paycheck treadmill. Fully 25 percent of all female workers missed a monthly payment at least once over the last year, as opposed to 17 percent of men.

Also alarming is that 27 percent of workers are unable to save anything each month. Only thirty percent save more than $250 a month and only 10 percent save more than $1,000.

CareerBuilder, which is the nation's largest online job site also found, in its survey, that those most likely to be living paycheck to paycheck are workers between the ages of 45 and 54. (43 percent)

The Huffington Post examined the reasons this age group is having the toughest time making ends meet.

One of the biggest factors cited in the Huffington Post article is the squeeze of supporting children and family. Some 90 percent of boomers shoulder this burden and a quarter of all workers over 50 used up all of their savings during the recession. Health problems not present in younger people also increase personal debt, according to the article with injury and illness remaining the biggest cause of personal debt for all groups of workers.

The AFL-CIO says that the problems cited in the new survey and the declining standard of living for middle and working-class Americans is no accident.

Tula Connell explains on the AFL-CIO Now blog today that the U.S. trade policies, , depleted the nation's manufacturing base..

Federal tax policies, in addition, promoted inequality, she said, rewarding wealth over work and "leaving us without enough money to fund our public infrastructure

or the education and training we need in a global economy."

Compounding the problem, the AFL-CIO says, is that employers and lawmakers have made conscious and coordinated efforts to delegitimize government and destroy unions, all of which takes away the ability of working people to stand up to corporate excess.

There are serious implications in the report for the 2012 elections, says Connell: "The Romney-Ryan ticket, with its support for offshoring jobs, massive tax cuts for the wealthy, and calls to defund core public programs like bridge and street maintenance, education, Social Security and Medicare, would further financially sink America's middle and working class.

"The thought of how many U.S. workers would be living paycheck to paycheck at the end of the Romney administration is chilling," she said.

Photo: yat fai ooi // CC 2.0

Shadowy Republican Super PAC to spend millions on GOTV

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 14:30:00 +0000

A well financed - and shadowy - Republican Super PAC has arrived on the scene, aiming to pour millions of dollars into a GOTV effort aimed at counteracting the AFL-CIO's pledge to put 400,000 grassroots activists into motion.

As a Super PAC, the group, Republican Union, is not allowed to coordinate with any political party or campaign. However, there seem to be close ties between the Republican Party and the Republican Union.

According to his resumé, the group's Assistant Treasurer Patrick Davis worked from 2000 to 2004 as the political director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. For part of that time, he was also the Republican National Committee's political director.

Davis spent a year in the White House, in the Office of Political Affairs under President George H. W. Bush.

The group's spokesperson Bo Harmon has a long history as a Republican operative. His pedigree includes working as political director of the Herman Cain campaign. After that, he moved on to the Gingrich campaign, and from 2007-2008, he was the voter contact director for the McCain-Palin campaign. In 2004, he worked for the Republican Party itself, in the communications department of the National Republican Campaign Committee.

Another leader of Republican Union is Jamie Brazil, a former Cain staff member and long-time political operative. Brazil was banned in 2005 from working in the securities and exchange industry by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority - at the time the National Association of Securities Dealers. Though his job was to deal with Pennsylvania municipalities, he had never actually been licensed to do so. He also never passed the test required by the industry to work in the securities field.

According to Harmon, "Republican Union intends to follow up this initial outreach with a targeted boots on the ground effort going person to person, neighborhood to neighborhood. This personal outreach to voters who have been abandoned by the out of touch policies of the current Democratic leadership will be what determines our success."

What this seems to mean is that the organization aims to pour millions of dollars into a Republican "astroturf" army, seemingly to counter labor's pledge to put 400,000 grassroots activists on the ground for Obama.

The Super PAC says it will do what it needs to bring out volunteers for Republican candidates, including paying for plain fair and hotel lodging.

And the group has money: The PAC announced Aug. 21 that it was unveiling a $1 million campaign aimed at Catholics who traditionally vote Democratic in five swing states: Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Republican Union started off with a $1 million donation from an undisclosed donor - though PAC promises to reveal who she is at their filing - and plans to raise $15 million altogether.

According to the PAC's July 30 organizational filing with the Federal Elections Commission, the group "intends to raise funds in unlimited amounts."

Where the additional $14 million will come from is anyone's guess - and may never be revealed.

The group is focusing on Catholics, because, it argues in its press release, that demographic is "crucial for both presidential candidates, arguing that the majority of Catholics have gone for every winner since 1980. According to a press release from the Super PAC, "Securing a majority of the Catholic vote is critical to winning the presidential election. The Catholic-majority has voted for the winning candidate in every presidential contest since 1980, regardless of political party. Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all won this crucial voting bloc."

Photo: Public Citizen // CC 2.0