People Before Profit blog

Romney lags among Jewish voters, offends Palestinians too

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 17:51:00 +0000

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney travelled to Israel hoping to win support among Jewish Americans, but it looks as if U.S. Jewish voters will go heavily for Obama in the upcoming elections.

According to a Gallup tracking poll taken from June 1 through July 26, an overwhelming majority of Jewish Americans, 68 percent, supports President Obama. Only one in four American Jews favors Romney.

According to Gallup, "Although one goal of Romney's Israel visit could be to attract greater support among Jewish voters in the U.S., Jewish Americans have been a traditionally strong Democratic group, so they are unlikely to become much more supportive of Romney regardless of the outcome of the trip."

In 2008, Jewish voters gave Obama 78 percent of their votes.

In addition, Romney offended Palestinian leaders and, likely, Arab American voters.

His fundraiser speech in Jerusalem Monday morning seemed aimed at cashing in on Israeli nationalism and the longstanding regional conflict between Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Romney told those assembled at the $25,000 per person fundraiser that the reason for Israel's economic success - and, by extension, the poverty of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip - was due to both Jewish culture and an act of God.

"As I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things," Romney said in the widely reported speech.

Among those "other things," the GOP hopeful added, was "the hand of providence."

Romney did not mention Israel's four-decade-old occupation of the West Bank, which has severely disrupted the Palestinian economy.

Palestinian officials immediately bristled. Saeb Erekat, a senior official to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and a chief negotiator between the two sides of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, told the Associated Press, "It seems to me this man lacks information, knowledge, vision and understanding of this region and its people."

"He also lacks knowledge about the Israelis themselves," Erekat continued, adding that Romney had taken on an extreme tone that even far-right Israeli leaders had not taken: "I have not heard any Israeli official speak about cultural superiority."

Gallup, in interpreting the results of its poll, suggested that the trip might also be an attempt by Romney to show expertise in handling foreign policy. "And there is room for Romney to improve in that respect, given that Americans currently view Obama as significantly better able than Romney to handle foreign affairs," Gallup said.

The poll was conducted by telephone with a random sample of 1,014 American adults. There is a margin of error of 4 percentage points, and the poll has a confidence level of 95 percent.

Photo: Republican presidential Mitt Romney delivers a speech in Jerusalem, July 29. Charles Dharapak/AP

AFL-CIO: Walesa didn't speak for Polish workers at Romney meeting

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 11:29:00 +0000

CHICAGO -- The largest labor federation in the United States is warning Polish communities nationwide, including here, that Lech Walesa's meeting with Mitt Romney in Poland this week did not have the support of Polish workers, their unions or the labor movement here in America.

The warnings by the labor movement, say AFL-CIO officials gathered now in an executive council meeting in Washington D.C., will go to Polish communities in this city and to others including those in Cleveland, Milwaukee and New York.

The AFL-CIO is commissioning its field staff to bring that message into many of the Polish neighborhoods but particularly into those in swing states like Ohio, according to Cathy Feingold, the federation's international affairs director.

Romney met Walesa, the one-time leader of the Polish trade union Solidarnosc (Solidarity) on July 30 at the end of his three-nation tour - a tour marked by Romney gaffes in London and war mongering against Iran while he was in Israel. Walesa, during his meeting with Romney, endorsed the presumptive Republican nominee.

Katherine Kowalski, a CTA worker at a downtown station here, chuckled when asked for her reaction, saying, "So here in America the Romney who exports jobs and hates unions suddenly loves workers and unions when he goes to Poland. Polish people will not fall for this." Kowalski, 40, and a mother of two elementary school children, arrived in Chicago from Gdansk, Poland 20 years ago.

"Walesa is a disgrace anyway," she said, "Because any support he gave to workers was just to boost himself. His support for workers ended when he became president of Poland."

During the period Walesa held the Polish presidency, after the collapse of socialism in that country, he pursued policies opposed by the trade union movement. Feingold told a press conference of reporters at the AFL-CIO executive council meeting yesterday: "Even today, Solidarnosc has made it clear that they had nothing to do with the invitation to Romney and even more important that they do not agree with the top-down economics Romney continues to support.

"The Polish unions have distanced themselves from the Romney policies that weaken workers rights and job creation," Feingold declared, adding, "and what is most important is that the workers and unions in Poland stand in solidarity with American workers whose rights are under attack as we speak. Romney does not stand in solidarity with American workers."

The decision by the labor movement to send its field staff into Polish communities in swing states is seen as particularly important to the Obama campaign's attempt to increase its support among white male ethnic voters.

Other speakers at the AFL-CIO press conference yesterday noted that Walesa is not a spokesman for Polish workers, that he has resigned his position with Solidarnosc and has since formed an "independent" political party. When he ran for the Polish presidency on that party's ticket in 2000 he received only 1 percent of the vote.

"Walesa's views," said Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, who has many Polish constituents, "have apparently drifted away from those of Polish workers and voters.

"But in the end," Kaptur said, "Romney's effort may be for naught, as voters focus on the economy." She said voters in her Cleveland district have told her that the Romney trip was "an embarrassment."

Photo: In Freeport, Ill., workers at Sensata Technologies protest the loss of employment to oversees workers. Sensata is owned by Bain Capital, the firm presidential candidate Mitt Romney once led. Employees have appealed to Romney to intervene. Joe Tamborello /The Journal-Standard/AP

New Haven Rising is launched

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 15:37:00 +0000

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The cafeteria at Career High School was overflowing with neighbors of all ages from all parts of New Haven, Black, Latino, and White greeting each other with excitement for the grassroots power they are building.

The occasion was the launch of New Haven Rising, an organization born out of last summer's door knocking campaign that resulted in a Board of aldermen with a majority of union members and pro-labor activists.

The first act of the new Board of aldermen was to establish a committee to form a jobs pipeline. The idea emerged from the priorities that were clearly voiced in each ward for good jobs, safe streets and opportunities for youth.

By the end of the evening 300 people signed up for the new dues paying organization that will be based on a charter, still under discussion, whose foundation is "diversity, economic, social, and racial justice" to create healthy communities that serve the needs of everyone.

Specific goals will be included in the charter for housing, healthcare, jobs, youth, education, seniors, civil rights, immigrant, and native rights and environmental stewardship.

"Once we have the jobs pipeline, we're not stopping there," said Rev. Scott Marks addressing the goal of transforming New Haven to a city that puts peoples needs first.

The extreme heat that evening did not distract the spirits of the diverse crowd of healthcare, university, public and private sector workers, students, professors, clergy, and elected officials.

Marks, a founder of the Connecticut Center for a New Economy, which organized the door to door discussions that brought everyone together, emphasized the importance of making sure the jobs pipeline is put into place soon to meet the crisis of unemployment especially for youth.

The sense of solidarity at the meeting reflected enthusiasm for an independent grass roots organization in the city that could set issue priorities and expectations and hold elected officials accountable.

Door knocking will continue through the summer, and a formal organizational structure will be adopted in the fall. New Haven Rising is a 501(c)4 organization with the ability to participate in political advocacy as a non-profit.

Critics of the aldermanic campaigns had complained that the effort was driven by the unions at Yale, and charged that the new alders would be accountable to the unions and not to the community.

Voters overwhelmingly rejected that argument. Unionized workers live in communities and are a part of their neighborhoods. The union members who ran for office understood how to organize and listened carefully to their neighbors about changes they were looking for.

The initiative to take that neighborhood organizing to a new level and create a grass roots organization of labor and community is breaking new ground in the city and nationally.

Already the organization is bringing forward new leaders who have been knocking on doors for the first time and involving their neighbors in the process. Over 500 surveys were collected from these conversations in the last two months.

The draft Charter was based on the surveys and on grass roots organizing work over the last decade in the city.

Photo: Scott Marks and planning committee for New Haven Rising at Career High School, July 18. New Haven Rises

In Israel, Romney flubs on health care

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 15:22:00 +0000

In yet another foot-in-mouth blunder, Mitt Romney today praised Israel's health care system for its financial efficiency, suggesting the U.S. should follow its example. Apparently Romney was unaware that Israel has mandated universal national health insurance.

"Do you realize what health care spending is as a percentage of the G.D.P. in Israel? Eight percent," Romney told his Israeli audience, with right-wing U.S. casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson at his side. "You spend eight percent of G.D.P. on health care. You're a pretty healthy nation. We spend 18 percent of our G.D.P. on health care, 10 percentage points more." He continued, "We have to find ways - not just to provide health care to more people, but to find ways to fund and manage our health care costs."

Is Romney a closet socialist, or just plain ignorant?

A report in the Jewish Daily Forward notes that in Israel, "The government's role is central as both funder and regulator. Yet, going by many indexes of health outcomes, the result in terms of quality of care is often better - and definitely cheaper than in the U.S."

Health care in Israel is administered by nonprofit health maintenance organizations, most of which were set up by labor unions even before the Israeli state was established.

Israel's 1995 National Health Insurance Law made membership in one of the four existing Health Maintenance Organizations compulsory for all Israeli citizens. It also established a uniform benefits package for all citizens, and certain services were brought under the direct administration of the national government. In addition, the law set up a system of public funding for health care services by means of a progressive health tax.

Currently many Israelis are fighting the Netanyahu government's efforts to cut government health care funding. That includes the heads of the Israel Medical Association, national medical societies and patients' rights organizations, along with leading medical economists.

Photo: Once again, it seems, Romney made a big blunder. Alex Brandon/AP

Happy birthday, Medicare

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 15:14:00 +0000

Retirees and health care advocates will celebrate the 47^th anniversary of Medicare this week in events throughout the country. Although it is the nation's most popular social insurance program, Medicare continues to be a focal point of struggle between those seeking to strengthen and expand it and those seeking to weaken and destroy it.

Here is a summary of this important program:

Enacted July 30, 1965, Medicare is administered by the federal government. It guarantees health insurance for Americans ages 65 and older as well as for people of any age with disabilities or end stage renal disease. As a social insurance program, Medicare spreads the financial risk associated with illness across society to protect everyone, and thus differs fundamentally from private insurance, which manages a risk portfolio to guarantee private profit.

Congress established Medicare under the Social Security Act to provide eligible beneficiaries with health insurance, regardless of income or medical history. Before Medicare, only half of older adults had health insurance, with coverage often unavailable or unaffordable to the other half. Older adults had half as much income as younger people and paid nearly three times as much for health insurance. Often family members had to shoulder the health care expense of their elderly relatives.

One little-recognized impact is that Medicare also spurred the integration of thousands of waiting rooms, hospital floors, and physician practices by making payments to health care providers conditional on desegregation.

While the USA ranks low compared to other industrialized nations in average life expectancy and infant mortality, we rank high in the measure of those who reach 65 and live until 85.

Medicare is funded by revenue from a 2.9 percent payroll tax shared equally by employers and workers. The administrative overhead costs (two percent) are well below that of large companies that are self-insured (five to ten percent), health insurers offering coverage to small employers (25-27 percent), and individual insurance (40 percent). Insurers offering coverage in "Medicare Advantage" plans spend up to 16.7 percent on profit and overhead.

There are four parts to Medicare: A, B, C, and D.

Part A (hospital insurance) covers inpatient hospital stays, including semiprivate room, food, and tests, and brief stays for convalescence in a skilled nursing facility.

Part B (medical insurance) pays for doctor visits and services and products not covered by Part A, generally on an outpatient basis.

Part C provides Medicare beneficiaries, under the 1997 Balanced Budget Act, with the option to receive their Medicare benefits through private insurance, instead of through the original Medicare plan (Parts A and B). As Part C costs the government about 14 percent more than traditional Medicare, it is being phased out in the new health reform law (the Affordable Care Act, aka "Obamacare").

Part D (prescription drug plans) went into effect on January 1, 2006 and covers prescriptions up to a cost point, then no long covers them until another cost point is reached (the coverage gap or 'donut hole'). Part D did not allow for negotiation of prescription prices, but this and the coverage gap are addressed in the new health reform law.

The new health reform law reduces costs and increases benefits. It reduces payments to privately managed Medicare Advantage plans to align more closely with rates paid under traditional Medicare and reduces annual increases in payments to physicians and hospitals. These and other adjustments reduce Medicare's projected cost over the next decade by $455 billion.

In terms of benefits, the Affordable Care Act progressively closes the "donut hole" in Part D prescription drug coverage saving beneficiaries an average of $2,000 a year by 2020. It restructures Medicare premiums shifting the cost more onto those with the highest income. The law also expands coverage of preventive services.

The continual rise in health care costs certainly impacts Medicare and, as a share of GDP, its cost is expected to grow from 3.6 percent in 2010 to 6.2 percent by 2080. But that is still a small price to pay. A mere four to six percent provides full health coverage for all our elderly and disabled citizens.

Happy Birthday, Medicare!

‘Obamacare’ means preventative care for women

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 11:24:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, starting on August 1, all new health care plans will be required at the start of their plan year to cover a variety of preventive health care services with no co-pay or deductible. That includes a wide range of health care services for women.

Because some preventive benefits are already in place, such as prenatal screenings and mammograms, over 20 million American women have received at least one preventive health care service without having to make a co-payment or pay additional costs.

The provisions going into effect August 1 will make preventive care more affordable to millions of Americans. Karen See, president of the Coalition of Labor Union Women, says coverage is "especially important to women, as they are more likely than men to avoid needed health care, including preventive care, due to cost."

"August 1 is a very significant day: On this day and over the next few years, as an increasing number of health plans come under the law's reach, more and more women will have access to a wide range of preventive services without co-payments or deductibles," she added.

Starting August 1, new health plans, must provide the following preventive services without co-pays or deductibles: Well-woman visits, breastfeeding support, supplies and counseling, contraceptive methods and counseling, screening and counseling for domestic partner violence, screening for gestational diabetes, counseling for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV and screening for HIV itself, as well as DNA testing for high-risk strains of HPV.

CLUW partnered with a number of coalitions and organizations to pass the ACA, as well as on educating women about the law and what its provisions offer after President Obama signed it.

One organization, The National Women's Law Center, provided outstanding resources at each step of the process. Union women, including those whose plans are "grandfathered" under the law, will find NWLC's new fact sheet, How To Find Out If and When Your Health Plan Will Begin Covering Women's Preventive Services with No Co-Pay, especially useful. It's available from their website, http://www.nwlc.org.

"While we celebrate the preventive provisions about to take effect," See cautions,"we must also remember that opponents of the health care law are trying to weaken it and take away benefits. It's incumbent on all of us to make certain that we get the truth out on the positive impact of the ACA on America and Americans, especially women and families, to all the women we can reach."

This author is director of the Cervical Cancer Prevention Works program and the Contraceptive Equity Project, both run by the Coalition of Labor Union Women.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/progressohio/ / CC BY 2.0

Adoption event: Abused Caboodle cats will finally find homes

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 14:52:00 +0000

On August 11 and 12, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals will be hosting an adoption event in Jacksonville, Fla. The effort will help find safe homes for hundreds of cats rescued from the abusive conditions of the Caboodle Ranch, from which the ASPCA rescued them in February.

The animals had been living in what people were told was a 'cat sanctuary' - a nonprofit organization based in Lee, Fla. and owned and operated by Craig Grant. In addition to embezzling and misappropriating donations for personal use, Grant was held responsible for subjecting the cats to dirty, torturous conditions. Many of the animals had viruses and respiratory infections, and investigators with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals found the bones and remains of other cats on Caboodle Ranch property.

The ASPCA and the Jacksonville Humane Society are currently seeking loving homes and responsible owners for the saved cats. Fees will reportedly be waived during the event, and all available cats will be micro-chipped and spayed/neutered.

This will mark the first time the cats will be put up for adoption after receiving five months of "group enrichment treatment, sheltering, and round-the-clock care" at the hands of animal welfare activists.

Meanwhile, separate adoption events will be held in Sarasota (hosted by the Cat Depot) and Tampa Bay (hosted by the Humane Society of Pinellas and SPCA Tampa Bay).

Photo: Cats from the shut-down Caboodle Ranch. The animals have since been rescued. Mike Bizelli/ASPCA & AP

Illegal marijuana farms killing wildlife

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 14:08:00 +0000

Researchers have found that commercial anti-rodent chemicals present in illegal pot farms are poisoning and killing animals. Among the affected are fishers (animals similar to weasels), which are candidates for the Endangered Species List. Their carcasses have been found near Redwood National Park and Yosemite National Park; 79 percent of them were infected with rodenticides.

Pot farmers use those chemicals to protect their illicit crops, many of which are grown on public lands near the aforementioned parks. The hidden farms overlap with animal habitat, including that of fishers, who pay the price, along with other wildlife including martens, spotted owls, and red foxes.

The study was conducted by researchers from the nonprofit Ecology Research Center, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, the U.S. Forest Service, the Wildlife Conservation Study, and several other groups. It was funded by the California Department of Fish and Game.

Scientists believe the animals ingest the rodenticides by proxy when eating smaller prey. It's also possible they consume the chemical directly, as many used by pot farmers include "flavorizers" added by manufacturers, such as bacon or cheese.

Ninety-six percent of the exposed fishers analyzed by researchers were tainted with brodifacoum, a harmful second-generation rodenticide, which can be lethal after just one ingestion. It can take several days before clinical signs of poisoning appear in the animals.

"Our findings were very surprising since poisoning from these chemicals is typically seen in wildlife in urban settings," said Mourad Gabriel, a veterinary scientist and president of the Integral Ecology Research Center. "In California, fishers inhabit mature forests, national parks, and tribal community lands - nowhere near urban areas."

Pathologist Leslie Woods, of the UC Davis California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System, conducted the fisher necropsies. She remarked, "I am really shocked by the number of fishers that have been exposed to significant levels of multiple second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides," which can cause blood-clotting and uncontrolled bleeding in the affected animals by inhibiting their abilities to recycle Vitamin K.

Less than seven miles from one of the study areas, said researchers, law enforcement officials removed 2,000+ marijuana plants, which were surrounded by large amounts of visible rodenticide.

Gabriel added that fishers in particular are probably an "umbrella species," meaning that their protection ensures the simultaneous protection of other local wildlife, as well. Therefore, "if fishers are at risk, other species are [also] at risk because they share the same prey and the same habitat," he noted.

And the poisons used on marijuana crops are not the only reason they are harmful - nor are animals the only victims. Pot farms significantly disrupt and damage the environment, as well.

In Utah, in order to maintain remote marijuana farms, the Mexican drug cartel is "stealing the land, stealing the water, and growing the plants with total disregard for the environment," explained Frank Smith of the Drug Enforcement Agency.

"Last year alone, 61 national forests were affected by outdoor marijuana grows."

Growers are causing damage in various ways, he stated. They use pipes to pump in water from natural streams, which, in many remote areas, are a scarce commodity in the first place. The criminals also strip sensitive land and stack brush (risking creating wildfires in the process), and leave trash around the surrounding area. And then, of course, there's the rodenticide used on the plants themselves, and that puts people at risk, too.

"All that [rodenticide] trickles into our water table," said Smith. "Then they divert the water, either from wells or ranches or streams, which causes all kinds of ecological problems."

Diverting water is a problem for forest life in and of itself: It disturbs the natural landscape and deprives animals of an imperative survival resource.

The destruction wreaked by these illegal farms really adds up - in a very literal sense.

"The average acre of marijuana that's grown affects 10 acres around it and it costs about $20,000 per acre to bring it back to pristine forest," Smith concluded. "It's an environmental nightmare."

Photo: A fisher. U.S. National Park Service/Wikipedia

California water issues make headlines again

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:50:00 +0000

The long-simmering struggle over how California's water resources are allocated took center stage again this week as Governor Jerry Brown and U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar unveiled the latest plan to shift more water from the northern part of the state to the more arid south.

The controversial plan, announced at a July 25 press conference in Sacramento, calls for two parallel 37-mile underground tunnels, each 33 feet in diameter, to carry water from the Sacramento River - the state's largest - to pumping facilities in central California. Water would then flow through canals to areas stretching from the San Francisco Bay Area south all the way to San Diego, bringing more water to southern California cities and irrigating millions of acres of agribusiness farmland in the Central Valley.

The project is slated to start in 2017 and be completed by 2026.

The plan also includes restoration of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the state's greatest wetland, which has deteriorated in recent decades under pressure from increasing water needs.

While water users would pay the $14 billion tab for the tunnels, taxpayers would pay for restoration of the Delta, through funds from the federal government and part of an $11 billion water bond slated for the 2014 ballot.

The new project is similar to a "peripheral canal" Brown proposed in 1982, during an earlier term as governor, which was rejected by voters. In 2009 the state legislature passed Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Comprehensive Water Package, which observers say lays the basis for a massive water diversion project that doesn't require voters' approval.

Residents of the Delta, area Native American tribes, environmentalists, family farmers, fishers, and a number of elected officials strongly oppose its construction.

Earlier this month, 11 northern California members of Congress - all Democrats - wrote to Salazar, raising significant questions about costs and environmental issues, and urging that announcement of the project be delayed for further analysis.

On the other hand, the state's two senators - both Democrats - have written in support of the project.

In a July 25 statement, Kate Poole, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the Delta and people and wildlife depending on it "should not be held hostage by outdated 'tunnel vision.'" She called for use of "21st century technology" including recycling, conservation and more efficient water usage.

Poole said "no credible science" backs diverting more water from the Delta "without continuing to sacrifice an ecosystem in peril."

Last month the California Water Impact Network of 30 environmental, Native American and fishers' organizations, called the proposed tunnels "a huge mistake," "poorly conceived" and "destructive." They cited environmental concerns and foresaw potential costs well beyond those projected by Brown and Salazar.

"Please do not put the interests of South-of-Delta water contractors before the public and San Francisco Bay-Delta dependent farmers, fishermen and local communities," their letter said. Among signers were leaders of the Sierra Club, Environmental Water Caucus, Winemem Wintu Tribe and Friends of the Earth.

Writing last month in the San Francisco Chronicle, Bill Jennings of Restore the Delta pointed out that two-thirds of delta water exports now serve corporate agriculture and only a third goes to urban areas inhabited by half the state's population.

"There is water for both people and fish if it is efficiently and equitably used," Jennings said. "But the estuary cannot survive the waste of subsidized water to grow subsidized crops in the desert."

Photo: Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. ucsd.edu.

Political heavyweights join battle vs. Minnesota voter ID law

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 10:47:00 +0000

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The growing campaign to oppose the voter photo ID amendment to Minnesota's state constitution introduced four prominent co-chairs at a news conference June 26. They represented all three of Minnesota's major political parties: Democrat Walter Mondale, former U.S. Vice President, Republican Arne Carlson, a former state governor, and the Independence Party's Tim Penny, a former Democratic U.S. congressman.

Longtime civil rights activist Josie Johnson joined them as co-chairs of the "Our Vote Our Future" coalition.

The Minnesotans' campaign against the voter ID scheme, which the Republican-run state legislature sent to this fall's ballot, is one of many such drives unions and their allies are mounting nationwide against such laws. The Minnesota AFL-CIO is a key part of the state's drive against the voter ID initiative.

So-called "Voter ID" laws are designed by their business and right wing backers to cut turnout by women, minorities, workers, students and the disabled - all foes of the pro-corporate agenda those interests are pushing nationwide.

"Minnesota doesn't have a voter problem," Mondale said. In the 2008 U. S.

Senate and 2010 gubernatorial recounts, he noted, "There wasn't one suggestion,

one hint, one whiff of a problem in the casting and processing of ballots. This constitutional amendment is designed to discourage voting. It's not designed to fix a problem - because there isn't one. "

"Frankly, it terrifies me," said Carlson, denouncing the amendment. "Where does this constitutional amendment come from? A problem? Research? No. It comes from the Koch brothers," he said. The Kochs are right wing oil multi-millionaires bankrolling political campaigns nationwide. "This is an outside force, coming to Minnesota, telling us how our constitution ought to be designed," Carlson added.

"The constitution is about expanding our rights and opportunities, not restricting our rights and opportunities," said Penny. "The implications of this will be fraught with problems and inequities. It's going to pose problems for our military personnel, for seniors, for rural voters, for students."

Carlson noted that the amendment would end Minnesota's same-day voter registration, which enables 500,000 people to vote. Not so long ago, people died in the struggle for the right to vote, civil rights activist Johnson noted. "I urge every Minnesotan to vote no on voter ID on Nov. 6."

Photo: Collin Knopp-Schwin // CC 2.0

Chick-fil-A is trying to feed us homophobia

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 15:10:00 +0000

Chick-fil-A, a fast-food chain based in Atlanta, Georgia, has maintained a sharp anti-gay stance, feeding millions of dollars into organizations that oppose same-sex marriage. New controversy arose this month when company president Dan Cathy told news outlets he supported "the Biblical definition of the family unit." The chain is now seeking to expand its restaurants, drawing ire from officials in various U.S. cities.

Chick-fil-A consists of over 1,600 restaurants, $4 billion in revenue, and, as some put it, "unapologetic social conservatism." Those in the LGBT community who have observed the food chain's prejudice might also add, "unapologetic homophobia." The company reportedly donated more than $1.1 million between 2003 and 2008 to anti-LGBT groups and organizations that provide so-called "therapy" to change people's sexual orientation.

Cathy has made a number of religion-oriented, anti-gay statements that have fueled the controversy and caused hurt and outrage to the gay community. He recently noted he was "guilty as charged," when asked if he opposed same-sex marriage. He remarked, "I think we are inviting God's judgment on the nation when we shake our fist at him and say, 'we know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage.'"

Now, people throughout the U.S. are fighting back against the chain and its goals of expansion. In February in Boston, plans to bring a Chick-fil-A onto the campus of Northwestern University were scrapped when the student government denounced the chain as being a hateful enemy of gay and lesbian rights, including gay marriage.

The students were not the only ones there who stood up against the company. Boston mayor Thomas Menino also found their stance on gay marriage to be reprehensible. He said that Chick-fil-A "doesn't belong in Boston" because of its hateful attitude.

On July 20, Menino sent a letter to Cathy, in which he stated, "In recent days, you said Chick-fil-A opposes same-sex marriage, and said that the generation that supports it has an 'arrogant attitude.' ... I urge you to back out of your plans to locate in Boston. Here - to borrow your words - we are 'guilty as charged.' We are indeed full of pride for our support of same-sex marriage and our work to expand freedom to all people." Boston's mayor had been referring to a previous statement by Cathy, in which he said, "I pray God's mercy on a generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about."

Menino is not the only one who denounced the prejudicial "biblical values" of Chick-fil-A. Chicago alderman Proco "Joe" Moreno announced this week that he would block efforts by the chain to establish a presence on the city's Northwest Side.

"If you are discriminating against a segment of the community, I don't want you in the 1st ward," he remarked. "Same-sex marriage, same-sex couples, that's the civil rights fight of our time. To have those discriminatory policies from the top down is just not something that we're open to.

"We want responsible businesses. Because of [Cathy's] ignorance, I will be denying Chick-fil-A a permit to open a restaurant in the 1st ward."

Moreover, Chick-fil-A is not the only food chain to feed its customers religious bigotry.

Western U.S. burger chain In-N-Out has printed Bible passages on all of its packaging since the late 80's, and Tyson Foods have used their ideology to attack workers' rights. Tyson, the world's largest chicken company, is also a notoriously anti-union corporation. They have been linked with union busting, unpaid overtime wages, and illegal paycheck deductions. They have also disciplined workers for removing diseased chickens from the assembly line.

Back in the Windy City, Mayor Rahm Emanuel supported alderman Moreno's words. "Chick-fil-A values are not Chicago values," Emanuel declared. "They disrespect our fellow neighbors and residents. This would be a bad investment, since it would be empty."

Chick-fil-A had already obtained zoning for a restaurant in an empty lot near Home Depot in the Windy City's Logan Square neighborhood. However, they cannot move forward without council approval.

Photo: A Chick-fil-A restaurant in Atlanta, Ga. The food chain has pursued a vicious stance against gay rights. Mike Stewart/AP

Windy City turns "war zone" from gun violence

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 13:18:00 +0000

CHICAGO - The city once known for wind is now known for gun violence. The Windy City is called a war zone.

There were 275 murders - most of them from gunshot wounds - here within the last seven months. That exceeds the number of soldiers killed in combat in Afghanistan during the same time period.

Police say the violence stems from gangs fighting over drug turf.

Most of the victims are young. Most of them are Black or Latino innocent bystanders.

Phil Cadman, a resident of South Shore neighborhood, describes walking his dog four blocks to the nearest park. On three of those blocks he passes homemade shrines to three victims of shootings.

"They are 12 years old. One was just trying to ride his bicycle," he said.

Another young victim was a 7-year-old girl, Heaven Sutton, hit by a stray bullet while selling candy outside her home.

As the nation deals with the aftermath of the Aurora, Colo., attack, violence plaguing some neighborhoods gets little attention.

President Barack Obama did take note of daily violence while reflecting on Aurora in his weekly address.

"I hope everyone takes some time for prayer and reflection - for the victims of this terrible tragedy ... and for all the victims of the less publicized acts of violence that plague our communities on a daily basis," Obama said.

Chicago police chief Garry McCarthy once called the nation's permissive gun laws racist. Gun manufacturers and sellers - with their lobby group the NRA - push local, state and federal officials to adopt laws that result in high sales and profits - legally and illegally - from their wares.

Last weekend, area faith leaders called for action to stop gun violence, urging the public to combat violence by contacting their legislators and demanding stricter gun laws, like an assault weapons ban that is currently languishing in Congress.

They also urged a multi-pronged, citywide approach.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is in the hot seat over a change in police tactics - based on a campaign promise for more beat cops - which some aldermen have pointedly criticized as ineffective.

Policing is just one piece of the overall problem, though, and Emanuel has not substantially addressed any underlying factors and solutions.

He did speak on "values" recently.

"We've got two gangbangers, one standing next to a kid. Get away from that kid. Take your stuff away to the alley," he said in a CBS interview.

For impoverished communities, which also face systemic exclusion to jobs, home ownership, education and health care, it's not that easy, says Sun Times columnist Mary Mitchell.

In some neighborhoods the "largest employer" is the "drug trade," she writes.

"There is no way Chicago is going to significantly reduce the violence without investing resources in the communities where the violence is occurring."

Ex-felons without job prospects, young people struggling to learn basic skills and trying to survive in "neighborhoods hard hit by foreclosures and high unemployment" are all "ripe for trouble," Mitchell writes,

In a time of budget slashing, tea party Republican austerity policies and their promises to spend more on war, public investment in neighborhoods, schools and job creation seems a distant dream.

According to studies, it costs taxpayers $1.2 million dollars per shooting for medical and criminal justice expenses, in reduced business and property values and dealing with the long-term effects on children who witness violence.

Costs increase when you factor in removing people from economic productivity either through incarceration, injury or loss of life.

"Why do we spend at least 1,000 times more money protecting ourselves from terrorism than we do protecting ourselves from gun violence?" writes Andrew Cohen in The Atlantic.

Then there is the quality of life impact on the wider community.

One local high school principal has attended eight funerals of current and former students. In an interview on WBEZ, principal Leonetta Sanders described the tragic impact in human terms.

"We are literally picking up students in the morning in our own cars and bringing them to school because they cannot walk through certain areas," Sanders said.

Last June she started a list she called the Harper High School Victim and Offenders Binder.

"One day after-and I can't remember which incident-I just started a list....LaMont Goggins, Marcus Nunn, Deondre Alexander, Cedric Bell, Sergio Penex, Brian O'Neill, Darius Farley..." she said.

The list now has 27 names, 19 shot and eight dead in one school year.

"As I wrote the list, tears just ran down my face. Because it's different when you see it like this. When you see the total number of students in one high school that have been affected by gun violence," she said.

Photo: (CC)

Romney caught in “Anglo-Saxon” hot water

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:32:00 +0000

Mitt Romney ran into hot water this week over Anglo-Saxons.

Romney foreign policy advisers told the British Daily Telegraph that Romney was better able to relate to Britain than President Obama because: "We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he [Romney] feels that the special relationship is special." One adviser added: "The White House didn't fully appreciate the shared history we have."

The remarks were widely seen as a xenophobic, racist allusion to the fact that Obama's father was from Kenya. Top Obama adviser David Axelrod called the comments "stunningly offensive."

In fact, the Anglo-Saxons were not native to England, but rather Germanic invaders (undocumented immigrants?) in the 5th century. They were pagan tribal people for whom "fighting was a way of life," and "endlessly intricate blood-feuds generated perpetual excuses for going to war." Their idea of law enforcement was chopping off hands and noses for punishment. Is that the heritage the Romney team has in mind?

In the 19th century, according to Wikipedia, some British and American writers used the term "Anglo-Saxon" to "justify racism and imperialism, claiming that the 'Anglo-Saxon' ancestry of the English made them racially superior to the colonised peoples." Is this the covert Romney message?

Romney's team is a little out of touch with today's England. As of 2009, about 18 percent of British residents described their ethnicity as something other than "white: British." That includes about 6 percent - more than 3 million people - who identify themselves as Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or othe South Asians. Hundreds of millions of others are African, Caribbean, Chinese or "mixed."

Likewise, Americans' heritage can hardly be described as "Anglo-Saxon." As of 2010, about 28 percent of Americans identified themselves as something other than "white or European American." And undoubtedly only a small percent of those who identify as "white or European American" are of Anglo-Saxon heritage. Consider the millions of Americans whose origins are Irish, Italian, Greek, Scottish, Polish, Portuguese, and so on - none of these are Anglo-Saxon.

CBS News reports that Romney's press secretary, Andrea Saul, disputed the report of the controversial comments. "It's not true. If anyone said that, they weren't reflecting the views of Governor Romney or anyone inside the campaign," she told CBSNews.com in an email. But, says CBS, "Saul did not comment on what specifically was not true." Romney later claimed he did not know who the advisers were.

The Telegraph reports that "the advisers could not give detailed examples of how policy towards Britain would differ under Mr Romney. One conceded that on the European crisis: 'I'm not sure what our policy response is.'"

Romney is visiting England, Poland and Israel in an effort to beef up his foreign policy credentials. He is doing two "lucrative" fund-raising events in London.

Revised 7/26, 8:45 p.m. Author added: "And undoubtedly only a small percent of those who identify as "white or European American" are of Anglo-Saxon heritage. Consider the millions of Americans whose origins are Irish, Italian, Greek, Scottish, Polish, Portuguese, and so on - none of these are Anglo-Saxon."

Photo: Reproduction of an Anglo-Saxon helmet. Chris Eccles // CC 2.0

Unions applaud Senate vote for middle class tax cut

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 11:30:00 +0000

In a party-line vote of 51-48, the Senate yesterday passed a middle-class tax cut, keeping present tax reductions.

The vote marked the first time the Democratic majority in the current Senate has been able to prevail on the question of taxes and came as the GOP appears nationally to be losing its traditional image as the party that saves people money on their taxes. It will be easier now for Democratic lawmakers campaigning across the country to expose Republicans as interested only in tax cuts for the rich.

Fifty of the 51 Senate Democrats and Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt., backed the tax cut bill. Sens. James Webb, D-Va., Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Ind.-Conn., and 46 Republicans opposed it. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., was absent.

Democrats at first scheduled the vote on the measure fully expecting a Republican filibuster would kill it. Republicans were out-maneuvered when they agreed not to filibuster in exchange for Democrats agreeing to a prior vote on a GOP substitute that included tax cuts for the rich.. The Republican substitute lost, 54-45.

At the urging of their unions thousands called and e-mailed their senators before each of the two votes. Labor leaders are saying they will put pressure on the House now which, under its Republican leadership, is expected to hold any tax cuts for the middle class hostage until it can get approval of tax cuts for the rich.

"Hard working families often end up paying a higher tax rate than the richest 2 percent," said Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in a special bulletin to the union's membership. "That's why it is so important Congress lets the Bush tax cuts expire for the wealthy - families making over $250,000 a year," the bulletin, signed also by AFSCME's Secretary-Treasurer Laura Reyes, added.

"With millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet, the president's plan to extend the tax cuts for the middle class and let them expire for the wealthy is a step in the right direction," the union bulletin read.

"A majority of senators and a majority of Americans support our plan to help middle-class families," said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. after the vote. "Our plan gives 114 million taxpayers - again 98 percent of American families - certainty that their taxes won't go up, and it reduces the deficit by almost $1 trillion by ending wasteful tax breaks for the rich.

Reid went on to explain the Republican proposal:

"The Republican proposal takes a very different approach - and that is an understatement - to extend tax breaks for the top 2 percent, but it fails to extend tax cuts to help middle-class families. Their plan would hike taxes by another $1,000 for middle-class families while handing out an extra $160,000 tax break to every millionaire."

Photo: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. (center) speaking at a press conference in Washington, D.C. At left is his colleague Senator Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. J. Scott Applewhite/AP

U.S. Senator: Right wing out to gut Constitution

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 13:53:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - The right wing of U.S. politics is not just attacking unions and workers' rights but the very foundation of our system of government, the U.S. Constitution, says Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.

In a provocative keynote address to the American Constitution Society, a group of progressive attorneys - including union lawyers - the veteran lawmaker said recently that the Right's goal is to create a plutocracy in place of democracy.

"They think our Constitution should be a bludgeon to protect the power of the privileged," Harkin declared, to applause. Abraham Lincoln, he added, would not like the Right Wing crusade.

"Lincoln called for government of the people, by the people and for the people. This" -- the right-wing goal - "is government of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations."

And the right wing has enlisted the judiciary in its crusade, he warned, through appointments to the bench that began with GOP President Ronald Reagan 30 years ago and lasted through both Presidents Bush, he added.

As a result, judges "are not impartial umpires," Harkin said, citing the words then Chief Justice nominee John Roberts - named by the younger Bush - uttered during his Senate confirmation hearings.

The right wing takeover of the U.S. Constitution appears most clearly in their crusade to curb voting rights and in their campaign to destroy unions and collective bargaining, Harkin, the Senate Labor Committee chairman, explained.

"They consistently challenge the right to form a labor union and to bargain collectively," he said. The original 1935 National Labor Relations Act cited the Constitution's clauses about freedom of speech and assembly in justifying the law. Subsequent court rulings upheld labor laws under the Constitutional power the government has "to regulate commerce."

"At our markup" of legislation appropriating money for the Labor Department and the National Labor Relations Board - which oversees union-management relations for industries except for airlines, farms and railroads - "they offered amendment after amendment to gut the NLRB and the NLRA," Harkin said of labor's right-wing foes.

Though the amendments lost, he said, that didn't stop the right's crusade against workers' rights or the Constitution. Supreme Court rulings let firms "blatantly discriminate on the basis of gender and age," he pointed out, again in violation of equal protection of the laws that is enshrined in the Constitution.

Congress had to overturn those rulings with special statutes, such as the Lilly Ledbetter law restoring the right to sue for pay discrimination based on sex, age, race, disability or other factors.

Those laws were possible until now, but could be repealed, or made dead letters if the Right takes control of the Senate this fall, he warned. Democrats currently hold the Senate 51-47, with two Democratic-leaning independents, but the Democrats must defend 21 U.S. Senate seats, plus both independents, to the GOP's 10.

And the Right wants "to intentionally paralyze the government so it can't act," and then turn government to its own ends, Harkin warned. While the founders who wrote the Constitution in 1787 wanted the government "to address problems affecting the general welfare, like it says in the preamble," the right "believes the Constitution was designed to protect the survival of the fittest.

"They seem to forget the preamble is part of the Constitution," Harkin deadpanned. "You know, the part that begins, 'We, the people...'"

Not only labor is in danger from the right's anti-Constitutional crusade, the senator warned. With right-wing judges and senators even questioning such basic laws as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, something as simple as "the opportunity for employment, the right to eat in any restaurant, or even to ride a Greyhound bus" is under attack, he stated.

Those rights and others were first enacted in the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era, taken away - by Congress, Southern legislatures and the Supreme Court - from 1877 until after World War II, and have been regained legislatively, step by step, since.

The right also reached back to find another way to stop the Constitution, by refusing to staff the government with personnel needed to carry out the law, Harkin warned. He cited the cases of GOP Senate filibusters that have left the NLRB laboring either without a quorum - paralyzing it - or with temporary "recess" appointees.

It all adds up, Harkin warned, to "modern nullification." Nullification was the doctrine the South used in the 1830s-1850s to first try to block tariff legislation and then to block anti-slavery statutes from being enforced. That and GOP filibusters violate the Constitution, too, he said. "I fought the filibuster, and I will when we debate the Senate rules again, next year," he promised.

Photo: Stock image of Sen. Harkin. Phil Roeder // CC 2.0

Memorial honors fallen immigrants

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 12:53:00 +0000

COCKRELL HILL, Texas - Since earlier this year, a public monument to fallen immigrants has been standing at the corner of Jefferson Boulevard and Cockrell Hill Road in this totally-enclosed "suburb" of Dallas. "El Memoria al Migrante Caído" is clearly Aztec in design. The Aztecs ruled Mexico City before ibeing tricked into submission by Conquistador Hernan Cortez.

The statue is intended as a remembrance to all those who perished attempting to cross the Mexico-U.S. border.

According to "Al Dia" newspaper, the statue weighs 6,000 pounds and stands 11 feet tall. It was created from volcanic rock by sculptor Felix de Muro Arenas and donated by the Governor of Zacatecas, Mexico. The newspaper also reports that some people in the area don't like to be reminded of the tremendous number and significance of immigrants from the south who live and work within the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

Many others are greatly appreciative of the artwork, its message of dignity and hope, and the courage of the leaders of the little township of Cockrell Hill.

Photo: Jim Lane/PW

Florida voters support immigration reform

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 16:25:00 +0000

MIAMI - A recent poll offering a snapshot of Florida voters found that, despite contradictory attitudes, Floridians back President Barack Obama's recent decision to end deportations of DREAM Act-eligible youth. They also support some broader, more sweeping reform.

In a contradictory twist, a large percentage of polled voters backed arresting undocumented immigrants, while at the same time supporting legislation that would offer a road to citizenship for everyone here without documentation.

The poll was conducted July 9 - 11, a few weeks after Obama made his June 15 announcement. Under his new policy, the Department of Homeland Security will no longer seek to deport undocumented students or high school graduates under the age of 30 who came here when they were 15 or younger, have continually resided in the U.S. for five years and have no serious criminal record.

According to the poll results, proponents of the policy have a commanding lead, with 53 percent of respondents - a sample of likely Florida voters - in support, 42 percent opposed, and the rest undecided.

Florida is divided geographically, with the far southeast politically and culturally different from the north. The poll results reflect this divide.

In the southeast is Miami, which is, according to a 2004 report by the United Nations, the most immigrant city on the planet: no other major city has a larger percentage of its population born outside of its host country. In Miami, Cubans predominate, but the large Hispanic population in the city and Miami-Dade County, has become far more diverse, with large Venezuelan, Nicaraguan, Argentine and other Latin American populations. In addition, there is a large Haitian and African American population, especially outside the city of Miami but within Miami-Dade County. Bordering is Broward County, perhaps the most liberal in the state.

In the area surrounding Miami, which stretches from Key West north through Palm Beach, 63 percent of those surveyed support Obama's move, while only slightly more than 1 in 3 oppose it.

On the other hand, the northern part of Florida is far more closely related to the American South. In this area, Obama received less support: 44-51 percent opposed. Nonetheless, this can be seen as a decent achievement for Obama supporters in this conservative area.

There is a racial and ethnic divide in the poll results as well. Forty-six percent of whites supported the president's move, with 50 percent opposed. Given the poll's margin of error, however, this is a statistical tie. However, 72 percent of blacks and a whopping 74 percent of Hispanics support Obama's action.

These results are significant. A majority of Cubans seem to be in support of Obama's rules change. Cubans have tended to vote conservative, and have in the past been seen as at odds with the rest of the Hispanic American population. This poll suggests a high degree of Cuban support for non-Cuban immigrants. The support is not self-serving, either: A popular saying puts it: "There is no such thing as an undocumented Cuban." This is a reference to the U.S. policy, aimed at encouraging migration from Castro's Cuba, of granting immediate legal status to any Cuban who reaches American soil. Thus, Cubans themselves do not directly benefit from the rules change.

The 72 percent support in the black community is significant as well. While a section of Florida blacks are Haitian-American, they are mostly concentrated in Miami-Dade. The Haitian American community will certainly benefit from Obama's directive, but the majority of African American support is statewide.

The results suggest that half of whites and a majority of African Americans are in solidarity with undocumented immigrants.

Strangely, most of those polled said they support Arizona-style legislation that would allow police to ask for documentation of residence from anyone whom they stop, and then arrest those who can't produce it. Only in the Miami region, where the results were tied at 46-46, did a majority not support such legislation. No one is quite sure what to make of this number, especially since the rest of the poll's results on immigration strongly contradict it.

Far more encouraging for proponents of immigrant rights, the vast majority of Floridians in all areas of the state support "immigration reform legislation that allowed all of those who are living here without legal status to be given the opportunity to stay and apply for citizenship".

The lowest came from northern Florida (the U.S. South), with 61 percent, but even that is a commanding majority. The Miami-Dade/Broward region showed 71 percent support. Sixty-three percent of whites supported such legislation, while 73 and 77 percent of blacks and Hispanics, respectively, supported it.

The poll, done on behalf of the Miami Herald and other press outlets by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research, Inc., was conducted by random telephone interview of 800 likely voters, and has a margin of error of about 4 percent. Sub-groups have a slightly greater margin of error due to the smaller sample size.

Photo: Victor L. Atunez // CC 2.0

Demonstrations mark third year of no minimum wage hike

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 14:41:00 +0000

Workers are rallying, picketing and marching all over the country today, the day that marks three years since there has been no increase in the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.

As the prices of every-day necessities continue to rise, whether it be the prices of eggs or milk on the one hand or health care and college tuition on the other, a minimum-wage worker who puts in 40 hours per week barely takes home $15,000 a year.

The average CEO of a Fortune 500 company earns more than twice that in a single day.

According to the National Employment Law Project there is not a single state in the nation where a full-time minimum-wage worker could afford a two-bedroom apartment. The NELP has an online petition it is urging everyone to sign.

The rallies across the country today make the point that this has to change.

"The need for a minimum wage hike is a no-brainer," said Dean Baker, chief economist at the Center for Economic Progress. "The counter-argument against raising the minimum wage is that it would actually hurt the people we are trying to help by reducing employment. There is little basis for this claim."

Baker noted in an article in the Huffington Post yesterday that while a 20 percent hike in the minimum wage might result in a typical low-wage worker putting in 2 percent fewer hours in a year it would net out to an increase in pay of 18 percent, "a deal most workers would likely consider pretty good."

The most compelling argument he makes, however, relates to worker productivity: which he notes has increased by more than 120 percent since the late 1960's. "If the minimum wage had kept step with productivity growth and inflation," he said, "it would be over $20 an hour today."

The problem then is that the benefits reaped from the growth in productivity have not been shared with the people whose productivity has increased so much - the workers. The benefits of the growth in productivity have gone instead to the top at the expense of the majority.

"A higher minimum wage is an important step toward reversing this," wrote Baker. "It should not be too much to expect that workers should get at least as much as they did 45 years ago, and perhaps some dividend to allow them to share in the benefits of economic growth over this period. A minimum wage of $10 an hour would be a step in the right direction."

Photo: In May, Give Missourians A Raise and Missourians for Responsible Lending delivered over 350,000 registered voters' signatures to the Secretary of State's office in Jefferson City, Mo., effectively qualifying a state ballot initiative to raise Missouri's state minimum wage. Tony Pecinovsky/PW

Coming out is still risky in Tennessee

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 11:51:00 +0000

Jonathan Cole knows many stories of discrimination, but he can't share all of them. For many workers in Tennessee, reporting a case of discrimination based on sexual orientation would seriously risk their personal safety. Cole, the chair and president of the Tennessee Equality Project, says, "This is especially the case in police and fire departments where homophobia could be very detrimental to personal safety."

One case Cole can talk about is that of Virginia Awkward, an openly lesbian officer in the Memphis Police Department. After being featured on the TLC's program Police Women of Memphis in 2010, Awkward has routinely found "anti-gay religious pamphlets left on the windshield of her patrol car."

The Tennessee Equality Project exists to "promote equality and to serve as advocates for change." When the TEP is not "actively pursuing measures that would provide protection for the GLBT community at both the state and local levels" their energy and resources are devoted to "fighting any legislation in the State of Tennessee that would endanger the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizens."

Given President Obama's public support for gay marriage, and the AFL-CIO's recent statements supporting marriage equality, many people outside of the LGBT community think homophobia is largely a thing of the past and what little remains is insensitive, but not vitriolic.

In the last year alone, two Tennessee teens have been driven to commit suicides, "after years of anti-gay bullying," says Jonathan Cole. In Cheatham County, 18-year-old Jacob Rogers, an openly gay high school student, took his life. Less than two months later, Phillip Parker committed suicide after years of constant anti-gay bullying. He was 14.

Sadly, these two suicides are not isolated instances of the cruelty of children: they are the effect of the anti-gay culture that pervades many Tennessee schools.

Jonathan Cole says, "A high school journalism teacher was targeted for removal from his position" for no other reason than the fact that he "allowed the yearbook to run a positive portrayal of a gay student." Then in Haywood County, "a principal told a high school assembly that gays and lesbians were going to hell." Perhaps most disturbing is the fact that when students of Sequoyah High School in Monroe County "tried to form a Gay-Straight Alliance they couldn't find a single faculty member to sponsor them," according to Cole.

However, anti-gay culture is not limited to Tennessee schools. Tennessee legislators are obsessively homophobic. More than once in 2012, they have introduced bills designed to reduce members of the LGBT community to second-class citizens.

In January, Rep. Richard Floyd, the Republican representing Chattanooga, sponsored HB 2279. Also known as the "Police the Potty" bill, 2279 would have made it a crime for members of the transgender community to use a public restroom that was not the same sex as the sex designated on their driver's license.

A few months later, Sen. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, created what would eventually be known as SB 49, or the "Don't Say Gay" bill. The original language of the bill stated that it would be a crime for educators to "provide any instruction or material that discusses sexual orientation other than heterosexuality."

Using a variety of very effective tactics the Tennessee Equality Project defeated both of these bills before they even came to a vote.

However, Tennessee still has many miles to go before those who fight for equality can get any sleep. Local attorney Ann Gullick points out that in Tennessee, "the gender one is assigned at birth is [legally] unalterable." Gullick, who is also chair of the Shelby County TEP, says that Tennessee is "the only state in the union that by statute you cannot change your birth certificate."

Considering that, "when you get your license you have to present your birth certificate" the ramifications of not appearing to be the sex listed on your state identification are many and serious. "What do you think happens when you show up to vote," Gullick wonders.

Pausing for a moment, Gullick flatly says, "The greatest fear a transgender woman has is a routine traffic stop." Any transgender person stopped by the police is very likely to get arrested if asked for identification. After a physical exam performed at the jail, transgender women are then placed in the male general population. By the time they are released, transgender women have often suffered many injuries and indignities.

Last week, in an inspiring display of solidarity with his transgender brothers and sisters, Jonathan Cole immediately and flatly refused to consider dropping the word transgender from an antidiscrimination proposal.

When asked what the future is for the TEP, Cole was cautiously optimistic, saying, "The level of support in the South is shifting." He illustrated his point saying, "When Tennessee passed its anti-equality bill in 2006 the bill passed by 81 percent." Later, when an identical bill was passed in North Carolina it did so by "61-3 percent in 2012." While definite losses for the LGBT community, Cole quickly points out that these two bills "represent a 20 point shift in the region."

Given the Republican domination of state politics in Tennessee, the TEP continues to take the fight local. It is setting up county committees to help establish non-discriminatory civic practices in small communities across the state. "Then" Cole hopes, "we can go to our state and ask why our civil rights laws don't reflect the current practice."

Photo: The Tennessee Equality Project taking part in a Pride Parade.

GOP shoots down another jobs bill

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 11:55:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Once again, a planned Senate Republican filibuster brought down a jobs bill, the Bring Jobs Home Act.

The 56-42 vote on July 19 to open debate, and the later real vote on the measure, was not enough to cross the 60-vote threshold lawmakers needed to halt the scheduled Republican talkathon against it. So the bill died.

The measure banned firms from deducting from their taxes the expenses of shifting U.S. jobs overseas, while giving firms that bring outsourced jobs back here an additional 20 percent tax credit for doing so.

Four Republicans - including two in tight re-election races, Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Dean Heller of Nevada - joined 50 Democrats and both independents in voting to debate the measure by Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. The AFL-CIO pushed it and asked members to call and e-mail senators for it.

"Too many of our tax and trade policies continue to reward multi-national companies who offshore jobs," federation Legislative Director Bill Samuel wrote senators. "This important legislation will create and keep jobs here at home."

"Every other major industrial country has a strategic plan to create and keep good jobs. It's time for the U.S. to implement a real plan...to put our people back to work and end the tax breaks and flawed policies that encourage rampant offshoring," he added. "The Bring The Jobs Home Act is the first step" in doing so, Samuel said.

Before the vote, Stabenow, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and other backers discussed the jobs bill, anyway. "In the last decade, companies shipped 2.4 million jobs overseas," Stabenow said. "To add insult to injury, American taxpayers were asked to help foot the bill. It is amazing. When I explain that to folks in Michigan, they say you have to be kidding - or they say other things I cannot repeat on the floor of the Senate.

"Just imagine if you are one of those workers in Michigan or Virginia or Ohio or Wisconsin or anywhere who maybe was forced to train your overseas replacement before you were laid off...When an American worker is asked to subsidize the moving expenses and costs so their own job can be shipped overseas," as they do now, "there is something seriously wrong with our tax code and our priorities."

"This is about making sure we see the words 'Made in America' again," Boxer said. "We need the jobs here. Shipping jobs overseas became a trend and a lot of important voices were heard saying: That is just the way it is. It is not just the way it is. If we have policies in place that incentivize manufacturing and production here, we are not going to lose those jobs."

Photo: Sen. Stabenow speaking on the floor of the Senate.