People Before Profit blog

Tea party tries to save one of its own in Illinois

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 15:45:00 +0000

ELGIN, Ill. - Right-wing groups are pouring more than $1 million to support the reelection campaign of Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill. The out-of-state super-PACs are in a desperate last minute attempt to save the congressional seat of a tea party favorite.

Walsh is fighting for his political life against Democratic candidate Tammy Duckworth, the Iraq War veteran who lost both legs when the helicopter she was piloting was shot down in combat. Duckworth also worked as assistant secretary in the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The victor will represent the redrawn 8^th Congressional District in the suburbs west of Chicago. A new Public Policy Polling poll shows Duckworth up by 14 percent in one of the most closely watched congressional races.

The Now or Never PAC, based in Kansas City, Mo., gave $810,000 to Walsh. The PAC favors tea party candidates, giving $450,000 this past summer to former Missouri State Treasurer Sarah Steelman in her losing bid for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate. The financial support came after former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin endorsed her.

Another $100,000 came in to Walsh from the tea party-affiliated Freedom Works PAC, and $100,000 has already been spent by the New Prosperity Foundation, funded by Sam Fox of Swift Boat Veterans fame.

Walsh is seen as one of the most vulnerable of Republican incumbents, and for good reason. He is viewed as personally unstable, and has been videoed screaming at constituents who disagree with him.

His extremist views and his blatant racism and sexism have alarmed wide sections of his constituency, a largely working-class and increasingly racially diverse population.

Walsh drew national attention when he said, dripping with racism, the tea party political movement will "pat" President Barack Obama "on the head" and say, "son, son, son, Mr. President, you were never ready to be president, now go home and work for somebody and find out how the real world works."

In August, Walsh went on an anti-Islam tirade, saying Muslims are infiltrating Chicago suburbs and "trying to kill Americans every week," alleging they are a "real threat" in the congressional district.

Walsh also said he reminds high school students another 9/11 is inevitable and will occur in the immediate future.

"Such indiscriminate vilification is not unrelated to the rise in hate crimes and acts of vandalism we are seeing today. When elected officials, trusted by many, indicate that the enemy could be any Muslim living in your neighborhood, it gives rise to xenophobic vigilantism where fearful citizens target other Americans for simply looking different," said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Rabbi Brent Rosen, the spiritual leader of the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, joined Rehab and other religious leaders in denouncing Walsh.

"For a public servant to utter words such as these for political gain is frankly the height of cynicism and irresponsibility. There is no place for this kind of hatred, intolerance, divisive rhetoric or Islamaphobia in our community," Rosen said.

Duckworth, who was born in Thailand, blasted Walsh for his racism and said he had shown why he "wasn't fit to hold office."

Walsh has been widely criticized for sexist remarks directed at Duckworth and Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown law student who rose to national prominence when she was prevented from speaking to an all male panel of Republican lawmakers in support of health insurance plans covering birth control.

Labor, immigrant rights and women's groups have targeted this as a top race and are going all out to support Duckworth.

The race is one of five battleground congressional races in Illinois whose outcome is seen as decisive to Democrats regaining the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. The other races are in the:

13^th CD where single payer advocate Democrat Dr. David Gill opposes Republican Rodney Davis in an open seat;
17^th CD where Democratic challenger Cheri Bustos opposes Republican incumbent Rep. Bobby Shilling;
11^th CD where former Democratic Rep. Bill Foster opposes Republican incumbent Rep. Judy Biggert;
10^th CD where Brad Schneider opposes another Republican incumbent Rep. Bob Dold.

Photo: In addition to the other outrageous comments, Joe Walsh also slammed Tammy Duckworth for supposedly constantly talking about her war injuries. "Now I'm running against a woman who, my God, that's all she talks about. Our true heroes, it's the last thing in the world they talk about," he said. (Southern Breeze/CC)

“Adios Arpaio” campaign heats up in Arizona

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 11:18:00 +0000

PHOENIX, Ariz. - Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is running scared. The notoriously racist Tea Party darling likes to call himself "the toughest sheriff in the country," but it seems he is afraid to openly debate his main opponent, Paul Penzone. Arpaio, however, loves to talk to the news media, or to adoring small gatherings of Republican supporters, and out-of-state contributors.

After 20 years in office, Arpaio is being challenged like never before. Public opinion polls show that Democratic candidate Penzone is slowly gaining on him to within 5.5 points, almost within the poll's margin of error. Independent candidate Mike Stauffer, who garnered over eight percent in the poll, is being urged to withdraw from the race and throw his support to Penzone.

Arizonans don't expect to have progressive sheriffs. Voters tend to go for "law and order" types. Arpaio played up that role to the max, forcing county prisoners to wear pink underwear, live in tents, and eat green balogna sandwiches. For a while it played well in conservative Maricopa County, home to two-thirds of Arizonans.

But Arpaio grew too enchanted with the TV cameras and his self-importance. He decided to jump on the anti-immigrant bandwagon and become the major enforcer of Arizona's racist laws. While claiming to have saved the state money with his tent city prisons he has been accused of spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars going after political rivals, and investigating President Obama's birth.

Citizens for Professional Law Enforcement, a newly formed bipartisan group of local police and elected officials opposed to Arpaio, has also pointed out the numerous deaths in Arpaio's jails.

Strongly backing Penzone is the Campaign for Arizona's Future led by the forces that successfully recalled Arizona State Senate President Russell Pearce. They are targeting Arpaio for his racist anti-immigrant grandstanding, the tens of thousands of unserved criminal warrants, and a failure by the Sheriff's Department to investigate hundreds of sex crimes in the small Latino community of El Mirage.

They have launched a new campaign called Adios Arpaio, which has strong support from labor and the Latino communities. The campaign has enlisted hundreds of youth who have registered over 22,000 new anti-Arpaio voters in Phoenix barrios - targeting "people who would not otherwise be voting," and they intend to keep registering folks until the Oct. 9 deadline. Last Saturday demonstrators descended on Arpaio's downtown office with packing boxes to help him "move out!"

Arpaio has gathered millions in contributions from right-wing moneybags across the country and will far outspend Paul Penzone, but Arizona's working class and immigrant communities are not letting up. The high school kids, trade unionists, and progressive activists will keep up the grassroots work. They just can't imagine why Maricopa voters would consent to keep this embarrassment in office.

Photo: Adios Arpaio Facebook page

Progressives say election may bolster social safety net

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 11:18:00 +0000

The increasingly likely win this November by President Obama will amount, progressives say, to a mandate to preserve, if not extend, the social safety net and the social insurance programs.

They reject the idea that Obama's reelection and the continued presence of many Republicans in Washington would signal the need for "compromise" along the lines of Simpson-Bowles style austerity.

"Simpson-Bowles was put together in a political environment in which progressives, and even supporters of the safety net as we know it, were very much on the defensive," wrote the economist Paul Krugman in the New York Times yesterday. "It was an environment in which conservatives were presumed to be in the ascendant, and in which bipartisanship was effectively defined as the effort to broker deals between the center-right and the hard right.

"Barring an upset, however, that environment will come to an end on Nov. 6. This election is shaping up as a referendum on our social insurance system, and it looks as if Mr. Obama will emerge with a clear mandate for preserving and extending that system."

Developments in some of the key Senate races lend credence to the belief that perhaps the entire progressive mandate may be bolstered - both in terms of support for the social safety net and the direction voters want to take when it comes to the economy overall.

Politico said today that in Ohio, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who it described as an "unabashed liberal," is "poised to win re-election." Politico attributed Brown's strong position to his support for the auto bailout, which has resulted in a lower official unemployment rate in Ohio than almost everywhere else in the country.

Explaining it in his own terns, Brown said, "Fundamentally, the voters don't see left to right, liberal or conservative, but they want to know if you are on their side. When it comes to the auto rescue, when it comes to China currency manipulation, when it comes to a health care plan, people understand I am on their side."

In some states Senate races, progressives say, may result in more than just a strengthening of the progressive mandate in Washington. In a state like Virginia, they note, the Senate race could also result in breaking apart the Republican coalition itself.

"The Senate race here has become a testing ground for how far social conservatives can push their agenda - and continue to win elections -in a rapidly changing southern state with a burgeoning population of college-educated voters as well as many more ethnically diverse voters," wrote Tom Edsall, also in the New York Times. "The political costs to the Republican Party of rewarding social conservatives are beginning to outweigh the benefits in a state that is undergoing dramatic demographic transformation."

Photo: Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio Chris Baker/Flickr

Black Caucus meet: “Vote like you never did before!”

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 11:46:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Some 10,000 participants from all over the country gathered here at the Congressional Black Caucus annual meeting earlier this month to listen, discuss and speak their minds on the urgent challenges facing Black America and the nation as a whole.

This CBC has 42 members and represents a combined constituency of more than 29 million Americans. Many of their members are ranking members of Congress, and if the Democrats win back the majority of the House of Representatives in November many CBC members will be heading congressional committees. The CBC is a force that cannot be dismissed in the struggle for democracy and justice.

The caucus has one Republican member, the redbaiting, ultra right-wing Rep. Allen West of Florida, who, seemed to have played little, if any, role in the conference.

The overall theme of the legislative conference, "Inspiring Leaders/Building Generations," seemed rather timid in light of the heighted racism and deepening economic crisis facing the African American people. But in response to the right danger, the speeches and issues that were discussed, in my judgment, had politically moved more to the left then at previous conferences, despite the usual presence of big corporate sponsors.

The National Town Hall meeting, which was sponsored by Service Employees International Union, drew several thousand participants with its theme, "Voting Rights and New Age Discrimination." The November elections and voter suppression laws were discussed throughout the conference.

There are 176 bills that are aimed at restricting voting rights in 41 states. If they stand, the Republicans' chances of winning will be much greater. As Pennsylvania state Rep. Mike Turzai once brazenly put it, "The new voter ID laws would allow Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney to win the State of Pennsylvania."

Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio said her elderly mother, who was born in rural Mississippi, must now produce a birth certificate in order to vote. She recounted her own experience having to spend $1,000 to obtain her own birth certificate from the same state.

Rep. Andre Carson of Indiana said in his state the Republican-dominated legislature passed the most restrictive voter ID law to counter so-called "rampant voter fraud." The State of Indiana, he added, "has never convicted anyone of voter fraud." The only exception was the state's Republican secretary of state.

In many states, for example in Texas, you can use your hunting license to vote, but not your student ID.

The forms of restrictions that the Republicans have legislated are special photo IDs, new proof of citizenship, elimination or reduction of early voting and same day registration, new restrictions on voter registrations drives and not allowing students to use valid student photo IDs.

Many speakers called these laws the "New Age Discrimination" or the "New Jim Crow" because they continue the old Jim Crow voter disenfranchisement.

Two Republican panelists argued these bills have nothing to do with race. They argued that people use ID to get on airplanes and to buy liquor. They also said the main problems in Black communities are crime and the "breakdown of the family."

"Voter ID laws are not bad," conservative columnist Crystal Harris said. "Eighty-eight percent have IDs, 11 percent don't. Whose fault is that?"

Sharpton retorted, "Why not use the same ID system used in 2008, or when Bush and Reagan ran? You are changing the rules in the middle of the game. This is an attack on the Voting Rights Act."

Other panelists made the point that this is more than an ID issue. The Republicans just want to focus on and use the ID issue in a demagogic way. What about early voting? Weekend voting? The costs?, they asked.

"Voter ID is different than IDs to buy liquor or get on a plane. None of those things are like voting. Voting is a constitutional right!" Rep. Melvin Watts of North Carolina said.

Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, a hero of the civil rights movement who was brutally beat during the infamous "Bloody Sunday" Selma, Ala. march, spoke of how sad he was to have to fight this all over again. "In the 1960s, I gave a little blood. But my friends Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner gave their lives."

Lewis called for marches to the Boards of Election wherever and whenever the right to vote is threatened.

The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation in its report, "Towards A More Inclusive America: African American & Voting Rights in the 21^st Century," recommended:

1. Immediately contact your Board of Elections to verify your voting status.

2. States requiring photo ID should cover the cost and should issue a photo registration to new voters.

3. Election Day should be a national holiday with free public transportation and same day registration, which should be a federal statute.

4. All ex-felons should have their right to vote reinstituted after serving their time in prison.

The strongest advice came from Lewis who argued that the civil rights movement was not just for Black people, it was for all people. "It helped create a new nation," Lewis said.

He added with urgency, "Everyone should vote like you never did before!"

Photo: Members of the Congressional Black Caucus demand action on foreclosure crisis in December 2009. (CBC on Facebook)

Mexican supermarket workers and union condemn E-Verify

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 11:11:00 +0000

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Mexican supermarket (mercado) workers, supporters and union organizers marched through the Latino immigrant community on San Jose's East Side, from Guadalupe Church to the Mi Pueblo supermarket, Sept. 26. They protested the use of the E-Verify immigration screening system by the Mexican market chain, and accused the chain's owners of using immigration enforcement to terrorize workers during their effort to organize a union in the stores.

Mi Pueblo Foods management announced earlier this month that they had decided to voluntarily implement the controversial federal immigration program, in which employers contact a database maintained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to verify the immigration status of job applicants. Some workers also say the chain is demanding that current employees re-verify their immigration status.

Mi Pueblo management says it is obligated to use the E-Verify system. But a reporter from the Los Angeles Times quoted a spokesperson from the Department of Homeland Security, who asserted that this government agency does not force employers to use the E-Verify program. Father Jon Pedigo, the parish priest at Guadalupe Church, compared the situation of the workers to that of the Israelites in Egypt, saying they are exploited as workers in the U.S. much as the Israelites were by the Pharaoh. He condemned the use of E-Verify, saying it made workers more vulnerable to pressure by employers.

Workers have been trying to join Local 5 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union for the past two years, in a bitter campaign that has seen the firing of hundreds of Mi Pueblo employees. They and their supporters demanded that Mi Pueblo sign the Mercado Code of Conduct, and announced they plan to boycott every Mi Pueblo Foods store starting on October 8, 2012 at 12:00 noon.

Photo: David Bacon

Unions back universities in race and admissions Supreme Court case

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 11:04:00 +0000

Declaring that, still, "race matters" in schools and society, the AFL-CIO, both teachers unions, AFSCME and the Service Employees, are siding with top universities in a U.S. Supreme Court case on the role of race in college admissions.

In a "friend of the court" brief filed with the justices, the unions argue that the High Court should follow its prior precedent and let race be one factor, but not the controlling factor, in undergraduate admissions.

"Equal educational opportunities, including opportunity to learn with students of races other than one's own, are a fundamental prerequisite" for overall equality, said the National Education Association, the largest teachers union.

"Ours is not a color-blind society, and race still matters," the union coalition told the justices. "When it comes to public elementary, secondary, and higher education, racial classifications continue to carry great weight - dividing educational opportunities inequitably and distorting perceptions with stereotypes and prejudice."

Public schools, including state-sponsored universities have a mission that includes "instilling in all students the values on which our society rests and to provide them with the skills and knowledge necessary to realize their full potential. That mission cannot adequately be fulfilled without racially diverse classrooms. Accordingly, achieving such diversity unquestionably serves a compelling state interest."

That's why universities, private and public, should be able "to take race into account in making decisions as to student admissions, assignments, and/or transfers."

The case, filed by the University of Texas, will come before the justices on Oct. 10, just a week after the court opens its formal 2012-13 session.

Knowing that Justice Anthony Kennedy could be the swing vote in an ideologically polarized court, the unions' brief specifically quotes him as writing in a 2003 case that diversity on campus "promotes cross-racial understanding (that) helps to break down racial stereotypes," leads to "more enlightening classroom discussion," promotes better learning outcomes and better prepares students for an increasingly diverse workforce and society."

That's vital not just for education but for the country, the unions - themselves very diverse - reminded the justices. "Nothing less than the nation's future depends upon leaders trained through wide exposure to the ideas and mores of students as diverse as this nation of many peoples," they point out. That quote, pointedly, came from the first such affirmative-action-on-campus ruling, the 1978 Bakke case.

The student suing Texas, and other foes of diversity on campus, want court scrutiny of such plans to be so strict that it would be "fatal in fact in every circumstance," the unions said.

"As the duly authorized representatives of millions of educators and millions more working Americans, we urge this court to continue to recognize that ensuring diversity at the school and classroom level, including racial and ethnic diversity, is a compelling government interest that can justify the appropriately limited use of race as one of many factors in school admissions and assignment decisions."

While the Texas case reached the justices, other relevant rulings are in lower courts. But another top case for workers may wend its way up from Arizona, again.

There, U.S. District Judge Frederick Martone dismissed the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) case against an Arizona constitutional amendment ordering approval of unions only by secret ballots, and virtually barring any alternatives, including voluntary recognition, also known as card check.

A ban on such alternatives has been a radical right GOP big business goal, as unions increasingly turn to card-check to counteract delays, roadblocks and labor law-breaking that firms use in a "normal" union recognition election campaign.

The NLRB challenged the GOP-passed Arizona amendment as an infringement on federal supremacy in labor relations law and also warned three other GOP-run states their similar amendments are in trouble, too. The NLRB reported that Martone on Sept. 5 granted Arizona's motion to dismiss the board's case. But the agency said the judge left the door open for future action.

"It is possible that state litigation invoking" the amendment "may impermissibly clash with the NLRB's jurisdiction to resolve disputes over employee recognition, conduct secret ballot elections, and address unfair labor practices," Martone wrote. But "because the amendment has not yet been applied," to a contest, Martone "could not assume that it would conflict with the National Labor Relations Act."

"Our objective was to ensure employees protected by law continue to have the same options for choosing representation they have always had," said NLRB Chairman Mark Pearce. "Although we continue to believe" Martone should have ruled federal law preempted Arizona, "We are very pleased the court recognized these choices are guaranteed to employees by federal law and cannot be taken away by the states."

Photo: Postcard image of Duquesne University campus. Wikimedia Commons.

U.S. Army stands down worldwide to focus on suicide prevention

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 13:57:00 +0000

[View the story "U.S. Army stands down worldwide to focus on suicide prevention" on Storify]

Polls show Romney’s ship running aground

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 17:19:00 +0000

CHICAGO - The Quinnipiac/New York Times/CBS News poll of likely voters released today, taken entirely after Mitt Romney's 47% remarks, show his campaign running aground.

In Ohio, which no Republican has won the presidency without, the president led Romney 53 percent to 43 percent.

In Florida, Obama leads Romney 53 to 44 percent.

The president led Romney by 12 percentage points in Pennsylvania.

The apparent cratering of the Romney campaign is blamed by the poll takers themselves on falling support for Romney among white working-class voters angry about the candidate's now-famous 47 percent speech to wealthy campaign donors gathered in Boca Raton, Fla.

The New York Times reported that Sharon Whalen, 56, a former travel agent from Dade City who told pollsters that she and her husband voted for the Republican Sen. John McCain in 2008, said she had developed "a very bad impression of Romney." She said she intended to support President Obama and was troubled by the Romney-Ryan plan for Medicare.

"There's just something about him I don't trust," Whalen told the Times in a follow-up interview. "It's not so much that I don't believe what he is saying, but I just don't think he's for the middle and lower class. He's more for helping the rich."

"This last thing, where he was going on about the 47 percent who are dependent on government , is hard to swallow," said Kenneth Myers, a Republican who lives in Mansfield, Ohio and is unemployed. "I think I'm part of the 47 percent he is talking about. But I don't want to be dependent on the government."

Romney, meanwhile, in an attempt to chip away at Obama's widening lead, continued what the Obama campaign says is a strategy of brazen lying about the President's record.

First, he continues to defend his well-debunked claim that the president is trying to take the work requirement out of welfare. He added a claim this week, however, that the president is now also "trying to take the work requirement out of food stamps."

Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith called the new food stamp attack "another fallacy" and explained that participants in the food stamp program are required to be actively looking for work, take part in training programs as directed, and accept jobs that are offered.

Adding to Romney's troubles, reports were out today that the few tax returns he has released show that he made huge gains from a questionable Bain Capital deal. According to the Huffington Post, Bain allowed Romney to receive his retirement payments as "carried interest." Romney's tax return does not detail the amount of income he received in "carried interest" but his campaign told the Huffington Post it was about $5.5 million.

Recording this $5.5 million in retirement income as "carried interest" rather than income enabled Romney to wiggle out of $147,000 in self-employment taxes including Medicare and Social Security and enabled him to avoid $700,000 in income taxes.

Romney's troubles seem to be filtering down to the Senate races where Democrats now have an edge.

Republicans need to gain a net of four seats to take the majority the Democrats have held since 2006. In races from Virginia to Wisconsin, however, the polls now show a shift in Senate contests in favor of Democrats.

Not to be outdone by his Party's leader in the blooper department, Tommy Thompson, the GOP's Senate candidate in Wisconsin, has allowed the surfacing of videos in which he promises to do away with Medicare and Medicaid. "Who better than me to accomplish this," he asks in the videos that were never supposed to have surfaced.

In Massachusetts the Republican Senatorial candidate, incumbent Scott Brown, is resorting to purely negative campaigning in what looks increasingly like a desperate attempt to hold onto his seat. Video surfaced yesterday showing supporters of Brown making tomahawk gestures with their arms and yelling Indian war hoops at supporters of Democrat Elizabeth Warren. With only a bit more than a month left and the race close, Brown is trying to turn almost everything into an issue of Warren's "character."

"He's voted against jobs, against women, against college students, he has worked in secret to weaken the rules against Wall Street, and the best he's got is personal attacks," said Warren.

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

Romney's plane window flub shows his head's in the clouds

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 11:46:00 +0000

The next time Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney boards a plane, he'd like to be able to roll his window down. At least, his remarks at a recent California fundraiser suggested such, when he lamented the fact that one couldn't just crack the window open on a jetliner and get some fresh air. He made his latest blunder in response to a September 21 incident where his wife Ann's plane had to make an emergency landing due to an electrical malfunction. Mitt Romney took the opportunity to display his complete lack of knowledge in the area of aviation.

"When you have a fire in an aircraft," he said, "there's no place to go, exactly. There's no - and you can't find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don't open. I don't know why they don't do that. It's a real problem. So it's very dangerous."

Actually, the reason why they don't do that is rather important. At 35,000 feet up, the air becomes too thin, so airplane cabins have to be pressurized above that altitude. Otherwise, passengers would suffer from hypoxia (oxygen deprivation). Outside the plane, the temperature usually drops below negative 60 degrees. If one were able to "roll down the window" and expose him- or herself to such conditions, that person would quickly die.

Later, Ashley Parker, the New York Times writer who wrote the original report, believed that the context of Romney's words suggested that he was joking.

But not all writers are buying that, and if Romney wasn't joking, people may feel a little cause for concern at the candidate's lack of scientific knowledge.

Certainly, many people took notice of the comment. Atheist author and biologist Richard Dawkins took to his Twitter, sarcastically remarking, "Romney thinks planes should have windows you can open. Makes sense. Good to have a scientifically savvy president."

New Jersey comedian/columnist Michael Hayne concluded, "One doesn't have to have a nobel prize in science to know why opening windows on aircraft is strictly forbidden.

"No word yet on whether Mitt Romney wishes passengers on battleships could open screen doors."

Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr

Tea party targets 10 million Latinos for vote suppression

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 11:12:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Tea party affiliated groups, which in some cases control state and local GOP organizations, have added voter suppression efforts to their long-standing anti-immigrant policies, Latino leaders charged at a press conference here today.

They said the voter suppression efforts of tea party affiliated groups, True the Vote, Republican elected officials and GOP state Secretaries of State are together creating a situation in which as many as 10 million Latinos may be denied their right to vote due to changes in voting laws.

"Of special note," charged Juan Carlos Ibarra, attorney for the Advancement Project's Voter Protection Project, "is that these activities are taking place in Colorado, Florida and other battleground states."

Ibarra was part of a team that produced a recently released study documenting possible widespread disenfranchisement of Latinos in 2012. "In Colorado, alone, there are 450,000 Hispanics of voting age and in Florida there are 2.1 million," Ibarra said.

True the Vote, a tea party-affiliated group, has gone to election boards with lists of Hispanic names claiming that the lists contain registered voters who are not citizens. According to Anna Bogado of Voting Rights Watch, the anti-immigrant groups, now focusing on blocking the vote, engage in a variety of tactics including comparing lists of eligible Latino voters with lists of people who are eligible to receive services and lists of people who have green cards. "Even when you find the extremely rare case where a registered voter appears to be a green card holder rather than a citizen, it turns out that an updated check shows the person is now a citizen. The whole approach of these groups is faulty.

" Just receiving a letter saying your right to vote is in question like that is intimidating," Bogado added. "You get something like that in the mail and you say that you don't even want to bother with fighting it and going to vote."

The experts at the press conference said that the problem regarding Latinos and voting is not one of people trying to vote illegally but actually one of getting millions who are eligible to vote to go out and register to do so. "Our problem is millions are eligible but are not yet registered, not that the unregistered are banging down the doors trying to vote illegally," Bogado said. "What they are trying to do here is influence the outcome of the election. It has nothing to do with protecting the integrity of the vote," she said.

In 2010, Latinos represented more than 10 percent of the country's eligible voters. However, of 21.3 million eligible Latino voters, more than 14.5 million were either unregistered or did not vote in 2010. An estimated 3.7 million Latinos were to become eligible to become naturalized citizens since 2010.

The message the right wing is sending to Latinos is that they should stay out of the voting process.

Florida resident and naturalized citizen Karla Vanessa Arcia was hit by the state of Florida itself with the "you aren't welcome" message this year when her name was wrongly put on an ineligible-to-vote list. She received a letter giving her 30 days to prove her citizenship. The list erroneously included many eligible Latinos and in Florida the purge effort has the official backing of a tea party dominated state government installed in 2010.

Speakers at the press conference warned that the tea party and its affiliated groups, including True the Vote, are beginning to draw people who traditionally were part of other right wing anti-immigrant groups into an overall right-wing effort to narrow the size of the Latino electorate.

"We've seen a decline in a variety of right-wing nativist groups like the Minutemen and others," said Devin Burghart, vice president of the Institute for Research on Human Rights. His group co-authored the report on disenfranchisement of Latinos with the Advancement Project.

"Don't believe tea party claims that they are just interested in promoting free markets," he said. "They are now taking in the anti-immigrant forces and as much as one in six of the anti-immigrant activists in this country are members of a tea party affiliated group, including ones that are trying to reduce the number of voters."

Burghart said that about 16,000 people identified with the tea party nationally in 2010 when it was formed but that today it numbers 450,000 in 3,500 local groups. He said that there are five or six tea party factions nationally and that the leadership of the "1776 faction" constitutes people who were active members of the Minutemen in the past.

Some 56 percent of tea party members polled, according to Burghart, believe that even the birthright section of the U.S. Constitution should be repealed. That clause makes anyone born in the United States an automatic citizen.

The report notes that leaders of 97 of the "old" anti-immigrant nativist groups are now active in various tea party positions.

Bogado of Voting Rights Watch singled out Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican, as emblematic of the growing connections among right-wing groups, including the tea party, nativist groups and the Republican Party itself.

"Kobach is planning the ultimate voter suppression," she said, "by stating that he will decide whether there is enough evidence about the birthplace of Barack Obama to allow the president on the ballot in Kansas this November."

Speakers at the press conference noted that Kobach, the long time anti-immigrant leader, has put his imprimatur on just about every anti-immigrant law in the nation. "And now he too is focusing his efforts on the election and vote suppression," Bogado said.

Kobach helped Arizona lawmakers craft the infamous "show us your papers" law, SB 70, that passed in the spring of 2010, and he has coached legislators across the country in their efforts to pass dozens of similar measures.

Photo: As Voto Latino youth volunteers in Arizona work to register young Latinos, right-wing groups, with the help of GOP state governments, are trying to cut millions of eligible Latinos off the rolls. Photo courtesy of Voto Latino.

Ohioans “all fired up” by GOP vote suppression effort

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 11:08:00 +0000

CLEVELAND - Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, with over 100 other public officials and supporters representing a broad array of constituencies, rallied Tuesday in front of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in a show of determination to overcome Republican efforts to stop Ohioans from voting in the presidential election.

It was National Voter Registration Day. Representatives of clergy, labor, youth, Latinos, Muslims, Sikhs, Asian-Americans and the Democratic Party heard rap, sang "America The Beautiful" and voiced outrage at GOP legislators and Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted for a protracted effort to throw up obstacles to ballot access for ordinary people.

"We now have less voting opportunity than in 2008," said state Sen. Nina Turner. Under cover of establishing "voter uniformity," she said, Husted reduced hours and banned weekend in-person voting in the early voting period beginning Oct. 2.

"Less is not more," she said. "Vote suppression is vote suppression."

Late last month federal judge Peter Economus overruled Husted's order to ban early voting the last three days before Nov. 6, the busiest period for early voting in 2008. But GOP Attorney General Mike DeWine has appealed on grounds of "state's rights."

This was the argument of notorious Southern officials to defend racial segregation and is "a deep source of embarrassment," Turner said.

"The dirty, rotten tricks department of the Republican Party doesn't matter," she declared. "We are going to vote."

"These chumps have no idea what they did when got us all fired up," said Khalid Samad, head of Peace in the Hood and a leader of the Muslim community. "They try to stop weekend voting but we're bringing Muslims Friday, Jews Saturday and churches on Sunday."

Rev. Otis Moss Jr. denounced the "audacity and evil schemes" of those trying to tell people to stay away from the polls. "We spent life, limb and blood to get to the polls," he said, charging that "the forces against us have lost faith in democracy" and if they win this election "we will pay the price for the next 50 years."

Rep. Fudge concurred, commenting that, while posing as Christians, the vote suppressors "are Satan."

State Rep. and House Minority Leader Armond Budish said Husted had become the "Secretary of Suppression. He's doing everything to keep Democrats from voting. But they can't take our energy and resolution. We're going to vote. We've got to overcome what the Republicans are trying to do."

"We're not going to wait til Nov. 6," said Rev. Roddy Thomas of United Clergy of Greater Cleveland. "We are going to vote starting Tuesday and the entire month of October." The pastors have appointed "vote captains" in each church to register voters, verify their names are in the books and organize early voting, he said.

"This election is possibly the last gasp of reactionary forces to impose their backward vision on America," said Stu Garson, chairman of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party. "No matter how they dress this pig up, we know what it is and we won't let these cynical forces keep us from voting."

Photo: At Tuesday's rally at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, Cleveland, Sept. 25., Rep. Marcia Fudge is at the microphone. Rick Nagin/PW

Big business and GOP block Florida sick-time ballot measure

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:27:00 +0000

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Democracy is under siege in Orange County, Fla. Progressive forces have had the prospect of paid sick time, an advance for low-wage workers, snatched from them, at least temporarily, by big business forces and their allies - the county commission and the local GOP.

Dozens of activists, including members of Communications Workers of America and UniteHere and former Occupy Orlando participants, packed the Sept. 18 commission meeting here. Many of the activists wore black and carried flowers to symbolize their mourning of "the death of democracy."

Around two dozen spoke against the commission's Sept. 11 decision to keep a sick -time initiative off the November ballot, in what some consider an apparent violation of the county charter. They urged the commission, unsuccessfully, to reverse course, and tried to add pressure on the commission and Mayor Teresa Jacobs with a flurry of last-minute phone calls and emails.

Brook Hines, director of the Community Business Association, a small business advocacy group that supports mandated sick-time, told commissioners that their actions were "showing the people that we can only have confidence democracy works in relation to how much money you have."

"If you're Disney, if you're Darden, if you're the big businesses in town, you're going to get heard, and you're going to get special treatment from the commission," she said.

"Over 50,000 citizens played by the rules and petitioned our government. But commissioners colluded with special interests and put cynical politics above democracy," said Marlon Washington, chair of Citizens for a Greater Orange County, after the meeting.

"The good news is these powerful interests have awakened a sleeping giant," he said. "Voters will eventually have their day, and they will remember whose side the commission was on." That "day" now appears likely to be in 2013 or 2014.

Hundreds of volunteer and paid canvassers from the coalition spent much of central Florida's hot and rainy summer collecting about 74,000 signatures to put the sick-time measure before voters. On Aug. 17 the county supervisor of elections certified, after verifying around 50,000 signatures (6,000 more than were needed), that the group had reached its goal.

The measure was the first citizen-initiated ordinance to earn a ballot spot in the history of Orange County. If it passed, workers at any business in the county (population 1.2 million) with 15 or more employees would earn one hour of paid sick time for every 37 hours worked, up to a maximum of 56 hours (seven days) per year.

The measure's impact would be greatest on the county's low-wage workers, especially in the restaurant, hospitality, retail and theme park sectors, who mostly don't have paid sick time.

Under the county charter the certification of a ballot measure is supposed to trigger a hearing at which commissioners have two options: pass it, or allow it on the ballot. In one last effort to run out the clock, the Republican-dominated commission, after voting 7-0 against the ordinance, adopted what some consider an extralegal third option on Sept. 11.

Commissioner Fred Brummer, a Republican former legislator, claimed that the ballot title and summary were "seriously deficient" and "unclear" because, among other things, it did not state that non-profit employers would be subject to the mandate. Commissioners approved 4-3 Brummer's proposal to hire an outside attorney to advise them on the "correct" title and summary language and to have a ballot language workshop in October - after the Sept. 18 deadline to get the ballot to the printer so that it could be mailed in time to local residents serving in the military.

The commissioners who supported Brummer did so even after they had been told by County Attorney Jeff Newton that "the board has no authority to change the ballot title or the ballot summary."

The Orlando Sentinel (Sept. 19) reported that Brummer's stalling tactic was the brainchild of Lew Oliver, a lawyer and the long-time chair of the Orange County Republican Party. Brummer told the newspaper that Oliver "was the one who told me that we [commissioners] have the responsibility to make sure that the [ballot] language is correct."

Brummer's measure was a substitute for a charter amendment that Commissioner Jennifer Thompson had proposed for the Nov. 6 ballot. Thompson, a Republican and a small-business owner, is a former officer and board member of two local chambers of commerce.

Thompson wants to bar any ordinance that regulates, requires or restricts worker benefits provided by non-governmental employers. Thompson said that her proposal came from speaking to dozens of small businesses that she claimed would be impacted by mandated sick time. However, local big business forces such as the Walt Disney Co., Darden Restaurants and the Central Florida Partnership (the parent of the Orlando Regional Chamber of Commerce) have lobbied the mayor and commissioners extensively against mandated sick-time.

Attorneys for the sick-time coalition went to court after the Sept. 11 meeting seeking an order that the county follow its charter and put the measure on the ballot. A ruling by a three-judge panel on Sept. 17 found that the sick-time proponents had a "sufficient claim for relief" and ordered the commission to either follow the charter or file an appeal within 20 days.

After the county attorney claimed that there might not be sufficient time to implement the order, sick-time proponents sought an emergency injunction on Sept. 18 to force the county to put the ordinance to a vote on Nov. 6.

The judges, however, nixed that request, stating in their ruling that "even if this court concludes that the [commission] failed to abide by its own charter, an adequate remedy ... exists because the court is able to mandate that the matter be placed on the next special, general or primary election ballot" (Orlando Sentinel, Sept. 18).

Photo: Citizens for a Greater Orange County

A fight grows in Brooklyn to save SUNY Downstate

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 15:30:00 +0000

BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Public health professionals are working to save hundreds of jobs and preserve community services here at a state university-run medical center, the fourth largest employer in the borough. Facing financial pressure from a failed hospital takeover, the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center is downsizing staff, putting at risk vital health services for the many working class and poor communities it serves.

Two unions representing the medical center workers, United University Professions and Public Employees Federation, are joining forces with community organizations, elected officials and others to preserve the jobs and services. Civil Service Employees Association also represents workers at Downstate.

"People are bracing themselves for the worst," one worker said. "It's been really tense. There are a lot of sad faces, a lot of stressed looks."

Already more than 400 workers have received layoff notices in the mail over the summer.

"I hate the mailman," said an employee who fears will lose his job.

"Everybody is scared; they think they could be next," said another worker. "Nobody is safe."

SUNY Downstate Medical Center is the only academic medical center serving Brooklyn's 2.5 million residents. As of last year, it had a total student body of 1,738 and approximately 8,000 faculty and staff. Eighty-six percent of its employees are New York City residents; 68 percent live in Brooklyn. The medical center generates more than $2 billion for the economy and attracts some $60 million in research grants. Cuts threaten the local economy, union members say.

UUP represents doctors, researchers, technicians, and some supervising nurses at the facility.

SUNY Downstate's problems are tied to the take over of nearby Long Island College Hospital. LICH was already in a downward spiral and about to be closed when a deal was struck between the board of LICH and the SUNY board. The debt from the purchase has been a huge drag on Downstate.

UUP spokesperson Don Feldstein told the People's World, "We have been saying that we fear that the total number of UUP members losing their jobs may reach 1,000. UUP has been fighting to save services and jobs at Downstate. These significant job cuts will compromise the vital and essential health care services Downstate provides to the Central Brooklyn community. It will also disrupt the already fragile economy in the community and lead to additional job losses among businesses that rely on Downstate for their survival."

As budgets tighten in every state in the union, public services and jobs are the first to take the hit. In an effort to win these battles, newly elected PEF President Susan Kent chose to reach out to the public and open a dialogue on every front. She told the union's journal, The Communicator, "We plan to embark on an organizing campaign like this union has never seen. We will move toward making our political and legislative endorsements and decisions based on what is in the best interest of our members and working people."

PEF Vice President Wayne Spence said, "I know the negative social and economic impact [Downstate's] closure could have on the community and our 650 members who work there." Spence said the union participated in the recent West Indian Day Parade by sponsoring a float to let the community know the union's level of commitment.

The Brooklyn West Indian Day Parade attracts some 3-4 million people and is one of the largest West Indian celebrations in the hemisphere. The medical center serves many of the Afro-Caribbean communities here, and many of the unions' members are also of West Indian descent.

UUP members also marched in the parade, distributing some 5,000 leaflets that read, "Save vital health care services. Help our community stop the job cuts at SUNY Downstate Medical Center."

UUP is urging people to sign an online petition to the governor urging him to stop the job cuts at Downstate. That petition is accessible at http://savejobsatsunydownstate.org/

Photo: Union members march and organize at Brooklyn's West Indian Day Parade, Sept. 3. (PEF/UUP)

Group sees the disabled as their own best spokespeople

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 14:57:00 +0000

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Marion Bacon has worked at The Memphis Center for Independent Living, an action and advocacy organization for people with disabilities, for over five years. She describes her job, and the overall mission of MCIL as essentially fourfold: to "assist individuals learning how to advocate for themselves, peer counseling, helping people find resources in the community, and educating people about various disabilities visible and invisible."

Deborah Cunningham, MCIL's Executive Director, explains "my old boss used to describe it [MCIL] as a supermarket for people with disabilities." Before MCIL people looking for resources would have to go to lots of different agencies spread out all over town, a difficulty compounded by the overall low quality and availability of public transportation for people with disabilities in Tennessee's largest city.

According to Cunningham, clients visit MCIL for a number of reasons, "we do lots of things from helping people get disability benefits to learning how to ride main-line transportation, to helping them find an apartment."

The bulk of the center's funding comes from the Department of Education's Rehabilitation Services Administration with some additional funds coming from the city of Memphis and the state of Tennessee, according to Cunningham.

Some of the most routine tasks in everyday life can present real challenges for an individual with a disability. Ms. Bacon puts it plainly: "You need to look like you don't need assistance in order to get assistance." One's ability to "look like they don't need assistance" is often more difficult if an individual has multiple disabilities. "For instance," Bacon says, "a soldier who lost both of his legs might also have post-traumatic stress syndrome."

So while, "their primary disability might be their physical disability, their dominant disability might be their PTSD." The same is true for people with other physical disabilities -- like but not limited to -- blindness, or the need to walk with a crutch, who also have a current diagnosis of bipolar or any number of mental illnesses.

Unfortunately, the stigma our society still places on people with a current diagnosis of a mental illness can be profound. "One of the hardest things in Memphis," Marion Bacon says, "is the stigma and stereotypes the African-American community has towards mental illness."

According to Bacon, in the African-American community, "mental illness is taboo and many think it [mental illness] is a demon that if you pray hard enough will go away." She continues, "When I first came to Memphis it was hard. People said I shouldn't talk about mental illness because people will think you're 'crazy'."

Marion Bacon hates the word 'crazy.' She also hates the word 'handicapped.' Both words are essentializing and prejudicial, they both suggest a person to be a victim, or not as capable a human being as someone else.

MCIL likes to think its work provides evidence of the falsehood of these stereotypes.

The center is also devoted to what is called "nursing home transition." Bacon describes it as "help[ing] individuals that are in nursing homes [solely] because their family doesn't want to deal with them."

Because transitioning people out of nursing homes challenges the assumptions made by the medical community as well as peoples' families Bacon says that "sometimes there can be a lot of resistance from family and / or the nursing home doctors."

In part, no doubt, some of the resistance to nursing home transition arises from the sad fact that "in the old days the State of Tennessee did not provide enough services for people who wanted to live outside of the institutions" says Deborah Cunningham, "so we had to send a lot of people to Denver."

Back in the 1960's, according to Cunningham, a man named Wade Blank was studying to be a minister when he started working as an orderly in one of the nursing homes. There he saw the horrific conditions where people were warehoused, simply because there were not sufficient services for people with disabilities. In 1983, Blank helped start ADAPT, an organization widely known as the radical wing of the disability rights movement.

ADAPT of Tennessee holds regular meetings at the Memphis Center for Independent Living.

Cunningham explains, "The Center has realized for years that people with disabilities are treated as second-class citizens."

"Often," she says, "it is patronizing. They give you something and pat you on the head. Other times, it is outright hostility."

Photo: Marion Bacon at the recent community meeting. James Raines/PW

Reclaim democracy, protect the vulnerable says faith community

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 11:27:00 +0000

DETROIT - At its Fire of Faith, Rekindling Democracy rally this past Sunday, the Detroit metropolitan faith community unveiled a new kind of "heat" beginning to sweep the region.

The gathering was huge. Parking lots spilled over as 50 congregations, representing a mosaic of Jewish, Protestant, Catholic and Muslim beliefs, gathered at Detroit's Greater Grace Temple and agreed to use their faith based values to organize for racial and socioeconomic equality. They will demand comprehensive immigration reform, access to healthy food and jobs, and investment in education and regional transit.

Understood by all was that winning those demands requires a maximum voter turnout in November.

Emphasizing that point, Rev. Charles Williams ll, Board President of MOSES, the faith based social justice organization sponsoring the rally, said those planning to "turn back the clock" by repealing the Affordable Care Act and other safety net provisions will be stopped.

Rev. John Hice, First United Methodist Church in Royal Oak, said religious leaders have influence and must use their positions to "insure the most vulnerable are protected."

He raised sharp criticisms of the 2010 Congressional budget crisis and the "voting bloc" that pressed to redirect money away from programs like Head Start and meals for seniors while protecting the wealthy and defense spending.

In front of all assembled, Hice asked for and received the commitment of Democratic Congressman John Conyers and Gary Peters to fight on these issues in Congress.

Peters said the social safety net cannot be destroyed and all need to pay their fair share. Conyers said he'd continue the fight for full employment saying "We are the most powerful, well-off economy; we need to take it (jobs) off the "to do list and get it done."

Ms. Monserrat Contrerras, a twenty two year old student representing St. Anne's Catholic Church, hailed President Obama's executive order on the Dream Act, which benefited 800,000 young people, herself included.

She drew similarities between that action and President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Initially, Lincoln's proclamation did not free all slaves. Congressional action, occurring a year later, was necessary to complete abolition. Although we are grateful for the Dream Act, congressional action is also needed for comprehensive immigration reform said Contrerras.

Ms. Cindy Reese of the Greater Southern Baptist Church said MOSES believes transit is a civil and human right. The Southeast Michigan's transit system is almost non-existent and creates huge barriers for those without cars. Reese said a quality regional transit system would create thousands of jobs, decrease congestion and produce a cleaner environment.

At the rally's conclusion, Host Pastor Bishop Charles Ellis asked all clerics to come forward. With two Sundays remaining before the October 9^th voter registration deadline, all pledged to have their congregations one hundred percent registered.

Street heat is coming from the pulpit and the pews.

Photo: Signs of the times at Fire of Faith rally April Smith/PW

Battling the Brooklyn Democratic boss

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 10:56:00 +0000

BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- Vito J. Lopez, a New York State assemblyman and once the most powerful Brooklyn Democratic County Committee leader, has been censured for substantiated accusations of sexual harassment of two women who worked in his district office. Lopez has denied the charges.

Investigations are under way in the state capital, Albany, by New York State's Joint Commission on Public Ethics and by a special prosecutor, who is the Staten Island district attorney. The Brooklyn district attorney recused himself because of ties with Lopez.

The scandal has many asking: What's wrong with Albany?

Lopez, 71, is seeking his 15^th term as Assemblyman from the 53^rd Assembly District in Brooklyn's Williamsburg/Bushwick neighborhoods. He refused to resign from the Assembly despite demands from many quarters.

Lopez was stripped of the Assembly's Housing Committee chairmanship, a position of tremendous influence, by the Assembly Ethics Committee. The committee voted unanimously that claims that Lopez had verbally and physically harassed the employees were credible.

New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, the legislature's most powerful Democrat, announced the censure and rebuked Lopez by reducing the size of his staff, barring him from hiring interns or anyone under 21 years of age, denying him seniority perquisites and ordering mandatory sexual harassment workshop sessions.

In a later announcement, Speaker Silver revealed that a settlement award of $103,080 of public funds and $32,000 of Lopez's funds had been paid to two other women charging sexual harassment against Lopez in June, before the present censuring. A confidentiality agreement was implemented reportedly to respect the women's privacy. The case was not referred to the Assembly Ethics Committee.

Criticism of the handling of the claims grew into a swirl of outrage from officials, advocacy groups, media, and the public. Expressions of shock were voiced about the payments of public funds being kept secret and many felt censure was not sufficient punishment.

The growing scandal resulted in Speaker Silver admitting he was wrong in approving the confidential settlement and taking full responsibility for not referring the case to the Assembly Ethics Committee.

Under much pressure, Lopez agreed to give up his power base as chairman of the Democratic County Committee of Brooklyn. The registration of Democrats in Brooklyn is second largest of any county in the country. In this position Lopez had enormous influence and unrivaled power in selecting borough judges and filling political vacancies and hundreds of other lucrative jobs. The Democratic machine elected Frank Seddio, a Lopez confidant, as the new chairman. Seddio gained the support of challengers by promising to broaden party leadership and judicial selections and increase transparency.

Reformers and progressives in Brooklyn are showing increased strength in their efforts to undo the political machine. The machine lost two contested elections - district leader and civil court judge. Seddio has offered concessions in the functioning of the county committee, as well as giving up his appointment of six members.

The State Assembly's history of sexual harassment allegations is longstanding. Speaker Silver's handling of such complaints without referring cases to the Assembly Ethics Committee was a recurring theme in 2006, 2007, and 2008, as some members were involved in scandals with current and or former interns. The history underscores the importance of getting these problems corrected now.

For years an atmosphere of permissiveness and lack of accountability by men in the state legislature has fueled harassment and violation of the rights of female employees and interns with impunity. In addition, there have been past and present examples of corruption, misuse of public funds, use of positions for extortion, bribery, favors for financial rewards from big developers and big business.

Current investigations and increased transparency will bring attention to the state legislative culture which encourages secrecy for various forms of unacceptable and criminal conduct.

The legislature in Albany is located away from the biggest centers of unions, workers, nationally oppressed people and so forth. Issues of importance to local communities often go unknown. People's groups and progressive individuals may pay less attention to who is elected to the state legislature and what the elected representatives do, allowing the lawmakers to establish a "hands off" environment.

While there are political machines in each of the New York City boroughs, including a Republican one in Staten Island, the Brooklyn machine has the most recent history of corruption and anti-democratic functioning. Three out of its last four Democratic Party chairmen have gone to prison for corruption. Some have been linked to big businesses such as real estate and development.

What to do?

Progressive forces need to direct attention and interest to these bodies, their members and what is at stake during legislative sessions. It would be both timely and unifying for reformers, labor, oppressed groups and others to join forces to seek ways to gain control and prevent corruption, harassment and other forms of impropriety at all levels of government.

Here in Brooklyn, reformers are getting closer to displacing the corrupt machine and changing the leadership of the Brooklyn Kings Coounty Democratic Party Committee. It's long overdue.

Photo: Wall art in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Korye Logan CC 2.0

Marchers demand end to deadly gun violence

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 15:22:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. - Hundreds of city residents poured into the city center from throughout Oakland Sept. 22 to call on city leaders to take immediate steps to end gun violence that has cost some 85 lives in the city so far this year, and to pledge to work together to turn the crisis around.

Columns of multiracial, largely African American demonstrators marched from five locations in far-flung areas of the city where many of the homicides have taken place, converging near City Hall. Along the way they chanted, "Put up your peace signs, put down your piece!" and "What do we want? Peace! When do we want it? Now!"

The action, initiated by Soldiers against Violence Everywhere and the west Oakland congregation, True Vine Ministries, drew participation from religious and community groups throughout the city. Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious leaders offered invocations. Members of many congregations brought their banners. Around the edges, community organizations tabled with information on available services.

At the heart of the program was presentation of a resolution calling on city elected officials and other leaders to make it a top priority to cut gun violence by half within three years. The officials were called on to help grow jobs in the city by cutting down on bureaucratic obstacles to new small businesses. The Oakland Police Department, which has drawn sharp criticism for past practices, was urged to work in a creative way with the community, to incorporate principles of restorative justice and to step up safety measures near schools.

City leaders including Mayor Jean Quan, City Council members, other elected officials and representatives of the Oakland Police Department pledged support and expressed their determination to work with the community to reach their shared objectives.

Marching from north Oakland was School Board member Jumoke Hinton Hodge, whose district includes areas in west Oakland hard hit by violence. "Today's march is a symbol," she said. "It only has meaning if we work to activate others." Hinton Hodge also called attention to the role of rallies and related activities in activating the healing process.

Also marching was Marjorie Lovejoy, a retired office worker and longtime Oakland resident. "We need marches in east and west Oakland, too, where most of the violence is taking place," she said. "If people see us there, and know we care, it gives them an incentive to join in."

Layloni Marshall, a home care worker and mother of three who hopes to start studies soon for a Master of Social Work degree, emphasized the importance of voting in the November election. "If we let the Republicans into office," she said, "They will take away the programs that are helping young people keep a decent quality of life. Things will be 10 times worse than they are now - no after-school programs, no mentoring. People will find a way, but it won't be a good way."

Marshall added, "I've lived in Oakland for years. Kids are being killed every day. This march brings people from all parts of the city together and we can pass the word along to others."

Photo: (PW/Marilyn Bechtel)

Campaign intensifies in Battleground Ohio

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 14:25:00 +0000

Polls continued to show this past weekend that Mitt Romney is falling behind in Ohio, with President Obama now doing 50 percent or better.

The most recent poll in the state, the University of Cincinatti poll, has Obama leading Romney by five points among likely voters in the state, 51-46 percent. An NBC/WSJ/Marist poll taken a few days earlier had similar results (50-43 percent).

Ohio is considered a "must-win" for Romney and, taken together with the latest polls there, explains his campaign's frantic attention to the state this week. No Republican has ever been elected President without winning Ohio.

A new TV ad put out by the President's campaign is aimed at working class voters. "Mitt Romney attacked 47 percent of Americans who pay no income tax, including veterans, the elderly, and the disabled," the ad says. "Doesn't the President have to worry about everyone? Mitt Romney paid just 14.1 percent in taxes last year. He keeps millions in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands." The ad ends up with: "Maybe instead of attacking others on taxes, Romney should come clean on his."

The latest Romney ad seems to be an attempt to shift the resentment people have about his 47 percent remarks away from himself and onto China: "Fewer Americans are working today than when President Obama took office. It doesn't have to be this way - if Obama would stand up to China." The ad ends: "Obama had years to stand up to China. We can't afford four more."

Interviews the candidates had over the weekend on 60 minutes also showed Romney's intent to step up his China bashing. He ignores, of course, the huge number of U.S. jobs that Bain Capital has exported to China.

"I'm going to look at every federal program and I'll ask the question, 'Is this program so critical that it is worth borrowing money from China to pay for it?' And if it doesn't pass that test, I'm going to eliminate the program."

Obama said, in response on 60 Minutes: "We've already cut a trillion dollars...But what I've said is this: 'You can't ask me to make student loan cuts or ask seniors to pay more for their Medicare or throw people off of health care, and not ask people like me or Mitt Romney to do anything, not ask us to do a single dime's worth of sacrifice."

Under pressure on the issue of unfair tax rules, Romney finally released his own 2011 tax returns on Friday.

Damon Silvers, policy director and special counsel for the AFL-CIO called them "an education in injustice. Just like his 2010 return was. The peculiar letter he released from his tax accountant concerning his taxes before 2010, simply ads to the mystery," said Silvers.

Silvers said the returns "show a man who made more than $13 million dollars - almost all of which appeared in his bank account without him doing a day's work and yet paid a 14.1 percent tax rate while middle class America - people who make less than one percent of what he makes - pay a higher rate on money they earn from working.

Silver explained how workers who make too little to pay federal income taxes actually pay more than Romney does in other taxes.

"The typical low wage worker," he said, "pays 7.5 percent of his or her income in Social Security and Medicare taxes. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan say we can't afford Social Security and Medicare; that we need to take away health care and cut the incomes of seniors - but Mitt Romney pays out of his $13,696,951 in total income only 0.16 percent - a bit more than one thousandth - to Social Security and Medicare. Workers who make less than $110,000 pay the Social Security FICA tax on 100 percent of their income."

Photo: Obama shakes hands at a campaign event Sept. 17 in Columbus, Ohio. Tony Dejak/AP

How about a Puerto Rican senator from Arizona?

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 13:09:00 +0000

TUCSON - Who would have thunk it? The first-ever U.S. senator of Puerto Rican descent, elected not from New York, Massachusetts, or Illinois, but from Arizona, where Puerto Ricans are as rare as thornless trees?

Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona is hoping to make history this November. The latest bipartisan Purple Strategies poll released last week shows that Carmona has leaped to within three percentage points (48 percent to 45), of far-right Republican Jeff Flake in the race to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Jon Kyl. This is within the poll's margin of error, indicating that the Arizona Senate race is in a dead heat. Last week's polls also showed President Obama equally close to Mitt Romney in Arizona, demonstrating that the Obama campaign was correct when they decided that Arizona is in play this election year.

Although running as a Democrat, Carmona is very well known and popular in Southern Arizona across party lines. He is presenting himself as an independent, civic-minded, non-politician. His campaign calls for expanding health care coverage, full support for women's reproductive rights, and for the DREAM Act.

Carmona's personal history is of a poor kid growing up in a dysfunctional and sometimes homeless family in Harlem; a high school dropout who ended up in Vietnam but - thanks to the GI Bill - was able to graduate from medical school. Quite a contrast with the Mitt Romney story.

Arizona's labor movement has moved into high gear to support Carmona. The AFL-CIO has launched its labor-to-labor campaign to talk to every union household in the state.

Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva's campaign, experts at grassroots mobilization within Grijalva's heavily Democratic district, are also hoping to turn out a massive vote for Carmona.

Arizona Democrats are also hoping to pick up two new congressional seats this year. In CD-1 Ann Kirkpatrick has a good chance to regain the seat she lost in 2010, and in Arizona's new 9th District the latest polls show liberal Democrat Kyrsten Sinema leading Republican Vernon Parker. The district has more registered Republicans than Democrats, but both are outnumbered by independents, and it's a district that Obama carried in 2008 when Arizona went heavily for John McCain.

Both national parties intend to spend obscene amounts of money in these two districts as well as on the Carmona/Flake Senate race.

Photo: Carmona participates in a 4th of July parade. Official Facebook page

Unions say Pennsylvania can’t handle Voter ID demand

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 17:42:00 +0000

PITTSBURGH - Labor unions that have been helping the residents of this state get the photo IDs they must now have in order to vote have piles of evidence they say prove the law cannot be implemented without blocking the votes of as many as 750,000 people.

Republicans in Pennsylvania have rammed through what many say is the strictest voter ID law in the country, one that voting rights activists say cuts 750,000 voters off the roles.

The Pennsylvania law mirrors ones passed by GOP lawmakers in many states this year, in an attempt to make it easier for Republicans to get elected. Those most likely to not have the required forms of identification are overwhelmingly students, minorities, the elderly and the poor - groups Republicans fear will vote for Democrats.

Lawyers with the United Steelworkers and the Service Employees International Union, at a press conference today, described in detail reports that union teams operating for weeks now at the Department of Transportaion (PennDOT) have compiled.

Among the thousands of voters piling in to the DOT offices to get their IDs, said Nicole Burner, an SEIU attorney, "the majority are either ill, elderly, poor or very young. SEIU has had teams of from 3 to 20 people fanning out to the motor vehicle centers.

Burner described how one voter, Jimmy Thomas of Pittsburgh, fell ill during the process. Thomas, who suffers from congestive heart failure, skipped his medication in the morning because it causes pressure on his bladder and he knew, in advance, that the process would take four or more hours.

"How awful that an 80 year-old woman who had voted all her life had to leave her nursing home," said Burner. "She became sick waiting in line because, out of embarrassment, she skipped breakfast in the morning. She did not want people at the DOT to see the colostomy bag she is required to wear."

Ashindi Maxton, SEIU Director of Political Partnerships, talked in detail about the experiences of a voter she tried to help. Maxton had picked up an 80-year-old woman at 9:30 a.m. who she said did not get home until 1:30 p.m.

When the woman finished an hour wait to see a clerk she was told she needed a birth certificate. The voter, an African American, explained that she had been born in a segregated hospital that kept no records of African American births and that she had been told many times in the past that the state has no records of her birth.

The clerk sent the woman to another building, the Health Department, where he said she could get help regarding the birth certificate. Luckily the woman met Ashindi outside the DOT building, who explained that the Secretary of State's office has told the courts that birth certificates were not required in order to get the ID.

After three hours the two were able to see a supervisor who completed the process.

"The point is, the state has told the Supreme Court that it was going to make it easy for everyone to get a free photo ID. This has plainly not happened and we are four weeks into the process," said Ashindi. "Only 10,000 out of the 750.000 disenfranchised voters have so far gotten the IDs. There is a disconnect between the Republican lawmakers who made this law and what is happening on the ground," said Ashindi.

The unions are getting ready for what they hope will be the last, but successful court battle. "We will be taking this evidence to the Commonwealth Court" said Burner. "It is clear that the state cannot satisfy the Supreme Court that this can be implemented fairly. What is the rush? It usually takes two full election cycles for changes in the voting process to be implemented. It cannot be done between now and Election Day."