NY Times - Puff Piece on Fix the Debt

By Peter Dreier:

The New York Times should be embarrassed. On December 24 it gave a Christmas present to the corporate-backed lobby group Fix the Debt with its front-page Business section puff piece about the organization, which is pushing to balance the federal budget by slashing social programs while cutting taxes for the rich.
The 1149-word piece, ”One Woman’s War on Debt Gains Steam,” by reporter Annie Lowrey, is a fawning profile of the group’s public face, Maya MacGuineas. The article makes it appear that the Fix the Debt group was hatched last year at a dinner party at Senator Mark Warner’s house, when in fact it is simply the latest incarnation of Pete Peterson, the billionaire Wall Street financier who over many years has invested tens of millions of his money in his long-term crusade to reduce the federal debt on the backs of the poor and middle class, including the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which Peterson funded and where MacGuineas once worked. Peterson is also the largest funder of Fix the Debt, but he isn’t mentioned in Lowrey’s article. The launching of Fix the Debt was announced on the Peter Peterson Foundation website. Lowrey could easily have found dozens of articles on the web about Fix the Debt that reveal Peterson’s crusade and his role in the group, including an investigative article in New Yorkmagazine. Los Angeles Times business columnist Michael Hiltzik exposed Peterson’s long-term crusade to forge an elite consensus to slash social spending in pieces last October 2 and October 9.Bob Kuttner performed a similar service in an article for American Prospect.
Indeed, Times columnist Paul Krugman mentioned Peterson’s close ties to the organization in his column “Maya and the Vigilantes” two days before Lowrey’s article appeared.

Fiscal scam; not a Grand Bargain

Most of This article was published on 12.06.12. Sacramento News and Review.- Except the first paragraph is new. 

     If your tax bill goes up $2,200 a year, or you're one of the millions who would stop receiving unemployment benefits, the cause of your economic pain is not some a natural disaster, or a major structural flaw in the economy. The cause is Republican fear of being beaten in a primary by people like Sarah Palin, Sharon Angel or Richard Mourdock - funded by far Right Wing oligarchs like Sheldon Adelson and the Koch Brothers. It's that simple.

We do not need more austerity. If you want some small steps, President Barack Obama suggested extending the Bush-era tax reductions for the bottom 98 percent of earners. This is a proposal that almost everyone agrees with. Let’s disagree over cuts for the top 2 percent and work out a compromise.

We should immediately reauthorize funding for extended unemployment benefits to prevent 1.5 million workers and their dependents from losing their benefits. California has received federal funds of more than $5 billion for extended unemployment insurance. If these funds are cut, it could well throw California back into a recession.

We should reject the fiscal-cliff hysteria of the corporate establishment and its pressure for a “grand bargain” that would cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. If the government imposes austerity measures and reduces essential programs that benefit the middle and working classes, it further shreds the safety net for the most vulnerable.

Crises of Capitalism- David Harvey

For public education

Once social change begins, it can not be reversed.  You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read.  You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride.  You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.  Cesar Chavez.  Nov.9, 1984.

Deprogramming Progressives Indoctrinated into Supporting Austerity « naked capitalism

Deprogramming Progressives Indoctrinated into Supporting Austerity « naked capitalism

What Do We Get Out of Government?

What Do We Get Out of Government?

Republicans Neanderthal place economy at risk

 December 26, 2012

Fiscal Endgame : NY. Times.

Just before the Christmas break, negotiations on the so-called fiscal cliff ended on an absurdist note. House Republicans not only rejected President Obama’s overly generous budget deal, including his offer to lift the income threshold for higher tax rates to $400,000 a year from $250,000, they also rejected their own leadership’s proposal to raise the threshold for higher taxes to $1 million and to preserve tax breaks for the heirs of multimillion-dollar estates.

Most of the fiscal-cliff discussion has focused on higher income tax rates from the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts and automatic across-the-board spending cuts. But failure to reach a deal by year-end would also bring about deeper and more immediate pain for low- and middle-income Americans.

No deal means the end of federal unemployment benefits, averaging $290 a week. Some two million people would be cut off immediately, and nearly one million more who would be cut off in the first quarter of 2013. It means the end of the 2 percent payroll tax cut, which, for the past two years, has reduced taxes for 125 million households, boosting pay by nearly $1,000 a year for the typical household making $50,000.

Fight for $15, cuz we can't survive on $8.25!

Downtown Chicago retail and restaurant workers are organizing to fight for a living wage of $15 per hour through their new union, the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago (WOCC). On December 22, 2012 WOCC led a march through Chicago’s upscale Magnificent Mile shopping district to press their cause. It ended with a sit-in and 24 arrests next to the Michigan Ave Macy’s.

SACRAMENTO PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE: Tax the Rich. - Ed Asner

SACRAMENTO PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE: Tax the Rich. - Ed Asner: http://youtu.be/S6ZsXrzF8Cc Explains the economic crisis. Tax the rich: An animated fairy tale , is narrated by Ed Asner, with animati...

BROTHERS ON THE LINE - Official Trailer

El Paso, Austin, seek to secede from Texas

El Paso, a city in Texas joined the city of Austin, by also filing a petition requesting to secede from the State of Texas, should Texas withdraw from the union of the U.S.

The two petitions come as a direct result of the petition filed by Texas on the official White House website seeking to withdraw from the United States Union. The petition currently has over 100,000 surpassing the requirement needed for the administration to comment on it.

However, according to the White House official website, it is unclear whether President Obama will address the petition.

In light of the State of Texas' petition to withdraw from the union of the United States of America, On the official site of the White House, Austin petitions, ""Peacefully grant the city of Austin Texas to withdraw from the state of Texas & remain part of the United States."

Republicans may cause new recession ! Rachel Maddow

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Republican Disgrace

Boehner’s Failure and the GOP’s Disgrace
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012 Robert Reich 

 Remarkably, John Boehner couldn’t get enough House Republicans to vote in favor of his proposal to keep the Bush tax cuts in place on the first million dollars of everyone’s income and apply the old Clinton rates only to dollars over and above a million.  What? Even Grover Norquist blessed Boehner’s proposal, saying it wasn’t really a tax increase. Even Paul Ryan supported it.

What does Boehner’s failure tell us about the modern Republican party?

That it has become a party of hypocrisy masquerading as principled ideology. The GOP talks endlessly about the importance of reducing the budget deficit. But it isn’t even willing to raise revenues from the richest three-tenths of one percent of Americans to help with the task. We’re talking about 400,000 people, for crying out loud.

It has become a party that routinely shills for its super-wealthy patrons at a time in our nation’s history when the middle class is shrinking, the median wage is dropping, and the share of Americans in poverty is rising. 

Boehnerville

Fiscal cliff

Protesters rally against Fracking

Protesters rally against fracking as oil industry claims it is 'safe' 

by Dan Bacher 

Just two days after a big oil lobbyist and former "marine guardian" proclaimed in the Sacramento Bee that hydrofracking in California is "safe," dozens of protesters rallied outside a federal auction in Sacramento against plans to lease more than 17,000 acres of California public land to oil companies for drilling and fracking. 

The protesters, dressed in hazmat suits, carried barrels labeled “Warning: Toxic Fracking Fluid." Groups organizing the protest included the Center for Biological Diversity, Clean Water Action, Food and Water Watch, Credo Action, 350.org, Earthworks and Democracy for America. 

"The Bureau of Land Management auction would open public land in three counties — Monterey, San Benito and Fresno — for oil drilling and fracking," according to a news release from the groups. "Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a highly polluting form of oil and gas extraction. Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.) urged the BLM to delay the auction over fracking concerns." 

America's Teachers: Heroes or Moochers ?

America’s Teachers: Heroes or Greedy Moochers at the Public Trough?

by: 

Dave Lindorff

I’ll be brief here. Let’s just note that the heroic teachers who died while courageously trying to protect their kids at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, and the others who survived but stayed to protect the kids, were all part of a school system where the employees are members of the American Federation of Teachers.

Let’s just let that sink in for a moment. Those teachers, who are routinely being accused by our politicians of being drones and selfish, incompetent money grubbers worried more about their pensions than about teaching our children (though most, even after 10 years, earn less than $55,000 a year for doing a very difficult job that involves at least 12-14 hours a day of work and prep time counting meetings with parents), stood their ground when confronted with a psychotic assailant armed with semi-automatic pistols and an automatic rifle, and protected their kids. The principal too, a veteran teacher herself, stood her ground, reportedly suicidally charging at the assailant along with the school’s psychologist in a doomed effort to tackle him and stop the carnage.

How many of us would have had to the courage to stand in front of a closet door to keep an armed madman from finding the kids hidden behind it, as one slain young teacher, Vicki Soto, died doing? How many of us would charge at an armed shooter, to almost certain death, in an effort top stop him from further killing? How many would bravely hide in a bathroom with a class of kids when we could have run away and saved ourselves?

And this: How many of the politicians in Washington and in state capitals and how many conservative think-tank “researchers” who attack teachers as leeches and drones would have shown such heroism under fire?

Tax the Rich. - Ed Asner

http://youtu.be/S6ZsXrzF8Cc
Explains the economic crisis.

Tax the rich: An animated fairy tale, is narrated by Ed Asner, with animation by award-winning artist Mike Konopacki, and written and directed by Fred Glass for the California Federation of Teachers.  The 8 minute video shows how we arrived at this moment of poorly funded public services and widening economic inequality. Things go downhill in a happy and prosperous land after the rich decide they don't want to pay taxes anymore. They tell the people that there is no alternative, but the people aren't so sure.  This land bears a startling resemblance to our land.  After you watch this video, click here to share with friends, and send an email to your elected officialsto let them know they need to restore higher federal tax rates on the wealthy so that we may once more enjoy properly funded public services.

 

This Is Not Wisconsin. It's Worse.

This Is Not Wisconsin. It's Worse.

What Republicans call Right to Work

By Duane Campbell

 While labor won big in the 2012 elections such as Prop. 32 and 30 in California, we did not win everywhere.  Labor did not win in Michigan.  Republican legislators in Michigan on Thursday passed so called Right-To-Work  legislation  for private sector work by six votes in the Senate and the House.  The governor has indicated he will sign the bill.  A following bill restricting public sector workers is following close behind on Tues. in  the lame duck session.

From: Kitchen table economics: in DSA's  Democratic Left.  Winter 2012.What is Right To Work?  What motivates and who funds  these state campaigns against organized labor?  Answer:

In states that have adopted so called Right To Work, annual wages and benefits are about $1,500 lower than for comparable workers in non-RTW states—for both union and nonunion workers.  And the odds of getting health insurance or a pension through one’s job are also lower. (1)

Right to work (RTW)  is a misleading slogan.  It does not guarantee anyone a job, that is a right to work.   Rather, it makes it illegal for unions to require that each worker who benefits from a union contract pays his or her  fair share of the costs of administering that contract.

“Right to Work” is a propaganda title that unfortunately the corporate owned  has successfully branded and the media repeats day by day.  We should avoid repeating the phrase.  Instead we should call it what it is, an assault on unions.

America's Hope - Joseph Stiglitz

Joseph Stiglitz, Dec.6, 2012.

NEW YORK – After a hard-fought election campaign, costing well in excess of $2 billion, it seems to many observers that not much has changed in American politics: Barack Obama is still President, the Republicans still control the House of Representatives, and the Democrats still have a majority in the Senate. With America facing a “fiscal cliff” – automatic tax increases and spending cuts at the start of 2013 that will most likely drive the economy into recession unless bipartisan agreement on an alternative fiscal path is reached – could there be anything worse than continued political gridlock?

In fact, the election had several salutary effects – beyond showing that unbridled corporate spending could not buy an election, and that demographic changes in the United States may doom Republican extremism. The Republicans’ explicit campaign of disenfranchisement in some states – like Pennsylvania, where they tried to make it more difficult for African-Americans and Latinos to register to vote – backfired: those whose rights were threatened were motivated to turn out and exercise them. In Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard law professor and tireless warrior for reforms to protect ordinary citizens from banks’ abusive practices, won a seat in the Senate.

Galloping Socialism

Not so Grand of a bargain

This article was published on 12.06.12. Sacramento News and Review.

A recent Sacramento Bee editorial called for smaller steps to avoid the “fiscal cliff.” Then, strangely, it listed small steps that only call for compromise as advocated by the Republican’s austerity proposal.

We do not need more austerity. If you want some small steps, President Barack Obama suggested extending the Bush-era tax reductions for the bottom 98 percent of earners. This is a proposal that almost everyone agrees with. Let’s disagree over cuts for the top 2 percent and work out a compromise.

We should immediately reauthorize funding for extended unemployment benefits to prevent 1.5 million workers and their dependents from losing their benefits. California has received federal funds of more than $5 billion for extended unemployment insurance. If these funds are cut, it could well throw California back into a recession.

We should reject the fiscal-cliff hysteria of the corporate establishment and its pressure for a “grand bargain” that would cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. If the government imposes austerity measures and reduces essential programs that benefit the middle and working classes, it further shreds the safety net for the most vulnerable.

WalMart Schools and Kevin Johnson

WalMart schools in Sacramento

A fine by the California Fair Political Practices Committee (FFPC) against Mayor Kevin Johnson revealed that the Mayor has received  $500,000 dollars from the Walton Family – the owners of WalMart- for his advocacy through the organization StandUP. 

The money did not go to the public schools but to advocacy for specific positions. Mayor Johnson has a number of well known positions on “school reform” starting with his initial role in privatizing Sacramento High School as a charter.   He serves as Chair of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s Education Reform Task Force.

Applying the WalMart perspective to schools would privatize  the public institutions.  WalMart is notoriously anti union and exploits its workers for the family’s own gains.  Low wages; pushing wage scales down: few benefits; passing  costs such as  adequate food and health care of workers off to the public programs; and an authoritarian even totalitarian management environment  are mainstays of WalMart stores.  I don’t think they will be able to import the teachers from China, but they will be able to cut wages, benefits, and job security. See http://forrespect.org.

UNDERSTANDING THE FISCAL CLIFF (in 2m 30s)

Americans ( at least Democrats) more positive toward socialism

Is Paul Ryan Making Americans More Favorably Inclined Toward Socialism? 

John Nichols on December 1, 2012 - 7:58 PM ET

 A new Gallup Poll finds that socialism is now viewed positively by 39 percent of Americans, up from 36 percent in 2010. Among self-described liberals, socialism enjoyed a 62 percent positive rating, while 53 percent of Democrats and independent voters who lean Democratic gave socialism a thumb’s up.

Needless to say, this provoked the predictable fine whine of right-wing media. The conservative Washington Times newspaper declared: “Yes, Democrats, liberals favor socialism.” TheBusiness Insider website announced: “Everything Republicans Fear About Democrats Is True.” William F. Buckley’s old magazine, National Review, allowed as how there is “much that is peculiar, and much that is worrying” about the new polling data.

That reactionary Republicans get a little hysterical at the mention of the word “socialism” is not news. But the reaction to their reaction is. No two groups of Americans talk so much about socialism in so many public settings these days as Republican candidates and conservative commentators. And this appears to be influencing the discourse.

What Simpson and Bowles really stand for - Sanders

By Bernie Sanders | November 28, 2012. Senator. Vermount.

There has been a lot of discussion about Congress enacting a “grand bargain” during the lame duck session of Congress.  Many members of Congress have talked about using the plan put forward by Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles as an outline for a “balanced” approach to deficit reduction.

Let me take this opportunity to tell you a little about Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles and what their plan would do.

As many of you know, Alan Simpson is a former conservative Republican Senator from Wyoming who has wanted to cut Social Security benefits for decades.

Here are just a few of the rude, inaccurate, and derogatory statements that Alan Simpson has made about Social Security:

•               On August 24, 2010, Alan Simpson wrote in an e-mail to the head of the Older Women’s League: “And yes, I’ve made some plenty smart cracks about people on Social Security who milk it to the last degree. You know ‘em too. It’s the same with any system in America. We’ve reached a point now where it’s like a milk cow with 310 million tits!  Call when you get honest work!”

•               On Friday, May 6, 2011, Alan Simpson told the Investment Company Institute, that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme”, “not a retirement program.”  Simpson went on to say that Social Security “was never intended as a retirement program.

Who's Getting Pushed Off the "Fiscal Cliff"?

How Organizing for Change Is Very Different Than Winning Elections | Alternet

How Organizing for Change Is Very Different Than Winning Elections | Alternet

Union members lobby Congress for 'jobs, not cuts'

Union members lobby Congress for 'jobs, not cuts'

DSA Rejects the Fiscal Cliff- Says Fight for Fiscal Sanity

A statement of the National Political Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America

November 20, 2012

DSA rejects the “fiscal cliff” hysteria of the corporate establishment and the pressure for a “Grand Bargain” that would cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. While unemployment remains high and economic growth slow, the government should not impose austerity measures that reduce essential programs that benefit the middle and working classes and that further shred the safety net for the most vulnerable. Rather, government policy should prioritize investments in job creation, public education and healthcare reform, while raising

essential revenues by taxing the large corporations and wealthiest citizens who can afford to pay.

    Immediately after the election, Wall Street-backed foundations such as Third Way and the Concord Coalition organized a “Campaign to Fix the Debt” to spin the election results as a mandate for a “bi-partisan” focus on reducing the deficit as the highest national priority. For decades the billionaire Pete Peterson has funded groups that claim that the universal entitlement programs Social Security and Medicare are bankrupting the nation and that their future growth must thus be drastically trimmed. 

   These neoliberals scored an initial success in 2011 when the Simpson-Bowles Congressional Commission put to a vote a long-term “budget compromise” that would have instituted three times as much in budget cuts than in tax increases. But despite President Obama’s

evident willingness to reach such a one-sided compromise, Tea Party insistence on no tax increases, even on the wealthiest, scuttled the deal. The “resolution” of this manufactured, alleged “budget crisis” was to postpone a decision on further deficit reduction until the end of 2012, hence the contrived “fiscal cliff.”

From the Gulf Stream waters to the redwood forest, these Walmart protests are good for you and me

From the Gulf Stream waters to the redwood forest, these Walmart protests are good for you and me

Alan Grayson helps Walmart worker walk off job in 'Black Friday' protest

Alan Grayson helps Walmart worker walk off job in 'Black Friday' protest

Walmart Workers and Respect

A Statement of Jobs with Justice

(Nov 22) In a historic move, nearly a thousand actions have begun around the country as a part of a rolling series of walk-outs by Walmart’s store associates.  The Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart), called for the strike after numerous unfair labor practices (ULPs) the company committed against worker and in protest of Walmart’s ongoing attempts to silence workers for speaking out for better jobs.  This strike follow successful direct action by warehouse workers and seafood workers along the company’s vast supply chain.
In response, the company continued to make illegal threats to workers in the stores—even going so far as to file a bogus ULP claim with the National Labor Relations Board.

However, public support has been widespread, with many mobilizing to stores over the holidays to support workers who are walking out.  Over $125,000 has already been raised for strike support.  Jobs with Justice coalitions alone are responsible for mobilizing to over 50 store actions around the country.
This new movement of the Walmart 99% is only going to grow, and more rapidly each day.  It has become clear that the company cannot deflect it forever.
The only solution is for Walmart to sit down with all of its workers, from factory to store, to collectively negotiate better conditions for the people the company depends on.

Why are we standing up to live better?- Support WalMart workers

Walmart workers around the country are mobilizing for a “Black Friday” strike to protest working conditions, wages and retaliation against workers who speak out. Meanwhile workers and their allies at a Walmart warehouse are picketing and rallying today in front of the Riverside County, Calif., facility followingWednesday’s strike by some two dozen warehouse workers.

Walmart store workers are asking people nationwide to support them on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year. They ask that supporters take action that spreads the word about their strikes and demonstrates to Walmart a wave of support for workers who are speaking out about poor working conditions, low wages, irregular hours and more.
http://forrespect.org

Instead of listening to and learning from its workers, Walmart has sought to silence us and retaliate against those who dare to speak up. Warehouse workers who work for Walmart contractors have also experienced retaliation for speaking out. Now, Walmart workers have had enough.

It's not an easy decision. But without an end to the retaliation in sight, Walmart workers in the Sacramento area plan to join together with others from coast to coast who are walking off the job in protest. 

On Black Friday, and throughout the Holiday Season, we're standing up for an end to the retaliation against workers who speak out for what's right for our families, our communities, and our country. Will you show your support? 

Click here to sign the petition in support of the Walmart workers who are striking in the Sacramento area, and at other stores across the country.

Hands Off Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid- Bernie Sanders

We are not broke. We have been robbed !

DSA is a part of the Coalition on Human Needs. ( See list at end of post).  We ask that each of you contact your Senators and Congress people to preserve essential  human needs from Republican budget cuts.   Do not allow the Corporate CEO's who are funding the Fix the Debt campaign to cut the budgets for poor and working people. The Progressive Alliance Board voted today to join this campaign.

SAVE for All
Strengthening America’s Values and Economy for All

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear (Representative or Senator):
Last year, organizations from across the country came together to endorse basic principles to address America’s short- and long-term economic and budgetary problems. These are the imperatives of Strengthening America’s Values and Economy (SAVE) for All: to protect low-income and vulnerable people; promote job creation to strengthen the economy; increase revenues from fair sources; and seek responsible savings by targeting wasteful spending in the Pentagon and in other areas that do not serve the public interest.
We call on you to follow these principles as you face budgetary decisions of immediate and long-lasting national consequence. To achieve sustained growth, fiscal stability, and economic security for all our people we must invest in job creation, ensure that job seekers have the opportunity to work, and protect vulnerable people from hardship. We cannot promote the common good by cutting more and more services and jobs. But we can meet our nation’s needs responsibly by ending tax reductions benefiting the wealthiest two percent and by seeking savings that do not compromise human or military security.
Putting the most vulnerable people at risk is the wrong response to our nation’s fiscal situation. Automatic cuts to domestic programs that are scheduled to take effect in January 2013 under the sequestration provisions of the Budget Control Act will inflict devastating harm. Estimated conservatively, a year of sequestration cuts1 will deny WIC nutrition aid to 750,000 mothers and young children, prevent more than 413,000 adults and youth from getting job training and deny education and training to more than 51,000 veterans, eliminate reading and math help to more than 1.8 million low-income public school children, deny child care to the low- to moderate-income families of 80,000 children, stop nearly 34,000 women from being screened for breast and cervical cancer, prevent nearly 27,000 infants and toddlers from benefiting from special education early intervention services, force 185,000 households to lose rental assistance vouchers, and stop 734,000 households from receiving home heating and cooling aid. These are only a few examples of the impact of the scheduled cuts. They threaten children’s healthy development, deny security to seniors, throw roadblocks in the way of a competitive labor force, and allow preventable disabilities to hold back our children.
These and other cuts have steep costs, among them hundreds of thousands of lost jobs, lagging productivity, and escalating medical expenditures in the years to come. Coming on top of cuts written into law through FY 2021 they will drop domestic and non-military international appropriations to their lowest levels in 50 years as a share of the economy. Allowing such a wholesale abandonment of investments in education, preventive health, housing, public infrastructure, and nutrition is an affront both to conscience and to common sense. We urge you to avert these sequestration cuts.

Congressional Progressive Caucus : Press Releases : CPC: Avoid the Fiscal Cliff with the Deal for All

Congressional Progressive Caucus : Press Releases : CPC: Avoid the Fiscal Cliff with the Deal for All

Free Screening of "I Am" Friday, 11/16 at Sac State!

Campus Progressive Alliance

The Friday Night Film Series Presents

I AM

“A wake up call to the forces of good 

within each of us to write a new story

for the world.” – Huffington Post

Click here to watch trailer

Friday, November 16

 Hinde Auditorium

Sac State University Union
Shorts--6:00pm  Feature Film—6:30pm

FREE ADMISSION!

Info: paulb1221@sbcglobal.net
or 916-248-3970

AFL-CIO's Trumka: Voters 'rejected Romney-Ryan economics' and unions will fight to back that up

AFL-CIO's Trumka: Voters 'rejected Romney-Ryan economics' and unions will fight to back that up

In Obama Win, a Triumph of Community Organizing

By Van Jones

President Obama’s big win last Tuesday was a victory for the middle class, a rejection of trickle-down economics, and a statement from a new generation of Americans that they are a force to be reckoned with

But most of all, it was a vindication for the much-maligned community organizer.

Remember all those folks on the right who mocked the organizers who work patiently and tirelessly in communities across the country? The way they tried to tar President Obama for passing up lucrative opportunities to instead take a job as an organizer on the South Side of Chicago? Recall, if you can bear it, Sarah Palindeclaring that a small-town mayor is “sorta like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities”?

It turns out, community organizers got the last laugh.

In the last days of the election, I argued that the pundits were making far too much of the so-called “enthusiasm gap.” They were missing the determination of voters, and the work on the ground that was flying below the radar. When Tuesday rolled around, the proof was in the vote count: The 2008 coalition, wrongly regarded as a mere flash in the pan, had held. And it was community organizers like these who made it happen:

▪                Ben Jealous and the NAACP registered and turned out more than a million new African-American voters on election day. In Ohio, the black vote went from 11 percent of the electorate in 2008 to 15 percent in 2012. In swing state after swing state, the percentage of black voters in the electorate either increased or held steady, even as the number of voters overall increased. It was a testament to the power of deep community organizing in the black community.

Billionaire donors are livid.

"The billionaire donors I hear are livid," one Republican
operative told The Huffington Post. "There is some holy hell
to pay. Karl Rove has a lot of explaining to do ... I don't
know how you tell your donors that we spent $390 million and
got nothing."....If conservative billionaires are looking
for something else to be mad about, I'd recommend the Romney
campaign's apparent habit of paying about 50 percent more
for TV spots than the Obama campaign. That helped line the
pockets of their media consultants and buyers, but it didn't
do much to win the election.

By Kevin Drum

November 7, 2012 
Mother Jones

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/11/quote-day- americas-billionaires-are-pissed-karl-rove

November 7, 2012 
Hatewatch - Southern Poverty Law Center

http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2012/11/07/for-the-radical-right-obama-victory-brings-fury-and-fear/

The reaction to the re-election of our first black president
from the radical right ranged from sputtering rage and name-
calling to calls for a new Southern secession, mass
emigration to Europe, or even the break-up of the United
States. The loss of a white majority in the United States
has helped drive a truly explosive growth of the radical
right in the last three years, and now that Obama has been
re-elected, the radical right may grow more dangerous still.
Summed up on Fox News, Bill O'Reilly said: "The white
establishment is now the minority. It's not a traditional
America anymore."

Tell Congress: No Benefit Cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid

Corporate CEOs and "Fix the Debt"

Workers on Strike at Raley's - honor the picket lines

Update. The Strike is over. 

     5,000 Union members of the United Food and Commercial Workers in Northern California have struck Raley’s Supermarkets  a Northern California chain of 130  stores to protect their existing contract benefits.  Raley’s, the largest chain in the region,  claims that it can  no longer afford health benefits for retirees and other union provisions due to the growth and expansion of non union supermarkets such as Wal-Mart.    Safeway, the larger national  chain, and Save Mart  Supermarkets have already signed agreements that maintained prior   wages and contract provisions.  Wal-Mart has opened six new stores in the Sacramento region in the last 3 years  and has gone from barely visible to a 14% share of the market by relying upon non union workers.

  Clerks at Raley’s earn from $9.10 to $21.00 per hour.  Raley’s has imposed its last contract offer which changed workers health care plan and eliminates premium pay for Sundays and holidays.  Raley’s has hired some 500 replacement workers and posted large ads in the local newspapers arguing their case and giving away a number of free groceries.

 Raley's has never  had a strike before. The walkout is the first in Northern California's grocery industry since a nine-day work stoppage in 1995. It's the first in the state since the epic Southern California strike of 2003, which consumed nine months and cost employers billions.

Who were the winners and the losers in the elections?

The names at the top of the ballot yesterday were Obama and Romney, but the real winners and losers are the constituents and causes who did battle on the ground and on the airwaves, and whose lives and livelihoods will be influenced by what happens over the next four years and beyond.

The winners include:

The Labor Movement: Unions mobilized their members and money in key swing states on behalf of liberal Democrats, including Obama and Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts, Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin, and many others. In California, labor helped bring out more than 40,000 volunteers and scored two major victories in California -- the defeat of the deceptive anti-union corporate power grab, Proposition 32, and the win for progressive tax ballot measure, Proposition 30. Although unions now represent only 12 percent of American workers, they still remain the most powerful and effective force for liberal issues and Democratic candidates. Union members and their family members turned out in high numbers and voted overwhelmingly for Democrats. Union loyalists also knocked on doors and staffed phone-banks on behalf of candidates and causes that support working families. Thanks to unions and their allies among community groups and faith-based organizations, the lowest-paid workers in Albuquerque, San Jose, and Long Beach will receive pay increases after voters approved ballot proposals Tuesday that will raise the minimum wage for workers in each city. Citywide minimum wage increases were passed in Albuquerque and San Jose, while Long Beach voters approved an ordinance establishing a higher minimum wage for hotel workers in the city.

Women: Women voters favored Obama over Romney by a 55 percent to 43 percent margin, according to preliminary exit polls. Liberal and progressive women candidates made an incredibly strong showing in the swing Senate and House races, notably Warren in Massachusetts and Baldwin in Wisconsin. Other women Dems -- Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota and Mazie Hirono in Hawaii -- replaced males who decided to retire. All Democratic incumbent female senators up for re-election this year won,

Obama Wins the 2012 Election: Obama's Complete Presidential Victory Spee...

Sunrise in the New America

Sunrise in the New America. Red, Black, Brown, Yellow and White, We're All Precious in God's Sight. Women and Men, Straight and Gay, Young and Old, Rich and Poor, Immigrant and Native Born... We are the 99%, and We're on the Move Now... United... Together... Forward.

Keep Hope Alive!

Thank you !

Thank You. 

Great victories in California.  As promised, every vote counted. We needed each and every vote.

We defeated the billionaires efforts to  crush organized labor and to continue the anti tax radicalism.

We defeated the anti labor proposition 32.

We passed Prop. 30, to fund schools, universities and social services.  This is a floor under austerity.   It raises taxes on the rich to pay for services.  It does raise income tax by ¼ of  percent – but 90% of the tax increases are on the rich . A tax of 1-3 % on those who make over $250,000 per year.

Progressive Alliance Voter Guide

Sacramento Progressive Alliance

sacramentopa.blogspot.com 

Progressive Voter Guide

2012 General Election

President & Vice President:                  Barack Obama & Joe Biden (D)

 U.S. Senate:                                    Dianne Feinstein (D)

 U.S. Representative:        

District 3:                        John Garamendi (D)

District 4:                        Jack Uppal (D)

District 5:                        Mike Thompson (D)

District 6:                        Doris Matsui (D)

District 7:                        Ami Bera (D)

District 9:                        Jerry McNerney (D)

District 10:                        Jose Hernandez (D)

District 11:                        George Miller (D)

District 12:                        Nancy Pelosi (D)

District 13:                        Barbara Lee

California Ballot Propositions:

            Proposition 30: Funding for Schools and Colleges            YES

            Proposition 31: Budget Revision Process                                    NO

            Proposition 32: Anti-union, Special Exemptions                        NO

            Proposition 33: Insurance Changes                                                NO

            Proposition 34: Repeal Death Penalty                                    YES

            Proposition 35: Tougher Penalties for Sex Trafficking            YES

            Proposition 36: Modify 3-Strikes Law                                    YES

            Proposition 37: Labeling Genetically Engineered Food            YES

            Proposition 38: Tax Initiative for K-12 Education                        Neutral

            Proposition 39: Tax Out of State Corporations                        YES

            Proposition 40: State Senate Districts                                                YES

Sacramento City Council	District 2	Rob Kerth
Sacramento City  Council	District 4	Steve Hansen
Natomas School Board	Susan Heredia
Roseville School Board	Rene Aguilera
Sacramento Smud Baord	Mike Picker

California State Senate:

                                    District 1:                        Julie Griffith-Flatter (D)

                                    District 3:                        Lois Wolk (D)

                                    District 5:                        Cathleen Galgiani (D)

                                    District 7:                        Mark Desaulnier (D)

California Sate Assembly:

                                    District 4:                        Mariko Yamada (D)

                                    District 7:                        Roger Dickinson (D)

                                    District 9:                        Richard Pan (D)

                                    District 11:                        Jim Frazier (D)