Daily Archives: 10/01/2011

AFL – CIO


We need jobs. Not unfair trade agreements.

Millions of people who are ready, willing and able to work are
unemployed or underemployed. But instead of focusing on job creation,
Congress is getting ready to take up unfair, job-offshoring trade deals.

With more than 25 million people desperately searching for full-time
jobs, the last thing our leaders should focus on is these unfair trade
deals. It’s the wrong thing to do, and it’s a huge distraction from our
jobs crisis.

Tell Congress: Get moving on jobs, and drop these unfair trade deals. Then, be ready to join our national call-in day this Tuesday. With your help, we’ll make our voices heard by flooding Congress with calls and messages.

Here’s why the three pending trade agreements are a bad deal for working families:

  • The Korea agreement is the biggest trade deal since NAFTA. It would displace an estimated 159,000 net U.S. jobs, mostly in manufacturing.
  • Colombia is the most dangerous place in the world for trade unionists.
    So how can we reward it with a free trade agreement? In 2010, 51 trade
    unionists were assassinated in Colombia—more than in the rest of the
    world combined. So far in 2011, another 22 have been killed, despite
    Colombia’s heralded “Labor Action Plan.” Would we reward a country where
    51 CEOs were killed last year?
  • And Panama, with a history of failing to protect workers’ rights, is known as a tax haven for money launderers and tax dodgers.

Past
trade deals like NAFTA have been miserable failures for working
people—and these new deals follow in NAFTA’s footsteps. Working people
need to make our voices heard.

Please e-mail Congress now.
Then get ready to join our national call-in day this Tuesday. With your
help, we’ll flood Congress with calls and messages to make our voices
heard.

In Solidarity,

Richard L. Trumka

President, AFL-CIO

2 Comments

Gov.Gregorie in the Newsroom


News Archive »

the Progress Report


Millionaires Revolt!

By ThinkProgress War Room

Millionaires Want To Pay Their Fair Share

It’s not just the whopping 73 percent of Americans — including 66 percent of Republicans — who agree that it’s unfair for middle class Americans to pay a higher tax rate than millionaires and billionaires. Millionaires themselves are clamoring for their taxes to be raised.

Here’s the rundown of some of the millionaires who want their taxes raised.

Warren Buffett

Doug Edwards, former Google executive

Russell Simmons, hip hop mogul

Survey Says: The GOP Only Looks Out for the “Haves”

Via ThinkProgress’ Alex Seitz-Wald:

Almost half of all respondents to a new Washington Post poll say Republicans in Congress are doing more to help the “haves” than “have nots,” with fewer than a third saying the GOP treats both sides equally. A tiny 7 percent say Republican lawmakers are helping the have-nots. For contrast, a plurality say President Obama treats society’s “haves” and “have-nots” about equally. The Post’s Peyton M. Craighill and Jon Cohen compiled this table:

Faces of the 99%

Today, we stumbled on a new Tumblr blog showcasing some of the faces of the 99 percent.  It’s worth checking out, but here are few examples.



Evening Brief: Important Stories That You May Have Missed

Should all teachers make $125,000?

Pentagon to allow military chaplains to perform same-sex marriages.

Is Mitt Romney a Keynesian?

Watch Rick Perry flip-flop on Social Security in a matter of seconds.

Understanding the theory behind Occupy Wall Street’s approach.

What baseball can tell us about the financial crisis.

Here are some ideas for concrete demands protesters could adopt to hold Wall Street accountable.

Brutal treatment of immigrants doesn’t get much worse than this: undocumented pregnant women were forced to give birth while shackled in police custody.

Speaker John Boehner’s own Ohio district suffers from an E. Coli outbreak as House Republicans try to gut food safety regulations.

 

 

Other recent Progress Reports

Sep 29, 2011: Scenes From The Streets

Mad As Hell and Not Going to Take It Anymore Whether it’s the protesters occupying Wall Street or hundreds of smaller actions in cities across the country, there is a growing movement demanding that banks (and millionaire bankers) pay their fair share, that we rebuild the middle class and the American Dream, and that we [...]

Sep 28, 2011: Romney & Perry Doth Protest Too Much

They Can Run, But They Can’t Hide Their Stimulus-Loving Pasts Just as we were crawling out of bed this morning, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s campaign eagerly blasted out a new video attacking President Obama on the stimulus. Shortly thereafter, however, Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry became engaged in a nasty fight over who [...]

Sep 27, 2011: Eric Cantor, This Will Go Down On Your Permanent Record

What Does the GOP Have Against American Jobs, Kids? President Obama is in Colorado today touting his plans to put Americans back to work modernizing our aging schools and to make sure there are plenty of teachers to fill those schools. Here’s the rundown of the president’s plan and why Republican opposition to it is [...]

Sep 26, 2011: The Need For Gender Equality In Television

The fall television season’s a great time for fresh starts — to welcome back favorite television shows and hope they’ll continue their momentum, or find great new shows. This autumn’s been heralded as a breakthrough for women on television, particularly women in comedy, following the massive and somewhat unexpected box office success of the female-led [...]

Don’t let Republicans Kill the Dream


by

A  60-second television ad released by Democracy for America targets Republicans for killing the American Dream and failing to create jobs. The ad, “Don’t Kill the Dream,” which will air both nationally and targeted locally, features Americans who want Republicans in Congress to stop dismantling the middle class and killing the American Dream by slashing vital programs they depend on, while simultaneously insisting on tax breaks and loopholes for corporations and millionaires.

CBO: Cost Estimate for HR1447,HR1801,HR915,HR2838,HR2349,H.J.Res.70,S.97,S.473,S.893


Do YOU have a climate-fr​iendly garden?


Today the Backyard, Tomorrow the Nation

Most home gardeners already see evidence of global warming in their own backyards and these droughts, floods, pests, and weeds can challenge even the greenest thumb. But you can do more than merely adapt to these new conditions: you can make choices in your garden that don’t add to the problem.

As the summer gardening season swings into full gear, we’ll be bringing you expert advice – from Master Gardeners and our very own scientists – so that you can be a climate-friendly gardener in your own backyard, and encourage the same on our nation’s farms.

In Your Garden…

Norma Jean Wade, a Master Gardener from Livonia, MI, offers this tip on how to be a climate-friendly gardener.

gardeners guide “Synthetic chemical pesticides require a lot of energy to manufacture, producing a significant amount of carbon dioxide in the process. To reduce your use of synthetic pesticides, consider planting native plants. Native plants are low maintenance because they are adapted to local soils and climate, and are more resistant to native plant viruses, insects, and bacteria. Incorporating native plants is a key strategy for establishing a climate-friendly garden.”

See page 4 of The Climate-Friendly Gardener (pdf) for more tips on how to limit chemicals in your garden, or contact your local Cooperative Extension Office for gardening information specific to your region.

On the Farm…

Farmers can also adopt climate-friendly practices, such as lowering their use of chemical pesticides, on our nation’s farms. Farmers employing sustainable farming techniques, including organic systems, have demonstrated that it is possible to produce abundant quantities of nutritious food while avoiding the use of these synthetic pesticides which are dangerous for our health and our environment.

The Farm Bill—voted on every five years in Congress—largely determines what food farmers will grow and what practices they will employ. Programs designed to help farmers successfully transition to sustainable agriculture practices that reduce their reliance on synthetic pesticides are on the chopping block, despite the already low levels of funding for these programs compared with support for outdated, chemical-dependent conventional agriculture systems. Hearings on the 2012 Farm Bill are underway in the House of Representatives.

Write to your member of Congress and demand farm policies that help farmers lower their use of synthetic chemical pesticides.

Take Action Today!    www.ucsusa.org

Sincerely,
KateAbend_jpg
Jenn Yates
National Field Organizer
UCS Food and Environment Program

Norma Jean Wade, a Master Gardener from Livonia, MI, offers this tip on how to be a climate-friendly gardener.

Nielsen Wire: Gamers Make Their Wish Lists; Nielsen at Advertisin​g Week
   Top News
Top 20 Games to Watch – Gamers Make Their Holiday Wish Lists
Nielsen’s Top 20 Games to Watch reveals the most anticipated games of the 2011 holiday season, with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 the most coveted among active U.S. gamers. (full story)
Friends, Following and Feedback: How We’re Using Social Media
New research by NM Incite, a Nielsen/McKinsey Company, explores the reasons U.S. social media users visit social networkings. (full story)
Record Audience Watches Opening Rugby World Cup Match
An unprecedented 81% of the population (15 years and older) were glued to screens across New Zealand to watch the opening game of the Rugby World Cup, according to the results of a survey conducted by Nielsen. (full story)
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   More News
Mobile Phones Dominate in South Africa
Africa is in the midst of a technological revolution, and nothing illustrates that fact than the proliferation of mobile phones. (full story)
Nearly 75% of Consumers Remember an Ad When Viewed Across Media Platforms
New research from Nielsen, commissioned by Google, shows that advertising on multiple platforms substantially increases consumers’ ability to remember an ad campaign compared to when the ad is viewed on TV alone. (full story)
Number of Ethnic TV Households Grows: Asian TV Households up Nearly 10 Percent
The number of Asian TV households for the coming TV season will grow 9.6 percent (over 400,000) compared to last year. (full story)
In U.S. Market, New Smartphone Buyers Increasingly Embracing Android
According to an August survey, 43 percent of all smartphone owners have an Android device. But if you ask only those who got a new smartphone in the past three months what kind of phone they chose, more than half (56%) will tell you they picked an Android device. (full story)

Would you trade a redwood or an ancient Tribal burial ground for a merlot? …Corinne Ball, Change.org


A Spanish company is angling to build a new vineyard in the town of Annapolis, California. Sounds fine, right?

But the plans call for: 
Destroying 140 acres of majestic redwood forest,
Building the vineyard on top of  the ancient burial grounds of the Kashia Pomo tribe (many of whom still  live and worship in those woods), and
Harming the Gualala River, home to endangered salmon and other at-risk wildlife.

California  resident Marie Casias likes wine, but she thinks this is crazy — and  people around the country are starting to agree. Marie’s  petition on Change.org calling on the California Department of Forestry  and Fire Protection and other officials to put a stop to this is  growing quickly. And we’ve jumped in to help her out by asking you to sign it too.

Sign Marie’s petition to prevent the Spanish wine company from decimating Sonoma’s redwoods.   WWW.Change.org/petitions

It’s  not often that the folks at the California Department of Forestry and  Fire Protection receive this kind of national attention. Imagine their  faces as your message, and messages from 50 states, start accumulating  in support of protecting the forest. They’ll almost certainly think  twice before approving the proposal.

Sign the petition now, then forward this email to everyone you know:

WWW.Change.org/petitions

Thanks

for being a change-maker,

- Corinne and the Change.org team