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Too many Rhode Islanders are struggling in this tough economy. You know this, I know this, and so does Senator Whitehouse. That’s why Sheldon’s top priority has been putting people back to work — and that starts with bringing jobs back to America. Our new ad, “Holes,” highlights Sheldon’s efforts to do just that.
Sheldon has been fighting to eliminate tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. In the Senate, Sheldon authored the Offshoring Prevention Act and he co-sponsored and voted for both the Bring Jobs Home Act and the Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act. These bills will encourage bringing American jobs back home, but too many people in Washington are looking out for special interests and not middle class families. Fortunately for us, Sheldon does more than vote the right way — he’s been helping to lead the fight for middle class families. We need leaders like Sheldon in the Senate and it’s more important than ever to re-elect him to keep fighting for Rhode Island, to keep fighting for us. Will you take a moment to watch this ad and share it with your friends? You can help make sure that every Rhode Islander knows what is at risk in this election. And we’ve made it easy for you to share this ad with your friends on this page. We’re in the final sprint to the election. Your continued help over the next 53 days will make all the difference — so let’s go spread the word! Thanks for all you do, Tony Simon P.S. If you haven’t already liked Sheldon’s campaign on Facebook, it’s a great way for you to stay connected with the campaign and help spread the word about Sheldon’s work. Visit Facebook.com/SheldonWhitehouse and be sure to click the “Like” button to see our updates |
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Walmart Free: Education Forum
On September 20th, join the Black Institute in educating New Yorker’sabout Walmart’s lies and building support for our local Walmart FreeNYC Campaign at the “No More Lies” Forum.
Walmart’s urban strategy is to buy and bully its way into our cities with a massive million-dollar ad campaign making promises to communities and associates. Community members will be sharing the story of broken promises in cities across the country where Walmart is expanding and what organizing efforts are happening to protect workers and communities in our cities.
This forum is an opportunity for all of us – community, faith,labor, students, low wage workers, elected officials and every day NewYorkers to learn about Walmart’s broken promises in urban markets and to engage in the NYC local campaign. Click for More Info
The Black Institute http://www.theblackinstitute.org/
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Think Voter ID is Bad? Meet the Poll-Watchers
by Jessica Pieklo
- September 13, 2012
- 8:00 am
The Republican fight against voter rights has garnered the lions share of press attention, but as The Nation reports, the fight for voting rights extends well beyond the fight over Voter ID and includes the fight over who gets to raise the question over who is eligible to vote.
In at least twenty-four states any random person is authorized, if they feel so inclined, to question individual voters and ask them to “prove” their eligibility to vote. As restrictive and complicated Voter ID laws have passed state-by-state, conservative groups have realized there’s good leveraging in voter registration challenges and poll watcher trainings.
Tea Party loyalists have created True the Vote, an advocacy group which pushes Voter ID laws and training “patriots” to protect the polls. But as a new report from the Brennan Center for Justice, “Voter Challengers” spells out, these groups rely on American’s historical amnesia when it comes to race in order to promote their activities. Poll-watching can’t be divorced from its racially motivated roots, and groups like True the Vote understand that, even if they won’t acknowledge it.
“This history of discriminatory voter challenges casts doubt on the fraud-prevention arguments traditionally used to justify these laws,” writes Nicolas Riley, author of the Brennan Center report.
As it stands, thirty-nine states allow private citizens to challenge voters at the polls. According to the Brennan study, election officials in those states are “under immense time pressure to decide challenges quickly in order to avoid voting delays.” True the Vote is aware of this, but they put it differently, saying at a recent poll watcher training that election officials are “under immense pressure to do the wrong thing”—namely let undocumented immigrants vote, and let people vote multiple times.
As detailed in The Nation, even in 2012 voting restrictions are intimately tied to our collective history of racial segregation and discrimination.
In those states, people can make up a reason to challenge a voter’s rights without any evidence backing them up, and do so with impunity. It’s the same as when people drum up charges of voter fraud to pass voter ID bills and go unpunished when it’s revealed that no such fraud exists. You can’t fabricate a police report by saying you were mugged if you weren’t; you can’t file a false claim saying you lost possessions in a disaster. In both cases, you face jail and fines for bearing false witness, but not if you fabricate voter fraud or voter ineligibility in many states.
The Brennan report points out that South Carolina and Virginia allow people to challenge voters even if it’s nothing but a whim. Consider that both South Carolina and Virginia both have passed voter ID laws. In South Carolina, that law is currently being challenged in a federal court, where it was discovered that the law’s author Representative Alan Clemmons made racist comments about black voters in an e-mail while discussing how to pass the legislation.
Both states have strong True the Vote connections. In South Carolina, a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Cibby Krell, is a True the Vote volunteer with the Spartanburg Tea Party. In Virginia, the Virginia Voters Alliance is a group that trains Tea Party groups in challenging voters while pressuring Virginia election officials to engage in reckless purging processes.
Like other forms of evolved and modern discrimination, poll watching has become more sophisticated. But that doesn’t make it any less toxic to our democracy.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/think-voter-id-is-bad-meet-the-poll-watchers.html#ixzz26Rrg1j4G
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Lafcadio Cortesi, Rainforest Action Network
Chip in to help hold paper villain Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) accountable.
Here are RAN, we are engaged in one of our largest campaigns yet in an emergency effort to save Indonesia‘s imperiled forests. We’re working in the U.S., Japan, and Indonesia to create the market leverage necessary to transform the corporate practices of APP, the largest paper company in Indonesia. And our campaign is working: major U.S. and European customers like Staples, Random House, Levi’s, and Gucci have stopped buying paper from controversial sources like APP.
Now is the perfect time to put more market pressure on APP, and that is directly where your support will go.
Make a tax-deductible donation to the Rainforest Action Network today.
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CPS states they Offered a Fair and Reasonable Deal to CTU to Avoid a Strike
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Photo from Care2
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| Visit cps.edu/childrenfirst or call 311 if you have no alternative childcare | ||
| From the CPS website : Posted September 9, 2012 | ||
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