Tag Archives: Barack Obama

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

who is Moncia Wehby? A Republican


  • the election results are in — and we now know who will be taking on Senator Merkley this fall.
    The Republican nominee is Monica Wehby.  

    Stand with Jeff. Donate right now!

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    Here’s what you need to know:
    • She has been a national activist against the Affordable Care Act.  She’s called for repeal of health care reform, and she’d put the insurance companies back in charge.
    • Wehby is opposed to raising the federal minimum wage and making work pay for millions of Americans.
    • She supports restrictions on a woman’s right to choose and would support Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade.  And she’s won the support of some of America’s most radical anti-choice activists.
    The bottom line?  
    When asked, Wehby couldn’t name a single thing that she disagreed about with Republicans in the Senate.
    So, it’s no surprise that the Washington DC establishment and their SuperPAC pals are so enthusiastic about Monica Wehby.
    Senator Mitch McConnell, who calls himself the “guardian of gridlock,” is 100% all-in for Wehby — as are numerous Republican Senators.
    Karl Rove has raved about her in the pages of the Wall Street Journal.  And Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are all-in, too.
    But the thing that Merkley fans should be watching closest?  Monica Wehby already has at least two SuperPACs on her side funded by wealthy out-of-state special interests.  They went to bat for her in the Republican primary — to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars — and you can bet they’ll be swinging for the fences against Senator Merkley.
    Let’s stand up for Jeff.
    Senator Merkley is a proven progressive, making real progress on fixing the filibuster, holding Wall Street accountable, fixing the housing crisis, turning the dial back on climate change, ending LGBT discrimination, standing up to the Monsanto Protection Act, and making college affordable.
    We know why the right-wing radicals and billionaires want to defeat Jeff Merkley.  The only question is: What are we going to do about it?
    Onward!
    Alex
~ Culture & History, ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Finally … a settlement is agreed to


nativelandnow

U.S. to pay Navajo tribe $554 million in landmark settlement

By Steve Gorman (Reuters) – The Obama administration has agreed to pay the Navajo Nation a record $554 million to settle longstanding claims by America’s largest Indian tribe that its funds and natural resources were mishandled for decades by the U.S. government. The accord, resolving claims that…

Reuters
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Fair Employment Protection Art


AAUW Action Network

The Supreme Court has gotten it wrong again, and it’s up to us to get Congress to fix their mistake. In fact, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has specifically asked us to!

In a 5-4 ruling last year, the court created an artificial distinction between types of workplace “supervisors.” This decision creates an extra hurdle for workers suing their employers for workplace harassment, unequal pay, and other forms of discrimination.

Here’s the problem: The court’s ruling doesn’t mesh with the realities of the modern workplace! Millions of workers are overseen by other employees who don’t have the authority to hire or fire them, yet still shape their day-to-day work experience through actions such as making their schedule, giving them time off, or assigning them projects and tasks. This wrong-headed decision virtually gives a green light to sexual harassment as long as it doesn’t come from “the boss.”

Under the 2013 ruling, known as Vance v. Ball State University, this “overseeing” type of employee is now classified as a co-worker, meaning that any harassment from them is subject to a lesser standard – despite the obvious fact that they have power over other workers. This problematic decision is of particular concern to women – a national poll found that 25 percent of women have experienced workplace sexual harassment, as have one in 10 men.

Tell Congress: We need laws that reflect what it’s like to work in the real world. We need the Fair Employment Protection Act, which would restore longstanding workplace protections the Vance ruling took away. We must return to a reasonable definition that reflects the modern workplace.

Think about your own experiences at work. You knew who set your schedule and gave you assignments, but did you know who could make the decision to fire you? Was it your direct boss? Was it the HR manager? Was it the company president that you met only once? Under the court’s standard, if your boss doesn’t have the power to fire you, he/she isn’t considered your “supervisor.” And that’s just silly.

The Fair Employment Protection Act was just introduced today, so it’s time to make your voice heard: Tell Congress to support the Fair Employment Protection Act to protect all workers from harassment.
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Silicon Valley’s narrative ~~~ On Black folks …ColorOfChange team


Silicon Valley has a problem.

Black Twitter

Tell Twitter to disclose its diversity data and host a public forum on making Silicon Valley more inclusive.

Take Action

 

Last year, when confronted with criticism about his appointment of an all-white, all-male Board of Directors, Dick Costolo – the CEO of Twitter – responded with a dismissive, joking tweet. 

“The whole thing has to be about more than checking a box & saying ‘we did it!’,” he later typed.1

It’s been months now since Costolo’s defensive response and although Twitter later added a white woman to its Board,2 the company has yet to publicly address the failure to appoint a single Black person despite data that confirms that Black folks make up a disproportionate share of Twitter’s user-base.

Much worse, in recent weeks as other Silicon Valley tech companies like Facebook, Yahoo, Google, and LinkedIn took the historic first step to release depressing data about the racial and gender composition of their staffs, Twitter has remained silent — refusing to jump on the data-release-bandwagon.3

That’s why we’re joining with Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow Push Coalition to call on Twitter to do two things: 1) release its employee diversity numbers immediately and 2) signal its commitment to real inclusion by hosting a public community forum that addresses the company’s plan to recruit and retain more Black talent. Will you join us? It only takes a minute.

Twitter is unlikely to break any trends

To date, most of the data disclosures have confirmed that Silicon Valley prefers its workers to be male and either white or Asian.4, 5 And although Twitter is unlikely to break any diversity trends that have emerged, transparency and a public commitment to improving the recruitment and retention of Black employees are critical first steps.

Though its minority representation numbers may mirror other Silicon Valley tech companies, Twitter has a unique role to play in this national conversation about hiring discrimination. Via the cultural force known as “Black Twitter,” Twitter has been built off the creativity of Black people, though they’re not on the payroll. 6, 7, 8 As such, the company owes our community more — more transparency, and a more thoughtful, solutions-oriented approach that addresses its failure to be more inclusive without blaming Black people.

Shifting the blame

Unfortunately, many of the tech companies (and their pundits) have been quick to incorrectly blame a leaky “talent pipeline” for the extreme racial hiring disparities revealed by these disclosures; pointing to statistics about the dearth of computer science degrees awarded to Black men and women, and bragging about their own philanthropic-investments in tech education for minorities.  Silicon Valley apologists are working to divert blame. 

Completely ignoring the fact that Black people are also severely underrepresented in nontechnical Silicon Valley roles, these blame-shifting tactics are not only misleading, they also serve to reinforce the false and problematic narrative that Black people are simply “unqualified,” undeserving and not valuable — that Black-thought is unqualified, underserving, and not valuable.

We cannot allow a corporate culture that seems hell-bent on making excuses for its replication of tired “good ol’ boy” networks to malign the intellectual and creative capacities of Black people in the process. 

Will you join us in this fight?

Thanks and Peace,

–Rashad, Arisha, Matt, Aimee, Bhavik, and the rest of the ColorOfChange team.
July 17, 2014
References

1.”Twitter CEO Takes Fire Over All Male Board”, ValleyWag, 2013-07-10

2. “Twitter appoints first woman, Marjorie Scardino, to board of directors“, The Washington Post, 2013-11-15

3. “Some in Silicon Valley Publicize Diversity, While Others Shy Away“, U.S. News, 2014-06-18 

4.”Silicon Valley Firms Are Even Whiter and More Male Than You Thought“, Mother Jones, 2014-05-29 

5. “Status Update: Facebook not so diverse“, USA Today, 2014-06-26 

6. “Black Twitter: A virtual community ready to hashtag out a response to cultural issues“, The Washington Post, 2014-01-20. 

7. “Mama I Made It: Pew Poll Study Confirms The Existence of Black Twitter“, okayplayer, 2014-01-01

8. “Black Twitter FINALLY Gets Recognized…so that Twitter can Sell Ads“, ValleyWag, 2014-21-01 

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Mayors for #theAmericanJOBsACT ~~ PASS IT NOW

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Phil Gordon, the mayor of Phoenix, Arizona believes the American Jobs Act should be passed,

“We can’t afford to keep waiting. And the politics that are being played
not only in Washington, DC, but across the country are just devastating our
nation, our cities. And it’s important not only to put people back to work but
to train them for the 21st century.”

He is pleading with Congress – Republicans and Democrats – to pass the
American Jobs Act “right away.”

“Arizona has been hit—one of the two or three hardest states—in Phoenix in
particular—with housing, lack of conventions, tourism, lack of jobs,” Gordon
explains.  “It’s time to stop talking about it, it’s time to move forward.
There’s plenty of time for everybody to do politics afterwards. But right now,
in Phoenix, we have a lot of people out of work. We have a lot of children that
are now homeless with their moms and dads that shouldn’t be.”

Kansas City Mayor Sly James Supports the American Jobs Act

The American Job Act will help James answer the one question he says the residents of his Missouri city
ask any time he leaves the office, “’Mayor, where can I get a job? Mayor can you
help me get a job? Mayor can you help my brother or my mother get a job?”’Jobs
are at the forefront of people’s minds.”

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer Supports the American Jobs Act 

There’s a real sense of urgency right now. A lot of people have been out of
work for a long period of time. Their savings are gone or practically gone. So
they see where they thought they were going to be fitting in the American dream,
and saying, “that may not happen to me anymore right now.” And so there’s this
feeling of hopelessness that we’ve got to address, we can’t wait until the next
election cycle. This is something the American people need today.

America’s Mayors Are in Sync: Congress Must Work on a Bipartisan Basis to put
America Back on Track

Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, California says that the residents
of his city are united in their message to him, and to elected officials in
Washington: “Job #1 is to create the jobs they need going into the future.”

Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory Supports the American Jobs Act 

Mayor Mark Mallory said that he — and the citizens of his city — are “very
excited” about the possibility of the Jobs Act because the President’s plan will
enable Cincinnati to keep firefighters and police officers on the
job.Mallory specifically refers to the provisions in the Act that provide funds for
infrastructure, and says Cincinnati’s “very large, very old” Brent
Spence Bridge needs to be replaced.

Mayor of Denver: American Jobs Act an “Opportunity for all Elected Officials to
Put Aside Differences”

Mayor Michael Hancock of Denver, Colorado says there is no more important
initiative that any elected official can be focused on than “trying to get
America back to work, right now.” Hancock believes that “this Job Act is an opportunity for all elected
officials at every level but particularly here in Washington, in Congress and
the White House, to finally put aside our differences and stand again for the
people of America and begin to put them to work.”

Mayor Rawlings-Blake of Baltimore Supports the American Jobs Act 

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake says the country needs the American Jobs Act in order to “grow
out of this great recession.”  As an older city, Baltimore has tremendous
infrastructure needs and its mayor believes the $50
billion investment in rebuilding that is a core component of the Jobs Act
will make the streets and schools of her city “safer for generations to come.”
Rawlings-Blake also applauds the Jobs Act’s focus on offering relief to small
business owners, who she says are the “backbone” of Baltimore’s economy

Governor John Kitzhaber of Oregon says that in his state,


“the American Jobs Act
will translate into almost
9,000 jobs for vital transportation, school infrastructure projects for idol
construction workers, funding for our schools and incentives for small
businesses to put people back to work.”

Most importantly. says Kitzhaber, the jobs that are
created will be “good middle income family wage jobs,” which will create a
significant economic ripple across the state. “In an economic crisis we need to
be investing in the economy–we need to be investing in job creation and I think
the American Jobs Act is exactly
what we need at the right time and certainly for Oregon and I think for
America.”