Tag Archives: Middle class

~ my 2cents ...

TGIF &some News


just another rant …

It’s Friday and while that in itself is a good thing, watching and hearing President Obama in VA today was an even greater thing to experience and definitely consistent with what he has always felt about helping the Middle Class which, is to provide a hand up not a hand out. However, this concept is completely contrary to what we hear from most if not all those right of center or the extremist Teapublicans who believe government is too big but only when they do not need it for themselves. The idea that members of the Republican Congress felt completely comfortable stating they would not attend, that the President’s speech did not rise to a joint speech in Congress, of laughing during his American Jobs Act speech left me with no doubt that Republicans are not qualified or grown-up enough to govern our great Nation. I have to admit it was beyond sad to hear grown adults disrespect the office of President let alone President Obama and last i remember we are not in a parliamentary setting where they are free to scream and or yell. It was offensive and disturbing but it gave Americans the full picture of just who the GOPers are, who they side with and what they intend to continue. That, is holding the Middle Class hostage while demanding less regulation, less tax burden on the job creators, and if given the chance, will cut slash and burn Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid or any other social service program designed to give a hand up not a hand out. I guess the idea of giving a hand up to the middle class or the poor is a cliché only a Teapublican could laugh at. How do you feel as an American about the reckless, hypocrisy ridden, unfazed, greedy sounding, self-interested ideologically moved attitudes by the Teapublican Political Party who seem quite driven and who probably have signed up to take our Democracy and Country literally over the edge of disaster to gain control of the White House.

Other News …

Obama Takes Jobs Plan on the Road

Spoke at University of Richmond

C-SPAN’s “The Contenders” Looks at Henry Clay

Sept. 11th Tenth Anniversary Events Continue Today

House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) conducts a weekly briefing on legislative issues in the 112th Congress.  Minority Leader Pelosi spoke in reflection on the events of 9/11 as the tenth anniversary approaches.  She also spoke about the president’s speech to a Joint Session of Congress on jobs, and then responded to reporters’ questions.More Info »

President Obama revealed his plan to address unemployment and the economy tonight in a nationally televised address before a joint session of Congress.  The President called on Congress to put aside partisanship in order to pass a plan he believes will jump-start job creation.  The national unemployment rate is slightly above 9% and more than 14 million people are out of work. More Info »

House and Senate leaders spoke to reporters about President Obama’s upcoming address to a Joint Session of Congress in which he will lay out his plan to get more than 14 million Americans back to work.  More Info »

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Verizon strike … Jess Kutch, Change.org

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Verizon made billions in profits in just the last four years — but right now, the telecom giant is demanding $1 billion from its own workers in pay and benefit cuts.

Worse, rather than negotiate fairly with their employees, Verizon representatives cut off all negotiations and are refusing to talk.

So more than 45,000 Verizon workers went on strike demanding that Verizon stop its attack on the middle class. If Verizon sees the public and its customers behind the striking workers, the company can be forced back into good faith negotiations.

 Sign the Change.org petition by the Communications Workers of America asking Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam to restart negotiations and stop Verizon’s attack on the middle class.>>   http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-verizon-stop-attacking-the-middle-class?

If $1 billion in cuts is hard to grasp, consider this: Verizon is demanding each of its employees forfeit $20,000 in wages and benefits every year.

Verizon’s executives aren’t forced into outrageous cuts with their workers. In the last four years, Verizon’s top five executives were paid more than a quarter-billion dollars.

While Verizon makes record profits, its workers shouldn’t be made to suffer. Let Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam know you stand with workers against the company’s refusal to bargain. Click here to add your name to the workers’ petition on Change.org:

www.change.org

Thanks for being a change-maker,

– Jess and the Change.org team

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

UPDATE: Scott Walker vs. Planned Parenthood


Amazing! Thanks to DFA members like you, we raised more than $40,000 from 1,479 people in less than a day to fuel our campaign to recall these six anti-middle class Wisconsin Republican Senators.

We’re going to win this campaign in Wisconsin exactly because we have that kind of people-power backing us up. We don’t take big corporate contributions. We’re fueled from small contributions from thousands of members across the country — and we need your support now more than ever.

We’re almost there. We’ve already started hiring organizers on the ground in Wisconsin Senate District 32. Now we need to raise another $25,000 so we can start hiring on Monday in two more key districts. Can you put us over the top?

Please contribute $10 right now so we can start hiring organizers in Wisconsin on Monday.    http://act.democracyforamerica.com/go/859?akid=1030.1480546.P7JOcu&t=1

This is our biggest field program ever — with over 35 paid staff on the ground — and we can’t do it without your support.

Thank you for everything you do.

-Kristina

Kristina Powell, Finance Director
Democracy for America

P.S. I wanted to include Jim’s original message below in case you missed it.

 ****************************************

This is it, folks. DFA’s campaign to recall six anti-union, anti-middle class Wisconsin Republican Senators is almost ready to go and it’s the biggest campaign we’ve ever run.

We’re going to be on the air with new hard-hitting television, radio and web ads against these six Republicans for their votes to destroy unions and middle-class families.

We’re going to be on the ground with a massive canvassing operation that will knock on 137,523 doors in 40 days. DFA Deputy Field Director Nick Passanante is on the ground right now hiring staff for our biggest-ever ground campaign.

And we’re going to be on the phones. That’s right, we’re bringing back our hugely successful Call Out The Vote program with our friends at the PCCC — plugging in thousands of volunteers from across the country to make calls to voters in Wisconsin.

We’re putting together a grassroots campaign because people-power is the only thing that can beat big corporate money — it’s the only thing that ever has. But we can’t do it without you.

Please contribute $10 right now to fuel our biggest campaign ever and fight back in the war on working families.  http://act.democracyforamerica.com/go/859?akid=1030.1480546.P7JOcu&t=2

These six Republican senators reminded us last week exactly what’s at stake when they voted lockstep with right-wing Gov. Scott Walker to defund Planned Parenthood — another attack in the Republican war on middle class families.

Wisconsin isn’t the only state where right-wing Republicans have launched all-out war on middle class families and we’re working right now to organize volunteers in New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio and all across the country. But Wisconsin is the first state where we have a chance to go to the polls and recall Republicans.

The Wisconsin recall is our biggest campaign ever — and it’s only the beginning. Join us now and send a clear message to Republicans across the country — attack the middle class and you lose.

Contribute $10 now to send a message to Republicans everywhere.    http://act.democracyforamerica.com/go/859?akid=1030.1480546.P7JOcu&t=3

On the air, on the ground and on the phone — that’s real people power. Please contribute today and we’ll win this fight together. 

Thank you for everything you do.

-Jim

Jim Dean, Chair

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Scott Walker vs. Planned Parenthood


This is it, folks. DFA‘s campaign to recall six anti-union, anti-middle class Wisconsin Republican Senators is almost ready to go and it’s the biggest campaign we’ve ever run.

We’re going to be on the air with new hard-hitting television, radio and web ads against these six Republicans for their votes to destroy unions and middle-class families.

We’re going to be on the ground with a massive canvassing operation that will knock on 137,523 doors in 40 days. DFA Deputy Field Director Nick Passanante is on the ground right now hiring staff for our biggest-ever ground campaign.

And we’re going to be on the phones. That’s right, we’re bringing back our hugely successful Call Out The Vote program with our friends at the PCCC — plugging in thousands of volunteers from across the country to make calls to voters in Wisconsin.

We’re putting together a grassroots campaign because people-power is the only thing that can beat big corporate money — it’s the only thing that ever has. But we can’t do it without you.

www.democracyforamerica.org

These six Republican senators reminded us last week exactly what’s at stake when they voted lockstep with right-wing Gov. Scott Walker to defund Planned Parenthood — another attack in the Republican war on middle class families.

Wisconsin isn’t the only state where right-wing Republicans have launched all-out war on middle class families and we’re working right now to organize volunteers in New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio and all across the country. But Wisconsin is the first state where we have a chance to go to the polls and recall Republicans.

The Wisconsin recall is our biggest campaign ever — and it’s only the beginning. Join us now and send a clear message to Republicans across the country — attack the middle class and you lose.

www.democracyforamerica.org

On the air, on the ground and on the phone — that’s real people power. Please contribute today and we’ll win this fight together.

Thank you for everything you do.

-Jim

Jim Dean, Chair
Democracy for America

~ my 2cents ...

wicked weathered Wednesday &some News


Beware the weather is churning March Madness is heating up and the nonsense in Politics and the behavior by Politicians is getting even worse.

After then Senator Barack Obama became President, someone said the sky was falling, that Marxism and or Socialism was coming to America and we will lose our freedom … oh and that certain Muslims are not to be trusted unless they become FBI informants and or give up their rights – freedom of religion

I thought this was the 21st Century people! I find it amusing yet it brings me to tears to see how easy folks seem to throw out labels to describe President Obama’s actions in a time when the jig is up so to speak. We all see and hear the rhetoric out there in I guess a desperate move to try and make Americans feel that “other” thing relevant again. I am hoping folks have had enough of it and can see through the Republican Tea Party for what they are and refuse to drink the Kool-Aid. If you need to get a blast from the past, engage in movements to make the tea party base scared see what the McCarthyism days were like just tune into the Peter King hearings and see what a racist who holds public office looks like. It is as if these people holding public office not only forgot the oath they took, they decided to use their positions of power to do whatever they can to alienate working American families by separating them from jobs, social services and education to name just a few things jumping around on the chopping block of the Republican Tea Party. Republicans have made a choice and it ain’t for the Middle Class.

I would like to remind anyone thinking of voting right of center in 2012 because they are not happy about the status of your own life at this very moment. After years of so-called creative accounting, procedures from Wall Street finally reared its ugly head. Life for middle America changed as we all know it and again like I keep saying the show House of cards by David Faber on CNBC was a cruel reminder and rude awaking at how greed affects the mind … a truthful documentation of the nasty journey our economy took … by who, for who and how it brought us all down …

I am definitely a part of the Democratic Party but if we have to subscribe to labels … call me a Marxist who believes in Socialism at this time. We need someone who cares, who is socially responsible and who believes the gap between the haves and have none needs to shrink. If that is wrong, school me. Even though my question is rhetorical, think about it. What could be wrong with caring for your fellow man no matter what race, sex, creed, and or religion not just the 2% who got their bonus dollars after holding the Middle Class hostage for what about two years but still not satisfied until they destroy what America use to be about. The fact is that 2% has been and continues to wheel and deal with folks like the Koch brothers and the US Chamber of Commerce beginning or ending at the house of bush is not clear. However, it is obvious they intended to make money at the expense of all investors and the crap trickled down to Main Street.

“We the People” need to admit. It’s time for a change and if you believe in equality, it you believe in Working Families, Working Class American Workers instead of Corporate American or the Rich we all need to make sure that the Democratic Party regains control and correct the blatant BS and or mess that Republicans have made of our country.

Other News …

 **Peter King defends his hearings and will bring in other Muslims to prove it

**Libyan rebels might be losing the fight

**clashes in Tahrir square – 11 killed senselessly

**NPR CEO resigns amid tea party flap

**7.2 earthquake off coast of Japan

**41 in the Italian crime grp are being looked for

**Ben affleck talks about the horrors in Congo

**Mortgage Apps uptick to 16%, highest since June

**Suicide bombings in Pakistan killing dozens 

**hey Glee with Gwenth Paltrow was great

CSPAN …

Senate to Vote on Competing Spending Bills

http://c-span.com/Events/Senate-to-Vote-on-Competing-Spending-Bills/10737420087/

Sec. Duncan Defends FY2012 Education Budget

http://c-span.com/Events/Sec-Duncan-Defends-FY2012-Education-Budget/10737420052/

Capitol Hill

Hearing to Ask if Federal Workers are Underpaid

pay-for-performance system evaluated

http://c-span.com/Events/Hearing-to-Ask-if-Federal-Workers-are-Underpaid/10737420051/

Committee Starts to Deal with Housing Finance Reform

first in series of hearings

http://c-span.com/Events/Committee-Starts-to-Deal-with-Housing-Finance-Reform/10737420082/

First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hosted the annual International Women of Courage Awards ceremony at the State Department. Afterwards, two award winners, a prosecutor from Afghanistan and a journalist from the East African nation of Cameroon, spoke with reporters. http://c-span.com/Events/State-Department-Press-Briefings/10737420056/