This is outrageous. A corporate-backed right-wing group fighting to dismantle workers’ rights in Ohio hijacked the words and image of a great-grandmother who had filmed an ad for our allies, distorting her message and making it look like she supported their position against workers.
Cincinnati resident Marlene Quinn had filmed a TV ad for our friends at the “No on Issue 2” campaign — the campaign to repeal Senate Bill 5, Ohio’s version of the Wisconsin bill that stripped public workers of their collective bargaining rights. In the ad, she told the story of her grandson and great-granddaughter’s rescue by firefighters, and rightly made the case that passage of Issue 2 on the ballot this November, affirming SB 5, would lead to less firefighters there to protect Ohioans.
In a shockingly underhanded move, a leading right-wing group in the fight, Building a Better Ohio, stole the footage of Marlene for its own ad, and presented it in a way that made it look like Marlene was for Issue 2!
Ten Ohio TV stations have already pulled the ad and we’re going to keep the pressure on the rest until do too. Help us by joining our petition to Ohio TV stations now.
In an email for our allies at the No on 2 campaign, Marlene said of the Right’s ad:
“It’s insulting to the brave firefighters who saved the life of my great-granddaughter. I’m outraged they are using my face and my words to push their harmful agenda. They certainly did not ask my permission. I feel violated.”
Watch a side-by-side video comparison of the two ads and sign our petition now.
We hope you’ll speak out against the Right’s latest dirty tactic, and then engage others to do the same.
Thank you for all your support and activism to fight the Right’s dirty tricks.
It’s about jobs. You know that the most urgent deficit facing this country is the jobs deficit. It’s time for Congress to do its job and pass a plan that creates jobs for the millions of Americans who are desperately looking for work.
We expect the Senate to vote tonight on whether to allow debate to begin on President Obama’s jobs plan. It couldn’t be more timely or important. Last week, we got some news about the job market, and it’s not a pretty picture. Women gained just 4,000 of the 103,000 jobs created last month. The main reason? Cuts in funding for public services are disproportionately eliminating jobs held by women. Since the recession officially ended in June 2009, women have actually lost jobs and their unemployment rate has risen.
President Obama has introduced a plan, the American Jobs Act, to put women and men back to work. Yet some Senators may block the plan from even being considered!
You can help. Tell Congress it is time to stop cutting jobs and start creating them! Please call 1-888-659-9401 TODAY and ask your Senators to support the American Jobs Act.
Please call 1-888-659-9401 today. When connected to your Senators’ offices, please tell them:Your name, where you are from, and that you are a constituent.
That millions of Americans are desperately looking for work and need Congress to act quickly on the American Jobs Act.
That you support paying for the Act’s investments in job creation by making millionaires pay their fair share of taxes and oppose paying for them with further cuts in funding for public services that will destroy more jobs and create greater hardship.
Once you place your call, please call back to be connected to the office of your other Senator.
The American Jobs Act would keep teachers and first responders on the job, invest in rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, provide job training, create incentives to hire the long-term unemployed, provide subsidized employment for disadvantaged workers, extend emergency unemployment benefits, and prohibit discrimination against jobless workers. And it fully funds these urgently needed measures in a progressive way, by levying a surtax on incomes above $1 million.
Please call 1-888-659-9401 today and ask your Senators to support the American Jobs Act. Tell them Americans can’t afford to wait any longer.
P.S. Please help us continue to advocate for policies that protect and improve economic security for women and their families by making a generous donation today.
The effects have been both immediate and devastating: schools across the state are already reporting many Hispanic children absent, for fear of their families’ undocumented statuses being discovered. Crops are rotting in the fields because of the sudden shortage of migrant workers. One local framer warned, “There won’t be no next growing season.”
The Center for American Progress compiled comments from business leaders, academics, legal experts and Alabamians on HB56. One of the most powerful responses came from Professor Silvia Giagnoni of Auburn University at Montgomery, who said:
“It is sadly ironic that the same day a federal judge upholds major sections of the Alabama immigration law — the most restrictive in the nation — the state also receives an ‘A’ on its educational work in teaching civil rights history. It’s ironic because this comes at a time when the most retrogressive forces in Alabama claim a victory, although it is unclear to me against whom.”
Congress’ decision not to act on the federal level and pass comprehensive immigration reform means that states like Arizona, Georgia, Indiana and Alabama can now legislate discrimination — and other states could soon follow their precedent. This moment must be used as a wake-up call for the entire country to rededicate ourselves to passing national reform. Keep checking the blog as we write more on how our movement is taking action.
UPDATE: A federal judge refused to block the law Wednesday afternoon. We will continue to update as more news comes in.
This week already is shaping up to be huge, with actions everywhere
demanding good jobs for working families, paid for with fair taxes for
millionaires and Wall Street.Occupy Wall Street protests, which really took off over the weekend, will continue in cities from coast to coast. And the AFL-CIOAmerica Wants to Work national week of action starts today.This is a not-to-be-missed moment to get out and attend an event in your community.We’re sponsoring a wide variety of activities, from vigils to teach-ins
on college campuses, demonstrations outside job-outsourcing corporations
and press events. In many places, we’ll join the Occupy Wall Street
protests that have sprung up and are growing, from Hawaii to Washington, D.C.Working people will come together in hundreds of events through Oct. 16 to demand action from Congress to promote a real jobs creation agenda and real shared sacrifice from Wall Street and the rich. Find an event near you.And college students across the country will gather on Wednesday, Oct. 12, for a live national teach-in with events on campuses from 7–8:30 p.m. EDT. Find a teach-in location near you here. Or, watch it live Wednesday night at: http://go.aflcio.org/teachin.Whatever you do this week, don’t miss the opportunity to be a part of something big. Here are some ways to get involved:
Find an America Wants to Work event near you here. To share our week of action on Facebook, click here.
Find an Oct. 12 America Wants to Work teach-in location near you here. Or watch it live from 7–8:30 p.m. here.
Find an Occupy Wall Street event near you here. You can share Occupy Wall Street events on Facebook here.
Please also forward this message to your friends and ask them to get involved. Thanks for all you do for the 99 percent.
The Occupy Wall Street protests — which have now become the Occupy Everywhere protests — and the announcement by Bank of America and other banks of new banking fees, such as monthly debit card usage fees,underscore the urgent need for a working Consumer Financial Protection Bureau … and for the confirmation of the nominee to head that bureau, Richard Cordray.
After using tens of billions in taxpayer bailouts to pay executive bonuses instead of reinstituting the lending our economy needed, big banks are again choosing to pad their profits by exploiting consumers with new monthly debit card fees which would make customers shell out additional payments just to use their own money. It’s no wonder that it’s being seen a final straw by many in “The 99%” — the bulk of Americans victim to an inadequate job market, stagnating wages, disappearing benefits and consumer abuse at the hands of companies like the big banks.
Defenders of the new bank fees say that as private companies, banks have the right to make a profit, and if they are losing revenue elsewhere, they should be able to make it up by charging fees, and if consumers don’t like it they can take their business to another bank. The problem with that argument is that new fees like this are becoming the industry standard — so consumers won’t have other options. That’s what happens when you have an industry that is not only shielded from government regulation, but is shielded from the market forces which would make banks compete against each other for customers … in short, it’s what happens when the companies that make up an industry are allowed to be “too big to fail.”
In discussing the bank debit-purchase fees, President Obama noted, this is “exactly why we need somebody whose sole job it is to prevent this kind of stuff from happening.” He was referencing Richard Cordray, the president’s nominee to direct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) — an agency, created by the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, which Americans desperately need but which remains hamstrung and ineffective as long as it does not have an official director.
The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs approved Richard Cordray’s nomination just yesterday, but the committee’s Republican members voted unanimously against him and are intent on keeping the nomination from coming to the Senate floor for confirmation. Despite the party-line vote, Republican senators are quite clear that they know Cordray is qualified for the position — it’s the position itself, the CFPB and consumer protections in general to which they are opposed.
Even though the legislation creating the CFPB was passed by Congress, Republicans are refusing to let the bureau function unless they can force structural changes which would render it wholly ineffective. Rep. Barney Frank — the House’s chief sponsor of the bill that created the CFPB — explained:
“Forty-four Republicans have announced that in disregard of their constitutional duty to consider nominations on the merits. They will not confirm anyone until the Senate majority reverses itself to once again put bank regulators in a position to overrule virtually all of the policies that would be set by the consumer agency.”
This unconscionable obstruction shows exactly whose interests Republicans care about and are fighting for … and it’s not the 99%.
If you haven’t already, sign our petition now telling senators to CONFIRM Richard Cordray.
And check out more coverage of The 99% movement on our blog.
Thank you for your ongoing support, your activism and your commitment to fighting Government By the People (NOT the Corporations) — the American Way.
This is outrageous. A corporate-backed right-wing group fighting to dismantle workers’ rights in Ohio hijacked the words and image of a great-grandmother who had filmed an ad for our allies, distorting her message and making it look like she supported their position against workers.
Last week, 
Be a Seed for Change 
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