Tag Archives: Wall Street

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the AFL-CIO’s General Board voted unanimously to endorse … Barack Obama


  
We’re rolling up our sleeves and getting to work for working families. Will you join us?Pledge to get to work for working people by supporting President Obama and other working family candidates.
   

This afternoon, the AFL-CIO’s General Board voted unanimously to endorse President Obama for re-election.

For many reasons, we are pledging to work with President Obama throughout the elections and in a second term. The bottom line is this: As president, Barack Obama has placed his faith in America’s working men and women to lead our country to economic recovery and our full potential. So we’re putting our faith in him.

Please join us in pledging to get to work for working people by supporting President Obama and other working family candidates.

Although the labor movement has sometimes differed with the president and often pushed his administration to do more—and do it faster—we have never doubted his commitment to a strong future for working families. With our endorsement today, we affirm our faith in the president. We pledge to work with him through the election and his second term to restore fairness, security and shared prosperity.

Brothers and sisters, the coming election is a choice about values. President Obama honors the values of hard work, mutual respect and of solving problems together—not every person for himself or herself. Each of the Republican presidential candidates, on the other hand, has pledged to uphold the special privileges of Wall Street and the 1%—privileges that have produced historic economic inequality and drowned out the voices of working people in America.

Please join us in pledging to get to work for working people by supporting President Obama and all working family candidates.

Working people are the Davids standing up to Goliath in today’s politics. Our strength is in our numbers, our values and plain, hard work. When we come together, we are formidable. And for this election, we are coming together like never before.

Thank you for all the work you do.

In Solidarity,

Richard L. Trumka
President, AFL-CIO

P.S. Here are some key reasons we support the president’s re-election:

  1. He took America from the brink of a second Great Depression by pressing Congress to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which saved or created 3.6 million jobs.
     
  2. He championed comprehensive health insurance reform, which—while far from perfect—set the nation on a path toward the health security that had eluded our country for nearly 100 years.
     
  3. He insisted upon Wall Street reform—passed over the objection of almost every Republican. Now, we can finally begin to reverse decades of financial deregulation that put our entire economy at risk.

For these reasons—and many more—President Obama has earned the support of working people for a second term. We hope you’ll join us today in pledging to support his re-election. You can read more about why we’re supporting the president here.
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The Black Dollar: Move Your Money!

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Black people need to make Wall Street and Big Banks stand up and take notice. The Black dollar is a powerful tool, but in order to wield that power Black people must invest it strategically.

Putting money in large corporate banks with no investment in the Black community or any community is not the way to wield that power.

Click here to read the full report.

The Black Institute http://www.theblackinstitute.org/

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Support Darcy Bruner … Jim Dean from … DFA


Washington DC is broken.

Washington state needs a representative who knows what it takes to fix the system and bring jobs back home. Darcy Burner is an engineer by training and a politician by necessity. She’ll work to get government working for all of us again — not just Wall Street.

In 2009, Darcy became the first President and Executive Director of ProgressiveCongress.org, a non-profit based in Washington, D.C. that works with the Congressional Progressive Caucus on public health, civil rights, education, environmental sustainability and economic opportunity. She is one of the progressive movement’s strongest allies.

With the overwhelming support of DFA members across the district, I am honored to announce Democacy for America’s endorsement of Darcy Burner for Congress.

Help send a true progressive to Congress by signing up to volunteer for Darcy Burner.

Help send a true progress to Congress by contributing $3 to Darcy Burner’s campaign.

Since we first endorsed Darcy Burner in 2006, she has work relentlessly to advance the progressive movement both in WA and in DC. Now, we need a progressive champion like Darcy inside Congress, someone with the tenacity and energy to bring real reforms.

We ask you to support Darcy with your vote, with your time and with your resources.

-Jim

Jim Dean, Chair
Democracy for America

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What a Fair Shot at Success Means …for ALL Americans


What a Fair Shot at Success Means

Posted by Matt Compton on December 6, 2011 at 6:47 PM EST
 
 In the state where his mother was born, President Obama made an argument about laying a new foundation for broad-based prosperity in America.

“It starts,” he said, “with making sure that everyone has a fair shot at success.”

That means giving Americans the education, infrastructure, and resources necessary to out-innovate our global competitors, structuring our tax system fairly to pay for those investments, and it means creating an environment where everyone — from Main Street to Wall Street — plays by the same set of rules. The President said:

As infuriating as it was for all of us, we rescued our major banks from collapse, not only because a full blown financial meltdown would have sent us into a second Depression, but because we need a strong, healthy financial sector in this country.

But part of the deal was that we would not go back to business as usual. That’s why last year we put in place new rules of the road that refocus the financial sector on this core purpose: getting capital to the entrepreneurs with the best ideas, and financing to millions of families who want to buy a home or send their kids to college. We’re not all the way there yet, and the banks are fighting us every inch of the way.

And Republicans are standing with Wall Street to block broader reform by refusing to confirm a head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — the watchdog group is charged with protecting everyday Americans from lenders who are out to take advantage of them. Here’s what President Obama had to say:

The man we nominated for the post, Richard Cordray, is a former Attorney General of Ohio who has the support of most Republican and Democratic Attorneys General throughout the country.

But the Republicans in the Senate refuse to let him do his job. Why? Does anyone think the problem before that led to this crisis was too much oversight of mortgage lenders or debt collectors? Every day we go without a consumer watchdog in place is another day when a student, or a service member, or a senior citizen could be tricked into a loan they can’t afford – something that happens all the time. Financial institutions have plenty of lobbyists looking out for their interests. Consumers deserve to have someone whose job it is to look out for theirs. And I intend to make sure they do.

The Senate is slated to vote on Richard Cordray’s confirmation later this week. Check back at WhiteHouse.gov for more information.

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  • President Obama: “In America, We Are Greater Together”

    Posted by Matt Compton on December 6, 2011 at 5:43 PM EST
    20111206 POTUS in Osawatomie Members of the audience listen as President Barack Obama delivers remarks at Osawatomie High School in Osawatomie, Kansas, Dec. 6, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

    More than a century after Teddy Roosevelt outlined a vision for a “New Nationalism” in a Kansas town called Osawatomie, President Obama visited the same community to talk about what he called a make-or-break moment of the middle class.

    He described how the world has undergone an economic transformation unlike any other in our collective history — and how that change has upended our expectations of social mobility in this country. Where professionals ranging from factory workers to travel agents to accountants once enjoyed the promise of a good job and steady income in exchange for their hard work, today they and a range of people like them must compete with new technology and individuals from around the world.

    The President told the 1,200 people gathered in Osawatomie that there are two ways to respond to these challenges.

    Some in Washington, he said, argue that we should let the markets take care of everything — rolling back regulation and slashing taxes:

    Now, it’s a simple theory. And we have to admit, it’s one that speaks to our rugged individualism and our healthy skepticism of too much government. That’s in America’s DNA. And that theory fits well on a bumper sticker. But here’s the problem: It doesn’t work. It has never worked. It didn’t work when it was tried in the decade before the Great Depression. It’s not what led to the incredible postwar booms of the ‘50s and ‘60s. And it didn’t work when we tried it during the last decade.

    Thankfully, President Obama said, we can choose a different path:

    [T]here’s another view about how we build a strong middle class in this country — a view that’s truer to our history, a vision that’s been embraced in the past by people of both parties for more than 200 years.

    It’s not a view that we should somehow turn back technology or put up walls around America. It’s not a view that says we should punish profit or success or pretend that government knows how to fix all of society’s problems. It is a view that says in America we are greater together — when everyone engages in fair play and everybody gets a fair shot and everybody does their fair share.

    Read the entire speech here.

~ my 2cents ...

topical Tuesday &some News


just another rant …

The change that 53% of us voted for is again at risk. For three years the change and progress needed to get America/Americans back on track has suffered and though folks in the Media fail to convey it sufficiently, we can blame our lack of progress stopped, blocked, stalled, scaled back and slowed down by the Teapublican Political Party. Obvious statement right yet, folks still seem to be oblivious.

You can turn it to just about any channel and hear how the Independent vote is up for grabs. Most pundit’s strategists and politicians say it is about the economy and the terrible jobs numbers but fail to tell the viewer in detail what the party of NO have done to stand in the way of progress. I do believe if you are going to call yourself a reporter then do your job and give viewers both sides of the story otherwise you are a partisan hack. I find it hard to believe anyone has to stop think or wonder which Teapublican candidate running for President should even get a 2nd look much less bat around the possibility of giving up women’s , voter, worker, gay or our children’s right to an education to them. I am not that naïve but it really is simple; we need a better Congress that will work with the President. It is up to those who do lean left of center to reach out to our fellow independents to keep them informed. It is important to challenge the crap coming out that clearly are lies, on the edge or overtly reflect a nasty rhetoric often spewing fear hate and discrimination. It is a call to action of all those who believe in our Constitution in every way; welcomes everyone that believe in that saying We the People, the 14th Amendment and equality for All people regardless of the race, creed, religious or gender preference. It is at a moment like this that begs us all to let those who practice exclusion hears from those who believe in helping our fellow man. The fight against income inequality is on.

I don’t know about you but I tend to have a stash of sayings, proverbs, and or clichés in the back of my mind when patience calmness and reflection is needed when disagreeable rhetoric is flying my way. I give President Obama some major props for being calm cool collected as always. I appreciate and love those traits and if you are paying attention not one Teapublican running for President has yet to behave or display an even-tempered manner. I won’t be voting right of center period but if you are looking for things to compare and contrast the stark differences in tone verbiage and representation you can vision a moment when a country wanting to provoke war is pushing it. I know who I would trust how about you.

I believe … Sometimes, the needs of the many do outweigh the needs of the few. Yes, the current ugly rhetoric coming from those leaning right is meant to hurt conquer & divide us. It is also clear that in this election year when life amongst Americans is changing and not in a good way only to have gotten worse since the 2010 midterm elections though President Obama has moved us forward despite conservatives almost all by himself, Teapublican Governors, and their members of Congress keep doing their best to undermine it all. At first, Teapublican Governors were throwing coded language at those mostly in protected classes. Thus, the need to recite the saying “When the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” is an important statement for me right about now. The Fact that some on Wall Street made big bets against or in spite of an under regulated inefficient supposedly “free enterprise” system seemingly set up against the consumer proved to me that they believe themselves to be above the call and refuse to, consider the needs of the many and continue to fight for the few.

If you were unfortunate enough to have been a victim of the 2008 financial collapse, invested in it directly maybe your 401k, or are a part of the housing debacle, you probably suffered tremendously. Yes, the government had to step in and up to help All Americans because unfortunately it was clear “the market” was not going to correct itself- the bets – the casino shut itself down. The economic collapse was an opportunity to see to “the needs of the many” change the failed ways that the house of Bush apparently was handling things and move All Americans into the 21st Century. Yet, McConnell and his comrades decided to put their heads down and fight for the rights of the 1% oh those job creators need our help repeatedly. I don’t know about you but I am getting tired of this nonsense.

What Wall Street did was take tax payer money and then shit on us on so many levels

I admit it; I am biased so any negative comments about President Obama get a second or third scan. I gotta say listening, reading and hearing comments coming from the likes of a matt damon, harry belafonte or groups the msm calls special interest though President Obama, having taken great first steps toward change state, I guess, that he has not gone far enough. It is my contention that we vote for a President not a puppet, dictator or king so the notion that he had a mandate or needs to sedate or fulfill the promises he made to some special interest groups during his campaign is beyond ridiculous let alone that stupid comment about President Obama being morally corrupt. First, just as many special interest groups are very happy, supportive and plan to express that by voting for Barack Obama for a second term. Second, all you have to do is compare and contrast the facts and President Obama is definitely putting “the needs of the many before the needs of the few; thankfully so. While Independents seem to be holding out they should decide what side of history do they want to be remembered taking.

I think the negative comments are becoming bold, louder and more frequent but they are coming from the right, the more extreme side of our society certainly special in their own way… have chosen to go extreme go right of center and in some cases sound very dangerous but hey that is just my take. The whole class warfare the 99% V 1% the poor V the Rich. I say the battle is about how and not allowing a Black man govern in the White House again let alone the other awful code words being used to induce fear into Americans. I say the Black Man as President Thing who btw has gotten more things done then previous Presidents cannot and should not be forced back into that genie bottle though some Teapublicans in Congress and their constituents seem to want to. FYI, governing for the greater good has nothing to do with colour if the mind and heart are for ALL Americans not a select few. Though the house of Bush created 3million jobs, the fact is that shameful number took him 8yrs to accomplish. I have to wonder WTH are people beating up/down President Obama when the last guy obviously skated. We can also blame the Media for the selective and misinformation they all seem to provide viewers what with ratings seemingly more important than giving all angles of a story or giving a guest an opportunity to rebut the opinions of the host or commentator.

Change takes time… It will take a Congress with courage to create and pass laws that should be for the greater good that covers all Americans.

Sometimes, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

Other news …

President’s Council on Jobs to Meet at White House

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi Talks with Politico

U.S. – Jordan Talks Focus on Middle East Peace, Unrest in Syria

Nation’s Mayors Talk Job Creation

Homeland Security Officials Discuss International Cooperation

“C-SPAN letter to Chief Justice Roberts on TV camera coverage of health care case”