The wingnuts are trying to finish turning PA into Alabama

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

Day of Action in Fresno

Call your state reps and senators, don’t let them:

HARRISBURG — A conservative group looking to pass legislation that would cut off automatic dues deductions from public sector unions is turning up the heat on lawmakers in the state Capitol.

Bills proposed in the state House and Senate would bar the state and municipal governments from deducting union dues or political contributions from the paychecks of most public employees — though prison guards, police officers and firefighters are excluded from the bill.

Neither piece of legislation has yet to move out of committee, although backers of the bills — as well as a number of unions strongly opposing the bills — have stepped up their lobbying and public relations efforts in recent weeks.

Lawmakers supporting the bill had a news conference Monday, and a Pennsylvania AFL-CIO event is scheduled for today to highlight opposition to the legislation.

The Commonwealth Foundation, a free-market think tank that has been one of the most outspoken proponents of the legislation has sent out two statewide mailings to those who vote regularly on the issue, one in December and one this month.

ACTION: Find your legislator here.

Maybe now they’ll pay attention to global warming?

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

Hello hail.

Now that it gets in the way of their wars, I mean:

A once-in-a-century hailstorm took a heavy toll on the availability of airpower to support troops on the ground in Afghanistan.

Details of the incident last April 23 have only recently begun to come to light now that coalition air forces are starting to return to service aircraft seriously impaired in the storm, which occurred at Kandahar airfield. Golf-ball-sized hailstones peppered the airfield and the hundreds of aircraft based there, causing hundreds of millions of dollars of damage. Conceivably, a large number of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft will have to be written off.

The storm also caused a number of civilian deaths in nearby Kandahar City.
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An activist life, long and well-lived

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

I probably saw Pete more than a dozen times and he was always an inspiration. He was an activist to the end:

US folk singer Pete Seeger dies at 94 (via AFP)

Legendary folk singer Pete Seeger, “a living archive of America’s music and conscience” who inspired the likes of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, has died at the age of 94, US media reported. With a career spanning decades, Seeger was credited with…

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