Category: Action Alert

Blogger going down

~ susie

kevin hayden

Kevin Hayden is one of the originals, and a helluva nice guy – maybe too nice. Always taking care of other people, and working to be a good son and father. (I’ve written about him before.)

Now he’s in jail and had to make bail for driving uninsured. They’ve taken his truck. (The truck he used to drive his sick daughter to the doctor’s, because they live in the middle of nowhere.)

Kevin is a living, breathing example of how it’s one thing after another in the life of the poor, and the cascading effect thereof. I’ve known him for years and still can’t believe his ongoing run of bad luck.

If you can spare some cash, any money at all, please send him some.

Worldwide Wave of Action

~ susie

The #WaveOfAction extends from the day Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated to Independence Day. The campaign will begin with candlelight vigils around the world at the time of MLK’s assassination, which was 7:05 pm EST on April 4. You should be there. At former Occupy sites around the world:

The Worldwide #WaveOfAction begins April 4th and runs through July 4th. During this three-month cycle, people throughout the world will be protesting corruption, rallying around solutions and taking part in alternative systems. The new paradigm will be on full display. Studies have proven that it only takes 3.5% of the population taking nonviolent action to create meaningful and positive change. The #WaveOfAction gives all of us who want change a powerful opportunity to #EvolveSociety. Change-makers all over the world will be engaged at the same time in an unprecedented wave of transformation.

On April 4th, there will be launch celebrations at hundreds of former Occupy locations globally. We will honor Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy of nonviolent action and spend the day connecting with allies and strategizing Spring action campaigns. This crowdsourced campaign will become what you, the people, make of it, self-organizing and organically evolving, a new culture will emerge. What are you most passionate about? What are you doing to be the change? Whatever it is, passionately be it in public this Spring. Get together with like-minded friends and have fun with it. We have power in numbers. United we are unstoppable. OUR TIME HAS COME!!
Continue reading “Worldwide Wave of Action” →

PA voters: Sign the petition

~ susie ~ 6 Comments

Keystone Progress has learned that a backroom deal by Senators Bob Casey and Pat Toomey may result in President Obama appointing a Tea Party lawyer to serve as judge on the Western Pennsylvania District Court[i] in Pittsburgh.

The nomination of David J. Porter is working its way to the White House as part of a deal between Pennsylvania’s two United States Senators.  Senators Casey and Toomey are expected to jointly present Porter to President Obama any day now as part of a deal that will allow Casey to nominate people for 3 other vacancies.

Insiders say Toomey and the Republican Party are willing to make any deals necessary to get Porter on the bench.  He represents the type of jurist the GOP hopes to place on the bench across the country.

Porter is not just a lawyer with a right-wing point of view.  He is a right wing activist and leader in anti-choice, anti-marriage equality, pro-gun movements in Pennsylvania.

He is not just a member of the Republican Party. Porter is well-known in legal circles for being part of the Rick Santorum wing of the Republican Party.  In fact, he has served as Santorum’s counsel.[ii]

Porter is currently the leader of the Lawyers Chapter of the Pittsburgh Federalist Society.[iii]Porter recently invited the president of the Center for Equal Opportunity (CEO) [iv]  to lead a session of his Federalist Society chapter.[v] CEO is a right-wing legal group that is anti-immigrant, anti-affirmative action, and is even against bilingual education.[vi]

Who is David Porter?
·      Porter is a contributor to the right-wing Center for Vision and Values (CVV)[vii] at Grove City College where he also serves a trustee. CVV’s upcoming conference features Rick Santorum; anti-gay firebrand Michael Geer (gay relationships are a “tragedy” and like incest)[viii]; right-wing radio host Michael Medved and Randall Wenger (attorney for anti-gay and pro-creationism law suits).
·      Head of the Pittsburgh Federalist Society Lawyers Chapter (see above)
·      Member of the Republican National Lawyers Association
·      He is an outspoken conservative tea-partier who not only opposed JusticeSotomayor’s nomination, he helped found a coalition to oppose her.[ix]
·      Porter has written extensively on why the ACA is unconstitutional.[x]
·      He has represented the PA Republican Party on anti-environmental policy.[xi]

Keystone Progress has set up a petition page asking President Obama and Sens. Casey and Toomey to reject Porter as a potential federal judge because he lacks the temperament to be an effective jurist. Click here to take action.

Night school

~ susie

DFA Logo

Democracy for America’s Night School is coming to Crooks and Liars next week, and I highly recommend it. (We’re starting with the finance sessions, but trust me, they’re all interesting — and useful.)

Campaigns aren’t just about elections. They’re about fighting your zoning board or your local school board. They’re about making good things happen where you live, and they’re about building a real progressive movement. That way, when you need someone to run for election, you have some real progressives in the bullpen.

You don’t have to sign up, either. Just drop into a session to see if you like it. But if you do register, please add “C&L” after your name so we can track how many people are taking part.

We do suggest that you register, because DFA will be sending related emails to those who take part.

Next Week’s Session: Finance

Winning campaigns cost money. Although we can protest the growing costs of campaigning, the reality for any campaign is that without these funds, there can be no staff, no office, no phones, no computers, no signs, no media coverage — no campaign. How much money the campaign will need to succeed depends on a number of factors. The sessions will cover the key skills and strategies to effectively raising and managing your campaign’s finances.

Sessions begin at 6pm PT/ 9pm ET and run for one hour.

  • Monday, March 17th — Targeting your donors ;
  • We will cover building your donor list, tools and systems for donor research and how to determine ask amounts.
  • Tuesday, March 18th — Making the Ask
  • Participants will walk through principles for making a strong ask, how to train your candidate to make strong asks and what to do after the ask.
  • Wednesday, March 19th — Tactics: Calltime, Direct Mail, Event Planning
  • There are three core tactics used for fundraising. This session goes through preparation, keeping the candidate on the phone, creating call sheets, setting goals, logistics, recruitment, execution and follow up.
  • Thursday, March 20th — Budget & Finance Planning
  • We’ll cover how to document money in & out, prepare for reports and setting quarterly goals. By the end, you’ll be able to tie it all together in one document.

Worldwide Wave of Action, April 4th

~ susie

A music video was released yesterday by elements of Anonymous along with Ice Cube, Eminem, and Korn, calling people to action at the former Occupy encampments:

They team up to splice together a nuance-eschewing, face-melting, testosterone-charged collaboration meant to incept a massive wave of action against the seemingly indomitable power of corporatist-totalitarianism within the world’s leading liberal republics.

The video features some hilarious spots of Rob Ford–perhaps the Western world’s most flamboyant symbol of transparent corpo-political stoogism–as well as the mainstream media’s two favorite tools of distraction, Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus. There are also a number of clips of Obama acting especially bourgeois while surrounded by animated cameras, implying that the spying-industrial-complex is an apolitical institution supported and grown by whichevever political party is in office.

Ice Cube, Eminem and Korn hit the peak of their musical careers within the mainstream musical establishment over a decade ago, which probably engenders them with a degree of freedom to partake in such an overtly political project.

It might be the most insane music video you’ve seen in a long time–and for some, it may inspire the visceral outrage necessary to orient toward a path of action. Others will just roll their eyes.

Check out the video below, and keep in mind the Worldwide Wave of Action begins on April 4 at “former occupation sites around the world.”

Remember

~ susie

This is the last day to get covered under the ACA. If you’ve tried, and it seems you can’t afford, try again with the call center. They have people trained to help find your adjusted gross income, and that makes a big difference.