BPEP is Looking for Election Protection Observers

ITEM: BPEP sends me some more stuff. Would you like to be an election observer?

The PA Primary Election on Tuesday is very important and there are several tightly contested races. We need your help to make sure everyone is playing by the rules, help voters trouble shoot obstacles and document voter experiences on Election Day. Whether you are one of the nearly 400 people who have been trained and participated in Non-Partisan Election Protection previously, or still needing to be trained, the voters need your time and diligence on Tuesday.

CLICK HERE to Sign Up Now for Our Non-Partisan Election Protection Program - May 19 PA Primary - Allegheny County

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You can volunteer as little as 3hrs. You can receive training on Thursday (5/14) at 5:30pm at the Hill House, Monday (5/18) at 6:30pm at Freedom Unlimited or on Election Day. We need attorneys, students, and members of faith groups, non-profits, unions and community organizations to help "Protect The Vote" on May 19, 2009 in Allegheny County. We are committed to protecting voters in "Each and Every Election" by informing voters of their rights, making sure that all votes are counted and every voice is heard.

Please print out our "Rolls to the Polls" flier. B-PEP is pleased to be partnering with the Community Intervention Supervision Program. They are donating their Vans and Drivers to ensure that those who need a ride to the polls will get one. Help us advertise this important program.

The B-PEP monthly meeting is TOMORROW (Thursday) at the Hill House and will be preceded by an Election Protection Training that will begin at 5:30pm.

A big thank you to Pittsburgh Hopes and Pittsburgh Cares for all of the Election Protection Volunteers they are bringing on board.

After you have completed your Election Day Volunteering (in the morning or the afternoon)… consider attending the Thomas Merton Center's New People Awards Dinner with other Election Protection Volunteers. Contact Bob Maddock 412-322-9275 for a seat at the Election Protect/Black Political Empowerment Project/Regional Equity Monitoring Project/Black and White Reunion table OR get information at Election Protection Headquarters on Election Day.

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- The Hill House is located at 1835 Centre Ave - Pittsburgh 15219- Freedom Unlimited is located at 2201 Wylie Ave - Pittsburgh 15219Chairman Tim Stevens 412-758-7898 ♦ Vice Chairperson Celeste Taylor 412-670-0937www.b-pep.net ♦ b-pepinfo@b-pep.net

MoveOn rally for clean energy jobs tomorrow at noon.

MoveOn doesn't like the way the energy bill is being shaped in the US House. They plan a rally for tomorrow in the hope that Mike Doyle will work for a stronger bill. Here's the press release I received from MoveOn

Dear Philip,

This week, Rep. Michael Doyle will help decide the fate of President Obama's clean energy jobs plan. So MoveOn members are heading to his office in Pittsburgh tomorrow to show our support—can you make it?

Rep. Doyle sits on a powerful committee that's about to vote on a huge clean energy jobs bill. The latest draft of the bill came out on Friday—and unfortunately it looks like Big Oil and Coal may have succeeded in weakening key elements of President Obama's plan.

We need to raise our voices now to make sure the final version is as strong as possible. So we'll be at Rep. Doyle's office at 12 p.m. to show that folks in the Pittsburgh area are ready to make the switch to clean energy. And we'll drop off a green hard hat as a symbol of the millions of new, high-paying green jobs that are at stake.

It shouldn't take long—and we want as many people as possible to show our strength. Will you be there at 12 p.m. tomorrow?

Yes, I'll be there.

Sorry, I can't make it.

For the last several weeks, MoveOn members have been working overtime to pressure the House Energy and Commerce Committee to pass a strong clean energy jobs bill. We've organized tens of thousands of small-business owners across the country, and held meetings with dozens of local congressional offices.

But now the committee is ready to begin voting, and we've got no time to waste. Conservatives on the committee have been working to water down key provisions in the legislation—so our representatives need to hear from constituents who support a strong bill.

Can you join us tomorrow at Rep. Doyle's office in Pittsburgh?

Yes, I'll be there: http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/event.html?event_id=93796&id=16151-3053238-IbkVT.x&t=5

Sorry, I can't make it: http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51373&id=16151-3053238-IbkVT.x&t=6

Thanks for all you do.

–Adam, Lenore, Michael, Carrie and the rest of the team

Related: From 2 Political Junkies on the ad campaign to undermine clean jobs. According to this, Mike Doyle is still a strong supporter of the clean jobs elements of the bill.

Older Press Releases

April 8th

PRESS RELEASE WEDNESDAY Or Writing Stuff Myself is Hard Day

ITEM: These are all interesting things going on about town and throughout the country. First up is State Rep. Jake Wheatley who asks the question: will any African Americans actually benefit from the stimulus package? Oh to see one black construction worker. What a crazy wild eyed dream. I met Jake once and while I was intimidated by his bouncer's body he didn't strike me as being a big policy guy. But he's speaking twice on Thursday.

Thursday: Meetings on stimulus and minority- and women-owned businesses

As vice chairman of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus, I am sponsoring a public meeting this week in Pittsburgh to help women- and minority-owned businesses and workers receive a fair share of federal stimulus money.

The meeting will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday on the second floor of the Foerster Student Services Center, Community College of Allegheny County, 839 Ridge Ave. on the North Side. This meeting is one of seven that the PLBC and state agencies will hold across the state.

I will also speak at another free event on Thursday about the need for diversity in the economic benefits of the stimulus. The Community Empowerment Association is holding a forum from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday at Schenley High School (formerly Reizenstein School), 129 Denniston Ave. in East Liberty.

These forums are in addition to an April 17 event where I will discuss the stimulus and inclusiveness with members and guests of the African American Chamber of Commerce of Western Pennsylvania.

You may also be interested in a new state Web site created to show where Pennsylvania's share of the stimulus money is going: www.recovery.pa.gov.

If you have a question about the stimulus or any state-related matter, please contact my office at 412-471-7760.

Next up is Planned Parenthood. I think they'll be successful with this one:

LAST CHANCE to overturn Bush rule

Dear PHILIP,

This is finally it. After months of raising awareness and a public outcry, working with congressional leaders, even filing a lawsuit — we are on the verge of overturning the disastrous Bush administration rule limiting the rights of patients to receive complete health care information.

This is your last chance to voice your support for President Obama's action to reverse this dangerous policy. Click here to add your statement of support now.

Just before leaving office, the Bush administration released a rule that limits the rights of patients to receive complete and accurate reproductive health information and services. The rule allows doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel to simply withhold information about, for example, birth control and HIV testing and treatment. It also allows health care workers to deny any basic health care service based on their personal biases.

In order to overturn the Bush administration rule, President Obama had to write a new rule that must undergo a period of public review. The most important part of the review process is generating public support, and tens of thousands of Planned Parenthood supporters have already joined the effort. Will you take a moment right now and add your name to the list of people who support the new rule?

When more and more families are uninsured and have difficulty accessing health care at all, and when at least one in four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted infection, implementing a rule that limits access to health services is unconscionable. This is our last chance to speak up for patients' rights. Take action now.

Thank you, thank you, for your help today and during the next few weeks — until hopefully this rule is overturned for good.

And this is related and will be a tougher nut to crack but it relates to silly abstinence programs that science and reason and most importantly evidence tells us don't work. From, well I'm not entirely sure. I think its called Democrats.com. (Link here.) They bill themselves as the aggressive progressives.

Say No to Abstinence-Only Programs

As President Obama finalizes the details of his fiscal year 2010 budget, urge him to stop funding abstinence-only programs and direct our scarce public health resources to evidence-based programs that actually work.

Petition

Dear President Obama,

Thank you for your outspoken support for comprehensive sex education. As you know, abstinence-only-until-marriage programs deny young people the critical information they need to make safe and responsible life decisions.

Recognizing that abstinence-only programs have been ineffective at best and dangerous at worst, I strongly urge you to eliminate funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs funded through Title V of the Social Security Act and the Community-Based Abstinence Education program in your 2010 budget.

In addition, I am asking you to include $50 million to fund comprehensive sex education to ensure that young people receive medically accurate, age-appropriate information about sex and sexualit

My Initial Commentary on the Police Shootings

ITEM: I have a lot to say about the shootings but no time to fully articulate what I'd like to say. Quick points: person I most wanted to hear from is Froth because he's a cop. I think he works for the county sheriff's department. He has good responses here and here. Two: The Hate speech that people like Limbaugh and Savage and Beck push has dangerous consequences. It's not harmless. Three: The shootings here and in New York State aren't good arguments for the control of either guns and/or body armor. Prohibition doesn't work for liquor or drugs and it won't work for guns either. In fact, I think widely available and cheap body armor is the answer to the gun problem. Four: while the choice of action by the gunmen is unquestionably racist and deranged the anger at its base is unquestionably real. More on this when I have time...

Van Jones Gets a Job at the White House

ITEM: It looks like Van Jones, my fave black thinker as of late, has taken a job at the White House. Here's what I wrote earlier on Nov. 16th, scroll down:

Khari Mosely tipped me off to this guy some weeks weeks ago: His name is Van Jones. He's got a great plan to create millions of green jobs and his environmental plans would create millions of jobs in the inner city. I suppose I'm hoping that this is the kind of talented African American that an African American President might notice. You never know. His Green For All blog is here and I've added it separately and also to the host of many good eco blogs out there.

One of the things that troubles me about the Stimulus is that it's not certain that any of these jobs will go to black men. I have this nightmare that of the billions in stimulus that goes to Pennsylvania--I think its at least 5 billion--will result in a dozen or so jobs for African Americans in this state. Here's a test that I know black men always take whenever they go past a construction site: we look for evidence of even one black man. Usually, its about nil. Robert Reich even brought this up on his blog and then was pilloried by the usual right wing hacks as being racist somehow but he was absolutely correct. They interpreted this to mean that he didn't want any stimulus jobs to go to white male construction workers because, well, they're stupid. We just want our 10 percent.

Here's what Reich said in his entirety.

The stimulus plan will create jobs repairing and upgrading the nation's roads, bridges, ports, levees, water and sewage system, public-transit systems, electricity grid, and schools. And it will kick-start alternative, non-fossil based sources of energy (wind, solar, geothermal, and so on); new health-care information systems; and universal broadband Internet access.

It's a two-fer: lots of new jobs, and investments in the nation's future productivity.

But if there aren't enough skilled professionals to do the jobs involving new technologies, the stimulus will just increase the wages of the professionals who already have the right skills rather than generate many new jobs in these fields. And if construction jobs go mainly to white males who already dominate the construction trades, many people who need jobs the most -- women, minorities, and the poor and long-term unemployed -- will be shut out.

What to do? There's no easy solution to either dilemma. But there's no reason to think about "green jobs" as simply high-tech. Many low-income and low-skilled workers -- women as well as men -- could be put directly to work providing homes and businesses with more efficient and renewable heating, lighting, cooling, and refrigeration systems; installing solar panels and efficient photovoltaic systems; rehabilitating and renovating old properties, and improving recycling systems. "Green Jobs Corps" teams could be trained to evaluate and advise homeowners and businesses on these and other means of conserving energy.

People can be trained relatively quickly for these sorts of jobs, as well as many infrastructure j0bs generated by the stimulus -- installing new pipes for water and sewage systems, repairing and upgrading equipment, basic construction -- but contractors have to be nudged both to provide the training and to do the hiring.

I'd suggest that all contracts entered into with stimulus funds require contractors to provide at least 20 percent of jobs to the long-term unemployed and to people withincomes at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. And at least 2 percent of project funds should be allocated to such training. In addition, advantage should be taken of buildings trades apprenticeships -- wich must be fully available to women and minorities.

posted by Robert Reich | 1:04 PM

I have no idea if anyone took those suggestions seriously. I'm hoping that Van Jones, in his new post as Green Jobs czar, might do something. It's one of the few encouraging signs I've seen from the Obama administration as of late.

Related: Here's Van Jones recently where he talks about Green Jobs.

Email I Received from Voters for Peace

ITEM: And I got an email from VotersForPeace. I agree with the bulk of this but if you're going to have a war let's have one against a group that blows up schools for girls.

Dear PHILIP,

This weekend there were successful anti-war demonstrations around the country, especially in Washington, DC, San Francisco and Los Angeles to mark the anniversary of the Iraq invasion. If you participated thank you for doing so. You can see an article and video about the events at http://votersforpeace.us/press/index.php?itemid=1237.

Another set of national demonstrations are coming up on April 3^rd and 4^th in New York City. The demonstrations, "Beyond War a New Economy is Possible," commemorate the April 4, 1967 speech Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave on Vietnam. The legacy of Dr. King and the "Beyond Vietnam" speech will be honored with an urgent call for a new direction by marching on the financial capital of the country: Wall Street. They are sponsored by United for Peace and Justice and the Bailout the People Movement.

This is an opportunity to not only highlight the human cost of war, but also the economic impact of war. The U.S. is currently spending $12 billion each month on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Dr. King linked war and the economy in 1967 when he said that he knew "America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube." Similarly, the United States will recognize that the current wars and overblown military budget make it impossible to invest the funds needed to rebuild the U.S. economy.

The demands of this demonstration are to not only end these wars and bring the troops home, but also to dramatically reduce military spending and invest in the necessities of the American people. There is no justification for the immense U.S. military budget which is equal to the entire world combined especially at a time when the United States and much of the world are facing economic collapse.

On Friday, April 3, United For Peace and Justice will join Bail Out the People's program on Wall Street. On Saturday, April 4, Bail Out the People Movement will gather on Wall Street and join United For Peace and Justice's March on Wall Street that will end at Battery Park. More information is available at: http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=4027. There you can find information on transportation, the schedule of events, volunteering as well as fliers you can use to promote the event.

At a time when the administration is escalating the war in Afghanistan, increasing attacks in Pakistan and withdrawing from Iraq at a slow pace that will take as long as all of World War I, and when the administration is bailing out Wall Street while the rest of America suffers, it is important for people to stand together to oppose the dual crisis of U.S. militarism and Wall Street economics.

Sincerely,

Kevin B. Zeese

Executive Director

Sen. Specter On At Noon At Union Edge Talk Radio

ITEM: There is a local attempt to counter the right wing propaganda of right wing talk radio. Its called "The Union Edge Talk Radio Show" or "Labor's Own Talk Radio". They are on for a whopping one hour a day in case you were wondering how well Soros/The Labor Movement are competing with Fox News. (Answer: Not very well.) Today, they'll be interviewing Sen. Arlen Specter at 12 noon for a big 15 minutes on why he's opposed to Employee Card Check. He's probably opposed because he's trying to guard his right flank against Pat Toomey. Their webpage is here.

Plan for An Online Paper I Posted Long Ago

It(Ted Rall at the Comics Journal message board, commenting on how hard it would be to create a left paper...)That's a great idea, but one that will cost a substantial amount of money. One of the big problems nowadays is that what's needed to take down Bush is a team of investigative reporters, a very pricey proposition which is why so few papers use them.

You want a budget for an alternative online press? I'll give you one on the small scale and the large scale (Who knows: Maybe you'll meet Barbara Streisand on the set of "To Afghanistan and Back" and you'll get a Sugar Mommy...You know she funds the excellent Center for Public Integrity...!)

Let's take $1 million and make the HQ Washington D.C.

Here's a tentative budget:

5 Staff Reporters:

$60000 apiece, total: $300000

Three Salespersons, base 20,000 and 30 percent of ad revenue:

Total: $60000 ($360000)

One Tech Guy

Total: $50000 ($410000)

Living Allowance (Let's Get the Best Journalists and bring Greg Pallast back home.)

Total ($1000 a month per writer) $60000 ($470000)

Make it Online Only. Costs for Computers, domain names, several laptops, DSL and PDAs:

$50000 ($520000)

HQ Costs, Health Insurance

Total: $100000, ($720000)

Freelance Budget

Total: $120000 ($840000)

(Pay $300 to $500 for arts and movie pieces, books and comics reviews, fiction. More money for larger pieces.)

One fulltime Fact Checker/Attorney

$60000 ($900000)

One Full Time Editor (Suggestions: William Grieder, Greg Pallast, Kovach)

$100,000 ($1 million dollars)

I think that's everything for one full year. A trust fund of $10 to $100 million could go a long long way. You have to keep costs down. (You might consider buying a building or a mansion outright...) With a strong staff corp and a healthy freelance budget you could create enough interesting content to create an American Guardian.

Here are some interesting details: One year contracts with progressive discipline. Allow the writers to legally publish anything they write unedited (with the possible exception of libelous or lawsuit material). Create a bill of civil rights for journalists. Create open freewheeling message boards. Take on all comers. The salaries would automatically get you the best people. For staffers I would suggest contacting Pallast, Gary Webb, Kovach, the exiled yet excellent Atlanta Constitution editor who broke the bank redlining stories (he teaches now), and every journalist profiled in Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of the Free Press. By the way, good investigative reporting doesn't have to be expensive. Public Citizen routinely provides great stuff and they pay their people anywhere from $25000 to $50000.

I would suggest using the blog as a new model for daily journalism. Require the staffers to provide a mininum of 2500 words for three weeks in succession and then a week off for reading and research. (Here's something fun: Insist that they write several fiction stories a year and give the paper a 10 percent cut of Universal Rights. In other words, you could write To Iraq and Back, but the paper would get 10 percent of film revenues, book sales, action figures. The goal is to make it self-sustaining. Frankly, though, my favorite plan is raiding the classified ad stream of Big Print media. Would serve those frells right...)

Don't do a paper edition. Make it online only to keep down costs. Obviously, you could cut down on the costs. Well known penny pincher and cheap guy Ralph Nader could bring you the same product for about several hundred thousand dollars less, but if you have the money...

That's the small plan by the way. What's your plan that costs millions of dollars...Salon Two? A paper edition?

There is a big plan by the way. Get a hundred or so of your rich Hollywood pals (Don't do a Bill Griffith. Take those calls and make compromises so they want Adam Sandler or Pauly Shore to play Ted Rall so what...Get a good director, though. Hey, I like Oliver Stone. Is Costas Gravas still alive...?) and put those papers into 12 states, preferably swing states. Do national and state corruption stories. (Nobody writes about the corruption at the state levels, which is what the Center for Public Integrity is focusing on...) Want an even bigger plan? Get your Hollywood Left, the ones who have bankrolled the Dems and gotten Joe Lieberman to condemn them, to put their money into buying a network. Want an even bigger plan? Buy up a portion of the underused fiber optic glut and buy up one or two of the WIFI startups and create your own national communications infrastructure. Include cheap DSL and as many channels as you want (Gawd a decent music channel for once) (Soros could do that)....just more stray thoughts...

Citizen's Police Review Board Meetings This Week

I received this in my emails. There's one meeting tonight at 6 pm.

Accreditation by Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission (PLEAC) is the best way to ensure best practices by our police department. Please learn more about this, and Police Chief Nate Harpers refusal become accredited. Then take the the requested email action.

Call to attend Citizen Police Review Board meetings this week:

The next two meetings of the CPRB are Tues. 2/24 6 p.m. Pittsburgh City Council Chambers, 5th floor, City County Building, Grant Street, Downtown, and Thurs. 2/26 same time and place.

Black and White Reunion members and friends must support the CPRB by attending its meetings. Here's why:

1. The Black and White Reunion and the Citizen Police Review Board are natural allies in the struggle for justice. For instance, BWR & CPRB have united to push for independent accreditation of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police. Also, both BWR & CPRB came to be as a result of public outrage at the death of Jonny Gammage in 1995.

2. The CPRB is an official part of the City Code. It is a foot in the doorway to power.

3. The CPRB can grow in influence if more people show up consistently at both regular meetings and public hearings, and express support for its mission.

4. The CPRB was created by a referendum of the people. If people ignore it, it could wither and die. We do not want to withdraw our foot from the doorway.

5. We earn the disrespect of the police if we set up a system to monitor them and then fail to pay attention.

6. Attending CPRB public hearings shows support for citizens who try to use it to improve police conduct.

The Tues. meeting next week is a regular business meeting. Executive Director Elizabeth Pittinger plans to present a briefing related to hostage situations, e.g., the Point Breeze Lamar Smith killing. The Thurs. meeting is a continued hearing on Will Anderson's police brutality complaint, and will also be worthwhile.

Let's get some of our good minds working together for police accountability by showing up at those two meetings. I hope to see you there.

The Summit Planning Council will reconvene monthly meetings on Wednesday March 4 at 7 PM in the East Liberty Presbyterian Church.