DFL Chair Ken Martin Invites You to the February 7th Caucuses
Your participation in democracy begins at the Caucuses February 7. Find out how you can influence the DFL Platform and become a Delegate to your Senate District, CD3, State, and National Conventions. The MN Secretary of State's Office will have a Caucus Finder available January 18.
 Listen to DFL Chair Ken Martin's invitation to democracy in action at your Caucus on February 7 (6 minutes). With record inequality in our country, Citizens United giving corporations permission to spend as much money as they want on elections, and Republicans introducing voter restriction bills in state legislatures that will mainly affect Democrats , it is now more important than ever that citizens be aware of issues and participate in civic life. Invite your neighbors to join you at your Caucus February 7.
To participate in a DFL Caucus, you must
1. reside in the precinct.
2. be age 16 or older by November 6, 2012 (You can submit resolutions and run for precinct offices. You need to be age 18 or older by November 6, 2012 to cast a preference ballot or to be elected a delegate or alternate to your county/organizing unit and/or senate district conventions).
3. consider yourself a member of the DFL Party and not be an active member of any other political party.
4. agree with the principles of the DFL Party as stated in the DFL Constitution and Bylaws.
To submit a resolution at your Caucus, download and complete the following form: Word Form
__________________________________________
 Saturday, February 11, 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
United Food and Commercial Workers Banquet Hall
13000 63rd Avenue N, Maple Grove, MN
Special Guest: Richard Carlbom
Minnesota United for All Families
Tickets to the Party
$20 in Advance, $25 at the Door
To buy tickets or sponsorships, contact your local party organizers:
SD32: Kyle Tonn,
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
, 763-634-1180
LaDonna Meinecke,
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
SD33: Phyllis Richerson,
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Ben Kyriagis,
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
SD46: Kathy Nelson, 763-561-2795,
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
SD47: Linda Freemon,
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
__________________________________________
Get to know two wonderful CD3 candidates for the U.S. House
They're ready to stand up for the 99%!
Meet CD3 Candidate Brian Barnes
Southdale Library, 7001 York Avenue S, Edina
Monday, January 30, 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
“You and I believe in the common dream that everyone deserves a fair shake, that everyone should be treated equally under the law, and that anyone can make it if they try. We all need to play by the same rules… whether you are on Wall Street or on Main Street… no exceptions,” Brian Barnes.
 Brian Barnes, former Navy Reserve Officer, manages global sales and marketing for the marine division of a Fortune 200 manufacturing company. He is running to represent Congressional District 3 in the U.S. Congress. Barnes states that he learned the values of integrity and hard work from his parents, as an Eagle Scout, at the Merchant Marine Academy, and in the Navy Reserve. His mother is a public school teacher and his father a technician.
In his endorsement of Brian Barnes, Representative Steve Simon stated that Brian can be trusted to "stand up for the Middle Class, for marriage equality, and for a tax code that rewards hard work instead of those who can afford the best accountants." He noted that "while Washington Republicans do their best to roll back half a century of progress, Brian hasn’t backed away from standing up for the values that make America great."
On his website, Brian Barnes states that his number one focus will be creating jobs and putting Americans back to work. "This requires making higher education more accessible, rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, supporting small businesses, protecting workers, investing in tomorrow’s technologies, and strengthening fair trade." He emphasizes a fair tax code that requires millionaires to pay the same tax rate as the rest of Americans and individual rights. He thinks a woman’s medical decisions should be between her and her doctor; and if two people love each other, they have a right to marry and have that marriage recognized by the state.
On the anniversary of FDR's "I welcome their hatred speech," Barnes stated that the monied interests have plotted and schemed. They have groomed understudies like Erik Paulsen while attacking those who challenged them so they might control all levels of government.
“Now we face a defining choice. We can accept as inevitable that government of, by and for the richest 1 percent is the sad, but natural, result in the long fight for equality and opportunity for all Americans. Or we can say no more—that the Koch Brothers, the big banks and oil companies, and those who created the Orwellian Tea Party ‘movement’ … that they don’t own our government and that their time is over."
Website: http://barnes.mn
Meet CD3 Candidate Sharon Sund
Southdale Library, 7001 York Avenue S, Edina
Thursday, January 26, 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
"My life story is built on the American Dream and I see it slipping away. I will work hard to create 21st century jobs, invest in education, protect our seniors, and fight for fairness," Sharon Sund
 Sharon Sund is running to be the Congressional District 3 Representative in the U.S. House. For the past 20 years, Sund and her husband and two children made their home in the third district in Bloomington, Champlin, and now Plymouth. She is a community activist and a small business owner serving as a volunteer in her children’s schools, at her church, and as a parent advocate for children with special needs. She has organized and led teams to fight for affordable health care, clean energy, and an economy that works for all of us—not just the top 1%.
Her grandfather was a sharecropper in Mississippi who worked hard to support his family. Her father spent his career in the military, and Sund saw firsthand the devastating effects of Agent Orange. She studied hard to be able to come to Minnesota to attend Macalester, where she earned degrees in chemistry and biology. After college, she worked as a scientist and businesswoman creating the Minnesota watershed map, developing a prototype battery for wind energy, and managing a team in research and development.
Sharon Sund is convinced that our future lies in a commitment to manufacturing and to clean energy sources that can provide jobs for Minnesotans. As a Congresswoman, she plans to work to restore manufacturing and develop an energy economy. She is also committed to putting people to work right now by rebuilding our outdated infrastructure and schools.
As a teacher and a parent with two children, Sund knows that our children must be given a world-class education to compete globally. Her work supporting families of children with special needs has shown her that all children deserve an education that prepares them for the future. Strengthening education for every child—from early childhood through college or trade school will be one of her priorities. At right is Sharon Sund with husband Julius and children Jade (10) and Jonathan (12).
Our seniors have worked hard contributing to Social Security and Medicare and they deserve to have it available when they need it. Sund plans to work to protect both as CD3's next Representative.
As an African-American woman who was the first to integrate a stubbornly segregated school, she knows that discrimination in any form cannot be tolerated—whether it’s unfair pay for women, denying workers their rights, or preventing individuals from marrying whom they love. As your Congresswoman, she will promote legislation that assures the end of all forms of discrimination.
Website: http://www.sharonsund.com/
__________________________________________
Here's Why We Need Erik Paulsen out of the House
 DFL Senate District 42's Junk Yard Democrats, Norb Gernes, Doug Lind, and Tommy Johnson, have just released their latest music video.
"He Talks the Line" is an adaptation of Johnny Cash's signature song to one on Congressman Erik Paulsen's loyalties to big buck donors. The Junk Yard Democrats caution residents of CD3 that "He gives you pain with votes he tries to hide."
Lyrics by Doug Lind
Produced by Jeff Strate of Timid Video Theater.
Listen to "He Talks the Line"
Together with his fellow Republicans, Erik Paulsen voted yes to the "Cut, Cap and Balance Act." TheMiddleClass.org wrote that this legislation that passed the House would crush economic security and job growth for millions of Americans. The AFL-CIO, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Common Cause, and the NAACP are among the 247 organizations who sent a letter to every member of Congress stating that “a balanced budget constitutional amendment would damage the economy, not strengthen it.” This legislation would set up cuts of as much as 67 percent in government domestic programs that affect the lives of middle-class people. Fortunately, the Senate blocked this legislation.
Erik Paulsen's vote on the "Cut, Cap, and Balance Act" follows his prior voting record. TheMiddleClass.org rates Senator Paulsen as voting 0%for bills that favored the middle class and those aspiring to the middle class.
The details of this bill paint a stark, chilling image of what conservatives would do to your government.
Read more...
Who stands up for you in Washington? It's not Erik Paulsen. Erik Paulsen recently voted in favor of the the Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation Act proudly called the TRAIN Act by Republicans. The bill delays standards under the Clean Air Act and makes it harder for the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce those standards.
Don Shelby notes that the Clean Air Act is considered one of the most cost-effective laws every passed in the United States. "While costing relatively little, it has saved billions of dollars in health care costs due to respiratory and heart diseases. The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) most recent report concludes that by 2020, implementation costs of the act will have reached $65 billion while the benefits in health care savings, not to mention lives saved, will reach $2 trillion." The Economic Policy Institute estimates that the Clean Air Act saved 160,000 lives in 2010 alone and 1.8 million since 1990.
Read Shelby's MinnPost article: Children's health and Republican efforts to lift restrictions on air pollutants.
The MiddleClass.org writes that the TRAIN Act supported by Erik Paulsen "is a key element of the conservative assault against government regulations intended to keep corporations from endangering public health and the planet for the sake of profit." Republicans' claim that the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed actions to protect public health would be “job-killing” is contrary to the facts. Highly polluting coal is in fact more expensive as an energy source than wind and natural gas. In addition, far less of the costs paid for coal go to pay workers.
JOBS PER MEGAWATT
University of California, Berkeley
Representative Erik Paulsen of Minnesota is listed as a member of a controversial corporate and state legislative collaboration called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), according to recently leaked documents. The group includes thousands of members of state legislatures and representatives of corporations who draft legislation that is then introduced at the state and federal levels without acknowledgement that it was written with the help of corporations it might benefit. Paulsen is a member of the federal affairs arm of the group, which includes 71 U.S. House members and six U.S. Senators.
The vast majority of its funding comes from corporate members like Johnson & Johnson which spend up to $10,000 to secure spots on committees, or conservative and corporate foundations, including two run by the libertarian Koch brothers. Read "Rep. Paulsen tied to controversial corporate group ALEC."
__________________________________________
Spread the Democratic message of support for the 99% in 2012!
 Robert Reich, Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, wrote that President's Obama's December speech in Kansas is the most important economic speech of his presidency. In the speech in Osawatomie, Kansas where Teddy Roosevelt gave his "New Nationalism" speech in 1910, the President aligned himself with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Reich noted that President Obama connected the dots, laid out the reasons behind our economic and political crises, and asserted a willingness to take on the powerful and the privileged that have gamed the system to their advantage. The President's speech on the economy contains the themes and messages that are likely to be at the forefront of the coming election campaign. Read Reich's highlights and comments on the speech: For full details, view the 55 minute speech and download a transcript.
__________________________________________
 Moyers: Why 'We the People' Must Triumph over Corporate Power - ". . . if the generations before us had given up, slaves would be waiting on our tables and picking our crops, women would be turned back at the voting booths, and it would be a crime for workers to organize. Like our forebears, we will not fix the broken promise of America — the promise of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” for all our citizens, not just the powerful and privileged — if we throw in the proverbial towel. Surrendering to plutocracy is not an option. Confronting a moment in our history that is much like the one Lincoln faced — when “we can nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope on earth” — we must fight back against the forces that are pouring dirty money into the political system, turning it into a sewer." Read Bill Moyers' article:
 Makana Sings Occupy Protest Song at APEC Summit - The White House invited Hawaiian singer, song writer, and guitarist Makana to play instrumental music at the dinner President Obama hosted at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Honolulu, Hawaii. Makana opened his jacket to reveal a tee shirt that said "Occupy with Aloha" and sang the protest song "We are the Many" that he created for the Occupy Movement. At first he started softly and found he felt afraid to sing the song."I didn't like the idea of being afraid to sing a song that I created. I've never in my life been afraid to sing anything. If that's what' we've come to in the world where we're afraid to say certain things in the company of certain people, I think that's a dangerous place to be. And so for me to move out of that space, I had to sing the song. And that's what I did."
Listen to a brief interview and Makana singing the Occupy Protest Song "We are the Many."
From January 2 to 12, Witness against Torture is sponsoring Hungering for Justice, a 10-day fast highlighting the ongoing crimes at Guantanamo and Bagram. Dozens of activists are expected to participate in the fast in Washington as well as other cities. On January 11, A Human Chain from the White House to the Capitol Building will mark the 10th anniversary of detention at Guantanamo. Read the article.
Occupy Our Homes was a national day of action designed to underscore the connection between Wall Street and Main Street by focusing on the central role banks played in the housing crisis. On December 6 over 20 cities hosted protests against foreclosure. The day was the result of weeks of careful planning and alliance building.
 "In Chicago, a homeless woman and her baby moved into a foreclosed home with the blessing of the previous owner and the help of more than forty supporters; in Atlanta, protesters made an appearance at foreclosure auctions in three counties; in Denver, activists collected garbage from abandoned properties and delivered it to the mayor; in Oakland, a mother of three reclaimed the townhouse she lost after becoming unemployed while another group held a barbeque at a property owned by Fannie Mae."
Read about the reoccupation of a foreclosed property in a Brooklyn neighborhood in New York:
Occupy Wall Street on your Street by Astra Taylor, The Nation, December 7, 2011
Occupy Minneapolis and Neighborhood Organizing for Change launched an extended sit in to protest the eviction of a long time Minneapolis home owner. See the article and 3 minute video by the Uptake.
Across the country on December 4, 2011, Occupy Wall Street farmers celebrated community power to regain control over food, the most basic element for human well-being.
In New York, Occupy Wall Street Farmers addressed an excited crowd in La Plaza Cultural Community Gardens about the growing problems in our industrial food system and solutions based on organic, sustainable and community based food production. This was followed by a 3-mile march from the East Village to Zuccotti Park, the birthplace of the Occupy Wall Street movement. A farmer stated, "There was a real sense of community down there. These people are absolutely serious. . . The problems they describe are absolutely real."
He explained that family farmers whose crops are contaminated by pollen that comes from Monsanto's side of the fence are viewed as holding Monsanto technology on which they didn't pay royalty. Monsanto then subjects them to patent infringement litigation. They can lose their farms through bankruptcy trying to clear their name.
View the 4 minute video
 What Would Gandhi Do? - "Gandhi would underscore that social transformation requires significant responsibility on the part of each of us. The world is not a static system or an unalterable one. Society exists in a certain way when we enter it, but it is our actions or our inaction that maintain the status quo, make things worse, or transform them for the better. Gandhi explained this most pointedly when he declared that the British Empire existed because Indians had let it exist. He would say the same thing about the drastic income inequality in America today: it is here because Americans collectively allow it to be here." Read the New York Times article by Ian Desai.
Naomi Klein, Alan Grayson, Amy Goodman, and George Lakoff on the Wall Street Occupation
Economic Facts Behind the Wall Street Occupation
|
 Al Franken was one of 13 Senators who voted against the National Defense Authorization Act. 86 Senators voted for the bill. In an article explaining his vote, Senator Franken stated,
"With this defense authorization act, Congress will, for the first time in 60 years, authorize the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without charge or trial, according to its advocates. This would be the first time that Congress has deviated from President Nixon's Non-Detention Act. And what we are talking about here is that Americans could be subjected to life imprisonment without ever being charged, tried, or convicted of a crime, without ever having an opportunity to prove their innocence to a judge or a jury of their peers. And without the government ever having to prove their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
I think that denigrates the very foundations of this country. It denigrates the Bill of Rights. It denigrates what our Founders intended when they created a civilian, non-military justice system for trying and punishing people for crimes committed on U.S. soil."
The National Defense Authorization Act was passed on the anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights. Senator Franken concludes, "This wasn't the way to mark its birthday." Read his article.
The Veterans health care system currently owns it own hospitals and Veterans Administration doctors are on fixed salary. The V. A. also negotiates prescription costs with the drug manufacturers. Veterans system provides the highest quality and the most cost effective health care in the U.S.
Very few people know that Mitt Romney just proposed a dramatic change the Veterans Administration health care system. Speaking at a roundtable on Veterans Day, he proposed a health care voucher system for veterans -- essentially a plan to privatize the benefits our service members count on when they leave active duty. Here's what it would mean: veterans would receive a set amount of money to put toward their health care, regardless of their individual needs.
Since the Veterans Health Administration (V.H.A.) is already uniquely well-equipped to deal with extreme cases and make expensive procedures accessible, this plan would unreasonably target our wounded warriors and anyone else who needs specialized care.
These are men and women who have made some of the largest sacrifices for our country. And instead of acknowledging the debt we owe them, Mitt Romney wants to leave them to fend for themselves against the astronomical cost of specialized care. For anyone who's not a millionaire like Mitt, this plan could ruin families.
The American Legislative Exchange Council
The American Legislative Exchange Council is an organization of large corporations and legislators that has been meeting in secret to craft and vote on legislation that is then presented in the U.S. House and Senate and legislatures across the country. For the first time this summer, the public is becoming aware of ALEC's broad reach and effect on their lives. A whistleblower leaked 800 documents that were made available for reading and analysis by the Center for Media and Democracy at ALEC Exposed. Click here for a glimpse into ALEC's big influence on state and federal legislation including Representative Erik Paulsen's involvement in ALEC, it's impact on the health care bill, and the Koch brothers leading role in the organization. ALEC's legislative initiative includes the Voter ID Acts and public labor union restructions currently being proposed across the country.
Last Updated on Saturday, 27 August 2011 19:22
Voter ID Act Passed by ALEC in 2009 Would Disenfranchise Millions
Last Updated on Saturday, 27 August 2011 19:27
|
In December, Senator Al Franken and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) explained to their colleagues how the oil and coal industries have funded scientists who spread misinformation and doubt on climate change through conservative foundations. In fact, these scientists are often the same ones that were paid by the tobacco industry to deny that smoking causes cancer. In their engaging hour long discussion, they laid out the preponderance of evidence showing climate change is real and indicated that 97% of scientists who have published peer reviewed articles on climate change as well as the National Academy of Sciences agree that it is urgent that we take steps to reduce the amount of CO2 produced by fossil fuels.  Senator Franken talked about the effect of climate change on the forests and fields of the plains, while Senator Whitehouse spoke of the acidification that the warming of the ocean has caused. They ended their colloquy by speaking about the innovation and clean energy progress in their respective states. Senator Franken told of the progress Minnesota's utility companies have made in increasing clean energy in Minnesota, of the first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant being built in Minnesota, of St. Paul's downtown centrally heated with woody biomass, and of the Sage Electrochromics plant that manufactures windows with a photovoltaic cell that blocks out all UV during the summer and lets in all the light in winter. Senator Whitehouse spoke of the offshore wind energy under planning in Rhode Island and of the jet fuel being manufactured from algae. Senator Franken concluded by stating, "Climate change is real, and failure to address it is bad for our standing in the global economy, bad for the Federal budget, and bad for our national security. We can do better than that for our children and our grandchildren and posterity." Watch their informative discussion. or read Executive Director of Fresh Energy Michael Noble's summary of the colloquy.
The website theMiddleClass.org is an excellent resource for finding out how legislation will affect you and your family and for determining whether your legislators are standing up for you. TheMiddleClass.org provides information and analysis on bills in Congress that have a significant impact on America's middle class, as well as on lower-income Americans who want to work their way into the middle class. It also enables voters to evaluate members of Congress based on their votes on these bills.
You simply click on your Senators' and your Representative's names in the right column. Up will come a score along with a list on how they voted on bills that affect middle class individuals and families and the many Americans trying to become middle class.
Last Updated on Saturday, 19 November 2011 23:51
Last Updated on Saturday, 27 August 2011 19:24
Last Updated on Saturday, 27 August 2011 19:28
|
|
