Rally with Community Coalition 4 Immigration Reform. With South Bend Mayor @PeteButtigieg Fri~June14th~4pm

This was on my car tis morning.

There are some ugly people out there. My grandmother was a daughter of the American  Revolution

TED Blog | All of our survival is tied to the survival of everyone: Bryan Stevenson at TED2012

TED Blog | All of our survival is tied to the survival of everyone: Bryan Stevenson at TED2012:

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How to Cover Everyone: Vermont’s Single-Payer Success by Amy Gluckman — YES! Magazine

It can be done!
The state’s progressive health care model has already bolstered campaigns in more than 20 other places. 

Reform took a different path in Vermont. In 2010, the state hired a Harvard economist to recommend a cost-conscious system of universal coverage. The result, unveiled in early 2011, was a single-payer plan to be run by an independent, quasi-governmental board, with private insurers’ role limited to contracts for claims processing and other administrative tasks.

In the meantime, Vermonters elected a strong single-payer supporter, Peter Shumlin, for governor. But the state had seen good single-payer plans and supportive governors before (think Howard Dean). One difference this time around was a huge popular mobilization. As the legislature deliberated, supporters of single-payer turned out in large numbers, including a “People’s Team” clad in bright red T-shirts that became a fixture at the State House. The Vermont Workers Center, which had been working to build grassroots support on the issue for two decades, can take a lot of the credit. “It would be a shame,” the center’s James Haslam emphasized, “if the lesson people took from Vermont was that the win here was all about having … a sympathetic governor.”

How to Cover Everyone: Vermont’s Single-Payer Success by Amy Gluckman — YES! Magazine

How to Cover Everyone...

http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/9-strategies-to-end-corporate-rule/how-to-cover-everyone-vermonts-single-payer-success

Senator Bernie Sanders calls for shared sacrifice

Tax Time? Not for Giant Corporations

Sanders compiled a list of some of the 10 worst corporate income tax avoiders.
1) Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings. (Source: Exxon Mobil's 2009 shareholder report filed with the SEC here.)
2) Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion. (Source: Forbes.com here, ProPublica here and Treasury here.)
3) Over the past five years, while General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States, it received a $4.1 billion refund from the IRS. (Source: Citizens for Tax Justice here and The New York Times here. Note: despite rumors to the contrary, the Times has stood by its story.)
4) Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009. (Source: See 2009 Chevron annual report here. Note 15 on page FS-46 of this report shows a U.S. federal income tax liability of $128 million, but that it was able to defer $147 million for a U.S. federal income tax liability of $-19 million)
5) Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year. . (Source: Paul Buchheit, professor, DePaul University, here and Citizens for Tax Justice here.)
6) Valero Energy, the 25th largest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, it received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction. (Source: the company's 2009 annual report, pg. 112, here.)
7) Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department. (Source: Bloomberg News here, ProPublica here, Treasury Department here.)
8) Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury. (Source: Paul Buchheit, professor, DePaul University, here, ProPublica here, Treasury Department here.)
9) ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2006 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction. (Sources: Profits can be found here. The deduction can be found on the company's 2010 SEC 10-K report to shareholders on 2009 finances, pg. 127, here)
10) Over the past five years, Carnival Cruise Lines made more than $11 billion in profits, but its federal income tax rate during those years was just 1.1 percent. (Source: The New York Times here)

Shame, shame, shame on Komen

This is for all the anti-choice, anti-women people out there.
Listen up.

You can spend every minute of every day trying to force the rest of us to live by your ideology. You can go after federal funds for health care and pressure private organizations like the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation to stop funding breast cancer screenings for poor women. You can try to make it impossible to get birth control.

But you know what you can't do? You can't win. You can't break us. Planned Parenthood isn't just a family of organizations. It's a movement. It's women and men of all ages who believe that health care — including reproductive health care — is a basic human right. We are millions strong. We are everywhere. We act, we give, and we do whatever it takes to make sure that Planned Parenthood is there for the women, men, and teens who rely on them.

Know this: When you go after Planned Parenthood and the people they serve, you go after ME. I stand with Planned Parenthood. I stand with them against anyone who wants to stop women from receiving the health care they need. I stand with them today, tomorrow, and for as long as I need to.

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION HERE

Working Class Hero-John Lennon

NFL players statement: 'No to RTW'

NFL players statement: 'No to RTW'
As NFL players, we know our success on the field comes from working together as a team. We’re not just a team of football players—we’re also the fans at games and at home, the employees who work the concession stands and the kids who wear the jerseys of our favorite football heroes. NFL players know what it means to fight for workers’ rights, better pensions and health and safety in the workplace.

To win, we have to work together and look out for one another. Today, even as the city of Indianapolis is exemplifying that teamwork in preparing to host the Super Bowl, politicians are looking to destroy it trying to ram through so-called “right-to-work” legislation.

“Right-to-work” is a political ploy designed to destroy basic workers’ rights. It’s not about jobs or rights, and it’s the wrong priority for Indiana.

The facts are clear—according to a January 2012 Economic Policy Institute briefing report (“Working Hard to Make Indiana Look Bad”), “right-to-work” will lower wages for a worker in Indiana by $1,500 a year because it weakens the ability of working families to work together, and it will make it less likely that working people will get health care and pensions.

So-called “right-to-work” bills divide working families at a time when communities need to stand united. We need unity—not division. We urge legislators in Indiana to oppose “right-to-work” efforts, and focus instead on job creation.

As Indianapolis proudly prepares to host the Super Bowl it should be a time to shine in the national spotlight and highlight the hard-working families that make Indiana run instead of launching political attacks on their basic rights. It is important to keep in mind the plight of the average Indiana worker and not let them get lost in the ceremony and spectacle of such a special event. This Super Bowl should be about celebrating the best of what Indianapolis has to offer, not about legislation that hurts the people of Indiana.
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Indianawontbackdown.wmv

MS, Vitamin D and Viruses...a MUST SEE!

George Carlin - Pro Life, Abortion, And The Sanctity Of Life

Central Indiana JwJ Presents Carols to Brian Bosma

We Are The Many - Makana

Indiana State AFL-CIO - HOOSIERS WON’T FALL FOR “RIGHT TO WORK” FALLACY

Indiana State AFL-CIO - NEWS RELEASE: HOOSIERS WON’T FALL FOR “RIGHT TO WORK” FALLACY:

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For Immediate Release: Monday, Nov. 21, 2011
Media Contact: Jeff Harris, Indiana State AFL-CIO, 317.632.9147
GUYOTT: HOOSIERS WON’T FALL FOR “RIGHT TO WORK” FALLACY
Out of state corporate interests push bill designed to destroy unions, reduce worker wages
INDIANAPOLIS – In reaction to the announcement by Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma and Senate Pro Tem David Long that they would make passing the called “right to work” bill their top legislative priority in the 2012 legislative session, Indiana State AFL-CIO President Nancy Guyott issued following statement this morning:
“It’s laughable that Republican leaders in the Statehouse actually have the gall to cite “freedom” in their renewed push for the so-called “right to work” law given that its already the law of the land that no one can be forced to join a union. In reality, this legislation isn’t about giving Hoosier workers and employers more freedom, it is about taking away existing freedoms and choices.
If passed, this bill would restrict a private business’ ability to freely enter into an agreement with a union. And, it forces organized labor to represent workers who refuse to pay for services, thus severely depleting their ability to effectively represent dues paying members in fights for better wages, working conditions and needed safety precautions.
Anyone who has followed this debate in Indiana in recent years knows that this isn’t being pushed by Hoosiers, but by out-of-state corporate interests. As they have done in other states, they claim it’s about workers’ freedom, economic development or jobs – but can never produce verifiable information to support their arguments. That’s because the “right to work” bill isn’t about those things, it’s about money and power. Big corporations and their elected friends want to bust up unions, eliminating the last group of people standing in the way of unfettered corporate control. They want to drive down wages and increase profits. They want to eliminate the voice of working people in the political process.
And while this Wall Street re-branding effort is amusing, like our neighbors in Ohio, Hoosiers know that this is just another attack on working families”
The Indiana State AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations) is a federation of 800 local unions across the state belonging to 50 International Unions. In total, the Indiana State AFL-CIO represents more than 300,000 working Hoosiers.
For more information on please visit www.in.aflcio.org or call 1-800-433-8423.

Indiana State AFL-CIO - All Workers Lobby Day at the Indiana Statehouse on Tuesday (11/22)

Indiana State AFL-CIO - All Workers Lobby Day at the Indiana Statehouse on Tuesday (11/22):

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With the so-called "right to work" legislation back on the table for consideration in the 2012 General Assembly, it's time for all working Hoosiers to come together again and stand in opposition to this radical anti-worker measure.
The Indiana State AFL-CIO, along with our affiliates and community partners, are encouraging all working Hoosiers - union and non union alike - to join us for a "Workers' Lobby Day" on November 22nd at the Indiana Statehouse. On that day the Indiana General Assembly will convene for its Organization Day. It's a great opportunity to speak directly with your state senators and representatives about how the falsely labeled "right to work" bill would negatively impact you and your families as well as other issues facing working Hoosiers.
Please make every effort to attend and bring as many people with you as possible.
WORKERS' LOBBY DAY AT THE INDIANA STATEHOUSE
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
11:00 a.m. *
Indiana Statehouse
200 W. Washington St.
Indianapolis, Indiana
*The Indiana House of Representatives will convene at 1:00 p.m. and the Indiana State Senate will convene at 1:30 p.m. Please be sure to get there before the start of session to ensure you have the time to talk to your legislators and to allow time to get through security at the doors.

Mr. Dieter & Occupy South Bend

In the past I've helped organize and have protested at many events in SB and our police have always been more than respectful and very protective of us in lots of ways. However, I see that it's not like that in many places around the country, and an interesting intersection to that point and almost on cue here in SB, is that the first politician to discuss dismantling the camp and cracking down on the protesters in front of the Morris at Occupy South Bend is a policeman on the Common Council, Dereck Dieter. It's been posited around this here internet thingie that there's a concerted effort among police admins to crackdown on the protests:

The cop group coordinating the Occupy crackdowns

…a little-known but influential private membership based organization has placed itself at the center of advising and coordinating the crackdown on the encampments. The Police Executive Research Forum, an international non-governmental organization with ties to law enforcement and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has been coordinating conference calls with major metropolitan mayors and police chiefs to advise them on policing matters and discuss response to the Occupy movement. The group has distributed a recently published guide on policing political events.

Speaking to Democracy Now! On November 17, PERF Executive Director Chuck Wexler acknowledged PERF's coordination of a series of conference-call strategy sessions with big-city police chiefs. These calls were distinct from the widely reported national conference calls of major metropolitan mayors.

Mr Dieter might want to remember that we’re fighting for his public employee pension too and we all need to remember who comes dressed for riots at the protests.

Move on is asking people to contact Officer Pike. As always, please be polite.
The officer who sprayed the students was UC Davis Police Lt. John Pike at (530) 752-3989 or japikeiii@ucdavis.edu.

Mary Chapin Carpenter w/ Vince Gill and Kathy Mattea - Wall 'Round Your ...

Beautiful Lyrics.

Save our Sorting Center | Occupy Indiana!

On Thursday November 17 at 7pm, the U.S. Postal Service will hold a public hearing at South Bend’s Century Center about the future of the major Postal Service building on Michigan Street in downtown South Bend. This building houses the USPS South Bend Processing and Distribution Center–the formal name for this sorting plant. It is one of the 487 such sorting plants located at strategic points across the country. Claiming that the Postal Service budgetary problems compel it to do so, the hearing is intended to hear the public’s input on this proposal to close down this sorting plant along with 252 others around the country.This is a call to action to show for this meeting!

Direct Action Called November 17! | Occupy Indiana!:

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Dr. Oz: Fight over Health Care Law Is Killing Americans

Wow. Just wow.

Dr. Oz: Fight over Health Care Law Is Killing Americans:

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The smell was unmistakable. I recognized it immediately – a fungating infection. It’s what happens when a cancer breaks through the skin and the puss oozes out and aerosolizes, producing an unsurprisingly foul odor. This is what late-stage cancer looks like if left unchecked, like many cancers were 100 years ago and still are today in the developing world. But I encountered this case this month, and Yvonne, the woman who sat crying before me, lives in Los Angeles. She lost her job two years ago, and when her insurance expired, she was too ashamed to seek help for a mass she felt in her right breast. Now the tumor had replaced her entire breast and blasted through the skin. Being cared for now — so late in her illness — was surely not what she would have wanted; and just as surely, it could have been avoided. How did we let this happen in America?

Read more: http://ideas.time.com/2011/10/31/enough-is-enough/#ixzz1cVflaN5n