Author's posts
Jul 24 2010
ICE Checkpoint @ Netroots Nation…
Cross-posted from Sum of Change
So folks in Las Vegas for the 2010 Netroots Nation conference got a surprise when they showed up for the session on Civil Rights in the Modern Era to find a checkpoint of “ICE agents” looking for illegal European immigrants:
Jun 18 2010
EMILY’s List Announces EMpower
cross-posted from Sum of Change
On Thursday, June 17th 2010, EMILY’s List announced a new program called EMpower. We were filming WIN’s 21st Annual Women Opening Doors for Women, where Stephanie Schriock, President of EMILY’s List, announced the new program:
May 18 2010
Video from K Street Protest
cross-posted from Sum of Change
Yesterday, despite the persistant rain, thousands of people showed up on K Street in Washington, DC to protest the actions and lobbying efforts of big banks and to demand economic justice. The Washington Post is comparing the anger to what we have seen at Teaparty protests.
–Mark Freeman, foreclosure victim and SEIU member
May 17 2010
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition’s Neil Franklin – Interview
cross-posted from Sum of Change
On Friday, May 14th 2010, I got the chance to sit down with Neill Franklin, the Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP).
Neill Franklin, LEAP’s incoming executive director, is a 32-year law enforcement veteran who spent more than two decades with the Maryland State Police (leading the drug division’s education and training) and then moved to Baltimore PD. Like a character from HBO’s “The Wire,” Neill could tell you stories of colleagues being gunned down in the line of fire, as he did in this Washington Post op-ed.
Full, Unedited Interview (highlight clips below the fold)
May 12 2010
[UPDATED @ 10:30pm] National Nurses United Rally for Nursing-Ratio Limits
cross-posted from Sum of Change
About 1,000 nurses, with a handful of doctors mixed in, rallied today on Capitol Hill for National Nurses Week to “press the case for moving beyond insurance reform to improving the quality of care in U.S. hospitals and other healthcare settings.”
May 04 2010
Mayor Bloomberg’s Office: Billboard is Accurate
cross-posted from Sum of Change
UPDATE: I just got off the phone with Gabriel Sayegh of the Drug Policy Alliance. He told me that Titan 360 has now completely changed their reasoning for rejecting the ad. At first, they were going to work with the Drug Policy Alliance to place the ad with another landlord but have now decided that the ad goes against their policy and cannot be run anywhere. We are still trying to get in touch with Titan 360 for a comment.
Booze, strip clubs, breasts, and casinos. What do they have in common? All are billboards you will find along the Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE). But the following was rejected:
pdf of add here. It reads: “Nearly half of all New Yorkers have tried marijuana – including Mayor Bloomberg. We can’t arrest them all but Bloomberg is trying.
Marijuana arrests last year: 55,000
Cost to taxpayers: nearly $100 million”
Apr 29 2010
Green Thoughts: Green Jobs for Green Days
Originally Posted at SumofChange.com
With a poor economy, new technology offers the ability to create new jobs as well as progression for companies large and small. Combining this with the global need for clean energy creates a viable opportunity for economic alleviation.
To continue our “Green Thursdays”, here are some clips from a panel at the 2010 PA Progressive Summit, held this last January in Harrisburg, PA. Michael Fedor, the Pennsylvania state director for Repower America, and Adam Graber, PennEnvironment, discuss the current job environment and how clean energy “green jobs” are essential for the future for most companies.
In the first video, Fedor (along side Adam Garber) explains the realistic ways green jobs can fix unemployment. Once more green jobs have been established, Fedor in the second video describes the ways green jobs can become green careers. In the final video, Fedor illustrates how to make Pennsylvania the leading green jobs state in the nation.
For more info on the Pennsylvania Progressive Summit and it’s organizer, Keystone progress, please go to paprogressivesummit.org and keystoneprogress.org
For more videos from Sum of Change at the Pennsylvania Progressive Summit, please go to SumofChange.com/paprog
Apr 28 2010
Marriage Equality: Details You Should Know to Make it Happen
Cross Posted from SumofChange.com
Also from the Pennsylvania Progressive Summit (paprogressivesummit.com), I’d like to bring you a few videos form a panel simply entitled ‘Marriage Equality’. On this panel, the speakers discussed the benefits, issues, and consequences or allowing homosexual couples marriage rights equal to those of heterosexual ones. The panelists and approached the topic from a variety of angles. Some spoke about the legal issues equality, both in the PA state legislature and in the constitution, others talked about the religious aspects, especially from the Christian and Jewish traditions, and others talked about the moral and human rights aspect of the debate.
The clips below go into many of the arguments against marriage equality and gay marriage and why most of them struggle for validity. The first video, PA state senator Daylin Leach, who sponsored a bill in the PA state legislature in support on marriage equality, goes into many of the arguments against gay marriage that he has heard while debating the bill. As he says, no one has debated him twice, because no one has presented him an argument with any validity. The second video looks at many of the religious issues brought up by the marriage equality debate. Many think that religion has no part of the legal debate over gay marriage and often when religion is invoked, it is done so incorrectly. Finally, the last clip discusses why marriage equality supporters should want legalized gay marriage and not civil unions. Civil unions seem like an acceptable compromise, but really they are impractical and still discriminatory.
For more videos from the Pennsylvania Progressive Summit, go to SumofChange.com/paprog
For more info on the Pennsylvania Progressive Summit and it’s organizer, Keystone progress, please go to paprogressivesummit.org and keystoneprogress.org
Apr 27 2010
Control & Tax: Legalization of Cannabis
Cross-posted from Sum of Change
On Friday, April 23rd 2010, I got the chance to sit down with Dale Sky Clare, the Executive Chancellor of Oaksterdam University and the Spokesperson for Control and Tax Cannabis 2010. We talked about the upcoming ballot initiative to legalize cannabis in California.
Apr 15 2010
David Waldman on Process And Lessons Learned Fighting for Health Care
cross-posted from Sum of Change
Apr 01 2010
Interview with Dr. Peter Wilk on Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty
cross-posted from Sum of Change
I stopped in at the office of Physicians for Social Responsibility this morning to meet Dr. Peter Wilk, the Executive Director.
Dr. Wilk is a recognized expert on nuclear disarmament and has been active for the past 27 years in public health advocacy organizations and medical organizations concerned with preventing nuclear war and addressing other threats to global survival.