Wednesday, March 30, 2011

National Tea Party Warns of "White Extinction"


Right Wing Watch: Tea Party Group Warns of White "Extinction" in America


Tea Party Nation is a major (for-profit) Tea Party organization that gained prominence after its convention last year hosted Republican leaders like Sarah Palin and Tom Tancredo, along with Religious Right figures Roy Moore and Rick Scarborough. TPN’s President Judson Phillips previously denounced the “Marxist” Methodist Church and suggested that President Obama’s campaign was funded by Hamas and China.

This morning, Tea Party Nation sent out an email to its members with the headline “Destroy the Family, You Destroy the Country!” from an article by Dr. Rich Swier, a contributing editor to the anti-Muslim group Family Security Matters. Writing for Tea Part Nation, Swier says that “The title of this column is a direct quote from Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the first leader of the former Soviet Union. Lenin's vision was for the state (Communism) to replace the family as the provider of all things necessary for life and happiness. What Lenin did not foresee was his political policies leading to the eventual extinction of Russian civilization.” Swier goes on to lament the falling birthrate of native-born Americans compared to immigrants, and warns that “American culture” will soon perish since the “White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) population is headed for extinction”:

Monday, March 28, 2011

43rd Annual March Honoring the Legacy of Dr. MLK April 4



43rd Annual March Honoring the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King 04/04/11


The Memphis Coffee Party Progressives is joining the American Federation of State, County, & Municipal Employees (Local 1733) and the AFL-CIO to honor Dr. Martin Luther King on the 43rd Anniversary of his death. For more information visit the AFL-CIO We Are one Webpage by clicking here.

EVENT DESCRIPTION:

The march will start from L1733 at 10 a.m. to the Memphis Government Plaza, following the march a community BBQ will be held at L1733 from noon to 2 p.m.
Coalition partners are invited to bring banners for the march, also tables are available for those who would like to display or share during the BBQ. Please call L1733 to reserve a table. - TAKEN FROM THE FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE

Monday, March 14, 2011

Nashville, Tennessee Rally Tuesday March 15th


Rally for Good Jobs, Living Wages and our Public Services


Stand at the Capitol for Good Jobs, Living Wages and Health Care! Stop the Attacks on Public Workers and Our Public Services!
Join community, faith and labor organizations from across Tennessee to demand that Governor Haslam and the General Assembly get their priorities straight.  The attacks on teachers, firefighters and all public workers have to end! Tennesseans need jobs, good jobs that pay living wages and Stand at the Capitol for Good Jobs, Living Wages and Health Care! Stop the Attacks on Public Workers and Our Public Services!
Join community, faith and labor organizations from across Tennessee to demand that Governor Haslam and the General Assembly get their priorities straight. The attacks on teachers, firefighters and all public workers have to end! Tennesseans need jobs, good jobs that pay living wages and have health care. We need green jobs and jobs that don't discriminate against workers. And now more than ever we need our invaluable public services.
On Monday, March 14, 2011, Governor Haslam will deliver his first State of the State Address. Join us on Tuesday, March 15, 2011, as we lay out a message of our own. From Madison, Wisconsin, to Columbus, Ohio, to Nashville, Tennessee, working people are standing up for our rights and demanding that government respect our right to organize, deliver on our needs and not bend to corporate greed.
For more information, including logistics of parking, drop off locations, et cetera, contact the Tennessee AFL-CIO at 615-269-7111.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Tea Party Racism

Truth has a liberal bias

Madison Rally Bigger Than Biggest Tea Party Rally | Tea Party and the Right | AlterNet

Madison Rally Bigger Than Biggest Tea Party Rally | Tea Party and the Right | AlterNet


Police estimated up to 100,000 people turned out in Madison, WI yesterday to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) assault on unions, making it bigger than any protests the city has witnessed, even those during the Vietnam War. The Madison rally is part of a much larger Main Street Movement of average Americans demanding fairness in labor laws, social spending, and taxation that has emerged in OhioNew JerseyFlorida,Michigan, and elsewhere. But yesterday’s rally in Madison is noteworthy because at 85,000-100,000, it was bigger than the biggest tea party protest, the September 12, 2009 rally in Washington, D.C., which turned out only an estimated 60,000-70,000. A photo of the Madison rally yesterday:
For two years, tea party activists and their allies in the GOP have claimed that the hard-right movement represents the true beliefs of the American people. But the crowd in Madison and numerous polls tell a different story.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Let's Remember Real Labor History -- From Madison to Memphis | MichaelMoore.com



Let's Remember Real Labor History -- From Madison to Memphis | MichaelMoore.com

Darrell Bouldin is an activist and organizer and the founder of Coffee Party Progressives
March 1st, 2011 11:59 PM

Let's Remember Real Labor History -- From Madison to Memphis

Last Saturday February 26th I spoke in Nashville, Tennessee at one of the nationwide rallies to Save the American Dream promoted by MoveOn.org along with numerous other organizations. With a good 400 to 500 in attendance despite the media quoting a lower figure, I'd say that this little planned gathering of people was one of the largest rallies I've seen with such a short notice in Tennessee in the past few years of my progressive organizing here. There were several other speakers as we stood on Legislative Plaza below the Tennessee State Capitol. Before my speech I had been holding the American flag my friend had given me to hold behind the other speakers. Out in the crowd there were two American flags modified with corporate logos instead of stars, sometimes called the Corporate American Flag. When I made my speech I pointed out the corporate flags stating how in ten or even five years that is where we seriously will be, if we are not already.

I felt it was important to speak on the fact that one of the greatest men in history, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been killed in Memphis while there protesting for public workers. Though specifically sanitation workers, these protests helped lead to the little protection public workers have had in Tennessee. Now after all of this effort the conservatives in my state wanted to strip away the right of collective bargaining, and even other union rights. I recently purchased “All Labor Has Dignity”, a book containing a collection of speeches on labor by Dr. King, some previously never published. In this book is Dr. King's speech to the AFSME employees in Memphis. His speech was as prophetic as always, and seems to echo down through history today.

The historic struggles that brought us the protections we are rallying to protect today seem to be echoing through time to our struggle today. Voices calling for us to not give up, to keep on fighting. Tennessee has a long history of struggle, one that is often hidden in history classes. I grew up in a little village up against the foot of the hills where less than 35 miles away the original historic location of Highlander Center in Monteagle, Tennessee stood. My father was living at the foot of these hills as Rosa Parks was being trained, and Dr. King was visiting Highlander Center.

In Nashville a large part of SNCC's activities were coordinated. Here sparked one of the first major lunch counter sit-in movements. Dr. King's well known march with striking sanitation workers in Memphis was a key part of his Poor People's Campaign to highlight the issues facing workers at that time. He had chosen that battle. Even earlier in Tennessee's history in the late 1800s northwest of Nashville in Dickson County the early socialist writer John Ruskin had founded a socialist colony there.

Tennessee as with Wisconsin has had a surprisingly subtle, but important role in the history of the American Left. Perhaps not as deep nor victorious as the union wins in Wisconsin, but Tennessee has been a part of the history of the struggles of the American Left just the same.

Like Wisconsin, Tennessee has recently taken a turn toward conservatism if now only electorally it is showing. Here too the right of collective bargaining is under attack among other union rights, and here too we are preparing our response. I now see some teachers I have previously known to be conservative suddenly finding their voice, and responding to these attacks upon their freedom. A self-proclaimed Republican firefighter spoke at a press conference last month responding to these attacks, and demanding his freedom of collective bargaining.

Across the state it seems there is something stirring, but it remains to be seen if this will manifest a movement in this often sleepy state. It is my hope that at some point the fierce spirit of Tennesseans will awaken, and find their working class roots of struggle. If not there will still be us few progressives holding down the fort steadily beating the drum for justice.

$1.2 Trillion: The National Security Figure No One Wants You To See | Common Dreams

$1.2 Trillion: The National Security Figure No One Wants You To See | Common Dreams

Normally, in media accounts, you hear about the Pentagon budget and the war-fighting supplementary funds passed by Congress for our conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. That already gets you into a startling price range -- close to $700 billion for 2012 -- but that’s barely more than half of it. If Americans were ever presented with the real bill for the total U.S. national security budget, it would actually add up to more than $1.2 trillion a year.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Here's Why The Tea Party Republicans Want to Kill Unions

Outside Spending | OpenSecrets

Top Groups Making Outside Expenditures in 2010 Elections, Excluding Party Committees

OrganizationTotalView*Independent
Expenditures
Elec
Comm
Comm
Costs
Super
PAC
527s501c
US Chamber of Commerce $32,851,997C$0$32,851,997$0x
American Action Network $26,088,031C$5,669,821$20,418,210$0x
American Crossroads $21,553,277C$21,553,277$0$0xx
Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies $17,122,446C$16,017,664$1,104,782$0x
Service Employees International Union $15,795,194L$15,692,364$0$102,830x
American Fedn of St/Cnty/Munic Employees$12,631,170L$11,995,182$68,539$567,449x
American Future Fund $9,599,806C$7,387,918$2,211,888$0x
Americans for Job Security $8,991,209C$4,406,902$4,584,307$0x
National Education Assn $8,746,556L$7,239,105$105,724$1,401,727xx
Club for Growth $8,240,060C$8,240,060$0$0xx
VIEW ALL GROUPS

* C = Conservative, L = Liberal
Indicates that this organization has a 527 committee registered with the IRS. The committee's 527 spending outside of electioneering communications is NOT included in these totals. Read more about 527s.