Subject: [PDLA] One Nation Alert - Change of Location
Update regarding two block location change for today's event
(due to anticipation of a larger turnout than originally planed):
Time: 9 AM – 12 NOON
Location: Melrose Ave at N. New Hampshire Ave (4301 Melrose Ave, 90029)
Near Los Angeles City College.
EVENT DATE: Oct 2, 2010
OVER 5,000 TO GATHER NEAR LOS ANGELES CITY COLLEGE ON
OCTOBER 2ND TO HOLD MASSIVE "DAY OF ACTION"
One Nation CA to re-energize, reengage and inspire 500,000 Californians to
go to the polls in November and fight for the change we voted for in 2008
LOS ANGELES – One Nation Working Together California (www.OneNationCA.org)
will hold a massive Day of Action on October 2, 2010 near Los Angeles City
College where over 5,000 concerned Californians will gather. At the same
time as Californians are gathering, an estimated half a million people will
march on Washington, D.C. at the Lincoln Memorial and more still at regional
events around the country. The event in Los Angeles will be the largest
event held outside of Washington, D.C.
Responding to a call to restore opportunity for Americans and pull America
back together, One Nation Working Together California will focus on
re-energizing voters for this November's election and calling for an end to
the polarizing tactics that are being used to divide our country. The goal
of the October 2nd events, including the day's get-out-the-vote efforts,
canvassing and other ongoing activities, is to encourage 500,000
Californians to re-engage in the political process this season and in 2012.
One Nation Working Together is a fast-growing grassroots movement of people
from all backgrounds united by the goal of reordering our nation's
priorities to invest in our most valuable resource – our people. The
movement is comprised of over 200 organizations and tens of thousands of
individuals who believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to achieve
the American Dream of having a secure job, a safe home and a quality
education.
Speakers: - Local activists and One Nation partners including leaders
from the NAACP, the Immigration Rights movement, the LGBT community,
Labor, and more.
- Actor and activist Danny Glover and other celebrities
- Personal stories about the impact of the economy, immigration, and the
current state of education.
Visuals: - Public interactive display of unity
- Californians fighting for change
- Performances by local performers – including
Tom Morello - Grammy Award-wining guitarist
###
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/opinion/02herbert.html?th&emc=th
The Campaign Disconnect
By Bob Herbert
NY Times Op-Ed: October 2, 2010
One in five American kids was living in poverty in 2009. Across the country,
once solidly middle-class families are lining up at food pantries and soup
kitchens for groceries or a hot meal. In New York City, a startling
indicator of the continuing economic stress is the rise in the number of
homes that don't have kitchens.
Election Day is approaching, but neither party cares to focus on the
nightmare facing millions of Americans who have been laid low by
unemployment, home foreclosures, personal bankruptcies, and jobs that offer
only part-time work, lousy pay and absolutely no benefits.
In an era of extreme economic inequality (which is another way of saying
economic unfairness), Wall Street can be on a roll and corporate profits can
streak toward the moon at the same time that ordinary American families are
stuck in depressionlike conditions with precious little hope of relief.
The Democrats are trying to put the best possible face on this terrible
economic reality, imploring voters to give them a little credit for
preventing matters from becoming much worse. No matter how valid, that's a
tough case to make to families whose properties are being plastered with
foreclosure notices. Or to the breadwinners whose 99 weeks of unemployment
insurance have been exhausted without anything in the way of a decent job
materializing. Or the former middle managers now working for peanuts at Home
Depot or Wal-Mart.
But at least the Democrats are still rooted in the real world. The
Republicans, when they aren't behaving as though they've lost their minds
completely (see O'Donnell, Angle, Paladino, et al.), are peddling a fantasy
that has already damaged the country profoundly. The party's ludicrous
"Pledge to America" promises to reduce federal budget deficits while, among
other things, making all of the Bush-era tax cuts permanent and jacking up
already insanely high defense costs.
The pledge is as dangerous as it is transparent. Economists have calculated
that the tax cuts alone will cost nearly $4 trillion over the next decade.
These are the very same G.O.P. operatives who have spent years frantically
looting the U.S. Treasury on behalf of their corporate masters, and they
can't
wait to get another crack at it. As John Boehner, one of the ring leaders,
put it: "We are not going to be any different than what we've been."
What is especially weird is that while they are pushing plans guaranteed to
increase budget deficits, the G.O.P. is united in opposition to investments
in the economy that would put Americans back to work, revitalize sagging
industries and eventually provide the taxes that are crucial to actually
getting a handle on deficits.
Weirder still is that even Democrats who should know better are buying into
this self-defeating austerity posture. More than 300 economists, including
Robert Reich, the former labor secretary, have signed onto a public
statement urging policy makers not to undercut any real chance at a recovery
by focusing prematurely on deficit reduction. What are needed instead are
prudent, sensible investments, especially in infrastructure, research and
development, and green energy initiatives.
The statement, released by the liberal Institute for America's Future, noted
that President Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and
Reform would like to reduce the federal deficit to 3 percent of the gross
domestic product by 2015. That's not realistic. It's not going to happen.
More important is the following point made by the institute in its
statement:
"At the end of World War II, the U.S. was burdened with debt that totaled
over 120 percent of G.D.P. But we made the investments vital to a new
economy - the G.I. Bill, housing subsidies, the interstate highway system,
the conversion of military plants, and the Marshall plan. We ran annual
deficits over most of the next three decades and the debt grew in absolute
size, but the economy and the broad middle class grew faster. By 1980, the
debt had been reduced to barely 30 percent of G.D.P."
There is no doubt that the country, starved for revenues and still at war,
will have to increase some taxes. Unnecessary spending should be attacked.
But the nation is still in the throes of an economic crisis. Poverty is
growing and the middle class is shrinking, and more than 20 million
Americans are out of work or underemployed.
We can pretend that all of this is not happening and that there won't be
grave consequences as a result. We can cling to the Ronald Reagan-George W.
Bush fairy tale that handing over ever more riches to those who are already
rich and powerful is the way to revitalize the American dream.
Or we can take our cue from the best moments in American history, when the
nation rolled up its sleeves and placed the interests of ordinary people at
the top of its agenda.
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