The Teaparty That The Republicans Don't Want You To See!

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One Nation March/Rally 10-2-2010

My partner Glenn and I joined the Socialist Party USA and the Socialist Contingency at the One Nation Together March Oct. 2. It was great to finally meed the national SPUSA officers and socialist comrades from across the country.
And I finally got to meet David McReynolds!

Some of my highlights:
Driving up to the march I got into a discussion with an older white man (in his 50s) who worked in a TN rest stop. When I told him I was going to the march, he said he thought everyone should have healthcare and that he worked two jobs and had no health insurance. He even agreed that we should expand Medicare to cover everyone. This from a working class man who I was afraid to discuss my politics with because I assumed he was a right-wing conservative.

I also ran into Lt. Dan Choi, who was kicked out of the military for being gay, and he was marching with a group of young LGBT people holding signs with the pictures of the 5 young gay males who have committed suicide in the past weeek.

I got into an argument with a couple of African-American women who objected to referring to gay rights as "civil rights." They support equal rights for gays but not gay marriage and they started throwing the Bible ad religion at us. They walked off, but we had a better interaction with an older black man and his younger daughter (I think). They admitted their was a lot of homophobia (they used that word) in the black community, but the man said he told his daughter he would rather she was with a woman that loved her than a man that abused her.

The crowd was incredibly diverse, unlike the Beck-Palin neo-Nazi rally last month. Lots of discussions about issues and the upcoming elections....

We marched with the Socialists and carried signs and chanted slogans critical of Obama and the Democrats, like "Obama is No Socialist, But We Are, But We Are!"

I admit I was wrong about the Socialist Contingency and now think it was a good idea, even though I didn't agree with everything some of the other groups believe or advocate. We agree on most things, and the big things that matter--the need to replace capitalism with democratic socialism! (We just don't all agree on how to get there.)

Here are some pics I took at the March/Rally

One Nation Together

Greetings from Washington D.C., our nation's capitol. I've joined tens of thousands here to protest the pro-corporate anti-labor policies of the Republican and Democratic Parties and their corporate masters on Wall Street. There is a mix of liberal, progressive and socialist activists here who do not agree on every issue, certainly not on President Obama and the Democratic Congress which have failed to deliver real change for American workers. This is a Wake Up Call! Take back our government from the corporate elite!

There is a Socialist Contingency which strongly objects to the failed policies of Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress. The right-wing propaganda networks (Fox News, etc.) will try to tell you that they are here to support Obama and the Democrats, but they are NOT! Read their statement:

Socialist Contingency

I'll be marching with the Socialist Party U.S.A.

Not Our Party: The Tea Party vs. We The People

Memphians to be Among One Nation Working Together Rally

One Nation Working Together

Coalition of LGBT Rights Groups Join One Nation Together March

Coalition of National LGBT Rights Groups Joins With Progressive Allies as Part of One Nation Working Together

WASHINGTON - September 23 - The National Black Justice Coalition, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, National Stonewall Democrats and Pride At Work are co-convening the “LGBTQ Table” for One Nation Working Together , a new progressive movement demanding secure jobs, justice and quality education. LGBTQ groups will be joining with thousands of progressive allies in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 2 for One Nation Working Together's national rally.
“This is about getting people energized and re-engaged,” says Sharon Lettman-Hicks, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition. “We can show our collective leadership by mobilizing our constituents, and we will continue to stand tall and steadfast until our priority initiatives become a reality.”

More than 200 organizations have endorsed One Nation Working Together, including the NAACP, AFL-CIO, SEIU and many other labor, civil and human rights, faith, immigrant rights, environmental, women and peace organizations.

"Everyone deserves the right to find and keep a job in a safe work environment with a living wage," says Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "This is about fundamental fairness. This includes ensuring people are not discriminated against based on their sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. It's about passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. It's about ending 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' It's about ensuring people get a fair shake and are able to support and care for their families. It's about real lives and livelihoods."

The nation's economic climate has left people all across the country vulnerable, and the ongoing discrimination in employment, schools, housing, health care and the absence of relationship recognition present added economic barriers and stresses for many within the LGBTQ community. In addition, the 12 million undocumented immigrants, including at least half a million LGBTQ people living in this country and 36,000 binational couples, deserve access to a system that allows workers to earn legal status and permits people from all backgrounds to stay with their families.

“One Nation Working Together has already been an unprecedented opportunity for the LGBT community to work in coalition with many progressive organizations with a common purpose,” says Michael Mitchell, executive director of National Stonewall Democrats. “The focus of One Nation Working Together — jobs, justice, education — is also what we are fighting for as LGBT Americans.”

"One Nation Working Together is about Oct. 2, 2010, in Washington, D.C., but it is much more than that,” says Peggy Shorey, executive director of Pride at Work. “This is about building stronger coalitions at the intersection of race and sexuality, and becoming more effective allies across our communities. This is about lifting the voice and struggle of low-income LGBT people, of LGBT people living in poverty, of LGBT working families struggling with unemployment and discrimination, of LGBT people also fighting racism. Just as important as Oct. 2 is how we carry the work forward — encouraging all of our members to register and vote in November, and continuing to organize in solidarity to win justice and equality for all people.”

Also on Oct. 2, the Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, D.C., is hosting its 24th annual AIDS Walk Washington, which takes place Saturday morning prior to the One Nation Working Together rally. Event information, including registration, is available at www.aidswalkwashington.org . Whitman-Walker Clinic is proud to be a partner organization of One Nation Working Together. Rally attendees can sign-up online for the AIDS Walk and receive a 25 percent discount off the standard registration rate (code:ONWT).

The LGBTQ Table is encouraging people to support the AIDS Walk, as well as rally with One Nation Working Together. LGBTQ organizations and activists are invited to gather at Freedom Plaza at 10 a.m. to share in the closing ceremonies of the AIDS Walk and then march as a delegation to the One Nation Working Together rally.

For more details of how to get involved in One Nation Working Together, visit www.onenationworkingtogether.org
Facebook at “One Nation Working Together,” or Twitter using the hashtags #OneNation, #DC10210 and #OneNationLGBTQ.

UPDATE: NAACP Leaders Reach Out to Gay Rights Groups

Tea Party vs. We The People

Several important news items in the past week underscore the dire situation of the poor and the working class in the United States, but got little attention from the corporate media or the political elite. The number of people in poverty has climbed to 44 million, the highest number in 50 years. In 2009 alone, 4 million people fell into poverty, and it would have been higher without the extensions in unemployment and other benefits Republicans opposed.

The number of people without health insurance climbed to 50 million. The healthcare crisis continues to worsen while the right-wing calls for repealing the healthcare program that will cover 30 million more people. Health insurance companies are already gouging people and dumping children and sick people before the law is fully implemented, while Republicans want to cut all public healthcare programs and throw us all to the mercy of insurance companies.

While corporate profits and CEO pay continue to skyrocket, even after the Great Recession they created out of greed, the wages and income of working class continues to decline. There is a class war, but it is a war of the corporate rich being waged on the working class.

What I don’t understand is why the Tea Party, which claims to represent “we the people,” is taking the side of the corporate rich. They defend private insurance companies which are rationing healthcare based on ability to pay while increasing their profits and CEO pay. They are siding with corporations against unions and the right of workers to organize and improve their working conditions.

Instead, the Tea Party is following millionaire corporate lobbyists like Dick Armey, and corporate front groups like “Freedom Works” and “Americans For Prosperity,” which are nothing but cover groups for insurance companies and energy companies who oppose “regulations” which would protect the environment and increase access to healthcare.

They claim to want to reduce the deficit and cut government debt, but they want to continue to cut taxes on the corporate rich, without any cuts to pay for them. It is this combination of careless tax cuts favoring the rich, along with unpaid wars and increases in military spending, which has caused the explosion in the deficit, all the result of the policies of George W. Bush, which they want to continue.

The Tea Party is taking over the Republican Party, pushing a radical agenda to impose corporate and theocratic rule over the United States. They want to cut or eliminate Social Security, the most successful social program in history, which has nothing to do with the deficit. They claim to be opposed to “big government,” but they want to impose their religious beliefs on everyone, and they seem to love big business.

The Boston Tea Party was a revolt against unfair tax cuts for a multinational corporation, the East India Tea Company, which undermined the small businesses in the colonies. The British were imposing taxes on the colonies, while cutting the taxes of the East India Tea Company. We need a real Tea Party revolt against tax cuts and corporate welfare programs that favor the corporate rich and put the interests of Wall Street banksters over the interests of the American working class. We need to pay more attention to the “common good” and and less attention to the whining of rich people who don’t care about the “general welfare” of we the people.

Memphis Flyer: Not Our Party

Socialist Webzine: Incomes Down, Poverty Up

The Great American Stickup: How Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main Street

Lost Decade For American Income

Poverty Rises as Wall Street Billionaires Whine

More Tax Cuts for the Rich? No Way!

GOP Plan Would Raise Debt $4 Trillion

Thom Hartmann: Boston Tea Party Was An Anti-Corporate Revolt!

DADT Repeal Vote "Too Close to Call"

A repeal of the military's anti-gay "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is coming up for a vote Tuesday, as part of the defense authorization bill. It's not clear if the Democrats have enough votes, though, to break a Republican filibuster led by crazy Sen. John McCain.

A Majority of Americans now Support Marriage Equality

Poll: 52 % of Americans for Marriage Equality

A new national poll from the Associated Press found that 52% of Americans support marriage equality, following a CNN poll last month that showed a similar finding.

The AP poll asked 1,007 Americans, "Should the Federal Government give legal recognition to marriages between couples of the same-sex, or not?’ 52% of those polled responded ‘Yes.’ 46% responded ‘No.’ And 2% responded ‘Don't know.’”

TN Lesbian Couple Victim of Hate Crime

Lesbian couple in Vonore says house fire is hate crime

Carol Ann and Laura Stutte, long-time life partners who have been together for 15 years and are raising a daughter in the small town of Vonore, Tennessee, just south of Knoxville, reported that they received numerous threats from a neighbor–including a threat to “kill them and burn down their house”–over the span of the five years they lived in the town. On September 4th, their house was burned down to the ground and their garage was spray painted with the word “queers.

Gratefully Carol and Laura Stutte were away when the house burned. But they lost everything.

Police have confirmed that this was a case of arson. Investigators are currently conducting interviews about the crime. Tennessee has a hate crime penalty enhancement law that includes property hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation – the federal hate crime statute does not include property crimes.

PLAG Maryville is Taking Donations to Help the Couple

More Tax Cuts for the Rich? No Way! -- 6 Key Points About the Tax Debate Raging in Washington | Economy | AlterNet

More Tax Cuts for the Rich? No Way! -- 6 Key Points About the Tax Debate Raging in Washington | Economy | AlterNet

Will Obama's Paralysis on Gay Rights Issues Worsen the Enthusiasm Gap in November? | News & Politics | AlterNet

Will Obama's Paralysis on Gay Rights Issues Worsen the Enthusiasm Gap in November? | News & Politics | AlterNet

While Log Cabin Republicans and more prominent conservative Republicans are pushing to end DADT, and support marriage equality, the Obama administration is defending DADT in court and Obama continues to oppose gay marriage (publicly) and now is to the right of many conservatives!

The recent court decision declaring DADT unconstitutional gives the Democrats and Obama a perfect opening to end DADT, and a vote is scheduled. It may be the last chance for the Obama administration to accomplish anything for LGBT civil rights.

Washington Blade: Reid to Schedule DADT Vote Next Week

Imagine No Religion

Freedom From Religion Foundation

DADT Ruled Unconstitutional

Judge Rules DADT Unconstitutional

A federal judge in Southern California on Thursday declared the U.S. military's ban on openly gay service members unconstitutional because it violates the First Amendment rights of gay and lesbians.

U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips granted a request for an injunction halting the government's "don't ask, don't tell" policy for gays in the military.

Phillips said the policy doesn't help military readiness and instead has a "direct and deleterious effect" on the armed services.

The lawsuit was the biggest legal test of the law in recent years and came amid promises by President Barack Obama that he will work to repeal the policy.

Government lawyers argued Phillips lacked the authority to issue a nationwide injunction and the issue should be decided by Congress.

The injunction was sought by the Log Cabin Republicans.

Government lawyers argued that Phillips lacked the authority to issue a nationwide injunction and Congress should decide the policy's fate.

The U.S. House voted in May to repeal the policy, and the Senate is expected to address the issue this summer.

How far will the Obama Administration go to defend the anti-gay policy Obama opposes?

This Labor Day, Workers Face Weak Economy on All Fronts - Working In These Times

This Labor Day, Workers Face Weak Economy on All Fronts - Working In These Times

FDR's Labor Day Please Resonates Today

“Labor Day symbolizes our determination to achieve an economic freedom for the average man which will give his political freedom reality.”

Robert Reich: The Great Jobs Depression Worsens

Six Shocking Ways Conservatives Helped Destroy the American Economy


Obama Should Follow the Example of FDR

Right-Wing Hijacks MLK and Civil Rights Movement

While Glenn Beck holds his neo-fascist "Restore America" rally on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream Speech" to promote militarism, capitalism and theocracy, we need to remember that MLK's dream was a radical, DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST vision of equality and social justice that called for ending the Vietnam War, slashing military spending and REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH to alleviate the suffering of the poor and create a more just and equal society.

Glenn Beck is con-man and is using religion to promote a neo-fascist corporate agenda that opposes MLK's pro-labor, anti-capitalist legacy.

King's Dream Was Radical Economic Message

Glenn Beck Needs a History Lesson on the Civil Rights Movement

Glenn Beck Has Long History of Racial Mockery--His "Civil Rights" Talk is a Fraud

Glenn Beck's Perverse Revision of King's Dream is Nothing New

Glenn Beck is NOT Martin Luther King Jr.

Former Memphis Officer Pleads Guilty in Transgender Beating Case

Former Memphis Officer Pleads Guilty in Transgender Beating Case

Finally some justice for Duanna Johnson. Former Memphis police officer Bridges McRae admits to using excessive force against Johnson while booking her into the Shelby Co. Jail.

Memphis Anti-Discrimination Ordinance Withdrawn

Sad day in Memphis when a weak ordinance that would only have protected LGBT people from discrimination in city employment had to be withdraw because of opposition from Memphis religious groups and lack of support in the city council.

Memphis Anti-Discrimination Ordinance Withdrawn

From the Commercial Appeal:

The Tennessee Equality Project and City Councilwoman Janis Fullilove on Tuesday morning withdrew the proposed ordinance, designed to prevent the city from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in hiring or promotion of employees. An accompanying resolution would have included the ordinance's language in city contracts.

Fullilove and TEP members said it was clear the ordinance, which was scheduled for the second of three readings Tuesday afternoon, lacked support from the 13-member council and Wharton's administration.

Michelle Bliss, vice chairwoman of the Shelby County committee of the TEP, said council members were making decisions based on "fear and prejudice."
---
No wonder gay people flee Memphis...

Target Boycott Expands

Target Ain't People Protest

HRC Removes Target/Best Buy from LGBT Buyer Guide

Target Boycott

Third World America: The Collapse of American Capitalism

As most working class Americans realize, the American capitalist system is collapsing, along with the "middle class" and the "American Dream" (home ownership, living wages, college, etc.)

As profits soar on Wall Street and among the financial institutions the American working class bailed out, workers and the middle class are losing wages, jobs and living standards. While demand is falling, the U.S. political and media elite are still focused on giving more tax breaks to the wealthy corporate elite who have declared war on labor and the middle class.

The irony is that while Obama and the corporate Democrats focused on saving American capitalism, they will suffer the wrath of the American voters as the system collapses.

Arrianna Huffington: Third World America--Chronicling the Assault on America's Middle Class

Eight Facts About the Shrinking Middle Class

Economic Fears Rise as Disappointing Figures Pile Up

Jobless Millions Signal Death of American Dream for Many

James Petras: What Crisis? Profits Soar!

Mexican States Ordered to Honor Gay Marriages

The Mexican Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that each of the country’s 31 states must recognize same-sex marriages registered in Mexico City, potentially giving gay and lesbian couples full matrimonial rights nationwide.
Enlarge This Image

Revelry in Mexico City last week as the Supreme Court upheld a same-sex marriage law. The court went further on Tuesday.
The court had already ruled this month that Mexico City’s same-sex marriage law, which took effect in March and has resulted in hundreds of same-sex marriages, was constitutional.

But on Tuesday, the court went a step further, ruling 9 to 2 against a complaint from the attorney general’s office, which had said that other jurisdictions should not be required to honor marriages that were performed in Mexico City.

While the court made it clear that state governments were not obligated to enact same-sex marriage laws of their own, it did require them to recognize the legality of such marriages performed in Mexico City.

So now the United States is behind Mexico in recognizing equal rights for gays and lesbians!

Maybe gays should start migrating to Mexico. I'm going to start brushing up on my spanish