Maine Democratic Caucus 2012

02/23/2012

February 26 – Maine Democratic Caucus 

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Maine Democratic Party
Website: http://www.mainedems.org/
FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/mainedems
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mainedems

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VOTE SMART & VOTE DEMOCRAT 2012

44 Comments | Civil Rights, PBO, Political Action | Tagged: , , | Permalink
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National Museum of African American History and Culture

02/21/2012

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

Official Groundbreaking Ceremony

Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012

Pre-ceremony music: 9:00 AM EST
Ceremony: 10:00 AM EST

Location: The construction site of the NMAAHC, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue N.W. (on the National Mall between the Washington Monument and the National Museum of American History)

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Speakers:

President Barack Obama, Wayne Clough, Secretary, Smithsonian Institution Lonnie G. Bunch III, director, NMAAHC France Córdova, chair, Smithsonian Board of Regents Laura Bush, member, NMAAHC, Advisory Council Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) Phylicia Rashad, emcee Musical performances by Denyce Graves, Thomas Hampson, jazz pianist Jason Moran, Stanley Thurston and The Heritage Signature Chorale, Howard University Jazz ensemble-Afro Blue, The Madrigal Singers of St. Albans and the National Cathedral Schools, and the U.S. Navy Band

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture will be the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, art, history and culture. The National Museum of African American History and Culture will be a place where all Americans can learn about the richness and diversity of the African American experience, what it means to their lives and how it helped us shape this nation. A place that transcends the boundaries of race and culture that divide us, and becomes a lens into a story that unites us all. Scheduled to open in 2015, the museum will be the first green building on the National Mall.

Ground breaking ceremony  live stream: http://www.nmaahc.si.edu/

101 Comments | Civil Rights, PBO | Tagged: , | Permalink
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Young Americans For Obama

02/18/2012
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Young Americans are at the foundation of this campaign. In 2008, young people came together to organize and lead a movement for change that helped Barack Obama win a historic election. Now, three years later, even more is at stake. We need to grow faster and fight harder to protect the progress we’ve made and continue to work for more. Young activists will lead the grassroots effort across the country to build this campaign for 2012 from the ground up.

With our help, President Obama has successfully repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to allow gay men and women to serve openly in the military. We instituted health care reform with the Affordable Care Act, which allows young people to stay on their parents’ health insurance until they’re 26. The President has set forth clear plans to extend employment opportunities for economically disadvantaged young people through summer job and training programs, invest billions in public schools and community colleges, cut taxes for youth-owned small businesses, and strengthen our economy.

But our work isn’t over—we need to come together to defend the progress we’ve made and fight for more. The 2012 election will depend on us, as a generation of young leaders, to get the word out about the kind of politics we want to see. We’re the ones we’ve been waiting for, and we’re greater together.

Young Americans For Obama

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The Greater Together Student Summit Tour

The Greater Together Student Summit Tour will run February 2012 to March 2012. The tour will bring together senior campaign officials, community leaders, student representatives and celebrities to discuss key policy issues impacting young Americans. This tour is a chance for students like you to weigh in on the issues that matter to you, and find out how you can start organizing on your campus to ensure a victory in November 2012.

  • Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH - February 28, 2012
  • University of Florida, Gainesville, FL - February 29, 2012
  • University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI - March 8, 2012
  • University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI - March 8, 2012
  • University of Colorado-Boulder, Boulder, CO - March 21, 2012
  • University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA - March 28, 2012
  • Miami Dade College, Miami, FL – Coming Soon
For more information on The Greater Together Student Summit Tour: http://www.barackobama.com/young-americans/student-summit
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73 Comments | Civil Rights, PBO, Political Action | Tagged: , , | Permalink
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The Stimulus WORKED

02/16/2012

Michael Linden, Director for Tax and Budget Policy of The Center For American Progress spoke of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)

The Private Sector Layoffs, The Gross Domestic Product and the Total Payroll Employment were in bad shape before the stimulus began, and all three turned around at almost exactly the moment the stimulus
started.

For the transcript: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/02/av/stimulus_transcript.html

106 Comments | Economy, PBO | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by CR

Laying The Foundation For America’s Growth

02/14/2012

“We’ve got a choice:  We can settle for a country where a few people do really, really well, and everybody else struggles to get by.  Or we can restore an economy where everybody gets a fair shot, everybody does their fair share, everybody plays by the same set of rules — from Washington to Wall Street to Main Street.  That’s the America we believe in.

Now, we’re still recovering from one of the worst economic crises in three generations.  We’ve got a long way to go before everybody who wants a good job can find one; before middle-class Americans regain that sense of security that’s been slipping away for too long — long before the recession hit.

But over the last 23 months, we’ve added 3.7 million new jobs.   American manufacturers are creating jobs for the first time since the 1990s.  The economy is growing stronger.  The recovery is speeding up.  And the last thing we can afford to do right now is to go back to the very policies that got us into this mess in the first place.  We can’t afford it.  The last thing we need is for Washington to stand in the way of America’s comeback. “

“Congress needs to stop taxes from going up on 160 million Americans by the end of this month.  And if they don’t act, that’s exactly what will happen.   Congress needs to pass an extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance without drama, and without delay, and without linking it to some other ideological side issues. “

President Obama 2/13/12 Northern Virginia dale, VA

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President Obama begins a three-day trip to the Midwest and West Coast, heading to Milwaukee, Wis., to talk about his economy plans, American manufacturing and the importance of companies insourcing and investing in America.

Wednesday, February 15
President Obama travels to Master Lock in Milwaukee, WI

Thursday, February 16
President Obama travels to Corona del Mar, CA and San Francisco, CA

Friday, February 17
President Obama travels to the Boeing Everett Production Facility, Everett, WA

Contact your legislator Contact your Congress person to TELL THEM TO START WORKING WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA!!

U.S. Senators
U.S. Representatives
Tweet a Message to Your Representatives


91 Comments | Economy, PBO | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by CR

Washington State Legalizes Gay Marriage

02/12/2012

Washtington State Governor Christine Gregoire to sign newly passed legislation into law to legalize gay marriage in Washington state

11:30 AM PST, 2:30 AM EST Statehouse signing ceremony – Olympia, Washington

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Washington State will be the seventh U.S. state with a law on the books to recognize same-sex marriage, the others being New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, and New Hampshire; other entities that also recognize same-sex marriage are The District of Columbia, The Coquille Indian Tribe, and The Suquamish tribe.

Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_the_United_States

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U.S. Civil Unions

Jurisdictions in the U.S. that offer civil unions or domestic partnerships granting nearly all of the state-recognized rights of marriage to same-sex couples include:

Domestic partnership in California (2000 – expanded over time)
Civil union in New Jersey (2007)
Domestic partnership in Oregon (2008)
Domestic partnership in the District of Columbia (1992 law implemented, 2002 became effective – expanded over time)
Domestic partnership in Washington (2007 – expanded over time)
Domestic partnership in Nevada (2009)
Civil union in Illinois (2011)
Civil union in Rhode Island (2011)
Civil union in Hawaii (2012)
Civil union in Delaware (2012)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_union#United_States

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One day all adults will be able to marry the one that they love

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U.S. Recovering Faster Than Other Countries

02/09/2012

Study: U.S. recovering faster than its peers

1/30/12 Posted by  - WashingtonPost

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Two years ago, the McKinsey Global Institute looked at the recoveries of 32 countries that had undergone a financial crisis. Their analysis was grim. It was also correct. Contrary to the hopes some held for a quick recovery, MGI warned that financial crises tended to lead to long, slow recoveries as households, businesses and governments dug their way out of debt. But in a report released last week, MGI delivered some sunnier news — at least for the United States. If you look at the 10 largest developed economies in the world, the United States is the furthest along the path to recovery.

Looking back to their sample of 32 past instances with post-financial crisis recoveries, MGI zeroed in on Finland and Sweden’s experiences in the 1990s as the most relevant to our current moment. Those examples “show two distinct phases of deleveraging. In the first, households, corporations, and financial institutions reduce debt significantly over several years, while economic growth is negative or minimal and government debt rises. In the second phase, growth rebounds and government debt is reduced gradually over many years.”

Most economies, the authors say, are barely even in phase one. In the United Kingdom and Spain, for example, total debt is still rising. But not in the United States. Here, “debt in the financial sector relative to GDP has fallen back to levels last seen in 2000, before the credit bubble. U.S. households have reduced their debt relative to disposable income by 15 percentage points, more than in any other country; at this rate, they could reach sustainable debt levels in two years or so.”

For the entire article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/study-us-recovering-faster-than-its-peers/2011/08/25/gIQAWuD9cQ_blog.html#pagebreak

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Since President Obama signed the Recovery Act of 2009 to help get our economy back on track. As a result:

-The U.S. has seen 23 consecutive months of private-sector job growth.

-The private sector added nearly 3.7 million jobs over those 23 months.

-The manufacturing sector has added 396,000 jobs since December 2009, with annual job growth in the last two years for the first time since 1997.

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To continue America’s recovery:

VOTE DEMOCRATS  IN 2012

to help President Obama and the 99% of America!

90 Comments | Economy, PBO | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by CR

Let’s Move! – Tour

02/07/2012

LET’S MOVE! is celebrating it’s Second Anniversary !

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On February 9, 2012, First Lady Michelle Obama will kick off a three day, nation-wide tour celebrating the second anniversary of Let’s Move!, her initiative to solve the problem of childhood obesity within a generation. Since launching Let’s Move! on February 9, 2010, significant progress has been made to solve the problem of childhood obesity. Parents, businesses, educators, elected officials, members of the military, chefs, physicians, athletes, childcare providers, community and faith leaders and kids themselves have made substantial commitments to improve the health of our nation’s children.

Through working together with Let’s Move!,  these groups have provided children with healthier food and greater opportunities for physical activity in schools and communities, helped get families the information they need to make healthier decisions, supported a healthy start in early childhood, and have worked to ensure more people have access to healthy, affordable food.  The Let’s Move! tour will highlight examples of people making changes across the country, from a single family to an entire state.

A fact sheet on a few of the many accomplishments of Let’s Move! is attached and can be found HERE.

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The First Lady’s Let’s Move! tour schedule is below:

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2012

Des Moines, Iowa  11:00 AM CT/ 12:00 PM ET
Let’s Move! Day in Iowa

Little Rock, Arkansas 2:15 PM CT / 3:15 PM ET
Military Improving Nutrition for Servicemembers

Fort Worth, Texas 5:30 PM CT / 6:30 PM ET
Parents and Businesses Making a Difference

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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2012

Dallas, Texas 9:00 AM CT / 10:00 AM ET
Schools and Chefs Working Together

Homestead, Florida 3:30 PM ET
WebMD Town Hall: Simple Tips For Healthy Families

Orlando, Florida 7:00 PM ET
Change Begins at Home

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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2012

Longwood, Florida 10:00 AM ET
Faith and Community Groups Leading the Way

Orlando, Florida Afternoon Getting Active Is Fun!

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Let’s Move!

Website: http://www.letsmove.gov/

FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/letsmove

Tweet: http://www.twitter.com/letsmove

99 Comments | Health Care, PBO | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by CR

Nevada Democratic Party

02/02/2012

More than 12k Nevada Volunteers say ‘I’m in for President Obama’ during 2012 Democratic Caucus

Las Vegas, NV – With 90% of precincts reporting, more than 12,000 volunteers said “I’m in” for President Obama at today’s Nevada Democratic Caucuses.  Volunteers across Nevada gathered at 118 caucus locations and 1,553 precincts to organize and discuss President Obama’s vision for a job-creating economy that’s built to last – one where hard work pays, responsibility is rewarded, and everyone does their fair share and plays by the same rules.
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An important opportunity to engage supporters, the more than 12,000 who came out for this non-competitive contest will make up the core of the volunteer organization working to re-elect President Obama and elect Democrats up and down the ticket in Nevada.
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However, while today was an important step in organizing volunteers to win in November, it was hardly the beginning.  Since the launch of President Obama’s re-election campaign in April, Nevada staff and volunteers have held over 1,500 trainings, planning sessions, house parties and phone banks. Additionally, they’ve made over 522,000 calls to supporters, held over 4,000 one-on-one meeting and opened three offices in Las Vegas, Reno and Henderson.
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98.3% of delegates were awarded to President Obama to attend the April 14th Nevada Democratic County Convention and June 9-10 State Convention.  They will elect the delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina in September.
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“I am excited that over 12,000 enthusiastic volunteers said ‘I’m in’ for President Obama today,” said Nevada State Democratic Party Chair Roberta Lange.  “Nevada Democrats are energized and ready to get to work to re-elect President Obama to create jobs and restore economic security for Nevada’s middle class.  Nevadans will have a clear choice between President Obama’s commitment to creating jobs and helping struggling homeowners stay in their homes, and a Republican like Mitt Romney who built his career laying off American workers while shipping their jobs overseas, and who told Nevadans facing foreclosure they are on their own.”
Source: http://nvdems.com/press/entry/more-than-12000-nevada-volunteers-say-im-in-for-president-obama-during-2012

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Nevada Democratic Party

Website: http://nvdems.com/
FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nevada-State-Democratic-Party/100994503327232
Tweet: http://twitter.com/nvdems

76 Comments | PBO, Political Action | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by CR

National Freedom Day & National Prayer Breakfast

01/31/2012

President Harry Truman signs the bill proclaiming February 1 as National Freedom Day – June 30, 1948

National Freedom Day

National Freedom Day is a United States observance on February 1 honoring the signing by Abraham Lincoln of a joint House and Senate resolution that later became the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. President Lincoln signed the Amendment outlawing slavery on February 1, 1865, although it was not ratified by the states until later.

Major Richard Robert Wright Sr., a former slave, believed that there should be a day when freedom for all Americans is celebrated. While living in Philadelphia towards the end of his life, he invited local and national leaders to meet to organize a movement for a national holiday to commemorate Lincoln’s signing of the 13th Amendment. The resulting National Freedom Association proposed having a memorial date to call attention to the continuing struggle for freedom for African-Americans. Since President Lincoln had signed the 13th Amendment on the first day of February, that date was chosen to celebrate National Freedom Day. The first commemoration took place on February 1, 1942, at Independence Hall. As it has every year since, the remembrance included laying a wreath at the Liberty Bell.

On June 30, 1948, President Harry Truman, a Democrat,  signed a bill proclaiming February 1 as National Freedom Day. It is not a federal holiday; government offices and banks are open for business.

For the entire article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Freedom_Day

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The 60th National Prayer Breakfast
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Hilton Washington International Ballroom in Washington D.C

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The National Prayer Breakfast is hosted by members of the United States Congress and is organized on their behalf by The Fellowship Foundation, a conservative Christian organization more widely known as “The Family”. Initially called the Presidential Prayer Breakfast, the name was changed in 1970 to the National Prayer Breakfast.

This interfaith gathering features speakers focused on affirming commonly held religious values and putting aside political differences. National and world leaders have read from the Bible, the Torah, and quoted the Koran.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Prayer_Breakfast, http://www.waleadership.com/national-prayer-breakfast

101 Comments | Faith, PBO | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by CR

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