Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Time For Big Oil To Do Its Part for California | California Progress Report

Time For Big Oil To Do Its Part for California | California Progress Report




Californians of Faith Moving to Support Marriage Equality

By Andrea D. Shorter
Equality California
Last Wednesday I had the pleasure of attending a press conference held by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in Los Angeles. Along with clergy, coalition partners and allies including California Faith for Equality, the National Black Justice Coalition and the California Lesbian Project, we welcomed the release of the PRRI's report on their findings of the largest survey on religion and same marriage in California to date, Religion and Same-Sex Marriage in California: A New Look at Attitudes and Values Two Years After Proposition 8.
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Time For Big Oil To Do Its Part for California

By Marlene Allen
Last week I joined hundreds of other Californians -- college students, school employees, social workers and other community members in a march to Occidental Petroleum’s offices in Los Angeles. We carried a simple message: closing a $1.2 billion tax loophole that giant oil companies take advantage of each year could save our schools and vital social services from deeper cuts.
Rebuilding California requires everyone to do their part, and working families have already sacrificed so much in this economic recession. Now it’s time for Big Oil to do its share. We’re calling on California leaders to close the oil pumping loophole.
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Harry Reid’s Senate: Where Progressive Legislation Goes to Die

By Paul Hogarth
BeyondChron
Netroots Nation concluded this past weekend in Las Vegas – with appearances by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, dozens of panels and workshops and a rousing Keynote by Senator Al Franken that renewed hope for liberal bloggers. If there’s one major frustration leading into November, it’s the U.S. Senate – where Republicans have obstructed practically everything that passed the House. Reid came to the Conference on July 24th – right after announcing we “don’t have the votes” for comprehensive climate change reform this year, only adding insult to injury.
One panel on filibuster reform suggested we’re in a constitutional crisis, but Reid himself wouldn’t commit to any specific solution. But rather than give up, Al Franken reminded the netroots that Senators elected in 2006 and 2008 with their help are a “coalition of the impatient” – and represent a new generation of more progressive Democrats. Bloggers are needed this November to add to their ranks, in order to change the Senate.

Invitation to Breitbart Is Another Sign That the GOP Is Lying About Race

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele has repeatedly snapped back at the charge that the GOP is racist, harbors racist elements, and plays the race card. On occasion, he has loudly said that the RNC must embrace diversity and be a big tent that includes minorities. Every time he opens his mouth to say these things, he’s called a liar.
Those who call Steele a liar rattle off the litany of racist gaffes, slurs, and acts by GOP officials, politicians, and assorted GOP-connected Tea Party leaders and activists to prove their point. Now they have one more example they can add to the list.
That’s the GOP’s invite to Andrew Breitbart, the right-wing smear-machine engine man, to appear at the RNC’s three-day confab in Los Angeles next month. It’s billed as an “Election Countdown,” a way to raise some money and rev up the GOP troops.
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