Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: For immediate release from N.C. NAACP

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: For immediate release from N.C. NAACP:

For immediate release from N.C. NAACP

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 28, 2014 Contact: Sarah Bufkin, NC NAACP - smbufkin@gmail.com or 404.285.3413 Workers and Clergy Members Arrested in Speaker Thom Tillis' Office for Petitioning to Repeal a Flood of Unjust, Destructive Laws Hurting North Carolina  We Shall Not Be Moved | Tillis 15 RALEIGH, NC - Hundreds of North Carolinians showed up yesterday to lobby their state legislators to repent for the harm they have caused, to repeal the flood of extreme policies passed last year and to restore confidence in our elected officials. Among them were 15 moral witnesses who visited Speaker Thom Tillis' office at 3:30 pm yesterday and who staged a sit-in when the speaker chose not to meet with them. After nearly 12 hours of protest - and numerous warnings from the General Assembly authorities - eight workers from McDonald's, Wendy's and Bojangles; four clergy members; a nationally recognized housing expert and a retired public school employee were arrested in NC House Speaker Thom Tillis' office around 2 am Wednesday morning. "Tonight, we put a face on the real harm these policies are inflicting across our state," said Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, president of the North Carolina NAACP. "Our state lawmakers should adhere two fundamental principles: first, that legislators should be governing for the good of the whole, and second, as our state constitution lays out, that 'beneficent provision for the poor, the unfortunate and the orphan is one of the first duties of a civilized and a Christian state.' Speaker Tillis, Senate Leader Berger and Gov. McCrory have broken with both of these principles, particularly in their decisions to deny Medicaid expansion, to repeal the EITC, to cut back unemployment benefits and to pass a tax plan that benefits only the wealthiest few. They pass extreme  As if Rahm didn't know... MAYOR PLAYS DUMB ON POT ARRESTS... He asks top cop McCarthy to explain why misdemeanor marijuana possession means one thing on the North Side — and a very different thing on the South and West Sides. On North Side, cops write tickets for bogarting. On South and West sides its prison.ANSWER: The same reason Rahm's school closings and selective-enrollment school  openings mean one thing on the North by Mike Klonsky / 59min hide  //  save We need a living wage R.I.P. Maya Angelou (1928-2014)Find a beautiful piece of art. If you fall in love with Van Gogh or Matisse or John Oliver Killens, or if you fall love with the music of Coltrane, the music of Aretha Franklin, or the music of Chopin - find some beautiful art and admire it, and realize that that was created by human beings just like you, no more human, no less. -- Note to self LIVING WAGE...While Ra 7 by Mike Klonsky / 5h  YESTERDAY Weekend Quotables Christie tells Baraka, "We are the deciders..."Gov. Chris Christie to Mayor Baraka"I also made very clear to [Baraka] that it is the state government that runs the school system in Newark, and that while I will talk with him and hear his ideas, that we are the deciders on what happens in the school system.” -- Thom HartmanChicago Alderman "Slow Eddie" Burke“There are a lot 1 by Mike Klonsky / 1d