CNY PROGRESSIVE ACTION NEWSLETTER

FEBRUARY 1, 2015

Vol. 2, No. 3

NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTRAL NEW YORK CITIZENS IN ACTION, INC. (ESTABLISHED IN 1997)

HEADLINES

Working Families Winter Party 2015 – February 5th

Twitterstorm 2/3: Tell Congress to #StopTheCuts

Contact Rep Hanna And Tell Him To Stop The Cuts!!

CNYCIA Launches Campaign to Restore the American Promise

CNYCIA To Develop Mental Health Initiative

Join the CNYCIA in Albany on February 12 to Oppose Federal Cuts

Recreating Disaster

The Invisible Man: Jeffrey Sterling, CIA Whistleblower

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Working Families Winter Party 2015 – February 5th

Please join us at the annual Working Families Winter Party 2015 to help us celebrate 16 years of progressive victories in New York State.   The Winter Party will be held on

Thursday, February 5th

from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m.

at the

Stiefvater Room

618 Varick Street

Utica, NY

(a notice for the event on :   http://www.uticaod.com/article/20150115/NEWS/150119652)

We are honored that Mayor Robert Palmieri and Assembly Member Anthony Brindisi will be joining us for the evening.Tickets may be purchased either by contacting John Furman (315-725-0974) or Jesse Lenney (585-414-4274).  Our email is:

uticaromewfp@gmail.com

You can buy tickets online at

https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/1306/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?donate_page_KEY=9968

or

Make checks out to Working Families and send to:

Working Families

PO Box 20498

Rochester, NY 14602

Tickets are $125

and $200 for 2 tickets

Founded 16 years ago, the Working Families Party has emerged into a potent force for progressive politics in New York State.

Last year we celebrated victories like the ban on fracking while also preparing for a campaign with our allies to save our public schools from the hedge funders’ privatization agenda.

We stand up to the powerful interests in Albany as a voice for working families of every stripe across New York. We remain united, even when we disagree, by our dedication to creating a New York State that works for all of us, not just the well connected few.

In Central New York and the Mohawk Valley, we have made a significant difference in progressive politics, providing an opportunity for voters to use our ballot line to send a message to their favorite candidates. Sometimes these voters even provide the margin of victory in local and state races, including the race for Mayor of Utica race in 2011.

We know that success on the state level requires champions like Anthony Brindisi in the Legislature.  Great candidates on the State level require great candidates on the local level and this year we hope to include the Utica area in our Progressive Candidate Program by bringing trainings and events of interest to the area to support great candidates and potential candidates as they begin public service.  We can talk a bit more about that work at our fundraiser this year.

We look forward to seeing you at this fundraiser to continue to build a progressive movement in Oneida, Herkimer, and Madison Counties.  Thank you for your support.

Twitterstorm 2/3: Tell Congress to #StopTheCuts

This coming Monday the President will present his budget request to Congress for FY2016. We look forward to reviewing the President’s proposals, and we’ve already heard about important investments he’d make in child care and community college. We’ve heard he will start to reverse damaging cuts to human needs programs. Our next step: we need you to join us in telling Congress our request – stop the cuts.
On Tuesday, February 3rd at 2pm ET, join the Coalition on Human Needs, MomsRising.org, MoveOn.org, the Central New York Citizens in Action, Inc. and other organizations for a Twitterstorm. Tell Congress that their FY2016 budget must protect programs that promote shared prosperity and help our nation’s most vulnerable.

Strong, well-funded federal programs create jobs, grow the economy, reduce inequality, and keep millions out of poverty. In 2013, 3.7 million people were kept out of poverty by SNAP benefits. Similarly, unemployment insurance kept 1.2 million people out of poverty. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit lifted 10.1 million people, including 5.3 million children, out of poverty in 2012. And the list goes on…

But if the new Congress drafts a budget anything like the one the House passed last year, these successful programs will be slashed, along with education, housing, nutrition, and other services young and old alike need to escape poverty.  These will be on top of years of cuts that are keeping us down.  It’s time to tell Congress to #StopTheCuts.

Tell Congress real people are being harmed. On February 3rd raise your voice for human needs and share the real struggles people in your community face and the impact of cuts. Below are sample tweets – but we encourage you to tweet at your Senators and Reps with personal stories, too.

Who? You and/or your organization

What? A twitterstorm telling Congress to stop cuts to the programs that are most important to our nation’s future shared prosperity and ending poverty in America.
Where/When? Twitter, February 3, at 2pm ET How? Post the tweets and graphics telling Congress to #StopTheCuts because #CutsHurt. Have you or someone you know benefited from the programs facing cuts? Get personal!
Please spread the word and email your networks and this event.  You can download the images here: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B39MIOQWguUJbnltRGNPNWVyb1E&usp=sharing

Sample Promotional Tweets:

• Join @CoalitiononHN @MomsRising @MoveOn 4 a twitterstorm on 2/3 @2PM ET! Tell Congress to protect essential programs b/c #CutsHurt
• Tell Congress to #StopTheCuts in #FY2016! Join the twitterstorm + tweet at your Reps/Senators 2/3 @2PM ET #TalkPoverty #EndPovertyNow
• 45.3 mil Americans live in #poverty. OnFeb 3, 2pmET Tell Congress cuts to human needs programs are bad for America, our economy  #CutsHurt

Sample Tweets

• We need more investments, not less, in programs that keep even more people out of #poverty
• We need a #FY2016 budget that works for all, not just corporations and the wealthy #TalkPoverty
• Continued cuts to human needs programs are bad for America, our economy #TalkPoverty #CutsHurt
• In 2013, 3.7 million were lifted out of poverty by #SNAP. #CutsHurt this progress. #TalkPoverty
• Only 1 in 4 households eligible for federal rental assistance receive it due to lack of funding #Sequester #CutsHurt #FY2016 #Budget
• Federal rental assistance is effective, lifts millions out of #poverty. @RepTomPrice stop the cuts, stop sequestration #cutshurt #FY2016
• Housing instability limits opportunity. Restore voucher funding so those eligible are not left waiting! #cutshurt
• 5.3 million children were lifted out of poverty by #EITC and #CTC in 2012. #CutsHurt this progress. #TalkPoverty  #FY2016
• Research shows children of #EITC recipients do better in school, attend college & earn more as adults #TalkPoverty #cutshurt @RepTomPrice
• 1/4 people without a high school degree are living in poverty. Tell Congress to support job training in #FY2016 #TalkPoverty #JobsNotCuts
• FACT: Since FY2010, 136 important human needs programs have been cut, 51 by more than 15% #CutsHurt #FY2016

Contact Rep Hanna And Tell Him To Stop The Cuts!!
Rep. Richard L. Hanna

DC Address:	The Honorable Richard L. Hanna United States House of Representatives 319 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515-3222
DC Phone:	202-225-3665
DC Fax:	202-225-1891
Contact Representative Hanna:	https://hanna.house.gov/email-me

CNYCIA To Develop Mental Health Initiative

 

The Central New York Citizens in Action, Inc. is asking local citizens and organizations to join together in developing a mental health initiative to increase treatment options in our area.  In light of the triple homicide involving a man with possible mental health issues, the CNYCIA believes that it is important to begin a community conversation on providing more funding for mental health services, developing a 24 hour drop in center for individuals in emotional distress, improving acute psychiatric care services, and reducing the barriers and stigma associated with mental health treatment.  Please call or write for more information on how you can make a difference in ensuring that all persons have quality and affordable treatment options.  We can be reached at 315-725-0974 or cnycitizenaction@gmail.com.

 

 

CNYCIA Launches Campaign to Restore the American Promise

RESTORE THE AMERICAN PROMISE

A Campaign Across New York State to Defend Our Social Contract and Safety Net

 

What happened to the American Promise?  What happened to the American Dream?  This is the first generation of children not expected to surpass their parents in terms of success and security.

For the past three decades, Washington politicians and their benefactors have broken their promises, and have turned the American Dream in to an American nightmare.  First they froze our wages.  Then they took away our guaranteed pensions.  Then they took away our jobs, and looted our savings.  Now they’re coming for our Medicare, our Medicaid, our Social Security, all to pay for MORE tax cuts for the rich and sweetheart deals for big corporations.Soon they’ll be nothing left for us.

 We want our dignity back.  We want our security back.   We want our American promise.  Restore our jobs, restore tax fairness, protect our Social Security, our Medicare, our Medicaid and other vital social programs. Don’t say “we have no money” – it’s just in the wrong pocket.

 Contact the Central New York Citizens in Action, Inc. to join our efforts to Restore the American Dream

 

Join the CNYCIA in Albany on February 12 to Oppose Federal Cuts

 

YOU’RE INVITED!

“Creating an America that Works for ALL of Us!”

 

AN URGENT CALL-TO-ACTION MEETING ABOUT THE NEW CONGRESS

  

The Central New York Citizens in Action, Inc. is asking local citizens to attend a state-wide meeting in Albany on February 12 to organize opposition to impending cuts to federal human service programs and attacks on Social Security and Medicare.  Over next two years, dominant Washington politicians plan to do everything they can to deliver for Corporate America and the 1%, while making things even worse the rest of us New Yorkers as we cope with the results of the Great Recession.

* * IT’S TIME TO JOIN TOGETHER, STAND UP, AND FIGHT BACK! * *

Special Guest Speakers to Discuss Federal Budget Issues Related to:

 

• Jobs, Trade, and Economic Recovery • Social Security and Medicare                     • Health Care • Tax Fairness • Social Safety Net Programs

 

…plus discussion of plans to take action all across New York State!

Thursday, February 12, 2014

10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

1199SEIU, 155 Washington Avenue, in Albany

RSVPs:  www.citizenactionny.org/RAPmeeting

Transportation from Utica

More info: 315-725-0974  cnycitizenaction@gmail.com

Recreating Disaster

By Rick Cooley

Starting with a budget deal that concluded the business of the last Congress back in December, the newly ensconced GOP Congressional dominance has so far proven to be more of the same. The Cromnibus led off with provisions designed to begin rolling back some of the important provisions of the Dodd-Frank financial reforms. Once again, the US taxpayers find ourselves faced with the increased possibility that we will have to foot the bill for bailing out big banks that have been allowed to gamble our deposits on risky deals – pretty much where we stood when the economy collapsed back in 2008.

Since the GOP Senate majority took office after the first of the year, both the Senate and a bolstered GOP majority in the House of Representatives have gone about business as usual for them since President Obama took office. No longer handicapped by having a majority of Democrats in the Senate, they set about trying to enact a conservative legislative agenda that has done little more than block any real progress for the people of this country for years. They can continue to do so with impunity as long as they continue winning elections despite behavior and policy positions that have been regularly opposed by a vast majority of the inhabitants of this country.

Potential progress being made in the area of regulating the financial services industry (most notably the big banks) which caused the financial collapse at the end of the Bush Administration have been delayed and are now in real danger of being dismantled entirely.  The GOP majority in Congress seems more intent on serving the short-term interests of their Wall Street benefactors than those of the American people as a whole. A significant portion of the Democratic minority has also participated in this effort – Corporate Democrats need campaign contributions, too.  The bailout provisions reintroduced in the budget deal are only the beginning. The GOP appear to be bound and determined to put the economy back into the same situation that precipitated the Great Recession in the not-so-distant past.

Early legislative efforts have also included a renewed effort to force through legislation giving the Keystone XL Pipeline approval, as well as efforts to outlaw most abortions and otherwise cripple many of the most beneficial aspects of the Affordable Care Act. Some are still determined to scrap the ACA altogether. The law is still under threat in the Supreme Court as well. The Republicans have become masters of obfuscation, trying to sell the Keystone XL pipeline as a job creation effort, despite the fact that permanent jobs created by its completion would number in the 10’s, not the thousands they purport. Despite demonstrable cost savings already brought about by the health care law, along with the millions of previously uninsured now being helped by it, the GOP still seek ways to weaken or destroy it.

For the seventh consecutive year, the President has given an excellent State of the Union address, filled with items comprising a progressive agenda aimed at enhancing the lives and livelihoods of people who have been held back from prosperity by an economic system that has resulted in stagnant wages and limited economic mobility for the vast majority of Americans. Rather than boosting the economy for all, trickle down economic policies have exacerbated economic inequality here for decades. Even the alleged recovery from the economic downturn has primarily benefitted the already wealthy. One of the most frustrating aspects to listening to such a positive speech advocating common sense, creative solutions to vexing problems that would improve the lives of millions is the knowledge that most of them will never even come to a vote.  Congress no longer represents the vast majority of people affected by their actions. They get away with it by systemic gerrymandering, voter suppression and campaign finance laws that make a mockery of the concept of “one person, one vote”.

The only major area of agreement between the Congressional GOP leadership and President Obama at this juncture seems to be in the area of trade negotiations – a position which sets the President at odds with many in leadership positions in his own party, along with many traditional supporters of Democratic and progressive candidates. In other areas, such as immigration reform, wages, taxes and education policy, we are pretty much dependent upon the President to veto bills passed by Congress which would set back the country or enact better policies through executive action, which he has been willing to do, but which has much more limited scope than legislation would carry.

This country needs to progress to an economic and social system that alleviates economic inequality and poverty rather than exacerbating it as past and present GOP proposals have done consistently since the Reagan era. Despite the fact that many of the financial deregulation that ultimately precipitated the financial crisis of 2008 was enacted under a Democratic president, it certainly had the stamp of approval of a Republican Congress and was far from being either progressive or even responsible legislation. To revert to the status quo pre- Dodd-Frank would be a recipe for disaster repeating itself. We need to strengthen regulation of the financial sector, not weaken it again. We also need to reform tax and other policies that increase the share of the benefits that accrue to those who reside at the top of the economic pyramid at the expense of the rest of us.

We need to get away from having the best government money can buy for those who have wealth, and strive for one which seeks to improve the situation of all the country’s inhabitants. Equal opportunity needs to become a reality, not just a catch phrase justifying preferential treatment of certain people over others on an arbitrary basis. Money and greed should not be glorified, institutionalized and protected by further unwarranted political influence as has become the case in governments at every level within this country. Our priorities need to be based on more humanistic and humane values than those often expressed by the oligarchs and plutocrats who are currently enabled to purchase influence in our government to an unprecedented extent. Continuing on the current path is dangerous for maintaining our democratic ideals. We need to become a society where people vote and dollars don’t.

Increasing attention will be paid in the days and months ahead to the 2016 elections. We need to be careful to make sure that a GOP majority in both houses of Congress does not undo the good that has been done for us by not having had to deal with President McCain or Romney. We’ve dealt with unfair sequestration, a bloated defense budget (which in reality is just a war budget) and policies which enabled the 1% to gain 95% of the benefits of an unequal recovery. We do not need to compound these with further attacks on living standards, economic conditions, civil and human rights for most of us to further benefit those who need more the least. We do need to make our voices heard louder than the lies being used to subjugate us to the whims of those who seek only self-aggrandizement.

The Invisible Man: Jeffrey Sterling, CIA Whistleblower

By Norman Solomon

The mass media have suddenly discovered Jeffrey Sterling — after his conviction Monday afternoon as a CIA whistleblower.

Sterling’s indictment four years ago received fleeting news coverage that recited the government’s charges. From the outset, the Justice Department portrayed him as bitter and vengeful — with the classic trash-the-whistleblower word “disgruntled” thrown in — all of which the mainline media dutifully recounted without any other perspective.

Year after year, Sterling’s case dragged through appellate courts, tangled up with the honorable refusal of journalist James Risen to in any way identify sources for his 2006 book State of War. While news stories or pundits occasionally turned their lens on Risen, they scarcely mentioned Sterling, whose life had been turned upside down — fired by the CIA early in the Bush administration after filing a racial discrimination lawsuit, and much later by the 10-count indictment that included seven counts under the Espionage Act.

Sterling was one of the very few African American case officers in the CIA. He became a whistleblower by virtue of going through channels to the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2003 to inform staffers about the CIA’s ill-conceived, poorly executed and dangerous Operation Merlin, which had given a flawed design for a nuclear weapons component to Iran back in 2000.

Long story short, by the start of 2011, Sterling was up against the legal wall. While press-freedom groups and some others gradually rallied around Risen’s right to source confidentiality, Sterling remained the Invisible Man.

Like almost everyone, for a long time I knew close to nothing about Sterling or his legal battle. But as I began to realize how much was at stake in the government’s ongoing threat to jail Risen for refusing to betray any source, Sterling started to come into my peripheral vision.

Last spring, I worked with colleagues at RootsAction.org to launch a petition drive titled We Support James Risen Because We Support a Free Press. As petitions go, it was a big success, for reasons well beyond the fact that it gained more than 100,000 signers with plenty of help from other initiating groups (The Nation, FAIR, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, The Progressive and Center for Media and Democracy).

The Justice Department, which had been aggressively pursuing Risen for a half-dozen years at that point, was set back on its heels by the major favorable publicity that came out of our mid-August presentation of the Risen petition in tandem with anews conference at the National Press Club.

Quick media ripple effects included a strong column by Maureen Dowd in support of fellow New York Times journalist Risen (though she didn’t mention the petition or the news conference, which she attended). In the fall, I teamed up with a colleague at ExposeFacts.org, the incisive investigative journalist Marcy Wheeler, to write what turned out to be a cover story in The Nation, The Government War Against Reporter James Risen, providing the first in-depth account of the intertwined cases of Risen and Sterling.

But throughout the fall, for the mass media as well as all but a few progressive media outlets, Jeffrey Sterling remained the Invisible Man.

The principle of supporting whistleblowers as strongly as journalists is crucial. Yet support for the principle is hit-and-miss among individuals and organizations that should be clear and forthright. This need is especially great when the government is invoking “national security” claims.

As the whistleblower advocate Jesselyn Radack of the Government Accountability Project has said: “When journalists become targets, they have a community and a lobby of powerful advocates to go to for support. Whistleblowers are in the wilderness. … They’re indicted under the most serious charge you can level against an American: being an enemy of the state.”

We encountered this terrain when the same initiating groups launched a new petition — this one in support of Jeffrey Sterling — Blowing the Whistle on Government Recklessness Is a Public Service, Not a Crime.

Some groups that had been wonderfully supportive of the Risen petition — notably the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Committee to Protect Journalists — opted not to have anything to do with the Sterling petition. In sharp contrast, quick endorsement of the Sterling petition came from Reporters Without Borders and the Government Accountability Project.

Two weeks ago, Jeffrey Sterling went to trial at last. He was at the defense table during seven days of proceedings that included very dubious testimony from 23 present and former CIA employees as well as the likes of Condoleezza Rice.

When a court clerk read out the terrible verdict Monday afternoon, Sterling continued to stand with the dignity that he had maintained throughout the trial.

At age 47, Jeffrey Sterling is facing a very long prison sentence. As a whistleblower, he has done a lot for us. He should be invisible no more.

Norman Solomon is the executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy and the author of War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. He is a co-founder of RootsAction.org.

NEWSLETTER ARTICLES ARE NEEDED

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CNY PROGRESSIVE ACTION is published by Central New York Citizens in Action, Inc., P.O. Box 411, Utica, NY  13503-0411  Our Office is located at   500 Plant Street in Utica, NY at Cornestone Community Church./315-725-0974 cnycitizenaction@gmail.com https://cnycitizenaction.wordpress.com

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