I'm writing on behalf of the Borgen Project- a seattle based non profit organization working to bring political attention to severe poverty. You can learn more about our organization through theborgenproject.org.

As you will see we have created the Global Poverty Act which has passed in the House and now we're trying to pass in the Senate. The way you can help is severly important and takes only thirty seconds to help pass this act.

We need roughly a dozen people (however the more the merrier) in New Hampshire to call Senator Sununu's office at (603) 647- 7500 and simply tell the staffer on the phone: “I’m a Borgen Project supporter and I would like the Senator to cosponsor the Global Poverty Act.” People can also email his office here:

sununu.senate.gov.

If you and your members can make the call or shoot an email it would greatly help the cause. You can see here (sample call log on right) how political offices tally each call and why it’s so important. Thank you so much for your consideration and let me know if I can answer any questions.
Thank you,

Candice Hays
The Borgen Project
theborgenproject.org

SOURCE:FOSTER'S DAILY DEMOCRAT

It took a week, but the local press finally reports on Seacoast citizens lobbying their junior Senator.

Sending a message: Citizens tell Sununu funds should be spent at home, not on war

By GRETYL MACALASTER

Article Date: Friday, May 2, 2008

PORTSMOUTH — About 15 area residents turned out at Sen. John Sununu's office recently to present a new report from MoveOn.org that shows New Hampshire voters think federal money would be better spent on domestic issues instead of the war in Iraq.

If the human species has one unique characteristic, it may well be the propensity to kill things it doesn't like or that simply displease. Other species destroy to sustain themselves; humans just do it because they can.

Now there's big money in it.

One of the biggest money makers is Monsanto, the organization that brought us Agent Orange, dioxin, RoundUp and, most recently, acquired the company, Delta&Pine Land, that developed, together with the Department of Agriculture, the terminator gene.

Like the other monopolistic clients (Walmart and Tyson Foods) of the Stephens Group of Little Rock, Arkansas, Monsanto is not flamboyant and not keen on random publicity. Which is probably why they declined to be interviewed for the French documentary on their achievements.

Video below the fold.

Come ring in the Iowa caucus vote with progressive political author Glenn Hurowitz.

Glenn will be speaking at RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth, NH on Thursday, Jan. 3rd, 2008 at 7 p.m. His new book, "Fear and Courage in the Democratic Party," challenges Democrats to show more political courage and embrace confrontation.

For Immediate Release

CONCORD - Gov. John Lynch today criticized the owners of a Claremont company for continuing to refuse to honor the rights of 120 workers who were laid off on Christmas.

Attorneys for the company, Customized Structures, Inc., which is owned by Massachusetts-based investment firm Watermill Ventures, today asked a Merrimack County Superior Court judge to transfer state legal action taken against the company to federal court. That request was granted. A hearing in U.S. District Court has not yet been scheduled.

Last week, 120 workers in Claremont were notified they would be laid off effective Christmas Day.

"Watermill Ventures is choosing to hide behind legal maneuvers rather than to honor the rights of their workers. The law says that employees deserve either 60 days notice or 60 days pay," Gov. Lynch said.

"Watermill and the board of Customized Structures have a moral, ethical and legal obligation to follow the law, yet they continue to attempt to shirk their responsibilities," Gov. Lynch said. "New Hampshire state government is committed to helping these workers, their families and the community through this difficult time and we will work to try to get the employees everything they are entitled to under the law."

Is the American Dream -- that bedrock belief that if we work hard, we can get ahead and make a better life for ourselves and our children -- alive and well?

It depends on which Americans you have in mind.

A series of studies by The Economic Mobility Project (www.economicmobility.org), a bi-partisan initiative, reveals that while some groups continue to move up the ladder of success, others are facing a tough time. And for two significant groups – children born to low income parents and middle-income African-Americans – the picture appears even bleaker.

What is the Economic Mobility Project?

Funded and directed by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Economic Mobility Project is a consortium of prominent scholars from four public policy institutions that cut across the political spectrum – the American Enterprise Institute, The Brookings Institution, The Heritage Foundation, and The Urban Institute.

The Project’s primary goal is to expand the current national economic debate about economic inequality to also include a fundamentally uniting discussion of opportunity and mobility. As such, and particularly in the lead-up to a presidential election, it is critical that candidates and policy makers are informed by the hard facts about mobility in America today.

It was most distressing to tune into C-SPAN 2 yesterday and witness our senior Senator go on about Pay-go and Swiss cheese.  The best I could determine, he was inveighing against the policy of paying for domestic projects (unlike the wars that are being paid for with borrowed money) with tax revenues or allocations from other programs because it wasn't being strictly adhered to.  That is, he doesn't like it to begin with and likes it even less because, in his judgment it's not working as intended.  OK.

In addition, Senator Gregg, the previous chair of the Senate Budget Committee that's overseen an increase in the national debt from five trillion to nine in the time Republicans have been in charge, waxed enthusiastic about the fact that federal tax collections have actually increased (never mind that's what one would expect as long as the population was going up), but failed to mention that the increase is in dollars that are worth increasingly less.

UPDATE: Video

John Edwards at the Iowa SEIU endorsement on October 15th, 2007 It is my great pleasure to announce that John Edwards has won the endorsement of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) here in New Hampshire. This is a major victory for our campaign because the New Hampshire SEIU represent over 10,000 New Hampshire workers, most of whom are state employees.

On Saturday, 75 members of the carpenters union loaded up their cars and drove down to Nashua to show their support for John Edwards. Nothing could have demonstrated organized labor's strong commitment to John Edwards more than the sight of 75 carpenters standing out in the rain, knocking on doors and doing their part to ensure that John Edwards is our next President.

More than any candidate in history, John Edwards has demonstrated his commitment to organized labor by "walking the walk" and helping workers across the country in organizing drives, contract fights and on the picket line.

I still don't believe that bombing Iran will be carried out by the Pentagon, because I don't think the Pentagon is fratricidal.  The people in the Pentagon must know that an attack on Iran will unleash the missiles against the U.S. missile and radar bases in Iraq, including the mega air installation at Balad.  The Pentagon may be willing to sacrifice as many of the national guard IED targets as it has, but its engineers, technicians and mission specialists are another matter. Never mind all their precious equipment.

Two trends have been particularly destructive to the people of our nation who make things with their hands. One is privatization and the other is outsourcing.

The supposed reason for promoting privatization was the promise of more efficient and lower cost goods and services than government agencies traditionally delivered. That promise hasn't been realized, as we all now know.

But, the reason it hasn't been realized, I would argue, is because it was never intended to. The real impetus for privatization was to evade public scrutiny of government functions that became increasingly intense as a consequence of the passage of civil and consumer rights legislation and government-in-the-sunshine legislation. When people started paying close attention to how their money and resources were being used, government officials were easily convinced that it was time to hide behind the "private corporation."

In February 2007, the administration announced plans to conduct a “pilot program” allowing up to 1,000 Mexico-domiciled trucks to travel beyond the current border zones. In 2001, Congress had passed legislation that put a premium on upgrading inspection facilities, computer databases and other safety-related requirements before opening the southern border for long-haul trucks. The Bush administration has still not finished implementing the safety requirements in that law, but decided this year to rush ahead with the pilot program in an attempt to open the border.

Press Release: New Study, Report Card and Poll Point to Mexican Truck Safety Neglect Analysis of Pilot Program, Sec. 6901 Compliance

Pilot Program Report Card

Mexican Border and DOT Pilot Program Chronology

Public Opinion Poll Results

Hearings in the U.S. House and Senate, featuring testimony from Advocates and Public Citizen, identified serious safety problems with the program. On May 24, Congress approved provisions in a supplemental Iraq War funding bill to ensure that any pilot program to allow Mexico-domiciled trucks full access to the nation’s highways would not circumvent safety standards or congressional oversight. The provisions ordered the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), which is responsible for implementing the administration’s cross-border pilot program, to obey a number of requirements that the agency is still ignoring.

By Jerome Corsi

On May 15, when the Safe American Roads Act of 2007 (H.R. 1773) passed the House by an overwhelming 411–3 margin, many opponents to the Department of Transportation's Mexican truck demonstration project presumed the battle was won.

Yet, nothing could be further from the truth.
CNN YOU TUBE

All this week, a series of Department of Transportation high-level meeting have been held over a pending decision to allow the Mexican trucks to roll their long-haul rigs anywhere in the United States on July 15.

A decision to proceed with the Mexican truck demonstration project amounts to Transportation declaring that the agency has already complied with the requirements of the Iraq supplemental funding bill and ignoring an overwhelming vote taken by the House to pass a law that would block the test.


Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, has asked the Department of Transportation to announce publicly whether the demonstration project will begin on July 15, or to state officially that the project allowing Mexican trucks into the U.S. has been postponed.

Boston, August 2 —More than a thousand telephone workers from throughout Massachusetts marched on Verizon’s New England headquarters to rally for good jobs and reliable services.

"Next year’s collective bargaining offers telephone workers our best chance to refocus management on making Verizon work for everyone: customers, employees and investors alike,” said Myles Calvey, a 39-year splice service technician and Business Manager of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2222.

“Winning an agreement that preserves good jobs, quality health care and secure pension benefits will take unprecedented membership involvement and unity,” added Calvey, who also chairs the New England telephone workers’ bargaining committee. “All members need to get ready now.” The current agreement covering about 70,000 employees with Verizon East expires on August 2, 2008.

Calvey was joined at the rally by many Verizon workers from Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont who are opposing the proposed sale of Verizon’s landlines to FairPoint Communications, a highly leveraged company based in North Carolina.

Yesterday, over a hundred people crowded before Nashua’s City Hall to kick off the March to Re-Energize New Hampshire, a walk from Nashua to Concord calling for national leadership on real global warming solutions and a clean energy economy. After today, only 3 days to go until masses of Granite Staters converge on the State House lawn to send this message.

After walking from Nashua to Litchfield yesterday, the marchers will finish today’s (Thursday’s) journey at Bronstein Park in Manchester at 7pm, to music by the Powerkegs and speeches by business and community leaders.

Join us at Bronstein Park tonight (Thursday) at 7pm! Directions are at:

http://www.climatesummer.org/nhschedule

For info on the the march or the culminating rally on Sunday, Aug. 5 at noon at the State House in Concord, click here:

http://www.climatesummer.org/march

All of us, organizers and volunteers, are in the campaign office. Laptops, phone lists, signups on the walls, folded chairs, empty juice bottles strewn everywhere. There’s a nervous excitement in the air.

This evening – Tuesday, July 31 at 6:30pm – the March to Re-Energize New Hampshire is celebrating its kickoff in Greeley Park, at 105 Concord St. in Nashua. Granny D, no stranger to long journeys for a cause, will talk to us about the power of walking, and give her blessings as we prepare to go.

Join us for the March to Re-Energize NH! July 31, 6:30pm: kickoff celebration in Greeley Park; August 1-5: Nashua 6:30pm; Aug. 1-5, or the rally on Sunday, Aug. 5:

http://www.climatesummer.org/march

One week from today, I’ll be somewhere in Litchfield New Hampshire on the first day of walking for the March to ReEnergize New Hampshire. We gathered in Concord less than two months ago and it seems like there is no way that we’re about to actually pack our backpacks and lace up our shoes to start this. Yet, back then it was just some twenty-odd students thinking that we’d be able to pull something this big off. Maybe we were naïve, but it’s sure starting to look like we were right. We’ve been phonebanking like mad and each night more and more people tell me that they are so excited to come out and walk. Endorsements have been coming in from all over the state- Priorities New Hampshire, Nesenkeag Cooperative Organic Farm, a minor league baseball team, state representative and senators. Food donations are pouring in from resteraunts all along the March route. Volunteers are coming to work for a day or coming from out of state and living at our apartments to help out these final days. The buzz about the March is everywhere. So, yeah, I think we’re ready to walk. Will you walk with us?

Important Immigration Provisions Included in House Labor-HHS Appropriations Bill
Consideration of the massive fiscal year 2008 appropriations bill for Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education (H.R. 3043) dominated House floor action this week. Indeed, two full days were spent debating eighty-six amendments to the bill (Congress Now). The bill finally passed, 276-140, fourteen votes short of the number needed to override a promised presidential veto. President Bush has threatened to veto the bill because it is $7 billion more than requested by his administration.

Two important immigration provisions passed as part of the Labor-HHS appropriations bill. First, during the Committee process, Congressman Jack Kingston (R-GA) successfully offered an amendment to require that government contractors receiving money through the bill to use the Basic Pilot Program to verify that their employees are lawfully present in the United States. The Chamber of Commerce opposed this language and notified Representatives of their objections, urging members to strike the language from the bill. Nevertheless, there were no amendments to remove the language and it survived the floor action.