Opinion: Obama’s Moral Failure by Joshua Hoyt

I’m a community organizer. Last week, I did something I never thought would be possible. I met with the president of the United States in the West Wing of the White House.

President Barack Obama met for 75 minutes with 14 leaders from across the country to discuss immigration reform — and the destruction of some 1,100 immigrant families a day through deportations carried out by his administration.

The meeting was tense, blunt and passionate. And there was a racial irony to our discussion. Our labor, faith and immigrant rights leaders included seven Latinos, three Asians and four whites. We were meeting with our country’s first African-American president, the son of an immigrant father. His senior advisers at the meeting included three African-Americans (one the child of immigrants), a Latina, a Chinese-American woman and a white woman.

There were years of intertwined friendships and relationships at the table, including my own with the president that began when he was a Chicago community organizer in 1986. Yet, despite all of these ties, we were there to tell him about his moral failure on immigration, and his looming political catastrophe.

Read more of this powerful op-ed by Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights here

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The Editor

Enviromental Protection Agency Getting Its Bars Up!

Just hopped off a video announcement from Lisa P. Jackson, Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency and definitely a top pick on the short list of D.C. insiders who are really taking their title/mission to heart.

On what is coincidentally (purely surely) the first day of the international COP15 summit, the EPA announces that their thorough (musta been really thorough) analysis of all the available facts leads to one simple conclusion: greenhouse gases “threaten the public health and welfare of the American people.”

There’s more:

“These long-overdue findings cement 2009’s place in history as the year when the United States Government began addressing the challenge of greenhouse-gas pollution and seizing the opportunity of clean-energy reform,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson.

Great talking point from Mrs. Jackson and my instinct thinks she’s legit. When asked on the call about the timing of the EPA’s announcement, when House reps have indicated no movement on environmnetal legislation until early Spring (months from now), Lisa Jackson said the EPA did not want to wait to get the ball rolling and hoped that Congress would “follow the ball.”

Translation: watch out, world. Apparently it’s not a pre-requisite of American political power to actually lose total touch with the land and your people!

Keep it up, Mrs. Jackson.

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Sam Patton

Wal-Mart’s Announcement Leaves People Shocked

Mark June 30, 2009 down in your calendars people. It was a landmark day. The day that the Queen of England ordered an official swan census. The day that it was announced that daily sex improved your sperm count. Oh yeah, and it was the day that Wal-Mart announced that it supported employer-mandated health insurance.

Wait, what? Yup, you heard (or rather, read) right. Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, the country’s biggest private employer, and possibly also the most controversial business in America, has announced its support for the overhaul of the health care system. Furthermore, Wal-Mart has announced that it would like this coverage to extend to both full and part time employees, and that policies should be put in place that reduce health care costs.

Reactions to this news have been mixed. Some laud the announcement as a milestone move towards better health care and worker benefits, while others question the motivations behind the decision—seemingly so out of character for a corporation that has been criticized for its’ stance on worker benefits.

… Continue Reading

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Yolanda Clatworthy

Who Really Benefits From New Gay Benefits?

After months of waiting on Obama’s campaign promises, the gay community will finally observe a small victory tonight when President Obama announces the implementation of certain benefits for same-sex partners of government employees. But is it really a victory worth celebrating?

While on the campaign trail, Obama made countless speeches promising the gay community that he would extend full health benefits to same-sex couples. Tonight is the first time since his election that he will broach the topic, and health coverage is not on his list. This is huge: it’s an omission which has left many gay rights advocates screaming “WHAT THE %&*#?” … Continue Reading

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Yolanda Clatworthy

Nydria Humphries wants you to Respect Your Vote

Astronauts can see trash in the ocean from space? That’s insane. We have got to get up for our planet, make a stand like this ol’ world deserves. We’re not just gonna talk at you, though; this week we’ll be bringing you info you can use to start tipping the balance from pollution to people power.

This is our world, and we gotta stand up in the greatest tradition of American society; stand up for change when it seems impossible, when all the odds are against us. The world is at stake, and everything that we have is imperiled. There’s never been a more important moment to be on the right side of history!

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Sam Patton

Obama’s 100th Day: Action is the Price of Change

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Heather Box

Hope Won’t Pay the Bills

President Obama is tackling our nation’s economic troubles from the top, but we have to work from the ground up, empowering our communities and shouldering the burden of recovery together.

The Green Jobs movement is founded upon the notion that the health of our nation, the health of our economy, depends upon the health of our planet. Urban revitalization and industrial efficiency go hand in hand. As Taili Thompson says, the Green Jobs movement is a holistic approach that will give back as much as we put into it.

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Sam Patton

Rev. Yearwood & Kevin Epps on our prison crisis

The criminal justice system in America almost guarantees what Kevin Epps calls the “vicious cycle of recidivism” that keeps thousands of Americans from fulfilling any fraction of our social dream.

Rev. Yearwood’s experience working with T.I. is an incredible example of artists becoming activists and giving back to their communities. Working from the ground up, working with our neighbors to build healthier lives, pushing the system to reveal its prejudices and injustice…for activists like Yearwood and Epps, it is the work of a lifetime.

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Sam Patton