This anti-union movie bombed at the box office.

Earlier this week, we educated you about the right-wing billionaire who producedAi??Won’t Back Down, a film that premiered on Friday that demonizes teachers unions. Since then, critics trashed the movie, over the objections of astroturf groups that are promoting it.

Now it appears that movie audiences agree that the film isn’t worth watching. Box Office Mojo reports that the film debuted in eigth place, which it says is one of the worst debuts ever for a wide-release movie:

In eight place,Ai??Won’t Back DownAi??debuted to an atrocious $921,000 from 2,515 locations. It will earn around $3 million this weekend, which will be one of the worst debuts ever for a movie inAi??2,500 or more theaters.

The anti-teachers union documentary Waiting For Superman — also produced by the same right-wing billionaire — also performed poorly at the box office. It appears that Americans are starting to tire of simplistic propaganda designed to demonize teachers but propose no constructive solutions for the American education system.

Coming to airspace near you soon? (Photo credit: Flickr user sancho_panza)

Drones are the latest tool in the ever-expanding security state, and part of the reason why is because they represent a huge new booming industry for defense contractors.

Earlier this year, I attended a Washington, D.C. conference of theAi??Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems InternationalAi??(AUVSI), the primary lobbying group for drone makers. While there, Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA), who gets the vast majority of his campaign cash from arms manufacturers, was praised for his role in getting Congress to authorize the widespread use of drones in American airspace for surveillance and other purposes. Read all about this conference in a report I filed at Republic Report.

Now that AUVSI succeeded in getting Congress to authorize the use of drones in American airspace, the lobbyists are now setting their sights on incentivizing government officials to use these robotic machines on Americans.

AUVSI will be hosting another conference this February in the D.C. suburb of McLean, Virginia. They have yet to announce their slot of speakers, but are promising to have the support of Members of Congress. One thing they have announced is that they intend to hold a program discussing the use of drones for domestic “law enforcement and security applications.”

The coming rapid expansion of the use of robotic drones — particularly the use of these machines to spy on Americans here on our shores — has Ai??spawned a bipartisan backlash. Earlier this year, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) warned that drone lobbyists were seducing Congress, and bold progressive Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) spoke out against their reckless use abroad as early as 2010.

But it’s unlikely that we’ll be able to properly regulate the use of drones or ever …

A new Democratic poll offers good news for the party in New Hampshire, putting Democrat Carol Shea-Porter in a statistical tie with Rep. Frank Guinta (R-N.H.) in the 1st District and giving Democrat Ann Kuster a slight lead over Rep. Charlie Bass (R-N.H.) in the 2nd District. The polls were commissioned by liberal PAC the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and conducted by Democratic polling firm Public Policy Polling on Sept. 24 and 25.

Who’s funding these kids’ smiles?

This November, Colorado’s voters will have the chance to take a historic vote by approving a ballot amendment — Amendment 64 — that would legalize the adult possession of small amounts of marijuana.

There’s a well-funded campaign being waged to convince voters to oppose this amendment. Calling itself Smart Colorado, this group claims that passing Amendment 64 would “harm” the state’s children and generally cause havoc.

Smart Colorado is not upfront about who is funding its campaign. But its recently filed disclosure with the secretary of state makes one thing shockingly clear: the campaign is largely being funded by individuals and organizations who profit from the drug war status quo.

Let’s take a look at some of the campaign’s biggest funders:

Police And Police Associations: The police profit off of the drug war because they gain access to drug enforcement grants that allow them to hire additional staff and purchase more equipment. The Colorado Drug Investigators Association gave $1,000 on September 10th. The Association of Colorado State Patrol Professionals gave $500 to the campaign on September 7th. Patrick Crouch, an agent with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, gave $50 on the same date. Regina Marinelli, another police officer, gave $100 on the same date, as did Kevin Burke, another law enforcement official. Police commander Jerry Peters has chipped in $220. These are just a few of the donations from police officers.
Drug Rehab Centers:Ai??The single largest donation to Smart Colorado comes from an organization called Save Our Society from Drugs based in Florida. It gave a whopping $126,497.21 to the campaign. The organization, as The Nation’s Lee Fang documents, runs abusive drug rehab centers that have been compared to “torture.”
The Hospitality Industry: The hospitality …

This anti-union movie premieres today.

On Wednesday, we exposed the right-wing billionaire behind the new anti-union movieAi??Won’t Back Down that’s releasing today in theaters. It seems like the critics are on to his game too — the movie has a pitiful 33 percent rating on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.

So the film’s promoters have taken a new route to try to boost the film: astroturf reviews. Ai?? Education blogger Jersey Jazzman and advocate Leonie Haimson has discovered that Matthew David, a staffer with Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst — which is working with right-wing groups to promote the movie — actually wrote a review of the film on the Rotten Tomatoes site in an attempt to boost its rating.

Here’s a screenshot of David’s review:

A few other StudentsFirst staffers also wrote reviews on the site, but they at least did identify themselves as members of the organization, unlike David. David is actually a former McCain rapid response staffer and Bush-Cheney campaign operative.

Interestingly, one of the other Rhee staffers who posted a review, Catherine Durkin Robinson, was previously caught offering the chance to win a gift card to individuals who would promise to post comments in favor of Rhee’s agenda.

What all of this means is that Big Money groups are doing everything to try to make their education agenda — one of disempowering unions and empowering private schools — popular. Unfortunately for them, the facts just aren’t on their side.

Billionaire Honeywell CEO David Cote joined former Senator Sam Nunn to advocate for cutting Social Security. (Photo credit: Flickr user Policy Network)

Former Senator Sam Nunn has a new gig. He’s a Steering Committee memberfor the “Campaign to Fix The Debt,” which is advocating for economy-killing austerity.

This week he appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box as a guest host. He was joined by fellow Campaign to Fix The Debt committee member David Cote, a billionaire CEO who has said he wants a zero percent corporate tax rate. Nunn laid out his case for cutting Social Security benefits by raising the retirement age:

COTE: When you recommend something like that you raise the retirement age by a year 75 years from now when my grandchildren will already be retired — and the outcry begins — say this is ridiculous […]

NUNN: When we passed Social Security and we passed Medicare the life expectancy was somewhere in the mid-60’s. Today the life expectancy is somewhere betwen 78 and 82, somewhere in that range. We basically haven’t made the adjustment. You can’t live with that!

Cote then heartily agreed. Watch Cote and Nunn’s remarks (they begin at around 11:50):

The problem with Cote and Nunn’s justification for raising the retirement age — the idea that we’re all living longer — is that it simply isn’t true. Life expectancy has shot up — but only for white collar workers like lawyers. Life expectancy for blue collar workers has stayed fairly constant over the past few decades. Here’s a chart from the Center for Economic and Policy Research demonstrating this inequality in life expectancy:

So if we were to raise the retirement age, we’d essentially be …

An anti-ALEC protest in Minnesota last March. (Photo credit: Flickr user Fibonacci Blue)

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the most powerful corporate front group most Americans have never heard of. ALEC works with lawmakers to secretly pass pro-corporate legislation in state legislatures nationwide.

Journalist Bill Moyers premiered his new mini-documentary on the group: “The United States of ALEC” during this morning’s broadcast of Democracy Now! ” Watch the documentary, which explores how the group has successfully passed corporate-written bills in states like Scott Walker’s Wisconsin:

Take action with PCCC and call on Democrats to dump ALEC.

Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY) is a Big Coal ally.

Americans expect our government to safeguard our health and well-being. But when lobbyists and Big Money get involved, our government often fails to do that.

Last week, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) offered an amendment to an anti-EPA bill that would’ve required a study of the impacts of transporting coal by rail. This study would’ve informed Americans about the potential hazardous health effects of coal dust.

But the House, led by Rep. Ed Whitfield (KY), killed the amendment. Whitfield is from a major coal state (Kentucky), and mining and electricity interests are his top donors this cycle, together giving him at least $381,000.

Almost all Republicans voted to kill the DeFazio amendment (seven supported it), and twenty-one Democrats joined them. Some of the Democrats who worked to kill DeFazio’s amendment are from coal states and count mining interests as significant donors, like Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV), but there were also a number of retiring Members like Reps. Dan Boren (OK) and Heath Shuler (NC) who voted against the amendment.

One has to wonder if these votes by these retiring legislators were made to court upcoming jobs as lobbyists for the industry.

Help us fight the influence of money in politics. Join PCCC’s Take Back Democracy campaign by clicking here.

During one of the final debates before his election, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) Ai??told Massachusetts voters that the seat he was running for was “not the Kennedy’s seat, it’s not the Democrats’ seat, it’s the people’s seat.” Watch it:

But one would imagine that if it’s really the “people’s seat,” that the people of the state would have a chance to actually interact with their senator. But Brown has yet to hold a single public town hall where any constituents are free to come and ask him questions. Instead, he’s opted for highly-controlled, often invitation-only events.

Yet while he’s avoided taking open meetings with his constituents, there’s one sort of event he has never shied away from: Washington, D.C. fundraisers.

Since he’s been elected Brown has had at least thirty fundraisers in the city (including two today), according to the Sunlight Foundation’s Political Party Time database. Many of these fundraisers feature elite lobbyists from various lobbying firms and corporations. Here’s a sampling:

Patton Boggs: Brown was in office for less than a month before he appeared at Patton Boggs, a massive D.C. lobbying firm with around 600 employees. Its clients range from weapons makers like Northrop Grumman to oil companies like Shell Oil to for-profit colleges.
The Washington Tax Group: When corporations want special favors and tax treatment, they go to this lobbying outfit, which brags on its website that it specializes “in the development and implementation of legislative and regulatory solutions” for corporations. In May of last year, Brown attended a fundraiserAi??hosted in part by Jan Fowler, its director. The lobbying group has powerful clients including Pfizer and Monsanto.
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB): The NAB — a notoriously powerful lobby of broadcasters that has …

In response to Tommy Thompson’s promise to end Medicare and Medicaid as we know them, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) has gotten involved in the U.S. Senate race backing Democratic candidate Tammy Baldwin. The PCCC, which has nearly 27,500 members in Wisconsin, was very active in the 2011 recall elections here in Wisconsin as one of the leading groups running TV ads and mobilizing voters in the state.

One of many satirical renditions of the pepper spraying incident. (Photo credit: Flickr user maryatexitzero)

One of the most infamous moments from the Occupy protests occurred when a campus police officer at UC Davis pepper sprayed a group of students who were refusing to leave the sidewalk. The incident was captured on YouTube and soon became a source of global outrage. Watch it:

Today it was announced that the students involved won a $1 million settlement from the University of California system:

The University of CaliforniaAi??has agreedAi??to make payments of tens of thousands of dollars each to the two dozen studentsAi??hit with pepper sprayAi??at UC Davis last November, and to provide the students with individual written apologies from Davis chancellor Linda Katehi.

The settlement, filed in federal court this morning, provides for $30,000 payments to each of 21 named defendants, and a pool of $100,000 to be divided among other students who may come forward. Attorneys for the students will receive $250,000, and the ACLU will be given $20,000 to conduct a review of university policies on demonstrations.

The settlement should serve as a warning to other police departments and government officials who would be tempted to use abusive and heavy-handed force to disperse protests.

This Friday, the film Won’t Back Down will premiere in theaters nationwide. Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis, the movie is about a group of parents who feud with what are portrayed as uncaring unionized teachers. The parents, led by Gyllenhaal, succeed in enacting a “parent trigger,” a policy tool advocated for by corporate front group ALEC, that allows for a public school to be turned into to a privately-managed charter school.

But the movie is already being blasted in early reviewsAi??and many education advocates are questioning its unfair portrayal of teachers unions and dogmatic advocacy for charter schools.

But the film was never meant to be an honest portrayal of America’s education system. It is being produced and promoted by Walden Media, an entertainment company owned by right-wing billionaire Phil Anschutz. Here are a few facts you should know about Anschutz and his long history of advocacy for the far-right.

He’s Anti-Gay:Anschutz spent $10,000 in 1992 to promote Colorado’s Proposition 2, which let private property owners discriminate against gays and lesbians. He also gave $150,000 to the Mission America Foundation, which condemns homosexuality as “deviance.”
He’s Anti-Science:Ai??In 2003, Anschutz’s foundation gave $70,000 to the Discovery Institute, which attacks evolutionary theory and proclaims that “Darwinism is false.”
He’s Anti-Union:Ai??His foundation has donated at least $210,000 to the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation, which works to undermine labor rights.
He Owns Some Of The Most Influential Right-Wing Media Outlets: Anschutz owns both The Washington Examiner and The Weekly Standard, two of the most prominent right-wing tabloids and magazines that regularly demonize progressives and their beliefs.

When Americans see advertisements and other promotional material forAi??Won’t Back Down, they should know that this isn’t just another …

California State Senator Kevin De Leon (D) has had enough of corporate tax dodging in his state.

If you have a dollar in your wallet, you have more money than Bank of America paid in taxes in 2010. That’s because a variety of corporations have bought off politicians and rigged the tax code so that they pay little to nothing at all in taxes, with some even getting generous tax benefits.

One California state senator is trying to put an end to one form of this tax-dodging. California state senator Kevin de Leon (D) is backing Proposition 39, which would “close a $1 billion corporate tax loophole” that allows corporations who have employees outside the state but who sell heavily in the state to take advantage of special tax breaks to keep their rates super-low.

Asking corporations to pay their fair share has raised the hackles of Big Business, and a number of corporations have started spending big against the measure, doing everything they can to turn voters against it.

De Leon is throwing down the gauntlet against these companies. He has requested a televised debate with the CEOs of General Motors, International Paper, and Kimberly-Clark — three corporations overtly opposing Prop. 39.

“The loophole allows you to sell products and services to the largest consumer market in the country while paying very little in taxes ai??i?? and considerably less in taxes than California companies must pay.Ai?? It makes perfect sense for out-of-state companies that are padding their profits, but for California taxpayers and businesses, it makes absolutely no sense at all,” he wrote in his open letter to the three CEOs. “I am prepared to explain to Californians why we believe eliminating the loophole and leveling the …

As charter schools expand, are children getting the short end of the stick?

Last week, we reported on a new study released by UCLA that found that American schools are being quietly re-segregated, partly due to the rapid expansion of charter schools.

In Georgia, a coalition of for-profit education companies is pushing for a new ballot amendment that would let the state expand these segregation-friendly charter schools over the objection of local school boards.

Now, a coalition of civil rights groups in the state has come together to oppose the ballot amendment:

Black lawmakers, civil rights groups and several associations of educators have formed a coalition against a proposed constitutional amendment on charterAi??schools.

The amendment would allow a new state body to select private operators to run taxpayer financed schools. Backed by Gov. Nathan Deal, the measure is on the Nov. 6Ai??ballot.

The opposition coalition announced Tuesday includes associations of teachers, parents, superintendents and local school board members, along with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the NAACPAi??and other civil rightsAi??organizations.

This coalition of groups represent a significant challenge to the prevailing wisdom that the rapid expansion of poorly regulated and untested charter schools are essential to closing the racial education gap.

Last night, prominent Republican Rep. Dan Lungren (CA) debunked presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s lie that 47 percent of Americans don’t pay taxes and are simply demanding favors from the government.

During a debate with progressive Ami Bera, Lungren was asked about Romney’s comments and offered a strong rebuke of his infamous statement:

MODERATOR: Mitt Romney’s been trying to explain a lot lately what he meant at a fundraiser. What he said, ’47 percent of Americans,’ and I quote him, ‘Dependent upon government believe that they are victims, whoAi??believeAi??the government is responsible for them, who believe they are entitled to health care, food, housing. Is that how you see the country? And if not, can you tell me how you differ from Governor Romney?

LUNGREN: Ai??I think he made a major mistake in calling people victims, saying that they want to be victims. I do think he pointed that there are approximately 47, 49 percent of the people who don’t pay income taxes at the present time. But there are different categories of folks. Some don’t because they’re retired, they paid all their lives! I wouldn’t call them trying to be victimized. Others because they have a low income, don’t qualify for tax — paying taxes at the federal level. […]

Watch Lungren’s response (the relevant section starts at 09:25):

It’s telling that a Republican as senior as Lungren — who was his party’s gubernatorial candidate in 2004 and is the chairman of the House Committee on Administration — is debunking and distancing himself from Romney’s now-infamous statements. Romney’s fumbling candidacy has become so inept and extreme that Republicans down the ticket are scrambling to get away from it.

During the “Education Nation” forum today on NBC, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney addressed the issue of teachers unions. He said that he wouldn’t necessarily ban teacher strikes but that he thinks it’s a problem that unions donate to politicians who are responsible for negotiating with them:

Speaking inAi??New YorkAi??City at Education Nation, a forum sponsored by NBC, Romney told interviewer Brian Williams that he is not necessarily against a right to strike. ai???I donai??i??t know that I would prevent teachers from being able to strike,ai??? he said, adding later that ai???allowing teachers to strike on matters such as compensation I think is a right that exists in this country.ai???

The bigger problem, Romney said, is that ai???the person sitting across the table from them should not have received the largest campaign contribution from the teachers’ union themselves…. [Itai??i??s] an extraordinary conflict of interest and something that should be addressed.ai???

So Romney thinks that it unfairly tips the scales when a group that a politician is supposed to be negotiating with and regulating donates to that very same politician. That is a fair criticism. But let’s take a look at his top eight donors. They’re all banks:

Romney has made repealing the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform bill one of his key campaign promises. If he fails to succeed in repealing the entire bill, he is expected to leave in the most bank-friendly provisions.

It looks like Romney should apply his criticism about teachers to himself. Why is he taking so much money from banks when he is campainging for the job of overseeing those same institutions?

Teachers and other unionized workers have to donate …

Last night’s Seahawks-Packers game enraged many football fans and led to widespread criticism of scab replacement referees brought in thanks to a lockout of the NFL’s unionized referees.

One group that has surprisingly come to the side of the unionized referees is prominent Republicans. Here’s four prominent Republicans who have suddenly realized the virtues of union workers thanks to the NFL lockout:

The Republican National Committee’s Communications Director: The RNC’s Sean Spicer said that the NFL should give the unionized referees “what they want” because the replacement referees are “horrible.” [9/23]
Senate Candidate Pete Hoekstra: Hoekstra just released an ad poking fun at his Democratic opponent by bashing “replacement refs.” [9/25]
Union-Busting Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker: Walker tweeted that we need to “returntherealrefs.” [9/25]
Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan: Ryan Ai??said it’s “time to get the real refs” during a campaign stop. [9/25]

It’s great that all these Republicans are backing the NFL referees, who are simply asking for a more fair agreement from their employers. But one has to wonder if they realize there’s a huge disconnect between backing these unionized employees in their labor fight while simultaneously throwing teachers, firefighters, cops, and other union workers under the bus.

Help PCCC fight for a progressive America that includes strong unions.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is out this week with a new ad claiming that he will “stand up to China” and its trade and intellectual property practices. Watch it:

But Romney doesn’t have to wait until after the presidential election to “stand up to China.” He can stand up to unfair trade right now by condemning the outsourcing practices of Ai??his old company Bain Capital.

Bain recently acquired Sensata Technologies. After the acquisition, Sensata announced that it will be closing a plant in Freeport, Illinois and moving its 170 jobs to China. Workers at this plant will even be required to train their new Chinese replacements.

Frustrated, the workers set up the “Bainport” protest to call attention to the outsourcing and to get Romney to address their plight.

If the Republican presidential nominee is truly serious about taking on China, he would be speaking out against his old company’s outsourcing to the country. But instead, Romney’s campaign has done everything it can to ignore the Bainport workers.

As we reported earlier this month, Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown (R) came out against a ballot initiative (Question 3) in his state that would legalize the use of medical marijuana in the state.

Yesterday, in a touching interview with Boston’s WTKK-FM, his bold progressive opponent Elizabeth Warren offered support for the measure. Here’s a transcript of her remarks:

WARREN:Ai??You know, I held my father’s hand while he died of cancer, and it’s really painful when you do something like that up close and personal. My mother was already gone, and I was very, very close to my father. And it puts me in a position of saying, if there’s something a physician can prescribe that can help someone who’s suffering, I’m in favor of that. Now, I want to make sure they’ve got the right restrictions. It should be like any other prescription drug — that there’s careful control over it. But I think it’s really hard to watch somebody suffer that you love.

Listen to the interview:

Polling about Question 3 finds that nearly 60 percent of the state’s voters support it. It’s clear who is on the side of the people here.

Click here to chip in a few dollars and help elect bold progressive Elizabeth Warren to the U.S. Senate.

A pensions protest in Britain.

One of the way the modern conservative movement has undermined progressive goals like reducing income inequality and universal health care is by limiting democracy itself. For example, conservatives were successful in getting California to require a 2/3 vote — not a simple majority — to raise taxes, essentially letting small minorities prevent tax increases and force major cuts to public services.

Now, Illinois conservatives are pushing a similar effort in Illinois to attack public employee pensions. Illinois’s November ballot will include Amendment 49, which would require a three-fifths vote in order to increase pensions or other public retirement benefits.

ai???For decades politicians skipped payments, running up the pension debt. Now that the bill is due, theyai??i??re trying to blame teachers, police officers, caregivers and other public employees and retirees. Instead of putting in place an ironclad guarantee that politicians will pay their share going forward, theyai??i??re clamoring to change the constitution in a way that wonai??i??t do a thing to fix the funding problem,ai??? said Anders Lindall, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, in an interview with The Southern Illinoisan.

It’s not surprising that anti-union forces are pushing for a California-style attack on public pensions in the state. Stable private pensions that allow workers to retire with dignity have been in decline (partly due to the collapse of unions in the private sector). Public pensions remain the last real backbone for retirement security for workers, and if the right succeeds in crushing them, society’s responsibility to reward workers for a lifetime of hard work will be greatly undermined.

Illinois’s voters should soundly reject Amendment 49 because it is both an attack on public workers and an attack on …

Is modern-day capitalism inconsistent with Christian values? (Photo credit: Flickr user @boetter)

De-regulated capitalism as it is practiced in the United States today — as opposed to the more democratic capitalism practiced in much of the twentieth century that saw the creation of a robust middle class — has resulted in a massive recession and stark inequalities.

A new poll finds that this modern capitalism is actually conflicting with another feature of today’s America: the Christian faith that most Americans practice. The Public Religion Research Institute finds that a plurality of Americans view capitalism as inconsistent with Christian values:

Americans are divided over the extent to which capitalism and the free market system and Christian values can coexist: a plurality (44%) believe that capitalism and the free market system are at odds with Christian values, while 41% agree that capitalism is consistent with Christian values. Fifteen percent say they do not know.

The poll also notes that white working-class Americans are much more likely to believe that capitalism contradicts Christian values (46 percent) than college-educated Americans (53 percent).

A Chicago Teachers Union action from earlier this year. (Photo credit: Flickr user JeanPaulHolmes)

The Chicago Teachers Union ended its strike last week in a resounding victory for students, teachers, and parents. (See a list of what they won here.)

But anti-union forces don’t want to see working people continue to win victory’s like last week’s. Chicago AldermanAi??Patrick Oai??i??Connor, who serves as the city council floor leader for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, is suggesting that the city move towards banning teacher strikes in the future:

Chicago’s first teachers strike in 25 years should trigger a debate about whether or not teachers should be allowed to strike, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s City Council floor leader said. […]Ai??”The anxiety leading up to the strike and the week they were off–the disruption it caused and the need for government and our constituents to scramble to find ways to keep their children safe–it’s worth discussing if you can avoid that,” said O’Connor, former longtime chairman of the City Council’s Education Committee.

37 states currently prohibit teacher strikes, and anti-labor forces are campaigning to expand these laws. Interestingly, post-Mubarak Egypt — a country which is still a long way away from becoming even an imperfect democracy — has faced momentous teacher strikes that the military government has been unable to put down. That, if anything, is a sad commentary on the lack of teacher rights in much of the United States.

The National Football League has been taking heat for its lockout of union referees, with theAi??NFL Players Association Executive Committee calling for the lockout to end.

Last night, the union referees got an unconventional ally: the communications director of the Republican National Convention. Check out his tweet about the scab referees brought in:

If they can even convince the RNC’s communications director that they’re right, one hopes that the NFL will soon end the lockout and address the union referees’ grievances.

Romney’s true view on who deserves health care?

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is in more hot water today after he told Ai??60 MinutesAi??that uninsured Americans can simply go to the emergency room:

ROMNEY: We do provide care for people who donai??i??t have insurance. If someone has a heart attack, they donai??i??t sit in their apartment and ai??i?? and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the hospital, and give them care. And different states have different ways of providing for that care.Ai??Some provide that care through clinics, some provide that care through emergency rooms

But during the 2008 debates with his Republican colleagues, he thought differently. During the Reagan Library debate on January 30th, Romney sounded off on why he overhauled his state’s health care system to discourage people from going to the emergency room for care:

ROMNEY: And we said: You know what? If somebody could afford insurance, they should either buy the insurance or pay their own way. They don’t have to buy insurance if they don’t want to, but pay their own way. But they shouldn’t be allowed to just show up at the hospital and say, somebody else should pay for me.

And so we said: No more free riders. It was like bringing “workfare” to welfare. We said: If you can afford insurance, then either have the insurance or get a health savings account. Pay your own way, but no more free ride.

It seems like Romney can’t make up his mind. Should the uninsured go to the emergency rooms or not? Is it a huge problem that people in many states have no choice but to go to crowded hospitals at the last minute or not? Romney’s message on health …

The Chicago Teachers Union strike that ended last week was an important milestone for the labor movement. It resulted in a great victory for students and teachers, but it also showed other unions nationwide that they can fight and win, even against enormous odds.

So when theAi??Chicago Symphony Orchestra was told that their employees would see their health care contributions double in their next contract — from 5 percent to 12 percent — they decided they wouldn’t take it lying down.

CSO declared on Saturday that it would go on strike. Here’s one musician explaining why he’s on strike:

“We were negotiating all day today after having negotiated many times,” said bassist Stephen Lester, chairman of the Orchestra Members Committee. “They were trying to force us into a concessionary contract, reducing our benefits and making it difficult for the orchestra to pay for health care and keep our basic standard of life.”

The CSO strike is evidence that CTU’s strike is inspiring other unions to stand up for themselves and stop attacks on the wages, benefits, and working conditions of their employees.