The video above discusses the Senate version of the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). In the Senate the bill is called the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). SOPA has gotten more attention than PIPA because it was moving faster in the legislative process. But PIPA is just as dangerous, and now it is moving faster.
PIPA would give the government new powers to block Americans’ access websites that corporations don’t like. The bill lets corporations and the US government censor entire websites and cut sites off from advertising, payments and donations.

Read more and contact your representative by clicking here

source: www.ny1.com

In was an on again, off again light rain that fell as we all stood on line to get into yesterday’s city council meeting on the living wage bill.  Movement slowed to a snail’s pace when the space for visitors inside the chamber filled up long before the meeting even began. Though despite the wait and the weather, neither factors greatly deterred the overwhelming majority of those who came in support of the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act from waiting out for an opportunity to go inside. While standing on that line you could sense that there was a lively and confident mood among supporters, probably still resonating from the amazing rally the night before at Riverside Church where 2,500 came to hear CEO of the NAACP Ben Jealous speak as to why the work this coalition was doing was so important to combating the issue of wage inequality quickly increasing in our city and and nation-wide. The energy in the air was all the convincing many of them needed to wait the length of time it took to get inside which ranged from 30 minutes to 1 hr 1/2 for others.

Once inside the debate was already in full swing, with a majority of the city council in attendance, questioning experts, businessman and union leaders from New York and around the country. Witnesses testified on both sides of the issue regarding the new amendments to the bill, how it would impact workers, business owners and the local economy.  (If you need a refresher on the details here is some information on the basics)

Since the Manhattan Young Democrats are long time supporters of the living wage bill and our organization is a founding member of the Living Wage NYC Democratic Caucus, we submitted testimony to make sure the voice of Young New Yorkers would be present in this discussion.

This was just a second hearing and how this will eventually shake out is still unclear. The proponents of this bill , as always, have made themselves available for reasonable suggestions from the developer and business community. As active participants and organizers we look forward to seeing how those discussions pan out if and when the opponents are interested in coming to a compromise – something they were willing to do not that long ago.

If you have any questions or are interested in learning how to get involved please feel free to email me at vp@gomyd.com.

Happy Thanksgiving

Although African Americans remain the base group most broadly supportive of Obama, liberals and Democrats are very much in his camp as well. In Gallup’s most recent data, Obama’s job approval rating stood at 78 percent among Democrats and 70 percent among liberals.

In addition to his strong support among African Americans, Benjy Sarlin reports that the President is also polling well among Hispanics:

An extensive survey of Latino voters by Univision this week showed Obama racking up similarly high margins against Mitt Romney (67-24), Rick Perry (68-21), and Herman Cain (65-22). The 2-1 ratio is roughly in line with Obama’s margin against John McCain in 2008.

With just less than a year until the next election, these trends are certainly welcome news to the President who will need to rally his base in this difficult economic atmosphere.

Many Voices, One Goal: Supporting a Living Wage in NYC

When: Tonight November 21st

Where: Riverside Church (490 Riverside Drive – take the 1 train to 125th Street)

Time: Doors open at 5:30pm, Program starts at 6pm

Contact: Ahmed – vp@gomyd.com

In 2008-2009, when the downturn began to show how truly in trouble we were, our elected officials decided on a course of action that infused our economy with tax-payer money to prop up the financial market, stem the collapse of the auto industry (and thousands of its connected vendors) and pay to keep teachers behind desks and police officers on the street. Personally I supported these stimulus measures because I understood this was a necessary investment by the federal government of public dollars to reduce the pain the crash was inflicting on American communities nationwide.

Viewing local public subsidies in the same light is why I support the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act or otherwise known as the Living Wage Bill. The legislation would require any developer who takes over $1 million in tax payer subsidies to create jobs that paid no less than $10 an hour with benefits or $11.50 without benefits. It’s important to be clear about one point – if a developer doesn’t ask the public to invest a critical stake in their project then this law does not apply and they are free to make decisions on equitable wages as they wish. But millions of dollars that are distributed each year in subsidies with the intention of being used for economic development is the public’s money and should be subject to our input. If that is true then we have to ask ourselves if supporting job creation where people are working 40 hour weeks and still living below the poverty line is actually a wise investment in the long-term.

The public has decided in many instances that poverty-wage jobs are a waste of tax-payer dollars and proof that it works can be found across the country. In 2007, there were approximately 140 living wage ordinances in place throughout the United States. Additionally, as a result of ballot initiatives, twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia, representing nearly 70 percent of the total U.S. population, maintain minimum wage standards above those set by the federal minimum wage (taken from: A Measure of Fairness: The Economics of Living Wages and Minimum Wages in the United States – Jan 2008) According to Labor scholar Stephanie Luce the bill has led to increased, though modest, improvements while resulting in “higher worker morale and more productive employees.”

Its also important to note that the current bill involved ideas from workers and business as the drafters listened to the concerns of small businesses and local industry when they included protections like excluding manufacturing firms, companies with less than $5 million in annual revenue and those that receive less than $1 million in city subsidies. In addition the requirement would only be the first 10 years after they receive any subsidies. All parties these provisions answer many of the oppositions issues with the bill and still allows it to focus on reversing the most egregious cases of wasted public investment.

If this is something that makes sense to you, tonight hundreds are gathering at Riverside Church starting at 6:30pm to send a clear message to our elected officials as to how important passing this bill is for all of us. As a coalition for change we are saying that in this time of austerity and dwindling resources we may not have much we can use to fight inequality but the tools we do have as tax-payers, like the terms we dictate for giving out our money, should be used to create good jobs that pay a decent wage.

Hope to see you tonight !

MYD Transportation Chair Josef Szende trying out Melbourne's bike sharing system earlier this year; the same system will be coming to New York in the summer of 2012.

New York is on the cusp of a new form of transportation called “bike share.” This has the potential to redefine the typical way of moving around the city from the crowded underground subway to the care-free bike on the street.

MYD went to Manhattan Community Board 8 last Wednesday to hear about the new system from Jon Orcutt, the Policy Director for the City’s Department of Transportation. We expected to have to defend the system but Mr. Orcutt did such a good job of selling it that the bike-hostile Upper East Side community board actually responded to the plan warmly.

The system will have 10,000 bikes at 600 kiosks around the city from 79^th Street in Manhattan all the way to the Battery and in Brooklyn from Greenpoint to Prospect Park.

New Yorkers can buy a membership for less than $100 and will be able to use any bike for a period of 30 minutes or less as many times as they want during a year. Members can take longer trips but will be charged more and more for taking the bikes out for long rides (this encourages people to return bikes and keep them in the system). People will only have to bring their own helmet and can ride free of the hassle of locking, storing, and maintaining a bike.

Visitors will be able to buy daily memberships that will let them take out bikes for 30 minute periods as many times as they want within 24 hours.

The City has given Alta Bicycle Share the right to install and operate the system and in exchange they will keep a portion of the profits from system use and advertising. Alta already operates the systems in use in Washington DC, Boston, and Melbourne (Australia); they will bring their tried and true system to the city using the same model of bicycle and the same charging system.

The timeline from now until the planned launch next summer is: to continue to meet with Community Boards this fall, design the system over the winter, test it in the spring with a few mini-pilots, and launch the full program next summer.

You can help by getting involved with your Community Board’s transportation committee to help choose where to locate bike sharing stations. Find your Community Board here and find out more about getting involved through the Community Board Join-up Jamboree or through your Borough President. You can also suggest bike sharing station locations here.

Any way you choose to get involved, you’ll be part of a great new asset for New York. Bike share is going to make the City more accessible and more fun than ever before!

COMING NOVEMBER 8th, 2011: The Story of Broke
The United States isn’t broke; we’re the richest country on the planet and a country in which the richest among us are doing exceptionally well. But the truth is, our economy is broken, producing more pollution, greenhouse gasses and garbage than any other country. In these and so many other ways, it just isn’t working. But rather than invest in something better, we continue to keep this ‘dinosaur economy’ on life support with hundreds of billions of dollars of our tax money. The Story of Broke calls for a shift in government spending toward investments in clean, green solutions—renewable energy, safer chemicals and materials, zero waste and more—that can deliver jobs AND a healthier environment. It’s time to rebuild the American Dream; but this time, let’s build it better.

Under H.R. 358, dubbed the “Protect Life Act” and sponsored by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), hospitals that don’t want to provide abortions could refuse to do so, even for a pregnant woman with a life-threatening complication that requires a doctor terminate her pregnancy.

Oh, but it doesn’t end there.

In addition to changing the rules for hospitals, H.R. 358 would deny federal funding to any health care plan that includes abortion coverage, something that might cause insurance providers to stop covering abortions.

This bill will never be signed into law.  It is nothing more political posturing; red meat for the extreme Right.  While millions of people are unemployed, the GOP is wasting time attacking women’s health yet again!

So what can you do?  First, call 202-730-9001 — you’ll be prepped with talking points and patched through to your Rep’s office.   Then join me this Sunday for a great event in support of Planned Parenthood hosted by the Queens County Young Democrats.

This is a great victory for the MYD Transportation Committee! We have been campaigning for this project for the past few months. The agreement is both realistic in accommodating the needs of the UN and visionary for planning a reliable funding source to fill the gap in the East River Greenway.

Many articles and press releases in the past week have noted the importance of this project to complete a missing link for Manhattan’s East Side communities.

But in the long run, when the Greenway is completed, it really represents a potential continuous link and viable route to East Harlem and the Bronx from the core of the city.

As MYD member Yasmeen Parsley from East Harlem mentioned in her written testimony to the East Side Open Space Forum, “Imagine, if you will, an East River waterline that can rival the Hudson’s.  Businesses, dry docks, truly green spaces for trees and grass where people can rest and think about how they’re going to spend their money in the neighboring neighborhoods.”

We hope that this esplanade, when fully built, will revitalize all of the neighborhoods beside it from one end of the East Side to the other.

[Tuesday] morning my interview with National Public Radio aired across the country. In it I advocated for those involved in the protest movement to call for a tax increase on wealthy individuals and corporations – something similar to Obama’s “Buffet Rule” and the Millionaire’s Tax here in New York State to pay for social and job programs. It’s time for all of us to pay our fair share towards a prosperous nation.

As the protesters move social consciousness to the left, it’s up to political activists and legislators to grab onto that movement to push policy to the left. For too long the tea party has pulled our nation – and our president – too far to the right. It is my hope that these popular and widespread protests will give our country’s politicians the courage they need to stand up for what our nation needs… tax reform, ethics reform, and bold investments in our people and infrastructure. I believe that the bigger and more sustained this peaceful movement becomes, the more attention the media will give and the more likely the political process is to respond. I do not advocate for any kind of hostility or unlawful activity. I am not against anyone. However, I do believe in standing up for what is right and for those in need.

On Wednesday I will stand with debt-ridden students, environmentalists, public employees, and many talented yet unemployed Americans in marching (with a legal permit to do so) from the steps of City Hall down to Wall Street in a massive showing of solidarity. I hope you will join me either in person or with a virtual action online.

Community and Labor March From City Hall to Wall Street

Wednesday, October 5 · 4:30pm – 7:30pm

March with us! Meet at the corner of Church & Chambers at 4:30 PM. Look for the “Democracy for New York City” banner.

March Sponsored By:
United NY, Strong Economy for All Coalition, Working Families Party, VOCAL-NY, Community Voices Heard, Alliance for Quality Education, New York Communities for Change, Coalition for the Homeless, Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project (NEDAP), TWU Local 100, The Job Party. NYC Coalition for Educational Justice. The Mirabal Sisters Cultural and Community Center, The New Deal for New York Campaign. National People’s Action, ALIGN, Human Services Council, Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State. Citizen Action of NY, MoveOn.org, SEIU 1199. CWA 1109, RWDSU, Communications Workers of America, Democracy for NYC, United Auto Workers, United Federation of Teachers, Professional Staff Congress – CUNY, National Nurses United, Common Cause NY. Writers Guild East. New Bottom Line, 350.org, Tenants & Neighbors, CWA Local 1180, Resource Generation, Greater NYC for Change

Online Solidarity Action by the American Dream Movement and MoveOn:

http://www.civic.moveon.org/joinvirtualwallstreet/

In a June 6, 1985 speech at Northside High School in Atlanta, Georgia, then President Ronald Reagan explained that tax loopholes allowing a millionaire to pay lower taxes that a bus driver were “crazy,” because they allowed the “truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share”:

We’re going to close the unproductive tax loopholes that allow some of the truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share. In theory, some of those loopholes were understandable, but in practice they sometimes made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying ten percent of his salary, and that’s crazy. [...] Do you think the millionaire ought to pay more in taxes than the bus driver or less?

Watch Obama and Reagan’s remarks, side by side: