I am the lead for the AFL-CIO’s political media outreach as well as involved in our Immigration Reform effort and other key policy and organizing fights. Committed to social justice from birth (my mother was a member of the United Federation of Teachers/AFT in New York City), I have enjoyed a variety of experiences in the progressive movement. I have worked in roles as varied as attempted trust-busting as a lawyer at the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division to communications work at MoveOn.org, as well serving as executive director of Majority Action and Accountability Now and campaign manager of Shulman for Congress, and as deputy campaign manager of the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform. A political junkie for life, my first jobs in politics were working for Wes Clark’s 2004 presidential campaign and then serving as political director for the National Jewish Democratic Council until early 2007.
“Winning” in a democracy is assumed to mean that you won more votes than the other candidate or party. And so, when Speaker John Boehner writes an open letter to the president calling 2012 “a status quo election in which both you and the Republican majority in the House were re-elected,” you might reasonably guess that Republicans in the House of Representatives won more votes than Democrats.
![By monkeysz_uncle (http://www.flickr.com/photos/djbrandt/7767137660/) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/site_aflcio/blog/political-action-legislation/debate-preview-the-romney-ryan-china-record/766161-1-eng-US/Debate-Preview-The-Romney-Ryan-China-Record_blogpostimage.jpg "By monkeysz_uncle (http://www.flickr.com/photos/djbrandt/7767137660/) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons")
We expect tonight’s debate will include more fantastical claims from Mitt Romney, and to inoculate you against “Romnesia,” we include some notes on the actual Romney-Ryan record. Despite Romney and Paul Ryan’s history of enthusiasm for outsourcing American jobs to China and elsewhere, they claim they would somehow be “tougher on China” than the Obama administration has been. We want to make sure you know about the real Romney-Ryan record on China before Romney tries to “etch-a-sketch” it away this evening.
The AFL-CIO will be offering a live response to the Republican National Convention tonight, as Mitt Romney offers his "vision" for America. Tune in at 10 p.m. for live tweeting and at 11 p.m. for a response on the blog.
You can follow the action on our Twitter account, @AFLCIO or on the Web at www.twitter.com/aflcio .
The AFL-CIO will be offering live responses to the Republican National Convention on Wednesday and Thursday nights, as Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney offer their "vision" for America. Paul Ryan will be speaking tonight at 10 p.m., and Mitt Romney, Thursday night at 10 p.m.
You can follow the action on our Twitter account, @AFLCIO or on the Web at www.twitter.com/aflcio .
After Mallory Factor appeared on "Morning Joe" this morning, Jeff Hauser sends us this report.
What type of person comments on a generation of declining union membership and increasing inequality and blames unions?
What type of person looks back at America’s economy—after decades of deregulation followed by economic bubbles and misery for the 99% of people who work hard for a living—and blames unions?
It takes someone who combines an ear for dishonest public relations spin with a large wallet linked to the continued enrichment of Wall Street tycoons.
Mallory Factor is someone who understands that the banking industry’s bad reputation for destroying the world’s economy requires a diversion, a scapegoat. That he would write a book focusing on blaming unions, rather than his Wall Street peers, is entirely
Mitt Romney tries to walk the walk of a friend of working people but he certainly doesn’t talk the talk: whether he is attacking the American auto industry or insulting the British workers organizing the Olympics, Romney remains an out-of-touch voice of, by and for the richest 1% .
The top 1% is scared about people like “ the nails ladies ” having the vote. The wealthy know that economic inequality is rising and the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision is enormously unpopular. Turning unions into bogeymen is inevitable.
And so the right wing is excited today about a Wall Street Journal article purporting union spending on politics is far greater than known and is as big a factor as excessive corporate money in politics.
Indiana’s Gov. Mitch Daniels, who gave the Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union address last night, represents all too well the sad decline of the national Republican Party. As suggested by the Twitter hashtag #MitchFail, Daniels was an improbably bad choice to represent a party already facing questions about its commitment to the 99 percent. (Feel free to post a message to Daniels at his Facebook page: www.facebook.com/mymanmitchfans .)
Californian* Mitt Romney gave his anti-worker corporate backers a big boost when he spent yesterday in New Hampshire getting involved in the state fight surrounding “right to work” for less.
It’s been four years since low-wage workers got a raise. Sign the petition to tell Congress it’s time to raise the minimum wage.
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