August 21, 2008
I have been asked my position on the banking crisis if elected to Congress:
I am opposed to bank deregulation. I advocate democratic reforms, which would allow and include creating publicly-funded "community investment banks" and mandating low-interest loans for low-income persons and first time small business entrepreneurs.
1. The government should ensure that low- and moderate-income persons and communities, as well as small businesses, have access to banking services, affordable loans, and small-business supporting capital. Loans should be made available to small business at rates competitive to those offered big business. I support disclosure laws, anti-redlining laws, and a general openness on the part of the private sector regarding criteria used in making lending decisions. I oppose arbitrary or discriminatory practices that deny small business access to credit.
2. I oppose disinvestment practices, in which lending and financial institutions move money deposited in local communities out of those same communities, damaging the best interests of their customers and community. I support the extension of the Community Reinvestment Act and its key performance data provisions to provide public and timely information on the extent of housing loans, small business loans to minority-owned enterprises, investments in community development projects, and affordable housing.
3. I believe Congress should act to charter community development banks, which would be capitalized with public funds and work to meet the credit needs of local communities.
4. Insurance industry regulation is essential to reduce the cost of insurance by reducing special-interest protections; collusion and over-pricing, and; excessive industry-wide practices that too often injure the interests of the insured when they are most vulnerable. We must prohibit bad-faith insurance practices, such as avoidance of obligations and price fixing.
5. I support federal laws that act to make policies transportable from job to job and seek to prevent insurance companies' rejecting applicants because of prior conditions. This is a move in the right direction but in no way addresses the scope of the problem, whether in health insurance, life insurance, business, liability, auto, or crop insurance.
6. I support initiatives in secondary insurance markets that work to expand credit for economic development in inner cities; affordable housing and home ownership among the poor; transitional farming to sustainable agriculture, and; for rural development maintaining family farms.
7. I oppose insurance laws that permit a company to own insurance on its employees.
The Democrats and Republicans both support bank deregulation.
WRITE-IN
DENNIS SPISAK FOR CONGRESS
Green Party Candidate for Ohio's 6th District
The ONLY PROGRESSIVE CANDIDATE
Running against a Conservative Democrat and Republican!
Renewable Energy Green/Blue Collars Jobs
Single-Payer Affordable Healthcare
Economic Fairness/Quality Education
Clear and Fair Elections with Paper Ballots
Campaign site: Http://votespisak.org/electspisak.tripod.com
http://www.ohio.com/editorial/opinions/27065534.html
I was stunned to learn that the individual chosen by the people of this state to accurately inform voters on ballot abdicated her duty last week. The language adopted by the ballot board is incomplete, confusing and unworthy of an issue as contentious as payday lending.
Payday lenders are required to put 391% APR on their disclosure forms for a two week loan. If it's good enough for payday borrowers, it's good enough for voters. Ms. Brunner redeemed herself, if only slightly, to acknowledge that a YES vote on issue 5 would reduce interest rates from 391% to 28%.
If the language remains, let's hope the Secretary of State helps to strike names off petitions of people around the state who were misled into signing. Even if Ms. Brunner didn't get it right last week, you can still get it right on November 4th. A 'no' vote allows 391% interest to persist while a 'yes' vote will end predatory payday lending in Ohio. I trust Ohio voters will see through the payday lenders' smoke and mirrors -- it's just too bad the Secretary of State had to plug in the machine.
Vote Yes on Issue 5!
http://yesonissue5.org
Progressive Democrats of America-Ohio, a founding member of Citizens Save Our Sewers, a coalition of unions, citizens, and grassroots groups, is working hard to turn back a privatization "scheme" by Akron Democratic Mayor Don Plusquellic. (PDA-Ohio's Mary Nichols-Rhodes, a rotating chair of SOS meetings, is in the green Citizens SOS t-shirt in the left of the picture).
The mayor is hiding his intentions behind the smokescreen of providing education, but the smoke is a weak haze to those who follow the national movement to privatize local water and sewer infrastructure to multi-national corporations. Being the former head of the U.S. Conference of Mayors (http://www.usmayors.org/), the Akron mayor as well as mayors from across the United States are lobbied hard by these multi-national corps to turn over their public assets to them. The mayor's idea did not come out of a dream in the the middle of the night, though clandestine the way he is working to sell off the city's assets may seem like a night-time job. If anyone looks into the Kalamazoo plan the mayor heralds as an example of succes, he will see that the Mayor's plan is nothing like Kalamazoo's. The mayor is maybe hoping no one will notice.
Well, since the mayor uses a baseball analogy in the following article, we have to say that the mayor is flailing at what our coalition is throwing him. Strike one: we worked and got the petition on the ballot. Strike two: the public is against the transfer, regardless of his smoke and mirrors game.
The voters will throw the third pitch come November. Now our job is to educate the voters as to the truth to our initiative against the confusion the mayor hopes to draw by adding two related initatives of his own on the ballot.
We of PDA thank Progress Ohio from following our work and publicizing it.
See article below:
http://www.ohio.com/news/top_stories/27120384.html
216 881-7200
Worker Justice Denied
Labor Targets Justice O'Connor's Work-Related Rulings
(Cleveland) - Ohio Supreme Court Justice Maureen O'Connor was accused today by Harriet Applegate, Executive Secretary of the North Shore AFL-CIO, of being harmful to workers in the State of Ohio.
The accusation centers on two recent opinions by Justice O'Connor.
In the first case, (Greer-Burger v. Temesi) Tammy Greer-Burger filed a harassment suit against her employer, who in turn filed a countersuit seeking compensatory and punitive damages. In response, the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, the Court of Common Pleas and the Court of Appeals ruled the employer was retaliating. However, writing for the majority of the Ohio Supreme Court, Justice Maureen O'Connor overturned the decision saying an employer could file a suit, unless "it is objectively baseless."
"Even some of Justice O'Connor's fellow Republicans had problems with this," noted Applegate.
"Justice Lanziger, in her dissent, said Ohio law protects an employee from retaliation by an employer and that such a rule is overly generous to the employers, while placing employees at risk for enforcing their rights."
In another opinion, (Shelley Bickers v Western Southern Life) Justice O'Connor sided with employers in a decision that gave them the right to fire workers injured on the job and unable to work through no fault of their own.
"The ruling has fundamentally changed the rights of those receiving workers compensation in Ohio," said Applegate. Based upon these types of opinions, the AFL-CIO strongly opposes the re-election of Justice O'Connor.
The AFL-CIO has endorsed Judge Joseph Russo, her opponent. Judge Russo is currently serving his eighth year on the Cuyahoga Court of Common Pleas. Applegate stated, "Judge Russo has proven that he is a strong advocate of fairness and impartiality." Russo has handled over 7,000 civil and criminal cases and also serves an Adjunct Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University.
"These cases are just the tip of the iceberg. The Ohio Supreme Court has issued a number of legal decisions which have had a negative impact on the rights and well-being of Ohio's workers and that has to change," said Applegate.
Topics covered could include: Proficiency tests, pleasing your principals and paving your pupils' pathways to Provisional Voting.
- moral of the story - centering on teachers who work through the wee hours of the night.
- work ethics: Only lazy and evil teachers want/need health insurance.
- Word problems for Math utilizing teacher pay stubs.
- Daily living skills: creating a realistic budget for that trip to Disneyland that you're never ever again - going to have the money to take. Maybe your students' great grandparents's children will be able to use that budget and take the trip FOR you.
- Unit on the current world slave trade.
- Unit for "All about the Northern Mariana Islands"
- Unit for state and federal government focusing on Lobbying and Campaign Finance.
- Fun with names: See how many names your students can make out of the name
"Jack Abramoff!"
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/15/disney.protesters.ap/index.html
/US
Cinderella, others arrested in Disneyland labor protestStory Highlights
Thirty-two protesters arrested outside gates of Disneyland
Many of the protesters wore costumes representing famous Disney characters
ANAHEIM, California (AP) -- Cinderella, Snow White, Tinkerbell and other fictional fixtures of modern-day childhood were handcuffed, frisked and loaded into police vans Thursday at the culmination of a labor protest that brought a touch of reality to the Happiest Place on Earth.
"Tinkerbell" and other Disney characters were handcuffed Thursday in a protest outside the gates of Disneyland.
The arrest of the 32 protesters, many of whom wore costumes representing famous Disney characters, came at the end of an hour-long march to Disneyland's gates from one of three Disney-owned hotels at the center of a labor dispute.
Those who were arrested sat in a circle on a busy intersection outside the park holding hands until they were placed in plastic handcuffs and led to two police vans while hundreds of hotel workers cheered and chanted.
The protesters were arrested on a misdemeanor count of failure to obey a police officer and two traffic infractions, said Sgt. Rick Martinez of the Anaheim police. They were cited and released, Sgt. Chris Schneider said.
Bewildered tourists in Disney T-shirts and caps, some pushing strollers, filed past the commotion and gawked at the costumed picketers getting hauled away. The protest shut down a major thoroughfare outside Disneyland and California Adventure for nearly an hour.
"It's changing my opinion of Disneyland," said tourist Amanda Kosato, who was visiting from north of Melbourne, Australia. "Taking away entitlements stinks."
The dispute involves about 2,300 maids, bell hops, cooks and dishwashers at three Disney-owned hotels: the Paradise Pier, the Grand Californian and the Disneyland Hotel.
The workers' contract expired in February and their union says Disney's latest proposal makes health care unaffordable for hundreds of employees and creates an unfair two-tier wage system. The union also says Disney wants to create a new category of part-time employees who would receive greatly reduced benefits.
"The other hotels around the area all have health care that is provided by the boss and have been able to get wage increases," said Ada Briceno, president of Unite Here Local 681, which represents the workers.
"At the other hotels in the same classification, for the same work, the workers get paid $2 to $3 an hour more."
Disney spokeswoman Lisa Haines said Disney and the union are in negotiations and nothing has been finalized. She said workers have protested 14 times but sat down to negotiate only 11 times in the past six months.
"Clearly we're disappointed that Unite Here Local 681 has spent more time protesting," she said. "Publicity stunts are not productive and are extremely disruptive to the resort district."
Before the arrests, the picketers marched and chanted outside Paradise Pier, holding signs that read, "Disney is unfaithful," and "Mickey, shame on you." They were joined by community activists and religious leaders from local churches.
Luz Vasquez, who works in the bakery at Disneyland Hotel, said she can't afford to lose many of her benefits. She said it's already hard to care for her three grandchildren and aging mother while earning $14.32 an hour.
"Disneyland is being unfair with us because we're fighting for our health care and they're trying to take it away," said Vasquez, 45. "They're trying to cut our hours and take away our seniority."
Co-worker Diane Dominguez, 50, said she was worried about losing health care because of the heavy labor involved in lifting mattresses, moving furniture and making dozens of beds a day. She also said rising prices and the cost of gas were eating into her salary of $11.11 an hour.
"The most important is health care. We need that and they want to take it away," she said.
At the heart of the issue is a free health care plan that has been provided to Disney hotel workers through a trust fund that Disney and other unionized hotels in the area pay into.
Briceno said that in exchange for the free medical plan, union members agreed in previous contracts to a lower wage for hotel workers in the first three years of their employment.
But Disney now wants to eliminate the free health plan for new hires and wants to create a new class of workers who put in less than 30 hours a week, said Briceno. Those part-time workers would receive no sick or vacation pay and not be given holidays, she said.
The company also wants to increase the number of hours full-time employees must work before qualifying for the health plan, she said.
"At the end of the day what it means is that workers are going to be priced out of health care," she said.
Haines said the majority of other employees at Disneyland pay for a share of their health plan, even though the resort shoulders about 75 percent of the overall cost. She said it's important to negotiate a contract that's fair to those other unions, too.
"We do remain hopeful that we can reach an agreement that's both fair and equitable, providing that union leadership is reasonable and realistic in its approach," Haines said.
Should the Payday Lender Referendum reach the ballot this November you will have to Vote Yes to preserve the consumer protections and interest rate limits provided by H.B. 545.
Payday lenders win fight on ballot language to overturn reforms
COLUMBUS -- Chalk one up for the payday lending industry.
The lenders prevailed after hours of contentious sparring in front of the Ohio Ballot Board on Thursday as the five-member panel hashed out ballot language for a proposed repeal of payday lending reforms.
Supporters of the payday-lending regulations passed by lawmakers this year which limit payday loans to an annual percentage rate of 28 " built their case for reform" on the fact that the short-term, high-interest loans have charged annual rates as high as 391 percent.
So when lawyers for the industry were able to persuade the board to keep the 391 percent figure out of the ballot language, it was a big point for their side.
That wasn't the only victory for the lenders. The ballot board also determined they get to be the "no" side on the Nov. 4 ballot, historically an easier case to make for statewide issues. That means voters will have to cast a "yes" vote to keep the payday lending reforms intact, including the 28 percent cap, and a "no" vote if they want to roll back the law and again allow payday loans as high as 391 percent annually.
Bill Todd, an attorney representing lenders, called the 391 percent figure "part of the argument" over the issue, not a statement of fact, even though annual percentage rates(APR) are how federal law calculates loan rates made to borrowers.
"What's more accurate to say is that I take out a two-week loan for $100 and have to pay back $115, " Todd said. "I don' t believe that any of us understand what an APR is".
Ohio's payday loan stores are working to overturn a new law that limits the interest rate they can charge for short-term loans. Store owners are paying for a petition drive. They want to collect enough signatures to force a statewide vote on the new limits in November, hoping that voters will reject the law. Some petition circulators, though, are using a misleading sales pitch to convince people on the street to sign their names.
Ohio Public Radio's Bill Cohen has the story with the Audio he recorded from Payday Solicitors..
If you signed the payday lending petition because the circulator told you it was designed to reform the industry, you can have your name removed by contacting the pro-payday campaign committee.
Yesterday, payday spokeswoman Kim Norris said those who want to contact the committee should visit the campaign website to find contact information. The only information listed is the address, 137 E. State St., which happens to be the lobbying firm of Neil Clark. Neil's number is 614-221-3600 but when people started to flood the office with calls asking for their names to be removed, the receptionist threatened to have the number changed.
Today, Campaign Manager John Campbell is referring people to his phone.
If you want your name taken off of the petition because you were convinced to sign it under false pretenses, please call John at 614-477-5042, and ask him to supply you with proof of the removal.
http://www.ohio.com/editorial/commentary/26899979.html
Who supports universal health care? Published on Wednesday, Aug 13, 2008 By Marie Cocco
WASHINGTON: Before the energy-price crisis, before the mortgage crisis, before the credit crisis and the banking crisis, there was the crisis in health insurance that is in reality a crisis in care. This crisis has deepened in recent years as the number of uninsured has climbed and out-of-pocket costs for those still with insurance have soared. It has become common knowledge that a serious illness — even among those with insurance — can plunge families into bankruptcy.
Though ''problems paying for gas'' topped the financial challenges people listed in the most recent Kaiser Family Foundation health tracking poll, ''problems paying for health care and health insurance'' ranked third — just behind job concerns but well ahead of paying for food, dealing with credit card debt and paying the mortgage.
So it is downright shocking that there was a tussle over what the 2008 Democratic platform would say about the party's generations-long, bedrock commitment to health care for all Americans. In short, presumptive nominee Barack Obama did not draft a statement keeping that pledge. He presented instead his plan as one that would provide ''access to'' affordable and comprehensive health care.
A coalition of liberal activists and Hillary Clinton supporters managed to negotiate a change so that the platform says the party is ''united behind a commitment that every American man, woman and child be guaranteed to have affordable, comprehensive health care.'' Inclusion of the word ''guaranteed'' was the crucial point.
On the surface, this may look like a victory for Clinton supporters or even for the far larger group — that is, millions of Democrats — who have long believed that the promise of guaranteed, universal health care is a fundamental principle of their party.
I am less certain, and it's not because I know that politicians can discard party platforms faster than they rid themselves of scandal-tainted donors.
It is because Obama did not campaign during the primaries on a plan that would achieve universal coverage, and indeed, excoriated Clinton for her proposal to mandate that everyone have it.
In fact, even some of those involved in achieving the small health-care victory take little solace from it. ''I'm not sure that Obama will actually pursue the same kind of idea that we had inserted in the platform,'' says Donna Smith, who lobbied the platform panel as a member of Progressive Democrats of America. ''I think we will have to pursue our congressional representatives to bring legislation forward.''
Smith is not a Clinton delegate, or even a convention delegate. She and her husband, Larry, were featured in the Michael Moore film Sicko because they were forced into bankruptcy and lost their home trying to pay the out-of-pocket costs stemming from her treatment for uterine cancer and his for heart disease. '
'Our purpose was not to attack the party,'' says Smith, who says she wants Obama to be elected and describes herself and her husband as ''good and loyal Democrats.'' But certain lines have to be drawn.
''To say you're going to provide affordable coverage to people is not the same as giving them health care,'' she says. ''Just because you have insurance coverage does not guarantee you access to the care that you and your doctor decide you need. And people with insurance understand that.''
Most Democrats do, too.
In 1992, the party's platform said everyone should have ''universal'' access to health care ''not as a privilege, but as a right.'' In 1996, a party chastened after the collapse of President Bill Clinton's health care initiative nonetheless committed itself to ''ensuring that Americans have access to affordable, high-quality health care.'' In 2000, the platform noted that ''for 50 years, the Democratic Party has been engaged in a battle to provide the kind of health care a great nation owes its people.'' In 2004, the platform said this: ''We believe that health care is a right and not a privilege.''
Securing that right is as important now as it was four, or even 50, years ago. When gas prices recede, when the housing market stabilizes and fears of imminent job losses ebb, there will still be an unconscionable gap between the glory of American medical science and the ability of millions of people to get the most basic care.
Obama avoided an intra-party brawl over the health platform. The unanswerable question is whether he will be as determined, as president, to take on the much larger — and excruciatingly harder — health-care fight.
Cocco writes for the Washington Post Writers Group. She can be e-mailed at
"WHEN YOU VOTE BRING I.D." is encountering a critical obstruction in distributing this to the public. The fly in the ointment involves:
OHIO SOS ADVISORY 2008 - 12 DATED JULY 23, 2008.
Corrections to the "When You Vote Bring ID" hasn't been incorporated into the publication. The corrections that need to be made concern Amended House Bill 562 .
The Hamilton County, Ohio BOE (namely Sally Krisel, the Director of the Hamilton County Ohio BOE and Diane Goldsmith, Voter Registration Department Administrator) said they couldn't give out incorrect "When You Vote Bring I.D." brochures. They handed me the above Advisory. I pointed out the Advisory doesn't forbid distribution although the Advisory states "In a forthcoming directive, your office will receive more detailed information about military identification cards and other acceptable forms of identification." They were consulting with eachother back and forth. Diane Goldsmith directed another employee to: blot out with a black marker part of the 5th item on page 2 of the above brochure so that it read:
"A MILITARY IDENTIFICATION THAT SHOWS THE VOTER'S NAME OR"
5th item of page 2 of the publication "When You Vote Bring ID"
The employee performed Diane Goldsmith's instructions and I was permitted to leave the Hamilton County Ohio BOE with 50 of the hard shiny brochures as per above which the employee had to personally change.
However, as of the time of this email, the problem hasn't been attended to for the online brochures neither in the printable form of the brochures nor in the shiny hard brochures. The order form is still accessible.
The brochure itself is coded SOS 2212 (03/08). That code is located on the 2nd page lower left of the publication "When You Vote Bring ID" directly above the logo of the VOTING RIGHTS INSTITUTE."
I now understand why I ordered 50 hard shiny copies of "When You Vote Bring ID" on or about August 4, 2008 and they never arrived.
On Monday, August 11, 2008 I received in the U.S. mail a PUBLICATION NOTICE without a date and without a signature. I paraphrase this item on the letterhead of Jennifer Brunner, Ohio Secretary of State:
Please note we were unable to fill your entire request of the following publication(s):
Voting Rights Institute Bring ID Cards
Due to the Following reasons:
Publication being revised/updated
Exact quote for the following: "Your mailing information will remain in our database and your request(s) will be mailed to you when this publication becomes available. The publication you are requesting may be available to download as a PDF document from the Secretary of State's Web site at www.sos.state.oh.us.
If you have any question regarding this notice or need additional assistance with publications printed by the Secretary of State's office please call our publications request line at 614 - 466 - 3613 or send an email to Prequest@sos.state.oh.us."
As more companies view low-income Americans as opportunities for profit, the "poverty business" is booming.
BILL MOYERS JOURNAL and EXPOSÉ: AMERICA'S INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS follow a team of BUSINESSWEEK reporters as they track new corporate practices that some say exploit the working poor.
BUSINESSWEEK's coverage of the burgeoning poverty industry goes beyond the currently much debated practices of the sub-prime mortgage industry to other credit providers — for auto, consumer goods, and even student loans.
A second part of the investigation delves into the way that a "growing number of hospitals, working with a range of financial companies, are squeezing revenue from patients with little or no health insurance."
Read the original BUSINESSWEEK coverage:
Senate President Bill Harris, an Ashland Republican, said the new law will protect Ohio's families.
"Many families are finding it difficult to make ends meet,'' Harris said. "Charging 391 percent interest rates and allowing for limitless repeat borrowing and constant debt, are no way to prop up a struggling Ohioan."
The reform law won overwhelming support from members of both parties, Harris said.
"In bipartisan fashion, Ohio passed one of the strongest consumer protection laws in the nation that caps interest rates and protects borrowers from getting trapped in a cycle of debt, all the while preserving access to reasonable short-term loans. I will be working hard in coming months to ensure these reforms remain on the books."
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Question: Do you want the Democratic Party’s platform for 2008 to reflect “real” change we can believe in?
Question: Would you like a bit of the audacity of truth to complement that bit of hope?
Well, in Pittsburgh, PDA is working to make truthful change the center of the Democratic Platform.
Almost 300 Delegates have signed onto the “Guaranteed Healthcare for All” language to be added to the DNC Platform. Guaranteed, comprehensive healthcare without financial barriers, that allows healthcare providers to make healthcare decisions based on what is best for the patient. A healthcare platform that represents real reform that progressive Democrats can believe in.
PDA’s Healthcare Not Warfare Co-Chairs Norm Solomon and Donna Smith brought their message to the Cleveland DNC Platform meeting on August 1 and 2nd but were not given time to speak.
And on Saturday, the DNC Platform committee meets for the last time before the Democratic Party Convention in Denver (August 24-28)
Last Question: Will you join us in Pittsburgh at the national-state health care coalition press conference being held before the DNC Platform meeting?
The press conference, co-sponsored by Progressive Democrats of America, will be held at the David Lawrence Convention Center, 1000 Fort Duquesne Blvd., downtown Pittsburgh, Saturday, August 9th at 10 am in Room 307, off the Main Ballroom. Ohio’s Congressional District Organizer Mary Nichols-Rhodes will address the attendees on Ohio’s single-payer initiative and PDA’s Healthcare Not Warfare campaign, along with PDA’s HCNW Co-Chair, Donna Smith, Founder of American Patients United, whom you may remember from her role in the movie, "SiCKO". Also presenting will be Congressman John Conyers , sponsor of the national health care House Resolution 676, the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All; Chuck Pennacchio, Executive Director, Healthcare for All Pennsylvania, PA State Senator Jim Ferlo; and Ron Codario, MD of Western PA Coalition for Single-Payer Healthcare. This video was made at last weekend’s PDA National Conference in Chicago. Watch Healthcare For All PA’s Executive Director Chuck Pinnacchio’s powerful words:http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=1028
Join us at the press conference, help pass out flyers and stickers, and let’s work together to get the word out that healthcare is a right and not a privilege.---------------------------
PDA is on to Denver…….Progressive Democrats of America are setting up Progressive Central in Denver during the Democratic National Convention. This is a chance for Progressives to meet and participate in meaningful activities. PDA and Nation Magazine, are presenting the
“Nation Conversation Series”- daily conversations moderated by John Nichols with incredible guests such as Tom Hayden, Rep. John Conyers, Rep. Barbara Lee, Rep.
Lynne Woolsey, and many others. Every afternoon, panel discussions include people such as Laura Flanders, Jeff Cohen, Norm Solomon, Medea Benjamin (CodePink),
Mimi Kennedy, Katrina vanden Heuvel, and so many more. Join PDA in Denver August 24-28!
https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/309/donate.asp?formid=meet&c=6468205
Well, the first phase of "Operation Buy 391% Interest" has begun! The payday lobby is out with their new ad.
Their plan is to run these during the Olympics, trying to convince Ohio voters that payday lenders are just here to help good ol' folks like you and I! The payday lobby is making a mockery of Ohio's election process and is attempting to appeal to the better nature of all Americans and Ohioans by continuously throwing around the word "Freedom". I personally feel used when I hear it over and over again!
The ad says Ohio politicians are risking 6,000 good-paying jobs by passing House Bill 545. Well, that's just patently false! The ad conveniently forgot to mention that the Ohio Department of Commerce has a nice stack of over 1,000 applications for new licenses from payday lenders who want to operate under the new law!
The ad mentions nothing about the fact that overturning the law will keep interest rates on payday loans at the outrageously high rate of 391% APR! It also neglects to mention that payday lenders have long gotten a free pass from the Ohio legislature to ignore Ohio's usury laws and bilk working Ohioans of their hard earned dollars.
The payday lenders are taking advantage of our state and its struggling economy to make a quick buck on our citizens and it is time Ohio voters told them to take a hike! A product designed to trap borrowers in debt for purposes of extracting maximum profit is a product that needs reformed. Usury is not freedom! As, Governor Strickland, Speaker Husted and Senate President Bill Harris said yesterday, the payday lending experiment failed in Ohio and it's time to reign in another predatory industry that sucks money out of our state like a leech. Another 91,000 families will file for foreclosure in Ohio by year's end due to predatory mortgage lending.
Payday lenders have displayed zero behavior that would suggest we should trust them any more than we did our mortgage lenders and brokers who peddled subprime mortgages right and left.
Here's the Ad:
Pittsburgh this Saturday morning, along with Congressman John Conyers, Mary Nichols-Rhodes, PDA Ohio CD Organizer, member of SPAN Ohio State Council (Single Payer Action Network Ohio), and LPN, Pennsylvania State Senator Jim Ferlo, Western PA Coalition for Healthcare, and Donna Smith of the California Nurses Association and Co-Chair of Progressive Democrats of America Health Care Committee.
(For the record, Single Payer Action Network (SPAN Ohio) and Healthcare for All Pennsylvania, are both non-partisan organizations. They will be promoting the same amendment language in the run-up to the Republican National Convention in the Twin Cities. Both organizations know solving the health care crisis is a non-partisan issue since illness knows no party lines.)
The pro-Single Payer, national-state coalition press conference, cited above, will be held at the David Lawrence Convention Center, 1000 Fort Duquesne Blvd., downtown Pittsburgh, Saturday, August 9th at 10 am in Room 307, off the Main Ballroom, where the Platform meeting of the DNC congregates for a final meeting prior to the Democratic Party convention in Denver (August 24-28). Congressman John Conyers (HR 676, Chair of House Judiciary Cmte.), Senator Jim Ferlo (PA-SB 300), Donna Smith (California Nurses Assn, "SiCKO"), Dr. Scott Tyson (PUSH co-chair, HC4APA), HC4APA Executive Director Chuck Pennachio, PDA Organzier and LPN Mary Nichols-Rhodes, Western PA Coalition members, and labor, business, healthcare-provider representatives will address the economic, moral, and democratic underpinnings of the Single-Payer Solution -- "Guaranteed Healthcare for All" -- at the last Democratic Platform Committee meeting before the national Party convention in Denver.
As such, we are jointly advancing the following statement:
* Guarantee accessible health care for all.
* Create a single standard of high quality, comprehensive, and preventive
health care for all.
* Allow freedom of choice of physician, hospital, and other health care providers.
* Eliminate financial barriers that prevent families and individuals from
obtaining the medically necessary care they need.
* Allow physicians, nurses and other licensed health care providers to make
health care decisions based on what is best for the health of the patient.
The first 2008 Democratic National Convention delegate to become a signer of
this statement was Rep. John Conyers. 288 additional delegates have signed on as
of 5 p.m. this afternoon August 7th. We encourage all to call or write their delegates to the convention to ask them to also sign the statement. For more information on those working for “real” health care reform, see:http://pdamerica.org/leadership www.pdamerica.org
Questions? Call Ohio PDA State Coordinator Michael Carano at 330-715-2066 for more information.
Report Outlines Junk Mail’s Climate Impacts
‘Junk Mail Effect’ Equals Emissions of 9 Million Cars, 7 US States Combined
NASA Scientist and Gore Advisor Hansen urges support for Do Not Mail Registry
A report released today by ForestEthics pegs junk mail’s contribution to climate change at the equivalent of more than nine million cars, seven US states combined, or the emissions generated by heating nearly 13 million homes for the winter.
The group released the irreverently illustrated report as part of their campaign and petition for a Do Not Mail Registry to give Americans the choice to stop receiving junk mail.
Download the report here: http://forestethics.org/downloads/ClimateReport.pdf
NASA Climate Scientist Dr. James Hansen made the following statement in conjunction with the release:
"20 years after I first testified before Congress on the threats posed by climate change, we have reached a point at which we must remove unnecessary carbon emissions from our lives, or face catastrophic consequences. It is hard to imagine waste more unnecessary than the 100 billion pieces of junk mail Americans receive each year, and these new findings, revealing that the emissions of junk mail are equal to those of over nine million cars, underscore the prudent necessity of a Do Not Mail Registry."
The report also features a Myth/Fact section that debunks misinformation spread in the wake of ForestEthics’ Do Not Mail campaign (donotmail.org), as well as the appearance of 19 Do Not Mail initiatives in state legislatures over the past two years.
“This report confirms what Americans instinctively know: the scale of junk mail’s waste goes against all common sense,” says Todd Paglia, Executive Director of ForestEthics. “And the junk mail industry is incapable of policing itself on this matter– we need a Do Not Mail Registry to give Americans a choice, and to enforce that choice.”
ForestEthics launched their Do Not Mail campaign on March 12 of this year, and the petition at donotmail.org now has nearly 60,000 signatures, including those of Leonardo DiCaprio, Adrian Grenier, David Crosby and Daryl Hannah.
Contact – William Craven, 415.407.3426
ForestEthics, a nonprofit with staff in Canada, the United States and Chile, recognizes that individual people can be mobilized to create positive environmental change—and so can corporations. Armed with this unique philosophy, ForestEthics has helped protect more than twelve million acres of Endangered Forests. Visit donotmail.org, for more information.
# # #
The Community Financial Services Association's campaign to overturn House Bill 545 went live with a new website yesterday. Their website, Ohioans4financialfreedom, displays how out of touch they are with real Ohioans.
First, they say: "Protect 6,000 good-paying jobs that could be lost."
This is not accurate. House Bill 545 says absolutely nothing about closing any businesses or preventing the dispersion of payday loans. House Bill 545 simply caps interest rates and fees at 28% APR, protecting Ohio's consumers from predatory 391% APR interest. Payday lending stores have already started applying for licenses to continue operating under the new law from the Ohio Department of Commerce. If any stores close, it's because they choose to, not because they have to.
Second, they say: "Protect your financial freedom and private financial choices."
Payday lenders target low-income neighborhoods where it is easier for them to encourage people to walk through the door. Neon signs with "Get cash in minutes!" and "Easy cash quick," etc. Once a borrower is trapped in a cycle of payday loans, it becomes necessary for the consumer to keep taking out loans. This is not a choice! Usurious payday loans at 391% are bad for Ohioans and bad for the Ohio economy. Usury is not freedom!
Third, they say: "Protect your right to privacy about your personal finances."
This is a nice catch phrase that appeals to just about everyone! House Bill 545 includes a provision calling for the creation of a database that will let lenders know how many loans a person has taken out at a given time. This allows lenders to lend according to borrowers ability to repay - something neither predatory mortgage lenders nor payday lenders seem to care about.
And finally, once again, the industry uses their lame argument for why their referendum should be on the ballot: "Ohioans have a right to repeal bad laws."
Well, it bears repeating that House Bill 545 is one of the best consumer protection laws in the country and will help hundreds of thousands of Ohioans escape the debt trap. Ohioans do have a right to overturn bad laws, but this referendum effort is not being mounted by Ohioans, but by industry lobbyists and attorneys flown in on their corporate jets. Where are the citizens working on this referendum? Where are the consumers calling for 391% interest? They are nowhere to be found. Instead, the industry lobby CFSA is the sole donor to the effort to repeal House Bill 545. This is right in line with what they are doing in other states like Arizona where they've spent $8.7 million to overturn a consumer law and in Virginia where they succeeded in buying higher interest rates for a low, low price of $20 million.
The Ohio government should be PROTECTING consumers from predatory business practices that rely on borrowers getting trapped in a cycle of debt! Payday lending is bad for Ohio!
In Arizona, the payday lobby has spent over $8.7 million to collect signatures to get an initiative on the November ballot. It's clear that the national payday lobby, CFSA, is behind the initiative, not "citizens of Arizona." Check out this quote from an article in the Arizona Republic: "Grass roots? Nope. Not yet anyway…likewise, nearly every sent of the $8.7 million dumped into a ballot effort benefiting the payday-loan industry has been donated by - guess who? - a trade group representing the payday lenders: the Arizona Community Financial Services Association." You can view the article in its entirety, here: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2008/07/30/20080730initiatives0730.html.
In Virginia, the national payday lobby has spent roughly $20 million to "buy" higher interest rates from the Virginia General Assembly (payday lenders can now charge 592% APR!). You can read about that here: http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news/business.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-07-25-0214.html.
In Ohio, the sole donor to the "citizen referendum" campaign is CFSA, to the tune of $850,000 in less than 6 months.
We can expect millions more to flood in before Election Day in November. Beware Ohio voters! The referendum process allowed by the Ohio Constitution is being hijacked by the payday lending industry.
Tell payday lenders you can't be bought and vote early by refusing to sign petitions being circulated by the industry to keep 391% interest.
During my years working for a major aerospace company, it was common for managers to drop off donation cards. The expectation was that employees would gladly pony up to the company's political action committee. Not donating could mean finding your name on the next list of lay-offs. No one ever came to me directly and said the words "donate or else" but the message was crystal clear.
Forcing employees to make a choice that may run counter to their ethics or economic benefit is a power that employers have used with relative impunity. Allegations of pressure by employers are hard - if not impossible- to prove. Workers feel powerless, especially in this time of economic uncertainty.
In the latest attempt at corporate coercion, Wal Mart is herding managers and supervisors into mandatory meetings. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the message at these meetings is clear - vote for Democrats in November and unionization is sure to follow.
The company claims that the meetings are not an attempt to sway the how managers vote. Some managers and supervisors are not buying that line. In the WSJ report, one Wal-Mart customer-service supervisor from Missouri knew better, saying "I am not a stupid person. They were telling me how to vote".
Let's hope that other Wal Mart managers - and workers in similar situations - see these tactics for what they are - intimidation on a grand scale.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121755649066303381.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news
Copyright 2008 Michael O'Brien All rights Reserved
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