Progressive Democrats of America was founded in 2004 to transform
the Democratic Party and our country. We seek to build a party and
government controlled by citizens, not corporate elites-with policies
that serve the broad public interest, not just private interests. As a
grassroots PAC operating inside the Democratic Party, and outside in
movements for peace and justice, PDA played a key role in the stunning
electoral victories of November 2006 and 2008. Our inside/outside
strategy is guided by the belief that a lasting majority will require a
revitalized Democratic Party built on firm progressive principles.
For over two decades, the party declined as its leadership listened
more to the voices of corporations than those of Americans. PDA strives
to rebuild the Democratic Party from the bottom up-from every
congressional district to statewide party structures to the corridors of
power in Washington, where we work arm in arm with the Congressional
Progressive Caucus. In just a couple of years PDA and its allies
have shaken up the political status-quo on issues from ending the Iraq
war, voter rights, protecting Social Security, a full employment
economy, national healthcare and economic justice.
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976?Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. Unless you are in this field of investigative journalism, especially covering extremely sensitive subjects and potentially dangerous subjects as well, you simply cannot understand the complexities and difficulties involved with this work that I face every day.
Friday, June 20, 2014
Progressive Democrats of America
Virginia prepares for new voter photo ID law
With implementation of Virginia’s
new voter ID law seven months away, state election officials are
scrambling to affordably create a photo ID card that will be provided to
voters for free.
They also are gearing up to educate the public about the law that will
take effect July 1.
Read the Full Story
PDA in the Media
PDA On the Web
Issue Team News
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The President Has No Mandate to Bomb Iraq or Syria
At this writing, President Obama has neither the legal nor the political mandate to conduct airstrikes in Iraq or Syria.
On Thursday night, 182 Members of the House voted yes on...
Hits:82 End Wars and Occupations
Read moreWikiLeaks Reveals Global Trade Deal Kept More Secret Than th…
Embattled
WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange announced Wednesday from London the
publication of a secret draft text of the Trade in Services Agreement
(TISA), a controversial global trade agreement said to make...
Hits:183 Trans Pacific Partnership
Read moreBREAKING: House To Push Back Against Military Action in Iraq
Members of Congress want to send a clear message to Obama: They won’t stand for another war.
After a recent string of insurgent attacks from the Islamic State in Iraq and...
Hits:482 End Wars and Occupations
Read moreTPP Media March Twitter Storm
Join our TPP Twitter Storm. Everyone with a Twitter account can participate. The Twitter storm begins on Tuesday at 9pm Eastern!
Hits:47024 Trans Pacific Partnership
Read moreVoices from Iraq: 'We have lived enough years of revenge and…
Residents of Mosul and Samarra, and a spokesman for a militant group, speak about their experience of the latest conflict
Hits:556 End Wars and Occupations
Read moreMarissa Alexander trial date postponed to Dec. 1
Citing
uncertainty over whether Florida’s Stand Your Ground law is about to
change, the judge in Marissa Alexander’s criminal case has delayed her
trial until Dec. 1. Alexander, 33, is...
Hits:1319 End Mass Criminalization
Read moreRepackaging Mass Incarceration
Since
my CounterPunch article last November which assessed the state of the
movement against mass incarceration, the rumblings of change in the
criminal justice have steadily grown louder. Attorney General...
Hits:960 End Mass Criminalization
Read moreBreaking Climate Silence: One Step at a Time
Two
thousand miles lay ahead for the nearly 40 marchers who departed from
Los Angeles in February and will arrive in Washington, DC, in November.
Their feet tell the story...
Hits:974 Stop Global Warming
Read moreNew Organization Hangs Sign: 'Whistleblowers Welcome'
A
new organization called ExposeFacts—backed by well-known source of The
Pentagon Papers Daniel Ellsberg—is debuting itself in Washington, DC on
Wednesday as a new place where government and corporate employees...
Hits:1469 End Corporate Rule
Read moreIn Sign of 'New Economy' Rising, Vermont Bill Champions Work…
Worker-owned
co-ops got a boost on Monday when Independent Senator Bernie Sanders
unveiled an initiative in Vermont that champions what many call "the new
economy."“At a time when corporate America...
Hits:1241 Economic and Social Justice
Read more'Astroturf' Groups Leading Drive to Kill Open Internet
The
telecommunications industry is creating and funding front groups which
pose as consumer organizations and aggressively lobby to kill net
neutrality, journalist Lee Fang revealed in an article published in...
Hits:952 End Corporate Rule
Read more'Labor priests' reviving social justice teachings -- and act…
"Labor
priests" were a recognized presence in the labor movement of the 1920s
through the 1960s. Father Barry, the Karl Malden character in the 1954
film "On the Waterfront," was...
Hits:1523 Economic and Social Justice
Read moreSPECIAL INVESTIGATION: How Art Pope helped turn back the clo…
When
Montravias King, a senior at North Carolina's historically black
Elizabeth City State University, showed up at a hearing before the
Pasquotank County Board of Elections earlier this month to...
Hits:617 Voter Access
Read moreJohn Oliver Calls on Angry Internet Trolls to Save Net Neutr…
It’s
a sad state of affairs when a country that touts freedom of the press
depends upon cable TV comedy shows to hear the real news.
Hits:971 End Corporate Rule
Read more93-Year Old Man Disenfranchised Today in Alabama for Lack of…
It
was Primary Day in Alabama on Tuesday and the first time since passage
of the law that the state's Republican-enacted polling place Photo ID
restriction on voting has been...
Hits:640 Voter Access
Read moreObama’s ‘war on coal’ doesn’t exist
Specious slogans dominate key midterm Senate battles in Appalachia, burying West Virginia coal chemical disaster
On Monday, President Barack Obama is expected to announce a new Environmental Protection Agency regulation to...
Hits:1185 Stop Global Warming
Read moreERA Enters 2014 Gubernatorial Campaign
Last
week, State Senator Heather Steans (D-Chicago) bulldozed the measure,
Senate Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 75, through the upper
chamber 39-11-06, a vote that included two Republicans - Kirk...
Hits:710 ERA Articles
Read moreThe next NAFTA, but worse
You
can win some impressive victories against corporate power on the local
level. Boulder voters declared that corporations aren’t people and money
isn’t speech. Cities across Colorado (and other states)...
Hits:3157 Trans Pacific Partnership
Read moreTrans-Pacific Partnership Don't fast-track this deal
Trans-Pacific
Partnership
Don't fast-track this deal
President Barack Obama was in Asia recently, desperately trying to
broker support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership despite growing
opposition at home and abroad. This secretly negotiated...
Hits:2428 Trans Pacific Partnership
Read moreOligarchy Enshrined
Why the Supreme Court’s McCutcheon ruling is good news for the super-rich and bad news for progressive Democrats.
At the 2012 Conservative Political Action Conference, a conservative election lawyer and a...
Hits:2834 End Corporate Rule
Read moreSenate Democrats look to revive dormant Equal Rights Amendme…
SPRINGFIELD-Senate
Democrats plan to make an end-of-session push this week to “rectify an
historical wrong” -- and perhaps give women a strong reason to go to the
polls this fall...
Hits:1104 ERA Articles
Read moreSolar Freakin' Roadways Electrify Clean Energy Generation (V…
As
the once far-fetched idea of "solar roadways" gains a huge convoy of
supporters--from the US Department of Transportation to Google to the
Times of India to even Fox News...
Hits:2631 Stop Global Warming
Read morePassing the TPP: Not so fast
A
rebellion is breaking out in the Democratic Party, but it’s not like
the 1960s when the party was torn apart over the Vietnam War and civil
rights for blacks....
Hits:2551 Trans Pacific Partnership
Read moreFederal Judge Rules North Carolina Lawmakers Do Not Have Bla…
A
federal judge ruled today that members of the North Carolina General
Assembly do not have absolute immunity and protection from releasing
crucial emails and other internal documents related to...
Hits:1022 Voter Access
Read moreDeath by a Thousand Cuts: Illinois Coal Tragedies Continue
With
the death toll still mounting at a coal mine in Turkey, another
southern Illinois coal miner lost his life this week, along with two
West Virginia miners. The state of Illinois,...
Hits:2719 Stop Global Warming
Read moreLincoln Didn't Fight the Civil War to Free the Corporations …
This
is an idea worth spreading - so - please watch & share with 5 or 10
friends. It’s important to get money out of politics and the average
person...
Hits:2612 End Corporate Rule
Read moreWhy I Support the Fast Food Workers Strike
Fast
food workers across America aren't waiting on Congress to raise
their pay. This week, they’re taking matters into their own hands by
organizing a nationwide strike aimed at securing better pay...
Hits:2130 Economic and Social Justice
Read moreChicanos, how did we become America’s new slave culture?
In
my journey as a community activist and Chicano advocate, I’ve
experienced many fascinating elements that have inspired me but also
scarred me to my very soul. I have fought...
Hits:1874 Economic and Social Justice
Read moreReturning to a Peacetime Military Budget.
Why
is Congress trying to allocate $601 billion to the military?
Next week, Congress will begin debate on a roughly$601 billion Pentagon
budget for FY2015. Before we let this pass unchallenged,...
Hits:1947 End Wars and Occupations
Read morePeak GOP 'Voter Fraud' Fraud?: PA Gives Up, IA Can't Find An…
Just
over a week ago, The BRAD BLOG's legal analyst Ernie Canning posited
that the decision by a federal court in Wisconsin to strike down that
state's polling place Photo...
Hits:1077 Voter Access
Read moreDemocrat? Green? Independent? The ‘Run Bernie Run’ Jockeying
Northampton,
Massachusetts—When Bernie Sanders said in a Nation interview in March
that he was prepared—not at all certain, but prepared—to run for the
presidency, that got a lot of political activists thinking.
Hits:2043 Economic and Social Justice
Read moreUS Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont launches Progressive Democ…
Vermont
Sen. Bernie Sanders does not believe his support for the working class
makes him unusual. Though he finds that many people who call themselves
progressives believe they are in...
Hits:2074 Economic and Social Justice
Read moreDemand for Care Shows Access Problems that Single-Payer Coul…
At
my local Kaiser facility today, the pharmacy was bursting at the seams
with patients and others waiting for pharmacy services. Children with
runny noses clinging to their mothers' legs...
Hits:2257 Healthcare Human Rights
Read moreBernie Sanders bound for Iowa
WASHINGTON – First, he traveled to New Hampshire. Now he's bound for Iowa.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is hitting all the familiar campaign stops as he considers whether to run for president...
Hits:3030 Economic and Social Justice
Read moreProgressive Democrats meeting May 8 to organize Sanders '16 …
Vermont Democratic Socialist to be in Iowa on May 17
DES MOINES — Jeff Cox isn't sure what it means that Sen. Bernie Sanders will be visiting Iowa later this month,...
Hits:2766 Economic and Social Justice
Read moreThe Pardon Attorney's office is open for business!
The
Pardon Attorney’s office is open for business! And it has a new boss!
That’s pretty much the message that the Deputy Attorney General sent
today when he announced that...
Hits:3253 End Mass Criminalization
Read moreU.S. Federal Judge Strikes Down Wisconsin Voter ID Law
A
federal judge struck down Wisconsin's voter identification law Tuesday,
declaring that a requirement that voters show a state-issued photo ID
at the polls imposes an unfair burden on poor...
Hits:1341 Voter Access
Read more93 Countries Who Have Changed Their Minds About Obama
During
the Bush years, people all over the world were horrified by America's
aggression, human rights abuses and militarism. By 2008, only one in
three people around the world approved...
Hits:5533 End Wars and Occupations
Read moreOut of the Shadows: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce
The
U.S. Chamber of Commerce is, as they boast on its website, the world's
largest business organization, as well as the nation's largest corporate
lobbying group. It is also a recipient...
Hits:3762 End Corporate Rule
Read moreCorporations Divest Nearly $60 Million From Private Prison I…
Three
corporations announced their divestment from Corrections Corporation of
America (CCA) and GEO Group, the two largest private prison companies
in the United States, late last week. Scopia Capital Management,...
Hits:3302 End Mass Criminalization
Read moreStates’ refusal to expand Medicaid is deadly attack on poor …
We
pledge allegiance to “One nation, under God.” When terrorists attack
us, we unite as one to defend our nation and our countrymen and women.
Yet, we allow the doctrine...
Hits:495 Medicaid Expansion
Read moreStates Are Running Out Of Excuses For Refusing To Expand Med…
Accepting
Obamacare’s optional Medicaid expansion could be a better financial
deal for states than initially predicted, according to new data from the
non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Hits:1650 Medicaid Expansion
Read morePilgrimage
Each
step I take brings me closer to fulfilling my promise to help pass the
Equal Rights Amendment. It’s a promise I made a decade ago to my late
mother-in-law,...
Hits:1074 ERA Articles
Read moreWash U Sit-In Enters Historic 3rd Week: Peabody Moment of Tr…
In
an emerging public relations nightmare for Washington University
officials, the sit-in against Peabody Energy ties entered a historic
third week, as students continued to press demands after a
faltering statement released yesterday by...
Hits:3253 Stop Global Warming
Read moreBids to shorten prison terms get bipartisan support (and opp…
As
the Senate prepares to take up changes to federal sentencing and parole
guidelines, some Republicans and Democrats break from their parties'
traditional stances.
For decades the Republican Party prided itself...
Hits:3437 End Mass Criminalization
Read moreAs Medical Claim Denials Increase, Be Prepared to Be a Squea…
The
good news from last week was that 8 million Americans have signed up
for health insurance through the Obamacare-created exchanges. The not so
good news is that because most...
Hits:3512 Healthcare Human Rights
Read moreEarth Day in the Shawnee: Taking a Stand Against Corporate G…
Few
people understand the historical impact of coal mining like acclaimed
poet Barney Bush in Shawnee hills of southern Illinois. The French, in
fact, stumbled on coal outcroppings near the Shawnee in...
Hits:3301 Stop Global Warming
Read moreMore Than A Fifth Of America’s Children Are Going Hungry
More
than one in five American kids lived in a “food insecure” household in
2012, according to the newest annual Mapping the Meal Gap report from
anti-hunger charity Feeding America.
The...
Hits:3012 Economic and Social Justice
Read moreHolder to overhaul clemency guidelines, possibly freeing tho…
In
a move that could result in the prison release of hundreds or thousands
of low-level drug offenders, the Justice Departmentsaid Monday that it
will advise President Obama to widen...
Hits:2840 End Mass Criminalization
Read moreFree trade on steroids: The threat of the Trans-Pacific Part…
Many
supporters of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, trade
agreement are arguing that its fate rests on President Obama's bilateral
talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Japan...
Hits:3352 Trans Pacific Partnership
Read moreWhy the Great Wash U Sit-in Against Peabody Coal Matters: Wh…
Entering
its second week, the inspiring Washington University sit-in against
Peabody Energy has already gone beyond its goals to cut school ties with
the St. Louis-based coal giant, and forced...
Hits:3614 Stop Global Warming
Read moreBernie Sanders Warns Americans Are Losing Faith In The Polit…
MANCHESTER,
N.H., April 12 (Reuters) - Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders warned
that a growing number of Americans were losing faith in the political
system at a New Hampshire site...
Hits:4298 Economic and Social Justice
Read moreBernie Sanders Raises Battle Cry Against Citizens United: "I…
Citizens
United is not just the default reference for US Supreme Court
decisions—including the 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election
Commission ruling—that have ushered in a new era of corporate...
Hits:4594 End Corporate Rule
Read moreSPECIAL REPORT -- After initial hysteria, back-pedaling over…
Last
week, top staff of the N.C. State Board of Elections made a
presentation to legislators about the state of voter registration in
North Carolina. Out of the board's 58-page...
Hits:3381 Voter Access
Read moreGreedy Oligarchs Oppose Minimum Wage
One
of the hot issues in this year’s political races is whether the Federal
minimum wage should be increased. It might seem obvious that if
lower-income people had more money...
Hits:4048 Economic and Social Justice
Read moreBernie Sanders seeks to pull Democrats left in 2016 primary
WASHINGTON
— Bernie Sanders has been calling activists and traveling the country
with a question: Could he vault from his US Senate seat representing
what is fondly called the People’s...
Hits:5287 Economic and Social Justice
Read moreAmerica's Coup Machine: Destroying Democracy Since 1953
U.S. efforts to overthrow foreign governments leave the world less peaceful, less just and less hopeful.
Soon after the 2004 U.S. coup to depose President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti, I heard...
Hits:4767 End Wars and Occupations
Read moreNurses and lawmakers resume push for financial transactions …
WASHINGTON
(PAI)--Saying it would raise money, curb speculators and force the
financial finaglers who caused the Great Recession to partially pay for
its impact on you and me, National Nurses...
Hits:4336 Economic and Social Justice
Read moreThe Republican Medicaid Blockade: Time to Go on Offense on H…
Since
the short-lived HealthCare.gov website meltdown last fall, conventional
wisdom has held that Obamacare is a political loser for Democrats --
that whenever the Affordable Care Act comes up, Democrats...
Hits:794 Medicaid Expansion
Read moreSeeking edge on voting rules, parties target sec. of state r…
The
fierce partisan battle over voting rights has both sides planning to
pour massive amounts of money and resources into a handful of key 2014
campaigns for secretary of state....
Hits:1879 Voter Access
Read more'With Liberty and Justice for All' -- Our Democracy on the B…
The
promise of "liberty and justice for all" remains a vital part of our
nation's Pledge of Allegiance, and is embedded in our childhood memories
of starting each school day with...
Hits:4317 Economic and Social Justice
Read moreCoal Rush Kids! Illinois Votes to Keep Big Coal in Schools
While
coal mining families in West Virginia and across the country mourned
the fourth anniversary of the tragic Upper Big Branch coal mine disaster
last week, hailed by US Attorney R....
Hits:4140 Stop Global Warming
Read moreGOP’s shameful treatment of the powerless
The
Bible’s injunction that we shall be judged by how we have treated the
“least of these” (Matthew 25:40) appears in different forms in virtually
every religion or faith. And...
Hits:4052 Economic and Social Justice
Read moreNELP Applauds Senate Vote to Renew Emergency Jobless Aid
Unemployed
Ohio Navy Veteran Urges House Speaker Boehner to Hold Vote
Statement of Christine Owens, executive director of the National
Employment Law Project, on the U.S. Senate’s passage of the
bipartisan...
Hits:4021 Economic and Social Justice
Read moreThoughts on a Bernie Sanders Run
...
if the candidate has a real mass base, is building a broad progressive
front around a clear, transformational program, and sees the candidacy
as one step in a multitiered...
Hits:5152 Economic and Social Justice
Read moreLocal protests held in response to Supreme Court donation ru…
PITTSFIELD
-- Their signs read "Get Big Money Out of Politics," "Democracy Is Not
For Sale" and "This Is What Plutocracy Looks Like." About a dozen of
them stood in...
Hits:4205 End Corporate Rule
Read moreCongress Calls on EPA to Help Fracking-Affected Communities
Washington
D.C., Apr 1 - For the first time, members of Congress today called upon
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to “investigate and address the water
contamination” in Dimock, Pennsylvania; Parker...
Hits:4231 Stop Global Warming
Read moreWith McCutcheon Ruling, An Activist Court Opts for Full-On P…
Any
doubts about the determination of an activist United States Supreme
Court to rewrite election rules so that the dollar matters more than the
vote were removed Wednesday, when McCutcheon v....
Hits:4263 End Corporate Rule
Read moreLobbyists Deceptively Claim the Public Favors Fast-Tracking …
Critics
of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)—a massive trade agreement being
negotiated by the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore and other
Pacific Rim countries—say that pro-trade business lobbyists have rolled
out...
Hits:3296 Trans Pacific Partnership
Read moreCould This Tax on Wall Street Turn Back America’s Tide of In…
How
will you honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. this April 4, the
anniversary of his assassination? How about by demanding that Congress
get out of Wall Street’s...
Hits:3926 Robin Hood Tax
Read moreCongresswoman Speier: The Deadline for Ratification of the E…
Congresswomen
Jackie Speier (D-San Francisco/San Mateo/Redwood City) issued the
following statement today after offering a joint resolution to remove
the deadline for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. The...
Hits:2947 ERA Articles
Read moreThe Pentagon's Phony Budget War
Or How the U.S. Military Avoided Budget Cuts, Lied About Doing So, Then Asked for Billions More
Washington is pushing the panic button, claiming austerity is hollowing out our armed forces...
Hits:5376 End Wars and Occupations
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