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Join Penn ACTION to get out the vote in 2010!

  By Penn ACTION, Penn Action and Election 2010

Election 2010 is under way. You can make a huge difference in 2010 by taking part in Penn ACTION Get Out The Vote (GOTV) Campaigns in Bucks County and Philadelphia. Click here to apply for a paid canvassing position in Bucks County. Click here to volunteer to do phone banking in Philadelphia. We will have also have opportunities for Penn ACTION supporters all over the state to do phone banking from home into a variety of critical areas in the state. Details will be available soon. Most people are just starting to pay attention to the 2010 Election. And this election is all about turnout. Every poll shows that, if we can turnout supporters of progressive causes and candidates, we can win statewide, Congressional and General Assembly elections. Penn ACTION is beginning two major Get Out The Vote (GOTV) Campaign in Bucks County and Philadelphia. Please join us! Paid Canvass… Continue reading

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Marcellus Shale State Wide Conference

  By Marcellus Shale

Building a Stronger Movement: Statewide Conference on Natural Gas Drilling Sponsored by Penn Action and Conservation PA Saturday, October 16, 2010 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Radisson Hotel Harrisburg 1150 Camp Hill Bypass, Camp Hill, PA 17011 You are invited: a conference for community groups, activists, and homeowners who are concerned about effects of drilling in the Marcellus Shale. The lack of federal oversight on natural gas drilling has left us with little protection against the potential dangers of fracking to extract gas from the valuable Marcellus Shale in our state. Penn Action and Conservation Pennsylvania are convening this conference to share knowledge and learn how to make our voices heard in the Marcellus Shale debate: Strategy of winning advocacy efforts Trainings on organizing and getting your message out How to build an organization, fundraise, and do outreach Success stories from different regions of the state Networking And more. Who… Continue reading

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Penn ACTION in brief

  By About Penn Action

Penn ACTION is a relatively new organization that has become the only progressive grassroots organization outside the labor movement with statewide reach in Pennsylvania. We are committed to working on our own, and in coalition with other groups, to building and expanding the progressive movement in Pennsylvania—one that realizes our idea of a New Commonwealth in Pennsylvania and the United States as a whole. To realize that ideal, we will work to advance critical progressive legislation and to help elect progressive political officials. We have a statewide email list of 195,000 with an activist base of 15,000 people who have taken actions—online or in person—in support of progressive issues and electoral campaigns. We have extraordinary volunteers who hold political events and actions in every corner of the state. We aim to keep staff members working in Northwestern PA, Northeastern PA and Southeastern PA and hope to expand to two other… Continue reading

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Health Care will (almost) be a right not a privilege

  By Health Care

The Patient Care and Affordable Care Act was not everything we progressives wanted. Many of us were distraught over losing something that is important to our vision of health care reform: a public option that would compete with private insurance and hold down health insurance costs. Make no mistake, that was, indeed a loss. But the public option was not the only important feature of the legislation we have been supporting. Indeed, while holding down costs are important to this country, the fundamental moral issue is making sure that everyone can get affordable health care. And, the legislation we won goes incredibly far to attaining that goal. The Affordable Care Act will take this country close to the ideal of making health care a right not a privilege. It will, over ten years, save perhaps 100,000 lives. It will reduce the suffering of millions of people. And it will save… Continue reading

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The old romanticism and the new environmentalism

  By Environment, Philosophy

Political environmentalism is a movement shaped by twentieth century romanticism. And that is one source of its political difficulties, especially in America. Twentietth century romanticism presumes a sharp divide between the creativity of the arts, which draws inspiration from the untamed natural world we perceive with our unaided senses, and the routinized development of scientific knowledge whose goal is to give us the power to transform, and thereby destroy, nature with our machines. It thinks of the natural state of nature as pure, peaceful, and unchanging and humans as malignant interlopers in thus natural world. Thus it looks incessantly back to the past¸ to the time before mankind interfered with the natural world and it only appreciates with some reluctance how we use technology to shape the natural world to serve the interests of human beings. This is a romanticism that stands against both science and humanism. And, the environmental movement it has inspired… Continue reading

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-29

  By Twitter feed

My guest blog on the United Steelworkers site: http://bit.ly/9pQov0 # Tom Corbett will spend a day in the shoes of a lazy, unemployed worker collecting unemployment insurance….as soon as he finds one. # Dan Onorato spent a day in the shoes of an SEIU member http://bit.ly/a69xwa # In 1937 FDR took a risk and challenged an undemocratic institution to save his economic program. Obama needs to take on the filibuster. # Powered by Twitter Tools Continue reading

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We elected a President; Now we have to build a movement

  By Politics

Dear Friends, Over the next month, Penn Action will be sponsoring a series of events around the state, some in conjunction with other groups, that aim to build a strong progressive movement to get voters who share our ideals out to the polls in November and then to keep the pressure on our elected officials to support progressive legislation over the next two years and beyond. Three meetings are now scheduled. In Erie, this Wednesday, on August 25, join a Penn ACTION meet-up at 7:00 pm at Panera Bread in the Plaza off Peach Street, 1935 Keystone Drive in Erie. In Northeast PA, on September 14 at 7:00 PM at the Holiday Inn Express Meeting Room at the Scranton WB Airport, join a Penn Action sponsored event that will focus on building our power on a variety of issues and, especially the drilling in the Marcellus Shale. In Philadelphia On September 25… Continue reading

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We Made Them Listen To Us

  By Environment, Health Care, Marcellus Shale

This is my speech, more or less, at the Gas Stock concert and rally on Saturday. This not exactly what I said. I spoke extemporaneously and didn’t record it. But this is the gist of it. Good Afternoon. I’m Marc Stier, the Executive Director of Penn Action, grassroots political organization in Pennsylvania. I’m really thrilled to be here. This is an incredible event, organized by an incredible team of people led by my friend and colleague, Roxanne Pauline who recently joined us as the NEPA Penn Action organizer. I have to be honest, I don’t know enough about the Marcellus Shale drilling and its impact on people here in Northeastern PA and the rest of the state. I’ve spent the last two years totally focused on the movement for health care reform, which I led in Pennsylvania. But after talking with many of you, it’s pretty clear that I need… Continue reading

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-22

  By Twitter feed

Gas stock was great. Roxanne Pauline and friends are the best organizers in the state # Conference call on the future of progressive politics in PA! Today! Join us at 7:00 pm. Call in number: 213 289 5450 Access code 472065 # Powered by Twitter Tools Continue reading