pennsylvania
GRITtv: The F Word: Shareholders Fight Back, Dems Compromise
The ink on the compromise that kept the government open—barely--isn't even dry and they're already talking about the next round of cuts in Washington. The New York Times led off this week with an article about Obama's plan to reduce the deficit by making unspecified “changes” to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Sure, it also mentions increasing taxes and cutting military spending, but when we're embracing the conservative frame that entitlement programs are too big, that's not much to cheer about. Distributed by Tubemogul.
Email this pageGRITtv: Got Docs: All Fracked Up
This isn't the first time you've heard about hydrofracking on GRITtv. But All Fracked Up is a different kind of documentary. Jodi and Jeff Andrysick aren't filmmakers--they're citizens who were spurred into action when their town was selected as the home for toxic brine that is a by-product of fracking. After their community's action resulted in the gas company rescinding their application for disposing of the brine, they spent their own money to create their first film--and you can contact them at their website to find out how to bring them to you for a screening!
GRITtv: Hydrofracking for Natural Gas
Hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in Pennsylvania and New York is a heated topic. Whose power? Whose water? And just how natural is natural gas anyway? On the search for cheap clean energy, natural gas drilling has been sold as a solution. But is it? Affected communities are split. GRITtv's Sarah Friedland and Isabel Braverman went to the Delaware River Basin Commission's Headquarters in West Trenton, New Jersey to hear from residents, including actor Mark Ruffalo.
GRITtv: The F Word: Where’s the Party?
The winners were challengers -- right and left - and those who organized on the ground. As our friend Jane Hamsher put it primary night, "Between Obama, netroots & tea parties clearing out Senate dead wood, average age has dropped about 2 decades in the last five hours." There are lessons here, but are they party lessons? This being primary season, the only real party news came from Pennsylvania’s 12th congressional district, where a candidates competed for the seat of the late John Murtha. The district voted for John McCain in 2008 even as the state voted for Obama. Both party's House leaders showed up: Boehner and Pelosi and both poured in cash--the GOP around $1m bucks. Democratic candidate Mark Critz made jobs and veterans his top two priorities and for pictures he stood with miners in coal fields. He won -- and that's got Democrats excited. Pelosi doesn't have voters as scared as Fox News would have you imagine. And frustrated working Pennyslvanians didn't embrace tea party rage. Instead, in a tough-hit working district, organized labor turned out with a strong message on fair trade and busting the banksters. And CRITZ won. Is the lesson that Dems can relax for the fall? Hardly. It may well be a lesson that 33,000 phone calls, 16,000 door-knocks and 75,000 worksite flyers at 63 work district work sites did. That's what the AFL-CIO say they did for CRITZ this season. GRITtv with Laura Flanders brings participatory democracy onto your computer screen and into your living room, bridging the gap between audience and advocates. Watch any show, at any time: http://grittv.org Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Jane Hamsher: Battles From the Right and Left
Tuesday is the biggest primary day of the year! Activists from Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Oregon’s right and the left are fighting fierce and close battles that will be decided tomorrow. These campaigns include, but are not limited to the rivalry between corporate interest pandering Blanche Lincoln and the more progressive Bill Halter in Arkansas, Joe Sestak’s sudden, and competitive surge for the democratic senate seat in Pennsylvania. Political blogger and founder and editor of FireDogLake, Jane Hamsher joins us via Skype to sort out the details in each state, and the campaigns’ significance for the general elections. GRITtv with Laura Flanders brings participatory democracy onto your computer screen and into your living room, bridging the gap between audience and advocates. Watch any show, at any time: http://grittv.org Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Generation Obama: Where Are They Now?
After years and years of listening to pundits bemoan the lack of engagement among America's youth, the kids finally came out for Barack Obama. Many of the volunteers and organizers that put Obama in the White House were young and working on a political campaign for the first time. From the Iowa caucuses to Nov. 4, a new generation worked day and night to change their country. A year later, we round up a few of them and ask whether they're still involved. Lana Wilson, founder of Obamaerobics, Mike Jones, NYU sophomore and Obama 2008 campaign volunteer, and Ebonie Johnson Cooper, campaign organizer in Ohio and Pennsylvania, join Elizabeth Mendez-Berry, who wrote about the Obama youth organizers and what they're up to now for an upcoming issue of The Nation, to talk about what they've done and how Obama changed their generation.
