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The day after Labor day in an election year marks the official beginning of campaigning. President Obama is touring the country with what amounts to a stump speech for Democrats. Yesterday he spoke to a crowd in Cleveland and placed the blame for a stagnant economy on the shoulders of Republicans. He positioned Democrats as champions of the middle class who will end the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich while cutting taxes for middle income Americans. The President specifically named House Minority Leader John Boehner as the leader of the Republican movement that he said has relied on obstructionism to win in November. Boehner is one of the most outspoken critics of the President and he is poised to become speaker of the House if Republicans gain a majority in November. It has long been expected that Democrats would lose many seats in the mid-terms after gaining control of the White House in 2008. In addition to lack-luster attempts to decrease home foreclosures and unemployment, Democrats do not have a unified strategy to combat the resurgence of a far-right ideology. An August Gallup poll found that Republican voters are significantly more enthusiastic about the upcoming elections than Democrats. Dylan Loewe is a Democratic speechwriter and political strategist who says the Democrats can become a permanent majority, if they take advantage of a unique confluence of factors at play in the nation. Dylan Loewe’s new book is called Permanently Blue: How Democrats Can End the Republican Party and Rule the Next Generation.

GUEST: Dylan Loewe, regular contributor to the Huffington Post, Demoratic speechwriter and strategist. His new book is Permanently Blue: How Democrats Can End the Republican Party and Rule the Next Generation

Find out more at www.permanentlyblue.com.

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An indigenous Guatemalan man named Manual Jamines was shot in the head and killed by Los Angeles Police officers in the Westlake area of Los Angeles over the Labor Day weekend. The Sunday evening shooting prompted hundreds of people protesting against the LAPD for three consecutive nights during which several arrests were made and at least three police officers injured. Thirty seven year old Jamines, a K’iche’ speaking immigrant working as a day-laborer, left behind a wife and three children in Guatemala. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck has defended the shooting saying that the three officers involved, Frank Hernandez, who fired the shots, Steven Rodriguez, and Paris Pineda, have all been on the force for at least five years. He also says that the shots were fired merely 40 seconds after the police initiated contact with Jaminez. LAPD claims that Jamines was drunk and lunged at the officers with a knife in his hand. Chief Beck attended a community meeting last night, and has pledged to launch an investigation into the incident. The Westlake-MacArthur Park area of Los Angeles is home to a large Central American immigrant population, many of whom are indigenous and do not speak Spanish. On May Day 2007 the LAPD was involved in a violent attack on a peaceful immigrants rights gathering in MacArthur Park that eventually resulted in the city paying out more than $13 million in legal settlements.

GUESTS: Luis Carrillo, Consulting Attorney with the Guatemalan Consul General and a civil rights lawyer, Robert Foss, Legal Director of the International Institute of Los Angeles and former legal Director of CARECEN (Central American Resource Center).

Special thanks to Ernesto Arce.

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BP yesterday released a report on the causes of the April 20th explosion on its Deepwater Horizon oil rig. The report is based on an internal investigation, and the company was immediately criticized for spreading the blame instead of taking responsibility for the events that led to 11 deaths and the most catastrophic oil spill in the history of the US. The international oil giant found that there were 8 events that led to the disaster, citing mechanical, engineering, and human failures. It blames the oil rig owner Transocean, and contractor Halliburton, for major oversights and flawed construction. Transocean called BP’s findings “self-serving”, and Halliburton said the report contained, “inaccuracies.” There seems to be a general consensus, from environmental groups to members of Congress, that this internal investigation was an attempt to shift the spotlight and limit BP’s liability. Representative Edward J. Markey responded to the report by saying, “Of their own eight key findings, [BP] only takes responsibility for half of one.” The malfunctioning blow-out preventor from the Deepwater rig was recovered from Gulf waters on Saturday and placed under the custody of the US government. It will be examined as part of anticipated investigations conducted by various US departments that could lead to criminal charges.

GUEST: Kieran Suckling, the Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Biological Diversity

Find out more at www.biologicaldiversity.org.

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While pundits and economists worry about Wall Street’s well-being, Americans worry about losing their jobs, paying their bills and the health of the planet. The capitalist marketplace promotes the exploitation of people and natural resources as cheap fixes. But you don’t have to abandon your values to save a buck. Welcome to the People’s Marketplace.

Do you rent the place you call home? Whether you’ve been a renter for life or a recent home foreclosure made you one, knowing your renters rights can save you a lot of money? How? Being an informed tenant will help you avoid unlawful evictions or repair costs, among other things, saving you cash and peace of mind.

Renters rights are granted by state, county, and city governments, so they vary widely depending on where you live. In California, a good place to get to know your basic rights is the website for the California Department of Consumer Affairs at www.dca.ca.gov. On the left side of their home page is a section called “quick hits”. Click on the heading “landlord/tenant” and you’ll be taken to a surprisingly well-organized and easy to use online guide all about California landlord and renters rights. The sections include “Having repairs done”, “Dealing with Problems”, and “The eviction Process”. You will also find lots of links to websites specific to your city and county. California renters can also check-out www.tenantstogether.org for information. Renters with disabilities including HIV/AIDS, senior citizens, and those with a dependent child all have rights specific to them, but you got to know them to demand them.

If you rent in Los Angeles, you must, must, must, visit the website for the Coalition for Economic Survival, at cesinaction.org. They have pages and pages of information on the rights specific to Los Angeles tenants. They also have a tenant’s rights legal clinic every Wednesday evening at 7pm and Saturday at 10am where you can go for in-person advice from a knowledgeable advocate. If you are involved in any problem with your landlord that you can’t fix by talking to them, visit the clinic as soon as possible. For other legal aid help options try Los Angeles Legal Aid at www.lafla.org.

One of the newest and most important renter’s rights in Los Angeles: In December of 2008 it became illegal for the tenants of any building or house to be evicted simply because of a foreclosure, or if the building is sold. Again, a new owner – be it a bank, a person, or a corporation, cannot evict due to foreclosure or sale. They also cannot raise the rent outside of the rental laws your old landlord had to follow. If you receive a notice of eviction or a rent increase from a bank or new owner, you must respond within the time the notice gives, and then get help immediately.

No matter what the situation is, a small dispute over a parking space or a three-day notice of eviction, and no matter what rights you have, here are some universal rules: document every conversation with your landlord for yourself in writing to refer to later. To keep everyone honest, communicate only in writing, especially if you’re dealing with a management company or you do not have a positive personal relationship with your landlord, and send all communication through the mail with a post-office delivery confirmation, or keep a copy of every letter for yourself. And, always keep things friendly and professional.

A powerful way to protect your whole building from landlord shenanigans is to organize a tenants association. Get a group of tenants organized to meet whenever necessary. If a building is in serious disrepair, a bug infestation hits, or a new owner tries to evict everyone, a tenants association allows information to be gathered and shared quickly. Collective action is the most effective way to combat cases of egregious unlawful landlord actions. A group of tenants will also be more likely to gain the help of a tenant lawyer should legal action be warranted.

So, learn your renter’s right. Knowledge, like money, is power. This is the People’s Marketplace. Together, we can take back the economy.

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President Obama today will announce his administration’s new economic stimulus plan. It is expected to include hefty tax-credits and so-called investment incentives for businesses. Paul Krugman has criticized the business tax-cuts as being counter-productive as they will potentially cost the federal government hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Meanwhile, a new report shows that many corporations are not investing the money they do have into employment. When industry leaders like Johnson and Johnson and Verizon lay-off thousands of employees the public assumes those companies are in financial trouble. A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies titled, Executive Excess 2010: CEO Pay and the Great Recession, reveals that greed, more than fiscal responsibility, has motivated huge rounds of lay-offs. The report zeros in on 50 firms it calls “lay-off leaders”. The authors found that 72% of those 50 firms slashed jobs while their companies were not only financially stable, but were reporting positive earnings. Overall the CEO’s of these lay-off leaders took home an average of $12 million each in 2009, with some raking in many millions more. Verizon’s CEO Ivan Seidenberg took home over $17 million in 2009, and William Weldon, CEO of Johnson and Johnson, made over $25 million. Overall, the report finds that profits and top-level salaries were prioritized over the jobs of hundreds-of-thousands of Americans.

GUEST: Sarah Anderson, Director of the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies and a co-author of the most recent, and 16 previous, IPS reports on executive compensation.

Find out more at www.ips-dc.org and read the entire report online at http://www.ips-dc.org/reports/executive_excess_2010

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The biggest private-sector union election in nearly 70 years is set to take place this month. More than 40,000 healthcare employees of Kaiser Permanente will vote to choose whether they want to be represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) or the newly formed National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). The election is happening as a result of a decision by the National Labor Relations Board which was petitioned a year and a half ago by healthcare workers who wanted to be represented by NUHW. The battle between SEIU, one of the nation’s largest unions, boasting millions of members, and the newly formed NUHW which has only a few thousand members so far, has turned into a fight over local leadership versus national leadership, accountability, democracy, and union-management relations. As shop stewards and union organizers struggle to win over rank-and-file members, we turn today to labor analyst Mark Brenner.

GUEST: Mark Brenner, Director of Labor Notes

Find out more at www.labornotes.org.

SEIU’s Campaign for Kaiser is online at www.seiu-uhw.org/kaiser.

NUHW’s Campaign for Kaiser is online at www.kaisercoworkers.org.

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In 1979 President Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the roof of the White House. The act was part of his revolutionary energy policy announced in 1977 to call on the American people to reject fossil fuels in favor of alternative energies in the wake of a major energy crisis. But less than ten years later, a new president, Ronald Reagan, reversed many of Carter’s pro-alternative energy policies and removed the White House solar panels which were symbolic of the growing American environmental movement of the time. Sixteen of the panels were later donated to Unity College in southern Maine in the 1990s. Now, Bill McKibben, renowned environmental activist, author, and co-founder of 350.org, has challenged President Obama to reinstall the solar panels during an appearance on The David Letterman Show on August 31. He and several students from Unity College are hauling Carter’s solar panels on a biodiesel-fueled road trip from southern Maine to Washington, D.C. McKibben’s trip will culminate in DC on September 10, 2010, one month in advance of an international day of climate action. Over 38,000 people have signed a petition supporting McKibben’s efforts. Even the president of the Maldives—a small island nation vulnerable to sea level rise—has pledged to help install the solar panels on the roof himself on October 10.

GUEST: Bill McKibben, one of the nation’s leading environmentalists, an activist, and author of many books including The End of Nature and Deep Economy: the Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. He is also the founder of 350.org.

Find out more about the Global Work Party on 10/10/10 at www.350.org.

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