Old PDI Website Going Down

Due to membership dispersion and lack of use, PDI's web site at http://www.illinoisprogressives.org will be going down in late September, 2013.

We will still be able to post news and information here. I'll update more on the new e-mail list here later.

Our alternate communication method will be a Yahoo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pd-il/

Regards,

Dan

[PDI] Everyday Socialism, American-Style, Is Happening Now

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http://truth-out.org/news/item/16353-everyday-socialism-american-style-is-happening-now

*Prepare to have your mind blown by this article. In local particular, the
comically-broken Illinois State pension system comes to mind upon reading
this, but that's small potatoes overall. - Dan
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[PDI] WINDPOWER 2013 - Chicago

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http://www.windpowerexpo.org/2013/

This weekend, May 5-8, McCormick Place.

Hosted by AWEA, (American Wind Energy Association, www.awea.org ) this is
the premier wind energy expo for North America.
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[PDI] Pledge to support striking Chicago workers! | SumOfUs

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http://action.sumofus.org/a/chicago-strike-pledge/
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[PDI] A reason to vote on Apr. 9- College of DuPage (District 502)

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disclaimer:
DAWN is a non-partisan organization and does not take a stand on a particular party or endorse a candidate.

However, the COD ( Dist 502 ) is a non-partisan race and affects virtually everyone on our mailing list. The issues addressed in the below forwarded letter are valid and deserve your consideration when you vote on April 9th. The writer, Peter Cooper, has encouraged that this letter be shared widely.

From: Peter Cooper<mailto:petercooper502@gmail.com>
To: pcoopervb@glenellyninfo.org<mailto:pcoopervb@glenellyninfo.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2013 1:39 PM
Subject: College of DuPage (District 502) Vote to Replace Dave Carlin and Joe Wozniak


Dear Friends:<>

We have an upcoming election on April 9th. Among the offices up for selection are Trustees for Community College District 502 (College of DuPage). I urge you to give special consideration to this election.

Over the past four years, I have had the opportunity to observe and follow the leadership of the College of DuPage. The behavior of the senior administration and the Board of Trustees has left me outraged and convinced that they are not acting in the best interests of the College or the community, that they are poor stewards of the College and that they are not answerable to their constituents or associates. As a result of their inadequate leadership (or lack thereof), our tax rates for Community College District 502 have increased precipitously at the same time as the costs for credit hour has risen for students. Yet, the quality of our students' experience has suffered, as the increased tax dollars and costs have gone for projects having comparatively little to do with student education and targeted instead to personal aggrandizement, fawning publicity and personal retribution. Unless we change the leadership at College of DuPage, we are destined to be saddled with an expensive physical trophy that drifts further and further from its core mission of public education.

Many people have blamed the leadership of the College on President Robert Breuder. It is true that Mr. Breuder is mean-spirited and condescending to the College's students, faculty and staff, and is demeaning to and contemptuous of both the public and the College Trustees – the public's representatives. But the College Board of Trustees appoints the College President and sets all policy for the College. The Policy Manual for the Board of Trustees states:

"The Board of Trustees of Community College District No. 502 has the legal authority and responsibility to govern the College in accordance with the Illinois Public Community College Act. The Board will appoint a president to organize and manage the institution within Board policy. * *

As the governing body of Community College District No. 502, the Board of Trustees is responsible for the development and adoption of Board policies and for making decisions related thereto. The Board's authority in this area is final, subject to applicable statutory and regulatory limitations. (The President is responsible for developing appropriate administrative procedures to effectuate Board policies.)"

It is the responsibility of the College Board to set policies and to hold the President accountable. If Mr. Breuder has charted a course that is different from the Board's policy, it is the Board's responsibility to steer him true and they have failed. If, instead, the current policies reflect the Board's direction, they are bad policies that harm the school and the community. In either event, the Board of Trustees must be held accountable, and by that, I mean they must be replaced.

I want to share a few, specific concerns about the College leadership and the operation of COD.

First, there is a real question of whether the Board of Trustees fully operates within letter and spirits of the Illinois Open Meetings Act. The Illinois Open Meetings Act (OMA) is designed to ensure that the public has access to information about government and its decision-making process. OMA requires that public bodies, such as the COD Board of Trustees, give the public adequate notice of its meetings and agendas, and conduct its deliberations in open session. Likewise, the law limits a public body's ability to conduct public business in secret closed sessions. Anyone who has ever attended a COD Board meeting or watched a video of a meeting knows that there is comparatively little public discussion at Board meetings, and that many actions are taken through a non-discussed or debated consent agenda. Likewise, the Board routinely adjourns to closed executive session with little or nor explanation. Public participation at Board meetings is discouraged and then strictly curtailed and limited. The COD Board of Trustees is the least transparent and accountable public board in Illinois with which I am familiar.

Second, the decisions and actions of the College Board and Administration over the past several years call into question the soundness of their judgment and policies. For example, since the College's encampment at Lambert Farms in Glen Ellyn, it received the services of the Glen Ellyn Volunteer Fire Company, a highly-rated fire department. This included ambulance services and fire protection, for which the College paid no fee. Recently, in an effort to separate itself from Glen Ellyn, the College contracted with the Lisle Woodridge Fire Protection District for fire and ambulance coverage at a substantial cost. Lisle Woodridge is a wonderful department, but its nearest firehouse is 4 miles (9 minutes) away; the Glen Ellyn Volunteer Fire Company is 1 ½ miles (4 minutes) away. The College regularly needs fire and rescue services for its community, but has adopted a policy at an increased cost that puts that emergency care farther away. The only explanation or justification was the desire to separate from Glen Ellyn.

Waterleaf restaurant is another example of the College's misuse of resources for personal aggrandizement as opposed educational benefit. According to the December 23, 2012 Daily Herald, in 2012, Waterleaf suffered an operating loss of $576,000. Waterleaf is not really a part of the College's culinary and hospitality program; students serve meals only twice a week and the restaurant has a professional kitchen. Rather than being integral to the curriculum, the restaurant is a "trophy" for the College's administration – a place that the President and his staff can entertain guests in style. In other words, COD's restaurant – which was built at a substantial expense to the community – does not play a significant role in the educational mission of the College at the same time as it competes directly with our local restaurants. Likewise, Waterleaf offers one of the County's most extensive wine lists, featuring a 2008 Peter Michael Winery, "Les Pavots," for $320. I understand that COD has rebuffed efforts to learn who was involved with selecting the restaurant's wine list. This is particularly relevant in that Mr. Breuder has been involved in controversies with his previous two employers, Harper College and Williamsport Area Community College, over expenses incurred in developing wine programs there.

The College's spending priorities on plant and people routinely are out of balance. While the College has eliminated the positions of a number of staff and faculty who dissented from its policies, it has ballooned its "public information" staff. COD has more public relations employees than virtually any other college or university in the State of Illinois, with the exception of the University of Illinois. Yet, the College remains in a public and protracted fight with its staff and faculty, and has eliminated core courses of study, seemingly on the whim of the administration. COD has uprooted and replaced its mature and appropriate landscaping with poorly planned and unsustainable plantings. These trees, shrubberies and bushes, which were planted at considerable expense, will not survive for more than the short term and are susceptible to disease and destruction. The College Board has permitted the expenditure of a substantial amount of money for a short term, temporary "beautification" project.

I have left out of this analysis the petty dispute that the College ginned up with the Village of Glen Ellyn. Suffice it to say that the College made safety-related changes to the design and construction of some of buildings that may not have occurred without the intervention of the Village's staff and agents.

In summary, the College of DuPage is not being run in a manner that fully benefits and serves its taxpayers, students, faculty or staff, and the College Board of Trustees must be replaced. While I will refrain from endorsing any particular candidate, please note that David Carlin and Joseph C. Wozniak are incumbent members of the COD Board. Mr. Carlin, who has run a political consulting business and was Congressman Joe Walsh's District Director, has been the President of the Board of Trustees for the past four years. The actions that the College has taken – the increased taxes, the increased costs, the administrative excesses and antidemocratic activities -- all reflect Mr. Carlin's leadership and Mr. Wozniak's passive acquiescence.

In two weeks, we will have the opportunity to right COD's course and COD Board of Trustees in more competent hands. We will have the opportunity to put in place a Board that respects the community and our values, and that will focus on the education of our children and neighbors and not on power and transitory trophies. Over the past four years, Mr. Carlin and Mr. Wozniak have proven that they are not good stewards of the College or fiduciaries for the community. On April 9th, I hope that you will join me in selecting their replacements.

Thank you for considering this message. If you are inclined, I hope that you will consider forwarding it to your friends an neighbors, who may not have had the chance to study this election.

Peter Cooper


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[PDI] YTDO annual St. Patrick's Day Dinner presents Chicago Alderman Ameya Pawar

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The York Township Democratic Organization will hold its 57th annual
St. Patrick's Day fundraising dinner on Sunday, March 17. Our keynote
speaker will be Chicago Alderman Amewa Pawar. The event takes place at
Drury Lane Conference Center at 100 Drury Lane in Oakbrook Terrace.
Reception at 5:00 PM, program to begin at 6:00.

Tickets start at $60 per person, $110 per couple, $550 per table of
ten. You can order them at http://www.yorkdemocrats.org/dinner.php

If you're not familiar with Alderman Pawar, keep reading....

Ameya Pawar is the forty-seventh ward Alderman for the City of
Chicago. Ameya is also the first Asian-American elected to the Chicago
City Council. Ameya ran a grass-roots campaign that focused on going
door-to-door and ideas. He proved that elections can be about ideas,
shoe leather, and mobilizing the community. Prior to becoming
alderman, Ameya was on staff at Northwestern University in the Office
of Emergency Management. Ameya has master's degrees from the
University of Chicago and the Illinois Institute of Technology. In
2009, Ameya was a US State Department Scholar and has presented his
work in emergency management to FEMA and other national academic
conferences. In 2011, Ameya was named to Crain's Chicago Business 40
under 40 list.

Since being elected to office, Ameya has sponsored legislation
creating a framework for urban agriculture, defending workers' rights
by taking action against wage theft, licensing debt collectors, and
amending the human rights ordinance which bars employers from
discriminating against job applicant's credit history. Last December,
Ameya introduced an ordinance to create an Office of Independent
Budget Analysis which would provide objective analysis for the annual
budget and any proposed privatization effort. Recently, he authored an
op-ed in the Tribune calling for mandatory liability insurance for gun
owners. In the ward, Ameya has allocated million in tax-increment
finance money for parks, schools, and other infrastructure projects.
Under Ameya's leadership, the 47th Ward is seeing over 400 million
dollars in improvements. Some of these projects include: the
construction of a boathouse, Kerry Wood Cubs Field (the first IHSA
regulation baseball field on the north side), two major school
expansions, and many other projects. Ameya was instrumental in Mayor
Emanuel's effort to implement Open 311. In fact, Ameya is the only
alderman to develop a smartphone application which allows residents to
report service requests directly to 311 from their phone. The app
Chicago Works is available today for free in the iTunes and Droid
stores. Additionally, he has been appointed to the Illinois Innovation
Council by Governor Quinn, and has served on the board of directors of
47th Ward's Common Pantry (food pantry).


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[PDI] Tell Congress: Renew the Wind Production Tax Credit

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http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/wptc/
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[PDI] Fighting The Good Fight: York Township, IL Precinct 112 DuPage County Dem Committeeman: A Thanksgiving Note From Dan...

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http://york112dem.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-thanksgiving-note-from-dan.html
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[PDI] Black Box Voting : (National) HERE IT COMES: HAVA'S BABY - NO WARM BODY NEEDS TO ACCOMPANY THE VOTE -

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http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/8/82341.html

Folk, this is a critical post to see - Dan
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[PDI] Karl Rove Loses Election After Being Checkmated By Cyber Sleuths? | www.occupyforaccountability.org

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http://occupyforaccountability.org/index.php?q=node%2F1075
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[PDI] Rove “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore”

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http://myplayfulself.com/wordpress/archives/16230

This page makes the claim that Anonymous locked Karl Rove's computer
operatives out of the system they had put into place to steal the U.S.
election.

I've been saying since 2008 that the Democrats found better hackers than
the Republicans as a mild joke, but if this page is to be believed, I was
closer to the truth than I knew.

Regards,

Dan
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[PDI] Global Warming Silence on Sunday TV - petition

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http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/592/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=11871
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[PDI] SignOn.org - Ohio Secretary of State Husted: Stop your last-minute attempt to disenfranchise voters

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http://www.signon.org/sign/ohio-secretary-of-state?source=homepage
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[PDI] Fwd: Spread the word there are very good candidates to elect in District 2 DuPage.

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For those looking for quality local candidates to support with money
and/or volunteering, there's some right in our back yard (so to speak).


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Spread the word there are very good candidates to elect in
District 2 DuPage.
Date: Sun, 4 Nov 2012 08:40:39 -0600
From: Don Kirchenberg <kirchenberg4forestpreserves@gmail.com>
To: undisclosed-recipients:;

*Thank you again for your help and support!* Before it's all over we need
to be sure to let everyone know there are very good choices in District 2
DuPage for the County Board and Forest Preserve Commissioner positions. We
still have lit and areas to cover, You may also assist with phone calls.
I'll be at the Caribou Coffee on the southside of Roosevelt just west of
Summit in Oakbrook Terrace from 10:00AM til approx.11:30 with lit and maps.
We are just dropping lit at homes. You need not ask questions of the voters.

*#2 If you are unable to walk and drop lit help us spread the word to your
neighbors, friends and families.* Forward the video postcard to your social
networks. *Post them to Facebook, blogs & Twitter.* Forward them in an
email. Help us spread the word!

District 2: Liz Chaplin (CB) and Don Kirchenberg (FP)
www.videopostcard.us/dupagedems/dupage2

*#3 I have phone numbers you can call between now and during Tuesday.* Let
me know. Call me anytime. Thanks again!

Don Kirchenberg
630-853-7650 mobile
*Email:
**Kirchenberg4ForestPreserves@gmail.com*<Kirchenberg4ForestPreserves@gmail.com>

WEB: http://protectourforestpreserves.org/
*Check this blog for news about the forest preserves and campaign: **
http://citizensforkirchenberg.blogspot.com/*<http://citizensforkirchenberg.blogspot.com/>




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[PDI] Greg Palast | Investigative Reporter

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http://www.gregpalast.com/starting-today-no-charge-for-my-bestselling-book-no-joke/
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[PDI] Fwd: Kucinich Action: Extending Our Efforts for Additional Candidates

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Hi all. . . .

How about a "money bomb" for select local candidates via Kucinich's new
Action PAC instead of Ron Paul or big money-controlled Tea Partiers for
a change??? Every little bit helps, because as you know, Kucinich ain't
made of money.


-------- Original Message --------


Kucinich Action
<http://action.kucinich.us/page/m/13310f7b/111caf68/12bd275b/1e63654a/19479028/VEsH/>


Geraldine,

Dennis Kucinich

Throughout the week, our Kucinich Action PAC has been extending its
efforts by supporting the top additional candidates of your choice.
These individuals will be the leaders for next year's Congress as our
movement seizes this opportunity to influence and revamp our political
landscape. With just a few days remaining to Election Day, we are
continuing to support our "Champions for Change" with a vigorous /Get
out the Vote/ effort.

Through Our Movement's tireless action empowering these candidates to
win in their elections, we help to transform politics in our nation in
order to achieve equality, economic justice, better educational
opportunities, health care for all, and prosperity through a lasting peace.

*Please help Kucinich Action PAC - in a victory for all people.*
<http://action.kucinich.us/page/m/13310f7b/111caf68/12bd275b/1e63654b/19479028/VEsE/>

Thank you,

Dennis

<http://action.kucinich.us/page/m/13310f7b/111caf68/12bd275b/1e636548/19479028/VEsF/>
<http://action.kucinich.us/page/m/13310f7b/111caf68/12bd275b/1e636549/19479028/VEsC/>


Paid for by Kucinich Action PAC.

PO Box 110475 | Cleveland | OH | 44111 | 216-252-9000

unsubscribe
<http://action.kucinich.us/page/m/13310f7b/111caf68/12bd275b/1e63654e/19479028/VEsD/p/eyJKU1ZGVFVGSlRDVWwiOiJoZWFsdGhhZHZhbnRhZ2VAY29tY2FzdC5uZXQifQ==/>




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[PDI] Voting machines tied to the Romneys could decide the election in Ohio

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http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/hart_romney/?rc=fb_share1&r_by=-3886643-gfKAEbx

Credo petition @ 331K signatures I'm told, looking to get to 400K.

Dan
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