Note: alana (African Latino Asian Native American) community [add m for Mixed -bloods] alanams

When social justice, peace or civil rights movements become massive in scale, and threaten to become uncontrollable and begin to win over large numbers of people, the Democratic Party begins to shift and presents itself as a supposed ally. Its goal is always to co-opt the movement, demobilize its forces and block its development into an alternative, independent political force.

The Republican Party has historically acted as the open advocate for a platform which benefits the rule of wealth and corporate domination. They argue ideologically for policies benefiting the corporate rulers. The Republicans seek to convince the middle classes and labor to support the rule of the wealthy with the argument that "What's good for General Motors is good for the country," that what benefits corporations is also going to benefit regular people.

The Democratic Party is different. They act as a "broker" negotiating and selling influence among broad layers of the people to support the objectives of corporate rule. The Democratic Party's core group of elected officials is rooted in careerists seeking self-promotion by offering to the corporate rulers their ability to control and deliver mass support. And to the people they offer some concessions, modifications on the platform of the Republican Party. One important value of the Democratic Party to the corporate world is that it makes the Republican Party possible through the maintenance of the stability that is essential for "business as usual." It does this by preventing a genuine mass opposition from developing. Together the two parties offer one of the best frameworks possible with which to rule a people that otherwise would begin to move society towards the rule of the people (i.e. democracy).

An example of this process is our minimum-wage laws. Adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage has been gradually declining for years. Every now and then the Democrats pass a small upward adjustment that allows the downward trend to continue, but gives the appearance that they are on the side of the poor.

(Note: In NY, the Governor has the power to raise the minimum wage without legislative approval. The great liberal, Mario Cuomo, refused to do it for his twelve years in office.

Opionon Politics prompts challenge of NAACP's tax-exempt status

By DeWayne Wickham

Confronted with the charge that the Internal Revenue Service's review of the NAACP's tax-exempt status is politically inspired, IRS Commissioner Mark Everson flatly dismissed the idea.

"Any suggestion that the IRS has tilted its audit activities for political purposes is repugnant and groundless," he said in a statement.

It's going to take more than that summary judgment to convince me. While the NAACP's claim might well be "repugnant," it is hardly "groundless."

Back in 1971, another Republican president — Richard Nixon — tried to use the IRS to "screw," according to a memo by counsel John Dean, his political opponents.

When the top job in the tax agency was being filled, Nixon made it very clear to his staff what kind of person he had in mind for the position.

"I want to be sure he is a ruthless son of a bitch, that he will do what he's told, that every income tax return I want to see I see, that he will go after our enemies and not go after our friends," he said.

Nixon's "enemies list" included black columnist Carl Rowan and members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who often criticized his civil-rights record. As it turned out, the man who eventually got the IRS job refused to do Nixon's dirty work.

But the fact that a president of the United States actually sought to use IRS audits to harass and punish his political enemies is chilling — and throws open the possibility that another occupant of the Oval Office might try to succeed where Nixon failed.

This much is certain: George W. Bush is no friend of many of this nation's traditional civil-rights leaders. He's the first president since Herbert Hoover not to address the NAACP's annual convention.

Bush is disdainful of much of this nation's civil-rights leaders — whom he and many other Republicans view as allies of the Democratic Party. But it seems that he has a special dislike for the NAACP.

If the IRS review of the NAACP results in the lifting of its non-profit status, the organization's fundraising will be sharply reduced. Federal tax-exempt groups are prohibited from "directly or indirectly participating or intervening in any political campaign on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate for public office."

The IRS thinks NAACP Chairman Julian Bond may have done just that when he talked about the presidential campaign during his address to the organization's annual convention in July.

What Bond said

"The election this fall is a contest between two widely disparate views of who we are and what we believe," Bond said in that speech. "One view wants to march us backward through history — surrendering control of government to special interests, weakening democracy, giving religion veto power over science, despoiling the environment.

"The other view promises expanded democracy and giving the people, not plutocrats, control of government. The differences between the candidates this year are neither incremental nor inconsequential. Yes, the stakes are high, higher than ever in recent memory, and the consequences of loss almost too dire to bear."

At a news conference last week, Bond said the NAACP "has criticized presidential policies we deemed hostile or harmful to civil rights for nearly 100 years." Being non-partisan doesn't mean "we're non-critical," he said. "Only in an Orwellian world would honest disagreement be considered partisan, or honest differences called election interference."

Bush's civil-rights record deserves to be attacked. His claim to be a "compassionate conservative" is a cynical attempt to put a good face on his bad acts. He has underfunded "No Child Left Behind" — the elementary- and secondary-education-reform program he touts. And at the college level, he has opposed affirmative-action programs meant to give minorities access to higher education.

It's understandable that the NAACP would view Bush's record on this and other civil-rights issues with contempt.

And given the GOP's history, it is hardly knee-jerk for the civil-rights organization to suspect that its criticism of Bush has landed it onto the "enemies list" of another Republican president.

DeWayne Wickham writes weekly for USA TODAY.

November 22, 2004 08:30 AM US Eastern Timezone

Workstream and Kintera Create Marketing Alliance to Offer Workforce Management and Workplace Giving Applications

OTTAWA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 22, 2004--

More than 300 corporate customers - including Chevron, The Home Depot, Motorola, Nordstrom and Wells Fargo - use one or more of Workstream's 'employee lifecycle' software solutions. Workstream recently launched the Workstream TalentCenter(TM), a web-based Workforce Management portal that provides subscription-based application solutions that enable organizations to automate and manage the overall employee lifecycle including recruiting, performance and compensation management, employee rewards and transition services.

Charitable workplace campaigns offer employees an easy way to support charities, and corporations an opportunity to enhance employee morale and corporate branding by giving back to their community. Workstream's TalentCenter portal will be available with the Kintera Directed Giving programs, which feature web-based solutions for workplace giving and donor-advised funds, to create an easy-to-use online location for work-related activities as well as corporate-sponsored giving programs. Kintera's workplace giving programs feature corporate employee gift matching, volunteer tracking and management, political action committee (PAC) membership and fundraising drives.

"We are excited about expanding the capabilities of the Workstream TalentCenter to help employees and managers do a better job at work, and also facilitate corporate giving programs," said Kevin Dobbs, Senior Vice President at Workstream. "Both Workstream and Kintera are focused on providing these type of value-added 'Software as a Service' workplace solutions to our customers."

"Now corporations can more effectively manage their employee lifecycle, and more efficiently manage their volunteer and philanthropic endeavors," said Steve Klein, Senior Vice President at Kintera. "With the innovative technologies and corporate market presence offered by this alliance of Kintera and Workstream, together we can provide employees and the business community the online tools they need to manage, deploy and track their corporate employee philanthropy programs with just a few clicks of a mouse."

Kintera's software as a service platform, Kintera Sphere(TM), offers an affordable and easy-to-use system that provides contact relationship management (CRM), a web content management system (CMS), eMarketing and workflow applications. Under Kintera Directed Giving programs, Kintera Workplace Giving provides corporate giving solutions to EDS, the Charles Schwab Corporation Foundation, Computer Sciences Corporation and other Fortune 500 corporations to help automate and support their workplace giving programs. Kintera Fund, another Kintera Directed Giving Program, offers on-demand, software solutions for donor-advised funds and other wealth management products to prominent financial institutions including Smith Barney and Franklin Templeton.

About Workstream Inc.

Workstream provides enterprise workforce management solutions and services that help companies manage the entire employee lifecycle - from recruitment to retirement. Workstream's TalentCenter provides a unified view of all Workstream products and services including Recruitment, Performance, Compensation, Rewards and Transition. Access to TalentCenter is offered on a monthly subscription basis under an on-demand software delivery model to help companies build high performing workforces, while controlling costs. With 12 offices across North America, Workstream services customers including BearingPoint, Chevron, Eli Lilly Canada, The Gap, Home Depot, Kaiser Permanente, Motorola, Nordstrom, Samsung, Sony Music Canada, VISA, Watson Wyatt and Wells Fargo. For more information visit www.workstreaminc.com or call toll free 1-866-470-WORK.

About Kintera Inc.

Kintera(R) Inc. (NASDAQ: KNTA) is an innovative provider of software as a service that helps nonprofit organizations foster a powerful sense of community to achieve their mission. Kintera's Knowledge Interaction(TM) technology strengthens an organization's community by providing volunteers, members, donors and staff web-based tools to efficiently fulfill their tasks and share real-time data and information. The company's Internet innovations include its Friends Asking Friends(R) solicitation program and Kintera Sphere(TM), an enterprise-grade software system that provides content management, contact management, communication tools, commerce applications, community-building features and reporting functions. Kintera's technology is built on a unified database and payment processing engine. A web browser is all that is needed to use Kintera Sphere to help increase donations, reduce fundraising costs and build awareness and affinity for a cause. For more information, visit Kintera at www.kintera.com.

Kintera, Kintera Sphere, Friends Asking Friends, and Knowledge Interaction Interaction are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Kintera, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Workstream Inc.

Anticipating a possible indictment by a state grand jury in Travis County (Austin) Texas, House Republicans last week took steps to protect DeLay's position by changing a party rule that would have forced him to step aside as majority leader if indicted on a felony charge. The change will leave it up to a committee of GOP House members to decide whether an indicted leader should step down. Three close political associates of DeLay have been charged with illegally accepting and laundering corporate money for political purposes. In 2002, DeLay led a successful effort to win local races that strengthened the GOP's hold on the Texas legislature. The additional clout was used to redraw Texas congressional districts in a way that benefited GOP House candidates. Texas law forbids labor unions and corporations to fund such legislative campaigns. Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle alleges that the three Delay associates and eight corporations violated the law by illegally funneling money into these races.

A review of documents made public through civil litigation indicate DeLay was kept aware of the fundraising activities that were taking place. (DeLay’s daughter was a paid consultant to two fund-raising committees that pumped money into the races.)

Nevertheless, the official familiar with investigation said investigators would have to establish that DeLay "acted to promote" the illegal activity, and that such evidence had not been forthcoming.

"To indict and prosecute someone, we have to be able to show not just that they were aware of something," the official explained. "We have to show that they engaged in enough conduct to make them party to the offense."

There were also jurisdictional hurdles, the official said.

"For a penal code offense [such as money laundering] we would have to find something done in Travis County, Texas, to be able to indict," the officials said. "And [DeLay] wasn’t here very often."

"Tying the Knot" presented the argument that marriage had no religious significance in the Catholic Church until the Middle Ages. Before then, marriage existed strictly for feudal purposes so people would be able to eat and survive.

Marriages were compared to business relationships before they evolved into love-based relationships. Another point the film argued focused on Republican criticism of gay marriage. Republican representatives claimed that gay marriage would not be in the best interest of children. The film attacked this point by asking how broken homes and divorce are in the best interest of children. "Tying the Knot" expressed the demand for the same 1,138 federal rights that insure heterosexual marriages.

Thursday, Nov. 25, 2004 4:49 p.m. EST

Schwarzenegger Fund Raising for 2006?

If California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger hasn't made up his mind about running for re-election, why will he be in Dallas, Texas, raising money for his campaign account?

According to the San Jose Mercury News, Schwarzenegger will be in Dallas next Tuesday to accept an award for public service from former President George H.W. Bush.

While he's at it he'll show up at a small breakfast Wednesday morning where he is expected to pocket $150,000 for his 2006 re-election campaign kitty.

This despite his repeated insistence that he won't make up his mind about running until sometime next spring.

"I have no idea. I don't even think about it," he told CNN's Larry King.

That, however doesn't appear to have stopped him from getting his prospective re-election campaign in good financial shape.

The governor's chief fund-raiser, Marty Wilson, told the Mercury News that the Texas breakfast fund-raiser for the "Schwarzenegger 2006" account doesn't mean that that the governor's political team is gearing up for a re-election.

He appears to have said this with a straight face, considering that the Mercury News has reported that Schwarzenegger has raised more than $20 million since taking office, with more than $1 million earmarked to pay for political events, travel and – until this month – the $6,000-a-month bill for the governor to bunk at the Hyatt hotel in Sacramento in the absence of a governor's mansion in Sacramento.

As NewsMax.com has reported in Arnold and Maria: Still No Home in Sacramento, the hotel bill is now being picked up by a new private foundation established to pay the tab for the governor's Sacramento digs.

Not surprisingly, Democrats don't accept Schwarzenegger's denial that he hasn't decided if he'll run again.

Bill Carrick, a Democratic consultant, told the Mercury News the out-of-state fund raising is just further evidence that Schwarzenegger is getting ready for a re-election bid.

"My sense of this is he's running – period. I don't care what he says," Carrick said. "His people are all gearing up."

Dallas is an ideal place to raise political campaign contributions, being known for its mix of old money from energy businesses and new money from a growing telecommunications and high-tech industry.

"Business leaders in other states know that for the nation's economy to do well California's economy needs to do well," Wilson told the Mercury News. "Gov. Schwarzenegger certainly has that as his Number One priority."

Despite the money the Dallas contributors are kicking in to the campaign fund, the newspaper noted that not everyone among them is enthralled by Schwarzenegger's moderate political views.

While his economic policies mesh with those of Texas state leaders, he parts ways from them on such social issues such as abortion and gay marriage and has said it would be "fine" with him if voters legalized same-sex marriage, at a time when the Texas Legislature is poised to take up a constitutional ban on gay marriage in its upcoming session.

"He'll be welcomed graciously and go home with some money, but as far as the real Republicans are concerned, he'll be held at some arms length," political scientist Cal Jillson of Southern Methodist University in Dallas told the Mercury News. "They'll leave a check, but it doesn't mean their hearts are necessarily in it."

Publish Date : 11/26/2004 3:46:00 PM   Source : Software and ERP News Onlypunjab.com

When Los Altos Hills resident Craig Jones decided he wanted to make a serious difference in public education, infrastructure, and other issues surrounding this affluent Silicon Valley community, he wanted his voice to be heard by running for Los Altos Hills City Council.

Jones wanted to personally reach the more than 2,500 registered voters of the picturesque Los Altos Hills community, but he was faced with the problem of how to effectively deliver his messages. Besides exhaustively walking door-to-door through the rolling hills, he used the newly-released Voicent BroadcastByPhone 2.0 software, developed by Voicent Communications (http://www.voicent.com), as an alternative approach. The product was released just in time for the start of the November 2 political campaign.

BroadcastByPhone 2.0 is an easy to use, automatic PC-based telephone notification system designed for small businesses and organizations that need to effectively reach large numbers of people but in a highly personalized manner. BroadcastByPhone’s rich features make it an ideal communications tool for group event notifications, political campaign promotions, fundraising, customer surveys, service reminders, product promotions, and other activities.

BroadcastByPhone provides an advanced features set that enables users to record their own voice messages using any telephone. Users no longer need to worry about noisy microphone recording. They can broadcast their voice messages at a set broadcast time with automatic retries if the line is busy or there is no pickup. The software can detect a human voice versus an answering machine, and provides interactive voice commands for human responses. Users can also record incoming RSVP messages so they can gauge their recipients’ responses. BroadcastByPhone’s user-friendly call log viewing gives users complete status details about their calls.

BroadcastByPhone’s powerful message designer feature allows users to compose and edit personalized individual phone messages using a mixture of text-to-speech and voice messages. BroadcastByPhone also allows users to easily import call lists from their existing database, using the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet interface. In addition, it checks the US Federal Do Not Call List. This feature is included in every version of the product, including the product’s shareware version.

According to winning candidate Craig Jones, Voicent BroadcastByPhone helped him personally reach all of the Los Altos Hills residents. "The [Voicent automatic dialing program was an effective boost to my City Council campaign. It complimented my direct mail and personal contact in a very cost- and time-effective manner. We estimate that my calls reached virtually 100% of the homes in our town, and provided a personal touch. It was great knowing that all our residents heard from me personally."

Kathy Evans, campaign manager for Jones, explained how BroadcastByPhone was an effective communications tool during the campaign. Evans said, “It would have taken us hundreds of hours to call every member of our community. BroadcastByPhone was a great product that helped us in many ways. This is the product to use for anyone running for
public office, wishing to contact their customers, or even calling for school phone trees!"

Voicent BroadcastByPhone is available in Standard and Professional versions as well as a free shareware version with a 20-call list size capacity. The Standard version is priced at $299 and works with unlimited call list sizes. The Professional version is priced at $499 and provides unlimited call list sizes, a message designer that includes text-to-voice and voice message capabilities, and interactive touch tone and voice confirmation and response.

An evaluation copy of Voicent BroadcastByPhone 2.0 can be downloaded from the Voicent Communications web site at http://www.voicent.com. Further information about Voicent BroadcastByPhone 2.0 or any of the other Voicent telephony products can be obtained from Michelle Mann, Voicent Marketing, by calling 650-814-9037 or 800-948-1198 or via email at e-mail protected from spam bots or e-mail protected from spam bots.

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