It IS NOT TOO MUCH to ask that people have Thanksgiving and Christmas off. Obviously, some people will have to work--emergency personnel, law enforcement and hospital personnel mainly--but we have PLENTY of time to shop for the holidays without asking retail salespeople to give up their holiday.

Wal-Mart (along with other merchants) are requiring their employees to work on Thanksgiving. They are being forced to forfeit time with their families to support the greed of massive corporations who are concerned only with their bottom lines.

We want to guarantee that Elizabeth Warren is elected to the Banking Comittee by the Senate. She will help lead the way to banking reform and oversight. She will put the Glass Steagall Act back in place.

The past few weeks have been deeply trying ones for New Yorkers, with scores of lives and thousands of homes lost. The storm exposed not only our vulnerability as a city, but widespread inequality as well. Wall Street reopened one day after the storm, but many in public housing waited three weeks for heat, and many others remain without adequate shelter. But we’ve also seen extraordinary acts of generosity and courage, as people have come together to provide food, blankets, money, helping hands, comfort, and hope on an incredible scale. As we turn from relief to recovery, we face a stark choice. Will we simply rebuild what was there before – a city riven by inequality and poverty, vulnerable to climate change, with government decisions too often driven by corporate interests rather than the public interest? Or will we build on the remarkable spirit of organized compassion we’ve seen – to try to create a city where everyone is protected, and no one is homeless? Will we rebuild two cities, or one? Mayor Bloomberg should make this a recovery that genuinely works for everyone. Let’s rebuild by creating forward-thinking infrastructure and good jobs, while including residents in the decisions about the future of their communities. After Hurricane Katrina, rebuilding policies focused on corporate tax breaks rather than public housing. Here in New York, the 9/11 recovery ensured a resurgent Wall Street, but created a Lower Manhattan that was even less affordable for most New Yorkers. We must invest significant public resources to rebuild our city and create the sustainable infrastructure we need. While we do that, we must also insure genuine economic opportunities, affordable housing, a healthier and safer city for everyone. Let’s reject a trickle-down recovery. Mayor Bloomberg should invest in New Yorkers and their neighborhoods, so New York City’s recovery creates a more sustainable, equal, and democratic New York. • A more sustainable recovery will invest in infrastructure we needed long before Sandy - like neighborhoods and environmental systems that are sustainable in the long term and help protect New York from extreme weather. We need to focus on preventing climate change by expanding our mass transit system, promoting energy efficiency and green buildings, and accelerating regional alternative energy projects like solar, tidal power and wind farms. • A more equal recovery will create good jobs for those impacted by the storm. Let’s make sure that publicly-funded rebuilding jobs go to low-income communities, and pay workers enough to lift them out of poverty. And let’s not just rehouse people made homeless by the hurricane – but also the 46,000 people who were in NYC homeless shelters before Sandy. • A more democratic recovery will empower regular New Yorkers – especially those in hard-hit communities – to help envision the city we rebuild, so that rebuilding creates stronger neighborhoods and doesn’t concentrate risks in low-income communities. We should strengthen the community organizations that were first on the ground in Hurricane Sandy’s hardest-hit neighborhoods, giving them a central role in rebuilding their neighborhoods and setting them up to be even stronger in the next crisis. Hurricane Sandy can be an opportunity, to rebuild a more sustainable, more equal, more democratic New York City.

This story is important and I know that New Jersey Communities United members and supporters would stand with Helen & Travis and their effort to ensure Atlantic City casinos “Do More" than "Do AC"! Please read their petition below and support Atlantic City's residents & workers! - - - - Hurricane Sandy devastated millions of families along the East Coast, but in no city is the line between the devastated and the unscathed as pronounced as it is in our hometown of Atlantic City. Our homes remain uninhabitable as we continue to wait for heat, hot water and some semblance of normalcy. As we struggle to rebuild, casinos like Revel are open for business, offering out-of-towners a place to relax and indulge. We ask that you acknowledge the severity of the damage in your own backyard and provide desperately needed help to the residents of Atlantic City by contributing to the recovery efforts. For better or for worse, Atlantic City is our home. We are part of the generation born immediately after the casinos first opened their doors for business, so we have never known our city without the gaming industry dominating the skyline. And now, we’ve never seen our city in such ruins. These are additional hardships on a town that was already suffering: 25% live well below the poverty line, and thousands more are just barely above that mark, in the ranks of the working poor. Our unemployment rate is over 12%. Meanwhile, in one night Kevin DeSanctis, Revel’s CEO, makes ten times more money than what most local families make annually. Revel has a moral and financial obligation to the city that sacrificed its resources, public spaces and quality of life so that it could open its doors to the public. Atlantic City physically restructured its neighborhoods to accommodate the casino’s construction. Eminent domain pushed long-time residents out of their homes so the street leading up to the entrance could be widened. Revel’s grand opening was ultimately made possible by a $261 million tax-rebate package by Governor Chris Christie. And finally, when Hurricane Sandy hit, an additional $18 million investment by taxpayers in a beach replenishment program protected the property against damage. Now is the time for Revel to step up, go beyond contributions to the Red Cross and privately controlled relief funds, and connect residents with direct services and resources. We are calling on Revel to set up a station for hot meals, showers, community space for area youth, and work with Atlantic City residents—many of them Revel employees—to ensure a full restoration of the local neighborhood that flooded during Hurricane Sandy. While an ad campaign is being launched to counter the images of the destruction in your backyard, telling people to “Do AC,” we are asking you to “Do More.” In Solidarity, Helen & Travis New Jersey Communities United Atlantic City

Let's have Rush Limbaugh and Co. and the right wing radio and tv have to compete in the media markets with everybody else and end his and his cohorts monopoly. They need to share the public waves with all participants instead of them teh righ twing have it all to themselves.

JC Penney CEO Ron Johnson deserves to be commended for not only keeping his stores closed on Thanksgiving but also for having the decency to his employees by not opening on Black Friday until 6 am.

Bill O'Reilly's comments post election have been inexcusable. Stoking the worst fears of racists is the lowest form of social commentary and entertainment. Boycotting The O'Reilly Factor advertisers is the only way to make it clear to Fox News that race baiting will not be tolerated in our country.

Hostess workers are being scapegoated because they are standing up to corporate greed. Hostess' executives are now blaming workers for poor decisions they made that drove Hostess into the ground. What’s happening here is a classic Wall Street tactic—blame the little guy so that they can cover their greedy corporate policies that are gutting the middle class. Sign our pledge to stand with Hostess workers and against the tide of corporate greed wrecking our economy.

taxpayer dollars have subsidized corporate profits for too long. they should be the first to go in the debate to balance our nations budget.

Instead of listening to and learning from its workers, Walmart has sought to silence us and retaliate against those who dare to speak up. Warehouse workers who work for Walmart contractors have also experienced retaliation for speaking out. Now, Walmart workers have had enough. It's not an easy decision. But without an end to the retaliation in sight, workers Walmart workers from coast to coast are walking off the job in protest. On Black Friday, and throughout the Holiday Season, we're standing up for an end to the retaliation against workers who speak out for what's right for our families, our communities, and our country.

Overturn Citizens United v. The Federal Election Commission. America was founded in response to the tyranny of a despotic oppressor. Our 18th century revolution set the stage for a new, democratic way of life. But it took less than two hundred years before we lost our way and once again took up the yoke of oppression. Through a long history of self-serving legislation and judicial decisions, monied interests managed to cede overwhelming power to corporations, ultimately threatening our very republic. It is time for a second American Revolution; one in which we cast down this insidious corporate tyrant and restore government control to those whom it should and must represent: we the people. Undue corporate influence over our legislative process must and should be strictly limited, first by overturning this disastrous decision by the SCOTUS.