Archive for the ‘Progressives’ Category

Nigeria: APC Slams Jonathan for Hobnobbing With Alleged Boko Haram Sponsor

press release

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has accused President Goodluck Jonathan of exhibiting a shocking act of indiscretion by hobnobbing with an alleged Boko Haram sponsor, Modu Sheriff, who is not known to have been investigated and cleared of the weighty allegation against him.

In a statement issued in London on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party wondered what message President Jonathan was sending to his compatriots and indeed to the international community when he took Mr. Sheriff along during his visit to Chad Monday to confer with President Idriss Deby on cooperation against terrorism.

"This action by President Jonathan confirms what the APC has always believed: That the President either knows more than he is willing to admit on the issue of those who are behind the Boko Haram insurgency or he is willing to sacrifice the battle against terrorism on the altar of political expediency. Either way, this action by the President is the height of indiscretion at best, or a palpable exhibition of callowness at worst.

"It also confirms our fears that Modu Sheriff was planted as a mole in the APC by his friends in high places, who are jittery about the birth of the party and would do anything to destabilize it," it said.

APC said the President could not pretend not to be aware of a report sent home by Nigeria's Defence Adviser in Ndjamena, Chad, in 2011, detailing the suspicious activities of Mr. Sheriff in Chad concerning alleged Boko Haram sponsorship and asking the Federal Government to investigate him.

The party said it therefore beggars belief that President Jonathan would choose to take the same personality along with him to the same Chad on a trip to canvas cooperation against Boko Haram terrorists.

"If this is a joke, it is one joke taken too far, especially at a time that Nigeria has been loosing territories after territories to Boko Haram; at a time that the same Modu Sheriff has been fingered by another source other than the Nigerian Defence Adviser in Chad, and at a time that calls are being made for an independent investigation into the allegation that Modu Sheriff and former Army Chief Azubuike Ihejirika are Boko Haram sponsors.

"Or could it be the case of it takes a thief to catch a thief?" it queried.

APC said it was apparent that President Jonathan smuggled Mr. Sheriff into his entourage, as the official statement announcing the trip never mentioned that the former Governor of Borno State would accompany the President on the trip, even while the list of those to accompany the President was included in the statement..

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Nigeria: APC Slams Jonathan for Hobnobbing With Alleged Boko Haram Sponsor

Presidents directive on #BringBackJonathan belated -APC

The All Progressives Congress has described as a good first step the order by President Goodluck Jonathan for the removal of the #BringBackJonathan billboard in Abuja.

It further described the billboard a mockery of the #BringBackOurGirls hash tag that has helped to call global attention to the fate of the over 200 girls of Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, who were abducted by Boko Haram militants five months ago and have remained in captivity.

In a statement on Wednesday by APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party, however, said the President made a mockery of his administration and his country by waiting for an international condemnation of what it called the shameless and brazen usurpation of the#BringBackOurGirls hash tag before issuing the directive to stop it.

APC said, Had the US newspaper, Washington Post, not written a stinging editorial, skewing the Jonathan administration for appropriating the BringBackOurGirls hash tag for his re-election, the administration would have continued its brazenness without regards to the feelings of the parents of the girls or indeed the Nigerian people.

Again, the administration has waited for a global opprobrium before doing what is right. Recall that it took an international media campaign before the Jonathan administration acknowledged, after all of 19 days, that the Chibok girls were missing in the first instance.

Recall also that it took a 17-year-old, Yousafzai Malala, to make the President realise that he should meet with the parents of the girls, even if he eventually insulted the grieving parents by inviting them to Abuja instead of going to visit them in their abode? It is important that we dont make a mockery of our own people, so that we dont become an object of international mockery.

APC said belated as the Presidents directive on #BringBackJonathan hash tag was, it was a good first step that must be quickly followed by another directive, ordering the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria to immediately stop its rallies.

The party believed the TAN rallies had offended the sensibilities and intelligence of Nigerians.

APC said, The noisy and sycophantic rallies being held across the nation, ostensibly to collect signatures from Nigerians urging Jonathan to seek re-election, contrast with the challenges currently facing the nation, which is being dismembered, town by town, by the terrorist group, Boko Haram.

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Presidents directive on #BringBackJonathan belated -APC

Campaign banners removal order: Directive belated, says APC

Mr. Lai Mohammed | credits: File copy

The All Progressives Congress on Wednesday described the order by President Goodluck Jonathan for the removal of the #BringBackJonathan campaign bill boards as belated.

The party however described the order as a good first step but that it fell short of what Nigerians expected from the President.

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said this in a statement he issued via an e-mail from London.

The party described the #BringBackJonathan as a mockery of the #BringBackOurGirls hash tag that had helped to call global attention to the fate of the over 200 girls who were abducted by Boko Haram almost five months ago and remain in captivity.

According to the statement, the President made a mockery of his administration and his country by waiting for international condemnation of the shameless and brazen usurpation of the #BringBackOurGirls hash tag before issuing the directive for it to stop.

The statement partly read, Had the US newspaper, Washington Post, not written a stinging editorial skewing the Jonathan administration for appropriating the BringBackOurGirls hash tag for his re-election, the administration would have continued its brazenness without regards to the feelings of the parents of the girls or indeed the Nigerian people.

Again, the administration has waited for a global opprobrium before doing what is right.

The party noted that it took an international media campaign before the Jonathan administration acknowledged, after all of 19 days that the Chibok girls were missing in the first instance.

It also recalled that the President only agreed to meet with parents of the abducted girls after the intervention of the 17-year-old Yousafzai Malala.

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Campaign banners removal order: Directive belated, says APC

Fight for Postal Service is a progressive fight

Progressives have always fought for the U.S. Postal Service, as part of a broad commitment to public services and a special commitment to meet the needs of the rural communities from whence the populist and progressive movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries emerged.

When Robert M. La Follette sought the presidency in 1924, he did so on a Progressive Party platform that made a specific commitment to fight for the Postal Service.

We believe that a prompt and dependable Postal Service is essential to the social and economic welfare of the nation, declared La Follettes supporters. Their campaign made a specific commitment not merely to maintain the USPS but also to aid postal workers, declaring: As one of the most important steps toward establishing and maintaining such a service, it is necessary to fix wage standards that will secure and retain employees of character, energy and ability.

La Follette and the progressives of the past were right to fight for the Postal Service, and for postal workers.

And it is right to maintain that fight today. That is why U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., is leading a bipartisan group of senators in seeking a moratorium on irresponsible and unnecessary cuts to the Postal Service.

Ignorant and irresponsible politicians and pundits keep trying to perpetuate fantasies about supposed debts run up by the USPS. But the reality, notes Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who worked with Baldwin and Montana Sen. Jon Tester to craft the moratorium letter, is: The Postal Service is not going broke. Instead of slashing decent-paying jobs and slowing down mail, the Postal Service must be allowed to sell more products and offer more services that the American people need. We must also end the Bush-era mandate to prefund 75 years of future retiree health benefits. This mandate is responsible for all of the losses at the Postal Service for the past two years.

The mandate must be lifted as part of a broader plan for modernizing and expanding postal services. But, in the meantime, USPS infrastructure must be maintained.

That's why Baldwin and Sanders both speakers at Saturdays Fighting Bob Fest in Baraboo are calling for a one-year moratorium on implementation of an austerity agenda that would undermine the integrity of the system by slowing down mail delivery nationwide, closing up to 82 mail processing plants and eliminating up to 15,000 jobs.

This is an essential struggle for all Americans who recognize that austerity attacks on the Postal Service like attacks on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid represent an attempt by corporate interests and their political pawns to weaken essential public services. They do so to ease the process of privatization, which will lead to less service at a higher price.

Some politicians are more than ready to do the bidding of the privatizers. But Baldwin and Sanders have gotten a majority of senators to sign the call for a moratorium. In addition to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Senate Republicans such as Utahs Orrin Hatch and Missouris Roy Blunt are signers.

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Fight for Postal Service is a progressive fight

BAD Trade Deals killed America -Right Wing fascists blame progressives – Video


BAD Trade Deals killed America -Right Wing fascists blame progressives
This is a topic libertarians generally ignore and blame liberals and Democrats over.

By: Ellie likeswater

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BAD Trade Deals killed America -Right Wing fascists blame progressives - Video