Let's try this one more time: SEIU/AFSCME announcement live online NOW

Click the link. I'll have a wrap up when it's done.
update: Welcome to the 3 million members of SEIU and AFSCME, who have now joined IUPAT and CTA and 500000 ordinary Americans in the quest to take back our country! WOOHOO!
This is what I was able to transcribe while watching the announcement:
intro: instead of it being about the heirarchy in washington, it's about the people - the members of these three fine int'l unions. i think they are the people you have to hear from today. starting with kim mcdevitt, from IUPAT local 1937:
kim from IUPAT: i have a few problems with the things going on in our country. namely the health care crisis. i make good money in the union but i can't afford my insurance, my car payment, etc... we all need to look to the future and get our fellow members to stand behind this man.
joyce matthews from AFSCME: housekeeper at U of maryland. past few years have been tough for people like me and even tougher on the millions trying to find a job during this bush recession. there's a lot of talk about economic numbers. let me give you some. raising two teen boys, take home only $260 per week. i have not gotten a cost of living raise, my health insurance premium is going thru the roof, my coworkers are getting laid off and who's to say i'm not next? we need a voice on the job to fight these conditions. we realise that we need a president who is willing to stand strong for us (TONS OF APPLAUSE). i know gov dean has what it takes to fight for people like me. back in september gov dean came to college park and blasted the administration for not taking our union seriously (MUCH APPLAUSE) and called on them to finish negotiations with us. workers are having the same trouble at morgan state, too. gov dean wore a sticker in support of them during a national debate. i am proud to be AFSCME and i am proud that my union is standing with gov dean. he tells it like it is and we can count on him to fight for us (APPLAUSE, LOTS!).
lisa from SEIU: every day i work with patients who can't afford quality health care.... as a mother it makes me angry that bush is sending billions of dollars over to iraq when teachers in baltimore are losing their jobs because there's no money to pay their salary. we need a pres who won't quit until EVERYONE has good quality affordable ehealth care and all of our children can get an education (LOUD APPLAUSE). i believe every single one of us can make a difference by sending bush back to texas (APPLAUSE).
andy stern, SEIU pres: tells a story about a nurse who's volunteering for dean who is a single mother with 8 kids and who works double shifts. asked her why she volunteers when she has all this on her plate? she said last week she treated a woman who never had health care and because of the cost she let her health go and ended up losing her sight in one eye, then was diagnosed with renal failure and died two days later. the nurse said that the woman died because she was poor. SEIU endorses dean!!!! (LOUD APPLAUSE) according to stern it's all about health care. they are comfortable with his positions on long term care and medicare and after nov 4 there will be a doctor in the white house. (tells a story of working with gary mcentree and how they've worked together for 25 years. he's really complimenting mcentree a lot and saying great things about him)
mcentree, pres of AFSCME: isn't this a great day? you feel the power in this room? we are united behind the next pres of the US. this is - and you know it - the most important election of our lifetimes. and it's up to us. together we can defeat this anti-worker, anti-family, anti-democracy president and his fat cat friends! (APPLAUSE) it is time to take back america. bush has got to go and we have to show him the door (APPLAUSE). mr bush, we have had enough! when we stand up and fight we win. we're going to rebuild our country. we're going to take back our country from the fat cats and the special interests. no longer will we allow millions of dollars in tax cuts to go to rich americans and big business while the rest of us are kinda lucky to get a dime. no longer will we allow 3 million jobs to be lost. no longer will we tolerate 44 million americans without health insurance as bush believes in single payer in iraq. no longer will we allow a surplus of 5 1/2 trillion dollars turned into a deficit. we have a candidate - we have aleader - who represents our values and i believe - and we all believe - he can defeat this president who actually never won (APPLAUSE). our leader, our candidate believes in worker rights. he'll repeal the bush tax cuts and use the money for health care, homeland secrity, and jobs with good benefits. he believes you can't have social or economic justice without workers having a stong union voice on the job. he wants to make our tax system fair and simple, to assure us of social security and medicare and that they are adequately funded, this man of vermont has the best chance to beat bush. as gov he made the tough choices neccessary to move that state forward and will do no less for our country. he's running a grassroots campaign like no other - like we've never seen - energisings hundreds of thousands of people across america. we wanna go on record - we will work like hell night and day to make him our nominee because we know he will work night and day for us - working men and women and people of all colors. the right man for the job, the right man to unite this country. the right man to take on bush and his minions. that's why all of us are here and many of us will be there in november. sisters and brothers the moment has come, the time is now, the place is here. we have the power, we will prevail, we will stand shoulder to shoulder with our candidate, sisters and brothers the next pres of the US - howard dean!

i've paraphrased Dean's speech here - Anna
dean come in to a rousing ovation: thank you thank you thank you pres stern, williams, and mcentree. (mic cuts out, he jus grabs another one and goes for it) don't you think black and purple and green look just great? they talked alot about what this election is about. it's about us. it's about what kind of country we're going to have. we can go thru the litany of all the things bush has done, but bush's motto is if you're rich you derserve it and if you're poor you deserve it. thats not the country we're going to have after january 2005.
it's an extraordinary thing - what you have done over the last week - it's going to change america because it's going to put working people back in the dirver's seat in this country.
pres bush gave 3 trill of our money away - 600 billions of dollars to borrow so that the top 1% can have a $26K tax cut and the rest of us can get a couple of hundred bucks. but you didn't get a tax cut because pres cut funding for fireighters and police and what about your property taxes? what about college tuition? that is not going to happen on my watch.
we've built an enormous grassroots org but what you've just done drawfs our org - 3 million members.
most know we raised a lot of money (only 1/3 of what bush raised) - we decide not to take public financing and we are going to reach out to 2 million americans and ask them for $200 each because i think there are 2 million americans who'd pay that to send bush back to crawford.
we're gonna reach into every corner of america. we're going to stand up for ordinary working people who get up every day and work hard to keep food on their table and build a better life for their children. it's about the people that built this country. (applause)
1st thing i wanna do is have health insruance for every man woman and child in america. (talks about vermont's programs then goes off on his rant about all the other countries who have health insurace - the crowd is LOVING it).
talking about rural health care and a heartbreaking story of a man who died of a stroke because they had to make a choice between medications. the price tag of universal health care - this will sound familiar to you - is $87 billion per year. (goes off on bush sending money to iraq, lots of applause)
i think for too long democrats have been running away from democrats. we need to start with our base, we need to start with those that brung us - women, african americans, latinos, unions... (applause)
we're going to give the 50% of americans who've given up a reason to vote. we're going to get them to the polls, and when we do that we're going to have more votes than the pres of the united states and this time the person with the most votes is going to the white house (applause).
there is no reason to back off from bring a strong supporter of org labor. people forget that org labor helped build america and the middle class (talks about labor movement making the middle class - w00t!, lots of applause).
we want our country back for the people who built this country and that is you (referrring to unions, tells story about civil rights movement and equal rights. talks about medicare, head start, civil rights act. voting rights acts) WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER - if one of us is left behind then this country is not as good as it should be. (tons of applause)
this pres ran to be a uniter not a divider and that wasn't true. (goes off on quotas, bush, wedge politics and divisive language, race loaded words, you know the drill). "the president played the race card" - (YOU GO HOWARD!)
i am tired of being divided by race, gender, sexual orientation, income, religion - we are one america - all of us - if this rainbow in this room doesn't prove it then i don't know what does. this is our america - thank you very much (TONS OF APPLAUSE!).
close by saying the biggest lie told by people like me to people like you is that if you vote for me i'll solve all your problems. the truth is that the power to change this country is in your hands not mine, lincoln said a gov't for/of/by the people shall not perish from this earth. YOU HAVE THE POWER to take back this country, the flag, we have the power to take back the white house and that's exactly what we're going to do! (STANDING OVATION)


The link in this story now goes to an ABC wire report about the endorsement.

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