The resolution of the debt crisis last week was a travesty. This was a crisis forced on us by Republicans who held the entire country hostage to their single-minded determination to keep taxes low on the rich. Unfortunately the Democrats bowed to many of the teabag Republican demands, and so now while millions of Americans are jobless, the federal government will be cutting spending. As Paul Krugman has so clearly pointed out, that is the exact wrong thing to be doing at a time like this. We MUST fight back.

One of the masterminds behind the Republican hostage-taking strategy is our own Senator Pat Toomey. Neighborhood Networks and MoveOn.org will be collaborating next Wednesday at noon to take the message to Senator Toomey that his mindless and immoral catering to the richest 1% of the people of this country is unacceptable. Please go here to sign up for this event. Or, if you're on Facebook, sign up here.

Out of adversity often comes progress. It is important news that NN and MoveOn are working together on this event. Many of you will remember that Neighborhood Networks was born out of a previous MoveOn campaign more than 6 years ago. For a variety of reasons it has been difficult for the two organizations to collaborate over the intervening years. But with everyone recognizing the strength of the right wing assault on basic progressive values, many of us are working harder than ever to bring the left together. That’s why both NN and MoveOn are part of the American Dream movement led nationally by Van Jones. And that’s why we are now working together at the local level as well.

So let’s not give up hope, let’s redouble our determination to work harder and with greater unity than ever to move our political system toward justice. And let’s start next Wednesday by bringing a powerful voice to one of the great architects of reaction in our country, Pat Toomey.

Here’s the simple but powerful message that we’ll bring to Toomey’s office: “Jobs Not Cuts”. Please be with us when we deliver that message next Wednesday.