It’s no mystery that public employees are regularly targeted by hired guns hell-bent on portraying a negative image of these hard working Americans and the jobs they perform. AFSCME Council 4 in Connecticut has produced a television commercial designed to dispel those notions and send a clear message that public employees are “Proud to Serve You.”

“Proponents of privatization may paint a negative picture of public service workers, but the fact is that the people we represent are hard working, dedicated and efficient. This commercial reflects that spirit,” Council 4 Executive Director Sal Luciano told The Herald of New Britain, Conn.

On Feb. 21, 2007, AFSCME organized a historic event as eight Democratic presidential candidates convened in Carson City, Nevada to discuss their views on issues affecting working families. The nationally-televised forum was attended by more than 800 AFSCME members and retirees and viewed by millions at home, garnering overwhelming news coverage from national media.

Now you can relive this first-of-a-kind event on video and check what the candidates had to say on issues of pivotal importance to you and AFSCME members. You can also read the full transcript of the forum and visit a photo gallery to recapture the excitement of what AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee described as “the first step in taking back this country for the people who built this country and make it work every single day.”

The first presidential forum of the 2008 race ended just a few minutes ago.

More than 800 active and retired AFSCME members packed into the Carson City Community Center today to hear how eight Democratic presidential candidates would address the issues most on our members’ minds.

Both ABC News and C-SPAN aired the forum live on their websites (C-SPAN broadcast it live on TV, too). In case you missed it, be sure to check out both sites for re-run details.

There’s already been a lot of coverage (You can check some of it out here, here, here and here). And be sure to check the AFSCME website, for forum photos and video in the coming days!

UPDATE: Our photo gallery from the AFSCME forum is now up on Flickr.

The AFSCME Presidential Forum will be broadcast live today starting at 3:00PM Eastern (12:00PM Pacific) on C-SPAN, and it will also be streaming on the ABC News Now website and C-SPAN.org. If you’re looking for even more online coverage of today’s forum, though, you’re in luck.

Over on MyDD.com, Jonathan Singer will be blogging live from the forum, posting his rundowns of each of the candidates’ answers as well as speaking with some of them one-on-one. Read his posts on MyDD.com.

In addition to the live TV broadcasts, you can also tune into radio talk show host Taylor Marsh on BlogTalkRadio. Taylor is in Carson City and will be doing her radio show on Thursday, February 22nd at 3:00PM Eastern (12:00PM Pacific). Visit TaylorMarsh.com for more information.

We’ll continue to gather stories, blog posts and video of today’s forum on AFSCME.org — visit http://www.afscme.org/nevadaforum for the latest.

UPDATE: Jonathan is liveblogging the forum on this MyDD.com post.

Photo credit: Lisa J. Tolda/Reno Gazette-Journal

The stage is set. The candidates have arrived. And you can watch all the action in Carson City, Nevada LIVE as AFSCME hosts the first Democratic presidential forum of the 2008 campaign!

Log onto http://www.abcnewsnow.com or http://www.cspan.org at 3:00 PM Eastern (12:00 PM Pacific) to watch eight of the Democratic candidates answer the questions most on our members’ minds. C-SPAN is also broadcasting the forum live.

If you miss the live broadcasts, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to see what unfolds. More than 125 journalists from around the world have poured into Carson City to cover the event!

For a firsthand account, be sure to check out the AFSCME website for the latest updates!

The road to the White House starts tomorrow in Carson City, Nevada — and AFSCME active and retiree members are in the driver’s seat!

AFSCME will host a presidential forum tomorrow at noon Pacific (3:00 Eastern, 2:00 Central, 1:00 Mountain) with eight Democratic candidates. The forum will be moderated by ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos, who will ask these and other questions on our members’ minds:

• Will they pledge to support public service workers and the services we provide?
• What will they do to protect Social Security and ensure that every American retires in dignity?
• How will they make college more affordable for poor and middle class families?

The forum is already getting major attention across the country, including this write-up in the Washington Post. And AFSCME President Gerald McEntee wrote about the forum in his latest Huffington Post contribution.

And the best part? Even though the event is exclusively for AFSCME active and retiree members and retirees, the entire country can watch the forum live on C-SPAN and the ABC News website.

On Thursday, the Senate passed a minimum wage bill loaded up with more than $8.3 billion in corporate tax breaks. If their goodies for business weren’t included, Senate Republicans said they would preserve the current poverty wage of $5.15, where it has been stuck for 10 years.

“Republicans are demanding billions in corporate tax breaks in exchange for a $2 bump in the minimum wage. As they play their political games, low-income workers continue to wait for their first raise in a decade,” Gerald W. McEntee said in a released statement.

“Business doesn’t need another break; the working poor do. The American people have spoken on the minimum wage issue. Republican leaders had better start listening to them, or their lopsided November defeat is going to be a preview of what’s to come in 2008.”

Raise the minimum wage? Check. Allow the government to negotiate prescription drug prices? Check. Repeal subsidies to Big Oil? Check.

In less than 50 hours of floor time, the House Democrats have passed all of the measures outlined by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as part of the 100 Hours Agenda to help working families. Like Pelosi stated in The Huffington Post news site: “This is only the beginning” of the new direction America is taking.

Yesterday, the House voted 264-163 to rescind $14 billion in tax breaks and subsidies that oil companies have enjoyed these last few years, garnering record profits while Americans felt the pain at the pump. The money will be put to good use: developing alternative energy projects and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

And with that, the House has kept its part of the bargain and its commitment to the millions of Americans who voted for change in November. Now the ball is on the Senate’s court. Let’s make sure these initiatives become reality.

When it comes to prescription drug prices, it seems as if some people think it’s best to let pharmaceutical companies charge what they see fit and continue raking in the profits. Fortunately, House members did not feel that way last Friday as they voted 255-170 in favor of a bill allowing Medicare to bargain for better prices for seniors.

Shouldn’t Medicare’s 40 million beneficiaries be able to look for whoever offers the best price simply on account of their purchasing power. Apparently, that’s not how Pres. Bush likes it. He has already announced he will veto the initiative, claiming it “reduces convenience for beneficiaries and ultimately increases costs to taxpayers.” In other words, maintain the special interest law known as Medicare Part D which prohibits the government from negotiating with drug manufacturers.

It looks as if the lessons of Nov. 7 still haven’t quite sunk in for some yet. The reason why millions of Americans voted for a new Congress was because they were fed of this doublespeak and constant catering to corporations.

Let that be a reminder that even as working families keep scoring victories, there is still a lot of work to be done to make the 100 Hours Agenda a reality.

On April 3, 1968 the Rev. Martin Luther King spoke in Memphis, Tenn. in support of African American sanitation workers on strike for better working conditions and recognition of their AFSCME union (see video). Ensuring that workers were treated with respect no matter their race was almost unimaginable then and — in some places — remains a daunting task today.

And what about gender equality? How many people dreamed back then that we would have a woman Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives today?

We’ve made extraordinary progress in our country advancing civil rights for all, but the fight for dignity is not over. It goes on through struggles like raising the minimum wage, lowering prescription drug prices and making sure every worker can exercise the right to join a union through the Employee Free Choice Act.

MLK Day is not only a holiday to honor a great man’s fight for social and economic justice. It is also a reminder that the struggle continues and it involves all those who have benefited from living in a better world thanks to the sacrifice of our forebears.