Daily Archives: 07/08/2010

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Patient’s Bill of Rights


Organizing for America

It’s been less than four months since President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act — and, because of reform, about 1 million uninsured Americans are expected to receive coverage by next year. And that’s just the start.

A new bill of rights for patients is starting to take effect, and the worst abuses of the insurance industry are coming to an end. As the President recently announced, the Patient’s Bill of Rights will ban rescission of coverage, stop discrimination against children with pre-existing conditions, and place restrictions on annual limits.

This is an incredibly important first step for reform, and we need your help. We’ve put together an information sheet that breaks down exactly what the Patient’s Bill of Rights does. To start spreading the word in your own community, print it out and pass it along to your friends, post in your local coffee shop and grocery store, or bring it along with you when going door-to-door.

Download the Patient's Bill of Rights

There are those who still aren’t sure about health reform, but as the law takes effect, we have a new opportunity to convince the skeptics. OFA supporters are the very best communicators and organizers in communities all across the county — you can bring the debate out of D.C. and into your town, and this information sheet is a great tool we believe will help.

The Affordable Care Act works to put consumers back in charge of their health coverage and care. And because of the Patient’s Bill of Rights, Americans can know that their insurance will be there when they need it most.

The more information sheets we put in visible places, the stronger the message we’ll send about our support for health reform and President Obama. Share it with your friends. Mail it to your family members. If you’re a medical professional, post it in your office or waiting room. Be creative — anything you do will be a huge help in making sure Americans understand what the new law does for them.

Will you help us make the case for change? Download your information sheet and share the Patient’s Bill of Rights with five friends today:

http://my.barackobama.com/patientsbillofrights

Thanks,

Mitch

Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Walmart spends millions to avoid regulations …ThinkProgress.org


UNDER THE RADAR

LABOR — WAL-MART SPENDING MILLIONS TO BLOCK $7,000 FINE THAT COULD BRING NEW REGULATIONS: Hoping to avoid potential new regulations, Wal-Mart is spending “millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours” to combat a small, $7,000 fine from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) which was assessed after a Long Island employee was trampled to death by a crowd of shoppers. The company is arguing, according to the New York Times, “that the government is improperly trying to define ‘crowd trampling’ as an occupational hazard that retailers must take action to prevent.” Despite that claim, Wal-Mart, “seeking to avoid criminal charges,” has established new crowd-control policies nationwide. But the company is fighting hard to avoid the fine, which “has mystified and even angered some federal officials.” “In contesting the penalty, Wal-Mart has filed 20 motions and responses totaling nearly 400 pages and has spent at least $2 million on legal fees, according to OSHA’s calculations.” A spokesman for the company said, “OSHA wants to hold Wal-Mart accountable for a standard that was neither proposed nor issued at the time of the incident. The citation has far-reaching implications for the retail industry that could subject retailers to unfairly harsh penalties and restrictions on future sales promotions.” This is yet another step in Wal-Mart’s on-going battle against workers’ rights. The Wonk Room’s Pat Garofalo notes, “I’d like to think that a regulation along the lines of ‘don’t let crowds run through your store and trample your employees to death’ would be fairly uncontroversial.” He concludes, “Safety regulations are put in place to, among many things, protect workers from the sort of corner-cutting that makes a company’s bottom line look better. … [I]t’d be nice if every proposed regulation weren’t treated as an assault on capitalism itself by the Big Business community.”

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

“It’s time for a bold plan to get America off of oil. Please sign the Petition.


Click here to sign the petition:

“It’s time for a bold plan to get America off of oil. Please learn from the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and take action to end the U.S. addiction to oil.”

Sign the petition


Tomorrow, MoveOn members are delivering our “No More Oil” petition to local Senate offices all across the country.

According to our records, you haven’t signed yet—and to send a clear message to senators as they head back to Washington next week, we need 50,000 more signers today.

This is a crucial time, because the Senate is deciding right now what to include in the bill to respond to the BP oil disaster, and according to news reports, they could vote on the bill within the next two weeks.1

If enough people sign, this petition will be yet another reminder to Congress that Americans want to get off oil for good. So please sign the petition below and make sure to get your name included before we deliver it tomorrow. Just click this link to add your name:

http://pol.moveon.org/nomoreoil/o.pl?id=21641-9640874-1sp8pax&t=5

The petition says: “It’s time for a bold plan to get America off of oil. Please learn from the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and take action to end the U.S. addiction to oil.”

Also, since this is the final deadline for this important petition, can you also forward this to a few friends and post it on Facebook and Twitter?

Clean energy champions are pushing to make sure the bill responding to the BP disaster includes steps to really get us off oil—like big increases in public transportation and energy efficiency, and cutting taxpayer handouts to Big Oil.

But senators in bed with Big Oil are pushing for giveaways to oil, like Clean Air Act rollbacks, or even, if you can believe it, new offshore drilling.

Momentum to get off oil has increased after President Obama put this goal front-and-center with his address from the Oval Office and the massive outpourings of support at the Oil Spill Vigils and Hands Across The Sand events that MoveOn members helped organize.

But we need to keep pushing, and these petition deliveries can add to that momentum—if enough people sign. Click below to add your name, and then forward this email or share it on Facebook and Twitter to keep it going. Here’s the link to sign:

http://pol.moveon.org/nomoreoil/o.pl?id=21641-9640874-1sp8pax&t=6

Thanks for all you do.

–Steven, Duncan, Laura, Jeff, and the rest of the team

~ my 2cents ..., ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

thorny Thursday &some News …


If not now -when

The President will be stumping for the Democratic Party in Nevada and Kansas City the VP will be in California and it will all be on cable around 1:30pmET, I am so proud but I will say that he needs to tighten up his crew before Congress comes back.

Are you registered to vote -know any first time voters? anyone who is not registered to vote?-it is time to get involved …let your voice be heard! register to VOTE for Climate change alternative energy, Immigration, Jobs Bill, Reform of all things Financial

It is time for the Democratic Party and our President to find courage to sway more left of center because if they have not already gotten it -that, is who voted in the 2008election -that- is the 53%

We are all counting down the days to when the Senate comes back, We the People need to take the advice of Alan Grayson who by the way was an awesome guest on CNN. The Congressman not only held his own but was able to challenge the cable host … his advice is not just call members of Congress he suggested a March on Congress when they get back to tell Congress to get the Jobs Bill done for the people of American … hey, why not use Reconciliation.

Today, among other things will be a day of heat heat heat red meat heat =sunburns. It has been more cool of late which quickly moved into a couple of days of mild warmth a few days of rain and mild warm weather and though the warnings were there it seemed to be announced then it happened just like the weather people stated. That is not to say meteorologists do not know what they talk about because that is the job at hand, it is just here in the 206 we usually have opposite weather that includes a lot of rain on most days. It is hot hot hot. It’s Summer!!

And more hot News that has occupied the minds of sports fans for quite sometime now is about LeBron James. The famous Lebron is scheduled to announce what team he will join on ESPN Thursday night and while the talk has been heated; folks who viewers had no idea were interested have given so-called opinions about where he should go. Then we see people in the news making comments and or complaints. I don’t know who started it but the word Diva suddenly got play and people ran with it …apparently some jealous folks but then they said we are all at fault for letting him get this way …huh? It just seems like a good PR job to me what with two or three States getting some coverage on TV. The main event will be tonight about 9pm but that might be ET so if you really are interested better check the programming because you will def miss it here in the PST if you actually wait until 9pm … I suspect his 1-hour program on ESPN, which got many complaints will probably be replayed over and over.

In other issues gaining more heat as the days wear on is the BP disaster which has yet to be taken to the next level and though we all know what is going on the cameras are no longer getting that close up. We are no longer are-watching reporters picking up tar balls and visits to the beach are becoming less but we all know they and the gusher is still there. It has been stated that there are 27,000 wells possibly leaking, it was confirmed and is now being reported as if it was the current President fault , implying that not only was it his fault but then it slides into a tirade of why ken Salazar should be fired. I am tired of the ability that reporters, hosts, cable heads use to spew info that may be true or not it is even more annoying that folks from the right, specifically politicians think they will say whatever they want without being challenged… but this is happening too. I am beyond offended that the various stations have let Republicans and or some Democrats get on and say this spill is Obama’s Waterloo we have him now because he is the President; forget the nonsense that limbaugh and or beck are spewing because that stuff is too obvious. It’s the crap that the 3 major cable stations allow and or hope will get folks worked up but it just makes me turn the channel…thank goodness for channel surfing because the nonsense between now and November will be endless.

Last, We the People know that Freedom of Speech is not only a right but also a responsibility. It just seems like the art of Free Speech has become twisted definitely misused and abused daily

I would like to say thank you to Media Matters for America and Think Progress because while there are other sources these two are priceless.

Other News …

**There is a Russia -US spy swap as we speak

**The Congressional Budget Office has found that the Senate’s climate change legislation would reduce the deficit by $19 billion over the next decade if enacted. “There is no more room for excuses; this must be our year to pass comprehensive climate and energy legislation and begin to send a price signal on carbon,” said the legislation’s authors, Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT).

**Former White House green jobs adviser Van Jones spoke at the Campus Progress National Conference yesterday and encouraged students to be patient with Obama. “We’re trying to build a pro-democracy movement in a country that at least for eight years was run by straight-up authoritarians, and it’s not going to be easy,” he said. Jones added that despite his “rough exit,” the whole experience was “worth it.”



C-SPAN …

watch White House Press Briefing

watch Pres. Obama on Exports

President Stumps for Recovery Act in Missouri & Nevada

President Obama continues to visit communities around the country this week as part of an effort to focus attention on Recovery Act projects underway across the nation. Today, the President travels to Kansas City, MO, to tour a Smith Electric Vehicles facility where he will deliver remarks to workers on the economy. He will later headline a campaign fundraiser on behalf of Democratic Senate nominee Robin Carnahan. The President continues to Las Vegas tomorrow where he will headline a campaign rally for Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) at the Aria Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

Pres. Obama in MO: 1:30pm ET on C-SPAN2

Greece Looks to reinvigorate economy through “green technologies”

Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Spyros Kouvelis will today appear at the Woodrow Wilson Center to discuss Greece’s efforts to shift away from fossil fuels while still facing an economy-crippling financial crisis. He is expected to highlight his nation’s goal of raising renewable energy usage ten-fold to meet European Union renewable targets for 2020. Greece has attempted to reinvigorate climate change talks by suggesting a regionally focused approach that would allow other countries outside of the European Union to formulate climate measures that fit their national needs. It has already begun negotiating with other Mediterranean nations and has pointed to the possibility of climate-induced droughts in African and Asian as motivation for other countries to utilize the same approach. In December 2009, the U.N. Climate Change Conference attempted to produce a legally binding treaty to reduce greenhouse gases, but the “Copenhagen Accord” is not legally enforceable. Countries from around the world are set to meet later this year for U.N.-sponsored climate talks in Cancun, Mexico.

Brookings Panel to “Reimagine” U.S. Immigration Policy

In the wake of Tuesday’s U.S. Justice Department announcement that it challenging Arizona’s new immigration law in federal court, the Brookings Institution today hosts a forum on “Reimagining U.S. Immigration Policy.” Brookings Vice President and Director of Governance Studies Darrell West will discuss his new book, “Brain Gain: Rethinking U.S. Immigration Policy.” The event will also include a panel debate on immigration reform and specific proposals to improve federal immigration strategy. The Justice Department lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, argues that immigration policy must be consistent nationally and that the Arizona law oversteps state authority. The law, S.B. 1070, requires state and local law enforcement to stop and question suspected illegal immigrants. It passed the state legislature in April and is set to take effect July 29 unless a judge grants the federal government’s request for an injunction to block its implementation.