Daily Archives: 10/08/2012

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Weekly Address: Congress Should Keep America Moving Forward


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In this week’s address, President Obama says that Congress should act to keep our nation moving forward by keeping taxes low for 98 percent of Americans, cutting red tape so responsible homeowners can save about $3,000 a year on their mortgage by refinancing at lower rates, and creating a veterans jobs corps to help our returning heroes find work.

Weekly Address: Congress Should Keep America Moving Forward

In this week’s address, President Obama says that Congress should act to keep our nation moving forward by keeping taxes low for 98 percent of Americans, cutting red tape so responsible homeowners can save about $3,000 a year on their mortgage by refinancing at lower rates, and creating a veterans jobs corps to help our returning heroes find work.

In October, the White House is working to recognize a range of important causes:

Energy Datapalooza: On Monday, the White House hosted an Energy Datapalooza highlighting private-sector entrepreneurs and innovators who are using freely available data from the government and other sources to build products, services, and apps hat advance a secure and clean energy future.
MRAP Task Force: Also on Monday at the Pentagon, the Vice President commemorated the achievements of the Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicle (MRAP) Task Force—the men and women who helped accelerate the production and fielding of protective vehicles to our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, saving the lives of thousands of Americans. Learn more about the MRAP achievement here.
Educating the Educators: On Wednesday, Dr. Jill Biden announced that more than 100 colleges have signed on to Operation Educate the Educators, a partnership between the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and Military Child Education Coalition. To learn more, read Dr. Biden’s blog post about this major milestone.
The Employment Situation in September: Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the latest jobs report, showing that private sector establishments added 104,000 jobs last month, and overall non-farm payroll employment rose by 114,000. The economy has now added private sector jobs for 31 straight months. For more information, read Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors Alan B. Krueger’s blog post.
Equal Futures: Last week, the United States, along with 12 other founding nations, announced Equal Futures, a new partnership between the U.S. and other nations to advance the rights and opportunities of women and girls. Today, the White House hosted a special Office Hours session with Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President and Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls and Samantha Power, Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs, to answer questions about how the Obama Administration is working to empower women and girls through the Equal Futures Partnership. See what you missed during the live Q&A on Twitter here.

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Please stand with President Obama : Stacey Lihn & thank you

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My two-year-old daughter, Zoe, was born with half a heart. For her, that is and will forever be a “pre-existing condition” — she required two open heart surgeries already, and she’ll need one more within the next year.

At the debate on Wednesday night, Mitt Romney told you, me, and everyone else in America that repealing Obamacare would be his first priority as president — including the part of Obamacare that says insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage or charge more based on pre-existing conditions.

He said his repeal plan will take care of people with pre-existing conditions — but then his top campaign aide “clarified” after the debate that all he means is he would go back to the (inadequate) system that existed before Obamacare, which allowed insurance companies to deny coverage and resulted in bankruptcies and broken families.

In other words, despite what he said in the debate, his campaign says he has no intention to do anything to help people like my daughter, Zoe, if she ever loses coverage.

I don’t say this stuff because I’m a political junkie — I’m not. I pay attention to this because I have to.

And I don’t donate to Barack Obama’s campaign because I’m a political activist — I’m not. I give a little because I need a president I can trust, and who understands what I’m up against.

Donate $5 or more today and support a leader who we know cares about kids like Zoe and families like mine:

https://donate.barackobama.com/For-Zoe

The stakes couldn’t be higher in this election. Thanks for standing with President Obama.

Stacey Lihn

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a message from Alan Grayson



What We Need on Nov. 6, And After That.

We spend so much time thinking about who will be elected to office, and so little time thinking about what they will do when they get there.  Campaign consultants tell candidates that promises are inconvenient; you might have to keep them.  And candidates dance around the issues as though they were lit firecrackers.

Not me.  Here are my goals, after Nov. 6:

(1) Full employment.
(2) Universal healthcare.
(3) Taking corporate money out of politics and government.
(4) Reinstituting progressive taxation, to reduce the deficit and the debt.
(5) Ending corporate welfare.
(6) Improving labor standards, including pensions, sick leave and paid vacations.
(7) Ending discrimination against minorities, women and gays.
(8) Providing higher education to every student who wants it.
(9) Ending the war, bringing the troops home, and reining in the military-industrial complex.
(10) Reducing the brutal and pervasive inequality in American life.

If that’s what you want for America, too, then you need to click here, and support our campaign.

I’m working 14 hours a day, seven days a week, to try to win our race for the House on Nov. 6.  I have to, because in 2010, I was the target of the most pitch-black, break-your-back, wolf-pack Super PAC attack that any Member of the House has ever seen.  The Koch Brothers, the insurance companies, the Chamber of Commerce and the Republican Party spent over $5 million to denigrate, deprecate, devastate and decimate me.  My friends, my neighbors and even my own children saw an average of 70 blistering negative ads against me on TV — paid for by nameless, faceless monsters.

It doesn’t matter.  That was then, and this is now.  We’re winning, and after the election, we’ve got work to do.  If I’m working 14 hours a day now, then I’ll work 16 hours a day after Nov. 6.  Because America’s problems can be solved, and they must be solved.

If you want to be part of that, then help make it happen.  Show your support for our ’30 Days to Victory’ Moneybomb.

But here’s the thing – a Congressman like me, who fights for progressive, fair taxation, can’t finance his campaign with “trickle down” checks from the super-rich.  A Congressman like me, who fights against corporate welfare, can’t finance his campaign with corporate PAC contributions.  A Congressman like me, who fights for peace, can’t finance his campaign with blood money from the military-industrial complex.

On the contrary, they’re the ones who firebombed us last time.

So I have only one choice.  I have to invite you to join – or re-join – our legion of contributors, who now number almost 100,000.  People who want nothing in return for their contributions but government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

When you contribute to our campaign, you give me the freedom not to kowtow to lobbyists and special interests.  You make it possible for me to do the job the way that you would do it  — honestly, and for the greater good.

In 2010, in House races around the country, big donors ($200+) supplied 92% of the cash, and small donors provided 8%.  In our race, we reversed those numbers.  And with your help, we’ll do it again.

With your help, we will win.  And then on November 7th, that’s when the real work starts.  If you want someone in Congress who will fight – every day – for justice, equality and peace, then click here, and show that you care.

Courage,

Alan Grayson

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7.8%


| By ThinkProgress War Room

Good News on Jobs

Today is the first Friday of the month, which means it’s the day the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases monthly figures on jobs and unemployment. Today’s news was unexpectedly good, with the unemployment rate dropping sharply from 8.1 percent to 7.8 percent. Just to put that into perspective, the unemployment rate during the president’s first full month in office, February 2009, was 8.3% and it’s been above 8 percent ever since.

ThinkProgress’ Pat Garofalo breaks down today’s news:

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today that payrolls expanded by 114,000 last month, dropping the unemployment rate to 7.8 percent. 873,000 Americans reported having found jobs in September (in the so-called household survey), the most since 1983.

This adds to the total number of jobs created over President Obama’s term; revisions released last week by the BLS showed that Obama is net positivefor jobs since January 2009. Here are some other highlights from the report:

– Labor force grows. The labor force grew by 418,000 people, so the drop in the unemployment rate was not due to people giving up on looking for work.

– Revisions shows stronger summer job growth. The number of jobs created in both July and August were revised up, adding a total of 86,000 jobs.

– Public sector finally stopped shedding jobs. State, local, and federal government finally ended a long period of job contraction, adding 10,000 jobs. Revisions show that the public sector created jobs in both July and August.

– Average hourly earnings rise. Earnings rose 7 cents to $23.58. Average hourly earnings have risen by 1.8 percent over the last year.

Of course, one month’s report does not make for a good economy, but the three-month average for job growth hit 145,000, a sign of a recovering labor market (albeit, one that is recovering slowly). Overall, the economy has added 1.3 million jobs this year.

The unemployment rate would be under 7 percent without public sector jobs cuts, while the American Jobs Act that Republicans filibustered in Congress would have added millions of jobs, according to economists.

Conservatives, in the apparent belief that good news for the American economy means bad news for their prospects in next month’s elections, immediately seized on the news to allege a vast conspiracy of data-rigging at the BLS — a scrupulously non-political entity. This dovetails with the recent right-wing conspiracy theory that America’s pollsters are working in collusion the media to rig the polls in President Obama’s favor in order to depress GOP turnout.

Check out this post by ThinkProgress’ Aviva Shen to see which conservatives are peddling their newest conspiracy theory.

BOTTOM LINE: We have more to do, but today’s jobs news shows that we are on the road to recovery and can’t afford to go back to the same policies that crashed the economy in the first place.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

The women who were invisible at the presidential debate.

Mendacious Mitt’s week: 50 lies and counting.

How Romney’s tax plan could still mean big tax increases for the middle class.

Big Bird showed up at a Romney rally today.

How Obamacare’s birth control mandate will lead to fewer abortions.

Romney’s ridiculous and belated attempt to distance himself from his 47% comments.

Justice Scalia says ruling against abortion rights and LGBT rights are no-brainers for him.

Romney’s sick joke.

Romney’s real Big Bird problem: moms votes.

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Kate Livingston via Change.org


Change.org
                          Wells Fargo: Stop the foreclosure on my friend Cindi — a stage 4 cancer victim’s — home.                        
      Sign Kate’s Petition

 

Cindi Davis is a close friend of mine, and has been for five years. She is one of the most generous people I know, having taken in seven special needs pets over the years. Pretty amazing for someone who is also fighting late stage breast cancer.

My friend Cindi and her husband Kirk have struggled to cover the cost of her cancer treatment and keep up with their mortgage over the years. But when they could no longer make full mortgage payments, Wells Fargo moved foreclosed on their home instead of working with them to adjust their loan.

I’ve heard of other homeowners successfully saving their homes from foreclosure by starting Change.org petitions — and now I’ve started my own to help Cindi. Click here to sign my petition asking Wells Fargo to stop the foreclosure of Cindi and Kirk’s home.

Cindi and her husband work hard to pay for their mortgage and medical treatments.  Together with Cindi and Kirk and many of our friends, we’ve all chipped in to help cover their bills, treatments, and medications. Cindi’s sold some of her quilting work, and friends and neighbors have chipped in by organizing yard sales, raffles, and even selling candy bars.

Cindi says she explained her situation to Wells Fargo, and a bank representative said they would consider a solution — but the next she heard from the bank was a foreclosure notice. Wells Fargo has even refused to accept partial payments, and they’ve added fees and more penalties. They don’t know how to keep up.

Click here to sign my petition asking Wells Fargo to work with Cindi and Kirk and modify their mortgage so they can stay in their home.

Thank you for your support,

Kate Livingston Chaparral, NM