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Ditch Mitch

10/21/2014 Nativegrl77

a repostChildren’s health coverage? Nope.

Fair pay for women? Absolutely not.

Unemployment benefits for struggling families? No way.

Expanding protections against domestic violence and sexual assault? Not a chance.

We can likely kiss those things goodbye if Mitch McConnell heads back to the Senate in November. I mean come on. It’s 2014 and thanks to anti-choice extremists like McConnell, we still have to have these conversations. I say it’s time to Ditch Mitch.

Donate to the “Ditch Mitch” fund right now and help Alison kick him out of the Senate in November!

Thinking about McConnell and his egregious agenda really gets my blood boiling. It takes a special kind of horrible to not support the Violence Against Women Act and lie about it.

EMILY’s List has just the candidate to help ditch him — Alison Lundergan Grimes. Alison agrees that nearly 30 years in the Senate is enough for the ruthless, hyperpartisan McConnell. She’d bring a track record of success in empowering military voters, a pro-family attitude, and a strong advocacy for equal pay to Washington. Seriously — she’s just the woman to Ditch Mitch.

Are you with me? Let’s do this.

Stephanie

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Rory Graves, Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility ~~ a repost

10/21/2014 Nativegrl77 2 Comments

This has happened before.

Last year, my mother testified in Olympia about how her ex-husband shot her in 2012, and the bill we supported made it through the House, through the Senate committee, and all the way to the floor of the Senate, just to have the gun lobby pull the rug out from under our feet and table the bill.

We can’t let this happen again. House Bill 1840 would make it illegal for anyone subject to an order of protection to own a firearm and would save so many lives.

Last Wednesday, my mother and I both testified again in support of House Bill 1840 and we cannot tell you how much all the support we’ve received has meant to us.

We don’t want this type of preventable gun violence to happen to any other families. We have to make sure the bill passes this time.

And we’re very, very close — the state Senate is voting on the bill sometime in the next few days. It would be a historic moment for reducing gun violence.

I wrote to you last week about my mother, who was shot by her husband of twenty years. I know that HB 1840 would help us make sure that what happened to my mother won’t happen to others.

But to make sure the gun lobby doesn’t pull any more eleventh-hour tricks, we need to keep the pressure on the state Senate — and we don’t have much time.

Urge the state Senate to vote yes on HB 1840, and tell them to put the lives of Washington citizens first.

By Fri‌day, we’ll know whether we’ve taken a historic step forward to protect victims of domestic abuse and made our communities and families safer — or if the gun lobby has sunk yet another commonsense measure to protect lives.

A victory this week would show the world that our work is paying off, and that we’re changing the culture in Olympia.

You can help us make sure that this time the bill passes, and that what happened to my mother doesn’t happen again here in Washington.

Thank you,

Rory Graves

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a message from Jeff Merkley and family

10/21/2014 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

To me, every campaign ad starts to look the same. After a while, they all blur together.

But this ad is different. Maybe it’s because Jeff’s my husband, and maybe it’s just because the kids and I are in this one, but when I’m flipping through the channels, Jeff’s latest ad makes me smile. You can see it here:

Too many people in Washington DC have forgotten what it means to live in a regular working-class neighborhood, with kids in public schools.

Jeff and I still live in the same three-bedroom home in East Multnomah County that we’ve been in for 18 years. It is a quiet, ordinary street with neighbors who have watched each other’s kids go through local schools, learn to ride bikes, learn to drive, and play pick up basketball games in the driveway.

Writing this, it sounds a bit idyllic. But like so many communities, our neighbors have struggled with job layoffs, the high cost of college, and home foreclosures. And like families all across the country, our neighbors get up every day to work hard and strive for a better future for their families.

Jeff knows what’s at stake, and why it’s important to defend the progressive values that create those opportunities for all middle-class families. Watch the latest campaign message and see for yourself.

You’ll like this one, I promise. And while you watch, please donate to support our door-to-door campaign as we enter the home stretch.

Thanks for watching, and for standing with Jeff and me and families all across the country.

From our garage to yours,

Mary Sorteberg

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You won’t believe this story about Seth Moulton

10/21/2014 Nativegrl77

Not even Seth Moulton’s parents knew about a pair of the medals he earned while serving in Iraq: a Bronze Star and Navy and Marine Corps Commendation medal for valor.

The first for fearlessly “exposing himself to enemy fire” after four of his Marines were wounded, and the second for rushing to “the aid of a Marine who had been wounded by friendly artillery fire even though there was a chance that additional rounds might land at the same spot.”

He kept them a secret from almost everyone because there are “many others who did heroic things and received no awards at all.”

VoteVets couldn’t be more proud to support Seth Moulton’s campaign for Congress in Massachusetts against Tea Party favorite Richard Tisei. Watch VoteVets Action Fund’s latest ad supporting Seth and contribute $10 to his campaign today.