Category Archives: ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Vets and Pay equality … VoteVets.org


www.votevets.orgWhen we were commissioned in the United States Army over forty years ago, pay equality was not an issue. Both of us were paid the same $450 a month paycheck we all received as no time in grade Second Lieutenants.

Pay was published in multiple formats and every soldier knew what America paid its men and women with zero discrimination for the youngest Private or Lieutenant to the oldest Command Sergeant Major or General.

But when our Soldiers leave the Army and enter the civilian workforce, life changes. And it changes more for our female veterans than for our males. Women on average receive about 25% less for equal work than their male counterpart.

We need your help fixing that.

Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), one of our great Senators, introduced S.84 – Paycheck Fairness Act on 23 January, 2013. In short, this act gets after the pay challenge for all American women, and our Veterans. It further goes after bosses who retaliate against employees who reveal their salaries to colleagues in an effort to produce the transparency in the civilian world that works so well in our Armed Forces.

But on multiple votes, the GOP has defeated the passage of this bill.

For that reason, VoteVets requests your support for Senator Mikulski’s Paycheck Fairness Act. Add your name to our petition in support of this important legislation.

Thank you very much for reading. After you’ve sounded off on this issue, please share this email with your family and friends.

We’ll be in touch as the legislation moves forward.

All the best,

Major General (Ret) Paul Eaton & P.J. Eaton
VoteVets.org

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Here’s a sneak peek at the results


Support the Museum today!
Support the Museum!

Recently, I asked several of you to take part in our Supporter Survey to help ensure the successful launch of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2016.

If you completed the survey, please accept my heartfelt thanks for providing your personal guidance as we make important decisions about our opening exhibitions, special events, and other programming.

We’re still analyzing the survey responses, but I wanted to share the results from one key question: “How do you feel about the Museum’s commitment to presenting painful episodes of the African American experience, such as slavery and the Jim Crow era, in addition to positive aspects?”

An overwhelming 95% of survey respondents agreed that it’s important for the Museum to include the negative as well as the positive when presenting African American history. These results reaffirm strong support for the Museum’s mission to bring the entire African American experience to life.

The survey answers will provide our curators, educators, and historians with a better understanding of how especially dedicated Museum supporters like you feel on a wide range of issues — from the periods and areas of African American history we should focus on, to how we can best increase public awareness of the Museum.

I hope you’ll help us put the insights we gain from the Supporter Survey to the best possible use — and help us raise the $250 million from private sources needed to match the funds Congress has approved to build the Museum. Can I count on you to make a special donation of $50 or more now?

With the personal support of people like you, we’re building a living, breathing museum that will educate all Americans about the central role that African Americans have played in our nation’s history … inspire a constructive national conversation on race … and foster understanding, healing and reconciliation. It’s a legacy you can be proud of.

Thank you again for your leadership and commitment as a supporter of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

All the best,
Lonnie_Signature.jpg

Lonnie Bunch
Founding Director

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Legally Married and Legally Fired


By

The Fight For Equal Rights For LGBT Americans Does Not End At Marriage

We’ve been talking a lot about a certain Supreme Court case over the past month, with the Affordable Care Act under attack for a second time. Next up, the Supreme Court will hear another important case in April on whether to legalize marriage for committed same-sex couples throughout the country. While proponents of equality are hopeful for a historic decision to finally ensure marriage equality nationwide, regardless of the outcome, the fight for LGBT equal rights will not end in June. One aspect of that fight is securing basic non-discrimination protections for the LGBT community.

While the fundamental right to marry the one you love has been extended to Americans in over thirty states, we still have a ways to go in enacting meaningful anti-discrimination laws across the country. As the graphic below demonstrates, LGBT Americans are still vulnerable to discrimination in many other ways. And click here to learn more about all the protections that LGBT Americans don’t have.

BOTTOM LINE: While the Supreme Court may soon rightly decide that marriage equality is constitutional, the fight for fairness and full equality will not be over this summer. Congress and the States need to act to ensure equal protections for LGBT Americans.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Climate Change … Fantasy Tournament

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OFAClimate change deniers live in a fantasy world, and OFA is dedicated to making sure they’re sufficiently embarrassed by their anti-science positions.

That’s why we’re introducing our first-ever Climate Change Fantasy Tournament. We’re asking Americans to vote to decide the nation’s worst climate change deniers — and we’ll make sure the champion gets a big congratulations in their home district.

Voting starts today — go get started on the first match-up and help decide who’s the worst of the worst.

Check out this bracket

We’ve matched up 16 of the most notorious deniers in America in a winner-take-all tournament — from House Speaker John Boehner, to Ron “Sunspot” Johnson, to a congressman from California who’s so far out there on climate, his theories have landed on Mars.

We learned this week that 85 percent of eighth-graders know the basics of climate science, but only half of the U.S. Senate does. It was only a few weeks ago that one senator threw a snowball in the halls of Congress as a way of saying that climate change isn’t happening — as if the fact that winter is happening somehow trumps the agreement of 97 percent of the world’s climate scientists.

It would be funny if climate change weren’t such a serious issue.

We’ve made real progress in this fight, through the outstanding growth of clean energy like wind and solar in the past few years, and the launch of President Obama’s Clean Power Plan to cut carbon pollution from power plants.

But we can’t truly tackle this problem together as long as so many of our elected officials publicly deny the basic science of climate change.

That’s why we’re not letting them off the hook — help call out the worst of the worst of the deniers.

Vote on the first match-up here:

http://my.barackobama.com/First-Round-Match-Up

Thanks,

Jack

Jack Shapiro
National Issues Campaign Manager
Organizing for Action