Category Archives: ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

It began on Wall Street
and now has spread to hundreds of cities around the country. The Occupy Wall Street movement gives voice to the anger of families and small businesses struggling to make ends meet while the richest 1% cut corners, cut jobs and raise prices. Health care activists know that the health insurers are some of Wall Street’s greediest players.

HCAN‘s Ethan Rome has a new piece on the Huffington Post on the nationwide “Occupy” protests and the role of the health insurance companies in sabotaging
our economy:

“America’s families and small businesses are barely hanging on while
the Wall Street-run health insurance profit machines have been jacking
up rates and providing less care. That’s why it makes sense for Occupy
Wall Street protesters to occupy them as well.

Much has been said about the banks and credit card companies that are
headquartered on Wall Street. The health insurance companies’ relentless
pursuit of profit and callous disregard for people offers another
window into how big corporations have abused people and twisted the
economy to serve their own interests.

Health
insurance companies make excessive profits, hoard massive amounts of
cash, overcharge their customers and give their top executives obscene
paychecks.“

We’re
working to spread the word about Occupy Wall Street to fellow health
care activists. Act now and share Ethan’s piece with anyone who you
think needs to read more about health care and this important movement.

Our slogan from the health care reform fight is as true today as it was in 2009: “If the insurance companies win, we lose.”

Now is the time to spread the word.

In Solidarity,

Melinda Gibson

Health Care for America Now

P.S. You can read Ethan’s full post here.

P.P.S. Click here to find an Occupy Together event near you.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Coming to a store near you…rainforest destruction? Rolf Skar, Greenpeace

10/12/2011 Nativegrl77

Tell major U.S. retailers like Walmart and Kmart not to sell rainforest destruction by avoiding APP tissue products.

Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) has brought their Indonesian rainforest destruction to American shelves with their line of disposable paper products.

Take action and tell stores like Walmart and Kmart not to sell rainforest destuction by avoiding APP’s “Paseo” tissue products.

Walk into major U.S. retail stores and you may find a secret hiding on the shelves: rainforest destruction.

It could be there in plain sight, but Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) hopes you’ll never notice. The company — which is responsible for driving massive rainforest destruction in Indonesia — has begun stocking the shelves of U.S. stores with their own line of toilet paper and tissue products marketed under the brand name ‘Paseo’.

But these products aren’t like the others. Paseo products have no recycled content — they’re made of 100% virgin tree fiber. Worse, those trees come from pulpwood plantations that are eating into Indonesia’s rainforests and destroying the last Sumatran tiger habitat.

They’re wiping away rainforests for throw-away tissue.

APP has shown no signs of stopping. They’ll only change if they learn that rainforest destruction is bad for business. That is why Walmart, Kmart and other major retailers need to say “no” to selling Paseo tissue products until APP cleans up its act.

If 40,000 of us speak out in the next 72 hours we can really get their attention. Take action and tell major U.S. retailers like Walmart and Kmart: “Don’t sell rainforest destruction — don’t sell Paseo tissue products!”

APP says its Paseo products are ‘fully sustainable’ and ‘made in the USA.’ But what their packaging and advertising won’t tell you is that Paseo tissue products are made from wood fiber shipped from overseas linked to widespread rainforest destruction.

We need to put a stop to it, and fast.

With your help, we know it’s possible. Just last week, we announced that Mattel, the world’s largest toy maker, had agreed to drop business with forest destroyers like APP. Many other companies have done the same. Why? Because companies have heard from people like you that they can’t afford to look the other way when it comes to rainforest destruction.

Send a message right now to these retailers urging them to avoid business with notorious rainforest destroyer APP.

Asia Pulp & Paper needs the U.S. market to expand their business. So far they have shown no signs of stopping their destructive ways. But together we can change that.

For the forests,

Rolf Skar
Greenpeace Senior Forest Campaigner

P.S. To hit our goal of 40,000 signatures in the next 72 hours we are going to need everyone who cares about the future of our planet’s rainforests to speak up. Forward this message to anyone you know who wants to make sure the last 400 Sumatran tigers survive.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

From GALLUP.Com: Texas and Mass. Still at Health Coverage Extremes in U.S.

10/12/2011 Nativegrl77

Texas residents continue to be the most likely in the United States to lack health coverage, with 27.2% reporting being uninsured in the first half of 2011. At the other end of the spectrum is Massachusetts, where 5.3% of adults are uninsured.

www.GALLUP.com

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

a message from Ben Betz, People For the American Way

10/12/2011 Nativegrl77

This is outrageous. A corporate-backed right-wing group fighting to dismantle workers’ rights in Ohio hijacked the words and image of a great-grandmother who had filmed an ad for our allies, distorting her message and making it look like she supported their position against workers.

Cincinnati resident Marlene Quinn had filmed a TV ad for our friends at the “No on Issue 2” campaign — the campaign to repeal Senate Bill 5, Ohio’s version of the Wisconsin bill that stripped public workers of their collective bargaining rights. In the ad, she told the story of her grandson and great-granddaughter’s rescue by firefighters, and rightly made the case that passage of Issue 2 on the ballot this November, affirming SB 5, would lead to less firefighters there to protect Ohioans.

In a shockingly underhanded move, a leading right-wing group in the fight, Building a Better Ohio, stole the footage of Marlene for its own ad, and presented it in a way that made it look like Marlene was for Issue 2!

Ten Ohio TV stations have already pulled the ad and we’re going to keep the pressure on the rest until do too. Help us by joining our petition to Ohio TV stations now.

www.pfaw.org

In an email for our allies at the No on 2 campaign, Marlene said of the Right’s ad:

“It’s insulting to the brave firefighters who saved the life of my great-granddaughter. I’m outraged they are using my face and my words to push their harmful agenda. They certainly did not ask my permission. I feel violated.”

Watch a side-by-side video comparison of the two ads and sign our petition now.

We hope you’ll speak out against the Right’s latest dirty tactic, and then engage others to do the same.

Thank you for all your support and activism to fight the Right’s dirty tricks.

— Ben Betz, Online Strategy Manager

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Tell Congress: Start Creating Jobs, Not Cutting Them …Joan Entmacher, National Women’s Law Center

10/11/2011 Nativegrl77

It’s about jobs. You know that the most urgent deficit facing this country is the jobs deficit. It’s time for Congress to do its job and pass a plan that creates jobs for the millions of Americans who are desperately looking for work.

We expect the Senate to vote tonight on whether to allow debate to begin on President Obama’s jobs plan. It couldn’t be more timely or important. Last week, we got some news about the job market, and it’s not a pretty picture. Women gained just 4,000 of the 103,000 jobs created last month. The main reason? Cuts in funding for public services are disproportionately eliminating jobs held by women. Since the recession officially ended in June 2009, women have actually lost jobs and their unemployment rate has risen.

President Obama has introduced a plan, the American Jobs Act, to put women and men back to work. Yet some Senators may block the plan from even being considered!

You can help. Tell Congress it is time to stop cutting jobs and start creating them! Please call 1-888-659-9401 TODAY and ask your Senators to support the American Jobs Act.

Please call 1-888-659-9401 today. When connected to your Senators’ offices, please tell them:Your name, where you are from, and that you are a constituent.
That millions of Americans are desperately looking for work and need Congress to act quickly on the American Jobs Act.
That you support paying for the Act’s investments in job creation by making millionaires pay their fair share of taxes and oppose paying for them with further cuts in funding for public services that will destroy more jobs and create greater hardship.
Once you place your call, please call back to be connected to the office of your other Senator.

The American Jobs Act would keep teachers and first responders on the job, invest in rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, provide job training, create incentives to hire the long-term unemployed, provide subsidized employment for disadvantaged workers, extend emergency unemployment benefits, and prohibit discrimination against jobless workers. And it fully funds these urgently needed measures in a progressive way, by levying a surtax on incomes above $1 million.

Please call 1-888-659-9401 today and ask your Senators to support the American Jobs Act. Tell them Americans can’t afford to wait any longer.

Thank you for all you do!

Sincerely,

Joan Entmacher
Vice President, Family Economic Security
National Women’s Law Center

P.S. Please help us continue to advocate for policies that protect and improve economic security for women and their families by making a generous donation today.