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Running On, Not From, Obamacare

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Candidates Who Support The Affordable Care Act Are Going On Offense

It has been widely reported this week that Senator Mark Pryor released an ad touting his support for Obamacare in his re-election campaign in Arkansas. While Pryor’s ad shows that those running in tough races see access to affordable health care as a strong issue to highlight, this is not the first time a candidate has run on all or part of the Affordable Care Act, even if conventional wisdom has suggested otherwise.

As The New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn noted yesterday, Republicans tried the repeal argument two years ago, which led to the President touting the benefits of the law during his campaign. He was obviously re-elected. In the past, the most notable piece has been the Medicaid expansion, which has insured millions of Americans in states that have chosen to implement it, while stubborn conservative governors let their states fall behind.

Below is a selection of headlines from around the country on the issue.

ACA supporters on the offense:

BOTTOM LINE: For months, we’ve seen those who voted for the ACA embrace it on the campaign trail and use it to go on offense, particularly in competitive races. Pryor is just the latest example. The conventional wisdom is that candidates want to avoid talking about the many benefits of the Affordable Care Act. But as we are increasingly seeing, the conventional wisdom is wrong.

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Ferguson Cop Donations Sites Shut Down


kstreet607's avatarThe Fifth Column

Adrees Latif/REUTERS

Those donation sites for the Furgeson, MO cop that shot and killed Michael Brown were always questionable in my mind.

Officer Darren Brown has not made a statement or “turned himself in” for questioning at all, yet an army of supporters (not unlike the George Zimmerman supporters) have deluged the donation sites on the officer’s behalf with a lot of cash.  Yet they say this is not about racism.  Tell that to the next family of a Black youth who was gunned down by a white man for “being/looking suspicious”.

The Daily Beast

Two online donations pages that together raised over $400,000 for the cop who fatally shot unarmed black teenager Michael Brown were shut down over the weekend. The two pages for Darren Wilson operated through crowdsource fundraising website GoFundMe. When one tries to donate to “Support Officer Wilson” (which has raised $197,620) and “Support Officer Darren Wilson”

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Urge Congress to sign on to the Schedules That Work Act


NWLCHands-Circle-180It’s been 120 years since Congress declared Labor Day a nationwide holiday.

Back then, in 1894, many workers faced extremely long hours and low pay, leaving them with empty pockets and precious little time to spend with their families. Workers took to the streets, holding strikes and rallies for higher wages and a shorter work day.

While workers have won many historic fights for better wages and working conditions since then, unfair scheduling practices are threatening workers’ ability to make a living once again. Today, instead of very long hours, all too often workers in low-wage jobs cannot get enough hours to make ends meet. And many have very little say in when they work, getting their schedules as little as one or two days in advance of the workweek. Difficult scheduling practices hit women especially hard, because women make up two-thirds of workers in low-wage jobs, where these schedules are most common, and still shoulder the lion’s share of caregiving responsibilities. It’s up to all of us to fight for fairness.

Urge your lawmakers to pass the Schedules That Work Act.

The Schedules That Work Act would give workers a say in their schedules, and would provide those working in industries with the most abusive scheduling practices two weeks’ advance notice of their schedules, and some minimum level of pay if they are sent home early after showing up for their shift. These modest measures would vastly improve the quality of life for millions of women and their families.

It’s been almost two months since the bill was introduced in Congress, and while support for it is growing, we still have a long way to go to ensure the Schedules That Work Act becomes law. That’s why we need your help.

Celebrate America’s Workers This Labor Day

Urge your Members of Congress to sign on to the Schedules That Work Act.

Act Now

Send a note to your Members of Congress to say you believe in schedules that work. Our country’s working families are depending on it.

Thank you for everything you do for women and their families.

Sincerely,
Liz Watson
Senior Counsel and Director of Workplace Justice for Women
National Women’s Law Center

P.S. If you believe in schedules that work, share our graphic on Facebook or tweet about it using the hashtag #SchedulesThatWork!

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Finally! A candid exposé of Chevron’s dirty tricks

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Finally!
A Candid Exposé of Chevron’s Dirty TricksIt’s not easy to try to explain the saga of the decades long battle to hold Chevron to account for deliberately poisoning people and planet in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Rolling Stone does a very good job of it, however, in yesterday’s article Sludge Match: Inside Chevron’s $9 Billion Legal Battle With Ecuadorean Villagers by AlexanderZaitchik.The article skillfully explains how Chevron turned a straightforward case into a neverending legal battle – because winning based on the merits was never an option for the oil giant. From blaming the victim to threatening and pressuring their allies, Chevron’s tactics are as dirty as the crude they dumped in the rainforest. The oil giant has launched the greatest assault on corporate accountability to date, yet until now, mainstream coverage of that attack has been frustratingly scarce.

In fact, considering Chevron’s history of going after anyone critical of their actions in Ecuador, Rolling Stone should be applauded for aggressively investigating a story that few others have been brave enough to take on. Zaitchik confronts the sordid details of the false narrative concocted by Chevron to fuel its retaliatory RICO suit against Steven Donziger and the Ecuadorians, but unlike others reporters, he doesn’t let fear of Chevron’s army of lawyers or Judge Kaplan’s outrageously biased decision dilute his reporting or outweigh the facts.

Most importantly, Zaitchik reminds readers that, “it’s the farmers and the Indians, not the lawyers, who continue to struggle daily with the 50-year legacy of oil production in the region.” For their sake, it’s about time the media told the full story.

Read the article here »
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Courage V Cowadice


VoteVets.org

Charles Erwin is a Vietnam Veteran suffering from a number of debilitating and life-threatening ailments resulting from his exposure to Agent Orange.

I’ve met, served with, and led men like Charles – service members with the courage to fight and willingness to sacrifice for their country.

But their courage stands in sharp contrast to the cowardice Mitch McConnell demonstrated when his Republican Senate Caucus blocked improvements to veterans’ health care during the crisis earlier this year.

So when I heard VoteVets was set to run an ad giving voice to Charles’ story and the role Senator McConnell played in blocking improvements designed to help him, I knew that I had to help.

Can I count on you to join me with your $10 contribution to help VoteVets expand their Kentucky ad buy?

I’ve been a proud supporter of VoteVets since their launch back in 2006, serving on their Board of Advisors from day one. Their work gives voice to veterans and military family members in all of the important issue and political campaigns of our time.

But this effort is especially important. Thank you for supporting it.

General (Ret.) Wesley Clark
VoteVets.org

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