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~ my 2cents ..., ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

TGIF …&some News …


It is my contention and belief that any and all negative numbers regarding jobs, a double dip recession, or legislation that is unaddressed, voted on or finished is on the backs of Republicans and remain that way from now on. Republicans have done nothing to help create jobs nor do they have solutions, which, would be easy … vote Yes to move America into the black and stop making the failure of this President your goal instead of doing the business of the People.

It is the end of the week with a lot of craziness going on everywhere in the world and it all seems to affect the up coming elections. If you listened to the reports today, Congress left Capitol Hill without finishing the business of Americans. I want to believe that a break will help some folks on the right hear from their constituents on the Gulf Coast because they are more needy then the rest of the country. The people on the Gulf Coast suffer from the BP disaster and now a rejection from their very own representatives who essentially voted against small business, the workers, the fishing industry, boaters, hotels, restaurants and all the employees associated with the industries listed above.

To be sure and fair; this is an election year so getting election campaigns started probably is more important than getting legislation passed, but the blame is with Republicans and we all need to remember that. The effort to get the peoples work done  has been harder in Senate then the House, specifically, unemployment, financial reform immigration, climate, and clean energy are all subject to the 60-vote rule and the right has block, stalled and tricked the Democrats in the Senate thus far. Republicans have decided to bet against the failure of our economy over the needs of people in their own States, which is such a strange thing. The last vote rejecting a Jobs bill that included unemployment benefits happened without the late Senator Bob Byrd, so as our government honors him today his replacement plus one more Republican could make the difference in giving folks a chance to continue paying at least some of their bills and look for work without stress.

Some of us on the left feel we know what side of every issue Republicans are on but we need to remind them and ourselves that what happened to our economy was and still is a non-partisan issue. It was a sad to know that people voted into political office continue to be on the side of Wall Street and not with Main Street; a great example being Republican Senator Sessions and others like Sharron Angle stating that Americans are spoiled, that Americans are too use to getting entitlements and be more self sufficient.   The problem is that for every one job there are 6 people applying for them so the question for Republicans is how can we recover without more jobs? Ms Angle, there are not enough jobs to go around.

I already know that as hard as cable-heads work to have  or want me to hear and or watch Polls that are negative for the Democratic Party it will be what they actually have done to make change happen however slow it may be because the financial crisis didn’t just happen overnight as the house of Bush wanted people to think, it was a car on the interstate driving without brakes and no one to steer it clear of anything in it’s path…that being derivatives, AIG, Goldman Sachs, Wall Street in general, home foreclosures because big Banks were closing their ranks.  The financial crash and the information about the crash did not get to the public until the last moment and that was right before we all had to vote for President in 2008. The choice was a no-brainer when you think of who was on the other ticket… completely unqualified and out of touch.

The biggest news today is what team will Lebron James choose and why it will affect the rest of our economy. It seems like every cable station has had on the various Mayors or Governors praying hoping and stumping for James to come to their state.  There is no doubt everyone wants a piece of King James and he has kept his choice very very quiet up until this point. It is obvious Lebron James has great PR people, with reports that he is not just interested in playing BB but wants to make a difference in the community as well is a plus for any basketball team looking to pay him what he wants. It is obvious whoever gets him will have a bona-fide BB King, a goodwill ambassador and serious community advocate/activist as well. You would have to be living under a rock if you did not at least hear how folks in Vegas betting on this free agent and hopefully it will be an organization that can use his talents and be willing to let him do his thing… get it done King James.

Other News …

**The President signed a bill creating even more sanctions for Iran

**California Gov.Schwarnegger has given orders for State worker salaries to be slashed to 7.25 per hr -to minimum wages

**Reports are that the employment rate is 9.5% and -the census jobs the Private Sector gained 83,thousand, which considering the thing no one is talking about …that number is not good but it is a plus not 800thousand lost jobs -the reality is Private Sector is holding back, under-employing and trading or investing not hiring

**


C-SPAN …

June Unemployment Falls to 9.5% Employers cut 125,000 jobs

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported this morning that the unemployment rate for June moved down to 9.5% with 125,000 jobs lost during the month. This includes the expected reduction of 225,000 temporary census workers. Private sector jobs increased by 83,000.  In remarks this morning, Pres. Obama spoke about the employment numbers and noted that this was the 6th straight month of job growth in the private sector and that 600,000 private sector jobs have been added this year versus a loss of 3.7 million jobs last year.   BLS Commissioner Keith Hall testified earlier today on the latest numbers and recent developments in the labor market before the Joint Economic Committee. Commissioner Hall elaborated that BLS noticed job growth trends in manufacturing and a continued strong employment market in health care related services.

Hearing on Supreme Court Nominee Concludes

Outside witness testimony concluded Thursday following the U.S. Senate’s adjournment in recognition of Senator Robert Byrd on Capitol Hill. Thursday’s witness panels included those both in favor of and opposed to Kagan’s nomination.  Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan finished her last day of hearings on Wednesday. During the two days of questioning, Ms. Kagan was challenged over her treatment of military recruiters while dean of Harvard Law School, and asked to share her perspective on gun rights. When questioned on the subject of partial-birth abortion, Kagan described it as “an incredibly difficult issue.” The Committee hopes to approve her nomination and hold a floor vote in late July. If confirmed, she would replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens and become the fourth woman in the Supreme Court’s history.
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Congress is on Break …stay tuned


The Senate will convene at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, July 12.

Following any Leader remarks, the Senate will proceed to a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. Senators should expect a roll call vote at approximately 5:30 p.m. on confirmation of a judge.

———————————————————————————

The next meeting is scheduled for 2:00pmET Tuesday July 13, 2010

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Mormon Church and Prop 8: The shocking truth


A shocking new film. A call to action.

Once in a while, you walk out of a movie theater knowing you’ll never be the same.

You’ve probably heard about the Mormon Church’s involvement in California’s 2008 marriage ban. But I think you’ll still be shocked watching the new documentary
8: The Mormon Proposition.

The film uses former church members and leaked documents to make a case for exactly how the Mormon Church evaded the law and orchestrated Prop. 8. It’s a movie you absolutely must see.

And this week ONLY – to bring more resources to the fight for equality – the film’s distributors are offering a DVD of the film as a thank-you gift for any donation to HRC of $75 or more.

No matter how much you give today, you’ll receive a membership to HRC, including one year of our magazine Equality, and 100 percent of your gift will go to supporting HRC’s work to promote equal rights across the country. Any amount will help, but I hope you don’t miss this chance to see the film.

The film notes that while just two percent of Californians are Mormon, 71 percent of the money behind Prop. 8 came from Mormons. What happened? This clip shows how church leaders told members how much to donate, based on their income records – and threatened them if they didn’t give:

In the film, secret documents from a Mormon whistleblower show how the Mormon Church helped create a front group before Prop. 8 (the National Organization for Marriage) and stayed out of the spotlight in California. They show how the Church concealed its involvement in Prop. 8 so egregiously that last month it was still drawing fines for campaign finance violations. Get your copy now »

Those documents also detail an anti-marriage campaign in Hawaii a decade earlier – a blueprint for Prop. 8. There, Church leaders funneled money to a coalition that masked their activities. They hid their faces, opened their wallets, and honed their strategy.

Every single day the Human Rights Campaign is out there with people like you, going up against NOM, the Mormon Church, and other groups with vast resources and hateful agendas. But we’re also building up – making millions of people’s lives better, from hospitals to workplaces, from schools to houses of worship. It’s what we do.

And it’s on behalf of those millions of people, and their simple desire to be treated equally, that we have a message for the Mormon Church: your lies, your half-truths and your bigotry will be exposed.

Thanks for supporting this fight.

Sincerely,

Joe Solmonese
Joe Solmonese
President

P.S. Bruce Bastian, an HRC board member who was raised Mormon and helped work on this film, had this to say: “Although the Mormon Church may be small in numbers where you live, their influence is being felt in very big ways all over this country. I believe every LGBT American should see this film to better understand the war we are in and at least one of our main enemies.” Get your copy now »

Join Now

This link is specific to you, so please make your own gift before you forward to your friends. Having trouble clicking on the links above? Simply copy and paste this URL into your browser’s address bar to reach the donation form:
https://secure3.convio.net/hrc/site/Donation2?df_id=5282&5282.donation=form1

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Stuck on Stupid: Big Oil Says NO To Green Jobs


Brave New Foundation
Donate

Click here to watch the video

Big oil companies haven’t only destroyed our environment but they are putting Americans out of a job. They work very hard in coming up with new lies and propaganda, trying to convince you that the health of our nation’s economy depends on their well-being. You and I know they are dead WRONG!

We’ve already seen a wave of job losses due to BP’s disaster in the gulf – communities wiped out economically because of their criminal irresponsibility. What they try to hide from us is their obsessive obstruction to a clean energy economy.

Our future lies with the creation of green jobs that will provide for a more sustainable and innovative economy.

Sign this petition to tell Congress that you want them to act on green energy solutions, and that you’ll be in their offices, at their townhalls and on their phones this summer to check on their progress!

It is up to you to spread this message with your friends and family and act today to fight back against all the lies and the propaganda peddled by the oil companies.

Sincerely,
Robert Greenwald
and the Brave New Foundation team

P.S. Please contribute so we can complete our next videos and keep the momentum going toward achieving cleaner, more independent and progressive America.
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Announcing HealthCare.gov …a new consumer website -White House.gov


Posted by Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on July 01, 2010 at 05:00 AM EDT

Today, our Administration is launching HealthCare.gov a new consumer website that provides unprecedented transparency into the health care marketplace.  Through HealthCare.gov, individuals will have more control over their health care as informed and empowered consumers.

This “first-of-its-kind” website is simple and easy to use, and provides one-stop shopping access to a wealth of information, including your new consumer rights and benefits under the Affordable Care Act, a timeline of when new programs under the new law will come online between now and 2014 and a new insurance finder that will make it easy to find both private and public health insurance option that works for you.

HealthCare.gov will help take some of the mystery out of shopping for health insurance. For too long, it was confusing to identify your options and compare plans. HealthCare.gov makes comparison shopping easier with a new insurance finder that allows users to answer a few basic questions and receive information about insurance options that could work for them. The site makes a system that thrived on complication and confusion easier to understand.  This kind of transparency helps create informed consumers which increases competition, reduces prices and improves quality.

Here are just some of the basics about what you can find when you visit:

  • Approximately 500 pages of content
  • Data for more than 1,000 insurance carriers  and 5,561 open products (2,030 in the individual health insurance market and 3,531 in the small employer health insurance market)
  • Information on every Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program in the country
  • Information on the Pre-Existing Condition Plan in every state.
  • Billions of choices. Answer a few basic questions, and the site’s insurance finder automatically sorts through a huge catalog of public and private coverage options to help you identify the ones that are right for you (with billions of potential personal scenarios supported).

HealthCare.gov will continue to get even better in the months ahead. In October, 2010, price estimates for health insurance plans will be available online, and the site includes easy ways for users to tell us how we can make HealthCare.gov more helpful and easier to use.

We’ll discuss these and other features of the site this afternoon at 1:00 PM EDT, when the HHS team and I will host a briefing for reporters and the public to discuss the new site. You can watch the briefing by visiting HHS.gov/live. We’re excited about demonstrating this important new tool, and enthused that so many organizations and individuals are already praising the new site.

Here’s what some folks have said about HealthCare.gov:

Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine.
“For the first time, no matter where you live, you can go to one place and compare health plans available in your area. The site is nicely designed.  It’s easy to find information.  It tries to avoid the complicated language that you usually get when you’re shopping for a health plan.  Starting this fall, the site will have more information, like price and quality of service comparisons, which will be a big help for consumers.”

Young Invincibles
“Young adults represent the largest group of uninsured in the country.  Because of health care reform, many of us are about to get insurance for the first time.  This portal will help us and all Americans get the information we need about the benefits now available to us.  Our generation, more than any other, gets our information online and this portal puts it all together in one easy, intuitive site.  It is the kind of site young Americans will use and will come back to as they build their careers and their lives.  We are excited to help spread the word and to finally see our friends and family get covered.”

American Cancer Society
“Healthcare.gov offers consumers something they’ve never had in the health insurance marketplace – a transparent, one-stop site where they can compare benefits and services, and find the insurance options that work best for them.  Reducing confusion about coverage and introducing straightforward information about insurance options has always been a top priority for cancer patients and survivors, and this website will help in a major way. The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network will be getting the word out to our volunteers and members about this valuable new resource.”

American Heart Association
“This new website, www.healthcare.gov, from the Department of Health and Human Services is a valuable resource for all Americans as they learn more about the health insurance options available to them and about new insurance protections that could help ensure access to needed care for themselves and their families.   For the first time, consumers faced with an array of choices will have a single site to go to help them understand their coverage options.  The American Heart Association will continue to work closely with Congress and the Administration to ensure that heart disease and stroke patients receive the best information available to make informed choices about their insurance needs.”

SEIU
Last year, SEIU members joined in a nationwide effort to win quality, affordable health care for all Americans. HealthCare.gov is an important step forward in ending insurance company abuse – once and for all.  This portal will increase both transparency and access for the uninsured and allow people to find quality, affordable health plans in their states. For the first time ever, Americans will be able to compare health plans and make educated decisions about the type of plan that best suits their needs. With today’s launching ofHealthCare.gov, we’re closer than ever to achieving quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

Families USA
 “Families USA applauds Secretary Sebelius for launching a ground-breaking new web site for consumers shopping for health coverage or seeking information about the Affordable Care Act. “Healthcare.gov will allow consumers to make informed choices about their health care coverage and encourage competition and transparency among health insurers. This first-of-its-kind web site will provide consumers with their health coverage options in a comprehensive and easy-to-navigate way. We congratulate the Department of Health and Human Services for creating this online tool in a timely and expeditious manner during the three short months since the enactment of the Affordable Care Act. Never before have consumers been able to view all their insurance options—including private market plans, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, Medicare, and the new Preexisting Condition Insurance Plans—all in one place. Implementing the Affordable Care Act will be no small feat. Americans will welcome a useful, consumer-friendly online resource that is sure to help ease the process as they reap the benefits of this historic legislation.”

National Women’s Law Center
“We’d like to express our appreciation and congratulate the team at HHS on their remarkable efforts to expeditiously implement key pieces of the Affordable Care Act. This week, two more key pieces of the new law come into effect, including the launch of the new web portal. Safe to say that all consumers will benefit from “healthcare.gov” to find helpful information about all available health coverage options. For all people looking for insurance coverage, your new web-based resource that launches this week is a first-of–its-kind one-stop resource that puts users one click away from combined information drawn from many sources about all different insurance options, including but not limited to private insurance, public insurance options for people with low income, as well as the new Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plans. Never before have consumers had available to them such a resource that combined so many different sources of information about different insurance options. As you no doubt know, women are health care decision makers for their families. The new information resources available at healthcare.gov will help millions of women and their families find health coverage options until the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented in 2014. We look forward to the many improvements to come to our health system as a result of the Affordable Care Act.”

AFL-CIO
“Health Care.gov”, the new HHS website, as called for under the Affordable Care Act going , represents a giant step towards shifting control of health choices in the private insurance market from insurance companies to working families. The AFL-CIO applauds Secretary Sebelius and her staff for such creating a user friendly website where consumers can find useful and timely information on health coverage, choice and quality. Nothing in the private sector is its equal. “HealthCare.gov” is an example of public service at its best in the internet age and it delivers on the Secretary’s promise that HHS will be America’s “Helpdesk” for health care decisions. The unprecedented range and depth of information on insurance plans far outstretches what insurers provide or, in many cases, even disclose on their offerings. In addition the balanced information conveys in plain language giving consumers the information that’s usually gets lost in the fine print. The cost comparison information on plans scheduled to be added in October will make the site an even more consumer friendly tool. While the site will be most immediately useful to those without employment-based insurance – the millions of unemployed working families who have lost their health coverage in the economic meltdown of the past two years will find this enormously helpful – it also conveys information about improvements down the road for workers with group coverage by explaining in plain language the multiple benefits under the Affordable Care Act.

Kathleen Sebelius is Secretary of Health and Human Services