Tag Archives: health care

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Better Than Billionaires


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Automatic Voter Registration Allows More Americans’ Voices To Be Heard

“Who’s your billionaire?” Now more than ever, any serious presidential candidate needs to have an answer for this question. Over the weekend, we found out who the answer for Senator Marco Rubio is: Norman Braman, a billionaire auto dealer from Miami.

Braman isn’t just supporting Rubio’s White House bid to the expected tune of $10 million; he has been a key figure in Rubio’s professional and personal life for many years. Here is the New York Times report:

As Mr. Rubio has ascended in the ranks of Republican politics, Mr. Braman has emerged as a remarkable and unique patron. He has bankrolled Mr. Rubio’s campaigns. He has financed Mr. Rubio’s legislative agenda. And, at the same time, he has subsidized Mr. Rubio’s personal finances, as the rising politician and his wife grappled with heavy debt and big swings in their income.

To state the obvious: The increasing influence of big money in politics from donors like Norman Braman, the Koch Brothers, and others, drowns out the voices of everyday Americans in the political process. There are a number of ways to combat this threat to democracy; one big target for reformers is to overturn the judicial decisions like Citizens United that have opened the floodgates to unlimited spending on elections. That is a critical fight.

Here is another important way to make it easier for all citizens to have their voices heard: make voting more accessible. One of the most progressive methods for doing that is called Automatic Voter Registration (AVR), a system by which states would integrate information from existing government databases — such as departments of motor vehicles, the Postal Service, revenue agencies, and others — to compile and update the voting rolls with information that they already collect. Oregon just became the first state in the country to implement this type of system, and it expects to add 300,000 people to voter rolls as a result.

Now, a new report from the Center for Popular Democracy outlines some of the transformative impacts AVR would have across the country. If Automatic Voter Registration were adopted in all states, it would potentially result in 55 million new voters added to the rolls.

AVR would result in the registration of currently underrepresented communities as well, including approximately:

  • 17 million new Black and Latino registrants
  • 31 million registrants under age 45
  • 29 million registrants with an annual income of $50,000 or less

While most voting rights news focuses on the concerted efforts by conservatives to suppress the vote, especially among disadvantaged communities, automatic voter registration is gaining momentum. California, which just advanced its own AVR bill late last month, could be the next state to take this important step.

BOTTOM LINE: With our campaign finance laws continuing to loosen, millionaires and billionaires will only increase the amount of influence they exert in our political process. But there are important steps being taken to counter them: policies like automatic voter registration would register millions of voters, raise voter turnout, and make our democracy healthier and more representative of its citizens.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Pursuing transformative technology with the Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities ~ a repost


GOOGLeWhen Laura Palmaro was 10 years old, she woke one morning to find that the central vision in her left eye had all but disappeared. She was not ill and had no genetic issues—it was completely out of the blue. When she was 14, the same rare condition struck her right eye, and she began her freshman year of high school legally blind. Suddenly she was forced to depend on other people to read everything aloud, from school assignments to menus. The toughest part, according to Laura, was losing her sense of independence—and not knowing when or how she would get it back.

Laura has since adopted technological solutions to her vision challenges, using a combination of screen-readers and magnification software to read, work and more. Now a program manager at Google, she is following her passion, helping Chrome and Chrome OS teams make their products more accessible. “Technology has truly transformed my life,” she says. “Assistive technology can tear down boundaries, and empower people to find their independence and fulfill their dreams.”

We agree with Laura about the power of technology to change lives. And in order to support more people like her—people who see obstacles as opportunities—we’re launching the Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities. We’re putting $20 million in Google.org grants behind nonprofits using emerging technologies to increase independence for people living with disabilities, and today we’re issuing an open call to identify new areas of opportunity at g.co/ImpactChallengeDisability.

We’re kicking things off with support for two remarkable organizations. Each of these organizations is using technology to dramatically reduce the cost of and access to prosthetic limbs and auditory therapy, respectively—which could be transformative for hundreds of millions of people.

  • The Enable community connects people who want prosthetics with volunteers who use 3D printers to design, print, assemble, and fit them, for free. This dramatically cuts costs, increases speed of distribution, and meets unmet needs. We’ll support the Enable Community Foundation’s efforts with a $600,000 grant to advance the design, distribution and delivery of open-source 3D-printed upper-limb prosthetics.
  • Diagnosing auditory challenges can be a struggle in low income communities—the equipment is expensive, bulky and unrealistic, particularly in the developing world. With our support, and a $500,000 grant, World Wide Hearing will develop, prototype and test an extremely low cost tool kit for hearing loss using smartphone technology that’s widely available—and affordable—in the developing world.

The Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities will seek out nonprofits and help them find new solutions to some serious “what ifs” for the disabled community. We will choose the best of these ideas and help them to scale by investing in their vision, by rallying our people and by mobilizing our resources in support of their missions.

But of course, we realize there’s always room to improve our products as well. We have a team committed to monitoring the accessibility of Google tools; and we provide engineering teams with training to incorporate accessibility principles into products and services. That doesn’t just mean improving existing Google tools, it means developing new ones as well. For example, Liftware is a stabilizing utensil designed to help people with hand tremors eat more easily, and self-driving cars could one day transform mobility for everyone.

Historically, people living with disabilities have relied on technologies that were often bulky, expensive, and limited to assisting with one or two specific tasks. But that’s beginning to change. Thanks to groups like Enable and World Wide Hearing, and with tools like Liftware, we’re starting to see the potential for technologies that can profoundly and affordably impact millions. But we’ll all get there sooner if we make it a team effort—which is why we’re launching Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities today. Together, we can create a better world, faster.

Posted by Jacquelline Fuller, Director, Google.org

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Roadless forests under attack–help stop new coal mining on roadless lands!
Give today!

Our roadless forests are under attack!
A thicket of aspen in the Sunset Roadless Area. (Ted Zukoski / Earthjustice)

Arch Coal just got the go-ahead to bulldoze for dirty coal in one of our pristine roadless national forest areas.
Help us fight back!

Arch Coal is at it again.

On April 6, the Forest Service announced it was paving the way for the second-largest coal company in the United States to bulldoze across thousands acres of pristine roadless forests in order to mine up to 350 million tons of coal.

When final, this deal will allow Arch Coal to reap huge profits while adding hundreds of millions of tons of climate pollution to our atmosphere—all at the expense of thousands of acres of beautiful, wild and public roadless forest.

I’m furious. And today, I’m asking for your help.

We’ve successfully stopped Arch Coal in the past. We can do it again.

Will you help us stand up to dirty industry with a gift of $5 or more?

As someone who has hiked in the Sunset Roadless Area for over a decade, I can tell you that this land is beautiful, and it provides important habitat for wildlife such as black bears and rare lynx in addition to beaver ponds, aspen stands, and giant spruce.

But unless we fight back and win, Arch Coal will soon turn this special place into an industrial zone of drill pads and roads—destroying wildlife habitat and valued recreation and hunting areas—all to benefit a single corporation.

Additionally, burning the 350 million tons of coal the company would extract would dramatically undercut efforts to slow the pace of climate change.

My team and I are determined to protect this critical habitat and ensure vital long-term protections for our other national forests…but we need your urgent gift today to see this and other difficult legal battles through.

For decades, Earthjustice has taken the lead to fight dirty energy and protect roadless forests across the country, but today we need your help.

We’ve stopped Arch Coal before. Help us win once again.

Thank you,

Staff photo

Ted Zukoski
Attorney
Earthjustice, Rocky Mountains Office
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

30,000 for infrastructure jobs


Rebuild our infrastructure!

Click here to sign the petition.

 

Americans need jobs. America’s roads and bridges are in crisis. And our communities need more high-speed Internet and clean energy.

All of these problems have the same solution: We need big ideas that invest in America’s infrastructure and create jobs.

Today, I’m introducing the Rebuild America Act — a bold trillion-dollar infrastructure bill that is endorsed by the American Society of Civil Engineers, the AFL-CIO, and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

Some in Congress will be fearful of a proposal this big. I need your help to show my colleagues and the entire political world that the American people are not afraid of big ideas, are not afraid to create the millions of jobs we desperately need, and are not afraid to rebuild America.

Can you sign the petition saying Americans want a big infrastructure jobs program? Click here to sign.

I met with the PCCC team last week to discuss infrastructure and other big ideas. And I’ll need your activism to push big ideas like this to the center of the national debate.

When the Progressive Change Institute did a national poll this month, major investment in infrastructure was popular by 71% to 18%. That’s a bipartisan landslide.

The public enthusiasm for big ideas is inspiring, and Congress needs to hear about it.

Thanks for being a bold progressive.

— Senator Bernie Sanders

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Help the Duwamish River … Ms. Margie’s 4th grade class


WordpressduwamishI’m Ms. Margie, a teacher and MoveOn member in Wallingford, WA, and I started a petition with my 4th grade class to King County Executive Dow Constantine, which says:

Constantine, which says:

Make Seattle’s only river clean enough for locals to fish. Sign Ms.’s petition

We are a 4th grade class in Seattle, Washington. We are petitioning Dow Constantine, King County Executive, to give enough money to clean the Duwamish River for citizens to be able to fish safely. The Duwamish River is one of the most polluted rivers in the U.S. and the only river in Seattle.

The Duwamish River is affecting people’s health. Residents who live closer to the river die 13 years younger than others who live in Laurelhurst.1 There are three tribes that eat fish from the river. It’s in the tribes’ culture to fish in the Duwamish and we shouldn’t take that away from them, so we want King County to give enough money so that people can eat the fish without the risk of getting really sick.

The Environmental Protection Agency has already released a $342 million, 17 year-long cleanup plan to help.2 However, it is not removing enough toxins so that locals can fish from the Duwamish safely. Although it will cost King County a lot of money and time, people and animals around the Duwamish will be saved.

Our goal is to collect 3,000 signatures by June 1, 2015. June 2 we will be holding a protest and presenting our petition signatures. If you add your name, it will really make a difference to the people and animals that live or fish in the Duwamish River.

Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.

Thanks!

–Ms. Margie’s 4th grade class

Source:

1. “The Duwamish: River of no return?” Crosscut, July 7, 2014
http://crosscut.com/2014/07/duwamish-river-no-return/

2. “$342 Million to Clean Duwamish River Superfund Site: EPA Finalizes Plan,” Indian Country Today, December 4, 2014
http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=304554&id=117895-17809870-FDkiIDx&t=1

This petition was created on MoveOn’s online petition site, where anyone can start their own online petitions. Ms. Margie’s 4th grade class didn’t pay us to send this email—we never rent or sell the MoveOn.org list.