Tag Archives: medicare

Change.org

Tell the US Soccer Federation: Don’t shut down Women’s Professional Soccer

The Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) league — home to World Cup stars like Hope Solo and Abby Wombach — could be completely disbanded. Change.org members and fans around the country have just 4 days to save it.

The US Soccer Federation, the governing body for the sport in America, is planning to withdraw it’s top accreditation from the league for having fewer than 6 teams (two recently shut down because of financial hardship during the recession, though expansion is expected next year).

If US Soccer strips the WPS of its “Division 1” status, the league loses key support and credibility, almost undoubtedly leading to full collapse.

Alex Sahlen, a defender for the Western New York Flash, is feverishly trying to save her sport, and her petition on Change.org has already attracted 10,000 signatures. But with US Soccer making a final decision on December 5th, there are just days remaining to amp up the pressure.

Please sign Alex’s petition to save women’s pro soccer in America.

US Soccer’s stated mission is to “make soccer a preeminent sport in the United States,” so they are very sensitive to public opinion. If 20,000 of us stand with Alex, we can make sure the governing body knows that a key part of that goal is making sure that women’s soccer thrives.

Abby, Hope, Alex, and the players, coaches, and owners of the WPS know that building a women’s sports league during a recession is an uphill climb. But the fan base is slowly building, and new TV contracts may be on the way. The league could still fail, but it’s up to you to help give them a fighting chance.

Click here to sign Alex’s petition to save the Women’s Professional Soccer league:

http://www.change.org/petitions/support-womens-professional-soccer-wps-remaining-a-sanctioned-league

Thanks,

– Shelby Knox and the Change.org team

P.S. Thousands of people are changing the world through petitions on Change.org every week. Here are some that need your support now:

D.C. college student Katie Breslin is petitioning to get Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence (SAFE) kits and trained staff in every D.C. hospital so no sexual assault survivor is turned away without treatment.
Grey2K is petitioning Skechers not to air a new commercial filmed at the the Tuscon Greyhound Park, which has a long record of dog abuse.
Two men in Cameroon were just sentenced to five years in prison for the “crime” of being gay. Now petition starter Stephane Koche is asking Cameroon’s president to drop the charges and let the men go free.
At one school in Massachusetts, students have to carry neon cards in the lunchroom to receive their free or reduced price lunch. Jennifer Kalvinek’s daughter is being bullied for carrying her card, so she started a campaign to get the school to implement a better system.
Leslianne Bouchard is a disabled teacher in California who qualifies for a program to help save her home from foreclosure — but First Mortgage Corporation refuses to let that happen. Leslianne’s daughter is fighting the bank to let her mom keep her home.

Click here to start your own petition.

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Is Congress about to put you out of work?

12/01/2011 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

Watch the Video | Send Our Video to Your Elected Officials

Now that the deficit committee failed, war profiteers are scrambling to undo automatic cuts to their profit margins. They’ve re-launched their propaganda campaign focusing on jobs, but our new video exposes the truth: military spending is a job killer. If Washington, D.C. stops automatic cuts to the military budget at the expense of other programs, it will be a disaster for the economy.Send our video to your elected officials and make sure they understand the consequences of failing to make real cuts to the military budget.Super-wealthy war profiteer CEOs rely on massive Pentagon budgets for their wealthy lifestyles. They and their allies in the Pentagon are using huge lobbying budgets in an unprecedented economic fear campaign to convince Congress that war spending is some kind of grotesque jobs program. Nothing could be further from the truth.As our video shows, military spending costs jobs compared to other ways of spending the money. Protecting war budgets at the expense of other job-creating programs will mean more jobless people than virtually any other possible budget plan.Help us put the truth in your elected officials’ hands. Our toolwill let you push your senators and congressmen to do the right thing, despite the war industry’s propaganda push.This is an uphill battle, and we need your help. Please send our latest video to your elected officials now so they understand that military spending costs jobs.

Sincerely,

Derrick Crowe, Robert Greenwald
and the Brave New Foundation team

P.S. We continue to fight the war profiteers’ propaganda, but doing so with hard-hitting videos like this is expensive. After you send the video to Congress, please consider making a donation to support War Costs.

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Enough is Enough … Nancy Pelosi

11/23/2011 Nativegrl77

Enough is enough.

The clock is ticking toward the Super Committee’s November 23rd deadline. Republicans are insisting on eliminating the Medicare guarantee while cutting taxes for millionaires and refusing to include a robust jobs plan. That’s not fair.

WWW.DCCC.ORG

Democrats remain hopeful that we’ll get a deal and will continue to advocate for a big, bold, and balanced plan to reduce the deficit and create jobs.

With just 25 seats standing between us and a new Democratic Majority, let’s seize this moment and show the world Democrats are strong and united.

That’s why we’ve set a goal of raising $500,000 from grassroots Democrats before the critical Federal Election Commission deadline on November 30th to hold these Tea Party Republicans accountable. Will you stand with us?

Please contribute $3 or more right now to ensure Democrats have a powerful showing in the first important deadline since the One Year Out to the election mark.

WWW.DCCC.ORG

Thank you,

Nancy Pelosi

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Let’s Talk Turkey about the Super-Committee …National Women’s Law Center

11/23/2011 Nativegrl77

Let’s talk turkey.

Politics might not be on the Thanksgiving menu, but when families and friends gather, it seems to be a side dish some of us are force fed.

We want to give you something to be thankful for by making sure you’re prepared to talk about what women and families have at stake in the economy and the truth about what happened with the super-committee. Remember that the super-committee was a special committee of Members of Congress created to come up with a plan to reduce the federal deficit over the next decade.

Last night, the super-committee announced that it did not reach agreement on a deficit reduction plan. To explain what this means for you — and Aunt Edith — below are a few key myths and facts.

MYTH: It would have been better if the super-committee reached a deal.FACT: No deal is better than a bad deal — and we were headed toward a bad deal. The fact that some members of the super-committee felt a strong enough obligation to protect the programs that women and families depend on is incredibly important. Had key safety net programs like Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare been cut in a last-minute deal, the damage could have been irreparable. For more info, check out our latest blog post: Five Reasons Why No Deal is Better than a Bad Deal.

MYTH: I heard Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare will automatically be cut.FACT: The automatic cuts do not reach Social Security, Medicaid, or many other programs for low-income Americans. Any Medicare cuts would affect payments to providers, not beneficiaries. The automatic cuts that are scheduled would affect defense and non-defense programs equally. Unfortunately, discretionary programs that specifically serve low-income people are not exempt. However, the cuts won’t start to take effect until 2013, so Congress has time make changes through the regular legislative process.

MYTH: The super-committee didn’t reach a deal and important programs were protected — so our advocacy worked! We don’t need to worry anymore.FACT: We still have lots to do. We need to work to extend federal emergency unemployment benefit programs and pass job creation measures. We need to fund the government through the rest of this fiscal year, without strings attached that limit women’s rights. And the fight to make millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share and to protect Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and other vital programs will continue. So enjoy, rest up — and join us next week.

This Thanksgiving, we could not be more grateful for the dedication of our network of activists like you, who took action to send emails and make phone calls throughout the super-committee’s deliberations.While the super-committee’s work has ended, our work for a fair economy continues. We couldn’t do it without you.National Women’s Law Center

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AFL – CIO

11/22/2011 Nativegrl77

It looks like every single Republicanon the Super Committee is ready to sell out working families.If even a single Super Committee Democrat goes along with the Republican plan to cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits while cutting tax rates for the richest Americans, it will pass.Sign our petition urging all six Super Committee Democrats to stand together and protect the future of working people in America—the 99%.

Republicans on the so-called Super Committee have proposed cutting hundreds of billions of dollars in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits that America’s working families depend on—while keeping Bush’s tax rates for the richest Americans, including the top 1%. This is Robin Hood in reverse—class warfare against working America on behalf of the top 1%.

And it’s deficit hypocrisy, too. You can’t use budget deficits as an excuse to cut middle-class benefits one minute and the next minute propose making the deficit worse by lowering tax rates for rich people. After all, the Bush tax cuts are the No. 1 reason projected deficits are so high over the next 10 years.

If we want to bring down the federal deficit, we have to start by letting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire on schedule. Haven’t Republicans noticed that Americans are fed up with politicians who constantly cater to the demands of the 1%? This is the same kind of tone-deaf overreaching that voters in Ohio overwhelmingly rejected last week.

Sign our petition: Urge Democrats on the Super Committee to reject the proposal to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid for the 99% and make the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy permanent.

The debt reduction Super Committee that’s considering these cuts is no ordinary congressional committee. It is empowered by law to propose legislation that cannot be amended and can be rammed through Congress quickly, with minimal debate.

And since it looks like every single Republican on the Super Committee is ready to sell out working families, we need every single Super Committee Democrat to stand strong and protect Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

That’s why it’s urgent that you sign our petition—we need a unanimous working families vote from all six Super Committee Democrats. Add your name now.

Working families are counting on all six Democrats—Sens. Patty Murray, John Kerry and Max Baucus, and Reps. Chris Van Hollen, James Clyburn and Xavier Becerra—to stand with the 99% of Americans who are demanding change. It’s shameful that Republicans on this committee are united in representing America’s wealthiest 1% instead of their constituents. Let’s hope these six Democrats stand together and prove that Congress is capable of standing up for the rest of us.

In Solidarity,

Richard Trumka
President, AFL-CIO