Tag Archives: Month

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

McConnell Ad: My Story

09/03/2014 Nativegrl77

I depend on VA care after exposure to Agent Orange during my service in Vietnam.

So, as a Kentuckian, I was disappointed with my Senator, Mitch McConnell, for his role in blocking improvements to veterans’ health care during a time of crisis earlier this year.

And when VoteVets asked me to share my story in a television ad set to air across Kentucky starting today, I immediately agreed.

Watch and share it with friends:

WATCH THE AD ON FACEBOOK | SEE IT ON TWITTER | VIEW ON A VOTEVETS PAGE

After 30 years in Washington, Mitch McConnell’s gotta go.

Charles Erwin
Vietnam Veteran
VoteVets.org

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

This amendment could kill food safety

01/10/2014 Nativegrl77

U.S. Congress: Stop the King Amendment to the 2013 Farm Bill

By Campaign for Safe Food

Los Angeles, California

Right now, a House and Senate conference committee is hashing out the details of the 2013 Farm Bill.

Within the House version of the bill is an amendment offered by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) that has the potential to wipe out states’ rights to label genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

The amendment includes sweeping language about states’ rights to regulate food and farming, and could nullify a wide range of state and local measures regarding food safety, labeling, environmental requirements, humane treatment of farm animals, labor standards, and other important issues.

The amendment could also overturn current bans on dangerous agricultural chemicals like methyl iodide, and allow a flood of these pesticides into our food supply.

But there’s still time to keep this dangerous amendment out of the final version of the Farm Bill. Please sign and share our petition today!

To read more about this flawed and potentially disastrous amendment, click here.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

VA punishing veterans in debt?

01/10/2014 Nativegrl77

The Department of Veterans Affairs: Change Medical Debt Policies; Stop Punishing Veterans with Debt

By Bob Gardner

W. Warwick, Rhode Island

The way that the Department of Veterans Affairs collects medical debts from veterans is unacceptable. As a disabled veteran trying to pay my medical bills and get treatment, I struggle every day to navigate a backwards system that creates unnecessary stress for veterans, produces significant paper waste, and punishes veterans trying to pay off their debt.

Here’s how the current system works: When a veteran like me makes a payment, it is applied to the oldest invoice on record, instead of being applied to the most current invoice. The vast majority of healthcare companies in America do the opposite – they pay off new invoices first and use any remainder to pay down debt. Paying new invoices first allows patients to pay down debt without going into more. But the Department of Veteran’s Affairs’ backward system makes it really hard for vets to ever catch up on payments.

When veterans have debt, they must submit a complete 3+ page paper financial statement every 90 days for every facility they go to, otherwise the Department of Veterans Affairs seizes the veteran’s total disability payment as well as 20% of any other federal income that the veteran is receiving, like Social Security Disability Insurance payments.

Filling out these forms every 90 days puts an unnecessary burden on our veterans, violates the intent of the Paperwork Reduction Act, and means that if a veteran misses getting his/her financial statements in on time just once, the government can seize that person’s income.

The VA needs to fix this broken system so that veterans can pay off their medical debt like other Americans and keep the income they need to live.

I propose that payments made on a veteran’s debt be applied to the newest invoices first, with the excess going to older debt, so that the new debt doesn’t age past the 90 day limit every 90 days. This is how most healthcare companies in America address debt. Also, a website should be set up so that the veteran can update just the information that has changed since his/her last financial statement once per year.

These changes would improve financial freedom, reduce stress for veterans who have served their country, comply with the Paperwork Reduction Act, reduce waste, and save filing space in the Department of Veterans Affairs offices. Join me in asking the Department of Veteran’s affairs to change their medical debt collection policies.

“Any nation that does not honor its heros will not long endure” – Abraham Lincoln

“A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.”

– Theodore Roosevelt

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

A Traffic Study?

01/10/2014 Nativegrl77

By CAP Action War Room

10 Must-Read Stories On The Christie Bridge Scandal

Here are ten items on the developing controversy directly implicating New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s senior staff to a petty case of political retribution.

Timeline of Port Authority’s George Washington Bridge controversy: A detailed timeline of the scandal dating back to August 2013.
Bridge Closures Led To Emergency Response Delays, Disrupted Treatment For 91-Year-Old Woman Who Died: Of the four medical situations that emergency personnel reportedly had difficulty responding to due to the unannounced bridge closures, one involved an unconscious elderly woman who later died at the hospital.
The Four Key Questions Chris Christie Didn’t Answer at His Press Conference: The New Jersey Governor certainly talked a lot at his 115 minute press conference this morning. But there are still unanswered questions that won’t make this controversy just go away.
Stories Add Up as Bully Image Trails Christie: The bridge scandal isn’t the first time that Christie has been dogged by reports of bullying and political retribution.
Christie Appointee Pleads The Fifth Before State Committee In Bridge Fiasco: After losing a bid in court to avoid testifying earlier in the day, David Wildstein, the former Port Authority director of interstate capital projects, refused to answer any questions about the bridge controversy.
Why Conservatives Aren’t Rushing To Chris Christie’s Defense: Christie has been at odds with his party’s right wing since the final days of the 2012 campaign, and now conservatives are delighting in the political scandal.
Here’s Proof That Governor Christie Is Still Misleading The Public On Bridge Scandal: What’s that again about this being a traffic study?
Christie Administration May Have Violated Public Records Law: Emails disclosed Wednesday raise questions about whether the Christie administration complied with a public-records request filed by The Bergen Record last month.
After Christie Firing, Schundler Fires Back: In 2010, Christie fired his Education Commissioner, Bret Schundler, for supposedly lying to him. Schundler says he had told Christie exactly what Christie said the commissioner had not. Was Christie himself lying? “It’s hard to understand how when you gave the correct information you end up being asked to resign,” said Schundler.
Christie’s Carefully Devised, No-Nonsense Image in Peril: Christie’s brand in Republican politics to this point has been driven by a desire to transcend partisan rancor and petty politics in the service of the public good.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

New TV ad on the big oil giveaway

01/10/2014 Nativegrl77

VoteVets.org

So far, over 60,000 people have signed their name to our petition calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to save the Renewable Fuel Standard.

It looks like yours is missing.

As General Clark wrote a few weeks ago, “As veterans, military family members, and VoteVets supporters, we have a unique understanding about the cost of our dependence on foreign oil. It’s not just measured in the price at the pump, or a changing climate, but also in the lives lost and changed through deployments to protect the flow of oil in the Middle East.”

The RFS ensures that a minimum amount of renewable fuels are used for transportation in the United States — and it’s important.

We’ve decided to run a television in ad in several key states about this issue. Watch our spot and sign-on to our petition before we deliver it later this month.

http://action.votevets.org/rfs_ad