Tag Archives: referendum

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

What you can do to fight poverty

10/03/2010 Nativegrl77

3 ways you can fight poverty -- $3 million can: help save lives -- help educate girls -- help women start their own businesses -- Donate now

Fatima didn’t have a chance.

Instead of learning how to read and write as a child, she fetched water and herded livestock. At the age of 15, her father forced her to marry. Today, she is the mother of eight children.

Although Fatima and her family struggle to make ends meet, she didn’t see the value of sending her eldest daughter to school. “I told myself that she will get married like me and she does not need education,” Fatima said.

Fatima’s daughter faced the same grim future as herself — forced to live a life that wasn’t on her own terms. When a girl marries young, she usually drops out of school to start a family, but faces a greater chance of dying in childbirth. She’s also less likely to earn enough to support herself and her family and keep them healthy. One generation follows the next, locked in a vicious cycle of poverty.

You can help break this cycle. By making a tax-deductible gift today, you’ll help empower women and girls in the world’s poorest countries to access the education and resources they need to lift themselves and their families out of poverty for good.

Fatima is on her way. She joined a CARE-sponsored women’s group and learned to read and write. A whole new world opened before her eyes, and Fatima realized she had the power to change the course of her daughter’s future. With a basic education, her daughter could chart her own path. Fatima’s daughter is in school today — and she’s learning leadership skills with CARE that will serve her for her entire life.

When you invest in empowering poor women and girls like Fatima and her daughter, they can create a promising future for themselves, their families and their whole communities! Fatima took the first step. Now it’s your turn.

We’ve set an ambitious goal of raising $3 million online between now and December 31, and we invite you to give to CARE today to help us reach it.

Here are examples of how far a gift to CARE can go overseas:

$25 can provide a village savings and loan group with start-up materials to help put women and families on the path to financial empowerment
$49 can send a girl to school for a year
$62 can train a community health worker to provide care and hospital referrals to expectant mothers

As you can see, with the support of people like you, CARE can reach thousands of girls and women. Please give today so that CARE can continue helping women like Fatima who are creating a brighter future for themselves, their families and their communities.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Helene D. Gayle, MD, MPH
President and CEO, CARE

~ my 2cents ...

Weekend rant &some News -#oneNATION

10/03/2010 Nativegrl77

–The Democratic Party must Unite in Solidarity … Vote Dems Nov 2nd–

Please understand that the President’s message the Democratic Party’s message is being held hostage by “The Media” clearly they are right of center !!!

Sunday buzz….It clearly is fall today …it feels like it but I am resisting the need to turn the heat on and have great thick socks on instead. The weather is mild compared to what my east coast and Caribbean folks are experiencing so the complaint is not that important. I will say how odd to have my ability to get my email subject to the damage tropical Nicole did and wow it did some that caused folks to come in for repair ….oh well. Dems need to Unite in Solidarity

The last few weeks, months and years we have heard “the media” put out information about the usual then when it comes to all things political or the issues at hand it becomes more clear to me what side of the issues these reporters, hosts, commentators are. It is just my personal take but these opinions when given are suspect because reality is most stations and their owners are quite right of center. If you a political junkie and watch enough or listen to enough so-called progressive radio it is obvious they try to provide spots so that those of us are left of center get our bits and pieces of go get’em blah blah blah but the fact is right of center has more money and that added to what Justice Roberts did has made it very difficult to get the Democratic Message out there. I found the Democratic Channel on YouTube and that helped to get the information needed that had no commercials, no person attacks by the station or their employee and instead of reading it you can hear what the politician said verbatim which is what we all should do; listen to what the politician says instead of heresy by talking heads. I cannot say how amusing offensive and troubling it is that someone gets paid to tell me I do not know what to think or feel about not only my political party but the issues and who may or may not be the right people to trust. That is offensive and it also makes me wonder are these people acting because sometimes the comments made are beyond anything anyone in their right mind should even say. I get it controversy sells but what we have going on before the November elections is rhetoric and vitriol on steroids from people on the right getting 75% of the airtime on cable and or the airwaves.

This leads to the 10-2-10 rally, which btw was such a great event. I watched it online and while I feel that any and all numbers being commented on by the “Media” they must include those of us who were on the #ONENATION website as well as face book and the unions; who also provided a plug-in, it is important that we all be counted as participants. However, while the “media” coverage was a disappointment the folks handling the rally in person on cnn and msnbc let alone mainstream television were not so surprising. If someone was lucky enough to be interviewed and do not get me wrong some did feel and say they felt the rally was in direct affront to the tea party rally. While others tried to get their message out the comments by most “reporters” was not about how diverse the audience, not how about the Republican tea party is against everything that remotely stands for #onenation and they(we) all came together at the National Mall. I saw no guns and or nasty racial or signs with words of hate of anyone in a Protected Class on them …It was a rally of Inclusion, it was a rally of people from diverse backgrounds who may not get angry, who may not be getting polled but who will be getting out the vote on November 2^nd.

In the end, it has been strange to listen to the coverage of the 10-2-10 rally. It should make folks aware of again…what side of the aisle “The Media” is on, so this is a red flag for what we will all be subject to over the next few weeks because of the November elections. The mid-terms use to be a no big deal but in this election year, the importance of who gets in Congress is the difference between continuing the progress needed if we are truly getting out of the ditch the last guy left. It will be about whether it will be your family member out of work, social security, forced to give up their rights as a woman, become reasonably suspicious and carry papers or put in a gender box and without rights completely. The choice is obvious to me because my family is #onenation and what that means is a family who practices inclusion, believes in a person’s right to choose, a right to love and marry who you want and what makes me upset is that implication by folks on the right that being brown black or mixed like my family also means we are all criminals. It is beyond offensive that anyone has to say that not all people of colour are gang members, or killers or you fill in the negative behavior but to take it further who says or believes that all white people are racist because i absolutely do not believe that either. The big difference at the 10-2-10 rally was people of varying races were standing side by side without the BS that glenn beck has been stirring up. The fact is reasonable adults can stand, work, rally and possibly agree to disagree without the nasty rhetoric and behave in a close environment. That needs to be acknowledged as an experience that was in direct conflict of the beliefs of those on the right who think engaging in legal racial profiling is necessary in order to control folks. This attitude goes against how most Americans feel but SB1070 which includes the stupid birther law; ares vehicle to control dark folks from being apart of the political process. I would like you to ask yourselves how reasonable is that?

The Sunday coverage started for me with cnn’s Holmes, who decided to bring in david webb; a tea party organizer and while he is black I fear his words of hate about his fellow man truly offended me as he rattled off the various groups represented at the rally out on the National Mall. I am going to try accept that no matter how the “media” covers the 10-2-10 rally I know why it was important that it happened and for it to get national play. The fact is we will continue to hear from folks on the right who get more airplay then those of us left of center because they are more controversial. They not only practice Exclusion they epitomize a sad reminder that race, hate and discrimination of all kinds is an issue that will be alive and well us unless we truly become #onenation and fight for equality. Our Votes for the Democratic Party in November will help continue the change that 53% voted for in 2008 the change we wanted we voted for means we have to get involved force push forward the change that includes ALL Americans not just a few it means everyone.

FYI the BS that happened even before President Obama took office is the reason things are still awful…the votes of No by the Republican Tea party has continued the slow move toward progress. It took at least 8 years of spending by the last guy, Wall Street and folks like AIG to cause an almost complete economical collapse. I do not understand why people do not get the obvious. The Republican party that caused the economical recession if in power again will strip everyone of their current programs your family friends and neighbors have used or paid into for years. They will not only get less government help but those who saw themselves as middle class or above will know they are not because the privatization of any social service program will mean no caps on cost increases given at any moment during the year you are a customer. The best example I have is if you have rent control then you are okay but if you do not “they” can increase your rent whenever their revenue is subject to being slashed, cut or folks just are not interested in living in their buildings or housing as much so the cost is then passed on to the current customers. This would be bad and that is what privatization is. It gives Corporations a right to control the costs; the services rendered the product you get. The alternative to what the Democratic Party is offering will increase the chaos, increase the numbers using the emergency rooms for medical services. The reports of how the public trusts Republicans to fix the financial situation more than Democrats is truly offensive and my question is have people lost their minds. I watched as the reports came out about how the 2Wars waged and the 2Bush tax giveaways to the rich were done WITHOUT PAYGO and this kind of behavior continues as Republicans stall block or make Democrats in the Senate scale down bills needed to get our country back on track. The blame is the Republican Tea Party and their agenda to ruin the Obama administration whether that means throwing their own constituents under the bus…When will they finally understand this.

Vote Dems if you agree to: NO Privatization … NO Cuts medicare, medicaid, soc security, Nurses, Firefighters, Police and Teachers …That is what the Republican Tea Party wants!!!

Other News …

**The state dept has issued a travel alert to US citizens in Europe

**Top taliban leader killed in attack

**Cali lawmakers reach a deal on their budget

**News Corps gave $1Mil to Chamber

**1200 NASA workers will be laid off

**Grocery workers are in mtg with worker rights issues with QFC,Fred Meyer,Safeway

**Rick Sanchez is fired after comments during a radio interview

CSPAN …

One Nation Working Together Rally
Saturday

Weekly Addresses
Saturday

Finanical Stability Oversight Council Meeting at U.S. Treasury Dept.
Friday

Justice Elena Kagan Welcomed to Supreme Court
Friday

Pres. Obama Announces Departure of W.H. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel
Friday

White House Briefing with Press Secretary Robert Gibbs
Friday

State Department Press Briefing
Friday

Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) Speech on Afghanistan
Friday

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Stop this extreme anti-choice bill

10/01/2010 Nativegrl77

Tell Congress to stop restricting the reproductive rights of low-income women.

A woman shouldn’t lose her ability to decide if it’s a good time to bring a child into the world just because she is poor – but it’s been happening in the United States for decades.

Unless we speak out, the law that makes this injustice possible could become permanent.

For the past 34 years, the Hyde Amendment has made it extremely difficult for poor and low-income women on Medicaid to finance abortion services and severely limited their right to reproductive healthcare. It has been used to ban the federal government from spending money on abortion with very few exceptions.

The result? More than a million American women have been denied the ability to make their own decisions about bringing a child into the world in the context of their own circumstances and those of their families.

And now, a bill called the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” is picking up steam in Congress with over 170 co-sponsors. It goes to a new extreme, and seeks to make Hyde permanent while making it even harder for women to find abortion coverage in the private sector.

This is a direct assault on the fundamental rights of poor women and their families. Please write your Members of Congress and tell them to oppose the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act.”

The Hyde Amendment imposes severe financial hardship on poor women. The struggle to raise funds forces many women to delay obtaining services and have later abortions. They might have to forgo basic necessities for their families, or may be forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term.

Reproductive rights include a woman’s right to make fundamental decisions about her life and family, to access the reproductive health services necessary to protect her health, and to decide whether and when to have children. By restricting access to abortion, the Hyde Amendment violates these fundamental human rights for poor and low-income women in the United States.

Please urge your elected officials in Washington to stand up for the rights of poor and low-income women and reject the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act.” We cannot let the Hyde Amendment’s restrictions become permanent law.

Thanks for taking action,

– The Change.org Team

~ Recent Post

Your house on the 12th?

09/30/2010 Nativegrl77

On Tuesday, October 12th, OFA volunteers nationwide are organizing house parties with a special guest: President Obama, who’ll be joining via live webcast.

This year, getting commitments to vote has been a cornerstone of our plan, because our organizing experience — and a whole lot of data — has shown that it’s an incredibly effective way of boosting turnout on Election Day.

And you’ve played an instrumental role — getting folks to pledge to vote on doorsteps, on the phone, and online — all year.

But we need to significantly increase the commitments in the closing stretch of this Vote 2010 campaign, so we’re calling on the two most effective messengers we’ve got — you, and President Obama.

That’s why folks like you are holding Commit to Vote House Parties. We’ll gather with friends and neighbors to get folks involved in the elections and committed to vote — and we’ll tune in to a special message from the President about committing to vote, delivered live from a conversation with OFA supporters.

But we need volunteers like you to step up and hold events — can you host one of these house parties?

Even if you’ve never hosted something before, we’ve got materials to guide you along, and there’ll be a call for hosts where OFA staff can answer your questions.

All you need is a desire to make sure folks in your community turn out in November, and a place where folks can gather with internet access and a computer. That place could be your living room, but it could also be a local community center or library, as long as you’re following local rules and regulations.

President Obama needs all of us fired up during these final weeks, so we can keep moving America forward after this November.

I hope you can help out and host an event on the 12th — please get started here:

http://my.barackobama.com/HostCTV

Thanks for all you do,

Jeremy

Jeremy Bird
Deputy Director
Organizing for America

~ Recent Post

Medicaid enrollment spikes to 48M in weak economy…states are now cutting Medicaid to curb costs!

09/30/2010 Nativegrl77

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press Writer Ricardo Alonso-zaldivar, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 49 mins ago

WASHINGTON – A record number of Americans signed up for Medicaid last year, as the recession wiped out jobs and workplace health coverage.

A report released Thursday by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation found that enrollment in the safety-net medical insurance program jumped to more than 48 million — a record 15.7 percent share of the U.S. population. With the economy barely improving, states are forecasting a 6 percent increase in the rolls next year, meaning another strain on their cash-depleted budgets.

The Medicaid numbers are the latest piece to emerge in a grim statistical picture of the recession’s toll. The ranks of the working-age poor climbed to the highest level since the 1960s last year, according to a recent Census report. Nearly 12 million households received food stamps, a record.

Rising Medicaid enrollment also underscores the growing role of the government in health care, a polarizing issue in this year’s midterm congressional elections after President Barack Obama and Democrats pushed through a massive overhaul of the nation’s health care system.

Since the start of the recession in December 2007, nearly 6 million people have signed up for Medicaid, according to Kaiser. That period includes the biggest 12-month increase since the program’s early days: 3.7 million new enrollees from December 2008 to December 2009.

“There seems to be no end in sight to the fiscal pressure on the Medicaid program,” said Vernon Smith, who co-authored the Kaiser report.

Starting in the fall of 2008, the federal government provided more than $100 billion in additional Medicaid funding to help states cover growing numbers of people in need.

The last of that money will run out in June of next year, and states will face a jump of 25 percent or more in their share of costs, although they are still likely to be financially strapped. If Republicans win control of Congress, they may find it difficult to turn down requests for more aid from the states.

With or without Obama’s overhaul, government is becoming the dominant player in health care. Federal, state and local government spending will overtake private sources in 2011, three years before the new law’s major coverage expansion, Medicare economists said in a recent report.

Medicaid is a federal-state partnership created with Medicare in 1965 under President Lyndon Johnson. It covers low-income families and many elderly in nursing homes, with Washington paying about 60 percent of the cost on average. Medicaid has also been assigned a major role under the new health care law, which expands the program to cover an estimated 18 million additional low-income adults starting in 2014.

For now, states are cutting Medicaid to try to curb costs.

Nearly every state — 48 in all — took some action to limit Medicaid spending this year, and most plan more cuts next year. Although they didn’t reduce eligibility, Kaiser found that states took steps to restrict the scope of coverage:

• A record 20 states placed restrictions on benefits, and 14 plan new restrictions next year. Arizona, California, Hawaii and Massachusetts eliminated some or all dental coverage. Other states limited medical imaging, therapies, supplies and personal care.

• Thirty-nine states cut or froze payments to hospitals, doctors and other service providers, and most plan another round next year. Medicaid payment rates are already so low that in many states it’s hard to find doctors who will accept the coverage. Yet 20 states lowered payments to doctors this year, and 12 plan to do so next year.

• Eighteen states placed limits on long-term care services, and 10 plan additional limits next year.

The recession officially ended in mid-2009, but the Kaiser study indicates its ill effects will take a while longer to wear off. Meanwhile, states will have to gear up for the major Medicaid expansion under the health care law.

“We’re on a teeter board,” said Carol Steckel, president of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, and head of Alabama’s program. “Every now and then that teeter board balances. But it’s going to be rare. There’s always something else.”

___

Online:

Kaiser Family Foundation: http://www.kff.org