Tag Archives: senate spot

What the Small Biz Jobs Act will do for you!!!


Organizing for America

President Obama just signed the Small Business Jobs Act into law — providing immediate incentives for businesses to make new investments, expand, and hire new employees.

Starting today, millions of small business owners will be eligible for up to eight new tax cuts, and within weeks, thousands of businesses will finally have access to the credit they desperately need.

The bill also includes key provisions the President has fought for since the beginning of this year:

— Small businesses receive a tax write-off on the first $500,000 of new equipment investments;
— More than a million eligible small businesses will be able to make key long-term investments that are subject to zero capital gains taxes;
— Entrepreneurs who take a chance on a new idea can deduct the first $10,000 of start-up costs; and
— The self-employed can deduct 100 percent of the cost of health insurance for themselves and their families from self-employment taxes.

You can read more about the legislation here, on the White House’s website.

This legislation is an important part of President Obama’s and the Democrats’ plan to move our economy forward — and it reinforces the crucial choice facing voters in the upcoming election.

Will you forward this email to the small business owners you know to help spread the word about the change we’re making?

Last week, Republicans chose to unveil their “Pledge to America” at the site of the small business Tart Lumber Company in Sterling, Virginia.

Although their pledge mentions small businesses 18 times, it took less than five hours for congressional Republicans to return to the Capitol to vote against this relief for small businesses.

During this difficult time, it’s critical that we continue to fight for every American job, every American small business, and every chance to boost America’s economy.

Instead, Republicans have shown they’re comfortable putting partisan politics ahead of hard-working families and businesses — even those, like Tart Lumber, that they happily use for political grandstanding.

It’s wrong. But we’re proving once again that, together, we can defeat partisan obstructionism, and today we celebrate a great victory for America’s small businesses.

Thanks for all you do,

Mitch

Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America

P.S. — Have questions about the bill? This Wednesday, September 29th, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time, the White House and OPEN Forum are holding a live Q&A on the impact of this and similar legislation on small businesses. Tune in Wednesday at this link: http://www.openforum.com/whitehouse

Breaking: GOP Targets Washington


36 Days Until the Election

NRCC Ad Buy Map

News broke this morning that John Boehner‘s campaign squad is going up with attack ads in Washington. What actions you take in the next few hours will be critical to Democrats‘ successes in November.

Thursday midnight marks the last and final FEC quarterly deadline of the campaign, which means we need your support right now to prevent the GOP from dominating the airwaves with swift boat attacks in the critical final weeks leading up to the election.

While I am more confident than ever that we can retain our Majority, we must do everything we possibly can in these final days to fight back. There is too much at stake to leave any race without enough rapid response resources to fight back. We need 11 supporters from Seattle to give today to keep pace.

Please help by midnight Thursday and we will match your gift 2-to-1 from a group of committed Democrats, tripling your impact.

This deadline is the one that every pundit, talking head and Republican will use to measure our chances in November.

While I am more confident than ever that we can retain our Majority, we must do everything we possibly can in these final days to fight back. We can’t wake up on November 3rd with a single regret. Contribute today before Thursday’s deadline.

Thank you for standing with us.

Onward to victory,

Jon Vogel
Jon Vogel
DCCC Executive Director

Change.org Weekly …Save the Serengeti; Deporting Vietnam Vets; Musicians Boycotting Tobacco


September 20 – September 27
TOP ACTIONS THIS WEEK

Stop the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act”

by Center for Reproductive Rights

Sign the Petition »

Help Stop Corporate Polluters

by Alliance for Climate Protection

Sign the Petition »

Constitutional Amendment to end Corporate Personhood

by Joshua Ezekiel

Sign the Petition »

THIS WEEK on CHANGE.ORG

Save the Serengeti

Plus: Deporting Vietnam VetsMusicians Boycotting TobaccoNorth Carolina’s “Legal Rape”Children Building Stadiums“Bumfights” Star Redeemed

There’s a place in the world where global issues like climate change, poverty, threatened indigenous cultures and mass species extinction converge. It’s one of the most recognizable wild places on earth, and it’s in danger of becoming roadkill.

That place is the Serengeti, a World Heritage Site and home to the largest land migration of wildlife in the world.

The people of Tanzania have protected the Serengeti for the role it plays in their culture since the birth of their country. Now their government plans to sever it with a 31-mile, two-lane highway.

For those of us who are used to the six-lane highways stretching thousands of miles across the U.S., one little road might not seem like a big deal. However, this project has been mapped out right across the migration path of over a million wildebeest and other animals.

Wildebeest numbers will plummet if they can’t reach the Mara River in Kenya, impacting the food chain from the top down. Lions and other predators would face a food shortage. Without wildebeest grazing to maintain the grasslands, leading biologists warn that grass fires could destroy the region and turn it into a source of carbon emissions.

Despite the potential for ecological disaster, there has been scant media attention about the planned road. One of the few bright spots is the group Save the Serengeti, which is using Change.org to mobilize thousands of people within Tanzania and across the world to stop the road’s construction.

Join the call for the world community to help Tanzania find a better transportation solution than to build a road directly through one of the world’s natural treasures. Because we won’t have a second chance.

For more news and action from the world of change this week, see the summaries from your favorite causes below:

Deporting Vietnam Vets in IMMIGRANT RIGHTS

Valente Valenzuela has lived in the U.S. legally since childhood and received a Bronze Star for bravery in the Vietnam War. His brother, Manuel, also served honorably. Now, under zero tolerance immigration law, the decorated veterans face deportation for crimes from years ago, crimes that most likely resulted from war-related post traumatic stress disorder. Not only will 62-year-old Valente be sent back to a country he left over half a century ago, he’ll lose all veterans benefits and the ability to continue attending PTSD counseling. America cannot so callously turn its back on immigrant veterans who sacrificed for the red, white, and blue. Read more »

Musicians Boycotting Tobacco in HEALTH

The main sponsor of Indonesia’s largest music event, the Java Rockin’land Festival, is one of the country’s leading tobacco companies. The pressure is on for the headlining acts, including The Smashing Pumpkins and Wolfmother, to follow in the footsteps of Alicia Keys and Kelly Clarkson and refuse to continue their Indonesian tours unless tobacco sponsorship ends. But will they? Read more »

North Carolina’s “Legal Rape” in WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Welcome to North Carolina, where rape is legal! If you consensually begin having sex in the great state of North Carolina, want to stop, and your partner forcibly restrains you to continue having intercourse, even causing injury, well, too bad. Women’s Rights blogger Alex DiBranco reports that due to a 1979 state Supreme Court decision, a woman gives up all control of her body upon penetration and cannot withdraw consent. Recently, a young woman found this out the hard way when her rape case was dropped. Read more »

Children Building Stadiums in END HUMAN TRAFFICKING

In India, child labor is not uncommon. But even in India, child advocates were horrified to learn construction managers have been bribing poor parents to bring their children to dangerous work sites to build stadiums for the upcoming Commonwealth Games. The result? Children as young as three have been seen working in dangerous piles of rubble on a construction project that has already killed at least 45 people, including a two-year-old girl. It’s time to tell the Commonwealth Games Federation that child labor is not sporting. Read more »

“Bumfights” Star Redeemed in END HOMELESSNESS

One of the men featured in the infamous “Bumfights” videos of the early 2000s is clean and sober and filled with regret. Rufus Hannah, a 50-something homeless man, published a memoir this month. He says he can’t forget the day in 2001 that a 17-year-old cameraman paid him in alcohol to beat his friend until the man had a broken ankle and was carried off in an ambulance. How could he? He has “Bum Fight” tattooed across his knuckles. His redemption story is not just uplifting, writes End Homelessness blogger Josie Raymond. At a time when violence against the homeless is increasing, it’s also vital. Read more »

Have a great week. And remember: voter registration deadlines occur in many states at the end of the week – so make sure you’re registered today.

– The Change.org Team

Stop the Outsourcing


Tell Your Senators:
Take Action to Stop Outsourcing
Click here to contact your senators.

Before they head off on their election season recess this Thursday, members of the U.S. Senate have the chance to take a real stand against shipping U.S. jobs overseas.

Urge your senators to end the filibuster of the Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act (S. 3816). Click here.

The bill includes critical steps to keep jobs in America. It would:

  • Give tax incentives to businesses that hire U.S. workers in place of those doing the same work overseas.
  • End subsidies for companies that move facilities or production offshore.

With unemployment hovering near 10 percent, this is a commonsense step to stop the bleeding of good American jobs.

Don’t let your senators head off to campaign without voting now to move this important legislation forward.

Thank you for working for working families.

In solidarity,

AFL-CIO Working Families e-Activist Network

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