Tag Archives: United States

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

a message from Stephanie Cutter


Truth Team

Yesterday, a leaked video from a closed-door fundraiser showed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney telling a room full of big-money donors that Americans who don’t support him think they’re “victims” who don’t “take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

So rarely over the course of this campaign have we gotten to hear Mitt Romney say what he believes in such a revealing, unfiltered manner. This is one of those moments. It’s important that we make sure that the people in our lives who are just tuning into this election know what disdain and contempt Romney has for half of the citizens of this nation he wants to lead. Take a look at the items in this tipsheet, and then share them with others.

#1 What Americans think of Romney’s comments
The secret video shows that Romney believes nearly half of all Americans won’t take responsibility for their own lives and don’t pay taxes. Watch this video of Americans listening and reacting to Romney’s shocking comments, and make sure others do too

#2 Who Romney is writing off?
It’s worth taking a second to look at some of the people who make up the nearly half of the country that Romney has so much disdain for. Who exactly are these people that Romney rips for not paying income taxes? The overwhelming majority are seniors, students, people with disabilities, or working families. They pay payroll taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, and more. Those working families include U.S. soldiers in combat, receptionists, firefighters, and clergy, just to name a few. Certainly, those folks aren’t short on personal responsibility. Read this blog post highlighting some of the Americans that Romney has written off, and share it with others:

 

#3 Romney’s responsibility map
Romney has said that “my job is not to worry about” the people who don’t support him. But America needs a president who will stand up for all Americans, not just the half of the country who agrees with him. Take a look at this graphic about Romney’s idea of “responsibility” and post it to your Facebook wall.

Thanks,

Stephanie

 

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

BREAKING: Greenpeace News …

3 Comments

Shell stops Arctic oil drilling for this year

For over six months, huge numbers of us have been pressuring Shell to stay out of the Arctic.

Well this morning, company bosses announced they were scrapping their oil drilling program for this year. photo from Los Angeles Times

Latest UPDATES : Click on link below

It’s a huge victory for people power.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Election2012 and American Diabetes Association


Action Alert
www.diabetes.org/advocate  |  Forward to a Friend
Election season is heating up! Make sure candidates in your area hear about issues vital to the diabetes community.  

But be sure to read the Candidate Engagement Do’s and Don’ts document first.

The 2012 election season is heating up. With 53 days until the election, now is the time for Diabetes Advocates to engage candidates on the important issues our community faces like access to health care, funding for diabetes prevention and research, and finding a cure.

Many elections will be hotly contested, with candidates holding town hall meetings, rallies and other events all over their district or state. These events will be our opportunity to impress upon them the importance of our priorities for the 26 million Americans with diabetes and the 79 million more with prediabetes. 

When you attend a candidate event, here are 3 questions you could ask:

1) With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, insurers can no longer refuse to cover children because of their diabetes or drop young adults with diabetes from their parent’s health plans. Additionally, by 2014 insurers will not be able to refuse to sell or renew policies because of diabetes. These are just a few of the important protections recently put in place for people with diabetes. Do you support maintaining these protections for people with diabetes in the Affordable Care Act?

2) Diabetes is an epidemic with 105 million Americans currently having diabetes or prediabetes. Currently, the federal government underfunds critical programs for diabetes research and prevention at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Do you support increasing funding for these vital programs?

3) The Special Diabetes Program, a key component of the government’s commitment to diabetes research and prevention, is due to expire in September of next year. I believe reauthorization should include an increase in funding for each program from $150 million per year to $200 million per year for 5 years. Do you support reauthorizing the Special Diabetes Program?

These meetings are a great opportunity to speak directly with candidates and make the diabetes epidemic part of the conversation.

To find out when local Congressional or Senate candidates are holding town hall meetings in your area, check their websites and your local paper’s community calendar, or call their district offices. You can find links to your current elected officials’ websites and phone numbers for their local offices by using the “Find Your Elected Officials” page of our website.

Finally, if you go to a candidate event, or otherwise engage a candidate, it is essential you read this sheet detailing the do’s and don’ts for engaging candidates as it is essential you do not engage in activities that are prohibited for nonprofit organizations like the American Diabetes Association.

After you attend a candidate event, click here to tell us how it went.

Thank you for making your voice heard and helping to Stop Diabetes® this election season.

Sincerely,

L. Hunter Limbaugh L. Hunter Limbaugh signature
L. Hunter Limbaugh
Chair of the Board, American Diabetes Association

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

a message from Alan Grayson


Help Prevent This.

The Right Wing is bent on making voting as difficult as possible. You’ve heard a lot of people complaining about it. Well, we’re doing something about it.

Here in Florida, where the Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the Governor’s Mansion, the Right Wing is field-testing every means known to mankind to discourage voting. They have criminalized voter registration; even the League of Women Voters gave up on it. They have purged the voter rolls in express violation of the Voting Rights Act; Governor Scott basically said, “so sue me.” They cut early voting days in half, because so many African-Americans were voting that way. Their extremist voter ID laws place the burden on the voter to provide his identity to their satisfaction. They have made election administration completely partisan ; do you remember that the head of the 2000 Bush campaign in Florida was in charge of counting the votes? They have created artificial shortages of voting machines in heavily Democratic precincts. They have excluded convicts from voting, and made it virtually impossible for them to restore their constitutional rights. They have even set up roadblocks between voters and polling places on Election Day.

Well, we’re not taking this lying down. We’re fighting back.

Our approach is this: we want to sign up every progressive voter to vote by mail . Here in Florida, when you vote by mail, you get your ballot a month early. It comes to your home, so there is no chance of your going to the wrong precinct. If you lose it, you can get another one. After you mail it in, you can call the Supervisor of Elections, and make sure that it’s been counted. If there is any problem with your ballot, there is plenty of time to fix it.

Compare that to voting on Election Day. If you bring the wrong ID, then if you’re lucky, you’ll get a provisional ballot. You’ll have to go back the next day, and give them what they want. Half of all provision ballots are never counted.

Someone who votes by mail is twice as likely to vote as someone who doesn’t. The highest voter turnout in the 50 States is always in Oregon, where everyone votes by mail.

So we are fighting back by signing up Democrats to vote at home. We are literally going door to door throughout our district, handing Democrats the paperwork that they need to vote at home. We’ve signed up thousands and thousands of them.

And it’s not just for us. Since Florida is the ultimate swing state, we suspect that on Nov. 7, President Obama will be thanking us. And Senator Bill Nelson, too.

It’s still 90 degrees outside on many days here in Orlando. Our district is 100 miles long, and it has almost half a million voters. It’s hard work to drive all around our district and knock on all those doors. To get the numbers that we need, we have to pay people to do it. It costs about $5 for each absentee ballot request that we collect.

But unlike the folks on the other side, we actually want people to vote, and we want every vote to count. So it’s worth it.

What’s it worth to you? If you contribute $10, we can sign up another two progressive voters to vote at home. If you contribute $50, we can sign up ten more.

Those absentee ballots get mailed out in three weeks. We need your help. Please contribute to our “Fight Voter Suppression Fund” today.

Courage,

Alan Grayson

“It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”
– Chinese Proverb, paraphrased by UN Ambassador (and Democratic Presidential Nominee) Adlai Stevenson.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Dispatches From The War On Women: Planned Parenthood Joins The Voter ID Fight


Dispatches From The War On Women: Planned Parenthood Joins The Voter ID Fight

get causes updates

Welcome to Dispatches, a look at the latest news and issues from the trenches in the War on Women. Have a story from your state or an idea on how to push back? Share them here and fight back against the War on Women.

Maybe it’s a function of necessity, but civil rights organizations have realized the only way to make sure the Republicans don’t lie, cheat, and steal their way to an electoral victory in November is to come together and support each others previously siloed causes.

The latest evidence in this liberal coalition building can be found in the upper Midwest, where Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota has come out to take a public stand against two constitutional amendments on the ballot in Minnesota this fall. One is a measure to ban same sex marriage, and another would pass one of the most restrictive Voter ID requirements in the country.

The group has created two political funds to help defeat the amendments, and as government and public affairs director Timothy Stanley told Minnesota Public Radio, the group is getting involved because both issues matter to the people Planned Parenthood serves. “We work in coalitions with all these groups every day, from doing combined outreach to vulnerable communities that need health care, to working in political coalitions with groups that are fighting for LGBT rights right along side our fight for women’s health care.”

Instead of raising money for Minnesotans United for All Families, the main group working to defeat the marriage amendment, and Our Vote Our Future, the main organization working to defeat the voter ID amendment, Planned Parenthood plans to use its own staff and resources to campaign specifically on those two amendments. Planned Parenthood will be phoning, mailing and using social media to “make sure that people who support Planned Parenthood know that we are standing alongside the communities that are affected by these two amendments and we are calling on our supporters to vote no on these amendments.”
This type of coalition building comes after a historic joining of forces this summer by the NAACP and LGBT groups. The NAACP put its support behind the battle for marriage equality while LGBT groups came out in force over Fathers Day to protest NYPD stop-and-frisk policies in New York alongside the NAACP.

Given the nature of the right’s attacks on civil rights across the board, this kind of coalition building will not just be helpful, it is necessary. And with any luck, it will successfully stem the tide of these attacks and put them to bed once and for all.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/dispatches-from-the-war-on-women-planned-parenthood-joins-the-voter-id-fight.html#ixzz26XZzphRt