Tag Archives: United States

Hey Friend, just wanted to give you a quick update. In just 2 days, we are more than halfway towards our fundraising goal for ThinkProgress. Thank you!

We don’t have any mugs, ball caps, or tote bags to offer. But we’ll promise to keep fighting for the truth — something that’s going to be much harder to come by in 2012.

Can you pitch in $5 right now and help us get over the finish line?

As always, feel free to email me with any questions or comments.

— Faiz

On Tues, Dec 6, 2011 at 12:04 PM, Faiz Shakir (faiz@thinkprogress.org) wrote:

Dear Friend,

In 2012, Karl Rove, the Koch Brothers and others on the far-right are planning to spend nearly half a billion dollars to influence the political debate. Their goal is to make sure that the national dialogue protects their own deep pockets at the expense of the rest of the nation.

ThinkProgress is working around the clock to fight back with the truth. This past year, we traveled around the country to confront the right-wing with tough questions. We exposed their underhanded tactics, and crunched the numbers behind their radical policy schemes.

Next year, there is even more at stake and we need to work even harder. But we can’t do it without your help. We need to raise $25,000 this week to help fund our reporting for the coming year.

Please click here to pitch in $5 and help us bring the facts to the 99%.

We have made a huge impact this year. A few examples:

After Herman Cain told us in an interview he would not be comfortable with a Muslim in his cabinet, we began a campaign to fight back against Islamophobia in the conservative movement.
We attended congressional town halls conducted by at least 20 different members of Congress, and broke the news that Paul Ryan got booed for saying the rich were taxed enough.
In early October, we launched a new page on ThinkProgress that was solely devoted to reporting on the nationwide Occupy protests, branding it The 99 Percent Movement.

Our influence is scaring many on the right. The powerful corporate front group ALEC kicked our reporters out of a conference, and the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity launched a smear campaign against one of our writers.

We need your support now, more than ever, to keep up the fight in 2012.

Best,

Faiz Shakir
Editor, ThinkProgress.org

P.S. We never stop. Please pitch in $5 and it’ll be the hardest working $5 you’ve ever spent.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Unemployment Insurance – Share Your Story

12/09/2011 Nativegrl77

Unemployment Insurance – Share Your Story

Unemployment benefits are a vital lifeline for many Washington workers who are jobless through no fault of their own. These programs help them continue to put food on their table, gas in their car, and pay their bills while they look for work.

Federal unemployment programs will begin to expire at the end of this year.

In fact, unless Congress acts to extend these vital benefits, approximately 100,000 Washington residents and more than two million Americans will be cut off from federal unemployment compensation by February 2012.

Over the coming weeks I will be pushing my colleagues in the Senate to work quickly to extend unemployment benefits before the end of the year.

But I need your help.

I consider it to be my job to be your voice in the Senate. So tell me your stories. Send me your pictures and your videos. Show me how inaction by Congress to extend these benefits would most impact your life.

While the unemployment rate dropped to 8.6% in November, we’ve still got a lot of work to do to get our economy back on track. But I can promise you that it will be your stories and experiences that will guide me as I fight for workers in Washington state.

Your Story…

Have a photo or video that tells your story? Please share it by using this form.

Send an e-mail with your photo or video link to: yourstory@murray.senate.gov

You can also Tweet your photo to @PattyMurray using #extendUI.

Note: Selected stories, photos, or videos may be used by Senator Murray online or in her public remarks. We will include only your first name and hometown. Your full name and email will never be posted online or provided without your permission.

Their Story…

I have heard from so many workers across Washington state—and I know they aren’t looking for a hand-out, they just want their government to be there for them the way it was there for generations of workers before them. They are just looking for a hand up—some support so they can keep food on their families’ tables while looking for work, and the resources and tools they need to skill-up, train-up, and get back on the job. Here are a few of their stories:

“I got laid off my job in April 2011. My unemployment insurance will run out at the end of this year. Unless Congress acts swiftly, federal unemployment insurance programs will expire December 31, leaving me with no benefits starting January 2012. I have two small children, three and five years old. Due to my employment status, we have to tell them that we will only be able to give them one Christmas gift this year. We also had to tell them we couldn’t go see the “Disney on Ice” show because it was too expensive. Please renew the full federal Unemployment Insurance program through 2012 now! The benefit I get will help pay for our mortgage while my wife’s salary, who works for Macy’s, covers our day to day expenses – including providing for our children. I have been looking for a job for nine months now but there are not many jobs out there.”

– Jose Villanueva, Seattle

“I am writing to urge your support for an extension of the federal unemployment benefits. I am receiving these benefits right now and have enrolled in a special program to start my own business. Through the SEAP program, I have become my own job creator. These funds, along with my own savings, have allowed me to meet my expenses while starting my financial education business, Twight Financial Education. As a fee-only financial planner, I work with people who want to know more about how to handle and invest their money. Sometimes, we must work on getting them from paycheck to paycheck first. You know that while you have been in office, the financial world has become more complex, even as employee benefits have diminished. Without these UI benefits, I would not have been able to keep my business going. I have not yet made a profit, but expect to next year. I have momentum now and your support for these benefits is critical for me and many others.”

– Dana Twight, Seattle

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Price for access to Vogue digital archive: $1,575

12/09/2011 Nativegrl77

Price for access to Vogue digital archive: $1,575

By Dylan Stableford | The Cutline – 18 hrs ago

Would you pay $1,575 a year to access Vogue’s archive? That’s what the revenue keepers at Condé Nast are hoping, after they unveiled the iconic fashion magazine’s digital vault on Thursday.

The cover of Vogue, June 1950.

The Vogue Archive includes every American issue published by the magazine since 1892–every page, including covers, advertisements and more than 400,000 full-color images.

The archive–aimed primarily at designers, fashion students, teachers and academic institutions–took nearly two years to complete, Vogue says. In addition to employing standard search functions, users can refine their searches by color, materials and clothing. The magazine plans to update the archive monthly with each new issue, and will make some of it available to current print subscribers in 2012.

“The Vogue Archive is expected to become a definitive resource for students of fashion and the visual arts,” the release says. “Additionally, as a comprehensive primary source of modern social history, the Vogue Archive opens new research avenues in the humanities and gender studies.”

Other consumer magazines have tried to leverage their digital archives before, including Playboy, Rolling Stone and Time. But none have attempted to charge such a hefty fee for access. (Playboy’s “Hard Drive,” for instance, costs $299.)

Annual subscriptions for individuals cost $1,575; schools and libraries can gain access for multiple users at a corporate discount that will vary, depending on the institution’s size.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

AFL – CIO

12/07/2011 Nativegrl77

AMAZING

You’ve got to see this—these stories from jobless workers blew us away.See the stories, share them and add your voice.

You need to check out this website, right now.

It’s a powerful reminder of the real faces behind America’s sobering unemployment statistics. It has real pictures and stories from job-hunters and impacted people from all walks of life—from your state and from every state.

I hope you’ll take a minute to look at these powerful stories, share them and add your own.

If Congress fails to act by Dec. 31, extended unemployment insurance will expire for millions.

We never forget these are real people who face the prospect of going hungry and getting thrown out of their homes soon after the holidays if Congress fails to act. Many of us have been there before—or have friends and family who have.

Even though obstructionists in Congress are willing to ignore our joblessness crisis, we refuse to let these stories get brushed under the rug.

Click here to see and share the stories and faces behind America’s joblessness crisis.

Then, share our website on Facebook and Twitter and forward this message to all your friends.

These stories and pictures won’t just live on a website. We’ll share them with the media, hand-deliver them to Congress during our massive day of action on Dec. 8 and promote them widely on the Internet.

If callous members of Congress think they can sit back and allow unemployment aid to expire while they play political games, they’re wrong. With your help we’re going to force them to see this crisis head-on—with real faces of real people who are jobless and struggling in this brutal economy.

See these stories, share them and add your voice.

In Solidarity,

Manny Herrmann
Online Mobilization Coordinator, AFL-CIO

P.S. It’s not just people who are unemployed right now who have stories to tell. Millions of others do, too.

Maybe you’ve been jobless in the past and relied on unemployment benefits to get through. Or you’ve seen firsthand how much unemployment hurts your community and America—and how much unemployment aid helps. Or maybe you can write a brief statement of support for the jobless or urge Congress to act—even in just one to two sentences.

Together, we’re creating a visual display of the impact of unemployment that will be too powerful to ignore. See and share stories and statements in your state and across America. Then, add your own.

To find out more about the AFL-CIO, please visit our website at www.aflcio.org.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

A message from Mrs.Obama …Charlotte, North Carolina, will host the 46th Democratic National Convention in 2012.

12/06/2011 Nativegrl77

I am thrilled to make sure you are the first to hear some very exciting news. Charlotte, North Carolina, will host the 46th Democratic National Convention in 2012.

Charlotte is a city marked by its southern charm, warm hospitality, and an “up by the bootstraps” mentality that has propelled the city forward as one of the fastest-growing in the South. Vibrant, diverse, and full of opportunity, the Queen City is home to innovative, hardworking folks with big hearts and open minds. And of course, great barbecue.

Barack and I spent a lot of time in North Carolina during the campaign — from the Atlantic Coast to the Research Triangle to the Smoky Mountains and everywhere in between. Barack enjoyed Asheville so much when he spent several days preparing for the second Presidential debate that our family vacationed there in 2009.

And my very first trip outside of Washington as First Lady was to Fort Bragg, where I started my effort to do all we can to help our heroic military families.

All the contending cities were places that Barack and I have grown to know and love, so it was a hard choice. But we are thrilled to be bringing the convention to Charlotte.

We hope many of you can join us in Charlotte the week of September 3rd, 2012. But if you can’t, we intend to bring the spirit of the convention — as well as actual, related events to your community and even your own backyard.

More than anything else, we want this to be a grassroots convention for the people. We will finance this convention differently than it’s been done in the past, and we will make sure everyone feels closely tied in to what is happening in Charlotte. This will be a different convention, for a different time.

To help us make sure this is a grassroots convention — The People’s Convention — we need to hear from you. We want to know what you’d like to see at next year’s convention, how and where you plan on watching it — and the very best way we can engage your friends and neighbors.

How can we make The People’s Convention belong to you and your community?

http://my.barackobama.com/PeoplesConvention1?keycode=

I can’t believe it has been more than two years since my brother Craig introduced me at the 2008 Convention in Denver. It truly feels like it was yesterday.

As I looked out at a sea of thousands of supporters that night, I spoke about my husband — the man whom this country would go on to elect as the 44th President of the United States. I spoke about his fundamental belief — a conviction at the very core of his life’s work — that each of us has something to contribute to the spirit of our nation.

That’s also the belief at the core of The People’s Convention. That the table we sit at together ought to be big enough for everyone. That the thread that binds us — a belief in the promise of this country — is strong enough to sustain us through good times and bad.

Barack talked at the State of the Union of his vision for how America can win the future. That must be the focus now, and I know so many of you will help talk about our plans with your neighbors — that through innovation, education, reform, and responsibility we can make sure America realizes this vision.

But, conventions take time to plan, so please help us make sure that your thoughts and your ideas will ring all the way to Charlotte. Get started now:

http://my.barackobama.com/PeoplesConvention1?keycode=

Looking forward to sharing this together,

Michelle