Tag Archives: Violence against women

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Hostages

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ThinkProgress War Room

Another Way the GOP Favors the Wealthy Over Everyone Else

While much of the discussion around the fiscal showdown has rightly focused on the top tax rates for the wealthiest Americans, there are a lot of other very important tax issues to sort. Notably, many expanded tax credits for low-wage workers and other important tax credits, such as the American Opportunity tax credit, will disappear at the end of the year if they are not extended.

The Senate has already passed a bill extending these important tax credits as well as the current tax rates for 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of small businesses, but Republicans are holding those tax cuts hostage in order to get more tax breaks for the wealthy.

Our colleagues put together a handy infographic showing how Republican plans would impact different families.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

“New” Republican fiscal cliff offer: permanently extend tax cuts for the rich.

The public doesn’t care for Speaker Boehner’s handling of the fiscal showdown.

Rape gaffe candidate blames loss on “liberal media.”

POLL: Obama has overwhelming “mandate” to raise taxes on the rich, protect Medicare and Social Security benefits.

Liberals promise to fight any effort to raise the Medicare eligibility age.

How workers can repeal the Michigan GOP’s anti-union power grab.

Sen. Lindsey Graham’s ridiculous comments on marriage equality.

The Federal Reserve made a big move to help improve the economy.

Things in Syria are getting even worse.

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Act now: Urge policymakers to take the chained CPI off the table


 

National Women's Law Center - Don't Discount Women: Demand Fair Change Not Spare Change
 
 
Why are policy makers thinking about cutting Social Security behind closed doors? Because it’s easier for them if you don’t really know what’s happening.

Well, the cat is out of the bag.

According to recent news reports, the chained CPI is officially on the table and gaining buzz in the current deficit reduction negotiations. If the chained CPI (a new and lower Consumer Price Index) is adopted the cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) that Social Security recipients depend on would be calculated in a new way that cuts the value of benefits each year. And no matter how Washington insiders try to spin it, it means a CUT to Social Security benefits.

Act now: Urge policymakers to take the chained CPI off the table during budget negotiations.

Need a reason to take action? How about five?

  1. The chained CPI will cut the value of benefits each year.
  2. The cuts add up — quickly. The cut in the value of benefits will be equivalent to the cost of a week’s worth of food each month by age 80 and nearly two weeks’ worth by 95 for the typical single elderly woman.
  3. The chained CPI cuts everyone’s benefits — including today’s beneficiaries — as soon as it goes into effect.
  4. It particularly hurts women because, on average, they live longer than men and are already more likely to be poor.
  5. It’s less accurate because it doesn’t account for the real increases in the cost of living the elderly face each year.

Oh, and there’s a 6th! As the White House has pointed out, Social Security isn’t the cause of our deficits. So switching the COLA to the chained CPI is just an underhanded move to balance the budget on the backs of the elderly, especially elderly women.

Your voice can make a difference! Tell your Members of Congress and President Obama that the chained CPI should NOT be part of deficit reduction talks.

Thanks for all of your support!

Sincerely,
 
Joan Entmacher   Joan Entmacher
Vice President, Family Economic Security
National Women’s Law Center 		 

P.S. Are you on Facebook? Help us spread the word about what the chained CPI would really mean for women.

P.P.S. Read just one of the many news reports here.
Black History

Congress: the Republican led House : the Senate on break until Dec.10


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2 Facebook pages that shouldn’t exist …Shelby Knox, Change.org


Facebook says that hate speech and incitements to violence are banned and will be removed from their site. So why are they maintaining a page called “Riding Your Girlfriend Softly Cause You Don’t Want to Wake Her Up”? And another page about “throwing bricks at sluts” that includes a photo gallery of portraits asking “Bang or Brick”?

There has even been an organized effort to use Facebook’s own reporting system to flag these and other pages that encourage rape and violence against women so they’ll be taken down. But Facebook hasn’t done a thing.

Now, Change.org member John Raines is going straight to the top. He started a petition on Change.org telling Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to take down these pages and take a stronger stand against violence against women.

Will you sign John’s petition to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg? Sign on, and tell Facebook to remove pages promoting rape and violence against women now.

When 1 in 3 American women will be sexually abused and/or assaulted in her lifetime, pages like these — and the reactions they elicit — are downright scary. Tens of thousands of people have “liked” these pages. Some people even use them as platforms to share rape fantasies and receive explicit tactics for how to carry them out.

John has seen the devastating impact of sexual violence and rape firsthand, on his own family. That’s why he created this petition on Change.org to get Facebook to enforce its existing policies and to make it clear that content promoting rape and violence against women violates Facebook’s Terms of Service and won’t be tolerated.

Please sign John’s petition. Tell Facebook to stop providing a platform to promote rape and violence against women.

Thanks for being a change-maker,

– Shelby and the Change.org team

P.S. The Troy Davis petition that we emailed you about earlier this week is being delivered to the Parole Board today with more than 230,000 signatures from Change.org members, in advance of Troy’s final hearing on Monday. We’ll keep you updated.