Tag Archives: vote

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Dino Rossi


Dino Rossi:

wants to repeal the landmark health care legislation recently passed by Congress.

In our State Legislature he wrote a budget that denied health care to 40,000 low-income children, and opposed negotiating with drug companies to reduce the cost of medicine.

He voted against our Patient’s Bill of Rights, and against putting patients and doctors – instead of insurance companies – in charge of medical decisions.

Dino Rossi would vote to overturn our freedom of choice, and says he might support requiring rape victims to bear the children of their attackers.

Vote for Patty Murray for US Senate

Source: Emily’s List

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Michael Bennet for U.S. Senate: “Who is Ken Buck?”


In the last couple weeks Ken Buck has spent a lot of time trying to walk back the extreme positions he took to win support from the Tea Party. But we think it’s important for Coloradans to hear what Ken Buck really believes.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

The final weekend


Forget the “enthusiasm gap.” Here’s the real story about who is more fired up and ready to go — just as our campaigns shift into GOTV (get-out-the-vote) mode.

Reports are coming in from across the country of record early voting turnout in key states like Ohio and Iowa — with Democratic turnout far outpacing our opponents.

On Saturday, OFA volunteers reached out to more than 1 million voters in a single day — levels we haven’t seen since the closing days of the presidential campaign two years ago.

And on Sunday night, Barack and Michelle Obama spoke to more than 35,000 Ohioans about these final two weeks. It was the largest rally since the inauguration.

But none of that will be enough unless we continue building through the final days of this election.

Will you sign up to fill a crucial GOTV shift in the final four days of our Vote 2010 campaign?

Sign up for a GOTV shift

As the President said in Columbus,”there’s no more important time to be out there knocking on doors, making phone calls, and helping voters get to the polls” than on the Saturday, Sunday, and Monday before Election Day — and on Election Day itself, November 2nd.

Supporters across the country will come together in the final days to help eke out every last vote we can — from the grandmother who would like nothing more than to vote and just needs a ride, to that last call to convince a first-time voter from 2008 that he needs to get back to the polls this year.

And from New York to California, Alaska to Florida — and everywhere in between — there are key races that will need every ounce of energy you can spare.

Please sign up to help in the closing days of this campaign:

http://my.barackobama.com/ShiftGOTV

Thanks,

Mitch

Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Voting Rights Violated; Free Eddy Zheng; Chicago’s Wonder Women




October 11 – October 18
TOP ACTIONS THIS WEEK

Protect Minority Voters’ Rights on Election Day

by NAACP Legal Defense And Educational Fund

Sign the Petition »

Defend the Minimum Wage

by Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee

Sign the Petition »

Stop the Yellowstone Bison Slaughter

by Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund

Sign the Petition »

THIS WEEK on CHANGE.ORG

Voting Rights Violated

Plus: Free Eddy Zheng • Chicago’s Wonder Women • Pink Ribbon Hypocrisy • Abercrombie’s Child Labor • Sidewalk Sitting Ban

 

Election Day is near, and candidates across the country are busy traversing their districts in yet another election that will likely be decided by voter turnout.

But voting in the United States has never been as easy as simply showing up at the polls – and in some states it’s getting more difficult in ways that disproportionately affect immigrant and minority voters.

The poster child for this trend is Georgia under Republican Governor Sonny Perdue. Just before the 2008 election, the Department of Justice was forced to intervene to block a flawed voter-verification process in the state that inaccurately flagged thousands of Georgia residents as non-citizens, denying them the right to vote.

This election, Georgia is once again planning an extensive new voter-verification process that voting rights advocates say could effectively disenfranchise thousands of citizens. But this time the state hasn’t stopped at its attempt to implement more barriers to voting. Instead, it has also challenged the bedrock provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that requires jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination in voting to submit proposed voting changes for federal pre-approval to ensure that they are free from discrimination.

This is part of a disturbing movement of states with a dark history of voting discrimination – including Alabama, North Carolina and Texas – that are proposing newly restrictive voting measures that disproportionally impact minority voters while simultaneously challenging the Voting Right Act’s provision requiring they receive approval from the courts.

We’ve made dramatic progress in reducing discrimination in our electoral system in the four decades since the Voting Rights Act was passed. But there are still reports of irregularities and racially-charged voter suppression in almost every election, and in that context challenges to the most important voting rights legislation ever passed in the United States should concern everyone.

That’s why with Election Day only two weeks away, we’re joining with our friends at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in urging our national leaders to affirm the breadth and depth of the Voting Rights Act and prevent the disenfranchisement of minority voters.

Please add your voice in support of the voting rights of all Americans today.

For more news and commentary on this week in change, see the summaries of your favorite causes below.

Free Eddy Zheng in IMMIGRANT RIGHTS

Eddy Zheng was sentenced to over two decades in jail at the age of 16, in a process language barriers prevented him and his family from fully understanding. Since his release, he has distinguished himself as a leader in prisoner rehabilitation and youth violence prevention, winning the appreciation of the San Francisco mayor and other elected officials. Yet, as a non-citizen, he faces deportation for his ancient crime. Zheng has applied for a governor’s pardon, and you can help him win it. Read more »

Chicago’s Wonder Women in EDUCATION

If you’ve seen the documentary Waiting For Superman, you know that America’s education system is in crisis. What happens when a group of moms take things into their own hands? Since September 15, moms from the South Side of Chicago have staged a sit-in to demand a school library for their children. Chicago Public Schools plans to knock down an old building and replace it with a field, but the moms want to turn it into a community center. Read more »

Pink Ribbon Hypocrisy in HEALTH

It’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and alcohol companies are asking women to booze it up for the disease. But the irony is sobering: alcohol directly contribute to breast cancer. Will the pink-ribbon labels come clean and tell consumers of the health risks or remain defined by their duplicity? Read more »

Abercrombie’s Child Labor in END HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Despite international condemnation, the government of Uzbekistan continues to remove millions of children from schools across the country and force them to pick cotton in arduous conditions. Sixty-five of the world’s largest apparel brands have refused to buy Uzbek cotton picked by forced child labor. But ironically, children and teens’ clothing companies Abercrombie and Fitch and Gymboree have refused to stand against forced child labor. Read more »

Sidewalk Sitting Ban in END HOMELESSNESS

On Election Day, residents of San Francisco will go to the polls to vote on something called the Sit-Lie Ordinance, or Proposition L. End Homelessness bloggers Rich and Elizabeth Lombino write that homeless advocates describe it another way: discriminatory. If passed, the ordinance will make it illegal to sit or lie on a city sidewalk between the hours of 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. Opponents worry that arbitrary enforcement will mean that people who “look homeless” are forced to move along while others are allowed to stay and rest. Read more »
Have a great week,

– The Change.org Team

 
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Google -Official blog
More transparency and control over location 

Posted: 18 Oct 2010 11:10 AM PDT

We’ve always focused on offering people the most relevant results. Location is one important factor we’ve used for many years to customize the information that you find. For example, if you’re searching for great restaurants, you probably want to find ones near you, so we use location information to show you places nearby. 

Today we’re moving your location setting to the left-hand panel of the results page to make it easier for you to see and control your preferences. With this new display you’re still getting the same locally relevant results as before, but now it’s much easier for you to see your location setting and make changes to it.

Your location setting is now always visible on the left side of the search results page.

We do our best to automatically detect the most useful location, but we don’t always get it right—so in some cases you’ll want to change the setting. At other times, you may want to change your location to explore information relevant to another area. For example, let’s say you’re at work in Mountain View and you’re making plans to see a movie in San Francisco (a common occurrence here at Google). You can change your location to “San Francisco” and search for [showtimes] to find movie listings in San Francisco or search for [restaurants] to find places to eat before the show. Similarly, if you’re planning a trip to Hawaii, you can change the location to “Honolulu” and start exploring the [weather], [hotels] and of course the [beaches]. The location you set can be as specific as a particular zip code or as general as an entire country, but more specific settings generally lead to better search results.

Click “Change location” to specify your location preference.

You used to be able to see and control your location settings, but it was a little clunky. To see your settings, you could click “View customizations” on the results page and to modify them you could click “Change location” next to a variety of search results, such as maps and movie listings. As time has gone by, more and more locally relevant information has come online, whether it’s local business listings or a blog from your hometown. Meanwhile, Google has become much better at presenting this locally relevant content—so it felt like the right time to make this setting easier to find.

The new interface is rolling out now and will be available in more than 40 languages soon. We’re not changing anything about how we use location information to improve search, so it doesn’t change our existing privacy policies. To learn more about our new interface and how we use location in search, check out our help center.

Posted by Mack Lu, Associate Product Manager