Snark: to annoy or irritate

"Snark" has been in English language dictionaries since at least 1906, and Lewis Carroll used the word to describe a mythological animal in his poem, The Hunting of the Snark (1874). Most recently, the word has come to characterize snappish, sarcastic, or mean-spirited comments or actions directed at those who annoy or irritate us.

At first, this blog was just going be a place to gripe, but because it's more satisfying to take action than it is to merely complain, now most of the posts/reposts suggest ways to get involved in solving problems.


Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Time to Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

If you've been reading the posts on this blog from CREDO Action, MoveOn.org, Democracy for America, People for the American Way, The Feminist Majority, Media Matters for America, and others, you know that there are many progressive groups out there trying to counteract right-wing extremism in American politics.

These organizations need your help to keep on fighting in 2012. They rely on grassroots support, not sponsorship from huge corporations. That means money from you and me. Small donations from a whole bunch of us "regular people" really can mount up, surprisingly fast.

How about this? This week, instead of buying that one extra stocking stuffer or that bottle of holiday booze or instead of going out to dinner just one time, send an equivalent amount to the activist organization of your choice. 

Most of the posts on this blog include quick links that make it easy to donate. Come on, pick one, and send them a little money. You'll be glad you did. 

Happy holidays!
--Cheryl

Take Down the Tea Party 10

Take action!
A message from CREDO Action:  No doubt you've watched in horror over the last year, as the most extreme congress in history made one nauseating vote after another.

Now it's payback time.
Many of the Tea Party-affiliated House Republicans were elected in 2010 with the help of millions of dollars in spending by political groups associated with Karl Rove and the Koch brothers.
So the most odious members of the congress have behaved as if they were above accountability.
But they aren't. And we're going to take them down.
Today CREDO is launching a new campaign: To defeat ten of the most extreme Tea Party-affiliated members of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012. We aim to win — and we need your help to do it.
This is the biggest campaign CREDO has ever undertaken, and it couldn't come at a more important time.
The CREDO SuperPAC will run a grassroots campaign in ten districts. We will mobilize our members to inform voters of the Tea Party incumbent's perfidy, to peacefully confront and question them at public gatherings, and to turn out thousands of volunteers for door-to-door canvassing and member-to-member phone calls.
The emphasis will be on making a significant, cost-effective impact, using brutally honest messages, cutting edge strategies, and some tactics that have never been tried before.
Our goal is to restore at least a measure of sanity to our national politics, and begin to change Washington.
Your involvement will be crucial in this campaign — and every one of CREDO Action's nearly 2.5 million activists has a role to play to help defeat these extremist legislators.
Now, we need to get this campaign moving.
Donate $5 to help fund a hard-nosed campaign to hold ten of the most extreme Tea Party-affiliated representatives accountable:
Thanks for your activism. Together, we're about to do something really big.
Becky Bond, Political Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets
Paid for by CREDO SuperPAC, 101 Market St. Suite 700, San Francisco CA 94105, not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

Pulling a Fast One: SOPA


A message from Demand Progress:
Some annoying news: As was widely reported last Friday, all indications were that the House Judiciary Committee would delay its vote on SOPA for a few weeks.  Now it looks like they might vote this week, if Congress stays in session:
PCMAG: "SOPA vote might happen this week after all"
ACTIVIST POST: "Congress tries to pull a fast one"
You've all been amazing as we've worked to spread word about SOPA, convinced more and more lawmakers to oppose it, and dragged out the hearing for a week -- that's pretty much unheard of.
But we need to ask you to pick up the phone once more:
Will you call Speaker of the House John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor and ask them to reign in Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith?  
Speaker John Boehner: (202) 225-6205
Majority Leader Eric Cantor: (202) 225-2815
Please be polite, but firm.  You can work off of this script:
I'm calling because Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith is pushing the Stop Online Piracy Act even though it will kill jobs, undermine cybersecurity, stifle free speech, and give comfort to totalitarian regimes that want to censor the Internet.  And they're doing it all to prop up a few Hollywood bigwigs.
His hearings are turning into a circus that's embarrassing for our country and for the House of Representatives. Please ask him to back down and hold real hearings on this legislation before rushing it through his committee.
These powerful leaders control what will be voted on by the full House, and we need to put them on notice.
And you can use these links to ask your friends to join the effort and email and call their lawmakers about the Internet censorship bills, or just ask them to visit StopCensorship.org.
[fb]If you're already on Facebookclick here to share with your friends.
[fb]If you're already on Twitter, click here to tweet about the campaign: Tweet
 
Thanks for staying in this fight for another round!
-The Demand Progress team

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Disappearing MoveOn?

Between work or school, and paying the bills, and taking out the trash, and checking out that new XBox/trashy novel/cookbook/fingerpainting set, you probably don't think about MoveOn too much.

When you do, you probably think we send you too much email. Almost everyone thinks we do (except my mother-in-law, God bless her).

But you're probably also glad for the work that gets done thanks to all those emails. Glad that whenever the Republicans come after working Americans, MoveOn members are there fighting back. That whenever a proud progressive like Elizabeth Warren comes under attack, we stick up for them. That every day, MoveOn is a channel for millions of people to speak truth to the powerful—Republican OR Democrat.

Twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, we're a rapid response progressive political alarm system. Sure, sometimes you just click delete. But imagine if MoveOn disappeared and the work so many people do through MoveOn stopped happening altogether.

Not to get technical, but it would be bad.

To avoid that—to keep MoveOn going and growing—costs money, even though we keep our staff small and work from home to keep overhead low. Right now, to make ends meet, we need to raise $400,000 by the end of the year.

That's not a lot—in fact if every MoveOn member gave just 5 cents, we'd be all set. If every MoveOn member gave a few dollars, it would cover our budget for years.

Sadly though, not everyone can. Too many MoveOn members are unemployed, or have seen their hours or benefits cut, or are having health problems—and really truly can't afford anything. 

So if you're blessed enough this holiday season to have a few bucks in your pocket, please chip in to keep MoveOn fighting hard for the issues we all care about. And if you can afford it, kick in a couple extra to cover some folks who are hurting. 


At the end of the day, MoveOn is its members—we're a platform for millions of people from all walks of life who take time out of busy lives to fight for what's right. Please donate $5 so we can keep being there for every important fight in 2012.


Thanks for all you do,

–Justin and the rest of the MoveOn team


Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 5 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.

PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The Protester

Time magazine's "Person of the Year"

End of the Internet


A message from Demand Progress:
It's do-or-die time:  The House Judiciary Committee will likely pass the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) THIS Thursday. Once the bill moves out of committee, the House can pass it at any time.
BUT, if we're able to kill it at this stage it'll probably never recover. 
That's why we need your help this week:  We want to make sure people understand what the Internet could be like if SOPA passes, so we're asking millions of people to protest censorship as part of our #CensorshipEverywhere campaign -- use our tool to censor parts of your own posts to Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and anything and everything else.  
Here's an example of what a censored email would look like:

The most important thing this week is that EVERYONE join the protests in some way.  If all of us drive our audiences to make phonecalls, we're unstoppable. We need to jam Congress's inboxes and melt their phone lines if we're going to stop SOPA.  
SOPA threatens the livelihood of the best parts of the Internet, and the best companies that use the Internet.  More than 70 representatives from leading tech firms -- like Tumblr, Foursquare, Etsy, Kickstarter and Reddit -- and advocacy groups from across the political spectrum participated in a meeting to coordinate action against SOPA.  
It was an inspirational meeting, and we're all going all-in to kill this legislation.  We need to do everything we can to stop it in committee -- and everything we do this week sends a strong message to lawmakers: voters do not want this bill.
Join us and be a hero for Internet freedom and free speech.
We need you,  
- David, Holmes, Tiffiniy, other David, and the rest of the team.
PS: This is it.  Please help drive as much traffic as possible to Congress this week.  Use these buttons to enlist your friends to fight censorship -- or your post or tweet will be 'censored':
Facebook Tweet
See here for more information on this devastating bill:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/28/1040530/-Congress-is-close-to-destroying-the-internet-(no-hyperbole)
This poorly conceived piece of legislation has been rushed through Congress without proper debate. Pro-censorship forces have spent over $90 million to get this bill passed. We have, well, social media to fight back.If you value Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or any website which invites your participation, please take a moment to contact your members of Congress:

One last thing -- Demand Progress's small, dedicated, under-paid staff relies exclusively on the generosity of members like you to support our work. Will you click here to chip in $5 or $10? Or you can become a Demand Progress monthly sustainer by clicking here. Thank you!

Lowe's Kowtows to Right-Wing Bigots

all american muslim
A message from PFAW:
Maybe you've heard about a recent controversy whipped up by the extremist Florida Family Association over TLC's reality show "All-American Muslim" and the subsequent decision by Lowe's Home Improvement to pull its advertising from the show. 

Lowe's speedy capitulation to a small right-wing hate group sets a dangerous precedent and emboldens bigots. 

Please sign our petition to Lowe's Chairman and CEO Robert Niblock now, urging the company to reverse course and reject bigotry.
 

TLC launched a popular reality show called "All-American Muslim" about everyday Americans, who happen to be Muslim, going about their lives. They play sports, they go school, they go to work and pay their taxes. This was too much for the anti-Muslim fear mongers at the Florida Family Association, who were outraged that the show was depicting Muslims as "ordinary folks just like you and me." An article on the organization's web site suggests that the show instead depict "one of its secular, attractive nominal Muslims as he decided to get more serious about his faith, and ended up participating in jihad activity or Islamic supremacist efforts." 

Lowe's should have ignored the Right's bigoted pleas and gone about its business. Instead it caved to a group of bigoted extremists. 

Sign our petition to Lowe's chairman and CEO Robert Niblock right now urging the company to reject extremism and reinstate its advertising on "All-American Muslim."
 

The company claims it is committed to diversity. It's time to prove it. 

-- Ben Betz, Online Strategy Manager 

P.S. You can also speak out with your decisions as a consumer. People For the American Way encourages all Americans who value religious liberty and reject hate to spend their money elsewhere this holiday season, until Lowe's Home Improvement takes action to make clear its rejection of the Radical Right's anti-Muslim hysteria and bigotry.

We Are the 99% Paraphernalia


A message from Democracy for America:
We're not seeing Occupy Wall Street in the daily news, but Occupy and the 99% movement are still going strong and building every day.


This holiday season we can help spread the message that  "We Are the 99%" with a last minute gift for yourself or anyone left on your list. 


Each order is a contribution to DFA , so you can support our efforts to fight for the 99% everyday -- while also showing support for the movement in your local neighborhood.

The DFA store is run by Dem Sign and they'll process your order and ship your purchases, so you can get your order in time for holiday gift-giving.

Browse the "We are the 99%" t-shirts, bumper stickers and yard signs here.
Thank you for everything you do.
- Jim Dean, Chair
Democracy for America

End the Bush Tax Cuts

Take action!
A message from CREDO Action:  
It's outrageous. The average tax break from the Bush tax cuts enjoyed by the top 1 percent of wage earners is larger than the average income of the rest of the 99 percent of Americans.

And after a decade of giving money to those who literally didn't need it, the deficit caused in large part by the Bush tax cuts is being used as an excuse to take away the social safety net that protects the most vulnerable members of society.
Ending these cuts should be a no brainer. They had been set to expire at the end of 2010, but President Obama ended up cutting a deal with the Republican leadership to extend the cuts for another two years.
But we know that the cuts won't be allowed to expire without a big fight.
Republican intransigence on the Bush tax cuts was at the heart of the failure of the Super Committee.
Not only did the Republicans on the Super Committee want the Bush tax cuts to be made permanent, they took the morally bankrupt position that we should blow a bigger hole in the budget by giving even larger tax cuts to the rich.
Simply extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy would cost us more than $700 billion over the next decade.
There is very little that so clearly demonstrates the callous venality of some members of Congress than the simultaneous demand to give the Koch brothers a tax cut while pushing benefit cuts to programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Democrats caved in 2010, and Republicans expect them to cave again. Between now and the end of 2012, we can expect a relentless push to make the Bush tax cuts permanent.
But this is a fight we can win if we are relentless, too. In this case gridlock and inaction work to our benefit because we don't have to pass a bill — we just need to ensure that Congress doesn't pass a bill that extends the Bush tax cuts past 2012.
The first step is speaking out and laying down a marker so that your member of Congress and senators know their constituents want the Bush tax cuts to end.
Thank you for speaking out to end the Bush tax cuts.
Matt Lockshin, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets

Tell Obama: Don't Give In to Catholic Bishops

Birth Control and Plan B
A message from Feminist Majority:

President Barack Obama has still not issued a decision on expanding a religious exemption that would deny birth control coverage with no copays for millions of women. Act now to make sure President Obama and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius do not give in to demands from the Conference of Catholic Bishops to deny birth control coverage.
And while you're at it, tell President Obama and Secretary Sebelius to reconsider the HHS decision to block FDA approval of Plan B over the counter without an age restriction. Women and girls' lives are in the balance. Take action now!
One of the most popular benefits of health care reform, the Affordable Care Act, is preventive care for women – requiring health insurers to cover birth control, mammograms, and PAP tests without any co-pays. Voters resoundingly support this benefit, including 77% of Catholic women.
Yet this benefit could be lost for millions of Americans and their families, and the decision will be made by the Obama administration in the next few days. Please take action now by sending a message to President Obama and to pro-choice members of Congress, asking them to weigh in with the administration.
The Catholic bishops have spoken out against Plan B over the counter and want to exempt the health insurance of every religiously-connected institution from this requirement, and millions of Americans would lose this benefit – students, teachers and staff at religiously-connected schools and universities; social workers, nurses, and other staff (and their families) at religiously-affiliated hospitals that employ thousands of people, federally-funded social service organizations like Catholic Charities, and many more – regardless of the religious beliefs of those employees and students.
This coverage was recommended by the non-partisan Institute of Medicine, and there is no reason to take this benefit away from millions of Americans. Your action right now will make a difference.
Ellie Smeal
Ellie Smeal
President


Disenfranchised Voters




A message forwarded by CREDO Action:

For years, the right wing has been trying to stop Black people, other people of color, young people, and the elderly from voting for partisan gain — and now some of America's biggest companies are helping them do it.
These companies have helped pass discriminatory voter ID legislation by funding a right wing policy group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Voter ID bills linked to ALEC have already passed in seven states,1 and similar voter ID bills have been introduced in 27 other states.2
Supporters of discriminatory voter ID laws claim they want to reduce voter fraud (individuals voting illegally, or voting twice). But such fraud almost never actually occurs, and never in amounts large enough to affect the result of elections.3 What is clear is thatvoter ID laws prevent large numbers of eligible voters from casting a ballot, and could disenfranchise up to 5 million people.4
ALEC's voter ID laws are undemocratic, unjust and part of a longstanding right wing agenda to weaken the Black vote. Major companies that rely on business from Black folks shouldn't be involved in suppressing our vote. Please join us in demanding that these companies stop funding ALEC:
ALEC's right wing agenda
The American Legislative Exchange Council is a behind-the-scenes group whose membership consists of legislators and corporations who work together to push legislation that benefits their interests. ALEC crafts model legislation, which its member legislators then introduce in statehouses across the country, without mentioning its corporate ties. The group has written legislation to impose harsher criminal penalties on juveniles, to privatize education, and to break unions.
ALEC is funded in part by the Koch Brothers, the same family that funds the radically conservative tea party. It also receives funding from large corporations, many of which are household names.
"Voter fraud" and discriminatory voter ID laws
Supporters of discriminatory voter ID laws say they're needed to stop "voter fraud." The fact is that voter fraud rarely occurs, and when it does occur it does not happen at a scale that would change the outcome of an election. The kind of voter fraud addressed by the ALEC voter id bill happens as infrequently as death by lightning.5
Over and over again, the myth of widespread voter fraud is used to justify stronger restrictions on voting and voter registration (like voter ID laws), as well as voter roll purges. It has also been used to attack organizations which register large numbers of low income and minority voters, by painting simple mistakes made during registration drives as organized efforts to commit voter fraud. These kind of made up scandals have helped the right wing convince the public that voter fraud is real and voter ID laws are necessary to protect the integrity of elections.
The truth is that voter ID laws are discriminatory — Black people, Latinos, the elderly, students, people with disabilities, and the poor are all less likely to have the photo IDs necessary to vote under these laws.6 For example, if you've recently moved because of foreclosure or some other economic circumstance, you're more likely to have recently ended up in a new state which won't accept your out of state driver's license. If you don't have a car, you're less likely to have a driver's license in the first place.
In many states, it can be expensive and time consuming to secure the proper ID. Even when the ID itself is free, it often requires supporting documents like a birth certificate which cost money to achieve. There are already stories of voters who have been eligible for years struggling to navigate a frustrating bureaucratic maze in order to vote. Requiring ID to vote amounts to a modern day poll tax. And that's the real purpose of voter ID laws — they are an important part of the modern effort to suppress the votes of groups that usually vote against right wing politicians.
These laws are part of a long history of voter suppression directed at Black folks and other underrepresented groups. No longer is the Black vote suppressed through violence, intimidation and literary tests. It's now suppressed through laws that make it burdensome and difficult for many Black folks to vote.
Corporate-backed voter suppression
Some of the companies supporting ALEC may simply be unaware that the group is involved in voter suppression. Others might think that voter suppression will benefit their political interests, and hope that they can get away with supporting it because so few people have even heard of ALEC.
We've started reaching out to these companies to make sure they know what they're supporting, and to demand that they stop. Adding your voice to this campaign will help us convince these companies that continuing to support ALEC will hurt their reputation with consumers. We hope that many of them will simply do the right thing and stop supporting ALEC. If they don't, we'll be prepared to shine a spotlight on them and make sure the world understands what they're involved in.
Please take a moment to join us in standing up to corporate-backed voter suppression. And please ask your friends and family to do the same. It takes just a moment:
Thanks and Peace,
— Rashad, James, Gabriel, Dani, Matt, Natasha and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
References:
2. "First, show your face," The Economist, 09-17-11
3. "The Myth of Voter Fraud," Washington Post, 03-29-07
5. See reference 3.
6. "Citizens without proof," Brennan Center For Justice, 11-2006

2012 Presidential Election Survey



A message from PFAW:
This will be one of the most critical presidential elections in our nation's history. And we want to know what you think our progressive priorities should be in the 2012 election season. 

So please take a moment to take our 2012 Presidential Election Year survey here. 

If we are not fully engaged this year, we could actually end up with a far-right Tea Party extremist President who supports:
  • Judges who bend the law to side with corporate special interests over the rights of ordinary Americans
  • Rigging Election Laws to make it harder for minorities and young people to vote
  • Rolling back civil rights
  • Eradicating educational standards
  • Punishing teachers who teach science in the classroom
  • Repealing laws protecting gays' and lesbians' rights
  • Eliminating financial regulatory forms
  • Privatizing Social Security, and ending Medicare as we know it
  • Jailing doctors who perform certain medical procedures on women
  • Eliminating the rights of workers to have collective bargaining
  • And a whole lot more proposals that would terrify anyone not part of the extreme Far Right.
This will be one of the most critical presidential elections in our nation's history. And we want to know what you think our progressive priorities should be in the 2012 election season. 
In other words, they are out to destroy our nation and democracy as we know and create a “corporatocracy.” Backed by billionaires like the Koch brothers, and big fundraisers like Karl Rove, right-wing candidates this year are beholden to big money and Wall Street more than ever … Which means, if they win, corporations will be running our country—and we will be a “corporatocracy.” What do YOU think the best way is to fight it — Survey's just a click away right here. 

In the last major election, thanks to a conservative Supreme Court decision, wealthy corporations could secretly contribute unlimited amounts of money to influence elections and look what happen. They nearly took over every state in the country and won the House of Representatives. 

Imagine what 2012 will be like.
 If we lose, we will not be living in a democracy, but by a government that is run and controlled by corporations, and their elected puppets on Capitol Hill — a “corporatocracy.” 

So please take the survey now. 

Our country's future is hanging in the balance. 

Thank you,
Michael Keegan
President, People For the American Way

So please take a moment to take our 2012 Presidential Election Year survey here. 

If we are not fully engaged this year, we could actually end up with a far-right Tea Party extremist President who supports:
  • Judges who bend the law to side with corporate special interests over the rights of ordinary Americans
  • Rigging Election Laws to make it harder for minorities and young people to vote
  • Rolling back civil rights
  • Eradicating educational standards
  • Punishing teachers who teach science in the classroom
  • Repealing laws protecting gays' and lesbians' rights
  • Eliminating financial regulatory forms
  • Privatizing Social Security, and ending Medicare as we know it
  • Jailing doctors who perform certain medical procedures on women
  • Eliminating the rights of workers to have collective bargaining
  • And a whole lot more proposals that would terrify anyone not part of the extreme Far Right.
In other words, they are out to destroy our nation and democracy as we know and create a “corporatocracy.” Backed by billionaires like the Koch brothers, and big fundraisers like Karl Rove, right-wing candidates this year are beholden to big money and Wall Street more than ever … Which means, if they win, corporations will be running our country—and we will be a “corporatocracy.” What do YOU think the best way is to fight it — Survey's just a click away right here. 

In the last major election, thanks to a conservative Supreme Court decision, wealthy corporations could secretly contribute unlimited amounts of money to influence elections and look what happen. They nearly took over every state in the country and won the House of Representatives. 

Imagine what 2012 will be like.
 If we lose, we will not be living in a democracy, but by a government that is run and controlled by corporations, and their elected puppets on Capitol Hill — a “corporatocracy.” 

So please take the survey now. 

Our country's future is hanging in the balance. 

Thank you,
Michael Keegan
President, People For the American Way

Revoke Corporate Personhood


Taken from Occupy LA's FaceBook page at Occupy Los Angeles

Occupy LA Commends Los Angeles City Council’s
Unanimous Vote Against Corporate Personhood

City's Resolution Reflects OLA's Own Stand
Against Corporate Personhood

Los Angeles, CA - December 7, 2011 - Occupy LA recognizes Los Angeles City Council for listening to their constituents by calling for an end to the mistake of granting corporations constitutional protections meant for human beings. Occupy LA activists were strongly represented among the hundreds of citizens packing the standing-room-only council chamber on December 6, as the Los Angeles City Council became the first major city in the US to call for legislative action to assert that corporations are not entitled to constitutional rights and that money is not speech. City Council President Eric Garcetti, and council members Bill Rosendahl, Paul Kerkorian, Richard Alarcon and Paul Koretz each spoke passionately in favor of the resolution, which passed by unanimous vote yesterday. 

Said Suzanne O'Keeffe, OccupyLA activist and Move to Amend participant, "I had tears in my eyes in the council chambers when I realized it was going to happen. We lit a torch for the country yesterday. We will have our democracy back, city by city, block by block, if that's what it takes."

"We've been working very hard, side-by-side with Move to Amend, to build support for this resolution," said Chris Durian, activist with OLA and Move to Amend. “Even despite fears of a raid, OLA was focused enough to pass its own resolution against corporate personhood and to pass a public statement calling for an end to corporatism. That's how powerfully we feel about this issue."

Less than three days after OLA passed its resolution against corporate personhood, an eviction by riot police resulted in the arrest of 292 Occupiers. 

Occupy LA believes that democracy belongs in the hands of the people, not the corporations. OLA trusts that its own resolution and the City Council’s will inspire other Occupations and municipalities around the country to stand up against corporate personhood. 
-Durian & O'Keeffe

Friday, December 9, 2011

New Elizabeth Warren Poll

A message from MoveOn.org:
Why are the 1% funneling big money to Karl Rove's attack ads against Elizabeth Warren? Because she scares them. Listen to her words and just imagine her in the Senate:
For years I worked to expose how Wall Street and the Big Banks are crushing middle class families. It just isn't right. I stood up to the Big Banks and their army of Washington lobbyists. I worked to hold them accountable. I led the fight for a new agency to protect consumers—and we got it. But Washington is still rigged for the big guys, and that's got to change.1
A new poll shows Warren with a clear lead for the first time, but the big threat now is Rove's attacks—in fact Rove just launched a new $524,000 attack ad against Warren this morning.2
We've got to make it a top priority to elect Elizabeth Warren and other candidates like her who will never stop fighting for the 99%. And with the first primaries in these races less than 100 days away, we need to start immediately. 
We'll create ads and videos to educate voters about Warren's fiery populism and her opponent's corporate backers, and we'll organize actions to get those themes into the media. We'll send MoveOn members out talking to voters, and we'll bring the same approaches to other key races around the country. But we need to know whether we'll have the resources to pull it off. Please support MoveOn's effort today:
The rise of the 99% movement—the fight-back in Wisconsin, the Occupations and actions against Wall Street, the campaigns to stop Congress from siding with the 1%—creates an important opportunity to build progressive electoral power. We need to focus on electing champions who'll fight for the 99%, rather than pouring our energy into electing marginal Democrats, so that we build power to take on economic inequality in 2012 and beyond.
We're preparing a massive campaign for 2012 to help elect Elizabeth Warren and identify hundreds of other candidates who will stand up for the 99% and help them win races up and down the ballot. We want to help ten times more candidates than we've helped in previous years. Here's some of what we'll do:
  • Prioritize several key races with candidates like Elizabeth Warren, Ilya Sheyman, and Eric Griego, who stand strongly with the 99% movement and will be champions in places like Washington or Boise.
  • Direct grassroots support for hundreds of candidates who commit to supporting the 99%, including mobilizing MoveOn's 5 million members to call voters, go door-to-door, and more.
  • Create a progressive ballot guide that lets local progressives know who should get their vote, from school board to statewide races.
But we can't pull it off without you. We need to take on Wall Street together. Can you chip in $5 to MoveOn today so we can launch this campaign immediately?
Thanks for all you do.
–Adam R., Elena, Milan, Kat, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. ElizabethWarren.com, accessed December 8, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=268654&id=33653-18623853-h492gMx&t=4
2. "Poll: Elizabeth Warren soars 7 up over Scott Brown," Boston Herald, December 8, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=268652&id=33653-18623853-h492gMx&t=5
"Crossroads hits vulnerable Dems with $1 million in new ads," The Hill, December 8, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=268658&id=33653-18623853-h492gMx&t=6

PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. 

Tell Obama: Reverse Plan B Decision

Plan BA message from Feminist Majority:

Tell President Obama to reverse the HHS decision to block FDA approval of Plan B over the counter without an age restriction. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius took unprecedented action today to overrule the FDA's recommendation to approve.
This cannot stand. Women and girls' lives are in the balance. Take action now!
The FDA's recommendation "reflects a body of scientific findings [and] input from external scientific advisory committees." The Center for Drug Evaluation and Research and FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, MF, agreed. "Experts, including obstetricians/gynecologists, and pediatricians reviewed the totality of the data and agreed that it met the regulatory standard for a nonprescription drug and that Plan B One-Step should be approved for all females of child-bearing potential."
This decision not only affects girls' lives, but also women's. Right now, Plan B is accessible only behind the counter and after the presentation of an ID that proves age or a prescription. This is simply an unnecessary burden on accessing a medication that has a narrow time limit on its effectiveness to prevent unintended pregnancy. Plan B must be freely available over the counter without government interference.
Women must not be forced to jump through unnecessary hoops to obtain safe and effective contraception. Men and boys of all ages can obtain condoms easily, without interference from any government authority. Women and girls deserve equal treatment and respect, at the minimum. Please let President Obama know immediately that politics must not trump science nor medical standards for FDA approval of Plan B.
For women's lives,
Ellie Smeal
Ellie Smeal
President
P.S. You will likely receive emails asking you to take actions from many women's groups. Please take action on them all. President Obama needs to hear from women AND men on this!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Republican Hypocrisy


Republicans only care about one thing -- tax cuts. It's the only thing they talk about.

When Americans demand jobs -- Republicans say "tax cuts."

When Democrats take action on education, healthcare and job creation -- Republicans say "tax cuts."

When people demand Wall Street be held accountable for wrecking the economy -- Republicans say "tax cuts."
A message from Democracy for America:
Republicans are obsessed with cutting taxes, but now that Democrats have put forward a payroll tax cut that will put real money in the pockets of working Americans, Republicans say "No!"

Republicans are hypocrites that only care about lining the pockets of their big-money friends and it's time we called them out for it.

We're demanding answers. Click here to ask Republicans in Congress -- Why do you hate tax cuts for working families?

Republicans have been getting a free pass on this too for too long. It's time that we stand up and called them out for propping up the super rich while pushing working families down.

Sign the petition today and we'll back it up with an aggressive campaign to demand answers from Republicans. We'll deliver your signatures not just to every Republican in Congress, but to every Republican running for president and demand answers in front of the media. We'll make calls to their offices. We'll do whatever it takes to expose Republican tax hypocrisy.

Join us now and demand answers.

Republicans need to stop flip-flopping on tax cuts when it comes to working families and figure out where they stand.

Thank you for everything you do.

-Jim Dean, Chair
Democracy for America
 

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Keystone XL

Take action!
A message from CREDO Action:

The fight to stop Keystone XL is far from over.
President Obama may have delayed his decision on the pipeline, but Republicans have redoubled their efforts, and could be dangerously close to forcing its approval.
House Republicans said Friday that they are planning to push a bill to force a decision on the pipeline and strip the President's authority to make that decision. Worse, they will attach this bill to the President's payroll-tax and unemployment benefit extension package — considered a must-pass piece of legislation that contains crucial help for our long-term unemployed.
It's one of the Republicans' most brazen moves to shill for oil companies at the expense of the rest of us. And Senate Majority Leader Reid and House Minority Leader Pelosi need to know that they can't throw the fight to stop Keystone XL under the bus as they work to find a way to pass the president's payroll-tax and unemployment benefit extension package.
According to Politico's reporting of the closed-door meeting of House Republicans:
Speaker John Boehner referred to the package he's putting forward as turning "chicken-sh — into chicken salad," according to people who attended the meeting in the Capitol basement.
Translation: He's going to pass President Barack Obama's preferred tax cut, but he wants some skin from Democrats for it.1
That skin is the Keystone XL pipeline. The House bill would take Keystone XL decision making authority away from the President and State Department and force the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to make a decision in 30 days, substantially restricting FERC's discretion to reject the project in the process.2
The current review process by the State Department has been restarted to evaluate a new route in Nebraska, and unlike FERC, will notably consider the climate change impacts of the project, an area that wasn't taken into account in the State Department's initial sham process.
The House's push comes on the heels of a similar, but less drastic, bill by Republicans in the Senate, which would force a decision though it doesn't remove the President's authority.
Republican hostage taking has become standard practice when it comes to legislation to provide assistance to the most needy among us. It doesn't always work, but the President considers the payroll-tax and unemployment benefits extension to be central to his jobs bill, so unless Leaders Reid and Pelosi take a stand and refuse to cut a deal that includes fast tracking Keystone XL, this could make it into bill and become law.
After everything we've fought for, we need to push back hard to make sure Democrats in Congress don't cave in and allow Republicans to force Keystone XL through the back door.
Thank you for continuing to fight Keystone XL.
Elijah Zarlin, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets