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"Respect Choice" License Plates Don't Respect Choice |
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Written by Alex DiBranco | Change.org
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Monday, 22 February 2010 09:51 |
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 I don't know about you, but if I paid for a "Respect Choice" fundraising specialty license plate, I'd think I was shelling out to raise money for an organization that actually, you know, respects choice. But in Virginia, they prefer to dupe pro-choice supporters into buying "Trust Women/Respect Choice" license plates that actually deny funding to pro-choice, women-trusting groups. About half the states in our country already offer "Choose Life" license plates, which unfortunately raise money for groups that don't want to let women choose, and for lying crisis pregnancy centers that manipulate women instead of informing them. In Virginia, pro-choice supporters who want to wear their beliefs on their bumper decided it was high time to fight back with "Trust Women/Respect Choice" plates, which would provide funds for comprehensive reproductive health services and information at Planned Parenthood. Yet Right Wing Watch points out there's been a ridiculous twist in the House bill authorizing these plates: an amendment has decided to take the funds away from Planned Parenthood, and give them to the Virginia Pregnant Women Support Fund.
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Here Comes Single Payer in Another State |
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Written by David Swanson
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Friday, 19 February 2010 22:25 |
A bill to create single-payer healthcare in California has passed that state's senate for the third time now. Californians just need to persuade a governor to sign it. Single-payer healthcare bills are advancing in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and a growing list of states, including New Mexico, where State Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino, a long-time supporter of single-payer healthcare, is running for Lieutenant Governor.
Now North Carolina house candidate Marcus Brandon has pledged to introduce a bill to create single-payer healthcare in that state. Brandon, whom I know and like and who worked for Congressman Dennis Kucinich's 2008 presidential campaign, is a candidate in North Carolina House District 60. That's near Greensboro, where I can just picture Marcus sitting at a lunch counter and refusing to be provoked.
Brandon has promised that if he is elected, the first piece of legislation he will introduce will be the "North Carolina Healthcare Act" which will provide universal single-payer healthcare to every citizen of the state.
Brandon says that he remains a supporter of national single-payer healthcare and will continue lobbying for passage of HR 676, Congressman John Conyers' bill:
"The HR 676 fight is definitely not over, but we must now strategically shift the focus to the state level. When other states see that we can cut the cost of healthcare, streamline our medical industry, and still provide universal coverage to all North Carolinians, then all of the sudden, single-payer health care doesn't look so bad."
 Brandon argues that a single-payer system could save over $1.5 billion per year in reduced bureaucracy in the state of North Carolina alone. And he speaks confidently about making this happen:
“North Carolina is poised to be the first state to adopt single-payer, once I am able to introduce it. North Carolinians are ready for real solutions to healthcare. North Carolina has the third highest healthcare cost of any state, while it sags at 37th in average income. This is a disparity that most North Carolinians feel when they have to think about healthcare. Every day, as I am knocking on doors to talk to voters, I hear stories of people who cannot afford insurance and become victims of this for-profit industry."
Brandon says his bill is similar to other states' initiatives such as the "Minnesota Health Act" or the "California Universal Healthcare Act." Brandon points to these two bills as excellent examples of how a single payer healthcare system could be both fiscally sound and provide full coverage.
Brandon served in 2007 and 2008 as Dennis Kucinich’s National Finance Director and Deputy Campaign Manager. He says that Kucinich inspired him:
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Black farmers: Government to fund racial bias settlement |
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Written by Paul Courson, CNN
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Friday, 19 February 2010 21:40 |
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 Washington (CNN) -- The head of the National Black Farmers Association said Thursday the U.S. government has agreed to pay qualified farmers $50,000 each to settle claims of racial bias.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said those farmers may also pursue a claim for actual damages from the bias, and potentially receive up to $250,000. The settlement, which covers as many as 80,000 black farmers at a price of more than $1 billion, still needs to be funded by Congress, both sides acknowledged Thursday. The 2010 farm bill, still pending in Congress, includes more than $1 billion to cover the compensation claims. In a written statement Thursday, President Obama said his administration "is dedicated to ensuring that federal agencies treat all our citizens fairly, and the settlement in the Pigford case reflects that commitment." The Pigford case was decided in favor of black farmers by a federal judge's ruling in 1999. The head of the farmers group, John Boyd, said: "It's really the Department of Agriculture agreeing to pay, the Justice Department agreeing to pay and our lawyers agreeing to the process."
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Last Updated on Friday, 19 February 2010 22:44 |
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White House Comments on Voting Rights |
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Written by Nicole Kief
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Friday, 19 February 2010 22:13 |
 Nicole Kief at the ACLU discovered a recent, interesting development re: the Democracy Restoration Act and other voting issues that we wanted to let you know about. During an online chat last week, Heather Higginbottom, from the White House Domestic Policy Council, was asked about felony disenfranchisement by a disenfranchised citizen in Virginia. Ms. Higgenbottom responded that "[This is an issue] that many legislators, and President Obama is among them, was in the Senate and is now as President, believes we should address at the federal level."
Ms. Higginbottom did not mention the DRA by name, and (like a lot of people who don't live and breath this stuff) she doesn't make a clear distinction between restoring voting rights to people who are out of prison and to those who have completed their entire sentence. But she goes on to say, "What we need to do is find more ways to encourage people to participate in the political process. We have talked about ways of doing that across the board. This is an area where we want more people to vote, we want to make it easier to vote. And the President's position and many others legislators' position is that, for felons, once you've served your sentence and you've done your time and you've completed that, you should have your voting rights restored.”
It is very exciting to hear the White House weigh in on this issue in such a positive way, and to clearly state that this is an issue that should be addressed at the federal level. We should work to clarify the administration's position on post-incarceration vs. post-sentence restoration, but in the meantime I think we should use these comments in our advocacy. Of course we cannot say that the White House supports the DRA (yet) but we can certainly say that the administration thinks this is an issue that should be addressed at the federal level. You can hear Ms. Higginbottom's comments here, at about minute 16:45. Thanks to Nicole for discovering this major development!
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Last Updated on Friday, 19 February 2010 22:31 |
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White Racial Resentment Bubbles Under the Surface of the Tea Party Movement |
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Written by Rich Benjamin | AlterNet
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Friday, 19 February 2010 22:10 |
 The simmering movement is the whitest phenomenon on the national scene, evident not just in its Caucasian numbers but in the bedrock beliefs stirring its anti-government contempt. Editor's Note: Rich Benjamin's commentary on the underlying "white grievance" currents in the Tea Party movement were buttressed Thursday by the statements of Republican Tom Tancredo, the opening speaker at the Tea Party convention. Tancredo told attendees that President Barack Obama was elected because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country," an allusion to how Southern states used literacy tests as part of an effort to deny suffrage to African American voters before the civil rights era. The Tea Party movement, holding its first convention this weekend, is angling to be the most revolutionary force in American politics in name and in deed, since at least the 1960s counterculture. Only this time, the political insurgents command a party of Flour Power, not flower power. The simmering movement is the whitest phenomenon on the national scene, evident not just in the millions of Caucasians committed to its cause, but in the bedrock beliefs stirring its anti-government contempt.
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Republican Congressional leaders are continuing their witch-hunt against ACORN, the grassroots community group dedicated to helping poor and working class people. This campaign now unfortunately has...
The Army general commanding US military personnel in northern Iraq who implemented a controversial policy last month that said female soldiers who become pregnant, and the men who impregnate them,...
I don't know about you, but if I paid for a "Respect Choice" fundraising specialty license plate, I'd think I was shelling out to raise money for an organization that actually, you know, respects...
