Mom loses custody because of breast cancer

Alaina Giordano was diagnosed with breast cancer three and half years ago. That was bad.

This is worse: On April 25th, a judge in North Carolina used Alaina’s cancer as a key reason to transfer custody of her 5-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter to her ex-husband (a man Alaina describes as “abusive” and who lives more than 700 miles away).

This is happening even though Alaina says her kids “know that I have cancer, they know that I go for treatment once a month now, they know that it’s stable. They know me as mom, and it doesn’t affect our daily life.”

She has just two weeks to appeal, and her hope is that a huge outcry from the public and local elected officials can help reverse the decision.

Thankfully, that outcry is growing quickly. A petition started by Alaina’s sister Lauren has more than 7,000 signatures, Alaina was interviewed on Good Morning America and the Today Show, and media throughout North Carolina and the U.S. are now covering the injustice.

But time is short, and the wrong outcome here sets a dangerous precedent for mothers and fathers with cancer or other serious diseases. Please sign Lauren’s petition asking that Alaina Giordano’s breast cancer not be used as a reason to take away her kids:

http://www.change.org/petitions/do-not-allow-nc-judge-to-take-alaina-giordanos-children-just-because-she-has-cancer

Thanks for taking action,

- Shelby and the Change.org team

P.S. Alaina is urgently looking for a lawyer who can help with her appeal, pro bono. If you’re qualified to practice law in North Carolina and can help, shoot me an email at Shelby.Knox@Change.org.

Immigrants For Sale … BraVenew Foundation

Enough is Enough.

Georgia is now the latest state to pass an anti-immigrant bill like Arizona SB1070, with Governor Nathan Deal expected to sign anytime soon. Georgia is also home to the largest private prison in the country. Like Georgia, other states with similar bills have fallen prey to the greedy hands of private prison corporations. Our immigrant communities are for sale in this country. They are being sold to private prison corporations who are locking them up for obscene profits. It is not only a very lucrative business but one that is putting our Latino community at risk.

WATCH the Video

Immigrants For Sale

http://act.bravenewfilms.org/go/653?akid=1618.1058794.jenNaS&t=3

Here are 3 facts you need know and share with friends and family about the Private Prison money scheme:

The victims: Private prisons don’t care about who they lock up. At a rate of $200 per immigrant a night at their prisons, this is a money making scheme that destroys families and lives.

The players: CCA (Corrections Corporation of America), The Geo Group and Management and Training corporations—combined these private prisons currently profit more than $5 billion a year.

The money: These private prisons have spent over $20 million lobbying state legislators to make sure they get state anti-immigrant laws approved and ensure access to more immigrant inmates.

How is all this possible? They profit from locking people up.

Will you stand with Cuéntame’s ”Immigrants For Sale” campaign and become part of a nationwide network of Prison Watchers as we follow and expose the players, the money and the victims in this corrupt money making racket? YES, I WANT TO!

Yours,

Axel Caballero, Ofelia Yañez

and the rest of the Cuéntame team

Obama’s immigratio​n speech

Obama in El Paso.

The time for reform is now.

Almost 15,000 of you told the President that change takes courage.

 http://act.reformimmigrationforamerica.org/go/1227?akid=696.164689.D7b-

 Yesterday he renewed his push for comprehensive immigration reform painting a picture of a nation built on a rich heritage of immigration; a nation in which you can come to America and write the next chapter of our history.

http://act.reformimmigrationforamerica.org/go/1198?akid=696.164689.D7b-al&t=6

Today, we’re a nation where DREAM students are being deported, families are separated, and enforcement is at all-time high. The President has given the other side the space to come to the table and they haven’t shown up.

Now is the time for Congress to give us a permanent solution. Congress needs to address the economic and human costs of the millions of people living in the shadows of society and the broken immigration system that has broken up countless families and communities.

Tell Congress the time for excuses is up – it’s time to act on immigration reform.  http://act.reformimmigrationforamerica.org/go/1227?akid=696.164689.D7b-al&t=7

The President is right – we each have the opportunity to write the next chapter of our history and that opportunity is now.

Thanks,

Marissa Graciosa

Reform Immigration FOR America

Bankrate.com

Here are stories published today

CD rates for May 12, 2011 | 2011-05-12

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/cd/national-cd-rates-for-may-12-2011.aspx?ec_id=brmint_newsalert_20110512

Here are the average CD rates from Bankrate‘s weekly survey of large banks and thrifts.

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National mortgage rates for May 12, 2011 | 2011-05-12

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/mortgages/interest-rate-roundup-for-may-12-2011.aspx?ec_id=brmint_newsalert_20110512

See rates from our survey of CDs, mortgages, home equity products, auto loans and credit cards.

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Auto loan rates for May 12, 2011 | 2011-05-12

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/auto/national-auto-loan-rates-for-may-12-2011.aspx?ec_id=brmint_newsalert_20110512

Here are the average auto loan rates from Bankrate’s weekly survey of large banks and thrifts.

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Home equity loan rates for May 12, 2011 | 2011-05-12

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/home-equity/national-home-equity-loan-rates-for-may-12-2011.aspx?ec_id=brmint_newsalert_20110512

Here are the average home equity rates from Bankrate’s weekly survey of large banks and thrifts.

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Credit card interest rates for May 12, 2011 | 2011-05-12

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/credit-cards/national-credit-card-rates-for-may-12-2011.aspx?ec_id=brmint_newsalert_20110512

Here are the average credit card rates from Bankrate’s weekly survey of large banks and thrifts.

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Update: 24 Hours to Stop Uganda’s Gay Death Penalty -Avaaz team

Amazing! Over 1.5 million have signed already, and the pressure is working! Parliament closed yesterday without debate on the bill, but anti-gay MPs want to bring it back in an emergency session tomorrow. We’ve got 24 hours to stop this vote — forward the email below, and click here to call your head of state! http://avaaz.org/en/uganda_call_to_stop_homophobia/?email

In 24 hours, Uganda could pass a law that imposes the death penalty for homosexuality. An international outcry shelved this bill last year — we urgently need to ramp up the pressure to press President Museveni to stand up for human rights and stop this brutal law. Sign below, and tell everyone:

In 24 hours, the Ugandan Parliament may vote on a brutal new law that carries the death penalty for homosexuality. Thousands of Ugandans could face execution — just for being gay.

We’ve helped stop this bill before, and we can do it again. After a massive global outcry last year, Ugandan President Museveni blocked the bill’s progress. But political unrest is mounting in Uganda, and religious extremists in Parliament are hoping confusion and violence in the streets will distract the international community from a second push to pass this hate-filled law. We can show them that the world is still watching. If we block the vote for one more day until Parliament closes, the bill will expire forever.

We have no time to lose. 1.5 million of us have already joined the call — let’s get to two million voices against Uganda’s gay death penalty in the next 24 hours — click here to take action, then forward this email to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/uganda_stop_homophobia_petition/?cl=1066790964&v=9089

Being gay in Uganda is already dangerous and terrifying. They are regularly harassed and beaten, and just months ago, gay rights activist David Kato (pictured above) was brutally murdered in his own home. Now LGBT Ugandans are threatened by this draconian law which imposes life imprisonment for people convicted of same-sex relations and the death penalty for “serial offenders”. Even NGOs working to prevent the spread of HIV can be imprisoned for “promoting homosexuality” under this hate-filled law.

Right now, Uganda is in political turmoil — in the wake of the Arab spring, people across the country are taking to the streets, protesting high food and gas prices. President Museveni has responded by violently cracking down on the opposition. This upheaval has provided religious extremists in Parliament the perfect chance to slip in the shelved anti-gay bill just days before Parliament closes and all proposed laws are wiped from the books.

President Museveni backed away from this bill last year after international pressure threatened Uganda’s aid and support. With violent protests sweeping the streets, his government is more vulnerable than ever. Let’s build a two million strong petition to stop the gay death penalty bill again and save lives. We only have 24 hours — sign below, then tell friends and family:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/uganda_stop_homophobia_petition/?cl=1066790964&v=9089

Earlier this year, we stood in solidarity with Uganda’s equality movement to show that every human life, no matter what creed, nationality or sexual orientation, is equally precious. Our international petition condemning the gay death penalty law was delivered to Parliament – spurring a global news story and enough pressure to block the bill for months. When a tabloid newspaper published 100 names, pictures and addresses, of suspected gays and those identified were threatened, Avaaz supported a legal case against the paper and we won! Together we have stood up, time and time again, for Uganda’s gay community — now they need us more than ever.

With hope and determination,

Emma, Iain, Alice, Morgan, Brianna and the rest of the Avaaz team

Health Care:The GOP’s Health Care Flip Flop

In Oct. 2009, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) urged Congress to use the insurance program he created in Massachusetts as a model for nationwide health reform. This proved to be excellent advice, since President Obama signed a law that is based on Romney’s health plan several months later. Nevertheless, Romney plans to deliver a “major policy speech” later today disawowing the very advice he gave Congress less than two years ago — laying out a plan to repeal “Obamacare” and replace it with an unambitious array of minor health reforms. Moreover, Romney’s speech comes just two days after a federal court of appeals heard the first appellate case challenging the ACA on the grounds that it is unconstitutional to require someone to either carry insurance or pay slightly more income taxes. Even though the the Constitution and Supreme Court precedent both unambiguously establish that the ACA is constitutional, the GOP has nearly unanimously endorsed the meritless constitutional attack on the ACA. It wasn’t always this way, however.

THE MANY FACES OF MITT ROMNEY: Romney’s support for a health plan that provides life-saving, affordable health care to nearly every Massachusetts resident has not endeared him to the GOP primary electorate, which is why he’s tried to distance himself from his own single most significant accomplishment. Earlier this year, Romney tried to excuse his decision to sign the prototype for the ACA by explaining that it was just fine for him to sign a state health care plan, but absolutely unacceptable for Obama to sign an almost identical federal health care plan. Needless to say, this kind of hairsplitting did nothing to rescue Romney’s incipient campaign. Sixty-one percent of Republicans in the crucial state of Iowa indicate that they will not vote for someone who “supported a bill at the state level mandating that voters have health insurance.” More importantly, Romney’s bizarre state/federal distinction is at odds with his longstanding position on federal health reform. As far back as 1994, Romney indicated that he would support a Republican health plan that included an insurance coverage mandate. Today’s speech is Romney’s second attempt to wash away his proudest achievement. In it, Romney will recycle a discredited McCain-Palin proposal that would cost 20 million people their employer provided health care, he will embrace the GOP’s plan to gut Medicaid, and he supports a completely unworkable scheme that will allow patients to wait until they get sick to buy insurance, draining all the money out of an insurance plan that they have not previously paid into and leaving nothing left for the rest of the plan’s consumers.

THE GOP’S INDIVIDUAL MANDATE: In 1991, four conservative health policy scholars proposed requiring all Americans to carry health insurance in an effort to “persuade President George H.W. Bush and his administration to adopt a universal health-care proposal that would keep the government from eventually taking over the sector.” Two years later, Sen. John Chafee (R-RI) and 21 mostly Republican co-sponsors introduced a bill which took up this proposal for an individual insurance mandate. Five senators who opposed the ACA — Robert Bennett (R-UT), Kit Bond (R-MO), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Richard Lugar (R-IN) — co-sponsored Chafee’s bill. In mid-2006, Romney became the first elected official to sign an individual insurance mandate into law. Two Republican Senators even voted for an insurance mandate before they voted against it. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) voted in support of a Senate Finance Committee proposal which included an insurance mandate, and Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) voted in support of Romney’s health plan as a member of the state legislature. In other words, for all their strident rhetoric against insurance coverage requirements, the truth is this requirement was invented, nurtured and supported for nearly two decades by the GOP.

TEARING UP THE CONSITUTION: Hypocrisy, incoherence, and unworkable plans are the least of the GOP’s sins. They are prepared to tear up the Constitution as well. In a series of lawsuits challenging the ACA, Republicans claim, falsely, that Congress has never before passed a law that imposes a consequence on people who don’t buy a product, and that this somehow makes the ACA unconstitutional. Yet, as a panel of federal judges pointed out on Tuesday, this claim has no basis in the actual text of the Constitution. Rather, the Constitution provides that Congress may “regulate Commerce…among the several states,” and the very first Supreme Court decision interpreting this language made clear that this power is “plenary,” meaning that Congress may choose whatever means it wishes to regulate interstate marketplaces so long as it does not violate another textual provision of the Constitution. Thankfully, it is very unlikely that the Supreme Court will take the GOP up on its offer to replace the actual Constitution with a tenther manifesto, but the fact that one of the nation’s two great political parties believes that they can rewrite the Constitution shows nothing less than utter contempt for the nation’s founding document.

Think Fast …thinkprogress.org

Federal Communications commissioner Meredith Baker announced yesterday that she will resign her post in June to join Comcast/NBC as a senior vice president. Baker, a Republican, was appointed to the FCC by President George W. Bush in 2009, and made her announcement only four months after voting to approve a merger between Comcast and NBC Universal.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board slammed Mitt Romney today as a “compromised and not credible” presidential candidate over his support for “RomneyCare.” Viewing his health reform as “the prototype” for the federal health reform law, the board said “his failure to explain his own role or admit any errors suggests serious flaws both in his candidacy and as a potential President.”

In a Washington Post op-ed today, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) writes that the evidence used to find Osama Bin Laden was not produced by torture. The senator also said that the waterboarding of Khalid Sheik Mohammed yielded “false and misleading information.”

Though President Obama decided not to release them, to the public, members of Congress are now viewing 15 photos of Osama bin Laden’s corpse. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), who claimed to be the first lawmaker to view them, said the photos are “pretty gruesome” and prove that “he is gone. He’s history.”

Libyan rebels in Misurata reclaimed the contested city’s airport yesterday, the latest in a recent string of defeats that have weakened morale among supporters of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. The airport was the only piece of Misurata under Qaddafi control, and its seizure by rebels could cut off vital supply lines between government troops.

House GOP leaders are struggling to find the votes for a long-term extension of the PATRIOT Act as the Judiciary Committee takes up the law today. GOP leaders will hold a classified briefing to attempt to drum up support for the controversial law. The current proposal under consideration would extend the law for six years.

White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee said yesterday that to tie spending cuts to an increase in the debt ceiling, as many Republicans have tried to do, is “quite insane.” To cut spending by threatening to hit the debt ceiling “is like trying to lose weight by cutting off your head,” Goolsbee said. “That’s not the way to lose weight.”

A new Bloomberg survey “of traders, investors and analysts” finds that 54 percent of respondents have an unfavorable opinion of Goldman Sachs. Yet 78 percent of respondents said the firm’s reputation will not suffer over the long term following a settlement with the SEC last year.

And finally: Did Florida just ban sex? The Sunshine State finally got around to banning bestiality last week, but, as the blog Southern Fried Science points out, they may have accidentally written the law too broad and banned all sex. The law bans “sexual contact” with “animals,” but of course, humans are animals too and the law contains no provision to distinguish between humans and other animals.

Red to Blue …Jim Dean

Paul Ryan‘s plan to kill Medicare is killing the Tea Party Republican majority in the House.

Right-wingers are running scared as poll after poll shows the vast majority of Americans oppose any cuts to Medicare — and now Republicans are falling behind in a special election in the most Republican congressional district in New York.

This is a Republican district — Barack Obama won New York State by 25 points in 2008 and still lost District 26.

Now, Democrat Kathy Hochul’s grassroots campaign has pulled ahead in the polls and the Republican establishment is throwing everything it has at her. Just yesterday, Karl Rove’s shady corporate front group American Crossroads announced they were dropping $650,000 into the district to prop up the right-wing Republican candidate.

Republicans took a majority saying they were going to create jobs. Instead, all they’ve done is attack American women, students, seniors and the poor — and the American people are sick of it.

www.democracyforamerica.com

The only thing that can beat big corporate money is people power — Please, contribute $10 to Kathy’s grassroots campaign right now and deliver a knock-out punch to a right-wing Republican in a red district.

The most recent poll has Kathy up just four points over the Republican candidate, so it’s going to be a tough fight in these final weeks. Believe me, Republicans across the country are watching this race. They know that if they can lose districts like NY-26 then they can lose the House in 2012.

But it’s not just Republicans watching. If Democrats win this seat by exposing the Republican plan to kill Medicare, they’ll be emboldened to go all out on offense defending it.

Your support today can make the difference. Now is the time to put Kathy over the top.

Contribute $10 now and help put an end to the Tea Party Republican majority.

The Republican attack on middle class families in Washington DC, in Wisconsin and across the country is backfiring on them. Join Kathy’s campaign today and we can really turn the heat up on them.

Thank you everything you do.

-Jim

Jim Dean, Chair

Democracy for America

CBO -Cost Estimate for:H.R.1683, H.R.1573, H.R.1021, S.398

http://www.cbo.gov/

•Cost Estimate for H.R. 1683, State Flexibility Act

Cost estimate for the bill as introduced in the House of Representatives on May 3, 2011

 http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=12184

•Cost Estimate for H.R. 1573, A bill to facilitate implementation of title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, promote regulatory coordination, and avoid market disruption

Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the House Committee on Agriculture on May 4, 2011

 http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=12182

•Cost Estimate for H.R. 1021, Temporary Bankruptcy Judgeship Extension Act of 2011

Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the House Committee on the Judiciary on March 17, 2011

 http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=12181

•Cost Estimate for S. 398, Implementation of National Consensus Appliance Agreements Act of 2011

Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on April 12, 2011

http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=12183

BREAKING: New attacks on DADT repeal

Late last night, right-wing Republicans in the House launched a desperate attack on the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT).

The House Armed Services Committee passed unnecessary, hostile amendments to delay DADT repeal – and to prevent equal access to military facilities all while infringing on the religious liberties of military chaplains.

These Republicans are so desperate to keep gays and lesbians from serving America that they’d reverse the course set by Congress and the Pentagon, and undo the work the Defense Department has already done to prepare for repeal.

Now the bill goes to the House floor – where House Speaker John Boehner can strip out these amendments if he chooses. With a large public outcry right now, we can show Republicans that they will pay a political price if Speaker Boehner puts anti-gay discrimination before national security.

Sign now: “Mr. Boehner, stop the underhanded attacks on repeal – focus on keeping us safe.”

www.hrc.org

We passed the bill to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” last year. The nation’s top military leaders supported it. President Obama signed it. But anti-equality House members haven’t given up. They’re trying to bury repeal under a mountain of delays, distractions, and scare tactics – amendments to the National Defense Authorization bill that would:

Delay repeal by demanding that all service chiefs “certify” it before repeal is finalized – even though it already has to be certified by the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The chiefs themselves testified in October that this step is unnecessary.

Prevent equal access to military facilities and infringe on religious liberty by prohibiting the use of Department of Defense facilities for marriages between same-sex couples even in states where those marriages are legal – and prohibiting military chaplains from performing same-sex marriages even when their religious traditions recognize them.

Reaffirm the Defense of Marriage Act even though every federal agency is already bound by the discriminatory law – a blatant attempt by Vicky Hartzler, the representative once termed “the most anti-gay candidate in America,” to distract and delay repeal.

The American public wants Speaker Boehner and the House to focus on the real work of our nation – keeping us safe and getting our economy back on track – not a hateful crusade to prevent open military service. The speaker still has time to strip these amendments from the bill before bringing it to the floor. But it’s up to us to show that there’s a political cost to thwarting the will of Congress and the nation.

Tell Boehner: Stop undermining repeal.  www.hrc.org

The American people want an end to discrimination in our nation’s military. Speaker Boehner must stop his party’s delaying tactics and allow repeal to move forward – now.

Repeal first passed because so many of you raised your voices. I know we can count on you to speak up yet again.

Sincerely,

Joe Solmonese

President