“Just like Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan would get rid of Planned Parenthood funding.”

Aug 17, 2012 by     BarackObamadotcom

Learn more: http://OFA.BO/94PQjp
Voiceover: “He’s made his choice. But what choices will women be left with?”
“Just like Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan would get rid of Planned Parenthood funding.”
“In Congress, Ryan voted to ban all federal funding for Planned Parenthood…”
“…and allow employers to deny women access to cancer screenings and birth control.”
“And both Romney and Ryan backed proposals to outlaw abortion …  even in cases of rape and incest.”
“For women…for president…the choice is ours.”

 

# FORWARD

Aug 18, 2012 by     BarackObamadotcom

Help build this campaign: http://OFA.BO/nHAK2p
Four years ago as I had the privilege to travel all across this country and meet Americans from all walks of life.
I decided nobody else should have to endure the heartbreak of a broken health care system. No one in the wealthiest nation on earth should go broke because they get sick.
Nobody should have to tell their daughters or sons the decisions they can and cannot make for themselves are constrained because of some politicians in Washington.
And thanks to you we’ve made a difference in people’s lives. Thanks to you there are folks that I meet today who have gotten care and their cancer’s been caught. And they’ve got treatment. And they are living full lives and it happened because of you.
We’ve come too far to turn back now. We’ve got too much work to do to implement health care. We’ve got too much work to do to create good jobs.
We’ve got too many teachers that we’ve got to hire.  We’ve got too many schools that we’ve got to rebuild. We’ve got too many students who still need affordable higher education.
There’s more homegrown energy to generate. There more troops that we’ve got to bring home.
There more doors of opportunity we’ve got to open to anybody who is willing to work hard and walk through those doors.
We’ve got to keep building an economy where no matter what you look like or where you come from, you can make it here if you try.
And you can leave something behind for the next generation, that’s what at stake right now Colorado. That’s why I’m running for President of the United States of America.
That’s why I’m asking for your vote. I still believe in you. And if you still believe in me, and if you’re willing to stand with me, and knock on some doors with me, and make some phone calls with me, and talk to your neighbor and friends about what’s at stake—we will win this election. We will finish what we started.
And we’ll remind the world why America is the greatest nation on earth.
God bless you and God bless the United States of America.

Aug 18, 2012 by     BarackObamadotcom

Share this: http://OFA.BO/PSR8Rr Tweet this: http://OFA.BO/BdNe3m
President Obama was at a grassroots event in Rochester, NH to discuss middle-class economic security. President Obama has already cut taxes for a typical New Hampshire family by $4,200 over four years, helping families afford to send their children to college, buy their first home, pay for health care and child care.
The centerpiece of the Romney-Ryan economic proposals is a $5 trillion tax cut, with a lot of it going to the wealthiest Americans. In addition, Romney and Ryan put forward a plan that would let Governor Romney pay less than 1% in taxes each year. And this tax plan would actually raise taxes on middle-class families with children by an average of $2,000.

a message from Zach Silk

We really appreciate your support.

It has helped us lay a very, VERY solid foundation for the rest of this race to defend marriage equality, and approve R74 this fall — but November is still 82 days away.  And this will be a dogfight, for sure.

As we stare down Labor Day, the official start of the campaign season, it seemed the right time to update you on where we are and where we’re headed.

We’re ready for this fight, thanks to you. And we’re going to need to really buckle down in the final phase of this race to make sure that we’re ready, no matter what they throw at us.

NPR talks Guns and Mental Health … Mayors Against Illegal Guns

You helped sound a national alarm.

On Thursday, NPR aired an incisive story on the millions of mental health records missing from our nation’s do-not-sell gun database, citing our report on fatal gaps most states have failed to close.

The piece quotes Lori Haas, the mother of a Virginia Tech survivor, who speaks forcefully on the disservice being done to every American citizen by leaders who refuse to face up to the mounting human toll of gun violence in this country.

Listen to NPR cover these fatal gaps, then share the story with friends and family to help raise awareness and build even more momentum.

Because more than 150,000 people like you are demanding a plan, more and more gun violence survivors are joining our call.

Lori Haas and 66 other family members and survivors of the Virginia Tech shooting recently sent a letter to both President Obama and Governor Romney urging them to turn their words of condolence into action. Here’s an excerpt:

“…let us remember the victims of Aurora.  And then let us honor their memory by working to prevent the next Virginia Tech, the next Tucson, the next Aurora.  Now is the time to fix our nation’s broken gun laws, but we need our nation’s leaders to tell us the specific steps you will take to prevent more bloodshed…”

The sad truth is, most people have no idea how appallingly inadequate our nation’s approach to preventing gun violence is. And this piece does an excellent job of making that clear.

Check out NPR’s “fatal gaps” story, then make sure your friends and family hear about it and Demand A Plan:

www.DemandAPlan.org/npr

Thanks for helping build even more momentum,             Mayors Against Illegal Guns

P.S. You can read the full letter from Virginia Tech survivors and family members to President Obama and Governor Romney here.

Climate Movement is heating Up

As we face heat wave after heat wave and ever more frequent extreme weather events, the reality that global warming is not some far-off crisis is finally starting to be widely recognized. Perhaps it’s no wonder that the climate movement is heating up this summer, too. Activists and concerned citizens across the country are fed up with waiting for our political leaders to act and are taking action themselves. From Appalachia and Washington, DC to Texas and Montana, here are some of the major mobilizations against the fossil fuels that are cooking our climate, all part of what’s being called the Summer of Solidarity. Coal Export Action Coal is a dirty and dying industry—which is why King Coal is desperately searching for a life line in the form of coal export terminals from which it can reach markets in Asia. Climate and student activists have joined with Montana, Oregon and Washington residents for a series of rolling sit-ins against coal extraction and coal exports at the state capitol building in Helena, MT. Read more on the Understory, RAN’s blog Mountain Mobilization On July 28th, 50 activists entered the Hobet Mine in Boone County, WV, the largest mountaintop removal mine in the country, in an act of mass civil disobedience. Read more on the Understory, RAN’s blog Tar Sands Blockade The Keystone XLtar sands pipeline just won’t die. President Obama fast-tracked approval of the Southern leg of the pipeline, so activists with the Tar Sands Blockade have coordinated a series of peaceful protests along the pipeline route to stop this zombie pipeline once and for all. Read more on Truth-Out.org Stop the Frack Attack “Thousands of protestors gathered in the muggy heat on the National Mallin Washington, DC for the first-ever nationwide anti-fracking demonstration.” Read more on ThinkProgress.org

For more context on the Summer of Solidarity, check out this article by RAN’s own Scott Parkin: “How Quiet Environmental Uprisings Are Spreading Across the Country”. Thanks for all you do to make our planet a cleaner, greener place.

VIDEO: How to Fight Voter Suppressio​n!

How To Fight Voter Suppression! We Need Your Support To Fight Back! This year our country faces an important election and the Latino vote will matter more than ever before. But there are powerful groups trying to prevent us from making a difference. Contribute $15 to help us fight voter suppression and racist voter id laws through exciting, informative and controversial videos that give power to our community. It is projected that more than 12 million Latinos could go out and vote in this year’s election. That would be an increase of 25% from 2008! What’s even more important is that Latino voters could decide key swing states like Colorado,Nevada and Florida. Unfortunately 23 states across the country have either passed or introduced legislation that would make voting more difficult not just for Latinos, but other minority groups, as well as young voters and seniors. That is why empowering the Latino community to vote is imperative this election. Now we need YOUR help to do more and mobilize record numbers of Latino voters! Through key, effective and powerful partnerships with Latino organizations doing amazing work on-the-ground and Cuéntame’s innovative video and social media reach, our efforts are making an impact. Our first electoral video, “How To Fight Voter Suppression” in partnership with NCLR has garnered widespread media attention. Please donate $15 and help us get the funding we need to get more Latinos registered and voting this November. Your financial support will allow us to pursue more partnerships and reach Latino voters in key states. We cannot do it without you. As a token of appreciation, we will send you our commemorative Cuéntame sticker pictured below, so that you too can spread awareness about the power of the Latino vote this November! Donate Today!

Weekly Address: Congress Should Back Plan to Hire Teachers

AFL – CIO

SHARE ON FACEBOOK You might have heard: Mitt Romney announced his vice presidential pick, Paul Ryan from Wisconsin. The Romney/Ryan ticket is just a double down by the GOP on its plan to destroy the middle class. While a member of Congress, Ryan crafted a budget plan that would end Medicare as we know it and slash funding for education and to fix our crumbling infrastructure, like bridges and roads. He has supported destructive free trade agreements, like CAFTA, that shipped good U.S. jobs overseas. Ryan wants to gamble with our retirement by privatizing social secruity. And, like Romney, he has supported attacks on collective bargaining rights for public workers and defended tax breaks for the rich. Can you take a minute to make sure that every one of your Facebook friends knows the truth about the Romney/Ryan ticket? We need to get the message out: The Romney/Ryan plan would transform America from the land of opportunity for all into a land of entitlement for the rich. They’re going to spend millions of dollars on TV ads, but we have something better than a pot of money from the Cayman Islands. Each of you has the power to influence the people who matter most: your friends and family, the folks you talk to all the time. We don’t need media pundits to share our message when we have the power of real people. Share our Facebook image now with your friends and family so that you, not Romney and Ryan’s rich donors, can be the one who gets the message out: go.aflcio.org/RyanFB In Solidarity, Nicole Aro Deputy Director of Digital Strategies, AFL-CIO

President’s vision for a more secure energy future

Friday, August 16, 2012

Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know About WindThe Department of Energy put together a list of the top ten things most people don’t know about wind energy. Check it out: 10. Human civilizations have harnessed wind power for thousands of years. Early forms of windmills used wind to crush grain or pump water. Now, modern wind turbines use the wind to create electricity. Learn how here. 9. A wind turbine has as many as 8,000 different components. 8. Wind turbines are big. A wind turbine blade can be up to 150 feet long, and a turbine tower can be over 250 feet tall, almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty. 7. Higher wind speeds mean more electricity, and wind turbines are getting taller to reach higher altitudes where it’s even windier. See the Energy Department’s website to find average wind speeds in your state or hometown. 6. Most of the components of wind turbines installed in the United States are manufactured here. Facilities for building wind turbine parts are located in more than 40 states, and the U.S. wind energy industry currently employs 75,000 people. 5. The technical resource potential of the winds above U.S. coastal waters is enough to provide over 4,000 gigawatts of electricity, or approximately four times the generating capacity of the current U.S. electric power system. Although not all of these resources will be developed, this represents a major opportunity to provide power to highly-populated coastal cities. See what the Energy Department is doing to develop offshore wind in the United States. 4. The United States generates more wind energy than any other country except China, and wind accounts for 35 percent of all newly installed U.S. electricity generation capacity over the last four years. 3. The United States’ wind power capacity reached 47,000 megawatts by the end of 2011 and has since grown to 50,000 megawatts. That’s enough electricity to power over 12 million homes annually — as many homes as in the entire state of California — and represents an 18-fold increase in capacity since 2000. 2. Wind energy is affordable. Wind prices for power contracts signed in 2011 are 50 percent lower than those signed in 2009, and levelized wind prices (the price the utility pays to buy power from a wind farm) are as low as 3 cents per kilowatt-hour in some areas of the country. 1. As much as 20 percent of our nation’s electricity could come from wind energy by 2030 but continued support for clean energy tax creditsis critical to achieving this target. That’s why President Obama is calling for an extension on the Production Tax Credit — to support wind producers in the U.S. and continue to help drive the wind industry’s growth.Get Updates To learn more about the President’s vision for a more secure energy future and sign up to get updates, please visit: WhiteHouse.gov/energy.

Karen Corby via Change.org

My son will die without a heart transplant, but the hospital says he can’t have one — because he’s autistic.                              Sign My Petition   My son, Paul, will die without a heart transplant. But the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania refuses to put him on the transplant list — because he’s autistic. Paul is only 23, and he’s amazing. He was diagnosed with a deadly heart condition four years ago, but he battles through it with a smile. He’s smart and creative — we just self-published a story he wrote, and he’s working on a sequel. He loves his nephews. And the whole family loves him. I don’t know how to tell my son that his doctors refuse to give him the operation that could save his life. I promised Paul that I would fight for him with every breath, no matter what it takes. But I’m afraid my voice alone isn’t enough. I started a petition on Change.org asking the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania to put my son on the transplant list — will you sign? Paul’s doctor says one of the reasons he doesn’t qualify for a transplant is that he can’t name all the medications he’s on. This is ridiculous, because Paul takes 19 medications. My son has faced discrimination because of his autism all his life, but this time, that discrimination could kill him. I was devastated when I found out the hospital wouldn’t help Paul — it was the worst moment any mother could imagine. But then I read about another mom who got her mentally disabled daughter on the list for a life-saving kidney transplant after more than 50,000 people signed her petition on Change.org. That’s what inspired me to start my petition for Paul. I know that if enough people sign my petition, the hospital will give my son a chance to survive. Please sign my petition asking the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania to put my son, Paul, on the list for a heart transplant that could save his life. Thank you, Karen Corby