I could put some pictures here, to pull on your heart strings, or give you the latest news to try to impel you to act, but I think we all understand that the sitution is terrible, and very urgent. So I will just ask that you...

Please act on these petitions, emails, etc as quickly as possible and to the best of your ability. Some are international,a few just for US citizens...

Care2 petition to Obama, Biden and Rep. Conyers

Avaaz Petition to UN and world leaders

J-Street petition

Jewish Voice for Peace Letter to representatives

International Action Center Letter of Appeal

Contact congress

Protest

Write letters to the editor and comment on the net.

Here is a list of four (4) timely actions you can complete in under 10 minutes to get the word out to elected officials about the need for single-payer national health care. We need to say loud and clear that single-payer national health care is the the ultimate bail out plan. Single-Payer national health care has been expected to save up to $350 billion dollars because it will surgically remove the profiteering of the private health insurance industry.

It is estimated that 95% of all Americans will pay less for their healthcare than they are currently paying. Savings under HR 676 will be delivered directly to the people along with access to quality, comprehensive health care.

As Harry Truman said in 1945 when he was supporting national health care, "The time has arrived to help millions of Americans living without a full measure of opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health...and [to have] protection...against the economic effects of sickness."

4 Actions you can take NOW support single-payer national health care

1) Outreach to Current Cosponsors of HR 676: This is a high priority. Call your representatives NOW to find out if they will be signing on again in the next Congress. Please let us know if your Representative is planning to co-sponsor HR 676 again this year. If they are not going to co-sponsor, we need to know immediately so that we can plan actions to regain their support. Email us at info@healthcare-now.org with information on your Representative's level of support. Contact your Congress person toll free at 1-866-338-1015.

If they are planning to support HR 676 again, ask if they will join other co-sponsors in signing a letter to President Obama explaining that HR 676 is the best response to the health care crisis in the face of serious economic woes. It brings the most help to poor and working people, covers the unemployed, and makes it easier for all employers, big and small, to invest in their businesses and compete with foreign producers. Let us know their response.

2) Outreach to Non-Cosponsors of HR 676: If your representative (Republican or Democrat) is not yet a cosponsor of HR 676, but you that increased lobbying efforts and actions in your district will help push them to be cosponsors, please let us know. We can help build a lobbying team of doctors, nurses, activists, and constituents to help support you. Please email info@healthcare-now.org with any information about this effort.

Representative John Conyers believes that showing bi-partisan support for HR 676 is really important at this time, so please let us know if you think that your Representative has potential to be a cosponsor of HR 676. There is a great website to help convince your representative produced by Republicans for Single Payer - www.republicansforsinglepayer.com.

Single-payer national health care as proposed in HR 676 is not a partisan solution, nor is it soicalized medicine. It combines good ideas from across the spectrum. It provides for public funding, but will pay it to private, non-profit health care providers. It is fiscally conservative because it will save money and control costs. And it will allow employers to reduce the cost of insuring their employees, making them more competitive in the global economy. Let's show that we can come together to support quality, comprehensive health care for everyone. Please notify the Healthcare-NOW! staff if you think that we can build support in your district for Republican sponsorship.

3) Write President-elect Obama: We urge you to write President-elect Obama on HR 676. Ask him to support this plan for a universal, single-payer healthcare system of high-quality national health insurance for the entire nation. Be heard! Use the link here http://change.gov/agenda/health_care_agenda/ to demonstrate support for HR 676.

4) Call/Write/Fax Congressman Barney Frank! Barney Frank is Chairman of the Financial Services Committee in the House of Representatives, and a cosponsor of HR 676. He has been a key actor in the Congressional hearings on the Paulsen bailout. "The fundamental policy issue is our disappointment that (rescue) funds are not being used out of the $700 billion to supplement mortgage foreclosure reduction," Frank said. Rep. Frank will understand how a national health insurance system can be an important part of our country's economic recovery. Let's tell Frank that single-payer is the ultimate bailout for the American people. Frank is a cosponsor of HR 676m but let's remind him that President-elect Obama called health care reform "an integral part of an economic recovery" and single-payer is a powerful way to bring help to poor and working people, and the unemployed, who need it the most.

Unlike other parts of the bailout plan, single-payer national health care won't cost the government more money. Physicians for a National Health Program explains it this way: "The reason we spend more and get less than the rest of the world is because we have a patchwork system of for-profit payers. Private insurers necessarily waste health dollars on things that have nothing to do with care: overhead, underwriting, billing, sales and marketing departments as well as huge profits and exorbitant executive pay. Doctors and hospitals must maintain costly administrative staffs to deal with the bureaucracy. Combined, this needless administration consumes one-third (31 percent) of Americans' health dollars. Single-payer financing is the only way to recapture this wasted money. The potential savings on paperwork, more than $350 billion per year, are enough to provide comprehensive coverage to everyone without paying any more than we already do."

Contact Representative Frank here: http://www.votesmart.org/bio.php?can_id=...

Thanks for all you do!

In peace and health,

Healthcare-NOW!
www.healthcare-now.org

Imported from external blog

From United for Peace and Justice: (via Jessica C.)

Please share this as widely as possible! [Cross-post, forward, whatever you can do to get the word out!]

Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) has organized an effort to get his colleagues to ask House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers to begin hearings on impeaching Vice-President Cheney, and to urge other members of the Judiciary Committee to co-sign a letter from Wexler to Conyers. We are also asking members of Congress who are not on the committee to send their own letters to Conyers.

On Wednesday, Jan. 16th, people throughout the country will be calling their representatives to join this important and timely effort. United for Peace and Justice urges you to be part of this day:

• Click here to look up your representative's local office numbers, and/or call the Capitol Hill Switchboard at 202-224-3121. The operator can tell you who your Congressmember is if you don't know, and connect you to his or her office.
  
• Ask your representative to urge Rep. Conyers, Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, to begin impeachment hearings against Dick Cheney.
  
• You can also send an email to your representative.
  
• Once you've made your phone call and sent your email, please urge everyone you know to do the same.
  

Background
Rep. Dennis Kucinich was the first member of Congress to lead the way in April 2007 when he introduced H. Res. 333. Articles of Impeachment Against Dick Cheney (reintroduced on Nov. 6, 2007, as H. Res 799) is sponsored by the following members of Congress: Jan Schakowsky, Maxine Waters, Hank Johnson, Keith Ellison, Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee, Albert Wynn, William Lacy Clay, Dennis Kucinich, Yvette Clarke, Jim McDermott, Jim Moran, Bob Filner, Sam Farr, Robert Brady, Tammy Baldwin, Donald Payne, Steve Cohen, Sheila Jackson Lee, Carolyn Kilpatrick, Ed Towns, Diane Watson, Danny Davis, Raul Grijalva, Gwen Moore. Please thank them and encourage them to work on their colleagues.

Robert Wexler, Tammy Baldwin, and Luis Gutierrez are urging the initiation of hearings and are joined in this by Anthony Weiner. Mike Michaud has written to Conyers calling for Cheney impeachment hearings, and Tim Mahoney is open to the idea of impeachment hearings.

For a thorough explanation of the charges against Vice-President Cheney, we suggest you read the piece prepared by UFPJ member group AfterDowningStreet.org.

Yours, for peace and justice


Leslie Cagan
National Coordinator, UFPJ

From a share by Ratty:

By an overwhelming 79%-12% margin, Americans want to change the disastrous direction George Bush and Dick Cheney have taken us. But there's no need to wait until January 2009 - we can begin change now with impeachment.

Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) is organizing his colleagues to ask House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers to begin Cheney impeachment hearings, and he needs our help.

We're asking other Judiciary Committee Members to co-sign Wexler's letter to Conyers, and we're asking the rest of Congress to send their own letters to Conyers. Please email your Congressmember here:
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/125  

On Wednesday, please call your Congressmember through the Capitol Hill Switchboard (202) 224-3121, toll-free at 1-800-828-0498, or directly (http://www.democrats.com/congress). Tell your Congressmember to urge Chairman Conyers to begin impeachment hearings for Dick Cheney. Then tell your friends and call and email the media.

From a CodePink news letter...
Please call House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (202-225-3951) and your Congressperson, and tell them to urge Chairman Conyers to begin impeachment hearings for Dick Cheney. You can call the congressional switchboard at 202-224-3121, or find the direct number for your rep here.

From me:
If you have not already done so, please take a moment to sign Wexler's Petition. And if you can, please join me in calling both Conyers and your own representative, to encourage them to begin impeachment hearings. They would love to ignore us, and only throught massive coordinated effort can we hope to be heard.

Peace. Just imagine, for a moment, real peace.

A world wide societal shift to addressing the basic needs of the people.
Education, food, clothing, housing, clean air and water.

War has wrought such damage on our society. From depletion of monetary resources here in America, to the constant fear and pain of those in the Middle East. From parents/children lost to war, to the widespread acceptance of violence as an answer to conflict. Our global society has suffered the pains of war. Our children in America carry toy guns, play war games, and shoot each other in the streets and schools. Across the globe, children carry real guns, play on real tanks, and know the smell of death as a way of life.
While people suffer, the war machine rolls on. Society accepts this as normal, the media, the parents, the teachers, the leaders, all silent.

All but a few have lost courage and the hope for peace that they all had at one time. Those who continue to pursue a path to peace now find themselves attacked as radicals. If the idea of peace has become so far-fetched that those who still think it possible are seen as naive and idealistic, then it is indeed time for radical change, and radical (peaceful) action.

I have not always felt this way. I, too, was taken in by the machinations of the war mongers. It is after all, difficult to avoid. It is in our textbooks, on our TV's, on our streets, around our dinner tables, in our churches and even in our holiday traditions. We are taught to fear, to see differences instead of common ground, and to trust in big brother to save us from those who are different, to make our wishes come true. I lost hope, felt that society was too far gone, and there was no plan to fix it.

Then one day, yes, it only took one day, everything changed.

I was surfing the net, looking for anything I could do to encourage impeachment, and to figure out WHY it hadn't happened. I came across some information about HR 333, and followed that to Dennis Kucinich, who was working to put it before congress. Courageous man, I thought, but still just one little voice in congress. One who saw the need to impeach Cheney, true, but I saw little reason for hope there. Then I found out he is running for president. That certainly called for investigation, so I visited his site at www2.kucinich.us and began to read.

Free education, pre-k through college... nice to have available, but don't force my kids to go.
Free health care, cradle to grave... Wow, sounds expensive, but again, it would be nice. (Come to find out, we already have the money for this, it is just going to bureaucracy and private insurance companies)
Withdraw from Iraq, now we are talking, and he even has a plan which he introduced to congress.
Health Freedom... I could use my herbs, and he wants full reporting on all research, no more hiding inconvenient facts that may cost the pharmaceutical companies.

Organic and sustainable farming, fair taxes, out of NAFTA, repeal the Patriot Act, the list went on...

He was looking good, but still, no real sign that he offered hope beyond better government. Until I came across his words regarding the Department of Peace.

"We have a problem with violence in
our own society, and we need to look at it and address it in a
structured way. Domestically, the Department of Peace
would address violence in the home, spousal abuse, child
abuse, gangs, and police-community relations conflicts, and
would work with individuals and groups to achieve changes
in attitudes that examine the mythologies of cherished world
views, such as "violence is inevitable" or "war is inevitable."
Thus, it will help with the discovery of new selves and new
paths toward peaceful consensus."

This is just a tiny quote, but it sums up the domestic role he foresees for a Department of Peace. I encourage everyone to read more, and find hope, here.

He sees root of societies problems, the passing on of acceptance of violence to the children. He wants see schools, parents, and youth groups teaching peaceful means of conflict resolution. To restore hope for the future.

Further research showed he is aware of so many things that others in congress dare not address.

Thus, he gained my support and my dedication.
He gave me hope again.
Hope that we could have a leader who is good to the core, intelligent and logical. Hope that I may someday be able to welcome grandchildren joyously into a peaceful, lasting, world. One of Kucinich's favorite statues in Washington, titled 'Peace Protecting Genius', is that of the Goddess of Peace standing protectively by a child with a pile of books.

I do hope my rambling will inspire others.

I dare to dream again, and it is a wonderful feeling I wish everyone to have!

Imported from external blog

 
Dennis needs a strong showing in Iowa as it's caucus one of the first steps in the primaries. If you know anyone in Iowa, please get word to them asap. Here is his itinerary.

You can contact Marcos who is working to pull together some events, through Dennis4President. Judgeing from this thread at the Iowa group at D4P, he would be glad of any help.

THE CLOCK IS TICKING!

	Dear Laura Hovland, THE CLOCK IS TICKING!   24 HOURS REMAINING BEFORE CRUCIAL FEC FUNDRAISING DEADLINE!   We are in perilous times … The stunning admission by Democratic frontrunners Clinton, Obama and Edwards that they might keep US troops in Iraq beyond 2013 is tantamount to announcement of a permanent occupation that could cost us $5 trillion and bankrupt any opportunity to address healthcare reform, education, jobs or any other domestic policy initiatives.   In other words, the future of America is at stake. America has had enough.   These war candidates must be held accountable for their roles in this illegal, immoral and disastrous war and that's what I intend to do. We must show them and the world that there are those of us who would truly support peace and the rule of law, who understand that a strong defense starts first with skilled diplomacy and statesmanship rather than the failed policy of pre-emptive war.     We are so close! I need your help to raise the final 150,000 dollars for this campaign quarter before the critical FEC filing deadline at midnight on SUNDAY, SEPT. 30th.   Only 24 hours remain to get this done. Now is the time to share with your friends, neighbors and co-workers our message and ask for their help, too.   I know you want this war to end.  I know you don't want war with Iran. Help me be the voice of reason for our country. The clock is ticking on our future. The time is NOW for a leader to emerge who represents the interests of the People … I am that leader and I will lead this nation so that your future and all our futures will not run out of time.   Thank you again for your continued support. Please take action today at this critical juncture in our history.   It's your America!   I'll make sure your voice is heard!   Dennis Kucinich Click a star below and let your voice be heard.
	Click a star below and let your voice be heard.