A Green Road Blog 

Great news: Senate progressives are organizing their colleagues to fight for the public health insurance option. Can you call Senator Barbara Boxer and urge her to join in?

Right now Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Senate leaders are deciding what to include in the health care bill that goes to the Senate floor this month—and he's paying close attention to what his fellow Democratic senators are saying about it.

So Senators Sherrod Brown, Jay Rockefeller, and Russ Feingold have written a letter to Reid insisting that the bill include the public option, because it's the only way to create real competition and hold insurance companies accountable.

The Brown letter is a big opportunity to build momentum for the public health insurance option in the Senate. Can you call Sen. Boxer and urge her to sign?

Here's where to call: 

Senator Barbara Boxer
Phone: 202-224-3553

Then, please report your call by clicking here:

http://pol.moveon.org/call?tg=FSCA_2&cp_id=1136&id=17447-9995082-Sfqarpx&t=2

Sen. Reid has publicly expressed his support for the public option¹—which has been included in bills already passed by four out of five congressional committees. But he's facing unrelenting pressure from conservative senators and industry lobbyists who oppose it.

That's why it's so important right now for progressive members of Congress to band together in support of the public option.

Already over 60 members of the House have taken a pledge to vote only for a bill that includes it.²

Now, with this new letter being organized in the Senate, we've got a chance to show that any bill without a public option is a nonstarter.

Can you call Sen. Boxer right away and urge her to sign the Brown letter?

http://pol.moveon.org/call?tg=FSCA_2&cp_id=1136&id=17447-9995082-Sfqarpx&t=3

Thanks for all you do.

–-Nita, Laura, Marika, Kat, and the rest of the team

1. "Reid: Final health bill will have a 'public option'," Las Vegas Review-Journal, October 1, 2009 
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=84815&id=17447-9995082-Sfqarpx&t=4 

2. "60 Members of Congress Say 'No Public Plan, No Conference,'" Firedoglake, August 17, 2009 
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51784&id=17447-9995082-Sfqarpx&t=5 

Click here today and we'll fax a flier to Sens. Boxer and Feinstein on your behalf,asking them to support a strongpublic health insurance option.

 

Click here 

Health care reform is in trouble in the Senate.

Conservatives in Congress, including some Democrats, are trying to kill Obama's public health insurance option not by opposing it outright, but by pushing weak half-measures and calling them "public plans."¹ The latest is a proposal for small, regional "co-ops" that would have no chance of competing against insurance companies to bring costs down.²

If we act immediately, we have a good shot at defeating ploys like the "co-op." The key is to make it clear that we support a strong public health insurance option and lay out exactly what that means.

http://pol.moveon.org/fax?tg=FSCA_2.FSCA_1&cp_id=967&id=16427-8424909-UAPGdzx&t=3

It's up to us to remind our senators that an overwhelming majority of Americans—83%—supports a public health insurance option,³ and that weak half-measures like the "co-op" plan are no substitute for real reform.

• Available to all of us: A strong public health insurance option should be available to anyone who chooses to participate. If you like your current plan, you can keep it; if you want to participate in the public health insurance plan, you can choose that.

• A national plan with real bargaining clout: In order to truly control costs and compete with private health insurance plans, a strong public health insurance option must be available nationwide.

• Ready on day one: Every day we wait on real reform, health care costs continue to rise. A strong public health insurance option with a broad network of providers right out of the gate is key to building a competitive program that will help control costs.

• A truly public plan: To ensure it's held to the highest standards of accountability, a public health insurance option must be truly publicly run—accountable and transparent to Congress and to voters.

If thousands of us send faxes to Senate offices this week, we can make sure that message is heard loud and clear. Can you fax Sens. Boxer and Feinstein today? Click below and we'll send one for you: 

http://pol.moveon.org/fax?tg=FSCA_2.FSCA_1&cp_id=967&id=16427-8424909-UAPGdzx&t=4 

Thanks for all that you do.

–Patrick S., Kat, Justin, Wes, and the rest of the team

Sources: 

1. "A Public Health Plan," The New York Times, June 21, 2009. 
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51519&id=16427-8424909-UAPGdzx&t=5

2. "A co-op for the public option? Let's talk principles," The Now! Blog, June 12, 2009. 
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51498&id=16427-8424909-UAPGdzx&t=6

3. "New Poll Shows Tremendous Support for Public Health Care Option," Blog for Our Future, June 15, 2009 
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51510&id=16427-8424909-UAPGdzx&t=7

Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 5 million m

The Mid America CropLife Association (MACA) represents chemical companies that produce pesticides, and they are angry that — wait for it — Michelle Obama isn't using chemicals in her organic garden at the White House.

We are not making this up.

In an email they forwarded to their supporters, a MACA spokesman wrote, "While a garden is a great idea, the thought of it being organic made [us] shudder." MACA went on to publish a letter it had sent to the First Lady asking her to consider using chemicals — or what they call "crop protection products" — in her garden.

Michelle Obama has done America a great service by publicizing the importance of nutritious food for kids (she's growing the garden in partnership with a local elementary school class) as well as locally grown produce as an important, environmentally sustainable food source.

MACA's letter is part of a larger propaganda effort to convince people that chemicals are a necessary part of produce growth — when we know that's not true.

Click here to tell the MACA board that we support Michelle Obama's organic garden, and we'll thank them to keep their propaganda out of it.

LINK:

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/wh_garden/?r=3305&id=3454-1782152-4VYESqx

Thank you for working to build a more organic world.

Kate Stayman-London, Campaign Manager 
CREDO Action from Working Assets

http://ga3.org/campaign/dirty20?rk=b7BDKn6qRCNYE

Tell the Dirty 20 to take a stand against rainforest destruction!

It's time to show the worst companies that you won't stand for the destruction of rainforests, communities or the climate for palm oil.

The use of palm oil in soaps, cosmetics, food products and other consumer goods is a primary driver of human rights abuses, tropical deforestation, endangered species habitat destruction, and climate change.

20 companies that stand out as the worst of the worst, either for the amount of palm oil they use, or for their lack of interest or response to our requests need to hear from you.

With just one click you can send a letter to all 20 companies and tell them that they need to take a stand against the rainforest destruction they are supporting when they buy their palm oil.

Your voice can make a difference.

A green economy is one that works for people and the planet – it includes both social and economic justice, both community and environmental health.

If you can't earn a living wage, if you are forced to work in unsafe conditions, if you don't have the right to self-determination – you are not working for a company that is part of the green economy.

That's why, together, we stand against sweatshops and for fair trade. If you recently downloaded our newest Guide to Ending Sweatshops, you read our article about the problems at the TOS Dominica factory in the Dominican Republic.

To sum up:  In 2006, non-unionized workers at TOS Dominica (a facility owned by Hanesbrands, Inc., and with Wal-Mart as one of its main customers) were forced to sign an egregiously unfair contract, which violated several provisions of Dominican Labor Law.

According to a report by the Workers Rights Consortium, a labor rights monitoring organization, workers were told by factory management, "If you don't want to sign this [new contract], there's not a place for you in this company."

Consequently, workers were stuck with an agreement which decreased their salary by 13.5 percent, removed regular salary increases, stripped healthcare and life insurance benefits, and altered their workday to include mandatory, unpaid overtime in 12-hour shifts.

What followed was even worse:  firings and various retaliations against workers who tried to unionize to protect themselves against future abuses.

At the time we published our Guide to Ending Sweatshops, we started a petition drive to urge Hanesbrands and Wal-Mart to respect worker rights. 

Now we've learned that the President of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, Jessica Mathews, sits on the Hanesbrands board.

So, now we're asking workers' rights advocates to sign our letter to Ms. Mathews, calling for her to use her power as a Director to urge Hanes to respect workers' rights and negotiate fairly with workers at TOS Dominica. 

Your letter will also be forwarded to Hanes' Executive Vice President and Vice President of Social Responsibility.

Click through to our Web site to learn more about this issue and to sign our letter today.
It's great to be working with you,

Alisa Gravitz
Executive Director
Co-op America

P.S.  Please download our Guide to Ending Sweatshops, and consider a donation to our Corporate Responsibility Program. 

(You can also order print copies of the Guide, for the cost of shipping, by calling 800-58-GREEN.)

http://www.coopamerica.org/PDF/EndingSweatshops.pdf

Take action; sign petition/letter
http://www.coopamerica.org/takeaction/haneswalmart/