The Liberal Patriot Blog
 The Liberal Patriot Blog is dedicated to collecting and sharing information about National and State [New Hampshire] Political Action, News, and Events.

Saturday, March 05, 2005

Conservation Action Network

SAVE THE ARCTIC REFUGE FROMOIL DRILLINGACTION
DEADLINE: March 8, 2005

THE ISSUE: Pressure continues to build to open the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the onslaught of energy development. In the next two weeks, some members of Congress plan to push to include revenues from drilling in the refuge in the fiscal year 2006 budget bill, which would make it almost certain that Congress would authorize development. At the same time, some in Congress are working to include drilling in the refuge in national energy legislation. Now is the time to oppose these attempts to open the refuge and to urge instead that Congress make the refuge off limits to drilling by designating part of it as wilderness.

Learn more and send a letter to your members of Congress.

A letter writing idea from the DNC Grassroots Action Team

New Hampshire residents are facing severe cuts if George Bush's new budget becomes law -- but you can help stop it in its tracks.

Bush recently unveiled his reckless plan to privatize Social Security, and now he's touting a budget that slashes key programs that help New Hampshire's working families.

Bush plans devastating cuts to America's top priorities, from homeland security to health care to education to benefits for veterans and much more. Despite these cuts, this budget is a fiscal disaster, with Bush's trademark irresponsibility pushing America deeper into the red with another record deficit.

And this budget is a huge disaster for New Hampshire. Here are just a few of the cuts New Hampshire faces under Bush's 2006 budget:

Homeland Security

The Bush 2006 budget cuts $420 million to state and local funding for homeland security, including a $10.8 million cut for New Hampshire. These cuts will take police and firefighters off your streets.

The Bush budget cuts the COPS program, which has put 525 officers on New Hampshire streets, by 96 percent.

Health Care

The Bush budget cuts $45 billion from Medicaid, enough to provide health care to 1.8 million children. New Hampshire's share of these cuts is $165 million.

Bush's budget cuts the very same community and rural health care programs he touted during the campaign, even though more than 28,000 New Hampshire residents have lost their health care coverage since Bush took office due to his failures.

Education

Bush underfunds his own No Child Left Behind Act by $13.1 billion in his budget. In New Hampshire, that means a shortfall of $39.3 million, leaving behind 8,043 New Hampshire children.

Bush promised to fund Pell Grants in his State of the Union address, but his budget is $6.6 billion short. That's $15.9 million less than what's needed in New Hampshire, a real burden for the 13,111 students in New Hampshire who receive the grants.

Other Priorities

Bush cuts $4.3 million from New Hampshire job training programs in his 2006 budget.
The Bush budget would require many veterans to pay a new $250 annual "user fee" to use the Veterans Administration health care system, and would double the prescription drug co-payment for the 139,038 New Hampshire veterans.

Bush cuts New Hampshire clean water programs by $3.9 million.

Bush's 2006 budget also cuts the Low Income Heating Energy Assistance Program -- which helps low-income families afford heating fuel in the winter -- by $234.4 million, including $1.8 million cut for New Hampshire residents.

And Bush's irresponsible budget is a record $427 billion in the red, increasing each New Hampshire family's share of the federal debt by $37,830.

Take Action

Take action today to help stop Bush's disastrous budget in its tracks. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper explaining why Bush's budget is such a disaster for America.
Be sure to include some of the facts about New Hampshire above, or download our full report here for even more useful information.

Write your letter here:

http://www.democrats.org/action
And be sure to tell your friends to join in. Forward this email to all your friends in New Hampshire, or tell them to find the report for their own state here:
http://www.democrats.org/bushbudget

Sincerely,The DNC Grassroots Action Team

CommonCause.org

As you know, there are many problems with our voting system that need to be fixed soon. Here at Common Cause, we are working at the federal, state, and local level to pass reforms that will fix our flawed election system.

While some of the problems with our election system may take several years to solve, we believe that with your help, we can fix one of the major concerns - the security and integrity of electronic voting machines - in this session of Congress. Many of you were among the tens of millions of Americans who voted this fall on an electronic machine. Did you wonder where your votes went after touching that screen? Do you have confidence that your vote was counted as cast? We can address this concern if all voting systems are required to provide a voter-verified paper ballot.

The good news is that this issue has strong bipartisan support in Congress. U.S. Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) has already introduced legislation - HR 550 - that requires that every voting system have a paper record that can be verified by the voter before finally casting his or her vote. So, touch-screen machines would have to print a paper ballot recording your vote.
We can pass this reform bill with your support. Please call your representative today and ask him or her to support this bill. Click on the following link, and you will find your representative either by entering a nine-digit zip code or your mailing address. You can then click on your representative's name to get the phone number:
www.commoncause.org/findelectedofficials

League of Conservation Voters

This week, we asked you to send a message to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, asking them to oppose the nomination of William Myers to the federal bench. So far, over 11,000 of you responded -- and your actions helped shape the debate. One of the first comments from Ranking Member Patrick Leahy (VT) criticized the nominee's environmental record, saying "[Myers is] the most anti-environmental candidate for the bench I have seen in 37 years in the Senate." Myers came out of the hearing battered and bruised, prompting Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (NV) to say of this anti-environment nominee "I think that he's worse off than he was before." The same day of the hearing, Sen. Ken Salazar (CO) called on President Bush to withdraw his most controversial nominations. As a key vote in blocking nominations on the Senate floor, Salazar's request seems to indicate that Myers's bid for the federal bench could yet again be blocked.

Read more in our Newsroom
http://www.lcv.org/News/News.cfm?orgid=insider030305&ID=3761&c=27&MX=621&H=1

Take Action:: There's still time to write to the Committee Chair and Ranking Member
Click here : http://capwiz.com/lcv/issues/alert/?alertid=7113071&type=CU

CAMPAIGN PROMISE KEPT!

Keeping a major campaign promise, Gov. John Lynch and a bipartisan coalition of state senators have presented a proposal to repeal SB 110, providing much-needed help to New Hampshires small businesses.

The new health insurance law commonly known as SB 110, dramatically increased insurance premiums for many of our small businesses across New Hampshire, and allowed health insurance companies to discriminate against sick workers and against companies in certain regions of the state, particularly the North Country and the Seacoast.

Gov. Lynch and the eight Democratic state Senators led by Sen. Maggie Hassan joined recently with five Republican state Senators to put forward a proposal that will prohibit insurance companies from discriminating against sick workers or against companies in certain regions of the state.

This proposal means that help is on the way for small businesses suffering under the escalating costs of health insurance.

National Education Associate

NEA is part of a growing grassroots coalition that will participate in a national call-in day to Congress on Tuesday, March 8, to let lawmakers know that President Bush's budget proposal does not protect the vulnerable and, if approved by Congress, would result in higher state and local taxes and fees.

While the long-term consequences of the President's budget proposal are becoming clearer -- for instance, overall funding for the major elementary and secondary education programs would be reduced by $11.5 billion from 2006 to 2010 and by $4.6 billion, or 14 percent, in 2010 alone -- advocates for children, the elderly, veterans and others who don't have a voice in government are making their case to Congress. Also, 48 federal education programs are eliminated, and $500 million is designated for a merit pay scheme for teachers. See how the budget proposal affects education.

As House and Senate Budget committees begin their consideration, we need to tell our Senators and Representatives that we are counting on them to produce a responsible budget resolution that maintains services to children and the elderly, keeps our communities strong and accomplishes deficit reduction in a fair and balanced manner.

Action Needed

Call 1-800-247-2971 on March 8 to urge your Members of Congress to write a fair and responsible budget resolution!

Ask to be connected to your Senators and Representatives or call the U.S. Capitol switchboard directly at 202-224-3121.

Don't be discouraged if the lines are busy; we want calls to pour into the offices! You can also find your Senators' direct line at www.senate.gov or your Representative's direct line at www.house.gov.

Tell your members of Congress:

Don't eliminate programs such as Vocational Education, Safe and Drug Free Schools, education technology grants, community technology centers, Upward Bound, Talent Search and GEAR UP. We are deeply concerned about cuts to programs that protect the vulnerable.

Don't make deep cuts in domestic discretionary programs. These cuts would result in a significant loss of support for public schools, veterans' medical care, health care, law enforcement, environmental protection, and other important services that affect millions of people. We support a budget that is fair and that invests in America's communities to help rebuild them.

Urge your members of Congress to co-sponsor the Count Every Vote Act.

I just wrote my members of Congress to urge them to co-sponsor the Count Every Vote Act, a sweeping federal election reform bill sponsored by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY) and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (OH). People For the American Way, the Election Protection coalition and other voting rights advocates are supporting this bill with me.

The Count Every Vote Act is a comprehensive, commonsense set of solutions to the voter problems we witnessed in 2000, 2002 and 2004. Please ask your senators and representative to become co-sponsors of this bill so that we can implement these reforms in time for the 2006 federal election.

You can e-mail or fax a letter supporting the Count Every Vote Act at: http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=16842&action=1887

This legislation faces an uphill battle in Congress. The first step is getting a strong, bipartisan group of senators and representatives to co-sponsor it. This bill is what Americans have been demanding since November 2, and it needs your support now.
Thanks for your help

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