Representative Rush Holt of New Jersey recently introduced the "Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act" (H.R.550), an enhanced version of the bill he put forward in the last session of Congress (H.R.2239). This bill is the "gold standard" of voter verifiability legislation, incorporating not only a requirement for voter-verified paper ballots but also provisions requiring mandatory manual audits to confirm that voting machines are working properly, as well as increased security requirements, prohibiting undisclosed software, and more.

As we did last session, VerifiedVoting.org supports this bill in the strongest possible terms, and urges its immediate passage. And although it already has over 113 co-sponsors, there are still some representatives who co-sponsored the bill last session but have yet to co-sponsor this session's stronger bill.

Voter-verified paper ballots make it possible to recover from e-voting machine malfunctions, such as those experienced last year in California, Georgia, North Carolina, and elsewhere, without having to re-run a costly election from scratch.

Passage of this bill means that all the states and counties still seeking to purchase new voting equipment can only buy systems which can provide a voter-verified paper ballot. It is far easier and more cost-effective to start out with a verifiable system than to retrofit!

To pass quickly, voter-verified paper ballot legislation must have strong bi-partisan support. You can make the difference. Make sure your Representative--a co-sponsor on last session's H.R.2239--co-sponsors the critically important H.R.550 now.

Take Action Today! Visit VerifiedVoting.org's Action Center at http://hq.demaction.org/dia/organizations/vevo/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=459

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist opposes a woman's right to choose. So shouldn't it be safe to assume that he would support the Prevention First Act - a bill to reduce unintended pregnancies and the need for abortion?

Unfortunately, Sen. Frist doesn't see it that way. He is willing to restrict the right to choose without improving women's access to birth control.

It's a good thing that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid - who opposes a woman's right to choose - is willing to bridge the pro-choice/pro-life divide by offering the Prevention First Act. It's common sense that in order to reduce unintended pregnancies, women need access to birth control.

Sign our petition to Majority Leader Frist in support of Senator Harry Reid's common-sense solutions.

On Tuesday, March 15th the House of Representative is scheduled to vote on the president's request for an additional $82 billion for the war in Iraq. Just a few days later the 2nd anniversary of the beginning of that war will be marked by protest activities in at least 300 cities around the country, and scores of other places around the world. (Visit http://www.unitedforpeace.org to find an action near you, or to list your event.)

Now is the time to ratchet up our pressure on Congress and let them know how disgusted we are at the waste of our tax dollars for this deadly, criminal war. They have the power to stop the flow of money. Many of you have already made calls, sent faxes, and organized lobby visits. Let's expand and intensify those efforts by bringing more people and stronger tactics into the struggle to stop this obscene $82 billion appropriation.

What You Can Do:

**CALL YOUR HOUSE MEMBER NOW. Call your representative between now and next Tuesday when the House votes on the $82 Billion supplemental request. Tell them to vote NO. It's a straightforward message: Not one more dime for this war! Visit http://www.congress.org for contact info.

** PLAN NOW TO PRESSURE YOUR SENATOR LATER THIS MONTH. Congress is in recess between March 21 and April 1. During that time many members are in their home states. The $82 billion request will be taken up by the Senate after that recess, so this two-week period is the perfect opportunity for us to bring our message to our senators.

We urge you to make plans now for a visit to your two senators during this time. Depending on your senators' past stance on the war and their stated position on the $82 billion, your "visits" might be anything from a meeting with your senators or their key aides to a picket outside of their offices to a sit-in or other nonviolent civil disobedience action inside. It's time that the pro-war Democrats, in particular, feel our grassroots outrage.

** PRESSURE THE SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE. We do not have an exact date yet, but sometime in early April the Senate Committee on Appropriations will have a hearing on the $82 billion budget request before it goes to the floor of the Senate. Every member of that committee needs to be flooded with phone calls, faxes, emails and visits. The full list of the committee members is below, and for information on how to contact them click here: http://appropriations.senate.gov/members/members.htm Even if you do not live in a state that has a senator on this committee, the members should hear from you.

Gregg, Judd (NH) IS on the senate appropriations committee!!

When Congress refused to continue funding the Vietnam War, that spelled the end of the U.S. campaign there. Based on thoughtful analysis by both conservative and progressive analysts, this alert is the first step in the process of getting out of Iraq.

Next week, the House of Representatives will vote on the president's request for $82 billion to pay for the ongoing military occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. That’s a lot of money. It is enough to feed the world’s starving people for five years or more, and would save the lives of millions of kids.[1] Aside from how that money could be better spent, a toll continues to be taken on the Iraqi people, our own service members, and America's image throughout the world.

Yet even as the quagmire in Iraq worsens, Bush continues to refuse to (1) specify when we will exit the country and (2) make clear that America will not establish permanent military bases there.

If you are a TrueMajority member and you’d like to send a message (text below) to your representatives urging them to oppose the supplemental bill for Iraq unless an exit plan is included, just click "Reply" and "Send" in your email program to send your message. If this was forwarded to you or you’d like to customize the message to your congresspeople, click here:

http://truemajority.kintera.org/Iraqexit

I want to thank the 600 people who have called and asked Congress to protect the Arctic Refuge from oil and gas drilling.

If you haven't called yet, please take a moment to call 1-888-8-WILDAK (or 1-888-894-5325) to be automatically connected toll free to the member of Congress in your state who most needs to hear from you on this issue.

Here's a sample message you can use:

"Hi, my name is _____, and I'm calling from _______. I urge you to oppose oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I don't want to see one of America's last wild places ruined for a miniscule amount of oil."

After you call, please let us know so that we can keep track of how many calls they have received. This is a crucial part of our work! Then, ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this email to them.

To report your call, click on the link below or paste it into your web browser:

http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=401&id4=ES

We are urging all of those who are part of the impeachment movement to participate and bring the message of impeachment with signs and banners to the hundreds of local demonstrations that will be taking place on March 19/20, the second anniversary of the beginning of the criminal war against Iraq.

Between March 19 and April 3, Congressional representatives are scheduled to be back in their home district. It has never been more important for all people of conscience to hold demonstrations and rallies, and to lobby those representatives in their home districts during the March 19 - April 3 period. We are certain that impeachment activists from around the country will join us in organizing activities in the March 19 - April 3 period. Please notify the VoteToImpeach / ImpeachBush.org campaign about your local activity, and send in a report and photos, to ImpeachBush@VotetoImpeach.org.

THE ISSUE: The proposed management plan for the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument needs strengthening. The 53,000-acre monument in southwestern Oregon was the first monument set aside to protect an area's biological diversity and is home to countless rare plants and animals. Until March 14, you can push for a better management plan that will make protection of the monument the top priority, help prevent the logging of mature and old growth trees, close unnecessary roads, stop livestock grazing that is incompatible with protection, and restrict snowmobiles.
»» Learn more and send a letter to the Bureau of Land Management.

ACT NOW to Save Technical Education Program
Urge Your Representative to Save Technical Training Program
Barring a concerted grassroots push to save the program that helps prepare high school students for high-demand, high-skill technical jobs, the House Education Committee, when it considers H.R. 4496 on Wednesday, March 9, could move to eliminate the Perkins Tech Prep program. The program equips high school students for a postsecondary education or to pursue postsecondary technical careers.

NEA opposes folding Tech Prep into a larger Vocational Education program, thereby effectively eliminating funding for this critical program. Preserving Tech Prep as a stand-alone program is critical to the continued improvement and effectiveness of career and technical education for today's students.

NEA is seeking an amendment to H.R. 4496 by John Tierney (D-MA) and Ron Kind (D-WI) to retain the program's separate funding source. Meanwhile, your Representative needs to hear from you now if we are to protect this career education pathway for students who do not attend traditional colleges.

5-Minute Activist -- ACT NOW


Urge your Member of Congress, especially the Republican members of the House Education and Workforce Committee, to preserve the Perkins Tech Prep program.

Budget Blueprints Fail To Protect Students and Schools

Call Congress March 15 and 16 To Share Your Concerns

Thousands of citizens concerned about how the House and Senate budget committee resolutions approved this week fail to protect children, the elderly and vulnerable working families are poised to speak out during a national call-your-Members-of-Congress day on Tuesday, March 15, and Wednesday, March 16. If left unchanged during House and Senate debate next week, the blueprints would push the costs of cuts in education and health care to states and local communities.

NEA believes the federal budget should reflect our nation's priorities of educating our children and providing them adequate health care, protecting the most vulnerable among us and investing in stronger communities. CALL 1-800-247-2971 ON MARCH 15 AND 16 to make sure your Members of Congress know we want a budget that gives priority to education, health care and the elderly.

The Senate budget resolution:

Cuts education and training programs by $34 billion from 2006 to 2010.
Calls for $15 billion in Medicaid cuts over the next five years, which will reduce state money available for education.
Offers positive changes in higher education.
Adding money for increasing the maximum Pell Grant.
Eliminating Pell Grant funding shortfalls to allow more eligible students to receive help.
Reserving money for improvements in the student loan program.

The House budget resolution:

Cuts $2.1 billion next year and $21.4 billion through 2010 in funding for mandatory education programs, which could include school lunch and student aid for higher education.
Will likely to lead to cuts totaling $15.1 billion or more over the next five years for Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, thereby reducing state money available for education.
Falls some $9 billion short of the funding promised for No Child Left Behind.
Does not address the needs of tens of thousands students served by Title I and the Individual with Disabilities Education Act.
Does not address the critical need for increasing the Pell Grant maximum to a level that helps students meet rising tuition costs.

Action Needed

Call 1-800-247-2971 on March 15 and 16 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; try again later. You can also find your Senators' direct line at www.senate.gov or your Representative's direct line at www.house.gov.

Send an e-mail to your Members of Congress urging them to adopt a budget that protects children, the elderly, and vulnerable families.

ALERT: STOP THE PENTAGON'S WAR ON PUBLIC HEALTH & ENVIRONMENT

The Pentagon is lobbying Congress to pass a new law that would allow the military to freely violate a host of environmental regulations. Entitled "The Readiness and Range Preservation Initiative," the legislation would allow military facilities to ignore laws like the Clean Air Act. The Pentagon claims environmental regulations are a threat to national security, since they restrict the military. The proposal comes on the heels of a sharply different bill sponsored by Senator Diane Feinstein of California that would hold the military responsible for cleaning up perchlorate pollution (rocket fuel), which has recently been discovered in 93% of the nation's lettuce and 97% of breast milk samples. Take action here:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/perchlorate.htm

George Bush and the GOP leadership made a huge miscalculation when they decided to make a play to privatize Social Security -- a program that has lifted generations of senior citizens out of poverty. Democrats are united -- we've got Bush on the run and have a chance to hand the GOP a stunning defeat. We are winning this first major battle of 2005.

But President Bush isn't giving up on his plan to privatize Social Security. Instead, he's sending out his top officials -- including Vice President Cheney -- on a 60-day, 60-city tour to try and create public support where none exists.

And we're fighting back every step of the way. Democratic Congressional leaders are touring the country exposing the Bush Administration's risky scheme and protecting Social Security. The Democratic Party is airing radio ads in the cities where Bush's privatization tour stops.

We're winning this fight, but that doesn't mean it's time to ease up. You can help the unified Democrats in Congress stand up to Bush by letting them know you stand behind them. Sign our petition today to let Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and all the Democrats in Congress know that they have your support in the fight to stop President Bush's plan to privatize Social Security:

http://www.democrats.org/action/

If this budget passes:

The program that feeds pregnant women, babies and young children in need will be cut by $658 million over the next four years. That's assistance for 660,000 women and children.

Families who need low income housing assistance won’t get it. By 2010, 370,000 fewer families would receive rental vouchers than this year.

Elementary schools (No Child Left Behind) will receive $12 billion less than was promised. Special education programs would lose nearly $7.6 billion in the next four years.

TrueMajority has joined with Children's Defense Fund, the National Council of the Churches of Christ and the entire Coalition on Human Needs to block these cuts.

Our country’s budget is a moral document. It shows what we care about and what we value enough to spend our money on. This budget is by no means compassionate. And with the huge deficit engendered by runaway Pentagon spending, it’s not conservative, either.

Right now the congressional budget committees are debating the budget. This is the time to let them know your priorities.

Just pick up your phone and call the number. It takes two minutes to call your senator’s office.

You don’t have to be a policy expert to lodge your opinion; congressional receptionists are trained to quickly and politely record your views. Just call 202/224-3132 and tell the operator what state you live in, and you’ll be connected to one of your senators.

To make your call easy, here are some things to say:

I live in _________, and I’m calling to ask my senator to strengthen programs that help people survive during tough times. Our government should provide Head Start and health care for poor kids. We should provide housing assistance for those who need it. Please, let the Senate Budget Committee know that these kinds of basic programs should not be cut.

Thank you for lodging my request.

Or if you can’t call, click "reply" and "send," and we’ll deliver a free message (text below) from you to your representative and senators. If this email was forwarded to you, or you'd like to edit the message, just click this link:
http://truemajority.kintera.org/budgetcallday

A second Republican figure is headed to federal prison for jamming Democratic telephone lines in New Hampshire on Election Day two years ago.

Full story here: http://www.wcsh6.com/home/article.asp?id=20829

Contact your representatives to oppose HB 399 TODAY!

This Wednesday, March 9, the New Hampshire House of Representatives will vote on HB 399-FN, the so-called Informed Consent for Abortion Act - a bill that would be more accurately labeled "biased counseling." This bill would compromise the provider-patient relationship by implementing strict requirements solely designed to intimidate women from exercising their constitutional right to choose.

Last year, the House defeated a similar bill, but the fight is not over this time around. Sponsors of the bill intend to propose an amendment, which they claim is a compromise between pro-choice and anti-choice communities. This is untrue. Both the bill and the amendment act to restrict access to abortion in New Hampshire - particularly for poor women, women in rural areas, and victims of domestic violence - by mandating a 24-hour "reflection period" prior to obtaining an abortion.

NARAL Pro-Choice New Hampshire believes that women deserve complete and medically accurate information about all medical procedures including abortion. We also believe that women are fully capable of making thoughtful decisions regarding their own health care without state mandated "reflection periods."

It's imperative that your representatives hear from you TODAY! Tell them that New Hampshire's pro-choice majority does not support this type of legislative interference in women's reproductive health care.

OK, for those of you who didn’t know there was this HUGE bankruptcy bill in the senate yesterday.
It basically stops people from filing for title 7 bankruptcy. There is NO popular support for this bill. This is a straight up pay off to the credit card companies.

{read more about how this is a attack on the grassroots from moderate "New Democrats" in New Republic's Noam Scheiber's Journal http://www.tnr.com/etc.mhtml?pid=2584}

You know how people say that there is no difference between republicans and democrats that they are both in the pockets of large corporations. Well 9 times out of 10 it is a LOT more complicated then that. This time it isn’t. This is a bill WRITEN and “shopped around” to congressman by and for the credit card companies. Bankruptcy did go up in the last few years an average of 17% but credit card company profits went up an average of 114%. ALSO 60% of people who file for bankruptcy do so because of medical debt.

Some democrats wanted to filibuster this bill but other cowardly democrats voted to end discussion. This is the kind of crap that convinces people that it is pointless to vote.

There is a HUGE credit card company in Delaware, Lieberman is democrat in name only, but the rest of these guys should have to answer for their treachery and be exposed to their constituents for what they are. Nobody is going to be watching this little ole bankruptcy bill.

If you want to learn more about the Bankruptcy Bill and why it is such a big deal than read Paul Krugman’s article for the New Republic here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1358749/posts


I copied the below list of traitors from http://maxspeak.org/mt/archives/001206.html

DEMOCRATIC SENATORS
WHO WILL NEVER
BE PRESIDENT
Voted to let the rotten bankruptcy bill come to floor, where it will pass:

Biden (D-DE), Yea
Byrd (D-WV), Yea
Carper (D-DE), Yea
Conrad (D-ND), Yea
Johnson (D-SD), Yea
Kohl (D-WI), Yea
Landrieu (D-LA), Yea
Lieberman (D-CT), Yea
Lincoln (D-AR), Yea
Nelson (D-FL), Yea
Nelson (D-NE), Yea
Pryor (D-AR), Yea
Salazar (D-CO), Yea
Stabenow (D-MI), Yea

Campaign Contributions by the Credit Card Industry, 1990-2004. Source: opensecrets.org
Just if any of your were wondering why the republiCANS voted for it