California NOW

Urgent: Call NOW to Save AB 2578!

Last night, AB 2578 (Jones) failed passage on the Senate floor by only four votes! Today is the final day of the Legislative session for the year and we expect it to be taken up for another vote this afternoon. AB 2578 requires approval from the Department of Insurance or the Department of Managed Health Care before health insurance rates may be raised. We need it to prevent the excessive premium increases like those announced by Blue Cross and Blue Shield last week.

These Democratic Senators failed to vote for the bill last night. call and insist that they do the right thing by supporting the bill today!

Sen. Ron Calderon (Los Angeles) 916-651-4030 – voted no
Sen. Lou Correa (Santa Ana) 916-651-4034 – voted no
Sen. Gloria Negrete-McLeod (LA/San Bernadino) 916-651-4032 - abstained
Sen. Alex Padilla (Los Angeles) 916-651-4020 - abstained
Sen. Lois Wolk (Davis) 916-651-4005 - abstained
Sen. Rod Wright (Los Angeles) 916-651-4025 – voted no

Pushing for a Family Recovery Budget

As you know, the state budget is is desperate straits this year, with a $20 billion funding gap, and politicians seemingly more intent on drawing lines in the sand than helping California's families.

We've joined the statewide Health and Human Services Network in urging legislators to move towards compromise on a truly family-friendly budget that will utilize specific revenue increases to ensure that the budget is not balanced solely on the backs of our neediest citizens, who have already seen significant social safety net service cuts over the past few years as the economy has made these programs even more necessary.

Now we need YOU to contact state legislators and let them know that their constituents demand a realistic budget that includes revenue increases.  If you have progressive legislators, encourage them to hold strong, and if you have conservative legislators, ask them to do the right thing for their constituents and the state by supporting a budget that looks beyond ideology and party lines to help real Californians and our families!

Look up your state legislators here and call, email, and fax!
We are especially asking people to target the following Republican legislators who may be able to be swayed to help our needy families:
Senator Roy Ashburn  - Bakersfield, Bishop, Yucca Valley
Senator Dave Cogdill - San Joaquin & Fresno County
Assemblymember Anthony Adams (email) - San Bernardino, Glendora, Hesperia
Assemblymember Bill Berryhill (email) - Modesto, Stockton, Tracy
Assemblymember Connie Conway (email) - Visalia, Porterville, Bishop
Assemblymember Danny Gilmore (email) - Hanford, Bakersfield, Wasco
Assemblymember Roger Niello (email) - Sacramento, Citrus Heights
Assemblymember Cameron Smyth (email) - Santa Clarita, Ventura County
Assemblymember Michael Villines (email) - Fresno, Madera, Clovis

Talking points:

• In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) funding creates thousands of jobs for care providers, and helps our state's disabled and elderly populations.
• Child-care programs like CalWORKS create two jobs for every position - one for the parent who can only be employed with adequate child care, and one for the child care provider - cuts to this program could lose the state up to 430,000 working adults.
• California is the only oil-producing state that does not tax oil extraction - even conservative states like Texas and Alaska tax oil companies to remove oil, which is a public resource and should provide a public benefit.  Adding an oil extraction tax could bring in $1 billion.
• California must delay the $2 billion in corporate tax cuts that were passed last year, we can't afford to give away state money when our budget faces a $20 billion shortfall.
• We must close the loopholes that allow corporations to avoid property tax reassessment when properties are sold.  Prop. 13 was meant to help homeowners, not plump up corporate profits!
• The income tax bracket for highest earners established by Republican Governor Pete Wilson should be temporarily reinstated while the state is in financial crisis. We cannot balance the budget solely on the back of those in poverty!

Monday's Action Checklist

Women get short-changed every day. We’re paid less than men. We struggle to afford child care. As we age, we’re at greater risk of poverty. Women need real economic security — good jobs with fair pay, decent child care and a secure retirement. Because when women thrive, so do our families, our communities and the economy. Take the I Am Not Worth Less pledge to help make sure our Senators stop discounting women’s needs and women’s paychecks!

Abstinence-only-until-marriage programs violate of young people's rights by denying them access to information that could, in some cases, literally save their lives — but the problems don't stop there. They teach our children that condoms don't work. They reinforce gender stereotypes and excuse sexual assault. They tell gay and lesbian youth to "wait until marriage" in a country that won't let them get married. If you haven't yet asked your Governor to reject abstinence-only-until-marriage funding, now is the time to take a stand. Click here to take action!

California's own Barbara Boxer and Nancy Pelosi are in the running for DFA's Congressional Progressive Heroes contest, and they could both use the support that winning would bring to their reelection campaigns. Vote and help them out!

Feminist lawyer and activist Gloria Allred began a fast on July 27th to bring attention to the Equal Rights Amendment (House Joint Resolution 61), introduced by Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY).  Her 90-meal solid-food fast ended August 26, the 90th Anniversary of Women's Suffrage. You can show your commitment to passing the Equal Rights Amendment, and demand that your member of Congress take action by signing a letter of support for the ERA!

Former Republican Senator from Wyoming Alan Simpson, who this week called Social Security "a milk cow with 310 million tits," is unfit to continue as co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.  If he doesn't have the decency to resign, President Obama should fire him.  TAKE ACTION: Join NOW's "Tits for an Ass" Campaign!  For every $5 you send to the National Organization for Women, we'll deliver a baby-bottle nipple to the White House in your honor as we call on President Obama to relieve Simpson of his duties on the commission. 
Learn more about Alan Simpson, share his outrageous quotes with your friends, and join the fight to protect Social Security. 
Tell President Obama: "Send Simpson Back to Wyoming".
The deficit commission might as well be called the Catfood Commission; it's stacked with so many people who want to cut Social Security that senior citizens would be so poor they'd have to eat cat food. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the Catfood Commission is considering at least four types of benefit cuts to Social Security. Tell President Obama to can the commission!

FOX News' parent company News Corp gave an astounding $1 million corporate contribution to the Republican Governors Association. FOX is no legitimate news organization, it's an integral part of the right wing's propaganda machine, with a formal political agenda to promote right wing ideas and elect right wing candidates. Objective media outlets don't report on elections while simultaneously making million dollar contributions to influence them. During FOX's 2010 governors race coverage, FOX must disclose News Corp's million dollar support of Republican gubernatorial candidates. Sign the petition demanding that FOX post a disclaimer during its election coverage. 
You can also click here to declare your household "Fox free" and call on establishments in your community (and across the country) to follow your lead and turn off Fox.
Congress has a bill—the DISCLOSE Act—that wouldn't stop these donations but would at least drag these donations out into the light by forcing disclosure of the donors behind the front groups. Call your senators today and ask them to support Sens. Schumer and Leahy in bringing back the DISCLOSE Act! Senator Barbara Boxer: 202-224-3553 Senator Dianne Feinstein: 202-224-3841

Fox's Glenn Beck tried to hijack Martin Luther King's legacy for his own rightwing agenda - and the corporate media gave saturation coverage to help him. Yes, the same Glenn Beck who insisted President Obama "has a deep-seated hatred for white people ... This man is a racist." Yes, the same Glenn Beck who said social justice "leads to death camps" and "a Jew, of all people, should know that." Yes, the same Glenn Beck who called Hillary Clinton "the stereotypical bitch." Yes, the same Glenn Beck who dramatized giving Speaker Nancy Pelosi a glass of wine with poison. Over 60,000 progressive activists are boycotting Fox News advertisers, and 200 advertisers have pulled their support of Beck's program. You can join the boycott here.

The show "10 Things I Hate About You" featured one of the few openly feminist young women on television, and now it has been canceled. You can follow the campaign to save the show on Twitter, or join the protest September 25 in Burbank.

Are You What the Next Governor is Looking For?

In spite of gains made during the current administration, the number of women serving in gubernatorial appointed positions – high level, paid and volunteer – does not effectively reflect the number of women or the diversity of women who live in California. Building on the best efforts of the Schwarzenegger Administration, California NOW as part of a coalition of women’s groups is urging the current gubernatorial candidates to support the nonpartisan California Women’s State Appointment Project to inspire, recruit and promote women across the state to apply for appointments at the state level.

We know there are many amazing women throughout California. As the stat faces so many challenges we need to engage these women and encourage them to serve.  Our goal is to not only increase the number of women in appointed office,  but to ensure that boards and commissions reflect the rich diversity of California. The coalition intends to present the next Governor thousands of resumes from women around the state interested in serving in high level, paid and volunteer appointed positions.

The application along with information to answer questions on the process is located on California Women’s
State Appointment Project’s website. After the November elections, these
applications will be delivered to the newly elected governor.

Barbara Boxer on Women's Equality Day

Senator Barbara Boxer issued an inspiring statement yesterday on the anniversary of women's suffrage. 

"Ninety years ago today – on August 26, 1920 – the 19th Amendment to the Constitution became law.  The Amendment states simply, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex.”  With fewer than 30 words, a new era of American history was ushered in.

"When I first entered the Senate in 1993, the number of women Senators tripled - from two to six.  That year alone, we passed legislation that dealt with women’s health, domestic violence, education funding, environmental protections, and deficit reduction. And our country has only become better for that.

"Today there are a record 17 women in the Senate.  And we’ve made more progress, especially in this Congress.  Last year we passed the Lilly Ledbetter Act, ensuring that women could access equal pay.  And this year we passed landmark healthcare reform that will help so many Americans — in part by barring insurance companies and state laws from considering pregnancy, or just being female, as a preexisting condition.

"Of course, we still have a long way to go.  One of my favorite statues in the U.S. Capitol depicts three heroes of the suffragette movement: Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucretia Mott.  The sculptor, Adelaide Johnson, left the marble around the women’s busts unfinished in acknowledgement of what we had yet to achieve, from equal representation and pay in the private sector to finally seeing our first female President.

"As we recall the giants of women’s suffrage, we can rededicate ourselves to their noble goal: ensuring that full equality is the rule in our country, not the exception.  There is no better way to honor the brave women who came before us and to create even more opportunities for those who come next."