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Google, say it ain't so!

Google and Verizon have proposed a deal that, according to the New York Times, would allow "Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content's creators are willing to pay for the privilege."

We need to keep the Internet free, open and neutral for everyone. This concept, sometimes referred to as net neutrality or Internet freedom, is vital to ensuring that everyone can connect and share information, free from discrimination or interference.

Please tell the FCC to block the Google/Verizon framework.

Petition Text


Dear FCC Commissioners,

The Internet should be free, open, and neutral for everyone, no matter who they are or what website content they are posting or viewing. It doesn't matter how we get online, the information superhighway shouldn't have corporate toll booths.

Please block the Google/Verizon deal and create strong rules for net neutrality.

Sincerely,

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Michelle Obama, take spent hens off the menu!

Since 2007, kids have been served 13.6 million pounds of chicken in school lunches that's so low-quality it would otherwise have become compost or dog food. This is chicken KFC refuses to serve.

Known as "spent hen" meat, the poultry industry has been using their influence to peddle this meat to the national school lunch program.  

I think it's time we appealed to our country's most powerful advocate for child nutrition. As first lady Michelle Obama frequently points out: Our kids need, and deserve, better.

Petition Text

Dear First Lady Michelle Obama,

I know you would agree that kids deserve safe, healthy food.

Since 2007, kids have been served 13.6 million pounds of chicken in school lunches that's so low-quality it would otherwise have become compost or dog food. This is chicken KFC refuses to serve.

Please use your influence as a champion on child health issues to take this chicken, known as spent hen chicken, off the menu, and tell the USDA that they should adopt science-based safety standards for all high-risk food served in schools. Our children deserve better.

Sincerely,

First Name
Last Name
Address
City
State
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Phone Number
Email Address

It's time to put health care to a vote

"The truth is, we have debated health care in Washington not just this past year.  We've been debating it for 70 years. Harry Truman was pushing health care reform!"

- President Barack Obama, 3/10/2010

We can't leave the future of our health care system in the hands of insurers like Anthem.

Tell Congress: It's time to put health care reform to a vote -- and pass it.

If we do nothing, insurance premiums will keep growing at four times the rate of wages. Employer health care costs will continue to crush job creation, and long-term deficits will reach the stratosphere.

There's no reason to wait.

Petition Text Dear Representative,

If Congress waits to pass health care reform, insurance premiums will keep growing at four times the rate of wages. Employer health care costs will continue to crush job creation, and long-term deficits will reach the stratosphere.

Why wait to empower state and federal governments to prevent excessive, unjustified rate hikes? Why wait to cut costs and improve quality? Why wait to end pre-existing condition denials?

There's no reason to wait.

Please stand up to the health insurance companies and pass health care reform now, before it is too late.

First Name
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Stop the Ticketmaster merger

Ticketmaster wants to merge with Live Nation (Ticketmaster's leading competitor), meaning that most of the tickets we could buy would be coming from the new mega-ticket conglomerate.

Ticketmaster already adds around 30% to the cost of a ticket in junk fees. And from past experience we know that the less competition, the worse these guys get with their handling, processes and other nonsense fees.

Help us stand up to the merger.  Please use the form below to send a message to Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney, head of the anti-trust division of the Department of Justice.  If you can, please add any personal experience you have had with over-priced tickets, or an inability to purchase tickets from alternative vendors.

 

Letter
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They're raising your taxes by $373

Did you know that more than 80 percent of America's biggest banks and corporations, including some of those we bailed out, don't pay their taxes?

Instead, they park their money in offshore tax havens like the Cayman Islands. As a result, the average Iowa household, a.k.a. you and me, is paying $373 a year to cover for $100 billion they don't pay.

Why should we have to pick up the tab for tax dodgers? Sign our Tax Day Declaration and tell Congress to close the corporate tax loopholes.

Petition Text

TAX DAY DECLARATION

Dear Member of Congress:

When large corporations skip out on their taxes by moving their “headquarters” to tax havens like the Cayman Islands or shifting profits overseas, we the taxpayers are the ones who pick up the tab.

Why should we have to cover the tax burden of tax-dodging banks and corporations?

Your colleagues, Sen. Carl Levin and Rep. Lloyd Doggett, have introduced the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act -- S. 506 and H.R. 1265 -- to crack down on corporations that use tax havens. We call upon you to support this measure. The time for reform is now!

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Safe Food, Healthy Kids

Petition Text
Dear USDA Secretary Vilsack,

More than 23,000 kids got sick from food served in schools between 1998 and 2007. We should make sure that our kids are getting safe, healthy food in school by:

· Requiring meat inspections before the meat is ground.

· Adopting science-based safety standards for all school lunch meat.

· Notifying schools directly about recalls, and creating a national database to help school officials avoid food companies with a history of safety problems.
First Name
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Stop our tax dollars from subsidizing the BP spill

BP announced $6.1 billion profits in April for its first quarter -- double last year's number and roughly six times the amount it has spent on the cleanup so far. 

Over the next ten years, the oil and gas industry will receive $40 billion in subsidies -- courtesy of the American taxpayer.

By improving the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid can stop sending our tax dollars to subsidize Big Oil's mistakes.

The Senate votes this week, and we are working with our federation to gather signatures from Americans across the country, demanding that Sen. Reid hold BP accountable.

Sign the petition below to make sure that BP is paying for spill clean up.

Petition Text

Dear Senator,

I don't want my tax dollars going to big oil companies. There's no better time than now to end corporate welfare to companies that make huge profits and huge mistakes. We urge you to address this injustice in the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act.

Sincerely,

First Name
Last Name
Address
City
State
Zip Code
Phone Number
Email Address

Michelle Obama, take spent hens off the menu!

Since 2007, kids have been served 13.6 million pounds of chicken in school lunches that's so low-quality it would otherwise have become compost or dog food. This is chicken KFC refuses to serve.

Known as "spent hen" meat, the poultry industry has been using their influence to peddle this meat to the national school lunch program.  

I think it's time we appealed to our country's most powerful advocate for child nutrition. As first lady Michelle Obama frequently points out: Our kids need, and deserve, better.

Petition Text

Dear First Lady Michelle Obama,

I know you would agree that kids deserve safe, healthy food.

Since 2007, kids have been served 13.6 million pounds of chicken in school lunches that's so low-quality it would otherwise have become compost or dog food. This is chicken KFC refuses to serve.

Please use your influence as a champion on child health issues to take this chicken, known as spent hen chicken, off the menu, and tell the USDA that they should adopt science-based safety standards for all high-risk food served in schools. Our children deserve better.

Sincerely,

First Name
Last Name
Address
City
State
Zip Code
Phone Number
Email Address

Tell our senators to make food safer

Each year, about 76 million Americans get sick from the food they eat. Each year 5,000 people die from foodborne illness.  Recently, more than half a billion eggs with a high risk of salmonella were only recalled months after people started getting sick.

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) will give FDA the authority to recall unsafe food; to inspect food processing facilities; and to require imported foods to meet the same standards as food produced in the U.S.

S. 510 passed the House of Representatives in July 2009, but the Senate has not yet brought it to a vote.

Sign the petition below to urge our senators to support the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510).

 

Petition Text

Dear Senators,

It took months before Wright County Eggs recalled their eggs, even as Americans were getting sick. That's because the FDA can't actually require food companies to recall salmonella-tainted food, regardless of the threat to public health.

Recalling salmonella-tainted eggs -- or any unsafe food -- shouldn't be voluntary. When you go back to Washington, D.C. in September, please pass the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, S. 510.

Sincerely,
First Name
Last Name
Address
City
State
Zip Code
Phone Number
Email Address

Tell our senators to make food safer

Each year, about 76 million Americans get sick and 5,000 die from a foodborne illness.

Recently, more than half a billion eggs with a high risk of salmonella were finally recalled months after people started getting sick.

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) will give FDA the authority to recall unsafe food, inspect food processing facilities, and require imported foods to meet the same standards as food produced in the U.S.

S. 510 passed the House of Representatives in July 2009, but the Senate has not yet brought it to a vote.

Sign the petition below to urge our senators to support the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510).

 

Petition Text

Dear Senators,

It took months before Wright County Eggs recalled their eggs, even as Americans were getting sick. That's because the FDA can't actually require food companies to recall salmonella-tainted food, regardless of the threat to public health.

Recalling salmonella-tainted eggs -- or any unsafe food -- shouldn't be voluntary. When you go back to Washington, D.C. in September, please pass the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, S. 510.

Sincerely,
First Name
Last Name
Address
City
State
Zip Code
Phone Number
Email Address

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