A Blaze of Bright Blue: Kirsten Gillibrand

Showing posts with label Kirsten Gillibrand. Show all posts

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Speed US Forces Drawdown in Afghanistan

Last week, Nato forces in Afghanistan carried out airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in Pakistan. Presently, Pakistan has closed the border with Afghanistan for all US and NATO resupply convoys. Half of NATO and US supplies for Afghanistan go through Pakistan. The US military will never establish a realistic date or conditions when it is safe to leave Afghanistan and its up to the citizens of the US to expedite the US evacuation of Afghanistan. Senator Merkley has introduced an amendment to expedite US forces draw-down out of Afghanistan.

The Merkly Amendment:

1) The president should expedite the transition of security responsibility to the government of Afghanistan;
2) The president shall devise a plan for expediting the drawdown of US combat troops in Afghanistan and accelerating the transfer of security authority to Afghan authorities prior to December 2014; and
3) Within 90 days, the president shall transmit to Congress a plan with a timetable and completion date for the accelerated transition of all military and security operations in Afghanistan to the government of Afghanistan.
Current co-sponsors of Merkley's amendment include: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM), Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA).

Tell Your Senators to co-sponsor the Merkley amendment and to oppose war with Iran

Petition to demand a timetable for full withdrawal of US forces in Afghanistan

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Kirsten's Off the Sidelines Campaign

Word cloud from "Off the Sidelines" survey

Off the sidelines is a campaign to get women off the sidelines and involved in politics to safeguard women's rights, health issues and fair pay. It is astonishing that women still receive on average 78% of the pay that men receive for the same work. The Off the Sidelines campaign has a great list with concrete suggestions.
Select the method of getting Off The Sidelines that's right for you here

Friday, August 5, 2011

Stop Voting for Dicks

I get mail from Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY):

Image via Wikipedia

Here are some sad statistics:

I am one of just 17 women in the Senate.

Just 17% of all members of Congress are women.

There are currently only six women governors in the US today.

Fewer than 25% of state legislature seats are filled by women.

These are trends we absolutely must reverse. That is why I created Off The Sidelines, to mobilize women and make their voices heard. The best way to make sure our values are represented is if we run and win.

That's what I did in ’06 and what Kathy Hochul did this year. And that's what five strong Democratic women are doing in the Wisconsin recall elections against Scott Walker's allies next Tuesday – just four days away.

Five amazing women need your immediate support in the final hours to win on Tuesday. It’s time to get off the sidelines.

Click here to rush a contribution to these five extraordinary women on ActBlue. They’re fighting back in Wisconsin, and it’s time for us to get off the sidelines and win.

Well put, Senator. If the secretary of HHS was a conservative republican male, instead of Kathleen Sibelius do you think he would approve No co-pays for birth control?
If the state legislatures across the country were at least 50% female do you think planned parenthood facilities would be closing all across the country?
North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue has vetoed restrictive, unnecessary and condescending abortion legislation in her state, only to have her veto overode by one vote. If the North Carolina legislature was 50% female could the republicans have overturned her veto?

Here's the 5 Democratic Pro-choice women running against the David Koch and Karl Rove backed republicans. They could use a hand.

Instead of Pro-Wealthy, Pro-Corporate, Anti-Family Republicans lets have some Pro-Middle Class, Pro-family and Pro-education female candidates in Wisconsin.