Category: Action Alert

Help Support Philadelphia’s Action AIDS by Drinking Beer

~ susie

I remember this commercial, which appeared about a week before the AIDS crisis exploded.

Action AIDS is one of the many non-profit human services organizations in Philadelphia, and their name is pretty self-explanatory. Like most non-profits, Action AIDS is under the gun due to the economic calamity we’re living in. (And may i add, the economic collapse as disproved the entire notion that the corporate sector, rather than the government, should be responsible for funding human services: when profits dry up, so do the donations).

Anyway, Action AIDS has a fun little fundraiser all over the city tonight: Bar AIDS. Here’s the description, via facebook:

On Thursday, Aug. 26, from 5:30 on to at least midnight, a dozen local coffeehouses and bars will donate a portion of their proceeds to the local fight against HIV/AIDS. Here’s a list of the places where every dollar you spend will make a difference — whether it’s on a cappuccino or a Coors lite. (We also added details of any other specials they have going that night.)

COFFEHOUSES

* Cafe Cret
* Small Oven Bakery at Tutti Frutti

BARS

* Bike Stop
* City Tap House — $2 local beers, 5-7pm
* Fergie’s Pub
* Knock Restaurant & Bar — 1/2-price apps, including gourmet wings, sliders + flatbreads
* Tabu — $5 open bar, 9-10pm
* Tavern on Camac
* Westbury
* Woody’s — $5 Effen vodka, all nite long
* Uncle’s
* XIX at Hyatt Bellevue

You can easily find the addresses via Google, and you can find me at Fergie’s Pub after 6:00 PM, where I’ll be hoisting a pint or two in the fight against AIDS. I hope you’ll be there too! AIDS is a shitty disease to have, and you can help raise money to fight it by drinking beers.

Pakistan Needs Help

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

The Pakistan relief effort has had nowhere near the success of aid for Haiti after its earthquake:

ISLAMABAD – The global aid response to the Pakistan floods has so far been much less generous than to other recent natural disasters — despite the soaring numbers of people affected and the prospect of more economic ruin in a country key to the fight against Islamist extremists.

Reasons include the relatively low death toll of 1,500, the slow onset of the flooding compared with more immediate and dramatic earthquakes or tsunamis, and a global “donor fatigue” — or at least a Pakistan fatigue.

If you would like to help, you can give at any the following sites [via Pakistani Perspective].

March on Washington, Oct. 2nd

~ susie ~ 4 Comments

For “The Change We Voted For.” Be there or be square!

August 5, 2010, WASHINGTON – The AFL-CIO executive committee voted unanimously this morning to join One Nation, Working Together, a new national coalition of labor and civil rights groups that has as its purpose to “reorder America’s priorities by investing in the nation’s most valuable resource – its people.”

The labor, civil rights, environmental, faith and other organizations that have formed the new coalition intend to replace unemployment and economic crisis faced by the country’s majority with “nothing less than a future of shared prosperity for all our people,” the AFL-CIO said in a statement after it voted to join One Nation.

“None of us alone have been able to achieve our priorities,” said Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO.

One Nation’s first official act as a coalition will be a march on Washington on Oct. 2, which unions say will energize an army of tens of thousands who will return to their neighborhoods, churches, schools and voting booths to prevent a Republican takeover of Congress in November and begin building a new permanent coalition to fight for a progressive agenda.

Cut, Paste, Send To PA Senators

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

Write your PA senators:

Dear Senator Casey /Specter:

It has come to my attention that you received, but did not respond to, an invitation to the August 4, 2010 Free Clinic, to be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington DC.  I am writing to inquire as to why you are not attending, and to exhort you to go. 

Here is the link for more information, with some choice quotes: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/7/15/883558/-535-invitations,-only-one-response,-why-David-Sirota-is-correct

“An invitation from Nicole Lamoureux the executive director of the Free Clinic Association went to every member of Congress and the United States Senate. 535 in total. 435 Members of the House and 100 members of the U.S. Senate.

To date, Nicole has had one response, from Donna Edwards.  Donna is coming on August 4th.”

Senator Casey/ Specter, it’s truly shameful that you and the rest of the Senate have essentially refused to go to this clinic: with millions of people unemployed and millions more either without health care or access to health care, closing our eyes to the plight of the poor and the middle class is not an option.  You need to see with your own eyes the condition of our families, especially given that health care costs are expected to RISE over the next couple of years.

Senator Casey/Specter, I appreciated your stand for a public option, and was gravely disappointed when the Senate passed the Finance Committee’s bill instead of your own.  Go to this clinic: then you will be able to tell your colleagues that adding a public option is of utmost importance.

Yours,
________________

Here’s Your Chance

~ susie

So volunteer. Organize your neighbors. Despair is the direct effect of doing nothing.

MoveOn.org is planning a major push to protect Social Security benefits.

In an e-mail blast today, the liberal organization outlined its strategy: “Deep grassroots organizing: We’re going to organize MoveOn members in races to make sure those on the wrong side of the economy and Social Security hear about it everywhere they go…

Polling: We’re planning to poll in critical swing states and districts to show that voters don’t support conservative answers on the economy…

Ads: We’re going to work on a cutting-edge media program to push out the voices of those who are hurting most in this economy so Washington hears from them directly.”

And in related news, the House Ways & Means Committee is soliciting public input on Social Security. Go for it!

For Lehigh Valley Readers

~ susie

Gasland will be shown on Thursday, July 15 at 7:30 pm (doors open at 7) at Whittaker Lab Auditorium on the campus of Lehigh University.

Admission $10, and filmmaker Josh Fox will be attending (Q & A after the film). Sponsored by the Southside Film Festival & Clean Water Action.