Customize Your Own Political Video with Olivia Wilde?

Even though most folks intend to vote, lots never get around to it. So share this video with your friends—Olivia’s message will be customized just for them—to remind them exactly what’s at stake. Besides it’s a lot of fun!

Underneath the message is clear….VOTE !!

http://cnnbc.moveon.org/embed.html?bv_id=iZr9BZk6VAVn8jm_INo693YtMTYxMDUx

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Glenn Beck May be Costing Fox Millions in Ads?

Many think that Fox News Glenn Beck is untouchable. However, it looks like advertisers aren’t touching him either. Jim Edwards of  bnet has written an informative piece  on Beck’s loss of Ad revenue over the past year.

How long can you drive a car without gas? Read on….

Glenn Beck has lost half the TV audience for his Fox News Channel show, and 15 of his 27 current ad slots are taken either by house ads for News Corp. (NWS) properties or non-profit concerns. Taken together, it is likely that Fox has taken a huge financial hit from the advertiser boycott of Beck. More than 100 companies have said they will not advertise on Beck’s show after he said President Obama was “a racist,” and late compared the president to a Nazi.

There are two surprising things here: First, corporate America’s commercials have not slowly trickled back to Beck’s show now that the fuss has died down (the scandal broke nearly a year ago). And second, it’s also a testament to how stubborn the News Corp. management culture is: They just don’t give in, even though at this point standing by Beck must have cost them millions of dollars. Clearly, this is important to them.

On MediaMatters’ current ad roster for Beck:

• Beck’s show had 27 ad slots in total.
• Nine were “house” ads for other News properties, and thus did not generate revenue for News.
• Six were ads for non-profit organizations, and were unlikely to have been sold at full price.

One of the remaining 12 fully paid ads was for Nestle (NESN.VX)’s Purina cat food. Nestle has previously said it supports the boycott and that its ads only appeared on Beck by mistake. That suggests Fox won’t get paid for running the spot; or that Nestle has caved; or — and this would be controversial — Fox is deliberately running ads from big corporations by “mistake” to make Beck look safe for other companies to return.

Such appearances are crucial. For some brands, the “environment” is as important as the gross ratings points. And the current ad environment on Beck is populated by C-list brands such as Zoosk.com, Hydroxatone, and Tax Masters.

At one time, the boycott seemed irrelevant because Beck had such a massive audience for his daytime show, 3 million people. Now he has only about 1.4 million, according to Nielsen. So the show’s financial troubles are compounded: In addition to not selling enough full-price inventory to fill out the show, each individual slot is worth less because it delivers fewer ratings points.

Why does News persist? Although Beck still gets nearly triple the viewers of his competitors, it is not likely that Fox is standing behind him for business reasons. It would be much more lucrative for CEO Rupert Murdoch to demand that Beck apologize and move on. Then Nestle et al. could come back and everything would return to normal. Rather, this is as another case in which News is cutting off its nose to spite its face. Murdoch believes Beck is “right,” and he seems to be insisting that he’s not going to let liberal boycotts or his sympathetic clients push him around.

News has a history of this: It engaged in a suicidal civil war over supermarket advertising that cost the company $500 million, and it still hasn’t settled the last of that litigation. The manager responsible for those losses — News America Marketing CEO and New York Post publisher Paul Carlucci — remains in his position as if he’d done nothing wrong.

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Anthem Blue Cross May Raise Rates after Record Profits?

Blue Cross has just announced that it’s immediately raising premiums charged to hundreds of thousands of individual customers by as much as 39%—even though their parent company’s profits soared to a record $4.7 billion last year.2

Even worse, the insurer has so far refused to explain why they’re increasing their rates, and warned that they might do so again this year without warning.

The Obama administration is demanding answers from Anthem Blue Cross, and Congress has opened an investigation.3 But Blue Cross is only going to respond if this story becomes a major public-relations problem for them.

So it’s time to turn up the heat. Let’s join the growing call for an explanation and send a powerful public message that these abuses by Big Insurance are unacceptable.

http://pol.moveon.org/bluecross/?rc=taf_kicker&id=18943-11381997-P6nhw_x&t=3

The petition says: “Anthem Blue Cross must provide a detailed explanation for their exorbitant rate increases, or else roll them back immediately.”

These latest rate increases in California—reportedly the largest ever by Blue Cross for individual policyholders in the state—are yet another powerful example of how badly broken our health care system is and how desperately we need to hold Big Insurance accountable for exploiting their customers.

Anthem Blue Cross’s parent company made record profits last year despite losing 1.4 million customers—increasing their profit margins by cherrypicking the healthiest people to insure.4

Then they can turn around and dramatically increase the rates they charge to the customers they’ve kept, because there are almost no rules governing rate increases. In fact, the company doesn’t even have to publicly reveal how many customers’ rates they’ve increased, or by how much.

The good news is that Kathleen Sebelius, President Obama’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, is already publicly demanding answers from the company. And the House Energy and Commerce Committee has announced plans to hold hearings to investigate.

But to get Anthem to clean up their act—and show politicians and the media that we can’t afford any more abuses by Big Insurance—we all need to lend our voices. Will you sign the petition?

http://pol.moveon.org/bluecross/?rc=taf_kicker&id=18943-11381997-P6nhw_x&t=4

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What do UFO's and Health Care Have in Common?

OK, this is amazing: More people believe in UFOs than oppose the public health insurance option.1

Seriously, it’s easier to find someone who thinks aliens are landing spaceships in our cornfields than someone who thinks we shouldn’t create a public option to keep the insurance companies honest.

The insurance companies are basically the only ones who don’t like the public option—which is probably why their industry is spending nearly $5 million per week trying to fight off health care reform in Congress.2

We need to remind our senators that everyday Americans—not space aliens, and not profit-driven insurance executives—support the public health insurance option. Click here to send a free fax about the public option to Senators Arlen Specter and Robert Casey:

http://pol.moveon.org/fax?tg=FSPA_1.FSPA_2&cp_id=1125&id=17382-11381997-rQnuHmx&t=3

Outside of the Senate, insurance company boardrooms, and Area 51, the support for the public option is overwhelming.

At least two thirds of Americans want the choice of a public plan.3 Fully 73% of doctors, the people who see the moral and medical need up close every day, want a public option.4 And a majority of small-business owners, who know firsthand the economic case for health care reform, back it.5

Yet the health insurance companies—and some subset of the people who believe they’ve seen flying saucers—oppose it. And somehow, ridiculously, that’s put the public option in danger in the Senate.

Can you send this free fax to your senators, Arlen Specter and Robert Casey, to make sure they know just how popular the public option is?

http://pol.moveon.org/fax?tg=FSPA_1.FSPA_2&cp_id=1125&id=17382-11381997-rQnuHmx&t=4

P.S. Remember last week’s email “from” the public option? Well, it turns out the public option now has its own Twitter feed—@im_publicoption—for important updates and miscellaneous observations on the state of the health care fight. Check it out here:

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=84785&rc=tw&id=17382-11381997-rQnuHmx&t=5

Sources:

1. “More Americans Believe In UFOs Than Oppose A Public Option,” Media Matters, September 29, 2009

http://mediamattersaction.org/blog/200909290001

2. “Insurance and HMO Industries Spend Nearly $700,000 Per Day to Kill Health Care Reform Measures,” Public Campaign Action Fund, September 15, 2009.

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=84720&id=17382-11381997-rQnuHmx&t=6

3. “In Poll, Public Wary of Obama on War and Health,” The New York Times, September 24, 2009

4. “Poll Finds Most Doctors Support Public Option,” National Public Radio, September 14, 2009

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=84786&id=17382-11381997-rQnuHmx&t=7

5.”Small Business Owners Say Cutting Health Care Costs, Need for Reform are Top Concerns,” Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, December 3, 2008

http://www.rwjf.org/pr/product.jsp?id=36550

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The Obama Plan in 4 Minutes…

More Security and Stability

If You Have Health Insurance, the Obama Plan:

* Ends discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions.

* Limits premium discrimination based on gender and age.

* Prevents insurance companies from dropping coverage when people are sick and need it most.

* Caps out-of-pocket expenses so people don’t go broke when they get sick.

* Eliminates extra charges for preventive care like mammograms, flu shots and diabetes tests to improve health and save money.

* Protects Medicare for seniors.

* Eliminates the “donut-hole” gap in coverage for prescription drugs.

Quality, Affordable Choices

If You Don’t Have Insurance, the Obama Plan:

* Creates a new insurance marketplace — the Exchange — that allows people without insurance and small businesses to compare plans and buy insurance at competitive prices.

* Provides new tax credits to help people buy insurance.

* Provides small businesses tax credits and affordable options for covering employees.

* Offers a public health insurance option to provide the uninsured and those who can’t find affordable coverage with a real choice.

* Immediately offers new, low-cost coverage through a national “high risk” pool to protect people with preexisting conditions from financial ruin until the new Exchange is created.

Reins in the Cost of Health Care

For All Americans, the Obama Plan:

* Won’t add a dime to the deficit and is paid for upfront.

* Requires additional cuts if savings are not realized.

* Implements a number of delivery system reforms that begin to rein in health care costs and align incentives for hospitals, physicians, and others to improve quality.

* Creates an independent commission of doctors and medical experts to identify waste, fraud and abuse in the health care system.

* Orders immediate medical malpractice reform projects that could help doctors focus on putting their patients first, not on practicing defensive medicine.

* Requires large employers to cover their employees and individuals who can afford it to buy insurance so everyone shares in the responsibility of reform.

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Does your small business provide health insurance for you or your employees?

Many small businesses are suffering at the hands of big insurance companies who charge sky-high premiums but often deny care when it’s needed the most.

As part of our campaign to win real health care reform, we’re taking on big insurance companies—and we want to highlight the voices of small-business leaders like you.

You can help out by taking a short survey.

To get started, click to let us know: Does your small business provide health insurance for you or your employees?

click on the answers below.

 

 

 

 

Yes, my business pays some or all employee health insurance costs.

No, I can’t afford to provide health insurance.

Health care is something that has been postponed for decades.

We can’t afford to wait.

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R.E.M. tells us "We Can't Afford to Wait" on Health Care!

Last week Move.On asked members to share photos showing how they and their loved ones are suffering under our broken health care system.

The responses simply blew them away. They showed the photos to recording artists R.E.M., and together they produced this incredibly powerful video.

Watch the video and share it with your friends today.

With the news that some in the White House are considering a “trigger”1—a delay tactic designed to kill the public option—it’s more important than ever to get the word out that we simply can’t afford to wait for real reform.

Click here to watch the video and send it to your friends today: http://pol.moveon.org/healthcare_cantwait/?id=17196-11381997-5xE1rKx&t=3

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"Setting the Record Straight" on Health Care.

“I had to fix a lot of things this morning
‘Cause they were so scrambled
But now it’s okay
I tell you I’ve got enough to do”

“Busy Doing Nothing” – The Beach Boys”

It feels like a new lie about health insurance reform crops up each day. Government taking over all health care? Not true. Euthanasia for seniors? Couldn’t be more false. Rationing of care? Reform will stop rationing, not increase it.

These lies create fear and anger, and we’re seeing the results around the country. Frightened crowds have flooded town halls, and the office of a Georgia representative was defaced with a swastika.

It’s time to set the record straight — and, more importantly, expose the special interests and partisan attack organizations behind the lies and misinformation.

That’s why we created our new “Setting the Record Straight” site. Check out the site today and then spread the word to your friends.

As the site makes clear, these lies are no accident. They’re part of a deliberate plot by the special interests who profit from the status quo to kill any reform at all. While Americans watch their paychecks dwindle, their coverage disappear, and their businesses struggle, special interests are trying to scare folks into opposing reform.

Our “Setting the Record Straight” site has all the info you need to fight back, as well as easy ways to get involved in the fight for health insurance reform. We’ll be updating it often with new information debunking health care lies, so stop by regularly.

As we learned during the campaign, lies like these can spread like wildfire through viral emails and from friend to friend. The best way to stop them is to arm yourself with the facts — and make sure your friends and family know the truth.

Check out the site, and share it with everyone you know:

http://my.barackobama.com/record

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Pledge to Higher Quality, Lower Cost Health Care…Now!

Americans spend more on health care than people do elsewhere, but somehow we spend more for less.

Most of us have no clue about the actual cost of our medical care until the bills arrive, because hospitals and doctors don’t publish their charges. The cost of insurance goes up and up, with fewer services covered. Millions of Americans needlessly suffer or die from preventable medical errors and infections.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Costs can come down and quality can improve if we stop letting the insurance companies run the show, make billing clear and simple, and focus on prevention and managing chronic illness better.

You can make a difference by taking our pledge and joining our effort to make health care a top priority for our nation’s leaders.

THE PLEDGE:
I want to join with other Americans to support action, answers and accountability. It is time to:

* * Give my family security that we will have quality care when we need it at a cost we can afford;
* * Make hospitals and doctors more transparent about the cost and quality of care they offer;
* * Eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy between patients and the care they need;
* * End long waits for care;
* * Examine all solutions that will ensure all Americans access to quality, affordable care, with input from real people like me.

Sign the pledge here

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/411857645?z00m=15215845

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What's Really Going On With Town Hall Meetings?

‘I was lyin’ in my room and the news came on t.v.
A lotta people out there hurtin’ and it really scares me

Hey love and mercy that’s what you need tonight
So, love and mercy to you and your friends tonight…”

“Love and Mercy”- Brian Wilson

Did you see today’s breaking news? A former health insurance executive just went on record saying that right-wing mobs at town halls are the result of “stealth efforts by health insurance companies.”1 And The Huffington Post reports that dirty energy companies are helping bankroll the mobs.2

It’s infuriating—but the good news is that everyday folks are fighting back. And the great news is that we’re making strides. In city after city, MoveOn Councils are proving to the media that the vast majority of Americans support the change agenda that President Obama ran on.

As we ramp up our “Real Voices for Change” campaign, here are some recent inspiring stories from MoveOn Councils around the country:

* We’re keeping it positive. At a town hall in Charlottesville, Virginia, national media were expecting a hostile and extremist crowd—but Rep. Tom Perriello was met by a large and very friendly group. NBC reported, “for the most part the crowd was subdued and in support of reforming the system.“3 An event with Rep. Joe Sestak in Philadelphia, where the local MoveOn Council helped to turn people out, was “overwhelmingly civil.”4 In Denver, at a high-profile event with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a few right-wing protesters compared President Obama to Hitler—but progressive protesters vastly outnumbered them.5

* We’re making direct contact with decision-makers. At a Jobs Fair in northwest Indiana, Council Coordinator David Lambeth handed a flyer supporting a REAL public option directly to Senator Evan Bayh—a key vote on health care reform—and had a quick conversation with him. The Council had organized a flyering event at that Jobs Fair precisely to create such a face-to-face opportunity.

* The media is taking notice. Our signs and footage from MoveOn events are all over the news, including several national spots on MSNBC and NBC Nightly News (one of the most-watched shows on TV). And in one wild moment, conservative Tom Tancredo—a former Colorado congressman—actually waved a MoveOn health care sign on MSNBC!

* We’re getting good responses from members of Congress—even in “red” states. In Johnson County, KS, the Council organized a “honk and wave” outside of Rep. Dennis Moore’s office. (Rep. Moore is a “blue dog” who supports the public option.) As Organizer Ian Rogers reported:

Despite some right-wing protesters who showed up and tried to disrupt the event, the members stayed strong and their efforts paid off. About twenty minutes after the right-wing protesters showed, Rep. Moore himself drove by the honk and wave. He honked, the tea-baggers booed, and Moore gave the thumbs up to our people and honked again.

Thank you so much for all you’re doing to push back against the misconception that right-wing extremists speak for all of us. And there’s much more to do in the weeks ahead—keep it up.

Sources:

1. “Former exec: Insurers fomenting town hall chaos,” The Hill, August 12, 2009

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51752&id=16809-11381997-15G4lTx&t=2

2. “Townhall Mobs—Brought to you by Big Oil and Dirty Coal,” The Huffington Post, August 7, 2009

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51753&id=16809-11381997-15G4lTx&t=3

3. “Tom in Your Town Hits Charlottesville,” NBC, August 11, 2009

http://www.nbc29.com/Global/story.asp?S=10885372

4. “Sestak health-care meeting a spoonful of sugar,” Philadelphia Enquirer, August 13, 2009

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51754&id=16809-11381997-15G4lTx&t=4

5. Pelosi Protesters, Including Kid In Stroller, Compare Obama to Hitler, The Huffington Post, August 8, 2009

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51755&id=16809-11381997-15G4lTx&t=5

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