Coverage for enteral formulas was cut from the NY State Medicaid Budget earlier this year. The removal of supportive calories, protein, and micronutrients has put many malnourished HIV(+) individuals at heightened risk of infection, hospitalization, and even death. For the past 6 months, the Coalition to Reinstate Enteral Formulas Coverage has been educating key NY State government officials that removing enteral formulas coverage from AIDS patients who are losing weight significantly increases the cost of caring for these individuals. WE ARE NOW AT A CRITICAL MOMENT. There are 5 key decision makers who are currently reviewing this issue. Please sign this petition and urge the decision makers to REINSTATE ENTERAL FORMULAS IN NY MEDICAID. With your signature and a short message, your concerns will automatically be sent, and your voice will be heard. HELP HIV/AIDS PATIENTS WHO ARE LOSING WEIGHT. WE NEED YOUR HELP NOW!

Stores are opening their doors at midnight on Black Friday. It was bad enough that employees had to go to work the day after Thanksgiving (usually around 4 am), but now they have to work through the night. Selling a few items is more important than taking care of the employees that work for these Corporate giants like Macys, Target, etc. The CEOs of the corporations don't have to work through the night, but they definitely benefit from the profits. Supporting local and small businesses who actually care about their community and employees seems like a much better option.

The people of WNC value their postal service, and demand that their services be at the same or higher level as any other major community in this country! The Brevard Processing Center in Asheville NC is currently being studied for closure which will mean that all WNC mail will be trucked to Greenville SC for processing and a postal mark.

If the Super Committee can not make up their minds, I believe that American's are smart enough to pick what we think should be cut. We all vote like a Democracy allows and the majority wins. Simple as that.

The Town of East Spencer is considering allowing the City of Salisbury to take over the water and sewer system, without doing a feasibility study on how maintaining the system and using new technology could result possibly result in better service and reduced water/sewer prices to the citizens. The City of Salisbury WILL NOT reduce the already outrageous prices of water and sewer services. As citizens of the Town of East Spencer, we DEMAND that all consideration to turn over the system to Salisbury cease until a feasibility study can be completed by professionals who could offer alternative solutions.

History and Logical Development Leading to this Indictment The following is a background historical description and logical development leading up to the necessity for this action. A great deal more could be said and arguments engaged in, but not within the scope of this present web site and its purpose. This is not intended as an argument on economic policy nor ideology nor party politics in general. It is intended to show the logical inconsistencies of positions and actions taken and the sheer idiocy and lack of all logic of the total behavior of Congress in these circumstances. This is intended to show why the intransigence of Congress and individual Congressional members and their refusal to do their duty under the Constitution and their Oaths of Office must be terminated by the concerted action of the People of the United States of America. 1} A long list of Republican presidents, standing high or not so high in the Republican Party hagiology, have espoused and acted upon taxing the rich as a necessity of fairness. Here is a list of those from modern times: Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan. A balanced review of this position with additional and current information, including Democrats and their viewpoints is available here: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2011/10/07/7-Top-Republicans-Who-Taxed-the-Super-Rich.aspx#page1 It is very difficult to fault the logic of all these past presidents, both members of the Republican and of the Democratic parties, including those not mentioned here based upon the logical truism that it is of course necessary to tax the rich more highly because by definition the rich have more money and the poor have less or none. The existence of a national government and national goals in a society that recognizes the private ownership of property and wealth requires the availability of money to do the People’s Business and therefore the requirement for taxation. This is a long established basis of our country, back to its very beginnings. 2} A history of the yearly record of income deficits and surpluses for the United States Government is available on the Internet from the fiscal years of 1789 to projected for 2011 in inflated dollars and uninflated dollars. This history is available on this link: http://www.davemanuel.com/history-of-deficits-and-surpluses-in-the-united-states.php This includes graphical data from 1940 to 2011 and also 2000 to 2011. 3} Trickle-Down Economics is the general concept that reductions in taxes on the wealthiest members of society will result in gains for all of society as those with the most wealth are induced and allowed by their increased income resulting from tax cuts and breaks to create and expand businesses and create jobs to the benefit of the majority of workers and citizens. A web site which statistically examines this concept and graphically indicates the failure of the top tax rate to correlate with Real Gross Domestic Product growth rate, Income growth rate, Hourly Wage growth rate or Change in Unemployment over a 50 year period is available here: http://www.faireconomy.org/research/TrickleDown.html This seems to be more than adequate as a basis of information to say that the concept of Trickle-Down Economics is an entirely self serving fallacy on the part of those who wish to benefit from it. Further information on historical tax rates to a later date is available here: http://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-tax-rates In general, marginal or the top tax rates, do not correlate with economic activity and the boom or bust cycle of the economy. Furthermore, there is much more to the tax rates than the degree of progressiveness with the rate of taxes on the rich. There is also the major factor of the different rate for taxes on income from employment and the rate for taxes on dividends which is much lower. This is the primary cause for the multiply noted fact that a multi billionaire frequently pays a lower tax rate than his secretary as noted for example, here: http://www.thestreet.com/story/11221086/1/buffett-tax-the-rich-mailbag.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN It is without doubt that those who possess the greatest levels of wealth and income in the United States, inarguably receiving the greatest benefits from membership in this society, presently enjoy historically low taxation rates and there seems no real basis to argue against this as fact. 4} Paragraphs 4 and 5 of the 14 Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America: 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. 5} Senate oath of office: “ I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God. 6} House oath of office: “I, AB, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and fait...

Amend Prop 13: It can protect seniors and return California to educational excellence while more fairly collecting the State's taxes and restoring fair markets to the portion of our real estate that is not inhabited by seniors. Prior to Prop 13, California had the highest-quality public education system in the country which was the envy of all. Now, California is ranked dead LAST among the states for educational spending (where is the 'fat' in that?) and the public education that is provided is mere shell (no PE, no music, no libraries, no computer labs, no art, deteriorating campuses, large class sizes, etc) Prop 13 was conceived to protect seniors from being driven from their homes by rising property values once they were on a fixed income (presumably over 65). Instead, not only are seniors given the benefit of Prop 13 tax reductions, corporations, heirs, and many, many people of tremendous wealth also are sheltered from paying market value property taxes that used to support our school systems. Here is an example of Prop 13's unfairness: Younger generations can inherit the Prop 13 valuation of their parent's or grandparent's property, thus contributing a pittance in taxes while still being eligible to utilize all of the public resources of their neighbors who are paying market value property taxes. Even worse, the heir does not even have to occupy the inherited property. S/he can rent it, thereby giving this income property an unfair advantage in competition vs. other landlords. There are many ways that Prop 13 deforms the fair and competitive markets for real estate. In this way, Prop 13 has created a 'landed class' of preferential tax treatment similar to the colonial 'land grants' that were preferentially distributed by the King of Spain to his nobles. Moreover, Prop 13 tax benefits/reductions are provided to Corporations as well--WHY? Who does this benefit? This was not the intent of Prop 13 and should never have been a part of the law. It was a clever Bait-and-Switch by monied interests to defraud California citizens of their public educational system brick by brick, year after year. Warren Buffet recommended to a former CA governor that Prop 13 be amended but instead that governor stuck his head in the sand and called Prop 13 'the 3rd rail'. After 33 years, it is clear that Prop 13 has created an unfair tax system, preferentially benefitting the wealthy, and while it protects seniors (as it should), it has stripped California residents of one of their most valuable and worthy public institutions. Prop 13 should be re-written to protect seniors and seniors only. Market-value property taxes should be returned to corporations, non-original owners of property (i.e. heirs), and to income properties. Of course, Prop 13 has created so much market distortion in its 33 years that this would have to be phased-in over some years but I'm certain that California, as a whole, will benefit in the long-run and cheer that some sanity was finally returned to our tax system and some investment returned to educating the next generation.

The City Commission is being asked to convert a section of our neighborhood from residential to commercial zoning. Traffic and speeding off of Thomasville Road are already a problem, and allowing commercial uses beyond what already exists would make matters worse. The commissioners have an opportunity to allow existing businesses to keep thriving, while protecting our families from increased traffic and speeding. Commissioners Miller and Mustian are meeting with City staff on November 30, 2011 at 9am (at City Hall, Room 4F), so 1) please sign the petition, 2) call the commissioners at 891-8181 to reiterate your concerns (because nothing beats a real live person calling), and 3) attend the meeting if you can - we need a strong showing of support for the staff recommendation to keep our neighborhood residential! For more information, visit www.midtown-neighbors.org.

We are calling on the New Orleans City Council and Mayor Landrieu to permit the City Cycle to operate in New Orleans.

At&T rips people off and takes advantage by over charging and having horrible reception and terrible customer service. They have had a monopoly on Iphone for too long and are hiring people that are rude and in the business of lies and deception. Just this year alone I've had to call At&T several times to clear incorrect phone charges and received rude service, was hung up on, and misleading information. Enough is enough, this phone company has taken advantage of its customers long enough. We pay high rates and are mislead to change plans and penalized each month with more money and more time wasted talking to a representative on the phone for hours, or placed on hold for minutes at a time. AT&T Wireless NEEDS TO HAVE FAIR AND COMPETITIVE PRICING, HIGHER CUSTOMER SERVICE STANDARDS, AND BETTER COVERAGE. ANTI-deceitful.

stop paychecks and benefits to Congress and Senators until they star listening and representing us. They need to earn their pay. No more free lunch

Slick-water high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) is a process by which oil and gas are extracted from underground reserves. It’s known as, hydrofracking or fracking, the process begins by Injecting fluid (a mixture of water, sand, and highly toxic chemicals) under high pressure into oil and gas wells. We are requesting that this moratorium be in place until the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is able to finish its current study on the environmental risks of hydrofracking. Town meeting is on December 8th. Please email this petition to your friends and family.