Courage Campaign

Campaigns

• No pay for Congress during the shutdown

  Since October 1st, hundreds of thousands of middle-class federal employees have been furloughed due to irresponsible members of Congress who refuse to govern for the well-being of the American people. The GOP-controlled House of Representatives decided to shut down the government rather than pass a spending bill that funds the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as “Obamacare.” Not only has the President’s signature healthcare law been upheld by the Supreme Court, but it was a major issue in the last presidential election when Republicans were soundly defeated. These Republican members of Congress -- including California’s own House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy -- are putting the extreme and ideological demands of a small minority over the health of the American economy. And now, federal employees, veterans, and hard-working families will be the ones that have to pay the price. That is unfair and morally reprehensible. Congress should take responsibility for their own inaction and lose their paychecks until they come to a resolution. Every day this drags on, the more damage it does to everyday Americans and our nation’s fragile economy.

  459,543 of 500,000 Signatures

  Created by Laura Leavitt, Courage Campaign
• Demand Nestlé immediately stop bottling precious water from California during drought!

  While the entire state is urged to conserve water and is potentially facing mandatory water usage restrictions, Nestlé is bottling the scarce resource straight from the heart of California’s drought and selling it for profit -- according to a recent Desert Sun report. Since Nestlé’s bottling plant -- which extracts water for its Arrowhead and Pure Life brands -- is located on the Morongo Band of Mission Indians’ reservation, it is exempt from oversight by local water agencies and is able to keep information about its groundwater levels and usage confidential. Therefore, it’s impossible to know just how much of the limited resource the plant is extracting to export and sell elsewhere. And to top it off, the bottling plant is located in one of the most drought-stricken areas of the state. With a recent report showing that California only has enough water to last the state one more year, we must put an end to this madness at Nestlé before it’s too late. Join us!

  30,635 of 35,000 Signatures

  Created by Laura Leavitt, Courage Campaign
• Stop the Comcast/Time Warner merger!

  If Comcast merges with Time Warner cable, Comcast will gain unprecedented power over our country’s cable and Internet market -- resulting in higher prices, fewer choices, worse customer service and control over the information we read, watch, and hear. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and CA Attorney General Kamala Harris have the power to block this disastrous merger. But they must hear from concerned citizens like you RIGHT NOW to let them know that we do NOT want the corporate giant Comcast to have a monopoly over us. If we can stop the merger in California, Comcast’s national domination plan could be over. Without California’s biggest markets, the cable giant would most likely walk away from the whole deal. So let's make sure the CPUC and Attorney General hear us loud and clear! JOIN US & SIGN TODAY!

  3,551 of 4,000 Signatures

  Created by Laura Leavitt
• Tell Wal-Mart: Stop selling assault rifles

  Wal-Mart can make a good-faith effort to help stop the kind of violence we saw in Newtown, CT: by joining Dick's Sporting Goods in voluntarily stopping sales of assault weapons, which belong in war, not in our communities. As reported by Bloomberg News on December 19, 2012, "Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, said yesterday that it would continue to sell guns, including rifles like the one used at Newtown, where 26 people, most of them children, were killed on Dec. 14. Searches of five kinds of semi-automatic rifles on Wal-Mart’s website showed them to be out of stock at stores in five states, including Pennsylvania, Kansas and Alabama...Wal-Mart has about 10 modern sporting rifles, the gun industry’s term for firearms that look like an M-16 military rifle, listed on its website. The retailer removed a description and picture of the Bushmaster AR-15, which was the model used in Newtown, after the shootings." Why not remove the rest of these other dangerous models? Please do put public safety ahead of profit, and stop selling assault weapons.

  36,286 of 40,000 Signatures

  Created by Adam Bink
• California Republican Assembly leader must resign over offensive rape comments.

  On Friday, March 1, Celeste Greig, head of the California Republican Assembly, told the media that pregnancies by rape are rare "because it's an act of violence, because the body is traumatized." Ironically, she said this while criticizing former Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin for his comments last fall about "legitimate rape." I started this petition because I am disgusted by scientifically illiterate Republican leaders attempting to defend rape related anti-choice policies. These uneducated and fanatical politicians attempt to minimize the horrific consequences of rape in order to pursue a twisted political agenda and in so doing degrade women. Everyone is welcome to their own opinion, but not to their own facts. Rapes cause pregnancy. Celeste Greig (and other factually challenged politicians) need to resign from their high profile political positions so policy can be made based on science, not ideology.

  30,159 of 35,000 Signatures

  Created by Sarah Callahan
• Tell the L.A. Times and Chicago Tribune owners: "No Sale to the Koch Brothers!"

  The Koch brothers are the worst of the worst. Oil and gas billionaires, they're known for funding the Tea Party, buying elections, funding anti-science organizations, union busting, dodging taxes, and twisting democracy any way they can to promote their personal agenda. Now, in a stunning move, according to multiple reports, they want to buy the company that owns the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and several other big newspapers to further their radical right-wing agenda and move fringe Tea Party ideas into the mainstream. They cannot be allowed to purchase the most respected newspapers in the biggest media markets in the country in order to peddle their discredited ideas and right-wing propaganda. People count on papers like Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune for real facts, real issues, and unbiased information. And newspaper endorsements in local and statewide elections carry substantial clout. The Koch brothers cannot be allowed to control these vital sources of information.

  7,124 of 8,000 Signatures

  Created by Gabe Smalley
• California Republicans: Shut down your fake, misleading Obamacare website IMMEDIATELY

  In a last ditch attempt to undermine the Affordable Care Act -- a.k.a. Obamacare -- California Republicans have launched a fake website (CoveringHealthcareCA.com) designed to capture those interested in the state's real Obamacare site: CoveredCA.com. California Republicans have promoted the fake site with tens of thousands of taxpayer-funded mailers to constituents. It sows fear and confusion by promoting misleading or outright false information and avoiding basic facts and benefits of the law. It's a politically motivated, unconscionable attempt to prevent sick people from getting the care they need. Disagreeing on a matter of public policy is one thing, but actively working to mislead voters and prevent them from accessing healthcare is unacceptable.

  32,263 of 35,000 Signatures

  Created by Eddie Kurtz, Courage Campaign
• Whole Foods CEO: Stop Spreading Lies about Obamacare

  Whole Foods' CEO, John Mackey, has been using his position as head of one of the most respected companies in America to promote anti-Obamacare lies and deter people from signing up for life-saving health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Fight back against this kind of confusing misinformation and tell John Mackey stop misleading Americans. Statements like these confuse people about the law and scare them away from signing up for the coverage they desperately need.

  80,120 of 100,000 Signatures

  Created by Dr. Paul Song, Courage Campaign
• SIGN THE PLEDGE: I'm fasting for farm workers!

  NOTE: FASTING CAN BE DANGEROUS. THOSE WITH HEALTH ISSUES OR CONCERNS THAT MAY BE AFFECTED BY FASTING SHOULD NOT PARTICIPATE. ANYONE UNSURE OR WITH QUESTIONS SHOULD CONSULT THEIR DOCTOR BEFORE PARTICIPATING. Farm workers are vital to our well-being as a nation. But for nearly 100 years, they’ve been treated like second-class citizens and denied real overtime. But right now, we have an opportunity to right this wrong with Assembly Bill 1066 by Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez. AB 1066 is a commonsense solution that will give farm workers overtime pay after eight hours. But powerful corporate lobbyists are trying to tear it down. That is why on Tuesday, August 16, legislators, faith-based leaders, and activists across the country are going to fast for 24 hours in support of farm workers and help pass AB 1066.

  15 of 100 Signatures

  Created by Tim Molina, Courage Campaign
• Tell Obama: Speak out on Prop 8 at the Supreme Court

  President Obama has said same-sex marriage is fine by him, but the Supreme Court will consider a more fundamental issue than that: whether Prop 8, and possibly state bans on same-sex marriage nationwide, violate the guarantee of Equal Protection under the U.S. Constitution. The Supreme Court often asks the Administration for its views on cases, and the position of the Department of Justice carries significant legal weight -- so we need the President and the DOJ to weigh in. As attorney Ted Olson commented on December 7th, 2012, "...given the stand the president of the United States and the attorney general of the United States made with respect to marriage equality, we would certainly hope that they would participate...I think that, given the position that the government has taken in the DOMA cases and the reasoning that they have used in filing their brief would apply with great effect in our case, the Perry case, as well." President Obama and the Department of Justice can fulfill this request by filing a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that a state ban on same-sex marriage violates the U.S. Constitution. With the Supreme Court hearing oral arguments in March 2013, and the civil rights, respect and dignity of potentially millions of same-sex couples on the line, we need the President to lead and speak out.

  116 of 200 Signatures

  Created by Adam Bink