Bring your red scrubs to SiCKO’s opening night and help the nurses turn this movie masterpiece into a social movement—this pop culture into political change.

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee is acting as co-host of the opening night of SiCKO at 3,000 theaters around the country.  We are working with an unprecedented national coalition of nurse and doctor and health care activist groups to ensure SiCKO has a long-term impact on our nation’s healthcare system and politics. It’s an incredible opportunity for patient advocates and it’s only missing one element: you.  What are you doing the evening of Friday June 29th?

Here’s the plan:  Friday night, June 29th, we aim to have a registered nurse, doctor, patient, or other patient advocate at every SiCKO opening night around the country.  They’ll be there to greet the audience, hand out flyers as they leave, perhaps testify to the tragedies witnessed on the front lines of America’s healthcare meltdown.  Most of all, they’ll be there to convince the moviegoers that we can make change happen starting now. Please go here to sign up.

Plan on wearing red scrubs that night if you have them.  If not, wear red, and as the event draws near, we’ll send you links to download “red scrub” buttons, fans, and handouts.  Once the movie schedule is announced, we’ll send you everything you need.  All you have to do is round up a couple buddies and, when possible, buy your tickets online.

This call for 3,000 SiCKO patient advocates for June 29th is the first activity in a national campaign that includes screenings, premiers, marches, protests, legislative briefings, and press conferences around the country. The fun kicks off in California June 12, when Moore will give a special legislative briefing to the California Senate before being escorted by 1,000 registered nurses to an exclusive screening of SiCKO for healthcare providers and activists. 

Why SiCKO?  Because it puts on the big screen what nurses see every day: a healthcare industry that has abandoned its caring mission in favor of the pursuit of profit at any cost.  For the first time, patients and caregivers have a voice, and we need to use it to demand an end to these abusive healthcare corporations.  SiCKO changes everything.

And that’s why we have a chance to change healthcare politics in this nation.  The insurance industry and drug companies are already worried.  All we need now is for you to help us make SiCKO’s opening night a truly transformative event.  There has never been a national moment like these simultaneous 3,000 screenings.  This is our chance to change the world.  Let’s take it.

And in the meantime, we encourage you to take a look at some of the bills that would guaranteed healthcare for all Americans on the single-payer model-—John Conyers’ HR 676 in California and Sheila Kuehl’s SB 840 in California.

(How does “direct democracy” work when we can’t even figure out what the heck we’re voting on? – promoted by atdleft)

NOTE: Originally posted at Daily Kos – and posted here in response to request from dday.

The May 2007 Public Policy Institute of California survey titled  “Californians and Their Government” contains depressing data about the average voter’s civic knowledge.

The press release accompanying the report states:

California voters admit to knowing little or nothing about some of the most critical policy issues they may be facing in next year’s elections… This lack of knowledge concerning pivotal proposals, such as billions of dollars for new infrastructure bonds and changing term limits, could provide the margin of success for these proposals. Moreover, what voters don’t know may be lulling them into a false sense of fiscal security at a time when the state’s finances are still on shaky ground.

According to the survey, Californians have a limited understanding of how the state raises revenue and disperses funds. And, a large segment of the population view bonds as “free money” unaware of the costs being passed on to future generations.

I see those numbers and wonder, “Is this good government?”

Despite this limited knowledge, California voters are routinely making budget decisions and issuing policy mandates through ballot initiatives.

Next year, Californians will likely be asked to approve over $43 billion in bonds for education facilities, prisons, water storage and other infrastructure (in 2006, voters approved $37 billion) and revisit our term limits laws. Currently, there are 25 state-wide initiatives in the pipeline for 2008.

According to the PPIC survey, many are relatively uninformed on the questions they’ll be asked to weigh in on. Some findings from PPIC’s polling:

Sixty-four percent of likely voters support Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal to issue $43.3 billion in bonds to increase funding for education facilities, prisons, water storage, and other infrastructure projects.
Fifty-two percent of voters admit that they know very little (43%) or nothing (9%) about how bonds are paid for in California. Six percent say they know a lot.
The share of residents who describe the state budget as a big problem has fallen 29 points, from 73 percent to 44 percent, since May 2004.

With a majority of state voters admitting they do not understand how bonds are financed, it’s easy to understand why our elected officials prefer putting bond measures before the voters over the much less popular alternatives – raising taxes or cutting programs.

Historical Background – The ballot initiative was instituted in California in 1911 as a Progressive Era reform designed to reduce the influence of corporate interests on the state legislature. According to a 2005 PPIC analysis of the history of direct democracy in the state:

Since the 1970s, California has come to rely heavily on direct democacy to make major policy decisions. During that time, the number of initiatives per ballot has almost tripled, and voters have used direct democacy to decide the fate of such issues as drug enforcement, property taxes, environmental regulation, bilingual education and affirmative action. Some observers have concluded that the initiative process is replacig the legislature as the most important law-making institution in the state.

Unquestionably, direct citizen involvement has allowed Californians to express their opinions and enact important progressive legislation. Many positive changes (from my point of view) have come from the initiative process – including groundbreaking environmental protections and stem cell research. Despite a growing sense of “election fatigue” among state voters, the process remains popular with a sizable majority of Californians today, according to the Public Policy Institute.

Out of Iraq Initiative – In fact, one of the more intriguing initiatives being proposed by State Sen President Don Perata, the ““Vote Us Out of Iraq”” ballot initiative is being debated in Sacramento today and will allow Californians to send an unprecedented message to our officials in Washington about the Iraq War. But, as elishastephens observed last week, the advisory measure is simply designed to allow voters to express their anger at the situation in Iraq.

Despite direct democracy’s past success and ongoing popularity in the state, I believe the numbers in the May PPIC report are cause for concern.

The combination of an uninformed public and the willingness of elected officials to turn to the initiative process creates an opportunity for skilled and well-financed special interests to covertly advance their agendas. When the politicians “punt” the tough questions to an uninformed and disengaged electorate the likelihood of creating good policy is diminished.

Additionally, the almost exclusive reliance on television advertising as the communications tool used in statewide ballot campaigns reduces policy discussion to thirty second soundbites. Informed, intelligent debate becomes increasingly difficult as a result.

Initiatives work if the citizenry is knowledgeable about the issues and the process.

Right now, California’s voters and elected officials are both coming up short.

H/T to Mike Lawson at The Liberal OC for the fantastic graphic!

Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen has had 52 days to comply with county campaign finance law. Actually, she was supposed to give the Registrar of Voters a report of her returning the illegal donations to her campaign during the recount within 72 HOURS AFTER THESE DONATIONS WERE RETURNED. However, she hasn’t complied with county law.

So why won’t Janet comply with the law? Isn’t a lawmaker supposed to actually obey the law? Is that too much to ask?

Follow me after the flip for more…

Doesn’t Janet Nguyen realize that this isn’t helping her reelection effort? And I don’t think this is helping her beloved Republican Party, either. No wonder why Jubal/Matt Cunningham is saying something at OC Blog, and he’s not the only one speaking up:

I was talking to some keen observers of county politics this morning, and much of the conversation turned on Supervisor Janet Nguyen’s on-going refusal to comply with TIN CUP requirements that she report the name of the three donors who gave too much to her illegal legal defense fund — as well as the excess amount and date of donation.

There was a general consensus that the drip-drip of bad publicity stemming from this strange refusal to come clean only hurts her politically. Most 1st District voters are still unfamiliar with her, but ever since the adulatory “first Vietnamese/youngest supervisor” media immediately after being seated, her press hasn’t been good.

Yep, this is only hurting Janet. It’s hurting her credibility. How are we supposed to trust her as a lawmaker if she can’t even obey the law herself? If she were your County Supervisor, would you trust her?

Mike Lawson said it so well at The Liberal OC yesterday:

County Supervisor Janet Nguyen was soliciting money to cover her legal costs after the February 6th special. The problem was that Nguyen was accepting donations above the campaign contribution limit—which is a violation of campaign finance law. […]

Everyone is blogging about the money, and it looks like nobody is going to be forgetting this story any time soon. How long will we wait, Janet?

So how long must we wait? How long must we wait before our County Supervisor actually obeys the law that she’s supposed to respect? With every day that Janet Nguyen evades the law, she loses that much more of our trust.

This morning, I was looking through The Register. And suddenly, I had to stop in my tracks once I saw this:

UC Irvine has collected an additional $3.9 million for the study of human embryonic stem cells, raising its backing from the state to about $17.5 million and making the campus among the most heavily funded in the world in this nascent area of biomedical research.

Wow, so it looks like our decision to invest in stem cell research is starting to pay off! Thanks to Prop 71, UC Irvine can continue its groundbreaking research that may one day lead to real cures for nasty diseases. Follow me after the flip for more on what UCI will be doing with that additional $3.9 million…

So what exactly will this money be going to?

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine gave UCI the money to better equip a fast-growing research center and to train scientists to cultivate stem cells, which have the ability to become any cell in the body, making them potentially useful in treating disease and injury.

The money was part of the $50 million that the agency gave 17 institutions Tuesday for laboratories and training. To date, the state agency has given out more than $200 million, and will eventually distribute an unprecedented $3 billion, as called for in the voter-approved initiative Proposition 71.

And why is this important?

The university has been competing hard for the state funds, and raising millions from private donors, so that it doesn’t have to rely on federal money to run its core research center. The federal government limits funding to a small number of stem cell lines that were in existence as of Aug. 9, 2001.

The restrictions were imposed by President Bush, who says he doesn’t want to sanction the destruction of additional embryos so that the number of lines can be expanded. Congress is scheduled to vote this week on a bill that would ease the restrictions on federal funding, but Bush has said he would veto such a measure.

The $3.9 million Irvine got Tuesday promotes “a ‘fed-free’ zone where people are not only doing research but are trying to bring their results to clinical trials,” said Hans Keirstead, co-director of UCI’s Bill and Susan Gross Stem Cell Research Center.

Remember what George W. Bush told us back in August 2001? The federal government won’t fund embryonic stem cell research. And so long as the federal government won’t fund any research, such academic institutions as UCI (which receive plenty of federal funds) have difficulty engaging in such important and promising scientific research.

But now, UCI can continue its research, now that private donors and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine are chipping in. And what will UCI be doing with all this money? They will likely be building upon the progress that they have already been making. Take a look at what has been accomplished at UCI’s Stem Cell Research Center:

* James Fallon (Parkinson’s Disease): In 1997 and again in 2000, Fallon was the first to demonstrate how significant numbers of rodent adult stem cells and progenitors can be mobilized to help repair an injured brain. These results point the way toward potential new treatments that harness stem cells within the brain to reverse damage done by stroke, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative conditions.

* Ken Cho and Ping Wang (Diabetes): Ken Cho, Professor of Developmental and Cell Biology, identified over 50 genes affecting the transformation of mouse embryonic stem cells into insulin-producing cells, perhaps pointing the way toward a means of expanding the supply of transplantable insulin-producing cells. Ping Wang, Associate Professor in the School of Medicine, has identified internal cellular processes that promote the growth and survival of cells affected by diabetes.

* Hans Keirstead and Aileen Anderson (Spinal Cord Injury): Hans Keirstead has injected hESCs into paralyzed rats and significantly increased their mobility, work expected to result in the first clinical trial using human embryonic stem cells in 2006. Keirstead was also the first to develop a high-purity line of functional nerve tissue cell progenitors from hESCs. Anderson investigates the role of inflammation following spinal cord injury.

And in addition to all of this, there is so much more. There’s progress being made on treating Alzheimer’s. There’s greater understanding as to what happens with genetic diseases. There’s progress being made on fighting neurological disease. Basically, UCI is leading the way in finding treatments, discovering cures, and renewing a sense of hope with its scientific research!

Heck, their scientists are even becoming celebrities! ; )

No, but really, good things are happening at UCI. And thanks to California voters deciding that this type of scientific research is valuable and should be encouraged, UCI can continue this research. And hopefully one day, all this research will lead to valuable cures. : )

(Now with video. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

THE STATE ASSEMBLY JUST APPROVED MARRIAGE EQUALITY ONCE AGAIN!

But anyways, as I was starting to feel happy that the Assembly approved legislation that would allow me to find the hubby of my dreams, Chuckie just had to piss me off by saying this. Whatever. All I say to him, and to others who oppose equal rights for all, is that allowing all loving couples to make lasting commitments for life strengthens marriage. Discrimination doesn’t.

Families worrying about what to eat weakens families, and marriages at that. Families worrying about where to live weakens families, and marriages at that. Families worrying about health care weakens families, and marriages at that. If Chuckie DeVore really cares about families and marriages, then maybe he should do something about what families are actually worried about.

But enough of Chuckie, let’s get back to the good news of today! Fortunately, most Assembly Members don’t share the same distorted views as Chuckie. They recognize that the institution of marriage is only strengthened when the state does not discriminate over which loving couples can get married and which ones can’t. Thank goodness they did the right thing today. : )

It’s hard to keep up with all that’s happening on the floors of the Senate and Assembly in this crucial week, but let’s bullet point a sampling what we know has been done so far:

* The State Senate passed SB 494, which mandates that 50 of all vehicles sold in the state run on alternative fuels by 2020.  This is similar to the bill that the CA Air Resources Board overturned several years ago, leading to the dumping of the EV1 project (ever see “Who Killed The Electric Car?”).  It was a party-line vote, with the exception of Mod Squadders Correa and Machado.

* SB 936 is a very important bill which would bring Workers’ compensation back in line with reality in cases of permanent disability. The bill “increases the number of weeks of indemnity payments for the range of percentages of permanent disability ratings.”  It passed 22-13.  Too many people are falling through the cracks of worker’s comp “deform.”  This is a good step.

* SB 1036 and SB 210 were also environmental bills that strengthen the good start made in AB 36 to tackle the problem of global warming.  SB 1036 provides additional funding for renewable energy, and SB 210 gives legislative heft to the Governor’s executive order reducing the carbon content in all transportation fuels sold.  SB 1036 was unanimous; Correa joined all Republicans in voting against SB 210.

more…

* AB 48 and AB 514 outlaw the sale and use of toxic chemicals like diacetyl.  Both were party-line votes except for Democrat Nicole Parra voting against.

* Bills AB 527 and AB 292, promoting green building technology and solar energy, passed.

* AB 234, authorizing the use of have umbilical cord blood in stem cell research, passed unanimously and was brought to the floor by Republican freshman Assemblyman Anthony Portantino. (h/t Kalu))

* AB 1393 passed, Mark Leno’s “Public Records Act” that will make it easier to obtain government data electronically.

* Gil Cedillo’s “driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants” bill, which really isn’t that simple, passed through the Senate (SB 60)

* SB 63 from Carole Migden, requiring labeling on foods made from cloned animal products, passed.

* SB 943 would fund for a health center at San Quentin State Prison, paid through bonds.  Considering how broken the prison health care system is, this is probably a good step.  It passed easily.

Bigger bills on health care, clean money and more come up later in the week.