HRC / Jeff Merkley Petition

In more than half of the states in this country, you can be called into your boss's office and handed your walking papers – just for being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.

It's easy, it's legal, and it's wrong.

But with the simple stroke of a pen, President Obama could continue his strong leadership on equality and expand protections against workplace discrimination to more than 16 million Americans – 20% of our nation's workforce.

All it would take is an executive order barring federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Tell President Obama to protect all LGBT employees of government contractors by joining the HRC petition.

 

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

I think a lot of people are frustrated about getting telemarketing cold-calls constantly despite being on the Do Not Call list.  The social parasites that constitute the telemarketing industry have been very effective in gutting any legislation that would allow consumers to ban them from calling, you really can't do it short of investing in call-blocking, or throwing away your telephone.  I tried calling the offending number and got a recorded message inviting me to leave my home phone number (they said to say it twice!) to be removed from their list, so I did it.  I saw complaints from lots of people that they don't honor them, and I'll report back if the calls stop or not.

One of the clients sponsoring Telefund is HRC (Human Rights Campaign), a bunch of lawyers lobbying for a good cause, but to me seem ethically challenged when it comes to bugging their donors to death.  Note to HRC, you ain't getting another cent from me until you dump the Telemarketers, all of them, but Telefund in particular.

The same goes for the Democratic Party (probably Republicans too but I never gave them a cent).  I feel particularly punished for giving to a variety of non-profits.