Nine health care reform activists were arrested this morning while staging a sit-in inside Senator Joseph Lieberman's congressional office in Washington, D.C.
The activists were there representing an organization called Mobilization for Health Care For All.
Explaining their reasons for their actions, student activist Jason Ortiz said, "we staged a sit-in at Senator Lieberman's office this morning in order to ask him to return the $65,000 campaign donation that he recently received from the Aetna health insurance corporation and to ask him to represent the people of Connecticut, not the insurance companies."
The group was also there to protest Senator Lieberman's announcement last week that he will filibuster any health reform bill in the Senate that contains a public option.
In total there were 9 arrests made at approximately 10:15 a.m. EST, Thursday, November 5.
At 9:15 this morning the group requested a meeting with the Senator and refused to leave until they were given a chance to meet with him. They were told by Senator Lieberman's staff that they would not be given a meeting with the Senator, and that if they did not leave they would be arrested. Senator Lieberman's staff subsequently contacted law enforcement, and 9 activists were physically removed from the building and arrested.
Some members of the group went to a meeting of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (which Senator Lieberman chairs) to stage a protest in the presence of Senator Lieberman. They were asked to leave and did so without incident.
Of those arrested, one, Brittney Florio, is currently a University of Connecticut student, and one, John Mohrbacher, is an alumnus.
For more information, please call Jason Ortiz at (860)639-8101
If you would like to see how your legislators voted on some important issues in this year's session you can go to http://www.electionvolunteers.org and click on "Committee Vote Tallies 2009"
At this time the votes included are:
- Judiciary Committee - Abolish the Death Penalty
- Government Administration and Elections Committee - Election Day (Voter)Registration
- Labor and Public Employees Committee - (Prohibiting) Captive Audience Meetings
- Labor and Public Employees Committee - Paid Sick Leave for Employees
- Public Health Committee - Sustinet Health Plan (proposed by the Universal Health Care Foundation)
More vote tallies will be added later. Comments suggesting others would be welcome.
Blog for Choice: Last year during the Alito confirmations we started a campaign over a BooTrib, leading up to Christmas time, called the "12 Days of Justice". I am going to share with you the flyer that I made up for that campaign because it goes to the heart of arguments and views that many ANTI-WOMEN right-wingnut groups have chosen to support:
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