Daily Archives: 08/13/2010

~ my 2cents ..., ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

TGIF …&some News


Today, President Obama will be signing the $600million border bill that will increase the effort to protect the border by adding more ICE agents and equipment along the border …this action is more than any other administration has done before. I would like to hear what the Governor of Arizona has to say about this …hopefully to say thank you if nothing else.

The other great things going on this coming weekend is that The President Obama will be going to Panama City, Fl this weekend.  The fact is Florida is a State where many people immigrated to from many many places back in the day Florida passed through the hands of many people of colour, mostly Native Americans. Though at some point that ended… and most if not all immigrants were of Hispanic,Caribbean and European decent; we all know as a port for slave trade and drop-offs back in the day.  However, Today … there are now immigrants from all over the world working and living in Florida. The City our President is going is where some of my people live… YAY!!!

Here’s hoping the oil is far away if just a touch and if it is there they are able to get it cleaned and the people made whole. The BP disaster has damaged so many people on the Gulf Coast hopefully Panama City continues to shine as well as bringing revenue in, tourists, fishing, and everything related to get back on track.

In other News about Race and in my own experience in my own opinion; Words Matter – Words hurt. They incite violence, they promote fear, anger, shame and when misinterpreted by the right people they cause harm; physically and to property and in this 21st Century people like those on the airwaves should know which topics they can or should definitely stay away from. As a person of colour the comments made by a Doctor was in itself offensive but most of all …it ties into this whole uprising about anchor babies or terror babies, interracial-marriage including her use of the N-word over and over again. This kind of behavior by a professional on the airwaves is unacceptable, yet we must all become aware of the new immigration scare tactic and obviously Dr. S is apart of that effort

It is most obvious of things to rant about today is about Dr. S … we all know who she is and though it is funny she is still being talked about her comments and the way she handled herself definitely was not funny whatsoever. In fact on the face of it maybe if she was a newbie on the radio we might be able to warn her and let it slide but this lady and i use that word with control because to be honest she has lost my respect forever so lady is about all i can call her without being nasty. Dr S. is not new to the business and like someone said on radio today Dr. S knows who and what side of her bread is getting buttered and like most folks from the right …she has joined the race-baiting debate. It is my hope that folks all over the world boycott or stop listening to this lady because even with her apology the very words she said are forever imbedded in my mind and will not ever be forgotten.

Other News …

**Thad Allen stated testing will be done on the BP oil well to determine the success of the cap and or seal

**UFCW local 367 asks us to support Macy’s workers in Tacoma due to unfair hiring practices

**Dr S. racist rant is something no one should let move on without hearing

**The Blagojevich trial continues

**In Arizona yesterday, a conservative group along with several Arizona lawmakers launched a lawsuit attempting to block President Obama’s health care overhaul. The Goldwater Institute and Republican Reps. Jeff Flake, Trent Franks and John Shadegg, along with several state lawmakers, filed the suit in U.S. District Court which takes aim at the requirement to purchase health care coverage.

A week after striking down California’s ban on same-sex marriage, U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker ruled yesterday that gay marriages could resume on Aug. 18. He gave opponents about a week to seek an injunction from a higher court. “I am pleased to see Judge Walker lift his stay and provide all Californians the liberties I believe everyone deserves,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is causing consternation within the Pentagon for his budget-cutting plan to reduce the number of generals and admirals by five percent. But, while Gates is advocating certain small cuts, he is urging Congress not to engage in more significant cuts of the defense budget.

**Judge gives green light for same-sex marriage in Cali

**Wikileaks preparing to release 15thou more Afghanistan docs

**The Pentagon is cutting waste

**Waters insists she didn’t break House rules


C-SPAN …

watch State Dept. Briefing

Washington Journal Focusing on Solar Power

The Washington Journal wrapped up its week-long series on energy issues, with a conversation about solar power. Tom Rooney, the CEO of SPG Solar, the second largest solar company in the U.S., joined the discussion to talk about the benefits of solar power and the incentives the government provides to encourage homeowners and utility companies to invest in solar technology.

Earlier this week, the Washington Journal looked at various ways to construct energy saving homes and buildings, explored how public policy regarding electric vehicles affects the industry and the distribution of natural gas and the impact of public policy decisions on the utility industry, as well as wind energy.

Next week the summer series will turn its focus to a weeklong discussion on the financial regulation bill, which was signed into law in July

Rep. Waters meets with reporters; Denies Proof of Ethics Violations

Issuing her first formal public response to ethics charges against her, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) is meeting with reporters to lay out her defense strategy when her ethics trial begins this fall. Earlier this month, the House Ethics Committee announced its investigation into the congresswoman’s involvement with arranging a meeting between OneUnited Bank and Treasury Department officials. Later, the bank received $12 million from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The committee cites a series of emails between Waters’ chief of staff Mikael Moore and OneUnited, where her husband has financial interests, pointing to a conflict of interest. Waters defended her request for the meeting as part of her efforts to advocate on behalf of minority-owned businesses. She is the second House Democrat to face an ethics trial this fall. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) is also facing an ethics trial.

New Economic Indicators Point to Stalled Recovery

A series of key indicators have painted a weak economic outlook, according to economists. Reacting to fears of trouble in the domestic and global markets, the Dow Jones industrial average saw its biggest one-day drop since last month, dropping 2.5 percent; while the average New York Stock Exchange slid 3.3 percent on Wednesday. Setting off this reaction of events was Tuesday’s announcement by the Federal Reserve that its previous assessment of the national recovery may be “more modest in the near term than had been anticipated.”

As part of its assessment, the central bank referred to the high unemployment levels and its impact on the economy. With jobless figures hovering at 9.5 percent, a new report shows that first-time claims for unemployment reached its highest number since February, totaling to a seasonally adjusted 484,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

In an attempt to address the problems facing jobless Americans, the Treasury Department will allocate $2 billion under the Hardest Hit Fund to help unemployed homeowners living pay their mortgages. Paid for by the Troubled Assets Relief Program, the program focuses on those in the 17 hardest hit states, including California, Arizona and the District of Columbia.

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Economy: The rich already 25% of the country’s income …now they want to extend the BUSH Tax cuts? Ask your member of Congress who will pay for them!


UNDER THE RADAR

ECONOMY — ONE YEAR EXTENSION OF THE BUSH TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH COSTS $36 BILLION, BENEFITS 2 PERCENT OF AMERICANS: This week, the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) released an analysis of what would happen to the tax code if the conservative proposal to extend all of the Bush tax cuts were to be adopted. The tax cuts are currently scheduled to expire at the end of the year, and the Obama administration has proposed renewing only those for the lower- and middle-class. “You will find Republicans resisting very strongly any bill that allows taxes to be raised on any segment of Americans today,” said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), while Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) has said the House GOP will throw “everything we’ve got” into preserving the tax cuts for the wealthy. And too many Democrats — like Sens. Evan Bayh (D-IN) and Kent Conrad (D-ND) — have been cowed into expressing a willingness to extend the tax cuts temporarily for a year or two. According to the JCT analysis, extending the cuts for the wealthy — which affects only two percent of the population — for just one year will cost $36 billion. Obama’s plan, meanwhile, focuses the tax increase on the very top of the income scale. The 608,000 taxpayers who make between $500,000 and $1 million “would pay $6.5 billion more, or an average of almost $10,000″ and the 315,000 taxpayers who earn more than $1 million would “owe $31 billion more, or almost $100,000 on average.” Even under Obama’s plan, the very rich will be paying less in taxes than they did in 2001, since they would be paying a lower marginal rate on their first $250,000 in income. As the Wonk Room’s Pat Garofalo writes, “It’s worth remembering that income inequality is currently the worst it has been since the 1920s. The richest one percent of households now receive nearly 25 percent of the country’s income, after earning less than 10 percent in the 1970s.”

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

How we’ll win in November


RSVP for Night School todayIt takes three things to win elections — good candidates, good campaigns, and you.

To win in 2010 we’re going to need Democrats who will stand up and fight for what’s right. That’s why we’ve spent all year helping progressives like Elaine Marshall and Ann McLane Kuster over the typical DC insider politicians.

But we’ll also need to run top notch effective campaigns that get out every progressive vote possible. We’ve already trained over 1,100 activists and candidates in 13 states this year and now we’re excited to announce the return of DFA Night School as a free online resource for progressive campaigns across the country.

Register for DFA Night School today!

Since it was created in 2006, DFA Night School has helped 31,382 activists write field plans, organize precincts, raise money and get out the vote. This August and September we’ll be organizing weekly trainings on our brand new interactive video-based platform that will focus on how we can get our supporters back to the polls in 2010.

If you plan on being involved in a progressive campaign at all these next few months, click here to sign up for this free online training series.

With better candidates and better campaigns we’ll do just fine in November. Now let’s get to work.

Thank you for everything you do.

-Matt

Matt Blizek, Field Director
Democracy for America

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Stop the U.S. from fueling the illegal tiger trade


Change.org
Prevent the 5,000 tigers in the U.S. from entering the illegal tiger trade.

Sign the Petition

As few as 3,200 tigers remain in the wild.

At the same time that tigers are vanishing from their natural habitats, more than 5,000 tigers may exist in captivity in the U.S alone. Loopholes in current regulations allow many tigers to be held without any permit or reporting requirements, putting U.S. captive tigers at risk of entry into the illegal tiger trade – the biggest threat to the survival of wild tigers.

Urge the Obama Administration to tighten U.S. laws protecting captive tigers to prevent them from contributing to the illegal tiger trade >

A recent study by World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) partner TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, found that the federal government has no way to determine exactly how many captive tigers are in the U.S., where they are, who owns them, or what happens to them when they die.

This lax management makes the U.S. captive tiger population an easy target for black market sales. Without tighter regulation, this large population could become a “drip feed” of supply to fill demand for tiger parts, thereby perpetuating this market and further threatening wild tiger populations by putting them at increased risk of poaching.

Help strengthen U.S. laws to ensure captive tigers do not contribute to the endangerment of the world’s remaining wild tiger populations >

If we don’t take action now to protect the remaining population of wild tigers, we will witness the loss of one of the world’s most impressive animals. In the past 100 years, wild tiger populations have fallen by about 95%. Without action to stem this decline, we risk the very survival of wild tigers.

Take action today: sign our petition with the World Wildlife Fund >

Thank you for raising your voice,

– The Change.org team in partnership with World Wildlife Fund
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Congress has oil on its hands


Money from the oil and coal industries has been spilling into Washington faster than oil into the Gulf, and the result has been an environmental disaster of unprecedented scale. If we want to avoid the next disaster we have to get the dirty fossil fuel money out of Washington. That starts right now.
DownloadToolkit

Latest news and action alert from Greenpeace
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The Gulf spill is the largest environmental disaster in American history, but Congress has done NOTHING to pass a clean energy climate bill.

Heck, the Senate can’t even pass an oil spill response bill. So how exactly does this happen? While there’s no one single answer to that question, one that needs to receive a lot more attention is the huge amount of money the fossil fuel industry throws around in Washington.

During this session of Congress alone, oil and coal companies have spent almost $15,000,000 on direct political contributions to our elected officials. And you can’t say that they don’t get their money’s worth. Their investment buys weak environmental regulations, giant subsidies for their companies and a national energy policy that keeps us dependent on dirty energy even in the face of disasters like the BP tragedy in the Gulf.

Enough. If we ever want to stop the flow of oil we’ve got to stop the flow of dirty money into Congress. That starts right now with YOU in your community and with your member of Congress. Download our “Dirty Energy Money” toolkit today and find out exactly how.

Here’s what we’re going to do: Members of Congress are currently home on break until September 9th. It’s the perfect time to pay a visit and ask them about the dirty energy money they’ve taken. Our friends over at Oil Change International have collected data on each and every member of Congress, including yours, and how much dirty money they’ve received. We’re asking activists like you to take that information and use it in a personal delivery to your Representative asking them to donate all that dirty money to Gulf Coast recovery efforts.

It’s as simple as that. With the BP Deepwater disaster fresh in the public’s mind and the elections right around the corner, there’s never been a better time. In the toolkit you’ll find everything you need for your delivery and we’ll be here to help. Don’t wait, download the to toolkit today.

Cleaning up Congress starts with your Representative. It doesn’t matter how little or how much they have taken, it’s all part of the $15,000,000 and it’s all part of the problem.

ben kroetz mountain view Sincerely,

Ben Kroetz
Greenpeace Online Organizer