Daily Archives: 11/05/2010
Stop the new Congress from drilling in the Arctic
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Big corporate funders bet millions on this year’s election and won — and will look to cash in their chips starting in January with the new Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
Chief among these corporate funders is the oil and gas industry, which spent $19.5 million to elect pro-drilling candidates. Big Oil is looking for an immediate return on their investment, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is high on their list of targets.
For decades oil companies have waged a dogged campaign to drill in the Arctic Refuge, one of the most beautiful and pristine wild places on earth. With new pro-drilling candidates to take office in January, we need to take immediate action to protect this precious refuge.
The Arctic Refuge is one of our nation’s last refuges for wildlife – it is invaluable, iconic and a living monument to America’s unique wilderness heritage. Big mammals like caribou and polar bears still roam across the Arctic Refuge. It is home to millions of the world’s birds — including snow geese and bald eagles. They return each year to find refuge from a world of encroaching hazards.
For 50 years this remarkable place has been kept safe, protected from human development, because of people like you have been willing to stand up to the oil and gas interests determined to “drill baby drill.” Now that the elections are over, as Americans, we have a moral and civic duty to ensure that the peace in the Arctic Refuge is not broken by big drilling machines – not on our watch.
With a new, more drilling-friendly House of Representatives, and the Refuge’s 50th anniversary coming up, President Obama can do the right thing and make a real statement that America will not submit its greatest treasures to the follies of politics.
Tell the President: Protect the Arctic Refuge as a National Monument.
Thank you for taking action,
The Change.org Team
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GOP’s Test START
Despite Tuesday’s elections, the work of the 111th Congress is far from over. Chief among the urgent tasks that must be completed before the end of the year is the ratification of the New START treaty. President Obama stated yesterday in a meeting with his cabinet that the START treaty (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) “is something that traditionally has received strong bipartisan support. … This is not a traditionally Democratic or Republican issue, but rather an issue of American national security and I’m hopeful we can get that done before we leave.” The New START Treaty poses the first real test of the seriousness of the GOP as a governing party. The treaty contains modest reductions in U.S. and Russian nuclear arms and importantly updates and extends the verification and monitoring measures of the original START treaty, which helped maintain nuclear stability since the end of the Cold War. Thus far, the New START treaty has been one of the few areas where bipartisanship has largely prevailed. The treaty received significant bipartisan support in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee vote in September, and the treaty is supported by a who’s who of Republican foreign policy figures. It looks as though there are the 67 votes needed to ratify the treaty in the upcoming Senate lame duck session. But despite the entire U.S. military top brass insisting that the treaty is needed now, the question remains whether the Republican leadership in the Senate will insist on being the party of no and block the treaty.
CLOCK’S TICKING: 335 days have passed since the original START treaty expired last December. Since that time, on-the-ground inspections of Russia’s nuclear arsenal have stopped. Now, U.S. inspectors are sitting idle; others are simply leaving the field taking their experience and expertise with them. Meanwhile, the U.S. military’s understanding of the make-up of Russia’s nuclear forces is eroding. This is dangerous and poses a severe potential threat to nuclear stability. Ironically, some Republicans have attacked the treaty, because they don’t trust the Russians, but without the new treaty, the U.S. will be forced to just blindly trust Russia in regards to its nuclear arsenal. The New START treaty would fix this verification gap , as it updates and extends the verification and monitoring measures that were negotiated by Ronald Reagan. Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell stated, “This treaty is absolutely critical to the effectiveness of our nuclear arsenal, our knowledge of Russian nuclear capabilities and U.S. national security overall. … We’re advancing it at this time and pushing for ratification because we need this. And we need it sooner, rather than later.” If the New START treaty is not ratified by the end of the year, the entire ratification process would have to start from scratch, needlessly preventing the resumption of inspections of Russian nuclear sites for months, and even prompting concern about the treaty’s ultimate ratification.
VOTES ARE THERE: Following the election, there have been multiple media reports speculating that the outcome of the election means trouble for New START. But in reality, the election changes almost nothing. The composition of the Senate remains virtually unchanged for the lame duck session. The only change is that instead of 59, there are now 58 Democrats and Independents in the Senate for the lame duck (due to the election of Republican Senator-elect Mark Kirk in Illinois, which will take immediate effect). For START to be ratified, it needs 67 votes. That means nine Republicans must vote ratify the treaty. While that seems impossible in the present political climate, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee vote in September START received the votes of three conservative Republicans: Bob Corker (R-TN), Johnny Isakson (R-GA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN). Six more Republicans are now needed to ratify the treaty. But with the support of the four moderate Senators from New England, retiring Senators George Voinovich (R-OH) and Bob Bennett (R-UT), and potentially a number of other more moderate Senators, such as Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Lindsey Graham (R-TN), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), there are enough potential Republican votes to ratify the treaty.
TEST OF THE GOP: While there may be enough Republican support to ratify the treaty, the Republican leadership in the Senate could still resort to obstructionist tactics to block the treaty from coming to the floor during the lame duck period. The New START treaty therefore represents a first clear test of the seriousness of the GOP as a governing party. The GOP is still not trusted in its ability to govern, as a recent ABC/Washington Post poll indicated, only 40 percent of the American people trust Republicans with governing the country, compared with 45 percent for Democrats. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) himself admitted yesterday that “voters didn’t suddenly fall in love with Republicans.” While obstructionism has been the norm in the Senate, following the election the question now becomes whether the GOP is willing to responsibly govern. Rejecting or obstructing START — a treaty originally negotiated by Ronald Reagan and that is unanimously backed by the U.S. military and has overwhelming bipartisan support from senior foreign policy leaders, including Republican officials like Henry Kissinger, Stephen Hadley, Brent Scowcroft, James Schlessinger, Colin Powell, George Schultz, Sen. John Warner (VA), and James Baker— would send a clear signal that the GOP is not stepping up to the challenges. John Podesta, the President of the Center for American Progress, explained last night on MSNBC that the START treaty will tell us where the GOP stands : “Will Senator McConnell… get [START] done and go along with [the President]. … If he says no we are just going to be into obstructionism and the just-say-no-party — we’ll at least know where the Republican leadership stands.”
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TGIF …caribbean
The feature picture is called “The Faces of My People” by Margaret Burroughs b.1917 and made of woodcut on paper.
This fleeting moment of great weather today is yet but a moment and while the weather in the Caribbean, Indonesia are on our families minds the weather all over the US is bad … gotta say hoping everyone we know and love are okay.
Our President is on his way to make a bid to open up markets overseas- for a G20 summit including Japan-wishing him good luck and a great safe trip with Mrs Obama.
FYI –Mitch McConnell says he does not want the President to fail he wants him to change course while in different interview he and Boehner said in order for them to achieve what they want they need someone as President that will not veto everything they want to go through. This group of right of center Politicians are dodging questions about what they would cut once they gain control and instead of answering questions folks like McConnell, Cantor , Boehner are stating their sole goal is to repeal replace and eliminate social programs that help not just the poor but our elders, disabled , veterans and basically everyone who calls themselves a human being….sigh
Good News the jobs numbers have come in- overall 1.1 Million jobs came back or were created and there were 159,000 Private Sector jobs added, 151,000 non-farm jobs added as well as a net loss of 8,000 of jobs and unemployment stands at 9.6%. This is definitely an improvement but more bipartisan work needs to be done to really make an impact on what President Obama walked into after being elected. I ask everyone to call Republicans to tell them that you are an American and instead of making their sole goal to get rid of President Obama they better do something about jobs, jobs, jobs and our economy because if they do not the Republican Tea Party will definitely lose in 2yrs. The Republican Tea Party may have lied to Americans who voted for them in this mid-term election but the people will not forget. I am among I guess a small group who saw that the RTP has fooled enough people into believing your group of Corporate carpetbaggers have sold out their souls and have not just thrown the average American under the bus when the new 112th Congress Session begins the facts will be even more evident that RTP will do whatever it takes to pay back those secret entities that poured funds into various states where not just right of center candidates won we now have people so right of center that membership fighting will probably begin sooner than later. I say let the fighting begin because it will be the final piece of a sad, disgusting, and deceiving puzzle that this group has been waging ever since 53% of Americans voted for President Obama in 2008.
The big deal on the table at this moment is what do we (democrats) do now and while the current rhetoric is offensive, annoying and yes depressing to an extent we all have to be held accountable for what happened on Tuesday, Nov.2nd. I say ask yourself did you help out enough, stay home to protest and did you vote right of center to protest because you do not like what President Obama has done, is doing or that he is not tough enough, you are stupid and have no idea what the office is all about. I will admit the question that is going through my mind is did he get enough help from the Democratic Politicians “selling the message” that “the Media” keeps saying hurt not just President Obama’s base but the President chances for the 2012 elections though we are a long way from then and a lot can happen “the Media” will make that the topic of discussion. I will say that the low numbers of Democratic members of Congress willing to support legislation being debated, having trouble getting on the floor or passed on the floor of Congress in both Chambers has been a great disappointment and should definitely be something to work on for the new 112th Congressional Session. It does seem difficult for them to get enough airtime, some seemed unwilling to say what was good about HCR Wall Street reform, while the various pundits, host and interviewers have said for over twenty months that he had a chance to get the message out while questioning the message have switched up and now say there was major issue with the communication. I disagree with what most folks in “the Media” are saying. I believe cable and or mainstream TV spent a lot of time limiting the message and opted to debate the message without having a rebuttal available from the Obama Administration. I wonder how many designated Obama admin folks are asked to join panels on tv let alone fight to get a word in edge wise when they are on tv because the panel is so big and then after wards, we all see it right? The hosts bring back another panel of conservatives to beat down and or question what the President’s operative just said. If you are listening to the cable head Media noise, it is definitely annoying, offensive and we all need to remind ourselves that opinion News is for entertainment splashed with some real facts and a whole lot of right of center opinions.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1649961/20101014/story.jhtml <<<copy & paste
Other News …
President Obama and the new Congressional membership will meet on Nov.18th
Haiti braces for Hurricane Tomas
Plane crashes in central Cuba… 68 dead
Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn has won his bid for full term in Illinois
Democratic Senator Patty Murray has won her bid for re-election
Myanmar will have controversial elections
The first woman President of Brazil will keep Iran ties, remain global player
Kenya takes on India in bid to be call center capital
CSPAN …
White House Briefing with Press Secretary Robert Gibbs
Be a Seed for Change 
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