~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Member News

11/23/2010 Nativegrl77

Featured Action
Help the Jobless, Not Millionaires
Unless Congress acts now, 2 million Americans will lose their unemployment benefits on December 1 — yet they are talking about extending the Bush tax cuts for millionaires. Sign AFSCME’s petition to help families who are out of work and stop the millionaire handouts! No Millionaire Bailout

Drop It or Stop It
AFSCME is urging current and newly elected House members to live up to their campaign pledges against health care reform and forgo taxpayer-funded health insurance — or to admit their hypocrisy and denounce their anti-health reform campaign rhetoric. Join our efforts by signing our petition. Petition Denouncing Health Care Hypocrites

Women’s Conference New Date: March 18-20, 2011
We have a new date and location for the 2011 Women’s Conference. This national conference will be held March 18th – 20th in Orlando, FL. Check back at AFSCME.org in early January for more details.

Holiday Savings
Stretch this year’s holiday budget with money-saving discounts and special deals exclusively for union families. Check out AFSCME Advantage discounts on everything from flowers and laptops to wireless phones, car rentals and a lot more. AFSCME Advantage

AFSCME News

Proposed Changes to Medicare and Social Security ‘Unnecessary and Dangerous’
President McEntee on the recommendations of the chairmen of the Deficit Commission
‘Voters Want a Recovery That Works for Everyone’
President McEntee on the 2010 mid-term elections

Across the Nation

Greenline, the AFSCME Blog

How Unemployment Insurance Helps Families and the Economy
An animated explanation from the Center for American Progress
Unions Equal Happier Workers
A researcher from the University of Notre Dame says unions make members — and non-member workers — happy
Setting the Record Straight
President McEntee’s response to David Brooks’ column attacking public employees

AFSCME Store: Duffle Bag
Head to work or the gym in style with an AFSCME duffle bag — now 50 percent off the original price! AFSCME Duffle Bag

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

They go to bed early to forget their hunger

11/23/2010 Nativegrl77

CARE -- Help Abebu and other mothers feed their families and escape poverty -- Make a gift today

You hold the power to bring an end to chronic hunget and poverty. -- Make a gift today

As you count your blessings this Thanksgiving, please don’t forget Abebu. I know I’ll be thinking about her as I gather around the table with my family and friends on Thursday.

Abebu is a 25-year-old mother of five in Ethiopia. Earlier this year, she planted wheat, corn and sorghum on her small plot, but most of her seeds didn’t survive the scalding drought that gripped her land. She says: “We really don’t have anything to eat. At night my children cry a lot and go to sleep early to avoid more hunger pain.”

Last month, health workers visited Abebu’s home and found that her baby, Desta, was malnourished, an all too common problem in their poor community. CARE helped supplement the family’s diet and now Desta and the rest of the family are doing well.

The good news is that Abebu’s 10-year-old daughter persevered and stayed in school, despite being hungry. And now with CARE’s help, if she can stick with her education she’ll be able to create a brighter future for herself and her family one day.

The other good news is that you can help people like Abebu when you make a tax-deductible gift to CARE.

When women like Abebu are empowered to fulfill their potential, they invest in their families and work for lasting change. That’s why CARE works side-by-side with women in the fight against hunger and poverty in more than 70 countries around the world.

Your gift to CARE today will help sustain our programs that help people like Abebu and her children grow healthy and strong, stay in school, earn an income and, ultimately, escape hunger and poverty — for good.

Thank you and happy Thanksgiving from all of us at CARE.

Sincerely,

Helene D. Gayle, MD, MPH
President and CEO, CARE

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Help VH1 Salute the Troops

11/23/2010 Nativegrl77

Help VH1 Salute the Troops and we’ll donate up to $10,000 to the USO! Share

THE USO PRESENTS VH1 DIVAS™ SALUTE THE TROOPS airs Sunday, 12/05 at 9/8C. The 2010 Performers Katy Perry Nicki Minaj Keri Hilson Paramore Sugarland Grace Potter & The Nocturnals

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Stop the Belo Monte Dam.

11/23/2010 Nativegrl77

CREDO Action | more than a network. a movement.

Tell the Brazilian government: Stop the Belo Monte Dam.

The international community must speak out

Clicking here will add your name to this petition to key officials in the Brazilian government:

I am deeply concerned about your plans to build the Belo Monte Dam Complex on the Xingu River in the Amazon rainforest, in violation of the human rights of Indigenous people and other threatened populations.

I support the demands of Brazilian civil society and urge you to defend the Amazon and its people and stop the Belo Monte Dam Complex.

The Brazilian rainforest and the indigenous peoples who live in it are endangered by the construction of the Belo Monte Dam, which would be one of the largest, most devastating infrastructure projects ever to be built in the Amazon.

It would divert the flow of the Xingu River and flood over 100,000 acres of rainforest, displacing over 40,000 people and threatening the survival of indigenous communities.

On August 26, the Brazilian government signed the concession to build the Belo Monte Dam, despite concerns over its financial viability, growing resistance amongst indigenous groups and social movements, and predictions of technical experts that the dam will be one of the worst engineering projects in Brazil’s history.

The consortium responsible for building Belo Monte could receive a license to initiate the project any day. So now is a crucial time for the international community to speak out and stand up to defend the Xingu River and those who depend upon it. That is why we are joining our friends at International Rivers and Amazon Watch in taking action.

Click here to automatically sign our petition asking the Brazilian government to immediately stop the monstrous Belo Monte Dam Complex.

This petition will be delivered to:

President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
President-elect of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff
President of the Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES), Luciano Coutinho
President of Eletrobras, José Antonio Muniz Lopes
President of the Norte Energia Consortium, Carlos Nascimento
Minister of Mines and Energy, Márcio Zimmermann
Minister of the Environment, Izabella Teixeira
Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), Abelardo Bayma Azevedo

About 25,000 indigenous people from 24 ethnic groups live along the Xingu River. These people are a living symbol of Brazil’s cultural diversity and defenders of some of the last intact forest in the Amazon. Yet their lives and culture are under threat from the enormous Belo Monte Dam.

This mega-project would leave indigenous and traditional communities along a 100 km stretch of the Xingu known as the “Big Bend” without water, fish, or a means of river transport.

And communities upstream, including the Kayapó Indians, would suffer the loss of migratory fish species that are a crucial part of their diet.

If Belo Monte goes ahead, it will unleash a chain of dams in the Amazon, threatening the very future of the Amazon rainforest and the web of life it supports.

The Brazilian government needs to hear from people around the world that we will not sit idly by while the rights of indigenous and forest people are violated.

Take action today. Click here to automatically add your name to the petition to the Brazilian government to stop the Belo Monte Dam.

Thank you for working for a better world.

Matt Lockshin, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets

~ my 2cents ...

tempest Tuesday …&some News

11/23/2010 Nativegrl77

The President will be handing out the Medal of Freedom to Rep. John Lewis -we support this action and love John Lewis with all the things he has done for the rest of us so that we might be able to move forward, have access and achieve great things in our own lives as well as our children and their children in the future. Congratulations to Rep. John Lewis.

Day 3 of snow has the 206 gripped in panic closed schools and more snow on the way. The snow that fell yesterday has turned into a sheet of ice and in some parts of the 206; more snowfall is on top of that. The roads definitely look okay –they are not so stay home if you can because folks are clogging stalling and blocking the work that the people, who snow plow, dump salt, and or dirt. The ice is the problem currently causing a whole lot of accidents so again be safe than sorry and call in or ride the bus which is also causing delays what with all the SUV’s thinking they have this and obviously they do not or the number of cars trucks and SUV’s parked on streets would be a lot less. Stay home and let the good people do their jobs so people can begin to drive again. !

How odd it was to be watching the late night shows when all of a sudden breaking news that N.Korea opens fire with several rounds of fire on S.Korea and while there has been frayed contentious relations between these two the idea that a war ..An actual war could or would break out seems very strange and disturbing to say the least. The background story is that S.Korea usually holds drills at this time of year, they let N.Korea know a head of time but instead of dealing with this N.Korea decided on pre-emptive strikes against S.Korea and is by far not only violent in that several S.Koreans were injured at least 2 of their troops was killed.

The last thing for today

“Never doubt that a small Group of thoughtful, committed citizens change the World. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

The 2008 Machine needs to get started now for the 2012 campaign -the base needs to hear from you!! Latinos, Women, Gays, the young ,our elders and with only 4.7% Blacks voting for the mid-term elections we need to go deep -rural as well, and last -Progressives need to be rubbed the right way to get their votes

Other News …

Rep.Ortiz concedes House race in TX

Plouffe to WH, Axelrod may exit sooner

Battle over who speaks for Tea Party movement

Jawbone not Holloway’s

S.Korea leader calls for enormous retaliation against NKorea

FCC updating 911 for the texting generation

11 arrested in terrorism probe, Belgian officials say

Wesley Snipes says no to being arrested by the IRS

Winter blows in fast and hard in the NWest and could complicate Thanksgiving travel

CSPAN …