The First Lady joins Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley for a formal bill signing ceremony at the Maryland state house. The legislation will make it easier for military spouses to transfer their licenses when they move from state to state, and it will require licensing units and public institutions of higher education to consider relevant military experience and training for licenses, credentials and academic credit.
Daily Archives: 04/19/2013
Gun Violence ~ Dan Pfeiffer, The White House
| Hello –During the State of the Union, President Obama called for a reasonable debate on a set of commonsense measures to help protect our kids by reducing gun violence. That night, Congress stood up and applauded. But now that the cameras are off and they aren’t forced to look the families of Newtown in the face, some in Congress aren’t backing up that show of support with action.
When it matters most, they’re hoping that you’re not paying attention. But I know that’s not the case. In the past week, 17,000 people have told us that they’ll commit to adding their voices to this debate through social media — together, they’ll reach more than 15 million of their friends on Facebook and Twitter. We’re planning to have them speak out today. And we could really use your help. Pledge to speak out about the need to reduce gun violence. If we have a simple vote in Congress, we can get this done. And this afternoon, we’ll begin to understand whether or not that’s possible. The Senate is considering a proposal that would go a long way toward making our country safer and protecting our kids. This afternoon, lawmakers get a chance to offer amendments — some of them aimed at making the legislation better, some aimed at sinking it. One idea, closing loopholes in the background check system, has support from 90 percent of the public. In fact, even a majority of senators support this step. But we still need you to make your voice heard. Vice President Biden will be talking through all of this today at 2:45 p.m. ET. He’ll lead a discussion with a group of mayors from around the country on the steps we can take to reduce gun violence. You can watch that as it happens at whitehouse.gov. And while you’re doing that, take a minute to join the debate. Pledge to speak out, and we’ll work to make sure you’re part of the conversation about guns here in Washington: http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/preventing-gun-violence/action Thanks, Dan Dan Pfeiffer Senior Advisor White House |
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Break Monsanto’s grip
Dear Avaazers,
Alice Jay – Avaaz.org
One mega-company is gradually taking over our food supply — putting the planet’s food future in serious danger. But we can turn the tide on Monsanto and other companies that push through policies that prioritise their profits over the public good. Pledge now to help stop this dangerous domination of our politics and our food:  |
One mega-company is gradually taking over our global food supply, poisoning our politics and putting the planet’s food future in serious danger. To stop it we need to expose and break up Monsanto’s worldwide grip.
Monsanto, the chemical giant that gave us poisons like Agent Orange and DDT, has a super-profitable racket. Step 1: Develop pesticides and genetically modified (GM) seeds designed to resist them, patent the seeds, prohibit farmers from replanting their seeds year to year, then send undercover agents out to investigate and sue farmers who don’t comply. Step 2: Spend millions lobbying government officials and contributing to political campaigns, get former Monsanto bigwigs into top government jobs, and then work with them to weaken regulations and push Monsanto goods into markets across the world.
As long as US law allows corporations to spend unlimited sums to influence policy, they can often buy the laws they want. Last year, Monsanto and biotech giants spent a whopping $45m to kill a ballot initiative that would have labelled GMO products just in California, despite 82 percent of Americans wanting to know if they are buying GM. And just this month, the company helped ram through the “Monsanto Protection Act,” that blocks courts from stopping the sale of a product even if they’ve been wrongly approved by the government.
Monsanto’s power in the US gives them a launch pad to dominate across the world. But brave farmers and activists from the EU, to Brazil, to India and Canada are resisting and starting to win.
We’re at a global tipping point. Pledge now to join forces to break Monsanto’s grip on our politics and our food and help stop the corporate capture of our governments. Avaaz will only process the pledges if we get enough to make a real difference:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stop_monsanto_nd7/?biEWLbb&v=24254
Monsanto is driving an industrial farming takeover — trampling small farmers and small businesses as vast ‘monoculture’ farms of single crops leech the land of nutrients, diminish genetic diversity, and create dependency on fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals. The irony is, it’s not clear that the decimation of natural, sustainable farming has brought any boom in crop yields. Just more profit for the corporations. Our governments should step in, but Monsanto’s lobbying obstructs them.
Monsanto’s near monopoly is breath-taking, with patent rights over 96% of the GM seeds planted in the US. And despite concerns about health and safety, the same patents allow Monsanto to prevent any farmer or scientist from testing their seeds! Still, a few countries have banned or restricted Monsanto products.
They claim their products cost less, but often farmers are lured into multi-year contracts, then seed prices rise, and they have buy new seed each season and use more herbicides to keep out ‘superweeds’. In India, the situation is so dire that one cotton area has been called ‘the suicide belt’, as tens of thousands of the poorest farmers have taken their lives to escape crippling debt.
But farmers and scientists are also fighting back — and winning. One group in India has helped win three patent battles against the corporations, and in Brazil five million farmers sued Monsanto for unfair collection of royalties, and won a $2 billion payout! Scientists are campaigning for sustainable agriculture models, and just last week 1.5 million of us joined the fight against conventional patents in the EU.
Only a massive, global, united force can stand up to Monsanto and the corporate capture of our governments. Let’s expose this dominance of our democracies, help farmers speak out, challenge unjust laws and patents, and go head to head with the corporate lobbies. Pledge to support action now:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stop_monsanto_nd7/?biEWLbb&v=24254
We are running out of time. As we confront massive environmental, climate and food crises, we need sustainable agriculture and innovation, but that is best done by multiple farmers and scientists who know what works best in different ecosystems, rather than one monolith driven by their own profit, taking control our food future.
This corporate Goliath is increasing in power across our world. But if our 21 million strong community stands together, we have a chance. Avaaz members have repeatedly stood up against the world’s biggest bullies, and won. Now it is time for us to go big to save our policies from special interests, protect our food supply, and get justice for poor farmers.
With hope and determination,
Alice, Oli, Joseph, Ricken, Pascal, Chris, Michelle, Emily, and the whole Avaaz team
MORE INFORMATION
Seeds of discontent (Texas Observer):
http://www.texasobserver.org/seeds-of-discontent/
Monsanto sued small farmers to protect seed patents, report says (The Guardian):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/12/monsanto-sues-farmers-seed-patents
Political contribution discloslures (Monsanto):
http://www.monsanto.com/whoweare/Pages/political-disclosures.aspx
The Real Monsanto Protection Act: How The GMO Giant Corrupts Regulators And Consolidates Its Power (ThinkProgress):
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/04/10/1832621/monsanto-protection-act-power/
Monsanto Protection Act put GM companies above the federal courts (The Guardian):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2013/apr/04/monsanto-protection-act-gm
Biodiversity for food and agriculture (UN Food and Agriculture Organization):
http://www.fao.org/sd/EPdirect/EPre0040.htm
Monsanto’s harvest of fear (Vanity Fair):
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805
Wikileaks shows US pushes GM on EU (The Guardian):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/03/wikileaks-us-eu-gm-crops
USDA Greenlights Monsanto’s Utterly Useless New GMO Corn (Mother Jones):
http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/01/monsanto-gmo-drought-tolerant-corn
Crop Scientists Say Biotechnology Seed Companies Are Thwarting Research (New York Times):
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/business/20crop.html?_r=0
Additional sources (Avaaz):
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_monsanto_sources/
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The Senate Ignored Us
Why Popular Policies Die in the Senate
The problems with the current Senate rules — namely the abuse of the filibuster by Republicans — are well known. Less well understood is how the Senate by design empowers the residents of small states at the expense of residents of larger states. This fact explains why a policy like background checks that enjoys the support of over 90 percent of Americans can still be killed in the Senate through a combination of filibuster abuse and the Senate’s bias toward small states.
ThinkProgress’ Ian Millhiser explains how this worked in the case of last night’s shameful Senate vote against expanded background checks:
To put this in perspective, Wyoming Sens. Mike Enzi (R) and John Barrasso (R) both voted against the gun safety provision. Together, they represent a little more than half a million people. California Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D) and Barbara Boxer (D) both voted for gun safety. They represent over 38 million Americans. In other words, a voter in Wyoming enjoys 66 times as much representation in the Senate as a voter in California.
As the least populous state, Wyoming makes out like bandits when it comes to Senate representation, but they are far from alone in enjoying such a windfall. A voter in Idaho (population 1,595,728) counts as almost 24 Californians. A voter in Nebraska (population 1,845,525) counts as nearly 21 Californians. And a voter in North Dakota (population 699,628) counts as more than 54 Californians. Indeed, if you add up the combined populations of Wyoming, North Dakota, Alaska, Idaho, Nebraska, Utah, Kansas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Alabama, that still adds up to over 3 million fewer people than live in the state of California. That also adds up to 26 senators, all of whom opposed background checks.
Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed
The Texas fertilizer plant that exploded last night hadn’t been inspected in five years.
Gun violence victims detained, put through background checks for yelling “shame on you” at senators.
Morning Joe host shames senators for voting against background checks.
Gabby Giffords writes scathing op-ed directed at cowardly senators who voted against background checks.
Keystone XL tar sands pipeline will create only 35 permanent jobs, emit as much carbon pollution as 51 coal plants.
Regal Cinemas is latest company to face backlash after trying to dodge Obamacare rules by cutting workers’ hours.
Oklahoma’s Republican House majority leader and his colleagues have a laugh over his use of anti-Semitic slur.
No, rail transport won’t be able to replace the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline if it isn’t built.
Racist hate group seeks to use right-wing talk radio to kill immigration reform bill.
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The Best New Spas of 2013
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Be a Seed for Change 
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