Monthly Archives: October 2013

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The GOP’s Default Caucus


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162 Republicans Vote for Default

Republicans’ first act in their latest manufactured crisis was shutting down the government in a failed and mean-spirited bid to deny affordable health insurance to millions.

We know that the shutdown resulted in some 800,000 federal employees being thrown out of work, hundreds of national parks and other federal lands closed, cancer treatments denied, food assistance cut off to low-income women and children, and countless other painful consequences for people across the country.

It also cost the economy at least $24 BILLION. Just to give you an idea, here are just a few examples of what else you could get for $24 BILLION:

The $24 BILLION sucked out of the economy thanks to the government shutdown comes on top of an estimated $700 BILLION cumulative hit to the economy thanks to the GOP’s years-long effort to govern by crisis.

Despite admitting that they got “nothing” as a result of the painful and damaging shutdown, Tea Party Republicans say it was somehow still “worth it” for them.

In fact, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) won’t rule out another shutdown, adding that he will still “do anything” to stop Obamacare. Another House Republican, Rep. John Fleming (R-LA), said, “we’re going to start this all over again.”

It gets worse.

After inflicting this painful and unnecessary shutdown on the country for 16 days, during which time they sometimes seemed to forget why they even shut the government down in the first place, Republicans voted en masse last night in favor of a catastrophic default and continued government shutdown.

The GOP’s Default Caucus — 18 Republican Senators and 144 House Republicans — apparently preferred a default that threatened to collapse the entire global economy to allowing millions to get affordable health insurance and re-opening the government at spending levels Republicans themselves proposed.

Supporting a government shutdown is bad enough, but supporting an economic shutdown by refusing to pay the nation’s bills is a stunningly extreme position. Unfortunately, it’s a position that a majority of Congressional Republicans apparently support. Even GOP budget guru Paul Ryan voted for a reckless economic shutdown on top of the government shutdown.

As National Journal noted today, “several of those who might be considered serious GOP 2016 contenders for the presidency also voted in favor of the first default in American history in order to stay in the tea party’s good graces.”

BOTTOM LINE: It’s time for the GOP’s brinksmanship and manufactured crises to end. Instead of shutting down the government, voting to default on our obligations, and proclaiming their pride in job-killing austerity spending cuts, Republicans should sit down with Democrats and agree to a budget that protects important programs and makes the investments we need to grow the economy and create jobs.

The Center for American Progress has a balanced budget plan that will replace the damaging sequester cuts for the next three years and make badly needed investments in job creation. You can check it out HERE.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Trapped in a Russian jail


 

Ana Paula and 29 of her Greenpeace crewmates are trapped in a Russian jail for trying to save the Arctic from oil drilling. But our community could set them free if we help Greenpeace build a massive global outcry targeting Russia’s biggest global partners. Let’s reach 1 million to free the Arctic 30 — sign now by clicking below:

SIGN THE PETITION

Ana Paula is a 31-year old from Brazil who wanted to peacefully protest Russia’s plans to drill the Arctic. Now she, along with her 29 crewmates from the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise, is locked in a Russian jail with no release in sight. But we can throw her and the rest of her crew a lifeline.

The Greenpeace staff, some in solitary confinement, are now facing fifteen years in prison on trumped up charges of piracy. Their crime? Hanging a banner on a Russian oil rig to protest dangerous deepwater drilling in one of the earth’s most beautiful and fragile places. Many western governments have already spoken out, but now Ana Paula and Greenpeace are asking the Avaaz community to help build a truly global outcry. 

Together we can call on some of Russia’s strongest trade and political partners — Brazil, India, South Africa and the EU — to call for the release of the Arctic 30. Let’s reach 1 million to free Ana Paula and her friends. Once we hit that mark, Avaaz will project their faces in key public places to keep this story at the top of the news:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/free_the_arctic_30_loc/?biEWLbb&v=30328

This is what Ana Paula’s sister said about her: “In many ways, my sister is a typical Brazilian — talkative, friendly, and full of life. But she’s also simply extraordinary, passionate about nature since she was little, and never hesitating to stand up for it even at great personal risk.”

Now Ana Paula and her crewmates could lose 15 years of their lives, all for trying to hang a banner on a Gazprom oil rig, the first of its kind in the Arctic. This is an aggressive backlash against defenders of our environment — stopping oil drilling in the Arctic is about protecting the last great wilderness on earth, where oil spills are almost impossible to clean up.

Greenpeace has hired great lawyers who point out that the 30 were arrested in international waters, making Russia the one violating the international Law of the Sea. But being on the right side of the law may not be enough to regain their freedom, and their dreadful fate may be sealed soon unless the international community lets Russia know that this is a scandal that’s not going to go away.

Avaaz has a particularly powerful voice in many of these countries with huge memberships — 5 million in Brazil alone! If we all weigh in now and build a one million strong petition, Avaazers in Brazil, South Africa, India, and the EU can ramp up the pressure. Sign now to help build 1 million people to help free the Arctic 30:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/free_the_arctic_30_loc/?biEWLbb&v=30328

These Arctic 30 were brave enough to confront the oil industry in one of the last untouched places on earth. They are being silenced and intimidated by the oil industry for their bravery. Our community has stood strong for campaigners across the world — now let’s free these 30.

With hope and determination,

Jamie, Alex, Emma, Lisa, Ricken, Marie, Julien, Diego and the rest of the Avaaz team

MORE INFORMATION

Russia accuses Greenpeace crew of ‘piracy’ in Arctic (BBC)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24222392

Dutch sue Russia to recover ‘pirate’ Greenpeace crew (France24)
http://www.france24.com/en/20131004-netherlands-russia-greenpeace-oil-arctic-piracy-justice

What Russia’s Treatment of Greenpeace Activists Reveals About its Arctic Policy (The Atlantic)
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/10/what-russia-s-treatment-of-greenpeace-activists-reveals-about-its-arctic-policy/280352/

Legal analysis by International law professor Prof. Dr. Stefan Kirchner
http://fr.scribd.com/doc/173374193/Comment-on-the-institution-of-arbitration-proceedings-between-the-Kingdom-of-the-Netherlands-and-the-Russian-Federation-concerning-the-case-of-the-shi

Black Ice: Russia’s ongoing oil spill crisis (Report, Greenpeace)
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/climate-change/arctic-impacts/The-dangers-of-Ar…

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Help save the last remaining wild orangutans


Rainforest Action Network
 
Make a $5 gift today and it will automatically be doubled!
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To get cheap palm oil, top snack food brands are doing business with companies that are driving the last 60,600 wild orangutans to extinction, committing human rights violations and destroying rainforests.
Put simply, if these companies don’t change the way they’re doing business, orangutans are predicted to be extinct within our lifetime.
That’s why RAN has launched what may be our most ambitious campaign to date—and why two RAN supporters have offered to match every gift dollar-for-dollar up to $50,000 to make sure we have the resources to take the fight to the doorsteps of the top 20 snack food companies using “Conflict Palm Oil” in their products.
Give $5 today and your gift will automatically be doubled, meaning it will have twice the impact to save the endangered rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo and the 60,600 wild orangutans who call them home.
In Indonesia alone, the area covered by palm oil plantations has grown by 600 percent since 1990 to cover twenty million acres (that’s the size of Maine). This really is a critical moment for the world’s last remaining wild orangutans and the forests they call home, and we urgently need everyone who can to chip in to help us meet this match.
We’re only one month into our new campaign, The Last Stand of the Orangutan, and your emails and calls demanding the Snack Food 20 stop using Conflict Palm Oil are already having a huge impact. Some of these companies have started taking steps to address their palm oil problem, but they won’t commit to real, substantial change unless we can amplify our message.
Your support today will help build a powerful grassroots movement to send the loudest and clearest message we can that we expect these companies to eliminate rainforest destruction from their supply chains now. Not tomorrow, not next week, but right now.
Every dollar you give today will double your impact to help save the endangered rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo and the orangutans that depend on them.
We are up against powerful and well-funded opponents, and we know our work is cut out for us. But, by standing together and taking the fight directly to the Snack Food 20, we can make a real difference in our fight to save these endangered rainforests.
So please don’t let this opportunity slip by—make your gift of $5 today to double your impact.
Thanks for all you do. You are making an incredible difference.

For the great red ape,
Lindsey Allen             Executive Director             Rainforest Action Network
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900,000


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GOP Crises Alone Have Killed 900,000 Jobs

After shutting down the government for over two weeks in a failed attempt to deny affordable health insurance to millions of Americans, the prospect of a catastrophic economic shutdown caused by an unprecedented default on our obligations has finally brought enough Republicans to their senses. A bipartisan deal negotiated by senators to re-open the government and avoid a default appears set to pass both the House and the Senate this evening.

President Obama and Democrats stood strong and refused to grant Republicans any of their ransom demands in exchange for Congress agreeing to simply do its job, but unfortunately the series of crises manufactured by the GOP over the past few years has already taken a terrible toll on the economy.

A new report out yesterday pins the number of jobs killed by the GOP’s government-by-crisis strategy over the past few years at 900,000.

As ThinkProgress notes, the report also finds that the painful and unnecessary austerity spending cuts (themselves largely imposed by the GOP using crises and threats) in place have cost us more than a million jobs:

The report also finds that cuts to discretionary spending from 2011 to the present have cost the country 1.2 million jobs and 0.7 percentage points of GDP growth. About three-quarters of the $2.4 trillion in total deficit reduction enacted since the fall of 2010 was in the form of spending cuts. The Peterson-commissioned estimate of what that steep reduction in government expenditures has cost is a bit more conservative than previous estimates by other economists, but only slightly less negative.

This graphic from our Center for American Progress colleagues illustrates how many more Americans would have jobs in a world without austerity:

WorldWithoutAusterity

Finally, a different report out this evening finds the current shutdown crisis pulled $24 BILLION out of the economy and will slash more than a half-percentage off GDP growth.

BOTTOM LINE: It’s time for Republicans to stop trying to govern by crisis, hostage-taking, and extortion. The fight over the debt limit is over. Period. It’s now time for us to come to a long-term agreement on the budget that gets rid of the damaging sequester cuts and is instead focused on our real problems: jobs and economic growth.

It’s also time for Speaker Boehner to abandon his failed attempts to appease the extreme Tea Party wing of the GOP and instead seek a bipartisan governing majority focused on doing what’s best for our country, including the passage of immigration reform with a pathway to earned citizenship.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

Houston Chronicle regrets endorsing Ted Cruz.

POLLS: Shutdown hurting GOP Senate chances, even in red states.

Right-wing group that orchestrated shutdown overt Obamacare now admits that “everybody knows” Obamacare can’t be repealed.

Ted Cruz admits the shutdown was all about building email fundraising lists.

Anti-tax crusader says defunders owe conservatives an apology.

Senate Republicans: GOP didn’t get anything out of shutdown.

Tea Party already seeking purge of non-extremists in 2014.

Tea Party congresswoman who voted to shut down the government now wants billions in disaster aid.

More than five million poor Americans won’t get health coverage because of the GOP’s refusal to expand Medicaid.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

You can give life, plant trees


Plant trees where they’re needed most. Donate today!

Thanks to you, The Canopy Project has improved thousands of lives by planting trees in impoverished communities around the world.

But our work is not done yet.

Fall is planting season, and with your help, we can advance closer to our goal of planting 10 million trees over 5 years. Together, we can make this happen.

Let’s keep the momentum going. Make a contribution today! You can better the lives of some of the world’s most vulnerable citizens.

You can help the farmer in Uganda, who thanked us for planting trees to fence his land, saving his small farm from erosion, and asked if we could provide more trees to help feed his goats.

You can help the women and girls of Ethiopia, where deforestation forces them farther and farther from their homes to collect wood for fuel, often keeping the girls from attending school.

And you can help the villager in Haiti still struggling to recover from the devastating earthquake in 2010.

Just a small contribution can strengthen these lives and improve communities. Every dollar you give helps us to plant another tree.

Donate today to help the people who need it the most.

Thank you for your support.

-The Earth Day Network Team