Category Archives: ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

GOP Rejects Own Plan to Keep Government Open


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CHART: Democrats Have Already Negotiated & Compromised

Republicans continue to falsely claim that President Obama and Democrats won’t negotiate over the budget. That’s just not true.

In fact, Senate Democrats even tried once again this afternoon to launch a formal conference committee to hash out a budget through September of 2014, but Republicans blocked their request, as they have on 19 previous occasions since the Senate passed a budget over six months ago.

What is true is that Democrats refuse to negotiate over keeping the government open and paying the bills that Congress has already racked up. Those items should be non-negotiable. They are simply Congress’ job.

As soon as the GOP brings these latest manufactured crises to an end — as they could at literally any moment if they simply allow the House of Representatives to vote on a clean government funding bill and a bill that guarantees that Congress will not allow an unprecedented and catastrophic default on our obligations — Democrats are more than happy to negotiate on the actual budget.

In fact, they have done plenty of negotiating already. The clean bill to re-open the government is already a huge compromise and agrees to the sequester spending levels that Republicans demanded and promised to bring to a vote mere months ago.

Check out this chart that shows just how much Democrats have already compromised with Republicans:

FundingLevelCharticle-1

This compromise bill was Speaker Boehner’s own idea and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) touted it as a major victory for House Republicans just last month, but now they refuse to even allow the House to vote on it. Worse, Republicans continue to threaten to unleash a “financial apocalypse” on the global economy as soon as next week unless the president and Democrats agree to their laundry list of Tea Party demands.

BOTTOM LINE: Unless Congress acts, we’ll face a global economic calamity next week. Americans across the country — including the family members of our troops killed in action — are already suffering because the GOP shut down the government in a failed effort to deny affordable health insurance to millions.

It’s time for these manufactured crises to end. Republicans just need to allow the House of Representatives to vote on a clean government funding bill and a bill that guarantees that Congress will pay our nation’s bills.

 

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

What health and safety really mean in TX


http://DrawTheLine.org

In a few weeks, the Center will return to court to fight for the rights of Texas women.

This is a familiar battleground in the ongoing war on women. Led by Gov. Rick Perry, Texas politicians are fixated on devastating reproductive health care in the state.

It’s time to let Perry know that we won’t stand for his ideological agenda.

He claims to care about the women in his state. On the day he signed the most recent restrictions into law, Perry told reporters, “This is an important day for those who…support the health of Texas women.” 1

But the governor’s actions speak louder than words. The sweeping law he passed has nothing to do with safety, health, or supporting women.

The truth is, if his restrictions take effect, they would make essential health care services practically impossible for many Texans to access, leaving women’s health and safety at risk.

Tell Gov. Perry to stop using Texas women as political pawns—and to stay out of the very personal decisions that determine their health and future.

Thanks, as always, for all you do,

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) ~~ October 2013


Fda
Fda (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Recent Food Recalls

 

Turkey Hill Dairy Issues Voluntary Recall of Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Premium Ice Cream,
Fudge Ripple Premium Ice Cream, and Moose Tracks Stuff’d Frozen Dairy Dessert

Recall due to possible foreign matter; limited to select stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia

 

 

Haute Health, LLC Conducts Voluntary Nationwide Recall of All Lots Of Virilis Pro, PHUK And Prolifta Capsules Due To Undeclared Ingredients

09/30/2013 05:36 PM EDT
Haute Health, LLC is voluntarily recalling all lots of Virilis Pro, PHUK and Prolifta at the retail and consumer level. Virilis Pro, PHUK and Prolifta have been found to contain amounts of the PDE-5 Inhibitor sildenafil, which is an active ingredient in an FDA-approved drug for erectile dysfunction (ED).

Big Blue Fisheries, Llc Recalls All Smoked Products From All Lots, Various Sizes, in Vacuum Packaging Because of Possible Health Risk

09/30/2013 09:33 PM EDT
Big Blue Fisheries is recalling ALL smoked products from all lots and codes, various sizes, in vacuum packages because the products may not have been properly cooked and have the potential to be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum, a bacterium which can cause life-threatening illness or death. Consumers are warned not to use the product even if it does not look or smell spoiled.
Carefusion Provides Update On Voluntary Recall Of Avea® Ventilator

09/30/2013 08:08 PM EDT
CareFusion issued the following update regarding its previously announced voluntary recall of AVEA® ventilators. The company initiated the voluntary recall on Sept. 3, 2013
Afikim Electric Vehicles Issues Nationwide Recall of Breeze C Scooter

09/30/2013 05:18 PM EDT
On September 27, 2013, Afikim Electric Vehicles initiated a nationwide recall of 69 Breeze C Scooters. The Breeze C Scooter may become unresponsive during operation due to an electrical contact which may fault due to extensive wear, which potentially could result in the driver not being able to stop the scooter during operation except by turning off the ignition key.
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

what happened after I signed the petition?


AvaazpixDear amazing community,

I often get asked by Avaazers, “what happens after I sign a petition?” And the truth is, a HECK of a lot! Every Avaaz campaign springs from a massive global mandate, and then zeroes in on the best way for our voices to win. Here’s just two of our victories from the last few weeks:

Remember when 2 million of us came together to stop the flogging of a 15-year old rape victim in the Maldives? Her sentence has been quashed! Here’s what our team did to win:

Maldives ad
Our ads threatened the profits of officials who owned parts of the tourism industry
  1. Spoke for hours with the Maldivian Attorney-General and Ministers and emailed the President at his personal account.
  2. Commissioned opinion polls showing massive support for reforms to protect girls. And wrote an Op-Ed in a major national paper.
  3. Persuaded a top Islamic scholar to speak out against flogging.
  4. Threatened to run an ad (right) in tourism publications, affecting the country’s major industry.
  5. Visited the Maldives and the location where the girl was held, pressing officials directly.

Ahmed Shaheed, former Foreign Minister of the Maldives said “The Avaaz contribution was the spearhead of the campaign to overturn the flogging sentence; a petition signed by millions, a country visit, a public opinion survey, and persistent follow-up all proved irresistible.”

Another example: Remember how almost 2 million of us rallied to stop the Maasai tribe in Tanzania from being kicked off their land for a hunting reserve? Last week, the Prime Minister announced they could stay! The petition provided a powerful basis for what the team did next:

Maasai
Maasai women gather to protest the eviction. Photo by Jason Patinkin
  1. Got CNN and the Guardian to visit the Maasai and break the wider story to the world.
  2. Advised Maasai elders on their campaigning strategy.
  3. Flooded Ministers and the President with messages — forcing a debate in cabinet and Parliament.
  4. Ran a hard hitting newspaper ad in an influential paper which publicly shamed the government.
  5. Persuaded diplomats worldwide to raise the issue — embarrassing the government.
  6. Financially supported Maasai elders to travel to the capital where they gathered to ‘occupy’ land outside of the Prime Minister’s office for weeks, refusing to leave until he met them.
Education cheque
Gordon Brown said: “A million dollars has been raised via the brilliant Avaaz.org, in just a few days.”Brazil Open Vote
Key Brazilian Senator joins Avaaz “open vote” naked protest sending a clear message: “we have nothing to hide”

The victory belongs to the Maasai people, but our community helped them win by making this a global issue the government could no longer ignore. This hopefully ends a 20 year land battle!!

Of course, our community does a LOT more than petitions. Last week, we raised a $1 million challenge grant in a few days to donor governments to put Syrian refugee kids in school. At a UN meeting, I was able to put a cheque on the table and issue the challenge on behalf of over 40,000 Avaaz donors. UN Education Envoy Gordon Brown, who chaired the meeting, called our community’s effort a “magnificent and impactful intervention” in getting other governments to give!

And often it’s not the Avaaz team but our community that does the direct lobbying. For example in Brazil, we’re inches away from winning a massive fight to end the shady practice of ‘secret voting’ in the Congress. Our huge push helped win the vote in the lower house and right now, Senators’ telephones are ringing off the hook as Avaaz members across Brazil use our online calling tool to directly tell them to stop this corruption — experts say a win is likely in days!

It’s this unique magic mix between a gigantic and spirited community of citizens able to speak out, donate, and lobby, and a small team of top notch advocates able to take smart, strategic actions at the highest level with democratic legitimacy, that makes our campaigns increasingly unstoppable.

If we keep believing in each other, and growing in size and in commitment, there’s no limit to the good we can do in the world. Thank you so much for the honour and the joy to be part of and serve this community. It’s something truly precious we have here — let’s keep building Avaaz.

With love and appreciation,

Ricken and the team

PS — You might not know that Avaaz is different from just about every other global organization in that we are 100% funded and guided by our community. Every campaign we run is first polled and tested to a random sample (you might think of it as a jury) of our community, that tells us exactly how the whole the community will react. I may be the CEO, but you’re my boss. If you don’t like something (and I don’t mean 51% like it, but 81% like it) then our team go back to the drawing board and come up with a better option for you. We have never, ever, broken this rule. So at the end of the day, it is your wisdom, the collective wisdom of our community, matched with the smartest suggestions the team hears from you and come up with ourselves and from our partners and experts, that determines what we do every single day.

When you add to that the fact that 100% of our funding comes from small online donations (we strictly refuse any donations from corporations, governments, foundations, and even individual donations over 5000 Euros), I think Avaaz may be one of the purest organisational expressions of people-powered change in the world today. Make that an organisation served by a beautiful team of wonderfully talented and deeply committed people that I wish I could introduce you all to, and we’ve got a kind of magic that can build the world we dream of.

PPS — If you want to chip in to help keep it all going, click here: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/october_reportback_a/?biEWLbb&v=29788