Category Archives: ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

A message from Speaker Pelosi


Fight BackLess than two weeks from today, the American people go to the polls. House Democrats are under attack from secret money from corporate special interests that favor shipping American jobs overseas, turning Social Security over to Wall Street, and turning Medicare over to the insurance companies.

According to news reports, these secretive special interest groups have spent more than $42 million on television ads that have aired more than 100,000 times attacking me. But this election is not about me; it is about the middle class.

Republicans want to privatize and cut Social Security and Medicare, give tax breaks for the wealthy, and send jobs overseas. Democrats want to preserve Social Security and Medicare, cut taxes for the middle class, and “make it in America.”

Please make a generous contribution to my campaign today. Your contribution will make a difference. It allows me to continue helping House Democrats facing special interest attacks from groups that are angry at the progress we have made for the American people.

We cannot wake up with a single regret that there was more we could have done to protect our Democratic House Majority.

Please contribute today so we can help courageous House Democrats fight back.

Onward to victory.

Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Sarah Palin hates this website


RepubliCorp.

That’s our new name for the shadowy network of corporate front groups who’re spending millions to sway the election—and the Republican politicians they’re buying.

RepubliCorp prefers to operate in secrecy. So we decided to do a little public relations for them. We created this website, www.RepubliCorp.us, and this spiffy promotional video.

Check ’em out and pass ’em on.

Because the more light we can shed on the corporate interests trying to swing this election, the more we’ll help the progressives they’re targeting. And because during a dark time, a little humor never hurts.

www.RepubliCorp.us

Thanks for all you do.

–Ilyse, Robin, Marika, Duncan, and the rest of the team

PS. Remember—next time you’re talking about all those secretive groups spending millions to buy Congress, they have a name: RepubliCorp.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Every Woman Deserves Human Rights
Every Woman Deserves Human Rights
It’s time to start addressing the unique needs of pregnant and parenting mothers behind bars.

My name is Shawanna Lumsey and I was shackled when I gave birth to my son. I’ve made some mistakes in my life, but no expectant mother, no woman, no person should ever be treated the way I was.

Eight years ago, I was convicted of credit card fraud and received a six-year prison sentence. At the time, I was five months pregnant.

I vividly remember the day I went into labor. I was in my cell at the McPherson Unit in Newport, Arkansas. It was very early in the morning and my labor pains were very sharp. I contacted the guard and was given two Tylenol. Those two Tylenol were the only pain pills I ever got.

After some delay, I was taken to the hospital. The pains were so intense that I literally had to grab the wall to steady myself. I got to the van outside for my short drive to the hospital and that’s when the shackles were put on. At the hospital there was only one brief moment when they removed the shackles — when I put on my hospital gown. My ankles were shackled to the bed throughout my hard labor, and I was unable to readjust myself to lessen the pain. It was only when the doctor arrived, just moments before I delivered, that he ordered the shackles to be removed.

At a mere 123 pounds, I gave birth to a 9 pound, 7 ounce baby son, while shackled to my bed for most of the labor. My experience was horrible and continues to haunt me.

Six years ago, I filed a lawsuit against the Arkansas Department of Corrections on the grounds that shackling is unconstitutional. The case has been long and difficult, but a year ago a federal court ruled that shackling women during labor violates their civil rights. I’ll continue to speak out so that no woman, no matter what her life circumstance, has to endure the pain and trauma I have.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has shown a desire to end the inhumane practice of shackling women giving birth, but that’s not the only issue that mothers behind bars face. Women are often denied pre-natal care and the opportunity to bond with their babies after birth and as they grow. Join me and women like me in thanking Attorney General Holder for his attention to shackling, while urging him to continue to address the needs of mothers behind bars and ensure that they have healthy pregnancies, deliveries, and opportunities to enter family-based drug treatments.

Your voice will help prevent another woman from experiencing what I went through.

Sincerely,

Shawanna Lumsey
Women’s Advocate
P.S. Learn more about the inhumane practice of shackling women during childbirth and other important issues affecting pregnant and parenting women behind bars by downloading the new report from the National Women’s Law Center and the Rebecca Project for Human Rights, Mothers Behind Bars.
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Bringing ultra high-speed broadband to Stanford homes …Google-Official blog


Posted: 21 Oct 2010 09:06 AM PDT

Earlier this year we announced our plans to build and test ultra-high speed broadband networks in a small number of American communities. Since then, a team of Google engineers has been hard at work experimenting with new fiber optic technologies. And following a series of tests we’ve run on Google’s campus, we’re excited to announce the next step in our project. 

We’ve reached an agreement with Stanford University to build an ultra-high speed broadband network to the university’s Residential Subdivision, a group of approximately 850 faculty- and staff-owned homes on campus. Through this trial, we plan to offer Internet speeds up to 1 gigabit per second—more than 100 times faster than what most people have access to today. We plan to start breaking ground in early 2011.

To be clear, this trial is completely separate from our community selection process for Google Fiber, which is still ongoing. As we’ve said, our ultimate goal is to build to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people, and we still plan to announce our selected community or communities by the end of the year.

Stanford’s Residential Subdivision—our first “beta” deployment to real customers—will be a key step towards that goal. We’ll be able to take what we learn from this small deployment to help scale our project more effectively and efficiently to much larger communities.

Why did we decide to build here? Most important was Stanford’s openness to us experimenting with new fiber technologies on its streets. The layout of the residential neighborhoods and small number of homes make it a good fit for a beta deployment. And its location—just a few miles up the road from Google—will make it easier for our engineers to monitor progress.

We’re excited about this beta, and we look forward to announcing our selected community or communities for Google Fiber in the coming months.

Posted by James Kelly, Product Manager

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Latinos Not Wanted?


Brave New Foundation
Donate
Click here to help 

Latinos4Reform, a conservative group, has produced a new ad encouraging Latinos in Nevada NOT TO VOTE! They are exploiting our community and trying to convince us to stay home and NOT exercise our right to vote. This is all just to further their political agenda. This is undemocratic and un-American. 

DON’T LET OUR VOICES BE SILENCED!

Cuéntame wants to fight back by producing a counter-advertisement illustrating the importance of the Latino vote. Can you help us by donating $10 so that we can create the advertisement AND buy Facebook ads so thousands of people will get the message?

Please donate TODAY to help us ensure that Latinos4Reform and other groups like them DO NOT succeed in cheating Latinos out of their votes.

To donate, click here or text ‘BNF CABRON’ to 85944 to donate $10 via phone.

Thanks for your support.

Yours,

Robert Greenwald, Axel Caballero, Ofelia Yanez
and the rest of the Cuentame team.