The Adventures of Donny Rico


“Legal Tender”
Donny Rico explains how Chevron’s
legal thuggery really works

At long last we bring you Episode #3 in The Adventures of Donny Rico, a clever deep dive into the methods used by Chevron in its desperate and unethical campaign to turn the tables on the very victims it poisoned in Ecuador’s rainforest.

Take it from Donny: it’s no secret that Chevron has spent millions upon millions of dollars in an abusive “scorched earth” legal strategy to attack not only the villagers and their representatives who have held the company accountable in Ecuador, but virtually anyone who supports them. This is part of a decades-long legal strategy to delay paying for a clean-up, to deny the facts and simply to try to crush the opposition which has been gaining the upper hand yet again.

Watch the video and read the rest on Eye on the Amazon »

We are the messengers we need


VoteVets.org

In 2012, campaigns and political organizations spent almost $7 billion dollars to get their message out — almost as much as the United States spent that year on the post-war effort in Iraq.

And as we steel ourselves for another onslaught of campaigns ads competing for our attention on our televisions, computers, and phones, you gotta wonder how anyone can cut through that amount of noise.

The answer: veterans can.

We are the messengers we need in the coming debate about how the current Congress — led by elected officials like Mitch McConnell — have let down veterans.

In the coming weeks, VoteVets is going to escalate its current ad campaign highlighting Senator McConnell’s repeated efforts to block VA health care improvements.

Your $5 contribution will make sure Kentucky’s 300,000 veterans receive the message loud and clear.

Mitch McConnell says the “denial of care to our veterans is a national disgrace.”

But he’s blocked a tax credit encouraging employers to hire veterans, blocked funding to improve veterans health care, blocked giving veterans in-state tuition across the country, and blocked job training programs for veterans.

That’s the disgrace.

Your $5 contribution will make sure Kentucky’s veterans get that message this fall.

http://action.votevets.org/we-are

Thanks for standing with VoteVets in this effort. It’s important.

All the best,

General (Ret.) Wesley Clark
VoteVets.org

(Still) Broken


By

One Year After The Supreme Court Gutted The Voting Rights Act, We Need A Fix

50 years ago, the heroic participants of “Freedom Summer” paved the way for the national advancement of civil rights, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act one year later.

A year ago today, in a 5-to-4 ruling on Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court invalidated a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. Jurisdictions with histories of racial discrimination subject to “preclearance,” or special review by the Justice Department or a federal court before enforcing any new voting laws, were now free to legislate as the wished. At the time, Think Progress’s Ian Millhiser wrote, “Although today’s opinion ostensibly would permit Congress to revive the preclearance regime by enacting a new formula that complies with today’s decision, that would require a functioning Congress — so the likely impact of today’s decision is that many areas that were unable to enact voter suppression laws under the Voting Rights Act will now be able to put those laws into effect.”

And that is precisely what ended up happening. Just 48 hours after the landmark decision, six of the nine states that had been covered in their entirety under the law’s “preclearance” formula had already taken steps toward restricting voting.

Though the conservative Justices may disagree, voting discrimination is not largely a thing of the past. Since 2010, nearly two-thirds of the states previously covered under Section 5 of the VRA, nine of fifteen, have passed new voting restrictions:

VRA4Today_2

And between 2000 and June 2013, there were 148 Section 5 objections or other VRA violations recorded in 29 states, mostly concentrated in the South.

VRA4Today

Meanwhile, Congress — which voted to renew the Voting Rights Act in 1970, 1975, 1982, and 2006, each time with increasingly larger margins — has yet to fix it this time around. The Senate has introduced the Voting Rights Amendment Act, and held a hearing on it today. In the House, it has languished. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte apparently thinks that a fix to the Supreme Court’s Shelby decision is not needed.

BOTTOM LINE: Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that we no longer need the Voting Rights Act. Today offers a good opportunity to remind them, and the legislators dragging their feet in Congress, that we do. States continue to pass laws designed to erect barriers to voting and suppress voter turnout, often targeted disproportionately at minority communities. There may no longer be literacy tests or poll taxes, but the modern voting restrictions are just as insidious and we need strong federal protections to prevent states from enacting them.

Ban Veal Crates


Diane J. Brisebois: Retail Council of Canada: Ban Veal Crates

by Mercy For Animals Canada | 60,771 supporters

I am an undercover investigator with Mercy For Animals Canada, and for eight weeks I worked at a calf factory farm that supplies veal to many major grocery retailers in Canada. Nothing could have prepared me for the horrors I witnessed. I saw…

Read more

the Senate ~~ CONGRESS 6/26 ~~ the House


embassy attcks

The Senate stands adjournment until 9:30am on Thursday, June 26, 2014.

Following any Leader remarks, the Senate will be in a period of morning business until noon with the time equally divided and controlled between the two Leaders or their designees.

At noon, the Senate will proceed to Executive Session and proceed to a roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar #738, Cheryl Ann Krause, of New Jersey, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit.

 

At 1:45pm, there will be up to 6 roll call votes (only one expected):

–        Executive Calendar #897 Stuart E. Jones, of Virginia, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Iraq,

–        Executive Calendar #896 Robert Stephen Beecroft, of California, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Arab Republic of Egypt (expected voice vote),

–        Executive Calendar #654 Karen Dynan – to be an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury (expected voice vote),

–        Executive Calendar #557 Esther Puakela Kia’aina, of Hawaii, to be an Assistant Secretary of the Interior (expected voice vote),

–        Executive Calendar #620 Vincent G. Logan, of New York, to be Special Trustee, Office of Special Trustee for American Indians, Department of the Interior (expected voice vote), and

–        Executive Calendar #503 Jo Emily Handelsman, of Connecticut, to be an Associate Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (expected voice vote).

The previously scheduled vote at noon will now begin at 11:45am today. Therefore, there will be 1 roll call vote beginning at approximately 11:45am on the motion to invoke cloture Executive Calendar #738, Cheryl Ann Krause, of New Jersey, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit. There will also be at least 1 roll call vote at 1:45pm today along with several voice votes.

 

11:45am—1 roll call vote:

  1. Cloture on Executive Calendar #738, Cheryl Ann Krause, of New Jersey, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit.

 

1:45pm—up to 6 votes–at least 1 roll call vote and 5 voice votes expected:

  1. Executive Calendar #897 Stuart E. Jones, of Virginia, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Iraq (roll call vote);
  2. Executive Calendar #896 Robert Stephen Beecroft, of California, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Arab Republic of Egypt (voice vote expected);
  3. Executive Calendar #654 Karen Dynan, of Maryland, to be an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury (voice vote expected);
  4. Executive Calendar #557 Esther Puakela Kia’aina, of Hawaii, to be an Assistant Secretary of the Interior (voice vote expected);
  5. Executive Calendar #620 Vincent G. Logan, of New York, to be Special Trustee, Office of Special Trustee for American Indians, Department of the Interior (voice vote expected); and
  6. Executive Calendar #503 Jo Emily Handelsman, of Connecticut, to be an Associate Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (voice vote expected).

11:46am The Senate began a 15 minute roll call vote on cloture on Executive Calendar #738, Cheryl Ann Krause, of New Jersey, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit.

Invoked: 57-39

1:45pm—up to 6 votes–at least 1 roll call vote and 5 voice votes expected:

  1. Executive Calendar #897 Stuart E. Jones, of Virginia, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Iraq (roll call vote);
  2. Executive Calendar #896 Robert Stephen Beecroft, of California, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Arab Republic of Egypt (voice vote expected);
  3. Executive Calendar #654 Karen Dynan, of Maryland, to be an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury (voice vote expected);
  4. Executive Calendar #557 Esther Puakela Kia’aina, of Hawaii, to be an Assistant Secretary of the Interior (voice vote expected);
  5. Executive Calendar #620 Vincent G. Logan, of New York, to be Special Trustee, Office of Special Trustee for American Indians, Department of the Interior (voice vote expected); and
  6. Executive Calendar #503 Jo Emily Handelsman, of Connecticut, to be an Associate Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (voice vote expected).

1:45PM the Senate began a 15minute roll call vote on confirmation of Calendar #897 Stuart E. Jones, of Virginia, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Iraq;

Confirmed: 93-0

The remaining nominations will be confirmed by voice vote.

 

  1. Executive Calendar #896 Robert Stephen Beecroft, of California, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Arab Republic of Egypt (voice vote expected);
  2. Executive Calendar #654 Karen Dynan, of Maryland, to be an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury (voice vote expected);
  3. Executive Calendar #557 Esther Puakela Kia’aina, of Hawaii, to be an Assistant Secretary of the Interior (voice vote expected);
  4. Executive Calendar #620 Vincent G. Logan, of New York, to be Special Trustee, Office of Special Trustee for American Indians, Department of the Interior (voice vote expected); and
  5. Executive Calendar #503 Jo Emily Handelsman, of Connecticut, to be an Associate Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (voice vote expected).

The Senate confirmed the Beecroft, Dynan, Kai’aina, Logan and Handelsman nominations by voice votes.

Senators should expect 2 roll call votes at 5:30pm on Monday, July 7. Those votes would be on the following items:

 

–          Confirmation of Executive Calendar #738, Cheryl Ann Krause, of New Jersey, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit; and

–          Cloture on the motion to proceed to Calendar #384, S.2363, a bill to protect and enhance opportunities for recreational hunting, fishing, and shooting (Sportsman’s bill).

Senator Cruz asked unanimous consent to take up and adopt a resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. should appoint a special counsel or prosecutor to investigate the targeting of conservative nonprofit groups by the Internal Revenue Service. Senator Wyden objected.

Senator Sessions then asked unanimous consent the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S.202, Accountability Through Electronic Verification Act (e-verify), and the Senate then take up and pass the bill. Senator Durbin objected.

 

Senator Sessions asked unanimous consent to discharge the Finance Committee from further consideration of S.91, Child Tax Credit Integrity Preservation Act of 2013, and that the Senate then take up and pass the bill. Senator Durbin objected.

WRAP UP

Roll Call Votes

1)     Motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar #738, Cheryl Ann Krause, of New Jersey, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit; Invoked: 57-39

2)     Confirmation of Executive Calendar #897 Stuart E. Jones, of Virginia, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Iraq; Confirmed: 93-0

 

Legislative items

Passed S.2076, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Board of Visitors Enhancement Act with a Boozman amendment.

 

Passed S.1799, Victims of Child Abuse Act Reauthorization Act with a Coons substitute amendment.

 

Passed H.R.2388, To take certain Federal lands located in El Dorado County, California, into trust for the benefit of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, and for other purposes.

 

Adopted S.Res.490, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Cape May-Lewis Ferry.

 

Adopted S.Res.491, congratulating the Los Angeles Kings on winning the 2014 Stanley Cup Championship.

 

Adopted S.Res.492, Congratulating “A Prairie Home Companion” on its 40 years of engaging, humorous, and quality radio programming.

 

Adopted S.Res.493, designating July 11, 2014, as “Collector Car Appreciation Day” and recognizing that the collection and restoration of historic and classic cars is an important part of preserving the technological achievements and cultural heritage of the United States.

 

Adopted S.Res.494, relative to the death of Howard H. Baker, Jr.

 

Began the Rule 14 process of the following bill in order to place it on the calendar: ­­­S.2562, the Bring Jobs Home Act (Stabenow and others).

 

Completed the Rule 14 process of the following bill in order to place it on the calendar: H.R.3301, the North American Energy Infrastructure Act (Republican request).

 

Additional Executive items

Confirmed the following by voice vote:

–        Executive Calendar #896 Robert Stephen Beecroft, of California, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Arab Republic of Egypt,

–        Executive Calendar #654 Karen Dynan, of Maryland, to be an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury,

–        Executive Calendar #557 Esther Puakela Kia’aina, of Hawaii, to be an Assistant Secretary of the Interior,

–        Executive Calendar #620 Vincent G. Logan, of New York, to be Special Trustee, Office of Special Trustee for American Indians, Department of the Interior, and

–        Executive Calendar #503 Jo Emily Handelsman, of Connecticut, to be an Associate Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

 

 

================================================

Last Floor Action:
11:04:01 A.M. -H.R. 4899
On agreeing to the Wittman amendment (A001) Roll Call 360 – Recorded vote pending.

=====================================

politics,pollution,petitions,pop culture & purses