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From the Middle Class Out

02/22/2013 Nativegrl77

Creating an Economy That Works for Everyone

For the last thirty years, we’ve been experiencing one long, failed experiment in so-called trickle-down economics. In practice, this means that the rich have gotten richer (exponentially so) while the middle class has fallen further and further behind. Trillions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and corporations, the one goal that binds the GOP together, utterly failed to trickle down, stifled economic growth, and contributed to the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

We need a different model — an economy that grows from the middle class out. What does this mean? How does that work? One of our colleagues, Senior Economist Heather Boushey, lays it all out in a new video:

BOTTOM LINE: The wealthy and corporations simply aren’t paying their fair share so in order to reduce our deficit in a smart way and still make investments in the middle class, we need to get rid of hundreds of billions of dollars in wasteful loopholes and giveaways in our tax code.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

57 terrible consequences of the sequester cuts that the GOP is allowing to kick in next week.

Bitter pill: why medical bills are killing us.

Oops: GOP senator accidentally gets behind Roe v. Wade.

Laura Bush supports marriage equality, she just doesn’t want anyone to know.

One top senator’s latest racist excuse for opposing the Violence Against Women Act.

The public takes President Obama’s side on major issues we need to deal with.

Anti-spending GOP reps wants taxpayer funds to turn George W. Bush’s boyhood home into a national park.

GOP rep won’t support pathway to citizenship because he wants to keep immigrants in “the dirtiest jobs.”

Austerity: still failing.

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Drone medal outranks Purple Heart?

02/22/2013 Nativegrl77

Have you heard about the Pentagon‘s new Distinguished Warfare Medal?It ranks above the Purple Heart and is awarded to drone operators and cyberwar practitioners for “extraordinary achievement” in a post 9/11military operation.

A number of VoteVets members have expressed their opinions about the distinction, but we want to hear from you, as well.

Do you think the medal should rank above the Purple Heart? Let us know here:

http://action.votevets.org/drone-medal

Here’s a few of the comments we received on our Facebook page:

Christopher C. No problem with the medal itself. Serious problem with its hierarchy ranking: It should not be above medals awarded for combat actions. I am seriously surprised that anyone would think it is reasonable to giving it that level of precedence.

Ethan C. I think their service should be recognized with some kind of award but combat valor medals recognize real life and death situations on the actual battlefield. Combat awards should be given the highest placement.

Let us know what you think and we’ll be sure to share your thoughts with Senator Hagel after he’s confirmed as our next Secretary of Defense.

http://action.votevets.org/drone-medal

There’s been a lot of conversation about the new medal in the traditional media and online. I look forward to hearing your thoughts, as well.

Best,

Jon Soltz Iraq War Veteran Chairman, VoteVets.org

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Paul Ryan and Sequestration

02/21/2013 Nativegrl77

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PHOTO OF THE MONTH : National Geographic

02/21/2013 Nativegrl77

by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel, from the March 2013 feature story “Night Gardens”

Hirano Shrine, Kyoto

Witness the magic of nocturnal gardens, designed to flourish when the sun sets. In Japan the nighttime viewing of cherry blossoms in spring, like these at Kyoto’s Hirano Shrine, is a special event.
Download this and hundreds of other wallpapers.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Laila Sapphira Williams, Greenpeace

02/21/2013 Nativegrl77

Cameroon Indonesia Herakles Farm and Bruce Wrobel

www.greenpeace.org

A U.S. corporation has its eyes set on plowing down an area of African rainforest ten times the size of Manhattan for a palm oil plantation.
Take Action

Send a message right now to Herakles Farms’ CEO Bruce Wrobel demanding his company drop its plans and commit to a ‘zero deforestation’ policy.

www.greenpeace.org

Industrial scale palm oil production is coming to Africa and it’s bad news for the rainforest of Cameroon.
Palm oil is the world’s cheapest edible oil and global demand is booming. That’s why a U.S. corporation called Herakles Farms is pushing ahead with plans to plow down an area of primate rainforest ten times larger than Manhattan to create a palm oil plantation in Cameroon.
Together we have won major victories to save rainforest from expanding palm oil plantations in Indonesia. Now we’re launching a campaign to do the same in Africa.
Rainforest from the proposed site has already been cleared. We have to act before the large scale destruction starts.
Send a message right now to Bruce Wrobel, the CEO of Herakles Farms, demanding his company drop plans to destroy rainforests for palm oil in Cameroon and commit to a ‘zero-deforestation’ policy.
Cameroon holds part of the world’s second largest rainforest. And the proposed plantation site is home to wildlife species like the African elephant and endangered chimpanzee. It also provides for the livelihoods of more than 14,000 Cameroonians who rely on the forest for small subsistence farming.
Yet Herakles Farms’ CEO Bruce Wrobel refuses to acknowledge these facts, instead claiming that the company is aiming to help the community through economic development. But the facts on the ground tell a different story. The Herakles Farms project is simply the wrong project in the wrong place.
Help us shine a public spotlight on Herakles Farms’ African palm oil plantation proposal by sending a message to the company’s CEO today.
We’ve voiced our concerns and, so far, been ignored. But Herakles Farms won’t be able to ignore thousands of your messages.
Coming off of one of the biggest breakthroughs in forest conservation history only a couple of weeks ago in Indonesia, we know what citizen activism can do when it comes to protecting the world’s rainforests. If we flood Herakles Farms’ inboxes with letters over the next few days, the company will no longer be able to ignore us and will be forced to address the truth about its plans in Africa.
This is only the beginning of our work. Over the next few months, Greenpeace will continue working with local partners in Africa to stop this project and to showcase solutions with farmers already active in the region.
It all starts with getting Herakles Farms’ attention. That starts with you taking action today. Together, we can put a stop to this project before it really gets started.
For the forests,
Laila Sapphira Williams Greenpeace Forest Campaigner