Tag Archives: Barack Obama

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Unicorns …Charles Chamberlain, Democracy for America

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Oh those crazy Republicans.

They love to talk about tax cut this and tax cut that. They love to pretend that only they pass them. And they love to frame any attempt to increase revenue as a job killer.

But last week, when Democrats tried to extend the payroll tax cuts Obama passed last year — you know, the tax cuts that actually benefited poor and middle class workers — Republicans blocked it. They said paying for the cuts by raising taxes on millionaires stops job creation. Senator Harry Reid had a great response:

“Millionaire job creators are like unicorns. They are impossible to find and don’t exist.”

Frankly, Republicans are hypocrites that only care about lining the pockets of their big-money friends and it’s time we called them out for it.

We’re demanding answers. Click here to ask Republicans in Congress — Why do you hate tax cuts for working families?

Republicans are playing games with your money.

The payroll tax cuts are set to expire this month, but rather then pass tax cuts that mean real money in the pockets of working people, Republicans would rather grandstand and let them expire.

Just yesterday, the Republican House passed an extension they know Obama would veto if it made it to his desk. They loaded the bill up with a wish list of Republican goodies that have nothing to do with tax cuts: the Keystone oil pipeline, roll backs to healthcare, you name it — they probably included it.

Republicans have been getting a free pass on this for too long. It’s time that we stand up and called them out for propping up the super rich while pushing working families down.

Join us now and demand answers.
Thank you for everything you do.
-Charles
Charles Chamberlain, Political Director Democracy for America

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Starbucks general counsel retires to work on Obama campaign …by Melissa Allison


Starbucks general counsel retires to work on Obama campaign

Paula Boggs leaving Starbucks.

By Melissa Allison

Seattle Times business reporter

Starbucks general counsel and secretary Paula Boggs will retire April 2 to join President Obama’s re-election campaign. She has been at the coffee company since 2002.

Boggs will be based in Seattle and Santa Fe and work for the campaign in communities across the country.

In 2010, Obama appointed Boggs to the White House Council for Community Solutions, which has worked on community-developed solutions to youth development, education and employment.

Boggs is well-known at Starbucks headquarters for her singing and songwriting. She is a voting member for the Grammy’s and serves on the advisory board for KEXP.

Her legal career began in 1984 when she was a U.S. Army officer assigned to the Pentagon. She was a staff attorney for the White House before leaving the service in 1988, after which she served as assistant U.S. attorney in the Western district of Washington prosecuting fraud and regulatory crimes.

Boggs was a partner at Preston Gates & Ellis in Seattle from 1995 to 1997, working as a trial lawyer specializing in corporate civil litigation.

She was an executive at Dell Computer from 1997 to 2002

 
 

Paula Boggs

Enlarge this photoSTARBUCKS

 

Paula Boggs

Paula Boggs, left, Starbucks general counsel and secretary of Starbucks, left, and Howard Schultz, chief executive officer, make a presentation at the 2010 annual shareholder meeting.

Enlarge this photoKEVIN P. CASEY / BLOOMBERG, 2010   … Paula Boggs, left, Starbucks general counsel and secretary of Starbucks, left, and Howard Schultz, chief executive officer, make a presentation at the 2010 annual shareholder meeting.

Melissa Allison: 206-464-3312 or mallison@seattletimes.com. On Twitter @AllisonSeattle.

 
 
 

 

~ Culture & History

The Untold Story … Horne of Africa


The recent images of men, women and children starving in the Horn of Africa tell a painful story of famine and suffering. How does a nation recover from a devastating food crisis? To find out, Chip Duncan and Salim Amin returned to a Ethiopia, to a place where famine caused a massive death toll over 25 years ago. What they discovered was surprising and hopeful. In partnership with One, they created a documentary showing the contrast between 1984 and present-day Tigray. Read their words below, view a preview and watch their powerful short film.   << click on link for VIDEO

In Somalia, innocent people are dying needless deaths due to a famine driven by politics and war. Those who are dying need our help and our voice.

Drought is a challenge faced by people around the world. Climate change is now making droughts more common and less predictable. But drought shouldn’t equal famine. Famine is the outcome of poor infrastructure, corrupt governments and warring factions who choose to use food as a weapon.

During our recent work in Ethiopia, we had a chance to revisit the site of the 1984 famine. Our film uses footage and stills from that famine to remind us of the suffering and of its causes. Our story also chronicles the policies and infrastructure put in place during the last two decades to build sustainable agriculture. Water retention systems, irrigation, improved transportation systems, terraced farming, training programs, improved seeds and fertilizers – this is the new legacy in Tigray Province. It’s a story worth sharing so people everywhere can promote small scale agriculture while motivating governments to make similar investments in the future.

Chip Duncan
Director, “The Untold Story”

I made a journey following the footsteps of my father from 25 years ago. When Mohamed Amin made that journey a quarter of a century ago, he never imagined it was one that would change his life forever. He had covered every major story in Africa over four decades, but nothing prepared him for what he saw in Korem in October 1984.

A famine of biblical proportions, with more than 5 million people on the verge of starvation. A famine that was, to a large extent, man-made. The ruler of Ethiopia at the time, Colonel Haile Mariam Mengistu, was using the famine as a tool to suppress the rebel movement that was rising against his brutal regime from the north of the country. He didn’t want the world to know this famine existed.

The pictures that my father shot on the plains of Korem changed his life and changed the world. They prompted the greatest single act of charity of the 20th century and saved the lives of millions of Ethiopians. After this story, he changed the way he looked at news coverage. He cared for the first time in his life and did everything he could to keep the story in the headlines. Those images were amongst the most powerful and iconic images in television history.

I was expecting to see Korem still reeling from the effects of that massive famine. It takes generations to repair that kind of damage, but I was in for a shock. I went in with the best TV production team I had ever worked with, and what we saw stunned us all! A massive drought is taking hold of the Horn of Africa once again, but Korem and Tigray Province is an oasis of crops. Irrigation schemes that have been put in place over the last decade. There’s also a new awareness of the types of crops to grow and how to market and sell them for the best prices; and new resilient seeds have all transformed a community from being “takers” to being “providers”.

The farmers of Tigray Province have proved that drought doesn’t have to equal famine, and smart aid can work.

Salim Amin
Chairman
Camerapix/A24 Media

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

A message from Mrs.Obama …Charlotte, North Carolina, will host the 46th Democratic National Convention in 2012.


I am thrilled to make sure you are the first to hear some very exciting news. Charlotte, North Carolina, will host the 46th Democratic National Convention in 2012.

Charlotte is a city marked by its southern charm, warm hospitality, and an “up by the bootstraps” mentality that has propelled the city forward as one of the fastest-growing in the South. Vibrant, diverse, and full of opportunity, the Queen City is home to innovative, hardworking folks with big hearts and open minds. And of course, great barbecue.

Barack and I spent a lot of time in North Carolina during the campaign — from the Atlantic Coast to the Research Triangle to the Smoky Mountains and everywhere in between. Barack enjoyed Asheville so much when he spent several days preparing for the second Presidential debate that our family vacationed there in 2009.

And my very first trip outside of Washington as First Lady was to Fort Bragg, where I started my effort to do all we can to help our heroic military families.

All the contending cities were places that Barack and I have grown to know and love, so it was a hard choice. But we are thrilled to be bringing the convention to Charlotte.

We hope many of you can join us in Charlotte the week of September 3rd, 2012. But if you can’t, we intend to bring the spirit of the convention — as well as actual, related events to your community and even your own backyard.

More than anything else, we want this to be a grassroots convention for the people. We will finance this convention differently than it’s been done in the past, and we will make sure everyone feels closely tied in to what is happening in Charlotte. This will be a different convention, for a different time.

To help us make sure this is a grassroots convention — The People’s Convention — we need to hear from you. We want to know what you’d like to see at next year’s convention, how and where you plan on watching it — and the very best way we can engage your friends and neighbors.

How can we make The People’s Convention belong to you and your community?

http://my.barackobama.com/PeoplesConvention1?keycode=

I can’t believe it has been more than two years since my brother Craig introduced me at the 2008 Convention in Denver. It truly feels like it was yesterday.

As I looked out at a sea of thousands of supporters that night, I spoke about my husband — the man whom this country would go on to elect as the 44th President of the United States. I spoke about his fundamental belief — a conviction at the very core of his life’s work — that each of us has something to contribute to the spirit of our nation.

That’s also the belief at the core of The People’s Convention. That the table we sit at together ought to be big enough for everyone. That the thread that binds us — a belief in the promise of this country — is strong enough to sustain us through good times and bad.

Barack talked at the State of the Union of his vision for how America can win the future. That must be the focus now, and I know so many of you will help talk about our plans with your neighbors — that through innovation, education, reform, and responsibility we can make sure America realizes this vision.

But, conventions take time to plan, so please help us make sure that your thoughts and your ideas will ring all the way to Charlotte. Get started now:

http://my.barackobama.com/PeoplesConvention1?keycode=

Looking forward to sharing this together,

Michelle

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

mondaish &some News …


   

just another rant …

    about abortion, jobs, guns, our debt/deficit religious freedom and more seem to be just lying in wait while some Republicans have edged over the cliff to bring up these topics now. Those on the extreme right who belong to the birther crowd and getting more airplay are demanding or questioning the validity of our President’s birth place while demanding people stay out of their personal lives.  Both factions are odd and offensive … just sayin

Is it just me or is “this do as we say not as we do” Political Party of NO have your blood-boiling like mine because as the comments, complaints and vile talk about our President’s background, history and earlier behavior became major topics of discussion on the airwaves crops back up. The same people who call themselves Republicans, Tea party members and or Conservatives continue to feel they are above the questions and cannot be held accountable, questioned or treated just like the President. These same people have accused President Obama of withholding information from the public yet they get offended when asked to provide more information please because they are running for public office. I feel their constituents deserve to know, the public and Americans deserve to know how these people will vote on issues of religion…will their beliefs dictate to how the vote and impact our constitutional rights.

If you are listening and are paying attention conservatives and some conservadems are pushing the discussion of women’s rights, religion, race and gender preference up to the surface to rile their base again and  leading up to the 2012 the talk will become even more vitriolic.  I have to say how confusing it is to hear conservatives, mostly southern men still having a need to control women, their bodies, our healthcare needs, and our rights in the year 2011/2012.

 It’s bad enough that women on the Republican side mostly extreme tea party members say they are fiscal conservatives and want less government in their(our) lives yet topics like abortion, stem cell research/experiments and religious freedom have them not just flustered but their undies are in full bunch mode. I could not vote for anyone let alone a woman who feels I have no right to choose because they are pro-life. I am pro-life but people …women and families should have the right it choose alternative options. The fact is no one chooses to have an abortion just because and if nothing else having a safe procedure is better than having a woman be desperate enough to take actions that would put her life at risk. I happen to feel strongly that the notion of “It is my body” is has been pushed aside  and The Hyde amendment should be enough for folks on the right and or left to accept as the law of the land though more laws banning abortion creates more babies, families with more need more poor. I also wonder if as one conservative woman said… the need for babies to adopt is great and banning abortion could create the environment for parents who want to adopt…. What? My first thought was these people say they are pro-life, against anchor babies yet they want to implement some sort of baby factory for American families, which is so odd for a Political Party with that Family Values Platform they seem to live by. It always makes me want to scream hey, stay out of my life and like others I am sounding off the alarm because they will be working on making it harder for women to have the right to choose . We must all  ask how many in Congress will support the good’ole days and  back up these archiac bills . Though we are in 21st Century the ideology is barbaric and because the old school dogma crosses the line, it solidifies how elitist the comments and behavior from Republicans as of late. If you live under a Republican State or conservative ideology, which promotes a class system, that feels they want government out of their lives but not the people they represent or practices systematic discrimination or blatant hate, you should think about the impact repealing, replacing and eliminating will have on his or her own families, friend’s co-workers. The idea that some Republicans want to go back to a time when women and people of colour had no rights sounds silly but before you laugh, take some time and listen closely.

just when I thought, we were all moving into the 21st century

-sigh

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