Tag Archives: Barack Obama

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Would you wear this t-shirt?


We’re working with some designers to create a new ColorOfChange t-shirt, and we wanted to get your feedback. Can you take a look at a design we’ve created and let us know what you think?

http://act.colorofchange.org/go/647?akid=1811.1174326.QBIe7B&t=2

Your feedback will help us decide whether to go with this design, and what changes to make to it.

Thanks and Peace,

— James, Gabriel, William, Dani, Natasha, and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
December 23rd, 2010

Help support our work. ColorOfChange.org is powered by YOU — your energy and dollars. We take no money from lobbyists or large corporations that don’t share our values, and our tiny staff ensures your contributions go a long way. You can contribute here:

https://secure.colorofchange.org/contribute/

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

a message from President Obama … Progress



This time of year, Americans around the country are taking the time to exchange heartfelt messages with friends and loved ones, reflecting on the past year. They write of achievements and setbacks, of births, graduations, promotions, and moves.

These messages allow us to overcome the miles that separate us. And they allow us to continue one of the most basic American traditions that has held folks close for centuries — the simple sharing of stories.

And as families gather around holiday tables this season, we also have the opportunity to share the stories of the change this movement has achieved together.

It is a narrative woven by individuals across America — in big cities and small towns, hospitals and classrooms, in auto manufacturing plants and auto supply stores.

These are stories of rebuilding, and of innovation. Stories of communities breathing new life into old roads and bridges, of local plants harnessing alternative fuel into new energy. Stories of small businesses getting up, dusting themselves off, and beginning to grow again. Stories of soldiers who served multiple tours of duty in Iraq now coming home — and enjoying the holidays this year in the company of loved ones.

These are stories of progress.

They unite us, and they are ours to share.

We’ve pulled many of them together in one place, PROGRESS. You can see what our reforms have meant to Americans in every state — block by block, community by community.

Click here to read about stories of progress in your area — and share them with your friends and family.

The reforms that we fought long and hard for are not talking points.

And their effects don’t change based on the whims of politicians in Washington. They are achievements that have a real and meaningful impact on the lives of Americans around the country. They are achievements that would not have been possible without you. PROGRESS localizes them — and brings them to life.

It tells of how a green technology business in Phoenix, Arizona, is using a grant through the Recovery Act’s Transportation Electrification program to bring the first electric-drive vehicles and charging stations to cities around the country.

It tells how, thanks to closing the “donut hole” in prescription drug coverage, a diabetic woman in Burlington, Vermont will no longer have to choose between purchasing her monthly groceries or the insulin she needs to survive.

It tells about how 70,000 Washington residents’ jobs were saved or created by the Recovery Act.

And about how, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, 21,300 small businesses in Washington’s 7th Congressional District are now eligible for health care tax credits — and how 8,900 residents in Washington’s 7th with pre-existing conditions can no longer be denied coverage.

There are thousands more stories like these.

In the coming days, as we gather with our loved ones at dinner tables around the nation, let’s pass them on. Let’s celebrate the spirit of service and responsibility that brought them to fruition. And let’s steady ourselves with the resolve to continue pressing forward.

Because the coming year will hold new challenges — battles that have yet to be fought, and stories of progress that have yet to be written.

Take a look at the progress we’ve made in your area — and share the stories you read with your friends and family:

http://progress.barackobama.com

Happy holidays, and God bless,

Barack

P.S. — Last week, seven OFA volunteers joined me at the White House for a special meeting — and they brought along your feedback from the Vote 2010 campaign. It was incredibly meaningful for me to be able to hear directly from supporters like you. And your input will be front and center as we plot our course moving forward into the new year. Please take a couple minutes to check out some photos and stories from the meeting.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

FCC


Progressive Change Campaign Committee

BREAKING: Minutes ago, the FCC passed new rules — written by corporations — that will end Net Neutrality. For the first time in history, the U.S. government approved corporate censorship of the Internet, putting the future of online free speech at risk. Unbelievably, the person leading the charge was Obama appointee Julius Genachowski.

This violates President Obama’s campaign promise to protect Net Neutrality, but some media are reporting the corporate spin that this is a “Net Neutrality compromise.” It’s not — there’s no such thing as half a First Amendment. We need to set the record straight.

If you’re on Twitter, please click to share this: NEWS: @FCC breaks Obama promise, allows corporate censorship – no Net Neutrality rules. 3 things to know: bit.ly/eVKyWH @WhiteHouse

If you’re on Facebook, click here to spread the word.

By sharing, you can help us spread the top 3 reasons the rules passed today are a giveaway to big corporations and break Obama’s promise:

  1. They enshrine different rules for wired and wireless Internet — allowing big corporations to censor on your mobile phone
  2. They allow corporations to set up tollbooths online, stifling new innovators like the next YouTube who can’t pay the fees the old, crusty corporations can pay
  3. For the first time, they embrace a “public Internet” for regular people vs. a “private Internet” with all the new innovations for corporations who pay more — ending the Internet as we know it

A more detailed explanation is here. Please pass this email to your friends so they know not to believe the corporate spin.

And click here to share on Twitter and here to share on Facebook.

Thanks for being a bold progressive,

Jason Rosenbaum, Adam Green, Stephanie Taylor, and the PCCC team

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

AFGHANISTAN: Grading America’s Nine-Year War


One year after announcing its Afghanistan strategy, which involved sending approximately 30,000 new U.S. troops to implement a broad counterinsurgency strategy to reverse the Taliban‘s gains, the Obama administration released a new  review Thursday noting “some real military gains, but [which] acknowledges that they remain fragile and that NATO troops will need more time to achieve their goals.” Reviewing the strategy, Center for American Progress expert Caroline Wadhams wrote in Foreign Policy, “One year later, tactical successes on the battlefield do not add up to lasting strategic progress in the war in Afghanistan. Des pite a huge infusion of money and troops, we appear to be standing in place.”  Appearing on Meet the Press on Sunday, Vice President Biden spoke about plans to begin transferring security authority to the Afghans themselves next year: ” We’re starting it in July of 2011 and we’re going to be totally out of there, come hell or high water by 2014.” The same day, a member of the NATO-led force was killed, “taking the total number of foreign troops killed in 2010 to 700, by far the deadliest year of the war since the Taliban were toppled in 2001.”

IS THE SURGE WORKING? : The administration’s review states that Taliban “momentum has been arrested in much of the country” and “reversed in some key areas.” However, analyst Josh Foust wrote that the review “gives no indication of what to expect moving forward. … While the implied threat of al Qaeda is peppered throughout the review document, there is no indication of how the large military campaign under way there now actually contributes to the national security of the United States — there are no details of which threats are being undone in Afghanistan or Pakistan.” Wadhams writes that “without shifts in the current political structures in Afghanistan, it will be sim ply futile for the United States and its NATO allies to wage continued war on behalf of a government that cannot consolidate domestic political support without indefinite massive international assistance and troops.” Meanwhile, Wired Magazine reported that “the air war over Afghanistan has reached a post-invasion high,” and “Afghan anger over air strikes is soaring as well.” Noting the problem of insurgent safe havens in neighboring Pakistan, Wired’s Spencer Ackerman characterized the strategy review this way: “One year and 30,000 new troops later, Afghanistan is peripheral to the Afghanistan war,” adding that the administration’s review makes clear that “this is a U.S. drone war in Pakistan with a big, big U.S. troop component next door.”

PAKISTAN: According to a November report by the Center American for Progress, core U.S. security interests in the region “center on reducing the risk of terrorist attacks by Al Qaeda and its affiliated networks against the United States and its allies. They also include increasing the political stability of the Pakistani state, a country of 170 million people with nuclear weapons.” The report concluded that “current U.S. efforts in Afghanistan are fundamentally out of balance, and they are not advancing U.S. interests and stability in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the region.” A National Intelligence Estimate released earlier this month stated that “there is a limited chance of success unless Pakistan hunts down insurgents operating from h avens on its Afghan border.” Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, assured reporters that “[Pakistani military chief] General Kayani and others have been clear in recognizing that they need to do more for their security and indeed to carry out operations against those who threaten other countries’ security.” But Bruce Reidel, a former C.I.A. official  who led a White House review of Afghan strategy last year, said, “[W]e have to deal with the world we have, not the world we’d like. We can’t make Pakistan stop being naughty.”

AFTER HOLBROOKE: On December 13, Richard Holbrooke, “the Obama administration’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan since 2009 and a diplomatic troubleshooter who worked for every Democratic president since the late 1960s and oversaw the negotiations that ended the war in Bosnia,” died in a Washington, D.C. hospital due to complications from a torn aorta. President Obama paid tribute to Holbrooke as “atrue giant of American foreign policy who has made America stronger, safer, and more respected.” Responding to Petraeus’ remembrance of Holbrooke as “my diplomatic wingman,” Center for American Progress Action Fund’s Matthew Yglesias wrote, &quo t;The affection and respect Petraeus expressed were doubtlessly both genuine, but the sentiment is mistaken. It reverses the proper relationship between civilian and military authorities — generals and their troops are supposed to serve political objectives outlined by civilians, not view civilians as adjuncts to military campaigns.” As CAP’s November Afghanistan report asserted, “[m]ilitary operations drive our strategy while the political and diplomatic framework essential for long-term stability in Afghanistan remains undeveloped.” Reversing this dynamic is a key challenge for the Obama administration, one that reaches beyond Afghanistan.

~ my 2cents ...

wicked weekend & some News


It has been a tough December what with the wicked wind, rolling thunder, and flashes of lightening. I say that knowing folks are out there taking incredible photos of what it all looks like and will be online soon which most of us enjoy. It is cold here but not anywhere close to the mid-west and or east coast.

Today, we all woke up knowing dadt is now a thing of the past and while I have no friends severing in the military, anymore we all know people with friends, co-workers, and neighbors serving who will sigh with relief once President Obama signs the repeal and it becomes law as soon as possible. We all need to be reminded that dadt is a civil rights issue on all angles and as one wants to move into the 21st Century repealing dadt clearly is not only a great achievement it is another move toward equality for all.

I will admit i was sad but not surprised that the Dream Act failed to pass. The Dream Act failure as the media remarks is only a postponement of what will become a reality some day hopefully. I dare anyone in Congress who voted against Dream Act to say there were no dreamers in their own families who came to the U.S. We are a country built by immigrants (Dreamers) by the way. The unconscionable behavior on the floor of Congress during the Dream Act debate was offensive, embarrassing and quite sad because my family like so many of us would not be here today had people been as discriminatory as those speaking out against the Dream Act on the floor of Congress. I would like to tell Republicans that the current Dreamers though young are future American Dreamers who will be voters.

The bad and or guilty party if the tax deal had not passed would have definitely been on the backs of the Republican Tea Party. It is obvious some in our own democratic party have to be held accountable too as our President encouraged them to get certain legislation done 20 months ago but even our own blew him off with comments of we have plenty of time before the midterm elections. The fact that most if not all members of Congress spent a lot of time posturing at the podium with banter of lets debate this thing, lets go through this bill line by line blah blah was disappointing with the end result being a Congress that will be controlled by the Tea Party and not democrats. The frequent delays has put some of President Obama’s most important campaign promises at risk with only a few days left in 2010 to debate, vote, and pass legislation. Thankfully, the tax deal passed and President Obama signed it. I know a lot of our democratic members of Congress had to hold their noses while voting for the tax deal. This voter thanks all those who decided to think about, support, and give help to folks that needed though it is with great sadness the 99ers left out of the deal will be included in some legislation soon.

It is my opinion that President Obama has proved himself to be one of only a few grown-ups in the negotiation room and while the Republican Tea Party decided to use Americans as pawns over two years ago, their effort to not only get what they want but make the President look bad by holding Americans hostage continues. I know we all see the Republican Tea Party putting one over on Americans who voted them into power during the Midterm elections on a daily basis. The lying, laughing while on the floor of Congress is getting old, tiring and most certainly seems un-American. The tax deal took the President a couple of days, maybe a week, or two to get done with some objections in both political parties. The biggest revelation folks should take from the midterm elections – is if you voted for Republicans, you made a big mistake. The overt and relaxing but negative position certain Republican members of Congress have and it definitely is not with Americans. In addition, the RPT campaigned on listening to Americans, creating JOBS JOBS JOBS, and fixing the economy. They actually succeeded in showing us exactly what is most important to them and it is all about money for the rich. It also shows how cold they are by announcing a lock step decision to vote against the very legislation that could help Americans and participated in with plenty of perks for various Republican Tea Party members only to back away from the agreed upon changes and vote the bills down. The political games began two years ago and yes I keep saying the same thing…they continue. Even with all the nonsense, the Republicans have thrown at him. It is outstanding, incredible that President Obama has achieved more successes than previous President’s have and or in Congress. It is obvious that President Obama’s successes need more recognition by the media and those who have been on the negative bandwagon for the last two years.

Lastly, we only have a few days left before the new Congress gets seated and the current debates going on in the Senate over the last few weeks regarding START, FY2011 and the 9/11 Responders  not only shows a clear disrespect from Republicans but a determination to stay dedicated to what Jon Boehner said 2 years ago. The Republican Tea Party has tried to ruin President Obama and his Presidency hoping to find that one legislation that will become his waterloo. I would like to ask -How is that working out for you so far. I do not know about anyone else but I say stay the course until and unless leaning left is required President Obama because We the People voted you in to fight for the Middle Class and in doing so we expect you to as well as keep those campaign promises. I think the Democratic Party looks better when our President is bipartisan yet achieves wins for the Middle Class and in doing so 2012 looks good for him and the Democratic Party.

The choice is easy, either you vote for helping out your fellow American or you vote no so that the President does not get a victory and gotta say if a political party can vote against  helping the 9/11 responders we have to wonder who these people truly represent.

CSPAN …