Tag Archives: cheney

Getting sued is no fun. Most people try to avoid it. But not us. In fact, we’ve asked to join the people of Washington as co-defendants in the gun lobby’s lawsuit attacking Initiative 594 – our new universal background checks law.

Why’d we do it? Because 594 is keeping guns out of the hands of criminals. And it’s making our communities safer. We’ve spent the last two years fighting to pass the initiative and defending the initiative against the gun lobby’s attacks.

And we know how to beat them.

Make a donation right now. Join the fight!

We’re asking grassroots supporters to raise $35,000 by the end of the month – that’s midnight tonight – to help us build the 594 Legal Defense Fund. This is going to be tough fight, and we need all hands on deck.

We’re getting close to hitting the goal, but we’re almost out of time. Chip in a donation right now, and let’s show the gun lobby that we won’t back down!

Let’s do this!

Stephanie

~ FDA/USDA ~~ Alerts & Safety, ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Tell the FDA to Label Genetically Engineered Foods!

02/02/2015 Nativegrl77

You Have Right to Know if You’re Eating Genetically Engineered Foods
Tell the FDA to Require GMO Labeling on Nutrition Labels!

You Deserve the Right to Know What’s In Your Food

Tell the FDA to include GMO Labeling on the New Nutrition Labels!

Recently Vermont became the first state to require genetically engineered (GMO) foods to be labeled!

This is a huge victory: it makes Vermont the first state to require labels on GMOs and thus gives consumers the right to know what they’re eating. It also puts their neighbors in Connecticut and Maine that much closer to meeting their own requirements for labeling. Meanwhile, ballot initiatives to label GMOs are heating up for the fall in Oregon and Colorado, and the movement to label genetically engineered foods at the state level has never been stronger!

It’s great that people in these states will soon know what’s in their food, but what about the rest of us? Tell the FDA to include genetically engineered ingredient labeling on the new nutrition labels!

So why should we even care if we’re eating GMOs? Well, genetically engineered crops have been altered in a way that could never happen in nature. Companies like Monsanto and Dow (chemical companies) take genes from one plant, animal or virus, and shoot it into the DNA of another organism, like taking genes from a fish, and inserting them into a tomato. This is drastically different than how crops have been adapted since the beginning of human civilization, and these genetically engineered crops have been largely untested, and are unregulated by the U.S. government. They could have higher rates of allergenicity, and have unintended consequences for people and the environment.

Many other countries around the world ban or limit GMO foods entirely, and 64 countries including Russia, China, Japan, Australia, and the countries of the European Union all require labeling. So why doesn’t the U.S. have a federal labeling law?

The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), with about 300 member companies like Monsanto, Coca-Cola, Nestlé and Smithfield, represents the largest food, beverage and biotech companies, and has spent $54.7 million (on behalf of its Big Ag members) to defeat ballot initiatives on labeling genetically engineered foods in California and Washington. Instead of taking this fight state by state, the GMA would like to pass a bill through Congress that will stop all genetically engineered food labels nationally, and they’ve got a lot of money from their corporate members to spend to try to pass their bill.

The good news is, the Food & Drug Administration has the authority to require mandatory labeling of genetically engineered ingredients, and they could do it now. They’re already considering new content and designs on the nutrition labels that are required on every food package, and they could just include a requirement to label genetically engineered ingredients. We know that more than 90% of people want labeling on foods that contain GMO ingredients, and recently more than 20 states have considered their own labeling laws, so it’s time for the FDA to require GMO labels on all foods in the U.S.!

The FDA is accepting comments until June 3. Please take action now to let the FDA know that you want labels on all genetically engineered foods.

Thanks for taking action,

Sarah Alexander
Deputy Organizing Director
Food & Water Watch
act(at)fwwatch(dot)org

Monsanto, Nestlé, Dow and Pepsi don’t want genetically engineered foods to be labeled, but more than 90% of Americans do.

The Food and Drug Administration could require mandatory GMO labeling as part of their new nutrition label, and give people the right to know what’s in their food.

Please join Food & Water Watch in telling FDA to require labeling of all genetically engineered ingredients on the new nutrition label.

Thanks for all you do!

Bob Fertik

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Rashad Robinson, ColorOfChange.org …Congress is not up to the job

01/27/2015 Nativegrl77

Telecom companies are desperate to gain control over the Internet. They know they’re losing and they’re calling in all their favors to Congress. But Reps Ellison and Waters have a message to them: Our Net is not for sale.

Tell Congress: Stop stalling Internet freedom.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

the World must participate ~~ a better life, jobs, eduction, wages …

01/11/2015 Nativegrl77

Weekly Address: America Is Leading the World In this week’s address, the President reiterated the forceful and optimistic message of American leadership that he delivered in his speech before the United Nations General Assembly earlier this week. America is leading the world against the most pressing challenges, including the fight to degrade and destroy ISIL, the effort to stop the Ebola epidemic, and the movement to confront the threat from climate change.

The world looks to America and its commitment to freedom in the face of uncertainty, and as the President said, it will continue to do so for generations to come.

Click here to watch this week’s Weekly Address.

Top Stories

President Obama on Climate Change: “We Have to Answer the Call”On Tuesday, at the U.N. Climate Summit, the President highlighted the ambitious clean energy investments and carbon emission reductions the United States has made. And while we’ve stepped up to act on climate change, President Obama made it clear that it’s time for our global partners to stand up too, because “no nation is immune to climate change.”

We have to answer the call. We know what we have to do to avoid irreparable harm. We have to cut carbon pollution in our own countries to prevent the worst effects of climate change. We have to adapt to the impacts that, unfortunately, we can no longer avoid. And we have to work together as a global community to tackle this global threat before it is too late.

Check out the chart below and see why we can’t wait to act on climate change:

READ MORE

“We Choose Hope Over Fear”

On Wednesday, the President addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York City to discuss matters that demand the urgent attention of our global partners.

During his address, he called on the U.N. to join the United States and reject the cancer of violent extremism. Here’s what the President asked of the international community:

Degrade and ultimately destroy the terrorist group known as ISIL.
We must bring the world together, especially the Muslim community, to reject the ideologies of terrorists, intolerance, and extremism.
We must address the cycle of conflict that creates the conditions terrorist prey upon.
We must ensure that Arab and Muslim Nations focus on the extraordinary potential of their people.

“We choose hope over fear,” the President said. “We see the future not as something out of our control, but as something we can shape for the better through concerted and collective effort.”

On Thursday afternoon, speaking from the State Dining Room, the President announced that Eric Holder will be resigning from his current position as U.S. Attorney General. He applauded Holder’s passion and commitment to the American justice system and detailed the work he’s accomplished during his six-year tenure.

During his remarks, the President emphasized the superb job that Holder has done:

I chose him to serve as Attorney General because he believes, as I do, that justice is not just an abstract theory. It’s a living and breathing principle. It’s about how our laws interact with our daily lives. It’s about whether we can make an honest living, whether we can provide for our families; whether we feel safe in our own communities and welcomed in our own country; whether the words that the Founders set to paper 238 years ago apply to every single one of us and not just some.

President Barack Obama hugs Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., after statements announcing Holder’s resignation, in the State Dining Room of the White House, Sept. 25, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Holder will continue to serve as Attorney General until the President nominates his successor, and the successor is approved by the Senate.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Union of Concerned Scientists … Playground politics

12/17/2014 Nativegrl77

A small group of lawmakers are dead set on stopping the EPA’s Clean Power Plan.Don’t let them get away with it.Fight for strong limits on global warming pollution with your tax-deductible gift.

Donate Now

Or read on to find out how we’re fighting on the state level this year.

Here’s what a Texas lawmaker recently said:

“What if we just said no [to the Environmental Protection Agency’s new rules on power plant pollution]? There is a precedent in Texas to say we’re not going to be under the federal government’s boot.”¹

He might as well have said, No! We don’t have to follow the rules! That sort of thing is barely acceptable on the playground—as a way of setting national policy, it’s downright dangerous.

Yet it’s happening now: Twelve states are suing the EPA to block new rules on global warming pollution.² And even if they lose, there are a string of bills in state houses around the country to gut progress on clean energy and protect fossil fuel interests—in effect, to roll back years of work and victories you and I have made possible.

That’s why UCS is launching an ambitious new campaign next month to make sure states make real progress on clean air and renewal energy.

States have to devise plans to comply with new EPA rules that cut global warming pollutants from power plants. If we don’t have the right resources now, our opponents will beat us to the punch, and we’ll miss out on this opportunity to move states forward. Please don’t let that happen.

Our analysts and outreach staff need resources to take our hard hitting, science-based campaigns to even more states—to beat back attacks on the EPA and pass proactive legislation to ramp up wind and solar development and energy efficiency. What you give now determines just how hard we can fight in the weeks and months ahead—for science, clean air, and our families’ health.

Here’s how UCS will use your support to make a difference. Here’s how we’ll win:

We’ll mobilize the 20,000 scientists and technical experts in our Science Network to collaborate on new research and share their findings with lawmakers and regulators.
We’ll organize more than 450,000 individuals who’ve signed on as activists across all 50 states to make sure elected officials know they’re being watched, and ask them to follow the science on global warming, clean energy, and more.
We’ll work in key states to help them adopt strong clean energy and climate policies to meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s new standards for power plant global warming emissions, and using the momentum to create a tipping point for national climate action.
We’ll expose misinformation from corporate and political interests in the media, in Congress, and in state houses—so decision makers know the difference between science fact and corporate fiction.

Those are the same ways UCS members helped secure landmark fuel economy standards for cars and trucks, impose limits on global warming emissions from coal-fired power plants, and cut sulfur pollution from gasoline—all in the last two years.

It’s also how we helped kill nearly every single legislative attempt to roll back support for wind and solar development in the states. We even beat the Koch brothers in their home state of Kansas.³

And it’s how we’ll convince key states to strengthen their reliance on clean and renewable energy. On January 1, we’re immediately ramping up our work in three states where legislators are poised to adopt stronger renewable energy policies—Illinois, Michigan, and Minnesota. That’s just the beginning of our state-based work in 2015. The number of states we can reach depends on your support right now.

Legislative sessions open up in early January. We either get ahead of the fossil fuel industry or we don’t.

The only disadvantage we face when compared to the people who protect corporate interests and deny climate science is resources. It’s just that simple. We’ve got the science, the experts, the everyday people fighting for their futures and their families’ health. We’re making a difference, but with your extra generous support right now, we can—we will—do so much more.

A lot of groups have a role to play in fighting global warming. Ours is unique. We are the leading national organization built by and for scientists and people like you who look to science first when faced with threats like sea level rise, persistent drought, and toxic pollution. We are the trusted experts on climate science and clean and renewable energy. And you are the power behind each of our campaigns.

The new year is just around the corner,

Sincerely,

Ken Kimmell
President
Union of Concerned Scientists

P.S. As a UCS member, you should know you’re well respected by leaders in the climate movement. Just recently, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) said he “always follows UCS because they’re always right.” We appreciate that, and I can tell you—with your support—we always strive for accuracy and integrity in the defense of science. I’m proud of that, and hope you are too.

1. http://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/20140929-litigation-looms-over-state-co2-hearings.ece
2. http://www.ok.gov/oag/documents/Section%20111d%20Settlement%20Filing.pdf
3. http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article1138361.html