Tag Archives: Congress

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Ben Margetts – Avaaz.org


Dear friends,


Tibetans risk being beaten or shot if they refuse to fly the Chinese flag. But now China needs international support to get elected to the UN Human Rights Council. Let’s build a massive outcry showing the world hasn’t forgotten Tibet. Sign now:  

SIGN THE PETITION

Tibetans who refuse to fly the Chinese flag above their homes risk being beaten or shot in the latest attempt to break their spirits. But now is the best moment in ages to bring hope to Tibet’s proud, but desperate people.

China’s leaders are mounting an intense campaign to draw a veil over their rights abuses and persuade governments to vote them onto the UN Human Rights Council. So if enough of us shine a light on what’s going on in Tibet — squashing an ancient religion, banning journalists, dawn arrests —we can get China to back away from its hard-line policy to be sure of getting the 97 votes it needs.

Let’s show the Tibetan people that the world hasn’t forgotten them. China is feeling the heat as 13 governments just called them out on human rights in Tibet. Sign to stand with Tibet, then share this with everyone. When one million have signed we’ll deliver it to crucial UN delegations, and make it massive in the media:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_tibet_loc/?biEWLbb&v=30816
Pressure on China is mounting. In an unprecedentedly strong show of support, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, US, UK, Switzerland, Sweden, Iceland and Austria just calledon China to protect freedom of assembly, religion and association in Tibet. This request arrives just days after aSpanish court indicted China’s former President for genocide in Tibet!
The situation is really dire. More than 120 people have taken their own lives by setting themselves on fire to protest the suffocation of the Chinese occupation and hundreds of thousands of Tibetans have been wiped out. China’s ongoing policies systematically suppress the Tibetan language, force people from their homes, and strictly control the Tibetans’ movement and religion.
China’s failed policies hurt China too, but having dug themselves in this deep, they need pressure to change course. This is the week that change can start. If enough of us speak up while China is under the global microscope, we can make sure our governments know we haven’t forgotten Tibet. Sign now and tell everyone — let’s build the biggest petition ever for Tibet and demand they hold China to account:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_tibet_loc/?biEWLbb&v=30816
Proud Tibetans are struggling against China’s brutal rule and long for change, but they can’t do it alone. No one can create changes that big alone.
That’s why we’ve come together for Tibet before. Let’s make this the moment where the whole world commits to the survival of the Tibetan people.
Our community was made for this moment.
With hope,
Ben, Alice, Patricia, Alex, Ricken, Emily, Sayeeda and the whole Avaaz team
SOURCES
UN criticises China’s rights record at Geneva meeting (BBC) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-24611657
Dalai Lama Says China Has Turned Tibet Into a ‘Hell on Earth’ (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/world/asia/11tibet.html
Spain probes Hu Jintao ‘genocide’ in Tibet court case (BBC) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24490004
Four Tibetans Shot Dead as Protests Spread in Driru County (Radio Free Asia) http://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/shoot-10112013200735.html
China denounces Spanish court’s Tibet case against ex-president (Reuters) http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/14/us-china-spain-tibet-idUSBRE99D09120131014 

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Cutting our deficit in half


Cutting our deficit in halfLast week a new report had some big economic news you probably missed: Since 2009, we’ve cut our deficit in half — and it’s falling at its fastest rate since World War II.

Here’s what a milestone like that looks like (in animated form):

Find out more about our falling deficit

In addition to improving our nation’s long-term fiscal security by reducing the deficit, President Obama’s working hard to help strengthen the middle class. And in the past three and a half years, businesses have created more than 7.6 million new jobs.

Take a look and pass it on:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/share/cutting-our-deficit-half
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

End ENDA


AAUW Action Network
“Kimya has a master’s degree in social work and nearly two decades of experience in the field. She was the manager of a unit of a long-term care facility for sufferers of Alzheimer’s and dementia. She enjoyed her job, and was good at it, but suffered through nearly a year of threatening messages, vandalism to her car and slurs uttered in the halls. In 2003, she was fired, her supervisors telling her, “This would not be happening if you were not a lesbian.” Kimya sought out legal help, but quickly learned that nothing in Michigan law protected her from being fired because of her sexual orientation.”1

Michigan isn’t the only state where Kimya wouldn’t be protected from blatant discrimination – in 29 states total, there is no law which explicitly protects a gay, lesbian, or bisexual person from being fired just because of who they are, and the same is true in 33 states for transgender people. But on Monday, the Senate will vote to change that.

On Monday evening, the Senate is scheduled to vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would provide explicit nationwide employment protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals. We need this law. People in every state deserve equal protection under the law regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Take action today: Urge your senators to vote for ENDA!

Current federal law already prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender, national origin, age, and disability – that’s why it’s illegal for an employer to fire a woman solely because of her gender or refuse to hire someone solely because of her age or religion, for example. However, there is no clear federal law barring workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

AAUW’s member-adopted Public Policy Program is clear: “AAUW opposes all forms of discrimination and supports constitutional protection for the civil rights of all individuals.” No one should be discriminated against in the workplace, and ENDA will protect that right to be free from discrimination at work.

ENDA is a bipartisan bill that would provide clarification that LGBT Americans have the same protections that have covered other classes of persons for decades. ENDA does not create, or imply, any rights for LGBT employees that every other employee doesn’t already have. Additionally, religious employers are completely exempted from the requirements of the bill, and other employers or employees who have religious objections are not forced to change their views or beliefs.

Hardworking Americans should not be kept from supporting their families and making a positive contribution to the economic life of our nation because of characteristics that have no bearing whatsoever on their ability to do a job. The time has long since come to end this injustice for LGBT Americans and pass ENDA.

This is our chance to make sure our senators stand up for civil rights. Take action before Monday’s vote: Urge your senators to pass ENDA!

1 Story provided by the Human Rights Campaign
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Purjury – Chevron


Amazon Watch
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You Get What You Pay for (Perjury, in This Case)

Having virtually all the money in the world often means you can buy silence, you can buy time, and you can buy lies. Chevron has demonstrated this time and again in its decades-long battle to evade accountability for deliberately dumping 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into the Ecuadorian Amazon.

The problem is that this time what Chevron has bought is a bag of lies in the form of false testimony from a thoroughly disreputable source, and they aren’t able to hide the price tag…

Read the rest on Eye on the Amazon »