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wandering Wednesday &some News


Last night, the President delivered his first National Oval office speech. It was obvious the speech would not be good enough for cable talking heads, mostly pundits.  This is a moment when we need to support President Obama; we need to be united in solidarity for this President. We all need to support and or challenge; some or us would like him to be more left of center.  I do feel like he needs to get rid of Rahm because his ideals may not be the same that voted him into office.  I also feel there are reasons none of us know and may never know why Rahm is the catch all or helper in chief… i wish it were someone more left of center but that being said… I still will support our President and his efforts to bring us into the 21st Century… We all need to work on the members of Congress to follow this effort

The speech dealt with what happened on the Gulf Coast, the commitment to make BP pay, admitted that the moratorium will hurt people but the need to make sure people are safe as well as the equipment and while the guys on Msnbc wanted him to put the skews on BP maybe jack them up? I have to say viewers like me prefer the calm and reasonable President of the United States. The last person was loud and though he was commander in chief, he took himself way too seriously at time and not enough on other occasions when possible. And we all have to be thankful that the Mccain/Palin ticket was voted down by 53%, the President will appoint specific people to move forward toward any and all progress and while he gave the people information; people seemed to think he was suppose to tell them everything involved. This is Not going to happen. It was strange to hear folks really feel he had left out the most important things.  That is a subjective comment; it is more likely that as the Commander in Chief, covered what he thought Americans needed to know. It will not be the last time he will address the nation because unfortunately this BP disaster will affect not just the Gulf Coast; this thing will affect tourism, the restaurant biz, hotels housing, as well as the seafood maybe for decades.

Currently, folks are listening to Steph miller show that had Washington State Congressman Jim McDermott; who has been a champion for us here in Seattle as well as all Americans; keep it up! her other guest: Chris Matthews has a documentary about the extreme right.  I will Not be watching the Chris Matthews show because it seems like it’s stirring up the right to act out and that is scary for me; it makes my skin crawl and though it’s an attempt to shine the light on the extreme right it just seems to give them too much air time for me.

Today, the President will meet with  BP executives and get these people to do what is right for the people on the Gulf Coast the Wetlands, Marshes, Estuaries and beaches …the list could go on. Hopefully the families of the 11 men/women who died that day will be given appropriate restitution because it looks like those oil workers were an after thought.

The republican party as well as 20 democrats voted against closing the gas tax loopholes yesterday; which was a disappointment to me as a voter knowing we need Dems in Congress to work for the people but are still siding with the oil industry; not for the People. The fight to keep the Clean Air Act alive was not that hard though it was offensive  Murkowski’s dirty twist got on the floor of Congress to be dealt; she tried and failed though 5 Democrats voted with her; which is a big disappointment for our Environmental progress. The Democrats who chose to weaken the Clean Air Act and failed should be held accountable:  Blanche Lincoln(AR), Even Bayh(IN), Mark Pryor(AR),Mary Landrieu(LA),Ben Nelson(NE),John Rockefeller(WV), which was surprising; why did Rockefeller vote against this thing. Please call your Senator if listed above to support progress into major climate change and energy policies we need for our children’s future.

Other News …


C-SPAN …

President to face BP execs at white house meeting

Pres. Obama will meet with BP executives where he will discuss a victims compensation fund for those impacted by the Gulf oil spill. BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, CEO Tony Hayward, Robert Dudley head of a new disaster management team and Lamar McKay, head of BP America will all to meet with the President to discuss an escrow plan as well as BP’s cleanup efforts. Later, a Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee will examine the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, focusing on ensuring a financially responsible recovery. Last night, in his first ever message from the Oval Office, he offered a plan that included making BP pay for all costs associated with the accident. Yesterday, top executives of the five largest oil companies, including BP America, testified at a House Energy Subcommittee hearing and attempted to distance themselves from the fallout of the Gulf oil spill.

watch President Obama: Oil Spill Address (Tues)
watch Pres. on BP meeting: c-span.org at 12:15pm ET
watch Senate Homeland Subcmte: c-span.org at 3pm ET
visit Complete C-SPAN Coverage: Gulf Oil Spill

Sen. Armed Services continues hearing on Afghanistan after Petraeus takes ill yesterday

During testimony yesterday at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Gen. David Petraeus took ill and was ushered out of the hearing room before he could further detail the planned 2011 drawdown of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The General returned 20 minutes later to reassure the committee that he was “just dehydrated” only to be dismissed for the day when Chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) announced the hearing in recess. The committee will resume today and continue discussions on the drawdown along with questions about the upcoming military offensive in the southern city of Kandahar, which has traditionally been a stronghold for the Taliban.

Conferees Continue to Negotiate Details on Financial Reform Bill

Members of the House-Senate Conference Committee on financial regulation meet for a third day of deliberations on the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010. The 43 committee members, or conferees, will debate and negotiate on sections of the bill related to investor protections, executive compensation and corporate governance – as well as rules governing audits of the Federal Reserve. The bill contains 12 major sections and spans almost 2000 pages.  The committee hopes to have a bill approved by both chambers of Congress and signed into law by President Obama by July 4th.

watch Hearing on Oil Spill Impact on Health

watch Interview with Sen. Dorgan

watch Pres. Obama Remarks to Military Personnel watch Pres. Obama with Local Officials

watch North Carolina Debate

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Wall Street just got shocked



As  Two financial giants told Congress not to kill a reform won by progressives and opposed by Wall Street lobbyists.

Can you join as a citizen-signer of their letter to Congress?

Wall Street

media reports have noted, a big policy victory resulted from our primary challenge to Sen. Blanche Lincoln.

When progressives attacked her for being a tool of big corporations, she offered a last-minute Wall Street reform proposal that the AP calls the “toughest” to pass the Senate. It restores Glass-Steagall-style rules that protect your bank deposits from being gambled away.

Conventional wisdom said Wall Street would kill this reform after the primary was over. But some big news just shocked the banks.

Two regional Presidents of the Federal Reserve — widely considered financial titans — wrote a letter calling on Congress to keep this proposal in the final bill.

Can you add your name as a citizen signer of this game-changing new letter? Click here to read and sign it.

We will deliver thousands of signatures to the key members of Congress who are negotiating the final Wall Street reform bill this week.

Plus, if thousands of us sign, we can generate a fresh round of media coverage around this letter — influencing the national debate and increasing the pressure on Congress to pass this big reform.

Our first goal is 10,000 signatures — can you help us reach it by signing today? Click here.

Thanks for being a bold progressive,

— Aaron Swartz, Adam Green, Stephanie Taylor, Shaunna Thomas, and the PCCC team

P.S. The Washington Post‘s Greg Sargent writes, “The Halter challenge was a show of force by the left. Period. If you don’t belive that, ask yourself why Lincoln suddenly found herself backing a tough-on-derivatives proposal in the Senate.” Progressives empowered these financial titans to speak out. Now, let’s elevate their voices by joining as citizen signers.

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What we saw tonight


Send to 5 people you know …
Tonight, in his very first speech from the Oval Office, President Obama addressed the nation on the BP oil spill and the crisis in the Gulf Coast.

Millions of Americans heard him lay out the path forward: Tens of thousands will continue to work around the clock to stop the oil spill and prevent further damage. The Obama administration will ensure that BP is held accountable, covering the costs of the clean-up and paying its debts to the people whose lives have been upended by the disaster.

The Gulf Coast will be repaired and restored for the people who call it home and whose livelihoods depend on it.

But, as the President said tonight, this is just the beginning — we need to ensure that a disaster like this never happens again.

The President presented a vision of a future where we as a nation are not held hostage by our dependence on fossil fuels — and a plan for an economy that invests in energy generated right here and creates jobs for millions of Americans in the process. Under his leadership, some of this is beginning to take shape — clean energy is starting to put people back to work across the country, building more efficient cars and trucks, repurposing old factories to manufacture wind turbines, and investing in research that will discover new energy technologies.

Critics will say that a real transition to clean energy is a challenge that can’t be met. But the President made it clear tonight that he will not back down — even if the path forward is not easy. And, as this movement has shown time and again, neither will we.

You are one of hundreds of thousands who have already stood with President Obama for a clean-energy future. Washington has put this off for far too long — America must act. We need your help today to show strong support for the President’s vision for a clean-energy future. Please pass on this email to five friends today — and ask them to join you in standing with the President:

http://my.barackobama.com/CleanEnergyFuture

Thank you,

Mitch

Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Backing down on BP


Washington Post: Pressure on Boehner Pays Off?

We did it. Over 50,000 of you answered our call to action and held Republican Leader John “Big Oil” Boehner’s feet to the fire over his outrageous statement that American taxpayers should foot the bill to clean up BP’s unprecedented environmental disaster in the Gulf. After relentless pressure from activists like you, Big Oil Boehner backed down.

But our work is not done. Check out this Washington Post report on Boehner’s retraction:

Last week, after taking good deal of criticism, Boehner’s office finally made it clear that he supports holding BP responsible for the costs of not just the cleanup, but damages, too. But his office wouldn’t endorse any particular legislative means to make this happen.

Did you catch that? While Democrats in the House continue to fight tooth and nail to lift the outrageous “liability cap” that limits how much of the cleanup cost BP will is responsible for, Republicans continue to defend their fat cat Big Oil friends who line their campaign coffers.

Thank you for signing our petition last week calling on Republicans to hold BP 100% accountable. Help us send an overwhelming grassroots response and forward this email to five of your friends right now and encourage them to sign at BoehnerBPBailout.com. Then, share the petition on Facebook and Twitter!

Thanks for all you do,

Jon Vogel
Jon Vogel
DCCC Executive Director

Sign the Petition

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ThinkProgress.org


UNDER THE RADAR

BUSINESS — BP CALL CENTERS ARE JUST A ‘DIVERSION’: Having caused the greatest environmental disaster in American history, BP is now scrambling to defend its public image by running expensive TV ads, buying space on Google search results, and hiring former Bush and Cheney aides as public relations officials. While BP has boasted of its call centers in an attempt to demonstrate that it’s responsibly taking care of the oil spill and listening to public complaints, this effort’s credibility is now seriously questioned. One of BP’s contracted phone operators just came forward to KHOU in Houston, revealing how she and the other 100 operators at her site are merely PR props. Although they are supposed to be collecting and passing along ideas for clean-up and requests for spill-related aid, she says BP is not interested in doing anything with the information the operators receive. “We take all your information and then we have nothing to give them, nothing to give them,” she says. The calls are “non-stop,” but the contracted operators are just “a diversion to stop [calls] from really getting to the corporate office, to the big people.” Some operators “don’t bother” taking notes during their calls. The anonymous tipster laments how “it’s so frustrating when these people live right there and nothing is being done to help them.” BP officials acknowledge that this call center has received over 200,000 phone messages, yet they “can’t say just what percentage of calls is returned.” The Center for American Progress’ (CAP) Senior Fellow Tom Kenworthy and the Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson have argued in a recent report that “[f]ederal agencies, not BP, should handle spill response hotlines for volunteers, technology ideas, affected wildlife, and others. Full call records need to be logged with incident reports and technology ideas presented publicly on dynamic websites.”