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Quick! True or False: Global warming will be good for farmers because they’ll be able to grow more corn. Know the answer? If you do then you’re doing better than many of the people we see on television these days. Keep going by taking our Got Science or Not Science quiz today and we’ll send you a “Got Science?” sticker for your effort. Test your global warming smarts and get your free “Got Science?” sticker today.
See what we’re talking about right here. We’ve gathered quotes from climate experts, politicians, and news media. It’s up to you to determine whether each quote has got science or if it’s not science. Click here to take the quiz. It’s pretty outrageous that the airwaves are still rampant with global warming deniers who will stop at nothing to mislead the public. So, that’s why the Union of Concerned Scientists and our friends at CREDO Action are fighting back with the truth. Test your global warming smarts and get your free “Got Science?” sticker Today. Then, show off your smarts to your friends and let them know how they can get a free “Got Science?” sticker too. Take the quiz. Get the sticker. Tell your friends. Thank you for standing with the Union of Concerned Scientists to help restore scientific integrity to the national conversation about global warming. Sincerely, |
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Tag Archives: ~ Culture & History
Help bluefin tuna before they go extinct
Bluefin tuna are often called the cheetahs of the oceans. That’s because they can reach speeds of up to 50 miles per hour. They can reach lengths of 10 feet and weigh up to 1,500 pounds. But, as magnificent as they are—the bluefin tuna may not survive much longer.
Rampant overfishing has pushed the bluefin tuna to the brink of extinction. Their populations are so low that they’re now considered a delicacy. An individual bluefin tuna can be worth over $100,000 and found at high-end sushi restaurants.
To make matters worse, fishermen in the Mediterranean Sea target Atlantic bluefin during their peak-breeding season. The overfished bluefin aren’t even given a chance to recover their populations. Large fleets of fishing vessels race to encircle whole schools with dangerous nets known as “purse seines.”
The second place that bluefin tuna breed is in the Gulf of Mexico. And, this year, the bluefin tuna have a new threat to contend with—the largest oil spill in U.S. history. The Deepwater Horizon oil disaster resulted in the release of more than 200 million gallons of oil and 1.8 million gallons of toxic dispersants. All of this pollution occurred during the peak of bluefin spawning season.
Clearly, the bluefin tuna need our help.
Please take action and urge the Obama Administration to call on the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas to protect spawning bluefin in the Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean Sea now!
| Sincerely, |
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| Phil Kline Oceans Campaigner |
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RE: Recount Alerts: Eight Outstanding
Midnight tonight marks a critical milestone in our unwavering campaign to move America forward.
That’s the deadline for sending urgently needed financial resources to the field to support eight Democrats in races that remain too close to call. The most important thing you can do right now to ensure we win these battleground races is help us raise the remaining $43,627 we need by tonight’s Voter Protection deadline.
In the early morning hours after Election Day, we sent staff and legal teams to help these members locked in battles but they need urgent resources to keep up the fight.
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I know I’ve asked a lot of you already. But what happens in these eight campaigns has enormous implications for the future. Having more Democrats in Congress will not only give us a head start on returning to the Majority in 2012, but it will also affect our ability to oppose the Republicans‘ radical plans for rolling back health care reform, dismantling the Department of Education and privatizing Social Security and Medicare.
Time and time again, you have refused to have your voices silenced by the special interests. Now we must reaffirm our commitment to ensure every vote is counted fairly and accurately.
Thank you,
Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House
P.S. There are only hours left before tonight’s Midnight deadline to send out money to our voter protection efforts. Please stand with me to make sure Republicans don’t repeat the questionable tactics they used in Florida in 2000. We need these eight Democrats in Congress. Contribute before Midnight Tonight to our Voter Protection efforts to help keep up the fight.
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Justice delayed – In Memory –
They’ve suffered years of discrimination. Now is the time for justice. 
Ask the White House to do right by Black farmers.
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For years, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) denied Black farmers loans and other aid easily approved for White farmers. Many Black farming families lost their land and livelihoods as a result. The farmers sued the government for damages and won — but only a fraction of them ever got paid.1
As a Senator, Barack Obama helped to secure a new settlement for the remaining Black farmers, but far-right Senate Republicans are committed to keeping the settlement from being paid out, and have repeatedly blocked funding for it over the last year.
It’s time for President Obama to bypass the Republican obstruction. The White House can directly address this injustice and pay these farmers what they’re owed out of administrative funds — and Congressional Black Caucus leaders have previously called for such a solution. 2
Please join us in calling on President Obama to do right by these farmers, and please ask your friends and family to do the same. It takes just a moment:
http://www.colorofchange.org/pigford/?id=2275-1238940
For more than a generation, managers at the United States Department of Agriculture systematically turned down Black farmers’ applications for loans and other critical forms of aid. These loans are the lifeblood of farming, and without them many Black-owned farms were foreclosed on — and resold to White farmers.
This insidious discrimination enabled some White farmers to prosper and grow at the expense of generations of Black families who sought to make a living off the land. At the same time, it devastated the Black farming community. While 14% of all farmers were Black at the turn of the last century,3 by 2002 only 1.4% were Black.4
Black farmers eventually filed a class action lawsuit against the federal government, winning a landmark legal settlement in 1999. At the time, the USDA paid only a portion of the farmers with legitimate claims, so a second settlement was announced — but Congress never approved funding to pay the remaining farmers.5
Republican obstruction has been the main stumbling block on the Black farmers’ long road to justice. Far-right Senate Republicans have repeatedly stood in the way of funding the settlement. First they demanded that the money to pay the farmers not add to the national budget deficit.6 Even after that requirement was satisfied, they once again blocked a vote on the appropriation.7
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are rightfully furious at the Republicans’ stalling, and have called on President Obama to bypass the legislative process by paying the settlement out of administrative funds.8 The White House has maintained that it doesn’t have the money to pay the $1.25 billion settlement — but at the same time, the administration promised to find $1.5 billion to pay disaster relief for wealthier, mostly white farmers in Arkansas.9
With Congress becoming even more conservative after November’s election, it is even less likely that funding for the Black farmers’ discrimination settlement will be funded in next year’s Congress. It needs to happen now.
The White House has worked hard to pass the funding through Congress, but now they need to show Congressional Republicans that they mean business. As the CBC pointed out, justice delayed is justice denied for these aging men and women. Every day, another farm is foreclosed on and more farmers die without having been compensated for the shattering discrimination they faced. Join us in supporting the CBC’s call for President Obama to fund the Black farmers’ settlement. And when you do, please ask your friends and family to do the same.
http://www.colorofchange.org/pigford/?id=2275-1238940
Thanks and peace,
— James, Gabriel, William, Dani, Natasha, and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
November 10th, 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/
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tempest Tuesday &some News
Today … President Obama is in Indonesia but will be cutting the visit short due to Volcanic Ash –
When will RTP constituents get it -it was Republicans who had absolutely no control fiscally, engaged in big govt by waging 2wars, 2tax giveaways to the rich without paying for them btw, the last guy permitted mass amounts of deregulation in nearly every sector of business which brought our economy to its knees – Republicans say they are fiscally responsible but what President Obama walked into does not sound like responsible behavior and it continues with tantrums about wanting to extend the Bush giveaways permanently without paying for them -and on whose backs?
Though we have pulled out most of our troops in Iraq there are over fifty-thousand serving on behalf of all Americans, we have Corporations in the private and or public sector who are not hiring enough to get us out of this recession, or have changed the rules by limiting the work available, Democrats just got voted out of being the majority in the House but still control the Senate and we have a Democratic President. We have far too many public servants with personal agendas, Tea Party or Teabaggers, who were only a small group a while ago have been able to put a few in the US Congress after the midterm elections. I am not pleased but the current rhetoric or exchanges among themselves is encouraging because it is clear that jobs and or our economy was a distraction used by the RTP and what won them the House. While we are all watching, waiting the truth is going to unfold and folks who voted them into office will finally see the ugly RTP agenda which is that they are going after President Obama instead of creating jobs or a better economy. We all know this group has very extreme ideas about what they will do when on the floor of Congress and while the voters decided to send a message to the folks on Capitol Hill i am still confused about what voting against your best interest does for anyone but make things even worse. I am upset about it and as a democrat i think people need to take control over their own ability to get good information and dissect it to make intelligent choices. The loss of the House, the things we all wanted as dems, libs and or progressives has been put at risk by all the anger votes made. I want to believe people truly had no idea what was at stake and treated the midterms as the no big deal state based elections. The only problem is only 4.7% of Blacks voted plus women and lgbt voters deciding to lean right is one of the most confusing moves by people who need support from the govt and only time will tell how much we all will suffer or for how long.
If the lean to the right was a tantrum because your group or issue did not get voted on yet or was passed but was not what you wanted that is childish behavior. I would also say people need to stop whining and understand the governing process because if not we all will suffer for it. I cannot ask enough how selfish could someone be to hold their vote hostage or vote right of center just because they are angry is not only offensive but makes me wonder how American is that. It is when Democrats are not united or in solidarity do we lose and only then is when i wish the Democratic Party was more like the RTP in so far as the group mentally they maintain until now did not wane no matter what glitches or tweaks that may be needed. The RTP knows if they can get a bill passed it can be manipulated maybe democratic constituents do not know this –
I will never understand anyone willing to vote against his or her best interests.
It is obvious that our economy was in much worse shape then what we thought maybe worse off than what the last guy told the Obama Administration before leaving never to look back again. . Certainly, it was unprecedented and while it is obvious they were flying by the seat of their pants trying to fix the core of the problem it seemed like there were several branches that if tweaked the wrong way could be big trouble. The Party of No has managed to stifle progress in Congress yet folks continued to hold the Obama Administrations feet to the fire and not the Republicans. In my opinion, Americans have been too impatient, are swayed by “the Media” definitely uninformed and maybe did not care about the facts because of their own status in the world. It is unacceptable to think twenty months is long enough to fix anything as big as the US economy, which reached out globally. That coupled with the overt effort on the part of i guess the Heritage Foundation, the chamber of commerce, big business and Republicans all decided to stop progress by any means necessary. Who knew that we have a group of people willing to throw Americans from all stages of life under the bus to gain back their country in an effort though the 2008 elections were legal done correctly and 53% of the population voted for Barack H. Obama. If anyone has been watching all the issues being juggled by President Obama which have been many and include jobs, pirates, terrorists, 2Wars, exiting a war, dadt, immigration, racism, signing over 200 bills that definitely will make positive changes to all our lives. The legislation that could have pushed us into the 21st Century probably will likely to be a memory if democrats continue to split off instead of unifying as a group to get things done during the lame duck session. It is also upon democratic constituents to participate by calling your member of Congress to let them know what is important call the Republicans to tell them you are an American and while they have fooled some we all are watching as they abandon the peoples business for tearing apart our government.
Is it just me or have democrats in Congress left the messaging up to the President… oh we have some Representatives like Patty Murray, Debbie Wasserman Shultz, Alan Grayson, Anthony Weiner, Sheila Lee Jackson, James Clyburn, Keith Ellison , Jim McDermott, Stabenow and McCaskil others but we need more of them getting on the air and touting the legislation as being absolutely positive things for Americans. The Democratic Party needs to meet and decide what direction they want to go; our President needs to tell them what he wants done and they all need to get on the same page and get it done. The fact that this President did not write the HCR bill himself or let the House write, create and pass bills, which is their jobs upset folks on the left because it was not single payer pouted and voted for Republican is beyond me. The midterms confirmed how uninformed most of the public is on what it takes to get a bill on the floor of Congress let alone passed and made a law. Again, I may not have been completely satisfied with the legislation but the alternative was much worse and knowing that legislation can be tweaked made it tolerable for me.
Twenty months ago there was a bipartisan agreement to bailout the big banks and since then they turned their backs on President Obama and while apologizing in public they promptly began giving huge bonus’s to their people, have continued to flex their muscles and refuse to lend money to the everyday people that hire folks, insurance companies are inserting millions to fight HCR for all, credit card companies are bashing people with fees, our Supreme Court has caused a problem for our Democracy, reports of at least 12 terrorist attacks have been waged on the US, republicans have held up the Presidents nominees for his cabinet and recently, we came close to having several planes bombed. I am sure i forgot something but this President has been busy and is making sweeping changes to a system that was broken. I believe we were in a perfect position to make the changes we voted for and needed but maybe the Obama Admin and the Democrats in Congress did not have a strategy, had idea what was in store for the midterms and had no back up plan or understood how serious that waterloo comment was. Those of us sitting back waiting for change need to become more engaged by making our voices heard in support of this President’s efforts to move Americans into the 21st Century. If you think any President can get legislation passed without the help of their base you are sadly mistaken. The tent of Democrats is huge and though HCR for example was not popular it needed to be dealt with will save money, create more jobs and discrimination based on pre-existing conditions got knocked out, kids in college don’t have to worry about insurance and while there are no death panels in the bill Republicans might create an environment similar by privatizing healthcare, medicare/caid and social security if given the opportunity. The midterm elections had so much at stake but folks voted in anger as Republicans said this that and the other about being fiscally responsible only to get on camera after taking over the House that they are if you pay attention listening are not just going after the President say they can get things done if President Obama does what that want which continues the irrational, uncompromising loud defiant obstructionist behavior Republicans have resorted to for 20 months and begs democrats to rise up against.
Other News …
G20 begins Nov. 12th
The WH does not support stripping out DADT out of defense bill
Missile launched off Coast of Cali -a mystery
GM lays off Mr Goodwrench
Amazon comes to Seattle with 10,000 jobs?
New Chevy Volt on sale in Seattle next Fall
President Obama will meet with new congressional members Nov.18th
CDC:59.1 million lacked ins in 2009 -outrageous
Seattle bank fees are the highest in the country 2.60 while the average is 2.33
11thousand cribs made in China sold at JCP 2003-2007 models have rail hardware prob
Tony Hayward admits they were unprepared to deal with the BP oil spill
CSPAN …
State Department Press Briefing
Be a Seed for Change 
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