Pigs on drugs

Consumer Reports tested pork and found widespread bacteria contamination in most of the samples, much of it antibiotic-resistant. These drugs are widely used in large-scale pork production facilities to promote growth and prevent disease in crowded conditions.

Let’s save our antibiotics for when we need them. Join us in asking grocer Trader Joe’s to get pigs – and other food animals – off drugs! Send our fun holiday card to Trader Joes now!

Chris Meyer, Consumer Reports

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Most pork samples we tested were contaminated with bacteria resistant to at least one antibiotic. To avoid illness, wash hands after handling pork, keep the raw meat away from other food you plan to serve, and use a meat thermometer to be sure your ground pork reaches 160 degrees (145 for whole pork.) Read our test results here!

Not this time, Big Oil!
After years of delay the courts ordered tougher air pollution standards by Dec. 14, but Big Oil is lobbying hard to overturn the order. Tell the White House to put Americans’ health first and set standards for refinery and powerplant soot!

More red tape? No thanks!
Congress created independent regulatory agencies to protect consumers from marketplace schemes and unsafe products. But now some lawmakers want to handcuff them by adding another layer of bureaucracy — something corporations would enjoy. Learn more.

Today, I met a woman named Lyn Lyon. She’s a senior citizen from Virginia, and we invited her to the White House because she wrote in to explain why it is so important for all of us to make sure that taxes don’t go up on the middle class.

“Let’s show the rest of the world we are adults,” she said. “Living in a democracy, we can solve our problems by working together.”

All of us here in Washington have a little more than a month to find the kind of solution that Lyn describes. If Congress does nothing, every family in America will see their taxes automatically go up at the beginning of next year. A typical middle-class family of four would see its taxes rise by $2,200. That means less money to buy groceries or fill a prescription. It means a tougher choice between paying the rent and paying tuition.

So right now, I’m asking you to join Lyn and thousands of other Americans who are speaking out. Add your voice to this debate, and I’ll ask Congress to listen to the people who sent us here to serve.

Tell us why you think it’s important to keep taxes from going up on the middle class.

A year ago, during our last fight to protect middle-class families, tens of thousands of working Americans took action. They wrote in to us, and we put their stories on the front page of the White House website. They called, tweeted, and brought in their friends on Facebook — and sure enough, it worked. Congress listened.

The same thing happened earlier this year, when college students across the country stood up and demanded that Congress keep rates low on student loans. Lawmakers got that message loud and clear.

When enough people get involved, we have a pretty good track record. And that’s important, because this is our biggest challenge yet — and it’s one we can only meet together. I’m going to do my part — not just by sitting down with CEOs, labor leaders, and leaders in Congress — but by taking this to the American people.

I’ll go anywhere and do anything it takes until we get this done. But I can’t do it alone.

So I’m asking you to join me — and folks like Lyn. Add your voice to ours, and share your story. Because this debate is too important for Washington to get it wrong.

Will you tell us what $2,000 means to you?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/my2k

Thanks,

President Obama