Tag Archives: Florida

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Death sentence for seahorses? … Pulin Modi, Change.org


Tell the National Marine Fisheries Service to protect delicate dwarf seahorses.                       
      Sign the Petition

Help Protect Delicate Dwarf Seahorses

Started by: Center for Biological Diversity, AZ.

In response to a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity, the National Marine Fisheries Service has agreed that the dwarf seahorse may warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act and is accepting comments until July 3 before making a decision. The smallest seahorse in America, the dwarf seahorse faces big problems: water quality degradation in the Gulf of Mexico, pollution from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and cleanup and, most importantly, loss of their seagrass habitat.

Dwarf seahorses are habitat specialists, so as seagrasses disappear, the seahorses vanish with them. More than 50 percent of Florida seagrasses have been destroyed since 1950, and in some areas losses are as steep as 90 percent. These one-inch-long fish are not the only wildlife that depends on seagrass to survive, but they are the cutest.

Dwarf seahorses form monogamous pair bonds, and every morning they meet to perform a greeting dance. As with other seahorses, females place scores of eggs inside the males’ pouches, and the males then give birth to even tinier versions of adults. Boat propellers, shrimp trawlers and ocean acidification are all harming the seagrass these delicate animals need to survive.

Please take a moment right now to write to the Fisheries Service and tell it to grant dwarf seahorses the protection they so dearly need.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Provisional Ballots … Know about your right to VOTE


Provisional Balloting

1- 866- Our – VOTE 

www.866ourvote.org

A provisional ballot is used to record a vote when there is some question about a voter’s eligibility. Provisional ballots may be utilized when the voter’s name is not on the voter list, the voter’s eligibility is challenged pursuant to state law, the voter is in the wrong polling place, or the voter cannot provide the ID required by federal or state law.

The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (“HAVA”) guarantees that any voter who shows up at the polling place, anywhere in the country, who is not able to cast a regular ballot is given a provisional ballot. After the election, the appropriate state or local election entity will determine if the voter was eligible using the information on the provisional ballot envelope, voter registration records and any other available source. If the election entity determines the voter was eligible, it will count the vote and notify the voter of the outcome. Additionally, under HAVA, any time polling hours are extended, voters are required to vote using provisional ballots.1

In the 2004 election, 1.9 million U.S. voters cast provisional ballots. However, only 1.2 million (64.5%) of these provisional ballots were counted.2

Provisional balloting allows voters to meaningfully exercise their right to vote on Election Day, but there are problems. First, many poll workers are not trained properly with regards to provisional balloting. They frequently fail to inform voters of their right to cast a provisional ballot give voters incorrect ballots and misinform voters about how to use provisional ballots or whether and under what circumstances their provisional ballot will count. Second, there is a lack of clear and uniform standards for counting provisional ballots, especially on the issue of whether or not to count provisional ballots cast outside a voter’s assigned precinct. Twenty-seven states do not count provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct, while seventeen states count provisional ballots as long as they are cast in the correct county. The issue of whether to count provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct has a tremendous effect on election results. A study conducted after the 2004 election indicates that jurisdictions that count provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct count almost 72% of provisional ballots cast in the jurisdiction, while jurisdictions that only count provisional ballots cast in the right precinct count only half of all provisional ballots cast.3

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

How to steal an election … Judd Legum from – TP


You don’t need a Ph.D. in political science to know that Florida could decide the election this November.

So it caught ThinkProgress’ attention when Florida Governor Rick Scott, a close ally of Mitt Romney, started a massive purge of registered voters from the rolls a few weeks ago.

The national media? They completely ignored it.

Not us. We broke the news that HUNDREDS of fully eligible U.S. citizens, mostly Democrats and Latinos, were being improperly targeted. We even identified two 91-year-old WWII vets who were about to have their voting rights stripped.

It’s not just Florida. We need to raise $30,000 by Monday to expand our coverage to other critical swing states where voting rights are under attack—Ohio, Colorado, and Virginia.

Please chip in $5—or whatever you can—right now so we can get to work before it’s too late. The outcome of November’s election could very well hang in the balance.

After ThinkProgress took the lead, the national media started paying attention. Our reporting was cited extensively on cable news networks like MSNBC and precipitated a powerful editorial in The New York Times.

Late last week, following extensive reporting throughout Florida by ThinkProgress, the Justice Department sent Rick Scott a letter declaring the purge illegal and demanding he put a stop to it.

We are making a difference.

But we can’t stop with Florida. This election, and our democracy, are just too important. We need researchers and reporters on the ground right now, reporting the truth.

Chip in $5 right now so ThinkProgress can investigate and expose voter suppression across the country.

Best,

Judd Legum
Editor-in-Chief, ThinkProgress.org

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

a message to Mark Oxner – Alan Grayson just say NO to Racism



Someone Please Explain This to Mark Oxner.           

           

           

           

In 2010, my opponent Dan Fanelli ran a TV ad arguing that white people should not be “pulled out of line at the airport,” because it’s an “invasion of our privacy,” and it’s “time to stop political correctness.”

Apparently, Fanelli had never heard of white terrorists Timothy McVeigh or Ted Kaczynski.  But he may have heard later about Jared Loughner, who killed six people in his attempted assassination of Rep. Gabby Giffords, and Anders Breivik, who killed 93 people in Norway.

Well, the Silly Season is upon us again.  My opponent Mark Oxner has topped Dan Fanelli.

Oxner is running an ad depicting Barack Obama, our first African-American President, as the captain of a slave ship.  Populated by white children in chains.

The ad does feature some utterly incoherent, random references to “corporate subsidies,” “free healthcare,” bank bailouts, “the 99 percent,” Guy Fawkes, Cialis and “my husband’s solar company.”   Much like a fevered, quick-cut dream of a junkie, strung out on meth.  Or Glenn Beck.  One or the other.

But the centerpiece of the ad is a maniacal photoshopped image of President Barack Obama, shouting “uh, no questions on this ship.”  Plus a tight close-up of two 10-year-old white girls, in chains, rowing furiously.   And in case you missed that oh-so-subtle point, there are balloons with the President’s campaign logo gently floating up and down, and the ship is called the “U.S.S. Obamaboat.”

In other words, prejudiced, demented garbage.

And I’m in the ad; my head is photoshopped onto the body of a parrot.  Because, as everyone knows, I never have any thoughts of my own.

When Oxner posted this ad on YouTube, he understandably disabled the “like/dislike” ratings function, perhaps knowing that in Fanelli’s case, “dislike” beat out “like” by 10-to-1.  Oxner also has assiduously deleted the cascade of criticism that was posted.

But he can’t censor the entire Internet.  What did people say about Oxner’s ad?  Well, I’ll give you a hint.  If you google “Oxner racist,” you get 26,000 hits.  Alternet called it “overt racism.”  The Huffington Post called it “bizarre.”  Facebook, without even bothering to comment on it, simply banned it.

Why is Mark Oxner running for Congress?  Because KKK Grand Wizard David Duke isn’t a Florida resident?

I try really hard to give people good reasons to vote for me.  Things I stand for.   Things I care about.  Things I’ve done.  Things I’m going to do.  But Mark Oxner has provided one of the best reasons I can think of:  if I’m elected to Congress in November, then Mark Oxner won’t be.

We have set up a special ActBlue page, in honor of Mark Oxner, called “Beat the Bigot.”  Because in every election, even if there isn’t always someone to vote for, there’s always someone to vote against.  If you are just as disgusted with racist cranks like Mark Oxner as I am, then click here, and do something about it.

Courage,

Alan Grayson