Tag Archives: gay

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

A message from Norman Lear …


Norman Lear

Please let me be the first person to welcome you to People For the American Way and www.pfaw.org. Every day, PFAW is fighting hard for the core American values we share: Liberty, Equality, Religious Freedom and constitutional principles like checks and balances and fair courts that provide access to justice for all Americans, not just the very powerful.

In 1981, I became deeply concerned with what I saw as a fundamental attack on the American values I hold dear. Televangelists, then the public face of the growing Religious Right, were increasingly filling the airwaves with divisive messages that mixed religious dogma and politics and that challenged the faith of anyone whose politics were not aligned with theirs.

What I was seeing was not what our country was supposed to be about… this was not the American Way.

I woke up one morning with an idea for a television commercial to counter their televangelists, and the response was overwhelming. It turned out that the concerns I had weren’t mine alone — they were shared by millions of Americans from every walk of life. Taking the energy created by that ad, I joined with the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan of Texas, faith leaders and other concerned citizens to form People For the American Way Foundation, and three years later formed People For the American Way, an advocacy organization dedicated to exposing the extremism of the Far Right and defending the constitutional rights and values of all Americans.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll help you get more acquainted with PFAW, teach you about the work in which we are engaged, and offer ways to get involved in the fight for issues you care about. For now, I would like to invite you to watch the TV ad that started it all, along with a more recent video that shows you what we’ve been up to in the nearly 30 years since that ad first aired:

Watch the videos >

vids

And, of course, feel free to explore our web site at your leisure at www.pfaw.org.

On behalf of the entire board and staff of People For the American Way and our affiliate People For the American Way Foundation, thank you for your activism and welcome to the family. Together, we can help make sure that America is the best it can be, and that the promises of Liberty, Equality, Justice for All — the American Way — become a reality.

Sincerely,

Norman signature

Norman Lear, Co-founder

NEXT: Look for an email soon from Michael B. Keegan, President of People For the American Way.
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Patty Murray -Washington State thanks you …VoTE PMurray Nov.2


Yesterday, President Barack Obama joined me out on the campaign trail in Seattle.

I’m grateful that President Obama came to Washington state to show his support for our campaign and help us reach thousands of voters. I wish all of my friends and supporters like you could have been at the big campaign rally we had on the campus of the University of Washington.

It was quite a day! If you weren’t able to join us in person, I hope you’ll check out this video clip of the President’s visit:

click here to watch the video

While here, President Obama talked about everything that we’re doing to create jobs and fight for hard-working families across our state and across the country.

He also laid out in very clear terms the stakes in this election: whether we’re going to continue to fight for the changes we need to make to get our country back on track, or whether we’ll let our opponents — fueled by tens of millions of dollars from shadowy corporate and right-wing groups — try to buy this election and move us back to the failed policies of the past.

I’m running for re-election to the U.S. Senate because I want to continue to be your voice in Washington, DC — to wake up every day and do everything I can to help people and solve problems.

But I need your help to do that. Please click here to watch the video, sign up to volunteer for our campaign!

I’d like to thank President Obama for joining me here in Washington state to help us get our message out -– and I’d like to thank you for your continued support.

 

Let’s keep fighting hard over these last 11 days for a huge victory on Election Day!

Thank you so much,

Patty Murray
U.S. Senator

P.S. If you have friends or family who may be interested to hear about President Obama’s visit, or learn more about what’s at stake in this election, I hope you’ll forward this email along or click here to share on Facebook. Thanks.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Bringing ultra high-speed broadband to Stanford homes …Google-Official blog


Posted: 21 Oct 2010 09:06 AM PDT

Earlier this year we announced our plans to build and test ultra-high speed broadband networks in a small number of American communities. Since then, a team of Google engineers has been hard at work experimenting with new fiber optic technologies. And following a series of tests we’ve run on Google’s campus, we’re excited to announce the next step in our project. 

We’ve reached an agreement with Stanford University to build an ultra-high speed broadband network to the university’s Residential Subdivision, a group of approximately 850 faculty- and staff-owned homes on campus. Through this trial, we plan to offer Internet speeds up to 1 gigabit per second—more than 100 times faster than what most people have access to today. We plan to start breaking ground in early 2011.

To be clear, this trial is completely separate from our community selection process for Google Fiber, which is still ongoing. As we’ve said, our ultimate goal is to build to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people, and we still plan to announce our selected community or communities by the end of the year.

Stanford’s Residential Subdivision—our first “beta” deployment to real customers—will be a key step towards that goal. We’ll be able to take what we learn from this small deployment to help scale our project more effectively and efficiently to much larger communities.

Why did we decide to build here? Most important was Stanford’s openness to us experimenting with new fiber technologies on its streets. The layout of the residential neighborhoods and small number of homes make it a good fit for a beta deployment. And its location—just a few miles up the road from Google—will make it easier for our engineers to monitor progress.

We’re excited about this beta, and we look forward to announcing our selected community or communities for Google Fiber in the coming months.

Posted by James Kelly, Product Manager

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Meet Darryl Issa


Video is from 4/2008

Olbermann names Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., today’s ‘worst person in the world’ for his statements refusing 9/11 sicker workers aid and belittling the 9/11 attacks despite his constant terror-mongering–

“It simply was an aircraft, residue of two aircraft and residue from the materials used to build this building,” Issa said.

GOP Rep. opposes sick Sept. 11 worker fund

WASHINGTON, April 2 (UPI) — A California congressman said Wednesday he has reservations about a proposed new fund for rescuers sickened by the 2001 terror attacks, not supporting victims.

At a hearing in Washington Tuesday, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., balked at the idea of a new compensation fund for emergency responders who fell ill after the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, the New York Daily News reported.

Issa insisted the airliners that crashed into the World Trade Center towers in New York were not weapons. He suggested the cause of illness for the responders was simply debris from the collapse of the towers.


“It simply was an aircraft, residue of two aircraft and residue from the materials used to build this building,” Issa said.

Rep Darrell Issa (R-Cal) gets chided for his continued wingnut use of “Democrat Party” to refer to the Democratic Party. Barney Frank (D-Mass) came to his defense by calling the opposition the “Republicanistical” party. Serious times.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

An immediate crisis


Human Rights Campaign


We need 16 donations from Seattle by TOMORROW.

We’re fighting poisonous hate from right-wing groups and on the campaign trail.

Join

How would you feel seeing this headline on November 3rd?

Radical Conservatives Take Over Washington

It’s not farfetched. At a time when anti-LGBT bullying and harassment are already out of control, this election could usher a wave of extremists into Congress and bolster hateful right-wing groups that have already begun urging lawmakers to pass a national ban on same-sex couples marrying.

One prominent candidate founded a “cure the gays” group before running for Senate. Seriously. Last week, another declared he wants to abolish the U.S. Department of Education so students won’t be taught that “Susie has two mommies is an appropriate family situation.”

We’ve already raised more than half of the $250,000 we need by MIDNIGHT TOMORROW to expose illegal electioneering by radical groups and get hundreds of thousands of voters to the polls.

But we need 16 donations from Seattle to get us there. Can you help, Carmen?

With Tea Party funding and groups like the National Organization for Marriage running illegal ads, the risk of a radical takeover of Washington is shockingly real.

So we’re fighting back. Here’s how:

  • We’ve got organizers on the ground in key cities across the country, fighting against radical candidates.
  • We just filed a formal complaint with the IRS detailing illegal political campaigning by a tax-exempt nonprofit arm of the National Organization for Marriage.
  • We’re running innovative programs in faith communities so groups like the Mormon Church hierarchy don’t have the last word.
  • And we’re launching a massive effort to get pro-equality voters to the polls.

In the wake of so many horrific stories of anti-LGBT hate crimes and bullying, fair-minded supporters across the country – both LGBT and straight – are energized and ready to help. Over a million are wearing purple today in memory of victims of anti-gay bullying. But at the same time, every day brings new examples of right-wing vitriol – and unless we take direct action to fight them, they could soon have an even bigger platform for their hate.

Last week, the president of the extreme, anti-equality Family Research Council wrote in The Washington Post that it’s the “homosexual movement” – not bigotry – that causes feelings of despair among LGBT youth.

His offensive claim comes in the wake of a Mormon leader’s hateful sermon saying same-sex attraction is “impure and unnatural”… the Catholic Diocese of Minnesota mailing a misleading, anti-gay DVD to every single parishioner in Minnesota… and the National Organization for Marriage’s relentless, outright lies.

These groups do real damage with these comments, but hearing the same hate spouted from elected leaders – and seeing it in legislation like a federal ban on marriage equality – is even more dangerous. And that’s the immediate crisis before us now.

Can you help us reach the 16 donations from Seattle we need to fight back?

Election Day is only 13 days away. I hope you’ll stand with us.

Not backing down,

Joe Solmonese
Joe Solmonese
President

P.S. If you’ve already put a check in the mail or given to HRC by some other means, I can’t thank you enough. If you haven’t yet contributed, I hope you’ll join us today. Also, don’t forget to wear purple today! Learn more here.

Join