Tag Archives: public

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Secrets and lies: NOM Exposed!


Human Rights Campaign

Don’t believe the lies:
NOM is not a respectful, tolerant group.

NOM Exposed

Sign the petition at
www.NOMexposed.org

Are you tired of the National Organization for Marriage, a.k.a. NOM, putting on a mask of tolerance for the media?

Are you sick of their claim that they speak for a majority of Americans – while they support extreme anti-gay zealots and keep their donors secret?

Well, we are. And today, along with our friends at the Courage Campaign, we’re launching a website that pulls back the curtain on NOM for everyone to see.

NOM Exposed uncovers shocking secrets so people can get the real facts as NOM throws its weight around in race after race this election cycle. We’ll post up-to-the-minute dirt on NOM over the coming months and years, so bookmark the site and come back often.

NOM recently released a slick new ad on behalf of Tom Emmer, the candidate for governor of Minnesota with ties to a group that condoned the execution of gays. The ad disguises NOM’s anti-LGBT agenda behind a fake claim of protecting civil rights.

NOM even had the gall to compare itself to Martin Luther King, Jr., flashing images of his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

It’s a flagrant distortion of reality – the latest in a history of deception since NOM opened for business during the Prop. 8 campaign.

NOMexposed.org is about spreading truth. We’ve spent months digging into NOM’s funding, shady ties, ethics violations, and more. We created this site so that every time someone searches for NOM – voters, elected leaders, reporters – they’ll get the real story. They’ll find out that:

  • Brian Brown, NOM’s President, has said that “allowing gay marriage is akin to allowing polygamous marriage.”
  • Not to be outdone, NOM founder Maggie Gallagher has said same-sex marriage is worse than polygamy.
  • NOM has close ties to the powerful and secretive right-wing religious group Opus Dei.
  • Robert George, the “reigning brain of the Christian right” and Chairman of NOM’s board co-authored the Federal Marriage Amendment that would have written anti-gay discrimination into the U.S. Constitution. He also believes that repealing antiquated laws banning sodomy will lead to incest.
  • To hide its political activities, NOM has blatantly flouted campaign finance laws.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve tracked NOM’s financial ties, showing how huge, secret donations have swelled its budget from $500,000 to $10 million in just three years. We’ve connected the dots to the hierarchy of the Catholic Church and the Mormon Church.

Now we need your help to get the word out – share shocking facts on Facebook and Twitter or spread the truth by simply passing this email along.

If you believe that strong families aren’t about “straight” or “gay” but about love and commitment; if you’re a person of faith; if you’re straight or LGBT, married, partnered or single – add your name and say “NOM Doesn’t Speak for Me.” We’ll share this petition with officials and the media in states where NOM is at work.

We’ve called NOM out before, whether revealing the audition tape for “Gathering Storm” or alerting the press to their lies. But NOM Exposed goes deep into the organization’s roots and represents a commitment to keep tabs on their activity and connect the dots for voters.

NOM wants to claim the middle ground. But people don’t know who they really are. We are not going to sit by and let them dictate the terms of the debate. We’re going to expose the lies – not just today, but every day.

Won’t you join us?

Thanks,

Joe Solmonese
Joe Solmonese

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Thursday …


In 48 hours, the world will know how committed we are to standing together and fighting together in these final five weeks to retain our strong Democratic House Majority.

On Thursday at Midnight, we will come upon one of the most critical FEC deadlines that we have ever faced. It is the final quarterly deadline of this campaign and one of the last times to effectively expand our advertising in battleground districts. Your support will make the difference between victory and defeat.

My strategists inform me that we are now just $242,668 away from making this crucial goal. I am asking you to stand with me before Thursday and answer President Obama‘s $1 million dollar call to action for House Democrats.

Please contribute $5, $10 or more in the next 48 hours and our matching program will provide an unprecedented triple match by a group of committed Democrats.

35 Days Until the Election

As President Obama said last week, when he issued his urgent call to action: “We simply cannot afford to spend the next two years wishing we had done more in this final push.”

There is no doubt in my mind that we will maintain a strong Democratic Majority in the House of Representatives — the people’s House — if we work together in these final five weeks.

Contribute $5, $10 or more in the next 48 hours and our matching program will provide an unprecedented triple match by a group of committed Democrats.

With just 48 hours left, there has never been a more urgent time to contribute.

Thank you,
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House

P.S. In the next 48 hours, the final quarterly deadline of this campaign will pass. This is the last time to effectively expand our advertising in our battleground districts. Your support will make the difference between victory and defeat. Please contribute today and a group of Democrats will triple your contribution.

~ Recent Post

Russ Feingold


Donate now to keep Russ Feingold in the Senate


All too often, those who proclaim to have strong principles regarding free speech or domestic spying or torture when “the other guy” is in power abandon those concerns when it’s their own party’s turn at the helm.

Not Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold. He’s the rare person of conviction who stood alone and heroically voted against the Patriot Act when every other member of the Senate voted “aye.” And his principles don’t change just because there’s a new resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

But Russ is in a tough battle. He’s trailing his well-funded opponent by a wide margin. If Russ loses, while party bosses on both sides of the aisle can conspire to keep Joe Lieberman in the Senate, it sends a message to every member of Congress that there is no popular support for those who put themselves on the line in defense of our first amendment rights.

Our country can’t afford for Russ Feingold to lose this election.

Please donate $5 or more to Russ Feingold and fight for our civil liberties. It’s critical we keep his voice in the Senate. Click here to donate:

http://action.firedoglake.com/feingold

Feingold voted against TARP under Bush, and he voted against it again under Obama. He can’t call on the fat cat bankers to fund his race like so many others can.

There’s only one yardstick, and Russ applies it to everyone.

Feingold’s opponent, Ron Johnson, has more “flexible” principles. He’s a millionaire installed by the party chieftans over the objections of local activists. When Wisconsin activists asked Johnson whether he supported the Patriot Act, he said “I wasn’t overly concerned with George Bush in power. I’m a little more concerned about the Patriot Act when you have Barack Obama.”

Johnson, like Joe Lieberman, is no fan of free speech either. Lieberman famously said that “in matters of war, we undermine presidential credibility at our nation’s peril.” Likewise, Johnson said that Feingold was “undermining our troops” by speaking out against the war in Afghanistan, and that it was “extremely harmful to our nation.”

Russ needs your help. Can you please donate $5 or more to help Feingold fight back against his Lieberman-lite opponent?

http://action.firedoglake.com/feingold

Russ Feingold is the best defense of civil liberties in the Senate. His defeat would be an enormous blow to the tenuous wall holding back things like biometric ID programs that Joe Lieberman’s Department of Homeland Security is simply salivating over.

The time is coming when Americans will have to decide: do we stand and fight for our right to privacy and individual freedom, or do we capitulate to the continued erosion of our civil liberties?

If you choose “fight,” then join me in fighting for Russ Feingold. Click here to donate $5 or more to Russ Feingold now.

http://action.firedoglake.com/feingold

Thank you for standing up for our civil liberties, and for all you do.

Best,

Jane Hamsher
FDL Action PAC

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Change.org Weekly …Save the Serengeti; Deporting Vietnam Vets; Musicians Boycotting Tobacco


September 20 – September 27
TOP ACTIONS THIS WEEK

Stop the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act”

by Center for Reproductive Rights

Sign the Petition »

Help Stop Corporate Polluters

by Alliance for Climate Protection

Sign the Petition »

Constitutional Amendment to end Corporate Personhood

by Joshua Ezekiel

Sign the Petition »

THIS WEEK on CHANGE.ORG

Save the Serengeti

Plus: Deporting Vietnam Vets • Musicians Boycotting Tobacco • North Carolina’s “Legal Rape” • Children Building Stadiums • “Bumfights” Star Redeemed

There’s a place in the world where global issues like climate change, poverty, threatened indigenous cultures and mass species extinction converge. It’s one of the most recognizable wild places on earth, and it’s in danger of becoming roadkill.

That place is the Serengeti, a World Heritage Site and home to the largest land migration of wildlife in the world.

The people of Tanzania have protected the Serengeti for the role it plays in their culture since the birth of their country. Now their government plans to sever it with a 31-mile, two-lane highway.

For those of us who are used to the six-lane highways stretching thousands of miles across the U.S., one little road might not seem like a big deal. However, this project has been mapped out right across the migration path of over a million wildebeest and other animals.

Wildebeest numbers will plummet if they can’t reach the Mara River in Kenya, impacting the food chain from the top down. Lions and other predators would face a food shortage. Without wildebeest grazing to maintain the grasslands, leading biologists warn that grass fires could destroy the region and turn it into a source of carbon emissions.

Despite the potential for ecological disaster, there has been scant media attention about the planned road. One of the few bright spots is the group Save the Serengeti, which is using Change.org to mobilize thousands of people within Tanzania and across the world to stop the road’s construction.

Join the call for the world community to help Tanzania find a better transportation solution than to build a road directly through one of the world’s natural treasures. Because we won’t have a second chance.

For more news and action from the world of change this week, see the summaries from your favorite causes below:

Deporting Vietnam Vets in IMMIGRANT RIGHTS

Valente Valenzuela has lived in the U.S. legally since childhood and received a Bronze Star for bravery in the Vietnam War. His brother, Manuel, also served honorably. Now, under zero tolerance immigration law, the decorated veterans face deportation for crimes from years ago, crimes that most likely resulted from war-related post traumatic stress disorder. Not only will 62-year-old Valente be sent back to a country he left over half a century ago, he’ll lose all veterans benefits and the ability to continue attending PTSD counseling. America cannot so callously turn its back on immigrant veterans who sacrificed for the red, white, and blue. Read more »

Musicians Boycotting Tobacco in HEALTH

The main sponsor of Indonesia’s largest music event, the Java Rockin’land Festival, is one of the country’s leading tobacco companies. The pressure is on for the headlining acts, including The Smashing Pumpkins and Wolfmother, to follow in the footsteps of Alicia Keys and Kelly Clarkson and refuse to continue their Indonesian tours unless tobacco sponsorship ends. But will they? Read more »

North Carolina’s “Legal Rape” in WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Welcome to North Carolina, where rape is legal! If you consensually begin having sex in the great state of North Carolina, want to stop, and your partner forcibly restrains you to continue having intercourse, even causing injury, well, too bad. Women’s Rights blogger Alex DiBranco reports that due to a 1979 state Supreme Court decision, a woman gives up all control of her body upon penetration and cannot withdraw consent. Recently, a young woman found this out the hard way when her rape case was dropped. Read more »

Children Building Stadiums in END HUMAN TRAFFICKING

In India, child labor is not uncommon. But even in India, child advocates were horrified to learn construction managers have been bribing poor parents to bring their children to dangerous work sites to build stadiums for the upcoming Commonwealth Games. The result? Children as young as three have been seen working in dangerous piles of rubble on a construction project that has already killed at least 45 people, including a two-year-old girl. It’s time to tell the Commonwealth Games Federation that child labor is not sporting. Read more »

“Bumfights” Star Redeemed in END HOMELESSNESS

One of the men featured in the infamous “Bumfights” videos of the early 2000s is clean and sober and filled with regret. Rufus Hannah, a 50-something homeless man, published a memoir this month. He says he can’t forget the day in 2001 that a 17-year-old cameraman paid him in alcohol to beat his friend until the man had a broken ankle and was carried off in an ambulance. How could he? He has “Bum Fight” tattooed across his knuckles. His redemption story is not just uplifting, writes End Homelessness blogger Josie Raymond. At a time when violence against the homeless is increasing, it’s also vital. Read more »
Have a great week. And remember: voter registration deadlines occur in many states at the end of the week – so make sure you’re registered today.

– The Change.org Team
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Stop the Outsourcing


Tell Your Senators:
Take Action to Stop Outsourcing
Click here to contact your senators.

Before they head off on their election season recess this Thursday, members of the U.S. Senate have the chance to take a real stand against shipping U.S. jobs overseas.

Urge your senators to end the filibuster of the Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act (S. 3816). Click here.

The bill includes critical steps to keep jobs in America. It would:

  • Give tax incentives to businesses that hire U.S. workers in place of those doing the same work overseas.
  • End subsidies for companies that move facilities or production offshore.

With unemployment hovering near 10 percent, this is a commonsense step to stop the bleeding of good American jobs.

Don’t let your senators head off to campaign without voting now to move this important legislation forward.

Thank you for working for working families.

In solidarity,

AFL-CIO Working Families e-Activist Network