Tag Archives: United States Department of Justice

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

DADT … Jim Messina, BarackObama.com


 President Obama and our military service chiefs certified the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

In 60 days, it will be done.

This is huge and welcome news for every one of us who opposes discrimination of any kind. But now, the fight for equal rights moves on.

Here’s the next front: This week the President endorsed a bill to repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, a discriminatory law that forces the federal government to ignore the rights of those in same-sex marriages, even those performed in states where gay marriage is legal. The New York Times has said it “ranks with the most overtly discriminatory laws in the nation’s history.”

President Obama sees repeal as a moral and legal necessity, while the Republican candidates oppose it. But millions of people — gay and straight — are watching what they’re doing, want this law gone, and will make their voices heard.

Can you be one of them? We’re putting together the group of people who want to be at the forefront of our efforts on this issue as the campaign develops over the next 16 months — the first to know when news breaks, and the first to help spread the word to your friends and in your community. Join us for what’s next:

BARACKOBAMA.COM

Under DOMA, rights afforded to straight married couples — such as receiving Social Security benefits for spouses or filing joint federal income-tax returns — do not apply to same-sex married couples.

It’s no secret that the President has long opposed this law. In February, he directed the Justice Department to stop defending a key portion of it in court. And this week, he endorsed the first Senate bill that would repeal the law in its entirety.

We can already see the direction the other side is headed in response. They called a witness at the Senate hearings this week to testify that repealing DOMA would “pave the way for polygamous and other polyamorous unions.” That’s the type of rhetoric we should be prepared to hear in the run-up to the next election.

But the broad American consensus is on our side. We’ve all seen that change in Washington doesn’t come overnight, and fighting for it can carry significant political risks. When opportunities to make real progress come up, it’s critical to show Washington that millions of voters have President Obama’s back.

This is a defining issue for many of us in this movement, and for this President. Join this fight today:

Thanks for your help,

Messina

Jim Messina
Campaign Manager
Obama for America

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Feds investigate Minn. school district after civil rights complaint (via Anderson Cooper 360)


Editor’s note: For more on this story, watch AC360 tonight at 10 p.m. ET on CNN. For a full investigation into the Anoka-Hennepin student suicides, watch “CNN Presents” on Sunday, July 24, at 8 p.m. ET. (CNN) — Federal authorities are investigating “incidents involving harassment and bullying” in Minnesota’s largest school district, the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed in an email to CNN. The civil rights investigation is currently underway … Read More

via Anderson Cooper 360

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

It’s simply not right … a message from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand


Last year I helped lead the effort to overturn “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” and I’m thrilled that very soon, LGBT Americans will be able to serve openly in our armed forces. This is a big victory for equality, but there’s still so far we have yet to go.

I believe every American should be able to marry the person they love. Yet in 1996, the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (or DOMA) codified the discriminatory notion that marriage is only between a man and a woman.

DOMA denies same-sex couples the basic privileges enjoyed by straight couples, and prevents state-approved legal marriages from being recognized across the country.

This is wrong.

If we are to achieve full marriage equality for all, Congress must repeal DOMA now.

That’s why I’m proud to partner with Democracy for America to make sure the repeal of DOMA becomes a reality.

http://act.democracyforamerica.com/go/561?akid=577.1480546.tmfy-d&t=1

Recently, President Obama ordered the Justice Department to stop defending DOMA in federal court. This is a huge first step, but the fact is that as long as DOMA remains on the books it will continue to be enforced until Congress repeals it legislatively.

Tomorrow, I will join Senator Feinstein as we introduce DOMA repeal legislation in the U.S. Senate.

Can I count on you to join us on the frontlines of this fight?

Please sign here to join the fight for marriage equality by urging Congress to repeal this discriminatory and unconstitutional law. >> http://act.democracyforamerica.com/go/561?akid=577.1480546.tmfy-d&t=2

It’s simply not right that my husband and I should be able to enjoy rights and privileges that LGBT Americans are denied.

Thank you for everything you do to ensure marriage equality for all Americans,

– Kirsten

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Does Monsanto tell you what to eat?


CREDO Action | more than a network. a movement.
Fix our broken food system. 

Stop Big Food.
sign up 

Urge the Department of Justice and Department of Agriculture to break up the agribusiness giants. 

 

take action

Note: Along with our allies, CREDO has gathered over 240,000 comments against consolidation in the food industry. Our friends at Food Democracy Now! are delivering them at a special meeting with the USDA this week. As consumers, we have a vested interest in the future of our food system. Can you help us get to 250,000?

America’s supermarket bounty is deceiving. Of those hundreds of brands on grocery store shelves, the vast majority are owned by a handful of industrial food companies like Kraft, Conagra and General Mills.

This concentration of power in the hands of a few large corporations is repeated in all sectors of the food system — from Monsanto’s stranglehold on seeds, to Dean Foods and Dairy Farmers of America‘s control over our milk, to Smithfield, JBS and Cargill’s near total dominance of meat processing. But there was nothing inevitable about this kind of corporate control of our food. Decades of deregulation and governmental inattention to industrial consolidation brought us our broken food system, one that features non-stop food safety recalls, an obesity epidemic and the hollowing out of rural America as family farmers are forced to sell out to corporate interests.

It’s time to stop letting Big Food control what we eat. Urge the Obama administration to fix our broken food system.

The Departments of Justice and Agriculture have convened a set of “workshops” over the last few months to discuss potential antitrust practices by the agribusiness giants who control of the food industry. Family farmers were finally able to air some of their grievances against the abusive practices by large food corporations. Though only a baby step, these workshops represented one of the first admissions from the US government that its past policies have weakened, rather than strengthened, our food system.

Please sign the letter thanking Holder and Vilsack for the workshops and demanding they follow up with real action on antitrust enforcement. The era of Big Food must come to an end.

Thank you for working to break up the food monopoly.

Adam Klaus, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Is the Chamber of Commerce using foreign money to buy elections?


Change.org

Don’t let the Chamber of Commerce undermine our democracy. 

Sign the Petition

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the poster child for corporate corruption of our electoral system.

This year alone the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has pledged to spend an unprecedented $75 million on ads attacking candidates who don’t bow to corporate interests.

However, an explosive new report by the Center for American Progress reveals that some of that corporate cash might actually be coming from foreign entities, which would be a federal crime.

There is already too much corporate cash spent to influence our elections. It’s unacceptable that our democracy would be further undermined by illegal donations from foreign interests.

Election Day is just around the corner, and time is running out. Please join the movement of people demanding that Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department investigate the U.S. Chamber of Commerce immediately.

Tell the DOJ: Investigate the U.S. Chamber of Commerce immediately.

The Chamber of Commerce denies that it uses foreign money in any way that’s illegal, but the Center for American Progress has documented how the Chamber aggressively raises money outside the United States from foreign entities – including state-run companies in Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, India and Russia – and deposits that money into the same general fund used to fund the Chamber’s political program.

Because of the Chamber’s tax status as a trade organization, it can shield most of its financial information from the public. So without a government investigation, all we have to go on is the Chamber’s word.

Given the stakes of this election, we cannot just take the Chamber’s word for it. And we cannot wait for this issue to drag through a partisan Federal Elections Commission – the election is days away and there’s too much at stake this November.

Add your name to the chorus of people around the country calling on the Department of Justice to immediately move to investigate this explosive charge.

Tell the DOJ: Investigate the U.S. Chamber of Commerce immediately.

Thank you for taking action,

– The Change.org Team