Tag Archives: United States

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Honoring Our Veterans …

07/30/2013 Nativegrl77

This weekend, President Obama took time to honor those who fought in the Korean War — 60 years to the day after the war concluded. “Perhaps the highest tribute we can offer our veterans of Korea is to do what should have been done the day you came home,” the President said at the Korean War Veterans Memorial, “In our hurried lives, let us pause. Let us listen. Let these veterans carry us back to the days of their youth, and let us be awed by their shining deeds.”

Click here to watch the President’s remarks.

President Barack Obama arrives for a wreath laying ceremony to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended the Korean War, at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., Saturday, July 27, 2013. Walking with the President are, from left: Gen. Jung Seung-jo, chairman of the Republic of Korea’s joint chiefs of staff; and Special Envoy from the Republic of Korea Kim Jung Hun. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

Weekly Address: A Better Bargain for the Middle Class

President Obama tells the American people about his speech at Knox College, where he discussed the cornerstones of what it means to be middle class, including having a good job, a home that is your own, quality education, a secure retirement, and affordable health care.

Last week, the President hosted the NCAA Champion Louisville Cardinals, the President of Vietnam, pressed for the passage of comprehensive immigration reform, and laid out his vision of growing the economy from the middle class out, while traveling to Illinois, Missouri, and Florida.

In September 2009, the President announced that—for the first time in history—White House visitor records would be made available to the public on an ongoing basis. On Friday, the White House releases visitor records that were generated in April 2013.

They want to do what!? to the Great Barrier Reef?!!

07/30/2013 Nativegrl77

It would be hard to make this stuff up. Australia’s legendarily irresponsible mining industry has a new plan: while the planet faces catastrophic climate change, build the world’s largest coal mining complex, and then build a shipping lane to that port straight through the greatest ecological treasure we have – the Great Barrier Reef!

This is a terrible idea with devastating consequences, and the investor group Aurizon that’s backing it know it. They’re getting cold feet, and we might be able to push them over the edge, and kill the project. One of the main potential funders has even donated to climate activism!

If one million of us express our head-shaking disbelief at this crazy project in the next few days, we can help get Aurizon to pull funding and maybe even persuade the Australian PM to step in. This is what Avaaz is for, let’s raise a voice for common sense:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/australian_coal_disaster_global/?biEWLbb&v=27496

The Great Barrier Reef — the largest living organism on Earth and home to a quarter of all the species that live in the world’s oceans — has slowly been dying for years. It’s lost half its coral in the past three decades and that rate is only accelerating. Climate change is one cause, but so is Australia’s booming mining industry. The German magazine Der Spiegel reported that “if current trends continue, the unthinkable could happen: the Great Barrier Reef could die.”

And yet, the mining industry plans to build massive new ports at a complex called Abbot Point in Northeast Australia (right by the reef) to make it easier to get the coal it’s mining out to the world. Not only would that mean doubling the number of ships that pass by the reef each year and ripping up to 3 million cubic meters of material from the fragile seabed, but if all the coal from the proposed mines this would enable is burned, it would be three times Australia’s current climate pollution — hurtling us faster towards the point of no return.

The investors are meeting now to decide what to do and the Australian Environment Minister will choose whether to approve the project in the next two weeks. Our voices can signal to all of them to block this disaster, especially to Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd if he hopes to maintain his global reputation in the lead-up to his re-election bid.

They’re all deciding what to do now. Sign this urgent petition and share it with everyone you know to stop the Great Barrier train wreck:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/australian_coal_disaster_global/?biEWLbb&v=27496

The Avaaz community has been fighting to save the unparalleled beauty of the reef for years. Last year, Avaaz members threatened a public US Bank when they were set to invest in reef destruction. And hundreds of thousands of Avaaz members sent messages to the Australian Environment Minister to help win the largest marine reserve in the world. Let’s do it again and put the reef out of reach of these profiteering plunderers.

With hope and determination,

David, Alex, Emily, Lisa, Oli, Marie, Ricken, Alice and the whole Avaaz team

PS – Many Avaaz campaigns are started by members of our community. It’s easy to get started – click to start yours now and win on any issue – local, national or global: http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/start_a_petition/?bgMYedb&v=23917

MORE INFORMATION:

Great Barrier Reef Under Threat (TIME)
http://www.avaaz.org/time_great_barrier_reef_article

‘Death By a Thousand Cuts’: Coal Boom Could Destroy Great Barrier Reef (Spiegel)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/australia-debates-how-to-protect-the-great-barrier-reef-a-900911.html

GVK‘s Australia coal project ‘a quagmire, not an investment’ says report (The Times of India)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/GVKs-Australia-coal-project-a-quagmire-not-an-investment-says-report/articleshow/20651363.cms

Report- Stranded: Alpha Coal Project in Australia’s Galilee Basin (IEEFA)
http://www.ieefa.org/report-stranded-alpha-coal-project-in-australias-galilee-basin/

GVK rejects claim Alpha is ‘stranded’ (The Age)
http://www.theage.com.au/business/carbon-economy/gvk-rejects-claim-alpha-is-stranded-20130619-2oj96.html

Abbott Point Coal Mine Map (Greenpeace)
http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/en/what-we-do/climate/resources/reports/Cooking-the-climate-Wrecking-the-reef/

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

a message from Al Franken & Rachel Maddow

07/30/2013 Nativegrl77

Al Franken - U.S. Senator, Minnesota

Carmen —
Got a minute? Then click here.
Al was on Rachel Maddow’s show the other night, talking about his provision in health care reform that’s already saving Americans billions of dollars.
Oh, and Will Ferrell’s in the video, too — you’ll see when you watch it.
It’s an important video because it highlights one of the many benefits of Obamacare that a lot of people don’t know about.
But it’s also important because it highlights the reason why my job rocks — it’s Al at his best.
Click here to watch the video — and then take action to help Al keep making progress (we’re almost at our $100,000 July goal with just 2 days to go!).

If we work hard to elect leaders like Al, we really can make a difference. We can bring down the cost of health care. We can hold insurance companies accountable. We can keep racking up more great accomplishments like the one Al talks about in the video.
So watch this clip, share it with your friends, and make sure to take action to help Al keep fighting for us!
Thanks,
Matt
Matt Burgess Campaign Manager TeamFranken
P.S.: We only have 2 days left until we hit our July fundraising deadline — and we could really use YOUR help to hit our $100,000 goal. Please click here to take action today!

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

A Better Bargain …

07/29/2013 Nativegrl77

The White House, Washington

Hello everybody —

The basic bargain of this country says that if you work hard, you can get ahead — you can build a secure life for your family, and know that your kids will do even better someday.

But for more than a decade, that bargain has frayed, and a devastating recession made it worse.

Over the past four and a half years, America has fought its way back, laying a new foundation for more durable economic growth. But many of the challenges that faced the middle class before the recession remain. And Washington has taken its eye off the ball.

Too many people in this town are focused on scoring political points or fanning phony scandals instead of finding ways to help grow our economy, create jobs, or roll back a 30-year trend of rising inequality.

It’s time for that to stop. It’s time for all of us to focus on our top priority as a country, and that’s reigniting the engine of our prosperity: a rising, thriving middle class.

That’s what I just said while speaking at Knox College, back home in Illinois, where I kicked off a series of speeches on what truly matters to the middle class.

If building America from the middle out is an idea you share, I need you to stand with me. Add your voice to mine.

This has been my North Star for as long as I’ve been in office, and it’s what will shape the time that I have left in the White House.

In the weeks ahead, in towns across the country, I’ll be talking about my ideas for building on the cornerstones of middle-class security: Good jobs with good wages. An education that prepares our children and our workers for a new economy. A home to call your own. Affordable health care when you get sick. A secure retirement even if you’re not rich. A better bargain for the middle class, and for all who are striving to join it.

This is the debate we need to have. And you can join me right now.

Let the country know that you believe that America works best not when it grows from the top down, but when it grows from the middle out:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/a-better-bargain/speak-out

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Singled out …

07/29/2013 Nativegrl77


	Demand Coverage for Peace Corps Volunteers



	Tell your Senators Peace Corps Volunteers deserve equal access to health care coverage.

Since 1961, Peace Corps Volunteers have provided an invaluable service to the U.S. and to the countries with which we partner to foster peace and development. Yet when it comes to their own health and well-being, female volunteers are singled out — and some are denied health care coverage they vitally need.
Currently, Peace Corps Volunteers are denied coverage for abortion — even when the pregnancy threatens her life, or if she is a survivor of rape or incest. But recently, the Senate Appropriations Committee took an important first step in addressing the fact that Peace Corps Volunteers do not get the same coverage for their reproductive health as employees of the Peace Corps itself and others who get their health insurance through the federal government.
We need your help to make sure this inequity ends. Tell your Senators Peace Corps Volunteers deserve equal access to health care coverage.
More than 60 percent of the more than 8,000 Peace Corps Volunteers are women. But under the current policy, these women may have to forgo life-saving medical treatment — or endure an unwanted pregnancy resulting from a sexual assault. At the same time, other women who receive health care coverage through the federal government do get abortion coverage in these cases. This is unfair.
We need you to make sure your Senators are committed to changing this policy.
Tell your Senators to end this inequity and ensure Peace Corps Volunteers get the coverage they need.
Sincerely,