Tag Archives: United States

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Bullying judges


Human Rights Campaign

Bullying judges?

NOM targeted three independent Iowa justices to send a message:

Follow our radical anti-gay agenda – or else.

Stop NOM

The nation’s #1 anti-gay organization just struck a blow to our nation’s courts.

In 2009, every Iowa Supreme Court justice agreed that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. This election season, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) set its political bulls-eye on ousting three of those justices. On Election Day, all three lost.

It was a calculated warning shot aimed at judges nationwide, all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court: Either you cast aside centuries of judicial independence and rule according to our radical, anti-gay ideology – or we’ll come get you.

We may not always see eye to eye with Chief Justice Roberts, but we can all agree that judges should be independent. NOM’s actions were a blatant, ideological assault on our nation’s courts. Iowa’s judicial retention elections were created to prevent fraud, misconduct or malfeasance. They were never intended to allow one hate group and its fringe allies to dump $600,000 into a state over a single — and unanimous — decision they didn’t like.

But that’s exactly what happened. Last month, NOM’s president Brian Brown said: “If the people of Iowa… remove these judges, there will be reverberations throughout the country all the way to the United States Supreme Court.”

Wow. Is that an ultimatum? That’s how bullies operate.

It gets worse. Marriage equality is in jeopardy. As NOM’s Brown boasted post-election: “We now have the ability to roll back same-sex marriage in Iowa and New Hampshire and pass a constitutional amendment in Minnesota.”

It’s time to speak out, like HRC and the Courage Campaign are doing at NOMExposed.org. NOM cannot be allowed to dismantle our independent judiciary. Iowa can’t be a beginning. It must be an end. Tell Chief Justice John Roberts to stick up for the judiciary and decry this attack on our independent court system.

A fair and independent judiciary is important for all Americans, and crucial to protecting the rights of LGBT people. Learn about what HRC is doing to educate the next generation about our judicial system at www.hrc.org/equalityinthecourts.

NOM’s gone rogue. It’s slash-and-burn, no matter the consequences. Being anti-gay is one thing. Tearing down our justice system is something quite different.

Enough is enough.

Sincerely,

Joe Solmonese
Joe Solmonese
President

Donate

~ Culture & History, ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Honor Those Who Stand Up Against Immoral War


Brave New Foundation
Donate
 


Click here to watch the video Watch the Video | Send To A Friend 

Tomorrow is Veterans Day, the 10th Veterans Day since the Afghanistan War began. 

The burden of this brutal, futile war falls heaviest on a very small slice of the population: military members and their families. Many of them think that this war is immoral, and that makes fighting in it a weight they’ll have to carry their whole lives. Our new video features the voices of some of these veterans, urging us to rethink the burden we’re laying on troops.

Rethink Afghanistan is partnering with the Truth Commission on Conscience in War to help lift some of this burden. We’re pushing to expand the rights of veterans who refuse to serve in specific wars on moral grounds. Right now you have to oppose all wars, ever, to be granted conscientious objector status. That’s silly–you don’t have to be a pacifist to think it’s morally wrong to be fighting an endless war in Afghanistan. You can learn more about this push to honor troops’ consciences at the Truth Commission on Conscience in War’s website.

Share this video with your friends to help honor those who stood up to say, “I can’t fight this war. My conscience won’t allow it.” Let’s all remember what we’re asking of our troops on this Veterans Day.

Sincerely,

Derrick Crowe, Robert Greenwald
and the Brave New Foundation team

P.S. If you haven’t done so already, please join Rethink Afghanistan on Facebook and Twitter.

Donate here Donate today to help bring an end to this atrocious war that’s not making us any safer.
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Take the quiz. Get a free sticker.


Union of Concerned Scientists - Got Science?

Quick! True or False: Global warming will be good for farmers because they’ll be able to grow more corn.

Know the answer? If you do then you’re doing better than many of the people we see on television these days. Keep going by taking our Got Science or Not Science quiz today and we’ll send you a “Got Science?” sticker for your effort.

Test your global warming smarts and get your free “Got Science?” sticker today.

Take the Quiz and get a sticker! The Union of Concerned Scientists and CREDO Action have been keeping a close eye on what public personalities like Sean Hannity and Senator James Inhofe are saying on the airwaves about global warming. And we’ve come to the sad conclusion that in too many cases, there’s something missing: science.

See what we’re talking about right here. We’ve gathered quotes from climate experts, politicians, and news media. It’s up to you to determine whether each quote has got science or if it’s not science. Click here to take the quiz.

It’s pretty outrageous that the airwaves are still rampant with global warming deniers who will stop at nothing to mislead the public. So, that’s why the Union of Concerned Scientists and our friends at CREDO Action are fighting back with the truth. Test your global warming smarts and get your free “Got Science?” sticker Today. Take the quiz, get the sticker

Then, show off your smarts to your friends and let them know how they can get a free “Got Science?” sticker too.

Take the quiz. Get the sticker. Tell your friends.

Thank you for standing with the Union of Concerned Scientists to help restore scientific integrity to the national conversation about global warming.

Sincerely,
Kate Abend
Kate Abend
National Field Organizer
UCS Climate and Energy Program
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

End secret election spending now


 

“It’s time to end secret corporate political spending. Secret contributions hurt our democracy. Pass the DISCLOSE Act before the end of the year.”

Sign the petition

Spending on this year’s election didn’t just break records, it obliterated them. $4 billion in total.1

In the wake of Citizens United, corporations like ExxonMobil and AIG can give hundreds of millions of dollars to a shadowy front group to swing an election. And they can do so in 100% secrecy.

Imagine how this election could have changed if voters knew which corporations were supporting Republican candidates with anonymous attack ads against Democrats.

Earlier this year Congress nearly passed a bill—the DISCLOSE Act—that would force front groups to let voters know which corporations and CEOs are funding their political attacks.

The bill came up short because some Republican senators said they didn’t want to pass the common sense measure until after the election.2 Now that the election is over we have an opportunity to pass this bill, but it won’t happen unless we push hard on Congress to act before the end of the year.

Click here to tell Congress to pass the DISCLOSE Act and end secret political spending:

http://pol.moveon.org/discloseact?id=25122-9640874-Z.3dHpx&t=3

This bill won’t get corporate money out of politics, but if we know that a company is trying to buy an election, we can shame them and we can hold them accountable. We did it successfully with Target earlier this year when state laws forced the retailer to disclose that it had made a large donation to a far-right candidate for governor in Minnesota. MoveOn members and others launched a nationwide boycott that brand analysts said reduced Target’s favorable reputation by a third among customers in just ten days.3

We also know that disclosure can have a major effect in elections. In California this year, giant oil companies backed a ballot measure to repeal the state’s groundbreaking climate change law. But they couldn’t secretly funnel their money through front groups and voters overwhelmingly rejected the initiative in part because every ad has to mention the oil companies funding it by name.

The DISCLOSE Act isn’t perfect but it will at least let us follow the money. We still need to keep working to pass stronger legislation and overturn Citizens United, but ending the ability of corporations to buy elections in secret is an important and fundamental step for our democracy.

Please, click here to tell Congress to pass DISCLOSE before the end of the year:

http://pol.moveon.org/discloseact?id=25122-9640874-Z.3dHpx&t=4

Thanks for all you do.

–Ilyse, Robin, Laura, Tim, and the rest of the team

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Justice delayed – In Memory –


They’ve suffered years of discrimination. Now is the time for justice.  

Ask the White House to do right by Black farmers.

 

Blkfarmers

For years, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) denied Black farmers loans and other aid easily approved for White farmers. Many Black farming families lost their land and livelihoods as a result. The farmers sued the government for damages and won — but only a fraction of them ever got paid.1

As a Senator, Barack Obama helped to secure a new settlement for the remaining Black farmers, but far-right Senate Republicans are committed to keeping the settlement from being paid out, and have repeatedly blocked funding for it over the last year.

It’s time for President Obama to bypass the Republican obstruction. The White House can directly address this injustice and pay these farmers what they’re owed out of administrative funds — and Congressional Black Caucus leaders have previously called for such a solution. 2

Please join us in calling on President Obama to do right by these farmers, and please ask your friends and family to do the same. It takes just a moment:

http://www.colorofchange.org/pigford/?id=2275-1238940

For more than a generation, managers at the United States Department of Agriculture systematically turned down Black farmers’ applications for loans and other critical forms of aid. These loans are the lifeblood of farming, and without them many Black-owned farms were foreclosed on — and resold to White farmers.

This insidious discrimination enabled some White farmers to prosper and grow at the expense of generations of Black families who sought to make a living off the land. At the same time, it devastated the Black farming community. While 14% of all farmers were Black at the turn of the last century,3 by 2002 only 1.4% were Black.4

Black farmers eventually filed a class action lawsuit against the federal government, winning a landmark legal settlement in 1999. At the time, the USDA paid only a portion of the farmers with legitimate claims, so a second settlement was announced — but Congress never approved funding to pay the remaining farmers.5

Republican obstruction has been the main stumbling block on the Black farmers’ long road to justice. Far-right Senate Republicans have repeatedly stood in the way of funding the settlement. First they demanded that the money to pay the farmers not add to the national budget deficit.6 Even after that requirement was satisfied, they once again blocked a vote on the appropriation.7

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are rightfully furious at the Republicans’ stalling, and have called on President Obama to bypass the legislative process by paying the settlement out of administrative funds.8 The White House has maintained that it doesn’t have the money to pay the $1.25 billion settlement — but at the same time, the administration promised to find $1.5 billion to pay disaster relief for wealthier, mostly white farmers in Arkansas.9

With Congress becoming even more conservative after November’s election, it is even less likely that funding for the Black farmers’ discrimination settlement will be funded in next year’s Congress. It needs to happen now.

The White House has worked hard to pass the funding through Congress, but now they need to show Congressional Republicans that they mean business. As the CBC pointed out, justice delayed is justice denied for these aging men and women. Every day, another farm is foreclosed on and more farmers die without having been compensated for the shattering discrimination they faced. Join us in supporting the CBC’s call for President Obama to fund the Black farmers’ settlement. And when you do, please ask your friends and family to do the same.

http://www.colorofchange.org/pigford/?id=2275-1238940

Thanks and peace,

— James, Gabriel, William, Dani, Natasha, and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
November 10th, 2010

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