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Daily Activism

Daily Activism

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What can you do? Some. Call your congressional representatives and express your views. Even if you know they won’t agree, someone keeps track of the numbers. Be polite and specific about your support or opposition on a particular bill, resolution, or issue.

Here are a few actions that I did today to get you started. The top one is very time-sensitive in the US since the vote is tomorrow (Friday).

Ok, on with the armchair activism…

1. Don’t Bundle Minimum Wage Increase with Huge Tax Giveaway for the Rich

Call your Senators now (800-459-1887) and ask them to oppose H.R. 5970. The vote is soon so there’s no time to email! H.R. 5970 is bad because:

  1. It will raid our treasury of billions of dollars to help 8,000 rich families get richer.
  2. It will hurt millions of hard-working families and low-income workers who cannot afford to trade a few dollars increase in their paychecks if the tradeoff is cuts and reductions for federal programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, veterans programs, children’s health, senior services and unemployment insurance, which will leave them with fewer resources after the increase.
  3. It will hurt millions of workers in food service and other jobs where they rely on tips. Women, young and old, single and married, make up 70% of the “tipped” workers, and in seven states where they are guaranteed a minimum wage, the minimum will be frozen and they will see no raise.

Our message to Senators: “If you, like the bipartisan majority in both houses of Congress, care about increasing the minimum wage, which has been frozen for almost a decade, then vote against H.R. 5970 and insist that it have a free standing vote and not be tied to the estate tax giveaway.”

(NOW – National Organization for Women)

2-A. H.Con.Res. 450 – Ceasefire and Multi-Party Negotiations

The Lebanon-Israel war needs addressing by the US – and not by sending more bombs! I would remind Israel of the “eye for eye” tradition, which was an ancient limiting function with regard to vengence. As an American, I am de facto in a weak position for moralizing these days, so I would only point to the religious tradition. I would remind all peoples of the book that compassion, care, and justice toward one’s neighbor are fundamental.

So…would everyone please just stop it? (It’s worth a try)

Congressman Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, has introduced a resolution that calls on President Bush to appeal to all sides for a cessation of hostilities in the Israeli-Lebanon conflict and to commit the United States to multi-party negotiations. The resolution initially had 20 co-sponsors. 14 new members have singed on as cosponsors.

Write to your member today to tell them that as their constituent, you demand that they seek a peaceful resolution to the current crisis. Ask them to sign on to H.Con.Res.450 today!
If your representative has already signed on, thank them for doing so.

(Progressive Democrats of America)

2-B. H.Con Res. 450 – Another Way to Contact on Lebanon/Israel

The United States bears a special moral responsibility in this crisis as the only nation that can bring an end to the violence and relieve the humanitarian catastrophe. The current policy of delay only leads to more unnecessary civilian deaths in both Lebanon and Israel. Ongoing conflict in Lebanon is also likely to have great consequences for the region, the world and the safety of our nation and its allies. Congress needs to step forward and call for an immediate cessation of hostilities by passing H.C.R. 450.

Click here to send a message in support of an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon:

(Act for Change / Working Assets)

3. Emergency Contraception Plan B – Freedom for Family Planning AND a Drastically Reduced Abortion Rate

Religious and political extremists are shamelessly claiming to represent all religion and even all “moral values.” We know there is nothing moral about depriving women of reproductive health care and contraception. There is nothing moral about denying women the right to make private, family decisions, according to their own faith and conscience.

If the Food and Drug Administration would finally approve the emergency contraceptive Plan B for pharmacy sales, nearly half of of U.S. unintended pregnancies could be prevented. Many politicians talk about prevention–here’s a practical way to do something about it!

For almost three years, the FDA has pandered to right- wing interest groups and delayed pharmacy sales of Plan B. Many medical organizations and the Food and Drug Administration’s own panel of experts have concluded that the drug is safer than aspirin for over-the-counter use.

The pro-choice religious community thinks our government can do better. Tell the FDA: Using birth control is the responsible and moral thing to do. Children deserve to be born to families prepared for parenthood.

Don’t let extremists take away our rights and freedoms!

(Religious coalition for Reproductive Choice)

4. Urge Congress to support the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act

It may not seem a big thing compared to these others…. but Americans owe a large debt to horses. I’m not a vegetarian, but everyone has their limits.

Horses are Friends, not Food. (Nod to “Finding Nemo”)

Finding Nemo

Last year, more than 90,000 horses were butchered to be served on dinner plates in Europe and Asia. Tens of thousands more of America’s horses were exported from the U.S. and slaughtered in other countries. The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act would prohibit the transport, moving, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling, or donation of any horse to be slaughtered for human consumption.

Sign this petition now and urge your representatives to support the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act!
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/159614943?ltl=1154645692

(Care2 – Make a Difference)

Bait and Switch Crisis Pregnancy Centers

Bait and Switch Crisis Pregnancy Centers

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Ask your representative to support H.R.5052 Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women’s Services Act which requires the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to:

(1) promulgate rules prohibiting persons from advertising with the intent to deceptively create the impression that such persons provide abortion services; and (2) enforce violations of such rules as unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce.

Even if you are pro-life/anti-choice, you should support this bill. There is no reason that CPCs can’t proudly advertise what they do offer. How about something like: “Thinking about an abortion? Come talk to us about the alternatives.”

Thanks to an investigation by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), we know exactly what they’re telling women. Female investigators called, saying they were pregnant, and recorded their conversations. 87% of CPCs provided false or misleading information about the health effects of abortion.

These centers, which are easily confused with full reproductive health and planning services, use neutral-sounding names and ads – but their agenda is very clear. They spread misinformation (let’s say “misinformation” instead of the more straightforward word, just to be nice) in order to dissuade women from having an abortion. They don’t offer abortion services at all.

It’s a services bait and switch.

Did you know that anti-choice “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs) have received $30 million of our tax dollars? According to the Guttmacher Institute, there are 2,500-4,000 centers nationwide, compared with about 1,800 abortion providers.

Take action to stop these clinics from deceiving women at their most vulnerable moments:

http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/crisis_clinics

(Planned Parenthood)

Internet Freedom Preservation

Internet Freedom Preservation

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I just signed on as a citizen co-sponsor of the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, an important bill designed to keep the Internet open and free.

Today, the Internet is an open marketplace of ideas where anyone can join in. With traditional media, like TV, radio, or newspapers, it’s been difficult for average citizens to have a voice. But now, new technology is giving a wide variety of citizens the voice to speak out — anyone with a computer connected to the Internet can set up a website that’s just as accessible as those owned by a large media conglomerate. The result has been an incredible diversity of new sources of information and opinion.

Now, this open architecture that makes the Internet so powerful is being questioned. Some argue that it would be better for companies to give certain traffic on the Internet — content that they are paid to deliver faster — higher priority.

But this kind of preferential treatment could make it harder for individual voices to be heard.

Please join me in protecting Net Neutrality by signing on as a citizen co-sponsor of the Internet Freedom Preservation Act at HillaryClinton.com:

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/action/net/?sc=x.netneutrality

Daily Activism

Daily Activism

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The House will vote once again this week to hand the Arctic Refuge over to Big Oil.
Tell your Representative to vote NO!
(League of Conservation Voters)

Say NO to Drilling in the Arctic Refuge Before It’s Too Late – The House Votes Tomorrow
(Save Our Environment.org)

Block Bush’s Radical-Right Judges
(Act for Change)

Act now to stop phone companies from abusing your privacy. Join in the nationwide demand that the FCC and state utility commissions investigate reports of unlawful sharing of consumers’ call records with the National Security Agency, and issue cease-and-desist orders to any phone companies that are found to have been engaging in such practices.
(American Civil Liberties Union)

Stop Fueling Exxon Mobil’s Anti-Wildlife Agenda
(Defenders of Wildlife)

Sign the Pro-Choice Pledge, promising to vote pro-choice in November.
(NARAL – Pro-Choice America)

Tell the FCC to stop merger mania
The largest telecommunications and cable companies are fighting to shut down a free and open Internet. They keep raising prices while making empty promises about serving all Americans. They’ve even illegally handed over your personal information to government eavesdroppers. Now they want the government to help them get even bigger. AT&T is trying to buy BellSouth, which would make it the largest telecom company in the world. Comcast and Time Warner — the country’s two largest cable and Internet companies — are trying to wrap up their purchase of Adelphia, the nation’s fifth-largest cable company. If these deals go through, Comcast, Time Warner, and AT&T will control over half of all the high-speed Internet connections in the United States. The Federal Communications Commission is in the final stages of deciding whether these deals should go through. Your voice can make all the difference in stopping them.
(Free Press.net)

Not Just a Few Bad Apples

Not Just a Few Bad Apples

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ACLU Reveals New Evidence that Government Knew Abuse was Widespread Before Abu Ghraib Photos –

OK, we knew that just by following the tracks of Bush’s legal team…

Still, here’s some more proof for you.

Torture is UnAmerican. Sign the petition.

Army Documents Show Senior Official Reportedly Pushed Limits on Detainee Interrogations (5/2/2006)

NEW YORK — New Army documents released by the American Civil Liberties Union today reveal that Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez ordered interrogators to “go to the outer limits” to get information from detainees. The documents also show that senior government officials were aware of abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan before the Abu Ghraib scandal broke.

“When our leaders allow and even encourage abuse at the ‘outer limits’, America suffers,” said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU Executive Director. “A nation that works to bring freedom and liberty to other parts of the world shouldn’t stomach brutality and inhumanity within its ranks. This abuse of power was engineered and accepted at the highest levels of our government.”

Among the documents released today by the ACLU is a May 19, 2004 Defense Intelligence Agency document implicating Sanchez in potentially abusive interrogation techniques. In the document, an officer in charge of a team of interrogators stated that there was a 35-page order spelling out the rules of engagement that interrogators were supposed to follow, and that they were encouraged to “go to the outer limits to get information from the detainees by people who wanted the information.” When asked to whom the officer was referring, the officer answered “LTG Sanchez.” The officer stated that the expectation coming from “Headquarters” was to break the detainees.

The ACLU also released an Information Paper entitled “Allegations of Detainee Abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan” dated April 2, 2004, two weeks before the world saw the pictures of torture at Abu Ghraib prison. The paper outlined the status of 62 investigations of detainee abuse and detainee deaths. Cases include assaults, punching, kicking and beatings, mock executions, sexual assault of a female detainee, threatening to kill an Iraqi child to “send a message to other Iraqis,” stripping detainees, beating them and shocking them with a blasting device, throwing rocks at handcuffed Iraqi children, choking detainees with knots of their scarves and interrogations at gunpoint.

The ACLU said the document makes clear that while President Bush and other officials assured the world that what occurred at Abu Ghraib was the work of “a few bad apples,” the government knew that abuse was happening in numerous facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of the 62 cases being investigated at the time, at least 26 involved detainee deaths. Some of the cases had already gone through a court-martial proceeding. The abuses went beyond Abu Ghraib, and touched Camp Cropper, Camp Bucca and other detention centers in Mosul, Samarra, Baghdad, Tikrit, as well as Orgun-E in Afghanistan.

“These documents are further proof that the abuse of detainees was widespread and systemic, and not aberrational,” said Amrit Singh, a staff attorney with the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. “We know that senior officials endorsed this abuse, but these officials have yet to be held accountable.”

Last week, the government authenticated that two videos released by the Palm Beach Post in March 2005 were videos that the government was withholding from the ACLU’s Freedom of Information Act request. The videos are part of a set that has come to be known as the “Ramadi Madness” videos and were made by members of the West Palm Beach-based Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment. The two scenes the government authenticated are called “See Haj Run” and “Blood Clot.” They depict scenes of urban battle and persons being captured and detained by U.S. forces.

Among the more than 9,000 pages of Defense Department documents made public by the ACLU today are several investigations detailing cruel and degrading treatment and killings. The investigations include:

  • An investigation into the death of a detainee at Forward Operating Base Rifles near Al Asad, Iraq established probable cause to believe that several soldiers assaulted a detainee and committed negligent homicide, and conspired to cover up the death. The detainee died when a soldier lifted him up from the floor by placing a baton under his chin, fracturing his hyoid bone. It appears that the soldiers received written letters of reprimand and counseling. The full document is online at www.aclu.org/projects/foiasearch/pdf/DOD049269.pdf
  • A heavily redacted e-mail dated May 25, 2004 shows that a presumed officer or civilian government official was told of three reports of abuse of detainees described as “probably true/valid.” One detainee was “in such poor physical shape from obvious beatings that [name redacted] asked the MP’s to note his condition before he proceeded with interrogation.” Another detainee was “in such bad shape … that he was laying down in his own feces.” These cases seem to have occurred in Abu Ghraib and Camp Cropper. The full document is online at www.aclu.org/projects/foiasearch/pdf/DODDIA000208.pdf
  • An investigation shows a doctor cleared a detainee for further interrogations, despite claims he had been beaten and shocked with a taser. The medic confirmed that the detainee’s injuries were consistent with his allegations, stating, “Everything he described he had on his body.” Yet, the medic cleared him for further interrogation, giving him Tylenol for the pain. There is no indication that the medic reported this abuse. The full document is online at www.aclu.org/projects/foiasearch/pdf/DOD052120.pdf

Today’s documents come in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Physicians for Human Rights, Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans for Peace. The New York Civil Liberties Union is co-counsel in the case.

To date, more than 100,000 pages of government documents have been released detailing the torture and abuse of detainees. The ACLU recently launched a new powerful search engine for the public to access the documents at www.aclu.org/torturefoiasearch. The search engine allows people to uncover details about abuse that may not have been reported in the media, said the ACLU.

The FOIA lawsuit is being handled by Lawrence Lustberg and Megan Lewis of the New Jersey-based law firm Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione, P.C. Other attorneys in the case are Amrit Singh, Jameel Jaffer and Judy Rabinovitz of the ACLU; Arthur Eisenberg and Beth Haroules of the NYCLU; and Barbara Olshansky of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

The documents released today are available online at: action.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/050206/

Happy Earth Day – Take Action

Happy Earth Day – Take Action

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Happy Earth Day!

Join the Stop Global Warming Virtual March

Read the Progress Report

See the HBO Special “Too Hot Not to Handle“. They have also done a great job of creating a list of resources (including organizations who are committed to fighting global warming).

Reward companies that have a triple bottom line: People, Planet AND Profit. Buy Blue.

Buy Blue

Visit The Wilderness Society’s collection of past Earth Day memories and practical tips for protecting our planet and its wild places.

Don’t Let Them Scrap Cape Wind

Cape Wind: the proposed offshore wind farm that would provide 75 percent of Cape Cod’s energy needs with wind power and kickstart the nation into a clean energy revolution.

On April 6, a conference committee signed off on an amendment to a spending bill that would grant veto power over Cape Wind to the governor of Massachusetts. Governor Mitt Romney is an outspoken opponent of the project and if Congress accepts the bill it will be the end of Cape Wind.

This veto provision is a blatant example of the kind of backdoor politics that Congress has been claiming it is against. The amendment had to be secretly added in a closed-door committee because it would never have passed in open committee debate. This provision is a sneaky attempt to shutdown America’s move toward a clean energy future.

Cape Wind is currently the largest renewable wind energy project in the country and is very important for a strong and vibrant future for wind power in the United States. Congress needs to get serious about addressing our addiction to oil. We need tangible renewable energy projects to reduce our emissions of dangerous global warming pollution.

Don’t let this backroom deal unravel years of hard work to make Cape Wind a reality.

Contact your senators and urge them to strip this disastrous language from the spending bill before it’s too late.

Stop Weyerhaeuser’s Lumber Slash Zones

2,500 square miles of forests, lakes and rivers north of Kenora, Ontario have sustained the people of Grassy Narrows First Nation for thousands of years. Now Weyerhaeuser, the largest lumber company in the world, is turning the American dream of building a home into a native nightmare in Canada. A majority of the wood taken from Weyerhaeuser’s clear-cutting is used in constructing American homes, which are marketed as being “Built Green.”

By the way, VP George Weyerhaeuser Jr. was just appointed to a National Academy of Sciences committee that will evaluate the impact of forest-management practices on the nation’s water quality. Conflict of interest, anyone?

In the 1990s the Weyerhaeuser company dramatically increased logging rates in Grassy Narrows without the consent or proper consultation of the community, regularly clear-cutting huge tracts of land, spraying the land with herbicides and pesticides, and replanting with monoculture tree plantations. Despite decades of negotiations, environmental appeals, protests, and what has become the longest running road blockade in Canadian history, industrial loggers like Weyerhaeuser continue to use wood systematically extracted from ecologically sensitive old growth areas and destroy the traditional way of life of the Grassy Narrows indigenous community who have lived on the land since pre-Columbian times.

Demand the immediate termination of Weyerhaeuser’s destructive logging without consent from the community – and keep your eye out for local actions as well.

Rebuke Office Max and Demand Changes

Southern forests are being rapidly wiped out to meet surging demands for office copy paper and paper packaging. Unless consumers insist that such throwaway products be produced from recycled fibers instead of trees, the great forest that once cloaked the southeastern U.S. is in danger of being into turned into vast, biologically sterile pine plantations.

OfficeMax, the third largest retail office supply store in the US, threatens forests of the south by doing business with the most irresponsible logging company in the region.

Tell them to stop sourcing paper from endangered forests!

The Southern forest region of the U.S. contains some of the most biologically rich ecosystems in North America. It is home to hundreds of forest and aquatic species — especially amphibians, reptiles, snails and trees — that are found nowhere else on earth. What’s more, paper on the shelves of OfficeMax is contributing to the destruction of endangered forests in the Southern US’s Cumberland Plateau and the Canadian Boreal – two of the most biologically diverse regions on Earth

OfficeMax’s two largest competitors, Staples and Office Depot, have already committed publicly to increase recycled content in the paper they sell and avoid sourcing paper from endangered forests.

Urge Office Max to follow suit. Demand that they:

1. Stop sourcing paper from endangered forests, including endangered forests of the Southern US and the Canadian Boreal.
2. Match the standard 30% industry average post-consumer recycled content for all paper grades that OfficeMax sells.
3. Phase out all sales of 100% virgin paper.
4. Stop purchasing paper from suppliers that convert natural forests to industrial pine plantations.
5. Develop and implement environmental paper policies, and reduce overall paper use in internal company operations.

Tell Office Max CEO Sam Duncan to make a commitment to the environment and Southern Forests.

Protect Yellowstone and the Greater Rockies

The Bureau of Land Management has just released a draft management plan that threatens the spectacular wildlife and geological, historical and cultural treasures that make this national monument a unique place.

Urge the Bureau of Land Management to protect the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, rather than subject it to an onslaught of jet skis, motor boats, airstrips and hundreds of miles of roads.

The Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument is a place of untamed beauty and flourishing wildlife, rich in cultural history and geological wonders, with the wild and majestic Missouri River at its heart. These wildlands have changed little from what Lewis and Clark saw on their westward journey 200 years ago, or from what Native American tribes experienced for thousands of years before that.

The lands and waters of the monument are home to renowned elk and bighorn sheep herds, bald and golden eagles, and numerous kinds of fish, including rare and endangered species. The Bureau of Land Management is proposing to allow an extensive network of roads — totaling almost 400 miles in length — that would imperil this wildlife and destroy the monument’s unspoiled character. In addition, the six unauthorized airstrips and excessive motorboat use that are part of the proposal would further damage the region’s wild qualities.

The Bureau of Land Management is accepting public comments until April 26th.
Please tell the agency to revise its proposed management plan to protect and preserve the special values of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument for present and future generations to enjoy.

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