POLITICS

Want to get involved in Organic issues?  Click HERE

 

 

URGENT NEWS

 

 

CAUSES THAT REQUIRE YOUR IMMEDIATE ACTION











March 25, 2011


CROP Hunger Walks


 

I've been walking for the hungry since 1982.   Hunger is an issue that is very important to me and I've decided to get involved!  I am walking in my CROP Hunger Walk and I need your help.

Our donations will support life-saving programs around the world.  Join me and our family and friends at our church, as we work together to solve this world-wide challenge.

You can be the difference, and you can start by making a donation online.  Click on the link below and you will be taken to my personal donation page where you can make a secure credit card donation online.

Thank you!

Click here to visit my personal page.


If the text above does not appear as a clickable link, you can visit the web address:
http://www.churchworldservice.org/site/TR?px=1496111&pg=personal&fr_id=12128&et=cURCh3BmPJN90QZkTAE82A..&s_tafId=78574


Church World Service Website | Tell A Friend | Privacy Policy | Contact Us

CROP Hunger Walks are community-wide events that help children and families worldwide -- and right here in the U.S. -- to have food for today, while building for a better tomorrow.  Church World Service works with partners to eradicate hunger and poverty and to promote peace and justice around the world.

P.O. Box 968, 28606 Phillips Street, Elkhart, IN 46515   |   800-297-1516

            





Pedro Gutierrez, an Arizona military DREAMer facing deportation, has been allowed to stay in the country for one more year.  From Pedro and all of us at America's Voice: thank you.
   
While we are excited for Pedro, it simply shouldn't take thousands of faxes and an entire community to save just one talented and committed young person like Pedro.

We're collecting signatures for a petition asking the President to stop deporting DREAMers. Well hand-deliver the petitions to the White House and we want your name on the list. Will you join us?

Pedro is safe for another year, but we're already hearing about more cases of DREAMers facing deportation in Georgia, Connecticut and elsewhere.  This has to stop.

While we'll continue to fight for the DREAM Act in Congress and will continue fighting to stop the deportation of individual DREAMers, it just makes no sense for the Obama administration to continue arresting and jailing young people like Pedro who grew up in the United States and consider this country their own.

Sign the petition now!
 
Thanks for making a difference,
 
Adam Luna
America's Voice





March 10, 2011




Click here to watch the video

Become a Producer


Outfoxed...
Walmart...
Iraq
for Sale...
Sick for Profit...
Rethink Afghanistan...
and now KOCH BROTHERS EXPOSED

We need your help to complete our first stage of editing, research, and interviews. We've already dedicated four months of hard work and we MUST get these videos finished and out to the world to educate the public.

Help us by becoming a Producer and get a t-shirt featuring an exclusive Shepard Fairey design of the 'Koch-topus'.

Using our unique distribution ability we will create a multimedia/multi-platform campaign with videos, ground actions, online actions, flash mobs and crowd sourcing!

Become a Producer of this important project and be part of the investigation.

It is 40 billion dollars of Koch money versus us! Please donate to become a Producer on this project with us.

Thanks for your support,

Robert Greenwald
and the Brave New Foundation team













 





February 24, 2011


Rally to Save the American Dream  (Find a Rally near you)



Working America: Strength in Numbers

Take Action

Call toll-free today at 1-888-218-5931 and tell your state senator:

You are a constituent who wants to see the Senate focus on jobs not anti-worker bills like SB5 that will move Ohio's economy backward.

Ohio's middle class deserves a full and fair debate on legislation affecting workers' rights and the state budget the voices of all Ohioans need to be heard on SB5 before it is brought to a vote.


Thousands of workers and community members converged on the Statehouse yesterday to voice their opposition to Senate Bill 5 and Gov. Kasich's assault on working families and the middle class but they were shut out.

Yesterday, the doors were literally closed to thousands who were rallying in opposition to the bill. And now, theyare even rejecting our emails. That's right: the state legislature is preventing emails being sent by our members from reaching our state senators and representatives.

Call toll-free today at 1-888-218-5931 and tell your state senator:

I am a constituent who wants to see the Senate focus on jobs not anti-worker bills like SB5 that will move Ohio economy backward.

The reason given for locking the doors yesterday? They were supposedly "over capacity," but this argument holds no water.

It wasn't until Democratic lawmakers threatened legal action that the doors were opened at 4 p.m.

Sadly, this is just another example of the attempts to silence the voices of Ohioans who oppose anti-worker bills like SB 5:

  • Because of the partisan games on the part of some members of the Insurance, Commerce and Labor Committee, thousands of Ohioan who want to provide personal testimonials have been shut out of the process.
  • Meanwhile, proponents of the anti-worker bill SB 5 have been given substantial opportunities to testify

today at 1-888-218-5931 and tell your state senator:

  • You are a constituent who wants to see the Senate focus on jobs not anti-worker bills like SB5 that will move Ohios economy backward.
  • Ohio middle class deserves a full and fair debate on legislation affecting workers rights and the state budgetthe voices of all Ohioans need to be heard on SB5 before it is brought to a vote.

In solidarity,

Working America, AFL-CIO



January 22, 2011

Americans for Financial Reform


Banks seized more than one million homes in 2010 more than ever before. And millions of more families continue to face the threat of foreclosure. Big banks and servicers are not following the rules that require them to modify loans, and there is more evidence every day of their abusive practices and disregard for the law.

Attorneys General and bank regulators in every state are now in the midst of investigations into the loan assignment, foreclosure, and modification process. What these regulators do and how they do it is of the utmost importance  they have the power to require major changes that will prevent unnecessary foreclosures. But there will also be huge pressure on them from the banks to settle for less, and not make the dramatic changes we need.

Write to your AG today and let them know that you and millions of people across the country  are counting on them to investigate fully, and to demand solutions that will make a difference.

The foreclosure crisis has cost the public billions of dollars, and banks and servicers are not complying with the law or with agreements they made to modify loans. That is why it is so important that the Attorneys General put in place tough new requirements:

1) Mortgage servicers must be required to work with borrowers to modify loans, and no foreclosures should begin or proceed while modification review is under way. Borrowers must be offered sustainable modifications, including principal reduction and lowered interest rates, and resolutions must last the life of the loan, and take into account household debts and necessary expenses.

2) Substantial remedies must be put in place for homeowners who have already lost their homes as a result of bank and servicer disregard of the law.

The big Wall Street banks whose reckless and irresponsible conduct caused the financial crisis are continuing to act as though they are above the law. Please contact your state attorney general today to speak out for fairness and due process, and help prevent millions more unnecessary foreclosures.

SAMPLE LETTER

Dear State Attorney General

Our communities are being devastated by the foreclosure crisis and the irresponsible and lawless activities of the banks that caused and continue to perpetuate it.

I am very encouraged that you have taken on this issue and are investigating servicer and bank misconduct.  Too often well intentioned investigations and enforcement actions end up not bringing the real, change that is necessary, and I hope that your investigation will not result in a slap on the wrist for banks and other servicers and a return to destructive business as usual. 

We need remedies that will help millions more families continue to pay their mortgages and save their homes, solutions that allow homeowners to once again build equity, and solutions that therefore help put our whole economy on a more sound and stable footing.

1) Mortgage servicers must be required to work with borrowers to modify loans, and no foreclosures should begin or proceed while modification review is under way. Borrowers must be offered sustainable modifications, including principal reduction and lowered interest rates, and resolutions must last the life of the loan, and take into account household debts and necessary expenses.

2) Substantial remedies must be put in place for homeowners who have already lost their homes as a result of bank and servicer disregard of the law.

Our communities are depending on you for bold leadership. We need solutions that will prevent unnecessary foreclosures and restore stability to our communities and our economy. The stakes for our homes, our neighborhoods and our nation could not be higher. 

Sent by Americans for Financial Reform
1629 K Street NW, 10th Floor, Washington, DC 20006 - (202) 466-3311








November 10, 2010  - update - the Scott sisters are free


How much is a life worth? What about two lives?

For sisters Jamie and Gladys Scott, $11 earned them each double life sentences.

Jamie and Gladys were convicted of being accomplices to a 1993 robbery. The teenagers who carried out the robbery served only two years in prison. The judge never explained why the Scott sisters deserved such severe sentences.

Sixteen years later, the Scott sisters are still in prison. And if Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour doesn't intervene, they will die in prison -- all over just $11.

You can get the word out about this horrific injustice. Sign the NAACP petition to Governor Barbour asking him to free the Scott sisters:

http://action.naacp.org/FreeTheScottSisters

When the Scott sisters were put on trial, neither Jamie nor Gladys had a criminal record. But the presiding judge in their trial, Judge Marcus Gordon, has a history of racially biased rulings.


In all my years working to reform the criminal justice system, I have never seen such an extreme sentence for this type of crime. I am not alone. Even the original prosecutor in the case has since become an advocate for the sisters' freedom.

And now, their freedom is becoming a matter of life and death. In prison, Jamie Scott has lost renal function of her kidneys and cannot survive without a transplant. The Department of Corrections has refused to allow tests for kidney compatibility even though numerous volunteers have come forward.

Please, sign our petition today and tell Governor Barbour that 16 years is enough. Nobody should die in prison for an $11 crime:

http://action.naacp.org/FreeTheScottSisters

There is no dollar amount that can be placed on a life. I will not stop fighting for the Scott sisters until justice is restored, and I hope you'll join me.

Yours in the struggle,


Ben Jealous
President and CEO
NAACP












October 31, 2010

Remember Andrew Breitbart? He was the man who used selectively-edited video to paint Shirley Sherrod as a racist, to smear the NAACP, and to accuse the Obama administration of reverse racism. It was all a big, premeditated lie.

Unbelievably, ABC News now plans to have Breitbart participate in their Election Night coverage, despite his history as a deceitful operative who distorts, lies, and race-baits.

ABC's decision is a slap in the face to Shirley Sherrod, to Black America, and to everyone who believes in the value of telling the truth. It's unacceptable. It's why I'm joining ColorOfChange incalling on ABC News and its parent company Disney to drop their plans to include Breitbart now:

http://www.colorofchange.org/abc/?id=1748-378357

The video pushed by Breitbart showed Ms. Sherrod telling a story about how she once was asked for help from a White farmer, and how she didn't "give him the full force of what [she] could do" to help him, because of his race. In reality she was telling the story of how working with that family to save their farm helped her to lose her racial preconceptions.

Breitbart touted the video as evidence that the NAACP and the Obama administration tolerated racial discrimination against White people, saying that it showed Sherrod's "federal duties are managed through the prism of race and class distinctions." Breitbart's doctored video and false storyline moved quickly to FOX News, where on-air personalities called for Sherrod's firing. The day that the story became news, Sherrod was forced to resign from her post at the USDA.

The truth is that Sherrod was telling a 25-year old story about her work for a non-profit organization whose mission was to help Black farmers. Discrimination against Black farmers was rampant, and she described how she was first reluctant when approached by a White farmer named Roger Spooner for help (in her speech, Sherrod connects her reluctance to the fact that her father was killed by a White farmer 45 years ago). But after seeing that no one wanted to help Spooner, she worked to save his farm, and eventually became good friends with his family.

Once the full tape was obtained, it became clear what Sherrod was trying to do, and what Breitbart had done. But even after he was exposed, Breitbart refused to apologize, and continued to lie, as well as attack the NAACP and the Obama administration. Sherrod is now pursuing a lawsuit against Breitbart.

All this was actually nothing new for Breitbart -- this is what he does. Posing as a journalist, Breitbart promotes and concocts fake stories and peddles them as news. It was Breitbart who showcased heavily doctored video showing two people posing as a pimp and prostitute supposedly getting services from ACORN (among other accusations). Of course, once it had been determined by legal authorities in several states that the tapes alleging misconduct had been altered and the storyline was completely fraudulent, it was too late: ACORN -- which had a history of registering more low-income African-Americans to vote than any other organization in the country -- had been destroyed.

After controversy began on Friday about Breitbart's participation, an ABC spokesperson confirmed that Breitbart would be participating in the coverage. Then, Saturday afternoon, after criticism grew even stronger from inside and outside the company, the executive producer of ABC News Digital indicated that Breitbart's role might be even more limited. But ABC is still giving him access to their media platform and endorsing him as a legitimate journalist in the process.

We understand how Breitbart operates, but we expect more from ABC. Their decision to have Breitbart participate is shameful and irresponsible. It's important to have opinions from across the spectrum, but you would expect a news organization to at least try to make its platform available to those with some baseline of integrity. In this case, they've sought out someone who has clearly has none -- and whose shenanigans in the Sherrod episode forced almost every major news organization to issue retractions and apologize.

It's not too late for ABC to do the right thing. Please join us in demanding that they do:

http://www.colorofchange.org/abc/?id=1748-378357

Thanks.

----

References

Sherrod: Andrew Breitbart is 'a liar', CNN, 7-22-2010
http://bit.ly/dwuqI7

Failing Upward: Breitbart To Be Featured in ABC's 2010 Election Coverage, Media Matters, 10-29-10
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201010290035

Source: ABC's newsroom upset with decision to tap Andrew Breitbart, Washington Post, 10-30-10
http://wapo.st/amJMQL

Analyze this: ABC News clarifies Andrew Breitbart's role, Washington Post, 10-30-10
http://wapo.st/cXlorB














 

They are coming to take your Social Security. And a lot more. 

Dear Reader,

Help us today and receive a FREE autographed copy!


I'm not kidding. The right-wing movement in this country, led by the insurgent Tea Party, wants to deep-six Social Security and Medicare, depriving you of the money taken out of every one of your paychecks for all the years you've been working hard to get ahead.

Pretty shocking, right? I agree. It is hard to believe. But it's true.

 
This summer, Michele Bachman, the founder of the Tea Party Caucus in Congress and a key right-wing leader (many consider her the "real Sarah Palin") told a conservative audience in Las Vegas that if her plans to crush Social Security become law, everyone between the ages of 55 and 65 would be "means-tested," and only those whom Bachmann thinks "truly need it -- the truly disadvantaged" would get the benefits they expected.
 
Those under the age of 55 would apparently be out of luck altogether. Bachmann outlined a Social Security plan to essentially rob us of the money that we've been putting into the system for our entire working lives. AlterNet is fighting to make sure this doesn't happen!
 
Destroying Social Security over a "Long Weekend"


During her speech Bachman said: "Spending comes first, so we have to cut it first
...And in my opinion, it'll take us about a long weekend to get that done, and then we'll be fine." You heard her: "A long weekend" to destroy a program that tens of millions depend on every day. That's how heartless the Tea Party approach really is.

We know Bachman preached about slashing Social Security because our
Washington Bureau Chief Adele Stan was there to hear Bachman and report it. But you haven't read about it in the corporate media.  That's because corporate media is busy repeating the lies of the conservatives, as AlterNet's economic writer Joshua Holland demonstrates in great detail in his new book: The Fifteen Biggest Lies about the Economy: And Everything Else the Right Doesn't Want You to Know About Taxes, Jobs, and Corporate America. Please make a contribution to support AlterNet's influential economic coverage. Our goal for this campaign is $20,000 to support the best writers and researchers who will work with us to protect social security, including getting the word out in every way far beyond the choir, including on Facebook and Twitter. For $50 or more and we'll send you Joshua's new book as our gift of appreciation.
 
Keep in mind, Bachman is not alone among the Tea Party's benefits-bashers. She's joined by other Tea Party darlings promising to slash Social Security and Medicare, including Sharron Angle in Nevada, Alaska's Joe Miller, Florida's Marc Rubio and 10 other candidates for the Senate alone.

Hundreds of millions of people have depended on Social Security in their golden years, when they need financial support the most, and the Tea Party wants to get rid of it all in "one long weekend."  We need to protect Social Security and Medicare with all we've got, including fighting the propaganda.

Media Distortion


Fighting corporate and right-wing media distortion is one of AlterNet's main jobs.  And we push back against it every day, 24/7.
But we need serious help to compete with the billion dollar corporations and deep pocket donors who fund the right's propaganda.  

Support AlterNet with a $50 contribution and we will send you a hot-off-the press copy of The Fifteen Biggest Lies about the Economy which dissects each malicious propaganda fiction perpetrated by the conservatives -- revealing how the Right is just plain wrong on the economy, wrong on jobs, wrong on the deficit, wrong on taxes, and wrong on trade.

As a baby boomer, myself, I feel particularly irate about the attacks on Social Security and Medicare. That's our money.  But it's not only my generation that is affected. In fact, the generations who follow may be in more trouble when it comes to getting what you deserve. To be sure, the Tea Party is not our friend.


In Solidarity,

Don Hazen
Executive Editor, AlterNet

PS.  Please consider Joshua's book. It is pretty cool. We will get him to autograph it for you, if you can give us $50 or more.









August 26, 2010


Please read:

HOW THE STIMULUS IS CHANGING AMERICA BY MICHAEL GRUNWALD





July 27, 2010


July 2010  
    ACT NOW

Anti-Choice "Crisis Pregnancy Centers" Head to Congress
Right now, the people behind anti-choice "crisis pregnancy centers" (CPCs) are on Capitol Hill meeting with members of Congress.

Heartbeat International, an anti-choice network with CPCs in all 50 states, is holding a lobby day titled, "Babies go to Congress." Heartbeat International is using mothers and babies to hide its extreme anti-choice agenda and deceptive practices. Pregnant women who need assistance should get it but they don't need lies, pressure, and lectures from anti-choice volunteers at CPCs.

Don't let CPCs be the only voice on Capitol Hill. Call your member of Congress to counter the anti-choice lobby day.

Take Action

 



 
 


 



January 29, 2010

 
 
 

Get Corporate Money Out of Politics



In President Obama's State of the Union address last night, he spoke about the grave threat our country faces from the influence of corporate money in politics.

The President spoke specifically about last week's Supreme Court decision in the case Citizens United vs. FEC, which overturned over a century of precedent and opened the floodgates for unlimited amounts of corporate money to flow into our political system. Shockingly, the court's decision may even allow foreign corporations and large multinationals to manipulate our elections.

Progress on any issue we care about depends upon our ability to stop the corporate takeover of our electoral process. If we do nothing, this ruling has the potential to undermine the very foundation of our democracy.

Click here to demand that Congressional leadership enact strong laws to save our democracy from the influence of corporate money.

Representative Alan Grayson has been one the most forceful voices in responding to this crisis. He has introduced a number of bills as part of a "Save Our Democracy" initiative to blunt some of the worst implications of the Supreme Court's decision.

These bills would include a 500% excise tax on corporate contributions to political committees, prevent for-profit corporations that receive government money from making political contributions, and apply antitrust law to industry Political Action Committees. Click here for more information.

Without these types of laws, it will be even harder for candidates and elected officials to stand up to big business. Even before the decision, we too often saw the interests of Main Street subverted in favor of the interests of Wall Street. But with the Citizens United decision now law, large corporations have the power to spend unlimited amounts of money from their general treasuries to buy elections.

To put things in perspective, the roughly $745 million Barack Obama raised to run for President (which was the most money raised by any candidate ever to run for office in the U.S.) is dwarfed by the $45 billion in profits a single company (ExxonMobil) made in 2008.

We have heard that the Democratic leadership in the House and the Senate will be deciding in the next few weeks upon a legislative package to push in response to the Citizens United decision. We need to ensure they respond boldly.

Click here to tell the leaders of Congress that you support legislation to stop the flood of corporate donations in the political process.

Thank you for working to build a better world.

- The Change.org Team in partnership with CREDO Action

 

Click here to sign your name



We need to stop the corporate takeover of our electoral process.

 
 
 
 

 

 




January 13, 2010

 
 
Haiti hit by 7.0-magnitude earthquake; buildings leveled in Port-au-Prince
 
 
State Department Victim's Family Hotline:
1.888.407.4747 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              1.888.407.4747 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              1.888.407.4747      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              1.888.407.4747      end_of_the_skype_highlighting      end_of_the_skype_highlighting
 
To Donate:

 Websites:
www.salvationarmyusa.org
http://www.redcross.org/
http://www.unicef.org/

 

 


 

November 23, 2009

Care2 Action Alert

 

An estimated 194,280 new cases of invasive breast cancer will occur in the United States this year -- taking the lives of 40,610 people.

Urge your senators to support the Breast Cancer Education and Awareness act to save lives and detect cancer early >>

Although both men and women are at risk of breast cancer, when cancer is found in women under the age of 45, it is more likely to be aggressive and less responsive to therapies. Stop breast cancer in its tracks >>

Unfortunately, many women do not learn much about beast health unless they breastfeed or they have a problem that needs medical attention. A new bill introduced in Congress would change this.

Tell your senators to support the EARLY Act and end the suffering and deaths caused by breast cancer >>

From Care2 Thank you,
Andrew
Care2 and ThePetitionSite Team

Take action link: http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/AFRWG/zJ3X/beQyd
 

 

 

 


November 17, 2009

Find a Free Clinic in your area, and/or Donate

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

 


 


 

October 16, 2009

William J. Clinton Foundation

Dear Friend,

I don't have to tell you that we're in the middle of a climate crisis. Or that HIV/AIDS still claims far too many lives. You're already acutely aware of these realities.

But you may be surprised by what you DON'T know about some of today's most pressing challenges.

Take my Global IQ Test, then challenge your friends. For every person who completes the 10-question quiz, $1 will be donated to my Foundation by a generous supporter.

Take The Test In addition to testing your knowledge, you'll learn how my Foundation is addressing some of today's most urgent issues: combating climate change, treating HIV/AIDS and malaria, fighting childhood obesity, promoting economic opportunity, and enabling sustainable development.

And you'll be helping us to do even more. For every person who participates, a generous donor will contribute $1 toward our work.

Test your global IQ with our 10 questions today:

http://www.clintonfoundation.org/testyourglobaliq/

I hope that what you learn will inspire you to join us in taking action to address the serious challenges that face our world. There is much to be done.

Knowing what problems we're up against is the first step to solving them. Thank you in advance for spreading the word by forwarding this email to your friends and family.

Sincerely,

Bill Clinton

Sign Up for Email Updates