Tell Congress to Fix Our Broken Food Safety System!

The current Salmonella contamination in peanut butter products is the most recent failure of FDA's ability to inspect and regulate our food system. The Food and Drug Administration, the federal agency that is supposed to create a safety net to protect consumers from unsafe food, can't handle the job. Now is the time to reorganize and create a better agency that can actually deal with food safety. We have a new Congress and a new President who can make real change and overhaul our broken food safety system.

Can you tell Congress to take action now and fix the FDA and our broken food safety system?

Commend President Obama and Call for Accountability

Amnesty International commends President Barack Obama’s signing of executive orders on Guantanamo, detention policy, interrogation and transparency, along with his decision to halt military commissions at Guantanamo, as important steps forward in committing the United States government to human rights, international law, the U.S. Constitution, and the values and ideals central to a just, free and secure society. As President Obama said at the signing ceremony, the United States does not have "to continue with a false choice between our safety and our ideals." Please take a moment to commend him for his initial first positive steps and ask him to finish the job he started.

Tim DeChristopher Reinvents the Greenbuck in Utah

by Jerry CopeDesigner, Filmmaker, Eco Activist
Huffington Post
January 11, 2009

...Al Gore, James Hansen, Pat Shea, and numerous others have all issued the call for vastly increased peaceful civil disobedience to force real change in government and corporate environmental policy. Mr. DeChristopher is the most recent to answer the call and has inspired people across the globe by his courage and tenacity. To voice your support for Tim DeChristopher or assist with his legal defense go to Bidder70.org .

URGENT: Petition to Urge President-elect Obama not to appoint former Adm. Dennis Blair

Sign the petition now! http://www.petitiononline.com/blair01/petition.html

Urge President-elect Obama not to appoint former Adm. Dennis Blair as Director of National Intelligence. As Commander in the Pacific, he cozied up to the Indonesian military and downplayed human rights concerns in the lead up and aftermath of East Timor's independence referendum. According to news reports, Obama will appoint his intelligence chief this week.

For background go see these ETAN media releases:

Adm. Blair Poor Choice as Director of National Intelligence, Says Rights Group; Blair’s History with Indonesia and East Timor Raises Questions about Likely Nominee

ETAN Urges President-elect Obama Not to Appoint Adm. Blair Director of National Intelligence; ETAN Menolak Adm. Blair sebagai Kepala Intelijen Nasional
In addition to signing the petition, you can also cut, paste and modify the text below and post it to President-elect Obama's transition website. Just go here: http://change.gov/page/s/seattable and send a comment.

Thank you and spread the word! ETAN

President-elect Obama -

We urge you not to appoint Adm. Dennis Blair as Director of National Intelligence. During his years as Pacific Commander, Blair actively worked to reinstate military assistance and deepen ties to Indonesia's military, despite its ongoing human rights violations in East Timor and its consistent record of impunity. In 1999, he undermined the U.S. efforts to support human rights and self-determination in the Indonesian-occupied territory and opposed congressional efforts to limit assistance.

In April 1999, just days after Indonesian security forces and their militias carried out a brutal, churchyard massacre, Adm. Blair delivered a message of 'business-as-usual' to Indonesian General Wiranto, then Commander of the Indonesian armed forces. Following East Timor's pro-independence vote, Blair sought the quickest possible restoration of military assistance, despite Indonesia's highly destructive exit and the failure, which continues to this day, to prosecute the senior officials who oversaw the violence.
This lack of concern for human rights shows that he is unlikely to be a champion of reform. I don't believe that this is the kind of change people are expecting.

Power Past Coal

100 Days of Action to Expose the True Cost of Coal, Plug into New Power
Join dozens of groups across the United States between January 21st to April 30th for 100 Days of Action to Power Past Coal! From Appalachia to Arizona, from the Dakotas to Washington DC, we’re united to share the stories from communities impacted by coal, and to begin working on a truly clean and just energy future.

Take action. Tell your story. Join the movement.
Starting on January 20th, the new president and congress will have a unique opportunity to tackle one of the biggest justice issues in the United States today: Coal.
The whole life cycle of coal is costly, dirty and deadly, from mining, to dumping coal waste to global warming. The communities that coal impacts are some of the poorest places in the US; we need new green jobs in these communities and new energy options for America.
Each day, from January 21st to April 30th, one or more communities will make a call for us to power past coal – from its destructive mining practices to its dangerous waste disposal. Citizens across the US will gather with each other and organizations, small and large, to work for clean energy, to tell their truth about coal, to keep false solutions that include coal out of climate change legislation, and stand in solidarity with communities impacted by coal.
Our actions will tell the story of the new power we are building — the power of the grassroots joining together to Power Past Coal.

http://powerpastcoal.org/