We The People

Unless we see ourselves — individually and collectively – as the engine for real societal reform – no matter how hard that may be to imagine given our developed habits of disengagement — our vote on election day is wasted.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/27/we_the_people/

Don't Allow Coal Companies to Annihilate Streams

The Environmental Protection Agency is on the verge of approving a proposal that would allow coal-mining companies to dump mining waste directly into flowing streams, filling in the streams entirely and destroying all the life in them. Since 1983 the Stream Buffer Zone rule has prohibited mining within 100 feet of flowing streams, but now the Bush administration and the Office of Surface Mining are trying to push through an under-the-table, last-minute effort to remove this protection. If the EPA approves the repeal, it will be perfectly legal for coal companies to blow off the top of a mountain, then dump the waste straight into streams, killing the rare salamanders, fish, and other species that live in Appalachian waterways. EPA Administrator Johnson could make the decision at any moment, so time is critical. Please take a minute to tell the EPA not to approve the Stream Buffer Zone revision, and pass this alert along to as many of your friends as possible.

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2167/t/5243/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26129

Tell Congress to Break Up Milk Monopolies

Over two years ago, the Department of Justice started an investigation into anti-trust violations by Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), the company that picks up over a third of the milk from U.S. farms. The DOJ has never released the findings of their investigation and we need Congress to shine some light on what is going on in the dairy industry.

Tell the House and Senate Judiciary Committees it’s time for them to conduct hearings into anti-competitive behavior by dairy giants like DFA.

http://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/t/741/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26126

States are not providing adequate voting equipment, machines, stations and staff

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1331/t/6410/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26109

In 2004 tens of thousands of voters were denied their right to vote in Ohio when election officials provided inadequate voting machines in African American communities. Some people waited in line to vote for longer than 12 hours. Many thousands of others gave up and did not vote. This alone may have been enough to change the outcome of the 2004 election.

Well, it’s happening again.

A recent report indicated that college-age and African American precincts in Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia will not have sufficient numbers of voting machines or election staff to handle the number of voters expected on Election Day. Help us to let these officials know that tens of thousands of people are watching their actions and documenting what occurs on Election Day. Even if you do not live in these states it is important for these officials to hear from you. They need to know they will be held accountable for their actions. This action is being taken in concert with a coalition of organizations working under the banner “No More Stolen Elections.” See www.NoMoreStolenElections.org.

Click and send a letter to the governor, congressional delegation (House and Senate), the secretary of state as well as election administrators where questions have been raised about the adequacy of the number of voting machines and staff.

Please take action now.

Say NO to the Gulf Council's unsafe plan for Open Ocean Fish Farming

We all love to eat fish, and we know that much of the fish we love is in high demand. Because of this demand, more and more fish are grown in huge, unsafe, and often overcrowded cages in open ocean waters called offshore fish farms, or aquaculture. In our decades of work, we have learned some tough lessons about offshore aquaculture, and unfortunately those lessons are about to be ignored by fishery managers in the Gulf of Mexico. I need your help to urge them not to go forward with their unsafe plan. Here's why:

Salmon farming has taught us a lot about the risks involved with offshore aquaculture. With so many fish packed closely together in open ocean cages, disease is much more likely. Without a doubt, some fish escape and transfer these diseases, such as contagious sea lice, to wild populations where the affects can be devastating. Studies show that some salmon populations may go extinct and most wild fish populations are declining in areas where salmon farming occurs.

Sadly, the fish farming plan proposed by Gulf fishery managers fails to protect against these substantial risks and many others. We need strong and smart national standards that will protect every part of our ocean BEFORE aquaculture moves forward in the Gulf … or any of our nation’s waters.

We must protect the health of our ocean and the environmental interests of the public before expanding fish farming in our ocean. This approach is absolutely essential to helping balance our growing demand for healthy seafood with the needs of protecting our ocean and our coastal economies.


http://www.oceanconservancy.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=11607&JServSessionIdr001=3uw4525ut2.app44b

Equal Pay for Equal Work

The Paycheck Fairness Act will make filing a discrimination claim easier, provide protection for workers who blow the whistle on pay discrimination, and strengthen the Department of Labor’s efforts to ensure fair pay for all workers.

http://www.pay-equity.org/info-leg.html

IUF Challenges Job Destruction at Nestlé, Unilever on World Day for Decent Work

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The IUF is targeting the systematic, programmed destruction of permanent work at two major food TNCs - Nestlé (the world's largest food company) and Unilever (number 3) - as unions worldwide highlight the menacing spread of precarious work on October 7 - World Day for Decent Work.

Casual, insecure, subcontracted jobs are not an accidental byproduct of the constant redefinition of "core" business, or the search for "flexibility". The destruction of permanent work has become a major pillar of corporate human resources strategy, implemented to fund record dividends and share buybacks in the name of "shareholder value". Alongside their brands, the companies are manufacturing insecurity. Precarious jobs are corporate policy for shrinking and ultimately extinguishing the number of workers who retain a direct employment relationship with the corporations whose products they manufacture - and with whom they can negotiate their terms and conditions of employment. Precarious work is union busting.

Nestlé and Unilever have been brutally and systematically eliminating permanent work while touting the virtues of job creation and "corporate social responsibility." Behind their famous "billion dollar brands" the former Nestlé or Unilever worker has been increasingly replaced by an abusive system of outsourcing, casualization, "temporary" hiring and "co-packing" which is steadily eliminating the use of permanent employment contracts.

To highlight the leading role of these two food giants in destroying decent work the IUF is launching two new websites.

Nestlewatch and Unileverwatch are interactive sites with translation toolbars for multi-language use. We've launched them to challenge these companies' systematic cultivation of insecure, precarious work, to put a corporate face on the process of job destruction, and to assist in fighting back.

http://www.iuf.org/cgi-bin/dbman/db.cgi?db=default&uid=default&ID=5399&view_records=1&ww=1&en=1

Tell Congress: You Deserve a Better Bailout!

When the House of Representatives rejected a financial bailout package on Monday, Congress had an opportunity to address objections to the proposal and ensure the rights of Main Street were protected. Instead, the Senate hastily added provisions - many wholly unrelated to fixing the economy - that caused the bill to balloon to a colossal 451 pages. Most legislators haven't had the time to read or understand it.

This is an outrage! Public Citizen opposes this bill. If the bill is enacted, we will urge Congress to return to this issue immediately after the New Year, re-regulating the finance industry and providing needed consumer protections and relief.

Write your congressional representatives TODAY and tell them to oppose H.R. 1424, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, as passed by the Senate.

http://action.citizen.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26039

No Bailout for Big Oil!

Lobbyists from Big Oil have snuck more corporate welfare into the Wall St. bailout package-- this time for Big Oil's dirtiest forms of oil production. Take action now!

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/790/t/7370/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26042

Stop Putting Special Interests Ahead of the Public Interest

Don't let Congress sidestep their responsibilities. Demand that any bailout bill include oversight over how our tax dollars are being spent!

Please join us in telling Congress that any bailout bill must:

* Be completely transparent about how our tax dollars are being used.
* Include strict oversight over the actions of the Treasury Secretary. The current proposal gives unprecedented, unlimited authority to the Treasury Secretary, and makes his decisions non-reviewable by any court of law or administrative agency. The lack of oversight is what's gotten us into this mess; Congress should not compound the problem.
* Include provisions to help families who are in danger of losing their homes avoid foreclosure.
* Cap the pay of CEOs of the bailed out companies. As ordinary Americans struggle to make ends meet and taxpayers are asked to shoulder this $700 billion bailout, the CEOs responsible for these problems should not be receiving million-dollar bonuses and golden parachutes.
* Ensure that, when the bailed out companies become profitable again, some portion of those profits will be returned to the public treasury. This cannot turn into a public debt for private profit situation.
http://www.commoncause.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=4559581&auid=4054358

Tell the Senate not to drill our coasts!

On September 16, the House of Representatives rushed to pass a bill that would end the current moratorium on oil and gas drilling on the outer continental shelf posing a permanent threat to our oceans. Now the Senate is moving to consider the House passed bill along with a number of other proposals that would result in drilling our oceans and coasts.


Please take action now and tell Congress not to drill our coasts.
http://takeaction.oceana.org/t/6438/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=25177

No Bankers Coup D'Etat

We are witnessing a bankers' coup d’etat. In the name of saving the economy from a crisis created by their own greed and immense profits, the biggest bankers have taken a country and a people hostage.

“Give us your money and tear up what’s left of your Constitution or we will sink your economy,” is the message from Wall Street and the Bush Administration. “Give us the power and money we demand or you will be left jobless from a new economic depression."

Under the pretext of the banking crisis, the Bush Administration is changing the way this country operates. This is not simply taking trillions of dollars from the people and giving it to the richest bankers to do with as they see fit.

Click here to send your letter to Congress

Congress is poised to vote to give the Executive Branch of government, and specifically the White House’s political appointees in the Treasury Department, the absolute right to take our money and give it to domestic and foreign banks and corporations without any oversight of elected officials, from the courts, or from the people.

The new legislation states: “Decisions by the Secretary [of the Treasury] pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.” The Legislation allows the Treasury Department to appoint the same bankers who created the crisis to administer and dictate the use of trillions of our tax dollars.

We will not stand by and let the Bush Administration formalize its vision of a “government of, by and for the richest bankers."

The new system institutionalizes theft on a grand scale. Lehman Brothers bankers will receive $2.5 billion in bonuses after their company went bankrupt last week, but the new dictatorial authority under the White House and Treasury Department has ruled out any relief for the millions of working families who are being foreclosed.

We live in a $15 trillion annual economy. Instead of taking our tax dollars and giving it to the already rich and powerful, these funds should be used provide to decent paying jobs, affordable housing, health care and a good education for our children. There is another way!

Now is the time to hear the voice of the people. A spineless Congress authorized Bush’s illegal war in Iraq and rubber-stamped the Patriot Act. Now they are being herded like sheep again to give the White House and Wall Street dictatorial control over the people’s money.

Send a letter to Your Congressional Representatives
http://votenobailout.org/

Urgent: Stop The $700B Blank Check!

Campaign For America's Future

Within the next 24 hours, we expect Congress will make an historic choice to address America’s financial crisis: Cut the Bush administration a $700 billion blank check for Wall Street OR demand sensible public checks and balances in the $700 billion bailout. Write an emergency letter to Congress now, and tell them: No $700 Billion blank check to the Bush administration for Wall Street!

Co-Sign Senator Sanders' Petition to Paulson!

Sign the petition and join the thousands that have already added their names -




Dear Secretary Paulson:
As a representative of the Bush Administration, you have proposed a financial bailout program of $700 billion – over $2,000 for every man, woman, and child in the country. We are appalled that your proposal puts the cost of this bailout on average Americans; that it contains no provisions reversing failed deregulatory policies; that it allows executives at these failed institutions to continue to make exorbitant salaries and bonuses, and that your proposal contains no help for average Americans who themselves are facing severe economic hardships.

While the Administration has quickly rallied to help Wall Street, it has ignored the needs of the declining middle class. Since President Bush has been in office the wealthiest people in this country have made out like bandits and have not had it so good since the 1920s. The top one-tenth of one percent now earn more income than the bottom 50 percent of Americans and the top one percent own more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. Incredibly, the richest 400 people in our country saw their wealth increase by $670 billion during the Bush presidency.

Having mismanaged the economy for 8 years while continually insisting that, “The fundamentals of our economy are strong,” the Bush Administration, six weeks before an election, wants the middle class of this country to bail out Wall Street to the tune of one trillion dollars. Meanwhile the wealthiest people, those who have benefited most from Bush’s policies and are in the best position to pay, are being asked for no sacrifice at all. This is absurd.

Any plan to clean up the mess on Wall Street must:

Ensure that middle income and working families are not the ones who are paying for this bailout by
Imposing a five-year, 10 percent surtax on income over $1 million a year for couples and over $500,000 for single taxpayers. That would raise more than $300 billion in revenue over five years;
Ensuring that assets purchased from banks are realistically discounted so companies are not rewarded for their risky behavior and taxpayers can recover the amount they paid for them; and
Requiring that taxpayers receive equity stakes in the bailed-out companies so that the taxpayers’ assumption of risk is rewarded when companies’ stock goes up.

Taken together these three provisions will substantially reduce the likelihood that this bailout will end up on the backs of average American taxpayers.


Include a major economic recovery package which puts Americans to work at decent wages. Among many other areas, we can create millions of jobs rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and moving our country from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy. Further, we must protect our must vulnerable families from the very difficult times they are experiencing.


Repeal the disastrous de-regulatory legislation that facilitated this crisis.
End the danger posed by companies that are “too big too fail,” that is, companies whose failure would cause systemic harm to the U.S. economy. If a company is too big to fail, it is too big to exist. We need to determine which companies fall in this category and then break them up.
In closing, we believe it is appropriate to act quickly to address any systemic danger to our economy. But that does not mean that we need to give a blank check to the financial sector.

Sincerely,

Senator Bernie Sanders

Citizen Co-Signers (that's us!)

Urgent: Stop The Bush Bailout!

The Bush administration is trying to ram this through in only 72 hours by claiming there will be dire consequences if we don't pass the bailout exactly as written. Once again they're using fear to scare Congress and the American people into submission. We have to stop them.

http://www.truemajority.org/NoBailout/switchboard.php

Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights

The United States government recently bailed out some big Wall Street banks. Now it’s time to help consumers – people across the country who’ve been fleeced by predatory credit card practices during two decades of “anything goes” policy in Washington. While the large financial corporations on Wall Street are being bailed out of a mess that they created for themselves, millions of consumers on Main Street are still drowning in a sea of debt.


On July 31, 2008 the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights, H.R. 5244, passed through the House Financial Services Committee despite vigorous opposition from the credit card industry. The industry is still fighting this bill, but we can pass it next week.

The entire House of Representatives must vote on this bill next week – before it adjourns for the year. You can help to make sure it does!

Please CALL your representatives today to ask them to vote FOR the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights, H.R. 5244, without any amendments that would stall or weaken the bill.


As the New York Times said, “The Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights would help rein in some of the worst abuses.” Specifically, H.R. 5244 would:


• Stop unjustifiable interest rate increases on existing balances.

• End bait-and-switch contract clauses.

• Apply the consumer's payment proportionally between high and low rate balances.

• Stop "double cycle" billing, which requires consumers to pay interest on debts they've already paid off.

• Give the consumer a chance to set a fixed credit limit and avoid over the limit fees.

• Prohibit the granting of credit cards to consumers who are younger than 18 years-of-age.

Please take a moment out of your busy schedule - right now - to call your representative and tell them to support the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights - without any amendments.


If you can’t call, then please personalize the letter below and insist that your Representative support legislation to stop the most predatory practices of credit card companies.
http://action.citizen.org/t/1153/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=25964

PRO-DEMOCRACY GROUPS CALL ON DEBATE COMMISSION TO MAKE SECRET CONTRACT PUBLIC

For Immediate Release

September 18, 2008

Contact: George Farah (617-828-8296)

http://www.opendebates.org/makecontractpublic.html

Washington, D.C. – Ten pro-democracy groups – Open Debates, Common Cause, Fair Vote, Judicial Watch, Democracy Matters, Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, Rock the Debates, Personal Democracy Forum, Reclaim Democracy, and Essential Information – call on the Commission on Presidential Debates to make public the secret debate contract negotiated by the Obama and McCain campaigns.

Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) of the McCain campaign and Representative Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) of the Obama campaign have negotiated a detailed contract that dictates the terms of the 2008 presidential debates, including who can participate and the structure of the debate formats. The Commission on Presidential Debates, a private corporation created by the Republican and Democratic parties, has agreed to implement the debate contract. In order to shield the major party candidates from criticism, the Commission on Presidential Debates has refused to release the debate contract to the public.

“In denying voters access to critical information about our most important political forums, the Commission on Presidential Debates is more concerned with the partisan interests of the two major party candidates than the democratic interests of the voting public,” said George Farah, Executive Director of Open Debates.

“In a sound democracy, it is vital that voters have full access to information, including the rules that govern influential presidential debates, in order to hold the candidates accountable and to make informed choices,” said Bob Edgar, President of Common Cause.

“The partisan, corporate-funded Commission on Presidential Debates should be replaced with a non-partisan, publicly-funded Citizens’ Debate Commission that will operate transparently and champion the public interest,” said Rob Richie, Executive Director of Fair Vote.

The Commission on Presidential Debates was created by and for the Republican and Democratic parties. In 1986, the Republican and Democratic National Committees ratified an agreement “to take over the presidential debates” from the nonpartisan League of Women Voters. Fifteen months later, then-Republican Party chair Frank Fahrenkopf and then-Democratic Party chair Paul Kirk incorporated the Commission on Presidential Debates. Fahrenkopf and Kirk still co-chair the Commission on Presidential Debates, and every four years it implements and conceals contracts jointly drafted by the Republican and Democratic nominees.

A copy of the 2004 debate contract negotiated by the Bush and Kerry campaigns is available at: http://www.opendebates.org/news/documents/debateagreement.pdf

Help Protect Idaho's Buffalo Gulch

A cyanide gold mine proposed in Buffalo Gulch

A cyanide heap leach gold mine is proposed on public lands in Idaho's Buffalo Gulch. This area, administered for all Americans by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), lies in the South Fork Clearwater watershed.

A cyanide gold mine proposed where it's illegal to pollute
Both the South Fork Clearwater and Buffalo Gulch are listed as impaired 303(d) streams under the Clean Water Act. This means that Idaho Law and the EPA require that no further degradation occur in either of these drainages.

The mine threatens local drinking water and fisheries
Many local residents depend on Buffalo Gulch-fed springs and wells for their drinking water.

The project could negatively affect treaty rights and public recreation, as fishing in the South Fork Clearwater River is important both culturally and economically.

And since the completion of Dworshak Dam, which blocks native fish migrations between the Pacific Ocean and North Fork Clearwater River, the South Fork has gained added significance as a rare, local, anadromous fishery. Westslope cutthroat trout, Pacific lamprey, threatened bull trout, Chinook salmon, and steelhead inhabit the area’s waters.

TAKE ACTION
The BLM is now taking public comment on the mine proposal. Please write the BLM and tell them that pure water is more precious than gold.


http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/676/t/572/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=249

Be a "Pollworker for Democracy"

This year, you have an amazing opportunity to ensure a fair election, protect the right to vote, and get paid for doing so. How? By becoming a pollworker.

That's why CREDO Action is proud to sponsor the "Pollworkers for Democracy" project - a nonpartisan effort to get more people involved in protecting our elections - in order to support our democracy. We'll provide you with information to supplement your pollworker training, and also a system to report and track any problems on and before Election Day.

Your county still needs pollworkers for the November 4th general election. By signing up as a pollworker, you can support our democratic system...and get paid!

Click here to sign up to become a pollworker.

http://act.credoaction.com/event/events/index.html?id=&action_id=11&rc=dems

This is America. We don't jail journalists here.

Jailing journalists is unacceptable in a democracy. But that's exactly what is happening at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.

Award winning journalist and host of "Democracy Now" Amy Goodman was arrested by St. Paul police while covering a protest outside the Republican National Convention. Though clearly identified as press, Goodman was charged with "obstruction of a legal process and interference with a 'peace officer.'" Two of her producers were arrested for "suspicion of felony riot."

This video is upsetting, but you deserve to know what's really going on.

Goodman and her producers were released last night. (An AP photographer was also arrested and released). But the charges are still pending.

This story has been virtually ignored by the mainstream press. The cable channels are providing extensive coverage of events related to the Republican National Convention, but there has been a virtual news blackout on the arrest of Amy Goodman and the Democracy Now team.

Americans deserve to know that journalists are being jailed for trying to do their jobs. E-mail CNN President Jonathan Klein and NBC News President Steve Capus today (NBC News controls MSNBC) to demand coverage of this brutally important story.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/dont_arrest_journalists/?r=1376&id=796-834353-WjrLCJx