Don't be evil

The petition reads:

"As a Google user, I am telling you, 'Don't be evil.' The deal between Google and Verizon as reported by the New York Times is evil because it undermines the open Internet upon which hundreds of millions of people rely. Live up to your founding motto, walk away from this deal and save the Internet."

Tell Google what you think.

Blog sprinkles

How badly fucked up the Gulf actually might be.... And people share their ideas on how to fix it. And BP tells you not to spill.

The secret about Obama and BP!!1!

Obviously there are giant secretive worms that live in the earth's core...

Chris Hedges: The Christian Fascists Are Growing Stronger

Tens of millions of Americans, lumped into a diffuse and fractious movement known as the Christian right, have begun to dismantle the intellectual and scientific rigor of the Enlightenment. They are creating a theocratic state based on “biblical law,” and shutting out all those they define as the enemy. This movement, veering closer and closer to traditional fascism, seeks to force a recalcitrant world to submit before an imperial America. It champions the eradication of social deviants, beginning with homosexuals, and moving on to immigrants, secular humanists, feminists, Jews, Muslims and those they dismiss as “nominal Christians”—meaning Christians who do not embrace their perverted and heretical interpretation of the Bible. Those who defy the mass movement are condemned as posing a threat to the health and hygiene of the country and the family. All will be purged.

Uh oh.. Gamers Have Bodies Of '60-Year-Old Chain Smokers' (STUDY)

A photo of slave children around the Civil War.

I should be more concerned about this because it means other species are going as well.... but ... they're SNAKES.

The snake decline reported this week across Europe and Africa could well be happening in America as well, say biologists.

“If you get your average herpetologists together, you’d probably arrive at a consensus that a lot of scientists feel that even across their own lifetimes there are negative changes in terms of population,” says Rafe Brown, chief curator of herpetology at the University of Kansas. “It’s clear that overall the trends are not good and we’re looking at pretty serious declines.”

“The bottom line,” Dr. Brown adds in a telephone interview Thursday, "is that few of these species can survive when 99 percent of their habitat has been turned into subdivisions."

Sign the petitions:

Tell the oil companies: Stop polluting California and clean up the Gulf!

"Congress must not block the Clean Air Act's limits on global warming pollution."

"Please sign on to the Leahy - DeFazio "Dear Colleague" letter asking U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Vilsack to maintain the ban on Monsanto's genetically modified alfalfa."

Tell the FCC to protect net neutrality

A Credo petition:

Big telecoms would like to inspect and filter the Internet content you access, block Web sites and applications they don't like, and overcharge you for using the Web. But the net neutrality rules proposed by the Federal Communications Commission would prevent them from doing that.

The public comment period for these rules ends on Thursday, and the phone and cable companies and their phony front groups have already flooded the FCC with comments objecting to net neutrality.

Can you write a quick letter to the FCC in support of net neutrality before the Thursday deadline?

We need you to speak up because there has been an all-out lobbying effort by the telecommunications industry to kill net neutrality. Even before the FCC proposed their rules, 18 Senators (all Republicans) sent a letter to the FCC opposing net neutrality. One Republican senator even announced an effort to prevent the FCC from spending funds to enforce the new rules once they go into effect. Separately, 72 House Democrats sent their own letter to the FCC opposing net neutrality rules.

This type of pressure from Congress hasn't go unnoticed at the FCC, but personal comments from members of the public can provide a strong counterbalance to the efforts of the telecom industry. Now's the time for citizens like you to speak out and fight back.

Without strong net neutrality rules, we might have to rely upon the good will of large telecoms to protect our access to the diversity of political perspectives. We might have to trust companies like Comcast, which actively and secretly interfered with users' ability to access popular video, photo and music sharing applications; AT&T, which censored anti-Bush comments made by Pearl Jam's lead singer during a concert; and Verizon Wireless, which interfered with NARAL Pro-Choice America's ability to send text messages to its members.

We can't let the corporate lobbyists win. What good is free speech if powerful corporations have the power to stifle communications they find objectionable?

Tell the FCC: Save net neutrality. Submit your comment before the comment period closes on January 14.

Net neutrality means no discrimination: It prevents Internet service providers from speeding up, slowing down or blocking Web content based on its source, ownership or destination. It's time to make net neutrality the law once and for all.

With your help, we can make it happen!

Keep fighting for real health reform

A Credo Petition:

On Christmas Eve, the Senate capitulated to the likes of Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson and passed a deeply problematic health care bill. Now, as the House and Senate bills are being merged, it's up to the progressive members of the House to keep fighting for real health care reform.

Negotiations about the final, merged bill have already begun behind closed doors. There is a lot of pressure for members of the House to accept the Senate bill with all of its flaws. But rank-and-file members of Congress need to speak out now and keep fighting to make the bill better.

Can you tell members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus to keep fighting to: 1) hold insurance companies accountable, 2) make sure insurance is affordable and 3) protect reproductive choice?

Whatever final bill that goes to President Obama's desk should:

• Hold insurance companies accountable. We need to revoke their anti-trust exemption and force them to compete with a real public option.


• Make sure insurance is affordable. We cannot wait until 2013 to start insurance market reforms and subsidies and we must ensure nobody will be forced to buy insurance with premiums, co-pays or deductibles they can't afford.


• Protect reproductive choice.
We must not impose new restrictions on whether or how insurance companies can cover reproductive services.

There is clearly a multitude of views among progressives about the best strategy to pursue, but it's clear that we won't get a better bill unless we fight for a better bill. You can bet that the insurance industry, Big Pharma, and other corporate stakeholders in the health care fight are not sitting on their hands. We shouldn't either.

So tell House progressives: Keep fighting. Any health care bill that goes to President Obama's desk should 1) hold insurance companies accountable, 2) make sure insurance is affordable and 3) protect reproductive choice.

Sign the Petition!

Net Neutrality

Sign the petition:

Net neutrality is the cornerstone of innovation, free speech and democracy on the Internet. Please propose and enact strong net neutrality rules to ensure that the Internet is free from blocking, censorship and discrimination.

A petition and a swift kick to the posterior

(Not from California but still want to kick your elected official's butt? Try this link and put in your own state, otherwise you will find this petition on the righthand column under Take Action: Tell your senators: Support Obama on health care.)

Subject: Tell Sen. Feinstein to Support the Public Health Care Option

Dear Friend,

Instead of fighting for the change we need, Sen. Feinstein is putting the brakes on reform when it matters most.

President Obama is fighting an uphill battle to convince Congress to do what 72% of the American people want: provide a public health care option similar to Medicare for any American who wants one.

Yet Sen. Feinstein has refused to declare her support for the public health care option that millions of Californians desperately need.

Even more astonishing, Sen. Feinstein went on CNN last weekend to question whether the President has the votes in the Senate to pass his health care agenda.

Right now we have a chance to take bold steps to reform health care. The question of including a public option in health care reform is one of the most important policy battles in modern American history. So why isn't Sen. Feinstein on the right side of the issue?

Sign this petition today to tell Sen. Feinstein to stop pandering corporate interests and get on board with a reform supported by the President and an overwhelming number of Californians: a public health care plan.

Medicare For All

Petition

Dear Representative,

I urge you to co-sponsor H.R. 676, the "Medicare For All" Bill introduced by Rep. John Conyers.

Our health care system is broken. We have nearly 50 million citizens with no health coverage, and at least 18,000 of them die unnecessarily each year as a result. Millions more have inadequate insurance coverage.

Every other industrialized country in the world makes sure its population has access to basic healthcare. The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee access to health care as a human right.

28 industrialized nations have single payer universal health care systems like the type proposed in this bill - privately delivered health care, publicly financed - and none spend as much per capita on health care as the United States. The United States ranks near the bottom among industrial countries in indicators from life expectancy (20th) to infant mortality (23rd).

Under H.R. 676, a family of four making the median income of $56,200 would pay about $2,700 in payroll tax for all health care costs. No deductibles, no co-pays, no worrying about catastrophic coverage.

The services covered include primary care, inpatient, outpatient and emergency hospital care, prescription drugs, durable medical equipment, hearing, dental and vision care, chiropractic treatment, mental health services, and long-term care.

Physicians for a National Health Program estimates the nation could save over $286 billion dollars a year in total health care costs. That's enough to cover all the uninsured and provide full prescription drug coverage for everyone in the United States.

No other issue so directly impacts Americans. Please sign on to co-sponsor this vital bill. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

(link via Hipparchia of Over The Cliff, Onto The Rocks)

Stop the attacks on the Endangered Species Act

Sign the petition.



Please....

Sign the petition

Petition Text:
TO:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers
House Select Oversight Panel Chairman Rush Holt

During the height of the fear generated by the anthrax attacks of 2001, ABC News repeatedly reported that the Anthrax used in the attacks could be linked to Saddam Hussein. We now know these claims to be false, but at the time they played a key role in fanning the flames of mounting tension with Iraq, and ABC refuses to identify who fed them those fabricated reports.

Beyond that disturbing episode, there are numerous questions that remain unresolved with regard to the anthrax attacks. Even leading members of Congress charged with oversight of the FBI -- including Sen. Pat Leahy, Rep. Rush Holt and former Sen. Tom Daschle -- have repeatedly complained that they have been "stonewalled" in their attempt to obtain basic information. In light of the magnitude of the anthrax attacks, it is imperative that Americans be convinced that all facts relevant to these attacks have been divulged.

Only an investigative body endowed with full Subpoena power -- whether that be a specially-constituted Senate-House Committee of the type that investigated the Iran-contra scandal, or an independent Commission of the type that investigated the 9/11 attacks -- would be sufficient for ensuring that all facts are divulged.

Rep. Holt, as Chair of the Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, recently said that he supports this proposal, and as Americans who insist that facts surrounding the anthrax attacks and the subsequent investigation be fully disclosed, we urge you to support such a proposal and promptly commence a real investigation.

Glenn Greenwald
Jane Hamsher
Accountability Now

Glenn Greenwald's posts and updates on Ivins and the FBI's incompetence shows that the whole affair is completely unreliable and full of holes. We need an investigation.

California's disguised petitions

If you sign petitions, read every page where you put your signature.

Susie of Suburban Guerrilla:

I should note that the clipboard is arranged such that a rubber band holding the petitions to the cardboard is positioned on the top of the page, across the actual ballot language in question - thus, partially hiding the text of the ballot initiatives on pages 2-4 unless you actually stop and pull down the top of the page.

I agreed to sign the cancer initiative, but the comment about signing four times raised a red flag, because I’m familiar with the structure of ballot petitions, so I paused before signing and looked at the other initiatives. However, I’m absolutely sure that most of the people signing, young college students on a rush to get their lunches and off to class, did not take this step.

What they are doing is getting people to sign for ballot initiatives without their knowledge or informed consent, using young peoples’ desire to do a good thing and their lack of familiarity with the legal paperwork of initiative petitions. If this is not illegal it is certainly deeply unethical. The moment I realized what was going on, I told the petitioners that they shouldn’t be telling people to sign for ballot initiatives they’re not aware of. Immediately after, I called the school newspaper, the Daily Nexus, the Courage Campaign, the Santa Barbara Democratic Central Committee, and the California Democratic Party.

Perhaps if you see this happening, tell the petition collectors that even though they are being paid by the signature or by the hour, you're going to report them for obtaining signatures under false pretenses. Would this work? Sadly ... there is no law to protect us from voters being absolute dumbshits.

Read each petition that you sign.

Update 11/16: More links.

MoveOn.org's petition

First MoveOn.org's statement:

The U.S. Senate just told you to sit down and be quiet. They passed a resolution condemning MoveOn.org and it has one purpose: to intimidate all of us who care about responsibly ending this war. They wanted to send a message that anyone who speaks unpleasant truths about this war will pay. To make everyone--especially politicians--think twice before they accuse the administration of lying.

We can't let that happen, so we're letting Congress know that they're not going to intimidate us. Can you sign on to this statement?

A compiled petition with your individual comment will be presented to your Senators and Representative.

Then the petition.

ACLU action pack!

Petitions to sign, places to go.

Stop the Gitmo boondoggle.