Aug 20, 2012 by whitehouse
President Obama holds a news conference at the White House. August 20, 2012.
Archive for August 21st, 2012
21
Aug
12
Support the Maasai Tribe
Middle Eastern kings and princes are about to force up to 48,000 people in Tanzania from their land to make way for corporate-sponsored big game hunting. But Tanzanian President Kikwete has shown before that he will stop deals like this when they generate negative press coverage. Click to deliver a media blitz that will push President Kikwete to stop the landgrab and save these Maasai.
At any moment, a big-game hunting corporation could sign a deal which would force up to 48,000 members of Africa’s famous Maasai tribe from their land to make way for wealthy Middle Eastern kings and princes to hunt lions and leopards. Experts say the Tanzanian President’s approval of the deal may be imminent, but if we act now, we can stop this sell-off of the Serengeti.
The last time this same corporation pushed the Maasai off their land to make way for rich hunters, people were beaten by the police, their homes were burnt to a cinder and their livestock died of starvation. But when a press controversy followed, Tanzanian President Kikwete reversed course and returned the Maasai to their land. This time, there hasn’t been a big press controversy yet, but we can change that and force Kikwete to stop the deal if we join our voices now.
If 150,000 of us sign, media outlets in Tanzania and around the world will be blitzed so President Kikwete gets the message to rethink this deadly deal. Sign the petition now and send to everyone:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_maasai/?biEWLbb&v=17109
The Maasai are semi-nomadic herders who have lived in Tanzania and Kenya for centuries, playing a critical role in preserving the delicate ecosystem. But to royal families from the United Arab Emirates, they’re an obstacle to luxurious animal shooting sprees. A deal to evict the Maasai to make way for rich foreign hunters is as bad for wildlife as it is for the communities it would destroy. While President Kikwete is talking to favoured local elites to sell them on the deal as good for development, the vast majority of people just want to keep the land that they know the President can take by decree.
President Kikwete knows that this deal would be controversial with Tanzania’s tourists — a critical source of national income — and is therefore trying to keep it from the public eye. In 2009, a similar royal landgrab in the area executed by the same corporation that is swooping in this time generated global media coverage that helped to roll it back. If we can generate the same level of attention, we know the pressure can work.
A petition signed by thousands can force all the major global media bureaus in East Africa and Tanzania to blow up this controversial deal. Sign now to call on Kikwete to kill the deal:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_maasai/?biEWLbb&v=17109
Representatives from the Maasai community today urgently appealed to Avaaz to raise the global alarm call and save their land. Time and again, the incredible response from this amazing community turns seemingly lost causes into legacies that last a lifetime. Lets protect the Maasai and save the animals for tourists that want to shoot them with camera lenses, rather than lethal weapons!
With hope and determination,
Sam, Meredith, Luis, Aldine, Diego, Ricken and the rest of the Avaaz team
For More Information:
The Guardian: “Tourism is a curse to us”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/06/masai-tribesman-tanzania-tourism
News Internationalist Magazine: “Hunted down”
http://www.newint.org/columns/currents/2009/12/01/tanzania/
Society for Threatened People: Briefing on the eviction of the Loliondo Maasai
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/session12/TZ/STP-SocietyThreatenedPeople-eng.pdf
FEMACT: Report by 16 human rights investigators & media on violence in Loliondo
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/58956/print
Voices of Loliondo: Short film from Loliondo on impact of eviction on Maasai
21
Aug
12
the Progress Report
Legitimate Rapes?
A Shockingly Anti-Woman Agenda
The news today has been dominated by discussion of the shocking and offensive comments made over the weekend by Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO). Akin, who is also currently the Republican candidate for the Senate in the Show Me State, explained that victims of “legitimate rapes” are not likely to become pregnant and thus should not enjoy abortion rights:
“It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something: I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child.”
For the record, more than 32,000 women get pregnant because of rape each year in America.
While Akin walked back and later apologized for his comments, condemnation from both Democrats and Republicans alike was swift and fierce. And today, virtually every leading Republican with the exception of Mitt Romney declared that Akin should drop his Senate bid. Due to Missouri election law and Akin’s own declarations today, it appears that Akin is very likely to remain the GOP candidate despite financial abandonment from Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Akin did find some defenders among influential conservative groups, including the American Family Association, Red State’s Erick Erickson (who is also a CNN contributor), Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, and the Susan B. Anthony List.
The Anti-Woman Ticket
What’s perhaps even more shocking than Akin’s comments is the fact that a majority of elected Republicans appear to share his general views on parsing the definition of what counts as rape and what doesn’t, as well as his radical views on numerous other vital women’s health issues.
None other than vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan (R-WI) has teamed up with Akin on a personhood measure that would ban abortion in all circumstances as well as outlaw common forms of birth control, a bill to redefine rape, and even a bill that would allow hospitals to let women die rather than perform a life-saving abortion. The latter two measures were actually among the first measures passed by the House of Representatives after Republicans took over in 2011.
A closer look at the views of the Romney-Ryan ticket reveals the depths of its hostility toward women’s issues:
- In 2007, Mitt Romney said he would “delighted” to sign a national ban on abortion, which he described as “wonderful” and terrific.”
- Both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have supported radical personhood measures that would ban abortion in all circumstances, as well as outlaw common forms of birth control and in vitro fertilization.
- They both also support the Human Life Amendment, which would overturn Roe v. Wade.The Republican National Committee will actually vote tomorrow on including this particular anti-choice measure in the official GOP platform.
- Ryan has voted to defund Planned Parenthood and end the Title X family planning program and Mitt Romney has pledge to “get rid of” federal funding for Planned Parenthood and Title X should he be elected president.
- Both oppose requiring insurers to offer no-cost birth control coverage and they supported the Blunt Amendment, which would allow your boss to deny you insurance coverage for anything for any reason at all.
- Both would repeal the Affordable Care Act (as Ryan has actually voted to do dozens of times) and its numerous benefits for women.
- Ryan voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act, while Romney has refused to take positions on these key pieces of equal pay legislation.
BOTTOM LINE: The GOP’s war on women runs far deeper than Todd Akin’s shocking comments. By selecting Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney has made clear that he sides with the GOP’s most extreme forces on the social issues important to women and their families.
Evening Brief: Important Stories That You May Have Missed
President Obama: “Rape is rape.”
Women protest Rep. Dennis Rehberg (R-MT), who is running for the Senate, over his plan to defund Planned Parenthood.
Top adviser to Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R): we shouldn’t make it easier for African-Americans to vote.
Karl Rove wouldn’t condemn Akin’s comments.
Akin’s spiritual mentor: women sometimes invite rape.
Progress at the Augusta National?
A group of congressmen and their staffs went wild on a recent trip to Israel.
Mitt Romney sidestepped a student’s question about the mounting student debt crisis.
The newspaper Romney cited in a new false ad about welfare actually debunked his claims.
Other recent Progress Reports
Aug 17, 2012: A 1% Tax Rate?
No Answers, Only More Questions About Romney’s Taxes We know that under one version of his running mate Paul Ryan’s plan, Mitt Romney’s income tax rate on more than $20 MILLION in income would’ve come to less than 1 percent. What we don’t know for sure is how much Romney paid in any year except [...]
Aug 16, 2012: 143 Seconds
Romney’s Medicare Madness Explained in 143 Seconds Earlier today, Mitt Romney held a surprise press conference and, even more surprisingly, busted out a white board and attempted to explain his tortured position on Medicare. We decided to pull out our own whiteboard and give you the facts. Watch ThinkProgress’ Igor Volsky break things down: And [...]
Aug 15, 2012: End Medicare Sooner?
New Romney Plan: Make Medicare Insolvent by 2016 Yesterday, we discussed the Romney campaign’s attempt to distract from the Romney-Ryan plan to end Medicare as we know it and replace it with a voucher system that will increase seniors’ health care costs by thousands of dollars. The Romney campaign was also under fire for attacking [...]
Aug 14, 2012: Medicare Cuts 101
The Romney-Ryan Plan to Cut & Then End Medicare Having picked the architect of the Republican plan to end Medicare as we know it as his running mate, Mitt Romney and his “I am rubber, you’re glue” campaign is now trying to paint President Obama as the real threat to seniors’ health care and economic [...]
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http://www.care2.com/causes/author/autismvox
Aug 19, 2012 by Garry Kasparov
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Garry-Kasparov/243791258306
Garry Kasparov was speaking to reporters outside the Moscow courthouse where the sentencing of the band Pussy Riot was taking place. Suddenly he was violently seized by police and forced onto a bus. Later he was beaten by a group of police. The police department has announced they are investigating whether Kasparov bit and injured an officer. The officer in question is highlighted in this video striking Kasparov with his fist. At no time during or after beating Kasparov does the officer show any sign of injury. The officer stays at the scene after Kasparov is forced onto the bus for the second time and the officer uses both of his hands to adjust his vest.
21
Aug
12
the Daily Share
21
Aug
12
Trash …. Republican trash
Keep on talking trash…Republican trash since 2009
8/11/2012
Americans have been bombarded with a whole lot of crazy talk from what I have got to say are RWNJ’s and while some of us may gasp at most or all of what conservatives throw out at voters. There is no doubt that Romney’s Veep choice should without a doubt open the eyes of all that have been trying to decide which side of the aisle and what side of history they want the next generation to read about them. The choice seems clear to me
I ask you … is talk really cheap ?…
They say talk is cheap but until you actually listen and read between the walls of words to find out what exactly is in the Ryan Budget do we find the cheap and ugly truth . We all keep hearing folks describe rep.Paul Ryan as young, preppy dapper and a smooth talker, but they forget that Congress has heard his budget plan at least 2 times and it got voted down; somebody should let him know that renaming it will not do a thing to sell it. The fact is no matter what folks are calling it now,” the pathway to prosperity”, only seems to accept and cover the wealthy. Mr. Ryan seems to promise to save Medicare, close tax loopholes and of course, demand cuts in entitlements and spending by trillions. Yet, the R&R Ticket has no intention of cutting military spending and the big push to keep the bush bonus dollars is still a thorn in the sides of the middle class . The Republican solution is also an American problem because paying for the Romney and Ryan ambition will be off the backs of the poor. The hit to our economy took and its slow recovery does not seem to faze Republicans, but then again the right words can mask the most blatant of realities. It will only take a few Republican votes or lack thereof to put the Middle and Lower classes on the endangered list . And that mission to cut slash and burn public service jobs while handing out thousands in tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires has been raised and doubled down with the addition of Paul Ryan to the ticket as the budget go to guy Romney has decided upon goes into God and Nature mode. I will admit that a sense of calm came over me given all that we know about Romney’s 59 whatever and now his 5-point plan that seemed full of code to me is now an overt plan to gut Medicare Medicaid and Social Security.
I cannot help but wonder what with the Ryan ambition who will suffer most, the new poor the been poor since forever or just anyone who clearly does not fit into Grover Norquist’s realm of Mitt Believe
A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
