Ilyse G. Hogue President, NARAL Pro-Choice America |
|
|
Tag Archives: Carmen
Judy Waxman, National Women’s Law Center
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
37 Times the Charm
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
How much does a Senate vote cost? Ask the NRA!
 |
|
|
Have You had enough
|
|
|
Take it. Share it. and Boar’s Head will donate $5 to American Diabetes Assoc
 |
| | |
Did you know 25 percent of Americans who have type 2 diabetes don’t know it? Are you one of them? Take the test that will help Stop Diabetes® before it stops you. American Diabetes Association Alert Day® may have passed on March 26, but that doesn’t mean the risk for type 2 diabetes just passes by. The Diabetes Risk Test is still available. You or someone you love may be at risk. Don’t forget, for every Diabetes Risk Test taken, Boar’s Head®—a leading provider of premium delicatessen products—will donate $5 to the American Diabetes Association starting March 26 through April 9, 2013, up to $50,000. There has never been a more urgent time to know your risk. An estimated 79 million, or one in three American adults, have prediabetes. We can’t waste any time. Take the Diabetes Risk Test today and share it with everyone you care about. Chances are someone you love is at risk, and early detection can prevent or delay type 2 diabetes and its devastating complications. With your help, we will Stop Diabetes! This year’s Alert Day activities are sponsored by Boar’s Head and Janssen Pharmaceuticals. |
President Obama and OFA
President Obama talked about you the other day — and I wanted to make sure you heard all the good things he had to say:
“What we want is to make sure that the voices of the people who put me here continue to be heard — that they’re not just heard during election time, that they’re not just heard in terms of dollar solicitations, that we are helping to build or sustain a network of citizens who have a voice in the most critical debates that are going to be taking place over the next year, year and a half, and if it works, potentially beyond.”
Pretty exciting stuff, right? That’s our mission at Organizing for Action — and you’re making it happen.
Check out this video of President Obama’s speech at last week’s Founder’s Summit and say you’re standing with the President for the work ahead:
When President Obama talked about the work we’re doing, he made it clear: It’s not about electing anyone, and it’s not about gearing up for the next elections.
It’s about the governing part of our movement — after the polls close, and when the real job of passing legislation that represents our principles and values begins.
Already, your work as part of Organizing for Action has begun to turn heads.
In a nutshell, it meant the hundreds of events across the country to make sure Congress knows we’re serious about reducing gun violence.
It’s thousands of people, many who hadn’t ever used Twitter before, getting online and tweeting their representatives to make their voices heard.
It’s the more than 500,000 people who have added their names to tell Congress to reduce the deficit and pass a budget that doesn’t hurt the middle class.
It’s the more than 1 million OFA supporters who have already taken action as part of this organization — yes, more than 1 million.
And it’s the more than 400 Action Planning Sessions that folks are holding across the country this week and next to plan our actions for the next few months ahead.
I want to share one last line from President Obama’s speech that really drives home the work we’re doing:
“I’ve always said that I am representing people, and that change comes about because people are activated, people are involved. People shape the agenda. People determine the framework for debate. People let their members of Congress know what is that they believe. And when those voices are heard, you can’t stop it. That’s when change happens.”
You’re part of it,
Watch the rest of President Obama’s remarks, and say you’re in for Organizing for Action’s work today:
Thank you,
Jon
Jon Carson
Executive Director
Organizing for Action
Media Matters for America : Weekly
|
||||
|
John Hocevar, Greenpeace
 |
||
Endangered leatherback turtles migrate 6,000 miles across the Pacific each year, and at the end of their journey looms a deadly threat. Drift gillnets, known as “walls of death,” float just off the California coast. While their purpose is to catch swordfish, these nets ensnare and drown more than a hundred marine mammals a year. Rare sharks and endangered sea turtles are also among the casualties. Leatherback turtles can currently take refuge in a small conservation area, but not for much longer. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is working to shrink this safe space—a move that threatens the survival of their species. NMFS has tried to rollback conservation areas before, and has only backed down when facing fierce public opposition. Together, we can stop NMFS again, and help leatherback turtles stave off extinction. Send a message to NMFS to tell them that conservation areas for endangered leatherback turtles should be expanded, not put in jeopardy. Around the world, the leatherback population is plummeting due to careless fishing practices. Even though leatherbacks have thrived for millions of years, scientists predict it won’t last another 20 years if we don’t act. At this point, even one leatherback killed is too many. And these nets are not just killers for leatherbacks. Whales, sea lions, dolphins, and other endangered species become entangled and die every year. For every one pound of swordfish caught by these gillnets, 27 pounds of other marine species die pointlessly. We must keep waging battles with those who plunder our fisheries rather than manage them—whether it is off the California coast, in the frigid waters of the Bering Sea or in the fisheries of the Atlantic—to secure our oceans’ future. Act now and tell NMFS that you want stronger protections for the leatherback turtle and other species near these dangerous fisheries. Overfishing, climate change, and ocean acidification threaten to turn our oceans into deserts. Greenpeace is working for a future where overfishing has ceased, while endangered species like the leatherback turtle can flourish in protected marine reserves. Every short-sighted and profit-driven decision we stop is another step towards true protection of the ocean ecosystems that nourish us. Let’s bring down these “walls of death.” For the oceans, John Hocevar |
||
Breaking: Indigenous communities fighting to reclaim stolen lands …
 |
|||||||||
 |
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
For generations, the Indigenous Batak communities of Northern Sumatra have harvested and traded the sap from the trees in their sacred benzoin forests. The sap is used for the production of incense and perfumes, and exported to the international market. The villages thrived and forests were healthy. Today, these communities are fighting for their lands and livelihoods against the controversial paper giant APRIL. Please write to APRIL’s CEO Sukanto Tanoto today and ask APRIL to peacefully resolve this conflict now and return the community lands it has stolen. Earlier this week, hundreds of villagers risked life and limb by standing between their forest home and the machinery of APRIL’s logging operations. In response, Indonesia’s notoriously abusive security agency, known as Brimob, was called in to forcibly suppress the protest. At least 16 village members have now been arrested in connection to this latest dispute. This land conflict is just one example of the widespread human rights violations that have plagued APRIL’s operations for many years. This case has been simmering since 2009, when an APRIL affiliate began deforesting the community’s territory and planting eucalyptus plantations on their ancestral land. Tell APRIL CEO Sukanto Tanoto to release the 16 Indigenous activists who are still being held, to stop expansion on Batak lands, and to return the lands already stolen from them. Last September, APRIL workers and security forces again began to clear forest on the Batak communities’ land. The community gathered in large numbers to stop the machinery, confiscating weapons and chainsaws from the logging crew. Three days later, eight villagers were summoned to the police station. Instead, nearly 1,000 community members arrived in an inspiring act of solidarity. We must stand with these communities. This remains a dangerous and unresolved confrontation between a major corporation seeking to maximize profits and an Indigenous people desperately seeking to preserve their identity and ancestral lands. APRIL’s massive logging operations have run roughshod over the rights of local communities for far too long. Please write to APRIL’s CEO and let him know these practices are unacceptable and must stop now.
|
|||||||
