| |
On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it was reviewing hundreds of mountaintop removal coal mining permits. Two U.S. senators from coal producing states -- Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) and Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) -- introduced the Appalachia Restoration Act (S 696), which would amend the Clean Water Act to prevent the dumping of toxic mining waste from mountaintop removal coal mining into headwater streams and rivers. Can you contract your Senators today, and urge them to support (co-sponsor?) the Appalachia Restoration Act? http://ilovemountains.org/action/write_your_senators In introducing the legislation, Senator Cardin said: "My goal is to put a stop to one of the most destructive mining practices that has already destroyed some of America's most beautiful and ecologically significant regions. This legislation will put a stop to the smothering of our nation's streams and water systems and will restore the Clean Water Act to its original intent." "It is not necessary to destroy our mountaintops in order to have enough coal," said Senator Alexander. "Millions of tourists spend tens of millions of dollars in Tennessee every year to enjoy the natural beauty of our mountains - a beauty that, for me, and I believe for most Tennesseans, makes us proud to live here." Senator Alexander has it right. This is not an either/or choice -- it's about saving the environment and creating new jobs. Please, contact your Senator today and urge them to support this important bipartisan bill: http://ilovemountains.org/action/write_your_senatorsWith your help, the Clean Water Protection Act can pass the House and Senate this year -- and put a permanent end to the worst practices of mountaintop removal coal mining. Thank you for taking action. | | |
|
From UFPJ -- Please circulate this message as widely as possible. You can join the growing international call for the release of al-Zaidi! Click here to sign a petition:
By now, you've all seenthe footage of the Iraqi journalist hurling his shoes at George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad this past Sunday. This bold statement also has to be understood in its cultural context. Showing the soles of your shoes to someone, let alone tossing your shoes at them, is a sign of contempt in Arab culture.
What has not been so widely reported are the words Muntadar al-Zaidi, a correspondent for Cairo-based al-Baghdadiya TV, shouted out. As the first shoe was thrown at Bush, he said: "This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog." And with his second shoe, which the president also dodged, al-Zaidi said: "This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq." After throwing his shoes, al-Zaidi was wrestled to the ground by security personnel and hauled away. According to Democracy Now! this morning, "Muntadar al-Zaidi has been held without charge for over twenty-four hours and has been reportedly beaten in jail. His brother said al-Zaidi has suffered a broken hand, broken ribs and internal bleeding, as well as an eye injury. Earlier today, al-Zaidi was handed over to the Iraqi military command in Baghdad." We urge you to join the growing international call for the release of al-Zaidi. Click here to sign a petition: http://www.iraqsnuclearmirage.com/articles/Zaydi.html
EDIT PS: and here's a related effort on Facebook to send massive amounts of old shoes to Bush... | | |
|
The Republican Jewish Coalition is putting out very dishonest ads linking Obama to Islamic extremists. Help J Street (a rational, anti-racist, pro-Israel organization) convey the more majoritarian Jewish American perspective to battle these lies.
As far as I'm concerned, this RJC campaign is blood libel, as nasty as the "Protocols of Zion" in both conception and intention. It stigmatizes liberal positions, including those of most American Jews. It's outright racism in three senses: 1) in RNC support for the Orthodox and Christian fundamentalist notions of Jewish exceptionalism, and 2) in its targetting of Obama (which feeds on not-so-latent "Black radical" anxieties, as with the misrepresented Jeremiah Wright episode), and 3) in its typical broad-swath approach to Muslim, Arabic and Palestinian identities.
We've reached a point in our history where the RJC kind of support for Israel needs to be repudiated as the racist evil it is.
Dear J Street Member,
I just saw another vile Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) attack ad. This one screams, "Barack Obama's Friends: Pro-Palestinian. Anti-Israel. Hostile to America." Turns out it's just the latest in a series of revolting, Swift Boat-style attacks from the RJC in the Jewish media in the past month. Publications serving the Jewish community should stop running RJC attack ads filled simply with lies and distortions. Will you sign the petition to stop the RJC's fear mongering and hate peddling?
Click here to sign our "No More Republican Jewish Coalition Smears" petition.
In just the past month, the RJC has:
--Linked Obama's name and picture to Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, Ayatollah Khomeini, and Pat Buchanan among others.
--Not so subtly threatened "tragic outcomes for the Jewish people" in a headline over a photo of Obama speaking in Berlin.
--Called Obama advisors "anti-Israel" and "pro-Palestinian" for arguing for American diplomacy intended to achieve Middle East peace.
--These ads play on the deepest fears and worst prejudices of our community - and they are everywhere. They're running in local Jewish newspapers in places like Miami, Philadelphia, and Columbus, Ohio where they can have maximum electoral effect.
Click here to sign the petition.
The Republican Jewish Coalition has likely invested more than one million dollars in ads like these so far this cycle. While we can't match these guys dollar for dollar, we can overwhelm them with sheer people power. We'll write to each of the publications running the advertisements to demand that they pull any RJC ad that is filled with lies and distortions - and we'll attach your signatures so they see the depth of the disgust in our community and across the country. We'll be sure to keep you updated on our progress. Demonstrating that tens of thousands of Americans stand opposed to this sort of fear mongering in Jewish publications is the best way to stop the Republican Jewish Coalition's smears. That's why it's so important you sign this petition, and then forward this message on to as many people as possible.
Click here to sign our "No More Republican Jewish Coalition Smears" petition. Thanks.
Isaac Luria
Online Director
October 7, 2008 P.S. If you've seen the insidious RJC ads in a newspaper near you, write to us about it here info@jstreet.org. We'll add it to our list of papers that will receive our letter with your petition signatures attached.
---------- ABOUT J STREET
J Street is the political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement. J Street was founded to promote meaningful American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Palestinian-Israel conflicts peacefully and diplomatically. We support a new direction for American policy in the Middle East and a broad public and policy debate about the U.S. role in the region. Learn more at our website by clicking one of the links above. Don't forget to check us out on Facebook!
Here are the RJC addresses if you'd like to write to them directly:
rjc@rjchq.org,
california@rjchq.org
florida@rjchq.org
NewYork@rjchq.org
Philly@rjchq.org | | |
|
I note that there's a "Pagans for Obama" list hosted by the Obama campaign. http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/PagansforObamaI also note that at present, it has only 193 members. It would be easy to raise that number, I think, and good to do it. 10,000 would be a tiny fraction of Democrat-leaning Pagans, but would make the campaign more aware of the emerging Pagan demographic... You can set the subscription to "no mail" or to "daily digest" as well as to "receive all". | | |
|
- Callwords:action, folkart, liberty, links, news, politics, strategy, tactics, url, video, war
| | |
|
(I will NOT try to sort out the elemental correspondences nor the feng shui of this project's name!)
| | |
|
 Oy... the Texas/Mexico fence nonsense threatens the habitat and hunting patterns of the 85-100 ocelots remaining in the region.
This displeases me and my Gods. There are few creatures of greater beauty. Glory be to God for dappled things!
I signed a petition and/or sent a letter... not sure how much that does, but can't hurt.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/953781082
| Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89). Poems. 1918. | | | | 13. Pied Beauty | | |
| | | GLORY be to God for dappled things— | | | For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; | | | For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; | | | Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings; | | | Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough; | 5 | | And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim. | | | | | All things counter, original, spare, strange; | | | Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?) | | | With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim; | | | He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: | 10 | | Praise him. |
|
| | |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
america_divine's journal