tagged w/ Legislation
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WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's yearlong health care overhaul drama featured dozens of speeches, contentious debate and a televised summit with lawmakers before a divided Congress passed the bill. An elaborate White House signing ceremony kicks off the next act: selling the sweeping changes to a skeptical public.WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's yearlong health care overhaul drama... more
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There's finally a bill to stop private, for-profit companies like Blackwater from waging war in our name with little regard for anything beyond their bottom line.
More than 22,000 mercenaries are operating in Iraq and Afghanistan, and these unaccountable hired guns have shot civilians and participated in torture at Abu Ghraib and other detention facilities.
The Stop Outsourcing Security Act, just introduced by Rep. Jan Schakowsky, would prohibit hiring private mercenaries like Blackwater to perform tasks traditionally done by the military.
Sign the petition at this link.There's finally a bill to stop private, for-profit companies like Blackwater from... more
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W. J. “Billy” Tauzin, a former congressman from Louisiana, has announced that he is retiring in the summer as head of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America which creates a problem for Democratic leaders who are fighting to keep healthcare reform alive. Tauzin was an influential lobbyist, and “became a pivotal backer of health-care legislation after reaching a deal with the White House aimed at limiting damage to the industry,” reports Dan Eggen from The Washington Post.W. J. “Billy” Tauzin, a former congressman from Louisiana, has announced... more
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The International Violence Against Women Act was reintroduced yesterday. The press release reads: "This landmark bipartisan legislation makes combating violence against women and girls a strategic imperative for the United States government. IVAWA creates new institutional authorities, responsibilities, and funding to fight the scourge of violence against women and girls around the globe."
Check out this blog post for more info on the International Violence Against Women Act reintroduced, in the Senate by Sens. John Kerry (D-MA), Barbara Boxer (D-CA, pictured.), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and in the House by Reps. Bill Delahunt (D-MA), Ted Poe (R-TX) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL).The International Violence Against Women Act was reintroduced yesterday. The press... more
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President Obama is still determined to pass a major health care legislation, and on Monday the White House released the $3.8 trillion budget which “includes $150 billion in deficit reduction over 10 years on the presumption that a health care bill will be adopted,” says David M. Herszenhorn from The New York Times.President Obama is still determined to pass a major health care legislation, and on... more
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A commission established by the French Parliament stated that the burqa offends French national values. And this commission reccomends a law to ban the Islamic veil in some public offices. But how the rest of Europe behaves?
http://www.inaltreparole.net/en/world/franciaburqa260110.htmlA commission established by the French Parliament stated that the burqa offends French... more
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"The United States of America can lead in the development of clean energy technology and manufacturing while we lead in the fight against global warming.
Everyone knows we have a dependence on oil we buy from countries that don't share our values. This threatens our security and our integrity. And it needs to stop. We know it does. Still, we've seen our dependence on foreign oil grow and pollute the air we breathe and endanger our planet. But we can change that. Now.
There's a bill in the Senate that will break foreign oil’s stranglehold on our country, reduce carbon pollution, and create jobs right here in America—good jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced.
It’s one of the most important pieces of legislation of our time. It's a clean energy bill. And it’s been a long time coming.
Email your Senators to pass the Clean Energy Jobs & American Power Act. This is our moment."
http://www.nrdcactionfund.org/thisisourmoment/
TAKE ACTION NOW:
https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1679&s_src=tiom
Join Organic:
http://current.com/groups/organicgreen/"The United States of America can lead in the development of clean energy... more
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When Miami increases its residency restrictions on registered sex offenders, unintended consequences result. Many offenders are forced into homelessness due to the lack of affordable and compliant housing, while others are funneled into the few places where they are legally allowed to reside. These new laws were enacted to protect the Miami community, but may be doing more harm than good. Is the culture and ideology behind such laws really what's best for our children?When Miami increases its residency restrictions on registered sex offenders,... more
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I suppose it might be sad to say that we were and were not surprised to hear this week that two dirty energy lobbyists helped craft the effort to neuter the Clean Air Act, which could next appear as an amendment to the Senate’s debt ceiling vote next week.
If you missed it, the Washington Post confirmed on Tuesday that lobbyists from Bracewell Giuliani and Sidley Austin helped write an amendment from Senator Lisa Murkowski that will strip Clean Air Act and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) authority to regulate global warming pollution. Check out the Washington Post follow-up on it here, here and here.
Who are Bracewell Giuliani and Sidley Austin? Oh, only lobbying firms that represent Southern Company, Duke Energy, Progress Energy, and other major coal supporters. And the specific lobbyists who ghost-wrote this amendment, Jeffrey Holmstead and Roger Martella, held EPA positions during the Bush Administration.
If you recall, last month EPA declared that global warming pollution endangers human health and welfare and announced plans to limit emissions from big polluters. The decision is a long-time coming and is crucial in controlling the global warming pollution from the coal industry – which contributes 30% of total U.S. global warming emissions.
This amendment may come up for a vote on January 20th, and its passage would mean that big polluters will be bailed out by blocking President Obama and EPA from taking action to limit emissions.
After years of research, scientific debate, court cases, public hearings and comments, Senator Murkowski is suggesting that we simply choose to "un-learn" that global warming is happening and that it will be dangerous to human health and welfare.
But EPA is merely doing what the Clean Air Act already requires--and what it was ordered to do almost three years ago by the Supreme Court. And last month, more than 400,000 Americans submitted comments in favor of EPA's proposal to limit pollution from the biggest global warming polluters - among the highest number of comments ever submitted in favor of any proposal.
These big polluters – including the coal industry - are using the same tired old arguments, too. Suggestions that this EPA action means the agency plans to regulate farms, schools, hospitals, cows, and Dunkin' Donuts are simply false - EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has said as much on numerous occasions. In reality, EPA plans to limit the new common sense, economically feasible regulations to only the largest polluters. Those statements attempting to scare small businesses are merely misleading smears designed to derail any limits on polluters.
We cannot continue to let Big Coal push for loopholes and weakened pollution rules so they can keep making money.
Instead of looking for ways to delay action, senators need to finalize comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation as soon as soon possible - and more important in the short-term, they must say no to this amendment or any other attempt to weaken the Clean Air Act.
You can urge your senators to do as much - tell them to vote no on any amendment blocking EPA action on global warming emissions from the largest polluters.I suppose it might be sad to say that we were and were not surprised to hear this week... more
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"If a comprehensive, scientifically based set of solutions to the myriad climate change problems is the Great American Novel, the agreement from Copenhagen is a set of assembly pictographs that comes with an Ikea book case. It falls short of what is necessary in serious ways."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-decock/compromise-entropy-and-ta_b_414836.html"If a comprehensive, scientifically based set of solutions to the myriad climate... more
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Lets face the facts. HIGHER commodity than oil. I think the biggest problem with Congress not passing the bills are this...
( MONEY )..get to that in a sec.
I mean ...come on. Hemp has been sewing our lands since the beginning of time. Every article I read depicts the same information, and the same strategies on reform.
Everyone shares the same ideas and the same opinion on this matter. Now,..Let's think outside the box here for a sec.
How many times has Pot been legal in the states already? The " Man" if you will, organizes and operates the largest legitimate hustle that has ever been known to man.
Anyone know what this is?.....still?....LEGISLATION. They have put the fear of God into so many people, and have repetitively polluted their minds with illegitimate fact after fact
as to why they can't, or...why they won't.
They're the ones sitting around getting rich at every angle. Introducing scare tactics, and un-justifiable sentences for an antidote of personal preference.
Sell us booze, sell us cigarettes...The law of supply and demand on addiction has created a market for greed. Let me give you a for instance here, so that I'm not off the beaten path here.
A very good friend of mine was arrested for cultivation some time ago and received ( 10yrs. ) in a maximum security prison, only to find himself embedded amongst murderers, rapists, and the worst possible scenarios you could imagine.
Keeping that in mind,..I picked up a news paper just the other day, only to find an article
about a man ( A REPETITIVE OFFENDER ) who received the MAX PENALTY of ( 5 yrs.) for ( DUI Resulting In DEATH ). 5 years?! Are you serious? This man killed someone, however, I suppose that there are special circumstances when the government is the one poisoning society. Not society.
How disgusting is that?....Really!?
65% of ( over crowded ) prison population absorbing well over 40 billion Dollars a year of ( tax payer money ) to house such offenders.
Over ( 10.5 ) billion dollars a year for salaries and equipment to house, and bust such offenders. When in all reality they're only catching maybe 10% of all offenders.
The Government spent over ( 1.4 ) billion last year alone in California to only seize approximately ( 4.5 ) million plants. Given that....let's do the math here for a second taking into consideration that all of the plants that they confiscated last year were going to bare fruit. ( Not Likely )
I'll almost bet you that the number's don't come close to adding up.
The truth is..They will not make it easy for you to have a say or a vote because if they did make that readily available to the people....I believe we would be living in a different society.
Excuses, excuses, excuses, one right after the other...
Well.....Pharmaceutical companies will lose Billions of dollars a year to poison people with their Man-Made concoctions. Then we lose all that Tax money.
( "No..." Get them involved in production, and see how much you make then" )
Well.....What about all of the Federal jobs and their families?..Are you really serious?
( Create more, and Divert them towards making a difference for something that matters, like....oh...I don't know...maybe fighting " THE REAL WAR ON DRUGS " and ending what we are now calling, "public genocide" ...meaning, Opiates, Heroin, Crack/ Cocaine, The very things that poison society.
Let's start by focusing our attention there instead of ( SPENDING MORE TAX DOLLARS) opening clinics to give junkies free needles.
" That's just more money they can spend on Dope."
It's simply common sense. You know ...other countries are already in the full blown stages of complete reform.
We all encourage people to tell your local senator, or tell your congressman to stand up and do something.
I myself am guilty as charged. They're not the ones who will ultimately make the difference.
You and I will when society has absolutely had enough.Lets face the facts. HIGHER commodity than oil. I think the biggest problem with... more
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eva2
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added this
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3 years ago
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Recently, the house and the senate have drafted opposing legislation on this matter into the new health care legislation (HR 3962). Black liquor is a toxic by-product of making pulp for paper production. It has been burned by paper companies as fuel for decades.
After mixing it with diesel, it's burned by the paper company as fuel, which qualifies them for a tax credit, enacted in 2007.
According to wikipedia, for one large company (International Paper) this could amount to as much as $3.7 billion in benefits per year.
This is another example of massive tax breaks for large companies that are not in the interest of the American public. Burning black liquor has a major negative effect on the environment, not to mention the additional consumption of diesel fuel. Additionally, smaller companies that produce 100% recycled post consumer paper cannot compete (they don't produce or use black liquor/diesel fuel so they can't get the massive tax break).
I encourage you to contact your representatives on this matter.
more at the article above and here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_liquorRecently, the house and the senate have drafted opposing legislation on this matter... more
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“Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Jess, Bend, Oregon, 2009” is a solemn, emotionally moving photograph by the award-winning Los Angeles photographer Jeff Sheng. “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” is his new photography project, consisting of a series of photographs of closeted men and women in the United States military. The portraits represent Sheng's deep interest in the intersections between public and private space, and our government's ever-intrusive policing of our most private spaces.
Please visit my website to view this wonderful, very touching photograph in high-resolution:
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/photo-of-the-day-dont-ask-dont-tell/“Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Jess, Bend, Oregon, 2009” is a solemn,... more
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an interesting article from the times that looks into the governments handling of the marijuana situation, and finally they seem to be seeing some sense!
"You know things are shifting in America when Fortune magazine, the bible for business journalism, runs a cover story titled “Is pot already legal?”. You also know it when Barack Obama’s Department of Justice publishes a long-expected memo signalling that the federal government will no longer raid medical marijuana dispensaries if they are legal under state law. That happened formally this month.
It was not, moreover, a symbolic gesture. Marijuana for medical reasons — to tackle chemotherapy-induced nausea or Aids-related wasting or glaucoma, among other conditions — is now legal in 13 states, including the biggest, California. Next year, 13 more states are planning referendums or new laws following suit. Last week a California legislative committee held the first hearings not simply on whether medical marijuana should remain legal, but on whether all marijuana should be decriminalised, full stop. The incentive? The vast amounts of money the bankrupt state could raise by taxing cannabis."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6897958.ecean interesting article from the times that looks into the governments handling of the... more
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Not only will drunk drivers who have a child passenger face more stringent penalties, but all convicted DWI offenders will also face stricter punishments under a new law Gov. David A. Paterson signed last Wednesday.
The bill (A.40008/S.66008, Governor's Program Bill 204) known as "Leandra's Law" is aimed at preventing the death of child passengers, anyone 15 years old or younger, due to the driver being intoxicated. Leandra Rosado was an 11-year-old who died in a drunk driving accident.Not only will drunk drivers who have a child passenger face more stringent penalties,... more
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In most other industrialized nations education is a right. The governments pay or heavily subsidize college tuition for citizens, and they do the same for health care. In America we now see a growing upper upper class made up of 1% of the population who control more wealth than the lower 95% of the population. We see health care reform that has a first priority of making sure a criminal for-profit health insurance industry continues to get funded by mandated premiums on all Americans.
France
The higher education system is mainly public, which means that the tuition fees are almost fully funded by the state and students have to pay only a small fee.
Sweden
Higher education is free for all, tuition fees are not allowed, and university funding is met by the goverment. There is a system of student grants which meet roughly a third of living costs and then loans for the remainder of costs. Both loans and grants are subject to an income test of the student but not of their parents.
Australia
Introduced in 1989, the higher education contribution scheme (HECS) is a system where students contribute to the costs of their education with interest free deferred payment arrangements. You can repay in various ways, either upfront with a 25% discount, or paying part and deferring the rest, or deferring it all. You must start repaying when your income reaches the minimum threshold for compulsory repayment, which in 2001-02 was $23,242 (£8,576). Youth allowance provides income support based on a student's personal and/or family circumstances.
Countries like France, England, Germany, Spain, and Italy keep a strong check on their governments through healthy protests in the streets. Even with their successful socialized medicine and education programs they continue to protest to make things even better. The fight against greed, corruption and corporate crime is never ending. This is the true war we all must fight. It's a fight for the freedoms and rights all Americans were promised in the Declaration of Independence: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. How can you live without basic health care? How can you have liberty and happiness when you can't afford to go to college to get even an entry level job in this country?
Bob Samuels, president UCAFT, describes the investment banking aspect of how the UC schools are run on a profit motive and not for education or recruitment of teachers, which they consider a monetary liability. Thus they hike tuition, layoff teachers and even entire departments, while, at the same time, increase huge bonuses and salaries to administrators who come from the corporate and banking sectors. They even lend money to the state because it returns them interest. What are our colleges, banks or institutions of higher learning? http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/20/students
FDR proposed that our Bill of Rights be amended with new rights as he stated in 1944 and as seen in Michael Moore's film, Capitalism: A Love Story.
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The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens.
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The people in the U.S. have the power if they have the kahunas to use it. It's time we pressure our elected officials to make changes in our country before it's too late. Without universal health care and without education for those who can't afford the outrageous tuition rates, we are already well on our way to becoming a third world nation, where only the very few and very rich have a quality of life while everyone else languishes in a struggle just to stay alive.
Sign this petition and demand that your elected officials write and pass legislation to fund our colleges without burdening students at the most vulnerable time in their lives. Tax the rich. Other countries have higher taxes to pay for these social goods. If that's what must happen then it must be done. The United States of America is no more a leader among nations in anything except war, crime, and imprisonment. Stand up now and be counted. Take back America.
(Write or edit your own statement when you sign.) http://www.change.org/actions/view/stop_tuition_hikesIn most other industrialized nations education is a right. The governments pay or... more
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—-financial-and-economic-consequences/
Asia is investing hundreds of billions of dollars more than the US in clean technology, according to a new report by two research institutions. In the future, the US may be importing trillions of dollars of needed clean technology (and losing countless jobs to Asia) as a result.—-financial-and-economic-consequences/
Asia is investing hundreds of billions... more
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