Congress

Uranium Mine Clean-up Movement Claims Victory, Vows To Go National

June 12, 2014 Talli Nauman, www.cipamericas.com Resist! Congress, Law, Protest, Uranium

With the imminent release of a congressionally mandated report on the legacy of abandoned uranium mines in the United States, peace and environmental justice advocates are rallying for a nationwide clean-up. Nearly 100 people from both grassroots and high-profile environmental groups across the country gathered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, May 1-5 to strategize about reducing the devastating role of uranium mining in the nuclear energy cycle and to challenge the growth of other non-renewable energy industries. Taking part in the Third Extreme Energy Extraction Summit, activists from throughout the uranium mining territory of the Inter-Mountain West linked up to inform themselves of opportunities for working together on a shared agenda. Chief among prospects for progress they discussed was the recent $5.15 billion settlement of a landmark lawsuit against Kerr-McGee and its parent Anadarko Petroleum Corp., for fraud in the abandonment of some 2,700 uranium and other hazardous and mining sites in 47 states. The U.S. Justice Department, lead plaintiff in the case, announced the settlement on April 3, noting that $4.4 billion of it will go to fund environmental recovery and related claims, in what it called “the largest payment ever for the clean-up of environmental contamination.”

Why Millennials Don’t Vote and What To Do About It {aTV 007)

June 9, 2014 Dennis Trainor Jr, www.PopularResistance.org Resistance Report 2014 mid-term election, 2016, 2016 Elections, Acronym TV, ATV, Christina Tobin, Congress, Constitution, Daniel Lee, Democracy movement, Dennis Trainor Jr, Elections, Free and Equal, mid-term election, Millennials, Millennials democracy, Millennials voting, Move To Amend, President, Senate, Vote, Voting

On Acronym TV this week, two individuals working to fix our Democracy in crisis. Christina Tobin is the founder and chair of Free & Equal. She has a long history of supporting ballot access, having gathered and defended over 1 million signatures for the Green Party, Constitution Party, Republican Party, Democratic Party, Libertarian Party, Socialist Equality Party and independents. Free & Equal Elections Foundation is a non-partisan grassroots organization, whose mission is to shift the power back to the individual voter through education. Their motto, “More Voices, More Choices.” Daniel Lee is a lifelong activist. He serves on the national leadership team for the group Move to Amend, which is a coalition of hundreds of organizations and hundreds of thousands of individuals committed to social and economic justice, ending corporate rule, and building a vibrant democracy; Move To Amend is calling for an amendment to the US Constitution to unequivocally state that inalienable rights belong to human beings only, and that money is not a form of protected free speech under the First Amendment and can be regulated in political campaigns.

Immigration Reform Protesters ‘Occupy’ Rep. Hastings’ Office

June 8, 2014 Geoff Folsom, www.yakimaherald.com Resist! Congress, Immigrant Rights

The Pasco office of U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings was one of many across the country “occupied” Wednesday by protesters interested in immigration reform. About five protesters, organized by the United Farm Workers union, entered Hastings’ office near the Tri-Cities Airport about 10 a.m., said Jorge Valenzuela, UFW regional director. Other protesters stood outside the building. He said they wouldn’t leave until Hastings asked House Speaker John Boehner to call for a vote on immigration reform. They left in the afternoon after Hastings chief of staff, Jenny Gorski, told them that Hastings would call Boehner on Thursday morning and ask him to move forward on immigration, Valenzuela said. The protest was meant to mark the one-year anniversary of the Senate passing an immigration bill, Valenzuela said. “We see that the only person standing in the way of that vote is Speaker John Boehner,” he said.

The History Of Raising Minimum Wage Ran Through Occupy

June 7, 2014 Peter Dreier, www.huffingtonpost.com Organize! Congress, Minimum Wage, Occupy

An idea that only a year ago appeared both radical and impractical has become a reality. On Monday, Seattle struck a blow against rising inequality when its City Council unanimously adopted a citywide minimum wage of $15 an hour, the highest in the nation. This dramatic change in public policy is partly the result of changes brought about by last November's Seattle municipal elections. But it is also the consequence of years of activism in Seattle and around the country. Now that Seattle has established a new standard, the pace of change is likely to accelerate quickly as activists and politicians elsewhere seek to capture the momentum. Five years from now, Americans may look back at this remarkable victory and wonder what all the fuss was about. Seattle now joins a growing list of cities -- including San Francisco, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, San Jose, and Washington, D.C. (along with two adjacent Maryland counties) -- that in the past few years have seized growing frustration over the widening income gap and declining living standards by establishing local minimum wages substantially above the federal level of $7.25. Unions, community groups, and progressive politicians in San Diego, New York City, Oakland, Los Angeles, and other cities are already taking steps to follow in Seattle's footsteps. In 19 states, minimum wages are now over $7.25 an hour; 10 of those states automatically increase their minimum wages with inflation. The highest state-mandated wage law is in Washington State, where the minimum wage increased to $9.32 in January.

Warmonger Media Storm Against Sgt. Bergdahl

June 7, 2014 Robert Naiman, www.truth-out.org Educate! Congress, Guantanamo Bay, Policy, Wars and Militarism

If you want to understand why it's the case that on the one hand, the US public and the majority of Congress turned against the war in Afghanistan a long time ago, and yet on the other hand, it's been so hard to end the war, this week's warmonger media storm against the diplomatic rescue of US prisoner of war Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has been very instructive. It's been known for years that a key step toward ending the war would be exchanging five Taliban prisoners of war at Guantanamo for the release of Sgt. Bergdahl. There has never been any serious dispute of the case that this would be a key step toward ending the war. I challenge anyone to find a counter-example to my claim. The political forces that are trashing the deal to rescue Sgt. Bergdahl are the same political forces that got us into the Iraq war. They are the same political forces who want to keep the Afghanistan war going indefinitely. They are the same political forces who want to keep the Guantanamo prison open indefinitely. Again, I challenge anyone to provide a single counterexample of someone in Congress who voted against the Iraq war, or who has been a leader in trying to end the war in Afghanistan, or who has been a leader in trying to close the Guantanamo prison, who is now trashing the diplomatic deal to rescue Sgt. Bergdahl.

‘Remy’ From ‘House of Cards’ Is Real

June 6, 2014 Pascal Robert, www.blackagendareport.com Create! Civil Rights, Congress, Corporatism

The idea of a Black lobbyist working with such merciless dedication to a corporate paymaster like the socially repugnant energy conglomerate “Sandcorp” might seem far fetched to some. But thanks to the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), its former staffers have entered into the world of K street lobbying. These Black lobbyists leverage not only the “moral authority” of the CBC, but the historical weight of its perceived ties to Civil Rights Movement to protect the interests of those same financial institutions and corporations that caused the Black community to be targeted during the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. We can’t imagine the other pernicious corporate forces these Black lobbyists might take on. Such clients surely do untold damage not only to people of color, but all Americans. What makes these characters troubling is not so much their race – deviousness and greed aren’t limited by skin color – it’s their ability to pimp out the Civil Rights Movement through its perceived connection to the CBC.

Immigration Reform Is Anti-Immigrant & Anti-Indigenous

June 5, 2014 Franco Habre and Mari Garza, www.facebook.com Educate! Congress, Immigrant Rights, Immigration, Indigenous Rights, Prison Industrial Complex

Comprehensive Immigration Reform is inherently anti-immigrant. It is presented as a "path to citizenship” and as a temporary solution to halting the incarceration/deportation of some migrants, but it is actually an attack in disguise. The reform package known as Senate Bill S.744 is a blatant plot to further immobilize, mold, and reduce the lives of migrants. Comprehensive Immigration Reform, otherwise known as “CIR”, is not about restoring the dignity and human rights of migrants. It is, however, an opportunity to reinforce white supremacy, the rule of law; racist/imperial borders; free trade and exploitable labor from the global south, and will further invisibilize the existence of Indigenous/First Nations peoples living in and around the so-called US/Mexico border, which at the time of its creation, bisected the homelands of four Indigenous tribes. The title of Senate Bill S.744 is, “The Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act”. The title makes it easy to infer the priority of the bill--border security. The policing/surveillance of the 1,933-mile colonial boundary called the US/Mexico border has grown exponentially in the last decade. Communities along this border have experienced the unrelenting infestation of increasingly abusive Border Patrol agents, aerial drones, in-land weaponized checkpoints during daily routines in their own neighborhoods, and increased freight traffic. In addition, despite the increased border security, people still die in the deserts of the border region, those migrating north from Mexico and Central America to flee economic and/or political injustice. This bill will continue to limit the freedom of movement for Indigenous peoples as the bill contains provisions for increased militarization of their homelands, and will thus continue shifting border crossers through the perilous deserts of Lipan Apache, Kickapoo, Tohono O'odham, and Yaqui homelands.

USTR Told: Help Workers Not Just Corporations

June 4, 2014 Dave Johnson, www.ourfuture.org Resist! Congress, Corporatism, Mass Media, TPP

Last week 153 Democratic members of Congress – three-fourths of the Democrats in the House – signed a letter to U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman demanding that trade negotiators focus first on protecting the rights of working people to organize before asking Congress to approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. Currently the negotiations appear to be focused primarily on increasing corporate and investor rights – even as lethal violence continues against union organizers in Colombia following the trade agreement approved by Congress and signed by President Obama in 2011. Past trade agreements have cost millions of American jobs and increased our country’s trade deficit while helping to dramatically increase income inequality.

EPA’s Carbon Rule Falls Short

June 3, 2014 Food & Water Watch, www.foodandwaterwatch.org Educate! Carbon Dioxide, Climate Change, Congress

“On the heels of two telling reports from the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) and the National Climate Assessment detailing the substantial negative impacts from climate change around the world, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) decision to incorporate emissions trading and offsetting in their new carbon dioxide rule undermines its ability to deliver the real reductions in carbon emissions so urgently needed. “We applaud the President for using the tools he has available, with a Congress that refuses to act and for setting hard targets for emissions reductions. However, the targets don’t make the U.S. a leader in seeking emissions reduction. Because this rule applies to only one segment of our economy, existing coal-fired power plants, the reduction targets fall far short of the IPCC’s goals for developed countries of economy-wide reductions of 15 to 40 percent below 1990 emission by 2020. With these targets, U.S. economy-wide emissions would still be above 1990 levels in 2030.

Arrest Of ‘Happy’ Dancers In Iran

May 23, 2014 The Real News, www.therealnews.com Resist! Arts, Congress, Iran, Nuclear Weapons

Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay.The six Iranian youth who danced in a YouTube video to the song by Pharrell Williams "Happy", who were arrested by Iranian authorities, have now been released. But the director is still being held in custody, according to news agency reports. Well, what is all this about? Why are these six kids arrested? They certainly didn't expect to be arrested, or one thinks they wouldn't have made this YouTube video. So there's something going on within the Iranian regime, or some force within it decided to make a symbol of these kids. Here's a little bit of the video that has caused all the commotion. [video clip plays] Okay. Now joining us to try to unpack the motive behind the arrests of these young people is Trita Parsi. Trita is founder and president of the National Iranian American Council. He is an author. His books include A Single Roll of the Dice: Obama's Diplomacy with Iran and Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the U.S. Thanks very much for joining us, Trita.

EFF Dismayed By House’s Gutted USA FREEDOM Act

May 23, 2014 Mark Jaycox and Nadia Kayyali and Lee Tien, www.eff.org Organize! Congress, Internet Freedom, NSA, Surveillance

EFF and Other Civil Liberties Organizations Call on Congress to Support Uncompromising Reform Since the introduction of the USA FREEDOM Act, a bill that has over 140 cosponsors, Congress has been clear about its intent: ending the mass collection of Americans' calling records. Many members of Congress, the President's own review group on NSA activities, and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board all agree that the use of Section 215 to collect Americans' calling records must stop. Earlier today, House Leadership reached an agreement to amend the bipartisan USA FREEDOM Act in ways that severely weaken the bill, potentially allowing bulk surveillance of records to continue. The Electronic Frontier Foundation cannot support a bill that doesn't achieve the goal of ending mass spying. We urge Congress to support uncompromising NSA reform and we look forward to working on the Senate's bipartisan version of the USA FREEDOM Act. Passing the bill out of the Judiciary Committee for a vote on the House floor is an important sign that Rep. Bob Goodlatte, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, and other leaders of the House are engaging in a conversation over NSA reform. We are glad that the House added a clause to the bill clarifying the content of communications cannot be obtained with Section 215. Unfortunately, the bill's changed definitions, the lack of substantial reform to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act, and the inability to introduce a special advocate in the FISA Court severely weakens the bill.

Common Sense: Tax Wall Street Speculation

May 19, 2014 Robert Weissman, www.otherwords.org Organize! Congress, Tax Wall Street

A speculation tax is highly progressive, has huge revenue potential, and could curb Wall Street recklessness. It’s nothing new for Wall Street to work every possible angle so it can squeeze additional profits out of trades. It’s the job of lawmakers and regulators to make sure that Wall Street does not rip off investors or endanger the financial system’s stability. Perhaps you’ve heard about high-frequency trading (HFT), one of the ways traders have been gaming the system. This gimmick is finally getting much-deserved attention from regulators, the public and the media. The next step is getting Congress to pay attention. Newly spotlighted by Michael Lewis’ book, Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt, high-speed computerized trading has made a mockery of the notion of “investing” in the economy. Investors may hold an asset for far less than a second when they engage in high-frequency trading. This dizzyingly fast trading devoid of human intervention sows systemic fragility. A glitch in the lightning-quick computer trades caused the Flash Crash of 2010, when the stock market plunged about 10 percent in a matter of minutes.

Broadband Companies Nervous Over Latest Net Neutrality Push

May 13, 2014 Mark Sledge and Zach Carter, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Congress, Internet Freedom, Net Neutrality

Broadband companies are fighting back against a push to add teeth to the Federal Communications Commission's wavering defense of net neutrality. According to a Democratic House staffer, former New York representative-turned-National Cable and Telecommunications Association lobbyist Thomas Downey is looking for House members willing to sign on to a letter opposing any move to treat Internet service providers like public utilities. Federal courts have said that reclassifying Internet providers as utilities would hand the FCC a bulletproof tool to prevent broadband companies from charging companies like Netflix for faster access to customers. The letter argues that the "regulatory burdens and restrictions" resulting from reclassification could have a "potentially negative impact on job creation." Reclassifying Internet providers as "common carriers" under the Telecommunications Act would immediately give the FCC a clear legal framework for more closely regulating Internet providers. But for years, the agency has avoided this one step even as it sought ways to protect net neutrality.

Progressives Unite In Call Against ‘Horrific’ TPP

May 9, 2014 Lauren McCauley, www.commondreams.org Resist! Congress, Fair Trade, Free Trade Agreements, TPP

Braving thunder and rain, hundreds of protesters rallied outside of the Capitol building in Washington DC on Wednesdayto declare to the government that "the entire progressive movement is united" in the call to reject unjust trade deals and embrace an economy for all. "They say 'Fast Track!' We Say 'Fight Back!'" the group chanted, referring to recent efforts by President Obama to push through legislation to cement the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, or TPP, without congressional deliberation. Thus far, the details of the deal have been negotiated behind closed doors, with the only information made available to the public via leaks. Under the banner "Fair Trade is Not Free," a diverse coalition of environmental organizations, good government groups, farm groups, and over a dozen unions took part in the protest, carrying umbrellas and placards, which read: "Stop Secret Trade Deals." "Let's show Congress that the entire progressive movement is united in the fight for a 21st century global economy that works for everyone," declared the Communications Workers of America (CWA), which organized the rally. The TPP has been blasted by critics for undermining labor and environmental standards, as well as the open Internet. "The TPP is a horrific thing," said Kian Frederick, national field director for Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. "There's something for everyone to hate."

KXL Activists Blast Pro-Keystone Dems In Senate

May 6, 2014 Lauren McCauley, www.commondreams.org Resist! Congress, Keystone XL

Anti-pipeline activists have launched an offensive against the handful of Democratic Senators who may determine the future of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline in a vote slated for this week. With rallies outside the offices of "swing" Senators Tom Carper (Del.), Bill Nelson (Fla.) and Bob Casey (Penn.) on Monday and Sen. Mark Udall (Colo.) on Tuesday, protesters are demanding that the legislators hold strong against the intense lobby efforts of the fossil fuel industry and vote against the measure. Launching what they call a "full court press," anti-Keystone activists are "going to be on the phones and in the streets over the coming days to show Senators who are on-the-fence that they have the support they need to stand up to Big Oil and say no to this pipeline,” said Jason Kowalsk, policy director for the environmental group 350.org. In a bid to steamroll the approval process for the pipeline, legislators have attached an amendment to the Shaheen-Portman energy bill to override the State Department's ongoing review of the project.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

assetto corsa mods

Daily movement news and resources