How to Fix Congress

Via an email from a friend: The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971...before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc. Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure.  I'm asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise. In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around. Congressional Reform Act of 2011 1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office. 2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose. 3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.  4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.  5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.  6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.  7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.  If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S. ) to receive the message. Maybe it is time.  THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!

Super Congress???

A message from MoveOn.org Civic Action:
"Super Congress."

Sounds pretty good, right? Better than regular Congress. 

Unfortunately, it's not. In reality, it's a dangerous group of 12 members of Congress that was established as part of the debt "deal" and could slash more than $1.5 trillion from critical government programs, including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.¹

Our best hope of making sure that doesn't happen is to get Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to appoint six Democrats who will stand strong against Republican hostage-taking. 

But even with Republican leaders openly saying that they won't appoint anyone who would consider ending one penny of tax breaks for the rich², Democrats are indicating they'll push for compromise rather than principled stands.³ Sen. Reid even said he wants people who will "make hard choices but won't be locked in."⁴

These critical appointments could come in the next few days, so we have to make sure that Sen. Reid and Rep. Pelosi only appoint Democrats who agree that the poor and middle class have already sacrificed too much and that it's long past time the rich and corporations pay their share. Will you sign our joint petition with Rebuild the Dream?

Click here to sign the petition to Sen. Reid and Rep. Pelosi.

The petition says: "We urge you to only appoint Democrats to the Super Congress who will stand strong against cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and who will end tax breaks and close loopholes to make sure the rich and corporations finally pay their share."

The debt deal struck earlier this week locked in a first round of cuts to critical programs, but it also left a lot unresolved. That's where the Super Congress comes in. They'll decide whether the next round of deficit reduction will happen on the backs of the middle and working class, or by making sure millionaires and billionaires to pay their share.

And because the Super Congress' recommendations can't be amended or filibustered, what they decide is critically important.⁵ Since the Super Congress only needs a simple majority to report out a recommendation, it only takes six Republicans and one Democrat to pass a plan that cuts Social Security and Medicare instead of closing tax loopholes for the rich.

The only way we'll win this battle is if we send the right people to fight it. Can you help make sure Sen. Reid and Rep. Pelosi only appoint Democrats who are ready to make the rich and corporations pay their share—people who know that the poor and middle class have already sacrificed too much and are willing to fight to protect us.

Click below to add your name to the petition:

http://civ.moveon.org/supercongress/?id=29523-18623853-ni9BdJx&t=4

Thanks for all you do.

–Daniel, Wes, Michael, Joan, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "8 ways the super committee is not super for retirement," Reuters, August 5, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=262729&id=29523-18623853-ni9BdJx&t=5

2. "Democrats Preparing For Another Stalemate Over The New 'Super Committee'," Business Insider, August 4, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=262730&id=29523-18623853-ni9BdJx&t=6

3. "Puzzled Dems ask: Why, oh why, won't Republicans be flexible?" The Washington Post, August 4, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=262731&id=29523-18623853-ni9BdJx&t=7

4. "The Morning Plum," The Washington Post, August 4, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=262732&id=29523-18623853-ni9BdJx&t=8

5. "'Super Congress': Debt Ceiling Negotiators Aim To Create New Legislative Body," The Huffington Post, July 24, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=262733&id=29523-18623853-ni9BdJx&t=9

Stop the Tar Sands Pipeland

"Essentially game over" for the climate.

That's what climate scientist James Hanson calls the proposed Keystone XL pipeline — which would carry oil out of Canada's vast tar sands oil fields to Texas, where it will be refined, then burned across the globe, dealing a catastrophic blow to our chance of returning earth to a stable climate.

This project requires a presidential permit to start building — and it is President Obama's decision alone to grant or deny that permit. He will make the decision as soon as September.

Tell President Obama: Stop the Keystone XL pipeline. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

The Alberta tar sands are a carbon bomb. The 3rd largest oil field in the world, the difficult extraction and transportation of the tar sands oil ultimately produces up to three times the carbon emissions of traditional oil. (And extreme environmental devastation along the way.)¹

The Keystone XL pipeline is the fuse to this bomb — a highway to swift consumption of this dirty, dangerous crude. As if that wasn't enough, it poses a massive spill risk in the six states along the pipeline route, including over the Ogallala Aquifer which provides up to 30% of our nation's agricultural water.

We. Must. Stop. This.

Tell President Obama: Stop the Keystone XL pipeline. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

Twenty leading climate scientists have just sent a letter to President Obama urging him to deny the permit.

And from August 20th to September 3rd, there will be a massive, historic, daily sit-in outside the White House where more than 1500 people, including CREDO staff, have already signed up to risk arrest in peaceful protest. (For more about the sit-in, see below.)

The administration's previous decisions on climate do not inspire confidence that they will deny the permit. Just this week, the administration approved offshore oil drilling in the Arctic. They have opened vast new areas to coal mining, and late last year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton even said that she was "inclined" to approve Keystone XL.

But President Obama still has the final word. He does not have to negotiate with Congress or industry. As his State Department reviews the permit, the decision — which could have a devastating impact on the livability of our nation, and our world — is entirely in his hands.

We've lost too many climate fights already. We need a massive, historic show of pressure to make sure we don't lose this one. Please sign the petition and read below for other ways to get involved.

Tell President Obama: Stop the Keystone XL pipeline. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

Thank you for fighting for an oil-free future.

Elijah Zarlin, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets

1. "Keystone XL Pipeline," Friends of the Earth

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Because this fight is so important, leading climate activists including Bill McKibben, Naomi Klein and climate scientist James Hansen are organizing a historic, daily series of peaceful protests between August 20th and Sept. 3rd. The CEOs and Directors of nearly 30 leading Environmental Organizations, including CREDO's Michael Kieschnick and Laura Scher, are urging people to participate.

More than 1500 people from across the country, including CREDO staff, have already signed up to join the sit-in outside the White House and risk arrest.

Please read the invitation letter below for more information. If you would like to sign up to join the protest, and possibly be arrested, click here to sign up.

Dear Friends,

This will be a slightly longer letter than common for the internet age — it's serious stuff.

The short version is we want you to consider doing something hard: coming to Washington in the hottest and stickiest weeks of the summer and engaging in civil disobedience that will quite possibly get you arrested.

The full version goes like this:

As you know, the planet is steadily warming: 2010 was the warmest year on record, and we've seen the resulting chaos in almost every corner of the earth.

And as you also know, our democracy is increasingly controlled by special interests interested only in their short-term profit.

These two trends collide this summer in Washington, where the State Department and the White House have to decide whether to grant a certificate of 'national interest' to some of the biggest fossil fuel players on earth. These corporations want to build the so-called 'Keystone XL Pipeline' from Canada's tar sands to Texas refineries.

To call this project a horror is serious understatement. The tar sands have wrecked huge parts of Alberta, disrupting ways of life in indigenous communities — First Nations communities in Canada, and tribes along the pipeline route in the U.S. have demanded the destruction cease. The pipeline crosses crucial areas like the Ogallala Aquifer where a spill would be disastrous — and though the pipeline companies insist they are using 'state of the art' technologies that should leak only once every 7 years, the precursor pipeline and its pumping stations have leaked a dozen times in the past year. These local impacts alone would be cause enough to block such a plan. But the Keystone Pipeline would also be a fifteen hundred mile fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the continent, a way to make it easier and faster to trigger the final overheating of our planet, the one place to which we are all indigenous.

As the climatologist Jim Hansen (one of the signatories to this letter) explained, if we have any chance of getting back to a stable climate "the principal requirement is that coal emissions must be phased out by 2030 and unconventional fossil fuels, such as tar sands, must be left in the ground." In other words, he added, "if the tar sands are thrown into the mix it is essentially game over." The Keystone pipeline is an essential part of the game. "Unless we get increased market access, like with Keystone XL, we're going to be stuck," said Ralph Glass, an economist and vice-president at AJM Petroleum Consultants in Calgary, told a Canadian newspaper last week.

Given all that, you'd suspect that there's no way the Obama administration would ever permit this pipeline. But in the last few months the administration has signed pieces of paper opening much of Alaska to oil drilling, and permitting coal-mining on federal land in Wyoming that will produce as much CO2 as 300 powerplants operating at full bore.

And Secretary of State Clinton has already said she's 'inclined' to recommend the pipeline go forward. Partly it's because of the political commotion over high gas prices, though more tar sands oil would do nothing to change that picture. But it's also because of intense pressure from industry. The US Chamber of Commerce — a bigger funder of political campaigns than the RNC and DNC combined — has demanded that the administration "move quickly to approve the Keystone XL pipeline," which is not so surprising — they've also told the U.S. EPA that if the planet warms that will be okay because humans can 'adapt their physiology' to cope. The Koch Brothers, needless to say, are also backing the plan, and may reap huge profits from it.

So we're pretty sure that without serious pressure the Keystone Pipeline will get its permit from Washington. A wonderful coalition of environmental groups has built a strong campaign across the continent — from Cree and Dene indigenous leaders to Nebraska farmers, they've spoken out strongly against the destruction of their land. We need to join them, and to say even if our own homes won't be crossed by this pipeline, our joint home — the earth — will be wrecked by the carbon that pours down it.

And we need to say something else, too: it's time to stop letting corporate power make the most important decisions our planet faces. We don't have the money to compete with those corporations, but we do have our bodies, and beginning in mid August many of us will use them. We will, each day, march on the White House, risking arrest with our trespass. We will do it in dignified fashion, demonstrating that in this case we are the conservatives, and that our foes — who would change the composition of the atmosphere are dangerous radicals. Come dressed as if for a business meeting — this is, in fact, serious business.

And another sartorial tip — if you wore an Obama button during the 2008 campaign, why not wear it again? We very much still want to believe in the promise of that young Senator who told us that with his election the 'rise of the oceans would begin to slow and the planet start to heal.' We don't understand what combination of bureaucratic obstinacy and insider dealing has derailed those efforts, but we remember his request that his supporters continue on after the election to pressure his government for change. We'll do what we can.

And one more thing: we don't just want college kids to be the participants in this fight. They've led the way so far on climate change — 10,000 came to DC for the Powershift gathering earlier this spring. They've marched this month in West Virginia to protest mountaintop removal; a young man named Tim DeChristopher faces sentencing this summer in Utah for his creative protest.

Now it's time for people who've spent their lives pouring carbon into the atmosphere to step up too, just as many of us did in earlier battles for civil rights or for peace. Most of us signing this letter are veterans of this work, and we think it's past time for elders to behave like elders. One thing we don't want is a smash up: if you can't control your passions, this action is not for you.

This won't be a one-shot day of action. We plan for it to continue for several weeks, till the administration understands we won't go away. Not all of us can actually get arrested — half the signatories to this letter live in Canada, and might well find our entry into the U.S. barred. But we will be making plans for sympathy demonstrations outside Canadian consulates in the U.S., and U.S. consulates in Canada — the decision-makers need to know they're being watched.

Twenty years of patiently explaining the climate crisis to our leaders hasn't worked. Maybe moral witness will help. You have to start somewhere, and we choose here and now.

If you think you might want to be a part of this action, we need you to sign up here.

As plans solidify in the next few weeks we'll be in touch with you to arrange nonviolence training; our colleagues at a variety of environmental and democracy campaigns will be coordinating the actual arrangements.

We know we're asking a lot. You should think long and hard on it, and pray if you're the praying type. But to us, it's as much privilege as burden to get to join this fight in the most serious possible way. We hope you'll join us.

Maude Barlow — Chair, Council of Canadians
Wendell Berry — Author and Farmer
Tom Goldtooth — Director, Indigenous Environmental Network
Danny Glover — Actor
James Hansen — Climate Scientist
Wes Jackson — Agronomist, President of the Land Insitute
Naomi Klein — Author and Journalist
Bill McKibben — Writer and Environmentalist
George Poitras — Mikisew Cree Indigenous First Nation
Gus Speth — Environmental Lawyer and Activist
David Suzuki — Scientist, Environmentalist and Broadcaster
Joseph B. Uehlein — Labor organizer and environmentalist

Bernie Sanders on the Deficit Reduction Deal

Wolf Blitzer tries to steer the conversation to a discussion of Obama's re-election chances, but even though Bernie Sanders is obviously upset, he stays focussed on the direct effects on citizens that will result from the deficit reduction deal.