The federal government and big companies want limitless new powers to “friend” you, to “follow” you, to spy on your every online move. And they plan to get them via legislation called CISPA — the "Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act" (HR 3523).
CISPA lets companies like AT&T, Facebook and Google track you online and hand over your personal data to authorities. This wholesale violation of our privacy could all too easily chill free speech online. While there is a real need to protect vital national interests from cyber attacks, we can’t do it at the expense of our freedoms.
We’ll need to generate thousands of calls to Congress to stop CISPA in its tracks. Do your part by calling your representative now.
Want more information on CISPA before you make the call? Visit our resource page: SAVETHEINTERNET.COM
What do you call it when a major US corporation lobbies and receives its own, special tax law that is just for them, and then pays negative tax rates for years on end, netting billions of dollars in pure profit? We call it the GE Tax Hole.
GE has paid a cumulative tax rate of negative 18% over the last 5 years - WTF?
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Join our Tax Day letter to Congress: let's close the GE Tax Hole NOW!
How does GE pull off this massive scam? By having their army of tax lobbyists craft, write and pass a tax law just for them: it's called Active Financing, but a better name is Active Tax-Dodging. Active Financing is an uber-complex scheme, designed to use loopholes in foreign leasing law to prevent GE's US profits from ever being taxed.
How much of a scam is the GE Tax Hole? Even GE's own tax lawyers joke publicly about how much of a scam it is: their top Tax attorney, John Samuels, publicly joked at a conference that they created "a heads-I-win, tails-I-break even situation."
GE ain't just hoping the American people don't notice - they are literally and openly laughing at us.
Let's make this a Tax Day that GE doesn't ever forget - join our joint letter to Congress NOW.
It seems like Facebook will do everything they can to sacrifice your online privacy – even going so far as to publicly support a bill pending in the US Congress that would allow Facebook to hand over your data — and the data of Facebook users around the world — to other corporations or the US military, without a warrant.
If the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) passes, companies could intercept your text messages and emails to share with each other and the government – giving the US military the power to track, control, and share almost all of your online information without the use of a warrant. They could even block access to websites, or cut off your internet connection altogether. Like SOPA (which Facebook opposed), CISPA is a major threat to internet freedom and gives the government broad power to protect big media companies at your expense. It’s even a threat for internet users outside the US – because Facebook, Google and other major online service providers are headquartered in the US, even their non-American users’ online data could be used by the US military or corporations.
Facebook’s opposition was instrumental in shutting down SOPA, but now Facebook is fighting FOR CISPA. If we can get Facebook to side with its users instead of military spy agencies, they we can start a powerful, organized opposition to this dangerous bill. Sign our joint petition to Facebook now, telling it to stand up against government intrusion into our online privacy rights. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, has said “We can’t let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the Internet’s development.” Yet with CISPA, he is supporting a far-reaching law that could dramatically limit our freedom on the internet. CISPA strips away previous privacy laws, and by creating a broad immunity for companies against both civil and criminal liability, it robs citizens of any means of fighting back.
Today vast amounts of our information is routed through the internet — our shopping history, our Google searches, our love letters and personal communications — and all of it would become a fair target for the US military under a definition of “cybercrime” so broad that anyone could be a suspect.
Meant to raise awareness of widespread forced vaginal mutilation (including clitoral circumcision) in Africa, this art/cake was cut from the crotch up to reveal blood-colored cake. And the artist, whose head appeared in blackface, screamed each time to emphasize the pain. Even the Swedish culture minister took part in cutting a slice, which has not gone over with pc types. Check out the videos and pics and see what you think. I say that the need to call attention to FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION is greater than people offended by the blackface, but then again, I'm not black. What do you think?
There's a reason the United States has a hard time funding green energy, healthcare, education, infrastructure, or transportation.
We have 5% of the world's people and over 50% of the world's military spending -- and through that spending we enrich the richest 1%.
Tell President Obama and Congress to cut military spending.
In Obama's proposed 2013 budget, military spending will become 57% of discretionary spending. This drains our economy, endangers our country, strips our civil liberties, demolishes our natural environment, and kills many people, including innocent civilians.
War is illegal under the Kellogg-Briand Pact, in most cases under the U.N. Charter, and under the U.S. Constitution when not declared by Congress. War has become the most heavily funded criminal enterprise ever known.
Tell the President and Congress to move the money to more legal and moral activities.
The GENERAL ELECTRIC SLIDE--performed at GE's Boston office. GE makes a fortune off of war by selling weapons and pays roughly 7% of it's 35% corporate tax rate. Oh, and it also own "liberal" news network MSNBC--which never criticizes republicrat Obama. THERE IS NO LIBERAL MEDIA! Corporations which liberals should be screaming against are actually making ad $ off of our delusions. Tonight they ran a story on how Obama may end the war on marijuana. Great! Too bad he's aligned himself with companies which have turned our food into drugs and GMOs and forbidden us to criticize it. Check out The Young Turks Current.com if you want real liberal news.
American Military Veterans Now Kill Themselves At A Rate of One Every 80 Minutes
Nicholas D. Kristof writes in the New York Times:
Here’s a window into a tragedy within the American military: For every soldier killed on the battlefield this year, about 25 veterans are dying by their own hands.
An American soldier dies every day and a half, on average, in Iraq or Afghanistan. Veterans kill themselves at a rate of one every 80 minutes. More than 6,500 veteran suicides are logged every year — more than the total number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq combined since those wars began.
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) may be the most powerful organization you’ve never heard of. Their mission is simple: ALEC helps corporations write laws for state legislatures to pass verbatim.
ALEC is behind everything from “Stand Your Ground”/”shoot first” laws -- which George Zimmerman is using as his defense for shooting unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin -- to Arizona's "show me your papers" immigration law, written by for-profit prison companies to make even more money by putting more people behind bars.
And who funds ALEC? It’s not just who you’d expect -- Koch Industries, Exxon-Mobil, and the NRA. It’s also Johnson & Johnson and dozens of other “family-friendly” brands.
Tell Johnson & Johnson and the rest of ALEC’s funders to stop supporting attacks on their own consumers.
ALEC can no longer hide out in anonymity. In the last few months, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and NPR have all chronicled ALEC’s outsized influence. Boasting membership of 2,000 state legislators and 300 corporate sponsors, ALEC has come to dominate legislative agendas across the nation, presenting state legislators with bills pre-written by the corporations themselves, many of which are voted into law word-for-word.
Has your state adopted a “Stand Your Ground” law as well? Thank ALEC. Pushed for laws making it harder for minorities and the poor to vote? That’s ALEC too. Attacked unions? Undermined the President’s health care legislation? Weakened environmental regulation? Passed tax breaks for corporations? Privatized government services? These laws were all written by the very corporations or special-interest groups that they benefited.
But we are fighting back! One by one, progressive groups are peeling off corporate support for ALEC. Under pressure from consumers like you, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Kraft, Intuit, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have all fled from ALEC.
Now let’s take the fight to Johnson & Johnson -- which makes everything from Band-Aids to baby shampoo -- AT&T, State Farm and the rest of ALEC’s donors.
Add your name to our petition to ALEC sponsors telling them quit now, before they’re the only one left.
It's working: Nearly 200,000 people have signed our open letter, and Facebook is responding to our criticism of its support for CISPA.
CISPA is the new bill that would obliterate online privacy, give the military crazy new abilities to spy on the Internet, and potentially let ISPs block sites and cut off users accused of piracy.
Facebook released a statement that says:
The overriding goal of any cybersecurity bill should be to protect the security of networks and private data, and we take any concerns about how legislation might negatively impact Internet users’ privacy seriously.
That's good news, and it means the pressure we're putting on Facebook is working.
But it also means that Facebook never should have signed up as a supporter of CISPA to begin with.
Even if you already have, please use this link to help us push our campaign viral on Facebook:
If you're already on Facebook, click here to share with your friends.
While I don't agree with all of these--like giving up complaining or I wouldn't have anything to post about--some of it rings very true. So indulge the Purpose Fairy's 15 tips, especially if you are set in your ways like I am.
Here is a list of 15 things which, if you give up on them, will make your life a lot easier and much, much happier. We hold on to so many things that cause us a great deal of pain, stress and suffering – and instead of letting them all go, instead of allowing ourselves to be stress free and happy – we cling on to them. Not anymore. Starting today we will give up on all those things that no longer serve us, and we will embrace change. Ready? Here we go:
1. Give up your need to always be right. There are so many of us who can’t stand the idea of being wrong – wanting to always be right – even at the risk of ending great relationships or causing a great deal of stress and pain, for us and for others. It’s just not worth it. Whenever you feel the ‘urgent’ need to jump into a fight over who is right and who is wrong, ask yourself this question: “Would I rather be right, or would I rather be kind?” Wayne Dyer. What difference will that make? Is your ego really that big?
2. Give up your need for control. Be willing to give up your need to always control everything that happens to you and around you – situations, events, people, etc. Whether they are loved ones, coworkers, or just strangers you meet on the street – just allow them to be. Allow everything and everyone to be just as they are and you will see how much better will that make you feel.
“By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond winning.” Lao Tzu
3. Give up on blame. Give up on your need to blame others for what you have or don’t have, for what you feel or don’t feel. Stop giving your powers away and start taking responsibility for your life.
We have a lot of work yet to do in America. And we can’t pay for it so long as we keep the Bush-era policy of absurdly low taxes for the 1%. As Warren Buffett, one of America’s richest men, points out, it is simply ridiculous that multi-millionaires are paying lower tax rates than their secretaries.
On Monday, the Senate will take a vote on the Buffett Rule, a bill to make millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share.
Right-wing zealots — who are opposed to raising taxes on anyone at anytime forever — want the Senate to filibuster it. The lobbyists of the 1% are packing the halls of Congress. So we need to be heard, now.
Will you message your Senators right now and tell them to vote for the Buffett Rule?
We saw the need for the Buffett Rule when Mitt Romney revealed his taxes. Worth over $250 million, Romney paid a tax rate of 13.9% on an income of millions. The police who protect him pay a higher rate than that.
Our country isn't broke, but we can’t afford a tax code riddled with loopholes that allow the wealthiest Americans to dodge paying their fair share. The Buffett Rule is only the first step, but it at least puts a limit to the tax dodging.
Yet Senate conservatives are committed to filibustering this common sense step, and no doubt will be handsomely rewarded by ultra-rich donors.
We cannot let the Senate continue to be hijacked by this sliver of the 1%. Senators will hear from their lobbyists. Let’s make certain that they hear from the 99% as well.
One hundred years ago, the unsinkable Titanic was sailing confidently toward the iceberg. Today our government is rearranging deck chairs, while billionaires build underground luxury condos in which to survive any disaster.
Tell President Obama and Congress to change course.
Income inequality has grown more rapidly under Obama than under Bush, according to the latest IRS data. Raising taxes on billionaires to the same rate paid by working people ("the Buffett rule") would be a start, but keeping our country afloat is going to require taxing billionaires far more heavily than working people.
We have hugely profitable corporations (including General Electric, Wells Fargo, and Verizon) paying no or negative taxes, and investors paying lower taxes on their "earnings" than people who actually earn their income. It's time we closed the loopholes and joined the nations that are instituting a financial transactions tax on the speculators.
Tell the people who tax us to tax the overclass. ROOTSACTION.ORG
Just saw Food, Inc. SEE THIS RIVETING DOCUMENTARY! I think it came out a few years ago, and mentioned the Clintons' and Bush's close ties to the crazy food industry. But I think this film was made before Obama showed how far his tongue was up their butt by recently appointing former Monsanto big-wig Michael Taylor as a senior advisor to the FDA. They are all crooks and Obama's no different. What a joke that Michelle would adopt healthier eating as her platform!
"A new study has confirmed what many in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community have suspected for some time: that homophobic attitudes are likely to be more pronounced among those who've experienced unacknowledged attraction towards members of the same sex."
BUN-BUN WORKS THE RED CARPET WITH TODDLER'S AND TIARA'S EDEN! (And a crooked wig!)
AND BUNION MET THE VERY FUN LATRICE ROYALE AND HAD A LITTLE FUN WITH HER DURING AN ODD INTERVIEW QUESTION. SOME RECREATED THE STORY IN .GIF FORM AT THE LINK BELOW.
GOP is seeking to suppress voters in a variety of ways--not just by insisting on photo ID. Let me remind you for those of you who think everyone should have a photo ID--there are many reasons why seniors, youth and people of color don't have them. I didn't have one myself for many years. But the crazy thing is that the insistence on ID to vote is supposedly meant to curb voter fraud--except that there is hardly any voter fraud in any state!
Here's a news story about a popular program in Florida which was killed by local GOP lawmakers. Called Souls to the Polls, it made an outing of black church goers to go and vote after church services. It was so popular that it accounted for up to 20-30% of local registration. So the GOP killed it! Look, black church goers probably don't even approve of my lifestyle--but I don't approve of voter suppression in any form. It's the opposite of democracy. Souls to the Polls also exists in other states like North Carolina.
This is not a fun post. But people of color, youth and seniors--who sometimes don't have photo ID--really need to read this. Your access to vote is being taken away in many states and it's all part of a corporate-funded plan. While we pretend the spread democracy in pitiful wars in the middle east, we are killing it here at home. Minorities fought hard for the right to vote--are you really going to let it slip away?
For years, the right wing has been trying to stop people of color, young people, and seniors from voting in order to help Republicans get elected — and now some of America's biggest companies are helping them do it.1
These companies have helped pass discriminatory voter ID legislation by funding a rightwing policy group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Voter ID bills linked to ALEC have already passed in seven states, and similar voter ID bills have been introduced in 27 other states.
That's why we're joining our friends at Color of Change and calling on "ALEC corporations" to remove their support of this rightwing organization.
Tell these companies to stop funding ALEC and its attempt to disenfranchise millions of voters. Click here to automatically sign the petition.
And momentum is on our side. Coca-Cola, an ALEC Corporation, announced yesterday that it will no longer support ALEC because of its support for discriminatory policies like voter ID bills.
Supporters of discriminatory voter ID laws claim they want to reduce voter fraud (individuals voting illegally, or voting twice). But such fraud almost never actually occurs, and never in amounts large enough to affect the result of elections. What is clear is that voter ID laws prevent large numbers of eligible voters from casting a ballot, and could disenfranchise up to 5 million people.
ALEC's voter ID laws are undemocratic, unjust and part of a longstanding right wing agenda to weaken the voting blocs that historically oppose Republican candidates. We have to expose the major companies who are helping ALEC suppress the votes of millions of Americans before it's too late.
Tell these companies to stop funding ALEC and its attempts to disenfranchise millions of voters. Click here to automatically sign the petition.
The truth is that voter ID laws are discriminatory — African Americans, Latinos, seniors, students, and the poor are all less likely to have the photo IDs necessary to vote under these laws. For example, if you've recently moved because of foreclosure or some other economic circumstance, you're more likely to have an address that is not your current residence on your license license. If you don't have a car, you're less likely to have a driver's license in the first place.
In many states, it can be expensive and time consuming to secure the proper ID. Even when the ID itself is free, it often requires supporting documents like a birth certificate which cost money to achieve. There are already stories of voters who have been eligible to vote for years who are now struggling to navigate a frustrating bureaucratic maze in order to vote.
Requiring ID to vote amounts to a modern day poll tax. And that's the real purpose of voter ID laws — they are an important part of the modern effort to suppress the votes of groups that usually vote against rightwing politicians.
Some of the companies supporting ALEC may simply be unaware that the group is involved in voter suppression. Others might think that voter suppression will benefit their political interests, and hope that they can get away with supporting it because so few people have even heard of ALEC.
Our friends at Color of Change have already started reaching out to these companies to make sure they know what they're supporting, and to demand that they stop. Adding your voice to this campaign will help us convince these companies that continuing to support ALEC will hurt their reputation with consumers.
We hope that many of them will simply do the right thing and stop supporting ALEC. If they don't, we'll be prepared to shine a spotlight on them and make sure the world understands what they're involved in.
Tell these companies to stop funding ALEC and its attempt to disenfranchise millions of voters.
Click below to automatically sign the petition: CREDOACTION
Thank you for standing up against voter suppression.
This is my mom, Lady Becky, wearing a necklace and earring set I sent her. A drag queen gave it to me when I visited her city but it didn't really suit me so I passed it on. She loved it and wore it to a party of mostly widowed and divorced lady friends who raved over it and she said she was the "hit of the party", that she was proof that older folks could still be fun, and they were jealous because their sons never sent them anything. In truth, I thought she'd like it because she has a swollen clavicle bone and hates to show her neck. So I taught her that old drag queen trick--wanna camouflage something? Then throw something sparkly on it! My mom is not exactly country but she's southern through and through and had been working in the garden before my dad told her the package arrived. She shook the package and it rattled--she later told me "I thought what on earth is Jon sending me from California--a rattlesnake?" She's a nut and I love her. I just wish she'd learn to pose in better lighting!
