Sunday, July 21, 2013

Issues & News 7/21/2013

Issues & News 7/21/2013



Campaign for America's Future
Last week 216 Republicans voted to cut all funding for food stamps from the farm bill. They knew it would face a White House veto, but they passed it anyway. It was a statement of identity. This is who they are.
It wasn't the first time they've done something like this. Aside from the 39 times they've repealed Obamacare, they've cut Meals on Wheels, wasted $2.3 million dollars defending DOMA and passed the The D.C. Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which may get the award for most dishonest title for a bill in 2013.

ThisisTheGOP.org

In the coming weeks, Campaign for America's Future will launch a new website cataloging these statements of identity by the GOP. Every one of their cruel, pointless bills that come up for a roll call vote will be put in a jar and neatly labeled.
By the time they go before their constituents, it'll be a lot to explain. The smell of formaldehyde will be the least of their problems.
The freak show meets the mean show. Forced vaginal ultrasounds. Cuts to food stamps. Show me your papers. Step right up. Meet the GOP, the party that never could dance and still has no soul.

Get In On It

Donate to this Project
Sincerely,

Roger Hickey
Co-Director, Campaign for America's Future
      
© 2013 Campaign for America's Future Inc. 1825 K Street, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20006
 


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From the Eagle Watch #229
July 19, 2013

Jim "Agent of Assimilation" Prentice Mesmerizes AFN Participants

Fool me once, Shame on You;
Fool me twice, Shame on Me!


How many times do we Indigenous have to be had before we get it.  Once again, our phoney Indian Agent Sellouts aka Band Council Chiefs are leading us down the final path of destruction.

We should run like hell from guys like Jim Prentice.  He was in Whitehorse on Tuesday at the Assembly of First Nations AFN AGM where he gave another hypnotic speech this time to "Aboriginal" leaders.  The AFN falsely claims it represents status Indians in         Canada.

According to a March, 2013 article, Jim Prentice, 54, Senior Executive Vice President and Vice Chairman of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce CIBC, "surprised the country six months ago when he quit at the height of his political career to         become a senior banker at CIBC, said the transition has been relatively smooth so far, while proving that the skills and contacts acquired in politics can be golden in corporations."

How's that for an understatement?!?!  The language daily becomes         more blatant.  Yet still only some people get it while others are nearly insane with cognitive dissonance they refuse to give up.

Prentice is in the media a lot, especially at Financial Post/Times where his voice carries much weight.  He has a lot to         say about the oil industry and Canada-U.S. relations, economic that is.  It's all about the money for Jimmie.  In a speech at the Canadian-government-sponsored "Financial Times Forum: Focus on Canada" in New York , he states, "Continental flows of hydrocarbons responding to market realities are relentless and more oil is now being moved across North America on rail cars, avoiding pipeline bottlenecks..."  That's just what Bill Gates and Warren Buffett want to hear.

Let's look critically at his NYC speech to business and gov leaders along with the Whitehorse one to AFN leadership on Tuesday, July 16.

Working class Canadians are getting the hose, how much more we Indigenous who have always been at the bottom of the colonial socio-economic ladder.  As some of our people scramble for a belated share of the loot, the Anglo elitists are desperately making deals with the Chinese elitists.  Let us be clear Anglos refers to the exclusive blood lines/owners of the British Empire         in its many manifestations like Commonwealth and social experiments like Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.  Our focus is on Canada and USA as these are impositions         on Turtle Island, our ancestral territories where Indigenous ties to the Earth continue to be severed via the brutality of the modern capitalist economic system and its political effigies.  But we digress...

Prentice gives direction to his listeners, "The Prime Minister and the President could use the Clean Energy Dialogue as the vehicle for this discussion as it allows for the resolution of emerging energy and environmental irritants."  Yes, we know Jimmie finds any concern for Mother Earth to be an "irritant", even a deterrent to his relentless avarice.

Trilateral Commission member and deputy chairman, Jim reveals his NAU North American Union globalist intentions when he says, " we can together pursue a full-on harmonization of the transportation grid and bring continental standards to the rail and aviation industries."

He emphasize his points by repetition, "Canada and the United States need to return to those very principles of free trade that are enshrined in NAFTA, and we need to address energy matters on a continental basis".

In a sweeping gesture, he sums it all up, " Canada and the United States share common objectives, a common resource base and airsheds and watersheds that transcend boundaries."


“I like being Minister of Indian Affairs. But I’d much prefer to         be Minister of Aboriginal Inc.”

Jimmie Prentice, MP from Calgary and modern day TreatyMan/Ripoff         Artist claims to fame include "the Sturgeon Lake Treaty Land Entitlement settlement in 1986; in 2006, the Residential School Agreement; with the Tsawwassen First Nation and Premier Gordon Campbell, the first Lower Mainland Final Agreement under the British Columbia treaty process and GwaiiHanas Marine Conservation Area agreement with the Haida in 2009."

You can see where he has been wreaking havoc among Western Indigenous nations in what is called Alberta and B.C.

Jim "Agent of Assimilation" Prentice gave quite a speech
 at the AFN AGM Annual General Meeting.  He knows the importance of keeping Indigenous mesmerized to the Canadian dream.  Jimmie got to the point, "The real issue now is whether B.C.'s First Nations are going to participate in all of this (LNG to Asia) in a meaningful way, or simply observe it as bystanders."

He's always ready to walk all over us, his ears tightly shut and         his eye on the loot.

He waxed eloquent as his forked tongue slithered across his lips, "Today, thanks to our abundance of natural resources, we stand on the verge of a new era of growth and development. It is         national in nature. It is substantial in scope. And in many cases it represents a game-changing opportunity for First Nations."

He knows damn well we are a threat to his demented schemes.

"...We are talking about hundreds of billions of dollars in major resource developments that are currently – or will be – taking place on or near Aboriginal communities."

How much you wanna bet he has no intention of us getting a share, not this time, not ever??

And he goes on to name some of the plunder projects, even going so far as to state, "Quebec’s massive northern resource development plan was created with – and will benefit – the Cree,         Innu, Naskapi and Inuit" and "One of the unheralded benefits of the Canadian oil sands has been the extent to which the Aboriginal people of northern Alberta have been included – and have benefited."

Is he joking?  No, but he is taking us for fools.  He talks about the importance of education for "aboriginal youth" to be fully assimilated, "It is also important that we find opportunity in our country’s skills shortage, and help equip young Aboriginals with the expertise they’ll need to get ahead."

Get ahead!?  Does he really imagine we're going to get on the tread mill with all the other wage slaves??

He refers to the Matawa First Nations (who have retained Bob Rae         to guide their Ring of Fire negotiations) signing "a memo of understanding with Aecon Group to expand training and development programs in remote areas of Ontario’s north – using technology to give residents access to trades and apprenticeship         training."

Bob Rae was once NDP Premier of Ontario.  He is a master at sleight of hand, most recently as Leader of the Liberal Party and the Opposition.

Construction giant, Aecon is the parent company to Lockerbie and         Hole, the same outfit that is building the private prison Remand         Centre in Edmonton which will house over 2,000 people, about 1/2         being Indigenous.  Some of the top dogs at Aecon are J. D. Hole and Tony Franceschini, (retired President and CEO, Stantec Inc.,         Chairman of the Board of ZCL Composites Inc. and director of Seattle-based Esterline Technologies Corporation), both of Edmonton.  Brian Tobin, Canadian politrickster former premier of         Newfoundland and Labrador, Executive Chairman of Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines Limited  and vice chair at BMO is also on board at Aecon.  Like Prentice, he was once Minister of Industry         and is now a big wheel at a big bank.  Toronto-Dominion Bank hired Bilderberger Frank McKenna, former New Brunswick premier, former Canadian ambassador to the U.S. and former member of the Supervisory Commission Canadian Security Intelligence Service CSIS, as a deputy chairman in May 2006.  Frank is a board member         at CNRL, a big producer in the oil sands.

These guys have all the bases covered.  This is how Canadian politricksters are rewarded and always have been rewarded.  You know you're living in an oligarchy when...

Like Indian Treaty Commissioners, Alexander Morris and Duncan Campbell Scott before him, Prentice is brutally clear but who's listening when it really matters.  "Aboriginal leaders" prefer to be molly coddled.  They refuse to hear that there is no room for the Indigenous way of Life.  There is no room for us to say "No!" to development projects:

"The duty to consult and accommodate was created as a way to get         to 'Yes,' not as a way to get to 'No.'  It was created by judges         to ensure that First Nations had a seat at the table in decisions involving resource development. It was created to assist First Nations in extracting meaningful economic participation from those decisions.
It was meant to carry us forward. It was not meant to serve as a         mechanism to block projects, veto development..."

..."Once you sit down, the objective is to achieve sustainable economic participation. Consultation must progress to negotiation, and negotiation must maintain a meaningful direction and a positive momentum." 

Prentice is clear.  It's his way or the highway.  Once again the         AFN and wealthy house niggers like Atleo are selling us down the         river.  Opposition to their actions is confused but coalescing into a desperate struggle even as we write these few lines.

Kittoh



Notes and Sources

This is an outrageous Government/Media collaboration of the most         sinister form of propaganda.

http://www.international.gc.ca/investors-investisseurs/events-evenements/new_york.aspx
FT Global Investment Series: Focus on Canada

New York, United States
March 13, 2013
10 on the Park

In the latest series of high-level forums, the Government of Canada, in partnership with the Financial Times, brought together over 100 business and government leaders to discuss the         latest trends and factors relevant to considering Canada as a place to invest in the energy and technology sectors.

The Honourable Jim Prentice, Senior Executive Vice President and         Vice Chairman at CIBC, and senior executives from Siemens Canada, Mistras, Cenovus Energy and Praxair Canada spoke about the North American energy sector, covering topics such as infrastructure, technology, and innovation, and also discussed the importance of their Canadian operations. Corporate executives from Arkadium, Avanade, Cellfish, and Deloitte also gave strong testimonials on the advantages of doing business in Canada, while John Lutz, President of IBM Canada, provided an overview of the company’s presence in Canada, highlighting recent investments that IBM has made in various regions of the country.

Speakers at the event included:

    Harbir Chhina, Executive Vice-President, Oil Sands, Cenovus Energy
    Ed Crooks, US Industry and Energy Editor, Financial Times
    The Honourable Ed Fast, Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway, Government of Canada
    John Lutz, President, IBM Canada Ltd
    Daniel Pink, Best-selling author and journalist
    The Honourable Jim Prentice, P.C., Q.C., Senior Executive Vice President and Vice Chairman, CIBC
    Kenny Rosenblatt, Co-founder and CEO, Arkadium
    Fabrice Sergent, Founder and CEO, Cellfish
    Bill Smith, Senior Vice President, Energy Sector, Siemens Canada
    Sotirios Vahaviolos, Chairman, President and Chief Executive         Officer, Mistras Group, Inc.
    Aziz Virani, President, North America, Avanade
    Matthew White, President, Praxair Canada

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SATURDAY, 20 JULY 2013

Justice Denied: Is Trayvon Martin Post-Racial America’s Emmett Till?

Ashton Pittman, Op-Ed: Comparisons between the killings of Emmett Till and Trayvon Martin were, perhaps, inevitable. And sure enough, those comparisons came swiftly last year after the nation learned of the 17-year-old Martin’s death at the hands of George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida. When Zimmerman was found not guilty, Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump declared, “Trayvon Martin will forever remain in the annals of history next to Medgar Evers and Emmett Till as symbols for the fight for equal justice for all.”
READ  |  DISCUSS  |  SHARE

US Backlash Growing Against ‘Stand Your Ground’ Laws

Cydney Hargis, News Report: In the aftermath of the recent acquittal of 31-year-old Florida native George Zimmerman, the state’s so-called Stand Your Ground law has come under national scrutiny, as have dozens of other states that have enacted similar legislation. The criticism will perhaps be led by whatever the U.S. Justice Department chooses to do with the case. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder denounced the law Tuesday in a keynote address at an annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), an esteemed advocacy group.
READ  |  DISCUSS  |  SHARE

Not Listening: What Republicans Could Learn From George W. Bush

Joe Conason, Op-Ed: During most of the Obama presidency, George W. Bush has maintained a decorous silence. Keeping quiet may not always have been easy for Bush, watching his successor repudiate and unwind his legacy, from Iraq to Afghanistan and beyond, but his discretion was wise under the circumstances. Suddenly, however, he is speaking out to urge a “positive resolution” to the debate over immigration reform—and the time to listen to him has surely arrived.
READ  |  DISCUSS  |  SHARE

Judge Rules Detroit’s Bankruptcy Illegal, Leaving Process in Limbo

Alan Pyke, News Investigation: Detroit’s bankruptcy filing is unconstitutional and must be rescinded, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina ruled on Friday. Thursday’s filing was supposed to set into motion proceedings that would allow the city’s unelected emergency manager Kevyn Orr to break pension contracts with 30,000 city workers and retirees, but Aquilina ruled Friday afternoon it violates the Michigan Constitution. The city is unable to pay nearly $20 billion in outstanding debts, most of which is owed to investors who hold the city’s bonds and to city workers.
READ  |  DISCUSS  |  SHARE

Dar Williams: Why the Music of Protest is Still Worth Defending

Madeline Ostrander, Op-Ed: It’s become fashionable to say that political music is either dead or irrelevant. “Because of the ’60s, part and parcel of being a ‘serious music fan’ is lamenting that music isn’t political enough,” wrote communications scholar Michael Barthel in Salon last year, in an article called “Protest Songs Are Pointless.” The pop sound that’s churned out these days by top-grossing industry producers, even when it’s edgy or raging, is rarely political. But some of us secretly long for the solidarity that comes from belting out an old anthem together, without embarrassment.
READ  |  DISCUSS  |  SHARE

Using Outdated Data, FEMA is Wrongly Placing Homeowners in Flood Zones

Theodoric Meyer, News Investigation: From Maine to Oregon, local floodplain managers say FEMA’s recent flood maps—which dictate the premiums that 5.5 million Americans pay for flood insurance—have often been built using outdated, inaccurate data. Homeowners, in turn, have to bear the cost of fixing FEMA’s mistakes. It’s unclear exactly how many new maps FEMA has issued in recent years are at least partly based on older data.
READ  |  DISCUSS  |  SHARE

Full Video: Obama Delivers Surprise Address on Race, #RealTalk Ensues

Asawin Suebsaeng, Video Feature: Obama made a surprise address at Friday’s White House press briefing. He weighed in on the Trayvon Martin case, spoke about race issues in America, and called for an evaluation of the efficacy and wisdom of Stand Your Ground laws. “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago,” the president said. President Obama went on to pose the question, “If Trayvon Martin was of age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk?”
READ  |  DISCUSS  |  SHARE

US Flouts the Rule of Law While Demanding that Other Countries Honor It

Dave Lindorff, Op-Ed: Italy indicted 22 Americans in Nasr’s illegal kidnapping, and sought their presence for a trial. The U.S., ignoring the rule of law, refused to send its agents to Italy, a country with which the U.S. has a long-established extradition treaty, and which is a long-standing member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), so they were tried there in absentia. Robert Lady, as station chief and chief architect of the kidnapping, was found guilty along with 13 others (eight men were acquitted) and was sentenced, also in absentia, to nine years in prison.
READ  |  DISCUSS  |  SHARE

Survey from Anti-Pot Group: 40 Percent Adults Favor Marijuana Legalization, with Strict Laws

Elizabeth Renter, News Analysis: After conducting a marijuana-legalization survey, The Partnership at Drugfree.org found about 40 percent of responding adults support marijuana legalization—a slap in the face. While it’s less than the numbers from other polling sources, the anti-drug organization is being forced to defend the War on Marijuana it helps to support. According to CBS News, the organization paired with an advertising agency to survey a cross section of the population, about 1,600 people of which 1,200 were parents of children between the ages of 10 and 19.
READ  |  DISCUSS  |  SHARE

Despite House Action, Debate Over ‘No Child Left Behind’ Goes Nowhere

Jeff Bryant, Op-Ed: As long as this squabbling over the tools for education improvement continue to dominate the agenda, policies will continue to be flawed—Republican and Democratic. Contentious back-and-forth between groups that want less standardized testing and those that want every kid tested every year get us nowhere as long as there’s no policy vision for what children do when they aren’t taking all the bloody tests—or when they’re opting out of taking the tests.
READ  |  DISCUSS  |  SHARE

Revealed: Gen. David Petraeus’ Course Syllabus Features ‘Frackademia’ Readings

Steve Horn, News Investigation: Records obtained by DeSmogBlogpertaining to City University of New York (CUNY) Macaulay Honors College's hiring of former head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) David Petraeus to teach a seminar this coming fall reveal that his syllabus features two of the most well-known “frackademia” studies. “Frackademia” is shorthand for oil and gas industry-funded research costumed as independent economics or science covering the topic of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”), the controversial horizontal drilling process via which oil and gas is obtained deep within shale rock basins.
READ  |  DISCUSS  |  SHARE
FROM AROUND THE WEB

CLIMATE CHANGE

New Power Usage Record Set in New York During Heat Wave

The heat wave has impacted the power usage on the East Coast as many residents in New York remained inside air-conditioned houses and establishments to try and stay cool.

HEALTH

Supreme Court to Review Abortion-Inducing Drugs

While Oklahoma banned a law against abortion-inducing drugs, the highest of courts will review the law and have the final decision.

U.S. JUSTICE

National Security Reporter to Testify in Court to Reveal his Sources

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that James Risen, national security reporter, must testify in court against former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling.
NATIONOFCHANGE AND THE NATIONOFCHANGE LOGO ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF NATIONOFCHANGE
NATIONOFCHANGE | 6319 DANTE LN NW, ALBUQUERQUE, NM 87114

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If you're like me, when you hear about the latest corporate scheme to make more profit from our food and water, you get outraged and want to do something about it. Unfortunately, it's getting harder and harder to spread the word, as newspapers and other media outlets are going out of business or being bought out by huge corporate interests.

Now, the Koch brothers, the billionaire brothers who fund pro-corporate front groups, are trying to buy out the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.

We hope you'll take action with our allies at RootsAction to tell the Tribune Company not to sell to the Koch Brothers. We need all the help we can get in keeping media outlets free of political influence.

Thanks for taking action,

Sarah Alexander
Deputy Organizing Director
Food & Water Watch
act(at)fwwatch(dot)org



GRAPHIC: Roots Action logo header
Don't Koch the L.A. Times



GRAPHIC: Sign here button 
Dear Dave,

After years of mismanagement, the Tribune Company newspapers -- including the Chicago Tribune and L.A. Times -- are up for sale.

And one of the potential buyers? The Koch brothers.

Don't let it happen! Take Action!

Yes, those Koch brothers: the billionaire businessmen who run Koch Industries, a sprawling multinational corporation involved in everything from oil to fertilizer to paper towels.

But you probably know the Koch brothers for how they spend their considerable wealth: bankrolling pro-corporate political causes and funneling millions of dollars to front groups and politicians devoted to their anti-regulatory, anti-labor, and pro-corporate ideology. The Kochs have spent millions propping up climate-change deniers, and have been instrumental in funding ALEC, the powerful business lobby that pushes corporate-friendly policies at the state level.

What would the Kochs do with a few major newspapers?  Let's hope we don't have to find out.

Some recent reports indicate that many L.A. Times staffers would consider leaving the paper if it were purchased by the Kochs -- which is probably music to their cost-cutting ears. 

Team up with RootsAction right now to send a message to the Tribune Company: Don't sell out journalism by selling your papers to the Koch brothers. 

-- The RootsAction.org team

P.S. RootsAction is an independent online force endorsed by Jim Hightower, Barbara Ehrenreich, Cornel West, Daniel Ellsberg, Glenn Greenwald, Naomi Klein, Bill Fletcher Jr., Laura Flanders, former U.S. Senator James Abourezk, Coleen Rowley, Frances Fox Piven, and many others.


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New post on Mohawk Nation News

MOTOR CITY SYNDROME

by admin
mnnlogo


MNN. July 19, 2013. Detroit is on stolen Rotino’shonni:onwe Indigenous land and is bankrupt. The rulers have no more use for this pile of polluted steel, glass and cement called a metropolis. Nothing can be sold without our consent at it is illegally built on our land.
Glass, steel, cement must be cleaned up. 
Glass, steel, cement must be cleaned up.

The War of 1812 is when the US tried to make all Great Turtle Island into one big United States. On August 16, 1812, a force of Indigenous allies of British Major General Isaac Brock took Fort Detroit and repelled the overwhelming large American forces under Brigadier General William Hull. The sight of the Indian war whoops terrified the Americans who refused to fight. Hull ran up a white flag and quickly surrendered. After the invasion, the natural land owners were pushed out. The bankers set up the artificial corporation of Detroit under the Admiralty laws of the seas. A counterfeit economy was created to extract our resources and start manufacturing. 1812 detroit
All towns and cities are foreign corporations set up by the banker shareholders for profit only. When a city is no longer viable, the bankers declare bankruptcy and dissolve the city. They illegally take whatever they can for a few cents on the dollar. Like Detroit, the infrastructure is left to decay and drown in debt. They become poor, crime-infested hellholes. The population drops by as much as 75%. The lights don’t work. The ambulances are old. Almost 100,000 buildings are abandoned. Less than half are working. 60% of children live third world conditions. The rulers plunder whatever is valuable. 
Detroit, welcome to the reservation! In the Secret Covenant of the rulers, “We will take over their land, resources and wealth to exercise total control over them”. 
The rulers’ greatest fear is of the “initiates” they recruited to carry out their dirty work. The initiates were falsely promised eternal life and willingly went along with the genocide and environmental destruction. Those left behind will perish. 
Detroit is one of the first of many dissolved cities in both US and Canada. As Dekanawidah predicted, the rulers and initiates are the serpents that will be washed away, never to be seen again. The people can follow the white roots of the great peace. They can come to one mind with us and start living under the Kaianerekowa, the real law of the land of Great Turtle Island.detroit bankrupt
Gordon Lightfoot sang in 1967 of the coming conflicts in Detroit: The streets of Motor City now are quiet and serene/But the shapes of gutted buildings/Strike terror to the heart/And you say how did it happen/And you say how did it start.” Black Day in July  
MNN Mohawk Nation News kahentinetha2@yahoo.com Thahoketoteh@hotmail.com For more news, books, workshops, to donate and sign up for MNN newsletters, go to www.mohawknationnews.com  More stories at MNN Archives.  Address:  Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0  For free download of Mohawk music thahoketoteh.ws













   



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Sign This Petition Today!

Petition Statement:
With approximately 39 million Americans now drowning in more than $1.1 TRILLION of outstanding student loan debt, we, the undersigned, respectfully request that Congress immediately take up Comprehensive Student Debt Reform. Such reform must address two separate, but inextricably intertwined, issues: the existing $1.1 trillion in student debt and the skyrocketing costs of college tuition.

Petition Background:

Comprehensive student loan reform would free up hundreds of millions of dollars currently being used to service debt, to be spent on ailing sectors of the economy, providing a real jump-start to economic growth and prosperity. Such reforms would put the American Dream back in reach for millions of Americans, unleashing a new era of entrepreneurship, investment and innovation for all. The question is not whether we can afford to make such reforms, but whether we can afford not to. 

At a time when the big banks can borrow from the federal government at near-zero percent interest rates, what sense does it make to force students to borrow exorbitant sums of money at outrageously high interest rates, just to obtain an education? If we, as a society, deem it so necessary to invest in the big banks with such sweetheart deals, why do we find it so difficult to find the political will to invest in our own people? 

Among the reforms that we, the undersigned, believe should be implemented include, but are not limited to: 

* Restoration of basic consumer protections, such as bankruptcy rights and statutes of limitations on the collections of student loan debt; 
* The right to refinance student loans so as to allow borrowers to take advantage of historically low interest rates; 
* Elimination of the $2,500 cap on the deductibility of student loan interest paid; 
* Elimination of the practice of interest capitalization on student loan debt; 
* The ability to consolidate private student loans with federal loans; and 
* Making all federal and private student loans eligible for income-driven repayment programs, such as Pay As You Earn, that limits payments to ten percent of income and provides forgiveness after 20 years; 

There is no shortage of good ideas, but a serious shortage of political will to address this ever-growing crisis. Along with any additional legislation that may be required, we, the undersigned, demand hearings and action on the following pending bills: 

* The Student Loan Fairness Act (H.R. 1330) - Rep. Bass 
* The Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Fairness Act (H.R. 532) - Rep. Cohen 
* The Student Loan Affordability Act (S. 707) - Sen. Reed 
* The Student Loan Default Prevention Act (H.R. 618) - Rep. Michaud 
* The Know Before You Owe Private Student Loan Act (S. 113) - Sen. Durbin 
* The Student Loan Employment Benefits Act (H.R. 395) - Rep. Israel 
* The Student Loan Interest Deduction Act (H.R. 1527) - Rep. Rangel 
* Responsible Student Loan Solutions Act (S. 909/H.R. 1946) - Sen. Reed/Rep. Tierney 
* The Student Loan Relief Act (S. 953) - Sen. Reed 
* The Federal Student Loan Refinancing Act (S. 1066) - Sen. Gillibrand 
* Refinancing Education Funding to Invest for the Future Act (S.1266 ) - Sen. Brown 
* Proprietary Institution of Higher Education Accountability Act (H.R.1928) – Rep. DeLauro 
* Smarter Borrowing Act (S. 546) - Sen. Harkin 
* Fairness for Struggling Students Act of 2013 (S. 114) – Sen. Durbin 
* Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act (S. 897/ H.R. 1979) – Sen. Warren/ Rep. Tierney 
* Students First Act of 2013 (S. 406) – Sen. Lautenberg

Sign This Petition Today!





Want to make a donation? MoveOn is entirely funded by our 8 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.
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Organize by CREDO
Tell Congress: Stop the bee-killing pesticides.


Sign the petition ►
Dear David,
Bee populations are in serious jeopardy. That's why Congressman John Conyers and I just introduced the Save America's Pollinators Act, which would suspend the use of bee-killing pesticides. With the help of CREDO’s new petition site, I’m gathering support to alert my colleagues in the United States Congress to this important cause. My petition says the following:

Last month, 50,000 bumble bees died after trees in Wilsonville, Oregon were sprayed with dinotefuran, the neonicotinoid ingredient in Safari pesticide. This was the largest bee die-off ever recorded. With bee populations declining across the around the country at an alarming rate, I urge you to support the "Save America's Pollinators Act" to restrict the use of these chemicals until we can be sure that they are safe and being used properly.

From flowers to chocolate, berries to tequila, pollinators are integral to the planet, economy, and many aspects of our lives. In fact, the USDA estimates that about one in every three bites of food is either directly or indirectly made possible because of bee pollination. Both our environment and food supply are inextricably tied to the welfare of bees, making the decrease in bee populations a cause for great alarm.
The death of 50,000 bees after the neonicotinoid dinotefuran was applied in Wilsonville, Oregon last month is a wake-up call.
The Oregon Department of Agriculture is investigating the die-off and is temporarily restricting the use of 18 pesticide products containing dinotefuran, and the Environmental Protection Agency is currently reviewing the use of these chemicals. However, that review is not scheduled to be completed for another five years. Meanwhile, Europe has already moved forward with restrictions on the use of neonicotinoids.
We must act now. This week I introduced H.R. 2692, the Save America's Pollinators Act, with my friend Congressman John Conyers to suspend certain uses of neonicotinoids until the Environmental Protection Agency reviews these chemicals and makes a new determination about their proper application and safe use. This will increase pressure on the EPA to speed its review before another mass bee die-off occurs.
Raising public awareness of the integral role of pollinators to the world, the precarious state of their populations, and what we can do to protect them is of the utmost importance. I hope you’ll join me as a citizen co-sponsor of this important legislation.
Will you join me and add your name to my petition to the United States Congress, to demand that it stops the pesticides that are killing bees?
Thank you for your support.
Congressman Earl Blumenauer
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--
"When crazy people call you crazy, you know you're sane. 
When evil people call you evil, you know that you are a good person. 
When lairs call you a liar, you know that you are truthful. 
Know who you are and don't let others tell you who you are." - Dave Kitchen

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