Everybody Knows with Dr. Bob and Dan-o
You are invited to participate in an ACT story collection project about Campaign 2004 -- the events, large or small, that you consider memorable.
Some of the Columbus (Ohio) volunteers were talking on Election Day morning about the importance of our experiences. We decided then that documenting the stories of the campaign would provide an important legacy for ACT's work here.
We’ve started compiling hundreds of first-personal accounts to create a permanent record of the human side of the 2004 election, as told by the people who were actually out there, walking the precincts, making the phone calls, connecting with the voters. This is going to be a "people's history" of ACT, and, even more significantly, of the most massive volunteer effort in political history. Our hope is that your accounts and insights will also help promote meaningful election reform across the country.
Your story is a piece of American history and we intend to capture it for everyone to read and share. If you'd like to be part of this effort, please email your stories to Rachel Barber, wallpaperproject@hotmail.com by April 22.
Some of the Columbus (Ohio) volunteers were talking on Election Day morning about the importance of our experiences. We decided then that documenting the stories of the campaign would provide an important legacy for ACT's work here.
We’ve started compiling hundreds of first-personal accounts to create a permanent record of the human side of the 2004 election, as told by the people who were actually out there, walking the precincts, making the phone calls, connecting with the voters. This is going to be a "people's history" of ACT, and, even more significantly, of the most massive volunteer effort in political history. Our hope is that your accounts and insights will also help promote meaningful election reform across the country.
Your story is a piece of American history and we intend to capture it for everyone to read and share. If you'd like to be part of this effort, please email your stories to Rachel Barber, wallpaperproject@hotmail.com by April 22.
Hello from Brookings Hall.
My name is Meredith, and I am one of about 20 Washington University students occupying the admissions office in Brookings. We're determined to continue our sit-in until the chancellor, Mark Wrighton, agrees to negotiate a living wage for all campus employees. Right now anyone directly hired my the school earns a living wage, but subcontracted custodians, groundskeepers, and food service employees start off at $7.50 an hour. This is is a far cry from the $9.79 per hour with full benefits that the St. Louis Board of Aldermen decided was enough to survive. Washington University is not a poor school; we could easily pay our workers adequately if only we considered them more important than plasma screen TVs in the library and other amenities. We need to show Chancellor Wrighton what our priorities are, and we need community support to do so. We hold rallies on the quad outside our window every day at noon and 5 and have started a tent city there as well.
The battle over the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is heating up. It was approved last May by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, together with the presidents of El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua but still needs to pass the US Congress. CAFTA is based on the same failed neoliberal economic model as NAFTA. If CAFTA passes, it will be another step toward the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which would go far beyond NAFTA in its scope and power.
Why should you oppose CAFTA? CAFTA increases the power of multinational corporations, decreases the power of national and local governments, and does not contain any meanfully enforceable worker or environmental protections. Experience with NAFTA has shown this sort of trade agreement pits workers against each other in a race to the bottom of labor and environmental standards. I’ve attached a Word file of some key points from the Ohio Conference on Fair Trade. These will be good points to bring up in calls or letters to Congress. For more detailed info, see
Why should you oppose CAFTA? CAFTA increases the power of multinational corporations, decreases the power of national and local governments, and does not contain any meanfully enforceable worker or environmental protections. Experience with NAFTA has shown this sort of trade agreement pits workers against each other in a race to the bottom of labor and environmental standards. I’ve attached a Word file of some key points from the Ohio Conference on Fair Trade. These will be good points to bring up in calls or letters to Congress. For more detailed info, see
Next week, the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty to curb global warming emissions, will officially come into effect without the involvement of the United States. While the rest of the world has affirmed the serious threat of global warming and has taken action to move forward, the U.S. remains a mere bystander, watching the parade pass by while refusing to tackle the problem head-on.
As the world's largest contributor to global warming pollution, it is time for the U.S. to establish our own national emissions goals. The U.S. global warming bill, known as the Climate Stewardship Act, is a good first step toward solving the real and serious environmental threat that we can't afford to ignore any longer.
Please take a moment to ask your senators to support the Climate Stewardship Act. Then ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.
To take action, click on the link below: pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=35&id4=OHFreep
Background
As the world's largest contributor to global warming pollution, it is time for the U.S. to establish our own national emissions goals. The U.S. global warming bill, known as the Climate Stewardship Act, is a good first step toward solving the real and serious environmental threat that we can't afford to ignore any longer.
Please take a moment to ask your senators to support the Climate Stewardship Act. Then ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.
To take action, click on the link below: pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=35&id4=OHFreep
Background
Under directions from Governor Taft, ODJFS has filed an emergency rule that will cut people off from Disability Medical Assistance after 6 months and leave the program closed to new applicants. By June, there will be no one left on DMA!
The Governor is, therefore, ending DMA without input from the legislature or the public. He is ripping the net from under some of our most vulnerable citizens, people with very low incomes (countable income of $115/month) who are dependent on medications to live. We cannot remain silent.
PLEASE CALL THE GOVERNOR AND ASK HIM TO RESCIND THE RULE ENDING DMA. (614) 466-3555. GET YOUR NETWORKS TO CALL THE GOVERNOR AS WELL!
The Governor is, therefore, ending DMA without input from the legislature or the public. He is ripping the net from under some of our most vulnerable citizens, people with very low incomes (countable income of $115/month) who are dependent on medications to live. We cannot remain silent.
PLEASE CALL THE GOVERNOR AND ASK HIM TO RESCIND THE RULE ENDING DMA. (614) 466-3555. GET YOUR NETWORKS TO CALL THE GOVERNOR AS WELL!
Boycott Products with aspartame
Much controversy has surrounded the issue of whether or not the artificial sweetener aspartame is safe for consumption. However, the hot debate has reached an all-time high, as a $350-million class-action lawsuit has been filed in order to prove how deadly aspartame consumption truly is to the human body.
Also included in the lawsuit is the central role played by Donald Rumsfeld, current United States Secretary of Defense, in helping to get aspartame approved through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Plaintiffs claim that, despite objections of numerous FDA health researchers and negative studies, Rumsfeld used his political power and influence to get aspartame approved by the FDA.
Those charged in the lawsuit are being accused of knowingly using the neurotoxic aspartame as a sugar substitute in the manufacture of Equal, while fully aware that consumption of it could lead to a plethora of health problems.
Health problems linked to aspartame:
The Ohio Senate is considering a bill that would censor Ohio colleges and
universities. The so-called "Academic Bill of Rights" is truly a misnomer,
as it is really an "academic bill of restrictions." The ACLU of Ohio opposes
passage of this bill because it could be used to curtail academic freedom
and to encourage thought policing in our institutes of higher education. The
bill would have a chilling effect on freedom of inquiry on Ohio’s campuses.
For example:
·The bill forces the board of trustees, of both public and private schools, to adopt policies about what can and cannot be taught.
·Under the bill, faculty would be discouraged from teaching anything "controversial" - a vaguely defined term that could pertain to any number of topics including evolution, history, or religion.
·If they do raise controversial issues, teachers would have to present alternative views regardless of the merits of those views or their own beliefs about them.
·Senate Bill 24 would shift the responsibility for course content and student evaluation from highly trained faculty to the state government or the courts.
What you can do:
·The bill forces the board of trustees, of both public and private schools, to adopt policies about what can and cannot be taught.
·Under the bill, faculty would be discouraged from teaching anything "controversial" - a vaguely defined term that could pertain to any number of topics including evolution, history, or religion.
·If they do raise controversial issues, teachers would have to present alternative views regardless of the merits of those views or their own beliefs about them.
·Senate Bill 24 would shift the responsibility for course content and student evaluation from highly trained faculty to the state government or the courts.
What you can do:
Objections to a swift decision on Alberto Gonzalez, stemming especially
from Sen. Kennedy's concerns about his responses to questions about
torture, have delayed the vote on whether to confirm him as Attorney General.
This gives us a momentary window in time to slow down or even halt the confirmation, and to make the record of the truth about the Administration's use of torture. SEE BELOW FOR HOW TO USE THIS MOMENT.
Gonzalez' responses to Judiciary Committee questions about the actuality of torture were evasive, full of "I don't remember" in regard to a very important and unprecedented memo he gave the President (a surprising thing to forget) and on memos he received about it from lawyers in the Justice Department.
And he explicitly repeated the Bush Administration's assertion that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to people the Administration labels "enemy combatants."
Even worse, he has not been willing to repudiate the definition of torture that was so extreme that most forms of torture would be permitted.
This gives us a momentary window in time to slow down or even halt the confirmation, and to make the record of the truth about the Administration's use of torture. SEE BELOW FOR HOW TO USE THIS MOMENT.
Gonzalez' responses to Judiciary Committee questions about the actuality of torture were evasive, full of "I don't remember" in regard to a very important and unprecedented memo he gave the President (a surprising thing to forget) and on memos he received about it from lawyers in the Justice Department.
And he explicitly repeated the Bush Administration's assertion that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to people the Administration labels "enemy combatants."
Even worse, he has not been willing to repudiate the definition of torture that was so extreme that most forms of torture would be permitted.
Questions are swirling around whether the election was
conducted honestly or not. We need to know -- was it
or wasn't it?
When Congress reconvenes in January, at least 14 members of the House of Representatives will challenge the validity of the 2004 election. They will request an immediate investigation into many problems and irregularities encountered in the election.
According to the Electoral Count Act of 1887, one senator and one House Representative are required to contest an election prior to inauguration. We have the representatives; we still need a senator. Please let your senators know that you want them to stand up with House Representatives and contest the vote.
The signed petitions will be delivered to each senator in person by a coalition of representatives from a variety of concerned organizations and individuals. We will also deliver copies of signed petitions from all states to the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary to encourage them to hold formal hearings on the 2004 election. our senators and the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary:
When Congress reconvenes in January, at least 14 members of the House of Representatives will challenge the validity of the 2004 election. They will request an immediate investigation into many problems and irregularities encountered in the election.
According to the Electoral Count Act of 1887, one senator and one House Representative are required to contest an election prior to inauguration. We have the representatives; we still need a senator. Please let your senators know that you want them to stand up with House Representatives and contest the vote.
The signed petitions will be delivered to each senator in person by a coalition of representatives from a variety of concerned organizations and individuals. We will also deliver copies of signed petitions from all states to the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary to encourage them to hold formal hearings on the 2004 election. our senators and the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary:
My name is Bruce Harris. I am fed up with the status quo. My new years resolution is to force some changes. The easiest way for me to do that is through writing letters, sending emails, posting on the blogs.
But, I cannot do it alone. I need help from every corner of the country. I am asking people to join me in my letter writing campaign. I look at it this way. If the FCC listens to a handful of religious doomsday cultists from Texas they should listen to thousands of letters from us. If you are willing to help me then send a letter to the FCC. Also, forward this appeal or a similar one to everyone you know. Post it to all the blogs. The idea here is to make a loud, angry noise heard in Washington.
But, I cannot do it alone. I need help from every corner of the country. I am asking people to join me in my letter writing campaign. I look at it this way. If the FCC listens to a handful of religious doomsday cultists from Texas they should listen to thousands of letters from us. If you are willing to help me then send a letter to the FCC. Also, forward this appeal or a similar one to everyone you know. Post it to all the blogs. The idea here is to make a loud, angry noise heard in Washington.