Everybody Knows with Dr. Bob and Dan-o
Oceans cover over 70 percent of the planet. They provide irreplaceable wildlife habitat, food for hundreds of species (including people), and endless hours of recreation. But, though they seem limitless, our oceans are in crisis.
Over the past four months, I've told you about the work being done confirming that there is a crisis facing the oceans and what we can do to solve the problem. Thanks to your timely action, 37 governors have weighed in on the side of protecting our oceans.
Now, the White House is about to get a report from the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy - whose members were appointed by President Bush - that lays out the problems facing our oceans and how to solve them.
Please take a moment to call and urge the White House to heed the recommendations made by these ocean experts and take advantage of this chance to make real progress towards protecting our oceans. Then, ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this message to them.
You can call James Connaughton, Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, at 202-456-6224. Here's a sample message you can leave:
Over the past four months, I've told you about the work being done confirming that there is a crisis facing the oceans and what we can do to solve the problem. Thanks to your timely action, 37 governors have weighed in on the side of protecting our oceans.
Now, the White House is about to get a report from the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy - whose members were appointed by President Bush - that lays out the problems facing our oceans and how to solve them.
Please take a moment to call and urge the White House to heed the recommendations made by these ocean experts and take advantage of this chance to make real progress towards protecting our oceans. Then, ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this message to them.
You can call James Connaughton, Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, at 202-456-6224. Here's a sample message you can leave:
They've finally done it. For the past three and a half years, I've been writing to you about the Bush administration's efforts to undermine the Roadless Area Conservation Rule that protects 58.5 million acres of America's wild forests. But yesterday, the Bush administration proposed to repeal the roadless rule in its entirety - and allow timber, oil, and mining interests to tear a spider web of roads through America's last wild forests.
Please take a moment right now to submit an official comment to Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth and let the Bush administration know that you oppose the wholesale destruction of America's last wild forests. Then - even if you've never done so before - ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this along; there is no more important time to act.
Take action now: wildforests.com/wildforests.asp?id=11&id4=OHFreep
Background
Please take a moment right now to submit an official comment to Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth and let the Bush administration know that you oppose the wholesale destruction of America's last wild forests. Then - even if you've never done so before - ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this along; there is no more important time to act.
Take action now: wildforests.com/wildforests.asp?id=11&id4=OHFreep
Background
In early July, the U.S. Senate will consider legislation that would make it much more difficult to hold corporations accountable when they deceive consumers, trample our civil or workplace rights, or pollute the environment. This bill - the falsely-named "Class Action Fairness Act" (S. 2062) - is backed by tobacco companies, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and big banks.
Senator Bingaman (NM) plans to offer a pro-consumer amendment that will improve the bill. Unless the Senate adopts the Bingaman amendment, this bill will unfairly make it harder for consumers to have their day in court.
Please take a moment to ask your senators to support the pro-consumer Bingaman amendment and make the class action bill fairer. Then ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.
Take Action: pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=6&id4=OHFreep
Background
Senator Bingaman (NM) plans to offer a pro-consumer amendment that will improve the bill. Unless the Senate adopts the Bingaman amendment, this bill will unfairly make it harder for consumers to have their day in court.
Please take a moment to ask your senators to support the pro-consumer Bingaman amendment and make the class action bill fairer. Then ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.
Take Action: pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=6&id4=OHFreep
Background
The U.S. Senate will vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment on July 15.
Make a call on July 12, and send a letter before then! Equality and liberty depend on it!
For more information about marriage equality and to sign a petiion supporting the right of homosexuals to marry, visit www.hrc.org/millionformarriage/index.shtml
The "pro-family" (read: homophobic) American Family Association (AFA) is planning a national anti-gay marriage Senate call-in day on July 12. It's important that those of us who care about freedom and equality also make calls on that day in support of gay marriage.
The AFA has convienently tabulated a list of addresses and phone numbers of Senators who support or oppose the amendment www.protectmarriagerally.com/default.asp#sj30.
Make a call on July 12, and send a letter before then! Equality and liberty depend on it!
For more information about marriage equality and to sign a petiion supporting the right of homosexuals to marry, visit www.hrc.org/millionformarriage/index.shtml
The U.S. House of Representatives will soon have the chance to protect our national forests with two upcoming forests votes.
One vote will protect Alaska's Tongass Rainforest and stop fiscally irresponsible spending by prohibiting taxpayer dollars from being wasted on new logging roads in the Tongass National Forest. For decades, American taxpayers have been forced to subsidize clearcut logging in the Tongass; in a single year, taxpayers spent $36 million on the Tongass logging program and received only about $1 million in revenue.
The second vote, on the Forest Wildlife Conservation amendment, would conserve wildlife and ensure sustainable forest management.
Please take a moment to ask your U.S. Representative to protect our national forests and vote YES on the Tongass amendment and the Forest Wildlife Conservation amendment. Then ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.
To take action, click on this link: pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=695&id4=ES
Background
One vote will protect Alaska's Tongass Rainforest and stop fiscally irresponsible spending by prohibiting taxpayer dollars from being wasted on new logging roads in the Tongass National Forest. For decades, American taxpayers have been forced to subsidize clearcut logging in the Tongass; in a single year, taxpayers spent $36 million on the Tongass logging program and received only about $1 million in revenue.
The second vote, on the Forest Wildlife Conservation amendment, would conserve wildlife and ensure sustainable forest management.
Please take a moment to ask your U.S. Representative to protect our national forests and vote YES on the Tongass amendment and the Forest Wildlife Conservation amendment. Then ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.
To take action, click on this link: pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=695&id4=ES
Background
Last month, over 800 people asked their Senators to prevent the U.S. Department of Energy from shirking its responsibilities for cleaning up its nuclear waste sites. The Department of Energy wants to cover the sites with cement and abandon the nuclear waste in aging, leaking tanks, turning nuclear waste sites that should be cleaned up into radioactive waste dumps.
Now we've started an online petition that will be sent to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner asking them to drop this proposal because it would threaten our water with severe contamination and hamper radioactive cleanup throughout the country.
Please take a moment to sign this online petition and make sure nuclear waste is properly cleaned up. Then, ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.
To take action, click on this link: pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=181&id4=OHFreep
Background
Now we've started an online petition that will be sent to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner asking them to drop this proposal because it would threaten our water with severe contamination and hamper radioactive cleanup throughout the country.
Please take a moment to sign this online petition and make sure nuclear waste is properly cleaned up. Then, ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.
To take action, click on this link: pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=181&id4=OHFreep
Background
Please take a moment to register your concern for protecting the Big Darby Creek, a national scenic waterway. It is a treasure of our natural landscape threatened by unplanned urban development.
#9 Most Endangered: Big Darby Creek (from AmRivers Action Center)
Your voice is needed to protect Big Darby Creek from the impacts of sprawling development around Columbus, Ohio!
Despite its close proximity to Columbus, Big Darby Creek – one of our nation’s “Scenic Rivers” – has managed to escape many impacts of urban sprawl. That may be about to change. Unless state and local governments adopt and enforce river-conscious land use planning in the Big Darby watershed, one of the highest quality streams left in the Midwest may become just another polluted, flood-prone urban ditch.
Take action and tell the Ohio EPA to insist on adequate stream quality protection measures. Ask them to set aside more of the watershed’s land in its natural state and insist on “low impact development” techniques to minimize stormwater runoff to the Big Darby. Send your letter today!
Conservation Partners: Big Darby Creek Association, The Nature Conservancy
#9 Most Endangered: Big Darby Creek (from AmRivers Action Center)
Your voice is needed to protect Big Darby Creek from the impacts of sprawling development around Columbus, Ohio!
Despite its close proximity to Columbus, Big Darby Creek – one of our nation’s “Scenic Rivers” – has managed to escape many impacts of urban sprawl. That may be about to change. Unless state and local governments adopt and enforce river-conscious land use planning in the Big Darby watershed, one of the highest quality streams left in the Midwest may become just another polluted, flood-prone urban ditch.
Take action and tell the Ohio EPA to insist on adequate stream quality protection measures. Ask them to set aside more of the watershed’s land in its natural state and insist on “low impact development” techniques to minimize stormwater runoff to the Big Darby. Send your letter today!
Conservation Partners: Big Darby Creek Association, The Nature Conservancy
Fighting Back
Looking for a simple and creative way to fight back? Here is one: http://www.freewayblogger.com/. Don't just get mad - do something!
Take action today together with The Center For Constitutional Rights, Greenpeace International, the Center for Economic and Social Rights and Peacerights to ensure the accountability of persons responsible for war crimes against the Iraqi people. International humanitarian law requires that warring parties not indiscriminately attack civilians or the infrastructure on which they depend to live. Likewise, attacks designed to spread terror amongst civilians are not permitted
Today the US, UK and other forces launched a massive air strike against Iraq as part of the US military plan, "shock and awe." In the first 48 hours of this attack some 3,000 precision-guided missiles will be fired at or near Baghdad, a densely populated city of 5.6 million. In Afghanistan, these weapons had a maximum success rate of 85%, indicating that at least some 200 missiles will miss their targets daily and result in the indiscriminate deaths of innocent civilians.
These tactics are illegal under the Geneva Convention as well as under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Today the US, UK and other forces launched a massive air strike against Iraq as part of the US military plan, "shock and awe." In the first 48 hours of this attack some 3,000 precision-guided missiles will be fired at or near Baghdad, a densely populated city of 5.6 million. In Afghanistan, these weapons had a maximum success rate of 85%, indicating that at least some 200 missiles will miss their targets daily and result in the indiscriminate deaths of innocent civilians.
These tactics are illegal under the Geneva Convention as well as under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Ashraf Al-Jailani is a Yemeni-born permanent legal resident of the
United States. Al-Jailani married Michele Swensen, an American, in
February 1996. They have three children, now ages 3 (Sami, who will
be 4 on June 17), 5 (Layla,), and 7 (Amina). On October 23, 2002,
Al-Jailani was arrested at his job, the Akron-based GOJO Industries'
Cuyahoga Falls "soap-manufacturing plant where he'd worked as a
quality-control chemist for more than two years" (Tiffani
Helberg/Ohio News Network, "Wife Still Fights for Muslim Man's
Justice," Columbus Dispatch, February 25, 2004, p. C5), on the
pretext that "the appeal of a deportation order stemming from a
domestic violence incident almost three years earlier had been
denied," using the 1996 Immigration Act, even though "al-Jailani had
been pardoned by Ohio Gov. Robert Taft in 2001 (Lauri Lebo, "Yemeni
Man Still in York Jail; For Second Time, Judge Orders Man Out on
Bail; Appeal Pending," York Dispatch, December 10, 2003). Five
minutes later, six FBI agents showed up at Al-Jailani and Swensen's
house to search it, saying that they found Al-Jailani's business card
in the wallet of a suspected Al-Qaeda money launderer.