We believe Senator Obama's voting record and public statements show a strong commitment to the environment, and we will try to get Senator Obama elected as the Next President of the United States because of it.
That is why we started EnvirObama. EnvirObama is a completely grassroots endeavor, initiated by a group of strangers who were brought together by their concern for the environment and the fact that they recognize that Barack Obama is the only candidate with enough visionary leadership to tackle the immense environmental challenges of the 21st century. EnvirObama was formed by members of Environmentalists for Obama to encourage voters, the media, and the 2008 presidential candidates to recognize the vital importance of addressing issues affecting our environment. We realize Senator Obama hasn’t addressed every environmental issue that plagues our world, and many of us even feel like he could do better in some areas, but despite our differences, each of us believes that he is willing to listen and make changes based on sound judgment, rather than special interests and party politics.
Want to know more? Please visit www.envirobama.com now to find out more.
I want buy a mug in ofa store, but I have a problem: I live in Italy, so, I don't understand what I must do.. Can I pay with euro money? Can I buy something in ofa store? Can merchandise come here, in Italy?
Thanks to everybody!!!
I always liked Senator Clair McCaskill. fib
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I feel that I’m in an alternative universe. For eight years some people called anyone who disagreed with the President’s foreign policy or war in Iraq unpatriotic. Then in the course of two weeks, those same people cheer when the United States does not get selected for the Olympics and boo when our President is the unanimous choice for the Nobel Peace Prize. Go figure.
Congratulations Mr. President for standing up to the scorn and derision of your opponents in the election when you firmly stood for the proposition that strength meant being willing to talk to your enemies, not just your allies. Thank you for the confidence and wisdom to say that a hand will be extended when their fist is unclenched. And thank you for understanding that our national security rests on our principles, the example we set for the world, and our alliances along with the excellence and strength of our military, rather than exclusively the latter. God Bless America.
http://clairecmc.tumblr.com/post/208582433/the-twilight-zone
I notice that the entire site has problems. There is no access to blogs of ANY group.
Hope it is some re-organization. Below is an URL to Chris Hass. fib
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http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/group/OrganizingforHealthCareBlog
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I hope for all of us that the president's job, one day, will include mostly this sort of events. Wouldn't that be a wonderful and normal world? Peace!. fib
ps. Warning: the comments below are from the Earth. Educational, too.
After a three-hour meeting on Afghanistan, President Obama gets to have some fun tonight by stargazing with kids and astronauts.
It's Astronomy Night on the South Lawn, and our Oval colleague Traci Watson describes tonight's proceedings (as well as budget challenges facing NASA):
The president will spend this evening not curled up with briefing books but instead studying the heavens through telescopes. This "star party" on the White House lawn is meant to encourage kids to take an interest in science, and to that end Obama and the first lady have invited 150 local middle-school students to stargaze, too.
Unusually in Washington, Wednesday evening was shaping up to be crystal-clear and cloudless -- perfect for viewing the universe.
Much murkier is what's in store for any students who are inspired to become astronauts. In the next few weeks, Obama will have to decide whether to plow billions of extra dollars into NASA's budget. Without that infusion of cash, America's manned space program could not "continue in any meaningful way," according to a September report by space experts convened by the White House.
At the end of the star party, all 21 telescopes scattered across the backyard of the White House will be trained on the moon. That was where astronauts were headed in 2020 in the space plan announced by President Bush in 2004. Now Obama is rethinking that idea.
"We will certainly go back to the moon at some point," John Holdren, the president's science adviser, said as he toured the star party facilities a few hours before sunset. But he couldn't say when.
If Holdren wanted more expert advice, it was easily available. Also on hand for Obama's astronomy night was Sally Ride, the first U.S. woman in space and one of the experts who warned the administration that without significant new funding NASA's human space program is doomed to irrelevance.
Ride, who said she hadn't been at the White House for at least a decade, was enthusiastic about Obama's initiatives.
"There's not very much doubt about the value of science again" in this administration, she said
Ride, an astrophysicist, won't be the only one at the event who knows her way around a telescope. Amateur observers from the Washington area and professional astronomers will be operating the equipment for the first family and students.
Also on hand will be two high school teachers dressed as Galileo and Newton, operating replicas of the telescopes used by those early stargazers.
"We're either really cool or really crazy," said Dean Howarth, a teacher at McLean High School in McLean, Va., who gets to play Newton. "If we're not here this evening, it's because the people at the front gate wouldn't let us in.
(Posted by Traci Watson and David Jackson; photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais, The Associated Press)
Bay Area resident Jon Jarvis takes the helm as national parks director
10/7/09 By Paul Rogers - San Jose Mercury News
n 1976, when Jon Jarvis was just out of college, he took a temporary job with the National Park Service handing out maps about America's bicentennial celebration to tourists on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Across the 33 years since then he's been a park ranger and superintendent across the West. He's led hikes, held campfire talks, battled forest fires, made arrests, even rappelled down cliffs.
And now Jarvis, 56, a Bay Area resident, is heading back to Washington D.C. for his dream job — as President Obama's new national parks director.
Confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Sept. 24, the Pinole resident has worked since 2002 at the National Park Service's regional headquarters in Oakland, supervising all 54 national park units in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada and Hawaii.
A biologist by training, on Tuesday he said in an interview he plans to increase scientific research in national parks, extend their educational role to put more rangers in school classrooms and broaden the parks' appeal to America's growing ethnic populations.
Like many long-time national parks staff members, Jarvis was buoyed following last week's PBS broadcast of filmmaker Ken Burns' six-part, 12-hour series "The National Parks: America's Best Idea." Many parks advocates hope the series will inspire a renewed interest in parks and lead to public demand for funding increases and expansion of the system.
"National parks show us, as Wallace Stegner said, at our best rather than our worst," Jarvis said. "At times like this when the country is faced with a rancorous public debate and a tough economy, people turn to parks. They come to them for quiet and contemplation and family gatherings. I think we are in for great renaissance."
Conflicting mission
The challenges are daunting, however. From Yosemite to the Statue of Liberty to the Everglades, America's 391 national park units are beloved by the American public, yet face a myriad of problems and controversies.
After promising to eliminate a massive backlog of maintenance problems — from leaking museums to cracked roads and overgrown trails — the Bush administration left office with an $8 billion maintenance backlog in the national park system.
The park service's mission, dating back to its origin in 1916, is to preserve America's most spectacular natural heritage and to provide for public recreation. That goal continues to spark deeply felt conflicts. How many snowmobiles should be allowed in Yellowstone? How many helicopters over the Grand Canyon?
Jarvis will supervise 22,000 employees and a budget of $2.5 billion. As America's 18th national parks director, he is the face of the agency visited each year by 275 million people.
Environmentalists praised the selection of Jarvis, calling him a strong advocate for conservation and science in parks.
"We're elated that such a committed, knowledgeable individual has been chosen," said Ron Sundergill, Pacific region director of the National Parks Conservation Association, a advocacy group based in San Francisco. "The background he has is perfect for the job."
Long experience
A native of Virginia, Jarvis grew up hunting, fishing and hiking with his father and brother in Shenandoah Valley. He earned a degree in biology from William & Mary college in 1975, then drove across the country and camped in Yellowstone, Glacier and Olympic national parks.
After the short stint working on the National Mall, he became a ranger at various parks including Oregon's Crater Lake, a resources supervisor at North Cascades, and in the 1990s served as superintendent of Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho, then Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska and Mount Rainier National Park in Washington.
Jarvis, said Tuesday he would like to see the creation of at least two new park units. One would commemorate farm labor leader Cesar Chavez, and another, at Port Chicago near Martinez, would mark a 1944 Naval explosion that killed 320 people and led to racially charged mutiny trials for 50 sailors who refused to work in the dangerous conditions.
He said the issue of snowmobiles in Yellowstone, where after several lawsuits over noise and smog, there is a daily limit of 318, is "far from settled." And he said he'd like to see Yosemite Valley campsites destroyed in a 1997 flood rebuilt out of the valley, on Tioga Road and other locations, rather than in the valley along the sensitive Merced River.
"Unfortunately, the public's perception is that Yosemite is just the valley," he said. "There are plenty of opportunities to end up with a no-net loss of campgrounds."
Jarvis is one of several Northern California residents to take top jobs in the Obama administration this year, including Energy Secretary Steven Chu, CIA Director Leon Panetta and U.S.Geological Survey director Marcia McNutt.
10/5/09 by Jeff Mason - Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama ordered federal agencies on Monday to set a goal within 90 days for cutting their greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, the White House said, aiming to "lead by example" in fighting climate change.
The new executive order, signed by the president, mandates agencies across the federal government to "measure, manage, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions toward agency-defined targets," the White House said in a statement.
Other environmental measures such as reducing petroleum use in vehicle fleets by 30 percent by 2020, improving efficiency f water usage by 2020, and increasing rates of recycling by 2015 were also included in the order.
"The federal government can and should lead by example when it comes to creating innovative ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase energy efficiency, conserve water, reduce waste, and use environmentally-responsible products and technologies," Obama said in a statement.
Obama's international credentials on fighting climate change have been called into question as chances dim that the Senate will pass a bill mandating emissions cuts across the United States economy by December, when U.N. talks on a global warming treaty take place in Copenhagen.
The White House order may be intended to counter concerns about the president's climate change commitment.
The federal government is the largest consumer of energy in the U.S. economy, the statement noted, occupying nearly 500,000 buildings and operating more than 600,000 vehicles.
The order also calls on the government to "leverage federal purchasing power to promote environmentally-responsible products and technologies."
I assure you it is very difficult putting yourself in the shoes of someone with cerebral palsy. fib
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Video about history of the Associaition:
http://www.overstream.net/view.php?oid=ruarngm0uusx
Do you know that - Our Sweet Father God The Supreme Super Soul who is the Father of all Souls has a special place for each Souls Religions in the Soul World. God is The Creator of all the religions worldwide and all these Religions together are the leaves of that tree of life which all humanity belongs to. Every Religion is just a piece of the puzzle, and all Religions together = The Big Picture.
1) The Congressional Budget Office dealt Blue Dogs a blow Thursday by notifying House Democrats that tethering a public option to Medicare reimbursement rates would save the government $110 billion more than a public option in which the government has to negotiate rates with doctors and other health care providers.
The initial projections showed the difference between the two was $65 billion. But this shows it would cost the government a lot more money to heed moderate demands. House Democrats need to trim as much as $200 billion from a bill that most estimates peg at $1.1 trillion in order to meet President Obama's $900 billion target.
An actual robust public option saves money, and it's what the majority of constituents in districts like Rep. Mike Ross's district supports. Will Rep. Mike Ross actually listen to what the CBO says, or act like Senator Kent Conrad in dismissing the CBO's projections about the public option?
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR (AP) – 1 day ago
WASHINGTON — One of the most widely accepted arguments against a government medical plan for the middle class is that it would quash competition — just what private insurers seem to be doing themselves in many parts of the U.S.
Several studies show that in lots of places, one or two companies dominate the market. Critics say monopolistic conditions drive up premiums paid by employers and individuals.
For Democrats, the answer is a public plan that would compete with private insurers. Republicans see that as a government power grab. President Barack Obama looks to be trapped in the middle of an argument that could sink his effort to overhaul the health care system.
Even lawmakers opposed to a government plan have problems with the growing clout of the big private companies. "There is a serious problem with the lack of competition among insurers," said Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, one of the highest-cost states. "The impact on the consumer is significant."
Wellpoint Inc. accounted for 71 percent of the Maine market, while runner-up Aetna had a 12 percent share, according to a 2008 report by the American Medical Association.
Proponents of a government plan say it could restore a competitive balance and lead to lower costs. For one thing, it wouldn't have to turn a profit.
A study by the Urban Institute public policy center estimated that a public plan could save taxpayers from $224 billion to $400 billion over 10 years by lowering the cost of proposed subsidies for the uninsured, while preserving private coverage for most people.
"Right now, there's no incentive for insurers or big hospital groups to negotiate with each other, because they can pass higher payments on through premiums," said economist Linda Blumberg, co-author of the report.
"A public plan would have the leverage to set lower payment rates and get providers to participate at those rates."
"The private plans would come back to the providers and say, 'If you don't negotiate with me, you're going to be left with only the public plan.'" Blumberg continued. "Suddenly, you have a very strong economic incentive for them to negotiate."
Insurers contend their industry is extremely competitive, and a public plan is unnecessary. About 1,300 carriers operate across the country, although many only have a small share of the market in their states.
"You can have a very competitive market and still have companies with a high market share," said Alissa Fox, a top Washington lobbyist for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. Fox points to the federal employee health program, which also covers members of Congress. It offers a total of more than 260 options and 10 nationwide plans. Despite all the choices, about 60 percent of federal workers pick a Blue Cross plan. "Insurers need to be of a significant size to best serve their customers and make sure that people get the best value," Fox said.
Nonetheless, lawmakers are concerned. Big insurers are getting bigger. Small businesses in particular have fewer and fewer options for getting coverage.
Congressional investigators this year looked at insurers catering to small employers around the country. The Government Accountability Office found that the median _or midpoint — market share of largest carrier increased to 47 percent in 2008 from 33 percent in 2002.
There's widespread recognition among lawmakers that a health care overhaul should foster more competition among insurers. The debate is over how far to go.
The basic framework lawmakers are looking at would encourage competition, even without a government plan. It calls for setting up a big insurance purchasing pool called an exchange. It would be open, at least initially, to individuals and small businesses. The government would offer subsidies to make premiums more affordable.
Consumers would find it much easier to shop for a plan through the exchange. For one thing, they would be able to readily compare benefits and premiums in different plans. Also, participating insurers would have to take all applicants and not charge higher premiums to those in poor health.
Offering the option of a public plan would supercharge the competition, supporters say.
Blumberg envisions a plan that pays medical providers more than Medicare, but less than private insurance. Her study estimated it could grow to 47 million members, leaving 161 million with private insurance. Even so, that would make the new public plan one of the largest insurers in the country, rivaling Medicare, Medicaid and big private companies such as Wellpoint and UnitedHealthcare.
It's a scenario that gives pause even to traditional adversaries of the insurance companies.
"The fear and concern is that the public plan could become the market-dominant plan," said Dr. James Rohack, president of the American Medical Association. "When you've got the federal government involved, it can infuse money into a plan to keep it solvent even if the premiums are lower than its actual costs."
Snowe, among the few Republican senators still trying to come up with a bipartisan compromise, wants to hold back on creating a public plan for now and give insurers one last chance to show if they can keep costs in check.
That's doesn't go far enough for liberals, who are loath to give the insurance industry tens of millions of new customers supported by taxpayer subsidies.
"It would give the industry a windfall without any countervailing force to require them to lower their costs," said Richard Kirsch, national campaign manager for the advocacy group Health Care for America Now. "The insurance companies could continue to jack up premiums while getting a whole new market."
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press.
ref (1) http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/09/24/cbo-tells-blue-dogs-that-the-public-option-will-save/
ref( 2) http://www.slate.com/discuss/forums/thread/3148749.aspx
I cannot rest for the cry of these great agonies. ~ E.A.P.
Caring is the Key to Life - Healthcare for All ... Rob [bob-pol]
Our gracious leader is truly a Man of Peace who turns the other cheek, or he would have a few reasons to get angry.
A few examples over the past year -
Rob [bob-pol] racggg@gmail.com
END WAR ON DRUGS! BASTA. NO SOCIAL REFORMS WILL HELP AS LONG AS THIS GOES ON. fib
ps. as a recovering addict of alcoholic preference, i know how tough it has been to recover from my legal addiction. what hope am i going to offer to my active adict friends? this?! fib
Gunmen kill 10 at Mexico drug treatment center By ALICIA A. CALDWELL,
Associated Press Writer Alicia A. Caldwell,
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Gunmen burst into a drug treatment center in the northern Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez and shot to death 10 people, the second such mass killing this month.
Police say nine men and one woman were killed in the attack just before midnight Tuesday at the Anexo de Vida center in Mexico's most violent city. Two people were seriously wounded.
Enrique Torres, a spokesman for Chihuahua state police, said Wednesday the identities of the gunmen and the motive for the attack have not yet been established.
But officials have said in the past that drug gangs may be using treatment centers to recruit dealers, or may be targeting them to eliminate rivals.
Most of the victims are believed to have been recovering addicts staying at the facility.
"Why? Why them?" said Pilar Macias, weeping after she identified the body of her brother, Juan Carlos Macias, 39. "He was recovering, he wanted to get back on the right track and they didn't let him, they didn't give him a chance."
"This is going to kill my mother," Macias said. "She's very sick and this is going to kill her."
Macias said the mother had encouraged her son to enter the facility for treatment of his cocaine addiction three months ago.
Maria Hernandez also had come to the state prosecutor's office to identify the body of her 25-year son.
"He was good, he didn't hang out with gangs, he didn't have 'narco' friends," she said. "He just began with marijuana, and then ... they killed him."
Pools of dry blood and bloodied footprints were visible Wednesday in the courtyard of the drug and alcohol rehab center where the shooting occurred.
The center is located in a poor neighborhood with dirt streets, some of which were impassable due to recent rains.
On Sept. 2, gunmen lined patients against a wall at another rehabilitation center in Ciudad Juarez and then riddled them with bullets, killing 18.
Five men were killed at another rehabilitation center in June, and in August 2008, gunmen barged into a pastor's sermon at a rehabilitation center and opened fire, killing eight people. Authorities have not said if any of the attacks are related.
Ciudad Juarez has seen the worst of the nation's drug violence, with more than 1,300 deaths this year. The bloodshed has continued despite a buildup in troops since March.
Early Wednesday, gunmen burst into a bar in Ciudad Juarez and shot to death five men, police said. They said they knew of no motive for the attack.
Surging gang violence has claimed 13,500 lives since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006 and deployed extra soldiers across the country to fight cartels.
Also Wednesday, police in the southern state of Guerrero reported they had found the decomposed bodies of four men by the side of a highway. Because of their poor condition, the cause of death and identity of the bodies has not yet been established.
From an E-mail I received - from Harlem.
"Yes you are correct that this oponents have buried themselves in the past, but this Wilson Clown he is not Sorry for what he said at all, as you can see from looking at this clownish youtube video. As long as Obama stays on track and fights for what the people voted for him to fight for on. Republicans are still mad as well as most of the people from the Southern parts of USA. They can not get used to a black president. Get Over It Southerners!!!"
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/3489/towersa.jpg
SACRED LAND AND SACRED SOULS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snFyt4Kdhl4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdSJFHnbls0
GOD BLESS AMERICA'S BELOVED AND THEIR FAMILIES
A must see. fib
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http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php?name=Web_Links&l_op=visit&lid=152
"Without the drug war, America's most decimated neighborhoods would have a chance to recover. Working people could sit on stoops, misguided youths wouldn't look up to criminals as role models, our overflowing prisons could hold real criminals, and -- most important to us -- more police officers wouldn't have to die."
http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php
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Now, digg this:
http://digg.com/d312kVB
One cop straight out of The Wire crunches the numbers with Esquire.com's political columnist to discover that America's prohibition of narcotics may be costing more lives than Mexico's — and nearly enough dollars for universal health care. So why not repeal our drug laws? Because cops are making money off them, too.
This has been the fifth attack on a rehabilitaion center in Ciudad Juarez. fib
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Arrest over Mexican drug murders
A senior member of a Mexican drug cartel has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the murders of 17 people at a rehab centre, reports say.
Jose Rodolfo Escajeda, a suspected hitman and drug smuggler, was held in connection with the murders in the city of Juarez, near the border with Texas.
He has long been on wanted lists held by both the Mexican government and the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
Meanwhile, a state politician and his family were killed in Tabasco state.
The bodies of Jose Francisco Fuentes - a state congressional candidate - his wife and two young sons were found with many bullet wounds at their house in the state capital, Villahermosa, according to state Attorney General Rafael Gonzalez Lastra.
Authorities in the state have in recent days arrested gunmen suspected of working for Mexico's notorious Gulf drug cartel
Turf wars
According to Mexican media reports, Mr Escajeda was arrested by Mexican troops on Friday.
Thought to be a senior figure in the Juarez cartel, he is suspected of involvement in the attack last week in which gunmen stormed into a drug treatment clinic, lined patients up against a wall and killed at least 17 of them.
The BBC's Stephen Gibbs, in Mexico, says the attack shocked even the violence-weary residents of Ciudad Juarez, where there have been an average of 10 murders every day this year.
Juarez is the setting of a vicious turf war, principally between two gangs - the Juarez cartel, and the Sinaloa cartel, which is led by Mexico's most wanted man and reported billionaire, Joaquin Guzman.
The gangs are fighting for control of the local drug market, and smuggling routes into the United States.
About 1,400 people have died in Juarez's drug violence this year.
Thousands of extra police and troops have been deployed in Ciudad Juarez to try to stem the violence.
More than 13,000 people have been killed since the Mexican government ordered the military to take the offensive against the drug gangs in 2006.
Where: Outside AuH2O (84 E. 7th Street b/t 1st and 2nd aves)- Sidewalk Runway! When: Sunday, September 13, 5pm What: Models in Health Care Reform and Public Option shirts and dresses FREE Health Care Reform BUTTONS FREE Obama EARRINGS for the first 25 people!
There will also be a table where we will be handing out info on Obama's plan and why we're in favor of it. We'll provide information on how to call your senators and encourage them to vote for it, and we'll have a letter of support everyone is welcome to sign that we'll send to the President.
Models will be walking in AuH2O for Health Care Reform tops, which are hand stenciled and made from old clothing, as always. Shirts will be available for $20 and dresses will be $40, and the proceeds will go to paying my medical expenses and hopefully getting insurance in the future!
There will also be a live band and a DJ! The Curtana Veil, which is Ryan Kanterman, David Kaplan, and Chris Wall, will play a few songs (see this video of my favorite song) and Avi Flombaum will DJ the fashion show.
For more details, go to blog.auh2odesigns.com or email kate -at- auh2odesigns.com
