President Obama: Just say NO to Keystone XL

I hope that President Barack Obama sees this tweet from @PoppaWillie, thinks about it hard and fast, THEN says NO to the Keystone XL Pipeline.

John Boehner has at least 100k Investment in KXL. pic.twitter.com/qBKKSGL8kD
— Poppa/Willie (@PoppaWillie) February 19, 2014

Congress Moves to Fast Track TPP, Threatening Human Health and Environment

More info on Fast Track and the TPP -- very undemocratic legislation and as for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Deal it is NOT a good deal for most Americans. We will bleed more jobs and flush our trade deficit deeper down the toilet. WHY is Barack Obama supporting it?!!?? Call 202-456-1111 to complain -- and call your Congressmembers. As Ed Schultz of @WeGotEd said, "Not a single trade deal in the last 40 years has benefitted US workers."

Read this: Congress Moves to Fast Track TPP, Threatening Human Health and Environment

Van Jones Reacts to Keystone XL Report

MUST WATCH -- "The Obama Tar Sands Pipeline should not be the legacy of a President who gave that speech," says Van Jones. Canadians have blocked the dirty corrosive tar sands route west. A Canadian company wants to threaten US environment offering a few temporary jobs so they can sell the oil to China. Meanwhile the State Dept. lies about the possible impact. This is so wrong!! ~ h/t to Toni DiPego of Proligarchy.com blog for link.

Organizing for America 11-04-12

Organizing for America 11-04-12
Originally uploaded by Kate Anne

I was happy to join with other volunteers to make calls to Ohio in support of President Obama and Senator Sherrod Brown. Tony Smolenski (seen here with me) was one of the energetic organizers. I was so impressed with Tony and his great team. I truly enjoyed calling and spoke with some great folks. The photo here is from my Sunday stint at the Long Island City, NY, office but I worked about 8.5 hours (following voting in Sunnyside, which took over 70 minutes -- a record!) on Election Day. See Election Day Flickr photos.

Stay Away From Social Security

President Barack Obama needs to echo strongly this winning message given so aptly by Vermont (and America's) Senator Bernie Sanders on Eliot Spitzer's show. Tax breaks to the wealthy don't help the American economy nor the American people. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid: these help We the People who need help. Let's be a WE Society, not a ME Society.

 

President Obama: Ditch the Keystone XL Pipeline

Join me in writing the President to say NO to the Keystone XL Pipeline. Call him at 202-456-1111 AND Write him at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact.

Learn more at http://www.tarsandsaction.org/ BUT this is what I wrote:

Truly green CLEAN energy (NOT coal which is NOT clean nor green as it damages the environment) must be the focus -- NOT the Keystone XL pipeline which is an environmental disaster. Dirty heavy oil whose pipeline could leak and whose building would destroy forests and threaten CLEAN water could mean "GAME OVER", says one leading environmentalist. PLEASE REMEMBER YOUR PROMISES. Say NO to the Keystone Pipeline!!!

We need GREEN jobs, not LIFE-DESTROYING jobs. Please put the emphasis on truly green energy.

Please keep me apprised.

Most sincerely,
Kate Anne

THANKS!!

Thom Hartmann & Robert Reich: Ransom Paid...

Thom Hartmann elicits more insight from Robert Reich on President Obama and the GOP debt ceiling fiasco.

Open Message to President Barack Obama

President Obama -- This talk about your willingness to weaken important social programs like Social Security and Medicare to placate crazed Republicans is frightening! Shared Sacrifice means the WEALTHY people and corporations who benefited from the things that hurt our economy should be paying because, as Senator Bernie Sanders says, the rest of us already have. The GOP don't believe the wealthy need to share. Demand differently and stand firm for We the People.

[Change we CANNOT believe in.]

The above was left at the WhiteHouse.gov/contact page. Join me in leaving YOUR thoughts there as well as calling the White House comment line: 202-456-1111.

Petition / Letter - Shared Sacrifice: U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT)

America's Senator Bernie Sanders has followed up his hour and a half Senate Speech with a Letter to the President which YOU can sign. Join 98,464 others [current signature tally] and tell the President that we want TRUE Shared Sacrifice. Do not give in to Republican terrorism. Stand firm for the 90% of Americans who are NOT making it in today's economy. Furthermore, in Bernie's words:

...Mr. President, please listen to the overwhelming majority of the American people who believe that deficit reduction must be about shared sacrifice. The wealthiest Americans and the most profitable corporations in this country must pay their fair share. At least 50 percent of any deficit reduction package must come from revenue raised by ending tax breaks for the wealthy and eliminating tax loopholes that benefit large, profitable corporations and Wall Street financial institutions. A sensible deficit reduction package must also include significant cuts to unnecessary and wasteful Pentagon spending....Now is the time to stand with the tens of millions of Americans who are struggling to survive economically, not with the millionaires and billionaires who have never had it so good.

It is much easier to sign a Letter to the President then to have to hit the streets if the GOP have their way and massacre our 20th century Social Programs legacy.

Please at least READ THE WHOLE LETTER -- and if it speaks to your heart, sign it.

Thank you.

Open Note to President Obama re Economy and Budget Cuts

Note to President Obama re the Economy and Budget cuts:

I am outraged at the cuts to social programs while the wealthy and corporations get tax cuts -- WE get the pain THEY get the gain -- UNFAIR.

Are YOU the President of ALL of us -- or just the wealthy? We the People demand MORE benefits: salary, social programs, education, healthcare. Prove you are the man we voted for and earn our continued support. We the People have given more than enough. Get the money from the wealthy, the corporations and the bloated military spending [who caused the problem in the first place].

Join me in raising your voice leave a message and/or call the White House Comment Line: 202-456-1111.

Olbermann Speaks to Obama for Me

Keith Olbermann speaks for me in his Tuesday night comment. That is it in a nutshell but I have also left this msg at WhiteHouse.gov/contact:

NO DEAL -- I do NOT want a tax decrease at the expense of going so far into debt. I want to fund my and everyone's social security directly. I am tired of giving more and more money to people who do NOT need it. (Especially when we have to BORROW to give it to them, thanks to these terrible wars you still support.) Your capitulation to the GOP Bush tax extension demands is outrageous. We're getting too little for too much.

STOP this DEAL NOW!!

Call your Congressional Representative and Senators and tell them that you agree with Keith. The Congressional switchboard number is 202-224-3121.

(And why doesn't the President save his sarcasm for the Republicans?)

Said on the White House Contact Page - Taxes

Left on the White House Contact page, under policy issue - Taxes:

Extending the unfunded Bush tax cuts to the rich people who don't need it while talking about freezing middle class working people's wages is an OUTRAGE. We NEED the Middle Class. They did not cause the economic crisis.

Listen to Dr. Howard Dean -- hear what he said on Rachel Maddow Monday night. Listen to the POLLS. People don't want to extend tax cuts past the first $250,000 in income.

We need a strong White House who tells the truth and sticks up for WE the PEOPLE rather than seeking to please Republicans who only want to please the rich and powerful and make YOU a one term president. Please stand up for the other 98%. Be Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We need FDR and stimulus to the REST of us.

Open Message To President Barack Hoover Obama

The following message was left at the WhiteHouse.gov contact page for President Barack H. Obama -- and I am sad to say that the H is for Hoover, as in Barack Hoover Obama:

Have you become a Hoover Republican? The budget freeze is an absolute mistake which will make the registered Republicans and the Blue Dogs very happy and will do awful things to your legacy. I am supposed to be your base and you have totally deserted the issues I care about: true peace, economic justice, restoration of our democracy (cancelling the unpatriotic PATRIOT Act, ending torture, getting rid of Bush league government lawyers), and last but not least: REAL healthcare for all -- single payer (or at least a public option).

Enough. When are you going to give us the Change we can BELIEVE in -- and NOT this awful Bill-Clinton-like middle-ground mess? They call you a socialist anyway, give them (and me) THAT vision. Some socialistic problems that help everyone, not just the wealthy elite. THEN, I will thank you.

I've asked for a response. Let's see if I get one.

Writing the White House On-Line

Not getting through on the White House Comment Line -- 202-456-1111, I've called through the White House line: 202-456-1414 and have been transferred. BUT, I also urge people to WRITE a progressive message at the WhiteHouse.gov comment page. I left THIS comment:

Be a Roosevelt -- NOT a Clinton.

People before Profits -- any healthcare reform must NOT benefit the greedy insurance industry. We need Single Payer -- an expanded improved Medicare for All, or at least all who WANT it. The only compromise is an affordable comprehensive STRONG Public Option WITHOUT the need for extra insurance polices.

NOTE: Any healthcare reform without at least a strong public option is UNACCEPTABLE.

Basic healthcare should NOT be a matter of profit but available to ALL.

DO NOT BETRAY YOUR BASE

I pray God that President Obama gets the message and speaks to this next Wednesday.

NYT Quotation of the Day: Obama on Executive Pay

"We don’t begrudge anybody for achieving success. And we believe that success should be rewarded. But what gets people upset — and rightfully so — are executives being rewarded for failure. Especially when those rewards are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers."
--PRESIDENT OBAMA

New York Times Quotation of the Day

Gene Robinson's Prayer Kicks off Inaugural Events

This wasn't shown on HBO so we, the uncabled, didn't miss it. Thank God and some tech-savy folk for YouTube and the person who taped this from the front of the Sunday concert: Bishop Gene Robinson's Prayer.

Tell Barack OUR vision

Please read Heather Wokusch's piece at CommonDreams.org: You're Scaring Me, Obama: Let the Bush Years Die (also found at her own site) and then follow her lead and TELL BARACK AND HIS TEAM OUR VISION at Change.gov. Yes, Barack's made some appointments I am not thrilled about, but perhaps he has read his team the riot act about the need to follow OUR vision.

I'm all for staying positive, like Code Pink, who has admitted to being part of the fake New York Times episode. Now they are pushing all sorts of POSITIVE Actions relegating War to the Dustbin of History.

The nay sayers on both sides are out there pushing their negativity. WE SAY, "Yes, we can!" Let's push for our positive vision of the U.S. and the World, TELL OBAMA our VISION, and MAKE HIM DO IT!!! Thanks for YOUR help.

Tasini: We Have Plenty of Money. The Rich are Killing Us

Jonathan Tasini posted an excellent article with a terrific related memo at WorkingLife.org

This is one of those moments when I feel like I live in la-la land. It's possible that I am insane, stark-raving mad and delusional. Either that or there is a staggering moral obscenity underway in our country. We have plenty of money to fund what needs to be done--but our political leaders, on both sides of the aisle, seem unwilling to go where the money is: the rich. I know where Republicans stand on this issue. But, where in the hell is the Democratic Party? MORE

In essence, Jonathan backs up Thom Hartmann's contention that we should roll back the REAGAN tax cuts. "We have plenty of money," indeed. And as Jonathan adds, "We can either have the rich pay—or borrow from the Chinese. It’s a choice." It is an obvious choice. Please spread this message and hope others are smart enough to join in using the frame, "We have plenty of money." Obama has a big road ahead and it is up to us to limit the roadblocks.

Erin go Barack!

Erin go Barack!
Originally uploaded by Kate Anne

Brent O'Leary and Irish American Democrats in New York City made calls on Tuesday night to Ohio Irish Americans in support of Barack Obama. We had some great conversations and sent blessings to our Ohio brethren.

Thirteen Cars?!?

Air America Radio mentioned today that Cindy and John McCain own 13 cars. Michelle and Barack Obama own one hybrid. They didn't ask it, but I will: now who calls whom the elitist?