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

Make the TPP Public and DON'T Fast-Track it!

Sign the Letter to the Congress members and the President which FREE PRESS Action Fund is co-sponsoring with RootsAction.

 

These are MY comments:

 

As a constituent, I urge you to make the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership public and to block any proposal for fast-track authorization. If they Fast-Track it, please commit to voting NO, no matter how the corporate toadies whip you.

 

We need protections for our US citizens, for our internet and online activities AND we need to have our US jobs protected AND our environment protected AND our FOOD protected: NO GMOs.

 

Sounds like you should be SAY NO to the TPP and stick up for We the People and NOT just corporations.

 

BOTTOM LINE: We need FAIR trade, NOT "free" trade AND we NEED an economy that works for ALL of us. 

 

THANK YOU for keeping me apprised of your position on the TPP.

 

 

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End of my comments: ACT, too, NOW. PLEASE. THANKS

Open Letter to Hallmark Cards

Dear Hallmark --

What has happened to your Made in America / Made in the U.S.A. box cards? I find very few available for purchase at my neighborhood Hallmark Gold Crown store and that is one of the major reasons I choose to buy more expensive Hallmark cards. I want my purchases to benefit American workers not merely investors. I am ready to start sending holiday letters and/or handmade cards in lieu of Made in China cards. Why don't you make at least some American-made box cards for people who believe in America and American workers and want their Hallmark Cards to say Made in the USA?

Thank you.

Respectfully, Kate Anne <--blogging this and also posting this on Facebook Message left at http://hallmark.custhelp.com/app/ask
Write yourself, and/or call 1-800-HALLMARK (1-800-425-5627)

DeFazio on Postmaster General decision to close post offices

MUST LISTEN -- Love Oregon's Senator Peter DeFazio! He explains the Post Office mess AND reminds us to ACT. Especially those who have GOP legislators: tell them to get rid of the poison pill: no funding of PO pension funds 75 years into the future (no one else has to do that!) and return the current overpayment. Tell them to support of H.R. 1351. When will we act like the #1 we say we are?

Contact Speaker John Boehner re JOBS

Write Speaker John Boehner a simple note reminding him to remember the Republican promise to create more jobs. Easy to do, use the Speaker.gov/contact form. And follow up with a phone call to his office: 202-225-0600

This is what I wrote, a simple straightforward message:

Dear Speaker Boehner,

Republicans promised jobs, ran on it in 2010, and still we allow companies tax breaks for shipping jobs out of the country while more and more of us US citizens remain jobless. We need more good paying US jobs, not just McDonalds or Walmart jobs. HELP, Please introduce legislation that will promote middle class good paying jobs HERE in the USA. Things are getting desperate for lots of people and we do NOT want any riots in our streets. Maybe it is time for a US jobs program. (Our infrastructure needs a serious face lift, too.) Please remember your promise and provide JOBS.

Please keep me apprised.

Thank you and regards.

And thank YOU, for joining me in this important action.

IMPORTANT PS -- You might want to add environmentally FRIENDLY jobs. Speaker Boehner wants to pass some drill baby drill bill that will limit the EPA in protecting our environment. It will create jobs that produce environmental destruction: NOT a trade-off. "NO to that, Speaker Boehner -- if we're dead because of a terrible environment jobs won't matter."

Tax Day Protest, 2011

Tax Day Protest, 2011, a set on Flickr.

USuncut NYC was one of a number of groups at the steps of Farley Post Office (the historic main post office in NYC) greeting tax payers, reminding them they pay more taxes so Bank of America and other corporations like Exxon Mobil and GE can pay NONE. Here's a set of photos plus there is a short chanting video on YouTube.

"Who will it be, Congress? 16 Corporations or We the People?"

"I pay Taxes / I did NOT cause the Recession -- That is the difference between me and a corporation." Take 3:14 minutes to get inspired and ask your Congressmember: "Who will it be, Congress? 16 Corporations or We the People?" Congressional switchboard is 202-224-3121.

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.

DFA: The Deficit Commission Doesn't Speak for Me

Democracy for America has a petition up protesting The Deficit Commission a/k/a Cat Food Commission's initial findings on deficit reduction. Sign it. I did, and added these comments:

America is for all of us, not just the top-earning 1%. Social Security just needs to be tweaked - raise the cap - the money is there in government bonds. People deserve to retire in dignity. We need our America to have the good stuff the other countries have, including single payer healthcare and affordable education. Forget the wars and cut down on all those crazy military bases. Forget the empire. Re-establish the United States of America.

Chris Hayes: Strategic Mortgage Defaults - contracts are for...

Great reporting from The Nation's Chris L. Hayes and reason for follow-up: Wealthy people strategically walk away from underwater mortgages [when a homeowner owes more than the place is worth] but big banks want to force the rest of us to sink or swim in deep water and pay up so they can make money on OUR backs. "Contracts are for 'little people'." (When Chris is there, I don't miss Rachel Maddow quite so much. He does great stuff!)

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.

The Mexie and Bumble Bee Diet

There hasn't been a tasty tidbit in a while, but instead let's document the Mexie and Bumble Bee Diet. Went into the store to pick up Hershey miniatures and horror of horrors they are now made in MEXICO. Back on the shelf they went. Down with non-Hershey PA Hershey miniatures! Gotta call and/or write and complain! Join me: 800-468-1714 and The Hershey Company, Hershey Pennsylvania 17093-0815, USA. As for the Mexie Chocolates, let 'em rot on the shelves! Calorie count: ZERO.

Then went to make cold Catholic Special and found that Bumble Bee tuna now comes in 5 oz. cans, not six. That'll save a few calories! Though in truth in cold Catholic special the amount is not critical but NOTICED. Did they think we wouldn't?!?!

FYI, make Cold Catholic Special by tossing together your favorite cooked pasta (I used tri-color 100% semolina this time), the tuna, some chopped celery, some chopped (red) onion, Hellman's mayonnaise, some salt and pepper. Sprinkle with paprika and top with some hard boiled egg slices and some celery leaf to make it pretty if you are taking it somewhere: Not diet food but YUMMY and a Tasty Tidbit -- I haven't forgotten you, my foodie friends (Yes, YUMMY, as is HOT Catholic Special, but that's another post.)

Play and Feed: FreeRice.Com

Thom Hartmann was interviewing someone at the United Nations this week who mentioned a learning/food giving site associated with Poverty.com called aptly FreeRice.com. It is vocabulary building for child, student, adult, and senior, and it will automatically set and adjust your level by how you answer or you can manually adjust the settings.

You are given a word and four definitions. If you are correct, 20 grains of rice are donated by the sponsors whose banners are displayed. (You see the rice mount up.) There is a little speaker which will pronounce the word if you click it, helpful. (I've been mispronouncing or perhaps alternatively pronouncing some words: AARgh!) I keep a running list of missed words or words I want to check further. The FAQ says the highest level is 60 but most don't get past 50. So far my best level has been 48 -- but I've only been playing two days. More important, I've help donate over 4000 grains of rice! Beat me!

I've added a smaller button to my side bar for your/my ease when this post gets buried, but try it now:

Buy American Links

Thanks to Dorothy Morehead sending me this link to an MSNBC article on buying American products -- one of my favorite topics (and that of my cousin Jean and sister-in-law Becky), I have found a whole slew of new sites, including Stephanie's On My Mind blog associated with StillMadeInUSA.com. Good stuff to read and share with others. Check 'em out, and buy American when we can, please! It is for peace, it is for justice, it is for American security, it is for American jobs! Thanks!!