Visualize what that large, 57% wedge would look like if the USA paid for weapons systems that the Defense Department actually wanted or needed.
Tell Sen. Boxer: Don't Weaken Critical Environmental Law
Fracking on BLM land. Uranium mine waste in California. Excessive military flyovers of Joshua Tree National Park. These are just a few examples of environmental hazards kept in check by the National Environmental Policy Act. Take action here!
Sen. Boxer has been an environmental champion for decades, fighting damaging offshore oil drilling and protecting California’s coastal resources. But this move to weaken the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is extremely concerning. It’s not too late for Sen. Boxer to stand with the environment and strike these damaging measures, but she needs to hear from you right away.
Fracking on BLM land. Uranium mine waste in California. Excessive military flyovers of Joshua Tree National Park. These are just a few examples of environmental hazards kept in check by the environmental review process provided by NEPA.
Environmental reviews are a critical safeguard provided for by NEPA. That’s why it’s so troubling for Sen. Boxer to back provisions that undermine the environmental review process. Sections 2032 and 2033 of the Water Resources Development Act of 2013 (S.601) would do just that, unless Sen. Boxer strikes those dangerous sections from the bill.
Tell Sen. Boxer: Don’t weaken the environmental review process provided by NEPA. Strike sections 2032 and 2033 from the Water Resources Development Act now.
Here are a few ways in which these provisions would substantially weaken NEPA:
- The process is tilted toward project approval, no matter what the objections or who is making them. The appeals are allowed only for those favoring, not opposing the project. The thumb is on the scale to approve every project, good or bad.
- The time for agencies and the public to comment on federal projects is shortened.
- The agency carrying out a project – in this bill, the Army Corps of Engineers – could fine other federal agencies for being too slow in submitting comments. This creates an incentive to rush environmental analyses.
Sen. Boxer voted 100% for the environment last year and she has a lifetime score of 90% from the League of Conservation Voters. It’s not too late for her to strike the provisions and continue her strong record of environmental leadership. Urge Sen. Boxer to protect the environment and stop this effort to weaken NEPA. Send your message now.
But the point of hiring Baucus’s former aides isn’t that they can seamlessly insert any language they want into the final legislation. It’s that they have a direct line to Baucus, and to the people around Baucus, and that gives them a huge advantage. The fact is that human beings are more likely to find arguments convincing when they’re coming from friends rather than strangers or enemies.
That’s the key to most of the lobbying in Washington. It’s not about leveraging bribes so much as it’s about leveraging relationships — and that makes it harder to stamp out.
Remember, Baucus is the real man who brought you Obamacare.
Happy Frankenholiday
Cut the plane that ate the budget!
The F-35 program is the most expensive and least effective weapons system in history. The total lifetime cost of the F-35 program is $1.5 trillion—making it equal to the entire 10 years of cuts mandated by the sequester.
The F-35 program has been grounded twice and has a history of being overdue and over-budget. Why should we continue to throw money at outdated and ineffective weapons systems like the F-35 while cutting vital social programs instead?
Email your members of Congress today—remind them that there are some easy ways to eliminate waste without cutting programs that create real security.
Now this is getting interesting.
Running out of money before the end of the year is something we’re trying to avoid
Special insurance program for the sick suspends enrollment | Yahoo! Health
Why are they doing it?
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a notice on Friday saying it would suspend new enrollments beginning on Saturday to “help ensure that funds are available through 2013 to continuously cover people currently enrolled in PCIP.”
“The program has a limited amount of funding from Congress,” the notice added.
…Congress….
Guns will protect ewe from tearaney, but only so mutch.
Every time Senate Republicans delay a vote, filibuster a bill, or stop the confirmation of a nominee it will happen because Democrats chose to abdicate their Constitutionally prescribed power.
Senate Democrats are so scared of being held responsible that they effectively decided they would prefer to continue playing a majority party on TV than actually be one in real life.
It is possible that there is another political caucus in the democratic world somewhere that is even so pathetic and cowardly that it would actually needlessly give up almost all of its governing power after winning an election, but I have never heard of one.
Senate Democrats Really Don’t Want to Govern | FDL Action
And another thing: some one needs to tell Chris Bowers, the Campaign Director at Daily Kos, that you can’t change much while you’re sucking Harry Reid’s toes.
Our farmers want nothing to do with Monsanto,” declared Maine certified organic seed farmer, Jim Gerritsen, President of lead Plaintiff Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association.
“We are not customers of Monsanto. We don’t want their seed. We don’t want their gene-spliced technology. We don’t want their trespass onto our farms. We don’t want their contamination of our crops. We don’t want to have to defend ourselves from aggressive assertions of patent infringement because Monsanto refuses to keep their pollution on their side of the fence. We want justice.
How does Monsanto keep moving in the face of this kind of opposition? They pay for it.
