Action Alerts 7/30/05 from Liberty Belle

[Liberty Belle]

ACTION ALERTS

Please DU as many of possible, kick, and forward these to others. Thanks!

REP. LEE INTRODUCES RESOLUTION OF INQUIRY INTO DOWNING STREET MINUTES: ASK CONGRESS TO SUPPORT!
(From the After Downing Street Coalition)
Congresswoman Barbara Lee (Dem., Calif.) has introduced - along with 26 co-sponsors - a Resolution of Inquiry in the House of Representatives which, if passed, will require the White House and the State Department to "transmit all information relating to communication with officials of the United Kingdom between January 1, 2002, and October 16, 2002, relating to the policy of the United States with respect to Iraq."

The text of the Resolution, a list of current co-sponsors, a list of the relevant committee members are here:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/902

The resolution is expected to be referred to the House International Relations Committee. The Republicans who control the committee will be required to take it up by September 16th.

The more Congress Members in the full House who co-sponsor the resolution, the more likely committee members are to vote for it. Ask your Member to support the Resolution:
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/50

Committee members should be asked not only to vote for it but to discuss it at length and engage in a substantive debate when the committee meets, so that members who oppose it have to give reasons.

This Resolution is important because the information in the Downing Street Documents so strongly suggests that President Bush intentionally deceived Congress about the reasons for war. If that is not the case, then releasing the documents requested here will clear that up – something the President should be eager to do.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/902

SAVE THE SUPREME COURT: OPPOSE ROBERTS NOMIONATION ((From People for the American Way)
As the nomination of John Roberts for the Supreme Court inches closer to confirmation hearings, many unanswered questions about the President's nominee remain. The Bush White House is refusing to give the Senate Roberts’ papers from his tenure as a Deputy Solicitor General during the Bush “41” Administration. The American people deserve more information about where Judge Roberts stands on critical issues.
PETITION THE SENATE: Don't let the White House stonewall
http://petition.savethecourt.org/ft/


HELP FIGHT TOXIC MERCURY POLLITION: SEND FLAWED RULES BACK
(From Environmental Defense)

In March, the EPA announced deeply flawed rules on toxic mercury pollution. The rules allow levels of mercury to increase in the Western U.S., a big step in the wrong direction. Mercury is highly toxic to everyone, but particularly to children and developing fetuses. Send the rules back! A bipartisan resolution in the Senate would send them back to the drawing board. Email your senators.
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/mercury_rules/8k73ser25t88nk?

HELP SAVE ALASKA’S WILD TONGASS RAINFOREST (From Biogems News)
The Bush administration, after rolling back crucial restrictions on logging and roadbuilding in our national forests earlier this year, is plowing ahead with dozens of huge timber sales in the wild reaches of Alaska's Tongass National Forest. One of these proposed sales would devastate parts of Port Houghton -- the largest unbroken tract of unprotected old-growth forest left in the Tongass. Bald eagles nest along the shoreline, while black bears and wolves roam undisturbed among cedar, hemlock and towering 500-year-old spruce trees. Thriving populations of salmon and trout fill miles of local streams.
» Tell the Forest Service to halt any plans to build roads or cut down trees in the Port Houghton area.
http://www.savebiogems.org/tongass/takeaction.asp

HELP PROTECT MONTANA'S ROCKY MOUNTAIN FRONT

The Forest Service is poised to choose among five possible plans that will set rules for off-road vehicle use and other travel in Montana's spectacular Rocky Mountain Front for the next 10 to 15 years. Of these proposals, only one includes the restrictions necessary to protect the region's sensitive wildlife habitat areas from noisy and polluting snowmobiles, motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles. The Front, a 100-mile-long ridge of granite cliffs overlooking the Great Plains, is a key migratory route linking America's largest herd of bighorn sheep, as well as grizzly bears, elk and wolves, to the vast ranges of the Canadian Rockies.

» Urge the Forest Service to adopt a plan that protects the Rocky Mountain Front's wildlife and stunning landscapes.
http://www.savebiogems.org/yellowstone/takeaction.asp

TELL CONGRESS THE PRESIDENT HAS NO RIGHT OF TORTURE

There is a strong bipartisan move afoot in Congress to limit the power of the president to torture detainees in our name, specifically to bar the U.S. Military from engaging in "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment". Does it surprise anyone that this out of control administration is threatening to VETO the whole defense bill if can't continue to commit war crimes? If we do not speak out they are our crimes as well. Why don't you tell your members of Congress to stand tall and stand together?

http://www.usalone.com/guantanamo.htm

This is especially meaningful in the context of the hearings Friday where seasoned intelligence operatives stepped forward to testify that GOOD intelligence comes from building relationships over decades with foreign sources on a TRUST basis, not by pulling off the people's fingernails. It is precisely the rest of the world's confidence in our intelligence agencies that the outing by administration officials of one of our own top secret undercover agents has so wantonly destroyed for petty political purposes. And they did it AGAIN by outing a key inside source whose information would have prevented the recent British transit attacks. We are getting bad intelligence from administration policies that are doing nothing but destroy our country and our respect in the civilized world. Please tell Congress to demand that the torture must STOP.

http://www.usalone.com/guantanamo.htm


HELP SHAPE THE DEBATE ON SOCIAL SECURITY (From Sojourners)
The discussion about Social Security raises fundamental moral questions about government and the common good; about how we honor commands to "Honor your father and your mother" and care for those in need.
The current focus on privatization in the Social Security debate is too narrow. Private accounts gamble with Social Security's basic guarantee. They threaten the safety net for too many, cut benefits, and do not address the coming Social Security shortfall or extend the program's solvency. This affects us all. YOU can help protect the guarantee.
»Click here to sign our petition.
http://go.sojo.net/campaign/commongood/w87n8un4z558n8k?

ASK YOUR CALIFORNIA LEGISLATOR TO SUPPORT SB 600

Toxic chemicals from pesticides, flame retardants and industrial chemicals are building up in our bodies causing brain damage, reproductive defects, obesity, cancers, and other health problems and diseases.

To eliminate these threats to our health, Environment California is supporting SB 600, authored by Senators Deborah Ortiz (Sacramento) and Don Perata (East Bay). The bill would allow us to start tracking the toxic chemicals in our bodies so that we can use the information to begin reducing the toxic threats to our health.

Special interests like the chemical industry are working to make sure this legislation fails when it is next heard in the Assembly. Please take a moment to ask your assemblymember to support this important legislation. Then, ask your friends and family to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.

To take action, click on the link below or paste it into your Web
browser:
http://environmentcalifornia.org/envirocaliftoxics.asp?id=112&id4=ES


ACT NOW FOR FAIR & PROGERSSIVE TAXATION & NEEDED REVENUE (From Friends Committee on National Legislation)
What can the Senate leadership possibly be thinking? The Senate is expected to consider eliminating the estate and gift tax, a tax cut that would primarily benefit only the wealthiest few. And, they are considering this when:
· the federal debt is expected to keep growing as far as the eye can see;
· the Medicare trust fund is already facing huge deficits in the years ahead;
· programs that serve the poor and protect the environment are facing budget cuts;
· millions lack access to quality, affordable housing, health care, child care and nutrition; and
· the costs of the ongoing wars are continuing to mount.
The House already passed this unwise and unfair legislation in April (H.R. 8). Your voice is needed now to make sure the Senate does not make the same mistake.
Act Now Please contact your senators. Urge them to oppose repealing the estate and gift tax or any so-called "compromise" that would dramatically reduce estate and gift taxes for the wealthiest. Repealing this tax would be unwise and unfair, further shifting the tax burden from the wealthiest to working families.
FCNL makes it easy to contact your senators by allowing you to send a message directly from our web site. Be sure to personalize the sample letter to include your own views. You may also wish to describe how this tax cut would affect you and your community.
Background This is no time for Congress to be considering more tax cuts for the wealthiest.
· The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that the cost of repealing the estate and gift tax would be $290 billion between 2006 and 2015. However, the cost of repeal would increase sharply after 2012. From 2012 to 2021, the cost would be almost $1 trillion when additional interest on the national debt is factored in, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP).
· Repealing the estate tax would benefit only a very small number of very wealthy heirs – less than two percent. Today, estates valued at less than $1.5 million are not taxed at all ($3 million for a couple), and, by 2009, only the value of estates exceeding $3.5 million will be taxed ($7 million for a couple) according to CBPP.
· If the 2009 exemption level ($3.5 million for individuals and $7.0 million for couples) were made permanent, by 2011, only an estimated 8,500 estates would be subject to the tax, affecting the estates of only 0.3 percent of the number of people who are expected to die that year, according to the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center and CBPP. This exemption level is sufficient to exclude almost all small businesses and farms from any estate tax.
· The Congressional Budget Office estimates the federal debt will grow by $1 trillion over the next 10 years under current policies. Add the anticipated costs of additional tax cut extensions, correcting the alternative minimum tax, and the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the debt will grow $4.1 trillion by 2015, according to the CBPP.
· The Medicare Health Insurance trust fund paid out more than it received in tax revenues beginning in 2004, according to the Social Security Administration Trustees. Expenditures are expected to exceed revenues at an accelerating rate of growth as far as the eye can see unless Congress intervenes to raise revenues, cut benefits, or control costs. The Social Security trust fund faces a similar future about 15 years from now.
· In the recently enacted congressional budget resolution for fiscal year 2006 (FY06), Congress directed key authorizing committees to cut mandatory spending by $35 billion over the next five years. Food stamps and Medicaid, the health care program for the poor and elderly, are being threatened with cuts, despite the fact that millions of eligible poor still go hungry and lack quality, affordable health care.
· The FY06 budget resolution also calls for cutting funding for domestic discretionary programs in FY06 by $13 billion below last year’s levels (adjusted for inflation) and by a total of $158 billion between FY06 and FY10. According to the CBPP, pending FY06 appropriations bills would cut programs such as education for low-income children, community service block grants, low-income home energy assistance, job training, child care block grants, and state grants to enforce the Clean Air and Clean Water acts.
· Meanwhile, the U.S. has already spent more than $300 billion waging the "war on terror," the war in Iraq, and associated reconstruction and security measures. Congress has spent this money while at the same time cutting taxes deeply. Under even the most optimistic scenario, the future cost of the ongoing wars is likely to exceed another $150 billion to $200 billion, according to a House Budget Committee Democratic Staff study.
Where are fairness and compassion for the poor and most vulnerable in this? Where is the fiscal prudence? When will Congress stop deferring our country’s debts to future generations?
We at FCNL are concerned about the unprecedented disparity in income and wealth between the rich and the poor today. We believe that the wealthiest, those who have prospered the most from living in our society, have the greatest responsibility to contribute to the common good through a progressive tax structure. We also believe that Congress has a responsibility to assure that there is sufficient revenue to address pressing human needs and to meet social and environmental challenges at home and abroad.
The estate and gift tax advances each of these values. It is fair, and it provides much needed revenue. The value of most estates is well below the taxable threshold, and the vast majority of the tax is paid by a relatively few very wealthy estates.
This is no time for more tax cuts for the wealthiest. Repealing this tax would reflect poor stewardship of the public trust and the common good.
http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=7834906&type=CO