Stop the Navy's war on whales -- NRDC BioGems News, March 2014

HERE is the NRDC's BioGems news with 2 calls to action. One is a petition campaign calling on Pres Obama to take action to protect Utah's Greater Canyonlands. The other is a e mail letter campaign to Sec of Defense Hagel calling on him to order US Navy explosives and sonar testing be move out of areas heavily populated by whales, dolphins and other marine mammals to prevent the deaths of approximately 1000 whales alone. Watch the video by Pierce Brosnan and click the link to send your letter.

March 2014 NRDC Takes Navy to Court to Save Whales We've filed suit in federal court to stop a reckless Navy plan for training with sonar and explosives that could injure or kill thousands of marine mammals over the next five years. We’ve also launched a powerful online media campaign, led by Pierce Brosnan, to mobilize public pressure on the Navy to end its senseless assault on whales. BioGems Defenders have already sent more than 193,500 messages to Defense Secretary Hagel. Make your voice heard now. It's Time to Protect Utah's Greater Canyonlands Located in the heart of Utah's Redrock Wilderness, Greater Canyonlands is truly one of America's last wild places. Its vast expanse boasts stunning plateaus and canyons, archeological sites more than 10,000 years old and habitat for a diverse range of wildlife. This irreplaceable landscape is threatened by potash mining, oil and gas drilling and potential tar sands development. This past week, President Obama took a bold step for wildland protection by adding Point Arena-Stornetta Public Lands to the California Coastal National Monument. As the president continues to build his legacy on public lands, we are urging him to also permanently protect Greater Canyonlands. A Message from Pierce Brosnan Pierce Brosnan is committed to fighting a Navy training plan that could kill nearly 1,000 marine mammals. Judge Kills Keystone Route In a victory for landowners in Nebraska, a court has ruled that a state law which fast-tracked approval of the Keystone XL pipeline route in the state is unconstitutional. The court ruling is a major blow to TransCanada's plans to build Keystone through Nebraska. Learn more. Tufted Puffins in Peril NRDC is petitioning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the tufted puffin as an endangered species. In the last three decades, these football-sized seabirds -- which sport red bills and yellow tufts -- have seen their numbers along the Pacific coast plummet from more than 30,000 to fewer than 4,000. Learn more. Shell Oil Abandons Arctic Drilling 13,000 likes, shares and comments! Like us on Facebook for more popular content! We now have more than 1,000 YouTube subscribers and nearly 1 million views. Please subscribe here to get the very latest video updates. BioGems Defenders sent more than 100,000 messages, calling on President Obama to stop the Pebble Mine by directing the Environmental Protection Agency to use its authority under the Clean Water Act. Our voices have been heard! The EPA has just initiated that process.

#HelpVets Troops face devastating one-two punch 27FEB14

SOME people think they are supporting our troops by passing on sappy e mails that make them feel good or by thanking an active duty service person or military vet for their service. Well, neither does anything to put food in their and their family's mouth or provides the health care, education, job training and other benefits they deserve for their service to our country. Yet the same people who feign gratitude and concern for our troops and vets can't be bothered to challenge, to demand their Representative and Senators pass legislation and provide the funding for the support and programs our troops need. The cuts to food stamps / SNAP and subsidies to military commissaries coupled with the filibuster in the Senate of S1982 (Comprehensive Veterans Health and Benefits and Military Retirement Pay Restoration Act of 2014 ), reflect the hypocrisy of the gop and democrats and president regarding the support and welfare of our troops and vets. Failure of everyone who claims to support our troops to contact their Representative http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ and Senators http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm and Pres Obama http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact and demand better for our active duty military and our vets and less for the brass and military-industrial complex will expose their hypocrisy too. More at #HelpVets VETS BILL DIES IN SENATE, HOW YOUR SENATOR VOTED & With just 41 votes, Republican senators block veterans benefits bill 27FEB14 ( http://bucknacktssordidtawdryblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/vets-bill-dies-in-senate-how-your.html )
Mark E Andersen for Daily Kos Labor

Military food stamp use

When you think of someone who receives food stamps you generally do not think of someone serving our nation in uniform as being a recipient of food stamps. Surely we pay our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines enough money each month to support a family. Well, the sad truth is that no, junior enlisted do not make enough money to support a family. Which is why so many military families qualify for food stamps and is also why food stamp use in Commissaries (a grocery store on post) have gone from $26.2 million in fiscal year 2006 to $103.6 million in 2013.

Some of the growth in soldiers' redemption of food stamps reflects the weak economic recovery, especially for spouses looking for jobs. In 2012, there was a 30% unemployment rate among spouses off active-duty military who were 18 to 24 years old, according to the Military Officers Association of America, which released the survey last week.

Cuts in the food stamp programs will only make things worse for many military families. But, that is not the worst part. Coupled with cuts in food stamp programs...

...the Defense Department subsidy [for commissaries] would drop from $1.4 billion annually to $400 million under a defense budget proposal the Obama administration plans to deliver to Congress next week, Pentagon officials announced Monday. The commissary cut will be accomplished not by eliminating any commissary locations, but by reducing the amount of savings over civilian markets that service members enjoy.

Talk about a double whammy. Congress makes cuts to benefits that junior enlisted troops need in order to feed their families and at the same time the DOD is cutting one billion dollars from the commissaries budget. Which puts many young military families at risk. It never ceases to amaze me; our government blows billions of dollars on weapons systems that don’t work and that we don’t need – yet we expect these young men and women to put their lives on the line day in and day out and we pay them so little that they have to use food stamps to make ends meet and to top it all off we whittle away at the benefits they receive costing them even more money that they do not have.
Instead of the Pentagon pissing away more money on an aircraft carrier, fighter jet, or some other weapons system we don’t need, how about making sure the young men and women who put their lives on the line every day are adequately cared for.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/02/27/1280110/-Troops-face-devastating-one-two-punch?detail=email