Do you know what's in your food? & Senator Merkley vs. Monsanto, Tell the Senate: Repeal the Monsanto Protection Act 22MAI13

WE have the right to know what is in our food. If there wasn't something wrong with GMO / GE food the industry wouldn't be fighting this bill in Congress. Even the prc and Russia (along with 60 other countries) require this labeling! Click the link to tell your Representative and Senators to pass the Boxer-DeFazio bill mandating genetically engineered labeling of our food. AND the monsanto protection act needs to be repealed. This should have never become law, and Sen Jeff Merkley D OR has introduced a bill to repeal this legislation, click the link below to tell your Senators to pass his bill! 

Do you know if the foods you’re eating contain ingredients that are genetically engineered? Right now, there is no law that says food containing genetically modified ingredients must be labeled. Consumers should have the right to know what is in their food, and make the decision about what food they want to buy for themselves. Join our friends at Food & Water Watch, and tell your members of Congress to support the Boxer-DeFazio bill to label genetically modified food. -- Gene Let's Label Genetically Engineered Foods Tell Your Members of Congress to Co-sponsor the Boxer-DeFazio bill! We deserve the right to know what's in our food. Send your members of Congress a message today! Can you feel it? The groundswell of grassroots support to label genetically engineered foods is overwhelming. Communities all over the country are coming together to force action on the state level, and Congress is taking notice. Ask your members of Congress to co-sponsor federal legislation to label GE foods! By now, you've probably heard about the "Monsanto Protection Act," a rider that was added to the budget bill needed to keep our government running. It seriously limits the ability of our federal agencies to protect consumers against harmful genetically engineered (GE) crops. Monsanto is never going to stop using its money to infringe on our right to safe, healthy food, but we can fight back by giving consumers critical information about what we're eating. Email your members of Congress to support the Boxer-DeFazio bill to label GE foods! It's critical that we win on GE labeling at the state level, and we're working hard with our partners on the ground to make that happen. At the same time, we need strong, uncompromising federal legislation to ultimately ensure that all Americans have the right to know what's in their food. Just as labels list fat, sodium and sugar, labels should tell consumers whether the food we eat contains GE ingredients. It just makes sense. Over 60 countries, including China, Japan and Russia, require GE foods to be labeled. Shouldn't we be next?  Take action to support federal legislation for GE labeling: http://act.foodandwaterwatch.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=749 Thanks for taking action, Sarah Alexander Deputy Organizing Director Food & Water Watch act(at)fwwatch(dot)org Tell the Senate: Repeal the Monsanto Protection Act The petition to your senators and Senate leadership reads: "The Monsanto Protection Act is an outrageous and dangerous giveaway that forces approval of genetically modified foods ahead of our safety. Please support Senator Merkley's amendment to repeal this shameful act of Congress." "One of the most outrageous special interest provisions in years." That’s what Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) calls the Monsanto Protection Act, which became law in March.1 Now we have an opportunity to stop it. Senator Merkley has proposed an amendment to the Senate Farm Bill that would repeal the Monsanto Protection Act – but it will take serious grassroots pressure to even make sure the amendment comes up for a vote. Tell the Senate: Repeal the Monsanto Protection Act. Click here to automatically sign the petition. Cynically dubbed the "Farmer Assurance Provision," the Monsanto Protection Act allows Monsanto and other companies to ignore existing food safety rules, and continue selling genetically modified seeds even if a court has blocked them from doing so. Even worse is how this shameful giveaway became law. It was inserted anonymously, and without review into the must-pass budget bill to avoid government shutdown in March. CNN said that "the law passed without most of Congress even knowing about it."2 Jon Stewart put it a different way: "The laws of the most powerful nation on earth are written with the same level of accountability as internet comments."3 Even from our dysfunctional Congress, this was stunning. Tell the Senate: Repeal the Monsanto Protection Act. Click here to automatically sign the petition. Our system of ensuring the safety of genetically modified foods is already insufficient, and wrought with industry influence. The FDA and USDA routinely approve foods without sufficient review, and often rely on shoddy industry-generated studies to determine the safety of GMO foods. The courts provide a vital check to allow us to challenge approvals that were conducted too hastily – as when federal courts found the USDA’s 2009 approval of Monsanto’s GMO sugar beets to have been based on an insufficient review. But the Monsanto Protection Act strips the courts of the power to halt seed sales, and actually compels the USDA to approve products whose approval the courts have challenged. It’s so outrageous, the USDA says the provision might not be enforceable.4 Now our legislators have an opportunity to undo this appalling act of putting special interests like Monsanto ahead of our health and the safety of our food. Urge the Senate to take action now: http://act.credoaction.com/go/675?t=5&akid=7959.179403.jF2AMC. Thanks for fighting industry influence in our food. Elijah Zarlin, Campaign Manager CREDO Action from Working Assets Learn more about this campaign 1. "'Monsanto Protection Act' Repeal Effort Officially Backed By Sen. Jeff Merkley," Huffington Post, 5/20/13 2. "Last Minute Legislation: Bad for Our Health," CNN, 3/29/13 3. "Jon Stewart explains the ‘Monsanto Protection Act’," Mother Nature Network, 4/12/13 4. "Group says Monsanto law skirts courts, requires approval of genetically engineered seeds," Politifact, 3/29/13

Many things are moving on Keystone XL from 350.org 14MAI12

HERE is an update on the fight against the keyston xl pipeline from 350.org

Dear Friends,
I haven’t written you about the Keystone Pipeline for several weeks, because I haven’t known quite what to say. But many things are moving, and here’s how the situation seems to me right now:
1)  TransCanada, as expected, re-applied for a permit last week from the State Department, and just as they said last November — State said they would have an answer sometime in 2013. An open question is whether or not the State Department will do a real review, and aggressively investigate the climate implications of tar sands oil, which they punted on last time.
Another open question, of course, is whether after the election the President -- whomever it may be --  could just give the pipeline a green light no matter what. It's important that between now and then we strenuously and continually emphasize that building this pipeline means more tar sands oil burned, and that the climate change implications of that are unacceptable.
2)  The fossil fuel lobby in Congress keeps trying to approve the pipeline without any review at all. John Boehner et. al. said they won’t approve the new transportation bill without Keystone in it; happily, the Senate conferees, led by California’s Barbara Boxer, have pledged not to put the pipeline back in play just to get a bill. (We're always a bit wary of Washington pledges, but thanks to the 1,800 folks who called her office to let her know there was real support for her position).
3) We also found out that the climate-denying, union-busting, radical billionaire Koch Brothers will be among the prime beneficiaries of the pipeline. It was revealed by intrepid investigative reporting that Koch Industries has been masking their investments in the tar sands, while pumping millions into efforts to push this and other pipelines. None of us deny that some union jobs would be created by this pipeline, but it's now clear that many more will be put under attack as Koch money pours into the coffers of the radicals seeking to destroy both unions and our climate.
We frankly don’t yet know how this all is going to play out—and it’s frustrating as hell. Leaders in the Senate and the White House have given assurances that they won’t OK the pipeline—the administration even issued a veto threat over the transportation bill if it included Keystone. We’ll see how good those assurances are in the coming weeks, and we’ll let you know if there are politician’s offices we need you to call, email, or occupy.
Of course the Southern leg of the pipeline is already on its way to being built - something our friends in Texas are doing all they can to fight, even as you read this.
Meanwhile, science marches on. Dr. James Hansen reiterated the case against tar sands in the New York Times last week, pointing out that the deposits contain "twice the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by global oil use in our entire history." If we burn them on top of all the coal and oil and gas we're already using, "concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eventually would reach levels higher than in the Pliocene era" - a wildly different and likely unlivable earth.
And politics marches on too. We’re coming to think that it’s at least as important to tackle the fossil fuel industry directly as they try to tackle our win on the Keystone pipeline. Last Thursday Thursday Bernie Sanders introduced a bill that would strip $113 billion in subsidies from coal, gas, and oil companies over the next decade. That’s enough money to weatherize more than half the single family and mobile homes in America. We hope you’ll help: www.350.org/subsidies
I don’t know how Keystone is going to come out—but whatever happens, the organizing we manage to do together will have a lot to do with the final result. We’ve learned an awful lot together about how to take on the bad guys. We’ll fight them pipeline by coal mine by fracking well— and surely call on you for more rapid-response actions when the need arises — but we’ve also got to go after the core of their power. That’s what we need to make the next year all about.
Thanks,
--Bill
Paid for by the 350.org Action Fund

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Rand Paul Mocks Drowning Polar Bears, Rising Sea Levels And White House 'Extremists' 10NOV11

sen rand paul R KY is an idiot, here's more proof from HuffPost....

WASHINGTON -- Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul mocked concerns about global warming, rising sea levels and endangered polar bears Thursday, accusing the White House of being run by "extremists" and "hysterics" who don't care about jobs.
Paul, who was arguing for a resolution that would bar the Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing court-ordered clean air rules, argued EPA was going too far in protecting health.
[UPDATE: 1:00 p.m.: The Senate voted down the resolution, 41 to 56, with six Republicans joining Democrats, and two Democrats, Nebraska's Ben Nelson and West Virginia's Joe Manchin, joining the minority.]
"To have clean air and jobs, we must have balance," Paul argued, contending that the EPA is wrong when it says 34,000 people will die prematurely every year if the cross-state air pollution rule does not go into effect, and that statistics show the air has already gotten much cleaner over the years.
And he slammed environmental advocates for ignoring such improvements.
"If you listen to the hysterics, you would think otherwise," Paul said. "You would think that the Statue of Liberty will shortly be under water and the polar bears are all drowning, and that we're dying from pollution. It's absolutely and utterly untrue."
"All of the statistics from the government -- and these are statistics from the EPA -- all of the statistics from the EPA show declining pollution," he said.

But most people don't know that, he asserted, because they've been deliberately misled.
"All of our schoolchildren have been brainwashed by these environmental hysterics who say, 'Oh, it's a lot worse now,' " he said, mentioning reporter John Stossel in an apparent reference to the highly criticized 2001 documentary "Tampering With Nature." "It's actually much better now."
And Paul contended that the country has come to this sad state because clean air advocates have taken over the top levels of government.
"I'm afraid what's happened is we've opened up the White House and this administration to environmental extremists -- the kind of people who say, 'Well, the polar bears are drowning,' " Paul said, contending that the bear fears are based only on one photo of a few bears on an ice flow.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who heads the Senate's environment committee, was so offended by Paul's remarks she criticized him directly in her own Senate floor remarks.
"Sen. Paul insulted the people of America," Boxer said, citing a poll that found 67 percent of the nation favor the rules limiting pollution from out-of-state coal-burning power plants.
"Are they extremists? No. They are mainstream," Boxer said. She also took issue with Paul for impugning the EPA's statistics, which he said were suspect because the agency paid the American Lung Association $5 million to do the scientific studies on air pollution.
"I think the senator owes an apology to the American Lung Association for making it sound like they're for air pollution rules because they are getting a payoff. It is an outrage, a complete outrage," she said, adding that the rules Paul wants to block stem from the Clean Air Act signed by President Richard Nixon.
"Does he think Richard Nixon was an extremist?" Boxer asked.
The issue is not completely partisan. A number of Republican senators from downwind states also oppose the Paul measure.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) noted that the cross-state pollution rule comes from the Bush administration and that power plant operators have had six years to prepare. He said the Tennessee Valley Authority was fully prepared and expected the costs to be minimal.
He also pointed out that soot pollution was getting worse in Kentucky -- and potentially drifting to Tennessee, where he said folks don't want it not because they are extremists, but because the pollution kills people and jobs.
"We haven't elected a Democrat to Congress since Abraham Lincoln was president, but we like to breathe clean air. Tourists do as well," Alexander said.
He suggested that the resolution was being pushed primarily to pander to anti-government sentiments on the right.
"The only reason for it is as a political message," Alexander said. "What kind of message is it? It's that we favor dirty air."
The measure requires only a 51 vote majority to pass, but with Republicans defecting, it appeared likely to fail. A final vote was expected to be delayed until next week.