Easter Sunrise Sermon for Red Rocks by SARCASTIC LUTHERAN 24APR11

PROBABLY the best Easter sermon I have ever heard!

Easter Sunrise Sermon for Red Rocks

I had the freezing-cold honor of preaching to 10,000 people last Sunday at the 64th Annual Red Rocks Sunrise Easter service.  If you'd like to watch the video of it you can do so here 
http://72.35.76.65:3737/ccceaster 
Sermon starts at about 53 minutes in. If you have a Mac you'll need this to view the video http://8help.osu.edu/784.html




I’ve often wondered what people in America think when they actually read the story of Jesus rising from the dead for the first time. There’s simply no way the story could adhere to their expectations. I imagine them reading and re-reading it, shocked that they can’t find a single mention of bunnies or rabbits or painted eggs or white sales at Macy’s. Because let’s be honest,  that is what our culture thinks Easter is about.  Easter in America is really just an excuse to eat chocolate and buy new bedding, and each year we pretend that we can’t really just eat chocolate and buy new bedding whenever we want, which I think is so adorable of us.  But honestly the church’s presentation of Easter isn’t less odd.  For many churches Easter is another word for “church show off day”…when we spiffy up the building and pull out the lilies and hire a brass quintet and put on fabulous hats and do whatever we have do to impress visitors. It’s kinda like the church’s version of putting out the guest towels.
And don’t get me wrong,  I love chocolate and I love fancy music  I mean...if I could possibly listen to the Alleluia Chorus while eating a Cadbury Egg I’d be in heaven.
But this all has very little to do with the actual Gospel story because the gospel story is not fancy, its, downright messy. See, Easter in the Bible may be the greatest story ever told. It’s just not the story we usually choose to tell, because its not a story about new dresses and baskets and flowers and candy and spiffyness. Really, it’s a story about flesh and dirt and bodies and confusion and its about the way God never seems to adhere to our expectations.
Because think about it, Mary Magdalen stood there at the empty tomb that morning while her expectations of what was possible collided full force with the God of Abraham and Sara.  Her certainty that she knew how this whole Jesus thing was ending slammed right up against the full force of God’s suffering and redemptive love and though it was nothing short of divine revelation in the flesh Jesus still didn’t look very impressive, not in the churchy Easter sense.
See, when Mary Magdalene stood at the tomb she didn’t encounter some perfected radiant glowing spiritual Jesus that first Easter morning.  Seriously, no offense to gardeners but Jesus couldn’t have been looking all that spiffy and impressive if she mistook him for a gardener: And I like to think that Mary Magdalene mistook the resurrected Christ for a gardener because Jesus still had the dirt from his own tomb under his nails.
Now, I’ve been in a whole lot of churches and I gotta say, In most of them there is no dirt under the nails of the resurrected Christ. Because we’ve had to clean him up to look more impressive at Easter. And my theory is this:  I think it’s because we go straight from Christmas to Easter, we go from the sentimentality of the Baby Jesus to the glory of the resurrected Christ, Santa Claus to Peter Cotton Tail, so quickly that we don’t bother with the messy important parts in-between: namely, what Jesus taught, how Jesus lived and how Jesus died. So, since there’s basically 10,000 of you guys just sitting here this morning, I thought I’d fill you in on the messy parts real quick…
See it starts here: Once upon a time, the God of the Universe was basically fed up with being on the receiving end of all our human projections, tired of being nothing more to us than what we thought God should be: angry, show-offy, defensive, insecure, in short, the vengeance-seeking tyrant we would be if we were God. So, at that time, over 2,000 years ago, God’s Loving Desire to really be Known overflowed the heavens and was made manifest in the rapidly dividing cells within the womb of an insignificant peasant girl named Mary.  And when the time came for her to give birth to God, there was no room in our expectations – no room in any impressive or spiffy or safe place. So this God was born in straw and dirt. He grew up, this Jesus of Nazareth, left his home, and found some, let’s be honest,  rather unimpressive characters to follow him.  Fishermen, Tax collectors, prostitutes, homeless women with no teeth, people from Commerce City, Ann Coulter and Charlie Sheen.  If you think I’m kidding…read it for yourselves.  These people were questionable. So, with his little band of misfits Jesus went about the countryside turning water to wine, eating with all the wrong people, angering the religious establishment and insisting that in him the kingdom of God had come near, that through him the world according to God was coming right to us.  He touched the unclean and used spit and dirt to heal the blind and said crazy destabilizing things like the first shall be last and the last shall be first, and sell all you have and give it to the poor.
And the thing that really cooked people’s noodles wasn’t the question “is Jesus like God” it was “what if God is like Jesus”.  What if God is not who we thought?  What if the most reliable way to know God is not through religion, not through a sin and punishment program, but through a person. What if the most reliable way to know God is to look at how God chose to reveal God’s self in Jesus?  
         Because that changes everything.  If what we see in Jesus is God’s own self, revealed, then what we are dealing with here is a God who is ridiculously indiscriminate about choosing friends.  A God who would rather die than be in the sin accounting business anymore.  A God who would not lift a finger to condemn those who crucified him, but went to the depths of Hell rather than be apart even from his betrayers. A God unafraid to get his hands dirty for the ones he loves. This, this is the God who rises to new life with dirt still under his nails.
So while the churches may try and clean up Jesus so the visitors will be impressed today, The God of Easter, the God who brings life out of death  doesn’t want to make you impressive, this God isn’t satisfied with making you good or nice. IF you think that’s what resurrection looks like, if you think it looks like perfection and piety and therefore you haven’t experienced it, you might be wrong. Because God isn’t about making you spiffy.  God isn’t about making you nicer.  God is about making you new.  And new doesn’t always look perfect, with a fabulous new dress because like the Easter story itself, new can be messy.
New looks like recovering alcoholics. New looks like reconciliation between family members who don’t actually deserve it.  New looks like every time I manage to admit I was wrong and every time I manage to not mention when I’m right. New looks like the lumpy awkward forgiveness we manage to scrounge up despite ourselves.  New looks like every fresh start and every act of forgiveness and every moment of letting go of what we thought we couldn’t live without and then somehow living without it anyway.  New is the thing you never saw coming …never even hoped for, but ends up being what you needed all along and it happens to all of us. Because as Jesus said…the world according to God is near to us. And God simply keeps reaching down into the dirt of humanity and pulling us out of the graves we dig for ourselves through our violence, our lies, our selfishness, our arrogance and our addictions. And God keeps loving us back to life over and over.
So by all means enjoy the lilies and chocolate and fancy music. But know that if there is anything impressive about following Jesus it’s that you are loved so powerfully by God that God has swept you up into God’s own story of death and life and life after death.  And if there’s anything impressive about Christians, it’s that we are a people who still have the dirt from our graves under our nails, while we stand here shouting Alleluia! Christ is risen.

H.R. 601: End Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act of 2011 & Pump pain, Big Oil gain 28APR11

Everyone is complaining about gas prices, this legislation gives you a chance to try to do something about it. H.R. 601 will eliminate the tax breaks for the big oil companies. Check out the legislation, click the link to go right to the site for yourself. See if your Representative is a cosponsor and if they aren't then e mail them here
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
and tell them to sponsor it and to get it passed. Then e mail your Senators here
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
and Pres Obama here
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
and tell them to get this passed in the Senate and signed into law. Following the legislation is an article on oil company profits from Climate Progress (with a link to the post and a lot of links to more information in the article) and who is standing in the way of H.R. 601 becoming law. 

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h112-601

H.R. 601:

End Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act of 2011

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal fossil fuel subsidies for large oil companies.

Overview

Sponsor:	Rep. Earl Blumenauer [D-OR3]show cosponsors (35)
Text:	Summary | Full Text
Status:	Introduced Feb 10, 2011 Referred to Committee View Committee Assignments Reported by Committee ... House Vote ... Senate Vote ... Signed by President ... This bill is in the first step in the legislative process. Introduced bills and resolutions first go to committees that deliberate, investigate, and revise them before they go to general debate. The majority of bills and resolutions never make it out of committee. [Last Updated: Apr 15, 2011 6:13AM]
Last Action:	Feb 10, 2011: Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
Related:	See the Related Legislation page for other bills related to this one and a list of subject terms that have been applied to this bill. Sometimes the text of one bill or resolution is incorporated into another, and in those cases the original bill or resolution, as it would appear here, would seem to be abandoned.

Pump pain, Big Oil gain

Oil giants post massive Q1 profits, demand huge subsidies

http://climateprogress.org/2011/04/28/big-oil-profits/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climateprogress%2FlCrX+%28Climate+Progress%29
April 28, 2011

Exxon stood head and shoulders above the other big five oil companies with first-quarter profits of nearly $10.7 billion.  CAP’s Valeri Vasquez has the details.
The first anniversary of the BP fatal oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico reminded Americans of the enormous human and economic costs of our oil dependence. One year later, BP is posting first-quarter profits of nearly $5.5 billion. This 17 percent growth from 2010’s first-quarter earnings comes despite BP having distributed a mere 19 percent of the $20 billion it agreed to pay oil spill victims and their families.
The four other Big Oil companies—ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, and Shell—also enjoyed massive profits in the first quarter of 2011 compared to 2010 due to high oil prices. These four companies reported a combined $18.2 billion in first-quarter earnings—profits that together mark a 40 percent increase over last year. Exxon stood head and shoulders above the rest with a nearly 70 percent increase over 2010 first-quarter profits, clocking in at nearly $10.7 billion. Shell was a distant second with earnings listed at $6.9 billion.
Oil prices have risen by a third in just more than two months, spurred largely by speculators capitalizing on unrest in North Africa and the Middle East. The jump in crude prices from $85 per barrel to $112 per barrel since January 2011 has boosted gasoline prices by 22 percent.
President Barack Obama warned in an April 26 letter to congressional leadership that “if sustained, these high prices have the potential to slow our economy’s growth at precisely the moment we need to be accelerating it.”
Analysts agree, projecting that a sustained $10 increase in the cost of a barrel of oil can reduce our gross domestic product by up to 0.2 percentage points in 2011 alone. A sustained $20-per-barrel increase in oil prices could yield at least a 50-cent-per-gallon hike in gasoline costs.
This month, drivers are paying an additional 30 percent at the pump compared to April 2010. And this year, an increase of 70 cents per gallon in just more than two months is costing American families dearly. According to some estimates, every “penny increase at the pump sucks $1.5 billion from household spending nationwide.”

Big Oil doesn’t need tax subsidies with billions in profits

But the burden on American taxpayers begins well before they fill up at the gas station. More than $4 billion in unnecessary tax subsidies for domestic drilling and production are doled out to oil companies annually, activities the companies would undertake and profit from without federal assistance.
The handout is supported by Big Oil’s Republican representatives in Congress. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) proposed fiscal year 2012 budget resolution that passed the House of Representatives on April 15 preserves Big Oil subsidies while nearly eliminating investments in the clean energy technologies of the future that are essential to reduce oil use and foster long-term economic growth.
The House Republicans also unanimously opposed and defeated a “motion to recommit” a short-term extension of government funding for FY 2011 in March. The motion would have eliminated these Big Oil tax loopholes.
Big Oil strongly supports the retention of these tax loopholes, of course. Four of the five Big Oil companies have already shown their appreciation to House Republican leaders who led efforts to retain them. These companies gave $280,000 in campaign contributions to their Republican benefactors. This includes House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who according to a Center for American Progress analysis has received $15,000 from oil interests since January. ExxonMobil was the largest overall donor to overall campaign contributions. It gave more than 80 percent of this campaign cash.
Speaker Boehner, however, indicated a willingness to consider eliminating Big Oil tax loopholes on Monday. He told ABC News:

We’re in a time when the federal government is short on revenues. We need to control spending but we need to have revenues to keep the government movin’. And they [Big Oil] oughta be payin’ their fair share.

President Obama wrote Speaker Boehner and other congressional leaders in response, urging them to “take immediate action to eliminate unwarranted tax breaks for the oil and gas industry, and to use those dollars to invest in clean energy to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) wants to make the repeal of the Big Oil tax loopholes one of the first orders of business when Congress returns from its spring recess on May 2. Hopefully Speaker Boehner will ignore his oil contributors and instead join along by promptly allowing a House vote on Rep. Earl Blumenauer’s (D-OH) bill, H.R. 601, which would eliminate Big Oil tax loopholes.
This quarter’s $18.2 billion in profits certainly demonstrates that the big five oil companies can do without $40 billion in tax subsidies over a decade.
– Valeri Vasquez is a Special Assistant for the Energy Team at American Progress.

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Tell Republicans to Stop Subsidizing Big Oil & Pump pain, Big Oil gain 28APR11

THE solution isn't releasing the oil in the Strategic Oil Reserve, or even granting more permits for drilling in environmentally fragile areas, it is closing the tax loopholes and tax breaks for the big oil and gas companies, forcing them to pay their fair share in taxes, and then use that money for developing efficient mass transit and high speed rail and renewable energy sources. Check out the article from Climate Progress on oil company profits and H.R. 601, legislation to close the oil companies tax loopholes. Click the header or link to sign the petition...

Big Oil is profiting off the American people to the tune of billions.

We’re paying $4.09 a gallon so BP and ExxonMobil can earn massive profits and keep the mega-bonuses flowing for execs.  Yet Senate Republicans still want to shovel huge tax breaks to Big Oil.

Medicare for seniors? Poor women who need prenatal care? Sorry, your funding is on the chopping block. But nobody better touch those Big Oil tax breaks.

Enough! The DSCC is organizing 100,000 Americans to tell Republicans exactly how they feel, and you need to add your voice right away.

Click here to help end Big Oil's tax deals.

You know BP's lobbyists are all over Capitol Hill getting Republican senators to support their talking points. The only way we end this nonsense is to organize a massive wave of grassroots anger and energy to end these tax breaks and end them now.

That's why I need you to take action right away and why I need you to email, tweet, and Facebook with all you've got to spread the word. We need to get real big real fast.

I know I can count on you, so click here to get involved. Together, we can end Big Oil's sweetheart tax giveaways.

I’m fired up about this. The American people have every right to be angry about unchecked corporate greed.

Pump pain, Big Oil gain

Oil giants post massive Q1 profits, demand huge subsidies

April 28, 2011

Exxon stood head and shoulders above the other big five oil companies with first-quarter profits of nearly $10.7 billion.  CAP’s Valeri Vasquez has the details.
The first anniversary of the BP fatal oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico reminded Americans of the enormous human and economic costs of our oil dependence. One year later, BP is posting first-quarter profits of nearly $5.5 billion. This 17 percent growth from 2010’s first-quarter earnings comes despite BP having distributed a mere 19 percent of the $20 billion it agreed to pay oil spill victims and their families.
The four other Big Oil companies—ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, and Shell—also enjoyed massive profits in the first quarter of 2011 compared to 2010 due to high oil prices. These four companies reported a combined $18.2 billion in first-quarter earnings—profits that together mark a 40 percent increase over last year. Exxon stood head and shoulders above the rest with a nearly 70 percent increase over 2010 first-quarter profits, clocking in at nearly $10.7 billion. Shell was a distant second with earnings listed at $6.9 billion.
Oil prices have risen by a third in just more than two months, spurred largely by speculators capitalizing on unrest in North Africa and the Middle East. The jump in crude prices from $85 per barrel to $112 per barrel since January 2011 has boosted gasoline prices by 22 percent.
President Barack Obama warned in an April 26 letter to congressional leadership that “if sustained, these high prices have the potential to slow our economy’s growth at precisely the moment we need to be accelerating it.”
Analysts agree, projecting that a sustained $10 increase in the cost of a barrel of oil can reduce our gross domestic product by up to 0.2 percentage points in 2011 alone. A sustained $20-per-barrel increase in oil prices could yield at least a 50-cent-per-gallon hike in gasoline costs.
This month, drivers are paying an additional 30 percent at the pump compared to April 2010. And this year, an increase of 70 cents per gallon in just more than two months is costing American families dearly. According to some estimates, every “penny increase at the pump sucks $1.5 billion from household spending nationwide.”

Big Oil doesn’t need tax subsidies with billions in profits

http://climateprogress.org/2011/04/28/big-oil-profits/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climateprogress%2FlCrX+%28Climate+Progress%29 

But the burden on American taxpayers begins well before they fill up at the gas station. More than $4 billion in unnecessary tax subsidies for domestic drilling and production are doled out to oil companies annually, activities the companies would undertake and profit from without federal assistance.
The handout is supported by Big Oil’s Republican representatives in Congress. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) proposed fiscal year 2012 budget resolution that passed the House of Representatives on April 15 preserves Big Oil subsidies while nearly eliminating investments in the clean energy technologies of the future that are essential to reduce oil use and foster long-term economic growth.
The House Republicans also unanimously opposed and defeated a “motion to recommit” a short-term extension of government funding for FY 2011 in March. The motion would have eliminated these Big Oil tax loopholes.
Big Oil strongly supports the retention of these tax loopholes, of course. Four of the five Big Oil companies have already shown their appreciation to House Republican leaders who led efforts to retain them. These companies gave $280,000 in campaign contributions to their Republican benefactors. This includes House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who according to a Center for American Progress analysis has received $15,000 from oil interests since January. ExxonMobil was the largest overall donor to overall campaign contributions. It gave more than 80 percent of this campaign cash.
Speaker Boehner, however, indicated a willingness to consider eliminating Big Oil tax loopholes on Monday. He told ABC News:

We’re in a time when the federal government is short on revenues. We need to control spending but we need to have revenues to keep the government movin’. And they [Big Oil] oughta be payin’ their fair share.

President Obama wrote Speaker Boehner and other congressional leaders in response, urging them to “take immediate action to eliminate unwarranted tax breaks for the oil and gas industry, and to use those dollars to invest in clean energy to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) wants to make the repeal of the Big Oil tax loopholes one of the first orders of business when Congress returns from its spring recess on May 2. Hopefully Speaker Boehner will ignore his oil contributors and instead join along by promptly allowing a House vote on Rep. Earl Blumenauer’s (D-OH) bill, H.R. 601, which would eliminate Big Oil tax loopholes.
This quarter’s $18.2 billion in profits certainly demonstrates that the big five oil companies can do without $40 billion in tax subsidies over a decade.
– Valeri Vasquez is a Special Assistant for the Energy Team at American Progress.

No Background Check, No Gun, No Excuses 28APR11 & H.R. 308: Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act

PLEASE watch the video and then contact your Representative by clicking the link below or the header of this post...And check out H.R. 308 Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act in this post, click the link to see if your Rep is a co-sponsor of this legislation in Congress. LET"S level the playing field and remove all restrictions on people carrying guns in all government office buildings so the politicians who are too cowardly to enact reasonable gun control face the same risk as the rest of us. And I want to know, can a person keep their gun when visiting the offices of the NRA or do they have to be checked at the door? From the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence......

Donate    Forward

No Background Check, No Gun, No Excuses   Dear Friend, We believe that Brady background checks should be required on all gun sales.  It just makes sense. Right now there is a loophole in the Brady Law that allows people to buy guns at gun shows without going through a Brady criminal background check. Take a moment to watch the powerful video. Victims and survivors of the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre and Brady staff came together to make this video to call on Congress to close the gun show loophole. But we can't do it alone. If you haven't already, click here to send an email to urge your U.S. Representative to cosponsor legislation to close the gun show loophole. If you have signed it, thank you! You can continue to take action today. You can help by simply: Forwarding this email to 5 friends Signing up to give $5 a month With more and more people taking these simple actions, just think about the impact we will have. Our politicians will hear thousands and thousands of us stand up and say, "Enough is enough!" Sincerely, Brian Malte, State Legislation and Politics Director Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence Victims, advocates and survivors urge you to take action to close the gun show loophole. Donate Monthly Forward

Sign up for Alerts • Find Your Local Chapter • Update: Your Info or Email Preferences

Donate    Forward   © Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence

You can also mail a check to:  Brady Campaign · 1225 Eye Street NW, Suite 1100 · Washington, DC 20005 The Brady Campaign, along with its sister organization, the Brady Center, is the nation's largest, non-partisan grassroots organization leading the fight to protect you, your family and your community from gun violence.  H.R. 308: Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act 112th Congress 2011-2012 Primary Source See H.R. 308 on THOMAS for the official source of information on this bill or resolution. To prohibit the transfer or possession of large capacity ammunition feeding devices, and for other purposes. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h112-308  Overview Sponsor: Rep. Carolyn McCarthy [D-NY4]show cosponsors (107) Text: Summary | Full Text Status: Introduced Jan 18, 2011 Referred to Committee View Committee Assignments Reported by Committee ... House Vote ... Senate Vote ... Signed by President ... This bill is in the first step in the legislative process. Introduced bills and resolutions first go to committees that deliberate, investigate, and revise them before they go to general debate. The majority of bills and resolutions never make it out of committee. [Last Updated: Apr 7, 2011 6:12AM] Last Action: Feb 7, 2011: House Committee on the Judiciary: Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security. Related: See the Related Legislation page for other bills related to this one and a list of subject terms that have been applied to this bill. Sometimes the text of one bill or resolution is incorporated into another, and in those cases the original bill or resolution, as it would appear here, would seem to be abandoned.

Gabrielle Giffords Reminder To Be Part Of NRA Protest 28APR11 & H.R. 308: Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act

I still say we need to level the playing field and remove all restrictions on guns in all government offices so the politicians who are too cowardly to enact reasonable gun control laws and enforce them face the same risk the rest of us do. And I still want to know, can a person visiting NRA offices keep their gun on them or does it have to be checked at the door?
WASHINGTON -- With the National Rifle Association set to host its first conference since the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and 19 others in Tucson, gun control advocates are getting confrontational.
The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence's Educational Fund is placing full-page ads in Pittsburgh's two major papers -- the Post Gazette and the Times Review -- as a sober greeting for the estimated 70,000 gun lobby members expected to descend on the steel city. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) will be a featured speaker at the NRA's 140th annual meeting.
The ads are framed with a picture of a Tucson survivor on top and additional pictures of shooting victims from Columbine, Virginia Tech, and Pittsburgh. Below the images is a letter from victims' relatives, asking for support for a more comprehensive background check system for gun licenses. Some 105 family members of shooting victims signed the letter.
“We are not politicians. And we are not interested in a debate on the Second Amendment. In fact, some of us are longtime gun owners ourselves,” the ad reads. “We are the families of Americans who were murdered or injured by killers who should not have had guns. And we hope you’ll talk to us during your annual meeting in Pittsburgh.”
There are other protests planned for the NRA’s weekend gathering. Patricia Maisch, the Arizona woman who wrestled away alleged shooter Jared Loughner's ammunition clip during the Jan. 8 Tuscon shooting, will be demonstrating outside the convention hall. A billboard truck, meanwhile, will be driving around the convention inviting NRA executive director and CEO Wayne LaPierre to discuss shoring up legal loopholes.
An email seeking comment from the NRA was not immediately returned.
The Giffords shooting hasn’t resulted in a single change of policy. Gun control advocates have waited months since Tucson for a pubic forum in which they could petition or demonstrate against the gun lobby. Now, with the congresswoman set to attend her husband's space shuttle launch at Cape Canaveral on Friday, and with the NRA meeting this weekend, the issue has risen once again. Operatives working on gun control policy hope the two events will help influence the outcome of ongoing legislative talks with Congress and the Obama administration.

H.R. 308:	Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act
112th Congress 2011-2012

Primary Source See H.R. 308 on THOMAS for the official source of information on this bill or resolution.

To prohibit the transfer or possession of large capacity ammunition feeding devices, and for other purposes.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h112-308 

Overview Sponsor: Rep. Carolyn McCarthy [D-NY4]show cosponsors (107) Text: Summary | Full Text Status: Introduced Jan 18, 2011 Referred to Committee View Committee Assignments Reported by Committee ... House Vote ... Senate Vote ... Signed by President ... This bill is in the first step in the legislative process. Introduced bills and resolutions first go to committees that deliberate, investigate, and revise them before they go to general debate. The majority of bills and resolutions never make it out of committee. [Last Updated: Apr 7, 2011 6:12AM] Last Action: Feb 7, 2011: House Committee on the Judiciary: Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security. Related: See the Related Legislation page for other bills related to this one and a list of subject terms that have been applied to this bill. Sometimes the text of one bill or resolution is incorporated into another, and in those cases the original bill or resolution, as it would appear here, would seem to be abandoned.

Protect Our BioGems From Dirty Gas Drilling--NRDC's Save BioGems News 27APR11

UPDATES and articles on oil and gas drilling and the dangers of fracking, beluga whales in Alaska, wolves and the Endangered Species Act, Yellowstone Buffalo and more from the Natural Resources Defense Council....

Hello, Activists! Thanks for being an NRDC BioGems Defender! Join Us on Facebook! Connect with other BioGems Defenders and get the latest campaign updates on Facebook. "Thank you all for your magnificent efforts...for voices that cannot speak!" -- from our Facebook wall Voices for the Wild Our BioGems Defenders have sent more than 15 million messages since the Save BioGems Campaign started. Meet some of our Defenders and find out what inspires them on Voices for the Wild. BioGems Update THANK YOU to the BioGems Defenders who sent more than 75,000 messages opposing the Pebble Mine project to mining giant Rio Tinto. NRDC Senior Attorney Joel Reynolds delivered the messages at Rio Tinto’s annual shareholders meeting. » See the timeline of victories we've won. To Do Even More You can support NRDC's BioGems campaign to save these and other threatened wild places. » Donate BioGems at Risk Time to Rein In Risky Natural Gas Drilling The booming practice of hydraulic fracturing -- commonly known as "fracking" -- is linked to the contamination of drinking water supplies in BioGems and communities across the country. Fracking is a kind of gas drilling that works by injecting vast quantities of water mixed with sand and chemicals into the ground at high pressure to access natural gas deposits. It also generates a dangerous amount of toxic air pollutants. Reports of toxic contamination of air and water have come from communities across the Rockies from New Mexico to Wyoming -- as well as further east in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In our Catskills BioGem, oil and gas companies are pushing to drill in the natural gas-rich Marcellus Shale, a region that also provides clean drinking water for millions of residents. Fracking is unregulated at the federal level due to the "Halliburton Loophole" -- a gaping loophole in the Safe Drinking Water Act. In addition, toxic air pollutants from oil and gas extraction are exempt from important provisions of the Clean Air Act. Unless Congress acts to close those loopholes, dangerous pollutants will continue to threaten the health and safety of our communities. » Ask Congress to stop the polluters by closing loopholes in our environmental laws. In the News   MORE ROOM TO ROAM FOR YELLOWSTONE'S BISON In a huge victory for Yellowstone’s wild buffalo, also known as bison, these iconic animals will now have access to tens of thousands of acres of habitat north of Yellowstone National Park during the winter and spring. After a turbulent winter in which hundreds of buffalo were captured by government agents, the agencies that manage Yellowstone’s herd signed a historic agreement giving the buffalo room to roam in Montana’s Gardiner Basin. NRDC has continually advocated for this area to be opened for free-roaming buffalo, and now, thanks to the incredible activism and support of our Members, the agencies have heeded our call. Allowing buffalo more seasonal habitat is just one piece of the solution, but it marks a landmark victory for wild buffalo and our Yellowstone BioGem. Thank you for your activism on behalf of Yellowstone’s wild buffalo! COOK INLET BELUGAS WIN MUCH-NEEDED CRITICAL HABITAT Earlier this month, the National Marine Fisheries Service finalized its ruling to designate critical habitat for Alaska's Cook Inlet beluga whales. More than 3,000 square miles of the Cook Inlet will be listed as critical habitat for the whales, whose numbers have plummeted in the past 30 years, from 1,300 to around 340 today. Under the Endangered Species Act, federal agencies must carefully review any actions that may "adversely modify" this critical habitat. Cook Inlet belugas live in one of the most industrialized regions in Alaska, and are constantly threatened by pollution from partially treated sewage, oil and gas production, ship strikes and noise pollution. NRDC and our environmental partners have been fighting for years to protect the dwindling population of belugas, and will continue to fight in a separate lawsuit that the state of Alaska has filed to challenge the beluga's endangered species status. CONGRESS KICKS WOLVES OFF THE ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST Wolves in the Northern Rockies suffered a terrible blow this month when the House and Senate passed a budget bill that includes a provision stripping them of their Endangered Species Act protections. States will now be free to carry out plans for killing hundreds of wolves. It marks the first time in history that Congress has taken an animal off the endangered species list, setting a potentially dangerous precedent for other endangered wildlife. The legislation circumvents good science and a federal court ruling -- won by NRDC last year -- that restored protections for wolves. The congressional rider affects wolves in Montana, Idaho and parts of Washington, Oregon and Utah. We’ll continue to monitor the states to ensure they uphold their commitment to protect viable populations of wolves. MAYORS SPEAK OUT AGAINST TAR SANDS PIPELINE More than two dozen mayors across the country expressed their concern over the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline in a recent letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Last year we alerted you to plans for this trans-boundary pipeline, which would bring dirty tar sands oil from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast.  The proposed pipeline would lead to additional mining and drilling in Canada’s boreal forest, while doing nothing to move our cities and towns towards cleaner forms of energy production. Communities along the path of the 2,000-mile pipeline would also bear the risk of potential spills and explosions. The State Department’s initial environmental review of the proposed pipeline failed to consider a host of environmental and public health problems, and a second review released last week also failed to address the same issues.  We’ll keep you updated on how you can take action to oppose the Keystone pipeline. Action Insider   AN OWL STORY NRDC Wildlife Advocate Matt Skoglund writes about an unforgettable encounter with two owls in the wild. THIS GREEN LIFE: THE FUSS ON FRACKING Everything you’d ever want to know about fracking -- and more -- in this issue of This Green Life. Photo credits: Mulchatna River below Turquoise Lake in Lake Clark National Park, by Chlaus Lotscher, AlaskaStock.com. Bear grass in Yellowstone/Rockies, Randy Beacham. Buffalo and calf, Art Wolfe.