Tell your Senators to Protect the Judicial Nomination Filibuster
Any day now, the United States Senate will be voting on whether or not to keep a time-honored part of politics--the filibuster, a tactic used by a political minority in order to prevent action on legislation or a nomination for an executive branch position or a federal judgeship.
The filibuster has recently drawn more attention as the Senate has debated several controversial nominations, made by President Bush, for federal judgeships. HRC has opposed a handful of these nominations because of the nominee's record on GLBT issues. Your action is absolutely critical in making sure the filibuster is protected and that our voices, as a community and allies, continue to be heard. The future of the Supreme Court could depend on it. Please do your part.
Tell your Senator to support the filibuster and protect our courts against right wing extremists to ensure that mainstream judges who believe in equality for all Americans are nominated to our federal courts, including the Supreme Court.
http://www.hrcactioncenter.org/campaign/senate_filibuster
No Cuts or Caps on Medicaid
A very real battle is brewing over Medicaid. Medicaid, the health care program for the most vulnerable among us -- seniors, children, people with disabilities, and others who have nowhere else to turn -- is under fire from both the Administration and Congress.
That's why the battle over next year's federal budget is so critical. Unfortunately, we already know that Medicaid will be on the chopping block. Advocates have about three months to do everything they can to preserve Medicaid as a guarantee of health care to those who need it most.
On January 12, 2005, we sent a letter to President Bush urging him not to cut or cap the Medicaid program. Here's the really big news: 240 national organizations and 775 state and local organizations, representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia, joined Families USA in signing this letter! That's more than 1,000 signatures. Click here to read the letter to President Bush.
Together, we can protect Medicaid!
https://secure2.convio.net/fusa/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=134
Preserve Checks and Balances
In an effort to rush through judicial nominees who could put our rights and protections at risk, the majority leadership in the U.S. Senate is trying to change the rules in the middle of the game by limiting debate and silencing the voice of the minority. This move, dubbed the "nuclear option" by Senator Trent Lott (R-Miss.), could have a devastating impact on our democracy and threaten the 200-year-old system of checks and balances on which our government in based. It is an unprecedented power grab intended to deny the Senate's longstanding right to withhold approval of judicial nominees.
Tell Majority Leader Frist to reject the "nuclear option" and preserve democracy in the Senate.
http://whistler.sierraclub.org/action/tamain?alid=382&st=curr
Tell Congress: No Tax Breaks for Trophy Hunters
An undercover investigation by the HSUS has revealed an astonishing trophy hunting tax scam. As reported in a front-page expose in the Washington Post ("Big-Game Hunting Brings Big Tax Breaks," April 5, 2005), some trophy hunters have been financing their destructive hobby at taxpayers' expense by "donating" their animal trophies to pseudo-museums. The trophy hunter receives a sizeable tax write-off and can make each hunt pay for the next. HSUS's investigation discovered that these "museums" rarely even display the donated trophies, leaving them to collect dust in storage.
Grossly inflated appraisals for animal trophies and skins are the norm and are even made by viewing photographs without even seeing the actual trophy mount. Hunters can essentially write-off, at taxpayers' expense, the entire cost of traveling to foreign country or a "canned hunt" here in the U.S., and killing, stuffing, mounting and shipping his or her animal trophies. One animal trophy appraisal firm blatantly advertises its company's services under the headline: "Hunt for Free."
It is time for Congress to put a stop to taxpayer-subsidized trophy hunting. Please take action today!
http://hsus.ga4.org/campaign/FED_2005_trophyhunt_taxscam/
Clean Water Program
Michiganders rely on our inland lakes and the Great Lakes for safe drinking water and clean places to swim, boat and fish. Unfortunately, the Bush administration is moving forward with a policy that will allow more sewage to be dumped into our waters.
Congress has the power to stop this sewage dumping policy. Ask your Representative to protect our waters and public health by supporting the bipartisan Save Our Waters from Sewage Act.
http://pirgim.org/MI.asp?id=720&id3=MI&id4=ES
Thank Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois for Strongly Supporting a Woman's Access to Contraception!
Last Friday, Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois created an emergency rule that requires pharmacists to fill contraceptive prescriptions immediately, in response to a pharmacist's refusal to fill two prescriptions for emergency contraception (EC) on February 23. Governor Blagojevich acted without delay in confronting an increasingly widespread problem, a problem the New York Times calls "an intolerable abuse of power by pharmacists who have no business forcing their own moral or ethical views onto customers who may not share them."
Please take a moment to thank Governor Blagojevich for his swift action in supporting a woman's timely access to contraception!
http://capwiz.com/fmf1/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=7351136
Invest in Peace and Human Security, Not War
Is the federal budget out of balance with your values?
Are you upset that Congress spent about 42 cents of every income tax dollar last year on current and past wars and preparations for future wars, while spending less than a penny to promote diplomacy, international cooperation, humanitarian and development aid, and efforts to peacefully prevent deadly conflicts?
Most likely, these budget priorities do not reflect your values. What's more, many in your community probably feel the same way you do.
In April, the House and Senate will be debating the budget resolution for fiscal year 2006.
Let your legislators know your concern that Congress is wasting too much on the military and is not investing enough to promote peace and human security at home and abroad.
http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=7353391
Support the Landrieu Amendment for Tsunami-Affected Children
Many of the victims hardest hit by the tsunami are the children who lost parents, homes, schools and a sense of security. Recent media reports have confirmed that 80 percent of the victims were women and children. After the television cameras and news reporters have gone, these children still must deal with the vulnerability and trauma brought on by this natural disaster. As Asia continues on its road to recovery, the needs of the most vulnerable must not be forgotten.
Right now as part of a supplemental spending package, the Senate is considering funding specifically dedicated to protecting vulnerable women and children affected by the tsunami. Including support for the protection of women and children in these countries will ensure that the United States government has the resources to protect these populations from the violence, exploitation, and emotional distress that can occur after a natural disaster.
Please act now and send a message urging your Senators to support an amendment to include money for child protection in the emergency spending bill.
http://ga4.org/campaign/amendment/
Join the Earth Day Virtual March
On the first Earth Day, 20 million Americans called for a cleaner, healthier environment. Their activism helped secure the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. Now, 35 years later, with the Senate's recent vote to drill in the Arctic Ntn'l Wildlife Refuge, that activism is needed to counter a growing threat to all hard-won environmental protections.
Join the march to send a free message urging your senators to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge forever.
http://earthday.care2.com/index.html?uid=dd4881747e65fbf982688271713f4367
Douglas Alan Roberts
The state of Texas is scheduled to execute Douglas Alan Roberts, a white man, April 20 for the 1996 murder of Jerry Velez in Kendall County. Roberts stabbed Velez during a confrontation after he had stolen Velez's car.
Roberts committed the crime while using crack cocaine. After the effects of the cocaine wore off, he dialed 911 from a pay phone reporting what he had done and disclosing his location. He waited to be arrested by a responding officer.
Roberts told his attorney that he wanted to be executed, rather than spend the rest of his life in prison. The trial that followed was one of the shortest death penalty trials in the modern era lasting two to three days including jury selection. He has a strong ineffective assistance of counsel claim. His trial attorney presented no mitigating arguments and no competency hearing was held. Roberts and his attorney deliberately sought out pro-death penalty jurors in an effort to assure his death sentence.
When the jury came back deadlocked, the judge, instead of ordering a sentence of life imprisonment, instructed the jury to continue deliberating in accord with Roberts' wishes.
The problem of ineffective assistance of counsel highlights one of the most common and difficult flaws with the death penalty system. More than 90 percent of persons on death row were not able to hire their own attorney. Frequently when attorneys are appointed to defendants they are ill-equipped to give their client quality or even competent legal representation. Roberts' trial attorney assisting in seeking out a death sentence and the judge's behavior make a mockery of the justice system.
Please write Governor Perry and the Board of Pardons and Paroles protesting a death penalty system which would allow such a blatant miscarriage of justice to take place.
http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=527
These and over 350 other action alerts are archived at http://shetquaker.blog-city.com/