Don't let BP benefit from its own oil spill!
Americans shouldn't have to endure massive budget cuts because BP took a $13 billion tax deduction at the expense of the Gulf of Mexico. So we're teaming up with our friends at CREDO to tell BP to amend its tax return and pay its fair share. Will you help to?
Click here to sign the petition telling BP to stop dodging, and pay their taxes.
People vs Corporations
It's only been one year since the U.S. Supreme Court decided to give corporations unlimited influence in elections, but the damage is already clear:
Last fall, shadowy groups like Karl Rove's American Crossroads spent hundreds of millions of dollars to influence elections, and they never even had to say where they got the money from. Just weeks later, the Congress Rove and others helped elect voted to cut off health insurance for 32 million Americans.
It has to stop.
So USAction/TrueMajority members are teaming up with our allies at Public Citizen to end corporate control of elections once and for all by changing the Constitution so only people - not companies - have control.
Sign here to be part of the solution.
Light a virtual candle for the shooting victims
While we don't know all the details of Saturday's terrible tragedy in Arizona, we do know that Rep. Gabrielle (Gabby) Giffords was shot while serving her constituents. Six others lost their lives, including a nine-year-old little girl and U.S. District Judge John Roll.1
Take a moment to light a candle and leave a note. Linda Brown, the Director of our local affiliate the Arizona Advocacy Network, will personally deliver all your comments in the next few days.
Light a virtual candle for the shooting victims
The Senate is broken. Fix the filibuster
In June, Republican Senators were able to keep millions of unemployed Americans from receiving their benefits for over a month, using a "filibuster" to prevent any vote. Last month, they used it again and almost killed a bill to give health care coverage to the injured 9/11 Ground Zero rescue workers. It's now used over and over and over - 259 times in the last four years!
It's time to fix that rule and put the Senate back to work.
Tell your Senators to Fix the Filibuster and end the tyranny of the minority.
960 billion dollars
We could cut over $960 billion from the Department of Defense and be just as safe as we are now. Perhaps even safer.
With the national debt continuing to soar, unemployment teetering around 10 percent and the threat of a double-dip recession hovering, the last thing we need is for a government bureaucracy rife with inefficiencies to continue costing us billions of dollars with no overhaul in sight.
But there is another way.
Led by Congressmen Barney Frank and Ron Paul, a bipartisan group in Congress is demanding an honest look at military spending without sacrificing our safety.
The good news? Over $960 billion could be cut without endangering our current safeguards and programs. The bad news? This opportunity is probably not on your member of Congress's radar.
Which is why we need your help.
Send a message to your member of Congress, asking him or her to sign on in support of Congressman Frank's effort to clean up the wasteful spending in the Pentagon!
What the hell does it take?!?
We've had a five-month oil spill that has dumped over 200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico and tar balls washing up on beaches in Florida, and still BP plans to claim billions in tax breaks. Meanwhile, Congress can't seem to hike its pants up, tie its shoes and find a real solution. Harry Reid and the Senate gave up.
But we haven't.
Wednesday, we announced a new campaign to end tax giveaways to oil companies. We're ready to take the fight all the way to the doors of Congress if need be.
Chip in $30 to help us meet our goal!
BREAKING: a bailout for BP's oil spil
As the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig continues to spill over 1 million gallons of oil into the Gulf every day, Republicans are demanding less regulation for companies like BP and Transocean while also looking for a taxpayer-funded bailout of BP. Yeah, I'm serious.
After a month of oil spewing into the Gulf, the cost of cleaning up BP's mess is $542 million and counting. But a group of Republican senators led by Lisa Murkowski of Alaska want the company to pay for only the first five days of the cleanup and put taxpayers on the hook for everything else.
That's right, Murkowski and her pals want to "Bail out BP."
We need to tell Murkowski and her Senate colleagues that this is not OK. Can you send a message to your Senators that it's time to end offshore drilling and focus on clean energy instead?
Send a message.
Stand Against Racism
The anti-immigrant racism we're reading so much about in Arizona flared into actual violence last week at our own affiliate's offices in Seattle. Marcelas Owens, an 11-year-old member of the group, said "I know we're on the right track because they wouldn't do things like this if we weren't as powerful as we are."
We *are* powerful when we stand together against violence and hate. The march for immigrant rights went forward as planned (see photo above).
Join us in sending a message to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer that real immigration reform doesn't include racial profiling and unjust search and seizure.
Sign the petition.
Sign here to create 1 million local jobs
This Great Recession has had a vicious double impact on local economies:
First, nearly 1 in 10 Americans are out of work. Second, the downturn has starved local governments of resources they need to fix potholes, hire teachers and keep cops on the beat.
But we can solve this problem and make our tax dollars do double duty by investing in public jobs that put people back to work.
President Roosevelt did it during the Great Depression with the Works Progress Administration. And now progressive champ Rep. George Miller has proposed the Local Jobs for America Act to put 1 million people back to work in the same way.
But with Congress just back from recess, we need a BIG show of support to create momentum and get this important bill a hearing. Click here to sign the petition and urge your elected officials to support the bill.
Sign the petition.
Help save 2.5 billion
The $3.8 trillion budget that President Obama announced yesterday gives us a second chance to win the change in priorities we've sought for years.
Last year, TrueMajority members proved that sensible budgets CAN be achieved when we won a huge fight to end wasteful Pentagon projects like the F-22 fighter jet.
That victory saved billions of dollars that can now be used to build schools and restart the economy. This year we have a chance to save $2.5 billion MORE by ending the C-17, another plane we don't need. Tell Congress to stop building C-17s, and other Pentagon toys we don't need.
"Senate votes to end funding for F-22 fighter jet" - USA Today, July 21, 2009
By now you've probably seen the news, but it's worth repeating: after years of work, this month
we WON the battle to end the outmoded F-22 fighter jet.
That will free up billions of dollars in tax money, which can be available for projects which
truly build America's strength. More importantly, though, the victory has shifted the playing
field. Mere days before this historic Senate vote, the conventional wisdom was what it has
always been: that you just can't kill a weapons program which defense contractors want. But t
hen the program WAS voted down, by an unexpected bipartisan majority of Senators. And in a
surprise announcement the very next day Rep. John Murtha, by most accounts the biggest player
in the Pentagon pork business, said he wouldn't fight anymore for the F-22 jets.
The point is: the tide we have been swimming against for so long has turned.
The Truth About Healthcare Reform
Dr. Howard Dean has been a physician, a governor, a presidential candidate and the head of the Democratic
National Committee. If there is one guy in America who knows what's wrong with our healthcare system and can
make sense of the current debate, it's him.
Listen to last night's show with Howard Dean by clicking the play button below.
