Posts tagged vote
Tran Pacific Partnership like NAFTA on Steroids
Feb 20th
Tell Rep. Polis to Stop the TPP! At Rep. Jared Polis’ office, 4770 Baseline Rd., #220, Boulder 11:00 AM
What’s not to like under free trade? How about a staggering $181 billion U.S. trade deficit with NAFTA partners Mexico and Canada and the related loss of 1 million net U.S. jobs under NAFTA, growing income inequality, displacement of more than one million Mexican campesino farmers and a doubling of desperate immigration from Mexico, and more than $360 million paid to corporations after “investor-state” tribunal attacks on, and rollbacks of, domestic public interest policies.
Now the Obama administration–so concerned with “good jobs” for Americans, wants trade deals with East and Southeast Asian countries, where wages are as little as $ .25/hr. And he wants it fast. A broad coalition
of Congress isn’t supporting the TPP, but good ol’ liberal Rep. Jared Polis, D-CO isn’t one of them.
We need to pressure Representative Jared Polis to commit publicly himself to vote no on a TPP fast track. He has not made public statements vowing to vote no on the fast track and we consider his vote critical, especially since the Republicans are targeting newer representatives to urge them to approve it. We have a couple great weapons in our arsenal – signatures on a SignOn petition asking him to reject the fast track and our physical presence in his office while he is are home- so let’s use them to convince him that we are watching and waiting for him to show support for their constituents, not the corporations. MoveOn, as part of a coalition of progressives from Occupy Denver, Food and Water Watch, the Sierra Club, and Communications Workers of America will go to his Boulder office to deliver petitions and a letter this Thursday, Feb. 20. We will show him that we want him to represent us by taking a stand against the multinational corporations and the destructive TPP.
We urge everyone who can to join us for a show of strength and determination to stop the TPP fast track. This is a very critical issue that would negatively affect our economy, environment, workers’ rights, prescription drug availability, internet freedom, and much more. If you need more information, go to www.flushthetpp.org or www.stopthetpp.org. Then join us and exercise your right to representation, then to celebrate with us when we stop this intended corporate coup. Sign up here and get more details. Message from host:
For participants: : We will meet at Jared Polis’s office 4770 Baseline Rd., #220, Boulder 80303 at 11:00 a.m. We will bring talking points and a letter. All you need to do is join us. Later in the day, some of us will go to Rep. Ed Perlmutter’s office at 12600 W. Colfax Ave., Suite B-400, Lakewood, CO 80215 to deliver petition signatures and a thank you letter. You are invited to join us. He was leaning toward voting for the fast track until we made a lot of phone calls telling him that we the people do not approve of this and would never re elect him. He has now publicly stated that he will vote no on the fast track.
RSVP at http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/event.html?event_id=140717&id=91301-5272516-M2tTGsx&t=3
___________________________________________________
Thursday, February 20th, 2014
Powering The U.S. With Wind, Water, and Solar Power For All Purposes
Mark Z. Jacobson
Director of the Atmosphere Energy Program, Stanford University
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Bechtel Collaboratory
Discovery Learning Center
Engineering Dr, CU, Boulder
Global warming, air pollution, and energy insecurity are three of the most significant problems facing the world today. This talk discusses the development of technical and economic plans to convert the energy infrastructure of each of the 50 United States to those powered by 100% wind, water, and sunlight (WWS) for all purposes, including electricity, transportation, industry, and heating/cooling, after energy efficiency measures are accounted for.
The plans call for ~80% conversion by 2030 and 100% by 2050 through aggressive policy measures and natural transition. Wind and solar resources, footprint and spacing areas required, jobs created, costs, air pollution mortality and climate cost reductions, methods of ensuring reliability of the grid, and impacts of offshore wind farms on hurricane dissipation are discussed.
More information can be found here: www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/susenergy2030.html
_________________________________________________
Colorado Community Rights Network Presents:
COCRN.org ~ Facebook.com/COCommunityRights ~ Twitter.com/COCommRights Flier attached, feel free to print and distribute
1. Democracy School with Thomas LInzey
Friday, March 7, 6:30 – 9:30 pm Saturday, March 8, 9 am – 5 pm
First Unitarian Society of Denver, 1400 Lafayette St., Denver, CO 80218
Seating Limited ~ $125 if payment postmarked by February 26; $150 thereafter based on availability
Mail payment:
17087 E. 106th Ave., Commerce City, CO 80022 Make check out to Colorado Community Rights Network Limited scholarships available, contact COCommRights@gmail.com
2. Statewide Activist Strategy Session
Sunday, March 9, 9 am – 3 pm
RSVP to COCommRights@gmail.com ~ Location TBA
This or previous Democracy School (full, not mini) a prerequisite for attendance
Communities throughout Colorado and across the country are finding that, in the face of corporate exploitation, they don’t have full authority to protect public health, safety and welfare, economic and environmental sustainability, property value, and overall quality of life.
Corporations have court-conferred constitutional rights which they wield against communities to subjugate local rights that interfere with corporate expansion. Furthermore, corporate rights are defended by the state and federal government through the doctrine of preemption.
Citizens of five Front Range cities voted recently to ban or place a moratorium on fracking in their communities. The Colorado Oil and Gas Association, with the state’s support, is suing to overturn these elections. Local rights have been suppressed by other industries in towns and counties throughout the state.
The immortal words of the Declaration of Independence are regarded as a moral standard upon which our freedom was founded and to which we continue to strive: people are endowed with certain unalienable rights, “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” among them; government derives its power from the consent of the governed; and when any government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.
Today, our structure of law elevates corporate rights over the unalienable rights of citizens and usurps the consent of the governed.
To reclaim our rights, we must challenge corporate supremacy & change our structure of law that upholds it. Democracy School teaches you how.
Thomas Linzey, Executive Director and Chief Counsel for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, has over 15 years experience helping communities protect their health and quality of life in the face of corporate exploitation.
____________________________________________________
Another “sneak attack” on wildlife from GOP
Feb 3rd
Disguised as “Sportsmen’s Heritage Act, ”Legislation Would Also Roll Back Public-lands Protection, Promote Polar Bear Trophy Hunting
WASHINGTON— The U.S. House of Representatives will vote Tuesday on H.R. 3590, the misnamed “Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act.” Under the guise of expanding hunting and fishing access on public lands, the Republican-supported bill aims to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from protecting millions of birds and other animals from lead poisoning. The extremist legislation also contains provisions to undermine the Wilderness Act, dispense with environmental review for projects on national wildlife refuges, and promote polar bear hunting.
Lead poisoning from shotgun pellets still effects wildlife. Two years ago, a golden eagle that had nested in the Flatirons for several tears was found lead-poisoned on the NOAA/NIST grounds.
“Another cynical assault by House Republicans to roll back protections for public lands and wildlife,” said Bill Snape, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This supposed ‘sportsmen’s legislation’ would actually jeopardize the health of hunters, promote needless lead poisoning of our wildlife, and prevent hunters, anglers and other members of the public from weighing in on decisions about how to manage 150 million acres of federal land and water.”
H.R. 3590 seeks to exempt toxic lead in ammunition and fishing equipment from regulation under the Toxic Substances Control Act, the federal law that regulates toxic substances. The EPA is currently allowed to regulate or ban any chemical substance for a particular use, including the lead used in shot and bullets. Affordable, effective nontoxic alternatives exist for lead ammunition and lead sinkers for all hunting and fishing activities.
Spent lead from hunting is a widespread killer of more than 75 species of birds such as bald eagles, endangered condors, loons and swans, and nearly 50 mammals. More than 265 organizations in 40 states have been pressuring the EPA to enact federal rules requiring use of nontoxic bullets and shot for hunting and shooting sports.
“There are powerful reasons we banned toxic lead from gasoline, plumbing and paint — lead is a known neurotoxin that endangers the health of hunters and their families and painfully kills bald eagles and other wildlife,” said Snape.
H.R. 3590 would also exempt all national wildlife refuge management decisions from review and public disclosure under the National Environmental Policy Act and allow the import of polar bear “trophies” from Canada. The Republican-controlled House approved similar “Sportsmen’s Act” legislation in 2012 by a vote of 274-146, but the bill was stopped in the Senate.
Background
Despite being banned in 1992 for hunting waterfowl, spent lead shotgun pellets from other hunting uses continue to be frequently ingested by waterfowl. Many birds also consume lead-based fishing tackle lost in lakes and rivers, often with deadly consequences. Birds and animals are also poisoned when scavenging on carcasses containing lead-bullet fragments. More than 500 scientific papers have documented the dangers to wildlife from lead exposure. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service calculates that more than 14,000 tons of toxic lead shot is deposited in the environment each year in the United States by upland bird hunting alone.
Lead ammunition leaves fragments and numerous imperceptible, dust-sized particles that contaminate game meat far from a bullet track, causing significant health risks to people eating wild game. Recent scientific studies show that hunters have higher lead levels in their bloodstream, and more associated health problems, than the public at large. Some state health agencies have recalled venison donated to feed the hungry because of dangerous lead contamination from bullet fragments.
There are many alternatives to lead rifle bullets and shotgun pellets. More than a dozen manufacturers market hundreds of varieties and calibers of nonlead bullets and shot made of steel, copper and alloys of other metals, with satisfactory-to-superior ballistics. A recent study debunks claims that price and availability of nonlead ammunition could preclude switching to nontoxic rounds for hunting. Researchers found no major difference in the retail price of equivalent lead-free and lead-core ammunition for most popular calibers.
Hunters in areas with lead ammunition restrictions have transitioned to hunting with nontoxic bullets. There has been no decrease in game tags or hunting activity since state requirements for nonlead hunting went into effect in significant portions of Southern California in 2008 to protect condors from lead poisoning. California recently passed legislation to transition to lead-free hunting statewide by 2019.
Learn more about the Center’s Get the Lead Out campaign.
Voting made easy–Boulder style
Oct 30th
Four Voter Service and Polling Centers Open Now in Boulder County
Boulder County – All four Voter Service and Polling Centers in Boulder County are open through Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 5. VSPCs are available for voters who would like to:
· drop off their mail ballot
· cast a ballot in person
· request a replacement ballot
· register to vote or update their registration information
· vote using equipment and facilities for persons with disabilities.
VSPC locations:
· Boulder: Boulder County Clerk & Recorder’s Office, 1750 33rd St.
· Longmont: Boulder County Clerk & Recorder’s Office, 529 Coffman St.
· Lafayette: Boulder County Clerk & Recorder’s Office, 1376 Miners Drive, Suite 105
· Boulder: University Club, University of Colorado campus, 972 Broadway
Hours for all VSPCs through Election Day:
· 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday, Oct. 28-Nov. 4 (closed Sunday, Nov. 3)
· 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5 (Election Day)
Additional locations for drive-by ballot drop-off will open later this week.
The 2013 Coordinated Election is being conducted by mail ballot but, under Colorado’s new election law, any voter can cast a ballot in person at a Voter Service and Polling Centers. If you’re an active, registered voter and have not received a mail ballot for the Nov. 5 election, you should visit a Voter Service and Polling Center, call 303-413-7740 or email vote@bouldercountyvotes.org for more information.
Key Dates for the 2013 Coordinated Election:
· Tuesday, Oct. 15: Ballots mailed to all active, registered voters.
· Monday, Oct. 28: Last day to register to vote online for the coordinated election. New this year, voters may register in person at a Voter Service and Polling Center up to and including Election Day.
· Tuesday, Nov. 5: Election Day. All ballots must be in the hands of the Boulder County Clerk & Recorder’s Office by 7 p.m.
– On Twitter: @BoCoClerk –
[includeme src=”http://c1n.tv/boulder/media/bouldersponsors.html” frameborder=”0″ width=”670″ height=”300″]
