Common Sense Democracy

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As a veteran myself, I just want to wish all those who have served in our military a happy Veteran’s Day. With so much going on in the world, it’s important to say thanks to those who are still fighting the fight. It’s also important to recognize the contributions of ALL veterans, not just the straight ones. There are over 65,000 gay and lesbians currently serving in the armed forces but they are not allowed to serve openly. The Service Members Legal Defense Network (SLDN.org) states,

According to the Pentagon, it has discharged more than 10,000 service members for being gay, including nearly 800 with skills deemed “mission critical” by the Department of Defense. Those who have been discharged include linguists, combat engineers, pilots, medical professionals and others. According to statistician Gary Gates, the armed forces could attract as many as 41,000 new recruits by repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” in addition to the 65,000 lesbian and gay Americans already on duty in the active duty, reserve and national guard forces.

This session of congress has finally introduced legislation to repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, with 100 members of congress co-sponsoring the bill. The bill is called the Military Readiness Enhancement Act (H.R. 1059). If you want to learn more about the legislation you can check out the SLDN website.

Some may say, “hey this is Veteran’s Day, don’t hijack this holiday to push your own gay agenda, it’s about the veterans not about being gay”. Well it is about the veteran’s but it’s about all of us who served. Have you served? Did you get off your ass and stand up and do your time? If you didn’t, then don’t talk to me about hijacking Veteran’s day. I earned it. I served for 4 years and lived a misserable lie just because I felt being an officer was more important than being gay. With the ban on gays in the military, Veteran’s day is merely a holiday for “everyone else”. Gay veterans have served, fought and died to protect a way of life they could not themselves enjoy and until we are all equal under the law with the same opportunities to pursue our own careers along side everyone else, then there is no such thing as a nice quiet Veteran’s day.

You can take action and tell your representative in congress that you support the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Visit the Human Rights Campaign website for information on sending an email. You may not have served in the military yourself, but you can at least get off your ass this time around and send a simple email. As they say, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

And if you think the ban on gays and lesbians is justified and should continue, then head on down to your local recruiters office and sign up. There’s plenty of room in line for those allowed to serve.

We are a nation of smart, talented and skilled people. Imagine what we could accomplish if we were also equal.

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Growing up as a kid, I’d always been tought that God was forgiving and merciful and loving. Apparently, however, with the advent of television and democratic elections, he has become mad, vengeful and quite politcal.

In Dover, Pennsylvannia, all eight school board members up for re-election lost their seats Tuesday after trying to introduce “intelligent design” to high school science students as an alternative to the theory of evolution. Pat Robertson on his television show, “The 700 Club”, stated, “I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city,” Robertson said on his daily television show broadcast from Virginia, “The 700 Club.”

“And don’t wonder why He hasn’t helped you when problemsbegin, if they begin. I’m not saying they will, but if they do,just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And ifthat’s the case, don’t ask for His help because he might not bethere,” he said.

I don’t think God cares half as much about “intelligent design” in the school’s curriculum as he does about national religious leaders, such as Robertson, spewing hate and vengence. Church isn’t about voting for the right candidate, it’s about faith, forgiveness and tolerance.

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ExxonMobil recently announced the largest quarterly profits—$9.9 billion—of any American corporation in history. Of course nobody is going to condemn the right of a business to earn profit, it’s the reason businesses exist and is the cornerstone of a healthy capitalistic society. We are not, after-all, a socialist state. But there are currently congressional hearings going on regarding the recent oil industry profits and whether ExxonMobil is unfairly raising prices while at the same time crushing any and all attempts to fund alternative energy research.

Via MoveOn:

During yesterday’s hearings on recent record oil industry profits, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) told the oil executives, “People are concerned about fairness and justice at a time of sacrifice. Your sacrifice appears to be nothing.”….

The only answer to the current energy crisis is energy independence. That’s something we’ll be working on together in the next few weeks—one of the big positive things progressives stand for. And we’re starting with ExxonMobil, the biggest obstacle in the way.

Exxon owes much of its lobbying success to close ties to Republican leaders. Over the last decade, Exxon has given more than $5.2 million to Republicans, while giving less than $650,000 to Democrats.3 This year 91% of Exxon’s political contributions have gone to Republicans.4 In turn, Republican energy policy has amounted to a series of massive handouts to the oil industry. Even now, with Republicans grandstanding with show hearings on television, they refused to make the oil executives testify under oath.5 Together with the coalition, we’ll deliver your petition signature to ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond, and we’ll send a copy to Congress to help break Exxon’s stranglehold on our government.

There are four main areas in which Exxon needs drastic change:

1. With gas prices near $3 a gallon, it’s outrageous to watch ExxonMobil rake in record profits while refusing to support greater fuel economy or invest significant amounts in cleaner, healthier energy.
2. ExxonMobil is the only oil company that remains part of Arctic Power, the group lobbying Congress to open the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Congress will cast the final vote on drilling in the Arctic shortly.
3. ExxonMobil has spent over $15 million since 1998 to deny the existence of global warming by funding junk science groups to cloud the debate. The company lobbies against efforts to fight global warming even as it alone is responsible for 5% of the world’s output of the main type of global warming pollution.
4. Remember the Exxon Valdez tragedy? Exxon’s tanker killed hundreds of thousands of seals, otters, birds, fish and whales when it spilled 11 million gallons of thick, deadly crude oil into the waters of Alaska’s pristine Prince William Sound. Yet despite making a record profit of $25 billion last year, ExxonMobil is still shirking payment of the full amount it owes fishermen and natives hurt by the spill 16 years ago!

The Exxpose Exxon campaign includes a dozen leading environmental and public interest groups, including the Union of Concerned Scientists, U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG), True Majority, the Alaska Coalition, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Defenders of Wildlife, and more.

If you want to learn more about his issue and sign a MoveOn.org petition to ExxonMobil, you can click on this link: http://political.moveon.org/exxon/?id=6320-4350126-2Vyr_9mTzR32AKYeWNjb5g&t=3.

Technorati Tags: ExxonMobil, Movon.org, energy, global+warming

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Today in 1976, Georgia governor and former peanut farmer Jimmy Carter along with Senator Walter Mondale of Minnesota as his running mate, defeated incumbent Gerald R. Ford to become the 39th president of the United States.

Today in 1983, in honor of the slain civil rights leader, President Ronald Reagan signs a bill designating every third Monday in January as Martin Luther King Day, the first such federal holiday to be established since the annual celebration of the birth of George Washington.

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