Mind Vomit by the ikss ~ a journal
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�Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead�
-Lucille Ball
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
--Theodore Roosevelt, 1918
REGISTER TO VOTE
"The time is always right to do what is right"
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
"The "seven social sins": Knowledge without character,
Science without humanity,
Wealth without work,
Commerce without morality,
Politics without principles,
Pleasure without conscience,
Worship without self-sacrifice."
--Gandhi
"We have not inherited the world from our forfathers -
We have borrowed it from our children."
--Kashmiri, proverb
U.S. Senate Rejects Bid to Ban Same-Sex Marriage
By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A divided U.S. Senate rejected a bid on Wednesday to amend the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, likely killing the measure backed by President Bush for at least this election year. . .
� Copyright Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved.
Needless to say...YAY!!!!!
~~~
1. Speak out to keep high-polluting foreign trucks out of California
The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that diesel trucks from Mexico may cross into California and other border states. Mexican trucks generally are older and emit more pollution than U.S. trucks. In fact, 80 percent of Mexican trucks were manufactured before Mexico even had emissions standards, so they emit far more nitrogen oxide and diesel particulate matter than U.S. trucks. Nitrogen oxide is a key component of smog, which causes respiratory illnesses and exacerbates asthma. Diesel particulate matter can cause premature death by damaging the respiratory system, and is a known carcinogen.
In addition to harming California's air quality and public health, allowing dirty diesel trucks from Mexico (or other countries) onto our roads will make it much harder for southern California to meet federal clean air standards. This will put even greater pressure on small businesses to cut emissions, and could jeopardize billions of dollars in funds that California receives from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
AB 1009 would require all foreign trucks entering California to meet U.S. emissions standards. It would help protect the health of people on both sides of the border by encouraging companies to buy cleaner trucks that meet the more stringent U.S. standards. The bill will be heard in the Senate Transportation Committee in early August. If it passes there, it will go back to the Assembly for a final vote before going to the governor.
== What to do ==
Send a message urging Governor Schwarzenegger and State Senator Murray, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, to support AB 1009 and to call for similar federal legislation.
== Contact information ==
You can send a message to Governor Schwarzenegger and Senator Murray directly from NRDC's Earth Action Center at http://www.nrdc.org/action/. Or use the contact information below to send your own message.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Fax: 916-445-4633
Email: [email protected]
Senator Kevin Murray, Chair
Senate Transportation Committee
State Capitol, Room 4082
Sacramento, CA 95814
Fax: 916-445-8899
Email: [email protected]
2. Speak out to protect California's environment from state budget cuts
As California grapples with another multi-billion dollar state budget deficit, environmental and public health programs face potential cuts. Many of these programs have already been cut to a bare minimum and have relied on bond funding to stay afloat. Now that most of the bond funding has been committed or has run out, state officials must find other ways to preserve these important programs without drawing heavily on the state's general fund. Environmental protection programs account for less than two percent of the state's $95 billion budget, so any further reduction to these programs would do little to help the state's budget situation anyway.
To help resolve the current impasse, Governor Schwarzenegger and the state legislature could and should adopt a modest package of proposals that includes placing fees on polluting industries. For instance, one such proposal, the Resources Trailer bill, would ensure that the costs of environmental protection do not fall solely on taxpayers, but also on the companies whose products and practices threaten our natural resources and public health.
== What to do ==
Send a message urging budget negotiators (Governor Schwarzenegger, Senate President Pro Tem Burton, Assembly Speaker Nunez, Senate Minority Leader Ackerman and Assembly Minority Leader McCarthy) to support environmental funding proposals in the Resources Trailer bill to protect California's key environmental and public health programs.
== Contact information ==
You can send your messages directly from NRDC's Earth Action Center at http://www.nrdc.org/action/. Or use the contact information and sample letter below to send your own messages. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Fax: 916-445-4633
Email: [email protected]
Senator John L. Burton
Senate President Pro Tem
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Fax: 916-445-4722
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Email: [email protected]
Senator Dick Ackerman
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Email: [email protected]
Assemblymember Kevin McCarthy
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Email: [email protected]
3. Help protect northern California's wilderness and wildlife
From its breathtaking coastline to its magnificent ancient forests, California's wealth of natural treasures is threatened by development and habitat destruction. Eighty-five percent of California's public forests (including old growth coastal redwood forests) have already been lost to logging, while only a small fraction of the state's 100 million acres have some form of protected status.
To stem the loss of any additional wild areas in northwest California, Sen. Boxer and Rep. Thompson introduced the Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act. The bill would protect nearly 300,000 acres of federal land in California as wilderness, and designate 21 miles of stream and river as wild and scenic -- safeguarding the homes of elk, black bears, bobcats, bald eagles and other imperiled species. These areas would continue to be available for hiking, fishing, camping, birding, horseback riding and many other uses, but off-limits to logging, mining, drilling and other harmful development activities.
Earlier this year after we asked you to urge Senator Feinstein to support the bill, she listened to your messages and co-sponsored the legislation. But, without Governor Schwarzenegger's support for the bill, House Resources Committee chair Pombo (R-CA) has indicated that he will not even schedule a hearing to move the bill forward.
== What to do ==
Tell California Resources Secretary Chrisman to urge Gov. Schwarzenegger to publicly support the Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act.
== Contact information ==
You can send a message to Secretary Chrisman directly from NRDC's Earth Action Center at http://www.nrdc.org/action/. Or use the contact information below to send your own message.
Secretary Mike Chrisman
California Resources Agency
1416 Ninth Street, Suite 1311
Sacramento, CA 95814
Email: [email protected]
Natural Resources Defense Council
40 West 20th Street
New York, NY 10011
212-727-4511 (voice) / 212-727-1773 (fax)
Email: [email protected]
http://www.nrdc.org
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~~~~~~~~~~~peace, love and smooches~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Don't know why you'd wanna, but on the off-chance you may feel tempted to steal any of my words and claim them as your own, please be advised:
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Copyright 2002-2005, Howl-at-the-Moon Words
***DISCLAIMER: These are my thoughts and my thoughts alone. If you know me in my "real life" off the net and have come across this page purely by accident, please keep in mind that you were not invited here and I would suggest you leave this page now. However, should you choose not to do so, please be warned that reading my thoughts here is not an invitation to discuss them off-line. You may discover things you do not know about me and may not like very much. Such is life. Again, this is MY space and I will use it as I see fit. If you are offended by anything here, well that's pretty much your own fault at this point.
I say all of this with love, of course, but there it is.
