Category Archives: National/International News

Defend U.S. Sovereignty from Undemocratic Trade Pacts

177 Replies
TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION TO DEFEND U.S. SOVEREIGNTY, THE U.S. CONSTITUTION, U.S. REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT,  AND U.S. RULE OF LAW FROM IMMINENT THREAT!

The new Trans Pacific Partnership trade treaty (TPP) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) contain terms that OVERIDE NATIONAL AND STATE AND LOCAL PUBLIC HEALTH AND SAFETY LAWS, ENERGY AND TRANSPORTATION AND RESOURCE AND ECONOMIC POLICIES AND PROGRAMS, AND ULTIMATELY, U.S. SOVEREIGNTY AND REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT.

Their terms include the right to sue member countries whose laws appear to limit their right to maximum profit, in secret tribunals conducted by corporate lawyers, and with no right of appeal for member nations. (Similar terms under NAFTA have yielded $390 million in fines to member countries, by asserting that corporate “investor rights” to maximal potential profit trump all other rights and laws). TPP and TTIP trade treaties ramp up those “investor rights” even further.

Articles and websites below review what is at stake, namely:  U.S. Constitutional representative government, U.S. rule of law and sovereignty, the preservation of  public health and safety and clean air, water and land, and climate stability, and a functional society, our right to plan an economic system that includes a fair playing field for small businesses, allows for public project investment, good jobs,  and upholds the rights of all Americans!

Congress may vote as to whether to grant Fast Tract Authority on the TPP as early as next week

If they grant Fast Track, it would mean that they renounce their proper Constitutional role in crafting trade treaties, giving it up to a Trade Representative and the 600 corporations who are crafting the terms in secret, and agreeing to only vote Up or Down on the final terms (not modifying the agreement reached). De Facto, they would also be agreeing to renounce the role of representative government and the laws of the United States of America, agreeing to the underlying premise that foreign corporations have “investor rights” to maximal potential profit , that are superior any U.S. laws or policies or programs (federal, state, or local).

We the People cannot let this occur! Beyond party interests, beyond issue interests, we all must unite in demanding that  our Congressional Representatives and Senators vote NO to Fast Track.

Sign Petitions and Get Connected:

Obama administration resists Freedom of Information Request on Keystone XL approval process

659 Replies

State Department denies request for quick release of lobbyist documents; appeal filed

WASHINGTON – April 26 – The State Department has denied Friends of the Earth’s request for expedited release of internal documents that could shed light on the web of lobbyists TransCanada and the Province of Alberta have hired in order to fast track approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. Friends of the Earth today filed a formal appeal. Continue reading →

Cascading Climate Change Tipping Points Could Send the Planet into a Hellish Spin

179 Replies

In its 2012 World Energy Outlook, the International Energy Agency gives a flip of the coin, 50-50 chance of stopping short of 2 Celsius warming above pre-industrial levels, if, and it’s a big if, we keep 2/3 of all fossil fuels in the ground: http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/

Here’s reasonably well-argued scenario of what happens if we lose the flip of the coin.

“If we cross the ‘tipping point’ of Amazonian collapse and soil carbon release that lies somewhere above two degrees, then another 250 ppm of CO2 would pour into the atmosphere, yielding another 1.5C (2.7F) of warming and taking us straight into the four-degree world. Once we arrive there, the accelerated release of carbon and methane from thawing Siberian permafrost will send even more greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, driving yet more warming, and perhaps pushing us on into the five-degree world. At this level of warming, Š organic methane hydrate release becomes a serious possibility, catapulting us into the ultimate mass extinction apocalypse of six degrees. The lesson is as clear as it is daunting: If we are to be confident about saving humanity and the planet from the worst mass extinction of all time, worse even than that at the end of the Permian, we must stop at two degrees.”

Mark Lynas. Six Degrees. 2008. National Geographic Society by arrangement with HarperCollins. P.276

Move To Amend Announces proposed bill banning “Corporate Personhood”

268 Replies
On Monday, February 11th at 10AM at the National Press Club in Washington DC, Move to Amend joined members of Congress as they introduced Move to Amend’s “We the People Amendment”, an amendment that clearly and unequivocally states that:1) Rights recognized under the Constitution belong to human beings only, and not to government-created artificial legal entities such as corporations and limited liability companies; and

2) Political campaign spending is not a form of speech protected under the First Amendment.