Janelle Monàe shows her support for President Obama with a performance at a recent campaign event in Chicago.
“I was deeply honored to be invited by the President to perform at the rally in Chicago at the University of Illinois at Chicago. It was an amazing feeling to be amongst so many people, young and old, black, white, red, disabled, all united, eager to help support a man who has ended the war in Iraq, gotten rid of “don’t ask don’t tell”- allowing anyone to serve this country regardless of who you love, made sure women were not paid less than men merely because they are women, doubled pell grants, given 2.5 million young people health insurance, and has created a law that recognizes that crimes based on sexual orientation, gender identity, race or disability aren’t just any crime- they’re hate crimes that deserve justice. These are all things he said he’d do before he was elected and did them. There are more important accomplishments that can be added to this list. I strongly believe our nation should continue upon this path, bringing justice to all and change where needed. President Obama remains the candidate of hope and change, and he will continue to move our country forward, bringing even more change if re-elected.” – Janelle Monàe
We’ve accomplished so much since Election Day 2008, but let’s make sure we finish the job together in 2012. Election Day 2012 is exactly one year from this week. That’s why we’re not waiting to build this campaign. Watch the video, then commit to volunteer and say you’ll show your support in 2012.
Since Election Day 2008, we’ve:
• Saved over one million jobs in the U.S. auto industry
• 20 consecutive months of job creation
• Took the fight to Al-Qaeda
• Reduced and secured nuclear weapons
• Passed health reform, lowering costs and insuring 32 million
Over the last 4 years, we’ve seen and live during some of the most interesting times in history. A lot has been accomplished and our beloved President wants to keep the momentum going for the year and term to come.
This movement needs you in it. We need you to finish the work we started. We’ve ended combat operations in Iraq and all of our troops will be home for the holidays. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is history. Comprehensive health reform is becoming a reality and already one million more young adults have health insurance because of it. And after a huge battle, we’ve put new rules in place to protect consumers and our economy from recklessness on Wall Street.
All of this is thanks to you and the work you’ve done. You proved the cynics wrong by helping build a movement for change but we have so much more to do. This is a moment that demands everything we’ve got to put people back to work and rebuild an economy that works for everyone. You’re our new generation of leaders and we’re stronger together than we can ever be on our own.
The White House gets a Halloween makeover in anticipation of trick-or-treaters to arrive at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and the White House pastry kitchen prepares 4000 gift bags to be handed out by The President and The First Lady for Halloween.
Even before Moammar Gadhafi’s death Thursday, the Treasury Department was already starting to thaw some $37 billion worth of frozen Libyan assets to make them available to the new government in Tripoli.
The new Libyan government will get all the money. Eventually.
Earlier this year, the United States froze its piece of what some analysts believe to be as much as $150 billion in assets that had been available to the Gadhafi regime around the world.
Outside of the United States, those assets range from real estate to stakes in the Italian bank UniCredit, the British publisher Pearson, which owns the Financial Times, and Italy’s soccer club Juventus.
At 7 a.m. tomorrow, Mayor Bloomberg is evicting the Occupy Wall Street protesters from their occupation of Zuccotti Park, unless you can help. Zuccotti Park is the birthplace of the Occupy protests sweeping the nation and capturing the public’s attention. It’s where a community of committed Americans are standing up against Wall Street and the corporate capture of our democracy for the 99% of us trying to take back the American Dream.
But tomorrow at 7 a.m., under Mayor Bloomberg’s orders, the NYPD is coming to Zuccotti Park to kick the 99% protesters out. It’s being done under the guise of “cleaning” the park, but new rules will mean the end of the occupation.
There is very little time to act. There is a need to gather a huge national petition as soon as possible, so it can be delivered to City Hall tonight and have it for the protesters in Zuccotti Park. So act now. Sign the petition and tell Mayor Bloomberg: “Respect the protesters’ First Amendment rights. Don’t try to evict Occupy Wall Street.”
Since we didn’t get to post more earlier this week in tribute to International Women’s Day, here’s another story to help put some more stamps on the scoreboard for women all over the world. Tena Clark, Grammy Award Winning Composer and music industry veteran, presented Secretary-of-State Hillary Rodham Clinton with a commemorative song titled, “I Believed,” to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day.
“I Believed,” was written and produced by Clark and performed by Judith Hill at the 2011 International Women of Courage Awards for an audience that included First Lady Michelle Obama, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Goldman Sachs Lloyd Blankfein; Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard; Kyrgyzstan President Rosa Otunbayeva, dignitaries and distinguished guests.
Secretary-of-State Clinton explained, “The International Women of Courage Awards honors women from around the world who have truly done heroic work to advance freedom, equality, opportunity, and dignity for all. They have risked their lives. They have served in prison. They’ve been harassed and oppressed. Sometimes their own children’s lives have been at risk. They have been insulted, beaten, and tortured. And yet, each of these women has found the strength to persevere in the face of fear, isolation, or repression. And they’ve done so not just one day or one year, but day after day and year after year.”
Troy Davis was convicted of the murder of officer Mark Allen Macphail in 1991 in Savannah, Georgia, USA, and despite doubts concerning his conviction, has been on death row for the last 19 years. Since 2007, Amnesty International has been campaigning with Troy’s family and other supporters for a new trial. Finally, in August of 2009, the US supreme court granted Troy another chance to prove his innocence in the form of an evidentiary hearing. During this hearing, four witnesses admitted that they lied at trial when Troy Davis was implicated, four witnesses also identified another man as the one guilty of the murder, and three original state witnesses described police coercion during questioning. Continue reading “Amnesty International x Mentalgassi” »
U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada simply have been erased under a program run by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol that issues The Trusted Traveler of North America cards.
