October 31st: pds

pds_lit

October 31st

Oct 31, 2013 16:15

Holy Cow! The Red Sox won another World Series! And it only took them 9 years this time. I do not follow sports but I have to admit being happy for them.

The Victorian Latte Shawl was totally neglected last night.

It is overcast and intermittently raining today again. And to top that off there is nothing worse than being bitten by a tick on the breast. ARGH!

We had bit of kitchen drama last night. I went down to poke my nose into the icebox to see what we could do for dinner and it didn’t even feel cold. Now, this is almost a new fridge so I was having a bit of a fit. After doing the usual trouble shooting things like checking the breaker, the coils and intake vent it still was not working. As it turns out…Dearest…had put something into the fridge and inadvertently turn it off. I had checked the controls for both the fridge and the freezer but not the main one. Problem solved.

Our House of Representatives just passed a bill written and paid for by Big Banks. It puts you back on the hook for the dangerous “derivatives trading” that crashed our entire economy just 5 years ago.

Yesterday, Republicans and Democrats voted together to dismantle rules put in place in 2010 to prevent another economic meltdown and more taxpayer bailouts. 70 of the 85 lines in the new bill were literally written by lobbyists for Citigroup, a multinational megabank that helped bring the economy to its knees in 2008 and forced us to give them billions in bailouts.

This much is clear: Wall Street runs both major parties, and they’ll run our country into the ground if we let them. The American Anti-Corruption Act would make this whole mess completely illegal, so it’s time to change how we think about politics. It’s no longer about Republican vs. Democrat - It’s about Corrupt vs. Anti-Corrupt.

When you look at the facts, it’s hard to ignore the harsh reality. This video perfectly explains how corrupt things really are:
https://represent.us/action/beyond-partisan-corruption/

Click to view

Go sign the petition:
http://climatenamechange.org/

The Commerce Dept's Internet Policy Task Force proposed making it a felony to stream copyrighted content (aka SOPA Section 201).

Interpreted broadly, this proposal would apply to anyone who uploads a YouTube video of themselves covering a song without permission, a video with copyrighted music playing in the background, even your friend's embarassing karoke performance or your family singing "Happy Birthday To You."

The federal government wants to make streaming -- including material which falls under the "public performance" category -- punishable by years in prison.

As was pointed out last time they tried this, many artists depend on uploading YouTube covers to jumpstart their careers (including the young Justin Beiber...), and many others enjoy streaming creative interpretations of existing songs on their own websites or blogs. This proposal would make both subject to felony prosecution.

Click here to tell Obama NO to making streaming a felony, and NO new SOPA-style censorship: http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/streaming/?referring_akid=2268.655732.bYRpA8&source=taf

It is best that you watch this:

'We're building a domestic army' -Marine Corps colonel speaks out
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/15/1231397/--We-re-building-a-domestic-army-Marine-Corps-Colonel-speaks-out?detail=email

***How Government Cover-Up on Fish Farming Affects Your Health - Canada has a problem. It’s lengthy but worth the watch.

Petitions that need your signature

Subject: Here we go again…

The Monsanto protection act is back and may be included in the new 3-month spending bill!

Though wrapped in a “farmer-friendly” package, the Monsanto-driven rider remains simply a biotech industry ploy to continue to plant GE crops even when a court of law has found they were approved illegally.

Will you join me in telling Congress to exclude this dangerous rider in the upcoming spending bill?
http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/1881/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=11974&sp_ref=10142675.65.579.e.2444.2

The USDA is about to slash regulations for poultry plants, saving big corporations millions at the expense of public health and workers’ safety.

If new rules are allowed to go into effect, poultry plants will be able to follow less stringent health and safety rules, speed up their production lines, and police themselves for any violations. That means that chicken will come doused with feces and bleach and that workers will be at greater risk of serious injury.

Now the only person who can reverse these regulations is President Obama. Will you join me in saying that these that these disgusting rules are unacceptable?
http://action.sumofus.org/a/usda-chicken/2/?sub=taf

Rep. Darrell Issa is trying to pass a bill that would not only end Saturday delivery by the postal service, but also door-to-door mail service for millions. We must stop this outrageous attempt to kill the USPS and hand its business to FedEx and UPS. Go sign the petition:
http://act.credoaction.com/sign/issa_usps?akid=8606.952925.D3Dc4S&rd=1&t=2

They are at it again
The Texas Taliban - also known as the rightwing majority on the Texas State Board of Education - want to revise the state's standards for science textbooks to require the addition of religious pseudoscience when teaching subjects like biology. And this isn't just bad news for Texas school children because the Texas standards will impact the textbooks used by millions of students nationwide.

Texas may want to dumb-down their children by teaching them pseudoscience but I don’t want the children of my state to be taught this way. Tell textbook publishers to stand up to the Texas Taliban and only publish books that are based on sound, peer-reviewed science scholarship. Click the link below to sign the petition automatically:
http://act.credoaction.com/sign/texas_taliban/?sp_ref=7570952.4.422.e.0.2&referring_akid=8622.952925.lJjLf7&source=mailto_sp

The Mind Your Own Business Act
http://mindyourownbusinessact.com/?source=Jun13Email

America's top grocers are selling fake honey containing carcinogens, heavy metals, and banned antibiotics.
Get grocers to make sure they're selling us the real thing.
http://action.sumofus.org/a/honey-fake-walgreens/4/2/?akid=1806.65932.QE7P4I&rd=1&sub=fwd&t=3

The Wounded Knee site has been held sacred by the Lakota Sioux since the horrific massacre that happened there in 1890. Now, it's in danger of being sold to the highest bidder, including someone who would build a horse slaughterhouse on the plot.

The current owner has offered to sell the site to its rightful owners, the nearby Oglala tribe, for the cool price of $3.9 million. But The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, just a few miles from where Wounded Knee is located, is one of the poorest places in the country. To build a horse slaughterhouse on their sacred site after everything the tribe has already suffered would be unthinkable.
http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/AhnMh/zNI6/3R2f

And now a word about Monsanto and others like them. These profit-hungry biotech companies have found a way to exclusively ‘own’ something that freely belongs to us all -- our food! They’re trying to patent away our everyday vegetables and fruits like cucumber, broccoli and melons, forcing growers to pay them and risk being sued if they don’t.

Companies like Monsanto have found loopholes in European law to get away with this, so we just need to close them shut before they set a dangerous global precedent. And to do that, we need key countries like Germany, France and the Netherlands -- where opposition is already growing -- to call for a vote to stop Monsanto’s plans. Go sign the petition.
http://www.avaaz.org/en/monsanto_vs_mother_earth_loc/?bjeIjab&v=23911

Tell Nestlé: Stop trying to patent a natural cure
In a paper published last year, Nestlé scientists claimed to “discover” what much of the world has known for millennia: that nigella sativa extract could be used for “nutritional interventions in humans with food allergy”.
But instead of creating an artificial substitute, or fighting to make sure the remedy was widely available, Nestlé is attempting to create a nigella sativa monopoly and gain the ability to sue anyone using it without Nestlé’s permission. Nestlé has filed patent applications -- which are currently pending -- around the world.

Sing the petition:
http://action.sumofus.org/a/nestle-nigella-sativa/11/2/?akid=1601.65932.w0DNPx&rd=1&sub=fwd3&t=4

Maddow features PCCC activism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7LANHts78c

Tell Congress Social Security is non-negotiable.
http://act.couragecampaign.org/sign/standwithbernie

Amazon is at it again! Please go sign this petition. It is not fair for those of us who make our living by writing. Authors are not libraries and while most of us enjoy the social side of writing we do this to pay our bills. If some one returns an ebook after reading it our royalties get reduced.

I just signed the pe
etition "Amazon Kindle e-Book Return Policy: Stop allowing refunds on e-Books after e-Books have been read." on
http://Change.org/

It's important. Here's the link:
http://www.change.org/petitions/amazon-kindle-e-book-return-policy-stop-allowing-refunds-on-e-books-after-e-books-have-been-read

North Dakota just passed the most extreme abortion ban in the country. It's just one of some 300 bills across the country designed to take away women's rights and access to health care -- and ultimately to overturn Roe vs. Wade. Don't let lawmakers get away with it, take action today:
http://ppaction.org/WakeUpCall

Click here to tell Obama to veto CISPA:
http://act.demandprogress.org/letter/veto_cispa/?referring_akid=a8234599.655732.Af5Ve3&source=auto-taf

AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon have all agreed to start spying on their users.
The US's largest Internet Service Providers are implementing a new "online infringement" plan to identify and punish, with virtually no due process, users suspected of downloading copyrighted content.
https://act.demandprogress.org/letter/six_strikes_2013/?rd=1&t=1&referring_akid=undefined

Remember CISPA? Well, it’s back - sign the petition
http://www.cispaisback.com/

Oppose Seismic Surveys in the Atlantic - sign it please
http://action.surfrider.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6937

Tell Congress to Dump Monsanto's Riders!
http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/50865/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=8644

Bury Power Lines in Cities and Towns, Prevent Long-Lasting Outages, Improve National Security
http://signon.org/sign/bury-power-lines-in-cities?mailing_id=7341&source=s.icn.em.cr&r_by=913515

Protect Global Internet Freedom - go sign the petition
http://protectinternetfreedom.net/

The Sierra Club has a variety of actions to be taken. Just follow the link.
Send the congress a letter here:
http://action.sierraclub.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=9962

Do you really own the smartphone or computer you’re using to read this email?

If you sold your computer, would you be breaking the law? A federal court in New York says you would be.

It's unbelievable, but trademark and copyright holders really are trying to take away your right to sell things that you own. Please click here to fight back:
http://www.youvebeenowned.org/

The First-Sale Doctrine gives us the right to sell most property we own. But if the Supreme Court supports the lower court’s decision, we won't really “own” anything if it's from a different country. We expect them to issue a ruling later this year.

The President can urge the Court to side with consumers; then Congress will probably weigh in on the issue, no matter how the Court rules.

If we lose this fight, anybody who wants to resell foreign products, from Macbooks and iPhones to our clothing and textbooks, will have to ask copyright holders for permission first. And they'll have the right to deny it!

Just click here to email your lawmakers right away:
http://www.youvebeenowned.org/

There are two very bad internet bills that you need to be aware of. The first concerns making streaming content a felony. Read about it here:
http://act.demandprogress.org/letter/ten_strikes?akid=700.450896.5hVZPC&rd=1&t=1

and the second is the Protect-IP Act that gives the government power to censor search engines and browsers. Read more about it here:
http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/protectip_docs

Both of the above pages have a petition to sign so please do so.

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