Use this thread to post humanitarian related actions!

ACTION PAGE: http://www.usalone.com/stacey/pnum339.php

Once again an increase in the Federal Minimum Wage has been blocked. 
We all know that no family or even one person can live on the Federal
minimum wage of $5.15 per hour. The fact that it is still this low is
disgraceful.

We, the voters of this country, must force all members of Congress to
understand that we cannot be fooled by political maneuvers or phony
dialogue about the proposed increases costing The USA jobs.  We must force
then, with our letters and words, to understand that WE, the voters in
their Districts and States, know their arguments don't hold water and
that people are being hurt everyday in America as a result of this
freezing Federal Minimum Wage while they give themselves fat pay increases.

Let both your Senators and your Congressional Representative know
exactly how disgusted you are by the blockage of a reasonable raise of the
Federal Minimum Wage on The Hill.  Only by knowing that you will
remember their final vote and exercise your power at the Ballot Box will they
begin to listen and pass this important bill.

ACTION PAGE: http://www.usalone.com/stacey/pnum339.php

This alert is brought to you through the activism of Stacey Tallitsh,
running for the U.S. House in the 1st Congressional district, and one of
the leading progressive voices in the state of Louisiana.  Many of you
have already submitted his action page calling for the troops in Iraq
to start coming home now, a policy that is more surely correct with
every passing state of emergency in Baghdad.

Stacey has already produced his first call to action radio spot,
calling for an end of the obstinate occupation of Iraq, a military escapade
which has brought nothing but death and destruction to both their
country and our own.  With your help, Stacey wants to start running these
radio spots on his local stations as soon as possible, to build the
consensus to actually start bringing our brave troops home.  You can hear the
new spot on this page.

ACTION PAGE: http://www.usalone.com/stacey/donations.php

Nobody can predict how a particular race will turn out.  But we know
that the spots we ran on impeachment had tremendous secondary impact, as
TWO other groups were inspired to run their own call to action ads on
this issue as a result of the investment we made in this action.  If you
are able to do so, please make whatever donation you can to continue
the stand we are taking on issue after issue.

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed
to be ours, and forward this message to everyone else you know.

If you would like to get alerts like these, you can do so at
http://www.usalone.com/in.htm

 [ send green star]

A small group of Southern lawmakers have derailed a House vote to renew expiring provisions of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), the landmark law that has protected the right to vote for millions of Americans.

They want to gut the act and make it easier to discriminate against minority voters. Not surprisingly, these lawmakers represent states with the worst records of continued voting discrimination.

We can’t let a small group of lawmakers destroy 40 years of progress! Email your representative and tell him or her to renew the VRA now. Go to http://action.aclu.org/vra

The Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006 (H.R. 9) would renew the expiring provisions of the VRA. It is precisely because of the provisions that prevent voter discrimination that progress has been made in securing voting rights for all citizens.

The ACLU is running an ad this week in Roll Call, a Washington D.C. newspaper that is widely read by members of Congress. The ad urges lawmakers to renew the VRA. Our ad can only be strengthened when members of Congress hear from their constituents.

Please contact your representative right now and tell him or her to support H.R. 9 and oppose any changes that would weaken the VRA. Congress must not allow a small group of lawmakers to return us to the days of Jim Crow.

Sincerely,

Caroline Fredrickson
Director, Washington Legislative Office
American Civil Liberties Union

 [ send green star]

Today, I want to share with you a little more about how you and your efforts are part of Amnesty International's critical network that changes lives for the better all over the world.

 Amnesty International, a Nobel Prize-winning organization, depends on people like you to help us prevent human rights abuses. In the months ahead, I hope that you will find time now and then to take action, make a gift, and tell others about speaking out for human rights.

Right now, we are working on a number of urgent issues that I think you will be interested in. Take a look - and take action if you can

 [ send green star]

Only weeks after the Supreme Court declared illegal the Bush Administration’s military commissions — which were set up to try and convict detainees held indefinitely without basic due process protections — the White House and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales are pushing Congress on an illegal proposal that violates the Supreme Court’s decision and abandons the rule of law.

The Bush plan would ask Congress to rubber-stamp these illegal commissions, effectively reversing the Supreme Court decision.  It would also violate the Geneva Conventions, which were ratified by Congress, taking away the most basic process protections from detainees who are being held indefinitely.  Don’t let the White House strong-arm Congress and the Supreme Court.

Go to http://action.aclu.org/tribunals to send a message to your Senators and Representative that the United States must abide by the Geneva Conventions and uphold American values of due process.

Specifically, the White House proposal would:

• Gut the enforceability of important Geneva Convention protections
• Allow the use of evidence obtained through coercion, including horrific abuse
• Sanction convictions based on secret evidence
• Bar a defendant from being present at his or her own trial
• Allow the use of hearsay evidence

During Senate hearings yesterday, even the Pentagon’s top military lawyers agreed that no one should be convicted based on secret evidence and that every defendant has the right to be present at his own trial. They also made clear that coerced evidence — such as “confessions” beaten out of witnesses — has no place in any trial.

Your Senators and Representatives need to hear from you that Americans want the rule of law restored. Tell them that any legislation on criminal trials of detainees being held indefinitely must protect the Geneva Conventions and maintain basic due process protections respected by all Americans.

Take action now at http://action.aclu.org/tribunals

Tell Congress that it should not take away the protections of the Geneva Conventions and basic American values like due process when trying detainees being held indefinitely by the federal government.

Thank you for taking action today.

Sincerely,

Caroline Fredrickson
Director, Washington Legislative Office
American Civil Liberties Union

P.S. To read more about the White House proposal before taking action, go here

 [ send green star]

Wal-Mart has repeatedly violated U.S. child labor laws and profited from overseas child labor abuses.

A recent investigation revealed children, some only 11 years old, were making Wal-Mart clothes in a Bangladesh factory. The children report being routinely slapped and beaten, forced to work 12 to 14 hours a day, often seven days a week, for wages as low as 6 and a half cents an hour.

In the United States, Wal-Mart's own internal audit found 1,371 instances in which minors worked too late at night, during school hours, or too many hours in a day. It also found 60,767 instances of workers missing breaks and 15,705 instances where employees were forced to work and miss meal times.

Despite all of this, Wal-Mart refuses to adopt a zero tolerance policy on child labor! Our children deserve better from Wal-Mart. This holiday season, tell Wal-Mart to adopt a zero tolerance policy on child labor.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/167618744

Sign and pass on. 

Mall-Wart EXPLOITS CHILDREN, BOTH as consumers, AND as producers of its products it sells as cheaply as possible, UNDERCUTTING employers in this country and abroad, that try to pay their workers DECENT WAGES and have DECENT WORKING CONDITIONS. In the so-called "Free Market", DECENT employers and their industries, often go under, because they can't compete with child labor, or prison labor, or virtual slave labor.

 [ send green star]

The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution says that no person "shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law."

But when Congress passed the Military Commissions Act last summer, it gave the Bush Administration the right to detain anyone labeled an "unlawful enemy combatant" - without charge or trial - for as long as it pleases.

Such practices have already been used against American citizens - not on some faraway battlefield, but right here on our own soil.

 [ send green star]

Posted by StopChildExecutions.com

Stop Child Executions Campaign

Behnam Zare is no loger allowed to have visitors as his 15 day stay of execution is ending. Beham can be executed anytime .

This is the last chance to contact world politicians and organizations to demand Iran's government to stop Behnam's execution before its too late.

For more information read :    http://scenews.blog.com/Behnam+Zare/

http://www.care2.com/news/member/989784779/473082

 [ send green star]

The petition is here

http://www.petitiononline.com/sce/petition.html

Thank you

Love and Peace

 [ send green star]