President Obama, for reasons that are not clear, delayed signing an International treaty banning land mines. This shocked many people -- including me. Here is what YOU can do:

As mentioned above, the U.S. already adheres to most of the accord. So can we expect Obama to sign on in the near future? All hope is not lost, but his signing the treaty won't be immediate, no. I predict a holding pattern on all sides until the health care reform bill is passed. As Don Kraus, CEO of Citizens for Global Solutions noted, when it comes to these kinds of decisive issues:

"It's more a question of timing than commitment. There's limited bandwidth in terms of what the administration and the Senate can do at any one time."

That doesn't mean we have to wait, however. While Obama collects his Nobel Peace Prize next week, we can gently remind him of the commitments he made to human rights that won him that prestigious honor.


Take Action:

• Sign this Care2 Petition to ask the Senate to pass a bill banning landmine use.

• Sign this Care2 petition now and let Obama know that you support the U.S. signing the Mine Ban Treaty.

The above was posted by Steve W.; and the full text can be found under "Causes".

Obama Admin Slip-Up Puts Weight on Landmine Issue

posted by: Steve W.

legalize mariguana now

how can the laws prohibiting the use of marijuana be allowed??? they go against the

'The whole anti-marijuana hysteria is TOTALLY WRONG; it was fueled by RACISM in the first place, because "minorities" in this country used it {such as Black jazz musicians, who were "corrupting our youth with the Devil's Music"}. Everybody now KNOWS that this hysteria is falsely-based. Judges, lawyers, doctors, prosecuting attorneys, and almost all candidates for public office {!} and members of their staffs and their families, either have used it at one time, or are STILL using it. [Verifiable: a HUGE percentage of Americans have used marijuana at some time or other!] BUT, THEY don't have to worry about being caught and put in jail! WHAT TOTAL HYPOCRISY!!! Let EVERYONE out of jail NOW, who was busted on non-violent Marijuana charges! The ONLY right thing to do!!!'

 http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=13568661

The measure, HR 2943, an "Act to Remove Federal Penalties for Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults", would eliminate federal penalties for the personal possession of up to 100 grams (three and one-half ounces) of cannabis and for the not-for-profit transfer of up to one ounce of pot - making the prosecutions of these offenses strictly a state matter.

Maine Voters First to Licence Medical Marijuana

Maine Voters First to Licence Medical Marijuana

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Health & Wellness  (tags: medicalmarijuana, cannabis, marijuana, medicalcannabis, maine, elections, voters, patientsrights, drugs, medicine )

BMutiny - huffingtonpost.com

Maine voters overwhelmingly approve licencing Medical Marijuana; other States poised to vote on similar measures. Landslide victory for Cannabis advocates! Federal Law will no longer interfere in States' Medical Cannabis regulation.

But we know now that reducing emissions is not enough. Millions of lives are being upended by the effects of changes in climate - food scarcity, water scarcity, vulnerability to natural disasters and infectious diseases, and population displacement. Women and children are the most vulnerable groups to climate change.

So how does reproductive health fit into this picture? A new study by the UK-based Optimum Population Trust and the London School of Economics shows the connection between contraceptives and climate change.

The study concludes that universal access to reproductive health could be one of the most cost effective ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

A Population Action International report from May detailed how population dynamics, not just overall growth, contribute to climate change.

This helps to broaden our thinking around the diversity of strategies that will be needed for meaningful and lasting solutions to climate change as world leaders try to hammer out a new global climate treaty.

Investing in contraceptives and reproductive health is about more than reducing emissions. It is also a critical piece of reducing vulnerability and building resilience to the impacts of climate change.

This is true from a demographic perspective, as well as at the individual and household level.

VULNERABILITY HIGH WITH RAPID GROWTH

Rapid population growth can exacerbate existing vulnerability to the impacts of climate change.

Population growth rates in highly vulnerable low-elevation coastal zones in Bangladesh and China are nearly twice as high as national averages.

In Ethiopia, the combination of rapid population growth and climate-induced declines in agricultural production will heighten food insecurity.

At the household level, a woman with access to reproductive health services is healthier and has healthier children. She has greater opportunities to diversify income sources. And she is more likely to be able safeguard herself and her family in the event of disaster.

From the "Alternative Newspaper" The Stranger, October 29, 2009.

Monday, October 19.

......The U.S. Justice Department released an impressive new policy memo discouraging federal prosecution of pot smokers in those states that have legalized medical marijuana. Details come from the Associated Press, which reports that today's three-page memo instructs federal prosecutors that they "should not focus federal resources... on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana." However, as Attorney General Eric Holder said, "we will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal," with the memo encouraging full prosecution of pot transactions involving violence, illegal firearms, sale to minors, and/or money laundering.

Thanks to the Obama administration for this lovely bit of common-sense law enforcement, and congratulations to medical marijuana users in Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, who can now take their state-sanctioned medicine with diminished risk of federal prosecution.

From an ad placed in the Seattle, WA "alternative" newspaper, "The Weekly", October 21 - 27, 2009.]

JESUIT SEXUAL ABUSE OF NATIVE AMERICAN CHILDREN ON RESERVATIONS IN WA, ID, MT, OR & AK

[red and caps in the original announcement]

[That is in Washington State, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Alaska.]

Did you attend Jesuit Mission or other boarding schools where children were raped, molested and beaten?

You are not alone. It was not your fault.

Some Jesuits were good to Native children but unfortunately, too many were not. The Jesuits dumped their worst child molesters on the Reservations where Jesuit Officials allowed these men to molest and brutalize native children many of whom had been taken away from their parents and placed in Jesuit missions and boarding schools.

If you or someone you know suffered abuse by a priest or other religious, you have important information that will help protect today's children. Speak confidentially to attorneys seeking information about priests and religious serving at missions, schools and parishes in the Northwest since the 1930's. {Partial list below.}

Now the Jesuits are seeking to permanently cut off abuse victims' rights to justice, healing and compensation. The court deadline is fast approaching.

Toll Free 1-888-667-0683

[A partial listing of 8 NAMED priest offenders follows; I will give here only the names of the reservations on which the abuse took place:]

Omak, WA

Yakima, WA

Inchellium, WA

Desmet & Lapwai, ID

St. Ignatius, MT

Rocky Boy, MT

Ft. Belknap, MT

Missoula, MT

[then there follow small photographs of some of these priests]

[I am SO GLAD they are getting "outed"!]

Northwest Attorneys for Justice www.jesuitabuse.com

[I'm not giving here all the addresses: but the Law Firms include: Pfau, Cochran, Vertetis & Kosnoff, PLLC, in Seattle, WA; Eymann, Allison, Hunter & Jones, P.S., in Spokane, WA; James, Vernon & Weeks, P.A., in Coeur d'Alene, ID; and Chasan & Walton, LLC, in Boise, ID. The website will of course have more info.]

[PLEASE, PLEASE RE-POST THIS IN ALL NATIVE AMERICAN WEBSITES YOU KNOW; and on Facebook, etc. etc. etc. NOTE THAT THERE IS A TIME LIMIT! Some form of Justice, Healing and Compensation is LONG OVERDUE for these victims and survivors of abuse.]

In an ideal, perfect world {where's that?}, the Nobel Committee would be nothing but a bunch of starry-eyed idealists, awarding the prize to other starry-eyed idealists. ALWAYS. Well, SOMETIMES it works that way. {I could list a few of these "deserving" recipients if I had the time.}

At other times, the Nobel Prize Committee, just like everyone else on the Planet it seems, is Playing Politics -- and it has been so from the very beginning. Look at the HISTORY of the Nobel Peace Prize! It was awarded to such "warriors" as: Teddy Roosevelt! {Spanish-American War}; Woodrow Wilson! {took the US into WWI}; Yasser Arafat! {sortof a "terrorist", wouldn't you say?}; and - even! HENRY KISSINGER! {one of the WORST of the warmongers.....!}. Yes, it was a matter of "encouraging" certain people and actions by these people and "trends". Not awarded necessarily because these people were "saints and angels". It could even be called, "interfering in the affairs of another country"; and that's NOT NECESSARILY a Bad Thing, when that country has power on a WORLD stage like the US does!

I think this action by the Nobel Peace Prize Committe was a stroke of GENIUS. It seems to me, irrelevant whether the prize was "deserved" in a strict sense, or not! {President Obama was very gracious about saying he felt he "didn't deserve it". Now, he has EVEN MORE TO LIVE UP TO! That's a GOOD thing!!!}

This prize award has CHANGED THE COMPLEXION OF POLITICS IN THE USA. For one thing, THE REPUBLICANS AND THE FAR-RIGHT ARE MAKING TOTAL PUBLIC IRREDEEMABLE FOOLS OF THEMSELVES! That ALONE is worth it! You see, the Repukelicans and the Far Right NEVER DID ACTUALLY HAVE THE PUBLIC SUPPORT THAT THEY CLAIM TO HAVE. The only way they can APPEAR to have any support, is because THE MEDIA GIVES THEM ALL THAT PUBLICITY. While these clowns PRETEND to be leading a "grassroots movement", teabaggers, anti-health-care dupes, etc.; the movement is in actuality, nothing but {I LOVE that phrase!}, an "ASTROTURF" movement!!! {For those to whom English is a second language, "Astroturf" is a kind of ARTIFICIAL grass, used in sports stadiums, etc.}
This is PROVED by the fact that POLLS SHOW that all the efforts of the Right-wingers HAVE NOT CHANGED PUBLIC OPINION {on Health Care, for example}, by any significant number of percentage points!!!!!
However, the Media by giving undue PUBLICITY to the ranting bigots, and virtually NONE to even huge protests by OUR side; give a completely DISTORTED view.

Well, there is such a thing, apparently hard-wired into most human beings, such a thing as PATRIOTISM. Even birds and animals, LOVE and defend their "home base", their territory, their Homeland! The Repukes have PUT THEMSELVES ON THE WRONG SIDE; by being snide about their favorite hate-object, Obama, getting the award!!! But, all the LATENT PATRIOTISM of MOST folks, as well as the CONTINUING SUPPORT FOR OBAMA that in some instances has been INTIMIDATED and muted into silence, has NOW come to the fore!!!!!

Whether on purpose or not {and I think these Norwegian guys are quite a savvy bunch!}, this comes at a time when the SEEMING power and influence of the Far Right APPEARED to be out-of-control. This giving of the award sure CUTS THEM DOWN TO SIZE!!! Not only do WE, up-to-now ignored by the Media, WE get our VOICES back; but I feel, with all the irresponsible Right-wing rant encouraging actual VIOLENCE, I feel that GIVING THIS AWARD AT THIS TIME MAY HAVE EVEN SAVED OUR PRESIDENT FROM ASSASSINATION. Because THAT's where all this "talk" was headed, make no mistake!

Of course I am very pleased for President Obama, his supporters in the government, his family both in the US and in Kenya, our country and those who had the good sense to vote for Obama {without waiting for the "perfect person" to come along}. This award will INDEED "ENCOURAGE" certain types of good, peace-tending policies; which WAS the original intent of the founder of the Prize, Alfred Nobel. Its net result will ALSO be, perhaps even more importantly, to ENCOURAGE the supporters of President Obama, including even some of the previously dis-illusioned ones, to PUSH EVEN HARDER for the policies for Peace that WE want to see instituted: leaving Iraq and Afghanistan, no drone bombers, dis-mantle American bases, even MORE nuclear disarmament, etc. etc. etc. This has been SOOOOOOO good for our country; and for what we want!

And the Far Right, our deadly enemies, self-destruct EVEN FASTER...... leaving the path for Reform that much clearer.......

Si Se Puedes! Yes We Can! HOPE is back to the foreground......!