PoliticalAction.com Blog

Fred Krupp President of the Environmental Defense Fund wrote, “Congratulations to President Obama on his re-election to a second term, and to all of those who will be serving in the 113th Congress. We look forward to working with them to solve our country’s most pressing environmental problems, including global climate change. As the President declared last night, ‘we want our children to live in an America … that isn’t threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet.’

Previously, Nat Keohane Vice President of the EDF, stated, “…The magnitude and urgency of the challenge have not diminished. If we needed any reminder of that fact, Hurricane Sandy should have provided it—especially coming on the heels of devastating drought, record-breaking temperatures through the spring and summer, and a record low in the extent of Arctic sea ice.

“…Addressing global warming will be politically challenging—but presidents are not elected to do the easy things, and political realities are not set in stone. The first step to tackling climate change is to start talking about it, not just once in a while but routinely, as a fact of life rather than a special-interest issue.

“The next president must build public understanding of the issue, connecting the dots between our own actions and the extreme weather we are already seeing. He must engage folks from across the political spectrum on the possible solutions. And he must be willing to spend political capital to get something done.”
“Exit polls confirm that for millions of American voters, Hurricane Sandy and climate change were decisive factors in this election. As the historic storm just reminded us, we have no time to waste; we must get serious about climate solutions in order to protect our loved ones and communities from terrible impacts — extreme weather disasters, droughts, heat waves, and other dangerous consequences of global warming. Especially in the wake of Sandy, which demonstrated that doing nothing about climate change is much costlier than taking action, this issue clearly should be a top priority for our leaders in government.”

Reference: Global Warming Has Caused Irreparable Damage

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA — Washington state and Colorado legalized recreational use of marijuana. Manager of the initiative in Washington, Alison Holcomb said, “Today the state of Washington looked at 70 years of marijuana prohibition and said it’s time for a new approach.”

“Federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug, so don’t break out the Cheetos or gold fish too quickly.”—John Hickenlooper, Governor of Colorado

The statisticians have declared President Obama to be the winner for his re-election bid.

The electoral vote at 11:30 PM EST:

Electoral College Votes on Election Day 2012

Alice Cooper On Tour

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA — In 1972, Alice Cooper ran against Richard Nixon for President of the United States. Alice Cooper was born Vincent Damon Furnier on February 4, 1948. Originally, Alice Cooper was the name of the band with Furnier on vocals and harmonica, lead guitarist Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce on rhythm guitar, Dennis Dunaway on bass guitar, and drummer Neal Smith. In 1975, Vincent adopted the band name as his own.

Songwriters: BUXTON, EDWARD / BRUCE, MICHAEL / DUNAWAY, DENNIS / SMITH, NEAL / COOPER, ALICE
I’m your top prime cut of meat, I’m your choice,
I wanna be elected,
I’m your yankee doodle dandy in a gold Rolls Royce,
I wanna be elected,
Kids want a saviour, don’t need a fake,
I wanna be elected,
We’re all gonna rock to the rules that I make,
I wanna be elected, elected, elected.

I never lied to you, I’ve always been cool,
I wanna be elected,
I gotta get the vote, and I told you ’bout school,
I wanna be elected, elected, elected,
Hallelujah, I wanna be selected,
Everyone in the United States of America.

We’re gonna win this one, take the country by storm,
We’re gonna be elected,
You and me together, young and strong,
We’re gonna be elected, elected, elected,
Respected, selected, call collected,
I wanna be elected, elected.

“And if I am elected
I promise the formation of a new party
A third party, the Wild Party!
I know we have problems,
We got problems right here in Central City,
We have problems on the North, South, East and West,
New York City, Saint Louis, Philadelphia, Los Angeles,
Detroit, Chicago,
Everybody has problems,
And personally, I don’t care.”

PENNSYLVANIA —

Your vote is your voice and your right. That’s why our efforts to protect the right to vote did not end with the Oct. 2 court decision that put a hold on the voter ID law for this election.

We have been working hard to educate voters about the fact the voter ID law is not in effect for now — a challenging task with the commonwealth’s misleading “Show it!” campaign and misinformation circulated by the state and several townships. We fought in court, unfortunately unsuccessfully, to force the state to clarify the state of the law to the public. Make sure you know your rights on Election Day by reading our voters’ rights brochure (in pdf).

ACLU of PA is part of a large coalition of groups who are working to identify and respond to problems on Election Day. Around the sate, we have lawyers on the ground, ready to go to court if needed to defend the right to vote. Call the Election Protection Hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683) to report any problems.

Thank you for supporting us throughout this crucial fight to make sure every eligible voter gets to cast a ballot.

Sincerely,

Reginald T. Shuford Executive Director, ACLU of Pennsylvania

by the New York Times

A Non-Issue in Campaign

During the 2012 presidential campaign, neither President Obama nor Mitt Romney, his Republican challenger, spoke much about climate change, despite the fact that both men agree that the world is warming and that humans are at least partly to blame. None of the moderators of the four general-election debates asked about climate change, nor did any of the candidates broach the topic.

Throughout the campaign, Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney have seemed most intent on trying to outdo each other as lovers of coal, oil and natural gas — the very fuels most responsible for rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Mr. Obama has supported broad climate change legislation, financed extensive clean energy projects and pushed new regulations to reduce global warming emissions from cars and power plants. But neither he nor Mr. Romney has laid out during the campaign a legislative or regulatory program to address the fundamental questions arising from one of the most vexing economic, environmental, political and humanitarian issues to face the planet

As governor of Massachusetts, Mr. Romney considered joining a regional cap-and-trade system, then abandoned it because of uncertainty over costs. He has opposed Mr. Obama’s steps to regulate emissions from power plants and vehicles. He has said he would reverse Mr. Obama’s air quality regulations and would renegotiate the auto efficiency standard of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 that automakers agreed to this year.

ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING

Global warming has become perhaps the most complicated issue facing world leaders. Warnings from the scientific community are becoming louder, as an increasing body of science points to rising dangers from the ongoing buildup of human-related greenhouse gases — produced mainly by the burning of fossil fuels and forests.

Global emissions of carbon dioxide jumped by the largest amount on record in 2010, upending the notion that the brief decline during the recession might persist through the recovery. Emissions rose 5.9 percent in 2010, according to the Global Carbon Project, an international collaboration of scientists. The increase solidified a trend of ever-rising emissions that scientists fear will make it difficult, if not impossible, to forestall severe climate change in coming decades.

However, the technological, economic and political issues that have to be resolved before a concerted worldwide effort to reduce emissions can begin have gotten no simpler, particularly in the face of a global economic slowdown.

For almost two decades, the United Nations has sponsored annual global talks, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, an international treaty signed by 194 countries to cooperatively discuss global climate change and its impact. The conferences operate on the principle of consensus, meaning that any of the participating nations can hold up an agreement.

The conflicts and controversies discussed are monotonously familiar: the differing obligations of industrialized and developing nations, the question of who will pay to help poor nations adapt, the urgency of protecting tropical forests and the need to rapidly develop and deploy clean energy technology.

But the meetings have often ended in disillusionment, with incremental political progress but little real impact on the climate. The negotiating process itself has come under fire from some quarters, including the poorest nations who believe their needs are being neglected in the fight among the major economic powers. Criticism has also come from a small but vocal band of climate-change skeptics, many of them members of the United States Congress, who doubt the existence of human influence on the climate and ridicule international efforts to deal with it.

To all those posting about the presidential election, I offer, “Besides… don’t you get it… pity the president who inherits the fiscal cliff. He will feel the pain.”

Gary Johnson — Libertarian Party candidate; Former Governor of New Mexico
Mitt Romney — Democratic Presidential Nominee; President of the United States
Barack Obama — Republican Presidential Nominee; Former Governor of Massachusetts
Ron Paul — Declared 2012 Republican Presidential Candidate; U.S. Representative from the State of Texas

Dear friend of liberty,

I’m disappointed to tell you that two weeks ago the Pennsylvania state Senate voted to criminalize Pennsylvania’s teenagers for the very human experience of coming to terms with their sexuality.

In a move that showed more concern for what occurs in our teens’ bedrooms than for real criminals, the Senate passed legislation to criminalize underage teens for “sexting,” the electronic distribution of semi-nude, nude, or sexually explicit images.

Would you like to find out if your state senator was one of 12 senators who voted against this bill? You should then take one minute to contact your state senator and share your feelings about the vote on the sexting bill.

Incredibly, the bill, which was signed by Governor Corbett last week, even criminalizes victims of abuse. For example, a teen could produce a picture of herself or himself in a state of semi-nudity and send it to one other person, such as a dating partner. If that picture is later distributed to others against the will of the person in the photo, she is still guilty of a crime, compounding her suffering as a victim.

This is a public health issue that is best handled by parents and child development professionals, not the government and not district attorneys. Tell your state senator that you support civil liberties and Pennsylvania’s kids.

In liberty,