November, 02 2012, 03:49pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Drew Courtney or Josh Glasstetter,Phone: 202-467-4999,Email:,media@pfaw.org
People For the American Way and Allies Issue Joint Statement Pledging to Counter Threats to Free and Fair Elections
This week People For the American Way joined with more than fifty organizations to express their concern about two critical threats to our democratic system: corporate influence in elections and laws and official actions that suppress the vote. Under the banner "Money Out, Voters In," the organizations issued a joint statement pledging to fight special interest money in politics and to support the rights of all voters.
The statement reads:
WASHINGTON
This week People For the American Way joined with more than fifty organizations to express their concern about two critical threats to our democratic system: corporate influence in elections and laws and official actions that suppress the vote. Under the banner "Money Out, Voters In," the organizations issued a joint statement pledging to fight special interest money in politics and to support the rights of all voters.
The statement reads:
Within the next week, citizens in every state will come together to cast their votes for President, Congress, and other state and local offices. The right to cast those votes - to elect leaders who represent us - is at the heart of our democratic system. But this year, that right is in danger.
Our system of fair and free elections is under attack on multiple fronts. The Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United opened the floodgates for special interest money and corporate influence in politics. At the same time, a rash of voter suppression laws in more than 30 states has threatened to make voting difficult, if not impossible, for millions of Americans.
Throughout the history of our nation, powerful politicians and interest groups have tried to block eligible voters from casting a ballot. For much of the twentieth century, they used literacy tests or demanded poll taxes. Today they ask for photo voter ID, or create restrictive voter registration schemes. These laws, combined with the challenge posed by limitless corporate influence, strike at the very core of our democracy.
Our nation's history has been a journey towards true equality and the promise of a government of, by and for the people. Just as we have overcome many obstacles to achieve that promise, we are now committed to standing up against the pervasive, corrupting influence of an electoral system that auctions offices to the highest bidder and suppresses the vote of millions of Americans.
No matter what happens on November 6th, these threats must be addressed on November 7th and beyond. Together with our allies across the political spectrum, we pledge to fight for the rights of all voters in our nation and to move that much closer to creating a more perfect union. The future of our democracy depends on it.
"We are excited to be coming together with our allies to send a strong message: our organizations will not accept special interest control of the political system or the suppression of voting rights for partisan gain," said Michael Keegan, President of People For the American Way. "As our affiliate People For the American Way Foundation has documented, the Right has long attempted to trample on voting rights under the pretense of the 'voter fraud' myth. This is ethically unacceptable and damaging to America's democracy. We are honored to join with our allies in pledging to counter threats to free and fair elections."
It is being released jointly by the following organizations: 350.org; AFL-CIO; AIDS United; All Education Matters; Alliance for a Just Society; Alliance for Justice; American Sustainable Business Council; American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC); Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote; Ben & Jerry's; Center for Media and Democracy; CODEPINK; Common Cause; Communications Workers of America; Constitutional Accountability Center; Consumer Action; CREDO Action; DC Vote; Democracy 21; Democracy Unlimited; Democrats.com; Demos; Ethical Markets Media, Florida; Food & Water Watch; Franciscan Action Network; Free Speech For People; Greenpeace; Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy; International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, UAW; Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; Main Street Alliance; Move to Amend Coalition; MoveOn.org Political Action; NAACP; National Center for Transgender Equality; National Congress of Black Women, Inc.; National Council of Jewish Women; National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; The New Bottom Line; New Progressive Alliance; People For the American Way; Pesticide Action Network North America; Project Vote; Public Campaign; Public Citizen; Rock the Vote; RootsAction.org; Sierra Club; U.S. PIRG; United for a Fair Economy; United Steelworkers International Union; unPAC; WarIsACrime.org; and We the People Campaign.
It is also available at https://www.moneyout-votersin.com.
People For the American Way works to build a democratic society that implements the ideals of freedom, equality, opportunity and justice for all. We encourage civic participation, defend fundamental rights, and fight to dismantle systemic barriers to equitable opportunity. We fight against right-wing extremism and the injustice it fosters.
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"I'd make this the lead story in every paper and newscast on the planet," said Bill McKibben. "If we don't understand the depth of the climate crisis, we will not act in time."
May 10, 2024
The average monthly concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere jumped by a record 4.7 parts per million between March 2023 and March 2024, according to new data from NOAA's Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii.
The spike, reported by the University of California, San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography on Wednesday, reveals "the increasing pace of CO2 addition to the atmosphere by human activities," the university said.
"I'd make this the lead story in every paper and newscast on the planet," author and long-time climate activist Bill McKibbenwrote on social media in response to the news. "If we don't understand the depth of the climate crisis, we will not act in time."
"Human activity has caused CO2 to rocket upwards. It makes me sad more than anything. It's sad what we are doing."
Scientists have been tracking rising CO2 concentrations from Mauna Loa since 1958, and their upward trajectory has come to be known as the "Keeling Curve," named for Charles Keeling, who began the measurements. The curve has become an important symbol of the climate crisis—making visible how the burning of fossil fuels and the clearing of vegetation has released more and more CO2 into the atmosphere, where it traps heat from escaping into space and raises global temperatures.
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The record jump from March 2023 to March 2024 surpasses the last record jump of 4.1 ppm from June 2015 to June 2016.
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The record leaps from both 2015-2016 and 2023-2024 were also influenced by active El Niño events. The El Niño phenomenon increases atmospheric carbon dioxide because it leads to warmer, drier temperatures in the tropics, which decrease vegetation and encourage fires. Atmospheric CO2 levels tend to rise especially quickly toward the end of an El Niño cycle, and last March's CO2 levels were unusually low, leading to a larger gap in the 12-month period.
This year's rate of increase during the current El Niño is significantly larger than the one that took place in 2016. As Scripps explained:
The increase from February 2023 to February of this year was 4.0 ppm, compared to 3.7 for the 2016 El Niño. The increase from January 2023 to January of this year was 3.4 ppm, compared to 2.6 for the 2016 El Niño.
The growth rate from April 2023 to April 2024 dropped to 3.6 ppm, but taking into account the first four months of 2024, the growth rate is well above that for 2016. If this El Niño follows the pattern of the last El Niño, the world might experience a very high growth rate for several more months, Keeling said.
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"The rate of rise will almost certainly come down, but it is still rising and in order to stabilize the climate, you need CO2 level to be falling," Keeling toldThe Guardian. "Clearly, that isn't happening. Human activity has caused CO2 to rocket upwards. It makes me sad more than anything. It's sad what we are doing."
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Just over a week after U.S. President Joe Biden defended police crackdowns on dozens of anti-war protests on college campuses by declaring that students don't have "the right to cause chaos," a new analysis on Friday showed that nearly all the campus demonstrations have not been violent at all—and many that have descended into violence did so due to police interventions or aggressive counter-protests.
The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) examined 553 campus protests that took place across the U.S. between April 18-May 3 and found that fewer than 20 resulted in serious violence or property damage—meaning that 97% of the protests remained non-violent.
The group categorizes demonstrations as violent only when "physical violence that rises above pushing or shoving" takes place or when property damage includes protesters "breaking a window or worse."
ACLED's latest analysis comes after a previous study released May 2, which found 99% of campus protests in the first days of the burgeoning student-led movement against Israel's assault on Gaza had remained peaceful.
In the latest report, analyzing the 3% of protests that became violent, ACLED found that at half of those students clashed with police who had been sent in to clear the peaceful student encampments—which should have been allowed to proceed unimpeded according to Biden's speech about the protests on May 2, in which he said, "Peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Americans respond to controversial issues."
At one protest at Washington University in St. Louis, three police officers were injured, and at the University of Wisconsin, Madison on May 1, a state trooper was reportedly injured after being hit with a skateboard.
ACLED found two instances of serious property damage: a protest at Portland State University where students shattered glass and damaged computers and other furniture while occupying a library, and the occupation of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University, where students broke windows.
But examining the campus protests as a whole, ACLED did not find evidence of the "disorder" Biden spoke of when he said earlier this month that "vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations... threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not a peaceful protest."
The most significant violence that's erupted at a campus protest so far, according to ACLED's data, was an attack by a pro-Israel mob on an encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles, which went on for hours as police stood by.
"If someone is speaking more about 'violent encampments' than they are about violent genocide of the Palestinians, they have a problem reflective of deep and dangerous biases," said Tanya Zakrison, a surgeon at University of Chicago Medical Center, close to the college campus where students on Thursday said police shoved and hit them as they removed an encampment this week.
ACLED documented at least 70 examples of violent police crackdowns, including the use of chemical agents and batons to disperse crowds.
According to The New York Times, more than 2,800 people have now been arrested at campus protests at more than 50 colleges in the United States. The crackdowns have appeared to mobilize Palestinian rights supporters in the U.S. and abroad, with campus demonstrations spreading in Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia.
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Axiosreports that the anticipated report by the State Department—known as the NSM-20 (or National Security Memomardum 20)—may be made public as early as Friday, though the government has already been harshly criticized by human rights groups for delaying its release beyond a May 8 deadline.
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Charles Blaha, who from 2016 to 2023 worked as Director of the State Department’s Office of Security and Human Rights, told the Post that documented evidence, as well as common sense, reveals that the massive amount of U.S. arms sold to the Israelis both before and during the last seven months of fighting in Gaza have been used in gross human rights violations.
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According to that April analysis:
The final report features sixteen clear, credible, and compelling incidents that should certainly be included in the administration’s upcoming reporting to Congress as well as an 18-page appendix of additional incidents worthy of examination. It also identifies multiple restrictions on humanitarian assistance, including strikes by the IDF, that trigger Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act (which bars military assistance to states impeding U.S. humanitarian aid) and should be reportable to Congress by the Departments of State and/or Defense under the terms of NSM-20.
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