ACTIVISM FOR ACTION...
http://www.theportlandalliance.org/activism

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About ALEC

ALEC is corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. ALEC legislative leaders are tasked with a duty to get the bills introduced and passed; ALEC members introduce the bills in statehouses as their own brilliant ideas—without disclosing that corporations pre-voted on them with politicians behind closed doors at ALEC resort meetings. ALEC boasts that it has over 1,000 of these bills introduced by legislative members every year, and more than 20% become legally binding. ALEC describes itself as a “unique,” “unparalleled” and “unmatched” organization. It might be right. It is as if a state legislature had been reconstituted, yet corporations had pushed the people out the door. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org, and check out breaking news on our PRWatch.org site.

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Please take a minute to sign this petition. 

Thanks and solidarity, Greg.

Wall Photos

Community Court today with Laurie King. We told Judge Lawrence that we are guilt...y, and we were acting in support of workers rights to organize and have a fair contract at Dosha. We received 16 hours' community service at the Rebuilding Center. Please support the Dosha workers by signing their petition asking for mediation to get to that first contract: http://www.change.org/ petitions/ dosha-salon-spa-respect-salon-w orkersSee More

By: Madelyn Elder

Please sign a petition to prevent war with Iran. In our current economic crisis,
the last thing our country needs is another war.  Will you take 1 minute to sign
the petition? Sign here: http://bit.ly/yDlbjn
Thank you for raising a voice of reason!

Sign the petition to prevent war with Iran! Visit http://bit.ly/yDlbjn to sign today.

       The outrage over the crimes committed by Wall Street and the big banks is spilling into the streets.
Citizens are marching and protesting across the country to oppose the bad behavior of the titans of finance. 
        And there's a growing movement of Attorneys General who refuse to let the banks off the hook, including AGs in New York, Nevada, Massachusetts, Delaware, Kentucky, Minnesota, and California.
But Oregon Attorney General John Kroger has yet to take a stand.
        Sign our petition to Attorney General John Kroger asking him to fight for Oregon.
California’s Attorney General Kamala Harris was the latest to break from the investigation of Wall Street mortgage and foreclosure fraud, saying that the settlement needs “to bring relief to Californians that is equal to the pain California experienced and what is being negotiated now is insufficient.”[1]
  She's right.
        But Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is leaning hard on the Attorneys General to just slap a fine on the banks, but give them immunity from any further investigations.[2]
No doubt, Wall Street executives are eager to take such a deal.
When Kroger ran for Oregon Attorney General, he vowed to fight for ordinary Oregonians every chance he got.  Now, as the state's top cop, he has a real chance to hold the banks accountable to Oregonians.
        If the big banks are able to close the books on the financial collapse -- and the thousand of homeowners they unlawfully foreclosed on without cause -- there's nothing to stop them from doing it again. High financial crime is good business, if you can get away with it.
        Kroger should refuse any settlement deal that would give big banks broad immunity from investigation and either civil or criminal liability and instead fight for clear and fair rules for how banks will treat homeowners moving forward.  He should fight for a settlement that provides just compensation for all of the economic damage that's been done to individual homeowners and our communities.
        It's time to be bold.
        Click here to sign our petition: http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/1306/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4845   
                                                                    Tell John Kroger to take a stand for Oregon.
And let the rest of our leaders know: We, the 99%, are mad as hell
and are not gonna take it anymore!  http://www.writingresource.info/actnow.html

Will you join me and President Obama in insisting that Congress get busy fixing our jobs crisis—and pay for it by asking millionaires and billionaires like Warren Buffett to pay their fair share?
Tell your lawmakers to start fixing America’s jobs crisis—
and let them know you’ll hold them accountable.

We have to show Congress just how many pro-Israel Americans – deeply concerned about Israel, its security and even the consequences of a UN vote – oppose cutting aid to the Palestinian Authority.

Thankfully, some members of Congress are urging the President to stop possible aid cuts.

Representatives David Price (D-NC) and Peter Welch (D-VT) are circulating a letter to the President which says that, “the suspension or ending of U.S. aid could undermine the very foundations of a future Palestinian state, undoing the progress that has been made in recent years toward strengthening the PA’s security and governing institutions.”

Please tell your Member of Congress to sign the Price-Welch letter today.

While Israel’s own Shin Bet security agency has said that U.S. security assistance helped make 2010 the most terror-free year in a decade, Members of Congress too often hear that Israel has no partner for peace.

They don’t hear enough from those of us who respect what the PA is doing to make a two-state solution possible.

http://action.jstreet.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4744

J Street is the political home of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement.

We need Amnesty, and Amnesty needs us
                                 

          All my life I've felt humbled in the face of the suffering of others. It is only that I, by accident of birth, was born in the right place at the right time,and that someone else, not me, huddles in a prison cell, is tortured, and faces the unbearable consequences of having been born in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or, as the legendary Phil Ochs song says, there but for fortune, go you or I.         Happily for me, I discovered early on that, in the words of Swedish Ambassador Harald Edelstam, "I cannot tolerate injustice." This inability to tolerate injustice has brought me to the roots of human misery, called me to engage in the fight for the rights, freedoms, and the dignity of others. And in so doing, has helped me to maintain my own dignity.

          In 1972 I was inspired to devote a year of my life to helping Amnesty launch its first US office on the west coast, and years later, when the organization had grown to worldwide proportions, to perform in both its A Conspiracy of Hope and Human Rights Now! tours.

          Today I stand with Amnesty and their Death Penalty Abolition Campaign to fight for the life of Troy Davis, who within weeks could be executed for a crime he may not have committed. There remain serious doubts of his guilt. His death sentence defies all logic and morality.

          In matters of life and death, there is no room for doubt.           With their death penalty campaign work, Amnesty has long been a leader in the struggle to abolish the death penalty in every corner of the world.

          In honor of Amnesty's 50th birthday, please join me in this life-saving work. Become a member during Amnesty's September membership drive and a generous donor will match your gift dollar-for-dollar.

            Amnesty has grown into the most powerful human rights movement in history, winning freedom for tens of thousands of individuals jailed for expressing their beliefs, shutting down torture chambers and halting executions.   I have a special place in my heart for Amnesty. I hope that you do, too. We need Amnesty, and Amnesty needs us.  Please join me as a member today.

Joan Baez   MUSICIAN, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST

© 2011 Amnesty International USA | 5 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10001 | 212.807.8400  

for the Pacific Rim! Help us reach our goal of 10,000 signatures!    Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement.   Strong, clear and enforceable labor standards based on International Labor Organization conventions An end to investor-to-state provisions that threaten environmental and consumer protections A clear mandate enabling countries to obtain affordable, generic medications for sick people Respect for communities' rights to make decisions as to how best protect family farmers and feed their populations  Please sign the petition now.   Hundreds of corporate lobbyists are helping trade negotiators design the Trans-Pacific FTA.  If we don't speak our minds now, this FTA is sure to siphon even more money away from working families at home and abroad.  America and the world simply cannot afford another trade deal that offshores jobs, stagnates wages, reduces tax bases, deregulates banks, destroys family farms, weakens consumer protections and hurts the environment.   Many thanks, Arthur Stamoulis Executive Director CITIZENS TRADE CAMPAIGN

http://www.theportlandalliance.org/activism

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"Simply open up our cities to art, music and dance. Creativity doesn't necessarily mean craziness or negative diversity..Spontanous acts of artistic expression. More of it...Make stands that people can put their equipment on and let the show begin...All day and night long in the business districts."
Will you sign this petition? Click here:
       http://signon.org/sign/artistss-passport?source=c.fwd.in&r_by=1421571