Post Your Online Petitions Here!

[SoNotHer]

http://sumofus.org/campaigns/ethical-iphone/

New Goal! Can we get to 80,000 (currently 75K) signatures before Apple’s stockholder meeting on February 23rd?

Every day, tens of millions of people will swipe the screens of their iPhones to unlock them. On the other side of the world, a young girl is also swiping those screens. In fact, every day, during her 12+ hour shifts, six days a week, she repetitively swipes tens of thousands of them. She spends those hours inhaling isopropanol, a toxin used to clean iPhone glass. After just a few years on the line, she will be fired because the repetitive stress injuries to her wrists and hands have made them useless.

Right now we have a huge opportunity as ethical consumers: The launch of the iPhone 5 later this year will be new Apple CEO Tim Cook’s first big product rollout, and he can’t afford for anything to go wrong — including negative publicity around how Apple’s suppliers treat their workers. That’s why we’re launching a campaign this week to get Apple to overhaul the way its suppliers treat their workers in time for the launch of the iPhone 5.

In many cases, people literally are dying while making Apple products. Reporters have documented cases of deadly explosions at iPad factories, and repeated instances of employees dying of exhaustion after working thirty to sixty hour shifts. In some of the factories Apple contracts with, so many employees have attempted suicide that management installed nets to prevent employees from dying while jumping off building ledges.

Can Apple do this? Absolutely. Apple is the richest company in the world, posting a profit margin for the last quarter of 44.1% yesterday. They’re sitting on $100 billion in the bank. According to an anonymous Apple executive quoted in the New York Times, all Apple has to do is demand it, and it’ll happen – “Suppliers would change everything tomorrow if Apple told them they didn’t have another choice.”

Use the form to the right to sign the petition to Apple telling them to make the iPhone 5 ethically.

http://sumofus.org/campaigns/ethical-iphone/

[Hollylane]

We almost couldn’t believe it. Today, at a House Oversight Committee hearing, House Republicans convened a panel on denying access to birth control converge with five men and no women. As my colleague Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney asked, where are the women?

Join me in our call to Speaker Boehner, Eric Cantor, Chairman Issa and all House Republicans to demand that women be brought to the table when discussing women’s health issues. Help us gather 50,000 signatures before Congress heads home tomorrow.

<< Sign the petition >>

Thank you for standing up for what’s right and joining our fight.

Best,
Nancy Pelosi

[Corkey]

https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/s1467

Everyone needs to vote in this poll.

[SoNotHer]

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/bees/

Tell the E.P.A.: Ban the pesticide that's killing honey bees



Since 2006, U.S. honey bee populations have been in precipitous decline, with some estimates suggesting losses as high as 30% per year.1 While that's terrible, the problem is far greater than just the destruction of a species. Without bees, a big piece of our food supply is in serious danger. Pollination by honey bees is key in cultivating the crops that produce a full one-third of our food.

Scientists have been scrambling to understand the crisis -- termed Colony Collapse Disorder -- but have yet to find a single, definitive cause. There are likely multiple interacting causes, and mounting evidence suggests that one widely used class of pesticides may be a critical factor. One such chemical, called clothianidin, is produced by the German corporation Bayer CropScience. It is used as a treatment on crop seeds, including corn and canola, and works by expressing itself in the plants' pollen and nectar. Not coincidentally, these are some of honey bees' favorite sources of food.

Shockingly, no major independent study has verified the safety of this pesticide. While clothianidin has been used on corn -- the largest crop in the U.S. -- since 2003, it was officially approved by the Environmental Protection Agency last year on the basis of a single study, conducted by Bayer. However, recently leaked documents show that the study was actually debunked by the agency's own scientists, so the pesticide was effectively approved with no scientific backing.2

It is outrageous that the E.P.A. is putting a vital species, the livelihoods of farmers and beekeepers, and our very food supply at risk just so Bayer can peddle its pesticide. When clothianidin first came to market, there was little or no scientific review of its effect on the environment. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allowed "conditional registration" in 2003 but requested additional study to establish the safety of the chemical. Bayer, the producer of the chemical, conducted one such study, and without public notice, the E.P.A. granted unconditional use in early 2010.

But E.P.A. documents3 leaked at the end of last year expose a more sordid story. Agency scientists who reviewed Bayer's study determined that the evidence was by no means sound, and even downgraded the study to a level at which it should not have been allowed as the basis for an unconditional approval of the pesticide. Additional independent studies have shown that neonicotinoid pesticides like clothianidin are highly toxic to honey bees, providing compelling evidence that they should be immediately taken off the market until the E.P.A. can conduct a full and valid scientific review.

This appears to be a case of the E.P.A. catering to the needs of a large chemical corporation at the expense of a lynchpin species in our ecosystem. France, Italy, Slovenia, and Germany -- the home of Bayer -- have already banned clothianidin. The stakes are simply too high to continue the use of this chemical in the absence of any scientifically verified evidence that it is safe to use. Tell the E.P.A. to immediately prohibit the use of clothianidin and conduct a full scientific review to determine its impact on honey bee populations.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/bees/

[DapperButch]

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/...655363-Fy2Gzmx

[SoNotHer]

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/...059182-NhkJuWx

Tell Congress: Only people are people.

We deserve a country where our elected officials are not bought and paid for by big corporations. But the Citizens United vs. FEC Supreme Court decision overturned over a century of precedent and opened the floodgates for unlimited amounts of corporate money to flow into our political system.

Shockingly, the court came to this decision based on the notion that a corporation is legally a "person" entitled to First Amendment rights, and by equating a corporation's right to spend unlimited amounts of money influencing an election with our right to free speech.

Tell your senators and member of Congress to support a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and end corporate personhood. Even before the Citizens United decision, we too often saw the interests of Main Street subverted in favor of the interests of Wall Street.

But with the Citizens United decision now the law of the land, large corporations have the power to spend unlimited amounts of money from their general treasuries to buy elections. To put things in perspective, the roughly $745 million Barack Obama raised to run for President in the 2008 election cycle (which was the most money raised by any candidate ever to run for office in the U.S.) is dwarfed by the $45 billion in profits a single company (ExxonMobil) made in 2008.

What's more, Citizen United opened loopholes that allow corporations to hide their campaign expenditures by laundering the money through non-profit advocacy organizations. Tell your senators and member of Congress to support a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and end corporate personhood.

The Supreme Court recently indicated that it would hear a challenge to Montana's campaign finance law. While it's possible the Court could narrow the scope of Citizens United, it's very unlikely that the Supreme Court will fix the issue any time soon. And because Congress cannot pass a law that supersedes a Supreme Court ruling, it may take a constitutional amendment to undo the worst aspects of the Citizens United decision and end corporate personhood.

Clearly, the bar to successfully amending the Constitution is very high. But with 85% of the public opposed to the Citizens United decision, there is a potential for a broad coalition of Democrats, Republicans and Independents who all want to restore our democracy. And let's remember, the stakes are too high to allow inaction on this issue. It's no exaggeration to say that the Citizens United decision fundamentally threatens the integrity of our democracy.

We need a government of, for and by the people. And sadly, we might need to work really hard to re-establish the common sense and democratic view that only people are people, not corporations. Your senators and member of Congress need to hear from you, regardless of where they stand on this issue. We need to show them that their constituents are part of a broad movement demanding action -- not only to convince them that overturning Citizens United is the right thing to do, but also that it's possible.

Today, take a step to be part of that movement.

Tell your senators and member of Congress to support a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and end corporate personhood.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/...059182-NhkJuWx

[Andrea]

Give Bully a PG-13 rating....

http://www.change.org/petitions/mpaa-dont-let-the-bullies-win-give-bully-a-pg-13-instead-of-an-r-rating?utm_medium=email&utm_source=action_alert

[Cin]

“Robocalls” made were apparently designed to stop non-Conservative voters from casting ballots in key ridings during the 2011 elections in Canada.

We demand a full and independent public inquiry to expose the facts about the robocall scandal and ensure that the penalty for this election fraud matches the consequences of the crime - including possible by-elections in the affected ridings.
http://leadnow.ca/robocall-fraud

[Andrea]

A legal petition (Docket # FDA-2011-P-0723-0001/CP) has been filed with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) calling on the FDA to label genetically engineered (GE) foods.

http://justlabelit.org/takeaction

[SoNotHer]

An historic victory for activism and the fight to end dirty coal pollution in Chicago communities



http://www.credoaction.com/campaign/...d/?rc=homepage

The long history of two of the oldest and dirtiest coal plants in the nation is finally about to come to an end. After polluting Chicago's air and making residents sick for more than 100 years, Midwest Generation announced a deal late Tuesday evening to retire the Fisk and Crawford coal plants.1

This victory took years of campaigning by the Chicago Clean Power Coalition, national groups like Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, and heroic activism by the communities who were most effected by the pollution from Fisk and Crawford, including groups like the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) and the Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (PERRO).

CREDO was proud to support their efforts by putting pressure on Mayor Emanuel to finally take action, and I want to thank the thousands of activists who helped make this possible.

Last spring, more than 3,500 CREDO activists in the Chicago area called and wrote to Mayor Emanuel, telling him to do everything in his power to protect local residents from pollution from these two filthy coal plants. And on the Mayor's very first day in office last May, our friends at the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization and Greenpeace delivered our petition signatures in person to Mayor Emanuel's office.2

Since that time, Mayor Emanuel has been negotiating with Midwest Generation to reach a deal on retiring the plants. Finally, after months of negotiations and an ultimatum from Mayor Emanuel, a final agreement has been reached. Under the terms of the deal, the Fisk plant will be retired this year, and the Crawford plant will be shut down by 2014.

This is a huge victory for the power of local activism, which would not have happened if Mayor Emanuel hadn't heard our voices and taken action on this issue. Going forward, Mayor Emanuel's continued attention to this issue will help ensure that the agreement is enforced, and that the plants are retired in the agreed upon timeline.

Tell Mayor Emanuel: Thank you for working to shut down the dirty Fisk and Crawford coal plants. Please ensure that Midwest Generation fully complies with the agreement. Today, we celebrate this historic announcement. Thank you for your activism, and our thanks and heartfelt congratulations go to the local groups and residents who worked so hard to make this happen, and will soon live in the cleaner, safer communities they deserve.

1. Emanuel brokers deal to shut two polluting coal fire plants, Chicago Sun-Times, 2/29/12
2. Here's a photo of Ian from the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization delivering CREDO activists' petition signatures on Mayor Emanuel's first day in office last May.

http://www.credoaction.com/campaign/...d/?rc=homepage

[weatherboi]

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/Fir...Back-To-Mexico




Target: Arlington Independent School District
Sponsored by: Concerned Citizens
Shirley Bunn, a teacher from Arlington, Texas, has been on paid leave since she told her student to "go back to Mexico" after he asked for a Spanish language version of the Title 1 forms she was distributing to the class. She will soon be reinstated.

Bunn says that she didn't mean to say what she did -- that she had just been having a bad day. But Bunn has been a teacher for 24 years. It is reasonable to expect her to be able to control saying inappropriate remarks to students. Also, this isn't the only time she has said racist remarks. She referred to a group of male Mexican students as the "Mexican Mafia".

The examiner for the case said he didn't think it was meant to be racist, but if this isn't racist, what is?

Please tell the Arlington Independent School District to fire Shirley Bunn, not reinstate her. Racism is not acceptable anywhere, but especially not by a teacher who is supposed to support her students, regardless of their race.

[DapperButch]

I do think that it is especially powerful when we sign our names to petitions, rather than remaining anonymous. I think it gives the petition that extra umph to those who receive them.

[Corkey]

http://signon.org/sign/have-the-fcc-...fb&r_by=418161

Tell the FCC to can Rush.

[SoNotHer]

http://sumofus.org/campaigns/aol-limbaugh/

Rush Limbaugh is calling women who use birth control sluts.

UPDATE: We got 50,000 messages sent in the first day. Can we get to 75,000?

And that’s not all. If the women in your life want to have birth control covered in their medical plan, then Rush “wants something for it” — he wants them to record themselves having sex and then “post the videos online so we can all watch.” The only reason this bigot is on the air is because of the millions of dollars companies pay each year for advertising on his show. Among them is internet giant AOL, which has even been offering discounts to Limbaugh’s listeners.

Use the form at right to ask AOL to stand up for women and pull their ads from Rush’s show. Limbaugh’s disgusting, hateful words specifically targeted Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke. Fluke has fought for coverage for birth control publicly on behalf of a friend at school with a medical issue that resulted in the loss of one of her ovaries — a condition that would have been entirely preventable if she had been given access to hormonal contraception.

Companies have a responsibility not to support hate speech like Limbaugh’s – and consumers like us are demanding that they stand up to him. Rush clearly recognizes the danger he’s in — yesterday he issued a mealy-mouthed “apology” excusing his behavior by saying that he has always “illustrated the absurd with absurdity.” But those half-hearted, uninspiring words are only feeding the huge momentum that’s building to get Rush off the air. Two of his biggest advertisers, Carbonite and ProFlowers, dropped Rush after his so-called “apology” yesterday. Carbonite’s CEO said, “No one with daughters the age of Sandra Fluke, and I have two, could possibly abide the insult and abuse heaped upon this courageous and well-intentioned young lady.”

Meanwhile, AOL continues to advertise a 75% discount on its “Quick Check Diagnostic” service “exclusively for Rush Limbaugh listeners.” That’s simply unacceptable.

http://sumofus.org/campaigns/aol-limbaugh/

[DapperButch]

...say no to unlimited cephalosporins (a class of antibiotics) in your food. Deadline for signature tomorrow.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/...655363-Us2Hrvx

[weatherboi]

http://www.vday.org/onebillionrising-signup.html

2-14-2013
Global strike to end violence against women!

[LaneyDoll]

Tell USDA to STOP Using Pink Slime in School Food!

Why This Is Important
"Pink slime" is the term used for a mixture of beef scraps and connective tissue (formerly used only for pet food and rendering) that is treated with ammonia hydroxide to remove pathogens like salmonella and E coli. These so-called "Lean Beef Trimmings," are produced by Beef Products, Inc.

Two former government microbiologists claim that, for political reasons, pink slime was approved for human consumption by USDA over serious safety concerns. (http://bit.ly/waMMni)

Government and industry records obtained by The New York Times in 2009 showed that "in testing for the school lunch program, E. coli and salmonella pathogens have been found dozens of times in Beef Products meat, challenging claims by the company and the U.S.D.A. about the effectiveness of the treatment. Since 2005, E. coli has been found 3 times and salmonella 48 times, including back-to-back incidents in August in which two 27,000-pound batches were found to be contaminated. The meat was caught before reaching lunch-rooms trays."

Even apart from safety concerns, it is simply wrong to feed our children connective tissues and beef scraps that were, in the past, destined for use in pet food and rendering and were not considered fit for human consumption.

Due to public outcry, fast food giants like McDonald's and Burger King have stopped using pink slime in their food. But the federal government continues to allow its use in school food and has just authorized the purchase of ground beef which collectively contains an additional 7 million pounds of pink slime for consumption by our nation's children.

Tell the USDA to STOP the use of ground beef containing pink slime in the National School Lunch Program!

[You can follow the progress of this petition, including the latest media coverage and more information on pink slime, on my daily blog -- The Lunch Tray (www.thelunchtray.com)]

Note from Laney-the UK has banned use of this is food destined for human consumption. Many less fortunate kids in the US get their only decent meals from school breakfasts and lunches. Some get their only meals this way.


http://www.change.org/petitions/tell...in-school-food

[DapperButch]

Glad to hear McDonald's stopped using pink slime. I saw a picture once of this long, light pink, 3 inches round sausage looking thing that was going to be shaped into nuggets. Nasty. I had stopped eating McDonalds by then, but if I hadn't, I certainly wouldn't have had the chicken nuggets there again!

Thanks for the petition.

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by DapperButch

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/...655363-Fy2Gzmx

Follow up to above post. Walmart is considering, yet hedging on whether or not they will carry the sweet corn. Please read the petition. My guess is that you will want to sign.

http://sumofus.org/campaigns/walmart-monsanto/?sub=taf

[Corkey]

Originally Posted by DapperButch

Follow up to above post. Walmart is considering, yet hedging on whether or not they will carry the sweet corn. Please read the petition. My guess is that you will want to sign.

http://sumofus.org/campaigns/walmart-monsanto/?sub=taf

Signed it, and we don't shop wally world for food.