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Week of July 25 2005

No More Star Wars
The Pentagon wants to spend more money on "interceptor" missiles for the Star Wars program. We already have 30 and in the last two tests they failed to even get off the ground. Contact your senators via the True Majority web site asking that they support the amendment introduced by Sen. Carl Levin to cut the money for missiles and spend it instead on nuclear nonproliferation programs.

John Roberts Nominated for the Supreme Court
Bush has nominated Judge John G. Roberts to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by Sandra Day O'Connor. See the Save The Court web site for a complete report on Roberts and contact your senators immediately urging them to wait for answers to crucial questions before giving their support to this nominee. The NOW web site also has information on Roberts and a sample message to send to your senators.

Cafta Vote Likely This Week
The vote on the Central America Free Trade Agreement will likely occur near the end of this week, and it looks like it will be very close. Contact your member of Congress and urge them to vote against the agreement. See the Stop Cafta web site for more information on the agreement as well as ways to take action. You can also send a letter to your Congress member via the AFL-CIO Working Families web site.

Keep the Heat on Karl Rove
The heat was temporarily taken off Karl Rove as President Bush nominated John Roberts for the Supreme Court. Rove is being investigated for outing CIA agent Valerie Plame in order to discredit her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson, a critic of the Bush Iraq policy. Make sure the press doesn't forget about Rove. MoveOn is making it easy for you to send a letter to the editor of your favorite newspaper. Just enter your zip code on the MoveOn web site and you'll find the contact details of local and national newspapers as well as talking points and writing tips.

For more information on the investigation, read an article by Frank Rich on the New York Times entitled "Eight Days in July".

Demand U.S. Action To Stop Genocide In Darfur!
A coalition of groups is seeking 400,000 signatures, one for every victim of the genocide in Darfur, calling on the U.S. to take action through the United Nations to protect the people of Darfur. From the Save Darfur web site:

"Government officials who remained silent during the Rwandan genocide regularly claim that if Americans had clamored for more government action, the U.S. would have been forced to work with the UN to intervene, and could have saved thousands of lives. "

The goal is to collect 400,000 signatures by Sept. 9, 2005, one year after the U.S. government acknowledged that a genocide is taking place.

Sign the petition and spread the word. You can also download a copy of the petition and collect signatures.

See the Be A Witness web site for an idea of how the mainstream media is covering the genocide and let them know it IS news.

(Thanks, Kathy!)

Count Every Vote Act
A bill was recently unveiled in Congress calling for federal election reform which addresses many of the issues documented in the 2004 elections. See the People for the American Way web site for more information on the Count Every Vote Act and to take action by contacting your congress member to urge them to support the bill.

For more on voting in the U.S., see the Black Box Voting web site with a wealth of information on electronic voting compiled by Bev Harris as well as Rep. Conyers report What Went Wrong in Ohio.

ExxposeExxon
A coalition of environmental groups has joined forces against the world's largest oil company, ExxonMobil. See the Exxpose Exxon web site for details on the company's efforts to block meaningful action to curb global warming, their resistance in paying damages awarded to fishermen and others injured by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill despite record profits and their support of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Send a letter to Exxon CEO Lee Raymond using the Exxpose Exxon web site.

If you know of additional news items that should be listed, send them via email.

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