Ladywriter

anything to spread the word!

Inauguration Special coverage MSNBC TV Live NBC News Live an evil turnip could do a better job then W did ... hell it couldn't do much worse The bestest part of today was for a change it wasn't some smarmy rich old white dude replacing another smarmy rich old white dude.

Friends, This happy, happy day! We have made it through the Dark Ages and here we are, in one of the most redemptive moments history has ever witnessed. Barack Obama is our best hope to get it right, to heal our national soul, to reach out to the rest of the world with an olive branch instead of shocking brutality. I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who has worked to make this day happen. For many, the madness goes back, not eight years but twenty-eight years, to the tragic day Reagan was sworn in to dismantle our precious "government of the people" and our beloved way of life. To all of you who have spoken up and spoken out, who have written letters and marched for peace, for all of you who never gave up, you are the true heroes today. Many of you have suffered great economic losses. Some of you have endured a loved one being shipped overseas to senseless and shameful wars, and thousands of you have seen those loved ones returned home, no longer alive. It has been a heartbreaking time. But the sun comes out at noon today. The disgraced outgoing president will slide out the side door and head to Crawford to sell the Hollywood set known as the Bush "ranch" before he settles down in an exclusive neighborhood in Dallas. I would encourage Mr. Bush to issue one final pardon before noon today -- his own. He had better issue a blanket pardon for all crimes that may have been committed since 2001 by himself, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the whole gang. Serious laws were broken, a war was concocted on a lie, and now, please, justice must be carried out. So let us move forward and fix the horrible mess we are in. We are fortunate to have a new president who is smart and kind and committed to serving his country. Take a moment today and think about what you can do to join him in helping him do his job. We're all in this together. Our country has been so profoundly wrecked by an administration who decided to mug our constitution and then steal what they can for their Wall Street cronies on the way out the door. Here is my plea: Let's not leave Barack Obama alone to clean up the mess. As he takes his oath today, please take one yourself -- to work harder than ever to end these wars, create universal health care, save our planet, end poverty, increase knowledge and establish a true government "of, by and for the people" (instead of "of, by and for the lobbyists, the bankers, and the war profiteers"). On a personal note, it's no secret that I have had to suffer an avalanche of hate and attack as I stuck my neck out to simply do my job. Some day I will tell you what the true cost of this has been for me, but not today. Today is a time for celebration and optimism and hope. I'm glad we all lived to see this incredible moment. And I thank each of you for your support of my work and your dedication to our democracy. 12:01pm can't come soon enough! Happy Inauguration Day! Yours, Michael Moore MMFlint@aol.com MichaelMoore. com

ahhhhhhhhhhhh today we can finally say see ya to the worst pres in history and welcome the new guy carrying the hopes of 300 million + on his shoulders.

then this person is a moron big pharma will use any test subject and their congressional cronies will cover their ass as they are bribed to do. We have been living in a predominantly corporate state with biased mainstream media not covering real issues or exposing truths.

It makes sense for Helen to be the 5th It wont detract from the other characters roles Starbuck is the harbinger of death the end she's leading them (the 5) to could possibly be the end of shampoo rinse repeat all this has happened before and will happen again. The 5 are at minimum 2000 years old. Likely the entire cycle is a result of something they did after the exodus from Kobal 6000 years ago. Starbuck herself is likely some sort of construct, something that is a constant in the universe. She came back to Galactica before the hub was blown, but its likely that she doesn't didn't resurect the way the S7 did. At a point in human history human and cylon co existed for a while, 12 tribes of humans and 1 tribe of cylons went separate ways. The humans scrolls go back 6000 years. I don't think the 5 resurect the same way the significant 7, I think they're similar constructs but the 7 are 'newer' models based off of the original skin jobs that the f5 are part of. The history seems to move in cycles (ala loop theory dark Tower which I know a thing or two about *twitch*) Perhaps 2000 years ago humans rebelled against their cylon creators on earth and nuked the planet thinking they ended cylons and if they're alive they went and settled elsewhere. Or it was an all out cylon civil war. Either way we have thousands of years from the exodus of Kobal for human and cylon to develop.

Not amazing, just proper training. Aside from being a vet pilot he also knew how to pilot a glider; which came in pretty handy when the engines quit. The pilot had excellent training behind him and the crew were trained to handle emergencies. The first responders (the civilian boats) have had man overboard training and thus were able to hurry in and begin rescue before the coast guard even arrived. Things go wrong sometimes and knowing how to handle crisis can be the difference between all of those people surviving vs a really bad crash and a lot of bodies. Yes we need to look at what went wrong but more importantly we need to know what went right. The pilot crew and responding civilians knew what to do and how to do it. That kind of knowledge and training needs to permeate transportation industry (like all commercial pilots should be given glider training for free by the company) and the general public needs to stop standing around thinking somebody else will do the rescuing. Emergency preparedness is a community thing and we all live in one.

the commonly accepted definition for LEO is between 160 - 2000 km (100 - 1240 miles) above the Earth's surface, its beyond the ozone layer and thus exposed to solar radiation....... so wont the debris stay irradiated no matter how long its up there?

mwahahaha

I'm so glad you signed up w Center for Biological Diversity! Palin just wont stop. She's all about death to wildlife and pristine ecosystems. She's been at it for years (huge reason I went all out trying to encourage people to vote against her and McSame) and will not stop. I can't wait for her to be voted out of office. She's made the whole state of Alaska look ignorant. Seriously, if an asshole like her represents Alaska then let them fucking succeed from the USA cuz their all dumb pieces of shit. Fortunately most Alaskans are NOT like her. I posted it in news a few ago here

squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

ero admin

ewwwwwwwww

"Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through." - Jonathan Swift After reading "The Neurontin Legacy -- Marketing through Misinformation and Manipulation" in the January 8, 2009 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, one may conclude that (1) America's prisons would be put to better use incarcerating drug company executives instead of pot smokers, and (2) society may need a return of public scorn via the pillory for those doctors who are essentially drug-company shills. Drug-company corruption of American medicine is of course not news. What is news is that such corruption has become so egregious, so transparent, and so embarrassing that the New England Journal of Medicine, perhaps the most influential American medical journal, is now stating that "drastic action is essential to preserve the integrity of medical science and practice and to justify public trust." Neurontin was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1993 in doses of up to 1800 mg per day as adjunctive therapy for partial complex seizures. How did U.S. annual sales of Neurontin increase from $98 million in 1995 to nearly $3 billion in 2004? The answer is "off-label" marketing, in which Neurontin manufacturer Parke-Davis (a division of Warner-Lambert purchased by Pfizer in 2000) marketed Neurontin to doctors for uses not approved by the FDA (because doctors can legally prescribe drugs for uses not approved by the FDA). While aggressive off-label marketing to doctors is standard among drug companies, it is routinely kept quiet. But thanks to a Parke-Davis whistle blower, we have first-hand evidence of off-label marketing -- and how the Neurontin financial bonanza was created. In 1996, David Franklin, a young biologist, took a sales representative position for Parke-Davis. But shortly after beginning the job, Franklin grew concerned that he was participating in the illegal marketing of Neurontin. Franklin reports that a Parke-Davis executive informed him and his fellow sales reps: "I want you out there every day selling Neurontin. . . .We all know Neurontin's not growing for adjunctive therapy, besides that's not where the money is. Pain management, now that's money. Monotherapy [for epilepsy], that's money. . . . We can't wait for [physicians] to ask, we need [to] get out there and tell them up front. Dinner programs, CME [continuing medical education] programs, consultantships all work great but don't forget the one-on-one. That's where we need to be, holding their hand and whispering in their ear, Neurontin for pain, Neurontin for monotherapy, Neurontin for bipolar, Neurontin for everything. I don't want to see a single patient coming off Neurontin before they've been up to at least 4800 mg/day. I don't want to hear that safety crap either, have you tried Neurontin, every one of you should take one just to see there is nothing, it's a great drug." Franklin left Parke-Davis and filed suit (ultimately, United States of America ex rel. David Franklin vs. Pfizer, Inc., and Parke-Davis Division of Warner-Lambert Company) alleging that off-label marketing of Neurontin constituted false claims designed to elicit payments from the federal government. In 2004, Warner-Lambert resolved criminal charges and civil liabilities by agreeing to plead guilty and pay $430 million -- less than 15 percent of the $3 billion the drug company had grossed on Neurontin in 2004. The current New England Journal of Medicine article concluded that the marketing of Neurontin involved "the systematic use of deception and misinformation to create a biased evidence base and manipulate physicians' beliefs and prescribing behaviors." This is one of many examples: "In a recently unsealed 318-page analysis of research sponsored by Parke-Davis, epidemiologist Kay Dickersin concluded that available documents demonstrate 'a remarkable assemblage of evidence of reporting biases that amount to outright deception of the biomedical community, and suppression of scientific truth concerning the effectiveness of Neurontin for migraine, bipolar disorders, and pain.' For example, publication was delayed for a report on a multi-center, placebo-controlled study that found no effect of Neurontin on the primary outcome measure for neuropathic pain because 'we [Parke-Davis employees] should take care not to publish anything that damages neurontin's marketing success.'" Exactly what does it take for drug executives to do jail time? And let's not kid ourselves about the innocence of doctors. The tactics used by Parke-Davis and other drug companies to manipulate doctors make it clear that too many doctors have been willing participants in the corruption of their profession. The New England Journal of Medicine discusses some of the practices used by Park-Davis (and commonly used by other drug companies) recruit local physicians who are then trained and paid to serve as speakers in "peer-to-peer selling" programs; financially cultivate renowned professionals, so-called "thought leaders;" financially influence academics with educational grants, research grants, and speaking opportunities worth hundreds of thousands of dollars; create drug "advisory boards" to launder pay offs to "friendly" physicians; provide doctors employed by medical-education companies with "unrestricted educational grants" to produce programs that promote off-label (unapproved) uses of drug; fund doctors' "research" that in fact is designed and commissioned to promote a specific drug; and credit doctors as authors for ghost-written research articles that downplay drug ineffectiveness or lack of safety. The New England Journal of Medicine is now warning physicians that medicine's corruption by drug companies has threatened public confidence in their profession. If those physicians who are not drug-company shills want to save their profession, they might want to start taking aggressive actions against their colleagues who are on the take. Perhaps it will help motivate clean physicians to be reminded that history shows that any institution -- no matter how large and powerful -- can arrogantly cross those lines leading to its demise.

SO LONG WORST PRESIDENT EVER; 10 REASONS HISTORY WILL HANG YOU By Bernie Horn, Campaign for America's Future There are probably a hundred examples where Bush conservatism failed; here are the top 10. http://www.alternet.org/story/120220/ George W. Bush presented his valedictory last night, desperately seeking thanks and congratulations. So here goes: Thanks and congratulations, W, for showing the world that today's conservatism is an abject failure. Thanks to Bush, we know that conservatives are not fiscally responsible, they are not for small government, they don't stand up for moral values and they won't make Americans one bit safer. Conservatives aren't even true defenders of "free markets" -- having presided over the biggest market bailout in the world. After eight long years, Bush can no longer fool the public. Polls show that he is the most unpopular president in the history of survey research. When the 2006 and 2008 elections are considered together, Bush policies resulted in the landslide rejection of his party at both the federal and state levels. There are probably a hundred examples where Bush conservatism failed, but let's stick with the top 10. 1. The worst recession since the 1930s. The current recession will be the deepest and longest downturn since the Great Depression. And unlike other recessions, this one was directly caused by conservative anti-regulatory policy. In fact, recent evaluations show that Bush policies never created any real growth -- the ephemeral financial upswings of the past eight years were based on market bubbles and economic Band-Aids. 2. The worst financial crisis since the 1930s. The Bush administration, flacking an "ownership society," helped manufacture the housing bubble. When it burst, Americans lost $6 trillion in housing wealth (so far), fueling a market crash that has cost Americans $8 trillion of stock wealth, according to economist Dean Baker. On a grand scale, we've been mugged. 3. The worst foreign policy mistake in the history of this country. That's what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., correctly called the Iraq war. This pre-emptive war -- based on phony pretenses -- is now the second longest in our nation's history (after Vietnam). Some 35,000 Americans are dead or wounded, as well as an enormous number of innocent Iraqis. And even today, more than five years later, can anyone explain why Bush marched us into this quagmire? 4. Unprecedented rejection of human rights. Recently, a Bush administration official finally admitted that the U.S. government engaged in torture at Guantanamo Bay detention center. Bush admitted that he personally authorized waterboarding. While these clear violations of the Geneva Conventions would have been unthinkable a few years ago, today we're not surprised. From Abu Ghraib and extraordinary rendition, to years-long detention of innocents and the unrestrained killing of civilians by U.S.-paid mercenaries, this administration has systematically squandered our nation's moral standing in the world, making us less able to protect Americans and American interests worldwide. 5. Watergate-style abuses of power. As the House Judiciary Committee staff has documented, Bush used the politics of fear and division to justify warrantless wiretapping of innocent Americans (including U.S. soldiers fighting overseas), spying on peaceful domestic groups and the use of national security letters to pry into the private records of millions of Americans. He also presided over illegal politicization of the Justice Department and retribution against critics. In fact, Bush claimed the authority to disobey hundreds of laws -- as if Richard Nixon were right when he famously said: "When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." 6. Unprecedented increases in inequality. The Economic Policy Institute reports, "For the first time since the Census Bureau began tracking such data back in the mid-1940s, the real incomes of middle-class families are lower at the end of this business cycle than they were when it started." That's because Bush policy was designed to increase economic inequality. The richest 1 percent of the population received 36 percent of the Bush tax cuts; the least-affluent 40 percent received only 9 percent. While the rich got exponentially richer, the poverty rate and the percentage of uninsured dramatically increased. 7. A culture of sleaze. This was an administration without shame. Kicked off by Vice President Dick Cheney's secret energy task force, the administration fostered a "greed is good" culture. The subsequent conservative money scandals (Jack Abramoff; White House officials J. Steven Griles and David Safavian; Republicans Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, Rep. Duke Cunningham of California and Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska) and other lawlessness (Cheney's Chief of Staff O. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana, Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho) have toppled the conservative "moral values" façade into the gutter, where it belongs. 8. Blind rejection of science. The Bush administration thumbed its nose at scientific evidence that contradicted conservative political goals. The resulting lies about global warming, endangered species, toxic chemicals and consumer products threaten the health and safety of every American. And the virtual outlawing of stem cell research has delayed important medical advances by years, causing immeasurable suffering and loss of life. 9. Utter refusal to protect the health, safety and legal rights of Americans. Following the conservative business-is-always-right philosophy, Bush dismantled the agencies and rules designed to protect consumers from unscrupulous businesses, workers from reckless employers and small companies from anti-competitive large companies. If conservatives didn't like a federal law, they blocked, hindered or defunded agency enforcement. 10. Presiding over our nation's worst natural disaster, and not caring. Hurricane Katrina was transformed from a calamity into a national disgrace by the sheer incompetence and indifference of the Bush administration. Before the hurricane struck, Bush had downsized the Federal Emergency Management Agency and placed in charge a political crony with no relevant experience. When Katrina ripped through Mississippi and Louisiana and inflicted nearly $100 billion in damages in New Orleans to become the costliest hurricane in U.S. history, FEMA was unprepared to help, and thousands of Americans suffered the consequences. More than three years later, New Orleans still has not recovered. So, congratulations for being the worst president in American history. That's not just my personal opinion; that's the opinion of 109 historians polled by the History News Network. Fully 61 percent ranked Bush as the "worst ever;" 98 percent labeled his presidency a "failure." And this poll, taken in early 2008, predated the cataclysmic housing and banking crashes. Bye-bye W -- history will not be kind.

keepin up the pace with good fights this manga doesn't disappoint the way some other do *cough bleach naruto cough*

Poison warden shits a lot rotflmao X'D

finally a decent chapter X'D

lame boring I'm about done with this crap

I can wait

site It's Not Federal - It's Private! Money Doesn't Come From The Reserves! The Fed caused The crisis - how can it be the solution? The Fed Hold A Private Monopoly on money issuance! The Fed is not effectively audited by congress! The Fed is a private corp. yet pays no taxes The Fed is A Fraud lotta good information to support a fanfuckingtastic idea I'm sure ya have already seen it but... mcJty_ib0HU

all ya gotta do now is get rid of that spring loaded log hitting the toilet sound effect ....

By Erin Brockovich and Robin Greenwald, Huffington Post. Posted January 13, 2009. As a result of a 1.1 billion gallon spill of contaminated fly ash, there has been discussion, press reportage and blogging about the environmental disaster in eastern Tennessee. Most of us have seen the pictures -- a 300+ acre area strewn with black and brown muck as far as the eye can see. Houses lifted off their foundations and thrown across the road, yards filled so high with ash that people can't leave their homes without stepping in it, roadways littered with the ash from trucks going to and from the site, and an eerie still where active life once existed. While this story continues to unfold -- as more samples are taken that delineate the true toxicity of this mess, as TVA makes plans to contain and abate the disaster -- there is a story that has not been told. It is a story that must be told. And that story is the lives of innocent bystanders that have been turned upside down by this avoidable disaster. I learned of this disaster on the news just as we all did. Usually I receive an email from someone in the community where there has been an environmental problem. At first, it was all quiet. About 10 days after the tragedy I got the first email, then another one and another one and another one, and they kept coming. I also started receiving anonymous tips. It occurred to me that maybe more was going on than what I could gather from the news. With an invitation from the community, I decided to make the trip. Let's be honest. Usually when I am called into an environmental disaster, I anticipate that industry isn't going to step up to the plate and do what's right by the people. Lawsuits almost always ensue; it would be foolish for me to walk into a situation like this without an attorney. Besides, I consult with two law firms in the United States: Girardi & Keese in Los Angeles and Weitz & Luxenberg in New York. I traveled to the area with an attorney, Robin Greenwald from Weitz and Luxenberg, along with some experts. In many instances such as this disaster, government agencies are absent due to lack of funds and can only rely on the information that industry gives them; and industry generally operates under concealment. When I first arrived on the site, I was pretty quiet. It took a while to absorb what I was looking at. I knew there was a lake but an entire area was gone. I kept wondering "Where did the water go?" I couldn't decide if it looked more like a tornado had gone through, a mudslide, landslide, maybe a volcano erupted or a tidal wave. It is now a "moonscape." The landscape has completely changed. It is almost unidentifiable. Watching TV never gives you an idea of the extent of damage. It's only when you stand there that you can actually feel the magnitude. It struck me that I had an unusual taste on my lips and in my mouth. I asked others if they noticed that, and they did. Some experienced scratchy throats, respiratory problems, itchy and burning eyes and tasted what one expert believed to be sulfuric acid. If we were experiencing this much discomfort after a few minutes, what on earth are the people who live here feeling? The other thing that stood out in my mind was how fortunate it was that this event took place when it did. What would it have been like had this occurred in the summer during the middle of the day? Hundreds of people boat on this lake. Children swim and play in these waters. I was struck by the number of deaths that might have occurred but didn't. This corner of Roane County Tennessee is off the beaten path. It is remote, distant from any main street and city noise. It is easy to see the beauty of rolling mountains, lakes, rivers, comfortable family homes. It is serene, a piece of heaven on earth. This was a safe place to raise kids, to teach them to fish and swim, to enjoy family and have barbecues or sit quietly to watch the sunset on warm summer nights. I could see why people live there. Over the past couple of weeks we have had the opportunity to speak with people about life both before December 22. Life in the Kingston/Harriman area was idyllic. It was a place people chose as their home. It was a place that, even if jobs took people away in their youth, they awaited the day they could return and did so as soon as possible. It is a beautiful place, with water bodies everywhere. There are green meadows laced among the waters. These shared memories come to life in the "before" photographs that residents showed us. The pictures show children diving from docks into the lake, people canoeing along the rivers, families tubing in the hot summer sun and children and their dogs walking along the shore. A favorite scene of many residents is the sunset over the water, with the soft nighttime colors glistening on the lake. It went from pristine to profaned overnight. The "after" picture is nothing but a sludge-filled lake, dead fish and miles and miles of contamination flowing out of control. And what cannot be captured by photographs is the human toll of this disaster. The child who wakes up nightly with nightmares; the woman whose cough is so severe she can hardly speak and has been diagnosed with acute asthma from the ash spill; the tri-athlete who can no longer train in his environs; the families scared to death to go outside for fear they breathe in the toxic ash in the air; people realizing that TVA's recommendation to boil their water before drinking it in the wake of the disaster was a false comfort and bottled water, at their own expense, is the only solution for drinking; and the couple who lives downwind of the disaster who, following walking their dog on a hilltop on a windy night, suffered severe nose bleeds. This is a very frightening time for the people of this community. This community is incredibly brave, but it is also rightfully fearful -- they love their community, their homes, their environment and they don't want to leave, but they also don't want to stay at the risk of their health. They want answers and they can't get them. Many people have the same tale: they call the TVA hotline for answers and help but no one answers or returns their calls. Why does this happen? What did they do to deserve such treatment? I can only imagine the sadness of the families. The whole area looks like a wound on the land. To heal it, it's going to take more than a band-aid and a squirt of Bactine. The next day of my visit we did a fly over of the site, which showed the big picture. Extending for at least 5 to 6 miles downstream, we could see a plume of this toxic ash floating down the river, resting on the banks. We saw the remaining refrigerator and patch of roof where the now demolished house once stood. We saw a child's trampoline, once in someone's backyard, now buried in TVA's toxic sludge. We saw miles of ash, still traveling down river, contaminating riverbanks along the way. In truth, there are no words to describe the scenes of devastation from this disaster. The pictures are powerful, but they simply cannot capture the panorama of devastation. This was a sludge tsunami -- but one caused by corporate neglect, not natural occurrences. And what it left behind from this tsunami are mounds of toxic rubble where a lake once existed, where rivers flow and where children used to play. We all wonder what will happen to the ecosystem: the fish and wildlife. The human life. How far reaching is this event? What does the future hold for the public health and safety? Overnight a whole community's lifestyle is gone. It is bad enough that TVA mismanaged this 50+ year old waste pile of coal ash. But to put salt in the wounds of its neighbors by failing to provide critically important answers and aid is incomprehensible. TVA should have mobilized hundreds of medical experts to go to peoples' homes and answer their questions. They need to be honest and transparent about their knowledge of the make-up of the sludge, what they plan to do with it and how they intend to return life to what it used to be, if that is even possible. TVA should have a hotline that is manned sufficiently so that no one is ever put on hold or, worse yet, not answered at all. The residents of this community deserve to be treated with honesty and respect, and that is not happening. Even local elected officials are letting residents down, spending their time telling residents not to work with attorneys instead of camping outside TVA's doors demanding honest and fast answers to critically important health questions. As you know, we work on the legal side. While we cannot fully appreciate the pain and fear of those who are living the fall out of this disaster on a daily basis, we saw and heard enough to understand that our presence and our voice is critically important to ensure that this community is treated fairly and provided the truth about the present situation and their future. We will continue to aid this community as it struggles through the haze that TVA has created and continues to fuel. So many questions come to mind but there aren't any answers. My motto has become "Prevention rather than Rescue." Hindsight always shows how these tragedies could have been prevented. If history teaches us anything, it shows us that yesterday is our "crystal ball." In the now famous case, Pacific Gas and Electric knew that their contamination was affecting innocent people yet did nothing but try to convince people that the poison was good for them. If TVA knew of leaks years before this disaster and sat and waited, is "oops" we're sorry" going to be enough? The infrastructure handling coal fly ash in the U.S. is old and needs to be replaced. Can we worry about the cost of replacing the old with the new when health and safety and the environment depends on it? We can see that contamination moves through air, land and water. Can we sit back and wait for communities to get sick when we can prevent it now? Science usually lags behind the law. But in this case, law lags behind science because coal fly ash handling is not regulated as it should be. And we have a pretty good grasp on the fact that Coal Fly Ash is not healthy. A poison is a poison. It certainly can't be good for you. Does anyone believe that the arsenic in the fly ash along with other heavy metals won't leech into the groundwater? 5.4 million cubic yards of toxic compounds unleashed into the garden. We don't need a crystal ball to see the rough road ahead.

I clearly remember that cold day in January 2001, when George W. Bush reinstated the global gag rule. And, just as clearly, I remember looking forward to the day we would overturn it. Again. Well, Michelle, that day is coming. Finally! This is one petition you'll want your name on just so that you can celebrate when -- mind you, I'm saying "when" not "if" -- President Obama rescinds the rule. http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/globalgag_ppol/iwsw56k4okx66jn?source=globalgag_e1_ppol The global gag rule has had an enormous negative impact on women around the world since President Reagan first put it into effect. Hundreds of thousands of people like you and me protested the rule, which mandated that no U.S. family planning assistance funding can be given to organizations that provide abortion services, offer counseling and referral for abortion care, or advocate legal abortion access in their own countries -- even if they do so with their own funds. When President Clinton came into office, he quickly overturned the rule. And then came President Bush, who made it a priority to put it right back into effect. The results have been devastating. Because of the global gag rule, international reproductive health care organizations have faced a dangerous dilemma: either accept desperately needed U.S. funds but deny women life-saving services and information, or reject U.S. assistance and be forced to cut crucial prevention services. The Planned Parenthood international program made the difficult decision to continue to provide the full gamut of health care services without limitation, thus being ineligible for U.S. assistance, and we worked hard to find other private funding sources. But many other programs simply couldn't afford to do so. Can you imagine how many women have borne the brunt of this cruel see-saw? The number is simply incomprehensible -- 200 million women. That's the approximate number of women in developing countries who wish to delay or end childbearing but lack access to modern contraceptives. When I add my name to our petition to President Obama, it will be for them. I want women all over the world to know that they matter. Please, join me -- and I'll let you know as soon as we get the word there's a reason to celebrate. While repealing the global gag rule is a critical step in recognizing that women's health must be a priority, it's just a first step. The fight for access to health care and rights is an uphill one, and there is serious work to be done to rectify nearly a decade of bad policies not just in the U.S. but around the world. In the short term, restoring funding for UNFPA; removing abstinence-only requirements in AIDS funding; and increasing foreign assistance for reproductive health, including $1 billion for family planning, will move us in the right direction. President Obama and the new Congress have their work cut out for them as they take office. The multitude of problems facing the country is challenging indeed. The global gag rule? This one's easy. Let's make sure it happens. Sign the petition. http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/globalgag_ppol/iwsw56k4okx66jn?source=globalgag_e1_ppol Thank you, as always, and keep an eye out for upcoming actions you can take to help us win these battles for women around the world. Sincerely, Cecile Richards, President Planned Parenthood Federation of America