Ladywriter

Quote of the Day: "Party is the madness of many for the gain of a few." -- Alexander Pope Subject: Messages to Congress running as high as 300 to 1 against the bailout First the Republicans were for it (the Big Bailout), and then they were against it. What happened? What happened is YOU, and others like you, pounding on Congress to NOT pass the Big Bailout. There were constant reports on CNBC yesterday, and in other places, <http://www.buffalonews.com/180/story/446693.html> that calls and messages to Congress were running roughly 300 to 1 against the Big Bailout. This is what made the Republicans reverse course. Your messages and calls to Congress do make a difference! But pressure from powerful special interests also has an impact, so we must maintain OUR pressure. It would also help to provide Congress with an alternative plan that is better than the Big Bailout. Fortunately, we can do that. All Congress has to do is remove the mark-to-market accounting rule, and replace it with a "discounted cash flow" accounting rule. Doing so would . . . * Enable firms to record a more realistic value for their assets * Boost balance sheets and restore credit ratings * Provide useful information that would serve to create a liquid market for these assets In short, this one simple regulatory change would accomplish everything the Big Bailout is supposed to achieve, with NO expenditure of federal funds! If you want to learn more about mark-to-market accounting vs. discounted-cash-flow there's a good write-up of it here. <http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.28389/pub_detail.asp> Please send another message to Congress right now. The message for the campaign we're using for this purpose reads: "Please cut federal spending." Use your personal comments to add something like the following . . . "The Big Bailout moves in the wrong direction, toward more spending and more debt. Oppose the bailout! Instead, remove the mark-to-market accounting regulation, and replace it with a discounted-cash-flow accounting rule. This will free up the markets at no cost to the taxpayer." You can send your message here. <http://www.downsizedc.org/etp/campaigns/104> Thank you for being a part of the growing Downsize DC army. Perry Willis Communications Director DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

cats rule dogs drool X'D

The Bush administration's proposal to bail out some of Wall Street's biggest players with an unprecedented transfer of public wealth to the private sector sent shock-waves throughout the nation. Already deep in deficit, the administration wants to borrow $700 billion dollars -- in addition to the $900 billion already spent this year to prop up troubled lending institutions and deal with the fall-out from the housing crisis -- and entrust it to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, fresh from a long run on Wall Street himself. He'd then buy up worthless paper from struggling banks. Who would get the money? Nobody knows. Paulson says he wants to hire Wall Street firms to oversee the process. Under Bush's plan, the taxpayer would get little, if anything, in return. The whole thing would happen without Congressional oversight, save for a semi-annual report on the process, and Paulson's actions would be beyond challenge in the courts. It is an economic coup d'etat in the making. And people are talking about little else. Here's 10 things that have been on our radars ... there's this now Demand that the Bailout Legislation Be Rejected We are witnessing a bankers' coup d'etat. In the name of saving the economy from a crisis created by their own greed and immense profits, Bush and the biggest bankers have taken a country and a people hostage. "Give us your money and tear up what's left of your Constitution or we will sink your economy," is the message from Wall Street and the Bush Administration. "Give us the power and money we demand or you will be left jobless from a new economic depression." Under the pretext of the banking crisis, the Bush Administration is changing the way this country operates. This is not simply taking trillions of dollars from the people and giving it to the richest bankers to do with as they see fit. Click here to send your letter to Congress: http://www.impeachbush.org/site/R?i=sjPOnjcYiWQh-ruFgNa6FQ.. Congress is poised to vote to give the Executive Branch of government, and specifically the White House's political appointees in the Treasury Department, the absolute right to take our money and give it to domestic and foreign banks and corporations without any oversight of elected officials, from the courts, or from the people. The new legislation states: "Decisions by the Secretary [of the Treasury] pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." The Legislation allows the Treasury Department to appoint the same bankers who created the crisis to administer and dictate the use of trillions of our tax dollars. We will not stand by and let the Bush Administration formalize its vision of a "government of, by and for the richest bankers." The new system institutionalizes theft on a grand scale. Lehman Brothers bankers will receive $2.5 billion in bonuses after their company went bankrupt last week, but the new dictatorial authority under the White House and Treasury Department has ruled out any relief for the millions of working families who are being foreclosed. We live in a $15 trillion annual economy. Instead of taking our tax dollars and giving it to the already rich and powerful, these funds should be used provide to decent paying jobs, affordable housing, health care and a good education for our children. There is another way! Now is the time to hear the voice of the people. A spineless Congress authorized Bush's illegal war in Iraq and rubber-stamped the Patriot Act. Now they are being herded like sheep again to give the White House and Wall Street dictatorial control over the people's money. [rant]this is some bullfuckinshit Again Bush admin is wipin its ass with the constitution No bail outs w/o some kind of fuckin accountability. Feds just printin more money. Rescue the insurance company, hmm.. not for you or me with our trivial investements, its for asshats like Larry Silverstien who profited from the towers. Where's all the money right? Its in the hands of a few and they're mismanaging it, us, the planet cuz of greed. College puts most ppl in debt and if you can get clear of that you might be able to get in even bigger debt for a house. Either way the minute you cut the apron strings you owe owe owe. this is bullshit we should just let the stock market crash, let the rich take one to the nuts. All us poor ppl alrady know how to deal w it cuz we pump our own gas. we'll be fine, we'll bounce back. I'm in favor of some riots and revloution in the streets. [/rant]

Despite the media feeding frenzy, we still may be asking ourselves, "Just who exactly is Sarah Palin?" Mixed in with the Davy-Crockett-meets-SuperMom vignettes -- all those moose hunting, ice fishing, snowmobiling, baby-juggling, and hockey-momming moments -- we've also learned that she doesn't care much for her former brother-in-law and wasn't afraid to use her office to go after his job as a state trooper; that she was for the "bridge to nowhere" before she was against it; that she's against earmarks unless they benefit her constituents; that she can deliver a snappy wisecracking speech, thinks banning books in libraries is okay, considers herself a pit bull with lipstick, and above all else, wants to drill the ever-lovin' daylights out of every corner of her home state (which John McCain's handlers have somehow translated into being against Big Oil, since she insisted on a marginally bigger cut of the profits for Alaskans). Oh, and -- not that this is very important to Americans or the planet -- she now thinks that global warming might possibly be human-made sorta though she didn't before, despite the fact that the state she governs is on the frontline of climate change. And, of course, she's a classic right-wing, fundamentalist Christian: against abortion -- check; against same-sex marriage -- check; against stem-cell research -- check; favors teaching Creationism in public schools -- check. It's that last item, her willingness to put Creationism up against the teaching of evolutionary science in the classroom on a he-says-she-says basis, that's far more revealing of just who our new Republican vice presidential candidate is than we generally assume. It deserves the long, hard look that it hasn't yet gotten. Most Democrats and progressives tend to think of the teaching of Creationism as a mere sidebar item on their agenda of political don't-likes, but it's not. Sarah Palin's bias towards Creationism is a window into her political soul and a measure of John McCain's hypocrisy. It's possible that the public has been fooled into thinking of McCain as a "maverick" when it comes to his party's abysmal record on the environment, but his selection of Palin as his running mate sends quite a different message. In fact, he's potentially put future generations on a "bridge to nowhere" (or perhaps to the fourteenth century). Whether we know it or not, we should now be duly warned: The Palin nomination is the equivalent of launching a "surge strategy" in the Republican war on the environment. more

Were you as frustrated as I was to hear the crowd chant "drill, baby, drill" during the Republican Convention? A John McCain presidency promises more of what we have seen for the last eight years. Time and time again, McCain has said no to renewable energy, no to higher fuel efficiency, and yes to subsidies for Big Oil, the nuclear industry and other big polluters. Then, with his most important decision, he picks as his running-mate someone who surely makes Dick Cheney proud. Gov. Palin has denied that global warming is man-made and supports shooting of wolves from low-flying airplanes. On the other hand, the Obama-Biden team has the most comprehensive energy plan ever put forward by a presidential campaign. With them we have a chance - finally - to turn a corner when it comes to fighting global warming and ensuring a clean energy future. McCain and Palin? They will continue the disastrous Bush-Cheney energy plan - and we just can't afford four more years of this energy mess. Here at the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund, we're fighting to elect the real environmental champions America needs and prevent four more years of out-of-touch energy policy. Sincerely, Gene Karpinski President League of Conservation Voters Action Fund

n3ecA2L-VuQ

Polls Show Palin Is Starting to Drag Down McCain

Help stop the Bush administration's bad medicine. We have until September 25 to raise an outcry. President Bush just released a new regulation that would let health care providers define abortion, which could threaten access to birth control and broader reproductive health care, and allow federal funding for so-called "crisis pregnancy centers" that refuse to give patients their full range of reproductive health care options. Please speak out during the official 30-day comment period before the rule can go into effect. We need as many people as possible to submit comments to the Department of Health and Human Services before the official comment period ends on September 25.

Thanks to the unprecedented support of more than 14,000 wildlife supporters, millions of voters in key swing states are learning more about vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's values -- and her brutal record on aerial hunting of wolves and other wildlife. Encourage your friends to watch the ad online and help us reach even more people with the awful truth about Governor Sarah Palin's brutal record aerial wolf hunting. http://action.defenders.org/site/R?i=Tb_4HDOULSgU9kg2czlWIQ.. With your help, we're breaking this story wide open. This hard-hitting TV ad has already been seen by nearly 300,000 people online. It's been covered by many news outlets, including CNN, ABC, MSNBC, The Wall Street Journal, The LA Times, several Ohio newspapers and more. And thanks to the generous donations of people like you, millions of people in Ohio and Florida know the truth about Governor Palin's brutal record. Now, thanks to the phenomenal support of wildlife supporters like you, we'll be able to extend our ad buy in Ohio and Florida, air it in Michigan -- and beyond. If you haven't already, please consider donating now to help put this ad in front of even more potential voters. http://action.defenders.org/site/R?i=Z04ElQSgZzTBPVbktnAOAg.. The more voters learn about Governor Sarah Palin, the less there is to like. But as you can imagine, running a TV ad during election season is expensive. There are still millions of potential voters across the U.S. who haven't learned the truth about Governor Palin's brutal aerial hunting program -- millions who don't yet know about her proposal to dole out $150 for the severed forelegs of dead wolves. Help us expose the awful truth about Sarah Palin before it's too late. Tell others about Governor Sarah Palin's record on the brutal and unethical hunting of wolves from airplanes. http://action.defenders.org/site/R?i=AV73yUIqmN8FJlYwHs6ppA.. With your help, we can ensure that voters know the truth about Sarah Palin. With Gratitude, Rodger Schlickeisen President Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund P.S. Right now, my team is preparing another powerful TV ad to air in key swing states. To help us reach more voters with the ad above and place our new ad, please make a secure online contribution today. http://action.defenders.org/site/R?i=a1fJst-VjZQo5iUbbidBww.. Or call 1-800-425-4632 to contribute by phone. Paid for by Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund at http://action.defenders.org/site/R?i=pebn6tKb83tUkb_UaI2q7Q.. and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. Copyright 2008 Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund

Sarah Palin Earns Prestigious Rubber Dodo Award The second annual Rubber Dodo Award goes to... Sarah Palin. The Center for Biological Diversity honored her with the 2008 award for her valiant efforts to protect her state's oil industry -- sacrificing the well-being of our earth, our climate, the polar bear, and numerous other warming-threatened species in the process. Starting in 2006, Palin worked hard to block the government from protecting the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act -- and when the bear was declared "threatened" anyway, she sued, joined shortly thereafter by her oil-industry friends. According to the Center's executive director Kierán Suckling, Palin's lawsuit will put her in the history books as perhaps the only person ever to have accused the Bush administration of excessive use of the Endangered Species Act. The Center's Rubber Dodo Award is reserved every year for the person in public or private service whom we feel has done the most to contribute to endangered species' extinction. Last year, we gave the award to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne. Check out our press release and learn more from the Guardian: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2008/palin-09-17-2008.html http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/center/articles/2008/guardian-09-17-2008.html _______________________________

Target: Senator John McCain Sponsored by: NARAL Pro-Choice America Throughout his career in the Senate, John McCain has had a record of joining with the Bush Administration to take away women's rights and reproductive healthcare options. At a forum in August, he pledged that "I will be a pro-life president and this presidency will have pro-life policies." And now, he has nominated anti-choice advocate Sarah Palin to be his running-mate. Together, this would be the most anti-choice presidential campaign ever. Senator McCain and Governor Palin support: - A ban on abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest; - The overturn of Roe v. Wade; and - Anti-choice judges. Throughout his service in the Senate, McCain has also repeatedly voted to slash funding for low-income family-planning programs, against allowing women to obtain birth control and to take away women's right to choose. Tell Senator McCain: I know your record of following the Bush Administration's plans to take away women's rights, and I want you to be clear about it to all Americans. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/464294592?z00m=16733176

:b-day:squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee whatcha want for yer present love?

Jesse Ventura Slams “911 Conspiracy Debunkers”, for 30 Minutes

link Michigan Republicans plan to foreclose African-American voters The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County, Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day. “We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed. State election rules allow parties to assign “election challengers” to polls to monitor the election. In addition to observing the poll workers, these volunteers can challenge the eligibility of any voter provided they “have a good reason to believe” that the person is not eligible to vote. One allowable reason is that the person is not a “true resident of the city or township.” The Michigan Republicans’ planned use of foreclosure lists is apparently an attempt to challenge ineligible voters as not being “true residents.” One expert questioned the legality of the tactic. “You can’t challenge people without a factual basis for doing so,” said J. Gerald Hebert, a former voting rights litigator for the U.S. Justice Department who now runs the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington D.C.-based public-interest law firm. “I don’t think a foreclosure notice is sufficient basis for a challenge, because people often remain in their homes after foreclosure begins and sometimes are able to negotiate and refinance.” As for the practice of challenging the right to vote of foreclosed property owners, Hebert called it, “mean-spirited.” GOP ties to state’s largest foreclosure law firm The Macomb GOP’s plans are another indication of how John McCain’s campaign stands to benefit from the burgeoning number of foreclosures in the state. McCain’s regional headquarters are housed in the office building of foreclosure specialists Trott & Trott. The firm’s founder, David A. Trott, has raised between $100,000 and $250,000 for the Republican nominee. The Macomb County party’s plans to challenge voters who have defaulted on their house payments is likely to disproportionately affect African-Americans who are overwhelmingly Democratic voters. More than 60 percent of all sub-prime loans — the most likely kind of loan to go into default — were made to African-Americans in Michigan, according to a report issued last year by the state’s Department of Labor and Economic Growth. Challenges to would-be voters Statewide, the Republican Party is gearing up for a comprehensive voter challenge campaign, according to Denise Graves, party chair for Republicans in Genessee County, which encompasses Flint. The party is creating a spreadsheet of election challenger volunteers and expects to coordinate a training with the regional McCain campaign, Graves said in an interview with Michigan Messenger. Whether the Republicans will challenge voters with foreclosed homes elsewhere in the state is not known. Kelly Harrigan, deputy director of the GOP’s voter programs, confirmed that she is coordinating the group’s “election integrity” program. Harrigan said the effort includes putting in place a legal team, as well as training election challengers. She said the challenges to voters were procedural rather than personal. She referred inquiries about the vote challenge program to communications director Bill Nowling, who promised information but did not return calls. Party chairman Carabelli said that the Republican Party is training election challengers to “make sure that [voters] are who they say who they are.” When asked for further details on how Republicans are compiling challenge lists, he said, “I would rather not tell you all the things we are doing.” Vote suppression: Not an isolated effort Carabelli is not the only Republican Party official to suggest the targeting of foreclosed voters. In Ohio, Doug Preisse, director of elections in Franklin County (around the city of Columbus) and the chair of the local GOP, told The Columbus Dispatch that he has not ruled out challenging voters before the election due to foreclosure-related address issues. Hebert, the voting-rights lawyer, sees a connection between Priesse’s remarks and Carabelli’s plans. “At a minimum what you are seeing is a fairly comprehensive effort by the Republican Party, a systematic broad-based effort to put up obstacles for people to vote,” he said. “Nobody is contending that these people are not legally registered to vote. “When you are comprehensively challenging people to vote,” Hebert went on, “your goals are two-fold: One is you are trying to knock people out from casting ballots; the other is to create a slowdown that will discourage others,” who see a long line and realize they can’t afford to stay and wait. Challenging all voters registered to foreclosed homes could disrupt some polling places, especially in the Detroit metropolitan area. According to the real estate Web site RealtyTrac, one in every 176 households in Wayne County, metropolitan Detroit, received a foreclosure filing during the month of July. In Macomb County, the figure was one household in every 285, meaning that 1,834 homeowners received the bad news in just one month. The Macomb County foreclosure rate puts it in the top three percent of all U.S. counties in the number of distressed homeowners. Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Kent and Genessee counties were — in that order — the counties with the most homeowners facing foreclosure, according to RealtyTrac. As of July, there were more than 62,000 foreclosure filings in the entire state. Joe Rozell, director of elections for Oakland County in suburban Detroit, acknowledged that challenges such as those described by Carabelli are allowed by law but said they have the potential to create long lines and disrupt the voting process. With 890,000 potential voters closely divided between Democratic and Republican, Oakland County is a key swing county of this swing state. According to voter challenge directives handed down by Republican Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, voter challenges need only be “based on information obtained through a reliable source or means.” “But poll workers are not allowed to ask the reason” for the challenges, Rozell said. In other words, Republican vote challengers are free to use foreclosure lists as a basis for disqualifying otherwise eligible voters. David Lagstein, head organizer with the Michigan Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), described the plans of the Macomb GOP as “crazy.” “You would think they would think, ‘This is going to look too heartless,’” said Lagstein, whose group has registered 200,000 new voters statewide this year and also runs a foreclosure avoidance program. “The Republican-led state Senate has not moved on the anti-predatory lending bill for over a year and yet [Republicans] have time to prey on those who have fallen victim to foreclosure to suppress the vote.”

they're presently trying to cover cunt Palin's ass as she is under investigation

X'D you guys are too easy. I woulda been screaming swearing and possibly beating the bitch down

Did Luffy land in a paw print? are there paw prints all over that Kuma uses as targets to send his victims?

Economists estimate tens of billions for governments if we taxed pot like tobacco and stopped wasting money on the drug war. If marijuana were legal but taxed like alcohol and tobacco, how much money could it bring in to cash-strapped state governments? One 2006 study called cannabis the top cash crop in the nation, worth more than corn and wheat combined. It was the leading crop in 12 states, outstripping grapes in California and tobacco in North Carolina, and one of the top three in 18 others, coming in just behind apples in Washington and cotton in Georgia. So with states facing massive deficits, could reefer revenues help? The answer is unclear, but it could be lucrative for governments, especially when combined with the savings from ending prohibition. As the U.S. marijuana market is illegal, there are no sales figures. Estimates of its size range from $10.5 billion a year to $113 billion. But three studies done by economists and policy analysts say ganja taxes could bring in anywhere from $2.4 billion to $31.1 billion in revenue, depending on how big the sales really are. About one-third of that would go to the states. "There's not enough really good data on it, so it's probably best to look at it in ballpark figures," says Jon Gettman, a Virginia policy analyst who has worked with the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and the Marijuana Policy Project. "But there's a consensus that there's an awful lot of marijuana out there and that it's very valuable." "The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition," a 2005 study by Harvard economics professor Jeffrey A. Miron, makes the most conservative projections of the three studies. It calculates possible pot tax revenues at $2.4 billion. That's assuming that prices would drop about 25 percent under legalization, that pot-related economic activities were taxed at the national average of 30 percent, and that the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy's estimate that the domestic cannabis market is worth $10.5 billion is accurate. If herb were taxed more heavily, as alcohol and cigarettes are, that could bring in as much as $9.5 billion -- although excessive "sin taxes" could cause pot smokers to cut down or grow their own, diminishing revenues. States with higher rates of marijuana use, such as California and New York, would collect a somewhat higher proportion of taxes than states with lower rates, such as Pennsylvania and Texas. Miron estimates that California would take in $105 million at ordinary levels of taxation. However, others in the field believe that the government's $10.5 billion figure is absurdly low. Dan Hamburg, a former congressman from Northern California's sinsemilla belt, says the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors estimates bud production in that county alone at between $1 billion and $1.5 billion, worth far more than timber and grapes. California's medical marijuana dispensary owners claim they pay $100 million a year in state sales taxes. The methods used to estimate the size of the marijuana market involve a great deal of speculation. Determining the supply involves taking the amount of domestic and imported marijuana seized by law enforcement, guessing what percentage of the total amount of homegrown and smuggled weed that represents, and extrapolating from there. Additional variables include how much a single plant can yield -- anywhere from less than an ounce to more than a pound -- and the retail price, which can be loosely sensed from the reader-contributed snippets in High Times magazine's monthly market quotations ("Chicago, Purple Kush, $450/oz") and the Drug Enforcement Administration's STRIDE index, which narcotics agents use to figure out how much to pay for the drugs they try to buy. Demand can be estimated from government and academic household surveys of drug use -- but these are far from specific, especially when you use the limited data on frequency of use to try to figure out how much people spend on pot. "It's hard to match the supply-and-demand data," says Gettman. "Sometimes you don't know what it is, but you know what it's not." He estimates the value of the U.S. weed market at $113 billion, based on a supply of more than 14 million kilos, an average retail price of about $220 an ounce, and between 25 million and 40 million pot smokers. That number seems high. It would require 40 million people to spend an average of $55 a week on weed. But Gettman cites United Nations data that has estimated U.S. cannabis cultivation at 10 million to 14 million kilos for the past several years. The federal government has reduced its estimate of domestic production from 10 million kilos in 2002 to between 2.8 million and 6.6 million kilos in 2006, but those figures, he says, are "complete politics." They're based on the assumption that law enforcement eradicates 30 to 50 percent of all the pot plants grown in the United States, and that plants average a pound each. 1 2 Next page »

DB/DBZ anime was pretty good stuff back in its day; like most shows when it was nearing the end of an arc they had to stretch and give the manga time to get ahead. Its why 5 minutes can last 13 episodes Remove filler/stretch and you have a good original story, a writer that knew how to do his job. The only manga/show that comes close to Akira's reign is Oda's One Piece; 10 years of manga and its in its 9th tv season. and yes, Piccalo looks like Garlic Jr.... pretty disappointing to long time fans

When a writer does a shit job with the story as long as this jerk has plot twists look like "oh great he changed his mind about shit AGAIN" I really don't know if he even knows where he's going with this story or what he wants himself and his readers to get out of it (with the exception of his paycheck). The incompetent writing has put reading the new chapter on my list of chores somewhere below scrubbing the toilet. It hasn't been fun or exciting in ages. Its a typical predictable hack job. Nothing surprises me anymore; no cheering good guys on, wishing characters would just friging die so it would be over.

lol maybe it will get interesting again... eventually?

just another reason i don't want neighbors near me

I'll get Luffy's mushroom off for him

Off Topic: not to burst a bubble here but science does know how planets are formed including this one n ya don't need to be 4 billion years old to google an answer to that question I am not pro life I am pro choice. I don't think its the state or federal govts business wtf any woman has or doesn't have going on in her basement. If christian creationisim is taught in school then the creation story of ALL religions must also be taught. That takes up too much time. Stick to the science and save theology for college when the kids can actually understand it. Seperation of church and state. back on topic EQobIUE1zTU In all honesty if it looks like McSame and Cunt are gonna win I'll throw Ron Paul overboard and vote for Obama. I don't want this bitch in a position to run this country.

Right now, even as they make the biggest profits in American history, oil companies like ExxonMobil are getting $13 billion in tax breaks. But all that could change when Congress comes back to Washington this week. Environmental champions like Speaker Pelosi are working to strip these tax giveaways and make a major investment in clean energy like wind and solar power. Can you tell Congress to end tax breaks for big oil and invest in clean energy? Click below to sign the petition: http://action.lcv.org/ct/67wd5pK1MXDe/ Unfortunately, too many Republicans in Congress are paid for by Big Oil and are opposing efforts to repeal these tax breaks - even at a time of record oil profits. To create a new energy future in this country, we need to send Congress a clear message. The petition says: "With rising gas prices and America's growing dependence on oil, it is clear that too many politicians in Washington are paid for by Big Oil. "We need to stop letting oil companies run our energy policy. To make America truly energy independent, we call on Congress to boost production of clean energy, end all tax breaks for oil companies, and resist the false promise of drilling in environmentally sensitive areas. "We need an energy policy that isn't paid for by Big Oil." After you sign, please forward this message on to your friends and family. There could be votes to repeal tax breaks for the oil industry and instead invest in clean, renewable energy as soon as this week. If enough people join this petition, we can raise the profile of this issue - and force Congress to decide whose side they're on. With rising gas prices, increasing global warming pollution, and America's growing dependence on oil, it is clear that too many politicians in Washington are paid for by Big Oil. Tell Congress to end tax breaks for Big Oil and invest in clean energy instead. Sign the petition here: http://action.lcv.org/ct/67wd5pK1MXDe/ Sincerely, Gene Karpinski President League of Conservation Voters