Credit Card Reform WIN!!!: May 21, 2009

Thanks to you--your phone calls, your emails, your donations, the personal stories you shared with the press and lawmakers, the personal visits you made in Washington and at home--We Won!

The House of Representatives just passed the credit card reform bill on a bipartisan 357 to 70 vote. Yesterday it passed in the Senate 90 to 5. We don’t have information about the individual votes, or we would pass it along. Look for an update in next week's regular ConsumerLine email newsletter.

The bill now goes directly to the President's desk. We hope for a signing ceremony as early as Friday.

What does the bill do?

First, it moves up the effective date for reform. An earlier effective date for rate relief was a big part of your message to Congress since January. Then it:

• Restricts all interest rate increases during the first year and restricts interest rate increases on existing balances
• Increases notice for rate increase on future purchases
• Preserves your right to repay under the old terms after a rate increase
• Limits fees and penalty interest
• Requires fair application of payments--not just applying your payment to the lowest interest balance
• Provides gift card protections
• Protects young consumers

And more! Here's our updated page summarizing your new rights as a card holder.

It's been decades since Congress passed credit card rules that were opposed by the credit card industry. Why did they do it? Because of you.

You turned your frustration with your card bank into action for real reform and you did it with passion and intelligence. Thank you for everything you do!

Sincerely,
Pam Banks
CreditCardReform.org
A project of Consumers Union
1101 17th Street NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20036

More Environmental Good News: May 16, 2009

Regarding Mountaintop Removal Mining

Thank you for writing to express your support for the "Appalachia Restoration Act" (S. 696). I share your concerns about the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal mining, and I welcome the opportunity to respond.

As you know, the practice of mountaintop removal mining - which involves removing mountaintops to mine coal seams within the mountain - has been found to have damaging effects on nearby streams as large quantities of excess rock and dirt may cause the deterioration of the watershed and the filling of streams.

On March 25, 2009, Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) introduced the "Appalachia Restoration Act" (S. 696), which would amend the Clean Water Act to prevent the disposal of mountaintop mining waste into streams and rivers. This bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Although I am not a member of this Committee, I will keep your support in mind should S. 696, or similar legislation, come before the full Senate.

You may also be interested to know that on April 27, 2009, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced that the Department of the Interior (DOI) is taking action to rescind a Bush Administration rule that eased restrictions on mountaintop removal mining to allow discharges of coal mining waste within the 100-foot buffer zone surrounding streams. Secretary Salazar has asked the Department of Justice to file a motion in U.S. District Court requesting that the rule be set aside and sent back to DOI for further review. DOI will draft a new rule and seek public comment.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has also taken action to address concerns about mountaintop removal mining by suspending permitting for mountaintop mining projects until the EPA can assess the impact of this practice on water quality and aquatic life.

Again, thank you for writing. If you have additional questions or comments, please contact my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 224-3841. Best regards.

Regarding Health Care Reform

Thank you for writing to me about the need for health care reform. I am committed to enacting comprehensive health reform that controls rising health care costs and ensures high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

Congress recently passed a budget that lays out some basic principles for health care reform: making health care coverage affordable, guaranteeing Americans a choice of health plans and physicians, investing in prevention and wellness, improving patient safety and quality care, and making health care reform fiscally sustainable.

As the number of uninsured Americans grows rapidly, more people are suffering and forgoing needed care. It is estimated that more than 45 million Americans are without health insurance, including 6.7 million people in California.

Escalating health care costs are hurting our families and our economy. In order to put our economy on a sound path to recovery, we must address the costs and inefficiencies of our health care system. As we move forward in the debate on health care reform, I will continue to fight for common goals of constraining costs, expanding access, and improving quality.

I look forward to working with the Obama Administration and my colleagues to enact legislation that will put these principles for health care reform.

Again, thank you for writing to me. Please feel free to contact me again about this or other issues of concern to you.

Barbara Boxer
United States Senator


Win for the Polar Bears

Please take a few seconds out of your day to thank the 38 members of the California legislature who stood up for polar bears.

Last year, both houses of the California legislature adopted a joint resolution, authored by Assemblymember Ted Lieu (Torrance), calling on the Bush administration to stop stalling protections for polar bears and penguins threatened by global warming. This year, 38 state senators and assemblymembers joined Assemblymember Pedro Nava (Santa Barbara) in a joint letter urging Secretary Salazar to restore these essential protections to the polar bear.

The joint letter from the legislature states: "The people and the state of California cherish our wildlife and natural habitats, and we are committed to protecting our natural heritage and imperiled species from the impacts of climate change."

By last Friday, Salazar had restored some protections, but unfortunately announced that he would continue the Bush-era policy of denying full protections to polar bears.

California's legislators deserve our praise and support for standing up for polar bear protections. So often we ask you to call or write to urge your elected representatives to do more to protect the environment, and they need to know we appreciate it when they do.

Click here to find out more and thank California's legislators.

EPA: Historic Steps to Cap Global Warming; April 18, 2009

In an historic decision moments ago, Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson issued a proposed ruling
that global warming pollution "endangers" Americans' health and
well-being.

Today's action sets the stage for using authority under the
Clean Air Act to establish national emission standards for large
global warming emitters.

EDF's deputy general counsel Vickie Patton says that with
today's announcement, "The U.S. is taking its first steps as a
nation to confront climate change. EPA's action is a wake
up-call for national policy solutions that secure our economic
and environmental future."

The EPA is now expected to begin developing national emission
standards for new motor vehicles and new coal-fired power
plants, the nation's two largest sources of global warming
pollution.

Today's action comes as Congress prepares to take its own
historic steps toward enacting a cap on global warming
pollution.

Next week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will begin
hearings on comprehensive energy and climate legislation and
move quickly to a vote on the bill. Chairman Henry Waxman has
committed to moving the bill -- the American Clean Energy and
Security Act -- out of committee by Memorial Day.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she intends to bring the bill to
the House floor this year.

With EPA's decision as a backdrop, we will continue our all-out
campaign to pressure Congress to pass a cap on America's global
warming pollution as the most effective way to stop global
warming and unleash our clean energy future.

Please go to the Green Room to share your thoughts on today's
announcement: http://action.edf.org/ct/Jd_dLn91wEqN/

Thanks for your activism and support.

Sincerely,
Sam Parry
Director of Online Membership and Activism
Environmental Defense Fund

360: Thanksgiving: November 26, 2008

As many of you already know: speaking for myself, Everyday Is Thanksgiving!

Every morning I wake up and am able to get out of bed and go about my day and return safely back to my bed at night....well that's a lot to be thankful for.

So here is a partial list of what I have to be thankful for:
My family,
Aristophanes & Zeinab,
Grandpa Wallace , Grandpa Marcellus & the Grannies
my home,
the Canunpa & the Canka Luta Waste,
#213 Inn @ Avila Beach & Amanda @ Avalon
my friends; Pie, Donna, Dianna, Anet, Jr., Kehau, Evelia, Lu, Maggie & Sue,
all the people I've met online (yah even in T&A),
for life's lessons, my health,
them Wanbli & the other bird nation that watch out for me,
the Wakiyan,
Pejuta Waste,
my job,
gourds & the gourd man,
a good vehicle,
the give-away Unci Maka & all my non-two-legged relations provide me,
being able to make a positive difference in this lifetime,
being able to walk the "Give-away"

In essence...My Life!

Mi Takuye Oyacin

360: Declaration of Rights Indigenous People: September 14, 2007

NEW YORK - After three decades of drafts, deliberations and delays, the United Nations General Assembly voted Sept. 13 to adopt the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The majority, 143 countries, voted in favor. As expected, the only countries opposing the adoption were the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. The main objections of these countries


centered on indigenous peoples' control over land and resources, their right to self-determination, and that the declaration might give indigenous peoples veto authority over development on their lands and territories.


Its adoption marks the first time in history that indigenous peoples' collective rights to self-determination and control over their lands and natural resources will formally be recognized by the United Nations.


''The international community is finally recognizing that indigenous peoples have a permanent right to exist as distinct peoples, and that we have a right to be self-governing,'' said Robert Tim Coulter, one of the original authors of the declaration who worked with chiefs from the Iroquois Confederacy to draft the first 10 points in 1976.


''The world is taking a formal stand that indigenous peoples have the right to be free from all forms of discrimination and to maintain our cultures, societies, languages and spiritual practices,'' said Coulter, executive director of the Indian Law Resource Center in Helena, Mont., and Washington, D.C.


While the declaration is non-binding, it will still have a major influence on eliminating discrimination and human rights violations suffered by more than 370 million indigenous peoples worldwide.


The declaration sets minimal standards on how countries should treat indigenous peoples, and it will influence laws and federal policies affecting more than 560 Indian nations in the United States.


In recent years, there have been many unfavorable U.S. Supreme Court cases that denied Indian people equality under the law by simply taking their land with no compensation.


Coulter said over time the declaration will influence U.S. court decisions that too often are discriminatory and unfair. Congress, Indian nations and Native advocates also will be guided by principles in the declaration when policies in the U.S. Justice and Interior departments are being developed.


In the last five years, there have been at least four cases in which the U.S. Supreme Court looked to international law to help shape its decisions: a death penalty case regarding the mentally retarded, a case in Michigan on desegregation, and a same sex case in Texas, among others.


If international law mandates that indigenous peoples must be accorded the same rights as others, it will help reduce widespread racism and discrimination.


The declaration will be especially helpful in South and Central America, where the Mayan village of El Estor was burned in recent months to make way for a nickel mine owned by a Canadian company.


One provision in the declaration that may help communities like El Estor states that indigenous peoples have the right to ''free, prior and informed consent'' over development affecting their lands, territories and resources.


For hundreds of years colonizing countries moved into indigenous peoples' homelands, but never shared the benefits or paid them for land and resources taken. In Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Americas, many tribes and indigenous peoples lack sufficient political clout to protect their ways of life when extractive industries, transnational corporations and countries decide to take their lands and resources, often with no compensation.


Armand MacKenzie, an international human rights lawyer and activist, said his people, the Innu of Labrador and Quebec, have launched legal challenges against Canada to recover land that was taken when Canada passed a law that unilaterally extinguished their rights without any consultation.


''The declaration says we have the right to restitution and compensation for lands that were stolen,'' MacKenzie said before the vote. ''That's why Canada has been actively opposing the declaration and is expected to vote against it.''


The Innu in Labrador were forcibly relocated and are said to have the highest suicide rate in the world, especially among youth. Survival International issued a report called ''Canada's Tibet: Killing of the Innu'' that documents how Canada's harsh policies have devastated a traditional culture.


Indigenous peoples' collective rights are unique by virtue of their history, cultures and ancestral ties to their homelands. While all citizens of the world have individual human rights, indigenous peoples also hold collective rights where language, culture, ceremonies, medicines, sacred sites and lands are concerned.


At the international level, human rights laws are made by treaties, conventions or covenants such as the Convention on the Rights of Women and the Convention on the Elimination of Racism and Discrimination.


The declaration is expected to eventually become a convention and then binding international law within a few years. Many states are operating by and honoring some of these rights now.


Valerie Taliman, Navajo, is director of communications for the Indian Law Resource Center in Helena, Mont. She can be reached at (406) 449-2006, or visit www.indianlaw.org.

360: Blessings: July 8, 2007

Anything that has brought a smile to your lips, joy to your heart or a
lightness to your step is a blessing.

  Anything that has made your life more comfortable has lightened your
burden or has brought warmth to your home is a blessing.

 Anything that has supported your body, increased your
endurance or opened your heart is a blessing. Anything that has made you look
deeper, has expanded your understanding or increased your compassion is a
blessing.

  Anything that has tested your strength, fortified your commitment or
forced you to grow is a blessing. Anything that has reminded you of how
precious life is and has taught you to treasure your relations is a blessing."

  "The Creator reminds us that blessings are counted in the way we choose
 to look at them."

360: What Does Love Mean: July 5, 2007

What does Love mean?


Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. These are some of the responses he got from 4 - 8 year olds when asked "What does Love mean?"

---

"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore.

So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love."

Rebecca- age 8

---

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."

Billy - age 4

---

"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other."

Karl - age 5

---

"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs."

Chrissy - age 6

---

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."

Terri - age 4

---

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make ! sure the taste is OK."

Danny - age 7

---

"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more.
My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss"

Emily - age 8

---

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."

Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

---

"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,"

Nikka - age 6

(we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)

---

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday."

Noelle - age 7

---

"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."

Tommy - age 6

---

"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore."

Cindy - age 8

---

"My mommy loves me more than anybody

You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night."

Clare - age 6

---

"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."

Elaine-age 5

---

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford."

Chris - age 7

---

"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."

Mary Ann - age 4

---

"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones."

Lauren - age 4

---

"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you." (what an image)
Karen - age 7

---

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross."

Mark - age 6

---

"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."

Jessica - age 8

---

And the final one --
A four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,

"Nothing, I just helped him cry"

360: More Grattitude: April 29, 2007

What I am Grateful for:

• My Life
• Canka Luta Waste (Good Red Road)
  
• My Family
  
• My Friends
• Aristophanes (Bud) & Zeinab
• Graduation (MLIS)
• Pejuta Wakan (Sacred Medicines)
• My co-workers & my Wonderful Job
• Knowledge & Wisdom (to know what to with the knowledge)
• Blackberries
• Toffee Coffee Chip Ice Cream
• Frapps
• Wakiyan (Rain)
• Room 213 @ the Inn At Avila Beach
• Gourds
• My Ordination
• Grandfathers Wallace & Marcellus
• Tonka Oyate (Stone People)
• Adak, Mariah, Socrates, Handsome, The Two, Joe & Glory
• Muhu Tasen & the Bears
• Sister "Sleeps with Bear"
• All who Love & Support Me & those who don't
• That "Man" I Love & our Lessons

Mi Takuye Oyacin

360: Grattitude: April 28, 2007

Gratitude:

An attitude of gratitude is the way to live...So you think you have nothing to be Grateful for?

Try giving thanks for any or all of the following:

• Waking up in the morning & getting out of bed
• Indoor plumbing...not to mention Hot Water
• Clean drinking water
• A roof over your head
• Your cat/dog/snake/gerbil
• Food to eat
• These here Medicine Ways / Canka Luta Waste
• Those who have gone before sacrificing their lives for ours
• Ice Cream in 31+ Flavors
• Your loved ones
• Mother Nature
• Dark Chocolate ;-P
• Your Life

So when in a funk....do what I do; sit down with a piece of paper & ink pen and make a list of all the things you are Grateful for....You'll soon feel better. The reason I tell you this is I was in a bad way for 3+ years, and every night before going to sleep, I wrote down at least 3 things I was grateful for that day in my weekly planner. For sure this helped to change my life.

Mi Takuye Oyacin

Hope this satisfies your request Angel!