H.Res. 630 would condemn the coup in Honduras, would call for President Zelaya's reinstatement, would call on President Obama to continue to refuse to recognize the new government, and would urge Mr. Obama to suspend nonhumanitarian aid to Honduras until Mr. Zelaya gets his old job back, as required by U.S. law. Here we are, telling the President to enforce the law again. True, the White House's previous occupant might have overtly helped topple Mr. Zelaya (as they overtly tried to help topple Mr. Chavez in Venezuela), but clearing the Bush Bar isn't a moral standard we ought to be setting for our children. Latin America Working Group and School of the Americas Watch each provide email contact tools.
Meanwhile, far-rightists try to hold health care reform hostage to their own anti-woman agenda. Last week, they failed in convincing large numbers of people that a Senate amendment to health care legislation would mandate abortions, but this is a new week, with new attacks on cervical cancer screening, contraception, and abortion. I guess letting women die of cervical cancer is nothing to them as long as they "prevent promiscuity." I guess unplanned pregnancies are nothing to them, either -- hell, the "free market" will take care of them, won't it? Everything's simple when you live in a fantasy world, even simpler when the "liberal" media enables that world. But we live in the real world, whether we choose to recognize it or not. Planned Parenthood provides the contact tool.
Sometime very soon, the Senate may vote on an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill that would strip new funding for the F-22 fighter plane, which (all together now!) was designed for the Cold War and has never flown a combat mission. And that's not all! A Pentagon weapons testing analyst reported that the F-22 "flunked" on reliability and maintenance measures during Mr. Bush's first term (sic), not that Tha Bush Mobb particularly cared. Sens. Levin and McCain (he remembers!) have co-sponsored the amendment; Peace Action West provides the contact tool.
Meanwhile, FAIR helpfully instructs us, again, about media complicity with the HMO industry against health care reform. Mr. Wendell Potter, a former HMO PR hack who's since turned against the industry, appeared on Bill Moyers' Journal on July 10 and told the story of teenager Nataline Sarkisyan, whose request for a liver transplant (at her UCLA doctors' recommendation) was rejected by Cigna. Ms. Sarkisyan's family went to the media and the powerful California Nurses Association, and Cigna did ultimately reverse its decision -- but only hours before Ms. Sarkisyan died. The moral of this story? The media doesn't look for cases that might reflect badly on corporations, despite, you know, nominally being composed of "journalists" -- but will respond to a life-or-death struggle you might be facing if you can make enough noise. The other moral of this story? Bill Moyers is that rare journalist who does look for stories that might reflect badly on corporations, but then the corporate media attacks him for his "liberal" "bias." If they want to call muckraking "bias," so be it. They'll answer to their God for it.
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