First things first: you no doubt know that the state of Texas forced Marlise Munoz's family to keep her on life support for nearly two months because she was pregnant when she suffered the apparent pulmonary embolism that left her brain dead. Texas law doesn't allow health care providers to apply advanced directives (like the one Ms. Munoz had one, expressing her wish to be taken off life support if brain dead) to pregnant patients, because SANKTITIEZ OF LIFEZ!!!!!! But Texas law apparently also regards brain death as legal death, which is why Judge Wallace was, ultimately, able to enforce Ms. Munoz's stated wish. And yet Ms. Munoz's husband, who fought to have her wishes enforced in court, now faces crushing medical bills. The state forces you to ignore your own wishes and then makes you pay out the nose for that? I do not believe Barry Goldwater would call any of that conservative. Thus Daily Kos helps you tell the state of Texas and the John Peter Smith hospital to absorb Mr. Munoz's medical bills. Yes, of course I would have loved to save the child's life. No, I do not believe in running roughshod over other people's rights to do that.
Meanwhile, President Obama's State of the Union address did instruct us that "climate change is a fact" -- and what a shame we regard that as progress, after years of George W. Bush almost single-handedly making climate change denialism mainstream -- but Mr. Obama also committed to continuing to develop natural gas. Of course Mr. Obama was careful to tell us he would be mindful of our safety when developing new sources of gas, and even told us natural gas would result in fewer carbon emissions (which, hello, is far from a sure thing!), but fracking continues to pollute our sources of clean water for drinking, bathing, and washing, so how do we intend to accomplish that? Gas drilling corporations already get more than enough assistance from our government, so the Sierra Club helps you tell Mr. Obama to end oil and gas fracking on public lands. Yes, Mr. Obama's support for higher renewable energy funding and for EPA carbon emission regulations comprise a good start, but we have the duty to ensure he doesn't just start the job of saving this planet from pollution.
Finally, the State Department finally put its Keystone XL report out on Friday, and while it does concede that the Keystone XL pipeline will "contribute to cumulative global GHG emissions" -- to the tune of adding the carbon emission equivalent of 5.7 million new cars on the road -- it also says "(a)pproval or denial...remains unlikely to significantly impact the rate of extraction in the oil sands," which is a way of throwing up one's hands and walking away from one's responsibilities. But the State Department's Inspector General still hasn't released a report examining potential conflicts-of-interest concerning the report's writing -- which had heavy involvement from a corporation that used to do business with TransCanada, the pipeline's builder. And we still should consider TransCanada's horrible pipe-safety record, all the oil-train derailments that have plagued our continent lately, and the report's stunning finding that the Keystone XL pipeline will create exactly 50 jobs. So both the Sierra Club and CREDO help you tell your government to reject the Keystone XL pipeline and protect good Americans from its ill effects.
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