So far, President Obama has killed four Americans with drones; apparently he's considering killing a fifth, claiming that the target has aided in terrorist attacks on American troops in Afghanistan. Because that's tough, I suppose, never mind that America's rage-filled right-wingers don't respect Mr. Obama when he gets "tough." You know what's tough? Capturing a man who's helping attack our troops, putting him on trial, convicting him of his crimes, and parading his shame around America so we can all be reminded that this is how not to be. Killing people with machines from far away like the world is your first-person shooter game? Not tough. Never mind that our Constitution makes it pretty hard to send people to jail, just as the Founders intended and just as it ought to be -- our elites, helpless before mammon and enabled by a "liberal" media that treats life and death like a reality show, no longer have what it takes to be tough. Luckily, we do -- we have to be tough in all the ways that count every day. Roots Action helps you tell Mr. Obama that he doesn't have the right to violate Americans' right to due process just-because.
Meanwhile, CREDO helps you tell Congress to restore the Production Tax Credit for wind power. Should you be suspicious of tax credits for businesses? Of course you should -- a lot of them are just corporate welfare handouts. But has the Production Tax Credit helped America? You bet it has -- over one-third of all new power capacity over the last five years has come from wind power plants, and Iowa (whose senior Senator, Republican Charles Grassley, first dreamed up the credit) now creates almost one-fifth of its electricity from wind. Naturally, the fossil fuel industry hates the Production Tax Credit, and has actually convinced Congress to let it lapse. What are fossil fuel corporations afraid of? Who has put a gun to their heads and said you must continue producing energy by churning up the land and belching filth into our air and water from now until the end of time? Perhaps we should end the billions of dollars in annual subsidies (which don't lapse!) the fossil fuel industry gets instead. After all, as we've suggested, some handouts just make corporations and the people who run them indolent.
Finally, the FDA remains quite wishy-washy over labeling of genetically-modified foods: despite two decades of studies linking GMOs (and, not incidentally, the herbicides and pesticides that accompany them) to maladies ranging from allergies to cancer, the FDA says it has "not found evidence of safety risks." Could that be, in part, because GMO foods aren't labeled, making them harder to track? And if the foods are safe, then why are they fighting labeling tooth and nail, in a land where over 9 out of 10 Americans want them labeled? The FDA apparently plans to issue "voluntary" labeling guidelines, but voluntary guidelines already exist, courtesy the International Federation of Produce Standards, which created the four-digit PLU code accompanying your produce. According to the IFPS system, a "9" would precede the four-digit number for organic foods and an "8" would precede GMO foods; you've seen the 9, I'll bet, but you haven't seen the 8, because food producers won't use it. So the science is pretty clear: "voluntary" guidelines don't make food producers label their Frankenfood. Take that to the FDA when you tell them to get serious about GMO food-labeling.
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