And no less douchey.

Senator David Vitter (R-LA) has offered two amendments to the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill currently pending in the Senate. The first amendment would bar Planned Parenthood from receiving any funding under Title X, while the second would strip federal funding from any clinic that offers abortion services under nearly any circumstance.

Population Connection has more, along with a call to action and talking points with which to assail your elected sheeple.

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Tagged: action alerts population connection David Vitter Vitter amendment Title X family planning planned parenthood abortion reproductive rights global gag rule gag rule

How’s this for effective activism?

Let’s say you visit your local library and check out Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique and The Kinsey Report, both of which are included in a conservative hit list of the “Ten Most Harmful Books of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.” Or maybe Heather Has Two Mommies, or a few books about guns and hunting.

As you leave the library, a police officer stops you and says that you cannot drive home with those “controversial” books in your car — not on the main road anyway. You’d wonder what they were smoking down at the precinct, right?

Well, in essence, that’s what Verizon Wireless did to the reproductive rights advocacy group NARAL Pro-Choice America in September. When the organization asked Verizon for a “short code” in order to send text messages to the cell phones of people who had requested information, Verizon said no. Other mobile networks had given NARAL the go-ahead, but Verizon contended it had the right to block messages it deemed “controversial” or “unsavory.”

The news of Verizon’s denial of service went public with a Sept. 27 New York Times article that positioned the dispute as a “skirmish in the larger battle over the question of ‘net neutrality’ — whether carriers or Internet service providers should have a voice in the content they provide to customers.” Thousands of angry customers, myself included, immediately called and wrote to Verizon. With egg on its face, the company reversed itself the same day.

I remember opening NARAL’s action alert the day after it was sent. As a recently former Verizon customer (I was able to squirm out of my contract when I moved, since my new place doesn’t get decent coverage), I was eager to rip ‘em a new one, but I was surprised – nay, shocked – to find that the action alert had already expired.

It doesn’t happen often, but it’s an awesome feeling when your ideological opponents buckle so quickly under the pressure. Too cool.

Remember this one the next time I pass along an action alert…

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Tagged: naral now national organization of women below the belt Kim Gandy verizon net neutrality feminism abortion activism reproductive rights

Yo! It’s Blog (for Enviro) Action Day!

According to the blogswarm’s www site, there are three things you can do to join the fifteen thousand (!) other green activists blogging for the planet today:

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind – the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

Blog Action Day is about MASS participation. That means we need you! Here are 3 ways to participate:

* Post on your blog relating to the environment on Blog Action Day
* Donate your day’s earnings to an environmental charity
* Promote Blog Action Day around the web

I had a whole shit-you-should-be-doing-to-save-the-environment-but-you-aren’t-because-
it’s-totally-inconvenient-and-the-speciesist-jerks-at-the-sierra-club-aren’t-
pressing-the-issue-because-gawd-forbid-they-offend-a-few-liberals-OMG!!! mega-post planned out, but now here it is, 8:30, and I still have a pile of laundry to sort and a sink full of dishes to scrub and my how the day’s gotten away from me! (That, and I was busy moving my main blog over here. Welcome, welcome!) So. In two words: go veg. In spite of PETA, not because of them.

And if you want to donate to an enviro charity…I *heart* Farm Sanctuary.

Now go! Blog! Browse! Link!

And don’t forget to update your bookmarks, heathens.

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Tagged: blog blogging blog action day green environment vegan veganism vegetarian vegetarianism farm sanctuary moving al gore the interwebs

Emptying his pockets, even!

Don’t miss it! *

* I’m sure I’ll post the vid tomorrow, so I guess you can miss it, after all. But seriously – don’t miss it.

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Tagged: Dennis Kucinich Stephen Colbert The Colbert Report Comedy Central video blogging vlogging animals animal rights animal welfare Department of Peace

Also posted @ www.kellygarbato.com/blog/2007-10-15/
Filed under: Politics, Video Blogging — Kelly @ October 15, 2007 6:27 pm

Now with more geek.

Technorati Profile

Seriously. Kucinich, Brownback, Tancredo, Hunter, et. al. as potential future presidents? Too cute for words, NARAL.

Now go take the quiz – How much do you know about the future president?

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Tagged: naral abortion feminism repro rights 2008 elections

Also posted @ www.kellygarbato.com/blog/2007-10-12/
Filed under: Feminism, Politics, Repro Rights — Kelly @ October 12, 2007 1:55 pm

That’s right: the Ralphster turns the Big One-O today. My little man, all grown up.

*Sniffles*

I don’t want to get all melancholy on what should be a day of joy, happiness and celebration, so I’ll try to overlook the bittersweetness that is the double-digit canine birthday milestone and instead reflect on the six wonderful years (and hopefully six+ more!) I’ve spent with My Other Boyfriend ™. Ralphie truly is the best wiener dog a girl could ask for.

*Sighs*

K, enough of that. Let’s break out the pictures!

(More below the fold…)

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Amnesty International USA – alerts [at] takeaction.amnestyusa.org
Date: Oct 5, 2007 8:30 AM
Subject: You can tear down Guantánamo Bay one pixel at a time

You can make Guantanamo Bay disappear — and help tear down detention camps that have become synonymous with torture, injustice, and an utter betrayal of human rights. Tearitdown.org is a powerful new Amnesty International project dramatically visualizing the commitment of 500,000 people to tear down Guantanamo Bay.

See for yourself. Act right now to tear down a piece of Guantanamo Bay!

Tearitdown.org builds on Amnesty’s long history of showing how one individual can make a difference. You have the power to tear down Guantanamo Bay one pixel at a time. Once 500,000 people have expressed their determination to end this human rights disgrace — our image of Guantanamo-style injustice will disappear.

And, more importantly, we’ll have the power and strength needed to tear down the real Guantanamo Bay.

One person, one pixel is all it takes. Get your pixel and express your power to end this human rights abomination.

From across the political spectrum, across the globe, calls are mounting to shut down Guantanamo Bay and either charge and try those imprisoned or release them.

Join Amnesty International in this powerful display of commitment to human rights. Strike the final blow to the Administration’s failed policies at Guantanamo Bay. Get your pixel today.

Thank you,

Larry Cox
Executive Director

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Tagged: action alerts petition amnesty international Guantánamo Bay terrorism war on terror war on terra george w. bush politics torture

Originally posted @ www.kellygarbato.com/blog/2007-10-07/
Filed under: Current Events, War on Terra — Kelly @ October 7, 2007 10:35 pm

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