Take Action: help stop the essential ban of Kratom!

We have some great news that needs urgent action BY 5pm ET TUESDAY! We, with our lobbyist’s help, have found some champions in Congress to write a bipartisan “Dear Colleague” letter asking the DEA to slow down this process. 

The letter asks, among other things, that the Director of OMB and Acting Director of the DEA delay a final decision on the placement of Kratom as a schedule I, provide ample time for public comment on this significant decision, and resolve any inconsistencies with other Federal Agencies regarding the use of Kratom.

So this is what we need you to do!!! Find your Rep here and e-mail them over the weekend! http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ Then use the number below to call YOUR representative first thing Monday morning. Tell them you are a responsible adult consumer of Kratom for help with ______ (ailment) and ask that they please contact Congressman Pocan’s office to sign-on to the Pocan/Salmon Dear Colleague letter on this issue.

Click HERE to view this hope-inspiring video that will help organize your phone call in order to relieve any ‘phone call anxiety‘.

Read Paul Kemp’s full explanation of the scenario HERE!

SEND YOUR CALLS, LETTERS & TESTIMONIALS TO THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE!!

Loretta Lynch can single handedly stop this ban:
https://www.justice.gov/contact-us

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A word from U.S. Term Limits on indictment of Congresswoman Corinne Brown

Out this morning, July 8, 2016, from U.S. Term Limits President, Phil Blumel:

True to form, another career politician in Congress is preparing to be indicted on federal charges. These elected officials just can’t seem to keep their hands out of the cookie jar.

This time, it’s 12-term Florida Congresswoman Corrine Brown. Brown frequently runs unopposed for re-election or wallops her only opponent by 30-40 points. Her district was one of the most gerrymandered in America before a judge ordered its “bizarre shape” be redrawn.

Now Brown will face charges regarding “One Door for Education,” a fraudulent charity which raised $800,000 for education, then only disbursed one student scholarship for $1,000. Meanwhile, the charity’s money was spent on lavish parties in Washington, D.C. and luxury skyboxes at NFL games. Lifestyles of the rich and elected, apparently.

According to the Florida Politics blog, Brown will continue to serve in Congress while under indictment. They cite a 2014 report by the congressional research service saying “there are no federal statutes or rules of the House of Representatives that directly affect the status of a Member of Congress who has been indicted for a crime that constitutes a felony.”

This raises a question for the American people: Why do members of Congress only leave office on occasion of indictment, retirement or even death? That is evidence of a broken system which protects the powerful and excludes everybody else. It must be fixed.

If Corrine Brown had faced the six-year term limit prescribed by the U.S. Term Limits amendment, she would have left the House of Representatives in 1999. Instead, she was given 17 more years to build power within the system and connections with special interests outside of it.

We need to clean up the corrupt mess in D.C. as soon as possible. It will require a grassroots army of volunteers pressuring state legislators to pass resolutions for the Term Limits Convention.

Are you ready to join this grassroots army to fight for term limits? Sign our Super Activist Sign-up Form by clicking HERE.

Thanks for your support,

Phil Blumel

President

U.S. Term Limits

 A video of a news report on the indictment can be found here

Action Item: Tell Congress To Quit Trying to Sabotage Net Neutrality

Net neutrality is under multiple threats in Congress. Whether it’s slashing the FCC’s budget, attempting to prohibit the agency from enforcing its Open Internet Order, or stalling net neutrality protections with redundant and unnecessary “studies,” lawmakers are using every trick they can to undermine the FCC’s work to keep the Internet free and open.

In the last few weeks, Congress has been relentless in its attempts to defund, stall, and hamstring the FCC from enforcing the net neutrality rules it passed last year, despite the fact that 4 million Americans spoke out in favor of the FCC using its regulatory authority to protect a free and open Internet.

Let’s tell lawmakers to protect net neutrality, not undermine it.

USE THIS LINK TO CONTACT YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS

The bill to sabotage net neutrality

The FCC’s 2015 Open Internet Order was the culmination of years of net neutrality advocacy and a big step toward a free and open Internet. Now, there’s a bill up for a vote in the House of Representatives that could dismantle many of its protections. The House votes on Friday. Let’s act now to stop this bill.

At best, the No Rate Regulation of Broadband Internet Access Act (H.R. 2666) is a poorly written bill that brings a host of unintended consequences. At worst, it’s a calculated attempt to undermine the net neutrality principles we’ve all been fighting for. If H.R. 2666 stays in its current form, it’s crucial that the House of Representatives reject it.

Alcee Hastings talks to U.S. Term Limits

“He is an employee of ‘we the people’ and…crying poor mouth at $174,000/year.”

A NOTE FROM U.S. TERM LIMITS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR NICK TOMBOULIDES:

When 22-year Congressman Alcee Hastings (D-FL) claimed members of Congress were underpaid at $174,000 per year, the phone lines here at U.S. Term Limits lit up. We had people from all across America call to tell us how Hastings’ out-of-touch comment solidified in their minds that now is the time to term limit Congress.

One man baffled by the remark was Jay Bonner, who ran for Hastings’ District 20 seat last year and is doing so again in 2016. Bonner, the first candidate of the 2016 cycle to sign our term limits pledge, told USTL in an exclusive interview that Hastings’ demands look silly when compared to how people in his district really live.

“He’s representing a community that makes $20,715 on average. He’s making over eight times what his constituents make, and he’s crying to us ‘I can’t make it on $174,000,'” Bonner said. “These raises don’t actually end up helping the people.”

Bonner also called term limits a “protective factor” that “keeps the new people who go in (to Congress) from becoming corrupt.”

Polls show that most Americans agree, and want Congress to take action on term limits. The only way to get there, however, is by building up a nationwide network of supporters that can pressure our legislators into doing the right thing.

That starts with you. As a personal favor to me, please forward this email to five friends or family members who, like you, want to hold Congress accountable. Legislators might be out-of-touch, but the more we get in touch with fellow term limits supporters, the closer we’ll be to achieving our goal.

Thanks for the support,

Nick Tomboulides

Executive Director, U.S. Term Limits

A note from Jess Hemerly, Public Policy Manager from Google – Google Hangout on Government Surveillance starts NOW!

I’m about to start a Hangout On Air with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Open Technology Institute. We’ll be discussing the current state of play on the road to real surveillance reform.

I’ll be speaking to Rainey Reitman, activism director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Robyn Greene, policy counsel for the Open Technology Institute.

We’ve got a lot to talk about, from major activity in Congress — the USA Freedom Act in the House and a proposal to reauthorize Section 215 in the Senate — as well as a Federal court decision that has serious implications for bulk collection.

Let’s get started! Tune into the Hangout On Air right now:

The Road to Real Surveillance Reform
Hangout On Air with EFF & Open Technology Institute
May 12, starting at 2pm ET / 11 am PT
Join us now.

If you haven’t submitted a question yet, you can submit one using the Q&A tool. We’ll try to cover as much ground as we can. Tune in:

https://takeaction.withgoogle.com/join-the-hangout

Thanks,

Jess Hemerly
Public Policy Manager
Google Inc.

NEW CAMPAIGN: 28 pages that could change the world

AND THIS FROM JIM BABKA of DOWNSIZE DC:

Bush & Obama kept a secret from you; a key ally may have helped the 9/11 terrorists. Re-Tweet this.

Some current and former members of Congress are under a gag order. They cannot say what they know about the 9/11 attacks.

This goes back to 2002. The House and Senate Intelligence Committees investigated the 9/11 attacks. But…

* President Bush censored 28 pages of the final report.
* President Obama hasn’t released those pages even after promising he would.

The few members of Congress who’ve read the pages swore not to reveal their contents. But they say a U.S. “ally” was involved in the 9-11 attacks.

Should Congress find out more before it continues to fund the War on Terror?

Do families of 9/11 victims deserve to know what’s in those pages?

Do you?

If you say “yes” to these questions, tell Congress to demand that the President declassify the pages through DownsizeDC.org’s new “Release the Censored 9/11 Pages” campaign.

The hard-wired message says…

Pass H. Res. 14, urging the president to release 28 censored pages regarding the 9/11 attacks.

You may borrow from or edit these additional comments…

I also want you to demand personal access to read the 28 pages for yourself. Here’s what your colleagues who read them have said…

Rep. Walter Jones (http://1.usa.gov/1Fc7mX4): “[T]he information contained in the redacted pages is critical to our foreign policy moving forward and should thus be available to the American public.”

Rep. Thomas Massie (http://bit.ly/1qDpbFD): “I had to stop every two or three pages and rearrange my perception of history…it’s that fundamental.”

Former Sen. Bob Graham (http://bit.ly/1z9TTZb): “The 28 pages primarily relate to who financed 9/11, and they point a very strong finger at Saudi Arabia as being the principal financier.”

Could it be that 9/11 was really an act of WAR by a foreign State?

If so…

The “War on Terror” is based on LIES.

You must get to the bottom of this. That means…

Before you spend one more dime on surveillance at home and attacks abroad, DEMAND that the censored 28 pages be released.

PASS H. Res. 14!

–END OF LETTER–

Send your letter using DownsizeDC.org’s Educate the Powerful System.

Taking any stance on 9/11 earns you trouble. I know, because I lost two valued friends over it. Remarkably, their positions were polar opposites! So I know lots of folks won’t like what I wrote today. They’ll leave us.

That’s why, today, it’s just not enough to send a letter to Congress, as crucial as that is! We need your financial support, so that we can keep taking firm and principled stands like this.

Please, make a generous donation today, because we’re in danger of running a deficit this month. At our current pace, we’ll be nearly $2,000 shy of what we need to pay April’s bills. Someone reading this, right now, could cover the whole thing. But it will probably require a group of people, contributing various amounts, to get the job done.

And we’ll continue to stand tall if you’ll stand behind us.

Thank you for being a DC Downsizer,

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.