Sen. Bernie Sanders needs your help.  He has written a letter to the President asking for his help in maintaining the middle class.  You can read the letter below.  What does Sen. Bernie need you to do?  Just go to his web page HERE and sign the letter along with him.  That’s all.  There’s no begging for money, just asking for your signature.  Help Sen. Sanders and more importantly, help this country!

Dear Mr. President,

This is a pivotal moment in the history of our country. Decisions are being made about the national budget that will impact the lives of virtually every American for decades to come. As we address the issue of deficit reduction we must not ignore the painful economic reality of today – which is that the wealthiest people in our country and the largest corporations are doing phenomenally well while the middle class is collapsing and poverty is increasing.  In fact, the United States today has, by far, the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on earth.

Everyone understands that over the long-term we have got to reduce the deficit – a deficit that was caused mainly by Wall Street greed, tax breaks for the rich, two wars, and a prescription drug program written by the drug and insurance companies. It is absolutely imperative, however, that as we go forward with deficit reduction we completely reject the Republican approach that demands savage cuts in desperately-needed programs for working families, the elderly, the sick, our children and the poor, while not asking the wealthiest among us to contribute one penny.

Mr. President, please listen to the overwhelming majority of the American people who believe that deficit reduction must be about shared sacrifice. The wealthiest Americans and the most profitable corporations in this country must pay their fair share.  At least 50 percent of any deficit reduction package must come from revenue raised by ending tax breaks for the wealthy and eliminating tax loopholes that benefit large, profitable corporations and Wall Street financial institutions.  A sensible deficit reduction package must also include significant cuts to unnecessary and wasteful Pentagon spending.

Please do not yield to outrageous Republican demands that would greatly increase suffering for the weakest and most vulnerable members of our society.  Now is the time to stand with the tens of millions of Americans who are struggling to survive economically, not with the millionaires and billionaires who have never had it so good.

Respectfully,

Sen. Bernie Sanders;
and Co-signers

Think Progress

By Alyssa Rosenberg on May 1st, 2011 at 10:52 pm

Speaking from the East Room of the White House, the President said that American forces — with the help of the Pakistanis — killed bin in a firefight at a compound in Abottabad, Pakistan. Obama said that that shortly after he took office, he ordered CIA Director Leon Panetta to make it the Agency’s top priority to bring bin Laden to justice. And last August, Obama said, U.S. intelligence obtained a lead on bin Laden’s whereabouts and have been following it ever since.

OBAMA: It took many months to run this thread to ground. Finally, last week, I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action and authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden. … Today at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abottabad, Pakistan. A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of body.

Source Article

Rolling Stone

Reuters

CAIRO | Thu Feb 10, 2011 11:43am EST

Asked if Mubarak would step down, an Egyptian official told Reuters: “Most probably.”

The BBC also quoted the head of Mubarak’s political party as saying that the president might go.

“I spoke to the new secretary general of the ruling National Democratic Party, Hossan Badrawi,” a BBC reporter said. “He said: ‘I hope the president is handing over his powers tonight’.

The head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency also said it was likely Mubarak would step down in the next few hours.

“There’s a strong likelihood that Mubarak may step down this evening, which would be significant in terms of where the, hopefully, orderly transition in Egypt takes place,” Leon Panetta told a congressional hearing in Washington.

Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq also told the BBC that the 82-year-old strongman may step down.

The president has been buffeted by widespread protests against poverty, repression and corruption that broke out last month in an unprecedented display of frustration at his autocratic rule.

Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets to demand that Mubarak quit and clashes between protesters and security forces have killed at least 300 people.  Source Article

Mother Jones

Drugged, raped, and pregnant? Too bad. Republicans are pushing to limit rape and incest cases eligible for government abortion funding.

— By Nick Baumann

— Flickr/Steve Rhodes (Creative Commons).

Fri Jan. 28, 2011 3:00 AM PST

Rape is only really rape if it involves force. So says the new House Republican majority as it now moves to change abortion law.

For years, federal laws restricting the use of government funds to pay for abortions have included exemptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. (Another exemption covers pregnancies that could endanger the life of the woman.) But the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” a bill with 173 mostly Republican co-sponsors that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has dubbed a top priority in the new Congress, contains a provision that would rewrite the rules to limit drastically the definition of rape and incest in these cases.  Source Article