[All] Fwd: This is what momentum looks like

[Robert Milligan]

FYI
RM

Begin forwarded message:

> Date: October 11, 2011 3:47:52 PM GMT-04:00
> To: undisclosed-recipients:;
> Subject: Fwd: This is what momentum looks like
>
> Fyi.  Anyone thinking of going down to Washington DC around Nov 6?   
> iso
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject:	This is what momentum looks like
> Date:	Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:00:35 -0400 (EDT)
> From:	Bill McKibben <info at tarsandsaction.org>
> Reply-To:	info at tarsandsaction.org
> To:	isobelmcgregor at yahoo.com
> Dear friends--
>
> It’s been the most hectic stretch of my life--in fact, my (extremely  
> patient and entirely wonderful) wife reminded me yesterday that I’d  
> spent more time in jail than at home these past few months.
>
> That’s for the best of reasons: thanks to all of you, we’ve managed  
> to turn this Keystone XL issue into the biggest environmental fight  
> in a long, long time.  And now it’s coming down to the wire. In  
> particular, it’s coming down to Nov. 6, which is going to be a very  
> big day.
>
> We need you and everyone you know at the White House that day--we’re  
> going to circle it in people, exactly a year before the next  
> election, to remind Barack Obama that he needs to live up to his  
> 2008 promises and “end the tyranny of oil.”
>
> We just had a great rally at the final State Department hearing in  
> Washington DC, where I spoke to about 1000 of our friends who were  
> out in force to ask the President to stop the pipeline. Our video  
> team cut a video of my speech there, and it's a nice little summary  
> of where we're at and where we need to be. Take a look, and then  
> pass it on to your friends who may be on the fence about coming -  
> we'll need all of them:
>
>
>
> Click here to watch the call to action
>
> Here are a few of the key updates:
>
> 1-- Maybe most importantly, in the last week a new front has opened  
> in this battle. A series of newspaper accounts and email leaks have  
> made it clear that the pipeline is as filthy politically as it is  
> environmentally. In particular: the State Department environmental  
> review was rigged.
>
> Transcanada was allowed to suggest a list of companies to conduct  
> the review, and the state department helpfully selected the number  
> one choice on their list, a firm called Cardno-Entrix. If you go the  
> Cardno-Entrix website, you’ll see that they list Transcanada as one  
> of their chief clients. The New York Times story uncovering this  
> link said it was a “flouting of environmental law.” You can read the  
> piece that Naomi Klein and I released today at the Daily Beast here.
>
> The bottom line is clear: this is a crime in progress, and far worse  
> than any past scandal in the Obama administration. It’s the kind of  
> thing we expected from the Bush administration--but even Dick Cheney  
> didn’t hire Halliburton to actually review his projects. All by  
> itself this scandal is reason enough to tear up the environmental  
> review and start over again, this time employing independent  
> experts--like the 20 scientists who told President Obama earlier  
> this year that the pipeline would be a disaster.
>
> 2-- You simply can’t believe how support has grown around the  
> country--right down to the football stadium at the University of  
> Nebraska, where half the stadium stood to boo a Transcanada ad on  
> the Jumbotron. In Parliament Hill in Ottawa, 217 of our Canadian  
> allies were arrested in the biggest civil disobedience action there  
> in years. We’ve got the Dalai Lama on our side now, not to mention  
> the editorial page of the Lincoln, Nebraska newspaper. Senators from  
> Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, to Mike Johanns, Republican  
> of Nebraska, have called on the president to block the pipeline.
>
> You can read about the fight everywhere from Rolling Stone to  
> Christian Century, from the NewYork Times to the LA Times to the  
> Washington Post. You can watch your colleagues  following the  
> president around the country on one TV newscast after another. This  
> is what momentum looks like.
>
> Eventually, the buck stops with President Obama. That’s why we’re  
> going to the White House on Nov 6. We’ll try to ring the president’s  
> house in people--we haven't tried
> anything this big before, and we’re not clear exactly how many  
> people we need. But a lot, that’s for sure.
>
> Also, if you haven't yet: sign up here. If you'd like to get a  
> busload of your friends and neighbors to come: let          us know  
> here.
>
> It’s going to be a very beautiful day. We plan to entirely surround  
> the President with his own words from the campaign trail - words  
> that we badly need him to live up to. This is the natural endpoint  
> of the 2008 campaign, the moment he can show us he meant it when he  
> rallied so many of us to his vision. At times, I confess, it feels  
> like a stunt double has taken his place, one who opened a huge swath  
> of Wyoming to coal-mining earlier this year, and then junked the  
> ozone rules.
>
> But if we show up in large enough numbers, maybe we can liberate  
> that 2008 Obama, bring him out of hiding. I refuse to be a cynic  
> until I have absolutely no choice--and I can’t wait to see you on  
> the 6th in Washington!
>
> with all love,
>
> Bill McKibben
>
> Click here to unsubscribe
>
>
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20111012/f7c5ab30/attachment.html>