The mission of VoteVets.org Political Action Committee is to elect Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to public office; hold public officials accountable for their words and actions that impact America’s 21st century servicemembers; and fully support our men and women in uniform.

Here are their endorsed candidates for 2010:

PENNSYLVANIA:

Pennsylvania has the great opportunity to elect SIX Veterans to office this year. Each of them have proven their worth both in the armed forces and in serving their community at home.

Joe Sestak--US Senate

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I do carbon offsets through Native Energy, among other places. They are one of the best carbon offset sites around and they help invest in American wind, solar and methane generation projects all over America, providing some of the cleanest, greenest energy for America while also creating American jobs. They focus on green energy projects in Indian reservations and family farms. But they also have a collaboration going with Greensberg, Kansas.

On May 4, 2007, Greensberg was leveled by a category 5 tornado. The town was leveled. In the wake of this disaster, the city council decided to rebuild Greensberg as the greenest town in America. From the Greensberg website:

This Long-Term Community Recovery Plan expresses the Greensburg/Kiowa County community’s vision for recovery in the aftermath of the May 4, 2007 tornado. The Greensburg/Kiowa County Long-Term Community Recovery Plan is the result of an intensive 12-week process involving multiple meetings and discussions between long-term recovery planning team, local, state, and federal officials, business owners, civic groups, and citizens. Hundreds of your neighbors turned out for the community meetings to share their ideas on how to rebuild Greensburg and Kiowa County. Community participation provided an invaluable source of input and feedback that was used to refine and prioritize the projects contained in this plan. A community spirit and resolve to build back better, safer, and in a more sustainable manner will serve you well as you move forward with implementation of the plan. At the heart of the plan is a simple guiding principle – keep the things that have made Greensburg and Kiowa County a good place to live, work, and own a business, and then suggest ways to build upon strengths of the community in order to make it even more prosperous, appealing, livable, and sustainable. Unlike a traditional planning document that presents general guidance to a community, the Long-Term Community Recovery Plan is an action-oriented menu of key projects intended to be used for making critical funding and resource allocation decisions.

Here is a video from Current TV, Al Gore's excellent cable TV network, about the rebuilding:

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If your company blocks you from major news sites, you can watch the Chilean Rescue Mission here and follow me on Twitter where am doing updates under the hashtags #ChileMinersRescue #MinerosDeChile.

George Bush presided over one of the largest net job losses in American history. And his fellow Republicans seem to continue to push to keep unemployment high as they favor tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas and as they refuse to back job creating programs like green jobs programs. And it seems their policies hit red states just as hard as blue states. This comes from the Madville Times in South Dakota:

The stimulus package is creating jobs, even against fundamental shifts in the nature of our economy. To tackle those fundamental shifts, we need to revamp our economy. That revamping includes revolutionizing the energy economy. Commiting America to a policy of clean, renewable energy would create loads of jobs, including 5000 to 10,000 right here in South Dakota.
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Today-October 10- is the world day against the death penalty. Today is a day people of conscience, national and international institutions and non governmental organisations rally to oppose capital punishment and to call for its abolition worldwide. For ages, human societies have used the death penalty to combat crimes. Criminals have been executed- shot, hanged, decapitated or stoned to death by ‘constituted authorities’.

But in recent years, there has been a growing trend against the use of the death penalty. Many countries are beginning to realize the flawed nature of using death to punish ‘criminals’. Many countries are abandoning and abolishing capital punishment.

As at today, 139 states have abolished the death penalty in law or practice and 72 have ratified the Second Optional Protocol to International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which provides for the total abolition of the death penalty.
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Every year California is inundated with ballot propositions. Some are always good, some horrible, and some are almost formalities. And it is always hard to figure out which is which. So I always try to check out and give recommendations for each proposition. Below is my preliminary analysis for November's propositions. I may update if/when new endorsements come out. First I will give my own analysis then I will give the endorsements of some progressive organizations. Not all organizations have endorsed, and some may have endorsed by I haven't come across it yet, so that is the part most likely to be updated. An overall rundown with links to supporters and opponents of each proposition can be found here.

My analysis:

Yes on Proposition 19: Legalizes pot. My reasoning is prohibition has been costly and ineffective. Nations and cities that have legalized usually find legalization reduces crime, reduces costs and allows people who need help fighting an addiction to get help. Legalization isn't perfect, but it has a better track record than prohibition. Prop. 19 is supported by:

* Joseph D. McNamara, retired chief of the San Jose Police Department
* James P. Gray, retired judge, Orange County Superior Court
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