CLOSER...THEY'RE GETTING CLOSER.....Tar Sands Sellout Pending

Remember that Daffy Duck recording, set to the tune of the Hungarian Rhapsody?  It was Daffy, portrayed as a hapless,hunted duck, awaiting execution, surrounded as he was, by a bazillion hunters intent on his demise. 

"Bang-bang here, And bang-bang there....bullets flying everythere....closer, they're getting closer....!!!"

And that's exactly how we who support environmental issues, democratic ideals. social justice, LGBTQ rights, etc.,  feel.  Everywhere we turn, we're being betrayed and "compromised"  to death.  For years, now, we've done the "right thing."  We've gone through the "proper" channels of petitions, calls to the White House...we've made excuses for the unresponsive administration....and here we find ourselves holding the butt with no barrel, of Daffy's shotgun. 

Here's our sad, bowed but not quite defeated completely, hero Duncan Meisel, two emails,here in reverse order to what I received late yesterday:

Friends --
Just wanted to pass along an update: today, we completely flooded the White House phone lines with thousands of calls opposing this deal on Keystone XL oil pipeline.

The good news: this means we overwhelmed the White House with calls. The bad news: it also means that a lot of people didn't get through, and that the comment line is now shut down for the weekend.


If you weren’t able to get through or make a call, you can leave a short message for the President on the White House website here.


Thanks again -- we’ll be in touch soon.


Onwards,
Duncan Meisel for the Tar Sands Action and 350.org Team
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friends,
It all comes down to Barack Obama.
As I type this, Big Oil's representatives in the House and Senate are pushing legislation that would rush approval of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Up until now President Obama has stood strong, threatening to reject any bill that includes the pipeline.


But in the last hour, some terrible news has begun to leak from DC: President Obama seems to be on the verge of caving on Keystone. There’s no way to sugarcoat it -- if the President allows Keystone to move forward, he will be failing the single biggest environmental test of his presidency.


The next few hours will be absolutely crucial -- the President needs to hear from you that cutting a back-room deal with Big Oil on Keystone XL is unacceptable. If he steps up and threatens to veto this bill, he can stop this pipeline in its tracks.


Can you make a call right away? Here’s the White House number: 202-456-1111


Feel free to say what you want on the call, but remember to drive this one message home: to keep his promises, President Obama needs to veto legislation that would rush approval of Keystone XL. This pipeline is a threat to our climate and jobs and needs to be stopped.


After you've called the White House, take 30 seconds to let us know how it went by clicking here.

(Don’t worry if you get a busy signal -- it’s actually a good sign: it means we’ve flooded the White House switchboard and that the movement is sending an overwhelming message to the President. Just keep on trying until you get through.)

President Obama came into office promising to “end the tyranny of oil.” This is his chance to prove he was serious. If he’s not, he needs to know right now that there will be real consequences.


Big Oil cut a back-room deal with the dirtiest Members of Congress to attach this legislation to a must-pass tax cut bill. These kinds of deals exemplify the tyranny Big Oil exercises over our government, and underscores why the President needs to threaten a veto.


We have just a few hours to convince him to stand strong and veto any legislation to rush the Keystone pipeline. Can you make a call right now and tell him that we expect nothing less? Here’s the number again: 202-456-1111


Your calls right now are absolutely crucial, and you should also be getting ready to get back into the streets in the days and weeks to come. We’re dusting off our plans to go to Obama 2012 offices and raise some ruckus. Call the White House, but also get in touch with your friends to start plotting your next steps locally.

Thanks to you, this fight isn’t over yet -- not by a long shot.


Let’s go,

Duncan Meisel for the team at Tar Sands Action and 350.or
P.S. Share this red alert with a few clicks on Facebook and Twitter to bring them back into the game.


BTW:  The Tar Sands pipeline project uses FRACKED gas in their process.

Conclusion?  What else can I say?  Back to the cliche of the boiled-frog analogy:  drop a frog into a big kettle filled with boiling water.  The frog, close to the top of the kettle jumps out easily and survives; drop the frog into a little cold water, heat it up slowly and the frog, never knowing he was in danger, boils, unable to jump out of the depths....We are working toward boiled frogs.