Call 2 Action--They're back and they're at it again

Dear Reader I am passing this on here, O Do I Miss the good ole Mixxingbowl, because they--the House Republicans are at it again--Out to destroy our environment under the disguise of creating jobs and energy--these are short term gains at long term costs, which adds up to a net loss for everyone. "Next week, House Republicans will attempt to bring the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline back from the dead. The Senate rejected the pipeline following a national outcry against it -- but next Tuesday senators will begin negotiations aimed at reviving the pipeline and passing a slew of other anti-environment provisions. Don't let Congress revive the tar sands pipeline and strip away important environmental protections: Send a letter before May 8th demanding that your senators and representative reject the Keystone XL pipeline. The plan proposed by the House would revive the nightmarish pipeline project, strip the EPA of its ability to regulate toxic coal ash and roll back environmental review standards. The Keystone XL would transport a river of toxic tar sands oil right through America's heartland down to the Gulf of Mexico, where most of it would be exported. This February, the entire environmental community joined forces to stop the pipeline in the Senate. We delivered over 770,000 letters opposing the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. And it worked. Before members of the Senate and House meet next week to consider green-lighting the Keystone XL pipeline, we need to flood their inboxes with letters demanding that they reject the pipeline. " Send a letter today urging Congress to oppose Keystone XL and other anti-environment proposals.  But from a more positive perspective let me also pass this along--Thank you. Amazing--more than 60,000 people have signed the "Thank You" card to Rachel Maddow and it hasn't even been 24 hours yet! The more of us that sign it, the stronger our message--that viewers want to see more strong women on political news shows--will be. We're getting ready to send the card off to the designer to be formatted and printed, and we wanted to make sure your name is on the card when we deliver it. Can you take a moment to sign it, and then share it with your friends? Just click here: http://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/maddow/ The original email about why we're thanking Maddow is below--the short version is because she is awesome and fought back gracefully but strongly in the face of sexist attacks. And usually when women speak out, they are denigrated. We want her, and the producers of these political shows, to know that we support her.  Thanks! ---Nita and Shaunna, UltraViolet Here's the email we sent about this yesterday: Dear Friend, Do you watch Meet the Press? If you do, you probably saw a stunning exchange on Sunday between Rachel Maddow and two Republicans--strategist Alex Castellanos and Rep. McMorris Rodgers (R-WA). Basically, Castellanos and McMorris Rodgers argued that women are not paid less than men--despite numerous studies showing that we are. Then Castellanos even argued that women are paid less because we don't work as hard.1 It was really sad to see an exchange like this go down on what many people see as the single most revered political news show in history. MSNBC host, Rachel Maddow, did not let them get away with it. Despite the fact that Castellanos was shouting her down and constantly interrupting her, she presented the facts, called out their hypocrisy on the issue and laid bare their sexist views. It was energizing and inspiring to see her speak out so forcefully about the truth and take on two people who're dangerously misrepresenting the plight of women today. When women fearlessly speak truth to power, it's important to get their backs. Especially when political shows are dominated by men, and so few women are given an opportunity to appear. If enough of us take action and get her back, we can not only encourage her to keep speaking out--we also can show NBC that viewers everywhere want to see more strong women fighting for fairness and equality on TV. Can you sign this Thank You card to Rachel Maddow? We'll deliver it to her this week: http://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/maddow/ Encouraging women who speak out is important--more often than not, they are attacked and denigrated for doing so, take for example, Sandra Fluke. And a new report from Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting shows that political talk shows are a particularly hostile environment for women. FAIR found that in an eight-month period, "men overwhelmingly dominated one-on-one interviews, at 86 percent: 228 male guests compared to 36 women. Meet the Press featured the fewest women, with just six female interviewees--three of whom were Rep. Michele Bachmann (R.-Minn.), the presidential candidate."2 Speaking out to support Maddow is important to show her we support her--but also to send a strong message to the producers of news shows like this. And here's a great excerpt of Maddow taking on Castellanos from Sunday's Meet the Press:3 . .  .  . . I am sorry that reliving bitter memories have brought out too much bitterness in me--Actually I am more positive than that--Or at least I hope and pray and try my best to be the person that I want to be--the person that I want to be when I finally am all grown up and truly mature.