President Barack Obama addresses both houses of Congress in what some consider a “make it or break it” effort to pass a health-care reform bill.

Watch the full video on C-SPAN here…

Text of Obama’s speech below:

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President Barack Obama will make another historic speech to the Congress and the nation tonight in prime time, with millions of Americans watching to see if he will fight for the core principles he was elected to uphold, especially the one that got the Kennedy support, which boosted his campaign over the top in 2008: Health care as an American Right, not a capitalist tool…

Meanwhile, Glenn Beck’s havoc over at Fox News must end soon, one way or another…

Sign An Open Letter to the President

Josh Silver
Free Press.Net

I can’t believe what I’m watching.

Fox News Channel headliner Glenn Beck has turned his nightly program into a megaphone of misinformation. He just took down presidential adviser Van Jones, one of our most visionary and principled young leaders.

What happened to Jones is outrageous. President Obama should have ignored the media’s smear campaign and rejected all calls for Jones’ ouster.

This madness is a failure not only of the media, but of our president to stand up against modern-day McCarthyism:

Tell President Obama: ‘Glenn Beck Doesn’t Speak for Me’

Emboldened by their success, Glenn Beck and other right-wing blowhards have begun media witch hunts against people in all aspects of public life. If we don’t speak out now, the champions of the issues you care about will be run out of Washington.

Surveys show that most Americans want health care reform, good schools and clean air. But if you watch Glenn Beck’s show, you would think the opposite is true: that the only proponents of these ideas are dangerous, anti-American radicals operating out of the White House basement.

I’m urging you to take a stand with me and sign this open letter to the president. Glenn Beck’s fear-mongering is endemic to a media system that cares more about ratings than about the truth. We need President Obama to take a stand against such hysteria, which only distracts us from the real issues at hand.

President Obama Must Stand with Us for More Diverse Media

Beck has a First Amendment right to stoke fear and prejudice — and we’re not asking for him to be censored or silenced. But we all have a responsibility to condemn his behavior and defend the public servants and innocent people who are being attacked. This is not about censorship… It’s about sanity.

Mainstream media have failed. Too many of our leaders have stayed quiet. We must speak out now.

HealthyGulf.Org

The Gulf Restoration Network just rolled out a new report grading the states in the Deep South on compliance with the Clean Water Act, and Alabama came in with a D+, along with Florida and Mississippi. Louisiana faired even worse with an F.

Unbelievably, Bush’s home state of Texas scored highest with a C-.

The report takes a hard look at how each of the 5 Gulf States incorporate important sections of the Clean Water Act into their rules for protecting state waters.

“The bottom line is that each state scored poorly, and there is a lot of room for improvement,” the authors of the report conclude.

Given the overall “D+” that Alabama received, there are several areas where the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) needs to “clean up its act,” according to the report.

One action the report recommends is the establishment of long-overdue limits on the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution allowed in state waters. This pollution; flowing from sewage treatment plants, failing septic systems, lawns, and fields; can cause harmful algae blooms, deplete the oxygen in the water, and cause fish kills.

“Years ago, EPA told Alabama, along with all of the other states to develop numeric limits on nitrogen and phosphorus, and it is time that they do this to comply with the Clean Water Act,” the report concludes.

Some environmental groups in Alabama recommend writing letters to ADEM.

The Birmingham News editorial board, in their typical ninth grade level tone in their obviously failed attempt to get elementary school kids to read their newspaper, advises the agency to “whine less about the report card and work harder to pull up that grade.”

We say nothing is going to improve on the environmental regulatory front here until one of two things happen. One, the Obama Environmental Protection Agency could simply take over and nationalize the state’s agency for environmental regulation.

Or two, the people of Alabama could stop electing anti-environmental corporate Republican greed heads for higher office.

Oh, but wait. There’s not one single truly progressive public official in Alabama, and in fact, there’s not even one running for any elected office in the state in the races for 2010.

What would Hunter S. Thompson say? Can you say doomed?

For more info on the report, check out this PDF document: Gulf States Clean Up Your Act! Report Card

Kelly Brinkman

Steve Lehr, Brant Gabriel, Monica Ross, Bob Wagner, Claire Pabody and “Bama” [more photos]

A thousand pound manatee named Bama was tagged in Alabama waters this past week.

The Dauphin Island Sea Lab’s Mobile Manatees Sighting Network successfully tagged the first manatee Friday in Alabama waters. A female, it was named Bama, although in the press release, researchers didn’t explain why.

“Historically, this is the first time we’ve ever tagged manatees in the state of Alabama,” said USFWS biologist Dianne Ingram. “Our goal is to study their travel routes and get data on where they spend time in Alabama. Knowing this will help us learn about their migration patterns and habitat to aid in their recovery.”

The two-day capture effort resulted in the successful tagging of two Alabama manatees, the female Bama and one male. The crew also captured a large female, named Ellie, who is known to be from Crystal River, Florida. Ellie was first identified as a visitor to Mobile Bay, Alabama in 2007 from photographs sent to the Mobile Manatees Sighting Network.

“It was very informative to find Ellie again and learn that she apparently travels between Mobile Bay and Crystal River, Florida, with some repetition,” said Dr. Ruth Carmichael, Senior Marine Scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and Founder of the Mobile Manatees Sighting Network.

Researchers worked together to capture the animals and take the needed information about size and health before fitting the new tags. The specially designed tags will allow each manatee to be tracked continuously by satellite and radio telemetry. Each captured manatee weighed over 1000 pounds, with Ellie alone topping the scale at over 1600 pounds.

“It is a very powerful feeling to take a collaborative project like this one from a concept to reality. This is a real pioneering effort for manatee research in the northern Gulf of Mexico,” Dr. Carmichael said. “I am very grateful to everyone who helped us make it happen.”

The West Indian manatee is federally protected and the northern Gulf of Mexico is thought to be fringe habitat for these manatees. Data from this research will be used to help manage and conserve manatees in Alabama and other fringe areas.

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Nah, there’s no blatant racism on TeeVee…

Will the left rise up and counter attack? Stay tuned…