In an update to our post about Stephanie Tubbs Jones, I am sad to announce that the Congreewoman passed away yesterday at the age of 58.

She’s had career to proud of, here are some of the highlights:

• Ms. Tubbs Jones co-sponsored legislative efforts to expand health care coverage for low- and middle-income people and of programs supporting the re-entry of convicts into their communities
• She was the author of legislation requiring certification for mortgage brokers and stiffer penalties for predatory loans.
• In January 2005, Ms. Tubbs Jones joined Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, in initiating a challenge (quite rare) to Congress’ ratification of George W. Bush’s re-election. They objected to accepting Ohio’s 20 electoral votes for Mr. Bush and cited voting irregularities
• Ms. Tubbs Jones voted against emergency supplemental financing for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Her reason is stated after the jump.

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U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and lots of white male politicians.

According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, “U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first African-American woman to represent Ohio in Congress, is in critical condition after suffering an aneurysm last night.” She is said to have limited brain function.

Tubbs Jones has long been one of the region’s most recognizable politicians. Often clad in red — the color of her sorority Delta Sigma Theta — she is a regular at parades, senior centers and schools. Her annual Labor Day picnic at Luke Easter Park is a must-stop for any serious Democratic candidate running in the city, county or state. [Cleveland Plain Dealer]

Tubbs Jones is 58 and has served five terms in Congress.

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The Clean Water Restoration Act is coming to a vote in the House of Representatives sometime very soon, and both Environment Illinois and The New York Times editorial board would like you to know how important the vote is.  The original Clean Water act, passed in 1972, was supposed to protect all the waters and wetlands in the United States, plain and simple.  However, a court case from a few years back muddied the waters of the Act (some pun intended).  As The Times puts it:

This jurisdictional confusion stems largely from a bizarre 2006 Supreme Court ruling in which the justices split three ways on which waters were protected under the act. A conservative foursome said that only permanent waters deserved protection. A liberal foursome said that all waters, including seasonal, intermittent streams, deserved protection. Seeking to split the difference, Justice Anthony Kennedy ruled that such streams as well as remote wetlands deserved protection if regulators could show a “significant nexus” to a navigable body of water somewhere downstream.

Based on the confusing nature of three dissenting opinions

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Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is sticking to her guns, firmly rejecting the notion the House solely vote on whether or not to drill offshore.  The California Democrat will instead introduce comprehensive energy legislation which includes limiting tax breaks for oil companies and funding alternative, renewable energy with the royalties from new drilling in approved areas.  The Republican backed measures for a simple yes or no vote on offshore drilling, sidestepping or ignoring all other energy concerns in the United States for the GOP’s corporate oil sponsors, were described as “a hoax on the American people,” by the Speaker.

The Baltimore-bred, San Francisco Congresswoman went on to tell KQED television’s “This Week in Northern California“:

You want to drill? We want the royalties for the American people, and we want that to pay for renewable energy resources. We want to connect all that together.

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What I loved most about Errol Morris’ Standard Operating Procedure was that it was in many ways a “woman’s picture.” That is, the women, and their experience in the military, albeit in some very specific circumstances, was at the heart of the film. Their villianization, from Janis Karpinski to Lynndie England, from high rank to low, was one of the major crimes of Abu Ghraib and of course almost no one reported on it.

It was with little surprise then that I sat down to read Paul Rieckhoff’s piece in the Huffington Post entitled Sexual Assault and the Military: When Will the Pentagon Take Action?.

Rieckhoff, founder of IAVA (Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America), writes:

Almost one-third of women veterans say they were sexually assaulted while in the military. (In the general population, one out of every six American women has been a victim of a sexual assault.) Already, 15 percent of female Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who have gone to the VA for care have screened positive for Military Sexual Trauma. But even these troubling figures may not be telling the whole story; experts estimate that half of all sexual assaults go unreported. [HuffingtonPost]

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

TakePart Gang:

Everything I Know About Climate Change, I Learned in the Fifth Grade by Martin Musatov

When Torture Is Condoned, Is FISA That Shocking? by Wendy Cohen

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Nicole Hughes:

Baltimore Woman Turns Tragedy Into Art

Why Don’t We Do More to Stop Global Warming?

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Andy Kondrat:

Foods You Should and Shouldn’t Buy Organic

Paper or Plastic? The Environmental Impact

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Jon Popham:

The Energy Independence Bill: A Filibuster Odyssey

“Bruno” Fools Mossad Agent

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Gina Telaroli:

While Iran Tests Missiles, Test These 5 Iranian Films

Mao’s Out, Time to Capitalize On the Olympics

Imagine a country suffering from the highest energy costs in its 232 year history. A country that imports 70% of its needs for an expensive, environmentally hazardous fuel that enriches some of the most unstable, oppressive governments on Earth to power its gargantuan transportation sector. Then imagine a burgeoning alternative energy industry, ready to take shape in the country, waiting to boom, hoping for the necessary government cooperation to get itself off the ground. The leadership of the country craft legislation to allow for investment tax credits for alternative energy, a boon to investors desperate to find a good place for capital in a risky economic market. A bill which would practically guarantee a groundswell of investment to fund the new industry. The bill passes with ease through the lower chamber of the country’s bicameral legislature. But when the bill enters the legislature’s upper house, the minority party stops the bill cold, by refusing to even allow debate on the legislation vis-a-vis a procedural trick.

Well guess what? You don’t have to imagine anymore, because the scenario presented above is taking place right now in Congress. The bill is The Energy Independence and Tax Relief Act (H.R. 6049). The upper house of the legislature is the United States Senate. The minority party blocking the measure are the Republicans and the parliamentary tactic they’re using to stop desperately needed investment and progress in the alternative energy sector is the filibuster.

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

Katie Halper:

Debra Winger and Rights Camera Action!

James Byrd Jr. and the Struggle for Tolerance

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Nicole Hughes:

Green Video of the Week: 5 Tips for Reducing Your Garbage

The Week in Green Politics

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Andy Kondrat:

Disappearing Destinations: Visit Before They Vanish

Chuck Norris Wants America to Start Drilling for Oil Here and Now!

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Jon Popham:

NASA Plans Voyage to the Sun

The Girl Effect

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Giulia Rozzi:

Gay Discrimination at Seattle Baseball Game

Bison Brucellosis

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Gina Telaroli:

Fathers Day Celebration of Movie Dads #1

My Father’s Gift of Tecumseh!

Individual, community and corporate efforts to better the environment are necessary and effective, but solutions for our environmental and energy crises have to come from systematic changes in our political system too. Want to know what’s going on behind the closed doors of those mysterious white buildings? Check out the week in green politics, and see for yourself:

**Worried about water safety? You should be. Billions of gallons of water for drinking can be moved without discharge permits under the Clean Water Act, says the EPA, even though the Bush administration says the water could contain pollutants.

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Remember when Chuck Norris was a fun ironic name to bandy about harmlessly? Turns out that becomes less fun when he talks politics. Yesterday, on WorldNet Daily, which appears to be a website dedicated to conservative ideals, Norris posted an editorial called “Congress, get off your gas, and drill!”  I’m almost positive there’s a pun in there, but for the life of me, I can’t find it.

Norris, it would appear, is no fan of high gas prices. He is also no fan of foreigners controlling our economy. And he’s no fan of cap-and-trade systems to control carbon emissions, because that will raise gas prices another buck fifty. You know what? Let’s let the Texas Ranger himself sum up what’s wrong.

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