SUPPORT ADA RESTORATION (H.R. 3195/S. 1881)

Write your representatives regarding the ADA Restoration Act (H.R. 3195/S. 1881).

Keep the Promise to End Unfair Employment Discrimination
EVERY AMERICAN WANTS THE OPPORTUNITY TO WORK AND TO BE JUDGED BASED ON PERFORMANCE.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and signed by President George H.W. Bush in order to give people with disabilities a chance to be judged fairly.

Unfair discrimination harms all Americans. People with disabilities want to work to their full ability and not have to turn to public assistance to live. The ADA creates a level playing field so everyone who wants a job has an equal opportunity to work.

Just as other civil rights laws prohibit employers from basing decisions on characteristics like race or sex, Congress wanted the ADA to stop employers from making decisions based on disability.

BUT THIS IS NOT HAPPENING FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES.
􀂾 The employment rate of people with disabilities has not improved.
􀂾 Two-thirds of people with disabilities who do not have a job indicate they would work if they could find employment.
􀂾 Courts decide against people who challenge disability discrimination 97% of the time, often before the person has even had a chance to show that the employer treated them unfairly.

STOP EMPLOYERS AND COURTS FROM TREATING PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES UNFAIRLY.
The courts have created an absurd Catch-22 by allowing employers to say a person is "too disabled" to do the job but not "disabled enough" to be protected by the law. The case is thrown out of court and the individual is never given the chance to do the job. This is wrong!

􀂾 People with conditions like epilepsy, diabetes, HIV, cancer, hearing loss, and mental illness who manage their disabilities with medication, prosthetics, hearing aids, etc. – or "mitigating measures" – are viewed as "too functional" to have a disability and are denied the ADA’s protection from employment discrimination.
􀂾 People denied a job or fired because an employer mistakenly believes they cannot perform the job – or because the employer does not want "people like that" in the workplace – are also denied the ADA’s protection from employment discrimination.

SUPPORT ADA RESTORATION (H.R. 3195/S. 1881)
The ADA Restoration Act (H.R. 3195/S. 1881) ensures the right to be judged based on performance. It restores the original intent of Congress, harmonizing the ADA with other civil rights laws and requiring the courts to interpret the law fairly.

http://www.c-c-d.org/task_forces/rights/TPs_FINAL_bill.pdf

Arms Industry making money through lost weapons

this was direct to Moveon.org. You know, I think it is great that you point out the unjust ways our leaders seem to be supporting the Iraq War. Here is another point that needs to be addressed in your press releases, for how can we fight terrorism if they can't keep track of the weapons we have sent to fight terrorist? This is just another scam our government is using to provide the arms industry a way of making more money.

Are Lost U.S. Weapons In Enemy Hands?
Investigation Shows Missing U.S. Weapons May Have Turned Up In The Hands Of Iraqi Insurgents

(CBS) Last month, a government report revealed the U.S. military could not account for 190,000 -- or 30 percent -- of all weapons issued to Iraqi Security Forces between June 2004 and December 2005.

Thursday, Pentagon officials said $88 billion in spending in Iraq and Afghanistan is now under audit by the Department of Defense for fraud.
Now, in his exclusive report CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian has learned some of those missing weapons have ended up in the worst possible hands.

CBS News has learned that the CIA has photographic evidence that Austrian-made Glocks intended for Iraqi security forces and paid for by U.S. taxpayers are now in the hands of Iraqi insurgents -- in numbers that the intelligence community believes are in the thousands.

According to an intelligence source, the U.S. contractor in charge of the Glocks somehow lost track of an entire shipment. That mysterious disappearance is now part of a massive military bribery investigation centered around a contracting office run out of a small trailer at a military base in Kuwait. Eighteen federal investigators are digging into the actions of dozens of high-ranking U.S officers and military contractors.

Thursday, at a House Armed Services Committee hearing, lawmakers took aim at what the chairman called "a culture of corruption" surrounding billions in Iraq war contracts, but stopped short of publicly saying where some of the weapons wound up.

"The number of folks who have enormous responsibility to this country are involved has, I think, made this a real tragedy for our country,” says Duncan Hunter, the committee's ranking member.

After the hearing, Keteyian confronted Army Lt. General Ross Thompson, who admitted the Inspector General at the Defense of Department is looking at the CIA's evidence.

“We are going to report tonight that thousands of Glock pistols intended for Iraq security forces instead ended up in the hands of insurgents,” says Keteyian.

“What is your reaction to that?"

“I don't know that for a fact,” Thompson says. “It is something that is being investigated by the DOD IG right now and that's something that is not within my responsibility or my area of expertise to comment on, but it is being actively investigated.”

As Congress prepares to send another $2 billion to the Iraq security forces, Dept. of Defense officials testified they are working to find better ways to maintain appropriate accountability and control over military material.
It’s small comfort to American soldiers in Iraq who may now be staring down the barrel of guns paid for by the U.S. government.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/20/cbsnews_investigates/main3283595.shtml