Aug 19, 2008 -- Your Fight the Right-Wing Activists Links of the Day.

** Natural Resources Defense Council **

Bees are a critical agricultural resource that help produce $15 billion worth of crops in the United States each year. The recent unexplained mass disappearance of honey bees, called colony collapse disorder, poses a significant threat to honey bees, beekeepers, farmers and our food supply. Most bee experts believe bees could be falling sick due to a combination of factors, including pesticide exposure, invasive parasitic mites, an inadequate food supply and a new virus that targets bees' immune systems.

Last year Congress recognized colony collapse disorder as a threat and granted the Department of Agriculture emergency funds to study the problem. In addition, the department receives $20 million each year for honey bee research, pest and pathogen surveillance, and other bee-related programs. But to date, the agency has been unable to fully account for how these funds are being used or show any significant results from its work.

Urge the Department of Agriculture to fulfill its commitment to fight colony collapse disorder.
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** Human Rights First **

Police detained one of China's most celebrated lawyers, Gao Zhisheng, at his home on September 22, 2007 and took him to an unknown location. He was later released and placed under house arrest. His current whereabouts are unclear, though he is believed to be under surveillance.

The detention came after Gao wrote an open letter to the U.S. Congress criticizing China for using the Olympics to crack down on human rights. During his detention from September to early November, Gao was reportedly tortured.

When the Olympics come to a close, the international attention will fade without China fulfilling its promises to improve its record on human rights. Gao is just one of many human rights defenders subjected to legal harassment, violence, arbitrary detention, and torture.

As the Olympic Games wind down, the international pressure on China to comply with its human rights commitments is also likely to diminish. However, human rights defenders like Gao will continue to be harassed under China's repressive regime.

Please call on the Chinese government to promptly stop the harassment of all human rights activists immediately.
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** Union of Concerned Scientists **

In response to high gas prices, the Monkey King Bush administration and its allies are calling for new oil drilling that would take decades and eventually save only pennies-per-gallon.

Meanwhile, Bush’s Department of Transportation is undermining historic new fuel economy standards. They unrealistically assume gas will cost around $2.50 through 2020 and that hybrid vehicles won’t even exist until 2014. Because the agency balances the cost of new fuel economy technology against the gas savings the new technology provides, these outrageous assumptions are being used by the administration to reduce the automakers’ requirement to bring more fuel-efficient options to consumers.

According to the administration’s own analysis, if they simply used a more realistic gas price, the standards would save consumers enough fuel to equal about a dollar per gallon discount at the pump. This would dwarf the minuscule price drop from oil produced through new drilling without the environmental consequences of feeding our addiction to oil.

Congress must now get personally involved in saving the historic fuel economy standards they created in 2007.

Please tell your members of Congress to save fuel economy from administration tampering in order to truly address the United States' pain at the pump.