Thanks to amaronith for sharing this.  I just signed the petition myself, 'cos this won't just stop with the US.  The number of times Aussie policy has followed American policy like a lost little lamb is disturbing.  And no way in hell is my employer ever having a hand in my reproductive decisions.  And, as a potential future employer (hopefully), I refuse to discriminate against anyone based on their willingness or ability to procreate.  The rest of this post I've stolen directly from amaronith, because I am lazy and it says what needs to be said better than I can say it.

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Stop the Arizona birth control Bill

If this bill passes the senate then women of Arizona would be forced to provide documentation that birth control is for medical purposes only. The "company" would not be required to cover birth control if it was for prevention of conception. Additionally this bill would give companies the right to fire women if they discovered that she was using a contraceptive to prevent pregnancy
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http://www.change.org/petitions/arizona-sentate-arizona-state-legislature-debbie-lesko-stop-the-arizona-birth-control-bill#

Cluegirl note: Please don't roll your eyes and click past because you're tired of this nonsense. We're all tired of this nonsense. We're exhausted with the Tiny White Men That Other White Men Seem To Insist Need To Live In Our Ladyparts, and we're tired of being treated like cattle and chattel just because we're capable of conceiving life, but WE CANNOT IGNORE SHIT LIKE THIS! We must speak up, in our thousands, and we must speak up EVERY DAMN TIME! We must roar and shake the bars because every time even one of these appalling little incremental atrocities passes without uproar, then the Tiny White Men use it as a platform from which to to launch another, only slightly more atrocious attack.

Don't get tired, get mad. Talk about it. Yell about it. SCREAM about it. Deny nay-sayers sex over it. Do. Not. Be. Worn. Down. Because once the chains go on, it takes a lot of blood to get them off again.

This signal needs to be louder than all the 'stop internet limitations' signals. This Conservative Agenda includes the enslavement of better than half the human race. It really, really is more important.

Act like it.

At this point, there's officially around 8 hours left in the prep window for the AFFA comp this year, and we're still waiting on 4 people to respond to their nom alerts.  You can find an up-to-date list of who still needs to respond to be included in the comp here.  If you can contact any of these people via PM, email or speedy pigeon please let them know their nom alert is waiting for them, or get them to contact me directly if they can't find it.  I'm available via PM on most TMNT-related sites (usually as just plain Reijiro, some bugger had just knicked that monicker before me here on lj) or by email (I'm happy to give this out via PM if needed).

By some miracle I've gotten the reading list as ready as I can get it today.  I was hoping to have it finished last night, but once I realised I'd mislabelled one of kc_anathema's works as being written by Raphael I figured it was time to go to bed.  With any luck the reading list (sans Raph being credited for anything but being rivetingly hawt) will be available tomorrow.  I'll splash my usual spammalishous advertising across all the host sites (I know you've all missed it!  XD)  just as soon as the reading list is available. 

As a bit of a heads-up; we're still beavering away on getting the works that need to be reposted sorted out, so to start off with some of the links on the reading list may still direct to the original member-locked sites.  But any that do will be clearly marked, and we will get those works reposted so they are publicly available just as soon as we can.  Despite it being a bit of a slow year for the fandom, and therefore nomination ballots, we still managed to get 78 individual works nominated (Including those still waiting on permission).  So there's a bit of work entailed in hunting them all down and getting them sorted out.  Please be patient with us!

Oh, and speaking of people being wonderfully patient with us, we haven't forgotten last years' certs.  If all goes to plan we will get them sorted out shortly too. ^^;

Dear f-list, I'm calling on your help to save my sorry arse! 

( Here is a list of people who have been nominated but have not yet responded to their alerts. )

Just a quick heads-up to anyone who may be wondering, I'm in the process now of sending out the alert notifications for those who've been nom'd in this years' AFFA.  I'm hoping to get them all done today, but if not they will definitely all be sent out by tomorrow (West Oz-time!).  While we haven't had a huge number of nomination ballots submitted, we have had a nice range of authors nominated; including quite a few new authors and artists which is always lovely to see! 

Most sincere apologies for the delay this year, it's my bad!  I am definelty going to be around for the rest of the comp though so, as usual, any queries, comments, suggestions or rotten fruit; feel free to send 'em my way.

Best of luck to everyone involved in the comp!

It's a sad day for the TMNT fandom.  We've just lost the works of one of our greatest artists thanks to a few people who refused to respect the very reasonable requests that artist made regarding not linking or stealing their art. 

To those who disrespected Sneefee, or any artist or writer for that matter, know this; what comes around goes around.  If you treat other people like crap, be it online or off, you cannot expect to be treated with respect in return.  Remember that when next you pour your heart and soul into something and it gets shat upon from a great height.  That'll be your karma calling.

Ugh, I could rant on and on about what respect is all about, but I doubt anyone who bothers to read this deserves that kinda lecture.  Still, gonna leave this entry public just on the off-chance.  I just needed to express myself to the ether and hope the message does get through somehow to those who could do with hearing it most.  It just breaks my heart to see good people, great artists and writers, forced to endure this kind of crap time and time again.

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In brighter art news; stalker_of_doom , another of our fandoms' great artists, is currently having a sale on commissions.  You can check out the sale and some samples of her great artwork here. 

( And, just 'cos I'm shameless and I'll take any opportunity to show this off, here's another sample of SoD's work that I commissioned from her ages ago. PG - Raph/Tau, so if TMNT/human fluff don't do it for ya then ignore this cut! )