NADAL MEETS KOHLSCHREIBER IN MADRID'S ROUND 3 - OBAMA LETS US DOWN RE HUMAN RIGHTS - AMERICAN GENOCIDE

Rafa and Spain's Royalty

Above three photos credit: Pure People

Rafa practicing in Madrid
Above two photos credit: Oscar Gallardo/Enfoque/Cameleon/AbacaPress.com

Photo credit: Marca

Rafa at press conference
Photo credit: Corbis

Tennis - Clay Court Season Continues in Madrid, Spain This Week
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Photo credits: AS, Belga, Daylife, el mundo, Getty, JAMD, Marca, Yahoo
Round 2 Madrid Rafa Nadal vs. Jurgen Melzer

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Marca - Screen Caps by rafafanatic of www.vamosbrigade.com
Press in Madrid

Rafa Nadal defeated Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 6-1 May 13, 2009
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Interview with Rafa Nadal in Spanish after Round 2 match with Melzer
Uploaded by luneworld

ORDER OF PLAY FOR DAY Thursday 14

ORDER OF PLAY - THURSDAY, MAY 14, 2009
MANOLO SANTANA start 10:00 am
A Chakvetadze (RUS) vs A Bondarenko (UKR) - WTA

Not Before 12:00 PM
[16] T Robredo (ESP) vs [4] A Murray (GBR) - ATP
[14] J Blake (USA) vs [2] R Federer (SUI) - ATP

Not Before 4:00 PM
[1] D Safina (RUS) vs L Safarova (CZE) - WTA

Not Before 8:00 PM [1] R Nadal (ESP) vs P Kohlschreiber (GER) - ATP
This is 2:00 pm USA EST-DST

Source: www.madrid-open.com/site/results/orden_de_juego

For a fee, watch the match live at

www.tennistv.com

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Sudanese Government Forces Bomb near North Darfur - UN

Source: www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis

Wed May 13, 2009 12:48pm EDT

UNITED NATIONS, May 13 (Reuters) - Sudanese government forces on Wednesday carried out a bombing raid near a town in Sudan's western Darfur region that has been the scene of recent fighting, a U.N. spokeswoman said.

"UNAMID forces observed Sudanese government aircraft bombing targets north of Umm Baru, a North Darfur town that has been the scene of recent fighting," U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas told reporters.

She was referring to the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, known as UNAMID.

Montas said UNAMID troops and police had heard several explosions early on Wednesday.

Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem, was not immediately available for comment.

Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebels said on Saturday that they had fought off an ambush in Umm Baru by Sudanese armed forces and troops loyal to former rebel Minni Arcua Minnawi, the only Darfur rebel to sign a peace deal with the government in 2006. (Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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BAM'S DARFUR SINS

LIBS' OUTRAGE OVER BROKEN VOW

By Kirsten Powers

Source: http://www.nypost.com/seven/05112009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/bams_darfur_sins_168603.htm

OFTEN accused of taking on too many issues, President Obama is catching flak from some of his most ardent liberal supporters, who say he's neglecting the paramount international human-rights crisis -- the Darfur genocide.

So they're fasting, writing letters and posting videos on YouTube pressing him to take a leadership role he promised he'd take on Darfur.

The Web site "Darfur Fast for Life" showcases the frustrations of Pam Omidyar, who, with her husband Pierre, the founder and chairman of e-Bay, was among Obama's top supporters. Joining Omidyar in her fast are such activists as Gabriel Stauring, founder of Stop Genocide Now, and Shannon Sedgwick Davis, a supporter who calls Obama's inaction "unbelievably disappointing." Actress Mia Farrow initiated the fast, but was advised by her doctor to stop after 12 days of consuming only water. British billionaire Richard Branson has taken over for her.

They've watched as Obama has tackled the economy, health care, global warming, the tax system, financial regulations, education reform, embryonic stem-cell research and more. Sadly, human rights don't seem to have made the cut. (Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shocked many when she asserted recently regarding China that human-rights issues couldn't interfere with such other issues as solving the economic crisis).

During his campaign, Obama raised expectations among human-rights activists that he'd place Darfur at the top of his agenda. He highlighted a "passion in bringing an end to this crisis." Calling genocide "a stain on all of us," he claimed that "the United States has a moral obligation any time you see humanitarian catastrophe."

On a 2007 visit to the region, Archbishop Desmond Tutu called Darfur "one of the most awful places in the world." In March of this year, it got even more awful. That's when the Sudanese government kicked out 13 international aid organizations that provided almost two thirds of the sustenance in the refugee camps, threatening the lives of an estimated 1 million people.

Says one activist, "These camps were already abysmal. Now just ratchet that down 60 percent."

The White House's response has been disheartening. By the time it got around to saying anything on the situation, the aid groups had been forced from the country. Some activists felt that had they spoken up earlier and more forcefully, it could have made a difference.

Speaking of Darfur during the campaign, Obama said: "As president of the United States, I don't intend to abandon people." Yet he is. About genocide, he said, "We can't say 'never again' and allow it to happen again." But it is happening again.

Worse, some worry that the mastermind of all this suffering, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, is manipulating Obama's special envoy to Darfur, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Gration. Bashir has charmed outsiders who believe (erroneously) that he sincerely desires to work to end the suffering. Activists were especially alarmed when Gration provided an overly sunny report of Darfur's ground situation and told some privately that it could be time to ease sanctions and remove Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Activist Shannon Sedgwick Davis dismisses the idea that Obama is too busy with the economy to address Darfur. "That's an easy out," Sedgwick Davis says. "He has an amazing team that surrounds him for issues just like this and he needs to empower them to do much, much more. That's what they are there for. Hillary Clinton isn't sitting in her office trying to balance the budget."

Gabriel Stauring of Stop Genocide Now has visited the Darfur refugee camps seven times and despairs over the rapidly worsening conditions. He says of those suffering there, "They put so much hope in America. They have this idea that America stands for the right thing and that help is going to come. When Obama took office their hope shot through the roof. They are waiting."

How much longer will they have to wait?

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You can write to President Obama

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

or at

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Call him at 202-456-1111
or
1-800-GENOCIDE

Send a post card to President Obama
AddYourVoice.org

He is not going to act for Darfur
without you and without me pressuring him.

In this way, he is no different than other politicians.

JOIN THE FAST FOR DARFUR
fastdarfur.org


www.savedarfur.org
www.stopgenocidenow.org
www.standnow.org

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The Homestake Gold Mine
By Steve Melendez

Used with permission.
Source http://www.aigenom.com/homestakegoldmine.html


The Homestake Gold Mine, in Lead, South Dakota, operated for 125 years and produced 41 million troy ounces of gold(over $24 billion at today's gold prices of over $600 per ounce). In the summer of 1874, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer was sent into the Black Hills by Gen. Philip Sheridan to search for gold. This was in direct violation of the Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868. Today, there is a large photograph at the mine of Custer and his entourage entering the Black Hills. The caption information tells us that after gold was discovered, many miners came into the Black Hills in defiance of the army and the Indians but fails to mention that Custer’s army was violating the 1868 Treaty. Neither does the caption information remind visitors to the mine that article 6 of the U.S. Constitution calls a treaty the supreme law of the land.
Custer came into the Black Hills with 1,000 soldiers, over 100 covered wagons, 2 or 3 gatling guns, a cannon, a 16 piece brass band mounted on white horses, and two prospectors who were the experts on gold. On July 30th 1874 Custer sent a dispatch to Ft. Laramie which read: “Gold has been found in paying quantities. I have upon my table 40 or 50 small particles of pure gold. In size averaging that of a small pinhead. And most of it found today from one pan full of earth.” Today, the area where the placer gold (gold carried by mountain streams) was found , is the town of Custer, South Dakota.
Probably the most significant bit of information absent from the Custer photograph at the mine is what the President of the United States said to Congress the following year: “…The Discovery of gold in the Black Hills, a portion of the Sioux Reservation, has had the effect to induce a large immigration of miners to that point. Thus far the effort to protect the treaty rights of the Indians to that section has been successful, but the next year will certainly witness a large increase of such immigration. The negotiations for the relinquishment of the gold fields having failed, it will be necessary for Congress to adopt some measures to relieve the embarrassment growing out of the causes named. The Secretary of the Interior suggests that the supplies now appropriated for the sustenance of that people, Being no longer obligatory under the treaty of 1868, but simply a gratuity, may be issued or withheld at his discretion.” President Ulysses S. Grant’s entire message can be found in Messages and Papers of the Presidents Vol. 9 Pg.4306.

AIGM President, Steve Melendez, and his children at the site of the Homestake Gold Mine. The mine is an open pit 1250 ft. deep and a half mile across. (Summer 2006)

The fact that President Grant would suggest that a starvation policy should be implemented may be difficult for most Americans to believe but the attitude of that day can be found in the words of another President whose image is carved 40 miles south of the Homestake Mine on Mt. Rushmore.

Mount Rushmore in South Dakota

"The Most ultimately righteous of all wars is a war with savages. The rude, fierce settler who drives the savage from the land lays all civilized mankind under a debt to him...it is of incalculable importance that America, Australia, and Siberia should pass out of the hands of their red, black, and yellow aboriginal owners, and become the heritage of the dominant world races."The Winning of the West Vol. 4 The Indian Wars Page 56 by President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt


Wounded Knee

If you ever have the opportunity to visit the mass grave site of the Wounded Knee Massacre, you must reflect on why such a thing happened. It was the 7th Cavalry that did it, so the average American is led to believe that it was revenge for Custer’s Last Stand at the Little Big Horn. But knowing President Grant’s words to Congress is to know that the gold was on the Sioux Reservation and that Custer was there in violation of the Treaty of Ft. Laramie of 1868. And to know President Grant’s words to Congress is to know that he called on America to starve the Indians off their land.

Wounded Knee, December 1890.
Courtesy of the Denver Public Library

Wounded Knee Memorial Site, 2006.

When a president of a country openly calls for the
deliberate and systematic destruction of a people,
what other conclusion can be reached? If you ever
visit the mass grave site at Wounded Knee on the
Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, know that
the men, women and children who were thrown into
this trench, were the victims of genocide.

American Indian Genocide Museum - website