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Wednesday, December 29, 2010

THIS IS FOR EVERYONE WHO WANTS TO REPEAL HEATLH CARE IN THE USA

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Uploaded to Youtube on June 18, 2007 ~ During President George W Bush's term

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CHILD POVERTY EVEN IF IT ISN'T YOURS WILL AFFECT YOU AND YOURS ~ SO DARE TO CARE AND ACT

Where my head moved forward with my eyes intensifying as I saw the WORDS ~ "the plight for poor children in Mississippi is so dire, enriching experiences so meager and government aid so inadequate and spotty that after school tutoring and reading programs in Quitman County and two other Delta counties ARE FUNDED BY FOREIGN AID, a grant from the Bernard van Leer Foundation of the Netherlands."

Held Captive: Child Poverty in America

Source: childrensdefense.org

Held Captive”: Child Poverty in America, a new report commissioned and published by the Children’s Defense Fund, found that the plight for poor children in Mississippi is so dire, enriching experiences so meager and government aid so inadequate and spotty that after school tutoring and reading programs in Quitman County and two other Delta counties are funded by foreign aid, a grant from the Bernard van Leer Foundation of the Netherlands. “The foundation focuses on children and families in what it refers to as oppressed societies,” said Betty Ward Fletcher, the director of a Jackson, Miss., -based consulting firm contracted by the Dutch foundation to help it design a program in Mississippi. “Some of its people wondered why it should be working in the most affluent country in the world, but they decided the reality is we have poor children in this country who are denied the opportunity to be all they can be.”

Julia Cass, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, chronicled the toll poverty is inflicting on America’s children for the Children’s Defense Fund. She spent time with poor children in Quitman County, Miss., Katrina-displaced children in Baton Rouge, La., and children of the newly poor in Long Island, N.Y. Cass found that despite safety net protections put in place over the past generation, poor children are still adrift in a sea of poverty with their future in jeopardy. Years of research link childhood poverty to a multitude of poor outcomes: lower academic attainment, higher rates of teenage pregnancy and incarceration, a greater chance of health and behavioral problems, and lifelong poverty. And the current economic crisis continues to drag more families and their children into poverty. This Christmas season 15.5 million children in America, more than one in five, are living in poverty, a number of them in extreme poverty. This is the highest child poverty rate the nation has experienced since 1959.

This new report begins in Quitman County in the Delta region of Mississippi, the starting point of the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968. Audrey, a 13-year-old girl, illustrates the confluence of social, psychological and environmental risks that trap children in lifelong poverty. Audrey fell several years behind in school primarily because of suspensions. Asked if she felt isolated in her declining town where 34.5 percent of households live in poverty, Audrey responded, “Yeah. Isolated. Remote island. Held captive.”

In Baton Rouge, children displaced by Hurricane Katrina five and a half years ago are still struggling, and largely forgotten. The storm ripped apart fragile family safety nets. Too often, children are left to fend for themselves and they make poor decisions. Navia, 14 years old, is largely self-raised. She said she wanted to graduate from high school and be the first in her family not to have a baby before age 20. She didn’t seem to realize that being truant and missing a year of school would make it difficult for her to reach that goal. With no family support, public institutions charged with involvement in Navia’s life are failing her as well. She is out of school, yet the school district did not send a truant officer to her home all year. “She is already far off the pathway to a happy and successful life,” Cass reports.

All across Long Island, N.Y., the birthplace of the suburban American dream, families are falling from middle class to working poor and from working poor into poverty because of the recession, the housing crisis, the gap between wages and cost of living, and the insufficient safety net. Families are living in motels, food pantries are emptying, and outreach agencies are running out of funds to help with a month’s rent or an overdue utility bill. The new faces of poverty – the families that now seek help – include Jodi, a white, college-educated school teacher with three children whose divorce and special needs child have pushed her into the working poor. And Joseph, sole supporter of his teenage son, says his paycheck from an auto body shop does not cover the mortgage, utilities and food. He reports, “I can’t pay the bills. I don’t qualify for anything. I don’t eat lunch. I drink from the hose at work. That’s just how things are. You gotta sacrifice for your child.” The director of the Long Island Council of Churches, which runs food banks that now provide food for a record 3,000 people a month, described the situation for many Long Island families as a “Sophie’s choice: Do I feed the kids or pay the utilities?”

Download the report in its entirety. (.pdf, 4 MB)

About the Author

Julia Cass, Author of "Held Captive"Julia Cass is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience writing for newspapers, magazines and non-profit organizations. She has written extensively about civil rights, poverty and the prison system. As a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer for almost 20 years, she shared the Pulitzer Prize with other staffers for the paper’s coverage of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. She also received an award for her reporting on the Pennsylvania prison system.

She is the co-author of Black in Selma: The Uncommon Life of J.L. Chestnut Jr, published in 1990 by Farrar Straus and Giroux. It won the America Bar Association Award for best writing about the legal system that year and the Lillian Smith Award for writing about the South.

She has also worked as managing editor of the Sunday magazine of the San Jose Mercury News and as executive editor of the Buenos Aires Herald, an English language daily newspaper in Argentina. In addition, she has trained journalists and journalism students in enterprise reporting in Panama and Botswana. Several years ago, she contributed to writing CDF’s Cradle to Prison Pipeline® report.

She is now a freelance writer living temporarily in New York City. Her home is in New Orleans, La.

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“…unless we all have plenty

one of us will become a thief and the ghief will make you angry

you will hurt him

this will hurt his children

they will punish you

this will hurt your children

they will punish his children

and that’s how it begins

to believe in man is to know

peace will not work if just one man alive

is unjust

if one man alive

is ignorant

or hungry

or crazy

or ashamed

FOR we have seen if only one of us

decides to pull the plug, the millions of us can kiss

the world good-bye

whether we like it or not.

From Joseph Pintauro’s little book “to believe in man”

Illustrated by Sister Corita Kent


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The following is from the book "Teacher and Child" by Hiam Ginott (1972) - the year I began teaching

On the first day of the new school year, all the teachers in one school received the following note from their principal

Dear Teacher,

I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no man should witness: Gas chambers built by learned engineers. Children poisoned by educated physicians. Infants killed by trained nurses. Women and babies shot and burned by high school and college graduates. So, I am suspicious of education.

My request is: help your students become human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated Eichmanns. Reading, writing and arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more human. (p.317)

From the introduction of the book by Alice Ginott

Haim Ginott died aged 51 years old and his wife wrote about him:

He wanted to learn how to discipline without humiliating; how to criticize without destroying self-worth; how to praise without judging; how to express anger without hurting; how to acknowledge, not argue with, feelings; how to respond so that children would learn to trust their inner reality and develop self-confidence. “What is the goal of education?” he would ask, “When all is said and done, we want children to grow up to be decent human beings, a ‘mensch’, a person with compassion, commitment, and caring.


This is what I have to say:
I maintain that the arts are an exceptional path to do just these things. And of course not only treating the students with respect and dignity is important, but, so too, is it important to treat the teachers, the staff with respect and dignity. The community that we live in is the one we help create.

I support human dignity wherever and whenever possible.

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Click the post title for the Children's defense fund

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SONGS about FIRE

A song I have liked for years ~ FIRE
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Bob Seger's The Fire Down Below

Click post title for Slow Hand

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THE NATURAL STATE OF MANKIND IS...FREEDOM


Slave trade map ~ Click image to enlarge

Amistad ~ a movie which partly was shot here in Rhode Island, Newport included. My favorite scene ~
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"…The natural state of mankind is instead - and I know this is a controversial idea - is freedom. Is freedom. And the proof is the length to which a man, woman or child will go to regain it once taken. He will break loose his chains, he will decimate his enemies, he will try and try and try against all odds, against all prejudices to get home.
…who we are is who we were…give us the courage to do what is right..."

Slavery here in Newport ~
newport history
Newport, Rhode Island played a leading role during the Colonial Period in the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. By 1776, several thousand African slaves lived, work and eventually died in this New England seaport. At the peak of the Colonial Period they comprised nearly one third of the total town population with one in three Newport families owning at least one slave. Source: newport history

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Here in Newport, Rhode Island we have several physical ‘touch stones’ to remind us of the legacy left by those Africans and later African Americans who graced our city with their presence. From 1696 when the first documented slave ship, the ‘Sea Flower’, touched our shores, to the present, African Americans have worked, raised their families and prospered in the city by the sea.

The American Slave Trade and Newport share similar origins. Newport, the most prosperous of colonial American ports, saw unprecedented growth throughout the 18th century; mostly from the export and trade of rum, spermaceti candles and slaves. By 1784, the fledgling state government abolished slavery.

Many of the slaves that came to Newport’s shore would arrive, like most goods, at the Long Wharf. These slaves would be auctioned off to the highest bidders at the Granary (market), which is today known as the Brick Market at the foot of Washington Square.

If colonial Newport was known as one of America’s most active slave ports, it was equally known as one of the new country’s most liberal communities for the pursuit of religious freedom. This unique atmosphere of religious tolerance would lead to the demise of popular support of human bondage led by two of America’s first humanitarians and abolitionists; Reverend Samuel Hopkins and Reverend Ezra Stiles of the First and Second Congregational Churches. Both men preached fiery sermons from their pulpits against the evils of slavery. Because of the dedication and vision of these two men, and the decline of Newport as a major trading port after the Revolutionary War, slavery would end in Newport by the commencement of the 19th century.

Where did these slave and free Africans live and work in early Newport? What were they like? Do any of these sites exist in Newport today? Numerous sites exist today that were built, lived in, or in some way touched by Newport’s long history with the African and African American community. Source and for more information ~ www.eyesofglory


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“…unless we all have plenty

one of us will become a thief and the ghief will make you angry

you will hurt him

this will hurt his children

they will punish you

this will hurt your children

they will punish his children

and that’s how it begins

to believe in man is to know

peace will not work if just one man alive

is unjust

if one man alive

is ignorant

or hungry

or crazy

or ashamed

FOR we have seen if only one of us

decides to pull the plug, the millions of us can kiss

the world good-bye

whether we like it or not.

From Joseph Pintauro’s little book “to believe in man”

Illustrated by Sister Corita Kent

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Click the post title for Newport history regarding slavery

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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

GENOCIDE FLOURISHES WHILE MEDIA NEGLECTS DARFUR


On April 8, 2009, it was reported that General Scott Gration, the US Special Envoy to Sudan, proposed a resolution to fill the gap left by the Government of Sudan's decision to expel 16 aid groups from Darfur. The purpose of this blog is to provide updates on how Darfuri lives are affected as they wait for aid to be restored.

Updates and comments about the crisis are provided by Mohamed Suleiman, a US-based Darfuri with a broad network of Darfuri contacts from the Diaspora and from IDP camps in Sudan and refugee camps in Chad. For additional information, visit www.whilewewaitsudan.org/

Day 551 was November 12th 2010


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Monday, December 27, 2010

Khor Abeche, a disaster in the making

By Mohamed Suleiman

Source: www.whilewewaitsudan.org/2010/12/day-551-november-12th-2010

While the world celebrates the holidays, Government of Sudan (GoS) has picked the right timing to turn Khor Abeche into a Srebrenica, not the Serbian style but Kahrtoum style: slow death through blockade and starvation.

Since December 10th 2010 (more than 2 weeks ago), GoS did not allow any vehicle to enter the town. The only western NGO, World vision, left Khor Abeche when areal bombings started on the 10th. No humanitarian aid (food, medicine, other life essentials) was allowed in. Trucks from Nyala that were sent by the relatives of the town residents desperately trying to help the trapped people in and around Khor Abbechi, were turned back by GoS troops and Janjaweed forces lead by Musa Galis.

I am in contact with some residents of the town of Khor Abbechi and some of their sons in Europe, and this what they told me:

- Khor Abeche is a town in South Darfur. It is about 55 miles north-east of Nyala (capital city of South Darfur). The town is inhabited now with about 11 thousand people.

- Musa Galis, a retired Police General who is now the Nazir (head of a tribe) of the Birgid tribe, said publicly in October 2010 that he odes not want certain tribes in the area. He specifically singled out a large population of the Zaghawa tribe (one of the tribes targeted by GoS in its campaign of ethnic cleansing). Musa Galis mentioned that he has the backing of GoS and " the Ababil jets are ready". Ababil is the biblical name the GoS uses to describe its air force power. (Ababil means the birds that drop fatal stones).

Musa Galis was promised by the GoS that he will be in charge of the area, including Khor Abeche, if he droves away the other tribes considered "enemy of the State".

- On December 10th and 11th of this month, government's jets, antonoves, and helicopters bombed Khor Abeche. Targets included anything that sustains the life of the local people: water sources, food storage huts, livestock, and the market. On the 12th and the following days, Musa Galis and his militia entered the the town marked looting and destroying crops and goods. The town just finished harvest after the farming season. Eyewitness said the destruction was deliberate. Many huts contain harvest of peanuts, sesame, and sorghum, were set on fire.
On Friday 17 and Friday 24th, more areal bombings were carried out by Ababils.

- About 1500 of the town residents sought refuge in UNAMID local post. More than 2500 fled to to Wadi Hariza (dry river) and some tried to escape the bombings by fleeing to the Mountain.

- Musa Galis is sending the messages to those who remained in the town (about 7000), that he will not harm them if they seek refuge in the IDP camps or any other place but not to remain in Khor Abeche. When the people refused to leave, his now message is: if Ababils do not force you out, hunger will.

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DON'T FORGET DARFUR IN 2011 ~ GENOCIDE and HUMANITY ~ 8 LETTER WORDS

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Source: Radio Dabanga

Date: 28 Dec 2010


TAWILA (28 Dec .) - Government forces stationed in the area of Rwanda camp in Tawila in North Darfur raped two girls, 15 and 19 years old.

Government forces stationed in the area of Rwanda camp in Tawila in North Darfur raped two girls, 15 and 19 years old. A witness said that the forces entered Rwanda camp on Saturday, firing heavily in the air, then began breaking into shops and looting. They wounded someone in the leg with gunfire and also killed a donkey. The witness said that the displaced heard there were 200 vehicles coming from Kebkabiya to the area and they fled for protection to UNAMID camp.

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SUDAN TARGET OF LIVE SATELLITE STARTING DECEMBER 30, 2010

Click post title for Radio Dabanga news regarding Darfur - the neglected story of genocide

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Clooney's "Anti-Genocide Paparazzi": Watching Sudan From Above

By MARK BENJAMIN Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2010

Click here to find out more!

George Clooney visits Sudan to draw attention to the dangers that could result should southern Sudan vote to separate from the north.

Tim Freccia / Enough Project

George Clooney and John Prendergast slumped down at a wooden table in a dusty school compound in southern Sudan. It was Oct. 4, and the two men were in the hometown of Valentino Achak Deng, whose experiences wandering the desert as a refugee during Sudan's last civil war were the basis for the best-selling book What Is the What.

Clooney, the actor, and Prendergast, a human-rights activist with 25 years of experience in Africa, had heard enough on their seven-day visit to know that a new round of atrocities could follow the January referendum on independence. If it did, the likelihood was that no one would be held accountable. Why not, Clooney asked, "work out some sort of a deal to spin a satellite" above southern Sudan and let the world watch to see what happens? (See photos of Clooney in Sudan.)

Three months later, Clooney's idea is about to go live. Starting Dec. 30, the Satellite Sentinel Project — a joint experiment by the U.N.'s Operational Satellite Applications Programme, Harvard University, the Enough Project and Clooney's posse of Hollywood funders — will hire private satellites to monitor troop movements starting with the oil-rich region of Abyei. The images will be analyzed and made public at www.satsentinel.org (which goes live on Dec. 29) within 24 hours of an event to remind the leaders of northern and southern Sudan that they are being watched. "We are the antigenocide paparazzi," Clooney tells TIME. "We want them to enjoy the level of celebrity attention that I usually get. If you know your actions are going to be covered, you tend to behave much differently than when you operate in a vacuum."

You don't have to be a spook to have an eye in the sky anymore. Private firms with names like GeoEye, DigitalGlobe and ImageSat International have a half-dozen "birds" circling the globe every 90 minutes in low-Earth orbit, about 297 miles (478 km) up. The best images from these satellites display about 8 sq. in. (50 sq. cm) of the ground in each pixel on a computer screen. That is not enough granularity to read a car's license plate or ID a person, but analysts can tell the difference between cars and trucks and track the movements of troops or horses. "It is Google Earth on lots of steroids," says Lars Bromley, a top U.N. imagery analyst. (See pictures of Southern Sudan preparing for nationhood.)

But you need money for it. A hurry-up order of what Bromley calls a "single shot" from a satellite covers an area of about 105 sq. mi. (272 sq. km) and costs $10,000. A rush job on a "full strip" image of land roughly 70 miles (115 km) long and 9 miles (14 km) wide could run nearly $70,000. Sentinel is launching with $750,000 in seed money from Not On Our Watch, the human rights organization Clooney founded along with Don Cheadle, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, David Pressman and Jerry Weintraub. Clooney predicted he won't have much trouble raising more money once the project goes live. (See the top 10 world news stories of 2010.)

Prendergast's group, the Enough Project, is the human-rights arm of the liberal Center for American Progress; it recruited Bromley's team at the U.N. and brought in analysts from the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative to pore over the images as they arrive. "Generally, what we have done in the past is an after-the-fact documentation exercise," Bromley explains. "This is proactive, wide-area monitoring," he says.

Clooney, who has made four trips to Sudan since 2006, believes Sentinel might have applications in other global hot spots. "This is as if this were 1943 and we had a camera inside Auschwitz and we said, 'O.K., if you guys don't want to do anything about it, that's one thing,'" Clooney says. "But you can't say you did not know."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2039887,00.html#ixzz19RMuN0w4

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Sunday, December 26, 2010

''HE PRAYETH WELL THAT LOVETH WELL BOTH MAN AND BIRD AND BEAST" from THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER


Karen Blixen in Kenya, 1918

One of my very favorite movies is Sydney_Pollack's Out of Africa. Sydney was born in Lafayette, Indiana. I did not know this until I googled him, but since I was born in Indiana this means something to me. (From wikipedia: Sydney Pollack was born in Lafayette, Indiana, to a family of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine,[1] the son of Rebecca (née Miller) and David Pollack, a semi-professional boxer and pharmacist.[1] The family relocated to South Bend and his parents divorced when he was young. His mother, an alcoholic with emotional problems, died at the age of 37 while Pollack was a student.[2]Despite earlier plans to attend college and then medical school, Pollack left Indiana for New York City soon after finishing high school at age 17. Read more)

The very special relationship between Karen Blixen (17 April 1885 – 7 September 1962), (Meryl Streep) and Farah (Malick Bowens) is one of the highlights of the film beyond the scenery and the way it was edited and presented with wonderful music, beyond the love story between Karen and Denis (Robert Redford), beyond Berkeley Cole (Michael Kitchen). Even the more minor parts are superbly acted.

I am reading two of the books used for the film ~ Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller by the wonderful writer Judith Thurman and Silence Will Speak: A Study of the Life of Denys Finch Hatton and His Relationship with Karen Blixen by Errol Trzebinski which is a dynamic book about the man played by Robert Redford.

Also, I especially enjoy the special features on the dvd, including Sydney's commentary with the movie.

Sydney prefers widescreen


Click the post title for Sydney Pollack : press conference (France) - Sydney talks about directing Robert Redford and says his only complaint is that RR is always late.

Tribute
to Sydney Pollack

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There isn't much on youtube with clips of Out of Africa, probably due to copyright restrictions. But here is the burial scene of Denys.
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Academy Awards

The film won seven Academy Awards and was nominated in a further four categories.[4]

Won
Nominated

[edit] Golden Globes

The film won three Golden Globes (Best Picture, Supporting Actor, Original Score).

[edit] AFI

American Film Institute recognition

"He prayeth well that loveth well both man and bird and beast" from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

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Part 2 of Sydney Pollack's interview (Out of Africa)
Sydney answers about actors not going out to "sell" a movie when it is released.
Uploaded by dvdguy2011

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Tuesday, December 21, 2010

USA FCC CHANGING INTERNET USE - TELL PRESIDENT OBAMA HE BROKE HIS PROMISE

Julius Genachowski

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski (R) delviers remarks before the commission voted to adopted controversial Net neutrality rules December 21, 2010 in Washington, DC. The rules put into effect by the commission create two different classes of broadband internet service -- one for fixed networks and another for wireless networks. December 20, 2010 Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America
Pictures of Julius Genachowski


Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images North America

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FCC breaks Obama's promise on Net Neutrality: 3 things you need to know

Sign here to keep working to hold President Obama accountable to his currently-broken campaign promise to protect Net Neutrality -- then share with your friends:


BREAKING: Minutes ago, the FCC -- led by Obama appointee Julius Genachowski -- sold out Net Neutrality and the future of free speech online. The rules -- written by Comcast and AT&T, the companies the FCC is supposed to regulate -- broke Obama's campaign promise1 and allow corporate censorship.

Read the 3 reasons why -- then share with friends by filling out the form on the right.

1: Corporate censorship is allowed on your phone

The rules passed today by Obama FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski absurdly create different corporate censorship rules for wired and wireless Internet, allowing big corporations like Comcast to block websites they don't like on your phone -- a clear failure to fulfill Net Neutrality and put you, the consumer, in control of what you can and can't do online.2

2: Online tollbooths are allowed, destroying innovation

The rules passed today would allow big Internet Service Providers like Verizon and Comcast to charge for access to the "fast lane." Big companies that could afford to pay these fees like Google or Amazon would get their websites delivered to consumers quickly, while independent newspapers, bloggers, innovators, and small businesses would see their sites languish in the slow lane, destroying a level playing field for competition online and clearly violating Net Neutrality.3

3: The rules allow corporations to create "public" and "private" Internets, destroying the one Internet as we know it

For the first time, these rules would embrace a "public Internet" for regular people vs. a "private Internet" with all the new innovations for corporations who pay more -- ending the Internet as we know it and creating tiers of free speech and innovation, accessible only if you have pockets deep enough to pay off the corporations.4

The FCC could have reclassified and regulated these greedy corporations in an enforceable way, but instead, they sold out. This isn't Net Neutrality, this is a historic mistake.

Sign on the right to hold President Obama accountable to his promise -- and then share with your friends!


Sources:

1: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/13/net-neutrality-obama-see_n_681695.html

2, 3, 4: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-aaron/the-fccs-guide-to-losing_b_795061.html


Contact the President

1-202-456-1111
www.whitehouse.gov/contact

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Please include your e-mail address

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I WISH PAUL SIMON WOULD UPDATE THE NEWS IN "7 O'CLOCK NEWS/SILENT NIGHT"

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Source of the following

"7 O'Clock News/Silent Night" is the twelfth and final track on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, a 1966 album by Simon and Garfunkel. The track consists of an overdubbing of two contrasting recordings: a simple arrangement of the Christmas carol "Silent Night", and a simulated "7 O'Clock News" bulletin of the actual events of 3 August 1966.

The "Silent Night" track consists of Simon and Garfunkel singing the first verse twice over, accompanied by Garfunkel on piano. The voice of the newscaster is that of Charlie O'Donnell, then a radio disc jockey. As the track progresses, the song becomes fainter and the news report louder. Matthew Greenwald calls the effect "positively chilling".[1] Bruce Eder describes the track as "a grim and ironic (and prophetic) comment on the state of the United States in 1966".[2]

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I think of the current news that could be put in the background of this 1966 tune today.

Click title to go Simon and Garfunkel's Scarborough Fair

To go to Stop Genocide Now's iactivism

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HOW DO YOU GET PEOPLE TO CARE ABOUT GENOCIDE?

The question in the title is THE question. I don't have the answer. But I care. And I wish I knew the answer(s).



15 year old Rahma took this picture with a camera provided by Gabriel and Katie-Jay Stauring December 2010 while they visited the Darfuris refugee camp Djabal

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Note: Left click and slide mouse arrow over the darkened words below. I can't change their color. I apologize.

UN - Sudan: 2.8 Million at risk if violence breaks out

Source: news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101221/ap_on_re_af/af_south_sudan_un

AP

JUBA, Sudan – The U.N. is planning for the possibility that 2.8 million people will be displaced in Sudan if fighting breaks out over the south's January independence referendum, according to an internal report reviewed by The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Just over two weeks remain before voters in Southern Sudan decide whether to remain with the Khartoum-based north or — more likely — to secede and create the world's newest country.

Tensions are high over the vote. Aircraft from the northern Sudanese military have bombed areas in the south or near disputed north-south borders in recent weeks, and the U.N. report said both northern and southern militaries have been rearming, and that many southerners possess guns and light weapons.

Both militaries have reinforced their positions along the border in recent months, hindering aid work, the report said. If either the north or the south doesn't accept the results of the Jan. 9 referendum, the result could be a "war-like" situation, it said.

"A deterioration of the North-South relationship, as well as tensions within northern and southern Sudan could lead to large-scale outflow of people to neighboring countries," said the U.N.'s humanitarian contingency plan, which is stamped "Not for wider distribution" but was obtained by AP.

Underscoring the precarious security situation, southern military spokesman Col. Philip Aguer said Tuesday that 20 troops were killed and 50 wounded in an attack Saturday by forces loyal to a renegade army commander in the remote and militarized state of Jonglei.

Aguer said the attack was a surprise because amnesty discussions between the south and commander George Athor are under way. The south's president offered Athor and other dissident military figures amnesty in September in an effort to promote southern unity ahead of the January vote.

The north and south ended a two-decades-plus civil war with the signing of a 2005 peace accord that also guaranteed the south the right to hold an independence referendum. Some 2 million people died in the war, which left southerners scarred and suspicious of Khartoum's Muslim Arab rulers.

In Sudan's capital Khartoum on Tuesday, the leaders of Egypt and Libya met with Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir and southern Sudanese President Salva Kiir to discuss the future of Sudan after the vote.

If worst-case violence scenarios play out after January, the U.N. plan anticipates an estimated 2.8 million internally displaced people within Sudan and an additional 3.2 million people who may be affected by a breakdown in trade and social services.

The hardest hit populations would be those living along Sudan's disputed and militarized 1,300-mile (2,100-kilometer) north-south border, as well as an estimated 800,000 southerners living in and around Khartoum who would "flee or (be) forced to move to Southern Sudan as a result of violence and insecurity."

Egypt says Tuesday's Khartoum talks are designed to ensure that the referendum is held in a "climate of freedom, transparency and credibility" and that the four leaders would review outstanding issues between the north and south, such as the demarcation of the border and the future of the oil-rich border area of Abyei.

Both Libya and Egypt view Sudan as their strategic backyard and would want to see the breakup of their southern neighbor to be peaceful and avoid any massive flow of refugees into their territory as a result of fighting.

While Libya sees Sudan as a vital piece of its Africa-focused foreign policy, there is much more at stake there for Egypt, the most populous Arab nation. Sudan lies astride the middle reaches of the Nile, the primary source of water for mainly desert Egypt. The White Nile, one of the river's two main tributaries, runs through Southern Sudan.

Egypt fears an independent south may come under the influence of rival Nile basin nations like Ethiopia that have been complaining Egypt uses more than its fair share of the river's water.

In preparation for potential problems, the World Food Program is positioning 76,000 metric tons of emergency food to 100 hubs throughout the south. Emergency shelter supplies, medical kits, and water and sanitation equipment have also been prepositioned.

Another challenge is the influx of southerners returning home from northern Sudan, where an estimated 1.5 million have lived since before the 2005 north-south peace agreement was signed. The U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday that 55,000 southern Sudanese have returned to the south in the last few weeks.

The influx is straining aid capacity. Grande said officials are worried the pace of returnees "may inundate us."

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Sudan leader vows to bolster Islamic law in north

Source: news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101220/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_sudan_arab_summit_4

KHARTOUM, Sudan – Sudan's president has vowed to more deeply entrench strict Islamic Sharia law in the northern half of his country if the predominantly animist and Christian south votes to secede in a Jan. 9 referendum.

President Omar al-Bashir's comments on Sunday appear to reflect his anger at the strong likelihood that the south will vote overwhelmingly in favor of independence from the mainly Arab and Muslim north in the long-awaited referendum. The vote is a key provision agreed on in the 2005 peace accord that officially ended more than two decades of north-south civil war.

Al-Bashir will meet the leaders of Sudan's two most powerful neighbors — Egypt and Libya — in the capital Khartoum Tuesday to discuss the future of his country ahead of the referendum. Al-Bashir is wanted on an international indictment for war crimes in the western Sudanese region of Darfur.

With only three weeks left before the vote, al-Bashir appears to be resigned to the secession of the south and also prepared to do away with key provisions of the 2005 peace accord that recognizes Sudan's ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity.

The secession of the south, he said, would be like "losing a part of the homeland, but it will not be the end of the world."

"If the south breaks away, God forbid, the constitution will be amended to have Sharia (Islamic law) as the main source of legislation, Islam the official religion of the state and Arabic the state's main language," said al-Bashir, who came to office in a 1989 military coup backed by Islamists.

A full-fledged implementation of Sharia law in northern Sudan could create a new point of friction between south and north because hundreds of thousands of non-Muslim southerners live in the north and many of them were expected to stay there even if the south breaks away. Currently, non-Muslims are exempt from harsh, prescribed Sharia punishments.

Al-Bashir's comments could be an attempt to cover up his failure to keep Sudan united and intact, according to Sudanese analyst Fayez Selik.

"Al-Bashir is saying to the north: we lost the south but we won Sharia," said Selik, editor of the pro-south daily Ajras al-Hurriya, or Freedom Bells.

Al-Bashir could also be seeking to rally extremist Islamic groups behind him, he said.

Sharia law was first introduced in Sudan in 1983 and it fueled a southern insurgency in its early years. Authorities soon relaxed implementation, but began to be strictly apply it again when al-Bashir came to power. It was relaxed again after the 2005 peace accord.

Al-Bashir is expected to meet Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and southern Sudanese leader Salva Kiir in Khartoum on Tuesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in Cairo Monday.

Aboul Gheit told reporters the meeting was designed to ensure that the referendum is held in a "climate of freedom, transparency and credibility, reflecting the will of the sons of the south" and that the south and north build strong ties.

Aboul Gheit also said that the summit would review some of the outstanding issues between the two Sudanese sides, such as the demarcation of the border and the future of the oil-rich area of Abyei on the border between north and south Sudan.

Both Libya and Egypt view Sudan as their strategic backyard and would want to see the breakup of their southern neighbor to be peaceful and avoid any massive flow of refugees into their territory as a result of any renewed fighting.

While Libya sees Sudan as a vital piece of its Africa-focused foreign policy, there is much more at stake there for Egypt, the most populous Arab nation.

Sudan lies astride the middle reaches of the Nile, the primary source of water for mainly desert Egypt. The White Nile, one of the river's two main tributaries, runs through south Sudan.

Egypt fears an independent south Sudan may come under the influence of rival Nile basin nations like Ethiopia that have been complaining Egypt uses more than its fair share of the river's water.

"Guaranteeing our water needs and safeguarding our Nile resources are a central component of our vision for the future," Mubarak told his parliament on Sunday.

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Sudan court rejects one vote challenge, mulls two

Source: news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101220/wl_nm/us_sudan_referendum_1

Reuters

Reporting by Andrew Heavens and Khaled Abdel Aziz; editing by David Stamp

Mon Dec 20, 3:05 pm ET

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudan's highest court has thrown out one legal challenge to a referendum on southern independence, but is considering two others that could derail the vote scheduled for next month, officials said on Monday.

Southerners are now 20 days away from the scheduled January 9 start of the plebiscite on whether to declare independence or stay in Sudan, a vote promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war with the north.

Preparations for the referendum -- which are already far behind schedule -- have been disrupted by last-minute petitions to Sudan's Constitutional Court from groups citing a string of irregularities and calling for the organizing commission to be dissolved and voter registration to be re-run.

Southerners, who are widely expected to choose independence, have accused the north of backing the legal challenges to keep control of the south's oil reserves, accusations dismissed by the north's ruling National Congress Party (NCP).

Analysts have warned that there is a risk of a return to conflict if the vote is disrupted or canceled.

An official at the Constitutional Court, who asked not to be named, told Reuters that judges had thrown out one case and were looking into two other petitions. The official declined to go into the detail of the cases.

Two groups, called the Society Organization Network and the Higher Council for Peace and Unity, have announced legal challenges. Their representatives and lawyers were not immediately available for comment on Monday.

The head of the referendum's organizing commission Mohamed Ibrahim Khalil said the court had asked him to respond to points raised in one of the surviving legal challenges.

"The court has summarily dismissed one case. We have received details of another petition and we have been asked to reply to it. That is what I am doing now," he said.

"From what I have seen so far there is absolutely no substance to these petitions. Some are ridiculous. One of them said that the CPA was unconstitutional," he added, referring to the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that set up Sudan's interim constitution and promised the referendum.

The referendum commission was sworn in this July, about three years late. Khalil said he was expecting ballot papers to arrive late on Wednesday or early on Thursday which, he insisted, still gave organizers just enough time to distribute them to remote parts of the south before the January 9 deadline.

International observers from the Carter Center last week praised the commission for holding a "generally credible" registration of voters.

Veronique De Keyser, who heads the European Union observer mission, said on Monday that the registration had been "comprehensive and generally peaceful" but told reporters she would give her full judgment after the voting took place.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak are due to visit Khartoum to meet Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Tuesday, Sudan's state Suna news agency reported.

Diplomatic sources in Khartoum said they were expected to discuss plans for the referendum and the implications of a north-south split.


Communicate to the President

that he has a role to play

1-800-GENOCIDE
1-202-456-1111
www.whitehouse.gov/contact


Won't you use your voice?


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Source
of the following

"7 O'Clock News/Silent Night" is the twelfth and final track on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, a 1966 album by Simon and Garfunkel. The track consists of an overdubbing of two contrasting recordings: a simple arrangement of the Christmas carol "Silent Night", and a simulated "7 O'Clock News" bulletin of the actual events of 3 August 1966.

The "Silent Night" track consists of Simon and Garfunkel singing the first verse twice over, accompanied by Garfunkel on piano. The voice of the newscaster is that of Charlie O'Donnell, then a radio disc jockey. As the track progresses, the song becomes fainter and the news report louder. Matthew Greenwald calls the effect "positively chilling".[1] Bruce Eder describes the track as "a grim and ironic (and prophetic) comment on the state of the United States in 1966".[2]

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I think of the current news that could be put in the background of this 1966 tune today.

Click title to go to Stop Genocide Now's iactivism

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IT'S A MATTER OF WHAT'S RIGHT AND NATIONAL PRIDE - BELIEVE THE TERRORISTS ARE WATCHING CONGRESS ON FIRST RESPONDERS HEALTH CARE FUNDING BILL - 9 YEARS

IN SUPPORT OF THOSE WHO WENT INTO THE FIRE - 2001

How will all the flag waving politicians, who use 9/11 as a campaign line and fund-raising catch phrase, like Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, vote on this bill?

See my previous post
ilovemylifebrothersandsisters.blogspot.com/2010/12/who-voted-against-911-first-responders

These are the ones who didn't vote in favor December 9, 2010 ~

NAYs ---42
Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brown (R-MA)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Kirk (R-IL)
Kyl (R-AZ)
LeMieux (R-FL)
Lugar (R-IN)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Reid (D-NV)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Snowe (R-ME)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Wicker (R-MS)

Not Voting - 1
Brownback (R-KS)


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Bruce Springsteen - Into The Fire - 9/11 World Trade Center Tribute


FIRST RESPONDERS - THOSE WHO WENT INTO THE TONS OF TOXIC DEBRIS OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

Nine years later - Isn't it about time to support those who worked in the toxic environment to find survivors and bodies? Today, Senator Schumer and "First Responders" (to the terrorists attacks of September 11, 2001), spoke to reporters in support of legislation that would establish a $7 billion fund for the health care of the first responders.

Watch the c-spanvideo.org/program/HealthComp

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Click Thursday December 16, 2010 to see Jon Stewart's Daily Show

9/11 First Responders React to the Senate Filibuster

Includes Mitch McConnell's tearful sendoff of a retiring friend at 2 minutes and Jon Kyl's reasons for why the Senate can't work after Christmas.

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START
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Senators Kerry and Lugar, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair and ranking member, spoke to reporters following the 67-28 Senate vote in favor of cloture on the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). 10 minutes

CENSUS

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Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Census Bureau Director Robert Groves released the first set of 2010 Census data. Secretary Locke in his remarks said that census was completed on time and under budget. The overall U.S. population grew 9.7 percent to 308.7 million, with growth continuing to be .. Read More 1 hour 6 minutes

Click the post title for ~
The C-SPAN Congressional Chronicle is an index to the C-SPAN video recordings of the House and Senate floor proceedings. The video recordings are matched with the text of the Congressional Record as soon as the Record is available. It only includes members who appeared on the floor to deliver or insert their remarks. The text included here is what the member submitted. Each appearance has a video link where users can watch and listen to the actual remarks.

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