WISDOM OF KNOWING WHAT OTHERS THINK ABOUT USA NEEDS TO BE PART OF USA'S STRENGTH

OTHERWISE OUR IGNORANCE BECOMES STRONGER THAN OUR WISHFUL THINKING

THAT WE STILL ARE IN CHARGE

WHAT EXACTLY ARE WE IN CHARGE OF?

I am not supposed to be here. I am supposed to be where anyone should be at midnight who is not working at a job. But just as I was trying to wind down my internet obsession, I went over to what has become a "must" website for me ~ Watching America - News

I found this article and had to post it.

Die Welt, Germany

Osama Obama

By Philipp Neumann, Political Editor

But then what really stunned me were the arguments Carl and his three companions brought out against Obama.

Translated By Ron Argentati

28 October 2008


Germany - Die Welt - Original Article (German)

What some McCain fans say about the Democratic presidential candidate.

“Where are you from? Germany? That’s really nice! I was stationed there in 1972.” It’s hard to believe how easily one can get into a conversation in the United States, especially when you look as un-American (and as German) as I do. Most people guess it right off the bat. Some have to work their way through Holland or Switzerland before they peg me as German. A few others think I come from England – something really astounding considering my accent – but maybe it’s because I persist in pronouncing the “a” in “can’t” as if it were spelled “cawnt.” But I digress.

Such small talk is always nice, even if you don’t learn much about your partner. The subject of politics is generally avoided in small talk. At least that’s what I thought until I had my first political discussion last night in a restaurant. As usual, it began innocently. The two elderly couples and I exchanged glances, then came the “Where froms?” and then the “Where tos?” followed by a few sightseeing tips around New York City. And then came the question, “What do you think of the presidential election?” I admitted I was for Obama.

Silence.

One of the husbands, Carl, said they were against Obama. They were for McCain and asked whether I had thought about why Obama really wanted to be President. “Because he wants the power?” I guessed. “Exactly,” said Carl, “and McCain wants to be President because he wants to serve his country.”

Well, O.K. I don’t really believe anyone who’s looking to get the most powerful political job in the world is driven by pure altruism, but I have to admit there might be something to the idea that there could be other motivating forces besides just the desire for power. There may at least be another basic philosophy, but I don’t really know if that’s true. In Germany, it’s normal for politicians to have always been politicians; they’ve never had any other profession. In the United States, the idea of anyone planning a political career as thoroughly as Obama has is somehow distasteful.

But then what really stunned me were the arguments Carl and his three companions brought out against Obama. He has no character, he’s a Muslim, he hobnobs with terrorists – the whole palette of cheap right-wing propaganda. And besides, they said, Sarah Palin was more intelligent than Obama. Excuse me? I’d had about enough. I finished my beer, signed the credit card receipt and departed the way everyone here departs after some small talk: “Nice meeting you!” Source: http://watchingamerica.com/News/10031/osama-obama/

CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL VERSION

And this is worth reading

Original Article (German)	Die Welt, Germany The Unrepresentative American Election
	Surveys show that Democratic contender Barack Obama will likely be elected president. That’s not as certain as some polls indicate, however, because the electoral system in the U.S. wasn’t created to best represent the will of the people. It was created to create the most stable majorities...

Link to this article: watchingamerica.com/News/10131/the-unrepresentative-american-election

I have noticed the few Russian articles that I have read at Watching America are putting the USA and Russia at real odds, today. Russia is not keen on the USA. Anyone remember, not long ago, about the Russia - USA relationship that was called the Cold_War?

It is a wise thing to know what others are writing about the USA...

From Izvestia, Russia

The Dollar Is Being Inflated:
One Day It Will Burst…

By Anna Kaledina

As it turns out, the United States is inflating the demand for its currency and printing the dollars at full speed.

Translated By Irina Tanurcov

October 28, 2008

Link to the article listen-if-the-dollar-is-being-inflated-one-day-it-will-burst


And then there is this from

Die Zeit, Germany
That's Not What We Intended

the following is a portion of the article:


From Paul Wolfowitz to Richard Perle: How the American architects of the Iraq war explain their failure.

...Over lunch at the Bombay Club, Paul Wolfowitz, the Pentagon’s number two man at the time, begins with a surprising admission: “Contrary to what you read everywhere, I wasn’t the mastermind, the string-puller.” Richard Perle, known as the “Prince of Darkness” to opponents of re-armament in the eighties and who works today at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, says much the same thing: “We three had the least to say; Rummy (Rumsfeld) made all the decisions. We didn’t have any real influence, although I wanted it very much. He usually ignored our advice. Doug (Feith) had no operative power. I saw Rumsfeld perhaps only three or four times outside the Defense Policy Board.” The Defense Policy Board was an advisory forum where Rumsfeld appeared every six months...

...Surprise number two: The original objective wasn’t regime change and democracy. Regime change was “the result, and not the object of the war,” – although Wolfowitz himself believed whole-heartedly in the benefits of democracy. “Just think of democratic Poland, with its totally changed, western-oriented policies.”

...Why did it go so badly? Wolfowitz: “We didn’t know our enemy. Saddam had already been planning a revolt for two years. We had no idea of the internal infighting that would be stirred up.” Perle recounts another fiasco: “We wanted to be liberators but within five or six months we became occupiers and targets.”

....Was it a war to bring democracy to Iraq in the sense recounted by the eminent scholar Bernard Lewis? In truth, no. A distressed Feith writes in his book “War and Decision” that democracy “required Iraqi leadership, and there weren’t enough Iraqis with experience in democratic practice.” And so? It would be “naïve to think that democracy would have taken hold if we had just left Iraq alone.”

And, as misfortune would have it, the country really wasn’t left alone. Enter L. Paul (Jerry) Bremer in the role of Viceroy after Donald Rumsfeld called him out of retirement in Vermont. Bremer is no Lawrence of Arabia and proceeded with Plan F, which was to solve all the problems by dissolving the military and all the political parties. With that decision, the United States was transformed from liberator to conqueror. “We had the best intentions,” Richard Perle recalls, but under Bremer, the United States treated the Iraqis with “condescension and contempt.” The United States “was suddenly responsible for everything,” but without the expertise it needed. “All at once, 8,000 Americans had occupied one of Saddam’s former palaces in the Green Zone and half of them had never been in a foreign country before.”

Why did the plundering begin so early? The mind-boggling answer: “Tommy Franks (the top military commander) claimed he wasn’t responsible for internal security.” Perle’s conclusion: “I never thought we would botch it so badly.” And on the subject of democratization he added: “That wasn’t our main objective. If Saddam had brought out every bit of information he had on his WMD on the evening of the invasion, the whole war would have been called off. We were one hundred percent certain that Saddam had hidden all the stuff.”

So does the Iraq war shrink down to a saga of incompetence and ignorance? No other result than blood, tears and a big bill? $600 billion spent and 4,500 dead Americans so far? David Frum, coiner of the label “axis of evil” and member of the American Enterprise Institute, takes a protective stance with his colleagues: “Bush and Cheney really believed Saddam had WMD.” When asked why nobody bothered questioning this belief, Frum rages, “Do you know what would have happened if anyone had opposed him in February 2003 by saying ‘Mr. President, we’re not prepared to act. Please consider what will happen if anything goes wrong?’ He would have gone crazy and screamed, “I already told you we’re going in March!” That’s the way it was.

But the irony, Frum adds, is that “Iraq will become a stable, pro-Western country, it will return to the oil markets and it will play a positive role in the Middle East.” On the other hand, the war in Afghanistan, the one everyone called the one worth fighting, isn’t going well at all. Even if Frum wants to maintain he was right, it was an extravagant project that, despite all the talk in Washington, still has no clear meaning.

But why? An old Bush insider who absolutely refuses to be identified answers with the biggest surprise of all: “It was an act of imperial ego-boosting. We had to do something because we had been humiliated on September 11th and made into a laughing stock. We had to show our determination and power.” Would you do it all over again? The answer: “You would have to be crazy to do it again.”


CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL VERSION

Another story found at Watching America

Impoverished Americans Lean Toward Spoiled Food

Some of our best journalism in the USA is done by foreign journalists. They aren't pandering to our entertainment level of news so much as the USA media.

GEORGIA, RUSSIA AND GW BUSH...

When the world needs leaders to put our trust in

we find ourselves leaderless....
...................................................

...................................................
What are we to do?

...................................................

...................................................
Discussion about Obama and McCain about Georgia
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The USA has lost credibility
Uploaded by 24 year old ~ flagday84

Vladimir Putin

GENOCIDE - WHEN NEVER IS NOW - SUPPORT THE ICC

IT TAKES COURAGE APPARENTLY TO END GENOCIDE
AND WE ARE PROOF THAT COURAGE IS RARE

About our fellow human beings.....

I received this text in an email today from another Darfur activist community leader.

* Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy has received very
disturbing news from different sources this weekend confirming that a
“Kasha” is taking place right now in the three cities of the capital
of Sudan, particularly in the marketplaces and shopping centers.
“Kasha” is a term in Arabic which loosely means, “Clean the capital of
dirt”. This term has been used since the time of former President
Nimery, during which time the security personnel and the police would
ask people in the streets for their IDs and where they came from. If
they found out that these innocent, unsuspecting people were from the
South, or Darfur, or Nuba, they forced them on trucks and sent them to
jail. In Jail, they would ask them to return to where they came from,
but only after inflicting extreme brutality.

When al-Bashir’s government came to power, he used the same term,
“Kasha”. At first the word was used figuratively, however it
eventually took on a literal meaning. Al-Bashir took on all the same
tactics as Nimery’s regime, only worse. Al-Bashir’s regime eventually
changed the term “Kasha” to “Al-Nizam” which means to organize or to
make tidy. While the actions behind the term remained the same, or
possibly worse, al-Bashir’s regime chose this particular term to
change the connotation of the process. By a simple turn of phrase, al-
Bashir managed to make his actions sound innocent, potentially good
even, and completely unrelated to genocide.

The act of “Al-Nizam” has escalated dramatically within a few days of
the indictment of al-Bashir. The escalation began when the security
personnel in mufty interrupted people in the marketplace, on the
streets and in various other public spaces. Once it is discovered that
a person is Darfuri, they are beaten up and taken to ghost houses
where they are beaten further and then tortured. These incidents
remind us of when the Justice and Equality Movement attacked Khartoum
and the government killed dozens of women and children, and tortured
several others. This time the government of Al-Bashir is apparently
sending a new message to the ICC and to those who are in support of
the indictment by taking action against the innocent Darfuris who live
in the capital. It is very interesting that al-Bashir has contradicted
himself. He claims that Darfuris are supporting him in Darfur, yet he
is abusing them in the capital city.

Damanga condemns segregation based on racism and the denial of
freewill to the citizens of Sudan that comes in tangent with that. We
urge the ICC to continue its effort against this tyranny, and bring
the tyrant to justice soon. We hope that all of the African leaders
will stand up and cooperate with the ICC, not with the perpetrators
and killers, so as to assure justice and dignity for the people of
Sudan. We urge the U.N. Security Council to continue its efforts to
enable the ICC to do its job, to bring al-Bashir and his cabinet who
committed genocide and war crimes, to justice. We also advise the U.N.
Security Council not to impede the efforts of justice and
accountability, and to continue to support the justice that the ICC is
trying to bring, until those perpetrators are all accountable, and
sent to The Hague. We applaud the arrest of former Yugoslavian
genocide criminal, Radovan Karadzic, and we hope that the arrest of al-
Bashir will follow suit. Date: July 29, 2008


* Mission of Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy
Through non-partisan research, analysis and public education, Damanga promotes the human rights of the people of Darfur, Sudan and elsewhere in the world. We educate the people of the region, the United States of America and beyond about their rights to freedom, equality and participation in government. Damanga seeks to aid the disempowered, including the victims of the Darfur conflict, through charitable work supporting education and livelihoods, so these people can work for the preservation of their communities.

Damanga works toward these objectives through publication on our web site of non-partisan research and analysis and presentations based on this research and analysis. Damanga makes these presentations at academic institutions, faith-based groups, human rights events and responds to invitations from concerned individuals and groups from diverse backgrounds.

Furthermore, Damanga seeks to protect the people of Sudan whose lives have been violated and marginalized because of their ethnicity, religion, gender, culture or language. Damanga wishes to improve the lives of the 8 million Massaleit, Fur, Dajo, Zagawa, Bargi, Tama, Gimir, Berty, and other displaced peoples in the Darfur region of Sudan. Damanga will continue to contact people in cities, in villages, and in refugee camps, to advocate in the world community on their behalf, and to establish a center for the purpose of gathering and disseminating information about the current crisis in Darfur.

By creating and maintaining a link between the oppressed people of Darfur and Western organizations, governments, and the media, Damanga hopes to coordinate a movement to end the genocide in Darfur, stop the oppression, and to establish the foundations of democracy. In order to accomplish this the founders of Damanga recognize that the following conditions must be met:

An international tribunal must be established to prosecute all those who have committed war crimes against the people of Darfur;

All internally displaced persons must be guaranteed the right to return to their towns and villages, they must be given free and full access to humanitarian aid, even in the most remote areas of the region, and they must be compensated for lives and property lost;

Once the people of Darfur are returned to their land they will need basic resources in order to build houses, schools, hospitals and other basic necessities of life;
Finally all of Sudan's people must be allowed equal political rights, which includes sharing in the power and wealth of the country.

>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:

The term Diaspora (in Greek, διασπορά – "a scattering or sowing of seeds") refers to the forced or voluntary dispersal of any population sharing common ethnic identity to leave their settled territory, and become residents in areas often far removed from the former.'

>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:

An email text that I received July 26, 2008:

Some members in U.N. security council are preparing a
resolution to defer ICC case against al-Bashir.
Libya, South Africa, and Russia are working on a
resolution language.
France and Britain must stop these efforts.
U.S. is in awkward position
since it is not a member of the ICC.

The link to the story in NY TIMES :
U.N Debates Court Efforts to Prosecute Sudan Chief
a part of the article:

......John Prendergast, co-chairman of the Enough Project, which campaigns against genocide, said the Security Council’s ability to put off Mr. Bashir’s prosecution could provide the Council with its best leverage to influence Sudan. But he criticized the current talk of a suspension, saying the Security Council could squander its power by dangling the prospect prematurely.

“Faced with this extraordinary opportunity, the Council is ready to give it away without anything in return,” Mr. Prendergast said.

If the Security Council does vote on a resolution to defer the pursuit of Mr. Bashir, it could put the United States in a tricky position. The United States has been notably strong in its criticism of the situation in Darfur, going so far as to call it genocide. But it has not signed on to the International Criminal Court, and vehemently opposed its establishment...

Another email that I received today:

 The Special Courts of al-Bashir have just handed down
death sentences to 8 individuals allegedly
participated on May 10th attack on the Capital (Khartoum) by
Darfur rebel movement - Justice and Equality Movement - JEM.

......................................

......................................
I'LL REMEMBER YOU
Performed by Grayson Hugh
(Featuring clips from the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes"
starring Jessica Tandy, Kathy Bates,
Mary-Louise Parker and Mary Stuart Masterson.)
From: FanfromPR

I'll Remember You

By Bob Dylan

I'll remember you
When I've forgotten all the rest,
You to me were true,
You to me were the best.
When there is no more,
You cut to the core
Quicker than anyone I knew.
When I'm all alone
In the great unknown,
I'll remember you.

I'll remember you
At the end of the trail,
I had so much left to do,
I had so little time to fail.
There's some people that
You don't forget,
Even though you've only seen'm
One time or two.
When the roses fade
And I'm in the shade,
I'll remember you.

Didn't I, didn't I try to love you?
Didn't I, didn't I try to care?
Didn't I sleep, didn't I weep beside you
With the rain blowing in your hair?

I'll remember you
When the wind blows through the piney wood.
It was you who came right through,
It was you who understood.
Though I'd never say
That I done it the way
That you'd have liked me to.
In the end,
My dear sweet friend,
I'll remember you.

www.savedarfur.org

1-800-GENOCIDE

GENOCIDE ESCALATING WHILE IN ITS 6TH YEAR IN SUDAN

Civilians are being rounded up by the Sudanese government, tortured, killed in order to intimidate Darfuris. The world continues to standby and continue to let this genocide continue. How many reports have you seen on television about the escalation in Sudan the last couple of weeks?

Here is a text of an email I received today:

A few days ago a massive mobilization
by the Government of Sudan and Janjaweed
in Darfur around city of Al Geneina in west
Darfur was reported.

UNAMID report that they were attacked on
Wednesday by horsemen with AK-47 and rockets.

This is ominous sign the worst is yet to come.

This is an attempt to isolate or neutralize
the UNAMID so that they will not intervene
in protecting the Darfur civilians.

Here is an article as reported by BBC :

Horseback raid on Darfur troops

There are numerous armed groups operating in Darfur

Armed men on horseback have attacked and stolen the weapons of Nigerian UN peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region.

The joint UN-African Union troops were ambushed by up to 60 men armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades on Wednesday, the Unamid peace force said.

It is not clear who was behind the attack, which has been made public for the first time.

The UN took joint control of the force in January but has not been able to bring peace to the region.

It has just 9,000 of the planned 26,000 troops.

"We are a peacekeeping organisation but there is no peace on the ground to keep," Unamid spokesman Noureddine Mezni told Reuters news agency.

He said the incident had been kept quiet while attempts were made to identify the attackers.

"We have bandits and we have armed groups and we have the [rebel] factions. With our very limited number of troops, it is not an easy job."

The attack happened near the West Darfur capital, Geneina.

The conflict began five years ago, when rebels took up arms in protest at alleged government discrimination against the region.

Pro-government Arab militias have been accused of widespread atrocities against the black African population.

But the rebel groups have split into numerous different factions, making a settlement difficult.

Source: news.bbc.co.uk/africa

Mohamed Suleiman 

The following letter was sent to our President:

Senator Specter Calls on George W. Bush
for Definitive Action in Darfur

May 22, 2008

President George W. Bush
The White House
Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. President:

Fourteen years ago the world watched as genocide
unfolded in Rwanda. Despite dire warnings and please
for help, 800,000 people were brutally killed in less
than one hundred days. Today the world looks back in
painful regret at its failure to take action. Yet,
we are likely to face a similarly harsh historical
judgment if we do not once and for all take action
against the genocide in Darfur.

The crisis in Darfur is now more than five years old.
In the time since it began, the world has once again
watched a horrific humanitarian crisis unfold.
Entire villages have been torched, their populations
displaced. Thousands have been raped and tortured.
Today, millions are living in sprawling refugee camps,
their livelihoods and families having suffered
unimaginable consequences. Over the years, you
and the Congress have rightly called the actions in
Darfur genocide. Both have said we must halt the
violence. Yet today, as we enter the sixth year of
this crisis, efforts to bring an end to the violence
are insufficient. The 26,000 member UN-African Union
peacekeeping team, which was agreed upon last July,
has put in place only a third of its forces. In
addition to Sudanese obstruction, deployment has been
delayed by a shortage of helicopters. It is simply
unimaginable that the United States cannot provide,
or work with allies to provide, a handful of helicopters
to help fully deploy this critical peacekeeping
force.

Some years after the genocide in Rwanda, President
Clinton visited the country and met with families
of the many victims. It was an honorable and important
decision. He said, "We in the United States and the world
community did not do as much as we could have and should
have done to try to limit what occurred in Rwanda in 1994."
Later in his life he said that the failure to act in Rwanda
was "my great regret in international affairs." If we turn
our backs on Darfur today as we did on the Rwandans in 1994,
we too will be left to face the harsh light of history.

We urge you to use all the power of the White House to
ensure that your legacy includes definitive action in Darfur.

Senators Durbin and Snow were the authors. Here's the full
list of Senators who signed the above letter to President
George W Bush:

Carl Levin (D-MI), Arlen Specter (R-PA), Bob Casey (D-PA),
Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Daniel Akaka
(D-HI), Russ Feingold (D-WI), John Sununu (R-NH), Diane
Feinstein (D-CA), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), John Kerry (D-MA),
Susan Collins (R-ME), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Ben Cardin (D-MD),
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Elizabeth Dole (R-NC),
Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Patty Murray (D-WA), Frank
Lautenberg (D-NJ), Chris Dodd (D-CT), Amy Klobuchar
(D-MN), Barack Obama (D-IL), Joe Lieberman (ID-CT),
Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Hillary Clinton (D-NY),
Gordon Smith (R-OR) and George Voinovich (R-OH)

Things you can do to help:

Collect Signatures by June 1

Activists in more than 30 states are collecting signatures in their communities urging President Bush to help protect Darfuri civilians. Join our petition campaign and help us reach our goal of 75,000 signatures.

Send in your petitions by June 1, when the U.S. assumes the presidency of the U.N. Security Council. We have just one week left!

Click here to download the petition and pledge to collect as many signatures as you can.

June 20 Day of Action: Spotlight on the Sponsors

Sponsors of the 2008 Olympic Games must pressure China to do its part to end genocide in Darfur. On June 20, Darfur activists will protest the inaction of Coca-Cola, General Electric, Swatch, and Volkswagen.

Join us: Click here for more information

House Approves Funding for Darfur

The House approved $800 million for peacekeeping, humanitarian aid, and other assistance for Darfur - a huge victory for Darfur activists. The funding process now moves to the Senate. Call 202-244-3121 and urge your senators to support full funding for Darfur.

You can also use this number to call your senator:
1-800-GENOCIDE

Visit Save Darfur Coalition web site for more information

And...

Dream for Darfur and Save Darfur Coalition's
Spotlight on Olympic Sponsors Day


Available online is a Toolkit.

The toolkit includes background information on
Dream for Darfur and each of the four Olympic
sponsors targeted, as well as tips for creating
an event and a comprehensive timeline.

The Olympic Sponsors:
Coke
General Electric
Swatch
Volkswagen



Please visit 
http://tinyurl.com/59sfkb 
to obtain the toolkit and corporate sponsor
profiles.

DO YOU WANT THE DARFUR GENOCIDE TO STOP?

Would you be willing to make a phone call ~ 1-800-GENOCIDE ~ to make a difference about stopping the Darfur genocide? Here is your opportunity......

Last Step for SADA: President Bush Must Sign Bill

Dear Anti-Genocide Activist,

Our office is abuzz this afternoon. Less than an hour ago, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act (SADA) with a vote of 411-0. While speaking on the floor of the House earlier today, Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) personally thanked the Genocide Intervention Network, STAND and advocates across the country for their dedication and commitment to SADA.

Now we need your help with the last step! Last Wednesday, the Senate passed SADA by unanimous consent. With the House's vote today, all we need is for President Bust to sign the bill.

President Bush now has 10 days to sign the bill into law. Call 1-800-GENOCIDE and ask President Bush to sign SADA.

During his first year in office, President Bust wrote the words "Not on my watch" in the margins of a memo on the genocide in Rwanda. Help President Bush to remember his promise.

Call President Bush and ask him to sign the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act.

Your support is critical in ensuring that American dollars are not enabling the genocidal government in Khartoum. Call today!

Thanks for all you do to end genocide.

-Sam, Allyson and the GI-Net team
genocide intervention

The Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act:

• protects state and local divestment
• prohibits federal government contracts with the companies listed
• authorizes state and local governments to prohibit contracts with the same companies

1-800-GENOCIDE

• Call 1-800-GENOCIDE
• Enter your zip code.
• Choose to be connected to President Bush.
• You will receive talking points on SADA before you are connected.
• Visit www.1800genocide.com after your call to tell us how it went.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (from Save Darfur Coalition )

December 18, 2007

DARFUR DIVESTMENT BILL PASSES HOUSE AND SENATE, MEASURE CLEARED FOR WHITE HOUSE ACTION

Statement: ‘Scrawling ‘not on my watch’ along the margins of this bill isn’t required, the president just needs to sign his name’

WASHINGTON – Following unanimous action last week in the U.S. Senate, the House of Representatives today overwhelmingly passed the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act, clearing the bill for White House action. The bill would authorize state and local governments to divest from companies that support the Khartoum government at the expense of marginalized populations in Sudan and prohibit federal contracts with those companies.

In a joint statement, Darfur activist groups – including the Save Darfur Coalition, Genocide Intervention Network, and American Jewish World Service– said the president has an opportunity to make a difference for the people of Darfur by signing this bill.

"The House of Representatives wasted no time in passing this key bipartisan measure and Darfur activists applaud their swift action,” the groups said in a joint statement. “Representatives Frank, Lee and Bachus all played key roles in ensuring this legislation was tough, thorough, and was singularly focused on helping the people of Darfur. The measure is now ready for White House action and Darfur activists across the country expect nothing less than for President Bush to swiftly sign and implement this legislation. Scrawling ‘not on my watch’ along the margins of this bill isn’t required, the president just needs to sign his name.”

In 2001, President Bush wrote "not on my watch" in the margins of a memo detailing the Rwandan genocide. With a little over a year left in office President Bush has an opportunity to protect civilians in Darfur and help ensure lasting peace for Sudan. Signing the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act is the first step towards fulfilling the promise he made early in his presidency.

President Bush described the ongoing crisis in Darfur as “genocide” more than three years ago and identified the Government of Sudan and its allied militia as responsible. Since then, diplomatic efforts by the United States and the international community have failed to leverage sufficient pressure on the Government of Sudan to end the violence. In the meantime, as many as 400,000 Darfurians have been killed and more than two million displaced.

A U.N. peacekeeping mission authorized by the Security Council in July has yet to deploy in large part because the Government of Sudan has refused to allow non-African peacekeepers into Darfur, landing rights for U.N. transport and unfettered communications between peacekeepers. In addition, the Government of Sudan continues to bomb villages and to relocate its supporters onto land vacated by the displaced.

Since 2005, 22 states and over 50 universities have adopted Sudan divestment policies. The movement has rapidly spread through Europe: in July the European Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution calling on European Union members to support targeted Sudan divestment efforts. Seven major foreign companies - CHC Helicopter, ABB, Siemens, Rolls Royce, ICSA of India, Schlumberger and La Mancha Resources - have ceased problematic operations in Sudan or significantly changed their behavior in the country since the proliferation of the Sudan divestment movement.

The broad and diverse coalition that supported and played a critical role in the passage of Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act also includes the American Jewish Committee, the Armenian National Committee of America, the Armenian Assembly of America, B'nai B'rith International, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the National Council of Churches, the ENOUGH Project, STAND, the National Council of Jewish Women, the Religious Action Center, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, and dozens of state and local faith-based and community organizations.

Thank you.

Sandra Hammel

Portsmouth ~ Rhode Island ~ USA

Above pictures of the New York City Torch Relay are provided by Gerry and Melissa or Fall River, Masschusetts, who were Torch Carriers at our Providence, Rhode Island Torch Relay.

President Bush's Comment Phone Line
202-456-1111

save darfur
genocide intervention
darfur genocide
amnesty

GENOCIDE STOPS WITH US

DOING IT MY WAY ~ DANIIL SIMKIN

I discoverd Daniil Simkin by accident while bouncing around Youtube many months ago and I posted a couple of his dancing videos, one of which was FALLEN ANGEL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7smuUQLXTwk
This is an extremely talented and dedicated twenty year old Russian male ballet dancer. Both of his parents are also dancers.

Daniil Simkin was born 1987 in Russia to a ballet family. The family left Russia for the west in 1990 and after several international engagements settled in Wiesbaden, Germany, where Daniil first stepped on the stage. From 6 years on he had several experiences of being onstage and often danced along side his father, Dmitrij Simkin. Daniil began his training under the direction of his mother, Olga ALEKSANDROVA, in 1997. At the age of 12, he began participating in ballet competitions and famous ballet galas around the world. (see awards). He finished his regular education in high school. Daniil’s latest achievments include the 1st Prize of the world famous ballet competition in Varna 2004 and he has danced several roles in ballet productions of Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden such as “Les Bourgeoises” and the “Blue Bird Pas de Deux ” in Sleeping Beauty. From his websites Resume section.

Here Daniil dances to Frank Sinatra's My Way with his father:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA7ofYtEi3I
Daniil Simkin & Dmitri Simkin "My Way" by Stephan Thoss Gala Prague 2006

www.daniilsimkin.com
Daniil's website

You can find many videos of Daniil on Youtube. Daniil is currently dancing in Vienna, Austria. On December 4, 2007 he wrote on his website's blog:
I am currently preparing my first full-lenght principal classical role of Basil or Basilio as some may call him in the Performance Don Quixotte. Here in Vilnius, the production is set by Vladimir Vassiliev, which means pretty “Russian”. I already did some work for preparing it in the summer coming here to Vilnius and then my partner, Miki Hamanaka, came to Vienna to help me a bit. So basically the performance is more or less ready from the technical aspect,now I have to come together with the other people and get the ‘grip’ of the performance. http://www.daniilsimkin.com/1/

THE WILL TO MAKE A CHANGE, STARTS WITH SOME SANE THOUGHT

AND MORAL INTEGRITY. AND TRUTH. OH. TRUTH. A FOREIGN CONCEPT FROM THIS DUO WE CALL PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT.

ONCE WE SPLIT THE ATOM WE STEPPED OVER THE THRESHOLD OF NO RETURN

WE REALLY CAN’T CONTROL WHO HAS NUCLEAR WEAPONS. Seriously, how is it possible to control what some other leader will do? It is self-delusion that we will be able to control what Iran, North Korean, Russian or any country does regarding building nuclear weapons. We wrote the Japanese constitution and wrote in it that they can’t have a military. Maybe, having no military isn’t a bad idea. Maybe.

“We” (Bush and Cheney intellectual types) want to control the world. But “we” really can’t. Not really. Seriously.
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Universal Soldier by Donovan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLzUNDaF00U


WE NEED TO STOP AND THINK. The unabashed, illogical, short-sighted, fear-based policies and mode of operation, that we have had from Cheney and Bush, have been mistakes and yet where is the will to make a change?

SHOES OFF, 3 OUNCES, QUART SIZE BAGS AND NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS

I LOVE TO TRAVEL, BUT I HATE TO FLY SINCE all of the new rules at the airport. I hear "it makes us safer" from friends, when I complain about having to take off my shoes, no water, the opening of my bags at smaller airports and going through my stuff, etc. But I don't believe it makes me safer. I'd fly more if I didn't have all of these fear-based rules. I figure the planes were used once and next time, it will be something else. All of my personal flight annoying experiences aside, I think these requirements have no bearing on my safety from the likes of bin Laden. He wins. He has us all loopy with the air travel mess while he lives in a cave, I hear.

I have to fly this week to D.C. for a Darfur StandNow.org conference. Not looking forward to the airport chapter of my travels.

Now to the subject that got me thinking about safety, bin Laden wannabes and fear-producing comments by our famous President – nuclear power plants and what happened April 26, 1986. This should have our attention more than airport shoe removal.

NUCLEAR POWER IS LESS POWER. NOT A GOOD INVESTMENT.
LET’S TAKE THE LONG VIEW OF NUCLEAR POWER.
We can call it “power” but it does the opposite of empowering us. Thank you HBO for opening my eyes. I never could understand the fascination with the “reality shows” like “Survivor”. I wonder if the people who live in the radiation of Chernobyl would be entertained watching make believe and contrived “life experiences” of such “shows”. If reality and courage are of interest to you, read on.

ANYONE who (and that includes the US government’s administrative and legislative branches) considers nuclear power as a source of energy for our energy needs today and in the future - needs to see the show that I saw today on HBO. You would get a visual dose of what the people have been living with and dying with as a result of Chernobyl – the nuclear plant breakdown. A child with a basketball size external tumor on his buttocks, another child with the tumor grown off his head, the same size. Babies abandoned by their parents with deformities as a result of the radiation of this nuclear power plant. “The event” happened April 26, 1986. The show documented Belarus, Minsk, Gomel and other areas affected by the breakdown and radiation that turned human beings into “guinea pigs”. All it would take is for someone like Osama bin Laden to make this happen at one of our nuclear plants if not an accident. Since April 26, 1986, congenital deaths increased 250%. One hundred and fifty miles from Chernobyl is radiation contaminated. It is the world’s most contaminated place.

Chernobyl Heart – The HBO show
On April 26, 1986, the worst nuclear accident in history occurred when a reactor exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Sixteen years later, award-winning filmmaker Maryann De Leo took her camera to follow the devastating trail this radiation left behind in hospitals, orphanages, mental asylums and evacuated villages. Winner of the Academy Award ® for Best Documentary Short.

The Synopsis of Chernobyl Heart
http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/chernobylheart/synopsis.html

Interview with Maryann De Leo
http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/chernobylheart/interview.html

Notes I took while watching Chernobyl Heart
In Gomel, which is 50 miles from Chernobyl, 15% to 30% of the babies are born “normal”. That is a staggering statistic. And we don’t know really how many of the normal babies carry genetic affects to pass on to their babies. Radiation affects the immune systems not only of the living but those in the womb.

Vesnova Mental Asylum was visited. Some residing there are not mentally ill, just abandoned by parents and a country’s unwillingness to afford them operations that could alleviate their health problems. In Gomel, Abandoned Babies Home introduced us to a four year old that is the size of a four month old.

Tumors not only grow on the outside of the bodies, but are in the digestive tract, heart, liver, kidney, lungs and thyroid. Fluid on the brain is another result. Infant mortality rate in Belarus is 300% higher that the rest of Europe. In a Minsk hospital, we learn that 7,000 people will die because there is no money for the needed heart surgeries. Three hundred dollars is the cost of a heart operation that puts a patch on the inside of the heart to fill up the holes. But $300 is an unsurmountable amount for the poor families of the region. Less than 300 heart operations will be performed a year and without this operation the survivors will die in 2 to 5 years.

7 MILLION people continue to live in contaminated regions of Belarus, Russia and northern Ukraine. 99% of Belarus is contaminated with radiation levels that are EXTREMEly high.

The Chernobyl radiation traveled as far as Sweden, Wales, and Alaska, according to the HBO show.

Map
http://library.thinkquest.org/3426/data/introduction/location.html
More maps of Chernobyl and its surroundings at this link (see lower left of the page of the above link):
* map-1.gif: Map of Northern Hemisphere showing where the radioactive cloud travelled by May 6, 1986
* map-2.gif: Map of the entire Ukraine
* map-3.gif: Map showing the major defense industry facilities in the Ukraine

This link is where the information below is from:
http://www.chernobyl-international.com/chernobyl_disaster/medical_impact.462.html

"We are now seeing genetic changes, especially among those who were less than six years of age when the accident happened. These people are now starting to have families, so we are witnessing the effects of the disaster move to the next generation.’ The silent killer, radiation, is threatening the gene pool and the future of the people”.
(Dr. Vladislav Ostapenko head of Belarus’ Radiation Medicine Institute)

Belarussian doctors identify the following effects from the Chernobyl disaster on the health of their people:

* 100% increase in the incidence of cancer and leukemia
* 250% increase in congenital birth deformities
* 1,000% increase in suicide in the contaminated zones
* 2,400% increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer
* “Chernobyl AIDS” is the term doctors are using to describe illnesses associated with the damage done to the immune system by the effects of the radioactive material “strontium”. It is also a contributory factor to the increase in the number of cancer cases as a result of damage to the body’s immune system.

The extraordinary increase in the number of ... illnesses can be associated with the exposure of the population to the aggressive radioactive particles released by the Chernobyl explosion. The biggest health threat is caused by the incorporation in the human body of caesium, which modifies the heart and kidneys and enhances the chance of innate diseases by influencing the hormonal relationship in the mother-foetus-placenta system. A change in the hormonal status of the mother-foetus system leads to increase of pregnancy length, complications with birth & after birth development of the child.

Countless lives in the Chernobyl affected areas have been destroyed by ill health. What we are witnessing is the slow erosion of a nation’s health. Scientific research shows that the people are faced with soaring levels of infertility and genetic changes, affecting the very future of their race.

Regional Children's Hospital
Their mortality rates already outstrip their birth rates. According to the UN, seven million people are affected, half of whom are children. In Belarus alone, 90 per cent of children are deemed to be victims of Chernobyl. A general increase in morbidity from non-oncology conditions such as cardiovascular and respiratory conditions now emerging, are adding to the general decline in health of the people living in the affected countries. It is difficult to get a true assessment of the impact of the tragedy on the health in the three affected countries; data from experts and health professionals from the region are not always believed by their counterparts in the West. This is partly because many regions in Chernobyl find it difficult to attract doctors to work in contaminated areas because of their knowledge of the possible dangers, isolation and lack of proper facilities.

SECRET DECREE
Many patients in remote parts of the zones are unable to receive medical treatment because they are too poor to travel to the nearest hospital, which is often up to 100 kilometres away. The problem is compounded by a secret decree which was passed in 1988 in Moscow, banning doctors from naming radiation as the cause of illness or death. Bearing in mind this culture of control over information, Chernobyl Children’s Project - Ireland, CCPI, salute the courage of those medical and scientific personnel who have risked revealing the truth. It has not been in the interests of some that the true health toll be known. In Belarus the computer files holding the health data on all accident victims simply disappeared.

Because of severe damage to the immune system, there is deep concern for the body’s inability to fight cancer cells.

The Accident at Chernobyl
The accident occurred as a result of the Soviet authorities’ insistence that on 25 April 1986 an experiment was to be carried out at the Chernobyl Power Plant. This experiment went radically wrong at 1.23 a.m. local time on 26 April when a number of fatal mistakes and procedural violations, including the withdrawal of control rods, led to a sudden power surge.

Within minutes, the reactor became highly unstable and the control rods were no longer able to balance and control the power surge. Although the station foreman gave the order to go into shutdown, his order came too late. Within four seconds, the power levels ran to 100 times its maximum rating for his kind of reactor, which led to a steam explosion blowing the roof off reactor number 4, which weighed 1,000 tons, as if it was the lid of a saucepan.

Three seconds later, with ruptured cooling system pipes and the control rods blown out, there was another explosion, during which the core of the reactor largely disintegrated. While the operators frantically pumped water into the remains of the shattered shell, it was to little avail because the reactor was now exposed to the air.
One more paragraph at
http://www.chernobyl-international.com/chernobyl_disaster/chernobyl_disaster.43.html

Social Impact - The Misplaced and Displaced Ones
http://www.chernobyl-international.com/chernobyl_disaster/social_impact.474.html

Economic Impact
http://www.chernobyl-international.com/chernobyl_disaster/economic_impact.471.html

Envionmental Impact – Death of the Land
http://www.chernobyl-international.com/chernobyl_disaster/environmental_impact.469.html

Chernobyl Sarcophagus – The end or just the beginning?
“The next Chernobyl will be Chernobyl itself”
(Russian Scientist Professor Chernosenko)
http://www.chernobyl-international.com/chernobyl_disaster/the_chernobyl_sarcophagus.470.html

What You Can Do
http://www.chernobyl-international.com/what_you_can_do/what_you_can_do.444.html

What “Chernobyl Children’s Project – Ireland” does
"If our tears do not lead us to act then we have lost the reason of our humanity, which is compassion."
(Dalai Lama)
http://www.chernobyl-international.com/what_we_do/what_we_do.482.html
When reading about Mountain Removal in the Appalachian Mountains for coal, I read that we believe in the USA, including some of our Presidential candidates, that we must use nuclear power plants to fulfill our need for electricity in the USA.

What do you think of that?

Sometimes the price of convenience is too high.

Our community is in an extremely windy location and is studying the use of wind power. At least Osama bin Laden would have little reason to blow up a wind mill. A private school in my town, erected one windmill on its campus a couple of years ago that provides the entire school’s energy needs for them. They figured the cost of the one windmill over time would pay for itself…I think it was in ten years. Anyway, you get my point. I hope. Keep hope alive by spreading this story to your family and friends. The silence of good people is a bad thing. Let's be a humane human race.

If not you, if not me . . . then who will speak up?

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Storm Over Massachusetts Windmill Plan
Plan For Nantucket Sound Wind Farm Raises Debate
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/26/sunday/main560595.shtml