Thursday, May 28, 2009


Tell American Public Media to Stop Letting Monsanto Leverage Its Reputation!

If you listen to NPR stations that carry the program Marketplace, you've probably heard the 12 second ad that Monsanto has been running that says:
Marketplace is supported by Monsanto, committed to sustainable agriculture, creating hybrid and biotech seeds designed to increase crop yields and conserve natural resources. Learn more at ProduceMoreConserveMore.com.
Use the form found @
http://capwiz.com/grassrootsnetroots/issues/alert/?alertid=13418576
to tell
American Public Media, which produces the Marketplace program, to stop spreading Monsanto's lies.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009


http://www.dangerousoldwomen.com
"Women are considered dangerous, as Eve was, when they are daring enough to follow their deepest inner longing to step forth into the unknown, despite patriarchal, cultural, or familial prohibitions, and go toward consciousness and truth-telling. Consciousness and truth-telling, even to ourselves, is dangerous to old, fear-based structures, inner and outer, personal and cultural. Dangerous old women are courageous, willing, and fiercely committed to Truth."

Former Interrogator Rebukes Cheney for Torture Speech

The repeated lies are finally bleeding the truth........

WAKE UP AMERICA.

Listen to the interview with Amy Goodman.

Shell on Trial: Landmark Trial Set to Begin Over Shell’s Role in 1995 Execution of Nigerian Human Rights Activist Ken Saro-Wiwa
A landmark trial against oil giant Royal Dutch Shell’s alleged involvement in human rights violations in the Niger Delta begins this Wednesday in a federal court in New York. Fourteen years after the widely condemned execution of the acclaimed Nigerian writer and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, the court will hear allegations that Shell was complicit in his torture and execution.
Isn't it interesting how all of these stories are interrelated to outrageous crimes against humanity, but the real perpetrators are hailed as hero's and the victims as terrorists....this story is getting old....Oil corporations are the real terrorists ..
http://www.sweetcrudemovie.com/
Sweet Crude is the story of Nigeria’s Niger Delta – a story that’s never been captured in a feature-length film.
Beginning with the filmmaker’s initial trip to document the building of a library in a remote village, Sweet Crude is a journey of multilayered revelation and ever-deepening questions. It’s about survival, corruption, greed and armed resistance. It’s about one place in one moment, with themes that echo many places throughout history. Sweet Crude shows the humanity behind the statistics, events and highly sensationalized media portrayal of the region. Set against a stunning backdrop of Niger Delta footage, the film gives voice to the region’s complex mix of stakeholders and invites the audience to learn the deeper story.
The issues are local and human, yet they have far-reaching political, environmental and economic implications. It’s a powder-keg situation that affects the daily lives and futures of the people who live there. Left unchecked, its consequences will be felt around the globe. Yet barely anyone outside the Delta knows what’s really happening.
Why do we care enough to make this movie? Because raising awareness just might be the tipping point it takes to head off civil war. Because the kids of the Delta deserve a future. Because what happens in Nigeria ripples through African political stability and global economic markets. Because Nigeria produces more than 10 percent of the U.S. oil supply. Ultimately, the events unfolding in the Niger Delta affect us all.
It will take a vigilant world community to advocate for nonviolent political solutions. With this independent documentary, we take a stand for a more truthful conversation, with the hope that a more educated public will hold governments and big oil accountable to peaceful and just resolution.
What is sweet crude?
Petroleum (crude oil) comes out of the ground with varying chemical composition. “Sweet” refers to low levels of sulfur and hydrogen. This less corrosive make-up allows for simpler facilities and equipment, thus easier and cheaper refining. Sweet crude is typically preferred for gasoline processing – and is the most popular type of oil futures commodity contracts. The Niger Delta produces some of the “sweetest” crude in the world.
© 2007 Sweet Crude Movie LLC. All rights reserved.
Website designed by
Xolara LLC
Amy Goodman interviews Antonia Juhasz regarding the newly published report: The true cost of Chevron....find the interview here:

"A visually stunning website using our ChevWrong “Inhumane Energy” ads that reveal the hypocrisy of Chevron’s human energy ad campaign. The report and the ads can be downloaded for free from the website, which also provides action steps, links to the organizations involved in the True Cost of Chevron campaign, and more. ."
This is peoples politics at work....Resist, Reclaim, Restore.
The True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Reportby Antonia Juhasz
Chevron's 2008 annual report is a glossy celebration of the company's most profitable year in its history. What Chevron's annual report does not tell its shareholders is the true cost paid for those financial returns, or the global movement gaining voice and strength against Chevron's abuses. Thus, we, the communities and our allies who bear the consequences of Chevron’s oil and natural gas production, refineries, depots, pipelines, exploration, offshore drilling rigs, coal fields, chemical plants, political control, consumer abuse, false promises, and much more, have prepared an Alternative Annual Report for Chevron.

Chevron, Shell and the True Cost of Oil
by Amy Goodman
The economy is a shambles, unemployment is soaring, the auto industry is collapsing. But profits are higher than ever at oil companies Chevron and Shell. Yet across the globe, from the Ecuadorian jungle, to the Niger Delta in Nigeria, to the courtrooms and streets of New York and San Ramon, Calif., people are fighting back against the world's oil giants.
Shell and Chevron are in the spotlight this week, with shareholder meetings and a historic trial being held.
On May 13, the Nigerian military launched an assault on villages in that nation's oil-rich Niger Delta. Hundreds of civilians are feared killed in the attack. According to Amnesty International, a celebration in the delta village of Oporoza was attacked. An eyewitness told the organization: "I heard the sound of aircraft; I saw two military helicopters, shooting at the houses, at the palace, shooting at us. We had to run for safety into the forest. In the bush, I heard adults crying, so many mothers could not find their children; everybody ran for their life."
Shell is facing a lawsuit in U.S. federal court, Wiwa v. Shell, based on Shell's alleged collaboration with the Nigerian dictatorship in the 1990s in the violent suppression of the grass-roots movement of the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta. Shell exploits the oil riches there, causing displacement, pollution and deforestation. The suit also alleges that Shell helped suppress the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People and its charismatic leader, Ken Saro-Wiwa. Saro-Wiwa had been the writer of the most famous soap opera in Nigeria, but decided to throw his lot in with the Ogoni, whose land near the Niger Delta was crisscrossed with pipelines. The children of Ogoniland did not know a dark night, living beneath the flame-apartment-building-size gas flares that burned day and night, and that are illegal in the U.S.
I interviewed Saro-Wiwa in 1994. He told me: "The oil companies like military dictatorships, because basically they can cheat with these dictatorships. The dictatorships are brutal to people, and they can deny the human rights of individuals and of communities quite easily, without compunction." He added, "I am a marked man." Saro-Wiwa returned to Nigeria and was arrested by the military junta. On Nov. 10, 1995, after a kangaroo show trial, Saro-Wiwa was hanged with eight other Ogoni activists.
In 1998, I traveled to the Niger Delta with journalist Jeremy Scahill. A Chevron executive there told us that Chevron flew troops from Nigeria's notorious mobile police, the "kill ‘n' go," in a Chevron company helicopter to an oil barge that had been occupied by nonviolent protesters. Two protesters were killed, and many more were arrested and tortured.
Oronto Douglas, one of Saro-Wiwa's lawyers, told us: "It is very clear that Chevron, just like Shell, uses the military to protect its oil activities. They drill and they kill."
Chevron is the second-largest stakeholder (after French oil company Total) of the Yadana natural gas field and pipeline project, based in Burma (which the military junta renamed Myanmar). The pipeline provides the single largest source of income to the military junta, amounting to close to $1 billion in 2007. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, popularly elected the leader of Burma in 1990, has been under house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years, and is standing trial again this week. [On Tuesday the government said it had ended the house arrest of Suu Kyi, but she remains in detention pending the outcome of the trial.] The U.S. government has barred U.S. companies from investing in Burma since 1997, but Chevron has a waiver, inherited when it acquired the oil company Unocal.
Chevron's litany of similar abuses, from the Philippines to Kazakhstan, Chad-Cameroon, Iraq, Ecuador and Angola and across the U.S. and Canada, is detailed in an "alternative annual report" prepared by a consortium of nongovernmental organizations and is being distributed to Chevron shareholders at this week's annual meeting, and to the public at TrueCostofChevron.com.
Chevron is being investigated by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo about whether the company was "accurate and complete" in describing potential legal liabilities. It enjoys, though, a long tradition of hiring politically powerful people. Condoleezza Rice was a longtime director of the company (there was even a supertanker named after her), and the recently hired general counsel is none other than disgraced Pentagon lawyer William J. Haynes, who advocated for "harsh interrogation techniques," including waterboarding. Gen. James L. Jones, President Barack Obama's national security adviser, sat on the Chevron board of directors for most of 2008, until he received his high-level White House appointment.
Saro-Wiwa said before he died, "We are going to demand our rights peacefully, nonviolently, and we shall win." A global grass-roots movement is growing to do just that.

Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
© 2009 Amy Goodman
The True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual
by Antonia Juhasz, http://www.TrueCostofChevron.com/
May 26th, 2009
Chevron's 2008 annual report is a glossy celebration of the company's most profitable year in its history. What Chevron's annual report does not tell its shareholders is the true cost paid for those financial returns, or the global movement gaining voice and strength against Chevron's abuses. Thus, we, the communities and our allies who bear the consequences of Chevron’s oil and natural gas production, refineries, depots, pipelines, exploration, offshore drilling rigs, coal fields, chemical plants, political control, consumer abuse, false promises, and much more, have prepared an Alternative Annual Report for Chevron.

The 44-page report is available to download at www.TrueCostofChevron.com -- a visually stunning website using our ChevWrong “Inhumane Energy” ads that reveal the hypocrisy of Chevron’s human energy ad campaign. The report and the ads can be downloaded for free from the website, which also provides action steps, links to the organizations involved in the True Cost of Chevron campaign, and more. Hard copies of the report can also be ordered for a small fee from the website.

Chevron, Shell and the True Cost of Oil
by Amy Goodman

The economy is a shambles, unemployment is soaring, the auto industry is collapsing. But profits are higher than ever at oil companies Chevron and Shell. Yet across the globe, from the Ecuadorian jungle, to the Niger Delta in Nigeria, to the courtrooms and streets of New York and San Ramon, Calif., people are fighting back against the world's oil giants.

Shell and Chevron are in the spotlight this week, with shareholder meetings and a historic trial being held.

On May 13, the Nigerian military launched an assault on villages in that nation's oil-rich Niger Delta. Hundreds of civilians are feared killed in the attack. According to Amnesty International, a celebration in the delta village of Oporoza was attacked. An eyewitness told the organization: "I heard the sound of aircraft; I saw two military helicopters, shooting at the houses, at the palace, shooting at us. We had to run for safety into the forest. In the bush, I heard adults crying, so many mothers could not find their children; everybody ran for their life."

Shell is facing a lawsuit in U.S. federal court, Wiwa v. Shell, based on Shell's alleged collaboration with the Nigerian dictatorship in the 1990s in the violent suppression of the grass-roots movement of the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta. Shell exploits the oil riches there, causing displacement, pollution and deforestation. The suit also alleges that Shell helped suppress the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People and its charismatic leader, Ken Saro-Wiwa. Saro-Wiwa had been the writer of the most famous soap opera in Nigeria, but decided to throw his lot in with the Ogoni, whose land near the Niger Delta was crisscrossed with pipelines. The children of Ogoniland did not know a dark night, living beneath the flame-apartment-building-size gas flares that burned day and night, and that are illegal in the U.S.

I interviewed Saro-Wiwa in 1994. He told me: "The oil companies like military dictatorships, because basically they can cheat with these dictatorships. The dictatorships are brutal to people, and they can deny the human rights of individuals and of communities quite easily, without compunction." He added, "I am a marked man." Saro-Wiwa returned to Nigeria and was arrested by the military junta. On Nov. 10, 1995, after a kangaroo show trial, Saro-Wiwa was hanged with eight other Ogoni activists.

In 1998, I traveled to the Niger Delta with journalist Jeremy Scahill. A Chevron executive there told us that Chevron flew troops from Nigeria's notorious mobile police, the "kill ‘n' go," in a Chevron company helicopter to an oil barge that had been occupied by nonviolent protesters. Two protesters were killed, and many more were arrested and tortured.

Oronto Douglas, one of Saro-Wiwa's lawyers, told us: "It is very clear that Chevron, just like Shell, uses the military to protect its oil activities. They drill and they kill."

Chevron is the second-largest stakeholder (after French oil company Total) of the Yadana natural gas field and pipeline project, based in Burma (which the military junta renamed Myanmar). The pipeline provides the single largest source of income to the military junta, amounting to close to $1 billion in 2007. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, popularly elected the leader of Burma in 1990, has been under house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years, and is standing trial again this week. [On Tuesday the government said it had ended the house arrest of Suu Kyi, but she remains in detention pending the outcome of the trial.] The U.S. government has barred U.S. companies from investing in Burma since 1997, but Chevron has a waiver, inherited when it acquired the oil company Unocal.

Chevron's litany of similar abuses, from the Philippines to Kazakhstan, Chad-Cameroon, Iraq, Ecuador and Angola and across the U.S. and Canada, is detailed in an "alternative annual report" prepared by a consortium of nongovernmental organizations and is being distributed to Chevron shareholders at this week's annual meeting, and to the public at TrueCostofChevron.com.

Chevron is being investigated by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo about whether the company was "accurate and complete" in describing potential legal liabilities. It enjoys, though, a long tradition of hiring politically powerful people. Condoleezza Rice was a longtime director of the company (there was even a supertanker named after her), and the recently hired general counsel is none other than disgraced Pentagon lawyer William J. Haynes, who advocated for "harsh interrogation techniques," including waterboarding. Gen. James L. Jones, President Barack Obama's national security adviser, sat on the Chevron board of directors for most of 2008, until he received his high-level White House appointment.

Saro-Wiwa said before he died, "We are going to demand our rights peacefully, nonviolently, and we shall win." A global grass-roots movement is growing to do just that.

Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.

© 2009 Amy Goodman

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Mr. Krugman makes a good POINT --
Will "we the People" accept these lies AGAIN ????
Educate yourself....this does effect you!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.ourfuture.org/healthcare

Blue Double Cross
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: May 21, 2009
read the whole story @
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/22/opinion/22krugman.html?ref=opinion

That didn’t take long. Less than two weeks have passed since much of the medical-industrial complex made a big show of working with President Obama on health care reform — and the double-crossing is already well under way. Indeed, it’s now clear that even as they met with the president, pretending to be cooperative, insurers were gearing up to play the same destructive role they did the last time health reform was on the agenda.

So here’s the question: Will Mr. Obama gloss over the reality of what’s happening, and try to preserve the appearance of cooperation? Or will he honor his own pledge, made back during the campaign, to go on the offensive against special interests if they stand in the way of reform?

The story so far: on May 11 the White House called a news conference to announce that major players in health care, including the American Hospital Association and the lobbying group America’s Health Insurance Plans, had come together to support a national effort to control health care costs.

The fact sheet on the meeting, one has to say, was classic Obama in its message of post-partisanship and, um, hope. “For too long, politics and point-scoring have prevented our country from tackling this growing crisis,” it said, adding, “The American people are eager to put the old Washington ways behind them.”

But just three days later the hospital association insisted that it had not, in fact, promised what the president said it had promised — that it had made no commitment to the administration’s goal of reducing the rate at which health care costs are rising by 1.5 percentage points a year. And the head of the insurance lobby said that the idea was merely to “ramp up” savings, whatever that means.

Meanwhile, the insurance industry is busily lobbying Congress to block one crucial element of health care reform, the public option — that is, offering Americans the right to buy insurance directly from the government as well as from private insurance companies. And at least some insurers are gearing up for a major smear campaign.

On Monday, just a week after the White House photo-op, The Washington Post reported that Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina was preparing to run a series of ads attacking the public option. The planning for this ad campaign must have begun quite some time ago.

The Post has the storyboards for the ads, and they read just like the infamous Harry and Louise ads that helped kill health care reform in 1993. Troubled Americans are shown being denied their choice of doctor, or forced to wait months for appointments, by faceless government bureaucrats. It’s a scary image that might make some sense if private health insurance — which these days comes primarily via HMOs — offered all of us free choice of doctors, with no wait for medical procedures. But my health plan isn’t like that. Is yours?

“We can do a lot better than a government-run health care system,” says a voice-over in one of the ads. To which the obvious response is, if that’s true, why don’t you? Why deny Americans the chance to reject government insurance if it’s really that bad?

For none of the reform proposals currently on the table would force people into a government-run insurance plan. At most they would offer Americans the choice of buying into such a plan.

And the goal of the insurers is to deny Americans that choice. They fear that many people would prefer a government plan to dealing with private insurance companies that, in the real world as opposed to the world of their ads, are more bureaucratic than any government agency, routinely deny clients their choice of doctor, and often refuse to pay for care.

Which brings us back to Mr. Obama.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Howard Zinn's "Three Holy Wars"

The truth is emerging......through the holes in our psyches... just like a dandelion emerging through the holes in the concrete sidewalk...

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Finding Your Truth: Living a Soulful Life

WOW..........

Amen.

Check this out at http://www.rebelreports.com/
May19th Tue
Bill Clinton Named New UN Envoy to 'Stabilize' Haiti, a Country He Helped Destabilize

By Jeremy Scahill


As president, Clinton forced neoliberal policies on Haiti, delayed President Aristide’s return after a US-backed coup and held Haitian refugees at Gitmo without rights.
Former US President Bill Clinton has been
named by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as his special UN envoy to Haiti. Clinton will reportedly travel to the country at least four times a year.
“[It’s] an opportunity to bring in resources to address the economic insecurity that plagues Haiti,” says
Brian Concannon, a human rights lawyer who works extensively in Haiti. “But if the nomination is to be more than a publicity stunt, the UN needs to honestly shed a spotlight on the international community’s role in creating that instability, including unfair trade and debt policies, and the undermining and overthrowing of Haiti’s constitutional government.”
Shining such a spotlight on those who created the instability, as Concannon suggests, would mean examining Clinton’s own role as president of the US during one of Haiti’s most horrifyingly dark periods.
Reuters news agency
quotes a diplomat as saying Clinton is “an ‘excellent choice’ to help unlock Haiti’s potential as an investment target,” adding that his appointment “could attract investment in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation and help stabilize the country.”
That last statement about “stabiliz[ing]” Haiti would be humorous for its irony if the reality—and Clinton’s history in Haiti—wasn’t so deadly serious. The fact is that, as US president, Clinton’s policies helped systematically destabilize Haiti.Dan Coughlin, who spent years as a journalist in Haiti in the 1990s for Inter Press Service, said he was “incredulous” when he heard the news. “Given the Clinton Administration’s aggressive pursuit of policies that profitted Haiti’s tiny elite, the IMF and big corporations at the expense of Haiti’s farmers and urban workers, the appointment does not bode well for the kind of fundamental change so needed in a country that has given so much to humankind,” Coughlin says.
In September 1991, the US backed the violent overthrow of the government of Haiti’s democratically-elected leftist priest President Jean Bertrand Aristide after he was in power less than a year. Aristide had defeated a US-backed candidate in the 1990 Haitian presidential election. The military coup leaders and their paramilitary gangs of CIA-backed murderous thugs, including the notorious FRAPH paramilitary units, were known for hacking the limbs off of Aristide supporters (and others) along with an unending slew of other horrifying crimes. When Clinton came to power, he played a vicious game with Haiti that allowed the coup regime to continue rampaging Haiti and further destabilized the country. What’s more, in the 1992 election campaign, Bill Clinton campaigned on a pledge to reverse what he called then-President George HW Bush’s “cruel policy” of holding Haitian refugees at Guantanamo with no legal rights in US courts. Upon his election, however, Clinton
reversed his position and sided with the Bush administration in denying the Haitians legal rights. the Haitians were held in atrocious conditions and the new Democratic president was sued by the Center for Constitutional Rights (sound familiar?).While Clinton and his advisers publicly expressed their dismay with the coup, they simultaneously refused to support the swift reinstatement of the country’s democratically elected leader and would, in fact, not allow Aristide’s return until Washington received guarantees that: 1. Aristide would not lay claim to the years of his presidency lost in forced exile and; 2. US neoliberal economic plans were solidified as the law of the land in Haiti.
“The Clinton administration was credited for working for the return to power of Jean Bertrand Aristide after he was overthrown in a military coup,” says author William Blum. “But, in fact, Clinton had stalled the return for as long as he could, and had instead tried his best to return anti-Aristide conservatives to a leading power role in a mixed government, because Aristide was too leftist for Washington’s tastes.” Blum’s
book “Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II” includes a chapter on the history of the US role in Haiti. The fact that the coup against the democratically-elected president of Haiti was allowed to continue unabated for three full years seemed to be less offensive to Clinton than Aristide’s progressive vision for Haiti. As Blum observed in his book, “[Clinton] was not actually repulsed by [coup leader Raoul] Cédras and company, for they posed no ideological barrier to the United States continuing the economic and strategic control of Haiti it’s maintained for most of the century. Unlike Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a man who only a year earlier had declared: ‘I still think capitalism is a mortal sin.’” Blum added: “Faced ultimately with Aristide returning to power, Clinton demanded and received — and then made sure to publicly announce — the Haitian president’s guarantee that he would not try to remain in office to make up for the time lost in exile. Clinton of course called this ‘democracy,’ although it represented a partial legitimization of the coup.” Indeed, Haiti experts say that Clinton could have restored Aristide to power under an almost identical arrangement years earlier than he did.When Aristide finally returned to Haiti, as Blum notes, “Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s reception was a joyous celebration filled with optimism. However, unbeknownst to his adoring followers, while they were regaining Aristide, they may have lost Aristidism.” As The Los Angeles Times reported at the time:
In a series of private meetings, Administration officials admonished Aristide to put aside the rhetoric of class warfare … and seek instead to reconcile Haiti’s rich and poor. The Administration also urged Aristide to stick closely to free-market economics and to abide by the Caribbean nation’s constitution — which gives substantial political power to the Parliament while imposing tight limits on the presidency. … Administration officials have urged Aristide to reach out to some of his political opponents in setting up his new government … to set up a broad-based coalition regime. … the Administration has made it clear to Aristide that if he fails to reach a consensus with Parliament, the United States will not try to prop up his regime. Almost every aspect of Aristide’s plans for resuming power — from taxing the rich to disarming the military — has been examined by the U.S. officials with whom the Haitian president meets daily and by officials from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other aid organizations. The finished package clearly reflects their priorities. … Aristide obviously has toned down the liberation theology and class-struggle rhetoric that was his signature before he was exiled to Washington.
“While Bill Clinton oversaw the return of President Aristide in 1994, he also put significant constraints on what Aristide was able to do once back in power,” says Bill Fletcher, Jr, the Executive Editor of
BlackCommentator.com and the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum. “Clinton advanced a neo-liberal agenda for Haiti thereby undermining the efforts of an otherwise progressive populist administration (Aristide’s). There is no reason to believe that [as a UN envoy] ex-President Clinton will introduce or support efforts to radically break Haiti from under the thumb of the USA and the dire poverty which has been a significant consequence of said domination.”

Monday, May 18, 2009


News from: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/05/2009516204248225356.html
"Peru army to quell Amazon protests
Protesters from indigenous groups declared an "insurgency" against the government [AFP]
Peru has authorised its army to reinforce police in quelling protests by indigenous groups over land, oil and mineral rights, the ministry of defence said.
The government "authorises for 30 days the intervention of the armed forces to ensure the continued functioning of essential services in select districts" of the Amazon rainforest region, a statement from the ministry of defence said on Saturday.
The military said their involvement seeks to ensure the operation of roads and airports, and the supply of water and electricity.
Protesters from a movement of 65 indigenous groups declared an "insurgency" against the government on Friday for refusing to repeal laws that threaten their ancestral land and resources.
Demonstrations erupted in response to government moves to open the region to oil exploration and development by foreign companies under a set of measures that Alan Garcia, the Peruvian president, signed in 2007 and 2008.
High stakes
French oil company Perenco last month announced plans to invest more than $2bn to develop a field in the Maranon River basin in northeastern Peru.
Alberto Pizango, the leader of the Peruvian Jungle Inter-Ethnic Development Association (Aidesep) said agreed "to declare our peoples in insurgency against the government of President Alan Garcia in the indigenous Amazon territories".
"This means our ancestral laws will become obligatory laws, and we will regard as aggression any force that tries to enter our territory," he said.
His statement followed the government's May 8 declaration of a 60-day state of emergency in areas of the Amazon, suspending constitutional guarantees in an attempt to suppress protests, which have targeted airports, bridges and river traffic.
Talks between protest leaders and Yehude Simon, the cabinet chief, in Lima on Wednesday failed to defuse the conflict.
No consultation
The decrees eased restrictions on oil and other forms development in territories claimed by indigenous groups.
Pizango said the indigenous groups wanted development from their perspective [EPA] "This is not a mere whim. The government has not consulted us.
"We are not against development even though we are portrayed as being against the system. What we want is development from our perspective," Pizango said.
"The government wants to take our territory to give it to the big multinational companies.
"There are riches there like oil, wood, gold - riches that arouse the ambitions of the world's wealthy," he said.
The indigenous groups on Tuesday gained the backing of the International Federation of Human Rights, which groups 155 human rights organisations from around the world.
It called on Peru to rescind the decrees because of the government's failure to consult indigenous peoples.
Government officials acknowledge that the country's indigenous groups have historically been marginalised, but insist that Peru's constitution makes the state the owner of the country's mineral wealth."
Antonio Brack, the environment minister, told reporters on Tuesday: "Undersoil resources do not belong to the indigenous people but to all Peruvians."


check this site out..,..interesting.

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/faultlines/
The story is about a Latino man--Luis Ramirez--killed because he was a Mexican immigrant. Luis' murder is part of a growing trend of hate-based violence against Latinos, and most elected officials have been unwilling to even acknowledge it.
Just over a week ago, two of Ramirez's killers were acquitted of all serious charges by an all white jury, with the jury foreman making it clear that justice for Ramirez had no chance in the small town of Shenandoah, PA.

Thanks to the hard work of MALDEF and others, the Department of Justice is now looking into Ramirez' death.

But that's only part of what's needed. Where are the leaders in the State of Pennsylvania? Why has the governor had nothing to say? His silence is shameful.
Our friends at
Presente.org are calling on the governor of Pennsylvania to break his silence, now.
Please join them to create a level of public outcry that can't be ignored--and please invite your friends and family to do the same:
http://colorofchange.org/ramirez/?id=1737-143446
Thanks and Peace,
-- James, Gabriel, William, Dani and the rest of the
ColorOfChange.org team
http://www.adl.org/ADL_Opinions/Civil_Rights/20080807-Op-ed.htm
A 2006 Anti-Defamation League (ADL) report revealed that the immigration issue has revived and emboldened right wing extremist groups. Racists ranging from neo-Nazis to Klansmen to racist skinheads have co-opted the anti-immigrant movement, turning immigrants, primarily Hispanics, into the prime target of their venomous speech and behavior. Examples include:
"Slowly but surely we are headed toward the solution that I have been advocating for years: KILL ILLEGAL ALIENS AS THEY CROSS INTO THE U.S. When the stench of rotting corpses gets bad enough, the rest will stay away." – New Jersey Racist radio talk show host Hal Turner, October 31, 2005.

Friday, May 15, 2009


YOU GOTTA SEE THIS.
THANK YOU PROFESSOR ZINN.


http://www.thepeoplespeak.com/index.php

"The People Speak is a documentary inspired by Howard Zinn’s book, A People’s History of the United States and from the book he co-authored with Anthony Arnove, Voices of a People’s History. These are the voices of resistance in U.S. history – resistance to injustice, to war. Voices that can inspire viewers to recognize the power ordinary people have to change the course of history. These are also the voices that are excluded from traditional histories. Some voices are obscure, some famous and you will hear them express ideas that are excluded from the orthodox histories.

The film brings together accomplished performers like Marisa Tomei, Josh Brolin, Viggo Mortensen, Sandra Oh and Eddie Vedder, to re-create the emotional impact of these moments in history. These slices of life are woven together with historical footage, music and narrations from Ben Affleck and Howard Zinn and together, become a film record of what makes our democracy come alive and why civil disobedience needs to be a defining characteristic of Americans. By presenting these amazing people from our past, we will inspire a new generation to act."

For more on Howard Zinn:

HowardZinn.org

Single-Payer advocates protest Senate hearing

Corporate American Government at work...
take a look for yourself....

http://singlepayeraction.org/


Questioned, Obama Says Single Payer Would Be Best
May 14, 2009
AP is reporting: "President Barack Obama says if he were building the health care system from scratch, a single-payer system would be the best approach. But he says his goal is to improve the current system." The comments were made in response to the first question at the "town hall" type event in Rio Rancho, N.M. by Linda Allison, a local resident. Video of her question and Obama's reply is here. Reached by the Institute for Public Accuracy, Allison said: "I asked why they were excluding single payer from healthcare reform. We have this convoluted system where veterans get one system, Indians get another, there's Medicare, Medicaid and of course many employees get coverage from their companies. Why not just cover everyone under one plan?"I see people without healthcare, like my son. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan as a reservist. He's in college now and he's doesn't have health insurance. There are people who work who don't have coverage, or their children don't have coverage. Why should having healthcare be tied to your employment?"It's pretty unclear to me, but Obama seems to be for a plan that would leave the insurance companies in a dominant position and we really need to get them out."Obama said that single payer would be good if we were starting from scratch. Well, I think things are pretty bad, so we should start from scratch. But actually, a single-payer system is basically like expanding Medicare to include everyone, so we have a model just waiting for us to use. I recently learned that in Taiwan, they looked around the world for a system and they decided they would copy our Medicare and use it to cover all the people there. Why don't we do that?"The other part of my question, which Obama didn't respond to, was about Max Baucus [chairman of the Senate Finance Committee] and about how he's chairing the hearings while he's taken all this money from the insurance companies. I asked if that wasn't a conflict of interest." According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Baucus's top funders include PACs associated with American International Group, Goldman Sachs, New York Life Insurance and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
Stop the Single Payer Shut-out! by Ralph Nader
"Last month at a breakfast meeting with reporters, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) responded to a question about health care with these revealing and exasperating words: "Over and over again, we hear single payer, single payer, single payer. Well, it's not going to be a single payer."
Thus spake Speaker Pelosi, the Representative from Aetna? Never mind that 75 members of her party have signed onto H.R. 676-the Conyers single payer legislation. Never mind that in her San Francisco district, probably three out of four people want single payer. And never mind that over 20,000 people die every year, according to the Institute of Medicine, because they cannot afford health insurance.
What is more remarkable is that many more than the 75 members of the House privately believe single payer is the best option. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Ted Kennedy, and Nancy Pelosi are among them. But they all say, single payer "is not practical" so it's off the table.
What gives here? The Democrats have the procedures to pass any kind of health reform this year, including single payer. President Obama could sign it into law.
But "it's not practical" because these politicians fear the insurance and pharmaceutical industries-and seek their campaign contributions-more than they fear the American people. It comes down to the corporations, who have no votes, are organized to the teeth and the people are not.
YANGON: Myanmar’s military junta charged pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi Thursday with breaching the terms of her house arrest after a US man swam across a lake and hid inside her home, her lawyer said.
The 63-year-old will go on trial on Monday on the charges, which carry a maximum jail term of five years and would stretch her detention past its supposed expiry date this month and through elections that are due in 2010.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate and her two maids appeared in court at the notorious Insein Prison near Yangon, hours after police whisked her away from the residence where she has been detained for most of the past two decades.
‘The authorities have charged Aung San Suu Kyi and her two maids’ under the Law Safeguarding the State from the Dangers of Subversive Elements, one of her lawyers, Hla Myo Myint, told reporters outside the prison.
US national John Yettaw, who was detained last week for sneaking into her off-limits house and staying there for two days before he was caught, was also charged with violating the security law and immigration conditions, he said.
Aung San Suu Kyi, whose health has been fragile in recent days, would not be allowed to return home but would be held at a special house on the grounds of the prison while proceedings were under way, said her main lawyer Kyi Win.
He pinned the blame on Yettaw — whom authorities in Yangon have described as a 53-year-old Vietnam War veteran — saying that Aung San Suu Kyi had asked him to leave her house.
‘We have to blame him,’ Kyi Win said. ‘He is a fool.’ Kyi Win said before the court hearing that Aung San Suu Kyi ‘wanted to say her health situation is good and that she is in good spirits.’ All those charged face jail terms of between three and five years under the security law, Hla Myo Myint said.
Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the past 19 years in virtual isolation in her home since the junta refused to recognise her National League for Democracy party’s landslide victory in the country’s last elections in 1990.
The Oxford-educated daughter of the country’s founding father General Aung San, lives with her maids and is allowed to see only her lawyers and medical staff, with the occasional visit from UN representatives.
Her most recent six-year period of detention is due to end on May 27 but diplomats said the junta was keen to keep her locked up ahead of elections that it has promised in 2010 as part of its ‘roadmap to democracy’.
‘They have an excuse,’ a western diplomat based in Yangon said, referring to the latest charges.
Aung Din, executive director of the US Campaign for Burma, said it was the ‘cunning plan of the regime — to put Aung San Suu Kyi in continuous detention beyond the six years allowed by the law they used to justify the detention.’
Her party said at the weekend that she was in poor health and called for her to be given urgent medical assistance after her doctor was taken in for questioning over the incident with the American. He remains in detention.
She was unable to eat and put on an intravenous drip twice in the past week, suffering from dehydration and low blood pressure.
In Washington, which has imposed strict sanctions on the country formerly known as Burma, the US State Department said that Myanmar authorities had allowed a US diplomat to visit Yettaw on Wednesday.
State media said that Yettaw had confessed to arriving in Yangon on a tourist visa on May 2.
The government mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar newspaper published a body-length photo of Yettaw Thursday, along with a biography saying he is married with a doctorate in psychology and lives in Missouri.
An editorial in the paper said Myanmar needed a ‘strong and upright’ judiciary that would ‘pass appropriate sentences to those who jeopardize national unity and development.’

Sign the petition below to Urge UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon to send an envoy to Burma immediately to work for her release. Burma's military regime cannot be allowed to keep Aung San Suu Kyi locked-up forever.




Wednesday, May 13, 2009

http://www.storyofstuff.com/
WATCH THIS VIDEO...it is great.....

What is the Story of Stuff?
From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

Monday, May 11, 2009

In a thoroughly detailed interview, Amy Goodman from Democracy Now, interviews David Barstow, (2009 Pulitzer Prize Winner) for exposing the Pentagons DisInformation Campaign against American Citizens, the worse part is the unquie ties to Defense Contracts...

"Awarded to David Barstow of The New York Times for his tenacious reporting that revealed how some retired generals, working as radio and television analysts, had been co-opted by the Pentagon to make its case for the war in Iraq, and how many of them also had undisclosed ties to companies that benefited from policies they defended. "
Laymen terms, Retired Generals were being used by major news networks as Experts on the Iraq war, all with ties to huge lucrative military contracts that would financially benefit them, without disclosure...
CAN YOU SPELL "SNAKE OIL" WE were sold a bag of shit; disguised as gold.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/8/pentagons_pundits_ny_times_reporter_davidIn his first national broadcast interview, New York Times reporter David Barstow speaks about his 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning expose of the Pentagon propaganda campaign to recruit more than seventy-five retired military officers to appear on TV outlets as military analysts ahead of and during the Iraq war. This week, the Pentagon inspector general’s office admitted its exoneration of the program was flawed and withdrew it.

General McCaffrey and General Marks and this company, Global Linguist, were locked in this battle for this $4 billion-plus contract to supply all the translators in Iraq. And at the time, they were going on television talking about should we stay or should we go. Now, at the time, both of those guys took the position that we really needed to stay in Iraq and see it through. General McCaffrey, especially, was hugely critical of the Baker-Hamilton recommendation to pull out most of our combat troops by March of 2008. So there was this sort of confluence at that time of their business interests and what they were saying on air.
What we don’t know, and it’s important to note, that not only were these relationships not disclosed to the viewers of either CNN or NBC, but CNN at least claimed that they weren’t even aware that General Marks, their main military analyst, in fact had this role with this company, was deeply involved in fighting for this contract. And then, indeed, when they found out in mid-2007 or later on in 2007 that he, in fact, did play this role with this company, CNN pretty quickly severed its ties with General Marks, and he no longer appears on air as a military analyst for them. NBC, that’s not the case.
AMY GOODMAN: December 18, 2006, Pentagon stuns Wall Street by awarding the translation contract to Global Linguist. DynCorp stock jumps 15 percent. And as you point out, according to a 2007 corporate filing, General McCaffrey was promised $10,000 a month, plus expenses. Once Global Linguist secured the contract, he would also be eligible to share in profits which could potentially be significant. The contract was worth $4.6 billion over five years, but only if the United States did not pull out of Iraq first.
by Glen Greenwald
The New York Times' David Barstow won a richly deserved Pulitzer Prize yesterday for
two articles that, despite being featured as major news stories on the front page of The Paper of Record, were completely suppressed by virtually every network and cable news show, which to this day have never informed their viewers about what Barstow uncovered. Here is how the Pulitzer Committee described Barstow's exposés:
Awarded to David Barstow of The New York Times for his tenacious reporting that revealed how some retired generals, working as radio and television analysts, had been co-opted by the Pentagon to make its case for the war in Iraq, and how many of them also had undisclosed ties to companies that benefited from policies they defended.
By whom were these "ties to companies" undisclosed and for whom did these deeply conflicted retired generals pose as "analysts"? ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN and Fox -- the very companies that have simply suppressed the story from their viewers. They kept completely silent about Barstow's story even though it
sparked Congressional inquiries, vehement objections from the then-leading Democratic presidential candidates, and allegations that the Pentagon program violated legal prohibitions on domestic propaganda programs. The Pentagon's secret collaboration with these "independent analysts" shaped multiple news stories from each of these outlets on a variety of critical topics. Most amazingly, many of them continue to employ as so-called "independent analysts" the very retired generals at the heart of Barstow's story, yet still refuse to inform their viewers about any part of this story.
And even now that Barstow yesterday won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting -- one of the most prestigious awards any news story can win -- these revelations still may not be uttered on television, tragically dashing the
hope expressed yesterday (rhetorically, I presume) by Media Matters' Jamison Foser that "maybe now that the story has won a Pulitzer for Barstow, they'll pay attention."

Friday, May 8, 2009

THE Mother's Day Mistake?

Happy Mothers Day Friends....Let us heed these words by our actions. May our actions both internal and external demonstrate our committment to PEACE.
I refuse to raise my children to kill anothers woman's children. Let nothing prevent me from speaking out, from acting in accordance with these beliefs.

The future of Gaza, the Palestinian people and of the region as a whole depends on the health and development of its children, the next generation. Today, more than half of the Gazan population is under the age of 17. However, they are struggling with high rates of homelessness, depression and malnutrition.

You can donate in the name of your mother or special woman you want to honor this Mother's Day.
https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/424/t/8834/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=4753

We are a 501-C3 organization and your contribution is tax deductible. Our tax exemption number is: 95-4658841

Thursday, May 7, 2009

May Justice
find its voice....
May Justice Live.

Shell: Stop Gas Flaring Now!
On May 26, oil giant Shell will face a groundbreaking trial in U.S. federal court for complicity in human rights abuses. Shell faces a number of serious charges, including conspiring with a Nigerian military dictatorship to bring about the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight fellow activists who led a mass movement against Shell's environmental devastation of their homeland in the oil-rich Niger Delta.One of the abuses these activists died struggling to end was "gas flaring"—burning off gas released by oil extraction—which sends plumes of toxic smoke into the air.
Gas flaring endangers human health, harms local ecosystems, emits large amounts of greenhouse gases, wastes vast quantities of natural gas, and is against Nigerian law.Shell's CEO, Jeroen van der Veer, will retire this summer. He has the opportunity to choose the legacy he'll leave behind—one of environmental devastation and broken promises, or one of leadership and progress in this case by ending Shell's gas flaring. With the trial looming, we have a powerful opportunity to help Van der Veer make the right choice.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Obama Song

Lets hold him accountable...by keeping this type of music alive...lets keep reminding him of his promise....of his potential...it must get hard around all the corporate stiffs...lets keep the dream alive.
Yes we Can.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

From the Website: http://www.whydoyoukillzaid.com/en/mainmenu/home.html
"Why do you kill? The untold story from the Iraqi resistance" will be published on March 30th, 2009 by the Disinformation Company in New York. Please go see your nearest bookstore or order online.
Listen to a great interview here:
http://www.ringoffireradio.com/video/RF%20050209%20hour%201.mp3
"With the royalties earned from this book, Jürgen Todenhöfer plans to help injured Iraqi refugee children (IOM) and finance a project that promotes reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians (MEET). It is the key to reconcilement of Muslims, Christians and Jews worldwide. Reconciliation between the Muslim and non-Muslim world will happen, because it must happen. Jürgen Todenhöfer hopes this book will go some way to contributing to that process. "






Taken directly from: the Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christian-avard/iwhy-do-you-killi-a-forme_b_188382.html
Why Do You Kill? The Untold Story of the Iraqi Resistance. Todenhofer was a member of the German parliament for 18 years and spokesman for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany and the Christian Social Union of Bavaria political parties on development aid and arms control. He has visited the Middle East several times over the last 50 years and has written two best sellers about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In his latest book, Todenhofer travels to Iraq as an unembedded journalist and gives an inside look at what is the Iraqi resistance. His firsthand observations reveal the myths and realities behind the resistance fighters and the terrorists and Todenhofer tries to set the record straight by talking directly with those who fight the occupation.
Todenhofer is currently on an American speaking tour and I caught up with him in Washington, DC where he was giving a talk.

What are the major myths associated with the Iraqi resistance?
When you read about Iraq, 99% of the articles you read are written by embedded journalists. If I went to Iraq as a professional journalist, I would also be embedded. As a private man, I tried to show the other side. We always see the side of how the Pentagon wants to show Iraq because they will never bring a journalist to Fallujah, Ramadi, Mosul, or other places the Pentagon doesn't want to show. You always see what the Pentagon shows you. Which is OK. I don't criticized that. This has always been the way reporters write about a war. I try to show the other side.
I went to Iraq a year and a half ago and met with the resistance. They told me all they wanted because there were no machine guns, officers, or U.S. soldiers around. I think it's important to listen to the other side. When I was there, I felt ashamed. I had the impression that because we don't see the other side, we don't know enough about the misery of the Iraqi people. We have no idea what the resistance is. It's difficult to give a figure because nobody knows for sure how many they are. I would compare the Iraqi resistance with that of the French resistance during the German occupation. It's composed of everyone: bakers, students, teachers, workers, farmers, etc.
Many ordinary people suffered under the Iraqi occupation. People told me their mother was shot because she asked the U.S. soldiers who searched the house, not to break the furniture. Another story was a boy who lost two of his brothers. His name is Zaid. He is a 22-year old student who likes America, admires America, and doesn't want to participate [in the resistance.] Then in summer of 2006, his brother Haroun was killed by a U.S. sniper. Then in winter 2007, their house in Ramadi is bombed. When it was bombed, the family ran went to a relative's house. When they arrived, they realized they forgot something. His youngest, Karim, says "I'll do it." After that, he's shot by American forces. Zaid wants to save Karim, but everyone is preventing him since there's shooting in the streets. The whole family is forced to see the Karin die. That night, he decides to fight. Fighting for Zaid is to attack tanks, Humvees, and not civilians. That's the difference between the resistance and al-Qaeda.
How big of a presence does al-Qaeda have in Iraq?
The importance of al-Qaeda is marginal, but the Pentagon says all the attacks are because of al-Qaeda. I've had several discussions with resistance leaders and one could say there are 100,000 resistance fighters and 1,000 to 2,000 al-Qaeda right now. Now with the
recent attacks in Mosul, there's a big chance the Pentagon will say al-Qaeda is responsible because they need to justify their war. I try to tell the story about Zaid, his family, and all the other Iraqis. I don't say I'm the only one who knows the truth, but I know how it feels on the Iraqi side to be occupied by a western country.
Another difference is that many people within al-Qaeda are not part of the real al Qaeda. The real al-Qaeda are is a very small group. The ones who conducted the brutal and unacceptable attacks on September 11, are the real al-Qaeda. Afghans and Pakistanis know they've lost all their capabilities. One part of it is killed, one part of it is captured, and the other part is hiding and trying not to be discovered. They'd be crazy to stay in touch with the young terrorists in the U.S., Europe or elsewhere. The al-Qaeda in Iraq are copy cats. They call themselves al-Qaeda because it's the most famous terror brand name. Unfortunately and the western countries call them al-Qaeda to justify their war.
Months ago I was in Afghanistan. I met with Hamid Karzai, Afghani foreign minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta, and ex-Taliban leaders. They all told me there's up to 200 al-Qaeda and 30,000 Taliban in their country and they have no contact with Osama bin Laden. Otherwise it would be very easy to catch bin Laden, if they had contact with him.
Terrorism and al-Qaeda are ideologies. Ideologies can't be shot down. Now that bin Laden and al-Qaeda lost their operational capabilities, they can still give hate speeches on Al Jazeera and such, but they have reached their goal because their ideology is now globalized and decentralized. These new terrorists communicate via Internet. They train by the Internet. They can make suicide bombs and all kinds of things. We have to learn to fight against an ideology. How do you do that? You can't shoot it down. With our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, we've strengthen their global terrorism. The only reason to defeat global terrorism is peace. A just and fair peace in Iraq, Afghanistan, the most difficult one, a fair and just peace in Palestine.

Five Question for Jurgen Todenhofer

Hear the words of truth. Hear the words.


"So moldy ...the last line of the Pentagons response....because they dont like it they call it BAD JOURNALISM....
Pentagon Denies Troops Are Trying to Convert Afghans to Christianity
The US military is denying it has allowed soldiers to try to convert Afghans to Christianity, following a report on Al Jazeera that showed pictures of soldiers with Bibles translated into Pashto and Dari. The military claimed the Bibles were never distributed to Afghans. Al Jazeera also aired footage of Lieutenant-Colonel Gary Hensley, the chief of the US military chaplains in Afghanistan, calling on soldiers to hunt people for Jesus.
Lieutenant-Colonel Gary Hensley: “The special forces guys, they hunt men, basically. We do the same things as Christians: we hunt people for Jesus. We do. We hunt them down, get the hound of heaven after them, so we get them into kingdom. Right? That’s what we do. That’s our business.”
The Pentagon criticized Al Jazeera’s report. Military spokesperson Colonel Greg Julian said, “Most of this is taken out of context…This is irresponsible and inappropriate journalism.”

The Longest Walk 2

As Pete Seeger sayes.....Change comes from many small steps...from small things...
Deep gratitude from my heart to all those who contributed and made the journey.....
Mitakuye O

Monday, May 4, 2009

HAPPY 90TH TO PETE SEEGER......AN AMAZING MAN.
http://www.democracynow.org/
Legendary Folk Singer & Activist Pete Seeger Turns 90, Thousands Turn Out for All-Star Tribute Featuring Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez, Bernice Johnson Reagon and Dozens More
Legendary folk singer, banjo player, storyteller, and political and environmental activist Pete Seeger turned ninety on Sunday. More than 18,000 people packed New York’s Madison Square Garden Sunday celebrate the man, the music and the movement. The all-star lineup included Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez, Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, Ani DiFranco, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Billy Bragg, Ruby Dee, Steve Earle, Arlo Guthrie, Guy Davis, Dar Williams, Michael Franti, Bela Fleck, Tim Robbins, Dave Matthews, Rufus Wainwright, John Mellencamp, Ben Harper, and Ritchie Havens.
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090426/NEWS/904260320
Take his 90th birthday concert May 3 at Madison Square Garden, for example. The only reason he agreed to such a huge celebration is because all proceeds benefit the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, his non-profit organization created in 1969 to protect and restore the Hudson River. The concert's lineup was chosen by a committee, but Seeger had input, bringing in the New York City Labor Chorus.
"They'll back up someone and I'll sing one song, fairly early in the program to show folks what fun it is to harmonize," he says. "I'm not telling you what it is, though. It's an old song that a lot of people know and it's fun to harmonize it. I'll lead with my banjo and I hope all 20,000 will sing along."
Whether leading thousands in a sing-along or leading others to do the right thing through song, Seeger has always been a man who speaks his mind.
Since as far back as his teens, Seeger has advocated. He supports civil rights. He protested in the peace and anti-war movements and is an outspoken environmentalist.
As a member of the folk quartet the Weavers, Seeger was blacklisted in the early 1950s for singing songs that defended labor unions. He even went to jail for a short time for asserting his First Amendment rights when subpoenaed to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee.
His goal was to inform, cite injustices within the system and right wrongs. When the government prodded, he stood his ground. He knew if people worked together, their unity would effectively and peacefully show.
His songs were sung by the masses, with many recorded by other artists. Seeger has seen a financial bounty from "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and "If I Had a Hammer," among others.

Buffy Sainte-Marie - Universal Soldier

Take notes.....fighting is not the way to end war.

US troops urged to share faith in Afghanistan - 04 May 09

" Are you fricking kidding me" Someone pinch me...is this for real.....

Friday, May 1, 2009

The Progressive Magazine has taught us much about US social and political history.... I found the piece below quite impressive, quite right on for "all of us" today who struggle with imposed injustices .... I am also reminded that we can only change ourselves.. Happy 100 years to the Progressive Magazine. Check them out:
This article appeared as part of a special issue of the Progressive marking the one-hundreth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.

A Letter to My Nephew
By JAMES BALDWIN, December 1962 Issue

Dear James:
I have begun this letter five times and torn it up five times. I keep seeing your face, which is also the face of your father and my brother. I have known both of you all your lives and have carried your daddy in my arms and on my shoulders, kissed him and spanked him and watched him learn to walk. I don't know if you have known anybody from that far back, if you have loved anybody that long, first as an infant, then as a child, then as a man. You gain a strange perspective on time and human pain and effort.
Other people cannot see what I see whenever I look into your father's face, for behind your father's face as it is today are all those other faces which were his. Let him laugh and I see a cellar your father does not remember and a house he does not remember and I hear in his present laughter his laughter as a child. Let him curse and I remember his falling down the cellar steps and howling and I remember with pain his tears which my hand or your grandmother's hand so easily wiped away, but no one's hand can wipe away those tears he sheds invisibly today which one hears in his laughter and in his speech and in his songs.
I know what the world has done to my brother and how narrowly he has survived it and I know, which is much worse, and this is the crime of which I accuse my country and my countrymen and for which neither I nor time nor history will ever forgive them, that they have destroyed and are destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and do not know it and do not want to know it. One can be--indeed, one must strive to become--tough and philosophical concerning destruction and death, for this is what most of mankind has been best at since we have heard of war; remember, I said most of mankind, but it is not permissible that the authors of devastation should also be innocent. It is the innocence which constitutes the crime.
Now, my dear namesake, these innocent and well meaning people, your countrymen, have caused you to be born under conditions not far removed from those described for us by Charles Dickens in the London of more than a hundred years ago. I hear the chorus of the innocents screaming, "No, this is not true. How bitter you are," but I am writing this letter to you to try to tell you something about how to handle them, for most of them do not yet really know that you exist. I know the conditions under which you were born for I was there. Your countrymen were not there and haven't made it yet. Your grandmother was also there and no one has ever accused her of being bitter. I suggest that the innocent check with her. She isn't hard to find. Your countrymen don't know that she exists either, though she has been working for them all their lives.
Well, you were born; here you came, something like fifteen years ago, and though your father and mother and grandmother, looking about the streets through which they were carrying you, staring at the walls into which they brought you, had every reason to be heavy-hearted, yet they were not, for here you were, big James, named for me. You were a big baby. I was not. Here you were to be loved. To be loved, baby, hard at once and forever to strengthen you against the loveless world. Remember that. I know how black it looks today for you. It looked black that day too. Yes, we were trembling. We have not stopped trembling yet, but if we had not loved each other, none of us would have survived, and now you must survive because we love you and for the sake of your children and your children's children.
***
This innocent country set you down in a ghetto in which, in fact, it intended that you should perish. Let me spell out precisely what I mean by that for the heart of the matter is here and the crux of my dispute with my country. You were born where you were born and faced the future that you faced because you were black and for no other reason. The limits to your ambition were thus expected to be settled. You were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity and in as many ways as possible that you were a worthless human being. You were not expected to aspire to excellence. You were expected to make peace with mediocrity. Wherever you have turned, James, in your short time on this earth, you have been told where you could go and what you could do and how you could do it, where you could live and whom you could marry.
I know your countrymen do not agree with me here and I hear them. saying, "You exaggerate." They do not know Harlem and I do. So do you. Take no one's word for anything, including mine, but trust your experience. Know whence you came. If you know whence you came, there is really no limit to where you can go. The details and symbols of your life have been deliberately constructed to make you believe what white people say about you. Please try to remember that what they believe, as well as what they do and cause you to endure, does not testify to your inferiority, but to their inhumanity and fear.
Please try to be clear, dear James, through the storm which rages about your youthful head today, about the reality which lies behind the words "acceptance" and "integration." There is no reason for you to try to become like white men and there is no basis whatever for their impertinent assumption that they must accept you. The really terrible thing, old buddy, is that you must accept them, and I mean that very seriously. You must accept them and accept them with love, for these innocent people have no other hope. They are in effect still trapped in a history which they do not understand and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it. They have had to believe for many years, and for innumerable reasons, that black men are inferior to white men.
Many of them indeed know better, but as you will discover, people find it very difficult to act on what they know. To act is to be committed and to be committed is to be in danger. In this case the danger in the minds and hearts of most white Americans is the loss of their identity. Try to imagine how you would feel if you woke up one morning to find the sun shivering and all the stars aflame. You would be frightened because it is out of the order of nature. Any upheaval in the universe is terrifying because it so profoundly attacks one's sense of one's own reality. Well, the black man has functioned in the white man's world as a fixed star, as an immovable pillar, and as he moves out of his place, heaven and earth are shaken to their foundations.
You don't be afraid. I said it was intended that you should perish, in the ghetto, perish by never being allowed to go beyond and behind the white man's definition, by never being allowed to spell your proper name. You have, and many of us have, defeated this intention and by a terrible law, a terrible paradox, those innocents who believed that your imprisonment made them safe are losing their grasp of reality. But these men are your brothers, your lost younger brothers, and if the word "integration" means anything, this is what it means, that we with love shall force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it, for this is your home, my friend. Do not be driven from it. Great men have done great things here and will again and we can make America what America must become.
It will be hard, James, but you come from sturdy peasant stock, men who picked cotton, dammed rivers, built railroads, and in the teeth of the most terrifying odds, achieved an unassailable and monumental dignity. You come from a long line of great poets, some of the greatest poets since Homer, One of them said, "The very time I thought I was lost, my dungeon shook and my chains fell off."
You know and I know that the country is celebrating one hundred years of freedom one hundred years too early. We cannot be free until they are free. God bless you, James, and Godspeed.
Your uncle,
JAMES