Feature: Shifters

8.8.08 - A Day for Burma, Not Beijing:
China is the main supporter of the Burmese regime, and we are asking people to pledge to boycott those who profit from the Olympic Games. The goal is to get 1 million people to sign up - creating a loud international cry against the Chinese government. 8.8.08 is the 20th anniversary of the huge massacre of democracy activists in Burma during the 88 uprising, and has always been a solemn day for Burma. This is also the day that the Beijing Olympics will begin.

Pledge to Not Watch Today!

To get 1 million people signed up we will need a lot of help. Join the Street Team

Feature: Doorways

Interesting...filming began in 2003...Long before the world knew about Halliburton and Blackwater.....funny how universal consciousness works...hmmmm
http://www.firstlookstudios.com/films/warinc/

"A political satire set in Turaqistan, a country occupied by an American private corporation run by a former US Vice-President (Aykroyd). In an effort to monopolize the opportunities the war-torn nation offers, the corporation's CEO hires a troubled hit man (Cusack), to kill a Middle East oil minister. Now, struggling with his own growing demons, the assassin must pose as the corporation's Trade Show Producer in order to pull off this latest hit, while maintaining his cover by organizing the high-profile wedding of Yonica Babyyeah (Duff) an outrageous Middle Eastern pop star, and keeping a sexy left wing reporter (Tomei) in check."
Written by fmmini

Hear an interview from the producers here: http://www.goleft.tv/
click on War Inc.

Feature: Shifters

Find the full story here... a great source for Real News;;;
http://www.truthout.org/article/dan-rather-slams-corporate-news-conference

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather delivered a blistering critique of corporate news on Saturday night at the National Conference for Media Reform hosted by Free Press.

The following are Dan Rather's prepared remarks:

" I am grateful to be here and I am, most of all, gratified by the energy I have seen tonight and at this conference. It will take this kind of energy - and more - to sustain what is good in our news media... to improve what is deficient... and to push back against the forces and the trends that imperil journalism and that - by immediate extension - imperil democracy itself."

"The Framers of our Constitution enshrined freedom of the press in the very first Amendment, up at the top of the Bill of Rights, not because they were great fans of journalists - like many politicians, then and now, they were not - but rather because they knew, as Thomas Jefferson put it, that, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was and never will be."

"And it is because of this Constitutionally-protected role that I still prefer to use the word "press" over the word "media." If nothing else, it serves as a subtle reminder that - along with newspapers - radio, television, and, now, the Internet, carry the same Constitutional rights, mandates, and responsibilities that the founders guaranteed for those who plied their trade solely in print."

" It means that we need to be on the alert for where, when, and how our news media bows to undue government influence. And you need to let news organizations know, in no uncertain terms, that you won't stand for it... that you, as news consumers, are capable of exerting pressure of your own."

So what does this mean for us tonight, and what is to be done?

"It means that we need to continue to let our government know that, when it comes to media consolidation, enough is enough. Too few voices are dominating, homogenizing, and marginalizing the news. We need to demand that the American people get something in exchange for the use of airwaves that belong, after all, to the people."

" It means that we need to ensure that the Internet, where free speech reigns and where journalism does not have to pass through a corporate filter... remains free."

" We need to say, loud and clear, that we don't want big corporations enjoying preferred access to - or government acting as the gatekeeper for - this unique platform for independent journalism."

"And it means that we need to hold the government to its mandate to protect the freedom of the press, including independent and non-commercial news media."

" There is energy here, that can be equal to that task, but this energy must be maintained... if the press - if democracy - is to be preserved."

"Thank you very much, and good night."

Feature: Doorways

From the Bioneers.....a message of Hope....Big Mama is waking up!!!

http://www.blessedunrest.com/

"A leading environmentalist and social activist's examination of the worldwide movement for social and environmental change

Paul Hawken has spent over a decade researching organizations dedicated to restoring the environment and fostering social justice.
From billion-dollar nonprofits to single-person dot.causes, these groups collectively comprise the largest movement on earth, a movement that has no name, leader, or location, and that has gone largely ignored by politicians and the media. Like nature itself, it is organizing from the bottom up, in every city, town, and culture. and is emerging to be an extraordinary and creative expression of people's needs worldwide."

"Blessed Unrest explores the diversity of the movement, its brilliant ideas, innovative strategies, and hidden history, which date back many centuries. A culmination of Hawken's many years of leadership in the environmental and social justice fields, it will inspire and delight any and all who despair of the world's fate, and its conclusions will surprise even those within the movement itself. Fundamentally, it is a description of humanity's collective genius, and the unstoppable movement to reimagine our relationship to the environment and one another. "
Blessed Unrest
How the Largest Movement In the World Came Into Being
and Why No One Saw it Coming
352 pages, Hardcover, Viking Press New York

Feature: Doorways

You Can End Mountaintop Removal----WE are all Related. We are all connected!!

http://www.ilovemountains.org/
Mountaintop removal is a radical form of coal mining in which entire mountains are literally blown up -- and it is happening here in America on a scale that is almost unimaginable.

Mountaintop removal is devastating hundreds of square miles of Appalachia; polluting the headwaters of rivers that provide drinking water to millions of Americans; and destroying a distinctly American culture that has endured for generations.

But mountaintop removal can be stopped -- with the help of people like you.

On this site, you can explore the National Memorial for the Mountains, watch a videoshare your prayers for the mountains and more.

Read a brillant piece by Robert Kennedy Jr. here: http://www.ilovemountains.org/cost_of_coal/87

And one from Wendell Berry here: http://www.ilovemountains.org/cost_of_coal/86

Feature: Crossroads

The next few posts are my embryonic attempt to document the absolute connection between the social-moral, cultural-spiritual-emotional ---and the political --governmental---corporate worlds. Now is the time we must be involved...even if involvement means we are just "Ablaza"....AWARE...BE AWARE.

The first one is here....MONSANTO---the chemical corporation.

If you care about our earth...watch this video...and tell all you know

http://www.sprword.com/videos/monsanto/

"There's nothing they are leaving untouched: the mustard, the okra, the bringe oil, the rice, the cauliflower. Once they have established the norm: that seed can be owned as their property, royalties can be collected. We will depend on them for every seed we grow of every crop we grow. If they control seed, they control food, they know it - it's strategic. It's more powerful than bombs. It's more powerful than guns.

This is the best way to control the populations of the world." -Vandana Shiva The story starts in the White House, where Monsanto often got its way by exerting disproportionate influence over policymakers via the "revolving door". One example is Michael Taylor, who worked for Monsanto as an attorney before being appointed as deputy commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1991. While at the FDA, the authority that deals with all US food approvals, Taylor made crucial decisions that led to the approval of GE foods and crops. Then he returned to Monsanto, becoming the company's vice president for public policy.

Thanks to these intimate links between Monsanto and government agencies, the US adopted GE foods and crops without proper testing, without consumer labeling and in spite of serious questions hanging over their safety. Not coincidentally, Monsanto supplies 90 percent of the GE seeds used by the US market. Monsanto's long arm stretched so far that, in the early nineties, the US Food and Drugs Agency even ignored warnings of their own scientists, who were cautioning that GE crops could cause negative health effects. Other tactics the company uses to stifle concerns about their products include misleading advertising, bribery and concealing scientific evidence. (Excerpt from greenpeace.org) Please visit the official website for more information: http://www.arte.tv/monsanto

Feature: Shifters

As I indulge in all things juicy and tasty....I am reminded of those beings whose love and service I am indebted......

http://www.helpthehoneybees.com/

Haagen-Dazs (yummy) is working with Us...to save the Bees....Check out the website----it is really nifty.

Honey bees have been all the buzz lately. The huge losses sustained by beekeepers all over the country and the still-unsolved mystery of the disappearing bees have brought these hard-working insects and their keepers to everyone’s attention. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).