Angela Hayden's Smartass Blog

Rights and Liberties Insurance Policy from AlterNet

2009-06-12T15:52:00.002-05:00

Can we count on you to help protect our rights and civil liberties?

Click here to support AlterNet, so we can keep telling the stories that need to be told.

Excerpt from AlterNet.org

We can pretend that the erosion of one person's rights is nothing but a distant threat to our own rights and liberties. But we know that isn't realistic. Protecting our rights is really up to all of us.

The erosion of rights in our society is epidemic. No Fly Lists (even Ted Kennedy was on the list!), mistaken identities, false accusations, illegal wiretaps, data mining, and even highjacking of web sites and Facebook pages -- all of these are daily occurrences.

AlterNet's Rights & Liberties coverage is about all of these intrusions and more. And we need your support to keep telling these important stories.

On Wednesday, AlterNet's Rights & Liberties editor Liliana Segura wrote to you emphasizing her role in "giving voice to stories ignored by the corporate press" -- for people who may have been incarcerated wrongly, or deprived of access to help and support. She urged us to "fight for a society that treats people fairly and does not victimize or vilify the innocent or vulnerable."

I say right on to that. But wait... isn't she writing about all of us? In any given moment, any one of us can be vulnerable. AlterNet has told many stories of people who have been victimized in dozens of ways, people who have been caught in the web of official paranoia, misinformation and misguided attempts to make us safe. And many of those people are just like you and me.

AlterNet's coverage of your rights and your liberties is in your hands. No foundations are stepping up to help fund this work in our current economic climate. They have other priorities. So, we are turning to you. Will you help?

I urge you to support Liliana's work -- and all of our work at AlterNet -- because we are working for you. Who knows whose story is the next one we will tell. It could be my story, or your story, or the story of someone we know and care about.

Please, this is important. Anything you can give to support our work will help.

Donate to your favorite cause for free using your email signature

2009-05-29T06:44:00.001-05:00

how replyforall is

replyforall is a new way to support causes in a simple, practical, and sustainable way.

we all want to support our favorite causes, but don't always have extra cash to give. however, we do have something very valuable - the relationships with the people who we email every day. replyforall recognizes the power of a broad base of supporters to both have an impact and attract sponsor revenue. so we take what we have and turn it into something we can do.

how replyforall works

you email. we get sponsors.
when you email with your friends and family, you're reaching real people who care about what you've got to say. we use this simple but powerful dynamic to get sponsors.

after you join replyforall, the messages you send will show the cause you support and a financial sponsor as your signature. the sponsor pays to reach you and the people you email, and we share the sponsor's payment with the causes you select. so you do what you already do. and the more people who join the mission, the more sponsors pay, and the more we can give to causes.

what replyforall believes

replyforall is anchored by the belief that the most sustainable way for people to have an impact is to make it a part of what they do everyday. if participating is too painful, too hard to remember, or only appealing to a handful of people, then it limits our impact.

so we want you to participate at the level you feel comfortable. if you just want to use the signature and stop there, thank you. if you can grow our support base by recruiting more friends to join the mission, thank you. if you seek to engage the replyforall community to galvanize us around very important causes, thank you.

2 Minutes To Know Slavery. 1 Minute 1 More Minute. Done.

2009-05-28T23:38:00.000-05:00

This inspiring film is part music video and part documentary. In just 2 minutes viewers learn the core facts about slavery. Compelling images tell the story of modern day bondage and inspire us to imagine a world without slavery. Music by W.T. Greer | Directed and Written by Peggy Callahan| Edited by Jeff Olney.

Watch and Learn more at FreeTheSlaves.Net
Watch more of Free the Slaves' documentary films.
Visit here to learn more about Kevin Bales' book "Ending Slavery"

The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins

2009-05-23T13:13:00.001-05:00

Coming this September 2009
Pre-Order Now:
Amazon US | Amazon UK
BarnesAndNoble.com
Borders.com
IndieBound.org
Powells.com

Charles Darwin's masterpiece, "On the Origin of Species", shook society to its core on publication in 1859. Darwin was only too aware of the storm his theory of evolution would provoke but he would surely have raised an incredulous eyebrow at the controversy still raging a century and a half later. Evolution is accepted as scientific fact by all reputable scientists and indeed theologians, yet millions of people continue to question its veracity. In "The Greatest Show on Earth", Richard Dawkins takes on creationists, including followers of 'Intelligent Design' and all those who question the fact of evolution through natural selection.

Like a detective arriving on the scene of a crime, he sifts through fascinating layers of scientific facts and disciplines to build a cast-iron case:

from the living examples of natural selection in birds and insects;
the 'time clocks' of trees and radioactive dating that calibrate a timescale for evolution;
the fossil record and the traces of our earliest ancestors;
to confirmation from molecular biology and genetics.

All of this, and much more, bears witness to the truth of evolution. "The Greatest Show on Earth" comes at a critical time: systematic opposition to the fact of evolution is now flourishing as never before, especially in America. In Britain and elsewhere in the world, teachers witness insidious attempts to undermine the status of science in their classrooms. Richard Dawkins provides unequivocal evidence that boldly and comprehensively rebuts such nonsense. At the same time he shares with us his palpable love of the natural world and the essential role that science plays in its interpretation. Written with elegance, wit and passion, it is hard-hitting, absorbing and totally convincing.

La Madeleine Restaurant is a treat with the purchase of one cup of coffee.

2009-05-23T00:43:00.002-05:00

Coffee with free refills, free french bread, whole wheat or white, free butter and jam. I spent practically two years in there studying during college. Also, they always played beautiful classical music in the background. The workers left me alone. It was a real escape for me as well. I have two daughters and was going to school full-time. It was a treat to be alone and out of the house. I really miss the place.Visit La Madeleine.

Get Beyond Firewood. The Lives of Women and Girls Depend on it.

2009-01-08T07:07:00.037-06:00

Why Firewood?

Firewood and Rape

It seems unimaginable—risking rape and assault just to cook a meal for your family. Yet it's a threat that refugee women and girls face every day, all over the world. They are put squarely in harm's way as they leave the relative safety of their camps and encounter dangerous militias, corrupt soldiers and lawless rebels, and the animosity of villagers who fear their own resources being depleted.

Firewood and Respiratory Disease

The dangers of firewood don’t stop at rape: when burned inside the home, toxic fumes fill the lungs of children and threaten the health of the entire family. 1.5 million children die every year from respiratory diseases related to smoke inhalation. Using clean-burning alternatives to firewood will help decrease indoor air pollution, saving the lives of infants and young children.

Firewood and Environmental Devastation

The mass cutting of trees for firewood, combined with increasing average temperatures, is devastating the land—and the longer it continues, the less likely it is that such land will ever again be useable. Decreasing reliance on firewood, investing in reforestation and promoting greener cooking fuels can help stem this massive deforestation.

It’s time to get beyond firewood. The Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, with our partners, is mobilizing innovators from around the world to develop new technologies and energy solutions.

Firewood and Energy

There is growing global support for the development of alternative fuels and energy technologies: clean-burning fuels and devices that are local and sustainable. Exciting technological progress is being made by nongovernmental organizations (such as our Featured Change Agent, the Gaia Association), forward-thinking corporations and universities all over the world. Examples now being used and tested are clean-burning stoves, a vast array of solar cookers and fuels such as liquid propane gas (LPG). Yet these options aren’t nearly enough to combat the problem. What we need now are more cutting-edge ideas from the world's most innovative thinkers.

In the industrialized world, we take for granted the simplicity of turning on our stoves and plugging in our microwaves. Yet millions of displaced women and girls struggle to do what so many of us do so easily, without risk and without pause: cook for ourselves and our families. Alternatives must be developed to make cooking safer for refugee women and girls.

Join our network of passionate advocates and help keep the crisis on the world’s radar.
Support the Women's Commission's groundbreaking work to rally the world to action.
Urge Congress to pass the "International Violence against Women Act" and help protect vulnerable women and girls.

Spread the Word

Refugee and displaced women and girls can get beyond firewood—with your help. Follow Get Beyond Firewood on Twitter at @beyondfirewood and become a Fan of our page on Facebook.

Bitter PC Meltdown

2008-12-21T09:05:00.000-06:00

My pc is down again, 3rd time in last 12 months, afraid i won't be able to recover my data from the hard drive. ran all the ultimate cd boot disc with barts pe and notta. my pc is out to get me. words can't express how totally pissed off i am right now. also have temporarily misplaced my glasses thus find it hard to read, i am reduced to finally doing my filing, cleaning my office and the rest of the house. woe is me. i hope all is well with y'all.

Reality Ads from Domestic Violence Agency are Right On!

2008-12-05T20:22:00.023-06:00

The Family Place saved my life in 1996, along with my two daughters. I wrote a book and posts about my escape and how The Family Place provided life saving services for me and my daughters. From emergency shelter, food and clothes, to a supportive living apartment and time to attain an education. Book: "Dead Wrong - The Truth about Domestic Violence, Incest and Child Abuse". here, and here

"We are not a male-bashing organization. Our services support all victims—male and female, children and adults. This year, we have provided court-ordered batterer’s treatment to 449 male, 106 female and 98 adolescent offenders. We have helped 308 men and 326 women recover from childhood sexual assault and incest in our Incest Recovery Program. To date we have counseled 9 male and 1,335 female victims in our outreach programs.

We wanted the campaign to start a conversation, and it has.The visibility of the DART campaign and the community response to it resulted in a front-page story in The Dallas Morning News featuring our hotline number. This sparked a sharp increase in hotline calls for help. The campaign also provides an opportunity for parents to talk about family violence with their children and emphasize the importance of healthy relationships and respect for others.

Ultimately the campaign is making a difference by getting the word out about our services to victims who need our help."

Some realities are hard to look at
but you can do something to help.

Live In This Moment Art by Angela Hayden

2008-12-01T18:37:00.018-06:00

Art series, Live In This Moment

Royal Purple and Gold

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Gold Leaf on Dark Gold

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Blogging in Iran

2008-11-29T08:41:00.003-06:00

Iran: A nation of bloggers from Mr.Aaron on Vimeo.

Infographic about Iranian bloggers

Marriage Can Kill Women

2008-11-18T06:46:00.007-06:00

In sub-Saharan Africa, home to two-thirds of the world’s people living with HIV, women make up 60 percent of those infected. Not only are women biologically more susceptible than men to HIV, many behavioral and social factors play into women’s vulnerability.

This 12-minute documentary, filmed in Kenya, is intended to inform and provoke discussion of harmful gender and societal norms that put women and couples at risk for HIV. It is also intended for advocacy to mobilize political and financial support for sexual and reproductive health and rights to achieve broader social, economic and gender equity for everyone.

The Silent Partner: HIV in Marriage examines the risk of HIV within marriage and the particular challenges facing married women. Conventional HIV prevention strategies do not meet the needs of married women who cannot practice abstinence, cannot control the faithfulness of their husbands, and find it difficult to negotiate condom use.

Population Action International (PAI) works to ensure that every person has the right and access to sexual and reproductive health, so that humanity and the natural environment can exist in balance and fewer people live in poverty. Founded in 1965, PAI is an independent policy and research organization that accepts no government funds.

http://www.populationaction.org/silentpartner/index.html

From Child Soldier to Hip Hop Star. War Child Documentary.

2008-11-17T13:29:00.007-06:00

War Child - About The Film

War Child, an award-winning documentary directed by C. Karim Chrobog, chronicles the tumultuous, shocking, inspiring, and ultimately hopeful odyssey of Emmanuel Jal. A former child soldier of Sudan's brutal civil war, he is now an emerging international hip hop star sharing a message of peace for his war-torn land and beloved Africa.

In the early 1980s at the age of seven, Jal was swept into Sudan's civil war, becoming one of 10,000 child soldiers conscripted on both sides of the two decade long conflict. After being forced to do many unimaginably horrible things, he escaped the soldier's camp and trekked for four months through Africa. He was eventually found and adopted by the now legendary British aid worker Emma McCune who had married Sudanese guerrilla commander Riek Machar and convinced him to not employ child soldiers. Shortly after she adopted Jal, McCune died in a suspicious car crash, leaving Emmanuel "orphaned"once again. Jal rose from ruthless child soldier to refugee to rap star. He found his own redemption and life mission through a message of peace that represents one of the 21st centuries' most inspiring and hopeful journeys, and a metaphor for the broader African predicament.

Emmanuel's journey is, in many ways, just beginning. His dream of Gua (peace) in Sudan and prosperity in Africa is threatened by corrupt leaders, genocidal warlords, and Western indifference. Hopefully, Emmanuel's peace quest to make the world a better place through his music, activism and youth education will prove to be far more significant than Emmanuel's former war.

War Child tells the story of Jal's life through his words and music, and remarkable film footage dating back to his childhood. Even at the age of seven, Emmanuel's charisma were so evident that National Geographic focused their own 1980's reportage on him as spokesperson for the children. Today, as Emmanuel travels the World, even into the halls of the US State Department, he takes us through his homeland's tormented history of civil war, assesses the prospects for peace after the country's 2005 ceasefire agreement, highlights the increasing problem of war children, and shines light on the growing African hip hop scene that is tackling the continent's ills through its music.

Eye Exercises Cures Helps To Limit the Severty or Prevent Migraines

2008-11-13T08:00:00.002-06:00

UPDATE: Eye Exercises ~~Cures~~ Helps To Limit the Severty or Prevent Migraines

Also, deeply massaging below the eyebrows and close to the nose relieves pressure.
-------------

I've suffered from migraines since I was a teenager. I'm now 43 and the last two years I've been able to control them without medication ( such as imitrex ). I started doing eye exercises every night before bed. They hurt at first because the muscles were not being used.

After about half and hour I usually fall to sleep because it is exhausting and relaxing. I can feel sinus passages draining and the pain subsiding. Below is a chart of some good eye exercises from http://www.totemdog.com/eyesite/

		Look up, hold 5 seconds, relax your eyes. Look down, hold 5 seconds, relax your eyes. Repeat 5 times. Blink your eyes a few seconds.
		Look left, hold 5 seconds, relax your eyes. Look right, hold 5 seconds, relax your eyes. Repeat 5 times. Blink your eyes.
		Look up left, hold 5 seconds, relax your eyes. Look down right, hold 5 seconds, relax your eyes. Repeat 5 times. Blink your eyes.
		Look up right, hold 5 seconds, relax your eyes. Look down left, hold 5 seconds, relax your eyes. Repeat 5 times. Blink your eyes.
		Rotate eyeballs 10 circles to left. Blink your eyes.
		Rotate eyeballs 10 circles to right. Blink your eyes.
		Cross your eyes by looking at the tip of your nose. Look up at your eyebrows and then back to the tip the nose. Relax your eyes. Repeat 5 times. Blink your eyes.
		Close your eyes as tightly as you can. Hold 5 seconds, then relax. Open your eyes wide open. Hold 5 seconds, then relax. Repeat 10 times. Blink your eyes.

Eye exercise images from http://www.totemdog.com/eyesite/

How We Tolerate The Poor.

2008-11-08T10:32:00.024-06:00

Upstate Girls - What Became of Collar City
from The Raw File on Vimeo.

Upstate Girls; What Became of Collar City is an ongoing documentary project that began in 2004. The roots of the epic are the coming of age stories of six young women in the post -industrial city of Troy, New York. “Upstate Girls” will be released across three platforms. A print book, feature length documentary film, and a multi-media web series that contextualize the young women’s personal stories in Troy’s important labor history will be released beginning spring of 2009. Look for updates on www.therawfile.org and a feature article in the Spring Issue of The Virginia Quarterly Review and GEO MAGAZINE later in 2009.

I was 16 years old by the time I completed the sentence of “probation” given to me by Albany County Family Court. I wanted to get out too. I was terrified of repeating the lives of resignation that I saw being played out in every corner of my community. I left upstate New York for Florida in 1977 in the Chevy Impala of an older friend who had spent time down south a few years before. I drifted in Miami.

Married an older man who could provide me with the home that I never had, worked as a waitress, a retail clerk and even a brief stint as a bartender in a strip club. I had a propensity for drugs and alcohol that seemed to add excitement to the monotony of survival. My dreams of freedom were all but lost in the grinder of substance when I met a woman who was to become my mentor and life mother. Maureen was like no one from the neighborhood where I had grown up. She approached life unburdened and instilled in me a sense of possibility and passion for analytical thinking that was considered “impractical, if not unknowable, in my immediate family”. She traveled, loved art, read books, and valued good conversation.

Through her, I eventually saw my misspent youth as a series of valuable lessons that I could bring to the classroom and an informed life. The trick was to develop a healthy enough sense of entitlement to enter the larger arenas of the life that I had envisioned since childhood. For Me, Maureen was that outside force that interrupted the predetermined course on which I felt my life would follow. She told me that the biggest obstacle that I faced was that somehow I had to overcome the message that gotten early on – which was that

"I had not earned my right to be here. "

I began slowly, taking classes at Broward Community College. My grades in English and a rudimentary photography course got me accepted into The Photojournalism Department at The University of Miami. I graduated in 1991 with a BS in Photo communication and a double major in Sociology.

I met “The Upstate Girls “ while on assignment for THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE in 2003. A friend and colleague, Adrian Nicole Leblanc had completed RANDOM FAMILY, a book that was to become extremely important in both the literary and social science world. The TIMES assigned me to take photographs for an excerpt that they were running. Afternoons full of kids in paneled rooms killing time till mothers dragged in from work, brought back feelings even 20 years of Miami Sun couldn’t fade. Days spent photographing girls on Sixth Avenue in Troy collapsed the decades between my own glassed in front porch on Second Avenue, the key under the mat after school, and my new life as a sophisticated professional. I drowned. I saw all our lives.

Money Power Respect - Pictures of My Neighborhood

Money Power Respect. Pictures of My Neighborhood.
Photographs by Brenda Ann Kenneally.
Text by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc.
Channel Photographics, New York, 2005. 144 pp.,
100 varnished duotone illustrations, 8x10½".

Since 1996, photographer Brenda Ann Kenneally has documented the families in her Brooklyn neighborhood, quietly witnessing their struggle with poverty, social institutions, and the illicit drug trade. Having inspired the likes of Eugene Richards and Thomas Roma, Brooklyn proves an inexhaustible muse, and Kenneally comes to the familiar ground with a fresh perspective. Her poignant, psychological photographs span generations, tracing the same people she sees everyday on her street. With her camera, Kenneally narrates their tale of both hope and despair as she explores how her subjects empower themselves in a lost culture of drugs and prison. Money, Power, Respect: Pictures of My Neighborhood chronicles pregnancies and births, institutions and streets, drugs and rehab, showing the community of inner-city families at once full of life and also institutionalized by the welfare system. Through it all, Kenneally evokes their dreams for a better life, tempered with the awareness that they may be caught in the cyclic lifestyle of limited opportunities. The photographs are in the best sense fully present, alive to what is, rather than searching for what is not. Her images draw us to hope for their survival and compel us to experience the depths and complexities of family life in the American social and justice systems. Money, Power, Respect details a crucial historical moment in our nation’s nearly total abandonment of the poor. This book makes it impossible to turn away from the yearning towards life, to detach the economics of the situation from the machinery of the heart.

You can order it at:

Photo-Eye
Amazon
Barnes&Noble

Related Sites
Hour Children

Money, Power and Respect: Pictures of My Neighborhood
The Bronx Defenders
Women's Prison Association

Pinky Questions the Legality of Iraq War

2008-10-29T09:57:00.007-05:00

Pinky wants some answers: Is the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq legal or illegal? Do any of the charges of illegality we've been hearing about have any legal basis at all? And why should we even care about international law anyway? Pinky and friends do the research and then tell you all the answers!

For more information visit:
http://www.pinkyshow.org/

The Pinky Show : concept & purpose

Q: What is The Pinky Show?
A: The Pinky Show is the original super lo-tech hand-drawn educational TV show. We focus on information & ideas that have been misrepresented, suppressed, ignored, or otherwise excluded from mainstream discussion. Pinky presents and analyzes the material in an informal, easy-to-understand way, with helpful illustrations that she draws herself. Episodes are available on the internet for free at www.PinkyShow.org.

Q: What is the purpose of The Pinky Show?
A: The Pinky Show presents marginalized perspectives as a means of challenging individuals to consider realities that lie beyond their own lived experiences. We believe that positive social change becomes real when human beings learn how to critically engage 'the Other' with openness, honesty, and compassion.

Q: What kind of things are discussed on The Pinky Show?
A: Pinky is curious about a wide range of subjects - little-known historical facts, critical analyses and interpretations of cultural texts (movies, art, advertisements, music, etc.), social and political commentary, issues of morality & ethics, and basically anything that people may not know or spend much time thinking about. The motivation for creating each show is simple - Pinky says: "All I want is to be able to understand things".

Q: Who makes The Pinky Show?
A: The Pinky Show is a project of Associated Animals Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization based in the United States. We have four members - Pinky & Bunny (research/writing/episode production), Mimi (organizational paper-pushing), and Kim (...um?). Associated Animals Inc. has no board of directors; member cats are only guided by curiosity and a willingness to work and learn.

Q: How do students & teachers benefit from watching The Pinky Show?
A: Pinky is especially interested in the kind of learning that takes place (or doesn't take place) in schools, and frequently corresponds with teachers who use the show in many different ways:

- For personal viewing, simply to expand their range of perspectives, or as an easy way to introduce themselves to information that they'd otherwise never (or rarely) be exposed to.

- For classroom showing, especially as a starting point for a more complex, varied, and critical dialogue on a certain subject or issue (the short-form aspect makes classroom showing very flexible when time management is a concern).

- As a way to introduce students to the underlying structural and historial forces that influence what kinds of information are included in their classroom textbooks, newspapers, magazines, television news, films, etc., and conversely, what kind of perspectives tend to be left out. The Pinky Show thus aims to consistently present a useful 'counterset' of information in order to complicate the smooth and automatic (and ultimately uncritical) consumption of information. Pinky does this because she believes that reductive, absolutist, and otherwise dishonest ways of thinking ultimately culminate in the very real and tangible harming of individuals, relationships, communities, and society itself.

In short, Pinky believes in openness rather than closure. Likewise, open-minded teachers will find many uses for The Pinky Show.

Q: What age level is The Pinky Show appropriate for?
A: Although the simplified visual style of the show recalls children's programming, The Pinky Show is in fact intended for an adult audience. The illustrations only look this way because Pinky has minimal talent for art.

Q: Is making animated episodes the only kind of work you cats do?

A: No, actually we do lots of other things too, thank you for asking! The Pinky Show is a multi-aspect educational project - our activities also include the production of site-specific art, collaborating on community-based education and media activism projects, maintaining a fact sheet library, organizing online cultural programming, blogging, and some other stuff. Contrary to popular misconceptions, cats are really hard working! The form is always changing, but our goals remain the same (see above!).

For more information visit:
http://www.pinkyshow.org/

Lipsticked White Supremacist Doth Protest Too Much His Homosexuality

2008-10-28T08:20:00.006-05:00

The New York Times ran a story about the "Arrests in Plan to Kill Obama and Black Schoolchildren".

Methinks the white supremacist man doth protest too much. I noticed that the photo of the man looks more like a woman wearing lipstick. His parents should have allowed him to express his homosexuality. Suppression leads to extremism.

UPDATE: From

(TapwaterJ)

"Perhaps the lipstick is solidarity with Palin . . . "

Associated Press

Daniel Cowart of Bells, Tenn., was one of two men
charged in what officials called a white supremacist

From NEW YORK TIMES:

WASHINGTON — Two young men who are believers in “white power” have been arrested and charged in Tennessee in what federal officials described as a plan to assassinate Senator Barack Obama and kill black children at a school.

Federal officials said they regarded the scheme as “serious.” It does not appear to have moved to an advanced stage, according to court documents unsealed Monday, but officials said the two men did acquire several rifles and cased a home and a gun store to rob as part of the plan.

Federal officials said that both of the men who were arrested — Paul Schlesselman, 18, of West Helena, Ark., and Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn. — told interrogators that they had talked of assassinating Mr. Obama. Lawyers for the men could not be reached.

The two men “planned to drive their vehicle as fast as they could toward Obama shooting at him from the windows,” according to an affidavit filed in federal court in Jackson, Tenn., by an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Mr. Obama has no plans to be in Tennessee, and the affidavit does not make clear whether the men had picked a place for an attack.

The assassination was to be the culmination of a “killing spree” that would also single out children at an unnamed, predominately black school, federal officials said. The men talked of “killing 88 people and beheading 14 African-Americans,” according to the affidavit.

The two men each had “very strong views” about Aryan white power and “skinhead” ideology, the federal officials said, and the numbers 88 and 14 have special significance in the white power movement. The number 88 is shorthand for “Heil, Hitler” — H is the eighth letter in the alphabet —and 14 signifies a 14-word mantra among white supremacists: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” read the rest at THE NEW YORK TIMES

Conservative Ass-Kissers Doing Away With Violence Against Women Act VAWA

2008-10-26T23:50:00.001-05:00

Crazy Conservatives Doing Away With VAWA (Violence Against Women Act )

Right Wing Watch Reports:

Apparently, at the Eagle Forum and RADAR [Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting] co-hosted an all-day event entitled “The Conflict between Federal Domestic Violence Policies and Traditional Family Values” [PDF] at The Heritage Foundation that will focus on how to do away with the Violence Against Women Act: .

The Violence Against Women Act, which now costs the federal government $1 billion a year, has spawned an industry that undermines Constitutional protections, thwarts welfare reform, weakens military readiness, fosters immigration fraud, and is harmful to families. This conference will probe how to rein in a federal law that increasingly encroaches on the personal lives of millions of Americans.

Just check out the forum’s (CRAZY CONSERVATIVES) agenda:

9:30
Feminist Fatherphobia and Domestic Violence
Phyllis Schlafly – Eagle Forum

10:00
How Marriage Protects Against Domestic Violence
Robert Rector – Heritage

10:45
How Domestic Violence Policies Weaken Families and Harm Children
Stephen Baskerville, PhD – Patrick Henry College Foundation

11:15
VAWA: Victimizing All Taxpayers Act?
Benjamin Foster, PhD, CPA – University of Louisville College of Business

11:45
Impact on Military Readiness
Elaine Donnelly – Center for Military Readiness

It’s easy to understand that “marriage protects against domestic violence” provided that you share Schlafly’s view that wives cannot be raped by their husbands.

Organizations Doing Good Work to Help Victims of Domstic Violence:
www.CenterAgainstDV.org - Housing, Shelters, Support Services Get The Help That You Need!

www.enddomesticabuse.org - Learn the 5 red flags of domestic abuse. Diagnostic tool available

www.FamilyPlace.org - Help For Victims Of Family Violence Learn More Or Donate Online Today

www.ndvh.org/ - National Domestic Violence Hotline

Women Are Heroes. The Women Project.

2008-10-26T23:35:00.001-05:00

ACTION BRUXELLES 2 - GARE CENTRAL

by JR

ACTION IN BRUXELLES 1 - JR

by JR

The Women project wants to underline their pivotal role and to highlight their dignity by shooting them in their daily lives and posting them on the walls of their country.

On the other hand, by posting the same images of these women in Western countries, the project allows everyone to feel concerned by their condition and connects, through art, the two different worlds.

Kenya, South-Sudan, Sierra-Leone, Liberia - The violence suffered by women there is the extreme expression of discriminations. The ethnic wars in Africa are a source of the worst crimes on women. When meeting them, JR wants to testify of their force, their courage and their noble struggle: first to live, then to exist.

Right now JR is in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil where the context of favelas has encouraged to meet women for whom crime, violent lost of loved ones and arbitrary repression are part of everyday life.

In 2008/2009, JR plans to visit India, Cambodia, Laos, Marcs, then return to Kenya.

To the limits of contemporary art – the goal is once again to reach the limits of Art in a closed social and cultural environment and watch the reaction of the local population. What is at stake here is the assessment of the possibilities of intervention in the different environments. The success of such a process allows drawing a status of women in their countries. Proof by action is chosen.

In the Western countries, the exhibitions of the project will recall this artistic adventure, committed and committing.

Citizen Journalists Video the Vote

2008-10-25T16:46:00.011-05:00

Video the Vote 2008

Video the Vote is a national initiative to protect voting rights by monitoring the electoral process. We organize citizen journalists—ordinary folks like you and me—to document election problems as they occur. And then we distribute their footage to the mainstream media and online to make sure the full story of Election Day gets told. Watch our 2006 highlights and join us as we Video the Vote this November.

Sign up to Video the Vote and join a growing network of Americans working together to monitor and improve our election systems. We are concerned citizens, amateur videographers, voting rights activists, and filmmakers united by a commitment to strengthening democracy through citizen oversight. And we need your help:

Videographers - Get dispatched to cover problems in your area or go out and document on your own.
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Rich Conservatives Keep the Lower Class and Middle Class in their Place - Beneath Them.

2008-10-24T21:42:00.003-05:00

CLASS WARFARE From OurFuture.Org

The Politics

In recent weeks, conservatives have ramped up their name-calling and accusations, telling voters that progressives such as Barack Obama are “socialists” who want to take money from the middle-class and give it away to the poor. According to John McCain, Obama “believes in redistributing wealth, not in policies that grow our economy and create jobs and opportunities for all Americans.” [John McCain.com] McCain claims that progressive tax policies will raise tax rates on small businesses and “hard-working families to give ‘welfare’ to those who pay none.” [John McCain.com, McCain Web Ad]

The Facts

Conservatives are the real redistributors of wealth. Under the Bush Administration, the incomes of middle-range households have stagnated. Workers with earnings in the lower range have lost ground and, taking inflation into consideration, on average they now earn less than they did in 2000. [U.S. Census Bureau] All the income these workers lost went directly to the top 20 percent of households, the only group whose share of income rose over the last eight years. [U.S. Census Bureau] Income inequality in the United States has skyrocketed since Bush took office, making America the world’s third-most economically unbalanced country, behind only Mexico and Turkey. [Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development]

It’s the wealthy, not working Americans, who avoid taxes. Conservatives like John McCain claim that “more than 40 percent [of Americans] pay no income taxes right now.” [JohnMcCain.com] He suggests that it’s low-income workers who are skipping out on their tax responsibility, but that isn’t true. The wealthy enjoy most of the income generated by capital investments—and that income is taxed at a lower rate than the income middle-class workers earn. Warren Buffett pointed out that it is unjust for him to pay taxes at a lower rate than his secretary does. [Raw Story]

Progressive tax policies benefit all of America; conservative policies have failed. Conservatives accused President Clinton of “tax and spend politics” when he raised income taxes on the very wealthy to pay for investments in economic development, education, and new technology. [Washington Post] But Clinton’s policies yielded 23 million new jobs—nearly five times more new jobs than Bush created with his tax cuts for the super-rich. [Bureau of Labor Statistics]

Conservative tax policies contribute to the extreme inequality we now face—and they want to make it worse. Instead of giving everyone an equal tax cut, John McCain promises to give the richest people in America a cut five times as big as the one he’s promising to Americans in the middle class. [Tax Policy Center] John McCain’s tax policies are even more unbalanced than George W. Bush’s: Bush gave 31 percent of the benefits of his tax cuts to the wealthiest one percent, but McCain would give them 58 percent of benefits. [Center for American Progress]

A progressive tax proposal is the best bet for small businesses. Less than two percent of small-business owners would face a tax increase under a progressive tax plan such as Barack Obama’s, and many more would see their tax bill reduced. [Tax Policy Center] In fact, one of the tax credits John McCain rails against—the Earned Income Tax Credit—is claimed by 14 percent of small-business owners. Obama’s plan to strengthen this credit would help seven times as many small-business owners as would McCain’s plan to decrease tax rates for the richest Americans. [Center for Budget and Policy Priorities]

The Argument

It’s time for an honest conversation about taxes. Instead of yelling about which candidate will give away the biggest tax cut, let’s consider which tax plan will raise the revenue needed to meet America’s needs in the fairest and most efficient way possible. The economic debate should be about investment and long-term economic goals, not just tax rates. After all, many Americans would be willing to pay the taxes they paid when Bill Clinton was president if they could have the economy they enjoyed when Bill Clinton was president.
Even John McCain knows that tax cuts for the rich aren’t fair. Or at least he used to. McCain now wants to keep Bush’s tax cuts and make them bigger. But in 2001 he said, “I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us at the expense of middle class Americans who most need tax relief.” [New York Times]

Conservative accusations of “socialism” are preposterous. America has prospered by investing in its future—from canals to interstate highways, from the internet to public universities. There’s a real difference between socialism and government investment. America’s income tax system has always been progressive. It is as American as apple pie. Conservatives’ accusations of “socialism” are name-calling, not analysis. And look what conservatives have done. McCain calls Obama’s refundable tax credits “welfare,” but his own tax plan contains a refundable credit for health insurance. [John McCain.com] Sarah Palin expanded a program that takes profits from oil companies and redistributes it to Alaska’s residents with rebate checks worth more than $3,000 apiece. [Bloomberg] And Bush has presided over a multibillion-dollar partial takeover of the banks, which McCain supported.

Conservative tax policies are neither fair nor effective. Over the years, most Americans have agreed that we should ask more of those who have the most, and less of those who have the least. Conservatives have tried to reverse that longstanding principle by lowering tax rates for the wealthiest. They’ve generated greater inequality but they have failed to create jobs, balance the federal budget, or boost economic growth.

Progressive Solutions

We need to restore fairness to the federal tax code. It’s time to eliminate Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy and ensure that all Americans pay their fair tax share. Our tax code should reward Americans who work hard and help our nation grow, not those who collect dividend checks or run companies that ship jobs overseas.

Birth Control = Abortion? Help Fight Back.

2008-10-23T13:50:00.001-05:00

UPDATE: MoveOn.Org has added a petition site.
SIGN THE PETITION

Image and Info Borrowed from RHRealityCheck .Org

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It's a challenging time to be pro-choice. From McCain's virulently anti-choice VP pick, Sarah Palin, to the Bush administration's new rule that would limit the rights of patients to receive accurate reproductive health information, we are facing the fight of our lives. Planned Parenthood needs your help.

The Bush administration's new rule could allow individual health care providers to redefine abortion to include the most common forms of birth control—and then refuse to provide them. A woman's ability to manage her own health care is at risk of being compromised by politics and ideology. We have until September 25 to voice our opposition. Please, click here to help Planned Parenthood fight back.

Our actions in the next eight weeks have never been more critical. If this rule goes into effect we are facing a catastrophe for women's health and rights—which can only be addressed by electing a presidential ticket, Obama/Biden, that stands for women's rights. It's time to get to work—and hard..

This new rule is just more of the Bush administration's bad medicine. Help us fight back.

End of American Democracy Documentary

2008-10-23T07:29:00.015-05:00

The End of America is about:

about the erosion of constitutional rights and real threats to American democracy.
is the first film to summarize the damage done by U.S. policies over the past eight years.
is for everyone – Republicans, Democrats, Independents and undecided voters. The purpose is to educate, not alienate

Based on Naomi Wolf's best-selling book, The End of America identifies how open societies close down as they slide toward fascism and how this is happening in the U.S. right now. The documentary follows Wolf as she takes her book to the streets, urging Americans to defend the Constitution and restore our nation's cherished democratic values.

My sense of alarm comes from the clear lessons from history that, once certain checks and balances are destroyed, and once certain institutions have been intimidated, the pressures that can turn an open society into a closed one turn into direct assaults; at that point events tend to occur very rapidly, and a point comes at which there is no easy turning back to the way it used to be.

-- Naomi Wolf, The End of

America

: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot

I hope that you take advantage of this opportunity to see this important film and to share it with your friends, family, and colleagues before November 4.

Student Arrested for SEX Education - Northern Kentucky University

2008-10-20T12:45:00.004-05:00

Our Reality: University Student Arrested for Handing Out Condoms from RH Reality Check on Vimeo.

Dennis Cheney, a former student at Northern Kentucky University and leader of a student group advocating for better sex education and access to contraception, was arrested while distributing condoms at a freshman orientation event on campus. Cheney says, "The administration put student's health at risk at the expense of appeasing social conservatives."

The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker

2008-10-19T10:11:00.009-05:00

The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker, by Steven Greenhouse, Borzoi Books. America's workers are being squeezed by declining wages, rising health care costs, evaporating pensions, job insecurity and globalization, according to "The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker," by Steven Greenhouse, one of the few full-time labor reporters in the country. The book takes a probing--and often shocking--look at the stresses and strains faced by tens of millions of American workers as wages have stagnated, health and pension benefits have evaporated and job security has shriveled. Greenhouse, who covers workplace issues for The New York Times, tells the stories of software engineers in Seattle, hotel housekeepers in Chicago, call center workers in New York and janitors in Houston as he explores why, in the world's most affluent nation, so many corporations are intent on squeezing their workers dry. The book explains how economic, business, political, and social trends—-among them globalization, the influx of immigrants, and the Wal-Mart effect—-have fueled the squeeze. We see how the social contract between employers and employees, guaranteeing steady work and good pensions, has eroded over the last three decades, damaged by massive layoffs of factory and office workers and Wall Street's demands for ever-higher profits. Greenhouse also examines companies that are generous to their workers and can serve as models for all of corporate America: Costco, Patagonia, and the casino-hotels of Las Vegas among them. Finally, he presents a series of pragmatic suggestions on what government, business and labor should do to alleviate the squeeze.

Beat Me Up One More Time. She Must Like it or She Would Leave. Domestic Violence Awareness Month

2008-10-18T11:15:00.006-05:00

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. I have printed this story every October. Its my personal account of growing up in domestic violence, marrying into it and escaping from it.

I grew up with domestic violence and witnessed my mothers escape. As an adult, I lived with an abusive husband, leaving with my two children in 1996, our ninth departure. We first went to my sisters and slept on her floor. Through the assistance of a social service agency, I learned of a shelter but didn't think I would qualify because I wasn't visibly bruised like Mom, although I did feel her shame and worthlessness.

I remember my father kicking my mother in the stomach when she was six months pregnant. He gave her black eyes and broke her nose twice. He would beat my brother and me in front of each other and told us if we cried he would beat us more. Mom left Dad for the final time, taking her five children to Aunt Rene's where we joined a cousin and her children fleeing an abuser. Mom borrowed Aunt Rene's pistol, afraid of what Dad would do to us after his release from jail. When he came, Mom confronted him with the gun. He left, but I always wondered how our lives would have turned out if Mom had killed Dad that night.
At the time, my mothers only recourse was to live in the projects in Houston: her two sisters were married to abusive men and we couldn't stay with our grandparents because Grandpa had raped Mom as a child and she was afraid he would molest us, although he eventually did.

Without a diploma, Mom worked full-time at night and attended school full-time during the day. While my mother never sought any counseling, I had access to a shelter and its services: a court advocate to escort me to court, help in obtaining a protective order, an apartment with the anonymity required to prevent our abuser from stalking us as he always had, daycare for my children, and most importantly, help in locating psychiatric services to manage my depression and post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD), as well as much-needed counseling for my daughters and myself. I'd left my abuser so many times before and always returned because of money and fear.

After eight consecutive departures and returns, I felt my daughters didn't deserve such a pathetic mother. I wasn't there for them emotionally of financially. I felt like such a failure. I was ready to end my life.
It took years to fully recognize my abuse. I didn't know that besides physical abuse, domestic violence includes emotional abuse, sexual abuse, isolation, using the children, economic abuse, male privilege, coercion and threats. The shelter helped me gain control over my life. With their help I went back to school and I am now a graphic designer. For the first time I feel more important than my abusers and that I have a real chance to make it. My mothers journey from domestic violence ended with my journey. My daughters won't repeat the cycle of abuse. That is the most precious gift anyone has ever given me.

Poems from Dead Wrong
The truth about domestic violence, incest and child abuse
by Angela Hayden

Walk

walk through the pain

walk through the grief

walk through the fear

walk through the tears

walk through it all

until the day comes

when you can turn and look

at the trail you have left

for others who are suffering

turn and reach out your hand

and tell them they can

walk the journey too

tell them there is a treasure

that they will find

within their journey

tell them of the strength

you see deep within them

tell them how much you respect

their bravery for starting such a long walk

tell them to look around them at all

the tracks left by others

and see that they are not alone

tell them that once they walk through

the forest of healing

there is a valley of peace

to rest and dwell in

there is a deep well of love

they can drink from

it springs from their journey

the journey the began

with one small step

Pavlov's Response

domestic violence

it starts out subtle

starve little by little

until you don't

realize your starving

slowly conditioned

to accept a morsel

for a meal

and then feel grateful

and undeserving

Its

over, concluded, totally demolished

anger, betrayal, utterly acknowledged

shame, denial, personally embraced

pain, injustice, starring you in the face

detached, clinical, simply isolated

power, control, secretly perpetrated

hunger, starvation, numb reduction

impact, terror, subtle destruction

Hide

i tried

to hide

in you there

wasn't room

for two

Invisible

melt my heart

i fall apart

down on my knees

looking for

peace

lost in thought

only i fought

to let love

live in me

do i deserve this

misery?

have i chosen

this lifeless motion

to sit and wait

for my fate

for self-hate

instead of love

instead of peace

this push and shove

has shown me

how to hide

from everything

why can't i change?

why can't i be

the things

i want to be?

doesn't god know that

i'm a horrible me?

this heavy weight

i've learned to carry

defines me

who was it?

who first convinced me

i was horrible

i was unlovable

i was not normal?

who taught me to be

so afraid

so still

and quiet

invisible

Trigger

happy is the face

she wore near him

even though

she'd like to kill him

who would ever figure

another mutt thrown in the river

no one to deliver

but she could be undone

take a ride just for fun

pull a trigger on a gun

Be yourself

be alive

chase the wind

kiss the sun

look inside

be kind

love yourself

precious soul

you are pure

you are loved

waters flow

light is subtle

show the world

your views

Reason

here

disappear

in the mere existence

of persistence

marking the meter

with time

in rhyme

with reason

Sweetness

pour your heart out to me

let me hear what you have to say

let me love away your tears

let me dispel your fears

let me run my fingers through your hair

let me rub you with tender, loving care

let me hold you in your darkest hour

let me share in your truth and in your power

Freedom

freedom is contagious

it will tickle every bone

in your body

and when you

don't realize it

you're laughing