Entries Tagged 'Embedded In America' ↓

Further proof that Bush really really hates you. 
From Telegraph U.K.:

President George Bush: ‘Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.

The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: “Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.”

He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.

Mr Bush, whose second and final term as President ends at the end of the year, then left the meeting at the Windsor Hotel in Hokkaido where the leaders of the world’s richest nations had been discussing new targets to cut carbon emissions.”

Parents fight over which gang their toddler should join.

from DenverChannel.com

A couple fighting about which gang their 4-year-old toddler should join caused a public disturbance that resulted in the father’s arrest, Commerce City police said Thursday.

On Saturday, Joseph Manzanares stormed into the Hollywood Video store where his girlfriend worked, threatened to kill her and knocked over several video displays and even a computer, Commerce City police Sgt. Joe Sandoval said. After he ran out of the store, police were called and the 19-year-old was arrested at his home.

His girlfriend told police that they had been arguing about the upbringing of their son and which gang he should belong to. The teen mother, who is black, is a member of the Crips. Manzanares is Hispanic and belongs to the Westside Ballers gang, the woman said.

On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was sentenced to a year of probation. The misdemeanor harassment charge was dropped.

We love to fly and it shows

Transportation Security Administration’s Week At A Glance (January  14-20, 2008)

•  14 firearms found at checkpoints¹
• 3 artfully concealed prohibited items found at checkpoints
• 11 incidents that involved a checkpoint closure, terminal evacuation or sterile area breach
• 23 disruptive passengers on flights

1. as of 2007 only Wisconsin and Illinois prohibit carrying concealed firing arms.[back]

He sees you when you’re sleeping…

He knows when you’re awake…

He knows if you’ve been bad or good…

So be good for goodness sake!

Crazy Christians strike again!!

A historic day in America—a Hindu delivered the morning invocation in the Senate chamber—only to have the ceremony disrupted by three Christian right activists.

Yeah

God 1. Hindus 0. Way to show them. Idiots.

Us government trying to seize new Michael Moore film says producer.

Harvey Weinstein fires latest shot in battle over healthcare documentary

Charlotte Higgins in Cannes
Saturday May 19, 2007
The Guardian

Cannes is smacking its lips in anticipation of filmmaker and provocateur Michael Moore’s latest jeremiad against the US administration, which receives its premiere at the film festival today. Sicko, a documentary tackling the state of American healthcare, focuses on the pharmaceutical giants, and particularly on health insurers.The film has already caused Moore – who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2004 with Fahrenheit 911 – to clash with the American authorities. Now, according to movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, whose Weinstein Company is behind the film, the US government is attempting to impound the negative.

According to Weinstein, the US Treasury’s moves meant “we had to fly the movie to another country”- he would not say to where. “Let the secret service find that out – though this is the same country that thought there were weapons of mass destruction, so they’ll never find it.” He added that he feared that if the film were impounded, there might be attempts to cut some footage, in particular the last 20 minutes, which related to a trip to Cuba. This, said Weinstein, “would not be good.”

In March, Moore travelled to the Caribbean island with a group of emergency workers from New York’s Ground Zero to see whether they would receive better care under the Castro regime than they had under George Bush. He had applied for permission to travel in October 2006 and received no reply.

In a letter dated May 2, the treasury department notified Moore that it was investigating him for unlicensed travel to Cuba, or, as the missive put it, engaging in “travel-related transactions involving Cuba.”

Now team Moore is hitting back. Weinstein has hired an attorney, David Boies, who has lodged a request under the US freedom of information act to find out what motivated the treasury to begin its investigation. “They have to tell us why they did it and what they did,” said Weinstein. “And they are not too happy about it.”

Weinstein believes the investigation has a political agenda. “We want to find out who motivated this. We suspect there may be interference from another office,” he said. “Otherwise, I don’t understand why this would have come about.”

Weinstein named no suspects in this putative political interference, but referred to outspoken critics of Moore on the Republican right – who tend to accuse him of peddling propaganda rather than of undertaking serious journalism – including presidential hopeful Bob Thompson.

“Senator Thompson has come out with a tirade against Michael. Michael said he’d debate him, but Thompson turned him down,” said Weinstein.

He also said that insurers and pharmaceutical companies had “already sent out letters advising employees how to react when the film comes out”.

Weinstein appeared to be enjoying the brouhaha that the film is stirring up before it has even screened. “I’ve already told the Treasury that they are saving me money on advertising.”

In Cannes, the Weinstein Company’s offices are decorated with a mural of the rotund Moore sitting in a hospital waiting area flanked by a pair of skeletons, and Sicko sticking plasters are being given away as promotional gifts.

Moore’s underlying thesis in Sicko relates to the structure of American society. “Others see themselves as a collective that sinks or swims together,” he told Variety.

“It’s important to have a safety net and free universal health care. In America, unfortunately, we’re more focused on what’s in it for me. It’s every man for himself. If you’re sick and have lost a job, it’s not my problem. Don’t bother me.”

The insurance companies are a negative force, he believes. “They get in the way of taking care of those who are ill. They make it worse. We don’t need them,” he said.

The health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, may be surprised by Moore’s ringing – if strictly speaking, factually inaccurate – endorsement for the NHS. “The poorest Brit is healthier and lives longer than the wealthiest American,” he said.

Of his journalistic style, he said: “It’s the op-ed page. You don’t say that’s not journalism. I present my opinion, my take on things, based on indisputable facts. They could be wrong. I think they’re right.” Moore’s biggest hit to date has been Fahrenheit 911, which took $222m (£112m) worldwide. He made Bowling For Columbine, his acclaimed film about US gun culture, in 2002. The rightwing backlash has spawned a number of documentaries questioning his methods, including Rick Caine and Debbie Melnyk’s Manufacturing Dissent. Moore has hired Al Gore’s former press secretary, Chris Lehane, to help him to deal with “the forces I’m up against”.

A few weeks ago, I found myself eye to eye with this creature in a local Menards.
Then it started to sing.

Too bad Christmas is so far away.

Leave your dignity at the door.

The camp teaches light-saber etiquette, but spelling, a Jedi needs not.

tags technorati : Star Wars, Jedi, summer camp, news

Countless times each year we remember Martin Luther King Jr. We recall King’s battle to end segergation, marching for racial harmony, and articulating his dreams with that rhythmic booming voice.

For a man whom we memorialize, it is a great disservice to his legacy that we just focus primarily on a few years of Dr. King’s life. The focus tends to be King battling desegregation in Birmingham (1963), reciting his dream of racial harmony at the rally in Washington (1963), marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama (1965), and finally, lying dead on the motel balcony in Memphis (1968).

The three years prior to his death, Dr. King was more active than ever before, so why aren’t these years referenced?
Dr. King spent that time working to bridge the gap between the rich and poor and he felt Vietnam further demonstrated the U.S. ignoring that divide. Dr. King wanted to invoke “radical changes in the structure of our society” to redistribute wealth and power.

“In his last months, King was organizing the most militant project of his life: the Poor People’s Campaign. He crisscrossed the country to assemble “a multiracial army of the poor” that would descend on Washington—engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience at the Capitol, if need be—until Congress enacted a poor people’s bill of rights. Reader’s Digest warned of an “insurrection.”

King’s economic bill of rights called for massive government jobs programs to rebuild America’s cities. He saw a crying need to confront a Congress that had demonstrated its “hostility to the poor”—appropriating “military funds with alacrity and generosity,” but providing “poverty funds with miserliness.” (from AlterNet.com)

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—” Why I am Opposed to the War in Iraq Vietnam”

40 years later and our government still ignores the immense poverty in our country, instead putting money into foreign wars. How many more years will it take before we have a leader who will force the American people to look deeper and inspire them to ask more from themselves and their government?

tags technorati : Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights, economic justice, media, Vietnam, audio,