July 26, 2010 archive

DREAM Now Letters: Wendy

The “DREAM Now Series: Letters to Barack Obama” is a social media campaign that launched Monday, July 19, to underscore the urgent need to pass the DREAM Act. The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, S. 729, would help tens of thousands of young people, American in all but paperwork, to earn legal status, provided they graduate from U.S. high schools, have good moral character, and complete either two years of college or military service.  With broader comprehensive immigration reform stuck in partisan gridlock, the time is now for the White House and Congress to step up and pass the DREAM Act!

President Barack H. Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest
Washington, DC  20500

Dear Mr. President,

My name is Wendy and I am a daughter, a friend, a student, and, most importantly, a dreamer. I came to this country in 1999 from Peru when I was seven years old, accompanied by my mother, father, and sister. Getting on the plane, I did not know that words like “undocumented” and “dreams” would play such a major role in my young adult life. Growing up in New York, I began to embrace the United States and the feeling of being an American; I learned to balance this country’s traditions with my own without difficulty. I came to notice that the people around me, regardless of their different ethnic backgrounds and customs, were not so different from me after all.

We Didn’t Have Computers, An Internet, 24/7 Cable News or a Wikileaks

By now most have heard about the Afghanistan Docs, some 92,000, that were released by Wikileaks and with coordinated release at roughly the same time by three News Media outlets:

The Guardian: Afghanistan war logs: Massive leak of secret files exposes truth of occupation

New York Times: An archive of classified military documents offers an unvarnished view of the war in Afghanistan

Der Spiegel: The Afghanistan Protocol; Explosive Leaks Provide Image of War from Those Fighting It

Whoever hasn’t will as it’s become the main News Story today hitting every level and the links above give you the main outlets of the reports on the documents released and more.

Open School

Photobucket

News at Noon

From Reuters

BP’s Hayward to step aside as Gulf work resumes

By Tom Bergin

July 26, 2010

(Reuters) – BP Plc is expected to install an American troubleshooter as chief executive in the next 24 hours, replacing Tony Hayward, who has come under fire for his handling of the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Bob Dudley, an American who is managing the response operation to the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, is poised to get the top job in a move that could soften U.S.-led attacks on the British oil major, sources close to the company say.

Shares in BP, which has lost 40 percent of its market capitalization since the blast that caused the spill, rose 2.5 percent to 408.26 pence by 6:22 a.m. ET.

Related Stories

BP CEO to walk away with $18 million: report

BP’s diplomat Dudley in line to become CEO

Mockery

http://driftglass.blogspot.com…

And to my fellow travelers on the Left who despair at the realization that our homegrown enemies of democracy do not respond to reason and right, I would remind them that we have access to an inexhaustible stockpile of the one weapon against which they have always been powerless:

“The Devil, the proud spirit, cannot endure to be mocked.”

— St. Thomas More

What’s Your Favourite …?

Photobucket

What’s Your Favorite…. Recharge?

Conscience Clauses, Civil Disobedience, and Uncivil Discourse

In this country, a long tradition exists of individuals who have refused to perform a particular duty or task, citing their religious beliefs as justification.  The very definition of Civil Disobedience, of course, depends on the person, the situation, and how it is applied.  The latest incident has opened up a discussion which has never really subsided, only dipped underneath the radar from time to time.  In this circumstance, a Texas bus driver, who is also an ordained conservative Christian minister, claims that he was fired for not taking a women to Planned Parenthood.  His decision is in the same vein as those of pharmacists who, stating moral reasons, will not dispense the morning-after pill to women who request it.

Grand Illusion: peace-loving America

The recent revelation by Wikileaks of voluminous ugly details of America’s miserable “war” in Afghanistan will provide yet another demonstration of one of our great national illusions: that America is a peace-loving nation that attacks other countries only with the greatest reluctance and seeks peace whenever possible. I predict that the Wikileaks Afghanistan documents will have no impact whatsoever on the course of the war, and that the only political consequences will be the further harassment of whistle-blowers and more moves to criminalize free speech.

For modern Americans, the purpose of war is war. It is the extreme violence we inflict on others that is the end goal of a belligerent and angry nation. The coupling of this violence with rational goals, political, economic, or strategic, has long since vanished, and we are increasingly exposed as the world’s greatest collection of violence junkies. That is why, perversely, the more shocking and ugly the revelations about the Afghan war become, the less likely they are to end that so-called war.

Afghanistan has become a theme park of deadly high-tech force for America. Thrilling GI Combat stories from Afghanistan serve a steady supply of blood and guts to violence-hungry America, and this is well understood by Obama’s mob control technicians. It is simply inconceivable for Obama to give up this war. To do so would be to rob angry America of its last remaining outlet for large scale state-sponsored killing.

War on Americas Middle Class

http://endoftheamericandream.c…

http://www.mybudget360.com/inc…

just because people have more income their buying power has collapsed.

Jobs are so important to keeping a solid middle class.  This should be obvious but current policy being driven by the corporatacracy is simply focusing on keeping prices inflated for the big ticket items (i.e., housing and healthcare).

Docudharma Times Monday July 26

AFGHANISTAN

THE WAR LOGS




Monday’s Headlines:

Afghanistan war logs: Massive leak of secret files exposes truth of occupation

Activists in India cry foul over new rules regarding public interest litigation

USA

Industries Find Surging Profits in Deeper Cuts

How oil-damaged marsh grasses recover could affect gulf’s rebound

Europe

Love Parade tragedy: ‘I’ll never forget the sight of all those twisted bodies’

Silvio Berlusconi’s daughter ‘offered job’ prompting university funding row

Middle East

Iran stoning case lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei’s relatives arrested

As the Israeli blockade eases, Gaza goes shopping

Asia

Khmer Rouge chief jailer convicted of war crimes

US-led war games in South Korean waters draw threats from North

Latin America

Freed inmates carried out killings, Mexico police say

Muse in the Morning

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Muse in the Morning

Let no man ever take into consideration

whether a thing is pleasant or unpleasant.

The love of pleasure begets grief

and the dread of pain causes fear;

he who is free from the love of pleasure

and the dread of pain knows neither grief nor fear.

–Paul Carus, Chapter XLVIII: The Dhammapda, verse 29

The Gospel of Buddha: Complied from Ancient Records

Phenomena XXIII: dreading


Sky Ensnared

Beaten Down

The world so heavy

he can’t look up

shoulders sag

under the weight

of too many last straws

back bent

from too much sorrow

leaden legs drag bloody feet

painfully forward

until collapse is imminent

Rise up?  How?

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–July 11, 2008

When Robin Hood was real

“Remove justice and what are states but gangs of bandits on a large scale? And what

are bandit gangs but kingdoms in miniature?”


 – Augustine

  Hollywood has treated us to yet another over-produced Robin Hood movie. At least this time it won’t have Kevin Costner miscast as the lead.

  While watching the trailer I couldn’t help but noting how Robin Hood’s character has been slowly transformed over the years.

  The early Robin Hood was a yeoman, a commoner, fighting against a corrupt establishment in 14th Century sonnets. It wasn’t until several centuries later that Robin Hood transformed into a wronged aristocrat, loyal to King Richard, and fighting to restore the status quo.

  The whole “class war” thing was just forgotten.

Load more