Are your fresh tomatoes still exploiting farm laborers? Yes!

Drop off a letter to your store manager and let him or her know - you're not buying their greed and insensitivity?

clipped from sfalliance.org National Supermarket Week of Action Wednesday, Nov. 18th to Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26th This Thanksgiving, when you shop for your turkey, cranberry sauce, and stuffing, drop a Campaign for Fair Food letter off to the store manager! While the transition to a more just Florida tomato industry is well underway, much remains to be done to ensure this future. This Thanksgiving season, remember farmworkers and honor the dignity of their labor by urging Stop & Shop, Giant, Publix, Ralph’s, Kroger and other Kroger-owned grocery chains to address the sub-poverty wages and human rights abuses faced by farmworkers who harvest their tomatoes.

Being a Mother a Precondition for Abuse by Army?

Seems that way. Threaten to woman with a court-martial, take her child away and put in custody!? This is the US Army? Someone needs to get a hold on reality and treat her and her child right. The dumbest part is how well do they think she will perform in Afghanistan after this type of treatment? Sounds like old East German military not the US Army that usually does us proud without thinking about it. Fit it now!

clipped from www.ipsnews.net U.S.: Army Sends Infant to Protective Services, Mom to Afghanistan VENTURA, California, Nov 13 (IPS) - U.S. Army Specialist Alexis Hutchinson, a single mother, is being threatened with a military court-martial if she does not agree to deploy to Afghanistan, despite having been told she would be granted extra time to find someone to care for her 11-month-old son while she is overseas. Hutchinson, of Oakland, California, is currently being confined at Hunter Army Airfield near Savannah, Georgia, after being arrested. Her son was placed into a county foster care system.

Upbeat Friday Entry - grin - Pistolera canta Policia!

Wish I was a Hussong's Cantina in Baja listening to this!

clipped from www.youtube.com Pistolera Music Video For "POLICIA" Directed by Haroun Ibn-Mock and filmed in Brooklyn, NY, "Policia" is the first music video for Pistolera's sophomore album "En Este Camino".

Good Friday to All - One of my Favorite Videos and Song!

God is Alive, Magic is Afoot. beautiful video as well!

clipped from www.youtube.com God Is Alive Magic Is Afoot Buffy Sainte-Marie "God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot" Song: Buffy Sainte-Marie Video by gewajega@yahoo.com Lyrics by Leonard Cohen: " God is alive; Magic is afoot God is alive; Magic is afoot God is afoot; Magic is alive...

Help Save The World with Your Computer - Interested?

Long ago, I participated in a global network doing computations for the genome project. Now you can lend your down time on your computer to fight AIDS, MS and work on clean energy. IBM is hosting. Window, Linux and Mac systems welcome!

clipped from www.worldcommunitygrid.org We're helping develop new AIDS treatments. What are you doing? Why not donate your unused computer time to World Community Grid and the FightAIDS@Home project to find better treatments for AIDS? Currently there is no cure, but together we can find better treatments faster.�� Learn More Donate the power of your computer when it is turned on, but is idle, to projects that benefit humanity! We provide the secure software and system that does it all for free, and you become part of a community that is helping to change the world. Once you install the software, you will be participating in World Community Grid. How You Can Help

Tell the world what you are looking at!

Amplify rocks and is semi-automatic - grin

clipped from amplify.com Get the Amplify Bookmarklet Supports Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera Drag this button to the bookmarks bar in your browser.

Wilderness 2: Polluters 99 Small win... miles to go

Signing an agreement is one thing - now let's work to make sure we keep backing a sustainable world and wilderness.

clipped from www.worldwatch.org North American Governments Agree to Protect Wilderness The United States, Canada, and Mexico agreed this week to work together to protect wilderness areas across North America. The cooperation agreement establishes an intergovernmental committee to exchange research and approaches that address challenges such as climate change, fire control, and invasive species in land, marine, and coastal protected areas throughout the continent.

We Owe Veterans and Active Duty Warriors Better Than This

Cheney's old firm let their sub-contractors expose US soldiers and Iraqi's to a burning toxic waste pit that will cause years worth of injuries and illness. Cotracting out is good for profiteers like the former- Vice President and his buddies but an evil brew for our troops.

clipped from crooksandliars.com Lawsuit Filed Against Iraq Contractors Charges Soldiers Were Poisoned Contractors working for the military in Iraq and Afghanistan are fouling the nests of U.S. soldiers with pollution, poisoning the troops in the very bases meant to be their sanctuaries. "burn pits" at U.S. bases in both military theaters that contain "every type of waste imaginable." "Tires, lithium batteries, Styrofoam, paper, wood, rubber, petroleum-oil-lubricating products, metals, hydraulic fluids, munitions boxes, medical waste, biohazard materials (including human corpses), medical supplies (including those used during smallpox inoculations), paints, solvents, asbestos insulation, items containing pesticides, polyvinyl chloride pipes, animal carcasses, dangerous chemicals, and hundreds of thousands of plastic water bottles."

Good Boat Rocking in the Bronx - Home Run!

Full cycle learning comes when you can teach someone else what you have learned. Here is young people in the city learning there is nothing they cannot do, if they put their minds and bodies to it. Even building a boat for the Hudson River from tree up!

clipped from changents.com Rock the Boat-- Bronx Style I recently attended a fundraiser for Rock the Boat, an organization based in the South Bronx helping kids empower themselves in their own community. They do this by running workshops that teach kids to build traditional wooden rowing boats—from scratch.

This woman is from a long line of women who walked alone

Civilization still stands because of women like this Afghan woman who refuse to stop walking for themselves, their families, their communities and all of us.

clipped from awwproject.wordpress.com Women Walking Alone I am from long line of women who have walked alone … From a land that smells of the blood of innocent people From a people who have lost everything in war – sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers From a people feeling hopeless I am from long line of women who have walked alone I never give up I find my way and learn nothing is impossible to achieve I ignore those things that destroy my mind I learn that no one can help me except me I accept reality and I’m ready to face any problem Now I have ambition to achieve my goal To help my people bring peace to the next generation I am from long line women who have walked alone…

Nuclear Profiteers at Sandia Labs

No comment - they say it all.

clipped from pogoblog.typepad.com Lifestyles of the Rich and Nuclear Sandia National Laboratories Director Tom Hunter makes a whopping $1.7 million per year, and that Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Michael Anastasio makes $800,348 per year. As Dan Hancock of the Southwest Research and Information Center pointed out, this means that Hunter makes four times as much as the President of the United States, and that Anastasio makes twice as much. We found Sandia’s defense of the high salaries quite laughable. “They are making complex decisions that are actually affecting the security of the United States,” Sandia spokesman Neal Singer said. “They’re paid for the difficult decisions they make.” Unlike the President??

Not in New York, or LA, or Dallas, or Miami - this time

clipped from www.independent.co.uk Police investigate racist mob attack Police were today investigating a racist attack in which a mob armed with metal poles, bricks and sticks ambushed a group of Asian students. Four people suffered stab wounds when they were attacked close to City University

Life Prison Terms for Children? What are we thinking!?

What we are thinking is that county prosecutors get elected in the counties they serve in and "being tough" is generally the only qualification people run on.

Often the same distinction is used by state legislators to get elected and re-elected.

News media outlets all compete for attention, to sell advertising and make a profit. "DA seeks life to teen rapist!" "DA may seek life for young sex criminal!" "Jury may sentence serial hoodlum to life in prison!"

Here's the real question - is a particular case about the victim and perpetrator, or is it about someone seeking power and/or money at the expense of someone who may then spend life in prison whether it is really justified or equal justice.

clipped from www.nytimes.com Imprisoning a Child for Life The United States could be the only nation in the world where a 13-year-old child can be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole, even for crimes that do not include murder. The court came down on the right side of this issue in 2005 when it ruled that children who commit crimes before the age of 18 should not be subject to the death penalty. The decision correctly pointed out that juveniles were less culpable because they lacked maturity, were vulnerable to peer pressure and had personalities that were still being formed.

So, Why did you Cut Down the Rainforest?

Uh, i needed a parking lot. Panamanians learned well from their former colonial master, the USA - greed and laziness rule - if you are going ot cut down a rain forest - do it on a weekend or a holiday - no one will notice or care???

clipped from news.mongabay.com Developer uses cover of national holiday to clear rainforest near Colon, Panama mongabay.com November 06, 2009 The clearing, conducted by a transportation cooperative called Serafin Niño, from Colon, is occurring in the buffer zone of the Galeta Protected Landscape and near Galeta Point Marine Laboratory, a facility of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. The land will likely be used to store transportation equipment that moves cargo to and from the ports of Colon and the Free Zone.

Knownothings Redux: 5 Congressmembers Support Immigrant Hate Group

Just what we need on a day when too many want to vent fear and hate toward non-Anglos.

clipped from www.splcenter.org Dangerous Liaisons: Congressmen to Join Nativist Hate Group Today At noon today, five members of the U.S. House of Representatives will hold a press conference at the House Triangle with Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). FAIR has been listed as an anti-immigrant hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center since 2007. All five House members meeting with FAIR — Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Nathan Deal (R-Ga.), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Sam Johnson (R-Tex.) and Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) — are members of the hard-line House Immigration Reform Caucus (IRC). The IRC is headed by U.S. Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.), who is a former lobbyist for FAIR.

A woman of Afghanistan who just wants to be

She is a daughter of Afghanistan - who writes beautifully...

clipped from awwproject.wordpress.com I am… I am the daughter of a land in south central Asia The daughter of the strong and hospitable people of Afghanistan I belong to a nation which suffered three bloody decades in war Which left us millions of orphans and widows I am from women with dreams and wishes I am an energetic, optimistic, and responsible woman praying for a better Afghanistan A woman wearing a green scarf as a flag Protecting myself against winds that can take away my identity and homeland again I am an Afghan woman from green mountains, wanting unity and peace for Afghanistan.

Back to the East India Company Imperialism Future

A combination of giant agricultural firms from the US, Malaysia, China, Gulf oil states, Korea and others are leading the charge to gobble up farmland and forests to grow whatever gives them the highest profit and if it means destroying natural forests - so be it and damn the consequences downstream!

clipped from www.ipsnews.net UGANDA: Palm Project Accused of Environmental Destruction UGANDA: Palm Project Accused of Environmental Destruction The Ugandan government entered into an agreement with BIDCO, the largest manufacturer of vegetable oil in Uganda, and Malaysian palm oil giants Wilmar to set up a plantation and refinery in the Kalangala islands in Lake Victoria. Transnational agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland owns shares in both companies. KADINGO says apart from massive application of fertilisers which washes into the lake causing over-production of algae and water weeds with knock-on effects on lake ecosystems, BIDCO has also encroached on national forestry land outside the 7,000 hectares it received from Uganda government.

Everybody dance now: Give back to my campaign contributors two-step

Not to pick on Sen. Sessions because Senators and Representatives on both sides of the aisle have been lining up for the past several weeks now to give short term "free rides" on duties for manufacturers in their states. The are all defended on the grounds that these are only temporary reductions and not a big give away. Grin. You place your orders for the material you need for the next six months to fit in the window of the "temporary" give back and it gives you a free ride for six months - sometimes even a year. Pretty slick eh? Not any more, now you know about this innocent appearing pay back scheme.

How big it is? In $ II could not say but there have been more than 200 of these bills introduced in the last few weeks - that's big. But they can decide on healthcare til the end of the your or more - gimme a break!

clipped from www.govtrack.us A bill to extend the temporary suspension of duty on butanedioic acid, dimethyl ester, polymer with 4-hydroxy-2,2,6,6,-tetramethyl-1-piperidineethanol. Sen. Jefferson Sessions [R-AL](no cosponsors)

Help Keep Speech and People Free in Cyberspace

clipped from threatened.globalvoicesonline.org A collaborative mapping project to build a database of bloggers who have been threatened, arrested or killed for speaking out online and to draw attention to the campaigns to free them. Learn more · Contact us · Submit a report · Advocacy Home

Dying to get to the USA

We arrest and charge those trying to leave water and food for those who risk their lives crossing the desert to get here. Prior to 1848 - this was their ancestors land but we draw a line and say die if you cross without permission. From space, you cannot see those lines - just one earth.

clipped from bsnorrell.blogspot.com More than 200 bodies recovered at Arizona/Sonora border Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham, speaks at the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) memorial at San Xavier on Oct. 31, on Tohono O'odham land, remembering those who died crossing the Sonoran Desert. Photo Brenda Norrell "We must not waver in our opposition to any reform that will continue to militarize our communities. Doing so is not only being untrue to our commitment to human rights and dignity, but an affront to the thousands of men, women and children who have died on our borders, and the families who suffer the agony of their deaths or the bitter anguish of never knowing what has become of their loved ones."