Todd Brogan sent a message to the members of Speak Up for the Baha'i Leaders in Iran.
--------------------
Subject: Trial Set Again for August 18th
Straight from the Baha'i World News Service - http://www.facebook.com/l/;BWNS.org -
GENEVA — In yet another example of the denial to Baha’is in Iran of their rights to justice, including due process, judicial officials have reportedly set next Tuesday as the trial date for seven imprisoned Baha’i leaders – despite the fact that the lead lawyers registered with the court to represent them are either in prison or outside the country.
Further, efforts to have the accused released on bail have not succeeded. The investigation against them was concluded months ago but they remain incarcerated, without access to their legal counsel and with only the barest minimum contact with their families – contact that did not begin until some five months’ after their arrest, when they were finally taken out of solitary confinement.
Authorities recently sent to Abdolfattah Soltani, a key member of the legal team representing the seven Baha’is who is himself currently imprisoned in Evin prison, a notice saying that 18 August has been set as the trial date for the seven Baha’is. Dated 15 July, the writ of notification for the seven gives 9 a.m., 18 August, as the date for the trial, in Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. That is the same court that tried Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi.
Read the whole story at: http://www.facebook.com/l/;news.bahai.org/story/725
--------------------
To reply to this message, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?inbox/readmessage.php&t=1192679732445&mid=ece4e0G2c4faed8G2429dbfG0
A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
Virtually the entire political conflict in America today is over who will control our government: entrenched wealth and corporations or the people?
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
BuzzFlash Accepts MasterCard Visa AmEx Discover and PayPal!
"Corporate Dominance of Every Aspects of Our Lives Is Suffocating us." Rescue Our Society: "Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take It Back" (Hardcover) By Douglas Rushkoff
BuzzFlash.com's Review (excerpt)
Remember, virtually the entire political conflict in America today is over who will control our government: entrenched wealth and corporations or the people.
The Dittoheads and Hannity Head Bangers are just tools used by corporate wealth to create a distraction and sense of victimhood that helps entrenched wealth achieve their legislative goals.
This is an important book to get your thinking to rise above the maelstrom of day-to-day politics and media.
Booklist:
Since the Renaissance, the corporation—the operating system of the market—has formed and controlled people, and Rushkoff describes how it has infiltrated all aspects of American life. In the twenty-first century, we continue to consider corporations as role models and saviors but engage other people as competitors to be beaten or resources to be exploited. The author bemoans extreme networking (called buzz marketing), which makes our personal, social interactions become promotional opportunities and the lines between fiction and reality and friends and market become blurred. Our lives are overextended, and there is no time, energy, or commitment to do anything but work and perhaps consider family. Rushkoff recommends that we fight back by “de-corporatizing” ourselves. His suggestions include thinking locally by participating directly with our neighbors in community activities and using various Internet sites that provide opportunities to contribute directly to a particular school or to extend a “micro loan” to a specific entrepreneur in the Third World. This is an excellent, thought-provoking book.
In an interview posted on Alternet, the author notes:
Doug Rushkoff: What happens is corporations like automobile industry have a need for roads or the energy industry has a need for regulation that doesn't let people use solar. So they go to government and get laws written that change -- they get laws written to get the things they want. So they basically steer the rail road through the real estate that they want to own or the automobile industry wants more people to use cars, so they get their guy in to be Secretary of Defense and he builds roads for cars and develop suburbs that require people to use cars to get to work. The next generation that grows up with things being that way, thinks that things just are that way. So the way we internalize corporate values is by assuming that the rules that are in place are pre-existing conditions of the universe rather than rules made by certain people at certain times....
Convincing people to stop outsourcing all of their economic activity, consumption and production to extremely inefficient long distance corporations that extract the human value without creating any values. You lose all your leverage. That's not to say that everyone has to do everything in some protest against every corporation out there but what if you reclaim the 90% of stuff that you can do locally or with friends and just give corporations 10% of what they need? It's the most activist thing you can do. Just the idea that people are now going to save maybe eight percent instead of three percent of their money has people shuddering in finance...
It persisted because kings rewrote laws to preserve corporations whenever I mean corporation. Corporations were invented by kings as a way they could make money by having money and creating no value themselves. So they granted monopoly charters to their friends in return for shares in those companies. And it persisted because the kings were able to write laws that gave corporations unfair advantage at every term. So whenever corporations have been threatened by some form of competition or another, the king or in our era government ends up rewriting the laws to favor corporate activity over competitive local, small business activity. It's just corruption.
Buy more progessive premiums to support BuzzFlash progressive news and commentary (we accept no advertising, corporate or otherwise to maintain our complete independence)by going to The BuzzFlash Progressive Marketplace.
Read The Full Review >>>
http://www.buzzflash.com/store/reviews/1790
BuzzFlash Accepts MasterCard Visa AmEx Discover and PayPal!
"Corporate Dominance of Every Aspects of Our Lives Is Suffocating us." Rescue Our Society: "Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take It Back" (Hardcover) By Douglas Rushkoff
BuzzFlash.com's Review (excerpt)
Remember, virtually the entire political conflict in America today is over who will control our government: entrenched wealth and corporations or the people.
The Dittoheads and Hannity Head Bangers are just tools used by corporate wealth to create a distraction and sense of victimhood that helps entrenched wealth achieve their legislative goals.
This is an important book to get your thinking to rise above the maelstrom of day-to-day politics and media.
Booklist:
Since the Renaissance, the corporation—the operating system of the market—has formed and controlled people, and Rushkoff describes how it has infiltrated all aspects of American life. In the twenty-first century, we continue to consider corporations as role models and saviors but engage other people as competitors to be beaten or resources to be exploited. The author bemoans extreme networking (called buzz marketing), which makes our personal, social interactions become promotional opportunities and the lines between fiction and reality and friends and market become blurred. Our lives are overextended, and there is no time, energy, or commitment to do anything but work and perhaps consider family. Rushkoff recommends that we fight back by “de-corporatizing” ourselves. His suggestions include thinking locally by participating directly with our neighbors in community activities and using various Internet sites that provide opportunities to contribute directly to a particular school or to extend a “micro loan” to a specific entrepreneur in the Third World. This is an excellent, thought-provoking book.
In an interview posted on Alternet, the author notes:
Doug Rushkoff: What happens is corporations like automobile industry have a need for roads or the energy industry has a need for regulation that doesn't let people use solar. So they go to government and get laws written that change -- they get laws written to get the things they want. So they basically steer the rail road through the real estate that they want to own or the automobile industry wants more people to use cars, so they get their guy in to be Secretary of Defense and he builds roads for cars and develop suburbs that require people to use cars to get to work. The next generation that grows up with things being that way, thinks that things just are that way. So the way we internalize corporate values is by assuming that the rules that are in place are pre-existing conditions of the universe rather than rules made by certain people at certain times....
Convincing people to stop outsourcing all of their economic activity, consumption and production to extremely inefficient long distance corporations that extract the human value without creating any values. You lose all your leverage. That's not to say that everyone has to do everything in some protest against every corporation out there but what if you reclaim the 90% of stuff that you can do locally or with friends and just give corporations 10% of what they need? It's the most activist thing you can do. Just the idea that people are now going to save maybe eight percent instead of three percent of their money has people shuddering in finance...
It persisted because kings rewrote laws to preserve corporations whenever I mean corporation. Corporations were invented by kings as a way they could make money by having money and creating no value themselves. So they granted monopoly charters to their friends in return for shares in those companies. And it persisted because the kings were able to write laws that gave corporations unfair advantage at every term. So whenever corporations have been threatened by some form of competition or another, the king or in our era government ends up rewriting the laws to favor corporate activity over competitive local, small business activity. It's just corruption.
Buy more progessive premiums to support BuzzFlash progressive news and commentary (we accept no advertising, corporate or otherwise to maintain our complete independence)by going to The BuzzFlash Progressive Marketplace.
Read The Full Review >>>
http://www.buzzflash.com/store/reviews/1790
Saturday, August 8, 2009
To the members of The Bilerico Project
Bil Browning sent a message to the members of The Bilerico Project.
--------------------
Subject: Bilerico Weekly Reader 8/2-8/7
Without a doubt, Projectors - instead of contributors - gave us the best content of the week. If you haven't had a chance to read the moving and beautiful comment thread on my post, "Do you know someone who died of AIDS?", you're missing heartbreaking and yet uplifting threads in Bilerico history. (Link in the Bonus section.)
Bilerico Nation
If You Work for a Private Employer in DC, You Want to Know This
Filed by: Nancy Polikoff (Bilerico-DC)
http://www.facebook.com/l/;dc.bilerico.com/2009/08/if_you_work_for_a_private_employer_in_dc.php
Transgender Comics: Interview with Erin Lindsey
Filed by: Austen Crowder (Bilerico-Indiana)
http://www.facebook.com/l/;indiana.bilerico.com/2009/08/transgender_comics_interview_with_erin_l.php
Jesse's Journal: Do We Need "Role Models"?
Filed by: Jesse Monteagudo (Bilerico-Florida)
http://www.facebook.com/l/;florida.bilerico.com/2009/08/jesses_journal_do_we_need_role_models.php
Sunday
A Road Trip, Told as a Series of Pit Stops
Filed by: Paige Schilt
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/a_road_trip_told_as_a_series_of_pit_stops.php
Michelle's Garden: The Big Oops
Filed by: Patricia Nell Warren
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/michelles_garden_a_big_oops.php
Monday
What Were You Doing 25 Years Ago?
Filed by: Nadine Smith
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/what_were_you_doing_25_years_ago.php
Gay Self Hate
Filed by: Michael Buckley
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/gay_self_hate.php
Tuesday
LGBT Challenges: True Leadership
Filed by: Phil Reese
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/lgbt_challenges_true_leadership.php
A Supremely Ridiculous Argument
Filed by: Dana Rudolph
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/a_supremely_ridiculous_argument.php
Wednesday
Barbed Walls
Filed by: Sara Whitman
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/barbed_walls.php
Why "Sex Change" Surgery is Medically Necessary
Filed by: Mercedes Allen
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/why_sex_change_surgery_is_medically_necessary.php
Thursday
How A Feminist Found Her Sexism
Filed by: Guest Blogger Helen Boyd
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/how_a_feminist_found_her_sexism.php
He's in love with a GRAMP! (Gay, Rich, Alone, Middle-aged, Positive)
Filed by: Father Tony
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/hes_in_love_with_a_gramp_gay_rich_alone_middle-age.php
Friday
La orientación sexual no se puede cambiar
Filed by: Pedro Julio Serrano
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/la_orientacion_sexual_no_se_puede_cambiar.php
Queer music Friday - Matt Alber
Filed by: Alex Blaze
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/queer_music_friday_-_matt_alber.php
BONUS!
Do you know someone who died of AIDS?
Filed by: Bil Browning
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/do_you_know_someone_who_died_of_aids.php
Don't forget:
Subscribe to the Bilerico Project Report to get all of the previous day's posts sent to you every night at midnight.
http://www.facebook.com/l/;feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=BilericoProject&loc=en_US
Follow Bilerico Project on Twitter for links to new posts, breaking news and contest opportunities.
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.twitter.com/bilericoproject
Subscribe to the Bilerico Project RSS feed to read posts via a feedreader like Google Reader or Bloglines, or include the feed in a customized homepage like My Yahoo! or iGoogle.
http://www.facebook.com/l/;feeds.feedburner.com/BilericoProject
--------------------
To reply to this message, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?inbox/readmessage.php&t=1034684965639&mid=e793efG2c4faed8G23a3225G0
--------------------
Subject: Bilerico Weekly Reader 8/2-8/7
Without a doubt, Projectors - instead of contributors - gave us the best content of the week. If you haven't had a chance to read the moving and beautiful comment thread on my post, "Do you know someone who died of AIDS?", you're missing heartbreaking and yet uplifting threads in Bilerico history. (Link in the Bonus section.)
Bilerico Nation
If You Work for a Private Employer in DC, You Want to Know This
Filed by: Nancy Polikoff (Bilerico-DC)
http://www.facebook.com/l/;dc.bilerico.com/2009/08/if_you_work_for_a_private_employer_in_dc.php
Transgender Comics: Interview with Erin Lindsey
Filed by: Austen Crowder (Bilerico-Indiana)
http://www.facebook.com/l/;indiana.bilerico.com/2009/08/transgender_comics_interview_with_erin_l.php
Jesse's Journal: Do We Need "Role Models"?
Filed by: Jesse Monteagudo (Bilerico-Florida)
http://www.facebook.com/l/;florida.bilerico.com/2009/08/jesses_journal_do_we_need_role_models.php
Sunday
A Road Trip, Told as a Series of Pit Stops
Filed by: Paige Schilt
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/a_road_trip_told_as_a_series_of_pit_stops.php
Michelle's Garden: The Big Oops
Filed by: Patricia Nell Warren
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/michelles_garden_a_big_oops.php
Monday
What Were You Doing 25 Years Ago?
Filed by: Nadine Smith
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/what_were_you_doing_25_years_ago.php
Gay Self Hate
Filed by: Michael Buckley
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/gay_self_hate.php
Tuesday
LGBT Challenges: True Leadership
Filed by: Phil Reese
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/lgbt_challenges_true_leadership.php
A Supremely Ridiculous Argument
Filed by: Dana Rudolph
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/a_supremely_ridiculous_argument.php
Wednesday
Barbed Walls
Filed by: Sara Whitman
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/barbed_walls.php
Why "Sex Change" Surgery is Medically Necessary
Filed by: Mercedes Allen
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/why_sex_change_surgery_is_medically_necessary.php
Thursday
How A Feminist Found Her Sexism
Filed by: Guest Blogger Helen Boyd
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/how_a_feminist_found_her_sexism.php
He's in love with a GRAMP! (Gay, Rich, Alone, Middle-aged, Positive)
Filed by: Father Tony
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/hes_in_love_with_a_gramp_gay_rich_alone_middle-age.php
Friday
La orientación sexual no se puede cambiar
Filed by: Pedro Julio Serrano
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/la_orientacion_sexual_no_se_puede_cambiar.php
Queer music Friday - Matt Alber
Filed by: Alex Blaze
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/queer_music_friday_-_matt_alber.php
BONUS!
Do you know someone who died of AIDS?
Filed by: Bil Browning
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.bilerico.com/2009/08/do_you_know_someone_who_died_of_aids.php
Don't forget:
Subscribe to the Bilerico Project Report to get all of the previous day's posts sent to you every night at midnight.
http://www.facebook.com/l/;feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=BilericoProject&loc=en_US
Follow Bilerico Project on Twitter for links to new posts, breaking news and contest opportunities.
http://www.facebook.com/l/;www.twitter.com/bilericoproject
Subscribe to the Bilerico Project RSS feed to read posts via a feedreader like Google Reader or Bloglines, or include the feed in a customized homepage like My Yahoo! or iGoogle.
http://www.facebook.com/l/;feeds.feedburner.com/BilericoProject
--------------------
To reply to this message, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?inbox/readmessage.php&t=1034684965639&mid=e793efG2c4faed8G23a3225G0
Elizabeth Bishop - One Art
|
The art of losing isn't hard to master; |
Thanks folks!
Current Country Totals
From 1 Jun 2009 to 7 Aug 2009
From 1 Jun 2009 to 7 Aug 2009
| United States (US) | 555 |
| Brazil (BR) | 44 |
| Canada (CA) | 32 |
| Australia (AU) | 19 |
| New Zealand (NZ) | 18 |
| United Kingdom (GB) | 18 |
| Netherlands (NL) | 17 |
| France (FR) | 10 |
| Germany (DE) | 7 |
| Israel (IL) | 6 |
| Belgium (BE) | 3 |
| Taiwan (TW) | 3 |
| Portugal (PT) | 3 |
| Austria (AT) | 3 |
| Morocco (MA) | 3 |
| Singapore (SG) | 3 |
| India (IN) | 2 |
| Indonesia (ID) | 2 |
| Russian Federation (RU) | 2 |
| Japan (JP) | 2 |
| Italy (IT) | 2 |
| Hong Kong (HK) | 2 |
| Afghanistan (AF) | 2 |
| Puerto Rico (PR) | 1 |
| Argentina (AR) | 1 |
| Denmark (DK) | 1 |
| Sweden (SE) | 1 |
| Ukraine (UA) | 1 |
| Malaysia (MY) | 1 |
| Spain (ES) | 1 |
| Jamaica (JM) | 1 |
| Barbados (BB) | 1 |
| Saudi Arabia (SA) | 1 |
| Venezuela (VE) | 1 |
| Cyprus (CY) | 1 |
| Korea, Republic of (KR) | 1 |
Friday, August 7, 2009
New Bedfellows
|
When two attorneys from opposing sides of the political spectrum argue that some issues transcend the differences between liberals and conservatives we must remember that, as nice as it sounds, none of us can afford the luxury of imagining ourselves above the political fray. Full article |
Marriage Equality USA Wants You to Weigh In Today...
David Janis-Kitzmiller sent a message to the members of Marriage Equality USA.
--------------------
Subject: Marriage Equality USA Wants You to Weigh In Today...
The Courage Campaign has issued a call for organizations to partner in an effort to finalize the wording for a 2010 ballot initiative to restore marriage equality using the most effective messaging for moving conflicted voters in support of marriage equality. Marriage Equality USA would like to be a part of any collaboration moving ahead and today, we want to see what our collective organizational interest is in participating in this venture.
In May, Marriage Equality USA polled our members and 64% expressed a desire to go back to the ballot box in 2010, 23% said 2012 and the remainder were undecided. Marriage Equality USA has also just finished organizing over 40 Get Engaged Tour events across California and feedback indicated passion on both sides of the timing debate, but no clear consensus on when to move ahead. What did come across loud and clear is that our community wants our movement to come together and collectively plan how we can WIN a marr! iage equality campaign in the future.
As demonstrated advocates for the grassroots community, Marriage Equality USA would like to ensure your voices are heard as we move ahead in the next campaign. Whatever you donate today through August 13th will be targeted and offered in support of this collaborative effort.
No matter when we collectively decide to go back to the ballot box, Marriage Equality USA is committed to empowering our local communities to be active partners in the next campaign. We invite you to continue to engage and reach out to fair-minded Californians by getting involved with your local chapter's ongoing efforts to change hearts and minds by organizing canvassing, tabling, public speaking, and other public education efforts. Together we CAN. Weigh in today in support of the 2010 effort by making a targeted donation today.
For more information, contact getengaged@marriageequality.org.
To make a donation http://www.facebook.com/l/;visithttps://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1001435&code=MEUSA%20Default
--------------------
To reply to this message, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?inbox/readmessage.php&t=1030914670477&mid=e63e79G2c4faed8G0G0
--------------------
Subject: Marriage Equality USA Wants You to Weigh In Today...
The Courage Campaign has issued a call for organizations to partner in an effort to finalize the wording for a 2010 ballot initiative to restore marriage equality using the most effective messaging for moving conflicted voters in support of marriage equality. Marriage Equality USA would like to be a part of any collaboration moving ahead and today, we want to see what our collective organizational interest is in participating in this venture.
In May, Marriage Equality USA polled our members and 64% expressed a desire to go back to the ballot box in 2010, 23% said 2012 and the remainder were undecided. Marriage Equality USA has also just finished organizing over 40 Get Engaged Tour events across California and feedback indicated passion on both sides of the timing debate, but no clear consensus on when to move ahead. What did come across loud and clear is that our community wants our movement to come together and collectively plan how we can WIN a marr! iage equality campaign in the future.
As demonstrated advocates for the grassroots community, Marriage Equality USA would like to ensure your voices are heard as we move ahead in the next campaign. Whatever you donate today through August 13th will be targeted and offered in support of this collaborative effort.
No matter when we collectively decide to go back to the ballot box, Marriage Equality USA is committed to empowering our local communities to be active partners in the next campaign. We invite you to continue to engage and reach out to fair-minded Californians by getting involved with your local chapter's ongoing efforts to change hearts and minds by organizing canvassing, tabling, public speaking, and other public education efforts. Together we CAN. Weigh in today in support of the 2010 effort by making a targeted donation today.
For more information, contact getengaged@marriageequality.org.
To make a donation http://www.facebook.com/l/;visithttps://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1001435&code=MEUSA%20Default
--------------------
To reply to this message, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?inbox/readmessage.php&t=1030914670477&mid=e63e79G2c4faed8G0G0
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
