Tell me how we justify giving these segregationists money by saying they defend freedom in the middle east….
I'm a global citizen, with an academic backgrund in the Middle East and Africa. Cities around the world feel like my home. I'm a professional Educator, which means something both in and out of public schools in the Bronx. And I believe in Solidarity. Wherever I am. Notes from my travels, research, and encounters tend to end up here...
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April 9, 2012
Nobel Prize-winning author Guenter Grass Denied Entry to Israel for Questioning its Nuclear Monopoly
March 30, 2012
Anti-War Protesters Again Denied Permit For NATO Summit March
A judge on Thursday rejected a request from anti-war protesters to demonstrate during the NATO summit of world leaders in May, but organizers said they would protest anyway and hope to draw 10,000 people or more opposed to war in Afghanistan.
“I can say definitively we are marching on May 20. We will hold a peaceful protest,” leader Andy Thayer said. He said organizers would get together to decide whether to appeal to a higher court.
Anti-war protesters want to march on May 20 and frustrated by the city’s refusal to allow a march that day. Activists have warned there could be a confrontation such as that during the anti-Vietnam War protests at the Democratic convention in 1968, which has marred Chicago’s image ever since.
The judge’s ruling on Thursday agreed with the city of Chicago, which had earlier denied the permit after a hearing at which city officials said the march would clog traffic and over-tax police resources.
The city had granted protesters a permit to hold a virtually identical rally and march on the day before, May 19, which coincided with a scheduled G8 summit prior to the NATO meeting. But the G8 summit was shifted to Camp David, near Washington, and Chicago protesters asked to move their demonstration a day later.
“Common sense tells you the city said it had enough resources to approve our application for May 19, when it had two summits. Now they say they don’t have enough personnel. It totally defies logic,” Thayer said.
A city spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
February 4, 2012
![Aceh was one of the first areas I really fell in love with as I travelled. This is sad to see.
thedailywhat:
This Is All Kinds Of Wrong of the Day: Some 65 punk rock fans had their hair shaved and their piercings removed by police in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province after a raid on a punk-rock concert.
“The presence of the punk community is disturbing, and disrupts the life of the Banda Aceh public,” said deputy mayor Illiza Sa’aduddin Djamal, who took credit for personally supervising several anti-punk raids over the past few months.
The latest raid, however, was the largest one yet.
“This is a new social disease affecting Banda Aceh,” the deputy mayor went on to say. Among other things, she opposes their mixed-sex gatherings, which she says “is against Islamic Shariah.”
Those detained were transferred to a “reeducation” State Police camp located outside the capital. One of the detainees claimed the busted concert was put on to raise money for orphans. “He’s part of the punk community,” Illiza responded, “and whoever was caught has to go through our reeducation so they wake up.”
“What did we do to deserve arresting? We didn’t steal and we didn’t bother anyone,” said 20-year-old Acehnese punk Fuazan. “The punk community in Banda Aceh is not involved with criminality. So what’s the crime that justifies us being brought to this camp? This country hasn’t yet made it illegal to express yourself, right?”
Police plan to keep the detainees at the camp for at least 10 days. Deputy Mayor Illiza vowed more crackdowns “until they’re all caught.”
[ap / jakartapost / photo: telegraph.]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lw806v6AVY1qzpwi0o1_1280.jpg)
Aceh was one of the first areas I really fell in love with as I travelled. This is sad to see.
This Is All Kinds Of Wrong of the Day: Some 65 punk rock fans had their hair shaved and their piercings removed by police in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province after a raid on a punk-rock concert.
“The presence of the punk community is disturbing, and disrupts the life of the Banda Aceh public,” said deputy mayor Illiza Sa’aduddin Djamal, who took credit for personally supervising several anti-punk raids over the past few months.
The latest raid, however, was the largest one yet.
“This is a new social disease affecting Banda Aceh,” the deputy mayor went on to say. Among other things, she opposes their mixed-sex gatherings, which she says “is against Islamic Shariah.”
Those detained were transferred to a “reeducation” State Police camp located outside the capital. One of the detainees claimed the busted concert was put on to raise money for orphans. “He’s part of the punk community,” Illiza responded, “and whoever was caught has to go through our reeducation so they wake up.”
“What did we do to deserve arresting? We didn’t steal and we didn’t bother anyone,” said 20-year-old Acehnese punk Fuazan. “The punk community in Banda Aceh is not involved with criminality. So what’s the crime that justifies us being brought to this camp? This country hasn’t yet made it illegal to express yourself, right?”
Police plan to keep the detainees at the camp for at least 10 days. Deputy Mayor Illiza vowed more crackdowns “until they’re all caught.”
[ap / jakartapost / photo: telegraph.]
(via occupyallstreets)
February 1, 2012
'Gasland' Journalists Arrested At Hearing By Order Of House Republicans
In a stunning break with First Amendment policy, House Republicans directed Capitol Hill police to detain a highly regarded documentary crew that was attempting to film a Wednesday hearing on a controversial natural gas procurement practice. Initial reports from sources suggested that an ABC News camera was also prevented from taping the hearing; ABC has since denied that they sent a crew to the hearing.
Josh Fox, director of the Academy Award-nominated documentary “Gasland” was taken into custody by Capitol Hill police this morning, along with his crew, after Republicans objected to their presence, according to Democratic sources present at the hearing. The meeting of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment had been taking place in room 2318 of the Rayburn building.
HuffPost has obtained exclusive video of the arrest of Josh Fox. Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.), the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, can be heard at the end of the clip asking Republican Chairman Andy Harris (R-Md.) to halt the arrest and permit Fox to film the public hearing. Harris denies Miller’s request as Fox is escorted out of the hearing in handcuffs.
(Source: socialuprooting)
January 20, 2012
Blogger told she’s not a journalist, fined $2.5 million: This is an important case. The Oregon blogger, Crystal Cox, runs a number of legal sites that play whistleblower to various firms. One of those firms, Obsidian Finance Group (they of obsidianfinancesucks.com) sued over defamatory postings. Nearly all of the allegations were thrown out — except for one. The post was fact-based, Cox claimed, as it was based on a source inside the company. But here’s the important part: A federal court claims that she’s not a journalist, despite the fact that the post was journalistic in nature, and she’s not subject to the shield laws that protect journalists in her state. Hence … the fine. This is important. Follow this story.
Wow. WOW. As a former “real journalist,” this is horrifying. Whistleblowers AND journalists (even ones on the little ol’ Interwebz) should be protected under the law. Surprise, surprise: federal courts siding with a corporation over an actual person!
-Jess
January 19, 2012
Artwork made by children in Gaza who lived through Israel’s attacks in the winter of 2008-09 and exhibited by the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) in the Bay Area is now available in book form in order to reach a wider audience.
The collection of original artwork was scheduled to be exhibited in September by the Museum of Children’s Art in Oakland (MOCHA), but due to intimidation and pressure from Israeli lobby groups, the museum canceled the exhibit at the last minute.
MECA immediately sprung into action and arranged for the artwork to be shown at a vacant gallery space around the corner from the children’s museum. Days before the doors opened, MOCHA’s board told MECA’s executive director Barbara Lubin that they could reinstate the exhibit at the original museum space, but that the collection would have to be ”modified.”
Lubin and MECA responded:
We at MECA made a commitment to the children of Gaza to share their experiences and perspectives, and consider any modifications to the art exhibit as a form of censorship. Children everywhere deserve to be heard, but we have an even greater responsibility to listen to the stories of children under siege and who survived Israel’s brutal military assault in 2008-2009.
In a press release for the book’s publication, MECA states that the drawings featured in A Child’s View from Gaza: Palestinian Children’s Art and the Fight Against Censorship ”serve as part of the historical record of the horror inflicted on the Palestinian people during Operation Cast Lead as experienced by children. Photos of the aftermath and the recent efforts by pro-Israel groups to censor the children’s art are also highlighted in the book.”
They added:
With beautiful, high-resolution print images of the exhibit, the book also features a special foreword by celebrated author, Alice Walker, as well as an essay by MECA Executive Director, Barbara Lubin, describing the struggle against the censorship.
As we approach the three-year anniversary of Israel’s brutal assault on the Gaza Strip, in which over 1400 civilians were killed including 352 children, the need to support the ones who survived to tell their stories and the trauma they experienced through art is now more crucial than ever.
The book is available for order on the MECA website.
January 10, 2012
How can we complain about other countries censoring media. We have all been fooled into thinking the U.S. is free.
(Source: diarrheaworldstarhiphop, via occupyallstreets)
December 15, 2011
An Egyptian military court has sentenced a blogger who criticised the army to two years in prison, after he went on a hunger strike to protest an initial three-year sentence.
Human rights in the Military Junta’s Egypt. The jury is still, at best, out, and and worst, very clear that little to nothing has changed at the top.
December 4, 2011
Charles Ingabire, a Rwandan journalist and politcal refugee, has been shot dead in Uganda after he was gunned down outside a bar in the capital city of Kampala.
Ingabire was the editor of Inyenyeri News - an online news publication that was highly critical of the government of Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
(source)
November 21, 2011
Congressional Internet Censorship/SOPA hearings: no opponents of the bill allowed
Fuck all the emo shit. Click the link. You’ll be as upset as the people below me. Though you will, ostensibly, express it better.
Andrew
Read and reblog please.
Oh my gosh folks. THIS JUST GOT FREAKING REAL. Apparently, they will be listening to Hollywood and other representatives in FAVOR of the bill, but they are refusing to listen to representatives OPPOSED to the bill when they have the hearings. THEY ARE ALREADY CENSORING by disallowing opponents of the bill!
This is such fucking bullshit. How is rejecting statements, submissions, and testimony opposing a law even considered constitutional? Well, of course any law could be passed if they just ignored any opposition to it. Think about that for a bit.
(via occupyallstreets)
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“Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners.”— Vladimir Lenin (via ...
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“Often in my lectures when I use the phrase “imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy” to describe our nation’s political system, audiences...”
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The Dictator and The Zionist - The Trouble with Sacha Baron Cohen.
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this is a picture of the protest—southwestern students...
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Anonymous asked: He said that about the NDAA BEFORE it had amendments made to it. He also said he would veto SOPA, so I think this is a sign that he at least knows what the internet does and doesn't need. (even if he's kinda daft elsewhere)
The Obama Administration attempted to censor the internet several times before, I call bullshit. Btw, Obama said he would veto the NDAA...
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Recently, Congresswoman Virginia Foxx raised eyebrows when she expressed her lack of sympathy for those who are currently drowning in student debt....
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The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
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“I still say tape or taped instead of record or recorded.”— I’m old
