Category: Justice

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Haitians in the DR: genocide by exclusion & statelessness

We regret to inform youA tragedy of epic proportions will unfold in the Dominican Republic this week (15 June 2015), unless a miracle happens. Yet around the globe politicians, clergymen, public figures and We The People are by and large, not talking about it.

Friends, let us pray for Haiti. Let us talk about the plight of people on Haitian descent on both countries in the island of Hispaniola: God, please deliver the people of Haiti and those of Haitian descent who have been living in the Dominican Republic. Keep these people well! Bless them with good food, comfortable shelter and the means to rebuild their lives and make Haiti a strong and proud nation once again. read more

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Christie’s dismal record on union/labor rights just got worse

Christie, sweeney, bookerChristie has assaulted vulnerable New Jersey residents and labor rights all the years of his governorship. Next City shares the low-down on what Christie’s gotten away with, and how he’s done it.

Take public education: having promised when he was campaigning to take care of New Jersey’s teachers, after getting into office Christie proceeded to systematically destroy public ed, along with teachers’ and students lives and the bloodshed is far from over. Newark and Camden have been among the communities hardest hit. read more

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Don’t be fooled – Christie’s still bent on destroying public ed & New Jersey

Christie IHOPIt’s more than laughable that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is suddenly trying to show the nation that he cares about public education and the teachers whose lives, finances and careers he’s been systematically destroying ever since taking office two elections ago. It should be next to impossible to show something that isn’t real, but we’re talking about a public relations genius who got elected in 2013 on the strength of mistruth whoppers, namely:

  1. Christie hugged Obama to make himself look like a moderate Republican ready to reach over the aisle to form an alliance with Democrats to care for the people of his state when tragedy struck.
  2. Christie acts like he cares about New Jersey residents hardest hit by Superstorm Sandy.

The facts are that Christie has no love for the President. He hasn’t “done a good enough job distributing the (Sandy recovery funds) New Jersey has already received” and he refuses to release $500 million of federal recovery funds to applicants that have been qualified as eligible for help. Christie’s political grandstanding also arguably cost New Jersey schools hundreds of millions of dollars. read more

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Congressman Bill Pascrell says NO WAY to TPP at press conference

Pascrell rally against TPPAt a press conference at UFCW in Clifton, Congressman Bill Pascrell on 28 May 2015 announced his opposition to “Fast-Track authority” of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which is now headed for Congressional vote. Although the bill to Fast Track the TPP bill was recently approved by the Senate, New Jersey’s Bob Menendez and Cory Booker voted against it, and now Cong. Pascrell will have his chance to do the same.

Truthout offers an explanation of what Fast Track is and why Americans should rally against it. read more

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Gay rights advance in Ireland and are defended by a Vermont mom

In honor of Ireland’s historic vote to allow same-sex marriage throughout the country, Truthout’s Senior Editor William Rivers Pitt shared this fabulous Letter to the Editor from a Vermont mother addressing the community of neighbors that began tormenting her son from age 6, mercilessly bullying him and calling him a “fag” because he didn’t walk and have the same interests as other students. In 2000 Sharon Underwood wrote: read more

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Newark Students’ May 22 walkout and protest over 2000 strong

Newark 1505 student walkoutOn May 22 2015, over 2000 students and supporters shut downtown Newark NJ down for several hours to create visibility and bring awareness to the horrors Newark students have experienced at the hands of Chris Christie, Cory Booker and Cami Anderson, who jointly created a plan to break the back of public education in this city.

Anderson’s “One Newark” plan has young children from a single family barred from attending the school local to their home and instead, being sent far outside their neighborhood to 4 different schools in different corners of the city. Each child must take 2-3 bus rides and spend an hour of commuting time each way to reach school. Throughout the city, public school students are denied books and sanitary food; the principals and administrative staff of the city’s most successful schools are fired; and police charges were filed against a PTA president for hanging flyers announcing the PTA’s next meeting. read more

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Taking pix of or on a plane can get you clipped wings or worse

banned pilotIn the continuing saga of how weird America has become, HuffPost reports on the Kafka-esque rules concerning airplanes and cameras.

It’s not illegal or even against airline policy to take photos or video of airplanes, on airplanes or of airline staff. But if you do, the staff can decide to blacklist you, remove you from flights or create a report about your “bad behaviour”. They can also decide to do nothing and let you snap, or film, away without any consequences whatsoever. And by the way, these unpublished rules, not made accessible to the public, are subject to change without notice. read more

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Let evildoers fade into obscurity while we celebrate heroes

Arredondo saving bomb victimThe day after the surviving Boston Marathon bomber was sentenced to death last Friday, May 15 2015, Boston Globe writer Kevin Cullen reminds us to let the evildoers fade into the obscurity of history, while we focus on the heroes. Kevin asks, “How do we forget the Tsarnaev brothers? How do we write them out of the narrative, so that the legacy of the attack on the Boston Marathon focuses on those worth remembering?”

…the Tsarnaev brothers made choices, too, and they actually had much, much more time to make them. They spent months listening to the jihadi propaganda that promised them paradise if they murdered innocents. They spent more months preparing their bombs, preparing their minds, dehumanizing the strangers they would kill and maim. read more

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Why the 20 week abortion ban is unconstitutional, unjust and dangerous

keep abortion safe & legalRoe v. Wade established women’s constitutional rights to decide whether we will carry pregnancies to term. It is unconstitutional to impose any ban on abortions. Yet on Wednesday May 13, Congress voted 242 to 184 to ban abortions after 20 weeks of gestation. The ban will make it impossible for women to abort babies that are seriously ill, fail to develop properly or when a pregnancy threatens the mom’s life.

Don’t get me wrong – I hate the idea of aborting a fetus this far advanced in term. But this is an important point: doctors who could perform an abortion of this type probably hate it more, so it will always be difficult to find a doctor willing to perform a late term abortion. Except when there is clear medical need. read more

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Real companies don’t call to offer tech support: end robocalls

tired of robo callsConsumer’s Union wants us to know about a robocall scam that has victimized way too many people:

Benita from Washington, DC, wrote in with this warning about a phone scam where the caller pretends to be offering tech support:

“Have you received a call telling you that they notice that you are having problems with your computer, and you should go to “run” and enter a code — which would allow them to take over your computer and repair your problem? This is a major SCAM and your computer will be corrupted. Hang up — do not continue call.” read more

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A short list of remarkable truth-telling journalists

speak truth to power
After reporting on Colbert’s public attack on David Koch at a Time Magazine Gala, journalist David Harris Gershon shares his list of truth-telling US journalists we should honor and pay close attention to.

Honor, because they are ‘swimming upstream’ in an era of cowardly and self-interested reporting. He starts off with, “Stewart. Colbert. Maher (at times),” and expands his list to include:

As According to Fish and kovie point out, it’s important to recognize those journalists and political commentators who swim upstream in their efforts to serve as truth-tellers, such as (to name just a few of my favorites) Amy Goodman, Bill Moyers, Robert Scheer, Paul Krugman, Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald. read more

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Obamas celebrate Native American youth with website & tribal gathering

Generation Indigenous
The White House launched its new Generation Indigenous (Gen-I) portal to serve as a one-stop shop for Native youth.

The Gen-I initiative focuses on improving the lives of Native youth through new investments and increased engagement. This initiative takes a comprehensive, culturally appropriate approach to ensure all young Native people can reach their full potential. Gen-I will help improve the lives of Native youth by promoting a national dialogue and policies and programs to mobilize and cultivate the next generation of Native leaders. Key programs address: education, health and nutrition, juvenile justice, housing, and youth engagement. read more

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German mom tells Israeli HS students at Auschwitz “You are not alone”

German mom hands out heart stickersA German mom says to Israeli HS students visiting Auschwitz “I want you to know you are not alone,” & hands out to each of them, heart stickers to symbolically replace the yellow stars that Nazis used to identify Jews for restricting their movements in Europe and to tag them for murder.

Auschwitz was one of the detention camps where Jews were made to live in isolation from the rest of European society during the Nazi Holocaust without adequate food, shelter, clothing or healthcare. Jews not able to serve Hitler as laborers – women, children, the elderly and infirm – were immediately put to death. At least 6 million Jews and as many as 20 million civilians overall were killed by Hitler during the Holocaust. read more