Monday, March 31, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
FOX & the Media Lies!! Barack Obama Pastor Wright
FOX lied! Here's the whole context!
Different Standards for Black and White Preachers
OBM: Massa Amerikkka & racist white men....please excuse Pastor Wright for stating facts about some of the damage Amerikkka has and is doing to other people. Please don't pay him no mind. He’s just one of thoes field hands who's always complaining. Massa...we's lov's you...and want to say thank you for bringing us negro's here, giving us longer jail sentences for the same crimes, hiring a few of us in your fine companies, for providing our neighborhoods with fine alcohol stores and drugs, for taking the time to under educate & brainwash our children with the lies of this great country, and best of all...we'll always remember those good "no-wage" paying jobs that you use to build our beautiful country. Thank you Massa!!!!
Posted March 19, 2008
Cenk Uygur
The Huffington Post
Rudy Giuliani's priest has been accused in grand jury proceedings of molesting several children and covering up the molestation of others. Giuliani would not disavow him on the campaign trail and still works with him.
Mitt Romney was part of a church that did not view black Americans as equals and actively discriminated against them. He stayed with that church all the way into his early thirties, until they were finally forced to change their policies to come into compliance with civil rights legislation. Romney never disavowed his church back then or now. He said he was proud of the faith of his fathers.
Jerry Falwell said America had 9/11 coming because we tolerated gays, feminists and liberals. It was our fault. Our chickens had come home to roost, if you will. John McCain proudly received his support and even spoke at his university's commencement.
Reverend John Hagee has called the Catholic Church the "Great Whore." He has said that the Anti-Christ will rise out of the European Union (of course, the Anti-Christ will also be Jewish). He has said all Muslims are trained to kill and will be part of the devil's army when Armageddon comes (which he hopes is soon). John McCain continues to say he is proud of Reverend Hagee's endorsement.
Reverend Rod Parsley believes America was founded to destroy Islam. Since this is such an outlandish claim, I have to add for the record, that he is not kidding. Reverend Parsley says Islam is an "anti-Christ religion" brought down from a "demon spirit." Of course, we are in a war against all Muslims, including presumably Muslim-Americans. Buts since Parsley believes this is a Christian nation and that it should be run as a theocracy, he is not very concerned what Muslim-Americans think.
John McCain says Reverend Rod Parsley is his "spiritual guide."
What separates all of these outrageous preachers from Barack Obama's? You guessed it. They're white and Reverend Jeremiah Wright is not. If it's not racism that's causing the disparity in media treatment of these preachers, then what is it?
I'm willing to listen to other possible explanations. And I am inclined to believe that the people these preachers go after are more important than the race of the preacher. It's one thing to go after gays, liberals and Muslims -- that seems to be perfectly acceptable in America -- it's another to accuse white folks of not living up to their ideals.
I think there is another factor at play as well. The media is deathly afraid of calling out preachers of any stripe for insane propaganda from the pulpits for fear that they will be labeled as anti-Christian. But criticism of Rev. Wright falls into their comfort zone. It's easy to blame him for being anti-American because he criticizes American foreign and domestic policy.
If Rev. Wright had preached about discriminating against gay Americans or Muslims, there probably would not have been any outcry at all. That falls into the category of "respect their hateful opinions because they cloak themselves in the church."
But one thing is indisputable -- the enormous disparity in how the media has covered these white preachers as opposed to Rev. Wright. Have you ever even heard of Rod Parsley? As you can see from what I listed above, all of these white preachers have said and done the most outlandish and offensive things you can imagine -- and hardly a peep.
If the disparity in coverage isn't racist, then what is it?
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Chicago school starts financial education early
Starting in first grade, classes are given $20,000 to invest
The Associated Press
updated 4:55 p.m. ET, Sun., March. 9, 2008
CHICAGO - Like their peers elsewhere, the students at a one-of-a-kind public elementary school on the South Side of Chicago are dazzled by pop-culture stars — Beyonce and Common, Kanye West and Lil' Wayne, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.
Listen closely to the hallway chatter at Ariel Community Academy, though, and you may hear unexpected references to uncool dudes like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. After all, these kids have their portfolios to worry about.
The Ariel school is an experiment in financial literacy with real-life oomph: Each incoming first-grade class gets $20,000 that the children ultimately get to pick stocks for and manage. The goal is to add an I — investing — to the three R's, according John Rogers Jr., chairman and chief executive of Ariel Capital Management, the Chicago-based money management firm that established the school in 1996.
At a time when pensions are being phased out and people must rely more on their own investment smarts, Rogers thinks saving and investment should be an integral part of the curriculum at schools across the country.
"It's important to have all the reading and writing and arithmetic skill sets, but we can't think of anything else more important than to be able to be financially viable and competent as you start to build your working career," he said.
Experts say easy credit, aggressive marketing and the dizzying array of financial products and cashless spending options have led many American consumers astray, making it more essential than ever for kids to learn about money.
Iowa State University professor Tahira Hira, a member of the newly formed President's Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, is among those advocating that personal finance be required teaching at every elementary school.
"People who were brought up with some lesson in saving or borrowing act differently than those who weren't," Hira said. Opening bank accounts for children, buying them stock in a fast-food company or the company that makes their favorite toy, teaching them to spend some, save some and give some away when they receive cash as a gift — "our research shows that all those things do matter," she said.
The Ariel school's success can't be fully judged until its first graduates, now juniors in high school, make their own mark. But high math test scores give it a blue chip reputation and some cachet for its students in a mostly black, high-poverty area.
When eighth grader Victoria Bills talks about investments with her friends, for example, "They're like, 'Oh Victoria, that's like so cool!'" she said. "They're like, 'I want to go to that school.'"
That's music to the ears of the 49-year-old Rogers, who has long put a special emphasis on trying to encourage other African-Americans to save and invest more.
A South Side native, Rogers first got enthused about investing at age 12 when his father began buying him different stocks every birthday and Christmas.
After graduating from Princeton, where he was captain of the basketball team, he started Ariel when he was 24 with his own savings and investments begged from friends and family. Today, it has more than $13 billion under management in three mutual funds and separate accounts for 89 institutional clients. Rogers is also a close adviser to Sen. Barack Obama, who lives just five blocks down the street from the school in the Kenwood neighborhood.
Inspired by a symposium he attended on financial literacy in the mid-1990s, Rogers had Ariel team with fellow Chicago investment firm John Nuveen & Co. to fund the innovative school program.
The concept is simple: Ariel's experts manage a $20,000 portfolio for each class until sixth grade, briefing them regularly along the way, and then begin turning over the decisions to the children. Upon graduation from eighth grade, each class returns the initial investment amount to the school for another first-grade class and donates, invests or pockets the profits.
After giving half the gains to community charity programs or school initiatives, each student can then take the rest in cash or invest it in a Section 529 college savings plan, in which case they are given an additional $1,000. Last year, 80 percent of graduates invested their 150 shares in a 529.
The financial focus extends well beyond the portfolio at a school where hallways are named after Wall Street and other marketplaces, and students announce the latest business news twice daily over the PA system.
Financial concepts are woven into the curriculum, with first graders learning about core economic principles, for example, while eighth graders put together their own business plans. All 440 students are offered free tutoring from Ariel's professionals on Saturdays, and the older kids have the chance to hear analyst presentations and attend meetings at McDonald's Corp., where Rogers sits on the board of directors.
There's nothing dry about such schooling to these kids, according to Connie Moran, the school's director of financial education.
"When I say we're going to talk about money today, they don't go 'Eeeeewww' like some kids might," said Moran, a former bond analyst. "It's like saying we're going to recess — that's never a problem."
Moran said her students soak up financial information like sponges. Besides, she noted, "We don't wait until our students are 16 to teach them how to read. Why wait until they're 16 to teach them how to manage a bank account?"
Twice a week or so, junior boards of directors elected by the seventh and eighth grades gather around a table under a giant mural depicting a bull and bear to discuss their class holdings.
With the whack of a gavel one recent day, they were off and running. The lively discussion touched on everything from the merits of the maker of Ugg boots to their tendency to load up on tech stocks to whether they should profit from companies that make weapons used in the war in Iraq.
Student Jordan Lillybridge likes sitting in the boardroom.
"It gives me an opportunity to express my opinion on which stock we should pick — especially me and Sony, because I am a big fan of Sony," said Lillybridge, who is 12. "Also Panera Bread."
Bills, too, revels in the whole experience, keeping tabs on financial news and monitoring her class' stocks at home.
"When I go to this school I actually feel special, because I'm learning things that most kids probably wouldn't even learn," she said, adding that she hopes to make enough in the market to help her mom.
Rogers, whose company spends nearly $1 million a year on the school, would love to see it churn out future portfolio managers, accountants and investment bankers. But for now he finds it "absolutely thrilling" just to sit in on the children's discussions about stocks.
Nurturing their education and watching them grow up and have fun with the stock market, he said, is "one of the greatest feelings in the world."
Pasror Manning attacks Obama
OBM: I checked several of this guys clips out on youtube and I suggest you do the same. First this guy is no Christian pastor. A pastor is able to make his point without attacking and degrading people. I'll pray for this guy. Second...he is a shining example of why blacks can not criticize blacks like this in public. The racist are going to use what he says a weapon and justification for themselves. I do agree that blacks have areas of physiological improvement that are desperately needed. Can you say “Willie Lynch”….So many of us are still asleep and focusing on material possessions, rap music, sports, and who's gettin' wit' who. We need to spend more time focused on education of ourselves and or kids, learning our history, learning truthful corrupt American history and not “his-story” full of lies, local and national employment issues, crime and police brutality, health issues, and our spirituality to name a few. I do agree with the point of the reason middle age and elderly whites like Obama. Obama is not a confronter on issues of race. I also agree that God often has a leader experience jail either to break the person first so he can use them later or as a test of the leader’s faith and an example to those who follow them, but I disagree that jail time makes a leader.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
America's Greatest Hits
By Kennie Anderson, Land of Hypocrisy
Guerrillafunk.com
Truth often passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Second it is violently opposed. Third it is accepted as being self-evident. This process occurs when a new truth is revealed that contradicts current superstition, whether the truth comes out about the Earth not being the center of the universe or the truth comes out about the horrible atrocities performed by the United States government.
Yes, violence and oppression exist all over the world, and the United States is not the only country that has done wrong and made mistakes. But there is currently only one country that has conducted destruction with such strong involvement on a global scale. There is only one imperialistic empire that has been so deeply linked to so many corrupt dictatorships, oppressive regimes, and corporate exploitations. This material will focus on that one country.
Many simply say to people who criticize the government, "If you don't like the country, then why don't you leave?" First of all, there is no utopia, and concerned citizens will point out problems and strive for improvements wherever they live. Running away from these problems will not solve them. Additionally, if they were to leave the country, the problems inherent to the country (especially militarism and corporate exploitation) would often affect them more if they lived abroad.
Readers not raised in America probably have a better understanding. It is easier to recognize wrongdoings when one hasn't been educated by the perpetrator. Many Americans will see the inverted US flag on the cover of my book and be overwhelmed with defensiveness or hostility and would rather burn it than read it. Most of those people have never even considered the possibility that the United States might be guilty of some very serious wrongdoings.
If this work seems to be biased towards the oppressed people of the world and doesn't defend the position of the government or corrupt corporations, it is because there is no need to publicize the position that is stated in 99% of the mass media. The purpose of this work is to accurately present the world from a perspective other than the one that is hammered out by the mass media and show the viewpoints of those other than the rich and powerful.
Despite the constant bombardment of propaganda boasting how great America is, there are those who have seen the world from non-American eyes. Many will read this material with a sense of confirmation. These are the people who already have suspicions about the interests and motives of the rich and powerful. There are also those who will read this work with great scrutiny. Hopefully they will eventually apply that same scrutiny to the misinformation and deception being disseminated by the media for their corporate and government sponsors.
It is difficult for people to change their opinions after they 've reached a certain stage of development in their experiences and education. Beliefs are too strongly rooted in the foundations of their earlier years. Opinions were molded by early environmental factors and experiences, and many reject anything that does not support the information they were exposed to earlier.
The premature formulation of irreversible opinions is the result of people making judgments with only limited information. Many choose what they believe without researching a subject, and end up basing their belief on the information they are initially exposed to, even if that information is completely false.
This material focuses on presenting facts of record that have been ignored or concealed by mainstream sources of information.
America's Greatest Hits
Astonishingly, many Americans seem to be completely unaware of many of the atrocities committed by their own country. Ripping off the blindfold, the following contains a partial list of the death toll that American militarism has caused in the world during recent history (nearly all of the listings are within the past 60 years). The facts of this list will be expanded upon in following sections. Additional atrocities will also be presented in following sections.
This list includes interventions conducted both overtly and covertly. It includes the use of force through militaries armed, trained, funded, and directed by the US. It is true that some of these atrocities only had a few US officials actively involved, but these puppet armies would never have been capable of such destruction without US supplying and assistance (as detailed following sections show). There are countless mass killings missing from this list that the US is responsible for, but this list covers the most violent crimes committed by the US government in recent history.
Many horrible casualties are listed here, but it is important to not just think in terms of numbers and statistics. We should visualize each of the beautiful lives that were destroyed. Imagine stadiums filled with Korean children dying from napalm before your eyes. Visualize the mothers in Iraq digging up the corpses of their children. Picture children in Vietnam who were born without legs or arms because of residual effects of Agent Orange. Envision tens of thousands of Japanese civilians being wiped by out by atomic bombs before they even knew what hit them. Think about the children in Nicaragua crying on the street, seeking their mothers, not knowing that they had been killed by US-created contras. See the atrocities through the eyes of countless loving fathers in El Salvador who were forced to watch their infant children beat to death against rocks and their wives nailed upside down with their breasts cut off and skin of their face peeled off. Think about what it must have been like to be those victims or their grieving loved ones.
Worthy of noting is that almost all of these slaughters have been directed at non-whites and the vast majority of the victims of US militarism are civilians. The estimated ratio of civilians to soldiers that the US kills overseas is 10 to 1. In many cases the ratio is much worse. These innocent lives are the victims of the relentless drive by the United States' corporate and military elite for global economic domination. These victims have given their lives so that a small percentage of Americans can prosper.
The following is a partial list of atrocities, massacres, murders, and injuries in recent history for which the United States is responsible:
• 3,000,000 Vietnamese murdered over the course of about 30 years of US aggression.
• Well over 300,000 Japanese were massacred when the US raided Tokyo and dropped nuclear bombs on the urban civilian areas of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
• 600,000 civilians were killed in Cambodia by US bombing between 1969 and 1975.
• Over 500,000 people were killed in Laos when America subjected civilians to "secret bombing" from 1964 to 1973, dropping over two million tons of bombs on the country. Over one fourth of the population also became refugees.
• 100,000 people were murdered in South Korea prior to the Korean War by a brutal repression supported by US forces in 1945. This includes between 30,000 and 40,000 killed during the suppression of a peasant revolt on Cheju Island.
• Up to 4,500,000 Koreans were killed from 1951 to 1953 during America's massive slaughter in the Korean War.
• 200,000 were murdered when the Philippines were conquered by American forces. (This took place just over 100 years ago.)
• 23,000 people were slaughtered in Taiwan by US-backed, trained, equipped, and funded forces (Chiang's Nationalist army) during the late 1940s.
• 700,000 Indonesians (mostly landless peasants) were murdered in 1965 when the US armed and supported General Suharto.
• 200,000 were slaughtered in East Timor in 1975 by General Suharto with US support.
• 750,000 civilians were driven from their homes in East Timor by Indonesian forces in 1999 and 10,000 were killed.
• Over 1,700,000 Iraqis have been killed by US bombings and sanctions, mostly women and children.
• Over 1,000,000 lives were lost during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s in which the US used direct force and supported Hussein and Iraq.
• 35,000 Kurds were killed, 3,500 villages were destroyed, and between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000 became homeless as a result of aggression by Turkey with US arming and training in the 1990s.
• Over 1,000,000 people were killed in Afghanistan's civil war from 1979 to 1992, in which the US strongly supported the Moujahedeen, the most violent and sadistic of the forces. (This also set the stage for the CIA-backed Taliban to attain power.)
• 45,000 people were killed in South Lebanon since 1982 by Israel, always armed and supported by the US.
• Thousands have been killed in Palestine and millions (in both Palestine and Lebanon) were made refugees by US-backed Israel.
• Over 150,000 were killed in Greece when America advised, equipped, and financed violent interventions in the late 1940s and late 1960s.
• Over 75,000 civilians were killed and over one million refugees were created in El Salvador from 1980 to 1994 when the US intensely supported the efforts of a brutal regime and its death squads to eliminate a popular uprising.
• 40,000 civilians were killed by the US-backed National Guard in Nicaragua over the course of almost 50 years.
• 30,000 lives were killed by the US contras in Nicaragua from 1979 to 1989.
• 200,000 Guatemalans were slaughtered from 1960-1990s by a military apparatus trained, armed, funded, and assisted by America.
• Over 35,000 Colombian civilians have been killed during the US-supported Columbian war against left-wing rebels.
• More than 4,000 innocent civilians were killed in Panama during the US invasion in 1989.
• Hundreds of thousands were killed by US direct and indirect interventions in Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Peru, and Argentina from the mid 60s through the 80s.
• 50,000 Haitians were killed when the US military destroyed a peasant uprising in 1915.
• Between 4,000 and 5,000 Haitians were killed in the early 1990s by US-established forces.
• Thousands were killed in the Dominican Republic during the 1960s when US and Dominican troops crushed a pro-Bosch rebellion.
• Over 3,000 were killed and countless others injured by US interventions in Cuba.
• Hundreds were killed or injured when the US invaded Grenada in 1983.
• Over 50,000 Somalians were killed between 1978 and 1990 by US-supported Siad Barre.
• Up to 10,000 more Somalians were killed by US troops during America's "humanitarian mission" in 1993.
• In the US-supported Rwandan genocide, an estimated 800,000 people were killed in just 100 days in 1994.
• Over 300,000 were killed and 80,000 were crippled in Angola from a US-supported civil war.
• Tens of thousands were killed and up to 200,000 were tortured in Chad by Hissen Habre with US support during the 1980's.
• 1,500,000 were killed between 1980 and 1988 in southern Africa by the US-armed South Africa.
• Thousands of people in Pacific islands, Puerto Rico, Utah, California, Nevada, Washington, New Mexico, and various other places have been killed, infected, or harmed as a result of US weapon experiments (especially nuclear weapons and weapons using depleted uranium).
• Hundreds of civil rights activists have been beaten, tortured, framed, and killed in the US by government agencies in recent history.
• Hundreds of Black Panther supporters and American Indians were framed, beaten, or murdered by the FBI and its cohorts in the late 60's and early 70's.
• Over a thousand American Muslims "disappeared" after September 11, 2001, and have been detained without evidence of wrongdoing.
• As of the this publishing, over 10,000 were killed in Afghanistan by America's "War on Terror."
Orwell Rolls In His Grave
"Could a media system, controlled by a few global corporations with the ability to overwhelm all competing ... all » voices, be able to turn lies into truth?..."
This chilling documentary film examines the relationship between the media, corporate America, and government. In a country where the "top 1% control 90% of the wealth", the film argues that the media system is nothing but a "subsidiary of corporate America."
Director: Robert Kane Pappas - Run Time 1 Hour 46 Minutes «
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