Breaking News Events

[Nat]

Tom Emmer also supports Arizona's immigration stance.

[Cyclopea]

Originally Posted by dark_crystal

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news...-99311219.html

endangering lives or useful whistleblowing?

What do we think?

Both.
Some interesting coverage of the Afghan files at Der Speigel and The Guardian. The NYTimes, not so much. Disappointing but perhaps not surprising.

[Nat]

Indigenous tribes occupy dam in Brazil, demand reparations

An indigenous group in Brazil has taken over a hydroelectric dam, which they state has polluted vital fishing grounds and destroyed sacred burial ground. They are demanding reparations for the damage done and that no more dams are built in the region without their prior consent.

The occupation of the dam began on Sunday when approximately 300 Indians from eleven different tribes took over the Dardanelos Dam in the Brazilian state of Matto Grosso. Despite wearing war paint and bows and arrows, the occupation was said to be non-violent and no injuries have been reported.

Initially the indigenous protesters held some 150 workers at the dam, but have since released the employees. The tribes are currently holding talks with government officials and representatives from the dam in hopes to come to an agreement to end the standoff.

A spokesperson with the Enawene Nawe tribe, one of the tribes represented in the action, told indigenous rights organization Survival International that "[they] joined the protest to raise awareness about the damage the dams cause, about the recognition of our land and the dangers of future projects like this".

After two years with poor fish catches, the government was forced to bring in farmed fish for the tribes.

"They don't want money in their hands. What they want is a sustainable program in the area that will recover the loss they have suffered in this archaeological site," explained Antonio Carlos Ferreira Aquino from the National Foundation for Indigenous Affairs in an interview with CNN.

Brazil has become increasingly dependent on hydroelectric power to boost energy production, however dams in Brazil have been implicated in flooding pristine rainforest, disrupting natural river ecosystems, hurting already marginalized indigenous people, and releasing vast amounts of the potent greenhouse gas methane arguably equal to carbon emissions released by fossil fuel powered plants.

[Rook]

Ellen set to Leave American Idol after 1 Season
Reason ? "didnt feel like the right fit"
Really? hmm

[Nat]

Pentagon Report Places Blame for Military Suicides

The report, released Thursday at the Pentagon, found that it was not only the stress of repeated deployments over nearly a decade in Iraq and Afghanistan that has driven the Army suicide rate above the civilian rate for the first time since the Vietnam War. Significantly, the report said that 79 percent of the soldiers who committed suicide had had only one deployment, or had not deployed at all.

“For us to blame this thing just on the war would be wrong,” Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the vice chief of staff of the Army, said at a news conference about the report. “That’s not what we’re trying to do here.”

Nonetheless, General Chiarelli said that he believed — but could not prove statistically — that the overall Army suicide rate had been driven up by the 21 percent of suicides committed by soldiers with multiple deployments. “That has just always been my concern, that they may be it, that may be the reason,” he said. “But I don’t have any data that I can tie that to.”

There were a record 160 active-duty Army suicides in the year from Oct. 1, 2008, to Sept. 30, 2009.

The report said that if the Army added in accidental deaths, which it said are often the result of high-risk behavior involving drinking and drugs, “less young men and women die in combat than die by their own actions.” It concluded: “We are often more dangerous to ourselves than the enemy.”

[Nat]

WASHINGTON, July 27 (UPI) -- An Iranian national who has lived in the United States since he was a child has asked for political asylum because he is gay.

Mohammad Abdollahi, 24, says his personal safety would be jeopardized if he is deported to his native Iran after living in the United States for some 20 years.

"It's not something I can imagine," Abdollahi told ABC News. "It would be a very scary thing because I haven't hidden my sexuality in talking with friends or the media."

Abdollahi came to the United States as a boy with his parents, who were students at the University of Michigan. He was tagged for deportation after a protest in May.

Abdollahi told ABC he became aware of his sexual orientation as a teenager, about the same time he found out about his illegal immigration status.

Although Abdollahi was a minor when he came to the United States and would face a dubious future in Iran, ABC said Tuesday he faces long odds in winning asylum. "He's looking at having to prove greater than 50 percent chance of persecution, a clear probability of persecution," said immigration attorney Kimberley Schaefer.


Abdollahi's letter to President Obama:

Dear Mr. President,

My name is Mohammad Abdollahi and I am an undocumented immigrant. Two months ago I made history.

On May 17, according to the New York Times, I become one of the first undocumented students, along with two others, to “have directly risked deportation in an effort to prompt Congress to take up [the DREAM Act].” Risking deportation was no small act for me. Not only did I risk being forcibly removed from United States, the only country I know as my home, to Iran, where I don’t know the culture or the language. I also happen to be gay. In Iran, people like me are tortured and executed. I am still at risk of deportation and execution, right now, and I will continue to be at risk until the DREAM Act is passed.

I took this risk because I had no choice. For all of my life, my future has been held hostage by politicians, both Democrat and Republican, who have used me as a political football. My family immigrated to the United States from Iran when I was just three years old. Undocumented immigrants are often told, “get in line!” without knowing that many of us were at one point in this infamous line. My family was “in line” until an immigration attorney miscalculated the processing fee for an H1-B visa by $20 dollars and our application was rejected. The second attorney my family hired to fix the application spent his time bickering with the old attorney instead of informing my parents that they only had 60 days to appeal our rejected application. The deadline came and went and we became undocumented.

I’ve known I was undocumented for a long time, but I still graduated from high school. While working to pay out-of-state tuition, I was able to earn my Associate’s degreein Health and Human Services from Washtenaw College. When I had enough credits, I applied to Eastern Michigan University. I handed a counselor there my transcript and he said, “Mohammad, you are the kind of student we want at this university.” He then handed me an acceptance letter. I was in.

I looked at this letter and thought of my mother. With this piece of paper, I could go to my mother and tell her that she didn’t have to stay up late crying anymore. She didn’t have to blame herself anymore. She hadn’t done her children wrong by bringing them to this country. I could tell her it was all worth it. Then, the counselor brought back his supervisor, who told me that they could not accept me because I “needed to be in a line to get in”. The counselor then reached over his desk and took my acceptance letter from me.

I left. My future was being held hostage. A short time later, the DREAM Act came up for a vote in the Senate, and 44 other people decided that they too were going to hold my future hostage. Three years later, my future and the futures of over 2 million others are still being held hostage. Two months ago, I risked my life because once again the window to my future is closing. I am in limbo. I cannot contribute to the only country I know as my home. I also cannot return to Iran, where the penalty for homosexuality is capital punishment.

My only hope is for the DREAM Act to pass, but time is running out in this Congress. The DREAM Act has more support in the Senate than any other piece of immigration legislation, but it is being held hostage by Democrats who do not want to vote on it separately from comprehensive immigration reform, and by Republicans who refuse to publicly support legislation they have supported before.
I made history two months ago, and today, along with hundreds of other undocumented youth from across the nation, I will make history again. Hundreds of us are descending on Washington D.C. to ask Congress to stop holding our lives hostage and to pass the DREAM Act now. Please stand with us and ask Congress to pass the DREAM Act, now.

Sincerely,
Mohammad Abdollahi

He is interviewed in the last few minutes of this video:

[Nat]

link from change.org

Campbell's Soup has a 10-year contract with a food business in Holland, Michigan known as Request Foods, which helps package and distribute prepared food items. But Request Foods also works hard to keep civil rights away from gays and lesbians in their community.

Request Foods has taken out a full page advertisement in their hometown of Holland, Michigan, to try and defeat a local law that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the town's nondiscrimination policy. In their ad, they accuse gay people of being psychologically disordered, suggest that people can spontaneously change their sexual orientation, and argue that gays and lesbians don't deserve civil rights because homosexuality is destructive to society.

here's the ad:

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by Nat

WASHINGTON, July 27 (UPI) -- An Iranian national who has lived in the United States since he was a child has asked for political asylum because he is gay.

Mohammad Abdollahi, 24, says his personal safety would be jeopardized if he is deported to his native Iran after living in the United States for some 20 years.

"It's not something I can imagine," Abdollahi told ABC News. "It would be a very scary thing because I haven't hidden my sexuality in talking with friends or the media."

Abdollahi came to the United States as a boy with his parents, who were students at the University of Michigan. He was tagged for deportation after a protest in May.

Abdollahi told ABC he became aware of his sexual orientation as a teenager, about the same time he found out about his illegal immigration status.

Although Abdollahi was a minor when he came to the United States and would face a dubious future in Iran, ABC said Tuesday he faces long odds in winning asylum. "He's looking at having to prove greater than 50 percent chance of persecution, a clear probability of persecution," said immigration attorney Kimberley Schaefer.


Abdollahi's letter to President Obama:



He is interviewed in the last few minutes of this video:

Thank you for posting this. I am getting letters out to show support for this guy.

It would do us all a lot of good to understand how homosexuality in many, many countries is a crime to be punished by death via a government. Yes, in the US, we have homophobes galore and civil rights are still being sought (and there are the hate crimes), but, taking in government/state sponsored dealth penalities for one's sexuality is a whole other story!!

[MsDemeanor]

Request Foods has a Contact Us link on their web site. Bless their homophobic little hearts, they don't even require that you fill in your name or contact information. You can just just select Other for Nature of your interest and enter comments.

linkyloo

[Liam]

Supreme Court revises Miranda...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT

[Corkey]

https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cand/09cv2292/

[Gayla]

I don't think this counts as breaking news but I couldn't find any other thread to post it in.

Confessions of a Tea Party Casualty

[Nat]

Originally Posted by gayla

I don't think this counts as breaking news but I couldn't find any other thread to post it in.

Confessions of a Tea Party Casualty

"They were upset with me," Inglis recalls. "They are all Glenn Beck watchers." About 90 minutes into the meeting, as he remembers it, "They say, 'Bob, what don't you get? Barack Obama is a socialist, communist Marxist who wants to destroy the American economy so he can take over as dictator. Health care is part of that. And he wants to open up the Mexican border and turn [the US] into a Muslim nation.'" Inglis didn't know how to respond.

[Nat]

http://m.guardian.co.uk/?id=102202&s...-fortune-gates

[Softhearted]

"WASHINGTON, July 27 (UPI) -- An Iranian national who has lived in the United States since he was a child has asked for political asylum because he is gay. Mohammad Abdollahi, 24, says his personal safety would be jeopardized if he is deported to his native Iran after living in the United States for some 20 years. "It's not something I can imagine," Abdollahi told ABC News. "It would be a very scary thing because I haven't hidden my sexuality in talking with friends or the media." Abdollahi came to the United States as a boy with his parents, who were students at the University of Michigan. He was tagged for deportation after a protest in May. Abdollahi told ABC he became aware of his sexual orientation as a teenager, about the same time he found out about his illegal immigration status. Although Abdollahi was a minor when he came to the United States and would face a dubious future in Iran, ABC said Tuesday he faces long odds in winning asylum. "He's looking at having to prove greater than 50 percent chance of persecution, a clear probability of persecution," said immigration attorney Kimberley Schaefer."


FFS!!! HELLO??? Talking about a country where homosexuality is considered a crime punishable by death!!! Does he really need to prove it????

links: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/20...ex-change.html

http://www.globalgayz.com/country/Ir...w/IRN/gay-iran

http://www.voyage.gc.ca/countries_pa....asp?id=132000

[T D]

Originally Posted by Softhearted

"WASHINGTON, July 27 (UPI) -- An Iranian national who has lived in the United States since he was a child has asked for political asylum because he is gay. Mohammad Abdollahi, 24, says his personal safety would be jeopardized if he is deported to his native Iran after living in the United States for some 20 years. "It's not something I can imagine," Abdollahi told ABC News. "It would be a very scary thing because I haven't hidden my sexuality in talking with friends or the media." Abdollahi came to the United States as a boy with his parents, who were students at the University of Michigan. He was tagged for deportation after a protest in May. Abdollahi told ABC he became aware of his sexual orientation as a teenager, about the same time he found out about his illegal immigration status. Although Abdollahi was a minor when he came to the United States and would face a dubious future in Iran, ABC said Tuesday he faces long odds in winning asylum. "He's looking at having to prove greater than 50 percent chance of persecution, a clear probability of persecution," said immigration attorney Kimberley Schaefer."


FFS!!! HELLO??? Talking about a country where homosexuality is considered a crime punishable by death!!! Does he really need to prove it????

links: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/20...ex-change.html

http://www.globalgayz.com/country/Ir...w/IRN/gay-iran

http://www.voyage.gc.ca/countries_pa....asp?id=132000

This kind of thing sooooooo pisses me off!!!!

[AtLast]

Indiana Hospital Says No Transgender Patients Allowed

http://gayrights.change.org/blog/vie...tients_allowed

[MsDemeanor]

That doctor and that hospital both have lovely lawsuits in their future. With any luck, the doctor will have his license reviewed (revoked would be nice) and the hospital will be investigated and it's credentials scrutinized. What they did is a violation of medical ethics codes and federal law.

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by MsDemeanor

That doctor and that hospital both have lovely lawsuits in their future. With any luck, the doctor will have his license reviewed (revoked would be nice) and the hospital will be investigated and it's credentials scrutinized. What they did is a violation of medical ethics codes and federal law.

I would think so! ER treatment cannot be refused, period!

[Laerkin]

Prop 8 Ruled Unconstitutional:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_670739.html