Australia Floods Strand 200,000 People
Floods inundate towns in Eastern Australia CCTV News
Australia floods in Queensland [correct-worlds-info.blogspot.com]
Friday, December 31, 2010
MORE ABOUT AUSTRALIAN FLOODS
SAVAGE GARDEN
Two Beds and a Coffee Machine
Savage Garden - To The Moon & Back
savage garden - last Christmas
It gets better - a message for gay youth
DARREN HAYES DELICATE SEXUALITY AND MUSIC
Savage Garden - Crash And Burn
Affirmation - Savage Garden (AUSTRALIAN VERSION)
Tears of Pearl by Savage Garden
RIP BILLY TAYLOR
Billy Taylor, Jazz Pianist, Dies at 89
John Lewis and Billy Taylor - Jazz Piano Masters
Billy Taylor, Duke Ellington and Willie the Lion
Three Blind Mice - Billy Taylor
The Future of Jazz: Billy Taylor/George Russell/Bill Evans
Billy Taylor - Spiritual
DEMOCRACY NOW! DECEMBER 21, 2010
Julian Assange on WikiLeaks, War and Resisting Government Crackdown
RIP BOBBY FARRELL
Boney M singer Bobby Farrell dies aged 61
Boney M. Feat. Bobby Farrell - A Tribute To Josephine Baker
Boney M - No Woman No Cry (1976)
Boney M Bobby Farrell eats khinkali Georgian food
Thursday, December 30, 2010
RIP KODACHROME
CBS NEWS Sunday Morning : The last Kodachrome processing facility closes
Paul Simon 1991 Tokyo 01/14 Kodachrome
KODACHROME Presents: Gary Beauford
Kodak 1922 Kodachrome Film Test
No more KODACHROME Slide Film !
Kodachrome and Marilyn Monroe
Kodachrome Commercial
SS United States in Glorious 16mm Kodachrome!
DEMOCRACY NOW! DECEMBER 30, 2010
"Deepwater Horizon’s Final Hours"–The Explosion that Killed 11 Workers and Led to the Worst Oil Spill in U.S. History
WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT US?
Killer Fires and the Homeless
By BILL QUIGLEY
Eight young people, who the Fire Department said were “trying to stay warm,” perished in a raging fire during the night in New Orleans. The young people were squatting in an abandoned wood framed tin walled warehouse in a Ninth Ward neighborhood bordering a large train yard. The young people apparently had a barrel with wood burning in it for heat. Officials said this was the city’s most deadly fire in twenty five years.
The eight young people, estimated to be in their late teens and early twenties, remain unidentified. “We don’t know their IDs,” said the Fire Department, “they were so burned we cannot even tell their genders.”
Audrey, a young woman with brown dreads and a Polish last name, arrived at the scorched scene. She spent the night in the warehouse a couple of times. Because last night was so cold she and a few others begged money from people in the French Quarter and got enough to spend the night in a hotel. Do you know who was in there? “Usually 10 to 15 people, nobody uses last names, but Katy, Jeff, Sammy, Nicky, John and Mooncat usually stay there,” she sobbed. Why did people stay here? “A lot of freight hoppers stay here,” she said, pointing to the nearby trains. “We are just passing through, hopping trains. We don’t have any money.” Behind her a group of young people were crying and hugging as they picked up pieces of a navy blue sweatshirt from the burnt remains.
There are an estimated 1.6 to 2.8 million homeless youth in the US, people between the ages of 12 and 24, according to a June 2010 report of the Center for American Progress. Most are homeless because of abuse, neglect, and family conflict. Gay and transgender youth are strikingly over-represented.
The fire happened in an area of abandoned warehouses at the end of Prieur Street, two blocks towards the train tracks down from the new Family Dollar on Claiborne. It is a modest neighborhood. Some people are back, some aren’t. One block from the warehouses is a long lime green shotgun house with a beautiful red rose bush in front. Next door stands a big grey double shotgun with a wide open door and tattered curtains hanging out broken windows. Untouched since Katrina, the grey house sports OWNER HAS DOG spray painted on the front and the date, 10.8.5. “After Katrina, people don’t have the money to fix their houses up,” said the firefighter.
Across the street from the blackened warehouse is a vacant lot with a tiny handmade wooden shelter at its end. No electricity, no water. Inside are a mattress and some clothes. Follow the path through the weeds and there is another long vacant building that looks like it was once a school. Clearly people stay here as well. Empty cans of baked beans, chili, and Vienna sausages are piled next to Four Loko cans, jars of peanut butter, and empty juice boxes. “Where’s our skate park?” is painted onto the wall in blazing red. A Thanksgiving card with a teddy bear on the outside lies on the pavement. Nana wishes the best to granddaughter Heather and son Dave.
New Orleans has 3,000 to 6,000 homeless people living in abandoned buildings according to an August 2010 report by Unity of Greater New Orleans. The report, “Search and Rescue Five Years Later: Saving People Still Trapped in Katrina’s Ruins,” notes homelessness has doubled since Katrina. Seventy-five percent of the people in those buildings are survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Outreach workers report many are disabled but many also work. Inside abandoned buildings live full-time sitters and restaurant workers.
Since Katrina, New Orleans has a severe homeless problem because of the scarcity of affordable housing. HUD and local governments demolished over 4000 affordable public housing apartments after Katrina. “The current housing crisis in New Orleans reflects the disastrous impact of the demolition policy,” according to the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing in a February 2010 report very critical of the United States. Rents rose. Tens of thousands of homes remain vacant. Over 30,000 families are on the waiting list for affordable housing.
A November 2010 report from the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center pegs the number of vacant and blighted properties at over 40,000 in New Orleans with more in the suburbs – 14,000 of which are owned by the government.
Unity for the Homeless has been asking for help for people living in abandoned buildings for years. They have four outreach workers who nightly check on people living in abandoned buildings. Five recommendations from Unity to help these thousands of people: convert abandoned building into housing for the homeless; fund case managers to help people with disabilities move into housing; additional outreach and housing search workers; create a small shelter with intensive services for people with mental health problems who are resistant to shelters; and serious investment in affordable rental housing. There are several hundred housing vouchers available for disabled homeless people but no money to fund the caseworkers they need.
Nationally, the US has severely cut its investment in affordable housing despite increasing need from the foreclosure and economic crises. Homelessness is of course up all over. The U.S. Conference of Mayors reported in December 2010 that demands for food and housing are up across the country. The causes? Unemployment, high housing costs and low wages.
Will we look into our abandoned buildings and look into the eyes of our abandoned daughters and sons and sisters and brothers? Will our nation address unemployment, high housing costs, and low wages? Will we address the abuse, neglect, and family conflict that create homelessness for millions of youth, especially gay and transgender youth? Or will the fires continue and the lives end?
Bill Quigley is Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. You can reach Bill at quigley77@gmail.com
FROM COUNTERPUNCH
FLOODING IN QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA
Cyclone Tasha Floods
Australia Sees Worst Floods In 50 Years!!
Australian floods force mass evacuations in Queensland
Floods hit central Queensland
Flooding causes havoc across much of Qld
Seven News Brisbane - Queensland's Big Wet (27.12.2010)
Flooding Chaos in Northeast Australia
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
TO THE NEW YEAR!
HAPPY NEW YEAR, AND MAY 2011 MAKE UP FOR THE 1000 STEPS BACKWARD THE HUMAN RACE TOOK,
IN ITS EVOLUTION (OR SHALL I SAY, SUPPOSED EVOLUTION) FORWARD
I THINK WE MAY LEARN (HOPEFULLY) THAT DENYING A MAJOR PROBLEM'S EXISTENCE, AND DOING NOTHING
TO SOLVE IT, WILL ONLY EXACERBATE AND QUICKEN ITS DESTRUCTIVE EFFECTS ON ALL OF US
SOME PEOPLE WILL LEARN THE HARD WAY THAT 'YOU CAN'T SHIT WHERE YOU SLEEP' AND AVOID THE
CONSEQUENCES, A LESS UDED METAPHOR THAN THE POPULAR 'YOU CAN'T HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO'
AT ANY RATE, WHEN WHAT'S OLD DOESN'T WORK, IT BEHOOVES MAN TO FIND A NEW WAY TO TRY,
IF HE IS WISE, OR WANTS BADLY ENOUGH TO SURVIVE
ALTHOUGH WISDOM, HOPE, FAITH IN THE HUMAN RACE, MEAN JACK SHIT IF YOU'RE NOT WILLING TO
WORK FOR THINGS TO BE BETTER (OR PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS)
SO WITH THAT IN MIND, HERE ARE SOME BRIAN ENO (APPROPRIATE, PERHAPS) SONGS TO RING IN THE
NEW YEAR
Brian Eno - Just Another Day - Time Lapse - Four Seasons
Brian Eno - How Many Worlds - Time Lapse - Four Seasons
Brian Eno - This - Time Lapse - Four Seasons
Brian Eno - And Then So Clear
BURNING AIRLINES GIVE YOU SO MUCH MORE (by Brian Eno)
Brian Eno - No One Receiving - 1977- Written & Produced by Brian Eno
Driving Me Backwards
Brian Eno - On Some Faraway Beach
Brian Eno - The True Wheel
YURI FOREMAN
Joe The Lion: Interview With Yuri Foreman
Yuri Foreman the Boxing Rabbi on Jimmy Kimmel Live PART 1
Yuri Foreman the Boxing Rabbi on Jimmy Kimmel Live PART 2
Yuri Foreman - Israel's new boxing champion
Meet World Champion Yuri Foreman Who Might Be Manny Pacquaio's Next Fight
Yuri Foreman Vs. Miguel Cotto Boxers Answer
PROUD PARENTS ELTON JOHN AND DAVID FURNISH
THEIR SON, ZACHARY JACKSON LEVON FURNISH-JOHN, WAS BORN DECEMBER 25, 2010, VIA A SURROGATE MOTHER, IN CALIFORNIA, WEIGHING 3.6 KILOS
Elton John Levon Live 1971
Elton John Becomes A Dad
Elton John becomes dad at 63
ANNIE LENNOX
Annie Lennox - Ev'ry time we say goodbye
Aretha Franklin & Annie Lennox - Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves
Aretha Franklin & Annie Lennox CHAIN OF FOOLS
Freddie Mercury Tribute (4)- David Bowie & Annie Lennox
Annie Lennox - Walking On Broken Glass
Annie Lennox - Cold
Annie Lennox - Precious
EURYTHMICS
Eurythmics - Would I Lie To You?
Eurythmics - Don't Ask Me Why
Winter Wonderland - The Eurythmics
Eurythmics - Love Is A Stranger
This City Never Sleeps
Eurythmics interview 1985
Eurythmics on Arsenio Hall 1989
Annie_Lennox_Interview_with_Arsenio_Hall
Eurythmics 1989 UK TV show interview
DEMOCRACY NOW! DECEMBER 29, 2010
Allan Nairn: As U.S. Loses Its Global Economic Edge, Its "One Clear Comparative Advantage is in Killing, And It’s Using It"
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
JULIAN ASSANGE INTERVIEWED BY DAVID FROST
Julian Assange Interviewed By David Frost - (part 1 of 2)
Julian Assange Interviewed By David Frost - (part 2 of 2)
FROM 'WATCHING AMERICA'
Berliner Umschau, Germany
WikiLeaks Meets Michael Moore
By Karl Weiss
Translated By Ron Argentati
25 December 2010
Edited by Sam Carter
Germany - Berliner Umschau - Original Article (German)
Anyone still needing proof of how abysmally sick the U.S. health care system is, continue reading. The entire system, as well as the American media, is so incredibly disgusting and devoid of any seriousness on the topic it’s enough to make one scream. Just look at one story of what happened when WikiLeaks met Michael Moore.
Michael Moore, to my knowledge, is the only critical filmmaker in the United States. He did the 2008 film “Sicko,” in which he took on an American health care system that is extremely expensive and not particularly effective, mainly because health care in the U.S. is based on making profits for the insurance industry and forgetting about the people. In his film, Moore took three 9/11 first responders to Cuba for medical treatment that they were unable to get in the United States. On his blog, Moore reports that the insurance companies spent millions of dollars trying to come up with anything to use against him as soon as they learned what was in his film. The U.S. Treasury Department under George W. Bush even advised Moore they were looking into whether he might have broken any U.S. laws in taking American citizens to Cuba.
Then the insurance industry, already quoted as saying that “Michael Moore should be pushed off a cliff,” began working with Cuban-exile groups centered mainly in the Miami area. They began bad-mouthing Moore as well. In Cuba, an official agent of the U.S. government made up a story designed to put both Cuba and Michael Moore in a bad light and sent it as a confidential memo to his headquarters in the United States. It claimed that Moore’s film had been censored by Cuban officials and would be forbidden in Cuba. The hospitals shown in Moore’s film, the memo went on to say, weren’t accessible to ordinary Cubans and the government didn’t want them to see such health care facilities. That story was made up out of whole cloth. The truth is that Moore’s “Sicko” was shown in many Cuban movie theaters with a Spanish soundtrack and wasn’t censored whatsoever. The hospitals depicted in the film not only really existed, but they were freely available to Cuban citizens. After the end of the film’s run in movie theaters, “Sicko” was shown uncut on Cuban prime-time television.
Then WikiLeaks got into the game. The secret diplomatic dispatch sent by that agent in Cuba claiming the film had been banned there was released to the public on Dec. 17 by WikiLeaks. At that point, the government’s game was up. What happened after that? The American media reported the story, but they reported it exactly backward. They never checked to see if the Cubans had actually banned Moore’s film, but they reported it had because that was what was claimed in the putative dispatch. Fox News, America’s right-wing mouthpiece, reported the story twice and so did Reason magazine. Spectator, Hot Air and a number of other right-wing blogs picked up on the story without bothering to verify the facts. Even the British newspaper The Guardian swallowed it. Later on, BoingBoing and The Nation followed suit. No one in the U.S. media bothered to check whether the claim of Cuban censorship was true. The U.S. agent’s claims were just passed along piecemeal to the American public despite the fact that any thinking person would quickly come to the conclusion it deserved to be checked out. That’s exactly why WikiLeaks posted the dispatch on the Internet: to show how often such “reports to the homeland” are nothing more than lying propaganda. Any journalist doing even the minimum required, i.e. doing a Google search of “Sicko” to see whether it had actually been banned in Cuba, would have discovered in 20 seconds that the claim was nothing more than a smear attempt by U.S. agents that should have put it in the lowest category of journalism (but perhaps that’s the only journalistic category). Apparently American newsrooms can’t even spare 20 seconds for the truth anymore.
What officially passes for journalism these days doesn’t begin in the slightest to match the definition; unverified correspondents’ reports are just passed along to the public and even the reports themselves are nothing more than “entertainment,” confirmations of conventional wisdom or such abbreviated accounts that the term “information” doesn’t even apply to them anymore. Actual investigative journalism, as it’s practiced by Michael Moore or as contained in the WikiLeaks revelations, is so rare that the instances of it might all be counted on the fingers of one hand. On his blog, Michael Moore reports with relish what the Cuban health care system has been able to accomplish in one of the world’s poorest countries while simultaneously forced to contend with a U.S. economic boycott: The infant mortality rate there is lower than in the United States and life expectancy for adults is a mere seven months less (thus higher than in almost every other industrialized nation), and the World Health Organization has determined that Cuba trails only two industrialized nations when it comes to the quality of health care.
Well, one should take all this in slowly and think long and hard about what it all means. Then look at the headline again.
DEMOCRACY NOW! DECEMBER 28, 2010
From Snowstorms to Heat Waves, How Global Warming Causes Extreme Weather and Climate Instability
Monday, December 27, 2010
RIP MARY CHRISTINE BROCKERT (TEENA MARIE)
Teena Marie: Singer and songwriter who became Motown’s most successful white female artist
CNN: Music legend Teena Marie dies at 54
Rick James & Teena Marie - Fire and Desire
Teena Marie - If I Were A Bell (live)
Patti LaBelle and Teena Marie share the same stage (2000)
Teena Marie - Casanova Brown (Live)
R.I.P. Teena Marie - This Christmas we lose another 'Unsung' Legendary Singer
Nikki Woods interviews Teena Marie
98.7 Kiss fm Midday Cafe with Teena Marie
DEMOCRACY NOW! DECEMBER 27, 2010
The Show Must Go On: As Monster Snowstorm Blankets East Coast, Democracy Now! Crew Shares Tales of "Thundersnow"
Sunday, December 26, 2010
HEROES
Cuban medics in Haiti put the world to shame
Castro's doctors and nurses are the backbone of the fight against cholera
By Nina Lakhani
Sunday, 26 December 201
They are the real heroes of the Haitian earthquake disaster, the human catastrophe on America's doorstep which Barack Obama pledged a monumental US humanitarian mission to alleviate. Except these heroes are from America's arch-enemy Cuba, whose doctors and nurses have put US efforts to shame.
A medical brigade of 1,200 Cubans is operating all over earthquake-torn and cholera-infected Haiti, as part of Fidel Castro's international medical mission which has won the socialist state many friends, but little international recognition.
Observers of the Haiti earthquake could be forgiven for thinking international aid agencies were alone in tackling the devastation that killed 250,000 people and left nearly 1.5 million homeless. In fact, Cuban healthcare workers have been in Haiti since 1998, so when the earthquake struck the 350-strong team jumped into action. And amid the fanfare and publicity surrounding the arrival of help from the US and the UK, hundreds more Cuban doctors, nurses and therapists arrived with barely a mention. Most countries were gone within two months, again leaving the Cubans and Médecins Sans Frontières as the principal healthcare providers for the impoverished Caribbean island.
Figures released last week show that Cuban medical personnel, working in 40 centres across Haiti, have treated more than 30,000 cholera patients since October. They are the largest foreign contingent, treating around 40 per cent of all cholera patients. Another batch of medics from the Cuban Henry Reeve Brigade, a disaster and emergency specialist team, arrived recently as it became clear that Haiti was struggling to cope with the epidemic that has already killed hundreds.
Since 1998, Cuba has trained 550 Haitian doctors for free at the Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicina en Cuba (Elam), one of the country's most radical medical ventures. Another 400 are currently being trained at the school, which offers free education – including free books and a little spending money – to anyone sufficiently qualified who cannot afford to study medicine in their own country.
John Kirk is a professor of Latin American studies at Dalhousie University in Canada who researches Cuba's international medical teams. He said: "Cuba's contribution in Haiti is like the world's greatest secret. They are barely mentioned, even though they are doing much of the heavy lifting."
This tradition can be traced back to 1960, when Cuba sent a handful of doctors to Chile, hit by a powerful earthquake, followed by a team of 50 to Algeria in 1963. This was four years after the revolution, which saw nearly half the country's 7,000 doctors voting with their feet and leaving for the US.
The travelling doctors have served as an extremely useful arm of the government's foreign and economic policy, winning them friends and favours across the globe. The best-known programme is Operation Miracle, which began with ophthalmologists treating cataract sufferers in impoverished Venezuelan villages in exchange for oil. This initiative has restored the eyesight of 1.8 million people in 35 countries, including that of Mario Teran, the Bolivian sergeant who killed Che Guevara in 1967.
The Henry Reeve Brigade, rebuffed by the Americans after Hurricane Katrina, was the first team to arrive in Pakistan after the 2005 earthquake, and the last to leave six months later.
Cuba's constitution lays out an obligation to help the worst-off countries when possible, but international solidarity isn't the only reason, according to Professor Kirk. "It allows Cuban doctors, who are frightfully underpaid, to earn extra money abroad and learn about diseases and conditions they have only read about. It is also an obsession of Fidel's and it wins him votes in the UN."
A third of Cuba's 75,000 doctors, along with 10,000 other health workers, are currently working in 77 poor countries, including El Salvador, Mali and East Timor. This still leaves one doctor for every 220 people at home, one of the highest ratios in the world, compared with one for every 370 in England.
Wherever they are invited, Cubans implement their prevention-focused holistic model, visiting families at home, proactively monitoring maternal and child health. This has produced "stunning results" in parts of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, lowering infant and maternal mortality rates, reducing infectious diseases and leaving behind better trained local health workers, according to Professor Kirk's research.
Medical training in Cuba lasts six years – a year longer than in the UK – after which every graduate works as a family doctor for three years minimum. Working alongside a nurse, the family doctor looks after 150 to 200 families in the community in which they live.
This model has helped Cuba to achieve some of the world's most enviable health improvements, despite spending only $400 (£260) per person last year compared with $3,000 (£1,950) in the UK and $7,500 (£4,900) in the US, according to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
figures.
Infant mortality rates, one of the most reliable measures of a nation's healthcare, are 4.8 per 1,000 live births – comparable with Britain and lower than the US. Only 5 per cent of babies are born with a low birth weight, a crucial factor in long-term health, and maternal mortality is the lowest in Latin America, World Health Organisation figures show. Cuba's polyclinics, open 24 hours a day for emergencies and specialist care, are a step up from the family doctors. Each provides for 15,000 to 35,000 patients via a group of full-time consultants as well as visiting doctors, ensuring that most medical care is provided in the community.
Imti Choonara, a paediatrician from Derby, leads a delegation of international health professionals at annual workshops in Cuba's third city, Camaguey. "Healthcare in Cuba is phenomenal, and the key is the family doctor, who is much more proactive, and whose focus is on prevention ... The irony is that Cubans came to the UK after the revolution to see how the NHS worked. They took back what they saw, refined it and developed it further; meanwhile we are moving towards the US model," Professor Choonara said.
Politics, inevitably, penetrates many aspects of Cuban healthcare. Every year hospitals produce a list of drugs and equipment they have been unable to access because of the American embargo which prevents many US companies from trading with Cuba, and persuades other countries to follow suit. The 2009/10 report includes drugs for childhood cancers, HIV and arthritis, some anaesthetics, as well as chemicals needed to diagnose infections and store organs. Pharmacies in Cuba are characterised by long queues and sparsely stacked shelves, though in part this is because they stock only generic brands.
Antonio Fernandez, from the Ministry of Public Health, said: "We make 80 per cent of the drugs we use. The rest we import from China, former Soviet countries, Europe – anyone who will sell to us – but this makes it very expensive because of the distances."
On the whole, Cubans are immensely proud and supportive of their contribution in Haiti and other poor countries, delighted to be punching above their weight on the international scene. However, some people complain of longer waits to see their doctor because so many are working abroad. And, like all commodities in Cuba, medicines are available on the black market for those willing to risk large fines if caught buying or selling.
International travel is beyond the reach of most Cubans, but qualified nurses and doctors are among those forbidden from leaving the country for five years after graduation, unless as part of an official medical team.
Like everyone else, health professionals earn paltry salaries of around $20 (£13) a month. So, contrary to official accounts, bribery exists in the hospital system, which means some doctors, and even hospitals, are off-limits unless patients can offer a little something, maybe lunch or a few pesos, for preferential treatment.
Cuba's international ventures in healthcare are becoming increasingly strategic. Last month, officials held talks with Brazil about developing Haiti's public health system, which Brazil and Venezuela have both agreed to help finance.
Medical training is another example. There are currently 8,281 students from more than 30 countries enrolled at Elam, which last month celebrated its 11th anniversary. The government hopes to inculcate a sense of social responsibly into the students in the hope that they will work within their own poor communities for at least five years.
Damien Joel Suarez, 27, a second year from New Jersey, is one of 171 American students; 47 have already graduated. He dismisses allegations that Elam is part of the Cuban propaganda machine. "Of course, Che is a hero here but he isn't forced down your neck."
Another 49,000 students are enrolled in the El Nuevo Programa de Formacion de Medicos Latinoamericanos, the brainchild of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, who pledged in 2005 to train 100,000 doctors for the continent. The course is much more hands-on, and critics question the quality of the training.
Professor Kirk disagrees: "The hi-tech approach to health needed in London and Toronto is irrelevant for millions of people in the Third World who are living in poverty. It is easy to stand on the sidelines and criticise the quality, but if you were living somewhere with no doctors, then you'd be happy to get anyone."
There are nine million Haitians who would probably agree.
FROM THE INDEPENDENT, UK
Thursday, December 23, 2010
HERMAN JOSÉ NO CONVERSAS INDISCRETAS
Herman José no Conversas Indiscretas 1/7
Herman José no Conversas Indiscretas 2/7
Herman José no Conversas Indiscretas 3/7
Herman José no Conversas Indiscretas 4/7
Herman José no Conversas Indiscretas 5/7
Herman José no Conversas Indiscretas 6/7
Herman José no Conversas Indiscretas 7/7
HERMAN JOSÉ
Herman José - Ultima Ceia 1/3
Herman José - Ultima Ceia 2/3
Herman José - Ultima Ceia 3/3
Herman José - Katyzinha do Youtube
Herman José - Katyzinha do Youtube 2º Cronica
Herman José - Katyzinha6 e o Fado
Herman José - Katyzinha e Manuela Moura Guedes
CAN YOU JUST IMAGINE THIS
THE CONGRESS HAS GONE THROUGH A 'BRUISING' SESSION THIS YEAR, THE POOR THINGS,
JUST TO FINALLY PASS SOME LAWS THAT MIGHT BENEFIT THE PEOPLE THEY ARE SUPPOSED
TO BE WORKING FOR, ALTHOUGH WE THE PEOPLE KNOW THE REAL BOSSES OF THIS
CREW ARE 'SPECIAL INTERESTS', NOT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
WHEN IT CAME TO GIVING THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS
A BREAK AND A HELPING HAND TO BETTER INTEGRATE THEM INTO SOCIETY,
THESE GUYS PROVED TO BE BRUTALLY UNSYMPATHETIC AND UNKIND TO PEOPLE
WHOSE SITUATION PROBABLY MIRRORS CONDITIONS THESE CONGRESSMEN'S
ANCESTORS WERE IN, THOUGH IN A KINDER, MORE TOLERANT ERA
ISN'T THAT SWEET? TO SUMMARILY REFUSE TO HELP OTHERS? AND JUST BEFORE CHRISTMAS, EVEN
NEVER MIND THE POLITICS, OR PARTISANSHIP INVOLVED, THE UNWILLINGNESS TO
EXTEND A HAND TO A GROUP THAT IS AS AMERICAN AS THEY ARE (PRACTICALLY)
DEFIES LOGICAL REASON, THAT IS, BESIDES BEING INHUMAN, IT JUST DOES NOT
MAKE ANY SENSE, BUT SEEMS KIND OF VINDICTIVE
THIS IS MY OPINION, I DO NOT BELONG OR SPEAK FOR ANY ORGANISATION,
NEVER HAVE, BUT I BELIEVE IN PRACTICAL, USEFUL SOLUTIONS TO THE MANY PROBLEMS WE HAVE
THE REPEAL OF DADT SHOULD BE VIEWED AS CONGRESS DOING THEIR DUTY, TO RIGHT
A GRIEVOUS WRONG, NOT AS SOME HEROIC ACT AFTER A LONG AND 'BRUISING'
STRUGGLE, WHICH SMACKS OF SOME SERIOUS SELF-PROMOTING BACKSLAPPING
DECEMBER 23, 2010: DEMOCRACY NOW!
Juan Gonzalez: NYC CityTime Fraud Scheme "Biggest Scandal of Entire Bloomberg Era"
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
NINA SIMONE
NINA SIMONE- "DON'T LET ME BE MISUNDERSTOOD" (1964)
Nina Simone - *Mississippi Goddam*
Nina Simone @ The Bitter End Cafe (1968)
Nina Simone - "The Pusher"
Nina Simone - See line woman
Nina Simone: "If I had my way, I'd've been a killer"
Nina Simone: Why (The King of Love Is Dead)
TELL ME AGAIN WHY POLITICS AND ART DON'T MIX, AND TELL ME AGAIN WHY THERE ARE NO
'POLITICAL ARTISTS'. . .
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
CAPTAIN BEEFHEART
FOR DON
Captain Beefheart - Ice Cream for Crow (HIgh Resolution)
Captain Beefheart - Sure 'Nuff 'N Yes I Do
Beefheart on Letterman
Captain Beefheart: Documentary - 1/4
Captain Beefheart: Documentary - 2/4
Captain Beefheart: Documentary - 3/4
Captain Beefheart: Documentary - 4/4 (THE POSTER SAID: I had to mute the last track 'Glider' ..WMG Japan owns the rights :()
THE PLIGHT OF THE PALESTINIANS
Insisting on Humanity
By RAMZY BAROUD
When a copy of William A. Cook's latest book, The Plight of the Palestinians arrived in my mailbox, I initially felt a little worried. The volume, featuring the work of over 30 accomplished writers, is the most articulate treatise on the collective victimization of Palestinians to date. From Cook's own introduction, 'The Untold Story of the Zionist Intent to Turn Palestine into a Jewish State' to Francis Boyle's summation of 'Israel's Crimes against the Palestinians', it takes the reader through an exhaustive journey, charting the course of Palestinian history prior to and since al-Nakba, the Catastrophe of 1947-48.
Still, I feared that something might be missing in this noble and monumental undertaking: Palestinian people's own responses to the cruelties they've suffered. Would Palestinians be presented yet again as merely poster-child victims, eager for handouts?
The photograph on the cover was telling: a kindly old man with a white beard, who could have been any Palestinian or Middle-Eastern grandpa, is lovingly touching the hair of a toddler. The two are crouching before a small, stained tent. Al-Nakba was still recent, and the two Palestinians, separated by two generations appear tired and haggard as they are caught in this hopeless scene. Yet, somehow the grandfather insists on preserving his right to love his grandson. This insistence on one's humanity has been the key strength which has allowed the Palestinian people to preserve their struggle and resistance before the wicked arm of occupation and oppression for nearly 63 years.
Do most academics know this? Do they truly comprehend what it is that makes an old man from a West Bank village face the brutality of Jewish settlers, year after year, as he returns to harvest his few remaining olive trees? Or a Palestinian woman from Gaza who keeps coming back to hold a vigil before the Red Cross office with a framed photo of her once-young son, now ailing in some Israeli jail?
What keeps them going is something that cannot be dissected scientifically or analyzed intellectually. It can only be felt, experienced, and partially understood. This understanding is essential, for without it much more time and effort would be wasted, discounting the most important component in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the Palestinian people.
Some intellectuals, although well-intentioned, often conflate the understandable weakness of the current Palestinian leadership and the steadfastness of the Palestinian people. They write about both entities as if they are one and the same. One of the best authors on Palestine rightly pointed at the huge discrepancies of power between Palestinians and Israel, noting that such an imbalance could not possibly lead to an equitable platform for negotiation. To demonstrate the point, the author refers to Palestinians as "almost totally powerless people", negotiating with a "powerful occupier."
But the Palestinian people are currently negotiating with no one. Their representatives merely represent themselves and their own interests. It is important that we preserve that distinction - between the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and Palestinian people, who have held on to their rights for so many years, and unleashed two of the greatest expressions of people's power and resolve: the First Uprising of 1987 and al-Aqsa Intifada of 2000. A whole population taking on the self-celebrated "greatest army in the Middle East" is hardly "powerless". The Palestinian people have printed themselves on the practical discourse of this conflict, and they have proved themselves to be powerful players in determining their own fate.
Jeff Halper, the Director of the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions, understands this fact well. The peace and justice activist has spent decades working for a just settlement to the conflict, a journey that's allowed him to work with numerous Palestinians. He has thus grasped something many politicians have intentionally or inadvertently missed. "Until they - the Palestinian people as a whole, not the PA - say the conflict is over, it's not over." He further states, in a recent article entitled 'Palestine 2011', that "Israel and its erstwhile allies have the ability to make life almost unbearable for the Palestinians, but they cannot impose apartheid or warehousing."
Halper is correct, and history has repeatedly validated his assertion. There are limits to the power of the "powerful occupier". It can kill, confiscate, destroy and burn, but it can never force the other into submission. Thus to speak of Palestinian victimization without discussing their collective resistance presents an incomplete version of the story.
The Plight of the Palestinians turned out to be an essential read, and a full and authoritative discourse. It offers a grim and detailed story of suffering and the 'slow motion genocide', which is important in order to appreciate the harshness of the Palestinian experience. Without this, one can never understand the anger, resentment and pain that are shared by several generations of Palestinians, in Palestine and in the Diaspora.
'The Human Tragedy' is laid bare in Part I. Every paragraph confronts the reader with gory details. But if such violence is the reality of the history of this conflict, why do many people understand it differently? The answer lies in Part 2: 'Propaganda, Perception and Reality'. It starts with a quote, the Israeli Mossad's own pre-2007 slogan: "By way of deception, thou shalt do war." It seems that such a slogan has defined Israeli official conduct. However, civil society cannot be misled forever, and the powerful initiatives carried out by ordinary people around the world are what give Part 3 its value. 'Rule by Law or Defiance' is an uplifting introduction to activist efforts, with topics ranging from 'The Russell Tribunal on Palestine' to the 'Necessity of the Culture Boycott'.
The Plight of the Palestinians is not just another chronicle of the history of a defenseless nation. While it is an unhesitant acknowledgment of that reality, it is far from being a celebration of victimhood. Rather, it documents the logical evolution from suffering to resistance.
In the essay, 'Does It Matter What You Call It?' two of my personal favorite authors, Kathleen and (late) Bill Christison write: "Palestinian resistance does figure in this dismal story. In the same small village where one is uprooting his family, others are building..."
It is the very balance between destruction and rebuilding, despair and hope, occupation and perseverance that makes the Palestinian people powerful. Their power cannot be demonstrated in numbers, but it can be felt, experienced, and understood. The Plight of the Palestinians: A Long History of Destruction spreads the seeds of understanding, which is so essential to any meaningful and lasting change.
FROM COUNTERPUNCH
ODD MAN OUT
Forgetting Bradley Manning
By LAURA FLANDERS
Julian Assange of WikiLeaks is out on bail—apparently headed for the 10-bedroom home of British former army officer Vaughan Smith, described by the Guardian as a rightwing libertarian. Assange's lawyer joked that it would not be so much "house arrest as manor arrest" while he fights extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges.
There's no manor for Bradey Manning. As Glenn Greenwald noted yesterday, the alleged leaker of much of the WikiLeaks information, including the "Collateral Murder" video showing soldiers shooting Iraqi civilians—has been sitting in solitary confinement for seven months under torture conditions. Denied even sheets and a pillow for his bed, Manning is under constant surveillance to prevent him even for exercising for 23 out of 24 hours of every day.And nw he's under a regimen of authority-administered anti-depressant drugs.
From the start, and as Assange has consistently pointed out, Manning and other whistleblowers are the ones who've put themselves on the line. Pentagon papers leakers, Daniel Ellsberg calls Manning his hero. He has not been tried or convicted of any crime. And yet the 22 year old Army private's received none of the celebrity support that Julian Assange has.
Blogger Jill Filipovic notes that to talk about Manning, we'd have to talk about the hard stuff, the questions of what WikiLeaks means and what the consequences of leaks are, and detention in America -- things that aren't solved with high-profile cash donations.
Today, Assange is out of jail. But let's not forget that without Bradley Manning and many others like him, Julian Assange and WikiLeaks and all our new found public information would be as in the dark as Manning is right now.
Laura Flanders is the host of GRITtv, which broadcasts weekdays on satellite TV (Dish Network Ch. More...9415 Free Speech TV) on cable, public television and online at GRITv.org.
FROM COUNTERPUNCH
Sunday, December 19, 2010
JOSÉ ANTÓNIO CARLOS DE SEIXAS
Carlos Seixas - Harpsichord Concerto in A Major
CARLOS SEIXAS (08) - Sonata nº16, harpsichord, C minor (1/1) Without tempo indication (K. Haugsand)
Carlos de Seixas - Harpsichord Sonata in g minor (The paintings are by Josefa d'Ayala (1630-1684).)
Toccata do menor (C-Minor) by Carlos Seixas Organ
Carlos Seixas - Sonata em Sol Menor
Carlos Seixas Sonata C Minor Cravistas Portuguezes II
Carlos Seixas Sonata PM 34 No 5
MIKHAIL GORBACHEV
DECEMBER 25 IS THE DAY MIKHAIL GORBACHEV RESIGNED AS HEAD OF THE SOVIET UNION,
WHICH WAS DISSOLVED THE FOLLOWING DAY, NINETEEN YEARS AGO
Mikhail S. Gorbachev, former President of the USSR
Mikhail Gorbachev On 20th Anniversary Of Fall Of Berlin Wall
Frost Over the World -President Mikhail Gorbachev-6Nov09-Pt2
Mikhail Gorbachev's address to ITU Telecom World 2009
20091105 Mikhail Gorbachev Interview
George H.W. Bush's Press Conference with Mikhail Gorbachev (July 31, 1991)
From Soviet TV Moscow 18-01-1986
Saturday, December 18, 2010
DADT REPEALED
Senate Repeals ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’
Joy Behar - "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA): DADT Repeal Vote Saturday & We Have The Votes
Don't Ask Don't Tell...Are We Done Yet?
Dont Ask Dont Tell "Now Is The Time"
Rachel Maddow - First Day Of Hearings On Repealing DADT
CHRISTMAS (II)
Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt (1953) Original, Live, Color, Lyrics ... and a Remix!
Santa Baby - Official Music Video (MADONNA)
Coldplay - Christmas Lights
The Who- Christmas
Elvis Presley & Martina McBride - Blue Christmas
Frank Sinatra - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Judy Garland - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
CHRISTMAS (I)
GEORGE MICHAEL - Last Christmas
Last Christmas - Taylor Swift
Carrie Underwood- "Last Chistmas" in Washington
Last Christmas
Happy Christmas (War Is Over)
Jon Bon Jovi - Please come home for Christmas
Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"
WIKIREBELS: THE DOCUMENTARY | WIKILEAKS & JULIAN ASSANGE
Swedish Television's Jesper Huor and Bosse Lindquist exclusive rough-cut of first in-depth documentary on WikiLeaks and the people behind it!
"From summer 2010 until now, SVT has been following the secretive media organization WikiLeaks and its enigmatic Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange.
Reporters Jesper Huor and Bosse Lindquist have traveled to key countries where WikiLeaks operates, interviewing top members, such as Assange, new Spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson, as well as people like Daniel Domscheit-Berg who now is starting his own version - Openleaks.org."
The documentary also includes interviews with Ian Overton from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, James Ball of TBIJ and WikiLeaks, Icelandic MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir, former WikiLeaks collaborators Herbert Snorrason and Smári McCarthy, and PRQ CEO Mikael Viborg.
The documentary looks at WikiLeaks' philosophy and operations, some of its famous disclosures including the Kenya report, the Guantanamo manuals, Kaupthing, Trafigura, the Collateral Murder video, the Afghanistan and Iraq war logs, the US administration's reactions, and the lead-up to the Cablegate release.
WikiRebels: The Documentary | WikiLeaks & Julian Assange 1/6
WikiRebels: The Documentary | WikiLeaks & Julian Assange 2/6
WikiRebels: The Documentary | WikiLeaks & Julian Assange 3/6
WikiRebels: The Documentary | WikiLeaks & Julian Assange 4/6
WikiRebels: The Documentary | WikiLeaks & Julian Assange 5/6
WikiRebels: The Documentary | WikiLeaks & Julian Assange 6/6
ASSANGE (CONTINUED)
(CNN) Ex-CIA Ray McGovern Supports Wikileaks' Julian Assange
Daniel Ellsberg on Wikileaks and Julian Assange on Countdown with Keith Olbermann -- 12/10/10
Julian Assange Interview
Julian Assange Interview 4
Michael Moore Explains Why He Stands With Julian Assange & WikiLeaks
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