Category Archives: human rights

Crop Art Size of 80 Footballs Fields Heartland Message: #NoKXL

A large crop art image—the size of 80 football field—with the message “HEARTLAND #NoKXL” has been created to send President Barack Obama a message to protect the Heartland by saying no to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Created by the Cowboy and Indian Alliance, the image art is located in Neligh, Nebraska.

The crop art is directly on the proposed path of Keystone XL, which also crosses the Ponca Trail of Tears.

via Crop Art Size of 80 Footballs Fields Heartland Message: #NoKXL.

Love the Earth | Falling Into Wonderland

We wait to fix systemic problems until after the roof caves in, the mountain top slides onto homes, or the bridge falls into the river, dumping cars into the swiftly moving current.

We drill for oil, use millions of gallons of life-sustaining water to do so, and produce only finite amounts of shale gas as a result. The kicker is that the waste from that process is so toxic, everything within miles of pools holding it, dies.

We call this progress.

I call it crazy.

It is insane to burn your only home to the ground because someone offered you money to do so.

I ask you, where do you plan to live once you are holding the keys to a pile of ash? Where will you go when the last fish has been caught, the last great tree cut?

Will you eat your money?

THE EARTH IS OUR MOTHER

We will wither without our mother, our home.

via Love the Earth | Falling Into Wonderland.

Frazier Glenn Miller, Longtime Anti-Semite, Arrested in Kansas Jewish Community Center Murders | Hatewatch

Miller is a raging anti-Semite who has posted more than 12,000 times on Vanguard News Network (VNN), whose slogan is “No Jews, Just Right.” VNN founder Alex Linder has openly advocated “exterminating” Jews since December 2009. Miller, a close partner to Linder, has called Jews “swarthy, hairy, bow-legged, beady-eyed, parasitic midgets.” Miller is also one of VNN’s largest donors and he printed and distributed thousands of copies of VNN’s newsletter, The Aryan Alternative.

This isn’t the first time a VNN user has been arrested for violence. On January 17, 2011, less than 12 hours after posting on VNN, Kevin William Harpham placed an improvised explosive device concealed in a backpack along a Martin Luther King parade route in Spokane Washington. The lead sinkers in the radio-detonated IED were coated with Warfarin rat poison, evidently intended to increase bleeding.  Had the device functioned, dozens of men, women and children would have been killed or injured. Harpham also distributed The Aryan Alternative.

Our research shows that racist killers are hiding among us in plain sight. A forthcoming two-year study by the SPLC will show that nearly 100 people in the last five years have been murdered by active users on another prominent racist website, Stormfront.org.

via Frazier Glenn Miller, Longtime Anti-Semite, Arrested in Kansas Jewish Community Center Murders | Hatewatch.

Gunman Kills Three at Kansas City Jewish Community Center, Retirement Home | Hatewatch

Initial media reports said the man had shouted “Heil Hitler” as police moved in to arrest him in the parking lot of a nearby school. But at a 5 PM news conference, John Douglass, the police chief of Overland Park, Kansas could not confirm what the man said.

Chief Douglass said it was too early to label the afternoon attack a hate crime, adding that whatever the motive, “It’s a vicious act of violence.”

via Gunman Kills Three at Kansas City Jewish Community Center, Retirement Home | Hatewatch.

Continuing Detention of Tamil Women and a Girl Child under the Prevention of Terrorism Act | Groundviews

In 2009 the government announced that the LTTE has been wiped out from the country with the end of the armed conflict. However, in the past few weeks there have been a number of arrests, including of women under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) supposedly to investigate and counter a renaissance of the LTTE. Most of these arrests were in connection to the search for a man called Gopi who according to media reports quoting  military and police spokespersons was killed along with his two associates on 11 April 2014 and that they  been buried at  state expenses on 12 April in Anuradhapura. Those arrested in connection to these men are still being kept at Boosa camp, in Colombo’s the 2nd and 4th floor of the Terrorism Investigation branch, and in the Vavuniya Terrorism Investigation Division (TID). In these TID and military joint operations men, women, the elderly and children have been arrested.

via Continuing Detention of Tamil Women and a Girl Child under the Prevention of Terrorism Act | Groundviews.

30 Years After the Palm Sunday Massacre, Christina Rivera and Joanne Jaffe Tell Their Story – NYTimes.com

The bodies were discovered throughout the first-floor railroad flat in Brooklyn, a bizarre still-life of death. Many of the victims remained seated in chairs or couches; one woman’s hands still held a spoon and a small can of pudding.

It came to be known as the Palm Sunday Massacre, the largest mass shooting in the New York area in decades. Ten people were killed that day 30 years ago, including eight children. Only one survivor was found: a crying toddler covered in blood, crawling at the feet of the dead.

via 30 Years After the Palm Sunday Massacre, Christina Rivera and Joanne Jaffe Tell Their Story – NYTimes.com.

Feds Back Down in Nevada ‘Range War,’ Citing ‘Conditions on the Ground’ | Hatewatch

With the desert sun high, about two dozen cowboys on horseback appeared in a cloud of dust on the hills above the protest area, ready to ride about three miles away to take Bundy’s cattle back. “Until the cows come home!” the crowd cheered. Meanwhile, antigovernment “Patriot” groups such as the Oath Keepers, grew only more excited. Wiley Drake, national chaplain for the Oath Keepers, said the time had come to no longer bow to President Obama, whom he called a “half-breed.”

via Feds Back Down in Nevada ‘Range War,’ Citing ‘Conditions on the Ground’ | Hatewatch.

 

This has to end – don’t want any shoot out but this cannot be allowed to stand!

Israeli forces detain Hebron man after settlers invade his home | Maan News Agency

Israeli forces detained a Palestinian man on Saturday evening after he tried to defend his family from a home invasion by Jewish settlers in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, a local activist group said.

Mofid Sharbati, 46, was detained by Israeli forces after a group of settlers entered his home on Shuhada street in central Hebron, coordinator for Youth against Settlements Issa Amro said.

His brother Zidan Sharbati was wounded during the incident, which began when Jewish settlers entered their homes and began beating the brothers as well as members of their families.

When the two attempted to respond, Israeli forces who were on the scene came to the aid of settlers and continued the assault, Amro said.

Israeli forces detained Mofid during the incident, while Zidan was evacuated from the scene by an ambulance and taken to Hebron Hospital, where doctors said his wounds were “moderate.”

via Israeli forces detain Hebron man after settlers invade his home | Maan News Agency.

The arrest, detention and torture of Tamils in post-war Sri Lanka | Groundviews

There is an alarming trend in the Sri Lankan security forces operation, of arresting the family members of suspects and keeping them as hostages in detention camps. Irrespective of their age, gender and connection to those suspects, the family members are kept under arrest/ detention most notably in the infamous 4th/ 2nd floors in Fort and in Boosa Detention camp under the control of TID. Presently there are several females in Boosa. Two of them are above the age of 60. Kanapathipillai Yogarani 61 years of age was arrested in latter part of March. The only allegation against her is that her son residing in a foreign country has been sending her money periodically.

via The arrest, detention and torture of Tamils in post-war Sri Lanka | Groundviews.

Pope Francis Invites The Homeless, Undocumented Immigrants And Prostitutes To Exclusive Catered Vatican Banquet | Diversity Chronicle

Pope Francis is no stranger to controversy, having been a frequent target for criticism by the radical and extreme right. His Holiness, the Bishop of Rome and Vicar of Christ, recently held a banquet at the Vatican. It was unlike any in the entire history of the Roman Catholic Church. Unlike other elite Vatican events, this one had a very unusual guest list, including prostitutes, drug addicts, unwed mothers, undocumented migrants and the homeless. Pope Francis defended the banquet, citing Matthew 9:11-13 from the Bible. The verses read:

“And the Pharisees seeing it, said to his disciples: Why doth your master eat with publicans and sinners? But Jesus hearing it, said: They that are in health need not a physician, but they that are ill. Go then and learn what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. For I am not come to call the just, but sinners.”

via Pope Francis Invites The Homeless, Undocumented Immigrants And Prostitutes To Exclusive Catered Vatican Banquet | Diversity Chronicle.