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POPSIsrael's pressure on Gaza Karen Koning AbuZayd, commissioner-general of the UN’s refugee agency, warned: “Gaza is on the threshold of becoming the first territory to be intentionally reduced to a state of abject destitution”.
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POPSReligious leaders file suit: Prop. 8 is "grave threat to religious freedom" Today, the California Council of Churches and other religious leaders and faith organizations representing millions of members filed a petition with the California Supreme Court asking the Court to invalidate Proposition 8. The petition argues that Proposition 8 poses a severe threat to the guarantee of equal protection for all and was not enacted through the constitutionally required process for such a dramatic change to the California Constitution. The petition is filed on behalf of the California Council of Churches, the General Synod of the United Church of Christ, two Episcopal Bishops (of California and Los Angeles), the Progressive Jewish Alliance, the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations and the Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of California, and the Northern and Southern California Nevada Conferences of the United Church of Christ.
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POPSWho's Lori Berenson ? Lori Berenson is a US citizen currently being held as a political prisoner in Cajamarca, Perú. After serving nearly five years in harsh Peruvian jails high in the Andes, her conviction for treason against Perú and her life sentence were overturned. In June 2001 she was cleared of terrorism-related charges but convicted of collaboration, and sentenced to twenty years in prison in a trial that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights claims completely violated her rights.
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POPSCLUSTER BOMBS MADE IN USA Continued refusal of this and past administrations to join the World Community in the Effort to BAN these vicious munitions, it is time to put more pressure on the candidates and the new president
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POPSBush Can Act Unilaterally Without Congress 
In order to contain the bailout and protect taxpayer dollars, companies should be able to use book accounting for assets deemed by the Treasury as “distressed” 3. Direct the Treasury Secretary to determine that capital basis can be adjusted for inflation by taxpayers. There is a body of legal thought which holds that the Treasury Department can do this by executive action. In order to free up needed capital and unlock frozen assets more easily, the Treasury should make this common sense change to tax rules. If there is a legal brief which details Treasury’s objections to capital basis indexation, it should be released for public dissemination. It’s important to note that all these actions can be done unilaterally by the Executive Branch. There are other reforms which require legislative action (note especially the House Republican Study Committee package), but the above executive steps would do much to alleviate the panic, assure markets, and protect taxpayers.
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POPSLiberals Fueled Wall Street Woes Prudent best practices in lending fell by the wayside under pressure from liberal activists and "community organizers" who advocated "Change" to loosen lending restrictions to minorities. If you liked this "Change", you'll just love the "Change" the Trojan Horse has in mind for us.
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POPSRedlining, Schmedlining !! Age-old standards of banking prudence got thrown out the window. In their place came harsh new regulations requiring banks not only to lend to uncreditworthy borrowers, but to do so on the basis of race. Despite warnings from GOP members of Congress in 1992, Clinton pushed extensive changes to the rules requiring lenders to make questionable loans. Lenders who refused would find themselves castigated publicly as racists.
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POPSCheney Ratches Up The Rhetoric As wrong as Cheney is, they will continue to pressure Russia for having the nerve to stand up to the US and "New Europe" while France and Germany want to find out, who actually started this conflict.
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POPSThe Balfour Declaration and the Mandate Under the League of Nations ........ The Jewish Connection To The Land ...... We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria, as it has never been separated from it at any time. We are connected with it by national, religious, linguistic, natural, economic, and geographical bonds." The purpose of post-World War I's League of Nations was to prepare those liberated from the Turks for independence. Once the indigenous populations demonstrated their ability to assume control, the mandates given to the war's victorious superpowers were supposed to be self-terminating. For the international community, justice for the Arabs meant guaranteeing their economic, civil, and religious rights. Awarding the Arabs any form of self-government within Palestine was precluded by British commitments to the Jews under the Balfour Declaration, which had been incorporated in the mandate of the League of Nations.
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POPSBushco wrote war pitch BEFORE knowing intel National Security Archive reports the Bush-Cheney White paper "justifying" the invasion was developed a full three months in advance of the intelligence data and analysis that should have served as the basis for that justification; then doctored NIE report to agree with their own White Paper. Only imminent threat mentioned was the possibility of Iraqi terrorism in USA if Saddam regime was threatened - but Bushco deleted it before giving the report to Congress.
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POPSFalun Gong Targeted Ahead Of Beijing Olympics authorities have instead been using the Olympics as a pretext to escalate persecutions of religious and political dissidents. Chinese authorities fear that Falun Gong, along with Tibetans, Uighurs, and other dissidents, may use the international media presence during the games to draw attention to their causes. "It is now imperative that the international community leverage real pressure and stop these deplorable actions, lest the legacy of the 2008 Olympics be hundreds of Beijing residents languishing in labor camps," Zhang said. The apparent animosity towards Falun Gong on the part of the Beijing Olympics organizer is hardly new. In 2004, the head of the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee, Liu Qi, was found liable in a U.S. federal court for his role in the torture of Falun Gong practitioners while he was serving as mayor of Beijing.
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POPSofficial MP3sale Review For me MP3Sale is a great resource, when it comes to primarily dance-, soul- and R&B compilations, CD singles and the fact that they update their catalogue with such a massive amount of new albums and/or singles several times a day
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POPSIranian Bomb: Still 2010-2015? Or 2008? The 2008 or 2009 estimate is easy to understand—Iran could, with the current 1,968 centrifuges operating at 1.5-2.0 kg SWU per year and assuming 4.8 t SWU/a to produce 25 kg of 90 percent HEU, produce a significant quantity of HEU in 14-19 months or, say, September 2008-February 2009.
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POPSWhat A Veto Threat Really Means Sure, President Bush opposes Congress' foreclosure rescue plan because it's a bailout, but there's another reason for the veto threat--leverage. Here's a good take on the issue from Politico.com
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POPS2008: International Year of the Potato (IYP) Official launch of IYP ================ The International Year of the Potato 2008 was officially launched on 18 October 2007 at United Nations Headquarters in New York. More calendar trivia from Eric "Calendarwallah" Snyder =======================
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POPSFatwā on Pappe."Death threats by phone almost on a daily basis" "The last thing I enjoy is being the person that holds up a mirror to his society's face and says, 'Look how ugly you are.' Some people like to challenge and incite their neighbours. I'm not like that, I don't write in order to annoy and I certainly don't hate myself, and I also love many people in Israel. I did not commit treason. "But, I'm a historian, and this is the truth the way I see it: The story of a victim and a victimizer. And the victim is the Palestinians. Without idealizing the Palestinians -victims are not necessarily nice people, but they are still victims." Pappe claims that his promotion at Haifa University has been blocked due to his political activity. "Provincial Haifa was unwilling to grant me the rank of a professor. I left for England as a doctor and in two days I climbed two ranks and became a faculty professor at the University of Exeter," ...YNet
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POPSWhat Makes People Give? "For those of us who aren’t putting together fund-raising appeals, the real importance of these studies is the glimpse they offer into the human mind, and the clues about how to make the world work a little bit better."
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POPS3 + 3 = Sick I am under the impression Americans takes pills to sleep, pills to wake up, pills to relax, pills to be more energetic, pills, pills, pills. Why do Americans eat so much medicine? When Heath Ledger died, I remember thinking, "Why is such a young, seemingly healthy man popping prescription pills, like they were M&M's?" Is the difference a quick-fix mentality, short-cutting, or because you are bombarded with medicine ads on TV all the time? Why the obsession with pills? Could it be the profit-driven American healthcare system that coaxes people to think they need all these drugs?
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POPSBig Welfare Cuts If You're Not British Applicants will have to prove they are contributing to the community, such as by carrying out voluntary work, and will also be tested in English language and the British way of life. Currently, migrant workers are automatically given indefinite leave to remain after they have worked here for five years, and enjoy almost all the advantages of full citizenship, including entitlement to welfare benefits including tax credits, housing benefits, income support and child benefit. In future, that status will go, to be replaced by a new form of "probationary citizenship" with no right to non-contributory benefits.
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POPSGaza exodus symptom of grave situation Israel’s ability to ignore blatant human rights violations against the Palestinians derives from the great support it receives from world Jewry and Western societies. Western Jews, emancipated and empowered by the Enlightenment, are inspired by a long history of anti-Semitism that became pronounced in 19th century Europe, and culminated in the Holocaust in the mid-20th century. Many members of the Jewish American community, who were actively involved in the civil rights movement, are ill-at-ease watching events unfolding in the Middle East. Despite their disapproval of harsh and inhumane Israeli policies toward Palestinians, they are reluctant to criticize Israel for the fear that such criticism would undermine Western support. Is silence the best approach to support the Jews in the Holy Land? And is force the best approach to dealing with Palestinians demands for equal rights?
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POPSMass Selectmen Oppose Cottages The impact on schools? Just how many kids do they think are going to be squeezed into 680 sq ft!!! I also love the exception to being against affordable housing if it's just for old people, not poor people. As soon as someone says "it'd be okay if it was age restricted to seniors," then you know it's all about who is going to be living there.
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POPSDisabled Czech children still held in cages Martin Zarsky, from the Ministry of Social Affairs, wrote the law banning cage beds. "Based on what I've seen we will establish immediately an inspection team. Sanctions could follow - the most serious being to withhold the care home's licence. "We are trying. It's difficult to put in a comprehensive system of monitoring overnight with independent experts. The new law is only 12 months old. We need time."
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POPSMexico Rebukes U.S. Candidates On Migrant Issues Mexico Rebukes U.S. Candidates On Migrant Issues MEXICO CITY, Jan. 7 -- Mexico's foreign minister accused U.S. presidential candidates Monday of worsening an already "adverse climate" for Mexican migrants and vowed to redouble efforts to protect the rights of her country's citizens living and working in the United States. Her remarks were the latest in a series of high-profile jabs at U.S. presidential candidates and lawmakers by top Mexican officials, and represent a dramatic rhetorical shift in Mexico's capital. In November, Mexican President Felipe Calder¿n called migrants "hostages" of the presidential campaign and urged candidates not to use them as talking points. Calder¿n also criticized the U.S. Senate in June, calling its rejection of an immigration reform measure "a grave error." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/07/AR2008010701421.html
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