tagged w/ Rights
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Yankton Sioux tribal members are worried about odor and health risks and are protesting the construction of a large hog farm on private land surrounded by tribal land in south-central South Dakota.
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Protesters this week used a loudspeaker to deliver the message, “No pig farm.” They said the main concern is the health risk a hog farm could pose to the area – particularly considering a Head Start program just three miles away.
Environmental effects
Hog farms typically generate vast amounts of air, land and water pollution, according to many sources, including the nonprofit Humane Farming Association. Places near the planned site that could be affected include the towns of Marty and Wagner, two Sun Dance grounds, five sweat lodges, homes, churches, a cathedral, a Head Start center, schools, hospitals, the tribe's casino-hotel, the tribal hall, a college, and much more, according to Drapeau.
''The farm site is near Seven Mile Creek, which empties into the Missouri River a few miles away, and two wetlands. We also sit on the Ogallala Aquifer, a major water source for the Plains,'' Drapeau added.
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MORE ON THIS ISSUE BELOW:
Hog farm Protest Video's
http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=9LBSYZeoPrA New 4/28/08
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr8SM8-WQg8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QYFqe7g7Rk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytPHvR3MHDA
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If you can help in any way please see tell them below:
Contacts:
The Yankton Sioux Tribal Headquarters is: 605 384-3641
Greg Zephier, Councilman: 491-0004
Frances Zephier, onsite contact: 491-2674
Sherwyn Zepher, PR Rep.: 491-2653
Yankton Sioux tribal members are worried about odor and health risks and are... more
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Unless this new law can be prevented, you will lose your copyright rights to all your artwork, photographs, paintings, music, lyrics, films, videos, 3D animations, and anything else you have created, while corporations can steal your work and profit from it. This is extremely bad news for all those whose livelihood depends on their creations. Even your photographs which you have uploaded to your own albums online (such as Flickr, Picasa, etc.) will be affected. This is theft, pure and simple - theft which will be made legal very soon unless people react en masse and force their legislators not to pass this new Orphan Works legislation that is before Congress.Unless this new law can be prevented, you will lose your copyright rights to all your... more
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Photography rights campaigners are furious at what they see as unfair behaviour by officers dealing with photo enthusiasts. Among them is Austin Mitchell MP, a keen photographer who, on 11 March, petitioned fellow politicians on the matter in the House of Commons.
His Early Day Motion (EDM) has called on the Home Office and the Association of Chief Police Officers to agree on a 'photography code' to be used by police officers 'on the ground'.
Photography rights campaigners are furious at what they see as unfair behaviour by... more
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Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cast doubt Wednesday over the U.S. version of the Sept. 11 attacks, calling it a pretext used to invade Afghanistan and Iraq.
Although Iran has condemned the 2001 al-Qaida attacks on New York and Washington in the past, this was the third time in a week that Ahmadinejad questioned the death toll, who was behind the attacks and how it happened.
"Four or five years ago, a suspicious event occurred in New York. A building collapsed and they said that 3,000 people had been killed but never published their names," Ahmadinejad told Iranians in the holy city of Qom.Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cast doubt Wednesday over the U.S.... more
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A bus plunged into a canal in western India early Wednesday, killing at least 45 people, news reports said. An official said most of the victims were schoolchildren.
Four children escaped alive, the official said, adding that 13 people remain missing.
The bus was carrying students from a village in western India to a nearby town to take a test when the driver lost control and the bus smashed through a concrete barricade and into the water.
The Press Trust of India reported that the bus was carrying between 40 to 50 passengers, but several television channels reported that there were over 60 passengers on board. A bus plunged into a canal in western India early Wednesday, killing at least 45... more
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Two men tried to blackmail a member of the royal family with claims he had performed a gay sex act, a London court heard Tuesday.
Ian Strachan and Sean McGuigan demanded 50,000 pounds in return for not publicising mobile phone footage including allegations about the unidentified royal, a prosecutor said.
The recordings also contained "scandalous and disparaging remarks" about other royals, as well as allegations of "impropriety" about the victim's business affairs, the Central Criminal Courtwas told.
The royal in question cannot be identified, and was referred to in court only as witness A.
Both defendants have denied the charge that they made "an unwarranted demand with menaces."
In early 2007 property developer Strachan, 30, and McGuigan, 40, made a series of audio and video recordings of a man who had been employed for some years by the royal, said prosecutor Mark Ellison.
Much of the eight hours of audio and video files was recorded when the man was drunk or "under the influence of other substances."
"He was also shown recounting stories and alleged experiences, making allegations of impropriety as to how his employer conducted aspects of his business," Ellison said.
"And there were three audio files of the man apparently asserting that the member of the royal family who employed him had performed an act of oral sex on him," he added.
The recordings contained material which would have potential to "cause embarrassment and hurt to his employer" and a number of other members of the extended royal family, he said.
The men approached newspapers and a leading publicist seeking a "substantial sum" for the material, but failed and so turned their efforts to trying to blackmail the royal, said the prosecutor.
The pair were caught after they went to a meeting at a London hotel on September 11. They thought they were going to see a representative of the alleged royal victim but it was really an undercover officer, the court heard. Two men tried to blackmail a member of the royal family with claims he had performed a... more
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THE Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Peter Jensen has backed a Brisbane school's decision to turn down a request by gay students to bring male partners to a school dance.
A number of Anglican Church Grammar School's 215 Year 12 students want to take their gay partners to their end-of-year dance on June 19.
However, under current policy, they may only attend the ball with a female partner.
Dr Jensen said he supported civil rights for gay people but homosexuality in the eyes of the church was wrong.
"People do send their children to our schools - they send them there on the understanding that we understand from the teaching of the Bible that the expression of same-sex attraction ... is morally wrong," Dr Jensen told Macquarie radio.
"I guess this will be a matter for the schools but I think that the school will have my support for taking that line."
However, he said young gay people and traditions such as school dances should be left out of the political spotlight.
"No one wants to turn a fun event into a battleground for sexual politics," Dr Jensen said.
"And I would completely denounce any violence against gay persons - it is morally wrong and reprehensible."THE Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Peter Jensen has backed a Brisbane school's... more
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Aboriginal children in Australia were sometimes used for medical tests, it has been claimed.
Aborigine rights campaigner Kathleen Mills said she had heard of children being injected with a leprosy treatment and becoming very ill.
She said many members of the "Stolen Generations" - Aborigines taken from their homes and raised by white families - had similar experiences.
Senior politicians said they had never heard such claims before.
Ms Mills was speaking outside a Senate hearing in the northern city of Darwin, which is investigating possible compensation for the Stolen Generations. Aboriginal children in Australia were sometimes used for medical tests, it has been... more
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Via Joe.My.God comes this image of a new ad from Hanes, promoting their tagless underwear with the tagline "Because the World Gives You Enough Labels". The ad features a man dragging a stereotype- and slur-laden character. Joe reports that the ad was created by the Bombay division of McCann Erickson, so it's unlikely to appear in American markets.
With a little digging I was able to find two other ads in the campaign, via Trendhunter. They write: "In Fagg*t, you see same-sex kissing, debauchery, toys, bottles of wine and references to beauty: lipstick, nail polish and makeup. In Nigg*r, you see drugs, guns, jail cells, low-life jobs like cleaning toilets, and text about being HIV positive. In Pak! (a demeaning name for people from Pakistan), you see tanks, bullets, bombs and pigs (an anti-Islamic reference)."
Check out the other two ads.....Effective, or just offensive?
http://towleroad.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/04/11/n.jpg
http://towleroad.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/04/11/p.jpgVia Joe.My.God comes this image of a new ad from Hanes, promoting their tagless... more
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"There was no way to escape. People were waiting outside - if someone tried to jump out, they would attack them with machetes."
Of the 36,000 runners lining up in Sunday's London Marathon, 33-year-old Burundian Olympic hopeful Gilbert Tuhabonye has perhaps the most remarkable story.
In 1993, Tuhabonye, then 19, was looking forward to graduating from his high school in Kibimba and taking up an athletics scholarship at Tulane University in America.
But one October day, Tuhabonye and 100 of his fellow Tutsis were captured by rival Hutus, herded into a petrol station and set on fire.
"They were doing everything they could to make sure everybody in the building died," says Tuhabonye.
He was the sole survivor of the massacre as he smashed a window, climbed out and ran for his life.
Eventually he found safety in a hospital and began the slow recovery process.
Miraculously, less than 18 months after having the flesh burnt off his right shin down to the bone, Tuhabonye was running again, competing at the 1995 World Student Games in Japan.
The following year, as one of Burundi's most promising young talents, he was selected to go to an International Olympic Committee training camp for athletes from developing nations. "There was no way to escape. People were waiting outside - if someone tried to... more
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Hundreds of civil society activists in Iran have signed an open letter calling for the release of women's rights defender Khadijeh Moghaddam.
Mrs Moghaddam, who is also a campaigner for the environment, was arrested on 8 April and accused of acting against national security.
She is very involved in the drive to gather one million signatures opposing laws that discriminate against women.
The open letter was sent to newspapers and websites across Iran.
Bail for Mrs Moghaddam, 56, was set at more than $100,000 (63,000 euros).
Human rights groups say Mrs Moghaddam was arrested at her home on Tuesday.
Earlier this week Amnesty International said it believed she was being held solely on account of her peaceful activities in support of equal rights for Iranian women.
Among those calling for her release are prominent writers, journalists, lawyers and reformist politicians.
The letter's signatories also include Parvin Ardalan, a founder of the One Million Signatures campaign, who last month was prevented by the Iranian authorities from leaving the country to collect a prestigious human rights prize abroad.
A number of international human rights groups have accused the Iranian authorities of targeting women's rights activists in Iran as part of a wider crackdown on dissenting voices.
They say a number of activists from the One Million Signatures campaign are among those who have been arrested.Hundreds of civil society activists in Iran have signed an open letter calling for the... more
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News Corp.'s MySpace has given a British media company exclusive rights to distribute video programming from the social networking site on broadcast television outside the U.S. and to sell DVDs and related merchandise.
Financial terms of the deal with ShineReveille International, a unit of London-based The Shine Group, were not disclosed late Wednesday.
Los Angeles-based MySpace retained the right to distribute content from MySpaceTV online and over mobile networks worldwide — and on broadcast networks in the U.S., the company said.
The company was expected to announce the agreement at an interactive media conference in Cannes, France, on Thursday.
News Corp.'s MySpace has given a British media company exclusive rights to... more
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A similar thing happened to me about a month ago. My husband and I have three accounts with our bank, two personal and one business. I've have a relationship with our bank for over ten years, and during that time none of the accounts I've managed had ever gone into the red. With a longtime track record of being a model customer, I was therefore very upset when the bank chose to penalize me when a snafu occurred.
One of our checks was accidentally deposited into the wrong account, which caused it to go overdrawn when checks we had written cleared. Even though we had more than enough money to cover the checks over the three accounts we had with the bank, the bank decided to return three checks, which, if they had cleared would have created an overdraft of less than $250. The bank then charged us $36 per check for the privilege of refusing to honor them. In addition, we faced check return and late payment fees from our car insurance, phone and credit card companies because of the bank's actions.
I was particularly upset that the bank hadn't bothered to call me (which they did regularly to confirm other transactions), or taken my highly responsible banking record into account before they decided to bounce the checks. Had they called, the situation could have been resolved instantly with a transfer between accounts. Instead, it seems to me, the bank saw an opportunity to make a quick buck ($108 actually) and took it, charging me fees, and putting my good credit, and car insurance policy, at risk in the process.
My initial complaints fell on officious and intransigent ears. The bank refused to refund the charges, insisting that they "couldn't" rather then "wouldn't" do it. Luckily for me, they'd erroneously mailed someone else's overdraft notice in the same envelope as mine, so with this as leverage, I agreed to do the right thing and hand over "John Doe's" letter on condition that the bank did the right thing and rescinded my fees.
But the episode left a very bitter taste in my mouth, and got me thinking about those less fortunate than myself, for whom the system is particularly unfair. Just one of the three fees the bank had taken from my account, without my permission, was the equivalent to the best part of a day's pay for someone on minimum wage. Put the three together and it's well over half a week's salary for the hard working poor. How can that be fair?
With such sharp practices these banks are no better than loan sharks. And with the economy in crisis, such money generating policies are likely to increase as the banks desperately try to claw back the funds they've been forced to write off due to the mortgage fiasco we're in the midst of right now. Once again the consumer is paying (dearly) for the mistakes fat cat, big business has made.
So what can we do? Certainly it's all our responsibilities to refuse to take such treatment lying down. The banks are only able to charge such outrageous fees because on some level we allow them to get away with it. Next time you get an unfair charge, call the bank on it. You may be able to afford to eat it, but the person standing in line behind you might not, and, as a society, we stand or fall together. If one employee refuses to help, refuse to be brushed off. Ask to see their superior, and if they can't help, ask to see theirs. Threaten to close your account down and take your business elsewhere, and DO IT if they fail to offer an acceptable resolution.
If all else fails, take a leaf out of Hatch's playbook, and take your bank to small claims court. As Ralph Nader says, "If a million consumers filed a million small claims court actions a year against the banks, the banks would either try to abolish the small claims court or try to improve their performance." Perhaps it's our responsibility to put that theory to the test. Once we've knocked the banks into shape, my next raison d'être will be local councils and the parking fines they charge. Try paying those on a minimum wage!A similar thing happened to me about a month ago. My husband and I have three accounts... more
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Trolling down the street in Manhattan, I suddenly hear a woman's voice.
"Who's there? Who's there?" she whispers. I look around but can't figure out where it's coming from. It seems to emanate from inside my skull.
Was I going nuts? Nope. I had simply encountered a new advertising medium: hypersonic sound. It broadcasts audio in a focused beam, so that only a person standing directly in its path hears the message. In this case, the cable channel A&E was using the technology to promote a show about, naturally, the paranormal.
I'm a geek, so my first reaction was, "Cool!" But it also felt creepy.
We think of our brains as the ultimate private sanctuary, a zone where other people can't intrude without our knowledge or permission. But its boundaries are gradually eroding. Hypersonic sound is just a portent of what's coming, one of a host of emerging technologies aimed at tapping into our heads. These tools raise a fascinating, and queasy, new ethical question: Do we have a right to "mental privacy"?
I'd love to give you answers. But the truth is no one knows. Privacy rights vary from state to state, and it's unclear how, or even if, the protections would apply to mental sanctity. "We really need to articulate a moral code that governs all this," warns Arthur Caplan, a University of Pennsylvania bioethicist.
The good news is that scholars are holding conferences to hash out legal positions. But we'll need a broad public debate about it, too. Civil liberties thrive only when the public demands them — and understands they're at risk. That means we need to stop seeing this stuff as science fiction and start thinking about how we'll react to it. Otherwise, we could all lose our minds.Trolling down the street in Manhattan, I suddenly hear a woman's voice.... more
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"These Streets are Watching" is a 50 minute video that takes a fresh look at police accountability through the eyes of three communities; Denver, Cincinnati and Berkeley. Independent filmmaker, Jacob Crawford, weaves three cities responses to police brutality into a single tale of community empowerment and direct action. Within an amazing collection of footage that portrays police conduct and misconduct, the film conveys basic legal concepts that can provide practical help to groups and individuals seeking a clearer understanding of their rights when dealing with police. The film is divided into sections that explain our basic rights, tactics for documenting police activity and ideas for further action and organizing."These Streets are Watching" is a 50 minute video that takes a fresh look at... more
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This past Friday marked the date of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated in Memphis 40 years ago. This article includes memorable photographs, a detailed biography, videos of King's important speeches and a photo-gallery.This past Friday marked the date of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was... more
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China is denying mountaineers permission to climb its side of Mount Everest this spring, a move that reflects concerns by the communist government that Tibet activists may try to disrupt its plans to carry the Olympic torch up the world's tallest peak.
China is denying mountaineers permission to climb its side of Mount Everest this... more
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"Dr. Martin Luther King: He Gave His Life Serving Others." At the end, he just wanted people to know that he tried to love somebody. To this day, King remains a symbol of the African-American civil rights struggle, revered for his martyrdom on behalf of nonviolence.
This article includes biographic notes, photographs, a photo-gallery and videos."Dr. Martin Luther King: He Gave His Life Serving Others." At the end, he... more
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