MLK KNOWS BEST

THINGS TO REGULATE

THE RESCUING HUG

This picture is from an article called “The Rescuing Hug”. The article details the first week of life of a set of twins. Each were in their respective incubators and one was not expected to live. A hospital nurse fought against the hospital rules and placed the babies in one incubator. When they were placed together, the healthier of the two, threw an arm over her sister in an endearing embrace. The smaller baby’s heart stabilized and temperature rose to normal.

Source: nrlc.org

via: @mrcrhisdavis 

DRONE WARFARE: KILLING BY REMOTE CONTROL

• The Washington Post reports President Obama has granted a CIA and U.S Military request to launch drone attacks even if it does not know the identities of those who will be killed. The so-called "signature" strike policy went into effect earlier this month. It is widely expected the number of U.S. drone strikes will see a radical jump with the new policy in place.

—Democracy Now

• The Bureau has identified credible reports of 168 children killed in seven years of CIA drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas. These children would account for 44% of the minimum figure of 385 civilians reported killed by the attacks.

—The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

• The number of civilians killed in US drone strikes were probably 40 percent higher than what the US was actually reporting. Between 2004 and 2011, they put the estimate of civilian deaths at a figure of 385, but added in the research that the toll could actually come close to tallying 775 casualties.

—RT

• At least 48 civilians have been killed in 27 U.S. strikes inside Yemen since 2009. Between 2006 and 2011, about 500 people were killed in Gaza and the Occupied Territories by Israeli drones.

—Democracy Now

• “The proliferation of drones not only in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, but the expansion of drone bases to places like Kuwait and Oman and Ethiopia, Seychelles, Australia, Turkey. This is a campaign that’s out of control in the hands of the CIA, the Joint Special Operations Command, both in secret, away from the eyes of the American public.” 

—Medea Benjamin; Co-founder of CODEPINK and on of the organizers of the Drone Summit

Info Source: Democracy Now, RT and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

Photo Credits: Messay Shoakena

What Do SOPA, PIPA And NDAA Mean?

SOPA: Stop Online Piracy Act  & PIPA: Protect IP Act:

• These laws, "Apparently aims to stop the piracy of copyrighted material over the internet on websites based outside the United States. But critics say the bills would profoundly change the internet."

—DemocracyNow.org (01/17/12)

• "We call these the censorship bills, because effectively what we would have is a situation where the government and private actors could censor the net. So, U.S. citizens would basically get a different version of the internet, different from what you might get in, say, Italy or even China."

—CORYNNE McSHERRY (She is the intellectual property director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. 01/17/12

• "We’re going to do surgery on the internet, and we haven’t had a doctor in the room tell us how we’re going to change these organs. We’re basically going to reconfigure the internet and how it’s going to work, without bringing in the nerds, without bringing in the doctors"

—REP. JASON CHAFFETZ (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives) 12/15/11

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#NDAA: National Defense Authorization Act

• Forget about the idea of Innocent Until Proven Guilty. This "would open the door for trial-free, indefinite detention of anyone, including American citizens, so long as the government calls them terrorists."

—Forbes.com

• "This is so broadly written, it would become a permanent feature of United States law, so that 10 years, 20 years down the road, any president could still use this power to have the military pick up people and indefinitely detain them without charge or trial, potentially for years, potentially for life.”

—CHRI ANDERSON (American Civil Liberties Union) 

"It is your responsibility, right and obligation as an American and a World citizen to warn your friends and family, and create awareness about these issues."