Nuclear Power Nightmare | Weekly Top Ten

Week ending Friday March 18, 2011 "Nuclear Power Nightmare" Special Coverage See our continuing coverage of the fallout from the Earthquake in Japan. We have references, factsheets and background materials, as well as the news and views Common Dreams has published related to this situation, compiled here. ACTION ALERT:  from our Partners at Roots Action: Sign this letter to President Obama demanding an energy future that puts an end to nuclear power. Nuclear power is a dangerous dead end. The reactors melting down in Japan prove that “safe nuclear power” is an oxymoron. President Obama’s continuing support for nuclear energy -- even as Japan faces environmental devastation -- is appalling. Technologically, no country is more advanced than Japan. Nuclear power is not safe there, and it is not safe anywhere. See the full letter here. Become a sustaining member of the Common Dreams community today! The only way to build a powerful movement is by coming together to raise our voices louder and stronger. Your support sustains our work giving voice to those who might not be heard, providing the real story behind the corporate media headlines. No corporate influences distort our coverage. We report to you. Our Top Ten Headlines... Japan Frantic to Avert Multiple Nuclear Meltdowns Bank Of America Anonymous Leak Alleges 'Corruption And Fraud' Greetings From Fitzwalkerstan: Wisconsin GOP Denies Legislative Democrats Voting Rights Revealed: Afghan Chief Accused of Campaign of Terror Is on US Payroll Scott Fitzgerald and Wisconsin GOP Pull Back From the Brink UN Security Council Backs No-Fly Zone and Air Strikes Nuclear Rods Melting Inside Three Fukushima Reactors, Japan Admits Japan Contemplates 'Chernobyl Solution' for Nuclear Disaster Promises, Promises: Obama Rebuffs Invites to Stand with Workers State Department's P.J. Crowley Forced Out by Obama White House for Speaking Up on Bradley Manning's Torture Our Top Ten Views... Harvey Wasserman: An 8.9 Quake Could Have Irradiated the Entire US Chris Hedges: Power Concedes Nothing Without a Demand Karl Grossman: Behind the Hydrogen Explosion at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant Ralph Nader: Our Right-Leaning Public Media Norman Solomon: Nuclear Power Madness John Nichols: Tractors Roll Into Madison, As Wisconsin Readies For The Biggest Protest Yet Richard Wolff: What's Left of the American Left? John Hallinan: The Crisis is Our Unwillingness to Make Rich Pay Their Share Bill Moyers and Michael Winship: In Defense of NPR John Nichols: Wisconsin Senators "Sell Out" to Corporate Interests as DC Crowds Pick Up the Chant: "Recall!" Home About Us Donate Sign Up Archives Videos... Phyllis Bennis on Libya and No-Fly Zones Rachel Maddow Talks with Arnie Gundersen: Understanding the Threat of Nuclear Radiation Explosion at Fukushima Nuclear Plant Foreign Troops in Bahrain Understanding the Concern About Spent Fuel Pools Founded in 1997, CommonDreams.org is an Internet-based progressive news and grassroots activism organization. We are nonprofit, independent and nonpartisan. Our Mission: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. © Copyright 1997-2011 You are subscribed to Common Dreams as . Click here to unsubscribe

Earthquakes, Wisconsin & Action Needed | Weekly Top Ten

Week ending Friday March 11, 2011 Earthquake in Japan Continuing Special Coverage Our friends at Roots Action are hard at work on a new action in support of the “Full Employment & Training Act” (H.R. 870), just introduced by Congressman John Conyers. Can you help? What better way to finance good green jobs for millions of unemployed Americans than to tax the Wall Street juggernaut that created this economic disaster in the first place? The “Full Employment & Training Act” is a brilliant legislative remedy for two ills that afflict our society -- massive unemployment and speculative profiteering that keeps widening the gap between the rich and the rest of us. The law would make the Wall Street speculators behind the economic disaster pony up to create jobs: whether teaching children, making homes energy efficient, caring for the sick or rebuilding neighborhoods. Please help gather co-sponsors for the bill by signing the Roots Action letter to the Progressive Caucus. Wisconsin Continuing Special Coverage Wisconsin Continues Right-Wing Structural Reforms That Have Decimated the United States With the latest turn of events in Wisconsin, Republican state senators have circumvented the need for a quorum vote on Scott Walker's budget bill by leaving out the fiscal clauses and passing the new laws curbing collective bargaining rights for state and public employees. This dubious tactical manoeuvre strips away the pretence that Walker and his GOP allies have hitherto maintained that the legislative package was necessary to close the state's budget deficit: Walker's objective is, as protesters in Madison have argued all along, to break the last vestige of organized labour strength in the US – the power of public sector workers to organise and negotiate collectively. Stated or not, Walker's ambition is to complete what Ronald Reagan began 30 years ago. Read the complete story Our Top Ten Headlines... 'General Strike!' Thousands Storm, Reoccupy Wisconsin Capitol in Response to Legislative Votes Nuclear Emergency: Japan Warns of Radiation Leak from Quake-Hit Plant Gulf Spill Sickness Wrecking Lives Decline of Honey Bees Now a Global Phenomenon, says United Nations From No 1 Fan to Critic-in-Chief, Damon Takes Aim at Obama Democrats Roll Out Climate Change Big Guns, Republicans Remain Immune Chevron Wins Halt to $18 Billion Judgment in Ecuador Pollution Case America's Secret Plan to Arm Libya's Rebels How Many Afghan Kids Need to Die to Make the News? Eco-Farming Could Double Food Output of Poor Countries, Says UN Our Top Ten Views... Robert Reich: The Birth of the People’s Party Robert Alvarez:On the Brink of Meltdown: The Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Michael Moore: America Is Not Broke Chris Hedges: This Time We’re Taking the Whole Planet With Us Thomas S. Harrington: Controversialization: A Key to the Right’s Continuing Domination of Public Debates Medea Benjamin and Charles Davis: Under Obama, Better to Commit a War Crime Than Expose One Bill Nemitz: Maine Librarian's Pointed Budget Message Hits the Mark Robert Freeman: 2011 is 1848 Redux. But Worse John Nichols: "Shame! Shame! Shame!" Ray McGovern: Pvt Manning: Is Army Aping Mafia? Home About Us Donate Sign Up Archives Videos... Walkouts, Bank Boycotts and Recalls: Wisconsin Protests Intensify As Union-Busting Legislation Pushed Through State Assembly Naomi Klein on Anti-Union Bills, Climate Justice, and the 'Shock Doctrine' Done American-Style The Story of Citizens United v. FEC: Why Democracy Only Works When People Are in Charge Michael Moore: 'This is War. This is a Class War That's Been Leveled Against the Working People of This Country' “Women’s Rights are Workers' Rights:” Kavita Ramdas on History of International Women’s Day and Challenges Women Face 100 Years Later Koch Bros.: Pulling Back the Curtain on Political Puppetmasters Exploring 'The Economics of Happiness' GOP for Small Government Except When It's Not Vandana Shiva: Earth Democracy Founded in 1997, CommonDreams.org is an Internet-based progressive news and grassroots activism organization. We are nonprofit, independent and nonpartisan. Our Mission: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. © Copyright 1997-2011 You are subscribed to Common Dreams as . Click here to unsubscribe

Media Reform Conference | Weekly Top Ten

Our friends at freepress.net are holding the most important conference ever devoted to media, technology and democracy. The Common Dreams' team will be joining them in Boston in April and hope you can too. See you there! Change the Media. Change the World! Media Reform Is Coming to Boston! What: National Conference for Media Reform When: April 8-10, 2011 Where: Boston, MA at the Seaport World Trade Center Are better media the key to a better world? Think about it: From the printing press to the Internet to the iPhone, media have changed the course of history. News coverage affects every issue we care about, and technology is reshaping our communities, our relationships and our daily lives. A growing movement is demanding better journalism, more independent and community media, and the free and open Internet. Thousands of people who believe that reforming the media is critical to transforming the world will meet at the National Conference for Media Reform, a one-of-a-kind event for better media, technology and democracy. Featured speakers include Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig, Salon's Glenn Greenwald, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, Democracy Now! hosts Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, Federal Communications Commissioner Michael Copps, grassroots leaders Rinku Sen and Malkia Cyril, as well as dozens of other media luminaries. Register now! Click here for more program, presenter and schedule information ______________________________________________ Common Dreams Most Read News & Views week ending March 3, 2011 Our Top Ten Headlines... Gov. Walker in Prank Call: 'This is Our Moment' Tempers Explode as Wisconsin Assembly Passes Bill Taking Away Union Rights Assange Can Be Extradited; Could Face US Death Penalty Rolling Stone: Another Runaway General as Army Deploys Psy-Ops on U.S. Senators Déjà Vu: Neo-Con Hawks Take Flight over Libya Gorbachev: The US Must Take Blame for Fanning Islamic Fundamentalism Shoppers Wary of GM Foods Find They're Everywhere Wikileaks: Bradley Manning Faces 22 New Charges, Possible Death Penalty Small Nuclear War Could Reverse Global Warming for Years Billionaire Brothers’ Money Plays Role in Wisconsin Dispute ______________________________________________ Our Top Ten Views... Corporate 'Education Reform': A Moment of National Insanity | Diane Ravitch Koch Brothers “Prank” No Laughing Matter | Mary Bottari How the Rich Soaked the Rest of Us | Richard Wolff The Plutocrat's Coup d'Etat, Their Republican Allies and Their Democratic Enablers | John Atcheson The Sole Remaining Stupidpower in the World | David Michael Green The Phony Budget Crisis: Forget Austerity, Tax the Rich | Ted Rall ‘Mad as Hell’ in Madison | Ralph Nader All-American Decline in a New World: Wars, Vampires, Burned Children, and Indelicate Imbalances | Tom Englehardt An Open Letter to Public Employees and Their Unions, From Formerly Unionized Private-Sector Workers | David Benjamin The “Deficit Problem” Isn’t Financial. It’s Political. | Robert Freeman Home About Us Donate Sign Up Archives www.commondreams.org You are subscribed to Common Dreams as . Click here to unsubscribe

Amnesty Internationa- IRAN: Silenced for making a movie? It’s outrageous.

"It is hard to fathom the idea of being incarcerated for six years simply for speaking my mind, or to be banned from making films for 20 years." – Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis ("Million Dollar Baby," "Crash") Help free expression prevail over persecution. Defend human rights in Iran and the world over with a gift to Amnesty International.

Dear Farhad, I have often gotten in trouble for opening my mouth, but I could never imagine being imprisoned and silenced for making a film. Distinguished filmmaker Jafar Panahi and his artistic collaborator, Mohammad Rasoulof, were each sentenced to an exceptionally harsh six years in prison because they make socially critical films in Iran, where a brutal artist crackdown is escalating. Jafar and Mohammad were also outrageously forbidden to travel, make movies or even speak to the press for an unimaginable period of 20 years. They broke no laws. They expressed their views peacefully. Yet they are paying an awful, inhumane price for exercising their human rights. Stand with me today against this travesty of justice. Don't let Iran silence filmmakers and smother free expression. Help secure basic human freedoms for Jafar and Mohammad and artists the world over with a gift to Amnesty International. Gagging artists and suppressing art are corrosive and dangerous threats to civil society. Repression of dissent is growing at a frightening rate in Iran. Still, we know the voices of freedom and human rights can overcome the forces of persecution and injustice. Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi was once held in Iran's notorious Evin prison on trumped-up charges of espionage. Roxana was freed after Amnesty International and other organizations rallied for her unconditional release. I urge you to raise your voice now, for Jafar and Mohammad and courageous human rights activists everywhere, to say, "Stop." Joining you are Sean Penn, Harvey Weinstein, Martin Scorsese, actress and AIUSA spokesperson Nazanin Boniadi and dozens of other artists. These great talents are working with Amnesty to raise awareness of Jafar and Mohammad's plight and dial up the international pressure on the Iranian government to drop the preposterous charges against the filmmakers. When we shine our lights together, we can open prison doors and set the innocent free. No special effects needed, just the unwavering commitment of human rights defenders like you. Please make your contribution today and help Amnesty continue this vital work.   Thank you, Paul Haggis, Filmmaker for Amnesty International

MSF Report on Haiti: Despite Massive Aid Response, Huge Needs Remain

	The Field: Special Edition	January 2011
	Haiti One Year After
	Despite Massive Aid Response, Huge Needs Remain One year after a devastating earthquake, Haitians continue to endure appalling living conditions and a nationwide cholera outbreak despite the largest humanitarian aid deployment in the world. Read More >
	News and Updates                   Haiti, One Year Later > A video presentation on Haiti today   Op-Ed: Where Aid Failed > by Dr. Unni Karunakara, President of the International Council of MSF                 Children More Vulnerable to Cholera > The outbreak continues, counting the young among its victims   Taking Your Questions > Send questions for MSF's January 13 teleconference with field and HQ staff.
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	Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an independent international medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural and man-made disasters, or exclusion from health care in nearly 60 countries. New York office: 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY, 10001.

Jan 29 I Voices for children gala