Over 300 American Citizens Were Arrested in St. Paul, MN During the RNC for Peacefully Assembling.

Dear fans, friends, fellow Facebookers, and fellow Americans,

Yes you read it right. Although completely ignored by the mainstream press this week, over 300 of our fellow citizens were arrested for peacefully demonstrating outside the Republican National Convention last week. With our band releasing a new album this week, I am busy and excited about life; as I am sure each of you are about your own lives. But I still feel it is important to take this time now to share with you the letter that I have written to St. Paul, Minnesota Mayor Chris Coleman asking him to remember where we live…. Last time I checked we called it The United States of America. And from what I can remember from those grueling lessons as a young boy in elementary school U S of A meant a little something called “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” It also meant “liberty and justice for all.” Read more about the arrests of over 300 Americans at the RNC here.

The reason I am taking the time to write this evening, on the eve before the day of a very special album release for our band TRANSCENDENCE, is because I believe this matter is important. As much as I love music and art and truth and love and romance and beauty, I believe that freedom, justice, and liberty have to be the foundation which these other pleasures of our lives rest on. Our fellow citizens who are currently locked up in jail cells in St. Paul are not able to experience the basic pleasures of their lives right now… and for no other reason than they were exercising their American right to peaceably assemble.

(more…)

Dear TuneInTurnOnHelpOut.org member,

As part of its updated second quarter mission statement today, Fox News declared that it is still intent on injecting racism, prejudice, and fear into America’s political dialogue say several Fox representatives. Luckily there is something the American people can still do about it… if you’re a racist of course, just watch more FOX! YUM! But if not, read on. And as always keep on fighting the good fight whoever and wherever you are.

We usually don’t pick sides when it comes to politics believing rightly so that politics is politics and either side you’re on if you’re dumb enough to choose one of those ridiculously lousy choices then you get what you deserve.  Sort of a Clinton versus Bush set up if you can imagine something so  horrifying without puking  up this morning’s breakfast… either way you’re screwed.

But we are going to break with our time honored tradition here just once and throw some support to the Dems through promoting this work by MoveOn.org simply because we feel that they are making some valid points. So read on children and let’s get these sly Foxs our of Dodge and our of our lives once and for all.

Dear MoveOn member,

Right now, FOX is trying to paint Barack Obama as foreign, un-American, suspicious, and scary. They’re trying to send Americans the message that our country’s first viable black candidate for President is not “one of us.”

We’ve seen this before from FOX. They won’t stop until it becomes too painful to continue—until the public calls them out and advertisers start getting worried.

Now is the time to draw a line in the sand by putting FOX on notice that their behavior won’t be tolerated. Nearly 100,000 Americans have already expressed their outrage. Can you express yours by adding your name to this message?

“FOX must stop injecting racism, prejudice, and fear into our political dialogue. We intend to hold FOX, its advertisers, and its personalities accountable for FOX’s attempts to smear the Obamas.”

Clicking here will sign the petition:

http://pol.moveon.org/stopthesmears/o.pl?id=13004-2362222-Cgoeq4x&t=5

FOX’s longtime pattern of smearing Obama and the black community is well documented.¹ But the outrageous moments have increased in the last month.

First, a paid FOX commentator accidentally confused “Obama” with “Osama” and then joked on the air about killing Obama.² Next, a FOX anchor said a playful fist bump by Barack and Michelle Obama could be a “terrorist fist jab.”³ And then, FOX called Michelle Obama “Obama’s baby mama”—slang for an unmarried mother of a man’s child, and a clear attempt to associate the Obamas with negative stereotypes about black people.⁴

If you know others who’d find FOX’s recent actions despicable, please ask them to sign the petition too. The more people who sign, the bigger our impact will be.

Our friends at ColorOfChange.org—an online advocacy group focused on the issues of importance to the black community—are leading this charge. They have already collected nearly 100,000 names to deliver as a group to FOX’s headquarters (in front of other media cameras, so FOX feels more heat). Here’s how they describe the situation:

Add your name to this important cause by clicking here—then tell your friends:

http://pol.moveon.org/stopthesmears/o.pl?id=13004-2362222-Cgoeq4x&t=6

Thanks for all you do.

–Adam G., Peter, Anna, Justin, and the rest of the team

TuneInTurnOnHelpOut.org Founder Ed Hale write open letter to Fox News

Dear FOX NEWS,

God knows the world loves you all dearly just because since your inception you have continued to baffle so many - by more than adequately representing the concept of “impartial and slanted journalism” that it makes the jobs of millions of college professors easy by being able to use “FOX NEWS” as a real-world example. But sometimes, even though we know that what you do is similar to Jon Stewart - it’s a comedy sketch and you guys are just stand-ups “doing your job” and your job is to make people laugh by looking all straight faced by saying the most ridiculously ludicrous things… still… sometimes we all just go a bit too far.

Certainly, you have done your job admirably: You make us all laugh till we’re red in the face with those straight faces you manage to hold while attempting to read those teleprompters as if they were “real news…” And you know what? We LOVE you for that! It IS funny. And of course we also love you for what a good example you present to our Nation’s children of what a good news network is NOT supposed to be like. We are forever indebted to you for that. Fox News will forever be synonymous in the world with “really bad slanted journalism with no respect for integrity or dignity or the ethics of good journalistic practices” and that makes teaching American children what good journalism is really easy for millions of parents all over the world. For that, we thank you.

But just a humble request during the next few months in this presidential election…. tens of millions of us are asking you - just this once, we promise - to simply do your job for real - even if for just a few months: report the news. The real news. Whoever wins the US presidential race deserves to win. (For instance Gore in 2000). And no one needs a news network to help them win. If they do, then they don’t deserve to be president anyway. Can you see that? Even a little? Hope so.

So as big fans, we ask that you just take even a second or two and think for a moment about that time way back when you first decided to become journalists… Did you really take this job knowingly thinking that you would be a slave to giant corporations you’ll never get to meet face to face and and big tyrannical government and not be reporting real news? I ask that you ponder this question even if for a few seconds…

People actually depend on you to report news. (who they are I do not know. I have never met one… But I hear they exist) But they are certainly NOT thinking that you exist simply to attempt to persuade them, indoctrinate them, or brainwash them by deceptively pretending to be, and be doing, something you are not. Though those of us in the know “get this” and we get a kick out of it and all, I must say that I am a bit concerned for those folks who just don’t get what you’re all about that. They don’t get the joke yet.

If this hits home for any of you, good for you. Pack up your stuff and walk respectably out of that terrordome with your head held high and go back to pure journalism and news reporting. We need you. The American People need you. Best of luck in your decision.

Sincerely,
The Ambassador

See below to sign petition from Moveon.org who by the way also suffer from a similar malady…. they’re stuck in the “left-wing box” just as much as those poor Ritalin junkies at Fox News are stuck in the “right-wing box” - both groups totally lost and helpless in the Matrix… but at least Moveon.org drives on the right side of the road and isn’t flying out of control like some college aged GW Bush slamming into and killing pedestrians and asking “daddy” to help him with a free get out of jail card. For that we have to respect the folks at Moveon.org.

Petition below:

Subject: See this? FOX smears Obama

Hi,

FOX’s smears against Obama are out of control–have you heard about them? I just signed a petition telling FOX that their use of racism and prejudice is not okay. Would be great if you signed too.

First, a paid FOX commentator accidentally confused “Obama” with “Osama” and then joked on the air about killing Obama. Next, a FOX anchor said a playful fist pound by Barack and Michelle Obama could be a “terrorist fist jab.” (Seriously!) And then, FOX called Michelle Obama “Obama’s baby mama”–slang used to describe the unmarried mother of a man’s child.

Nearly 100,000 folks have signed a petition that will be delivered to FOX. Can you sign too? The more names, the bigger the impact. Here’s the link.

http://pol.moveon.org/stopthesmears/?r_by=13004-2362222-Cgoeq4x&rc=comment_paste

Thanks!

Dear fellow TuneInTurnOnHelpOut peeps,

United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) is an organization which gets a lot of support from us around here. For many reasons. One of its principles, Bill Dobbs, had a good hand in turning me on to what activism was really all about. I had some opportunity to watch him in action during an organized Free Trade protest event that lasted days and days a few years back and the man was just tireless. Absolutely persistent, relentless, and committed to the goal of helping to get the word out to the mass media and to the world at large about the potential dangers and pitfalls of Free Trade. I learned much from watching him work. It taught me a lot about what it means to be “an activist.”

Since that time, I have been a UFPJ member and supporter when i could be, and at the very least always try to get the word out on what they are up to. Because what they are up to is always about “us” — their main concern is helping us even during times when we may not be aware of a potential problem yet. Such as right this very minute congress is about to vote on another bill to give the “white house” more money to continue to illegally occupy another country. Now this is some tricky stuff of course. Because Iraq really is no longer another country since we took it over. It now essentially belongs to us if we’re all going to just be honest here. And yes there is also the fact that if we leave, though what the US White House Administration did was illegal and immoral and grossly barbaric, we take the risk of this new Nation falling into the hands of some who may not have our best interest at heart. This argument may be where I and UFPJ differ. I am against the invasion of Iraq. Read the statement above again. But I also understand that we just blew a hole in that part of the world the size of, well, a small country, and we don’t want to leave a gaping wound for just anyone to come and fix up. This poses a huge security risk for us and other EU nations. Unfortunately it was us who started this war, and now we are going to have to be the ones who resolve things over there until the job is done.

But at the same time, I recognize that UFPJ has been very supportive of this group of Iraq Veterans Against the War — these are the actual soldiers who have been serving over there on our behalf. If you go to YouTube, you can spend a good number of hours watching them speak right into the camera about what it is like over there. I highly recomened it. Both veterans still there, and veterans now home. Both veterans for the invasion and veterans against it. It is a good idea to get THEIR side of the story since after all they are the ones over their risking their lives, getting killed, and getting hurt, injured, deformed, and maimed for life. (more…)