Good morning!

A follow-up from the other day:

How Many More of these “Unavoidably Unsafe” Drugs Will Become Mandatory?

 By Dr. Mercola

For more than a century pharmaceutical companies have created and enjoyed a lucrative monopoly on health care in America.

They’ve done this by forming alliances with doctors and politicians and scientists inside and outside of government.

In this manner, slowly but surely, they’ve managed to steal basic human Constitutional liberties from you, especially your right to choose what is best for yourself and your children when it comes to drugs and vaccines.

Through it all, Barbara Loe Fisher and the National Vaccine Information Center have been fighting to help you keep your rights to make your own health care decisions.

But it’s getting harder: these corporate entities are digging their heels in deeper and deeper, with the goal of taking your health liberties away from you through forced vaccination.

Here, Fisher lays out the harsh facts on this most important issue. Read it and weep. Then take swift action!

By Barbara Loe Fisher

In America today, there is an unprecedented assault on the human right to exercise informed consent to medical risk-taking.

It is being led by one of the most powerful and wealthy corporate empires in the world: the global pharmaceutical industry.

What is at stake for Big Pharma is a one trillion dollar market for prescription drugs and vaccines.¹ What is at stake for the American people is our health and our liberty.

Pharma’s Lucrative Monopoly on U.S. Health Care

For more than a century, pharmaceutical corporations have created a lucrative monopoly on health care in America. They have done this by forging an alliance with a select group of medical doctors and scientists inside and outside of government, who develop and promote widespread drug and vaccine use.

Every “Like” Helps Support This Cause

Doctors in private practice, who are encouraged to deliver drugs and vaccines to the people, have become – perhaps without even realizing it – de facto drug company sales reps.²

Americans, who represent about five percent of the world’s population,³ 4 are the most highly vaccinated^{5 6} and drugged population on the planet.⁷ 8 We consume nearly 40 percent of all pharmaceutical products sold.⁹ In 2009, doctors ordered four billion prescriptions for Americans,¹⁰ which is one big reason why annual health care costs are nearly $3 trillion dollars in the U.S.¹¹ Half of all Americans, including 25 percent of our children take one or more prescription drugs.¹²

Today, our children are being given three times as many vaccinations as they got in the early 1980′s. ¹³ 14 15 Three times as many vaccinations means three times as much profit for drug companies and doctors selling vaccines.

The base cost for a child to get every government recommended vaccine in a private pediatrician’s office has increased from $80 per child in 1986¹⁶ to a whopping $2200 per child in 2011,¹⁷ and that doesn’t include physician office administration fees. The federal government now spends nearly $4 billion dollars per year to purchase vaccines for public health clinics,¹⁸ where half of America’s children are vaccinated.

It is no surprise that vaccine development is one of the fastest growing sectors in the pharmaceutical industry.¹⁹ By 2013, Pharma will enjoy a $36 billion dollar vaccine market.²⁰

Eight Big Drug Corporations Selling Vaccines Get Total Liability Shield

In 1986, there were three major drug corporations selling vaccines in the U.S. (Merck, Lederle, Connaught) and now there are eight (Merck, Pfizer, Sanofi Pasteur, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Astra Zeneca, CSL Biotherapies, Emergent BioSolutions). That is because, in 1986, Pharma blackmailed Congress into giving them partial liability protection from vaccine injury lawsuits²¹ by suggesting they would have to abandon the U.S. childhood vaccine market without a liability shield.

In February of this year, drug companies got what they wanted all along: the U.S. Supreme Court gave Pharma total immunity from lawsuits – even if they could have made a vaccine less harmful. ^{22 23}

Vaccines, said the Court, are “unavoidably unsafe.”

So if your child is brain injured by a vaccine that you may not have wanted your child to get in the first place, all you can do is file a claim in the federal vaccine injury compensation program. Even though the program has awarded more than $2 billion dollars to vaccine victims, two out of three plaintiffs are turned away empty handed.²⁴

With no liability or accountability for those making, licensing, selling and giving vaccines in America, there are no checks and balances to ensure that vaccines are safe and effective. Doctors, who have been taught to believe that infectious microorganisms should be eradicated from the earth with the mandatory use of multiple vaccines, are as ripe for exploitation as the people they vaccinate.

Big Pharma Does Not Want You to Have Vaccine Freedom of Choice

The only barrier left to unlimited vaccine profit-making is the freedom for Americans to choose whether or not to use every new vaccine Pharma creates and wants mandated. Freedom of choice is something Big Pharma and the medical lobby does not want you to have.

They know that many educated consumers in America and around the world are dissatisfied with the old pharmaceutical-based health care paradigm.²⁵ 26 ²⁷ They know that 63 percent of all Americans, including 76 percent of health care workers, are empowering themselves with information and choosing less toxic, less expensive, more naturally effective ways to achieve and maintain health.²⁸

Today, millions of Americans are choosing to buy and eat organic²⁹ 30 and avoid genetically modified foods.³¹ 32 We are choosing to buy and drink pure water with no chemicals in it. ³³ We are choosing mercury-free dental fillings.³⁴ We are choosing exercise and meditation. We are choosing drug free, hospital free births³⁵ and breastfeeding. We are throwing away the bottles of prescription drugs in our medicine cabinet and choosing to get advice from holistic health professionals offering less toxic alternatives to stay well like acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathy, and naturopathy.³⁶

And we are questioning why we and our children should be required to get a long list of expensive vaccines that carry serious risks³⁷ and sometimes don’t work at all.³⁸

This is a health liberty revolution and Pharma knows it.

So Pharma is funding medical organizations profiting from mass vaccination policies³⁹ to press politicians into quickly passing laws that force Americans to buy and use dozens of doses of vaccines. ⁴⁰ The goal is to demand that everyone salute smartly and obey doctors’ orders to get vaccinated or be barred from getting an education,⁴¹ health insurance,⁴² medical care^{43 44} or a job. ⁴⁵ The goal is to, in effect, brand unvaccinated citizens as enemies of the state,^{46 47} so they can be fined or imprisoned.

Can this really be happening in America?

Yes, it can.

Doctors Threatening People and Taking Away Vaccine Exemptions

In 2007, we witnessed physician public health officials summon nearly 1,000 parents with their children to a Maryland courthouse policed by armed guards and dogs to show proof the children had gotten chickenpox and hepatitis b shots.⁴⁸ Parents were threatened with stiff fines and jail time if they did not comply.

Last spring in Washington state, medical organizations joined with Pharma lobbyists to pressure politicians to pass a law that requires parents to get the signature of a medical doctor or designated medical worker for a child to receive a non-medical exemption to vaccination.⁴⁹ What this means is that some citizens in society, who have M.D. or certain other medical initials written after their names, now have the power in Washington state to pass judgment on the conscientious or spiritually held beliefs of fellow citizens. It gives some citizens, who may be ideologically opposed to the informed consent ethic,⁵⁰ a green light to threaten and coerce other citizens into violating their conscience and personal beliefs.⁵¹

This expanded authority is added to the authority that medical doctors have had for a long time, which includes the power to refuse to grant a child a medical exemption to vaccination⁵² 53 ^{54 55} – even when the child has suffered a sudden and serious decline in health following previous vaccinations and could be more seriously harmed if additional vaccines are given.⁵⁶

Colorado and California Citizens Losing Vaccine Choices

Right now, drug company- and medical lobbyists are trying to put further legal restrictions on vaccine exemptions in Colorado ⁵⁷ and other states.⁵⁸ In cash-strapped California, the Pharma-Med lobby has succuessfully pushed for a law to be passed that will allow doctors to give minor children expensive new vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases – like Gardasil – without the informed consent of parents.⁵⁹

Nobody is Held Accountable for Vaccine Injuries and Deaths

But what happens if a vaccine given to a child without the parent’s consent ends up injuring or killing a child? Is anyone accountable?

No. Nobody is liable in a court of law to be tried before a jury of our peers when our children and grandchildren are injured or die after getting vaccinated – not the drug companies that made the vaccines; not the federal health officials, who licensed and recommend the vaccines; not the doctor or medical worker, who gave the vaccines; and not the state politician, who voted for vaccine mandates or looked the other way while state health officials added another new vaccine to the required list.

Nobody is held accountable or liable when a child is injured or killed by vaccines in America except the parent of that child, whose informed consent rights may have been violated by fellow citizens wielding power they should never have been given.

This is a Health Liberty Revolution

After 50 years of heavy prescription drug and vaccine use, Americans are waking up to the fact that they are not healthier, but are sicker than ever before. And they are asking a lot of questions.

More of us are wondering why doctors inside and outside of government are insisting that every child get 70 doses of 16 vaccines starting on the first day of life ⁶⁰ and why that list includes expensive new vaccines for mild diseases, like chickenpox, and for diseases you can’t catch in a classroom, like hepatitis B.

More of us are asking why we have to get a flu shot every year ⁶¹ and why health care workers are losing their jobs if they don’t.⁶²

More of us are looking at vaccine studies published in the medical literature, many of which are paid for by drug companies ⁶³ or public health agencies promoting one-size-fits-all vaccine policies, only to discover that a lot of those studies are the best junk science that money can buy. More of us are watching doctors paid by Pharma⁶⁴ 65 persuade journalists to demonize anyone asking questions about vaccination ⁶⁶ so other people are afraid to speak up because they know they will be targeted for humiliation and persecution.

Why are so Many of Highly Vaccinated Children so Sick?

But, mostly, we are asking why so many of our highly vaccinated children are so sick with no good explanation coming from the public health officials and doctors we have trusted with their health.

Today, 1 child in 6 in America is learning disabled;⁶⁷ 1 in 9 has asthma;⁶⁸ 1 in 10 is diagnosed with ADHD;⁶⁹ 1 in 110 develops autism;⁷⁰ 71 1 in 450 becomes diabetic,⁷² and millions more are suffering with severe allergies,⁷³ inflammatory bowel disorders,⁷⁴ crippling depression⁷⁵ and other kinds of brain and immune system dysfunction, while America’s infant mortality rate ranks among the worst of all developed nations: 6 out of 1,000 babies born live in America die before their first birthday.^{76 77}

New Vaccines Coming to Change Your DNA

Despite the reality that more vaccination does not equal better individual and public health, there are over 3,000 new vaccine clinical trials underway.⁷⁸ Pharma is creating genetically engineered vaccines, which will ramp up the manipulation of our immune systems⁷⁹ and even change our DNA,^{80 81} to prevent everything from tooth decay, ⁸² acne ⁸³ and smoking⁸⁴ to high blood pressure,⁸⁵ herpes,⁸⁶ gonorrhea⁸⁷ and HIV/AIDS.⁸⁸

It is time for all of us to stand up and end our participation in the failed Pharma-based health care paradigm so we can take back our health and our liberty.

If vaccines are safe and effective for everyone, then those who choose to get vaccinated should have nothing to fear from those who choose not to get vaccinated.

If vaccines are not safe and effective for everyone, then it is unethical to require anyone to get vaccinated without their voluntary, informed consent.

The human right to protect bodily integrity trumps any authority the state gives to some citizens to coerce other citizens into taking medical risks against their will. Because if the state can tag, track down and force individuals to be injected with biologicals of known and unknown toxicity today, then there will be no limit on which individual freedoms the state can take away in the name of the greater good tomorrow.

Please go to www.NVIC.org and volunteer to work in your state to defend vaccine exemptions. Empower yourself and stand up for liberty today.

It’s your health. Your family. Your choice.

What You Can Do to Make a Difference

While it seems “old-fashioned,” the only truly effective actions you can take to protect the right to informed consent to vaccination and expand vaccine exemptions, is to get personally involved with your state legislators and the leaders in your community.

THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY.

Mass vaccination policies are made at the federal level but vaccine laws are made at the state level, and it is at the state level where your action to protect your vaccine choice rights can have the greatest impact.

Signing up for NVIC’s free Advocacy Portal at www.NVICAdvocacy.org not only gives you access to practical, useful information to help you become an effective vaccine choice advocate in your own community, but when national vaccine issues come up, you will have the up-to-date information and call to action items you need at your fingertips to make sure your voice is heard.

So please, as your first step, sign up for the NVIC Advocacy Portal.

Contact Your Elected Officials

Write or email your elected state representatives and share your concerns. Call them, or better yet, make an appointment to visit them in person in their office. Don’t let them forget you!

It is so important for you to reach out and make sure your concerns get on the radar screen of the leaders and opinion makers in your community, especially the politicians you elect and are directly involved in making vaccine laws in your state. These are your elected representatives, so you have a right and a responsibility to let them know what’s really happening in your life and the lives of people you know when it comes to vaccine mandates. Be sure to share the “real life” experiences that you or people you know have had with vaccination.

Share Your Story with the Media and People You Know

If you or a family member has suffered a serious vaccine reaction, injury or death, please talk about it. If we don’t share information and experiences with each other, everybody feels alone and afraid to speak up. Write a letter to the editor if you have a different perspective on a vaccine story that appears in your local newspaper. Make a call in to a radio talk show that is only presenting one side of the vaccine story.

I must be frank with you; you have to be brave because you might be strongly criticized for daring to talk about the “other side” of the vaccine story. Be prepared for it and have the courage to not back down.  Only by sharing our perspective and what we know to be true about vaccination will the public conversation about vaccination open up so people are not afraid to talk about it.

We cannot allow the drug companies and medical trade associations funded by drug companies to dominate the conversation about vaccination. The vaccine injured cannot be swept under the carpet and treated like nothing more than “statistically acceptable collateral damage” of national one-size-fits-all mass vaccination policies that put way too many people at risk for injury and death. We shouldn’t be treating people like guinea pigs instead of human beings.

Internet Resources Where You Can Learn More

I encourage you to visit the following web pages on the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) website at www.NVIC.org:

• NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims: View descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have suffered vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths. If you or your child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider posting and sharing your story here.
• If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions: Learn how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and prevent vaccine injuries.
• Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post descriptions of harassment by doctors or  government officials for making independent vaccine choices.

Connect with Your Doctor or Find a New One that Will Listen and Care

If your pediatrician or doctor refuses to provide medical care to you or your child unless you agree to get vaccines you don’t want,  I strongly encourage you to have the courage to find another doctor. Harassment, intimidation, and refusal of medical care is becoming the modus operandi of the medical establishment in an effort to stop the change in attitude of many parents about vaccinations after they become truly educated about health and vaccination.

However, there is hope.

At least 15 percent of young doctors recently polled admit that they’re starting to adopt a more individualized approach to vaccinations in direct response to the vaccine safety concerns of parents. It is good news that there is a growing number of smart young doctors, who prefer to work as partners with parents in making personalized vaccine decisions for children, including delaying vaccinations or giving children fewer vaccines on the same day or continuing to provide medical care for those families, who decline use of one or more vaccines.

So take the time to locate a doctor, who treats you with compassion and respect and is willing to work with you to do what is right for your child.

See new “The Greater Good” Documentary for Free This Week

“The Greater Good” movie is a groundbreaking documentary about the vaccine safety and informed consent debate that is a “must see” for everyone who wants to learn more about the different scientific, health policy, economic, legal, ethical and political issues involved in the vaccination controversy. This film will help you educate others about how important it is to do your own research and learn more before you make a vaccination decision for yourself or your child. You can see this eye-opening movie for free on Mercola.com this week only and also get the DVD of the film for $10 until supplies run out. Click here.

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Peace out.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

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Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2011

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

…whether they know it or not.

There are hidden instructions to block access to “blog.michellemoquin.com.”

The blocking is designed to frustrate the potential reader. It doesn’t happen all the time but enough to discourage most looking to check out or continue to tune into my blog.

Believe me, it has been frustrating as well for me. It has been hell for me sometimes to find my blog, and be able to access it so that I can write. I am continually bugging my server about it so that it can be rectified as quickly as possible. No one seemed to have an answer.

Yesterday I got this from a loyal reader. (Much gratitude – you know who you are) He/she showed me what was hidden in the search instructions when one attempts to find my blog through google.

So…as you can see, below is the e-mail, that I received, informing me that Google is blocking my blog. Don’t ask me how I found out. Don’t ask me who gave me this information. I got it and that’s all that matters.

It is nothing that anyone sees when they Google my name or my blog, but it is there. This is the hidden message that is directing Google and others to block access to my blog.

I highlighted the important part in RED – Notice it says, “Block all blog.michellemoquin.com results.” If you google blog.michellemoquin.com you don’t see the hidden message, but it is there.

Subject: hidden implanted instructions on google

Michelle Moquin’s ”A day in the life of…” » Blog Archive » “Occupy …

blog.michellemoquin.com/2011/…/occupy-wall-street-protests-in-n-y…  - Block all blog.michellemoquin.com results

Oct 2, 2011 – All material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of …

• San Leandro, CA

Change location

 

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Readers: As you can see, my freedom of  speech rights are being violated. Please don’t give up on me, as I am not giving up on you. Please let it be know that I am still here everyday and that I will be here everyday as long as I am able.

I will continue to run this blog statement to keep my readers aware of the situation. Thank you for your continued loyalty.

I will do my best to protect my site and keep it up and running, so that we can continue to chat, inspire, illuminate, rant and everything else that goes on here.

Love and hugs…

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2011

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning!

“Occupy Your Town” is country wide. No surprise that “Occupy Oakland” is a huge player. Love that the passion for change is in my own backyard. So…today is the day.  ”Occupy Oakland” wants to shut down the city of Oakland with a citywide general strike. The proposed strike intends to close all banks and corporations for the day, while calling on laborers, teachers and students to join in en masse.

Oaklanders: Are you going to be there? If you plan on participating, there are some things you should know:

How YOU can Participate in the General Strike!

WAYS TO PARTICIPATE ON NOVEMBER 2 GENERAL STRIKE & DAY OF ACTION
called for by Occupy Oakland

Occupy Oakland is calling for no work and no school on November 2 as part of the general strike. We are asking that all workers go on strike, call in sick, take a vacation day or simply walk off the job with their co-workers. We are also asking that all students walk out of school and join workers and community members in downtown Oakland. All banks and large corporations must close down for the day or demonstrators will march on them.

The Occupy Oakland Strike Assembly has vowed to picket and or occupy any business or school which disciplines employees or students in any way for participating in the Nov 2 General Strike. Please email OccupyOaklandLaborSolidarity@gmail.com if you are the subject of any disciplinary action.

Occupy Oakland recognizes that not all workers, students and community members will feel able to strike all day long on November 2, and we welcome any form of participation which they feel is appropriate. We urge them to join us before or after work or during their lunch hours.

Below are some action ideas for strike participants to consider:

Gather in Downtown Oakland to help Shut Down the City

• Join the Mass Gatherings at 14th & Broadway 9:00am, 12:00pm, 5:00pm. Strike Rallies will be held at these times with political speakers as well as time for open mic so that everyone can make their voices heard. There will also be action announcements made from the stage on this intersection for those who are interested in participating in pickets and shut downs of banks and large corporations.
• Lead a march from your neighborhood, workplace, school, community center, place of worship etc into downtown Oakland to join one of these three mass gatherings. Have fun and be loud along the way to let people know why you are marching downtown!
• Form a mobile blockade or flying picket that can take over important intersections in downtown with street parties and other creative ways to make our voices heard and shut the city down.
• There will be numerous pickets and actions at banks and corporations across downtown but we need more! Get a group of friends, family members, co-workers or fellow students together to form an affinity group and make your voice heard and your presence felt at any of these locations in downtown. Let the stage on 14th & Broadway know about your action so they can announce it to the crowd.
• There are many other autonomous actions planned for the day that will be occurring throughout downtown. One of them is the anti-capitalist march at 2pm meeting at the intersection of Telegraph & Broadway and another is the Feminist & Queer bloc against capitalism that will meet at 4:30 at 14th & Broadway.
• Join the marches from downtown to shut down the Port of Oakland. These marches will be leaving at 4pm and another will be leaving at 5pm for the 2 mile march out to the port to stand in solidarity with the longshore workers and shut down the evening shift of the port.
• Join the 4pm Critical Mass ride from 14th & Broadway out to the Port to join the shut down
• Best not to drive into downtown: It is likely that many streets will be blocked to traffic so please bike or take public transportation if possible. It will also be useful to have a bicycle to move between actions or to march to the port.

Take Action in Your Own Neighborhoods and Communities

• Gather neighbors, co-workers, or fellow students together and organize group walks and small marches around the neighborhood to have fun, raise awareness and encourage others to join you in the streets! Bring noise makers, signs, banners and let your community know why your are participating in the strike.
• Stop at banks, large businesses, chain stores, gas stations, corporate headquarters, large commercial media outlets, etc. to protest and picket
• Gather in neighborhood centers and on the corners of main intersections to hold speak outs, BBQs and street parties – make your voice heard and raise awareness by reclaiming space where fellow community members can join you and talk about the issues that affect them most and how we can organize together to build a powerful movement
• If you must shop, only spend money at locally owned stores and as much as possible purchase locally-produced goods

Nonprofit and Community Organizations

• Use your personal and organizational social media accounts (websites, facebook, linked-in, electronic newsletters, etc) to support the actions and keep your constituencies updated about what is going on in the streets of Oakland.
• In the event of police violence, use your organization to denounce police repression and call for the release of all arrested strikers.
• Provide resources for your staff to participate: allow time away to participate in direct actions; encourage work on projects aligned with general strike and occupy goals, host sign and banner making parties!

Be Prepared

• Bring materials to make signs: Banner material. cardboard, poster paper, markers, paint, spray paint tape, dowels, etc
• Bring food and water to share!
• Bring noise makers, instruments, sound systems and other ways that we can transform downtown into a celebration of our collective power
• Write this legal number down on your body in case of arrest: 415.285.1011 The number will be staffed al day long and will coordinate legal support for those arrested in the strike.
• Remember these four common points that the General Strike Assembly has agreed upon:

1. Solidarity with the world-wide Occupy movement!
2. End police attacks on our communities!
3. Defend Oakland schools and libraries!
4. Against an economic system built on colonialism, inequality and corporate power that perpetuates all forms of oppression and the destruction of the environment!

A Few Chants For the Strike

• “Strike, Occupy, Shut it Down! Oakland is the People’s Town”
• “Every Hour, Every Day! The occupation is here to stay!”
• “Occupy Everything! Liberate Oakland”
• “Politicians & Bankers, Liars & Thieves, We’re taking it back! We’re not saying please!”
• “No more cops, we don’t need ‘em! All we want is total freedom”
• “Shut Down OPD! Not the Public Library!”
• “Let’s Go Oakland! Let’s Go!” [clap] [clap]

SEE YOU IN THE STREETS! MAKE OAKLAND PROUD!

Let’s make it safe and peaceful for all – Okay? 

AH: As someone once said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, people do”.

Play it peaceful wherever you are. xoxo

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2011

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning!

Kusma: Like I said earlier, I wish I had something better to write. I HOPE you and yours are well.

Sarah: What happens when that day will come, I’m not sure. But according to Pat Buchanan his day of doom will be 2041, where he claims will be the “end of white America”…whites being, as Buchanan claims in his new book, an “endangered species”. Here’s the write:

Pat Buchanan’s Gloomy Warning About ‘The End Of White America’ 

Pat Buchanan made a series of charged remarks about the racial makeup of the U.S. during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Monday show.

Buchanan was talking about his new book, “Suicide Of A Superpower.” One of the chapters is entitled “The End Of White America.” Hannity said that Buchanan labels white Americans as an “endangered species” in the book. He asked Buchanan to respond to what was sure to be a controversy about the chapter, since Buchanan is never anything less than a lightning rod for his racial views.

“Are you against minorities?” Hannity asked. “Not at all,” Buchanan said. He said that the chapter was merely an attempt to examine what he thought would happen when whites no longer formed a majority of the American population.

“America is going to look very much like California right now,” Buchanan said, going on to paint a very gloomy picture of the state (bankruptcy, a “black-brown war among the underclass,” and so on), and claiming that, in Los Angeles, “half the people there don’t speak English in their own homes.”

Buchanan said that the people of color in California “are not bad or evil people,” but that they are bankrupting the state. He concluded, “What happens when all of America is like that, when every American city is like LA? …What California is today, America is in 2041 if we don’t change course.”

Buchanan then went on to discuss the voting patterns of various racial groups in the U.S. Noting that African Americans and Latinos vote overwhelmingly for Democrats, he predicted that the Republicans faced a dire future thanks to the current demographic trends. Buchanan seemed to think this was not a very good thing.

Buchanan, of course, is no stranger to controversy. Most recently, he drew fire for saying that African Americans were living on a “liberal plantation.”

Click here to watch the video.

*********

Lisa: Thank you. Not sure how many “Brassy Moments” I have been dishing out lately, but when a moment that moves me arrives, the inspiration drives me.

Bina: How hard it must’ve been for you and your family not knowing where your brothers were all of these years. I HOPE that you don’t give up. I wish you and yours the best and may you find each other soon.

Al: Hey there. I am well thank you.  I have no reason to complain, but I still do. :)  How you?

I have no idea if what is happening in South Dakota is happening in South Florida, but my guess is yes, since so many states are not following the Indian Child Welfare Act.  It seems to me that this particular subject has really gotten you concerned. As well it should. I’m not sure what you can do to help, but if you are inspired to do something, I would check it out. How amazing it would be to help someone like Bina, find their siblings.

Howie: Thanks so much for posting such an important topic on this radical amendment. The passing of Initiative 26 in Mississippe would be devastating for women, and a huge step backwards in women’s reproductive rights.

Readers: If you live in Mississippi, don’t stay home – get out the word- VOTE “NO” ON 26 on November 8th. Everyone else, pass it forward. Sign the pledge to vote No on 26. We don’t want this initiative to pass in Mississippi, Florida or any other state.

Here’s Rachel Maddow talking on this issue a few days ago:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Hcan: ”Occupy The Kochs” – Love it. Wish I was gonna be in D.C.

Queen of the Dark: Cute.

Peace out.

Blog me. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2011

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

 October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

The last of this series:

Native Survivors Of Foster Care Return Home

When Dwayne Stenstrom was 8 years old a state worker told him that he and his brother were going to a special camp for the summer. Instead, he spent 12 years in foster care.

Dwayne Stenstrom is a professor of American history. His office is lined with towers of obscure books and poetry on the walls. There’s even a copy of the Declaration of Independence in a binder.

In South Dakota, Children’s Home Society cares for hundreds of Native American children.

He teaches this document like many other professors, beginning with, “We hold these truths to be self evident.” But he stops on another phrase — “the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages.”

“What [is] significant to me,” Stenstrom says, “is the impact that it has on a lot of our Native American kids when it still regards Indians as merciless Indian savages.”

Stenstrom teaches at Sinte Gleska University on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He grew up in a white foster care home, married his wife 31 years ago and raised six children. He’s as passionate about history as he is his community.

Most social services departments would look at him and say he’s a success story.

“The problem,” Stenstrom says, “is that that’s a fallacy.”

He says he didn’t make a life for himself “until I came back to the reservation.”

Losing Native Traditions

The Indian Child Welfare Act says that except in the rarest of cases, Native American children who have to be removed from their homes must be placed with relatives, their tribes or other Native Americans. Yet 32 states are failing in some way to abide by the law, according to 2005 government audit. These children are also more likely to end up in foster care than other races, even in similar circumstances, according to the National Indian Child Welfare Association.

John Poole/Courtesy of Dwayne Stenstrom, Dwayne Stenstrom, in the striped shirt, is shown in a family photo as a young boy. He is pictured with one of his brothers who went to Vietnam and another brother who was also placed in foster care.

The result is generations of children growing up without a connection to their culture, traditions and tribes — as Stenstrom did.

He grew up on the Nebraska plains, on the Winnebago Reservation. He and his brother spent the summers outside on the prairie with their grandfather.

But when he was 8 years old, in the spring of 1968, a van pulled up outside his house. The driver, a woman, told him he and his brother were going away for the summer. Stenstrom recalls his grandfather looking worried.

“He told me never to forget where I come from and to embrace it,” Stenstrom remembers.

That was the last time he saw him.

Stenstrom spent the summer in several foster homes. One day the van took him to Ainsworth, Neb., to a house where an older couple lived. Their own children were grown and no longer living at home. There, he and his brother waited for fall so they could go home.

“I’m thinking when the summer’s over, the little van [is] going to come and get me,” Stenstrom says. “It still hasn’t come and got me. I’m still sitting there emotionally waiting for the little van to come. And I don’t expect it’s coming.”

Years later, he was told by a state worker that his mother drank too much. But he doesn’t recall any bad memories. He knows she loved him. When he closed his eyes, he could see it in her face.

He says he doesn’t understand why he wasn’t sent to live with one of his relatives. He had hundreds of them. Instead he was sent to a white foster home.

“I grew up in a teepee, for Pete’s sake,” he says. “This isn’t a cliche. Go to bed in a circular teepee tonight and wake up tomorrow morning with four walls. And when you open your eyes, you don’t recognize anybody in the room. And sit there for 12 years. Because that’s what I did.”

Sometimes he dreamed about Native American ceremonies. But when he woke up, the details were gone. For a while, he hoped his two older brothers would come get him. But they had both been drafted and sent to Vietnam.

“I’m sitting here feeling sorry for me because I lost my mom,” he says. “Imagine what she went through.”

Stenstrom liked his foster parents. He says they treated him well, but he does not refer to them as his own mother or father.

“I learned to appreciate that family,” he says. “I stayed with them until both of them passed away. When the mother passed, I went back to her funeral and one of her kids asked, ‘Why’s he here?’ “

After that, something snapped. And like more than half of children who leave foster care, he got in trouble with the law and drank too much.

“The only thing I had going for me was my memory,” he says. “I looked in four directions and there was nobody.”

That’s when he returned to the reservation, he says, to see what he had missed and find his identity. He says it saved him.

Finding Tiospaye

On the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota, former foster care children walk into Juanita Sherick’s office every week. They want to be saved too. Sherick knows the feeling. She was taken from her parents when she was 9.

“A lot of times it’s real painful for me to think about it because my brother and I went through a lot,” she says. “I have never forgotten it. I think that’s why I work so hard in this job.”

Sherick is now the tribe’s social worker. The most difficult mornings are when young children are waiting at her door. They’re runaways from foster care.

Asked what she does with them, she says: “I don’t give them back to the state of South Dakota, that’s for damn sure.”

That feeling is common on South Dakota’s reservations. Officials from three separate tribes said they are actively hiding children from state caseworkers.

Sherick says she finds a relative to take them in — something she says the state should have done in the first place.

“They are so happy to see Grandma,” she says. “They just cry. It makes you cry. Those are the times it’s all worth it.”

After Stenstrom found his way home, he says he connected with the spirit of his grandfather and made peace with the years he spent in foster care. Eventually he even found his mother. She told him she had searched for him for years. He spent six months with her before she died of cancer.

“That was my mom,” he says. “That meant the world to me.”

‘They’ll Always Come Home’

Not too long ago a boy, about 6 years old, found his way to the pay phone at the minimart on the Cheyenne River reservation.

“He ran away from a foster home in Lemmon,” says Diane Garreau, the tribe’s social worker. “He was looking through the phone book because he had remembered names of his family.

“They try to come home,” she says. “They’ll always come home.They should have never left here.”

Garreau and dozens of other tribal officials say the only difference between running away and running home is whether or not you’re running in the direction you belong.

*********

Readers: These stories make my heart heavy. I can’t imagine what it must be like for these children to be taken away from their families…their tribes and brought to place to grow up in a life so foreign, so vastly different from what they once knew. These are just small children, thrown into a life with no culture to lean on, no traditions to remind them, no family to love them. No wonder so many of these children grow up feeling lost, break the laws and turn to alcohol. I can not believe that this is happening and continues to happen.

I am reposting the key findings because I find this to be horrific.

Key Findings Of This Investigation

If this is heartbreaking to you..if this pulls at your heart, I HOPE that it inspires you to do something. These are children that have every right to live a wonderful life with their biological families…to grow up knowing and experiencing life the way they were supposed to. I can’t tell you how disturbed I am reading this series, knowing that our country is supporting this horrific abuse to the native peoples of our country.

If you live in South Dakota, or really anywhere, and are reading this, I HOPE that you have learned something today that has horrified you and that you will make it known that you are not going to ignore this issue anymore…that you are going to help stop this before it is too late for these children. I have said before, that in light of all of our busy lives, find something that you are passionate about and spend an hour a week doing something to support that passion…something that helps others lives become better. I HOPE this is the thing that moves you.

Preeti: You’re welcome. I wish that I was posting better news. I wish the best for you and yours.

Social Butterfly: Love this idea.

Doug: This is appalling. It just shows us how little compassion people have for others when they are down. This behavior is really sickening, and those who participated should be fired.

Peace out.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2011

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"