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Whatever happened to Captain Sky? Remember these Break Beats?

December 17, 2010 By

Sitting here remembering some classic breaks decided to share them and take us all down memory lane..  I wonder if folks think about records the same way we did back in the early days.. We listen for every horn riff, every hand clap, every drum beat to see if it could be used as breakdown to rap over or dance to.. each record offered endless possibilities..

It was funny how back in the days all we heard was the percussion breakdown and wound up identifying songs by names that had nothing to do with cut.. I think its only now that I’m starting to listen to those old classics that contained essential break beats .. Anyway here’s a few that we should all remember..

Captain Sky .. ..Super Sporm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0lQg4iWuHE&feature=related

Dave Matthews-Dune

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k0T2UiRaps

Edwin Starr- I Just Wanna Do My Thing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-sFenZbzFU

Kraftwerk-We are the Robots

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXa9tXcMhXQ

Man Parrish.. Hip Hop Be Bop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ag8K4paIw

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Filed Under: 2010 Daily News Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Michael Moore: Dear Government of Sweden

December 17, 2010 By

Dear Swedish Government:

Hi there — or as you all say, Hallå! You know, all of us here in the U.S. love your country. Your Volvos, your meatballs, your hard-to-put-together furniture — we can’t get enough!

There’s just one thing that bothers me — why has Amnesty International, in a special report, declared that Sweden refuses to deal with the very real tragedy of rape? In fact, they say that all over Scandinavia, including in your country, rapists “enjoy impunity.” And the United Nations, the EU and Swedish human rights groups have come to the same conclusion: Sweden just doesn’t take sexual assault against women seriously. How else do you explain these statistics from Katrin Axelsson of Women Against Rape:

** Sweden has the HIGHEST per capita number of reported rapes in Europe.

** This number of rapes has quadrupled in the last 20 years.

** The conviction rates? They have steadily DECREASED.

Axelsson says: “On April 23rd of this year, Carina Hägg and Nalin Pekgul (respectively MP and chairwoman of Social Democratic Women in Sweden) wrote in the Göteborgs [newspaper] that ‘up to 90% of all reported rapes [in Sweden] never get to court.'”

Let me say that again: nine out of ten times, when women report they have been raped, you never even bother to start legal proceedings. No wonder that, according to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, it is now statistically more likely that someone in Sweden will be sexually assaulted than that they will be robbed.

Message to rapists? Sweden loves you!

So imagine our surprise when all of a sudden you decided to go after one Julian Assange on sexual assault charges. Well, sort of: first you charged him. Then after investigating it, you dropped the most serious charges and rescinded the arrest warrant.

Then a conservative MP put pressure on you and, lo and behold, you did a 180 and reopened the Assange investigation. Except you still didn’t charge him with anything. You just wanted him for “questioning.” So you — you who have sat by and let thousands of Swedish women be raped while letting their rapists go scott-free — you decided it was now time to crack down on one man — the one man the American government wants arrested, jailed or (depending on which politician or pundit you listen to) executed. You just happened to go after him, on one possible “count of unlawful coercion, two counts of sexual molestation and one count of rape (third degree).” And while thousands of Swedish rapists roam free, you instigated a huge international manhunt on Interpol for this Julian Assange!

What anti-rape crusaders you’ve become, Swedish government! Women in Sweden must suddenly feel safer?

Well, not really. Actually, many see right through you. They know what these “non-charge charges” are really about. And they know that you are cynically and disgustingly using the real and everyday threat that exists against women everywhere to help further the American government’s interest in silencing the work of WikiLeaks.

I don’t pretend to know what happened between Mr. Assange and the two women complainants (all I know is what I’ve heard in the media, so I’m as confused as the next person). And I’m sorry if I’ve jumped to any unnecessary or wrong-headed conclusions in my efforts to state a very core American value: All people are absolutely innocent until proven otherwise beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. I strongly believe every accusation of sexual assault must be investigated vigorously. There is nothing wrong with your police wanting to question Mr. Assange about these allegations, and while I understand why he seemed to go into hiding (people tend to do that when threatened with assassination), he nonetheless should answer the police’s questions. He should also submit to the STD testing the alleged victims have requested. I believe Sweden and the UK have a treaty and a means for you to send your investigators to London so they can question Mr. Assange where he is under house arrest while out on bail.

But that really wouldn’t be like you would it, to go all the way to another country to pursue a suspect for sexual assault when you can’t even bring yourselves to make it down to the street to your own courthouse to go after the scores of reported rapists in your country. That you, Sweden, have chosen to rarely do that in the past, is why this whole thing stinks to the high heavens.

And let’s not forget this one final point from Women Against Rape’s Katrin Axelsson:

“There is a long tradition of the use of rape and sexual assault for political agendas that have nothing to do with women’s safety. In the south of the US, the lynching of black men was often justified on grounds that they had raped or even looked at a white woman. Women don’t take kindly to our demand for safety being misused, while rape continues to be neglected at best or protected at worst.”

This tactic of using a rape charge to go after minorities or troublemakers, guilty or innocent — while turning a blind eye to clear crimes of rape the rest of the time — is what I fear is happening here. I want to make sure that good people not remain silent and that you, Sweden, will not succeed if in fact you are in cahoots with corrupt governments such as ours.

Last week Naomi Klein wrote: “Rape is being used in the Assange prosecution in the same way that ‘women’s freedom’ was used to invade Afghanistan. Wake up!”

I agree.

Unless you have the evidence (and it seems if you did you would have issued an arrest warrant by now), drop the extradition attempt and get to work doing the job you’ve so far refused to do: Protecting the women of Sweden.

Yours,
Michael Moore

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/dear-government-of-sweden

Filed Under: 2010 Daily News, Political articles, Southern Shift Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Police Files Reveal FBI, Homeland Security & Secret Service Heavily Monitored Oscar Grant Protests

December 17, 2010 By

Below is a story about the huge amounts of surveillance that going on during the Oscar Grant protests.Some might say we shouldn’t be surprised about the strong presence of FBI, Homeland Security etc at Oscar Grant protests over the past couple of years.. That’s being a bit dismissive. The word is not surprised, but we should be concerned and be asking alot of questions. We should also note all this surveillance is connected to something much larger. Is this part of the ongoing efforts to monitor any sort of political protestor.  On many levels the US in terms of suppression has become like some of the very countries we often criticize and have even fought in an effort to bring Democracy and openness.

Many of us were well aware there were police informants and undercover officers who were embedding themselves in the Oscar Grant Movement. The very first rallies had folks who were riding for the police. Most folks who have long organized knew to expect that and on many levels worked hard to find various ways to counter and eventually a couple of the informants were identified and publicly outed.

However, with the Feds doing all this surveillance says something else. Why monitor protestors vs investigating the police who killed Oscar Grant?

There was no denying with the thousands who showed up at marches, rallies townhalls that police brutality had struck a chord in various communities. Black, Asian, Latino, whites.. When you have that many people come together and express outrage, one would think this should set of alarm bells and lead the Feds to ask themselves;  ‘What’s  going on with police in the Bay Area that so many people are out protesting’?  Are there any discernible patterns of police wrong doing? ‘Is there any sort of coverup or collusion going on?’ For starters we can look at all the potentially damaging material that convicted officer Johannes Mehserle was allowed to keep covered up thanks to the police man’s bill of rights.

People seemed to forget that an unarmed man was shot in front of hundreds of people while he lay face down on a subway platform restrained. Moments before being shot he was called a ‘bitch ass nigger‘ by an officer who was later fired when it was discovered that he and his partner had lied and covered parts of the incident.. Were the Feds investigating and monitoring that? How widespread was the coverup.. We do know that there was a police agency NOBLE that investigated and concluded there was negligence on the way BART handled things and recommended sweeping changes.. Shouldn’t the FEDS have been concerned about that verses protestors?

It’s also interesting to note that the focus seemed to be concerns about property damage. Not to justify broken windows, but all of us have been to Big Game events where Cal plays Stanford and stores have been ransacked and windows busted damn near every other year.. Have the feds been investigating that?

Judge Robert Perry

The conduct of Judge Robert Perry who is now the subject of a recall needs to be investigated. Here’s a judge who has a long history of covering for the police. Here’s a judge that told the family during sentencing that they should be happy the Barack Obama is in office. He intimated that Obama was an indication we progressed beyond race..

Again the feds are investigating things on our behalf and with our tax dollars. Most of us would like to see those tax dollars used to investigate the reason our justice system is broken and whats it gonna take to fix it.

-Davey D-

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Police files reveal Federal interest in Oscar Grant protests, “Anarchists”

December 15, 2010 | 9:29 AM | By Ali Winston

http://informant.kalwnews.org/2010/12/police-documents-reveal-federal-interest-in-oscar-grant-protests-anarchists/

Documents recently obtained by The Informant reveal the significant involvement of state and federal law enforcement in monitoring the various Oscar Grant protests in Oakland over the past two years.

According to internal Oakland Police Department documents about the July 8th protests that followed Johannes Mehserle’s involuntary manslaughter conviction, agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency, United States Secret Service, and the California Department of Justice were assigned to monitor crowd activities.

Thirty-three federal, state and local officers were assigned to video details posted in buildings surrounding Frank Ogawa Plaza and throughout the crowd of several hundred demonstrators. Among them were personnel from the Secret Service, the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, and Bureau of Intelligence and Investigation who took video of the protest. Some DEA and Oakland Police officers recorded the protest, while others dressed in plainclothes provided intelligence from within the crowd to OPD’s Emergency Operations Command Center at 1605 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

The documents indicate FBI involvement in monitoring the Oscar Grant protests as early as January 2009. A police report included in the case file of Holly Noll, a 24-year-old activist who plead no contest to charges of assaulting a police officer, shows the FBI was providing intelligence to OPD on the movements of “black bloc” anarchists in Downtown Oakland on the night of January 14, 2009, when the latest of several protests agitating for Johannes Mehserle’s arrest erupted into property destruction and clashes with police.

Oakland Police Officer Scott Seder’s report from that night indicates specific FBI interest in “anarchists.” The report reads as follows:

“OPD [Oakland Police Department] radio announced a communications order stating the FBI advised groups of anarchists, described as MW [male, white], 17-25 years old, wearing black and red clothing, were en route to the protest and planned to commit acts of violence and vandalism adjacent to the main demonstration.”

Jose Luis Fuentes, an attorney at Siegel & Yee, the law firm that is defending those arrested in the July 8th protests, believes the involvement of state and federal agencies in intelligence-gathering is part of a larger effort to scrutinize political protest. “They’re trying to build a case against ‘black blocs’ or anarchists as domestic terrorism,” said Fuentes. “The federal government wants to know who’s protesting. They’re documenting who the agitators are — This is all COINTELPRO resurfacing.”

The Counter Intelligence Program, or COINTELPRO, was an extensive federal operation that ran from the 1950s through the 1970s that monitored political activists, sometime using law enforcement to harass and discredit everyone from the National Association of Colored People to the Ku Klux Klan, who federal authorities considered dangerous.

But law enforcement personnel who worked the Oscar Grant protests say federal involvement had nothing to do with a political ideology and everything to do with keeping civilians and critical infrastructure sites safe and preventing disorder.

Oakland Police Captain David Downing, who was in charge of “Operation Verdict,” the police response to the July 8th post-verdict protests, says the handful of federal agents were nothing more than extra eyes among the several hundred law enforcement officers working on July 8th.

“Their only job was to be out there and videotape, be observers and feed information,” said Downing, who was in charge of Operation Verdict. The DEA, California DOJ and Secret Services agents were a fraction of the several hundreds of law enforcement agents from across Northern California who took part in Operation Verdict.

Much like several police departments provided officers to assist with crowd control, the state and federal agencies brought their investigative capacities to the table, as well as equipment. The FBI and DEA both offered helicopters for air support.

Documents indicate that anarchists were on everyone’s mind.

In a running police log from the July 8 protests and in emails exchanged between OPD command staff in the days prior, there is extensive mention of potential acts of property destruction and violence by “anarchists.” The log was later forwarded to the Department of Homeland Security’s National Operations Center. “They were interested in the event,” said Captain Downing.

During previous protests about the Oscar Grant case, media reports focused on property destruction allegedly perpetrated by “black bloc” anarchists.

“They’re a concern,” said Captain Downing of the Oakland Police. “They don’t really care about the cause other than using the mask of a large mob to engage in property damage.”

Defense attorney Jose Luis Fuentes remains convinced the intelligence gathered during Operation Verdict was part of a broader effort to intimidate political protest. The subtext is that, “If you’re going to protest and violate any law, we might prosecute you federally,” Fuentes said.

A November 16th primer on “Anarchist Extremism” on the FBI’s website describes the Bureau’s general policy on anarchists:

“Currently, much of the criminal activities of anarchist extremists fall under local jurisdiction, so they’re investigated by local police. If asked by police, the Bureau can assist. But we have a heavy presence at a major national or international events generating significant media coverage—that’s when the threat from anarchist extremists, as well as others who are up to no good, dramatically increases.”

According to an OPD investigative log, the FBI explored the possibility of charging some of the July Oscar Grant protesters federally.

FBI Special Agent Russell Romero contacted OPD on July 21 to set up a meeting about the July 8th incident. On July 27, Agents Russell Romero and Kari McInturf met with OPD investigators “to see if Federal charges can be brought.” Romero and McInturf obtained a list of all the July 8th arrestees and their charges from OPD. To date, no federal charges have been filed.

Filed Under: 2010 Daily News, Political articles Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Our Interview w/ Brother Ali of the Rhymesayers

December 17, 2010 By

We caught up with one of my favorite emcees Brother Ali who is down with the Rhymesayers in Minneapolis. He was in the Bay Area the past couple of days performing with Grouch and Eligh who were doing their annual Holiday Tour. Its always a pleasure catching up with him cause dude always offers up keen insight on any number of topics, from the political happenings of the day down to who has the blazing albums and who fell off..  Here’s a dope interview we did a earlier this year around the challenges facing Muslims in America.. Enjoy and more importantly check for this cats album, because they always are of substance.. Shout out to my crew from Open Line Media for producing this video

http://vimeo.com/16640754

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO18F4aKGzQ

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Filed Under: 2010 Daily News, Essential videos to peep Tagged With: , , ,

Pres Obama’s FCC Throws Another Constituency Thrown Under The Bus-Big Showdown Dec 21

December 15, 2010 By

After campaigning as a champion of network neutrality, President Obama has decisively broken yet another promise. The FCC votes December 21 on rules proposed by the president’s FCC chairman which will begin the transformation of the free and open internet into somethning much more like cable TV, with corporate control over content, and hundreds or thousands of “channels”, but not much worth watching.

President Obama’s FCC Sells Out on Network Neutrality – Another Constituency Thrown Under The Bus

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Bruce A. Dixon

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/president-obamas-fcc-sells-out-network-neutrality-%E2%80%93-another-constituency-thrown-under-bus

Bruce Dixon

Never mind the big tent,” declared a cartoon by the artist Mike Fluggenock during the 2008 presidential campaign. “There’s room for all” the caption declared “under Obama’s Big Bus.” A full two years after that historic election, it’s hard to name any part of the Democratic party’s base constituencies that President Obama has not decisively betrayed. Last week gays, women, blacks, Latinos, the environment, the peace movement, labor, the unemployed and a host of others were joined beneath the speeding wheels of the Obama bus by those millions of Americans who believe greedy corporations should not control what we see, hear, write and communicate over the internet.

President Obama campaigned on the promise that he would take a back seat to nobody in guaranteeing the free and open internet. Two years out, it’s abundantly clear thatu the president lied to us, and to the American people on network neutrality.

The pending merger between Comcast and NBC would create a gigantic corporation with both the motive and means to privilege the delivery of its own content over the enormous fraction of the internet that they own, and to slow down, inhibit, or apply surcharges to content originating from outside. Neither the administration’s Justice Department or FCC have lifted a finger to oppose it. So-called compromise rules announced last week by Obama’s FCC Chairman Julius Genachowki pay only the faintest lip service to the concept that the internet should be a common carrier available to all, and provide vast loopholes for internet providers to apply punitive charges to content and content providers they disfavor.

Thanks to the Obama administration, which once enjoyed the enthusiastic support of the media justice community, greedy telecom corporations will at last have their wish — that the internet will become a lot more like cable TV — five hundred, or five thousand channels, but nothing worth watching. The proposed FCC regulations will allow corporations even more power to control and restrict the content delivered via wireless broadband internet, thought to be the internet delivery technology of the future. Needless to say, the telecom and cable companies are well pleased. Their paid stooges at the Alliance for Digital Equality, the Minority Media Telecommunications Council, LULAC, the National Coalition for Black Civic Participation and the NAACP, and the Congressional Black Caucus are raking in telecom donations and cranking out press releases assuring us that giving their benefactors more control over the internet will create jobs and opportunities for all of us little people.

The five member FCC is scheduled to vote on the proposed rule changes on December 21. Certainly chairman Genachowski will vote for his own rules. Amazingly, it is possible that the two Republican commissioners may not because they object to any regulation of corporations whatsoever. Commissioners Kopps and Clyburn, however, are still thought to be staunch supporters of network neutrality, and should be contacted by email, phone or fax and asked to oppose the Obama proposal to let corporations control what we see, hear and send over the internet. This is a case when doing nothing is better than anything already on the table. For more information on what you can do, visit www.savetheinternet.com That’s www.savetheinternet.com.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Bruce Dixon.

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Filed Under: 2010 Daily News, Political articles Tagged With: , , , , ,

Will Ron Paul bring the Revolution to Congress & Audit the Feds?

December 15, 2010 By

For years Ron Paul has sat in the halls of Congress talking a good game about how he wants to audit the Feds, ultimately abolish it and clean house.. He’s garnered a strident, loyal following of folks who in many ways gave the country a glimpse into the fiesty, cantankerous, defiant attitude  that some would be characterized as part of the Tea Party Movement. I was in NH during the 08 primaries when I ran into Paul and the Ron Paul Revolution… They were impressive in terms of kicking up dust..Folks were standing out there in the cold making sure their presence was felt and that everyone within earshot would know Paul’s name.

At the same time I later got to interview Paul and his son Rand who is will be taking his seat in the Senate come January. During our discussion, myself and a conservative reporter whose name escaped me, asked Paul about his willingness to take money from the KKK and other white supremacist organizations that had his picture and links to his site on their sites.

Paul didn’t blink an eye and said he had no problem taking money from them and would continue to do so. When asked would he give the money back and denounce them, Paul hedged and said he doesn’t follow their beliefs and that he would not give back their money. That raised a lot of eyebrows..

When we played the interview on the air we got a lot of angry calls from Ron Paul supporters who insisted that he was not racist and that he can’t help that White supremacist were supporting him.. This is essentially what Rand  said to us in response to his father’s remarks.  He said his father believes in freedom of speech and he wasnt a supporter of the KKK and their activities..

The discussions would quickly move from Paul and then KKK to him wanting to dismantle the Fed, and start hauling folks off to jail for financial wrong doing. We’ll come 2010 his opportunity will be there. He’s set to chair the House Subcommitte on Domestic Monetary Policy. The question is will he succeed in doing what so many others have failed? Will he shake up Washington? Will he follow through or meet the same corporate backed forces and lobbyist who thus far have shut down, run out of town  and brought off damn near everyone who has tried? It’ll be interesting to see how the people who have long championed the Ron Paul Revolution feel if he doesn’t. Will they become as disillusioned with their man the same way many young Obama supporters got disillusioned with him when Washington didn’t change?

-Davey D-

  Ron Paul Rides Again

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/dec/15/ronpaul-republicans?utm_medium=IllegalAlienReport.com

Ron Paul

The Revolution is here! Searching for leadership, congressional Republicans have finally turned to Ron Paul. Well, to chair the House subcommittee on domestic monetary policy, at least. But that does put Congress’s leading critic of the Federal Reserve in charge of the panel that oversees the central bank.

Ben Bernanke, beware. The 12-term libertarian-leaning congressman from Texas has written a book-length manifesto – titled simply End the Fed – calling for the Federal Reserve’s abolition. He will likely call leading Austrian economists affiliated with the Ludwig von Mises Institute to Capitol Hill to testify alongside staid mainstream economists. Fortune magazine recently asked, “Will the Fed be able to survive Ron Paul?”

For years, Paul laboured in obscurity. He ended his first stint in Congress with an unsuccessful run for US Senate in 1984 (he lost to eventual Senator Phil Gramm in the Republican primary). Before returning to the House 13 years later, in order to join the stalled government-shrinking “Republican Revolution”, Paul was the Libertarian party’s presidential nominee in 1988.

But it was Paul’s first Republican presidential campaign in 2008 that really put him on the map. Debating alongside John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, Paul stood out as a voice for peace and civil liberties. Unlike all the other Republicans on stage, he opposed the Iraq war and the Patriot Act. A strict constitutionalist, he was also more consistent than the rest of them in his rejection of debts, deficits and runaway government spending.

Paul’s views on war and peace remain deeply controversial within the Republican party. When Paul defended Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, for instance, the conservative blog RedState denounced him as “al-Qaida’s favourite member of Congress”. But when it comes to economics and the requirement that federal legislation be explicitly based on the Constitution, Paul’s philosophy is starting to resonate.

continue reading this article in the UK Guardian

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Filed Under: 2010 Daily News, Political articles Tagged With: , , , , ,

President Obama Taps Singer Jon Bon Jovi to be a Affordable Housing Advisor

December 14, 2010 By

President Obama Announces Members of the White House Council for Community Solutions
 
WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order establishing the White House Council for Community Solutions.  The Council will provide advice to the President on the best ways to mobilize citizens, nonprofits, businesses and government to work more effectively together to solve specific community needs. 
 
The President also announced his intent to appointthe following individuals to the White House Council for Community Solutions:
 
·         Patty Stonesifer, Chair, White House Council for Community Solutions
·         Byron Auguste,Member, White House Council for Community Solutions
·         Diana Aviv, Member, White House Council for Community Solutions
·         Paula Boggs, Member, White House Council for Community Solutions
·         Jon Bon Jovi,Member, White House Council for Community Solutions
·         John Bridgeland, Member, White House Council for Community Solutions
·         Jim Canales, Member, White House Council for Community Solutions
·         Scott Cowen, Member, White House Council for Community Solutions
·         John Donahoe, Member, White House Council for Community Solutions
·         Michael Fleming, Member, White House Council for Community Solutions
·         David Friedman, Member, White House Council for Community Solutions
·         Jim Gibbons, Member, White House Council for Community Solutions
·         Michele Jolin, Member, White House Council for Community Solutions
·         Michael Kempner, Member, White House Council for Community Solutions
·         Steven Lerner, Member, White House Council for Community Solutions
·         Maurice Lim Miller,Member, White House Council for Community Solutions
·         Laurene Powell Jobs, Member,White House Council for Community Solutions
·         Norman Rice, Member, White House Council for Community Solutions
·         Kristin Richmond, Member, White House Council for Community Solutions
·         Judith Rodin, Member, White House Council for Community Solutions
·         Nancy H. Rubin, Member, White House Council for Community Solutions
·         Paul Schmitz, Member, White House Council for Community Solutions
·         Jill Schumann, Member, White House Council for Community Solutions
·         Bobbi Silten, Member, White House Council for Community Solutions
·         Bill Strickland, Member, White House Council for Community Solutions
 
 
President Obama said, “These impressive men and women have dedicated their lives and careers to civic engagement and social innovation.  I commend them for their outstanding contributions to their communities, and I am confident that they will serve the American people well in their new roles on the White House Council for Community Solutions.  I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead.”
 
In addition to providing advice to the President on solving specific community needs, the White House Council for Community Solutions has been tasked with three key functions: enlisting leaders in the non-profit, private, and philanthropic sectors to make progress on key policy goals; providing strategic input and recommendations to help the federal government promote greater innovation and cross-sector collaboration; and honoring and highlighting those making a significant impact in their own communities.  The Council will be composed of leaders from non-profits, corporations and foundations who are committed to social innovation and civic engagement. 

 
President Obama announced his intent to appointthe following individuals to the White House Council forCommunity Solutions

 

Patty Stonesifer

Patty Stonesifer, Appointee for Chair, White House Council for Community Solutions

Patty Stonesifer currently serves as the Chair of the Board of Regents for the Smithsonian Institution.  As the former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (1997-2008), Ms. Stonesifer continues her involvement with the Foundation as a Senior Advisor.  Prior to helping establish the Gates Foundation, Ms. Stonesifer had a two-decade career in technology, with her latest role as Senior Vice President at Microsoft Corp.  Ms. Stonesifer serves as a private philanthropic Advisor and sits on the boards of The Broad Institute and the Center for Global Development.  She has also served on the boards of the Seattle Foundation, the GAVI Fund, Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa (DATA), and ONE.  Ms. Stonesifer is a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, Council on Foreign Relations and was a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations General Assembly Special Sessions on AIDS.  In July 1996, Time Magazine named her as one of the 25 Most Influential People in America.  Ms. Stonesifer holds a B.G.S degree from Indiana University and honorary degrees from both Indiana University and Tufts University.
 
Byron Auguste, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

Byron Auguste is a senior partner at McKinsey & Company in Washington DC., where he primarily works in the fields of high technology, information- and services-based businesses, education, and economic development.   Mr. Auguste also serves as Director of McKinsey’s Global Social Sector Office, which works with institutions in the private, public, and non-profit sectors worldwide.  He previously spent fourteen years in McKinsey’s Los Angeles Office, where he was elected Principal in 1999 and Director in 2005.  Prior to that, Mr. Auguste worked as an economist at the African Development Bank, LMC International, and Oxford University.   He is the co-founder and board chairman of Hope Street Group, a nationwide, nonpartisan, volunteer organization of professionals, executives, and entrepreneurs developing and promoting public policies.  Mr. Auguste also serves on the Board of Directors of the Pacific Council on International Policy, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Board of Trustees of the Center for American Progress, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  He holds a B.A. in economics and political science from Yale University, where he was chosen as a Truman Scholar, and a M. Phil. and D.Phil. in economics from Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar.
 
Diana Aviv, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

Diana Aviv is President and CEO of the Independent Sector, a leadership network representing thousands of nonprofits, foundations and corporate giving programs.  Prior to that, Ms. Aviv was Vice President for Public Policy and Director of the Washington Action Office of the Jewish Federations of North America.  In her career, she has also served as Associate Executive Vice Chair at the Jewish Council of Public Affairs and Director of Programs for the National Council of Jewish Women.  Ms. Aviv is an advisory committee and board member of many nonprofit organizations including GuideStar USA, the National Council on Aging, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, the Comptroller General’s Advisory Board, and the National Center on Philanthropy and the Law.  She previously served on the Board of Governors of the Partnership for Public Service, and the Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents’ Committee on Governance.  Ms. Aviv is former Chair of the Board for the National Immigration Forum.  She holds a B.S. degree from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa and an M.A. from Columbia University.
 
Paula Boggs, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

Paula Boggs currently serves as the Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Starbucks Coffee Company.  Ms. Boggs also serves as Secretary of the Starbucks Foundation and is Washington’s State Delegate to the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates.  Prior to that, she was Vice President at Dell Computer Corporation (1997-2002), partner at Preston Gates & Ellis (now K& L Gates, 1995-1997), Staff Director for the Advisory Board on the Investigative Capability of the Department of Defense (1994), and an Assistant United States Attorney in the Western District of Washington (1988-1994).  Ms. Boggs also served in the United States Army (1981-1988) and was a detailed staff attorney at The White House (1987-1988).  She currently serves on The Johns Hopkins University Board of Trustees, the American Red Cross Board of Governors, the Advisory Council for KEXP FM (an NPR affiliate), and Washington State’s Campaign for Equal Justice.  Ms. Boggs has also been part of several philanthropic organizations, such as the boards of Legal Aid for Washington Fund, the Greater Seattle YMCA, and the Seattle Art Museum.   She holds a B.A. from The Johns Hopkins University and a J.D. from University of California at Berkeley School of Law. 

Jon Bon Jovi

Jon Bon Jovi, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

Jon Bon Jovi currently serves as Chairman of the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the lives of those in need.  The Soul Foundation launches programs and partnerships with the intent to break the cycle of poverty and homelessness in the United States.  To date, Mr. Bon Jovi and the Soul Foundation have provided affordable housing to hundreds of low-income individuals and families.  Mr. Bon Jovi is also the lead singer of the Grammy Award winning group Bon Jovi, which has sold more than 120 million albums and performed more than 2,600 concerts for more than 34 million fans.
 
John Bridgeland, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

John Bridgeland currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Civic Enterprises, a public policy firm in Washington, D.C.  Prior to founding Civic Enterprises, Mr. Bridgeland served as Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, Assistant to President George W. Bush, Director of the USA Freedom Corps, and Chief of Staff & Special Counsel to U.S. Congressman Rob Portman.  He also co-led the Policy Transition Team for President George W. Bush in 2000-2001. In 2007, he led the National Summit on America’s Silent Epidemic alongside the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Governors Association, TIME Magazine, and MTV to bring attention to the high school dropout crisis.  Mr. Bridgeland was also a co-convener of ServiceNation, a Presidential forum that showcased a 10-point plan to increase community, national, and international service opportunities.  For his work in promoting the national service agenda, Mr. Bridgeland was selected as NonProfit Times Executive of the Year.  He currently serves on twelve non-profit boards, including City Year, Earth Conservation Corps, the President’s Advisory Board at EARTH University in Costa Rica, National Conference on Citizenship, the Public Advisory Board at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, and the Partnership for Public Service.  He is Vice Chairman of Malaria No More and a Senior Advisor to the UN Special Envoy for Malaria. He holds a B.A. degree from Harvard University and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Jim Canales, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

Jim Canales currently serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of The James Irvine Foundation.  Prior to this appointment, Mr. Canales served as Vice President and Corporate Secretary at the Foundation from 1999 to 2003.  His service at the Foundation began in 1993 and has included roles such as Special Assistant to the President, Program Officer, and Chief Administrative Officer/Corporate Secretary.  Mr. Canales currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Stanford University and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and he is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the College Access Foundation of California. Mr. Canales has previously served as board chair for KQED Public Broadcasting and for the Stanford Alumni Association.  He has also served on the boards of BoardSource in Washington D.C., and Larkin Street Youth Services in San Francisco.  He is a co-founder and past Board Chair for Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO).  Mr. Canales holds a B.A. degree and an M.A. from Stanford University.
 
Scott Cowen, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

Scott Cowen currently serves as the fourteenth President of Tulane University.  Dr. Cowen also holds joint appointments as the Seymour S. Goodman Memorial Professor of Business in Tulane’s A.B. Freeman School of Business and Professor of Economics in the School of Liberal Arts.  Prior to serving at Tulane, Dr. Cowen was a professor, and later dean, at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio for twenty-three years.  In 2005, Dr. Cowen was appointed by New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin to the “Bring New Orleans Back Commission” after Hurricane Katrina and charged with leading a committee to reform and rebuild the city’s failing public school system.  Dr. Cowen is also the co-founder of the Fleur-de-lis Ambassadors program, a group of New Orleans civic leaders dedicated to promoting post-Katrina New Orleans around the country.  He has held leadership positions in national academic and professional associations, including the American Council on Education and the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.  Dr. Cowen currently serves as a board member for several organizations, including the National Merit Scholarship Corporation and the Council of Higher Education Accreditation.  In 2009, Time Magazine named Dr. Cowen one of the nation’s top 10 Best College Presidents.  Prior to his work in academia, Mr. Cowen served for three years as a United States Army infantry officer, including a tour in Turkey (1968-1971).  Dr. Cowen holds a B.A. degree from the University of Connecticut and an M.B.A. in finance and D.B.A. in management from George Washington University.
 
John Donahoe, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

John Donahoe currently serves as President and CEO of eBay Inc. In this position, Mr. Donahoe has global responsibility for growing the company’s e-commerce and payments businesses, which include eBay Marketplaces and PayPal.   Mr. Donahoe joined eBay in February 2005 as President of eBay Marketplaces, where he was responsible for all elements of eBay’s global e-commerce businesses.  Prior to eBay, Mr. Donahoe spent more than 20 years at Bain & Company, a worldwide consulting firm based in Boston.  He started as an Associate Consultant and rose to become the firm’s CEO, where he managed Bain’s 30 offices and over 3,000 employees.  In addition to serving on the Board of Directors for eBay Inc. and Intel Corp., Mr. Donahoe is a member of the Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College.  Mr. Donahoe received a B.A. in Economics from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
 
Michael Fleming, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

Michael Fleming currently serves as the Executive Director of the David Bohnett Foundation.  As Executive Director, Mr. Fleming promotes the Foundation’s goal of improving society through social justice and civic activism and is committed to funding forward-thinking programs, organizations and institutions in areas including public policy, education, the LGBT community, the arts, gun violence and animal language research. Prior to joining the Foundation in 2000, Mr. Fleming worked in a variety of media positions, including producing newscasts in Boston and Washington and serving as a media specialist for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. Mr. Fleming remains active in broadcasting as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of public radio’s KCRW Foundation, one of the country’s – and the Web’s – most listened-to NPR stations.  In 2007, he was appointed to the Los Angeles Convention Center Commission by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.  Mr. Fleming has, since 2003, taught at the University of California, Los Angeles, served on the Dean’s Council of New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service and was, in 2005, a Victory Fellow (now Bohnett Fellow) at Harvard Kennedy School.  Mr. Fleming holds a B.A. from Colorado College.
 
David Friedman, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

David Friedman currently serves as the Lead Director and Chair of Edison Properties/HNB Private Trust, the largest owner of miniature storage facilities in New York City.  Mr. Friedman also serves as partner at Sandy River II, an organization which develops and operates Alzheimer’s Assisted Living facilities in New England.  In 2005, Mr. Friedman served as Founder and Chairman of Sandy River Health Systems, Maine’s largest provider of long-term health care.  He has served on several boards and commissions, including the Calvert Social Investment Fund, The Threshold Foundation, UFP Technologies, and as Co-Chairman of The Jewish Funders Network.  Mr. Friedman holds a B.S. degree in economics from Harvard University.
 
Jim Gibbons, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

Jim Gibbons currently serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Goodwill Industries International.  He is also a past President and Chief Executive Officer of National Industries for the Blind (1998-2008).  Prior to joining National Industries for the Blind, Mr. Gibbons worked as President and Chief Executive Officer of Campus Wide Access Solutions-a wholly owned AT&T subsidiary.  While at AT&T, Mr. Gibbons held various leadership positions in marketing and operations.  Mr. Gibbons has received several awards and recognitions for his work, including the 2010 National Jefferson Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, the 2009 Young Presidents’ Organization Social Enterprise Leadership Award, SmartCEO 2010 ECO CEO award for organizational commitment to the environment, and the Purdue 2007 Outstanding Industrial Engineer of the Year award.  Mr. Gibbons holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.
 
Michele Jolin, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

Michele Jolin currently serves as a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where she is developing policy tools to foster social entrepreneurship and drive investment toward more innovative, effective nonprofit solutions to our nation’s critical social problems.  Previously, Ms. Jolin served as Senior Advisor for Social Innovation at the White House, in the newly created Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation (2009-2010).   Prior to joining the White House, she co-edited the Center for American Progress Action Fund’s presidential transition book titled Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President.  Ms. Jolin also served as a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress (2005-2008), where she authored a number of articles and reports on policy tools to promote innovation and impact in the nonprofit sector.  From 1999-2004, she was a Senior Vice President at Ashoka, a global foundation that invests in social entrepreneurs in more than 50 countries around the world.   From 1995 to 1999, Ms. Jolin served as the Chief of Staff for President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers, and from 1993-1995, she worked for Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) on the Senate Banking Committee. She has a B.A. from University of Wisconsin-Madison, an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia.
 
Michael Kempner, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

Michael Kempner is the Founder (1986), President, and Chief Executive Officer of MWW Group, one of the largest independent public relations firms in the United States. Mr. Kempner also serves as an Operating Advisor to Pegasus Capital Advisors, helping them build companies that solve scarce resource issues and other transformative technologies.  Previously, Mr. Kempner was the Legislative Director for U.S. Congressman Robert Torricelli (1982 -1984).  He is currently a member of various boards, including the Center for Food Action, the Network for Teacher Entrepreneurship, the North Jersey Community Bank, and New Jersey Governor’s Advisory Council on Volunteerism and Community Service.  Mr. Kempner was named PR Professional of the Year in 2010 by PR News and was inducted into the PR News Hall of Fame in 2009 for his work in communications.  He has also received recognition as PR Week’s Professional of the Year (2008) and the Public Relations Society of America New Jersey chapter’s Public Relations Professional of the Year (2005). Mr. Kempner holds a B.S. from the School of Communications at The American University.
 
Steven Lerner, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

Steven Lerner is the Founder and Managing Partner of Blue Hill Group, a financial company that invests in entrepreneurial companies and helps them manage rapid growth.  Mr. Lerner is also Partner in LaunchBox Digital, an organization that provides seed capital and mentoring to start-up companies through a 12 week accelerator program.  He is a member of various Boards, including Bandwidth.Com, Accent Energy, Petroliance, and Piedmont Community Bank Holdings.  Mr. Lerner is also Chairman and Founder of two North Carolina marketing service companies, Capstrat and FGI (1982).  Over the years, he has served on the boards of locally based not-for-profit organizations with a primary focus on education and communications.  Previously, he served as Chairman of Yankelovich Partners prior to its sale in 2008.  Mr. Lerner received both an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
 
Maurice Lim Miller, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

Maurice Lim Miller is the Founder, Chief Executive Officer and President of the Family Independence Initiative (FII), a national center for anti-poverty innovation.  Before founding FII, Mr. Miller spent 22 years at the Asian Neighborhood Design (1978-2000) and served as its Executive Director for most of his tenure, where he promoted multi-service community development initiatives in San Francisco and Oakland, California.  He also serves on the boards of the Hitachi Foundation and the Board of the California Endowment, one of the country’s largest foundations, which focuses on the nexus of health and poverty.  Mr. Miller previously served as a Board Member of the Corporation for Enterprise Development, Public/Private Ventures, and the Koshland Awards Committee of the San Francisco Foundation.  Former President Bill Clinton honored him at the 1999 State of the Union Address for his community service and leadership.  Mr. Miller holds a B.S. and an M.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.
 
Laurene Powell Jobs, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

Laurene Powell Jobs is founder and chair of the Emerson Collective, an organization that works with a range of entrepreneurs to advance domestic and international social reform efforts.  Ms. Powell Jobs also serves as president of the board of College Track, an after-school program she founded in 1997 to prepare underserved high school students for success in college.  Since its inception in East Palo Alto, College Track has expanded to serve students in Oakland, San Francisco and New Orleans.   Ms. Powell Jobs also serves on the boards of Teach For America, NewSchools Venture Fund, Stand for Children, New America Foundation and Conservation International.  Earlier in her career, she spent several years working in investment banking and later co-founded Terraverra, a natural foods company, in California.  Ms. Powell Jobs holds a B.A. and a B.S.E. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. 
 

Norman Rice

Norman Rice, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

Norman Rice currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of The Seattle Foundation, one of the nation’s largest community foundations. In this role, Mr. Rice is leading the Foundation in achieving its mission to create a healthy community through engaged philanthropy, community knowledge, and leadership.  Prior to joining The Seattle Foundation, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle (1999-2005) and Mayor of Seattle (1990-1997).  As Mayor, Mr. Rice earned national acclaim for revitalizing Seattle’s downtown and strengthening city neighborhoods through public-private partnerships.  He also championed for an improved public school system, implemented a welfare-to-work program, and improved downtown retail centers, housing, and civic buildings.  Mr. Rice currently serves on many boards and commissions, including the Brookings Institute’s Advisory Committee for Sustainable Communities, the Northwest African-American Museum, the King County Committee to End Homelessness, and HistoryLink.  He holds a B.A. in Communications and an M.A. in Public Administration from the University of Washington.
 
Kristin Richmond, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

Kristin Richmond currently serves as co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Revolution Foods. Ms. Richmond founded Revolution Foods in 2005 in order to serve healthy meals and offer nutrition education to low income students.  From 2002 to 2004, Ms. Richmond was Vice President of Resources for Indispensable Schools and Educators, where she designed and executed strategy that grew the organization from a small community based program to a nationally scalable model working with more than 700 teachers and 60 public schools.  From 2000 to 2002, Ms. Richmond lived in Nairobi and co-founded the Kenya Community Center for Learning (KCCL).  Prior to that, she worked at Citigroup.  Ms. Richmond is a board member of many organizations, including KCCL, Lighthouse Community Charter School, and U.C .Berkeley’s Global Social Venture Competition.  She is also an Aspen Institute Entrepreneurial Leaders in Public Education Fellow, an Education Pioneers Fellow, and an Advisor to the Kauffman Foundation Entrepreneurship Program.  In 2010, Newschools Venture Fund named Ms. Richmond the Entrepreneur of the Year.  In 2007, she won the Global Social Venture Competition for the Revolution Foods model.  Ms. Richmond holds a B.S. in Finance and Accounting from Boston College and an M.B.A. from U.C. Berkeley.
 
Judith Rodin, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

Judith Rodin currently serves as the 12th President of the Rockefeller Foundation, where she has focused on recalibrating the Foundation’s focus in order to support and shape innovations to ensure that more people can access globalization’s benefits and strengthen resilience to risks.  Prior to working with the Foundation, Dr. Rodin served as President of the University of Pennsylvania, the first woman to lead an Ivy League institution (1994-2004), and provost of Yale University.  Dr. Rodin is the author of more than 200 academic articles and has written or co-written twelve books, including her most recent, The University & Urban Renewal: Out of the Ivory Tower and Into the Streets. Dr. Rodin holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.
 
Nancy H. Rubin, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

Nancy Rubin currently serves as co-chair of Amnesty International’s 50th Anniversary Year to build a larger international grassroots movement to prevent abuse and promote human rights.  Previously Ms. Rubin served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Commission for Human Rights where she led international initiatives on securing rights around the world.  Ms. Rubin also served the Clinton Administration as a Director in the Corporation for National and Community Service to establish AmeriCorps, which has placed over half a million Americans in public service programs.  At AmeriCorps, Ms. Rubin led the public private partnership initiative to garner the business community’s support.  She has also served on the Public Policy Support Committee of the National Red Cross and was catalytic to a loan repayment program for law students pursuing careers in the public’s interest.  During the Carter administration, Ms. Rubin served as Deputy Director of Public Participation at the Department of Agriculture and worked at the White House as the National Coordinator of the Consumer Education Project.  Prior to her service in Washington, Ms. Rubin was a public school teacher in Los Angeles, where she served on the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Youth.  Ms. Rubin founded Community Outreach and served on a number of boards and commissions, including Women, Men and Media, and the Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center.  She was the first chair of the National Mental Health Awareness Campaign and she received the Carrie Catt Chapman Public Service Award.  Ms. Rubin holds a B.A. from UCLA.
 
Paul Schmitz, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

Paul Schmitz is the National CEO of Public Allies, a national nonprofit dedicated to supporting young people through full-time community service and leadership development programs.  Mr. Schmitz founded Public Allies Milwaukee in 1993, was promoted to Vice President and Chief Strategist in 1997, and was appointed national CEO in 2000.  He currently serves as Co-chair of Voices for National Service, co-founder/chair of the Nonprofit Workforce Coalition, and is a board member of Our Good Works and Independent Sector.  Mr. Schmitz is also a faculty member of The Asset-Based Community Development Institute at Northwestern University.  He was recognized by The Nonprofit Times as one of the 50 most powerful and influential nonprofit leaders in the country, and honored by Fast Company Magazine with a Social Capitalist Award for innovation.  Mr. Schmitz was also a Next Generation Leadership Fellow with the Rockefeller Foundation.  He holds a B.A. in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
 
Jill Schumann, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

Jill Schumann currently serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Lutheran Services in America (LSA).  In this position, Ms. Schumann leads an alliance of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and over 300 health and human service organizations. Prior to her work with LSA, Ms. Schumann launched Kairos Health Systems (1996), a nonprofit post acute care alliance.  Ms. Schumann has also served as Vice President with Tressler Lutheran Services (1994-1996), a large multi-state, multi-service health and human service organization, and held multiple executive roles within nonprofit and for profit organizations.  Ms. Schumann’s work has created programs in post acute healthcare, behavioral health, and chemical dependency treatment.  Ms. Schumann serves on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, the National Human Services Assembly, and the Roundtable of National Faith-Based Health and Human Service Organizations.  She holds a B.S. from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from Mt. St. Mary’s University.
 
Bobbi Silten, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

Bobbi Silten currently serves as the Chief Foundation Officer of Gap Inc., a global specialty retailer whose brands include Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy.  For more than five years, Ms. Silten has led the Gap Foundation, overseeing all community investment and volunteer programs for 135,000 employees worldwide, and guiding Gap Inc.’s work to make a long-term impact in its communities, including targeted programs for underserved youth and women through innovative social solutions.  Prior to joining Gap Inc., Ms. Silten spent 10 years at Levi Strauss & Co. (1995-2005), including five years as President of the U.S. Dockers brand.  She also spent 11 years working in advertising at Foote, Cone & Belding (1984-1995).  Ms. Silten currently serves as a national board member for Summer Search and Chair for the Reimagining Service Council, a national cross-sector initiative to increase the impact of volunteerism.  She was formerly co-chair of the Business Track of the 2009 National Conference on Volunteering Service and the inaugural co-chair for the California Volunteers Business Partners Program.  Ms. Silten holds a B.A. in Social Science from the University of California, Berkeley.
 
Bill Strickland, Appointee for Member, White House Council for Community Solutions

Bill Strickland currently serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Manchester Bidwell Corporation (MBC) and its subsidiaries, Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, Bidwell Training Center, and National Center for Arts and Technology.  As President and CEO, Mr. Strickland’s duties include developing and implementing major fund-raising plans of action, working with Boards of Directors and Industry Advisory Boards, and encouraging the participation of corporate executive officials from major multi-national Pittsburgh corporations.  Mr. Strickland is also instrumental in the creation and maintenance of MBC’s operational affiliate centers in Cincinnati and Cleveland, OH, Grand Rapids, MI, and San Francisco, CA.  He holds a B.A., cum laude, in American History and Foreign Relations from the University of Pittsburgh.

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Filed Under: 2010 Daily News, Political articles Tagged With: , , ,

Michael Moore: Why I’m Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange

December 14, 2010 By

Filmmaker Michael Moore is putting his money where his mouth is and putting up bail money to help WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange post bail..it’s interesting to note the amount of negative information that has been put out about Assange, so much so that many are calling his character into question to the point its hard to know what to believe.

On one hand no one with a conscience wants to dismiss anything like the rape he’s accused of committing, at the same time we know the types of propaganda that is routinely used on folks who have stood up to our government in the past via Cointel_Pro. The Black Panthers, American Indian Movement, Chicano Movement, Anti-War Movement etc..They and so many more were victim to massive disinformation campaigns that have lasted 40 years after the fact. A lot of the dis-information  was so convincing that it led to people being killed , imprisoned and ostracized. Are we seeing that being played out before our very eyes with Julian Assange and Wikileaks?

One thing is certain, his character has become just as much of a conversation as the information he put out. And maybe that’s the plan-create enough of a distractions and doubt that we stop looking at what’s really in those documents. Even more important is noting if it’s happening to Julian Assange  and Wikileaks it can happen to any one of us should we decide to take a firm, public stand on issues that put us in opposition to those in power. That should have us all concerned. Put the words ‘top secret’, ‘national security threat’ or ‘war on terror’ around any activity or document and we seem to allow all sorts suppression without blinking an eye.

In short we better pay close attention to all aspects of Wikileaks and how things unfolds and make sure no one involved suddenly disappears.

Bradley Manning

Lastly, it seems like  hardly anyone is talking about Bradley Manning the soldier who supposedly got Assange the documents in the first place. I know the city of Berkeley, Ca is holding a city council vote tonite to see if Manning should be considered a hero, but other than that we don’t hear too much. If you notice we don’t hear too much about the court proceedings going on at Ft Hood involving Maj. Nidal Hasan who was the gun man in last years massacre.  We should be looking closely to see why we have such egregious acts being committed by our men in uniform.

-Davey D-

Why I’m Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/why-im-posting-bail-money

Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that I have put up $20,000 of my own money to help bail Mr. Assange out of jail.

Furthermore, I am publicly offering the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars.

We were taken to war in Iraq on a lie. Hundreds of thousands are now dead. Just imagine if the men who planned this war crime back in 2002 had had a WikiLeaks to deal with. They might not have been able to pull it off. The only reason they thought they could get away with it was because they had a guaranteed cloak of secrecy. That guarantee has now been ripped from them, and I hope they are never able to operate in secret again.

So why is WikiLeaks, after performing such an important public service, under such vicious attack? Because they have outed and embarrassed those who have covered up the truth. The assault on them has been over the top:

**Sen. Joe Lieberman says WikiLeaks “has violated the Espionage Act.”

**The New Yorker‘s George Packer calls Assange “super-secretive, thin-skinned, [and] megalomaniacal.”

**Sarah Palin claims he’s “an anti-American operative with blood on his hands” whom we should pursue “with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders.”

**Democrat Bob Beckel (Walter Mondale’s 1984 campaign manager) said about Assange on Fox: “A dead man can’t leak stuff … there’s only one way to do it: illegally shoot the son of a bitch.”

**Republican Mary Matalin says “he’s a psychopath, a sociopath … He’s a terrorist.”

**Rep. Peter A. King calls WikiLeaks a “terrorist organization.”

And indeed they are! They exist to terrorize the liars and warmongers who have brought ruin to our nation and to others. Perhaps the next war won’t be so easy because the tables have been turned — and now it’s Big Brother who’s being watched … by us!

Julian Assange

WikiLeaks deserves our thanks for shining a huge spotlight on all this. But some in the corporate-owned press have dismissed the importance of WikiLeaks (“they’ve released little that’s new!”) or have painted them as simple anarchists (“WikiLeaks just releases everything without any editorial control!”). WikiLeaks exists, in part, because the mainstream media has failed to live up to its responsibility. The corporate owners have decimated newsrooms, making it impossible for good journalists to do their job. There’s no time or money anymore for investigative journalism. Simply put, investors don’t want those stories exposed. They like their secrets kept … as secrets.

I ask you to imagine how much different our world would be if WikiLeaks had existed 10 years ago. Take a look at thisphoto. That’s Mr. Bush about to be handed a “secret” document on August 6th, 2001. Its heading read: “Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US.” And on those pages it said the FBI had discovered “patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings.” Mr. Bush decided to ignore it and went fishing for the next four weeks.

But if that document had been leaked, how would you or I have reacted? What would Congress or the FAA have done? Was there not a greater chance that someone, somewhere would have done something if all of us knew about bin Laden’s impending attack using hijacked planes?

But back then only a few people had access to that document. Because the secret was kept, a flight school instructor in San Diego who noticed that two Saudi students took no interest in takeoffs or landings, did nothing. Had he read about the bin Laden threat in the paper, might he have called the FBI? (Please read this essay by former FBI Agent Coleen Rowley, Time’s 2002 co-Person of the Year, about her belief that had WikiLeaks been around in 2001, 9/11 might have been prevented.)

Or what if the public in 2003 had been able to read “secret” memos from Dick Cheney as he pressured the CIA to give him the “facts” he wanted in order to build his false case for war? If a WikiLeaks had revealed at that time that there were, in fact, no weapons of mass destruction, do you think that the war would have been launched — or rather, wouldn’t there have been calls for Cheney’s arrest?

Openness, transparency — these are among the few weapons the citizenry has to protect itself from the powerful and the corrupt. What if within days of August 4th, 1964 — after the Pentagon had made up the lie that our ship was attacked by the North Vietnamese in the Gulf of Tonkin — there had been a WikiLeaks to tell the American people that the whole thing was made up? I guess 58,000 of our soldiers (and 2 million Vietnamese) might be alive today.

Instead, secrets killed them.

For those of you who think it’s wrong to support Julian Assange because of the sexual assault allegations he’s being held for, all I ask is that you not be naive about how the government works when it decides to go after its prey. Please — never, ever believe the “official story.” And regardless of Assange’s guilt or innocence (see the strange nature of the allegations here), this man has the right to have bail posted and to defend himself. I have joined with filmmakers Ken Loach and John Pilger and writer Jemima Khan in putting up the bail money — and we hope the judge will accept this and grant his release today.

Might WikiLeaks cause some unintended harm to diplomatic negotiations and U.S. interests around the world? Perhaps. But that’s the price you pay when you and your government take us into a war based on a lie. Your punishment for misbehaving is that someone has to turn on all the lights in the room so that we can see what you’re up to. You simply can’t be trusted. So every cable, every email you write is now fair game. Sorry, but you brought this upon yourself. No one can hide from the truth now. No one can plot the next Big Lie if they know that they might be exposed.

And that is the best thing that WikiLeaks has done. WikiLeaks, God bless them, will save lives as a result of their actions. And any of you who join me in supporting them are committing a true act of patriotism. Period.

I stand today in absentia with Julian Assange in London and I ask the judge to grant him his release. I am willing to guarantee his return to court with the bail money I have wired to said court. I will not allow this injustice to continue unchallenged.

P.S. You can read the statement I filed today in the London court here.

P.P.S. If you’re reading this in London, please go support Julian Assange and WikiLeaks at a demonstration at 1 PM today, Tuesday the 14th, in front of the Westminster court.

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President Obama: It’s Not Our Fault (Displaced Anger)

December 13, 2010 By

PRESIDENT OBAMA: IT’S NOT OUR FAULT

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nida-khan/president-obama-its-not-o_b_795599.html

by Nida Khan

Nida Khan

President Obama is angry, and rightfully so. He’s endured two years of meticulous Republican opposition to virtually every measure put forth, even when he – dare I say – compromised. Setting aside campaign promises of a public healthcare option and a closing of Guantanamo Bay, the President has abandoned many of his platforms only to face continual filibustering, abuse and contempt from the right. So this past Tuesday during a press conference on the proposed tax cut deal, he let loose – except the anger was directed to those that have been in his corner since day one. It was, in effect, like the overworked and underpaid worker who comes home and beats his wife and kids instead of standing up to his tyrant boss.

September 2009 marked the beginning of the end of Obama’s hold on his own principles, the desires of all those who overwhelmingly voted for change and the notion of respect for the coveted office of the Presidency. There was no capitulation on ideas, nor was there a reversal of any major campaign promise. Instead, it was a brief utterance from a Republican elected official in the House Chambers that virtually sealed this President’s fate. It was two words that still reverberate around political corners till this day; it was the inexcusable and outlandish outburst of South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson. During his national address on healthcare, our President was momentarily interrupted by the words: ‘You Lie’. And he has been unable to regain control since.

Joe Wilson

Failing to exert his authority during that pivotal moment, President Obama fell victim to vultures that were only ready, willing and able to find his weakness. And they soon enough did – his inability to stand up to White opposition rooted in bigotry. Until that definitive instant, our Commander-in-Chief never faced such blatant insolence and hostility. Prior to Joe Wilson’s scathing remarks, Obama only had to negotiate and engage in intellectual discourse with his opponents. This was in essence the first time he was face-to-face with individuals who devalued the notion of a Black President so much so that they deemed it appropriate to openly degrade and embarrass him in front of the nation.

As a biracial child growing up in a White household and later attending Ivy league schools, Obama was always perceived as the ‘exception’ out of a race of people that are still struggling to shatter inaccurate stereotypes and achieve equality in a society that is far from post-racial. And though he grew up outside of the mainland,the President fully immersed himself in the struggles of African Americans and disenfranchised groups as evidenced by his work as a community organizer and advocate. Whole-heartedly embracing and identifying with his Black side, Obama married a Black woman, attended a Black Church and understood the importance of uplifting a segment of the population that has been methodically oppressed.

In the process of developing his identity, Obama also unfortunately acquired the notion of displaced anger – directing one’s frustration at someone or something that is safe or convenient, as opposed to the actual source of one’s anger. And sadly, we have seen this pattern manifest itself over and over again. Consistently accusing the ‘professional left’ of being ‘sanctimonious’, President Obama has notonly abandoned the very base that created a grassroots movement of victory thatushered him to the White House, but he has chosen to continually attack them whenthey have shown nothing but support – even in the face of reversals in campaignpromises. Instead of directly challenging those that are systematically placingroadblocks in every direction of his path, President Obama is regrettably channelinghis frustration on those that want nothing more than to see him succeed.

The sooner our President recognizes this reality, the sooner he will be able tobreak the shackles from the remnants of mental slavery that still unfortunatelysubconsciously determine our actions – even when those actions originate from thehighest office in the land.

Nida Khan is the news correspondent for WRKS 98.7 Kiss FM NY

follow her at www.twitter.com/NidaKhanNY

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Filed Under: 2010 Daily News, Political articles Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Is this the ‘Season of the Vic’? NFL MVP Michael Vick??

December 13, 2010 By

After watching last night’s game where the Eagle’s bested the Cowboys.. I had to tip my hat to not only the NFL’s most improved player, but also the man who should be MVP.. I dug in the crates and pulled out a classic from Justin Warfield.. I told my man QD3 who produced this that a remake needs to be made where Justin re-works some of the lyrics, adds Black Thought and they flip a new video that lives up to the songs original title ‘Season of the Vic‘.

Y’all remember this joint? Back in the day the word Vic meant to be robbed ie ‘vic’timized.. Today it means to be robbed of a victory from the one and only Number 7 Michael Vick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AHIb8yKG0I

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