Health Care, Immigration, Neighborhoods Matter, Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, North Korea, South Africa, Honduras

The latest news on Health Care, Immigration, Neighborhoods Matter, Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, North Korea, South Africa, Honduras, and Select Op-eds.

Nicole C. Mullen - Redeemer (Video)

http://blog.sojo.net/
compiled by Duane Shank 07-27-2009

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Quote of the day. I was frustrated with all the turnover among staff, with the lack of teacher input, with working longer and harder than teachers at other schools and earning less. Jennifer Gilley, a social studies teacher at the Ralph Ellison Campus of the Chicago International Charter School, where three campuses recently voted to unionize. (New
York Times)

Health care. Pelosi
Vows Passage of Health-Care Overhaul Defying skeptics in her party, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed Sunday to overcome lingering obstacles and pass health-care reform in the House, restoring momentum to President Obama’s top domestic priority and order to her own unruly Democratic caucus. Reach
of Subsidies Is Critical Issue for Health PlanBut as lawmakers struggle to achieve the goal of universal coverage, a critical question is whether the plans will be affordable to those who are currently uninsured.‘Blue
Dog Democrats Hold Health-Care Overhaul at Bay So-called Blue Dog Democrats continued to resist key aspects of their party’s health-care overhaul Sunday, despite pressure from party leaders who fear they will endanger President Barack Obama’s most ambitious legislative effort. How a healthcare overhaul could affect you Here are some key questions regarding the effort to overhaul the nation’s healthcare system:

http://blog.sojo.net/health-care-and-structural-violence/

Immigration. Obama setting the priorities on immigration As Congress moves slowly
on immigration reform, President Obama is making numerous policy changes in enforcement and other areas that are designed to shift priorities and boost confidence in the administration as it lays the groundwork for possible legislation.”

http://steetsblog.blogspot.com/where-is-united-states-in-prophecy

Neighborhoods matter.
Poor
Neighborhoods Key in Income Difference, Study Finds Researchers have found that being raised in poor neighborhoods plays a major role in explaining why African American children from middle-income families are far more likely than white children to slip down the income ladder as adults.

http://steetsblog.blogspot.com/women-and-climate-change

Middle East. U.S. kick-starts Middle East talks The United States has launched a fresh drive to restart the Middle East peace process by sending three
senior officials to the region. U.S., Israel inch closer to deal on settlement freeze U.S. envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell arrived in Israel Sunday and met with Defense Minister Ehud Barak as part of an ongoing effort to reach an agreement on construction in the settlements. In
2 West Bank Settlements, a Sign of Hope for a Deal Unlike settlers who believe they are continuing the historic Zionist mission of reclaiming the Jewish homeland, most ultra-Orthodox do not consider themselves settlers
or Zionists and express no commitment to being in the West Bank, so their growth in these settlement towns, situated just inside the pre-1967 boundary, could be redirected westward to within Israel.

http://www.ifamericansknew.org/

Iraq. ‘Poll
gains for Kurdish opposition Early results from presidential and parliamentary elections in Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous Kurdish region point to significant gains for the new opposition coalition.Opposition
Rattles a Governing Coalition in Iraqi Kurds VoteThe entrenched leadership of the Kurdistan region of Iraq was shaken Sunday by what appeared to be a stronger than expected showing in regional elections
by a new opposition coalition. Worries
About A Kurdish-Arab Conflict Move To Fore in Iraq U.S. officials say, the biggest threat to Iraq in the years ahead is the ethnic conflict, Kurds in the north against the Arab-dominated government in Baghdad, a still-unresolved
struggle that has helped shape Iraq’s history since the British inherited the land after World War I.

http://steetsblog.blogspot.com/survival-and-future-lives-of-our grandchildren !!!!

Afghanistan. Taliban
issues new code of conduct The Taliban in Afghanistan has issued a book laying down a code of conduct for its fighters. U.S.
Army’s farm program tackles Afghan rebuilding from the ground up Master Sgt. Colin Jones grew up on a farm in Nebraska and earned a degree in farm and ranch management. Now he’s gone back to Farming 101, having volunteered for military duty in Afghanistan, where he is helping drag crop practices out of the 19th century and forward to, say, 1940s America.

http://steetsblog.blogspot.com/where-is-united-states-in-prophecy”

Iran. Defiant opposition plans Iran victims memorial Iran’s defiant opposition, emboldened by a bruising row over government appointments, is seeking to hold a memorial service for victims of the post-election violence this week.Two Ministers Forced to Leave Iran’s Cabinet Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fired his intelligence minister and his culture minister resigned under pressure Sunday as further rifts emerged in his camp with just days to go until his controversial inauguration for a second term.Ahmadinejad Seen as Increasingly Vulnerable Since Re-election President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran dismissed his intelligence minister on Sunday and his culture minister resigned, the latest fallout of a bitter dispute among conservatives that has exposed Mr. Ahmadinejad’s vulnerability in the aftermath of last month’s disputed election.

http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/waking-up-to-war-with-iran-by

Pakistan. Pakistani
Pledge to Rout Taliban In Tribal Region Is Put on Hold Soon after Pakistan launched its offensive against the Taliban this spring, President Asif Ali Zardari declared that the mission would go beyond pushing the Islamist
militia out of the Swat Valley. Taliban Resume Attacks in Swat Valley Taliban militants driven from the Swat Valley by Pakistan’s army in recent months are again infiltrating the region’s towns and villages, kidnapping and beheading perceived enemies and ambushing soldiers, as hundreds of thousands of refugees return home. Terror Ties Run Deep in Pakistan, Mumbai Attack Case ShowsSympathies for Lashkar-e-Taiba and its jihadist and anti-Indian culture are raising a serious challenge to any long-lasting moves to dismantle the network.

North Korea. North Korea ready for disarmament talks North Korea said today it was open to talks about the rising tension over its nuclear weapons program, a marked shift in tactics after months of ratcheting up foreign anxieties with
nuclear test and missile launches.

South Africa. Thousands strike in South Africa Central Johannesburg has been brought to a halt as hundreds of South African workers marched as part of a strike to
demand higher wages. Zuma’s
political honeymoon slips into a winter of discontent Faced with growing strikes and violent unrest in impoverished townships, the South African president has been strangely absent.”http://blog.sojo.net/the-dark-side-of-development/

Honduras. The
return of Honduras’s deposed president sputters Admitting that his plans to march across Honduras’ southern border and recapture the presidency have been frustrated, ousted leader Manuel Zelaya said Sunday he would continue to drum up international support and pressed the United States to take a stronger stand in the month-long political crisis.

Editorials. Health Care Reform and You (New York Times) Though
many of the crucial decisions about health care reform have yet to be made, the general direction of the legislation is clear enough to make some educated guesses about the likely winners and losers. Mexican
economy is part of immigration equation(Denver Post)If this country is ever going to get a handle on its illegal immigration problem, more than a secure border and a workable guest-worker program is needed. Mexico’s economy also needs to prosper.http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/

http://steetsblog.blogspot.com/worlds-elite-are-discussing-population

Opinion. Would
God back universal health care? (Oliver Thomas, USA Today) Mixing church and state might be inexcusable, but the influence of religion on our political views is inevitable. Accordingly,
the First Amendment does not prohibit laws that reflect our religious values as long as those laws have a secular purpose and effect. So it is curious that, until recently, little has been written about the moral dimension of the health care debate. Obama, Gates and the American Black Man (Glenn C. Loury, New York Times) Yet anyone who looks closely into the issue of crime and punishment in America cannot fail to notice that the institutions of domestic security policing, surveillance, prisons, anti-drug policy, post-release parole supervision have grown hugely over the past two generations. The number of Americans in prison and jail has risen
nearly five-fold since 1980.A shared Jerusalem (James Carroll, Boston Globe) To
the extent that the on-again, off-again peace process has offered prospects of reinvention and survival to both Israelis and Palestinians, a new conflict over Jerusalem now threatens to join the enforced misery of Gaza as a looming
deal-breaker.

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http://justpeacetheory.com/

Krystal Meyers - Make Some Noise from Krystal Meyers on Vimeo.

http://steetsblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/just-peace-president-gods-politics.html
http://steetsblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/us-media-figures-signed-on-to-alarming.html