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Tag Archives: United States Constitution
Lonnie G. Bunch at The NMAAHC … Look at what we’ve already accomplished together
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Your generous support as a friend of the Museum helped to make 2014 a truly amazing year for the National Museum of African American History and Culture…
… as our beautiful building on the National Mall began to take shape … our collection of historical and cultural artifacts increased to more than 29,900 objects … and excitement grew nationwide for our 2016 Grand Opening.
please help keep our momentum growing in the year ahead by making a donation for 2014 today.
When the Museum opens its doors, it will be a beacon of learning, inspiration and reconciliation. It will tell the stories and celebrate the achievements of the African Americans who shaped our nation’s history — from well-known figures like civil rights icon Rosa Parks and Chuck Berry who donated his 1973 Cadillac to not-so-famous heroes like Henry Ossian Flipper, a former slave who became the first African American to graduate from West Point. It will bring the African American experience to life and enrich the cultural heritage of every American.
You can take pride in our progress toward making the National Museum of African American History and Culture a reality. Please help us continue that progress in 2015 by making a special year-end gift of $50, $100 or more.
Thank you again for your vision and leadership as a friend of the Museum.
All the best,
Lonnie G. Bunch
Founding Director
P.S. Don’t miss the December 31st deadline to support the Museum with a donation for 2014. Make your year-end gift today!
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Wal-Mart 10 Years Later
Ten years ago we released Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price to shine a light on the then-shocking business practices of one of the world’s largest and most profitable retailers.
We have made progress, but there is a lot more to be done. End corporate welfare!
Watch the full documentary film here!
Due to demand we re-released the entire movie on YouTube. Share and subscribe here!
Help keep this fight alive.Thanks for all that you do.Robert Greenwald, President
Brave New Films
P.S. Still looking for the perfect gift for a special someone? Stay away from Wal-Mart and give the gift of media that makes an impact! Donate $100 or more today and get the Brave New Films 10th Anniversary Activist Collection.
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GOP Senate Majority To Raise Retirement Age, Cut Medicare
The Republicans have made big promises to their ultra-wealthy financial backers: Should they take the Senate, they promise to cut ‘entitlements’ and pass the savings on with more tax cuts for the 1%.
This isn’t fear mongering. This is taking them at their word. Republicans have promised to raise Medicare age and cut Social Security benefits.
- Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, who would become chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, proposed legislation to raise the retirement age to 70 and supported President Bush’s plans to privatize the system.
- Representative Bill Cassidy, who hopes to replace Mary Landrieu as senator from Louisiana, has pledged to raise the retirement age to 70 and turn Medicare into a voucher program.
- Senators Ron Johnson and Ted Cruz both refer to Social Security as a “Giant Ponzi Scheme.” Cruz went further, going on the record with the Texas Tribune for privatization. As Texas solicitor general, he even sued the federal government to strike down Medicare’s prescription benefit.
- Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona said he’d prefer “savings in entitlement programs rather than defense spending.”
Campaign for America’s Future has defeated similar bad ideas before. We’ve done it when Democrats are in charge, and we’ve done it when Republicans held all three branches of government.
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In 2010, Representative Paul Ryan and House Republicans tried to use their new majority in the House to raise the retirement age and cut benefits. We fought back and prevented a “Grand Bargain.” Right-wing GOPers wore their folly around their necks in the 2012 election and it helped re-elect Barack Obama.
In 2015, the assault is likely to be a retirement age of 70 and yet another attempt to replace Medicare with vouchers.
We will not let them savage Americans who are vulnerable because of retirement or disability.
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Torture Report
Senate Releases Damning Report On CIA’s Use Of Torture After 9/11
The Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Senator Dianne Feinstein, today released a summary of a 6,000 page report investigating the CIA’s use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The report contains dozens of disgraceful facts about the CIA’s practices during the Bush era, including gruesome details of how detainees were tortured. Ultimately, the report demonstrates two fundamental truths: torture is always wrong, and torture doesn’t work.
Here are a few key findings from the report:
1. Torture didn’t stop a single terrorist attack. “At no time did the CIA’s coercive interrogation techniques lead to the collection of imminent threat intelligence, such as the hypothetical ‘ticking time bomb’ information that many believe was the justification for the use of these techniques.”
2. Torture did not lead the CIA to the courier who ultimately helped capture Osama bin Laden. The best information about the courier who ultimately led to the discovery of the compound where Osama bin Laden was hiding “was provided by a CIA detainee who had not yet been subjected to the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques.” The detainees who were subjected to torture “withheld and fabricated information” about the courier.
3. The torture methods were far more brutal than originally reported. They included forcing detainees to stay awake for up to 180 hours while “standing or in painful stress positions,” waterboarding detainees to the point of serious physical harm and “near drowning,” and rectally force-feeding detainees.
4. Not everyone approved of the torture policy. “Internally, CIA officers regularly called into question the effectiveness of the CIA’s interrogation techniques, noting how the techniques failed to elicit detainee cooperation or produce accurate intelligence.” But still nothing was done to stop it.
5. The CIA lied about the success of torture in obtaining intelligence. CIA reports that torture was successfully giving them information “were inaccurate and contradicted by the CIA’s own records.” The agency continues to stand by these discredited claims.
President Obama denounced the interrogation tactics in a statement after the report’s release, saying that “these harsh methods were not only inconsistent with our values as nation, they did not serve our broader counterterrorism efforts or our national security interests.” Obama went on to say that these torture practices “did significant damage to America’s standing in the world.”
But Senator John McCain delivered perhaps the most forceful and eloquent condemnation of the CIA’s torture methods during the Bush era: “The truth is sometimes a hard pill to swallow. It sometimes causes us difficulties at home and abroad. It is sometimes used by our enemies in attempts to hurt us. But the American people are entitled to it, nonetheless.” McCain continued, “Our enemies act without conscience. We must not. This executive summary of the Committee’s report makes clear that acting without conscience isn’t necessary, it isn’t even helpful, in winning this strange and long war we’re fighting. We should be grateful to have that truth affirmed.”
Despite the horrifying facts contained in the report, however, the reaction has not been the universal condemnation of torture. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, for one, continues to defend the practices as “absolutely, totally justified.” Senator Marco Rubio, disregarding McCain’s speech, called it “one sided” and “partisan.”
BOTTOM LINE: The Senate report reveals in horrifying detail the abusive interrogation practices of Bush-era CIA officials in the wake of 9/11. It confirms that torture is wrong, and that torture doesn’t work. There’s no doubt that this dark episode undermined our values as a nation, but the Senate’s efforts to be transparent and show the American people the facts will help us move past it and never repeat it.
Be a Seed for Change 
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