In our country, there are numerous organizations of good will, organizations that help people get on their feet, help people during hardship and times of need, organizations that protect the rights of individuals against discrimination.

Some organizations are focused on raising money and spending that money, a good portion of that money, in actually helping people or representing people.

Among the organizations that I support are legitimate and caring organizations that uplift, contribute to research and help families living with cancer. My mother is a 14-year breast cancer survivor and as a musician I am humbled to perform for Gilda’s Club and other groups to give those living with cancer an escape and solace through music.

However, there are organizations that have been saying they do one thing but yet the research shows that what they do best is fundraise and amass millions of dollars in investments and executive salaries.

Since one organization continues to feed the media erroneous or at least misleading information in order to continue raising millions of dollars is the Southern Poverty Law Center based in Alabama.

(continue reading…)

April 28, 2010

Associated Press

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Hundreds of Somali soldiers trained with millions of U.S. tax dollars have deserted because they are not being paid their $100 monthly wage, and some have even joined the al-Qaida-linked militants they are supposed to be fighting, The Associated Press has learned.

The desertions raise fears that a new U.S.-backed effort beginning next month to build up Somalia’s army may only increase the ranks of the insurgency.

Somalia’s besieged U.N.-backed government holds only a few blocks of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, while Islamic insurgents control the rest of the city and most of the country. That turmoil — and the lawless East African nation’s proximity to Yemen, where al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is based — has fed fears that Somalia could be used to launch attacks on the West.

In an effort to rebuild the tattered Somali military, the United States spent $6.8 million supporting training programs for nearly 1,000 soldiers in neighboring Djibouti last year and about 1,100 soldiers in Uganda last year and earlier this year, the State Department and Western diplomats told the AP. The troops were supposed to earn $100 a month, but about half of those trained in Djibouti deserted because they were not paid, Somali army Col. Ahmed Aden Dhayow said.

(continue reading…)

Below is a full copy of the Memorandum submitted to the Clemency Board on behalf of PFC Corey Clagett. It came to our attention yesterday, June 8, 2010, that the Board has denied clemency. Please take the time to read the memorandum so you can understand the implications of the Board’s decision.

Read the petition in PDF format.

Mom Needs Assistance To Visit Son In Ft. Leavenworth

Cross posted from New Zeal

A “sockdolager” is a knock-down blow. This is a newspaper reporter’s story of his unforgettable encounter with the old “Bear Hunter” from Tennessee – Davy Crockett.

This is the story of Congressman Crockett’s coming to understanding of what made America exceptional among all societies in human history – the US constitution.

Congressman Crockett votes against a Bill, on principle, that even most conservative US Congressmen would support today.

It illustrates the type of thinking that lay behind the writing of the US Constitution and the imperfect grasp of its principles common in even many of its bravest defenders.

It shows very plainly why freedom is struggling to survive in today’s America.

(continue reading…)

In 1994, the Advertiser published a nine-part series that pulled back the veil on the Southern Poverty Law Center and its charismatic leader, Morris Dees. In the series, which drew not only from the experiences of former staffers disillusioned by their time at the center but also from attorneys who had worked with Dees, he was described with such terms as phony, egotistical, ruthless, petty, and amoral. He was portrayed as a man motivated primarily by self-aggrandizement, “who carefully grooms his image to appeal to generous donors.”76

The paper revealed that:

• The SPLC had moved away from its early work in such poverty law fields as death-penalty cases, employment rights, and voting rights because Dees had learned that he could take in more money by exaggerating the size and menace of the Klan. An editorial that accompanied the series said that while the Klan “deserves the scorn of all reasonable people,” it had become “a farce” and that center critics were justified in saying that it “focuses on the anti-Klan theme not because the Klan is a major threat, but because it plays well with liberal donors.”77 “The market is still wide open for the product, which is black pain and white guilt,” said one of the SPLC’s disillusioned former attorneys, a black woman.78

(continue reading…)