the American Dream at risk

In State of the Union address, Obama says ‘basic American promise’ is at risk

By Holly Bailey (Senior Political Reporter)
6 hrs ago

President Obama warned in his State of the Union address Tuesday that the nation's middle class is at risk because of growing economic inequality, and argued that the government must do more to preserve the basic American dream.

In a speech that is likely to set the theme of his 2012 re-election bid, Obama said "the basic American promise" that hard work can allow one to own a home and support a family are at risk if the government doesn't do more to balance the scale between the nation's rich and poor.

"The defining issue of our time is how to keep that promise alive. No challenge is more urgent. (read further)

New mail from "Fight for the future"

Hi everyone!

A big hurrah to you!!!!! We’ve won for now -- SOPA and PIPA were dropped by Congress today -- the votes we’ve been scrambling to mobilize against have been cancelled.

The largest online protest in history has fundamentally changed the game. You were heard.

On January 18th, 13 million of us took the time to tell Congress to protect free speech rights on the internet. Hundreds of millions, maybe a billion, people all around the world saw what we did on Wednesday. See the amazing numbers here and tell everyone what you did.
This was unprecedented. Your activism may have changed the way people fight for the public interest and basic rights forever.

The MPAA (the lobby for big movie studios which created these terrible bills) was shocked and seemingly humbled. “‘This was a whole new different game all of a sudden,’ MPAA Chairman and former Senator Chris Dodd told the New York Times. ‘[PIPA and SOPA were] considered by many to be a slam dunk.’”

“'This is altogether a new effect,' Mr. Dodd said, comparing the online movement to the Arab Spring. He could not remember seeing 'an effort that was moving with this degree of support change this dramatically' in the last four decades, he added."
Tweet with us, shout on the internet with us, let's celebrate: Round of applause to the 13 million people who stood up - #PIPA and #SOPA are tabled 4 now. #13millionapplause

Some mail I've received yesterday (about SOPA & PIPA)

Today was nuts, right?
Google launched a petition. Wikipedia voted to shut itself off. Senators' websites went down just from the sheer surge of voters trying to write them. NYC and SF geeks had protests that packed city blocks.
You made history today: nothing like this has ever happened before. Tech companies and users teamed up. Tens of millions of people who make the internet what it is joined together to defend their freedoms. The free network defended itself. Whatever you call it, the bottom line is clear: from today forward, it will be much harder to mess up the internet.
The really crazy part? We might even win.
Approaching Monday's crucial Senate vote there are now 35 Senators publicly opposing PIPA. Last week there were 5. And it just takes just 41 solid "no" votes to permanently stall PIPA (and SOPA) in the Senate. What seemed like miles away a few weeks ago is now within reach.
But don't trust predictions. The forces behind SOPA & PIPA (mostly movie companies) can make small changes to these bills until they know they have the votes to pass. Members of Congress know SOPA & PIPA are unpopular, but they don't understand why--so they're easily duped by superficial changes. The Senate returns next week, and the next few days are critical.

(Source)


E agora uma música sobre a SOPA:

USA immigration and today's discrimination

• Since 1800s that immigration in USA has increased alot. Immigrants came from many countrys like Ireland and Germany,  England, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries and eastern European countries such as Italy, Poland and Russia. But all this different cultures and backgrounds they are all mixed together (the concept of melting pot) in one big culture, the american culture. All this "mixes" can create a beatiful culture and country but it can create several problems too.

• It can lead to many conflits, to discrimination, to racism! In our days there are too many reasons for that things to happen. People are discriminated because of their skin colour, sexual choices, their size, if they are fat or skinny, all carachteristics are used to discriminate the others. People can't understand that we are all equal, that we have all the same rights and that we should behave to have a better and peaceful world.

(  Francisco )

'Occupy' movements in U.S.A.

I used to like Obama but when he gives permission to something like that I start to think why somebody has gave him the Nobel prize if he doesn't stop this kind of abuse against people who are fighting peacefully for equality...

An American Crime

I suggest that we see this film in class. It's called "An American Crime" and it is about women's rights.

African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968)

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Prominent figures of the African-American Civil Rights Movement.

Clockwise from top left:

W. E. B. Du Bois,
Malcolm X,
Rosa Parks,
Martin Luther King, Jr.


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source: wikipedia
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