Joel Burns, Gay Texas Councilman, Gives Emotional Testimony Against Bullying (VIDEO)

The Huffington Post

Joel Burns

Openly gay Fort Worth, Texas, City Councilman Joel Burns gave an impassioned plea to youth struggling with their sexual identity during a meeting Tuesday night, urging them not to despair in the face of intense adversity.

"I want to tell any teen who might see this, give yourself a chance to see just how much better life will get," Burns said, fighting back tears. "And it will get better, you will get out of the household that doesn't accept you, you will get out of that high school and you never have to deal with those jerks again if you don't want to. You will find and you will make new friends who will understand you and life will get so, so, so much better."

Burns began his speech with a display of a number of recent teens who have taken their own lives as a result of gay bullying from their peers. The councilman admitted that he, too, had been a victim of persecution as a high school student.

He began to tell a story about the effect that a specific incident in which he was called a variety of slurs and beaten up had had on him, but decided that it would be too difficult to relay to the council.

"To those who are feeling very alone tonight, please know that I understand how you feel, that things will get easier," Burns said. "Please stick around to make those happy memories for yourself. It may not seem like it tonight, but they will."

Burns's testimony was met with applause from fellow councilmembers, who later commended him on his bravery.
From the Forth Worth Star-Telegram:

"So very proud of my friend and colleague Joel Burns for his stance against bullying of gay youth and those perceived to be gay," Councilwoman Kathleen Hicks wrote on Facebook during the meeting. "I am sure he saved many tonight."

Councilman Sal Espino echoed Hicks' thoughts.

"Burns displayed tremendous personal courage today in speaking out against bullying against youth and children particularly gay youth in light of the recent tragedies," he also posted on Facebook. "Fort Worth is a diverse community and we believe that all of God's children should be treated with dignity, compassion, and love."

Video of Burns's testimony is below.

WATCH:

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We Become Silent

International award-winning filmmaker Kevin P. Miller of Well TV announced the release of a new documentary about the threat to medical freedom of choice. We Become Silent: The Last Days of Health Freedom details the ongoing attempts by multinational pharmaceutical interests and giant food companies — in concert with the WTO, the WHO and others — to limit the public’s access to herbs, vitamins and other therapies.

We Become Silent is narrated by Dame Judi Dench, the noted UK actress who has won multiple Golden Globe awards, an Oscar, and a Tony for her on-stage work, in addition to dozens of other honors throughout her prestigious career.

Watch the full documentary now

You might also like to watch these documentaries:

1. MythBusters: Moon Landing Wasn’t a Hoax
2. Wake Up Call – New World Order
3. The Bin Laden Conspiracy – Dead or Alive
4. Mob Stories – The Big Guy (Frank Cotroni)
5. The Masters of Terror
6. The New American Century

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Secrets of the CIA

Secrets of the CIA reveals the truth about the CIA and how this organization is behind numerous terrorist plots throughout history. Many ex-CIA agents speak out about their experiences as agents and what they were required to do.

Some of these missions even included killing of children. Most of them are now spreading the word about the crimes of the CIA and how the organization needs to be extinguished.

Ralph McGehee, a reknown ex-CIA agent, is featured in this documentary. He is most famous for publishing Deadly Deceits.

You might also like to watch these documentaries:

1. We Become Silent
2. Police State
3. Beslan
4. Invisible Ballots
5. Don’t Tread On Me – Rise Of The Republic
6. America: Destroyed by Design

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IMF sets central bank meeting in Shanghai Monday

Veronica Smith

AFP

WASHINGTON — The International Monetary Fund on Friday said it will hold a high-level conference of central bank governors in Shanghai next week to discuss ways to address the global financial crisis.

The IMF said the conference, scheduled for Monday, would include central bank chiefs and other officials from Asia, Africa, Europe, and North and South America.

The People's Bank of China will host the conference, to be co-chaired by the head of the central bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, and IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the Washington-based institution said in a statement.

The US Federal Reserve was expected to be represented by Kevin Warsh, a member of the central bank's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee.

The Shanghai conference follows on the heels of last week's IMF and World Bank annual meetings, where leading finance officials discussed steps to strengthen the global economy's recovery from the worst recession since World War II and the global financial system.

"The conference is part of the ongoing international examination of the policy challenges posed by the global financial crisis," the IMF said.

Asked about the last-minute timing of the announcement in Washington, just days before the meeting opens in Shanghai, an IMF spokesman told AFP there was "no urgency surrounding this conference."

"This was in planning for a number of months," he said.

In its statement, the 187-nation IMF noted the meeting follows an IMF-sponsored gathering in South Korea of Asian policymakers and opinion leaders in July, at which it "committed to forging a new relationship with the region."

Read Full Article

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Poverty In Suburbs Increasing Rapidly During Economic Downturn

Suburban Slums - GETTY image

Hope Yen
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The American suburb is no longer a refuge from poverty in cities.

A pair of analyses by the nonprofit Brookings Institution paints a bleak economic picture for the 100 largest metropolitan areas over the past decade and in coming years, and finds that suburbs now are home to one-third of the nation's poor, and rising.

The study of census data finds that since 2000, the number of poor people in the suburbs jumped by 37.4 percent to 13.7 million. The growth rate of suburban poverty is more than double that of cities and higher than the national rate of 26.5 percent.


At the same time, social service providers are spread thin in many suburban areas, according to a detailed Brookings survey of groups in representative metropolitan areas of Chicago, Los Angeles and the District of Columbia. That has forced providers to turn away many poor people due to scarce aid that typically goes to cities first.

"Millions of Americans at all income levels moved to the suburbs looking for better schools, better jobs, affordable housing, and a sense of security, but in recent years, as incomes have fallen, people had a harder and harder time making ends meet," said Scott Allard, a University of Chicago professor who co-wrote one of the reports.

"As a result, Americans who never imagined becoming poor are now asking for assistance, and many are not getting the help they need."

After the recession began in 2007, the suburbs continued to post larger increases in the number of poor – adding 1.8 million, compared with 1.4 million in the cities.

The findings come weeks before the Nov. 2 congressional elections in which voters anxious over the economy will decide whether to keep Democrats in power. Made up of both cities and surrounding suburbs, the large metro areas represent two-thirds of the U.S. population and are home to battlegrounds that helped lift Democrat Barack Obama to victory in 2008.

Cities still have higher poverty rates – about 19.5 percent, compared with 10.4 percent in the suburbs. But the gap has been steadily narrowing. In a reversal from 2000, the number of poor people living in the suburbs now exceeds those in cities by roughly 1.6 million.

Read Full Article

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Paul Craig Roberts Talks Of Police Preparing For "Shootout" With Americans

The bit about the shootout is at 9:07 on the video.


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Oil, gold, corn...oh my! Commodity prices on a tear

Blake Ellis
CNN

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Commodity prices are surging across the board as the U.S. dollar remains under pressure from building speculation that the Federal Reserve is about to take action to aid the stumbling economy.

Oil and gold prices have been on a tear this month. After jumping 1.5% last week, crude prices spiked more than 1% again Wednesday. And gold continued it's record-breaking streak, surging nearly 2% to settle at a new record high of $1,370.50 an ounce.

Meanwhile, the Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, a key benchmark for global commodities, surged to its highest level since 2008.

Grains and soft commodities like corn, sugar, cocoa, coffee and cotton were also in the thick of the buying frenzy, with prices continuing to hover at yearly highs. (Track commodity prices)

"I really haven't seen prices like this since the early 1980s," said Dan Flynn, an energy trader at PFG Best. "A real cause and effect is trickling down into the markets based on low supply, high demand and a weaker dollar."

Read Full Article

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Banksters Inflate Speculative Food Bubble, UN Offers Global Governance Solution

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Police Misconduct Costs NYC Taxpayers Nearly $1B to Settle Claims

Activist Post

The increasing militarization of police has had profound social ramifications across the United States, as citizens increasingly feel threatened by those sworn to protect them.  Beyond the social fallout, a recent Associated Press investigation skims the surface of the financial impact of police excesses over the previous decade.  

In typical Associated Press misdirection, a video accompanies the article, which literally has nothing to do with what is written around it.  The original title of the article is ambiguous, "AP Investigation: Nearly $1B in NYC Police Payouts."  If one were only to watch the video, one would assume that the $1B somehow has been paid out in counterterrorism operations, as the video focuses on a "dirty bomb" patrol boat protecting the UN building.  Strange.  However, the article itself does possess a few kernels of truth.

According to the AP investigation into the NYPD:

Nearly $1 billion has been paid over the past decade to resolve claims against the nation's largest police department . . . the total spending outstrips that of other U.S. cities, though some smaller cities and departments also shell out tens of millions of dollars a year in payouts.

These payouts often are due to provable wrongdoing by individuals, yet ultimately fall on the taxpayer according to the report, as "officers themselves don't usually bear personal responsibility."  It is precisely this lack of personal responsibility which contributes to the overall impact on society.  There are countless examples of police who have been repeatedly cited for brutality and other ethics violations being protected by the "thin blue line" of the supposed police honor code that too often protects their fraternity above protecting the public.  

The AP investigation deflects the payouts as being "less than the cost of insurance," but misses the point  that this growing problem threatens to destabilize an already weakened trust in police that has more to do with failed police training and testing requirements than it does the legal system or a "litigious" atmosphere where, "Some law firms have made it their business to sue the city."  

The public has been hoodwinked to believe that an increasing number of violent encounters over non-violent offenses is due to the "heat of the moment" or some type of combat lingo more appropriate to foreign war-time environments.  What would people think if firemen responded to a house fire and instead of putting out the fire, came in with gasoline?  They would rightly think poor training, or psychopathic behavior.  It's a simplistic analogy, but accurate when one considers the AP's own example of police raining 50 bullets on a car carrying an unarmed man and his two friends following a bachelor party.  The justification?  The car didn't stop as ordered, and police "thought the men were armed."  That's it?  Proper hiring and training practices -- physical, emotional, intellectual, and cultural -- never would have permitted this to happen.  Police are supposed to be trained using standard "containment" exercises for both vehicles and domiciles specifically to identify who is armed and who is not.  This particular lapse cost the city (taxpayers) $7 million.  

A recent failed containment of psychopathic proportions just occurred in Phoenix, Arizona that perfectly illustrates both poor training and poor hiring practices.  Officer Richard Chrisman (cited previously for "disciplinary problems") and his partner responded to a domestic dispute.  Not minutes into the encounter, an unarmed man and his dog were both killed, after Chrisman allegedly shouted, "I don't need no warrant mother------."  Phoenix must now wait and see how their tax dollars will be applied to this barbarity.  

Now that police are being equipped with the lastest military gear, even better training is required to temper their new lethality.  As the economy continues to implode, and citizens wish to peaceably assemble and demonstrate their distaste for a wide range of political and economic policies, more high-tension police encounters are inevitable.  This goes far beyond the highlight case of NYC.  An entire YouTube channel is dedicated to Cops Out of Control, with video evidence of horrendous abuse. 

Citizens everywhere should engage their local police to tell them that they unequivocally support their courageous duty to public service, but will hold them personally accountable for any sign of brutality or misconduct.  For those who wish to be active, Citizen Review Boards are gaining support.  If it really is "a few bad apples" as they like to say, then it shouldn't be too difficult to identify and remove them.

The National Police Misconduct Feed is a great source to track daily reports, statistics, settlements, and pending cases.

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Supplier recalls frozen vegetables due to glass fragments

(CNN) -- Packages containing frozen vegetables sold by Wal-Mart nationwide and Kroger stores in the Southeast may contain glass fragments, the supplier said Friday in announcing a voluntary recall.

While there have been no reports of injuries, the Pictsweet Co. of Bells, Tennessee, is advising the public not to eat the recalled store-brand vegetables because of the potential for harm.

Consumers should return them to the place of purchase for a full refund, Pictsweet said.

The voluntary recall covers the following items:

-- Kroger 12-ounce Green Peas (UPC 11110 89736). Production Codes of 1440BU, 1440BV, 1440BW, and 1600BD.

-- Kroger 12-ounce Peas and Carrots (UPC 11110 89741). Production Codes of 1960BD and 1960BE.
-- Great Value 12-ounce Steamable Sweet Peas (UPC 78742 08369). Best by dates of July 20, 2012; July 21, 2012.
\
-- Great Value 12-ounce Steamable Mixed Vegetables (UPC 78742 08026). Best by date of July 15, 2012.
Consumers with questions may contact Pictsweet toll-free at 1-800-367-7412, extension 417, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Daylight Time, Monday through Friday.

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Exclusive Interview: Lord Monckton Talks About NWO Master Plan

Prisonplanet.TVOct 17, 2010

Special interiview with Lord Christopher Monckton about Al Gore’s climate gate hoax, and the hidden Nwo objective behind it all.
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/
http://www.infowars.com/
http://www.prisonplanet.com/
http://www.infowars.net/

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Obama-Goldman Sachs Administration Sides with Banks on Foreclosure Moratorium

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
October 17, 2010

It was predictable. Obama and his Goldman Sachs insiders have sided with Bank of America and JP Morgan on the growing call for a national moratorium on foreclosures. Obama has sided with the banksters against the American people. No surprise there.

	Banks signed thousands of documents authorizing foreclosures across the country, without actually having reviewed the loan documents, as required by law. Photo: Inman News.

It’s all for our own good, of course. “Delays in foreclosures add cost and other burdens for communities, investors and taxpayers,” said the faceless bureaucrats at the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

In short, bring on the robo-signers.

Imagine my surprise. Banks signed thousands of documents authorizing foreclosures across the country, without actually having reviewed the loan documents, as required by law. In other words, they engaged in fraud in order to expedite the confiscation of property. Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray sent letters to Wells Fargo & Co., Chase, Bank of America Corp., and CitiMortgage asking them to halt foreclosures in Ohio and meet with him to discuss how to solve the problem.

Law officers in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Texas have done likewise, demanding answers and an end to foreclosures until the matter is resolved.

Last week, attorney generals in 40 states announced an investigation into the mortgage-servicing industry. “I think the mortgage-servicing firms need to understand that they face real exposure now, and they would be well advised to take this very seriously, to clean this up by doing loan workouts to keep people in their homes, which up till now they’ve just paid lip-service to,” said Cordray, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Corday’s outspoken effort is admirable. But the likelihood the “mortgage services industry” run by the mega-banks will be forced to shut down their foreclosure and property confiscation mill is slim to none.

On Friday, John Carney, writing for CNBC, said he thinks Congress will line up behind the banksters. “Here’s what is going to happen: Congress will pass a law called something like ‘The Financial Modernization and Stability Act of 2010′ that will retroactively grant mortgage pools the rights in the underlying mortgages that people are worried about. All the screwed up paperwork, lost notes, unassigned security interests will be forgiven by a legislative act,” writes Carney.

Carney notes that the 2008 “crisis” was about economics. The new one is about legal rights. If Congress manages to line up behind the banksters and pass such legislation, it will spell the end of property rights in America. “If you’re skeptical about the possibility that this will happen, you have greater faith than I do in the ability of the political system to resist doing favors for bankers,” writes Carney.

Favors? The banksters own Congress, as Sen. Dick Durbin admitted in May, 2009. “And the banks — hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created — are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place,” he blurted out on a Chicago radio station.

Members of Congress do not do “favors” for Wall Street and the banksters. They follow orders.

Dylan Ratigan talks with victim of “Fraudclosure.”

Millions of Americans are about to wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered, as Thomas Jefferson warned. Gouverneur Morris, who represented Pennsylvania in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and signed the Constitution, said the “rich will strive to establish their dominion and enslave the rest… if we do not, by the power of government, keep them in their proper spheres.”

Government is now owned by the international bankers and their mega-corporations. A Republican compromised Tea Party movement will not change the situation. It will work for the bankers too, albeit while sporting patriotic plumage as camouflage.

It may take another election cycle before the people realize the trademark Tea Party will not save them. Nobody will be safe until the Federal Reserve is abolished and the banksters are sent packing.

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