Martin Luther King,Jr : 1/15/1929-4/4/1968

It's been 40 years since Dr King was assasinated. His impact on civil rights in America is huge and he is a proof that the american dream is not only about being rich and that the sky is the limit of our ambitions.


am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
[...]
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."²

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
[...]
And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
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Le Phénomène Barack Obama!!

Depuis le début de l’année, mes responsabilités professionnelles sont devenues plus importantes et si je ne suis pas en déplacement en Europe ou a travers les USA, je suis en réunion ou entrain de préparer un rapport ou une présentation. C’est pour vous dire a quel point je suis occupé, mais il n ya pas un jour que je suis en déplacement ou non, ou je ne suis pas exposé au phénomène Obama.

Pour une fois, les américains s’intéressent a la politique ou pour mieux préciser, semblent s’intéresser a la politique, la vraie comme le sont les européens. Car les américains pendant les campagnes s’intéressent plutôt a la personnalité et non a ses idées. Cette fois cela semble différent mais est ce vraiment différent?

Voici, une personne charismatique qui sait bien manipuler ces mots et qui utilise une technique d’évangéliste pour vendre l’idée du changement! Comme tout tunisien, je me méfie des qu’un politicien parle de changement :) mais quand il s’agit d’un exceptionnel orateur, on peut tomber dans le piège. Le programme d’Obama est une copie conforme de celui de Clinton, mais son style pour le vendre est “exceptionnel”. Obama a su jouer sur plusieurs facteurs pour réussir. Il a toujours évité de parler de ses origines ethniques. Etant Black,il a tout fait pour ne jamais le mentionner dans ses speechs, et même quand il faisait c’était avec une subtilité machiavélique comme s’il reniait ce fait. Au fait Clinton parait plus proche des Blacks que Obama, mais en réalité la majorité des votes des “African Americans” vont pour Obama.

Obama a su exploiter les débâcles de l’administration Bush pour séduire la génération Y qui vote pour la première ou la deuxième fois dans leur vie et qui de par leur jeune âge, peuvent être séduits facilement par quelqu’un qui leur parle de révolutionner le paysage politique. Il a séduit les républicains éduqués qui en ont marre du conservatisme à la Bush. Il a séduit les indépendants qui vu le manque de candidats crédibles des deux partis voient en lui un JFK. Il a séduit, les religieux modérés avec son ton d’évangéliste et ses promesses de changement, de terminer la guerre, de reformer l’éducation nationale, la sécurité sociale, l’assurance maladie (au fait les même promesses de Clinton). Il a promis de supprimer le les lobbies de Washington et a profité de sa très courte carrière en tant que sénateur pour montrer qu’il n’a jamais voté pour la guerre de l’Irak ni changé son avis sur des sujets sensibles ici aux USA.

J’aime bien Obama, son charisme, son éloquence et son style mais pour moi ceci n’est qu’un style, de la décoration... Au fond, je ne vois pas ce qu’il apporte de plus. En plus j’ai toujours eu peur des gens qui peuvent enflammer une salle. Les supportes d’Obama me rappellent des religieux fondamentalistes. Je sais j’exagère mais en parlant avec eux, j’ai l’impression de parler a des religieux car ils le vénèrent et ne parlent jamais de son programme a part le fameux “Yes we can” ou les gens deviennent hystériques quand Obama commence a le dire. Tous les candidats proposent un changement (ce qui n’est pas difficile vu ce que Bush a fait) mais sa façon me fait peur. On a tellement entendu des gens qui voulaient changer leur pays, de Hitler a ZBA.. J’ai peut être tort et je suis sur que j’exagère mais moi je vais voter Clinton.

Je serais heureux de voir les USA avec une femme aux commandes, et ce serait encore meilleur si Obama serait son vice président pour qu'il puisse avoir un peu plus d'expérience et de crédibilité parmi les sceptiques comme moi même

:)

Tragédie Baleinière!!!

Cela fait une semaine que tout les journaux de la Bay Area de San Francisco ne parlent que de cette tragédie. Des gardes-cotes aux scientifiques et experts, tout le monde ne parle que de cet effort de sauvetage de cette baleine et son petit!!



Deux baleines se sont égarées dimanche dans le fleuve Sacramento (Californie) jusqu'à 145km des côtes, avant de faire marche arrière et de reprendre leur route vers l'océan Pacifique, ont annoncé les gardes-côtes locaux.

Les deux cétacés, une femelle à bosse et son petit, ont repris leur nage vers l'océan à 15h30 locales et se trouvaient à environ huit kilomètres du port de Sacramento dimanche en fin d'après-midi, a indiqué le garde-côte Brian Leshak.

Si elles maintiennent leur vitesse et leur direction, les deux baleines devaient atteindre l'est de la baie de San Francisco peu après minuit heures locales, selon Brian Leshak. Elles semblent toutefois avoir été blessées par l'hélice d'un bateau.

"Rien n'a déclenché leur mouvement. Elles sont simplement reparties d'elles-mêmes", a-t-il déclaré.

Neuf bateaux des gardes-côtes suivaient les baleines pour s'assurer qu'elles se dirigeaient bien vers l'océan. Plusieurs milliers de personnes se sont rassemblées dimanche pour pouvoir assister au retour des baleines vers l'océan.

Pour y parvenir, elles devront éviter plusieurs obstacles, et notamment les pylones de quatre ponts, dont le célèbre Golden Gate, sous lequel elles devront passer. AP

Au fait je suis tres solidaire avce cet effort, mais j'ai un problème en comparant toutes les autres tragédies qui se passent dans le monde et auxquelles les médias locaux ne prêtent aucune attention. C'est ca les USA!!

PS: Il suffit de faire une recherche sur Google News sur "wayward whales" pour comprendre.

Al Gore : The dream candidate!

Even in the US, democracy sometimes fails short of reflecting the will of the people through an elected government. Al Gore knows that very well.

Let's say you were dreaming up the perfect stealth candidate for 2008, a Democrat who could step into the presidential race when the party confronts its inevitable doubts about the front runners. You would want a candidate with the grass-roots appeal of Barack Obama—someone with a message that transcends politics, someone who spoke out loud and clear and early against the war in Iraq. But you would also want a candidate with the operational toughness of Hillary Clinton—someone with experience and credibility on the world stage.

In other words, you would want someone like Al Gore—the improbably charismatic, Academy Award–winning, Nobel Prize–nominated environmental prophet with an army of followers and huge reserves of political and cultural capital at his command. There's only one problem. The former Vice President just doesn't seem interested. He says he has "fallen out of love with politics," which is shorthand for both his general disgust with the process and the pain he still feels over the hard blow of the 2000 election, when he became only the fourth man in U.S. history to win the popular vote but lose a presidential election. In the face of wrenching disappointment, he showed enormous discipline—waking up every day knowing he came so close, believing the Supreme Court was dead wrong to shut down the Florida recount but never talking about it publicly because he didn't want Americans to lose faith in their system. That changes a man forever.
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His new book "Assault On Reason", is a proof that this country needs someone like him to put it on the right path. Too bad, he is not interested!! Here is an excerpt.
A large and growing number of Americans are asking out loud: "What has happened to our country?" People are trying to figure out what has gone wrong in our democracy, and how we can fix it.

To take another example, for the first time in American history, the Executive Branch of our government has not only condoned but actively promoted the treatment of captives in wartime that clearly involves torture, thus overturning a prohibition established by General George Washington during the Revolutionary War.

It is too easy—and too partisan—to simply place the blame on the policies of President George W. Bush. We are all responsible for the decisions our country makes. We have a Congress. We have an independent judiciary. We have checks and balances. We are a nation of laws. We have free speech. We have a free press. Have they all failed us? Why has America's public discourse become less focused and clear, less reasoned? Faith in the power of reason—the belief that free citizens can govern themselves wisely and fairly by resorting to logical debate on the basis of the best evidence available, instead of raw power—remains the central premise of American democracy. This premise is now under assault.

American democracy is now in danger—not from any one set of ideas, but from unprecedented changes in the environment within which ideas either live and spread, or wither and die. I do not mean the physical environment; I mean what is called the public sphere, or the marketplace of ideas.
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US builds Baghdad wall to keep Sunnis and Shias apart !!

When you put military in control, they tend to use the military solutions, isn't that obvious?. For a soldier, digging a hole or building a wall, will protect you from the enemy, that's what they are taught. What a shame!!!



US soldiers are building a three-mile wall to separate one of Baghdad's Sunni enclaves from surrounding Shia neighbourhoods, it emerged today.
The move is part of a contentious security plan that has fuelled fears of the Iraqi capital's Balkanisation.

When the barrier is finished, the minority Sunni community of Adamiya, on the eastern side of the River Tigris, will be completely gated. Traffic control points manned by Iraqi soldiers will provide the only access, the US military said.

"Shias are coming in and hitting Sunnis, and Sunnis are retaliating across the street," Captain Scott McLearn, of the US 407th brigade support battalion, told the Associated Press.

The project, which began on April 10, is being worked on almost nightly, with cranes swinging enormous concrete barriers into place.[...]
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VirginiaTech : Ce n'est pas un arabe!!

Malgré tout nos efforts, mon beau frère n’a jamais appris à calculer l’heure qu’il fait en Californie a partir de celle de Tunis (un retard de 9 heures). Cette nuit, à 3h du matin, le téléphone sonne, c’est lui. Le problème, c’est qu’il est tellement sympa et baratineur qu’il ne te laisse pas le temps de te fâcher ou t’énerver. Donc il commence par me dire qu’ON lui a dit qu’il y avait un professeur Israélien parmi les victimes de VirginiaTech et qu’il y a une rumeur qui stipule que le tireur est un arabe, et il nous demande de faire attention…bla bla. Je le rassure, ma femme aussi et on lui dit de ne plus appeler avant 4h de l'après midi :-)
Ce matin, en me réveillant je mets CNN, et ils confirment qu’il y a un professeur Israélien parmi les victimes, mais par contre le tueur est un sud coréen.. ouf, on l’a échappé belle !!!

United Nations Council imposes sanctions on Iran

The sanctions imposed on Iran, go beyond companies involved in the Iranian nuclear program, since it is asking for freezing financial assets of many entities including the 80 years old Bank Sepah. I don't think this escalation was needed, but US and GB kept pushing, thinking this could put pressure on Iran to stop their uranium enrichment program! Does this ring a bell?

Note that Qatar and Indonesia were able to get a "reference" to a nuclear-free Middle East, which i s a great success considering that is a direct reference to Israel unofiicial nuclear arsenal, but it is just a reference in a resolution imposing sanctions to a country trying to enrich uranium, so let's not get excited.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The
U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Saturday to impose new sanctions on
Iran for its nuclear ambitions by targeting Tehran's arms exports, state-owned bank and elite Revolutionary Guards.[...]

It threatens further sanctions if Iran does not comply within 60 days. If it does, sanctions would be suspended.

U.S. representative Alejandro Wolff told the council that adoption of Resolution 1747 sent "a clear and unambiguous message to Iran" that the pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability "will only further isolate Iran and make it less, not more, secure,"

Addressing the council after the vote, Mottaki said the 15-member body had been manipulated by some of its members to take "unjustifiable action" against Iran's nuclear program.

"I can assure you that pressure and intimidation will not change Iranian policy," he said. "Suspension is neither an option nor a solution."[...]

The big powers held intensive negotiations over the past month and conducted talks until the last minute, first with South Africa and then with Indonesia and Qatar, who wanted a reference to a nuclear-free Middle East, which was inserted into the preamble.

Qatar's U.N. ambassador Nassir Abdolaziz al-Nasser, the only Arab members of the council, spoke against the resolution for its potential to destabilize the Middle East. But he voted in favor, presumably because he did not want to be the only negative vote, after South Africa and Indonesia said "Yes."[...]

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Iraq, Oh Iraq!!!

Salih Abu Mehdi, 43, a security guard and father of six children, said he felt Iraq was lost four years into the war.
"We never expected this would happen. We were hoping to live like a European country, not to be living like this," he said.[..]

Our country is not implementing the law; it is carrying out vengeance," Khadija told Reuters[..]

Bush, whose approval ratings are near the low point of his presidency, appealed for more time for his plan to send in nearly 30,000 more troops, mostly to stabilize Baghdad.
"It can be tempting to look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude our best option is to pack up and go home. That may be satisfying in the short run, but I believe the .consequences for American security would be devastating," he said.[…]
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When one person, be it the president, uses the wrath of the US Army and US tax payer money based on proven lies or let’s say misleading, he ought to be judged for all the deaths resulting from his decision, Iraqi’s deaths and American ones. The USA government, one day will officially ask for pardon and forgiveness from the Iraqi people and the parents of the dead US soldiers. History will tell us if the post-Saddam era is better for the American national security that the pre-Saddam era.

Halliburton moving its HQ to Dubai!

Halliburton the energy service company that was led by US VP Dick Cheney from 1995 to 2000 is planning to move its Headquarters and its CEO to Dubai. I want to remind you that KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary is one of the main contractors of the US Army in Iraq and was handed billon dollars contracts directly without a bid process!!

Halliburton is shifting its business towards the Middle East, West Africa and Libya. It is even planning to list its stock on the ME stock exchange. Last year's net profit for this company was $2,300,000,000!!!

At least we know that the war on "Terrorism" is profiting to some US companies, unfortunately they're trying to avoid paying tax to the same government who put them in this position by creating an unjustified war. Ironic, isn't it? Or perhaps they are anticipating some scrutiny from the Democrat led congress!

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