Mois : août 2008

Index August 2008

Cynthia Basinet – USA

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Actress, model, and singer Cynthia Basinet understood the power of the internet to connect people when the medium rocketed her song « Santa Baby » around the world. The empowerment and self-determination she experienced prompted her to seek new connections in new ways. In May 2001 she sang for a different audience–refugees living in the western Sahara desert. More than 80 per cent women and children, 200,000 refugees are struggling to survive in the southwest corner of Algeria. Their refusal to return home and their fight for self-determination captured the attention of Cynthia Basinet … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

She says: « Displaced societies are of value. Their issues are our issues ».

Find her music on amazon, on Jamendo; her Mini-Bio on IMDb; her songs on Google Video-search; her Interview on 24/7; her name on better world heroes; her thoughts; and also her Homepage.

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Cynthia Basinet – USA

Her song SANTA BABY:

Ten years of being Santa’s Baby.

… Growing up in San Jose, California, Cynthia sang and played the flute and saxophone as a child. Her life has been a succession of journeys. In 1984, she and her infant son left San Francisco and an abusive husband to spend five years in Europe, and it was there that she learned more about world issues. In Paris she learned to speak fluent French, studied cinematography, and became a successful model. She returned to Los Angeles with an expanded vision and a determination to become socially active.

Cynthia established an entirely new channel of distribution for her music by using the Internet to bypass the usual Hollywood and recording industry paths, bringing her releases directly to listeners around the world. She is famous for the song, « Santa Baby. » « That was my gift to the world for the millennium, » she said. « One moment where people from all these countries sing to some silly love song . . . »

Her goal in visiting the Saharawis was to help communicate their value to the world. « We are all linked. The strength and conviction of the Saharawis is something that deserves to be highlighted in the conscience of not only America, but the world. The same issues of power apply to the 85 percent working class that makes up America.

Displaced societies are of value. Their issues are our issues » She was moved by the connection she felt to the Saharawis. « I hit this note, and all the women started warbling. You know, that Arabic sound the women make. It was the most healing moment in my life. » (1000peacewomen 2/2).

An Open Reply to John Simson, August 8, 2008.

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Chris Norwood – USA

Linked with Soka Gakkai International – SGI-USA, and with Health People NY/USA.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Chris Norwood (born 1946) founded Health People, which is located in the South Bronx, New York, and is the largest peer health education and disease prevention organization in the USA. Starting in 1990 as a women’s AIDS prevention program, the organization now provides 3000 people a year in the sickest, poorest area of New York, with men’s, family, and teen HIV programs. It also provides successful asthma, diabetes, and smoking prevention programs, all built by training low-income people affected by chronic disease to become educators and leaders … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

She says: « Dig where you stand, and surely you shall find a well ».

… Founder chris Norwood was positively trilled at the response from her friends in the East End Art Community who generously donated art works of which 100% of the sale price was going to her teen-to-teen mentoring program … (full text).

The book: Advice for Life, by Christopher Norwood, Chris Norwood, National Women’s Health Network (U.S.), 178 pages, Published by Pantheon Books, 1987: Explains who the carriers are, what the medical tests show, what realistic precautions can be taken, and what symptoms to watch out for. ISBN 039475428X, 9780394754284

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Chris Norwood – USA

She works for Health People.

In 1985, Chris Norwood was asked by a women’s magazine to write what turned out to be the first American article on women and AIDS. She became haunted by how misunderstood the AIDS epidemic was, « Waking and sleeping, I saw before me an endless picture of the shadows of hundreds of ghostly women which I knew to represent the mammoth future death already inevitable from HIV infections taking place right then. » Chris wrote a book, Advice for Life: A Woman’s Guide to AIDS, and began trying to do her own studies to underscore the seriousness of the women’s epidemic: these included the first study projecting AIDS orphans in New York and a groundbreaking study of the undercounting of women’s AIDS deaths.

When it became obvious that little practical progress or recognition of women’s needs was occurring, Chris decided to start a women’s peer education program and train the women most affected by HIV– the poorest women in the city – to become educators. « Fortunately, I wasn’t daunted because I didn’t know at all how daunting this project was; fortunately, I obtained some small donations to start and focused on the South Bronx. At the time, in 1990, the South Bronx was not only the poorest and sickest area of New York, but shattered by drugs, abandonment and such widespread arson (with owners torching their buildings for the insurance money) that it looked like a bombed area. When New York’s longest and most deadly drug war erupted on the block of our office, we had to literally walk through almost daily gunfire for months. »

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Giordano Bruno – Italy (1548 – 1600)

Linked with die Giordano Bruno Stiftung GBS from April 08, 2007, and from June 15, 2007, and with german GBS/Homepage and its german Newsletter (see internal link on their homepage).

Giordano Bruno (1548 – February 17, 1600) was an Italian philosopher best-known as an early proponent of heliocentrism and the infinity of the universe. In addition to his cosmological writings, he is also notable for his extensive works on the art of memory, a loosely-organized group of ancient mnemonic techniques and principles. Until about fifty years ago he was most often considered an early martyr for modern scientific ideas, in part because he was dramatically burned at the stake as a heretic by the Roman Inquisition. More recent assessments, beginning with the pioneering work of Frances Yates, suggest that Bruno was deeply influenced by magical views of the universe inherited from Arab astrological magic, Neoplatonism and Renaissance Hermeticism. Other recent studies of Bruno have focused on his qualitative approach to mathematics and his application of the spatial paradigms of geometry to language … (full huge text).

His detailed Biography: on punkerslut.com; on Seti League;

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Giordano Bruno – Italy (1548 – 1600)

Google download books:

  • The Ash Wednesday Supper, (La Cena de le ceneri) by Giordano Bruno, Edward A. Gosselin, Lawrence S. Lerner, Renaissance Society of America, 238 pages, edited 1995;
  • Cause, Principle, and Unity, by Giordano Bruno, Robert de Lucca, Richard J. Blackwell, Alfonso Ingegno, 228 pages.

Giordano Bruno: The Forgotten Philosopher.

Fillipo Bruno (1548-1600) was born in Nola near Naples. Taking the name Giordano upon becoming a member of the Dominican order, he was educated in the Aristotelian and Thomist traditions and eventually came to espouse a mystical Neoplatonism mixed with ideas imbibed from a resurgent interest of that time in the works of the apocryphal Hermes Trismegistus … (full text).

Giordano Bruno.info (in many languages).

Find his name and his publications: his latin texts on Google inauthor-search; on Ars Memoriae; on esoteric archive; on Intre Text Digital Library; on the Giordano Bruno Collection; on Bruno’s Latin and Italian works online; his complete work on … The Warburg Institute … ;  on sacred texts; on amazon; on IMDb; on radical academy; on Google Video-search, specially on YouTube; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on books that mention him – by specific Google search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search; and Giordano Bruno on Google News-search: with a new book, Philosopher/Heretic, reviewed: by M.M. Bennetts, and by Ingrid D. Rowland; also The heretic, by Laura Miller; with The Forbidden World; and with Cosmic Crusader.

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Henriette Carvalho Kouyate – Mali

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Madam Henriette Carvalho Kouyate was born in Dakar, Senegal, in 1931. She has spent most of her professional career in the area of health, raising awareness on the problems of female genital mutilation. At 74 years old, Kouyaté Henriette Carvalho, mother of six boys, is a brilliant public health professional in the eyes of all. Henriette also distinguished herself in the treatment of sterile women and victims of female genital mutilation so that they have normal fertility and a happy life in the African context. Kouyaté Henriette Carvalho is also a writer and has published a book on female genital mutilation and sexually transmitted diseases. She has fought a great deal for the protection of woman, children and for reproductive control … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

She says: « Seeing a pregnant woman’s luminous smile, hearing the happy cries of children in the playground: that is what drives me ».

Le texte: Kouyaté Carvalho d’Alvarengo, Henriette, « L’excision ». Présence Africaine, no.160, 1999.

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Sorry, no photo found for Henriette Carvalho Kouyate, Mali

Kouyaté also contributed to the struggle in Mali against female genital mutilation. Her contribution ensured national opinion came to understand that female genital mutilation is a public health problem for women everywhere. This resulted in many Malian families abandoning the practice of female circumcision. More and more Malian men and women understand today that this ancestral practice cannot be justified anymore due to its negative effects on maternal health.

This decision of conscience is at the basis of the awareness and claims against female genital mutilation. This will result in the near future to the adoption in Mali of legislation against the practice of female circumcision. We hope these efforts reach this objective. Senegal (Henriette’s country of origin) and Burkina have already taken a positive step towards banning female genital mutilation which underlines the position of Dr Henriette.

Henriette Carvalho regrets, today, that none of her children are doctors, but understands it and does not regret her own daily fight to help infertile couples become fertile. This fight has also helped reduce the mortality rate of women during maternity. To summarise, Ms Kouyaté Henriette Carvalho is a pioneer in female health in our country and in the well-being of women and children. She has given several lectures on the framework of obstetric health and reproduction. In her quiet retirement, she is a counselor to the young in an area that has marked all her professional life as well as that of her life as a writer.  (1000peacewomen 2/2).

… IP Conference Delegates Learn Appropriate Technique for Putting on Sterile Gloves: (Left to right) Col. Lamine Cissé Sarr from Senegal, Dr. Emmanuel Malano from Guinea, and Dr. Henriette Carvalho Kouyate from Senegal play a game of “IP Golf” … (full text).

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Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury – Bangladesh

also called Sallah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury

Linked with Must He Die? Meet A Muslim Dissident, with Choudhury speach to IFLAC’s writers’ symposium, and with BLiTZ (the english online Version). And linked with Bangladesh: Prolonged State of Emergency.

SALAH UDDIN SHOAIB CHOUDHURY is EDITOR & PUBLISHER of BLiTZ, THE ONLY ANTI-JIHADIST NEWSPAPER in Bangladesh.

His country wants to hang him, and this could happen within the next few months. Sallah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is a Bangladeshi journalist, publisher and peace activist who has left the fold of Jew hatred and Muslim supremacy that is infecting his country in recent years. For that, he is accused of ‘crimes against humanity’ and ‘hurting the image of Islam’ … (full text, August 14, 2008).

… Mr. Choudhury, who calls himself a “Muslim Zionist,” was arrested in Nov 2003 at the Dhaka airport for the “crime” of responding to an invitation to travel to Israel to address the Hebrew Writers Association on the subject of peaceful relations between Muslims and Jews in the Middle East. Mr. Choudhury was charged with blasphemy, sedition, treason, and espionage on behalf of Israel, any one of which is punishable by death in Bangladesh … (full text, August 20, 2008).

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Sallah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury – Bangladesh

Irwin Cotler Joins Shoab Choudhury’s Defence, December 08, 2006).

… Choudhury’s aborted speech needs to be read (on Interfaith Strength). In passionate yet surprisingly serene tones, he confronts the irrational hatred primarily directed against Jews and Israel that is inflaming the Muslim world, including its semi-religious belief in Holocaust Denial.  Choudhury commends Israel’s democracy and progress, and proposes creating what he calls a Culture of peace’ with justice and tolerance for all people as opposed to the culture of death. His stated mission is to take personal responsibility to break down the firewall of lies and ignorance that separate one people from another, using his talents as a writer and publisher.  Are you hearing echoes of Reagan’s famous command, Tear down this wall. You should … (full text, Aug 13, 2008).

Tackling the global fertilizer crisis, Aug 24, 2008.

He fired the first salvo in 2003 and has been sticking his thumb in Islamist eyes ever since.  Bangladeshi journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury describes himself as a “Muslim Zionist.” He is unabashedly pro-US, pro-Israel, and anti-Islamist. More importantly, he remains all of that from within the Muslim world, which he refuses to leave.  I have fielded any number of asylum requests for him, and he declined them all.  Retreat is not in my vocabulary,” he says, for he believes that if he were to leave his country, his credibility would be gone, and Islamists would claim victory; a satisfaction he refuses to give them.  “Bangladesh is my country,” he says.  “Let the radicals leave!” … (full text).

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Holt Ruffin – USA

Linked with Civil Society International CSI.

Holt Ruffin is the founder and executive director of the Civil Society International. « He is a graduate of Stanford University (BA, 1966) and the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University (MPA, 1975). Mr. Ruffin’s work experience includes six years in the Economics/Policy Research Department of Bank of America and in the International Division of Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco. Articles by Mr. Ruffin have appeared in the Seattle Times, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Freedom Review, Money Manager, Crisis, and other publications. Most recently, he was lead editor or author of The Post-Soviet Handbook: A Guide to Grassroots Organizations (revised edition, 1999), Civil Society in Central Asia (1999, co-edited with Daniel Waugh), and Internet Resources for Eurasia (2001). The Post-Soviet Handbook and Civil Society in Central Asia were each co-published with the University of Washington Press. « Mr. Ruffin was a short-term research fellow at the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC, in 2000; he also participated in a six-week seminar on the theme of civil society, held at Boston University under the leadership of Dr. Peter Berger in 1994 … (full text).

… At present, Mr. Ruffin is guiding CSI through the process of expanding its focus to countries where democracy and civil society are most repressed. He received an M.A. in International Relations and Economics from the Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs at Princeton University in 1975, and a B.A. in Political Philosophy and Modern History from Stanford University in 1966. Colleagues comment that Mr. Ruffin is someone with « perseverance and ability to hold a vision » who « provides leadership that brings practical results. » His proposed project is « The Globalization of Philanthropy ». (full text).

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Holt Ruffin – USA

download: The Globalization of American Philantrophy, 48 pages, Oct. 2003.

The Global Review of Ethnopolitics, 2 pages, March 2003.

The Who’s Who in International Organizations, Volume 6, published by the Union of International Associations.

The Post-Soviet Handbook: A Guide to Grassroots Organizations and Internet Resources in the Newly Independent States, April 1996, 392 pages; also on Arrowbead Library System.

Book-Review: Civil Society in Central Asia, 331 pages, ISBN: 0-295-97795-7:

  • – … with the insights of individuals who have been on the front lines of the struggle for civil society in Central Asia itself–representatives of organizations such as Counterpart, Internews, and the Kazakstan International Bureau for Human Rights. Topics addressed are as diverse as the legal framework for independent associational activity, grassroots movements for environmental protection, the resurgence of Islam and the viability of the Soviet-era collective farms. A 75-page appendix provides a guide to many of the most significant projects being carried out by local and international NGOs in the region. M. Holt Ruffin is executive director of Center for Civil Society International, based in Seattle, and Daniel C. Waugh is Associate Professor of History and International Studies, University of Washington. A co-publication of Center for Civil Society International and the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. (full text).
  • – on Googles download book (display will be limited);
  • – REVIEWED BY AMYN B. SAJOO, 6 pdf-pages;
  • – by UW Press;
  • – listen the audio: OSI Forum: Whither Civil Society in Central Asia? September 28, 2005 in NY.

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James Petras – USA

Linked with Reflections on Twenty-First Century Socialism.

James Petras is a retired Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, SUNY, New York, U.S., and adjunct professor at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada who has published prolifically on Latin American and Middle Eastern political issues … (full text).

… He’s also a prolific author of hundreds of articles and dozens of books, including his newest due out in late August: « Zionism, Militarism, and the Decline of US Power » to be discussed on a future program. Petras writes extensively on the Middle East, the power of the Israeli Lobby, and the possibility of war on Iran to be discussed during the hour … (full text).

He argues: … “The use of paramilitary death squads promoted/financed and protected by the Uribe regime to murder and ‘disappear’ popular leaders serves several strategic political goals” … (full text, Aug. 22, 2008).

The James Petras webwsite. (his essays are available there also in spanish).

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James Petras – USA

James Petras speech at ‘Axis for Peace 2005’ conference,  11.51 min, Nov 18, 2005.

… ‘Ammunition’ for imperialists? Petras charges that “the effect of Castro’s anti-FARC articles has been to provide ammunition for the imperial mass media to discredit the FARC.” He attempts to answer the Cuban leader by presenting a glorified picture of the guerrilla group. “Marulanda’s prolonged guerrilla war strategy relied on mass grassroots organizing based on close peasant ties with guerrillas, based on community, family and class solidarity, building slowly and methodically a national political-military people’s army,” Petras writes, whereas “Castro’s guerrillas were recruited from the mass of urban mass organizations, methodically organized prior to and during the formation of the guerrilla foco in 1956-1958.” “Marulanda built, over a period of 40 years, a bigger guerrilla army with a wider mass base than any Castro-inspired guerrilla force from the 1960s to 2000,” he says … (full text, August 25, 2008).

Inflation and the Spectre of World Revolution, Aug. 06, 2008.

His Bio on flickr.com.

Colombia, Laboratory of Witches: Democracy and State Terrorism, Aug 12, 2008.

… Presidential candidates competed with each other in swearing their total and unconditional servility to Israel, swearing their utmost to back any and all past, present and future Israeli military attacks. Hillary Clinton promised to implement the equivalent of twelve holocausts against Iran’s 70 million citizens in her rant to ‘obliterate Iran’ if it endangered Israel. Obama backed the ultra-orthodox Jewish demand to give Israel sole control over Jerusalem, and joined John McCain and Clinton in promising to bomb Iran if it continued its uranium enrichment program (which they equated with a nuclear weapon – despite the objections of the IAEA and the US intelligence community) … (full text).

Racism and Genocide: Lies of Our Times, Aug 06, 2008.

China Bashing and the Loss of US Competitiveness, Oct 22, 2005.

Stephen Lendman’s review of his book: The Power of Israel in the United States, Oct 29, 2006.

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Terry Glavin – Canada

Terry Glavin (born 1955) is a Canadian author and journalist. Born in the United Kingdom to Irish parents, he emigrated to Canada in 1957. Glavin has worked as a journalist and columnist for The Daily Columbian, The Vancouver Sun, The Globe and Mail, and The Georgia Straight. Glavin’s writing covers a wide range of regional and global topics from natural history and anthropology to current politics. His first book, A Death Feast in Dimlahamid (1990), dealt with the struggles of the Gitksan and Wet’suwe’ten peoples, drawing on an account of the oral traditions of Dimlahamid, also known as Temlaham, (sorry, this link leads to Gispwudwada) an ancient city said to have existed in that region. His second book, Nemiah: The Unconquered Country (1992), a cultural and historical account of British Columbia’s Chilcotin District, included some of the Tsilhqot’in people’s perspective on the Chilcotin War of 1864. Among his best known works is The Last Great Sea: A Voyage Through the Human and Natural History of the North Pacific Ocean (2000), which was nominated for the Bill Duthie Prize and the Roderick Haig-Brown Prize, and was the winner of the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize. In 2006, Glavin came under fire from some progressives and from anti-war activists for a Georgia Straight column in which he had expressed support of the American and Israeli positions in the July 2006 invasion of Lebanon. He is also a signatory of the Euston Manifesto … (full text).

… His several books traverse anthropology, natural history and cultural geography. They include A Death Feast in Dimlahamid, This Ragged Place and The Last Great Sea: A Human and Natural History of the North Pacific Ocean. His latest book is Waiting for the Macaws (and Other Stories from the Age of Extinctions), which argues that environmentalism is inadequate to the task of accounting for the global vanishing of animals, plants and languages. Terry is the editor of Transmontanus, an imprint of New Star Books; he teaches part-time at the University of British Columbia … (full text).

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Terry Glavin – Canada

His blog: Terry Clavin, Chronicles and Dissent.

A Day In The Life of Tylere Couture: Soldier, Activist, And Fellow CASC Member, July 11, 2008; followed by ‘An Excellent Sad Post from Terry Glavin’: Terry Glavin’s frustrations with former allies gets some pretty clear expression in this post … (full text, Aug 13, 2008).

The video: Terry Glavin-Waiting for the Macaws-author interview, 6.27 min, Feb 28, 2007.

Audio-Interview with Terry Glavin, April 13, 2006 (click on listen).

He writes: To say what we think without fear of repercussion, to walk down the streets without fear … it is our responsibility to spread this freedom all around us, and around the world. Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean, Canada Day, 2007 Nikolai Tsyrempilov can’t say what he thinks without fear of repercussion. He can’t walk down the street without fear. He would like Canada, and other western democracies, to do something about it. I recently met Mr. Tsyrempilov in Ulan Ude, the capital of Buryatia, an impoverished Russian republic of about a million people that shares a border, a language, a Buddhist heritage and a great deal of history with Mongolia … (full text, July 12, 2007).

Inside The Cult That Runs The « Mobilization Against War and Occupation »: Part II, February 07, 2008.

He writes also: Things started at a July 18 demonstration in Montreal, when a small group of young Lebanese showed up with a sign that read “Peace for Lebanon and Israel”. They were shouted at and shoved around and driven off. Their sign was torn up. The event then proceeded, with people carrying placards that bore the flag of the fascist organization Hezbollah and pictures of Hezbollah’s rabidly anti-Semitic leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Before the month was out, you could fairly mark July 2006 as one of the most squalid months in the history of the “left” in Canada … (full text, August 3, 2006).

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Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. – USA

Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is the senior United States Senator from Delaware and the presumptive Democratic Party candidate for Vice President in the 2008 presidential election, running alongside presumptive Presidential nominee Barack Obama. He is a member of the Democratic Party, and is currently serving his sixth term … (full long text on wikipedia, last modified on 23 August 2008, at 08:29. See also Wikipedia’s Biden disambiguation).

See also:

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The Video: Joe is Right, 1.34 Min, added November 16, 2007.

His positions on Civil Rights: See also 20 full quotes on Civil Rights; and background on Civil Rights:

  • 1978: opposed busing except for gov’t-intended segregation. (Jul 2007)
  • 1968: Wilmington riots failed at conversation between races. (Jul 2007)
  • Nobody asks if you’re gay in a foxhole. (Jun 2007)
  • Civil unions ok; gay marriage is probably inevitable. (Apr 2007)
  • Voted NO on recommending Constitutional ban on flag desecration. (Jun 2006)
  • Voted NO on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage. (Jun 2006)
  • Voted YES on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes. (Jun 2002)
  • Voted YES on loosening restrictions on cell phone wiretapping. (Oct 2001)
  • Voted YES on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation. (Jun 2000)
  • Voted YES on setting aside 10% of highway funds for minorities & women. (Mar 1998)
  • Voted NO on ending special funding for minority & women-owned business. (Oct 1997)
  • Voted YES on prohibiting same-sex marriage. (Sep 1996)
  • Voted YES on prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation. (Sep 1996)
  • Voted NO on Amendment to prohibit flag burning. (Dec 1995)
  • Voted NO on banning affirmative action hiring with federal funds. (Jul 1995)
  • Rated 60% by the ACLU, indicating a mixed civil rights voting record. (Dec 2002)
  • Issue a commemorative postage stamp of Rosa Parks. (Dec 2005)
  • Rated 78% by the HRC, indicating a pro-gay-rights stance. (Dec 2006)
  • Rated 100% by the NAACP, indicating a pro-affirmative-action stance. (Dec 2006)
  • Re-introduce the Equal Rights Amendment. (Mar 2007).

Continuer la lecture de « Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. – USA »