AMNESTY: Top 10 Words of 2008

	Here are just a few wins you can take credit for: 1. 1.5 million letters: online and hand written letters delivered to governments worldwide and Congress here at home. 2. 116 people protected from persecution and danger: from China to Turkey to Myanmar (Burma) to the United States, your letters worked! And helped free innocent human rights activists and political prisoners. 3. Death penalty executions averted: 18 stays or commutations worldwide (8 in the U.S., 2 in Texas). And tens of thousands of letters and numerous vigils for Troy Davis mean he’s still alive today, fighting for justice in the state of Georgia. 4. 500+ groups or individuals met face to face with lawmakers: Amnesty International supporters met with their Members of Congress on Darfur, Guantánamo and violence against women. 5. Guantánamo Bay replica cell tours the U.S.: Amnesty brought a two-ton, bright orange replica of a Guantánamo Bay cell to 11 cities, including both national political conventions. More than 12,000 people toured the cell, and 10-15 million either read about it in their local or national newspaper or saw the cell on TV. 6. President-elect promises to close Guantánamo: since it opened, Amnesty has been on the frontlines pushing for its closure. This past year’s heightened campaigning helped support President-elect Obama’s decision to close Guantánamo. 7. Local groups make a big impact: Group #133 mobilized its annual "Get on the Bus" event. More than 1,200 activists traveled to Manhattan for a day of demonstrations at the U.N. missions of Sudan, Sri Lanka, Libya, Myanmar and India. 8. Pretty Bird Woman House: secures a shelter house in March 2008. We wrote letters to the town of McLaughlin, SD urging their assistance in opening the shelter. This follows the original hard-hitting research Amnesty conducted last year on violence against Native American and Alaska Native women. 9. Universal Declaration of Human Rights: for its 60th anniversary, Amnesty releases several videos online, including an exclusive music video track available on iTunes. Total viewership worldwide reached over 500,000. 10. Progress made on legislation: your in-person visits, together with all your letters, petitions and online actions meant that our Government Relations team had the backup and grassroots support needed to secure some important legislative victories: Growing number of Republicans and Democrats co-sponsored the International Violence Against Women Act Millions of dollars set aside for peacekeeping and humanitarian aid in Darfur. Habeas corpus gains affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court survived proposed rollbacks in Congress. Senate passed a resolution calling on the United Nations to stop the flow of weapons into Darfur by expanding the current arms embargo to all of Sudan. Progress made to include funding to stop violence against Native American and Alaska Native women in the 2009 appropriations bill Funding package to Mexico included important human rights safeguards

Christmas Dinner

CLICK ME FOR RECIPES!
CLICK ME FOR TURKEY PETITION!

Shopping!!!

I know you've all been waiting for this!
Click it! Click it! Click it!
Bookmark it!
Love it!
Shop! Shop! Shop!


Here's What I Want....... :)
It's All At the Mall!

No Pets for Christmas!

Questions to Ask Before Buying a Pet as a Christmas Gift

· Will other people be living with the recipient? When I was a child one of my aunts surprised, me with a chocolate spotted mongrel I named "Peanuts." Only I wasn't the only one surprised. My parents, who got off on the wrong foot with Peanuts from the first day, started wondering how they could keep my new dog without losing their sanity. After a few months of watching Peanuts tear clothes off the clothesline, chew newspapers, and ruin our carpets, they secretly got rid of him, telling me Peanuts ran off to the "deep dark woods." In other words, make sure everyone else who lives with the new pet is agreeable to the adoption and is ready to share responsibility for the care of the animal.

· It's important to make sure no one living with the pet suffers from allergies.

· Is the recipient's family financially stable? If your recipent is a child, determine if the recipient's parents are financially able to feed and care for the pet. You may have a beloved grandchild who's both highlighted and underlined a dog or a cat on his (or her) Christmas list, but if the child's family isn't able to either to either feed or pay a veterinarian for the needed shots and other medical emergencies, you're only adding a financial burden to the family.

· Does the family travel a lot? If the recipient and his family frequently aren't home, chances are a pet will be a problem.

CHRISTMAS TIME!!!

So......It's Christmas Time! and Christmas Gift Time!
Here are some Top Picks for Where to shop for some really good gifts:

Pick #1: AMNESTY
(look closely there's a rice bag wallet)




Pick #2: UNICEF
Very safe, very awesome, very good idea!

Pick #3: IFAW
For Animal Lovers :)



NOW don't forget to be eco-friendly with whatever you choose to buy for your friends and family. DO NOT USE WRAPPING PAPER!!! Use newspaper, use cloth bags, use whatever you can use that is not going to add to the enormous pile of waste we already have on this planet! Here's some pictures:



So Please Please GO back and Click on the shopping options if you don't have all your gifts planned. And Even if you do, maybe get one more, even if its for yourself. If we all gave a little. we'd all have a little more.

World AIDS Day

http://www.worldaidscampaign.org/static/en/

So Today is World AIDS Day, so you should visit this website for a bit and look around :)
The good news is there are many new developments in the fight against AIDS and just the other day I read an article about an HIV vaccine in 4 years!
That's pretty Awesome!
The best news is that now with a little hope and a light at the end of the tunnel, talking about HIV and AIDS will become less taboo and instead we can focus on it as a real issue. So read, talk, and don't forget there are millions and millions and millions of people on earth being affect by this horrible disease. Happy World AIDS Day.