Updated Nationwide Casualties:
===================
Over 50,000 lives lost (estimated) and 22,069 of them have been confirmed; 14,000 buried, 60,000+ trapped, 166,045 injured. Thousands of victims are students under 17.
Your ENTIRE contribution is guaranteed to go to the earthquake relief directly if you choose above options. However, for convenience, if you prefer to pay online, you can try the following. Administrative or transactional fee may apply.
Other options:
—————–
* International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) 国际红十字会 (English, Francais and Espanol)
(1). Donate by wire transfer:
Bank name: Washington Mutual
Payee title: SVTN (special fund for earthquake relief)
Routing #: 322271627
Acct #: 3170415745
Address: 690 RIVER OAKS PKWY, SAN JOSE, CA 95134-1905
(2). Donate by check:
SVTN
Attn: China Earthquake Relief
P. O. Box 1295, Fremont, CA 94538-0129
Please make your check payable to SVTN and indicate “China Earthquake Relief” in the memo area.
(3). Donate by Paypal:
Please pay to: tsinghua_foundation@yahoo.com
Pay to China Earthquake Relief .
* Company Matching Program (applicable to some US companies)
You can refer to a topic at the discussion board on this donation option.
大部分美国公司都有Matching Gift Program for慈善捐款，通常是1：1或更多。也就是说，你捐100，公司也捐100。
Currently, 6 known companies are willing to match your donation to SVTN : Google, Yahoo, Spansion, Qualcomm, eBay, HP.
It is required to add Silicon Valley Tsinghua Network into your company’s database for matching purpose. The process to add SVTN into your company’s database might take 2 day to 2 months. But you could make your donation today and send the matching request to your company HR department.
Also, please remember, company matching program do not send check for individual donation. They will collect all employee donations in certain period. Then, the company will send us a check. Typically, they send one check per quarter. We will send our company matching money to China Red Cross.
To donate directly to a Chinese Non-profit, a good choice is Jet Li’s One Foundation. Jet Li is an ambassador for the Red Cross Society of China. His fund, as of 4/15/2008, has raised RMB 10,677,267 ($6,590/RMB 46,130 from Paypal donations)
The site is in Chinese only, but I have read it. One key point to know about your donation there:
1. The FULL amount of your donation will be transferred to the Red Cross Society of China.
The website provides full transparency on how its funds are distributed.
I Googled the foundation and found quite a bit of press coverage, so I felt comfortable posting it as a donation destination.
—— U.S.
——
FINALLY! You can now donate directly to the American Red Cross China Relief fund. The link is provided below, before you donate, please read the paragraphs regarding fund use:
A recent post in this group mentions the possibility that donations to the American Red Cross does not fully transfer over to the Red Cross Society of China. I am attempting to reach the local director of the Red Cross in my area for a clarification on the exact use of fund for everyone, but probably won’t get an answer until tomorrow afternoon.
If anyone has any clarification on the matter please let everyone know ASAP.
However, your donation maybe be put to best use by directly wiring money to the Red Cross Society of China (listed in the CHINA section) or through Jet Li’s One Foundation (listed in the INTERNATIONAL section) rather than the American Red Cross.
More updates to come.
——– CHINA
——–
Directly wiring your donation to Chinese banks is possible:
Account name: Red Cross Society of China
开户单位：中国红十字会总会
RMB Donations:
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China:
人民币开户行: 中国工商银行 北京分行东四南支行
人民币账号: 0200001009014413252
Foreign Current Donations:
CITIC Bank branch:
外币开户行：中信银行酒仙桥支行
外币账号: 7112111482600000209
Hotline: (8610) 65139999
Online donations:
Red Cross Society of China website: www.redcross.org.cn
It was a good Friday night out watching Harold and Kumar 2, eating out in Koreatown and eventually going out for a night of karaoke again.
It has been said that things happen for a certain reason. Maybe that’s true or maybe not. Then again, what are the odds I would actually meet someone from my distant past in a place like New York City? A place with a population of over 20 million with hundreds of thousands if not millions of people traveling in and out of the city on an almost hourly basis.
The odds are incredibly low given that no other person besides me would have known the exact places, events, people and even streets from my so-called hometown. It’s a so-called hometown because I don’t identify with it in any way, shape or form even though I lived there for several years. If anyone asked in the past, I simply tell them my hometown is around Ontario and go out of my way to distance myself from French Canada.
It was interesting because the things that happened there really affected how I saw myself for several years. This is also one of the reasons why I am so interested in Asian-American issues and their goal to destroy all stereotypes associated with the White-imposed “Model Minority” view of Asians.
Whenever, I talk about my real background, people either tell me I need more “imagination”, claim I lifted my account from a disadvantaged minority (Black or Hispanic) or say I completely fabricated it. Then my so-called fellow “Model Minorities” often dismiss me as a reject because I completely deviated from their cookie-cutter Asian-American background.
I really don’t like talking about that aspect of my life. It’s unpleasant and really can bring the worst out of me. Yet, it is a crude reminder on why I am still here and moving along. It also a reason why I had to purge myself of my knowledge of the French language, abandon my Catholic upbringing from the missionaries who regularly visited the Quebecois schools (I gradually lost faith in God from my time in America), and why I went out of my way to changing myself.
I think the person I met may have been in my kindergarten class back in the day if I think she is who I think she is. I know the story was a bit outrageous at first and there was a need to find my grade school pictures on facebook, which was on record. She found me and a flood of emotions and memories started coming again. People I knew back then seemed to have turned out fine based on their present-day pictures on facebook.
The nice girl I knew still looked the same and a bit older. The asshole I knew from the past still looked like an asshole and a wannabe Eurotrash while the shy girl looked friendlier. The red-haired girl also turned out ok and I think she was the only Anglophone in that class I actually talked to. This may explain why certain names and personalities seemed to resonate when I was in America. It must be from some residual memories that still lingered from all these years.
Facebook can be interesting and some must be surprised that I was tagged on the old pictures and the girl who posted them must be wondering who the hell I am since I never went by my current name in the past. I essentially disappeared after first grade and no one from that school would have heard from me ever since. It wasn’t so much the discrimination though that actually worsened after I transferred from the Canadian school to the Quebecois school, but the fact I was living in a very broken home.
This was the reason why I was such a jerk to the girls. Chucking snowballs, pranks and assorted antics on the girls and being picked on by most of the French kids at that time. The then-father didn’t care since he just dismissed me as the person who started the fights and told the administration not to bother if anything happened to me. Failed nearly every exam and rarely got any real work done, which meant I learned nothing at that time.
Well, they can be assured that I am still living and breathing and still sane despite living in America for nearly a decade. They should know I did not drop out of high school, get hooked on drugs or alcohol and did not get some girl pregnant, or involved in organised crime (or worse). They can know that I did graduate from both high school and college with scholarships, lived in a stable home for the most part, and better off than before. Most of all, I am more content with my life that I was in years.
I honestly believe the school administration failed to intervene since they just dismissed the problem as just a difference in culture or they just didn’t have the means to deal with it at the time. The fact that nearly every organized institution from the public or the family unit has failed me in my life is one reason why I am so distrustful of institutions and more individualistic than others.
It was suggested that I talk about these things on a blog or something along those lines. There was a time when I did this during my college days, and the things I wrote were used against me by my then-friends, people professing to be pious Christians and immature girls. People used it to put me down or used the information to harm me for their own benefit.
So I will not go in depth on myself and I rather talk in person with people I trust or like for now. I think this will be enough for tonight and I look forward to a pleasant and warm Sunday.
I think people should stop making money bombs for Ron Paul’s moribund presidential campaign and instead focus on getting money bombs for his congressional re-election campaign so he can continue his fight as a Congressman. The February 18th money bomb for his presidential campaign will pale significantly compared to his 51st Wedding Anniversary bomb, which barely raked in $1 million, and the MLK money bomb before that, which barely took in $2 million. Ever since the Tea Party money bomb that raised $6 million, everything that has happened since the primaries began have gradually chipped away at the Ron Paul Revolution.
I have no regrets donating to past money bombs or even voting for Paul during Super Tuesday, but people need a reality check at this time. Help Dr. Paul by helping his congressional campaign, the Republican party has already drank the kool-aid by choosing McCain. Let these idiots commit political suicide because Ron Paul pointed out the GOP deserves a loss for becoming disconnected with America for their own deluded party ideals. We should also note that the Democratic primary turnouts have been consistently higher when compared to the state-by-state turnout by the Republican party.
Change is coming and the best thing Ron Paul supporters should do is:
A) Donate to Ron Paul’s congressional campaign so he does not lose his District’s congressional nomination to a pro-Bush neocon. We have failed to generate enough voters in the Presidential primaries. Let’s prevent another mistake from happening on Paul’s own turf.
B) Start dissuading conservatives, or independents from voting McCain this coming November. The GOP drank their kool-aid and it’s time they reaped the errors of their ways
C) Ensure that the lesser of two evils in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama wins the primary. Dr. Paul has noted they share similarities in social views despite having strong differences over views in economics and state regulation.
That being said, it’s time to transition the Revolution into a leaner and more focused machine to help Paul get reelected in the Texas 14th district. The time is ripe to spread awareness of the Ron Paul Congressional Money Bomb scheduled for April 1st.
Best ways to promote Ron Paul’s April Fools Congressional Money Bomb
Call 10 friends - We all have friends who are fellow Ron Paul supporters. Please call 10 of your friends and make sure they know about todays money bomb. Ask each of those ten friends to do the same.
Donate as much as you can EARLY! - Momentum is very important with a money bomb. By donating all of your money at once and earlier in the day you help create momentum that the press and blogosphere will pick up, creating even more donations throughout the day.
Post on Ron Paul related Blogs, News articles and Diggs - Visit Ron Paul blog posts, news articles and digg type sites (reddit as well:), respond to the posts with something relevant then close by mentioning that today (January 21, 200 is the money bomb day and to donate at RonPaul2008.com now.
If we do these three things this day will be a tremendous success!!
Our government consists of three major branches. Each of them are bound with the task of keeping the other in line and in accordance with the constitution. Today all three branches have failed at this task in one way or another. The difficult truth is that fixing just one branch of our government will not solve our nation’s problems.
As the promise of Ron Paul’s 2008 congressional reelection draws near, another opportunity also presents itself: the congressional elections. If we are going to be a movement, stronger and more likely to succeed than any one man or any one political race’s outcome, then we must seize all opportunities to fix our government. Ignoring this year’s congressional elections, at a time when our country needs real change more than ever before, is not a mistake we can afford.
No one can know the outcome of this years presidential election, but we do know that congressmen Ron Paul has a neo-con rival aiming to take his congressional seat.
Congressman Ron Paul must raise $500,000 to assure he has the funds needed for victory in the Republican primary. Over $100,000 has already been raised but more is still needed.
Call 10 friends - We all have friends who are fellow Ron Paul supporters. Please call 10 of your friends and make sure they know about todays money bomb. Ask each of those ten friends to do the same.
Donate as much as you can EARLY! - Momentum is very important with a money bomb. By donating all of your money at once and earlier in the day you help create momentum that the press and blogosphere will pick up, creating even more donations throughout the day.
Post on Ron Paul related Blogs, News articles and Diggs - Visit Ron Paul blog posts, news articles and digg type sites (reddit as well:), respond to the posts with something relevant then close by mentioning that April 1st (April 1, 200 is the money bomb day and to donate at RonPaulforCongress.com now.
If we do these three things this day will be a tremendous success!!
The Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary are only a few days away. Wyoming, Michigan, Nevada, South Carolina, Florida and Maine will soon follow. But on February 5th, nearly 20 other states will hold their contests on the same day! That’s right. In just six short weeks, the Republican nominee for president will likely be determined.
As Wikipedia explains: “In the Spring of 2007, upwards of 20 states with over half the delegates to the national conventions moved to change their primary dates to 5 February 2008, creating the largest ‘Super Tuesday’ to date. Newswriters and political pundits have noted that this will dwarf the Super Tuesday primaries in previous cycles, creating a ‘Giga Tuesday’ or ‘Super Duper Tuesday.’”
A year’s worth of work is coming down to the next several weeks. Victory can be ours. But we must triple our efforts and triple the amount of money raised right away.
To run radio and television ads in 20 states simultaneously will cost a fortune. Not to mention the cost of voter contact mailings to those 20 states. And then there is the cost of contacting hundreds of thousands of people by phone. All of this, plus other projects, will cost $23 million more than we presently have in the bank.
The progress we’ve made in 11 months is phenomenal. The dedication, creativity, generosity, and just plain hard work by you and tens of thousands of other Americans have already made history.
But we are not finished making history! First, Ron Paul becomes the Republican nominee. Second, Dr. Paul becomes President Paul. Third, our country becomes America again.
I can’t help but notice there has been vocal hostility to Ron Paul from the least likely groups: liberals and neoconservatives. Before I go on, I would like to point out that there are two kinds of left-leaning groups in America: there are the progressive, who often lean on the left and are able to explain their viewpoints, and then there are liberals, who are often are automatically against anything from the right, resort to petty insults, or support an idea just because it sounds good without thorough evaluation. Examples of progressives include Dennis Kucinich, Morgan Spurlock, and Martin Luther King while liberals are best exemplified by Michael Moore, Mike Gravel and Rosie O’Donnell.
On the other end of the spectrum you have a group of right-leaning American who profess to be neoconservatives or Republicans. These people would simply support the Bush administration simply because they are Republicans without examining whether their policies benefit them as individuals and loyal party members, or they support the government because they think it is patriotic to mindlessly support it. Then there are those who decide to identify themselves as neoconservatives or conservatives without understanding the true nature of American neoconservativism or classical American conservatism itself.
These people actually believe that conservatism involves creating a strong state, trading away freedom for security or engaging in unprovoked wars. It does not help that these groups are reluctant to have objective dialogue on the issues but preferring to simply question people’s patriotism or insulting them. Examples of such individuals are Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Rudy Giuliani, and Ann Coulter.
So let’s be very clear that this post is critical of both the so-called ersatz conservatives and irrational liberals in regards to Ron Paul.
So far, it seems both liberals and conservatives dislike Ron Paul based on the assumption that he is incompetent.
Some examples liberals give are the following:
1. He prefers tax credits for reducing healthcare costs rather than state-controlled health insurance
(counterpoint: Ron Paul would prefer the individual recoups his or her medical costs in the form of a tax deduction that can reduce the cost of income tax. In some cases these deductions can eventually lead to a tax refund check that will return funds to the individual and the amount of tax credit depends on the level of healthcare. He would also deregulate some of the health insurance laws so there would no be any limits of what providers would be available in each state.
Whereas, the government would simply tax everyone the same amount of money regardless whether the person received medical care or not in a state-run health insurance scheme. There would also be little or no alternatives available for socialised heath insurance and a two-tier heathcare system would remain for those who can afford private insurance.)
2. He is supposedly a bitch-ass pussy for wanting to reduce government
(counterpoint: Ron Paul has mentioned that the Federal budget needs to be cut in addition to reducing taxes. America’s current spending is catastrophic due to the rising costs associated with Iraq are increasing, the growing deficit from increased borrowing from China and Japan, the expanded bureaucracy such as Homeland Security, and from federal entitlement programmes. This is happening at a time when the Bush administration reduced taxes without covering for these increased costs and at a time when the dollar is loosing value as the world tries to find alternatives from American financial influence.
I am sure liberals and statists would love to have a bloated bureaucracy, but the reality is that America will become a bankrupt, backward, and excessively bureaucratic society if spending isn’t curbed in our lifetime. Also, Ron Paul will allow individuals to opt out of paying for entitlement programmes without cutting any of them.
This video explains the problem in greater detail, but I doubt many liberals would bother to watch because they may not like what they hear.)
3. He is a bitch-ass pussy because some racists support him
(counterpoint: Yes Ron Paul did receive some open donations from racists such as David Duke and Don Black. He has also received donations from thousands of non-racists, ethnic minorities, Christians, Jews, Muslims, the LGBT community, progressives, libertarians, conservatives, and genuine reformers. For every White Supremacist there are hundreds if not thousands of regular campaign contributors.
Some liberals enjoy making a big deal out of these handful of donors by making blog entries that imply Paul is a klansman, a neo-nazi, a Southern slaveowner, and other labels that imply Ron Paul is a bigot. Ron Paul is not a racist, but a man who supports basic freedom and a defender of minority rights from the “tyranny of the majority” that liberals and neocons would like to see happen if they got their way.
People need to remember that Ron Paul actually participated in the “All-American Presidential Forum” debates on September 27, 2007 to discuss issues that affected the African-American and Hispanic communities while Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney and John McCain skipped it. We should remember that Romney admitted to crying when the Mormon (LDS) church leaders decided to allow African-Americans into their religion while Giuliani supported the NYPD officers who shot Amadou Diallo after he was racially profiled as a suspected rapist.)
Now here are some examples neocons give for hating Ron Paul:
1. He is a bitch-ass punk dickhead because he wants to abolish the income tax
(counterpoint: Ron Paul does want to abolish the income tax because it is already a heavy tax burden on those who are already paying taxes in the form of reduced interest rates, payroll taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, and telephone taxes. We are already paying just enough taxes and getting rid of the Internal Revenue Service would significantly streamline the functions performed by the Department of Treasury. Most of the income tax in the past was often set aside as a means to pay off the federal deficit, but now most of the income tax is going to pay for foreign aid and the military in Iraq.
The problem with appropriating these funds for defence is that most of the funds are being allocated to companies close to the Bush administration that received no-bid contracts and often overcharge the government for inadequate work in the region. Foreign aid is another problem because it doesn’t necessarily payoff and those funds could have been better spent taking care of America’s deficit and help the taxpayers in the country. Ron Paul is not out to abolish all taxes as people would think, but simply removing the income tax as a way to remove the IRS, and to allow taxpayers to keep more of their disposable income for better use.)
2. He is a bitch-ass nutjob because he wants to reduce America’s global military presence.
(counterpoint: America’s global military presence needs to be reduced because America no longer has the proper resources to maintain such a presence and still have money to finance an ongoing war and reduced federal taxes. Many of these countries do not like American troop presence in their country because they perceive as an interference of their national affairs and it undermines their national sovereignty.
For example, there is growing support among Koreans for the removal of US Forces in South Korea because they feel their presence is a barrier from eventually reunification with the North Koreans, US soldiers often the source of crime against locals, and see it as a another form of foreign imperialism. Japan on the other hand has problems with US troops in Okinawa who have been known to sexually assault the local women, create massive pollution from their bases, and are considered an impediment for Japan’s national sovereignty.
Most of all, nothing good has come out of America’s presence in Iraq. Although, America did oust Saddam Hussein from power, their post-war mismanagement of Iraq has resulted in increased violence, a civil war, and the eventual dismembering of Iraq by the Kurds, Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims. Most of all over a quarter million Iraqi civilians and thousands of American soldiers have been killed or horribly maimed from a war they fought without any clear goals or understanding. I hate to say it but America’s domineering military presence in the world has generated more harm than good in most cases.)
3. He is a punk retard who thinks good Americans provoked terrorists
(counterpoint: According to the 9/11 Commission Report and CIA analysts, Al-Qaeda attacked America on 9/11 as a culmination of America’s presence on holy soil in Saudi Arabia, for support of Israel against the Palestinians, and for enforcing a “No-Fly Zone” and sanctions on Iraq. The concept of blowback is defined as the unintended consequences from covert or military actions taken by the United States. So anyone who actually thinks America was attacked for being the largest economy in the world or being “free” simply does not understand the real purpose for Al-Qaeda’s attacks on US embassies, on the USS Cole, and eventually the attacks on 9/11.
If America was simply attacked for being one of the world’s largest economy, then how come Japan, China, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Canada haven’t been wiped off the map yet? If America was attacked for its “freedom” then how come countries that are ranked higher in the World press freedom index not completely wiped off the map? There are many countries that are just as free and economically developed as American, yet they were never considered a target by terrorists until they collaborate with America in their War of Terror. Something worth considering for those who actually believe that a crusade against “Islamofascists (who are actually just a radical minority)” through endless war will bring peace.)
I think this is it for tonight. Liberals and self-professed neocons should seriously consider visiting the library, reading the news and form an opinion before taking sides on a particular issue. Taking a side without any research or an unwillingness to have dialogue with others will simply lead to a shouting match and insults based on misguided views that will only make the situation worse. This holds true for most of the liberals and neocons who decide to bash Ron Paul without knowing the facts and doing it purely for emotion.
I repeat the Tea Party is in play! The NYC Ron Paul fundraiser Party was a success!
It was covered by both CNN and the local NY1 News channels. Over 125 individuals turned up and began bombing funds when it struck midnight. The next phase of Ron Paul 2008 is in play! We already broke $12 million as of this writing. Keep it up guys!
You guys gotta go to your local Ron Paul meetups! They are a lot of fun and it’s great to have dialogue with so many interesting people.
We had Brazilians, Canadians, Germans, Filipinos, and many others who wanted to support Ron Paul. A cross-section of NYC’s most diverse were there to lend support and bring their friends to the message!!!
If you live in the NYC area please stop by the NYC Ron Paul campaign headquarters!
NYC Ron Paul HQ
515 W. 29th St.
New York NY 10003
646-623-1020
Good news: We just beat the $12 million goal so far. Keep the moneybombs flowing! We gotta drop bombs like Hiroshima!
I had recently learned that facebook has been disabling accounts on a wide basis in these past months. This appears to be the case when they discreetly added rate limits to their platform in their recent update package. Some users were disabled simply for sending out too many facebook messages, wall posts or discussion posts at any time, which is automatically considered spam. A few others were simply disabled for attempting to change their account names.
So far this mass shutdown has affected the “heavy users” or those who frequently post on group discussions. In large groups with heavy activity a user can produce about 10-50 posts in less than an hour, which is flagged as abuse or spam in the facebook automated bots. It really seems odd that facebook would impose post limits when the ability to socialise in a wide setting seems to be the SNS’s ultimate goal.
Plus, this heavy activity allows Facebook to acquire loads of data that can be used to mine for information that could be applied to marketing agencies, ongoing platform development, and even sent to the CIA (Facebook’s original backers). It seems odd they would just penalise a wide array of users just for helping them generate information and users through their actions.
After doing a blog search on google with the keywords “facebook disabled account”, I found several posts just from the month of August discussing the disabled accounts. Many of these accounts were largely due to facebook being unable to handle too many messages, too many wall posts, or discussion posts. A few of these disabled accounts involve developers creating applications that were just sucking up capacity in the facebook platform. So after hours if not months of work creating a killer facebook application, a developer suddenly learns his account is deactivated because his facebook app was so well-received.
Note: There is no customer service telephone number for this organisation, and my calls and subsequent messages to their Palo Alto headquarters went unreturned. We are imprisoned by the current facebook monopoly. All of the contact information that we ever need is on this site and so much more information too.
Oh well. I doubt anyone will get to read or see this because my blog won’t be fed into my mini-feed… because I don’t even have an account let alone a mini-feed right now! Come to think of it - that’s one other lesson to learn from this…. how many email addresses of your friends that you have found on facebook do you have backed up? Im guessing it’s a similar percentage to me… Maybe if you read this, you should also take out of it that your next ‘note’ posted on facebook, is to ask them to all send you their proper emails to have as a back-up outside of the Facebook wall.
It’s a problem when users are suddenly disabled without real warning. Sometimes random messages will flash saying you are abusing or spamming the group boards, yet all members are responding within seconds in an active thread. How can this be spamming, when a topic is generating such enthusiasm, adding to the discussion, and populated by nearly a quarter million users? The worst part about facebook’s arbitrary and uncoordinated disabling of accounts is that none of these users are even aware there are limits on using facebook, especially when it was constantly marketed as a social network that encourages activity..
Here is something another blogger said about all of this:
Dear Bloggers, and the Facebook Staff
I am somwhat tired of this charade.
So, this is a message to Facebook and the Facebook staff, start to consider that perhaps you are destroying countless hours of work, and are now starting to agitate a large number of powerful users.
You have limited time to re-active those accounts that you have mindlessly disabled before you will encounter a rather ferocios shit-storm like you have never encountered before. Trust me, we all just want to be happy, but your mechanistic failure to adapt will leave you with a gaping hole.
Never underestimate the power of large groups of angry people
Here are some other blogs that go futher on the problem
is the money bomb day and to donate at RonPaul2008.com now.
