Monthly Archives: March 2011

Weekly Tweets 2011-03-27

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  • Wow! It smells like spring (wet earth, anyway). #
  • Weekend was relaxing; supermoon was a bust but it was nice driving to the lake. #
  • Flights being xxled at MIA due to lack of fuel. Some disruptions to travel, oh joy. #
  • RT @OTOOLEFAN "How fired is that air traffic controller at Reagan Airport?" Pretty fired if he's the same one that locked himself out before #
  • RT @petersagal "The cover of @Waitwait's debut 1986 album, "Straight Outta Waterbury." http://moby.to/owti1d" Karl in da house! #
  • I like making new words; "snorfleguffaw" is my gift to the world (and it's already in iPhone spellcheck). #
  • RT @LIDiocese: Churches in NYC are asked to ring their bells Fri, March 25th at noon at the 100th Aniv of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire." #
  • Gov LaPage of Maine paints over labor history but we remember the Triangle Shirtwaist fire victims anyway. http://is.gd/VnXTN6 #
  • GOP Congress wants to starve families of striking workers. Really? On the Triangle anniversary? #p2 http://is.gd/Cr8MlF #

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Kids Helping Kids Across Borders

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This is very nice news. Kids helping out other kids, and adults going out of their way to help, too.

March is graduation month for students across Japan, and each spring Minori Yamaki teaches traditional songs and dances to her students at a Japanese preschool in northwest suburban Niles.

The lyrics express gratitude to friends and teachers and bid farewell to their school, especially poignant themes for this year’s graduates in the wake of the earthquake that rocked northeastern Japan on March 11.

On Sunday, Yamaki’s students, ages 3 to 6, expressed thanks to hundreds of people who donated money to relief efforts at a fundraiser in Mitsuwa Marketplace in Arlington Heights. The store is an Asian mega-grocery that is a destination for Japanese expatriates from across the Midwest.

“I’m overwhelmed. The people are so generous,” said Yamaki, director of the Japanese preschool at St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church. Yamaki said she watched customers entering the store fill a 55-gallon drum with donations of checks and cash.

By Sunday afternoon, the barrel was growing full, and Yamaki estimated that it held a few thousand dollars. The barrel will remain at Mitsuwa, which sees thousands of shoppers each day, for the rest of the month. The money raised will be donated to the Red Cross for relief efforts in Japan, Yamaki said.

via Preschool students at Arlington Heights store help raise money for Japanese earthquake victims – chicagotribune.com.

Weekly Tweets 2011-03-20

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Sen. Durbin Takes On James OKeefe | @RepJoeWalsh needs schooling

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NPR may be in a defensive crouch, but at least one Democratic lawmaker is publicly pushing back against James OKeefes war on public broadcasting: Sen. Dick Durbin D-IL.Durbin took to the Senate floor on Monday to mount a defense of NPR and PBS and attack OKeefes credibility. Noting that previous OKeefe tapes have been found to be misleadingly edited, including his footage of ACORN in which he posed as a pimp, Durbin said that the same tactics were being used to go after NPR. He cited a widely circulated analysis by Glenn Becks website, The Blaze, as evidence.”Mr. OKeefe appears to be engaged in creative editing again, and this time his target is National Public Radio,” he said. “Thats not just my opinion. The website of none other than Fox News own Glenn Beck — thats right, Glenn Beck — compares the edited and unedited versions of Mr. OKeefes latest video and concludes that the edited version appears to be deceptively edited in order to portray statements by one of the secretely recorded NPR execs out of context.”

GOOD JOB Sen. Durbin, now sit my Congressman, Joe Walsh, down and tell him how he’s made a fool of himself by voting to defund NPR. Also, please get on Twitter.

via Sen. Durbin Takes On James OKeefe | TPMDC.

Weekly Tweets 2011-03-13

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U.S. troops, searchers and equipment arriving in Japan – CNN.com

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Via:

(CNN) — The first wave of promised aid from the United States began arriving in Japan on Saturday in the wake of the devastating 8.9-magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami.
More aid — in the form of equipment, staffers and search-and-rescue teams — was expected to arrive Sunday.
In Shiroishi, a town near the area hardest hit by the quake, two SH-60 helicopters from U.S. Naval Air Facility Atsugi delivered 1,500 pounds of rice and bread donated by people in Ebina, southeast of Tokyo, the U.S. 7th Fleet, said in a statement Saturday. The fleet is headquartered in Yokosuka, just outside Tokyo.
Two destroyers, the USS McCampbell and USS Curtis Wilbur, were off Japan’s Boso Peninsula, which shelters Tokyo Bay, and were preparing to move into position “to assist Japanese authorities with providing at-sea search and rescue and recovery operations,” the 7th Fleet said.
An additional destroyer, the USS Mustin, will depart Yokosuka on Sunday. Eight other U.S. ships are en route to Japan from various locations, set to arrive Sunday or later in the week, according to the 7th Fleet. One, the USS Tortuga, departed Japan Saturday night to pick up two helicopters in South Korea before returning in about two days.
Three ships from the USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group also are among the eight ships, the military said. “USS Ronald Reagan is prepared to serve as an afloat platform for refueling Japan Self Defense Force and other helicopters involved in rescue and recovery efforts ashore,” it said.

Linkdump: March 8th – March 11th

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