The battle has ground on for 20 years. In 1989 and again in 1994, a clear majority of nurses at a Louisville, Ky., hospital signed cards saying they wanted a union. But each time a majority of the nurses later voted down the idea when it was put to a secret ballot.

Right now, unions seem to lack the 60 votes needed to block a Senate filibuster against the Employee Free Choice Act, the bill that would give workers the right to have their union recognized as soon as a majority signs cards calling for a union. The change would make it easy to bypass secret-ballot elections, which are traditionally harder for unions to win.

Issue that Coleman continues to examine is differences from one county to another. Absentee ballots are required to have a co-signer who is a registered voter. Some counties do and others do not. Carver County, a very small county likely to support Coleman had 187 absentee ballots denied due to non-registered co-signers Three other counties, Hennepin, Ramsey and St.Louis, very likely to support Franken had zero such ballots rejected. Franken sez coincidence but I think not. This is the main basis for Coleman's appeal to the Supreme Court.

THREE CUPS OF TEA

One Man’s Mission To Promote Peace….One School At A Time

First cup of tea means guest, Second cup of tea means friend, Third cup of tea means family.

A book titled Three Cups Of Tea written by Greg Mortenson who started as a mountain climber , then a nurse,, two years in the US armed
services and a builder of schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Starting in the year 1993 he has built seventy-eight schools to educate 28,000 children through the 5th grade and focused on increasing the enrollment of girls.,As said by Mortenson,
” Once you educate the boys , they tend to leave the villages and go to search for work in the cities. But the girls stay home , become leaders in the community, and pass on what they have learned. If you really want to change a culture to empower women, improve basic hygiene and health care and fight high rates of infant mortality, the answer is to educate girls.” For more information see www.threecupsoftea.com or www.ikat.org
or call 406-585-7841.

During the year 2009 Greg Mortenson has a very busy speaking schedule throughout the United States and also in Oslo Norway. He had two events in the state of Minnesota at Luther Seminary and Blake School in January. He will spend three months of 2009 in Pakistan and Afghanistan supervising work of the Central Asia Institute and encouraging the citizens to take the lead.

Central Asia Institute is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 1996 with the mission to promote and support community-based education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mortenson’s work was catalyzed when he met Dr. Hoerni a Swiss physicist and a Silicon Valley microchip pioneer, who provided funding for the first two projects, a bridge over the Baldu River and a school in Korphe Village. From 1993 to 1996 Mortenson spent the majority of his time living and working in the rugged Karakoram mountain villages of Northern Pakistan. Mortenson learned to appreciate the vitality and resourcefulness of the Balti Mountain people and how remarkably skilled the people are to survive and live under the harshest conditions .

The tribal communities of northern Pakistan taught Mortenson a critical lesson in their first five years of existence:. Sustainable and successful development can only occur when projects are entirely initiated, implemented and managed by local communities. It is important to listen and learn from the local communities served, rather than impose external values or judgment of what is best from an outsider’s perspective. The philosophy to empower the local people through their own initiative is at the heart of all CAI programs.

Greg Mortenson, co-founder and Executive Director of Central Asia Institute, began his work in northern Pakistan in 1993. He also lived overseas for many years, growing up on the slopes of Mount Kilmanjaro where his parents were missionaries and builders of a hospital from the state of Minnesota.. Greg was born on December 27,1957 in St. Cloud, MN, graduated from Ramsey School in Roseville in 1975 and played football and graduated from Concordia College in 1979. He obtained a nursing degree at University of South Dakota in 1983 and worked as a nursing supervisor , ina hospital emergency room and in San Fransisco General Hosital as a trauma nurse in between frequent expeditions to the Himalayas to climb mountains.

In 1993 Mortenson was descending from his failed attempt to reach the peak of K2. Exhausted and disoriented, he wandered away from his group into the most desolate reaches of northern Pakistan. Alone, without food, water, or shelter he eventually stumbled into an impoverished Pakistani village where he was nursed back to health. His initial development efforts were first inspired by the Balti people who saved his life.

Pennies for Peace, one of their basic fundraising organizations, educates children about the world beyond their experience and shows them that they can make a positive impact on a global scale, one penny at a time.
One penny is not worth that much. But one penny can buy a pencil for a schoolchild in Pakistan. Imagine what millions of pennies can do.
Our best hope for a peaceful and prosperous world lies in the education of all the world’s children. Through cross-cultural understanding and a solution-oriented approach, Pennies for Peace encourages children, ultimately our future leaders, to be active participants in the creation of global peace.

Central Asia Institute community projects continue to focus primarily in remote, underserved regions where few organizations serve. Since 2005, CAI refined and focused it’s priority to focus mainly on rural education and literacy , especially for girls. This also includes ongoing teacher training programs , to establish libraries, and provide temporary education in regions of natural disaster or crisis.

Letter from Robert Derickson to his sister Dorothy from Nagasaki Japan soon after the surrender of Japan on August 15, 1945

The article on the BATTAN DEATH MARCH was very good and the way it really was.. Many of the prisoners of the Japs in Nagasaki at the Rikkad Prison Camp were in that march.. Our ship the USS Mobile CL63 was the first to ship in Nagasaki and immediately we removed the prisoners there.. The prisoners told me that if they worked in the mine they got a #1 straight bowl of food every three days and a #2 bowl if they could not work or march to the mine.. A #1 bowl consisted of fish gizzards, sea weed and water. #2 bowl was just water soup. All the guys looked like HOLOCAUST, pot bellied, skin and bones and gaunt. Each crew member was assigned 3 guys to watch over on your off duty time. Sugar, food or drink would almost kill them as their bodies were not used to food. Of the first 700 men we took back to Okinawa 87 died.. I will never forget the Japs INHUMANITY TO MAN. I saw it with my own eyes and I cried. MY GOD WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? I was so proud to keep these victims of the MADDNESS OF WAR. We were to take 4 loads of these men on August 21, 700, August 25, 600, August 30, 400, Sept. 9, 500 back to Okinawa where they had set up LSTs to care for them.
We hit that OKINAWA TYPHOON with a load of POWs aboard. The heaving sea took it’s toll. We rolled 49 degrees and the screws were OUT OF THEWATER. A lot of the weak men got worse and some died.. On September 10 or so I lost all of my front teeth going down an escape trunk to the port side shaft allys. We sprung a leak in a 42 inch shaft seal. I had to pump tar like seal compound to try and keep the WATER OUT. The aft emergency diesel generator was flooded and out of action he degaussing gear was gone and the shaft ally was waist high in water...Many men were injured in that typhoon. Equipment was busting up all over below decks and in the engine spaces. We lost all or gear topside , even our radar. The worst injury cases were put on the hospital ship, the SAMARITAN and the REPOSE. Those ships looked like destroyers and Des screws out of the water .and decks awash. Our sick bay was full and when I went in they pulled out five roots of my teeth (no Novocain) and set my broken nose was set with two steel rods.. I had a headache for two weeks but I was never put on light duty in the engine room and equipment was a mess. Anyone that could TOUCH AN ARC was welding all the repair parties were on a full condition A . I had a hard time eating due to my teeth but I was well off. The POWs were all bruised and hurting . What a way for them to ENTER FREEDOM. The sea calmed down and once again sea birds were flying over mast. The OLIVE BRANCH had been delivered. (Navy Hymn)” Eternal Father strong to save whose arm doth bind the wretched wave. Oh hear us when we cry to thee for those in peril on the sea”. Soon the HOMEWARD BOUND pennants will fly from the mast for ships going stateside to the red white and blue water of the American Theatre and the return to GOOD OLD USA. WOW WHAT A GOOD FEELING.

P,S. I never got to go back stateside because I was transferred to another ship the UPS Springfield CL66 to complete my enlistment time.. ROB

Good example of high class people is demonstrated by the behavior of the conservatives (Republicans) at the many Tea Parties on April 15. The biggest example of riot and civil disturbance was when they threw tea bags in a box. When liberals (Democrats) protest anything there is sure to be riot,window smashing, bashing police and flag burning.

Good example of low class is the person, probably a Franken supporter, who egged Norm Coleman's home and called him an effn Republican. We Republicans have too much class to put on such a show.