THE CLASH - KNOW YOUR RIGHTS

This is a public service announcement
With guitar!

Know your rights, all three of them!

Number 1:
You have the right not to be killed
Murder is a CRIME!
Unless it was done by a
Policeman or aristocrat…
Know your rights!

And Number 2:
You have the right to food money
Providing of course
You don’t mind a little
Investigation, humiliation
And if you cross your fingers
Rehabilitation…

Know your rights!
These are your rights!

Number 3:
You have the right to free speech
As long as
You’re not dumb enough to actually try it!

Know your rights,
These are your rights!
All three of ‘em!

And it has been suggested
In some quarters
That this is not enough!
Well…

Get off the streets
Run!

A NATION’S STRENGTH

What makes a nation’s pillars high
And it’s foundations strong?
What makes it mighty to defy
The foes that round it throng?

It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
Go down in battle shock;
Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
Not on abiding rock.

Is it the sword? Ask the red dust
Of empires passed away;
The blood has turned their stones to rust,
Their glory to decay.

And is it pride? Ah, that bright crown
Has seemed to nations sweet;
But God has struck its luster down
In ashes at his feet.

Not gold but only men can make
A people great and strong;
Men who for truth and honor’s sake
Stand fast and suffer long.

Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly…
They build a nation’s pillars deep
And lift them to the sky.

  — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882), American author, poet, and philosopher

Obama highlights plan for national service.

(CNN) — Sen. Barack Obama on Wednesday unveiled a plan to create volunteer and service opportunities to help tackle some of the nation’s most pressing issues, part of his weeklong focus on patriotism and national service.

“This won’t be a call issued in one speech or one program — I want this to be a central cause of my presidency,” Obama said in a speech at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs.

“We will ask Americans to serve. We will create new opportunities for Americans to serve. And we will direct that service to our most pressing national challenges.”

He added, “When you choose to serve — whether it’s your nation, your community or simply your neighborhood — you are connected to that fundamental American ideal that we want life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness not just for ourselves, but for all Americans. That’s why it’s called the American dream.”

Obama highlighted his time as a community organizer on Chicago’s South Side and his stint heading Project Vote, a group that helped register 150,000 new African-American voters in the Illinois city, according to his campaign.

“I wasn’t just helping other people. Through service, I found a community that embraced me; citizenship that was meaningful; the direction I’d been seeking. Through service, I discovered how my own improbable story fit into the larger story of America,” he said.

This sounds like an expansion of AmeriCorps, the domestic Peace Corps originally established in 1993 during Bill Clinton’s Presidency … getting people back into the community to improve life at home.

Unfortunately, John McCain’s concept of “service”, like George Bush’s, will be getting maimed or killed in the desert “defending” America against an enemy that we created.

On Tuesday:

VeloNews | Rasmussen suspended.

Denmark’s Michael Rasmussen, who was thrown out while leading the 2007 Tour de France for lying about his whereabouts, has been banned for two years by the Monaco cycling federation, the sport’s world governing body UCI said on Tuesday.

In a case brought by the UCI in February, a three-member panel organized under the authority of the Monaco Cycling Federation, ruled that Rasmussen had intentionally misled doping authorities regarding his location in the lead-up to last year’s Tour.

A UCI spokesman said the UCI had received notification of the ban from the Monaco federation, with whom Rasmussen has a licence, during the day Tuesday. The ban will run from the date of his exclusion of last year’s Tour and hence will run till July 25 2009.

Followed by, on Wednesday:

VeloNews | Rasmussen scores a win in Dutch court.

A day after he received a suspension from Monaco’s Cycling Federation, former Rabobank star Michael Rasmussen earned something of a victory when a Dutch court ruled that his former team owed him more than $1 million.

Rasmussen, who lost his license for two years on Tuesday for lying about his whereabouts in the lead-up to the 2007 Tour de France, won a partial victory in a wrongful dismissal suit he filed against Rabobank for kicking him out of the race and firing him within days.

The 34-year-old Danish rider had instituted proceedings for unlawful dismissal against his former team sponsor, demanding damages of 5.5 million euros. On Wednesday, a judge in Utrecht ruled that while Rabobank had been entitled to dismiss Rasmussen from the team, it had failed to follow procedures in doing so.

The team, sponsored by Holland’s largest bank, opted to fire Rasmussen immediately, an option Dutch law says can only be used in extreme and urgent circumstances. The judge noted that there was ample evidence to suggest that the team knew of Rasmussen’s deception well in advance of the Tour de France and should have exercised the option of keeping him off of the team’s roster.

As a result, the court found that Rasmussen was entitled to two months of salary and the 400,000 euro bonus he would have received had he won the Tour, a total award of 665,000 euro ($1.1 million).

On Tuesday, cycling’s world governing body UCI announced Rasmussen had been banned for two years by the Monaco cycling federation (FMC), where he had been licensed as a professional.

So, can I get a job working for a company where when I get fired, I can still get paid for the remainder of the year?

Oh wait … I already do … but only the now-former execs at the top of the payscale get the “here’s a shitload of money, now get the fuck out” packages.