Israel/Palestine Schedule

Israel/Palestine Schedule
** Some of these details may change- it is an unpredictable region and I could get stopped at a check point or feel that due to a security situation I should not travel to a particular place.

WEEK ONE

09/01/08 M Flight from Santa Ana to Tel Aviv: Departure 11:50 am

09/02/08 TUE DAY 1 a/e: Arriving in Ben Gurion Airport (5:25 pm)
e: Travel to Jerusalem

09/15/07 MON DAY 14 m: Arrival in OC!

My Middle East Adventure

So, those who know me have been well aware of how I have dedicated the last year of my life to this trip to Israel and Palestine. After months- 19 months to be exact- of meetings, and emails and planning and fund-raising, the trip is actually going to happen! I can't even tell you what we had to go though to get here. So many different challenges. We had to raise $65,000 through a series of fundraisers, and meetings and letter campaigns. We are still about $8,000 short and thinking we might be observing Ramadan by fasting not just for religious reasons but because food was cut out of the budget. (Just kidding- kinda) We really wanted this trip to be student run and without political, religious or any other agenda. This meant being transparent about our intentions and actions while also being considerate of every idea and opinion in the group. And were there ever diverse opinions! The group consists of Israeli's, Arabs, Americans, Persians; Christians, Muslims, Jews, Druze and a variety of personal onions. All of us had our opinions and every one of us agreed to not be afraid to stand by those opinions but be respectful of those that contradict our own. We don't really know what is going to happen. It's kinda like a "Real World" (MTV) for the real world. This is the true story of 14 "strangers" picked to travel to Israel-Palestine and study the conflict to find out what happens when people confront real issues surrounding the conflict ...The Olive Tree Initiative.

haha.

So this blog is going to take a little vacation to Israel and the West Bank... I will try to post stuff as much as possible, I dont know how often I will be able to do so but since I love you all very much but not enough to pay for international phone charges, this will be the best way to reach me until I am back on September 14.

Catch you on the flip side..

xoxo

-K

“...Human conversation is the most ancient and easiest way to cultivate the conditions for change – personal change, community and organizational change, planetary change. If we can sit together and talk about what’s important to us, we begin to come alive. We share what we see, what we feel, and we listen to what others see and feel.... I believe we can change the world if we start listening to one another again. Simple, honest, human conversation. Not meditation, negotiation, problem solving, debate, or public meetings. Simple, truthful conversation where we each have a chance to speak, we each feel heard, and we each listen well.”

-Margaret Wheatley

The Obama/ Not Hillary Ticket

I keep hearing Dem's say that they can't believe that Obama didn't pick Hillary. My thoughts are that Hillary isn't done with her pursuit of Presidential office and that she doesn't want to be VP. She is hoping to run next time around. I hate to say it but she is probably even thinking that it would be good if McCain won bc then the country would be such a mess that she would be a shoe in for the next election. I don't think she feels slighted, I think she already getting ready for the next elections.

CAN JOHN MCCAIN WIN PRESIDENT? NO YOU CANT!

Murdoch voting for Obama?

Stranger things have happened..

Murdoch’s not-quite-but-almost endorsement of Barack Obama for president.

The founder -- and defender -- of Fox News said he expected Obama to win in a landslide, citing widespread unhappiness with the current administration and his disenchantment with Republican contender John McCain. Murdoch added that after a long career in the Senate, McCain had been forced to compromise too much and doesn’t stand for much. Murdoch even nonchalantly owned up to influencing the New York Post to back Obama in the New York primary.

Murdoch -- a new U.S. citizen -- said he was leaning toward actually voting for Obama in November, and would know in the next six months.

McCain May Be Old, but He's Still a Threat

McCain May Be Old, but He's Still a Threat


Old white men love their old white men. This is why young people need to get out and vote. Really do we want this 70 something year old running our country? Apparently, some say, "well, it's better than a man with dark skin or a man with a Vajajay."

McCain's Pastor says Hitler was doing God's Work

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/21/mccain-backer-hagee-said_n_102892.html
And everyone wants to focus on Obama's drama but this is second page news. Frankly I don't think this effects my opinion of McCain but why do ppl care about Obama's pastor- I don't think that matters either. Clearly, both Obama and McCain don't beleive what this religious wackos say. And they say Islamic extremists are bad.. what about the Christian extremists?

If I were a terrorist

Makes you think...

If I were a terrorist

McCain Pedia

http://www.mccainpedia.org/index.php/Main_Page

I see ...

Stimulus Checks

With Greatest Affection, Signed the IRS

by Vera H-C Chan

May 15, 2008 05:15:00 PM

Usually a missive with an Internal Revenue Service return address is about as welcome as a dusting of poison ivy.

Offer a little stimulus, however, and taxpayers can't wait. So, understandably, initial reports that 15,000 taxpayers would not be getting an IRS love letter sent the Buzz into a tizzy. Fortunately, that number turned out to be much smaller: Only 1,500 checks have been inadvertently wired to the wrong accounts. (Don't even think of keeping it!) Out of 30 million bits of ... um ... stimuli, that's an error rate of just .005%, give or take a decimal point. At least the IRS didn't toy with taxpayer affections like the agency did back in 2001.

Except there's another small snafu: The IRS also 'fessed up to forgetting to send out 300-dollar child refunds to as many as 350,000 households. Before you ask: The IRS will mail another letter copping to the error, and the checks will follow in July. The upside: The U.S. Post Office must be raking it in from its repeat customer.

By the way, if you did get a check but not your full share, SavvySugar points out that the IRS has kindly deducted back taxes or other debts in advance.

Despite all this, the government agency should feel swamped with affection. How have people loved the IRS in the past month? Let us count a few of the searches: "2008 tax rebate checks tax return" (+14,579%), "government rebate checks 2008" (+13,085%), "tax stimulus checks" (+5,798%), "federal tax rebate" (+652%), "600 dollar tax refund 2008" (+566%), "bush tax refund 2008" (+300%), and "2008 federal kicker checks rebate checks" (off the charts). The most frequent query? "When will I get my tax rebate check."

The lovefest may not stop. SavvySugar notes that a rebate repeat may be possible next year, in this IRS article found under the section "Not eligible at the current time?" Who says you can't buy love?

Starbucks International

Star and Bucks Cafe in Ramullah, Palestine

Edwards backs Obama

Edwards gives long-awaited endorsement to Obama

We cannot blame the white people.

By Bill Cosby

Here is the guy that should really be the first black president of the USA. Excerpt of a speech from May 2004... shortly thereafter Cosby visited UCI and spoke to deaf, masochistic ears. Dedicated to the Cross-Cultural Center, incompetent faculty, and all the other poor, self-victimizing souls at UCI. Maybe Chancellor Drake can take some anti-pussy pills off the Cosby train.

They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk: Why you ain't, Where you is, What he drive, Where he stay, Where he work, Who you be... And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk.

Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. In fact you will never get any kind of job making a decent living.

People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education, and now we've got these knuckleheads walking around. The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal. These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids. $500 sneakers for what? And they won't spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics.

I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit. Where were you when he was 2? Where were you when he was 12? Where were you when he was 18 and how come you didn't know that he had a pistol? And where is the father? Or who is his father?

People putting their clothes on backward: Isn't that a sign of something gone wrong? People with their hats on backward, pants down around the crack, isn't that a sign of something? Or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up? Isn't it a sign of something when she has her dress all the way up and got all type of needles [piercing] going through her body?

What part of Africa did this come from? We are not Africans. Those people are not Africans; they don't know a thing about Africa. With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail.

Brown or black versus the Board of Education is no longer the white person's problem. We have got to take the neighborhood back. People used to be ashamed. Today a woman has eight children with eight different 'husbands' — or men or whatever you call them now. We have millionaire football players who cannot read. We have million-dollar basketball players who can't write two paragraphs. We as black folks have to do a better job. Someone working at Wal-Mart with seven kids, you are hurting us. We have to start holding each other to a higher standard.

We cannot blame the white people any longer.