Greg Jones' launches OPERATION FREE PeaceTone

Greg Jones, composer of what many consider to be the New Anthem for World Peace has announced the launch of 'Operation FREE PeaceTone', where his special peace song entitled GOD BLESS THE WORLD-NOT JUST AMERICA is now available as a cell phone ringtone for absolutely FREE ! Everyone, worldwide can now have the chorus of the special peace anthem sent directly to their cell phones to be used as ringtones absolutely FREE. 'We'd like to see at least 6 million cell phone owners with the peace anthem as their ringtone as a way to spread the musical message of Peace,' states Jones, the writer, composer, producer and performer of the new special peace CD which is garnering accolades worldwide. This free ringtone will be instantly sent to your cell phone for free, in real tone (which means sounds like the CD) and will ring the beautifully harmonic message 'God Bless the World, Not Just America, God Bless the whole wide world, so we can live in Peace...'. Operation PeaceTone is geared to catch on fast and we've offered the special Peace ringtone for free to make it easily accessible to everyone, worldwide, so that when their phones ring, they are simultaneously spreading the message of Peace,' Jones adds. We would like everyone to tell at least 6 friends about the free PeaceTone so that we can create a quick, worldwide snowball effect. 'There would be nothing more wonderful than if all phones worldwide were ringing the message of world peace', states Jones. A bit more info: "WOW'...'BEAUTIFUL'...' possibly the most important musical message of today'! These are a few of the responses regarding the hot new Maxi-Single CD recording entitled GOD BLESS THE WORLD-WHILE YOU BLESS AMERICA (aka... Not Just America) written, produced and performed by Cleveland, Ohio native GREG JONES. With a We are the World 'feel', this special release is a unique blend of adult contemporary, easy listening, soul and inspiration combined with a powerful message of peace and harmony. In fact, the special CD was recorded on the same mixing board which was owned by Kenny Rogers and used by Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson and others for the 'We are the World' project. A section of the song's lyrics reads 'God bless the world...not just America...God Bless the whole wide world...so our kids can live in harmony...God bless the world'! "It is very important that our leaders realize the importance of desiring that our entire world be blessed, here in America, in the Sudan, Europe, Israel, Iraq...everywhere! If the world is not blessed, we're all in trouble", states Jones regarding his motivation for this powerful musical message. Jones recently signed an internet distribution deal with FineTunes (Germany) which will promote the special release for legal downloads on sites such as ITunes, MusicLoad, Sony Connect, NuFonix, EMusic, Beatport, OD2, MusicMatch, Napster and more. The anthem is now available on over 125 music sites worldwide! The Maxi-Single, released by ORVILLE RECORDS is garnering exciting response through top digital music websites in the U.S, Britain, Finland, Germany and recently entered the Australian Easy Listening Top 100 Music Charts at #8 with a bullet! Also, the anthem entered the UK Soft Rock Top 100 Music Charts at #7 and then climbed to #2!! Orville Records also recently inked a deal with two of the world's largest web distributors, MusicNet and AMG for additional web distribution through top music sites such as AOL MusicNet, Yahoo Launch, Virgin Digital, FYE Download, MSN Music, ClearChannel, Amazon, Target Music, and others. In addition, GOD BLESS THE WORLD is currently being 'spotlighted' on Vitaminics International in Denmark, Netherlands and Sweden. Jones has also been 'Artist of the Week' on the ever-popular,world reknown SonicGarden Music site for the past number of weeks ! Internet radio giant, Live365, the world's largest network of online radio stations, has signed on and is 'special featuring' GOD BLESS THE WORLD through close to 2000 web radio stations worldwide. Commercial radio is fast catching wind of this special release and is next in line while experts are declaring GOD BLESS THE WORLD-While You Bless America a future classic! With over 200 unreleased songs under his belt, songwriter Greg Jones explains his inspiration for this special recording. 'I would turn on the news each day and see how so many world leaders resort to war as a means of settling conflict, as if human life is expendable. It would make me sick. They always say that if you want to see a change you have to do something, whatever you can, even when you're just one person. I've always been inspired by the powerful messages of greats like John Lennon, Bono and Bob Dylan so I did what I could do. I wrote a song. I'm so very thankful for the response worldwide that the anthem is receiving. It's exciting how so many people have embraced the song and the message ... and now we are very excited about OPERATION PEACETONE. To get your FREE PeaceTone visit www.godblesstheworldonline.com. Please don't forget to tell at least 6 other people. We truly appreciate your help in spreading the musical message of Peace and the fact is....together, we WILL make a difference. To see more please do Google search...type-in 'greg jones god bless the world' (images also available through Google images) GREG JONES MUSIC*BMI*Orville Records*P.O. Box 43678*Cleveland, Ohio*44143*216-254-9339

Contact: Ken J. orvillerecords@aol.com x x -30- x x "The more seeds of Peace are planted...the greater the tree of life will grow" (Greg Jones)___________________________________________________

The NEW Orleans BLUES- Katrina Update

Three months ago, after chafing from criticism over his failure to even appear to respond to the suffering in New Orleans, George W. Bush finally made it to Jackson Square to deliver his promise that "this great city will rise again." Yet today the great city remains largely in darkness. Most citizens of New Orleans are outside its boundaries, many with no real prospect of returning. What's rising in New Orleans are divorce and suicide rates, toxic dumps, foreclosures and rage.
The rage was evident in early December just a half-dozen blocks from Jackson Square, in Congo Square, where African-Americans performed ancestral music in the early nineteenth century, heralding a new American culture. On a recent chilly Saturday, Congo Square was the meeting point for a crowd of about 500 demonstrators who gathered to march behind the Soul Rebels Brass Band to demand the return of New Orleanians to New Orleans.
By now it should be obvious that the drowning of the city was a man-made disaster. Multiple investigations, including those sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers and the National Science Foundation, conclude that the sea walls and levees were poorly designed, constructed and inspected. A not-too-subtle whispering campaign quickly suggested that the fault might lie with those gaudy New Orleanians who insist on rollicking below sea level, or with a state whose legacy of political shenanigans dates back to before "The Kingfish," Huey Long. The city and state have much to account for, including an evacuation plan that failed to protect their most vulnerable citizens. But the ongoing campaign against New Orleans obscures the simple truth that erecting barriers against floods is a federal responsibility. The Army Corps of Engineers failed its job. The Bush Administration now has the obligation to launch a massive effort to rebuild the city that the federal government destroyed.

Bush last visited the Gulf Coast on October 11. It shouldn't surprise anyone that the President, and many in Congress, would prefer to look the other way while New Orleans collapses. Over the past quarter-century, conservatives have waged their most effective war against "big government." This model was advanced by Ronald Reagan and endorsed by every President since. Now, when a federally coordinated solution is required, agencies from HUD to the EPA to FEMA are flummoxed. Bush faithfully followed the script by endorsing only limited solutions like the Gulf Opportunity Zone and Worker Recovery Accounts. In doing so, he advanced government as a stop-gap for what couldn't be handled by his private and faith-based "armies of compassion."
Stymied by this lack of leadership and by no national call for an ambitious regional rebuilding effort, Louisiana legislators, among them Democratic Representative William Jefferson and Republican Senator David Vitter, are now fretting aloud that demands for protection from the strongest hurricanes could actually work against the city's interests by raising hopes too high. That's pathetic. A half-day's drive through New Orleans--at least, through the 80 percent of it that still looks nearly exactly as it did three months ago--should reveal to anyone what happens when levees don't hold. You can start by reading the body count still scrawled in red marker on some homes. Yet there are those who dare to offer New Orleans protection on the cheap.
In October this magazine called for a coordinated "people's reconstruction" that would provide for a "democratically accountable, economically viable, socially just and environmentally sustainable plan for regional rebuilding." This effort must begin with the physical reclaiming of New Orleans--an ambitious, two-step process including a re-engineered levee system capable of withstanding a Category 5 hurricane and a fully funded restoration of the coast, using the Coast 2050 blueprint. A people's reconstruction would then address the multiple effects of urban poverty that opened like fresh wounds during those days immediately following the levee breaches. Long before Katrina entered the Gulf, far too many New Orleanians lived on dangerous streets, worked low-paying jobs in the service industry, were unable to insure their families and sent their children to bleak public schools long abandoned by the middle class. For these citizens, the desperation experienced in post-Katrina New Orleans is nothing new.
New Orleans could become the nation's classroom. A reinvigorated dialogue about urban America is newly possible--or at least it was three months ago, when images of suffering children on Louisiana bridges and highways played across the nation's TV screens. So far, the President has squandered this opportunity, just as he squandered the post-9/11 opportunity to realign the nation's energy policy. No wonder it's widely feared in New Orleans that the Katrina moment has passed.
If New Orleans is to reclaim its greatness, the scope of the solution must match the scope of the problem. Each inch of the 200 miles of levees that are supposed to keep the city dry is now suspect. The wetlands that buffer the region continue their relentless disappearing act. Bush's EPA has downplayed the effects of oil spills following the hurricane; there is no real plan to deal with the toxic refuse of the flood. The Administration does not acknowledge the science of global warming and the consequences of a warmer ocean. Many New Orleanians long to return to their homes, but it is an unsteady feeling to raise children and care for elderly parents in a city on the brink. Meanwhile, decisions about homes, neighborhoods, schools and jobs will be made in their absence and without their input.
It doesn't have to be this way. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the rhythms of Congo Square sprouted into jazz, which gave the world a soundtrack of improvisation and democracy. A hundred years later, another democratic revolution could begin in New Orleans--but its song is quickly playing out.

This article from The Nation

Michael Jackson Reported Converts to Muslim

Well, the King of Pop is soon to be a Muslim living in Bahrain. At least that's the story coming out of that small kingdom today.
American pop star Michael Jackson has officially announced that he has been following the five tenets of Islam and intends to convert to Islam, according to a report on the website of Arab-Israeli newspaper Panorama.
The report is based on information elicited from sources in Bahrain.According to the report, Jackson's announcement noted he is moving to Bahrain and has purchased some real-estate on an artificial island there. The singer said he decided to convert to Islam because he is convinced it is the closest religion to his personal beliefs.According to a phone recording released last week, among Jackson's "personal beliefs" is one that considers Jews to be "leeches."
According to that story,
Jackson is heard saying that "they're like leeches...I'm so tired of it. They start out the most popular person in the world, make a lot of money, big house, cars and everything. End up penniless. It is a conspiracy. The Jews do it on purpose."I suppose that fits in with most Muslim attitudes these days, at least in the Middle East.
The story of Jackson's conversion to Islam continues,
Jackson also noted he intends to soon move all his assets and his studio from the U.S. to Bahrain, and expressed his hope to be rid of various legal troubles and enjoy the kind of freedom he says he does not have in America.Considering that Jackson is supposed to be flat broke, how does he come up with enough money to buy and artificial island and house in Bahrain? And what assets does he have that are not already claimed by creditors?
In any case, it looks as though Neverland will be left behind for good.
I wonder if we have an extradition treaty with Bahrain?
I also wonder if child molestation is considered to be a crime there? Maybe Jackson will name his new home, "Pleasure Island."
Jackson has been a creative and talented entertainer. He is also, as I have stated before, a very troubled man. I cannot, in good faith, wish him well in the new path he appears to be taking. I would prefer to see him submit to the judgement of God, repent and be "born again" into a new and improved Jackson rather than to see him pick a religion because it "comes close" to agreeing with his own beliefs.
What about his hope that he will "enjoy the kind of freedom he says he does not have in America"? Well, when you have enough money, you can enjoy freedom without accountability in just about any corrupt, despotic country you care to choose.
It is only in nations that believe all individuals are to be held equally accountable under the law that a rich man or woman loses the freedom to do whatever they want.
If this is freedom for Michael Jackson, then perhaps it is better for all of us for him to live in Bahrain.