Use Free 411, and help build homes

Posted by Drew:

To help promote a new service, Verizon is making donations to Rebuilding Together.

1-800-THE-INFO Supports 'Rebuilding Together' With a $1 Million Try-The-Service Challenge Grant

Free Business Directory Assistance Service Will Donate $1 for Each New Caller; Grant Will Support Nonprofit Organization's Mission of Providing Free Home-Renovation Services to People in Need

NEW YORK - Verizon's free business directory assistance service, 1-800-THE-INFO, announced Friday (April 25) a challenge grant of up to $1million to support the work of Rebuilding Together, a nationwide nonprofit organization that provides free home-renovation services to people in need.

Starting Saturday (April 26), National Rebuilding Day, the free business directory assistance service will contribute $1 to Rebuilding Together and its 225 affiliates for each new caller to 1-800-THE-INFO. The campaign will continue through May.*

The 1-800-THE-INFO service, which has thousands of local business listings, was launched earlier this month. Callers hear a brief advertisement and then are able to use the free automated voice-recognition to search Verizon's national directory database. The automated business search is backed up by live operators to assist callers in obtaining responses to their requests quickly and accurately. For more information on the service, visit http://www.800theinfo.com/.

* The entire call must be completed through voice recognition system or by operator to qualify; only one call per telephone number is credited for the $1 contribution to Rebuilding Together.

(There is no cost to the caller for the contribution. Call may be placed from either wireline or wireless number. Not exempt from airtime charges by caller's wireless carrier.)

About Rebuilding Together
Rebuilding Together is the nation's largest nonprofit organization working to preserve affordable homeownership and neighborhoods by providing rehabilitation services free of charge to those in need. Through the support of corporate sponsors, local businesses, and the hands-on work of a quarter-million volunteers, Rebuilding Together rehabs and repairs more than 9,000 homes each year. The market value of this work is in excess of $100 million annually. Rebuilding Together responds to the needs of low-income homeowners including families at risk, the elderly and veterans through four specific practice areas: Safe & Healthy Homes, Disaster Recovery & Reconstruction, Veterans Housing, and National Rebuilding Day to ensure that homeowners live in safe, warm and dry homes. Rebuilding Together celebrated the rehabilitation of its 100,000th home in 2006 and has grown to nearly 225 affiliates nationwide since its founding in 1988. For details, see http://www.rebuildingtogether.org/ , or call 1-800-REHAB-9.

Stamp out American Propaganda

I got this email forward the other day, and my first reaction was "well, duh." But at the same time, the government should be pulling sly things like this. Follow the links below to contact your representatives to hopefully put an end to this kind of propaganda.

Yesterday, the New York Times exposed a secret Pentagon campaign to infiltrate the media with pro-war propaganda.

The scheme reaches all the way to the Bush White House, where top officials recruited dozens of "military analysts" to spread favorable views of the war via every major news channel -- without revealing they were working from Pentagon scripts and often lobbying for major military contractors.

Spreading "covert propaganda" is illegal under federal law. Congress must investigate these military pundits and their ties to the Bush administration, defense contractors and our national news media.

Tell Congress: Investigate the Propaganda Pundits

Signing this letter does work. If we can get 50,000 people to join this call to Congress, they will likely take action to stop government propaganda.

The more than 75 analysts exposed by the New York Times have become fixtures of war coverage on CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC. The front-page article reveals the many ways that the Pentagon fed them pro-war talking points and misinformation. The White House even has a name for these covert propagandists: "message force multipliers."

The pundits trade on their access to the media and the White House to secure high-paying jobs as lobbyists, consultants and contractors -- vying for hundreds of billions of dollars in military business generated by the war.

Take Action: Investigate White House Propaganda

An administration secretly forcing favorable views via the press is not a partisan issue. This is a violation of every conceivable standard of journalism -- and possibly of federal law.

It's time the truth about the selling of this war came out. You can help make this happen.

Take action and then forward this e-mail to all of your friends.

Onward,

Josh Silver
Executive Director
Free Press Action Fund
www.freepress.net

P.S. Read the New York Times' front-page exposé: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/washington/20generals.html.