German Freedom Party

Freedom – Civil Rights Party for More Freedom and Democracy (Die Freiheit – Bürgerrechtspartei für mehr Freiheit und Demokratie), also known as The Freedom (German: Die Freiheit), is a small political party in Germany which identifies as conservative-liberal or classical liberal party; while the party has been described by German mainstream media as right-wing populist, and is known for its criticism of Islam.

It was founded in October 2010 by Berlin city parliamentarian René Stadtkewitz who had been expelled from the conservative CDU for inviting the Dutch politician and Islam critic Geert Wilders to Berlin. The party seeks the implementation of a direct citizen democracy based on the Swiss model and extensive changes in immigration and integration policy.

History

Freedom was founded in October 2010 by Rene Stadtkewitz in the wake of the immigration debate spurred by the then-member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank Thilo Sarrazin. The Berlin city parliamentarian Stadtkewitz was expelled from the Christian Democratic Union faction in 2010 after inviting Dutch politician Geert Wilders of the Party for Freedom to hold a speech in Berlin. A number of other politicians who left their respective parties joined Stadtkewitz, while prominent Islam and immigration critic Thilo Sarrazin refused participation in the new party, but fought to stay in his Social Democratic Party and stated that the immigration and integration issues had to be discussed inside the major parties. In June 2011, the party expanded, founding state associations in ten German states.

Jason Mraz

Jason Thomas Mraz (/məˈræz/; born June 23, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter who first came to prominence in the San Diego coffee shop scene in 2000. In 2002, he released his debut studio album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come, which contained the hit single "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)". With the release of his second album, Mr. A-Z, in 2005, Mraz achieved major commercial success. The album peaked at number 5 on the Billboard 200 and sold over 100,000 copies in the US. In 2008, Mraz released his third studio album, We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. It debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200 and was an international commercial success primarily due to the hit "I'm Yours". The song peaked at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving him his first top ten single, and spent a then-record 76 weeks on the Hot 100. His fourth album, Love Is a Four Letter Word, peaked at number 2 on the Billboard 200, his highest-charting album to date.

Mraz has won two Grammy Awards and received two additional nominations, and has also won two Teen Choice Awards, a People's Choice Award and the Hal David Songwriters Hall of Fame Award. He has earned Platinum and multi-Platinum certifications in over 20 countries, and has toured in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, the Middle East and parts of Africa. As of July 2014, Mraz has sold over seven million albums, and over 11.5 millions digital singles. His musical style, from rhythmic feeling to his use of nylon string guitars, has been heavily influenced by Brazilian music.

Amy Goodman

Amy Goodman (born April 13, 1957) is an American broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter and author. Goodman's investigative journalism career includes coverage of the East Timor independence movement and Chevron Corporation's role in Nigeria. Since 1996, Goodman has hosted Democracy Now!, an independent global news program broadcast daily on radio, television and the Internet. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Thomas Merton Award in 2004, a Right Livelihood Award in 2008, and an Izzy Award in 2009 for "special achievement in independent media". In 2012, Goodman received the Gandhi Peace Award for a "significant contribution to the promotion of an enduring international peace". Goodman is the author of five books, including the 2012 The Silenced Majority: Stories of Uprisings, Occupations, Resistance, and Hope.

Early life

Amy Goodman was born on April 13, 1957, in Washington, D.C. Her father, George Goodman, was an ophthalmologist and her mother, Dorothy, a literature teacher, then social worker. Goodman is of Orthodox Jewish heritage; her maternal grandfather was an Orthodox Rabbi. Raised in Bay Shore, New York, she graduated from Bay Shore High School in 1975, and from Radcliffe College in 1984, with a degree in anthropology. Goodman spent a year studying at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine.

George Michael

Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou (born 25 June 1963), better known by his stage name George Michael, is an English singer, songwriter and record producer. Michael rose to fame during the 1980s and 1990s with his style of post-disco dance-pop. He has also been characterised as a blue-eyed soul singer, although his material draws more from middle-of-the-road pop than soul music.

As one of the world's best-selling music artists, Michael has sold more than 80 million records worldwide. His 1987 debut solo album, Faith, has on its own sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. Michael has garnered seven number one singles in the UK and eight number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked Michael the 40th most successful artist on the Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists list.

Michael has won numerous music awards throughout his 30-year career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male twice, four MTV Video Music Awards, four Ivor Novello Awards, three American Music Awards, and two Grammy Awards from eight nominations.