SUPER BOWL HISTORY
Two Black Coaches
James Rucker
Executive Director, ColorOfChange.org
February 4th, 2007
Dear Bonnie,
When I was growing up, football was dominated by Black players,
but we weren't allowed to be quarterback. And we certainly
couldn't be the coach.
I don't even care much about football, but I can't wait to watch
the game this afternoon. Today, America celebrates a first˜two
Black coaches in the Super Bowl. It may seem like an accident,
or the inevitable result of time's passage, but it's not. Like most
civil rights gains, it's the result of active struggle.
In 2002, attorneys Cyrus Mehri and Johnnie Cochran Jr. decided
that Blacks had been shut out of coaching long enough. They
released a report entitled "Black Coaches in the National Football
League: Superior Performances, Inferior Opportunities" that
called out the NFL's "dismal record of minority hiring." Two
facts stood out in the report: 1) while Blacks comprised 70% of
NFL players, only 6% of coaches and 28% percent of assistant
coaches were Black; and 2) while only six of 400 NFL head
coaches hired since 1929 were Black, they significantly
outperformed their white counterparts in wins and playoff
appearances. Mehri and Cochran threatened a lawsuit,
and the NFL agreed to change.
Later that year the NFL adopted the "Rooney Rule," requiring
teams to interview at least one non-white candidate for any
open coaching position. In 2004, two of the seven vacancies
were filled by Black coaches. The Rooney rule did what happy
accidents and the passage of time could not˜make a dent
in race-based discrimination in the NFL.
Today, we've got two black coaches in the Superbowl (and
a Black Presidential candidate in the wings), but these are small
steps towards a much greater goal of equality and racial justice.
Most Black people still have second-class access to quality health
care, jobs and education; an increasing number of Black men
go to prison instead of college; and Katrina made clear that
protecting the lives of Black folks, especially if they are poor,
is of little importance to those in power.
Van and I started ColorOfChange because we know that change
doesn't happen without a fight, and because we have faith
˜and great hope˜that all of us, together, can keep pushing
forward to make major change for Blacks in America.
Today, let's celebrate these two amazing brothers˜Lovie Smith
of the Chicago Bears and Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts˜
and pay tribute to those who helped them get to the top of the
game. And then tomorrow, let's continue the work of raising
our collective voices, applying pressure, and fighting for greater
justice for us all.
Thank you for being a part of this work,
-- James Rucker
Executive Director, ColorOfChange.org
February 4th, 2007
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A Girl Like Me
7:08 min
Youth Documentary
Kiri Davis, Director, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, Producer
Winner of the Diversity Award
Sponsored by Third Millennium Foundation
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1091431409617440489
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Defend Former Panthers Arrested on 30-year Old Charges
Committee for the Defense of Human Rights
Murder Charges Against Former Black Panthers Based
on Confessions Extracted by Torture
http://www.cdhrsupport.org/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FreeThe8/
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SUPPORT AND DEFEND LT. EHREN WATADA
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2:00 P.M. - 4:00 P.M.
CIVIC CENTER PLAZA, SAN FRANCISCO
This Sunday 2/4, the day before his court martial
proceedings are to begin, there will be a rally in
support of Lt. Ehren Watada at the Civic Center Plaza
in San Francisco from 2-4.
Towards the end of the Vietnam War fully one third of
the soldiers in the military were in opposition to the
war, refusing orders and going awol. That GI
resistance movement was instrumental in bringing the
war to an end and it began with courageous people like
Ehren Watada taking a stand.
Volunteer to help! For more information contact:
answer@actionsf.org
(415) 821-6545
Bay Area Mobilization to Ft Lewis, WA for Feb. 5 court martial –
contact: Ying at 510-559-8189
For more information: Grace – 510-459-7288
supportwatada@hotmail.com
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THE TRUTH ABOUT US POLICY IN COLOMBIA :
A Firsthand Account
What if you were on trial and you couldn't choose your own
lawyer or call witnesses in your own defense?
Patriots not Terrorists!
Two cases are going on right now in Washington , D.C. where
this is the case. The trial of Ricardo Palmera (Simon
Trinidad), and Anayibe Rojas Valderrama (Sonia). Both are
Colombian citizens and members of the FARC, an organization
that has been fighting for 40 years against the most
violent repressive regime in Latin America .
Come and hear the witness who was not allowed to testify.
Imelda Daza Cotes was an activist and a member of the
Patriotic Union (UP) in Colombia . The UP was a leftist
third party created through peace accords. Four thousand UP
members, candidates, and elected officials, were
assassinated by the right-wing government supported
military forces. Daza Cotes fled Colombia to protect her
life. She will speak about the US intervention in Plan
Colombia , the repression of the Colombian government, and
the injustice of Palemera's and Anayibe Rojas Valderrama's
cases.
When: 7:00 PM Thursday, February 15
Where: 522 Valencia Street , 3rd Floor Auditorium
(Not wheelchair accessible)
Cost: $5 ($3 students, seniors, unemployed)
Sponsored by Colombia Solidarity Committee
Cell 424-6029
email: companeros98@ hotmail.com
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MARCH AND RALLY IN SAN FRANCISCO
SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 2007
(The annual St. Patrick's Day Parade is taking
place on Sat., March 17 in SF.)
ASSEMBLE 12:00 NOON
JUSTIN HERMAN PLAZA -
MARCH TO CIVIC CENTER
For more information:
http://www.actionsf.org/#local4
answer@actionsf.org
Phone: 415-821-6545
Fax: 415-821-5782
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Film/Song about Angola
http://www.prisonactivist.org/angola/
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"200 million children in the world sleep in the streets today.
Not one of them is Cuban."
(A sign in Havana)
Venceremos
View sign at bottom of page at:
http://www.cubasolidarity.net/index.html
[Thanks to Norma Harrison for sending this...bw]
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ARTICLES IN FULL:
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1) Missing Molly Ivins
By PAUL KRUGMAN
February 2, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/opinion/02krugman.html?hp
2) A Bipartisan Trade Policy
New York Times Editorial
February 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/opinion/02fri1.html?hp
3) Chacaltaya Journal
Bolivia’s Only Ski Resort Is Facing a Snowless Future
By SIMON ROMERO
February 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/world/americas/02bolivia.html?ref=americas
4) Exxon and Shell Report Record Profits for 2006
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
February 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/business/02oil.html?ref=business
5) UFPJ Calls for Local Actions on 4th Anniversary of the War in Iraq
TO: UFPJ Member Groups VIA Email
ufpj@lists.mayfirst.org
6) Change of sex will be free in Cuba
PROGRESO WEEKLY
February 1, 2007
http://www.progresoweekly.com/index.php?progreso=Cuban_Radar&otherweek=1170309600
or
http://tinyurl.com/ywht6r
7) Official Lies over Najaf Battle Exposed
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily
Read story from website
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/iraq/000534.php#more
8) "The Revolution Must Be
a School Of Unfettered Thought"
Scanned from Merit Publishers edition of 1969
by Walter Lippmann, May 2006.
http://www.walterlippmann.com
9) America's Dialogue
http://www.americasdialogue.org
10) Thousands in Mexico City Protest Rising Food Prices
By ELISABETH MALKIN
February 1, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/world/americas/01mexico.html
11) Bomb Resonates With Diplomats, Not With the Bomber
By SIMON ROMERO
February 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/03/world/americas/03lugo.html
12) Beware of Child Predators
by Laurence M. Vance
from LewRockwell. com
[VIA Email...bw]
13) THE AMERICAN PROXY WAR IN GAZA
Opinion/Editorial
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 3 February 2007
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6494.shtml
14) Pentagon Big Winner in Bush Budget Plan
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 10:33 p.m. ET
February 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Bush-Budget.html
15) Record $622 Billion Budget Requested for the Pentagon
By DAVID S. CLOUD
February 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/03/washington/03spend.html
16) No Child Left Behind and the Imperial Project
Cutting the Schools-to-War Pipeline
By RICH GIBSON and E. WAYNE ROSS
February 2, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.org/gibson02022007.html
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1) Missing Molly Ivins
By PAUL KRUGMAN
February 2, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/opinion/02krugman.html
Molly Ivins, the Texas columnist, died of breast cancer on Wednesday.
I first met her more than three years ago, when our book tours crossed.
She was, as she wrote, “a card-carrying member of The Great Liberal
Backlash of 2003, one of the half-dozen or so writers now schlepping
around the country promoting books that do not speak kindly
of Our Leader’s record.”
I can’t claim to have known her well. But I spent enough time with
her, and paid enough attention to her work, to know that obituaries
that mostly stressed her satirical gifts missed the main point. Yes,
she liked to poke fun at the powerful, and was very good at it.
But her satire was only the means to an end: holding the powerful
accountable.
She explained her philosophy in a stinging 1995 article in Mother
Jones magazine about Rush Limbaugh. “Satire ... has historically
been the weapon of powerless people aimed at the powerful,” she
wrote. “When you use satire against powerless people ... it is like
kicking a cripple.”
Molly never lost sight of two eternal truths: rulers lie, and the
times when people are most afraid to challenge authority are
also the times when it’s most important to do just that. And
the fact that she remembered these truths explains something
I haven’t seen pointed out in any of the tributes: her extraordinary
prescience on the central political issue of our time.
I’ve been going through Molly’s columns from 2002 and 2003,
the period when most of the wise men of the press cheered as
Our Leader took us to war on false pretenses, then dismissed
as “Bush haters” anyone who complained about the absence
of W.M.D. or warned that the victory celebrations were
premature. Here are a few selections:
Nov. 19, 2002: “The greatest risk for us in invading Iraq is
probably not war itself, so much as: What happens after we
win? ... There is a batty degree of triumphalism loose in this
country right now.”
Jan. 16, 2003: “I assume we can defeat Hussein without great
cost to our side (God forgive me if that is hubris). The problem
is what happens after we win. The country is 20 percent Kurd, 20
percent Sunni and 60 percent Shiite. Can you say, ‘Horrible three-
way civil war?’ ”
July 14, 2003: “I opposed the war in Iraq because I thought it
would lead to the peace from hell, but I’d rather not see my
prediction come true and I don’t think we have much time left
to avert it. That the occupation is not going well is apparent to
everyone but Donald Rumsfeld. ... We don’t need people with
credentials as right-wing ideologues and corporate privatizers
— we need people who know how to fix water and power plants.”
Oct. 7, 2003: “Good thing we won the war, because the peace
sure looks like a quagmire. ...
“I’ve got an even-money bet out that says more Americans will be
killed in the peace than in the war, and more Iraqis will be killed
by Americans in the peace than in the war. Not the first time I’ve
had a bet out that I hoped I’d lose.”
So Molly Ivins — who didn’t mingle with the great and famous,
didn’t have sources high in the administration, and never claimed
special expertise on national security or the Middle East — got almost
everything right. Meanwhile, how did those who did have all those
credentials do?
With very few exceptions, they got everything wrong. They bought
the obviously cooked case for war — or found their own reasons
to endorse the invasion. They didn’t see the folly of the venture,
which was almost as obvious in prospect as it is with the benefit
of hindsight. And they took years to realize that everything we
were being told about progress in Iraq was a lie.
Was Molly smarter than all the experts? No, she was just braver.
The administration’s exploitation of 9/11 created an environment
in which it took a lot of courage to see and say the obvious.
Molly had that courage; not enough others can say the same.
And it’s not over. Many of those who failed the big test in 2002
and 2003 are now making excuses for the “surge.” Meanwhile, the
same techniques of allegation and innuendo that were used to
promote war with Iraq are being used to ratchet up tensions with Iran.
Now, more than ever, we need people who will stand up against the
follies and lies of the powerful. And Molly Ivins, who devoted her
life to questioning authority, will be sorely missed.
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2) A Bipartisan Trade Policy
New York Times Editorial
February 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/opinion/02fri1.html?hp
The newest Democratic members of Congress have arrived in
Washington with an important message from the voters: American
workers are feeling economically insecure, and globalization and
trade are heightening their fears. The White House and the new
Congress still have a chance to create a bipartisan consensus
on trade. They should seize it, for the good of the American
economy, and for the good of the world’s poorest nations,
which need freer trade to pull themselves out of poverty.
There are some quick steps the White House and Congress
should be able to agree on. To reassure workers at home, they
could expand federal assistance to anyone thrown out of
a job because of trade. At the same time, new tariff benefits
for the least-developed countries, like Bangladesh and
Cambodia, would send a positive signal to the rest of the
world.
Over all, trade has been very good to the United States,
which is still the world’s largest exporter of goods and
services. The trade liberalization measures put in place after
World War II produce now, by one estimate, an additional
$1 trillion in income for Americans annually, and millions
of new jobs. The inexpensive foreign goods that arrive here
because of free trade keep prices down. Low prices are
good for consumers, and by keeping inflation and interest
rates in check, they encourage economic growth and job
creation.
Still, there is no question that the hundreds of thousands
of workers who lose their jobs to trade-related dislocations
each year are paying the price. The government has not
done enough to take care of these displaced workers,
and much of the blame lies with the economic policies
of the White House and the last Congress, which was led
by Republicans.
Now that the Democrats control Congress, they can champion
both free trade and the rights of American workers. They should
push to improve the social safety net, especially access
to health insurance. And they should promote increased
retraining and wage assistance for displaced workers.
To win Democrats’ support, the White House will have to
accept some of their demands for stronger labor provisions
in future trade accords. Bans on forced labor and child labor,
and similar mandates, are laudable goals. But Democrats
who propose minimum-wage rules have to recognize that
what is low pay for Americans may pull a family out of
poverty in a less-developed country.
The administration’s proposed farm legislation looks like
a decent first step toward reducing subsidies and bringing
American agricultural policy into line with our trade commitments.
Now, if the administration can put together a solid plan
for proceeding with negotiations for the Doha round of global
trade talks, Congress should renew the president’s fast-track
negotiating authority. But if the global talks cannot be jump-
started, the White House and Congress should move ahead
with bilateral agreements with Peru, Panama and Korea.
Democrats are right to insist that the trade agenda advance the
interests of all Americans, not just large corporations. But they
need to acknowledge that putting the brakes on global growth
is still the surest path to losing American jobs.
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3) Chacaltaya Journal
Bolivia’s Only Ski Resort Is Facing a Snowless Future
By SIMON ROMERO
February 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/world/americas/02bolivia.html?ref=americas
CHACALTAYA, Bolivia, Jan. 28 — The lodge here at what bills itself
as the world’s highest ski resort has fraying black-and-white photos
evoking memories of the years when this country had an Olympic
ski team.
Bolivia’s die-hard skiers still boast about the place, asking where
else one can ski above the clouds at a dizzying 17,388 feet with
a view of Lake Titicaca on the horizon.
Where else, they ask, would the après-ski tradition include coca
tea and soup made from the grain of the quinoa plant?
Their pride in the ski resort here, the only one in Bolivia, soon
gives way to a grim acceptance that the glacier that once surrounded
the lodge with copious amounts of snow and ice is melting fast.
Attributing the melting to the growing emission of greenhouse
gases causing global warming, scientists say Bolivia’s skiing
tradition could be extinguished when Chacaltaya’s modest
ski run disappears forever in a few years.
“This is a tragedy I can hardly bear to witness,” said Franz
Gutiérrez, 65, who has been a member of the Bolivian Andean
Club, which operates Chacaltaya, since he was a teenager.
Guiding a group of about a dozen skiers on the opening
day of this year’s season, Mr. Gutiérrez reminisced about
how he skied nearly every weekend until Chacaltaya’s glacier
began melting significantly a decade ago.
“It is magical,” he said, “to ski at an altitude at which planes
don’t fly in parts of the world.”
Chacaltaya, of course, never had the glamour of a Vail or
a Zermatt. Founded in the late 1930s by a dreamer named
Raúl Posnansky Lipmann, it can be reached only by a dirt
road winding through the chaotic markets of El Alto,
a sprawling city of slums above La Paz, and with nail-biting
-inducing switchbacks that lack guardrails.
Though ski resorts in Chile and Argentina thrive during the
South American winter, from July to September, the best
skiing at Chacaltaya is — or rather, was — from about
January through March, when snow and hail are somewhat
more common here. After Mr. Posnansky died in an avalanche
in the 1940s little was done to alter Chacaltaya’s spartan
operations.
Its lift, which stopped working recently, was powered by
an old automobile engine. Now skiers must hike 30 minutes
to Chacaltaya’s only run. For those not acclimated to La Paz,
the capital, much less to Chacaltaya, which is about a mile
higher, that effort intensifies the splitting headaches and
shortness of breath that afflict visitors to such heights.
“I thought training at this altitude would offer some
advantages,” said José Manuel Bejarano Carvajal, 50,
a member of the team that competed in the Winter Olympics
in Sarajevo in 1984. “But I finished last.” Mr. Bejarano said
Bolivia was represented in the Olympics as recently as 1992,
before its team was disbanded.
He and other members of the Bolivian Andean Club, which
operates from a building in downtown La Paz whose facades
are sprayed with graffiti, have followed the studies of their
disappearing snow with alarm.
Scientists say that glaciers are increasingly receding throughout
the Andes, but that Chacaltaya’s melting has been especially
quick. More than 80 percent of the glacier has been lost
in 20 years, said Jaime Argollo Bautista, director of the Institute
of Geological Investigation at the University of San Andrés,
in La Paz.
“I would give Chacaltaya three more years,” said Mr. Argollo,
adding that the relatively small size of the glacier and the
abundance of rocks under its ice, which easily absorb heat,
have quickened its retreat.
Beyond the impact on skiing, the pastime of only a small
elite in Bolivia, Mr. Argollo said, the country’s receding
glaciers threaten drinking water supplies and water for
hydroelectric plants that supply power to La Paz and El Alto.
“Chacaltaya is but a preview of what’s to happen to our other
glaciers,” Mr. Argollo said.
Bolivia’s skiers seem to approach the impending end at
Chacaltaya with a mixture of denial and resignation. Some
members of the Andean Club talk of transforming their
lodge into a gymnasium where mountain climbers and
other athletes could adapt to high altitudes. This would
involve redesigning the club’s proud emblem, a condor
on skis.
Others dream of bringing in artificial snow, a prohibitively
expensive solution here in South America’s poorest country,
or of building a new lodge on nearby Mount Mururata, which
still has ample snow so far, an idea limited by terrible road
access.
Humor helps those who have frequented Chacaltaya most
of their adult life. Alfredo Martínez, 72, a sprightly former
skier and mountain climber, said global warming had
nothing to do with the snow’s disappearance.
Mr. Martínez said it was because “Bolivia’s women have grown
too mischievous.” He did not explain his joke further, and
the younger women who had come for the first day of skiing
this year were not amused.
Some skiers continue trekking to the only remaining ski slope
here to get a few runs in before Chacaltaya surrenders its
claim to being the world’s highest ski area to peaks like
Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in China, Gulmarg in the Indian
Himalayas or Tochal in Iran.
“Let’s just say this place is unique,” Darrel Nitshe, 41, a Canadian
who works for a skiing outfit that brings people to the tops of
ski runs in British Columbia by helicopter, said as he stopped
to catch his breath on the trek to the summit here, which is
surrounded by the snowcapped peaks of the Andes.
But there are some who seemingly refuse to admit that the end
is near. Angelo Martínez, 22, a dentistry student in La Paz, took
no fewer than four runs on his snowboard on Sunday, climbing
to the top after each descent as if he were ascending a flight
of stairs at sea level.
“There’s no place I’d rather be,” Mr. Martínez said, squinting
as the sun beat down on the lonely slope. “At least Chacaltaya
is ours.”
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4) Exxon and Shell Report Record Profits for 2006
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
February 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/business/02oil.html?ref=business
HOUSTON, Feb. 1 — Oil prices have fallen, but Exxon Mobil and
Royal Dutch Shell left their smaller competitors in the dust and
reported record annual profits Thursday.
By making $180 million a day between them, the two largest publicly
traded oil companies displayed their ability to ramp up production
worldwide over the year, even in unstable places like Chad and
Nigeria. Growth may be slowing and is likely to continue to do
so in the future, but these two companies showed they could
navigate the year’s volatile energy prices that caused smaller
companies to stumble in their fourth-quarter profits.
The expanding profits at Exxon Mobil and Shell, however, may
also make them big targets for the Democratic Congress whose
leaders want oil companies to pay higher taxes and work to curb
global warming.
Analysts said that with oil prices rebounding again with more
frigid weather, the entire industry is almost assured of seeing
strong profits again this year.
Production in Mexico and Venezuela is declining because of
politics, poor management, investment shortfalls and aging
fields. And in Russia, production is slowing because of tensions
between the government and foreign oil and gas companies over
big investments. With worldwide crude inventories full, Saudi
Arabia is keeping production in check to maintain its influence
over pricing.
Energy consumption in China and India, meanwhile, continues
to soar.
Just a few weeks ago, many traders were predicting that oil
would fall below $50 a barrel. But now the consensus of traders
is that $50 is more likely a floor, so that big profits should
continue in an industry that is swimming in cash.
“Only a few months ago, I thought oil prices could go down
to $40 and natural gas prices to $5,” laughed Fadel Gheit, senior
energy analyst at Oppenheimer & Company, who has since tossed
out those expectations.
As for the earnings, he said: “The brutal focus on efficiency makes
Exxon Mobil head and shoulders above everybody else. They
arrive ahead of all the passengers, even those traveling on
the same train.”
Exxon reported annual profit of $39.5 billion, or $6.62 a share,
for 2006 — its second consecutive annual record. Once again,
the profit was the largest reported by any American company
in history.
While Exxon’s fourth-quarter results were actually down a bit
from the year before, the enormity of its annual profits had
Democratic politicians shaking their heads.
Under Democratic control, the House of Representatives quickly
passed legislation last month to raise nearly $15 billion in taxes
and royalties and use that money to finance research for alternative
fuels. Many in the Senate support similar legislation, which may
get a boost from a common perception in Congress that large
oil companies are richer than ever and not doing their part
to curb global warming.
As soon as Exxon Mobil released its earnings, Representative
Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, who is a leading Democratic
spokesman on energy issues, accused the company of using
its “outlandish profits” to lobby for energy policies that benefit
it rather than the American people.
“The hypocrisy of the oil and gas lobbyists is so high that even
as these record profits gush from their company balance sheets,
they try to block all attempts to recover the royalties they owe
the American taxpayer,” Mr. Markey, who is on the House Energy
and Commerce Committee, said in a statement.
Apparently sensitive to perceptions, Shell did not announce
that its annual profit was a company record.
The profitable results of the two companies came after reports
by other energy companies in recent days that slipping commodity
prices, rising steel and labor costs and higher royalties and taxes
had hurt their bottom lines.
Exxon’s refining and chemical businesses benefited from the
dip in gas prices, giving it a cushion that the smaller companies
did not have. Its worldwide oil production increased modestly
over the year, though it declined slightly in the fourth quarter.
Shell reported a 21 percent rise in its fourth-quarter earnings,
to $5.28 billion. That was mostly a result of a 4.1 percent
increase in daily production of oil, to 3.65 million barrels,
in the quarter. The company also continued to profit from
its superior marketing and refining ability outside the United
States.
Shell’s income in 2006 was $25.44 billion, up from $25.3 billion
in 2005.
Shell predicted oil and gas production growth of 1 percent to
2 percent annually through 2010, and slightly more after that.
Exxon reported profit of $10.25 billion, or $1.76 a share, in
the fourth quarter. That represented a decline of 4.3 percent
from the fourth quarter of 2005, when energy prices soared
after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Shares of Exxon Mobil rose 98 cents, or 1.32 percent, to $75.08,
while American depository receipts of Shell rose $1.23, or
1.80 percent, to $69.48.
Occidental Petroleum, ConocoPhillips, Hess and several other
oil companies have reported drops in quarterly profits in
recent days, but those results are in comparison to record
or near-record in the quarters a year earlier.
Exxon executives concede that the company faces some big
potential hurdles in the coming months should OPEC countries
cut production quotas and negotiations go badly over transfer
of control of operations in Venezuela.
Nicole Decker, an oil analyst at Bear Stearns, cautioned that
2007 could be a problematic year for oil companies because
increased steel and labor costs “have not been reflected in the
bottom line yet.” She added that while she could imagine
oil prices rising above $60 in the coming months, “I don’t
think anybody thinks oil prices will go up to where they
once were.”
She said increased production in Malaysia and Azerbaijan
this year could help nudge down prices.
The lower fourth-quarter profits at many oil companies mostly
reflected declines in oil and gas prices at the end of last year.
Oil prices for the quarter ranged from $55 to $63 a barrel,
averaging just shy of $60. That represented a 15 percent
decline from the third quarter, but less than 1 percent
lower than the fourth quarter of 2005.
Oil prices for all of 2006 averaged $66, or $10 higher than
in 2005, according to a recent Citigroup report on the energy
industry. Oil prices reached a high of $77 in July, but they
dipped to as low as $52 in recent weeks.
Prices have firmed up lately on speculation among traders
that fuel supplies in much of the United States will decline
in the coming weeks because of cold weather and better-
than-expected economic growth. Prices edged down slightly
Thursday, to $57.30, and are about 10 percent lower than
a year ago.
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5) UFPJ Calls for Local Actions on 4th Anniversary of the War in Iraq
TO: UFPJ Member Groups VIA Email
ufpj@lists.mayfirst.org
March 19th will mark the 4th anniversary of the U.S. military assault
on Iraq and the beginning of what has turned into one of this nation's
longest military engagements. Four years of war and occupation;
4 years of death and destruction; 4 years of a war that never should
have happened.
United for Peace and Justice is calling for a massive outpouring
of opposition to the war in locally based, decentralized actions
throughout the U.S. from Saturday, March 17th through Monday,
March 19th.
On the weekend of Jan. 27th - 29th we brought hundreds of thousands
of people into the streets of Washington, DC in a historic mobilization
that included the complete encircling of the U.S. Capitol. As important
as the periodic marches in Washington on - and we know we'll need
to go to DC again in the future - we believe it is equally important
to raise our voices and be visible in our own cities and towns, in major
urban centers and in small rural communities, in all 50 states
of the nation. This anniversary will be a reminder of the horrors
of the war and the suffering of the Iraqi people, as well as the
costs to our own people and communities.
The 4th anniversary of the war provides a unique opportunity
to strengthen the local organizing that is the heart and soul of this
movement. Each group should decide the type of activity that will
be best for your community: a march through downtown, a vigil
at your local federal building, leafleting in front of the offices of
a corporation profiting from the war in Iraq, educational events,
religious sermons and services, a protest at a military recruiting
station or an effort to reach the parents of young people targetted
by the recruiters. It will also be another opportunity to focus our
pressure on Congress and push them to use their Constitutional
powers, to stand up to the president and end this war!
When we call for increasing the pressure on Congress we mean
using the full range of tactics available: lobbying, massive numbers
of people phoning them, public protests in front of their offices,
and non-violent civil disobedience. And we hope in addition to
whatever else you do, that you will also help us build the most
massive national petition drive in recent history. People will be
able to sign the petition on-line, but even more importantly we
want people in communities around the country to have direct
contact in order to ask for their signatures. Just imagine us
turning over hundreds of thousands of signatures to Congress -
and each of those representing a conversation and direct
contact with each person who signed it!
In the coming weeks we will have a lot more information about
the national petition campaign and specific ideas for actions and
activities on the 4th anniversary of the March. In the meantime,
we encourage you to start planning now for your local events,
activities and protests. Please be sure to post your events on
our website at
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/addevent
Leslie Cagan
National Coordinator, UFPJ
MARCH AND RALLY IN SAN FRANCISCO
SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 2007
(The annual St. Patrick's Day Parade is taking
place on Sat., March 17 in SF.)
ASSEMBLE 12:00 NOON
JUSTIN HERMAN PLAZA -
MARCH TO CIVIC CENTER
For more information:
http://www.actionsf.org/#local4
answer@actionsf.org
Phone: 415-821-6545
Fax: 415-821-5782
To make sure we reach everyone possible between now and
then, we need everyone’s help on postering, flyering, stickering
and making alert phone calls. Materials are available at our
office (address below) anytime between 9am-9pm Mon-Fri
(Call for weekend hours) If you would like materials mailed
to you, please call or email answer@actionsf.org.
San Francisco Meet at the ANSWER office, 2489 Mission St.
#24, at 21st St. (near 24th St. BART/#14, #49 MUNI)
East Bay Meet at 19th St. BART station, Oakland
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6) Change of sex will be free in Cuba
PROGRESO WEEKLY
February 1, 2007
http://www.progresoweekly.com/index.php?progreso=Cuban_Radar&otherweek=1170309600
According to the latest edition of the newsletter Diversidad
(Diversity), the National Assembly of Popular Power (parliament) will
discuss the issue of free sex change surgery, meaning that the health
care public system will treat all persons who apply.
The measure would complement the present Identity Law that already
acknowledges the right of citizens to change name and sexual
identity. This places Cuba at the vanguard of the legislations that
acknowledge the rights of transvestites, transsexuals and transgender
in Latin America.
“We have decided to begin with transsexuals because they are the most
vulnerable from the point of view of physical and psychological
health,” said Mariela Castro Espín, director of the National Center
of Sexual Education (CENESEX).
According to the publication, Cuba’s parliament will present several
favorable measures for the LGTB (Lesbians, Gays, Trans and Bisexuals)
community in 2007, including the legalization of same sex unions.
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7) Official Lies over Najaf Battle Exposed
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily
Read story from website
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/iraq/000534.php#more
*NAJAF, Iraq, Jan 31 (IPS) - Iraqi government lies over the killing of
hundreds of Shias in an attack on Sunday stand exposed by independent
investigations carried out by IPS in Iraq.*
Conflicting reports had arisen earlier on how and why a huge battle
broke out around the small village Zarqa, located just a few kilometres
northeast of the Shia holy city Najaf, which is 90 km south of Baghdad.
One thing certain is that when the smoke cleared, more than 200 people
lay dead after more than half a day of fighting Sunday Jan. 28. A U.S.
helicopter was shot down, killing two soldiers. Twenty-five members of
the Iraqi security force were also killed.
"We were going to conduct the usual ceremonies that we conduct every
year when we were attacked by Iraqi soldiers," Jabbar al-Hatami, a
leader of the al-Hatami Shia Arab tribe told IPS.
"We thought it was one of the usual mistakes of the Iraqi army killing
civilians, so we advanced to explain to the soldiers that they killed
five of us for no reason. But we were surprised by more gunfire from the
soldiers."
The confrontation took place on the Shia holiday of Ashura which
commemorates Imam Hussein, grandson of the prophet Muhammad and the most
revered of Shia saints. Emotions run high at this time, and
self-flagellation in public is the norm.
Many southern Shia Arabs do not follow Iranian-born cleric Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani. They believe the religious leadership should be kept in the
hands of Arab clerics. Al-Hatami and al-Khazaali are two major tribes
that do not follow Sistani.
Tribal members from both believe the attack was launched by the central
government of Baghdad to stifle growing Shia-Sunni unity in the area.
"Our convoy was close to the al-Hatami convoy on the way to Najaf when
we heard the massive shooting, and so we ran to help them because our
tribe and theirs are bound with a strong alliance," a 45-year-old man
who asked to be referred to as Ahmed told IPS.
Ahmed, a member of the al-Khazali tribe said "our two tribes have a
strong belief that Iranians are provoking sectarian war in Iraq which is
against the belief of all Muslims, and so we announced an alliance with
Sunni brothers against any sectarian violence in the country. That did
not make our Iranian dominated government happy."
The fighting took place on the Diwaniya-Najaf road and spread into
nearby date-palm plantations after pilgrims sought refuge there.
"American helicopters participated in the slaughter," Jassim Abbas, a
farmer from the area told IPS. "They were soon there to kill those
pilgrims without hesitation, but they were never there for helping
Iraqis in anything they need. We just watched them getting killed group
by group while trapped in those plantations."
Much of the killing was done by U.S. and British warplanes, eyewitnesses
said.
Local authorities including the office of Najaf Governor Asaad Abu
Khalil who is a member of the pro-Iranian Supreme Council for Islamic
Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) had claimed before the killings that a group
of primarily foreign Sunni fighters with links to al-Qaeda had planned
to disrupt the Ashura festival by attacking Shia pilgrims and senior
ayatollahs in Najaf. The city is the principal seat of religious
learning for Shias in Iraq.
Officials claimed that Iraqi security forces had obtained intelligence
information from two detained men that had led the Iraqi Scorpion
commando squad to prepare for an attack. The intelligence claimed
obviously had little impact on how events unfolded.
Minister of Interior Jawad al-Bolani announced to reporters at 9 am
Sunday morning that Najaf was being attacked by al-Qaeda. Immediately
following this announcement the Ministry of National Security (MNS)
announced that the dead were members of the Shia splinter extremist
group Jund al-Sama (Army of Heaven) who were out to kill senior
ayatollahs in Najaf, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
Iraq's national security advisor Muaffaq al-Rubaii said just 15 minutes
after the MNS announcement that hundreds of Arab fighters had been
killed, and that many had been arrested. Rubaii claimed there were
Saudis, Yemenis, Egyptians and Afghans.
But Governor Khalil's office backed away from its initial claims after
the dead turned out to be local Shia Iraqis. Iraqi security officials
continue to contradict their own statements. Most officials now say that
the dead were Shia extremists supported by foreign powers.
The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has a pattern of
announcing it is fighting terrorists, like its backers in Washington.
Many Iraqis in the south now accuse Baghdad of calling them terrorists
simply because they refuse to collaborate with the Iranian dominated
government.
(Ali al-Fadhily is our Baghdad correspondent. Dahr Jamail is our
specialist writer who has spent eight months reporting from inside Iraq
and has been covering the Middle East for several years.)
Think Dahr's work is vital? We need your help. It's easy!
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/donate/
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8) "The Revolution Must Be
a School Of Unfettered Thought"
Scanned from Merit Publishers edition of 1969
by Walter Lippmann, May 2006.
http://www.walterlippmann.com/fc-03-13-1962.html
Text of speech by Fidel Castro at the University of Havana, March 13,
1962, commemorating the anniversary of the 1957 student attack on the
palace of dictator Batista, in which student leader Jose Antonio
Echevarria and others were killed. This translation of the speech
originally appeared in the April 2, 1962, issue of The Militant.
In light of some of the discussions here on Marxmail about the
role of religion in society and in relation to socialism, Fidel Castro's
famous 1962 speech should be of particular interest today.
Looking back forty-five years, we can see that Cuba's standing
in the world is completely different from what it was in 1962, at
a far earlier stage of the Revolution's development. Politically the
Cuban Revolution has survived the fall of its principal international
ally, the Soviet Union, and its profile on the world stage is higher.
Here we can look back at an earlier stage in the institutionalization
process, when its political leadership was at an earlier stage of its
formalization. At this point, in 1962, a crisis had taken place and
Fidel used the occasion to explain to the Cuban people what had
taken place, and to explain what the construction of a leadership
body politically signified. It's been a long time since I read this
discussion. In this case, Fidel was explaining to the Cuban people,
just three years after the triumph of their revolution, that it was
not going to mean any effort would be made to stamp out any
references to Cuba's religious heritage from the history of the
revolutionary process. And, of course, much, much more...
Two particularly significant paragraphs:
Then we would have to suppress Marti's works because Marti was not
a Marxist-Leninist, because Marti responded to the revolutionary
thought proper to our nation at that time. If Marxism-Leninism is the
ideology of the working class when that class emerges and, conscious
of itself, flings itself into the struggle for its emancipation, how
could we expect Marxism-Leninism to be the ideology when the task
before a country, the task before Latin America at the time of in-
dependence, and the task before our nation, were national tasks,
tasks of a different kind, of another type, corresponding to the
development of our nation at that specific moment?
If we followed that line of thinking we would have to destroy the
concept of the revolutionist from Spartacus to Marti. As a result of
that short-sighted, sectarian, stupid and warped concept, which
denies history and denies Marxism, we would be forced to deny all
values, all history. We would be forced to deny our very roots; when
all that treasure of human progress; of human effort, of human
sacrifice, should be gathered up and added to our nation's beautiful
history and to the beautiful history of a mankind which is
progressing, which has progressed from the beginning, which is
progressing and will continue to progress more and more.
This is the first of two vitally-important speeches which Fidel
gave that month.
Walter Lippmann, CubaNews
http://www.walterlippmann.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews
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9) America's Dialogue
http://www.americasdialogue.org.
I’m writing from Eugene, Oregon, to let you know about an
unprecedented week of national grassroots discussions taking place
April 14-22, 2007, and to ask both your pIarticipation and help in
getting the word out to friends and acquaintances all across the
country.
The project is AMERICA’S DIALOGUE. You can get more information at:
http://www.americasdialogue.org.
During this week, people will be gathering in small groups all across
the country to discuss the future of America.
What kind of America, and what kind of world, do we want to see?
What are our priorities as a nation and a people?
These discussions will be centering around a new 42-minute video
about Hiroshima, nuclear weapons, nuclear waste, and the human cost
of militarism and war. The video will serve both as an educational
experience for millions of Americans, young and old, and as the
catalyst for our discussions about America.
The video - AMERICA’S DIALOGUE - is available on DVD; but people can
also form discussion groups and view the video on their computer on
our website at: http://www.americasdialogue.org/watchvideo.html.
If you would like a DVD to show at a meeting, just let me know the
exact address and I’ll be glad to send a copy. You’re free to copy
the DVD and share it with others. You can also use the video as part
of a fundraiser or membership drive that week for your own group if
you like.
We’d love to hear from you - any ideas and suggestions and plans to
view the video and participate in America’s Dialogue. We would also
appreciate your letting anyone and everyone you know, both locally
and across this country, find out about AMERICA’S DIALOGUE. We’ll
be
networking with many individuals, groups and organizations all across
the country to initiate an unprecedented dialogue about the future of
our country.
THANKS!.
Jim Hilgendorf
America’s Dialogue
P.O. Box 12144
Eugene, OR 97440
Tele: 1-800-898-9441
Email: thetributeseries@comcast.net
Web: http://www.americasdialogue.org
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10) Thousands in Mexico City Protest Rising Food Prices
By ELISABETH MALKIN
February 1, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/world/americas/01mexico.html
MEXICO CITY, Jan. 31 — Tens of thousands of workers and farmers
filled this city’s central square on Wednesday to protest spiraling
food prices, ratcheting up the volume over a problem that has
dogged President Felipe Calderón in his first weeks in office.
Left-wing parties joined the unions and peasant organizations that
had called the protest. The protesters, some of whom handed out
ears of corn, marched up Mexico City’s main avenue to the Zócalo,
the site of protests through much of the summer and fall against
Mr. Calderón’s election.
The high cost of tortillas and other food staples has consumed
politics here over the past few weeks, posing a stubborn challenge
to Mr. Calderón as he seeks to project an image as a take-charge
leader. It has spilled into the ever-simmering debate here over
the country’s commitment to free-market economics.
As marchers gathered at dusk in the city’s main square, a former
television personality, Verónica Velasco, read a statement condemning
the government’s policies. “While other countries are looking for
alternatives to neoliberal policies, in Mexico, the government has
lagged behind and insisted in applying a model that, after
a quarter century, has shown its inefficiency and inequality,”
the statement said.
As night fell, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the leftist candidate
who narrowly lost to Mr. Calderón in July, spoke to the crowd.
City officials would not give an estimate of the size of the protest.
To opponents of Mr. Calderón’s government, the spike in the price
of tortillas is further proof that the free-market policies he has
pledged to continue benefit the wealthy at the expense of the poor.
The high prices are new ammunition for those who have previously
pressed to renegotiate the agricultural chapter of the North American
Free Trade Agreement to provide more protection for Mexican farmers,
and for Mexico to end its dependence on imports of American corn
and recover what nationalists call food sovereignty.
Mr. Calderón barely won a bitterly contested election in July against
a leftist opponent who promised to roll back some of those policies.
Aware that he would have to win over part of the population that has
yet to see the benefits of free trade, Mr. Calderón quickly announced
a series of social programs once he took office.
He also cracked down on the drug trade, establishing an image as
a decisive executive. He ordered the army into several cities to fight
drug violence and summarily extradited 11 drug trafficking suspects
to the United States.
But the tortilla price spiral appeared to come as a surprise. Although
Mr. Calderón moved quickly, announcing a pact on Jan. 18 to freeze
prices, the problem has not been resolved.
Even with the pact, the news reports focused on the fact that the price
ceiling for the tortillas of about 35 cents a pound was about 40 percent
higher than the price three months earlier and contrasted that with the
4 percent increase in the minimum wage, which is still less than $5 a day.
But because fewer than 10 percent of tortilla producers signed on
to the agreement, the government had little power over those who
did not. In some areas, prices have risen to 45 cents a pound. There
is little more that Mr. Calderón can do to contain prices without huge
expenditures for subsidies. Most analysts agree that the main cause
of the increase has been a spike in corn prices in the United States,
as the demand for corn to produce ethanol has jumped.
But the uneven structure of Mexico’s corn and tortilla industry here has
also generated accusations — none of them proved — of hoarding and
profiteering. Mexico’s corn flour industry is controlled by just two
companies, Grupo Maseca, also known as Gruma, and Minsa. Under
the pact, Gruma agreed to keep prices for corn flour at 21 cents a pound.
The government has promised to crack down on profiteers.
Ken Shwedel, an agricultural economist in Mexico City for the Dutch
agribusiness bank Rabobank, said prices were likely to remain high
in the United States, which supplies about 25 percent of Mexico’s corn.
“This is the first time you’ve got a real agricultural shock to the
economy,” he said. “The market economy isn’t as benevolent as
a state-run economy. The market is characterized by fluctuations.
You have to live with it and know how to deal with it.”
The marchers clearly directed their blame at the government. “When
they get involved in something as elemental as tortillas, well that’s
just irresponsible,” said Francisco Ruiz, 48, a telephone worker.
Carola Ortega, 64, a member of a peasant group, said: “We’re here
because the government always takes advantage of the poor. First
it was tortillas, but we’re not stupid; if tortillas go up, everything
else does too.”
Some analysts argue that the opposition has merely seized on a
convenient issue and that the controversy will blow over.
“For the unions, it is about much more than tortillas,” said Vidal
Romero, a political scientist at the Autonomous Technological
Institute of Mexico, a Mexico City university. “They want to make
it clear to the president that they still have strength and not let
the government do what it wants.”
For the left, the tortilla issue is a new rallying cry after months of
postelectoral protests. Mr. Romero said the left hoped to use the
march to position itself as the main opposition force to Mr. Calderón’s
presidency. “They want to draw oxygen from it,” he said.
Antonio Betancourt contributed reporting.
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11) Bomb Resonates With Diplomats, Not With the Bomber
By SIMON ROMERO
February 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/03/world/americas/03lugo.html
CARACAS, Venezuela
THERE are not many places where a man convicted in the bombing of a
commercial airliner that killed 73 people can be found roaming the
streets. This city, home to Freddy Lugo, is one of them.
Mr. Lugo, like an uneasy memory from the cold war, is tucked away
here, obscure to most of his countrymen but not completely forgotten.
He was one of two men sentenced to 20 years in prison for placing
explosives on a DC-8 jetliner flown by Cubana Airlines in 1976.
The plane blew up in the sky above Barbados, killing everyone on
board, including two dozen members of Cuba‚s national fencing team
and a 9-year-old Guyanese girl. That explosion, considered the first
act of midair terrorism in the Americas, poisons relations between
Havana and Washington to this day.
Mr. Lugo, 65, who was released in 1993 after 17 years in prison, has
tried to put the past behind him. „I have a tranquil life now,‰ he
said in a rare 90-minute interview, his eyes darting around him, at a
bakery cafe near his home. „I have a clean conscience.‰
But the past has a way of catching up with him. There is the
occasional journalist to contend with, and glimmers of recognition
from among the many Cubans who live here. As many Americans would
recognize Mohamed Atta if he were alive and walking the streets of
New York, to Venezuelans, Mr. Lugo‚s face is haunting.
A new book on the Cubana bombing, called „Terrorist of the Bush
Family,‰ by two Venezuelan journalists, Alexis Rosas and Ernesto
Villegas, has not helped either. The book has become a best seller
since its release here last November. It has focused new attention on
the bombing and the request by Venezuela for Washington to extradite
the Cuban exile accused of masterminding the bombing, Luis Posada
Carriles, to face terrorism charges here.
So far the Bush administration has refused, and Mr. Posada Carriles,
78, a naturalized Venezuelan citizen who sneaked into the United
States in 2005, currently sits in a jail in southern New Mexico on
immigration charges.
PRESIDENT HUGO CHÁVEZ‚S government, a staunch Cuban ally these days,
says the difficulty in extraditing Mr. Posada Carriles illustrates
American hypocrisy in battling terrorists. Likewise, Cuba‚s
government points to documents that show the C.I.A. had knowledge
that such an attack was being plotted in Caracas.
Since the book‚s publication, academic researchers and reporters have
tried more than ever to track down Mr. Lugo for interviews, but he
has almost always turned them away, preferring the banality of an
anonymous life.
Mr. Lugo, who drives a gypsy cab to make ends meet, has tried his
best to remain in the shadows of the diplomatic uproar surrounding
Mr. Posada Carriles, whom he described simply as „an adventurer,
capable of anything.‰
Despite his conviction, Mr. Lugo said he considered himself a pawn in
the machinations of Cuban exiles to topple Fidel Castro. Along with
many of those Cubans, Mr. Lugo, a Venezuelan, found himself in
Caracas in the 1970s.
Ann Louise Bardach, a journalist and authority on Cuban politics,
called the Caracas of that era the Casablanca of the Caribbean, as
the city attracted a sordid collection of spies, guerrillas and drug
traffickers.
It was here that Mr. Lugo, then a news photographer, met the man who
recruited him for the bomb plot, a fellow Venezuelan journalist named
Hernán Ricardo Lozano, according to police records.
Mr. Ricardo, it turned out, had been working on the side for Mr.
Posada Carriles, doing photography and surveillance. Mr. Posada
Carriles had a long history as a C.I.A. operative in the 1960s before
moving to Caracas, where he became chief of operations at Venezuela‚s
secret intelligence police, Disip, in the 1970s.
„My life would have taken a completely different path if I had never
met Hernán Ricardo,‰ Mr. Lugo said.
The two men boarded Cubana Airlines Flight 455 on Oct. 6, 1976, in
Port-of-Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago. They got off in
Barbados, where the plane stopped en route to Havana. Before leaving
the plane, they left C-4 plastic explosive in a camera bag and a tube
of Colgate toothpaste on board, according to statements obtained by
the police in Trinidad after the two men were arrested there in the
days after the attack.
„We have an explosion,‰ the Cubana pilot said with fear in his voice
in a recording of the plane‚s last frantic moments before it crashed
into the Caribbean. The recording, broadcast repeatedly here and in
Havana last October in remembrances of the 30th anniversary of the
episode, continued: „We are descending immediately. We have fire on
board.‰
Documents recently obtained by the National Security Archive in
Washington describe some of the mundane organizational details
involved in the bombing. In questioning by Trinidadian police
officials, Mr. Lugo said Mr. Ricardo had „told him he was going to
blow up a Cubana airplane.‰ He said he saw Mr. Ricardo „kneading a
handful of something looking like dough‰ before boarding the flight.
Mr. Ricardo, after slitting his left wrist in a suicide attempt while
in police custody in Port-of-Spain, said that he had been paid
$16,000 for the job and that Mr. Lugo had received $8,000.
AN intelligence report prepared by Clarence Kelly, the F.B.I.
director at the time, suggested that Mr. Posada Carriles had attended
meetings in Caracas where the bombing was planned.
The report, quoting an informant in Caracas, said Mr. Ricardo had
called Orlando Bosch, another Cuban exile in Caracas charged with
planning the bombing, saying, „A bus with 73 dogs went off a cliff
and all got killed.‰
Mr. Bosch was eventually cleared by Venezuelan courts and lives
quietly in Miami, having been spared from deportation in 1990 by the
administration of President George H. W. Bush, who was the C.I.A.
director at the time of the bombing.
Mr. Posada Carriles escaped from prison here in 1985 and made his way
to Central America, and from there entered the United States in 2005
and was caught.
Mr. Ricardo served 17 years along with Mr. Lugo. Today his
whereabouts are hard to ascertain, though Mr. Lugo said he believed
he had left Venezuela.
FOR his part, Mr. Lugo divides his time now between an apartment
where he lives with his wife, in an elegant if decaying building on a
quiet, tree-lined street, and his son‚s home in a poor district. He
says he avoids any involvement in politics.
He says his taxi, an aging beige sedan, is his only source of income.
His journalist friends still greet him and shake his hand, he said,
even though they know of his history. He is missing a few teeth, but
otherwise appears younger than his 65 years. A recently discovered
heart ailment, he said, had made him a teetotaler.
Asked if he felt remorse over the deaths of 73 people, including many
teenagers on the Cuban fencing team, Mr. Lugo said he did not. He
explained somewhat cryptically that he considered himself manipulated
in an act beyond his control. „I am a normal man,‰ he said. „I am
innocent.‰
Others disagree. „Freddy Lugo may not want to admit it, but he‚s a
mass murderer,‰ said José Pertierra, a lawyer in Washington
representing Venezuela‚s government in its attempt to extradite Mr.
Posada Carriles. „He can claim he wasn‚t the mastermind; maybe he can
claim he was duped. But he participated in a terrorist act that
killed 73 people.‰
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12) Beware of Child Predators
by Laurence M. Vance
from LewRockwell. com
[VIA Email...bw]
DIGG THIS
There is a new breed of child predator on the loose. You won't find
him featured on America's Most Wanted or appearing on the FBI's Ten
Most Wanted list. Up until now parents who were concerned about
child predators could check their state's Sex Offender Registries or
the Child Predator Watch List. But now we can thank Ladies Home
Journal magazine for informing parents about this dangerous new
predator in an article that appears in the latest issue (February
2007) called "This Man Wants Your Children."
I don't normally read Ladies Home Journal. In fact, I don't think I
had ever read a single copy until I happened recently to look
through the latest issue. Unfortunately, Ladies Home Journal has
enlisted in the service of the state. The purpose of its thirteen-
page child predator article was not to warn parents about predators
at all – it was to promote them.
You see, "This Man Wants Your Children" was not about sex offenders –
even though some of them are sex offenders – it was about Army
recruiters; specifically, Sergeant First Class Chad Christenson, one
of the top Army recruiters in the country. Indeed, Sgt. Christenson
was the Army's "Recruiter of the Year" in 2005.
We learn a number of things in this article about recruiters and
recruiting. The 2005 military recruiting budget was about $4
billion. Since the recruiting numbers were way down in 2005, "the
Army added 1,000 new recruiters, doubled the maximum sign-in bonus
from $20,000 to $40,000, relaxed standards and raised the maximum-
age limit." Then there was the new $200 million ad campaign for
2006. We are also told that "in 2005 the Army officially
investigated 836 allegations of recruiter misconduct." The Army now
accepts lower entrance scores on aptitude tests, grants more "moral
waivers" to allow convicted criminals to enlist, and allows non-
citizens to gain their citizenship after only one year of active
duty. The enlistment age has been raised from 35 to 40 to 42. Older
women who want to enlist will find that the physical fitness
requirements are now less rigorous – they must now be able to do
three push-ups. Oh, and the Army now has a MySpace profile.
Thanks to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which mandates
that "public high school administrators are required to allow
military recruiters access to students or risk losing federal
funding," Christenson preys on high school students. He is stationed
in Texas, "the state that contributed more 2005 and 2006 Army
enlistees than any other." He is paid about $64,000 to "show young
Texans how the Army can enrich their lives." I know public high
school teachers that make half of that and private high school
teachers who make less than half of that. Christenson says the Army
changed his life – "It made me who I am." But who he is?
We read in this article about some of the people Christenson
persuades to join the Army. One recruit tells him that he wants to
serve in the infantry. His reason: "It's a moral thing with me.
After what happened on 9/11, I can't live with myself if I don't go
to war." Does Christenson tell the young man that the war in Iraq
has nothing to do with 9/11? Why not? "We have no evidence that
Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th," said
Christenson' s commander in chief in answer to a reporter's question
on September 17, 2003, after hundreds of U.S. soldiers had already
died for a lie. Another recruit is a forty-one-year- old mother of
five. Does Christenson tell her that it would better if she stayed
home with her family? Does he tell her about the female U.S.
soldiers who have been killed in Iraq? Why not? I have posted their
names and pictures here.
What else is Christenson not telling young men and women about the
U.S. military? Is he telling them that the military does very little
to actually defend the country? Is he telling them that the military
is not defending our freedoms? Is he telling them that the military
is protecting the shores, guarding the borders, and patrolling the
coasts of other countries instead of our own? Is he telling them
that the military is garrisoning the planet with its military bases?
Is he telling them that the war in Iraq has lasted longer than the
war against Nazi Germany? Is he telling them that the military has
troops in over 150 different regions of the world?
Why not?
Sgt. Christenson is supposed to be an honest man. We are told in the
Ladies Home Journal article that he is "familiar with the dark side
of recruiting, of course – the improprieties brought on by the
pressure to meet quotas," but that "he scrupulously avoids the sorts
of ethical lapses – such as misleading potential recruits (or their
parents) about the chances of going to Iraq – that have tripped up
other recruiters." This means that he doesn't tell students that the
war in Iraq is over in order to get them to enlist – like some Army
recruiters did. So why doesn't he tell young men and women the whole
story?
I wonder how many people would join the Army if the gentleman in
this picture were a recruiter? Since he left his legs in Iraq – or
what was left of them – for what will go down in history as the lie
of the century, perhaps he would be more inclined to give a little
more information to potential recruits than Sgt. Christenson.
Instead of talking about the amount of a sign-in bonus, he could
talk about the more than 3,000 U.S. soldiers that have been killed
in Iraq. Instead of speaking about the free health care that the
military provides, he could speak about the hundreds of disabled
soldiers who are missing body parts like he is. Instead of
discussing the amount of money available from the military for
college, he could discuss the costs of the war in Iraq – now over
$200 million a day. Instead of mentioning the structure and
stability that the military provides, he could mention the tens of
thousands – and perhaps hundreds of thousands – of Iraqis who have
been killed since the U.S. invaded Iraq almost four years ago.
Instead of conversing about how the military has lowered enlistment
standards, he could converse about the evils of an interventionist
U.S. foreign policy that sends young men to die for a lie. And
instead of informing potential soldiers about the variety of
positions available in the military, he could inform them about the
animosity that exists between the Sunni and Shiite Muslims that has
now erupted – thanks to the United States – into a civil war.
Perhaps some disabled soldiers who now realize that they gave their
limbs in vain should sue the U.S. military under the Americans with
Disabilities Act for the right to be a recruiter. I wonder what
employing handicapped soldiers would do for enlistment quotas?
Protect your children and the children of everyone you know: Warn
them about child predators – and especially those in uniform.
January 29, 2007
Laurence M. Vance [send him mail] is a freelance writer and an
adjunct instructor in accounting at Pensacola Junior College in
Pensacola, FL. He is also the director of the Francis Wayland
Institute. He is the author of Christianity and War and Other Essays
Against the Warfare State. His latest book is King James, His Bible,
and Its Translators. Visit his website.
Copyright © 2007 LewRockwell. com
Laurence M. Vance Archives
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13) THE AMERICAN PROXY WAR IN GAZA
Opinion/Editorial
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 3 February 2007
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6494.shtml
In recent days the unremitting, murderous brutality of the
Israeli occupation has been eclipsed by the carnage in
Gaza as dozens of Palestinians have been killed in what is
commonly referred to as "interfactional fighting" between
forces loyal to Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud
Abbas and his Fatah faction on the one hand, and the
Hamas-led government on the other.
The airwaves have been filled with anguished calls from
every sector of Palestinian society -- political parties,
nongovermental organizations, and Christian and Muslim
religious leaders -- for the fighting to cease and for a
return to dialogue.
Perhaps for fear of exacerbating the already bitter
situation, few of these voices have directly confronted
the engine of this violence.
In the fevered minds of Bush administration ideologues,
Palestine has become another front in what they conceive
of as a new Cold War against "Islamofascism." They see
Iran as the central target and proxy battles are being
waged against a phantom enemy from Afghanistan and
Pakistan, through Iraq into Palestine, Lebanon, Somalia
and ever onwards wherever Arabs and Muslims are to be
found. In every case, local conflicts with specific
histories are being escalated and marshalled into this
grand narrative .
Mahmoud Abbas and Gaza warlord Muhammad Dahlan have become
the willing proxies for the Palestine franchise of this
wider project, as their tactics and loyalists' statements
reveal.
The latest round of fighting began on February 1, when
forces of the Palestinian Ministry of Interior, run by the
Hamas government, attempted to interdict a convoy of
trucks that crossed into Gaza from Israel. Officials
alleged that the trucks were carrying weapons destined for
the Presidential Guard.
Fatah figures, speaking on the BBC Arabic Service,
vehemently denied the allegation, making contradictory
claims about the contents of the trucks. One said they
contained "food and medicine for the Palestinian people,"
another "tents and equipment," and another still
"electrical generators and spare parts." No two denials
matched.
Yet the fact that the Presidential Guard is receiving arms
via Israel is common knowledge to Palestinians in Gaza and
the West Bank and has been talked about openly in the
Israeli media for months. Since October, eight truckloads
of AK-47 rifles and machine guns and several million
rounds of ammunition have entered Gaza from Israel through
the Nahal Oz and Kerem Shalom crossings, according to a
high-ranking officer of the Force-17 Fatah militia who
conveyed this information to Hebron-based journalist
Khaled Amayreh. Not all these guns go solely to the
Presidential Guard; many are sold on to the highest
bidder.
And just days ago, President Bush announced that he would
transfer $86 million dollars in the near future to further
boost Abbas.
In order to change the subject from the scandal of the
Palestinian "presidency" receiving US arms through Israel
to use against the Palestinian people, the Presidential
Guard launched a counterattack against the Islamic
University in Gaza shelling, burning and destroying parts
of it. Abbas' officials claimed that their forces had
arrested seven Iranian weapons experts working for Hamas,
and labelled Hamas leaders "extremists" and "putschists."
Fatah and Fatah-backed local radio even accused Hamas of
burning down the Islamic University themselves in order to
blacken Fatah's 'glorious image.' The allegations about
Iranians were universally dismissed but they revealed the
extent to which Abbas officials have adopted the Israeli
and American paradigm as their own.
In several recent demonstrations, Dahlan loyalists have
shouted "Shia, Shia," at Hamas supporters. This was
perhaps supposed to draw attention to Iranian support for
Hamas (the movement, like the rest of the Palestinian
Muslim community, is Sunni) but this hateful sectarian
incitement, hitherto unknown in Palestinian society,
serves (for now) the wider strategic agenda of Abbas' and
Dahlan's sponsors.
After Hizbullah defeated Israel last summer, the Lebanese
Shia movement, backed by Iran, gained enormous prestige
among the region's people, especially Palestinians, as an
Arab nationalist and pan-Islamic movement, standing firm
against Israeli aggression, in contrast to toothless,
unpopular and corrupt governments. Hence the active
promotion of Sunni fear of their Shia brethren is designed
to limit the influence of Iran -- and serve up a good
old-fashioned dose of divide and rule. (Thus from this
perspective, the carnage in Iraq and the outrage at the
brutal televised hanging of the Sunni-identified Saddam
Hussein by a Shia-identified militia was a real bonus.)
Abbas is at last doing what Arafat was always urged to do,
while Israel and the US watch with glee. As Ha'aretz
explained, Israel felt no need to launch a large scale
revenge operation against Gaza following the January 29
Eilat bombing: "When Fatah and Hamas are so good at
killing each other, why should Israel intervene and spur
them to close ranks against the common enemy?"
As the battles were raging in Gaza, the mouthpiece of
American policy, the so-called Quartet (made up of
representatives of the US, European Union, the United
Nations and Russia) met to discuss the long-dead "peace
process." The body voiced its "deep concern at the
violence among Palestinians and called for respect for law
and order." In a repeat of the American approach to last
summer's Lebanon war, the Quartet pointedly did not call
for a ceasefire.
It did however call "for Palestinian unity behind a
government committed to non-violence, recognition of
Israel and acceptance of the obligations under the
Roadmap," while remaining totally silent about Israel's
continued slow-motion ethnic cleansing of Palestinians,
particularly last week's announcement by Israeli prime
minister Ehud Olmert that Israel was extending the illegal
West Bank separation wall further east to annex several
large Jewish-only colonies. This measure will add twenty
thousand to the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians
already cut off in walled ghettos that former US President
Carter has likened to "apartheid."
The Quartet even "welcomed" US arming of the Presidential
Guard, though in diplomatic doublespeak this was
euphemized as "efforts to reform the Palestinian security
sector and thus to help improve law and order for the
Palestinian people."
Bleak as things are, cracks are starting to appear.
Although US propaganda asserts that the arming of the
Abbas militia is in part a response to growing Iranian
influence, the British parliament's International
Development Committee last week concluded that it was
Western sanctions and isolation that had driven Hamas to
seek Iranian support. The committee condemned the UK
government's refusal to talk to Hamas, urged it to do so
as it did with the IRA, and urged consideration of EU
sanctions against Israel, such as suspending the
Association agreement granting the Jewish state special
trade privileges.
Israeli and American propaganda, now also adopted by the
European Union, attempts to obscure the basic
understanding that Palestine is the struggle of a
colonized people for liberation. The policy of supporting
a quisling group to fight as a proxy on behalf of empire,
colonizer and occupier will only increase the bloodshed.
But it will ultimately fail in Palestine as it did before
in Northern Ireland, Southern Africa and Central and
Southern America, and as it is failing in Iraq.
Ali Abunimah is the co-founder of The Electronic Intifada
and author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the
Israeli-Palestinian Impasse
--
ABOUT US: The Electronic Intifada (EI) is a
not-for-profit, independent publication committed to
comprehensive public education on the question of
Palestine, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the
economic, political, legal, and human dimensions of
Israel's 39-year occupation of Palestinian territories.
EI, found at http://electronicIntifada.net provides a
needed supplement to mainstream commercial media
representations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
More information about our work can be found at
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/aboutEI.shtml
To find out about other EI/eIraq lists available, see:
http://electronicintifada.net/cgi-bin/kebab/mail.cgi
SUPPORT OUR PROJECT: Our work needs funding. We accept
donations via credit card and cheque. U.S. donations are
tax deductible. More information can be found at:
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2162.shtml
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14) Pentagon Big Winner in Bush Budget Plan
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 10:33 p.m. ET
February 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Bush-Budget.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon is the big winner in President
Bush's proposed budget for next year, while domestic items such
as aid to schools and grants to local governments will get only
the slightest of increases.
Medicare and Medicaid, the health program for the poor and
disabled, would shoulder modest but politically difficult cost
curbs in the budget the White House is submitting to Congress
on Monday.
Some $18 billion in budget savings would come from farm
programs over five years.
Bush's spending plan totals almost $3 trillion for the budget
year starting Oct. 1. It would produce a surplus in five years,
helped by steady revenue growth and a squeeze on the
one-sixth of the budget that covers domestic agencies such
as the departments of Education, Energy and Health and
Human Services.
Domestic agencies would not face an outright cut, as proposed
last year, but would see increases averaging 1 percent, White
House Budget director Rob Portman said. That is less than
anticipated inflation, but higher costs for veterans' health care
probably would result in a larger than average increase.
The Pentagon, which also consumes one-sixth of the overall
budget, would get a whopping 11 percent increase, to $481.4
billion in its core budget. And that is before accounting for an
additional $235 billion in war costs over the next year and a half.
Bush's plan will get a skeptical reception from the Democratic-
controlled Congress. Democrats say it meets the president's
promise to balance the budget by 2012 by omitting war costs
and expensive changes to the alternative minimum tax and
assuming politically untenable cuts in payments to doctors
under Medicare.
''There's this continuing deception about our real fiscal condition,''
the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee said in an interview
Saturday. ''Over and over again we see things left out of his budget
that we know are going to have to be dealt with,'' said Sen. Kent
Conrad, D-N.D.
Democrats also say Bush's estimated cost of about $6 billion for
increasing U.S. combat troop strength in Iraq greatly understates
the likely total.
For months, Conrad has worked in back channels to establish
a group of administration officials and lawmakers that would try
to rein in costly benefit programs such as Social Security, Medicare
and Medicaid. But the president's refusal to consider some tax
increases has scuttled the idea, at least for now.
Bush pushed the balanced budget idea -- to applause -- before
a meeting Saturday with House Democrats in Virginia. But he seemed
to acknowledge that a large-scale budget agreement with Democrats
is a long shot.
''I'm under no illusions of how hard it's going to be,'' Bush said.
''The only thing I want to share with you is, is my desire to see if
we can't work together to get it done.''
There is room for some modest steps such as an increase in the
maximum Pell Grant for low-income college students to $4,600,
$550 more than the current cap. House Democrats last week passed
an increase in the maximum grant to $4,310.
The federal contribution to the popular State Children's Health
Insurance Program would rise slightly to address chronic shortfalls.
States, however, would get less money to cover children in families
at twice the poverty level or more. Democrats are pressing for far
greater increases in the children's health program.
The White House's budget also would trim $12 billion from Medicaid,
mostly through lower payments to states for administrative costs.
About $5 billion or so would go toward addressing SCHIP shortfalls,
according to the White House budget office.
The proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid are relatively modest,
given the overall size of the programs. The Medicare reductions
would come in part from smaller inflation adjustments for hospitals,
nursing homes, home health care providers and hospices. More
higher-income older people would face increased premiums.
Bush also proposes requiring higher-income Medicare beneficiaries
to pay higher premiums on prescription drug coverage, just as they
do for physician services.
Hospitals in particular are a powerful lobbying group and often are
some of the leading employers in lawmakers' districts and states.
Smaller Medicare cuts of $36 billion cuts proposed last year went
nowhere in a GOP-led Congress, and Democrats quickly pounced
on the new proposal.
''I think that sounds like the president is declaring war on us and
the poor people in this country,'' said Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif.
Stark and other Democrats probably will go after what they see as
excessive payments to private managed care plans that provide
care to about 8 million Medicare beneficiaries.
Democrats also must deal with a scheduled 8 percent cut in Medicare
payments to doctors, a byproduct from a 1997 budget bill. Bush's
budget would leave the cut in place, though Congress is virtually
certain to provide relief as it has since 2003 with other scheduled
payment cuts. Such a move would eat up Bush's proposed Medicare
savings and then some.
All told, Bush is seeking $96 billion over five years from mandatory
programs providing fixed benefits such as Medicare, farm subsidies
and Medicaid and whose spending rises each year as if on autopilot.
''Unless we act, we will saddle our children and grandchildren with
tens of trillions of dollars of unfunded obligations,'' Bush said Saturday
in his weekly radio address. ''They will face three bad options: huge
tax increases, huge budget deficits or huge and immediate
cuts in benefits.''
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15) Record $622 Billion Budget Requested for the Pentagon
By DAVID S. CLOUD
February 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/03/washington/03spend.html
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 — The Bush administration is seeking a record
military budget of $622 billion for the 2008 fiscal year, Pentagon
officials have said. The sum includes more than $140 billion
for war-related costs.
The administration is also seeking $93 billion in the current fiscal
year, which ends on Sept. 30, to pay for military operations in Iraq,
Afghanistan and elsewhere, the officials said.
The requests are part of the annual budget request to Congress for
all federal spending programs. The budget is to be made public on
Monday, and Congress will revise it in the coming months.
Together with money for combat operations this year already approved
by Congress, the new request would push spending related to Iraq
and Afghanistan to $163 billion.
“It is the highest level of spending since the height of the Korean
War,” said Steven Kosiak, a military budget expert with the Center
for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a policy analysis
organization here.
Mr. Kosiak said that in 1952 the United States spent the equivalent
of $645 billion in today’s dollars, factoring in inflation, and that
in the Korean War military spending exceeded 13 percent of the
gross national product. The figure is now 4 percent.
With Democrats in control of Congress and opposition to the Iraq
war running strong, the administration’s request may face even
greater scrutiny than it has in recent years. But few if any budget
experts expect significant cuts in military spending while large
numbers of troops are in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In a statement, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada,
said: “Democrats pledge that our troops will receive everything
they need to do their jobs. We will also subject this supplemental
to the tough and serious oversight that Congress has ignored
for four years.”
The regular Pentagon budget request for 2008, which excludes
war-related costs but covers Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine
costs as well as other spending, will be $481 billion, a Pentagon
official said. That would be an increase of $49 billion over what
Congress provided this year, Mr. Kosiak said.
“As long as we’re engaged in major military operations, you are
probably not going to see decreases in the baseline budget,”
he said.
The Pentagon is seeking $128.6 billion for the Army, $110.7 billion
for the Air Force and $140 billion for the Navy, department officials
said.Background briefings for members of Congress and their staffs
have begun. As details leaked out, Pentagon officials agreed to provide
an outline of the request. The officials said the budget included no
cancellations of major weapons systems, despite delays and escalating
costs in procurement accounts in all the services.
The $141 billion request for war-related costs in 2008 represents the
first time the administration has tried at the beginning of the budget
cycle to provide a total estimate for how much the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan and other military operations will cost a year in advance.
Congress has been pressing the administration for several years to
provide such estimates. Even as they comply, Pentagon officials
emphasized that actual costs could be far different, depending
on the course of the wars.
The budget request, which takes many months to prepare, is being
released as the administration is sending an additional 21,500
troops to Iraq.
A spokesman for the Pentagon, Bryan Whitman, said Friday that
that the Office of Management and Budget had estimated that the
additional forces would cost $5.6 billion in the current fiscal year,
which ends in September.
On Thursday, the Congressional Budget Office released its estimate,
which said the costs could run much higher.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, at a Pentagon news conference,
disputed the office’s estimate, saying it greatly overstated the number
of support troops that would be necessary to go along with
the 21,500 increase in combat forces.
Mr. Gates also said he had recommended that President Bush
nominate Adm. Timothy J. Keating of the Navy, now commander
of Norad, as commander of the United States Pacific Command,
making him the top commander in the Pacific, and Lt. Gen. Gene
Reunart of the Air Force to head the Northern Command, which
is responsible for defending the continental United States.
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16) No Child Left Behind and the Imperial Project
Cutting the Schools-to-War Pipeline
By RICH GIBSON and E. WAYNE ROSS
February 2, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.org/gibson02022007.html
Any nation promising perpetual war on the world is likely to make
peculiar demands on its schools and impositions on its teachers
and youth.
While it may seem a sideshow to war and exploitation, the sharp
pressure from the Bush administration and its liberal allies to
re-authorize the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is, in fact,
a vital part of the imperial project.
The NCLB is the result of nearly three decades of elites' struggles
to recapture control over education in the US, lost during the
Vietnam era when campuses and high-schools broke into open
rebellion and, as a collateral result, critical pedagogy, whole language
reading programs, inter-active, investigatory teaching gained a foothold;
some kids learned they could understand and act on the world-not
good in a world where the Masters need the Slaves to deny their
own domination.
In de-industrialized America, the centripetal organizing point of most
peoples' lives is no longer a factory or the union movement, but rather
school. So, securing every aspect of schooling is essential to elites.
Twinned with the NCLB, now comes the equally bi-partisan New
Commission on the American Workforce report, "Tough Choices for
Tough Times". Tough-Tough was authored by such educational
experts as the director of the militarized Lockheed-Martin, and
university presidents whose incomes are frequently dependant
on grants from the military, earmarked for "research." Tough-Tough
calls for national curriculum standards as a means of recapturing the
witless patriotism necessary to get people to work, and eagerly fight
and die, for what is abundantly easy to see are the interests of their own
rulers. To resist NCLB at its choke points is to cut the human pipeline
for the promise of perpetual war. Teachers and all school workers
are uniquely positioned to do that.
Washington Post reporter Mike Grunwald outlines three claims made
by NCLB supporters: (1) to focus on low-performing kids and schools;
(2) to strengthen the federal role in schools via curricula standards and
high-stakes tests; and (3) to use "scientific methods" to evaluate the
techniques and products of educational work, that is, to apply the
apparently timeless scheme of F. W. Taylor's scientific management
time and motion studies to evaluate teaching methods and measure
the knowledge pumped into kids through intensified surveillance and
high-stakes standardized testing. Only the first part, has been trumpeted
to the public, though education workers are keenly aware of parts
two and three.
The primary thesis proclaimed by NCLB supporters is that every child
deserves a good education as a leg up in the US meritocracy. The reality
is that doing school reform without doing economic and social reform
in communities is, as our colleague Professor Jean Anyon says, "like
washing the air on one side of a screen door--it won't work." Anyon's
comment is so abundantly clear that it seems only the hopelessly
obtuse or flatly dishonest would miss the point, but even though
five years of NCLB practice proves it out, unless there is significant
resistance from parents, kids, and school workers, what many have
learned is a project that turns kids into commodities or customers
and educators into production workers.
Most mainstream liberals support NCLB by cheerleading, especially
from Senator Edward Kennedy and California Representative George
Miller who dismisses critics by simply not meeting with them. Liberal
critics of NCLB ingenuously seek to re-load curricula regimentation
and high-stakes testing for their own narrow ends, tweaking the law
by, for example, demanding full funding (teacher unions) and modest
accommodations for scoring problems (most professional associations).
However, key initial proponents of the NCLB project, including curricula
regulation and high-stakes exams, make an interesting list, including
the Business Roundtable, the U.S. Chambers of Commerce, and the
leadership of the two huge (combined about 4 million members)
teacher unions, the National Education Association and the American
Federation of Teachers, who joined together to take out full page
ads in the New York Times to demand it.
NCLB and its key components (like textbooks, test production, and
test tutoring) are more than profitable for some of its backers.
According to the American Association of Publishers sales of standardized
tests tripled to nearly $600 million since the introduction of NCLB.
The testing industry oligarchy of CTB-McGraw Hill, Harcourt, and
Houghton Mifflin control 80 percent of the total market, which
is valued at over $7 billion.
Under NCLB, each state must ensure that all schools and districts
make "Adequate Yearly Progress," as measured by math and reading
scores. (It should be noted that AYP is fraught with insurmountable
technical and political flaws.) If a school fails to improve test scores
within three years, a portion of its federal funding is diverted to
"parental choice" tutoring programs, which not only weakens the
school's ability to improve, but more importantly diverts public
money to for-profit education outfits like Educate Inc. owner
of Sylvan Learning Centers whose revenues have grew from
$180 to $250 million between 2001-2003 and whose profits
shot up 250% in 2003.
Schools are, after all, huge markets-as a for-profit venture public
education represents a market worth over $600 billion dollars. However,
only a grasp of the nature of US unionism today, corporate unionism
that sees a unity of purpose between labor, government, and business
"in the national interest," explains support from union leaders, whose
high salaries are drawn directly from the imperial well.
Schools serve to train the next generation of workers, from pre-prison
schooling in some urban and rural areas, to pre-military schooling,
to pre-middle class teacher training, to pre-med or pre-law, to the private
school systems of the rich; schooling is divided along razor sharp lines.
Schools do skills training, and depending on where a child is, some limited
intellectual training. In public schools, the key issues of life: work,
production and reproduction, rational knowledge, and freedom,
are virtually illegal.
It is illegal in California, for example, to teach positive things about
the communist movement, and hence nearly impossible to teach
about unionism. It is illegal to teach about the joys of sexual pleasure.
Rather, discussions about sex must be padded with plenty of fear,
and promises of abstinence. It is not possible for most educators to
merely say that all gods are myths, and the suspension of critique that
is faith is a dangerous move. And, in regard to freedom, anyone who
visits a school will quickly see that it is a sheer abstraction in schools,
as the entire system of surveillance (both physical and intellectual)
is designed to eradicate it.
Nevertheless, it is true that schools fashion hope, real or false, and
that society's whose hope through school is erased are commonly
steeped in rebellion, as in France, 1968. Redesigning what hope is,
and tamping down expectations of school workers, parents, and kids,
is part of the NCLB project.
There has been resistance to high-stakes testing. George Schmidt,
editor of the Chicago educator newspaper Substance
(http://www.substancenews.com), was fired from a 28 teaching
year career for publishing the Chicago CASE test after it was given
in 1999. His dismissal upheld by the courts. The Rouge Forum,
an organization of about 4,000 school workers, parents, students,
community people, has led successful test boycotts and school
walkouts in Michigan, New York, and California. There has, however,
been little continuity in this work, perhaps reflecting the problems
of a poorly funded volunteer group. Rouge Forum leaders have stuck
by their insistence that there is a direct line from the systems
of capital to imperialist war to the regulation of what people need
to know, how they come to know it, and the warped systems of
surveillance that inevitably are anti-working class, racist,
high-stakes tests.
In January 2007, renowned education author Susan Ohanian initiated
an online petition calling for the abolition of the NCLB online, through
The Educator Roundtable. Her effort was immediately attacked by the
leadership of the National Education Association with a letter urging
their members not to sign the petition. NEA now calls for some
limited reform of NCLB, and demands the imperial bribe: full-funding.
NEA plans to spend $1 million lobbying to get it.
Other complaints about NCLB have been more off target. The Palm Beach
Post of January 11, proclaimed, "The bedrock fantasy is that every child
in America will be able to read and do math on grade level by 2014.
Everyone knows that can't happen."
Setting aside the problem of what "grade level" is, a fully literate population
is quite possible with a door to door community based program coupled
with a project of social change, as the Cuban literacy success amply
demonstrates._In any case, most of the opposition to NCLB accepts
the claim that it is: (1) designed to serve all the children of the nation
and that the (2) public schools, our schools, must be reformed.
We call both pretenses into question. The bi-partisan, united-as-a
class, efforts to demolish the welfare system and the social safety net,
to deny poor children health care, food, and safe places to live, to close
libraries, and used their state power to assist the storm, Katrina,
in making a natural disaster a racist assault, should be sufficient
to offset the good motives implied by claim one.
In regard to claim two, we are skeptical about the truly public nature
of a national school system that is absolutely segregated by class and
race, where the teaching force itself is an apartheid body (about 85
percent white teaching minority/majority kids), where different content
is taught to different students based on their birthright, and where test
results are as predictable as income levels within zip codes. These may
well be their schools, serving the needs of capital, just as the Ford plant
is not ours, but Ford's, is also in question, though both at Ford, and
in schools, there is always resistance, as regimented labor and
intellectual work both suck. Ford, however, produces machines,
and schools produce hope.
Other resisters seek to participate in the NCLB process on the grounds
that, "If you are not in the room, your voice won't be heard." That sums
up the position of liberal historian Gary Nash, the key author of the
National History Standards, who wrote them in part because he was
concerned that if he did not do it, then the neo-conservatives would.
Nash hoped no high-stakes exam would be attached. His standards,
which excluded Marxist and feminist interpretations at the outset,
were then voted down by a Rush Limbaugh-inspired congress.
He re-wrote them and, in our eyes, became what he set out to oppose,
his history standards as partisan as could be. And now, as with the
Michigan MEAP (long administered by Standard and Poor's) a watered
down version of Nash's standards serves as the state's exam.
Support for the high-stakes exams which, in every instance, were born
from curricula regulations, make appeals like this: "The rationale
for standardized testing has always been a matter of common sense:
In order to measure how each student is doing academically, there
has to be a standard of measure." That remains the publicity claim
of the conservative Mackinac Center in Michigan, an appeal
to simple reason.
We want to focus on high-stakes examinations as a key choke
point in public schools and to suggest that, while petitioning to
abolish the NCLB and the tests along with it is a fine first step,
only direct action in the form of boycotts, matched by outside freedom
schooling, can possibly overcome the destruction of reason the tests
truly represent, creating a class of counter-curious kids, their level
of projected subservience varying with their inheritance. It is equally
true that trying to vote troops out of Iraq may be a fine thing, but the
direct action of troop refusals, mass disobedience, and throwing military
recruiters off campuses, is likely to be the only powerful form of war
resistance_creating the kind of self-conscious movement that can be
sustained through all the promised imperial adventures.
High stakes testing has its roots in the early twentieth century work
of Lewis Terman and Robert Yerkes who promoted the IQ test to prove
the genetic advantages of races they had already identified as superior,
demonstrating the use of bogus science to determine who should be
an officer in a segregated military. Their work in the American Eugenics
Society (AES) aimed at identifying degenerate races, in order to purify
the gene pool. Their work was used to sterilize thousands of women,
against their will. During their Nuremburg trials, Nazis routinely
pointed to the AES as an inspiration.
Carl Brigham worked with Yerkes. He's the key founder of the widely
used SAT. Today, the conservative favorite, Charles Murray, co-author
of the racist The Bell Curve, which was used as the intellectual basis
to demolish the welfare system, published a series of articles in the
January 2007 Wall Street Journal suggesting that IQ tests should be
used to track youth into specific schools, as "To have an IQ of 100
means that a tough high-school course pushes you about as far as
your academic talents will take you."
NCLB simply puts Murray into the daily life of schools. However, the
geneticist effort is deepened by the Taylorist, "scientific management,"
aspects of high-stakes tests which not only place educators and students
under the constant supervision of those who seek to deem some inferior,
but it also meets the key goal of replacing the mind of the worker,
in this case a teacher, with the mind of the boss, through strict curricula
regulations, eradicating a vital lynchpin of learning anything: freedom.
Here is what we think is a reasonable litany of objections to the NCLB,
its national curriculum, and the attached noose, high stakes exams.
High-stakes standardized tests, an international phenomenon, represent
a powerful intrusion into classrooms, often taking up as much as 40%
of classroom time in preparation, practice testing, and administration;
The tests are flawed in technical adequacy. They invoke a fallible single
standard and a single measure, a practice specifically condemned by
the Standards on Educational and Psychological Testing;
The tests are implemented and used to make high stakes decisions
before sufficient validation evidence is obtained and before defensible
technical documentation is issued for public scrutiny;
The tests are employed without credible independent meta-evaluation;
The tests are flawed in accuracy of scoring and reporting, for example
in New York in 2000 when thousands of students were unnecessarily
ordered to summer school on the grounds of incorrect test results;
The tests pretend that one standard fits all, when one standard does
not fit all;
These tests measure, for the most part, parental income and race,
and are therefore instruments that build racism and anti-working
class sentiment against the interest of most teachers and their students;
These tests deepen the segregation of children within and between
school systems, a move that is not in the interests of most people
throughout the world;
Inner-city families and poor families are promised tests as an avenue
to escape the ghetto and poverty, when the tests are designed to fail
their children, boosting dropouts, leaving more children trapped in
the ghetto and poverty, deepening inequality and all forms of injustice;
The tests set up a false employer-employees relationship between
teachers and students which damages honest exchanges in the
classroom;
The tests create an atmosphere that pits students against students
and teachers against teachers and school systems against school
systems in a mad scramble for financial rewards, and to avoid
financial retribution;
The tests have been used to unjustly fire and discipline educators
throughout the country;
The exams represent an assault on academic freedom by forcing
their way into the classroom in an attempt to regulate knowledge,
what is known and how people come to know it;
The tests foment an atmosphere of greed, fear, and hysteria, none
of which contributes to learning;
The tests destroy inclusion and inquiry-based education;
The high-stakes test pretend to neutrality but are deeply partisan
in content, reflecting the needs of elites in a world becoming more
inequitable, less democratic, promising the youth of the world
perpetual war;
The tests become commodities for opportunists whose interests
are profits, not the best interests of children.
We support the rising tide of education worker resistance to the
high-stakes exams, as well as student and educator boycotts. We
are sharply opposed to those false-flag reformers who seek to do
anything but abolish the NCLB, its tests, and its developing national
curriculum.
Liberal reformers on this bent simply lend credence to a government
that stands fully exposed as a weapon of violence for the rich, they
disconnect the clear class and race domination in not-so public
schooling from the empire's wars, and they mislead people into
believing the dishonest motives of prime NCLB proponents. Above
all, through their clear opposition to direct action versus the big tests,
as in NEA's attack on Ohanian, they simultaneously seek to destroy
the leadership of a movement that could actually succeed, and they
once again try to teach people that others, usually elites, will solve
our problems, a vile diversion from the fact that no one is going
to save us but the united action of us.
Parents and students have a legal right to opt out of the exams, which
are little more than child abuse made respectable. That the school
worker force is aware of the abusive nature of this testing, seeing
second-graders in tears as a matter of routine, cleaning vomit off
test booklets, etc., speaks to the levels of opportunism, fear, and
racism in the work force.
Nevertheless, many courageous school workers continue to speak
out, to call for action, and in some cases to play a leadership role.
Practice suggests that boycotts initiate first in wealthy areas, then
when people in poor and working class neighborhoods see that
succeed, they follow suit. The wealthy, after all, have the power
and outlook to shut down the tests from the outset, and they know
regimented curricula simply makes their kids stupid, wastes their
time. Peers in private schools never have to take a silly MEAP. Test
boycotts in wealthy areas of Michigan and California, for example,
have been going on for years.
Poor and working class parents and students, however, need to learn,
probably from teachers, that the tests are not designed to make
education equitable, but to track them into meaningless jobs,
or the military_fighting and dying against what they are never
taught are truly the enemies of their enemies. In addition, they
need to learn that their power supersedes boycotts in rich areas,
in that it can truly bring the testing to an end and even serve as
a foundation for much broader social change for equality
and democracy.
Ending imperialism is a pedagogical project, involving a mass change
of mind that overcomes most, if not all, of the defects built into every
birthright of capital. The linkage of education and social action that
could come from anti-test boycotts could be part of that change
of consciousness so urgently needed now.
We are not barbarians seeking to bring down education itself. We
recognize the need to link freedom schooling with test boycotts.
Freedom schooling could, for example, be conducted in homes,
community centers, or churches, for older students addressing the
question of why things are as they are, through community power
analyses, while youngsters could be treated to the forbidden delights
of recess, free play, storytelling, and playmaking.
We hope to contribute to the movement to take direct action against
the Big Tests. Some beacons of education publications, like Substance
News in Chicago, and organizations like the Rouge Forum, leading
a March 1 2007 conference in Detroit, deserve support.
Rich Gibson is a professor emeritus at San Diego State University.
E. Wayne Ross is professor at University of British Columbia. They
are co-editors of Neoliberalism and Education Reform to be published
by Hampton Press in 2007.
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LINKS AND VERY SHORT STORIES
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Robert Fisk: Please spare me the word 'terrorist'
Lebanon is a good place to find out what tosh the 'terror' merchants talk
Published: 03 February 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2211576.ece
The Netherlands, the New Tax Shelter Hot Spot
By LYNNLEY BROWNING
February 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/business/yourmoney/04amster.html?ref=business
Smokestacks in a White Wilderness Divide Iceland
By SARAH LYALL
February 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/world/europe/04iceland.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin
FOCUS | In DC, Contractors Are the "Fourth Branch of Govt."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020407Z.shtml
Dissent of an Officer
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020307A.shtml
Oil Giants Offer Scientists Cash to Undermine Climate Study
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0202-05.htm
Dems Indicate They Will Do Little to Stop Bush Troop Surge
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0202-04.htm
18 Years on, Exxon Valdez Oil Still Pours into Alaskan Waters
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0202-01.htm
FOCUS | Bush Seeks $250 Billion to Continue Fighting Iraq War
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020307Z.shtml
Push to Resolve Fading Killings of Rights Era
By SHAILA DEWAN
February 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/03/us/03civil.html?ref=us
Lawmakers Appeal for Guantánamo Release
By RAYMOND BONNER
Almost half of Parliament’s lawmakers signed a letter to House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi asking for the return of David Hicks, an
Australian who has been detained at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba,
for more than five years after being picked up in Afghanistan.
It was the strongest political support to date for a growing
movement in Australia to have him sent home.
February 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/03/world/asia/03briefs-australianatguantanamo.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Number of People Stopped by Police Soars in New York
By AL BAKER and EMILY VASQUEZ
"The New York Police Department released new information yesterday
showing that police officers stopped 508,540 individuals on New
York City streets last year — an average of 1,393 stops per day
— often searching them for illegal weapons. The number was
up from 97,296 in 2002, the last time the department divulged
12 months’ worth of data."
February 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/03/nyregion/03frisk.html?hp&ex=1170565200&en=da4dae3f9209560f&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Iraq Surge Could Total 50,000
A new Congressional report says the increase of 21,500 combat troops
for Iraq proposed by the Bush administration could result in up to 50,000
troops actually being deployed to the region.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020207J.shtml
Factsheet: Palestinian Refugees in Iraq*
Last Update: January 30, 2007
http://al-awdacal.org/iraq-facts.html
Rosa Luxemburg: an example of revolutionary struggle
By Ana María Ramírez
http://socialismandliberation.org/mag/index.php?aid=743
House Panel Probing Bush's Record on Signing Statements
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0201-03.htm
Official Lies Over Najaf Battle Exposed
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0201-02.htm
Molly Ivins, 1944-2007
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0131-08.htm
Grieving Dad Takes War Protest to Times Square
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0201-04.htm
And the Nobel Peace Prize Goes to ... Al Gore?
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0201-05.htm
Comedian Al Franken to run for Senate in Minnesota
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0201-01.htm
How Tax-Cut Plan Favors Middle-Income Households
By DANNY HAKIM
February 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/nyregion/02taxes.html
Panel Issues Bleak Report on Climate Change
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL and ANDREW C. REVKIN
February 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/science/earth/02cnd-climate.html?hp&ex=1170478800&en=7f0ce59ee7d312e5&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Company Will Pay Boston After Scare Over Ads
By PAM BELLUCK
BOSTON, Feb. 1 — Turner Broadcasting agreed Thursday to cover
all the costs that Boston incurred as a result of an advertising
campaign that set off fears of a possible terrorist action, the
mayor’s office said.
February 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/us/02hoax.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
German Court Seeks Arrests of 13 C.I.A. Agents
By MARK LANDLER
January 31, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/world/europe/31cnd-germany.html?hp&ex=1170306000&en=aecc440b89d021dc&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Jury Decides Against Seattle in 1999 Arrests
"A federal jury on Tuesday found the City of Seattle liable for the
unlawful arrests of about 175 protesters during the World Trade
Organization meeting here in 1999, a ruling that could cost the
city millions of dollars."
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 31, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/us/31wto.html
Mexico’s Latest War on Drug Gangs Is Off to a Rapid Start
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
January 27, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/27/world/americas/27mexico.html
Canada to Pay $9.75 Million to Man Tortured in Syria
By IAN AUSTEN
OTTAWA, Jan. 26 — Maher Arar, the Canadian software engineer
who was detained by American officials in 2002 and deported
to Syria, where he was jailed and regularly tortured, will receive
11.5 million Canadian dollars ($9.75 million) in compensation
from the Canadian government, under a settlement
announced Friday.
The compensation ends a lawsuit brought by Mr. Arar and
follows a recommendation from a judicial inquiry into his case.
That inquiry said the expulsion to Syria was caused by false
assertions made by the Canadian police to United States
officials, saying that Mr. Arar was an Islamic extremist
linked to Al Qaeda.
January 27, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/27/world/americas/27canada.html
Cuba: Castro Looking Stronger in New TV Images
By REUTERS
President Fidel Castro was shown on state television for the
first time in three months, standing with President Hugo
Chávez at a two-hour meeting said to have taken place in
Havana on Monday. Mr. Castro, 80, looked stronger but still
frail in the images. He dropped from public view six months
ago after undergoing emergency surgery for intestinal
bleeding and was last seen in an Oct. 28 video clip looking
very frail and walking with difficulty. His illness is a state secret.
January 31, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/world/americas/31briefs-castroimage.html
Anti-War Marches Draw Hundreds of Thousands
By Aaron Glantz
Inter Press Service
Sunday 28 January 2007
VIDEO: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007A.shtml
Congress Can Stop Iraq War, Experts Tell Lawmakers
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0130-09.htm
Two Charges Dropped Against Watada
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007J.shtml
Anti-War Marches Draw Hundreds of Thousands
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0129-03.htm
New Climate Report Too Rosy, Experts Say
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0129-04.htm
13% of Americans Have Not Heard of Global Warming: Report
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0129-07.htm
Poor Are Priced out of Healthful Eating
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0129-06.htm
Veteran Peace Protester Sent to Jail Despite Prisons Crisis
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0129-05.htm
Injury count in Iraq disputed
Some say Pentagon hides full impact of the war toll
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Stephen Koff
Plain Dealer Bureau Chief
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/116997684835860.xml&coll=2
Two Charges Dropped Against Watada
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007J.shtml
Viva Fidel's death, Miami says
New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
MIAMI - The City of Miami is planning an official celebration at the
Orange Bowl whenever Cuban President Fidel Castro dies.
City Commissioner Tomas Regalado, a Cuban-American, said the
Orange Bowl was the site of a speech by President John F. Kennedy
in 1961 promising a free Cuba.
"Basically, the only thing we're trying to do is have a venue, a giant
venue ready for people, if they wish, to speak to the media, to show
their emotions. It's not that we're doing an official death party,"
he said yesterday. Castro became ill last summer and turned over
power to his brother Raul.
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
http://www.nydailynews.com/01-30-2007/news/wn_report/story/493074p-415303c.html
It's HUD's job to help house Katrina survivors,
not sue them.
"Instead of helping displaced Katrina survivors return to their homes
in New Orleans, HUD has repeatedly gone out of its way to keep
them out.
After residents of the St. Bernard Housing Development returned
home to clean up and reoccupy their apartments—units which have
proven to be livable—HUD (Department of Housing and Urban
Development) responded with a lawsuit. HUD claims that residents
are "damaging" the units and is not only asking a judge to throw
the residents out, but is seeking monetary damages against them!
It's unbelievable and shameful.
Help the residents who are standing up for their housing rights,
today, by calling on HUD to drop its lawsuit and asking Congress
to investigate HUD's plans to destroy public housing in New Orleans.
The petitions will be given to the lead attorney for the residents,
to show public support for their case, and an email will be sent
to your representatives in Congress and HUD Secretary
Alphonso Jackson."
Sign Petition at:
http://www.colorofchange.org/hud/?id=2015-46534
6-Month Home Detention for Executive
By DOW JONES/AP
A former executive at Computer Associates was sentenced to six
months of home detention yesterday after pleading guilty to
conspiracy charges in connection with a scheme to bolster the
company’s quarterly revenue artificially through backdated
sales contracts.
Judge I. Leo Glasser of Federal District Court sentenced David
Kaplan, former senior vice president for finance, at a hearing
in Brooklyn. Mr. Kaplan was also ordered to serve three years
of supervised release.
Mr. Kaplan was one of several executives at the company, now
known as CA Inc., to plead guilty to criminal charges in 2004
and to cooperate with the government.
January 30, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/technology/30compute.html
2 Witnesses in Queens Killing Cite Pause Amid 50 Police Shots
By AL BAKER and COLIN MOYNIHAN
January 30, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/nyregion/30bell.html
Can Humanity Survive? Want to Bet on It?
By JOHN TIERNEY
January 30, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/science/30tier.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin
Terrified Palestinians flee Baghdad for Syrian border
Wednesday, 24 January 2007
http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/45b7856c4.html
Billboards That Know You by Name
By BARNABY FEDER
January 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/business/media/29cooper.html?ref=business
Russia Turns to Spin to Redefine Itself and Reassure the West
By ALAN COWELL
January 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/world/europe/29russia.html
Iranian Reveals Plan to Expand Role in Iraq
By JAMES GLANZ
January 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/world/middleeast/29iranians.html?hp&ex=1170133200&en=6f1bbc475aa92694&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Death Knell May Be Near for Public Election Funds
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Correction Appended
January 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/us/politics/23donate.html?th&emc=th
Gangsters for Capitalism
Saturday, 27 January 2007
By Clinton L. Cox
01/27/07 -- -- Although benign U.S. intentions are an article of faith
among many Americans, theft, murder and oppression have always
been central to U.S. policies and practices in the non-white world.
George Bush’s crusade for ‘democracy’ is yet another chapter in the
shameful saga.
“The U.S. has routinely destroyed democracy throughout the globe
while its leaders spout words about spreading democracy.”
“I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service
as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine
Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant
to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time
being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and
for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.... "
http://www.ichblog.eu/content/view/134/1/
With DNA From Exhumed Body, Man Finally Wins Freedom
By FERNANDA SANTOS
"AUBURN, N.Y., Jan. 23 — Roy Brown, who spent 15 years in prison
on a murder conviction and uncovered evidence while there that
linked another man to the crime, was released from prison on
Tuesday after DNA tests on the other man's exhumed body
matched saliva on a nightshirt at the crime scene."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/24/nyregion/24brown.html
Cingular Profits Nearly Quadruple in 4th Quarter
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 2:04 p.m. ET
January 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Earns-ATT-Cingular.html
Man may sue Qantas over Bush T-shirt ban
A Melbourne man is seeking legal advice after Qantas stopped him
from boarding a flight because he was wearing a T-shirt that
depicted US President George W Bush as a terrorist.
Qantas officials told Allen Jasson his T-shirt was offensive and
could cause a security risk, as he tried to board a London bound
flight from Melbourne.
Mr Jasson says Mr Bush has led an illegal war in Iraq.
The 55-year-old says it is his democratic right
to express a political view.
"It's not about affronting anyone and it's certainly not an
offensive statement," he said.
Melbourne QC and civil liberties advocate Robert Richter
says the ban is outrageous.
"You see T-shirts like that on the streets of New York and you
don't see American police telling people to take off
their T-shirts," he said.
Qantas says it will allow Mr Jasson to board another flight,
as long as he removes the T-shirt.
The IT specialist says the T-shirt merely expresses his
view that the US-led war in Iraq is illegal.
"It's an important statement," he said.
"It's a statement that encapsulates the values and
important beliefs that I hold."
Mr Richter says T-shirts with political slogans are common.
"[Fellow passengers] don't have to read it, they don't
have to look at him," he said.
"They can come up to him and say that they disagree but
to think that might incite some problem is absurd."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200701/s1831559.htm
Bush Continues to Unite the World... Against Him
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0123-04.htm
UN Climate Panel to Project Wrenching Change
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0123-06.htm
Menopause at 30 for Millions in Poverty
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0123-03.htm
Israeli Separation Barrier is Cutting off Palestinians from Their Livelihood
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0123-02.htm
Tuna Stocks Close to Exhaustion, Says WWF
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0123-01.htm
Israel's President to Be Indicted in Rape Case
By GREG MYRE
"JERUSALEM, Jan. 23 — Israel's attorney general plans to indict the
country's president, Moshe Katsav, on charges of rape and other
sexual offenses, the Justice Ministry announced today."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/world/middleeast/23cnd-israel.html?
hp&ex=1169614800&en=7895701811d23e48&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Bank of America Profit Rises 47%
By ERIC DASH
Big gains in equity investments buoyed Bank of America's earnings
in the fourth quarter, which were up 47 percent from the same period
in 2005, the bank reported today.
January 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/business/23cnd-bank.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
US Warns Iran to Back Down
A second US aircraft carrier strike group now steaming toward the
Middle East is Washington's way of warning Iran to back down in its attempts
to dominate the region, a top US diplomat said in Dubai Tuesday.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012307A.shtml
Ecstasy trials for combat stress
David Adam, science correspondent
Thursday February 17, 2005
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1416073,00.html
UN Study Backs Climate Theory: Humans Cause Global Warming
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0119-07.htm
US Media Overlooked Major Humanitarian Stories in 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0119-05.htm
Cost of Iraq War Skyrockets to $8 Billion a Month
The steadily rising Iraq war price tag will reach about $8.4 billion a
month this year, Pentagon spokesmen said on Thursday, as heavy
replacement costs for lost, destroyed and aging equipment mount.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012007A.shtml
US Plans Envision Broad Attack on Iran: Analyst
US contingency planning for military action against Iran's nuclear
program goes beyond limited strikes and would effectively unleash a war
against the country, a former US intelligence analyst said on Friday.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012007B.shtml
Furor Over 12-Year-Old Actress's Rape Scene
By DAVID M. HALBFINGER
January 20, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/20/movies/20dako.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
Bush to Urge New Tax Plan for Health Care
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and ROBERT PEAR
January 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/washington/21health.html?
hp&ex=1169355600&en=768f7fdf5d41e18c&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Forget that old line about "What's good for GM is good for America"
How the social glue of America is being dissolved
January 2006, Volume 8, Number 1
http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/node/488
U.S. to Renegotiate Labor Rights
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Bush administration said it would renegotiate the language
covering labor rights in free trade agreements it has reached with
Peru, Colombia and Panama, in order for the new Democratic
Congress to approve the deals. John K. Veroneau, deputy United
States trade representative, said that the three countries had been
notified and predicted that an agreement on revised language could
be reached without a lengthy delay. The announcement was the
strongest signal to date that the administration was prepared
to modify its trade policies in light of Democratic control of the
House and Senate. Democrats, backed by American labor unions,
have long complained that the free trade deals negotiated
by the administration do not include enough protections
for American workers.
January 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/business/worldbusiness/18fobriefs-labor.html
Antiques Dealer Sues to Bar Homeless From Sidewalk
By TRYMAINE LEE
"A Manhattan antiques dealer has filed a lawsuit against a small group
of homeless people claiming that they are disrupting his business
by using the sidewalk outside his high-end East Side store as a urinal,
a spittoon and an occasional dressing room, according to the suit
and the dealer's lawyer."
January 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/nyregion/18suit.html?ref=nyregion
Justices Scrutinize Death Penalty in Texas
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
January 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/washington/18scotus.html
Army Denies Watada Illegal-War Defense
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011707A.shtml
Israeli General Resigns Over War With Hezbollah
By GREG MYRE
January 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/17/world/middleeast/17israel.html?
hp&ex=1169096400&en=49902c1723a2c943&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Second Iraq Hanging Also Went Awry
By JOHN F. BURNS
January 16, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/world/middleeast/16hang.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
U.N. Puts '06 Death Toll in Iraq Above 34,000
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
January 16, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/world/middleeast/16cnd-iraq.html?
hp&ex=1169010000&en=934ebfa88b7db5cb&ei=5094&partner=homepage
New Orleans Veterans for Peace
http://foodmusicjustice.com/2007/01/10/new-orleans-veterans-for-peace/
Guantanamo Uncassified
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5E3w7ME6Fs
Blue Man Group on Global Warming
http://video. google.com/ videoplay? docid=8453442377 878175440
Iraq to give Western companies oil rights: report
Last Updated: Monday, January 8, 2007 | 12:29 PM ET
CBC News
The Iraqi government plans to introduce a law that will give Western
oil companies rights to the country's huge oil reserves,
a British newspaper says.
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/01/08/iraq-oil.html#skip300x250
Service members to Congress: End Iraq war
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jan 16, 2007 16:37:16 EST
http://www.navytime s.com/news/ 2007/01/tnsRedre ss070116/
Grumbling in the Ranks
Vocal opposition to President's Bush's strategy of sending more than 20,000
additional troops to help secure Iraq has grown to include some of the
troops themselves.
A group of more than 50 active-duty military officers will deliver a
petition to Congress on Tuesday signed by about 1,000 troops calling for an
end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq. "Any troop increase over here will just
produce more sitting ducks, more targets," said Sergeant Ronn Cantu, who is
serving in Iraq.
Under the 1988 Military Whistleblower Protection Act, active duty military,
National Guard, and Reservists may communicate with any member of Congress
without fear of reprisal, even if copies of the communication are sent to
others.
www.marxmail.org
January 15, 2007, 1:30 pm
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2007/01/15/grumbling-in-the-ranks/trackback/
Anywhere the Eye Can See, It's Likely to See an Ad
By LOUISE STORY
Add this to the endangered list: blank spaces.
January 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/business/media/15everywhere.html?ref=business
Bush gets cool response from troops set for Iraq
By Joseph Curl
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published January 12, 2007
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20070112-120719-1724r.htm
Brazil Gambles on Monitoring of Amazon Loggers
By LARRY ROHTER
January 14, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/world/americas/14amazon.html?
_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin
Pentagon Intensifies Pressure on Iran
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011307A.shtml
Israeli forces confiscating hundreds of dunams of Hebron
land for settlement industry
"Official sources at the Hebron offices of the Land Defense Committee
in the West Bank are reporting that Israeli forces intend to confiscate
much of the town of Dahariya for settlement industry. More than
300 fertile dunams of Palestinian land is slated to be taken from
the southwestern area of the town."
http://english. pnn.ps/index. php?option= com_content&task=view&id=1414
Hackensack: Lawsuit in Police Shooting
By KAREEM FAHIM
The family of a 45-year-old man who was fatally shot last year by
a New Jersey Park Police officer filed a wrongful-death suit yesterday
in State Superior Court. The suit names the officer and several
colleagues, the State of New Jersey and the Park Police. The man,
Emil Mann, a member of the Ramapough Mountain Indians, had
been at a barbecue in the woods of Mahwah on April 1 when the
officer, Chad Walder, shot him twice without justification, the
suit alleges. Officer Walder, who has said he fired in self-defense,
and two other officers also delayed getting medical help to Mr. Mann,
the suit says. A lawyer for Officer Walder, Robert Galantucci, said
the shooting was justified. No criminal charges have been filed
in the case, and the Bergen County prosecutor's office has said
the investigation is still open. Mr. Mann, who grew up on the
mountain where he was shot, lived in Monroe, N.Y., and had
three children.
January 12, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/12/nyregion/12mbrfs-emil.html
Texas: Judge Blocks Ordinance on Immigrants
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A judge blocked an ordinance requiring landlords to verify the
citizenship of potential tenants, a day before it was to go into
effect in a Dallas suburb. The judge granted a temporary
restraining order after a claim that state open-meetings laws
had been violated when the ordinance was approved and
adopted by the City Council of Farmers Branch in November.
January 12, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/12/us/12brfs-LANDLORDS.html
U.S. Preparing for Trials of Top Qaeda Detainees
By DAVID JOHNSTON and NEIL A. LEWIS
WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 — The Bush administration has set up a secret
war room in a Virginia suburb where it is assembling evidence
to prosecute high-ranking detainees from Al Qaeda including
the man accused of being the mastermind of the September 2001
attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, government officials said this week.
January 12, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/12/washington/12terror.html?ref=us
Bush's tough tactics are a 'declaration of war' on Iran
By Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor
Published: 12 January 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article2145136.ece
Democrats Risk Antiwar Wrath if They Waver on Iraq Exit
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0110-08.htm
Soldiers Doubt an Influx of American Troops Will Benefit Iraqi Army
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0110-04.htm
Bush to Face Street Protests over Iraq Escalation Plan
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0110-07.htm
YouTube User Spurs Iraq War Dialogue
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0110-01.htm
Robert Fisk: Bush's new strategy - the march of folly
So into the graveyard of Iraq, George Bush, commander-in-chief,
is to send another 21,000 of his soldiers. The march of folly
is to continue...
Published: 11 January 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2144057.ece
Rights of Unions and Nonmembers Vie at Court
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
January 11, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/11/washington/11scotus.html?ref=us
If you can stomach it:
Transcript of President Bush's Address to Nation on U.S. Policy in Iraq
as recorded by The New York Times:
January 11, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/11/us/11ptext.html
Israel's Purging of Palestinian Christians
by Jonathan Cook in Nazareth
www.dissidentvoice.org
January 9, 2007
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Jan07/Cook09.htm
Democrats Beef Police State With 9/11 Commission Bill
Political "opposition" also helping Bush gain traction for Iran military strike
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/january2007/100107democratsbeef.htm
Wage Increase Could Hinge on Tax Cuts
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
January 10, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/washington/10wage.html?
hp&ex=1168491600&en=91d9820f1ef98a84&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Britain: An Increase in Profit at the London Stock Exchange
By BLOOMBERG NEWS
The London Stock Exchange, seeking to fend off a hostile takeover
by the Nasdaq Stock Market, reported a 9.9 percent increase in
third-quarter profit and forecast a "strong performance" in fiscal
2008. Net income rose to £31 million ($59.8 million) in the three
months ended Dec. 31, up from £28.2 million a year earlier, the
exchange said. Revenue increased 11 percent, to £89.9 million
($173.5 million). The third-quarter results "support the board's
rejection of Nasdaq's offer, which significantly undervalues the
business and the exchange's unique strategic position," the
exchange's chief executive, Clara Furse, said. "Our strong growth
prospects will continue to enhance the quality of our markets."
The exchange, Europe's biggest equity market, released its
earnings about three weeks ahead of schedule and two days
before Nasdaq's offer to pay £12.43 a share expires.
January 10, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/business/worldbusiness/10fobriefs-
ANINCREASEIN_BRF.html
Venezuelan Plan Shakes Investors
By SIMON ROMERO and CLIFFORD KRAUSS
January 10, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/business/worldbusiness/10venezuela.html?
ref=business
Mayor Finds Friendly Ears on Senate Homeland Security Panel
By SEWELL CHAN and ERIC LIPTON
WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 — Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took his perennial
pitch for more security money to Congress on Tuesday, but this year,
for a change, lawmakers seemed poised to listen.
January 10, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/nyregion/10bloomberg.html?ref=nyregion
3 Relatives of Plotter Are Held by Officials
By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
January 10, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/nyregion/10plot.html?ref=nyregion
Gas-Like Odor Permeates Parts of New York City
By CHRISTINE HAUSER and SEWELL CHAN
January 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/08/nyregion/08cnd-odor.html?
hp&ex=1168318800&en=b688635a7be2e78d&ei=5094&partner=homepage
The Second Declaration of Havana
Walter Lippmann, CubaNews Los Angeles, California
This is one of the great political documents of all time. It was
presented to the Cuban people on February 4, 1962, following Cuba's
expulsion from the Organization of American States. It is printed
here in its entirety. [editorial note from Fidel Castro Speaks,
edited by James Petras and Martin Kenner, Grove Press, 1969.]
It is now web-posted in English here:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/fc-02-04-1962.html
Original Spanish:
http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/1962/esp/f040262e.html
The universe gives up its deepest secret
It is the invisible material that makes up most of the cosmos.
Now, scientists have created the first image of dark matter
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 08 January 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article2134891.ece
Blood and oil: How the West will profit from Iraq's
most precious commodity
The Independent (UK)
January 7, 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2132574.ece
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SCROLL DOWN TO READ:
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS (IN FULL DETAIL)
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
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EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
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LYNNE STEWART AND MICHAEL RATNER IN BAY AREA
FEBRUARY 23-25 (Lynne and her husband Ralph will
stay on several more days. Stay tuned for complete
schedule of events.)
Dear Friends of Lynne Stewart,
I am pleased to announce that Lynne Stewart and Michael Ratner have
just accepted our invitation to tour the Bay Area. The confirmed
dates are February 23-25, 2007. Lynne, accompanied by her husband
Ralph Poynter, will stay on several more days for additional meetings.
In solidarity,
Jeff Mackler,
West Coast Coordinator, Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
Co-Coordinator, Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
O: 415-255-1080
Cell: 510-387-7714
H: 510-268-9429
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May Day 2007
National Mobilization to Support Immigrant Workers!
Web: http://www.MayDay2007.net
National Immigrant Solidarity Network
No Immigrant Bashing! Support Immigrant Rights!
webpage: http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org
e-mail: info@ImmigrantSolidarity.org
New York: (212)330-8172
Los Angeles: (213)403-0131
Washington D.C.: (202)595-8990
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GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
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A NEW LOOK AT U.S. RADIOACTIVE WEAPONS
Join us in a campaign to expose and stop the use of these illegal weapons
http://poisondust.org/
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You may enjoy watching these.
In struggle
Che:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqcezl9dD2c
Leon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukkFVV5X0p4
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FIGHTBACK! A Collection of Socialist Essays
By Sylvia Weinstein
http://www.walterlippmann.com/sylvia-weinstein-fightback-intro.html
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URGENT APPEAL TO SAVE IRAQ'S ACADEMICS.
Call for action to save Iraq's Academics
A little known aspect of the tragedy engulfing Iraq is the systematic
liquidation of the country's academics. Even according to conservative
estimates, over 250 educators have been assassinated, and many
hundreds more have disappeared. With thousands fleeing the country
in fear for their lives, not only is Iraq undergoing a major brain drain,
the secular middle class - which has refused to be co-opted by the
US occupation - is being decimated, with far-reaching consequences
for the future of Iraq.
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/
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END ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL!
Stop funding Israel's war against Palestine
Complete the form at the website listed below with your information.
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?
JServSessionIdr003=cga2p2o6x1.app2a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=177
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ENDORSE THE A.N.S.W.E.R. CALL TO ACTION
March 17-18, 2007
GLOBAL DAYS OF ACTION ON THE
4TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WAR!
http://answer.pephost.org/site/Survey?
SURVEY_ID=3400&ACTION_REQUIRED=URI_ACTION_USER_REQUESTS&JServSessionIdr011=
k7a3443r73.app8a
http://answer.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ANS_homepage
Please circulate widely
www.answercoalition.org
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Sand Creek Massacre
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html
On November 29, 1864, 700 Colorado troops savagely slaughtered
over 450 Cheyenne children, disabled, elders, and women in the
southeastern Colorado Territory under its protection. This act
became known as the Sand Creek Massacre. This film project
("The Sand Creek Massacre" documentary film project) is an
examination of an open wound in the souls of the Cheyenne
people as told from their perspective. This project chronicles
that horrific 19th century event and its affect on the 21st century
struggle for respectful coexistence between white and native
plains cultures in the United States of America.
Listed below are links on which you can click to get the latest news,
products, and view, free, "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" award-
winning documentary short. In order to create more native
awareness, particularly to save the roots of America's history,
please read the following:
Some people in America are trying to save the world. Bless
them. In the meantime, the roots of America are dying.
What happens to a plant when the roots die? The plant dies
according to my biology teacher in high school. American's
roots are its native people. Many of America's native people
are dying from drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, hunger,
and disease, which was introduced to them by the Caucasian
male. Tribal elders are dying. When they die, their oral
histories go with them. Our native's oral histories are the
essence of the roots of America, what took place before
our ancestors came over to America, what is taking place,
and what will be taking place. It is time we replenish
America's roots with native awareness, else America
continues its decaying, and ultimately, its death.
You can help. The 22-MINUTE SAND CREEK MASSACRE
DOCUMENTARY PRESENTATION/EDUCATIONAL DVD IS
READY FOR PURCHASE! (pass the word about this powerful
educational tool to friends, family, schools, parents, teachers,
and other related people and organizations to contact
me (dvasicek@earthlink.net, 303-903-2103) for information
about how they can purchase the DVD and have me come
to their children's school to show the film and to interact
in a questions and answers discussion about the Sand
Creek Massacre.
Happy Holidays!
Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=4
1
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html
SHOP:
http://www.manataka.org/page633.html
BuyIndies.com
donvasicek.com.
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MUST SEE: PBS VIDEO NOTEBOOK: A DAY AT THE PLANT
NOW's Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa takes us inside the
world's largest pork processing plant, located in Tar Heel, North
Carolina. As the first TV journalist ever allowed to film inside the
plant, owned by The Smithfield Packing Company, Hinojosa gives
us an insider's view of what conditions are like in a plant that
slaughters over 33,000 hogs per day.
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/250/smithfield.html
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Rights activist held in Oaxaca prison
Three students arrested and held incommunicado in Oaxaca
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/11/80142.html
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TAX THE RICH! FEED THE POOR! MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS, NOT WAR!
www.bauaw.org
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The following quote is from the 1918 anti-war speech delivered
in Canton, Ohio, by Eugene Debs. The address, protesting World War I,
resulted in Debs being arrested and imprisoned on charges of espionage.
The speech remains one of the great expressions of the militancy and
internationalism of the US working class.
His appeal, before sentencing, included one of his best-known quotes:
"...while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal
element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."
Read the complete speech at:
http://douglassarchives.org/debs_a78.htm
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!VIVA FIDEL! LONG LIVE FIDEL! LONG LIVE THE CUBAN REVOLUTION!
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My Name is Roland Sheppard
This Is My `Blog'
I am is a retired Business Representative of Painters District
Council #8 in San Francisco. I have been a life long social activist
and socialist. Roland Sheppard is a retired Business Representative
of Painters District Council #8 in San Francisco. I have been
a life long social activist and socialist.
Prior to my being elected as a union official, I had worked
for 31 years as a house painter and have been a lifelong socialist.
I have led a unique life. In my retire age, I am interested in writing
about my experiences as a socialist, as a participant in the Black
Liberation Movement, the Union Movement, and almost all social
movements.
I became especially interested in the environment when I was
diagnosed with cancer due to my work environment. I learned
how to write essays, when I first got a computer in order to put
together all the medical legal arguments on my breakthrough
workers' compensation case in California, proving that my work
environment as a painter had caused my cancer. After a five-year
struggle, I won a $300,000 settlement on his case.
The following essays are based upon my involvement in the
struggle for freedom for all humanity. I hope the history
of my life's experiences will help future generations
of Freedom Fighters.
For this purpose, this website is dedicated.
web.mac.com/rolandgarret/iWeb/Site/RolandSheppardsBlog.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The Corporate Looting of the Gulf Coast
Robin Hood in Reverse
http://www.counterpunch.org/quigley11132006.html
More Info:
www.justiceforneworleans.org
For a detailed report:
Big, Easy Money: Disaster Profiteering on the American Gulf Coast
by Rita J. King, Special to CorpWatch
August 15th, 2006
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14004
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
TAX FACT SHEET
http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/901006_taxpolicy.pdf
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Communist Manifesto illustrated by Disney [and other cartoons) with
words by K. Marx and F. Engels--absolutely wonderful!...bw]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1oGIffyVVk&NR
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Asylum Street Spankers-Magnetic Yellow Ribbon
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=bfMgRHRJ- tc
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Homer Simpson Joins the Army
Another morale-booster from Groening and company. [If you get
a chance to see the whole thing, it's worth it...bw]
http://hotair.com/archives/2006/11/12/video-the-simpsons-salute-the-lazy-and
-uneducated/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
A Look at the Numbers: How the Rich Get Richer
Clara Jeffery (May/June 2006 Issue
IN 1985, THE FORBES 400 were worth $221 billion combined.
Today, they re worth $1.13 trillion more than the GDP of Canada.
THERE'VE BEEN FEW new additions to the Forbes 400.
The median household income
has also stagnated at around $44,000.
AMONG THE FORBES 400 who gave to a 2004 presidential
campaign, 72% gave to Bush.
IN 2005, there were 9 million American millionaires,
a 62% increase since 2002.
IN 2005, 25.7 million Americans received food stamps,
a 49% increase since 2000.
ONLY ESTATES worth more than $1.5 million are taxed.
That's less than 1% of all estates
http://www.motherjones.com/cgi-bin/print_article.pl?url=http://www.motherjon
es.com/news/exhibit/2006/05/perks_of_privilege.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Do You Want to Stop PREVENT War with Iran?
Dear Friend,
Every day, pundits and military experts debate on TV when, how and where
war with Iran will occur. Can the nuclear program be destroyed? Will the
Iranian government retaliate in Iraq or use the oil weapon? Will it take
three or five days of bombing? Will the US bomb Iran with "tactical"
nuclear weapons?
Few discuss the human suffering that yet another war in the Middle East
will bring about. Few discuss the thousands and thousands of innocent
Iranian and American lives that will be lost. Few think ahead and ask
themselves what war will do to the cause of democracy in Iran or to
America's global standing.
Some dismiss the entire discussion and choose to believe that war simply
cannot happen. The US is overstretched, the task is too difficult, and
the world is against it, they say.
They are probably right, but these factors don't make war unlikely. They
just make a successful war unlikely.
At the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), we are not going to
wait and see what happens.
We are actively working to stop the war and we need your help!
Working with a coalition of peace and security organizations in
Washington DC, NIAC is adding a crucial dimension to this debate - the
voice of the Iranian-American community.
Through our US-Iran Media Resource Program
http://niacouncil.c.topica.com/maafjioabumkFbIfQs8eafpLV5/
http://niacouncil.c.topica.com/maafjioabumkFbIfQs8eafpLV5/ , we help
the media ask the right questions and bring attention to the human side
of this issue.
Through the LegWatch program
http://niacouncil.c.topica.com/maafjioabummRbIfQs8eafpLV5/
http://niacouncil.c.topica.com/maafjioabummRbIfQs8eafpLV5/ ,
we are building opposition to the war on Capitol Hill. We spell out the
likely
consequences of war and the concerns of the Iranian-American community
on Hill panels
http://niacouncil.c.topica.com/maafjioabumkGbIfQs8eafpLV5/
http://niacouncil.c.topica.com/maafjioabumkGbIfQs8eafpLV5/
and in direct meetings with lawmakers. We recently helped more than a dozen
Members of Congress - both Republican and Democrats - send a strong
message against war to the White House
http://niacouncil.c.topica.com/maafjioabumkHbIfQs8eafpLV5/
http://niacouncil.c.topica.com/maafjioabumkHbIfQs8eafpLV5/
But more is needed, and we need your help!
If you don't wish to see Iran turn into yet another Iraq, please make a
contribution online or send in a check to:
NIAC
2801 M St NW
Washington DC 20007
Make the check out to NIAC and mark it "NO WAR."
ALL donations are welcome, both big and small. And just so you know,
your donations make a huge difference. Before you leave the office
today, please make a contribution to stop the war.
Sincerely,
Trita Parsi
President of NIAC
U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW)
www.uslaboragainstwar.org
http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/
Email: info@uslaboragainstwar.org
PMB 153
1718 "M" Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
Voicemail: 202/521-5265
Co-convenors: Gene Bruskin, Maria Guillen, Fred Mason,
Bob Muehlenkamp, and Nancy Wohlforth
Michael Eisenscher, National Organizer & Website Coordinator
Virginia Rodino, Organizer
Adrienne Nicosia, Administrative Staff
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Immigration video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tacK8MAfuAs
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Enforce the Roadless Rule for National Forests
Target: Michael Johanns, Secretary, USDA
Sponsor: Earthjustice
We, the Undersigned, endorse the following petition:
This past September, Earthjustice scored a huge victory for our roadless
national forests when a federal district court ordered the reinstatement
of the Roadless Rule.
The Roadless Rule protects roadless forest areas from road-building
and most logging. This is bad news for the timber, mining, and oil
& gas industries ... And so they're putting pressure on their friends
in the Bush Administration to challenge the victory.
Roadless area logging tends to target irreplaceable old growth forests.
Many of these majestic trees have stood for hundreds of years.
By targeting old-growth, the timber companies are destroying
natural treasures that cannot be replaced in our lifetime.
The future of nearly 50 million acres of wild, national forests
and grasslands hangs in the balance. Tell the secretary of the
USDA, Michael Johanns, to protect our roadless areas by enforcing
the Roadless Rule. The minute a road is cut through a forest, that
forest is precluded from being considered a "wilderness area," and
thus will not be covered by any of the Wilderness Area protections
afforded by Congress.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/112283692?z00m=6687205&z00m=668720
5<l=1162406255
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Mumia Abu-Jamal - Reply brief, U.S. Court of Appeals (Please Circulate)
Dear Friends:
On October 23, 2006, the Fourth-Step Reply Brief of Appellee and
Cross-Appellant, Mumia Abu-Jamal was submitted to the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia. (Abu-Jamal v. Horn,
U.S. Ct. of Appeals Nos. 01-9014, 02-9001.)
Oral argument will likely be scheduled during the coming months.
I will advise when a hearing date is set.
The attached brief is of enormous consequence since it goes
to the essence of our client's right to a fair trial, due process
of law, and equal protection of the law, guaranteed by the Fifth,
Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
The issues include:
Whether Mr. Abu-Jamal was denied the right to due process
of law and a fair trial because of the prosecutor's "appeal-after
-appeal" argument which encouraged the jury to disregard the
presumption of innocence and reasonable doubt, and err
on the side of guilt.
Whether the prosecution's exclusion of African Americans
from sitting on the jury violated Mr. Abu-Jamal's right
to due process and equal protection of the law,
in contravention of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986).
Whether Mr. Abu-Jamal was denied due process and equal
protection of the law during a post-conviction hearing
because of the bias and racism of Judge Albert F. Sabo,
who was overheard during the trial commenting that
he was "going to help'em fry the nigger."
That the federal court is hearing issues which concern
Mr. Abu-Jamal's right to a fair trial is a great milestone
in this struggle for human rights. This is the first time
that any court has made a ruling in nearly a quarter
of a century that could lead to a new trial and freedom.
Nevertheless, our client remains on Pennsylvania's death
row and in great danger.
Mr. Abu-Jamal, the "voice of the voiceless," is a powerful
symbol in the international campaign against the death
penalty and for political prisoners everywhere. The goal
of Professor Judith L. Ritter, associate counsel, and
I is to see that the many wrongs which have occurred
in this case are righted, and that at the conclusion
of a new trial our client is freed.
Your concern is appreciated
With best wishes,
Robert R. Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *---------*---------*
Antiwar Web Site Created by Troops
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A small group of active-duty military members opposed to the war
have created a Web site intended to collect thousands of signatures
of other service members. People can submit their name, rank and
duty station if they support statements denouncing the American
invasion. "Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price,"
the Web site, appealforredress.org, says. "It is time for U.S. troops
to come home." The electronic grievances will be passed along
to members of Congress, according to the Web site. Jonathan
Hutto, a Navy seaman based in Norfolk, Va., who set up the Web
site a month ago, said the group had collected 118 names and
was trying to verify that they were legitimate service members.
October 25, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/25/washington/25brfs-005.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Judge Orders Release of Abu Ghraib Child Rape Photos
Submitted by davidswanson on Mon, 2006-10-23 20:54. Evidence
By Greg Mitchell, http://www.editorandpublisher.com
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/14864
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Profound new assault on freedom of speech and assembly:
Manhattan: New Rules for Parade Permits
By AL BAKER
After recent court rulings found the Police Department's
parade regulations too vague, the department is moving
to require parade permits for groups of 10 or more
bicyclists or pedestrians who plan to travel more than
two city blocks without complying with traffic laws.
It is also pushing to require permits for groups of 30
or more bicyclists or pedestrians who obey traffic laws.
The new rules are expected to be unveiled in a public
notice today. The department will discuss them at
a hearing on Nov. 27. Norman Siegel, a lawyer whose
clients include bicyclists, said the new rules
"raise serious civil liberties issues."
October 18, 2006
http://www.nytimes. com/2006/ 10/18/nyregion/ 18mbrfs-002. html
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Soul-Sick Nation: An Astrologer's View of America
Jessica Murray
Format: Paperback (6x9)
ISBN 1425971253
Price: $ 13.95
About the Book
Astrology and geopolitics may seem strange bedfellows, but
Soul-Sick Nation puts the two together to provide a perspective
as extraordinary as the times we are living in. Using the principles
of ancient wisdom to make sense of the current global situation,
this book invites us to look at the USA from the biggest possible
picture: that of cosmic meaning. With a rare blend of compassion,
humor and fearless taboo-busting, Soul-Sick Nation reveals
America's noble potential without sentiment and diagnoses
its neuroses without delusion, shedding new light on troubling
issues that the pundits and culture wars inflame but leave
painfully unresolved: the WTC bombings, the war in Iraq,
Islamic jihad, media propaganda, consumerism and the
American Dream.
In her interpretation of the birth chart of the entity born
July 4, 1776, Murray offers an in-depth analysis of America's
essential destiny--uncovering , chapter by chapter, the greater
purpose motivating this group soul. She shows how this
purpose has been distorted, and how it can be re-embraced
in the decades to come. She decodes current astrological
transits that express the key themes the USA must learn
in this period of millennial crisis-including that of the
responsibility of power-spelling out the profound lessons
the nation will face in the next few years.
Combining the rigor of a political theorist with the vision
of a master astrologer, this keenly intelligent book elucidates
the meaning of an epoch in distress, and proposes a path
towards healing-of the country and of its individual citizens.
Murray explains how each of us can come to terms with this
moment in history and arrive at a response that is unique
and creative. This book will leave you revitalized, shorn
of illusions and full of hope.
About the Author
"Jessica Murray's Soul-Sick Nation raises the symbol-system
of astrology to the level of a finely-honed tool for the critical
work of social insight and commentary. Her unflinching,
in-depth analysis answers a crying need of our time. Murray's
application of laser beam-lucid common sense analysis
to the mire of illusions we've sunken into as a nation is
a courageous step in the right direction... Just breathtaking! "
--Raye Robertson, author of Culture, Media and the Collective Mind
" Jessica Murray,..a choice-centered, psychospiritually- oriented
astrologer.. . has quietly made a real difference in the lives of her
clients, one at a time. In "Soul Sick Nation," she applies exactly those
same skills to understanding America as a whole. Starting from
the premise that the United States is currently a troubled adolescent,
she applies an unflinching gaze to reach an ultimately compassionate
conclusion about how we can heal ourselves and grow up."
- Steven Forrest, author of The Inner Sky and The Changing Sky
http://www.authorho use.com/BookStor e/ItemDetail~ bookid~41780. aspx
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Shop for a Donation at Al-Awda!
Interested in furthering your knowledge about Palestine
and its people?
Want to help make the Palestinian Right to Return a reality?
Looking for ways to show your support for Palestine and
Palestinian refugees?
Why not shop for a donation at Al-Awda
http://al-awda. org/shop. html
and help support a great organization and cause!!
Al-Awda offers a variety of educational materials including interesting
and unique books on everything from oral histories, photo books
on Palestinian refugees, to autobiographies, narratives, political
analysis, and culture. We also have historical maps of Palestine
(in Arabic and English), educational films, flags of various sizes,
and colorful greeting cards created by Palestinian children.
You can also show your support for a Free Palestine, and wear with
pride, great looking T-shirts, pendants, and a variety of Palestine pins.
Shop for a Donation at Al-Awda!
Visit http://al-awda. org/shop. html for these great items, and more!
The Educational Supplies Division
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-685-3243
Fax: 360-933-3568
E-mail: info@al-awda. org
WWW: http://al-awda. org
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC), is a broad-
based, non-partisan, democratic, and charitable organization of
grassroots activists and students committed to comprehensive public
education about the rights of all Palestinian refugees to return to their
homes and lands of origin, and to full restitution for all their confiscated
and destroyed property in accordance with the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, International law and the numerous United Nations
Resolutions upholding such rights (see FactSheet). Al-Awda, PRRC
is a not for profit tax-exempt educational and charitable 501(c)(3)
organization as defined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the
United States of America. Under IRS guidelines, your donations
to Al-Awda, PRRC are tax-deductible.
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Before You Enlist
Excellent flash film that should be shown to all students.
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=ZFsaGv6cefw
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
In an interview in March 1995 entitled, "Jesse Helms: Setting the
Record Straight" that appeared in the Middle East Quarterly, Helms
said, "I have long believed that if the United States is going to give
money to Israel, it should be paid out of the Department of Defense
budget. My question is this: If Israel did not exist, what would
U.S. defense costs in the Middle East be? Israel is at least the
equivalent of a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Middle East. Without
Israel promoting its and America's common interests, we would
be badly off indeed."
(Jesse Helms was the senior senator from North Carolina and the
chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time.)
http://www.meforum. org/article/ 244
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
TWO AMICUS BRIEFS FILED FOR MUMIA ABU-JAMAL WITH
THE 3RD CIRCUIT FEDERAL APPEALS COURT IN JULY 2006
These pdf files can be found on Michael Schiffmann's web site at:
http://againstthecr imeofsilence. de/english/ copy_of_mumia/ legalarchive/
The first brief is from the National Lawyers Guild.
The second brief is from the NAACP Legal Defense
and Educational Fund, Inc.
Howard Keylor
For the Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
www.laboractionmumi a.org.
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Asylum Street Spankers-Magnetic Yellow Ribbon
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=bfMgRHRJ- tc
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
SIR! NO SIR!
I urge everyone to get a copy of "Sir! No Sir!" at:
http://www.sirnosir .com/
It is an extremely informative and powerful film
of utmost importance today. I was a participant
in the anti-Vietnam war movement. What a
powerful thing it was to see troops in uniform
leading the march against the war! If you would
like to read more here are two very good
publications:
Out Now!: A Participant' s Account of the Movement
in the United States Against the Vietnam War
by Fred Halstead (Hardcover - Jun 1978)
and:
GIs speak out against the war;: The case of the
Ft. Jackson 8; by Fred Halstead (Unknown Binding - 1970).
Both available at:
http://www.amazon. com/gp/search/ 103-1123166- 0136605?search- alias=books&
rank=
+availability, -proj-total- margin&field- author=Fred% 20Halstead
In solidarity,
Bonnie Weinstein
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Endorse the following petition:
Don't Let Idaho Kill Endangered Wolves
Target: Fish and Wildlife Service
Sponsor: Defenders of Wildlife
http://www.thepetit ionsite.com/ takeaction/ 664280276?
z00m=99090&z00m= 99090<l= 1155834550
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
END ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL!
Stop funding Israel's war against Palestine
Complete the form at the website listed below with your information.
Personalize the message text on the right with
your own words, if you wish.
Click the Next Step button to send your letter
to these decision makers:
President George W. Bush
Vice President Richard 'Dick' B. Cheney
Your Senators
Your Representative
Go here to register your outrage:
https://secure2. convio.net/ pep/site/ Advocacy?
JServSessionIdr003= cga2p2o6x1. app2a&cmd= display&page= UserAction& id=177
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Idriss Stelley Foundation is in critical financial crisis, please help !
ISF is in critical financial crisis, and might be forced to close
its doors in a couple of months due to lack of funds to cover
DSL, SBC and utilities, which is a disaster for our numerous
clients, since the are the only CBO providing direct services
to Victims (as well as extended failies) of police misconduct
for the whole city of SF. Any donation, big or small will help
us stay alive until we obtain our 501-c3 nonprofit Federal
Status! Checks can me made out to
ISF, ( 4921 3rd St , SF CA 94124 ). Please consider to volunteer
or apply for internship to help covering our 24HR Crisis line,
provide one on one couseling and co facilitate our support
groups, M.C a show on SF Village Voice, insure a 2hr block
of time at ISF, moderate one of our 26 websites for ISF clients !
http://mysite. verizon.net/ vzeo9ewi/ idrissstelleyfou ndation/
http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/isf23/
Report Police Brutality
24HR Bilingual hotline
(415) 595-8251
http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/Justice4As a/
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Appeal for funds:
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website http://dahrjamailir aq.com
Request for Support
Dahr Jamail will soon return to the Middle East to continue his
independent reporting. As usual, reporting independently is a costly
enterprise; for example, an average hotel room is $50, a fixer runs $50
per day, and phone/food average $25 per day. Dahr will report from the
Middle East for one month, and thus needs to raise $5,750 in order to
cover his plane ticket and daily operating expenses.
A rare opportunity has arisen for Dahr to cover several stories
regarding the occupation of Iraq, as well as U.S. policy in the region,
which have been entirely absent from mainstream media.
With the need for independent, unfiltered information greater than ever,
your financial support is deeply appreciated. Without donations from
readers, ongoing independent reports from Dahr are simply not possible.
All donations go directly towards covering Dahr's on the ground
operating expenses.
(c)2006 Dahr Jamail.
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Legal update on Mumia Abu-Jamal's case
Excerpts from a letter written by Robert R. Bryan, the lead attorney
for death row political prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal.
...On July 20, 2006, we filed the Brief of Appellee and Cross
Appellant, Mumia Abu-Jamal, in the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia.
http://www.workers. org/2006/ us/mumia- 0810/
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Nick Mottern, Consumers for Peace
nickmottern@earthlink.net
Howard Zinn joins Kathy Kelly, Dahr Jamail, Ann Wright and Neil MacKay in
endorsing "War Crimes Committed by the United States in Iraq and
Mechanisms for Accountability."
The report was published internationally by 10 organizations in October.
"This report on the war crimes of the current administration is an
invaluable resource, with a meticulous presentation of the
evidence and an astute examination of international law.
- Howard Zinn.
The 37 page report, written by Consumers for Peace with the
consultation of international humanitarian law expert Karen
Parker, JD, is available for free download at
http://www.consumersforpeace.org/pdf/war_crimes_iraq_101006.pdf
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Today in Palestine!
For up to date information on Israeli's brutal attack on
human rights and freedom in Palestine and Lebanon go to:
http://www.theheadl ines.org
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Oklahoma U's First African-American Speaker
Dear Representative Johnson:
Congratulations on your bill for creating an
African-American Centennial Plaza near the
Capitol.
I have a suggestion for including an important
moment in Oklahoma African-American
history in the displays.
The first African-American speaker at the
University of Oklahoma was Paul Boutelle,
in 1967.
He is still alive but has changed his name
to Kwame Somburu. I believe it would be
very appropriate also to invite Mr. Somburu
to attend the dedication ceremony for
this plaza. I correspond with him by email.
Here is a 1967 Sooner magazine article about his appearance:
http://digital.libraries.ou.edu/sooner/articles/p25-27_1967v40n2_OCR.pdf
Sincerely,
Mike Wright
Norman
329-6688
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Interesting web site with many flash films. The site is managed
by veteran James Starowicz, USN '67-'71 GMG3 Vietnam In-Country
'70-'71 Member: Veterans For Peace as well as other Veterans
and Pro-Peace Groups. Also Activist in other Area's, Questioning
Policies that only Benefit the Few, supporting Policies that Benefit
the Many and Move Us Forward as a Better Nation and World!
Politics: Registered Independent
http://imagineaworldof.blogspot.com/
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Taking Aim with Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone has a new Internet
address: http://www.takingaimradio.com
THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF ZIONISM
BY RALPH SCHOENMAN
Essential reading for understanding the development of Zionism
and Israel in the service of British and USA imperialism.
The full text of the book can be found for free at the
new Taking Aim web address:
http://www.takingaimradio.com
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
JOIN THE LYNNE STEWAR DEFENSE - THE CASE IS NOT OVER!
For those of you who don't know who Lynne Stewart is, go to
www.lynnestewart. org and get acquainted with Lynne and her
cause. Lynne is a criminal defense attorney who is being persecuted
for representing people charged with heinous crimes. It is a bedrock
of our legal system that every criminal defendant has a right to a
lawyer. Persecuting Lynne is an attempt to terrorize and intimidate
all criminal defense attorneys in this country so they will stop
representing unpopular people. If this happens, the fascist takeover
of this nation will be complete. We urge you all to go the website,
familiarize yourselves with Lynne and her battle for justice
www.lynnestewart. org
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Visit the Traprock Peace Center Video Archive at:
http://www.youtube.com/TraprockPeaceTV
Visit the Traprock Peace Center
Deerfield, MA
http://www.traprockpeace.org/
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
NATIONAL COMMITTEE TO FREE THE CUBAN FIVE
Comité Nacional por la Libertad de los Cinco Cubanos
Who are the Cuban Five?
The Cuban Five are five Cuban men who are in U.S. prison, serving
four life sentences and 75 years collectively, after being wrongly
convicted in U.S. federal court in Miami, on June 8, 2001.
They are Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero,
Fernando González and René González.
The Five were falsely accused by the U.S. government of committing
espionage conspiracy against the United States, and other related
charges.
But the Five pointed out vigorously in their defense that they were
involved in monitoring the actions of Miami-based terrorist groups,
in order to prevent terrorist attacks on their country of Cuba.
The Five's actions were never directed at the U.S. government.
They never harmed anyone nor ever possessed nor used any
weapons while in the United States.
The Cuban Five's mission was to stop terrorism
For more than 40 years, anti-Cuba terrorist organizations based
in Miami have engaged in countless terrorist activities against
Cuba, and against anyone who advocates a normalization
of relations between the U.S. and Cuba. More than 3,000 Cubans
have died as a result of these terrorists' attacks.
Gerardo Hernández, 2 Life Sentences
Antonio Guerrero, Life Sentence
Ramon Labañino, Life Sentence
Fernando González, 19 Years
René González, 15 Years
Free The Cuban Five Held Unjustly In The U.S.!
http://www.freethef ive.org/
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
Eyewitness Account from Oaxaca
A website is now being circulated that has up-to-date info
and video that can be downloaded of the police action and
developments in Oaxaca. For those who have not seen it
elsewhere, the website is:
www.mexico.indymedi a.org/oaxaca
http://www.mexico. indymedia. org/oaxaca
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REMINDER TO ALL GROUPS: BE SURE AND POST ALL ACTIONS AND
EVENTS TO WWW.INDYBAY. ORG TO REACH THE MOST PEOPLE
AGAINST THE WAR IN THE BAY AREA!
http://www.indybay. org
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Iraq Body Count
For current totals, see our database page.
http://www.iraqbody count.net/ press/pr13. php
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The Cost of War
[Over three-hundred- billion so far...bw]
http://nationalprio rities.org/ index.php? optionfiltered=com_
wrapper&Itemid= 182
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"The Democrats always promise to help workers, and the don't!
The Republicans always promise to help business, and the do!"
- Mort Sahl
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"It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees."
- Emilano Zapata
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Join the Campaign to
Shut Down the Guantanamo Torture Center
Go to:
http://www.shutitdo wn.org/
to send a letter to Congress and the White House:
Shut Down Guantanamo and all torture centers and prisons.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERco alition.org http://www.actionsf .org
sf@internationalans wer.org
2489 Mission St. Rm. 24
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
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"It is reasonable and honorable to abhor violence and preach
against it while there is a visible and rational means of obtaining,
without violence, the indispensable justice for the welfare of man.
But, if convinced by the inevitable differences of character, by the
irreconcilable and different interests, because of the deep diversity
in the sea of the political mind and aspirations, there is not a peaceful
way to obtain the minimum rights of a people (...) or it is the blind
who against the boiling truth sustain peaceful means, or it is those
who doesn't see and insist on proclaiming it that are untrue
to their people."[2]
[2] José Martí " Ciegos y desleales Obras Escogidas in III volumes;
Editorial Política 1981 Volume III p182
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Great Counter-Recruitment Website
http://notyoursoldi er.org/article. php?list= type&type= 14
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DEFEND IMMIGRANT RIGHTS AND
CIVIL RIGHTS!
Last summer the U.S. Border Patrol arrested Shanti Sellz and
Daniel Strauss, both 23-year-old volunteers assisting immigrants
on the border, for medically evacuating 3 people in critical
condition from the Arizona desert.
Criminalization for aiding undocumented immigrants already
exists on the books in the state of Arizona. Daniel and Shanti
are targeted to be its first victims. Their arrest and subsequent
prosecution for providing humanitarian aid could result in
a 15-year prison sentence. Any Congressional compromise
with the Sensenbrenner bill (HR 4437) may include these
harmful criminalization provisions. Fight back NOW!
Help stop the criminalization of undocumented immigrants
and those who support them!
For more information call 415-821- 9683.
For information on the Daniel and Shanti Defense Campaign,
visit www.nomoredeaths. org.
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FYI
According to "Minimum Wage History" at
http://oregonstate. edu/instruct/ anth484/minwage. html "
"Calculated in real 2005 dollars, the 1968 minimum wage was the
highest at $9.12. "The 8 dollar per hour Whole Foods employees
are being paid $1.12 less than the 1968 minimum wage.
"A federal minimum wage was first set in 1938. The graph shows
both nominal (red) and real (blue) minimum wage values. Nominal
values range from 25 cents per hour in 1938 to the current $5.15/hr.
The greatest percentage jump in the minimum wage was in 1950,
when it nearly doubled. The graph adjusts these wages to 2005
dollars (blue line) to show the real value of the minimum wage.
Calculated in real 2005 dollars, the 1968 minimum wage was the
highest at $9.12. Note how the real dollar minimum wage rises and
falls. This is because it gets periodically adjusted by Congress.
The period 1997-2006, is the longest period during which the
minimum wage has not been adjusted. States have departed from
the federal minimum wage. Washington has the highest minimum
wage in the country at $7.63 as of January 1, 2006. Oregon is next
at $7.50. Cities, too, have set minimum wages. Santa Fe, New
Mexico has a minimum wage of $9.50, which is more than double
the state minimum wage at $4.35."
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NO BORDERS! NO WALLS! NO FENCES! GENERAL AMNESTY FOR ALL!
OUR HOMELAND IS WHERE WE LIVE!
---------*-- -------*- --------* --------- *-------- -*------- -
REPEAL THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT IN 2007!
Check out: 10 EXCELLENT REASONS NOT TO JOIN THE MILITARY
http://www.10reason sbook.com/
Public Law print of PL 107-110, the No Child Left Behind
Act of 2001 [1.8 MB]
http://www.ed. gov/policy/ elsec/leg/ esea02/index. html
Also, the law is up before Congress again in 2007.
See this article from USA Today:
Bipartisan panel to study No Child Left Behind
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
February 13, 2006
http://www.usatoday .com/news/ education/ 2006-02-13- education- panel_x.htm
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The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
http://www.law. indiana.edu/ uslawdocs/ declaration. html
http://www.law. ou.edu/hist/ decind.html
http://www.usconsti tution.net/ declar.html
http://www.indybay. org/news/ 2006/02/1805195. php
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Bill of Rights
http://www.law. cornell.edu/ constitution/ constitution. billofrights. html
http://www.indybay. org/news/ 2006/02/1805182. php
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"The International"
Lots of good information over at Wikipedia, as often the case:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Internationale
What I've always found fascinating is the wide variety of translations (or
perhaps it would be better to call them "interpretations" or "variations")
that exist, even in English. It's also fascinating to read all the different
verses of the song.
One thing I learned at Wikipedia is that the original intention was that the
song would be sung to the tune of the Marseillaise, but that shortly
thereafter different music was written. Good thing, in my opinion, I'd hate
to see the identities of two stirring songs be confused. Each deserves their
own place in history.
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