Credit Where Credit is Due
By Bonnie Weinstein, www.bauaw.org
March 20, 2007
I wish to extend many thanks to A.N.S.W.E.R. for organizing
the March 17/18 protests marking the fourth anniversary
of the War on Iraq. And many thanks to all those who turned
out to protest. In spite of redbaiting campaigns, police
interference and a freezing snowstorm, over 50,000 people
turned out March 17 in D.C., and over 40,000 turned out
March 18 in San Francisco—one of the largest demonstrations
held recently in San Francisco.
Some of us demonstrated because we are opposed to our
government using force and violence to gain domination
over the world’s supply of oil, water, gold, copper, bauxite
—whatever corporate America needs and can get their hands
on—no matter where in the world it is or how many people
they have to kill, torture or rob to get it.
And many of us demonstrated because we are sick and tired
of living under the impending threat of mass extermination
of life on Earth at the hands of polluting U.S. businesses,
and the continued threat of military annihilation if anyone
stands in the way of corporate America’s conquests.
And we understand—some of us—that we can’t depend
on the corporate-owned politicians in office to end this
threat because they fully support the U.S. government,
it’s military and it’s position as the dominant world power.
Clearly, both the Democrats and Republicans want to maintain
U.S. superiority. Corporate America depends upon that. And
that’s what this war is all about—maintaining the superiority
of U.S. Capital, plain and simple, and by any means necessary.
It will take we, who protest; who stand on the side of peace;
on the side of the betterment of humanity; on the side of equality,
justice, freedom and democracy for all—to force these very people
to end this war—and prevent them from launching the many
more wars they already have planned.
Our immediate task is to come together, democratically, to unite
all of those opposed to this war and the downward path the
U.S. government is on. Only in our ability to organize independently
of these guilty parties can we hope to make meaningful changes
and bring this plunge toward world destruction to an abrupt end.
This is a massive task that will take the will of the majority to execute.
And it’s our only chance to win a peaceful economy—one that spends
it’s resources on solving human needs and wants—instead of wasting
it on war, and trading our blood for the bounty of American oil and
business interests.
If we organize and unite together in our own independent, democratic
organization—without relying on, and in bold opposition to, the
politicians of capital—we can win. If we can’t or won’t unite and
organize ourselves together to defend our mutual interests—
which stand in direct opposition to the interests of U.S. capital
—no one else will, and the whole world will loose.
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Excerpt of interview between Barbara Walters and Hugo Chavez
http://www.borev.net/2007/03/what_you_had_something_better.html
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Introducing...................the Apple iRack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-KWYYIY4jQ
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"A War Budget Leaves Every Child Behind."
[A T-shirt worn by some teachers at Roosevelt High School
in L.A. as part of their campaign to rid the school of military
recruiters and JROTC--see Article in Full item number 4, below...bw]
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THIS IS AN EXCELLENT VIDEO DESTRIBUTED BY U.S. LABOR AGAINST
THE WAR (USLAW) FEATURING SPEAKERS AT THE JANUARY 27TH
MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOCUSING ON THE DEMAND - BRING
THE TROOPS HOME NOW.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6935451906479097836&hl=en
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Come listen and participate in a series of community conversations on
what's happening in public education. Get the 411 on:
Code Breakers: Deciphering Military Myths
Thursday, March 22, 2007 6pm-8pm
At New College of California
780 Valencia (@19th) San Francisco,CA
Military recruiters with a multi-billion dollar budget easily outnumber
college recruiters at most working class high schools. Black hummers,
outfitted with sound systems, flat screen TVs and video game systems
roll up to campuses luring students with false promises of job training,
college support, travel, and non combat positions. At this t4sj 411,
teachers from Community MultiMedia Academy in Hayward will lead
a workshop about the impact of military recruiters on campus and
how this can become an opportunity to think critically about media
campaigns, poverty, personal ethics and the role of a military
in US and global society. Curriculum and student work will be
shared. Participants will be encouraged to participate and share
their insights and work.
For future events check out http://www.T4SJ.org
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Defend the Los Angeles Eight!
http://www.committee4justice.com/
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George Takai responds to Tim Hardaway's homophobic remarks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcJoJZIcQW4&eurl_
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Iran
http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html
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Another view of the war. A link from Amer Jubran
http://d3130.servadmin.com/~leeflash/
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Petition: Halt the Blue Angels
http://action.globalexchange.org/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=458
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/289327
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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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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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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Cheyenne and Arapaho oral histories hammer history's account of the
Sand Creek Massacre"
CENTENNIAL, CO -- A new documentary film based on an award-winning
documentary short film, "The Sand Creek Massacre", and driven by
Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho people who tell their version about
what happened during the Sand Creek Massacre via their oral
histories, has been released by Olympus Films+, LLC, a Centennial,
Colorado film company.
"You have done an extraordinary job" said Margie Small, Tobient
Entertainment, " on the Colorado PBS episode, the library videos for
public schools and libraries, the trailer, etc...and getting the
story told and giving honor to those ancestors who had to witness
this tragic and brutal attack...film is one of the best ways."
"The images shown in the film were selected for native awareness
value" said Donald L. Vasicek, award-winning writer/filmmaker, "we
also focused on preserving American history on film because tribal
elders are dying and taking their oral histories with them. The film
shows a non-violent solution to problem-solving and 19th century
Colorado history, so it's multi-dimensional in that sense. "
Chief Eugene Blackbear, Sr., Cheyenne, who starred as Chief Black
Kettle in "The Last of the Dogmen" also starring Tom Berenger and
Barbara Hershey and "Dr. Colorado", Tom Noel, University of Colorado
history professor, are featured.
The trailer can be viewed and the film can be ordered for $24.95 plus
$4.95 for shipping and handling at http://www.fullduck.com/node/53.
Vasicek's web site, http://www.donvasicek.com, provides detailed
information about the Sand Creek Massacre including various still
images particularly on the Sand Creek Massacre home page and on the
proposal page.
Olympus Films+, LLC is dedicated to writing and producing quality
products that serve to educate others about the human condition.
Contact:
Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
7078 South Fairfax Street
Centennial, CO 80122
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103
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ARTICLES IN FULL:
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1) Survivor Council to Open Lawless High School
Residents and Volunteers Face Down Cops and School Officials
[VIA Email from: Rolandgarret@aol.com...bw]
2) Three Detectives Are Indicted in 50-Shot Killing in Queens
By AL BAKER
March 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/nyregion/17grand.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
3) Taming Fossil Fuels
Editorial
The importance of these projects cannot be overstated. As a report
released Wednesday by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology observed, coal produces more than 30 percent of America’s
carbon dioxide emissions."
March 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/opinion/17sat1.html?hp
4) Utah Sets Rigorous Rules for School Clubs, and Gay Ones May Be Target
By KIRK JOHNSON
March 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/education/17utah.html?ref=us
5) TERRORISM
Cuba -- How scared should we be?
BY PHILIP PETERS
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/story/43180.html
6) The Ides of March 2003
By FRANK RICH
Op-Ed Columnist
March 18, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/opinion/18rich.html?hp
7) In March, Protesters Recall War Anniversaries
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and SARAH ABRUZZESE
March 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/us/18protest.html
8) The Army, After Iraq
Editorial
March 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/opinion/nyregionopinions/18sun1.html?hp
9) Death of a Marine
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
March 19, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/19/opinion/19herbert.html?hp
10) The Medicaid Documentation Mess
Editorial
March 19, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/19/opinion/19mon1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
11) Tens of Thousands March on the Pentagon
Riot Police Block Buses and Deny Access to People
Coming to the Demonstration, plus, full
Message from Immortal Technique
on being denied entrance to the March
on the Pentagon
March 17, 2007
http://www.pephost.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8421&JServSessionIdr004=19pxequxo1.app8a
12) Students’ Right to Free Speech
Editorial
March 20, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/opinion/20tue1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
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1) Survivor Council to Open Lawless High School
Residents and Volunteers Face Down Cops and School Officials
[VIA Email from: Rolandgarret@aol.com...bw]
On Thursday, March 8, residents and volunteers working with the New
Orleans Survivor Council faced off against the Recovery School
District (RSD). The NOSC had previously decided to reopen the public
school system themselves, because the city has taken public education
out of New Orleans. They are targeting mainly poor black communities,
and particularly the Lower Ninth Ward and the area around the C.J.
Peete public housing development.
As a result of NOSC pressure, Martin Luther King elementary school
will be reopened soon in the Lower Ninth, but residents are not happy
about the fact that it is reopening as a charter school. People need
to know that all of their children are guaranteed to be able to attend
school in order for them to move back home. Charter schools choose
their students.
So a few weeks ago, the Survivor Council decided to reopen Lawless
High School, also in the Lower Ninth, and Tom Lafon near C.J. Peete,
as public schools. Student volunteers have been cleaning Lawless out
for the past week. This week, students from Wilberforce and FAMU were
in the building, cleaning and salvaging usable educational materials,
when the RSD sent contractors to the school. The contractors demanded
to know who had authorized the students to work. They answered, "the
New Orleans Survivor Council authorized us; this is their school, and
we're cleaning and reopening it."
The contractors revealed that they had been hired to clear out the
"full contents" of the school, throw them away, and prepare the school
for demolition! The second floor of the building had computers, books,
software still in its original wrappings, and other salvageable
materials. At schools that have been designated as "full content"
schools, contractors are instructed to throw away all the contents of
the school. Nearly all of the schools designated as "full content"
schools are in poor, black neighborhoods. Other schools are designated
"partial content" schools, and in those, contents are salvaged.
Since both the volunteers and the hired contractors were under
instructions to clean out the school, the POC organizers proposed that
they all work together. An agreement was worked out whereby the RSD
contractors would work on the first floor, where everything needed to
be thrown out, and the NOSC volunteers would work on the second floor
and continue to salvage materials. However, then the contractors added
"you have one day." After that, they said, the students would be in
the way and would have to go.
The volunteers responded that they planned to stay until they got the
job done, and added that if anyone started tearing the building down,
the students would get in their way. When the contractors reiterated
their demand that the students leave the following day, POC and the
Survivor Council decided to pull out all the stops. That night, they
called residents and the press.
The next day (Thursday), nearly a dozen residents donned protective
clothing to join twenty students in cleaning out the school. The press
watched as the students, many of them having done a quick orientation
in civil disobedience, prepared to be arrested if necessary, alongside
residents who were not about to back down on their goal of opening a
high school for their children.
Looking for a response, the press called RSD officials on the phone.
The officials asked where the things taken out of the school were, and
residents responded that they had salvaged it, because the RSD was
going to trash useful materials and equipment. The RSD then decided
that they did not want the publicity that would come from calling
police to arrest residents and their volunteers cleaning out their own
school, and finally said they would meet with NOSC to discuss the
reopening of Lawless School!
After the experience of MLK School, residents don't have confidence in
the RSD to look out for their interests, but they knew they had won at
least a temporary victory that day. The next day, they sent another
team into Tom Lafon School so that residents determined to reoccupy
C.J. Peete would also have a school to send their kids to.
People's Organizing Committee
www.peoplesorganizing.org
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2) Three Detectives Are Indicted in 50-Shot Killing in Queens
By AL BAKER
March 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/nyregion/17grand.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
A grand jury voted yesterday to indict three city police detectives —
two black men and a white man — in the killing of an unarmed
23-year-old black man who died in a burst of 50 police bullets outside
a Queens strip club hours before he was to be wed last year, defense
lawyers and police union leaders said last night.
The jury charged two of the detectives — Gescard F. Isnora, an
undercover officer who fired the first shot, and Michael Oliver,
who fired 31 shots — with manslaughter, two people with direct
knowledge of the case said. The third detective, Marc Cooper, who
fired four shots, faces a lesser charge of reckless endangerment,
those two people said.
Detectives Isnora and Cooper are black; Detective Oliver is white.
They were among five police officers who fired into a gray Nissan
Altima carrying the bridegroom, Sean Bell, and two friends during
a chaotic confrontation in Jamaica early on the morning of Nov. 25.
Neither Mr. Bell nor his friends, both of whom were wounded, were
armed, although the police officers apparently believed that they were.
The grand jury reached its decision after three days of deliberations
and nearly two months of hearing evidence in an emotionally charged
case whose stark outlines — five officers firing 50 bullets at three
unarmed men who had been out celebrating — prompted an
outpouring of anger in some minority communities, and widespread
comparisons to the death of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African
street peddler who was felled by 19 of 41 police officers’ bullets
fired at him in 1999.
The grand jurors, who dispersed into the wintry afternoon yesterday,
indicted the three officers on less-serious charges than the second-
degree murder charges filed against the four police officers who
shot Mr. Diallo. All four were acquitted.
It was unclear whether Richard A. Brown, the Queens district attorney,
sought the indictment of the other two officers who fired at Mr. Bell,
Detective Paul Headley, 35, who fired one shot, and Officer Michael
Carey, 26, who fired three shots. All five of the officers testified
voluntarily before the grand jury without immunity from prosecution.
Mr. Brown scheduled a news conference on Monday morning. Lawyers
for the indicted detectives said they had been told to have the men
surrender on Monday — the next day that State Supreme Court in
Queens is in session. Mr. Brown’s office, which would not confirm
the indictments, said the grand jury’s decision had to remain sealed
until at least one officer was formally charged in court.
The person with direct knowledge of the case who said Detectives
Isnora and Oliver faced manslaughter charges did not know if they
were first- or second-degree counts. Second-degree manslaughter
is defined as recklessly causing the death of another person. First-degree
manslaughter is defined as causing the death of a person while intending
to cause serious physical injury to that person or causing the death of
a third person under those circumstances. The three officers may also
face additional lesser charges.
Some leaders in the black community expressed muted optimism
as news of the indictments spread late yesterday, while others felt
the indictments did not go far enough. In Jamaica, some detected
a sense of relief that at least some of the officers would face charges.
“As long as I know that somebody got something, I can live with that,”
said Bishop Lester Williams, who was to officiate at Mr. Bell’s wedding
on the day he died. “I have some degree of relief.”
If there had been no indictments, he said, “you have groups out
there that would not have been calm. The youth of this city would
have responded.”
Lawyers for the indicted officers criticized the grand jury’s action.
Philip E. Karasyk, who represents Detective Isnora, said, “Obviously,
my client is upset, and he’s looking forward to having his day in court,
and we’re all confident he will be vindicated.”
Paul P. Martin, a lawyer for Detective Cooper, 39, said: “I am
disappointed with the grand jury’s decision, but this is just the
first stage of a long process, and I am confident that once all the
facts are considered by a jury of Detective Cooper’s peers that he
will be exonerated of all charges.”
James J. Culleton, the lawyer for Detective Oliver, said the indictment
“was not unexpected — a grand jury presentation is one-sided,”
"I firmly believe that he will be found not guilty," he said of Detective
Oliver, 35, who, with Detective Isnora, 28, were considered the most
vulnerable to criminal charges. Detective Oliver fired far and away
the most bullets, emptying one magazine, reloading and emptying
a second, and Detective Isnora opened fire first, touching off the
50-shot barrage. Detective Isnora fired 11 shots, emptying his gun.
Michael J. Palladino, the president of the Detectives Endowment
Association, confirmed the indictments but said he did not know
the charges and would not know them until Monday, when they
were unsealed.
“I know the grand jury worked very long and very hard on this
particular case,” Mr. Palladino said at a late-afternoon press conference,
surrounded by officials of his association. “I respect their decision.
However I firmly disagree with the decision to indict these officers.”
Mr. Palladino predicted that the jury’s vote would have a chilling
effect on police officers in the city and nationwide.
“The message that’s being sent now is that even though you’re
acting in good faith, in pursuit of your lawful duties, there
is no room, no margin for error,” he said.
Stephen C. Worth, a lawyer for Officer Michael Carey, described
the moment he learned his client had not been indicted:
Mr. Worth said he got a call from Charles Testagrossa, the
prosecutor who presented evidence to the grand jury, who
“told me there was no true bill as to my guy.”
“Obviously,” he said, ”we are gratified by the grand jury’s decision
as to Mike, and I have always believed that he acted professionally
on the night of this incident.”
Police Department procedures call for the suspension of officers
who are charged with a crime, and the three detectives will be
ordered to surrender their shields; all five officers are already
on paid leave without their weapons. Those who are suspended
will be unpaid.
If indictments of police officers are unusual, convictions are even
more so. Many saw a jury’s decision to acquit the officers who
opened fire on Mr. Diallo after a two-month trial as a firm rejection
of the powerful charges against them. In recent years in New York City,
Bryan Conroy, a police officer who shot a peddler in a Chelsea warehouse
had faced second-degree manslaughter charges, but was convicted
of the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide by a judge, who
sentenced him to probation.
The detectives indicted in the Bell case were in a larger group seeking
prostitution arrests outside the Club Kalua, a topless bar in Jamaica
that had been plagued by narcotics and prostitution activity,
under-age drinking and guns.
Detective Isnora had trailed Mr. Bell’s party, which was broken into
two groups of four men, believing that Joseph Guzman, one
of Mr. Bell’s companions, had a gun and was about to use it,
according to a person familiar with the detective’s account.
The detective approached Mr. Bell’s car. But Mr. Bell drove forward,
clipping him, and then hit a police minivan, backed up, nearly hitting
the detective again and slammed into the minivan a second time,
the police have said.
Detective Isnora, with his shield around his neck, said he opened
fire, according to the person familiar with his account. This led
to the fusillade of shots, with some of the officers apparently
believing that their colleagues’ muzzle flashes were those
of assailants.
Mr. Bell was killed as he sat in the driver’s seat. Trent Benefield,
23, who was in the passenger seat, was struck three times,
in the leg and buttock, and Mr. Guzman, 31, who was in
a back seat, had at least 11 bullet wounds along his right
side, from his neck to his feet.
Like the officers, the wounded men told their stories before
the grand jury.
Protests that followed the shooting were mostly peaceful. Mayor
Michael R. Bloomberg convened a meeting of black religious
leaders and elected officials at City Hall. He emerged from
it calling the circumstances “inexplicable” and “unacceptable,”
and said, “It sounds to me like excessive force was used.”
Mr. Bloomberg’s quick reaction was viewed as a salve to the
situation and a turnabout from the approach of his predecessor,
Rudolph W. Giuliani, who did not reach out to black leaders
in the immediate aftermath of the fatal shooting of Mr. Diallo.
The panel of grand jurors began its work on Jan. 22 and met
as often as three times a week in an auditorium-style room
in an office building in Kew Gardens.
The officers testified in the reverse order of the number of rounds
they fired: Detective Headley and Officer Carey testified on March 5;
Detectives Cooper and Isnora, testified on March 7; and Friday last
week, Detective Oliver testified in the zenith of the process.
Deliberations seemed to move slowly and in fits and starts. After
Mr. Testagrossa read the charge — the instructions on the law
that the panel had to consider as it weighed the evidence —
the panelists were left alone to deliberate.
Reporting was contributed by Cara Buckley, Diane Cardwell,
Jim Dwyer, Manny Fernandez, Colin Moynihan and William K.
Rashbaum.
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3) Taming Fossil Fuels
Editorial
"The importance of these projects cannot be overstated. As a report
released Wednesday by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology observed, coal produces more than 30 percent of America’s
carbon dioxide emissions."
March 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/opinion/17sat1.html?hp
Each day seems to bring news of another prominent convert to the
cause of requiring mandatory reductions in carbon dioxide and other
greenhouse gases. Each day also seems to bring news of technological
advances that would make it possible to achieve those reductions without
serious economic damage. Put all these glad tidings together, and Congress
has all the reasons it needs to move quickly to regulate global warming
emissions here at home, thus setting an example for the world.
Last week the chief executives of America’s largest automobile companies
— General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and Toyota North America — pledged
to support mandatory caps on carbon emissions, as long as the caps
covered all sectors of the economy. They delivered their promise
to a House committee run by John Dingell — the crusty Michigan
Democrat who is another convert to the cause and has taken
to describing the global warming threat with phrases like
“Hannibal is at the gates.”
Meanwhile, dozens of major institutional investors organized by Ceres,
a coalition of investors and environmentalists, will gather in Washington
on Monday to offer support for mandatory controls. The group will include
Calpers, the huge California state pension fund with a history of making
environmentally friendly investments, and Merrill Lynch, whose credentials
are less impressive.
The news on the technology side is also good — particularly several
recent announcements about coal. The first came from TXU, a huge
Texas utility where the bidders have agreed to drop plans to build 11
old-fashioned coal-burning power plants. TXU has now announced
that it will build two experimental plants intended to capture carbon
dioxide before it escapes into the atmosphere. American Electric Power,
another large utility, has also announced that it will build a coal-fired
plant based on slightly different technology but with the same intended
result: capturing carbon.
The importance of these projects cannot be overstated. As a report
released Wednesday by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology observed, coal produces more than 30 percent of America’s
carbon dioxide emissions. It is also a huge problem in China, where the
equivalent of one large coal-fired power plant is being built each week,
using antiquated methods. Unless coal can be tamed, the game
is essentially lost.
But while technology will play an indispensable role, the lead authors
of the M.I.T. report, writing in The Wall Street Journal, argue that the
most effective way to reduce emissions is to attach a significant price
to carbon emissions, either as a carbon tax or through a cap-and-
trade program of the sort now embodied in various legislative proposals
in Congress. Forcing people to pay to pollute would do more than any
other known incentive to bring new technologies to commercial scale.
That is the task before Congress.
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4) Utah Sets Rigorous Rules for School Clubs, and Gay Ones May Be Target
By KIRK JOHNSON
March 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/education/17utah.html?ref=us
SALT LAKE CITY, March 16 — Most people would probably not consider
the average high school chess club to be a hotbed of disorder or immorality.
But a club is a club, and Utah has decided that student groups need some
stern policing and regulation.
Next month, a 17-page law will take effect governing just about every
nuance of public school extracurricular clubs, from kindergarten jump
rope to high school drama. How groups can form, what they can discuss
in their meetings, who can join, and what a principal must do if rules
are violated are addressed.
But the school clubs law, signed last week by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.,
was not really intended to rein in the rowdies down at the audio-visual
club, some lawmakers said. The real target was homosexuality.
“This is all about gay-straight alliance clubs, and anybody who tells
you different is lying,” said State Senator Scott D. McCoy, Democrat
from Salt Lake City, who voted against the law.
State Senator D. Chris Buttars, a Republican from the Salt Lake City
suburbs and the law’s co-sponsor, said in an interview that he saw
the need for the measure after parents from a high school in Provo,
Utah, protested the formation of a gay-straight club in 2005.
But Mr. Buttars said his bill was intended to bring uniformity to the rules.
The centerpiece, he said, is a clause giving school administrators
the authority to ensure that clubs do not violate “the boundaries
of socially appropriate behavior.”
“If a gay-straight club wants to meet together, as they say they do,
just for friendship, I have no problem with that,” Mr. Buttars said.
“But I think school districts should have the authority to do whatever
they need to do protect their schools — the law gives them authority
to make decisions to protect the physical, emotional, psychological
or moral well being of students.”
The State Board of Education opposed the bill and asked Governor
Huntsman to veto it. Carol Lear, a lawyer for the board, said
in an interview that she feared that the complicated rules and the
subjective decisions that might be made in defining the term
“socially appropriate” could entangle principals in red tape and
litigation.
But Ms. Lear said she did not think the law would have much effect
on gay-straight clubs, which she said were protected under the
Federal Equal Access Act of 1984 from being singled out for
sanction or special regulation.
“It’s just mean-spirited,” Ms. Lear said of the new law. “It discourages
students from having organizations that would be helpful and mutually
supportive and that would be safer for them than being outside
the school.”
In a paradoxical twist missed by almost nobody in the clubs debate,
the federal equal access law was co-sponsored by United States
Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, to make sure that
religious and Bible study groups were not discriminated against
by secular-minded principals.
The same protections mean that gay-straight alliances cannot
be singled out, legal experts say, which is why the rules in the
new schools law must be applied across the board to all clubs,
no matter what they do or who joins them.
Under the new Utah law, every club will have to complete an activity
disclosure statement that itemizes what it will do, and discusses how
many members it will have, and whether tryouts are required.
It mandates that any student joining any club needs a parent’s
signature — though most public schools in Utah require that already
— and specifically bans any discussion by any club of “human
sexuality.”
The law defines that term to mean “advocating or engaging
in sexual activity outside of legal recognized marriage or forbidden
by state law,” and “presenting or discussing information relating
to the use of contraceptive devices.”
Gay community leaders and legal experts say the name of the law
should be “Unintended Consequences.” Some gay community advocates
said the effort to crack down on gay-straight clubs may have backfired
and in fact strengthened Utah’s gay community.
Teenage leaders at some gay-straight clubs got politically involved
and testified at the Capitol. One of the State Legislature’s three
openly gay members successfully pushed through amendments that
could limit the law’s effect and even perhaps increase visibility
of gay-straight clubs in the 14 Utah public high schools that now
have them, by requiring that all clubs get equal treatment
on bulletin boards and in school newspapers.
“We helped weaken the bill and water it down, and that is in some
ways a victory,” said Samantha Verde, 17, a senior at Hunter High
School west of Salt Lake City and co-president of the school’s
Gay-Straight Alliance.
Ms. Verde went to the Capitol this year with the club’s adviser and
Hal Newman, Hunter High’s advanced placement European history
teacher, to lobby lawmakers. She said she thought that many club
members who became politically involved in the fight would remain
engaged.
“The attitude that led to the bill is still prevalent,” she said, “so
I think we’ll be fighting again next year.” Meanwhile, the governor
was confident that the new law would not have “a deleterious effect”
on student clubs, said Michael Mower, a spokesman.
“Our interpretation is that students can continue to organize clubs
as long they don’t discuss illegal conduct,” Mr. Mower said. For
example, there can be no Texas Hold-em club, he said, if it involved
real gambling and money.
Asked whether he thought principals might try to use the law to
eliminate or ban formation of gay-straight alliances, Mr. Mower said,
“We will encourage principals to be mindful of other aspects, especially
the equal access provisions, in making decisions.”
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5) TERRORISM
Cuba -- How scared should we be?
BY PHILIP PETERS
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/story/43180.html
[Outstanding column by Phil Peters - as usual, debunking what's been
printed in the MIAMI HERALD and such places with an astute political
judgement and a reverence for facts and logic which is rare in U.S.
media coverage of Cuba. In my dreams, someone like Phil Peters would
someday be in charge of U.S. policy toward Cuba. He's not a leftist
or socialist at all, but he does think facts and logic should take
precedence over rhetoric and posturing. Note that this is filed under
"Other Views" in the HERALD, which gave prominent coverage to the
Original nonsense when it first came out. Read and study closely.
Walter Lippmann
walterlx@earthlink.net]
According to a defector, Cuba has a secret, underground laboratory
southeast of Havana called ''Labor Uno,'' where biological agents --
''viruses and bacteria and dangerous sicknesses'' -- are being
developed for military use.
The administration calls Cuba a ''state sponsor of terrorism,'' so if
the defector's story is true, Cuba would represent what President
Bush terms one of the worst national security threats of the 21st
century: the world's most dangerous weapons in the hands of the
world's most dangerous people.
How scared should we be?
Not scared at all, if we judge by the administration's policies and
public statements, none of which betray concern, much less certainty,
about any threat emanating from Cuba.
The defector, Roberto Ortega, was Cuba's top military doctor. He
visited Labor Uno in 1992 while he was escorting a visiting Russian
delegation.
Ortega may be entirely truthful, but the Iraq experience teaches that
fragments of interesting information do not amount to ''slam-dunk''
intelligence.
Indeed, the Iraq intelligence failure led U.S. agencies to reassess
their views on weapons programs worldwide. The result came in August
2005 when, with Ortega's account in hand, these agencies downgraded
their Cuba assessment, concluding unanimously that it was ``unclear
whether Cuba has an active offensive biological-warfare effort now,
or even had one in the past.''
But the administration gives us more reasons to sleep easy.
Cuba missed the ``axis of evil.'' With the exception of
now-departed John Bolton, senior officials responsible for security
matters have been silent about Cuba. In October 2005, Bolton's
successor as the State Department's top security official, Robert
Joseph, did not mention Cuba in a global survey of weapons of mass
destruction issues. Cabinet-level officials routinely chide Cuba's
human rights abuses but mention no security concerns.
Ana Montes unchallenged. After Cuban spy Ana Montes was discovered
to be working as the administration's top Cuba defense-intelligence
analyst in 2001, Bolton and other officials charged that she had
skewed U.S. intelligence, including a famous 1998 report that called
Cuba's military capabilities ''residual'' and ''defensive'' and its
threat ''negligible.'' But in six years, the administration has
issued no report offering a less benign assessment, even though it
would serve its political interests to do so. Montes' betrayal, we
can deduce, involved leaking the identities of agents and other U.S.
secrets to Cuba rather than distorting U.S. intelligence.
Migration exception. If the administration had the slightest
concern about terrorism coming from Cuba, it would not have a unique,
open-door policy toward undocumented Cuban migrants, where we welcome
those who reach our shores or Mexican border crossings and release
them into the community within hours. This may make humanitarian
sense, but it is truly a pre-9/11 policy in a post-9/11 world. It
tells Cuba, if indeed it is a terrorist state, to infiltrate
operatives not through cloak-and-dagger ruses but mixed in with
everyday migrants.
No negotiations. In return for a promise to cap its nuclear
program, North Korea will receive fuel oil and direct talks with
Washington that could lead to normalized relations. Similarly, Iran
has been offered rewards for ending its nuclear ambitions. In the
Cuban case, the administration seeks no talks and does not pursue
Ortega's recommendation that international inspectors go to Cuba.
Apparently, the administration sees nothing to talk about.
What we are left with is that the only visible U.S. action in
response to a Cuba-related security issue is a maritime exercise to
prepare for a possible migration crisis in the Florida Straits.
Floridians can therefore go back to worrying about hurricanes,
tornadoes and inadequate insurance coverage -- until, that is, Raúl
Castro figures out that a new weapons program might be the ticket to
achieve normal relations with the United States.
Philip Peters is vice president of the Lexington Institute in
Arlington, Va.
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6) The Ides of March 2003
By FRANK RICH
Op-Ed Columnist
March 18, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/opinion/18rich.html?hp
TOMORROW night is the fourth anniversary of President Bush’s prime
-time address declaring the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In the
broad sweep of history, four years is a nanosecond, but in America,
where memories are congenitally short, it’s an eternity. That’s why
a revisionist history of the White House’s rush to war, much of it
written by its initial cheerleaders, has already taken hold. In this
exonerating fictionalization of the story, nearly every politician
and pundit in Washington was duped by the same “bad intelligence”
before the war, and few imagined that the administration would
so botch the invasion’s aftermath or that the occupation would
go on so long. “If only I had known then what I know now ...” has
been the persistent refrain of the war supporters who subsequently
disowned the fiasco. But the embarrassing reality is that much
of the damning truth about the administration’s case for war
and its hubristic expectations for a cakewalk were publicly available
before the war, hiding in plain sight, to be seen by anyone
who wanted to look.
By the time the ides of March arrived in March 2003, these
warning signs were visible on a nearly daily basis. So were
the signs that Americans were completely ill prepared for
the costs ahead. Iraq was largely anticipated as a distant,
mildly disruptive geopolitical video game that would be
over in a flash.
Now many of the same leaders who sold the war argue that
escalation should be given a chance. This time they’re peddling
the new doomsday scenario that any withdrawal timetable will
lead to the next 9/11. The question we must ask is: Has history
taught us anything in four years?
Here is a chronology of some of the high and low points in the
days leading up to the national train wreck whose anniversary
we mourn this week [with occasional “where are they now”
updates].
March 5, 2003
“I took the Grey Poupon out of my cupboard.”
— Representative Duke Cunningham, Republican of California,
on the floor of the House denouncing French opposition
to the Iraq war.
[In November 2005, he resigned from Congress and pleaded
guilty to accepting bribes from defense contractors. In January 2007,
the United States attorney who prosecuted him — Carol Lam,
a Bush appointee — was forced to step down for “performance-
related” issues by Alberto Gonzales’s Justice Department.]
March 6, 2003
President Bush holds his last prewar news conference. The New
York Observer writes that he interchanged Iraq with the attacks
of 9/11 eight times, “and eight times he was unchallenged.”
The ABC News White House correspondent, Terry Moran, says
the Washington press corps was left “looking like zombies.”
March 7, 2003
Appearing before the United Nations Security Council on the
same day that the United States and three allies (Britain, Spain
and Bulgaria) put forth their resolution demanding that Iraq
disarm by March 17, the director general of the International
Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, reports there is
“no evidence or plausible indication of the revival of a nuclear
weapons program in Iraq.”. He adds that documents “which
formed the basis for the report of recent uranium transaction
between Iraq and Niger are in fact not authentic.” None of the
three broadcast networks’ evening newscasts mention his
findings.
[In 2005 ElBaradei was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.]
March 10, 2003
Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks tells an audience in England,
“We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that
the president of the United States is from Texas.” Boycotts, death
threats and anti-Dixie Chicks demonstrations follow.
[In 2007, the Dixie Chicks won five Grammy Awards, including
best song for “Not Ready to Make Nice.”]
March 12, 2003
A senior military planner tells The Daily News “an attack on
Iraq could last as few as seven days.”
“Isn’t it more likely that antipathy toward the United States in
the Islamic world might diminish amid the demonstrations of
jubilant Iraqis celebrating the end of a regime that has few
equals in its ruthlessness?”
— John McCain, writing for the Op-Ed page of The New York Times.
“The Pentagon still has not given a name to the Iraqi war. Somehow
‘Operation Re-elect Bush’ doesn’t seem to be popular.”
— Jay Leno, “The Tonight Show.”
March 14, 2003
Senator John D. Rockefeller, Democrat of West Virginia, asks
the F.B.I. to investigate the forged documents cited a week earlier
by ElBaradei and alleging an Iraq-Niger uranium transaction:
“There is a possibility that the fabrication of these documents
may be part of a larger deception campaign aimed at manipulating
public opinion and foreign policy regarding Iraq.”
March 16, 2003
On “Meet the Press,” Dick Cheney says that American troops will
be “greeted as liberators,” that Saddam “has a longstanding
relationship with various terrorist groups, including the Al Qaeda
organization,” and that it is an “overstatement” to suggest that
several hundred thousand troops will be needed in Iraq after it is
liberated. Asked by Tim Russert about ElBaradei’s statement that
Iraq does not have a nuclear program, the vice president says,
“I think Mr. ElBaradei frankly is wrong.”
“There will be new recruits, new recruits probably because of the
war that’s about to happen. So we haven’t seen the last
of Al Qaeda.”
— Richard Clarke, former White House counterterrorism czar,
on ABC’s “This Week.”
[From the recently declassified “key judgments” of the National
Intelligence Estimate of April 2006: “The Iraq conflict has become
the cause célèbre for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment
of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters
for the global jihadist movement.”]
“Despite the Bush administration’s claims about Iraq’s weapons
of mass destruction, U.S. intelligence agencies have been unable
to give Congress or the Pentagon specific information about the
amounts of banned weapons or where they are hidden, according
to administration officials and members of Congress. Senior
intelligence analysts say they feel caught between the demands
from White House, Pentagon and other government policy makers
for intelligence that would make the administration’s case ‘and
what they say is a lack of hard facts,’ one official said.”
— “U.S. Lacks Specifics on Banned Arms,” by Walter Pincus (with
additional reporting by Bob Woodward), The Washington Post,
Page A17.
March 17, 2003
Representative Henry Waxman, Democrat of California, who voted
for the Iraq war resolution, writes the president to ask why the
administration has repeatedly used W.M.D. evidence that has
turned out to be “a hoax” — “correspondence that indicates that
Iraq sought to obtain nuclear weapons from an African country,
Niger.”
[Still waiting for “an adequate explanation” of the bogus Niger
claim four years later, Waxman, now chairman of the chief
oversight committee in the House, wrote Condoleezza Rice
on March 12, 2007, seeking a response “to multiple letters
I sent you about this matter.”]
In a prime-time address, President Bush tells Saddam to leave
Iraq within 48 hours: “Every measure has been made to avoid
war, and every measure will be taken to win it.” After the speech,
NBC rushes through its analysis to join a hit show in progress,
“Fear Factor,” where men and women walk with bare feet over
broken glass to win $50,000.
March 18, 2003
Barbara Bush tells Diane Sawyer on ABC’s “Good Morning America”
that she will not watch televised coverage of the war: “Why should
we hear about body bags and deaths, and how many, what day
it’s going to happen, and how many this or what do you suppose?
Or, I mean, it’s, it’s not relevant. So, why should I waste my beautiful
mind on something like that?”
[Visiting the homeless victims of another cataclysm, Hurricane
Katrina, at the Houston Astrodome in 2005, Mrs. Bush said, “And
so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were
underprivileged anyway, so this — this is working very well
for them.”]
In one of its editorials strongly endorsing the war, The Wall Street
Journal writes, “There is plenty of evidence that Iraq has harbored
Al Qaeda members.”
[In a Feb. 12, 2007, editorial defending the White House’s use
of prewar intelligence, The Journal wrote, “Any links between
Al Qaeda and Iraq is a separate issue that was barely mentioned
in the run-up to war.”]
In an article headlined “Post-war ‘Occupation’ of Iraq Could Result
in Chaos,” Mark McDonald of Knight Ridder Newspapers quotes
a “senior leader of one of Iraq’s closest Arab neighbors,” who
says, “We’re worried that the outcome will be civil war.”
A questioner at a White House news briefing asserts that “every
other war has been accompanied by fiscal austerity of some sort,
often including tax increases” and asks, “What’s different about
this war?” Ari Fleischer responds, “The most important thing, war
or no war, is for the economy to grow,” adding that in the
president’s judgment, “the best way to help the economy to
grow is to stimulate the economy by providing tax relief.”
After consulting with the homeland security secretary, Tom Ridge,
the N.C.A.A. announces that the men’s basketball tournament will
tip off this week as scheduled. The N.C.A.A. president, Myles Brand,
says, “We were not going to let a tyrant determine how we were
going to lead our lives.”
March 19, 2003
“I’d guess that if it goes beyond three weeks, Bush will be
in real trouble.”
— Andrew Bacevich, a retired Army colonel teaching at Boston
University, quoted in The Washington Post.
[The March 2007 installment of the Congressionally mandated
Pentagon assessment “Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq”
reported that from Jan. 1 to Feb. 9, 2007, there were more than
1,000 weekly attacks, up from about 400 in spring 2004.]
Robert McIlvaine, whose 26-year-old son was killed at the World
Trade Center 18 months earlier, is arrested at a peace demonstration
at the Capitol in Washington. He tells The Washington Post: “It’s
very insulting to hear President Bush say this is for Sept. 11.”
“I don’t think it is reasonable to close the door on inspections after
three and a half months,” when Iraq’s government is providing
more cooperation than it has in more than a decade.
— Hans Blix, chief weapons inspector for the United Nations.
The Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that 71 percent of
Americans support going to war in Iraq, up from 59 percent before
the president’s March 17 speech.
“When the president talks about sacrifice, I think the American
people clearly understand what the president is talking about.”
— Ari Fleischer
[Asked in January 2007 how Americans have sacrificed, President
Bush answered: “I think a lot of people are in this fight. I mean,
they sacrifice peace of mind when they see the terrible images
of violence on TV every night.”]
Pentagon units will “locate and survey at least 130 and as many
as 1,400 possible weapons sites.”
— “Disarming Saddam Hussein; Teams of Experts to Hunt Iraq
Arms” by Judith Miller, The Times, Page A1.
President Bush declares war from the Oval Office in a national
address: “Our nation enters this conflict reluctantly, yet our
purpose is sure.”
Price of a share of Halliburton stock: $20.50
[Value of that Halliburton share on March 16, 2007, adjusted
for a split in 2006: $64.12.]
March 20, 2003
“The pictures you’re seeing are absolutely phenomenal. These
are live pictures of the Seventh Cavalry racing across the deserts
in southern Iraq. They will — it will be days before they get
to Baghdad, but you’ve never seen battlefield pictures like
these before.”
— Walter Rodgers, an embedded CNN correspondent.
“It seems quite odd to me that while we are commenced upon
a war, we have no funding for that war in this budget.”
—Hillary Clinton.
“Coalition forces suffered their first casualties in a helicopter
crash that left 12 Britons and 4 Americans dead.”
— The Associated Press.
Though the March 23 Oscar ceremony will dispense with the
red carpet in deference to the war, an E! channel executive
announces there will be no cutback on pre-Oscar programming,
but “the tone will be much more somber.”
March 21, 2003
“I don’t mean to be glib about this, or make it sound trite, but
it really is a symphony that has to be orchestrated by a conductor.”
— Retired Maj. Gen. Donald Shepperd, CNN military analyst,
speaking to Wolf Blitzer of the bombardment of Baghdad
during Shock and Awe.
[“Many parts of Iraq are stable. But of course what we see on
television is the one bombing a day that discourages everyone.”
— Laura Bush, “Larry King Live,” Feb. 26, 2007.]
“The president may occasionally turn on the TV, but that’s not
how he gets his news or his information. ... He is the president,
he’s made his decisions and the American people are watching
him.”
— Ari Fleischer.
[The former press secretary received immunity from prosecution
in the Valerie Wilson leak case and testified in the perjury trial
of Scooter Libby in 2007.]
“Peter, I may be going out on a limb, but I’m not sure that the first
stage of this Shock and Awe campaign is really going to frighten
the Iraqi people. In fact, it may have just the opposite effect. If they
feel that they’ve survived the most that the United States can throw
at them and they’re still standing, and they’re still able to go about
their lives, well, then they might be rather emboldened. They might
feel that, well, look, we can stand a lot more than this.”
— Richard Engel, a Baghdad correspondent speaking to Peter
Jennings on ABC’s “World News Tonight.”
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7) In March, Protesters Recall War Anniversaries
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and SARAH ABRUZZESE
March 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/us/18protest.html
WASHINGTON, March 17 — Thousands of demonstrators marched
to the Pentagon on Saturday to mark both the fourth anniversary
of the American invasion of Iraq and the 40th anniversary of the
march along the same route to protest the Vietnam War.
The march coincided with other demonstrations in Washington,
New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and elsewhere in advance
of the March 20 anniversary of the invasion. The liberal group
MoveOn.org has held many small protest vigils around the country.
And in Washington on Friday night a coalition of liberal Christian
groups, including Sojourners/Call to Renewal, led several thousand
people in a march that began with a service at the National Cathedral.
More than 200 participants were arrested praying in front of the
White House, the police said.
Saturday’s march was organized by the Answer Coalition — named
for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism — an organization that
was initially associated with the Workers World Party and now affiliated
with a breakaway faction of that party called the Party for Socialism
and Liberation.
The turnout for the march was much smaller than the crowd that
gathered two months ago on the National Mall for a demonstration
opposing President Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq. That
event featured speeches by a members of Congress who opposed
the war as well as a handful of Hollywood stars.
Judging by the speeches and placards, the marchers on Saturday
set their sights on sweeping goals, including not only ending the
war but also impeaching President Bush and ending the Israeli
occupation of Palestine. Many carried Answer Coalition signs
bearing the image of the Latin American revolutionary Che
Guevara.
Brian Becker, the national coordinator of the Answer Coalition
and a member of the Party of Socialism and Liberation, said the
group held out little hope of influencing either the president or
Congress. “It is about radicalizing people,” Mr. Becker said in
an interview. “You hook into a movement that exists — in this
case the antiwar movement — and channel people who care
about that movement and bring them into political life, the
life of political activism.”
In a speech before the march, Cindy Sheehan, who made headlines
in 2005 camping outside the Mr. Bush’s Texas ranch after her
son was killed in Iraq, called the president and his military
advisers “war criminals.”
“We want the people in the White House out of our house and
arrested for crimes against humanity,” Ms. Sheehan said.
As they gathered before the march, the protesters met what
several veterans of the antiwar movement described as an
unusually large contingent of several hundred counterdemonstrators.
Many were veterans in biker jackets who said they had come
to protect the nearby Vietnam Memorial, citing rumors that
had circulated among veterans groups that the demonstrators
planned to deface it.
Crossing the bridge toward the Pentagon, the marchers met
another group of about 50 counterdemonstrators by the Arlington
Cemetery, one holding a sign that said: “Go to hell traitors.
You dishonor our dead on hallowed ground.”
Near the Pentagon, police officers in riot gear spread across the
road, effectively blocking the demonstrators from approaching
the building. Five people were arrested by the Pentagon Force
Protection Agency for “failure to obey a lawful order,” said
Cheryl Irwin, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
Many in the crowd said they were unfamiliar with the Answer
Coalition and puzzled by the many signs about socialism.
Several said they had come from across the country for
a chance to voice their dismay at the war.
Alan Rainey, an adjunct professor and small publisher from
West Lafayette, Ind., said he had not attended a protest since
1973, not long after he had returned from military duty in Vietnam.
On Saturday, he carried a sign with green clover and a St. Patrick’s
Day theme. “Help drive the snakes out of the White House,” it said,
depicting snakes with the faces of Mr. Bush and Vice President
Dick Cheney.
“This war is criminal,” Mr. Rainey said. “We impeached Clinton
for a little indiscretion with an adult.”
Judy Creville, who came from Michigan, said she had opposed
the war from the start but never attended a protest before. “They
got on my last nerve,” Ms. Creville said. She came with two sisters
from Michigan and Iowa, and all three wore pictures of their school-
age grandchildren.
Zohrea Whitaker said she came from Sacramento for the protest.
“I have a son serving over there, and I want him home,”
Ms. Whitaker said.
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8) The Army, After Iraq
Editorial
March 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/opinion/nyregionopinions/18sun1.html?hp
You do not have to look very hard these days to see the grave damage
the Bush administration’s mismanagement of the Iraq conflict has
inflicted on the United States Army. Consider the moral waivers for
violent offenders, to meet recruitment targets. Or the rapid rotation
of exhausted units back to the battlefield. Or the scandalous shortages
of protective armor. Or the warnings from generals that there are
not enough troops available to sustain increased force levels for
more than a few months.
Adding 7,000 soldiers a year, as President Bush now proposes, will
bring the Army’s overall strength to 547,000 by 2012. That will help,
but not much, and not at all in Iraq. America’s all-volunteer military
was simply never designed to be deployed as it has been for the past
few years: unilaterally, indefinitely, and at peak strength in the middle
of a raging civil war.
Exiting Iraq with America’s forces, credibility and regional interests
intact is now, understandably, the nation’s most immediate concern.
But in the process, crucial lessons need to be absorbed from this
unnecessary, horribly botched and now unwinnable war.
The first lesson is the continued importance of ground soldiers in
a world that defense planners predicted would be all about stealth,
Star Wars, satellites and Special Operations forces sent on short-
term missions. Now we know that enemies hunkered down in caves
and urban slums can be as dangerous as those in defense ministry
bunkers — and that rebuilding defeated nations is crucial to lasting
security.
Beyond Iraq, the Army needs to move out of permanent crisis mode
— with almost every available division deployed, just returned
or preparing to be shipped out. It needs a force large enough to
be able to devote time and resources to develop skills it is now
chronically short of, and is sure to need in the post-Iraq future:
soldiers and translators fluent in Arabic and other languages;
military teams able to work with local populations in civic
reconstruction, health and education projects; sergeants and
officers who can help friendly governments train their own
armies to provide security without relying on large numbers
of American troops.
America needs to keep investing in military technology. But it
needs to stop shortchanging ordinary soldiers. They cannot
match the lobbying firepower of high-tech defense contractors,
but our security depends on them. Congress needs to heed
the lessons of Walter Reed, armor shortages and other scandals
and make wiser budgetary trade-offs.
The volunteer military cannot be expanded at will. Nor does
it need to be. When not abused as it has been for the past four
years — but not the preceding 30 — it provides superior-quality
troops and better morale, and is more consistent with the free-
choice values of America’s market society.
As long as United States troops are in Iraq, meeting the recruiting
quotas of an expanded force will be difficult. The multiple combat
tours, the warehoused wounded, the deteriorating Iraqi security
situation are a lot to overcome.
Once that is behind us, the Army can be increased substantially,
and should be, so long as Congress can assure the country that
it will never again delegate away its war powers as carelessly and
recklessly as it did in 2002. And so long as the next president
understands that the point of having a large Army is to strengthen
American diplomacy, not to launch impulsive and unnecessary wars.
Simply legislating a bigger Army will not be enough. The
administration and Congress need to offer a better deal —
better training, better protective equipment and better family
support — to the men and women the Army needs to recruit.
And they need to offer soldiers a clear pledge: if the armed
forces are asked to fight, it will be only as a last resort, after
full and informed Congressional debate, and never just at
the whim of a president.
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9) Death of a Marine
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
March 19, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/19/opinion/19herbert.html?hp
Jeffrey Lucey was 18 when he signed up for the Marine Reserves
in December 1999. His parents, Kevin and Joyce Lucey of Belchertown,
Mass., were not happy. They had hoped their son would go to college.
Jeffrey himself was ambivalent.
“The recruiter was a very smooth talker and very, very persistent,”
Ms. Lucey told me in a call from Orlando, Fla., where she was on
vacation with her husband and their two grown daughters last week.
The conversation was difficult. Ms. Lucey would talk for a while, and
then her husband would get on the phone.
“We see him everywhere,” Ms. Lucey said. “Every little dark-haired
boy you see, it looks like Jeff. If we see a parent reprimanding
a child, it’s like you want to go up and say, ‘Oh, don’t do that,
because you don’t know how long you’re going to have him.’ ”
The war in Iraq began four years ago today. Fans at sporting
events around the U.S. greeted the war and its early “shock and
awe” bombing campaign with chants of “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”
Jeffrey Lucey, who turned 22 the day before the war began, had
a different perspective. He had no illusions about the glory or
glamour of warfare. His unit had been activated and he was part
of the first wave of troops to head into the combat zone.
A diary entry noted the explosion of a Scud missile near his unit:
“The noise was just short of blowing out your eardrums. Everyone’s
heart truly skipped a beat. ... Nerves are on edge.”
By the time he came home, Jeffrey Lucey was a mess. He had
gruesome stories to tell. They could not all be verified, but there
was no doubt that this once-healthy young man had been
shattered by his experiences.
He had nightmares. He drank furiously. He withdrew from his
friends. He wrecked his parents’ car. He began to hallucinate.
In a moment of deep despair on the Christmas Eve after his return
from Iraq, Jeffrey hurled his dogtags at his sister Debra and
cried out, “Don’t you know your brother’s a murderer?”
Jeffrey exhibited all the signs of deep depression and post-traumatic
stress disorder. Wars do that to people. They rip apart the mind
and the soul in the same way that bullets and bombs mutilate the
body. The war in Iraq is inflicting a much greater emotional toll
on U.S. troops than most Americans realize.
The Luceys tried desperately to get help for Jeffrey, but neither the
military nor the Veterans Administration is equipped to cope with
the war’s mounting emotional and psychological casualties.
On the evening of June 22, 2004, Kevin Lucey came home and
called out to Jeffrey. There was no answer. He noticed that the door
leading to the basement was open and that the light in the basement
was on. He did not see the two notes that Jeffrey had left on the
first floor for his parents:
“It’s 4:35 p.m. and I am near completing my death.”
“Dad, please don’t look. Mom, just call the police — Love, Jeff.”
The first thing Mr. Lucey saw as he walked down to the basement
was that Jeff had set up an arrangement of photos. There was a picture
of his platoon, and photos of his sisters, Debra and Kelly, his
parents, the family dog and himself.
“Then I could see, through the corner of my eye, Jeff,” said Mr. Lucey.
“And he was, I thought, standing there. Then I noticed the hose
around his neck.”
The Luceys hope that in talking about their family’s tragedy they will
bring more attention to the awful struggle faced by so many troops
suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other emotional
illnesses. “We hear of so many suicides,” said Mr. Lucey.
Ms. Lucey added, “We thought that if we told other people about
Jeffrey they might see their loved ones mirrored in him, and maybe
they would be more aggressive, or do something different than we
did. We didn’t feel we had the knowledge we needed and we lost
our child.”
The Luceys are more than just concerned and grief-stricken. They’re
angry. They’ve joined an antiwar organization, Military Families Speak
Out, and they want the war in Iraq brought to an end. “That’s the
only way to prevent further Jeffreys from happening,” Ms. Lucey said.
Mr. Lucey made no effort to hide his bitterness over the government’s
failure to address many of the critical needs of troops returning
from Iraq and Afghanistan. His voice quivered as he said, “When we
hear anybody in the administration get up and say that they support
the troops, it sickens us.”
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10) The Medicaid Documentation Mess
Editorial
March 19, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/19/opinion/19mon1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Exaggerated fears that illegal immigrants are fraudulently receiving
Medicaid health benefits have led to a crackdown that is preventing
tens of thousands of American citizens from obtaining legitimate
coverage. Congress, whose mindless actions led to this travesty,
needs to fix this injustice.
The problem was triggered by last year’s Deficit Reduction Act,
which contained provisions requiring applicants for Medicaid,
a health insurance program for the poor, to show proof of their
citizenship and identity when they apply for or seek to renew
coverage. That may not seem unreasonable since eligibility is
generally limited to American citizens and certain qualified aliens.
But previously most states had simply asked applicants to declare
in writing — under penalty of perjury — that they were citizens
or qualified immigrants.
Now they must submit specified documents, such as birth certificates
and passports, which many have difficulty tracking down or paying for.
The Bush administration added to the difficulties by requiring people
to submit original documents or copies certified by the issuing
agency, not simply other copies they might have at hand.
The more stringent documentation was the brainchild of two Republican
congressmen from Georgia. Never mind that there was little evidence
that illegal immigrants were defrauding the program. Now the fruits
of that policy are becoming visible. As Robert Pear recently wrote
in The Times, at least seven states have reported declines in Medicaid
enrollments and traced them to the new requirements. It is hard
to be sure how many illegal immigrants were screened out, but state
officials think the number is small. Florida believes that nearly all
of the people it has excluded for failure to produce documents
are American citizens.
The most appalling impact falls on infants born to illegal immigrants
whose deliveries were paid for by Medicaid. They are American citizens
under the 14th Amendment simply by virtue of being born here and
used to be covered automatically for a year. Now they must wait
until their skittish parents obtain a birth certificate before they can
get vital infant care that should begin at birth.
Congress needs to move quickly to fix this problem. At a minimum,
every poor infant born here ought to be automatically enrolled
in Medicaid. Congress also needs to simplify the Medicaid application
process instead of making it more onerous. That would be fairer
to qualified applicants and could help reduce the ranks of the
uninsured.
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11) Tens of Thousands March on the Pentagon
Riot Police Block Buses and Deny Access to People
Coming to the Demonstration, plus, full
Message from Immortal Technique
on being denied entrance to the March
on the Pentagon
March 17, 2007
http://www.pephost.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8421&JServSessionIdr004=19pxequxo1.app8a
On the way to the Pentagon, March 17
Congratulations to everyone who made it through the snow and
freezing rain to get to Washington and join together in the tens
of thousands and March on the Pentagon!
Led by a contingent of Iraq war veterans, active-duty service-
members, Gold Star families, and veterans from other past and
present wars, the demonstration received a large amount of
media coverage. CNN has featured the demonstration, which
the report described as a march of tens of thousands, in its
rotation since yesterday. The major French newspaper, Le Monde,
ran a significant article under the headline, "More than 50,000
People Protest Against the War in Iraq," about the March on the
Pentagon as the U.S. component of the world-wide protests
marking the beginning of the fifth year of the war against Iraq.
The rally was broadcast live on C-span and Al-Jazeera and
received wide-spread media coverage. C-span will be replaying
the rally, check for times at:
http://www.cspan.org/
The March on the Pentagon was not a solitary action but one
of more than 1,000 protests that will take place in the U.S.
between March 17 and March 20. In Los Angeles, the A.N.S.W.E.R.
Coalition called a demonstration that drew 50,000. Maxine Waters
was one of many speakers and music was provided by renowned
Ozomatli, Jackson Browne and Ben Harper.
The ANSWER demonstration on March 18 in San Francisco drew
40,000 protesters and filled 15 blocks of Market Street,
a six-lane avenue.
The March on the Pentagon took place the day after a severe winter
snow and sleet storm suddenly hit northeastern states that prevented
many buses from traveling, 700 fights from taking off, and thousands
of cars from reaching the March. Motorists were advised throughout
New England and the Mid-Atlantic region to stay off the road.
The large turnout at the demonstration was all the more significant
given the hardships people had to endure to participate in the
activity. People marched to the Pentagon and stayed as long
as they could braving 20 mile-an-hour winds and a windchill
factor into the teens.
The front banner for the March on the Pentagon
A great thank you is owed to the committed volunteers who
endured a torrential downpour of freezing rain though Friday
night to help set up the assembly and rally sites. People stayed
overnight with the equipment and then began working again at
5:00 am in complete darkness. The assembly area had become
a lake on March 16 and filled with mud by the time the march
stepped off. The windchill in the early hours was not far above
zero. At the rally site the large tents and canopies blew down.
Volunteers continued to work long hours after the rally ended
to take-down, pack, clean the entire area and unload trucks.
The anti-war movement is growing both numerically and its
organizational capability and the tireless work of volunteers
forms the core of this success.
The lead banner of the march demanding US Out of Iraq Now
was carried by Cindy Sheehan, Cynthia McKinney, Jonathan
Hutto co-founder of Appeal for Redress, Mahdi Bray, Executive
Director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation,
Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and youth and students
in the anti-war movement.
Pentagon Prevents Immortal Technique and Others
from Joining the Rally
Police at the March on the Pentagon
The Pentagon and Virginia State Police, many clad in riot gear,
wearing gas masks and wielding batons, blocked people coming
from the subway/metro who wanted to attend the demonstration.
They also blocked buses from accessing the Pentagon in
contravention of the agreements reached in the permit. This
required people to walk nearly two miles to get to their buses
following the rally.
Many people who came to the rally after it had begun - some
who had seen the huge march at a distance as it crossed over
the Memorial Bridge across the roadways and wanted to then
join the activity - were blocked by the Pentagon and the police
from entering the rally site through a maze of misdirection,
road closures and threats of arrest at multiple different locations.
The ANSWER Coalition worked to get people in, and ANSWER
organizers and our attorneys went to the site of sudden police
confrontations and shutdowns, but many people were still
unable to get in including the hip-hop artist Immortal Technique
who was scheduled to perform.
Like so many other people, the hip-hop artist Immortal Technique's
travel plans to get to the demonstration, seemed so daunting
as to be virtually impossible. But due to his determination and
his resourcefulness, he found a way to overcome cancelled flights
and frozen roads. Although he rebooked flights in order to land
in North Carolina, personally rented a car and drove it to
Washington, D.C., the Pentagon and law enforcement blocked
him from coming into the rally where he was going to perform.
We urge everyone to read Immortal Technique's compelling
account -- which is both a narrative and a political commentary.
Immortal Technique's message below should be read and
circulated to your e-mail address book and to e-mail lists
everywhere.
Message from Immortal Technique
on being denied entrance to the March on the Pentagon
"First and foremost I would like to congratulate the organizers
of ANSWER and in specific Brian, Amelia, Peta, and Sarah and the
many others who reached out to me and who I saw make a powerful
statement today. I am not a big fan of marches and rallies because
I have always believed that the system must be attacked economically
above all. But, if coordinated well, they can effect change and remind
people that this war is still costing lives and no matter who the father
of Anna Nicole's Baby is or who wins the next season of American
Idol or what new song is on the radio, people are dying, both from
this country and in massive numbers in the Iraqi Civil War. March 17th,
even with all the problems we faced, was a success in reminding
people of the insurmountable evidence of corruption, self righteous
moral depravity, and dishonesty present within our government...
Because we have issue with the administration we should not be
painted as people who despise their country. If I am not pleased
with a book I read or a movie I watch that doesn't mean I hate the
concept of film in general or that I take issue with printed literature
on a whole. The administration presently tries to attach itself
to the idea of America as if they were the far right standard
by which all should be judged by as Americans. This White House
after all just concerns itself with the well being of its stock holders,
make-shift praetorian guard of politicians and political contributors.
"The ANSWER coalition and others have been working to separate
these two so people can see the Bush Regime as that which uses
America like a whore and claims to love her.
"As most of you know the storms in and around the New York
and NJ area prevented travel back home on the 16th. So in order
to try and make the Pentagon on March 17th since my flight out
of Atlanta was canceled I flew into Greensboro and drove through
the radio span of about 54 Christian Radio, Top 40 and Country
Music stations. There were some songs like this one right here
that I had to listen to all the way through even though they were
lyrically abhorrent. I guess it was just like people who slow down
on the highway to watch a terrible car accident. Musical
Rubbernecking is what I called it, to bear witness to just about
the most ridiculous piece of musical propaganda that isn't based
on any facts but rather someone’s uninformed and uncultured
back road view of America and what we are fighting over. I only
heard the song but now that I've seen the video, it really makes
me wonder how anyone from the right wing can accuse the
resistance of using music or religion to promote their political
agenda. It also makes me wonder what the future generations
of this nation will be like.
"At any rate after my arrival in DC late on the 16th I woke up and
got ready to check out and go to the Pentagon when everywhere
began to shut down. I went over the key bridge and parked in the
South Parking of the Pentagon when I was abruptly told by Pentagon
Police that I needed to get to the North Side. After some directional
confusion and them closing 27 to prevent me from going in there,
Sarah Sloan tirelessly guided me back through the maze of area
highways. I was entering the North Parking at which point 2 Pentagon
police motorcycles rolled up and sent me back, then after circling and
trying again I was at the point where the entry was for all the buses
entering. There 4 police cars detained me and asked me who I was
and what my relationship was to the event. When I told them why I was
there they immediately demanded that I leave. They claimed that
other officers must not know that this section was closed. And
I thought about how difficulty in communication across the parking
lot was a blatant farce. One said I should park my car in one of
the local parking lots and then try the underpass and walk in,
which I did but by that time it was 3:30 and as I parked my car
and walked in again there was a police presence there that was
sending not just myself but everyone else back.
"They said they had to arrest people for walking in the wrong
areas and for not respecting the boundaries and were basically
just trying to dissuade anyone from the street who had seen the
march from a distance from joining it. Several local residents
were there with me and were told to leave as well. I took a bus
towards Arlington and then they shut that passage down too.
I say all this not to complain because I expected as much but
to point out that we should expect this and if this is going to
be done again we should have back up plans, people on the
perimeter other ideas I’m thinking of discussing with ANSWER
personally etc… Less than a football field away I was blocked,
followed out, cornered by cop cars, surrounded twice and turned
back several times. It was an attempt to discourage myself and
others, to make it as difficult as legally and illegally possible
during that period of time to get in. I didn't expect them to
be hospitable or helpful in any way but they did nothing to
stop the message or dissuade me in any way. In fact they
just doubled my resolve and reaffirmed how committed
and focused we have to be in these times.
Peace & Respect,
Immortal Technique
P.S.
"This Administration talks a lot about God, so much that
if you think about it the Republican Party has created this
ubiquitous monopoly on religion in the political world.
As if they were the only people who believed in God. It's no
secret that they use religious values to cultivate a fan base
that would normally be very disturbed by their domestic,
economic, and foreign policy agendas. They are even breeding
this type of thinking in the children of this nation, thinking
much farther ahead than we are actually.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2c7_1173547096
"You know about 3000 years ago there were Egyptians who
worshipped the statues of Gods like Osiris and Anubis and
thought praying to these pagan entities gave them strength,
virility, victory and love. We now scoff at this practice and think
"how could people be so ignorant as to worship such idols
thinking they will bring them what they ask for?" We think how
could people pray to a man with a dog's head or a man with
a bird’s head and think that those deities will fulfill their humble
requests from the heavens. But the sad truth is that 3000 years
from now if humanity still exists people will probably look back
on our society and say, "look at these people they prayed to
a man nailed to piece of wood, and the saddest part was that
they couldn't even follow the most basic commandment
of what he said, which was treat others the way you wish
to be treated." This coming from a person who while he
doesn't let religion control his life, believes in God strongly,
and knows how much Christ and others like him spoke about
individuals who made money off of others suffering, people
like our modern day war profiteers, globalization architects
and oil barons.
"Knowing how Jesus brought drama to the Holy Temple back
in the day because of the way the people had made the name
of God into a mechanism to increase their own personal wealth...
I think that the people who work for the administration
and more specifically the president that are reading this right
now should let him know that if Jesus was alive, he'd probably
spit in your face."
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12) Students’ Right to Free Speech
Editorial
March 20, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/opinion/20tue1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
The Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday in a case that has
attracted attention mainly because of its eccentric story line: An Alaska
student was suspended from high school in 2002 after he unfurled
a banner reading “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” while the Olympic torch passed
by. But the case raises important issues of freedom of expression
and student censorship that go far beyond the words on that banner.
The court should affirm the appeals court’s well-reasoned decision
that when the school punished the student it violated his First
Amendment rights.
Joseph Frederick and his fellow students were allowed to leave
the grounds of Juneau-Douglas High School so they could watch
the Olympic torch pass nearby. When the cameras began to roll,
he unfurled his banner, which he says was meant to be funny
and get him on television. The principal took it from him, and
suspended him for 10 days.
Mr. Frederick says the suspension violated his rights. The school
board insists the principal had the right to confiscate the banner
and punish the student because the language undermined its
teachings about the dangers of illegal drugs. The San Francisco-
based United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled
for Mr. Frederick, citing the 1969 case Tinker v. Des Moines
Independent Community School District, which held that students
have the right to free speech, which can be suppressed only
when the speech disrupts school activities.
The Bush administration joined the school district in arguing that
schools have broad authority to limit talk about drugs because
of the importance of keeping drugs away from young people.
But if schools can limit speech on any subject deemed to be
important, students could soon be punished for talking about
the war on terror or the war in Iraq because the government also
considers those subjects important.
Some school administrators would no doubt use their power to
clamp down on conservative speech while others would clamp
down on liberal speech. A school that values diversity could punish
students who criticize affirmative action, while a more conservative
school could ban students from taking outspoken positions about
global warming. Religious groups have joined civil libertarians
in backing Mr. Frederick because they fear schools will punish
students who talk about their religious beliefs.
If the Supreme Court wants to dodge the free-speech-in-school
issues, it could rule that the off-campus Olympic torch event was
not a formal school activity — and that the principal had no right
to limit anyone’s free speech there. That would not harm students’
free speech rights, but it would also do little to affirm them.
The court should go further, and rule that Mr. Frederick’s rights
were infringed. Students do not have the right to interfere
substantially with school activities, but Mr. Frederick did not
do that. The court should use this case to reaffirm Tinker’s
famous pronouncement that students do not shed their right
to free speech “at the schoolhouse gate.”
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LINKS AND VERY SHORT STORIES
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After Bell, Critics Want Mayor to Broaden Focus on Police
By DIANE CARDWELL
March 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/nyregion/21bloomberg.html?ref=nyregion
Israel Workers Launch General Strike
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 3:45 a.m. ET
March 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Israel-Strike.html
Britain Proposes Allowing Schools to Forbid Full-Face Muslim Veils
By ALAN COWELL
March 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/world/europe/21britain.html?ref=world
F.B.I. Is Warned Over Its Misuse of Data Collection
By SCOTT SHANE
March 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/washington/21fbi.html?hp
Doctors’ Ties to Drug Makers Are Put on Close View
By GARDINER HARRIS and JANET ROBERTS
March 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/us/21drug.html?hp
No Paradise for Criminals Deported to Jamaica
By MARC LACEY
March 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/world/americas/21kingston.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070402/scahill
Dems Abandon War Authority Provision
By DAVID ESPO and MATTHEW LEE
Associated Press
03.13.07, 12:28 AM ET
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/03/13/ap3510002.html
Defense Spending Soars to Highest Levels Since World War II
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0320-05.htm
Iraqis Increasingly Pessimistic, Anti-US
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0320-02.htm
Three Detectives Plead Not Guilty in 50-Shot Killing
By ELLEN BARRY and COLIN MOYNIHAN
The three detectives left their homes in the predawn darkness yesterday.
They walked in the back entrance of the courthouse in Queens
to Central Booking, where they went through a routine that must
have seemed familiar: fingerprints, waiting, mug shots, more
waiting, paperwork, more waiting.
March 20, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/nyregion/20cops.html?ref=nyregion
Communist Party USA Gives Its History to N.Y.U.
By PATRICIA COHEN
March 20, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/arts/20nyu.html?ref=nyregion
Nowadays, Angola Is Oil’s Topic A
By JAD MOUAWAD
March 20, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/business/worldbusiness/20angola.html?ref=business
G.I. Is Jailed for Killing Iraqi Detainees
By REUTERS
CHICAGO, March 19 (Reuters) — An American soldier was sentenced
to 10 years in prison on Monday after a court-martial found him guilty
of killing three Iraqi detainees who were freed and told to run before
being shot, officials at Fort Campbell in Kentucky said.
The soldier, Sgt. Raymond Girouard, 24, of Sweetwater, Tenn., had
been charged with premeditated murder and other offenses that
could have drawn a life sentence, but the military jury hearing his
case convicted him on Friday of negligent homicide, a lesser offense.
The sentence is subject to review by the commanding general
at the post, and Sergeant Girouard could be paroled after serving
about a third of the 10-year sentence, a spokesman said.
Sergeant Girouard led a squad in May 2006 during a raid on
a suspected insurgent camp southwest of Tikrit, when the
killings occurred.
Three other soldiers under his command who were also charged
with the deaths made plea agreements earlier and have been
sentenced. Two received 18-year prison sentences and a third
got nine months in jail.
The three had said Sergeant Girouard ordered them to shoot
the men. He had said he was under orders to kill all men
of military age but denied ordering the slayings.
During a hearing in Iraq in August that led to the charges,
a witness testified that he saw the prisoners trying to run
away at full sprint, some with their blindfolds down, when
they were shot.
March 20, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/us/20abuse.html
Tests by Pet Food Maker Killed 7 Animals Before Recall
By KATIE ZEZIMA
March 20, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/us/20petfood.html?ref=us
Developer sued over Hunters Point toxics
Executives say their firm retaliated against them for questioning
construction dust
Lance Williams, Robert Selna, Chronicle Staff Writers
Sunday, March 18,
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/18/BAGGKOMQE129.DTL&hw=Alioto&sn=001&sc=1000
Global warming is a 'weapon of mass destruction'
Climate experts hit back after being accused
of overstating the problem
By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
San Francisco Bay Guardian
Published: 18 March 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/climate_change/article2368999.ece
The corporation that ate San Francisco
Lennar's failures at Hunters Point Shipyard highlight the risk
of putting the Bay Area's prime real estate into the hands
of profit-driven developers
By Sarah Phelan sarah@sfbg.com
http://www.sfbg.com/printable_entry.php?entry_id=3084
FOCUS | From Shock and Awe to the "Surge" Without End
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031807Y.shtml
Give Us Some Real Political Leaders
Inter Press Service
Ali al-Fadhily
"BAGHDAD, Mar 15 (IPS) - Many Iraqis are now looking to local
political leadership to fill wide gaps in a fractured government
that is failing to provide security and basic needs."
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/iraq/000549.php#more
An Awkward Creature
The Chinese Way of Capitalism
By REZA FIYOUZAT
March 16, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.org/fiyouzat03162007.html
These Boots Were Made for 22 M.P.H.
By ANDREW E. KRAMER
March 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/business/worldbusiness/17gazshoes.html?ref=business
Iowa: ‘Tar Baby’ Prompts an Apology
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, offered an apology
in Cedar Falls after using the term “tar baby” in answering a voter’s
question about federal intervention in divorce and custody cases.
In response to the question, Mr. McCain said he was not going
to take a position that it was proper “to declare divorces invalid
because of someone who feels they weren’t treated fairly in court.”
He said, ”We are getting into a tar-baby of enormous proportions,
and I don’t know how you get out of that.” When told afterward that
some people considered the term a racial epithet, Mr. McCain responded,
“I hope that it’s not viewed that way.” A moment later, he apologized,
saying, “I don’t think I should have used that word, and I was wrong
to do it.” One of Mr. McCain’s rivals for the 2008 Republican presidential
nomination, for Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, apologized
last year for using the term in referring to the troubled Big Dig
highway project in Boston.
March 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/us/politics/17brfs-mccain-tar-baby.html
Court Says Health Coverage May Bar Birth-Control Pills
By TAMAR LEWIN
March 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/health/17pill.html?ref=us
Mortgage Trouble Clouds Homeownership Dream
By EDUARDO PORTER and VIKAS BAJAJ
March 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/business/17dream.html?hp
The liberal war on democracy
John Pilger
Published 19 March 2007
http://www.newstatesman.com/200703190024
Florida: Settlement in Boot Camp Death
By CHRISTINE JORDAN SEXTON
The state’s Department of Juvenile Justice reached a $5 million
settlement with the parents of a 14-year-old boy who died
in January 2006 after being beaten at a boot camp in Panama City.
The agreement, orchestrated by Gov. Charlie Crist, would require
approval by the Legislature. A lawyer for the boy’s parents, Ben Crump,
said the family would seek another $5 million settlement from Bay County,
which ran the boot camp. A criminal case is pending against the seven
guards charged with beating the boy, Martin Lee Anderson,
and against a nurse who watched.
March 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/us/15brfs-SETTLEMENTIN_BRF.html
Safe Ground in a Housing Market Meltdown?
By Dean Baker
t r u t h o u t | Columnist
Wednesday 14 March 2007
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031407J.shtml
Manhattan: Arrests at Antiwar Protest
By KATE HAMMER
Twenty students were arrested yesterday at an antiwar protest
in an Army and Navy recruiting station at 157 Chambers Street.
The protest began at noon when members of the group, Students
for a Democratic Society, marched from the campuses of Pace
University and the New School and converged near the recruitment
center. The 20 staged a sit-in while about 40 others stood outside
chanting antiwar slogans, banging steel drums and waving posters.
Organizers said that the students were demonstrating against military
recruitment practices, and that the protest was intended to call
attention to the fourth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war,
which will be next week. The police said the 20 would be charged
with criminal trespass.
March 13, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/nyregion/13mbrfs-protest.html
Manhattan: Rulings on Convention Arrests
By JIM DWYER
The city may use secret police intelligence in civil rights lawsuits
to defend its policies during the 2004 Republican National Convention,
but it will be penalized for failing to disclose the information earlier
in the case, a federal judge ruled yesterday. The New York Civil Liberties
Union, which is suing the city on behalf of seven people who claim
they were wrongly arrested and detained during the convention, had
argued that intelligence reports and testimony from David Cohen,
the deputy police commissioner for intelligence, should be barred
because the city missed deadlines for disclosing that Mr. Cohen
and the documents would be part of its defense. Magistrate Judge
James C. Francis IV agreed that city lawyers had “offered no legitimate
excuse” for being late and said the city would have to pay legal
fees and other costs as punishment.
March 13, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/nyregion/13mbrfs-convention.html
Home in San Francisco, Pelosi Gets the Crawford Treatment
By JESSE McKINLEY
"SAN FRANCISCO, March 12 — San Francisco, meet Crawford, Tex."
March 13, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/washington/13pelosi.html
Your country needs you... but not you: Soldiers' mother
faces deportation
"Leven Bowman served in Iraq. His brother Damian was an army
poster boy. Now the Home Office wants to deport their mother
and her 15-year-old daughter
By Ian Herbert and Nigel Morris
Published: 13 March 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article2352800.ece
U.S. House Democrats seek more war funds than Bush
01 Mar 2007 23:53:19 GMT
By Richard Cowan
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N01426347.htm
Inmates to fill the void in farm fields
"Pilot program to help farmers replace workers driven
off by state's new immigration laws."
By CHARLES ASHBY
CHIEFTAIN DENVER BUREAU
http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1172581202/1
No More Denials, Please
Editorial
March 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/03/opinion/03sat1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Warm Winters Upset Rhythms of Maple Sugar
By PAM BELLUCK
March 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/03/us/03maple.html?ref=us
New Design for Warhead Is Awarded to Livermore
By WILLIAM J. BROAD
March 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/03/washington/03nuke.html?ref=us
[U.S. OUT OF LIVERMORE! DEVOTE LIVERMORE TO PEACEFUL
PURPOSES NOT FOR WAR--TO HELP HUMANITY, NOT DESTROY IT!...BW]
The Must-Do List
Editorial
March 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/opinion/04sun1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
The Nation In Wartime, Who Has the Power?
By JEFFREY ROSEN
WASHINGTON
March 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/weekinreview/04rosen.html?ref=world
Judge to Decide Validity of Case on Marijuana
By CAROLYN MARSHALL
March 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/us/04pot.html?ref=us
Investigations Multiplying in Juvenile Abuse Scandal
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
March 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/us/04youth.html
Antiwar Caucus Wants to Be Heard Now
By MICHAEL LUO
March 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/washington/04cong.htm
State Facilities’ Use of Force Is Scrutinized After a Death
By CASSI FELDMAN
March 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/nyregion/04detention.html?ref=nyregion
16 Civilians Die as U.S. Troops Fire on Afghan Road
By CARLOTTA GALL
March 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/05/world/asia/05afghan.html
The Right to Organize
Editorial
March 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/opinion/06tues1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Visit by Bush Fires Up Latins’ Debate Over Socialism
By JIM RUTENBERG and LARRY ROHTER
March 9, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/09/world/americas/09latin.html
Veterans Face Vast Inequities Over Disability
By IAN URBINA and RON NIXON
March 9, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/09/washington/09veterans.html?ref=us
The Next Big Health Care Battle
Editorial
March 12, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/opinion/12mon1.html?hp
Strike at Big Shipyard Is Yet Another Effect of Katrina
By ADAM NOSSITER
March 13, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/us/13strike.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Immigration Misery
Editorial
March 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/opinion/15thu1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Dying Woman Loses Appeal on Marijuana as Medication
By JESSE McKINLEY
March 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/us/15marijuana.html?ref=us
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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=41
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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