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NEXT Meeting to defeat pro-JROTC referendum set for November Ballot in SF
TUESDAY, AUGUST 5, 7:15-9:00 pm
Friends Meeting House
65 9th St, San Francisco (between Mission and Market Sts)
To RSVP or for additional information, please contact Alan Lessik at AFSC at 565.0201, x11 or alessik@afsc.org.
Dear Friends,
In 2006, the San Francisco school board made history by voting to phase
the Pentagon's Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corp (JROTC) out of our
schools.
JROTC is one of the military's primary recruitment tools. The school
board took this action because, after years of war in Iraq, the people
of San Francisco do not want military recruiters in our schools, and do
not support a program that discriminates against the lesbian and gay
community with its "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policies. JROTC costs San
Francisco taxpayers nearly $1 million per year.
Now JROTC supporters have countered by placing an initiative on the
November ballot, asking San Francisco voters to declare themselves in
favor of keeping JROTC in our schools.
On Election Day, November 4, the people of San Francisco will tell the
world that military recruitment targeting children as young as 14 in our
schools is simply wrong.
However, in order to make sure the people know what this initiative is
about, we will need to run a well-organized and professional campaign.
This is a national issue. The Bush administration has more than doubled
the operational budget for JROTC. Military organizations from around the
country are funding the campaign to keep JROTC in San Francisco schools,
along with the SF Chamber of Commerce and the SF Association of
Realtors.
Anti-war and counter-recruitment forces throughout the country know that
if San Francisco can not defeat this initiative, our movement will be
set back immeasurably.
We need your financial support to mount the best campaign we can. And we
need that financial support NOW.
Thank you for your time and your support.
For No Military Recruitment in Our Schools,
Alan Lessik, Regional Director, American Friends Service Committee
(AFSC)
Dan Kelly, Former member, San Francisco School Board*
Riva Enteen, Parent of SF school district graduates
Mike Wong, Member, Veterans for Peace*
Stephen Funk, SF Chapter President, Iraq Vets Against the War*
*For ID purposes only
Please send checks to:
No Military Recruitment in Our Schools
2467 - 28th Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94116
Those contributing $25-$99 must provide a name and address.
Those contributing $100 and above must also provide their occupation and employer.
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AMERICANS DO NOT SANCTION THE RECRUITMENT OF CHILDREN!
Say NO! to "America's Army"
Video-Game Targets Children as Young as 13.
South Park Game Companies Profit from Illegal Recruitment Program!
Rally and Action
Wednesday, August 6, 12 Noon
South Park - between 2nd and 3rd, Bryant and Brannan streets.
actagainstwar.net takedirectaction@riseup.net
“America’s Army” is a game developed by the U.S. military to instruct players in “Army values,” portray the army in a positive light, and increase potential recruits. The “game” is the property and brainchild of the US Army, which admit freely, and with pride, that it is one of their principal recruitment tools.
America’s Army has been available since 2002 as a free download or as a CD available in recruiting stations. It is published and distributed by Ubisoft right here in South Park. Ubisoft is not the only South Park neighbor engaged in the development of the game, Gameloft is working on the cell phone application and Secret Level was a designer on the 2005 Xbox version. The game has been granted a “teen” rating, allowing 13 year olds to play.
The military recruitment of children under the age of 17, however, is a clear violation of international law (the U.N. Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict). No attempt to recruit children 13-16 is allowed in the United States, pursuant to treaty. In May, the American Civil Liberties Union published a report that found the armed services regularly target children under 17 for military recruitment. The report highlighted the role of “America’s Army,” saying the Army uses the game to “attract young potential recruits . . . train them to use weapons, and engage in virtual combat and other military missions”, adding that the game “explicitly targets boys 13 and older.”
It is also important to consider the effects of the game within the context of the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Undoubtedly, soldiers now recruited through “America’s Army” will serve in these wars. The invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan are violations of international law, and contributing to their continuation through the propagation of the game is, if not a criminal violation, a moral outrage.
The game is having an effect. An informal study showed that 4 out of 100 new recruits in Ft. Benning, Georgia credit America’s Army as the primary factor in convincing them to join the military. 60% of those recruits said they played the game more than five times a week. And a 2004 Army survey found that nearly a third of young Americans ages 16 to 24 had some contact with the game in the previous six months.
This August 6, on the 63rd Anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, come out and ask the Producers and developers of America’s Army to stop helping the Army recruit children.
We are asking you to consider three steps:
1. Support for our campaign against America’s Army
2. Sign our letter and endorse this campaign.
3. Participate in our upcoming event on Hiroshima Day (Wed., Aug. 6), at noon, in South Park (btw 2nd/3rd, Bryant/Brannan), asking these companies to either withdraw from their Army contracts or provide a warning label: “This game is designed to recruit children in violation of international law. Military service can be hazardous to your health.”
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August 6th
5pm @ Powell and Market St. San Francisco
NO WAR ON IRAN
Come Join the World Can't Wait
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In front of the Marine Recruiting Station on Shattuck Ave
AUGUST 6TH @ 12NOON - 4pm
Press Conference @ 12:30pm
Join CodePINK, MECA, Courage to Resist, Women in Black, Gray Panthers and others;
To PROTEST the use of nuclear bombs on this horrific 'anniversary' of the bombing of HIROSHIMA, marking us as the ONLY nation in the world to use atomic weapons against a civilian population!
STAND STRONG against the threatened bombing of Iran, again in our name!
And find out what support there is in Berkeley for free speech and the right to protest!
JOIN US at the MRS (Marine Recruiting Station), noon to 4:00pm - with our constitutional rights and responsibilities to protest.
Your presence is crucial!!! Stand with us for peace, our Constitutional rights, AND in remembrance of the lives lost in Hiroshima!
We are also still looking for entertainment for the day, like spoken word, theater, or anything else! If you, or someone you know would like to perform at this event, please call KEIKO at (707) 334-7071
PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO APPROPRIATE E-MAIL LISTS!!!
Call Keiko 707-334-7071 or Judy 415-51906355 for more info or email info AT bayareacodepink DOT org.
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Monday August 14 - 7:30 pm
David Rovics Concert
Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists
1924 Cedar St. at Bonita, a block east of MLK Jr. Way, Berkeley 948709
The "musical version of Democracy Now" per Amy Goodman! "The peace
poet and troubador for our time" per Cindy Sheehan!
Rovics is a radical and progressive singer and songwriter.
$15
co-sponsored by BFUU's Social Justice Committee
wheelchair accessible
510 528 4941
www.bfuu.org
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SAN FRANCISCO IS A SANCTUARY CITY! STOP THE MIGRA-ICE RAIDS!
Despite calling itself a "sanctuary city", S.F. politicians are permitting the harrassment of undocumented immigrants and allowing the MIGRA-ICE police to enter the jail facilities.
We will picket any store that cooperates with the MIGRA or reports undocumented brothers and sisters. We demand AMNESTY without conditions!
BRIGADES AGAINST THE RAIDS
project of BARRIO UNIDO
(415)431-9925
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"Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about his religion. Respect others in their views and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and of service to your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
"Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, or even a stranger, if in a lonely place. Show respect to all people, but grovel to none. When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.
"Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home." by: Tecumseh -(1768-1813) Shawnee Chief
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Sami Al-Arian Subjected to Worst Prison Conditions since Florida
Despite grant of bail, government continues to hold him
Dr. Al-Arian handcuffed
Hanover, VA - July 27, 2008 -
More than two weeks after being granted bond by a federal judge, Sami Al-Arian is still being held in prison. In fact, Dr. Al-Arian is now being subjected to the worst treatment by prison officials since his stay in Coleman Federal Penitentiary in Florida three years ago.
On July 12th, Judge Leonie Brinkema pronounced that Dr. Al-Arian was not a danger to the community nor a flight risk, and accordingly granted him bail before his scheduled August 13th trial. Nevertheless, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) invoked the jurisdiction it has held over Dr. Al-Arian since his official sentence ended last April to keep him from leaving prison. The ICE is ostensibly holding Dr. Al-Arian to complete deportation procedures but, given that Dr. Al-Arian's trial will take place in less than three weeks, it would seem somewhat unlikely that the ICE will follow through with such procedures in the near future.
Not content to merely keep Dr. Al-Arian from enjoying even a very limited stint of freedom, the government is using all available means to try to psychologically break him. Instead of keeping him in a prison close to the Washington DC area where his two oldest children live, the ICE has moved him to Pamunkey Regional Jail in Hanover, VA, more than one hundred miles from the capital. Regardless, even when Dr. Al-Arian was relatively close to his children, they were repeatedly denied visitation requests.
More critically, this distance makes it extremely difficult for Dr. Al-Arian to meet with his attorneys in the final weeks before his upcoming trial. This is the same tactic employed by the government in 2005 to try to prevent Dr. Al-Arian from being able to prepare a full defense.
Pamunkey Regional Jail has imposed a 23-hour lock-down on Dr. Al-Arian and has placed him in complete isolation, despite promises from the ICE that he would be kept with the general inmate population. Furthermore, the guards who transported him were abusive, shackling and handcuffing him behind his back for the 2.5-hour drive, callously disregarding the fact that his wrist had been badly injured only a few days ago. Although he was in great pain throughout the trip, guards refused to loosen the handcuffs.
At the very moment when Dr. Al-Arian should be enjoying a brief interlude of freedom after five grueling years of imprisonment, the government has once again brazenly manipulated the justice system to deliver this cruel slap in the face of not only Dr. Al-Arian, but of all people of conscience.
Make a Difference! Call Today!
Call Now!
Last April, your calls to the Hampton Roads Regional Jail pressured prison officials to stop their abuse of Dr. Al-Arian after only a few days.
Friends, we are asking you to make a difference again by calling:
Pamunkey Regional Jail: (804) 365-6400 (press 0 then ask to speak to the Superintendent's office). Ask why Dr. Al-Arian has been put under a 23-hour lockdown, despite the fact that a federal judge has clearly and unambiguously pronounced that he is not a danger to anyone and that, on the contrary, he should be allowed bail before his trial.
- If you do not reach the superintendent personally, leave a message on the answering machine. Call back every day until you do speak to the superintendent directly.
- Be polite but firm.
- After calling, click here to let us know you called.
Don't forget: your calls DO make a difference.
FORWARD TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS!
Write to Dr. Al-Arian
For those of you interested in sending personal letters of support to Dr. Al-Arian:
If you would like to write to Dr. Al-Arian, his new
address is:
Dr. Sami Al-Arian
Pamunkey Regional Jail
P.O. Box 485
Hanover, VA 23069
Email Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace: tampabayjustice@yahoo.com
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"Canada: Abide by resolution - Let U.S. war resisters stay!"
Dear Canada: Let Them Stay
Urgent action request—In wake of Parliament win, please sign this new letter to Canada.
By Courage to Resist
June 18, 2008
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/499/89/
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ARTICLES IN FULL:
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1) Iowa Rally Protests Raid and Conditions at Plant
By JULIA PRESTON
July 28, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/us/28immig.html?ref=us
2) For Many Student Athletes, Game Over
By WINNIE HU
July 28, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/education/28sports.html?ref=education
3) Harlem Man Who Made Doll-Head Complaint Is Arrested
By ERIC KONIGSBERG and JASON GRANT
July 28, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/nyregion/28doll.html?ref=nyregion
4) Canadian Soldiers Firing on Car in Afghanistan Kill 2 Children
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 29, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/world/asia/29afghan.html?ref=world
5) Guantánamo Memo
In Detainee Trial, System Is Tested
"The administration’s strategy in using the Guantánamo naval station was based on its belief that the Constitution would not apply here."
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
July 29, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/us/29gitmo.html?ref=us
6) Execution by Military Is Approved by President
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
July 29, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/us/29execute.html?ref=us
7) G.M. Cuts Jobs as Part of a Production Curb
By BILL VLASIC
July 29, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/business/29auto.html?ref=business
8) 85% of US Unhappy with Economy
By Bill Saporito
Wednesday, Jul. 16, 2008
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1823668,00.html
9) To Speak Out Against the City’s School System, One Man Turns to the Power of Parody
By JENNIFER MEDINA
July 30, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/nyregion/30babad.html?ref=education
10) Israelis Kill Palestinian Boy at Protest, Witnesses Say
By ISABEL KERSHNER
July 30, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/world/middleeast/30mideast.html?ref=world
11) House Formally Apologizes for Slavery and Jim Crow
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 29, 2008
Filed at 8:25 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/washington/AP-Slavery-Apology.html?ref=us
12) Big Divide Found in Internet Access
By Ken Belson
July 30, 2008, 1:05 pm
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/report-finds-big-divide-in-internet-access/
13) APPEAL TO THE LISTENERS AND SUPPORTERS OF TAKING AIM
Mya Shone/Ralph Schoenman
Taking Aim
http://www.takingaimradio.com
14) Execution Update
Death Penalty Focus
870 Market St. Ste. 859 San Francisco, CA 94102
Tel. 415.243.0143 - Fax 415.243.0994
www.deathpenalty.org
15) A Farm Boy Reflects
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Op-Ed Columnist
July 31, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/opinion/31kristof.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
16) A Hidden Toll on Employment: Cut to Part Time
By PETER S. GOODMAN
July 31, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/business/economy/31jobs.html?ref=us
17) Rising Oil Prices Swell Profits at Exxon and Shell
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS and JULIA WERDIGIER
August 1, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/01/business/01oil.html?ref=business
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1) Iowa Rally Protests Raid and Conditions at Plant
By JULIA PRESTON
July 28, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/us/28immig.html?ref=us
POSTVILLE, Iowa — About 1,000 people, including Hispanic immigrants, Catholic clergy members, rabbis and activists, marched through the center of this farm town on Sunday and held a rally at the entrance to a kosher meatpacking plant that was raided in May by immigration authorities.
The march was called to protest working conditions in the plant, owned by Agriprocessors Inc., and to call for Congressional legislation to give legal status to illegal immigrants. The four rabbis, from Minnesota and Wisconsin, attended the march to publicize proposals to revise kosher food certification to include standards of corporate ethics and treatment of workers.
The march drew a counterprotest by about 150 people, organized by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which opposes illegal immigrants and proposals to give them legal status.
At one point, tension surged as the two sides shouted slogans at each other through bullhorns from opposite sidewalks of the main street of this town with a population of about 2,200. The marchers said, “Stop the raids!” Protesters across the street responded, “Illegals go home!”
No incidents of disorder were reported by the police.
The debate over kosher standards has intensified since the May 12 raid at the plant, in which 389 illegal immigrants, the majority from Guatemala, were detained. Reports by many of those workers of widespread labor violations in the plant have been prominent news in the Jewish media, provoking discussion of whether Jews should buy meat and poultry products made there.
Agriprocessors, owned and operated by Aaron Rubashkin and his family, is the largest kosher plant in the United States. Its products, sold as Aaron’s Best and Rubashkin’s, among others, dominate the nation’s market for kosher meat and poultry.
The plant had been cited for state and federal labor violations before the raid, including inadequate worker safety protections and unpaid overtime. Since the raid, immigrants under 18, the legal age in Iowa for working on a meatpacking floor, have said they worked long hours at Agriprocessors, often at night.
Agriprocessors’ beef and poultry are killed and packaged using procedures specified by strict Jewish dietary laws, and are certified by rabbis who are recognized authorities on kosher food.
In 2006, after reports in The Forward, a Jewish newspaper, of harsh working conditions at Agriprocessors, a commission of inquiry organized by Conservative Jewish leaders criticized the plant’s operations and called for more safety training and increased inspections by state labor officials.
A member of that commission, Rabbi Morris Allen of Mendota Heights, Minn., proposed a new system of kosher certification that would include consideration of working conditions in plants where the food is produced.
Rabbi Harold Kravitz, from the Adath Jeshurun synagogue in Minnetonka, Minn., said on Sunday that the health and safety issues raised by the commission did not appear to have been addressed. Speaking to the rally on a dusty driveway in front of the plant, Rabbi Kravitz said that Jewish laws governing the kosher processing of animals should not be separated from Jewish ethical principles.
“Proper business conduct and treatment of workers also are important Jewish values,” Rabbi Kravitz said.
He and several Jewish community activists met on Sunday morning here with Chaim Abrahams, a top manager of the plant. Aaron Goldsmith, a Postville resident who participated in the meeting, said Mr. Abrahams reported that about 360 of the arrested workers had received all payments that they were owed and that Agriprocessors was making weekly deliveries of food to about 30 immigrant families in Postville.
Although Agriprocessors executives have largely avoided speaking to the news media, Getzel Rubashkin, 24, a grandson of Aaron Rubashkin, emerged from the plant and approached the rally.
“There’s no argument here,” said Getzel Rubashkin, who said he works in the plant but was not a representative of Agriprocessors and was speaking for himself. Agriprocessors managers, he said, “treat their workers well and they pay their workers well and there is no other policy.”
“The company is not on the other side of any of these people,” he said, referring to the immigrants lined up behind banners across the street from the plant.
Getzel Rubashkin said a large number of illegal immigrants had been hired because they presented identity documents that he called convincing forgeries.
“The high number of illegal people who were working here is more a testimony to the quality of their deceit, of their papers,” Getzel Rubashkin said. He said the company did not criticize immigration authorities for the raid.
“Obviously some of the people here were presenting false documents,” Getzel Rubashkin said. “Immigration authorities somehow picked it up and they did what they are supposed to do, they came and picked them up. God bless them for it.”
On Postville’s main street, the protesters opposing the immigrants’ march praised Iowa federal prosecutors, who convicted 297 illegal immigrant workers from the plant, most on criminal document fraud charges.
“It’s a felony when you take someone’s identity, and we think that needs to be out there when you talk about the supposed injustices against undocumented workers,” said Susan Tully of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, an organizer of the counterprotest.
Like the marchers, the protesters were also angry at Agriprocessors managers. To date, the only managers arrested were two floor supervisors, on immigration harboring charges.
“It’s cheap labor, that’s what they’re getting away with,” said Ruthie Hendrycks, 48, of a group called Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform. “I want to see these employers that hired children and illegal aliens do serious jail time.”
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2) For Many Student Athletes, Game Over
By WINNIE HU
July 28, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/education/28sports.html?ref=education
MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. — Student athletes in maroon and gold uniforms filled their water coolers with more than $19,000 in donations last weekend by standing on street corners here to ask friends, neighbors and strangers alike to help revive the school district’s $1.1 million athletic program, which was eliminated last month in budget cuts.
On Long Island, a group of parents started a charitable corporation, Wantagh S O S (Save Our Students), to collect money for nearly 100 sports teams and extracurricular clubs that were dropped from the school district’s budget last month. The group has raised more than $334,000, about half of its goal, through dinner parties, car washes, a lacrosse tournament and a walk-a-thon at Jones Beach.
And come fall, middle school students in Dearborn, Mich., will have to settle for fewer games after every team’s season was cut by a quarter, or about two weeks, to save $130,000 annually on busing and coaching. The district trimmed the schedules after students and parents opposed its plan to replace the sports teams with an intramural program, in which students would not have competed against other schools.
As cash-strapped school districts across the nation scale back sports programs or try to pass on part or all of their costs to students and parents, some fear that the tradition of the scholar athlete is at risk. In Mount Vernon — where this year more than 700 students were expected to participate on 55 teams in basketball, football, volleyball, tennis, cross country, track, soccer, wrestling, swimming, baseball, softball, golf and cheerleading — many teachers and parents say that sports not only keep children coming to school but also keep them away from crime, drugs and gang activity.
“The field, the pool, the court are our classrooms, and the coaches are our teachers,” said Donna Pirro, an assistant principal who was the district’s athletic director until that title was eliminated along with the sports program. “Education through athletics should be taken seriously because it builds the kind of teamwork, self-discipline and social skills that our children need to succeed in any career they pursue.”
School officials here and elsewhere say they recognize the value of athletic programs, but have little choice as they face rising teacher salaries and mounting costs for benefits, special education classes and utility bills that are soaring with higher fuel prices and inflation. W. L. Sawyer, superintendent of the 10,046-student Mount Vernon district, said he was forced to choose between pre-kindergarten classes and sports after voters rejected the school budget twice this spring.
“There were a lot of other things that were cut before we got to the sports program,” he said, explaining that even though the district went from a $178.8 million budget last year to a $187.4 million contingency budget, it had to increase class size to 29 from 26 in the high school and lay off 100 employees, or about 6 percent of the district staff. The move away from athletics comes as many public schools, under pressure to increase standardized test scores, are also cutting back on physical education classes and shortening recess periods to free up time for test preparation.
Stewart Trost, an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition and Exercise Sciences at Oregon State University, said that while schools had a tradition of providing physical exercise that dated to the 1850s, less than 10 percent of the nation’s public schools now have daily physical education classes. “In a No Child Left Behind era, all nonmath, nonreading classes have been cut back,” he said.
But Professor Trost argued that “ensuring the health of children is part and parcel of the academic mission of schools in that you have to be healthy to learn,” citing studies showing that students who participate in a physical activity or sports perform better on standardized tests, and are less likely to smoke, use drugs, or engage in unprotected or promiscuous sex.
School officials do not dispute the benefits of sports, but instead emphasize that their primary responsibility is academics. Dr. Sawyer acknowledged that cutting athletics “leaves a tremendous hole” but pointed out that the district’s pre-kindergarten classes served 400 students, many of whom came from disadvantaged families.
“It’s a tough decision because we know cutting sports has an impact, but you have to consider what impacts the most children,” he said.
Similarly, Carl Bonuso, Wantagh’s superintendent, said that his priority was to maintain smaller class sizes — from 24 in the early elementary grades to up to 30 in the high school after the school budget failed to pass this spring for the first time in two decades.
His district’s $63.1 million contingency budget called for reducing the district’s staff of 400 by 5 teaching and 10 support positions, a number that most likely would have risen if the district had not also saved $650,000 by cutting 46 athletic teams and more than 50 activities, including orchestra and the drama and French clubs, said Dr. Bonuso, who agreed to freeze his salary, as well as those of two assistant superintendents and their secretaries.
But many parents contend that schools should also be required to fund sports and extracurricular activities. One parent, Don Desroches, said he was spending two hours a day on Wantagh S O S so that his son could play basketball and his daughter could join the orchestra and the chorus this fall, activities he considered crucial to building character and good citizenship.
“I feel like it’s a one-time effort, and we shouldn’t have to do this on a regular basis,” said Mr. Desroches, 46, who owns a company that runs soccer, basketball and baseball classes for children from ages 3 to 18. “I’m doing this now because it’s necessary, but it also takes a lot of time and effort.”
Across the country, schools have increasingly augmented tight budgets by charging students fees that can run to hundreds of dollars, a practice that is prohibited in New York State. The 17,600-student Dearborn district, in addition to shortening athletic seasons this year, also charges fees of up to $350 per family per year for students to participate in athletics and extracurricular activities.
This week, the 9,000-student Olympia district in Washington State raised its fees for middle school to $60 per sport from $40 to help cover a projected $2 million budget shortfall; the fees were introduced five years ago during another budget crisis. Three years ago, the high school diving teams were narrowly saved by a parent who covered the $4,600.
Similarly, at a Catholic high school in Somers, N.Y., freshman teams in basketball, baseball and volleyball were cut last week and then quickly reinstated after an anonymous benefactor donated $10,000.
Here in Mount Vernon, students and parents have raised more than $55,000 of the $950,000 district officials say is required to restore the athletic program (the district will pay insurance costs, bringing the total down from $1.1 million). The high-profile campaign has attracted the support of the mayor, Clinton I. Young Jr., as well as Ben Gordon of the Chicago Bulls, a 2001 graduate, who helped initiate fund-raising events, including a reggae concert and a cocktail reception with food donated by local restaurants.
But district officials say they need to have at least $300,000 in hand by Aug. 10 to start the fall season.
The uncertain future of Mount Vernon’s sports has been particularly hard on the boy’s basketball team, a perennial contender for state championships and a source of local pride. “They cut out part of my life,” said Mark Cole, 17, a senior, who continued to practice with his teammates this week in a sweltering gym with no air-conditioning. “Everybody needs sports for something, whether it’s dreaming of playing professionally or getting a scholarship to college or just staying off the streets.”
Jomo Belfor, 25, a teacher’s aide who graduated from the school in 2002, said playing basketball had given him stability and structure and “made me a totally different person.” Mr. Belfor, who played Division I basketball at James Madison University, said he could not understand how the district had failed to find the money for an athletic program that meant so much to so many.
“I just feel that everyone has expenses, and you have to budget for them,” he said. “Say you have $20 to spend at the supermarket, you’re going to buy necessities: milk, bread, and eggs. Basketball needs to be with the eggs because it affects your community.”
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3) Harlem Man Who Made Doll-Head Complaint Is Arrested
By ERIC KONIGSBERG and JASON GRANT
July 28, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/nyregion/28doll.html?ref=nyregion
A 27-year-old Harlem man, who spoke out last week about spotting the head of a black doll on the rear antenna of an unmarked police car with two white officers inside, was arrested early Sunday in what his lawyer and a state senator said was a case of unwarranted retaliation meant to intimidate the neighborhood.
The man, Clarence Jones, was charged with obstruction of government administration and resisting arrest, the police said. He was released without bail on Sunday night after being arraigned.
According to the police, two patrol officers were ticketing a parked Lincoln Navigator they had found unattended in front of a bus stop near Madison Avenue and 116th Street when Mr. Jones got into the vehicle — ignoring the officers’ statements that they were about to issue a summons — and drove off.
The police released a statement on Sunday evening saying that the officers who arrested Mr. Jones had not been aware of his connection to the outcry over the doll’s head.
Desiree Murray, a friend and neighbor of Mr. Jones, said that he told her he had been sitting in the car as it idled when the officers told him he was illegally double-parked. She said he told her that the officers had walked away after appearing to notice several other similarly parked cars nearby.
Police officials said that the officers pursued Mr. Jones to 116th Street and Fifth Avenue, where, they said, he left the car and became loud and boisterous, trying to film them with his cellphone.
The police said that Mr. Jones was subdued and arrested around 1:25 a.m. on Sunday.
Mr. Jones’s mother, identified by the police as Kimerly Powell, 48, arrived at the scene and was eventually issued a summons for disorderly conduct, the police said. They said that Mr. Jones and his mother live in an apartment building at 116th Street and Fifth Avenue.
The Navigator was registered to a woman in the Bronx, whom Mr. Jones identified as his companion, the police said.
After Mr. Jones was arrested, neighbors said, residents gathered on the sidewalk and demanded to know why.
The police said they were trying to determine who had put the black doll’s head on the antenna of the police car on Tuesday. Residents, including Mr. Jones, said they had seen the car patrolling the area for a while. The two officers in the car said that once the doll’s head was pointed out to them, they put it in the trunk.
As Mr. Jones has described it, he was trying to take a photograph of the doll’s head but one of the officers put it in the trunk before he could do so.
In subsequent days, some in Harlem saw it as a sign of troubled times between black residents and the police.
In a press conference on Thursday, State Senator Bill Perkins, who represents the area, denounced the doll’s-head display.
On Sunday, Mr. Perkins called the arrest “a retaliation,” and said he was organizing a Monday press conference outside 25th Precinct headquarters.
Roger Wareham, Mr. Jones’s lawyer, said on Sunday, “I am certain it’s retaliation.” He added: “It’s sending a message, to anyone else who is thinking of doing that, that it’s not worth it. This is what you are going to face.”
Mr. Jones said that officers threw him to the ground, chipping his tooth and injuring his wrist, and possibly breaking his arm, according to Mr. Wareham. The lawyer said on Sunday night that Mr. Jones was on his way to a hospital in Harlem.
Mr. Wareham said that he had met Mr. Jones at Thursday’s press conference and that they had both expressed concern that Mr. Jones might soon find himself in trouble with the police for expressing his outrage over the doll’s head.
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4) Canadian Soldiers Firing on Car in Afghanistan Kill 2 Children
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 29, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/world/asia/29afghan.html?ref=world
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan opened fire on a speeding car, which they feared was about to attack their convoy, and killed a 2-year-old boy and his 4-year-old sister, officials said Monday.
NATO and the Canadian military issued statements that said the soldiers opened fire near the southern city of Kandahar on Sunday after the driver had ignored repeated signals to keep back.
The car came under fire after it drove within 10 yards of the convoy, the Canadian statement said.
Militants have used civilian cars loaded with explosives in suicide missions against Afghan and foreign troops.
In Ottawa, Canada’s defense minister, Peter MacKay, said the deaths of the two children were a “horrible circumstance” that resulted when a “horrible decision had to be taken.”
Mr. MacKay said soldiers lived with the possibility that whenever a car approached, it “may be a bomb coming your way.”
“With these suicide bombs that have occurred in the past with these approaches,” he said, “soldiers have sometimes a split second to make a decision on protecting their fellow soldiers and protecting themselves,” or protecting civilians in the area.
Afghan and United Nations officials have urged international troops to avoid civilian casualties, which threaten to undermine support for President Hamid Karzai and the presence of foreign forces.
NATO commanders have said they take reasonable precautions to prevent civilian deaths and have blamed militants for endangering innocents.
In Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan, British officials said, a British soldier was killed Monday while patrolling in the Marjah area west of Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital. The death brought to 113 the number of British personnel killed in Afghanistan since 2001.
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5) Guantánamo Memo
In Detainee Trial, System Is Tested
"The administration’s strategy in using the Guantánamo naval station was based on its belief that the Constitution would not apply here."
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
July 29, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/us/29gitmo.html?ref=us
GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — On the surface, the proceedings unfolding inside a makeshift courthouse on a hill here resemble an American trial. A judge wearing a black robe presides. There is a public gallery and a witness stand. Prosecutors present witnesses, and defense lawyers cross-examine them. Objections are made and ruled upon.
But behind the judicial routine at the first trial for a Guantánamo detainee lies a parallel universe of law and lawyers. Secret evidence held in red folders is not revealed in open court. The gallery is mostly empty, because there are no members of the public. In what would be the jury box, every occupant wears a military uniform.
In the first week of the trial of Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s driver, law enforcement officials recounted what he had said during interrogations in the years since he was detained in 2001. But it was also disclosed that some of the interrogations had been conducted in the middle of the night and by men wearing masks, and that Mr. Hamdan did not have a lawyer during those sessions, nor was he warned that he might be prosecuted.
Mr. Hamdan’s trial is, in a sense, two trials. Mr. Hamdan is being tried on accusations of conspiracy and material support of terrorism. And the Bush administration’s military commission system itself is on trial. After years of debate, protest and litigation, the legal standing of the tribunal system at Guantánamo remains a question for American courts and officials around the world.
The chief Guantánamo prosecutor, Col. Lawrence J. Morris of the Army, said this first Guantánamo tribunal was “the most just war crimes trial that anybody has ever seen.”
Matt Pollard, a legal adviser for Amnesty International who is an observer here, sees it differently. He said he was struck by a sense that the proceedings were more of a replica of a trial than a real one.
“We are within a frame of a beautiful picture,” created by the Pentagon, Mr. Pollard said. “When you’re inside that frame, everything looks nice.”
The Guantánamo legal system was intended to try “unlawful enemy combatants” caught on the post-Sept. 11 battlefield. Prosecutors say there is little room for the usual legal restrictions in interrogations intended to prevent a terrorist attack. The administration’s strategy in using the Guantánamo naval station was based on its belief that the Constitution would not apply here.
Legal challenges to that assertion are among a number of factors that have delayed the government’s efforts to conduct trials here for years.
A federal judge in Washington, James Robertson, refused a last-minute plea by Mr. Hamdan’s lawyers to stop this trial. But in his July 18 ruling, Judge Robertson said serious questions remained about the system here, calling it “startling” that evidence obtained through coercive interrogations was permitted to be used in trials. He added that “the eyes of the world are on Guantánamo Bay.”
But with the trial inaccessible to the public and no broadcast television cameras in the courtroom, reporters are the only way for the wider world to know what is happening. The Pentagon’s public relations theme has been “transparency,” yet the freedom of the press has its limits at Guantánamo.
Legal documents are often released months after they are filed with the military commission, if at all. Military officials run and attend news conferences, both for the prosecution and the defense. Reporters are accompanied by military escorts almost everywhere, including to meals and court.
The spokeswoman for the detention camp, Cmdr. Pauline Storum, said it was “standard policy to require media be escorted,” and that the military sought to provide journalists access in a way “that balances the protection of operation security with providing information.”
With few seats designated for reporters in the courtroom, the Pentagon set up closed-circuit televisions at a news media center in an old hangar. During some critical moments in the first week of testimony, the courtroom camera was pointed away from witnesses’ faces and the evidence, including documents and videotapes.
When a reporter noted that in America reporters were permitted to see witnesses and evidence, a spokeswoman for the Office of Military Commissions at the Pentagon, Maj. Gail Crawford, responded, “This is not America.”
Without explanation, the camera was soon back on the witnesses.
One after another, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and other criminal investigators took the witness stand last week to describe damaging admissions they said Mr. Hamdan had made in interrogations, including his descriptions of attending a terror training camp and Mr. bin Laden’s preparations for attacks.
The agents acknowledged that it was official policy to deviate from their normal procedure of informing Mr. Hamdan of any constitutional rights.
One of the agents, George M. Crouch Jr., testified that he had helped arrange in June 2002 for Mr. Hamdan to call his family. Mr. Hamdan, who had been in custody for seven months and had been allowed no contact with the outside world, “was concerned that they would think he was dead,” the agent testified.
Mr. Pollard said holding someone incommunicado for months sounded like the kind of “disappearances” practiced by other countries. But in the court at Guantánamo, the reference did not cause a ripple.
The interrogations of Mr. Hamdan have caused him to sometimes think the trial is just another method of interrogation, a psychiatrist who interviewed him here testified. “He doesn’t know if this court is real,” the psychiatrist, Dr. Emily A. Keram, said.
In June, the Supreme Court ruled that detainees here had a constitutional right to challenge their detentions in federal court. Some lawyers said the ruling suggested that other parts of the Constitution, like the Fifth Amendment’s right against self-incrimination, might apply here.
That could have undercut the case against Mr. Hamdan. But the military judge, Capt. Keith J. Allred of the Navy, ruled that “the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution does not apply to protect Mr. Hamdan.”
Even so, the judge excluded some of Mr. Hamdan’s statements, saying they were given in the “highly coercive environment” of an Afghan prison. But he allowed many other statements by Mr. Hamdan to be entered as evidence, including some that defense lawyers contend were coerced. One of the F.B.I. agents, Ammar Y. Barghouty, said Mr. Hamdan seemed to realize during the interrogations that he had few options. “A drowning man will reach for a twig, and I am a drowning man,” Mr. Barghouty quoted Mr. Hamdan as saying.
Mr. Hamdan’s lawyers say appeals are likely from any conviction here, setting the stage for rulings, perhaps years from now, about whether the courts here meet American standards.
However the American courts eventually sort out the Guantánamo legal claims, the trial here is proceeding with its own idiosyncrasies. A prosecution witness presented an organizational table of Al Qaeda’s leadership from when Mr. Hamdan was part of Mr. bin Laden’s security detail. The chart included an entry for the head of the detail, a Moroccan, Abdellah Tabarak, who himself was held at Guantánamo. He was released in 2004, four years before the start of Mr. Hamdan’s trial.
Asked about the unusual circumstance that an employee was on trial while a man who may have been his boss had been released, a Pentagon spokesman, Cmdr. Jeffrey D. Gordon, said, “The transfer of detainees takes various factors into consideration,” including a receiving country’s promise “to mitigate the threat.”
Ben Wizner, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who is an observer here, said the experiences of Mr. Tabarak and Mr. Hamdan seemed to underscore the contradictions of the legal system here.
Mr. Wizner said there was a more fundamental contradiction underlying the trial. The Bush administration insists that even if a detainee is acquitted, officials could hold him indefinitely.
“Where else in the world,” Mr. Wizner said after court one day, “is someone being prosecuted for a crime who is already serving a life sentence and will continue to serve one if he’s acquitted?”
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6) Execution by Military Is Approved by President
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
July 29, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/us/29execute.html?ref=us
WASHINGTON — President Bush on Monday approved the first execution by the military since 1961, upholding the death penalty of an Army private convicted of a series of rapes and murders more than two decades ago.
As commander in chief, the president has the final authority to approve capital punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and he did so on Monday morning in the case of Pvt. Ronald A. Gray, convicted by court-martial for two killings and an attempted murder at Fort Bragg, N.C., the White House said in a statement.
Although the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty in the military in 1996, no one has been executed since President Ronald Reagan reinstated capital punishment in 1984 for military crimes.
The last military execution was ordered by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1957, although it was not carried out by hanging until 1961. President John F. Kennedy was the last president to face the question, in 1962, but commuted the sentence to life in prison.
“While approving a sentence of death for a member of our armed services is a serious and difficult decision for a commander in chief, the president believes the facts of this case leave no doubt that the sentence is just and warranted,” the White House press secretary, Dana Perino, said in a statement after the decision was first reported by The Associated Press. “Private Gray was convicted of committing brutal crimes, including two murders, an attempted murder and three rapes.”
Mr. Bush, a supporter of the death penalty, approved the sentence after Private Gray’s case wound its way through the Army’s legal bureaucracy and the military’s courts of appeal. The secretary of the Army sought Mr. Bush’s final approval.
There are six people on the military’s death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. but Private Gray was the first whose sentence went to the president. Unlike in the civilian courts, where the president can overturn or commute a sentence, in the military system, he is required effectively to approve it.
It can still be appealed, which the White House suggested was all but certain, meaning an execution is not expected to occur soon, possibly not during Mr. Bush’s remaining months in office.
The military death penalty has been dormant for so long that it was also unclear what the method of execution would be.
Ms. Perino declined to discuss the decision further, citing the potential for appeals. She added that Mr. Bush’s “thoughts and prayers are with the victims of these heinous crimes and their families and all others affected.”
Private Gray was accused of four murders and eight rapes from April 1986 to January 1987 while serving at Fort Bragg.
According to the White House’s chronology of the case, he pleaded guilty to two murders and five rapes, among other offenses, in state court in North Carolina and was sentenced to life in prison.
He separately faced court-martial in two murders and an attempted murder, involving three women, two of them Army soldiers, the other a civilian taxi driver whose body was found on the post.
In 1988, he was convicted, and his sentence has since been approved by his command, the Army Court of Military Review, and the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. In 2001, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear his case.
Mr. Bush’s decision clears the way for a new round of appeals in civilian courts, beginning with the Federal District Court, said Eugene R. Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, a nonprofit organization in Washington. Among the issues, Mr. Fidell said, was the fact that Congress has since required capital cases to be considered by a 12-member jury, not the smaller ones that previously decided cases.
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7) G.M. Cuts Jobs as Part of a Production Curb
By BILL VLASIC
July 29, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/business/29auto.html?ref=business
DETROIT — General Motors will eliminate shifts at two truck plants and lay off 1,760 workers to further reduce production of slow-selling pickups and sport utility vehicles.
G.M. said Monday that it would cut production of 117,000 pickups and S.U.V.’s as part of a larger effort to trim its North American manufacturing capacity by 300,000 vehicles by next year.
The moves were expected, as G.M. and other automakers continue to cope with the drastic shift in consumers’ taste to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.
G.M., the biggest American automaker, said it would cut shifts at assembly plants in Moraine, Ohio, and Shreveport, La., and slow production at two other factories, one in Mexico and the other in Indiana.
The company also said it would idle several other assembly plants for various periods to address the shrinking demand for pickups and S.U.V.’s.
“We continue to analyze the market and our production of trucks and S.U.V.’s,” Tony Sapienza, a G.M. spokesman, said. “These actions are a direct result of the market shift by consumers.”
Rising gas prices have devastated the market for large vehicles that were once the biggest source of profits for G.M. and its Detroit rivals, Ford Motor and Chrysler.
Over all, United States vehicle sales were down 10 percent through June, and are headed for the lowest annual level in more than a decade.
It’s not just the troubled Detroit automakers that are feeling the impact, either.
Toyota lowered its global sales target for this year to 9.5 million, from 9.85 million, on Monday, primarily because of slumping demand in the United States.
The hardest hit segment has been truck-based vehicles. So far this year, sales of large pickups have fallen 25 percent. Sales of S.U.V.’s have dropped 32 percent.
The downturn has spurred Ford to accelerate plans to shift much of its North American truck production to small cars.
Last week, Ford reported an $8.7-billion loss in the second quarter, its largest quarterly loss ever, primarily because of write-downs of the value of its truck plants and pickups and S.U.V.’s coming off leases.
The dwindling value of used trucks also prompted Chrysler’s auto-lending arm to announce plans to eliminate all vehicle leases as of Aug. 1.
Industry analysts have estimated that the value of used large S.U.V.’s was down as much as 27 percent from a year ago.
“Wholesale values of large S.U.V.’s and trucks have fallen dramatically, and that’s certainly something that has not abated yet,” said Tom Webb, chief economist for the Mannheim auto-auction company based in Atlanta.
G.M. had already made plans to idle truck and S.U.V. plants for up to 12 weeks through the end of the year.
The automaker, whose overall United States sales have fallen 16 percent in the first six months of the year, also recently introduced zero-interest, long-term loans to help increase demand.
But analysts say the outlook for vehicle sales remains dismal for the foreseeable future.
“Nobody really knows if this thing has bottomed-out yet,” David Healy of Burnham Securities said.
G.M. said Monday that it would remove shifts on Sept. 29 at its Moraine plant, which makes midsize S.U.V.’s like the Chevrolet Trailblazer, and in Shreveport, which makes compact pickups and the Hummer H3.
The company also plans to slow production at its truck plant in Silao, Mexico, and its Hummer factory in Mishawaka, Ind.
G.M. said Monday that it would also schedule additional downtime at several other factories.
Besides slashing truck production, G.M. has stepped up plans for broad cost cuts.
The automaker’s chairman, Rick Wagoner, said this month that G.M. would reduce its costs by $10 billion through a variety of actions including cutting the North American white-collar payroll by 20 percent and eliminating health care for salaried retirees beyond the age of 65.
On Monday, the company introduced another cost-saving measure by reducing warranty terms on its Saab brand vehicles sold in the United States.
The automaker will now offer four-year, 50,000-mile warranties rather than the five-year, 100,000-mile warranties attached to other G.M. vehicles.
Saab will continue to be the only G.M. division to provide free scheduled maintenance for three years, or 36,000 miles, however.
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8) 85% of US Unhappy with Economy
By Bill Saporito
Wednesday, Jul. 16, 2008
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1823668,00.html
You would expect Americans, in a period of falling home prices, a wobbly stock market and an ongoing war, to be less than satisfied with the direction of the country. It's natural. But Americans are not simply dissatisfied. They are very unhappy. O.K., deeply, pessimistically unhappy. Un–American Dreamy unhappy: 85% of respondents in an exclusive TIME/Rockefeller Foundation poll believe that the country is on the wrong track.
It's an unprecedented downer from an optimistic nation, and depending on whom you talk to, the numbers simply get worse. Among blacks and Latinos, the dissatisfaction levels are 96% and 88%, respectively. And fewer than half of Generation Y believes that the country's best days are ahead.
The kids are not all right. Nearly half of those between ages 18 and 29 say America was a better place to live in the 1990s and will continue to decline. Some of them are living that decline already: 58% of Gen Yers said they have had to borrow money to make ends meet in the past year.
A majority of Americans still believe that their kids will live better lives than they did, which means the American Dream isn't exactly dead. (Although America's kids aren't so sure.) But most also believe that the social contract — the benefits corporations and government once guaranteed — is busted and needs to be rewritten to reflect the realities of economic life in a global marketplace. A majority (78%) say there is more risk to their and their family's financial future than in the past, and rely more on their friends and family for financial support. More than a fifth (22%) have had to borrow money from a friend or relative to meet their expenses.
Most intriguing, a majority of those surveyed believe in the power of Big Government to solve the biggest problems of our time. They support major government investments that create jobs — 82% favor public works projects — and they remain sympathetic to the economy's victims: 70% say more government programs should help those now struggling. It is a shocking shift in sentiment, a counterreformation of sorts in a Republican-led era that emphasizes deregulation and self-reliance. Do Americans really want more government? The answer to that question may be provided in the November election. But history has shown that when the going gets tough, even the tough expect their Uncle Sam to get going.
For more on the TIME/Rockefeller Foundation poll, go to http://www.rockfound.org/index_caw_bm.shtml
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9) To Speak Out Against the City’s School System, One Man Turns to the Power of Parody
By JENNIFER MEDINA
July 30, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/nyregion/30babad.html?ref=education
Nearly 50 New York City school principals were fired immediately in what Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein declared a “warning shot across the bow.” Blackwater USA was awarded a no-bid contract to take over school security. And a national education foundation offered a $100 million endowment to any university that established a degree in “high-stakes test-taking.”
Those satirical news items, which appear on an education blog, are always slightly off-kilter, but several have seemed believable enough to prompt inquiries to the Education Department’s headquarters from parents and journalism students asking to follow up on a story they saw elsewhere.
“The best part is when people can’t distinguish their reality from the reality that is made up,” said Gary Babad, the writer of dozens of mock news items dealing with the Education Department. “I think of it as a kind of therapy and my form of quiet dissent. And it’s a stress reliever.”
Soft-spoken with a strong sarcastic streak, Mr. Babad, 56, hardly seems like a rabble-rouser; more like the kind of man who would rarely raise his voice. He is a social worker with two daughters who have attended city schools since kindergarten. But he has a bit of a protest pedigree: Grandma was a Communist, and Mom was the president of the local teachers union in Ardsley, N.Y.
It was shortly after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took over the school system in 2002 that Mr. Babad started to speak up, because, he said, things struck him as paternalistic and overly controlling. He recalled a PTA meeting at which someone said a particular bylaw needed to be changed to comply with a request from administrators downtown.
After a heated debate broke out, one of Mr. Babad’s daughters, who was about 10, came by to ask what the commotion was about.
“I explained to her that they were telling us our votes don’t count and that’s what some countries of the world do all the time,” Mr. Babad remembered. “She said right away, ‘Well, Dad, that’s not fair.’ ”
To Mr. Babad, who earned a teaching certificate but then decided to pursue social work because he thought it would make more of a difference, that was the start of a long line of offenses from Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Klein. The proverbial back-breaking straw was when Mr. Bloomberg began enforcing a ban on cellphones at schools in 2006; like many city parents, Mr. Babad thought it necessary, for safety reasons, for his daughters to carry cellphones as they commuted to and from school.
Soon, Mr. Babad was exchanging messages with dozens of parents through a citywide Listserv about ways to fight the ban. Several weeks later, he penned his first mock news release, announcing that Alvarez & Marsal, the consulting firm whose recommendation to change school bus routes midyear left dozens of students literally out in the cold, was taking over the reconstruction plans in Iraq.
“If we can’t beat the insurgents militarily, we’ll cut off their transportation and starve them out,” the parody quoted Tony Snow, the former White House press secretary, as saying.
Other parents with similar criticisms of Mr. Klein’s policy decisions and leadership style howled at the release. When Leonie Haimson, a frequent outspoken critic of the Education Department, created a blog for parents last spring, nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com, she tapped Mr. Babad to regularly contribute so-called news tidbits.
“There’s such an ‘anything goes’ mentality at Tweed that people are prepared to believe the absolute worst,” Ms. Haimson said, referring to the department’s headquarters.
Mr. Babad, who went to public school in Edgemont, N.Y., a suburb in Westchester County, has hardly become a full-time school activist; many of the familiar gadflies at board of education meetings would not recognize him. He said he planned to keep imagining the news as long as it entertained him.
He is likely to stay interested at least another four years, since his younger daughter, Janna, 13, is entering Martin Van Buren High School in Queens Village, this fall. His other daughter, Adina, graduated from Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Bayside, Queens, in June and plans to attend Temple University in the fall.
“Even though it is creative, it just feels like any of it is believable,” Adina Babad, 17, said of her father’s writing. “The way they handle cellphones, the way they handle a lot by just telling people what to do without a discussion — it kind of makes it easy to make fun of them and laugh.”
Mr. Babad, for his part, said that he enjoyed writing satire, but that his biggest satisfaction came when people mistook his parody for reality. Last fall, when Mr. Babad wrote that Blackwater USA, now named Blackwater Worldwide, was taking over security duties at the city schools, one member of a local Community Education Council wrote to Ms. Haimson demanding to know whether it was true — but only after taking his complaint directly to one of the deputy schools chancellors.
In another instance, a graduate student at Columbia University called a press spokeswoman at the Education Department for details about Mr. Klein’s plan to allow the military to recruit teachers who had been removed from the classroom and placed in so-called rubber rooms, where they are paid but do not teach until their cases are resolved. It took the spokeswoman several hours to realize that the source had been one of Mr. Babad’s spoofs.
David Cantor, the chief spokesman for the department, said he had nothing to add about Mr. Babad’s hobby.
To clear up any confusion, each of Mr. Babad’s posts is now accompanied with the notation “GBN” — as in Gary Babad News — to signify that it is fake.
“The Education Department folks don’t do irony, or at least they don’t think they do irony,” Mr. Babad said. He paused, and then mentioned a real announcement last school year that the department would experiment with a program to give students cellphones as an incentive and reward them with free minutes if they did well in school — despite the citywide cellphone ban.
“You can’t get them to understand how ironic this stuff is,” he added. “But they have actually taken irony to the extreme.”
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10) Israelis Kill Palestinian Boy at Protest, Witnesses Say
By ISABEL KERSHNER
July 30, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/world/middleeast/30mideast.html?ref=world
JERUSALEM — A Palestinian boy was shot and killed by Israeli security forces on Tuesday during a demonstration against Israel’s security barrier near the West Bank village of Naalin, Palestinian witnesses said.
Residents of Naalin said the boy, Ahmad Hussam Musa, 12, was hit in the head by a bullet fired by an Israeli soldier.
Maj. Avital Leibovich, an Israeli Army spokeswoman, said that the military had no knowledge of the shooting but that it was waiting for the results of an autopsy.
Stop the Wall, a Palestinian group that campaigns against the barrier, said in a statement that the boy was resting under a tree after the demonstration when he was shot in the head.
Protests in Naalin against the barrier have become increasingly violent recently. Major Leibovich said that two Israeli police officers were wounded by stones thrown by protesters on Tuesday, and that one was in danger of losing an eye. About 15 members of the security forces have been wounded in Naalin over the past two months, she said.
Also on Tuesday, an Israeli battalion commander suspected of ordering a soldier to shoot a rubber bullet in the foot of a bound and blindfolded Palestinian in the Naalin area three weeks ago was placed on leave pending the outcome of an investigation by the military police. Israeli military officials said the episode, which was captured on video, indicated a command failure. The Palestinian was slightly wounded.
Antibarrier campaigners say that construction of the barrier to the west of Naalin and a military base to the south will strip the village of more than 600 acres, about half its land.
Israel started building the barrier in 2002 with the intent of preventing Palestinian suicide bombers from reaching Israeli cities. Consisting mostly of wire fence but also, in parts, of high concrete walls, much of the barrier, which is about 57 percent complete, has been constructed on land east of the 1967 boundary, inside the West Bank, leading Palestinians to characterize it as a land grab.
In July 2004, the International Court of Justice in The Hague issued an advisory opinion describing the routing of the barrier inside the West Bank as a violation of Israeli obligations under international law.
Israel’s Supreme Court, in response to petitions, has ordered several sections of the barrier route to be moved closer to the 1967 line, but most of the alterations have not yet been carried out.
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11) House Formally Apologizes for Slavery and Jim Crow
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 29, 2008
Filed at 8:25 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/washington/AP-Slavery-Apology.html?ref=us
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House on Tuesday issued an unprecedented apology to black Americans for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow segregation laws.
''Today represents a milestone in our nation's efforts to remedy the ills of our past,'' said Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
The resolution, passed by voice vote, was the work of Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen, the only white lawmaker to represent a majority black district. Cohen faces a formidable black challenger in a primary face-off next week.
Congress has issued apologies before -- to Japanese-Americans for their internment during World War II and to native Hawaiians for the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom in 1893. In 2005, the Senate apologized for failing to pass anti-lynching laws.
Five states have issued apologies for slavery, but past proposals in Congress have stalled, partly over concerns that an apology would lead to demands for reparations -- payment for damages.
The Cohen resolution does not mention reparations. It does commit the House to rectifying ''the lingering consequences of the misdeeds committed against African-Americans under slavery and Jim Crow.''
It says that Africans forced into slavery ''were brutalized, humiliated, dehumanized and subjected to the indignity of being stripped of their names and heritage'' and that black Americans today continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow laws that fostered discrimination and segregation.
The House ''apologizes to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow.''
''Slavery and Jim Crow are stains upon what is the greatest nation on the face of the earth,'' Cohen said. Part of forming a more perfect union, he said, ''is such a resolution as we have before us today where we face up to our mistakes and apologize as anyone should apologize for things that were done in the past that were wrong.''
Cohen became the first white to represent the 60 percent black district in Memphis in more than three decades when he captured a 2006 primary where a dozen black candidates split the vote. He has sought to reach out to his black constituents, and early in his term showed interest in joining the Congressional Black Caucus until learning that was against caucus rules.
Another of his first acts as a freshman congressman in early 2007 was to introduce the slavery apology resolution. His office said that the House resolution was brought to the floor only after learning that the Senate would be unable to join in a joint resolution.
More than a dozen of the 42 Congressional Black Caucus members in the House were original co-sponsors of the measure. The caucus has not endorsed either Cohen or his chief rival, attorney Nikki Tinker, in the Memphis primary, although Cohen is backed by several senior members, including Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. Tinker is the former campaign manager of Harold Ford, Jr., who held Cohen's seat until he stepped down in an unsuccessful run for the Senate in 2006.
The bill is H. Res. 194
On the Net:
Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov
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12) Big Divide Found in Internet Access
By Ken Belson
July 30, 2008, 1:05 pm
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/report-finds-big-divide-in-internet-access/
New Yorkers are a diverse bunch, but when it comes to broadband connections at home, there are two distinct groups: The haves and the have-nots.
According to a report released today by the city’s Broadband Advisory Committee, 26 percent of low income households have broadband connections at home compared to 54 percent in moderate-to-high income households.
The lack of a computer and the high cost of broadband were the most often cited by residents for why they did not have a high-speed Internet connection in their home.
Though D.S.L. lines from Verizon and other providers are available in 87 percent of New York City addresses, 46.4 percent of New York City households have a broadband line.
Usage varied widely by borough. The highest adoption rate was in Staten Island — 57.9 percent — followed by Manhattan at 55.7 percent. In Queens, 46.4 percent of homes have broadband connections, with Brooklyn (41.5 percent) and the Bronx (38.5 percent) bringing up the rear.
Many of those without broadband at home still use the Internet, of course. One-third of the 1,140 residents surveyed said the public library is their sole source of Internet access. More than half of those surveyed without home Internet service used public library computers at least three times a week.
The report did not say whether these residents logged onto the Internet in their workplace, or used mobile phones to send and receive e-mail messages, and check Web sites.
In all, the use of broadband in New York lagged behind Boston, San Francisco and Atlanta, but was more common than in Miami, Chicago and Los Angeles. Broadband connections were also notably more expensive in New York than in Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong and London.
In addition to trying to find financing to help low-income residents get access to broadband services, the report’s authors say more competition between private broadband providers will an important factor to more widespread access.
They noted that Time Warner Cable lowered its broadband prices in Manhattan after Verizon lowered its prices, and that broadband usage in Staten Island grew by 12 percent after Verizon introduced its FiOS high-speed Internet service there.
Today, the Broadband Advisory Committee, established in 2005, was to receive a briefing on the findings from representatives of the mayor’s office and of Diamond Consulting.
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13) APPEAL TO THE LISTENERS AND SUPPORTERS OF TAKING AIM
Mya Shone/Ralph Schoenman
Taking Aim
http://www.takingaimradio.com
Last week, we sent an appeal to you, our listeners and supporters. We asked
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This week we made it easier for you to support Taking Aim. We set up a
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Our goal has been to reach as many people as we can worldwide. We do not
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We maintain a free program archive. It includes Taking Aim programs and
other presentations since July 2002 - six complete years of broadcasts - 260
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We want to keep it this way.
Contribute today. Don't wait. Contribute online via Paypal.com
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Contributions to Taking Aim enable us to continue our radio broadcasts,
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APPEAL TO THE LISTENERS AND SUPPORTERS OF TAKING AIM
Taking Aim with Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone is now in its seventh year of
broadcasting. We need your assistance to continue.
Over these years, Taking Aim has become an international phenomenon, heard
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Constantly breaking new ground, Taking Aim has led the way in laying out the
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With meticulous documentation and insightful analysis, we have covered the
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We have demonstrated how the advent of ever escalating wars, a permanent
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the one big property party with two names - the Democratic and Republican
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Taking Aim is responding to the challenge and is planning to expand our
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Today: we broadcast over WBAI-NY; we broadcast on the Internet via the
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We call upon all who have listened faithfully to Taking Aim to rise to the
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We are on the cusp of an exponential expansion of the reach of TAKING AIM
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We rely upon you to join us in this struggle and to contribute generously to
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CONTRIBUTE TODAY - DON'T WAIT
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WE LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU. THANKING YOU IN ADVANCE.
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Contributions to Taking Aim enable us to continue our radio broadcasts,
expand our Internet site, publish workbooks, pamphlets and books and
organize events. Make your checks payable to:
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Or contribute online via www.paypal.com by "sending" a contribution marked
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14) Execution Update
Death Penalty Focus
870 Market St. Ste. 859 San Francisco, CA 94102
Tel. 415.243.0143 - Fax 415.243.0994
www.deathpenalty.org
Excellent news! Yesterday evening, by a vote of 5-4, the Alabama Supreme Court decided to temporarily stay the scheduled execution of Thomas Arthur. A detailed article from The Birmingham News is below (scroll down). We will keep you posted as more news becomes available.
We are also thrilled to report that Death Penalty Focus supporters generated 623 faxes to Governor Bob Riley yesterday calling on him to halt the scheduled execution.
Thank you to everyone who took action. We are so grateful!
How does DPF's Action Alert System Work?
I received several excellent questions about DPF's action alert system yesterday which inspired us to clarify how our system works.
Q: I received DPF's action alert email, but what am I supposed to do with it? I don't see an address, phone number or email. How am I supposed to take action?
A: To take action, supporters should click the blue "Take Action" link. You will be directed to a web page where you will see a sample letter and a form to fill out your name and address. Fill out this form and then click the "Send My Message" button at the bottom of the page.
Q: What happens to my message when I click "Send My Message"?
A: DPF utilizes a non-profit service called Democracy in Action to fax and/or email your message to the intended recipient. By using this service we ensure greater deliverability to the recipient. To reduce spam, many legislators no longer have email addresses or they only used web-based email forms. By faxing letters, we can act quickly and avoid this problem. We have also been told that faxes are generally much more effective than emails in most situations.
Q: Can I edit the letter?
A: Yes. Simply make changes to the letter before you click "Send my Message."
Q: Isn't a hand-written, personal note better than a generic one that is faxed or emailed?
A: Yes, always. We encourage our members who have the time to personalize their letters before sending them, or better yet, write their own letters and mail, fax or email them directly. Our system is intended to generate a large quantity of letters to show broad public concern, but individual letters and phone calls are still very helpful.
Q: If I am not a constituent, can I still take action?
A: It depends on the request. When an action alert is targeting one individual person or group, we usually ask anyone and everyone to send letters. However, when we are trying to generate constituent letters in support of specific legislation, the action may be restricted to only individuals living in that legislative district. We always clarify who is allowed to take action in our emails and on our action alert pages.
Q: What does DPF do with my personal information?
A: DPF values your privacy. DPF never sells or gives the personal information of our members to anyone. To read our full privacy policy, click here.
If you have additional questions, please contact me at stefanie@deathpenalty.org
Execution Delayed; state lost evidence
The Birmingham News
Thursday, July 31, 2008
STAN DIEL, News staff writer
Convicted killer Thomas D. Arthur narrowly escaped death again Wednesday when the Alabama Supreme Court, without comment and on a 5-4 vote, indefinitely delayed his execution. Arthur had been scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. today.
Convicted of the 1982 contract killing of Troy Wicker Jr. of Muscle Shoals, Arthur twice last year came within a day of execution before stays were granted.
Wednesday's court ruling granting the stay followed a bizarre series of filings in which the state admitted losing key evidence, Arthur's daughter was accused of trying to bribe a witness and the same witness, an admitted conspirator in the murder, offered testimony to debunk the confession this week of another man who insists it was he - not Arthur - who killed Wicker.
Eric Ferrero, spokesman for the Innocence Project, a New York-based nonprofit group that is working with Arthur's defense team, late Wednesday called on Gov. Bob Riley to order DNA testing of evidence in the case and resolve questions about Arthur's guilt.
"The governor has the authority - and the moral obligation - to order DNA testing immediately," Ferrero said.
Efforts to reach Riley for comment Wednesday were not successful.
Judy Wicker, the wife of the murder victim, reaffirmed her trial testimony in an affidavit Wednesday, saying she paid Arthur to kill her husband so she could collect $90,000 in life insurance proceeds.
Bobby Ray Gilbert, who is serving a life sentence at St. Clair Correctional Facility for stabbing another inmate to death in a dispute over a carton of cigarettes, this week claimed he had an affair with Judy Wicker in 1982, and that he committed the crime.
"None of Gilbert's allegations are true," Wicker said in a sworn statement filed Wednesday. "I do not know anyone named Bobby Gilbert. I hired and paid money to Thomas Arthur, not Bobby Gilbert, to kill Troy Wicker."
Also in her affidavit, Judy Wicker claimed that Arthur's daughter, Sherrie Stone, offered to pay her to falsely testify that Arthur is innocent. Stone denied trying to bribe Wicker, but said she told Wicker during a visit last year that "we would be happy to help her family if any money came out of it."
"I told her I wanted her to tell the truth," Stone said Wednesday. Asked whether Stone's contact with Wicker warranted any criminal investigation of Stone, a spokesman for the attorney general's office declined to comment.
Rape kit missing:
Arthur's attorneys had asked Jefferson County Circuit Court and the Alabama Supreme Court to delay the execution to allow the testing of DNA evidence, including a rape kit collected at the crime scene. Assistant Alabama Attorney General Clay Crenshaw said in an interview Wednesday, and in an affidavit, that the state can't find that evidence.
The Muscle Shoals Police Department, Colbert County district attorney's office, and the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences all said it's not in their possession, he said.
"All I know is that they don't have it," Crenshaw said.
Attorneys for Arthur called the loss of the evidence "astounding." State and federal courts previously have rejected Arthur's requests for access to the evidence, ruling that even favorable results from DNA tests would not prove his innocence, and that he missed filing deadlines.
Judy Wicker initially told authorities that her husband was killed by a burglar, who raped her. A jury determined, however, that she conspired to have her husband killed. She served 10 years in prison for the crime before recanting her story at Arthur's third trial and testifying that he was the killer. His first two convictions were overturned on technicalities.
Arthur's attorneys have contended that DNA tests not available at the time of his trial could determine if Arthur, Gilbert or another man had sex with Judy Wicker the day of the murder.
Arthur has maintained his innocence since his arrest, and has drawn the support of the human rights organization Amnesty International and the Innocence Project, which advocates DNA testing of evidence in capital murder cases.
Blocked twice in'07:
Arthur came within hours of being executed Sept. 27, but Riley issued a stay so the state could add a step to its execution procedure. Arthur's execution was rescheduled for Dec. 6 and blocked again on Dec. 5 by the U.S. Supreme Court, pending the outcome of a Kentucky challenge to the constitutionality of lethal injection. The court in April upheld lethal injection.
Arthur's execution today would have been the first in Alabama since that ruling and the first following the new lethal injection protocol.
Also late Wednesday, Alabama State Bar President Mark White praised the justices of the state Supreme Court for their courage in voting in favor of a stay, and said reform is necessary to see that capital murder defendants are better represented.
"Our system of justice must find a way to avoid the situation where DNA exonerates a person after execution," he said.
In Wednesday's state Supreme Court ruling, Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb and Justices Champ Lyons Jr., Thomas A. Woodall, Patricia M. Smith and Glenn Murdock voted in favor of the stay. Justices Lyn Stuart, Michael F. Bolin, Harold Frend See Jr. and Tom Parker dissented.
The Associated Press contributed to this report sdiel@bhamnews.com
© 2008 The Birmingham News
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15) A Farm Boy Reflects
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Op-Ed Columnist
July 31, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/opinion/31kristof.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
YAMHILL, Ore.
In a world in which animal rights are gaining ground, barbecue season should make me feel guilty. My hunch is that in a century or two, our descendants will look back on our factory farms with uncomprehending revulsion. But in the meantime, I love a good burger.
This comes up because the most important election this November that you’ve never heard of is a referendum on animal rights in California, the vanguard state for social movements. Proposition 2 would ban factory farms from raising chickens, calves or hogs in small pens or cages.
Livestock rights are already enshrined in the law in Florida, Arizona, Colorado and here in Oregon, but California’s referendum would go further and would be a major gain for the animal rights movement. And it’s part of a broader trend. Burger King announced last year that it would give preference to suppliers that treat animals better, and when a hamburger empire expostulates tenderly about the living conditions of cattle, you know public attitudes are changing.
Harvard Law School now offers a course on animal rights. Spain’s Parliament has taken a first step in granting rights to apes, and Austrian activists are campaigning to have a chimpanzee declared a person. Among philosophers, a sophisticated literature of animals rights has emerged.
I’m a farm boy who grew up here in the hills outside Yamhill, Ore., raising sheep for my F.F.A. and 4-H projects. At various times, my family also raised modest numbers of pigs, cattle, goats, chickens and geese, although they were never tightly confined.
Our cattle, sheep, chickens and goats certainly had individual personalities, but not such interesting ones that it bothered me that they might end up in a stew. Pigs were more troubling because of their unforgettable characters and obvious intelligence. To this day, when tucking into a pork chop, I always feel as if it is my intellectual equal.
Then there were the geese, the most admirable creatures I’ve ever met. We raised Chinese white geese, a common breed, and they have distinctive personalities. They mate for life and adhere to family values that would shame most of those who dine on them.
While one of our geese was sitting on her eggs, her gander would go out foraging for food — and if he found some delicacy, he would rush back to give it to his mate. Sometimes I would offer males a dish of corn to fatten them up — but it was impossible, for they would take it all home to their true loves.
Once a month or so, we would slaughter the geese. When I was 10 years old, my job was to lock the geese in the barn and then rush and grab one. Then I would take it out and hold it by its wings on the chopping block while my Dad or someone else swung the ax.
The 150 geese knew that something dreadful was happening and would cower in a far corner of the barn, and run away in terror as I approached. Then I would grab one and carry it away as it screeched and struggled in my arms.
Very often, one goose would bravely step away from the panicked flock and walk tremulously toward me. It would be the mate of the one I had caught, male or female, and it would step right up to me, protesting pitifully. It would be frightened out of its wits, but still determined to stand with and comfort its lover.
We eventually grew so impressed with our geese — they had virtually become family friends — that we gave the remaining ones to a local park. (Unfortunately, some entrepreneurial thief took advantage of their friendliness by kidnapping them all — just before the next Thanksgiving.)
So, yes, I eat meat (even, hesitantly, goose). But I draw the line at animals being raised in cruel conditions. The law punishes teenage boys who tie up and abuse a stray cat. So why allow industrialists to run factory farms that keep pigs almost all their lives in tiny pens that are barely bigger than they are?
Defining what is cruel is, of course, extraordinarily difficult. But penning pigs or veal calves so tightly that they cannot turn around seems to cross that line.
More broadly, the tide of history is moving toward the protection of animal rights, and the brutal conditions in which they are sometimes now raised will eventually be banned. Someday, vegetarianism may even be the norm.
Perhaps it seems like soggy sentimentality as well as hypocrisy to stand up for animal rights, particularly when I enjoy dining on these same animals. But my view was shaped by those days in the barn as a kid, scrambling after geese I gradually came to admire.
So I’ll enjoy the barbecues this summer, but I’ll also know that every hamburger patty has a back story, and that every tin of goose liver pâté could tell its own rich tale of love and loyalty.
I invite you to comment on this column on my blog, www.nytimes.com/ontheground, and join me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kristof.
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16) A Hidden Toll on Employment: Cut to Part Time
By PETER S. GOODMAN
July 31, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/business/economy/31jobs.html?ref=us
The number of Americans who have seen their full-time jobs chopped to part time because of weak business has swelled to more than 3.7 million — the largest figure since the government began tracking such data more than half a century ago.
The loss of pay has become a primary source of pain for millions of American families, reinforcing the downturn gripping the economy. Paychecks are shrinking just as home prices plunge and gas prices soar, furthering the austerity across the nation.
“I either stop eating, or stop using anything I can,” said Marvin L. Zinn, a clerk at a Walgreens drugstore in St. Joseph, Mich., who has seen his take-home pay drop to about $550 every two weeks from about $650, as his weekly hours have dropped to 37.5 from 44 in recent months.
Mr. Zinn has run up nearly $2,000 in credit card debt to buy food. He has put off dental work. He no longer attends church, he said, “because I can’t afford to drive.”
On the surface, the job market is weak but hardly desperate. Layoffs remain less frequent than in many economic downturns, and the unemployment rate is a relatively modest 5.5 percent. But that figure masks the strains of those who are losing hours or working part time because they cannot find full-time work — a stealth force that is eroding American spending power.
All told, people the government classifies as working part time involuntarily — predominantly those who have lost hours or cannot find full-time work — swelled to 5.3 million last month, a jump of greater than 1 million over the last year.
These workers now amount to 3.7 percent of all those employed, up from 3 percent a year ago, and the highest level since 1995.
“This increase is startling,” said Steve Hipple, an economist at the Labor Department.
The loss of hours has been affecting men in particular — and Hispanic men more so. Among those who were forced into part-time work from the spring of 2007 to the spring of 2008, 73 percent were men and 35 percent were Hispanic.
Some 28 percent of the jobs affected were in construction, 14 percent in retail and 13 percent in professional and business services, according an analysis by Mr. Hipple.
“The unemployment rate is giving you a misleading impression of some of the adjustments that are taking place,” said John E. Silvia, chief economist of Wachovia in Charlotte. “Hours cut is a big deal. People still have a job, but they are losing income.”
Many experts see the swift cutback in hours as a precursor of a more painful chapter to come: broader layoffs. Some struggling companies are holding on to workers and cutting shifts while hoping to ride out hard times. If business does not improve, more extreme measures could follow.
“The change in working hours is the canary in the coal mine,” said Susan J. Lambert of the University of Chicago, a professor of social service administration and an expert in low-wage employment. “First you see hours get short, and eventually more people will get laid off.”
For the last decade, Ron Temple has loaded and unloaded bags for United Airlines in Denver, earning more than $20 an hour, plus generous health and flight benefits. On July 6, as management grappled with the rising cost of fuel, Mr. Temple and 150 other people in Denver were offered an unpalatable set of options: they could transfer to another city, go on furlough without pay and hope to be rehired, or stay on at reduced hours.
Mr. Temple and his wife say they cannot envision living outside Colorado, and they probably could not sell their house. Similar homes are now selling for about $180,000, while they owe the bank $203,000.
So Mr. Temple took the third option. He reluctantly traded in his old shift — 3 p.m. to midnight — for a shorter stint from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. He gave up benefits like paid lunches and overtime. His take-home pay shrunk to $570 every two weeks from about $1,350, he said.
Mr. Temple’s wife, Ali, works as an aide at a cancer clinic, bringing home nearly $1,000 every two weeks, he said. But collectively, they earn less than half of what they did.
Suddenly, they are having trouble making their $1,753 monthly mortgage payment, he said. They are relying on credit cards to pay the bills, running up balances of $2,700 so far. Gone are their dinners at the Outback Steakhouse. Mr. Temple recently bought cheap, generic groceries from a church that sells them to people in need.
“That’s the first time in my life I’ve had to do that,” he said. “We are cutting back in every way.”
Mr. Temple has been searching for another job, applying for a cashier’s position at Safeway and a clerk’s job at Home Depot, among others. But the market is lean.
“I’ve applied more than 20 times, and I haven’t had a single call back,” he said.
His search is constrained by the high price of gas. “I can’t afford to go drive my truck around and look for a job,” he said.
So Mr. Temple has done his search online — until he fell behind on the bills, and the local telephone company cut off Internet service. On a recent day, he bicycled to a Starbucks coffee shop with his laptop for the free connection.
The growing ranks of involuntary part-timers reflect the sophisticated fashion through which many American employers have come to manage their payrolls, say experts.
In decades past, when business soured, companies tended to resort to mass layoffs, hiring people back when better times returned. But as high technology came to permeate American business, companies have grown reluctant to shed workers. Even the lowest-wage positions in retail, fast food, banking or manufacturing require computer skills and a grasp of a company’s systems. Several months of training may be needed to get a new employee up to speed.
“Companies today would rather not go through the process of dumping someone and hiring them back,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. “Firms are going to short shifts rather than just laying people off.”
More part-time and fewer full-time workers also allows companies to save on health care costs. Only 16 percent of retail workers receive health insurance through their employer, while more than half of full-time workers are covered, according to an analysis by Ms. Lambert, the University of Chicago employment expert.
The trend toward cutting hours in a downturn lessens the pain for workers in one regard: it moderates layoffs. Many companies now strive to keep payrolls large enough to allow them to easily adjust to swings in demand, adding working hours without having to hire when business grows.
But that also sows vulnerability, heightening the possibility that hours are cut when the economy slows and demand for goods and services dries up.
“There’s a lot of people at risk in the economy when they keep the headcount high and they only have so many hours to distribute,” Ms. Lambert said. “It really is a trade-off for society.”
Goodyear Tire has in recent months idled work for a few days at a time at many of it factories, as the company adjusts to weakening demand. At one plant in Gadsden, Ala., workers expect they will soon lose a week’s wages to another slowdown — something Goodyear would neither confirm nor deny.
“People are scared,” said Dennis Battles, president of the local branch of the United Steelworkers union, which represents about 1,350 workers there. “The cost of gas, the cost of food and everything else is extremely high. It takes every penny you make. And once it starts, when’s it going to quit? What’s going to happen next month?”
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17) Rising Oil Prices Swell Profits at Exxon and Shell
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS and JULIA WERDIGIER
August 1, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/01/business/01oil.html?ref=business
HOUSTON — Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, reported on Thursday its best quarterly profit in history, but investors sold off shares in morning trading after expecting even higher earnings because of soaring oil and natural gas prices.
Record earnings for the world’s largest publicly traded oil company have become almost as predictable as the surge of gasoline prices at the pump in recent years, and for the second quarter income rose 14 percent, to $11.68 billion.
It was the highest quarterly profit ever for any American company, as Exxon made nearly $90,000 a minute.
Such profits have made Exxon Mobil a target of politicians in recent years, propelling calls for windfall profits taxes to finance research and development for renewable fuels to replace oil.
The principal reason for the company’s banquet of riches is rising fuel prices. Crude oil prices in the second quarter averaged more than $124 a barrel, 91 percent higher than the same quarter in 2007, according to Oppenheimer & Company. Natural gas prices averaged $10.80 per thousand cubic feet, up 43 percent from the quarter a year ago.
But while high energy prices brought Exxon $10 billion in earnings from selling oil in the quarter, up about $4.1 billion or nearly 70 percent, not everything in its earnings report heartened investors. The company reported that its oil production decreased 8 percent from the second quarter of 2007, largely because of an expropriation of Exxon assets by the Venezuelan government and labor strife in Nigeria.
The company spent $7 billion, or nearly 40 percent more than the same quarter last year, to find and produce oil from new fields.
The company’s $1.6 billion in profits from refining was less than half than those in last year’s quarter because of lower worldwide refining margins. Earnings from its chemical business of $687 million were $326 million down from last year.
“Record crude oil and natural gas realizations were partly offset by lower refining and chemical margins, lower production volumes and higher operating costs,” Rex W. Tillerson, Exxon’s chairman, said in a statement.
Net income of $2.22 a share compared with $10.26 billion, or $1.83 a share, in the quarter a year ago. Revenue rose 40 percent, to $138.1 billion, from $98.4 billion in the quarter a year ago.
Excluding an after-tax charge of $290 million tied to an Exxon Valdez court settlement, earnings were $11.97 billion, or $2.27 a share.
Excluding one-time charges, analysts had expected Exxon Mobil to earn $2.52 a share on revenue of $144 billion, according to Thomson Financial.
With this quarter’s result, Exxon topped its own record of $11.66 billion in the fourth quarter of last year.
Wall Street did not respond positively to the results. Exxon shares sold off in mid-morning trading by more than 3 percent. Oil and natural gas prices continued their recent slide, as investors viewed the slowing economy increasing the probability that energy demand would slip over the next several months.
Earlier in London, Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, reported a 33 percent increase in second-quarter profit on Thursday, helped by a higher oil price even as production declined.
Like a smaller rival, BP, earlier this week, Shell profited from higher oil prices, , but a 13 percent drop from a record on July 11 raised some concern among investors about whether oil companies can keep up the pace of earnings growth. BP said earlier this week that higher oil prices have started to affect consumer demand for gasoline.
Shell’s profit rose to $11.56 billion from $8.67 billion in the period a year ago. BP reported a 28 percent increase in profit earlier this week and the Italian oil company Eni said on Thursday that profit in the second quarter rose 52 percent.
Oil companies are under pressure to find new reserves as their traditional fields age and are face increasing competition from state-run oil companies in Russia and the Middle East. Shell is also looking to make up for production lost in Nigeria, where militants attacked an offshore production vessel in June, and in Russia, where it had to sell its share in the Sakhalin Island oil and natural gas project to the state-controlled energy company, OAO Gazprom, last year.
Oil and gas production fell to 3,126 thousand barrels of oil equivalent a day from 3,178 thousand barrels.
Shell’s chief executive, Jeroen van der Veer, pledged to continue investing to spur growth. “Shell is making substantial, targeted investments to grow the company for shareholders and help ensure that energy markets remain well supplied,” Mr. van der Veer said in a statement Thursday.
The company agreed two weeks ago to spend about $5.9 billion to buy the Duvernay Oil Corporation of Canada to increase its gas production from tough rock formations and is in talks with Iraq about some service contracts.
Clifford Krauss reported from Houston and Julia Werdigier from London.
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LINKS AND VERY SHORT STORIES
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North Carolina: Charges in G.I.’s Death
[What the title doesn't say is that the GI, a woman, was killed by a Marine who happened to be her husband...]
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | South
The husband of an Army nurse at Fort Bragg’s hospital was charged with murder in her death, a day after her body was discovered by the authorities. Cpl. John Wimunc of the Marines, 23, was also charged with first-degree arson and conspiracy to commit arson in the death of his wife, Second Lt. Holley Wimunc, of Dubuque, Iowa. Her body was found Sunday, three days after a suspicious fire at her Fayetteville apartment. The authorities also charged Lance Cpl. Kyle Alden, 22, with first-degree arson, conspiracy to commit arson and accessory after the fact to first-degree murder.
July 15, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/us/15brfs-CHARGESINGIS_BRF.html?ref=us
Louisiana: Case of Ex-Black Panther [The Angola Three]
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | South
The conviction of a former Black Panther in the killing of a prison guard in 1972 should be overturned because his former lawyer should have objected to testimony from witnesses who had died after his original trial, a federal magistrate found. The lawyer’s omission denied a fair second trial for the man, Albert Woodfox, in 1998, the magistrate, Christine Nolan, wrote Tuesday in a recommendation to the federal judge who will rule later. Mr. Woodfox, 61, and Herman Wallace, 66, were convicted in the stabbing death of the guard, Brent Miller, on April 17, 1972. Mr. Wallace has been appealing his conviction based on arguments similar to Mr. Woodfox’s. Mr. Woodfox and Mr. Wallace, with another former Black Panther, became known as the Angola Three because they were held in isolation for about three decades at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola.
June 12, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/us/12brfs-CASEOFEXBLAC_BRF.html?ref=us
Texas: Killer Is Executed
By REUTERS
National Briefing | Southwest
A convicted killer, Karl E. Chamberlain, was put to death by lethal injection in Texas, becoming the first prisoner executed in the state since the Supreme Court lifted an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty in April. Texas, the country’s busiest death penalty state, is the fifth state to resume executions since the court rejected a legal challenge to the three-drug cocktail used in most executions for the past 30 years. Mr. Chamberlain, 37, was convicted of the 1991 murder of a 30-year-old Dallas woman who lived in the same apartment complex. Mr. Chamberlain was the 406th inmate executed in Texas since 1982 and the first this year.
June 12, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/us/12brfs-KILLERISEXEC_BRF.html?ref=us
Tennessee: State to Retry Inmate
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | South
The Union County district attorney said the county would meet a federal judge’s deadline for a new trial in the case of a death row inmate whose trial was questioned by the United States Supreme Court. The state is facing a June 17 deadline to retry or free the inmate, Paul House, who has been in limbo since June 2006, when the Supreme Court concluded that reasonable jurors would not have convicted him had they seen the results of DNA tests from the 1990s. The district attorney, Paul Phillips, said he would not seek the death penalty. Mr. House, 46, who has multiple sclerosis and must use a wheelchair, was sentenced in the 1985 killing of Carolyn Muncey. He has been in a state prison since 1986 and continues to maintain his innocence.
May 29, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/29/us/29brfs-STATETORETRY_BRF.html?ref=us
Israel: Carter Offers Details on Nuclear Arsenal
By REUTERS
World Briefing | Middle East
Former President Jimmy Carter said Israel held at least 150 nuclear weapons, the first time a current or former American president had publicly acknowledged the Jewish state’s nuclear arsenal. Asked at a news conference in Wales on Sunday how a future president should deal with the Iranian nuclear threat, he sought to put the risk in context by listing atomic weapons held globally. “The U.S. has more than 12,000 nuclear weapons, the Soviet Union has about the same, Great Britain and France have several hundred, and Israel has 150 or more,” he said, according to a transcript. The existence of Israeli nuclear arms is widely assumed, but Israel has never admitted their existence and American officials have stuck to that line in public for years.
May 27, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/27/world/middleeast/27briefs-CARTEROFFERS_BRF.html?ref=world
Iowa: Lawsuit Filed Over Raid
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Midwest
The nation’s largest single immigration raid, in which nearly 400 workers at an Agriprocessors Inc. meat processing plant in Postville were detained on Monday, violated the constitutional rights of workers at a meatpacking plant, a lawsuit contends. The suit accuses the government of arbitrary and indefinite detention. A spokesman for the United States attorney’s office said he could not comment on the suit, which was filed Thursday on behalf of about 147 of the workers. Prosecutors said they filed criminal charges against 306 of the detained workers. The charges include accusations of aggravated identity theft, falsely using a Social Security number, illegally re-entering the United States after being deported and fraudulently using an alien registration card.
May 17, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/17/us/17brfs-LAWSUITFILED_BRF.html?ref=us
Senate Revises Drug Maker Gift Bill
By REUTERS
National Breifing | Washington
A revised Senate bill would require drug makers and medical device makers to publicly report gifts over $500 a year to doctors, watering down the standard set in a previous version. The new language was endorsed by the drug maker Eli Lilly & Company. Lawmakers said they hoped the support would prompt other companies to back the bill, which had previously required all gifts valued over $25 be reported. The industry says the gifts are part of its doctor education, but critics say such lavish gestures influence prescribing habits.
May 14, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/washington/14brfs-SENATEREVISE_BRF.html?ref=us
Texas: Sect Mother Is Not a Minor
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Southwest
Child welfare officials conceded to a judge that a newborn’s mother, held in foster care as a minor after being removed from a polygamous sect’s ranch, is an adult. The woman, who gave birth on April 29, had been held along with more than 400 children taken last month from a ranch run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was one of two pregnant sect members who officials had said were minors. The other member, who gave birth on Monday, may also be an adult, state officials said.
May 14, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/us/14brfs-SECTMOTHERIS_BRF.html?ref=us
Four Military Branches Hit Recruiting Goals
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Washington
The Marine Corps far surpassed its recruiting goal last month, enlisting 2,233 people, which was 142 percent of its goal, the Pentagon said. The Army recruited 5,681 people, 101 percent of its goal. The Navy and Air Force also met their goals, 2,905 sailors and 2,435 airmen. A Defense Department spokesman, Bryan Whitman, said that if the Marine Corps continued its recruiting success, it could reach its goal of growing to 202,000 people by the end of 2009, more than a year early.
May 13, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/us/13brfs-FOURMILITARY_BRF.html?ref=us
Texas: Prison Settlement Approved
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Southwest
A federal judge has approved a settlement between the Texas Youth Commission and the Justice Department over inmate safety at the state’s juvenile prison in Edinburg. The judge, Ricardo Hinojosa of Federal District Court, signed the settlement Monday, and it was announced by the commission Wednesday. Judge Hinojosa had previously rejected a settlement on grounds that it lacked a specific timeline. Federal prosecutors began investigating the prison, the Evins Regional Juvenile Center, in 2006. The settlement establishes parameters for safe conditions and staffing levels, restricts use of youth restraints and guards against retaliation for reporting abuse and misconduct.
May 8, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/us/08brfs-PRISONSETTLE_BRF.html?ref=us
Michigan: Insurance Ruling
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Midwest
Local governments and state universities cannot offer health insurance to the partners of gay workers, the State Supreme Court ruled. The court ruled 5 to 2 that Michigan’s 2004 ban against same-sex marriage also blocks domestic-partner policies affecting gay employees at the University of Michigan and other public-sector employers. The decision affirms a February 2007 appeals court ruling. Up to 20 public universities, community colleges, school districts and local governments in Michigan have benefit policies covering at least 375 gay couples.
May 8, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/us/08brfs-INSURANCERUL_BRF.html?ref=us
Halliburton Profit Rises
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HOUSTON (AP) — Increasing its global presence is paying off for the oil field services provider Halliburton, whose first-quarter income rose nearly 6 percent on growing business in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America, the company said Monday.
Business in the first three months of 2008 also was better than expected in North America, where higher costs and lower pricing squeezed results at the end of 2007.
Halliburton shares closed up 3 cents, at $47.46, on the New York Stock Exchange.
Halliburton said it earned $584 million, or 64 cents a share, in the three months that ended March 31, compared with a year-earlier profit of $552 million, or 54 cents a share. Revenue rose to $4.03 billion, from $3.42 billion a year earlier.
April 22, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/business/worldbusiness/22halliburton.html?ref=business
Illegal Immigrants Who Were Arrested at Poultry Plant in Arkansas to Be Deported
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Eighteen illegal immigrants arrested at a poultry plant in Batesville will be processed for deportation, but will not serve any jail time for using fake Social Security numbers and state identification cards, federal judges ruled. Magistrate Judge Beth Deere and Judge James Moody of Federal District Court accepted guilty pleas from 17 of those arrested last week at the Pilgrim’s Pride plant. Federal prosecutors dismissed the misdemeanor charges against one man, but said they planned to ask Immigration and Customs Enforcement to begin deportation proceedings against him. The guilty pleas will give the 17 people criminal records, which will allow prosecutors to pursue tougher penalties if they illegally return to the United States. They had faced up to up to two years in prison and $205,000 in fines. Jane Duke, a United States attorney, said her office had no interest in seeing those arrested serve jail time, as they were “otherwise law-abiding citizens.”
National Briefing | South
April 22, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/us/22brfs-002.html?ref=us
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GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS AND INFORMATION
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Torture
On the Waterboard
How does it feel to be “aggressively interrogated”? Christopher Hitchens found out for himself, submitting to a brutal waterboarding session in an effort to understand the human cost of America’s use of harsh tactics at Guantánamo and elsewhere. VF.com has the footage. Related: “Believe Me, It’s Torture,” from the August 2008 issue.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/video/2008/hitchens_video200808
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Alison Bodine defense Committee
Lift the Two-year Ban
http://alisonbodine.blogspot.com/
Watch the Sept 28 Video on Alison's Case!
http://alisonbodine.blogspot.com/2007/10/blog-post.html
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The Girl Who Silenced the World at the UN!
Born and raised in Vancouver, Severn Suzuki has been working on environmental and social justice issues since kindergarten. At age 9, she and some friends started the Environmental Children's Organization (ECO), a small group of children committed to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. They traveled to 1992's UN Earth Summit, where 12 year-old Severn gave this powerful speech that deeply affected (and silenced) some of the most prominent world leaders. The speech had such an impact that she has become a frequent invitee to many U.N. conferences.
[Note: the text of her speech is also available at this site...bw]
http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=433
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MINIATURE EARTH
http://www.miniature-earth.com/me_english.htm
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"Dear Canada: Let U.S. war resisters stay!"
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/499/89/
Russell Means Speaking at the Transform Columbus Day Rally
"If voting could do anything it would be illegal!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8Lri1-6aoY
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Stop the Termination or the Cherokee Nation
http://groups.msn.com/BayAreaIndianCalendar/activismissues.msnw?action=get_message&mview=1&ID_Message=5580
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We Didn't Start the Fire
http://yeli.us/Flash/Fire.html
I Can't Take it No More
http://lefti.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html#9214483115237950361
The Art of Mental Warfare
http://artofmentalwarfare.com/pog/artofmentalwarfarecom-the-warning/
MONEY AS DEBT
http://video. google.com/ videoplay? docid=-905047436 2583451279
http://www.moneyasd ebt.net/
UNCONSTITUTIONAL
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6582099850410121223&pr=goog-sl
IRAQ FOR SALE
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6621486727392146155
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Port of Olympia Anti-Militarization Action Nov. 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOkn2Fg7R8w
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"They have a new gimmick every year. They're going to take one of their boys, black boys, and put him in the cabinet so he can walk around Washington with a cigar. Fire on one end and fool on the other end. And because his immediate personal problem will have been solved he will be the one to tell our people: 'Look how much progress we're making. I'm in Washington, D.C., I can have tea in the White House. I'm your spokesman, I'm your leader.' While our people are still living in Harlem in the slums. Still receiving the worst form of education.
"But how many sitting here right now feel that they could [laughs] truly identify with a struggle that was designed to eliminate the basic causes that create the conditions that exist? Not very many. They can jive, but when it comes to identifying yourself with a struggle that is not endorsed by the power structure, that is not acceptable, that the ground rules are not laid down by the society in which you live, in which you are struggling against, you can't identify with that, you step back.
"It's easy to become a satellite today without even realizing it. This country can seduce God. Yes, it has that seductive power of economic dollarism. You can cut out colonialism, imperialism and all other kind of ism, but it's hard for you to cut that dollarism. When they drop those dollars on you, you'll fold though."
—MALCOLM X, 1965
http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=987
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A little gem:
Michael Moore Faces Off With Stephen Colbert [VIDEO]
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/57492/
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LAPD vs. Immigrants (Video)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/qws/ff/qr?term=lapd&Submit=S&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Search&st=s
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Dr. Julia Hare at the SOBA 2007
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/proudtobeblack2/
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"We are far from that stage today in our era of the absolute
lie; the complete and totalitarian lie, spread by the
monopolies of press and radio to imprison social
consciousness." December 1936, "In 'Socialist' Norway,"
by Leon Trotsky: “Leon Trotsky in Norway” was transcribed
for the Internet by Per I. Matheson [References from
original translation removed]
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/12/nor.htm
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Wealth Inequality Charts
http://www.faireconomy.org/research/wealth_charts.html
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MALCOLM X: Oxford University Debate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmzaaf-9aHQ
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"There comes a times when silence is betrayal."
--Martin Luther King
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YouTube clip of Che before the UN in 1964
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtATT8GXkWg&mode=related&search
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The Wealthiest Americans Ever
NYT Interactive chart
JULY 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/business/20070715_GILDED_GRAPHIC.html
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New Orleans After the Flood -- A Photo Gallery
http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=795
This email was sent to you as a service, by Roland Sheppard.
Visit my website at: http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret
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[For some levity...Hans Groiner plays Monk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51bsCRv6kI0
...bw]
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Which country should we invade next?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3g_zqz3VjY
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My Favorite Mutiny, The Coup
http://www.myspace.com/thecoupmusic
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Michael Moore- The Awful Truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeOaTpYl8mE
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Morse v. Frederick Supreme Court arguments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_LsGoDWC0o
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Free Speech 4 Students Rally - Media Montage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfCjfod8yuw
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'My son lived a worthwhile life'
In April 2003, 21-year old Tom Hurndall was shot in the head
in Gaza by an Israeli soldier as he tried to save the lives of three
small children. Nine months later, he died, having never
recovered consciousness. Emine Saner talks to his mother
Jocelyn about her grief, her fight to make the Israeli army
accountable for his death and the book she has written
in his memory.
Monday March 26, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2042968,00.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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"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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FIGHTBACK! A Collection of Socialist Essays
By Sylvia Weinstein
http://www.walterlippmann.com/sylvia-weinstein-fightback-intro.html
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[The Scab
"After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad,
and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with
which he made a scab."
"A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul,
a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue.
Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten
principles." "When a scab comes down the street,
men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and
the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out."
"No man (or woman) has a right to scab so long as there
is a pool of water to drown his carcass in,
or a rope long enough to hang his body with.
Judas was a gentleman compared with a scab.
For betraying his master, he had character enough
to hang himself." A scab has not.
"Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.
Judas sold his Savior for thirty pieces of silver.
Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of
a commision in the british army."
The scab sells his birthright, country, his wife,
his children and his fellowmen for an unfulfilled
promise from his employer.
Esau was a traitor to himself; Judas was a traitor
to his God; Benedict Arnold was a traitor to his country;
a scab is a traitor to his God, his country,
his family and his class."
Author --- Jack London (1876-1916)...Roland Sheppard
http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret]
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Award-Winning Writer/Filmmaker Donald L. Vasicek Launches New Sand
Creek Massacre Website"
May 21, 2008 -- CENTENNIAL, CO -- Award-winning filmmaker, Donald L.
Vasicek, has launched a new Sand Creek Massacre website. Titled,
"The Sand Creek Massacre", the site contains in depth witness
accounts of the massacre, the award-winning Sand Creek Massacre
trailer for viewing, the award-winning Sand Creek Massacre
documentary short for viewing, the story of the Sand Creek Massacre,
and a Shop to purchase Sand Creek Massacre DVD's and lesson
plans including the award-winning documentary film/educational DVD.
Vasicek, a board member of The American Indian Genocide Museum
(www.aigenom.com)in Houston, Texas, said, "The website was launched
to inform, to educate, and to provide educators, historians, students
and all others the accessibility to the Sand Creek Massacre story."
The link/URL to the website is sandcreekmassacre.net.
###
Contact:
Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
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