*************************************************
GEORGE GALLOWAY - MISSION HIGH SCHOOL
TONIGHT, WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 21, 7:00 P.M.
The Pentagon has been compiling
sensitive data on 30 million
youth ages 16-to-25 using a private
marketing firm, without the
knowledge or consent of individuals
or their families. You can
opt-out of this database by
following instructions at
www.LeaveMyChildAlone.org.
SAN FRANCISCO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT OPT-OUT FORM:
The San Francisco USD version of the opt-out form
is simply a sentence on the school enrollment form
with a yes or no checkbox as follows:
"High school applicants: Do you want SFUSD to release
your child's name, address and telephone number to
military recruiters? YES NO"
(The sentence appears in the first part of the actual
Application-after the explanation of how to fill the
form out. It is a sentence in boldface type.)
You can locate the form at: http://portal.sfusd.edu/template/default.cfm?page=policy.placement.appforms
It appears on the right hand side of the screen under
the heading: SERVICES, then click on EPC FORMS.
Obviously this sentence doesn't explain what the
ramifications are for those who check the YES box.
It also doesn't explain that by taking the ASVAB
(Armed Service Vocational Aptitude Battery) your
NO choice on the Opt-Out question is voided and the
Military can contact your child and call them at
Home. And, you can't stop them from calling by blocking
the caller's number-the U.S. Government can't be
"blocked".
Picket the San Francisco
Board of Education!
CUT ALL SCHOOL TIES
TO THE MILITARY!
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27,
6:30-7:30 P.M.
555 FRANKLIN ST.
(Near Van Ness and McAllister)
If you wish to speak at
the Board meeting
Call: 241-6427
Monday,
8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Tuesday,
8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
*************************************************
FROM IRAQ TO NEW ORLEANS
FUND PEOPLE'S NEEDS-NOT THE WAR MACHINE!
BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
STOP THE WAR AND OCCUPATION!
IRAQ, PALESTINE, HAITI....
MARCH AND RALLY SEPTEMBER 24
11:00 A.M. DOLORES PARK, S.F.
COLLEGE NOT COMBAT CONTINGENT
10:00 A.M. 16TH AND MISSION BART PLAZA, S.F.
QUEER CONTINGENT
Dolores Park, steps
near 19th & Dolores
11am, Saturday, September 24.
Palestine Contingent:
Assemble at Tennis courts across from
Mission High
At 18th and Dolores
11 a.m., Saturday, September 24
Assemble for a Labor Rally at 10:30 a.m.
prior to the general rally in Dolores Park
at Cumberland & Dolores (between 19th and
20th Sts.), then will march as a labor
contingent at noon.
Mourn the Dead.
Resist Bush's War
Bring U.S. troops home, now
MASS PROTEST RALLY
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24th, 2005
WALNUT CREEK, CA
Gather for the march at 11:00 a.m.
at Walnut Creek BART station
or
Meet for the rally at 12:00 noon
at Heather Farms Park Picnic area
off Ygnacio Valley Road in Walnut Creek
Alternatives to War Through Education
A project of Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors
home: (510)649-1696
Friday: SEPT 23
Counter Recruitment Action in Oakland
4pm: Speak Out & Performances
Chevron Gas Station
Telegraph Ave and Grand Ave, Oakland (19th St. BART)
5pm: March, Demonstrate and Nonviolent Direct Action
Armed Forces Recruiting Center
2116 Broadway, btwn 21/22nd Sts
Saturday: SEPT 24
Counter Recruitment Contingent at the
National Day of Protest in San Francisco
We will have FRONTLINES palm cards to
hand out at the Sept 24th March, so
meet up with the College Not Combat
contingent at 10am at 16th & Mission
(BART) to get a stack.
Monday: SEPT 26
Our next Frontlines coordinating committee
meeting will be on Monday the 26th at UC Berkeley:
6:30-7:30 MOOS/CAN meeting 330 Wheeler Hall
6:30-7:30 MOOS-Bay meeting to review
workshop particulars, outreach, etc.
Anyone who wants is invited to meet at
5:30 at 330 Wheeler Hall to get a map
of the rooms we have reserved to check
them out before the meeting
Check out our webpage for directions:
http://www.objector.org/awol/frontlines/location.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
BAUAW NEWSLETTER-WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2005
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
1) NYPD Stops Cindy Sheehan Speech, Cuts Mic, Disperses
Enraged Crowd
NYPD were nearly chased out of Union Square Park
after cutting Cindy Sheehan's mic today.
September 19, 2005 06:11PM EDT
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2005/09/57276.html
2) World has slim chance to stop flu pandemic
Tue Sep 20, 2005 08:11 AM ET
http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=9702137&src=eDialog/GetContent
3) Reply to Greg Palast
by George Galloway
September 20, 2005
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=1&ItemID=8776
4) British Smash Into Iraqi Jail To Free 2 Detained Soldiers
By Ellen Knickmeyer and Jonathan Finer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, September 20, 2005; Page A01
BAGHDAD, Sept. 19 -- British armored vehicles backed by
helicopter gunships burst through the walls of an Iraqi
jail Monday in the southern city of Basra to free two
British commandos detained earlier in the day by Iraqi
police, witnesses and Iraqi officials said. The incident
climaxed a confrontation between the two nominal allies
that had sparked hours of gun battles and rioting in
Basra's streets.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/19/AR2005091900572.html?referrer=email&referrer=email
5) Katrina shines spotlight on realities
for Black people in the United States
GRANMA INTERNATIONAL
Havana. September 6, 2005
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2005/septiembre/mart6/37victims-i.html
6) KATRINA'S AFTERMATH
Like We're Invisible'
Katrina cut off an already isolated rural Mississippi, so residents helped one another.
By Elizabeth Mehren
Times Staff Writer
September 19, 2005
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-rural19sep19,0,4319997.story?coll=la-home-headlines
7) "It's Not That the Government Isn't
Responding, They are Obstructing the Response"
Real Reports of Katrina Relief
By NAOMI ARCHER
It's not so much that the government is not responding
[with storm relief], they are obstructing the response.
They are telling us we can't bring people the basic
necessities of life because that would give them hope.
It is a question of oppression vs. mutual aid.
That is the revolution.
September 16, 2005
http://www.counterpunch.org/archer09162005.html
8) Dismay Over Sliding Turnout for Afghan Poll
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0920-04.htm
9) An Antiwar Speech in Union Square Is Stopped
by Police Citing Paperwork Rules
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0920-02.htm
10) Hundreds of Tons of British Aid Donated to
Help Hurricane Katrina Victims to be Burned by Americans
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0920-08.htm
11) Federal Govt Diverting Truckloads of Ice from
Hurricane-Relief Effort to Cold Storage
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0920-09.htm
12) Iraqi Anger Explodes in the Face of British Occupiers
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0920-05.htm
13) Outpouring of Relief Cash Raises Fear
of Corruption and Cronyism
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0920-03.htm
14) California Wants to Serve
a Warning With Fries
By MELANIE WARNER
Published: September 21, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/21/business/21chips.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5094&en=c916134e8adc7054&hp&ex=1127361600&partner=homepage
15) Editorial
Sleight of Budgeting
Published: September 21, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/21/opinion/21wed1.html?hp
16) Iraqis Rally to Denounce British Rescue
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The demonstrators in Basra, which included police and
civilians waving pistols and AK47s, shouted ''No to
occupation!'' and carried banners condemning ''British
aggression'' and demanding the freed soldiers be tried
in an Iraqi court as ''terrorists.''
Published: September 21, 2005
Filed at 11:11 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq.html?hp
17) Protest Over Metal Detectors
Gains Legs as Students Walk Out
George M. Gutierrez for The New York Times
By FERNANDA SANTOS
Published: September 21, 2005
The protest started to gather steam on Sept. 14, six days
after the school year began. That morning, at each of the
10 periods of gym class, school safety officers explained
to the students how the process would work: Line up, remove
metal from your pockets, take off your belt and walk through
the metal detector. Book bags would be searched, too, scanned
by X-ray machines like those at airports, and, starting
Monday, no one would be allowed to leave the building at
lunchtime. The safety officers said it would be too hard
to screen all the returning students.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/21/nyregion/21walkout.html
18) Unswayed by Storm, Fed Raises Key Rate
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: September 21, 2005
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 - Saying that Hurricane Katrina
was unlikely to pose a "persistent threat" to the economy,
the Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Tuesday for
the 11th time in a row and signaled that more increases
were on the way.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/21/business/21fed.html
19) Challenged by Creationists,
Museums Answer Back
By CORNELIA DEAN
Published: September 20, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/20/science/20doce.html
20) GEDs no longer required
By Joseph R. Chenelly
Times staff writer
September 20, 2005
Army recruiters now have a wider pool to find future
soldiers in. The Army is reaching out to a slice of
America's youth long ineligible to serve: non-high
school graduates who don't have a General Equivalency Diploma
http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1115623.php
21) Cuba appears to escape Rita's wrath
Island nation took precautions, experienced rains, power outages
By Mary Murray
Producer
NBC News
Updated: 8:36 p.m. ET Sept. 20, 2005
MSNBC.com
A solid 24 hours before the storm hit, Cuban Civil Defense
began evacuating people living in flood areas and in houses
too weak to withstand hurricane conditions.
By noon Tuesday, more than 136,000 people had been moved
to higher ground, with close to 14,000 opting to stay
in government shelters.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9402098/
22) This is from:
[NOLA_C3_Discussion] FW: A letter from a Doctor
This was sent to my friend Cindy Sheehan from a doctor
trying to help with our relief effort...forwarded
to me via Dennis K....peace from Ward
23) Cindy Sheehan Takes on the Democrats,
Hillary Clinton
The anti-war activist has plenty to say-and
it's not all about Bush
by Kristen Lombardi
September 20th, 2005 2:27 PM
http://villagevoice.com/news/0538,lombardiweb,68015,2.html
24) Katrina, the Mississippi River
and the Risks of the Coming Harvest
By VERLYN KLINKENBORG
September 21, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/21/opinion/21wed4.html?pagewanted=print
25) W Marks the Spot
Bait and Switch in the Bitterroot
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
September 21, 2005
Like Rumsfeld's Pentagon, the Forest Service under
George W. Bush runs on pr, corporate cronyism, an
obsession with secrecy and the rapid-fire deployment
of fabricated justifications for cutting down
old-growth forests.
In Bush's war on the wild, the trees themselves
are portrayed as standing weapons of mass
destruction, which must be leveled by chainsaws
before they ignite into raging wildfires that
threaten to incinerate the towns of the rural
West. Such is the tale of the spin, any way.
http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair09212005.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
1) NYPD Stops Cindy Sheehan Speech, Cuts Mic, Disperses
Enraged Crowd
NYPD were nearly chased out of Union Square Park
after cutting Cindy Sheehan's mic today.
September 19, 2005 06:11PM EDT
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2005/09/57276.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
2) World has slim chance to stop flu pandemic
Tue Sep 20, 2005 08:11 AM ET
http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=9702137&src=eDialog/GetContent
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
3) Reply to Greg Palast
by George Galloway
September 20, 2005
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=1&ItemID=8776
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
4) British Smash Into Iraqi Jail To Free 2 Detained Soldiers
By Ellen Knickmeyer and Jonathan Finer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, September 20, 2005; Page A01
BAGHDAD, Sept. 19 -- British armored vehicles backed by
helicopter gunships burst through the walls of an Iraqi
jail Monday in the southern city of Basra to free two
British commandos detained earlier in the day by Iraqi
police, witnesses and Iraqi officials said. The incident
climaxed a confrontation between the two nominal allies
that had sparked hours of gun battles and rioting in
Basra's streets.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/19/AR2005091900572.html?referrer=email&referrer=email
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
5) Katrina shines spotlight on realities
for Black people in the United States
GRANMA INTERNATIONAL
Havana. September 6, 2005
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2005/septiembre/mart6/37victims-i.html
IT soon became obvious: in New Orleans, a city where Black people are
the majority of the population and make up the great majority of the
working class, they also comprised nearly all of the people stranded
by the hurricane.
"In two days at the Superdome, I saw four white people among the
estimated 23,000 there," comments Los Angeles Times reporter Scott
Gold in a September 2 article.
Black politicians, especially Democrats, began to ask whether the
lack of preparation and response to the disaster had anything to do
with the fact that victims were Black and low-income. Rapper Kanye
West made headlines when he said "George Bush doesn't care about
Black people" at a televised benefit concert in New York on September
2.
However, there's no particular conspiracy against African-Americans
in New Orleans, even if many of the victims who were left abandoned
for days may feel that way. The simple fact is that in the United
States, even with the abolishment of legal segregation and the growth
of a Black middle class - and even some Black ruling-class figures -
following the successful civil rights struggles of the 50s and 60s,
African-Americans still suffer from the effects of hundreds of years
of slavery, economic discrimination and racism.
That continues to be especially true in the South, where
institutional racism was mostly deeply entrenched. In New Orleans,
where almost 70% of its half million inhabitants are Black, 27% of
the city's population lives below the poverty line.
Jason DeParle notes in a September 4 New York Times article that
"divides in (New Orleans) were evident in things as simple as access
to a car. The 35 percent of black households that didn't have one,
compared with just 15 percent among whites."
ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL DISCRIMINATION
According to census figures cited in The Economist, there were 26,000
Black corporate chief executive officers in 2003, including for
companies such as American Express and AOL-Times Warner. At the same
time, Black men in the United States on average earn only 72% of what
white men earn.
That economic differentiation carries over into other areas of life:
African-Americans in that city are three times more likely than
whites, Latinos or Asians to die from homicide or HIV/AIDS and twice
as likely to be victims of violent crime, according to a study
published in July by the United Way of Greater Los Angeles and the LA
Urban League.
Affirmative action measures - guaranteeing Black people jobs and
schooling that they were routinely kept out of because of
discrimination - are under attack now, a generation after many of
them were put into place, with some people, even Blacks, claiming
they are not "fair," because the individuals who benefit from them
might not "deserve" them.
African-Americans are still being deprived of their right to vote 40
years after the federal government passed the 1965 Voting Rights Act
as a result of the massive civil rights movement of the 1950s and
60s. This was most evident during the 2000 presidential elections,
when tens of thousands of Black people were deprived of their right
to vote in Florida. Some 20,000 people marched in Atlanta, Georgia
this past August 6 to demand that key provisions of that law be
upheld.
Elvee Green, a Detroit auto worker and member of the United Auto
Workers union, told The Militant newspaper that her local organized a
bus to get her and co-workers to Atlanta. "I had to be here. They are
attacking our unions, they're sending us to crazy wars, we have to at
least keep our right to vote," she said.
Black men are routinely deprived of that right because in many
states, ex-convicts are not allowed to vote, and Black men are much
more likely than white men to have spent time in jail: 32% of them in
Los Angeles, according to the Urban League study, compared to 6% of
whites and 17% of Latinos. Those statistics are similar to national
ones.
Those figures go hand-in-hand with the fact that Black people are the
most frequent victims of police brutality and killings. In Los
Angeles, only 21% of Blacks believe the police act fairly most of the
time, compared with 46% of Latinos and 60% of whites and Asians, the
study notes. Police officers who kill or beat Black people, including
minors, often go unpunished.
Black farmers are disappearing faster than white farmers as gigantic
monopolies take over food production in the United States. Black
farmers from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, and
Texas are fighting racial discrimination in government loans and
other services, and struggling to keep their land; more than 500
Black farmers are under extreme threat of foreclosures that will
result in the loss of 100,000 acres of farmland, according to Ralph
Paige, of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives at a recent
organizing meeting.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
6) KATRINA'S AFTERMATH
Like We're Invisible'
Katrina cut off an already isolated rural Mississippi, so residents helped one another.
By Elizabeth Mehren
Times Staff Writer
September 19, 2005
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-rural19sep19,0,4319997.story?coll=la-home-headlines
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
7) "It's Not That the Government Isn't
Responding, They are Obstructing the Response"
Real Reports of Katrina Relief
By NAOMI ARCHER
It's not so much that the government is not responding
[with storm relief], they are obstructing the response.
They are telling us we can't bring people the basic
necessities of life because that would give them hope.
It is a question of oppression vs. mutual aid.
That is the revolution.
September 16, 2005
http://www.counterpunch.org/archer09162005.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
8) Dismay Over Sliding Turnout for Afghan Poll
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0920-04.htm
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
9) An Antiwar Speech in Union Square Is Stopped
by Police Citing Paperwork Rules
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0920-02.htm
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
10) Hundreds of Tons of British Aid Donated to
Help Hurricane Katrina Victims to be Burned by Americans
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0920-08.htm
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
11) Federal Govt Diverting Truckloads of Ice from
Hurricane-Relief Effort to Cold Storage
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0920-09.htm
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
12) Iraqi Anger Explodes in the Face of British Occupiers
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0920-05.htm
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
13) Outpouring of Relief Cash Raises Fear
of Corruption and Cronyism
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0920-03.htm
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
14) California Wants to Serve
a Warning With Fries
By MELANIE WARNER
Published: September 21, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/21/business/21chips.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5094&en=c916134e8adc7054&hp&ex=1127361600&partner=homepage
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
15) Editorial
Sleight of Budgeting
Published: September 21, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/21/opinion/21wed1.html?hp
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
16) Iraqis Rally to Denounce British Rescue
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The demonstrators in Basra, which included police and
civilians waving pistols and AK47s, shouted ''No to
occupation!'' and carried banners condemning ''British
aggression'' and demanding the freed soldiers be tried
in an Iraqi court as ''terrorists.''
Published: September 21, 2005
Filed at 11:11 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq.html?hp
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
17) Protest Over Metal Detectors
Gains Legs as Students Walk Out
George M. Gutierrez for The New York Times
By FERNANDA SANTOS
Published: September 21, 2005
The protest started to gather steam on Sept. 14, six days
after the school year began. That morning, at each of the
10 periods of gym class, school safety officers explained
to the students how the process would work: Line up, remove
metal from your pockets, take off your belt and walk through
the metal detector. Book bags would be searched, too, scanned
by X-ray machines like those at airports, and, starting
Monday, no one would be allowed to leave the building at
lunchtime. The safety officers said it would be too hard
to screen all the returning students.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/21/nyregion/21walkout.html
The first rumors started swirling last spring, in hushed talks
in the classroom, amid hallway banter, in lunchtime chats at
pizza parlors along Jerome Avenue. Metal detectors were coming
to DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx.
By the time the summer school term began, students were
noticing the newly installed surveillance cameras along
DeWitt Clinton's stairwells and the shell of a metal detector
perched beyond a side door. "The school is on lockdown," one
student wrote on an Internet message board, Sconex.com .
Soon, instead of their usual postings about classmates turned
couples, prom king contenders and unbearably hot days of
boredom at home, students were complaining about the
changes that awaited them - and, eventually,
organizing a protest.
Two days ago, all the planning became a reality. For the
first time in recent memory, 1,500 New York City high school
students skipped classes, marched for two miles and got what
they wanted: a sit-down meeting with school administrators,
who have agreed to meet with students again and listen to
their demands.
How they got to this point is a lesson in modern-day
democracy that blends teenage angst and the Internet;
a show of force borne out of disagreement and frustration
among the students of one of the city's most traditional
and toughest high schools.
The Education Department installed the metal detectors
because of DeWitt Clinton's high crime rate, one that is
60 percent higher than the citywide average for schools
of the same size. But the protest was not violent, said
Edward Jackson, 17, a senior and a tight end on the high
school's football team.
"It was a good protest, the way protests should be," he
said. "We got a chance to show that we care about what
goes on in our school. We were able to express our point
of view."
The DeWitt Clinton of today, which had 13 major crimes
during the 2003-4 school year, counts many celebrities
among its graduates. It is the alma mater of the actor
Burt Lancaster, the fashion designer Ralph Lauren and
the cartoonist Stan Lee. It opened its doors in 1935 as
an all-boys' school and stayed that way until the
mid-1980's, when it began to enroll girls.
The protest started to gather steam on Sept. 14, six
days after the school year began. That morning, at each
of the 10 periods of gym class, school safety officers
explained to the students how the process would work:
Line up, remove metal from your pockets, take off your
belt and walk through the metal detector. Book bags would
be searched, too, scanned by X-ray machines like those at
airports, and, starting Monday, no one would be allowed
to leave the building at lunchtime. The safety officers
said it would be too hard to screen all the returning
students.
It did not sit well with José David, 17, a senior. Last
Thursday, he circulated a petition against the lunchtime
confinement and the metal detectors.
"In 46 minutes, I got 266 signatures," he said.
On Friday, Mr. David posted a message on the Sconex.com
site and invited students to join him in a protest on
Monday. The plan was to gather south of the school and
stand there, silently, until the end of the first period
of classes. At 7 a.m., Mr. David said, he found himself
standing alone on the lawn outside the high school while
other students queued up around the block, waiting for
the security clearance to get in.
"Nobody stood with me, not even my friends at first,"
Mr. David said. "A lot of people were like, 'Don't even
waste your time.' I felt like an idiot."
A cameraman and reporter for a local cable news station
arrived (Mr. David had sent them an e-mail message last
Friday). But as the time passed and the line into the
school grew, clusters of frustrated students decided to
join Mr. David. By 11:30 a.m., they numbered 1,500,
said Mr. David and other students outside the school
yesterday.
"People got so excited that we were all coming together,"
said Héctor Garcia, 18, a senior. "I honestly didn't think
that we would get that many people marching for one cause."
Three hours later, the protesters arrived at the Department
of Education's office at Fordham Plaza, two miles away,
carrying banners and demanding to be heard. Four students
were eventually invited in. They asked that the metal
detectors and security cameras be removed, that they be
allowed to have lunch outside the school, and that an
earlier ban on cellphones be lifted.
None of the new rules were eliminated, but officials
agreed to keep listening. Guidance counselors are to
meet today to select a team of student representatives
who will present the student demands and negotiate with
the administration.
But in the meantime, there has been a change: the line
to get into the school yesterday morning moved faster
because school safety officers used three of the four
metal detectors at the school, instead of two, as they
did on Monday.
Keith Kalb, a Department of Education spokesman, said
that yesterday, "no student was late for any period due
to scanning."
He said students and parents had been told earlier that
DeWitt Clinton would have metal detectors, but students
said that all they knew was that the school would
undergo a security upgrade.
"This is just the beginning," said Anthony Stafford,
a student. "The protest was just to get the word out
that we're serious about being heard."
Janon Fisher contributed reporting for this article.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
18) Unswayed by Storm, Fed Raises Key Rate
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: September 21, 2005
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 - Saying that Hurricane Katrina
was unlikely to pose a "persistent threat" to the economy,
the Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Tuesday for
the 11th time in a row and signaled that more increases
were on the way.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/21/business/21fed.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
19) Challenged by Creationists,
Museums Answer Back
By CORNELIA DEAN
Published: September 20, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/20/science/20doce.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
20) GEDs no longer required
By Joseph R. Chenelly
Times staff writer
September 20, 2005
Army recruiters now have a wider pool to find future
soldiers in. The Army is reaching out to a slice of
America's youth long ineligible to serve: non-high
school graduates who don't have a General Equivalency Diploma
http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1115623.php
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21) Cuba appears to escape Rita's wrath
Island nation took precautions, experienced rains, power outages
By Mary Murray
Producer
NBC News
Updated: 8:36 p.m. ET Sept. 20, 2005
MSNBC.com
A solid 24 hours before the storm hit, Cuban Civil Defense
began evacuating people living in flood areas and in houses
too weak to withstand hurricane conditions.
By noon Tuesday, more than 136,000 people had been moved
to higher ground, with close to 14,000 opting to stay
in government shelters.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9402098/
HAVANA - Hurricane Rita turned day into night, blackening the
skies over Havana on Tuesday as the Category 2 storm scraped
across Cuba's northern coast before moving farther into the
warm waters of the southeastern Gulf of Mexico.
The hurricane's outer bands brought heavy rain and wind but
only for a few short hours. Early reports indicated that
Rita dumped just about five inches of rain over the city
of Havana.
The Cuban Meteorological Institute said that Rita's eye
passed 54 miles north of the capital at 4 p.m. EDT, sparing
the island the brunt of its force. Preliminary reports
indicate that the storm triggered minor coastal flooding
and caused some damage to Cuba's aging power grid.
Parts of downtown Havana experienced flash flooding when
blocked drains and city sewers could not handle the quick
downpour.
By early afternoon, the lights went out along the northern
seaboard and in five major Havana neighborhoods.
In Havana alone, about a quarter of a million people
had lost power.
'Slight' damage to grid
However, a spokesman for Cuba's national electric company
described the overall damage as "slight" and promised to
have crews working to restore power as soon as weather
conditions improved.
A solid 24 hours before the storm hit, Cuban Civil Defense
began evacuating people living in flood areas and in houses
too weak to withstand hurricane conditions.
By noon Tuesday, more than 136,000 people had been moved
to higher ground, with close to 14,000 opting to stay
in government shelters.
Stores and government offices closed by morning, some
boarded up with hard-to-find plywood. Although grade
schools were officially kept open, few students were
at their desks.
Taking no chances
So far, there have been no reports in Cuba of death or
injuries associated with Hurricane Rita.
Still, the island's Civil Defense was taking no chances,
executing emergency evacuation plans in case Rita
changed direction.
Authorities issued a hurricane warning for the island's
central and western provinces and mandatory evacuation
for some people living in low-lying coastal regions
and isolated mountain communities. Also, about 3,000
head of cattle were moved to higher ground.
Residents were encouraged to stay tuned to local
television and radio broadcasts for the latest on
weather and civil defense plans.
Dr. Jose Rubiera, who leads Cuba's forecast center,
predicted earlier that Rita would just skim the island's
northern coast, dumping between 4 and 5 inches of rain,
and he appears to have been proved right.
'We won't let down our guard'
With Rita's southern rain bands being much weaker
than those on her northern flank, Rubiera expected
nothing close to the strong winds and sea surge
normally associated with a direct hit.
Hurricanes, though, are tricky to predict and the gulf's
present warm temperatures added an extra element of
unpredictability.
"This is not a danger for Cuba but we won't let down
our guard. We're watching Rita in case the storm
shifts south," Rubiera said earlier.
Hurricane Dennis - a Category 4 that battered the
island's southeastern ridge on July 9 - caused
$1.2 billion in structural damage and left 16 people
dead. The majority of those killed were people who
did not heed Civil Defense mandatory evacuation orders.
Mary Murray is an NBC News producer based in Havana, Cuba.
(c) 2005 MSNBC.com
URL: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9402098/
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22) This is from:
[NOLA_C3_Discussion] FW: A letter from a Doctor
This was sent to my friend Cindy Sheehan from a doctor
trying to help with our relief effort...forwarded
to me via Dennis K....peace from Ward
Dear Cindy,
My name is Stuart Leeds - I'm the
family practice MD that you met at the
storage facility shortly before we
all caravanned to Algiers today.
It was a great honor and delight to
meet you! I'm also pleased and somewhat
relieved to have the opportunity to
give you a *brief* report on the state
of affairs visa vi the medical relief
effort in the afflicted areas.
In short strokes: people are not
getting the help they need, because our
government, through the agency of
FEMA, has totally politicized the relief
effort. I'm sure you've already gotten
wind of the reports that the Bush
Administration is handing out huge
contracts to favored vendors, much as
they have done in Iraq. But what is
not widely known is - and I can verify
this personally - that FEMA is
*preventing* certain groups and individuals
from participating in the relief
efforts. Here's a quick synopsis of the
experience I and my companions (my wife,
and two respiratory therapists)
had today, in our attempts to offer
our services to the Red Cross operation
in Covington, LA.
We got a call from an official at
the Red Cross that the Vets for Peace
were being invited to send doctors
to Abita Springs, a nearby community.
When we got there around 9 AM,
some of director Dr Rachel Murphy's
assistants welcomed us, and started
making lists of materials we would
need. Suddenly, a man wearing
a Homeland Security shirt came over and
rudely asked us to leave. He brought
a local cop with him, and their body
language was pretty threatening.
We explained that we were coming at the
request of both Dr. Murphy and the
mayor of Covington, Candace Watkins. He
(whose name was Rodney Hart) would
hear none of it from us; he forced us to
leave immediately.
We went to Mayor Watkins, who called
Dr. Murphy and arranged for us to be
allowed into the Red Cross center.
We decided that only my wife and I would
go - realizing that the other gentlemen,
who were wearing VFP T-shirts,
would be less than welcome at the center.
We met Dr. Murphy a little after noon,
and she was very friendly. She told
us she would find a place for us to
work - I as a physician, and my wife as
an organizational specialist. However,
midway through our tour of the
facility, she stepped into the office
of Mr. Hart, the Homeland security
rep, and there were some tense words
exchanged between them. She repeatedly
exclaimed that we were not representing
VFP, and finally there was a long
period of silence. Mr. Hart apparently
made some gestures we couldn't see.
She sighed, and turned to us, and
abruptly suggested we get some lunch in
the basement. As we ate, she started
talking about how the Red Cross was
pulling out of her parish within
a week, how there were already an excess
of docs, and that our services wouldn't be needed.
She also explained that the reason
that VFP was not welcome with the Red
Cross (or indeed, within the entire
parish) was because of a series of
allegations that we had already heard
from others in the center. We had
heard several conflicting versions
of these stories: that someone with VFP
had stolen $15,000 worth of medical
supplies, and that he turned out to be
a child molester; that the Vets for
Peace had come to one center and were
taking over, and bringing cameras
into clinics; that VFP was illegally
collecting Red Cross donations on the Internet.
We could not substantiate any of
these rumors, and indeed, I think it's
unlikely that there was truth to any of them.
Clearly, FEMA and/or Homeland
Security is trying to keep "political
undesirables" from lending a hand
during this catastrophe. Perhaps they are
marching to orders from Bush's
political hacks to preventing peace groups
from upstaging the administration
in the relief effort - which would hardly
be difficult to do, on anything
like a level playing field.
It is so sad to think that the
Bush machine would put politics in front of
the safety and security of human
beings, even in a the wake of a natural
disaster of Katrina's magnitude.
But in the eyes of this physician, I
believe that is exactly what is
happening. And it will continue, as long as
the responsible government
agencies can get away with it..
We must hold them accountable.
But more importantly, we must let people
know this is happening, and thus
bring such pressure to bear on these
obstructionist agencies that they
can no longer keep VFP, or indeed any
group of caring citizens from pitching in.
Thanks, Cindy. And keep up the great work.
F.Stuart (Skip) Leeds, MS, MD
I am ready to keep fighting for humanity.
I thank you all for joining me in
the struggle: the fight of our lives.
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23) Cindy Sheehan Takes on the Democrats,
Hillary Clinton
The anti-war activist has plenty to say-and
it's not all about Bush
by Kristen Lombardi
September 20th, 2005 2:27 PM
http://villagevoice.com/news/0538,lombardiweb,68015,2.html
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24) Katrina, the Mississippi River
and the Risks of the Coming Harvest
By VERLYN KLINKENBORG
September 21, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/21/opinion/21wed4.html?pagewanted=print
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25) W Marks the Spot
Bait and Switch in the Bitterroot
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
September 21, 2005
Like Rumsfeld's Pentagon, the Forest Service under
George W. Bush runs on pr, corporate cronyism, an
obsession with secrecy and the rapid-fire deployment
of fabricated justifications for cutting down
old-growth forests.
In Bush's war on the wild, the trees themselves
are portrayed as standing weapons of mass
destruction, which must be leveled by chainsaws
before they ignite into raging wildfires that
threaten to incinerate the towns of the rural
West. Such is the tale of the spin, any way.
http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair09212005.html
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