The New York Times is asking for comments on the "terrorist
plot" "uncovered" in England at:
http://news.blogs.nytimes.com/?p=19
Here are my comments (which they refused to print):
I am floored by the low journalistic level of the articles
published in the Times about this "terrorist plot." I have
been paying close attention, trying to find any details
or facts--about either the plot or those arrested--and
have found none in any of the articles! And, while the
articles attempt to whip up more hysteria designed
to convince us that even more restrictions and
infringements on our human rights and freedoms
are needed to "protect" us from these "attacks," our
government, under the direct control of the wealthy
elite who are profiting in the billions off this "war on
terror", are carrying out the most terrorist actions
the world has ever seen! They are leading us back
to the dog-eat-dog world of barbarism.
There is only one way to end "terrorist plots"--unbend
the tight, greedy, spindly fingers of the top wealthiest
one percent of the world's population and their
ghoulish grip on the world's most valuable assets--
both material and human. Their ownership of over
50 percent of the world's wealth is the cause of all
the injustice and strife in the world today. You can't
have a peaceful world when two-thirds of its population
is working AND starving!
The future of the world is very doubtful. Only we,
the people, can extend its life by demanding justice,
economic equality, freedom, and REAL democracy for
all--let the people democratically decide on how
to distribute the world's wealth and resources--
to each according to need, receiving back from
each according to talent and ability--a world where
inalienable human rights to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness are universally honored and
freedom for all is the norm.
Sincerely,
Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War
www.bauaw.org
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VIVA FIDEL!
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Appeals court rejects new trial request for Cuban agents
Associated Press
ATLANTA - Five men convicted in Miami for being unregistered
Cuban intelligence agents are not entitled to a new trial, a federal
appeals court ruled Wednesday.
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/15236431.htm
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Israel Decides to Widen Operations in Lebanon
By STEVEN ERLANGER and JOHN O’NEIL
August 9, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/world/middleeast/09cnd-mideast.html?hp&ex=1155182400&en=9d64feef9f0ffe0c&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Bought and paid for by the U.S., the Israeli's are using
experimental weapons in Lebanon and Gaza to rival and
out-do napalm! This is our tax dollars paying for this
horror and massacre. It is up to us to stop them! In an interview
with a rescue worker in Southern Lebanon as he was pulling the body of
a little girl not more than five years old out of the rubble of a destroyed
home he was asked by a reporter, "It seems most of the victims were civilians?
The worker replied, "Not most, all! All are civilians!"
VOLUNTEER YOUR TIME TO BUILD AUGUST 12!
2489 Mission St. Room 30, (at 21st St.) San Francisco
near 24th St. BART, #14, #49 MUNI
HELP WITH: sign making, phonebanking, postering and more. Your help
is needed! No prior experience necessary. Call 415-821-6545
for more info.
WHAT IS THE PLAN FOR AUGUST 12?
The plan: Assemble 11am at Civic Center in San Francisco,
at Polk and Grove Sts. (at Civic Center BART station). Rally,
and then march through downtown San Francisco returning
to Civic Center for a closing rally with speakers, entertainment
and cultural performances.
Volunteers are needed for the August 12 Emergency March
to Defend the People of Lebanon and Palestine!
Stop the U.S.-Israeli War!
VOLUNTEER SCHEDULE FOR THE AUGUST 12 MARCH
Civic Center Plaza (Rally Site):
7:30am to 9:00 Truck unloading and set up
9:00am Volunteer sign in (including Legal Observers & Security)
for check-in please go to the table under the Volunteer banner
9:00am Check-in for informational table set up and directions
11:00am Gathering rally at Civic Center
Approximately 12:30 march stepping off
2:00 p.m. March arrives back at Civic Center
2:00 to 4:00 End rally
4:00 to 5:00 Take down, truck loading, and clean up
5:30 Unloading trucks at A.N.S.W.E.R. office (please come by
and help after the rally) 2489 Mission St. Rm. 24.
** Volunteers will be needed to help ALL DAY LONG to make
this action successful. When you have finished a volunteer
task at either site, please go back to the Volunteer Tables
and check-in again to see where you can help.
There are many ways you can help out regardless of when
you are arriving - and volunteering doesn't mean you have
to miss the rally or the march! Please see below for a list
of various areas in which help is needed. You will be contacted
with more information about the area for which you signed
up prior to the march. When you arrive at the rally, look for
the signs that say "Volunteer" (unless asked to report elsewhere).
Work sessions are taking place daily and outreach materials
are available to be picked up at all times to continue
to spread the word. Call the 415-821-6545 to begin
getting involved.
WORK SESSIONS:
There will be worksessions at the A.N.S.W.E.R. office on
Tuesday 8/8 at 7 pm and Wednesday 8/9 at 7pm and you
can also help out during the day (just give us a call for details).
On Friday, August 11 we will be loading the truck with all the
materials for the march at our office at 5pm.
On Saturday, help is needed from 7:30am am until 5:30 pm.
Volunteers are needed for August 12 -- call 415-821-6545
http://www.actionsf.org/
answer@actionsf.org
NATIONAL EMERGENCY MARCH ON WASHINGTON
DEFEND THE PEOPLE OF PALESTINE AND LEBANON!
STOP THE US-ISRAELI WAR!
From Iraq to Lebanon to Palestine,
Occupation is a Crime!
SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, 2006, 11:00 A.M.
CIVIC CENTER, SAN FRANCISCO
Stop U.S. Aid to Israel!
Support the Palestinian People's
Right to Return!
Money for Jobs and Education,
Not for War and Occupation!
Initiated by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, the
National Council of Arab Americans (NCA),
and the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation.
Volunteers are needed for August 12 -- call 415-821-6545
http://www.actionsf.org/
answer@actionsf.org
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August 16: Nat'l Day of Education
"Is the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq illegal?"
On August 17, U.S. Army First Lieutenant Ehren Watada will
face a pre-trial hearing for refusing to deploy to Iraq.
http://www.thankyoult.org/
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Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone discuss: Apocalypse Now -
The U.S. and Israeli Master Plan for the Middle East.
Also, to be shown for the first time in the Bay Area: "The War
in Lebanon: An Inside View" including harrowing photos
of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila Massacre.
Thursday, August 17 from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. at the Unitarian
Universalist Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita
Berkeley, CA,. $10 suggested donation. No one will be
turned away for lack of funds. For more information
call 707.552.9992 or write takingaim@pacbell.net
Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone, producers of the national
radio show "Taking Aim," present a dramatic exposé of the
current wave of U.S. coordinated and Israeli mass slaughter
in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon. They discuss
in compelling and heart-rending detail the U.S. and Israeli
murderous agenda, its timetable and the collusion of client
Arab regimes in targeting the peoples of the region.
From Rafah to, Ramallah and Nablus, from Bint Jbail, Tyre,
Sidon and Beirut to Tripoli, from 1947, 1967 to 1982 and
now, an ongoing genocide has been unleashed _ part
of a plan to visit the identical agony on the people
of Syria, Iran, Iraq and the region.
This murderous agenda proceeds under the cover of the false
category of terror for which 9/11 was planned, implemented
and orchestrated by the U.S. ruling class and its Israeli cohorts.
Heralded authors of “The Hidden History of Zionism”,
“Prisoners of Israel” and “Homage to Palestine”, Schoenman
and Shone, reveal through first hand testimony and shocking
visuals the wholesale massacre and mass expulsion that
emptied Palestine of its population in 1948 and was repeated
in an identical operation in Lebanon in 1982.
In 1982-83, Schoenman and Shone lived in the Palestinian
refugee camps as these were reduced to rubble. They
documented the round-up by the Israeli invaders of males
from ages 7 to 70 across Lebanon and took 6,000 affidavits
from the victims_ families. They witnessed and made a photo
record of the mass murder and the mass graves from
Ain El Helweh, Rashidieh, Bourj al Burajneh to Sabra and
Shatila in Beirut.
Schoenman and Shone draw from their experiences in
Palestine and Lebanon, their testimony presented to the
United Nations, Foreign Ministers and to the Nordic Commission
in Oslo, Norway as well as their years of advocacy on behalf
of the Palestinian struggle for self-determination.
Ralph Schoenman was Secretary General of the International
Tribunal on U.S. War Crimes in Indochina. He worked with
Malcolm X with respect to the battle for the Congo and has
negotiated the release of political prisoners in many countries.
He was the Executive Director of the Committee in Defense
of the Palestinian and Lebanese Peoples and the Committee
for a Democratic and Secular Palestine. He is the author of
“The Hidden History of Zionism,” “Iraq and Kuwait: A History
Suppressed,” and co-authored with Mya Shone “Prisoners of
Israel (report for the United Nations)” and “Homage to Palestine.”
Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone co-produce “Taking Aim with
Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone” heard weekly on Pacifica’s
WBAI-NY and nationally on the Progressive Radio Network.
Mya Shone is an economist and has a long history as an activist
involved in political, community and labor issues. She worked
closely with Casa Nicaragua and Casa El Salvador during
the struggles taking place in Central America, was the
coordinator of the Tri-County (Santa Barbara, Ventura,
San Luis Obispo) Labor Party chapter and co-coordinator
of the Open World Conference in Defense of Trade Union
Independence and Democratic Rights. She was the coordinator
of the Committee in Defense of the Palestinian and Lebanese
Peoples and the Committee for a Democratic and Secular Palestine.
Mya Shone was also an award-winning documentary filmmaker
as well as a newscaster at KPFK in Los Angeles. --- The first
two parts of Taking Aim's series on the Middle East, "Apocalypse
Now: The U.S. and Israeli Master Plan for the Middle East" are
available on our website archive http://www.takingaim.info
Part 1: Death and Devastation in Lebanon Part 2: The Meaning
of Qana --- Ben Gurion and the Final Aim: (an excerpt from
"The Hidden History of Zionism" by Ralph Schoenman, available
from Veritas Press --see http://www.takingaim.info
and Amazon.com)
In 1938, David Ben Gurion, who became the first Prime Minister
of the Israeli state, wrote in a letter to his son: "A partial Jewish
State is not the end, but only the beginning. I am certain that we
can not be prevented from settling in the other parts of the
country and the region."
In 1937, he declaimed: "The boundaries of Zionist aspirations
are the concern of the Jewish people and no external factor
will be able to limit them."
In 1938, he was more explicit: "The boundaries of Zionist
aspirations," he told the World Council of Poale Zion in Tel Aviv,
"include southern Lebanon, southern Syria, today's Jordan,
all of Cis-Jordan [the West Bank] and the Sinai."
###
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Un-silent vigils on Aug 19 to remember Abeer Hamza, the
14-year-old Iraqi girl gang raped and brutally murdered In
March of 2006 by the US military.
Saturday, August 19th, 2006 from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM
Berkeley, California - Willard Park
@ Telegraph & Derby Street
Hey all,
I just forwarded you all the Not In Our Name national email - but
wanted to write back to say why. You are either an artist, a media
person, a teacher, a courageous resister, a poet, a lawyer,
a revolutionary...
We've all been in the streets to stop this endless war, to put
an end to the brutal occupations of the United States...and
we've all been high on the power of the people, and then
demoralized by our apparent inability to stop the war machine.
The anti-war movement isn't what it needs to be, but we
just can't stop, right? Please join me in LA, Bay Area, New
York on August 19 to call out the injustice of a 14 year old
girl being gang raped by the US military. These guys are
likely to go unpunished. Use your contacts, use your
resources to spread the word. This vigil is being called
for by some young women that have never organized
anything before. It is inspiring. They are courageous.
They would like 5 minutes on your radio show, or an
article in your paper, or your voice on the mic that night,
or your network of friends and connections to spread
the word. Here's the info again.
Thanks,
Maya Jones
Not In Our Name volunteer
510.710.6414
Un-silent vigils on Aug 19 to remember Abeer
Hamza, Iraqi girl brutally murdered
In March of 2006, Abeer Hamza, a 14-year
old Iraqi girl from the village of Mahmudiya,
witnessed the deaths of her father, mother, and
sister, and afterwards was brutally raped, murdered,
and set on fire. Five US soldiers have been charged
with the crime, one of which has already confessed
guilt. The soldiers allegedly pre-planned the attack,
changed into civilian clothing, and then entered
the home of Abeer Hamza.
On August 19th, Abeer Hamza would have turned 15.
On that day, we want to honor her life and remember
her death. In doing so, we hope that some of the horror
she experienced when leaving the earth, will be met
with peace and mourning by those who denounce
such violent crimes. In addition, we hope to draw
awareness to the current protocol of immunity for
Multinational Forces in Iraq. We believe that immunity
nullifies necessary checks and balances in a psychologically
precarious environment, and we support Amnesty
International's request to the UN Security Council to
reassess the granting of immunity to MNF's in Iraq.
We hope that you can join us on Aug 19th, but if you
are unable to attend, please light a candle on that night,
and support our efforts to assist in ending immunity
for MNF's in Iraq by checking out Amnesty International's
statement or our myspace page.
Saturday, August 19th, 2006 from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM
Los Angeles, California - Macarthur Park
@ 6th & Alvarado Street
New York City, New York - Washington Square Park
@ W. 4th Street & Macdougal
Berkeley, California - Willard Park
@ Telegraph & Derby Street
www.myspace.com/abeerhamza
Another World Is Possible!
http://www.notinourname.net
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Aug 20 SF BayviewCoalition BuildingMark your CalendarEnough
is Enough !END LAW ENFORCEMENT WAR AGAINST BLACK &BROWN !
WHAT: Fundraising Benefit and Cookout, Coalition Building
Justice4BigO, (RIP Oliver Lefiti, Killed by SFPD 6-24-06) Justice4ASA,
(RIP Asa Sullivan, Killed by SFPD 6-6-06) Bayview CEDP
(RIP Tookie Williams/Campaign to End the Death Penalty)
WHEN: Idriss Stelley's B-Day (Killed by SFPD 6-13-01), "E" would
turn 29... Sunday 8-20-06 3 P.M.WHERE: Children Playground
behind Brett Hart Elementary School, on Gillman, SF.Take Gillman
from 3rd St., going towards Candlestick Park by the BayWHY:
Show your love and support to the Families of SFPD innocent victims.
Under impending Capital Punishment Federal Law, 12 Bayview
Brothers might become "Death Eligible" this year. Bayview is only
0,0001% of California, but would become 5,65% of California
death row!
Death row on the street through police Murders of our Black and
Brown Brothers &Sisters and death row in the correctional system
must GO! To volunteer, or more info: please email
iiolmisha@cs.comor call (415) 595-8251
WHAT CAN YOU DO? Distribute flyers in your Hood, Donate Food,
Donate performance (Spoken words, dance, songs), Help on Set
up and clean up crew, Chaperon the Youth at the event for safety,
Disseminate the info on the event through email and Fax blasts,
Invite all your friends! Make banners and signs (Supplies available
at ISF, 4921 3rd Street SF, Be the chef at the grill! Donate paper
plates, napkins, Lend 2 additional bullhorns, forward this Invite
to all your friends and contacts!
ARE YOU WITH US? Black &Brown UNITY!
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San Francisco Board of Education Meeting
Tuesday, August 22, 7:00 P.M.
Irving G. Breyer Board Meeting Room
555 Franklin Street, 1st Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
415/241-6427
San Francisco School board members are likely to vote Tuesday,
August 22 on a resolution to phase out JROTC. If the
proposal is approved, a blue-ribbon panel will be
formed to find and implement a non-military program to
replace JROTC. At present, the resolution has the
support of the majority of school board members.
SEE:
Why queers should oppose JROTC
Guest Opinion
Published 07/27/2006 Bay Area Reporter
by Tom Ammiano, Mark Sanchez, and Tommi Avicolli Mecca]
http://www.ebar.com/openforum/opforum.php?sec=guest_op
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Mumia Abu-Jamal Is In Danger
Rally In Oakland To FREE MUMIA!
4 PM Friday September 15th 2006,
Alameda County Courthouse, 12th and Fallon Sts, south side
Mumia Abu-Jamal Is Innocent!
For Labor Action To Free Mumia! End the Racist Death Penalty!
Award-winning journalist and former
Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal has
been on death row for almost a quarter
of a century, for a crime he didn't
commit. The State of Pennsylvania still
wants to execute him, and his case has been
put on a "fast track" to a final resolution.
What may be his last appeal is now
before the 3rd Circuit Court. But we
cannot rely on the courts to free Mumia;
the courts are still refusing to hear
MOUNTAINS of evidence which
conclusively shows his innocence!
In 1995, we mobilized by the thousands
to save Mumia from a date with
death. In 1999, longshore workers
shut down West Coast ports to free Mumia. In
2006, it's time to get back into action to free Mumia!
* * * * *
The victim of a politically motivated
frame-up of monumental proportions,
Mumia is an anti-war, anti-imperialist,
social justice spokesman with the
courage to defy the system from his jail
cell despite a determined conspiracy to
silence him forever. Known as the "Voice
of the Voiceless," Mumia is the
first to point out that his case is just one
among many injustices of this racist,
capitalist system.
Perpetrated by notoriously racist and
corrupt Philadelphia police and
prosecutors, the frame-up of Mumia
Abu-Jamal is supported by leading elements in
both the Democrat and Republican
parties. The US ruling class is so
committed to murdering this "dangerous"
inspirational figure that a resolution--full
of lies about Mumia's case--has been
introduced in Congress to demand that the
city of St Denis, France re-name a street
which was dubbed "Rue Mumia
Abu-Jamal" in a recent ceremony!
In the US, Mumia Abu-Jamal has been
made the "poster boy" for maintaining
the death penalty by the powerful few.
But to the world, Mumia is a hero and
symbol of resistance to racist oppression
and injustice.
All those who are involved in social
justice movements should help
champion his freedom and publicize
actions for his freedom.
* * * * *
Rally initiated by the Labor Action Committee
To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal (LAC),
PO Box 16222, Oakland CA 94610.
510 763-2347 or LACFreeMumia@aol.com.
Initial endorsers include: The Mobilization
To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal;
Frances Goldin, Mumia's literary agent;
Marsha Feinland, Peace and Freedom Party
candidate*; Todd Chretien, Green Party
candidate*; Robert Irminger, Inland
Boatmen‚s Union, ILWU*; Jack Heyman, ILWU*;
Bob Mandel, exec bd, Oakland Education
Association*; Bill Mandel,37 years on KPFA*;
Workers World Party of SF; Nat
Weinstein; Socialist Viewpoint Magazine;
Cristina Gutierrez; Bario Unido por
una Amnistia General; Fred Hirsch,
Plumbers & Fitters 393*; Jack Ford, past
president Teamsters 921*; Patricia
Maginnis; Emily Maloney.
Bay Area United Against War endorses this action.
*organization listed for purposes
of identification only. (Endorsers
support FREE MUMIA and the three
slogans listed above. They do not necessarily
agree with any other statement in this
announcement or with any other LAC
statement.)
Endorse the rally! Send your individual
or organizational endorsement by
return email to LACFreeMumia@aol.com,
or write to LAC at PO Box 16222,
Oakland CA 94610. Let us know if you
can help build the rally!
Mumia's legal defense needs funds
in this critical time. Please help!
Make checks payable to: Labor Action
Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, and
send them to: PO Box 16222, Oakland CA 94610.
Seventy-five percent (75%) of all
contributions received under this appeal
will go directly to Mumia's legal
defense fund. The remainder will
support the work of the LAC.
For more information on Mumia's case,
go to the following web sites:
www.mumia.org,
www.freemumia.org,
www.chicagofreemumia.org,
www.laboractionmumia.org.
- Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
U.S. Out of Iraq Now! We Are the Majority!
End Colonial Occupation from Iraq,
to Palestine, Haiti, and Everywhere!
October 28 National Day of Action
Locally Coordinated Anti-War Protests from Coast to Coast
Vote With Your Feet … and Your Voices, and Banners, and Signs!
Let Every Politician Feel the Power of the People!
http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=7836
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SCROLL DOWN TO READ:
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
ARTICLES IN FULL
LINKS ONLY
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EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
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This convention is for all peace partners. Please circulate widely.
Reserve you seat today by sending us an email at
samina_faheem@yahoo.com.
Hope to see all of you on August 20th 2006.
Thanks, Samina
American Muslim Voice Foundation
creating a culture of peace, acceptance, mutual respect and harmony
Phone: 650-387-1994
Email: amvoice@amuslimvoice.org
Website: www.amuslimvoice.org
3rd Annual Convention
Ordinary People, Extraordinary Heroes
AMV needs your support urgently
Limited seating. Please purchase your ticket today.
When: Sunday – August 20th, 2006
11:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Where: Chandni 5748 Mowry School Road Newark, CA 94560
Ticket price $25.00 (Includes Luncheon)
Special request: Could you please enrich this event
by dressing in your traditional clothing?
We are very grateful for your support and friendship.
Looking forward to see you.The AMV Team
For more information visit www.amuslimvoice.org
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SAVE THE DATE AND JOIN US!!!!!
THIS IS A RESIDENT-LED EFFORT BY SURVIVORS WHO HAVE BEEN
SOME OF THE MOST IMPACTED BY THE KATRINA DISASTER AND
WHO HAVE RECEIVED THE LEAST ASSISTANCE AND RESOURCES
FROM FEDERAL, STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT ANDTHEIR
AGENCIES. THEY WANT TO KNOW IF YOUR ADVOCACY, ACTIVIST,
OR PROGRESSIVE ORGANIZATION WANTS TO SUPPORTTHIS AND
HAVE ONE OF YOUR MEMBERS PLAY AN ACTIVE ROLE ON BEHALF
OF YOUR ORGANIZATION TO PULL THIS OFF THEY WANT OUR
HELP AND SUPPORT!!!
Come Back Home Campaign
Washington, D.C. August 24, 25, and 26, 2006
Baton Rouge, August 27-28, 2006
New Orleans, August 29, 2006
On August 24-26, 2006, Survivors who are still displaced and
scattered all across the U.S. will be traveling to D.C., pitching
tents, and camping out on the federal government to demand
their right to returnhome
On August 27-28, 2006, these Survivors will be traveling to
Baton Rouge, pitching their tents in front of the state capitol,
and putting pressure on the state government of Louisiana
for their right to return home
On August 29, 2006, the anniversary of the Katrina Disaster,
Survivors will make their demands to return home heard
by the city council of New Orleans and camp
out on city hall
We are planning to have at least of 5,000 Katrina survivors
bused into D.C., Baton Rouge, and New Orleans from all across
the U.S. We are focusing our efforts on bringing residents
in from seven states in the Southern Region:
Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Arkansas,
Georgia, Florida.
We are specifically reaching out to those who are public
housing residents, renters, and home owners that the city,
state and federal government are trying
to keep from returning home We need help with food,
housing, medical providers, logistics, showers/toilets,
entertainment, & advertising
For more info, contact the following organization representatives:
Makani, Praxis Project (202) 234-5921,
info@praxisproject.org
Ishmael, Advancement Project and People's Organizing
Committee (504) 872-9591, poc_information@yahoo.com
Please visit our website: www.peoplesorganizing.org
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NATIONAL EMERGENCY MARCH ON WASHINGTON
DEFEND THE PEOPLE OF PALESTINE AND LEBANON!
STOP THE US-ISRAELI WAR!
National Emergency March on Washington
Defend the People of Palestine and Lebanon!
Stop the U.S.-Israeli War!
From Iraq to Lebanon to Palestine,
Occupation is a Crime!
SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, 2006, 11:00 A.M.
CIVIC CENTER, SAN FRANCISCO
Stop U.S. Aid to Israel!
Support the Palestinian People's
Right to Return!
Money for Jobs and Education,
Not for War and Occupation!
Initiated by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, the
National Council of Arab Americans (NCA),
and the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation.
October 28 National Day of Action
Locally Coordinated Anti-War Protests from Coast to Coast
Vote With Your Feet … and Your Voices, and Banners, and Signs!
Let Every Politician Feel the Power of the People!
http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=7836
http://www.actionsf.org/
http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=7869
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End Canada's Occupation of Afghanistan!
Call for action on October 28, 2006
This call for a pan-Canadian day of action, co-signed by the
Canadian Peace Alliance, the Canadian Islamic Congress, the
Canadian Labour Congress and the Montreal coalition Echec
a la Guerre, is being distributed and discussed at the World Peace
Forum now taking place in Vancouver. -SV The Collectif Échec
à la guerre, Canadian Peace Alliance, the Canadian Labour Congress,
and the Canadian Islamic Congress are jointly calling for a pan-
Canadian day of protest this October 28th, 2006, to bring Canadian
troops home from Afghanistan.
On that day, people all across the country will unite to tell
Stephen Harper that we are opposed to
his wholehearted support for Canadian and U.S. militarism.
This October marks the fifth anniversary of the invasion and
occupation of Afghanistan, and the people of that country are
still suffering from the ravages of war. Reconstruction in the
country is at a standstill and the needs of the Afghan people
are not being met. The rule of the new Afghan State, made
up largely of drug running warlords, will not realize the
democratic aspirations of the people there. In fact, according
to Human Rights Watch reports, the human rights record
of those warlords in recent years has not been better than
the Taliban.
We are told that the purpose of this war is to root out terrorism
and protect our societies, yet the heavy-handed approach of
a military occupation trying to impose a US-friendly
government on the Afghan people will force more Afghans
to become part of the resistance movement. It will also
make our societies more -- not less -- likely to see terrorist
attacks.
No discussion on military tactics in the House of Commons
will change that reality. Indeed, violence is increasing with
more attacks on both coalition troops and on Afghan civilians.
While individual Canadian soldiers may have gone to Afghanistan
with the best of intentions, they are operating under the
auspices of a US-led state building project that cares little
or the needs of the Afghan people. US and Canadian interests
rest with the massive $3.2 billion Trans Afghan Pipeline (TAP)
project, which will bring oil from the Caspian region through
southern Afghanistan (where Canada is stationed) and onto the
ports of Pakistan.
It has been no secret that the TAP has dominated US foreign
policy towards Afghanistan for the last decade. Now Canadian
oil and gas corporations have their own interests in the TAP.
Over the last decade, the role of the Canadian Armed Forces
abroad has changed, and Canadian foreign policy has become
a replica of the US empire-building rhetoric. The end result
of this process is now plain to see with the role of our troops
in Southern Afghanistan, with the enormous budget increases
for war expenditures and "security," with the Bush-style speeches
of Stephen Harper, and with the fear campaigns around
"homegrown terrorism" to foster support for those nefarious
changes.
It is this very course that will get young Canadian soldiers killed,
that will endanger our society and consume more and more
of its resources for destruction and death in Afghanistan.
We demand a freeze in defense and security budgets until
an in-depth public discussion is held on those issues across
Canada. The mission in Afghanistan has already cost Canadians
more than $4 billion. That money could have been used to fund
human needs in Canada or abroad. Instead it is being used
to kill civilians in Afghanistan and advance the interests
of corporations.
On October 28th, stand up and be counted.
Canadian Troops Out of Afghanistan Now!
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
END ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL!
Stop funding Israel's war against Palestine
Complete the form at the website listed below with your information.
Personalize the message text on the right with
your own words, if you wish.
Click the Next Step button to send your letter
to these decision makers:
President George W. Bush
Vice President Richard 'Dick' B. Cheney
Your Senators
Your Representative
Go here to register your outrage:
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?
JServSessionIdr003=cga2p2o6x1.app2a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=177
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Idriss Stelley Foundation is in critical financial crisis, please help !
ISF is in critical financial crisis, and might be forced to close
its doors in a couple of months due to lack of funds to cover
DSL, SBC and utilities, which is a disaster for our numerous
clients, since the are the only CBO providing direct services
to Victims (as well as extended failies) of police misconduct
for the whole city of SF. Any donation, big or small will help
us stay alive until we obtain our 501-c3 nonprofit Federal
Status! Checks can me made out to
ISF, ( 4921 3rd St , SF CA 94124 ). Please consider to volunteer
or apply for internship to help covering our 24HR Crisis line,
provide one on one couseling and co facilitate our support
groups, M.C a show on SF Village Voice, insure a 2hr block
of time at ISF, moderate one of our 26 websites for ISF clients !
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/idrissstelleyfoundation/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/isf23/
Report Police Brutality
24HR Bilingual hotline
(415) 595-8251
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Justice4Asa/
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Sign the petition to save Bayview Hunters Point: No more Fillmore!
Editorial by Willie Ratcliff,
http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/signthepetition060706.shtml
As urban Black displacement grows, Bayview kicks off referendum
drive to stop Redevelopment by Randy Shaw,
http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/displacement060706.shtml
Hands off Bayview Hunters Point!
An open letter to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
http://www.sfbayview.com/050306/handsoff050306.shtml
Shattering the myth that our community is divided, people –
especially Black people – are lining up to sign, but we need
lots more signature gatherers. Can you commit to a few
hours with a clipboard or to passing petitions among
your co-workers, friends and family? Give us a call at
(415) 671-0789 or an email at editor@sfbayview.com.
Now for what we’re up against: The Bay View newspaper
has been too broke to help finance the petition campaign,
very few contributions have come in and bills are overdue.
So the petition drive needs financial help … and so does
the Bay View newspaper, desperately.
The Bay View has faced many crises in the over 14 years
we’ve published it – eviction, death threats, never enough
money – yet readers have always come through, enabling
us to bounce back, tackle bigger issues and fight harder
than ever. We hate to beg, but WE NEED YOU NOW.
WITHOUT AN IMMEDIATE AND SUBSTANTIAL LOAN, THE
BAY VIEW CANNOT CONTINUE. To discuss a loan, which
we can amply collateralize, please call us at (415) 671-0789;
we’re here 24/7. Tax-deductible contributions to our
nonprofit arm, the Hurricane Relief Information Network,
are also a big help to save the hopes and the lives
of survivors who depend on the Bay View for news and resources.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Appeal for funds:
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website http://dahrjamailiraq.com
Request for Support
Dahr Jamail will soon return to the Middle East to continue his
independent reporting. As usual, reporting independently is a costly
enterprise; for example, an average hotel room is $50, a fixer runs $50
per day, and phone/food average $25 per day. Dahr will report from the
Middle East for one month, and thus needs to raise $5,750 in order to
cover his plane ticket and daily operating expenses.
A rare opportunity has arisen for Dahr to cover several stories
regarding the occupation of Iraq, as well as U.S. policy in the region,
which have been entirely absent from mainstream media.
With the need for independent, unfiltered information greater than ever,
your financial support is deeply appreciated. Without donations from
readers, ongoing independent reports from Dahr are simply not possible.
All donations go directly towards covering Dahr's on the ground
operating expenses.
(c)2006 Dahr Jamail.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
New Flash Film
From Young Ava Over At 'Peace Takes Courage'
http://www.peacetakescourage.com/page-blog.htm
http://letter.cf.huffingtonpost.com/
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Save the Lebanese Civilians Petition
http://epetitions.net/julywar/index.php
http://donations.tayyar.org/
To The Concerned Citizen of The World:
http://epetitions.net/julywar/index.php
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Legal update on Mumia Abu-Jamal’s case
Excerpts from a letter written by Robert R. Bryan, the lead attorney
for death row political prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal.
...On July 20, 2006, we filed the Brief of Appellee and Cross
Appellant, Mumia Abu-Jamal, in the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia.
http://www.workers.org/2006/us/mumia-0810/
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Today in Palestine!
For up to date information on Israeli's brutal attack on
human rights and freedom in Palestine and Lebanon go to:
http://www.theheadlines.org
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
For a great car magnet--a black ribbon with the words, "Bring
the troops home now!" written in red, and it also comes in a
lapel pin!--go to:
(Put out by A.N.S.W.E.R.)
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Ecommerce?store_id=1621
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF ZIONISM
BY RALPH SCHOENMAN
Essential reading for understanding the development of Zionism
and Israel in the service of British and USA imperialism.
The full text of the book can be found at:
http://www.marxists.de/middleast/schoenman/
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
JOIN THE LYNNE STEWAR DEFENSE
For those of you who don't know who Lynne Stewart is, go to
www.lynnestewart.org and get acquainted with Lynne and her
cause. Lynne is a criminal defense attorney who is being persecuted
for representing people charged with heinous crimes. It is a bedrock
of our legal system that every criminal defendant has a right to a
lawyer. Persecuting Lynne is an attempt to terrorize and intimidate
all criminal defense attorneys in this country so they will stop
representing unpopular people. If this happens, the fascist takeover
of this nation will be complete. We urge you all to go the website,
familiarize yourselves with Lynne and her battle for justice
www.lynnestewart.org
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
NATIONAL COMMITTEE TO FREE THE CUBAN FIVE
Comité Nacional por la Libertad de los Cinco Cubanos
Who are the Cuban Five?
The Cuban Five are five Cuban men who are in U.S. prison, serving
four life sentences and 75 years collectively, after being wrongly
convicted in U.S. federal court in Miami, on June 8, 2001.
They are Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero,
Fernando González and René González.
The Five were falsely accused by the U.S. government of committing
espionage conspiracy against the United States, and other related
charges.
But the Five pointed out vigorously in their defense that they were
involved in monitoring the actions of Miami-based terrorist groups,
in order to prevent terrorist attacks on their country of Cuba.
The Five’s actions were never directed at the U.S. government.
They never harmed anyone nor ever possessed nor used any
weapons while in the United States.
The Cuban Five’s mission was to stop terrorism
For more than 40 years, anti-Cuba terrorist organizations based
in Miami have engaged in countless terrorist activities against
Cuba, and against anyone who advocates a normalization
of relations between the U.S. and Cuba. More than 3,000 Cubans
have died as a result of these terrorists’ attacks.
Gerardo
Hernández
2 Life Sentences
Antonio
Guerrero
Life Sentence
Ramon
Labañino
Life Sentence
Fernando
González
19 Years
René
González
15 Years
Free The Cuban Five Held Unjustly In The U.S.!
http://www.freethefive.org/
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Eyewitness Account from Oaxaca
A website is now being circulated that has up-to-date info
and video that can be downloaded of the police action and
developments in Oaxaca. For those who have not seen it
elsewhere, the website is:
www.mexico.indymedia.org/oaxaca
http://www.mexico.indymedia.org/oaxaca
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
REMINDER TO ALL GROUPS: BE SURE AND POST ALL ACTIONS AND
EVENTS TO WWW.INDYBAY.ORG TO REACH THE MOST PEOPLE
AGAINST THE WAR IN THE BAY AREA!
http://www.indybay.org
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Iraq Body Count
For current totals, see our database page.
http://www.iraqbodycount.net/press/pr13.php
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
The Cost of War
[Over three-hundred-billion so far...bw]
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
"The Democrats always promise to help workers, and the don't!
The Republicans always promise to help business, and the do!"
- Mort Sahl
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
"It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees."
- Emilano Zapata
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Join the Campaign to
Shut Down the Guantanamo Torture Center
Go to:
http://www.shutitdown.org/
to send a letter to Congress and the White House:
Shut Down Guantanamo and all torture centers and prisons.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org http://www.actionsf.org
sf@internationalanswer.org
2489 Mission St. Rm. 24
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Great Counter-Recruitment Website
http://notyoursoldier.org/article.php?list=type&type=14
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
DEFEND IMMIGRANT RIGHTS AND
CIVIL RIGHTS!
Last summer the U.S. Border Patrol arrested Shanti Sellz and
Daniel Strauss, both 23-year-old volunteers assisting immigrants
on the border, for medically evacuating 3 people in critical
condition from the Arizona desert.
Criminalization for aiding undocumented immigrants already
exists on the books in the state of Arizona. Daniel and Shanti
are targeted to be its first victims. Their arrest and subsequent
prosecution for providing humanitarian aid could result in
a 15-year prison sentence. Any Congressional compromise
with the Sensenbrenner bill (HR 4437) may include these
harmful criminalization provisions. Fight back NOW!
Help stop the criminalization of undocumented immigrants
and those who support them!
For more information call 415-821- 9683.
For information on the Daniel and Shanti Defense Campaign,
visit www.nomoredeaths.org.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
FYI
According to "Minimum Wage History" at
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/anth484/minwage.html "
"Calculated in real 2005 dollars, the 1968 minimum wage was the
highest at $9.12. "The 8 dollar per hour Whole Foods employees
are being paid $1.12 less than the 1968 minimum wage.
"A federal minimum wage was first set in 1938. The graph shows
both nominal (red) and real (blue) minimum wage values. Nominal
values range from 25 cents per hour in 1938 to the current $5.15/hr.
The greatest percentage jump in the minimum wage was in 1950,
when it nearly doubled. The graph adjusts these wages to 2005
dollars (blue line) to show the real value of the minimum wage.
Calculated in real 2005 dollars, the 1968 minimum wage was the
highest at $9.12. Note how the real dollar minimum wage rises and
falls. This is because it gets periodically adjusted by Congress.
The period 1997-2006, is the longest period during which the
minimum wage has not been adjusted. States have departed from
the federal minimum wage. Washington has the highest minimum
wage in the country at $7.63 as of January 1, 2006. Oregon is next
at $7.50. Cities, too, have set minimum wages. Santa Fe, New
Mexico has a minimum wage of $9.50, which is more than double
the state minimum wage at $4.35."
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
PRESERVE INTERNET NETWORK NEUTRALITY
Hi,
I can't imagine that you haven't seen this, but if you
haven't, please sign the petition to keep our access.
Everything we do online will be hurt if Congress
passes a radical law next week that gives giant
corporations more control over what we do and see on
the Internet.
Internet providers like AT&T are lobbying Congress
hard to gut Network Neutrality--the Internet's First
Amendment and the key to Internet freedom. Right now,
Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which
websites open most easily for you based on which site
pays AT&T more. BarnesandNoble.com doesn't have to
outbid Amazon for the right to work properly on your
computer.
If Net Neutrality is gutted, many sites--including
Google, eBay, and iTunes--must either pay protection
money to companies like AT&T or risk having their
websites process slowly. That why these high-tech
pioneers, plus diverse groups ranging from MoveOn to
Gun Owners of America, are opposing Congress' effort
to gut Internet freedom.
So please! sign this petition telling your member of
Congress to preserve Internet freedom? Click here:
http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet?track_referer=706%
7C1152463-5QFocRE05wmGUuh8yAMSzg
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
NO BORDERS! NO WALLS! NO FENCES! GENERAL AMNESTY FOR ALL!
OUR HOMELAND IS WHERE WE LIVE!
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
REPEAL THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT IN 2007!
Check out: 10 EXCELLENT REASONS NOT TO JOIN THE MILITARY
http://www.10reasonsbook.com/
Public Law print of PL 107-110, the No Child Left Behind
Act of 2001 [1.8 MB]
http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/index.html
Also, the law is up before Congress again in 2007.
See this article from USA Today:
Bipartisan panel to study No Child Left Behind
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
February 13, 2006
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-02-13-education-panel_x.htm
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
http://www.law.indiana.edu/uslawdocs/declaration.html
http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/decind.html
http://www.usconstitution.net/declar.html
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1805195.php
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
Bill of Rights
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1805182.php
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
ARTICLES IN FULL:
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
1) Economic View
The Rich Spend Just Like You and Me
By ANNA BERNASEK
August 6, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/business/yourmoney/06view.html?ref=business
2) Cuba's military money machine
Under the leadership of defense minister Raul Castro, the country's
military is a powerful political and economic force.
BY FRANCES ROBLES frobles@MiamiHerald.com
MIAMI HERALD
Posted on Sun, Aug. 06, 2006
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/special_packages/5min/15209490.htm
3) Intimations of Recession
By PAUL KRUGMAN
August 7, 2006
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/08/07/opinion/07krugman.html?hp
4) Iraq Incident Was Fueled by Whiskey, G.I. Says
By KIRK SEMPLE and JOHN O’NEIL
August 7, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/07/world/middleeast/07cnd-iraq.html?hp&ex=1155009600&en=22f60a29d080db21&ei=5094&partner=homepage
5) 15 States Expand Right to Shoot in Self-Defense
By ADAM LIPTAK
“In effect,” Professor Sebok said, “the law allows citizens to kill
other citizens in defense of property.”
August 7, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/07/us/07shoot.html?hp&ex=1155009600&en=3466fb01a2227803&ei=5094&partner=homepage
6) Tasks Are Workaday for Guard Troops on Border
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
August 7, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/07/us/07guard.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
7) The Rise of the Super-Rich
By TERESA TRITCH
July 19, 2006
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/07/19/opinion/19talkingpoints.html
8) Hezbollah Rides a New Popularity
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
9) Stymied on the Castro Beat: Few See Behind the Curtain
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
THE NEW YORK TIMES
August 7, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/07/business/media/07cuban.html?ref=business
10) Rodeo in Salem gets unexpected song rendition
A man purportedly from Kazakhstan launched into a diatribe
instead of "The Star-Spangled Banner."
By Laurence Hammack
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/xp-16655
11) Hezbollah, a Discussion on "Marxmail", a Marxist discussion list:
marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
12) Peaceful succession underway in Cuba: official
By Anthony Boadle
August 7, 2006
http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=1NZBQTPC5PWPECRBAELCFFA?type=topNews&storyID=13105991
13) After Bomb Kills Loved Ones, Life Turns Ghostly
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
August 8, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/08/world/middleeast/08survivor.html?hp&ex=1155096000&en=92eb48bd10cc7b1e&ei=5094&partner=homepage
14) Nine Passengers Are Killed in Chase at Border
By PAUL GIBLIN
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/08/us/08immig.html
15) LOVE, FEAR OF A DOG TEAR A FAMILY APART
S.F. officials deem pets dangerous, remove
boy from home in bizarre tale of social work
Elizabeth Fernandez, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/08/MNGGTKD03E1.DTL
16) Beirut-to-the-south Solidarity Convoy
Lebanon: An Open Country for Civil Resistance
From: "acpollack2@juno.com"
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2006
17) [AL-AWDA-News] An Urgent Appeal from Italian Scientists
By now are countless the reports, from hospitals, witnesses,
armament experts and journalists that strongly suggest that
in the present offensive of Israeli forces against Lebanon
and Gaza 'new weapons' are being used.
18) Who Created Israel?
Nestor Gorojovsky
nestorgoro@fibertel.com.ar
Marxmail
marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
See Also: THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF ZIONISM
BY RALPH SCHOENMAN
Essential reading for understanding the development of Zionism
and Israel in the service of British and USA imperialism.
The full text of the book can be found at:
http://www.marxists.de/middleast/schoenman/
19) As Lebanon’s Fuel Runs Out, Fears of a Doomsday Moment
By HASSAN M. FATTAH
August 9, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/world/middleeast/09lebanon.html
20) CUBAN SCENARIO
By Robert Sandels
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/53340
21) Labor Federation Forms a Pact With Day Workers
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
August 10, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/10/us/10labor.html?ref=us
22) 'The closest thing to hell’
Mother copes with soldier-son’s suicide
By Tara Tuckwiller
Staff writer
August 06, 2006
http://sundaygazettemail.com/section/News/2006080525
23) BEHIND THE MEDIA'S GAZAN BLIND SPOT
Nigel Parry, The Electronic Intifada (9 August 2006)
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5464.shtml
24) Lebanon hospitals cut off, running out of supplies
By Michael Winfrey
Thu Aug 10, 2006 06:49 AM ET
http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=13147517&src=eDialog/GetContent
25) Destruction, Death, and Drastic Measures
The Damage in Lebanon -- and Beyond
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
August 10, 2006
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
1) Economic View
The Rich Spend Just Like You and Me
By ANNA BERNASEK
August 6, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/business/yourmoney/06view.html?ref=business
THE extensive coverage of the Astor family saga is just the latest
example of America’s longstanding fascination with the very rich.
But in recent years, the lifestyles of wealthy people have been not
only a staple of popular culture but of serious economic research
as well.
That’s because the wealthiest families have reaped enormous
financial rewards over the last two decades, and their economic
and political power has increased markedly. So it’s well worth
asking what they are doing with all that money and what effect
they are having on the overall economy.
Finding out where those income gains have gone, however,
is about as easy as peering at the estates behind the towering
hedges of Gin Lane in Southampton. There’s simply no official
data on the economic behavior of the very rich. We can’t
be sure how much they are saving or consuming, or exactly
how they are using their accumulated wealth.
The wealthy are often thought to be big savers and, under
President Bush, they have been given significant tax breaks.
But what has actually become of their outsized gains in income?
There are some clues.
For discussion’s sake, let’s start by defining the very rich as
the top 1 percent of the population. That’s about 1.4 million
families, a group that in 2004 had an average real income
of nearly $750,000.
According to two economists, Thomas Piketty, at the School
for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences in Paris, and Emmanuel
Saez, at the University of California, Berkeley, the income
of this top 1 percent increased an inflation-adjusted 44 percent
from 1994 to 2004, compared with a 10 percent average
increase for the rest of the population.
That’s without counting capital gains, a large source of income
for this group. Including capital gains, the gap between the
top 1 percent and everyone else widened further, totaling
a 54 percent increase in real income for the very rich and
a 12 percent gain for everyone else.
Tracking what has happened to those income gains first
requires examining the two best official data sources: the
Consumer Expenditure Survey, conducted by the Bureau
of Labor Statistics, and the Survey of Consumer Finances,
conducted by the Federal Reserve Board.
The trouble is that the Consumer Expenditure Survey lumps
together as “rich” the top third of households, starting
at income levels around $70,000 a year. The consumer
finance survey is not much better. It includes the top
10 percent of households.
Another approach — to glean information by studying individual
economic sectors — runs into similar problems. For instance,
official housing sales data lumps homes over $500,000 into
a single category. But in many areas of the country today, the
starting point for real estate held by the very rich is valued
at $3 million or more.
Without precise figures, we have to rely on aggregate measures
and anecdotal evidence to paint a picture of what the very rich
have been doing with their money.
Start with what, it seems, the very rich have not been doing much
of — saving. The national savings rate has declined steadily during
the last decade, and every income group has been saving less.
Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Economy.com, has tried
to study the savings rate for the rich. Because concrete official
data for the top 1 percent is lacking, Mr. Zandi focused on the
top 5 percent — households with an average real income
of around $275,000.
He found that the proportion of after-tax income saved in this
group fell from 13.6 percent in 1990 to 6.2 percent in the first
quarter of this year. And he knows of no reason that the top
1 percent would be notably different in their savings habits.
“The wealth effect is inducing less saving and more consumption
by almost everyone, including those at the very top,” Mr. Zandi said.
What can we deduce about what the very rich have been spending
their larger income on? By surveying the booming industries that
cater to well-heeled consumers, it seems reasonable to conclude
that the rich have been buying such things as high-end real
estate, yachts and luxury goods like jewelry.
Figures for second-home mortgages soared in the last decade,
while real estate sales over $3 million hit record levels. DataQuick,
a real estate research group based in San Diego, estimates that
the number of properties nationwide that sold for more than
$3 million grew 135 percent in the five years to 2005.
And while the rest of the real estate market may be cooling off,
sales of luxury properties remain steady. “What I’m hearing from
our brokers is that the high end, $10 million plus, has not tailed
off like the rest of the market,” said Jim Gillespie, president and
chief executive officer of the Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation.
Then there’s spending on other luxury goods. Three economists,
Jonathan A. Parker and Yacine Ait-Sahalia from Princeton, together
with Motohiro Yogo at the Wharton School of the University of
Pennsylvania, tried to track the consumption of the wealthy by
constructing an index based on domestic sales of luxury retailers
such as Tiffany.
Their research indicates that during the 1990’s, the average
annual real sales growth of luxury retailers was a strong 11 percent.
Unfortunately, their data stops at 2001. But looking at the domestic
sales of individual high-end retailers since then, it seems sales
have remained robust. For instance, Tiffany reported that domestic
sales grew 9 percent in the year ended Jan. 31, 2006, and
10 percent the previous year.
Over the short term, the propensity of the very rich to consume
rather than save has helped stimulate the national economy.
Led by the wealthy, American consumers have driven growth
around the world as well as at home. This may seem like good
news, but there’s a catch. Too much consumption and not enough
saving could become a significant drag on the domestic economy.
SAVING leads to investment and capital formation, which in turn
drive growth and prosperity. Without savings of its own, a nation,
to support its living standard, must attract the savings of foreign
investors by offering higher interest rates. Higher rates then
tend to slow domestic growth.
“It hasn’t been a problem up to this point,” Mr. Zandi said. “But
unless higher-income households start to save more, it will
be a big concern.”
Mr. Zandi is skeptical that the very rich will change their behavior
any time soon. When he pieces the evidence together, he finds
that within the top income group, younger wealthy households
tend to save less than their older counterparts.
This may suggest the emergence of a more profligate attitude
toward consumption and saving among segments of the very rich.
To be sure, some very wealthy people have engaged in acts
of great generosity. Brooke Astor has been renowned not just
as the doyenne of New York society, but as a philanthropist.
Recently, on a much larger scale, Warren E. Buffett has dedicated
the bulk of his fortune to philanthropy, through the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation.
While philanthropy should be applauded, it can’t replace the
basic responsibility we all have of saving and investing in the
future of the nation. Time will tell how responsible the very
rich have been with all their new wealth.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
2) Cuba's military money machine
Under the leadership of defense minister Raul Castro, the country's
military is a powerful political and economic force.
BY FRANCES ROBLES frobles@MiamiHerald.com
MIAMI HERALD
Posted on Sun, Aug. 06, 2006
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/special_packages/5min/15209490.htm
Tourists who sleep in some of Cuba's hotels, drive rental cars, fill
up their gas tanks, and even those riding in taxis have something in
common: They are contributing to the Revolutionary Armed Forces'
bottom line.
The same goes for anyone who has puffed on an exported Cuban cigar,
visited Havana's El Morro castle or hopped a domestic flight in Cuba.
In a post-Soviet Cuba, this military is not a repressive apparatus
out to stifle dissent; it's a money machine that runs not only much
of the tourism sector, but the sugar, naval and retail industries, as
well.
Military enterprises now control an estimated 90 percent of the
nation's exports and 60 percent of its tourism revenue, and employ 20
percent of state workers.
''The military's job is to make money,'' said Frank Mora, a professor
at the National War College in Washington. ``Power in Cuba is not
just a question of who holds the guns, although that helps. More
important is who controls what is profitable.''
In Cuba, that's the men in green.
As nearly 80-year-old Fidel Castro reportedly recuperates from
gastrointestinal surgery and his brother, Defense Minister Raúl
Castro, takes over, the role of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, or
FAR, has never been more critical. The pressure to deliver will be on
the armed forces that Raúl created and transformed.
Cubans who have suffered years of shortages will be looking to Raúl
Castro and his military -- highly respected in Cuba -- to address
crucial deficiencies in housing, transportation, food and medicine.
Experts say the younger class of rising military stars who run Cuba's
commercial enterprises using economic models they learned in European
business schools just might be able to do it.
The government appears to be feeling the pressure. Just three days
after Castro's shocking announcement that he had turned power over to
his brother, the state newspaper Granma featured an article about the
military sprucing up and modernizing its equipment.
The military is also considered more inclined toward reforms and more
qualified to execute them, making them an organization that could
help sustain the socialist government in a post-Fidel scenario,
experts say.
''It's the only institution that has legitimacy in Cuba,'' said
Armando Mastrapa, who runs a website about the Cuban military
(www.cubapolidata.com). ``I don't see how Raúl could continue without
it.''
Fiercely loyal, the military has never in its 47-year history staged
a coup attempt to topple the Castros and has rarely been directly
involved in cracking down on political dissent.
Raúl Castro created the FAR in 1959 with the guerrilla forces that
toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista. Raúl is credited with
transforming the ragtag revolutionaries into a real army. Dubbed
''the historics,'' some of those original revolutionaries still
occupy high-ranking positions in the military.
NO MORE SUBSIDIES
The military gained experience in combat during its involvement in
African wars in the 1970s. Thousands of Cubans fought and died in
Angola, and many survivors now make up another circle of respected
officers.
That was back when the FAR enjoyed massive subsidies from the Soviet
Union. From 1960 until 1990, it received up to $19 billion in Soviet
subsidies, and defense expenses made up 13 percent of the national
budget, according to Mora's research.
With about 150 Soviet-supplied fighters, including MiG Floggers and
Fulcrums, the Cuban armed forces were considered the best-equipped
military in Latin America.
The collapse of the Soviet Union dealt a blow to the FAR. Suddenly,
it had more than 220,000 troops and no money to pay for them.
From 1988 to 1991, its budget was cut nearly in half, Mora said. By
1998, a U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report described Cuba's
armed forces as one with mothballed equipment, a navy with no
functioning submarines and an air force with fewer than two dozen
operational warplanes. Its troop strength dropped to about 55,000
soldiers.
The Cuban military meanwhile needed to find a way to pay for itself,
so the FAR started experimenting with Western-styled business
management techniques and began running parts of the economy.
Raúl Castro formed GAESA, or Business Administration Group, the FAR's
holding company for the Defense Ministry's economic interests. At the
helm: Col. Luis Alberto Rodríguez, Raúl's son-in-law, known as a Raúl
loyalist and sharp businessman.
Based on the fourth floor of the Armed Forces Ministry, GAESA did $1
billion in business in 2000 alone through a long string of
GAESA-owned companies, experts say.
MILITARY TO POLITICS
The FAR's powers extend well beyond GAESA, however.
Half of the now 20 members of the politburo are active military
officers, and generals are in charge of several ministries, including
sugar and fisheries.
By 1996, Mora said, the FAR was generating enough revenue to pay half
of its own budget.
The military ''enjoyed the best of both worlds,'' Mora said, because
it was able to profit from its businesses while leaving the political
repression to the Ministry of Interior, which runs the police and the
state security agency.
But even within the armed forces, there are potentially problematic
divisions, he added.
'They went to wars abroad. They worked in the fields. These were the
`heroic FAR.' These are the good guys. They have garnered a lot of
respect,'' said Mora. ``But that has begun to change, because now
there are generals who live a little bit better.''
Former military officer Eugenio Yáñez, author of Secretos de
Generales (Generals' Secrets) said the perks obtained through the
officers' connections are not luxurious -- maybe a computer or a trip
abroad -- but they are valuable enough to spark jealousies.
''They live a life of privilege,'' he said of the officers. ``I'm not
talking things that would be considered privileges in Hialeah, but
they are in Cuba. Of course there are jealousies.''
Experts say that fissure could cause problems for Raúl in the long
run. On the other hand, they add, those who have benefited have a
vested interest in keeping the status quo.
''These are political animals,'' said Domingo Amuchástegui, a former
Cuban intelligence officer who defected in 1994 and now lives in
South Florida. ``They are not guerrillas. They are professional
politicians. They're just like American generals who retire and
become CEOs -- but these are going to work at state-owned joint
ventures.''
He said Raúl Castro and his team -- military and civilian -- are
likely to push reforms forward. Each time Cuba experimented with
farmers' markets where uncontrolled prices drove up production, it
was defense minister Raúl who pushed them -- and Fidel who shut down
all but the current ones.
If Raúl and the military focus on housing, food and jobs, Cubans are
likely to support them, experts say.
''They have been in a situation for 12 to 15 years where their hands
were tied,'' Amuchástegui said. ``Now they are going to feel they'll
have their big chance to put in practice the knowledge they acquired
in the world's best capitalist institutions.''
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
3) Intimations of Recession
By PAUL KRUGMAN
August 7, 2006
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/08/07/opinion/07krugman.html?hp
These are the dog days of summer, but there’s a chill in the air.
Suddenly — really just in the last few weeks — people have starting
talking seriously about a possible recession. And it’s not just
economists who seem worried. Goldman Sachs recently reported
that the confidence of chief executives at major corporations has
plunged; a clear majority of C.E.O.’s now say that conditions
in the world economy, and the U.S. economy in particular,
are worsening rather than improving.
On the face of it, this loss of faith seems strange. Recent growth
and jobs numbers have been disappointing, but not disastrous.
But economic numbers don’t speak for themselves. They always
have to be interpreted as part of a story. And the latest numbers,
while not that bad taken out of context, seem inconsistent with
the stories optimists were telling about the U.S. economy.
The key point is that the forces that caused a recession five
years ago never went away. Business spending hasn’t really
recovered from the slump it went into after the technology bubble
burst: nonresidential investment as a share of G.D.P., though up
a bit from its low point, is still far below its levels in the late 1990’s.
Also, the trade deficit has doubled since 2000, diverting a lot
of demand away from goods produced in the United States.
Nonetheless, the economy grew fairly fast over the last three
years, mainly thanks to a gigantic housing boom. This boom
led directly to unprecedented spending on home construction.
It also allowed consumers to convert rising home values into
cash through mortgage refinancing, so that consumer spending
could run far ahead of families’ incomes. (Americans have been
spending more than they earn for the past year and a half.)
Even optimists generally concede that the housing boom must
eventually end, and that consumers will eventually have
to start saving again. But the conventional wisdom was that
housing would have a “soft landing” — that the boom would
taper off gradually, and that other sources of growth would
take its place. You might say that the theory was that business
investment and exports would stand up as housing stood down.
The latest numbers suggest, however, that this theory isn’t
working much better on the economic front than it is in Baghdad.
Signs of a deflating housing bubble began appearing a year
ago, but for a while it was possible to argue that eliminating
a bit of “froth” in the housing market wouldn’t do the overall
economy much harm. Now, for the first time, problems in the
housing market are starting to seriously reduce economic growth:
the latest G.D.P. data show real residential investment falling
at an accelerating pace. The latest job numbers show falling
employment in home construction, and retail employment has
fallen over the past year, suggesting that consumer spending
is running out of steam. (Gas at $3 a gallon doesn’t help, either.)
Meanwhile, neither business investment nor exports seem
to be growing fast enough to make up for the housing slump.
Now maybe we’ll still manage that soft landing despite
a rapidly rising number of unsold houses; or maybe there’s
a boom in business investment and/or exports just over
the horizon. But based on what we know now, there’s
an economic slowdown coming.
This slowdown might not be sharp enough to be formally
declared a recession. But weak growth feels like a recession
to most people; remember the long “jobless recovery” that
followed the official end of the 2001 recession?
And what will policy makers do about a slump, if it happens?
A snarky but accurate description of monetary policy over
the past five years is that the Federal Reserve successfully
replaced the technology bubble with a housing bubble.
But where will the Fed find another bubble?
And with the budget still deep in deficit and the costs
of the Iraq war still spiraling upward, it’s hard to see Congress
agreeing on any significant fiscal stimulus package — especially
because history suggests that the Bush administration and
Congressional leaders will turn any debate about how to
help the economy into yet another attempt to smuggle
in tax cuts for the wealthy.
One last thing: the real wages of most workers fell during the
“Bush boom” of the last three years. If that boom, such as it was,
is already over, workers have every right to ask, “Is that it?”
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
4) Iraq Incident Was Fueled by Whiskey, G.I. Says
By KIRK SEMPLE and JOHN O’NEIL
August 7, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/07/world/middleeast/07cnd-iraq.html?hp&ex=1155009600&en=22f60a29d080db21&ei=5094&partner=homepage
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Monday, Aug. 7 — One of the soldiers accused
in the rape of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the killing of the girl
and her family said the incident took place after a morning of
cards and whisky, when a member of his unit began pestering
the group to kill some Iraqis, according to testimony today from
an army investigator.
The investigator, Special Agent Benjamin Bierce, testified in an
American military hearing today about statements made by one
of the accused, Specialist James P. Barker, that gave a graphic
and chilling account of the deaths.
Specialist Barker described a former soldier, Steven D. Green,
a private who was discharged in May after a psychiatric evaluation,
as having taken the lead both in planning the incident and
in firing the first shot.
Mr. Bierce testified that Specialist Barker said that while he
and another soldier took turns holding down the girl and
sexually assaulting her, they heard gunshots from the bedroom,
where Private Green had taken three of her relatives.
Private Green then came into the living room looking agitated
and said something to the effect of “They’re all dead —
I just killed them,’’ Mr. Bierce testified.
Earlier in the day, Pfc. Justin Watt, the soldier whose report
led to the investigation that uncovered the killings, told the
hearing how he had pieced together information after
a sergeant, Anthony Yribe, told him that Private Green
had confessed to the killings in confidence.
Sergeant Yribe is accused of dereliction of duty for failing
to report the incident.
Private Watt testified that after he reported his suspicions
to combat stress counselors he feared for his life. “It’s like
this: I find out that guys in my squad, guys I’ve trusted with
my life, are allegedly responsible for one of the most brutal
rapes/murders I’ve ever seen. And everyone has a weapon
and grenades.’’
Private Watt also testified that he had heard Private Green
say, “I want to kill and hurt a lot of Iraqis.’’
On Sunday, Private Green’s former battalion commander,
Lt. Col. Thomas Kunk, testified that Private Green had
sought help for combat stress after his unit began taking
casualties.
Along with Mr. Green and Specialist Barker, Sgt. Paul Cortez,
Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman and Pfc. Bryan L. Howard have been
accused of rape, murder and arson in the incident, which took
place March 12 in the town of Mahmudia, south of Baghdad.
Military prosecutors say they set the girl’s body on fire
to conceal evidence.
The case, one of several recent ones in which American
soldiers have been accused of killing unarmed Iraqi civilians,
has embarrassed the American military, infuriated Iraqis
and strained relations between American authorities
in Baghdad and their Iraqi counterparts.
The hearing in Baghdad, conducted under Article 32
of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, is roughly equivalent
to a grand jury proceeding and will determine whether there
is enough evidence to convene a court-martial to try the
five active-duty soldiers. Mr. Green faces rape and murder
charges in a federal court in Kentucky. He has pleaded not
guilty to the charges.
Special Agent Bierce said that Specialist Barker had
confessed his role in the killings in a written statement
and in two hours of interviews.
In the statement, Specialist Barker said that he and Private
Green had been drinking Iraqi whisky mixed with an energy
drink and playing cards on the morning of March 12,
and then had gone to hit golf balls behind an Army
checkpoint.
Private Green then said he wanted to go to a house
and kill some Iraqis, Specialist Barker wrote. Private Green
was very persistent and kept bringing up the idea, he said.
According to Mr. Bierce’s account of the interview, Sergeant
Cortez asked Specialist Barker what he thought
and Specialist Barker replied: “It’s up to you.’’
Specialist Barker said that after killing the other family
members, Private Green raped the girl, then shot her once
with an AK-47, paused, then shot her several more times,
Mr. Bierce testified.
The girl’s body was then doused with kerosene from
a lamp and set ablaze, and the AK-47 was thrown
into a canal.
Private Watt testified that after hearing of the incident
from Sergeant Yribe, he sought out Private Howard and
asked what happened. Private Howard said that Private
Green and Sergeant Cortez had planned to rape a girl
and that he was the lookout.
Private Howard said when the others returned from
the Iraqi’s house, “their clothes were covered in blood,’’
Private Watt said.
Asked why he had come forward, Private Watt said
it “had to be done.’’
“We’d come through hell with each other and there
were a lot of good men who died,” he said. “And this
happened, for what? We’re just trying to do a little
good over here.’’
In his testimony on Sunday, Colonel Kunk said the
soldiers’ company — Company B of the First Battalion,
502nd Infantry, part of the 101st Airborne Division —
had a particularly dangerous assignment to patrol
a stronghold of the Sunni Arab insurgency south
of Baghdad. The job took a high toll, with eight
of the company’s soldiers killed from September
through June.
Private Green and two of the other accused soldiers,
Private Spielman and Sergeant Cortez, were
“wallowing in self-pity” early in the year amid
the violence and the death of fellow soldiers,
Colonel Kunk said. They were among several
soldiers who sought help for combat stress, he said.
Colonel Kunk said at the hearing that others had
told him about Private Green’s comment, “all Iraqis
are bad people.” He was so concerned about it that
he personally discussed it with Private Green, he said,
asking him whether he intended to kill Iraqis.
But during the hearing, the line of questioning
turned and Colonel Kunk never testified about Private
Green’s response.Two Iraqi witnesses also took the
stand, but reporters were barred from hearing them,
and officials did not disclose details of their testimony.
A trial lawyer had requested the restriction out
of concern that public exposure might endanger them.
The hearing took place on another day of scattered
violence around Iraq.
Three American soldiers were killed Sunday by an
improvised bomb planted along a road southwest
of Baghdad, the American military said in a statement
early Monday.
A suicide bomber wrapped in explosives detonated
himself in the middle of a crowd of mourners attending
the funeral of a member of the Tikrit city council,
an Interior Ministry official said. Five people were
killed and 15 wounded, the official said.
At least 15 bodies, all with their hands tied behind their
backs and gunshots to the head, were found in different
Baghdad neighborhoods, according to the ministry official.
Kirk Semple reported from Baghdad for this article and
John O’Neil reported from New York. Iraqi employees
of The New York Times contributed reporting from
Falluja and Kirkuk for this article.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
5) 15 States Expand Right to Shoot in Self-Defense
By ADAM LIPTAK
“In effect,” Professor Sebok said, “the law allows citizens to kill
other citizens in defense of property.”
August 7, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/07/us/07shoot.html?hp&ex=1155009600&en=3466fb01a2227803&ei=5094&partner=homepage
In the last year, 15 states have enacted laws that expand the right
of self-defense, allowing crime victims to use deadly force
in situations that might formerly have subjected them
to prosecution for murder.
Supporters call them “stand your ground” laws. Opponents
call them “shoot first” laws.
Thanks to this sort of law, a prostitute in Port Richey, Fla.,
who killed her 72-year-old client with his own gun rather
than flee was not charged last month. Similarly, the police
in Clearwater, Fla., did not arrest a man who shot a neighbor
in early June after a shouting match over putting out garbage,
though the authorities say they are still reviewing the evidence.
The first of the new laws took effect in Florida in October,
and cases under it are now reaching prosecutors and juries
there. The other laws, mostly in Southern and Midwestern
states, were enacted this year, according to the National
Rifle Association, which has enthusiastically promoted them.
Florida does not keep comprehensive records on the impact
of its new law, but prosecutors and defense lawyers there
agree that fewer people who claim self-defense are being
charged or convicted.
The Florida law, which served as a model for the others,
gives people the right to use deadly force against intruders
entering their homes. They no longer need to prove that they
feared for their safety, only that the person they killed had
intruded unlawfully and forcefully. The law also extends
this principle to vehicles.
In addition, the law does away with an earlier requirement
that a person attacked in a public place must retreat
if possible. Now, that same person, in the law’s words,
“has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his
or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly
force.” The law also forbids the arrest, detention
or prosecution of the people covered by the law, and
it prohibits civil suits against them.
The central innovation in the Florida law, said Anthony J.
Sebok, a professor at Brooklyn Law School, is not its
elimination of the duty to retreat, which has been eroding
nationally through judicial decisions, but in expanding
the right to shoot intruders who pose no threat to the
occupant’s safety.
“In effect,” Professor Sebok said, “the law allows citizens
to kill other citizens in defense of property.”
This month, a jury in West Palm Beach, Fla., will hear the
retrial of a murder case that illustrates the dividing line
between the old law and the new one. In November 2004,
before the new law was enacted, a cabdriver in West Palm
Beach killed a drunken passenger in an altercation after
dropping him off.
The first jury deadlocked 9-to-3 in favor of convicting
the driver, Robert Lee Smiley Jr., said Henry Munnilal,
the jury foreman.
“Mr. Smiley had a lot of chances to retreat and to avoid
an escalation,” said Mr. Munnilal, a 62-year-old accountant.
“He could have just gotten in his cab and left. The thing
could have been avoided, and a man’s life would have
been saved.”
Mr. Smiley tried to invoke the new law, which does away
with the duty to retreat and would almost certainly have
meant his acquittal, but an appeals court refused to apply
it retroactively. He has appealed that issue to the Florida
Supreme Court.
Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the N.R.A.,
said the Florida law had sent a needed message
to law-abiding citizens.
“If they make a decision to save their lives in the split
second they are being attacked, the law is on their side,”
Mr. LaPierre said. “Good people make good decisions.
That’s why they’re good people. If you’re going to
empower someone, empower the crime victim.”
The N.R.A. said it would lobby for versions of the law
in eight more states in 2007.
Sarah Brady, chairwoman of the Brady Campaign to Prevent
Gun Violence, said her group would fight those efforts.
“In a way,” Ms. Brady said of the new laws, “it’s a license to kill.”
Many prosecutors oppose the laws, saying they are
unnecessary at best and pernicious at worst. “They’re
basically giving citizens more rights to use deadly force
than we give police officers, and with less review,”
said Paul A. Logli, president of the National District
Attorneys Association.
But some legal experts doubt the laws will make a practical
difference. “It’s inconceivable to me that one in a hundred
Floridians could tell you how the law has changed,” said Gary
Kleck, who teaches criminology at Florida State University.
Even before the new laws, Professor Kleck added, claims
of self-defense were often accepted. “In the South,” he said,
“they more or less give the benefit of the doubt to the alleged
victim’s account.”
The case involving the Port Richey prostitute, Jacqueline
Galas, turned on the new law, said Michael Halkitis, division
director of the state attorney’s office in nearby New Port Richey.
Ms. Galas, 23, said that a longtime client, Frank Labiento, 72,
threatened to kill her and then kill himself last month.
A suicide note he had left and other evidence supported
her contention.
The law came into play when Ms. Galas grabbed Mr. Labiento’s
gun and chose not to flee but to kill him. “Before that law,”
Mr. Halkitis said, “before you could use deadly force, you had
to retreat. Under the new law, you don’t have to do that.”
The decision not to charge Ms. Galas was straightforward,
Mr. Halkitis said. “It would have been a more difficult situation
with the old law,” he said, “much more difficult.”
In the case of the West Palm Beach cabdriver, Mr. Smiley, then
56, killed Jimmie Morningstar, 43. A sports bar had paid
Mr. Smiley $10 to drive Mr. Morningstar home in the early
morning of Nov. 6, 2004.
Mr. Morningstar was apparently reluctant to leave the cab
once it reached its destination, and Mr. Smiley used a stun
gun to hasten his exit. Once outside the cab, Mr. Morningstar
flashed a knife, Mr. Smiley testified at his first trial, though one
was never found. Mr. Smiley, who had gotten out of his cab,
reacted by shooting at his passenger’s feet and then into his
body, killing him.
Cliff Morningstar, the dead man’s uncle, said he was baffled
by the killing. “He had a radio,” Mr. Morningstar said of Mr. Smiley.
“He could have gotten in his car and left. He could have
shot him in his knee.”
Carey Haughwout, the public defender who represents
Mr. Smiley, conceded that no knife was found. “However,”
Ms. Haughwout said, “there is evidence to support that the
victim came at Smiley after Smiley fired two warning shots,
and that he did have something in his hand.”
In April, a Florida appeals court indicated that the new law,
had it applied to Mr. Smiley’s case, would have affected its
outcome.
“Prior to the legislative enactment, a person was required to
‘retreat to the wall’ before using his or her right of self-defense
by exercising deadly force,” Judge Martha C. Warner wrote.
The new law, Judge Warner said, abolished that duty.
Jason M. Rosenbloom, the man shot by his neighbor in
Clearwater, said his case illustrated the flaws in the Florida
law. “Had it been a year and a half ago, he could have been
arrested for attempted murder,” Mr. Rosenbloom said
of his neighbor, Kenneth Allen.
“I was in T-shirt and shorts,” Mr. Rosenbloom said, recalling
the day he knocked on Mr. Allen’s door. Mr. Allen, a retired
Virginia police officer, had lodged a complaint with the local
authorities, taking Mr. Rosenbloom to task for putting out
eight bags of garbage, though local ordinances allow only six.
“I was no threat,” Mr. Rosenbloom said. “I had no weapon.”
The men exchanged heated words. “He closed the door and
then opened the door,” Mr. Rosenbloom said of Mr. Allen.
“He had a gun. I turned around to put my hands up. He didn’t
even say a word, and he fired once into my stomach. I bent over,
and he shot me in the chest.”
Mr. Allen, whose phone number is out of service and who could
not be reached for comment, told The St. Petersburg Times that
Mr. Rosenbloom had had his foot in the door and had tried
to rush into the house, an assertion Mr. Rosenbloom denied.
“I have a right,” Mr. Allen said, “to keep my house safe.”
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
6) Tasks Are Workaday for Guard Troops on Border
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
August 7, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/07/us/07guard.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
NOGALES, Ariz., Aug. 4 — The border may have a reputation
for drama, intrigue and danger, but Specialist James Dwiggins
of the Wisconsin National Guard has not seen much of that
in the reception booth of the Border Patrol station here, where
he works answering phones and sliding a clipboard for visitors
to sign in.
From a camera room at the station, Specialist Kirsten Schultz
of the Wisconsin Guard has seen a lot of people crossing the
border. Out in the field, Specialist David Murray of the Virginia
National Guard stares out at the loping hills lining the border,
waiting and watching.
“I don’t see that we are having an impact,” said Specialist
Murray, camped on a rainy afternoon at an observation point
covered in camouflage netting with three other soldiers.
“But every time the Border Patrol comes up, they tell us
movement of people has almost completely stopped through
here.”
For the National Guard troops sent here, many of the tasks
in the border mission may seem humdrum, but the Border
Patrol, eager for any help it can get, has claimed some early
success as the operation moves into full swing.
Critics still question whether the Guard troops, who do not
make arrests because they are not trained to do so and
to avoid domestic and international political squabbles,
are making a big difference. But Border Patrol officials say
the soldiers, whether in an office or on a hilltop, have freed
more than 250 agents for regular patrolling, which, combined
with the presence of the Guard, has acted as a deterrent
to crossers.
The number of arrests in July, when large numbers of soldiers
took up positions, declined 37 percent to 59,613 along the
2,000-mile-long Southwest border compared with July last
year, officials said. Guard troops have also participated in several
rescues of crossers stranded in the desert, they said.
“Operation Jump Start has been tremendous,” the Border Patrol
chief, David Aguilar, told reporters last month. Arrest figures
fluctuate greatly because of trends in enforcement, weather —
July was unusually hot in many border areas — and political
and socioeconomic conditions in Mexico and Central America.
Advocates for migrants said they suspected human trafficking
had simply shifted away from the more fortified positions into
more remote, rugged terrain. Since October, the beginning
of the government’s fiscal year, arrests over all have declined
in Arizona, the current focus of enforcement, but increased
in California, suggesting trafficking is returning there after
years of declines.
The presence of the Guard, moreover, apparently has not
deterred drug smugglers, with the Border Patrol reporting
an increase in drug seizures — marijuana is up 20 percent
to 1,262,860 pounds and cocaine less than 1 percent to
8,816 pounds — so far this year.
President Bush ordered the Guard to the border as a stopgap
while the Border Patrol hires and trains 6,000 agents by the
end of 2008, bringing the force to 18,000.
The Guard’s duties, which include operating cameras and
observation posts, fixing vehicles, and repairing and building
fences and roads, have not mollified critics who call the mission
window dressing to appease conservative lawmakers demanding
more action to stanch the flow of illegal immigrants.
Mr. Bush had set a goal of up to 6,000 troops on the border
by Aug. 1. The National Guard said that 6,600 were in the four
border states but that only about 3,000 were “forward deployed”
near the international boundary, with the rest working
as administrative staff or undergoing training. Guard officials
said that though Mr. Bush said the troops “will be deployed
to our southern border,” they never planned to have that
many right on the line.
“In normal operational planning, part of the operation is always
going to be logistics,” said Lt. Col. Michael Mallord, a spokesman
for the Guard in Washington.
Thirty of the 54 states and territories with National Guard
troops have contributed troops, while several others will not
because they are needed for possible home emergencies
like wildfires, flooding and hurricanes. In June, California
rejected a Guard request for additional soldiers.
“I think it is fair to say it has taken some work to find 6,000
people,” said Christine Wormuth, a senior fellow at the Center
for Strategic and International Studies in Washington who
studies the Guard. Maintaining anything near that level
“is going to be a challenge from a management standpoint,”
she said, though Colonel Mallord said they would “easily”
maintain strength at the border.
“There is no question in my mind they are providing added
value,” Ms. Wormuth added, “but in the grand scheme of border
security it is not clear this deployment is going to dramatically
enhance the nation’s border security.”
Nevertheless, the men and women here, from Arizona, Kentucky,
Nevada, Virginia, Wisconsin and other states, say participating
in the mission, in most cases part of their regular two- to
three-week annual training obligation, may lack a certain
drama but has brought them a first-hand connection to the
headlines.
The majority asked for border duty, and some may stay for
several months; unlike normal deployments, the soldiers, at
least for now, are largely camped in motels and hotels, ranging
from the highly rated Loews Ventana Canyon resort near Tucson
to the more modest Americana hotel in this city’s gritty downtown.
“You hear about it in the news and then you see it here,” said
Sgt. Howard Renfro of the Virginia Guard, who on a recent night
spotted a small group of people crossing through a low point
in the fence and reported them to the Border Patrol. “It takes
you off guard for a second.”
The Guard deployment has shed light on a shortage of civilian
staff that has left agents repairing their own vehicles and taking
up welding torches to repair border fences.
In a garage at the Border Patrol station here, a team of Nevada
Guard mechanics strives to repair agency trucks and cars, battered
mercilessly over the jolting terrain, while a group of Guard
engineers from Kentucky drives dump trucks and bulldozers,
helping build a road along the border fence here.
“This is real good training for us,” said Specialist Robert Owens
of Olive Hill, Ky., who had imagined the border fence as a chain-
link job but stood stunned to see it as a towering wall of steel
plates salvaged from aircraft carriers. Smugglers regularly try
to weld and drill through it, necessitating regular repairs, said
Sean King, a spokesman for the Border Patrol here.
Staff Sgt. Aric Garza of the Nevada Guard, accustomed to
repairing Humvees, now works on sport utility vehicles, vans,
all-terrain vehicles and other pieces of the Border Patrol fleet
that have seen better days.
“They are really hurting on vehicle maintenance,” he said,
describing himself as “happy and motivated” to play even
a behind-the-scenes part in the border mission.
Likewise, Specialist Dwiggins of Neenah, Wis., the de facto
greeter at the Nogales station, smiled when asked if his tasks
were what he had in mind in coming to the border. “Right
now it has been this, but I am sure I will see more,” he said.
“Anything they need us to do, we’ll do.”
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7) The Rise of the Super-Rich
By TERESA TRITCH
July 19, 2006
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/07/19/opinion/19talkingpoints.html
The gap between rich and poor is unfortunately an old story.
It is the stuff of parables and literature. It is a force in social history
and political economy, from electoral campaigns to reform
movements and revolutions.
But in the United States today, there’s a new twist to the
familiar plot. Income inequality used to be about rich versus
poor, but now it’s increasingly a matter of the ultra rich and
everyone else. The curious effect of the new divide is an
economy that appears to be charging ahead, until you realize
that the most of the people in it are being left in the dust.
President Bush has yet to acknowledge the true state
of affairs, though it’s at the root of his failure to convince
Americans that the good times are rolling.
The president’s lack of attention may be misplaced optimism,
or it could be political strategy. Acknowledging what’s
happening would mean having to rethink his policies,
not exactly his strong suit.
But the growing income gap — and the rise of the super-rich
— demands attention. It is making America a less fair society,
and a less stable one.
I. The Growing Divide
Anyone who has driven through the new neighborhoods
filled with “McMansions” that have arisen near most cities,
or seen the brisk business that luxury stores are doing, has
an anecdotal sense that some Americans are making a lot
of money right now.
But there is no need to rely on anecdotal evidence.
Thomas Piketty, of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris,
and Emmanuel Saez of the University of California at Berkeley
recently updated their groundbreaking study on income
inequality(pdf), and their findings are striking.
The new figures show that from 2003 to 2004, the latest
year for which there is data, the richest Americans pulled
far ahead of everyone else. In the space of that one year,
real average income for the top 1 percent of households —
those making more than $315,000 in 2004 — grew by
nearly 17 percent. For the remaining 99 percent, the
average gain was less than 3 percent, and that probably
makes things look better than they really are, since other
data, most notably from the Census Bureau, indicate that
the average is bolstered by large gains among the top
20 percent of households. In all, the top 1 percent of
households enjoyed 36 percent of all income gains in
2004, on top of an already stunning 30 percent in 2003.
Some of the gains at the top reflect capitalism’s robust
reward for the founders of companies like Microsoft,
Google and Dell. But most of it is due to the unprecedented
largesse being heaped on executives and professionals,
in the form of salary, bonuses and stock options. A recent
study done for the Business Roundtable(pdf), a lobbying
group for chief executives, shows that median executive
pay at 350 large public companies was $6.8 million in 2005.
According to the Wall Street Journal, that’s 179 times the
pay of the average American worker. The study is intended
to rebut much higher estimates made by other researchers,
but it does little to quell the sense that executive pay is out
of whack. As the Journal's Alan Murray pointed out recently,
the study’s calculation of executive pay is widely criticized
as an understatement because, as a measurement of the
median, it is largely unaffected by the eight or nine-digit
pay packages that have dominated the headlines of late.
Rich people are also being made richer, recent government
data shows, by strong returns on investment income.
In 2003, the latest year for which figures are available,
the top 1 percent of households owned 57.5 percent
of corporate wealth, generally dividends and capital
gains, up from 53.4 percent a year earlier.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington
think tank, compared the latest data from Mr. Piketty
and Mr. Saez to comprehensive reports on income trends
from the Congressional Budget Office. Every way it sliced
the data, it found a striking share of total income
concentrated at the top(pdf) of the income ladder
as of 2004.
• The top 10 percent of households had 46 percent
of the nation’s income, their biggest share in all but
two of the last 70 years.
• The top 1 percent of households had 19.5 percent
(see graph).
• The top one-tenth of 1 percent of households actually
received nearly half of the increased share going
to the top 1 percent.
These disparaties seem large, and they are. (Though
the latest availabe data is from 2004, there are virtually
no signs that the basic trend has changed since then.)
The top 1 percent held a bigger share of total income
than at any time since 1929, except for 1999 and 2000
during the tech stock bubble. But what makes today's
disparities particularly brutal is that unlike the last bull
market of the late 1990's — when a proverbial rising
tide was lifting all boats — the rich have been the only
winners lately. According to an analysis by Goldman
Sachs, for most American households — the bottom
60 percent — average income grew by less than 20
percent from 1979 to 2004, with virtually all of those
gains occurring from the mid- to late 1990's. Before
and since, real incomes for that group have basically
flatlined.
The best-off Americans are not only winning by an
extraordinary margin right now. They are the only
ones who are winning at all.
The result has been, as Andrew Hacker, a political
science professor at Queens College, has observed
in a recent article in the New York Review of Books,
“more billionaires, more millionaires and more six-
figure families.”
As income has become more concentrated at the top,
overall wealth has also become more skewed. According
to the latest installation of a survey(pdf) that the Federal
Reserve has conducted every three years since 1989,
the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans accounted for 33.4
percent of total net worth in 2004, compared to 30.1 percent
in 1989. Over the same period, the other Americans in the
top 10 percent saw their share of the nation’s net worth
basically stagnate, at about 36 percent, while the bottom
50 percent accounted for just 2.5 percent of the wealth
in 2004, compared to 3.0 percent in 1989.
II. A Brief History of Income Inequality
While it has long been the case that the rich do better
than everyone else, it has not always been true that,
in the process, the poor get poorer and the middle
class gets squeezed. In post-World War II America,
between 1947 and the early 1970’s, all income groups
shared in the nation’s economic growth. Poor families
actually had a higher growth in real annual income
than other groups.
Part of the reason was a sharp rise in labor productivity.
As workers produced more, the economy grew and
so did compensation — wages, salaries and benefits
(see graph). This link between productivity gains and
income gains was not automatic. Government policies
worked to ensure that productivity gains translated into
more pay for Americans at all levels, including regular
increases in the minimum wage and greater investment
in the social safety net. Full employment was also
a government priority. And, of course, unions were
strong back then, giving workers bargaining power.
From the mid-1970’s until 1995, the trend reversed.
The gap between the rich and poor widened at a rapid
clip. The upper echelons — generally the top 20 percent
of American households — experienced steady gains,
while families in the bottom 40 percent were faced with
declining or stagnating incomes.
The growing divide coincided with a slowdown in
productivity growth and a reversal in the government
policies that had been promoting income equality.
Legislators balked at raising the minimum wage and
the earned income tax credit, a feature of the tax code
that rewards the working poor by ensuring that work
pays better than welfare. During the “supply side” era
in the 1980’s, fostered by the policies of Ronald Reagan,
taxes became less progressive. The goal of full employment
was eclipsed by a focus on inflation fighting that remains
to this day.
As trade began to play an ever bigger role in the American
economy, manufacturing jobs diminished and labor unions
declined, reducing workers’ clout in setting compensation.
Regulatory laxness reached its apex in the fiscal disaster
of the savings and loan meltdown, which drained public
resources from socially and economically useful programs
and polices.
The trend toward increasing inequality was interrupted,
briefly, in the late 1990’s. Productivity growth rebounded,
and for a half decade, all income groups participated in
the prosperity. Even then, the richest Americans had the
best run, propelled largely by stock market gains. In fact,
when the stock market hit its all time high in 2000, post-
war income concentration also peaked.
But government policies of the day helped to ensure that
the lower rungs also had a boost. Clinton-era welfare
reforms are often cast as a success story of market-based
incentives. But in fact, they were supported by a big increase
in the earned income tax credit to help solidify the transition
from welfare to work. At the same time, budget deficits
were conquered by shared sacrifice — a mix of tax increases
and spending cuts affecting all groups. The combination
of economic growth and fiscal discipline spurred robust
hiring and, if it had endured, could also have strengthened
the Social Security safety net by allowing the government
to pay down its debts.
That seems like ancient history now. Nearly everyone’s
income fell in 2001 and 2002, due to the bursting of the
Internet bubble in 2000, recession in 2001 and the ensuing
jobless recovery.
In the last few years, though, the trend toward inequality
has reasserted itself — with a vengeance.
III. Inequality During the Bush Years
For the last few years, the tide has been rising again,
but most boats have been staying where they are, or
sinking. One key reason is that the link between rising
productivity and broad economic prosperity has been
severed. Take another look at this graph. During the years
that George W. Bush has been in the White House, productivity
growth has been stronger than ever. But the real compensation
of all but the top 20 percent of income earners has been
flat or falling. Gains in wages, salaries and benefits have
been increasingly concentrated at the uppermost rungs
of the income ladder.
The Bush administration would like you to believe that the
situation will correct itself. Most recently, the new Treasury
secretary, Henry M. Paulson, Jr., reiterated the administration’s
viewpoint at his confirmation hearing in June when he said
that “economic growth, job growth, productivity growth,
hopefully will be followed by increases in wage income.”
Well, hoping certainly won’t make it so.
Neither will growth alone. As the post-World War II history
of income inequality illustrates, productivity improvement
is only one piece of the prosperity puzzle. The economic
health of most American families also depends greatly on
what government does. If it merely “gets out of the way,”
inequality is bound to persist and — if recent results are
any indication of future performance — worsen.
The Bush administration, though, has not even done anything
as benign as get out of the way. The policies it has pursued —
affirmatively and aggressively — have widened the gap
between rich and poor.
A. The Tax Wedge
Tax cuts are the most obvious example. The Urban Institute-
Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center computed the combined
effects of tax cut legislation from 2001, 2003 and 2006.
The tax cuts’ contribution to the income gap was significant.
In 2006, the average tax cut for households with incomes
of more than $1 million — the top two-tenths of 1 percent —
is $112,000 which works out to a boost of 5.7 percent in after
tax income. That’s considerably higher than the 5 percent boost
garnered by the top 1 percent. It’s far greater than the 2.5
percent increase of the middle fifth of households, and fully
19 times greater than the 0.3 percent gain of the poorest
fifth of households.
The disparities are driven by tax cuts that overwhelmingly
benefit the most affluent. In 2006, for instance, a tax cut took
effect that allows high income households — those with incomes
above $200,000 — to take bigger write offs for their children
and other expenses, like mortgage interest on a second home.
And increasingly, tax cuts are aimed at allowing America’s
wealthiest families to amass dynastic wealth — estates
to transfer from one generation to the next virtually
untouched by taxes. The most obvious example is the
gradual reduction in the estate tax that is scheduled through
2010 (and regular attempts to abolish the estate tax altogether).
Another huge, though lesser noted example, is the law passed
last May allowing all Americans to shelter money in a tax-favored
Roth I.R.A. Under previous law, Roths had been off limits
to wealthy Americans, precisely because the government
did not want to help people amass big estates under the
guise of saving for retirement. That sound principle has
now been turned on its head.
B. The Assault on Programs for the Poor and Middle Class
Tax cuts are not the only policies widening the gap between
the rich and other Americans. Earlier this year, President Bush
signed into law a measure that will cut $39 billion over the next
five years from domestic programs like Medicaid and food stamps,
and $99.3 billion from 2006 to 2015.
The president and the Republican Congress have also done harm
to the finances of the poorest Americans — and to the notion
of basic fairness — by not increasing the federal minimum wage
— it has been $5.15 since 1997 While C.E.O. salaries have been
soaring, the take-home pay of waitresses and janitors has been
hit hard by inflation.
The Bush administration has also been trying, with mixed
success so far, to pursue other policies that would have the
effect of shifting money to the rich. The most ominous is its
often-repeated desire to “address our long-term unfunded
entitlement obligations.” That’s code for making tax cuts
for the wealthy permanent while cutting Social Security,
which has for 70 years been a major factor in keeping
Americans financially secure in their old age.
In 2004, over the objections of Congress, the administration
overturned time-and-a-half regulation for overtime.
For a brief period after Hurricane Katrina, the president
suspended by executive proclamation the law that requires
federal contractors to pay workers the locally prevailing wage,
until Congress objected. For three months after Katrina,
the Labor Department suspended the law requiring federal
contractors to have an affirmative action hiring plan —
an invitation to discrimination and, as such, to income
inequality.
C. The Too-Easy Answer
When confronted with evidence of growing income
inequality, Bush administration officials invariably say
the answer is more and better education. “We are starting
to see that the income gap is largely an education gap,”
said Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman, in a typical
retort last January when tax data showed an increasing
concentration of wealth among the highest-income
Americans.
Education is critically important to individuals, society,
the economy and democracy itself, and deserves strong
government support. But it is neither a satisfactory
explanation, nor a remedy, for today's income inequality.
There is a strong correlation between one's level of
education and one's earning power. The Bush administration
is assuming that the correlation will continue to hold in
an ever more globalized economy. Writing in the March/April
issue of Foreign Affairs, Princeton economist Alan S. Blinder,
a former vice-chairman of the Federal Reserve, explains why
that view may be mistaken:
"Other things being equal, education and skills are, of
course, good things; education yields higher returns
in advanced societies, and more schooling probably
makes workers more flexible and more adaptable to change.
But the problem with relying on education as the remedy
for job losses is that 'other things' are not remotely close
to equal. The critical divide in the future may instead be
between those types of work that are easily deliverable
through a wire (or via a wireless connection) with little
or no diminution in quality and those that are not. And
this unconventional divide does not correspond well to
traditional distinctions between jobs that require high
levels of education and jobs that don’t."
There is already evidence that the benefits of education
are not as straightforward as many people seem to believe
they are. In his review of "Inequality Matters," a collection
essays commissioned by Demos, a public policy research
and advocacy organization, Mr. Hacker, the Queens College
political science professor, cited findings from the Bureau
of Labor Statistics to show that many college graduates now
hold jobs that once required only a high school diploma.
Today, according to the bureau, 37 percent of flight attendants
have completed college, as have 35 percent of tour escorts,
21 percent of embalmers, and 13 percent of both security
guards and casino dealers. Mr. Hacker notes that more
people are expected to earn college degrees in preparation
for well-paying professions. “But we cannot expect the
economy will automatically create better-paid positions
to match the cohort acquiring higher education,” he writes.
Underscoring the point, the Bush administration's own
Economic Report of the President in 2006 shows that
average annual earnings of college graduates fell by
5 percent from 2000 to 2004. In those four years, the
difference between the average yearly pay of a college
graduate and a high school graduate shrank from 93
percent to 80 percent.
Education is vital. But as Mr. Blinder put it, it “is far
from a panacea.”
IV. The Future of Income Inequality
The fast-growing gap between the rich and poor and
middle-class Americans is not something that has just
happened. The Bush policies are an attempt to dismantle
the institutions and norms that have long worked
to ameliorate inequities — progressive taxation, the
minimum wage, Social Security, Medicaid and so on.
The aims that can’t be accomplished outright — like
cuts in Social Security — are being teed up by running
deficits that could force the shrinkage of government
programs, even though the public would not likely
condone many such cuts unless compelled to by
a fiscal crisis.
Such policies are grounded in an ideology that began
taking shape some 30 years ago, when economic policy
makers began to disdain the notion of harnessing and
protecting society’s collective potential in favor
of crafting incentives to align individuals’ interests
with those of the market. This campaign has gone
by many names — “starve the beast,” or “repeal the
New Deal.” Economist Jared Bernstein of the Economic
Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, calls that
approach “you’re on your own,” or YOYO, and has
written a book calling for a new way, dubbed “we’re
in this together,” or WITT. (Click here for excerpts from
“All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy,”
by Jared Bernstein.)
At issue, in economic terms, is the tradeoff between
equality and efficiency: It can be difficult to divide the
economic pie more equally without reducing the size
of the pie. But it’s not impossible, and doing so is crucial
for widespread prosperity. A fair and well-functioning
economy will always involve some inequality, which acts
a motivator and can be explained by differences in risk-
taking, ability and work intensity. But inequality
is generally deemed to be dangerous — socially,
economically, (and, perhaps, politically) — when
it becomes so extreme as to be self-reinforcing,
as many researchers suggest is currently the case.
The problem now is that most any attempt to reduce
inequality — even a measly increase in the minimum wage
— is rejected as misguided. And policies that under one
set of economic conditions might allow for a justifiable
modicum of inequality are pursued beyond all reason.
For instance, the rationale for the tax cuts in 2001 was
to return the budget surplus that Mr. Bush inherited
from President Clinton. The rationale for the tax cuts
in 2002 and 2003 and 2006 was to stimulate the
economy. The surplus has long since been replaced
by big deficits, the jobless recovery ended three years
ago and inequality is on the rise. But tax cutting that
overwhelmingly benefits the rich continues because,
we’re told, failure to keep cutting taxes would, somehow,
shrink the pie. As Mr. Bernstein of the Economic Policy
Institute has put it: “Economics, once an elegant and
sensible set of ideas and principles devoted to shaping
outcomes for the betterment of society, has been reduced
to a restrictive set of ideologically inspired rules devoted
to an explanation of why we cannot take the necessary
steps to meet the challenges we face.”
Hear, hear.
Lela Moore provided research for this article.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
8) Hezbollah Rides a New Popularity
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
*BEIRUT, Aug 7 (IPS) - As the war in Lebanon approaches the one-month
mark, and amid the destruction of much of Lebanon, Hezbollah appears to
be gaining strength within the country and around the Arab world.*
The Israeli aim of widespread bombing of the Lebanese infrastructure in
order to create resentment against Hezbollah seems to have played into
the strengths of Hezbollah.
Hezbollah, known in many western countries as a "terrorist
organisation", is widely seen in Lebanon as a legitimate political and
social power.
One reason for this, according to an official representative of
Hezbollah and member of the Lebanese Parliament, is that Hezbollah has
never aimed to turn Lebanon into an Islamic state.
"Hezbollah is a democratic party whose principles are based on the
Lebanese constitution," Tarad Hamade told IPS. "This means we have to
respect the cultural and religious diversity in the country. We have
never intended to establish an Islamic state."
Hamade, who is also labour minister, said: "Israel wants to terrorise
the country and inflict as much damage as possible. They call us
terrorists, at the same time as they are exercising state terrorism. Are
they not terrorists?"
More and more Lebanese are beginning to hold this view.
Lebanese see the destruction by Israelis all around them. The damage to
the civilian infrastructure will cost billions of dollars to fix.
All three of Lebanon's airports and all four of its ports have been
bombed. Damage done to houses and businesses is estimated at above a
billion dollars. At least 22 fuel and gas stations have been bombed.
Scores of factories have been damaged or destroyed.
Red Cross ambulances, government emergency centres, UN peacekeeping
forces and observers, media outlets and mobile phone towers have been
bombed -- all in violation of international law.
Mosques and churches have been bombed, and illegal weapons such as
cluster bombs and white phosphorous used. More than 90 percent of those
killed, close to 1,000 according to official estimates, are civilians.
The result is that rather than pressuring Hezbollah by destroying
Lebanon, Israel has increased popular support for the group, and brought
the wishes of most Lebanese more in line with the stated goals of
Hezbollah to keep Israel at bay.
With Hezbollah engaged in at least 60 percent of the relief efforts in
Lebanon, the kind of work that gave it power in the first place is now
only increasing its popularity.
Israel could also have fallen for the military strategy of Hezbollah.
Hezbollah would like nothing more than to engage the Israeli military in
a guerrilla war in southern Lebanon - and this has begun already now
that Israeli troops are in the south, and suffering casualties.
Hamade says Hezbollah's stated demands for a ceasefire are simple and
have remained unchanged since the beginning of the conflict.
"There can only be ceasefire if Israel stops firing as soon as possible,
accepts an exchange of prisoners and leaves Lebanon." But more than
10,000 Israeli troops now occupy parts of southern Lebanon, widespread
air strikes continue, and Israel refuses a prisoner exchange.
IPS recently interviewed a Hezbollah fighter who asked to be called
"Ahmed". The Israeli aggression has only made him a more determined fighter.
"I care about my people, my country, and I'm defending them from the
aggression," he said. "My home now in Dahaya (southern Beirut) is in
ruins. Everything in my life is destroyed now, so I will fight them."
Like most followers of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Ahmed said:
"We are all with him. He has given us belief and hope that we can push
the Zionists out of Lebanon, and keep them out forever. He has given me
purpose."
He added: "We are like the French resistance against the Nazis."
Mohamed Slaibi, a 21-year-old business student at the American
University of Beirut (AUB), said that he has never supported Hezbollah,
but he now feels it is their right to defend Lebanon.
"And now I feel betrayed by America," Slaibi said. "The U.S. supports
Israel 100 percent in everything they do. Even though my dream was to go
to the U.S., and I study at AUB, now I hate the Americans for supporting
Israel."
This is just the kind of sentiment that Israel did not want to provoke.
And it has been caused by the extent of the Israeli aggression. In the
past Israeli attacks were aimed primarily at Hezbollah, but now all
Lebanese people are suffering.
It is well known that Hezbollah enjoys strong political support from
Syria and Iran, and likely receives arms and munitions from those
countries, but more than ever it is enjoying the support of the Lebanese
people.
And it certainly seems to have resources. "Some of it is donations from
the Lebanese people," Hamade said. "Some of it is revenues from
companies established by Hezbollah. In addition, Muslims pay 'Zaqaat' (a
voluntary donation for the cause of religion). The arms we can buy on
the market. There is an endless supply of arms."
Hezbollah can of course not match Israel in weaponry. "We might not be
as powerful as the Israeli army but we will fight until we die," Hamade
said.
(c)2006 Dahr Jamail.
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9) Stymied on the Castro Beat: Few See Behind the Curtain
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
THE NEW YORK TIMES
August 7, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/07/business/media/07cuban.html?ref=business
[The U.S. media, which for the most part has participated in the
blockade through indifference to Cuba throught the years, is now
paying the price for their indifference. The Cubans have allowed
foreign journalists in who have spent years here bashing Cuba in
an endless cycle of boring and predictable commentaries. Now that
we're in a new state, these news outlets, which tried to ignore
Cuba when not reviling it, think Cuba should simply roll over and
play dead, opening their doors to everyone who wants to come here
and write about the buildings which need paint and the salaries
which aren't enough to go to Wal-Mart and so on. Sorry, but with
all due modesty, my committment is to be here for extended periods
of time, and to share both my own impressions and those of others
who write, good and bad, about life in this country.
The Cuban Revolution is a good thing, all sorts of reasons, but
this country has plenty of problems and contradictions, big and
small, serious and frivolous. The more time I spend here, the
more I know how little I know. But what little I know is a whole
lot more than the nearly nothing these wiseacres who just show up
and rant hysterically know. Their reportage is constantly filled
with the crudest factual errors. My home town newspaper, for one
example, sent the editor of their Sunday opinion section here not
long ago. He couldn't even get Alarcon's name right! Now what we
see is that these outlets are getting a taste of Cuban sovereignty,
something for which they have expressed contempt all all along and
they don't like it. For Cuba, there are some things which are more
important than money, the few lousy dollars which these newspaper
presstitutes would put into a hotel. Cuba allows CBS and NBC to
have bureaus here. AP, Reuters, and the Sun-Sentinel have also had
bureaus here. They write about the dissidents, about long line and
other problems in Cuban life, but they at least display a modicum
of committment by keeping people here full-time. The Sun-Sentinel's
Vanessa Bauza took a sabbatical. They sent a couple of people who
stayed for a couple of weeks, but didn't fill her slot. Well don't
blame Cuba for that.
Furthermore, Washington won't allow most people to come to Cuba to
see it for themselves. Ordinary people. It won't even allow Cuban
Americans to come to see their families except under extremely
limiting and infrequent conditions. Washington won't allow Cubans
to visit the United States, without paying a NON-REFUNDABLE $200
fee JUST TO HAVE AN INTERVIEW at the U.S. Interests Section, and,
in most cases, to have that request denied, but Washington keeps
the $200.00. All of these factors are ignored by such reporting as
what we read here in the New York Slimes.
If they would like to be able to come to Cuba, start writing about
the travel ban! Start demanding Washington allow Cubans to come to
visit the United States, and not have to pay $200.00 JUST TO ASK!
Cuba is a sovereign nation. Anyone who wants to write about this
country with a Havana by-line, something which gives the articles
a touch of authenticity, has to ask for and receive PERMISSION to
do that from Cuba's government. Cuba is a sovereign nation.
Deal with it!
Walter Lippmann, CubaNews
http://www.walterlippmann.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews]
Stymied on the Castro Beat: Few See Behind the Curtain
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
THE NEW YORK TIMES
August 7, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/07/business/media/07cuban.html?ref=business
With one of the biggest events in Cuban history now unfolding ˜ the
provisional, and perhaps permanent, transition of power from Fidel
Castro to his brother Raúl ˜ many news organizations in the United
States are scrambling to cover the situation in a Communist country
that bars most American reporters.
The wire services that serve American newspapers, chiefly The
Associated Press but also Reuters, have bureaus in Havana ˜ as does
CNN ˜ but they are the exceptions.
Reporters are at the mercy of the Castro government in getting
working visas, and most are unsuccessful. At least a dozen reporters
have sought to enter the country on tourist visas and been turned
away at the airport; a few have slipped through and have been
operating in the island nation sub rosa, which hampers their ability
to report fully.
One news executive said that scores of journalists, perhaps hundreds
of them, were in Cancún, Mexico, waiting for permission to enter the
country. Some news organizations, including The Washington Post, are
using reporters already accredited and based in Havana. Others,
including The New York Times, are using employees in Havana who are
not identified, for what The Times says are security reasons.
The Chicago Tribune and The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, both owned
by the Tribune Company, appear to be the only two major American
newspapers with a bureau in Havana. Those two papers, along with The
Dallas Morning News, set up operations in 2001 after a decade of
courting Cuban officials; they were the first there in four decades.
(The Dallas paper closed its bureau last year for budget reasons.)
Gary Marx, The Tribune‚s man in Havana, has been filing reports
regularly since Mr. Castro underwent surgery last week. Unfortunately
for The Sun-Sentinel, it had no one in Cuba at the time, a spokesman
said.
While Cuba granted The Sun-Sentinel, in Fort Lauderdale, a presence,
it has withheld such permission from The Miami Herald (owned by the
McClatchy Company). Miami is home to the largest population of Cuban
exiles in the country.
Juan O. Tamayo, chief of correspondents for The Herald, said that
Cuban officials regarded the paper with suspicion. „They want to try
to put their message out forcefully through the media, and we here in
Miami simply know too much and need to cover Cuba too intensely to
fit their needs,‰ he said.
The Herald is still trying to get reporters into Cuba, he said, „but
we‚re having problems with visas.‰
To view the current thirty CubaNews messages:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/messages
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
10) Rodeo in Salem gets unexpected song rendition
A man purportedly from Kazakhstan launched into a diatribe
instead of "The Star-Spangled Banner."
By Laurence Hammack
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/xp-16655
No one knows for sure who he was, that Middle Eastern man
in an American flag shirt and a cowboy hat who was supposed
to sing the national anthem at a rodeo Friday night in the
Salem Civic Center.
But he sure shook up this town before leaving in a hurry.
Introduced as Boraq Sagdiyev from Kazakhstan, he was said
to be an immigrant touring America. A film crew was with him,
doing some sort of documentary. And he wanted to sing
"The Star-Spangled Banner" to show his appreciation,
the announcer told the crowd.
Speaking in broken English, the mysterious man first told the
decidedly pro-American crowd - it was a rodeo, of all things,
in Salem, of all places - that he supported the war on terrorism.
"I hope you kill every man, woman and child in Iraq, down
to the lizards," he said, according to Brett Sharp of Star
Country WSLC, who was also on stage that night as a media
sponsor of the rodeo.
An uneasy murmur ran through the crowd.
"And may George W. Bush drink the blood of every man,
woman and child in Iraq," he continued, according to Robynn
Jaymes, who co-hosts a morning radio show with Sharp and
was also among the stunned observers.
The crowd's reaction was loud enough for John Saunders,
the civic center's assistant director, to hear from the front
office. "It was a restless kind of booing," Saunders said.
Then the man took off his hat and sang what he said was his
native national anthem. He then told the crowd to be seated,
put his hat back on, and launched into a butchered version
of "The Star-Spangled Banner" that ended with the words
"your home in the grave," Sharp said.
By then, a restless crowd had turned downright nasty.
"If he had been out there a minute longer, I think somebody
would have shot him," Jaymes said. "People were booing
him, flipping him off."
Rodeo producer Bobby Rowe, who by then had figured out
that he was the victim of some kind of hoax, had the man
escorted out of the civic center. Rowe told him that he and
his film friends had best leave right then.
"Had we not gotten them out of there, there would have been
a riot," said Rowe, who has been bringing his Imperial Rodeo
Productions to Salem for years.
As his wife, Lenore, put it: "It's a wonder one of these cowboys
didn't go out there and rope him up."
Saunders agreed. "I was concerned for his personal
safety," he said.
Once the film crew members and their star realized the
severity of the situation, Bobby Rowe said, "they loaded
up the van and they screeched out of there."
After apologizing to the crowd for being duped, Rowe was
left to wonder who pulled such a hoax, and why. Months ago,
he was approached by someone from One America, a California
-based film company that was reportedly doing a documentary
on a Russian immigrant, Rowe said.
The outfit asked if Sagdiyev could sing the national anthem
at the rodeo in Salem. After listening to a tape, Rowe said sure.
By Saturday afternoon, Jaymes had observed that Sagdiyev looked
a lot like the title character of "Da Ali G Show," a Home Box Office
production that often catches its guests and audiences unaware
and then records their reaction to "shock value" material such
as Friday night's performance.
The show has a character named Borat from Kazakhstan,
according to the HBO Web site.
Jaymes said she recalls that one of the five cameras was
turned on her and others on stage, as if to catch their reactions.
"I looked at Brett and said, 'Why do I feel like I'm in the middle
of a bad "Saturday Night Live" episode?'" Jaymes said.
As Rowe prepared Saturday for a second night of the rodeo,
he was playing it safe on who would sing the national anthem.
"It'll be a tape," he said.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
11) Hezbollah, a Discussion on "Marxmail", a Marxist discussion list:
marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Andy asks what explains the relative success of Hezbollah?
In just trying to be helpful, I note:
Hezbollah had the heroic example of the pre-Oslo Palestinian resistance.
It had a pool of 400,000 Palestians in Lebanon, the poorest of the poor
forced to be outcasts living in refugee camps, but sustaining a proud
national heritage. Hezbollah was far enough away from Israel to escape
the remorseless assassinations that Israel has used to decapitate the
Palestinian resistance. Since the outbreak of the second intifada 6
years ago, Israel has murdered over 200 Palestinian leaders at the rate
of several each month. Since the prominate "leaders" of the Palestinian
Authority were left untouched, this practice severely distorted the
cohesiveness of the resistance movements.
The demographics of Lebanon made it possible for Hezbollah to establish
safe areas for its operations and still participate in the normal
economic life of the country. In contrast, Israel controled the economic
life of all Palestinians except for those employed by the PA itself, and
most of those jobs (the military and police) went to loyalists who had
been in exile with Arafat.
There are many other significant differences between the conditions
facing the Palestinians in Palestine and the Lebonese Arabs in Lebanon,
differences bearing on the subjective factor -- the leaderships. Among
them are the influence of Syria, the partial but important defeat of the
semi-fascist Maronite forces, the use by Israel of the terror tactic of
arbitrary arrest and detention, the Israeli use of spys and double
agents, and so forth.
As for the popularity of Nasrallah, where would Marwan Barghouti be if
the Israelis let him out of jail? Even before Arafat's death, the polls
placed Barghouti far above any other leader in Palestine. Among the
assassinated leaders:
Shaikh Khalil, (Islamic Jihad)
Osama Jawabri (Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade)
Nayef Abu Sharkh (Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade)
Abu Ali Mustafa (PFLP)
Abdul Aziz al Rantisi. (Hamas)
Shiekh Ahmed Yassin (considered the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas)
and hundreds more.
We should never discount the effectiveness of state terror.
--rod
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
12) Peaceful succession underway in Cuba: official
By Anthony Boadle
August 7, 2006
http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=1NZBQTPC5PWPECRBAELCFFA?type=topNews&storyID=13105991
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban officials on Monday mocked opponents
who had hoped that unrest would erupt in the Communist-ruled
nation following the hospitalization of veteran leader Fidel Castro.
In the latest of several messages from Washington aimed
at encouraging Cubans to push for change, President Bush
said Cubans should decide their own form of government.
A leading intellectual and Cuban government member said
the country had set in motion a "peaceful succession" --
the first official to use the word succession. It was not clear
whether his use of the term implied that Castro's handover
of power to his brother Raul will turn out to be permanent.
Fidel Castro remained convalescing out of sight on Monday,
one week after surgery for internal bleeding forced him
to put Raul Castro provisionally in charge of the island
he has dominated for 47 years.
Senior officials have in the past few days assured Cubans
that Castro, who is due to turn 80 next Sunday, is on the
road to recovery.
The news of his illness last Monday stunned the nation
of 11 million people and prompted heated speculation
in Cuba, in the exile bastion of Miami, and beyond over
Cuba's future political course.
Roberto Fernandez Retamar, a writer and member of the
Council of State, said the U.S. government had expected
chaos after Castro handed over power to his brother.
"They had not expected that a peaceful succession was
possible. A peaceful succession has taken place in
Cuba," he told a news conference.
National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon expressed
satisfaction that a potentially difficult situation had been
handled smoothly and took a dig at Castro's opponents.
"All those who have been dreaming, or trying to fool the
world and put out the idea that something terrible would
happen in Cuba, that people would take to the streets, that
there would be great instability, all those the door slammed
on them and they must have very swollen hands now,"
Alarcon said, speaking on Venezuela's Telesur network.
BUSH SAYS CUBANS SHOULD CHOOSE
In the United States, Bush said it was up to Cubans to decide
to move from one-party rule to democracy.
"Our desire for the Cuban people is to be able to choose their
own form of government ... and we will make this very clear,
as Cuba has the possibility of transforming itself from a tyrannical
situation to a different type of society, the Cuban people ought
to decide," Bush told a news conference.
Washington has been trying for decades to oust Castro through
various means, but U.S. officials last week said it had no plans
for a military intervention nor would it otherwise interfere.
One of the world's longest-ruling leaders, Castro is admired
in many developing countries as a fighter for social justice.
His many critics, most notably the United States and Cuban
exiles in Miami, see him as a tyrant who has stifled freedoms
and brought Cuba to the verge of economic ruin.
Raul Castro, the 75-year-old defense minister, has not been s
een or heard in public since last Monday but state media has
been building up his image with flattering articles.
The Cuban government has not revealed the exact nature
of Castro's illness on grounds that it is a state secret.
The surgery was announced on July 31 to have been
for internal bleeding caused by overwork and stress.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
13) After Bomb Kills Loved Ones, Life Turns Ghostly
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
August 8, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/08/world/middleeast/08survivor.html?hp&ex=1155096000&en=92eb48bd10cc7b1e&ei=5094&partner=homepage
TYRE, Lebanon, Aug. 7 — After a bomb hits, the remains of a life are modest.
Ghazi Samra, a fisherman, is feeling the new shape of his. Last month,
his wife, one of his daughters and a granddaughter were killed in an
Israeli airstrike. Since then, his life has shrunk to the size of one
crooked city block. He tries to sleep in an apartment that is not his
own. He wears his wife’s glasses, more out of a craving for closeness
to her than as an aid to see. The shirt and shorts he is wearing are
his brother’s. He has not felt able to return to his own apartment.
“I became a different person,” said Mr. Samra, sitting on a battered
chair in a local gathering space at the intersection of two narrow
stone streets. “I can’t talk with my children. I’m not wearing my
own clothes.”
Across Lebanon and Israel, missiles, rockets and bombs have
punched holes into families and, slowly, painstakingly, the survivors
are trying to put themselves back together again. It is a quiet
process that unfolds in the private space of people’s lives. It is
full of ache and of empty places. It is a major consequence of
war that often goes unnoticed, after the flash of bombs and
the headlines that chronicle them fade away.
For Mr. Samra, who is 50, the healing is happening in a warren
of narrow stone streets in the old section of this town. He begins
his day with a short walk down a narrow alley to the place,
several doorways down, where he passes the hours. He walks
slowly, in leather sandals, usually smoking a cigarette. It is
supposed to be an exercise in forgetting, but often it is the
first few minutes of another day full of extremely painful
memories.
Those memories began on the late afternoon of July 16, when
his wife, a granddaughter and four of his children, afraid
of a possible airstrike, sought shelter in the basement of a
nearby building, as theirs lacked one. The building housed
the main office for the city’s emergency workers, and the
family felt sure it would be safe.
They were wrong. Around 5:30 p.m., missiles struck the
building’s foundations and its top floors. Residents now
say a Hezbollah official may have been living there. There
was no response from the Israeli Defense Ministry to
a request, submitted last week, for comment about the target.
Mr. Samra had been sitting with friends elsewhere. He raced
to the building and frantically began to dig. He found his
5-year-old daughter, Sally, torn apart. Her torso and an
arm lay separate from her legs. Another daughter, Noor, 8,
was moving under the rubble. His granddaughter Lynn,
not yet 2, had part of her face smashed. His wife,
Alia Waabi, had died immediately.
Two other daughters, Zahra and Mirna, made it to safety,
though Zahra was badly injured.
“This is my family,” he said, his face creased, sitting under
the eaves of the stone houses. “Three of them are buried
and three of them are in hospitals.”
After the adrenaline of the rescue and its aftermath fell
away, Mr. Samra sank into blankness. He could not focus
on anything. He had trouble remembering things.
His vision seemed to blur.
He found it difficult to process what had happened. One
thing that keeps him from mourning properly is that his
wife and daughter will not be able to have a proper burial
until the violence has died down. They were temporarily
buried in an empty lot with dozens of others. They were
assigned numbers. Alia is No. 35 and Sally is No. 67.
“They are numbers now,’’ he said. “There are no names
anymore.”
He tried twice to return to his apartment, but he turned
back both times. On Sunday, his friend opened it for
a visitor. The rooms were still neatly composed, life
suspended. Dishes were done. Laundry — tiny pink pants,
a head scarf, a bra — was hanging on lines. But details
showed something was wrong. The clothes were dusty
from the pulverized concrete and soot of the explosion.
A bowl of cucumbers and a pot of beans in the refrigerator
were covered with mold.
As is often the case, the deaths felt arbitrary. On another
day, Mr. Samra’s family might not have gone to the building
at all. It was the first time they decided to hide. The timing
of the missile strike could not have been worse. The family
had eaten dinner early to be underground before dark.
This plunged Mr. Samra into guilt. He would often take his
family to Cyprus in times of danger, throughout Lebanon’s
fraught recent history, and briefly considered it in this case,
but assumed Tyre would be safe.
Areas hit by bombs are often a jumble of incongruities. Bread
spilled out into the road from a van that was hit by a missile
in northern Tyre on Sunday morning. The area around the
basement where Mr. Samra’s family was hit was a swirl of
household items — a shampoo bottle, a high heel from
a shoe, a shower curtain — mixed with ragged concrete
and wire.
“Regret is killing me inside,” Mr. Samra said. “I should have
taken them away.”
The rest of the family was having difficulties of its own. When
17-year-old Zahra awoke in her hospital bed, she did not know
that her mother had been killed. Mr. Samra did not have the
heart to tell her. Her face had been burned, and when she
walked into the bathroom and looked into the mirror, she
sobbed, said her brother Muhammad, who was with her.
Mr. Samra passed the afternoon watching the small
neighborhood move around him. He has not returned to
work. Muhammad has taken over visiting the hospitalized girls.
“My wife was my life,” he said, looking toward a television
set up near the couches in the narrow alley.
“My heart aches.”
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
14) Nine Passengers Are Killed in Chase at Border
By PAUL GIBLIN
[This is a clear case of murder/massacre
perpetrated and carried out by the U.S. government of
completely innocent people who were simply looking for work...bw]
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/08/us/08immig.html
PHOENIX, Aug. 7 — Nine suspected illegal immigrants were killed
and 13 others were injured after a sport utility vehicle overturned
while being pursued by Border Patrol agents near Yuma, Ariz.,
on Monday, officials said.
The vehicle, a Chevrolet Suburban, was carrying 22 people when
it flipped, said Lloyd Frers, a senior agent for the Border Patrol.
Five people died at the scene, and four died after being taken
to Yuma Regional Medical Center. Agents had spotted the vehicle
on a desert road that circumvents a Border Patrol checkpoint
on Highway 95 near the California line, Agent Frers said.
“That’s a common tactic used by smugglers,” he said. “They
either drop people and have them walk around or they try
to drive around it.”
The driver noticed that he had been detected, made a U-turn
and sped away on the dirt road through a sandy area of desert
toward the highway, the Border Patrol said.
The driver was trying to avoid a spike strip, designed to flatten
tires, when the vehicle rolled about 6:50 a.m., said Major Leon
Wilmot of the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office.
The accident is under investigation, as is the immigration
status of the passengers, Agent Frers said.
It was not immediately known how far the chase went
or what speeds it reached.
Hector Yturralde of the Arizona chapter of We Are America,
an immigrant rights group, said the pursuing agents should
face serious consequences if they are found to be at fault.
“I’d say that’s extreme measures for undocumentation,”
Mr. Yturralde said. “I never hear them doing that to these drug
smugglers that are really armed. They stay away from them.
They go after these poor, innocent people that are just trying
to get in for work.”
The Yuma area is one of the busiest spots on the United States
-Mexico border for illegal immigration, even after increased
enforcement. Agents reported 6,030 arrests in June, down
48 percent from 11,522 in June of last year.
The Border Patrol’s Yuma sector is a mostly unfenced stretch
of 118 miles lined with saguaro cactuses and dry riverbeds.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
15) LOVE, FEAR OF A DOG TEAR A FAMILY APART
S.F. officials deem pets dangerous, remove
boy from home in bizarre tale of social work
Elizabeth Fernandez, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/08/MNGGTKD03E1.DTL
Valerie Louie's nightmare started the day her young son
accidentally left their front door ajar last year.
Two of her dogs -- pit bull mixes -- ran out, and one bit
a small dog on the ear. San Francisco's animal control
department deemed the animals "vicious and dangerous,''
and eventually they were banned from Louie's Richmond
District home.
But in a bizarre snowballing of events, Louie's son, Andrew,
then 6, was removed from his home and placed in foster
care where, allegedly, an older child engaged him in sexual
behavior. Andrew eventually was permitted to move in with
his aunt, but he has not returned to his home full time
in eight months even though the dogs have been gone
the whole time.
The boy had never been bitten, harmed or even threatened
by the family pets, although Louie admits she could have
done more to supervise Andrew around the animals. Child
Protective Services officials told Louie that they were taking
the boy to a foster home because of the threat that Andrew
could be hurt by the dogs.
"My family was torn apart for purely speculative reasons,''
said Louie, 45, a registered nurse. "It is terrifying that
city agencies can have so much power against a law-abiding,
hardworking family. But the worst part of it all has been the
time between my son and me that is forever lost.''
Louie, who has filed a legal claim against the city, goes back
to court today to argue that Andrew should be allowed
to return home full time.
The case opens a window into the complex choices and
sometimes troubling outcomes of social work in San
Francisco, particularly after recent fatal accidents involving
controversial canine breeds with menacing reputations.
San Francisco officials say they intervened because they
saw a "disaster waiting to happen," a viewpoint that
interviews and documents indicate was colored by the
fatal maulings of 12-year-old Nicholas Faibish last year
and 33-year-old Diane Whipple in 2001.
In Louie's case, a minor dogfight brought into question
a mother's judgment and ability to protect her child,
involving numerous city employees and tens of thousands
of dollars in public resources. In the clash between
a strong-willed mother and well-intentioned city
agencies, one goal was shared: to safeguard a little boy.
City officials acknowledge that the matter -- depicted
as "a hot case politically'' in a confidential report reviewed
by The Chronicle -- escalated to a point no one ever sought.
"A rather small incident became a very big incident,'' said
San Francisco Police Sgt. William Herndon, who presides
over vicious animal cases with the city's Animal Care and
Control agency. "It became such a mess. This case gave
me such a headache, it just kept getting worse and worse
and worse. I think it is absolutely tragic that her son
is still not home.
"Nobody is perfect -- we aren't, Child Protective Services
isn't. But we really tried to do the right thing. Even though
there were easy solutions, we did not take them because
they were not the right solutions ...The whole crux of this
thing was whether a child was in danger.''
Some city officials maintain they did the right thing
by taking Andrew from his mother.
"We have tried to be more proactive,'' said Carl Friedman,
director of the San Francisco Department of Animal Care
and Control. "The real issue is stopping something before
it happens. The problem with that is it is hard to measure
the effect of something that doesn't happen. I think
the way we acted may have prevented a tragedy.''
Yet Louie's supporters say public agencies overreacted
to pit bull hysteria and vilified a single mother who
is devoted to her child.
"In my line of work, I see some pretty bad things. I see
kids who have been bitten by a dog but still are permitted
to stay with their parents,'' said Dr. Leslie Gershoff,
a Sacramento emergency room physician and longtime
friend of Louie's. "For Andrew to be taken and then to
be kept away such a long time is just appalling.''
Louie, who has worked at Highland Hospital in Oakland
for 18 years, admits she made mistakes. She acknowledges
twice bringing home her dogs, against the wishes of the
city's social workers, while Andrew was living there. She
also concedes she was sometimes not as vigilant as she
should have been in supervising her son with their pets.
But she says she loves her son and believes it was wrong
for her to lose him, particularly because he was placed
in a stranger's home when numerous relatives lived just
blocks away.
"Andrew has had to live in a state of anxiety and
uncertainty over his life for many months,'' she said.
"He is constantly asking can he come home for good
soon.''
Buoying her case is a court-appointed dog trainer who
said he believes the dogs pose no untoward danger.
A court-appointed psychologist has also strongly
recommended that Andrew "be returned to his mother's
care immediately. There is no threat to him at this point,
and keeping these two separated can only be punitive.''
That evaluation was written in March. But not until the
past few weeks was Andrew permitted to stay overnight
in his home -- and then only on weekends.
"It is almost like water torture,'' Louie said. "He is being
flipped back and forth.''
Based on interviews and confidential records provided
by Louie, The Chronicle reconstructed the events of the
case. It started April 26, 2005, when Cricket and Frances
ran away and Cricket -- raised by Louie since he was
a pup -- bit another dog. Louie apologized and paid
the vet bill.
But that dog's owner complained to the city, and on
June 16 -- 13 days after the death of Nicholas Faibish
-- Sgt. Herndon ordered the dogs to undergo a
"temperament evaluation.'' Later, he declared the dogs
"vicious and dangerous.''
Over the span of the next two months, Cricket was assessed
by two animal behaviorists. Both times, the experts voiced
serious alarm for Andrew's safety because the boy repeatedly
provoked the dog, poking it with toys and pulling his tail.
One expert recommended that Louie never again leave
the two alone.
"My problem, candidly, was that I did not believe the dog
was a threat to her child under normal circumstances,''
Herndon said in an interview. "If I had just taken the dog,
everyone would have gone on their merry way. But
it wasn't something I could do because it wasn't the
dog that was the problem, it was the way the child
interacted with the dog, and the mother didn't do
anything about it.''
Animal Care and Control sent a referral to Child Protective
Services on Aug. 12, 2005. Then Louie made the first
of two serious mistakes: She brought Cricket back into
her home in early September because she feared for his
health. A week later, city workers removed Cricket while
a sobbing Andrew watched.
Angered and convinced that Louie could not be trusted,
social workers sought to make Andrew a dependent
of the court. According to case records, "There is a need
for court intervention. ... The mother has minimized the
safety issues that are involved in this case.''
Commissioner William R. Gargano of the juvenile division
of San Francisco Superior Court granted the petition but
permitted Andrew to stay home.
In mid-December, Louie made her second mistake:
She temporarily brought Frances home, believing the
dog was to be euthanized.
"I thought I could find a home for her,'' she explained.
"I didn't think there was anything wrong with bringing
her back with us. The city had not mentioned anything
about Frances being an issue.''
When a caseworker visited Andrew at school Dec. 14,
the boy mentioned that Frances had come home.
The next day, while Andrew was decorating a Christmas
tree with his mother, city workers came to remove him
from the home. It was an ugly scene -- Louie was
distraught and crying.
A few days later, Andrew told his therapist that
a 12-year-old boy at the foster home subjected him
to inappropriate sexual contact. The therapist notified
CPS, and Andrew was moved to another foster home.
Louie said the agency failed to notify her about the
incident; she also said social workers claimed not
to know about Louie's nearby relatives.
Two days later, the court ordered Andrew to be placed
with his aunt and uncle.
Coincidentally, just weeks later, an audit by the city
controller found that the Department of Human Services
failed to comply with required standards, including
requirements that they visit at least 90 percent
of all foster children once a month or more. Executive
Director Trent Rhorer attributed those problems
to heavy caseloads and budget cuts.
In an interview, Rhorer said his agency, which has
2,100 children in foster care, strives to keep children
with their biological parents "whenever it is safe to
do so. It is only in cases of extreme risk or evidence
of past abuse or neglect when children are removed.''
When that happens, 53 percent are placed with
a relative, Rhorer said. Incidents of abuse while
in foster care are "very small,'' he said, amounting
to less than 1 percent of cases in San Francisco.
Rhorer said he could not specifically discuss
the Louie case.
But in a curious letter to a friend of Louie's who
had written expressing concern, Human Services
-- while citing confidentiality requirements --
discussed Andrew's alleged sexual mistreatment:
"Two child protective service workers investigated
the allegation that Ms. Louie's son was sexually
abused in a foster care placement, and they were
not able to substantiate the allegation.''
For months after her son was taken from home,
Louie visited him nightly at her sister's house,
helping him with his homework, reading him
a story. But she could not walk him to school
without supervision.
In March, she underwent an extensive psychological
evaluation.
According to the confidential report Louie shared
with The Chronicle, she "made some errors ... in her
mind, she was not putting her son in peril. She knows
dogs, and she knows the dogs in her home very well.
... However, Ms. Louie made it clear to this examiner
that she has now learned her lesson. ... She will not
again take the chance of having her son taken away
from her.''
The report pointed out that Louie had fully complied
with court orders, and it noted that Louie's case occurred
shortly after Nicholas Faibish's death: "That tragedy made
everyone in the area fearful and reinforced concern about
pit bulls. Understandably, the people involved in this case
were extremely cautious and wanted to make certain that
they did not let a similar incident occur on their watch.''
The report urged that mother and son be reunified
immediately and that Cricket also be returned home.
That did not happen. Instead, child welfare workers
contacted dog trainers to assess the dogs still living
with Louie.
Trainer John Van Olden flatly refused. "Nobody can say
definitely one way or another because it involves
an animal, and animals by nature are unpredictable,''
he said.
Veteran dog trainer Mike Wombacher was ultimately
paid $675 for five sessions with Andrew, Louie and
their three dogs.
"I wasn't there at the front end" when the case started,
he said. "But I didn't see anything in the behavior of the
dogs that would warrant the kid being taken away. There
is nothing in that house that presents any more of
a threat to Andrew than exists in any other home with
dogs in the Bay Area.''
On June 15, Louie filed a claim against the city, demanding
damages for inflicting stress, anxiety and humiliation.
Last month, Commissioner Gargano ruled that Andrew
could spend weekend nights at home. It could be decided
today whether Andrew -- and possibly Cricket -- will be
returned to the home. Another family adopted Frances
in February.
While she waits for her son to come home full time, Louie
reflected ruefully about the parenting education course
she recently completed. Her classmates, she said, included
a mother whose boyfriend beat her daughter to death and
a father who left his 3-year-old son with a known drug
addict and returned to find that the toddler had ingested
a near-lethal amount of methamphetamines.
"It was quite an education for me to listen to these people
whose lives were so different than mine,'' said Louie.
"In each of these cases, the child had suffered a great
deal of physical and emotional harm. Yet my own son
did not suffer any physical or emotional harm until Child
Protective Services came into our lives. What irony is that?''
E-mail Elizabeth Fernandez at efernandez@sfchronicle.com.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
16) Beirut-to-the-south Solidarity Convoy
Lebanon: An Open Country for Civil Resistance
From: "acpollack2@juno.com"
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2006
[Given the repeated Zionist threats to bomb everyone remaining in
southern Lebanon the courage involved in this Beirut-to-the-south
solidarity convoy is immense. And it's political potential is equally
immense.
This is a campaign which antiwar forces of many different types and
politics can unite around. We should think about setting up a special,
cross-organization support committee for the convoy, which would hold
press conferences, distribute regular updates on their activities, hold
solidarity pickets, bombard politicians with protests against the
inevitable attacks on them, etc., etc.
Andy]
Tony Alessandrini
Friends: This is the final version of the call for a
civilian presence and civilian resistance in
Lebanon--please circulate this, rather than the
previous one that I sent out. Many thanks.
Dear All,
Please distribute to the widest net of activists possible. The website
is up and running. The Arabic versions will be ready today, soon. See
you in Beirut? Thanks a million.
Rasha.
Press Release-Lebanon: An Open Country for Civil Resistance
Beirut August 7, 2006
Press Contacts:
Rasha Salti, +961 3 970855
Huwaida Arraf, +961 70 974452
Samah Idriss, +961 3 381349
Wadih Al Asmar, +961 70 950780
On August 12, at 7 am, Lebanese from throughout the country and
international supporters who have come to Lebanon to express solidarity
will gather in Martyr’s Square in Beirut to form a civilian convoy to
the south of Lebanon. Hundreds of Lebanese and international civilians
will express their solidarity with the inhabitants of the heavily
destroyed south who have been bravely withstanding the assault of the
Israeli military. This campaign is endorsed by more than 200 Lebanese
and international organizations. This growing coalition of national and
international non-governmental organizations hereby launches a campaign
of civil resistance for the purpose of challenging the cruel and
ruthless use of massive military force by Israel, the regional
superpower, upon the people of Lebanon.
August 12 marks the start of this Campaign of Resistance, declaring
Lebanon an Open Country for Civil Resistance. August 12 also marks both
the international day of protest against the Israeli aggression.
"In the face of Israel’s systematic killing of our people, the
indiscriminate bombing of our towns, the scorching of our villages, and
the attempted destruction of our civil infrastructure, we say No! In
the face of the forced expulsion of a quarter of our population from
their homes throughout Lebanon, and the complicity of governments and
international bodies, we re-affirm the acts of civil resistance that
began from the first day of the Israeli assault, and we stress and add
the urgent need to act!," said Rasha Salti, one of the organizers of
this national event.
After August 12, the campaign will continue with a series of civil
actions, leading to an August 19 civilian march to reclaim the South.
"Working together, in solidarity, we will overcome the complacency,
inaction, and complicity of the international community and we will
deny Israel its goal of removing Lebanese from their land and
destroying the fabric of our country," explained Samah Idriss, writer
and co-organizer of this campaign.
"An international civilian presence in Lebanon is not only an act of
solidarity with the Lebanese people in the face of unparalleled Israeli
aggression, it is an act of moral courage to defy the will of those who
would seek to alienate the West from the rest and create a new Middle
East out of the rubble and blood of the region," said Huwaida Arraf,
co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement and campaign
co-organizer. "After having witnessed the wholesale destruction of
villages by Israel's air force and navy and having visited the victims
(so-called displaced) of Israel's policy of cleansing Lebanese
civilians from their homes," continued Arraf, "it is imperative to go
south and reach those who have stayed behind to resist by steadfastly
remaining on their land."
If you are in Lebanon and want to sign up and join the convoy, contact
either:
Rasha Salti. Email: convois.citoyens.sud.liban@gmail.com .
Tel:
+961 3 970 855
Rania Masri. Email: rania.masri@balamand.edu.lb.
Tel: +961 3 135 279 or
+961 6 930 250 xt. 5683 or xt. 3933
If you are outside Lebanon and want to sign up and join the convoy, you
should know:
1) You need to obtain a visa for Lebanon and for Syria if your plan is
to enter Lebanon from Syria.
2) We don't have the funds to cover for the cost of your travel,
however we can help with finding accomodations.
For questions and help for all internationals please contact Adam
Shapiro at: adamsop@hotmail.com
You can also sign up on our website: www.lebanonsolidarity.org
This campaign is thus far endorsed by more than 200 organizations,
including: The Arab NGOs Network for Development (ANND), International
Solidarity Movement (ISM), Cultural Center for Southern Lebanon,
Norwegian People’s Aid, Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, Lebanese
Association for Democratic Elections, Frontiers, Kafa, Nahwa
al-Muwatiniya, Spring Hints, Hayya Bina, Lebanese Transparency
Association, Amam05, Lebanese Center for Civic Education, Let’s Build
Trust, CRTD-A, Solida, National Association for Vocational Training and
Social Services, Lebanese Development Pioneers, Nadi Li Koul Alnas, and
Lecorvaw.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
17) [AL-AWDA-News] An Urgent Appeal from Italian Scientists
Al-Awda-News@yahoogroups.com
By now are countless the reports, from hospitals, witnesses,
armament experts and journalists that strongly suggest that
in the present offensive of Israeli forces against Lebanon
and Gaza 'new weapons' are being used.
New and strange symptoms are reported in the blessed and dead.
Bodies with dead tissues and no apparent wounds; 'shrunken'
corpses; civilians with heavy damage to lower limbs that
require amputation, which is nevertheless followed by
unstoppable necrosis and death; descriptions of extensive
internal wounding with no trace of shrapnel, corpses
blackened but not burnt, and others heavily wounded
that did not bleed.
Many of these description suggest the possibility that
the new weapons used include 'direct energy' weapons,
and chemical and/or biological agents, in a sort of macabre
experiment of future warfare, where there is no respect
for anything: international rules (from the
Geneva convention to the treaties on biological and
chemical weapons), refugees, hospitals and the red cross,
not to mention the people, their future, their children,
the environment, which is poisoned through dissemination
of Depleted Uranium and toxic substances released after
oil and chemical depots are bombed.
An Urgent Appeal from Italian Scientists
Right now, the Lebanese and Palestinian people have many
urgent and impellent problems, yet many people believe
that these episodes cannot and must not pass ignored.
In fact several appeals were launched to scientists and
experts with the aim of investigating the issue.
With the intent of responding to such appeals, we have
set up a team to investigate the testimonies, the images,
and possibly the material evidence that delegations and
ONG will be able to bring from affected areas. We want
to offer support to health institutions of
Lebanon and Palestine, which ask constantly for help
and external verification and monitoring, and we are
examining all materials jet available in order to formulate
hypothesis which can be verified or disproved.
We ask for the activation of our (Italian) scientific institutions,
and, following the request from medical personnel in the
conflict area, we ask that the UN set up a international
independent verification and investigation committee,
with the possibility to enter the conflict zone, collect
material and testimonies directly on the field, and enquire
about the claims of the new kind of weapon of mass
destruction being used by the Israeli forces. We request
that such investigating teams be set up immediately, and
that procedures are defined and implemented that will
help future investigations (how to collect and store
samples form the different theatres, so that these will
preserve important information).
We ask that the international committee have access
to all sources, be operative and respect all procedures,
including crossed check from different laboratories, and
that it reports to the competent authorities, including
Human rights tribunal and international courts, if appropriate.
As people and as scientists, we are offering our time
and expertise in order to reach knowledge of the facts,
in the belief that a perspective of justice, equity and peace
among people can be reached only with the respect of
the rules defined up to now within the international
community of nations for the behavior of the parts
in an armed conflict.
We ask that the respect of these rules be verified in
the present conflict.
We invite scientists to contribute to this effort offering
their specific competences. In particular we seek
collaboration of toxicology experts, pharmacologists,
anatomy pathologists, doctors with expertise in trauma
and burns, chemists. They can reach the working group
at the E-mail address: nuovearmi@gmail.com
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
18) Who Created Israel?
Nestor Gorojovsky
nestorgoro@fibertel.com.ar
Marxmail
marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
See Also: THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF ZIONISM
BY RALPH SCHOENMAN
Essential reading for understanding the development of Zionism
and Israel in the service of British and USA imperialism.
The full text of the book can be found at:
http://www.marxists.de/middleast/schoenman/
On a rather old posting to the list, Joaquín Bustelo states that
"Israel was not created by Jews in response to
the Holocaust, it was ALSO a response by imperialism to the struggle
against colonialism."
Fact is: if by "Jews" we mean "the Jews", then Israel was not
created by Jews, period. This is an important distinction, because -
again- Zionists (either Jew or non-Jew) share this lie with anti-
Semites. And for many good reasons.
What really happened was that a group of Jews, acting on their own
interest but in the closest association with imperialist powers,
created by forcible eviction of local residents an empty container in
the Middle East. This was stuffed with Jews -afterwards-. Most of
the new residents were survivors of the European Holocaust who had
not been allowed to go to the US of America, which was their
strongest desire.
Surviving Jews were not the real winners. The Palestinian Yishuv
was, and this is an important issue.
Some Jews, with imperialist support and profiting by inter-
imperialist struggle (Britain versus US), managed to create a state
where other Jews were forcibly cowed into.
The idea that "Israel was created by Jews" is another Zionist lie.
We must always stress that it was created by "some" Jews and "imposed
on" most Jews. That many of the latter found it cozy to have "their
own" State afterwards is an entirely different story.
Some of the survivors managed to get to Argentina, Brazil or other
South American countries. "Fascist" Peronist Argentina had flung its
gates wide open to European migrants, Jews included. Conversely, the
Uruguayan record in this regard is quite revealing: Mauricio
Rosencof, a former Tupamaro (and quite tepid as regards Israel, the
invasion, etc.), has recently remembered that his country -which by
those times was in the closest alliance with the US of Am- had closed
its doors to the desperate displaced Jews in Europe. Rosencof's
family had to go to Chile first, then do the overland trip from
Santiago to Buenos Aires, cross the River, and smuggle into Uruguay.
Other European Jews bribed minor Uruguayan diplomatic personnel in
Europe to reach Montevideo. I know one such case, through an
excellent anthropological research of my friend Anabella Loy: that
of an ardent Polish Zionist who had fled the Nazis towards the USSR,
then had tried to reach Palestine -during WWII- but failed, and once
the war was over returned to Poland only to discover that the Polish
peasants were as anti-Semite as ever (the last "pogrom" took place in
a Polish city, against these ghosts that returned to seize their old
property, now in Polish hands). This man was very smart and did not
want to be "cowed into" the State of Israel "after it was created",
which was quite a different thing than being one of the "creators",
and preferred to remain a Zionist -but in faraway South America!
His family, BTW, is living in the US of Am now, in Miami
specifically, and they are right-wing Zionists, of course. This man
had been a "Left" wing Zionist in Poland, and in Uruguay he joined
the "illustrate" and "liberal" Colorado -that is Montevideo
oligarchic and overtly pro-imperialist- party.
Este correo lo ha enviado
Néstor Miguel Gorojovsky
nestorgoro@fibertel.com.ar
[No necesariamente es su autor]
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
19) As Lebanon’s Fuel Runs Out, Fears of a Doomsday Moment
By HASSAN M. FATTAH
August 9, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/world/middleeast/09lebanon.html
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Aug. 8 — Dr. Nadim Cortas saw the destruction
wrought by Lebanon’s 15-year civil war, and the shortages
of medical supplies that went with it.
But, he says, he never thought he would face a situation like this:
the respirators and critical medical equipment in his hospital
could soon come to a halt.
“This is the doomsday scenario,” said Dr. Cortas, dean of the
faculty of medicine at the American University of Beirut and vice
president for medical affairs. “We have about 10 days of power
left,” he said.
Almost one month into the siege of Lebanon, with a land,
sea and air blockade by Israel choking off the country,
fuel reserves have all but dried up.
Two ships that were to offload more than 30,000 tons each
of diesel fuel and fuel oil to crank the country’s power plants
and generators have languished in Cyprus, unable or unwilling
to enter Lebanese waters.
A large stockpile of fuel oil at the Jiyeh power plant,
just south of Beirut, was lost when Israeli warplanes
bombed it on the second day of the war, sending oil
seeping into the Mediterranean Sea or catching fire,
sending a thick plume over Beirut.
Even when authorities have been able to scrounge up diesel
fuel to power generators, trucks have not been able to deliver
it to hospitals in the south of the country because of bombed
out roadways and continuing air strikes.
The most pessimistic estimates have the country running
out of fuel for its power plants in a week; the most optimistic
give Lebanon less than a month before the blackout.
“We’re counting down the days,” said Nabil al-Asr,
a government adviser who has been focused on fuel issues
for the High Relief Council, a governmental board. “There
are going to be problems everywhere from hospitals
to water pumping. The pain will go all around.”
The blockade has affected every part of Lebanon’s economy.
Lines at gas stations now stretch for blocks in Beirut, making
filling up a half-day affair. Gasoline sold on the black market
in Beirut costs at least twice as much as usual; in the south
it can reach $100 per gallon.
Electricity is being rationed, with the power out almost
12 hours a day in some places. Lebanon’s utility company
has dropped generating output to a quarter of its capacity
just to make supplies last, Mr. Asr said. But that has only
increased demand for diesel to fuel private generators.
The menus at most restaurants have shrunk, too, as food
supplies have begun dwindling. Even diet cola is in short
supply.
Newspapers have begun to run out of newsprint, forcing
some to reduce page counts and make plans to stop printing
altogether. Even for those that can print full editions, sales
have dropped because of the difficulty of distributing them.
Nowhere have the shortages been more critical, though, than
in Lebanon’s hospitals, many of which have been forced
to close departments or turn away all but the most critical cases.
Kidney dialysis supplies have been running out, as have
stocks of heart medications and nuclear medicine for
diagnostic tests, Dr. Cortas said.
The potential loss of electrical power — both from the
national utility, Électricité du Liban, and from in-house
generators — poses the most catastrophic problem,
he and others said.
“A hospital won’t stop working because it’s missing one
or two medications — you simply find substitutes,” said
Sleiman Haroun, head of Lebanon’s association of hospital
owners, which has scrambled to find fuel and keep supply
lines running. “But a hospital will grind to a halt if it’s out
of fuel.”
The American University Hospital, the region’s pre-eminent
medical research and treatment center, never closed its
doors during the civil war or during numerous Israeli
bombardments that followed. But even here, doctors
and personnel have begun to fear a possible shutdown.
“We never thought we could get to ground zero in such
a short time,” said George Tomey, who became acting
president of the university when the school’s American
and European staff evacuated at the beginning of the war.
“I have been here for 40 years and this is the worst
it has ever been.”
By Monday, 200 of the hospital’s 325 beds were occupied.
There were between 8 and 12 patients in intensive care,
22 babies in critical condition in the neonatal ward and
at least 37 casualties from the bombings in the south.
It could take up to 20 tons of diesel fuel a day to keep
the hospital running if the main utility shuts down, says
Dr. Haroun, the hospital association official. Even smaller
hospitals need hundreds of gallons of diesel per day
to stay powered, quantities that are becoming harder find.
“Hospitals typically store 20 day’s worth of fuel — now
many have only two or three days,” Dr. Haroun said.
“Sure you can eventually find one or two days’ worth.
But then what?”
In Beirut, hospital administrators have agreed to funnel
utility power to Beirut’s four largest hospitals and leave
smaller hospitals powered by generators, said Dr. Cortas,
the medical school dean.
That decision ensures diesel supplies remain with those
hospitals, buying perhaps several more days. More
drastic plans include gathering critical patients at one
hospital that will get priority for diesel.
American University Hospital officials have also begun
to lobby the United States to pressure Israel to allow oil
tankers to sail into Beirut. The ships’ captains have refused
to enter Lebanese waters without Israeli and United Nations
guarantees. So far, however, the Israelis have not granted
the ships safe passage, Mr. Asr said.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
20) CUBAN SCENARIO
By Robert Sandels
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/53340
Several weeks after Raul Castro takes charge of the Cuban government,
we discover that the Cuban people are slow to demand their right to
pay for their medical care and education. Even more curious, they have
not asked the United States to send Transition Coordinator Caleb
McCurry to Havana to install US-style elections, labor and
environmental protection laws, and auditors from the Internal Revenue
Service.
Fidel Castro recovers from his operation but decides to leave Raul in
place. It is rumored that this is because he is dead or nearly so or
is laying a trap for the United States.
Washington and Miami are thrown into chaos because the US transition
plan for Cuba requires that everything fall apart once Fidel is no
longer in charge.
Dr. Rice, fresh from her triumphs in the Middle East, must now rush
back to Washington and revise her Commission Plan for a Free Cuba.
Under the new version, Israel will undertake precision bombing of key
military installations in Cuba as well as schools, hospitals, and
apartment buildings where known communists are thought to be hiding
out among the people.
A US-led coalition force made up of troops from Poland, Papua, and
Florida, soon crush the Iranian-trained Cuban military.
Caleb McCurry takes up his post as Coalition Provisional Authority in
Havana. McCurry, assisted by advisors Andy Garcia and Dr. Laura,
oversees the construction by Halliburton of badly needed golf courses
and beach-front condominiums. The terms of Halliburton's contract are
not disclosed for reasons of national security. The reasons for the
nondisclosure are also not disclosed for reasons of national security.
President Bush is flown in a Texas Air National Guard jet to Havana
where he declares, "All Cubanians is free at last."
Fidel and Raul Castro are tried and convicted in a Miami court for
various crimes against humanity and for the assassination of John F.
Kennedy and Jimmy Hoffa, for masterminding the destruction of the
World Trade Center, and spreading avian flu. Charges of conspiring to
cause global warming are dropped due to insufficient scientific evidence.
All adult males suspected of being Cubans are charged as enemy
combatants and are sent to Guantanamo Bay, where Halliburton is
constructing a prison complex that will eventually cover most of
eastern Cuba.
Diebold elections are held six months later in Miami. Rep. Lincoln
Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) are elected
president and vice president of Cuba respectively. They govern from
their offices in Washington, DC.
In a recess appointment, President Bush appoints Rabbi Joe Lieberman
US ambassador to Cuba and John Bolton Secretary General of the United
Nations.
ORIGINALLY POSTED TO CUBA-L
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
21) Labor Federation Forms a Pact With Day Workers
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
August 10, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/10/us/10labor.html?ref=us
The A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the nation’s largest organization of day
laborers signed a partnership agreement yesterday intended
to help the languishing labor movement tap into the potent
energy of the immigrant rights movement.
The A.F.L.-C.I.O. said its partnership with the group, the
National Day Labor Organizing Network, would also seek
to improve wages and conditions for tens of thousands
of laborers and other immigrant workers.
With the agreement, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. is embracing workers
who many union members have accused of driving down
wages. The partnership connects the labor federation to
a network that largely represents illegal immigrant workers
who often have run-ins with the police as they stand
on street corners soliciting jobs.
The day laborers’ network and the immigrant groups
it works with were pivotal in setting up the large
demonstrations this spring that backed immigrant rights.
“I think the A.F.L.-C.I.O. needs this energy, this new energy,”
said Pablo Alvarado, director of the network, a loose
association of day laborers and worker centers across
the country.
More than 140 of the worker centers exist, and promote
the rights of immigrant workers, teach them English,
inform them about their rights and help them file claims
for unpaid wages.
“The fact is that worker centers are one of the most
vibrant parts of the labor movement today, even though
they have largely not had a connection to ‘organized
labor,’ ” the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s president, John J. Sweeney,
said at a news conference in Chicago, where the federation’s
executive council was meeting.
Under the partnership, worker centers will be able to have
nonvoting representatives on the boards of central labor
councils in cities throughout the nation. The day laborers
will not pay union dues or become union members.
“We don’t bring money, we’re not bringing members,”
Mr. Alvarado said. “But we’re bringing something that’s
extremely important: very humble, very vulnerable workers
who say, ‘I need to get paid more for what I do.’ ”
The federation will push for stronger safety and wage
enforcement and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
Several labor experts called the partnership a major
step for labor.
“Symbolically it’s very, very important,” said Janice Fine,
an assistant professor of labor relations at Rutgers University
and the author of a book about worker centers. “It’s a clear
signal from the A.F.L.-C.I.O. that it’s acknowledging the
immigrant workers movement that has grown up largely
alongside organized labor.
Last January, professors at the University of California, Los
Angeles, and the University of Illinois at Chicago released
the first nationwide study on day laborers, finding that
117,600 gather at more than 500 hiring sites on a typical day.
The survey found that nearly half of day laborers reported
that employers had cheated them out of wages and
18 percent reported incidents of violence by employers.
“This exploitation is wrong — it’s immoral,” Mr. Sweeney
of the labor federation said. “It hurts us all because when
standards are dragged down for some workers, they are
dragged down for all workers.”
Steven A. Camarota, director of research at the Center for
Immigration Studies, which supports tighter restrictions
on immigration, said it was surprising that the A.F.L.-C.I.O.
was embracing day laborers when many American workers
oppose the influx of immigrants, convinced that they take
away jobs and push down wages.
“The union leadership wants one thing, and union members
want another,” Mr. Camarota said. “This highlights why it’s
difficult for the main labor movement — it’s completely out
of touch with the interests of American workers.”
Mr. Alvarado and the Laborers International Union of North
America, a construction workers union, are scheduled
to announce a partnership today that will focus on improving
conditions for thousands of immigrant workers doing housing
construction in Riverside, San Bernardino and Sacramento,
Calif., as well as in that state’s Central Valley.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
22) 'The closest thing to hell’
Mother copes with soldier-son’s suicide
By Tara Tuckwiller
Staff writer
August 06, 2006
http://sundaygazettemail.com/section/News/2006080525
“I have seen the closest thing to hell ... With everyday things such
as death, destruction, fear and the nagging thought of ‘Is this
the day I’m going to die?’ it’s hard for anyone back home to imagine
what I’m talking about ...
“I know the soldier mentality — to be tough and strong. But
there isn’t one guy who can be really honest with himself and
not say that this place hasn’t bothered him in one way or another ...
“When you see little children on the side of the roads who are
so happy and giving you a thumbs up and waving, the look
on their faces when I would hand out toys and candy to them,
the grateful parents standing close by their children, watching
in joy as their little ones get to share a small moment with
the world’s greatest army — for that moment there was
no war, no death, no destruction or hate ...”
— Letter home from Iraq from Army Sgt. Charles Call to his
mother, published in the Sunday Gazette-Mail, Jan. 23, 2005
LEON — One year after Chuck Call wrote these words
to his mother, he committed suicide.
His letter was published in the Gazette-Mail’s “Iraq Diary.”
His mother, Betty Baker, had sent it in. She was proud of her
son. He chose to go to Iraq — his unit wasn’t going, but he
volunteered to go with a different unit. He wanted to fight
for his country. He became a gunner, protecting the convoys.
Call, 30, often spent time at the nursing home where his
mom worked. On Halloween, he would sit with residents and
hand out candy to kids.
Before he left for Iraq, he went to the nursing home and
shook each veteran’s hand, personally thanking each one
for his service. Baker took pictures. She sits at her kitchen
table and looks at them, and tears choke her.
“He was an extraordinary man,” she says.
When he returned in November 2005, he seemed fine. But
then came the anxiousness, the nightmares. Once, his
girlfriend told Baker, he got up in the middle of the night
and dressed in his Army fatigues. He acted like he was
back in the war.
“He said, ‘Mom, you can’t understand what’s going on
inside my mind,’” Baker says.
He tried to get help. But he slipped through the cracks
in the military’s mental-health system. He applied for veterans’
health benefits, but Call — a combat veteran with years of active
and Reserve duty — was told he didn’t qualify. Veterans Affairs
has mental-health counselors even for veterans who don’t
qualify for health benefits, but Call never got a chance
to see one.
On Feb. 3 of this year, he shot himself.
Mental-health problems affect 1 in 5 Iraq vets
Call is one of 79 veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan who have
committed suicide since March 2003, according
to Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Iowa.
In November, just as Call was returning to the states,
a 20-year-old Marine from Oregon — who had returned
from his year in Iraq six weeks earlier — ate a fast-food
meal with his brother, settled in to play a video game,
and then without warning drew a pistol and shot himself
in the head.
The family of Chris Forcum talked to news reporters.
They said counseling should be mandatory for troops
returning from combat.
Six weeks later, in Iowa, 22-year-old Army reservist Joshua
Omvig killed himself after returning from an 11-month
tour of duty in Iraq.
Like Call, both had exhibited symptoms of post-traumatic
stress disorder.
Rep. Boswell, a Vietnam veteran, last month proposed
a new suicide-prevention program for veterans. The “Joshua
Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act,” H.R. 5771, now has 77
sponsors in Congress. It would set up a VA program to screen and
monitor veterans for suicide risk factors. Nearly one of every
five returning Iraq veterans reported a mental-health problem,
according to an Army study published in March. And nearly one
in 10 was diagnosed with Post-tramatic Stress Disorder.
But of the returning troops from Operation Iraqi Freedom and
Operation Enduring Freedom that the military’s screening found
might have been at risk for developing PTSD, only one in five were
referred for further mental-health care, according to a May report
by the Government Accountability Office.
Although Marines were second only to returning Army soldiers
in PTSD risk, they were least likely to be referred for help.
And even if troops are told they need help, they might not seek
it, said Jesse Coulter, a Vietnam-era Marine who is head of the
Vet Center, the arm of the VA that provides PTSD counseling
to all combat veterans, in Charleston.
“Part of the problem is the macho image,” said Coulter, who holds
a master’s degree in social work.
Also, troops have been trained by the military to shrug off
hardship, so admitting they need help “is contrary to our
military training.
“You suck it up, put the person in a body bag and keep going.
No big deal. Quit crying.”
But after 20 years working in Vet Centers, Coulter has counseled
enough veterans to know what happens when they bottle
up the horror of PTSD.
“All wounds are not visible,” he said. “PTSD is a Purple Heart inside.”
‘We have hundreds and hundreds of miracles’
Betty Baker has been writing to Congress, talking to reporters and
urging every veteran to speak out about the need for more help
for veterans.
“We need some laws changed,” she said.
For example, Call didn’t qualify for most veterans’ health benefits
because in 2003, the VA suspended enrollment for higher-income
veterans whom the VA has not determined to have a service-related
condition. Call, who ran heavy equipment for a grading company,
fit that category.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., is a co-sponsor of a bill that would
guarantee VA health-care funding, automatically adjusting for
inflation and any increase in the number of veterans needing care.
But S. 331, the “Assured Funding for Veterans Health Care Act
of 2005,” has not been given a hearing in the veterans’ affairs
committee.
“I cannot thank you enough for continuing to fight so this
tragedy does not occur in another soldier’s family,” Rockefeller
wrote in a letter to Baker.
Coulter said his center reaches out to every veteran it can
find. It places information packets in colleges, government
offices, the Salvation Army, Homeless Shelters, the VA clinic
— anywhere a veteran might show up. Staffers do pre-
deployment mental-health briefings for troops and their
families, and they’re constantly in touch with units and
the VA health centers to remind them to send people
their way.
He urges any veteran who needs any kind of help to contact
one of the nation’s 207 Vet Centers. They’re supposed
to counsel combat veterans, their families, and sexually
traumatized veterans, but Coulter has worked with veterans
who didn’t technically fit those categories but needed help anyway.
“We never turn away veterans,” he said. “We have hundreds
and hundreds of miracles — people who come in for help.”
To contact staff writer Tara Tuckwiller, use e-mail or call 348-5189.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
23) BEHIND THE MEDIA'S GAZAN BLIND SPOT
Nigel Parry, The Electronic Intifada (9 August 2006)
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5464.shtml
As the Israeli war on Lebanon continues to dominate world
headlines, Israel's ongoing war against Gaza seems to be
taking place in a relative media blind spot. United Nations
humanitarian agencies estimated on August 3rd that 1,050
Israeli artillery shells were fired into Gaza in the
preceding week[1], and:
...since 28 June, 175 Palestinians have been killed,
including approximately 40 children and eight women, and
over 620 injured in the Gaza Strip. One IDF soldier has
been killed and 25 Israelis have been injured, including
11 Israelis injured by homemade rockets fired from the
Gaza Strip. Palestinians have fired on average between 8-9
homemade rockets per day towards Israel (319 in total) and
the Israeli military has fired on average 200-250
artillery shells per day into the Gaza Strip and conducted
at least 220 aerial bombings.[2]
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights, based in Gaza,
reported on August 5th that:
In the pre-dawn hours of Friday, 4 August 2006, IOF planes
bombed two civilian houses in Gaza, destroying them
completely. In both incidents, the house owners received
calls to their mobile telephones from Israeli intelligence
telling them to evacuate the house, which will be
bombarded. The warning preceded the bombardment by no more
than 45 minutes.[3]
It is obvious that these demolitions by missile are a form
of collective punishment. Even if one accepted Israel's
'security' rationale for such acts, clearly phone warnings
undermine the notion that the airstrikes are fulfilling
any effective military objective against Palestinian
militants.
Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem reported on
August 5th that:
In July, the Israeli military killed 163 Palestinians in
the Gaza Strip, 78 of whom (48 percent) were not taking
part in the hostilities when they were killed. Thirty-six
of the fatalities were minors, and 20 were women.[4]
On August 7th, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights
published a report on Israeli reprisals against civilians
in Gaza between June 25th and the end of July, which
shines a searing light on the extent of violence against
civilians and the wilful damage to Gaza's civilian
infrastructure.[5]
The individual stories are painful. On August 8th,
Mohammed Omar wrote of the story of a 13-year-old from
Gaza, Tar'er, and how he woke up in a hospital bed to
discover that he had no legs.[6]
Hospitals are overwhelmed with casualties and are running
out of medical supplies. UK-based Medical Emergency Relief
International reported on August 8th that after one recent
attack in Gaza City, 75% of the patients admitted needed
amputations. Due to the destruction of Gaza's power plant,
hospitals are receiving only 4 hours of grid electricity a
day, and backup generators are not able to cope with the
demands of the crisis situation. Doctors are being forced
to make choices between running the operating theater or
the x-ray machine.[7]
The bird's eye view of the humanitarian situation in Gaza
is similarly bleak. The UNDP estimates $15.5 million
dollars in damage to Gaza's civilian infrastructure
excluding the damage caused to the power plant. Sewage
plants are overwhelmed as a result of destruction of the
infrastructure, and 3,400 Palestinians have fled Israeli
attacks to seek shelter in UN facilities.[8]
While Israel's war on Lebanon is getting the media focus
that it deserves, Gazan civilians remain in equally grave
danger, not least because of the larger conflict eclipsing
eclipsing their plight to the north.
Nigel Parry is a cofounder of the Electronic Intifada.
RELATED LINKS
* BY TOPIC: Israel invades Gaza (27 June 2006)
http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/442.shtml
FOOTNOTES
1. "UN reports increase in Israeli shells fired into
Gaza", UN News (3 August 2006)
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5388.shtml
2. "UN Agencies: Deeply alarmed by continuing violence in
Gaza", UN humanitarian agencies (3 August 2006)
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5393.shtml
3. "More children killed in Rafah", PCHR (5 August 2006)
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5416.shtml
4. "Almost half the fatalities in Gaza in July were
civilians", B'Tselem (5 August 2006)
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5419.shtml
5. "Reprisals against Civilians: Israeli violations in
Gaza, 25 June-31 July", PCHR (7 August 2006)
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5457.shtml
6. "Israel's rain of missiles on Gaza and Tae'er's legs",
Mohammed Omer, Live from Palestine (8 August 2006)
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5444.shtml
7. "Hospitals in Gaza overwhelmed and running out of
supplies", Merlin (8 August 2006)
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5455.shtml
8. "'Sharp decline' in the humanitarian situation in Gaza
after six weeks of siege", OCHA (7 August 2006)
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5448.shtml
--
ABOUT US: The Electronic Intifada (EI) is a
not-for-profit, independent publication committed to
comprehensive public education on the question of
Palestine, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the
economic, political, legal, and human dimensions of
Israel's 39-year occupation of Palestinian territories.
EI, found at http://electronicIntifada.net provides a
needed supplement to mainstream commercial media
representations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
More information about our work can be found at
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/aboutEI.shtml
To find out about other EI/eIraq lists available, see:
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SUPPORT OUR PROJECT: Our work needs funding. We accept
donations via credit card and cheque. U.S. donations are
tax deductible. More information can be found at:
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2162.shtml
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
24) Lebanon hospitals cut off, running out of supplies
By Michael Winfrey
Thu Aug 10, 2006 06:49 AM ET
http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=13147517&src=eDialog/GetContent
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hospitals were running out of food, fuel and
other supplies in southern Lebanon on Thursday and aid groups
said fighting and a ban on movement meant they could not reach
thousands trapped in the area.
Medecins Sans Frontieres said that since an Israeli air strike
destroyed the last coastal river crossing for trucks to the
south on Monday, aid agencies had been reduced to carrying
supplies by hand over a log across the Litani river.
It said Israel's warning that it might attack any vehicle south
of the Litani that was not part of an aid convoy with Israeli
clearance significantly undermined the chances of the tens
of thousands of people still believed to be trapped in the region.
"The people in the south are afraid. They are terrified to move,"
Rowan Gillies, president of MSF International, said in Beirut.
"To forbid all forms of movement, without distinction, will
lead to even more civilian deaths and suffering."
MSF said it had suffered close calls with shelling and
air strikes close to two of its convoys earlier this week.
On Monday, warplanes attacked two cars traveling near
a U.N. Nations convoy, killing three people.
Israel has drawn international criticism for attacking targets
in populated civilian areas. At least 1,011 people have been
killed in Lebanon during the four-week-old conflict with
Hizbollah guerrillas.
Israel, which has lost 116 dead, mostly soldiers, says air
attacks and ground operations are the only way to stop
the Shi'ite group, which sparked the conflict when it captured
two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.
The United Nations World Food Program said it sent
a 15-truck convoy to the eastern town of Baalbek but
was still waiting for two planes carrying about 10 tonnes
of supplies each which had been delayed since Tuesday.
The agency was also trying to send a 10-truck convoy
to the battered town of Nabatiyeh in the south, but had
not received security guarantees.
"We had hoped to get down to Nabatiyeh today, but were
denied clearance," WFP spokesman Robin Lodge said.
MSF said hospitals were quickly running out of food,
medical and other supplies in Tyre and other southern
cities. The worst shortage was diesel fuel to run generators.
The shortages coincide with heavy fighting that has
brought new wave of casualties to southern hospitals.
More than 3,000 people have been wounded in Lebanon
so far and the United Nations says up to 900,000 people
have been displaced.
"We're trying to reduce the number of people who have
been wounded turning to people who have died," said Gillies.
"It's very basic. If we can't give the local authorities
the ability to do that, the consequences for civilians are dire."
The European Union aid chief Louis Michel also said
it was vital to restore access to aid in south Lebanon.
He said conditions were also worsening in northern Israel
after Hizbollah rocket attacks there.
He said he would visit Lebanon and Israel next week
for talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora
and Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense
Minister Amir Peretz.
25) Destruction, Death, and Drastic Measures
The Damage in Lebanon -- and Beyond
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
August 10, 2006
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
The idea that you can solve social and political problems militarily
from the air is, on the face of it, ludicrous. The historical record is
filled with the dead dreams
solutions to ground-based problems. But that stops no one.
Just yesterday, for instance, as part of the new American operation to
-- somehow -- seize control of the situation in civil-war wracked
Baghdad, American forces launched an attack on Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi
militia in the capital's heavily populated Shiite slum, Sadr City. As a
Bloomberg News Service
piece put headlined its piece: "Iraq, U.S. Forces Raid Sadr City to Calm
Baghdad." Aha. "Calm," it seems, was to be imposed not just by ground
troops but from the air by helicopter assault (though even the best
accounts
of the operation offer few details on just what those helicopters did).
We do know that this calming raid managed to kill three people,
including a woman and a child, wound others, and destroy three homes. It
also left the Iraqi Prime Minister
less than calm. Simply firing into urban areas this way should be
considered inconceivable rather than, as now, a problem-solving approach
to the disaster that is Baghdad.
In Lebanon, here's what "precision" bombing seems to mean. "On Saturday
consisting of more than 250 air attacks dropped 4,000 bombs within seven
hours… The total death toll from the attacks is approaching 1,000. One
third of those deaths are from children under 12." I don't know who is
counting all this or whether such figures are accurate, but there can be
no question that parts of Lebanon are being turned into little more than
rubble; that with main highways and bridges destroyed, unmanned aerial
drones
F-16s overhead, airports shut down, and the coastline blockaded,
supplies are not arriving; that hospitals are at the edge of closing,
and that a staggering percentage of the country of only 3.8 million are
now refugees -- abroad, in Syria, or simply on the move and homeless in
their own country. Christian areas
now being bombed -- for this, see a vivid, and horrifying post by Juan
Cole
-- and the bombing campaign is widening with, for instance, ever more
central areas of Beirut being hit. It seems that even some Israeli
pilots are having qualms
the targets being offered. The message is, I suppose, precise enough,
even if the bombs and missiles aren't: Nowhere is safe; there will be no
refuge. In Baghdad as in Lebanon, this, it seems, is where the Bush
"crusade
left us all. It's a place without pity or, evidently, a shred of mercy.
It is no place for diplomacy
nor even for words (so much more precise and yet frustrating than
bombs). Hezbollah's "words" are, of course, its rockets which land
indiscriminately
across northern Israel.
And our President? He's evidently unfazed by the spreading chaos in the
Middle East (and perhaps sooner or later in our wider world). Recently,
Steve Holland
a Reuters correspondent, took a more than vigorous bike ride with Bush
around his Crawford vacation home. ("'Riding helps clear my head, helps
me deal with the stresses of the job,' a sweat-soaked Bush said after an
hour-and-20-minute ride that shot his heart rate up to 177 beats per
minute at the top of one climb.") Holland reports that the occasion for
the ride was the President's sense that "a U.N. resolution on southern
Lebanon was essentially complete." George Bush, it turns out, does not
bike in silence. Here's an example of his bike-riding exclamations.
Think of it as well as a presidential Rorschach test: "'Air assault!' he
yelled as he started one of two major climbs, up Calichi Hill, which he
named for the white limestone rock from which it is formed."
Dahr Jamail, who has in the past covered the American war in Iraq for
Tomdispatch, gives us a sense of what the view from Damascus (and
Lebanon) looks like at the moment – of what it actually means to shout
"Air assault!" in the Middle Eastern equivalent of a crowded room. /Tom/
*Destruction, Death, and Drastic Measures*
By Dahr Jamail
Damascus, Syria -- "I care about my people, my country, and defending
them from the Zionist aggression," said a Hezbollah fighter after I'd
asked him why he joined the group. I found myself in downtown Beirut
sitting in the backseat of his car in the liquid heat of a Lebanese
summer. Sweat rolled down my nose and dripped on my notepad as I jotted
furiously.
Read More
(c)2006 Dahr Jamail.
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LINKS ONLY
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***
[Dear BAUAW readers, again, the following two article about
the so-called "foiled" terrorist plot give NO details on either
those arrested or the "plot". I am floored at the low journalistic
level of these articles--they are simply hysteria-makers
that contain no facts. Are we to accept this kind of reporting
as factual news?..bw]
19 Suspects Are Identified in Britain
By ERIC PFANNER, International Herald Tribune
August 11, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/11/world/europe/11cnd-terror.html?hp&ex=1155355200&en=9a447c614b870c43&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Scale and Detail of Plane Scheme Recall Al Qaeda
By SCOTT SHANE
Most of the would-be terrorists have been arrested before acquiring
explosives or taking other concrete steps toward mounting an attack.
August 11, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/11/world/europe/11qaeda.html?hp&ex=1155355200&en=eeec0f91cd71e891&ei=5094&partner=homepage
***
Bush Proposes Retroactive War Crime Protection
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081006A.shtml
The Bush administration
drafted amendments to the War Crimes Act that would retroactively
protect policymakers from possible criminal charges for authorizing any
humiliating and degrading treatment of detainees, according to lawyers who
have seen the proposal. The move by the administration is the latest
effort to deal with treatment of those taken into custody in the war on
terror.
Hizballah: A Primer
Lara Deeb
July 31, 2006, 11 pages
(Lara Deeb, a cultural anthropologist, is assistant professor
of women’s studies at the University of California-Irvine. She
is author of An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety
in Shi’i Lebanon.)
Hizballah, the Lebanese Shi’i movement whose militia is
fighting the Israeli army in south Lebanon, has been cast
misleadingly in much media coverage of the ongoing war.
Much more than a militia, the movement is also a political
party that is a powerful actor in Lebanese politics and
a provider of important social services. Not a creature
of Iranian and Syrian sponsorship, Hizballah arose
to battle Israel’s occupation of south Lebanon from
1982-2000 and, more broadly, to advocate for Lebanon’s
historically disenfranchised Shi’i Muslim community.
While it has many political opponents in Lebanon,
Hizballah is very much of Lebanon -- a fact that Israel’s
military campaign is highlighting.
http://www.merip.org/mero/mero073106.html
Feeding Ourselves: Organic Urban Gardens in Caracas, Venezuela
Written by April M. Howard
Thursday, 10 August 2006
http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/869/
FOCUS | Baghdad Morgue Tallies 1,815 Bodies in July
Figures compiled by the city morgue indicated Wednesday that the
number of killings in the Iraqi capital reached a new high last month,
and the US military said a new effort to bring security to Baghdad
will succeed only if Iraqis "want it to work." The Baghdad morgue
took in 1,815 bodies during July, according to the facility's assistant
manager, Abdul Razzaq al-Obeidi. The previous month's tally was
1,595. Obeidi estimated that as many as 90 percent of the total
died violent deaths.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081006Z.shtml
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