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THIS JUST IN: SEE "ARTICLES IN FULL" BELOW
10) City asks court to quit Abu-Jamal case
By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press Writer
April 6, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070406/ap_on_re_us/mumia_abu_jamal
Re: Mumia Abu-Jamal v. Martin Horn,
Pennsylvania Director of Corrections
U.S. Court of Appeals Nos. 01-9014, 02-9001 (death penalty)
Dear Friends:
Oral argument in the case of my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal,
will be on May 17 before a three-judge panel in the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia.
The issues concern the right to a fair trial, the death
penalty, and the political repression of an outspoken
journalist. Racism and politics are threads that have
run through this case since the beginning. We are
engaged in extensive work in preparation for this
complex hearing.
Many people have called my office and sent e-mail asking
how they can make contributions to the defense of Mumia.
Concern has been expressed as to how to ensure that
donations go to the right organization so that they
are actually applied to the legal effort rather than
for some other purpose.
To contribute directly to the legal defense of Mumia,
please make your check payable to the "National Lawyers
Guild Foundation." All such donations are tax deductible
to the full extent provided by law. The NLG Foundation
is a tax-exempt, nonprofit charitable organization under
Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3).
Donations should be mailed to:
Committee To Save Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 2012
New York, NY 10159
Your interest in this struggle for human rights
and against the death penalty is appreciated.
With best wishes,
Robert
Robert R. Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
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CINE DEL BARRIO and New College Media Studies Program present:
The Red Dance (El Baile Rojo) directed by Yezid Campos
a film about Colombia, video, in color, 57 minutes, 2004
sub-titles in English plus, an up to the minute report on the
continuing struggle in Colombia by Cristina Gutierrez.
Saturday, April 7, 11:30 a.m.
at the Roxie New College Film Center
3117 - 16th Street (between Valencia and Guerrero)
San Francisco
No admission charge
This is part of "Nuestra America, Muestra de Cine y Video
Documental" series of film showings on Saturdays of March,
April, and May. All films are at 11:30am and 1:30pm on
Saturdays at the Roxie. Films on Nicaragua, Venezuela,
Colombia, Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, and the U.S. (Immigrantes
Nuevo Orleans). Films are in Spanish with English sub-titles.
For more information: 415-863-1087
www.roxie.com
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{SANCTUARYnational} ELVIRA ARELLANO BEGINS HUNGER STRIKE
For immediate release
TO: ALL MEDIA
FROM: CENTRO SIN FRONTERAS/LA FAMILIA LATINA UNIDA
Contact: Emma Lozano (773) 671-1798
Or Rev Walter L Coleman (773) 671-1755
PRESS CONFERENCE
THURSDAY, APRIL 5TH,
4:30 P.M.
Adalberto united Methodist Church
2716 W Division St, Chicago, Illinois
ELVIRA ARELLANO BEGINS HUNGER STRIKE:
“The Raids and Deportations and
Separations of Families
Must Stop Now !
“The Congress and the President must
fix the Broken Law
and End the Crucifixion of Innocent
Children and their Families.”
“As I have stayed here in Sanctuary with my U.S.
citizen son Saulito for seven months, the Congress
and the President have taken no action to fix the
broken law. Meanwhile, millions of people live
in the shadows and millions of children live
in fear of being abandoned. While nothing is done
to fix the broken law, the raids and deportations
continue to escalate every week..
“I am starting this hunger strike, on the eve
of Good Friday, as a prayer that our people will
mobilize, that the hearts of the people of this
nation will open and that the elected officials
will act to preserve our families and the Holy
Bond between the children and their mothers and
fathers. I pray that not one more family will
be separated, not one more child left behind.”
Elvira Arellano
The Press Conference will follow a brief celebration
of the Last Supper with families and children facing
separation. Elvira Arellano will call on others
around the country to join her in the hunger strike
and her pastor, Rev. Walter Coleman, who will join
her in the hunger strike, will call on religious
leaders across the country to stand with her.
Hunger Strike Day 1
On Friday, April 6th, at 10 A.M. Elvira will participate
in a brief Good Friday ceremony at the church and send
off a delegation who will hold a “Viacrucis” in front
of ICE Headquarters at Clark and Congress.
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Anti-War Rally at Port of Oakland
Saturday, April 7, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
An anti-war rally will mark the fourth anniversary of the
Oakland police attack on anti-war protesters at the Port.
Port of Oakland Headquarters
530 Water Street, foot of Washington St. in Jack London Square.
For more information, call
415-863-6637 or email portaction@riseup.net
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SOLIDARITY WITH KATRINA SURVIVORS
SATURDAY, APRIL 7 @ 7 p.m.
Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia St., S.F.
Featured Speaker: KALI AKUNO
Executive Director, People's Hurricane Relief Fund - O.C.
Also: "Down But Not Out" —A Film on the Gulf Coast Resistance
Music by Leith Kahl, Biko, & Spoken Word Artists
SATURDAY, APRIL 7 @ 7 p.m.
(@ 16th Street; near 16th St. Mission BART)
Donation requested at door; No one turned away for lack of funds.
Sponsored by PHRF-OC, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement,
Bay Area Katrina Solidarity Committee,
Revolution Youth, The Organizer Newspaper,
Colectivo Media Insurgente, CRUCS,
Mission High Black Student Union
For more information, call 415-646-6469 or 504-301-0215.
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DEMAND THE RELEASE OF SAMI AL-ARIAN
The National Council of Arab Americans (NCA) demands the immediate
release of political prisoner, Dr. Sami Al-Arian. Dr. Al-Arian is currently
under his 60th day of a water-only hunger strike in protest of his
maltreatment by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). After an earlier
plea agreement that absolved Dr. Al-Arian from any further questioning,
he was sentenced up to 18 months in jail for refusing to testify before
a grand jury in Virginia.
Dr. Al-Arian is currently being held at a medical facility in North Carolina.
He is in critical condition, having lost 53 pounds, over 25% of his
body weight.
According to family members who recently visited him he is no longer
able to walk or stand on his own.
More information on Dr. Al-Arian's ordeal can be found in the transcript
of a recent interview with his wife, Nahla Al-Arian on Democracy Now.
See:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/16/1410255
ACTION:
We ask all people of conscience to demand the immediate
release and end to Dr. Al- Arian's suffering.
Call, Email and Write:
1- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
Department of Justice
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Fax Number: (202) 307-6777
Email: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
2- The Honorable John Conyers, Jr
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5126
(202) 225-0072 Fax
John.Conyers@mail.house.gov
3- Senator Patrick Leahy
433 Russell Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
(202)224-4242
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
4- Honorable Judge Gerald Lee
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
401 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA 22314
March 22, 2007
[No email given...bw]
National Council of Arab Americans (NCA)
http://www.arab-american.net/
Criminalizing Solidarity: Sami Al-Arian and the War of
Terror
By Charlotte Kates, The Electronic Intifada, 4 April 2007
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6767.shtml
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[For some levity...Hans Groiner plays Monk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51bsCRv6kI0
...bw]
Excerpt of interview between Barbara Walters and Hugo Chavez
http://www.borev.net/2007/03/what_you_had_something_better.html
Which country should we invade next?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3g_zqz3VjY
My Favorite Mutiny, The Coup
http://www.myspace.com/thecoupmusic
Michael Moore- The Awful Truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeOaTpYl8mE
Morse v. Frederick Supreme Court arguments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_LsGoDWC0o
Free Speech 4 Students Rally - Media Montage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfCjfod8yuw
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'My son lived a worthwhile life'
In April 2003, 21-year old Tom Hurndall was shot in the head
in Gaza by an Israeli soldier as he tried to save the lives of three
small children. Nine months later, he died, having never
recovered consciousness. Emine Saner talks to his mother
Jocelyn about her grief, her fight to make the Israeli army
accountable for his death and the book she has written
in his memory.
Monday March 26, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2042968,00.html
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Introducing...................the Apple iRack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-KWYYIY4jQ
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"A War Budget Leaves Every Child Behind."
[A T-shirt worn by some teachers at Roosevelt High School
in L.A. as part of their campaign to rid the school of military
recruiters and JROTC--see Article in Full item number 4, below...bw]
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THIS IS AN EXCELLENT VIDEO DESTRIBUTED BY U.S. LABOR AGAINST
THE WAR (USLAW) FEATURING SPEAKERS AT THE JANUARY 27TH
MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOCUSING ON THE DEMAND - BRING
THE TROOPS HOME NOW.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6935451906479097836&hl=en
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Defend the Los Angeles Eight!
http://www.committee4justice.com/
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George Takai responds to Tim Hardaway's homophobic remarks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcJoJZIcQW4&eurl_
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Iran
http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html
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Another view of the war. A link from Amer Jubran
http://d3130.servadmin.com/~leeflash/
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Petition: Halt the Blue Angels
http://action.globalexchange.org/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=458
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/289327
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A Girl Like Me
7:08 min
Youth Documentary
Kiri Davis, Director, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, Producer
Winner of the Diversity Award
Sponsored by Third Millennium Foundation
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1091431409617440489
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Film/Song about Angola
http://www.prisonactivist.org/angola/
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"200 million children in the world sleep in the streets today.
Not one of them is Cuban."
(A sign in Havana)
Venceremos
View sign at bottom of page at:
http://www.cubasolidarity.net/index.html
[Thanks to Norma Harrison for sending this...bw]
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Cheyenne and Arapaho oral histories hammer history's account of the
Sand Creek Massacre"
CENTENNIAL, CO -- A new documentary film based on an award-winning
documentary short film, "The Sand Creek Massacre", and driven by
Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho people who tell their version about
what happened during the Sand Creek Massacre via their oral
histories, has been released by Olympus Films+, LLC, a Centennial,
Colorado film company.
"You have done an extraordinary job" said Margie Small, Tobient
Entertainment, " on the Colorado PBS episode, the library videos for
public schools and libraries, the trailer, etc...and getting the
story told and giving honor to those ancestors who had to witness
this tragic and brutal attack...film is one of the best ways."
"The images shown in the film were selected for native awareness
value" said Donald L. Vasicek, award-winning writer/filmmaker, "we
also focused on preserving American history on film because tribal
elders are dying and taking their oral histories with them. The film
shows a non-violent solution to problem-solving and 19th century
Colorado history, so it's multi-dimensional in that sense. "
Chief Eugene Blackbear, Sr., Cheyenne, who starred as Chief Black
Kettle in "The Last of the Dogmen" also starring Tom Berenger and
Barbara Hershey and "Dr. Colorado", Tom Noel, University of Colorado
history professor, are featured.
The trailer can be viewed and the film can be ordered for $24.95 plus
$4.95 for shipping and handling at http://www.fullduck.com/node/53.
Vasicek's web site, http://www.donvasicek.com, provides detailed
information about the Sand Creek Massacre including various still
images particularly on the Sand Creek Massacre home page and on the
proposal page.
Olympus Films+, LLC is dedicated to writing and producing quality
products that serve to educate others about the human condition.
Contact:
Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
7078 South Fairfax Street
Centennial, CO 80122
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103
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ARTICLES IN FULL:
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1) All That You Can Be
Risk Management
by Lauren Collins
April 9, 2007
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2007/04/09/070409ta_talk_collins
2) No hope in Guantánamo
BY JOSHUA COLANGELO-BRYAN
MIAMI HERALD
Apr. 05, 2007
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/v-print/story/64032.html
3) WE'VE BEEN SURGING FOR YEARS
By Don Monkerud
TomPaine.com
April 6, 2007
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/04/06/weve_been_surging_for_years.php
4) Permanent drought predicted for Southwest
"Study says global warming threatens to create a
Dust Bowl-like period. Water politics could
also get heated."
By Alan Zarembo and Bettina Boxall
Times Staff Writers
April 6, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-swdrought6apr06,0,122112.story?coll=la-home-headlines
5) Democrats at War
WALL STREET JOURNAL
EDITORIAL
April 6, 2007; Page A10
[Via Email from: Walter Lippmann
walterlx@earthlink.net ...bw]
6) Ford Pays Chief $28 Million for 4 Months’ Work
By NICK BUNKLEY
April 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/06/business/06ford.html?ref=businessspecial
7) Comcast Chief Executive Receives $26 Million
By GERALDINE FABRIKANT
March 30, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/business/businessspecial/30comcast.pay.html?ex=1176091200&en=a355f91bce1d207c&ei=5070
8) No Bonuses for Top G.M. Executives
By NICK BUNKLEY
March 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/business/businessspecial/29gmpay.html?ex=1176091200&en=b3bcb33a8bceaa23&ei=5070
9) Cuban jet bombing suspect ordered free on bail in U.S.
"Venezuela and Cuba want Luis Posada Carriles in a 1976 plane bombing
that killed 73. But in this country, the former CIA operative
is charged with lying to immigration officials."
By Carol J. Williams
Times Staff Writer
April 7, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-posada7apr07,1,7020766.story?coll=la-news-a_section
10) City asks court to quit Abu-Jamal case
By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press Writer1
April 6, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070406/ap_on_re_us/mumia_abu_jamal
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1) All That You Can Be
Risk Management
by Lauren Collins
April 9, 2007
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2007/04/09/070409ta_talk_collins
In the wake of a rise in substantiated instances
of misconduct by its recruiters, the United States
military, it was reported last month, is considering
installing surveillance cameras in its recruiting
stations. The military may also want to assess the
tactics that its employees use in the virtual realm.
This admissions season, an Army recruiter has been
e-mailing recent college graduates with the offer
of hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarship
money to pay for medical school, in exchange for
four years of service. Nothing new there. What’s
surprising is his assertion to students that they
would be better off in Baghdad than in Georgetown.
Susan Kahane, who is twenty-two, graduated from
Columbia last spring. When she took the MCAT,
in August, she checked a box to signal that she
wished to receive information about outside sources
of financial aid. Soon, she was inundated with
e-mails from the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force
(“FREE MEDICAL SCHOOL!!!”). One, sent on January 31st
by Captain Christopher D. Mayhugh, of the Army
Medical Service Corps, stood out. “Upon finishing
your residency,” the message read, “you will be
assigned to one of a variety of locations including
Germany, Italy and Hawaii and your obligation will
be complete.” (The Medical Service Corps’s Web page,
in contrast, notes prominently that its officers
have participated in combat operations in Korea,
Kosovo, Somalia, Panama, and Iraq.)
Mayhugh’s omission of Iraq, Kahane recalled last week,
“seemed a little bit strange.” Still, she said,
“These e-mails were often slightly tempting to me,
because of my worries about paying for medical school.”
On March 14th, Kahane received another e-mail from
Mayhugh, with the subject “Medical school scholarships
still available.” This time, rather than invoking
European and tropical destinations, Mayhugh addressed
the prospect of being posted to a less than desirable
locale. “What if you get sent to Iraq?” he wrote
in the letter’s final paragraph. He continued:
Well, consider this: there has been an average of
160,000 troops in the Iraq theater of operations during
the last 22 months, and a total of 2112 deaths, that
gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000. The rate
in Washington, D.C. is 80.6 per 100,000. That means
that you are about 25% more likely to be shot and
killed in our Nation’s Capitol, which has some
of the strictest gun control laws in the nation,
than you are in Iraq.
Kahane recalled, “After reading it once, I felt
strongly that something was wrong, but I didn’t
know what.” She looked up the figures and did the
math herself, and found that all the statistics
in the e-mail were either outdated or incorrect,
and that, even if they had been correct, Mayhugh
seemed to be comparing a yearly figure for Washington
with a monthly one for Iraq. (Going by Mayhugh’s
numbers, there would be nearly fifteen gun murders
in Washington every day. In reality, there were
about three murders, of any kind, per week in 2006.
In the same period, an average of sixteen American
troops died each week in Iraq.) Kimberly Thompson,
an associate professor of risk analysis and decision
science at Harvard’s School of Public Health, agreed,
last week, to evaluate Mayhugh’s claim and found the
discrepancy even starker. In her estimate, the risk
of being killed in Iraq is ten times higher than
the risk of being killed in Washington, D.C. “The
recruiter’s e-mail message is really amazingly
misleading,” she said.
It turns out, as Kahane learned with a subsequent
Google search, that “D.C. is more dangerous than
Iraq” is a well-worn canard. Representative Steve
King, a Republican from Iowa, promulgated a variation,
involving his wife’s safety, last year on the floor
of the House, while Mayhugh’s paragraph was plucked,
verbatim, from an e-mail that circulated in 2005.
The realization that Mayhugh’s message derived—one
could see, with nominal research—from a Web fallacy
was dispiriting to Kahane. She had written a letter
to Mayhugh, but didn’t send it. “I thought, I guess
he knows the math isn’t right, so what’s the point
of telling him?” she said.
Reached last week at his office in Maryland, Mayhugh
stood by the e-mail, saying, “Most people’s perception
of Iraq is that ‘Oh, my God, people are being murdered
over there by the thousands.’ I think if you look at
any type of situation where you have several hundred
thousand people on the ground and now you throw in the
fact that what they’re doing is dangerous and they
have very big heavy vehicles and firearms with live
ammunition, the number of people being killed over
there is pretty small.”
He acknowledged that the paragraph had come from
a forwarded e-mail, but said that, before pasting
it into his pitch, he had done “some simple calculations”
that supported its conclusions. “In what I’ve seen
in dealing with the war and the misperceptions of it,”
he said, “it seemed to me like those would be the right
numbers.” He went on, “I work in D.C. on a daily basis,
and I’m afraid to get out of my car in a lot of places.
I hear about police officers being murdered every day
in D.C. and Baltimore. And I’ve had thousands of friends
and colleagues go to Iraq and come back safely.”
Illustration: TOM BACHTELL
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2) No hope in Guantánamo
BY JOSHUA COLANGELO-BRYAN
MIAMI HERALD
Apr. 05, 2007
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/v-print/story/64032.html
On Monday, I was at Guantánamo Bay to meet with Jumah
Al Dossari, one of the detainees my firm represents.
As always, I spent the first few hours of our meeting
trying to convince Jumah to fight the desperation
and hopelessness that threaten what little spirit
he has left.
Jumah has been at Guantánamo for more than five
years. The government has never charged him with
a crime and does not accuse him of taking any action
against the United States. For several years, Jumah
has been held alone in solid-wall cells from which
he cannot see other detainees or communicate except
by yelling. He has spent 22 to 24 hours a day by
himself in these cells. He has been short shackled,
threatened with death and, once, severly beaten.
Interrogators have told him that he will be at
Guantánamo for the next 50 years and that there
is no law at Guantánamo.
Sometimes the idea of spending the rest of his
life locked up thousands of miles from his family
is too much for Jumah. On Oct. 15, 2005, I walked
into an interview room to visit him. There was
blood on the floor. I looked up and saw Jumah
hanging by his neck from the other side of a metal
mesh wall that divided his cell from our meeting
area. He was bleeding from a gash in his arm.
I couldn't reach Jumah because the door to the
cell was locked. I yelled for guards who came,
unlocked the door and cut the noose from Jumah's
neck. I was ordered out of the room but later learned
that Jumah had survived. Since that day, Jumah
has tried to kill himself three times. Last spring
he slashed his throat with a razor, spraying blood
on the ceiling of his cell.
During our meeting on Monday, we talked about Jumah's
court case, a bleak—and therefore dangerous—subject.
I explained again that the Bush administration insists
it may detain anyone it designates an ''enemy combatant''
forever without a trial. I explained how Congress blessed
that notion in last year's Military Commissions Act,
which bars foreign ''enemy combatants'' from going to
court to challenge that designation. I explained that
lawyers for the detainees had challenged the act as
unconstitutional, but that in February a federal appeals
had ruled against us on the grounds that people like
Jumah have no rights.
Desperately wanting to boost his spirits, I also told
Jumah that there was reason to be optimistic. We had
asked the Supreme Court to review the appeals court
decision and we felt pretty sure that our request
would be granted. Were that to happen, Jumah might
be a step closer to a court hearing.
At noon, I went to the galley—as the cafeteria at
Guantánamo is called—to get lunch for Jumah and myself.
While waiting for a burger, I glanced up at a television
tuned to CNN. Text ran across the bottom of the screen:
``Supreme Court refuses to hear Guantánamo detainee
appeals until alternative procedures are exhausted.''
Our request—the one reason I had given Jumah to be
optimistic—had been denied. The Supreme Court was
saying it might consider the detainees' cases, but
not until the detainees subjected themselves
to proceedings created by the Military Commissions Act.
It is a disturbing ruling because the government
says the purpose of these proceedings is not to
determine if a detainee is actually an ''enemy combatant''
but rather to determine if the military followed its own
rules in applying the ''enemy combatant'' label. For that
reason, detainees will have no chance to produce evidence
of their innocence that the military didn't consider
or to challenge the use of evidence obtained through
torture. Worse yet, these procedures will be held
before the same appeals court that recently found
the detainees have no rights at all.
I walked slowly back to the room where Jumah sat
shackled. I wondered if there was a good way to tell
a suicidal man that all three branches of our government
appear content to let him rot at Guantánamo. Nothing
came to mind.
Maybe I shouldn't have worried. Jumah's reaction
to bad legal news has become as muted as his emotions
generally. He long ago stopped believing that a court
will ever hear his case and thinks I'm naive for hoping
otherwise. Instead, Jumah believes that he has been
condemned to live forever on an island where there
is no law. He may well be right.
Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, an attorney, represents
several Guantánamo detainees.
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3) WE'VE BEEN SURGING FOR YEARS
By Don Monkerud
TomPaine.com
April 6, 2007
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/04/06/weve_been_surging_for_years.php
The number of U.S. forces involved in Iraq are at least twice the number
quoted in the media. The administration uses a number of deceptions,
definitional illusions and euphemisms -- including counting only "combat
forces" and "military personnel" -- to drastically undercount the invasion
force.
Even President Bush's January announcement of a "surge" of 21,500 U.S.
troops, opposed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has now morphed into 30,000
troops with an additional "headquarters staff" of 3,000 -- or more than 50
percent more than the official number. The currently reported total U.S.
military in Iraq is 145,000, forces which are required to occupy a country
slightly more than twice the size of Idaho.
The real number is almost impossible to find in government-released
information, even with a great amount of interpretation. It’s hidden
because few in the administration want to disclose the true extent of vast
U.S. resources invested in personnel, material, and other costs.
GlobalSecurity.org is a public policy organization that provides
background information on defense and homeland security. They note that
keeping track of American forces has become "significantly more difficult
as the military seeks to improve operational security and to deceive
potential enemies and the media as to the extent of American operations."
According to John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, there are a number
of other reasons affecting the accurate counting of the number of military
forces involved in Iraq. Large numbers of troops are activated with
unspecified duties to unspecified areas; many small units from various
locations are being mobilized from the Army and National Guard, which
count units differently; and groups rotate in and out of Iraqi so quickly
it's impossible for anyone but the Pentagon to calculate how many are
there. The Pentagon tracks these numbers, but Pike says they aren't
telling.
"We only try to nail the numbers down when we think Americans are getting
ready to blow someone up," Pike says. "The Pentagon knows the numbers and
we have certainly not done anything to highball it. Certainly, if there's
a chance to release or hold numbers, they are parsimonious."
Additionally, private enterprise military "contractors" almost double the
number of U.S. forces in Iraq. After four contractors were hung from a
bridge in Fallujah in March 2004, the Bush administration stonewalled
congressional efforts to force the Pentagon to release information about
the number of contractors in Iraq. Finally, the Pentagon reported a total
of 25,000.
In "The Market for Force: The Consequences of Privatizing Security,"
Deborah D. Avant, director for the Institute for Global and Internal
Studies at George Washington University, reports that official numbers are
difficult to find, but "This is the largest deployment of U.S. contractors
in a military operation."
In October, the military's first census of contractors totaled 100,000,
not counting subcontractors. And in February 2007, the Associated Press
reported 120,000 contractors (which would put Bush's "surge" closer to
50,000). Contractors, which some call mercenaries, provide support
services essential to maintaining the U.S. military presence in Iraq. Ten
times the number of contractors employed during the Persian Gulf War,
these contract mercenaries now cook meals, interrogate prisoners, fix flat
tires, repair vehicles, and provide guard duty.
Military personnel formerly filled these types of jobs until former
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld instituted his "Total Force" plan,
which relies on a smaller U.S. military force with "its active and reserve
military components, its civil servants, and its contractors." Senator
Jim Webb of Virginia called this a "rent-an-army."
What are the total of U.S. forces are in Iraq? The government reported
145,000 U.S. military forces in Iraq, but John Pike estimates the current
total at 150,000. Another 20,000 will arrive as part of the "surge," a
last gasp public relations effort to save the operation from total
failure.
John Pike estimates another 30,000 are "in the theater" to provide
"Operation Iraqi Freedom" support. The Army and Marines have another
10,000 to 20,000 in Kuwait, and a nearby Air Force wing-bombing group has
5,000. Current naval exercises in the Persian Gulf, which represents a
show of force against Iran, include 10,000 U.S. personnel, the carrier
groups Eisenhower and the Stennis, and 15 warships.
Add the 120,000 contract mercenaries and the forces involved in the Iraqi
operation and the total comes to 300,000 to 360,000, more than twice the
"official" figure of 145,000 troops. This isn't counting the more than
5,000 British combat troops and navy, down from a high of 40,000 during
the initial invasion, or the ragtag remnants of the highly vaunted
"Coalition of the Willing," which has dwindled since the beginning of the
occupation to 27, mostly small, countries such as Armenia, Estonia,
Moldavia, and Latvia.
Manipulated figures and private military contractors provide the Bush
Administration with political cover to escape public scrutiny and keep
injuries, deaths, and secret operations out of the public eye. A more
accurate and honest view of participation in the Iraqi occupation by the
government could give Americans more reason to oppose the waste of lives
and resources on this ill-conceived, poorly planned, and disastrous
venture.
--Don Monkerud is an California-based writer who follows cultural, social
and political issues. He can be reached at monkerud@cruzio.com.
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4) Permanent drought predicted for Southwest
"Study says global warming threatens to create a
Dust Bowl-like period. Water politics could
also get heated."
By Alan Zarembo and Bettina Boxall
Times Staff Writers
April 6, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-swdrought6apr06,0,122112.story?coll=la-home-headlines
The driest periods of the last century ˜ the Dust
Bowl of the 1930s and the droughts of the 1950s ˜
may become the norm in the Southwest United
States within decades because of global warming,
according to a study released Thursday.
The research suggests that the transformation may
already be underway. Much of the region has been
in a severe drought since 2000, which the study's
analysis of computer climate models shows as the
beginning of a long dry period.
The study, published online in the journal
Science, predicted a permanent drought by 2050
throughout the Southwest ˜ one of the fastest-
growing regions in the nation.
The data tell "a story which is pretty darn scary
and very strong," said Jonathan Overpeck, a
climate researcher at the University of Arizona
who was not involved in the study.
Richard Seager, a research scientist at
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia
University and the lead author of the study, said
the changes would force an adjustment to the
social and economic order from Colorado
to California.
"There are going to be some tough decisions on
how to allocate water," he said. "Is it going to
be the cities, or is it going to be agriculture?"
Seager said the projections, based on 19 computer
models, showed a surprising level of agreement.
"There is only one model that does not have
a drying trend," he said.
Philip Mote, an atmospheric scientist at the
University of Washington who was not involved in
the study, added, "There is a convergence of the
models that is very strong and very worrisome."
The future effect of global warming is the
subject of a United Nations report to be released
today in Brussels, the second of four installments
being unveiled this year.
The first report from the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change was released in February. It
declared that global warming had become a
"runaway train" and that human activities were
"very likely" to blame.
The landmark report helped shift the long and
rancorous political debate over climate change
from whether man-made warming was real to what
could be done about it.
The mechanics and patterns of drought in the
Southwest have been the focus of increased
scrutiny in recent years.
During the last period of significant, prolonged
drought ˜ the Medieval Climate Optimum from about
the years 900 to 1300 ˜ the region experienced
dry periods that lasted as long as 20 years,
scientists say.
Drought research has largely focused on the
workings of air currents that arise from
variations in sea-surface temperature in the
Pacific Ocean known as El Niño and La Niña.
The most significant in terms of drought is La
Niña. During La Niña years, precipitation belts
shift north, parching the Southwest.
The latest study investigated the possibility of
a broader, global climatic mechanism that could
cause drought. Specifically, they looked at the
Hadley cell, one of the planet's most powerful
atmospheric circulation patterns, driving weather
in the tropics and subtropics.
Within the cell, air rises at the equator, moves
toward the poles and descends over the subtropics.
Increasing levels of greenhouse gases, the
researchers said, warms the atmosphere, which
expands the poleward reach of the Hadley cell.
Dry air, which suppresses precipitation, then
descends over a wider expanse of the
Mediterranean region, the Middle East
and North America.
All of those areas would be similarly affected,
though the study examined only the effect on
North America in a swath reaching from Kansas to
California and south into Mexico.
The researchers tested a "middle of the road"
scenario of future carbon dioxide emissions to
predict rainfall and evaporation. They assumed
that emissions would rise until 2050 and then
decline. The carbon dioxide concentration in the
atmosphere would be 720 parts per million in
2100, compared with about 380 parts per million
today.
The computer models, on average, found about a
15% decline in surface moisture ˜ which is
calculated by subtracting evaporation from
precipitation ˜ from 2021 to 2040, as compared
with the average from 1950 to 2000.
A 15% drop led to the conditions that caused the
Dust Bowl in the Great Plains and the northern
Rockies during the 1930s.
Even without the circulation changes, global
warming intensifies existing patterns of vapor
transport, causing dry areas to get drier and wet
areas to get wetter. When it rains, it is likely
to rain harder, but scientists said that was
unlikely to make up for losses from a shifting
climate.
Kelly Redmond, deputy director of the Western
Regional Climate Center in Reno, who was not
involved in the study, said he thought the region
would still have periodic wet years that were
part of the natural climate variation.
But, he added, "In the future we may see fewer
such very wet years."
Although the computer models show the drying has
already started, they are not accurate enough to
know whether the drought is the result of global
warming or a natural variation.
"It's really hard to tell," said Connie
Woodhouse, a paleoclimatologist at the University
of Arizona. "It may well be one of the first
events we can attribute to global warming."
The U.S. and southern Europe will be better
prepared to deal with frequent drought than
most African nations.
For the U.S., the biggest problem would be water
shortages. The seven Colorado River Basin states
˜ Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico,
Arizona and California ˜ would battle each other
for diminished river flows.
Mexico, which has a share of the Colorado River
under a 1944 treaty and has complained of U.S.
diversions in the past, would join the struggle.
Inevitably, water would be reallocated from
agriculture, which uses most of the West's
supply, to urban users, drying up farms.
California would come under pressure to build
desalination plants on the coast, despite
environmental concerns.
"This is a situation that is going to cause water
wars," said Kevin Trenberth, a scientist at the
National Center for Atmospheric Research
in Boulder, Colo.
"If there's not enough water to meet everybody's
allocation, how do you divide it up?"
Officials from seven states recently forged an
agreement on the current drought, which has left
the Colorado River's big reservoirs ˜ Lake Powell
and Lake Mead ˜ about half-empty. Without some
very wet years, federal water managers say,
Lake Mead may never refill.
In the next couple of years, water deliveries may
have to be reduced to Arizona and Nevada, whose
water rights are second to California.
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5) Democrats at War
WALL STREET JOURNAL
EDITORIAL
April 6, 2007; Page A10
[Via Email from: Walter Lippmann
walterlx@earthlink.net ...bw]
Democrats took Congress last fall in part by opposing the war in Iraq,
but it is becoming clear that they view their election as a mandate for
something far more ambitious -- to wit, promoting and executing their own
foreign policy, albeit without the detail of a Presidential election.
Their intentions were made plain this week with two remarkable acts by their
House and Senate leaders. Majority Leader Harry Reid endorsed Senator Russ
Feingold's proposal to withdraw from Iraq immediately, cutting off funds
entirely within a year. He promised a vote soon, as part of what the
Washington Post reported would also be a Democratic offensive to close
Guantanamo, reinstate legal rights for terror suspects, and improve
relations with Cuba.
Meanwhile, Speaker Nancy Pelosi made her now famous sojourn to Syria,
donning a head scarf and advertising that she was conducting shuttle
diplomacy between Jerusalem and Damascus. If there was any doubt that her
trip was intended as far more than a routine Congressional "fact-finding"
trip, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Tom Lantos put it to rest by declaring
that, "We have an alternative Democratic foreign policy. I view my job as
beginning with restoring overseas credibility and respect for the United
States."
Americans should understand how extraordinary this is. There have been
previous battles over U.S. foreign policy and fierce domestic criticism.
In the 1990s, these columns defended Bill Clinton against "the Republican
drift toward isolationism and political opportunism" amid the Kosovo
conflict. But rarely in U.S. history have Congressional leaders sought to
conduct their own independent diplomacy, with the Speaker acting as a Prime
Minister traveling with a Secretary of State in the person of Mr. Lantos.
Yes, Congressional Republicans have visited Syria too. But Ms. Pelosi isn't
some minority back-bencher. Without a Democrat in the White House, she and
Mr. Reid are the national leaders of their party. Even Newt Gingrich, for
all his grand domestic ambitions in 1995, took a muted stand on foreign
policy, realizing that in the American system the executive has the bulk of
national security power. He also understood he would do the country no
favors by sending a mixed message to our enemies -- at the time, Slobodan
Milosevic.
What was Ms. Pelosi hoping to accomplish, other than embarrassing President
Bush? "We were very pleased with reassurances we received from the president
that he was ready to resume the peace process," she told reporters after
meeting with dictator Bashar Assad. "We expressed our interest in using our
good offices in promoting peace between Israel and Syria."
She purported to convey a message from Israel's Ehud Olmert expressing
similar interest in "the peace process," except that the Israeli Prime
Minister felt obliged to issue a clarification noting that Ms. Pelosi had
got the message wrong. Israel hadn't changed its policy, which is that it
will negotiate only when Mr. Assad repudiates his support for terrorism and
stops trying to dominate Lebanon. As a shuttle diplomat, Ms. Pelosi needs
some practice.
Mr. Lantos probably got closer to their real intentions when he told
reporters that "This is only the beginning of our constructive dialogue
with Syria, and we hope to build on it." The Pelosi cavalcade is intended
to show that if only the Bush Administration would engage in "constructive
dialogue," the Syrians, Israelis and everyone else could all get along.
This is the same Syrian regime that has facilitated the movement of money
and insurgents to kill Americans in Iraq; that has been implicated by a U.N.
probe in the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri; and that
has snubbed any number of U.S. overtures since the fall of Saddam Hussein in
2003. Perhaps if he works hard enough, Mr. Lantos can match the 22 visits to
Damascus that Bill Clinton's Secretary of State Warren Christopher made in
the 1990s trying to squeeze peace from that same stone.
In fact, Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Lantos both voted for the Syria Accountability
and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003 that ordered Mr. Bush to
choose from a menu of six sanctions to impose on Damascus. Mr. Bush chose
the weakest two sanctions and dispatched a new Ambassador to Syria in a
goodwill gesture in 2004. Only later, in the wake of the Hariri murder and
clear intelligence of Syria's role in aiding Iraqi Baathists, did Mr. Bush
conclude that Mr. Assad's real goal was to reassert control over Lebanon and
bleed Americans in Iraq.
With her trip, Ms. Pelosi has now reassured the Syrian strongman that
Mr. Bush lacks the domestic support to impose any further pressure on his
country. She has also made it less likely that Mr. Assad will cooperate with
the Hariri probe, or assist the Iraqi government in defeating Baathist and
al Qaeda terrorists.
* * *
Back in Washington, Harry Reid says his response to Mr. Bush's certain veto
of his Iraq spending bill will be to escalate. He now supports cutting off
funds and beginning an immediate withdrawal, even as General David
Petraeus's surge in Baghdad unfolds and shows signs of promise. If Mr. Bush
were as politically cynical as Democrats think, he'd let Mr. Reid's policy
become law. Then Democrats would share responsibility for whatever mayhem
happened next.
So this is Democratic foreign policy: Assure our enemies that they can
ignore a President who still has 21 months to serve; and wash their hands of
Baghdad and of their own guilt for voting to let Mr. Bush go to war. No
doubt Democrats think the President's low job approval, and public
unhappiness with the war, gives them a kind of political immunity. But we
wonder.
Once we leave Iraq, America's enemies will still reside in the Mideast; and
they will be stronger if we leave behind a failed government and bloodbath
in Iraq. Mr. Bush's successor will have to contain the damage, and that
person could even be a Democrat. But by reverting to their Vietnam message
of retreat and by blaming Mr. Bush for all the world's ills, Democrats on
Capitol Hill may once again convince voters that they can't be trusted with
the White House in a dangerous world.
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6) Ford Pays Chief $28 Million for 4 Months’ Work
By NICK BUNKLEY
April 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/06/business/06ford.html?ref=businessspecial
The Ford Motor Company paid its new chief executive,
Alan R. Mulally, $28.18 million in his first four months
on the job, the automaker said in a regulatory filing
yesterday.
His compensation included an $18.5 million bonus that
Ford, which reported a record $12.7 billion loss last
year, disclosed in September when it hired him from
Boeing.
Figures in Ford’s annual proxy statement show that his
pay was more than three times that of any other executive
at the company. That includes the executive chairman,
William Clay Ford Jr., who has kept a 2005 promise not
to accept any new salary, bonus or stock awards until
Ford consistently earns a profit.
The second-highest pay, $8.67 million, was also for only
a few months’ work; it went to James J. Padilla, who
retired as president and chief operating officer in July.
Three executives received bonuses for their roles
in reducing manufacturing capacity, cutting costs
and achieving other goals as part of Ford’s overhaul
plan, known as the Way Forward. The awards were part
of a retention program that the company recently
abandoned.
Mark Fields, president of the Americas division, earned
$2.29 million of his $5.57 million in total compensation
from that program. Lewis W. K. Booth, executive vice
president for Europe, received a $1.7 million retention
incentive, while Don R. Leclair, Ford’s chief financial
officer, received $1.32 million.
Ford said it spent $517,560 to give Mr. Fields use
of a company jet in 2006, a perk he stopped using
in January after it received considerable negative
publicity. Ford now buys first-class commercial airfares
to fly Mr. Fields from company offices in Dearborn, Mich.,
to his family’s home in South Florida each weekend.
Executive compensation at all three Detroit automakers
has been closely scrutinized since they began revamping
plans that will close dozens of factories and eliminate
tens of thousands of jobs. They are trying to overcome
multibillion-dollar losses and compete better with
foreign-based rivals like Toyota and Honda.
This year, as the automakers negotiate a new labor
agreement with the United Automobile Workers union,
workers are certain to resist demands for concessions
if they consider executive salaries to be excessive.
Union members have criticized the awarding of restricted
stock option bonuses to top executives at General Motors
— although G.M. paid no cash bonuses for the second
consecutive year — and a proposal at Ford to pay bonuses
to executives there. Ford later announced a program
to pay modest bonuses of at least $300 to all employees.
Mr. Mulally earned a base salary of $666,667, or $2 million
annualized. He was granted a $7.5 million signing bonus
and $11 million to make up for bonuses and stock options
he forfeited by leaving Boeing. Ford valued the stock and
option awards he received last year at $8.68 million.
In his final year at Boeing, where he headed the commercial
airplanes division, Mr. Mulally earned a total
of $9.96 million.
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7) Comcast Chief Executive Receives $26 Million
By GERALDINE FABRIKANT
March 30, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/business/businessspecial/30comcast.pay.html?ex=1176091200&en=a355f91bce1d207c&ei=5070
The Comcast Corporation, the nation’s largest cable company,
paid its chief executive, Brian L. Roberts, a total
of $26 million last year, according to its proxy
statement released today.
That figure included a salary of $2.5 million, a bonus
of $3 million and other payments including a cash
bonus of $8.4 million.
Mr. Roberts’s pay exceeded by just $2 million that
of his father, Ralph J. Roberts, who is chairman
of the executive and finance committees.
The pay package for Ralph Roberts, who was a founder
of the company but is no longer its chief executive
or chairman, has annoyed some investors over the years.
Mr. Roberts, who is 87, earned a total of $24.1 million
last year, a figure that included a salary of $1.8 million,
an option award of $3.7 million and another payment
of $10.3 million, which included $4.1 million related
to life insurance premiums.
David L. Cohen, the company’s executive vice president,
defended the compensation structure. "Our compensation
plan is carefully designed to align executive
compensation with the company’s annual and long-term
performance goals and with shareholder interests,”
he wrote in an e-mail message.
Comcast’s stock did better last year than it had done
previously, rising from $17.48 a share at the beginning
of the year to $28.22 a share at the end of the year.
In 2005, Glass Lewis & Company, a research firm that
advises institutional shareholders on governance issues,
argued that Brian Roberts, his father and three top managers
were grossly overpaid. At the time several investors said
privately that they were particularly annoyed that Ralph
Roberts continued to receive a lucrative pay package when
he was no longer chairman. In 2005, Comcast stock declined
21 percent. The company said that a portion of Ralph Roberts’
pay was determined by arrangements made when he was the
chief executive.
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8) No Bonuses for Top G.M. Executives
By NICK BUNKLEY
March 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/business/businessspecial/29gmpay.html?ex=1176091200&en=b3bcb33a8bceaa23&ei=5070
DETROIT, March 28 — General Motors, which significantly
improved its financial performance in 2006 yet did not
earn a profit, said on Wednesday that for a second
consecutive year, it would not pay cash bonuses
to top executives.
Such bonuses would undoubtedly have rankled members
of the United Automobile Workers union ahead of this
summer’s contract talks, although a G.M. spokeswoman,
Renee Rashid-Merem, declined to say whether the pending
negotiations were a factor.
“It’s a decision that’s made on an annual basis,”
Ms. Rashid-Merem said. She added that the decision
affected about 20 managers, including the chief
executive, Rick Wagoner, and the vice chairman,
Robert A. Lutz.
Full details on executives’ compensation will be
released next month when the company files its annual
proxy statement.
Last week, some U.A.W. members expressed anger
after G.M. disclosed in regulatory filings that
Mr. Wagoner and other top executives would receive
bonuses in the form of restricted stock options.
G.M. had not awarded stock options since 2003.
The union, which concluded a two-day collective
bargaining convention Wednesday in Detroit, also
grew irritated recently when executives at the
Ford Motor Company said they were considering
management bonuses. Instead, Ford said it would
give bonuses of at least $300 to all employees.
Union members say the leaders of Detroit’s automakers
should not receive incentives at a time that they
are eliminating tens of thousands of jobs and
cutting benefits for hourly workers and retirees.
Ford lost $12.7 billion last year, while G.M.
posted a $2 billion loss.
G.M.’s decision to forgo cash bonuses this year,
as it did in 2006 after the company lost $10.4 billion,
was first reported Wednesday afternoon
by Bloomberg News.
During this week’s bargaining convention, the U.A.W.’s
president, Ron Gettelfinger, repeatedly criticized
executives at the Delphi Corporation, the auto supplier
that declared bankruptcy in 2005, for collecting
bonuses while trying to cut hourly workers’ pay
and benefits. Delphi says the $37 million in incentive
pay recently approved by a bankruptcy judge is necessary
to keep top executives from leaving.
Mr. Gettelfinger did not specifically disparage executives
at the automakers, but he made clear that the union intended
to vigorously fight any demands made during the contract
talks that workers agree to concessions.
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9) Cuban jet bombing suspect ordered free on bail in U.S.
"Venezuela and Cuba want Luis Posada Carriles in a 1976 plane bombing
that killed 73. But in this country, the former CIA operative
is charged with lying to immigration officials."
By Carol J. Williams
Times Staff Writer
April 7, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-posada7apr07,1,7020766.story?coll=la-news-a_section
MIAMI — A federal judge Friday ordered Cuban militant Luis Posada
Carriles freed from a New Mexico jail, ruling he be allowed to live
under electronic surveillance with his family in Miami while awaiting
trial May 11 on charges of lying to immigration authorities.
The move to free the 79-year-old, who is suspected of blowing up a
Cuban airliner in 1976 and bombing Havana hotels in the late 1990s,
sparked outrage in Cuba. The Communist Party newspaper Granma posted
the news on its website under a headline that read: "Blackmail Gets
Results."
Posada has never been charged in U.S. courts in connection with those
terrorist acts, his critics contend, because he likely threatened to
disclose other violence committed during his decades of covert work
with the CIA.
A Bay of Pigs veteran who once served time in Panama for plotting to
kill Cuban leader Fidel Castro, Posada has become a political
conundrum for the Bush administration. The president and his
Republican allies have benefited from the support of influential
Cuban exiles in Miami, many of whom view Posada as a patriotic
freedom fighter.
Posada entered the United States illegally in March 2005, about eight
months after he and three other Florida-based Cuban militants were
pardoned on illegal weapons and conspiracy charges by outgoing
Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso.
The move came four years into Posada's eight-year sentence, and was
seen as a favor to Bush, whose reelection in November 2004 was riding
on the continued backing of Miami Cubans.
The other three men, all U.S. citizens, arrived here to a hero's
welcome while Posada — Cuban-born and Venezuela-naturalized — made
his way home clandestinely. Posada held a Miami news conference,
fueling foreign outcry that the U.S. government was providing refuge
for a terrorist. He was arrested in May 2005. Cuba and Venezuela want
Posada extradited to stand trial for the Cubana de Aviacion bombing
that killed all 73 on board the Caracas to Havana flight.
Posada escaped from prison in Venezuela in 1985 while he awaited a
third trial in the jetliner bombing off Barbados. He was acquitted
twice.
After his 2005 arrest, Posada first was held in an immigration lockup
in El Paso — where he told officials he had made his way to the
United States with the help of a smuggler via Mexico and Texas.
Cuban media, however, reported that Posada actually was picked up
from Mexico's Yucatan peninsula by a shrimp boat owned by Cuban
American developer Santiago Alvarez and brought to a Gulf Coast
marina. Alvarez is in jail following a guilty plea on weapons
violations charges.
The El Paso immigration court ordered Posada deported in September
2005, but U.S. authorities were unable to persuade any of the seven
allied countries contacted to accept him. A federal judge ruled that
he couldn't be extradited to Cuba or Venezuela because of the
possibility he would be tortured or abused in the custody of those
governments.
Last fall, Posada's Miami lawyer, Eduardo Soto, filed a writ of
habeas corpus seeking his release. Another Texas judge ordered the
federal government to charge Posada with a crime by Feb. 1 or release
him.
Then a federal grand jury in January indicted Posada on immigration
violations and transferred him to a prison in Otero County, N.M. —
voiding the deadline by placing him in custody pending a criminal
proceeding.
On Friday, shortly before the court closed for Easter weekend, U.S.
District Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso ordered Posada released.
She did not address a government request to keep him jailed pending
an appeal.
Posada's El Paso attorney, Felipe D.J. Millan, could not be reached
for comment. But he told the Associated Press it was unlikely Posada
would be released over the holiday weekend.
"He deserves to go home and live in peace and enjoy his family,"
Millan said. "Obviously we'll do whatever we need to do to post bond.
We'll try to get him [out] as soon as possible."
Cardone's nine-page ruling required Posada to post a $250,000 bond,
and mandated that his wife and two adult children put up $100,000
bond to ensure their compliance with other conditions of his release,
including 24-hour home confinement and wearing an electronic
monitoring device.
carol.williams@latimes.com
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10) City asks court to quit Abu-Jamal case
By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press Writer1
April 6, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070406/ap_on_re_us/mumia_abu_jamal
Prosecutors want the entire 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to recuse
itself from the latest appeal for death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal because
Gov. Ed Rendell ˜ whose wife serves on the court ˜ was district attorney
during his trial.
Abu-Jamal, a former radio reporter and Black Panther, was convicted in
1982 of killing a police officer. In his latest appeal, his attorneys say
prosecutors practiced racial discrimination during jury selection; an
allegation prosecutors deny.
"Since Mr. Rendell was the elected district attorney at the time in
question, and so would have been responsible for the supposed 'routine'
racially discriminatory practices of Philadelphia prosecutors, Abu-Jamal's
accusations necessarily implicate Mr. Rendell personally," Assistant
District Attorney Hugh J. Burns Jr. wrote in a motion last week.
A federal judge in 2001 overturned Abu-Jamal's death sentence but upheld
his conviction. Both sides appealed that ruling to the 3rd Circuit, whose
members include the governor's wife, Marjorie O. Rendell.
Prosecutors could simply ask for Judge Rendell to recuse herself but they
want to avoid any possible grounds for a future appeal.
Abu-Jamal was convicted in the Dec. 9, 1981, shooting death officer Daniel
Faulkner after the officer pulled over Abu-Jamal's brother. He remains on
death row during the appeals.
His writings and taped speeches on the justice system have made Abu-Jamal
a popular figure among activists who believe he was the victim of a racist
justice system. Abu-Jamal is black; Faulkner was white.
Abu-Jamal's lawyer, Robert R. Bryan of San Francisco, opposes Byrne's
motion, according to court records. He did not return telephone messages
seeking comment.
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LINKS AND VERY SHORT STORIES
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Matt Renner | Pentagon Office Created Phony Intel on Iraq/al-Qaeda Link
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040607A.shtml
Number of US Uninsured Soars, Along with Big Pharma Profits
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/06/343/
Wolfowitz Accused of Nepotism at World Bank
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/06/341/
Leading article: The world's biggest polluters
can no longer ignore the evidence
Climate change presents one of the most serious
threats ever faced by human life on the planet
Published: 07 April 2007
http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/article2430107.ece
Colombian Conflict Spills Across its Venezuelan Border
By: Humberto Márquez - IPS
Wednesday, Apr 04, 2007
www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=2007
FOCUS | Scientific Panel Issues Devastating Climate Change Report
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040707Z.shtml
What If Iran Had Invaded Mexico?
Putting the Iran Crisis in Context
By Noam Chomsky
"The debate over Iranian interference in Iraq proceeds
without ridicule on the assumption that the United States
owns the world. We did not, for example, engage
in a similar debate in the 1980s about whether
the U.S. was interfering in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan."
04/06/07
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17491.htm
A civil rights revolution with 'netroots' origins
"A14-year-old black girl from tiny Paris, Texas, was sent
to a youth prison for up to seven years for shoving
a hall monitor at her high school.
The same judge sentenced a 14-year-old white girl
to probation for burning down her family's house."
April 5, 2007
http://www.insidebayarea.com/opinion/ci_5599216
Questions Linger About Bushes and BCCI Bank
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/05/326/
Canadian Seal Hunt Opens Again Amidst Outcry
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/05/332/
World Health Day: How Much Can Iraq Survive
Inter Press Service
Ali al-Fadhily
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
http://uruknet.info/?p=m31918&s1=h1
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37236
Federal Official in Student Loans Held Loan Stock
By JONATHAN D. GLATER and KAREN W. ARENSON
April 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/06/education/06loans.html?hp
Pope's book accuses rich nations of robbery
· Benedict hails Marx's analysis of modern man
· Publication planned for 80th birthday
John Hooper in Rome
Guardian
"Pope Benedict appeared to reach out to the anti-globalisation
movement yesterday, attacking rich nations for having
"plundered and sacked" Africa and other poor regions
of the world.
An extract published from his first book since being elected
pope highlighted the passionately anti-materialistic and
anti-capitalist aspects of his thinking. Unexpectedly,
the Pope also approvingly cited Karl Marx and his analysis
of contemporary man as a victim of alienation."
April 5, 2007
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2050255,00.html
None of the Democratic Contenders Has Called for the
Closure of the Guantanamo Prison Of Confessions and Torture
By MARGARET KIMBERLY
April 4, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.com/kimberly04042007.html
Quota Quickly Filled on Visas for High-Tech Guest Workers
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The federal Citizenship and Immigration Services reached
its 2008 limit for skilled-worker visa petitions in a single
day and says it will not accept any more, to the dismay
of technology companies that rely on the visas to hire
foreign employees.
The agency began accepting petitions Monday for the fiscal
year starting Oct. 1 and said it received about 150,000
applications by midafternoon.
The temporary H-1B visas are for foreign workers with
high-technology skills or in specialty occupations.
Congress has mandated that the immigration agency
limit the visas granted to 65,000, although the cap
does not apply to petitions made on behalf of current
H-1B holders, and an additional 20,000 visas can be
granted to applicants who hold advanced degrees from
American academic institutions.
The agency said it would use computers to pick visa
recipients randomly from the applications received
Monday and Tuesday. It will reject the rest of the
applications and return the filing fees.
Employers seek H-1B visas on behalf of scientists,
engineers, computer programmers and other workers
with theoretical or technical expertise. About one-
third of Microsoft’s 46,000 employees in the United
States have work visas or are legal permanent residents
with green cards, said Ginny Terzano, a spokeswoman
for the company.
“We are trying to work with Congress to get the cap
increased,” Ms. Terzano said. “Our real preference
here is that there not be a cap at all.”
Compete America, a coalition that includes Microsoft,
the chip maker Intel, the business software company
Oracle and others, voiced its opposition to the
visa cap in a statement Tuesday.
“Our broken visa policies for highly educated foreign
professionals are not only counterproductive, they
are anticompetitive and detrimental to America’s
long-term economic competitiveness,” said Robert
E. Hoffman, an Oracle vice president and co-chairman
of Compete America.
April 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/business/05visa.html
California: Plea for a Shorter Sentence
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The lawyer and parents of John Walker Lindh, the American-
born Taliban soldier serving 20 years in prison after his
capture in Afghanistan, called on President Bush to commute
his sentence and set him free. The renewed call to shorten
the sentence was based on a nine-month term that David Hicks,
an Australian, received Saturday after pleading guilty to
supporting terrorism. “In the atmosphere of the time, the
best John could get was a plea bargain and a 20-year
sentence,” said Mr. Lindh’s father, Frank Lindh. The White
House did not return a call seeking comment.
April 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/us/05brfs-PLEAFORASHOR_BRF.html
Castro Again Chides U.S. on Ethanol Plan
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HAVANA, April 4 (AP) — The ailing Cuban leader Fidel
Castro returned to the public debate — if not view —
for the second time in less than a week on Wednesday
with a column in the Communist Party newspaper Granma.
Mr. Castro, 80, chided the Bush administration for its
support of ethanol production for automobiles, a move
that he said would leave the world’s poor hungry.
It was his second article on the issue in less than
a week, indicating that he is increasingly eager to
have his voice heard on international matters, eight
months after stepping down as Cuba’s president because
of illness.
Cuba has experimented with using sugar cane for ethanol
production, but now that the United States has embraced
the idea, Mr. Castro and his ally Hugo Chávez, the
president of Venezuela, have expressed concern that
rich countries will buy up the food crops of poor nations
to meet their energy needs, threatening millions with
starvation.
April 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/world/americas/05cuba.html
Havana rights
Calvin Tucker
March 28, 2007 8:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/calvin_tucker/2007/03/the_street_sce
ne_was_entertain.html
Marking Time, Making Do
By JOHN FREEMAN GILL
NY Times, April 1, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/nyregion/thecity/01subw.html
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GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
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A NEW LOOK AT U.S. RADIOACTIVE WEAPONS
Join us in a campaign to expose and stop the use of these illegal weapons
http://poisondust.org/
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You may enjoy watching these.
In struggle
Che:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqcezl9dD2c
Leon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukkFVV5X0p4
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FIGHTBACK! A Collection of Socialist Essays
By Sylvia Weinstein
http://www.walterlippmann.com/sylvia-weinstein-fightback-intro.html
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[The Scab
"After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad,
and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with
which he made a scab."
"A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul,
a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue.
Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten
principles." "When a scab comes down the street,
men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and
the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out."
"No man (or woman) has a right to scab so long as there
is a pool of water to drown his carcass in,
or a rope long enough to hang his body with.
Judas was a gentleman compared with a scab.
For betraying his master, he had character enough
to hang himself." A scab has not.
"Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.
Judas sold his Savior for thirty pieces of silver.
Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of
a commision in the british army."
The scab sells his birthright, country, his wife,
his children and his fellowmen for an unfulfilled
promise from his employer.
Esau was a traitor to himself; Judas was a traitor
to his God; Benedict Arnold was a traitor to his country;
a scab is a traitor to his God, his country,
his family and his class."
Author --- Jack London (1876-1916)...Roland Sheppard
http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret]
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END ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL!
Stop funding Israel's war against Palestine
Complete the form at the website listed below with your information.
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?
JServSessionIdr003=cga2p2o6x1.app2a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=177
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Sand Creek Massacre
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html
On November 29, 1864, 700 Colorado troops savagely slaughtered
over 450 Cheyenne children, disabled, elders, and women in the
southeastern Colorado Territory under its protection. This act
became known as the Sand Creek Massacre. This film project
("The Sand Creek Massacre" documentary film project) is an
examination of an open wound in the souls of the Cheyenne
people as told from their perspective. This project chronicles
that horrific 19th century event and its affect on the 21st century
struggle for respectful coexistence between white and native
plains cultures in the United States of America.
Listed below are links on which you can click to get the latest news,
products, and view, free, "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" award-
winning documentary short. In order to create more native
awareness, particularly to save the roots of America's history,
please read the following:
Some people in America are trying to save the world. Bless
them. In the meantime, the roots of America are dying.
What happens to a plant when the roots die? The plant dies
according to my biology teacher in high school. American's
roots are its native people. Many of America's native people
are dying from drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, hunger,
and disease, which was introduced to them by the Caucasian
male. Tribal elders are dying. When they die, their oral
histories go with them. Our native's oral histories are the
essence of the roots of America, what took place before
our ancestors came over to America, what is taking place,
and what will be taking place. It is time we replenish
America's roots with native awareness, else America
continues its decaying, and ultimately, its death.
You can help. The 22-MINUTE SAND CREEK MASSACRE
DOCUMENTARY PRESENTATION/EDUCATIONAL DVD IS
READY FOR PURCHASE! (pass the word about this powerful
educational tool to friends, family, schools, parents, teachers,
and other related people and organizations to contact
me (dvasicek@earthlink.net, 303-903-2103) for information
about how they can purchase the DVD and have me come
to their children's school to show the film and to interact
in a questions and answers discussion about the Sand
Creek Massacre.
Happy Holidays!
Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html
SHOP:
http://www.manataka.org/page633.html
BuyIndies.com
donvasicek.com.
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Friday, April 06, 2007
BAUAW NEWSLETTER - FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2007
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Re: Mumia Abu-Jamal v. Martin Horn,
Pennsylvania Director of Corrections
U.S. Court of Appeals Nos. 01-9014, 02-9001 (death penalty)
Dear Friends:
Oral argument in the case of my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal,
will be on May 17 before a three-judge panel in the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia.
The issues concern the right to a fair trial, the death
penalty, and the political repression of an outspoken
journalist. Racism and politics are threads that have
run through this case since the beginning. We are
engaged in extensive work in preparation for this
complex hearing.
Many people have called my office and sent e-mail asking
how they can make contributions to the defense of Mumia.
Concern has been expressed as to how to ensure that
donations go to the right organization so that they
are actually applied to the legal effort rather than
for some other purpose.
To contribute directly to the legal defense of Mumia,
please make your check payable to the "National Lawyers
Guild Foundation." All such donations are tax deductible
to the full extent provided by law. The NLG Foundation
is a tax-exempt, nonprofit charitable organization under
Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3).
Donations should be mailed to:
Committee To Save Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 2012
New York, NY 10159
Your interest in this struggle for human rights
and against the death penalty is appreciated.
With best wishes,
Robert
Robert R. Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
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CINE DEL BARRIO and New College Media Studies Program present:
The Red Dance (El Baile Rojo) directed by Yezid Campos
a film about Colombia, video, in color, 57 minutes, 2004
sub-titles in English plus, an up to the minute report on the
continuing struggle in Colombia by Cristina Gutierrez.
Saturday, April 7, 11:30 a.m.
at the Roxie New College Film Center
3117 - 16th Street (between Valencia and Guerrero)
San Francisco
No admission charge
This is part of "Nuestra America, Muestra de Cine y Video
Documental" series of film showings on Saturdays of March,
April, and May. All films are at 11:30am and 1:30pm on
Saturdays at the Roxie. Films on Nicaragua, Venezuela,
Colombia, Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, and the U.S. (Immigrantes
Nuevo Orleans). Films are in Spanish with English sub-titles.
For more information: 415-863-1087
www.roxie.com
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{SANCTUARYnational} ELVIRA ARELLANO BEGINS HUNGER STRIKE
For immediate release
TO: ALL MEDIA
FROM: CENTRO SIN FRONTERAS/LA FAMILIA LATINA UNIDA
Contact: Emma Lozano (773) 671-1798
Or Rev Walter L Coleman (773) 671-1755
PRESS CONFERENCE
THURSDAY, APRIL 5TH,
4:30 P.M.
Adalberto united Methodist Church
2716 W Division St, Chicago, Illinois
ELVIRA ARELLANO BEGINS HUNGER STRIKE:
“The Raids and Deportations and
Separations of Families
Must Stop Now !
“The Congress and the President must
fix the Broken Law
and End the Crucifixion of Innocent
Children and their Families.”
“As I have stayed here in Sanctuary with my U.S.
citizen son Saulito for seven months, the Congress
and the President have taken no action to fix the
broken law. Meanwhile, millions of people live
in the shadows and millions of children live
in fear of being abandoned. While nothing is done
to fix the broken law, the raids and deportations
continue to escalate every week..
“I am starting this hunger strike, on the eve
of Good Friday, as a prayer that our people will
mobilize, that the hearts of the people of this
nation will open and that the elected officials
will act to preserve our families and the Holy
Bond between the children and their mothers and
fathers. I pray that not one more family will
be separated, not one more child left behind.”
Elvira Arellano
The Press Conference will follow a brief celebration
of the Last Supper with families and children facing
separation. Elvira Arellano will call on others
around the country to join her in the hunger strike
and her pastor, Rev. Walter Coleman, who will join
her in the hunger strike, will call on religious
leaders across the country to stand with her.
Hunger Strike Day 1
On Friday, April 6th, at 10 A.M. Elvira will participate
in a brief Good Friday ceremony at the church and send
off a delegation who will hold a “Viacrucis” in front
of ICE Headquarters at Clark and Congress.
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Anti-War Rally at Port of Oakland
Saturday, April 7, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
An anti-war rally will mark the fourth anniversary of the
Oakland police attack on anti-war protesters at the Port.
Port of Oakland Headquarters
530 Water Street, foot of Washington St. in Jack London Square.
For more information, call
415-863-6637 or email portaction@riseup.net
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SOLIDARITY WITH KATRINA SURVIVORS
SATURDAY, APRIL 7 @ 7 p.m.
Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia St., S.F.
Featured Speaker: KALI AKUNO
Executive Director, People's Hurricane Relief Fund - O.C.
Also: "Down But Not Out" —A Film on the Gulf Coast Resistance
Music by Leith Kahl, Biko, & Spoken Word Artists
SATURDAY, APRIL 7 @ 7 p.m.
(@ 16th Street; near 16th St. Mission BART)
Donation requested at door; No one turned away for lack of funds.
Sponsored by PHRF-OC, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement,
Bay Area Katrina Solidarity Committee,
Revolution Youth, The Organizer Newspaper,
Colectivo Media Insurgente, CRUCS,
Mission High Black Student Union
For more information, call 415-646-6469 or 504-301-0215.
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DEMAND THE RELEASE OF SAMI AL-ARIAN
The National Council of Arab Americans (NCA) demands the immediate
release of political prisoner, Dr. Sami Al-Arian. Dr. Al-Arian is currently
under his 60th day of a water-only hunger strike in protest of his
maltreatment by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). After an earlier
plea agreement that absolved Dr. Al-Arian from any further questioning,
he was sentenced up to 18 months in jail for refusing to testify before
a grand jury in Virginia.
Dr. Al-Arian is currently being held at a medical facility in North Carolina.
He is in critical condition, having lost 53 pounds, over 25% of his
body weight.
According to family members who recently visited him he is no longer
able to walk or stand on his own.
More information on Dr. Al-Arian's ordeal can be found in the transcript
of a recent interview with his wife, Nahla Al-Arian on Democracy Now.
See:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/16/1410255
ACTION:
We ask all people of conscience to demand the immediate
release and end to Dr. Al- Arian's suffering.
Call, Email and Write:
1- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
Department of Justice
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Fax Number: (202) 307-6777
Email: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
2- The Honorable John Conyers, Jr
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5126
(202) 225-0072 Fax
John.Conyers@mail.house.gov
3- Senator Patrick Leahy
433 Russell Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
(202)224-4242
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
4- Honorable Judge Gerald Lee
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
401 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA 22314
March 22, 2007
[No email given...bw]
National Council of Arab Americans (NCA)
http://www.arab-american.net/
Criminalizing Solidarity: Sami Al-Arian and the War of
Terror
By Charlotte Kates, The Electronic Intifada, 4 April 2007
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6767.shtml
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Excerpt of interview between Barbara Walters and Hugo Chavez
http://www.borev.net/2007/03/what_you_had_something_better.html
Which country should we invade next?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3g_zqz3VjY
My Favorite Mutiny, The Coup
http://www.myspace.com/thecoupmusic
Michael Moore- The Awful Truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeOaTpYl8mE
Morse v. Frederick Supreme Court arguments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_LsGoDWC0o
Free Speech 4 Students Rally - Media Montage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfCjfod8yuw
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'My son lived a worthwhile life'
In April 2003, 21-year old Tom Hurndall was shot in the head
in Gaza by an Israeli soldier as he tried to save the lives of three
small children. Nine months later, he died, having never
recovered consciousness. Emine Saner talks to his mother
Jocelyn about her grief, her fight to make the Israeli army
accountable for his death and the book she has written
in his memory.
Monday March 26, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2042968,00.html
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Introducing...................the Apple iRack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-KWYYIY4jQ
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"A War Budget Leaves Every Child Behind."
[A T-shirt worn by some teachers at Roosevelt High School
in L.A. as part of their campaign to rid the school of military
recruiters and JROTC--see Article in Full item number 4, below...bw]
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THIS IS AN EXCELLENT VIDEO DESTRIBUTED BY U.S. LABOR AGAINST
THE WAR (USLAW) FEATURING SPEAKERS AT THE JANUARY 27TH
MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOCUSING ON THE DEMAND - BRING
THE TROOPS HOME NOW.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6935451906479097836&hl=en
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Defend the Los Angeles Eight!
http://www.committee4justice.com/
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George Takai responds to Tim Hardaway's homophobic remarks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcJoJZIcQW4&eurl_
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Iran
http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html
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Another view of the war. A link from Amer Jubran
http://d3130.servadmin.com/~leeflash/
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Petition: Halt the Blue Angels
http://action.globalexchange.org/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=458
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/289327
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A Girl Like Me
7:08 min
Youth Documentary
Kiri Davis, Director, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, Producer
Winner of the Diversity Award
Sponsored by Third Millennium Foundation
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1091431409617440489
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Film/Song about Angola
http://www.prisonactivist.org/angola/
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"200 million children in the world sleep in the streets today.
Not one of them is Cuban."
(A sign in Havana)
Venceremos
View sign at bottom of page at:
http://www.cubasolidarity.net/index.html
[Thanks to Norma Harrison for sending this...bw]
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Cheyenne and Arapaho oral histories hammer history's account of the
Sand Creek Massacre"
CENTENNIAL, CO -- A new documentary film based on an award-winning
documentary short film, "The Sand Creek Massacre", and driven by
Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho people who tell their version about
what happened during the Sand Creek Massacre via their oral
histories, has been released by Olympus Films+, LLC, a Centennial,
Colorado film company.
"You have done an extraordinary job" said Margie Small, Tobient
Entertainment, " on the Colorado PBS episode, the library videos for
public schools and libraries, the trailer, etc...and getting the
story told and giving honor to those ancestors who had to witness
this tragic and brutal attack...film is one of the best ways."
"The images shown in the film were selected for native awareness
value" said Donald L. Vasicek, award-winning writer/filmmaker, "we
also focused on preserving American history on film because tribal
elders are dying and taking their oral histories with them. The film
shows a non-violent solution to problem-solving and 19th century
Colorado history, so it's multi-dimensional in that sense. "
Chief Eugene Blackbear, Sr., Cheyenne, who starred as Chief Black
Kettle in "The Last of the Dogmen" also starring Tom Berenger and
Barbara Hershey and "Dr. Colorado", Tom Noel, University of Colorado
history professor, are featured.
The trailer can be viewed and the film can be ordered for $24.95 plus
$4.95 for shipping and handling at http://www.fullduck.com/node/53.
Vasicek's web site, http://www.donvasicek.com, provides detailed
information about the Sand Creek Massacre including various still
images particularly on the Sand Creek Massacre home page and on the
proposal page.
Olympus Films+, LLC is dedicated to writing and producing quality
products that serve to educate others about the human condition.
Contact:
Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
7078 South Fairfax Street
Centennial, CO 80122
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103
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ARTICLES IN FULL:
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1) Let America Be America Again
by Langston Hughes
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15609
2) The End of the Line as They Know It
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
Detroit
April 1, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/business/yourmoney/01jobs.html?ref=business
3) Patents Over Patients
By RALPH W. MOSS
Op-Ed Contributor
State College, Pa.
April 1, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/opinion/01moss.html
4) Distract and Disenfranchise
By PAUL KRUGMAN
April 2, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/opinion/02krugman.html?_r=1&hp&oref=login
5) Taxing Private Equity
Editorial
April 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/opinion/02mon1.html?hp
6)PROTECT OUR PENSIONS
April 1, 2007
http://www.soldiersofsolidarity.com/
7) "The Language Isn't Strong Enough"
A Report on the 2007 UAW Bargaining Convention
Tueday April 3, 2007
http://www.soldiersofsolidarity.com
8) HOW IRAN TREATS PRISONERS
HOW THE US TREATS PRISONERS
"Call that humiliation? No hoods. No electric shocks. No beatings.
These Iranians are clearly a very uncivilised bunch."
Terry Jones
Saturday March 31, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian .co.uk/
9) More Than a Feeling
Editorial
April 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/opinion/04weds1.html?hp
10) Daimler Considers Selling Off Chrysler Division
By MARK LANDLER
April 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/business/04cnd-daimler.html?hp
11) Jungle Law
"In 1972, crude oil began to flow from Texaco's
wells in the area around Lago Agrio ("sour
lake"), in the Ecuadorean Amazon. Born that same
year, Pablo Fajardo is now the lead attorney in
an epic lawsuit˜among the largest environmental
suits in history˜against Chevron, which acquired
Texaco in 2001. Reporting on an emotional battle
in a makeshift jungle courtroom, the author
investigates how many hundreds of square miles of
surrounding rain forest became a toxic-waste dump."
by William Langewiesche
May 2007
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/05/texaco200705
12) Our Crumbling Foundation
By BOB HERBERT
April 5, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/opinion/05herbert.html?hp
13) Injured in Iraq, a Soldier Is Shattered at Home
By DEBORAH SONTAG
April 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/us/05VET.html?hp
14) Immigration Raid Yields 62 Arrests in Illinois
By LIBBY SANDER
April 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/us/05raid.html
15) Senator Feinstein's War Profiteering
Democratic Blood Money
By JOSHUA FRANK
April 4, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.com/frank04042007.html
16) Reflections of the Commander in Chief
THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF GENOCIDE
April 3, 2007
By Fidel Castro Ruz
GRANMA
April 4, 2007
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/english/news/art84.html
17) Guantánamo Follies
Editorial
April 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/06/opinion/06fri1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
18) All That You Can Be
Risk Management
by Lauren Collins
April 9, 2007
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2007/04/09/070409ta_talk_collins
19) No hope in Guantánamo
BY JOSHUA COLANGELO-BRYAN
MIAMI HERALD
Apr. 05, 2007
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/v-print/story/64032.html
20) WE'VE BEEN SURGING FOR YEARS
By Don Monkerud
TomPaine.com
April 6, 2007
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/04/06/weve_been_surging_for_years.php
21) Permanent drought predicted for Southwest
"Study says global warming threatens to create a
Dust Bowl-like period. Water politics could
also get heated."
By Alan Zarembo and Bettina Boxall
Times Staff Writers
April 6, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-swdrought6apr06,0,122112.story?coll=la-home-headlines
22) Democrats at War
WALL STREET JOURNAL
EDITORIAL
April 6, 2007; Page A10
[Via Email from: Walter Lippmann
walterlx@earthlink.net ...bw]
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1) Let America Be America Again
by Langston Hughes
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15609
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.
O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!
From The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, published
by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Copyright © 1994 the Estate of Langston Hughes.
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2) The End of the Line as They Know It
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
Detroit
April 1, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/business/yourmoney/01jobs.html?ref=business
TALK to Kenneth Doolittle about General Motors, where he once
supervised a team of assembly line workers, and he readily speaks
with pride about his job and the self-esteem it provided. “I loved
all of it — the people, the work,” he says. “I was in a position
finally where people listened to me when I spoke. I wasn’t just
a Joe-Nobody. I contributed.”
Talk to Mr. Doolittle a little longer and he gradually describes
why he decided to take a buyout from G.M. — joining more than
80,000 Big Three employees in the largest exodus of workers
from a single American industry in decades.
After G.M. shuttered the plant where Mr. Doolittle worked,
it offered him a job back on the assembly line at another
factory, an offer he pondered in silent humiliation. At 54,
he considers himself “mentally not ready to retire,” but his
union contract, and G.M.’s woes, required him to return
to the assembly line and forfeit the higher rank he had
worked years to secure.
So he decided to leave. “I did not want to start over,” he
said, “not after 33 ½ years.”
The exodus that Mr. Doolittle is joining is voluntary. Some
have changed their minds. More than 3,000 workers who
signed up over the last year to leave Ford and G.M.
subsequently decided to stay. These are, after all, the
highest-paying blue-collar jobs left in America. Even so,
workers are departing from the auto industry en masse,
escaping — as they put it in interviews — increasingly
difficult working conditions at companies they fear will
desert them.
As the workers depart in greater numbers than either their
union or their employers anticipated, the exodus becomes
more than a long ledger of altered lives. It is an accounting,
of course, but an accounting of the most personal and
poignant sort. Communities are fragmenting, families are
relocating, and years of individual choices tethered to the
notion of a certain kind of job in a certain kind of place are
giving way to uncertainty, regret and loss of control.
“The question is, Are we seeing a final end to what we have
called blue-collar aristocracy?” asks Sheldon H. Danziger,
a public policy researcher at the University of Michigan
in Ann Arbor. “Big Steel is gone, coal is gone, shipbuilding
is gone — all the big industrial unions are gone or going,
except the auto workers. These are the people who had
the strongest ability to fight, and now they seem to be
giving up the struggle.”
The reasons auto workers give for embracing buyouts are
almost as numerous as the 18 workers interviewed for this
article. Some have already departed from G.M., the first
of the Big Three to offer the buyouts, and others are soon
to depart from the Ford Motor Company and DaimlerChrysler.
Many who left or are leaving were eligible for retirement,
having already worked the necessary 30 years. Others have
accepted lump-sum payments, often in the six figures,
to start over again. Indeed, the voluntary nature of this
exodus has made it seem softer or less apparent than the
upheavals that have greeted mass layoffs in other industries.
But the common thread running through all of the interviews
is that working conditions and benefits, which had become
steadily better through the 1970s and even in the 1990s,
were unmistakably in decline — and the future unpredictable.
Mr. Doolittle, a stocky man with a narrow mustache, joined
G.M. on the assembly line in Lansing in 1973 and rose to become
a leader of one of the Japanese-style work teams that first
became fashionable in the American auto industry in the
1980s. By 2005, he was a “team build coordinator” with
authority over several groups whose job it was to transfer
engines from a conveyor into cars, bolt them into place and
attach skeins of wires as the cars moved down an assembly line.
When G.M. decided to close his plant in 2005, Mr. Doolittle’s
seniority gave him every right to transfer to a much newer
factory right next door, where G.M. is building a popular
Cadillac sedan and is likely to do so for as long as Mr. Doolittle
might have wanted a job. But he balked because of the change
in stature that would accompany the switch.
Since his departure last year, he has struggled to occupy
his time. Divorced, with four grown children, he divides his
days between an apartment in Lansing and a trailer parked
on a small lakefront plot that he owns north of the city.
He has typed out on a laptop three novels “about my life
experience.” And to make up some of his lost income —
his $36,000 pension is 60 percent of his old pay — he
works 20 hours a week, at $10 an hour, doing maintenance
at Sears stores.
“That is just enough to keep me from watching Jerry Springer
every day,” he said. “I don’t want to sit in front of a TV;
I’m too young for that.”
STARTING two years ago, the Big Three announced their
intention to shed tens of thousands of workers by 2008.
The buyouts, negotiated with the United Automobile Workers,
are an attempt to orchestrate a huge downsizing in a kindlier,
more orderly manner. The offers hold out a variety of subsidies,
with the announced goal to tide people over as they make
the transition to other jobs and lives.
Ford Motor in particular has told its younger employees, through
a series of job fairs, that good incomes await them in other
industries, especially if they avail themselves of one of the
tuition subsidies that Ford offers as a buyout option. Ford
also offers departing employees a six-figure lump-sum
payment, which experts at the job fairs suggest could be
used to start a small business or to buy into a franchise.
Joe W. Laymon, Ford’s vice president for corporate human
resources and labor affairs, says his company has successfully
used the job fairs to inform workers about opportunities and
good pay elsewhere. On a more ominous note, however,
he is quick to add that Ford has no other choice but to lay
off or buy out workers if the company hopes to remain
competitive.
“We believe that the Ford Motor Company will be a viable,
profitable entity going forward,” Mr. Laymon says. “To get
from where we are today to that viable, profitable entity, we
will reduce the number of employees working at Ford. Now,
we can do it with an involuntary action or we can do it with
a combination of voluntary actions and involuntary actions.”
Across America, more than 30 million people have been forced
out of jobs since the early 1980s, the Bureau of Labor Statistics
reports, and regaining lost incomes has not been easy. Nearly
50 million new jobs have been created over that same period,
according to the bureau, so there are always new opportunities
but more often than not at lower pay. Among those who have
lost work, only a third held new jobs two years later that paid
as well as those that were lost, according to the bureau’s surveys
of displaced workers. Another third of those displaced were
in jobs that paid, on average, 15 to 20 percent less than their
previous employment — while the final third had dropped out
of the labor force entirely.
The Census Bureau reported a jump in net migration out of
Michigan last year: some 42,300 people left, up from 29,700
in 2005. That was far and away the largest outflow from the
state since 1984, during the Rust Belt crisis, census data show.
In some Michigan neighborhoods that have been home to auto
workers, houses are now selling for less than the prices of
some of the vehicles rolling off of assembly lines in Detroit,
Dearborn, Lansing and elsewhere in the state. While no statistical
evidence currently links the buyouts and the migration, Michigan
state officials are responding as if that were the case. Gov. Jennifer
M. Granholm is promising publicly financed college scholarships
for all high school graduates, and she is expanding retraining
programs for idled workers. “People who had auto manufacturing
in the DNA of their families for several generations,” she says,
“are all of a sudden finding the rug pulled out from under them.”
The exodus is reminiscent of the Dust Bowl migration from
the prairie states in the 1930s, when unemployed farmers gave
up and trekked west to California. The Dust Bowl migration, on
its face, was much more brutal — the number of displaced Okies,
as they were called, was far greater than the current number
of departing auto workers, and there were not corporate and
public subsidies at the time to soften the hardship.
“The Okies did not know whether they would get to their destination
before they starved to death,” said Daniel Luria, an economist
at the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center. “The labor
market prospects for the auto workers are not good, but they
have assets. They are not in danger of immediately falling
into poverty.”
Still, for all their greater means, the auto workers talk of a similar
jarring sense of dislocation. The World War II economy eventually
lifted the Okies to prosperity, and the buyouts may be the first
step in achieving the same result for auto workers, though their
fate will not be known for quite a while.
Unionized auto workers can boast of annual wages of $60,000,
built on a 40-hour work week that pays $28 or more an hour.
Overtime pay helps swell wages to $80,000 or more, but overtime
is steadily disappearing as the Big Three’s market share declines
in the post-S.U.V. era. At the same time, getting off the assembly
line, with its grueling pace and mental and emotional fatigue, has
become more difficult. Rising seniority once meant transfers after
10 or 15 years to easier tasks such as building seats or moving
materials as a forklift driver. Many of these off-the-line jobs
have been outsourced.
Skilled auto workers — electricians, millwrights, tool makers —
are similarly disheartened. Their skills have been hollowed out,
they say. Instead of taking apart and repairing a machine’s
gearbox, for example, they are limited to swapping out the
damaged box for a spare. The damaged box goes for repair
to an outside contractor employing less expensive labor.
Beyond all of these specific complaints, auto workers say they
fear the future. Plant closings have sown uncertainty. Some auto
workers who accepted buyouts explained that they did so to lock
in pensions and retiree health benefits. But they worry that these
benefits may be bargained away for future retirees in contract
negotiations that begin this summer.
Younger workers, as a result, often say they see themselves
as having no choice but to bail out. They have grabbed
at generous college tuition payments or lump-sum payments
as a bridge to what they hope will be, if not better lives, then
incomes that someday will at least equal those they earned
as auto workers.
JEFFREY VITALE, 39, is in this camp. He is considering a $100,000
buyout from DaimlerChrysler as part of a package that the automaker
is just now putting on the table; it was the last of the Big Three
to make such an offer.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Mr. Vitale says. “It is going to be hard
financially to leave.”
Like many younger auto workers, he has gone to college. He was
on his way to becoming a public school teacher when he dropped
out in the late 1980s, against his father’s wishes, to become
a carpenter. “It was hard to tell a 21-year-old making $75,000
a year that you needed a college education to get a job,”
Mr. Vitale recalls.
A decade ago, he left carpentry and went to work for Chrysler at
the Jefferson North assembly plant in Detroit. As a skilled millwright,
his $31 an hour often brought in $80,000 a year or more, with
overtime. “I was content,” he says. “I was bringing home a steady,
good paycheck.” He married six years ago and he and his wife,
a dance instructor, have a 3-year-old son.
Then disillusionment crept in. Mr. Vitale found himself stuck on
the second shift, working afternoon and evening hours, unable
to spend much time with his family. Periodic layoffs of less-senior
workers have kept him close to the bottom of the seniority ladder,
which means that he has not been able to qualify for the more
desirable day shift.
The outsourcing of skilled work — in his case, maintenance
of conveyors and machinery — also grates. “I think they will
build cars in this plant for a long time,” he says, “but they won’t
utilize in-house skills as they have in the past.”
Two years ago, he was injured. A Jeep he was helping to push
back onto a conveyor slipped off and pinned him. He spent 10
months at home convalescing from shoulder injuries that required
two operations.
“That is when I realized I did not want to come back to the factory,”
Mr. Vitale says. “I checked out my college transcript; I needed seven
more courses, 21 credits, for a bachelor’s degree, and I’ve been
doing the course work online.”
He expects to graduate in December, qualified to work as a physical
therapist, a profession not likely to pay as much as he now earns,
and certainly not with the same benefits. For that reason, he
hesitates to leave, but the Chrysler buyout proposals include,
in his case, six months of health insurance on top of a $100,000
payment.
“I’m halfway decided to take the money and go,” he says. “I’ll be
40 in November. Do I wait until they cut my pay in half and there
is no buyout? Or they decide they don’t need so many millwrights
in the plant, and they let me go? They have 136 now, down from
280 ten years ago.”
FOR her part, Leann Bies, 48, an electrician at the Ford truck
plant in Dearborn, says that accepting a buyout means she will
finally have a summer off. “There comes a point in time when
you want to leave,” she says.
With 29 years of service, one shy of the 30 needed to retire,
she qualifies for a buyout that allows her to stay home that last
year while collecting 85 percent of her pay, which is $31 an
hour or $65,000 annually. She then segues into a normal
$36,000 pension as well as retiree health insurance, both
nominally insulated from any chipping away that might take
place in pending contract negotiations.
In a future job, if she takes one, she won’t even try to match
her Ford salary, she says. She does not need to. Her husband
continues to work at a G.M. plant. Their mortgage is paid off.
The last two of her three children are in their final college years.
And as an electrician with a state license, Ms. Bies says she can
get work in her trade if need be.
Or she could take an office job. While at Ford, she earned
a bachelor’s degree in business leadership during her spare
time. Ford paid her tuition under a program the U.A.W. negotiated.
“I am young enough to pursue another career if I choose
to do so,” she says.
But for all of her creature comforts, Ms. Bies is angry about
what she calls shoddy treatment in recent years. “The management
of this plant is very disrespectful,” she says.
The truck plant, a state-of-the-art operation, produces the still-
popular F150 pickup, and there is constant pressure to keep the
line moving. “I came into this plant in 2003 and for two years they
treated me as if I were dumber than a box of rocks,” she says.
“You get an attitude if you are treated that way. It is an important
part of my decision to leave.”
Yet it is only after departing that some auto workers realize what
they have lost. Andrew J. Vigliano, 63, is one. He worked 44 years
for G.M. in Lansing, mostly on the assembly line, and he still has
the wiry body of a younger man. His factory closed last year, and
rather than transfer to another plant, he took a $35,000 incentive
to retire.
“I was kind of tired of working,” he says. “But if you want my true
opinion, if I had it to do over again, I would have stayed. I miss the
people I worked with every day. Suddenly you cut that right off.”
As the buyouts continue, some auto workers have turned to jobs
that were once hobbies or sidelines to replace lost income: repairing
gutters, landscaping, serving as full-time pastors or working as real
estate brokers, plumbers and electricians.
Mark Strong, 48, a stocky six-footer, his long graying hair pulled
back in a ponytail, went on such a route. A decade ago, he and his
brother, Tim, started a small machine shop, first in the garages
of their homes in Mason, just south of Lansing, and then in an
industrial park, in a small hangar-like building that Mark had
constructed.
The venture, Strong Products, has struggled. Tim, 47, a machinist,
worked at the shop full time while Mark worked there during time
off from his job at G.M., which he joined in 1976. When his plant
closed in 2005, he elected to transfer to another plant in Lansing,
then still under construction. While he waited for the plant to open,
he furloughed himself from G.M. and focused on his machine shop.
“I could see then, working full time, that we could grow the business,”
he said, “and we have.”
Their operation now includes several computerized cutting machines,
bought on credit, and several employees. Still, with gross revenue
of only $200,000 a year, and debts more than double that amount,
there is little income left for the brothers. Tim, with a wife and children,
draws a salary. Mark, living alone and childless, draws much less money
from the business. So when the new G.M. plant finally opened last
year, he reported for work.
He didn’t like what he found. He had risen over the years from
the assembly line to materials handling, in his case delivering
cylinders of chemicals at a pace that he controlled. “As long as
there was not a phone call saying some chemical was needed,
I was on my own,” he said.
In the new plant, chemical delivery was automated, and Mark
found himself on a much more demanding schedule. He was
assigned to deliver parts from the shipping bays to the assembly
line at a pace set by the line’s speed. He hooked his small tractor
to a train of wagons, each loaded with parts, and drove them
to stations along the line.
“Every 45 minutes to an hour another tractor-trailer would show
up at the shipping bays with the already-loaded wagons inside,”
he said. “It took me 45 minutes to get the contents to the line,
leaving just enough time to get back and hook up the next load.”
Automation and more rigorous scheduling may have improved
G.M.’s efficiency, but for Mr. Strong, the change was stressful
and G.M.’s buyout last year offered an escape. With 30 years
under his belt, he collected a $35,000 incentive to retire and
began to draw a $36,000 annual pension, or 60 percent
of his old wage, along with retiree health insurance.
“I would have stayed,” he says, “ if the work was similar to
the old job and if I had a wife and kids in college, which
I don’t have. And if I did not have this shop. It weighed
in my decision to leave; I had something to do.”
UNLIKE Mr. Strong, other displaced workers, including
Mr. Doolittle, now working part time at Sears, do not have
occupations that engage them. And they miss the work,
the income and the way of life that defined their careers
as auto workers.
“My children and my grandchildren will never have an opportunity
to work at G.M.,” Mr. Doolittle says. “My dad made a good living
there. So did my brother and my brothers-in-law. That is all over
now. It will be 10 to 15 years before G.M. hires again, if it ever does,
and at who knows what wages.”
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3) Patents Over Patients
By RALPH W. MOSS
Op-Ed Contributor
State College, Pa.
April 1, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/opinion/01moss.html
WE could make faster progress against cancer by changing the way
drugs are developed. In the current system, if a promising compound
can’t be patented, it is highly unlikely ever to make it to market —
no matter how well it performs in the laboratory. The development
of new cancer drugs is crippled as a result.
The reason for this problem is that bringing a new drug to market
is extremely expensive. In 2001, the estimated cost was $802 million;
today it is approximately $1 billion. To ensure a healthy return on
such staggering investments, drug companies seek to formulate new
drugs in a way that guarantees watertight patents. In the meantime,
cancer patients miss out on treatments that may be highly effective
and less expensive to boot.
In 2004, Johns Hopkins researchers discovered that an off-the-shelf
compound called 3-bromopyruvate could arrest the growth of liver
cancer in rats. The results were dramatic; moreover, the investigators
estimated that the cost to treat patients would be around 70 cents
per day. Yet, three years later, no major drug company has shown
interest in developing this drug for human use.
Early this year, another readily available industrial chemical,
dichloroacetate, was found by researchers at the University
of Alberta to shrink tumors in laboratory animals by up to 75 percent.
However, as a university news release explained, dichloroacetate is
not patentable, and the lead researcher is concerned that it may
be difficult to find funding from private investors to test the chemical.
So the university is soliciting public donations to finance a clinical trial.
The hormone melatonin, sold as an inexpensive food supplement
in the United States, has repeatedly been shown to slow the growth
of various cancers when used in conjunction with conventional
treatments. Paolo Lissoni, an Italian oncologist, helped write more
than 100 articles about this hormone and conducted numerous
clinical trials. But when I visited him at his hospital in Monza in
2003, he was in deep despair over the pharmaceutical industry’s
total lack of interest in his treatment approach. He has published
nothing on the topic since then.
Potential anticancer drugs should be judged on their scientific
merit, not on their patentability. One solution might be for the
government to enlarge the Food and Drug Administration’s
“orphan drug” program, which subsidizes the development
of drugs for rare diseases. The definition of orphan drug could
be expanded to include unpatentable agents that are scorned
as unprofitable by pharmaceutical companies.
We need to foster a research and development environment in
which anticancer activity is the main criterion for new drug
development.
Ralph W. Moss writes a weekly online newsletter about cancer.
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4) Distract and Disenfranchise
By PAUL KRUGMAN
April 2, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/opinion/02krugman.html?_r=1&hp&oref=login
I have a theory about the Bush administration abuses
of power that are now, finally, coming to light.
Ultimately, I believe, they were driven by rising
income inequality.
Let me explain.
In 1980, when Ronald Reagan won the White House,
conservative ideas appealed to many, even most,
Americans. At the time, we were truly a middle-class
nation. To white voters, at least, the vast inequalities
and social injustices of the past, which were what
originally gave liberalism its appeal, seemed like
ancient history. It was easy, in that nation,
to convince many voters that Big Government was
their enemy, that they were being taxed to provide
social programs for other people.
Since then, however, we have once again become
a deeply unequal society. Median income has risen
only 17 percent since 1980, while the income
of the richest 0.1 percent of the population
has quadrupled. The gap between the rich and
the middle class is as wide now as it was in the
1920s, when the political coalition that would
eventually become the New Deal was taking shape.
And voters realize that society has changed.
They may not pore over income distribution tables,
but they do know that today’s rich are building
themselves mansions bigger than those of the robber
barons. They may not read labor statistics,
but they know that wages aren’t going anywhere:
according to the Pew Research Center, 59 percent
of workers believe that it’s harder to earn
a decent living today than it was 20 or
30 years ago.
You know that perceptions of rising inequality
have become a political issue when even President
Bush admits, as he did in January, that “some
of our citizens worry about the fact that our
dynamic economy is leaving working people behind.”
But today’s Republicans can’t respond in any
meaningful way to rising inequality, because
their activists won’t let them. You could see
the dilemma just this past Friday and Saturday,
when almost all the G.O.P. presidential hopefuls
traveled to Palm Beach to make obeisance to the
Club for Growth, a supply-side pressure group
dedicated to tax cuts and privatization.
The Republican Party’s adherence to an outdated
ideology leaves it with big problems. It can’t
offer domestic policies that respond to the
public’s real needs. So how can it win elections?
The answer, for a while, was a combination of
distraction and disenfranchisement.
The terrorist attacks on 9/11 were themselves
a massive, providential distraction; until
then the public, realizing that Mr. Bush wasn’t
the moderate he played in the 2000 election,
was growing increasingly unhappy with his
administration. And they offered many
opportunities for further distractions.
Rather than debating Democrats on the issues,
the G.O.P. could denounce them as soft
on terror. And do you remember the terror
alert, based on old and questionable
information, that was declared right after
the 2004 Democratic National Convention?
But distraction can only go so far. So the
other tool was disenfranchisement: finding
ways to keep poor people, who tend to vote
for the party that might actually do something
about inequality, out of the voting booth.
Remember that disenfranchisement in the form
of the 2000 Florida “felon purge,” which
struck many legitimate voters from the rolls,
put Mr. Bush in the White House in the first
place. And disenfranchisement seems to be
what much of the politicization of the Justice
Department was about.
Several of the fired U.S. attorneys were under
pressure to pursue allegations of voter fraud
— a phrase that has become almost synonymous
with “voting while black.” Former staff members
of the Justice Department’s civil rights division
say that they were repeatedly overruled when
they objected to Republican actions, ranging
from Georgia’s voter ID law to Tom DeLay’s Texas
redistricting, that they believed would effectively
disenfranchise African-American voters.
The good news is that all the G.O.P.’s abuses
of power weren’t enough to win the 2006 elections.
And 2008 may be even harder for the Republicans,
because the Democrats — who spent most of the Clinton
years trying to reassure rich people and corporations
that they weren’t really populists — seem
to be realizing that times have changed.
A week before the Republican candidates trooped
to Palm Beach to declare their allegiance to tax
cuts, the Democrats met to declare their commitment
to universal health care. And it’s hard to see
what the G.O.P. can offer in response.
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5) Taxing Private Equity
Editorial
April 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/opinion/02mon1.html?hp
In the world of private equity, “2 and 20” is a formula
for making money. The mavens of the industry — venture
capitalists and buyout specialists — generally collect
a management fee of 2 percent of the assets they manage
and a performance fee equal to 20 percent of any profits.
With hundreds of billions of dollars flowing through
the 2-and-20 structure, the megabucks pile up quickly.
High fees, however, are only one reason that private
equity lives by “2 and 20.” Another is low taxes.
Partners in private equity ventures treat their
performance fees as capital gains — in other words,
like profits on the sale of a stock — and thus pay
tax on the fees at a rate of 15 percent, about the
lowest in the tax code. According to federal
partnership tax rules, that’s legal. But the rules
were developed before private equity became the
force it is today, and mainly with small business
and real estate partnerships in mind.
Some lawmakers — notably Senator Max Baucus, the
Democratic chairman of the Finance Committee, and
Senator Charles Grassley, the committee’s top
Republican — have begun to question whether those
rules should apply to private equity.
Adding grist to lawmakers’ skepticism is a recent
paper by Victor Fleischer, an associate professor
at the University of Colorado Law School.
Mr. Fleischer makes several arguments against
treating performance pay as capital gain, starting
with the increasingly huge sums that private equity
firms raise from tax-exempt investors, like pension
funds and endowments.
In general, when corporate executives get performance
-based pay, like stock options, they don’t have
to pay tax right away. That’s a big tax benefit,
but it leaves the government no worse off because
the corporation also delays taking a deduction for
the payment. There is no such offset when private
equity partners are paid by tax-exempt investors.
The nation in effect waits longer for its tax revenue
and gets less, as private equity partners get more.
The deeper question in all this is whether capital
gains — which are currently taxed at less than half
the top rate of ordinary income — should continue
to be so lavishly advantaged. The answer there is
no. Today’s preferential rate for capital gains
is excessive, with no mechanism in the tax code
to ensure that it is not overused. Excessively
favoring one form of income over another encourages
wasteful gamesmanship, creates inequity and crowds
out other ways to foster risk-taking. Tackling the
too-easy tax terms for private equity is a good way
for Congress to begin addressing that bigger issue.
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6)PROTECT OUR PENSIONS
April 1, 2007
http://www.soldiersofsolidarity.com/
Norm Goddard transferred back to GM from Delphi in March
2000. In May 2006 he applied for retirement from GM. After
30 years of service he wanted out. He was looking forward
to the $35,000. When he went to the Benefits Office to sign
his retirement papers the document stated that he hired
into Delphi in 1976.
"That's a lie," Norm said. "Delphi wasn't even around in 1976.
I hired in at GM."
The Benefits Rep informed him that if he signed the document
he agreed to everything it said. Norm refused. "I worked
less than nine months for Delphi." He has 24 years of
pension credits with Delphi, a bankrupt company that
never operated independent of GM.
When Delphi was spun off from GM in 1999 John Goshka
had 34 years seniority. He chose to keep working. "I had
children in college," he said. When John retired in 2004
he had 39 years of credited service with Delphi. At age
60 John doesn't know what will happen to his pension
or his health care. His 34 years of GM time were dumped
into Delphi.
When Delphi offered two choices, retire or transfer away
from home and likely give up his trade as a toolmaker,
Mike Wittek decided to call it quits. He signed up for
the Special Attrition Program [SAP] and went out with
only 21 years of credited service. Though he hired
in at GM, he left with a Delphi pension and a bad
taste in his mouth.
At the UAW Constitutional Convention in June 2006
I asked for a point of information. I explained that
GM had transferred all my pension credits to Delphi
at the time of the spin off in 1999. Now Delphi was
bankrupt. GM's contractual agreement to guarantee the
Delphi pension expires at the end of this contract
in October 2007. What happens if Delphi decides to
stop pension payments in 2008, after the guarantee
expires?
The resolution on the floor at the time was "Protecting
Pensions." Dick Shoemaker, the UAW-VP responsible for
negotiations at GM and Delphi, declared me "Out of Order."
But he said that he would speak to me "privately."
Shoemaker understood that I wanted him to speak publicly
for the record. He didn't take the bait.
I immediately approached the stage and Shoemaker came
down to talk with me. What he had to say concerning
Delphi retirees was not intended for the official record.
He explained that if I signed the Special Attrition
Program [SAP] and "checked the box", it was "understood"
that GM would guarantee the pension.
"But it doesn't say that," I replied.
"It's understood," he said.
"It states that only what is written is valid and that
verbal promises contrary to the written document have
no merit," I replied.
"Well, it's understood," he said.
"OK. I'll take your word for it. But what about the
people who already retired or who will retire five
years from now and don't have the opportunity
to check the box"?
"We still have to negotiate that," Shoemaker said.
Here are the facts. The SAP states that if you sign
you agree to the terms, and the SAP stipulated that
those who signed would get a "Delphi Hourly Pension".
Shoemaker's verbal assertion that it "was understood"
doesn’t amount to a tinker's damn. As Shoemaker readily
admitted to me, the fate of Delphi-UAW members who
retired before the SAP was available or who transferred
back to GM and would retire in the future still has
to be negotiated.
Demonstrate solidarity with Delphi-UAW members by
demanding that the Benefit Guarantee be activated
and GM held accountable for the orchestrated bankruptcy
at Delphi.
I am not a delegate at this Bargaining Convention
because my old plant is now closed. I chose to return
to a GM plant rather than take the SAP because there
is no security with a Delphi pension.
For the record, a commitment to protect the Delphi
retirees at the 2007 UAW Bargaining Convention would
be in order.
Gregg Shotwell
UAW Local 1753
www.soldiersofsolidarity.com
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7) "The Language Isn't Strong Enough"
A Report on the 2007 UAW Bargaining Convention
Tueday April 3, 2007
http://www.soldiersofsolidarity.com
The 2007 UAW Bargaining Convention format was sanitized,
preshrunk, and bleached. The one-size-fits-all style was
designed to control the rancor of the rank and file.
But work to rule is a tool for all trades and a master
of one — tipping the balance of power.
Mike Parker, a delegate from Local 1700, busted the seams
of uniform decorum before Gettelfinger could pound the podium.
When the chair requested a motion to accept the Rules
Committee Report at the start of the convention, Parker
demanded a point of order and made a motion to amend
the rules.
The proposed rules restricted delegates from making amendments
to the resolutions; limited debate with tedious time consuming
recitations rather than summaries; and relegated precious time
that should have been allocated to debate to political
dignitaries. Parker's amendment declared:
"The agenda for the Wednesday morning session will be Organizing
to Fight Back. This session will cover how we can mobilize
our members, build solidarity, resist company whipsawing and
divisive strategies like two tier, and pitting older workers
against younger workers. To make time for this session, short
presentation summaries will be used instead of reading the
complete resolution book, and guest speakers will be asked
to keep their comments brief."
Voices from all over the convention floor yelled, "Support".
The Chair attempted to dispose of the point of order, but
Parker stood his ground. Since a motion to accept the rules
had not been approved, there were no rules governing the
convention except Robert's Rules of Parliamentary Procedure.
The amendment was in order, it had been seconded, and was
now open for discussion. Parker proceeded.
"The key to these negotiations is not whether we have
a nice wish list of bargaining demands but how we are going
to fight the companies. The companies have made it clear
they are not our partners and will take everything they
can get
How do we take on their whipsawing?
How do we take on the cancer of Two Tier, this pitting
of older workers against younger workers?
I would point out that I find nothing in this resolution
against Two Tier and indeed some vague justifications for it.
We can not afford to be unclear on this question which rots
the foundation of unionism.
Even before official bargaining starts the company is
tearing the union apart in the Big Three. The companies are
forcing concessionary contracts which undermine our pattern
bargaining
This union is in a crisis. The companies have launched
an ideological attack on unionism at work and in the media.
Doubtless, as at the last convention, there will be
delegates who will get up and read the Administration Caucus
cue cards about and how these rules have always worked for us.
Well, we had better start addressing the fact that we
are in crisis and we have to start by figuring out how to
get the membership in this union re involved and mobilized
rather than trying to have nicely scripted conventions.
That means starting with the delegates here.
We are supposed to be the leaders of this union. I ask
you to start acting as leaders and let's get this convention
addressing the real problems."
The charade was over. The emperor was naked and everyone
knew it.
The next delegate, Paul Baxter from Local 659, said,
"I support the amendment to the rules. The strategy
of cooperation with management is a failure. We cannot
go on pretending that the companies are our partners.
How can you ask us to be partners with liars, cheaters,
and thieves?
This resolution book is nothing but a wish list.
We need a more effective strategy to fight back."
A sister from Local 7 opposed the amendment. She denied
knowledge of any "cue cards" but relied on the time worn
cliché, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." She called
for the question to end debate which is standard "cue
card" performance.
Wendy Thompson, a delegate from Local 235, demanded
a point of order. She said, "It is broken" and appealed
to the delegates to continue discussion and not prohibit
debate.
The chair ruled her out of order and cut her speech
short. The delegates turned the amendment down with
a voice vote but Parker's challenge set the tone of
the convention. Delegates unaccustomed to opposing the
administration came forward to "oppose the resolution
because the language isn't strong enough." The phrase
became a common refrain.
Fine Print vs. Bold Print
In regard to contract workers several delegates
complained about having to work side by side with
non union workers. "Why are they in our plants?"
asked Don Dekker from Local 371.
Jerry Urn, a delegate from Region 4, stated his
wholehearted support for President Gettelfinger
and the UAW but opposed the resolution and echoed
the refrain, "because the language isn't strong
enough." He reaffirmed his support of the UAW,
but he repeated twice for clarity and emphasis,
"My members hate two tier."
Page 19 of the official resolution book states:
"We also recognize the need for supplemental labor
agreements, at different wage and benefit rates,
in specific business circumstances where competitive
pressure requires an alternative approach to maintain
employment opportunities for our members and potential
members."
The words "two tier" are carefully evaded but the
intent is clear. A trade off is in the cards:
reduced wages and benefits in return for "employment
opportunities."
Two tier is not a union agreement, it's a prepaid
funeral arrangement. In 2003 the UAW pushed through
a ratification of the national agreement and then
later negotiated a two tier supplemental agreement
for Delphi that was never ratified by the members.
The two tier supplement cut wages almost in half,
reduced health care benefits, and eliminated the
pension. It wasn't enough to satisfy the "liars,
cheaters, and thieves."
Wendy Thompson rose in opposition to the weak language
of the resolution. She said we must clearly state,
"No Two Tier." The tone of her voice underlined each
word. She further advocated that we organize a campaign
to "take Chrysler off the market."
"Make noise," she said. "Mobilize the membership. What
we are facing is new and more difficult than ever. The
membership is demoralized. We should not go away from
this convention without a discussion of how to mobilize
the membership."
The Concession Caucus started a campaign in 2005 called
Mobilizing@Delphi but it never materialized. Their idea
of mobilization does not include the rank and file. They
consolidate power in the front office and function more
like a human resource management team than a union. The
Concession Caucus prefers to negotiate in the backroom
and the courtroom but the results have been dismal. The
compromise and retreat strategy not only erodes our wages,
benefits, and working conditions, it divides the union,
degrades new members, and discourages organizing. Who
needs a union to bargain for concessions?
No Concessions
Gary Walkowicz, a delegate from Local 600, stated his
case bluntly.
"I speak in opposition to the resolution because
it does not say what needs to be said; It does not
say what our members want us to say – "No More
Concessions"
That is the message that the members in my plant
sent me to bring to this Convention.
This letter to the delegates signed by over 1,000
members of the Dearborn Truck Plant was also signed
by more than another thousand members in some of
your plants, signed by retirees from your locals.
No More concessions. That is the message that I know
many of you are hearing from your own members. It's
time to stop concessions.
What has concessions gotten us, except more concessions?
We give up wage increases and promises to retirees
are broken.
And then the corporations come right back and threaten
us, pitting plant against plant, whipsawing us into passing
C.O.A.s, outsourcing our own jobs. I know the pressure
that puts on the local leaderships.
And then the ink is not even dry on the C.O.A.s and the
corporations are demanding more concessions in the
national contract.
Giving up concessions has only made the corporations
bolder and made them more greedy. Fellow delegates,
I know there are those of you who see the same thing.
I say that the business of this Convention should be
to take a stand against concessions.
The business of this Convention should be to organize
a fight against corporate greed, to defend the hard won
gains of this union. I believe this is what our members
want us to do."
Mark Payne, a delegate from Local 1250, also objected
to COAs. He said the companies keep redefining what
they term "core business". He insisted, "All our jobs
are core business."
Mike Libber, a delegate from Region 3, complained that
the companies use money saved from concessions to invest
in non union plants.
Paul Baxter, a delegate from Local 659, said, "Without
stronger language we will be invested into oblivion
because every investment is contingent on a net loss
of jobs."
"This is not a CAP Convention, it's a Bargaining
Convention"
Justin "Double Barrel" West, a four time delegate from
Local 2488, eliminated any doubt that this was a business
as usual convention.
"I rise in opposition regarding "income security
issues." TWO TIERS is KILLING this union. This resolution
hardly mentions tiered wage scales amongst other concessions.
Delphi executives continue to extract bonuses as rewards
for their heinous attack on workers across the globe. Ford
rewards its' executives with bonuses for extracting wage
and benefit concessions from workers and retirees. Now,
Daimler-Chrysler, in the midst of their continued profitable
corporate record, seeks to cover it all up so they too can
join the concessions bandwagon.
We, the membership, as elected reps from across the nation
and Canada and Puerto Rico…from varying industries and job
classifications, need to share with the leadership of the
International…and with each other…our ideas on how to combat
the corporate economic terrorism being foisted upon all working
people across the globe. How do we fight back? When will it end?
Let there be no doubt that the UAW is in a fight for
survival: the media calls it a "fight for relevance."
Meanwhile, the UAW International's approach has been to espouse
"Good things come from competitive corporations." Or that
partnerships fostering cooperation with the corps is the way
to go. Brother Gettelfinger gave a tremendous opening speech
but even within his oration, he stated that we should not
confuse cooperation with capitulation.
Brother Gettelfinger…I am from Peoria, Illinois and I was
at the convention in 1998 when our late President Steve Yokich
called the concessionary filled settlement at Caterpillar Tractor
a "victory." Caterpillar is hiring…2nd tier wages, no benefits,
no seniority, and full-time temps! Concessions, be they at GM,
Ford, Chrysler, American Axle, Delphi, Visteon, Mitsubishi, NUMMI,
and or elsewhere, will not be a victory!
Brother Gettelfinger: we gave Delphi the GM PLANTS; we
gave Delphi two-tier wages; we gave Delphi the GM workers'
pensions! These concessions have not sated that corporation's
thirst for more blood in this race to the bottom. Delphi has
declared a bankruptcy organized to destroy every last shred
of dignity and security that generations of union members
fought and sacrificed to achieve. My point is, Brother
Gettelfinger, concessions do NOT save jobs! To you, the
International leadership, I urge you not to confuse "victory"
with "concessions."
Brother Gettelfinger: you say much of these problems
need to be addressed through government legislation…but
this is not a CAP Convention, this is a BARGAINING Convention…
what can WE as workers do, DIRECTLY, NOW, to help fight
this onslaught of corporate greed before the Big Three
talks…on our jobs, at our Locals, amongst our brothers and
sisters? To this body, I urge you to vote this resolution
down until we address strategies to mobilize and fight
back at the grassroots level.
Lastly, Thank you, Brother Gettelfinger, for mentioning
the struggle at Conn-Selmer, the Vincent Bach plant. Those
locked-out members are on the front lines, suffering but
hanging in there to defend the American Dream."
The delegates burst into applause and Gettelfinger added
another name to a list that was growing longer.
Vicky Varaclay, a delegate from an American Axle plant
related how the lack of a pattern agreement was undermining
collective bargaining. "We need stronger language
on whipsawing."
Several delegates objected to takeaways from retirees who
"can't afford copays" on a fixed income. "Retirees are
worried sick" about medical expenses. "When you go in and
change a plan [in the middle of a contract] you make people
afraid," a retired delegate said.
The strategy of containing rebellion against the corporate
agenda by channeling anger toward politics instead
of employers is on its last legs. Too many delegates
said, "The language isn't strong enough."
The Rank & File is the Backbone
The next morning at a Concession Caucus breakfast for
delegates Gettelfinger ridiculed the small group of union
members who carried picket signs in front of the convention
center the day before. Their signs said things like: Equal
Pay for Equal Work, No Two Tier, Equal Rights for New Hires,
Protect Our Pensions, Hold GM Accountable for Delphi Pensions,
Hands Off My Pension, Put the Backbone Back into the UAW,
Stop Whipsawing.
What exactly did Gettelfinger disagree with? How do those
ideas conflict with the UAW agenda for bargaining?
On the first day of the convention soldiers of solidarity
distributed the No Concession leaflet to delegates. On the
second morning they distributed the leaflet about Delphi
pensions which reiterated my conversation with UAW-VP
Dick Shoemaker at the Constitutional Convention. Shoemaker
declined to speak publicly for the record but admitted privately
that the issue was unresolved and still had to be negotiated.
The flip side of that flier was titled "Put the Backbone Back
in the UAW". Gettelfinger took one from a soldier and went
into the hall.
One Question: The Delphi Pension
Before the convention started I saw Gettelfinger in the
lobby glad handing delegates. I waited my turn, shook his
hand, and asked, "What will happen to the Delphi pension
when the Benefit Guarantee expires at the end of this contract?"
"Gregg, we know you're not supposed to be here,"
Gettelfinger said. "We know you're not a delegate anymore."
He looked at my Press Pass. "And we know you're not a reporter
either. But that's all right. We don't mind that you're here."
I repeated the question. "What will happen to the Delphi
pension when the Benefit Guarantee expires at the end of this
contract?"
"I saw what you wrote about Dick Shoemaker," Gettelfinger
said. "Gregg, you don't hurt us, and you don't help us,
either way."
I hesitate to interpret the motivations of superior
beings but I think he wanted to make me feel insignificant.
It didn't seem important to me, so I repeated the question.
"What will happen to the Delphi pension when the Benefit
Guarantee expires at the end of this contract?"
"You should ask the UAW-GM department," he said.
"I have asked them several times but I can't get an answer.
It's important to UAW members from Delphi. I know people who
worked more than 30 years for GM and have a Delphi pension
today. They want an answer."
"We know you're not supposed to be here, Gregg. But that's
all right with us. We don't mind that you're here. See?
I'm not such a bad guy."
I don't know what his guyness had to do with it, but to
his credit about an hour later here comes Mike Grimes and
David Shoemaker from the UAW-GM department to talk with me.
My cohort, Bob Mabbit from the UnCommonSense started rolling
the video camera but they refused to speak on record.
We walked down a hall way and talked privately.
They explained that "Ron Gettelfinger told us to come out
and talk with you and answer your questions."
I repeated the one question.
They assured me that Delphi was a top priority. "We
have told GM It is our position that the Benefit Guarantee
will be triggered before the Delphi situation is settled."
I told them I was glad to hear that the UAW was committed
to holding GM accountable for our pensions, but the UAW can't
trigger the Benefit Guarantee. Events trigger the Benefit
Guarantee. If Delphi doesn't stop paying the pension before
the Benefit Guarantee expires, there is no triggering event.
"We can cause them financial distress," Shoemaker said.
"Do you mean a strike?" I asked.
"As far as we are concerned they are already in financial
distress," Grimes said.
In other words it still has to be negotiated and no one,
neither GM, Delphi, nor the UAW has stated publicly for
the record that GM is accountable for the Delphi pensions.
The Fight for Dignity
Back in the convention delegates were debating a resolution
on Health and Safety. Vanessa Williams from Local 155 said,
"IPS [Independent Parts Suppliers] feel lost and left out."
She reported that workers "injured daily" in her plant were
harassed by management and they had to call MIOSHA despite
the fact they have union representation.
Mike Parker from Local 1700 said the resolution failed
to address "the fundamental problem — the right to refuse
an unsafe job." He explained that too often workers were
forced to work in conditions they felt were unsafe while
managers took their sweet time making up their minds.
He called on delegates to "empower workers" with the
right to refuse unsafe work.
Paul Baxter from Local 659 in Flint said, "Unionism is about
the fight for dignity." He said that assembly work cycles
were "so tight you can't get a drink or put a stick of gum
in your mouth." He cited a passage from the Bible on the
treatment of farm animals. "We should at least hold
management to the same standard."
At the end of the convention Wendy Thompson talked about
the massive rally organized against Delphi's threat to
close one plant in Spain. She said, "We should organize
a rally for the opening day of negotiations."
The convention burst into applause.
Where Do We Go from Here?
On the first day of the convention Gettelfinger waved his
fist in the air and threatened to strike Delphi if they
voided the contract. It was a strange act considering how
much ground he has surrendered. However, the message from
the floor was consistent and clear, "The language isn't
strong enough."
Workers don't want more concessions, cooperation with
corporate restructuring, or competitive agreements.
If we wait for the Concession Caucus to mobilize
resistance, we'll all get Delphied.
Continue to collect signatures on the No Concession
Petition; whether you collect one or one thousand
signatures mail the copies to:
No Concessions Petition
P.O. Box 202
Montrose, MI 48457
A soldier of solidarity will see they are delivered
to negotiators on or before the opening day
of negotiations. We are the backbone of the UAW.
Let's show them what we're made of.
SOS, Gregg Shotwell
UAW Local 1753
Bargaining Convention Report
Sisters and Brothers,
April 2, 2007
I would like to thank those 2nd Shift workers and
retirees who came to a rally on Tues., Mar. 27th
organized in front of Cobo at the convention opening
by UAW Soldiers of Solidarity which was formed out
of the Delphi bankruptcy crisis. We looked good with
our signs out in front of the Convention entrance and
delegates came over to talk to us. It was small, but
the rank and file made itself heard.
Once again, I am sorry to report the convention
was "business as usual", everything decided in advance
with delegates having no real say. It's puzzling because
many delegates don't like it this way, but they feel
if they speak up or "vote the wrong way", a "ton of bricks
will fall on them".
Motion to Change to More Democratic Rules Fails
A motion was made to change the rules so that discussion
could occur on "Organizing to Fight Back". This session
would have covered how we can mobilize the membership,
build solidarity, resist company whipsawing and divisive
strategies like two tier, and pitting older worker against
younger ones.
Unfortunately this motion did not pass. Instead we
had read to us one long resolution that you could not
amend but rather had to vote up or down in its entirety.
It was a wish list of all things good without talking
about what our plan is for upcoming negotiations. We know
these negotiations are going to be more difficult for the
Big Three than anything we have seen before.
There were some brave individuals who did speak out
on issues of concern, like two tier wages. Some delegates
said that 2 tier wages were tremendously unpopular where
they had been implemented. But, people felt they had
to bend over backwards being respectful to avoid reproach.
An open and democratic union wouldn't be like that.
I had the opportunity to speak twice during the
proceedings. I told the delegates we needed a strategy
for negotiations that would mobilize our members to show
the strength of our numbers, working and retired. It's
outrageous that management is still raking in bonuses while
we are told that we must pay more for health care and receive
lower wages "in order to be competitive". They justify
their salaries and bonuses even when they fail to do their
jobs. Management made the decision about what to build
and where to spend research money, not the workforce.
Yet we are expected to bail them out with more concessions.
This is nothing but insane! If you read some business
publications, you will see that business is publicly
worrying about how long workers are going to allow this
tremendous wealth growing at the top without revolting
against it!
In negotiations this year we face a dilemma. Unlike
GM and Ford, the UAW Chrysler Dept. did not open up the
contract midterm for concessions. This helped us at AAM
avoid opening up our contract midterm. Chrysler workers
have held onto the Pattern Contract. We need to move GM,
Ford, and ourselves up to it. (If you remember, we did
not get the wages increases the Big Three did and we were
forced to accept 2 tier).
Strike GM and Chrysler
However, Chrysler is now on the auction block like
Gear and Axle was in 1994. I suggested they organize the
membership demanding to be taken off the block, like we
did here at the Gear before '94. Since GM is looking
like it will be in the strongest economic position this
summer, I said we should threaten to strike GM and Chrysler
at the same time in order to be in the best possible
bargaining position.
The business community tries to convince us that
strikes cannot be effective, but we should not fall
for that. With the just-in-time system and with the
Big Three needing to run efficiently right now, we have
a strong advantage. No one wants to strike, but the way
business is trying to take us into a third world life
style is completely out of control!
It has made me angry to see how the press presents
management's case for us to take more concessions.
Yet, the UAW has not been presenting our case to the
public with any kind of vigor. This made the membership
think that no one is in their corner. Polls are stating
that autoworkers expect we will have to take more
concessions. This is absolutely the wrong position
to be in for a pre-negotiations period!
President Gettelfinger in his speech said:
"cooperation should not be equated with capitulation."
But here's the problem: the companies say: "we want
more concessions", the union says: "we believe in
cooperating with the companies". What are rank and
file workers supposed to think ? The UAW leadership
has seemed to be giving up before negotiations have
even started.
The same problem of a mixed message exists concerning
pattern bargaining. The resolution correctly states that:
"labor compensation should not be based on which employers
compete" and we should be "removing wages and benefits
from the competitive equation". Yet, the UAW says
it believes in being competitive even when that means
pitting us against workers in low wage countries and
non-union plants in this country. This causes the
membership to fear they have no protection from
a free fall.
We Need a Massive Rally the First Day of Big Three
Negotiations
I suggested a massive rally organized for the
1st day of negotiations. We must reach out to the
public with a strong message: We did not cause the
problems of the Big Three and should not have to
suffer for Management's bad decisions. We must hold
the line on the slide downwards.
Meanwhile, when market share goes down for one
company it goes up for another. If all autoworkers
in this country were UAW members we would better be
able to protect our members when companies mess up.
Last year at the Constitutional Convention it was
decided to allocate $60 million for organizing out
of the $874 million in the strike fund. However,
it was placed in the general fund and not into the
organizing budget. Nothing has been done with it
and now the UAW says it won't do anything until
after negotiations. This is a mistake. We need
to start now training and hiring an "army" of UAW
organizers. With the loss of many experienced members
lately, this could be a way to put talented union members
to work.
Near the end of the one long resolution presented
by the International to the Convention, it spoke to the
importance of building international unionism and this
is key. In Spain, where they want to close a Delphi plant
in Puerto Real, Cadiz, the labor movement is planning
to organize a general strike for April 18th! When all
workers join together like this, it makes it difficult
to ride roughshod over one isolated plant. Are we as
powerless as we feel? Only if we remain separate and
uninvolved.
This newsletter is what I spoke for at the Convention.
Join me in circulating a "No Concessions" petition.
I will have them available at the plant gates. AAM is
profitable. We are in a strong position to eliminate
2 tier by negotiating a wage bridge between the 1st and
2nd tier so everyone will reach the higher wage.
We need to win back the 3% raises we lost and in no
way take more health care concessions for working or
retired.
Through the distribution of the newsletter Shifting
Gears at Colfor and MSP as well as the five pattern AAM
plants, I came into contact with the elected leaders and
helped Colfor and MSP developed new lines of communication
at the Convention with the pattern plant delegates. This
contact should improve more in the future and will help keep
AAM from whipsawing us like they have in the past.
Wendy Thompson, Convention Delegate,
Wthomp4490@aol.com, h. 313-892-7974, c. 313-215-7672
Please attend Local 235/Local 262 Workers' Memorial
Day Rally, Fri., April 27th.
Let's honor all those injured or killed in the workplace.
1:00 pm . Afternoon Shift workers meet at Local 262 south
of Holbrook on St. Aubin.
We will march up St. Aubin to Holbrook
2:30 pm Day Shift workers join in front of Motown
Credit Union and we march to Pl. 3
3:00 pm We will arrive in front of Plant 3 for
the Rally. Join us!
Labor donated
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8) HOW IRAN TREATS PRISONERS
HOW THE US TREATS PRISONERS
"Call that humiliation? No hoods. No electric shocks. No beatings.
These Iranians are clearly a very uncivilised bunch."
Terry Jones
Saturday March 31, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian .co.uk/
I share the outrage expressed in the British press over the treatment
of our naval personnel accused by Iran of illegally entering their waters.
It is a disgrace. We would never dream of treating captives like this --
allowing them to smoke cigarettes, for example, even though it has
been proven that smoking kills. And as for compelling poor
servicewoman Faye Turney to wear a black headscarf, and then
allowing the picture to be posted around the world -- have the Iranians
no concept of civilised behaviour? For God's sake, what's wrong with
putting a bag over her head? That's what we do with Muslims
we capture: we put bags over their heads, so it's hard to breathe.
Then it's perfectly acceptable to take photographs of them and
circulate them to the press because the captives can't be recognised
and humiliated as these unfortunate British service people have been.
It is also unacceptable that these British captives should be made to talk
on television and say things that they may regret later. If the Iranians put
duct tape over their mouths, as we do to our captives, they wouldn't
be able to talk at all. Of course they'd probably find it even harder
to breathe -- especially with a bag over their head -- but at least
they wouldn't be humiliated.
And what's all this about allowing the captives to write letters home
saying they are all right? It's time the Iranians fell into line with
the rest of the civilised world: they should allow their captives
the privacy of solitary confinement. That's one of the many
privileges the US grants to its captives in Guantánamo Bay.
The true mark of a civilised country is that it doesn't rush into
charging people whom it has arbitrarily arrested in places
it's just invaded. The inmates of Guantánamo, for example,
have been enjoying all the privacy they want for almost five years,
and the first inmate has only just been charged. What a contrast to
the disgraceful Iranian rush to parade their captives before the cameras!
What's more, it is clear that the Iranians are not giving their British
prisoners any decent physical exercise. The US military make sure
that their Iraqi captives enjoy PT. This takes the form of exciting
"stress positions", which the captives are expected to hold for hours
on end so as to improve their stomach and calf muscles. A common
exercise is where they are made to stand on the balls of their feet
and then squat so that their thighs are parallel to the ground.
This creates intense pain and, finally, muscle failure. It's all good
healthy fun and has the bonus that the captives will confess to anything
to get out of it.
And this brings me to my final point. It is clear from her TV appearance
that servicewoman Turney has been put under pressure. The newspapers
have persuaded behavioural psychologists to examine the footage and
they all conclude that she is "unhappy and stressed".
What is so appalling is the underhand way in which the Iranians have
got her "unhappy and stressed". She shows no signs of electrocution
or burn marks and there are no signs of beating on her face. This
is unacceptable. If captives are to be put under duress, such as by
forcing them into compromising sexual positions, or having electric
shocks to their genitals, they should be photographed, as in Abu Ghraib.
The photographs should then be circulated around the civilised world
so that everyone can see exactly what has been going on.
As Stephen Glover pointed out in the Daily Mail, perhaps it would not be
right to bomb Iran in retaliation for the humiliation of our servicemen,
but clearly the Iranian people must be made to suffer -- whether by
intensified sanctions, as the Mail suggests, or simply by urging
[P]resident Bush to hurry an invasion, as he intends one anyway,
to bring democracy and western values to Iran, as he has done in Iraq.
Terry Jones is a film director, actor, and Python
www.terry-jones. net
Update:
Captives Freed by Iran Arrive in Britain
By DAVID RAMPE, JON ELSEN and SARAH LYALL
April 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/world/middleeast/05cnd-iran.html?hp
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9) More Than a Feeling
Editorial
April 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/opinion/04weds1.html?hp
President Bush and his advisers have made a lot of ridiculous
charges about critics of the war in Iraq: they’re unpatriotic,
they want the terrorists to win, they don’t support the troops,
to cite just a few. But none of these seem quite as absurd
as President Bush’s latest suggestion, that critics of the
war whose children are at risk are too “emotional” to see
things clearly.
The direct target was Matthew Dowd, one of the chief
strategists of Mr. Bush’s 2004 presidential campaign,
who has grown disillusioned with the president and the
war, which he made clear in an interview with Jim Rutenberg
published in The Times last Sunday. But by extension,
Mr. Bush’s comments were insulting to the hundreds of
thousands of Americans whose sons, daughters, sisters,
brothers and spouses have served or will serve in Iraq.
They are perfectly capable of forming judgments about
the war, pro or con, on the merits. But when Mr. Bush
was asked about Mr. Dowd during a Rose Garden news
conference yesterday, he said, “This is an emotional
issue for Matthew, as it is for a lot of other people
in our country.”
Mr. Dowd’s case, Mr. Bush said, “as I understand it,
is obviously intensified because his son is deployable.”
Over the weekend, two of Mr. Bush’s chief spokesmen,
Dan Bartlett and Dana Perino, claimed that Mr. Dowd’s
change of heart about the war was rooted in “personal”
issues and “emotions,” and talked of his “personal
journey.” In recent years, Mr. Dowd suffered the death
of a premature twin daughter, and was divorced.
His son is scheduled to serve in Iraq soon.
Mr. Dowd said his experiences were a backdrop to his
reconsideration of his support of the war and Mr. Bush.
There is nothing wrong with that, but there is something
deeply wrong with the White House’s dismissing his criticism
as emotional, as if it has no reasoned connection
to Mr. Bush’s policies.
This form of attack is especially galling from a president
who from the start tried to paint this war as virtually
sacrifice-free: the Iraqis would welcome America with
open arms, the war would be paid for with Iraqi oil
revenues — and the all-volunteer military would
concentrate the sacrifice on only a portion of the
nation’s families.
Mr. Bush’s comments about Mr. Dowd are a reflection
of the otherworldliness that permeates his public
appearances these days. Mr. Bush seems increasingly
isolated, clinging to a fantasy version of Iraq that
is more and more disconnected from reality. He gives
a frightening impression that he has never heard any
voice from any quarter that gave him pause, much less
led him to rethink a position.
Mr. Bush’s former campaign aide showed an open-mindedness
and willingness to adapt to reality that is sorely
lacking in the commander in chief.
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10) Daimler Considers Selling Off Chrysler Division
By MARK LANDLER
April 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/business/04cnd-daimler.html?hp
BERLIN, April 4 — DaimlerChrysler confirmed for the first
time today that it is in negotiations with a number
of parties about the sale of its money-losing Chrysler
division.
Speaking at DaimlerChrysler’s annual meeting here, Dieter
Zetsche, the chief executive, said, “I can confirm that
we are talking with some of the potential partners who
have shown a clear interest.”
Mr. Zetsche did not identify the automaker’s suitors,
nor did he guarantee that the talks would end in a sale
of Chrysler. “We need to keep all options open,” he
said. “We need to keep maximum scope for maneuver.”
DaimlerChrysler’s confirmation was not a surprise.
The auto industry has crackled with rumors about
would-be bidders for Chrysler since mid-February,
when Mr. Zetsche disclosed the company was considering
all options for the unit, which lost $1.5 billion
last year.
But it added to the momentum that is building behind
a sale. DaimlerChrysler’s shares rose nearly 1 percent
this morning, on top of a roughly 25 percent rise
in the stock since the company put Chrysler into play.
The mood among the 8,000 or so shareholders assembled
here for the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting
was unmistakable: they expect DaimlerChrysler to cut
loose Chrysler, unwinding a trans-Atlantic merger that
was hailed at the time of its announcement in 1998
as a blueprint for the future of the global auto
industry.
A steady stream of investors stood up during the
meeting to condemn the merger and demand a speedy
sale.
“Should there be a divorce in court, we would be very
happy,” said Henning Gebhardt, a spokesman for DWS,
a major German asset management firm. His fear, he said,
was that DaimlerChrysler would not find a buyer willing
to take Chrysler off its hands on acceptable terms.
With some $20 billion in health-care obligations for
retired workers, Chrysler will not be easy to sell,
according to analysts. Some estimate it may fetch as
little as $5 billion to $7 billion — or even nothing.
“What will happen if you do not find a new bridegroom
for Chrysler, or if the dowry is too high?”
Mr. Gebhardt said.
Hans-Richard Schmitz, a spokesman for the German
Association for the Protection of Shareholders, said,
“This marriage made in heaven turned out to be
a complete failure.”
Mr. Schmitz criticized DaimlerChrysler’s management
for even reserving the option of not selling the unit.
“What’s missing now is a swift resolution of the issue
by the management of the group,” he said. “I don’t
understand why you’re so hesitant, Dr. Zetsche.”
Among the shareholder proposals scheduled to be put
to a vote here later today is one that would require
DaimlerChrysler to change its name back to Daimler-Benz
if it does not unload Chrysler by March 31, 2008.
“Maintaining a corporate name that evokes associations
with the failure of the business combination with Chrysler
is detrimental to the image of the corporation and its
products,” said the proposal, submitted by two shareholders,
Ekkehard Wenger and Leonhard Knoll.
The company said the DaimlerChrysler name was well
established, and urged shareholders to reject the proposal.
Some shareholders expressed frustration that Mr. Zetsche
did not disclose more details about the potential sale.
So far, three parties have submitted expressions of interest
in Chrysler, according to people involved in the negotiations:
two private-equity firms — Blackstone Group and Cerberus
and the Canadian auto-parts supplier, Magna International,
which is working with another private equity investor,
Ripplewood.
The talks are expected to be lengthy and arduous, and
a deal is not likely for a few months, these executives said.
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11) Jungle Law
"In 1972, crude oil began to flow from Texaco's
wells in the area around Lago Agrio ("sour
lake"), in the Ecuadorean Amazon. Born that same
year, Pablo Fajardo is now the lead attorney in
an epic lawsuit˜among the largest environmental
suits in history˜against Chevron, which acquired
Texaco in 2001. Reporting on an emotional battle
in a makeshift jungle courtroom, the author
investigates how many hundreds of square miles of
surrounding rain forest became a toxic-waste dump."
by William Langewiesche
May 2007
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/05/texaco200705
In a forsaken little town in the Ecuadorean
Amazon, an overgrown oil camp called Lago Agrio,
the giant Chevron Corporation has been maneuvered
into a makeshift courtroom and is being sued to
answer for conditions in 1,700 square miles of
rain forest said by environmentalists to be one
of the world's most contaminated industrial
sites. The pollution consists of huge quantities
of crude oil and associated wastes, mixed in with
the toxic compounds used for drilling
operations˜a noxious soup that for decades was
dumped into leaky pits, or directly into the
Amazonian watershed. The company that did much of
this work was Texaco˜an outfit with a
swashbuckling reputation worldwide. It signed a
contract with Ecuador in 1964, began full-scale
production in 1972, and pulled out 20 years
later. In 2001, Texaco was swallowed whole by
Chevron, which by integrating its operations
nearly doubled in size. The lawsuit against it in
Lago Agrio was filed in 2003, though the legal
antecedents go back much further. Having dragged
on for four years, the suit may continue for half
again as long. Chevron is represented by
high-priced firms of experienced lawyers in Quito
and Washington, D.C., whose collective fees run
to millions of dollars annually. Its antagonists
are 30,000 Amazonian settlers and indigenous
people, who call themselves Los Afectados˜the
Affected Ones. These plaintiffs are represented
by a low-budget but serious team of North
American and Ecuadorean attorneys, who are backed
by a Philadelphia law firm that is known for
class-action securities litigation and has
gambled that this case, though risky, can actually be won.
Chevron objects vociferously, and presents itself
as the victim here. Its attorneys have repeatedly
claimed that the company is being extorted for
"two juicy checks," one to be divided among the
plaintiffs and the other to enrich their North
American lawyers. The North American lawyers are
indeed working on a contingency basis, but
unapologetically so, and for a percentage
significantly lower than the norm in high-risk
cases; they would like to be well compensated for
their efforts, but as much, they say, to
encourage other lawyers to bring similar suits
elsewhere in the world as to pad their personal
bank accounts. The most active among them is a
New Yorkˆbased Harvard Law School graduate named
Steven Donziger, who has invested 14 years in the
case and would certainly be more secure had he
pursued a conventional career involving the
preservation of wealth. He counterclaims that
Chevron's lawyers are the real mercenaries here.
It is a philosophical quarrel that will never be resolved.
As for the plaintiffs themselves, under
Ecuadorean law they are not suing individually,
and personally may never see a dime. They have
sued to seek compensation for past damages and to
force Chevron to clean up the residual mess that
continues, they believe, to taint the soil and
water today. It is unclear how a cleanup would
proceed and to what extent it could succeed, but
over decades the cost might run to $6 billion or
more˜making this potentially the largest
environmental lawsuit ever to be fought. And
fight is the word. The case has become emotional
for both sides, with few signs of willingness to
compromise. Worldwide the oil industry is
watching. Lago Agrio is a forsaken little town
where something rather large is going down.
This is not, however, a U.S.-style legal drama.
The Lago Agrio court follows Ecuadorean
procedures, which minimize oral arguments and
rely heavily on submitted documents to get at the
truth. So far the proceedings have generated
close to 200,000 pages. There is no jury to sway.
There is a single presiding judge, drawn from a
pool of three on a rotating basis for a two-year
term of unusual pressure. Currently the judge is
a rotund middle-aged man, a reader of Dostoyevsky
and a convert to Islam. He must be the only
Muslim in town. He told me it is not easy to be a
judge there. Five years ago he was ambushed and
machine-gunned while driving his car. His
companion was killed, but he himself escaped. The
attackers were hired killers, of whom Lago Agrio
has an ample supply. Colombia's largest
cocaine-production area lies just over the border
a few miles to the north, and is peopled not only
by narco-traffickers but also by leftist
guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary groups.
The police in Lago Agrio make a show sometimes of
directing traffic. They did not investigate the
attack, the judge believes, because they feared
retribution. The judge accepted this without
complaint, as if he had learned to believe in
fate. Lago Agrio means "sour lake." He told me
that the only safe choice there is to run away.
Chevron would probably agree. It denies that the
judge is fair, denies that the plaintiffs have
legitimate complaints, denies that their soil and
water samples are meaningful, denies that the
methods the company used to extract oil in the
past were substandard, denies that it
contaminated the forest, denies that the forest
is contaminated, denies that there is a link
between the drinking water and high rates of
cancer, leukemia, birth defects, and skin
disease, denies that unusual health problems have
been demonstrated˜and, for added measure, denies
that it bears responsibility for any
environmental damage that might after all be
found to exist. If Chevron can convince the court
of the validity of even a few of those points, it
will win the case and leave town.
(clip)
--
www.marxmail.org
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12) Our Crumbling Foundation
By BOB HERBERT
April 5, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/opinion/05herbert.html?hp
Fifty-nine years ago this week — on April 3, 1948 —
President Truman signed the legislation establishing
the Marshall Plan, which contributed so much to the
rebuilding of postwar Europe. Now, more than half
a century later, the U.S. can’t even rebuild New
Orleans.
It doesn’t seem able to build much of anything, really.
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers,
the U.S. infrastructure is in sad shape, and it would
take more than a trillion and a half dollars over
a five-year period to bring it back to a reasonably
adequate condition.
If there’s a less sexy story floating around, I can’t
find it. It certainly can’t compete with the Sanjaya
Malakar saga, or with the claim by Keith Richards that
he snorted his dad’s ashes with “a little bit of blow.”
But, as we learned with New Orleans, there are
consequences to neglecting the infrastructure.
Just a little over a year ago, a dam in Hawaii
gave way, unleashing a wave 70 feet high and 200
yards wide. It swept away virtually everything
in its path, including cars, houses and trees.
Seven people drowned.
On the day after Christmas in Portland, Ore.,
a sinkhole opened up like something from a science
fiction movie and swallowed a 25-ton sewer- repair
truck. Authorities blamed the sinkhole on the
collapse of aging underground pipes.
Blackouts, school buildings in advanced states
of disrepair, decrepit highway and railroad bridges
— the American infrastructure is growing increasingly
old and obsolete. In addition to being an invitation
to tragedy, this is a problem that is putting Americans
at a disadvantage in the ever more competitive
global economy.
Felix Rohatyn, the investment banker who helped
save New York City from bankruptcy in the 1970s,
has been prominent among those trying to sound the
infrastructure alarm. Along with former Senator
Warren Rudman, he has been criticizing the government’s
unwillingness to invest adequately in public
transportation systems, water projects, dams,
schools, the electrical grid, and so on.
He recently told a House committee that Congress
should begin a major effort to rebuild the American
infrastructure “before it is too late.”
“Since the beginning of the republic,” he said,
“transportation, infrastructure and education have
played a central role in advancing the American
economy, whether it was the canals in upstate New
York, or the railroads that linked our heartland
to our industrial centers; whether it was the opening
of education to average Americans by land grant
colleges and the G.I. bill, making education basic
to American life; or whether it was the interstate
highway system that ultimately connected all regions
of the nation.
“This did not happen by chance, but was the result
of major investments financed by the federal and
state governments over the last century and a half.
... We need to make similar investments now.”
Politics and ideology are the main reasons that
government has turned away from public investment
over the past several years. Zealots marching under
the banner of small government have been remarkably
effective in thwarting efforts to raise taxes or
borrow substantial sums for the kind of public
investment that has always been essential to
a dynamic economy.
That this is counterproductive in a post-20th-
century world should be as obvious as the sun
rising in the morning. There is a reason why
countries like China and India are racing like
mad to develop their infrastructure and educational
capacity.
“A modern economy needs a modern platform, and
that’s the infrastructure,” Mr. Rohatyn said in
an interview. “It has been shown that the productivity
of an economy is related to the quality of its
infrastructure. For example, if you don’t have
enough schools to teach your kids, or your kids
are taught in schools that have holes in the ceilings,
that are dilapidated, they’re not going to be as
educated and as competitive in a world economy
as they need to be.”
Mr. Rohatyn and Mr. Rudman are co-chairmen of the
Commission on Public Infrastructure at the Center
for Strategic and International Studies. They believe
that failing to move quickly to address the nation’s
infrastructure needs — through the establishment of
a national trust fund, for example, or a federal
capital budget — could lead to long-term disaster.
But words like trust fund and long-term and
infrastructure find it very difficult to elbow
their way into the nation’s consciousness. We may
have to wait for another New Orleans before beginning
to take this seriously.
David Brooks is on vacation.
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13) Injured in Iraq, a Soldier Is Shattered at Home
By DEBORAH SONTAG
April 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/us/05VET.html?hp
DUNBAR, Pa. — Blinded and disabled on the 54th day
of the war in Iraq, Sam Ross returned home to a rousing
parade that outdid anything this small, depressed
Appalachian town had ever seen. “Sam’s parade put
Dunbar on the map,” his grandfather said.
That was then.
Now Mr. Ross, 24, faces charges of attempted homicide,
assault and arson in the burning of a family trailer
in February. Nobody in the trailer was hurt, but
Mr. Ross fought the assistant fire chief who reported
to the scene, and later threatened a state trooper with
his prosthetic leg, which was taken away from him,
according to the police.
The police locked up Mr. Ross in the Fayette County
prison. In his cell, he tried to hang himself with
a sheet. After he was cut down, Mr. Ross was committed
to a state psychiatric hospital, where, he said in
a recent interview there, he is finally getting —
and accepting — the help he needs, having spiraled
downward in the years since the welcoming fanfare
faded.
“I came home a hero, and now I’m a bum,” Mr. Ross,
whose full name is Salvatore Ross Jr., said.
The story of Sam Ross has the makings of a ballad,
with its heart-rending arc from hardscrabble childhood
to decorated war hero to hardscrabble adulthood.
His effort to create a future for himself by enlisting
in the Army exploded in the desert during a munitions
disposal operation in Baghdad. He was 20.
He was also on his own. Mr. Ross, who is estranged
from his mother and whose father is serving a life
sentence for murdering his stepmother, does not have
the family support that many other severely wounded
veterans depend on. Various relatives have stepped
in at various times, but Mr. Ross, embittered by
a difficult childhood and by what the war cost him,
has had a push-pull relationship with those who sought
to assist him.
Several people have taken a keen interest in Mr. Ross,
among them Representative John P. Murtha, the once-
hawkish Democrat from Pennsylvania. When Mr. Murtha
publicly turned against the war in Iraq in 2005,
he cited the shattered life of Mr. Ross, one of his
first constituents to be seriously wounded,
as a pivotal influence.
Mr. Murtha’s office assisted Mr. Ross in negotiating
the military health care bureaucracy. Homes for Our
Troops, a nonprofit group based in Massachusetts, built
him a beautiful log cabin. Military doctors carefully
tended Mr. Ross’s physical wounds: the loss of his eyesight,
of his left leg below the knee and of his hearing in one
ear, among other problems.
But that help was not enough to save Mr. Ross from
the loneliness and despair that engulfed him. Overwhelmed
by severe symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder,
including routine nightmares of floating over Iraq that
ended with a blinding boom, he “self-medicated” with
alcohol and illegal drugs. He finally hit rock bottom
when he landed in the state psychiatric hospital,
where he is, sadly, thrilled to be.
“Seventeen times of trying to commit suicide, I think
it’s time to give up,” Mr. Ross said, speaking in the
forensic unit of the Mayview State Hospital in Bridgeville.
“Lots of them were screaming out cries for help, and nobody
paid attention. But finally somebody has.”
Finding a Way Out
Fayette County in southwestern Pennsylvania, once
a prosperous coal mining center, is now one of the
poorest counties in the state. The bucolic but
ramshackle town of Dunbar sits off State Route
119 near the intersection marked by the Butchko
Brothers junkyard.
Past the railroad tracks and not far up Hardy Hill
Road, the blackened remains of Mr. Ross’s hillside
trailer are testament to his disintegration. The
Support our Troops ribbon is charred, the No
Trespassing sign unfazed.
Mr. Ross lived in that trailer, where his father
shot his stepmother, at several points in his life,
including alone after he returned from Iraq.
Its most recent tenant, his younger brother, Thomas,
was in jail when the fire occurred.
Many in Mr. Ross’s large, quarreling family are on
one side of the law or the other, prison guards
or prisoners, police officers or probationers.
Their internal feuds are so commonplace that family
reunions have to be carefully plotted with an eye to
who has a protective order out against whom, Mr. Ross’s
25-year-old cousin, Joseph Lee Ross, joked.
Sam Ross’s childhood was not easy. “Sam’s had
a rough life from the time he was born,” his
grandfather, Joseph Frank Ross, said. His parents
fought, sometimes with guns, until they separated
and his mother moved out of state. Mr. Ross bore
some of the brunt of the turmoil.
“When that kid was little, the way he got beat around,
it was awful,” his uncle, Joseph Frank Ross Jr.,
a prison guard, said.
When he was just shy of 12, Mr. Ross moved in with
his father’s father, who for a time was married
to his mother’s mother. The grandfather-grandson
relationship was and continues to be tumultuous.
“I idolized my grandpaps, but he’s an alcoholic
and he mentally abuses people,” Mr. Ross said.
His grandfather, 72, a former coal miner who sells
used cars, said, “I’m not an alcoholic. I can quit.
I just love the taste of it.”
The grandfather, who still keeps an A-plus English
test by Mr. Ross on his refrigerator, said his
grandson did well in school, even though he cared
most about his wrestling team, baseball, hunting
and fishing. Mr. Ross graduated in June 2001.
“Sammy wanted me to pay his way to college, but
I’m not financially fixed to do that,” his
grandfather said.
Feeling that Fayette County was a dead end,
Mr. Ross said he had wanted to find a way out
after he graduated. One night in late 2001,
he said, he saw “one of those ‘Be all you can
be’ ads” on television. The next day, he went
to the mall and enlisted, getting a $3,000 bonus
for signing up to be a combat engineer.
From his first days of basic training, Mr. Ross
embraced the military as his salvation. “It was like,
‘Wow, man, I was born for the Army,’ ” he said.
“I was an adrenaline junkie. I was super, super fit.
I craved discipline. I wanted adventure. I was
patriotic. I loved the bonding. And there was
nothing that I was feared of. I mean, man, I was
made for war.”
In early 2003, Private Ross, who earned his jump
wings as a parachutist, shipped off to Kuwait with
the 82nd Airborne Division, which pushed into Iraq
with the invasion in March. The early days of the
war were heady for many soldiers like Private Ross,
who reveled in the appreciation of Iraqis. He was
assigned to an engineer squad given the task of
rounding up munitions.
On May 18, Private Ross and his squad set out to
de-mine an area in south Baghdad. Moving quickly,
as they did on such operations, he collected about
15 UXO’s, or unexploded ordnances, in a pit. Somehow,
something — he never learned what — caused them
to detonate.
“The initial blast hit me and I went numb and
everything went totally silent,” he said. “Then
I hear people start hollering, ‘Ross! Ross! Ross!’
It started getting louder, louder, louder. My whole
body was mangled. I was spitting up blood. I faded
in and out. I was bawling my eyes out, saying, ‘Please
don’t let me go; don’t let me go.’ ”
A Casualty of War
When his relatives first saw Mr. Ross at Walter Reed
Army Hospital in Washington, he was in a coma.
“That boy was dead,” his grandfather said. “We was
looking at a corpse lying in that bed.”
As he lay unconscious, the Army discharged him —
one year, four months and 18 days after he enlisted,
by his calculation. After 31 days, Mr. Ross came
off the respirator. Groggily but insistently, he pointed
to his eyes and then to his leg. An aunt gingerly
told him he was blind and an amputee. He cried
for days, he said.
It was during Mr. Ross’s stay at Walter Reed that
Representative Murtha, a former Marine colonel, first
met his young constituent and presented him with
a Purple Heart.
From the start of the war, Mr. Murtha said in an
interview, he made regular, painful excursions to
visit wounded soldiers. Gradually, those visits,
combined with his disillusionment about the Bush
administration’s management of the war, led him
to call in late 2005 for the troops to be brought
home in six months.
“Sam Ross had an impact on me,” Mr. Murtha said.
“Eventually, I just felt that we had gotten to
a point where we were talking so much about winning
the war itself — and it couldn’t be won militarily —
that we were forgetting about the results of the war
on individuals like Sam.”
Over the next three years, Mr. Ross underwent more
than 20 surgical procedures, including: “Five on my
right eye, one on my left eye, two or three when they
cut my left leg off, three or four on my right leg,
a couple on my throat, skin grafts, chest tubes and,
you know, one where they gutted me from belly button
to groin” to remove metal fragments from his intestines.
But, although he was prescribed psychiatric medication,
he never received in-patient treatment for the post-
traumatic stress disorder that was diagnosed
at Walter Reed. And, in retrospect he, like his
relatives, said he believes he should have been put
in an intensive program soon after his urgent physical
injuries were addressed.
“They should have given him treatment before they
let him come back into civilization,” his grandfather
said.
A Hero’s Welcome
The parade, on a sunny day in late summer 2003,
was spectacular. Hundreds of flag-waving locals
lined the streets. Mr. Ross had just turned 21.
Wearing his green uniform and burgundy beret, he
rode in a Jeep, accompanied by other veterans and
the Connellsville Area Senior High School Marching
Band. The festivities included bagpipers, Civil
War re-enactors and a dunking pool.
“It wasn’t the medals on former Army Pfc. Sam Ross’s
uniform that reflected his courage yesterday,” The
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote. “It was the Dunbar
native’s poise as he greeted well-wishers and insisted
on sharing attention with other soldiers that proved
the grit he’ll need to recover from extensive injuries
he suffered in Iraq.”
For a little while, “it was joy joy, happiness
happiness,” Mr. Ross said. He felt the glimmerings
of a new kind of potential within himself, and saw
no reason why he could not go on to college, even law
school. Then the black moods, the panic attacks,
the irritability set in. He was dogged by chronic
pain; fragments of metal littered his body.
Mr. Ross said he was “stuck in denial” about his
disabilities. The day he tried to resume a favorite
pastime, fishing, hit him hard. Off-balance on the water,
it came as a revelation that, without eyesight, he did
not know where to cast his rod. He threw his equipment
in the water and sold his boat.
“I just gave up,” he said. “I give up on everything.”
About a year after he was injured, Mr. Ross enrolled
in an in-patient program for blind veterans in Chicago.
He learned the Braille alphabet, but his fingers were
too numb from embedded shrapnel to read, he said. He
figured that he did not have much else to learn since
he had been functioning blind for a year. He left the
program early.
Similarly, Mr. Ross repeatedly declined outpatient
psychiatric treatment at the veterans hospital in
Pittsburgh, according to the Department of Veterans
Affairs. He said he felt that people at the hospital
had disrespected him.
After living with relatives, Mr. Ross withdrew from
the world into the trailer on the hill in 2004.
That year, he got into a dispute with his grandfather
over old vehicles on the property, resolving it
by setting them on fire. His run-ins with local
law enforcement, which did not occur before he
went to Iraq, the Fayette County sheriff said,
had begun.
But his image locally had not yet been tarnished.
In early 2005, Mr. Murtha held a second Purple Heart
ceremony for Mr. Ross at a Fayette County hospital
“to try to show him how much affection we had for
him and his sacrifice,” Mr. Murtha said.
A local newspaper article about Mr. Ross’s desire
to build himself a house came to the attention
of Homes for Our Troops.
“He’s a great kid; he really is,” said Kirt Rebello,
the group’s director of projects and veterans affairs.
“Early on, even before he was injured, the kid had
this humongous deck stacked against him in life.
That’s one of the reasons we wanted to help him.”
Mr. Ross, who had received a $100,000 government payment
for his catastrophic injury, bought land adjacent to
his grandfather’s. Mr. Rebello asked Mr. Ross whether
he might prefer to move to somewhere with more services
and opportunities. But Mr. Ross said that Dunbar’s
winding roads were implanted in his psyche, “that he
could see the place in his mind,” Mr. Rebello said.
A Life Falls Apart
In May 2005, Mr. Ross broke up with a girlfriend
and grew increasingly depressed. He felt oppressively
idle, he said. One day, he tacked a suicide note
to the door of his trailer and hitched a ride to
a trail head, disappearing into the woods. A day
long manhunt ensued.
Mr. Ross fell asleep in the woods that night, waking
up with the sun on his face, which he took to be
a sign that God wanted him to live. When he was found,
he was taken to a psychiatric ward and released
after a few weeks.
The construction of his house proved a distraction
from his misery. Mr. Ross enjoyed the camaraderie
of the volunteers who fashioned him a cabin from
white pine logs. But when the house, which he
named Second Heaven, was finished in early 2006,
“they all left, I moved in and I was all alone,”
he said. “That’s when the drugs really started.”
At first, Mr. Ross said, he used drugs — pills,
heroin, crack and methadone — “basically to mellow
myself out and to have people around.” Local ne’er-
do-wells enjoyed themselves on Mr. Ross’s tab for
quite some time, his relatives said.
“These kids were loading him into a car, taking
him to strip clubs, letting him foot the bills,”
his uncle, Joseph Ross Jr., said. “They were
dopies and druggies.”
Mr. Ross’s girlfriend, Barbara Hall, moved in with him.
But relationships with many of his relatives had
deteriorated.
“If that boy would have come home and accepted
what happened to him, that boy never would have
wanted for anything in Dunbar,” his grandfather
said. “If he had accepted that he’s wounded and
he’s blinded, you know? He’s not the only one that
happened to. There’s hundreds of boys like him.”
Some sympathy began to erode in the town, too.
“There’s pro and con on him,” a local official said.
“Some people don’t even believe he’s totally blind.”
After overdosing first on heroin and then on
methadone last fall, Mr. Ross said, he quit
consuming illegal drugs, replacing them with drinking
until he blacked out.
Mr. Ross relied on his brother, Thomas, when he
suffered panic attacks. When Thomas was jailed
earlier this year, Mr. Ross reached out to older
members of his family. In early February, his uncle,
Joseph Ross Jr., persuaded him to be driven several
hours to the veterans’ hospital in Coatesville to
apply for its in-patient program for post-traumatic
stress disorder.
“Due to the severity of his case, they accepted him
on the spot and gave him a bed date for right after
Valentine’s Day,” his uncle said. “Then he wigged
out five days before he was supposed to go there.”
It started when his brother’s girlfriend, Monica
Kuhns, overheard a phone call in which he was arranging
to buy antidepressants. She thought it was a transaction
to buy cocaine, he said, and he feared that she would
tell his sister and brother.
After downing several beers, Mr. Ross, in a deranged
rage, went to his old trailer, where Ms. Kuhns was
living with her young son, he said.
“He started pounding on the door,” said Ms. Hall, who
accompanied him. “He went in and threatened to burn
the place down. Me and Monica didn’t actually think
he was going to do it. But then he pulled out the
lighter.”
Having convinced himself that the trailer — a source
of so much family misery — needed to be destroyed,
Mr. Ross set a pile of clothing on fire. The women
and the child fled. When a volunteer firefighter
showed up, Mr. Ross attacked and choked him, according
to a police complaint.
A judge set bail at $250,000. In the Fayette County
prison, Mr. Ross got “totally out of hand,” the sheriff,
Gary Brownfield, said. Mr. Ross’s lawyer, James Geibig,
said the situation was a chaotic mess.
“It was just a nightmare,” Mr. Geibig said. “First
the underlying charges — attempted homicide, come
on — were blown out of proportion. Then bail is set
sky high, straight cash. They put him in a little
cell, in isolation, and barely let him shower.
Things went from bad to worse until they found
him hanging.”
Now Mr. Geibig’s goal is to get Mr. Ross sentenced
into the post-traumatic stress disorder program
he was supposed to attend.
“He does not need to be in jail,” Mr. Geibig said.
“He has suffered enough. I’m not a bleeding heart,
but his is a pretty gut-wrenching tale. And at the
end, right before this incident, he sought out help.
It didn’t arrive in time. But it’s not too late,
I hope, for Sam Ross to have some kind of future.”
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14) Immigration Raid Yields 62 Arrests in Illinois
By LIBBY SANDER
April 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/us/05raid.html
CHICAGO, April 4 — Immigration agents arrested two managers
and 60 other employees of an industrial cleaning company
Wednesday on immigration violations and charges of identity
theft in an early morning raid at a meatpacking plant
in central Illinois.
The operation was the latest in a string of raids by agents
from Immigration and Customs Enforcement on companies accused
of employing illegal immigrants who, in some cases, are
alleged to have stolen the identities of American citizens
to create false identification documents.
The raid occurred at 1:30 a.m. at Cargill Meat Solutions
in Beardstown, a town of 6,000 people northwest of
Springfield, where the cleaning company, Quality Service
Integrity Inc., was under contract to clean Cargill’s
pork processing plant.
The two managers, who officials said are Mexicans in the
United States illegally, and 11 of the workers arrested
Wednesday were charged with aggravated identity theft.
Identity theft charges were brought against 14 additional
employees of the cleaning service, but they have not yet
been arrested, said Gail Montenegro, a spokeswoman for
the immigration agency.
Forty-nine employees were taken into custody for alleged
immigration violations. In all, 54 of the 62 people arrested
are from Mexico; 5 are from Guatemala; 2 from El Salvador
and 1 from Argentina, Ms. Montenegro said.
Eleven of the workers taken into custody were released
on humanitarian grounds, officials said.
Neither Cargill nor any of the 2,200 employees at its
Beardstown facility were objects of the investigation,
officials said.
The two managers are Gerardo DominGuez-Chacon, who manages
the cleaning company’s Beardstown operation, and Maria del
Pilar Marroquin de Ramirez, the company’s personnel administrator.
Both are charged in a criminal complaint with aggravated
identity theft and with “aiding and abetting aggravated identity
theft in connection with the alleged hiring of illegal
immigrants.” If convicted, they face at least two years
in prison.
Prosecutors said that the two managers knowingly hired
illegal immigrants and that Mr. DominGuez-Chacon provided
new employees with stolen identities and gave illegal
immigrants information on how to obtain false
identification documents.
The cleaning service is described on a company Web
site as a member of the Vincit Group, which is based
in Chattanooga, Tenn. A woman answering the telephone
at Vincit said no one was available to comment.
The investigation into the cleaning company’s hiring
practices began in January, officials said, and revealed
that most of the company’s work force was illegal
immigrants.
In December, immigration agents raided six meat-processing
plants operated by Swift and Company in six states,
detaining 1,282 immigrants believed to be in the country
illegally and charging 219 so far, mostly with identity
theft.
Since the Swift raids, smaller raids have occurred
in many states. Immigration authorities say they are
stepping up efforts to go after companies that engage
in the trafficking of false and stolen documents used
by illegal immigrants to obtain employment.
Last week, agents arrested 69 immigrants placed by
a temporary job agency, Jones Industrial Network, at
work sites in the Baltimore area. In early March, more
than 360 people, including the owner and three managers,
were arrested at Michael Bianco Inc., a leather goods
manufacturer in New Bedford, Mass.
Three days after the Massachusetts raid, charges were
brought against the president of Sun Drywall and Stucco,
an Arizona construction company, and seven managers
accused of hiring illegal immigrants.
And in Michigan, federal prosecutors brought charges
in February against three executives of Rosenbaum-
Cunningham International, a cleaning and maintenance
company, alleging that the three defrauded the federal
government of more than $18 million in employment taxes
owed on behalf of hundreds of illegal immigrant workers.
Nearly 200 immigrant workers in 17 states and the District
of Columbia were arrested as part of the investigation.
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15) Senator Feinstein's War Profiteering
Democratic Blood Money
By JOSHUA FRANK
April 4, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.com/frank04042007.html
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California silently
resigned from her post on the Military Construction
Appropriations subcommittee (MILCON) late last week
as her ethical limbo with war contracts began to surface
in the media, including an excellent investigative report
written by Peter Byrne for Metro in January. MILCON has
supervised the appropriations of billions of dollars
in reconstruction contracts since the Bush wars began.
Feinstein, who served as chairperson and ranking member
for the committee from 2001-2005, came under fire early
last year in these pages for profiting by way of her
husband Richard Blum who, until 2005, held large stakes
in two defense contracting companies. Both businesses,
URS and Perini, have scored lucrative contracts in Iraq
and Afghanistan in the last four years, and Blum has
personally pocketed tens of millions of dollars off the
deals his wife, along with her colleagues, so graciously
approved.
Here's a brief rundown of the Feinstein family's blatant
war profiteering. In April 2003, the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers gave $500 million to Perini to provide
services for Iraq's Central Command. A month earlier
in March 2003, Perini was awarded $25 million to design
and construct a facility to support the Afghan National
Army near Kabul. And in March 2004, Perini was awarded
a hefty contract worth up to $500 million for "electrical
power distribution and transmission" in southern Iraq.
But it is not just Perini that has made Feinstein and
Blum wealthy. Blum also held over 111,000 shares of stock
in URS Corporation, which is now one of the top defense
contractors in the United States. Blum was an acting
director of URS, which bought EG&G, a leading provider
of technical services and management to the U.S. military,
from the neocon packed Carlyle Group back in 2002.
"As part of EG&G's sale price," reports the San Francisco
Chronicle, "Carlyle acquired a 21.74 percent stake in
URS -- second only to the 23.7 percent of shares controlled
by Blum Capital."
URS and Blum have since banked on the war in Iraq,
attaining a $600 million contract through EG&G, which
Sen. Feinstein permitted. As a result, URS has seen its
stock price more than triple since the war began in March
of 2003. Blum has cashed in over $2 million on this
venture alone and another $100 million for his
investment firm.
And it is not just the Feinstein family that has
benefited from the war -- so too has the Democratic
Party. Since 2000, the Democrats' Daddy Warbucks has
donated over $100,000 to the Democratic Senatorial
Committee including leading Democrats including John
Kerry, Robert Byrd, Ted Kennedy, and even Barbara Boxer.
Feinstein's resignation from MILCON was the least the
senator could do to atone for profiting off the spoils
of war. But Feinstein wasn't trying to atone, she seems
to have been trying to cover her tracks instead by
distancing herself from her post. If the Democratic
Party had any foresight whatsoever it would return
all the Blood Money donated by Blum. From there the
Senate ought to hold hearings and examine Feinstein's
tenure as the chair and ranking member of MILCON and
analyze every single contract she approved which
benefited her husband's respective companies.
There is absolutely no question -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein
has a plethora of ethics violations she needs to account
for at once.
Joshua Frank is the author of Left Out! How Liberals
Helped Reelect George W. Bush and edits www.BrickBurner.org
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16) Reflections of the Commander in Chief
THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF GENOCIDE
April 3, 2007
By Fidel Castro Ruz
GRANMA
April 4, 2007
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/english/news/art84.html
The Camp David meeting has just come to
an end. All of us followed the press
conference offered by the presidents
of the United States and Brazil
attentively, as we did the news surrounding
the meeting and the opinions
voiced in this connection.
Faced with demands related to customs
duties and subsidies which protect and
support US ethanol production, Bush
did not make the slightest concession to
his Brazilian guest at Camp David.
President Lula attributed to this the
rise in corn prices, which, according
to his own statements, had gone up more
than 85 percent.
Before these statements were made,
the Washington Post had published an
article by the Brazilian leader which
expounded on the idea of transforming
food into fuel.
It is not my intention to hurt Brazil
or to meddle in the internal affairs
of this great country. It was in effect
in Rio de Janeiro, host of the
United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development, exactly 15 years
ago, where I delivered a 7-minute
speech vehemently denouncing the
environmental dangers that menaced
our species' survival. Bush Sr., then
President of the United States, was
present at that meeting and applauded my
words out of courtesy; all other
presidents there applauded, too.
No one at Camp David answered the
fundamental question. Where are the more
than 500 million tons of corn and
other cereals which the United States,
Europe and wealthy nations require
to produce the gallons of ethanol that
big companies in the United States and
other countries demand in exchange
for their voluminous investments going
to be produced and who is going to
supply them? Where are the soy, sunflower
and rape seeds, whose essential
oils these same, wealthy nations are to
turn into fuel, going to be produced
and who will produce them?
Some countries are food producers which
export their surpluses. The balance
of exporters and consumers had already
become precarious before this and
food prices had skyrocketed. In the
interests of brevity, I shall limit
myself to pointing out the following:
According to recent data, the five
chief producers of corn, barley, sorghum,
rye, millet and oats which Bush wants
to transform into the raw material of
ethanol production, supply the world
market with 679 million tons of these
products. Similarly, the five chief
consumers, some of which also produce
these grains, currently require 604 million
annual tons of these products.
The available surplus is less than
80 million tons of grain.
This colossal squandering of cereals
destined to fuel production -and these
estimates do not include data on oily
seeds-shall serve to save rich
countries less than 15 percent of the
total annual consumption of their
voracious automobiles.
At Camp David, Bush declared his intention
of applying this formula around
the world. This spells nothing other
than the internationalization of
genocide.
In his statements, published by the
Washington Post on the eve of the Camp
David meeting, the Brazilian president
affirmed that less than one percent
of Brazil's arable land was used to
grow cane destined to ethanol
production. This is nearly three times
the land surface Cuba used when it
produced nearly 10 million tons of
sugar a year, before the crisis that
befell the Soviet Union and the advent
of climate changes.
Our country has been producing and
exporting sugar for a longer time. First,
on the basis of the work of slaves,
whose numbers swelled to over 300
thousand in the first years of the 19th
century and who turned the Spanish
colony into the world's number one
exporter. Nearly one hundred years later,
at the beginning of the 20th century,
when Cuba was a pseudo-republic which
had been denied full independence by
US interventionism; it was immigrants
from the West Indies and illiterate
Cubans alone who bore the burden of
growing and harvesting sugarcane on the
island. The scourge of our people
was the off-season, inherent to the
cyclical nature of the harvest.
Sugarcane plantations were the
property of US companies or powerful
Cuban-born landowners. Cuba, thus,
has more experience than anyone as
regards the social impact of this crop.
This past Sunday, April 1, the CNN
televised the opinions of Brazilian
experts who affirm that many lands
destined to sugarcane have been purchased
by wealthy Americans and Europeans.
As part of my reflections on the subject,
published on March 29, I expounded
on the impact climate change has
had on Cuba and on other basic
characteristics of our country's
climate which contribute to this.
On our poor and anything but consumerist
island, one would be unable to find
enough workers to endure the rigors
of the harvest and to care for the
sugarcane plantations in the ever more
intense heat, rains or droughts. When
hurricanes lash the island, not even
the best machines can harvest the
bent-over and twisted canes. For centuries,
the practice of burning
sugarcane was unknown and no soil was
compacted under the weight of complex
machines and enormous trucks. Nitrogen,
potassium and phosphate fertilizers,
today extremely expensive, did not yet
even exist, and the dry and wet
months succeeded each other regularly.
In modern agriculture, no high yields
are possible without crop rotation methods.
On Sunday, April 1, the French Press
Agency (AFP) published disquieting
reports on the subject of climate
change, which experts gathered by the
United Nations already consider an
inevitable phenomenon that will spell
serious repercussions for the world
in the coming decades.
According to a UN report to be approved
next week in Brussels, climate
change will have a significant impact
on the American continent, generating
more violent storms and heat waves and
causing droughts, the extinction of
some species and even hunger in Latin
America.
The AFP report indicates that the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) forewarned that at the end of
this century, every hemisphere will
endure water-related problems and,
if governments take no measures in this
connection, rising temperatures could
increase the risks of mortality,
contamination, natural catastrophes
and infectious diseases.
In Latin America, global warming is
already melting glaciers in the Andes
and threatening the Amazon forest, whose
perimeter may slowly be turned into
a savannah, the cable goes on to report.
Because a great part of its population
lives near the coast, the United
States is also vulnerable to extreme natural
phenomena, as hurricane Katrina
demonstrated in 2005.
According to AFP, this is the second
of three IPCC reports which began to be
published last February, following
an initial scientific forecast which
established the certainty of climate
change.
This second 1400-page report which
analyzes climate change in different
sectors and regions, of which AFP has
obtained a copy, considers that, even
if radical measures to reduce carbon
dioxide emissions that pollute the
atmosphere are taken, the rise in
temperatures around the planet in the
coming decades is already unavoidable,
concludes the French Press Agency.
As was to be expected, at the Camp
David meeting, Dan Fisk, National
Security advisor for the region,
declared that "in the discussion on
regional issues, [I expect] Cuba to
come up (.) if there's anyone that knows
how to create starvation, it's Fidel
Castro. He also knows how not to do
ethanol".
As I find myself obliged to respond
to this gentleman, it is my duty to
remind him that Cuba's infant mortality
rate is lower than the United
States'. All citizens -this is beyond
question-enjoy free medical services.
Everyone has access to education and
no one is denied employment, in spite
of nearly half a century of economic
blockade and the attempts of US
governments to starve and economically
asphyxiate the people of Cuba.
China would never devote a single ton
of cereals or leguminous plants to the
production of ethanol, and it is an
economically prosperous nation which is
breaking growth records, where all
citizens earn the income they need to
purchase essential consumer items, despite
the fact that 48 percent of its
population, which exceeds 1.3 billion,
works in agriculture. On the
contrary, it has set out to reduce
energy consumption considerably by
shutting down thousands of factories
which consume unacceptable amounts of
electricity and hydrocarbons. It imports
many of the food products mentioned
above from far-off corners of the world,
transporting these over thousands
of miles.
Scores of countries do not produce
hydrocarbons and are unable to produce
corn and other grains or oily seeds,
for they do not even have enough water
to meet their most basic needs.
At a meeting on ethanol production held
in Buenos Aires by the Argentine Oil
Industry Chamber and Cereals Exporters
Association, Loek Boonekamp, the
Dutch head of the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD)'s commercial and marketing division,
told the press that governments
are very much enthused about this process
but that they should objectively
consider whether ethanol ought to be
given such resolute support.
According to Boonekamp, the United States
is the only country where ethanol
can be profitable and, without subsidies,
no other country can make it viable.
According to the report, Boonekamp
insists that ethanol is not manna from
Heaven and that we should not blindly
commit to developing this process.
Today, developed countries are pushing
to have fossil fuels mixed with
biofuels at around five percent and
this is already affecting agricultural
prices. If this figure went up to
10 percent, 30 percent of the United
States' cultivated surface and 50
percent of Europe's would be required.
That is the reason Boonekamp asks
himself whether the process is
sustainable, as an increase in the
demand for crops destined to ethanol
production would generate higher
and less stable prices.
Protectionist measures are today at
54 cents per gallon and real subsidies
reach far higher figures.
Applying the simple arithmetic we learned
in high school, we could show how,
by simply replacing incandescent bulbs
with fluorescent ones, as I explained
in my previous reflections, millions
and millions of dollars in investment
and energy could be saved, without the
need to use a single acre of farming
land.
In the meantime, we are receiving news
from Washington, through the AP,
reporting that the mysterious disappearance
of millions of bees throughout
the United States has edged beekeepers
to the brink of a nervous breakdown
and is even cause for concern in Congress,
which will discuss this Thursday
the critical situation facing this insect,
essential to the agricultural
sector. According to the report, the
first disquieting signs of this enigma
became evident shortly after Christmas
in the state of Florida, when
beekeepers discovered that their bees
had vanished without a trace. Since
then, the syndrome which experts have
christened as Colony Collapse Disorder
(CCD) has reduced the country's swarms
by 25 percent.
Daniel Weaver, president of the US Beekeepers
Association, stated that more
than half a million colonies, each with
a population of nearly 50 thousand
bees, had been lost. He added that the
syndrome has struck 30 of the
country's 50 states. What is curious
about the phenomenon is that, in many
cases, the mortal remains of the bees
are not found.
According to a study conducted by Cornell
University, these industrious
insects pollinate crops valued at anywhere
from 12 to 14 billion dollars.
Scientists are entertaining all kinds
of hypotheses, including the theory
that a pesticide may have caused the
bees' neurological damage and altered
their sense of orientation. Others lay
the blame on the drought and even
mobile phone waves, but, what's certain
is that no one knows exactly what
has unleashed this syndrome.
The worst may be yet to come: a new
war aimed at securing gas and oil
supplies that can take humanity to
the brink of total annihilation.
Invoking intelligence sources, Russian
newspapers have reported that a war
on Iran has been in the works for
over three years now, since the day the
government of the United States
resolved to occupy Iraq completely,
unleashing a seemingly endless and
despicable civil war.
All the while, the government of
the United States devotes hundreds of
billions to the development of highly
sophisticated technologies, as those
which employ micro-electronic systems
or new nuclear weapons which can
strike their targets an hour following
the order to attack.
The United States brazenly turns a deaf
ear to world public opinion, which
is against all kinds of nuclear weapons.
Razing all of Iran's factories to the
ground is a relatively easy task, from
the technical point of view, for a powerful
country like the United States.
The difficult task may come later,
if a new war were to be unleashed against
another Muslim faith which deserves
our utmost respect, as do all other
religions of the Near, Middle or Far
East, predating or postdating
Christianity.
The arrest of English soldiers at
Iran's territorial waters recalls the
nearly identical act of provocation
of the so-called "Brothers to the
Rescue" who, ignoring President Clinton's
orders advanced over our country's
territorial waters. Cuba's absolutely
legitimate and defensive action gave
the United States a pretext to promulgate
the well-known Helms-Burton Act,
which encroaches upon the sovereignty
of other nations besides Cuba. The
powerful media have consigned that
episode to oblivion. No few people
attribute the price of oil, at nearly
70 dollars a gallon as of Monday, to
fears of a possible invasion of Iran.
Where shall poor Third World countries
find the basic resources needed to
survive?
I am not exaggerating or using overblown
language. I am confining myself to
the facts.
As can be seen, the polyhedron has many dark faces.
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17) Guantánamo Follies
Editorial
April 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/06/opinion/06fri1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
There has been much speculation about the Supreme Court’s
decision not to hear an appeal from a group of Guantánamo
Bay inmates until they have exhausted their legal options.
Was the court signaling that the appeal had no merit? Were
the court’s liberals waiting for a better chance to review
President Bush’s unconstitutional detention system for
“illegal enemy combatants”?
Whatever the justices’ intentions, we saw one clear message
in their decision, and we hope that Nancy Pelosi, the House
speaker, and Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, saw
it too. It is past time for Congress to undo the grievous
damage done by President Bush’s abuse of the Constitution
when he created his system of secret prisons and public
internment camps to detain selected foreigners indefinitely
without any real legal challenge.
In the months since Congress passed the Military Commissions
Act of 2006, the administration has pushed ahead with the
show trials permitted by the law. Each development in that
courtroom brings fresh evidence of how urgent it is for
the courts to strike down that law and for Congress to
rewrite it.
The plea bargain: Last month, after being held at
Guantánamo for five years, David Hicks, an Australian
citizen, pleaded guilty to a single, relatively minor
charge in exchange for his freedom. This deal should
infuriate any side of the debate.
Americans who support Mr. Bush’s policy on prisoners
accepted its premise: that the people in Guantánamo are
so dangerous that letting any out will compromise American
security. If an injustice were committed here or there,
Americans would just have to grit their teeth. How does
that square with allowing Mr. Hicks to go home and quickly
go free? Worse, the plea bargain seemed timed to help
Prime Minister John Howard, a Bush ally whose inaction
on the case was becoming a re-election issue in Australia.
For Americans, like us, who are sickened by the Guantánamo
prison, the Hicks bargain was emblematic of its lawless
nature. If there was evidence that Mr. Hicks was a terrorist,
we have yet to see it. He was declared an illegal combatant
by a kangaroo court created to confirm that designation,
which had been applied long before. He was denied a lawyer
and censored by the court when he tried to pursue abuse
charges. Under his plea bargain he gave up his right
to sue, repudiated his own accounts of abuse and was
even barred from talking to the news media about his
experience.
To understand why Mr. Hicks still found that sort of deal
attractive, remember that once a person is declared an “
illegal enemy combatant,” he faces a lifetime in detention.
He might be released by a “combatant status tribunal,” but
his chances are very slim, and the process mocks civilized
standards of justice. If the prisoner is one of the very
few that the Pentagon plans to charge with a crime, he
will be brought before a military tribunal. That court
may use evidence obtained through hearsay, coercion or
even torture. If convicted, there is little likelihood
that he will be released after serving his time.
If acquitted, he just goes back to being an illegal
combatant who can be held for life.
The censored confession: On March 14, Abd al-Rahim al
Nashiri, accused of the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole and
other crimes, went before a combatant status tribunal.
According to a transcript, Mr. Nashiri said he was tortured.
But it is Mr. Bush’s policy that no prisoner may allege
torture in public, so this is what appeared in the
transcript:
PRESIDENT (of the tribunal): Please describe the methods
that were used.
DETAINEE: (CENSORED) What else do I want to say? (CENSORED)
There were doing so many things. What else did they did?
(CENSORED) After that another method of torture began.
(CENSORED) They used to ask me questions and the investigator
after that used to laugh. And, I used to answer the answer
that I knew. And if I didn’t replay what I heard, he used
to (CENSORED).
Officials defended this censorship by arguing that
interrogation methods are so secret that they cannot
be discussed, even by the prisoner. But they also said
that Al Qaeda members are trained to claim torture and
that Mr. Nashiri lied. If so, why censor the transcript?
His answers can’t help Al Qaeda. Tragically, the most
likely answer is to spare United States intelligence
agents and their bosses, who could face charges if
the Military Commissions Act is ever repealed or
rewritten. The law gives a retroactive carte blanche
to American interrogators for any abuse they may
have committed.
The lawsuit: The case the Supreme Court turned down
this week was filed by Guantánamo inmates who contend
that their detention was illegal and that the Military
Commissions Act is unconstitutional. We agree. Holding
people without evidence or charges or trial is barbaric,
as is denying them the right to challenge their detention
in a real court, a right generally referred to as habeas
corpus.
Both violate the Constitution, and the court should strike
down the Military Commissions Act of 2006, and the Detainee
Treatment Act of 2005, which limits avenues for appeal.
But Congress approved the military commissions, left in place
the combatant status review tribunals and suspended habeas
corpus. Mr. Reid and Ms. Pelosi have a moral obligation
to lead the way to righting these wrongs.
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18) All That You Can Be
Risk Management
by Lauren Collins
April 9, 2007
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2007/04/09/070409ta_talk_collins
In the wake of a rise in substantiated instances
of misconduct by its recruiters, the United States
military, it was reported last month, is considering
installing surveillance cameras in its recruiting
stations. The military may also want to assess the
tactics that its employees use in the virtual realm.
This admissions season, an Army recruiter has been
e-mailing recent college graduates with the offer
of hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarship
money to pay for medical school, in exchange for
four years of service. Nothing new there. What’s
surprising is his assertion to students that they
would be better off in Baghdad than in Georgetown.
Susan Kahane, who is twenty-two, graduated from
Columbia last spring. When she took the MCAT,
in August, she checked a box to signal that she
wished to receive information about outside sources
of financial aid. Soon, she was inundated with
e-mails from the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force
(“FREE MEDICAL SCHOOL!!!”). One, sent on January 31st
by Captain Christopher D. Mayhugh, of the Army
Medical Service Corps, stood out. “Upon finishing
your residency,” the message read, “you will be
assigned to one of a variety of locations including
Germany, Italy and Hawaii and your obligation will
be complete.” (The Medical Service Corps’s Web page,
in contrast, notes prominently that its officers
have participated in combat operations in Korea,
Kosovo, Somalia, Panama, and Iraq.)
Mayhugh’s omission of Iraq, Kahane recalled last week,
“seemed a little bit strange.” Still, she said,
“These e-mails were often slightly tempting to me,
because of my worries about paying for medical school.”
On March 14th, Kahane received another e-mail from
Mayhugh, with the subject “Medical school scholarships
still available.” This time, rather than invoking
European and tropical destinations, Mayhugh addressed
the prospect of being posted to a less than desirable
locale. “What if you get sent to Iraq?” he wrote
in the letter’s final paragraph. He continued:
Well, consider this: there has been an average of
160,000 troops in the Iraq theater of operations during
the last 22 months, and a total of 2112 deaths, that
gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000. The rate
in Washington, D.C. is 80.6 per 100,000. That means
that you are about 25% more likely to be shot and
killed in our Nation’s Capitol, which has some
of the strictest gun control laws in the nation,
than you are in Iraq.
Kahane recalled, “After reading it once, I felt
strongly that something was wrong, but I didn’t
know what.” She looked up the figures and did the
math herself, and found that all the statistics
in the e-mail were either outdated or incorrect,
and that, even if they had been correct, Mayhugh
seemed to be comparing a yearly figure for Washington
with a monthly one for Iraq. (Going by Mayhugh’s
numbers, there would be nearly fifteen gun murders
in Washington every day. In reality, there were
about three murders, of any kind, per week in 2006.
In the same period, an average of sixteen American
troops died each week in Iraq.) Kimberly Thompson,
an associate professor of risk analysis and decision
science at Harvard’s School of Public Health, agreed,
last week, to evaluate Mayhugh’s claim and found the
discrepancy even starker. In her estimate, the risk
of being killed in Iraq is ten times higher than
the risk of being killed in Washington, D.C. “The
recruiter’s e-mail message is really amazingly
misleading,” she said.
It turns out, as Kahane learned with a subsequent
Google search, that “D.C. is more dangerous than
Iraq” is a well-worn canard. Representative Steve
King, a Republican from Iowa, promulgated a variation,
involving his wife’s safety, last year on the floor
of the House, while Mayhugh’s paragraph was plucked,
verbatim, from an e-mail that circulated in 2005.
The realization that Mayhugh’s message derived—one
could see, with nominal research—from a Web fallacy
was dispiriting to Kahane. She had written a letter
to Mayhugh, but didn’t send it. “I thought, I guess
he knows the math isn’t right, so what’s the point
of telling him?” she said.
Reached last week at his office in Maryland, Mayhugh
stood by the e-mail, saying, “Most people’s perception
of Iraq is that ‘Oh, my God, people are being murdered
over there by the thousands.’ I think if you look at
any type of situation where you have several hundred
thousand people on the ground and now you throw in the
fact that what they’re doing is dangerous and they
have very big heavy vehicles and firearms with live
ammunition, the number of people being killed over
there is pretty small.”
He acknowledged that the paragraph had come from
a forwarded e-mail, but said that, before pasting
it into his pitch, he had done “some simple calculations”
that supported its conclusions. “In what I’ve seen
in dealing with the war and the misperceptions of it,”
he said, “it seemed to me like those would be the right
numbers.” He went on, “I work in D.C. on a daily basis,
and I’m afraid to get out of my car in a lot of places.
I hear about police officers being murdered every day
in D.C. and Baltimore. And I’ve had thousands of friends
and colleagues go to Iraq and come back safely.”
Illustration: TOM BACHTELL
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19) No hope in Guantánamo
BY JOSHUA COLANGELO-BRYAN
MIAMI HERALD
Apr. 05, 2007
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/v-print/story/64032.html
On Monday, I was at Guantánamo Bay to meet with Jumah
Al Dossari, one of the detainees my firm represents.
As always, I spent the first few hours of our meeting
trying to convince Jumah to fight the desperation
and hopelessness that threaten what little spirit
he has left.
Jumah has been at Guantánamo for more than five
years. The government has never charged him with
a crime and does not accuse him of taking any action
against the United States. For several years, Jumah
has been held alone in solid-wall cells from which
he cannot see other detainees or communicate except
by yelling. He has spent 22 to 24 hours a day by
himself in these cells. He has been short shackled,
threatened with death and, once, severly beaten.
Interrogators have told him that he will be at
Guantánamo for the next 50 years and that there
is no law at Guantánamo.
Sometimes the idea of spending the rest of his
life locked up thousands of miles from his family
is too much for Jumah. On Oct. 15, 2005, I walked
into an interview room to visit him. There was
blood on the floor. I looked up and saw Jumah
hanging by his neck from the other side of a metal
mesh wall that divided his cell from our meeting
area. He was bleeding from a gash in his arm.
I couldn't reach Jumah because the door to the
cell was locked. I yelled for guards who came,
unlocked the door and cut the noose from Jumah's
neck. I was ordered out of the room but later learned
that Jumah had survived. Since that day, Jumah
has tried to kill himself three times. Last spring
he slashed his throat with a razor, spraying blood
on the ceiling of his cell.
During our meeting on Monday, we talked about Jumah's
court case, a bleak—and therefore dangerous—subject.
I explained again that the Bush administration insists
it may detain anyone it designates an ''enemy combatant''
forever without a trial. I explained how Congress blessed
that notion in last year's Military Commissions Act,
which bars foreign ''enemy combatants'' from going to
court to challenge that designation. I explained that
lawyers for the detainees had challenged the act as
unconstitutional, but that in February a federal appeals
had ruled against us on the grounds that people like
Jumah have no rights.
Desperately wanting to boost his spirits, I also told
Jumah that there was reason to be optimistic. We had
asked the Supreme Court to review the appeals court
decision and we felt pretty sure that our request
would be granted. Were that to happen, Jumah might
be a step closer to a court hearing.
At noon, I went to the galley—as the cafeteria at
Guantánamo is called—to get lunch for Jumah and myself.
While waiting for a burger, I glanced up at a television
tuned to CNN. Text ran across the bottom of the screen:
``Supreme Court refuses to hear Guantánamo detainee
appeals until alternative procedures are exhausted.''
Our request—the one reason I had given Jumah to be
optimistic—had been denied. The Supreme Court was
saying it might consider the detainees' cases, but
not until the detainees subjected themselves
to proceedings created by the Military Commissions Act.
It is a disturbing ruling because the government
says the purpose of these proceedings is not to
determine if a detainee is actually an ''enemy combatant''
but rather to determine if the military followed its own
rules in applying the ''enemy combatant'' label. For that
reason, detainees will have no chance to produce evidence
of their innocence that the military didn't consider
or to challenge the use of evidence obtained through
torture. Worse yet, these procedures will be held
before the same appeals court that recently found
the detainees have no rights at all.
I walked slowly back to the room where Jumah sat
shackled. I wondered if there was a good way to tell
a suicidal man that all three branches of our government
appear content to let him rot at Guantánamo. Nothing
came to mind.
Maybe I shouldn't have worried. Jumah's reaction
to bad legal news has become as muted as his emotions
generally. He long ago stopped believing that a court
will ever hear his case and thinks I'm naive for hoping
otherwise. Instead, Jumah believes that he has been
condemned to live forever on an island where there
is no law. He may well be right.
Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, an attorney, represents
several Guantánamo detainees.
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20) WE'VE BEEN SURGING FOR YEARS
By Don Monkerud
TomPaine.com
April 6, 2007
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/04/06/weve_been_surging_for_years.php
The number of U.S. forces involved in Iraq are at least twice the number
quoted in the media. The administration uses a number of deceptions,
definitional illusions and euphemisms -- including counting only "combat
forces" and "military personnel" -- to drastically undercount the invasion
force.
Even President Bush's January announcement of a "surge" of 21,500 U.S.
troops, opposed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has now morphed into 30,000
troops with an additional "headquarters staff" of 3,000 -- or more than 50
percent more than the official number. The currently reported total U.S.
military in Iraq is 145,000, forces which are required to occupy a country
slightly more than twice the size of Idaho.
The real number is almost impossible to find in government-released
information, even with a great amount of interpretation. It’s hidden
because few in the administration want to disclose the true extent of vast
U.S. resources invested in personnel, material, and other costs.
GlobalSecurity.org is a public policy organization that provides
background information on defense and homeland security. They note that
keeping track of American forces has become "significantly more difficult
as the military seeks to improve operational security and to deceive
potential enemies and the media as to the extent of American operations."
According to John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, there are a number
of other reasons affecting the accurate counting of the number of military
forces involved in Iraq. Large numbers of troops are activated with
unspecified duties to unspecified areas; many small units from various
locations are being mobilized from the Army and National Guard, which
count units differently; and groups rotate in and out of Iraqi so quickly
it's impossible for anyone but the Pentagon to calculate how many are
there. The Pentagon tracks these numbers, but Pike says they aren't
telling.
"We only try to nail the numbers down when we think Americans are getting
ready to blow someone up," Pike says. "The Pentagon knows the numbers and
we have certainly not done anything to highball it. Certainly, if there's
a chance to release or hold numbers, they are parsimonious."
Additionally, private enterprise military "contractors" almost double the
number of U.S. forces in Iraq. After four contractors were hung from a
bridge in Fallujah in March 2004, the Bush administration stonewalled
congressional efforts to force the Pentagon to release information about
the number of contractors in Iraq. Finally, the Pentagon reported a total
of 25,000.
In "The Market for Force: The Consequences of Privatizing Security,"
Deborah D. Avant, director for the Institute for Global and Internal
Studies at George Washington University, reports that official numbers are
difficult to find, but "This is the largest deployment of U.S. contractors
in a military operation."
In October, the military's first census of contractors totaled 100,000,
not counting subcontractors. And in February 2007, the Associated Press
reported 120,000 contractors (which would put Bush's "surge" closer to
50,000). Contractors, which some call mercenaries, provide support
services essential to maintaining the U.S. military presence in Iraq. Ten
times the number of contractors employed during the Persian Gulf War,
these contract mercenaries now cook meals, interrogate prisoners, fix flat
tires, repair vehicles, and provide guard duty.
Military personnel formerly filled these types of jobs until former
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld instituted his "Total Force" plan,
which relies on a smaller U.S. military force with "its active and reserve
military components, its civil servants, and its contractors." Senator
Jim Webb of Virginia called this a "rent-an-army."
What are the total of U.S. forces are in Iraq? The government reported
145,000 U.S. military forces in Iraq, but John Pike estimates the current
total at 150,000. Another 20,000 will arrive as part of the "surge," a
last gasp public relations effort to save the operation from total
failure.
John Pike estimates another 30,000 are "in the theater" to provide
"Operation Iraqi Freedom" support. The Army and Marines have another
10,000 to 20,000 in Kuwait, and a nearby Air Force wing-bombing group has
5,000. Current naval exercises in the Persian Gulf, which represents a
show of force against Iran, include 10,000 U.S. personnel, the carrier
groups Eisenhower and the Stennis, and 15 warships.
Add the 120,000 contract mercenaries and the forces involved in the Iraqi
operation and the total comes to 300,000 to 360,000, more than twice the
"official" figure of 145,000 troops. This isn't counting the more than
5,000 British combat troops and navy, down from a high of 40,000 during
the initial invasion, or the ragtag remnants of the highly vaunted
"Coalition of the Willing," which has dwindled since the beginning of the
occupation to 27, mostly small, countries such as Armenia, Estonia,
Moldavia, and Latvia.
Manipulated figures and private military contractors provide the Bush
Administration with political cover to escape public scrutiny and keep
injuries, deaths, and secret operations out of the public eye. A more
accurate and honest view of participation in the Iraqi occupation by the
government could give Americans more reason to oppose the waste of lives
and resources on this ill-conceived, poorly planned, and disastrous
venture.
--Don Monkerud is an California-based writer who follows cultural, social
and political issues. He can be reached at monkerud@cruzio.com.
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21) Permanent drought predicted for Southwest
"Study says global warming threatens to create a
Dust Bowl-like period. Water politics could
also get heated."
By Alan Zarembo and Bettina Boxall
Times Staff Writers
April 6, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-swdrought6apr06,0,122112.story?coll=la-home-headlines
The driest periods of the last century ˜ the Dust
Bowl of the 1930s and the droughts of the 1950s ˜
may become the norm in the Southwest United
States within decades because of global warming,
according to a study released Thursday.
The research suggests that the transformation may
already be underway. Much of the region has been
in a severe drought since 2000, which the study's
analysis of computer climate models shows as the
beginning of a long dry period.
The study, published online in the journal
Science, predicted a permanent drought by 2050
throughout the Southwest ˜ one of the fastest-
growing regions in the nation.
The data tell "a story which is pretty darn scary
and very strong," said Jonathan Overpeck, a
climate researcher at the University of Arizona
who was not involved in the study.
Richard Seager, a research scientist at
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia
University and the lead author of the study, said
the changes would force an adjustment to the
social and economic order from Colorado
to California.
"There are going to be some tough decisions on
how to allocate water," he said. "Is it going to
be the cities, or is it going to be agriculture?"
Seager said the projections, based on 19 computer
models, showed a surprising level of agreement.
"There is only one model that does not have
a drying trend," he said.
Philip Mote, an atmospheric scientist at the
University of Washington who was not involved in
the study, added, "There is a convergence of the
models that is very strong and very worrisome."
The future effect of global warming is the
subject of a United Nations report to be released
today in Brussels, the second of four installments
being unveiled this year.
The first report from the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change was released in February. It
declared that global warming had become a
"runaway train" and that human activities were
"very likely" to blame.
The landmark report helped shift the long and
rancorous political debate over climate change
from whether man-made warming was real to what
could be done about it.
The mechanics and patterns of drought in the
Southwest have been the focus of increased
scrutiny in recent years.
During the last period of significant, prolonged
drought ˜ the Medieval Climate Optimum from about
the years 900 to 1300 ˜ the region experienced
dry periods that lasted as long as 20 years,
scientists say.
Drought research has largely focused on the
workings of air currents that arise from
variations in sea-surface temperature in the
Pacific Ocean known as El Niño and La Niña.
The most significant in terms of drought is La
Niña. During La Niña years, precipitation belts
shift north, parching the Southwest.
The latest study investigated the possibility of
a broader, global climatic mechanism that could
cause drought. Specifically, they looked at the
Hadley cell, one of the planet's most powerful
atmospheric circulation patterns, driving weather
in the tropics and subtropics.
Within the cell, air rises at the equator, moves
toward the poles and descends over the subtropics.
Increasing levels of greenhouse gases, the
researchers said, warms the atmosphere, which
expands the poleward reach of the Hadley cell.
Dry air, which suppresses precipitation, then
descends over a wider expanse of the
Mediterranean region, the Middle East
and North America.
All of those areas would be similarly affected,
though the study examined only the effect on
North America in a swath reaching from Kansas to
California and south into Mexico.
The researchers tested a "middle of the road"
scenario of future carbon dioxide emissions to
predict rainfall and evaporation. They assumed
that emissions would rise until 2050 and then
decline. The carbon dioxide concentration in the
atmosphere would be 720 parts per million in
2100, compared with about 380 parts per million
today.
The computer models, on average, found about a
15% decline in surface moisture ˜ which is
calculated by subtracting evaporation from
precipitation ˜ from 2021 to 2040, as compared
with the average from 1950 to 2000.
A 15% drop led to the conditions that caused the
Dust Bowl in the Great Plains and the northern
Rockies during the 1930s.
Even without the circulation changes, global
warming intensifies existing patterns of vapor
transport, causing dry areas to get drier and wet
areas to get wetter. When it rains, it is likely
to rain harder, but scientists said that was
unlikely to make up for losses from a shifting
climate.
Kelly Redmond, deputy director of the Western
Regional Climate Center in Reno, who was not
involved in the study, said he thought the region
would still have periodic wet years that were
part of the natural climate variation.
But, he added, "In the future we may see fewer
such very wet years."
Although the computer models show the drying has
already started, they are not accurate enough to
know whether the drought is the result of global
warming or a natural variation.
"It's really hard to tell," said Connie
Woodhouse, a paleoclimatologist at the University
of Arizona. "It may well be one of the first
events we can attribute to global warming."
The U.S. and southern Europe will be better
prepared to deal with frequent drought than
most African nations.
For the U.S., the biggest problem would be water
shortages. The seven Colorado River Basin states
˜ Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico,
Arizona and California ˜ would battle each other
for diminished river flows.
Mexico, which has a share of the Colorado River
under a 1944 treaty and has complained of U.S.
diversions in the past, would join the struggle.
Inevitably, water would be reallocated from
agriculture, which uses most of the West's
supply, to urban users, drying up farms.
California would come under pressure to build
desalination plants on the coast, despite
environmental concerns.
"This is a situation that is going to cause water
wars," said Kevin Trenberth, a scientist at the
National Center for Atmospheric Research
in Boulder, Colo.
"If there's not enough water to meet everybody's
allocation, how do you divide it up?"
Officials from seven states recently forged an
agreement on the current drought, which has left
the Colorado River's big reservoirs ˜ Lake Powell
and Lake Mead ˜ about half-empty. Without some
very wet years, federal water managers say,
Lake Mead may never refill.
In the next couple of years, water deliveries may
have to be reduced to Arizona and Nevada, whose
water rights are second to California.
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22) Democrats at War
WALL STREET JOURNAL
EDITORIAL
April 6, 2007; Page A10
[Via Email from: Walter Lippmann
walterlx@earthlink.net ...bw]
Democrats took Congress last fall in part by opposing the war in Iraq,
but it is becoming clear that they view their election as a mandate for
something far more ambitious -- to wit, promoting and executing their own
foreign policy, albeit without the detail of a Presidential election.
Their intentions were made plain this week with two remarkable acts by their
House and Senate leaders. Majority Leader Harry Reid endorsed Senator Russ
Feingold's proposal to withdraw from Iraq immediately, cutting off funds
entirely within a year. He promised a vote soon, as part of what the
Washington Post reported would also be a Democratic offensive to close
Guantanamo, reinstate legal rights for terror suspects, and improve
relations with Cuba.
Meanwhile, Speaker Nancy Pelosi made her now famous sojourn to Syria,
donning a head scarf and advertising that she was conducting shuttle
diplomacy between Jerusalem and Damascus. If there was any doubt that her
trip was intended as far more than a routine Congressional "fact-finding"
trip, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Tom Lantos put it to rest by declaring
that, "We have an alternative Democratic foreign policy. I view my job as
beginning with restoring overseas credibility and respect for the United
States."
Americans should understand how extraordinary this is. There have been
previous battles over U.S. foreign policy and fierce domestic criticism.
In the 1990s, these columns defended Bill Clinton against "the Republican
drift toward isolationism and political opportunism" amid the Kosovo
conflict. But rarely in U.S. history have Congressional leaders sought to
conduct their own independent diplomacy, with the Speaker acting as a Prime
Minister traveling with a Secretary of State in the person of Mr. Lantos.
Yes, Congressional Republicans have visited Syria too. But Ms. Pelosi isn't
some minority back-bencher. Without a Democrat in the White House, she and
Mr. Reid are the national leaders of their party. Even Newt Gingrich, for
all his grand domestic ambitions in 1995, took a muted stand on foreign
policy, realizing that in the American system the executive has the bulk of
national security power. He also understood he would do the country no
favors by sending a mixed message to our enemies -- at the time, Slobodan
Milosevic.
What was Ms. Pelosi hoping to accomplish, other than embarrassing President
Bush? "We were very pleased with reassurances we received from the president
that he was ready to resume the peace process," she told reporters after
meeting with dictator Bashar Assad. "We expressed our interest in using our
good offices in promoting peace between Israel and Syria."
She purported to convey a message from Israel's Ehud Olmert expressing
similar interest in "the peace process," except that the Israeli Prime
Minister felt obliged to issue a clarification noting that Ms. Pelosi had
got the message wrong. Israel hadn't changed its policy, which is that it
will negotiate only when Mr. Assad repudiates his support for terrorism and
stops trying to dominate Lebanon. As a shuttle diplomat, Ms. Pelosi needs
some practice.
Mr. Lantos probably got closer to their real intentions when he told
reporters that "This is only the beginning of our constructive dialogue
with Syria, and we hope to build on it." The Pelosi cavalcade is intended
to show that if only the Bush Administration would engage in "constructive
dialogue," the Syrians, Israelis and everyone else could all get along.
This is the same Syrian regime that has facilitated the movement of money
and insurgents to kill Americans in Iraq; that has been implicated by a U.N.
probe in the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri; and that
has snubbed any number of U.S. overtures since the fall of Saddam Hussein in
2003. Perhaps if he works hard enough, Mr. Lantos can match the 22 visits to
Damascus that Bill Clinton's Secretary of State Warren Christopher made in
the 1990s trying to squeeze peace from that same stone.
In fact, Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Lantos both voted for the Syria Accountability
and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003 that ordered Mr. Bush to
choose from a menu of six sanctions to impose on Damascus. Mr. Bush chose
the weakest two sanctions and dispatched a new Ambassador to Syria in a
goodwill gesture in 2004. Only later, in the wake of the Hariri murder and
clear intelligence of Syria's role in aiding Iraqi Baathists, did Mr. Bush
conclude that Mr. Assad's real goal was to reassert control over Lebanon and
bleed Americans in Iraq.
With her trip, Ms. Pelosi has now reassured the Syrian strongman that
Mr. Bush lacks the domestic support to impose any further pressure on his
country. She has also made it less likely that Mr. Assad will cooperate with
the Hariri probe, or assist the Iraqi government in defeating Baathist and
al Qaeda terrorists.
* * *
Back in Washington, Harry Reid says his response to Mr. Bush's certain veto
of his Iraq spending bill will be to escalate. He now supports cutting off
funds and beginning an immediate withdrawal, even as General David
Petraeus's surge in Baghdad unfolds and shows signs of promise. If Mr. Bush
were as politically cynical as Democrats think, he'd let Mr. Reid's policy
become law. Then Democrats would share responsibility for whatever mayhem
happened next.
So this is Democratic foreign policy: Assure our enemies that they can
ignore a President who still has 21 months to serve; and wash their hands of
Baghdad and of their own guilt for voting to let Mr. Bush go to war. No
doubt Democrats think the President's low job approval, and public
unhappiness with the war, gives them a kind of political immunity. But we
wonder.
Once we leave Iraq, America's enemies will still reside in the Mideast; and
they will be stronger if we leave behind a failed government and bloodbath
in Iraq. Mr. Bush's successor will have to contain the damage, and that
person could even be a Democrat. But by reverting to their Vietnam message
of retreat and by blaming Mr. Bush for all the world's ills, Democrats on
Capitol Hill may once again convince voters that they can't be trusted with
the White House in a dangerous world.
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LINKS AND VERY SHORT STORIES
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A civil rights revolution with 'netroots' origins
"A14-year-old black girl from tiny Paris, Texas, was sent
to a youth prison for up to seven years for shoving
a hall monitor at her high school.
The same judge sentenced a 14-year-old white girl
to probation for burning down her family's house."
April 5, 2007
http://www.insidebayarea.com/opinion/ci_5599216
Questions Linger About Bushes and BCCI Bank
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/05/326/
Canadian Seal Hunt Opens Again Amidst Outcry
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/05/332/
World Health Day: How Much Can Iraq Survive
Inter Press Service
Ali al-Fadhily
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
http://uruknet.info/?p=m31918&s1=h1
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37236
Federal Official in Student Loans Held Loan Stock
By JONATHAN D. GLATER and KAREN W. ARENSON
April 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/06/education/06loans.html?hp
Pope's book accuses rich nations of robbery
· Benedict hails Marx's analysis of modern man
· Publication planned for 80th birthday
John Hooper in Rome
Guardian
"Pope Benedict appeared to reach out to the anti-globalisation
movement yesterday, attacking rich nations for having
"plundered and sacked" Africa and other poor regions
of the world.
An extract published from his first book since being elected
pope highlighted the passionately anti-materialistic and
anti-capitalist aspects of his thinking. Unexpectedly,
the Pope also approvingly cited Karl Marx and his analysis
of contemporary man as a victim of alienation."
April 5, 2007
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2050255,00.html
None of the Democratic Contenders Has Called for the
Closure of the Guantanamo Prison Of Confessions and Torture
By MARGARET KIMBERLY
April 4, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.com/kimberly04042007.html
Quota Quickly Filled on Visas for High-Tech Guest Workers
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The federal Citizenship and Immigration Services reached
its 2008 limit for skilled-worker visa petitions in a single
day and says it will not accept any more, to the dismay
of technology companies that rely on the visas to hire
foreign employees.
The agency began accepting petitions Monday for the fiscal
year starting Oct. 1 and said it received about 150,000
applications by midafternoon.
The temporary H-1B visas are for foreign workers with
high-technology skills or in specialty occupations.
Congress has mandated that the immigration agency
limit the visas granted to 65,000, although the cap
does not apply to petitions made on behalf of current
H-1B holders, and an additional 20,000 visas can be
granted to applicants who hold advanced degrees from
American academic institutions.
The agency said it would use computers to pick visa
recipients randomly from the applications received
Monday and Tuesday. It will reject the rest of the
applications and return the filing fees.
Employers seek H-1B visas on behalf of scientists,
engineers, computer programmers and other workers
with theoretical or technical expertise. About one-
third of Microsoft’s 46,000 employees in the United
States have work visas or are legal permanent residents
with green cards, said Ginny Terzano, a spokeswoman
for the company.
“We are trying to work with Congress to get the cap
increased,” Ms. Terzano said. “Our real preference
here is that there not be a cap at all.”
Compete America, a coalition that includes Microsoft,
the chip maker Intel, the business software company
Oracle and others, voiced its opposition to the
visa cap in a statement Tuesday.
“Our broken visa policies for highly educated foreign
professionals are not only counterproductive, they
are anticompetitive and detrimental to America’s
long-term economic competitiveness,” said Robert
E. Hoffman, an Oracle vice president and co-chairman
of Compete America.
April 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/business/05visa.html
California: Plea for a Shorter Sentence
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The lawyer and parents of John Walker Lindh, the American-
born Taliban soldier serving 20 years in prison after his
capture in Afghanistan, called on President Bush to commute
his sentence and set him free. The renewed call to shorten
the sentence was based on a nine-month term that David Hicks,
an Australian, received Saturday after pleading guilty to
supporting terrorism. “In the atmosphere of the time, the
best John could get was a plea bargain and a 20-year
sentence,” said Mr. Lindh’s father, Frank Lindh. The White
House did not return a call seeking comment.
April 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/us/05brfs-PLEAFORASHOR_BRF.html
Castro Again Chides U.S. on Ethanol Plan
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HAVANA, April 4 (AP) — The ailing Cuban leader Fidel
Castro returned to the public debate — if not view —
for the second time in less than a week on Wednesday
with a column in the Communist Party newspaper Granma.
Mr. Castro, 80, chided the Bush administration for its
support of ethanol production for automobiles, a move
that he said would leave the world’s poor hungry.
It was his second article on the issue in less than
a week, indicating that he is increasingly eager to
have his voice heard on international matters, eight
months after stepping down as Cuba’s president because
of illness.
Cuba has experimented with using sugar cane for ethanol
production, but now that the United States has embraced
the idea, Mr. Castro and his ally Hugo Chávez, the
president of Venezuela, have expressed concern that
rich countries will buy up the food crops of poor nations
to meet their energy needs, threatening millions with
starvation.
April 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/world/americas/05cuba.html
Havana rights
Calvin Tucker
March 28, 2007 8:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/calvin_tucker/2007/03/the_street_sce
ne_was_entertain.html
Marking Time, Making Do
By JOHN FREEMAN GILL
NY Times, April 1, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/nyregion/thecity/01subw.html
What They Didn't Teach Us in Library School
The Public Library as an Asylum for the Homeless
By Chip Ward
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=180836
Freedom Fight Against 'Freedom Champions'
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail
"DOHA, Apr 2 (IPS) - The al-Jazeera television network could
be emerging as a freedom champion against U.S. pressures
on the channel, leading media figures say."
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
One Safety Net Is Disappearing. What Will Follow?
By DAVID LEONHARDT
April 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/business/04leonhardt.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1175715826-TzzMluaV9e3apBlAiCHwpQ
The Latest Trend in Corporate America
Circuit City's Guinea Pigs
By SHARON SMITH
April 4, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.org/sharon04042007.html
An Arid West No Longer Waits for Rain
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD and KIRK JOHNSON
April 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/us/04drought.html?ref=us
Three Yale Students Arrested for Flag Burning
By JOHN HOLUSHA
Three Yale University students were arrested early Tuesday
morning for burning an American flag on a pole attached
to a house in New Haven, the Yale Daily News reported today.
The three men, all of foreign origin, were charged with
offenses ranging from reckless endangerment to arson and
were held in jail Tuesday night after a judge refused to
release them without bail.
According to the newspaper, the New Haven police said the
men — two freshmen and a senior — first attracted police
attention at about 3 a.m. Tuesday when they asked two offcers
for directions back to their residence. They were identified
as Said Hyder Akbar, 23, Nikolaos Angelopoulos, 19, and
Farhad Anklesaria, also 19.
The two officers returned to the neighborhood shortly
afterward and found the flag burning in front of a house.
One officer pulled down the flag to keep the fire from
spreading and the other tracked down the three men. The
police said the men admitted to starting the blaze, the
newspaper reported.
Mr. Anklesaria was identified as a British subject and
Mr. Angelopoulos as a citizen of Greece. Mr. Akbar was
born in Pakistan and is a naturalized American citizen,
the newspaper said.
Mr. Akbar is the author of a published memoir, “Come
Back to Afghanistan,” describing his experiences over
three summers spent observing reconstruction efforts
in Afghanistan and acting as an informal translator
for American forces there.
April 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/nyregion/04cnd-yale.html?hp
Iran to Release 15 Britons Held Since March 23
By SARAH LYALL and CHRISTINE HAUSER
April 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/world/middleeast/04cnd-iran.html?hp
Documents Show Secret FBI Unit Targeted Antiwar Group
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040307R.shtml
Hang Up on War
Posted on Apr 3, 2007
By Amy Goodman
http://www.truthdig .com/report/ item/hang_ up_on_war/
"Beyond Vietnam,"
Martin Luther King Address
To the Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam
Riverside Church
4 April 1967
New York City
http://www.africanamericans.com/MLKjrBeyondVietnam.htm
Time in the Animal Mind
By CARL ZIMMER
April 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/science/03time.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin
Robert Fisk: The war of humiliation
Published: 02 April 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2412764.ece
US anti-Zionist synagogue gutted
"A synagogue of an anti-Zionist Jewish group has been
destroyed in a fire.
The blaze tore through a synagogue of Neturei Karta
near New York and the residence of a senior rabbi.
Police have established a crime scene and are investigating
the cause of the fire. The ultra-orthodox group has recently
been the target of threats.
In December, five members of the community attended
a conference for Holocaust deniers in Iran and met
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Arson claims
Rabbi Moshe Beck, who lives in the building in the town
of Monsey - about 30 miles (48km) from New York -
was in London when the fire broke out, said Neturei
Karta member Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss.
Mr Weiss said the group believes it was targeted by
arsonists because it had previously received threats.
'There's no question that the issue is to stifle the
opposition to Zionism,' he said to AP news agency.
Police would not confirm whether they were treating
the fire as suspicious.
Neturei Karta opposes the existence of the state
of Israel on religious grounds.
Members of the group - whose name means 'Guardians
of the City' - believe Jews should live under Arab
Muslim rule until the Messiah comes."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6518033.stm
Justices Rule Against White House on Emissions
By DAVID STOUT
April 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/washington/02cnd-scotus.html?hp
Crime Intensifies Debate Over Taping of Suspects
By ERIC LIPTON and JENNIFER STEINHAUER
April 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/washington/02taping.html?ref=us
Poor Nations to Bear Brunt as World Warms
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
April 1, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/science/earth/01climate.html?hp
The Fake Fight Over the Iraq War
That Was an Antiwar Vote?
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
and JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
March 31 / April 1, 2007
Weekend Edition
http://www.counterpunch.com/cockburn03312007.html
Judge Allows Private Testing for Mad Cow
By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writers
Thursday, March 29, 2007
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/03/29/national/w153913D29.DTL&hw=mad+cow&sn=001&sc=1000
Residents of Fallujah Fear a US 'Genocidal Strategy'
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/03/30/188/
Gulf Hits Snags in Rebuilding Public Works
By LESLIE EATON
March 31, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/31/us/31fema.html?ref=us
Bill to Legalize Abortion Set to Pass in Mexico City
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
March 31, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/31/world/americas/31mexico.html?ref=world
Olmert Rejects Right of Return for Palestinians
By STEVEN ERLANGER
March 31, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/31/world/middleeast/31mideast.html?ref=world
How did the real hero of the anti-slavery movement
get airbrushed out of history?
By ISABEL WOLFF
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=444105&in_page_id=1770
Disuse of System Is Cited in Gaps in Soldiers’ Care
By IAN URBINA and RON NIXON
March 30, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/washington/30medical.html?hp
New York City to Reward Poor for Doing Right Thing
By DIANE CARDWELL
March 30, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/nyregion/30poverty.html?ref=nyregion
White House Proposal Would Move Illegal Immigrants
Off the Citizenship Path
By RACHEL L. SWARNS
White House officials have issued a discussion document
on immigration that calls for legislation that would grant
legal status to illegal immigrants and guest workers, but
would not put them on a path to citizenship. It would allow
illegal immigrants to remain in the country indefinitely,
under certain conditions, and would require guest workers
to leave the country after six years. The document, drafted
after several meetings with Republican senators, was
designed to garner broad Republican support for key
immigration principals. Democratic and Republican
senators are negotiating in hope of coming to a consensus
on an immigration bill.
March 30, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/washington/30brfs-citizen.html
Cuba: Castro Criticizes U.S. Biofuel Policies
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, lashed out against American plans
to increase use of renewable fuels, mainly ethanol, in a front-page
article in the Communist Party newspaper, Granma, warning that
food stocks for millions of people would be threatened. The article,
titled “Condemned to Premature Death by Hunger and Thirst —
More Than 3 Billion People of the World,” said that if the United
States and other wealthy nations decided to import huge amounts
of traditional crops like corn from poorer countries to help meet
their energy needs, “you will see how many people among the hungry
masses of our planet will no longer consume corn.” “Or even worse,”
it continued, “by offering financing to poor countries to produce
ethanol from corn or any other kind of food, no tree will be left
to defend humanity from climate change.” They were his first
comments on international issues since Mr. Castro took ill last July.
In recent weeks, several senior Cuban officials have indicated that
he might soon take a more active role and even return
to the presidency.
March 30, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/world/americas/30briefs-castro.html
Opposition to the War Growing Among Troops
by Sarah Olson
March 30, 2007
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/solson.php?articleid=10742
Two Radical Immigrants, Framed for Murder, Executed by the State
Sacco and Vanzetti Revisited
By MARLENE MARTIN
March 29, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.org/martin03292007.html
Havana rights
Plans to legalise gay marriage and offer sex change
operations free of charge mean Cuba is set to become
the most socially liberal country in the Americas.
March 28, 2007 8:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/calvin_tucker/2007/03/the_street_scene_was_entertain.html
Eighteen Months After Katrina
"When it is all said and done, there has been a lot more said than done."
http://www.justiceforneworleans.org/index.php?module=article&view=83&page_num=1
Study Says Junk Food Still Dominates Youth TV
By ELIZABETH OLSON
March 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/business/media/29adco.html
Located in Hospital, DNA Clears Buffalo Man Convicted in ’80s Rapes
By DAVID STABA
March 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/nyregion/29bike.html?ref=nyregion
Texas: Deal on Juvenile Prisons
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lawmakers and the governor vowed to abolish the Texas Youth
Commission’s board in favor of a juvenile prison czar. The plan
puts the agency into a conservatorship for now and allows a single
executive to take it over later. The commission has been in turmoil
since a two-year-old sexual abuse investigation surfaced a month
ago. Lawmakers still must introduce legislation and vote on the plan.
Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, made Jay Kimbrough the conservator.
Mr. Kimbrough, left, said that he would fire immediately 111
commission employees who have felony convictions and that
superintendents of commission facilities and other top officials
would have to reapply for their jobs.
March 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/us/29brfs-DEALONJUVENI_BRF.html
California: Sentences in Immigrant Hiring
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Two executives at a fence-building company were sentenced
to six months of home confinement for hiring illegal immigrants.
The men, Mel Kay, founder, chairman and president of the business,
Golden State Fence Company of Riverside, and Michael McLaughlin,
a manager, had pleaded guilty to knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.
In addition, the two were sentenced to three years’ probation.
Also, Mr. Kay was fined $200,000; McLaughlin agreed
to pay $100,000.
March 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/us/29brfs-SENTENCESINI_BRF.html
Colleges Hiring Lenders to Field Queries on Aid
By JONATHAN D. GLATER
March 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/education/29loans.html?ref=us
Street Violence by Paris Youths Intrudes Again Into French Politics
By KATRIN BENNHOLD
March 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/world/europe/29paris.html
Inside the secretive plan to gut the Endangered Species Act
"Proposed regulatory changes, obtained by Salon, would destroy the
'safety net for animals and plants on the brink of extinction,'
say environmentalists.'
By Rebecca Clarren
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/03/27/endangered_species/
Pennsylvania: Negligence Is Cited in Deadly Mine Explosion
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Federal investigators found “flagrant violations” at a Pennsylvania
mine where a worker died last year in a methane gas explosion, the
federal Mine Safety and Health Administration said. The R&D Coal
Company did not ensure adequate ventilation, safe blasting practices
or proper preshift safety checks at the mine, Buck Mountain Slope,
directly contributing to the Oct. 23 death of Dale Reightler, 43,
a veteran miner, federal officials said. The miners conducting the
blasting that day were not qualified to handle explosives and set
them off before other miners could get to a safe area, investigators
found. State regulators have revoked R&D’s permit to operate the
Buck Mountain site, in Schuylkill County about 80 miles northwest
of Philadelphia. R&D officers did not respond to requests for comment.
March 27, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/27/us/27brfs-mine.html
Black Politicians Chicken Out on Reparations
Black Press International
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=44ad0172db35b08198274c68176d54e7
Failing Schools See a Solution in Longer Day
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO
March 26, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/26/us/26schoolday.html?ref=us
Aged, Frail and Denied Care by Their Insurers
By CHARLES DUHIGG
March 26, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/26/business/26care.html?hp
Chavez Launches Formation of Unified Socialist Party of Venezuela
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007
By: Chris Carlson - Venezuelanalysis.com
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2250
Four Years Later in Iraq
Where are the Laptop Bombardiers Now?
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
Weekend Edition
March 24 / 25, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.com/cockburn03242007.html
The Women’s War
By SARA CORBETT
Editors' Note Appended
March 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/magazine/18cover.html
City Police Spied Broadly Before G.O.P. Convention
By JIM DWYER
For at least a year before the 2004 Republican National Convention,
teams of undercover New York City police officers traveled to cities
across the country, Canada and Europe to conduct covert observations
of people who planned to protest at the convention, according
to police records and interviews.
March 25, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/nyregion/25infiltrate.html?hp
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GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
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A NEW LOOK AT U.S. RADIOACTIVE WEAPONS
Join us in a campaign to expose and stop the use of these illegal weapons
http://poisondust.org/
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You may enjoy watching these.
In struggle
Che:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqcezl9dD2c
Leon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukkFVV5X0p4
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FIGHTBACK! A Collection of Socialist Essays
By Sylvia Weinstein
http://www.walterlippmann.com/sylvia-weinstein-fightback-intro.html
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[The Scab
"After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad,
and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with
which he made a scab."
"A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul,
a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue.
Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten
principles." "When a scab comes down the street,
men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and
the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out."
"No man (or woman) has a right to scab so long as there
is a pool of water to drown his carcass in,
or a rope long enough to hang his body with.
Judas was a gentleman compared with a scab.
For betraying his master, he had character enough
to hang himself." A scab has not.
"Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.
Judas sold his Savior for thirty pieces of silver.
Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of
a commision in the british army."
The scab sells his birthright, country, his wife,
his children and his fellowmen for an unfulfilled
promise from his employer.
Esau was a traitor to himself; Judas was a traitor
to his God; Benedict Arnold was a traitor to his country;
a scab is a traitor to his God, his country,
his family and his class."
Author --- Jack London (1876-1916)...Roland Sheppard
http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret]
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END ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL!
Stop funding Israel's war against Palestine
Complete the form at the website listed below with your information.
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?
JServSessionIdr003=cga2p2o6x1.app2a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=177
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Sand Creek Massacre
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html
On November 29, 1864, 700 Colorado troops savagely slaughtered
over 450 Cheyenne children, disabled, elders, and women in the
southeastern Colorado Territory under its protection. This act
became known as the Sand Creek Massacre. This film project
("The Sand Creek Massacre" documentary film project) is an
examination of an open wound in the souls of the Cheyenne
people as told from their perspective. This project chronicles
that horrific 19th century event and its affect on the 21st century
struggle for respectful coexistence between white and native
plains cultures in the United States of America.
Listed below are links on which you can click to get the latest news,
products, and view, free, "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" award-
winning documentary short. In order to create more native
awareness, particularly to save the roots of America's history,
please read the following:
Some people in America are trying to save the world. Bless
them. In the meantime, the roots of America are dying.
What happens to a plant when the roots die? The plant dies
according to my biology teacher in high school. American's
roots are its native people. Many of America's native people
are dying from drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, hunger,
and disease, which was introduced to them by the Caucasian
male. Tribal elders are dying. When they die, their oral
histories go with them. Our native's oral histories are the
essence of the roots of America, what took place before
our ancestors came over to America, what is taking place,
and what will be taking place. It is time we replenish
America's roots with native awareness, else America
continues its decaying, and ultimately, its death.
You can help. The 22-MINUTE SAND CREEK MASSACRE
DOCUMENTARY PRESENTATION/EDUCATIONAL DVD IS
READY FOR PURCHASE! (pass the word about this powerful
educational tool to friends, family, schools, parents, teachers,
and other related people and organizations to contact
me (dvasicek@earthlink.net, 303-903-2103) for information
about how they can purchase the DVD and have me come
to their children's school to show the film and to interact
in a questions and answers discussion about the Sand
Creek Massacre.
Happy Holidays!
Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html
SHOP:
http://www.manataka.org/page633.html
BuyIndies.com
donvasicek.com.
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Re: Mumia Abu-Jamal v. Martin Horn,
Pennsylvania Director of Corrections
U.S. Court of Appeals Nos. 01-9014, 02-9001 (death penalty)
Dear Friends:
Oral argument in the case of my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal,
will be on May 17 before a three-judge panel in the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia.
The issues concern the right to a fair trial, the death
penalty, and the political repression of an outspoken
journalist. Racism and politics are threads that have
run through this case since the beginning. We are
engaged in extensive work in preparation for this
complex hearing.
Many people have called my office and sent e-mail asking
how they can make contributions to the defense of Mumia.
Concern has been expressed as to how to ensure that
donations go to the right organization so that they
are actually applied to the legal effort rather than
for some other purpose.
To contribute directly to the legal defense of Mumia,
please make your check payable to the "National Lawyers
Guild Foundation." All such donations are tax deductible
to the full extent provided by law. The NLG Foundation
is a tax-exempt, nonprofit charitable organization under
Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3).
Donations should be mailed to:
Committee To Save Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 2012
New York, NY 10159
Your interest in this struggle for human rights
and against the death penalty is appreciated.
With best wishes,
Robert
Robert R. Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
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CINE DEL BARRIO and New College Media Studies Program present:
The Red Dance (El Baile Rojo) directed by Yezid Campos
a film about Colombia, video, in color, 57 minutes, 2004
sub-titles in English plus, an up to the minute report on the
continuing struggle in Colombia by Cristina Gutierrez.
Saturday, April 7, 11:30 a.m.
at the Roxie New College Film Center
3117 - 16th Street (between Valencia and Guerrero)
San Francisco
No admission charge
This is part of "Nuestra America, Muestra de Cine y Video
Documental" series of film showings on Saturdays of March,
April, and May. All films are at 11:30am and 1:30pm on
Saturdays at the Roxie. Films on Nicaragua, Venezuela,
Colombia, Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, and the U.S. (Immigrantes
Nuevo Orleans). Films are in Spanish with English sub-titles.
For more information: 415-863-1087
www.roxie.com
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{SANCTUARYnational} ELVIRA ARELLANO BEGINS HUNGER STRIKE
For immediate release
TO: ALL MEDIA
FROM: CENTRO SIN FRONTERAS/LA FAMILIA LATINA UNIDA
Contact: Emma Lozano (773) 671-1798
Or Rev Walter L Coleman (773) 671-1755
PRESS CONFERENCE
THURSDAY, APRIL 5TH,
4:30 P.M.
Adalberto united Methodist Church
2716 W Division St, Chicago, Illinois
ELVIRA ARELLANO BEGINS HUNGER STRIKE:
“The Raids and Deportations and
Separations of Families
Must Stop Now !
“The Congress and the President must
fix the Broken Law
and End the Crucifixion of Innocent
Children and their Families.”
“As I have stayed here in Sanctuary with my U.S.
citizen son Saulito for seven months, the Congress
and the President have taken no action to fix the
broken law. Meanwhile, millions of people live
in the shadows and millions of children live
in fear of being abandoned. While nothing is done
to fix the broken law, the raids and deportations
continue to escalate every week..
“I am starting this hunger strike, on the eve
of Good Friday, as a prayer that our people will
mobilize, that the hearts of the people of this
nation will open and that the elected officials
will act to preserve our families and the Holy
Bond between the children and their mothers and
fathers. I pray that not one more family will
be separated, not one more child left behind.”
Elvira Arellano
The Press Conference will follow a brief celebration
of the Last Supper with families and children facing
separation. Elvira Arellano will call on others
around the country to join her in the hunger strike
and her pastor, Rev. Walter Coleman, who will join
her in the hunger strike, will call on religious
leaders across the country to stand with her.
Hunger Strike Day 1
On Friday, April 6th, at 10 A.M. Elvira will participate
in a brief Good Friday ceremony at the church and send
off a delegation who will hold a “Viacrucis” in front
of ICE Headquarters at Clark and Congress.
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Anti-War Rally at Port of Oakland
Saturday, April 7, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
An anti-war rally will mark the fourth anniversary of the
Oakland police attack on anti-war protesters at the Port.
Port of Oakland Headquarters
530 Water Street, foot of Washington St. in Jack London Square.
For more information, call
415-863-6637 or email portaction@riseup.net
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SOLIDARITY WITH KATRINA SURVIVORS
SATURDAY, APRIL 7 @ 7 p.m.
Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia St., S.F.
Featured Speaker: KALI AKUNO
Executive Director, People's Hurricane Relief Fund - O.C.
Also: "Down But Not Out" —A Film on the Gulf Coast Resistance
Music by Leith Kahl, Biko, & Spoken Word Artists
SATURDAY, APRIL 7 @ 7 p.m.
(@ 16th Street; near 16th St. Mission BART)
Donation requested at door; No one turned away for lack of funds.
Sponsored by PHRF-OC, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement,
Bay Area Katrina Solidarity Committee,
Revolution Youth, The Organizer Newspaper,
Colectivo Media Insurgente, CRUCS,
Mission High Black Student Union
For more information, call 415-646-6469 or 504-301-0215.
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DEMAND THE RELEASE OF SAMI AL-ARIAN
The National Council of Arab Americans (NCA) demands the immediate
release of political prisoner, Dr. Sami Al-Arian. Dr. Al-Arian is currently
under his 60th day of a water-only hunger strike in protest of his
maltreatment by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). After an earlier
plea agreement that absolved Dr. Al-Arian from any further questioning,
he was sentenced up to 18 months in jail for refusing to testify before
a grand jury in Virginia.
Dr. Al-Arian is currently being held at a medical facility in North Carolina.
He is in critical condition, having lost 53 pounds, over 25% of his
body weight.
According to family members who recently visited him he is no longer
able to walk or stand on his own.
More information on Dr. Al-Arian's ordeal can be found in the transcript
of a recent interview with his wife, Nahla Al-Arian on Democracy Now.
See:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/16/1410255
ACTION:
We ask all people of conscience to demand the immediate
release and end to Dr. Al- Arian's suffering.
Call, Email and Write:
1- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
Department of Justice
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Fax Number: (202) 307-6777
Email: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
2- The Honorable John Conyers, Jr
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5126
(202) 225-0072 Fax
John.Conyers@mail.house.gov
3- Senator Patrick Leahy
433 Russell Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
(202)224-4242
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
4- Honorable Judge Gerald Lee
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
401 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA 22314
March 22, 2007
[No email given...bw]
National Council of Arab Americans (NCA)
http://www.arab-american.net/
Criminalizing Solidarity: Sami Al-Arian and the War of
Terror
By Charlotte Kates, The Electronic Intifada, 4 April 2007
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6767.shtml
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Excerpt of interview between Barbara Walters and Hugo Chavez
http://www.borev.net/2007/03/what_you_had_something_better.html
Which country should we invade next?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3g_zqz3VjY
My Favorite Mutiny, The Coup
http://www.myspace.com/thecoupmusic
Michael Moore- The Awful Truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeOaTpYl8mE
Morse v. Frederick Supreme Court arguments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_LsGoDWC0o
Free Speech 4 Students Rally - Media Montage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfCjfod8yuw
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'My son lived a worthwhile life'
In April 2003, 21-year old Tom Hurndall was shot in the head
in Gaza by an Israeli soldier as he tried to save the lives of three
small children. Nine months later, he died, having never
recovered consciousness. Emine Saner talks to his mother
Jocelyn about her grief, her fight to make the Israeli army
accountable for his death and the book she has written
in his memory.
Monday March 26, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2042968,00.html
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Introducing...................the Apple iRack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-KWYYIY4jQ
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"A War Budget Leaves Every Child Behind."
[A T-shirt worn by some teachers at Roosevelt High School
in L.A. as part of their campaign to rid the school of military
recruiters and JROTC--see Article in Full item number 4, below...bw]
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THIS IS AN EXCELLENT VIDEO DESTRIBUTED BY U.S. LABOR AGAINST
THE WAR (USLAW) FEATURING SPEAKERS AT THE JANUARY 27TH
MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOCUSING ON THE DEMAND - BRING
THE TROOPS HOME NOW.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6935451906479097836&hl=en
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Defend the Los Angeles Eight!
http://www.committee4justice.com/
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George Takai responds to Tim Hardaway's homophobic remarks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcJoJZIcQW4&eurl_
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Iran
http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html
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Another view of the war. A link from Amer Jubran
http://d3130.servadmin.com/~leeflash/
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Petition: Halt the Blue Angels
http://action.globalexchange.org/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=458
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/289327
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A Girl Like Me
7:08 min
Youth Documentary
Kiri Davis, Director, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, Producer
Winner of the Diversity Award
Sponsored by Third Millennium Foundation
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1091431409617440489
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Film/Song about Angola
http://www.prisonactivist.org/angola/
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"200 million children in the world sleep in the streets today.
Not one of them is Cuban."
(A sign in Havana)
Venceremos
View sign at bottom of page at:
http://www.cubasolidarity.net/index.html
[Thanks to Norma Harrison for sending this...bw]
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Cheyenne and Arapaho oral histories hammer history's account of the
Sand Creek Massacre"
CENTENNIAL, CO -- A new documentary film based on an award-winning
documentary short film, "The Sand Creek Massacre", and driven by
Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho people who tell their version about
what happened during the Sand Creek Massacre via their oral
histories, has been released by Olympus Films+, LLC, a Centennial,
Colorado film company.
"You have done an extraordinary job" said Margie Small, Tobient
Entertainment, " on the Colorado PBS episode, the library videos for
public schools and libraries, the trailer, etc...and getting the
story told and giving honor to those ancestors who had to witness
this tragic and brutal attack...film is one of the best ways."
"The images shown in the film were selected for native awareness
value" said Donald L. Vasicek, award-winning writer/filmmaker, "we
also focused on preserving American history on film because tribal
elders are dying and taking their oral histories with them. The film
shows a non-violent solution to problem-solving and 19th century
Colorado history, so it's multi-dimensional in that sense. "
Chief Eugene Blackbear, Sr., Cheyenne, who starred as Chief Black
Kettle in "The Last of the Dogmen" also starring Tom Berenger and
Barbara Hershey and "Dr. Colorado", Tom Noel, University of Colorado
history professor, are featured.
The trailer can be viewed and the film can be ordered for $24.95 plus
$4.95 for shipping and handling at http://www.fullduck.com/node/53.
Vasicek's web site, http://www.donvasicek.com, provides detailed
information about the Sand Creek Massacre including various still
images particularly on the Sand Creek Massacre home page and on the
proposal page.
Olympus Films+, LLC is dedicated to writing and producing quality
products that serve to educate others about the human condition.
Contact:
Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
7078 South Fairfax Street
Centennial, CO 80122
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103
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ARTICLES IN FULL:
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1) Let America Be America Again
by Langston Hughes
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15609
2) The End of the Line as They Know It
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
Detroit
April 1, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/business/yourmoney/01jobs.html?ref=business
3) Patents Over Patients
By RALPH W. MOSS
Op-Ed Contributor
State College, Pa.
April 1, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/opinion/01moss.html
4) Distract and Disenfranchise
By PAUL KRUGMAN
April 2, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/opinion/02krugman.html?_r=1&hp&oref=login
5) Taxing Private Equity
Editorial
April 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/opinion/02mon1.html?hp
6)PROTECT OUR PENSIONS
April 1, 2007
http://www.soldiersofsolidarity.com/
7) "The Language Isn't Strong Enough"
A Report on the 2007 UAW Bargaining Convention
Tueday April 3, 2007
http://www.soldiersofsolidarity.com
8) HOW IRAN TREATS PRISONERS
HOW THE US TREATS PRISONERS
"Call that humiliation? No hoods. No electric shocks. No beatings.
These Iranians are clearly a very uncivilised bunch."
Terry Jones
Saturday March 31, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian .co.uk/
9) More Than a Feeling
Editorial
April 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/opinion/04weds1.html?hp
10) Daimler Considers Selling Off Chrysler Division
By MARK LANDLER
April 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/business/04cnd-daimler.html?hp
11) Jungle Law
"In 1972, crude oil began to flow from Texaco's
wells in the area around Lago Agrio ("sour
lake"), in the Ecuadorean Amazon. Born that same
year, Pablo Fajardo is now the lead attorney in
an epic lawsuit˜among the largest environmental
suits in history˜against Chevron, which acquired
Texaco in 2001. Reporting on an emotional battle
in a makeshift jungle courtroom, the author
investigates how many hundreds of square miles of
surrounding rain forest became a toxic-waste dump."
by William Langewiesche
May 2007
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/05/texaco200705
12) Our Crumbling Foundation
By BOB HERBERT
April 5, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/opinion/05herbert.html?hp
13) Injured in Iraq, a Soldier Is Shattered at Home
By DEBORAH SONTAG
April 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/us/05VET.html?hp
14) Immigration Raid Yields 62 Arrests in Illinois
By LIBBY SANDER
April 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/us/05raid.html
15) Senator Feinstein's War Profiteering
Democratic Blood Money
By JOSHUA FRANK
April 4, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.com/frank04042007.html
16) Reflections of the Commander in Chief
THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF GENOCIDE
April 3, 2007
By Fidel Castro Ruz
GRANMA
April 4, 2007
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/english/news/art84.html
17) Guantánamo Follies
Editorial
April 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/06/opinion/06fri1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
18) All That You Can Be
Risk Management
by Lauren Collins
April 9, 2007
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2007/04/09/070409ta_talk_collins
19) No hope in Guantánamo
BY JOSHUA COLANGELO-BRYAN
MIAMI HERALD
Apr. 05, 2007
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/v-print/story/64032.html
20) WE'VE BEEN SURGING FOR YEARS
By Don Monkerud
TomPaine.com
April 6, 2007
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/04/06/weve_been_surging_for_years.php
21) Permanent drought predicted for Southwest
"Study says global warming threatens to create a
Dust Bowl-like period. Water politics could
also get heated."
By Alan Zarembo and Bettina Boxall
Times Staff Writers
April 6, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-swdrought6apr06,0,122112.story?coll=la-home-headlines
22) Democrats at War
WALL STREET JOURNAL
EDITORIAL
April 6, 2007; Page A10
[Via Email from: Walter Lippmann
walterlx@earthlink.net ...bw]
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1) Let America Be America Again
by Langston Hughes
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15609
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.
O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!
From The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, published
by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Copyright © 1994 the Estate of Langston Hughes.
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2) The End of the Line as They Know It
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
Detroit
April 1, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/business/yourmoney/01jobs.html?ref=business
TALK to Kenneth Doolittle about General Motors, where he once
supervised a team of assembly line workers, and he readily speaks
with pride about his job and the self-esteem it provided. “I loved
all of it — the people, the work,” he says. “I was in a position
finally where people listened to me when I spoke. I wasn’t just
a Joe-Nobody. I contributed.”
Talk to Mr. Doolittle a little longer and he gradually describes
why he decided to take a buyout from G.M. — joining more than
80,000 Big Three employees in the largest exodus of workers
from a single American industry in decades.
After G.M. shuttered the plant where Mr. Doolittle worked,
it offered him a job back on the assembly line at another
factory, an offer he pondered in silent humiliation. At 54,
he considers himself “mentally not ready to retire,” but his
union contract, and G.M.’s woes, required him to return
to the assembly line and forfeit the higher rank he had
worked years to secure.
So he decided to leave. “I did not want to start over,” he
said, “not after 33 ½ years.”
The exodus that Mr. Doolittle is joining is voluntary. Some
have changed their minds. More than 3,000 workers who
signed up over the last year to leave Ford and G.M.
subsequently decided to stay. These are, after all, the
highest-paying blue-collar jobs left in America. Even so,
workers are departing from the auto industry en masse,
escaping — as they put it in interviews — increasingly
difficult working conditions at companies they fear will
desert them.
As the workers depart in greater numbers than either their
union or their employers anticipated, the exodus becomes
more than a long ledger of altered lives. It is an accounting,
of course, but an accounting of the most personal and
poignant sort. Communities are fragmenting, families are
relocating, and years of individual choices tethered to the
notion of a certain kind of job in a certain kind of place are
giving way to uncertainty, regret and loss of control.
“The question is, Are we seeing a final end to what we have
called blue-collar aristocracy?” asks Sheldon H. Danziger,
a public policy researcher at the University of Michigan
in Ann Arbor. “Big Steel is gone, coal is gone, shipbuilding
is gone — all the big industrial unions are gone or going,
except the auto workers. These are the people who had
the strongest ability to fight, and now they seem to be
giving up the struggle.”
The reasons auto workers give for embracing buyouts are
almost as numerous as the 18 workers interviewed for this
article. Some have already departed from G.M., the first
of the Big Three to offer the buyouts, and others are soon
to depart from the Ford Motor Company and DaimlerChrysler.
Many who left or are leaving were eligible for retirement,
having already worked the necessary 30 years. Others have
accepted lump-sum payments, often in the six figures,
to start over again. Indeed, the voluntary nature of this
exodus has made it seem softer or less apparent than the
upheavals that have greeted mass layoffs in other industries.
But the common thread running through all of the interviews
is that working conditions and benefits, which had become
steadily better through the 1970s and even in the 1990s,
were unmistakably in decline — and the future unpredictable.
Mr. Doolittle, a stocky man with a narrow mustache, joined
G.M. on the assembly line in Lansing in 1973 and rose to become
a leader of one of the Japanese-style work teams that first
became fashionable in the American auto industry in the
1980s. By 2005, he was a “team build coordinator” with
authority over several groups whose job it was to transfer
engines from a conveyor into cars, bolt them into place and
attach skeins of wires as the cars moved down an assembly line.
When G.M. decided to close his plant in 2005, Mr. Doolittle’s
seniority gave him every right to transfer to a much newer
factory right next door, where G.M. is building a popular
Cadillac sedan and is likely to do so for as long as Mr. Doolittle
might have wanted a job. But he balked because of the change
in stature that would accompany the switch.
Since his departure last year, he has struggled to occupy
his time. Divorced, with four grown children, he divides his
days between an apartment in Lansing and a trailer parked
on a small lakefront plot that he owns north of the city.
He has typed out on a laptop three novels “about my life
experience.” And to make up some of his lost income —
his $36,000 pension is 60 percent of his old pay — he
works 20 hours a week, at $10 an hour, doing maintenance
at Sears stores.
“That is just enough to keep me from watching Jerry Springer
every day,” he said. “I don’t want to sit in front of a TV;
I’m too young for that.”
STARTING two years ago, the Big Three announced their
intention to shed tens of thousands of workers by 2008.
The buyouts, negotiated with the United Automobile Workers,
are an attempt to orchestrate a huge downsizing in a kindlier,
more orderly manner. The offers hold out a variety of subsidies,
with the announced goal to tide people over as they make
the transition to other jobs and lives.
Ford Motor in particular has told its younger employees, through
a series of job fairs, that good incomes await them in other
industries, especially if they avail themselves of one of the
tuition subsidies that Ford offers as a buyout option. Ford
also offers departing employees a six-figure lump-sum
payment, which experts at the job fairs suggest could be
used to start a small business or to buy into a franchise.
Joe W. Laymon, Ford’s vice president for corporate human
resources and labor affairs, says his company has successfully
used the job fairs to inform workers about opportunities and
good pay elsewhere. On a more ominous note, however,
he is quick to add that Ford has no other choice but to lay
off or buy out workers if the company hopes to remain
competitive.
“We believe that the Ford Motor Company will be a viable,
profitable entity going forward,” Mr. Laymon says. “To get
from where we are today to that viable, profitable entity, we
will reduce the number of employees working at Ford. Now,
we can do it with an involuntary action or we can do it with
a combination of voluntary actions and involuntary actions.”
Across America, more than 30 million people have been forced
out of jobs since the early 1980s, the Bureau of Labor Statistics
reports, and regaining lost incomes has not been easy. Nearly
50 million new jobs have been created over that same period,
according to the bureau, so there are always new opportunities
but more often than not at lower pay. Among those who have
lost work, only a third held new jobs two years later that paid
as well as those that were lost, according to the bureau’s surveys
of displaced workers. Another third of those displaced were
in jobs that paid, on average, 15 to 20 percent less than their
previous employment — while the final third had dropped out
of the labor force entirely.
The Census Bureau reported a jump in net migration out of
Michigan last year: some 42,300 people left, up from 29,700
in 2005. That was far and away the largest outflow from the
state since 1984, during the Rust Belt crisis, census data show.
In some Michigan neighborhoods that have been home to auto
workers, houses are now selling for less than the prices of
some of the vehicles rolling off of assembly lines in Detroit,
Dearborn, Lansing and elsewhere in the state. While no statistical
evidence currently links the buyouts and the migration, Michigan
state officials are responding as if that were the case. Gov. Jennifer
M. Granholm is promising publicly financed college scholarships
for all high school graduates, and she is expanding retraining
programs for idled workers. “People who had auto manufacturing
in the DNA of their families for several generations,” she says,
“are all of a sudden finding the rug pulled out from under them.”
The exodus is reminiscent of the Dust Bowl migration from
the prairie states in the 1930s, when unemployed farmers gave
up and trekked west to California. The Dust Bowl migration, on
its face, was much more brutal — the number of displaced Okies,
as they were called, was far greater than the current number
of departing auto workers, and there were not corporate and
public subsidies at the time to soften the hardship.
“The Okies did not know whether they would get to their destination
before they starved to death,” said Daniel Luria, an economist
at the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center. “The labor
market prospects for the auto workers are not good, but they
have assets. They are not in danger of immediately falling
into poverty.”
Still, for all their greater means, the auto workers talk of a similar
jarring sense of dislocation. The World War II economy eventually
lifted the Okies to prosperity, and the buyouts may be the first
step in achieving the same result for auto workers, though their
fate will not be known for quite a while.
Unionized auto workers can boast of annual wages of $60,000,
built on a 40-hour work week that pays $28 or more an hour.
Overtime pay helps swell wages to $80,000 or more, but overtime
is steadily disappearing as the Big Three’s market share declines
in the post-S.U.V. era. At the same time, getting off the assembly
line, with its grueling pace and mental and emotional fatigue, has
become more difficult. Rising seniority once meant transfers after
10 or 15 years to easier tasks such as building seats or moving
materials as a forklift driver. Many of these off-the-line jobs
have been outsourced.
Skilled auto workers — electricians, millwrights, tool makers —
are similarly disheartened. Their skills have been hollowed out,
they say. Instead of taking apart and repairing a machine’s
gearbox, for example, they are limited to swapping out the
damaged box for a spare. The damaged box goes for repair
to an outside contractor employing less expensive labor.
Beyond all of these specific complaints, auto workers say they
fear the future. Plant closings have sown uncertainty. Some auto
workers who accepted buyouts explained that they did so to lock
in pensions and retiree health benefits. But they worry that these
benefits may be bargained away for future retirees in contract
negotiations that begin this summer.
Younger workers, as a result, often say they see themselves
as having no choice but to bail out. They have grabbed
at generous college tuition payments or lump-sum payments
as a bridge to what they hope will be, if not better lives, then
incomes that someday will at least equal those they earned
as auto workers.
JEFFREY VITALE, 39, is in this camp. He is considering a $100,000
buyout from DaimlerChrysler as part of a package that the automaker
is just now putting on the table; it was the last of the Big Three
to make such an offer.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Mr. Vitale says. “It is going to be hard
financially to leave.”
Like many younger auto workers, he has gone to college. He was
on his way to becoming a public school teacher when he dropped
out in the late 1980s, against his father’s wishes, to become
a carpenter. “It was hard to tell a 21-year-old making $75,000
a year that you needed a college education to get a job,”
Mr. Vitale recalls.
A decade ago, he left carpentry and went to work for Chrysler at
the Jefferson North assembly plant in Detroit. As a skilled millwright,
his $31 an hour often brought in $80,000 a year or more, with
overtime. “I was content,” he says. “I was bringing home a steady,
good paycheck.” He married six years ago and he and his wife,
a dance instructor, have a 3-year-old son.
Then disillusionment crept in. Mr. Vitale found himself stuck on
the second shift, working afternoon and evening hours, unable
to spend much time with his family. Periodic layoffs of less-senior
workers have kept him close to the bottom of the seniority ladder,
which means that he has not been able to qualify for the more
desirable day shift.
The outsourcing of skilled work — in his case, maintenance
of conveyors and machinery — also grates. “I think they will
build cars in this plant for a long time,” he says, “but they won’t
utilize in-house skills as they have in the past.”
Two years ago, he was injured. A Jeep he was helping to push
back onto a conveyor slipped off and pinned him. He spent 10
months at home convalescing from shoulder injuries that required
two operations.
“That is when I realized I did not want to come back to the factory,”
Mr. Vitale says. “I checked out my college transcript; I needed seven
more courses, 21 credits, for a bachelor’s degree, and I’ve been
doing the course work online.”
He expects to graduate in December, qualified to work as a physical
therapist, a profession not likely to pay as much as he now earns,
and certainly not with the same benefits. For that reason, he
hesitates to leave, but the Chrysler buyout proposals include,
in his case, six months of health insurance on top of a $100,000
payment.
“I’m halfway decided to take the money and go,” he says. “I’ll be
40 in November. Do I wait until they cut my pay in half and there
is no buyout? Or they decide they don’t need so many millwrights
in the plant, and they let me go? They have 136 now, down from
280 ten years ago.”
FOR her part, Leann Bies, 48, an electrician at the Ford truck
plant in Dearborn, says that accepting a buyout means she will
finally have a summer off. “There comes a point in time when
you want to leave,” she says.
With 29 years of service, one shy of the 30 needed to retire,
she qualifies for a buyout that allows her to stay home that last
year while collecting 85 percent of her pay, which is $31 an
hour or $65,000 annually. She then segues into a normal
$36,000 pension as well as retiree health insurance, both
nominally insulated from any chipping away that might take
place in pending contract negotiations.
In a future job, if she takes one, she won’t even try to match
her Ford salary, she says. She does not need to. Her husband
continues to work at a G.M. plant. Their mortgage is paid off.
The last two of her three children are in their final college years.
And as an electrician with a state license, Ms. Bies says she can
get work in her trade if need be.
Or she could take an office job. While at Ford, she earned
a bachelor’s degree in business leadership during her spare
time. Ford paid her tuition under a program the U.A.W. negotiated.
“I am young enough to pursue another career if I choose
to do so,” she says.
But for all of her creature comforts, Ms. Bies is angry about
what she calls shoddy treatment in recent years. “The management
of this plant is very disrespectful,” she says.
The truck plant, a state-of-the-art operation, produces the still-
popular F150 pickup, and there is constant pressure to keep the
line moving. “I came into this plant in 2003 and for two years they
treated me as if I were dumber than a box of rocks,” she says.
“You get an attitude if you are treated that way. It is an important
part of my decision to leave.”
Yet it is only after departing that some auto workers realize what
they have lost. Andrew J. Vigliano, 63, is one. He worked 44 years
for G.M. in Lansing, mostly on the assembly line, and he still has
the wiry body of a younger man. His factory closed last year, and
rather than transfer to another plant, he took a $35,000 incentive
to retire.
“I was kind of tired of working,” he says. “But if you want my true
opinion, if I had it to do over again, I would have stayed. I miss the
people I worked with every day. Suddenly you cut that right off.”
As the buyouts continue, some auto workers have turned to jobs
that were once hobbies or sidelines to replace lost income: repairing
gutters, landscaping, serving as full-time pastors or working as real
estate brokers, plumbers and electricians.
Mark Strong, 48, a stocky six-footer, his long graying hair pulled
back in a ponytail, went on such a route. A decade ago, he and his
brother, Tim, started a small machine shop, first in the garages
of their homes in Mason, just south of Lansing, and then in an
industrial park, in a small hangar-like building that Mark had
constructed.
The venture, Strong Products, has struggled. Tim, 47, a machinist,
worked at the shop full time while Mark worked there during time
off from his job at G.M., which he joined in 1976. When his plant
closed in 2005, he elected to transfer to another plant in Lansing,
then still under construction. While he waited for the plant to open,
he furloughed himself from G.M. and focused on his machine shop.
“I could see then, working full time, that we could grow the business,”
he said, “and we have.”
Their operation now includes several computerized cutting machines,
bought on credit, and several employees. Still, with gross revenue
of only $200,000 a year, and debts more than double that amount,
there is little income left for the brothers. Tim, with a wife and children,
draws a salary. Mark, living alone and childless, draws much less money
from the business. So when the new G.M. plant finally opened last
year, he reported for work.
He didn’t like what he found. He had risen over the years from
the assembly line to materials handling, in his case delivering
cylinders of chemicals at a pace that he controlled. “As long as
there was not a phone call saying some chemical was needed,
I was on my own,” he said.
In the new plant, chemical delivery was automated, and Mark
found himself on a much more demanding schedule. He was
assigned to deliver parts from the shipping bays to the assembly
line at a pace set by the line’s speed. He hooked his small tractor
to a train of wagons, each loaded with parts, and drove them
to stations along the line.
“Every 45 minutes to an hour another tractor-trailer would show
up at the shipping bays with the already-loaded wagons inside,”
he said. “It took me 45 minutes to get the contents to the line,
leaving just enough time to get back and hook up the next load.”
Automation and more rigorous scheduling may have improved
G.M.’s efficiency, but for Mr. Strong, the change was stressful
and G.M.’s buyout last year offered an escape. With 30 years
under his belt, he collected a $35,000 incentive to retire and
began to draw a $36,000 annual pension, or 60 percent
of his old wage, along with retiree health insurance.
“I would have stayed,” he says, “ if the work was similar to
the old job and if I had a wife and kids in college, which
I don’t have. And if I did not have this shop. It weighed
in my decision to leave; I had something to do.”
UNLIKE Mr. Strong, other displaced workers, including
Mr. Doolittle, now working part time at Sears, do not have
occupations that engage them. And they miss the work,
the income and the way of life that defined their careers
as auto workers.
“My children and my grandchildren will never have an opportunity
to work at G.M.,” Mr. Doolittle says. “My dad made a good living
there. So did my brother and my brothers-in-law. That is all over
now. It will be 10 to 15 years before G.M. hires again, if it ever does,
and at who knows what wages.”
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3) Patents Over Patients
By RALPH W. MOSS
Op-Ed Contributor
State College, Pa.
April 1, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/opinion/01moss.html
WE could make faster progress against cancer by changing the way
drugs are developed. In the current system, if a promising compound
can’t be patented, it is highly unlikely ever to make it to market —
no matter how well it performs in the laboratory. The development
of new cancer drugs is crippled as a result.
The reason for this problem is that bringing a new drug to market
is extremely expensive. In 2001, the estimated cost was $802 million;
today it is approximately $1 billion. To ensure a healthy return on
such staggering investments, drug companies seek to formulate new
drugs in a way that guarantees watertight patents. In the meantime,
cancer patients miss out on treatments that may be highly effective
and less expensive to boot.
In 2004, Johns Hopkins researchers discovered that an off-the-shelf
compound called 3-bromopyruvate could arrest the growth of liver
cancer in rats. The results were dramatic; moreover, the investigators
estimated that the cost to treat patients would be around 70 cents
per day. Yet, three years later, no major drug company has shown
interest in developing this drug for human use.
Early this year, another readily available industrial chemical,
dichloroacetate, was found by researchers at the University
of Alberta to shrink tumors in laboratory animals by up to 75 percent.
However, as a university news release explained, dichloroacetate is
not patentable, and the lead researcher is concerned that it may
be difficult to find funding from private investors to test the chemical.
So the university is soliciting public donations to finance a clinical trial.
The hormone melatonin, sold as an inexpensive food supplement
in the United States, has repeatedly been shown to slow the growth
of various cancers when used in conjunction with conventional
treatments. Paolo Lissoni, an Italian oncologist, helped write more
than 100 articles about this hormone and conducted numerous
clinical trials. But when I visited him at his hospital in Monza in
2003, he was in deep despair over the pharmaceutical industry’s
total lack of interest in his treatment approach. He has published
nothing on the topic since then.
Potential anticancer drugs should be judged on their scientific
merit, not on their patentability. One solution might be for the
government to enlarge the Food and Drug Administration’s
“orphan drug” program, which subsidizes the development
of drugs for rare diseases. The definition of orphan drug could
be expanded to include unpatentable agents that are scorned
as unprofitable by pharmaceutical companies.
We need to foster a research and development environment in
which anticancer activity is the main criterion for new drug
development.
Ralph W. Moss writes a weekly online newsletter about cancer.
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4) Distract and Disenfranchise
By PAUL KRUGMAN
April 2, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/opinion/02krugman.html?_r=1&hp&oref=login
I have a theory about the Bush administration abuses
of power that are now, finally, coming to light.
Ultimately, I believe, they were driven by rising
income inequality.
Let me explain.
In 1980, when Ronald Reagan won the White House,
conservative ideas appealed to many, even most,
Americans. At the time, we were truly a middle-class
nation. To white voters, at least, the vast inequalities
and social injustices of the past, which were what
originally gave liberalism its appeal, seemed like
ancient history. It was easy, in that nation,
to convince many voters that Big Government was
their enemy, that they were being taxed to provide
social programs for other people.
Since then, however, we have once again become
a deeply unequal society. Median income has risen
only 17 percent since 1980, while the income
of the richest 0.1 percent of the population
has quadrupled. The gap between the rich and
the middle class is as wide now as it was in the
1920s, when the political coalition that would
eventually become the New Deal was taking shape.
And voters realize that society has changed.
They may not pore over income distribution tables,
but they do know that today’s rich are building
themselves mansions bigger than those of the robber
barons. They may not read labor statistics,
but they know that wages aren’t going anywhere:
according to the Pew Research Center, 59 percent
of workers believe that it’s harder to earn
a decent living today than it was 20 or
30 years ago.
You know that perceptions of rising inequality
have become a political issue when even President
Bush admits, as he did in January, that “some
of our citizens worry about the fact that our
dynamic economy is leaving working people behind.”
But today’s Republicans can’t respond in any
meaningful way to rising inequality, because
their activists won’t let them. You could see
the dilemma just this past Friday and Saturday,
when almost all the G.O.P. presidential hopefuls
traveled to Palm Beach to make obeisance to the
Club for Growth, a supply-side pressure group
dedicated to tax cuts and privatization.
The Republican Party’s adherence to an outdated
ideology leaves it with big problems. It can’t
offer domestic policies that respond to the
public’s real needs. So how can it win elections?
The answer, for a while, was a combination of
distraction and disenfranchisement.
The terrorist attacks on 9/11 were themselves
a massive, providential distraction; until
then the public, realizing that Mr. Bush wasn’t
the moderate he played in the 2000 election,
was growing increasingly unhappy with his
administration. And they offered many
opportunities for further distractions.
Rather than debating Democrats on the issues,
the G.O.P. could denounce them as soft
on terror. And do you remember the terror
alert, based on old and questionable
information, that was declared right after
the 2004 Democratic National Convention?
But distraction can only go so far. So the
other tool was disenfranchisement: finding
ways to keep poor people, who tend to vote
for the party that might actually do something
about inequality, out of the voting booth.
Remember that disenfranchisement in the form
of the 2000 Florida “felon purge,” which
struck many legitimate voters from the rolls,
put Mr. Bush in the White House in the first
place. And disenfranchisement seems to be
what much of the politicization of the Justice
Department was about.
Several of the fired U.S. attorneys were under
pressure to pursue allegations of voter fraud
— a phrase that has become almost synonymous
with “voting while black.” Former staff members
of the Justice Department’s civil rights division
say that they were repeatedly overruled when
they objected to Republican actions, ranging
from Georgia’s voter ID law to Tom DeLay’s Texas
redistricting, that they believed would effectively
disenfranchise African-American voters.
The good news is that all the G.O.P.’s abuses
of power weren’t enough to win the 2006 elections.
And 2008 may be even harder for the Republicans,
because the Democrats — who spent most of the Clinton
years trying to reassure rich people and corporations
that they weren’t really populists — seem
to be realizing that times have changed.
A week before the Republican candidates trooped
to Palm Beach to declare their allegiance to tax
cuts, the Democrats met to declare their commitment
to universal health care. And it’s hard to see
what the G.O.P. can offer in response.
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5) Taxing Private Equity
Editorial
April 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/opinion/02mon1.html?hp
In the world of private equity, “2 and 20” is a formula
for making money. The mavens of the industry — venture
capitalists and buyout specialists — generally collect
a management fee of 2 percent of the assets they manage
and a performance fee equal to 20 percent of any profits.
With hundreds of billions of dollars flowing through
the 2-and-20 structure, the megabucks pile up quickly.
High fees, however, are only one reason that private
equity lives by “2 and 20.” Another is low taxes.
Partners in private equity ventures treat their
performance fees as capital gains — in other words,
like profits on the sale of a stock — and thus pay
tax on the fees at a rate of 15 percent, about the
lowest in the tax code. According to federal
partnership tax rules, that’s legal. But the rules
were developed before private equity became the
force it is today, and mainly with small business
and real estate partnerships in mind.
Some lawmakers — notably Senator Max Baucus, the
Democratic chairman of the Finance Committee, and
Senator Charles Grassley, the committee’s top
Republican — have begun to question whether those
rules should apply to private equity.
Adding grist to lawmakers’ skepticism is a recent
paper by Victor Fleischer, an associate professor
at the University of Colorado Law School.
Mr. Fleischer makes several arguments against
treating performance pay as capital gain, starting
with the increasingly huge sums that private equity
firms raise from tax-exempt investors, like pension
funds and endowments.
In general, when corporate executives get performance
-based pay, like stock options, they don’t have
to pay tax right away. That’s a big tax benefit,
but it leaves the government no worse off because
the corporation also delays taking a deduction for
the payment. There is no such offset when private
equity partners are paid by tax-exempt investors.
The nation in effect waits longer for its tax revenue
and gets less, as private equity partners get more.
The deeper question in all this is whether capital
gains — which are currently taxed at less than half
the top rate of ordinary income — should continue
to be so lavishly advantaged. The answer there is
no. Today’s preferential rate for capital gains
is excessive, with no mechanism in the tax code
to ensure that it is not overused. Excessively
favoring one form of income over another encourages
wasteful gamesmanship, creates inequity and crowds
out other ways to foster risk-taking. Tackling the
too-easy tax terms for private equity is a good way
for Congress to begin addressing that bigger issue.
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6)PROTECT OUR PENSIONS
April 1, 2007
http://www.soldiersofsolidarity.com/
Norm Goddard transferred back to GM from Delphi in March
2000. In May 2006 he applied for retirement from GM. After
30 years of service he wanted out. He was looking forward
to the $35,000. When he went to the Benefits Office to sign
his retirement papers the document stated that he hired
into Delphi in 1976.
"That's a lie," Norm said. "Delphi wasn't even around in 1976.
I hired in at GM."
The Benefits Rep informed him that if he signed the document
he agreed to everything it said. Norm refused. "I worked
less than nine months for Delphi." He has 24 years of
pension credits with Delphi, a bankrupt company that
never operated independent of GM.
When Delphi was spun off from GM in 1999 John Goshka
had 34 years seniority. He chose to keep working. "I had
children in college," he said. When John retired in 2004
he had 39 years of credited service with Delphi. At age
60 John doesn't know what will happen to his pension
or his health care. His 34 years of GM time were dumped
into Delphi.
When Delphi offered two choices, retire or transfer away
from home and likely give up his trade as a toolmaker,
Mike Wittek decided to call it quits. He signed up for
the Special Attrition Program [SAP] and went out with
only 21 years of credited service. Though he hired
in at GM, he left with a Delphi pension and a bad
taste in his mouth.
At the UAW Constitutional Convention in June 2006
I asked for a point of information. I explained that
GM had transferred all my pension credits to Delphi
at the time of the spin off in 1999. Now Delphi was
bankrupt. GM's contractual agreement to guarantee the
Delphi pension expires at the end of this contract
in October 2007. What happens if Delphi decides to
stop pension payments in 2008, after the guarantee
expires?
The resolution on the floor at the time was "Protecting
Pensions." Dick Shoemaker, the UAW-VP responsible for
negotiations at GM and Delphi, declared me "Out of Order."
But he said that he would speak to me "privately."
Shoemaker understood that I wanted him to speak publicly
for the record. He didn't take the bait.
I immediately approached the stage and Shoemaker came
down to talk with me. What he had to say concerning
Delphi retirees was not intended for the official record.
He explained that if I signed the Special Attrition
Program [SAP] and "checked the box", it was "understood"
that GM would guarantee the pension.
"But it doesn't say that," I replied.
"It's understood," he said.
"It states that only what is written is valid and that
verbal promises contrary to the written document have
no merit," I replied.
"Well, it's understood," he said.
"OK. I'll take your word for it. But what about the
people who already retired or who will retire five
years from now and don't have the opportunity
to check the box"?
"We still have to negotiate that," Shoemaker said.
Here are the facts. The SAP states that if you sign
you agree to the terms, and the SAP stipulated that
those who signed would get a "Delphi Hourly Pension".
Shoemaker's verbal assertion that it "was understood"
doesn’t amount to a tinker's damn. As Shoemaker readily
admitted to me, the fate of Delphi-UAW members who
retired before the SAP was available or who transferred
back to GM and would retire in the future still has
to be negotiated.
Demonstrate solidarity with Delphi-UAW members by
demanding that the Benefit Guarantee be activated
and GM held accountable for the orchestrated bankruptcy
at Delphi.
I am not a delegate at this Bargaining Convention
because my old plant is now closed. I chose to return
to a GM plant rather than take the SAP because there
is no security with a Delphi pension.
For the record, a commitment to protect the Delphi
retirees at the 2007 UAW Bargaining Convention would
be in order.
Gregg Shotwell
UAW Local 1753
www.soldiersofsolidarity.com
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7) "The Language Isn't Strong Enough"
A Report on the 2007 UAW Bargaining Convention
Tueday April 3, 2007
http://www.soldiersofsolidarity.com
The 2007 UAW Bargaining Convention format was sanitized,
preshrunk, and bleached. The one-size-fits-all style was
designed to control the rancor of the rank and file.
But work to rule is a tool for all trades and a master
of one — tipping the balance of power.
Mike Parker, a delegate from Local 1700, busted the seams
of uniform decorum before Gettelfinger could pound the podium.
When the chair requested a motion to accept the Rules
Committee Report at the start of the convention, Parker
demanded a point of order and made a motion to amend
the rules.
The proposed rules restricted delegates from making amendments
to the resolutions; limited debate with tedious time consuming
recitations rather than summaries; and relegated precious time
that should have been allocated to debate to political
dignitaries. Parker's amendment declared:
"The agenda for the Wednesday morning session will be Organizing
to Fight Back. This session will cover how we can mobilize
our members, build solidarity, resist company whipsawing and
divisive strategies like two tier, and pitting older workers
against younger workers. To make time for this session, short
presentation summaries will be used instead of reading the
complete resolution book, and guest speakers will be asked
to keep their comments brief."
Voices from all over the convention floor yelled, "Support".
The Chair attempted to dispose of the point of order, but
Parker stood his ground. Since a motion to accept the rules
had not been approved, there were no rules governing the
convention except Robert's Rules of Parliamentary Procedure.
The amendment was in order, it had been seconded, and was
now open for discussion. Parker proceeded.
"The key to these negotiations is not whether we have
a nice wish list of bargaining demands but how we are going
to fight the companies. The companies have made it clear
they are not our partners and will take everything they
can get
How do we take on their whipsawing?
How do we take on the cancer of Two Tier, this pitting
of older workers against younger workers?
I would point out that I find nothing in this resolution
against Two Tier and indeed some vague justifications for it.
We can not afford to be unclear on this question which rots
the foundation of unionism.
Even before official bargaining starts the company is
tearing the union apart in the Big Three. The companies are
forcing concessionary contracts which undermine our pattern
bargaining
This union is in a crisis. The companies have launched
an ideological attack on unionism at work and in the media.
Doubtless, as at the last convention, there will be
delegates who will get up and read the Administration Caucus
cue cards about and how these rules have always worked for us.
Well, we had better start addressing the fact that we
are in crisis and we have to start by figuring out how to
get the membership in this union re involved and mobilized
rather than trying to have nicely scripted conventions.
That means starting with the delegates here.
We are supposed to be the leaders of this union. I ask
you to start acting as leaders and let's get this convention
addressing the real problems."
The charade was over. The emperor was naked and everyone
knew it.
The next delegate, Paul Baxter from Local 659, said,
"I support the amendment to the rules. The strategy
of cooperation with management is a failure. We cannot
go on pretending that the companies are our partners.
How can you ask us to be partners with liars, cheaters,
and thieves?
This resolution book is nothing but a wish list.
We need a more effective strategy to fight back."
A sister from Local 7 opposed the amendment. She denied
knowledge of any "cue cards" but relied on the time worn
cliché, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." She called
for the question to end debate which is standard "cue
card" performance.
Wendy Thompson, a delegate from Local 235, demanded
a point of order. She said, "It is broken" and appealed
to the delegates to continue discussion and not prohibit
debate.
The chair ruled her out of order and cut her speech
short. The delegates turned the amendment down with
a voice vote but Parker's challenge set the tone of
the convention. Delegates unaccustomed to opposing the
administration came forward to "oppose the resolution
because the language isn't strong enough." The phrase
became a common refrain.
Fine Print vs. Bold Print
In regard to contract workers several delegates
complained about having to work side by side with
non union workers. "Why are they in our plants?"
asked Don Dekker from Local 371.
Jerry Urn, a delegate from Region 4, stated his
wholehearted support for President Gettelfinger
and the UAW but opposed the resolution and echoed
the refrain, "because the language isn't strong
enough." He reaffirmed his support of the UAW,
but he repeated twice for clarity and emphasis,
"My members hate two tier."
Page 19 of the official resolution book states:
"We also recognize the need for supplemental labor
agreements, at different wage and benefit rates,
in specific business circumstances where competitive
pressure requires an alternative approach to maintain
employment opportunities for our members and potential
members."
The words "two tier" are carefully evaded but the
intent is clear. A trade off is in the cards:
reduced wages and benefits in return for "employment
opportunities."
Two tier is not a union agreement, it's a prepaid
funeral arrangement. In 2003 the UAW pushed through
a ratification of the national agreement and then
later negotiated a two tier supplemental agreement
for Delphi that was never ratified by the members.
The two tier supplement cut wages almost in half,
reduced health care benefits, and eliminated the
pension. It wasn't enough to satisfy the "liars,
cheaters, and thieves."
Wendy Thompson rose in opposition to the weak language
of the resolution. She said we must clearly state,
"No Two Tier." The tone of her voice underlined each
word. She further advocated that we organize a campaign
to "take Chrysler off the market."
"Make noise," she said. "Mobilize the membership. What
we are facing is new and more difficult than ever. The
membership is demoralized. We should not go away from
this convention without a discussion of how to mobilize
the membership."
The Concession Caucus started a campaign in 2005 called
Mobilizing@Delphi but it never materialized. Their idea
of mobilization does not include the rank and file. They
consolidate power in the front office and function more
like a human resource management team than a union. The
Concession Caucus prefers to negotiate in the backroom
and the courtroom but the results have been dismal. The
compromise and retreat strategy not only erodes our wages,
benefits, and working conditions, it divides the union,
degrades new members, and discourages organizing. Who
needs a union to bargain for concessions?
No Concessions
Gary Walkowicz, a delegate from Local 600, stated his
case bluntly.
"I speak in opposition to the resolution because
it does not say what needs to be said; It does not
say what our members want us to say – "No More
Concessions"
That is the message that the members in my plant
sent me to bring to this Convention.
This letter to the delegates signed by over 1,000
members of the Dearborn Truck Plant was also signed
by more than another thousand members in some of
your plants, signed by retirees from your locals.
No More concessions. That is the message that I know
many of you are hearing from your own members. It's
time to stop concessions.
What has concessions gotten us, except more concessions?
We give up wage increases and promises to retirees
are broken.
And then the corporations come right back and threaten
us, pitting plant against plant, whipsawing us into passing
C.O.A.s, outsourcing our own jobs. I know the pressure
that puts on the local leaderships.
And then the ink is not even dry on the C.O.A.s and the
corporations are demanding more concessions in the
national contract.
Giving up concessions has only made the corporations
bolder and made them more greedy. Fellow delegates,
I know there are those of you who see the same thing.
I say that the business of this Convention should be
to take a stand against concessions.
The business of this Convention should be to organize
a fight against corporate greed, to defend the hard won
gains of this union. I believe this is what our members
want us to do."
Mark Payne, a delegate from Local 1250, also objected
to COAs. He said the companies keep redefining what
they term "core business". He insisted, "All our jobs
are core business."
Mike Libber, a delegate from Region 3, complained that
the companies use money saved from concessions to invest
in non union plants.
Paul Baxter, a delegate from Local 659, said, "Without
stronger language we will be invested into oblivion
because every investment is contingent on a net loss
of jobs."
"This is not a CAP Convention, it's a Bargaining
Convention"
Justin "Double Barrel" West, a four time delegate from
Local 2488, eliminated any doubt that this was a business
as usual convention.
"I rise in opposition regarding "income security
issues." TWO TIERS is KILLING this union. This resolution
hardly mentions tiered wage scales amongst other concessions.
Delphi executives continue to extract bonuses as rewards
for their heinous attack on workers across the globe. Ford
rewards its' executives with bonuses for extracting wage
and benefit concessions from workers and retirees. Now,
Daimler-Chrysler, in the midst of their continued profitable
corporate record, seeks to cover it all up so they too can
join the concessions bandwagon.
We, the membership, as elected reps from across the nation
and Canada and Puerto Rico…from varying industries and job
classifications, need to share with the leadership of the
International…and with each other…our ideas on how to combat
the corporate economic terrorism being foisted upon all working
people across the globe. How do we fight back? When will it end?
Let there be no doubt that the UAW is in a fight for
survival: the media calls it a "fight for relevance."
Meanwhile, the UAW International's approach has been to espouse
"Good things come from competitive corporations." Or that
partnerships fostering cooperation with the corps is the way
to go. Brother Gettelfinger gave a tremendous opening speech
but even within his oration, he stated that we should not
confuse cooperation with capitulation.
Brother Gettelfinger…I am from Peoria, Illinois and I was
at the convention in 1998 when our late President Steve Yokich
called the concessionary filled settlement at Caterpillar Tractor
a "victory." Caterpillar is hiring…2nd tier wages, no benefits,
no seniority, and full-time temps! Concessions, be they at GM,
Ford, Chrysler, American Axle, Delphi, Visteon, Mitsubishi, NUMMI,
and or elsewhere, will not be a victory!
Brother Gettelfinger: we gave Delphi the GM PLANTS; we
gave Delphi two-tier wages; we gave Delphi the GM workers'
pensions! These concessions have not sated that corporation's
thirst for more blood in this race to the bottom. Delphi has
declared a bankruptcy organized to destroy every last shred
of dignity and security that generations of union members
fought and sacrificed to achieve. My point is, Brother
Gettelfinger, concessions do NOT save jobs! To you, the
International leadership, I urge you not to confuse "victory"
with "concessions."
Brother Gettelfinger: you say much of these problems
need to be addressed through government legislation…but
this is not a CAP Convention, this is a BARGAINING Convention…
what can WE as workers do, DIRECTLY, NOW, to help fight
this onslaught of corporate greed before the Big Three
talks…on our jobs, at our Locals, amongst our brothers and
sisters? To this body, I urge you to vote this resolution
down until we address strategies to mobilize and fight
back at the grassroots level.
Lastly, Thank you, Brother Gettelfinger, for mentioning
the struggle at Conn-Selmer, the Vincent Bach plant. Those
locked-out members are on the front lines, suffering but
hanging in there to defend the American Dream."
The delegates burst into applause and Gettelfinger added
another name to a list that was growing longer.
Vicky Varaclay, a delegate from an American Axle plant
related how the lack of a pattern agreement was undermining
collective bargaining. "We need stronger language
on whipsawing."
Several delegates objected to takeaways from retirees who
"can't afford copays" on a fixed income. "Retirees are
worried sick" about medical expenses. "When you go in and
change a plan [in the middle of a contract] you make people
afraid," a retired delegate said.
The strategy of containing rebellion against the corporate
agenda by channeling anger toward politics instead
of employers is on its last legs. Too many delegates
said, "The language isn't strong enough."
The Rank & File is the Backbone
The next morning at a Concession Caucus breakfast for
delegates Gettelfinger ridiculed the small group of union
members who carried picket signs in front of the convention
center the day before. Their signs said things like: Equal
Pay for Equal Work, No Two Tier, Equal Rights for New Hires,
Protect Our Pensions, Hold GM Accountable for Delphi Pensions,
Hands Off My Pension, Put the Backbone Back into the UAW,
Stop Whipsawing.
What exactly did Gettelfinger disagree with? How do those
ideas conflict with the UAW agenda for bargaining?
On the first day of the convention soldiers of solidarity
distributed the No Concession leaflet to delegates. On the
second morning they distributed the leaflet about Delphi
pensions which reiterated my conversation with UAW-VP
Dick Shoemaker at the Constitutional Convention. Shoemaker
declined to speak publicly for the record but admitted privately
that the issue was unresolved and still had to be negotiated.
The flip side of that flier was titled "Put the Backbone Back
in the UAW". Gettelfinger took one from a soldier and went
into the hall.
One Question: The Delphi Pension
Before the convention started I saw Gettelfinger in the
lobby glad handing delegates. I waited my turn, shook his
hand, and asked, "What will happen to the Delphi pension
when the Benefit Guarantee expires at the end of this contract?"
"Gregg, we know you're not supposed to be here,"
Gettelfinger said. "We know you're not a delegate anymore."
He looked at my Press Pass. "And we know you're not a reporter
either. But that's all right. We don't mind that you're here."
I repeated the question. "What will happen to the Delphi
pension when the Benefit Guarantee expires at the end of this
contract?"
"I saw what you wrote about Dick Shoemaker," Gettelfinger
said. "Gregg, you don't hurt us, and you don't help us,
either way."
I hesitate to interpret the motivations of superior
beings but I think he wanted to make me feel insignificant.
It didn't seem important to me, so I repeated the question.
"What will happen to the Delphi pension when the Benefit
Guarantee expires at the end of this contract?"
"You should ask the UAW-GM department," he said.
"I have asked them several times but I can't get an answer.
It's important to UAW members from Delphi. I know people who
worked more than 30 years for GM and have a Delphi pension
today. They want an answer."
"We know you're not supposed to be here, Gregg. But that's
all right with us. We don't mind that you're here. See?
I'm not such a bad guy."
I don't know what his guyness had to do with it, but to
his credit about an hour later here comes Mike Grimes and
David Shoemaker from the UAW-GM department to talk with me.
My cohort, Bob Mabbit from the UnCommonSense started rolling
the video camera but they refused to speak on record.
We walked down a hall way and talked privately.
They explained that "Ron Gettelfinger told us to come out
and talk with you and answer your questions."
I repeated the one question.
They assured me that Delphi was a top priority. "We
have told GM It is our position that the Benefit Guarantee
will be triggered before the Delphi situation is settled."
I told them I was glad to hear that the UAW was committed
to holding GM accountable for our pensions, but the UAW can't
trigger the Benefit Guarantee. Events trigger the Benefit
Guarantee. If Delphi doesn't stop paying the pension before
the Benefit Guarantee expires, there is no triggering event.
"We can cause them financial distress," Shoemaker said.
"Do you mean a strike?" I asked.
"As far as we are concerned they are already in financial
distress," Grimes said.
In other words it still has to be negotiated and no one,
neither GM, Delphi, nor the UAW has stated publicly for
the record that GM is accountable for the Delphi pensions.
The Fight for Dignity
Back in the convention delegates were debating a resolution
on Health and Safety. Vanessa Williams from Local 155 said,
"IPS [Independent Parts Suppliers] feel lost and left out."
She reported that workers "injured daily" in her plant were
harassed by management and they had to call MIOSHA despite
the fact they have union representation.
Mike Parker from Local 1700 said the resolution failed
to address "the fundamental problem — the right to refuse
an unsafe job." He explained that too often workers were
forced to work in conditions they felt were unsafe while
managers took their sweet time making up their minds.
He called on delegates to "empower workers" with the
right to refuse unsafe work.
Paul Baxter from Local 659 in Flint said, "Unionism is about
the fight for dignity." He said that assembly work cycles
were "so tight you can't get a drink or put a stick of gum
in your mouth." He cited a passage from the Bible on the
treatment of farm animals. "We should at least hold
management to the same standard."
At the end of the convention Wendy Thompson talked about
the massive rally organized against Delphi's threat to
close one plant in Spain. She said, "We should organize
a rally for the opening day of negotiations."
The convention burst into applause.
Where Do We Go from Here?
On the first day of the convention Gettelfinger waved his
fist in the air and threatened to strike Delphi if they
voided the contract. It was a strange act considering how
much ground he has surrendered. However, the message from
the floor was consistent and clear, "The language isn't
strong enough."
Workers don't want more concessions, cooperation with
corporate restructuring, or competitive agreements.
If we wait for the Concession Caucus to mobilize
resistance, we'll all get Delphied.
Continue to collect signatures on the No Concession
Petition; whether you collect one or one thousand
signatures mail the copies to:
No Concessions Petition
P.O. Box 202
Montrose, MI 48457
A soldier of solidarity will see they are delivered
to negotiators on or before the opening day
of negotiations. We are the backbone of the UAW.
Let's show them what we're made of.
SOS, Gregg Shotwell
UAW Local 1753
Bargaining Convention Report
Sisters and Brothers,
April 2, 2007
I would like to thank those 2nd Shift workers and
retirees who came to a rally on Tues., Mar. 27th
organized in front of Cobo at the convention opening
by UAW Soldiers of Solidarity which was formed out
of the Delphi bankruptcy crisis. We looked good with
our signs out in front of the Convention entrance and
delegates came over to talk to us. It was small, but
the rank and file made itself heard.
Once again, I am sorry to report the convention
was "business as usual", everything decided in advance
with delegates having no real say. It's puzzling because
many delegates don't like it this way, but they feel
if they speak up or "vote the wrong way", a "ton of bricks
will fall on them".
Motion to Change to More Democratic Rules Fails
A motion was made to change the rules so that discussion
could occur on "Organizing to Fight Back". This session
would have covered how we can mobilize the membership,
build solidarity, resist company whipsawing and divisive
strategies like two tier, and pitting older worker against
younger ones.
Unfortunately this motion did not pass. Instead we
had read to us one long resolution that you could not
amend but rather had to vote up or down in its entirety.
It was a wish list of all things good without talking
about what our plan is for upcoming negotiations. We know
these negotiations are going to be more difficult for the
Big Three than anything we have seen before.
There were some brave individuals who did speak out
on issues of concern, like two tier wages. Some delegates
said that 2 tier wages were tremendously unpopular where
they had been implemented. But, people felt they had
to bend over backwards being respectful to avoid reproach.
An open and democratic union wouldn't be like that.
I had the opportunity to speak twice during the
proceedings. I told the delegates we needed a strategy
for negotiations that would mobilize our members to show
the strength of our numbers, working and retired. It's
outrageous that management is still raking in bonuses while
we are told that we must pay more for health care and receive
lower wages "in order to be competitive". They justify
their salaries and bonuses even when they fail to do their
jobs. Management made the decision about what to build
and where to spend research money, not the workforce.
Yet we are expected to bail them out with more concessions.
This is nothing but insane! If you read some business
publications, you will see that business is publicly
worrying about how long workers are going to allow this
tremendous wealth growing at the top without revolting
against it!
In negotiations this year we face a dilemma. Unlike
GM and Ford, the UAW Chrysler Dept. did not open up the
contract midterm for concessions. This helped us at AAM
avoid opening up our contract midterm. Chrysler workers
have held onto the Pattern Contract. We need to move GM,
Ford, and ourselves up to it. (If you remember, we did
not get the wages increases the Big Three did and we were
forced to accept 2 tier).
Strike GM and Chrysler
However, Chrysler is now on the auction block like
Gear and Axle was in 1994. I suggested they organize the
membership demanding to be taken off the block, like we
did here at the Gear before '94. Since GM is looking
like it will be in the strongest economic position this
summer, I said we should threaten to strike GM and Chrysler
at the same time in order to be in the best possible
bargaining position.
The business community tries to convince us that
strikes cannot be effective, but we should not fall
for that. With the just-in-time system and with the
Big Three needing to run efficiently right now, we have
a strong advantage. No one wants to strike, but the way
business is trying to take us into a third world life
style is completely out of control!
It has made me angry to see how the press presents
management's case for us to take more concessions.
Yet, the UAW has not been presenting our case to the
public with any kind of vigor. This made the membership
think that no one is in their corner. Polls are stating
that autoworkers expect we will have to take more
concessions. This is absolutely the wrong position
to be in for a pre-negotiations period!
President Gettelfinger in his speech said:
"cooperation should not be equated with capitulation."
But here's the problem: the companies say: "we want
more concessions", the union says: "we believe in
cooperating with the companies". What are rank and
file workers supposed to think ? The UAW leadership
has seemed to be giving up before negotiations have
even started.
The same problem of a mixed message exists concerning
pattern bargaining. The resolution correctly states that:
"labor compensation should not be based on which employers
compete" and we should be "removing wages and benefits
from the competitive equation". Yet, the UAW says
it believes in being competitive even when that means
pitting us against workers in low wage countries and
non-union plants in this country. This causes the
membership to fear they have no protection from
a free fall.
We Need a Massive Rally the First Day of Big Three
Negotiations
I suggested a massive rally organized for the
1st day of negotiations. We must reach out to the
public with a strong message: We did not cause the
problems of the Big Three and should not have to
suffer for Management's bad decisions. We must hold
the line on the slide downwards.
Meanwhile, when market share goes down for one
company it goes up for another. If all autoworkers
in this country were UAW members we would better be
able to protect our members when companies mess up.
Last year at the Constitutional Convention it was
decided to allocate $60 million for organizing out
of the $874 million in the strike fund. However,
it was placed in the general fund and not into the
organizing budget. Nothing has been done with it
and now the UAW says it won't do anything until
after negotiations. This is a mistake. We need
to start now training and hiring an "army" of UAW
organizers. With the loss of many experienced members
lately, this could be a way to put talented union members
to work.
Near the end of the one long resolution presented
by the International to the Convention, it spoke to the
importance of building international unionism and this
is key. In Spain, where they want to close a Delphi plant
in Puerto Real, Cadiz, the labor movement is planning
to organize a general strike for April 18th! When all
workers join together like this, it makes it difficult
to ride roughshod over one isolated plant. Are we as
powerless as we feel? Only if we remain separate and
uninvolved.
This newsletter is what I spoke for at the Convention.
Join me in circulating a "No Concessions" petition.
I will have them available at the plant gates. AAM is
profitable. We are in a strong position to eliminate
2 tier by negotiating a wage bridge between the 1st and
2nd tier so everyone will reach the higher wage.
We need to win back the 3% raises we lost and in no
way take more health care concessions for working or
retired.
Through the distribution of the newsletter Shifting
Gears at Colfor and MSP as well as the five pattern AAM
plants, I came into contact with the elected leaders and
helped Colfor and MSP developed new lines of communication
at the Convention with the pattern plant delegates. This
contact should improve more in the future and will help keep
AAM from whipsawing us like they have in the past.
Wendy Thompson, Convention Delegate,
Wthomp4490@aol.com, h. 313-892-7974, c. 313-215-7672
Please attend Local 235/Local 262 Workers' Memorial
Day Rally, Fri., April 27th.
Let's honor all those injured or killed in the workplace.
1:00 pm . Afternoon Shift workers meet at Local 262 south
of Holbrook on St. Aubin.
We will march up St. Aubin to Holbrook
2:30 pm Day Shift workers join in front of Motown
Credit Union and we march to Pl. 3
3:00 pm We will arrive in front of Plant 3 for
the Rally. Join us!
Labor donated
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8) HOW IRAN TREATS PRISONERS
HOW THE US TREATS PRISONERS
"Call that humiliation? No hoods. No electric shocks. No beatings.
These Iranians are clearly a very uncivilised bunch."
Terry Jones
Saturday March 31, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian .co.uk/
I share the outrage expressed in the British press over the treatment
of our naval personnel accused by Iran of illegally entering their waters.
It is a disgrace. We would never dream of treating captives like this --
allowing them to smoke cigarettes, for example, even though it has
been proven that smoking kills. And as for compelling poor
servicewoman Faye Turney to wear a black headscarf, and then
allowing the picture to be posted around the world -- have the Iranians
no concept of civilised behaviour? For God's sake, what's wrong with
putting a bag over her head? That's what we do with Muslims
we capture: we put bags over their heads, so it's hard to breathe.
Then it's perfectly acceptable to take photographs of them and
circulate them to the press because the captives can't be recognised
and humiliated as these unfortunate British service people have been.
It is also unacceptable that these British captives should be made to talk
on television and say things that they may regret later. If the Iranians put
duct tape over their mouths, as we do to our captives, they wouldn't
be able to talk at all. Of course they'd probably find it even harder
to breathe -- especially with a bag over their head -- but at least
they wouldn't be humiliated.
And what's all this about allowing the captives to write letters home
saying they are all right? It's time the Iranians fell into line with
the rest of the civilised world: they should allow their captives
the privacy of solitary confinement. That's one of the many
privileges the US grants to its captives in Guantánamo Bay.
The true mark of a civilised country is that it doesn't rush into
charging people whom it has arbitrarily arrested in places
it's just invaded. The inmates of Guantánamo, for example,
have been enjoying all the privacy they want for almost five years,
and the first inmate has only just been charged. What a contrast to
the disgraceful Iranian rush to parade their captives before the cameras!
What's more, it is clear that the Iranians are not giving their British
prisoners any decent physical exercise. The US military make sure
that their Iraqi captives enjoy PT. This takes the form of exciting
"stress positions", which the captives are expected to hold for hours
on end so as to improve their stomach and calf muscles. A common
exercise is where they are made to stand on the balls of their feet
and then squat so that their thighs are parallel to the ground.
This creates intense pain and, finally, muscle failure. It's all good
healthy fun and has the bonus that the captives will confess to anything
to get out of it.
And this brings me to my final point. It is clear from her TV appearance
that servicewoman Turney has been put under pressure. The newspapers
have persuaded behavioural psychologists to examine the footage and
they all conclude that she is "unhappy and stressed".
What is so appalling is the underhand way in which the Iranians have
got her "unhappy and stressed". She shows no signs of electrocution
or burn marks and there are no signs of beating on her face. This
is unacceptable. If captives are to be put under duress, such as by
forcing them into compromising sexual positions, or having electric
shocks to their genitals, they should be photographed, as in Abu Ghraib.
The photographs should then be circulated around the civilised world
so that everyone can see exactly what has been going on.
As Stephen Glover pointed out in the Daily Mail, perhaps it would not be
right to bomb Iran in retaliation for the humiliation of our servicemen,
but clearly the Iranian people must be made to suffer -- whether by
intensified sanctions, as the Mail suggests, or simply by urging
[P]resident Bush to hurry an invasion, as he intends one anyway,
to bring democracy and western values to Iran, as he has done in Iraq.
Terry Jones is a film director, actor, and Python
www.terry-jones. net
Update:
Captives Freed by Iran Arrive in Britain
By DAVID RAMPE, JON ELSEN and SARAH LYALL
April 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/world/middleeast/05cnd-iran.html?hp
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9) More Than a Feeling
Editorial
April 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/opinion/04weds1.html?hp
President Bush and his advisers have made a lot of ridiculous
charges about critics of the war in Iraq: they’re unpatriotic,
they want the terrorists to win, they don’t support the troops,
to cite just a few. But none of these seem quite as absurd
as President Bush’s latest suggestion, that critics of the
war whose children are at risk are too “emotional” to see
things clearly.
The direct target was Matthew Dowd, one of the chief
strategists of Mr. Bush’s 2004 presidential campaign,
who has grown disillusioned with the president and the
war, which he made clear in an interview with Jim Rutenberg
published in The Times last Sunday. But by extension,
Mr. Bush’s comments were insulting to the hundreds of
thousands of Americans whose sons, daughters, sisters,
brothers and spouses have served or will serve in Iraq.
They are perfectly capable of forming judgments about
the war, pro or con, on the merits. But when Mr. Bush
was asked about Mr. Dowd during a Rose Garden news
conference yesterday, he said, “This is an emotional
issue for Matthew, as it is for a lot of other people
in our country.”
Mr. Dowd’s case, Mr. Bush said, “as I understand it,
is obviously intensified because his son is deployable.”
Over the weekend, two of Mr. Bush’s chief spokesmen,
Dan Bartlett and Dana Perino, claimed that Mr. Dowd’s
change of heart about the war was rooted in “personal”
issues and “emotions,” and talked of his “personal
journey.” In recent years, Mr. Dowd suffered the death
of a premature twin daughter, and was divorced.
His son is scheduled to serve in Iraq soon.
Mr. Dowd said his experiences were a backdrop to his
reconsideration of his support of the war and Mr. Bush.
There is nothing wrong with that, but there is something
deeply wrong with the White House’s dismissing his criticism
as emotional, as if it has no reasoned connection
to Mr. Bush’s policies.
This form of attack is especially galling from a president
who from the start tried to paint this war as virtually
sacrifice-free: the Iraqis would welcome America with
open arms, the war would be paid for with Iraqi oil
revenues — and the all-volunteer military would
concentrate the sacrifice on only a portion of the
nation’s families.
Mr. Bush’s comments about Mr. Dowd are a reflection
of the otherworldliness that permeates his public
appearances these days. Mr. Bush seems increasingly
isolated, clinging to a fantasy version of Iraq that
is more and more disconnected from reality. He gives
a frightening impression that he has never heard any
voice from any quarter that gave him pause, much less
led him to rethink a position.
Mr. Bush’s former campaign aide showed an open-mindedness
and willingness to adapt to reality that is sorely
lacking in the commander in chief.
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10) Daimler Considers Selling Off Chrysler Division
By MARK LANDLER
April 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/business/04cnd-daimler.html?hp
BERLIN, April 4 — DaimlerChrysler confirmed for the first
time today that it is in negotiations with a number
of parties about the sale of its money-losing Chrysler
division.
Speaking at DaimlerChrysler’s annual meeting here, Dieter
Zetsche, the chief executive, said, “I can confirm that
we are talking with some of the potential partners who
have shown a clear interest.”
Mr. Zetsche did not identify the automaker’s suitors,
nor did he guarantee that the talks would end in a sale
of Chrysler. “We need to keep all options open,” he
said. “We need to keep maximum scope for maneuver.”
DaimlerChrysler’s confirmation was not a surprise.
The auto industry has crackled with rumors about
would-be bidders for Chrysler since mid-February,
when Mr. Zetsche disclosed the company was considering
all options for the unit, which lost $1.5 billion
last year.
But it added to the momentum that is building behind
a sale. DaimlerChrysler’s shares rose nearly 1 percent
this morning, on top of a roughly 25 percent rise
in the stock since the company put Chrysler into play.
The mood among the 8,000 or so shareholders assembled
here for the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting
was unmistakable: they expect DaimlerChrysler to cut
loose Chrysler, unwinding a trans-Atlantic merger that
was hailed at the time of its announcement in 1998
as a blueprint for the future of the global auto
industry.
A steady stream of investors stood up during the
meeting to condemn the merger and demand a speedy
sale.
“Should there be a divorce in court, we would be very
happy,” said Henning Gebhardt, a spokesman for DWS,
a major German asset management firm. His fear, he said,
was that DaimlerChrysler would not find a buyer willing
to take Chrysler off its hands on acceptable terms.
With some $20 billion in health-care obligations for
retired workers, Chrysler will not be easy to sell,
according to analysts. Some estimate it may fetch as
little as $5 billion to $7 billion — or even nothing.
“What will happen if you do not find a new bridegroom
for Chrysler, or if the dowry is too high?”
Mr. Gebhardt said.
Hans-Richard Schmitz, a spokesman for the German
Association for the Protection of Shareholders, said,
“This marriage made in heaven turned out to be
a complete failure.”
Mr. Schmitz criticized DaimlerChrysler’s management
for even reserving the option of not selling the unit.
“What’s missing now is a swift resolution of the issue
by the management of the group,” he said. “I don’t
understand why you’re so hesitant, Dr. Zetsche.”
Among the shareholder proposals scheduled to be put
to a vote here later today is one that would require
DaimlerChrysler to change its name back to Daimler-Benz
if it does not unload Chrysler by March 31, 2008.
“Maintaining a corporate name that evokes associations
with the failure of the business combination with Chrysler
is detrimental to the image of the corporation and its
products,” said the proposal, submitted by two shareholders,
Ekkehard Wenger and Leonhard Knoll.
The company said the DaimlerChrysler name was well
established, and urged shareholders to reject the proposal.
Some shareholders expressed frustration that Mr. Zetsche
did not disclose more details about the potential sale.
So far, three parties have submitted expressions of interest
in Chrysler, according to people involved in the negotiations:
two private-equity firms — Blackstone Group and Cerberus
and the Canadian auto-parts supplier, Magna International,
which is working with another private equity investor,
Ripplewood.
The talks are expected to be lengthy and arduous, and
a deal is not likely for a few months, these executives said.
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11) Jungle Law
"In 1972, crude oil began to flow from Texaco's
wells in the area around Lago Agrio ("sour
lake"), in the Ecuadorean Amazon. Born that same
year, Pablo Fajardo is now the lead attorney in
an epic lawsuit˜among the largest environmental
suits in history˜against Chevron, which acquired
Texaco in 2001. Reporting on an emotional battle
in a makeshift jungle courtroom, the author
investigates how many hundreds of square miles of
surrounding rain forest became a toxic-waste dump."
by William Langewiesche
May 2007
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/05/texaco200705
In a forsaken little town in the Ecuadorean
Amazon, an overgrown oil camp called Lago Agrio,
the giant Chevron Corporation has been maneuvered
into a makeshift courtroom and is being sued to
answer for conditions in 1,700 square miles of
rain forest said by environmentalists to be one
of the world's most contaminated industrial
sites. The pollution consists of huge quantities
of crude oil and associated wastes, mixed in with
the toxic compounds used for drilling
operations˜a noxious soup that for decades was
dumped into leaky pits, or directly into the
Amazonian watershed. The company that did much of
this work was Texaco˜an outfit with a
swashbuckling reputation worldwide. It signed a
contract with Ecuador in 1964, began full-scale
production in 1972, and pulled out 20 years
later. In 2001, Texaco was swallowed whole by
Chevron, which by integrating its operations
nearly doubled in size. The lawsuit against it in
Lago Agrio was filed in 2003, though the legal
antecedents go back much further. Having dragged
on for four years, the suit may continue for half
again as long. Chevron is represented by
high-priced firms of experienced lawyers in Quito
and Washington, D.C., whose collective fees run
to millions of dollars annually. Its antagonists
are 30,000 Amazonian settlers and indigenous
people, who call themselves Los Afectados˜the
Affected Ones. These plaintiffs are represented
by a low-budget but serious team of North
American and Ecuadorean attorneys, who are backed
by a Philadelphia law firm that is known for
class-action securities litigation and has
gambled that this case, though risky, can actually be won.
Chevron objects vociferously, and presents itself
as the victim here. Its attorneys have repeatedly
claimed that the company is being extorted for
"two juicy checks," one to be divided among the
plaintiffs and the other to enrich their North
American lawyers. The North American lawyers are
indeed working on a contingency basis, but
unapologetically so, and for a percentage
significantly lower than the norm in high-risk
cases; they would like to be well compensated for
their efforts, but as much, they say, to
encourage other lawyers to bring similar suits
elsewhere in the world as to pad their personal
bank accounts. The most active among them is a
New Yorkˆbased Harvard Law School graduate named
Steven Donziger, who has invested 14 years in the
case and would certainly be more secure had he
pursued a conventional career involving the
preservation of wealth. He counterclaims that
Chevron's lawyers are the real mercenaries here.
It is a philosophical quarrel that will never be resolved.
As for the plaintiffs themselves, under
Ecuadorean law they are not suing individually,
and personally may never see a dime. They have
sued to seek compensation for past damages and to
force Chevron to clean up the residual mess that
continues, they believe, to taint the soil and
water today. It is unclear how a cleanup would
proceed and to what extent it could succeed, but
over decades the cost might run to $6 billion or
more˜making this potentially the largest
environmental lawsuit ever to be fought. And
fight is the word. The case has become emotional
for both sides, with few signs of willingness to
compromise. Worldwide the oil industry is
watching. Lago Agrio is a forsaken little town
where something rather large is going down.
This is not, however, a U.S.-style legal drama.
The Lago Agrio court follows Ecuadorean
procedures, which minimize oral arguments and
rely heavily on submitted documents to get at the
truth. So far the proceedings have generated
close to 200,000 pages. There is no jury to sway.
There is a single presiding judge, drawn from a
pool of three on a rotating basis for a two-year
term of unusual pressure. Currently the judge is
a rotund middle-aged man, a reader of Dostoyevsky
and a convert to Islam. He must be the only
Muslim in town. He told me it is not easy to be a
judge there. Five years ago he was ambushed and
machine-gunned while driving his car. His
companion was killed, but he himself escaped. The
attackers were hired killers, of whom Lago Agrio
has an ample supply. Colombia's largest
cocaine-production area lies just over the border
a few miles to the north, and is peopled not only
by narco-traffickers but also by leftist
guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary groups.
The police in Lago Agrio make a show sometimes of
directing traffic. They did not investigate the
attack, the judge believes, because they feared
retribution. The judge accepted this without
complaint, as if he had learned to believe in
fate. Lago Agrio means "sour lake." He told me
that the only safe choice there is to run away.
Chevron would probably agree. It denies that the
judge is fair, denies that the plaintiffs have
legitimate complaints, denies that their soil and
water samples are meaningful, denies that the
methods the company used to extract oil in the
past were substandard, denies that it
contaminated the forest, denies that the forest
is contaminated, denies that there is a link
between the drinking water and high rates of
cancer, leukemia, birth defects, and skin
disease, denies that unusual health problems have
been demonstrated˜and, for added measure, denies
that it bears responsibility for any
environmental damage that might after all be
found to exist. If Chevron can convince the court
of the validity of even a few of those points, it
will win the case and leave town.
(clip)
--
www.marxmail.org
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12) Our Crumbling Foundation
By BOB HERBERT
April 5, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/opinion/05herbert.html?hp
Fifty-nine years ago this week — on April 3, 1948 —
President Truman signed the legislation establishing
the Marshall Plan, which contributed so much to the
rebuilding of postwar Europe. Now, more than half
a century later, the U.S. can’t even rebuild New
Orleans.
It doesn’t seem able to build much of anything, really.
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers,
the U.S. infrastructure is in sad shape, and it would
take more than a trillion and a half dollars over
a five-year period to bring it back to a reasonably
adequate condition.
If there’s a less sexy story floating around, I can’t
find it. It certainly can’t compete with the Sanjaya
Malakar saga, or with the claim by Keith Richards that
he snorted his dad’s ashes with “a little bit of blow.”
But, as we learned with New Orleans, there are
consequences to neglecting the infrastructure.
Just a little over a year ago, a dam in Hawaii
gave way, unleashing a wave 70 feet high and 200
yards wide. It swept away virtually everything
in its path, including cars, houses and trees.
Seven people drowned.
On the day after Christmas in Portland, Ore.,
a sinkhole opened up like something from a science
fiction movie and swallowed a 25-ton sewer- repair
truck. Authorities blamed the sinkhole on the
collapse of aging underground pipes.
Blackouts, school buildings in advanced states
of disrepair, decrepit highway and railroad bridges
— the American infrastructure is growing increasingly
old and obsolete. In addition to being an invitation
to tragedy, this is a problem that is putting Americans
at a disadvantage in the ever more competitive
global economy.
Felix Rohatyn, the investment banker who helped
save New York City from bankruptcy in the 1970s,
has been prominent among those trying to sound the
infrastructure alarm. Along with former Senator
Warren Rudman, he has been criticizing the government’s
unwillingness to invest adequately in public
transportation systems, water projects, dams,
schools, the electrical grid, and so on.
He recently told a House committee that Congress
should begin a major effort to rebuild the American
infrastructure “before it is too late.”
“Since the beginning of the republic,” he said,
“transportation, infrastructure and education have
played a central role in advancing the American
economy, whether it was the canals in upstate New
York, or the railroads that linked our heartland
to our industrial centers; whether it was the opening
of education to average Americans by land grant
colleges and the G.I. bill, making education basic
to American life; or whether it was the interstate
highway system that ultimately connected all regions
of the nation.
“This did not happen by chance, but was the result
of major investments financed by the federal and
state governments over the last century and a half.
... We need to make similar investments now.”
Politics and ideology are the main reasons that
government has turned away from public investment
over the past several years. Zealots marching under
the banner of small government have been remarkably
effective in thwarting efforts to raise taxes or
borrow substantial sums for the kind of public
investment that has always been essential to
a dynamic economy.
That this is counterproductive in a post-20th-
century world should be as obvious as the sun
rising in the morning. There is a reason why
countries like China and India are racing like
mad to develop their infrastructure and educational
capacity.
“A modern economy needs a modern platform, and
that’s the infrastructure,” Mr. Rohatyn said in
an interview. “It has been shown that the productivity
of an economy is related to the quality of its
infrastructure. For example, if you don’t have
enough schools to teach your kids, or your kids
are taught in schools that have holes in the ceilings,
that are dilapidated, they’re not going to be as
educated and as competitive in a world economy
as they need to be.”
Mr. Rohatyn and Mr. Rudman are co-chairmen of the
Commission on Public Infrastructure at the Center
for Strategic and International Studies. They believe
that failing to move quickly to address the nation’s
infrastructure needs — through the establishment of
a national trust fund, for example, or a federal
capital budget — could lead to long-term disaster.
But words like trust fund and long-term and
infrastructure find it very difficult to elbow
their way into the nation’s consciousness. We may
have to wait for another New Orleans before beginning
to take this seriously.
David Brooks is on vacation.
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13) Injured in Iraq, a Soldier Is Shattered at Home
By DEBORAH SONTAG
April 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/us/05VET.html?hp
DUNBAR, Pa. — Blinded and disabled on the 54th day
of the war in Iraq, Sam Ross returned home to a rousing
parade that outdid anything this small, depressed
Appalachian town had ever seen. “Sam’s parade put
Dunbar on the map,” his grandfather said.
That was then.
Now Mr. Ross, 24, faces charges of attempted homicide,
assault and arson in the burning of a family trailer
in February. Nobody in the trailer was hurt, but
Mr. Ross fought the assistant fire chief who reported
to the scene, and later threatened a state trooper with
his prosthetic leg, which was taken away from him,
according to the police.
The police locked up Mr. Ross in the Fayette County
prison. In his cell, he tried to hang himself with
a sheet. After he was cut down, Mr. Ross was committed
to a state psychiatric hospital, where, he said in
a recent interview there, he is finally getting —
and accepting — the help he needs, having spiraled
downward in the years since the welcoming fanfare
faded.
“I came home a hero, and now I’m a bum,” Mr. Ross,
whose full name is Salvatore Ross Jr., said.
The story of Sam Ross has the makings of a ballad,
with its heart-rending arc from hardscrabble childhood
to decorated war hero to hardscrabble adulthood.
His effort to create a future for himself by enlisting
in the Army exploded in the desert during a munitions
disposal operation in Baghdad. He was 20.
He was also on his own. Mr. Ross, who is estranged
from his mother and whose father is serving a life
sentence for murdering his stepmother, does not have
the family support that many other severely wounded
veterans depend on. Various relatives have stepped
in at various times, but Mr. Ross, embittered by
a difficult childhood and by what the war cost him,
has had a push-pull relationship with those who sought
to assist him.
Several people have taken a keen interest in Mr. Ross,
among them Representative John P. Murtha, the once-
hawkish Democrat from Pennsylvania. When Mr. Murtha
publicly turned against the war in Iraq in 2005,
he cited the shattered life of Mr. Ross, one of his
first constituents to be seriously wounded,
as a pivotal influence.
Mr. Murtha’s office assisted Mr. Ross in negotiating
the military health care bureaucracy. Homes for Our
Troops, a nonprofit group based in Massachusetts, built
him a beautiful log cabin. Military doctors carefully
tended Mr. Ross’s physical wounds: the loss of his eyesight,
of his left leg below the knee and of his hearing in one
ear, among other problems.
But that help was not enough to save Mr. Ross from
the loneliness and despair that engulfed him. Overwhelmed
by severe symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder,
including routine nightmares of floating over Iraq that
ended with a blinding boom, he “self-medicated” with
alcohol and illegal drugs. He finally hit rock bottom
when he landed in the state psychiatric hospital,
where he is, sadly, thrilled to be.
“Seventeen times of trying to commit suicide, I think
it’s time to give up,” Mr. Ross said, speaking in the
forensic unit of the Mayview State Hospital in Bridgeville.
“Lots of them were screaming out cries for help, and nobody
paid attention. But finally somebody has.”
Finding a Way Out
Fayette County in southwestern Pennsylvania, once
a prosperous coal mining center, is now one of the
poorest counties in the state. The bucolic but
ramshackle town of Dunbar sits off State Route
119 near the intersection marked by the Butchko
Brothers junkyard.
Past the railroad tracks and not far up Hardy Hill
Road, the blackened remains of Mr. Ross’s hillside
trailer are testament to his disintegration. The
Support our Troops ribbon is charred, the No
Trespassing sign unfazed.
Mr. Ross lived in that trailer, where his father
shot his stepmother, at several points in his life,
including alone after he returned from Iraq.
Its most recent tenant, his younger brother, Thomas,
was in jail when the fire occurred.
Many in Mr. Ross’s large, quarreling family are on
one side of the law or the other, prison guards
or prisoners, police officers or probationers.
Their internal feuds are so commonplace that family
reunions have to be carefully plotted with an eye to
who has a protective order out against whom, Mr. Ross’s
25-year-old cousin, Joseph Lee Ross, joked.
Sam Ross’s childhood was not easy. “Sam’s had
a rough life from the time he was born,” his
grandfather, Joseph Frank Ross, said. His parents
fought, sometimes with guns, until they separated
and his mother moved out of state. Mr. Ross bore
some of the brunt of the turmoil.
“When that kid was little, the way he got beat around,
it was awful,” his uncle, Joseph Frank Ross Jr.,
a prison guard, said.
When he was just shy of 12, Mr. Ross moved in with
his father’s father, who for a time was married
to his mother’s mother. The grandfather-grandson
relationship was and continues to be tumultuous.
“I idolized my grandpaps, but he’s an alcoholic
and he mentally abuses people,” Mr. Ross said.
His grandfather, 72, a former coal miner who sells
used cars, said, “I’m not an alcoholic. I can quit.
I just love the taste of it.”
The grandfather, who still keeps an A-plus English
test by Mr. Ross on his refrigerator, said his
grandson did well in school, even though he cared
most about his wrestling team, baseball, hunting
and fishing. Mr. Ross graduated in June 2001.
“Sammy wanted me to pay his way to college, but
I’m not financially fixed to do that,” his
grandfather said.
Feeling that Fayette County was a dead end,
Mr. Ross said he had wanted to find a way out
after he graduated. One night in late 2001,
he said, he saw “one of those ‘Be all you can
be’ ads” on television. The next day, he went
to the mall and enlisted, getting a $3,000 bonus
for signing up to be a combat engineer.
From his first days of basic training, Mr. Ross
embraced the military as his salvation. “It was like,
‘Wow, man, I was born for the Army,’ ” he said.
“I was an adrenaline junkie. I was super, super fit.
I craved discipline. I wanted adventure. I was
patriotic. I loved the bonding. And there was
nothing that I was feared of. I mean, man, I was
made for war.”
In early 2003, Private Ross, who earned his jump
wings as a parachutist, shipped off to Kuwait with
the 82nd Airborne Division, which pushed into Iraq
with the invasion in March. The early days of the
war were heady for many soldiers like Private Ross,
who reveled in the appreciation of Iraqis. He was
assigned to an engineer squad given the task of
rounding up munitions.
On May 18, Private Ross and his squad set out to
de-mine an area in south Baghdad. Moving quickly,
as they did on such operations, he collected about
15 UXO’s, or unexploded ordnances, in a pit. Somehow,
something — he never learned what — caused them
to detonate.
“The initial blast hit me and I went numb and
everything went totally silent,” he said. “Then
I hear people start hollering, ‘Ross! Ross! Ross!’
It started getting louder, louder, louder. My whole
body was mangled. I was spitting up blood. I faded
in and out. I was bawling my eyes out, saying, ‘Please
don’t let me go; don’t let me go.’ ”
A Casualty of War
When his relatives first saw Mr. Ross at Walter Reed
Army Hospital in Washington, he was in a coma.
“That boy was dead,” his grandfather said. “We was
looking at a corpse lying in that bed.”
As he lay unconscious, the Army discharged him —
one year, four months and 18 days after he enlisted,
by his calculation. After 31 days, Mr. Ross came
off the respirator. Groggily but insistently, he pointed
to his eyes and then to his leg. An aunt gingerly
told him he was blind and an amputee. He cried
for days, he said.
It was during Mr. Ross’s stay at Walter Reed that
Representative Murtha, a former Marine colonel, first
met his young constituent and presented him with
a Purple Heart.
From the start of the war, Mr. Murtha said in an
interview, he made regular, painful excursions to
visit wounded soldiers. Gradually, those visits,
combined with his disillusionment about the Bush
administration’s management of the war, led him
to call in late 2005 for the troops to be brought
home in six months.
“Sam Ross had an impact on me,” Mr. Murtha said.
“Eventually, I just felt that we had gotten to
a point where we were talking so much about winning
the war itself — and it couldn’t be won militarily —
that we were forgetting about the results of the war
on individuals like Sam.”
Over the next three years, Mr. Ross underwent more
than 20 surgical procedures, including: “Five on my
right eye, one on my left eye, two or three when they
cut my left leg off, three or four on my right leg,
a couple on my throat, skin grafts, chest tubes and,
you know, one where they gutted me from belly button
to groin” to remove metal fragments from his intestines.
But, although he was prescribed psychiatric medication,
he never received in-patient treatment for the post-
traumatic stress disorder that was diagnosed
at Walter Reed. And, in retrospect he, like his
relatives, said he believes he should have been put
in an intensive program soon after his urgent physical
injuries were addressed.
“They should have given him treatment before they
let him come back into civilization,” his grandfather
said.
A Hero’s Welcome
The parade, on a sunny day in late summer 2003,
was spectacular. Hundreds of flag-waving locals
lined the streets. Mr. Ross had just turned 21.
Wearing his green uniform and burgundy beret, he
rode in a Jeep, accompanied by other veterans and
the Connellsville Area Senior High School Marching
Band. The festivities included bagpipers, Civil
War re-enactors and a dunking pool.
“It wasn’t the medals on former Army Pfc. Sam Ross’s
uniform that reflected his courage yesterday,” The
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote. “It was the Dunbar
native’s poise as he greeted well-wishers and insisted
on sharing attention with other soldiers that proved
the grit he’ll need to recover from extensive injuries
he suffered in Iraq.”
For a little while, “it was joy joy, happiness
happiness,” Mr. Ross said. He felt the glimmerings
of a new kind of potential within himself, and saw
no reason why he could not go on to college, even law
school. Then the black moods, the panic attacks,
the irritability set in. He was dogged by chronic
pain; fragments of metal littered his body.
Mr. Ross said he was “stuck in denial” about his
disabilities. The day he tried to resume a favorite
pastime, fishing, hit him hard. Off-balance on the water,
it came as a revelation that, without eyesight, he did
not know where to cast his rod. He threw his equipment
in the water and sold his boat.
“I just gave up,” he said. “I give up on everything.”
About a year after he was injured, Mr. Ross enrolled
in an in-patient program for blind veterans in Chicago.
He learned the Braille alphabet, but his fingers were
too numb from embedded shrapnel to read, he said. He
figured that he did not have much else to learn since
he had been functioning blind for a year. He left the
program early.
Similarly, Mr. Ross repeatedly declined outpatient
psychiatric treatment at the veterans hospital in
Pittsburgh, according to the Department of Veterans
Affairs. He said he felt that people at the hospital
had disrespected him.
After living with relatives, Mr. Ross withdrew from
the world into the trailer on the hill in 2004.
That year, he got into a dispute with his grandfather
over old vehicles on the property, resolving it
by setting them on fire. His run-ins with local
law enforcement, which did not occur before he
went to Iraq, the Fayette County sheriff said,
had begun.
But his image locally had not yet been tarnished.
In early 2005, Mr. Murtha held a second Purple Heart
ceremony for Mr. Ross at a Fayette County hospital
“to try to show him how much affection we had for
him and his sacrifice,” Mr. Murtha said.
A local newspaper article about Mr. Ross’s desire
to build himself a house came to the attention
of Homes for Our Troops.
“He’s a great kid; he really is,” said Kirt Rebello,
the group’s director of projects and veterans affairs.
“Early on, even before he was injured, the kid had
this humongous deck stacked against him in life.
That’s one of the reasons we wanted to help him.”
Mr. Ross, who had received a $100,000 government payment
for his catastrophic injury, bought land adjacent to
his grandfather’s. Mr. Rebello asked Mr. Ross whether
he might prefer to move to somewhere with more services
and opportunities. But Mr. Ross said that Dunbar’s
winding roads were implanted in his psyche, “that he
could see the place in his mind,” Mr. Rebello said.
A Life Falls Apart
In May 2005, Mr. Ross broke up with a girlfriend
and grew increasingly depressed. He felt oppressively
idle, he said. One day, he tacked a suicide note
to the door of his trailer and hitched a ride to
a trail head, disappearing into the woods. A day
long manhunt ensued.
Mr. Ross fell asleep in the woods that night, waking
up with the sun on his face, which he took to be
a sign that God wanted him to live. When he was found,
he was taken to a psychiatric ward and released
after a few weeks.
The construction of his house proved a distraction
from his misery. Mr. Ross enjoyed the camaraderie
of the volunteers who fashioned him a cabin from
white pine logs. But when the house, which he
named Second Heaven, was finished in early 2006,
“they all left, I moved in and I was all alone,”
he said. “That’s when the drugs really started.”
At first, Mr. Ross said, he used drugs — pills,
heroin, crack and methadone — “basically to mellow
myself out and to have people around.” Local ne’er-
do-wells enjoyed themselves on Mr. Ross’s tab for
quite some time, his relatives said.
“These kids were loading him into a car, taking
him to strip clubs, letting him foot the bills,”
his uncle, Joseph Ross Jr., said. “They were
dopies and druggies.”
Mr. Ross’s girlfriend, Barbara Hall, moved in with him.
But relationships with many of his relatives had
deteriorated.
“If that boy would have come home and accepted
what happened to him, that boy never would have
wanted for anything in Dunbar,” his grandfather
said. “If he had accepted that he’s wounded and
he’s blinded, you know? He’s not the only one that
happened to. There’s hundreds of boys like him.”
Some sympathy began to erode in the town, too.
“There’s pro and con on him,” a local official said.
“Some people don’t even believe he’s totally blind.”
After overdosing first on heroin and then on
methadone last fall, Mr. Ross said, he quit
consuming illegal drugs, replacing them with drinking
until he blacked out.
Mr. Ross relied on his brother, Thomas, when he
suffered panic attacks. When Thomas was jailed
earlier this year, Mr. Ross reached out to older
members of his family. In early February, his uncle,
Joseph Ross Jr., persuaded him to be driven several
hours to the veterans’ hospital in Coatesville to
apply for its in-patient program for post-traumatic
stress disorder.
“Due to the severity of his case, they accepted him
on the spot and gave him a bed date for right after
Valentine’s Day,” his uncle said. “Then he wigged
out five days before he was supposed to go there.”
It started when his brother’s girlfriend, Monica
Kuhns, overheard a phone call in which he was arranging
to buy antidepressants. She thought it was a transaction
to buy cocaine, he said, and he feared that she would
tell his sister and brother.
After downing several beers, Mr. Ross, in a deranged
rage, went to his old trailer, where Ms. Kuhns was
living with her young son, he said.
“He started pounding on the door,” said Ms. Hall, who
accompanied him. “He went in and threatened to burn
the place down. Me and Monica didn’t actually think
he was going to do it. But then he pulled out the
lighter.”
Having convinced himself that the trailer — a source
of so much family misery — needed to be destroyed,
Mr. Ross set a pile of clothing on fire. The women
and the child fled. When a volunteer firefighter
showed up, Mr. Ross attacked and choked him, according
to a police complaint.
A judge set bail at $250,000. In the Fayette County
prison, Mr. Ross got “totally out of hand,” the sheriff,
Gary Brownfield, said. Mr. Ross’s lawyer, James Geibig,
said the situation was a chaotic mess.
“It was just a nightmare,” Mr. Geibig said. “First
the underlying charges — attempted homicide, come
on — were blown out of proportion. Then bail is set
sky high, straight cash. They put him in a little
cell, in isolation, and barely let him shower.
Things went from bad to worse until they found
him hanging.”
Now Mr. Geibig’s goal is to get Mr. Ross sentenced
into the post-traumatic stress disorder program
he was supposed to attend.
“He does not need to be in jail,” Mr. Geibig said.
“He has suffered enough. I’m not a bleeding heart,
but his is a pretty gut-wrenching tale. And at the
end, right before this incident, he sought out help.
It didn’t arrive in time. But it’s not too late,
I hope, for Sam Ross to have some kind of future.”
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14) Immigration Raid Yields 62 Arrests in Illinois
By LIBBY SANDER
April 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/us/05raid.html
CHICAGO, April 4 — Immigration agents arrested two managers
and 60 other employees of an industrial cleaning company
Wednesday on immigration violations and charges of identity
theft in an early morning raid at a meatpacking plant
in central Illinois.
The operation was the latest in a string of raids by agents
from Immigration and Customs Enforcement on companies accused
of employing illegal immigrants who, in some cases, are
alleged to have stolen the identities of American citizens
to create false identification documents.
The raid occurred at 1:30 a.m. at Cargill Meat Solutions
in Beardstown, a town of 6,000 people northwest of
Springfield, where the cleaning company, Quality Service
Integrity Inc., was under contract to clean Cargill’s
pork processing plant.
The two managers, who officials said are Mexicans in the
United States illegally, and 11 of the workers arrested
Wednesday were charged with aggravated identity theft.
Identity theft charges were brought against 14 additional
employees of the cleaning service, but they have not yet
been arrested, said Gail Montenegro, a spokeswoman for
the immigration agency.
Forty-nine employees were taken into custody for alleged
immigration violations. In all, 54 of the 62 people arrested
are from Mexico; 5 are from Guatemala; 2 from El Salvador
and 1 from Argentina, Ms. Montenegro said.
Eleven of the workers taken into custody were released
on humanitarian grounds, officials said.
Neither Cargill nor any of the 2,200 employees at its
Beardstown facility were objects of the investigation,
officials said.
The two managers are Gerardo DominGuez-Chacon, who manages
the cleaning company’s Beardstown operation, and Maria del
Pilar Marroquin de Ramirez, the company’s personnel administrator.
Both are charged in a criminal complaint with aggravated
identity theft and with “aiding and abetting aggravated identity
theft in connection with the alleged hiring of illegal
immigrants.” If convicted, they face at least two years
in prison.
Prosecutors said that the two managers knowingly hired
illegal immigrants and that Mr. DominGuez-Chacon provided
new employees with stolen identities and gave illegal
immigrants information on how to obtain false
identification documents.
The cleaning service is described on a company Web
site as a member of the Vincit Group, which is based
in Chattanooga, Tenn. A woman answering the telephone
at Vincit said no one was available to comment.
The investigation into the cleaning company’s hiring
practices began in January, officials said, and revealed
that most of the company’s work force was illegal
immigrants.
In December, immigration agents raided six meat-processing
plants operated by Swift and Company in six states,
detaining 1,282 immigrants believed to be in the country
illegally and charging 219 so far, mostly with identity
theft.
Since the Swift raids, smaller raids have occurred
in many states. Immigration authorities say they are
stepping up efforts to go after companies that engage
in the trafficking of false and stolen documents used
by illegal immigrants to obtain employment.
Last week, agents arrested 69 immigrants placed by
a temporary job agency, Jones Industrial Network, at
work sites in the Baltimore area. In early March, more
than 360 people, including the owner and three managers,
were arrested at Michael Bianco Inc., a leather goods
manufacturer in New Bedford, Mass.
Three days after the Massachusetts raid, charges were
brought against the president of Sun Drywall and Stucco,
an Arizona construction company, and seven managers
accused of hiring illegal immigrants.
And in Michigan, federal prosecutors brought charges
in February against three executives of Rosenbaum-
Cunningham International, a cleaning and maintenance
company, alleging that the three defrauded the federal
government of more than $18 million in employment taxes
owed on behalf of hundreds of illegal immigrant workers.
Nearly 200 immigrant workers in 17 states and the District
of Columbia were arrested as part of the investigation.
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15) Senator Feinstein's War Profiteering
Democratic Blood Money
By JOSHUA FRANK
April 4, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.com/frank04042007.html
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California silently
resigned from her post on the Military Construction
Appropriations subcommittee (MILCON) late last week
as her ethical limbo with war contracts began to surface
in the media, including an excellent investigative report
written by Peter Byrne for Metro in January. MILCON has
supervised the appropriations of billions of dollars
in reconstruction contracts since the Bush wars began.
Feinstein, who served as chairperson and ranking member
for the committee from 2001-2005, came under fire early
last year in these pages for profiting by way of her
husband Richard Blum who, until 2005, held large stakes
in two defense contracting companies. Both businesses,
URS and Perini, have scored lucrative contracts in Iraq
and Afghanistan in the last four years, and Blum has
personally pocketed tens of millions of dollars off the
deals his wife, along with her colleagues, so graciously
approved.
Here's a brief rundown of the Feinstein family's blatant
war profiteering. In April 2003, the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers gave $500 million to Perini to provide
services for Iraq's Central Command. A month earlier
in March 2003, Perini was awarded $25 million to design
and construct a facility to support the Afghan National
Army near Kabul. And in March 2004, Perini was awarded
a hefty contract worth up to $500 million for "electrical
power distribution and transmission" in southern Iraq.
But it is not just Perini that has made Feinstein and
Blum wealthy. Blum also held over 111,000 shares of stock
in URS Corporation, which is now one of the top defense
contractors in the United States. Blum was an acting
director of URS, which bought EG&G, a leading provider
of technical services and management to the U.S. military,
from the neocon packed Carlyle Group back in 2002.
"As part of EG&G's sale price," reports the San Francisco
Chronicle, "Carlyle acquired a 21.74 percent stake in
URS -- second only to the 23.7 percent of shares controlled
by Blum Capital."
URS and Blum have since banked on the war in Iraq,
attaining a $600 million contract through EG&G, which
Sen. Feinstein permitted. As a result, URS has seen its
stock price more than triple since the war began in March
of 2003. Blum has cashed in over $2 million on this
venture alone and another $100 million for his
investment firm.
And it is not just the Feinstein family that has
benefited from the war -- so too has the Democratic
Party. Since 2000, the Democrats' Daddy Warbucks has
donated over $100,000 to the Democratic Senatorial
Committee including leading Democrats including John
Kerry, Robert Byrd, Ted Kennedy, and even Barbara Boxer.
Feinstein's resignation from MILCON was the least the
senator could do to atone for profiting off the spoils
of war. But Feinstein wasn't trying to atone, she seems
to have been trying to cover her tracks instead by
distancing herself from her post. If the Democratic
Party had any foresight whatsoever it would return
all the Blood Money donated by Blum. From there the
Senate ought to hold hearings and examine Feinstein's
tenure as the chair and ranking member of MILCON and
analyze every single contract she approved which
benefited her husband's respective companies.
There is absolutely no question -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein
has a plethora of ethics violations she needs to account
for at once.
Joshua Frank is the author of Left Out! How Liberals
Helped Reelect George W. Bush and edits www.BrickBurner.org
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16) Reflections of the Commander in Chief
THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF GENOCIDE
April 3, 2007
By Fidel Castro Ruz
GRANMA
April 4, 2007
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/english/news/art84.html
The Camp David meeting has just come to
an end. All of us followed the press
conference offered by the presidents
of the United States and Brazil
attentively, as we did the news surrounding
the meeting and the opinions
voiced in this connection.
Faced with demands related to customs
duties and subsidies which protect and
support US ethanol production, Bush
did not make the slightest concession to
his Brazilian guest at Camp David.
President Lula attributed to this the
rise in corn prices, which, according
to his own statements, had gone up more
than 85 percent.
Before these statements were made,
the Washington Post had published an
article by the Brazilian leader which
expounded on the idea of transforming
food into fuel.
It is not my intention to hurt Brazil
or to meddle in the internal affairs
of this great country. It was in effect
in Rio de Janeiro, host of the
United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development, exactly 15 years
ago, where I delivered a 7-minute
speech vehemently denouncing the
environmental dangers that menaced
our species' survival. Bush Sr., then
President of the United States, was
present at that meeting and applauded my
words out of courtesy; all other
presidents there applauded, too.
No one at Camp David answered the
fundamental question. Where are the more
than 500 million tons of corn and
other cereals which the United States,
Europe and wealthy nations require
to produce the gallons of ethanol that
big companies in the United States and
other countries demand in exchange
for their voluminous investments going
to be produced and who is going to
supply them? Where are the soy, sunflower
and rape seeds, whose essential
oils these same, wealthy nations are to
turn into fuel, going to be produced
and who will produce them?
Some countries are food producers which
export their surpluses. The balance
of exporters and consumers had already
become precarious before this and
food prices had skyrocketed. In the
interests of brevity, I shall limit
myself to pointing out the following:
According to recent data, the five
chief producers of corn, barley, sorghum,
rye, millet and oats which Bush wants
to transform into the raw material of
ethanol production, supply the world
market with 679 million tons of these
products. Similarly, the five chief
consumers, some of which also produce
these grains, currently require 604 million
annual tons of these products.
The available surplus is less than
80 million tons of grain.
This colossal squandering of cereals
destined to fuel production -and these
estimates do not include data on oily
seeds-shall serve to save rich
countries less than 15 percent of the
total annual consumption of their
voracious automobiles.
At Camp David, Bush declared his intention
of applying this formula around
the world. This spells nothing other
than the internationalization of
genocide.
In his statements, published by the
Washington Post on the eve of the Camp
David meeting, the Brazilian president
affirmed that less than one percent
of Brazil's arable land was used to
grow cane destined to ethanol
production. This is nearly three times
the land surface Cuba used when it
produced nearly 10 million tons of
sugar a year, before the crisis that
befell the Soviet Union and the advent
of climate changes.
Our country has been producing and
exporting sugar for a longer time. First,
on the basis of the work of slaves,
whose numbers swelled to over 300
thousand in the first years of the 19th
century and who turned the Spanish
colony into the world's number one
exporter. Nearly one hundred years later,
at the beginning of the 20th century,
when Cuba was a pseudo-republic which
had been denied full independence by
US interventionism; it was immigrants
from the West Indies and illiterate
Cubans alone who bore the burden of
growing and harvesting sugarcane on the
island. The scourge of our people
was the off-season, inherent to the
cyclical nature of the harvest.
Sugarcane plantations were the
property of US companies or powerful
Cuban-born landowners. Cuba, thus,
has more experience than anyone as
regards the social impact of this crop.
This past Sunday, April 1, the CNN
televised the opinions of Brazilian
experts who affirm that many lands
destined to sugarcane have been purchased
by wealthy Americans and Europeans.
As part of my reflections on the subject,
published on March 29, I expounded
on the impact climate change has
had on Cuba and on other basic
characteristics of our country's
climate which contribute to this.
On our poor and anything but consumerist
island, one would be unable to find
enough workers to endure the rigors
of the harvest and to care for the
sugarcane plantations in the ever more
intense heat, rains or droughts. When
hurricanes lash the island, not even
the best machines can harvest the
bent-over and twisted canes. For centuries,
the practice of burning
sugarcane was unknown and no soil was
compacted under the weight of complex
machines and enormous trucks. Nitrogen,
potassium and phosphate fertilizers,
today extremely expensive, did not yet
even exist, and the dry and wet
months succeeded each other regularly.
In modern agriculture, no high yields
are possible without crop rotation methods.
On Sunday, April 1, the French Press
Agency (AFP) published disquieting
reports on the subject of climate
change, which experts gathered by the
United Nations already consider an
inevitable phenomenon that will spell
serious repercussions for the world
in the coming decades.
According to a UN report to be approved
next week in Brussels, climate
change will have a significant impact
on the American continent, generating
more violent storms and heat waves and
causing droughts, the extinction of
some species and even hunger in Latin
America.
The AFP report indicates that the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) forewarned that at the end of
this century, every hemisphere will
endure water-related problems and,
if governments take no measures in this
connection, rising temperatures could
increase the risks of mortality,
contamination, natural catastrophes
and infectious diseases.
In Latin America, global warming is
already melting glaciers in the Andes
and threatening the Amazon forest, whose
perimeter may slowly be turned into
a savannah, the cable goes on to report.
Because a great part of its population
lives near the coast, the United
States is also vulnerable to extreme natural
phenomena, as hurricane Katrina
demonstrated in 2005.
According to AFP, this is the second
of three IPCC reports which began to be
published last February, following
an initial scientific forecast which
established the certainty of climate
change.
This second 1400-page report which
analyzes climate change in different
sectors and regions, of which AFP has
obtained a copy, considers that, even
if radical measures to reduce carbon
dioxide emissions that pollute the
atmosphere are taken, the rise in
temperatures around the planet in the
coming decades is already unavoidable,
concludes the French Press Agency.
As was to be expected, at the Camp
David meeting, Dan Fisk, National
Security advisor for the region,
declared that "in the discussion on
regional issues, [I expect] Cuba to
come up (.) if there's anyone that knows
how to create starvation, it's Fidel
Castro. He also knows how not to do
ethanol".
As I find myself obliged to respond
to this gentleman, it is my duty to
remind him that Cuba's infant mortality
rate is lower than the United
States'. All citizens -this is beyond
question-enjoy free medical services.
Everyone has access to education and
no one is denied employment, in spite
of nearly half a century of economic
blockade and the attempts of US
governments to starve and economically
asphyxiate the people of Cuba.
China would never devote a single ton
of cereals or leguminous plants to the
production of ethanol, and it is an
economically prosperous nation which is
breaking growth records, where all
citizens earn the income they need to
purchase essential consumer items, despite
the fact that 48 percent of its
population, which exceeds 1.3 billion,
works in agriculture. On the
contrary, it has set out to reduce
energy consumption considerably by
shutting down thousands of factories
which consume unacceptable amounts of
electricity and hydrocarbons. It imports
many of the food products mentioned
above from far-off corners of the world,
transporting these over thousands
of miles.
Scores of countries do not produce
hydrocarbons and are unable to produce
corn and other grains or oily seeds,
for they do not even have enough water
to meet their most basic needs.
At a meeting on ethanol production held
in Buenos Aires by the Argentine Oil
Industry Chamber and Cereals Exporters
Association, Loek Boonekamp, the
Dutch head of the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD)'s commercial and marketing division,
told the press that governments
are very much enthused about this process
but that they should objectively
consider whether ethanol ought to be
given such resolute support.
According to Boonekamp, the United States
is the only country where ethanol
can be profitable and, without subsidies,
no other country can make it viable.
According to the report, Boonekamp
insists that ethanol is not manna from
Heaven and that we should not blindly
commit to developing this process.
Today, developed countries are pushing
to have fossil fuels mixed with
biofuels at around five percent and
this is already affecting agricultural
prices. If this figure went up to
10 percent, 30 percent of the United
States' cultivated surface and 50
percent of Europe's would be required.
That is the reason Boonekamp asks
himself whether the process is
sustainable, as an increase in the
demand for crops destined to ethanol
production would generate higher
and less stable prices.
Protectionist measures are today at
54 cents per gallon and real subsidies
reach far higher figures.
Applying the simple arithmetic we learned
in high school, we could show how,
by simply replacing incandescent bulbs
with fluorescent ones, as I explained
in my previous reflections, millions
and millions of dollars in investment
and energy could be saved, without the
need to use a single acre of farming
land.
In the meantime, we are receiving news
from Washington, through the AP,
reporting that the mysterious disappearance
of millions of bees throughout
the United States has edged beekeepers
to the brink of a nervous breakdown
and is even cause for concern in Congress,
which will discuss this Thursday
the critical situation facing this insect,
essential to the agricultural
sector. According to the report, the
first disquieting signs of this enigma
became evident shortly after Christmas
in the state of Florida, when
beekeepers discovered that their bees
had vanished without a trace. Since
then, the syndrome which experts have
christened as Colony Collapse Disorder
(CCD) has reduced the country's swarms
by 25 percent.
Daniel Weaver, president of the US Beekeepers
Association, stated that more
than half a million colonies, each with
a population of nearly 50 thousand
bees, had been lost. He added that the
syndrome has struck 30 of the
country's 50 states. What is curious
about the phenomenon is that, in many
cases, the mortal remains of the bees
are not found.
According to a study conducted by Cornell
University, these industrious
insects pollinate crops valued at anywhere
from 12 to 14 billion dollars.
Scientists are entertaining all kinds
of hypotheses, including the theory
that a pesticide may have caused the
bees' neurological damage and altered
their sense of orientation. Others lay
the blame on the drought and even
mobile phone waves, but, what's certain
is that no one knows exactly what
has unleashed this syndrome.
The worst may be yet to come: a new
war aimed at securing gas and oil
supplies that can take humanity to
the brink of total annihilation.
Invoking intelligence sources, Russian
newspapers have reported that a war
on Iran has been in the works for
over three years now, since the day the
government of the United States
resolved to occupy Iraq completely,
unleashing a seemingly endless and
despicable civil war.
All the while, the government of
the United States devotes hundreds of
billions to the development of highly
sophisticated technologies, as those
which employ micro-electronic systems
or new nuclear weapons which can
strike their targets an hour following
the order to attack.
The United States brazenly turns a deaf
ear to world public opinion, which
is against all kinds of nuclear weapons.
Razing all of Iran's factories to the
ground is a relatively easy task, from
the technical point of view, for a powerful
country like the United States.
The difficult task may come later,
if a new war were to be unleashed against
another Muslim faith which deserves
our utmost respect, as do all other
religions of the Near, Middle or Far
East, predating or postdating
Christianity.
The arrest of English soldiers at
Iran's territorial waters recalls the
nearly identical act of provocation
of the so-called "Brothers to the
Rescue" who, ignoring President Clinton's
orders advanced over our country's
territorial waters. Cuba's absolutely
legitimate and defensive action gave
the United States a pretext to promulgate
the well-known Helms-Burton Act,
which encroaches upon the sovereignty
of other nations besides Cuba. The
powerful media have consigned that
episode to oblivion. No few people
attribute the price of oil, at nearly
70 dollars a gallon as of Monday, to
fears of a possible invasion of Iran.
Where shall poor Third World countries
find the basic resources needed to
survive?
I am not exaggerating or using overblown
language. I am confining myself to
the facts.
As can be seen, the polyhedron has many dark faces.
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17) Guantánamo Follies
Editorial
April 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/06/opinion/06fri1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
There has been much speculation about the Supreme Court’s
decision not to hear an appeal from a group of Guantánamo
Bay inmates until they have exhausted their legal options.
Was the court signaling that the appeal had no merit? Were
the court’s liberals waiting for a better chance to review
President Bush’s unconstitutional detention system for
“illegal enemy combatants”?
Whatever the justices’ intentions, we saw one clear message
in their decision, and we hope that Nancy Pelosi, the House
speaker, and Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, saw
it too. It is past time for Congress to undo the grievous
damage done by President Bush’s abuse of the Constitution
when he created his system of secret prisons and public
internment camps to detain selected foreigners indefinitely
without any real legal challenge.
In the months since Congress passed the Military Commissions
Act of 2006, the administration has pushed ahead with the
show trials permitted by the law. Each development in that
courtroom brings fresh evidence of how urgent it is for
the courts to strike down that law and for Congress to
rewrite it.
The plea bargain: Last month, after being held at
Guantánamo for five years, David Hicks, an Australian
citizen, pleaded guilty to a single, relatively minor
charge in exchange for his freedom. This deal should
infuriate any side of the debate.
Americans who support Mr. Bush’s policy on prisoners
accepted its premise: that the people in Guantánamo are
so dangerous that letting any out will compromise American
security. If an injustice were committed here or there,
Americans would just have to grit their teeth. How does
that square with allowing Mr. Hicks to go home and quickly
go free? Worse, the plea bargain seemed timed to help
Prime Minister John Howard, a Bush ally whose inaction
on the case was becoming a re-election issue in Australia.
For Americans, like us, who are sickened by the Guantánamo
prison, the Hicks bargain was emblematic of its lawless
nature. If there was evidence that Mr. Hicks was a terrorist,
we have yet to see it. He was declared an illegal combatant
by a kangaroo court created to confirm that designation,
which had been applied long before. He was denied a lawyer
and censored by the court when he tried to pursue abuse
charges. Under his plea bargain he gave up his right
to sue, repudiated his own accounts of abuse and was
even barred from talking to the news media about his
experience.
To understand why Mr. Hicks still found that sort of deal
attractive, remember that once a person is declared an “
illegal enemy combatant,” he faces a lifetime in detention.
He might be released by a “combatant status tribunal,” but
his chances are very slim, and the process mocks civilized
standards of justice. If the prisoner is one of the very
few that the Pentagon plans to charge with a crime, he
will be brought before a military tribunal. That court
may use evidence obtained through hearsay, coercion or
even torture. If convicted, there is little likelihood
that he will be released after serving his time.
If acquitted, he just goes back to being an illegal
combatant who can be held for life.
The censored confession: On March 14, Abd al-Rahim al
Nashiri, accused of the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole and
other crimes, went before a combatant status tribunal.
According to a transcript, Mr. Nashiri said he was tortured.
But it is Mr. Bush’s policy that no prisoner may allege
torture in public, so this is what appeared in the
transcript:
PRESIDENT (of the tribunal): Please describe the methods
that were used.
DETAINEE: (CENSORED) What else do I want to say? (CENSORED)
There were doing so many things. What else did they did?
(CENSORED) After that another method of torture began.
(CENSORED) They used to ask me questions and the investigator
after that used to laugh. And, I used to answer the answer
that I knew. And if I didn’t replay what I heard, he used
to (CENSORED).
Officials defended this censorship by arguing that
interrogation methods are so secret that they cannot
be discussed, even by the prisoner. But they also said
that Al Qaeda members are trained to claim torture and
that Mr. Nashiri lied. If so, why censor the transcript?
His answers can’t help Al Qaeda. Tragically, the most
likely answer is to spare United States intelligence
agents and their bosses, who could face charges if
the Military Commissions Act is ever repealed or
rewritten. The law gives a retroactive carte blanche
to American interrogators for any abuse they may
have committed.
The lawsuit: The case the Supreme Court turned down
this week was filed by Guantánamo inmates who contend
that their detention was illegal and that the Military
Commissions Act is unconstitutional. We agree. Holding
people without evidence or charges or trial is barbaric,
as is denying them the right to challenge their detention
in a real court, a right generally referred to as habeas
corpus.
Both violate the Constitution, and the court should strike
down the Military Commissions Act of 2006, and the Detainee
Treatment Act of 2005, which limits avenues for appeal.
But Congress approved the military commissions, left in place
the combatant status review tribunals and suspended habeas
corpus. Mr. Reid and Ms. Pelosi have a moral obligation
to lead the way to righting these wrongs.
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18) All That You Can Be
Risk Management
by Lauren Collins
April 9, 2007
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2007/04/09/070409ta_talk_collins
In the wake of a rise in substantiated instances
of misconduct by its recruiters, the United States
military, it was reported last month, is considering
installing surveillance cameras in its recruiting
stations. The military may also want to assess the
tactics that its employees use in the virtual realm.
This admissions season, an Army recruiter has been
e-mailing recent college graduates with the offer
of hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarship
money to pay for medical school, in exchange for
four years of service. Nothing new there. What’s
surprising is his assertion to students that they
would be better off in Baghdad than in Georgetown.
Susan Kahane, who is twenty-two, graduated from
Columbia last spring. When she took the MCAT,
in August, she checked a box to signal that she
wished to receive information about outside sources
of financial aid. Soon, she was inundated with
e-mails from the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force
(“FREE MEDICAL SCHOOL!!!”). One, sent on January 31st
by Captain Christopher D. Mayhugh, of the Army
Medical Service Corps, stood out. “Upon finishing
your residency,” the message read, “you will be
assigned to one of a variety of locations including
Germany, Italy and Hawaii and your obligation will
be complete.” (The Medical Service Corps’s Web page,
in contrast, notes prominently that its officers
have participated in combat operations in Korea,
Kosovo, Somalia, Panama, and Iraq.)
Mayhugh’s omission of Iraq, Kahane recalled last week,
“seemed a little bit strange.” Still, she said,
“These e-mails were often slightly tempting to me,
because of my worries about paying for medical school.”
On March 14th, Kahane received another e-mail from
Mayhugh, with the subject “Medical school scholarships
still available.” This time, rather than invoking
European and tropical destinations, Mayhugh addressed
the prospect of being posted to a less than desirable
locale. “What if you get sent to Iraq?” he wrote
in the letter’s final paragraph. He continued:
Well, consider this: there has been an average of
160,000 troops in the Iraq theater of operations during
the last 22 months, and a total of 2112 deaths, that
gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000. The rate
in Washington, D.C. is 80.6 per 100,000. That means
that you are about 25% more likely to be shot and
killed in our Nation’s Capitol, which has some
of the strictest gun control laws in the nation,
than you are in Iraq.
Kahane recalled, “After reading it once, I felt
strongly that something was wrong, but I didn’t
know what.” She looked up the figures and did the
math herself, and found that all the statistics
in the e-mail were either outdated or incorrect,
and that, even if they had been correct, Mayhugh
seemed to be comparing a yearly figure for Washington
with a monthly one for Iraq. (Going by Mayhugh’s
numbers, there would be nearly fifteen gun murders
in Washington every day. In reality, there were
about three murders, of any kind, per week in 2006.
In the same period, an average of sixteen American
troops died each week in Iraq.) Kimberly Thompson,
an associate professor of risk analysis and decision
science at Harvard’s School of Public Health, agreed,
last week, to evaluate Mayhugh’s claim and found the
discrepancy even starker. In her estimate, the risk
of being killed in Iraq is ten times higher than
the risk of being killed in Washington, D.C. “The
recruiter’s e-mail message is really amazingly
misleading,” she said.
It turns out, as Kahane learned with a subsequent
Google search, that “D.C. is more dangerous than
Iraq” is a well-worn canard. Representative Steve
King, a Republican from Iowa, promulgated a variation,
involving his wife’s safety, last year on the floor
of the House, while Mayhugh’s paragraph was plucked,
verbatim, from an e-mail that circulated in 2005.
The realization that Mayhugh’s message derived—one
could see, with nominal research—from a Web fallacy
was dispiriting to Kahane. She had written a letter
to Mayhugh, but didn’t send it. “I thought, I guess
he knows the math isn’t right, so what’s the point
of telling him?” she said.
Reached last week at his office in Maryland, Mayhugh
stood by the e-mail, saying, “Most people’s perception
of Iraq is that ‘Oh, my God, people are being murdered
over there by the thousands.’ I think if you look at
any type of situation where you have several hundred
thousand people on the ground and now you throw in the
fact that what they’re doing is dangerous and they
have very big heavy vehicles and firearms with live
ammunition, the number of people being killed over
there is pretty small.”
He acknowledged that the paragraph had come from
a forwarded e-mail, but said that, before pasting
it into his pitch, he had done “some simple calculations”
that supported its conclusions. “In what I’ve seen
in dealing with the war and the misperceptions of it,”
he said, “it seemed to me like those would be the right
numbers.” He went on, “I work in D.C. on a daily basis,
and I’m afraid to get out of my car in a lot of places.
I hear about police officers being murdered every day
in D.C. and Baltimore. And I’ve had thousands of friends
and colleagues go to Iraq and come back safely.”
Illustration: TOM BACHTELL
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19) No hope in Guantánamo
BY JOSHUA COLANGELO-BRYAN
MIAMI HERALD
Apr. 05, 2007
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/v-print/story/64032.html
On Monday, I was at Guantánamo Bay to meet with Jumah
Al Dossari, one of the detainees my firm represents.
As always, I spent the first few hours of our meeting
trying to convince Jumah to fight the desperation
and hopelessness that threaten what little spirit
he has left.
Jumah has been at Guantánamo for more than five
years. The government has never charged him with
a crime and does not accuse him of taking any action
against the United States. For several years, Jumah
has been held alone in solid-wall cells from which
he cannot see other detainees or communicate except
by yelling. He has spent 22 to 24 hours a day by
himself in these cells. He has been short shackled,
threatened with death and, once, severly beaten.
Interrogators have told him that he will be at
Guantánamo for the next 50 years and that there
is no law at Guantánamo.
Sometimes the idea of spending the rest of his
life locked up thousands of miles from his family
is too much for Jumah. On Oct. 15, 2005, I walked
into an interview room to visit him. There was
blood on the floor. I looked up and saw Jumah
hanging by his neck from the other side of a metal
mesh wall that divided his cell from our meeting
area. He was bleeding from a gash in his arm.
I couldn't reach Jumah because the door to the
cell was locked. I yelled for guards who came,
unlocked the door and cut the noose from Jumah's
neck. I was ordered out of the room but later learned
that Jumah had survived. Since that day, Jumah
has tried to kill himself three times. Last spring
he slashed his throat with a razor, spraying blood
on the ceiling of his cell.
During our meeting on Monday, we talked about Jumah's
court case, a bleak—and therefore dangerous—subject.
I explained again that the Bush administration insists
it may detain anyone it designates an ''enemy combatant''
forever without a trial. I explained how Congress blessed
that notion in last year's Military Commissions Act,
which bars foreign ''enemy combatants'' from going to
court to challenge that designation. I explained that
lawyers for the detainees had challenged the act as
unconstitutional, but that in February a federal appeals
had ruled against us on the grounds that people like
Jumah have no rights.
Desperately wanting to boost his spirits, I also told
Jumah that there was reason to be optimistic. We had
asked the Supreme Court to review the appeals court
decision and we felt pretty sure that our request
would be granted. Were that to happen, Jumah might
be a step closer to a court hearing.
At noon, I went to the galley—as the cafeteria at
Guantánamo is called—to get lunch for Jumah and myself.
While waiting for a burger, I glanced up at a television
tuned to CNN. Text ran across the bottom of the screen:
``Supreme Court refuses to hear Guantánamo detainee
appeals until alternative procedures are exhausted.''
Our request—the one reason I had given Jumah to be
optimistic—had been denied. The Supreme Court was
saying it might consider the detainees' cases, but
not until the detainees subjected themselves
to proceedings created by the Military Commissions Act.
It is a disturbing ruling because the government
says the purpose of these proceedings is not to
determine if a detainee is actually an ''enemy combatant''
but rather to determine if the military followed its own
rules in applying the ''enemy combatant'' label. For that
reason, detainees will have no chance to produce evidence
of their innocence that the military didn't consider
or to challenge the use of evidence obtained through
torture. Worse yet, these procedures will be held
before the same appeals court that recently found
the detainees have no rights at all.
I walked slowly back to the room where Jumah sat
shackled. I wondered if there was a good way to tell
a suicidal man that all three branches of our government
appear content to let him rot at Guantánamo. Nothing
came to mind.
Maybe I shouldn't have worried. Jumah's reaction
to bad legal news has become as muted as his emotions
generally. He long ago stopped believing that a court
will ever hear his case and thinks I'm naive for hoping
otherwise. Instead, Jumah believes that he has been
condemned to live forever on an island where there
is no law. He may well be right.
Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, an attorney, represents
several Guantánamo detainees.
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20) WE'VE BEEN SURGING FOR YEARS
By Don Monkerud
TomPaine.com
April 6, 2007
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/04/06/weve_been_surging_for_years.php
The number of U.S. forces involved in Iraq are at least twice the number
quoted in the media. The administration uses a number of deceptions,
definitional illusions and euphemisms -- including counting only "combat
forces" and "military personnel" -- to drastically undercount the invasion
force.
Even President Bush's January announcement of a "surge" of 21,500 U.S.
troops, opposed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has now morphed into 30,000
troops with an additional "headquarters staff" of 3,000 -- or more than 50
percent more than the official number. The currently reported total U.S.
military in Iraq is 145,000, forces which are required to occupy a country
slightly more than twice the size of Idaho.
The real number is almost impossible to find in government-released
information, even with a great amount of interpretation. It’s hidden
because few in the administration want to disclose the true extent of vast
U.S. resources invested in personnel, material, and other costs.
GlobalSecurity.org is a public policy organization that provides
background information on defense and homeland security. They note that
keeping track of American forces has become "significantly more difficult
as the military seeks to improve operational security and to deceive
potential enemies and the media as to the extent of American operations."
According to John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, there are a number
of other reasons affecting the accurate counting of the number of military
forces involved in Iraq. Large numbers of troops are activated with
unspecified duties to unspecified areas; many small units from various
locations are being mobilized from the Army and National Guard, which
count units differently; and groups rotate in and out of Iraqi so quickly
it's impossible for anyone but the Pentagon to calculate how many are
there. The Pentagon tracks these numbers, but Pike says they aren't
telling.
"We only try to nail the numbers down when we think Americans are getting
ready to blow someone up," Pike says. "The Pentagon knows the numbers and
we have certainly not done anything to highball it. Certainly, if there's
a chance to release or hold numbers, they are parsimonious."
Additionally, private enterprise military "contractors" almost double the
number of U.S. forces in Iraq. After four contractors were hung from a
bridge in Fallujah in March 2004, the Bush administration stonewalled
congressional efforts to force the Pentagon to release information about
the number of contractors in Iraq. Finally, the Pentagon reported a total
of 25,000.
In "The Market for Force: The Consequences of Privatizing Security,"
Deborah D. Avant, director for the Institute for Global and Internal
Studies at George Washington University, reports that official numbers are
difficult to find, but "This is the largest deployment of U.S. contractors
in a military operation."
In October, the military's first census of contractors totaled 100,000,
not counting subcontractors. And in February 2007, the Associated Press
reported 120,000 contractors (which would put Bush's "surge" closer to
50,000). Contractors, which some call mercenaries, provide support
services essential to maintaining the U.S. military presence in Iraq. Ten
times the number of contractors employed during the Persian Gulf War,
these contract mercenaries now cook meals, interrogate prisoners, fix flat
tires, repair vehicles, and provide guard duty.
Military personnel formerly filled these types of jobs until former
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld instituted his "Total Force" plan,
which relies on a smaller U.S. military force with "its active and reserve
military components, its civil servants, and its contractors." Senator
Jim Webb of Virginia called this a "rent-an-army."
What are the total of U.S. forces are in Iraq? The government reported
145,000 U.S. military forces in Iraq, but John Pike estimates the current
total at 150,000. Another 20,000 will arrive as part of the "surge," a
last gasp public relations effort to save the operation from total
failure.
John Pike estimates another 30,000 are "in the theater" to provide
"Operation Iraqi Freedom" support. The Army and Marines have another
10,000 to 20,000 in Kuwait, and a nearby Air Force wing-bombing group has
5,000. Current naval exercises in the Persian Gulf, which represents a
show of force against Iran, include 10,000 U.S. personnel, the carrier
groups Eisenhower and the Stennis, and 15 warships.
Add the 120,000 contract mercenaries and the forces involved in the Iraqi
operation and the total comes to 300,000 to 360,000, more than twice the
"official" figure of 145,000 troops. This isn't counting the more than
5,000 British combat troops and navy, down from a high of 40,000 during
the initial invasion, or the ragtag remnants of the highly vaunted
"Coalition of the Willing," which has dwindled since the beginning of the
occupation to 27, mostly small, countries such as Armenia, Estonia,
Moldavia, and Latvia.
Manipulated figures and private military contractors provide the Bush
Administration with political cover to escape public scrutiny and keep
injuries, deaths, and secret operations out of the public eye. A more
accurate and honest view of participation in the Iraqi occupation by the
government could give Americans more reason to oppose the waste of lives
and resources on this ill-conceived, poorly planned, and disastrous
venture.
--Don Monkerud is an California-based writer who follows cultural, social
and political issues. He can be reached at monkerud@cruzio.com.
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21) Permanent drought predicted for Southwest
"Study says global warming threatens to create a
Dust Bowl-like period. Water politics could
also get heated."
By Alan Zarembo and Bettina Boxall
Times Staff Writers
April 6, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-swdrought6apr06,0,122112.story?coll=la-home-headlines
The driest periods of the last century ˜ the Dust
Bowl of the 1930s and the droughts of the 1950s ˜
may become the norm in the Southwest United
States within decades because of global warming,
according to a study released Thursday.
The research suggests that the transformation may
already be underway. Much of the region has been
in a severe drought since 2000, which the study's
analysis of computer climate models shows as the
beginning of a long dry period.
The study, published online in the journal
Science, predicted a permanent drought by 2050
throughout the Southwest ˜ one of the fastest-
growing regions in the nation.
The data tell "a story which is pretty darn scary
and very strong," said Jonathan Overpeck, a
climate researcher at the University of Arizona
who was not involved in the study.
Richard Seager, a research scientist at
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia
University and the lead author of the study, said
the changes would force an adjustment to the
social and economic order from Colorado
to California.
"There are going to be some tough decisions on
how to allocate water," he said. "Is it going to
be the cities, or is it going to be agriculture?"
Seager said the projections, based on 19 computer
models, showed a surprising level of agreement.
"There is only one model that does not have
a drying trend," he said.
Philip Mote, an atmospheric scientist at the
University of Washington who was not involved in
the study, added, "There is a convergence of the
models that is very strong and very worrisome."
The future effect of global warming is the
subject of a United Nations report to be released
today in Brussels, the second of four installments
being unveiled this year.
The first report from the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change was released in February. It
declared that global warming had become a
"runaway train" and that human activities were
"very likely" to blame.
The landmark report helped shift the long and
rancorous political debate over climate change
from whether man-made warming was real to what
could be done about it.
The mechanics and patterns of drought in the
Southwest have been the focus of increased
scrutiny in recent years.
During the last period of significant, prolonged
drought ˜ the Medieval Climate Optimum from about
the years 900 to 1300 ˜ the region experienced
dry periods that lasted as long as 20 years,
scientists say.
Drought research has largely focused on the
workings of air currents that arise from
variations in sea-surface temperature in the
Pacific Ocean known as El Niño and La Niña.
The most significant in terms of drought is La
Niña. During La Niña years, precipitation belts
shift north, parching the Southwest.
The latest study investigated the possibility of
a broader, global climatic mechanism that could
cause drought. Specifically, they looked at the
Hadley cell, one of the planet's most powerful
atmospheric circulation patterns, driving weather
in the tropics and subtropics.
Within the cell, air rises at the equator, moves
toward the poles and descends over the subtropics.
Increasing levels of greenhouse gases, the
researchers said, warms the atmosphere, which
expands the poleward reach of the Hadley cell.
Dry air, which suppresses precipitation, then
descends over a wider expanse of the
Mediterranean region, the Middle East
and North America.
All of those areas would be similarly affected,
though the study examined only the effect on
North America in a swath reaching from Kansas to
California and south into Mexico.
The researchers tested a "middle of the road"
scenario of future carbon dioxide emissions to
predict rainfall and evaporation. They assumed
that emissions would rise until 2050 and then
decline. The carbon dioxide concentration in the
atmosphere would be 720 parts per million in
2100, compared with about 380 parts per million
today.
The computer models, on average, found about a
15% decline in surface moisture ˜ which is
calculated by subtracting evaporation from
precipitation ˜ from 2021 to 2040, as compared
with the average from 1950 to 2000.
A 15% drop led to the conditions that caused the
Dust Bowl in the Great Plains and the northern
Rockies during the 1930s.
Even without the circulation changes, global
warming intensifies existing patterns of vapor
transport, causing dry areas to get drier and wet
areas to get wetter. When it rains, it is likely
to rain harder, but scientists said that was
unlikely to make up for losses from a shifting
climate.
Kelly Redmond, deputy director of the Western
Regional Climate Center in Reno, who was not
involved in the study, said he thought the region
would still have periodic wet years that were
part of the natural climate variation.
But, he added, "In the future we may see fewer
such very wet years."
Although the computer models show the drying has
already started, they are not accurate enough to
know whether the drought is the result of global
warming or a natural variation.
"It's really hard to tell," said Connie
Woodhouse, a paleoclimatologist at the University
of Arizona. "It may well be one of the first
events we can attribute to global warming."
The U.S. and southern Europe will be better
prepared to deal with frequent drought than
most African nations.
For the U.S., the biggest problem would be water
shortages. The seven Colorado River Basin states
˜ Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico,
Arizona and California ˜ would battle each other
for diminished river flows.
Mexico, which has a share of the Colorado River
under a 1944 treaty and has complained of U.S.
diversions in the past, would join the struggle.
Inevitably, water would be reallocated from
agriculture, which uses most of the West's
supply, to urban users, drying up farms.
California would come under pressure to build
desalination plants on the coast, despite
environmental concerns.
"This is a situation that is going to cause water
wars," said Kevin Trenberth, a scientist at the
National Center for Atmospheric Research
in Boulder, Colo.
"If there's not enough water to meet everybody's
allocation, how do you divide it up?"
Officials from seven states recently forged an
agreement on the current drought, which has left
the Colorado River's big reservoirs ˜ Lake Powell
and Lake Mead ˜ about half-empty. Without some
very wet years, federal water managers say,
Lake Mead may never refill.
In the next couple of years, water deliveries may
have to be reduced to Arizona and Nevada, whose
water rights are second to California.
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22) Democrats at War
WALL STREET JOURNAL
EDITORIAL
April 6, 2007; Page A10
[Via Email from: Walter Lippmann
walterlx@earthlink.net ...bw]
Democrats took Congress last fall in part by opposing the war in Iraq,
but it is becoming clear that they view their election as a mandate for
something far more ambitious -- to wit, promoting and executing their own
foreign policy, albeit without the detail of a Presidential election.
Their intentions were made plain this week with two remarkable acts by their
House and Senate leaders. Majority Leader Harry Reid endorsed Senator Russ
Feingold's proposal to withdraw from Iraq immediately, cutting off funds
entirely within a year. He promised a vote soon, as part of what the
Washington Post reported would also be a Democratic offensive to close
Guantanamo, reinstate legal rights for terror suspects, and improve
relations with Cuba.
Meanwhile, Speaker Nancy Pelosi made her now famous sojourn to Syria,
donning a head scarf and advertising that she was conducting shuttle
diplomacy between Jerusalem and Damascus. If there was any doubt that her
trip was intended as far more than a routine Congressional "fact-finding"
trip, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Tom Lantos put it to rest by declaring
that, "We have an alternative Democratic foreign policy. I view my job as
beginning with restoring overseas credibility and respect for the United
States."
Americans should understand how extraordinary this is. There have been
previous battles over U.S. foreign policy and fierce domestic criticism.
In the 1990s, these columns defended Bill Clinton against "the Republican
drift toward isolationism and political opportunism" amid the Kosovo
conflict. But rarely in U.S. history have Congressional leaders sought to
conduct their own independent diplomacy, with the Speaker acting as a Prime
Minister traveling with a Secretary of State in the person of Mr. Lantos.
Yes, Congressional Republicans have visited Syria too. But Ms. Pelosi isn't
some minority back-bencher. Without a Democrat in the White House, she and
Mr. Reid are the national leaders of their party. Even Newt Gingrich, for
all his grand domestic ambitions in 1995, took a muted stand on foreign
policy, realizing that in the American system the executive has the bulk of
national security power. He also understood he would do the country no
favors by sending a mixed message to our enemies -- at the time, Slobodan
Milosevic.
What was Ms. Pelosi hoping to accomplish, other than embarrassing President
Bush? "We were very pleased with reassurances we received from the president
that he was ready to resume the peace process," she told reporters after
meeting with dictator Bashar Assad. "We expressed our interest in using our
good offices in promoting peace between Israel and Syria."
She purported to convey a message from Israel's Ehud Olmert expressing
similar interest in "the peace process," except that the Israeli Prime
Minister felt obliged to issue a clarification noting that Ms. Pelosi had
got the message wrong. Israel hadn't changed its policy, which is that it
will negotiate only when Mr. Assad repudiates his support for terrorism and
stops trying to dominate Lebanon. As a shuttle diplomat, Ms. Pelosi needs
some practice.
Mr. Lantos probably got closer to their real intentions when he told
reporters that "This is only the beginning of our constructive dialogue
with Syria, and we hope to build on it." The Pelosi cavalcade is intended
to show that if only the Bush Administration would engage in "constructive
dialogue," the Syrians, Israelis and everyone else could all get along.
This is the same Syrian regime that has facilitated the movement of money
and insurgents to kill Americans in Iraq; that has been implicated by a U.N.
probe in the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri; and that
has snubbed any number of U.S. overtures since the fall of Saddam Hussein in
2003. Perhaps if he works hard enough, Mr. Lantos can match the 22 visits to
Damascus that Bill Clinton's Secretary of State Warren Christopher made in
the 1990s trying to squeeze peace from that same stone.
In fact, Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Lantos both voted for the Syria Accountability
and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003 that ordered Mr. Bush to
choose from a menu of six sanctions to impose on Damascus. Mr. Bush chose
the weakest two sanctions and dispatched a new Ambassador to Syria in a
goodwill gesture in 2004. Only later, in the wake of the Hariri murder and
clear intelligence of Syria's role in aiding Iraqi Baathists, did Mr. Bush
conclude that Mr. Assad's real goal was to reassert control over Lebanon and
bleed Americans in Iraq.
With her trip, Ms. Pelosi has now reassured the Syrian strongman that
Mr. Bush lacks the domestic support to impose any further pressure on his
country. She has also made it less likely that Mr. Assad will cooperate with
the Hariri probe, or assist the Iraqi government in defeating Baathist and
al Qaeda terrorists.
* * *
Back in Washington, Harry Reid says his response to Mr. Bush's certain veto
of his Iraq spending bill will be to escalate. He now supports cutting off
funds and beginning an immediate withdrawal, even as General David
Petraeus's surge in Baghdad unfolds and shows signs of promise. If Mr. Bush
were as politically cynical as Democrats think, he'd let Mr. Reid's policy
become law. Then Democrats would share responsibility for whatever mayhem
happened next.
So this is Democratic foreign policy: Assure our enemies that they can
ignore a President who still has 21 months to serve; and wash their hands of
Baghdad and of their own guilt for voting to let Mr. Bush go to war. No
doubt Democrats think the President's low job approval, and public
unhappiness with the war, gives them a kind of political immunity. But we
wonder.
Once we leave Iraq, America's enemies will still reside in the Mideast; and
they will be stronger if we leave behind a failed government and bloodbath
in Iraq. Mr. Bush's successor will have to contain the damage, and that
person could even be a Democrat. But by reverting to their Vietnam message
of retreat and by blaming Mr. Bush for all the world's ills, Democrats on
Capitol Hill may once again convince voters that they can't be trusted with
the White House in a dangerous world.
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LINKS AND VERY SHORT STORIES
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A civil rights revolution with 'netroots' origins
"A14-year-old black girl from tiny Paris, Texas, was sent
to a youth prison for up to seven years for shoving
a hall monitor at her high school.
The same judge sentenced a 14-year-old white girl
to probation for burning down her family's house."
April 5, 2007
http://www.insidebayarea.com/opinion/ci_5599216
Questions Linger About Bushes and BCCI Bank
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/05/326/
Canadian Seal Hunt Opens Again Amidst Outcry
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/05/332/
World Health Day: How Much Can Iraq Survive
Inter Press Service
Ali al-Fadhily
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
http://uruknet.info/?p=m31918&s1=h1
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37236
Federal Official in Student Loans Held Loan Stock
By JONATHAN D. GLATER and KAREN W. ARENSON
April 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/06/education/06loans.html?hp
Pope's book accuses rich nations of robbery
· Benedict hails Marx's analysis of modern man
· Publication planned for 80th birthday
John Hooper in Rome
Guardian
"Pope Benedict appeared to reach out to the anti-globalisation
movement yesterday, attacking rich nations for having
"plundered and sacked" Africa and other poor regions
of the world.
An extract published from his first book since being elected
pope highlighted the passionately anti-materialistic and
anti-capitalist aspects of his thinking. Unexpectedly,
the Pope also approvingly cited Karl Marx and his analysis
of contemporary man as a victim of alienation."
April 5, 2007
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2050255,00.html
None of the Democratic Contenders Has Called for the
Closure of the Guantanamo Prison Of Confessions and Torture
By MARGARET KIMBERLY
April 4, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.com/kimberly04042007.html
Quota Quickly Filled on Visas for High-Tech Guest Workers
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The federal Citizenship and Immigration Services reached
its 2008 limit for skilled-worker visa petitions in a single
day and says it will not accept any more, to the dismay
of technology companies that rely on the visas to hire
foreign employees.
The agency began accepting petitions Monday for the fiscal
year starting Oct. 1 and said it received about 150,000
applications by midafternoon.
The temporary H-1B visas are for foreign workers with
high-technology skills or in specialty occupations.
Congress has mandated that the immigration agency
limit the visas granted to 65,000, although the cap
does not apply to petitions made on behalf of current
H-1B holders, and an additional 20,000 visas can be
granted to applicants who hold advanced degrees from
American academic institutions.
The agency said it would use computers to pick visa
recipients randomly from the applications received
Monday and Tuesday. It will reject the rest of the
applications and return the filing fees.
Employers seek H-1B visas on behalf of scientists,
engineers, computer programmers and other workers
with theoretical or technical expertise. About one-
third of Microsoft’s 46,000 employees in the United
States have work visas or are legal permanent residents
with green cards, said Ginny Terzano, a spokeswoman
for the company.
“We are trying to work with Congress to get the cap
increased,” Ms. Terzano said. “Our real preference
here is that there not be a cap at all.”
Compete America, a coalition that includes Microsoft,
the chip maker Intel, the business software company
Oracle and others, voiced its opposition to the
visa cap in a statement Tuesday.
“Our broken visa policies for highly educated foreign
professionals are not only counterproductive, they
are anticompetitive and detrimental to America’s
long-term economic competitiveness,” said Robert
E. Hoffman, an Oracle vice president and co-chairman
of Compete America.
April 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/business/05visa.html
California: Plea for a Shorter Sentence
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The lawyer and parents of John Walker Lindh, the American-
born Taliban soldier serving 20 years in prison after his
capture in Afghanistan, called on President Bush to commute
his sentence and set him free. The renewed call to shorten
the sentence was based on a nine-month term that David Hicks,
an Australian, received Saturday after pleading guilty to
supporting terrorism. “In the atmosphere of the time, the
best John could get was a plea bargain and a 20-year
sentence,” said Mr. Lindh’s father, Frank Lindh. The White
House did not return a call seeking comment.
April 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/us/05brfs-PLEAFORASHOR_BRF.html
Castro Again Chides U.S. on Ethanol Plan
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HAVANA, April 4 (AP) — The ailing Cuban leader Fidel
Castro returned to the public debate — if not view —
for the second time in less than a week on Wednesday
with a column in the Communist Party newspaper Granma.
Mr. Castro, 80, chided the Bush administration for its
support of ethanol production for automobiles, a move
that he said would leave the world’s poor hungry.
It was his second article on the issue in less than
a week, indicating that he is increasingly eager to
have his voice heard on international matters, eight
months after stepping down as Cuba’s president because
of illness.
Cuba has experimented with using sugar cane for ethanol
production, but now that the United States has embraced
the idea, Mr. Castro and his ally Hugo Chávez, the
president of Venezuela, have expressed concern that
rich countries will buy up the food crops of poor nations
to meet their energy needs, threatening millions with
starvation.
April 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/world/americas/05cuba.html
Havana rights
Calvin Tucker
March 28, 2007 8:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/calvin_tucker/2007/03/the_street_sce
ne_was_entertain.html
Marking Time, Making Do
By JOHN FREEMAN GILL
NY Times, April 1, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/nyregion/thecity/01subw.html
What They Didn't Teach Us in Library School
The Public Library as an Asylum for the Homeless
By Chip Ward
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=180836
Freedom Fight Against 'Freedom Champions'
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail
"DOHA, Apr 2 (IPS) - The al-Jazeera television network could
be emerging as a freedom champion against U.S. pressures
on the channel, leading media figures say."
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
One Safety Net Is Disappearing. What Will Follow?
By DAVID LEONHARDT
April 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/business/04leonhardt.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1175715826-TzzMluaV9e3apBlAiCHwpQ
The Latest Trend in Corporate America
Circuit City's Guinea Pigs
By SHARON SMITH
April 4, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.org/sharon04042007.html
An Arid West No Longer Waits for Rain
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD and KIRK JOHNSON
April 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/us/04drought.html?ref=us
Three Yale Students Arrested for Flag Burning
By JOHN HOLUSHA
Three Yale University students were arrested early Tuesday
morning for burning an American flag on a pole attached
to a house in New Haven, the Yale Daily News reported today.
The three men, all of foreign origin, were charged with
offenses ranging from reckless endangerment to arson and
were held in jail Tuesday night after a judge refused to
release them without bail.
According to the newspaper, the New Haven police said the
men — two freshmen and a senior — first attracted police
attention at about 3 a.m. Tuesday when they asked two offcers
for directions back to their residence. They were identified
as Said Hyder Akbar, 23, Nikolaos Angelopoulos, 19, and
Farhad Anklesaria, also 19.
The two officers returned to the neighborhood shortly
afterward and found the flag burning in front of a house.
One officer pulled down the flag to keep the fire from
spreading and the other tracked down the three men. The
police said the men admitted to starting the blaze, the
newspaper reported.
Mr. Anklesaria was identified as a British subject and
Mr. Angelopoulos as a citizen of Greece. Mr. Akbar was
born in Pakistan and is a naturalized American citizen,
the newspaper said.
Mr. Akbar is the author of a published memoir, “Come
Back to Afghanistan,” describing his experiences over
three summers spent observing reconstruction efforts
in Afghanistan and acting as an informal translator
for American forces there.
April 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/nyregion/04cnd-yale.html?hp
Iran to Release 15 Britons Held Since March 23
By SARAH LYALL and CHRISTINE HAUSER
April 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/04/world/middleeast/04cnd-iran.html?hp
Documents Show Secret FBI Unit Targeted Antiwar Group
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040307R.shtml
Hang Up on War
Posted on Apr 3, 2007
By Amy Goodman
http://www.truthdig .com/report/ item/hang_ up_on_war/
"Beyond Vietnam,"
Martin Luther King Address
To the Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam
Riverside Church
4 April 1967
New York City
http://www.africanamericans.com/MLKjrBeyondVietnam.htm
Time in the Animal Mind
By CARL ZIMMER
April 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/science/03time.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin
Robert Fisk: The war of humiliation
Published: 02 April 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2412764.ece
US anti-Zionist synagogue gutted
"A synagogue of an anti-Zionist Jewish group has been
destroyed in a fire.
The blaze tore through a synagogue of Neturei Karta
near New York and the residence of a senior rabbi.
Police have established a crime scene and are investigating
the cause of the fire. The ultra-orthodox group has recently
been the target of threats.
In December, five members of the community attended
a conference for Holocaust deniers in Iran and met
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Arson claims
Rabbi Moshe Beck, who lives in the building in the town
of Monsey - about 30 miles (48km) from New York -
was in London when the fire broke out, said Neturei
Karta member Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss.
Mr Weiss said the group believes it was targeted by
arsonists because it had previously received threats.
'There's no question that the issue is to stifle the
opposition to Zionism,' he said to AP news agency.
Police would not confirm whether they were treating
the fire as suspicious.
Neturei Karta opposes the existence of the state
of Israel on religious grounds.
Members of the group - whose name means 'Guardians
of the City' - believe Jews should live under Arab
Muslim rule until the Messiah comes."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6518033.stm
Justices Rule Against White House on Emissions
By DAVID STOUT
April 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/washington/02cnd-scotus.html?hp
Crime Intensifies Debate Over Taping of Suspects
By ERIC LIPTON and JENNIFER STEINHAUER
April 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/washington/02taping.html?ref=us
Poor Nations to Bear Brunt as World Warms
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
April 1, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/science/earth/01climate.html?hp
The Fake Fight Over the Iraq War
That Was an Antiwar Vote?
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
and JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
March 31 / April 1, 2007
Weekend Edition
http://www.counterpunch.com/cockburn03312007.html
Judge Allows Private Testing for Mad Cow
By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writers
Thursday, March 29, 2007
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/03/29/national/w153913D29.DTL&hw=mad+cow&sn=001&sc=1000
Residents of Fallujah Fear a US 'Genocidal Strategy'
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/03/30/188/
Gulf Hits Snags in Rebuilding Public Works
By LESLIE EATON
March 31, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/31/us/31fema.html?ref=us
Bill to Legalize Abortion Set to Pass in Mexico City
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
March 31, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/31/world/americas/31mexico.html?ref=world
Olmert Rejects Right of Return for Palestinians
By STEVEN ERLANGER
March 31, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/31/world/middleeast/31mideast.html?ref=world
How did the real hero of the anti-slavery movement
get airbrushed out of history?
By ISABEL WOLFF
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=444105&in_page_id=1770
Disuse of System Is Cited in Gaps in Soldiers’ Care
By IAN URBINA and RON NIXON
March 30, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/washington/30medical.html?hp
New York City to Reward Poor for Doing Right Thing
By DIANE CARDWELL
March 30, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/nyregion/30poverty.html?ref=nyregion
White House Proposal Would Move Illegal Immigrants
Off the Citizenship Path
By RACHEL L. SWARNS
White House officials have issued a discussion document
on immigration that calls for legislation that would grant
legal status to illegal immigrants and guest workers, but
would not put them on a path to citizenship. It would allow
illegal immigrants to remain in the country indefinitely,
under certain conditions, and would require guest workers
to leave the country after six years. The document, drafted
after several meetings with Republican senators, was
designed to garner broad Republican support for key
immigration principals. Democratic and Republican
senators are negotiating in hope of coming to a consensus
on an immigration bill.
March 30, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/washington/30brfs-citizen.html
Cuba: Castro Criticizes U.S. Biofuel Policies
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, lashed out against American plans
to increase use of renewable fuels, mainly ethanol, in a front-page
article in the Communist Party newspaper, Granma, warning that
food stocks for millions of people would be threatened. The article,
titled “Condemned to Premature Death by Hunger and Thirst —
More Than 3 Billion People of the World,” said that if the United
States and other wealthy nations decided to import huge amounts
of traditional crops like corn from poorer countries to help meet
their energy needs, “you will see how many people among the hungry
masses of our planet will no longer consume corn.” “Or even worse,”
it continued, “by offering financing to poor countries to produce
ethanol from corn or any other kind of food, no tree will be left
to defend humanity from climate change.” They were his first
comments on international issues since Mr. Castro took ill last July.
In recent weeks, several senior Cuban officials have indicated that
he might soon take a more active role and even return
to the presidency.
March 30, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/world/americas/30briefs-castro.html
Opposition to the War Growing Among Troops
by Sarah Olson
March 30, 2007
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/solson.php?articleid=10742
Two Radical Immigrants, Framed for Murder, Executed by the State
Sacco and Vanzetti Revisited
By MARLENE MARTIN
March 29, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.org/martin03292007.html
Havana rights
Plans to legalise gay marriage and offer sex change
operations free of charge mean Cuba is set to become
the most socially liberal country in the Americas.
March 28, 2007 8:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/calvin_tucker/2007/03/the_street_scene_was_entertain.html
Eighteen Months After Katrina
"When it is all said and done, there has been a lot more said than done."
http://www.justiceforneworleans.org/index.php?module=article&view=83&page_num=1
Study Says Junk Food Still Dominates Youth TV
By ELIZABETH OLSON
March 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/business/media/29adco.html
Located in Hospital, DNA Clears Buffalo Man Convicted in ’80s Rapes
By DAVID STABA
March 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/nyregion/29bike.html?ref=nyregion
Texas: Deal on Juvenile Prisons
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lawmakers and the governor vowed to abolish the Texas Youth
Commission’s board in favor of a juvenile prison czar. The plan
puts the agency into a conservatorship for now and allows a single
executive to take it over later. The commission has been in turmoil
since a two-year-old sexual abuse investigation surfaced a month
ago. Lawmakers still must introduce legislation and vote on the plan.
Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, made Jay Kimbrough the conservator.
Mr. Kimbrough, left, said that he would fire immediately 111
commission employees who have felony convictions and that
superintendents of commission facilities and other top officials
would have to reapply for their jobs.
March 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/us/29brfs-DEALONJUVENI_BRF.html
California: Sentences in Immigrant Hiring
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Two executives at a fence-building company were sentenced
to six months of home confinement for hiring illegal immigrants.
The men, Mel Kay, founder, chairman and president of the business,
Golden State Fence Company of Riverside, and Michael McLaughlin,
a manager, had pleaded guilty to knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.
In addition, the two were sentenced to three years’ probation.
Also, Mr. Kay was fined $200,000; McLaughlin agreed
to pay $100,000.
March 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/us/29brfs-SENTENCESINI_BRF.html
Colleges Hiring Lenders to Field Queries on Aid
By JONATHAN D. GLATER
March 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/education/29loans.html?ref=us
Street Violence by Paris Youths Intrudes Again Into French Politics
By KATRIN BENNHOLD
March 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/world/europe/29paris.html
Inside the secretive plan to gut the Endangered Species Act
"Proposed regulatory changes, obtained by Salon, would destroy the
'safety net for animals and plants on the brink of extinction,'
say environmentalists.'
By Rebecca Clarren
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/03/27/endangered_species/
Pennsylvania: Negligence Is Cited in Deadly Mine Explosion
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Federal investigators found “flagrant violations” at a Pennsylvania
mine where a worker died last year in a methane gas explosion, the
federal Mine Safety and Health Administration said. The R&D Coal
Company did not ensure adequate ventilation, safe blasting practices
or proper preshift safety checks at the mine, Buck Mountain Slope,
directly contributing to the Oct. 23 death of Dale Reightler, 43,
a veteran miner, federal officials said. The miners conducting the
blasting that day were not qualified to handle explosives and set
them off before other miners could get to a safe area, investigators
found. State regulators have revoked R&D’s permit to operate the
Buck Mountain site, in Schuylkill County about 80 miles northwest
of Philadelphia. R&D officers did not respond to requests for comment.
March 27, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/27/us/27brfs-mine.html
Black Politicians Chicken Out on Reparations
Black Press International
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=44ad0172db35b08198274c68176d54e7
Failing Schools See a Solution in Longer Day
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO
March 26, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/26/us/26schoolday.html?ref=us
Aged, Frail and Denied Care by Their Insurers
By CHARLES DUHIGG
March 26, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/26/business/26care.html?hp
Chavez Launches Formation of Unified Socialist Party of Venezuela
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007
By: Chris Carlson - Venezuelanalysis.com
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2250
Four Years Later in Iraq
Where are the Laptop Bombardiers Now?
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
Weekend Edition
March 24 / 25, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.com/cockburn03242007.html
The Women’s War
By SARA CORBETT
Editors' Note Appended
March 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/magazine/18cover.html
City Police Spied Broadly Before G.O.P. Convention
By JIM DWYER
For at least a year before the 2004 Republican National Convention,
teams of undercover New York City police officers traveled to cities
across the country, Canada and Europe to conduct covert observations
of people who planned to protest at the convention, according
to police records and interviews.
March 25, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/nyregion/25infiltrate.html?hp
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GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
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A NEW LOOK AT U.S. RADIOACTIVE WEAPONS
Join us in a campaign to expose and stop the use of these illegal weapons
http://poisondust.org/
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You may enjoy watching these.
In struggle
Che:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqcezl9dD2c
Leon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukkFVV5X0p4
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FIGHTBACK! A Collection of Socialist Essays
By Sylvia Weinstein
http://www.walterlippmann.com/sylvia-weinstein-fightback-intro.html
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[The Scab
"After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad,
and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with
which he made a scab."
"A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul,
a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue.
Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten
principles." "When a scab comes down the street,
men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and
the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out."
"No man (or woman) has a right to scab so long as there
is a pool of water to drown his carcass in,
or a rope long enough to hang his body with.
Judas was a gentleman compared with a scab.
For betraying his master, he had character enough
to hang himself." A scab has not.
"Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.
Judas sold his Savior for thirty pieces of silver.
Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of
a commision in the british army."
The scab sells his birthright, country, his wife,
his children and his fellowmen for an unfulfilled
promise from his employer.
Esau was a traitor to himself; Judas was a traitor
to his God; Benedict Arnold was a traitor to his country;
a scab is a traitor to his God, his country,
his family and his class."
Author --- Jack London (1876-1916)...Roland Sheppard
http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret]
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END ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL!
Stop funding Israel's war against Palestine
Complete the form at the website listed below with your information.
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?
JServSessionIdr003=cga2p2o6x1.app2a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=177
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Sand Creek Massacre
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html
On November 29, 1864, 700 Colorado troops savagely slaughtered
over 450 Cheyenne children, disabled, elders, and women in the
southeastern Colorado Territory under its protection. This act
became known as the Sand Creek Massacre. This film project
("The Sand Creek Massacre" documentary film project) is an
examination of an open wound in the souls of the Cheyenne
people as told from their perspective. This project chronicles
that horrific 19th century event and its affect on the 21st century
struggle for respectful coexistence between white and native
plains cultures in the United States of America.
Listed below are links on which you can click to get the latest news,
products, and view, free, "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" award-
winning documentary short. In order to create more native
awareness, particularly to save the roots of America's history,
please read the following:
Some people in America are trying to save the world. Bless
them. In the meantime, the roots of America are dying.
What happens to a plant when the roots die? The plant dies
according to my biology teacher in high school. American's
roots are its native people. Many of America's native people
are dying from drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, hunger,
and disease, which was introduced to them by the Caucasian
male. Tribal elders are dying. When they die, their oral
histories go with them. Our native's oral histories are the
essence of the roots of America, what took place before
our ancestors came over to America, what is taking place,
and what will be taking place. It is time we replenish
America's roots with native awareness, else America
continues its decaying, and ultimately, its death.
You can help. The 22-MINUTE SAND CREEK MASSACRE
DOCUMENTARY PRESENTATION/EDUCATIONAL DVD IS
READY FOR PURCHASE! (pass the word about this powerful
educational tool to friends, family, schools, parents, teachers,
and other related people and organizations to contact
me (dvasicek@earthlink.net, 303-903-2103) for information
about how they can purchase the DVD and have me come
to their children's school to show the film and to interact
in a questions and answers discussion about the Sand
Creek Massacre.
Happy Holidays!
Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html
SHOP:
http://www.manataka.org/page633.html
BuyIndies.com
donvasicek.com.