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NEXT Meeting to defeat pro-JROTC referendum set for November Ballot in SF
TUESDAY, AUGUST 5, 7:15-9:00 pm
Friends Meeting House
65 9th St, San Francisco (between Mission and Market Sts)
To RSVP or for additional information, please contact Alan Lessik at AFSC at 565.0201, x11 or alessik@afsc.org.
PLEASE NOTE: JOB OPENING
AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE
Pacific Mountain Regional Office
Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer
The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization which includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace, and humanitarian service. Its work is based on the Quaker belief in the worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice.
Contract Position Available
Title: No on Military Recruitment in our Schools Campaign Organizer
Location: San Francisco, CA
Hours: 40-60 Hours/Week
Contract Amount: $3000 per month from August 7-November 7 (3 months).
BACKGROUND: The work of the American Friends Service Committee to promote peace, social justice, and humanitarian service is rooted in the experience and faith of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). While AFSC contractors are not required to belong to any particular denomination or faith, they are expected to understand and support AFSC’s Quaker foundations. These guiding principals are based on the belief in that of God in every person, and the right of each person to reach his or her full potential.
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: The No on Military Recruitment in our Schools Campaign Organizer will serve as staff to the Committee and coordinate volunteers and efforts to defeat the San Francisco ballot proposition on JROTC in the November election.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
1. Manage the day to day operations of the No on X campaign; coordinate with the campaign committee;
2. Recruit, coordinate, manage and train volunteers in campaign messaging, fundraising, canvassing and phone banking;
3. Identify community, civic, peace, ethnic, political, labor, faith-based, educational and LGBT organizations that can be partners in the campaign; Coordinate outreach and make presentations to these groups;
4. Identify political, labor and other organizations making ballot endorsements; develop timetable of endorsement meetings; identify key members that are allies to this campaign; work with those members to prepare presentation for a no endorsement;
5. Make contacts with local print and broadcast media, especially those media making endorsements; arrange meeting to present the case for a No vote; work with friendly journalists to provide materials and information to support the no vote;
6. Coordinate fundraising events;
7. Provide administrative back-up to Treasurer to assure compliance with all state and local campaign committee regulations;
8. Coordinate logistics for volunteer phone banking and canvassing.
ACCOUNTABILITY: The organizer will report to Alan Lessik, Regional Director of AFSC. On a daily basis, the organizer will work closely with the Committee on X, No Military Recruitment in our Schools.
QUALIFICATIONS/EXPERIENCE:
1. Experience in organizing for ballot proposition campaigns.
2. Experience, knowledge and contacts in diverse San Francisco communities, including political clubs and organizations, peace organizations, community organizations, school groups, LGBT groups, ethnic communities, faith-based organizations and other local organizations.
3. Self-starter, ability to work with little supervision, comfort with both team and independent work.
4. Knowledgeable of military recruitment, peace and school issues.
SKILLS REQUIRED:
1. Ability to organize in communities and bring people together to work toward a specific goal; knowledge of campaign organizing on ballot initiatives;
2. Ability to recruit, manage and retain volunteers;
3. Ability to take the initiative in handling and following up on program details;
4. Computer and clerical skills adequate for correspondence and routine office chores, including database experience;
5. Excellent public speaker and good written skills;
6. Bi-lingual in English and one other language is highly desirable.
To Apply: Letter and resume by August 1, 2008. Contact Alan Lessik.
Send to AFSC, 65 Ninth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103; fax: (415) 565-0204; alessik@afsc.org
Work to begin as soon as possible in August.
The American Friends Service Committee is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified persons are encouraged to apply regardless of their religious affiliation, race, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or disability.
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AMERICANS DO NOT SANCTION THE RECRUITMENT OF CHILDREN!
Say NO! to "America's Army"
Video-Game Targets Children as Young as 13.
South Park Game Companies Profit from Illegal Recruitment Program!
Rally and Action
Wednesday, August 6, 12 Noon
South Park - between 2nd and 3rd, Bryant and Brannan streets.
actagainstwar.net takedirectaction@riseup.net
“America’s Army” is a game developed by the U.S. military to instruct players in “Army values,” portray the army in a positive light, and increase potential recruits. The “game” is the property and brainchild of the US Army, which admit freely, and with pride, that it is one of their principal recruitment tools.
America’s Army has been available since 2002 as a free download or as a CD available in recruiting stations. It is published and distributed by Ubisoft right here in South Park. Ubisoft is not the only South Park neighbor engaged in the development of the game, Gameloft is working on the cell phone application and Secret Level was a designer on the 2005 Xbox version. The game has been granted a “teen” rating, allowing 13 year olds to play.
The military recruitment of children under the age of 17, however, is a clear violation of international law (the U.N. Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict). No attempt to recruit children 13-16 is allowed in the United States, pursuant to treaty. In May, the American Civil Liberties Union published a report that found the armed services regularly target children under 17 for military recruitment. The report highlighted the role of “America’s Army,” saying the Army uses the game to “attract young potential recruits . . . train them to use weapons, and engage in virtual combat and other military missions”, adding that the game “explicitly targets boys 13 and older.”
It is also important to consider the effects of the game within the context of the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Undoubtedly, soldiers now recruited through “America’s Army” will serve in these wars. The invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan are violations of international law, and contributing to their continuation through the propagation of the game is, if not a criminal violation, a moral outrage.
The game is having an effect. An informal study showed that 4 out of 100 new recruits in Ft. Benning, Georgia credit America’s Army as the primary factor in convincing them to join the military. 60% of those recruits said they played the game more than five times a week. And a 2004 Army survey found that nearly a third of young Americans ages 16 to 24 had some contact with the game in the previous six months.
This August 6, on the 63rd Anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, come out and ask the Producers and developers of America’s Army to stop helping the Army recruit children.
We are asking you to consider three steps:
1. Support for our campaign against America’s Army
2. Sign our letter and endorse this campaign.
3. Participate in our upcoming event on Hiroshima Day (Wed., Aug. 6), at noon, in South Park (btw 2nd/3rd, Bryant/Brannan), asking these companies to either withdraw from their Army contracts or provide a warning label: “This game is designed to recruit children in violation of international law. Military service can be hazardous to your health.”
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In front of the Marine Recruiting Station on Shattuck Ave
AUGUST 6TH @ 12NOON - 4pm
Press Conference @ 12:30pm
Join CodePINK, MECA, Courage to Resist, Women in Black, Gray Panthers and others;
To PROTEST the use of nuclear bombs on this horrific 'anniversary' of the bombing of HIROSHIMA, marking us as the ONLY nation in the world to use atomic weapons against a civilian population!
STAND STRONG against the threatened bombing of Iran, again in our name!
And find out what support there is in Berkeley for free speech and the right to protest!
JOIN US at the MRS (Marine Recruiting Station), noon to 4:00pm - with our constitutional rights and responsibilities to protest.
Your presence is crucial!!! Stand with us for peace, our Constitutional rights, AND in remembrance of the lives lost in Hiroshima!
We are also still looking for entertainment for the day, like spoken word, theater, or anything else! If you, or someone you know would like to perform at this event, please call KEIKO at (707) 334-7071
PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO APPROPRIATE E-MAIL LISTS!!!
Call Keiko 707-334-7071 or Judy 415-51906355 for more info or email info AT bayareacodepink DOT org.
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Monday August 14 - 7:30 pm
David Rovics Concert
Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists
1924 Cedar St. at Bonita, a block east of MLK Jr. Way, Berkeley 948709
The "musical version of Democracy Now" per Amy Goodman! "The peace
poet and troubador for our time" per Cindy Sheehan!
Rovics is a radical and progressive singer and songwriter.
$15
co-sponsored by BFUU's Social Justice Committee
wheelchair accessible
510 528 4941
www.bfuu.org
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American Joe
Lisa Reynal’s story about one soldier on his way to Afghanistan and the effect that America’s war on terror has had on the lives around him.
--Chronicle
Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8:00 P.M. through August 15, 2008
fee/admission: $15-$35
Marsh Studio
1074 Valencia St. (at 22nd Street)
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 826-5750
(Mission/Bernal Heights)
www.themarsh.org
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SAN FRANCISCO IS A SANCTUARY CITY! STOP THE MIGRA-ICE RAIDS!
Despite calling itself a "sanctuary city", S.F. politicians are permitting the harrassment of undocumented immigrants and allowing the MIGRA-ICE police to enter the jail facilities.
We will picket any store that cooperates with the MIGRA or reports undocumented brothers and sisters. We demand AMNESTY without conditions!
BRIGADES AGAINST THE RAIDS
project of BARRIO UNIDO
(415)431-9925
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"Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about his religion. Respect others in their views and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and of service to your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
"Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, or even a stranger, if in a lonely place. Show respect to all people, but grovel to none. When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.
"Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home." by: Tecumseh -(1768-1813) Shawnee Chief
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Indicted, Sami Al-Arian Faces Possible Life Imprisonment new
John Halliwell, July 1, 2008
Last March, Sami Al-Arian was given a choice: 1) damned if you do; and 2) damned if you don't; he chose "damned if you don't". Finally, a full three months after making that decision, he was formally charged last Thursday with contempt of court, a crime which has no maximum penalty. In other words, Dr. Al-Arian - a man whose innocence has been grudgingly admitted by even his worst enemies* - is now facing the possibility of life in jail all because he had the guts to stand up for what he believes in--read more at: http://www.freesamialarian.com/home.htm
1. Call Senator Patrick Leahy ((202) 224- 4242) and Congressman John Conyers ((202) 225-5126) - the Judicial Committee chairmen of the Senate and House respectively - and ask them to meet with the Attorney General and have him stop Assistant US Attorney Gordon Kromberg from going forward with this unlawful indictment. Even if you are not their constituent, they are obliged to listen to your opinion since their duties extend to all Americans.
2. Fax a letter to the Office of Professional Responsibility at the US Department of Justice: (202) 514-5050.
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"Canada: Abide by resolution - Let U.S. war resisters stay!"
Dear Canada: Let Them Stay
Urgent action request—In wake of Parliament win, please sign this new letter to Canada.
By Courage to Resist
June 18, 2008
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/499/89/
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ARTICLES IN FULL:
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1) Wounded Warriors, Empty Promises
Editorial
July 25, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/opinion/25fri1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
2) Local Philanthropist Reacts to Judges Ruling in Rosenberg Spying Case
By Elizabeth Corridan
Posted: July 23, 2008 09:05 PM
http://www.wggb.com/Global/story.asp?S=8726542
3) After Iowa Raid, Immigrants Fuel Labor Inquiries
By JULIA PRESTON
July 27, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/us/27immig.html?hp
4) 4,000 U.S. Deaths, and Just a Handful of Images
By MICHAEL KAMBER and TIM ARANGO
July 26, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/world/middleeast/26censor.html?hp
5) Reports on Mine Collapse Criticize Operation and Oversight
By DAN FROSCH
July 26, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/us/26mine.html?ref=us
6) OSHA Seeks $8.7 Million Fine Against Sugar Company
By SHAILA DEWAN
July 26, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/us/26sugar.html?ref=us
7) Gates Wants to Shift $1.2 Billion to Bolster War Surveillance
By THOM SHANKER
July 26, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/us/26military.html?ref=us
8) In a Doll’s Head, Some in Harlem See a Setback
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS and JASON GRANT
July 26, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/nyregion/26harlem.html?ref=nyregion
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1) Wounded Warriors, Empty Promises
Editorial
July 25, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/opinion/25fri1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
The bad news about the Army’s treatment of wounded soldiers keeps coming. The generals keep apologizing and insisting that things are getting better, but they are not.
The latest low moment for Army brass came on Tuesday in Washington, where a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee held a hearing to examine the sorry state of the Army Medical Action Plan. That’s the plan to prevent the kind of systematic neglect and mistreatment exposed by The Washington Post last year at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
After a flurry of apologies, firings, investigations and reports, the Army resolved to streamline and improve case management for wounded soldiers. Under the plan, “warrior transition units” would swiftly deliver excellent care to troops so they could return to duty or be discharged into the veterans’ medical system. Each soldier would be assigned a team to look over his or her care: a physician, a nurse and a squad leader. It all sounded sensible and comprehensive.
It has not worked out so well. Staff members of the House subcommittee who visited numerous warrior transition units June 2007 to February found a significant gap between the Army leadership’s optimistic promises and reality.
Among other things, the Army failed to anticipate a flood of wounded soldiers. Some transition units have been overwhelmed and are thus severely understaffed. At Fort Hood, Tex., last month, staff members found 1,362 patients in a unit authorized for 649 — and more than 350 on a waiting list. Of the total, 311 were identified as being at high risk of drug overdose, suicide or other dangerous behavior. There were 38 nurse case managers when there should have been 74. Some soldiers have had to languish two months to a year before the Army decided what to do with them, far longer than the goal the Army set last year.
Under skeptical questioning during a hearing in February, Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the Army surgeon general, told the subcommittee that “for all intents and purposes, we are entirely staffed at the point we need to be staffed.” He also said: “The Army’s unwavering commitment and a key element of our warrior ethos is that we never leave a soldier behind on the battlefield — or lost in a bureaucracy.”
That was thousands of wounded, neglected soldiers ago. There are now about 12,500 soldiers assigned to the warrior transition units — more than twice as many as a year ago. The number is expected to reach 20,000 by this time next year.
The nation’s responsibility to care for the wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan will extend for decades. After Tuesday’s hearing, we are left pondering the simple questions asked at the outset by Representative Susan Davis, the California Democrat who is chairwoman of the military personnel subcommittee: Why did the Army fail to adequately staff its warrior transition units? Why did it fail to predict the surge in demand? And why did it take visits from a Congressional subcommittee to prod the Army into recognizing and promising — yet again — to fix the problem?
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2) Local Philanthropist Reacts to Judges Ruling in Rosenberg Spying Case
By Elizabeth Corridan
Posted: July 23, 2008 09:05 PM
http://www.wggb.com/Global/story.asp?S=8726542
EASTHAMPTON, Mass. (abc40) -- A local philanthropist is reacting to news that a U.S. District Judge in New York is allowing the release of testimony from witnesses who were part of one of the most controversial cases of the Cold War era.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were Americans, who were convicted of giving secrets of the atomic bomb to the Soviets and executed in the electric chair in 1953. The Rosebergs brother and sister-in-law, David and Ruth Greenglass were two key witnesses in the case. Ruth Greenglass recently passed away. Her testimony is one that will be made public. The ruling judge said he would not authorize the release of David Greenglass' testimony at this time.
Both of Rosenbergs' sons live in Western Massachusetts. Younger son, Robert Meeropol runs the Rosenberg Fund for Children. The agency helps the children of political prisoners. Upon hearing the news that Ruth Greenglass' testimony is being released, Robert Meeropol said he was pleased to learn more information about his parents' case is being made public. He anticipates being able to read the testimony by the fall. Meeropol says he hopes one day David Greenglass' testimony will also be released. The Meeropol brothers believe their parents' trial was grossly unfair and hope to one day sift through decades of history to get to the truth.
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3) After Iowa Raid, Immigrants Fuel Labor Inquiries
By JULIA PRESTON
July 27, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/us/27immig.html?hp
POSTVILLE, Iowa — When federal immigration agents raided the kosher meatpacking plant here in May and rounded up 389 illegal immigrants, they found more than 20 under-age workers, some as young as 13.
Now those young immigrants have begun to tell investigators about their jobs. Some said they worked shifts of 12 hours or more, wielding razor-edged knives and saws to slice freshly killed beef. Some worked through the night, sometimes six nights a week.
One, a Guatemalan named Elmer L. who said he was 16 when he started working on the plant’s killing floors, said he worked 17-hour shifts, six days a week. In an affidavit, he said he was constantly tired and did not have time to do anything but work and sleep. “I was very sad,” he said, “and I felt like I was a slave.”
At first, labor officials said the raid had disrupted federal and state investigations already under way at Agriprocessors Inc., the nation’s largest Kosher plant. The raid has drawn criticism for what some see as harsh tactics against the immigrants, with little action taken against their employers.
But in the aftermath of the arrests, labor investigators have reaped a bounty of new evidence from the testimony of illegal immigrants, teenagers and adults, who were caught in the raid. In formal declarations, immigrants have described pervasive labor violations at the plant, testimony that could result in criminal charges for Agriprocessors executives, labor law experts said.
Out of work and facing deportation proceedings, many of the immigrants say they now have nothing to lose in speaking up about the conditions in the plant. They have told investigators that they were routinely put to work without safety training and were forced to work long shifts without overtime or rest time. Under-age workers said their bosses knew how young they were.
Because of the dangers of the work, it is illegal in Iowa for a company to employ anyone under 18 on the floor of a meatpacking plant.
In a statement, Agriprocessors said it did not employ workers under 18, and would fire any under-age worker found to have presented false documents to obtain work.
To investigate the child labor accusations, the federal Labor Department has joined with the Iowa Division of Labor Services in cooperation with the state attorney general’s office, officials for the three agencies said.
Sonia Parras Konrad, an immigration lawyer in private practice in Cedar Rapids, is representing many of the young workers. She said she had so far identified 27 workers under 18 who were employed in the packing areas of the plant, most of them illegal immigrants from Guatemala, including some who were not arrested in the raid.
“Some of these boys don’t even shave,” Ms. Parras Konrad said. “They’re goofy. They’re teenagers.”
Iowa labor officials said they rarely encounter child labor cases even though the state has many meatpacking plants.
“We don’t normally have many under-age folks working in our state,” said Gail Sheridan-Lucht, a lawyer for the state labor department, who said she could not comment specifically on the Agriprocessors investigation.
Other investigations are also under way. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is examining accusations of sexual harassment of women at the plant. Lawyers for the immigrants are preparing a suit under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act for wage and hour violations.
Federal justice and immigration officials, speaking on Thursday at a hearing in Washington of the House Judiciary immigration subcommittee, said their investigations were continuing. A federal grand jury in Cedar Rapids is hearing evidence about Agriprocessors.
While federal prosecutors are primarily focusing on immigration charges, they may also be looking into labor violations. Search warrant documents filed in court before the raid, which was May 12, cited a report by an anonymous immigrant who was sent to work in the plant by immigration authorities as an undercover informant. The immigrant saw “a rabbi who was calling employees derogatory names and throwing meat at employees.” Jewish managers oversee the slaughtering and processing of meat at Agriprocessors to ensure kosher standards.
In another episode, the informant said a floor supervisor had blindfolded an immigrant with duct tape. “The floor supervisor then took one of the meat hooks and hit the Guatemalan with it,” the informant said, adding that the blow did not cause “serious injuries.”
So far, 297 illegal immigrants from the May raid have been convicted of document fraud and other criminal charges, and most were sentenced to five months in prison, after which they will be deported.
A spokesman for Agriprocessors, Menachem Lubinsky, said the company could not comment on an active investigation.
“The company has two objectives in mind: to restore its production to meet the demands of the kosher food market and to be in full compliance with all local, state and federal laws,” Mr. Lubinsky said. Reports of labor violations at the plant “remain allegations only, that no agency has charged the company with,” he said.
The Agriprocessors kosher plant here has been owned and operated since 1987 by Aaron Rubashkin and his family. His son Sholom was the plant’s top manager until he was removed by his father in May after the raid. The plant’s products are distributed across the country under brands including Aaron’s Best and Aaron’s Choice.
Most of the young immigrants were hired at Agriprocessors after they presented false Social Security cards or other documents saying they were older than they were.
But in an interview here, Elmer L. said he had told floor supervisors that he was under 18. He asked that his last name not be published on advice of his lawyer, Ms. Parras Konrad, because he is a minor in deportation proceedings.
“They asked me how old I was,” Elmer L. said. “They could see that sometimes I could not keep up with the work.”
Elmer L. said that he regularly worked 17 hours a day at the plant and was paid $7.25 an hour. He said he was not paid overtime consistently.
“My work was very hard, because they didn’t give me my breaks, and I wasn’t getting very much sleep,” he said. “They told us they were going to call immigration if we complained.”
Elmer L. said that he was clearing cow innards from the slaughter floor last Aug. 26 when a supervisor he described as a rabbi began yelling at him, then kicked him from behind. The blow caused a freshly-sharpened knife to fly up and cut his elbow.
He was sent to a nearby hospital where doctors closed the laceration with eight stitches. But he said that when he returned to the plant, his elbow still stinging, to ask for some time off, his supervisor ordered him back to work.
The next day, as he was lifting a cow’s tongue, the stitches ruptured, Elmer L. said, and the wound bled again. He said he was given a bandage at the plant and sent back to work. The incident is confirmed in a worker’s injury report filed on Aug. 31, 2007, by Agriprocessors with the Iowa labor department.
Gilda O., a Guatemalan who said she was 16, said she worked the night shift plucking chickens. She said she was working to help her parents pay off debts.
Another Guatemalan, Joel R., who gave his age as 15, said he dropped out of school in Postville after the eighth grade and took a job at Agriprocessors because his mother became ill. He said he worked from 5.30 p.m. to 6.30 a.m. in a section called “quality control,” a job he described as relatively easy that he got because he speaks English.
But he said he and other workers were under constant pressure from supervisors. “They yell at us when we don’t hurry up, when we don’t work fast enough for them,” said Joel R. He and Gilda O. did not want their last names published because they are illegal immigrants and they were not arrested in the raid.
Most of the young immigrants have been released from detention but remain in deportation proceedings. Ms. Parras Konrad said she will ask immigration authorities to grant them special four-year temporary visas, known as U-visas, which are offered to immigrants who assist in law enforcement investigations. Iowa labor officials are considering supporting some of those visa requests, Ms. Sheridan-Lucht said.
Agriprocessors executives said they had begun an overhaul of the company’s hiring and labor practices, starting with hiring a compliance officer, James G. Martin, a former United States attorney in Missouri. In an interview, Mr. Martin said the company had contracted an outside firm, the Jacobson Staffing Company, to handle its hiring, and new safety officers, including one former federal work safety inspector.
Mark Lauritsen, a vice president for the International Food and Commercial Workers Union, which has tried to organize the plant, said he remained skeptical. “They are the poster child for how a rogue company can exploit a broken immigration system,” Mr. Lauritsen said.
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4) 4,000 U.S. Deaths, and Just a Handful of Images
By MICHAEL KAMBER and TIM ARANGO
July 26, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/world/middleeast/26censor.html?hp
BAGHDAD — The case of a freelance photographer in Iraq who was barred from covering the Marines after he posted photos on the Internet of several of them dead has underscored what some journalists say is a growing effort by the American military to control graphic images from the war.
Zoriah Miller, the photographer who took images of marines killed in a June 26 suicide attack and posted them on his Web site, was subsequently forbidden to work in Marine Corps-controlled areas of the country. Maj. Gen. John Kelly, the Marine commander in Iraq, is now seeking to have Mr. Miller barred from all United States military facilities throughout the world. Mr. Miller has since left Iraq.
If the conflict in Vietnam was notable for open access given to journalists — too much, many critics said, as the war played out nightly in bloody newscasts — the Iraq war may mark an opposite extreme: after five years and more than 4,000 American combat deaths, searches and interviews turned up fewer than a half-dozen graphic photographs of dead American soldiers.
It is a complex issue, with competing claims often difficult to weigh in an age of instant communication around the globe via the Internet, in which such images can add to the immediate grief of families and the anger of comrades still in the field.
While the Bush administration faced criticism for overt political manipulation in not permitting photos of flag-draped coffins, the issue is more emotional on the battlefield: local military commanders worry about security in publishing images of the American dead as well as an affront to the dignity of fallen comrades. Most newspapers refuse to publish such pictures as a matter of policy.
But opponents of the war, civil liberties advocates and journalists argue that the public portrayal of the war is being sanitized and that Americans who choose to do so have the right to see — in whatever medium — the human cost of a war that polls consistently show is unpopular with Americans.
Journalists say it is now harder, or harder than in the earlier years, to accompany troops in Iraq on combat missions. Even memorial services for killed soldiers, once routinely open, are increasingly off limits. Detainees were widely photographed in the early years of the war, but the Department of Defense, citing prisoners’ rights, has recently stopped that practice as well.
And while publishing photos of American dead is not barred under the “embed” rules in which journalists travel with military units, the Miller case underscores what is apparently one reality of the Iraq war: that doing so, even under the rules, can result in expulsion from covering the war with the military.
“It is absolutely censorship,” Mr. Miller said. “I took pictures of something they didn’t like, and they removed me. Deciding what I can and cannot document, I don’t see a clearer definition of censorship.”
The Marine Corps denied it was trying to place limits on the news media and said Mr. Miller broke embed regulations. Security is the issue, officials said.
“Specifically, Mr. Miller provided our enemy with an after-action report on the effectiveness of their attack and on the response procedures of U.S. and Iraqi forces,” said Lt. Col. Chris Hughes, a Marine spokesman.
News organizations say that such restrictions are one factor in declining coverage of the war, along with the danger, the high cost to financially ailing media outlets and diminished interest among Americans in following the war. By a recent count, only half a dozen Western photographers were covering a war in which 150,000 American troops are engaged.
In Mr. Miller’s case, a senior military official in Baghdad said that while his photographs were still under review, a preliminary assessment showed he had not violated ground rules established by the multinational force command. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing, emphasized that Mr. Miller was still credentialed to work in Iraq, though several military officials acknowledged that no military unit would accept him.
Robert H. Reid, the Baghdad bureau chief for The Associated Press, said one major problem was a disconnection between the officials in Washington who created the embed program before the war and the soldiers who must accommodate journalists — and be responsible for their reports afterward.
“I don’t think the uniformed military has really bought into the whole embed program,” Mr. Reid said.
“During the invasion it got a lot of ‘Whoopee, we’re kicking their butts’-type of TV coverage,” he said.
Now, he said the situation is nuanced and unpredictable. Generally, he said, the access reporters get “very much depends on the local commander.” More specifically, he said, “They’ve always been freaky about bodies.”
The facts of the Miller case are not in dispute, only their interpretation.
On the morning of June 26, Mr. Miller, 32, was embedded with Company E of the Second Battalion, Third Marine Regiment in Garma, in Anbar Province. The photographer declined a Marine request to attend a city council meeting, and instead accompanied a unit on foot patrol nearby.
When a suicide bomber detonated his vest inside the council meeting, killing 20 people, including 3 marines, Mr. Miller was one of the first to arrive. His photos show a scene of horror, with body parts littering the ground and heaps of eviscerated corpses. Mr. Miller was able to photograph for less than 10 minutes, he said, before being escorted from the scene.
Mr. Miller said he spent three days on a remote Marine base editing his photos, which he then showed to the Company E marines. When they said they could not identify the dead marines, he believed he was within embed rules, which forbid showing identifiable soldiers killed in action before their families have been notified. According to records Mr. Miller provided, he posted his photos on his Web site the night of June 30, three days after the families had been notified.
The next morning, high-ranking Marine public affairs officers demanded that Mr. Miller remove the photos. When he refused, his embed was terminated. Worry that marines might hurt him was high enough that guards were posted to protect him.
On July 3, Mr. Miller was given a letter signed by General Kelly barring him from Marine installations. The letter said that the journalist violated sections 14 (h) and (o) of the embed rules, which state that no information can be published without approval, including material about “any tactics, techniques and procedures witnessed during operations,” or that “provides information on the effectiveness of enemy techniques.”
“In disembedding Mr. Miller, the Marines are using a catch-all phrase which could be applied to just about anything a journalist does,” said Joel Campagna, Middle East program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists.
New embed rules were adopted in the spring of 2007 that required written permission from wounded soldiers before their image could be used, a near impossibility in the case of badly wounded soldiers, journalists say. While embed restrictions do permit photographs of dead soldiers to be published once family members have been notified, in practice, photographers say, the military has exacted retribution on the rare occasions that such images have appeared. In four out of five cases that The New York Times was able to document, the photographer was immediately kicked out of his or her embed following publication of such photos.
In the first of such incidents, Stefan Zaklin, formerly of the European Pressphoto Agency, was barred from working with an Army unit after he published a photo of a dead Army captain lying in a pool of blood in Falluja in 2004.
Two New York Times journalists were disembedded in January 2007 after the paper published a photo of a mortally wounded soldier. Though the soldier was shot through the head and died hours after the photo was taken, Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno argued that The Times had broken embed rules by not getting written permission from the soldier.
Chris Hondros, of Getty Images, was with an army unit in Tal Afar on Jan. 18, 2005, when soldiers killed the parents of an unarmed Iraqi family. After his photos of their screaming blood-spattered daughter were published around the world, Mr. Hondros was kicked out of his embed (though Mr. Hondros points out that he soon found an embed with a unit in another city).
Increasingly, photographers say the military allows them to embed but keeps them away from combat. Franco Pagetti of the VII Photo Agency said he had been repeatedly thwarted by the military when he tried to get to the front lines.
In April 2008, Mr. Pagetti tried to cover heavy fighting in Baghdad’s Sadr City. “The commander there refused to let me in,” Mr. Pagetti said. “He said it was unsafe. I know it’s unsafe, there’s a war going on. It was unsafe when I got to Iraq in 2003, but the military did not stop us from working. Now, they are stopping us from working.”
James Lee, a former marine who returned to Iraq as a photographer, was embedded with marines in the spring of 2008 as they headed into battle in the southern port city of Basra in support of Iraqi forces.
“We were within hours of Basra when they told me I had to go back. I was told that General Kelly did not want any Western eyes down there,” he said, referring to the same Marine general who barred Mr. Miller.
Military officials stressed that the embed regulations provided only a framework. “There is leeway for commanders to make judgment calls, which is part of what commanders do,” said Col. Steve Boylan, the public affairs officer for Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq. For many in the military, a legal or philosophical debate over press freedom misses the point. Capt. Esteban T. Vickers of the First Regimental Combat Team, who knew two of the marines killed at Garma, said photos of his dead comrades, displayed on the Internet for all to see, desecrated their memory and their sacrifice.
“Mr. Miller’s complete lack of respect to these marines, their friends, and families is shameful,” Captain Vickers said. “How do we explain to their children or families these disturbing pictures just days after it happened?”
Mr. Miller, who returned to the United States on July 9, expressed surprise that his images had ignited such an uproar.
“The fact that the images I took of the suicide bombing — which are just photographs of something that happens every day all across the country — the fact that these photos have been so incredibly shocking to people, says that whatever they are doing to limit this type of photo getting out, it is working,” he said.
Michael Kamber reported from Baghdad, and Tim Arango from New York.
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5) Reports on Mine Collapse Criticize Operation and Oversight
By DAN FROSCH
July 26, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/us/26mine.html?ref=us
Family members of miners killed after a huge collapse at a Utah mine last year expressed outrage on Friday after two federal reports showed that the mine had long been dangerous.
The reports, released Thursday, also faulted the mine’s operators for continuing to pull coal from deep within the mine despite the dangers and the government regulators for failing to stop them.
“If everything was as bad as it was, then the men shouldn’t have been in there,” said Nelda Erickson, whose husband, Don, was one of six miners killed when the mine’s coal pillars burst last Aug. 6. Three rescue workers died trying to reach them after another collapse 10 days later.
“It’s hard to swallow,” Ms. Erickson said. “I don’t understand how the company got approval to do mining that deep underground.”
The mine’s operator, Genwal Resources, was heavily criticized in one of the reports, released by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, which found that the company had kept working in the Crandall Canyon mine despite indications that it was unsafe.
A second report, by the Labor Department, took the mine safety agency itself to task for approving Genwal’s mining plan in the first place and for not taking full control of the rescue operation after the initial collapse.
In Utah’s close-knit coal country, those who knew the dead miners seemed relieved at the revelation that the sheer force of the collapses, as described in the reports, most likely killed their loved ones relatively quickly.
But there was also a visceral anger and even disbelief at the notion laid out in the reports that the Crandall Canyon mine was probably destined for trouble long before the initial accident and that their loved ones’ fates might have been sealed months before the collapses.
“They had those men working in a section they knew was doomed to fail,” said Terry Byrge, whose son-in-law, Brandon Kimber, died in the failed rescue mission. “They were playing spin the bottle with their lives every day and taking a chance on whether those men would come out alive.”
The mine safety agency’s report criticized Genwal, a subsidiary of the Murray Energy Corporation, for withholding information from federal regulators about three coal bursts at the mine, one of them just three days before the Aug. 6 collapse.
“The failure to report those bounces denied MSHA the opportunity to evaluate the conditions of the mine,” said the director of the mine safety agency, Richard E. Stickler, in a telephone interview.
That and numerous other safety violations, like Genwal’s removal of coal that was propping up the mine’s roof, led the agency to assess $1.6 million in fines against the company for its role in the collapse. That is the highest coal mine fine in the agency’s history.
The agency also levied $220,000 in fines against a mine consulting company, Agapito Associates, for providing Genwal with a faulty engineering analysis of the Crandall Canyon mine, which contributed to the collapse, according to the report.
In a statement, Genwal said the report “appears to have been tainted in part by 10 months of relentless political clamoring to lay blame for these tragic events.”
A spokeswoman for Agapito did not return phone calls seeking comment. Both companies can contest the fines.
Although the mine safety agency garnered some praise for candor in its own report and for improvements over the past two years, like the hiring of 322 coal mining enforcement personnel and more intense reviews of deep mining practices, some in the industry remain skeptical about the agency’s capacity for long-term change. This is particularly true given the Labor Department’s criticism of the safety agency in its report.
Tony Oppegard, a lawyer who represents miners and their families, and a former federal mine safety official, said that the hiring of additional inspectors was no substitute for strengthening federal mining laws.
A bill, written by Representative George Miller, Democrat of California, that would beef up mine safety regulations is being opposed by Mr. Stickler, the federal mine safety director.
“How the head of mine safety could oppose this is beyond me,” Mr. Oppegard said.
Mr. Stickler said the bill did not allow enough flexibility to put the improvements into effect and imposed “unrealistic” time frames on the agency.
Cecil E. Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America, said in a statement: “There is more to this tragedy than the greed of a coal operator causing workers to be put in harm’s way. The fact is that companies like Murray Energy are supposed to be kept in check by MSHA. That did not happen at Crandall Canyon.”
Nelda Erickson recalls her husband, a veteran miner, returning home from Crandall Canyon and telling her of how the mine would sometimes shudder violently when he was underground.
“I think a lot of the guys were worried,” Ms. Erickson said. “They were just hoping it didn’t happen to them.
“We don’t want families to go through what we’ve gone through. It’s too hard.”
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6) OSHA Seeks $8.7 Million Fine Against Sugar Company
By SHAILA DEWAN
July 26, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/us/26sugar.html?ref=us
ATLANTA — Imperial Sugar, the owner of a refinery near Savannah where 13 workers died in a sugar dust explosion in February, knew of safety hazards at the plant as early as 2002 but did nothing, and should pay more than $8.7 million for safety violations, the head of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Friday.
The proposed penalty is the third-largest in OSHA’s history. Imperial Sugar will contest the findings, the company announced Friday.
At a news conference in Savannah, Edwin G. Foulke Jr., the OSHA chief, said, “The investigation concluded that this catastrophic incident could have been prevented if Imperial Sugar had complied with existing OSHA safety and health standards.”
The company’s senior management was fully aware of the combustible dust hazards, Mr. Foulke said, and did not take any appropriate action to eliminate them.
The fire, which burned for a week, started when sugar dust, which is highly combustible, was ignited in the plant by a large bucket that broke loose in a storage silo and struck a metal siding, causing a spark, according to OSHA’s investigation. Even when plants are regularly cleaned, dust can build up on ledges, pipes and other hard-to-reach places. The fire renewed calls for OSHA to issue regulations specifically designed to prevent combustible dust explosions, which can occur in many industries.
In addition to the fatalities, the fire injured 40 people, three of whom are still in a hospital burn unit, and shocked the small community of Port Wentworth, Ga., where it seemed that almost every family had some connection to the 91-year-old sugar plant. Imperial Sugar won praise when it promised to rebuild the plant and continue to pay workers.
The company has written that before the Feb. 7 explosion, “There was an insufficient understanding of the hazards of combustible dusts both within the sugar industry and within the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.”
But Mr. Foulke said that even after the explosion, company officials had not acted to alleviate similar conditions at its plant in Gramercy, La., despite a warning from OSHA. An inspection of that plant five weeks after the Georgia fire found sugar dust four feet thick in some spots, he said, prompting OSHA to issue an emergency order closing the plant, an action the agency characterized in a news release as “extremely rare.”
“I am convinced that our actions prevented a second terrible accident at the Gramercy facility,” Mr. Foulke said.
The proposed penalties include more than $5 million for violations at the Port Wentworth plant, with 120 violations, and $3.7 million at the Gramercy plant, with 91. The violations included failure to clean up dust, the use of spark-producing electrical equipment, and faulty ventilation and dust collection systems.
John Sheptor, the chief executive of Imperial Sugar, issued a statement that read in part: “We believe that the facts do not merit the allegations made. As we go forward, we will continue to focus on the safety of our employees and our contractors.”
Eric Frumin, the health and safety coordinator for the labor union federation Change to Win, said the fines could have been much higher if OSHA had regulations for combustible dust. The agency found 118 “egregious” violations, a category in which the agency counts each instance in which a violation occurs.
But per-instance violations can be cited only where the agency has specific standards. In this case, ventilation and dust collection issues fell under the agency’s “general duty” clause, which allows it to cite employers for unsafe practices not specifically addressed in the regulations. So while there were 44 violations issued for spark-producing electrical equipment, which is regulated, under the general duty clause there were only two, one at each plant, for faulty ventilation and two for failing to maintain dust collection systems.
“It’s basically an admission that their standards have gaps,” Mr. Frumin said.
The federal Chemical Safety Board called on OSHA to issue dust standards in 2006, after a series of fatal events. After the Port Wentworth fire, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would require OSHA to issue dust-related rules based on recommendations from the National Fire Prevention Association.
Next week, Imperial Sugar representatives are expected to testify before the Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety, which is considering a similar bill. According to a copy of the company’s planned testimony, Imperial Sugar welcomes dust regulation.
“It is our view that a clear standard would assist employers in understanding the hazards of combustible dust and the means to reduce or prevent such hazard,” the testimony says.
Graham H. Graham, who joined Imperial Sugar as vice president for operations last November, is expected to testify that he identified serious safety concerns before the February explosion.
The company’s testimony quotes from documents written by Mr. Graham in January indicating that he had seen significant improvement at the two plants.
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7) Gates Wants to Shift $1.2 Billion to Bolster War Surveillance
By THOM SHANKER
July 26, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/us/26military.html?ref=us
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has asked Congress for the authority to shift more than $1 billion in Pentagon spending to rapidly increase the ability to provide surveillance to battlefield troops, officials said Friday.
The request to reprogram $1.2 billion is the most significant step since Mr. Gates ordered the creation of a task force in May to press all of the armed services to urgently expand and improve intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in the war zones.
If approved, the money would pay for more than 50 new airplanes that would be designed to watch and listen over the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, providing the ability to bring full-motion video and electronic eavesdropping to the troops.
The additional aircraft would allow the military to add 11 around-the-clock patrols to the war zones; the patrols would be for surveillance only and would not be flown by aircraft that could carry out attacks with missiles or bombs.
Mr. Gates has described battlefield intelligence as central to saving the lives of military personnel in the war zones, and the reprogramming request is expected to receive bipartisan support among leaders in the House and Senate, Congressional aides of both parties said.
Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon spokesman, said the proposal to reprogram the $1.2 billion in Pentagon money was “a further manifestation of the secretary’s whole-hearted commitment to getting the commanders in the field and their warfighters the resources they need to win.”
Officials at the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill said the money would be pulled from lower-priority items like heavy trucks — of which the military has more than needed, officials said — and communications systems not required for Iraq or Afghanistan.
Much of the money would go toward adding more than 50 Beech C-12 aircraft, which are small, off-the-shelf propeller planes commonly used as corporate aircraft that would be outfitted with advanced surveillance sensors by the military. The aircraft would be provided by contractors.
Before Mr. Gates’s initiatives, the military could guarantee about a dozen around-the-clock surveillance patrols to provide full-motion video, a figure that is to rise to 31 by October under prodding by Mr. Gates and additional efforts from the armed services.
Efficiencies in how these aircraft are deployed are expected to add two more 24-hour patrols, officials said.
If the reprogramming request is approved, the military within six months should be able to guarantee 44 of these 24-hour surveillance patrols every day, officials said.
The extra money would also pay for what one official called the “technical architecture” that allows the surveillance aircraft to send information to ground terminals where it can be stored, sorted and analyzed.
The overall Pentagon budget for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance remains classified, and officials declined to provide even the percentage of increase that would be achieved by reprogramming $1.2 billion.
Mr. Gates announced in May that he was creating a task force to find ways to move urgently and provide more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan, a decision that was expected to focus initially on a shift of priorities to remotely piloted aircraft.
The initiative was previewed in a speech Mr. Gates delivered at Maxwell Air Force Base, in Alabama, home of the Air War College, in April. In his address, the defense secretary described his deep frustration at being unable to promote a shift from piloted aircraft to less expensive, and less glamorous, surveillance vehicles.
“I’ve been wrestling for months to get more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets into the theater,” Mr. Gates, a former director of central intelligence, said at the time. “Because people were stuck in old ways of doing business, it’s been like pulling teeth.”
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8) In a Doll’s Head, Some in Harlem See a Setback
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS and JASON GRANT
July 26, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/nyregion/26harlem.html?ref=nyregion
Though accounts vary, the basics of what happened on Tuesday evening in Harlem are not in dispute: an unmarked police car with two white officers inside drove around with the head of a black doll on the rear antenna.
The officers said they did not know it was there. Some witnesses said they must have because the head was life-size. The Police Department said the car was patrolling the streets for only a short time that day; some witnesses said it was hours. The police are trying to determine who attached the head to the antenna. Some witnesses say an officer laughed as he tossed the doll’s head into the car trunk.
While a doll’s head on a police car might not seem generally offensive, in Harlem, residents’ relationship with the New York City Police Department has long been fraught with tension and distrust.
In a highly publicized case in the 1990s, officers from the 30th Precinct in Harlem — called “the Dirty 30” — pleaded guilty to or were convicted of crimes including robbing drug dealers, selling cocaine and taking payoffs. And police statistics show that far more people are stopped and questioned in Harlem than in the nearby Upper West Side, even though the overall crime rates in both neighborhoods are similar. In addition, Harlem riots in 1935, 1943 and 1964 were partly attributed to problems with the Police Department.
So the doll’s head may mean more here than elsewhere.
“This is a significant marker of a deteriorating relationship,” said State Senator Bill Perkins, who organized a march on Thursday to protest the doll’s head. “This incident opens up the Pandora’s box. It reminds people there have been other incidents.”
Mr. Perkins said the episode was a setback for a police-Harlem relationship that had been improving. (Parts of Harlem are in the 25th, 28th and 30th Precincts.)
“There has been less of an aggressive anticommunity stance expressed” during the Bloomberg administration, Mr. Perkins said. He added, however, “To the extent there’s been some repair, this tears that repair apart.”
In Harlem, it is not difficult to find a male African-American who says he has been stopped or harassed by a police officer. This is how many residents here have encounters with the police. And for many young, black residents, this is often the seminal event in their relationship with the law.
Data about those encounters — known as “stop-and-frisks” — obtained by the New York Civil Liberties Union from the Police Department show that the department has relied increasingly on such tactics in Harlem and elsewhere since 2003, the first year data are available.
The figures reveal, for example, that more people have been stopped by officers in the 28th Precinct, in central Harlem, than in the 24th Precinct, on the Upper West Side, even though the precincts have similar crime rates.
From April through June 2006, for example, officers made 2,365 stops in the 28th Precinct, compared with 409 in the 24th Precinct. During the first three months of this year, there were 514 stops in the 28th Precinct and 460 in the 24th. The police say that officers make stops based on the descriptions of suspects.
The 28th Precinct has also had four murders and 131 robberies so far this year, while the 24th Precinct has had two murders and 135 robberies. In 2007, the 28th Precinct had four murders and 275 robberies, while the 24th Precinct had two murders and 248 robberies.
While the murder numbers are double in the 28th Precinct, they are remarkably lower than the numbers from a decade ago.
Darrin Murray, 19, of Harlem said that half an hour before he was approached by a reporter on Thursday, he had been questioned by officers in a van outside his apartment building.
Mr. Murray said that an officer told him, “Come here,” and the 19-year-old, who was carrying a black plastic bag containing a Sunkist soda and a plastic foam cup with ice, approached the van.
“ ‘Let me see what’s in the bag,’ ” Mr. Murray said one of the officers ordered. After inspecting the bag, he said, the officer told him, “ ‘Oh, yeah, that’s the type of stuff people have when they’re doing something.’ ”
When Mr. Murray’s mother, who saw the encounter, approached the officers to ask why they were questioning him, the police van abruptly drove away, Mr. Murray said.
A police spokesman said that Mr. Murray may have been questioned because the police had received two calls about drug sales in the area.
Mr. Murray said of the police in Harlem, “More people are scared of what they are going to do to them than what anyone else would do.” He added, “I’m scared all the time.”
At a news conference a few hours after the doll’s-head allegation came to light, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said he believed that the rapport in Harlem was as strong as ever.
And he said that the neighborhood’s gentrification had actually strengthened the bond between officers and the community.
Mr. Kelly tends to be popular in African-American neighborhoods and has been credited with tamping down a rancorous relationship between the police and African-Americans during the Giuliani administration.
“I would describe our relations as good in Harlem and, quite frankly, throughout the city,” Mr. Kelly said. “We are always going to have some pockets of tension because of what we do, because of the enforcement aspects of the work that police departments do.”
He added, “With the so-called gentrification of the neighborhood, I think there are even stronger relationships than those that existed in the past.”
Mr. Kelly said that Harlem home owners worried about crime seemed to be among those most apt to reach out to officers.
“We have a lot more ownership of property in the neighborhood,” he said. “Brownstones are obviously going for significant amounts of money.”
Wayne Dawson, 45, the director of the Dunlevy Milbank Community Center in central Harlem, said the neighborhood’s relationship with the police “appears to be a little bit more polarized than I have ever seen it.”
“There is an unusually high demand for kids to be stopped and show identification,” Mr. Dawson said.
While crime has decreased, it is not extinct. Officers who patrol Harlem point out that the area has had a number of shootings since January, including an episode in which six young people were shot and wounded on Memorial Day. No one has yet been arrested in that case.
The doll-head case seemed to resonate with many Harlem residents.
Clarence Jones, 28, said he saw the doll’s head on the antenna and tried to take a photograph, but one of the officers stuffed the head into the trunk.
The police said the officers reported that once the doll’s head was pointed out to them, they tossed it away.
Mr. Kelly said the police were analyzing surveillance video from the area to try to determine what happened.
But he said the officers’ explanation that they were unaware of the doll’s head was “plausible.”
Some in Harlem, however, question whether the department is committed to a thorough investigation. Mr. Perkins has criticized Mr. Kelly and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg for not forcefully denouncing the episode.
“There’s nothing more symbolically terrifying than that in this community, given the history of slavery and the K.K.K. and night riders,” Mr. Perkins said.
When asked about Harlem residents’ denunciations of the Police Department, Mr. Kelly said it was the nature of the job.
“That is the world in which we live,” he said. “We accept that.”
Christine Hauser contributed reporting.
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North Carolina: Charges in G.I.’s Death
[What the title doesn't say is that the GI, a woman, was killed by a Marine who happened to be her husband...]
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | South
The husband of an Army nurse at Fort Bragg’s hospital was charged with murder in her death, a day after her body was discovered by the authorities. Cpl. John Wimunc of the Marines, 23, was also charged with first-degree arson and conspiracy to commit arson in the death of his wife, Second Lt. Holley Wimunc, of Dubuque, Iowa. Her body was found Sunday, three days after a suspicious fire at her Fayetteville apartment. The authorities also charged Lance Cpl. Kyle Alden, 22, with first-degree arson, conspiracy to commit arson and accessory after the fact to first-degree murder.
July 15, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/us/15brfs-CHARGESINGIS_BRF.html?ref=us
Louisiana: Case of Ex-Black Panther [The Angola Three]
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | South
The conviction of a former Black Panther in the killing of a prison guard in 1972 should be overturned because his former lawyer should have objected to testimony from witnesses who had died after his original trial, a federal magistrate found. The lawyer’s omission denied a fair second trial for the man, Albert Woodfox, in 1998, the magistrate, Christine Nolan, wrote Tuesday in a recommendation to the federal judge who will rule later. Mr. Woodfox, 61, and Herman Wallace, 66, were convicted in the stabbing death of the guard, Brent Miller, on April 17, 1972. Mr. Wallace has been appealing his conviction based on arguments similar to Mr. Woodfox’s. Mr. Woodfox and Mr. Wallace, with another former Black Panther, became known as the Angola Three because they were held in isolation for about three decades at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola.
June 12, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/us/12brfs-CASEOFEXBLAC_BRF.html?ref=us
Texas: Killer Is Executed
By REUTERS
National Briefing | Southwest
A convicted killer, Karl E. Chamberlain, was put to death by lethal injection in Texas, becoming the first prisoner executed in the state since the Supreme Court lifted an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty in April. Texas, the country’s busiest death penalty state, is the fifth state to resume executions since the court rejected a legal challenge to the three-drug cocktail used in most executions for the past 30 years. Mr. Chamberlain, 37, was convicted of the 1991 murder of a 30-year-old Dallas woman who lived in the same apartment complex. Mr. Chamberlain was the 406th inmate executed in Texas since 1982 and the first this year.
June 12, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/us/12brfs-KILLERISEXEC_BRF.html?ref=us
Tennessee: State to Retry Inmate
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | South
The Union County district attorney said the county would meet a federal judge’s deadline for a new trial in the case of a death row inmate whose trial was questioned by the United States Supreme Court. The state is facing a June 17 deadline to retry or free the inmate, Paul House, who has been in limbo since June 2006, when the Supreme Court concluded that reasonable jurors would not have convicted him had they seen the results of DNA tests from the 1990s. The district attorney, Paul Phillips, said he would not seek the death penalty. Mr. House, 46, who has multiple sclerosis and must use a wheelchair, was sentenced in the 1985 killing of Carolyn Muncey. He has been in a state prison since 1986 and continues to maintain his innocence.
May 29, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/29/us/29brfs-STATETORETRY_BRF.html?ref=us
Israel: Carter Offers Details on Nuclear Arsenal
By REUTERS
World Briefing | Middle East
Former President Jimmy Carter said Israel held at least 150 nuclear weapons, the first time a current or former American president had publicly acknowledged the Jewish state’s nuclear arsenal. Asked at a news conference in Wales on Sunday how a future president should deal with the Iranian nuclear threat, he sought to put the risk in context by listing atomic weapons held globally. “The U.S. has more than 12,000 nuclear weapons, the Soviet Union has about the same, Great Britain and France have several hundred, and Israel has 150 or more,” he said, according to a transcript. The existence of Israeli nuclear arms is widely assumed, but Israel has never admitted their existence and American officials have stuck to that line in public for years.
May 27, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/27/world/middleeast/27briefs-CARTEROFFERS_BRF.html?ref=world
Iowa: Lawsuit Filed Over Raid
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Midwest
The nation’s largest single immigration raid, in which nearly 400 workers at an Agriprocessors Inc. meat processing plant in Postville were detained on Monday, violated the constitutional rights of workers at a meatpacking plant, a lawsuit contends. The suit accuses the government of arbitrary and indefinite detention. A spokesman for the United States attorney’s office said he could not comment on the suit, which was filed Thursday on behalf of about 147 of the workers. Prosecutors said they filed criminal charges against 306 of the detained workers. The charges include accusations of aggravated identity theft, falsely using a Social Security number, illegally re-entering the United States after being deported and fraudulently using an alien registration card.
May 17, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/17/us/17brfs-LAWSUITFILED_BRF.html?ref=us
Senate Revises Drug Maker Gift Bill
By REUTERS
National Breifing | Washington
A revised Senate bill would require drug makers and medical device makers to publicly report gifts over $500 a year to doctors, watering down the standard set in a previous version. The new language was endorsed by the drug maker Eli Lilly & Company. Lawmakers said they hoped the support would prompt other companies to back the bill, which had previously required all gifts valued over $25 be reported. The industry says the gifts are part of its doctor education, but critics say such lavish gestures influence prescribing habits.
May 14, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/washington/14brfs-SENATEREVISE_BRF.html?ref=us
Texas: Sect Mother Is Not a Minor
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Southwest
Child welfare officials conceded to a judge that a newborn’s mother, held in foster care as a minor after being removed from a polygamous sect’s ranch, is an adult. The woman, who gave birth on April 29, had been held along with more than 400 children taken last month from a ranch run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was one of two pregnant sect members who officials had said were minors. The other member, who gave birth on Monday, may also be an adult, state officials said.
May 14, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/us/14brfs-SECTMOTHERIS_BRF.html?ref=us
Four Military Branches Hit Recruiting Goals
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Washington
The Marine Corps far surpassed its recruiting goal last month, enlisting 2,233 people, which was 142 percent of its goal, the Pentagon said. The Army recruited 5,681 people, 101 percent of its goal. The Navy and Air Force also met their goals, 2,905 sailors and 2,435 airmen. A Defense Department spokesman, Bryan Whitman, said that if the Marine Corps continued its recruiting success, it could reach its goal of growing to 202,000 people by the end of 2009, more than a year early.
May 13, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/us/13brfs-FOURMILITARY_BRF.html?ref=us
Texas: Prison Settlement Approved
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Southwest
A federal judge has approved a settlement between the Texas Youth Commission and the Justice Department over inmate safety at the state’s juvenile prison in Edinburg. The judge, Ricardo Hinojosa of Federal District Court, signed the settlement Monday, and it was announced by the commission Wednesday. Judge Hinojosa had previously rejected a settlement on grounds that it lacked a specific timeline. Federal prosecutors began investigating the prison, the Evins Regional Juvenile Center, in 2006. The settlement establishes parameters for safe conditions and staffing levels, restricts use of youth restraints and guards against retaliation for reporting abuse and misconduct.
May 8, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/us/08brfs-PRISONSETTLE_BRF.html?ref=us
Michigan: Insurance Ruling
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Midwest
Local governments and state universities cannot offer health insurance to the partners of gay workers, the State Supreme Court ruled. The court ruled 5 to 2 that Michigan’s 2004 ban against same-sex marriage also blocks domestic-partner policies affecting gay employees at the University of Michigan and other public-sector employers. The decision affirms a February 2007 appeals court ruling. Up to 20 public universities, community colleges, school districts and local governments in Michigan have benefit policies covering at least 375 gay couples.
May 8, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/us/08brfs-INSURANCERUL_BRF.html?ref=us
Halliburton Profit Rises
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HOUSTON (AP) — Increasing its global presence is paying off for the oil field services provider Halliburton, whose first-quarter income rose nearly 6 percent on growing business in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America, the company said Monday.
Business in the first three months of 2008 also was better than expected in North America, where higher costs and lower pricing squeezed results at the end of 2007.
Halliburton shares closed up 3 cents, at $47.46, on the New York Stock Exchange.
Halliburton said it earned $584 million, or 64 cents a share, in the three months that ended March 31, compared with a year-earlier profit of $552 million, or 54 cents a share. Revenue rose to $4.03 billion, from $3.42 billion a year earlier.
April 22, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/business/worldbusiness/22halliburton.html?ref=business
Illegal Immigrants Who Were Arrested at Poultry Plant in Arkansas to Be Deported
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Eighteen illegal immigrants arrested at a poultry plant in Batesville will be processed for deportation, but will not serve any jail time for using fake Social Security numbers and state identification cards, federal judges ruled. Magistrate Judge Beth Deere and Judge James Moody of Federal District Court accepted guilty pleas from 17 of those arrested last week at the Pilgrim’s Pride plant. Federal prosecutors dismissed the misdemeanor charges against one man, but said they planned to ask Immigration and Customs Enforcement to begin deportation proceedings against him. The guilty pleas will give the 17 people criminal records, which will allow prosecutors to pursue tougher penalties if they illegally return to the United States. They had faced up to up to two years in prison and $205,000 in fines. Jane Duke, a United States attorney, said her office had no interest in seeing those arrested serve jail time, as they were “otherwise law-abiding citizens.”
National Briefing | South
April 22, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/us/22brfs-002.html?ref=us
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GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS AND INFORMATION
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Torture
On the Waterboard
How does it feel to be “aggressively interrogated”? Christopher Hitchens found out for himself, submitting to a brutal waterboarding session in an effort to understand the human cost of America’s use of harsh tactics at Guantánamo and elsewhere. VF.com has the footage. Related: “Believe Me, It’s Torture,” from the August 2008 issue.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/video/2008/hitchens_video200808
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Alison Bodine defense Committee
Lift the Two-year Ban
http://alisonbodine.blogspot.com/
Watch the Sept 28 Video on Alison's Case!
http://alisonbodine.blogspot.com/2007/10/blog-post.html
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The Girl Who Silenced the World at the UN!
Born and raised in Vancouver, Severn Suzuki has been working on environmental and social justice issues since kindergarten. At age 9, she and some friends started the Environmental Children's Organization (ECO), a small group of children committed to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. They traveled to 1992's UN Earth Summit, where 12 year-old Severn gave this powerful speech that deeply affected (and silenced) some of the most prominent world leaders. The speech had such an impact that she has become a frequent invitee to many U.N. conferences.
[Note: the text of her speech is also available at this site...bw]
http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=433
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MINIATURE EARTH
http://www.miniature-earth.com/me_english.htm
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"Dear Canada: Let U.S. war resisters stay!"
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/499/89/
Russell Means Speaking at the Transform Columbus Day Rally
"If voting could do anything it would be illegal!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8Lri1-6aoY
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Stop the Termination or the Cherokee Nation
http://groups.msn.com/BayAreaIndianCalendar/activismissues.msnw?action=get_message&mview=1&ID_Message=5580
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We Didn't Start the Fire
http://yeli.us/Flash/Fire.html
I Can't Take it No More
http://lefti.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html#9214483115237950361
The Art of Mental Warfare
http://artofmentalwarfare.com/pog/artofmentalwarfarecom-the-warning/
MONEY AS DEBT
http://video. google.com/ videoplay? docid=-905047436 2583451279
http://www.moneyasd ebt.net/
UNCONSTITUTIONAL
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6582099850410121223&pr=goog-sl
IRAQ FOR SALE
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6621486727392146155
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Port of Olympia Anti-Militarization Action Nov. 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOkn2Fg7R8w
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"They have a new gimmick every year. They're going to take one of their boys, black boys, and put him in the cabinet so he can walk around Washington with a cigar. Fire on one end and fool on the other end. And because his immediate personal problem will have been solved he will be the one to tell our people: 'Look how much progress we're making. I'm in Washington, D.C., I can have tea in the White House. I'm your spokesman, I'm your leader.' While our people are still living in Harlem in the slums. Still receiving the worst form of education.
"But how many sitting here right now feel that they could [laughs] truly identify with a struggle that was designed to eliminate the basic causes that create the conditions that exist? Not very many. They can jive, but when it comes to identifying yourself with a struggle that is not endorsed by the power structure, that is not acceptable, that the ground rules are not laid down by the society in which you live, in which you are struggling against, you can't identify with that, you step back.
"It's easy to become a satellite today without even realizing it. This country can seduce God. Yes, it has that seductive power of economic dollarism. You can cut out colonialism, imperialism and all other kind of ism, but it's hard for you to cut that dollarism. When they drop those dollars on you, you'll fold though."
—MALCOLM X, 1965
http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=987
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A little gem:
Michael Moore Faces Off With Stephen Colbert [VIDEO]
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/57492/
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LAPD vs. Immigrants (Video)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/qws/ff/qr?term=lapd&Submit=S&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Search&st=s
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Dr. Julia Hare at the SOBA 2007
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/proudtobeblack2/
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"We are far from that stage today in our era of the absolute
lie; the complete and totalitarian lie, spread by the
monopolies of press and radio to imprison social
consciousness." December 1936, "In 'Socialist' Norway,"
by Leon Trotsky: “Leon Trotsky in Norway” was transcribed
for the Internet by Per I. Matheson [References from
original translation removed]
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/12/nor.htm
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Wealth Inequality Charts
http://www.faireconomy.org/research/wealth_charts.html
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MALCOLM X: Oxford University Debate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmzaaf-9aHQ
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"There comes a times when silence is betrayal."
--Martin Luther King
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YouTube clip of Che before the UN in 1964
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtATT8GXkWg&mode=related&search
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The Wealthiest Americans Ever
NYT Interactive chart
JULY 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/business/20070715_GILDED_GRAPHIC.html
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New Orleans After the Flood -- A Photo Gallery
http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=795
This email was sent to you as a service, by Roland Sheppard.
Visit my website at: http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret
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[For some levity...Hans Groiner plays Monk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51bsCRv6kI0
...bw]
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Which country should we invade next?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3g_zqz3VjY
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My Favorite Mutiny, The Coup
http://www.myspace.com/thecoupmusic
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Michael Moore- The Awful Truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeOaTpYl8mE
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Morse v. Frederick Supreme Court arguments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_LsGoDWC0o
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Free Speech 4 Students Rally - Media Montage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfCjfod8yuw
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'My son lived a worthwhile life'
In April 2003, 21-year old Tom Hurndall was shot in the head
in Gaza by an Israeli soldier as he tried to save the lives of three
small children. Nine months later, he died, having never
recovered consciousness. Emine Saner talks to his mother
Jocelyn about her grief, her fight to make the Israeli army
accountable for his death and the book she has written
in his memory.
Monday March 26, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2042968,00.html
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Introducing...................the Apple iRack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-KWYYIY4jQ
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"A War Budget Leaves Every Child Behind."
[A T-shirt worn by some teachers at Roosevelt High School
in L.A. as part of their campaign to rid the school of military
recruiters and JROTC--see Article in Full item number 4, below...bw]
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"200 million children in the world sleep in the streets today.
Not one of them is Cuban."
(A sign in Havana)
Venceremos
View sign at bottom of page at:
http://www.cubasolidarity.net/index.html
[Thanks to Norma Harrison for sending this...bw]
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FIGHTBACK! A Collection of Socialist Essays
By Sylvia Weinstein
http://www.walterlippmann.com/sylvia-weinstein-fightback-intro.html
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[The Scab
"After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad,
and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with
which he made a scab."
"A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul,
a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue.
Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten
principles." "When a scab comes down the street,
men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and
the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out."
"No man (or woman) has a right to scab so long as there
is a pool of water to drown his carcass in,
or a rope long enough to hang his body with.
Judas was a gentleman compared with a scab.
For betraying his master, he had character enough
to hang himself." A scab has not.
"Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.
Judas sold his Savior for thirty pieces of silver.
Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of
a commision in the british army."
The scab sells his birthright, country, his wife,
his children and his fellowmen for an unfulfilled
promise from his employer.
Esau was a traitor to himself; Judas was a traitor
to his God; Benedict Arnold was a traitor to his country;
a scab is a traitor to his God, his country,
his family and his class."
Author --- Jack London (1876-1916)...Roland Sheppard
http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret]
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Award-Winning Writer/Filmmaker Donald L. Vasicek Launches New Sand
Creek Massacre Website"
May 21, 2008 -- CENTENNIAL, CO -- Award-winning filmmaker, Donald L.
Vasicek, has launched a new Sand Creek Massacre website. Titled,
"The Sand Creek Massacre", the site contains in depth witness
accounts of the massacre, the award-winning Sand Creek Massacre
trailer for viewing, the award-winning Sand Creek Massacre
documentary short for viewing, the story of the Sand Creek Massacre,
and a Shop to purchase Sand Creek Massacre DVD's and lesson
plans including the award-winning documentary film/educational DVD.
Vasicek, a board member of The American Indian Genocide Museum
(www.aigenom.com)in Houston, Texas, said, "The website was launched
to inform, to educate, and to provide educators, historians, students
and all others the accessibility to the Sand Creek Massacre story."
The link/URL to the website is sandcreekmassacre.net.
###
Contact:
Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
BAUAW NEWSLETTER - FRIDAY, JULY 25, 2008
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MUMIA ABU-JAMAL BREAKING NEWS: [please circulate]
Federal ruling regarding Mumia Abu-Jamal, death row, Pennsylvania
Legal Update
July 22, 2008
From: Robert R. Bryan, lead counsel
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia: Today our Petition for Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc, submitted on behalf of my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal, was denied by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Simply put, we did not receive the needed majority vote from the nine sitting judges; at least five votes for a rehearing were necessary. However, Justice Thomas L. Ambro continues to urge the granting of relief on the issue of racism in jury selection. That position, as detailed in his brilliant dissenting opinion of March 27, 2008, will continue to serve as a beacon of hope as we press on for a new trial and Mumia’s freedom. Judge Ambro said that the “core guarantee of equal protection, ensuring citizens that their State will not discriminate on account of race, would be meaningless were we to approve the exclusion of jurors on the basis of . . . race. . . . I respectfully dissent.” A copy of today’s decision is attached.
Reaction: Mumia and I had a legal conference this afternoon. He, as I, was stunned by the federal court’s refusal to grant relief since it flies in the face of established legal precedent in both the U.S. Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. I am furious because racism continues to raise its ugly head in this country, and should have no place in our legal system. The indisputable facts are that the prosecutor engaged in racism in selecting the jury in this case, and that bigotry lingers today in Philadelphia. It would be naive not to realize that this case continues to reek of politics and injustice.
U.S. Supreme Court: We will be seeking relief in the Supreme Court. The Petition for Writ of Certiorari will be filed by October 20, 2008, unless there is an extension. The racism issue will be presented, along with the fact that the prosecutor made misrepresentations to the jury in order to obtain a murder conviction against Mumia.
Conclusion: My goal remains a complete reversal of the conviction, even though the federal court has already granted a new jury trial on the question of the death penalty. We will not rest until Mumia is free.
Yours very truly,
Robert R. Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123-4117
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
[RobertRBryan@aol.com ]
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NEXT Meeting to defeat pro-JROTC referendum set for November Ballot in SF
TUESDAY, AUGUST 5, 7:15-9:00 pm
Friends Meeting House
65 9th St, San Francisco (between Mission and Market Sts)
To RSVP or for additional information, please contact Alan Lessik at AFSC at 565.0201, x11 or alessik@afsc.org.
Dear Friends:
In 2006 San Francisco won attention across the country when the School Board voted to become the first large school district to eliminate an existing JROTC program. Now this achievement is being threatened by a group that recently submitted petitions for a ballot proposition on the November 2008 ballot in support of continuing JROTC in the San Francisco Unified School District. This group has been well organized, using as their base the JROTC students and instructors, as well as those in the community who are for military recruitment in our schools. We understand that pro-recruitment groups outside of San Francisco are interested in backing this proposition because of the devastating effect it would have if it was passed of anchoring JROTC in our schools.
We cannot let this happen. San Francisco voters are on record with past ballot propositions that expressed our desire to end military recruitment in our schools. We would like to invite you to attend an initial organizing meeting to create a campaign committee with the sole purpose to defeat this proposition. We would like to build a coalition of labor, peace groups, faith communities, students, parents, teachers and representatives from political clubs and constituencies across San Francisco.
The purpose of this organizing meeting is to set up our committee, to determine what resources organizations and individuals may be able to contribute to staff the committee and to run a successful campaign.
The meeting will take place on AUGUST 5, 7:15-9:00 pm at the Friends Meeting House, 65 9th St, San Francisco (between Mission and Market Sts). The American Friends Service Committee will convene this initial meeting.
To RSVP or for additional information, please contact Alan Lessik at AFSC at 565.0201, x11 or alessik@afsc.org.
We look forward to you and your organization's help in defeating this initiative.
American Friends Service Committee
JROTC Must Go
PLEASE NOTE: JOB OPENING
AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE
Pacific Mountain Regional Office
Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer
The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization which includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace, and humanitarian service. Its work is based on the Quaker belief in the worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice.
Contract Position Available
Title: No on Military Recruitment in our Schools Campaign Organizer
Location: San Francisco, CA
Hours: 40-60 Hours/Week
Contract Amount: $3000 per month from August 7-November 7 (3 months).
BACKGROUND: The work of the American Friends Service Committee to promote peace, social justice, and humanitarian service is rooted in the experience and faith of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). While AFSC contractors are not required to belong to any particular denomination or faith, they are expected to understand and support AFSC’s Quaker foundations. These guiding principals are based on the belief in that of God in every person, and the right of each person to reach his or her full potential.
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: The No on Military Recruitment in our Schools Campaign Organizer will serve as staff to the Committee and coordinate volunteers and efforts to defeat the San Francisco ballot proposition on JROTC in the November election.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
1. Manage the day to day operations of the No on X campaign; coordinate with the campaign committee;
2. Recruit, coordinate, manage and train volunteers in campaign messaging, fundraising, canvassing and phone banking;
3. Identify community, civic, peace, ethnic, political, labor, faith-based, educational and LGBT organizations that can be partners in the campaign; Coordinate outreach and make presentations to these groups;
4. Identify political, labor and other organizations making ballot endorsements; develop timetable of endorsement meetings; identify key members that are allies to this campaign; work with those members to prepare presentation for a no endorsement;
5. Make contacts with local print and broadcast media, especially those media making endorsements; arrange meeting to present the case for a No vote; work with friendly journalists to provide materials and information to support the no vote;
6. Coordinate fundraising events;
7. Provide administrative back-up to Treasurer to assure compliance with all state and local campaign committee regulations;
8. Coordinate logistics for volunteer phone banking and canvassing.
ACCOUNTABILITY: The organizer will report to Alan Lessik, Regional Director of AFSC. On a daily basis, the organizer will work closely with the Committee on X, No Military Recruitment in our Schools.
QUALIFICATIONS/EXPERIENCE:
1. Experience in organizing for ballot proposition campaigns.
2. Experience, knowledge and contacts in diverse San Francisco communities, including political clubs and organizations, peace organizations, community organizations, school groups, LGBT groups, ethnic communities, faith-based organizations and other local organizations.
3. Self-starter, ability to work with little supervision, comfort with both team and independent work.
4. Knowledgeable of military recruitment, peace and school issues.
SKILLS REQUIRED:
1. Ability to organize in communities and bring people together to work toward a specific goal; knowledge of campaign organizing on ballot initiatives;
2. Ability to recruit, manage and retain volunteers;
3. Ability to take the initiative in handling and following up on program details;
4. Computer and clerical skills adequate for correspondence and routine office chores, including database experience;
5. Excellent public speaker and good written skills;
6. Bi-lingual in English and one other language is highly desirable.
To Apply: Letter and resume by August 1, 2008. Contact Alan Lessik.
Send to AFSC, 65 Ninth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103; fax: (415) 565-0204; alessik@afsc.org
Work to begin as soon as possible in August.
The American Friends Service Committee is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified persons are encouraged to apply regardless of their religious affiliation, race, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or disability.
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AMERICANS DO NOT SANCTION THE RECRUITMENT OF CHILDREN!
Say NO! to "America's Army"
Video-Game Targets Children as Young as 13.
South Park Game Companies Profit from Illegal Recruitment Program!
Rally and Action
Wednesday, August 6, 12 Noon
South Park - between 2nd and 3rd, Bryant and Brannan streets.
actagainstwar.net takedirectaction@riseup.net
“America’s Army” is a game developed by the U.S. military to instruct players in “Army values,” portray the army in a positive light, and increase potential recruits. The “game” is the property and brainchild of the US Army, which admit freely, and with pride, that it is one of their principal recruitment tools.
America’s Army has been available since 2002 as a free download or as a CD available in recruiting stations. It is published and distributed by Ubisoft right here in South Park. Ubisoft is not the only South Park neighbor engaged in the development of the game, Gameloft is working on the cell phone application and Secret Level was a designer on the 2005 Xbox version. The game has been granted a “teen” rating, allowing 13 year olds to play.
The military recruitment of children under the age of 17, however, is a clear violation of international law (the U.N. Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict). No attempt to recruit children 13-16 is allowed in the United States, pursuant to treaty. In May, the American Civil Liberties Union published a report that found the armed services regularly target children under 17 for military recruitment. The report highlighted the role of “America’s Army,” saying the Army uses the game to “attract young potential recruits . . . train them to use weapons, and engage in virtual combat and other military missions”, adding that the game “explicitly targets boys 13 and older.”
It is also important to consider the effects of the game within the context of the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Undoubtedly, soldiers now recruited through “America’s Army” will serve in these wars. The invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan are violations of international law, and contributing to their continuation through the propagation of the game is, if not a criminal violation, a moral outrage.
The game is having an effect. An informal study showed that 4 out of 100 new recruits in Ft. Benning, Georgia credit America’s Army as the primary factor in convincing them to join the military. 60% of those recruits said they played the game more than five times a week. And a 2004 Army survey found that nearly a third of young Americans ages 16 to 24 had some contact with the game in the previous six months.
This August 6, on the 63rd Anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, come out and ask the Producers and developers of America’s Army to stop helping the Army recruit children.
We are asking you to consider three steps:
1. Support for our campaign against America’s Army
2. Sign our letter and endorse this campaign.
3. Participate in our upcoming event on Hiroshima Day (Wed., Aug. 6), at noon, in South Park (btw 2nd/3rd, Bryant/Brannan), asking these companies to either withdraw from their Army contracts or provide a warning label: “This game is designed to recruit children in violation of international law. Military service can be hazardous to your health.”
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In front of the Marine Recruiting Station on Shattuck Ave
AUGUST 6TH @ 12NOON - 4pm
Press Conference @ 12:30pm
Join CodePINK, MECA, Courage to Resist, Women in Black, Gray Panthers and others;
To PROTEST the use of nuclear bombs on this horrific 'anniversary' of the bombing of HIROSHIMA, marking us as the ONLY nation in the world to use atomic weapons against a civilian population!
STAND STRONG against the threatened bombing of Iran, again in our name!
And find out what support there is in Berkeley for free speech and the right to protest!
JOIN US at the MRS (Marine Recruiting Station), noon to 4:00pm - with our constitutional rights and responsibilities to protest.
Your presence is crucial!!! Stand with us for peace, our Constitutional rights, AND in remembrance of the lives lost in Hiroshima!
We are also still looking for entertainment for the day, like spoken word, theater, or anything else! If you, or someone you know would like to perform at this event, please call KEIKO at (707) 334-7071
PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO APPROPRIATE E-MAIL LISTS!!!
Call Keiko 707-334-7071 or Judy 415-51906355 for more info or email info AT bayareacodepink DOT org.
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Monday August 14 - 7:30 pm
David Rovics Concert
Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists
1924 Cedar St. at Bonita, a block east of MLK Jr. Way, Berkeley 948709
The "musical version of Democracy Now" per Amy Goodman! "The peace
poet and troubador for our time" per Cindy Sheehan!
Rovics is a radical and progressive singer and songwriter.
$15
co-sponsored by BFUU's Social Justice Committee
wheelchair accessible
510 528 4941
www.bfuu.org
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American Joe
Lisa Reynal’s story about one soldier on his way to Afghanistan and the effect that America’s war on terror has had on the lives around him.
--Chronicle
Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8:00 P.M. through August 15, 2008
fee/admission: $15-$35
Marsh Studio
1074 Valencia St. (at 22nd Street)
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 826-5750
(Mission/Bernal Heights)
www.themarsh.org
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SAN FRANCISCO IS A SANCTUARY CITY! STOP THE MIGRA-ICE RAIDS!
Despite calling itself a "sanctuary city", S.F. politicians are permitting the harrassment of undocumented immigrants and allowing the MIGRA-ICE police to enter the jail facilities.
We will picket any store that cooperates with the MIGRA or reports undocumented brothers and sisters. We demand AMNESTY without conditions!
BRIGADES AGAINST THE RAIDS
project of BARRIO UNIDO
(415)431-9925
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"Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about his religion. Respect others in their views and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and of service to your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
"Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, or even a stranger, if in a lonely place. Show respect to all people, but grovel to none. When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.
"Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home." by: Tecumseh -(1768-1813) Shawnee Chief
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Indicted, Sami Al-Arian Faces Possible Life Imprisonment new
John Halliwell, July 1, 2008
Last March, Sami Al-Arian was given a choice: 1) damned if you do; and 2) damned if you don't; he chose "damned if you don't". Finally, a full three months after making that decision, he was formally charged last Thursday with contempt of court, a crime which has no maximum penalty. In other words, Dr. Al-Arian - a man whose innocence has been grudgingly admitted by even his worst enemies* - is now facing the possibility of life in jail all because he had the guts to stand up for what he believes in--read more at: http://www.freesamialarian.com/home.htm
1. Call Senator Patrick Leahy ((202) 224- 4242) and Congressman John Conyers ((202) 225-5126) - the Judicial Committee chairmen of the Senate and House respectively - and ask them to meet with the Attorney General and have him stop Assistant US Attorney Gordon Kromberg from going forward with this unlawful indictment. Even if you are not their constituent, they are obliged to listen to your opinion since their duties extend to all Americans.
2. Fax a letter to the Office of Professional Responsibility at the US Department of Justice: (202) 514-5050.
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"Canada: Abide by resolution - Let U.S. war resisters stay!"
Dear Canada: Let Them Stay
Urgent action request—In wake of Parliament win, please sign this new letter to Canada.
By Courage to Resist
June 18, 2008
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/499/89/
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ARTICLES IN FULL:
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1) U.S. Perpetuates Mass Killings In Iraq
by Peter Phillips | Dissident Voice, July 19th, 2008
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/07/us-perpetuates-mass-killings-in-iraq/
2) Women Are Now Equal as Victims of Poor Economy
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
July 22, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/business/22jobs.html
3) Abu-Jamal loses latest appeal for new trial
By Emilie Lounsberry
Inquirer Staff Writer
July 23, 2008
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/philadelphia/20080723_Abu-Jamal_loses_latest_appeal_for_new_trial.html
4) Obama (and Big Media) Turn Blind Eye to Israeli Apartheid
By BAR Managing Editor Bruce Dixon
July 23-29, 2008
http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=714&Itemid=1
5) Taking Aim with Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone is now in its seventh year of
broadcasting. We need your assistance to continue.
Mya Shone/Ralph Schoenman
Taking Aim
http://www.takingaimradio.com
6) Ford Posts Loss of $8.7 Billion on Asset Woes
By NICK BUNKLEY
July 25, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/business/25ford.html?hp
7) What’s Lurking in Your Countertop?
By KATE MURPHY
July 24, 2008
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/garden/24granite.html
8) Paying Doctors to Ignore Patients
By PETER B. BACH
Op-Ed Contributor
July 24, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/opinion/24bach.html
9) Two Articles on Cancer and Cellphones
Prominent Cancer Doctor Warns About Cellphones
July 24, 2008, 11:20 am
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/prominent-cancer-doctor-warns-about-cellphones/index.html?hp
WELL; Experts Revive Debate Over Cellphones and Cancer
By TARA PARKER-POPE
June 3, 2008
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9802E1D61438F930A35755C0A96E9C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
10) Israel to build new settlement in West Bank
By LAURIE COPANS
July 24, 2008– 8 hours ago
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jD4YSkDPlclqd9dHvg2f0Ij18zEgD9245FSO0
11) Flesh-eating fish give pedicures
A novel type of pedicure involving live fish which chomp away at dead skin is catching on at a Virginia beauty salon.
By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles
Last Updated: 11:46AM BST 22 Jul 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2443947/Flesh-eating-fish-give-pedicures.html
12) Wounded Warriors, Empty Promises
Editorial
July 25, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/opinion/25fri1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
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1) U.S. Perpetuates Mass Killings In Iraq
by Peter Phillips | Dissident Voice, July 19th, 2008
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/07/us-perpetuates-mass-killings-in-iraq/
The United States is directly responsible for over one million Iraqi
deaths since the invasion five and half years ago. In a January 2008
report, a British polling group Opinion Research Business (ORB)
reports that, "survey work confirms our earlier estimate that over
1,000,000 Iraqi citizens have died as a result of the conflict which
started in 2003…. We now estimate that the death toll between March
2003 and August 2007 is likely to have been of the order of 1,033,000.
If one takes into account the margin of error associated with survey
data of this nature then the estimated range is between 946,000 and
1,120,000".
The ORB report comes on the heels of two earlier studies conducted by
Johns Hopkins University published in the Lancet medical journal that
confirmed the continuing numbers of mass deaths in Iraq. A study done
by Dr. Les Roberts from January 1, 2002 to March 18 2003 put the
civilian deaths at that time at over 100,000. A second study published
in the Lancet in October 2006 documented over 650,000 civilian deaths
in Iraq since the start of the US invasion. The 2006 study confirms
that US aerial bombing in civilian neighborhoods caused over a third
of these deaths and that over half the deaths are directly
attributable to US forces.
The now estimated 1.2 million dead, as of July 2008, includes
children, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, cab drivers,
clerics, schoolteachers, factory workers, policemen, poets, healthcare
workers, day care providers, construction workers, babysitters,
musicians, bakers, restaurant workers and many more. All manner of
ordinary people in Iraq have died because the United States decided to
invade their country. These are deaths in excess of the normal
civilian death rate under the prior government.
The magnitude of these deaths is undeniable. The continuing occupation
by US forces guarantees a mass death rate in excess of 10,000 people
per month with half that number dying at the hands of US forces — a
carnage so severe and so concentrated at to equate it with the most
heinous mass killings in world history. This act has not gone
unnoticed.
Recently, Dennis Kucinich introduced a single impeachment article
against George W. Bush for lying to Congress and the American people
about the reasons for invading Iraq. On July 15, the House forwarded
the resolution to the Judiciary Committee with a 238 to 180 vote. That
Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction and Iraq's threat to the
US is now beyond doubt. Former US federal prosecutor Elizabeth De La
Vega documents the lies most thoroughly in her book U.S. v. Bush, and
numerous other researchers have verified Bush's untrue statements.
The American people are faced with a serious moral dilemma. Murder and
war crimes have been conducted in our name. We have allowed the
war/occupation to continue in Iraq and offered ourselves little choice
within the top two presidential candidates for immediate cessation of
the mass killings. McCain would undoubtedly accept the deaths of
another million Iraqi civilians in order to save face for America, and
Obama's 18-month timetable for withdrawal would likely result in
another 250,000 civilian deaths or more.
We owe our children and ourselves a future without the shame of mass
murder on our collective conscience. The only resolution of this
dilemma is the immediate withdrawal of all US troops in Iraq and the
prosecution and imprisonment of those responsible. Anything less
creates a permanent original sin on the soul of the nation for that we
will forever suffer.
Peter Phillips is a Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University,
and Director of Project Censored, a media research organization. Read
other articles by Peter, or visit Peter's website.
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2) Women Are Now Equal as Victims of Poor Economy
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
July 22, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/business/22jobs.html
Across the country, women in their prime earning years, struggling with an unfriendly economy, are retreating from the work force, either permanently or for long stretches.
They had piled into jobs in growing numbers since the 1960s. But that stopped happening this decade, and as the nearly seven-year-old recovery gives way to hard times, the retreat is likely to accelerate.
Indeed, for the first time since the women’s movement came to life, an economic recovery has come and gone, and the percentage of women at work has fallen, not risen, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. Each of the seven previous recoveries since 1960 ended with a greater percentage of women at work than when it began.
When economists first started noticing this trend two or three years ago, many suggested that the pullback from paid employment was a matter of the women themselves deciding to stay home — to raise children or because their husbands were doing well or because, more than men, they felt committed to running their households.
But now, a different explanation is turning up in government data, in the research of a few economists and in a Congressional study, to be released Tuesday, that follows the women’s story through the end of 2007.
After moving into virtually every occupation, women are being afflicted on a large scale by the same troubles as men: downturns, layoffs, outsourcing, stagnant wages or the discouraging prospect of an outright pay cut. And they are responding as men have, by dropping out or disappearing for a while.
“When we saw women starting to drop out in the early part of this decade, we thought it was the motherhood movement, women staying home to raise their kids,” Heather Boushey, a senior economist at the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, which did the Congressional study, said in an interview. “We did not think it was the economy, but when we looked into it, we realized that it was.”
Hard times in manufacturing certainly sidelined Tootie Samson of Baxter, Iowa. Nine months after she lost her job on a factory assembly line, Ms. Samson, 48, is still not working. She could be. Jobs that pay $8 or $9 an hour are easy enough to land, she says. But like the men with whom she worked at the Maytag washing machine factory, now closed, near her home, she resists going back to work at less than half her old wage.
Ms. Samson knows she will have to get another job at some point. She and her husband still have a teenage daughter to put through college, and his income as a truck driver is not enough. So Ms. Samson, now receiving unemployment benefits, is going to college full time — leaving the work force for more than two years — hoping that a bachelor’s degree will enable her to earn at least her old wage of $20 an hour.
“A lot of women I know, all they did was work at the Maytag factory,” said Ms. Samson, who joined Maytag’s assembly line 11 years ago. “They can’t find another job like it and they deal with this loss by dropping out.”
The Joint Economic Committee study cites the growing statistical evidence that women are leaving the work force “on par with men,” and the potentially disastrous consequences for families.
“Women bring home about one-third of family income,” said Carolyn Maloney, Democrat of New York and vice chairman of the Joint Economic Committee. “And only those families with a working wife have seen real improvement in their living standards.”
The proportion of women holding jobs in their prime working years, 25 to 54, peaked at 74.9 percent in early 2000 as the technology investment bubble was about to burst. Eight years later, in June, it was 72.7 percent, a seemingly small decline, but those 2.2 percentage points erase more than 12 years of gains for women. Four million more in their prime years would be employed today if the old pattern had prevailed through the expansion now ending.
The pattern is roughly similar among the well-educated and the less educated, among the married and never married, among mothers with teenage children and those with children under 6, and among white women and black.
The women, in sum, are for the first time withdrawing from work with the same uniformity as men in their prime working years. Ninety-six percent of the men held jobs in 1953, their peak year. That is down to 86.4 percent today. But while men are rarely thought of as dropping out to run the household, that is often the assumption when women pull out.
“A woman gets laid off and she stays home for six months with her kids,” Ms. Boushey said. “She doesn’t admit that she is staying home because she could not get another acceptable job.”
The biggest retreat has been in manufacturing, where more than one million women have disappeared from payrolls since 2001. Like men, many have not returned to jobs in other sectors.
Wage stagnation often discourages them from pursuing new jobs, says Lawrence Katz, a labor economist at Harvard. “While pay was rising solidly in the 1990s, you had women continuing to move into the work force,” Mr. Katz said.
Pay is no longer rising smartly for women in the key 25-to-54 age group. Just the opposite, the median pay — the point where half make more and half less — has fallen in recent years, to $14.84 an hour in 2007 from $15.04 in 2004, adjusted for inflation, according to the Economic Policy Institute. (The similar wage for men today is two dollars more.)
Not since the 1970s has that happened to women for so long a stretch — and because this is a new experience for them, “women may be even more reluctant than men to accept declining wages,” said Nancy Folbre, an economist at the University of Massachusetts.
Joyce Call, 39, of Howell, Mich., near Detroit, certainly fits that description. She took an accounting job in January 2006 at Forming Technologies, which supplies plastic to auto companies.
The pay, $14 an hour — more than $25,000 a year — was acceptable, she said, but not the raises, which came to only 28 cents an hour over two years, or the Christmas bonus: $150 the first year and nothing the second.
“I was treated poorly,” she said, explaining her departure.
For the moment, Ms. Call is home-schooling one of her two sons, falling back on her husband’s $70,000 income as a plumber, and looking for another job, to return to a work force she has seldom left since finishing high school in 1988.
“People are just not hiring in Michigan,” she said. What’s more, she is reluctant because of the high cost of gasoline to commute more than an hour each way to the next job. “It would be a tough decision to accept a job that required me to go farther,” she said, adding that she and her husband were cutting back on discretionary spending until she is employed again.
What helped drive up the percentage of women in the work force were the thousands who came off welfare and took jobs in the 1990s, pushed to do so by the welfare-to-work legislation. A strong economy eased the way. So did tax credits and more subsidized child care. Now as the economy weakens and employers shrink their payrolls, many of these women struggle to find work.
Lisa Craig, 42, is among them. Raising three sons in her native Chicago, she had worked only occasionally since high school and started receiving welfare benefits in 1993. For the next seven years she took courses in office skills, was a volunteer in a day care center and served for a while as an unpaid intern for a college vice president.
And then in 2000 she went to work. For most of that year she earned $10 an hour as a salesclerk at a duty-free shop at O’Hare Airport, selling luxury items, but left the job to move to Milwaukee with her children to be near her sister.
“I was in a bad marriage,” she said, “and I was getting a divorce.”
Over the last eight years in Milwaukee she has worked only sporadically although, as she puts it, she has applied for hundreds of jobs, struggling to supplement a $628-a-month welfare check that goes almost entirely to rent, plus $500 a month in food vouchers. The longest tenure, 11 months, was as a salesclerk earning $7.75 an hour at a Goodwill Industries clothing store.
She lost that job last November, but is volunteering at the Milwaukee office of 9to5, National Association of Working Women, hoping to draw a modest salary soon as a community intern.
Ms. Samson, the former Maytag worker, says she can afford not to work because she qualified under the terms of the plant closing for two years of unemployment benefits as long as she is a full-time student. She lost health insurance but shifted to her husband’s policy.
His $40,000 income as a truck driver and her $360 a week in jobless benefits gets them by while she takes an accelerated program at a William Penn University campus near her home. Graduation is scheduled for January 2010.
“If I were a single parent or did not have benefits,” Ms. Samson said, “I would have had to find a job. I could not have gone back to school to get my degree and the promise it holds of a better job.”
That for Ms. Samson is a good reason to drop out. Just working, which she has done nearly all of her adult life, is unappealing, she says. Even interior design, for which she once earned an associate’s degree, does not excite her anymore, she says, mainly because people can no longer afford to fix up their homes.
“A business degree will put me in a position to work for any company,” Ms. Samson said, “and put me in a position to work up into a well-paid human resources job.”
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3) Abu-Jamal loses latest appeal for new trial
By Emilie Lounsberry
Inquirer Staff Writer
July 23, 2008
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/philadelphia/20080723_Abu-Jamal_loses_latest_appeal_for_new_trial.html
A federal appeals court yesterday refused to reconsider the decision denying a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal in the 1981 murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.
In a two-page decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit denied Abu-Jamal's request for a rehearing of his appeal in the controversial case, which has helped fuel an international debate about the death penalty.
Abu-Jamal's lawyer, Robert R. Bryan of San Francisco, said he planned to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the case.
In March, a three-judge panel of the Third Circuit left intact Abu-Jamal's conviction but said a new jury should decide whether he deserved death or should be sentenced to life behind bars.
Deputy District Attorney Ronald E. Eisenberg said no decision had been made on whether his office would ask the high court to reinstate the death sentence.
Abu-Jamal and his lawyers contend that the panel should have ordered a hearing on their contention that prosecutors intentionally excluded blacks from his jury in violation of a later 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision.
They noted that one of the panel members, Judge Thomas Ambro, wanted a hearing held on that issue, though he was in the minority on that issue.
All three members of the panel, which also included Chief Judge Anthony J. Scirica and Judge Robert E. Cowen, affirmed the December 2001 decision by U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn Jr., who threw out the death sentence.
Yohn concluded that the jury might have been confused by the trial judge's instructions and wording on the verdict form filled out when the jury decided on death.
He found that the jury might have mistakenly believed it had to agree unanimously on any mitigating circumstances - factors that might have persuaded the jury to decide on a life sentence, rather than death.
Abu-Jamal, 54, has been on death row since his 1982 conviction in the killing of Faulkner, who was shot to death near 13th and Locust Streets early on Dec. 9, 1981.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence in 1989, and also rejected three other appeals.
Unless the nation's high court agrees to hear the case, Abu-Jamal most likely would face a new Philadelphia jury to decide only whether the penalty should be life or death. The high court hears only a tiny percentage of all petitions filed each year.
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4) Obama (and Big Media) Turn Blind Eye to Israeli Apartheid
By BAR Managing Editor Bruce Dixon
July 23-29, 2008
http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=714&Itemid=1
Israel is now an apartheid state, according to the publisher of Ha'aretz, that country's largest circulation daily newspaper. The occasion was the recent renewal of Israeli citizenship laws, which refuse to recognize marriages and families among most of the Arabs living in that country. How can Barack Obama, himself the son of an American mixed marriage remain an apparently uncritical supporter of Israeli apartheid, and why does corporate media continue to pursue a longstanding "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward the odious policies of racial and ethnic discrimination in Israel?
The presidential campaigns of Democrats and Republicans are no more about placing issues before the US public than competing commercials for new cars or bottled water are about the facts. Brought to us by the same corporate marketers that sell us lifestyles and beer, mainstream presidential campaigns aim to establish and exploit visceral, fact-proof loyalties to the brand of a party or candidate. The fact-proof nature of the Obama brand, and the lengths corporate media go to protect it were on prominent display during the candidate's brief visit to Israel Palestine this week.
Barack Obama's smiling brown face and Kansas-Kenya parentage are key elements in the Obama brand, that hazy image of progressive, post-racial transformation at home and abroad which lie at the heart of his appeal. At the same time, Barack Obama is committed to preserving what he calls Israel's “identity as a Jewish state”, the polite term for what much of the rest of the world recognizes as an apartheid state.
A June 29 editorial by no less a member of the Israeli elite than Amos Schocken, the publisher of Ha'aretz, Israel's daily newspaper of record is titled “Citizenship Law Makes Israel An Apartheid State” The gist of it is that the Israeli government prohibits recognition of marriages or family reunions between Arabs with Israeli citizenship and Arabs who live within the borders of Israel-Palestine in the bantustans of Gaza and the West Bank --- inside the borders of Israel-Palestine but without Israeli citizenship.
“The law stipulates that the interior minister does not have the authority to approve residence in Israel for a resident of Judea and Samaria (unless, of course, they are Jews - that is, settlers). This is so even regarding family reunions, meaning marriage, when it comes to Palestinian spouses who are younger than 35 (for men) or 25 (for women). In effect, the law prevents young Israeli citizens from marrying the spouse of their choice and living with this spouse in Israel, if the spouse is a Palestinian from Judea and Samaria.
It is obvious that this has barely any effect on the right of young Israeli Jews to live in their country with the spouse of their choice, because there are hardly any marriages between Israeli Jews and Palestinians from Judea and Samaria. (These are Israeli names for the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and Gaza.) On the other hand, these Palestinians constitute Israeli Arabs' natural pool for choosing a spouse. For this reason, the law severely discriminates when comparing the rights of young Israeli Jewish citizens and young Israeli Arab citizens. ”
The Big Media correspondents who breathlessly cover Obama at home and abroad are not stupid or ignorant people. They (or someone in their offices) all read Ha'aretz daily, and none are ignorant of the facts of Israeli apartheid. They are professionals who know their jobs, and their boundaries. Each and every one realizes it would be career suicide to directly or indirectly ask the proud son of black African and white American parents, accorded the rights of full US citizenship through one parent, how he can uncritically support an apartheid state in Israel which awards and denies a host of citizenship rights on ethnic and religious grounds, from property ownership, education and the freedom to live where one likes to separate license plates (enable police profiling at a distance), bans on new Palestinian wells, water and electrical use, to Jewish-only roads and Palestinian-only checkpoints.
In this, it would be a mistake to believe that the Israeli tail is wagging the dogs of US presidential candidates and Big Media. The heavily militarized and nuclear armed state of Israel is entirely dependent upon US military aid, economic support, and political patronage. Israel is the direct recipient of more than six billion US tax dollars annually. Israel could not continue its brutal annexation policies, its militarized wall, its "settlement" of Palestinian lands or any of its other objectionable policies without the complete and bipartisan support of US ruling circles. For the US, Israel is a kind of offshore military base, a nuclear-armed white enclave in the middle of millions of brown people who sit atop a large share of the world's most accessible oil.
Apartheid in South African was odious, to be sure. But apartheid South Africa was not of primary strategic or economic importance to the US. Apartheid Israel is.
US public opinion, like that in the rest of the world, persistently calls for a more just and even-handed US policy toward Israel-Palestine. But corporate media and the US political elite, including Barack Obama continue to ignore them. On this issue, as Salon's Glen Greenwald writes, public opinion is pretty well irrelevant.
If, as some Obama supporters claim, there is a "movement" which he listens to, and which potentially influences his positions, this would be a good time and place for it to speak up. If they can't or won't, it's one more piece of evidence that the Obama candidacy is as people-proof as any other corporate one, that there is and never was any "Obama movement" with an objective beyond November, and that Obama is just another brand name, like Monsanto, or Ford, or Exxon.
Bruce Dixon is based in Atlanta and can be reached at bruce.dixon(at)blackagendareport.com
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5) Citizenship law makes Israel an apartheid state
By Amos Schocken
Last update - 21:57 29/06/2008
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/996697.html
The government's decision last week to extend the validity of the Citizenship Law (Temporary Order), for another year, is evidence that the legal barriers preventing severe discrimination against Israel's Arab citizens and harm to their civil rights have been removed.
This extension is the eighth since the law was first passed in 2003, and it shows just how naive Justice Edmond Levy's position was when he refused to join in the 2006 decision by five judges from the High Court of Justice, who stated that the law was unconstitutional, that it contravened the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Freedom, and that it must be removed from the law books. Levy explained his refusal by saying that he saw no need to intervene because only two months remained until the law expired. However, at the end of the two months, the law was extended by a year, and now they want to extend it for yet another year.
Had Levy known that the law's limited validity was nothing but a deception aimed at preparing a discriminatory and unconstitutional law, there is no doubt he would have joined the five justices' majority opinion that it was unconstitutional and should be removed. We must hope that the High Court of Justice, when it rules on the new petition submitted against the law after it was extended in 2006, will take into account that the term "temporary provision," which both the government and Knesset take pains to stress, is a deception. We are talking about, in effect, a permanent law.
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The law stipulates that the interior minister does not have the authority to approve residence in Israel for a resident of Judea and Samaria (unless, of course, they are Jews - that is, settlers). This is so even regarding family reunions, meaning marriage, when it comes to Palestinian spouses who are younger than 35 (for men) or 25 (for women). In effect, the law prevents young Israeli citizens from marrying the spouse of their choice and living with this spouse in Israel, if the spouse is a Palestinian from Judea and Samaria.
It is obvious that this has barely any effect on the right of young Israeli Jews to live in their country with the spouse of their choice, because there are hardly any marriages between Israeli Jews and Palestinians from Judea and Samaria. On the other hand, these Palestinians constitute Israeli Arabs' natural pool for choosing a spouse. For this reason, the law severely discriminates when comparing the rights of young Israeli Jewish citizens and young Israeli Arab citizens.
When the law was first passed in 2003, supposedly as a temporary one-year measure, it was accompanied by security reasoning - the risk of implanting terrorists in Israel via marriage. The reasoning was faulty even at that time: Every Palestinian who wishes to enter Israel must be addressed individually. It is the Shin Bet security service's task to do this and thus carry out its mission - protecting the security of Israel's citizens such that the country remains democratic, with equal rights for all. However, as the years go by, it becomes clear that the security argument and the term "temporary measure" are merely a deception aimed at "koshering" discriminatory legislation for demographic reasons.
The claim that there are characteristics of an apartheid state in Israel is widely heard in the Western world. The word apartheid is catchy and understood in many parts of the world, which makes it useful to send a message that we resent and which we claim has no connection with reality in Israel. However, we do not need to replicate exactly the characteristics of South African apartheid within discriminatory practices in civil rights in Israel in order to call Israel an apartheid state. The amendment to the Citizenship Law is exactly such a practice, and it is best that we not try to evade the truth: Its existence in our law books turns Israel into an apartheid state.
The government decided to add the Gaza Strip to the list of countries for which the interior minister does not have the prerogative to approve residence in Israel on the grounds of family reunions, regardless of age. Both the list and the new addition are superfluous and harmful. Since Hamas gained control, no one enters or leaves Gaza anyway, and the new restriction harms couples' cases from the time when there was passage between Israel and Gaza. There is no need for this affront.
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5) Taking Aim with Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone is now in its seventh year of
broadcasting. We need your assistance to continue.
Mya Shone/Ralph Schoenman
Taking Aim
http://www.takingaimradio.com
Over these years, Taking Aim has become an international phenomenon, heard
in 77 countries and across the United States.
Constantly breaking new ground, Taking Aim has led the way in laying out the
underlying politics of 9/11 as an advanced expression of the crisis of
capitalism engulfing humanity.
With meticulous documentation and insightful analysis, we have covered the
social, economic and political issues of the day whether it is the
U.S.-Israeli plans for the Middle East, the torture and exploitation of
people and other species, or the collapse of Bear Stearns and the further
risk of the financial house of cards tumbling.
We have demonstrated how the advent of ever escalating wars, a permanent
feature of imperialism, has precipitated serial collapse in key sectors of
the financial system. We have established that the only future offered by
the one big property party with two names - the Democratic and Republican
Parties - is the deepening the assault on living standards, further
abrogation of our rights and preparation for martial law.
Taking Aim is responding to the challenge and is planning to expand our
reach.
Today: we broadcast over WBAI-NY; we broadcast on the Internet via the
Progressive Radio Network; we distribute our programs through our program
archive to individuals internationally; we prepare occasional video and
televised presentations, organizing resistance to war and exploitation.
We call upon all who have listened faithfully to Taking Aim to rise to the
occasion and help fund our research, communication and agitation.
We are on the cusp of an exponential expansion of the reach of TAKING AIM
and we urge you to remember that this is not a spectator sport.
We rely upon you to join us in this struggle and to contribute generously to
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CONTRIBUTE TODAY - DON'T WAIT
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WE LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU. THANKING YOU IN ADVANCE.
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expand our Internet site, publish workbooks, pamphlets and books and
organize events. Make your checks payable to:
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6) Ford Posts Loss of $8.7 Billion on Asset Woes
By NICK BUNKLEY
July 25, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/business/25ford.html?hp
DETROIT — The Ford Motor Company, stunned by abysmal sales of its most profitable vehicles and a sudden shift in consumers’ tastes, said Thursday that it lost $8.7 billion in the quarter, its worst ever, and would overhaul its North American plants to focus on small cars.
The loss, equal to $3.88 a share, was mostly the result of $8 billion in write-downs because of falling demand for and resale values of gas-thirsty pickups and sport utility vehicles in the United States. Ford took charges of $5.3 billion charge related to lower asset values in North America and $2.1 billion on the lease portfolio at its financing arm, the Ford Motor Credit Company.
The news sent Ford shares tumbling nearly 10 percent in morning trading.
Excluding the write-downs and other charges, the company lost $1 billion from continuing operations, down from a profit of $483 million a year ago. It lost $1.3 billion in North America, where $4-a-gallon gasoline has caused consumers to clamor for more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Ford said it would cut production for the rest of the year by an additional 105,000 vehicles, for a total reduction of 26 percent compared with the second half of 2007.
Then, it plans to overhaul three truck factories in North America so they can build small cars and double production of gas-electric hybrid vehicles next year.
Among the cars that Ford will start building and selling in North America are six small cars from Europe, where years of high gasoline have educated automakers how to earn larger profits on those vehicles than they have historically generated in the United States.
“External conditions in North America have changed dramatically in a very short period of time,” said Mark Fields, the president of Ford’s Americas division. “While we have no intention of giving up our longtime truck leadership, we are creating a new Ford in North America on a foundation of small, fuel-efficient cars and crossovers.”
In the second quarter of 2007, Ford earned a profit of $750 million, or 31 cents a share. In April, the company surprised Wall Street with a $100 million first-quarter profit, but the market for its most profitable vehicles has deteriorated swiftly since then.
Revenue fell to $38.6 billion in the second quarter from $44.2 billion a year ago, in part because the company has sold three European brands — Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin.
Ford’s automotive operations earned a profit in every region except North America, where the company eliminated 4,000 hourly jobs in the last three months and is working to cut 15 percent of salaried costs by Aug. 1. Revenue in North America dropped 25 percent to $14.2 billion, from $19 billion.
Ford Motor Credit, which until recently had been a consistent source of income, reported a $294 million loss excluding its write-downs, compared with a $112 million profit last year.
Ford executives said they expected the United States market to remain sluggish through next year and that the nation’s economy would not recover significantly until 2010. The company’s chief financial officer, Don R. Leclair, said Ford had $26.6 billion in cash on hand, down $10.8 billion from a year ago but enough to sustain its restructuring.
“We have absolutely the right plan to respond to the changing business environment and begin to grow again for the long term,” the chief executive, Alan R. Mulally, said.
Ford is relying on small cars to fuel that growth, rather than the high-profit big trucks and S.U.V.’s that propelled it through recent decades. It plans to retool a sport utility vehicle factory in Michigan and begin making compact cars there in 2010. An S.U.V. plant in Kentucky will start building small cars in 2011. The company has already announced plans to build a new subcompact car, the Fiesta, at a former truck factory in Mexico.
Meanwhile, a plant in St. Paul, Minn., that was scheduled to close next year will stay open through 2011 to continue building the Ford Ranger, a compact pickup for which demand has increased as drivers downsize from full-size pickups.
Ford also plans to double its capacity to build fuel-efficient, four-cylinder engines in North America by 2011.
At the same time, it will reduce costs by paring the number of different platforms on which its cars worldwide are based to 9 from 25 today.
Ford’s sales fell 14 percent in the first half of the year, compared with 10.1 percent for the industry overall. But in June alone, Ford’s sales were off 27.9 percent, including a 35.3 percent drop for its trucks.
The disappointing performance led executives to back away from the company’s previous goal of returning to profitability next year. Ford is now expected to lose money for a fourth consecutive year in 2009.
The automaker has already been slowing production of its larger vehicles, while running plants that make the Ford Focus compact car and other sedans on overtime. It is delaying the introduction of its redesigned full-size pickup truck, the 2009 F-series, for two months this fall while dealers grapple with an oversupply of the current model.
The F-series has been the best-selling vehicle in the United States for 26 years, but in May and June it suddenly fell to fifth, behind four Japanese sedans.
The deteriorating market for Ford’s most profitable vehicles caused shares of the company to lose nearly half their value in a two- month period. The stock fell to a 23-year low of $4.30 on July 3.
That drop occurred even as the billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian increased his stake in Ford and expressed optimism about the automaker’s future under Mr. Mulally. As of mid-June, Mr. Kerkorian owned 140.8 million shares of Ford, which he bought for as much as $8.50 each.
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7) What’s Lurking in Your Countertop?
By KATE MURPHY
July 24, 2008
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/garden/24granite.html
SHORTLY before Lynn Sugarman of Teaneck, N.J., bought her summer home in Lake George, N.Y., two years ago, a routine inspection revealed it had elevated levels of radon, a radioactive gas that can cause lung cancer. So she called a radon measurement and mitigation technician to find the source.
“He went from room to room,” said Dr. Sugarman, a pediatrician. But he stopped in his tracks in the kitchen, which had richly grained cream, brown and burgundy granite countertops. His Geiger counter indicated that the granite was emitting radiation at levels 10 times higher than those he had measured elsewhere in the house.
“My first thought was, my pregnant daughter was coming for the weekend,” Dr. Sugarman said. When the technician told her to keep her daughter several feet from the countertops just to be safe, she said, “I had them ripped out that very day,” and sent to the state Department of Health for analysis. The granite, it turned out, contained high levels of uranium, which is not only radioactive but releases radon gas as it decays. “The health risk to me and my family was probably small,” Dr. Sugarman said, “but I felt it was an unnecessary risk.”
As the popularity of granite countertops has grown in the last decade — demand for them has increased tenfold, according to the Marble Institute of America, a trade group representing granite fabricators — so have the types of granite available. For example, one source, Graniteland (graniteland.com) offers more than 900 kinds of granite from 63 countries. And with increased sales volume and variety, there have been more reports of “hot” or potentially hazardous countertops, particularly among the more exotic and striated varieties from Brazil and Namibia.
“It’s not that all granite is dangerous,” said Stanley Liebert, the quality assurance director at CMT Laboratories in Clifton Park, N.Y., who took radiation measurements at Dr. Sugarman’s house. “But I’ve seen a few that might heat up your Cheerios a little.”
Allegations that granite countertops may emit dangerous levels of radon and radiation have been raised periodically over the past decade, mostly by makers and distributors of competing countertop materials. The Marble Institute of America has said such claims are “ludicrous” because although granite is known to contain uranium and other radioactive materials like thorium and potassium, the amounts in countertops are not enough to pose a health threat.
Indeed, health physicists and radiation experts agree that most granite countertops emit radiation and radon at extremely low levels. They say these emissions are insignificant compared with so-called background radiation that is constantly raining down from outer space or seeping up from the earth’s crust, not to mention emanating from manmade sources like X-rays, luminous watches and smoke detectors.
But with increasing regularity in recent months, the Environmental Protection Agency has been receiving calls from radon inspectors as well as from concerned homeowners about granite countertops with radiation measurements several times above background levels. “We’ve been hearing from people all over the country concerned about high readings,” said Lou Witt, a program analyst with the agency’s Indoor Environments Division.
Last month, Suzanne Zick, who lives in Magnolia, Tex., a small town northwest of Houston, called the E.P.A. and her state’s health department to find out what she should do about the salmon-colored granite she had installed in her foyer a year and a half ago. A geology instructor at a community college, she realized belatedly that it could contain radioactive material and had it tested. The technician sent her a report indicating that the granite was emitting low to moderately high levels of both radon and radiation, depending on where along the stone the measurement was taken.
“I don’t really know what the numbers are telling me about my risk,” Ms. Zick said. “I don’t want to tear it out, but I don’t want cancer either.”
The E.P.A. recommends taking action if radon gas levels in the home exceeds 4 picocuries per liter of air (a measure of radioactive emission); about the same risk for cancer as smoking a half a pack of cigarettes per day. In Dr. Sugarman’s kitchen, the readings were 100 picocuries per liter. In her basement, where radon readings are expected to be higher because the gas usually seeps into homes from decaying uranium underground, the readings were 6 picocuries per liter.
The average person is subjected to radiation from natural and manmade sources at an annual level of 360 millirem (a measure of energy absorbed by the body), according to government agencies like the E.P.A. and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The limit of additional exposure set by the commission for people living near nuclear reactors is 100 millirem per year. To put this in perspective, passengers get 3 millirem of cosmic radiation on a flight from New York to Los Angeles.
A “hot” granite countertop like Dr. Sugarman’s might add a fraction of a millirem per hour and that is if you were a few inches from it or touching it the entire time.
Nevertheless, Mr. Witt said, “There is no known safe level of radon or radiation.” Moreover, he said, scientists agree that “any exposure increases your health risk.” A granite countertop that emits an extremely high level of radiation, as a small number of commercially available samples have in recent tests, could conceivably expose body parts that were in close proximity to it for two hours a day to a localized dose of 100 millirem over just a few months.
David J. Brenner, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University in New York, said the cancer risk from granite countertops, even those emitting radiation above background levels, is “on the order of one in a million.” Being struck by lightning is more likely. Nonetheless, Dr. Brenner said, “It makes sense. If you can choose another counter that doesn’t elevate your risk, however slightly, why wouldn’t you?”
Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking and is considered especially dangerous to smokers, whose lungs are already compromised. Children and developing fetuses are vulnerable to radiation, which can cause other forms of cancer. Mr. Witt said the E.P.A. is not studying health risks associated with granite countertops because of a “lack of resources.”
The Marble Institute of America plans to develop a testing protocol for granite. “We want to reassure the public that their granite countertops are safe,” Jim Hogan, the group’s president, said earlier this month “We know the vast majority of granites are safe, but there are some new exotic varieties coming in now that we’ve never seen before, and we need to use sound science to evaluate them.”
Research scientists at Rice University in Houston and at the New York State Department of Health are currently conducting studies of granite widely used in kitchen counters. William J. Llope, a professor of physics at Rice, said his preliminary results show that of the 55 samples he has collected from nearby fabricators and wholesalers, all of which emit radiation at higher-than-background levels, a handful have tested at levels 100 times or more above background.
Personal injury lawyers are already advertising on the Web for clients who think they may have been injured by countertops. “I think it will be like the mold litigation a few years back, where some cases were legitimate and a whole lot were not,” said Ernest P. Chiodo, a physician and lawyer in Detroit who specializes in toxic tort law. His kitchen counters are granite, he said, “but I don’t spend much time in the kitchen.”
As for Dr. Sugarman, the contractor of the house she bought in Lake George paid for the removal of her “hot” countertops. She replaced them with another type of granite. “But I had them tested first,” she said.
Where to Find Tests and Testers
TO find a certified technician to determine whether radiation or radon is emanating from a granite countertop, homeowners can contact the American Association of Radon Scientists and Technologists (aarst.org). Testing costs between $100 to $300.
Information on certified technicians and do-it-yourself radon testing kits is available from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Web site at epa.gov/radon, as well as from state or regional indoor air environment offices, which can be found at epa.gov/iaq/whereyoulive.html. Kits test for radon, not radiation, and cost $20 to $30. They are sold at hardware stores and online.
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8) Paying Doctors to Ignore Patients
By PETER B. BACH
Op-Ed Contributor
July 24, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/opinion/24bach.html
THE longstanding push-pull between Medicare and Congress has erupted again. Last week, Congress, overriding a presidential veto, canceled Medicare’s scheduled 10.6 percent cut in payment rates for doctors, and instead raised the rates 1.1 percent. But this action fails to address the problem with the Medicare payment system, which is not the amounts doctors are paid but the way their payments are calculated.
Medicare pays doctors for specific services. If a patient has a checkup that includes an X-ray, a urine analysis and a physical, Medicare pays the doctor three separate fees.
Each fee is meant to reimburse the doctor for the time and skill he or she devotes to the patient. But it is also supposed to pay for overhead, and this is where the problem begins. To Medicare, a doctor’s overhead (or “practice expense”) includes such items as rent, staff salaries and the cost of high-tech medical equipment. When the agency pays a fee to a doctor who has performed a CT scan, it is meant to cover some of the cost of buying or leasing the scanner itself. Services using more expensive equipment generate higher fees.
Any first-year business school student can see the profit opportunity here. The cost of a CT scanner is fixed, but a doctor earns fees each time it is used. This means that a scanner becomes highly profitable as soon as it’s paid for.
In contrast, the doctor-patient visit, which involves no expensive equipment, offers no significant profit opportunity. So the best way for a doctor to make money in his practice is not to spend time with patients but to use equipment as much as possible. That means moving the maximum number of patients through the practice, and spending the minimum amount of time with each one.
From 2000 to 2005, the number of Medicare patients seen by doctors increased by 8.5 percent, while the number of services each one received was up 14 percent, according to the Government Accountability Office.
It’s not only Medicare that pays doctors on a fee-for-service basis; most private insurers do also. This is part of the reason that spending on physician services nationwide has risen every year since 2000 by about $25 billion. This year the tab will exceed $500 billion.
Doctors who do their own CT scanning and other imaging order roughly two to eight times as many imaging tests as those who do not have their own equipment, a 2002 study by researchers at the University of North Carolina found. Altogether, doctors are ordering roughly $40 billion worth of unnecessary imaging each year — which adds up to nearly 2 percent of the total Americans pay for health care.
No wonder the Government Accountability Office last month urged Medicare to find a way to constrain doctors’ use of imaging tests.
Over the years, Congress and Medicare have made various attempts to stamp out some of the most egregious excesses in Medicare payments. Sometimes they have succeeded. In 2004 and 2005, when Congress lowered the fees associated with anti-testosterone drugs used to treat prostate cancer, urologists and other doctors prescribed them less.
Around the same time, though, urologists started buying multimillion-dollar radiation therapy machines for treating prostate cancer. Reimbursement for radiation treatment remains very generous.
Clearly, scattershot strategies aimed at individual fees are unlikely to reduce health care costs. More fundamental changes are needed in the way doctors are paid.
For their time, doctors should be given a stipend for each of their patients. It should be larger for patients with complicated medical conditions and smaller for those who are healthy, and it should not be influenced by the number of services or tests a doctor orders.
For overhead, doctors should be paid an amount that covers the typical cost of tests and treatments needed to address a patient’s condition. This strategy — known as “case rate” or “prospective” payment — is standard in American hospitals. The hospital receives a payment for dealing with a patient’s underlying condition rather than individual payments for each test and treatment. This approach offers no incentive to run unneeded tests, and it has been credited with substantially slowing the growth in Medicare payments to hospitals.
Without changes to the way Medicare pays doctors, the fights in Congress over raising or lowering payment rates will continue. And doctors will still have no financial incentive to do what is most important: spend more time with their patients.
Peter B. Bach, a doctor at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, was a senior adviser to the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from 2005 to 2006.
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9) Two Articles on Cancer and Cellphones
Prominent Cancer Doctor Warns About Cellphones
July 24, 2008, 11:20 am
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/prominent-cancer-doctor-warns-about-cellphones/index.html?hp
WELL; Experts Revive Debate Over Cellphones and Cancer
By TARA PARKER-POPE
June 3, 2008
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9802E1D61438F930A35755C0A96E9C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
The head of a prominent cancer research institute has warned his faculty and staff to limit cellphone use because of a possible cancer risk, The Associated Press reports.
Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, the director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, notes that while the evidence about a cellphone-cancer link remains unclear, people should take precautions, particularly for children.
“Really at the heart of my concern is that we shouldn’t wait for a definitive study to come out, but err on the side of being safe rather than sorry later,” Dr. Herberman told The Associated Press.
Earlier this year, three prominent brain surgeons raised similar concerns while speaking on “The Larry King Show.” Their concerns were largely based on observational studies that showed only an association between cellphone use and cancer, not a causal relationship. The most important of these studies is called Interphone, a vast research effort in 13 countries, including Canada, Israel and several in Europe.
Some of the research suggests a link between cellphone use and three types of tumors: glioma; cancer of the parotid, a salivary gland near the ear; and acoustic neuroma, a tumor that essentially occurs where the ear meets the brain. All these tumors are rare, so even if cellphone use does increase risk, the risk is still very low.
On Wednesday, Dr. Herberman sent a memo to about 3,000 faculty and staff saying that children should use cellphones only for emergencies because their brains are still developing. He advised adults to keep cellphones away from the head and use the speakerphone or a wireless headset, he said.
“Although the evidence is still controversial, I am convinced that there are sufficient data to warrant issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice on cellphone use,” he wrote in his memo.
To read my recent Well column that explores the data on cellphones and cancer, read here:
WELL; Experts Revive Debate Over Cellphones and Cancer
By TARA PARKER-POPE
June 3, 2008
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9802E1D61438F930A35755C0A96E9C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
What do brain surgeons know about cellphone safety that the rest of us don't?
Last week, three prominent neurosurgeons told the CNN interviewer Larry King that they did not hold cellphones next to their ears. ''I think the safe practice,'' said Dr. Keith Black, a surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, ''is to use an earpiece so you keep the microwave antenna away from your brain.''
Dr. Vini Khurana, an associate professor of neurosurgery at the Australian National University who is an outspoken critic of cellphones, said: ''I use it on the speaker-phone mode. I do not hold it to my ear.'' And CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon at Emory University Hospital, said that like Dr. Black he used an earpiece.
Along with Senator Edward M. Kennedy's recent diagnosis of a glioma, a type of tumor that critics have long associated with cellphone use, the doctors' remarks have helped reignite a long-simmering debate about cellphones and cancer.
That supposed link has been largely dismissed by many experts, including the American Cancer Society. The theory that cellphones cause brain tumors ''defies credulity,'' said Dr. Eugene Flamm, chairman of neurosurgery at Montefiore Medical Center.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, three large epidemiology studies since 2000 have shown no harmful effects. CTIA -- the Wireless Association, the leading industry trade group, said in a statement, ''The overwhelming majority of studies that have been published in scientific journals around the globe show that wireless phones do not pose a health risk.''
The F.D.A. notes, however, that the average period of phone use in the studies it cites was about three years, so the research doesn't answer questions about long-term exposures. Critics say many studies are flawed for that reason, and also because they do not distinguish between casual and heavy use.
Cellphones emit non-ionizing radiation, waves of energy that are too weak to break chemical bonds or to set off the DNA damage known to cause cancer. There is no known biological mechanism to explain how non-ionizing radiation might lead to cancer.
But researchers who have raised concerns say that just because science can't explain the mechanism doesn't mean one doesn't exist. Concerns have focused on the heat generated by cellphones and the fact that the radio frequencies are absorbed mostly by the head and neck. In recent studies that suggest a risk, the tumors tend to occur on the same side of the head where the patient typically holds the phone.
Like most research on the subject, the studies are observational, showing only an association between cellphone use and cancer, not a causal relationship. The most important of these studies is called Interphone, a vast research effort in 13 countries, including Canada, Israel and several in Europe.
Some of the research suggests a link between cellphone use and three types of tumors: glioma; cancer of the parotid, a salivary gland near the ear; and acoustic neuroma, a tumor that essentially occurs where the ear meets the brain. All these cancers are rare, so even if cellphone use does increase risk, the risk is still very low.
Last year, The American Journal of Epidemiology published data from Israel finding a 58 percent higher risk of parotid gland tumors among heavy cellphone users. Also last year, a Swedish analysis of 16 studies in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine showed a doubling of risk for acoustic neuroma and glioma after 10 years of heavy cellphone use.
''What we're seeing is suggestions in epidemiological studies that have looked at people using phones for 10 or more years,'' says Louis Slesin, editor of Microwave News, an industry publication that tracks the research. ''There are some very disconcerting findings that suggest a problem, although it's much too early to reach a conclusive view.''
Some doctors say the real concern is not older cellphone users, who began using phones as adults, but children who are beginning to use phones today and face a lifetime of exposure.
''More and more kids are using cellphones,'' said Dr. Paul J. Rosch, clinical professor of medicine and psychiatry at New York Medical College. ''They may be much more affected. Their brains are growing rapidly, and their skulls are thinner.''
For people who are concerned about any possible risk, a simple solution is to use a headset. Of course, that option isn't always convenient, and some critics have raised worries about wireless devices like the Bluetooth that essentially place a transmitter in the ear.
The fear is that even if the individual risk of using a cellphone is low, with three billion users worldwide, even a minuscule risk would translate into a major public health concern.
''We cannot say with any certainty that cellphones are either safe or not safe,'' Dr. Black said on CNN. ''My concern is that with the widespread use of cellphones, the worst scenario would be that we get the definitive study 10 years from now, and we find out there is a correlation.''
E-mail: well@nytimes.com.
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10) Israel to build new settlement in West Bank
By LAURIE COPANS
July 24, 2008– 8 hours ago
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jD4YSkDPlclqd9dHvg2f0Ij18zEgD9245FSO0
JERUSALEM (AP) — A key committee has approved construction of the first new Jewish settlement in the West Bank in a decade, an Israeli official said Thursday. The news infuriated Palestinians, who said the decision could cripple peace efforts.
The only hurdle that remains is Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who plans to approve the Maskiot settlement within weeks, the official said. Barak had signaled to the national planning committee that it should authorize the plan, the official said.
The offficial spoke on condition of anonymity because the Defense Ministry did not officially announce the settlement would be built in the Jordan Valley Rift, an arid north-south strip that forms Israel's eastern flank with Jordan.
Asked why Israel was moving ahead with the politically charged plan, the official said that it has been in the pipeline for years.
Israel originally announced in 2006 that it would build Maskiot, then froze the plan after international outcry. But earlier this year, nine Israeli families settled in mobile homes at the site, which Palestinians claim as part of a future state.
Settlers say around two dozen more families are waiting to join them.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat accused Israel of undermining U.S.-backed peace talks.
"This is destroying the process of a two-state solution," Erekat said. "I hope the Americans will make the Israelis revoke the decision. I think they can make the Israelis do this."
The U.S. Embassy had no comment. But on her last visit to the region in June, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said settlement building "has the potential to harm the negotiations."
When talks renewed last year after a seven-year breakdown, Israel promised not to establish new settlements in the West Bank. The two sides set a goal of reaching a final peace accord by the end of the year, but have since scaled back their ambitions, in part because disputes over Israeli settlement have impeded progress on peacemaking.
Palestinians want the final deal to outline the formation of a Palestinian state in most of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. Israel captured those territories in the 1967 Mideast war.
Asked to comment on the revival of the plan to build Maskiot, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said, "Israel will stand by its commitments," and noted that Barak has not yet given final approval for the construction.
He would not elaborate. But Israel historically has interpreted its commitments on halting settlement expansion differently from the rest of the international community.
The Maskiot community is made up of settlers Israel evacuated from Gaza when it left the territory three years ago. When it withdrew from Gaza, Israel promised not to relocate evacuated settlers to the West Bank.
Earlier this year, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas briefly called off peace talks over continued Israeli construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has sharply criticized the building, saying it hampers peace efforts, but the U.S. has not penalized Israel.
Maskiot had decades ago been established as a military base, and four years ago a religious school was set up there. But no one had lived at the site until February.
Many Israeli settlements have been established in precisely that manner, beginning as military points that are gradually converted into fledgling communities that gradually grow.
Like many settlers, those at Maskiot are Orthodox Jews who believe God gave the West Bank — the biblical heartland Israelis often call Judea and Samaria — to the Jewish people.
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11) Flesh-eating fish give pedicures
A novel type of pedicure involving live fish which chomp away at dead skin is catching on at a Virginia beauty salon.
By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles
Last Updated: 11:46AM BST 22 Jul 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2443947/Flesh-eating-fish-give-pedicures.html
Owners of Yvonne Hair and Nails in Alexandria, a suburb of Washington DC, estimate 5,000 customers have so far tried the unorthodox treatment, in which customers immerse their feet in warm water filled with tiny, voracious carp.
The toothless fish, termed garra rufa but known as “doctor fish”, nibble away at dead skin while leaving healthy flesh untouched, providing what advocates say is a natural alternative to potentially unsanitary razors, clippers or pumice stones.
John Ho, who owns the salon with wife Yvonne, said he was initially sceptical about offering the technique, which is popular in spas in Turkey, where the fish come from, as well as parts of Japan, China, Singapore and Malaysia.
”I know people were a little intimidated at first,” he told the Associated Press. “But I just said, 'Let's give it a shot.' “
But customers flocked to try the treatment and as word spread the salon's Dr Fish Massage was featured on local radio and Tyra Banks' television talk show.
Tracy Roberts, 33, described it as “the best pedicure I ever had” and said it marked “the first time somebody got rid of my calluses completely.”
After the fish have spent up to 30 minutes chewing away hard skin - there are about 100 to every tank - customers receive a standard pedicure.
A similar treatment was featured in an episode of Ugly Betty last year when Wilhelmina Slater, played by Vanessa Williams, had a pedicure that included soaking her feet in water full of fish.
Mr Ho, who spent 40,000 dollars setting up the pedicures, is hoping to extend the service to eventually offer full-body treatments that could treat skin conditions such as psoriasis.
For some ticklish customers, however, the sensation can almost prove too much.
”It didn't go as smoothly as planned,” writes Yvonne customer Maeghan Leigh, describing on her blog how she clutched pillows to stifle her “hysterical laughing”.
”Seriously, those little guys on your toes is the most outrageous ridiculous feeling in the world, meaning lots of “eeeeeeeeeeeeeee” squeals,” she writes. “In the end though, I would definitely go back for more because my tootsies are smoother than a baby's bottom.”
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12) Wounded Warriors, Empty Promises
Editorial
July 25, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/opinion/25fri1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
The bad news about the Army’s treatment of wounded soldiers keeps coming. The generals keep apologizing and insisting that things are getting better, but they are not.
The latest low moment for Army brass came on Tuesday in Washington, where a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee held a hearing to examine the sorry state of the Army Medical Action Plan. That’s the plan to prevent the kind of systematic neglect and mistreatment exposed by The Washington Post last year at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
After a flurry of apologies, firings, investigations and reports, the Army resolved to streamline and improve case management for wounded soldiers. Under the plan, “warrior transition units” would swiftly deliver excellent care to troops so they could return to duty or be discharged into the veterans’ medical system. Each soldier would be assigned a team to look over his or her care: a physician, a nurse and a squad leader. It all sounded sensible and comprehensive.
It has not worked out so well. Staff members of the House subcommittee who visited numerous warrior transition units June 2007 to February found a significant gap between the Army leadership’s optimistic promises and reality.
Among other things, the Army failed to anticipate a flood of wounded soldiers. Some transition units have been overwhelmed and are thus severely understaffed. At Fort Hood, Tex., last month, staff members found 1,362 patients in a unit authorized for 649 — and more than 350 on a waiting list. Of the total, 311 were identified as being at high risk of drug overdose, suicide or other dangerous behavior. There were 38 nurse case managers when there should have been 74. Some soldiers have had to languish two months to a year before the Army decided what to do with them, far longer than the goal the Army set last year.
Under skeptical questioning during a hearing in February, Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the Army surgeon general, told the subcommittee that “for all intents and purposes, we are entirely staffed at the point we need to be staffed.” He also said: “The Army’s unwavering commitment and a key element of our warrior ethos is that we never leave a soldier behind on the battlefield — or lost in a bureaucracy.”
That was thousands of wounded, neglected soldiers ago. There are now about 12,500 soldiers assigned to the warrior transition units — more than twice as many as a year ago. The number is expected to reach 20,000 by this time next year.
The nation’s responsibility to care for the wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan will extend for decades. After Tuesday’s hearing, we are left pondering the simple questions asked at the outset by Representative Susan Davis, the California Democrat who is chairwoman of the military personnel subcommittee: Why did the Army fail to adequately staff its warrior transition units? Why did it fail to predict the surge in demand? And why did it take visits from a Congressional subcommittee to prod the Army into recognizing and promising — yet again — to fix the problem?
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LINKS AND VERY SHORT STORIES
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North Carolina: Charges in G.I.’s Death
[What the title doesn't say is that the GI, a woman, was killed by a Marine who happened to be her husband...]
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | South
The husband of an Army nurse at Fort Bragg’s hospital was charged with murder in her death, a day after her body was discovered by the authorities. Cpl. John Wimunc of the Marines, 23, was also charged with first-degree arson and conspiracy to commit arson in the death of his wife, Second Lt. Holley Wimunc, of Dubuque, Iowa. Her body was found Sunday, three days after a suspicious fire at her Fayetteville apartment. The authorities also charged Lance Cpl. Kyle Alden, 22, with first-degree arson, conspiracy to commit arson and accessory after the fact to first-degree murder.
July 15, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/us/15brfs-CHARGESINGIS_BRF.html?ref=us
Louisiana: Case of Ex-Black Panther [The Angola Three]
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | South
The conviction of a former Black Panther in the killing of a prison guard in 1972 should be overturned because his former lawyer should have objected to testimony from witnesses who had died after his original trial, a federal magistrate found. The lawyer’s omission denied a fair second trial for the man, Albert Woodfox, in 1998, the magistrate, Christine Nolan, wrote Tuesday in a recommendation to the federal judge who will rule later. Mr. Woodfox, 61, and Herman Wallace, 66, were convicted in the stabbing death of the guard, Brent Miller, on April 17, 1972. Mr. Wallace has been appealing his conviction based on arguments similar to Mr. Woodfox’s. Mr. Woodfox and Mr. Wallace, with another former Black Panther, became known as the Angola Three because they were held in isolation for about three decades at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola.
June 12, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/us/12brfs-CASEOFEXBLAC_BRF.html?ref=us
Texas: Killer Is Executed
By REUTERS
National Briefing | Southwest
A convicted killer, Karl E. Chamberlain, was put to death by lethal injection in Texas, becoming the first prisoner executed in the state since the Supreme Court lifted an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty in April. Texas, the country’s busiest death penalty state, is the fifth state to resume executions since the court rejected a legal challenge to the three-drug cocktail used in most executions for the past 30 years. Mr. Chamberlain, 37, was convicted of the 1991 murder of a 30-year-old Dallas woman who lived in the same apartment complex. Mr. Chamberlain was the 406th inmate executed in Texas since 1982 and the first this year.
June 12, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/us/12brfs-KILLERISEXEC_BRF.html?ref=us
Tennessee: State to Retry Inmate
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | South
The Union County district attorney said the county would meet a federal judge’s deadline for a new trial in the case of a death row inmate whose trial was questioned by the United States Supreme Court. The state is facing a June 17 deadline to retry or free the inmate, Paul House, who has been in limbo since June 2006, when the Supreme Court concluded that reasonable jurors would not have convicted him had they seen the results of DNA tests from the 1990s. The district attorney, Paul Phillips, said he would not seek the death penalty. Mr. House, 46, who has multiple sclerosis and must use a wheelchair, was sentenced in the 1985 killing of Carolyn Muncey. He has been in a state prison since 1986 and continues to maintain his innocence.
May 29, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/29/us/29brfs-STATETORETRY_BRF.html?ref=us
Israel: Carter Offers Details on Nuclear Arsenal
By REUTERS
World Briefing | Middle East
Former President Jimmy Carter said Israel held at least 150 nuclear weapons, the first time a current or former American president had publicly acknowledged the Jewish state’s nuclear arsenal. Asked at a news conference in Wales on Sunday how a future president should deal with the Iranian nuclear threat, he sought to put the risk in context by listing atomic weapons held globally. “The U.S. has more than 12,000 nuclear weapons, the Soviet Union has about the same, Great Britain and France have several hundred, and Israel has 150 or more,” he said, according to a transcript. The existence of Israeli nuclear arms is widely assumed, but Israel has never admitted their existence and American officials have stuck to that line in public for years.
May 27, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/27/world/middleeast/27briefs-CARTEROFFERS_BRF.html?ref=world
Iowa: Lawsuit Filed Over Raid
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Midwest
The nation’s largest single immigration raid, in which nearly 400 workers at an Agriprocessors Inc. meat processing plant in Postville were detained on Monday, violated the constitutional rights of workers at a meatpacking plant, a lawsuit contends. The suit accuses the government of arbitrary and indefinite detention. A spokesman for the United States attorney’s office said he could not comment on the suit, which was filed Thursday on behalf of about 147 of the workers. Prosecutors said they filed criminal charges against 306 of the detained workers. The charges include accusations of aggravated identity theft, falsely using a Social Security number, illegally re-entering the United States after being deported and fraudulently using an alien registration card.
May 17, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/17/us/17brfs-LAWSUITFILED_BRF.html?ref=us
Senate Revises Drug Maker Gift Bill
By REUTERS
National Breifing | Washington
A revised Senate bill would require drug makers and medical device makers to publicly report gifts over $500 a year to doctors, watering down the standard set in a previous version. The new language was endorsed by the drug maker Eli Lilly & Company. Lawmakers said they hoped the support would prompt other companies to back the bill, which had previously required all gifts valued over $25 be reported. The industry says the gifts are part of its doctor education, but critics say such lavish gestures influence prescribing habits.
May 14, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/washington/14brfs-SENATEREVISE_BRF.html?ref=us
Texas: Sect Mother Is Not a Minor
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Southwest
Child welfare officials conceded to a judge that a newborn’s mother, held in foster care as a minor after being removed from a polygamous sect’s ranch, is an adult. The woman, who gave birth on April 29, had been held along with more than 400 children taken last month from a ranch run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was one of two pregnant sect members who officials had said were minors. The other member, who gave birth on Monday, may also be an adult, state officials said.
May 14, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/us/14brfs-SECTMOTHERIS_BRF.html?ref=us
Four Military Branches Hit Recruiting Goals
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Washington
The Marine Corps far surpassed its recruiting goal last month, enlisting 2,233 people, which was 142 percent of its goal, the Pentagon said. The Army recruited 5,681 people, 101 percent of its goal. The Navy and Air Force also met their goals, 2,905 sailors and 2,435 airmen. A Defense Department spokesman, Bryan Whitman, said that if the Marine Corps continued its recruiting success, it could reach its goal of growing to 202,000 people by the end of 2009, more than a year early.
May 13, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/us/13brfs-FOURMILITARY_BRF.html?ref=us
Texas: Prison Settlement Approved
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Southwest
A federal judge has approved a settlement between the Texas Youth Commission and the Justice Department over inmate safety at the state’s juvenile prison in Edinburg. The judge, Ricardo Hinojosa of Federal District Court, signed the settlement Monday, and it was announced by the commission Wednesday. Judge Hinojosa had previously rejected a settlement on grounds that it lacked a specific timeline. Federal prosecutors began investigating the prison, the Evins Regional Juvenile Center, in 2006. The settlement establishes parameters for safe conditions and staffing levels, restricts use of youth restraints and guards against retaliation for reporting abuse and misconduct.
May 8, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/us/08brfs-PRISONSETTLE_BRF.html?ref=us
Michigan: Insurance Ruling
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Midwest
Local governments and state universities cannot offer health insurance to the partners of gay workers, the State Supreme Court ruled. The court ruled 5 to 2 that Michigan’s 2004 ban against same-sex marriage also blocks domestic-partner policies affecting gay employees at the University of Michigan and other public-sector employers. The decision affirms a February 2007 appeals court ruling. Up to 20 public universities, community colleges, school districts and local governments in Michigan have benefit policies covering at least 375 gay couples.
May 8, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/us/08brfs-INSURANCERUL_BRF.html?ref=us
Halliburton Profit Rises
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HOUSTON (AP) — Increasing its global presence is paying off for the oil field services provider Halliburton, whose first-quarter income rose nearly 6 percent on growing business in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America, the company said Monday.
Business in the first three months of 2008 also was better than expected in North America, where higher costs and lower pricing squeezed results at the end of 2007.
Halliburton shares closed up 3 cents, at $47.46, on the New York Stock Exchange.
Halliburton said it earned $584 million, or 64 cents a share, in the three months that ended March 31, compared with a year-earlier profit of $552 million, or 54 cents a share. Revenue rose to $4.03 billion, from $3.42 billion a year earlier.
April 22, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/business/worldbusiness/22halliburton.html?ref=business
Illegal Immigrants Who Were Arrested at Poultry Plant in Arkansas to Be Deported
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Eighteen illegal immigrants arrested at a poultry plant in Batesville will be processed for deportation, but will not serve any jail time for using fake Social Security numbers and state identification cards, federal judges ruled. Magistrate Judge Beth Deere and Judge James Moody of Federal District Court accepted guilty pleas from 17 of those arrested last week at the Pilgrim’s Pride plant. Federal prosecutors dismissed the misdemeanor charges against one man, but said they planned to ask Immigration and Customs Enforcement to begin deportation proceedings against him. The guilty pleas will give the 17 people criminal records, which will allow prosecutors to pursue tougher penalties if they illegally return to the United States. They had faced up to up to two years in prison and $205,000 in fines. Jane Duke, a United States attorney, said her office had no interest in seeing those arrested serve jail time, as they were “otherwise law-abiding citizens.”
National Briefing | South
April 22, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/us/22brfs-002.html?ref=us
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GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS AND INFORMATION
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Torture
On the Waterboard
How does it feel to be “aggressively interrogated”? Christopher Hitchens found out for himself, submitting to a brutal waterboarding session in an effort to understand the human cost of America’s use of harsh tactics at Guantánamo and elsewhere. VF.com has the footage. Related: “Believe Me, It’s Torture,” from the August 2008 issue.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/video/2008/hitchens_video200808
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Alison Bodine defense Committee
Lift the Two-year Ban
http://alisonbodine.blogspot.com/
Watch the Sept 28 Video on Alison's Case!
http://alisonbodine.blogspot.com/2007/10/blog-post.html
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The Girl Who Silenced the World at the UN!
Born and raised in Vancouver, Severn Suzuki has been working on environmental and social justice issues since kindergarten. At age 9, she and some friends started the Environmental Children's Organization (ECO), a small group of children committed to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. They traveled to 1992's UN Earth Summit, where 12 year-old Severn gave this powerful speech that deeply affected (and silenced) some of the most prominent world leaders. The speech had such an impact that she has become a frequent invitee to many U.N. conferences.
[Note: the text of her speech is also available at this site...bw]
http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=433
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MINIATURE EARTH
http://www.miniature-earth.com/me_english.htm
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"Dear Canada: Let U.S. war resisters stay!"
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/499/89/
Russell Means Speaking at the Transform Columbus Day Rally
"If voting could do anything it would be illegal!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8Lri1-6aoY
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Stop the Termination or the Cherokee Nation
http://groups.msn.com/BayAreaIndianCalendar/activismissues.msnw?action=get_message&mview=1&ID_Message=5580
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We Didn't Start the Fire
http://yeli.us/Flash/Fire.html
I Can't Take it No More
http://lefti.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html#9214483115237950361
The Art of Mental Warfare
http://artofmentalwarfare.com/pog/artofmentalwarfarecom-the-warning/
MONEY AS DEBT
http://video. google.com/ videoplay? docid=-905047436 2583451279
http://www.moneyasd ebt.net/
UNCONSTITUTIONAL
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6582099850410121223&pr=goog-sl
IRAQ FOR SALE
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6621486727392146155
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Port of Olympia Anti-Militarization Action Nov. 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOkn2Fg7R8w
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"They have a new gimmick every year. They're going to take one of their boys, black boys, and put him in the cabinet so he can walk around Washington with a cigar. Fire on one end and fool on the other end. And because his immediate personal problem will have been solved he will be the one to tell our people: 'Look how much progress we're making. I'm in Washington, D.C., I can have tea in the White House. I'm your spokesman, I'm your leader.' While our people are still living in Harlem in the slums. Still receiving the worst form of education.
"But how many sitting here right now feel that they could [laughs] truly identify with a struggle that was designed to eliminate the basic causes that create the conditions that exist? Not very many. They can jive, but when it comes to identifying yourself with a struggle that is not endorsed by the power structure, that is not acceptable, that the ground rules are not laid down by the society in which you live, in which you are struggling against, you can't identify with that, you step back.
"It's easy to become a satellite today without even realizing it. This country can seduce God. Yes, it has that seductive power of economic dollarism. You can cut out colonialism, imperialism and all other kind of ism, but it's hard for you to cut that dollarism. When they drop those dollars on you, you'll fold though."
—MALCOLM X, 1965
http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=987
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A little gem:
Michael Moore Faces Off With Stephen Colbert [VIDEO]
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/57492/
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LAPD vs. Immigrants (Video)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/qws/ff/qr?term=lapd&Submit=S&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Search&st=s
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Dr. Julia Hare at the SOBA 2007
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/proudtobeblack2/
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"We are far from that stage today in our era of the absolute
lie; the complete and totalitarian lie, spread by the
monopolies of press and radio to imprison social
consciousness." December 1936, "In 'Socialist' Norway,"
by Leon Trotsky: “Leon Trotsky in Norway” was transcribed
for the Internet by Per I. Matheson [References from
original translation removed]
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/12/nor.htm
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Wealth Inequality Charts
http://www.faireconomy.org/research/wealth_charts.html
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MALCOLM X: Oxford University Debate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmzaaf-9aHQ
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"There comes a times when silence is betrayal."
--Martin Luther King
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YouTube clip of Che before the UN in 1964
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtATT8GXkWg&mode=related&search
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The Wealthiest Americans Ever
NYT Interactive chart
JULY 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/business/20070715_GILDED_GRAPHIC.html
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New Orleans After the Flood -- A Photo Gallery
http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=795
This email was sent to you as a service, by Roland Sheppard.
Visit my website at: http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret
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[For some levity...Hans Groiner plays Monk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51bsCRv6kI0
...bw]
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Which country should we invade next?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3g_zqz3VjY
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My Favorite Mutiny, The Coup
http://www.myspace.com/thecoupmusic
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Michael Moore- The Awful Truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeOaTpYl8mE
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Morse v. Frederick Supreme Court arguments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_LsGoDWC0o
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Free Speech 4 Students Rally - Media Montage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfCjfod8yuw
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'My son lived a worthwhile life'
In April 2003, 21-year old Tom Hurndall was shot in the head
in Gaza by an Israeli soldier as he tried to save the lives of three
small children. Nine months later, he died, having never
recovered consciousness. Emine Saner talks to his mother
Jocelyn about her grief, her fight to make the Israeli army
accountable for his death and the book she has written
in his memory.
Monday March 26, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2042968,00.html
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Introducing...................the Apple iRack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-KWYYIY4jQ
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"A War Budget Leaves Every Child Behind."
[A T-shirt worn by some teachers at Roosevelt High School
in L.A. as part of their campaign to rid the school of military
recruiters and JROTC--see Article in Full item number 4, below...bw]
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"200 million children in the world sleep in the streets today.
Not one of them is Cuban."
(A sign in Havana)
Venceremos
View sign at bottom of page at:
http://www.cubasolidarity.net/index.html
[Thanks to Norma Harrison for sending this...bw]
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FIGHTBACK! A Collection of Socialist Essays
By Sylvia Weinstein
http://www.walterlippmann.com/sylvia-weinstein-fightback-intro.html
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[The Scab
"After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad,
and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with
which he made a scab."
"A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul,
a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue.
Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten
principles." "When a scab comes down the street,
men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and
the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out."
"No man (or woman) has a right to scab so long as there
is a pool of water to drown his carcass in,
or a rope long enough to hang his body with.
Judas was a gentleman compared with a scab.
For betraying his master, he had character enough
to hang himself." A scab has not.
"Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.
Judas sold his Savior for thirty pieces of silver.
Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of
a commision in the british army."
The scab sells his birthright, country, his wife,
his children and his fellowmen for an unfulfilled
promise from his employer.
Esau was a traitor to himself; Judas was a traitor
to his God; Benedict Arnold was a traitor to his country;
a scab is a traitor to his God, his country,
his family and his class."
Author --- Jack London (1876-1916)...Roland Sheppard
http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret]
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Award-Winning Writer/Filmmaker Donald L. Vasicek Launches New Sand
Creek Massacre Website"
May 21, 2008 -- CENTENNIAL, CO -- Award-winning filmmaker, Donald L.
Vasicek, has launched a new Sand Creek Massacre website. Titled,
"The Sand Creek Massacre", the site contains in depth witness
accounts of the massacre, the award-winning Sand Creek Massacre
trailer for viewing, the award-winning Sand Creek Massacre
documentary short for viewing, the story of the Sand Creek Massacre,
and a Shop to purchase Sand Creek Massacre DVD's and lesson
plans including the award-winning documentary film/educational DVD.
Vasicek, a board member of The American Indian Genocide Museum
(www.aigenom.com)in Houston, Texas, said, "The website was launched
to inform, to educate, and to provide educators, historians, students
and all others the accessibility to the Sand Creek Massacre story."
The link/URL to the website is sandcreekmassacre.net.
###
Contact:
Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
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MUMIA ABU-JAMAL BREAKING NEWS: [please circulate]
Federal ruling regarding Mumia Abu-Jamal, death row, Pennsylvania
Legal Update
July 22, 2008
From: Robert R. Bryan, lead counsel
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia: Today our Petition for Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc, submitted on behalf of my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal, was denied by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Simply put, we did not receive the needed majority vote from the nine sitting judges; at least five votes for a rehearing were necessary. However, Justice Thomas L. Ambro continues to urge the granting of relief on the issue of racism in jury selection. That position, as detailed in his brilliant dissenting opinion of March 27, 2008, will continue to serve as a beacon of hope as we press on for a new trial and Mumia’s freedom. Judge Ambro said that the “core guarantee of equal protection, ensuring citizens that their State will not discriminate on account of race, would be meaningless were we to approve the exclusion of jurors on the basis of . . . race. . . . I respectfully dissent.” A copy of today’s decision is attached.
Reaction: Mumia and I had a legal conference this afternoon. He, as I, was stunned by the federal court’s refusal to grant relief since it flies in the face of established legal precedent in both the U.S. Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. I am furious because racism continues to raise its ugly head in this country, and should have no place in our legal system. The indisputable facts are that the prosecutor engaged in racism in selecting the jury in this case, and that bigotry lingers today in Philadelphia. It would be naive not to realize that this case continues to reek of politics and injustice.
U.S. Supreme Court: We will be seeking relief in the Supreme Court. The Petition for Writ of Certiorari will be filed by October 20, 2008, unless there is an extension. The racism issue will be presented, along with the fact that the prosecutor made misrepresentations to the jury in order to obtain a murder conviction against Mumia.
Conclusion: My goal remains a complete reversal of the conviction, even though the federal court has already granted a new jury trial on the question of the death penalty. We will not rest until Mumia is free.
Yours very truly,
Robert R. Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123-4117
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
[RobertRBryan@aol.com
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NEXT Meeting to defeat pro-JROTC referendum set for November Ballot in SF
TUESDAY, AUGUST 5, 7:15-9:00 pm
Friends Meeting House
65 9th St, San Francisco (between Mission and Market Sts)
To RSVP or for additional information, please contact Alan Lessik at AFSC at 565.0201, x11 or alessik@afsc.org.
Dear Friends:
In 2006 San Francisco won attention across the country when the School Board voted to become the first large school district to eliminate an existing JROTC program. Now this achievement is being threatened by a group that recently submitted petitions for a ballot proposition on the November 2008 ballot in support of continuing JROTC in the San Francisco Unified School District. This group has been well organized, using as their base the JROTC students and instructors, as well as those in the community who are for military recruitment in our schools. We understand that pro-recruitment groups outside of San Francisco are interested in backing this proposition because of the devastating effect it would have if it was passed of anchoring JROTC in our schools.
We cannot let this happen. San Francisco voters are on record with past ballot propositions that expressed our desire to end military recruitment in our schools. We would like to invite you to attend an initial organizing meeting to create a campaign committee with the sole purpose to defeat this proposition. We would like to build a coalition of labor, peace groups, faith communities, students, parents, teachers and representatives from political clubs and constituencies across San Francisco.
The purpose of this organizing meeting is to set up our committee, to determine what resources organizations and individuals may be able to contribute to staff the committee and to run a successful campaign.
The meeting will take place on AUGUST 5, 7:15-9:00 pm at the Friends Meeting House, 65 9th St, San Francisco (between Mission and Market Sts). The American Friends Service Committee will convene this initial meeting.
To RSVP or for additional information, please contact Alan Lessik at AFSC at 565.0201, x11 or alessik@afsc.org.
We look forward to you and your organization's help in defeating this initiative.
American Friends Service Committee
JROTC Must Go
PLEASE NOTE: JOB OPENING
AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE
Pacific Mountain Regional Office
Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer
The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization which includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace, and humanitarian service. Its work is based on the Quaker belief in the worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice.
Contract Position Available
Title: No on Military Recruitment in our Schools Campaign Organizer
Location: San Francisco, CA
Hours: 40-60 Hours/Week
Contract Amount: $3000 per month from August 7-November 7 (3 months).
BACKGROUND: The work of the American Friends Service Committee to promote peace, social justice, and humanitarian service is rooted in the experience and faith of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). While AFSC contractors are not required to belong to any particular denomination or faith, they are expected to understand and support AFSC’s Quaker foundations. These guiding principals are based on the belief in that of God in every person, and the right of each person to reach his or her full potential.
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: The No on Military Recruitment in our Schools Campaign Organizer will serve as staff to the Committee and coordinate volunteers and efforts to defeat the San Francisco ballot proposition on JROTC in the November election.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
1. Manage the day to day operations of the No on X campaign; coordinate with the campaign committee;
2. Recruit, coordinate, manage and train volunteers in campaign messaging, fundraising, canvassing and phone banking;
3. Identify community, civic, peace, ethnic, political, labor, faith-based, educational and LGBT organizations that can be partners in the campaign; Coordinate outreach and make presentations to these groups;
4. Identify political, labor and other organizations making ballot endorsements; develop timetable of endorsement meetings; identify key members that are allies to this campaign; work with those members to prepare presentation for a no endorsement;
5. Make contacts with local print and broadcast media, especially those media making endorsements; arrange meeting to present the case for a No vote; work with friendly journalists to provide materials and information to support the no vote;
6. Coordinate fundraising events;
7. Provide administrative back-up to Treasurer to assure compliance with all state and local campaign committee regulations;
8. Coordinate logistics for volunteer phone banking and canvassing.
ACCOUNTABILITY: The organizer will report to Alan Lessik, Regional Director of AFSC. On a daily basis, the organizer will work closely with the Committee on X, No Military Recruitment in our Schools.
QUALIFICATIONS/EXPERIENCE:
1. Experience in organizing for ballot proposition campaigns.
2. Experience, knowledge and contacts in diverse San Francisco communities, including political clubs and organizations, peace organizations, community organizations, school groups, LGBT groups, ethnic communities, faith-based organizations and other local organizations.
3. Self-starter, ability to work with little supervision, comfort with both team and independent work.
4. Knowledgeable of military recruitment, peace and school issues.
SKILLS REQUIRED:
1. Ability to organize in communities and bring people together to work toward a specific goal; knowledge of campaign organizing on ballot initiatives;
2. Ability to recruit, manage and retain volunteers;
3. Ability to take the initiative in handling and following up on program details;
4. Computer and clerical skills adequate for correspondence and routine office chores, including database experience;
5. Excellent public speaker and good written skills;
6. Bi-lingual in English and one other language is highly desirable.
To Apply: Letter and resume by August 1, 2008. Contact Alan Lessik.
Send to AFSC, 65 Ninth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103; fax: (415) 565-0204; alessik@afsc.org
Work to begin as soon as possible in August.
The American Friends Service Committee is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified persons are encouraged to apply regardless of their religious affiliation, race, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or disability.
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AMERICANS DO NOT SANCTION THE RECRUITMENT OF CHILDREN!
Say NO! to "America's Army"
Video-Game Targets Children as Young as 13.
South Park Game Companies Profit from Illegal Recruitment Program!
Rally and Action
Wednesday, August 6, 12 Noon
South Park - between 2nd and 3rd, Bryant and Brannan streets.
actagainstwar.net takedirectaction@riseup.net
“America’s Army” is a game developed by the U.S. military to instruct players in “Army values,” portray the army in a positive light, and increase potential recruits. The “game” is the property and brainchild of the US Army, which admit freely, and with pride, that it is one of their principal recruitment tools.
America’s Army has been available since 2002 as a free download or as a CD available in recruiting stations. It is published and distributed by Ubisoft right here in South Park. Ubisoft is not the only South Park neighbor engaged in the development of the game, Gameloft is working on the cell phone application and Secret Level was a designer on the 2005 Xbox version. The game has been granted a “teen” rating, allowing 13 year olds to play.
The military recruitment of children under the age of 17, however, is a clear violation of international law (the U.N. Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict). No attempt to recruit children 13-16 is allowed in the United States, pursuant to treaty. In May, the American Civil Liberties Union published a report that found the armed services regularly target children under 17 for military recruitment. The report highlighted the role of “America’s Army,” saying the Army uses the game to “attract young potential recruits . . . train them to use weapons, and engage in virtual combat and other military missions”, adding that the game “explicitly targets boys 13 and older.”
It is also important to consider the effects of the game within the context of the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Undoubtedly, soldiers now recruited through “America’s Army” will serve in these wars. The invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan are violations of international law, and contributing to their continuation through the propagation of the game is, if not a criminal violation, a moral outrage.
The game is having an effect. An informal study showed that 4 out of 100 new recruits in Ft. Benning, Georgia credit America’s Army as the primary factor in convincing them to join the military. 60% of those recruits said they played the game more than five times a week. And a 2004 Army survey found that nearly a third of young Americans ages 16 to 24 had some contact with the game in the previous six months.
This August 6, on the 63rd Anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, come out and ask the Producers and developers of America’s Army to stop helping the Army recruit children.
We are asking you to consider three steps:
1. Support for our campaign against America’s Army
2. Sign our letter and endorse this campaign.
3. Participate in our upcoming event on Hiroshima Day (Wed., Aug. 6), at noon, in South Park (btw 2nd/3rd, Bryant/Brannan), asking these companies to either withdraw from their Army contracts or provide a warning label: “This game is designed to recruit children in violation of international law. Military service can be hazardous to your health.”
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In front of the Marine Recruiting Station on Shattuck Ave
AUGUST 6TH @ 12NOON - 4pm
Press Conference @ 12:30pm
Join CodePINK, MECA, Courage to Resist, Women in Black, Gray Panthers and others;
To PROTEST the use of nuclear bombs on this horrific 'anniversary' of the bombing of HIROSHIMA, marking us as the ONLY nation in the world to use atomic weapons against a civilian population!
STAND STRONG against the threatened bombing of Iran, again in our name!
And find out what support there is in Berkeley for free speech and the right to protest!
JOIN US at the MRS (Marine Recruiting Station), noon to 4:00pm - with our constitutional rights and responsibilities to protest.
Your presence is crucial!!! Stand with us for peace, our Constitutional rights, AND in remembrance of the lives lost in Hiroshima!
We are also still looking for entertainment for the day, like spoken word, theater, or anything else! If you, or someone you know would like to perform at this event, please call KEIKO at (707) 334-7071
PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO APPROPRIATE E-MAIL LISTS!!!
Call Keiko 707-334-7071 or Judy 415-51906355 for more info or email info AT bayareacodepink DOT org.
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Monday August 14 - 7:30 pm
David Rovics Concert
Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists
1924 Cedar St. at Bonita, a block east of MLK Jr. Way, Berkeley 948709
The "musical version of Democracy Now" per Amy Goodman! "The peace
poet and troubador for our time" per Cindy Sheehan!
Rovics is a radical and progressive singer and songwriter.
$15
co-sponsored by BFUU's Social Justice Committee
wheelchair accessible
510 528 4941
www.bfuu.org
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American Joe
Lisa Reynal’s story about one soldier on his way to Afghanistan and the effect that America’s war on terror has had on the lives around him.
--Chronicle
Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8:00 P.M. through August 15, 2008
fee/admission: $15-$35
Marsh Studio
1074 Valencia St. (at 22nd Street)
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 826-5750
(Mission/Bernal Heights)
www.themarsh.org
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SAN FRANCISCO IS A SANCTUARY CITY! STOP THE MIGRA-ICE RAIDS!
Despite calling itself a "sanctuary city", S.F. politicians are permitting the harrassment of undocumented immigrants and allowing the MIGRA-ICE police to enter the jail facilities.
We will picket any store that cooperates with the MIGRA or reports undocumented brothers and sisters. We demand AMNESTY without conditions!
BRIGADES AGAINST THE RAIDS
project of BARRIO UNIDO
(415)431-9925
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"Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about his religion. Respect others in their views and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and of service to your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
"Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, or even a stranger, if in a lonely place. Show respect to all people, but grovel to none. When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.
"Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home." by: Tecumseh -(1768-1813) Shawnee Chief
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Indicted, Sami Al-Arian Faces Possible Life Imprisonment new
John Halliwell, July 1, 2008
Last March, Sami Al-Arian was given a choice: 1) damned if you do; and 2) damned if you don't; he chose "damned if you don't". Finally, a full three months after making that decision, he was formally charged last Thursday with contempt of court, a crime which has no maximum penalty. In other words, Dr. Al-Arian - a man whose innocence has been grudgingly admitted by even his worst enemies* - is now facing the possibility of life in jail all because he had the guts to stand up for what he believes in--read more at: http://www.freesamialarian.com/home.htm
1. Call Senator Patrick Leahy ((202) 224- 4242) and Congressman John Conyers ((202) 225-5126) - the Judicial Committee chairmen of the Senate and House respectively - and ask them to meet with the Attorney General and have him stop Assistant US Attorney Gordon Kromberg from going forward with this unlawful indictment. Even if you are not their constituent, they are obliged to listen to your opinion since their duties extend to all Americans.
2. Fax a letter to the Office of Professional Responsibility at the US Department of Justice: (202) 514-5050.
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"Canada: Abide by resolution - Let U.S. war resisters stay!"
Dear Canada: Let Them Stay
Urgent action request—In wake of Parliament win, please sign this new letter to Canada.
By Courage to Resist
June 18, 2008
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/499/89/
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ARTICLES IN FULL:
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1) U.S. Perpetuates Mass Killings In Iraq
by Peter Phillips | Dissident Voice, July 19th, 2008
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/07/us-perpetuates-mass-killings-in-iraq/
2) Women Are Now Equal as Victims of Poor Economy
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
July 22, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/business/22jobs.html
3) Abu-Jamal loses latest appeal for new trial
By Emilie Lounsberry
Inquirer Staff Writer
July 23, 2008
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/philadelphia/20080723_Abu-Jamal_loses_latest_appeal_for_new_trial.html
4) Obama (and Big Media) Turn Blind Eye to Israeli Apartheid
By BAR Managing Editor Bruce Dixon
July 23-29, 2008
http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=714&Itemid=1
5) Taking Aim with Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone is now in its seventh year of
broadcasting. We need your assistance to continue.
Mya Shone/Ralph Schoenman
Taking Aim
http://www.takingaimradio.com
6) Ford Posts Loss of $8.7 Billion on Asset Woes
By NICK BUNKLEY
July 25, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/business/25ford.html?hp
7) What’s Lurking in Your Countertop?
By KATE MURPHY
July 24, 2008
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/garden/24granite.html
8) Paying Doctors to Ignore Patients
By PETER B. BACH
Op-Ed Contributor
July 24, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/opinion/24bach.html
9) Two Articles on Cancer and Cellphones
Prominent Cancer Doctor Warns About Cellphones
July 24, 2008, 11:20 am
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/prominent-cancer-doctor-warns-about-cellphones/index.html?hp
WELL; Experts Revive Debate Over Cellphones and Cancer
By TARA PARKER-POPE
June 3, 2008
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9802E1D61438F930A35755C0A96E9C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
10) Israel to build new settlement in West Bank
By LAURIE COPANS
July 24, 2008– 8 hours ago
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jD4YSkDPlclqd9dHvg2f0Ij18zEgD9245FSO0
11) Flesh-eating fish give pedicures
A novel type of pedicure involving live fish which chomp away at dead skin is catching on at a Virginia beauty salon.
By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles
Last Updated: 11:46AM BST 22 Jul 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2443947/Flesh-eating-fish-give-pedicures.html
12) Wounded Warriors, Empty Promises
Editorial
July 25, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/opinion/25fri1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
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1) U.S. Perpetuates Mass Killings In Iraq
by Peter Phillips | Dissident Voice, July 19th, 2008
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/07/us-perpetuates-mass-killings-in-iraq/
The United States is directly responsible for over one million Iraqi
deaths since the invasion five and half years ago. In a January 2008
report, a British polling group Opinion Research Business (ORB)
reports that, "survey work confirms our earlier estimate that over
1,000,000 Iraqi citizens have died as a result of the conflict which
started in 2003…. We now estimate that the death toll between March
2003 and August 2007 is likely to have been of the order of 1,033,000.
If one takes into account the margin of error associated with survey
data of this nature then the estimated range is between 946,000 and
1,120,000".
The ORB report comes on the heels of two earlier studies conducted by
Johns Hopkins University published in the Lancet medical journal that
confirmed the continuing numbers of mass deaths in Iraq. A study done
by Dr. Les Roberts from January 1, 2002 to March 18 2003 put the
civilian deaths at that time at over 100,000. A second study published
in the Lancet in October 2006 documented over 650,000 civilian deaths
in Iraq since the start of the US invasion. The 2006 study confirms
that US aerial bombing in civilian neighborhoods caused over a third
of these deaths and that over half the deaths are directly
attributable to US forces.
The now estimated 1.2 million dead, as of July 2008, includes
children, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, cab drivers,
clerics, schoolteachers, factory workers, policemen, poets, healthcare
workers, day care providers, construction workers, babysitters,
musicians, bakers, restaurant workers and many more. All manner of
ordinary people in Iraq have died because the United States decided to
invade their country. These are deaths in excess of the normal
civilian death rate under the prior government.
The magnitude of these deaths is undeniable. The continuing occupation
by US forces guarantees a mass death rate in excess of 10,000 people
per month with half that number dying at the hands of US forces — a
carnage so severe and so concentrated at to equate it with the most
heinous mass killings in world history. This act has not gone
unnoticed.
Recently, Dennis Kucinich introduced a single impeachment article
against George W. Bush for lying to Congress and the American people
about the reasons for invading Iraq. On July 15, the House forwarded
the resolution to the Judiciary Committee with a 238 to 180 vote. That
Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction and Iraq's threat to the
US is now beyond doubt. Former US federal prosecutor Elizabeth De La
Vega documents the lies most thoroughly in her book U.S. v. Bush, and
numerous other researchers have verified Bush's untrue statements.
The American people are faced with a serious moral dilemma. Murder and
war crimes have been conducted in our name. We have allowed the
war/occupation to continue in Iraq and offered ourselves little choice
within the top two presidential candidates for immediate cessation of
the mass killings. McCain would undoubtedly accept the deaths of
another million Iraqi civilians in order to save face for America, and
Obama's 18-month timetable for withdrawal would likely result in
another 250,000 civilian deaths or more.
We owe our children and ourselves a future without the shame of mass
murder on our collective conscience. The only resolution of this
dilemma is the immediate withdrawal of all US troops in Iraq and the
prosecution and imprisonment of those responsible. Anything less
creates a permanent original sin on the soul of the nation for that we
will forever suffer.
Peter Phillips is a Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University,
and Director of Project Censored, a media research organization. Read
other articles by Peter, or visit Peter's website.
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2) Women Are Now Equal as Victims of Poor Economy
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
July 22, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/business/22jobs.html
Across the country, women in their prime earning years, struggling with an unfriendly economy, are retreating from the work force, either permanently or for long stretches.
They had piled into jobs in growing numbers since the 1960s. But that stopped happening this decade, and as the nearly seven-year-old recovery gives way to hard times, the retreat is likely to accelerate.
Indeed, for the first time since the women’s movement came to life, an economic recovery has come and gone, and the percentage of women at work has fallen, not risen, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. Each of the seven previous recoveries since 1960 ended with a greater percentage of women at work than when it began.
When economists first started noticing this trend two or three years ago, many suggested that the pullback from paid employment was a matter of the women themselves deciding to stay home — to raise children or because their husbands were doing well or because, more than men, they felt committed to running their households.
But now, a different explanation is turning up in government data, in the research of a few economists and in a Congressional study, to be released Tuesday, that follows the women’s story through the end of 2007.
After moving into virtually every occupation, women are being afflicted on a large scale by the same troubles as men: downturns, layoffs, outsourcing, stagnant wages or the discouraging prospect of an outright pay cut. And they are responding as men have, by dropping out or disappearing for a while.
“When we saw women starting to drop out in the early part of this decade, we thought it was the motherhood movement, women staying home to raise their kids,” Heather Boushey, a senior economist at the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, which did the Congressional study, said in an interview. “We did not think it was the economy, but when we looked into it, we realized that it was.”
Hard times in manufacturing certainly sidelined Tootie Samson of Baxter, Iowa. Nine months after she lost her job on a factory assembly line, Ms. Samson, 48, is still not working. She could be. Jobs that pay $8 or $9 an hour are easy enough to land, she says. But like the men with whom she worked at the Maytag washing machine factory, now closed, near her home, she resists going back to work at less than half her old wage.
Ms. Samson knows she will have to get another job at some point. She and her husband still have a teenage daughter to put through college, and his income as a truck driver is not enough. So Ms. Samson, now receiving unemployment benefits, is going to college full time — leaving the work force for more than two years — hoping that a bachelor’s degree will enable her to earn at least her old wage of $20 an hour.
“A lot of women I know, all they did was work at the Maytag factory,” said Ms. Samson, who joined Maytag’s assembly line 11 years ago. “They can’t find another job like it and they deal with this loss by dropping out.”
The Joint Economic Committee study cites the growing statistical evidence that women are leaving the work force “on par with men,” and the potentially disastrous consequences for families.
“Women bring home about one-third of family income,” said Carolyn Maloney, Democrat of New York and vice chairman of the Joint Economic Committee. “And only those families with a working wife have seen real improvement in their living standards.”
The proportion of women holding jobs in their prime working years, 25 to 54, peaked at 74.9 percent in early 2000 as the technology investment bubble was about to burst. Eight years later, in June, it was 72.7 percent, a seemingly small decline, but those 2.2 percentage points erase more than 12 years of gains for women. Four million more in their prime years would be employed today if the old pattern had prevailed through the expansion now ending.
The pattern is roughly similar among the well-educated and the less educated, among the married and never married, among mothers with teenage children and those with children under 6, and among white women and black.
The women, in sum, are for the first time withdrawing from work with the same uniformity as men in their prime working years. Ninety-six percent of the men held jobs in 1953, their peak year. That is down to 86.4 percent today. But while men are rarely thought of as dropping out to run the household, that is often the assumption when women pull out.
“A woman gets laid off and she stays home for six months with her kids,” Ms. Boushey said. “She doesn’t admit that she is staying home because she could not get another acceptable job.”
The biggest retreat has been in manufacturing, where more than one million women have disappeared from payrolls since 2001. Like men, many have not returned to jobs in other sectors.
Wage stagnation often discourages them from pursuing new jobs, says Lawrence Katz, a labor economist at Harvard. “While pay was rising solidly in the 1990s, you had women continuing to move into the work force,” Mr. Katz said.
Pay is no longer rising smartly for women in the key 25-to-54 age group. Just the opposite, the median pay — the point where half make more and half less — has fallen in recent years, to $14.84 an hour in 2007 from $15.04 in 2004, adjusted for inflation, according to the Economic Policy Institute. (The similar wage for men today is two dollars more.)
Not since the 1970s has that happened to women for so long a stretch — and because this is a new experience for them, “women may be even more reluctant than men to accept declining wages,” said Nancy Folbre, an economist at the University of Massachusetts.
Joyce Call, 39, of Howell, Mich., near Detroit, certainly fits that description. She took an accounting job in January 2006 at Forming Technologies, which supplies plastic to auto companies.
The pay, $14 an hour — more than $25,000 a year — was acceptable, she said, but not the raises, which came to only 28 cents an hour over two years, or the Christmas bonus: $150 the first year and nothing the second.
“I was treated poorly,” she said, explaining her departure.
For the moment, Ms. Call is home-schooling one of her two sons, falling back on her husband’s $70,000 income as a plumber, and looking for another job, to return to a work force she has seldom left since finishing high school in 1988.
“People are just not hiring in Michigan,” she said. What’s more, she is reluctant because of the high cost of gasoline to commute more than an hour each way to the next job. “It would be a tough decision to accept a job that required me to go farther,” she said, adding that she and her husband were cutting back on discretionary spending until she is employed again.
What helped drive up the percentage of women in the work force were the thousands who came off welfare and took jobs in the 1990s, pushed to do so by the welfare-to-work legislation. A strong economy eased the way. So did tax credits and more subsidized child care. Now as the economy weakens and employers shrink their payrolls, many of these women struggle to find work.
Lisa Craig, 42, is among them. Raising three sons in her native Chicago, she had worked only occasionally since high school and started receiving welfare benefits in 1993. For the next seven years she took courses in office skills, was a volunteer in a day care center and served for a while as an unpaid intern for a college vice president.
And then in 2000 she went to work. For most of that year she earned $10 an hour as a salesclerk at a duty-free shop at O’Hare Airport, selling luxury items, but left the job to move to Milwaukee with her children to be near her sister.
“I was in a bad marriage,” she said, “and I was getting a divorce.”
Over the last eight years in Milwaukee she has worked only sporadically although, as she puts it, she has applied for hundreds of jobs, struggling to supplement a $628-a-month welfare check that goes almost entirely to rent, plus $500 a month in food vouchers. The longest tenure, 11 months, was as a salesclerk earning $7.75 an hour at a Goodwill Industries clothing store.
She lost that job last November, but is volunteering at the Milwaukee office of 9to5, National Association of Working Women, hoping to draw a modest salary soon as a community intern.
Ms. Samson, the former Maytag worker, says she can afford not to work because she qualified under the terms of the plant closing for two years of unemployment benefits as long as she is a full-time student. She lost health insurance but shifted to her husband’s policy.
His $40,000 income as a truck driver and her $360 a week in jobless benefits gets them by while she takes an accelerated program at a William Penn University campus near her home. Graduation is scheduled for January 2010.
“If I were a single parent or did not have benefits,” Ms. Samson said, “I would have had to find a job. I could not have gone back to school to get my degree and the promise it holds of a better job.”
That for Ms. Samson is a good reason to drop out. Just working, which she has done nearly all of her adult life, is unappealing, she says. Even interior design, for which she once earned an associate’s degree, does not excite her anymore, she says, mainly because people can no longer afford to fix up their homes.
“A business degree will put me in a position to work for any company,” Ms. Samson said, “and put me in a position to work up into a well-paid human resources job.”
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3) Abu-Jamal loses latest appeal for new trial
By Emilie Lounsberry
Inquirer Staff Writer
July 23, 2008
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/philadelphia/20080723_Abu-Jamal_loses_latest_appeal_for_new_trial.html
A federal appeals court yesterday refused to reconsider the decision denying a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal in the 1981 murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.
In a two-page decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit denied Abu-Jamal's request for a rehearing of his appeal in the controversial case, which has helped fuel an international debate about the death penalty.
Abu-Jamal's lawyer, Robert R. Bryan of San Francisco, said he planned to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the case.
In March, a three-judge panel of the Third Circuit left intact Abu-Jamal's conviction but said a new jury should decide whether he deserved death or should be sentenced to life behind bars.
Deputy District Attorney Ronald E. Eisenberg said no decision had been made on whether his office would ask the high court to reinstate the death sentence.
Abu-Jamal and his lawyers contend that the panel should have ordered a hearing on their contention that prosecutors intentionally excluded blacks from his jury in violation of a later 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision.
They noted that one of the panel members, Judge Thomas Ambro, wanted a hearing held on that issue, though he was in the minority on that issue.
All three members of the panel, which also included Chief Judge Anthony J. Scirica and Judge Robert E. Cowen, affirmed the December 2001 decision by U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn Jr., who threw out the death sentence.
Yohn concluded that the jury might have been confused by the trial judge's instructions and wording on the verdict form filled out when the jury decided on death.
He found that the jury might have mistakenly believed it had to agree unanimously on any mitigating circumstances - factors that might have persuaded the jury to decide on a life sentence, rather than death.
Abu-Jamal, 54, has been on death row since his 1982 conviction in the killing of Faulkner, who was shot to death near 13th and Locust Streets early on Dec. 9, 1981.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence in 1989, and also rejected three other appeals.
Unless the nation's high court agrees to hear the case, Abu-Jamal most likely would face a new Philadelphia jury to decide only whether the penalty should be life or death. The high court hears only a tiny percentage of all petitions filed each year.
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4) Obama (and Big Media) Turn Blind Eye to Israeli Apartheid
By BAR Managing Editor Bruce Dixon
July 23-29, 2008
http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=714&Itemid=1
Israel is now an apartheid state, according to the publisher of Ha'aretz, that country's largest circulation daily newspaper. The occasion was the recent renewal of Israeli citizenship laws, which refuse to recognize marriages and families among most of the Arabs living in that country. How can Barack Obama, himself the son of an American mixed marriage remain an apparently uncritical supporter of Israeli apartheid, and why does corporate media continue to pursue a longstanding "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward the odious policies of racial and ethnic discrimination in Israel?
The presidential campaigns of Democrats and Republicans are no more about placing issues before the US public than competing commercials for new cars or bottled water are about the facts. Brought to us by the same corporate marketers that sell us lifestyles and beer, mainstream presidential campaigns aim to establish and exploit visceral, fact-proof loyalties to the brand of a party or candidate. The fact-proof nature of the Obama brand, and the lengths corporate media go to protect it were on prominent display during the candidate's brief visit to Israel Palestine this week.
Barack Obama's smiling brown face and Kansas-Kenya parentage are key elements in the Obama brand, that hazy image of progressive, post-racial transformation at home and abroad which lie at the heart of his appeal. At the same time, Barack Obama is committed to preserving what he calls Israel's “identity as a Jewish state”, the polite term for what much of the rest of the world recognizes as an apartheid state.
A June 29 editorial by no less a member of the Israeli elite than Amos Schocken, the publisher of Ha'aretz, Israel's daily newspaper of record is titled “Citizenship Law Makes Israel An Apartheid State” The gist of it is that the Israeli government prohibits recognition of marriages or family reunions between Arabs with Israeli citizenship and Arabs who live within the borders of Israel-Palestine in the bantustans of Gaza and the West Bank --- inside the borders of Israel-Palestine but without Israeli citizenship.
“The law stipulates that the interior minister does not have the authority to approve residence in Israel for a resident of Judea and Samaria (unless, of course, they are Jews - that is, settlers). This is so even regarding family reunions, meaning marriage, when it comes to Palestinian spouses who are younger than 35 (for men) or 25 (for women). In effect, the law prevents young Israeli citizens from marrying the spouse of their choice and living with this spouse in Israel, if the spouse is a Palestinian from Judea and Samaria.
It is obvious that this has barely any effect on the right of young Israeli Jews to live in their country with the spouse of their choice, because there are hardly any marriages between Israeli Jews and Palestinians from Judea and Samaria. (These are Israeli names for the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and Gaza.) On the other hand, these Palestinians constitute Israeli Arabs' natural pool for choosing a spouse. For this reason, the law severely discriminates when comparing the rights of young Israeli Jewish citizens and young Israeli Arab citizens. ”
The Big Media correspondents who breathlessly cover Obama at home and abroad are not stupid or ignorant people. They (or someone in their offices) all read Ha'aretz daily, and none are ignorant of the facts of Israeli apartheid. They are professionals who know their jobs, and their boundaries. Each and every one realizes it would be career suicide to directly or indirectly ask the proud son of black African and white American parents, accorded the rights of full US citizenship through one parent, how he can uncritically support an apartheid state in Israel which awards and denies a host of citizenship rights on ethnic and religious grounds, from property ownership, education and the freedom to live where one likes to separate license plates (enable police profiling at a distance), bans on new Palestinian wells, water and electrical use, to Jewish-only roads and Palestinian-only checkpoints.
In this, it would be a mistake to believe that the Israeli tail is wagging the dogs of US presidential candidates and Big Media. The heavily militarized and nuclear armed state of Israel is entirely dependent upon US military aid, economic support, and political patronage. Israel is the direct recipient of more than six billion US tax dollars annually. Israel could not continue its brutal annexation policies, its militarized wall, its "settlement" of Palestinian lands or any of its other objectionable policies without the complete and bipartisan support of US ruling circles. For the US, Israel is a kind of offshore military base, a nuclear-armed white enclave in the middle of millions of brown people who sit atop a large share of the world's most accessible oil.
Apartheid in South African was odious, to be sure. But apartheid South Africa was not of primary strategic or economic importance to the US. Apartheid Israel is.
US public opinion, like that in the rest of the world, persistently calls for a more just and even-handed US policy toward Israel-Palestine. But corporate media and the US political elite, including Barack Obama continue to ignore them. On this issue, as Salon's Glen Greenwald writes, public opinion is pretty well irrelevant.
If, as some Obama supporters claim, there is a "movement" which he listens to, and which potentially influences his positions, this would be a good time and place for it to speak up. If they can't or won't, it's one more piece of evidence that the Obama candidacy is as people-proof as any other corporate one, that there is and never was any "Obama movement" with an objective beyond November, and that Obama is just another brand name, like Monsanto, or Ford, or Exxon.
Bruce Dixon is based in Atlanta and can be reached at bruce.dixon(at)blackagendareport.com
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5) Citizenship law makes Israel an apartheid state
By Amos Schocken
Last update - 21:57 29/06/2008
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/996697.html
The government's decision last week to extend the validity of the Citizenship Law (Temporary Order), for another year, is evidence that the legal barriers preventing severe discrimination against Israel's Arab citizens and harm to their civil rights have been removed.
This extension is the eighth since the law was first passed in 2003, and it shows just how naive Justice Edmond Levy's position was when he refused to join in the 2006 decision by five judges from the High Court of Justice, who stated that the law was unconstitutional, that it contravened the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Freedom, and that it must be removed from the law books. Levy explained his refusal by saying that he saw no need to intervene because only two months remained until the law expired. However, at the end of the two months, the law was extended by a year, and now they want to extend it for yet another year.
Had Levy known that the law's limited validity was nothing but a deception aimed at preparing a discriminatory and unconstitutional law, there is no doubt he would have joined the five justices' majority opinion that it was unconstitutional and should be removed. We must hope that the High Court of Justice, when it rules on the new petition submitted against the law after it was extended in 2006, will take into account that the term "temporary provision," which both the government and Knesset take pains to stress, is a deception. We are talking about, in effect, a permanent law.
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The law stipulates that the interior minister does not have the authority to approve residence in Israel for a resident of Judea and Samaria (unless, of course, they are Jews - that is, settlers). This is so even regarding family reunions, meaning marriage, when it comes to Palestinian spouses who are younger than 35 (for men) or 25 (for women). In effect, the law prevents young Israeli citizens from marrying the spouse of their choice and living with this spouse in Israel, if the spouse is a Palestinian from Judea and Samaria.
It is obvious that this has barely any effect on the right of young Israeli Jews to live in their country with the spouse of their choice, because there are hardly any marriages between Israeli Jews and Palestinians from Judea and Samaria. On the other hand, these Palestinians constitute Israeli Arabs' natural pool for choosing a spouse. For this reason, the law severely discriminates when comparing the rights of young Israeli Jewish citizens and young Israeli Arab citizens.
When the law was first passed in 2003, supposedly as a temporary one-year measure, it was accompanied by security reasoning - the risk of implanting terrorists in Israel via marriage. The reasoning was faulty even at that time: Every Palestinian who wishes to enter Israel must be addressed individually. It is the Shin Bet security service's task to do this and thus carry out its mission - protecting the security of Israel's citizens such that the country remains democratic, with equal rights for all. However, as the years go by, it becomes clear that the security argument and the term "temporary measure" are merely a deception aimed at "koshering" discriminatory legislation for demographic reasons.
The claim that there are characteristics of an apartheid state in Israel is widely heard in the Western world. The word apartheid is catchy and understood in many parts of the world, which makes it useful to send a message that we resent and which we claim has no connection with reality in Israel. However, we do not need to replicate exactly the characteristics of South African apartheid within discriminatory practices in civil rights in Israel in order to call Israel an apartheid state. The amendment to the Citizenship Law is exactly such a practice, and it is best that we not try to evade the truth: Its existence in our law books turns Israel into an apartheid state.
The government decided to add the Gaza Strip to the list of countries for which the interior minister does not have the prerogative to approve residence in Israel on the grounds of family reunions, regardless of age. Both the list and the new addition are superfluous and harmful. Since Hamas gained control, no one enters or leaves Gaza anyway, and the new restriction harms couples' cases from the time when there was passage between Israel and Gaza. There is no need for this affront.
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5) Taking Aim with Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone is now in its seventh year of
broadcasting. We need your assistance to continue.
Mya Shone/Ralph Schoenman
Taking Aim
http://www.takingaimradio.com
Over these years, Taking Aim has become an international phenomenon, heard
in 77 countries and across the United States.
Constantly breaking new ground, Taking Aim has led the way in laying out the
underlying politics of 9/11 as an advanced expression of the crisis of
capitalism engulfing humanity.
With meticulous documentation and insightful analysis, we have covered the
social, economic and political issues of the day whether it is the
U.S.-Israeli plans for the Middle East, the torture and exploitation of
people and other species, or the collapse of Bear Stearns and the further
risk of the financial house of cards tumbling.
We have demonstrated how the advent of ever escalating wars, a permanent
feature of imperialism, has precipitated serial collapse in key sectors of
the financial system. We have established that the only future offered by
the one big property party with two names - the Democratic and Republican
Parties - is the deepening the assault on living standards, further
abrogation of our rights and preparation for martial law.
Taking Aim is responding to the challenge and is planning to expand our
reach.
Today: we broadcast over WBAI-NY; we broadcast on the Internet via the
Progressive Radio Network; we distribute our programs through our program
archive to individuals internationally; we prepare occasional video and
televised presentations, organizing resistance to war and exploitation.
We call upon all who have listened faithfully to Taking Aim to rise to the
occasion and help fund our research, communication and agitation.
We are on the cusp of an exponential expansion of the reach of TAKING AIM
and we urge you to remember that this is not a spectator sport.
We rely upon you to join us in this struggle and to contribute generously to
the TAKING AIM expansion fund.
CONTRIBUTE TODAY - DON'T WAIT
We need funds to:
* Transcribe our programs and publish a Taking Aim workbook series and books
* Expand our website so that it includes articles, books and video
* Expand our broadcast and Internet reach
* Purchase a new Mac computer - Ralph's is old, freezes up and is unable to
handle new Internet formats
* Renew subscriptions to newspapers, journals and magazines
And more ...
WE LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU. THANKING YOU IN ADVANCE.
Mya Shone/Ralph Schoenman
Taking Aim
http://www.takingaimradio.com
Contributions to Taking Aim enable us to continue our radio broadcasts,
expand our Internet site, publish workbooks, pamphlets and books and
organize events. Make your checks payable to:
Veritas Press
PO Box 6345, Vallejo, CA 94591
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6) Ford Posts Loss of $8.7 Billion on Asset Woes
By NICK BUNKLEY
July 25, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/business/25ford.html?hp
DETROIT — The Ford Motor Company, stunned by abysmal sales of its most profitable vehicles and a sudden shift in consumers’ tastes, said Thursday that it lost $8.7 billion in the quarter, its worst ever, and would overhaul its North American plants to focus on small cars.
The loss, equal to $3.88 a share, was mostly the result of $8 billion in write-downs because of falling demand for and resale values of gas-thirsty pickups and sport utility vehicles in the United States. Ford took charges of $5.3 billion charge related to lower asset values in North America and $2.1 billion on the lease portfolio at its financing arm, the Ford Motor Credit Company.
The news sent Ford shares tumbling nearly 10 percent in morning trading.
Excluding the write-downs and other charges, the company lost $1 billion from continuing operations, down from a profit of $483 million a year ago. It lost $1.3 billion in North America, where $4-a-gallon gasoline has caused consumers to clamor for more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Ford said it would cut production for the rest of the year by an additional 105,000 vehicles, for a total reduction of 26 percent compared with the second half of 2007.
Then, it plans to overhaul three truck factories in North America so they can build small cars and double production of gas-electric hybrid vehicles next year.
Among the cars that Ford will start building and selling in North America are six small cars from Europe, where years of high gasoline have educated automakers how to earn larger profits on those vehicles than they have historically generated in the United States.
“External conditions in North America have changed dramatically in a very short period of time,” said Mark Fields, the president of Ford’s Americas division. “While we have no intention of giving up our longtime truck leadership, we are creating a new Ford in North America on a foundation of small, fuel-efficient cars and crossovers.”
In the second quarter of 2007, Ford earned a profit of $750 million, or 31 cents a share. In April, the company surprised Wall Street with a $100 million first-quarter profit, but the market for its most profitable vehicles has deteriorated swiftly since then.
Revenue fell to $38.6 billion in the second quarter from $44.2 billion a year ago, in part because the company has sold three European brands — Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin.
Ford’s automotive operations earned a profit in every region except North America, where the company eliminated 4,000 hourly jobs in the last three months and is working to cut 15 percent of salaried costs by Aug. 1. Revenue in North America dropped 25 percent to $14.2 billion, from $19 billion.
Ford Motor Credit, which until recently had been a consistent source of income, reported a $294 million loss excluding its write-downs, compared with a $112 million profit last year.
Ford executives said they expected the United States market to remain sluggish through next year and that the nation’s economy would not recover significantly until 2010. The company’s chief financial officer, Don R. Leclair, said Ford had $26.6 billion in cash on hand, down $10.8 billion from a year ago but enough to sustain its restructuring.
“We have absolutely the right plan to respond to the changing business environment and begin to grow again for the long term,” the chief executive, Alan R. Mulally, said.
Ford is relying on small cars to fuel that growth, rather than the high-profit big trucks and S.U.V.’s that propelled it through recent decades. It plans to retool a sport utility vehicle factory in Michigan and begin making compact cars there in 2010. An S.U.V. plant in Kentucky will start building small cars in 2011. The company has already announced plans to build a new subcompact car, the Fiesta, at a former truck factory in Mexico.
Meanwhile, a plant in St. Paul, Minn., that was scheduled to close next year will stay open through 2011 to continue building the Ford Ranger, a compact pickup for which demand has increased as drivers downsize from full-size pickups.
Ford also plans to double its capacity to build fuel-efficient, four-cylinder engines in North America by 2011.
At the same time, it will reduce costs by paring the number of different platforms on which its cars worldwide are based to 9 from 25 today.
Ford’s sales fell 14 percent in the first half of the year, compared with 10.1 percent for the industry overall. But in June alone, Ford’s sales were off 27.9 percent, including a 35.3 percent drop for its trucks.
The disappointing performance led executives to back away from the company’s previous goal of returning to profitability next year. Ford is now expected to lose money for a fourth consecutive year in 2009.
The automaker has already been slowing production of its larger vehicles, while running plants that make the Ford Focus compact car and other sedans on overtime. It is delaying the introduction of its redesigned full-size pickup truck, the 2009 F-series, for two months this fall while dealers grapple with an oversupply of the current model.
The F-series has been the best-selling vehicle in the United States for 26 years, but in May and June it suddenly fell to fifth, behind four Japanese sedans.
The deteriorating market for Ford’s most profitable vehicles caused shares of the company to lose nearly half their value in a two- month period. The stock fell to a 23-year low of $4.30 on July 3.
That drop occurred even as the billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian increased his stake in Ford and expressed optimism about the automaker’s future under Mr. Mulally. As of mid-June, Mr. Kerkorian owned 140.8 million shares of Ford, which he bought for as much as $8.50 each.
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7) What’s Lurking in Your Countertop?
By KATE MURPHY
July 24, 2008
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/garden/24granite.html
SHORTLY before Lynn Sugarman of Teaneck, N.J., bought her summer home in Lake George, N.Y., two years ago, a routine inspection revealed it had elevated levels of radon, a radioactive gas that can cause lung cancer. So she called a radon measurement and mitigation technician to find the source.
“He went from room to room,” said Dr. Sugarman, a pediatrician. But he stopped in his tracks in the kitchen, which had richly grained cream, brown and burgundy granite countertops. His Geiger counter indicated that the granite was emitting radiation at levels 10 times higher than those he had measured elsewhere in the house.
“My first thought was, my pregnant daughter was coming for the weekend,” Dr. Sugarman said. When the technician told her to keep her daughter several feet from the countertops just to be safe, she said, “I had them ripped out that very day,” and sent to the state Department of Health for analysis. The granite, it turned out, contained high levels of uranium, which is not only radioactive but releases radon gas as it decays. “The health risk to me and my family was probably small,” Dr. Sugarman said, “but I felt it was an unnecessary risk.”
As the popularity of granite countertops has grown in the last decade — demand for them has increased tenfold, according to the Marble Institute of America, a trade group representing granite fabricators — so have the types of granite available. For example, one source, Graniteland (graniteland.com) offers more than 900 kinds of granite from 63 countries. And with increased sales volume and variety, there have been more reports of “hot” or potentially hazardous countertops, particularly among the more exotic and striated varieties from Brazil and Namibia.
“It’s not that all granite is dangerous,” said Stanley Liebert, the quality assurance director at CMT Laboratories in Clifton Park, N.Y., who took radiation measurements at Dr. Sugarman’s house. “But I’ve seen a few that might heat up your Cheerios a little.”
Allegations that granite countertops may emit dangerous levels of radon and radiation have been raised periodically over the past decade, mostly by makers and distributors of competing countertop materials. The Marble Institute of America has said such claims are “ludicrous” because although granite is known to contain uranium and other radioactive materials like thorium and potassium, the amounts in countertops are not enough to pose a health threat.
Indeed, health physicists and radiation experts agree that most granite countertops emit radiation and radon at extremely low levels. They say these emissions are insignificant compared with so-called background radiation that is constantly raining down from outer space or seeping up from the earth’s crust, not to mention emanating from manmade sources like X-rays, luminous watches and smoke detectors.
But with increasing regularity in recent months, the Environmental Protection Agency has been receiving calls from radon inspectors as well as from concerned homeowners about granite countertops with radiation measurements several times above background levels. “We’ve been hearing from people all over the country concerned about high readings,” said Lou Witt, a program analyst with the agency’s Indoor Environments Division.
Last month, Suzanne Zick, who lives in Magnolia, Tex., a small town northwest of Houston, called the E.P.A. and her state’s health department to find out what she should do about the salmon-colored granite she had installed in her foyer a year and a half ago. A geology instructor at a community college, she realized belatedly that it could contain radioactive material and had it tested. The technician sent her a report indicating that the granite was emitting low to moderately high levels of both radon and radiation, depending on where along the stone the measurement was taken.
“I don’t really know what the numbers are telling me about my risk,” Ms. Zick said. “I don’t want to tear it out, but I don’t want cancer either.”
The E.P.A. recommends taking action if radon gas levels in the home exceeds 4 picocuries per liter of air (a measure of radioactive emission); about the same risk for cancer as smoking a half a pack of cigarettes per day. In Dr. Sugarman’s kitchen, the readings were 100 picocuries per liter. In her basement, where radon readings are expected to be higher because the gas usually seeps into homes from decaying uranium underground, the readings were 6 picocuries per liter.
The average person is subjected to radiation from natural and manmade sources at an annual level of 360 millirem (a measure of energy absorbed by the body), according to government agencies like the E.P.A. and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The limit of additional exposure set by the commission for people living near nuclear reactors is 100 millirem per year. To put this in perspective, passengers get 3 millirem of cosmic radiation on a flight from New York to Los Angeles.
A “hot” granite countertop like Dr. Sugarman’s might add a fraction of a millirem per hour and that is if you were a few inches from it or touching it the entire time.
Nevertheless, Mr. Witt said, “There is no known safe level of radon or radiation.” Moreover, he said, scientists agree that “any exposure increases your health risk.” A granite countertop that emits an extremely high level of radiation, as a small number of commercially available samples have in recent tests, could conceivably expose body parts that were in close proximity to it for two hours a day to a localized dose of 100 millirem over just a few months.
David J. Brenner, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University in New York, said the cancer risk from granite countertops, even those emitting radiation above background levels, is “on the order of one in a million.” Being struck by lightning is more likely. Nonetheless, Dr. Brenner said, “It makes sense. If you can choose another counter that doesn’t elevate your risk, however slightly, why wouldn’t you?”
Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking and is considered especially dangerous to smokers, whose lungs are already compromised. Children and developing fetuses are vulnerable to radiation, which can cause other forms of cancer. Mr. Witt said the E.P.A. is not studying health risks associated with granite countertops because of a “lack of resources.”
The Marble Institute of America plans to develop a testing protocol for granite. “We want to reassure the public that their granite countertops are safe,” Jim Hogan, the group’s president, said earlier this month “We know the vast majority of granites are safe, but there are some new exotic varieties coming in now that we’ve never seen before, and we need to use sound science to evaluate them.”
Research scientists at Rice University in Houston and at the New York State Department of Health are currently conducting studies of granite widely used in kitchen counters. William J. Llope, a professor of physics at Rice, said his preliminary results show that of the 55 samples he has collected from nearby fabricators and wholesalers, all of which emit radiation at higher-than-background levels, a handful have tested at levels 100 times or more above background.
Personal injury lawyers are already advertising on the Web for clients who think they may have been injured by countertops. “I think it will be like the mold litigation a few years back, where some cases were legitimate and a whole lot were not,” said Ernest P. Chiodo, a physician and lawyer in Detroit who specializes in toxic tort law. His kitchen counters are granite, he said, “but I don’t spend much time in the kitchen.”
As for Dr. Sugarman, the contractor of the house she bought in Lake George paid for the removal of her “hot” countertops. She replaced them with another type of granite. “But I had them tested first,” she said.
Where to Find Tests and Testers
TO find a certified technician to determine whether radiation or radon is emanating from a granite countertop, homeowners can contact the American Association of Radon Scientists and Technologists (aarst.org). Testing costs between $100 to $300.
Information on certified technicians and do-it-yourself radon testing kits is available from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Web site at epa.gov/radon, as well as from state or regional indoor air environment offices, which can be found at epa.gov/iaq/whereyoulive.html. Kits test for radon, not radiation, and cost $20 to $30. They are sold at hardware stores and online.
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8) Paying Doctors to Ignore Patients
By PETER B. BACH
Op-Ed Contributor
July 24, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/opinion/24bach.html
THE longstanding push-pull between Medicare and Congress has erupted again. Last week, Congress, overriding a presidential veto, canceled Medicare’s scheduled 10.6 percent cut in payment rates for doctors, and instead raised the rates 1.1 percent. But this action fails to address the problem with the Medicare payment system, which is not the amounts doctors are paid but the way their payments are calculated.
Medicare pays doctors for specific services. If a patient has a checkup that includes an X-ray, a urine analysis and a physical, Medicare pays the doctor three separate fees.
Each fee is meant to reimburse the doctor for the time and skill he or she devotes to the patient. But it is also supposed to pay for overhead, and this is where the problem begins. To Medicare, a doctor’s overhead (or “practice expense”) includes such items as rent, staff salaries and the cost of high-tech medical equipment. When the agency pays a fee to a doctor who has performed a CT scan, it is meant to cover some of the cost of buying or leasing the scanner itself. Services using more expensive equipment generate higher fees.
Any first-year business school student can see the profit opportunity here. The cost of a CT scanner is fixed, but a doctor earns fees each time it is used. This means that a scanner becomes highly profitable as soon as it’s paid for.
In contrast, the doctor-patient visit, which involves no expensive equipment, offers no significant profit opportunity. So the best way for a doctor to make money in his practice is not to spend time with patients but to use equipment as much as possible. That means moving the maximum number of patients through the practice, and spending the minimum amount of time with each one.
From 2000 to 2005, the number of Medicare patients seen by doctors increased by 8.5 percent, while the number of services each one received was up 14 percent, according to the Government Accountability Office.
It’s not only Medicare that pays doctors on a fee-for-service basis; most private insurers do also. This is part of the reason that spending on physician services nationwide has risen every year since 2000 by about $25 billion. This year the tab will exceed $500 billion.
Doctors who do their own CT scanning and other imaging order roughly two to eight times as many imaging tests as those who do not have their own equipment, a 2002 study by researchers at the University of North Carolina found. Altogether, doctors are ordering roughly $40 billion worth of unnecessary imaging each year — which adds up to nearly 2 percent of the total Americans pay for health care.
No wonder the Government Accountability Office last month urged Medicare to find a way to constrain doctors’ use of imaging tests.
Over the years, Congress and Medicare have made various attempts to stamp out some of the most egregious excesses in Medicare payments. Sometimes they have succeeded. In 2004 and 2005, when Congress lowered the fees associated with anti-testosterone drugs used to treat prostate cancer, urologists and other doctors prescribed them less.
Around the same time, though, urologists started buying multimillion-dollar radiation therapy machines for treating prostate cancer. Reimbursement for radiation treatment remains very generous.
Clearly, scattershot strategies aimed at individual fees are unlikely to reduce health care costs. More fundamental changes are needed in the way doctors are paid.
For their time, doctors should be given a stipend for each of their patients. It should be larger for patients with complicated medical conditions and smaller for those who are healthy, and it should not be influenced by the number of services or tests a doctor orders.
For overhead, doctors should be paid an amount that covers the typical cost of tests and treatments needed to address a patient’s condition. This strategy — known as “case rate” or “prospective” payment — is standard in American hospitals. The hospital receives a payment for dealing with a patient’s underlying condition rather than individual payments for each test and treatment. This approach offers no incentive to run unneeded tests, and it has been credited with substantially slowing the growth in Medicare payments to hospitals.
Without changes to the way Medicare pays doctors, the fights in Congress over raising or lowering payment rates will continue. And doctors will still have no financial incentive to do what is most important: spend more time with their patients.
Peter B. Bach, a doctor at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, was a senior adviser to the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from 2005 to 2006.
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9) Two Articles on Cancer and Cellphones
Prominent Cancer Doctor Warns About Cellphones
July 24, 2008, 11:20 am
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/prominent-cancer-doctor-warns-about-cellphones/index.html?hp
WELL; Experts Revive Debate Over Cellphones and Cancer
By TARA PARKER-POPE
June 3, 2008
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9802E1D61438F930A35755C0A96E9C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
The head of a prominent cancer research institute has warned his faculty and staff to limit cellphone use because of a possible cancer risk, The Associated Press reports.
Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, the director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, notes that while the evidence about a cellphone-cancer link remains unclear, people should take precautions, particularly for children.
“Really at the heart of my concern is that we shouldn’t wait for a definitive study to come out, but err on the side of being safe rather than sorry later,” Dr. Herberman told The Associated Press.
Earlier this year, three prominent brain surgeons raised similar concerns while speaking on “The Larry King Show.” Their concerns were largely based on observational studies that showed only an association between cellphone use and cancer, not a causal relationship. The most important of these studies is called Interphone, a vast research effort in 13 countries, including Canada, Israel and several in Europe.
Some of the research suggests a link between cellphone use and three types of tumors: glioma; cancer of the parotid, a salivary gland near the ear; and acoustic neuroma, a tumor that essentially occurs where the ear meets the brain. All these tumors are rare, so even if cellphone use does increase risk, the risk is still very low.
On Wednesday, Dr. Herberman sent a memo to about 3,000 faculty and staff saying that children should use cellphones only for emergencies because their brains are still developing. He advised adults to keep cellphones away from the head and use the speakerphone or a wireless headset, he said.
“Although the evidence is still controversial, I am convinced that there are sufficient data to warrant issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice on cellphone use,” he wrote in his memo.
To read my recent Well column that explores the data on cellphones and cancer, read here:
WELL; Experts Revive Debate Over Cellphones and Cancer
By TARA PARKER-POPE
June 3, 2008
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9802E1D61438F930A35755C0A96E9C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
What do brain surgeons know about cellphone safety that the rest of us don't?
Last week, three prominent neurosurgeons told the CNN interviewer Larry King that they did not hold cellphones next to their ears. ''I think the safe practice,'' said Dr. Keith Black, a surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, ''is to use an earpiece so you keep the microwave antenna away from your brain.''
Dr. Vini Khurana, an associate professor of neurosurgery at the Australian National University who is an outspoken critic of cellphones, said: ''I use it on the speaker-phone mode. I do not hold it to my ear.'' And CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon at Emory University Hospital, said that like Dr. Black he used an earpiece.
Along with Senator Edward M. Kennedy's recent diagnosis of a glioma, a type of tumor that critics have long associated with cellphone use, the doctors' remarks have helped reignite a long-simmering debate about cellphones and cancer.
That supposed link has been largely dismissed by many experts, including the American Cancer Society. The theory that cellphones cause brain tumors ''defies credulity,'' said Dr. Eugene Flamm, chairman of neurosurgery at Montefiore Medical Center.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, three large epidemiology studies since 2000 have shown no harmful effects. CTIA -- the Wireless Association, the leading industry trade group, said in a statement, ''The overwhelming majority of studies that have been published in scientific journals around the globe show that wireless phones do not pose a health risk.''
The F.D.A. notes, however, that the average period of phone use in the studies it cites was about three years, so the research doesn't answer questions about long-term exposures. Critics say many studies are flawed for that reason, and also because they do not distinguish between casual and heavy use.
Cellphones emit non-ionizing radiation, waves of energy that are too weak to break chemical bonds or to set off the DNA damage known to cause cancer. There is no known biological mechanism to explain how non-ionizing radiation might lead to cancer.
But researchers who have raised concerns say that just because science can't explain the mechanism doesn't mean one doesn't exist. Concerns have focused on the heat generated by cellphones and the fact that the radio frequencies are absorbed mostly by the head and neck. In recent studies that suggest a risk, the tumors tend to occur on the same side of the head where the patient typically holds the phone.
Like most research on the subject, the studies are observational, showing only an association between cellphone use and cancer, not a causal relationship. The most important of these studies is called Interphone, a vast research effort in 13 countries, including Canada, Israel and several in Europe.
Some of the research suggests a link between cellphone use and three types of tumors: glioma; cancer of the parotid, a salivary gland near the ear; and acoustic neuroma, a tumor that essentially occurs where the ear meets the brain. All these cancers are rare, so even if cellphone use does increase risk, the risk is still very low.
Last year, The American Journal of Epidemiology published data from Israel finding a 58 percent higher risk of parotid gland tumors among heavy cellphone users. Also last year, a Swedish analysis of 16 studies in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine showed a doubling of risk for acoustic neuroma and glioma after 10 years of heavy cellphone use.
''What we're seeing is suggestions in epidemiological studies that have looked at people using phones for 10 or more years,'' says Louis Slesin, editor of Microwave News, an industry publication that tracks the research. ''There are some very disconcerting findings that suggest a problem, although it's much too early to reach a conclusive view.''
Some doctors say the real concern is not older cellphone users, who began using phones as adults, but children who are beginning to use phones today and face a lifetime of exposure.
''More and more kids are using cellphones,'' said Dr. Paul J. Rosch, clinical professor of medicine and psychiatry at New York Medical College. ''They may be much more affected. Their brains are growing rapidly, and their skulls are thinner.''
For people who are concerned about any possible risk, a simple solution is to use a headset. Of course, that option isn't always convenient, and some critics have raised worries about wireless devices like the Bluetooth that essentially place a transmitter in the ear.
The fear is that even if the individual risk of using a cellphone is low, with three billion users worldwide, even a minuscule risk would translate into a major public health concern.
''We cannot say with any certainty that cellphones are either safe or not safe,'' Dr. Black said on CNN. ''My concern is that with the widespread use of cellphones, the worst scenario would be that we get the definitive study 10 years from now, and we find out there is a correlation.''
E-mail: well@nytimes.com.
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10) Israel to build new settlement in West Bank
By LAURIE COPANS
July 24, 2008– 8 hours ago
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jD4YSkDPlclqd9dHvg2f0Ij18zEgD9245FSO0
JERUSALEM (AP) — A key committee has approved construction of the first new Jewish settlement in the West Bank in a decade, an Israeli official said Thursday. The news infuriated Palestinians, who said the decision could cripple peace efforts.
The only hurdle that remains is Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who plans to approve the Maskiot settlement within weeks, the official said. Barak had signaled to the national planning committee that it should authorize the plan, the official said.
The offficial spoke on condition of anonymity because the Defense Ministry did not officially announce the settlement would be built in the Jordan Valley Rift, an arid north-south strip that forms Israel's eastern flank with Jordan.
Asked why Israel was moving ahead with the politically charged plan, the official said that it has been in the pipeline for years.
Israel originally announced in 2006 that it would build Maskiot, then froze the plan after international outcry. But earlier this year, nine Israeli families settled in mobile homes at the site, which Palestinians claim as part of a future state.
Settlers say around two dozen more families are waiting to join them.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat accused Israel of undermining U.S.-backed peace talks.
"This is destroying the process of a two-state solution," Erekat said. "I hope the Americans will make the Israelis revoke the decision. I think they can make the Israelis do this."
The U.S. Embassy had no comment. But on her last visit to the region in June, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said settlement building "has the potential to harm the negotiations."
When talks renewed last year after a seven-year breakdown, Israel promised not to establish new settlements in the West Bank. The two sides set a goal of reaching a final peace accord by the end of the year, but have since scaled back their ambitions, in part because disputes over Israeli settlement have impeded progress on peacemaking.
Palestinians want the final deal to outline the formation of a Palestinian state in most of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. Israel captured those territories in the 1967 Mideast war.
Asked to comment on the revival of the plan to build Maskiot, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said, "Israel will stand by its commitments," and noted that Barak has not yet given final approval for the construction.
He would not elaborate. But Israel historically has interpreted its commitments on halting settlement expansion differently from the rest of the international community.
The Maskiot community is made up of settlers Israel evacuated from Gaza when it left the territory three years ago. When it withdrew from Gaza, Israel promised not to relocate evacuated settlers to the West Bank.
Earlier this year, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas briefly called off peace talks over continued Israeli construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has sharply criticized the building, saying it hampers peace efforts, but the U.S. has not penalized Israel.
Maskiot had decades ago been established as a military base, and four years ago a religious school was set up there. But no one had lived at the site until February.
Many Israeli settlements have been established in precisely that manner, beginning as military points that are gradually converted into fledgling communities that gradually grow.
Like many settlers, those at Maskiot are Orthodox Jews who believe God gave the West Bank — the biblical heartland Israelis often call Judea and Samaria — to the Jewish people.
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11) Flesh-eating fish give pedicures
A novel type of pedicure involving live fish which chomp away at dead skin is catching on at a Virginia beauty salon.
By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles
Last Updated: 11:46AM BST 22 Jul 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2443947/Flesh-eating-fish-give-pedicures.html
Owners of Yvonne Hair and Nails in Alexandria, a suburb of Washington DC, estimate 5,000 customers have so far tried the unorthodox treatment, in which customers immerse their feet in warm water filled with tiny, voracious carp.
The toothless fish, termed garra rufa but known as “doctor fish”, nibble away at dead skin while leaving healthy flesh untouched, providing what advocates say is a natural alternative to potentially unsanitary razors, clippers or pumice stones.
John Ho, who owns the salon with wife Yvonne, said he was initially sceptical about offering the technique, which is popular in spas in Turkey, where the fish come from, as well as parts of Japan, China, Singapore and Malaysia.
”I know people were a little intimidated at first,” he told the Associated Press. “But I just said, 'Let's give it a shot.' “
But customers flocked to try the treatment and as word spread the salon's Dr Fish Massage was featured on local radio and Tyra Banks' television talk show.
Tracy Roberts, 33, described it as “the best pedicure I ever had” and said it marked “the first time somebody got rid of my calluses completely.”
After the fish have spent up to 30 minutes chewing away hard skin - there are about 100 to every tank - customers receive a standard pedicure.
A similar treatment was featured in an episode of Ugly Betty last year when Wilhelmina Slater, played by Vanessa Williams, had a pedicure that included soaking her feet in water full of fish.
Mr Ho, who spent 40,000 dollars setting up the pedicures, is hoping to extend the service to eventually offer full-body treatments that could treat skin conditions such as psoriasis.
For some ticklish customers, however, the sensation can almost prove too much.
”It didn't go as smoothly as planned,” writes Yvonne customer Maeghan Leigh, describing on her blog how she clutched pillows to stifle her “hysterical laughing”.
”Seriously, those little guys on your toes is the most outrageous ridiculous feeling in the world, meaning lots of “eeeeeeeeeeeeeee” squeals,” she writes. “In the end though, I would definitely go back for more because my tootsies are smoother than a baby's bottom.”
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12) Wounded Warriors, Empty Promises
Editorial
July 25, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/opinion/25fri1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
The bad news about the Army’s treatment of wounded soldiers keeps coming. The generals keep apologizing and insisting that things are getting better, but they are not.
The latest low moment for Army brass came on Tuesday in Washington, where a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee held a hearing to examine the sorry state of the Army Medical Action Plan. That’s the plan to prevent the kind of systematic neglect and mistreatment exposed by The Washington Post last year at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
After a flurry of apologies, firings, investigations and reports, the Army resolved to streamline and improve case management for wounded soldiers. Under the plan, “warrior transition units” would swiftly deliver excellent care to troops so they could return to duty or be discharged into the veterans’ medical system. Each soldier would be assigned a team to look over his or her care: a physician, a nurse and a squad leader. It all sounded sensible and comprehensive.
It has not worked out so well. Staff members of the House subcommittee who visited numerous warrior transition units June 2007 to February found a significant gap between the Army leadership’s optimistic promises and reality.
Among other things, the Army failed to anticipate a flood of wounded soldiers. Some transition units have been overwhelmed and are thus severely understaffed. At Fort Hood, Tex., last month, staff members found 1,362 patients in a unit authorized for 649 — and more than 350 on a waiting list. Of the total, 311 were identified as being at high risk of drug overdose, suicide or other dangerous behavior. There were 38 nurse case managers when there should have been 74. Some soldiers have had to languish two months to a year before the Army decided what to do with them, far longer than the goal the Army set last year.
Under skeptical questioning during a hearing in February, Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the Army surgeon general, told the subcommittee that “for all intents and purposes, we are entirely staffed at the point we need to be staffed.” He also said: “The Army’s unwavering commitment and a key element of our warrior ethos is that we never leave a soldier behind on the battlefield — or lost in a bureaucracy.”
That was thousands of wounded, neglected soldiers ago. There are now about 12,500 soldiers assigned to the warrior transition units — more than twice as many as a year ago. The number is expected to reach 20,000 by this time next year.
The nation’s responsibility to care for the wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan will extend for decades. After Tuesday’s hearing, we are left pondering the simple questions asked at the outset by Representative Susan Davis, the California Democrat who is chairwoman of the military personnel subcommittee: Why did the Army fail to adequately staff its warrior transition units? Why did it fail to predict the surge in demand? And why did it take visits from a Congressional subcommittee to prod the Army into recognizing and promising — yet again — to fix the problem?
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LINKS AND VERY SHORT STORIES
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North Carolina: Charges in G.I.’s Death
[What the title doesn't say is that the GI, a woman, was killed by a Marine who happened to be her husband...]
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | South
The husband of an Army nurse at Fort Bragg’s hospital was charged with murder in her death, a day after her body was discovered by the authorities. Cpl. John Wimunc of the Marines, 23, was also charged with first-degree arson and conspiracy to commit arson in the death of his wife, Second Lt. Holley Wimunc, of Dubuque, Iowa. Her body was found Sunday, three days after a suspicious fire at her Fayetteville apartment. The authorities also charged Lance Cpl. Kyle Alden, 22, with first-degree arson, conspiracy to commit arson and accessory after the fact to first-degree murder.
July 15, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/us/15brfs-CHARGESINGIS_BRF.html?ref=us
Louisiana: Case of Ex-Black Panther [The Angola Three]
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | South
The conviction of a former Black Panther in the killing of a prison guard in 1972 should be overturned because his former lawyer should have objected to testimony from witnesses who had died after his original trial, a federal magistrate found. The lawyer’s omission denied a fair second trial for the man, Albert Woodfox, in 1998, the magistrate, Christine Nolan, wrote Tuesday in a recommendation to the federal judge who will rule later. Mr. Woodfox, 61, and Herman Wallace, 66, were convicted in the stabbing death of the guard, Brent Miller, on April 17, 1972. Mr. Wallace has been appealing his conviction based on arguments similar to Mr. Woodfox’s. Mr. Woodfox and Mr. Wallace, with another former Black Panther, became known as the Angola Three because they were held in isolation for about three decades at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola.
June 12, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/us/12brfs-CASEOFEXBLAC_BRF.html?ref=us
Texas: Killer Is Executed
By REUTERS
National Briefing | Southwest
A convicted killer, Karl E. Chamberlain, was put to death by lethal injection in Texas, becoming the first prisoner executed in the state since the Supreme Court lifted an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty in April. Texas, the country’s busiest death penalty state, is the fifth state to resume executions since the court rejected a legal challenge to the three-drug cocktail used in most executions for the past 30 years. Mr. Chamberlain, 37, was convicted of the 1991 murder of a 30-year-old Dallas woman who lived in the same apartment complex. Mr. Chamberlain was the 406th inmate executed in Texas since 1982 and the first this year.
June 12, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/us/12brfs-KILLERISEXEC_BRF.html?ref=us
Tennessee: State to Retry Inmate
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | South
The Union County district attorney said the county would meet a federal judge’s deadline for a new trial in the case of a death row inmate whose trial was questioned by the United States Supreme Court. The state is facing a June 17 deadline to retry or free the inmate, Paul House, who has been in limbo since June 2006, when the Supreme Court concluded that reasonable jurors would not have convicted him had they seen the results of DNA tests from the 1990s. The district attorney, Paul Phillips, said he would not seek the death penalty. Mr. House, 46, who has multiple sclerosis and must use a wheelchair, was sentenced in the 1985 killing of Carolyn Muncey. He has been in a state prison since 1986 and continues to maintain his innocence.
May 29, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/29/us/29brfs-STATETORETRY_BRF.html?ref=us
Israel: Carter Offers Details on Nuclear Arsenal
By REUTERS
World Briefing | Middle East
Former President Jimmy Carter said Israel held at least 150 nuclear weapons, the first time a current or former American president had publicly acknowledged the Jewish state’s nuclear arsenal. Asked at a news conference in Wales on Sunday how a future president should deal with the Iranian nuclear threat, he sought to put the risk in context by listing atomic weapons held globally. “The U.S. has more than 12,000 nuclear weapons, the Soviet Union has about the same, Great Britain and France have several hundred, and Israel has 150 or more,” he said, according to a transcript. The existence of Israeli nuclear arms is widely assumed, but Israel has never admitted their existence and American officials have stuck to that line in public for years.
May 27, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/27/world/middleeast/27briefs-CARTEROFFERS_BRF.html?ref=world
Iowa: Lawsuit Filed Over Raid
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Midwest
The nation’s largest single immigration raid, in which nearly 400 workers at an Agriprocessors Inc. meat processing plant in Postville were detained on Monday, violated the constitutional rights of workers at a meatpacking plant, a lawsuit contends. The suit accuses the government of arbitrary and indefinite detention. A spokesman for the United States attorney’s office said he could not comment on the suit, which was filed Thursday on behalf of about 147 of the workers. Prosecutors said they filed criminal charges against 306 of the detained workers. The charges include accusations of aggravated identity theft, falsely using a Social Security number, illegally re-entering the United States after being deported and fraudulently using an alien registration card.
May 17, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/17/us/17brfs-LAWSUITFILED_BRF.html?ref=us
Senate Revises Drug Maker Gift Bill
By REUTERS
National Breifing | Washington
A revised Senate bill would require drug makers and medical device makers to publicly report gifts over $500 a year to doctors, watering down the standard set in a previous version. The new language was endorsed by the drug maker Eli Lilly & Company. Lawmakers said they hoped the support would prompt other companies to back the bill, which had previously required all gifts valued over $25 be reported. The industry says the gifts are part of its doctor education, but critics say such lavish gestures influence prescribing habits.
May 14, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/washington/14brfs-SENATEREVISE_BRF.html?ref=us
Texas: Sect Mother Is Not a Minor
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Southwest
Child welfare officials conceded to a judge that a newborn’s mother, held in foster care as a minor after being removed from a polygamous sect’s ranch, is an adult. The woman, who gave birth on April 29, had been held along with more than 400 children taken last month from a ranch run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was one of two pregnant sect members who officials had said were minors. The other member, who gave birth on Monday, may also be an adult, state officials said.
May 14, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/us/14brfs-SECTMOTHERIS_BRF.html?ref=us
Four Military Branches Hit Recruiting Goals
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Washington
The Marine Corps far surpassed its recruiting goal last month, enlisting 2,233 people, which was 142 percent of its goal, the Pentagon said. The Army recruited 5,681 people, 101 percent of its goal. The Navy and Air Force also met their goals, 2,905 sailors and 2,435 airmen. A Defense Department spokesman, Bryan Whitman, said that if the Marine Corps continued its recruiting success, it could reach its goal of growing to 202,000 people by the end of 2009, more than a year early.
May 13, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/us/13brfs-FOURMILITARY_BRF.html?ref=us
Texas: Prison Settlement Approved
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Southwest
A federal judge has approved a settlement between the Texas Youth Commission and the Justice Department over inmate safety at the state’s juvenile prison in Edinburg. The judge, Ricardo Hinojosa of Federal District Court, signed the settlement Monday, and it was announced by the commission Wednesday. Judge Hinojosa had previously rejected a settlement on grounds that it lacked a specific timeline. Federal prosecutors began investigating the prison, the Evins Regional Juvenile Center, in 2006. The settlement establishes parameters for safe conditions and staffing levels, restricts use of youth restraints and guards against retaliation for reporting abuse and misconduct.
May 8, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/us/08brfs-PRISONSETTLE_BRF.html?ref=us
Michigan: Insurance Ruling
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Midwest
Local governments and state universities cannot offer health insurance to the partners of gay workers, the State Supreme Court ruled. The court ruled 5 to 2 that Michigan’s 2004 ban against same-sex marriage also blocks domestic-partner policies affecting gay employees at the University of Michigan and other public-sector employers. The decision affirms a February 2007 appeals court ruling. Up to 20 public universities, community colleges, school districts and local governments in Michigan have benefit policies covering at least 375 gay couples.
May 8, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/us/08brfs-INSURANCERUL_BRF.html?ref=us
Halliburton Profit Rises
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HOUSTON (AP) — Increasing its global presence is paying off for the oil field services provider Halliburton, whose first-quarter income rose nearly 6 percent on growing business in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America, the company said Monday.
Business in the first three months of 2008 also was better than expected in North America, where higher costs and lower pricing squeezed results at the end of 2007.
Halliburton shares closed up 3 cents, at $47.46, on the New York Stock Exchange.
Halliburton said it earned $584 million, or 64 cents a share, in the three months that ended March 31, compared with a year-earlier profit of $552 million, or 54 cents a share. Revenue rose to $4.03 billion, from $3.42 billion a year earlier.
April 22, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/business/worldbusiness/22halliburton.html?ref=business
Illegal Immigrants Who Were Arrested at Poultry Plant in Arkansas to Be Deported
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Eighteen illegal immigrants arrested at a poultry plant in Batesville will be processed for deportation, but will not serve any jail time for using fake Social Security numbers and state identification cards, federal judges ruled. Magistrate Judge Beth Deere and Judge James Moody of Federal District Court accepted guilty pleas from 17 of those arrested last week at the Pilgrim’s Pride plant. Federal prosecutors dismissed the misdemeanor charges against one man, but said they planned to ask Immigration and Customs Enforcement to begin deportation proceedings against him. The guilty pleas will give the 17 people criminal records, which will allow prosecutors to pursue tougher penalties if they illegally return to the United States. They had faced up to up to two years in prison and $205,000 in fines. Jane Duke, a United States attorney, said her office had no interest in seeing those arrested serve jail time, as they were “otherwise law-abiding citizens.”
National Briefing | South
April 22, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/us/22brfs-002.html?ref=us
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GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS AND INFORMATION
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Torture
On the Waterboard
How does it feel to be “aggressively interrogated”? Christopher Hitchens found out for himself, submitting to a brutal waterboarding session in an effort to understand the human cost of America’s use of harsh tactics at Guantánamo and elsewhere. VF.com has the footage. Related: “Believe Me, It’s Torture,” from the August 2008 issue.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/video/2008/hitchens_video200808
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Alison Bodine defense Committee
Lift the Two-year Ban
http://alisonbodine.blogspot.com/
Watch the Sept 28 Video on Alison's Case!
http://alisonbodine.blogspot.com/2007/10/blog-post.html
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The Girl Who Silenced the World at the UN!
Born and raised in Vancouver, Severn Suzuki has been working on environmental and social justice issues since kindergarten. At age 9, she and some friends started the Environmental Children's Organization (ECO), a small group of children committed to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. They traveled to 1992's UN Earth Summit, where 12 year-old Severn gave this powerful speech that deeply affected (and silenced) some of the most prominent world leaders. The speech had such an impact that she has become a frequent invitee to many U.N. conferences.
[Note: the text of her speech is also available at this site...bw]
http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=433
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MINIATURE EARTH
http://www.miniature-earth.com/me_english.htm
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"Dear Canada: Let U.S. war resisters stay!"
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/499/89/
Russell Means Speaking at the Transform Columbus Day Rally
"If voting could do anything it would be illegal!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8Lri1-6aoY
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Stop the Termination or the Cherokee Nation
http://groups.msn.com/BayAreaIndianCalendar/activismissues.msnw?action=get_message&mview=1&ID_Message=5580
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We Didn't Start the Fire
http://yeli.us/Flash/Fire.html
I Can't Take it No More
http://lefti.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html#9214483115237950361
The Art of Mental Warfare
http://artofmentalwarfare.com/pog/artofmentalwarfarecom-the-warning/
MONEY AS DEBT
http://video. google.com/ videoplay? docid=-905047436 2583451279
http://www.moneyasd ebt.net/
UNCONSTITUTIONAL
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6582099850410121223&pr=goog-sl
IRAQ FOR SALE
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6621486727392146155
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Port of Olympia Anti-Militarization Action Nov. 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOkn2Fg7R8w
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"They have a new gimmick every year. They're going to take one of their boys, black boys, and put him in the cabinet so he can walk around Washington with a cigar. Fire on one end and fool on the other end. And because his immediate personal problem will have been solved he will be the one to tell our people: 'Look how much progress we're making. I'm in Washington, D.C., I can have tea in the White House. I'm your spokesman, I'm your leader.' While our people are still living in Harlem in the slums. Still receiving the worst form of education.
"But how many sitting here right now feel that they could [laughs] truly identify with a struggle that was designed to eliminate the basic causes that create the conditions that exist? Not very many. They can jive, but when it comes to identifying yourself with a struggle that is not endorsed by the power structure, that is not acceptable, that the ground rules are not laid down by the society in which you live, in which you are struggling against, you can't identify with that, you step back.
"It's easy to become a satellite today without even realizing it. This country can seduce God. Yes, it has that seductive power of economic dollarism. You can cut out colonialism, imperialism and all other kind of ism, but it's hard for you to cut that dollarism. When they drop those dollars on you, you'll fold though."
—MALCOLM X, 1965
http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=987
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A little gem:
Michael Moore Faces Off With Stephen Colbert [VIDEO]
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/57492/
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LAPD vs. Immigrants (Video)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/qws/ff/qr?term=lapd&Submit=S&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Search&st=s
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Dr. Julia Hare at the SOBA 2007
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/proudtobeblack2/
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"We are far from that stage today in our era of the absolute
lie; the complete and totalitarian lie, spread by the
monopolies of press and radio to imprison social
consciousness." December 1936, "In 'Socialist' Norway,"
by Leon Trotsky: “Leon Trotsky in Norway” was transcribed
for the Internet by Per I. Matheson [References from
original translation removed]
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/12/nor.htm
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Wealth Inequality Charts
http://www.faireconomy.org/research/wealth_charts.html
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MALCOLM X: Oxford University Debate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmzaaf-9aHQ
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"There comes a times when silence is betrayal."
--Martin Luther King
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YouTube clip of Che before the UN in 1964
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtATT8GXkWg&mode=related&search
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The Wealthiest Americans Ever
NYT Interactive chart
JULY 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/business/20070715_GILDED_GRAPHIC.html
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New Orleans After the Flood -- A Photo Gallery
http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=795
This email was sent to you as a service, by Roland Sheppard.
Visit my website at: http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret
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[For some levity...Hans Groiner plays Monk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51bsCRv6kI0
...bw]
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Which country should we invade next?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3g_zqz3VjY
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My Favorite Mutiny, The Coup
http://www.myspace.com/thecoupmusic
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Michael Moore- The Awful Truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeOaTpYl8mE
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Morse v. Frederick Supreme Court arguments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_LsGoDWC0o
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Free Speech 4 Students Rally - Media Montage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfCjfod8yuw
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'My son lived a worthwhile life'
In April 2003, 21-year old Tom Hurndall was shot in the head
in Gaza by an Israeli soldier as he tried to save the lives of three
small children. Nine months later, he died, having never
recovered consciousness. Emine Saner talks to his mother
Jocelyn about her grief, her fight to make the Israeli army
accountable for his death and the book she has written
in his memory.
Monday March 26, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2042968,00.html
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Introducing...................the Apple iRack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-KWYYIY4jQ
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"A War Budget Leaves Every Child Behind."
[A T-shirt worn by some teachers at Roosevelt High School
in L.A. as part of their campaign to rid the school of military
recruiters and JROTC--see Article in Full item number 4, below...bw]
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"200 million children in the world sleep in the streets today.
Not one of them is Cuban."
(A sign in Havana)
Venceremos
View sign at bottom of page at:
http://www.cubasolidarity.net/index.html
[Thanks to Norma Harrison for sending this...bw]
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FIGHTBACK! A Collection of Socialist Essays
By Sylvia Weinstein
http://www.walterlippmann.com/sylvia-weinstein-fightback-intro.html
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[The Scab
"After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad,
and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with
which he made a scab."
"A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul,
a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue.
Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten
principles." "When a scab comes down the street,
men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and
the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out."
"No man (or woman) has a right to scab so long as there
is a pool of water to drown his carcass in,
or a rope long enough to hang his body with.
Judas was a gentleman compared with a scab.
For betraying his master, he had character enough
to hang himself." A scab has not.
"Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.
Judas sold his Savior for thirty pieces of silver.
Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of
a commision in the british army."
The scab sells his birthright, country, his wife,
his children and his fellowmen for an unfulfilled
promise from his employer.
Esau was a traitor to himself; Judas was a traitor
to his God; Benedict Arnold was a traitor to his country;
a scab is a traitor to his God, his country,
his family and his class."
Author --- Jack London (1876-1916)...Roland Sheppard
http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret]
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Award-Winning Writer/Filmmaker Donald L. Vasicek Launches New Sand
Creek Massacre Website"
May 21, 2008 -- CENTENNIAL, CO -- Award-winning filmmaker, Donald L.
Vasicek, has launched a new Sand Creek Massacre website. Titled,
"The Sand Creek Massacre", the site contains in depth witness
accounts of the massacre, the award-winning Sand Creek Massacre
trailer for viewing, the award-winning Sand Creek Massacre
documentary short for viewing, the story of the Sand Creek Massacre,
and a Shop to purchase Sand Creek Massacre DVD's and lesson
plans including the award-winning documentary film/educational DVD.
Vasicek, a board member of The American Indian Genocide Museum
(www.aigenom.com)in Houston, Texas, said, "The website was launched
to inform, to educate, and to provide educators, historians, students
and all others the accessibility to the Sand Creek Massacre story."
The link/URL to the website is sandcreekmassacre.net.
###
Contact:
Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net