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Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
C. ARTICLES IN FULL
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A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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IMPORTANT EVENT THIS SUNDAY TO SAVE KEVIN COOPER, TROY DAVIS AND MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!
Four years ago activists around the world were mobilizing and organizing against the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams. We need to continue that fight today.
Fourth Annual Stanley Tookie Williams Legacy Summit
MOBILIZING THE MOVEMENT FOR JUSICE
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13TH, 3:00-6:00 P.M.
MERRITT COLLEGE
Huey P. Newton/Bobby Seale Student Lounge
12500 Campus Drive, Oakland
For directions go to www.merritt.edu
For more information: 510-235-9780
KEVIN COOPER, TROY DAVIS, MUMIA ABU-JAMAL: THREE INNOCENT MEN ON DEATH ROW
Featuring:
Angela Davis, author and activist.
Barbara Becnel, co-author and friend of Stanley Tookie Williams
Martina Correia, sister of Troy Davis
Release of report, "What's Really Happening on California's Death Row?"
Messages from "The Three Innocent Men"
Sneak Preview, "The Justice Chronicles," dramatic presentation of prison writings
Memorial Movie, for Oscar Grant III
Sponsors:
Stanley Tookie Williams Legacy Network; Campaign to End the Death Penalty; Kevin Cooper Defense Committee, African American Studies Department, Merritt College
URGENT -- THIS JUST IN -- KEVIN COOPER'S APPEAL DENIED!
Dear supporters,
The news just broke that the U.S. Supreme Court denied Kevin Cooper's appeal. Below is an LA Times story.
This is very bad news. But it is important that we do not give up hope - we need to continue the fight! California won't be able to set an execution date at the present time because of the ongoing lethal injection legal challenges in the state. This means we need to use this window to educate people about Kevin's case, expose the racism and
injustice, and grow our movement for real justice for Kevin Cooper - to free Kevin Cooper.
We will be sending out more updates and stories soon, and plans for how you can help. In the meantime, feel free to call or e-mail with any questions or ideas.
Crystal Bybee
Campaign to End the Death Penalty
Kevin Cooper Defense Committee
510-333-7966
crystal@nodeathpenalty.org
www.savekevincooper.org
Supreme Court rejects appeal from California death row inmate convicted of killing 4
By Associated Press
November 30, 2009
latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-us-supreme-court-cooper-execution,0,6189324.story
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a California death row inmate who was convicted in the gruesome murders of four people in 1983.
The justices said Monday they would not review an appeals court ruling that upheld the murder conviction and death sentence of Kevin Cooper.
Cooper came within a few hours of execution in 2004 before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stepped in to order genetic testing on a hair and a bloody shirt found at the murder scene that Cooper said would prove he was not the killer.
The San Francisco-based appeals court later backed a district judge's ruling that the test results did not show Cooper's innocence.
Cooper, who has long maintained his innocence, had escaped from a California state prison. He was convicted of the murders of Douglas and Peggy Ryen, both 41, their 10-year-old daughter, Jessica, and Christopher Hughes, her friend. They were stabbed and hacked repeatedly with a hatchet and buck knife. Joshua Ryen, then 8, survived a slit throat.
Cooper claimed a trio of murderers committed the attacks and said the DNA tests would exonerate him.
Prosecutors persuaded a jury of Cooper's guilt, but the investigation was plagued with problems.
Judge M. Margaret McKeown agreed with the outcome in the 9th Circuit, but noted that important evidence in Cooper's case was "lost, destroyed or left unpursued." That included blood-covered overalls that a detective threw away and a missing bloody T-shirt.
"The forensic evidence in this case is critical and yet was compromised," she wrote. "These facts are all the more troubling because Cooper's life is at stake."
McKeown also said the criminologist in charge of the evidence turned out to be a heroin addict who was later fired for stealing drugs seized by the police.
"The result is wholly discomforting," she wrote. "But one that the law demands."
The case is Cooper v. Wong, 09-363.
LETTER FROM KEVIN COOPER'S ATTORNEY:
Kevin Cooper's Attorneys Will Continue Fight To Stop Execution Of Innocent Man
Contacts: Norman Hile (916) 329-7900
John Pitts 202-339-8605
Contacts: Norman Hile (916) 329-7900
John Pitts 202-339-8605
To learn more about Kevin Cooper's case, including the unprecedented 103-page dissent
by five federal judges, go to: http://www.savekevincooper.org/
After U.S. Supreme Court Refuses To Consider Appeal, Additional Witnesses With
Information To Save Cooper's Life Should Come Forward
Attorneys Urge U.S. Attorney General Holder To Investigate Civil Rights Violations
Washington, D.C. -- Kevin Cooper's attorneys said today they would continue to
fight to prevent his execution, notwithstanding the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to
consider Cooper's appeal.
"Evidence that we discovered after trial shows that Kevin is innocent of the crime
for which he is now sentenced to die. We urge any and all witnesses with information
about Kevin's case to come forward," said Norman Hile, Cooper's lead attorney and a
partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. "Time is running out. Many witnesses
have come forward with helpful evidence, but we now need more. Anyone with
information about this case should examine their conscience and ask whether they are
willing to let their silence contribute to the execution of a man for crimes he did not
commit."
Cooper's case was on appeal from a U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals threejudge
panel decision denying his habeas corpus petition. At least eleven judges on the
Ninth Circuit voted in favor of giving Mr. Cooper a further hearing on his claims of
innocence and evidence-tampering, noting that "a full and fair evidentiary hearing
would have given us confidence that Cooper received his due opportunity to prove the
innocence he has insisted upon since his arrest." An unprecedented 103-page dissent
signed by five of those judges warned that "the State of California may be about to
execute an innocent man."
Cooper's habeas petition was based on new evidence that his attorneys and
investigators discovered while working at the Northern California Innocence Project's
request. In the 103-page dissent pleading for a fair hearing for Mr. Cooper, the appellate judges identified multiple instances of police and prosecutorial misconduct, including:
--False testimony- Josh Ryen, the only eyewitness to the murders and the
victims' 8-year old son, initially told the police that three white men killed
his family. According to the dissent, after the police arrested Cooper, who
is black, "[d]eputies misrepresented [Josh's] recollections and gradually
shaped his testimony so that it was consistent with the prosecution's
theory that there was only one killer."
--Destruction of evidence and lying at trial- A witness told the police that
her boyfriend, a white supremacist gang member and convicted murderer,
came to her house covered in blood on the night of the murders. She
turned a pair of his blood-spattered coveralls over to the sheriff as
evidence. The sheriff discarded the coveralls without testing the blood
stains and did not tell Cooper's defense lawyer about this evidence until
the middle of his preliminary hearing. This witness is now dead and
unable to testify to Cooper's innocence. At trial, the sheriff's deputy who
discarded the coveralls testified he did so without sheriff-department
approval, testimony that has recently been shown to be a lie. As the five
federal judges wrote, "a responsible officer . . . deliberately destroyed
material evidence that should have been provided to Cooper."
--Undisclosed exculpatory evidence: The prosecution retrieved a blue
shirt with blood on it near the crime scene a few days after the crimes but
never disclosed this to Cooper's defense. "The prosecution committed a .
. . violation by not making the blue shirt available to Cooper's attorneys."
What's worse, "the prosecution committed a . . . violation in not turning
over a copy of the [sheriff's] daily logs that recorded the discovery of the
blue shirt."
--Planting false evidence- Prosecution lab tests of a second bloody shirt
showed "an extremely high level of EDTA in the sample that was
supposed to contain Cooper's blood." According to five federal judges,
"[i]f that test result was valid, it showed that Cooper's blood had been
planted on the t-shirt, just as Cooper maintained."
--Falsified lab reports- A drop of blood was taken from the crime scene,
labeled "A-41," and tested by police criminologist Daniel Gregonis.
According to five federal judges, "[w]hen the results of Gregonis's tests
on A-41 were initially inconsistent with . . . a known sample of Cooper's
blood, Gregonis altered his lab notes and claimed that he had
misrepresented his results."
--Presenting false evidence- Trying to tie Cooper to the crime scene,
prosecutors presented evidence that has now been shown to be false: that
only prison-issue shoes could have made footprints at the crime scene. As
five federal judges found, these shoes "were, contrary to testimony at trial,
available (though not in large quantities) at retail stores in the United
States."
Despite these constitutional violations which have prevented Cooper from ever
receiving a fair hearing, Cooper now faces execution. Hile called on U.S. Attorney
General Eric Holder to investigate Cooper's case and the local prosecutorial and police
misconduct. "Multiple witnesses have provided testimony suggesting that the police
planted evidence against Kevin Cooper and destroyed evidence that demonstrated his
innocence, and that local prosecutors violated Kevin Cooper's Constitutional rights," Mr. Hile said. "We need a federal investigation to get to the bottom of this and stop the killing of an innocent man."
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The People Speak
Premiering Sunday December 13, 8/7c -- the History Channel
DEMOCRACY IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT\Democracy is not a spectator sport. Using dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries and speeches of everyday Americans, THE PEOPLE SPEAK gives voice to those who spoke up for social change throughout U.S. history, forging a nation from the bottom up with their insistence on equality and justice. Narrated by Howard Zinn and based on his best-selling books, A People's History of the United States and Voices of a People's History, THE PEOPLE SPEAK illustrates the relevance of these passionate historical moments to our society today and reminds us never to take liberty for granted.
http://www.history.com/content/people-speak
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YOU HAVE ANOTHER CHANCE TO SEE THIS IMPORTANT FILM!
"The End of Poverty?" -- THIS FILM WILL NOW RUN THROUGH DECEMBER 17
4-Star Theatre
2200 Clement Street
San Francisco, CA 94121
(415) 666-3488
http://www.hkinsf.com/4star/
Showtimes: 12:25 2:25 4:25 6:25 8:25
Democracy Now Interview with Filmmaker Philippe Diaz
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/10/filmmaker_philippe_diaz_on_the_end
The film opens in San Francisco on December 4 at the 4-Star Theatre on Clement Street.
http://www.theendofpoverty.com/
Watch the Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRZnEBFYNS0
BUY TICKETS HERE:
http://www.movietickets.com/house_detail.asp?house_id=1118&rdate=12%2F4%2F2009
Also in coming to theatres in Los Angeles , Irvine , Seattle , Portland , Austin and Atlanta with more cities to follow - for details, visit http://www.theendofpoverty.com
Read reviews:
Louis Proyect's: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/the-end-of-poverty/
Andrew Schenker @ Village Voice: http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-11-10/film/the-end-of-poverty-maps-post-colonial-injustice/
Andrew O' Hehir@ Salon.com: http://www.salon.com/entertainment/the_end_of_poverty/index.html?story=/ent/movies/btm/feature/2009/11/13/poverty
Find us on:
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/endpovertymovie
Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/endpovertymovie
Social Network - http://www.endpoverty.ning.com
Join our mailing list: http:/Re/www.cinemalibrestudio.com/mailinglist/
Please help us spread the word about this important and powerful film. We are a small, independent distribution company dedicated to social issue films.
Thank you,
The Cinema Libre Studio team
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NEXT MARCH 20 COALITION MEETING:
SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 2010, 2:00 P.M.
CENTRO DEL PUEBLO
474 VALENCIA STREET
(Between 16th and 15th Streets, SF)
The first meeting was held Wednesday, December 9 at 7:00 P.M. It was a broad, democratically run meeting with over 40 people in attendance from many different groups and organizations as well as individuals.
There was an atmosphere of renewed energy and resolve to build as large a demonstration as possible to mark the seventh year of "Shock and Awe" against the people of Iraq. It was especially poignant on the eve of Obama's Orwellian "war is for peace" Nobel speech.
We are encouraging all groups, organizations and individuals to join with us to demand an immediate end of these wars and to demand that the trillions spent on war be used for jobs, housing, healthcare, education for all!
Obama, in his Nobel remarks, points out his intentions to escalate his "wars for peace" wherever the U.S. empire desires to go.
As many pointed out at the first coalition meeting on Wednesday night, the financial, physical and emotional burden for these wars falls on working people across the globe in the broadest war plan ever devised by any empire!
The honeymoon is over! These are Obama's wars and we must organize massively against them.
Please plan on attending the next March 20, 2010 coalition meeting so we can organize broad outreach in our communities and make March 20, 2010 a powerful statement of opposition to the wars and for a world of equality, peace and justice for all.
For more information call: 415-821-6545
In solidarity,
Bonnie Weinstein, bauaw.org
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U.S. OUT OF IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN NOW!
FREE PALESTINE!
San Francisco March and Rally
on Saturday, March 20, 2010
11am, Civic Center Plaza
National March on Washington
on Saturday, March 20, 2010
Fri., March 19 Day of Action & Outreach in D.C.
People from all over the country are organizing to converge on Washington, D.C., to demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan and Iraq.
On Saturday, March 20, 2010, there will be a massive National March & Rally in D.C. A day of action and outreach in Washington, D.C., will take place on Friday, March 19, preceding the Saturday march.
There will be coinciding mass marches on March 20 in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The national actions are initiated by a large number of organizations and prominent individuals. (see below)
Click here to become an endorser:
http://answer.pephost.org/site/Survey?SURVEY_ID=5940&ACTION_REQUIRED=URI_ACTION_USER_REQUESTS&autologin=true&link=endorse-body-1
Click here to make a donation:
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Donation?ACTION=SHOW_DONATION_OPTIONS&CAMPAIGN_ID=2302&autologin=true&donate=body-1&JServSessionIdr002=2yzk5fh8x2.app13b
We will march together to say "No Colonial-type Wars and Occupations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine!" We will march together to say "No War Against Iran!" We will march together to say "No War for Empire Anywhere!"
Instead of war, we will demand funds so that every person can have a job, free and universal health care, decent schools, and affordable housing.
March 20 is the seventh anniversary of the criminal war of aggression launched by Bush and Cheney against Iraq. One million or more Iraqis have died. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops have lost their lives or been maimed, and continue to suffer a whole host of enduring problems from this terrible war.
This is the time for united action. The slogans on banners may differ, but all those who carry them should be marching shoulder to shoulder.
Killing and dying to avoid the perception of defeat
Bush is gone, but the war and occupation in Iraq still go on. The Pentagon is demanding a widening of the war in Afghanistan. They project an endless war with shifting battlefields. And a "single-payer" war budget that only grows larger and larger each year. We must act.
Both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were predicated on the imperial fantasy that the U.S. could create stable, proxy colonial-type governments in both countries. They were to serve as an extension of "American" power in these strategic and resource-rich regions.
That fantasy has been destroyed. Now U.S. troops are being sent to kill or be killed so that the politicians in uniform ("the generals and admirals") and those in three-piece suits ("our elected officials") can avoid taking responsibility for a military setback in wars that should have never been started. Their military ambitions are now reduced to avoiding the appearance of defeat.
That is exactly what happened in Vietnam! Avoiding defeat, or the perception of defeat, was the goal Nixon and Kissinger set for themselves when they took office in 1969. For this noble cause, another 30,000 young GIs perished before the inevitable troop pullout from Vietnam in 1973. The number of Vietnamese killed between 1969 and 1973 was greater by many hundreds of thousands.
All of us can make the difference - progress and change comes from the streets and from the grassroots.
The people went to the polls in 2008, and the enthusiasm and desire for change after eight years of the Bush regime was the dominant cause that led to election of a big Democratic Party majority in both Houses of Congress and the election of Barack Obama to the White House.
But it should now be obvious to all that waiting for politicians to bring real change - on any front - is simply a prescription for passivity by progressives and an invitation to the array of corporate interests from military contractors to the banks, to big oil, to the health insurance giants that dominate the political life of the country. These corporate interests work around the clock to frustrate efforts for real change, and they are the guiding hand behind the recent street mobilizations of the ultra-right.
It is up to us to act. If people had waited for politicians to do the right thing, there would have never been a Civil Rights Act, or unions, women's rights, an end to the Vietnam war or any of the profound social achievements and basic rights that people cherish.
It is time to be back in the streets. Organizing centers are being set up in cities and towns throughout the country.
We must raise $50,000 immediately just to get started. Please make your contribution today. We need to reserve buses, which are expensive ($1,800 from NYC, $5,000 from Chicago, etc.). We have to print 100,000 leaflets, posters and stickers. There will be other substantial expenses as March 20 draws closer.
Please become an endorser and active supporter of the March 20 National March on Washington.
Please make an urgently needed tax-deductible donation today. We can't do this without your active support.
The initiators of the March 20 National March on Washington (preceded by the March 19 Day of Action and Outreach in D.C.) include: the ANSWER Coalition; Muslim American Society Freedom; National Council of Arab Americans; Cynthia McKinney; Malik Rahim, co-founder of Common Ground Collective; Ramsey Clark; Cindy Sheehan; Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK; Deborah Sweet, Director, World Can't Wait; Mike Ferner, President, Veterans for Peace; Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition; Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild; Ron Kovic, author of "Born on the 4th of July"; Juan Jose Gutierrez, Director, Latino Movement USA; Col. Ann Wright (ret.); March Forward!; Partnership for Civil Justice; Palestinian American Women Association; Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines; Alliance for Global Justice; Claudia de la Cruz, Pastor, Iglesia San Romero de Las Americas-UCC; Phil Portluck, Social Justice Ministry, Covenant Baptist Church, D.C.; Blase & Theresa Bonpane, Office of the Americas; Coalition for Peace and Democracy in Honduras; Comite Pro-Democracia en Mexico; Frente Unido de los Pueblos Americanos; Comites de Base FMLN, Los Angeles; Free Palestine Alliance; GABRIELA Network; Justice for Filipino American Veterans; KmB Pro-People Youth; Students Fight Back; Jim Lafferty, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild - LA Chapter; LEF Foundation; National Coalition to Free the Angola 3; Community Futures Collective; Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival; Companeros del Barrio; Barrio Unido for Full and Unconditional Amnesty, Bay Area United Against War.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.answercoalition.org/
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-265-1948
New York City: 212-694-8720
Los Angeles: 213-251-1025
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
Chicago: 773-463-0311
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The US Social Forum II
• June 22-26, 2010 •
Detroit, Michigan, USA
Another World Is Possible! Another US is Necessary!
http://www.ussf2010.org/
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B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
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----- Forwarded Message ----
From: MOOS-Bay
To: Counter Recruitment Events
Sent: Mon, December 7, 2009 2:58:53 PM
Subject: [events] Youth Mini Grants, Online Petition, Discount CR Brochures
CR Brochures Available for Cut Rates!
Full Picture recently purchased a large quantity of the brochure, "What Every Girl Should Know About the U.S. Military," which was produced jointly by the War Resisters League and the Women of Color Resource Center. A copy of the brochure can be seen online at http://coloredgirls.live.radicaldesigns.org/downloads/What%20Every%20Girl%20Should%20Know.pdf.
Our network of counter-recruiting organizations and activists will probably not be able to distribute all of them in the near future. We'd like to see them get out to the youth who need them, and -- if necessary -- are willing to sell them at "a loss" to other counter-recruiters who'll be able to reach youth that we cannot. We paid 11.6 cents each, including shipping, which is significantly less than what you'd pay when buying small quantities. If you can make use of some, let us know how many and how much, if anything, you're able to pay. Please remember that we'll have to incur additional costs to ship them to you unless you're able to pick them up at the AFSC office in San Francisco, where we have them stored.
Kevin Casey, Full Picture Core Group, (510) 289-2621 kevinkevin-c-is@sbcglobal.net
Support Oakland Youth: Online Petition--Pass the Word!
The BAY-Peace Youth Manifesto is on it's home stretch to win stronger policies to protect Oakland high school students against aggressive military recruiting. Please help us reach our goal of 2000 signatures to deliver to the Oakland School Board. Sign the Youth Manifesto today and forward this link to your contacts to sign our online petition: http://www.baypeace.org
Mini-Grants for High School Counter Recruitment Projects
If you are part of a high school student group that would like to do a counter recruitment project, you can apply for a grant of up to $500 to help you get your message out about non-military alternatives for youth, aggressive military recruiting in our schools and resisting war.
Bay Area high school students are encouraged to apply. The deadline is the last day of each month, and the funds will be distributed quickly to qualified applicants, so don't wait to apply! For info contact: moos-bay@riseup.net
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Lynne Stewart Update and Letter from Lynne from behind bars
On Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 a status conference was held before Judge Koeltl to discuss the procedures concerning Lynne's re-sentencing.
The conference was held in a larger courtroom to accommodate all the people who came to support Lynne. Lynne was represented by Elizabeth Fink, Joshua Dratel and Jill Shellow. Although the "Mandate" (formal Order) hasn't issued yet from the 2nd Circuit, the question raised by the Judge was whether the resentencing should be de novo (which means that the Judge would throw out all the reasoning that went in to his previous sentence and start from scratch) or simply a clarification and update of the sentencing he already gave Lynne of 28 months.
The Judge outlined a schedule; the update of the Presentence Report by the U.S. Probation Dept. is due on February 5, 2010, any objections to that report are to be submitted by February 19, 2009 and the defense and government submission addressing the resentencing of Lynne by March 12th. Replies by March 29th. The formal sentencing is now set for April 22 at 4:30 p.m.
This is a time for the Lynne Stewart Defense committee to be alarmed and very concerned for Lynne. Lynne is a 70 year old woman and any additional significant time could mean that she could die in prison. No harm was caused to anyone by her actions. Lynne's life work as cited by the Judge in his previous sentencing stand as a testimony to her good intentions. Notwithstanding the verdict, Lynne Stewart had absolutely no terroristic intentions or political harmony with her client Sheik Rahman.
The judge said that if there are any letters regarding this new sentencing they will only be considered if they submitted by counsel. We know that people are anxious to do something for Lynne and this is one thing you can do and you have the time to write a thoughtful letter that we believe the Judge will read and take into consideration. For now you can send your letters to the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee, 350 Broadway, Suite 700, New York, NY 10013. Address the letter to: Honorable John G. Koeltl, United States District Judge, Southern District of New York, 500 Pearl Street, New York, NY 10007 - BUT MAIL TO LSDC not directly to the Judge. We will accumulate the letters for the attorneys who will then submit them to the Judge.
The issue of Lynne's health has been on all our minds. This is the situation to date: She has been receiving her medication. Her blood pressure has been extremely high. Initially the medical department of MCC/NY had suggested cutting Lynne's prescription for high blood pressure medicine in half but since Lynne's blood pressures was so high it is being monitored very closely. The main issue for Lynne right now is that surgery for a bladder problem had already scheduled before the 2nd Circuit decision and her consequent incarceration. Now it appears that she will undergo surgery for this condition which is not life threatening but increasingly uncomfortable for Lynne in the near future at a metropolitan New York hospital.
In the near future we will be working with others to plan a public event, and working in cooperation with others to fight for Lynne Stewart's sentence to remain 28 months. I will be sending out further notices of events and updates on Lynne's situation as news becomes available. Meanwhile you can write to Lynne Stewart, Reg. # 53504-054, MCC/NY, 150 Park Row, New York, NY 10007. Do not send stamps, this mail will be treated as contraband and discarded by the prison. Do not send anything that needs to be signed for. Lynne has been given a subscription to the New York Times and the New Yorker. If you would like to subscribe Lynne to a publication please drop us a line first (email info@lynnestewart.org ) just to make sure that you are not duplicating someone else's contribution.
Photos are okay, cards postcards and letters. All mail is opened and read. Commissary can be sent to Lynne via Western Union using the registration number and address either via the internet or at a Western Union location. Thank you for your support for Lynne it means the world to her.
Pat Levasseur, Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
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Letter from Lynne Stewart
Dear Sisters and Brothers, Friends and Supporters:
Well the moment we all hoped would never come is upon us. Good bye to a good cup of coffee in the morning, a soft chair, the hugs of grandchildren and the smaller pleasures in life. I must say I am being treated well and that is due to my lawyer team and your overwhelming support.
While I have received "celebrity" treatment here in MCC - high visibility - conditions for the other women are deplorable. Medical care, food, education, recreation are all at minimal levels. If it weren't for the unqualified bonds of sisterhood and the commissary it would be even more dismal.
My fellow prisoners have supplied me with books and crosswords, a warm (it is cold in here most of the time) sweat shirt and pants, treats from the commissary, and of course, jailhouse humor. Most important many of them know of my work and have a deep reservoir of can I say it? Respect.
I continue to both answer the questions put to me by them, I also can't resist commenting on the T.V. news or what is happening on the floor - a little LS politics always! (Smile) to open hearts and minds!
Liz Fink, my lawyer leader, believes I will be here at MCC-NY for a while - perhaps a year before being moved to prison. Being is jail is like suddenly inhabiting a parallel universe but at least I have the luxury of time to read! Tomorrow I will get my commissary order which may include an AM/FM Radio and be restored to WBAI and music (classical and jazz).
We are campaigning to get the bladder operation (scheduled before I came in to MCC) to happen here in New York City. Please be alert to the website I case I need some outside support.
I want to say that the show of support outside the Courthouse on Thursday as I was "transported" is so cherished by me. The broad organizational representation was breathtaking and the love and politics expressed (the anger too) will keep me nourished through this.
Organize - Agitate, Agitate, Agitate! And write to me and others locked down by the Evil Empire.
Love Struggle, Lynne Stewart
FREE LYNNE STEWART NOW!
Lynne Stewart in Jail!
For further information contact: Jeff Mackler, Coordinator, West Coast Lynne Stewart Defense Committee 510-268-9429 jmackler@lmi.net
Mail tax free contributions payable to National Lawyers Guild Foundation. Write in memo box: "Lynne Stewart Defense." Mail to: Lynne Stewart Defense, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610.
SEND RESOLUTIONS AND STATEMENTS OF SUPPORT TO DEFENSE ATTORNEY JOSHUA L. DRATEL, ESQ. FAX: (212) 571 3792 AND EMAIL: jdratel@aol.com
SEND PROTESTS TO ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER:
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Department of Justice Main Switchboard - 202-514-2000
AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
Office of the Attorney General Public Comment Line - 202-353-1555
To send Lynne a letter, write:
Lynne Stewart
53504-054
MCC-NY
150 Park Row
New York, NY NY 10007
Lynne Stewart speaks in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOQ5_VKRf5k&feature=related
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The trial of Johannes Mehserle, killer of unarmed Oscar Grant, has been moved to Los Angeles.
In the case of an innocent verdict, folks are encouraged to head to Oakland City Hall ASAP to express our outrage in a massive and peaceful way! Our power is in our numbers! Oscar Grant's family and friends need our support!
For more information:
Contact BAMN at 510-502-9072
letters@bamn.com
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With a New Smile, 'Rage' Fades Away [SINGLE PAYER NOW!!!]
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/12/08/health/20091208_Clinic/index.html?ref=us
FTA [F**k The Army] Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HlkgPCgU7g
Jon Stewart: Obama Is Channeling Bush (VIDEO)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/03/jon-stewart-obama-is-chan_n_378283.html
US anti-war activists protest
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/12/200912283650408132.html
Buffy Sainte Marie - No No Keshagesh
[Keshagesh is the Cree word to describe a greedy puppy that wants to keep eating everything, a metaphor for corporate greed]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKmAb1gNN74&feature=player_embedded#
Buffy Sainte-Marie - No No Keshagesh lyrics:
http://www.lyricsmode.com/?i=print_lyrics&id=705368
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The Tar Sands Blow
Hi -
I just signed the Tar Sands Blow petition -- and I hope you'll do the same.
The Canadian tar sands produce the dirtiest oil on earth -- including five times the greenhouse gases of conventional oil. World leaders meet next month in Copenhagen to deal with climate change. Sign the petition -- so that we all don't get a raw deal.
http://ien.thetarsandsblow.org/
The Story of Mouseland: As told by Tommy Douglas in 1944
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqgOvzUeiAA
The Communist Manifesto illustrated by Cartoons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KUl4yfABE4
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Holiday gifts from Courage to Resist
www.couragetoresist.org/orders
Free and fast 2-3 day priority shipping!*
Please place your order this week to ensure holiday delivery.
Support mom still facing Afghanistan deployment, court martial
By Jeff Paterson, Courage to Resist. November 16, 2009
"I currently don't have a family care plan, but they told me they did not
care and for me to get ready to go to Afghanistan," explained Oakland,
California native Spc. Alexis Hutchinson, a 21-year-old soldier based at
Hunter Army Airfield outside of Savannah, Georgia.
As I spoke to Alexis on the phone, I believed if I found her a civilian
lawyer to work with the military, a reasonable resolution would be quickly
found. Unlike most service members Courage to Resist assists, Alexis was not
refusing to deploy. She was not looking to speak out against war. She was
simply asking for more time to find someone to care for her 11-month old son
Kamani. Within a few days, however, the Army had tossed Alexis in the
stockade and turned Kamani over to the Chatham County (Georgia) foster care
system.
Read more...
http://couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/792/1/
Please make a tax-deductible donation to Alexis' legal and family support
fund.
http://couragetoresist.org/alexis
Details:
Courage to Resist Urgent Action Alert
Army sends infant to protective services, mom to Afghanistan this weekend
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/789/1/
Army has mom, Alexis Hutchinson, arrested and 11-month old son put into county foster care system. Alexis has now been ordered to deploy to Afghanistan on Sunday, November 15, where she will be court martialed.
Action Alert: Contact Congresswoman Barbara Lee to urge her to "Request that the Army not deploy Alexis Hutchinson to Afghanistan so that she can care for her son." From the 9th District (Oakland-Berkeley, CA) phone: 510-763-0370 (fax: 510-763-6538). Nationwide: 202- 225-2661 (fax: 202-225-9817).
Donate to Alexis' legal and family support fund (couragetoresist.org/alexis)
Alexis' attorney now available for media interviews.
By friends of Alexis and Courage to Resist. November 12, 2009
Also in the news:
Army Sends Infant to Protective Services, Mom to Afghanistan
by Dahr Jamail, Inter Press Service. November 13, 2009
Online version with possible updates
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/789/1/
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VIDEO INTERVIEW: Dan Berger on Political Prisoners in the United States
By Angola 3 News
Angola 3 News
37 years ago in Louisiana, 3 young black men were silenced for trying to expose continued segregation, systematic corruption, and horrific abuse in the biggest prison in the US, an 18,000-acre former slave plantation called Angola. In 1972 and 1973 prison officials charged Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox, and Robert King with murders they did not commit and threw them into 6x9 ft. cells in solitary confinement, for over 36 years. Robert was freed in 2001, but Herman and Albert remain behind bars.
http://angola3news.blogspot.com/2009/09/video-dan-berger-on-political-prisoners.html
Taking Aim Radio Program with
Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone
The Chimera of Capitalist Recovery, Parts 1 and 2
http://www.takingaimradio.com/shows/audio.html
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JROTC MUST GO!
The San Francisco Board of Education has re-installed the Junior Reserve Officer's Training Corps in San Francisco schools -- including allowing it to count for Physical Education credits.
This is a complete reversal of the 2006 decision to end JROTC altogether in San Francisco public schools. Our children need a good physical education program, not a death education program!
With the economy in crisis; jobs and higher education for youth more unattainable; the lure, lies and false promises of military recruiters is driving more and more of our children into the military trap.
This is an economic draft and the San Francisco Board of Education is helping to snare our children to provide cannon fodder for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and for over 700 U.S. military bases around the world!
We can't depend upon "friendly politicians" who, while they are campaigning for office claim they are against the wars but when they get elected vote in favor of military recruitment--the economic draft--in our schools. We can't depend upon them. That has been proven beyond doubt!
It is up to all of us to come together to stop this NOW!
GET JROTC AND ALL MILITARY RECRUITERS OUT OF OUR SCHOOLS NOW!
Write, call, pester and ORGANIZE against the re-institution of JROTC in our San Francisco public schools NOW!
In solidarity,
Bonnie Weinstein
Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
San Francisco Board of Education
555 Franklin Street, 1st Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
415/241-6427, (415) 241-6493
cascoe@sfusd.edu
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HELP VFP PUT THIS BOOK IN YOUR HIGH SCHOOL OR PUBLIC LIBRARY
For a donation of only $18.95, we can put a copy of the book "10 Excellent Reasons Not to Join the Military" into a public or high school library of your choice. [Reason number 1: You may be killed]
A letter and bookplate will let readers know that your donation helped make this possible.
Putting a book in either a public or school library ensures that students, parents, and members of the community will have this valuable information when they need it.
Don't have a library you would like us to put it in? We'll find one for you!
https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/826/t/9311/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=4906
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This is a must-see video about the life of Oscar Grant, a young man who loved his family and was loved by his family. It's important to watch to understand the tremendous loss felt by his whole family as a result of his cold-blooded murder by BART police officers--Johannes Mehserle being the shooter while the others held Oscar down and handcuffed him to aid Mehserle in the murder of Oscar Grant January 1, 2009.
The family wants to share this video here with you who support justice for Oscar Grant.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/07/21/18611878.php
WE DEMAND JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT!
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Urgent: Ahmad Sa'adat transferred to isolation in Ramon prison!
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/
The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org
info@freeahmadsaadat.org
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Troy Anthony Davis is an African American man who has spent the last 18 years on death row for a murder he did not commit. There is no physical evidence tying him to the crime and seven out of nine witnesses have recanted. New evidence and new testimony have been presented to the Georgia courts, but the justice system refuses to consider this evidence, which would prove Troy Davis' innocence once and for all.
Sign the petition and join the NAACP, Amnesty International USA, and other partners in demanding justice for Troy Davis!
http://www.iamtroy.com/
For Now, High Court Punts on Troy Davis, on Death Row for 18 Years
By Ashby Jones
Wall Street Journal Law Blog
June 30, 2009
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/06/30/for-now-high-court-punts-on-troy-davis-on-death-row-for-18-years/
Take action now:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&aid=12361&ICID=A0906A01&tr=y&auid=5030305
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Committee To Save Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 2012
New York, NY 10159-2012
New videos from April 24 Oakland Mumia event
http://abu-jamal-news.com/article?name=jlboak
Donations for Mumia's Legal Defense in the U.S. Our legal effort is the front line of the battle for Mumia's freedom and life. His legal defense needs help. The costs are substantial for our litigation in the U.S. Supreme Court and at the state level. To help, please make your checks payable to the National Lawyers Guild Foundation (indicate "Mumia" on the bottom left). All donations are tax deductible under the Internal Revenue Code, section 501(c)(3), and should be mailed to:
It is outrageous and a violation of human rights that Mumia remains in prison and on death row. His life hangs in the balance. My career has been marked by successfully representing people facing death in murder cases. I will not rest until we win Mumia's case. Justice requires no less.
With best wishes,
Robert R. Bryan
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
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Short Video About Al-Awda's Work
The following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's work since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown on Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l Al-Awda Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected over the past nine years.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial support to carry out its work.
To submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the simple instructions.
Thank you for your generosity!
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KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT!
FLASHPOINTS Interview with Innocent San Quentin Death Row Inmate
Kevin Cooper -- Aired Monday, May 18,2009
http://www.flashpoints.net/#GOOGLE_SEARCH_ENGINE
To learn more about Kevin Cooper go to:
savekevincooper.org
LINKS
San Francisco Chronicle article on the recent ruling:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/13/BAM517J8T3.DTL
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling and dissent:
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/05/11/05-99004o.pdf
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COURAGE TO RESIST!
Support the troops who refuse to fight!
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/
Donate:
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/21/57/
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C. ARTICLES IN FULL
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1) Big Paydays for Rescuers in the Crisis
By ERIC DASH
December 7, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/business/global/07bank.html?ref=world
2) Deployments Taking Toll on Military's Children
By JAMES DAO
December 7, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/us/07study.html?ref=us
3) Millions in U.S. Drink Dirty Water, Records Show
By CHARLES DUHIGG
December 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/business/energy-environment/08water.html?hp
4) A Fearful Price
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
"Here's George Washington's view, for example: 'It must be laid down as a primary position and the basis of our system, that every citizen who enjoys the protection of a free government owes not only a proportion of his property, but even his personal service to the defense of it.'" [RE: Bob Herbert's ongoing rhetoric to re-instate the draft...bw]
December 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/opinion/08herbert.html
5) Rights Group Report Faults Mexican Army's Conduct in Drug War
By MARC LACEY
December 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/world/americas/08mexico.html?ref=world
6) U.S. Adds Drones to Fight Smuggling
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
December 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/us/08drone.html?ref=world
7) For 9/11 Cases, a Short List of Lawyers
By BENJAMIN WEISER
December 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/nyregion/08lawyers.html?ref=world
8) A Plea to Congress on Jobless Benefits
By ERIK ECKHOLM
December 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/us/08unemploy.html?ref=us
9) Board to Propose More Flexible Accounting Rules for Banks
By FLOYD NORRIS
December 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/business/08account.html?ref=us
10) Nine More Schools Will Be Closed
By SHARON OTTERMAN
December 8, 2009, 10:42 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/nine-more-schools-will-be-closed/
11) Consumer Credit Shrank Again in October, Setting a Record
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/business/economy/08econ.html?ref=business
12) Britain to Levy a One-Time Tax on Banker Bonuses
By LANDON THOMAS Jr.
December 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/business/global/10pound.html?hp
13) Afghan Says Army Will Need Help Until 2024
"The news conference came just hours after as many as a dozen people were killed during an allied raid in Laghman Province, Afghan officials said, prompting hundreds of villagers to march in protest."
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and ELISABETH BUMILLER
December 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/world/asia/09gates.html?ref=world
14) Florida: Court Reduces Cuban Spies' Sentences
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | South
December 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/us/09brfs-COURTREDUCES_BRF.html?ref=world
15) New Execution Method Is Used in Ohio
By IAN URBINA
December 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/us/09ohio.html?ref=us
16) Mortgage Relief Plan Shows Weak Results
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/business/09mortgage.html?ref=us
17) Prison Population Up, Despite Drop in 20 States
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/us/09prison.html?ref=us
18) Springsteen Says No to Christie and Yes to Same-Sex Marriage
By DIEGO RIBADENEIRA
December 9, 2009, 11:30 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/springsteen-says-no-to-christie-and-yes-to-same-sex-marriage/
19) Insurgents Oust Transit Union's Leaders
"A group of insurgent transit workers who ran in a recent union election on a platform of adopting a tougher negotiating stance with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has ousted the union's leadership." ["Insurgent transit workers?" What the hell is an "Insurgent transit worker?"...bw]
By RUSS BUETTNER
December 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/nyregion/09twu.html?ref=nyregion
20) Exxon and Partners Approve L.N.G. Project in Papua New Guinea
By BLOOMBERG NEWS
December 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/business/global/09lng.html?ref=business
21) Obama's Nobel Remarks
[You got to have war if you want peace! Silly! You got to read it to believe it!....bw]
Text
December 11, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/world/europe/11prexy.text.html
22) New U.S. Jobless Claims Rise, Trade Gap Narrows
By REUTERS
December 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/12/10/business/business-us-usa-economy.html
23) Judge Finds Pentagon in Contempt in Gitmo Case
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/12/10/us/politics/AP-US-Gitmo-Contempt.html
24) Poll Finds Slim Majority Back More Afghanistan Troops
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and DALIA SUSSMAN
December 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/world/asia/10poll.html?ref=world
25) Petraeus Warns of a Long and Expensive Mission in Afghanistan
By MARK LANDLER
December 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/world/asia/10policy.html?ref=world
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1) Big Paydays for Rescuers in the Crisis
By ERIC DASH
December 7, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/business/global/07bank.html?ref=world
The white knights that came to the rescue of banks during the financial crisis are going home, with their pockets full of bounty from their good deeds.
In less than two years, many of the biggest overseas government investment funds, known as sovereign wealth funds, have reaped huge gains from bailing out financial institutions, and in turn, the global financial system.
In the latest announcement, Kuwait's sovereign wealth fund said on Sunday that it had booked a $1.1 billion profit on the stake it took in Citigroup in January 2008. That equals a 37 percent annualized return on its initial $3 billion investment. Other sovereign wealth funds - including those backed by the governments of Singapore, Qatar and Abu Dhabi - have also recently cashed out stakes in foreign banks for comparably large gains.
The hefty returns highlight how some savvy government funds have been able to profit from the financial crisis, even as most ordinary investors have been pummeled by billions of dollars of losses. It also calls into question whether such funds will act as long-term investors, as many initially suggested, or merely short-term profiteers.
Many sovereign funds invested in the early days of the crisis as banks scrambled to find investors willing to plow in money and exacted lucrative terms. (Swings through Asia and the Middle East were so common that bankers coined the phrase "Shanghai, Mumbai, Dubai, Goodbye" to describe their fund-raising tours.)
But as financial stocks continued to plummet last year, the so-called smart money supplied by foreign governments no longer looked so sure. Now, as bank shares have rebounded faster than most analysts had projected and governments face internal political pressure at home, the funds are racing to lock in gains.
"They didn't panic into selling at the bottom of the market," said Mohamed El-Erian, chief of Pimco. "And now they can sell."
GIC, an investment arm of Singapore's government, said in September that it turned a $1.6 billion profit by selling about half of its stake in Citigroup.
In June, the International Petroleum Investment Company, which is wholly owned by the Abu Dhabi government, said it would sell a big part of its investment in the British bank Barclays, making a profit of roughly £2 billion on a £2 billion investment. In October, the Qatar sovereign wealth fund said it was selling a part of its stake in Barclays, also at a healthy profit.
Mr. El-Erian said data was limited on the specifics of how the big sovereign wealth funds have fared through the crisis. Norway, one of the few such funds that provides regular data and has invested in financial firms through its general financial investments, has reported that it is having a strong year.
The great unraveling by foreign governments may put additional pressure on the United States government to begin exiting its bank investments, too.
Bank of America said last week that it expected permission from regulators to soon repay the $45 billion in taxpayer money it received. Citigroup, in which the government holds $20 billion of preferred shares and nearly a 34 percent ownership stake, has made paying back the government a priority but has not reached a deal with the Treasury Department for repayment.
Of course, not every bank investment has been a winner. The China Investment Corporation saw its $3 billion investment in the Blackstone Group turn south, especially after the firm's initial public offering did not perform well.
Temasek Holdings, another sovereign wealth fund backed by the government of Singapore, replaced its leadership team and overhauled its investment strategy after big bets on Barclays and Merrill Lynch did not pan out. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority has had a similar experience with its early investment in Citigroup.
Still, the decision by the Kuwait Investment Authority to sell its stake in Citigroup came as somewhat of a surprise. It invested about $3 billion in Citigroup in January 2008 alongside other prominent investors, including Adia, the GIC, the New Jersey Division of Investment, and Citigroup's founder, Sanford I. Weill. Around the same time, the authority put $2 billion into Merrill Lynch, the troubled brokerage house taken over by Bank of America last year.
In September, the Kuwait Investment Authority said that it had no immediate plans to sell its investments in Citigroup or Bank of America because its financial strategy was based "on a long-term vision."
The government investment fund had agreed to convert its preferred shares of Citigroup into common stock. But on Sunday, it announced that it had sold that stake for about $4.1 billion, producing the $1.1 billion gain.
Citigroup's ordinary shareholders, however, have not fared as well during the last two years. The company's stock was trading above $25 a share in January 2008 when Kuwait took its stake; it is now trading at about $4 a share.
Graham Bowley contributed reporting.
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2) Deployments Taking Toll on Military's Children
By JAMES DAO
December 7, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/us/07study.html?ref=us
After eight years of war, children with parents in the military are reporting signs of emotional wear and tear from long and repeated deployments, a new study shows.
The study by the RAND Corporation found that children in military families were more likely to report anxiety than children in the general population. The researchers also found that the longer a parent had been deployed in the previous three years, the more likely their children were to have difficulties in school and at home.
Those difficulties included things like missing school activities, feeling that people did not understand their problems, having to take care of siblings and struggling to deal with parents returning from deployment.
The study, which was to be published Monday by the journal Pediatrics, is considered the largest on the subject, and was based on telephone interviews with nearly 1,500 children, ages 11 to 17, and their primary caregivers. It was commissioned by the National Military Family Association, a nonprofit support group.
Anita Chandra, the primary investigator, said she was surprised by the correlation between the months a parent was deployed and the problems reported by their children. "We thought the challenges of deployment would wane as the deployment went on," Ms. Chandra said in an interview.
Almost all of the families in the study, 95 percent, said a parent had deployed in the previous three years; those deployments lasted on average a total of 11 months.
The researchers found that children in families that lived on military bases tended to report fewer difficulties related to deployment than children who lived off post.
"Potentially, people living on post are more connected to support services," Ms. Chandra said, adding that 70 percent of military children live outside military bases.
The study also found that many families encountered difficulties adjusting to the return of a deployed parent, a period known as reintegration.
For instance, Ms. Chandra said, the researchers found that caregivers who worked were more likely to report that their children were having problems during reintegration than caregivers who did not work. The vast majority of those caregivers were women.
Ms. Chandra said it was possible that the strain of reintegration was compounded by the stress on the family of a nondeployed parent's job. But being employed is generally considered good for the mental health of a caregiver during deployment, she said.
The study found that girls tended to have more problems than boys during reintegration, and that older children struggled more during and after deployments than younger children. The researchers speculated that the pressure on girls and older children to assume household responsibilities might be one reason for the difference.
Ms. Chandra said the study suggested that the military should consider directing services to families during the later stages of long deployments, when more families report problems.
She said one potential shortcoming of the study was that its subjects were selected from applicants to a free camp sponsored by the National Military Family Association, called Operation Purple. She said it was possible that those families were not representative of the average military family.
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3) Millions in U.S. Drink Dirty Water, Records Show
By CHARLES DUHIGG
December 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/business/energy-environment/08water.html?hp
More than 20 percent of the nation's water treatment systems have violated key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act over the last five years, according to a New York Times analysis of federal data.
That law requires communities to deliver safe tap water to local residents. But since 2004, the water provided to more than 49 million people has contained illegal concentrations of chemicals like arsenic or radioactive substances like uranium, as well as dangerous bacteria often found in sewage.
Regulators were informed of each of those violations as they occurred. But regulatory records show that fewer than 6 percent of the water systems that broke the law were ever fined or punished by state or federal officials, including those at the Environmental Protection Agency, which has ultimate responsibility for enforcing standards.
Studies indicate that drinking water contaminants are linked to millions of instances of illness within the United States each year.
In some instances, drinking water violations were one-time events, and probably posed little risk. But for hundreds of other systems, illegal contamination persisted for years, records show.
On Tuesday, the Senate Environment and Public Works committee will question a high-ranking E.P.A. official about the agency's enforcement of drinking-water safety laws. The E.P.A. is expected to announce a new policy for how it polices the nation's 54,700 water systems.
"This administration has made it clear that clean water is a top priority," said an E.P.A. spokeswoman, Adora Andy, in response to questions regarding the agency's drinking water enforcement. The E.P.A. administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, this year announced a wide-ranging overhaul of enforcement of the Clean Water Act, which regulates pollution into waterways.
"The previous eight years provide a perfect example of what happens when political leadership fails to act to protect our health and the environment," Ms. Andy added.
Water pollution has become a growing concern for some lawmakers as government oversight of polluters has waned. Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, in 2007 asked the E.P.A. for data on Americans' exposure to some contaminants in drinking water.
The New York Times has compiled and analyzed millions of records from water systems and regulators around the nation, as part of a series of articles about worsening pollution in American waters, and regulators' response.
An analysis of E.P.A. data shows that Safe Drinking Water Act violations have occurred in parts of every state. In the prosperous town of Ramsey, N.J., for instance, drinking water tests since 2004 have detected illegal concentrations of arsenic, a carcinogen, and the dry cleaning solvent tetrachloroethylene, which has also been linked to cancer.
In New York state, 205 water systems have broken the law by delivering tap water that contained illegal amounts of bacteria since 2004.
However, almost none of those systems were ever punished. Ramsey was not fined for its water violations, for example, though a Ramsey official said that filtration systems have been installed since then. In New York, only three water systems were penalized for bacteria violations, according to federal data.
The problem, say current and former government officials, is that enforcing the Safe Drinking Water Act has not been a federal priority.
"There is significant reluctance within the E.P.A. and Justice Department to bring actions against municipalities, because there's a view that they are often cash-strapped, and fines would ultimately be paid by local taxpayers," said David Uhlmann, who headed the environmental crimes division at the Justice Department until 2007.
"But some systems won't come into compliance unless they are forced to," added Mr. Uhlmann, who now teaches at the University of Michigan law school. "And sometimes a court order is the only way to get local governments to spend what is needed."
A half-dozen current and former E.P.A. officials said in interviews that they tried to prod the agency to enforce the drinking-water law, but found little support.
"I proposed drinking water cases, but they got shut down so fast that I've pretty much stopped even looking at the violations," said one longtime E.P.A. enforcement official who, like others, requested anonymity for fear of reprisals. "The top people want big headlines and million-dollar settlements. That's not drinking-water cases."
The majority of drinking water violations since 2004 have occurred at water systems serving fewer than 20,000 residents, where resources and managerial expertise are often in short supply.
It is unclear precisely how many American illnesses are linked to contaminated drinking water. Many of the most dangerous contaminants regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act have been tied to diseases like cancer that can take years to develop.
But scientific research indicates that as many as 19 million Americans may become ill each year due to just the parasites, viruses and bacteria in drinking water. Certain types of cancer - such as breast and prostate cancer - have risen over the past 30 years, and research indicates they are likely tied to pollutants like those found in drinking water.
The violations counted by the Times analysis include only situations where residents were exposed to dangerous contaminants, and exclude violations that involved paperwork or other minor problems.
In response to inquiries submitted by Senator Boxer, the E.P.A. has reported that more than three million Americans have been exposed since 2005 to drinking water with illegal concentrations of arsenic and radioactive elements, both of which have been linked to cancer at small doses.
In some areas, the amount of radium detected in drinking water was 2,000 percent higher than the legal limit, according to E.P.A. data.
But federal regulators fined or punished fewer than 8 percent of water systems that violated the arsenic and radioactive standards. The E.P.A., in a statement, said that in a majority of situations, state regulators used informal methods - like providing technical assistance - to help systems that had violated the rules.
But many systems remained out of compliance, even after aid was offered, according to E.P.A. data. And for over a quarter of systems that violated the arsenic or radioactivity standards, there is no record that they were ever contacted by a regulator, even after they sent in paperwork revealing their violations.
Those figures are particularly worrisome, say researchers, because the Safe Drinking Water Act's limits on arsenic are so weak to begin with. A system could deliver tap water that puts residents at a 1-in-600 risk of developing bladder cancer from arsenic, and still comply with the law.
Despite the expected announcement of reforms, some mid-level E.P.A. regulators say they are skeptical that any change will occur.
"The same people who told us to ignore Safe Drinking Water Act violations are still running the divisions," said one mid-level E.P.A. official. "There's no accountability, and so nothing's going to change."
Griffin Palmer contributed reporting.
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4) A Fearful Price
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
"Here's George Washington's view, for example: 'It must be laid down as a primary position and the basis of our system, that every citizen who enjoys the protection of a free government owes not only a proportion of his property, but even his personal service to the defense of it.'" [RE: Bob Herbert's ongoing rhetoric to re-instate the draft...bw]
December 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/opinion/08herbert.html
I spoke recently with a student at Columbia who was enthusiastic about the escalation of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. He argued that a full-blown counterinsurgency effort, which would likely take many years and cost many lives, was the only way to truly win the war.
He was a very bright young man: thoughtful and eager and polite. I asked him if he had any plans to join the military and help make this grand mission a success. He said no.
There was an article in The Times on Monday about a new study showing that the eight years of warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan were taking an emotional toll on the children of service members and that the difficulties increased the longer parents were deployed.
There is no way that the findings of this study should be a surprise to anyone. It just confirms that the children of those being sent into combat are among that tiny percentage of the population that is unfairly shouldering the entire burden of these wars.
The idea that fewer than 1 percent of Americans are being called on to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq and that we're sending them into combat again and again and again - for three tours, four tours, five tours, six tours - is obscene. All decent people should object.
We already knew that in addition to the many thousands who have been killed or physically wounded, hundreds of thousands have returned with very serious psychological wounds: deep depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and so on. Other problems are also widespread: alcohol and drug abuse, family strife, homelessness.
The new study, by the RAND Corporation, was published in the journal Pediatrics. The children surveyed were found to have higher levels of emotional difficulties than their peers in the general population.
According to the study:
"Older youth and girls of all ages reported significantly more school, family and peer-related difficulties with parental deployment. Length of parental deployment and poorer non-deployed caregiver mental health were significantly associated with a greater number of challenges for children, both during deployment and deployed parent reintegration."
The air is filled with obsessive self-satisfied rhetoric about supporting the troops, giving them everything they need and not letting them down. But that rhetoric is as hollow as a jazzman's drum because the overwhelming majority of Americans have no desire at all to share in the sacrifices that the service members and their families are making. Most Americans do not want to serve in the wars, do not want to give up their precious time to do volunteer work that would aid the nation's warriors and their families, do not even want to fork over the taxes that are needed to pay for the wars.
To say that this is a national disgrace is to wallow in the shallowest understatement. The nation will always give lip-service to support for the troops, but for the most part Americans do not really care about the men and women we so blithely ship off to war, and the families they leave behind.
The National Military Family Association, which commissioned the RAND study, has poignant comments from the children of military personnel on its Web site.
You can tell immediately how much more real the wars are to those youngsters than to most Americans:
"I hope it's not him on the news getting hurt."
"Most of my grades dropped because I was thinking about my dad, because my dad's more important than school."
"Mom will be in her room and we hear her crying."
The reason it is so easy for the U.S. to declare wars, and to continue fighting year after year after year, is because so few Americans feel the actual pain of those wars. We've been fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan longer than we fought in World Wars I and II combined. If voters had to choose right now between instituting a draft or exiting Afghanistan and Iraq, the troops would be out of those two countries in a heartbeat.
I don't think our current way of waging war, which is pretty easy-breezy for most citizens, is what the architects of America had in mind. Here's George Washington's view, for example: "It must be laid down as a primary position and the basis of our system, that every citizen who enjoys the protection of a free government owes not only a proportion of his property, but even his personal service to the defense of it."
What we are doing is indefensible and will ultimately exact a fearful price, and there will be absolutely no way for the U.S. to avoid paying it.
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5) Rights Group Report Faults Mexican Army's Conduct in Drug War
By MARC LACEY
December 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/world/americas/08mexico.html?ref=world
CULIACÁN, Mexico - The steady drumbeat of complaints against Mexico's army is expected to continue Tuesday, when Amnesty International is scheduled to release a report raising allegations of extrajudicial killings, torture and arbitrary detentions against soldiers engaged in the nation's drug war.
The report, which meshes with earlier examinations by Human Rights Watch and Mexican human rights groups, accuses soldiers of torturing 25 police officers in Tijuana in March to coerce them to confess to links to organized crime. It says a man arrested by soldiers in October 2008 in Ciudad Juárez was found dead of a cerebral hemorrhage. It says two brothers from Ciudad Juárez were led away from soldiers the next month and never seen again.
In only one of the five cases raised by Amnesty did the army acknowledge some responsibility. It involved the deaths of three men detained by the army in Nuevo Laredo in March. The Ministry of Defense has detained 12 soldiers and charged them in connection with the men's disappearance and deaths.
"Amnesty International recognizes the serious challenge to public security facing the Mexican government and its responsibility to protect the population and integrity of state institutions," the report says. "The organization understands that law enforcement duties in such situations are difficult and dangerous for those charged with improving public security conditions. Nevertheless, crime cannot be fought with crime."
The State Department in August issued a report saying that accusations of army abuses had risen sixfold in the two years since President Felipe Calderón's offensive against drug cartels began in 2006. The report, however, concluded that Mexico was taking measures to address the problem and that American counternarcotics assistance should not be held back as a result of the allegations.
"All in all, what we've been trying to do is approach this in a constructive way, not get into a judgmental and finger-pointing mode," Carlos Pascual, the American ambassador to Mexico, said in an interview.
He said bilateral initiatives were under way to address the issue, including meetings between American military lawyers and their Mexican counterparts.
In August, Mr. Calderón said that the government was engaged in a "scrupulous effort to protect human rights" and that he knew of not "a single case" in which authorities did not respond to allegations against the military.
The American government has complained that the opaque nature of Mexico's military justice system makes it difficult to know whether the Ministry of Defense is taking accusations against soldiers seriously.
"It's been extremely difficult to get a consistent and transparent response from the military," Mr. Pascual said. "It's extraordinarily difficult to have a sense of how big the problem may be and where there may be false allegations and where there may be real ones."
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6) U.S. Adds Drones to Fight Smuggling
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
December 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/us/08drone.html?ref=world
PALMDALE, Calif. - To help spot and track smugglers, the Homeland Security Department is expanding its use of drones, the unmanned aircraft widely used in Iraq and other war zones, beyond the Mexican and Canadian borders to the Caribbean and possibly other seas.
The department, through its Customs and Border Protection division, already operates five of the aircraft, known as the Predator B, along the Southwest border from a base in Arizona and the Canadian border from an installation in North Dakota.
Like the drones used by the military, these drones can fly long ranges at high altitudes and are difficult to detect. But the drones that have been used at the border since 2005 are for surveillance and tracking and do not carry weapons.
The department on Monday unveiled a new drone loaded with special radar, cameras and sensors. Built for $13.5 million by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems here, it is designed for maritime use. It features wide-range radar that gives a more sweeping view of the ocean than any of the government's fleet of manned aircraft.
The first maritime drones, about the size of a small turbo-prop commuter plane, will start flying in January off Florida, a smuggling hotbed.
A second drone is scheduled to take flight by summer in the Gulf of Mexico.
Both ultimately will also be used to patrol off the coast of Central America and Mexico, where drug traffickers use watercraft to bring cocaine from South America.
Officials are not sure if the drones will be used off or over Southern California. While there has been an increase recently in the smuggling of drugs and people on the seas there, congested airspace from several commercial airports and military bases could make use of the drone difficult.
A Customs drone - like all others controlled by human pilots from a remote location - that was flying over a sparsely populated area crashed into an Arizona hillside about 100 yards from a house in 2006, causing no injuries or property damage. The National Transportation Safety Board attributed the crash to human error and made several recommendations to make the program safer, most but not all of which were adopted by Customs and Border Protection.
Still, Homeland Security officials praised the aircraft as a safe and important tool that over land has contributed to the seizing of more than 22,000 pounds of marijuana and the apprehension of 5,000 illegal immigrants.
"This is an extraordinary step forward," said Adm. Thad W. Allen of the Coast Guard, which will join Customs and Border Protection on drone missions. "It will help us immeasurably."
Michael C. Kostelnik, an assistant commissioner at Customs and Border Protection, said the drones could fly more than 20 hours at a time, more than double the typical manned mission of about 10 hours.
They travel 275 miles an hour and, Mr. Kostelnik said, are far quieter than conventional aircraft to the point of being virtually imperceptible to anyone on the ground or seas below them.
"Right out of the chute they could do things nothing else could do," said Mr. Kostelnik, standing next to the whale-gray aircraft, which was formally presented to his agency at an afternoon ceremony here.
The drones do have limitations. They operate under what is known as visual flight rules, which means the weather must be clear enough for controllers to see where it is going, somewhat limiting its use.
The program has its critics. The union for Border Patrol agents has criticized the drones as costly and inefficient and has suggested the money would be better spent on adding workers and equipment on the ground.
"Unmanned aircraft serve a very useful role in military combat situations, but are not economical or efficient in civilian law enforcement applications," said T. J. Bonner, president of the Border Patrol union. "There are a number of other technologies that are capable of providing a greater level of usefulness at a far lower cost. It appears that the contractors have once again managed to sell a bill of goods to the politicians and bureaucrats who oversee the procurement of technology designed to secure our borders."
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7) For 9/11 Cases, a Short List of Lawyers
By BENJAMIN WEISER
December 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/nyregion/08lawyers.html?ref=world
One lawyer calls it the "death list" - a cadre of about 20 veteran defense lawyers in New York who have broad experience in death penalty and other complex criminal cases. They have represented defendants in terrorist bombings in East Africa, drug-related killings in Manhattan and the Bronx, police killings in Brooklyn and on Staten Island.
They are not all household names, and the list is closely held. But every day in Federal District Court in Manhattan, a lawyer from the list is on call, ready to be appointed in a capital case.
And it is from this short list that lawyers are expected to be initially chosen to defend Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and others accused in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks when they arrive at the courthouse early next year.
Of course, there is uncertainty about whether Mr. Mohammed and his co-defendants will even want lawyers or a trial. But if the court follows its own practice, the list, or "capital panel," as it is called, will be the source of lawyers as the defendants begin their journey through the civilian system.
"I would imagine this is the hour of truth for the panel," said Isabelle A. Kirshner, a former panel member.
The list includes lawyers like Frederick H. Cohn, 70, a 6-foot-2 graduate of Antioch and Brooklyn Law School, who is known for his Fu Manchu-style mustache and acid wit in the courtroom. There, too, is Avraham C. Moskowitz, a 52-year-old Columbia Law graduate and former federal prosecutor who describes himself as a committed Zionist, who has family in Israel, and whose brother was in the World Trade Center when it was attacked in 1993. Joshua L. Dratel, 52, is also on the list - a Harvard Law graduate who lived a block from ground zero and had to relocate for three months after his apartment building was damaged.
Today, the list has evolved into a kind of ad hoc terrorism bar as well, with a majority of those on it experienced in such cases. For any lawyer on the list who gets a Sept. 11 case, said Ms. Kirshner, "there's going to be an enormous personal, professional and emotional commitment that's going to have to be made." And that, she added, is "going to translate into their friends and relatives saying, 'How can you represent these guys?' "
Some lawyers on the list are undertaking their own searching review of whether they should participate.
"I could not take that case," Mr. Moskowitz said. He said that although he felt confident that he could vigorously defend an accused Sept. 11 terrorist, "my background, my politics, my very essence would create the appearance of a conflict."
But other lawyers said they would have no problem taking a case of one of the men held for years at Guantánamo. "I'm not campaigning for one," said Edward D. Wilford, a lawyer on the list whose last high-profile case involved his representation of a man convicted last year in the murder of a New York police officer, Russel Timoshenko, during a traffic stop in Brooklyn.
"But if I'm privileged enough to be asked," he said, "I'll step to the front and gladly represent one of these human beings with the same zest and zeal I would any other human being who is facing the death penalty."
The list of lawyers to be turned to for capital cases was developed after use of the federal death penalty was expanded in the 1990s, and judges and lawyers realized that New York City needed a seasoned bar.
Leonard F. Joy, the city's federal public defender, consulting with other lawyers, recommended an initial group of names from the larger pool of lawyers appointed to represent defendants. (His office may end up taking one of the 9/11 cases.)
Mr. Cohn, one of the lawyers consulted, said the public should want a system that ensures the best lawyers are opposing the death penalty - "even where there seems to be unanimity of opinion that it ought to be imposed."
Mr. Mohammed and four other men detained at Guantánamo have not been publicly charged, and it is not known precisely when they might arrive in New York.
Lawyers on the capital panel are eligible to be paid up to $175 an hour. Some said they would not be intimidated by the strong criticism, some of it directed at lawyers, that followed the decision to send the cases to New York.
"I believe that you approach this case the same way you would approach any other case," said Anthony L. Ricco, a veteran of high-profile trials. "You cannot allow the public sentiment to dictate what you do," he added.
The judges in the federal court in Manhattan were sent a memo this summer detailing the practice. "The lead attorney should be chosen from the capital panel," it said.
The lawyers on the list over the years have developed wide expertise in terrorism cases. A majority have represented terrorism defendants in New York, including in the trial stemming from Al Qaeda's 1998 bombings of two American Embassies in East Africa. At least two of those lawyers - Mr. Dratel and Mr. Ricco - have gone on to represent terrorism defendants in other major cases.
The terrorism-case backgrounds of many lawyers on the list, though, could produce conflicts that would prevent them from participating in the Sept. 11 cases, making that shortlist even shorter.
In Brooklyn, the federal court is reviewing its own list of experienced lawyers in an effort to identify those with the willingness and ability to take on terrorism cases, and so far has confirmed interest from about two dozen lawyers, said Chief Judge Raymond J. Dearie.
Because Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has said he intends to seek the death penalty, each Sept. 11 defendant will be entitled to the appointment of a second lawyer who is considered a "learned" specialist in death penalty law. This selection can come from appropriate lawyers on the list or from a group of such lawyers around the country.
There has also been talk of trying to bolster each of the five legal teams by adding lawyers who helped defend the men while they were at Guantánamo. These lawyers received security clearances, may already have investigated their client's cases, and developed relationships with them.
"There'd be a great advantage in the court here making an exception and allowing such people even if they are not normally on the panel," said Don D. Buchwald, another lawyer on the list.
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8) A Plea to Congress on Jobless Benefits
By ERIK ECKHOLM
December 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/us/08unemploy.html?ref=us
WASHINGTON - State labor officials and worker advocates appealed on Monday for quick Congressional action to extend emergency jobless benefits and to renew health insurance subsidies for the long-term jobless.
Prolonged unemployment insurance, passed this year in the stimulus act, expires this month, and an estimated one million workers will see benefits end in January if Congress does not act.
The health subsidies, under which the federal government pays 65 percent of insurance costs under Cobra for up to nine months, have expired and are not available to the newly unemployed.
Renewal this month of both forms of aid is "a moral imperative," Sandi Vito, the secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, said Monday at a news conference here. Ms. Vito said the extensions were needed "through at least the end of 2010 as a bridge for people."
Congressional aides said in interviews that renewing the aid programs had bipartisan support.
Democratic Congressional leaders are considering adding the measures to a spending bill for government operations before the end of the month. But prospects are uncertain in the Senate, which is dealing with the health care overhaul and where there is disagreement over how long any extensions should last.
Another year of extended benefits and aid for health insurance would cost about $100 billion, officials estimate.
State officials said that any gaps in the program would have disastrous effects on people who are on the edge of foreclosure or eviction. It would also cause serious administrative burdens for state agencies, resulting in delays for applicants, said David Socolow, New Jersey's commissioner of labor and workforce development.
While unemployment declined in last week's report, to 10 percent, more than 15 million people remained unemployed in October and 36 percent of them had been jobless more than six months.
Prof. Raj Chetty, an economist at Harvard University, said that with so many without jobs for so long, "people have depleted their savings and exhausted the help of relatives."
Douglas Holmes, president of UWC, which represents businesses on unemployment insurance and compensation issues, said his group was "not opposed to some further extension," but cautioned against adding burdens on employers.
The first 26 weeks of unemployment benefits are paid by the states with money collected from employers. This year Congress added several extensions, bringing the potential total to 99 weeks in many states.
But without Congressional action, people who lost their jobs after July 1, for example, would receive no federally paid extensions once their customary six months of state aid ran out.
In January alone, benefits would halt for more than one million unemployed people, according to projections by the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group and a co-sponsor of Monday's news conference.
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9) Board to Propose More Flexible Accounting Rules for Banks
By FLOYD NORRIS
December 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/business/08account.html?ref=us
Facing political pressure to abandon "fair value" accounting for banks, the chairman of the board that sets American accounting standards will call Tuesday for the "decoupling" of bank capital rules from normal accounting standards.
His proposal would encourage bank regulators to make adjustments as they determine whether banks have adequate capital while still allowing investors to see the current fair value - often the market value - of bank loans and other assets.
In the prepared text of a speech planned for a conference in Washington, Robert H. Herz, the chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, called on bank regulators to use their own judgment in allowing banks to move away from Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP, which his board sets.
"Handcuffing regulators to GAAP or distorting GAAP to always fit the needs of regulators is inconsistent with the different purposes of financial reporting and prudential regulation," Mr. Herz said in the prepared text.
"Regulators should have the authority and appropriate flexibility they need to effectively regulate the banking system," he added. "And, conversely, in instances in which the needs of regulators deviate from the informational requirements of investors, the reporting to investors should not be subordinated to the needs of regulators. To do so could degrade the financial information available to investors and reduce public trust and confidence in the capital markets."
Mr. Herz said that Congress, after the savings and loan crisis, had required bank regulators in 1991 to use GAAP as the basis for capital rules, but said the regulators could depart from such rules.
Banks have argued that accounting rules should be changed, saying that current rules are "pro-cyclical" - making banks seem richer when times are good, and poorer when times are bad and bank loans may be most needed in the economy.
Mr. Herz conceded the accounting rules can be pro-cyclical, but questioned how far critics would go. Consumer spending, he said, depends in part on how wealthy people feel. Should mutual fund statements be phased in, he asked, so investors would not feel poor - and cut back on spending - after markets fell?
The House Financial Services Committee has approved a proposal that would direct bank regulators to comment to the S.E.C. on accounting rules, something they already can do. But it stopped short of adopting a proposal to allow the banking regulators to overrule the S.E.C., which supervises the accounting board, on accounting rules.
"I support the goal of financial stability and do not believe that accounting standards and financial reporting should be purposefully designed to create instability or pro-cyclical effects," Mr. Herz said.
He paraphrased Barney Frank, the chairman of the House committee, as saying that "accounting principles should not be viewed to be so immutable that their impact on policy should not be considered. I agree with that, and I think the chairman would also agree that accounting standards should not be so malleable that they fail to meet their objective of helping to properly inform investors and markets or that they should be purposefully designed to try to dampen business, market, and economic cycles. That's not their role."
Banks have argued that accounting rules made the financial crisis worse by forcing them to acknowledge losses based on market values that may never be realized, if market values recover.
Mr. Herz said the accounting board had sought middle ground by requiring some unrealized losses to be recognized on bank balance sheets but not to be reflected on income statements.
Banking regulators already have capital rules that differ from accounting rules, but have not been eager to expand those differences. One area where a difference may soon be made is in the treatment of off-balance sheet items that the accounting board is forcing banks to bring back onto their balance sheets. The banks have asked regulators to phase in that change over several years, to slow the impact on their capital needs.
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10) Nine More Schools Will Be Closed
By SHARON OTTERMAN
December 8, 2009, 10:42 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/nine-more-schools-will-be-closed/
The Department of Education announced on Monday that it would move to close nine additional schools for poor performance, including four large high schools that have been city fixtures for decades - Beach Channel High School in Rockaway Park, Queens; Christopher Columbus High School on Astor Avenue in the Bronx; Norman Thomas High School on East 33rd Street in Manhattan; and Paul Robeson High School in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
The announcement brings to 17 the number of schools that city officials have proposed for closure since last week. A total of 91 schools have been closed by the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg since 2002, many of them large schools with more than 1,000 students.
If the proposals are approved in late January by the city's Panel for Educational Policy - which is likely, as mayoral appointees form the board's majority - the schools will phase out over time, beginning by losing their lowest grade level in September 2010. While school officials have not said what will replace each school, in the past, one or more small themed schools have moved into the building as the failed school slowly vacates.
Closing a school is seen as one way to clear the slate at a building that school officials have judged beyond repair. Once the process is underway, only 50 percent of the qualified teachers need to be considered for employment by the new or redesigned schools that enter into the building, a process based on seniority. The rest can be hired by other schools, or will go into a pool of unassigned teachers that continue to remain on the city payroll.
Falling or persistently low graduation rates, poor test score performance, declining enrollments and insufficient levels of credit accumulation were the most common reasons school officials cited as reasons for closing a high school. Middle schools were judged on state test scores and mediocre parental satisfaction, among other things, as measured by surveys. The process is controversial, and parents and teachers at a number of schools slated for closure this year have promised a fight.
Along with the four large high schools, each of which have over 1,000 students, the following small schools were also proposed for phase-outs: the Middle School for Academic and Social Excellence in Brooklyn, a four-year-old school with about 200 students; the Metropolitan Corporate Academy in Brooklyn, a 380-student school founded in 1999; the New Day Academy, a 450-student school on Home Street in the Bronx; and the Global Enterprise High School, a 450-student high school on Astor Avenue in the Bronx that opened in 2003.
In addition, the Choir Academy in Harlem, a school for grades 6 to 12, will gradually lose its high school and retain its better-performing middle school (for grades 6 to 8), school officials said.
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11) Consumer Credit Shrank Again in October, Setting a Record
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/business/economy/08econ.html?ref=business
WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans borrowed less for a record ninth month in October, another sign that consumer spending would remain weak, making it harder for the economy to mount a sustained rebound.
Consumer credit fell at an annual rate of $3.51 billion in October, the Federal Reserve said Monday. Economists expected a $9.3 billion decline.
Demand for revolving credit, the category that includes credit cards, fell 9.3 percent, while borrowing in the category that includes auto loans rose at an annual rate of 2.6 percent.
Americans are borrowing less as they try to replenish depleted investments. Many are finding it hard to get credit as banks, hit by the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, have tightened lending standards.
The 2.6 percent rise in the category that includes car loans reflected a rebound in auto sales in October after they fell sharply in September. That drop came after a surge in auto sales in August as consumers rushed to take advantage of the government's popular "cash for clunkers" incentives before they expired.
While economists have worried for years about the low rate of savings, the concern is that consumers could derail the recovery if they start saving too much of their incomes. Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of total economic activity.
Consumers have been reluctant to spend in large part because the labor market has been so weak. The government reported Friday that the unemployment rate improved slightly in November, dropping to 10 percent after hitting a 26-year high of 10.2 percent in October.
However analysts cautioned that they expected a recovery in jobs to remain lackluster because the overall economy would be growing at rates that are too modest to support solid growth. Many analysts believe the unemployment rate will resume rising, hitting a peak of about 10.5 percent by next summer.
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12) Britain to Levy a One-Time Tax on Banker Bonuses
By LANDON THOMAS Jr.
December 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/business/global/10pound.html?hp
The chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, announced a one-time tax on bank bonuses Wednesday, part of the government's effort to shore up the still-weak British economy.
Banks will be charged a 50 percent tax on 2009 bonuses of more than £25,000, or $40,800. It will be imposed on the pool of bonuses paid by a bank, rather than individual payments, and it will be paid by the bank - not by the recipient of the bonus. It will take effect immediately and will affect banks' 2009 profits.
The levy represents the most direct attack on bank bonuses anywhere in the world. All banks in Britain - including the London-based subsidiaries of foreign banks - will be affected, whether they took government funds or not.
"Last year banks made £80 billion in losses," Mr. Darling said during a pre-budget speech to Parliament that was frequently interrupted by howls of protest from members of the opposition Conservative Party. "But if they insist on paying substantial rewards, I am determined to claw money back for the taxpayer."
The tax measure was the highlight of a push by Mr. Darling to persuade voters in Britain, as well as investors at home and abroad, that the Labour Party has the ability to tackle Britain's budget deficit, which at 13 percent of gross domestic product is among the highest in Europe.
In his speech, he said his government aimed to more than halve the deficit by 2013 through tax increases and sharp spending cuts.
His strong words on cutting the deficit come against a backdrop of increasing investor unease about the ability of governments everywhere to address deeply imbedded debt problems.
In Greece, where a new Socialist government is struggling to prove it is serious about reducing a deficit that in proportion to its economy is similar to Britain's, the cost of insuring Greece's sovereign debt continued its recent rise Wednesday.
The same was true in Dubai, where there is an increasing fear that other government-controlled entities beyond the troubled conglomerate Dubai World will have to restructure their debts.
"The markets will be skeptical" of the British measures, said Simon White, a partner at Variant Perception, a research house based in London. "The numbers are minimal compared to the scale of the deficit."
Mr. White pointed out that the current yields on government debt, commonly known as gilts, do not reflect the real levels of risk related to Britain's public finances.
The British government has paid out £1 trillion in support of its hobbled banking sector, a sum that underscores the financial sector's large contribution to the overall economy.
When times were good, the Labor government paid little heed to the rich sums being earned in the City of London, the financial district, given the large tax contribution that financial firms made - 43 percent of corporate taxes in 2007.
But the collapse in bank profits has led to a precipitous drop-off in tax receipts at a time when public expenditures are being extended to combat a recession that is among the longest in Europe.
In his speech, Mr. Darling outlined a raft of austerity measures, such as capping public sector pensions and wage increases that will hit core members of the Labour Party constituency in order to appease the increasingly restive holders of government bonds, who are likely to sell their gilt holdings at the slightest sign that the government is not committed to cutting its deficit.
The move to tax bonuses largely contradicts a core plank of the Labor Party's policy crafted by politicians like Peter Mandelson, the powerful business secretary who along with former Prime Minister Tony Blair fought hard to make Labor a business- and finance-friendly party.
Now, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has reverted to a style of class-based electioneering.
For example, in a move that harkened back to the hard-left politics of the Labor Party in the 1970's, he derided the private school background of David Cameron, his conservative rival.
The tax on bonuses, however, is not without precedent. In 1981, the British government under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher imposed a one-time tax on bankers, who were making large profits thanks to the high interests rates that prevailed at the time.
Twenty-eight years later, it is a Labor government taking the same approach, although now it is the low interest rates coming from aggressive central bank action that has led to what many see as unseemly banking profits.
To a large extent the levy underpins a quite broad understanding here - even among those generally sympathetic to the industry - that bank profits this year were largely subsidized by the government due to historically low interest rates.
"I think banking has become a truly parasitical business," said Andrew Hilton, who runs CSFI, a research center that focuses on financial issues. "Bankers these days borrow money at 30 basis points and lend it to the government at 300 basis points and then they go play golf."
In a speech this week before a group of bankers and lawyers, Mr. Darling said that bankers needed to be able "to look their neighbors in the face" and explain why they deserved such sums at a time when their fellow citizens are suffering.
At the center of the bonus debate is Royal Bank of Scotland, which after a recent capital injection is now 84 percent owned by the government. This week, the British Treasury announced that it would reserve the right to veto an increase in the bank's bonus pool to an estimated £1.5 billion and that no executive at the bank paid over £39,000 would receive a discretionary cash bonus. Instead, they are to receive deferred stock.
The Treasury has said that these steps are justified, given the large taxpayer stake in the bank. But for many within the bank, and shareholders as well, the veto threat is seen as political meddling that will impair the bank's competitiveness because top-flight bankers might leave - a predicament similar to the one facing Citigroup in the United States, which also took billions of dollars in U.S. government funds to shore up its finances and has yet to pay it back.
Short sellers have targeted shares of R.B.S. lately, driving them down about 14 percent in recent days.
This week, Robert E. Diamond, the head of Barclays investment bank and traditionally one of the highest-paid bankers in London, warned that a bonus tax could spark an exodus and hurt the City's reputation as a leading financial center.
But with even the traditionally banker-friendly Conservative Party lashing out at the bonus culture and anti-banker sentiment growing, political momentum for the tax seemed almost unstoppable.
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13) Afghan Says Army Will Need Help Until 2024
"The news conference came just hours after as many as a dozen people were killed during an allied raid in Laghman Province, Afghan officials said, prompting hundreds of villagers to march in protest."
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and ELISABETH BUMILLER
December 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/world/asia/09gates.html?ref=world
KABUL, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday that Afghanistan would not be able to pay for its own security until at least 2024, underscoring his government's long-term financial dependence on the United States and NATO even as President Obama has pledged to begin withdrawing American troops in 2011.
Mr. Karzai spoke at a news conference here with Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, who did not put a timetable on the American and allied financial commitment but acknowledged that there was a "realism on our part that it will be some time before Afghanistan is able to sustain its security forces entirely on its own."
The news conference came just hours after as many as a dozen people were killed during an allied raid in Laghman Province, Afghan officials said, prompting hundreds of villagers to march in protest.
The early morning operation outside the provincial capital, Mehtar Lam, east of Kabul, happened "without any coordination with the Afghan forces or Afghan officials," said Sayed Ahmed Safi, a spokesman for the governor of Laghman. He said one woman was among the dead, which included civilians as well as insurgents, all killed by small-arms fire. He said the troops also detained four men.
After Afghan security forces blocked marchers from entering Mehtar Lam, gunfire broke out, killing one protester and wounding two others, he said.
NATO confirmed the raid and said that seven militants were killed but that there were no "reports to substantiate those claims of harming civilians, including women and children."
The target of the raid was a Taliban bomb maker. A military spokesman said he did not know whether the troops involved were American or from another NATO country.
The Afghan Interior Ministry said a delegation had been sent to investigate, and urged residents not to resort to violence.
If the civilian dead are confirmed, the raid would be one of the worst recent episodes resulting in civilian casualties, which have engendered antipathy toward American and NATO forces among Afghan citizens and officials.
The American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, tightened rules on airstrikes last summer in an effort to reduce civilian casualties.
But while civilian casualties continue to anger Afghan officials, Mr. Karzai's comments on Tuesday highlighted just how much the government could be forced to rely on the United States and other NATO countries for decades to come.
"For another 15 to 20 years, Afghanistan will not be able to sustain a force of that nature and capability with its own resources," Mr. Karzai said, referring to the force required to secure the entire country.
The subject was one of the main reasons that Mr. Gates arrived here Tuesday on an unannounced visit. He said a major topic of discussion with Mr. Karzai would be how fast the Afghans could recruit, train and retain their own security forces, the key to the planned American withdrawal that is supposed to begin in July 2011.
The price of building up Afghan forces to take over significant security duties could be enormous. Some estimates say it will take up to $50 billion over five years to increase army and police rolls to 400,000, the level sought by General McChrystal.
At the news conference, Mr. Gates held out the possibility that a future improvement in Afghanistan's finances would defray some of the costs.
"Whether that is 15 or 20 years, we'll hope for accelerated economic development in Afghanistan," he said, adding that "as the Afghan economy expands, then the proportion of the costs of supporting the Afghan security forces will diminish."
He also said there was a possibility that the size of Afghan security forces could shrink, "as is often the case after the end of a conflict."
Mr. Gates, the first member of Mr. Obama's national security team to travel to Afghanistan since Mr. Obama announced last week that he would send an additional 30,000 troops to the country, told reporters en route to Kabul that he had already signed orders for the deployment of 17,000 additional personnel, and that most would be in place in southern Afghanistan by the spring.
Included in the group are 1,500 Marines from Camp Lejeune, N.C., who will deploy later this month; an additional 6,200 Marines from Camp Lejeune, who will deploy in early spring; and a brigade combat team of about 3,400 soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y., who will also deploy next spring to train Afghan security forces.
Mr. Gates said that one "eye opener" for the Americans was learning that the Taliban often paid their militia fighters more than the Afghan government paid its soldiers and police officers, and that a pay increase for the Afghan security forces was crucial to building them up.
Another problem, Mr. Gates said, was that the Afghan security forces were spread far too thin. "Attrition is higher in the areas where the combat is heavier," he said. "The reason is there aren't enough of them. And they basically fight until they die, or they go AWOL."
Rotating in more Afghan soldiers, he said, "would be an important part of the retention piece as well."
Asked if it was not "late in the game" in an eight-year-old war to begin learning these facts about Afghan security forces, Mr. Gates replied that "there's a lot of this that's late in the game, frankly."
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14) Florida: Court Reduces Cuban Spies' Sentences
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | South
December 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/us/09brfs-COURTREDUCES_BRF.html?ref=world
Two former Cuban intelligence officers convicted of spying in the United States were given reduced prison sentences after an appeals court ruled that their original terms were too severe. Judge Joan A. Lenard of Federal District Court accepted an agreement reducing the term of one man, Ramón Labañino, from life in prison to 30 years behind bars. At a separate hearing hours later, Judge Lenard shaved a little more than a year off Fernando González' 19-year sentence. The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, in Atlanta, had vacated sentences for the men, both 46, who were part of the so-called "Cuban Five" spy ring. A third member of the ring had his life sentence replaced earlier this year with a far shorter prison term.
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15) New Execution Method Is Used in Ohio
By IAN URBINA
December 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/us/09ohio.html?ref=us
Saying he was now "paroled to my Father in heaven," a convicted killer in Ohio on Tuesday became the first person in the United States to be executed with a one-drug intravenous lethal injection.
The new method, which involved a large dose of anesthetic, akin to how animals are euthanized, has been hailed by most experts as painless and an improvement over the three-drug cocktail used in all other states that employ lethal injection, but it is unlikely to settle the debate over the death penalty.
While praising the shift to a single drug, death penalty opponents argue that Ohio's new method, and specifically its backup plan of using intramuscular injection if the authorities are unable to find a usable vein, has not been properly vetted by legal and medical experts. Since it had never been tried on humans before, they contend it is the equivalent of human experimentation.
But the United States Supreme Court refused to intervene on Tuesday morning, and the procedure went largely as planned.
The inmate, Kenneth Biros, 51, died at 11:47 a.m. Terry J. Collins, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said the drug took about 10 minutes to take effect, roughly the same length of time as the three-drug cocktail. It took about 30 minutes for the execution team to find a usable vein, after having inserted the needle several times into each arm.
Ohio adopted the one-drug method last month after a failed execution attempt in September in which the authorities spent more than two hours trying to find a usable vein in Romell Broom, 53, who was convicted of the 1984 abduction, rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl.
Mr. Biros was convicted of sexually assaulting and killing Tami Engstrom, 22, near Warren, in northeastern Ohio, in 1991 after offering to drive her home from a bar, then scattering her body parts in Ohio and Pennsylvania. She had been stabbed more than 90 times. Mr. Biros acknowledged killing her but said it was done during a drunken rage.
Ms. Engstrom's mother, brother and sister attended the execution, as did one of Mr. Biros's lawyers, John Parker, and two of Mr. Biros's friends. Thomas Altiere, the sheriff for Trumbull County, where the murder occurred, also watched the execution.
As Ms. Engstrom's family members entered the prison on Tuesday, a reporter asked if they were ready. "We've been ready for 18 years," one of the Engstroms said, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
Shortly before the execution, Mr. Biros gave his personal belongings - seven CDs, an address book, a portable CD player, a rosary and a notebook - to his siblings.
"I'm sorry from the bottom of my heart," he said after thanking his family and friends for their support.
It was the second trip to the holding cell for Mr. Biros, who spent a day and night there in March 2007 as his lawyers scrambled to halt his execution. The Supreme Court intervened that time because of challenges involving the three-drug cocktail.
Opponents of the death penalty have long argued that using a single drug is more humane than the three-drug cocktail, which involves a short-acting barbiturate to render the inmate unconscious, followed by a paralytic and then a chemical to stop the heart.
Still, death penalty opponents criticized the state for not allowing more time for closer scrutiny of the new protocol.
"The key is due process," said Richard C. Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington. He said that, for example, when New York introduced the electric chair in 1890, the case went to the Supreme Court, which decided that the punishment might be more humane than hanging.
"The court held that death row prisoner received due process because the New York Legislature had considered the punishment method carefully," Mr. Dieter added. "In this case, however, everyone has taken the Ohio Department of Corrections at their word, without an adversarial debate."
But Kent Scheidegger, the legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento, which supports the death penalty, said he doubted that the state's new protocol would merit a Supreme Court review.
Mr. Scheidegger also dismissed the criticism that the new approach was untested on humans. "What kind of test do they expect?" he said. "A controlled study with volunteers? Not likely."
Deborah W. Denno, a Fordham University law professor who is an expert on the death penalty and lethal injection, said she believed that the constitutionality of the new state protocol could be challenged if it was found not to be "substantially similar" to the three-drug method used by the State of Kentucky, which the court approved last year.
A federal judge in Ohio disagreed, however, and on Monday he denied a request from Mr. Biros to delay his execution until lawyers could conduct a review of the new protocol.
On Monday night, Mr. Biros's lawyers filed an emergency request with the Supreme Court asking for his execution to be stopped. That was rejected.
Mr. Biros was moved to the holding area for death row inmates about 15 feet from the death chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville on Monday morning, prison officials said.
In the afternoon, he had a snack of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. At night, he was to be served a meal of cheese pizza, onion rings, fried mushrooms, Doritos, French onion dip, blueberry ice cream, cherry pie and Dr Pepper, they said.
On Tuesday, Mr. Biros received communion and seemed calm as he awaited his fate, prison officials said.
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16) Mortgage Relief Plan Shows Weak Results
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/business/09mortgage.html?ref=us
WASHINGTON (AP) - Only one in three homeowners who have signed up for the Obama administration's mortgage relief plan have sent back the necessary paperwork, highlighting continuing problems for the government's effort to stem the foreclosure crisis.
The poor results from the mortgage industry drew sharp criticism from House Financial Services Committee members on Tuesday. Since the program was started in March, lenders have made loan modification offers to just 680,000 borrowers, far short of the administration's goal of up to four million.
"Taxpayer-funded foreclosure mitigation programs have been an abject failure," said Representative Jeb Hensarling, Republican of Texas, at a hearing on the program. "Throwing more money at programs that do not work is absolutely insane."
Under the program, eligible borrowers who are behind or at risk of default can have their mortgage interest rate reduced to as low as 2 percent for five years. They are given temporary modifications, which are supposed to become permanent after the borrowers make three payments on time and complete necessary paperwork, including proof of income and a hardship letter.
Much of the criticism for the disappointing results has been leveled at the banks.
Lenders, however, say the majority of borrowers either do not complete the paperwork or do not make the payments. At Bank of America, for example, only a quarter of the 65,000 borrowers in trial modifications have sent back their paperwork.
The bank blamed "ineffective communications with customers, shortcomings in document maintenance, misunderstandings about program requirements, and the inability to comply by some borrowers," according to written remarks from Jack Schakett, Bank of America's credit loss mitigation strategies executive.
But those explanations only prompted House members to threaten more legislation to curb the foreclosure crisis. A record 14 percent of homeowners with a mortgage are either behind on their payments or in foreclosure. Bargain-price foreclosures are dragging down home values in neighborhoods across the country. Nationwide, American homeowners have lost $4 trillion in home equity since the housing bust.
"We are terribly frustrated by what's happening," said Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, the committee chairman. He has proposed attaching $3 billion in assistance for unemployed homeowners to a bill set for a vote in the House this week.
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17) Prison Population Up, Despite Drop in 20 States
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/us/09prison.html?ref=us
WASHINGTON (AP) - The prison population in the United States edged up slightly last year, but the total number of inmates dropped in 20 states, including New York, Georgia and Michigan.
Justice Department figures released Tuesday showed the overall state and federal prison population is at an all-time high of 1.6 million and is still rising, but the rate of growth is slowing as states look for ways to cut the cost of justice.
Including people in jails, where some are held to await trial, the total number of people behind bars comes to 2.3 million. The government figures showed one out of every 133 residents in the United States was in prison or jail at the end of last year.
The prison population grew less than 1 percent last year. In the previous decade, the inmate population grew by an annual average of more than 6 percent. Ram Cnaan, a professor at the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania, said the slowing trend showed politicians were confronting a painful truth about prisons.
"They simply cost too much," Professor Cnaan said. Both liberals and conservatives are increasingly searching for alternative sentencing programs, like treatment or monitoring, he said.
"It's not ideological, it's pragmatic," Professor Cnaan said. "This is the first time that we have alliances on the right and left on this issue, and it's the money that has forced the issue."
The states with the largest increases in prison population were Pennsylvania, Florida and Arizona, whose one-year increases were all greater than the federal prison system, which grew by 1,662 inmates. Of the three states that lost the most prisoners in 2008, New York shed 2,273, Georgia 1,537 and Michigan 1,495.
There was a big increase in immigration detainees, which jumped 12 percent. About 34,000 people were held last year in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement center or a contracted holding facility. About a third of the detainees were originally from Mexico, the Justice Department said.
While more people were put behind bars, officials released 735,454 prisoners, a 2 percent increase over 2007.
Among those released, the number of those freed without conditions increased 8 percent.
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18) Springsteen Says No to Christie and Yes to Same-Sex Marriage
By DIEGO RIBADENEIRA
December 9, 2009, 11:30 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/springsteen-says-no-to-christie-and-yes-to-same-sex-marriage/
He told New Jersey's governor-elect, Christopher J. Christie, a die-hard fan who has been to 122 of his concerts, that he would not play at his inauguration next month because he did not want to be involved in state politics.
But on Wednesday, Bruce Springsteen jumped into the middle of one of the more momentous debates in New Jersey by publicly proclaiming his support for a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage.
The Senate is poised to take a historic vote on Thursday on whether New Jersey will become the sixth state to allow gay couples to marry, and people on both sides of the issue have been busy furiously lobbying lawmakers.
Mr. Springsteen's statement, posted on his Web site, read:
"Like many of you who live in New Jersey, I've been following the progress of the marriage-equality legislation currently being considered in Trenton. I've long believed in and have always spoken out for the rights of same sex couples and fully agree with Governor Corzine when he writes that, 'The marriage-equality issue should be recognized for what it truly is - a civil rights issue that must be approved to assure that every citizen is treated equally under the law.' I couldn't agree more with that statement and urge those who support equal treatment for our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters to let their voices be heard now."
Mr. Springsteen's support, though not surprising given his liberal leanings, is a welcome boost for gay-rights advocates. But whether it makes a difference remains to be seen. Mr. Christie may be a passionate lover of Mr. Springsteen's work, but he has also been emphatic in his opposition to same-sex marriage.
And supporters of the bill do not believe they have the 21 votes the measure needs to pass in the Senate. Still, a shout-out from the Boss can't hurt.
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19) Insurgents Oust Transit Union's Leaders
[What is an "insurgent transit worker?" Al Queda? The Taliban? What is this language they are using against workers?...bw]
By RUSS BUETTNER
December 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/nyregion/09twu.html?ref=nyregion
A group of insurgent transit workers who ran in a recent union election on a platform of adopting a tougher negotiating stance with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has ousted the union's leadership.
Absent an unforeseen challenge, John Samuelsen, a subway track inspector, will become president of the union, Transport Workers Local 100, on Jan. 1. He defeated Curtis Tate, the choice of the departing president, Roger Toussaint, who has taken a position with the international union.
Mr. Samuelsen argued that Mr. Toussaint had fractured the 38,000-member union after he orchestrated the transit strike of 2005, and that he had become a weak negotiator.
Samuelsen loyalists claimed all four of the top posts from Mr. Toussaint's slate, said Jeffrey Zaino of the American Arbitration Association, which counted the votes on Monday. Mr. Samuelsen defeated Mr. Tate by about 900 votes.
The union has been without a contract since last year. This year, an arbitrator awarded the union 11.3 percent raises over three years, but the transit authority filed a court challenge.
Mr. Samuelsen said the union had been weakened by infighting for several years and had not bargained from a position of strength. He said his first mission would be to "organize and mobilize the rank and file."
"They weakened the union through their leadership policies," he said, "and backed themselves into a corner, and we were forced to rely on handouts from the company."
Mr. Samuelsen said the union must convince the transit authority that it is "perpetrating a gross injustice upon the transit workers and prevail upon them to release the wages."
Joshua B. Freeman, a labor historian at the City University of New York, said that Mr. Samuelsen had unified dissident groups behind his candidacy. "And that showed a certain political sophistication that I think bodes well for their future leadership of the local," he said.
A spokesman for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg declined to comment about the changes at the union.
During the 2005 strike, Mr. Bloomberg referred to the union leaders as "thuggish," a comment that was criticized as inappropriate to direct at a union dominated by minority workers.
Jesse Derris, a spokesman for the outgoing leadership, said the leaders would not comment.
The loss places a stark coda on Mr. Toussaint's nine-year leadership. Much as Mr. Samuelsen has now, Mr. Toussaint came to power by promising an aggressive posture in negotiations.
During the 60-hour strike in December 2005, Mr. Toussaint seemed to embrace his role as chief agitator. Months later, after spending four days in jail for leading the strike, Mr. Toussaint said, "We are not backing down."
But the sanctions against the union for the strike, which violated a state law barring public sector unions from striking, proved crippling. It was fined $2.5 million and stripped of the right to automatically deduct dues from its members' paychecks.
To regain the right to collect dues automatically, Mr. Toussaint pledged last year in court papers that the union had no intention to strike "now or in the future."
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20) Exxon and Partners Approve L.N.G. Project in Papua New Guinea
By BLOOMBERG NEWS
December 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/business/global/09lng.html?ref=business
MELBOURNE - Exxon Mobil and its partners approved Tuesday the development of a $15 billion liquefied natural gas venture in Papua New Guinea to supply fuel to China, Japan and Taiwan.
The project is to be the country's biggest natural resource development.
Construction is to begin in 2010 after the companies complete agreements with their customers and financing arrangements with lenders, said Exxon, which is the largest U.S. oil company. The project will probably award five construction contracts worth "several billion dollars" within two days, according to Oil Search, a partner in the venture based in Papua New Guinea's capital, Port Moresby.
The plant is one of more than 12 planned in Australia and Papua New Guinea to meet growing Asian demand for less-polluting alternatives to coal and oil. The project could double the size of Papua New Guinea's economy, Oil Search estimates.
"We are seeing a move to gas," said Peter Arden, a senior mining analyst at Ord Minnett, an affiliate of JPMorgan Chase, in Melbourne. "China can't meet its energy needs. Countries are also trying to diversify away from coal."
L.N.G. sales from the project are expected to exceed $100 billion over 20 years, said Tony Regan, a consultant at Tri-Zen International. The partners have not disclosed financial terms of supply agreements.
Asian demand for the gas is driving the development of projects in the region. Chevron and Tokyo Electric Power said last week that the Japanese utility had agreed to buy L.N.G. for 20 years from the proposed Wheatstone project in Western Australia.
Wheatstone is among the ventures that could make Australia "the Saudi Arabia" of the gas world, the country's energy minister, Martin Ferguson, said Tuesday. He said the Tokyo Electric agreement could be worth 90 billion Australian dollars, or $82 billion.
In September, Chevron and two partners, Exxon and Royal Dutch Shell, approved construction of their 43 billion dollar Gorgon venture, also in Western Australia.
Exxon and its Papua New Guinea partners will build a plant near Port Moresby with capacity to produce 6.6 million tons of the fuel a year. Gas will be piped 710 kilometers, or 441 miles, from fields in Papua New Guinea's highlands for processing into liquid form and transportation by ship to Asian customers. Fuel exports are scheduled to begin by late 2013 or 2014.
The partners said they must sign off on agreements with customers and lenders. "We wouldn't be progressing this without a high level of certainty," Peter Botten, managing director of Oil Search, said during a conference call Tuesday. "We're extremely confident the remaining aspects will come into place."
The project will triple Papua New Guinea's exports and more than double its gross domestic product, Oil Search said in a statement. The country of 6.2 million, whose people speak more than 800 languages, has a gross domestic product of $8.2 billion, according to the World Bank.
About 40 percent of the population lives in poverty, with income of less than $1 a day, according to AusAID, the Australian government agency responsible for managing overseas aid. Its economic growth was 6.5 percent in 2007 and 6.6 percent in 2008, AusAID says.
Exxon's partners in the venture are Oil Search, with a 29 percent stake; Santos, based in Adelaide, Australia, with 13.5 percent; and Nippon Oil, with 4.7 percent. Exxon has a 33.2 percent, the Papua New Guinea government owns 16.6 percent and landowners own 2.8 percent.
Bloomberg News
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21) Obama's Nobel Remarks
[You got to have war if you want peace! Silly!....bw]
Text
December 11, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/world/europe/11prexy.text.html
Following is the transcript of President Obama's speech at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo on Wednesday, as released by the White House:
Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, distinguished members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, citizens of America, and citizens of the world:
I receive this honor with deep gratitude and great humility. It is an award that speaks to our highest aspirations -- that for all the cruelty and hardship of our world, we are not mere prisoners of fate. Our actions matter, and can bend history in the direction of justice.
And yet I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the considerable controversy that your generous decision has generated. (Laughter.) In part, this is because I am at the beginning, and not the end, of my labors on the world stage. Compared to some of the giants of history who've received this prize -- Schweitzer and King; Marshall and Mandela -- my accomplishments are slight. And then there are the men and women around the world who have been jailed and beaten in the pursuit of justice; those who toil in humanitarian organizations to relieve suffering; the unrecognized millions whose quiet acts of courage and compassion inspire even the most hardened cynics. I cannot argue with those who find these men and women -- some known, some obscure to all but those they help -- to be far more deserving of this honor than I.
But perhaps the most profound issue surrounding my receipt of this prize is the fact that I am the Commander-in-Chief of the military of a nation in the midst of two wars. One of these wars is winding down. The other is a conflict that America did not seek; one in which we are joined by 42 other countries -- including Norway -- in an effort to defend ourselves and all nations from further attacks.
Still, we are at war, and I'm responsible for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle in a distant land. Some will kill, and some will be killed. And so I come here with an acute sense of the costs of armed conflict -- filled with difficult questions about the relationship between war and peace, and our effort to replace one with the other.
Now these questions are not new. War, in one form or another, appeared with the first man. At the dawn of history, its morality was not questioned; it was simply a fact, like drought or disease -- the manner in which tribes and then civilizations sought power and settled their differences.
And over time, as codes of law sought to control violence within groups, so did philosophers and clerics and statesmen seek to regulate the destructive power of war. The concept of a "just war" emerged, suggesting that war is justified only when certain conditions were met: if it is waged as a last resort or in self-defense; if the force used is proportional; and if, whenever possible, civilians are spared from violence.
Of course, we know that for most of history, this concept of "just war" was rarely observed. The capacity of human beings to think up new ways to kill one another proved inexhaustible, as did our capacity to exempt from mercy those who look different or pray to a different God. Wars between armies gave way to wars between nations -- total wars in which the distinction between combatant and civilian became blurred. In the span of 30 years, such carnage would twice engulf this continent. And while it's hard to conceive of a cause more just than the defeat of the Third Reich and the Axis powers, World War II was a conflict in which the total number of civilians who died exceeded the number of soldiers who perished.
In the wake of such destruction, and with the advent of the nuclear age, it became clear to victor and vanquished alike that the world needed institutions to prevent another world war. And so, a quarter century after the United States Senate rejected the League of Nations -- an idea for which Woodrow Wilson received this prize -- America led the world in constructing an architecture to keep the peace: a Marshall Plan and a United Nations, mechanisms to govern the waging of war, treaties to protect human rights, prevent genocide, restrict the most dangerous weapons.
In many ways, these efforts succeeded. Yes, terrible wars have been fought, and atrocities committed. But there has been no Third World War. The Cold War ended with jubilant crowds dismantling a wall. Commerce has stitched much of the world together. Billions have been lifted from poverty. The ideals of liberty and self-determination, equality and the rule of law have haltingly advanced. We are the heirs of the fortitude and foresight of generations past, and it is a legacy for which my own country is rightfully proud.
And yet, a decade into a new century, this old architecture is buckling under the weight of new threats. The world may no longer shudder at the prospect of war between two nuclear superpowers, but proliferation may increase the risk of catastrophe. Terrorism has long been a tactic, but modern technology allows a few small men with outsized rage to murder innocents on a horrific scale.
Moreover, wars between nations have increasingly given way to wars within nations. The resurgence of ethnic or sectarian conflicts; the growth of secessionist movements, insurgencies, and failed states -- all these things have increasingly trapped civilians in unending chaos. In today's wars, many more civilians are killed than soldiers; the seeds of future conflict are sown, economies are wrecked, civil societies torn asunder, refugees amassed, children scarred.
I do not bring with me today a definitive solution to the problems of war. What I do know is that meeting these challenges will require the same vision, hard work, and persistence of those men and women who acted so boldly decades ago. And it will require us to think in new ways about the notions of just war and the imperatives of a just peace.
We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth: We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations -- acting individually or in concert -- will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified.
I make this statement mindful of what Martin Luther King Jr. said in this same ceremony years ago: "Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones." As someone who stands here as a direct consequence of Dr. King's life work, I am living testimony to the moral force of non-violence. I know there's nothing weak -- nothing passive -- nothing naïve -- in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King.
But as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation, I cannot be guided by their examples alone. I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism -- it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.
I raise this point, I begin with this point because in many countries there is a deep ambivalence about military action today, no matter what the cause. And at times, this is joined by a reflexive suspicion of America, the world's sole military superpower.
But the world must remember that it was not simply international institutions -- not just treaties and declarations -- that brought stability to a post-World War II world. Whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this: The United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms. The service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform has promoted peace and prosperity from Germany to Korea, and enabled democracy to take hold in places like the Balkans. We have borne this burden not because we seek to impose our will. We have done so out of enlightened self-interest -- because we seek a better future for our children and grandchildren, and we believe that their lives will be better if others' children and grandchildren can live in freedom and prosperity.
So yes, the instruments of war do have a role to play in preserving the peace. And yet this truth must coexist with another -- that no matter how justified, war promises human tragedy. The soldier's courage and sacrifice is full of glory, expressing devotion to country, to cause, to comrades in arms. But war itself is never glorious, and we must never trumpet it as such.
So part of our challenge is reconciling these two seemingly inreconcilable truths -- that war is sometimes necessary, and war at some level is an expression of human folly. Concretely, we must direct our effort to the task that President Kennedy called for long ago. "Let us focus," he said, "on a more practical, more attainable peace, based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions." A gradual evolution of human institutions.
What might this evolution look like? What might these practical steps be?
To begin with, I believe that all nations -- strong and weak alike -- must adhere to standards that govern the use of force. I -- like any head of state -- reserve the right to act unilaterally if necessary to defend my nation. Nevertheless, I am convinced that adhering to standards, international standards, strengthens those who do, and isolates and weakens those who don't.
The world rallied around America after the 9/11 attacks, and continues to support our efforts in Afghanistan, because of the horror of those senseless attacks and the recognized principle of self-defense. Likewise, the world recognized the need to confront Saddam Hussein when he invaded Kuwait -- a consensus that sent a clear message to all about the cost of aggression.
Furthermore, America -- in fact, no nation -- can insist that others follow the rules of the road if we refuse to follow them ourselves. For when we don't, our actions appear arbitrary and undercut the legitimacy of future interventions, no matter how justified.
And this becomes particularly important when the purpose of military action extends beyond self-defense or the defense of one nation against an aggressor. More and more, we all confront difficult questions about how to prevent the slaughter of civilians by their own government, or to stop a civil war whose violence and suffering can engulf an entire region.
I believe that force can be justified on humanitarian grounds, as it was in the Balkans, or in other places that have been scarred by war. Inaction tears at our conscience and can lead to more costly intervention later. That's why all responsible nations must embrace the role that militaries with a clear mandate can play to keep the peace.
America's commitment to global security will never waver. But in a world in which threats are more diffuse, and missions more complex, America cannot act alone. America alone cannot secure the peace. This is true in Afghanistan. This is true in failed states like Somalia, where terrorism and piracy is joined by famine and human suffering. And sadly, it will continue to be true in unstable regions for years to come.
The leaders and soldiers of NATO countries, and other friends and allies, demonstrate this truth through the capacity and courage they've shown in Afghanistan. But in many countries, there is a disconnect between the efforts of those who serve and the ambivalence of the broader public. I understand why war is not popular, but I also know this: The belief that peace is desirable is rarely enough to achieve it. Peace requires responsibility. Peace entails sacrifice. That's why NATO continues to be indispensable. That's why we must strengthen U.N. and regional peacekeeping, and not leave the task to a few countries. That's why we honor those who return home from peacekeeping and training abroad to Oslo and Rome; to Ottawa and Sydney; to Dhaka and Kigali -- we honor them not as makers of war, but of wagers -- but as wagers of peace.
Let me make one final point about the use of force. Even as we make difficult decisions about going to war, we must also think clearly about how we fight it. The Nobel Committee recognized this truth in awarding its first prize for peace to Henry Dunant -- the founder of the Red Cross, and a driving force behind the Geneva Conventions.
Where force is necessary, we have a moral and strategic interest in binding ourselves to certain rules of conduct. And even as we confront a vicious adversary that abides by no rules, I believe the United States of America must remain a standard bearer in the conduct of war. That is what makes us different from those whom we fight. That is a source of our strength. That is why I prohibited torture. That is why I ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed. And that is why I have reaffirmed America's commitment to abide by the Geneva Conventions. We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend. (Applause.) And we honor -- we honor those ideals by upholding them not when it's easy, but when it is hard.
I have spoken at some length to the question that must weigh on our minds and our hearts as we choose to wage war. But let me now turn to our effort to avoid such tragic choices, and speak of three ways that we can build a just and lasting peace.
First, in dealing with those nations that break rules and laws, I believe that we must develop alternatives to violence that are tough enough to actually change behavior -- for if we want a lasting peace, then the words of the international community must mean something. Those regimes that break the rules must be held accountable. Sanctions must exact a real price. Intransigence must be met with increased pressure -- and such pressure exists only when the world stands together as one.
One urgent example is the effort to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, and to seek a world without them. In the middle of the last century, nations agreed to be bound by a treaty whose bargain is clear: All will have access to peaceful nuclear power; those without nuclear weapons will forsake them; and those with nuclear weapons will work towards disarmament. I am committed to upholding this treaty. It is a centerpiece of my foreign policy. And I'm working with President Medvedev to reduce America and Russia's nuclear stockpiles.
But it is also incumbent upon all of us to insist that nations like Iran and North Korea do not game the system. Those who claim to respect international law cannot avert their eyes when those laws are flouted. Those who care for their own security cannot ignore the danger of an arms race in the Middle East or East Asia. Those who seek peace cannot stand idly by as nations arm themselves for nuclear war.
The same principle applies to those who violate international laws by brutalizing their own people. When there is genocide in Darfur, systematic rape in Congo, repression in Burma -- there must be consequences. Yes, there will be engagement; yes, there will be diplomacy -- but there must be consequences when those things fail. And the closer we stand together, the less likely we will be faced with the choice between armed intervention and complicity in oppression.
This brings me to a second point -- the nature of the peace that we seek. For peace is not merely the absence of visible conflict. Only a just peace based on the inherent rights and dignity of every individual can truly be lasting.
It was this insight that drove drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights after the Second World War. In the wake of devastation, they recognized that if human rights are not protected, peace is a hollow promise.
And yet too often, these words are ignored. For some countries, the failure to uphold human rights is excused by the false suggestion that these are somehow Western principles, foreign to local cultures or stages of a nation's development. And within America, there has long been a tension between those who describe themselves as realists or idealists -- a tension that suggests a stark choice between the narrow pursuit of interests or an endless campaign to impose our values around the world.
I reject these choices. I believe that peace is unstable where citizens are denied the right to speak freely or worship as they please; choose their own leaders or assemble without fear. Pent-up grievances fester, and the suppression of tribal and religious identity can lead to violence. We also know that the opposite is true. Only when Europe became free did it finally find peace. America has never fought a war against a democracy, and our closest friends are governments that protect the rights of their citizens. No matter how callously defined, neither America's interests -- nor the world's -- are served by the denial of human aspirations.
So even as we respect the unique culture and traditions of different countries, America will always be a voice for those aspirations that are universal. We will bear witness to the quiet dignity of reformers like Aung Sang Suu Kyi; to the bravery of Zimbabweans who cast their ballots in the face of beatings; to the hundreds of thousands who have marched silently through the streets of Iran. It is telling that the leaders of these governments fear the aspirations of their own people more than the power of any other nation. And it is the responsibility of all free people and free nations to make clear that these movements -- these movements of hope and history -- they have us on their side.
Let me also say this: The promotion of human rights cannot be about exhortation alone. At times, it must be coupled with painstaking diplomacy. I know that engagement with repressive regimes lacks the satisfying purity of indignation. But I also know that sanctions without outreach -- condemnation without discussion -- can carry forward only a crippling status quo. No repressive regime can move down a new path unless it has the choice of an open door.
In light of the Cultural Revolution's horrors, Nixon's meeting with Mao appeared inexcusable -- and yet it surely helped set China on a path where millions of its citizens have been lifted from poverty and connected to open societies. Pope John Paul's engagement with Poland created space not just for the Catholic Church, but for labor leaders like Lech Walesa. Ronald Reagan's efforts on arms control and embrace of perestroika not only improved relations with the Soviet Union, but empowered dissidents throughout Eastern Europe. There's no simple formula here. But we must try as best we can to balance isolation and engagement, pressure and incentives, so that human rights and dignity are advanced over time.
Third, a just peace includes not only civil and political rights -- it must encompass economic security and opportunity. For true peace is not just freedom from fear, but freedom from want.
It is undoubtedly true that development rarely takes root without security; it is also true that security does not exist where human beings do not have access to enough food, or clean water, or the medicine and shelter they need to survive. It does not exist where children can't aspire to a decent education or a job that supports a family. The absence of hope can rot a society from within.
And that's why helping farmers feed their own people -- or nations educate their children and care for the sick -- is not mere charity. It's also why the world must come together to confront climate change. There is little scientific dispute that if we do nothing, we will face more drought, more famine, more mass displacement -- all of which will fuel more conflict for decades. For this reason, it is not merely scientists and environmental activists who call for swift and forceful action -- it's military leaders in my own country and others who understand our common security hangs in the balance.
Agreements among nations. Strong institutions. Support for human rights. Investments in development. All these are vital ingredients in bringing about the evolution that President Kennedy spoke about. And yet, I do not believe that we will have the will, the determination, the staying power, to complete this work without something more -- and that's the continued expansion of our moral imagination; an insistence that there's something irreducible that we all share.
As the world grows smaller, you might think it would be easier for human beings to recognize how similar we are; to understand that we're all basically seeking the same things; that we all hope for the chance to live out our lives with some measure of happiness and fulfillment for ourselves and our families.
And yet somehow, given the dizzying pace of globalization, the cultural leveling of modernity, it perhaps comes as no surprise that people fear the loss of what they cherish in their particular identities -- their race, their tribe, and perhaps most powerfully their religion. In some places, this fear has led to conflict. At times, it even feels like we're moving backwards. We see it in the Middle East, as the conflict between Arabs and Jews seems to harden. We see it in nations that are torn asunder by tribal lines.
And most dangerously, we see it in the way that religion is used to justify the murder of innocents by those who have distorted and defiled the great religion of Islam, and who attacked my country from Afghanistan. These extremists are not the first to kill in the name of God; the cruelties of the Crusades are amply recorded. But they remind us that no Holy War can ever be a just war. For if you truly believe that you are carrying out divine will, then there is no need for restraint -- no need to spare the pregnant mother, or the medic, or the Red Cross worker, or even a person of one's own faith. Such a warped view of religion is not just incompatible with the concept of peace, but I believe it's incompatible with the very purpose of faith -- for the one rule that lies at the heart of every major religion is that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
Adhering to this law of love has always been the core struggle of human nature. For we are fallible. We make mistakes, and fall victim to the temptations of pride, and power, and sometimes evil. Even those of us with the best of intentions will at times fail to right the wrongs before us.
But we do not have to think that human nature is perfect for us to still believe that the human condition can be perfected. We do not have to live in an idealized world to still reach for those ideals that will make it a better place. The non-violence practiced by men like Gandhi and King may not have been practical or possible in every circumstance, but the love that they preached -- their fundamental faith in human progress -- that must always be the North Star that guides us on our journey.
For if we lose that faith -- if we dismiss it as silly or naïve; if we divorce it from the decisions that we make on issues of war and peace -- then we lose what's best about humanity. We lose our sense of possibility. We lose our moral compass.
Like generations have before us, we must reject that future. As Dr. King said at this occasion so many years ago, "I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the 'isness' of man's present condition makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal 'oughtness' that forever confronts him."
Let us reach for the world that ought to be -- that spark of the divine that still stirs within each of our souls. (Applause.)
Somewhere today, in the here and now, in the world as it is, a soldier sees he's outgunned, but stands firm to keep the peace. Somewhere today, in this world, a young protestor awaits the brutality of her government, but has the courage to march on. Somewhere today, a mother facing punishing poverty still takes the time to teach her child, scrapes together what few coins she has to send that child to school -- because she believes that a cruel world still has a place for that child's dreams.
Let us live by their example. We can acknowledge that oppression will always be with us, and still strive for justice. We can admit the intractability of deprivation, and still strive for dignity. Clear-eyed, we can understand that there will be war, and still strive for peace. We can do that -- for that is the story of human progress; that's the hope of all the world; and at this moment of challenge, that must be our work here on Earth.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
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22) New U.S. Jobless Claims Rise, Trade Gap Narrows
By REUTERS
December 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/12/10/business/business-us-usa-economy.html
Filed at 1:22 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose more than expected last week, but a surprise narrowing in the trade gap in October indicated the economy remained firmly on a steady growth path.
Initial claims for state unemployment insurance rose 17,000 to 474,000 last week, after five straight weeks of declines, the Labor Department said on Thursday.
The rise in claims was blamed on seasonal layoffs in industries such as construction and a rebound in applications that had been held back during the Thanksgiving holiday week.
Analysts, who had expected claims to climb but only to 460,000, said the gain did not alter the trend toward labor market stability. Instead, they focused on a 14th straight drop in a four-week average of claims, which hit the lowest since September last year.
In another report, the Commerce Department said the U.S. trade deficit shrank 7.6 percent to $32.9 billion in October as a weak dollar helped boost exports. Analysts had expected the gap to widen to about $36.8 billion.
"The recovery is sustaining its moderate momentum. The concern has been it would lose momentum and relapse in the way of a double-dip recession. I don't see anything in this or recent data suggesting this," said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh.
The reports helped lift U.S. stock prices. In afternoon trade, the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was up about 60 points or nearly 0.6 percent.
In another boost to the economy, U.S. households' net worth -- the difference between the value of assets and liabilities -- rose $2.7 trillion to $53.4 trillion in the third quarter, Federal Reserve data showed.
The second consecutive quarterly increase in household wealth could be a confidence booster for consumers shouldering the burden of high unemployment.
"The increase in household net worth will prove to have a positive psychological impact on households that will likely lead to more spending in 2010," said Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group in Princeton, New Jersey.
Analysts said the unexpected narrowing in the trade gap, combined with a report on Wednesday showing wholesalers started restocking in October, improved the chances of the economy expanding at a more brisk pace in the fourth quarter than the 2.8 percent annualized rate seen in the July-September period.
Paul Dales, a U.S. economist at Capital Economics in Toronto, said trade could contribute around 1 percentage point to fourth quarter gross domestic product after subtracting 0.8 percentage point in the third quarter.
WORLD TRADE GROWING
In a sign that world trade is slowly shaking off the effects of the global financial crisis, U.S. exports of goods and services hit their highest level since November 2008. Imports also touched their highest point since last December.
The smaller-than-expected trade gap is good news for the Obama administration, which sees export growth as an avenue for creating jobs.
With the U.S. unemployment rate hovering at its highest levels in a quarter century, the weak jobs market is a political sore point for Obama and his fellow Democrats.
Still, the jobs market does appear to be recovering. A report last week showed the jobless rate edged down to 10 percent in November from a 26-1/2-year high of 10.2 percent, while employers cut the fewest jobs since recession struck in December 2007.
Even though jobless claims rose last week, applications for benefits have dropped from lofty levels in March. The four-week average, which provides a better view of underlying trends, dropped to 473,750 last week from 481,500 the prior week.
Analysts said that was a clear signal the economy would soon start creating the much needed jobs to fuel the recovery.
"I believe when we get down below 450,000, you are in a position where you're going to get some payrolls jobs growth. We are on the cusp," said PNC Financial Services' Hoffman.
The number of workers still collecting benefits after an initial week of aid dropped 303,000 to 5.16 million in the week ended November 28, the lowest level since February. The decline, however, was largely due to people exhausting their benefits and moving to emergency unemployment programs.
"These developments seem to be consistent with the broad sense that new layoffs are slowing significantly, but those who lost their jobs during the recession are still finding it very difficult to get work,' said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at RBS in Greenwich, Connecticut.
"The labor market is starting to stabilize, but the level of unemployment is very high."
The insured unemployment rate, which measures the percentage of the insured labor force that is jobless, fell to 3.9 percent in the week ended November 28 -- the lowest since February -- from 4.1 percent the previous week.
(Editing by James Dalgleish)
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23) Judge Finds Pentagon in Contempt in Gitmo Case
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/12/10/us/politics/AP-US-Gitmo-Contempt.html
Filed at 2:08 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge on Thursday ruled the Defense Department in contempt of court for failing to videotape the testimony of a Guantanamo Bay detainee so that the public and the news media could see it.
U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler is demanding a detailed explanation of why the Pentagon failed to follow her directions and tape the testimony of Mohammed Al-Adahi of Yemen. He testified June 23 in a challenge to his indefinite detention at the prison in Cuba.
In court papers, the government said the Defense Department inadvertently failed to tell the command at Guantanamo Bay to videotape the proceedings.
In August, Kessler ordered the government to ''take all necessary and appropriate diplomatic steps'' to facilitate Al-Adahi's release. The government is appealing Kessler's decision.
The judge said she wanted the testimony videotaped so as much of it as possible could be provided to the public and the news media.
Al-Adahi testified that he attended al-Qaida's Al Farouq training camp for seven to 10 days out of curiosity and was expelled for disobeying rules.
Al-Adahi readily acknowledged having met Osama bin Laden on two occasions and admitted that perhaps his relatives were bodyguards and enthusiastic followers of bin Laden, the judge wrote in her ruling in August.
The judge said, however, that ''sensational and compelling as it may appear,'' that does not constitute reliable evidence to justify the government detaining Al-Adahi, who has been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2002.
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24) Poll Finds Slim Majority Back More Afghanistan Troops
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and DALIA SUSSMAN
December 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/world/asia/10poll.html?ref=world
WASHINGTON - A bare majority of Americans support President Obama's plan to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, but many are skeptical that the United States can count on Afghanistan as a partner in the fight or that the escalation would reduce the chances of a domestic terrorist attack, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
In the wake of the president's address last week explaining his decision, the poll found a 10 percentage point increase in public approval of Mr. Obama's handling of the war in Afghanistan since last month, to 48 percent. But the shift reflects a twist on the political polarization that has marked much of Mr. Obama's first year in office: Republican and independent voters are rallying behind Mr. Obama as he presses for the troop escalation, while Democrats remain decidedly cool to his war plans.
The poll showed a steady slide in support for Mr. Obama as he approaches the end of his first year in office. His job approval rating has now hit 50 percent, the lowest yet in this poll; it was 68 percent at its peak in April. The percentage of Americans who approve of his handling of the economy has dropped to 47 percent from 54 percent in October. And 42 percent approve of the way he is handling health care, down five percentage points in the last few months.
Mr. Obama has spent much of the past three months trying to rally support for a health care bill and formulating a plan for Afghanistan. But in the poll, 12 percent of respondents said health care was the biggest problem facing the nation, while just 2 percent named Afghanistan. Nearly 50 percent listed the economy or jobs.
Questioning for the survey began on Friday, the day the government announced a decline in the unemployment rate to 10 percent from 10.2 percent and a sharp drop-off in the rate of job loss in November, and as the White House embarked on an effort to present Mr. Obama as focused on the economy and jobs.
The support for Mr. Obama's Afghanistan policy is decidedly ambivalent, and the nation's appetite for any intervention is limited. Over all, Americans support sending the troops in by 51 percent to 43 percent, while 55 percent said setting a date to begin troop withdrawals was a bad idea.
Nearly 6 in 10 respondents said they did not want troops to remain there for more than two years; that includes 32 percent who said troops should leave within a year. Mr. Obama said that he would begin withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan in July 2011, but the administration has said the time it takes to withdraw would be contingent on conditions on the ground.
Just under half thought the United States would succeed in what Mr. Obama said was a central mission: preventing terrorists from using Afghanistan as a base of support, while 39 percent said they thought an increased effort in Afghanistan would make the United States safer from a domestic terrorist attack.
The poll also found that despite Mr. Obama's address to the nation last week, in which he sought to lay out a justification for the mission, nearly half of the respondents said that he had not clearly explained his plan.
The poll underscores the extent to which Mr. Obama has defied Democrats on the war. About two-thirds of Republicans support the troop escalation, while 53 percent of Democrats oppose it. Conversely, most Republicans oppose Mr. Obama's proposal to set a date to start pulling out troops, while Democrats applaud it.
The percentage of Republicans who approve of Mr. Obama's Afghanistan policy has increased 19 percentage points since November to 42 percent; 55 percent of Democrats approved, little-changed since last month.
The poll was conducted by telephone from Friday through Tuesday night, with 1,031 respondents, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.
The poll suggested a divide between Democrats who approve of Mr. Obama's job performance over all, even as they are upset with Afghanistan, and Republicans who disapprove of Mr. Obama's job performance over all, even if they are happy with what he is doing in Afghanistan.
"We've got to chase the Taliban out and end the war in Afghanistan, and we can't do that unless we have more troops there than we have now," Elizabeth Ledwith, 77, a Republican from Glenside, Pa., said in a follow-up interview.
But, Ms. Ledwith added: "Over all, I disapprove because Obama is putting us in terrible debt for years down the road by giving away all this money. Whenever anything happens, he throws a few more billion dollars at it."
By contrast, Karen Herald, 67, a Democrat from Corvallis, Ore., said she liked that Mr. Obama was "not George Bush."
"I think he presents a really good face for America," Ms. Herald said.
But, she said: "I think he's dealing with the kind of situation that no amount of military troops will help. I'm uneasy about sending more troops because I think the war is probably not winnable."
More than 80 percent of Democrats said they approved of Mr. Obama's job performance, compared with 19 percent of Republicans and 45 percent of independents.
Nearly 70 percent of Republicans said the United States was doing the right thing by fighting in Afghanistan; fewer than half of the Democrats shared that view. Over 60 percent of Republicans said the additional troops would make the United States safer from terrorism, compared with 28 percent of Democrats.
Megan Thee-Brennan and Marina Stefan contributed reporting.
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25) Petraeus Warns of a Long and Expensive Mission in Afghanistan
By MARK LANDLER
December 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/world/asia/10policy.html?ref=world
WASHINGTON - America's involvement in Afghanistan could stretch on for years and cost upward of $10 billion annually just to finance an adequate Afghan security force, the overall commander in the region told Congress on Wednesday.
Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the commander, Gen. David H. Petraeus, one of the military's most influential generals, estimated that building and maintaining a combined army and police force of 400,000 - a size that American commanders believe may eventually be needed to fully secure the country - would cost more than $10 billion a year.
"There's no question, as President Karzai was highlighting yesterday, that Afghanistan will require substantial international funding for years to come in a whole host of different areas, not the least of which is their security forces," said General Petraeus, the commander of the military's Central Command, which oversees operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Pakistan and other regional trouble spots.
On Tuesday, President Hamid Karzai, at a news conference with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, said Afghanistan would not be able to pay for its own security until at least 2024, an assertion that surprised Mr. Gates and drew expressions of concern from senators of both parties.
"We're talking about $150 billion, just on the security side, before we get to the development side," said Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey. He pressed the general on whether he concurred with Mr. Karzai's timetable, but the general did not give a clear-cut answer.
"That depends on how rapidly, obviously, they can generate more revenue," he said. "But certainly it is going to be years before they can handle the bulk of the security tasks and allow the bulk of our troopers to redeploy."
This was General Petraeus's first appearance before Congress to defend the new Afghanistan policy, and he referred several times to his experience in Iraq, where he was the architect of the so-called surge.
"Achieving progress in Afghanistan will be hard, and the progress there will likely be slower in developing than was the progress in Iraq," General Petraeus said. But, he insisted, "Afghanistan is no more hopeless than Iraq was when I took command there in February 2007."
The general testified with the deputy secretary of state for management and resources, Jacob J. Lew, who helps direct the civilian effort in Afghanistan, and the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl W. Eikenberry. Ambassador Eikenberry, a retired lieutenant general, testified on Tuesday with the American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal.
The two diplomats defended the administration's development efforts in Afghanistan, saying they would hold Mr. Karzai to his promises to crack down on corruption by steering aid to ministries or district officials with a proven record of good conduct.
But Mr. Lew, under tough questioning by Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, Democrat of Maryland, conceded that there were limits to the ability of the United States to change the behavior of Mr. Karzai or other leaders. "Holding them accountable does not mean that a year from now or five years from now there will be zero corruption in Afghanistan," Mr. Lew said.
The committee's chairman, Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, pressed General Petraeus and Mr. Lew about how the United States planned to develop closer links to the Pakistani military and government.
"What happens in Pakistan, particularly near the Afghan border, will do more to determine the outcome in Afghanistan than any increase in troops or shift in strategy," he said.
But none of the three offered many concrete examples of how the administration could exercise leverage over the Pakistani military or government.
General Petraeus acknowledged that pouring more troops into Afghanistan would raise the risk of driving more militants across the border into Pakistan, where they could further destabilize that country.
"That is why we're working very hard to coordinate our operations more effectively with our Pakistani partners, so that they know what our operational campaign plan is, and can anticipate and be there with a catcher's mitt, or an anvil, whatever it may be, to greet these individuals," he said.
Mr. Lew laid out an extensive program of civilian assistance, including earthquake relief aid and efforts to strengthen the Pakistani electrical grid. He also said the United States wanted to forge closer ties with provincial officials, something it had not done adequately in the past.
It was left to General Petraeus to answer a blunt question from Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut: Is Pakistan's embattled president, Asif Ali Zardari, in danger of being forced from office?
"I don't see the prospect or the desire for anyone to change civilian rule," the general said.
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