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Saturday, April 11, 2:00 p.m.
Letter of Invitation to the April 11 Teach-In Organizing Meeting
OPEIU Local 3
1050 South Van Ness #201 (upstairs) -- between 21st St. & 22nd St.
Please let us know ASAP if you can attend the April 11 teach-in organizing meeting. We are asking folks to please RSVP by replying to
- Money for jobs and social services, not for war
- Tax the rich/progressive taxation
- Single payer healthcare for all
- Pass the Employee Free Choice Act
- Immediate moratorium on foreclosures and evictions
- No more bailouts for Wall Street -- bail out working people
- Stop the ICE raids and deportations
Dear Bay Area Sisters and Brothers:
On behalf of the San Francisco Labor Council, the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council, and the Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign (WERC), we would like to invite you to a meeting to plan a teach-in to be held on May 9th in San Francisco on the economic crisis and the need for a worker-community recovery plan.
The teach-in organizing meeting will be held Saturday, April 11 at 2 p.m. at the office of OPEIU Local 3 in the Mission District of San Francisco. The address is 1050 South Van Ness #201 (upstairs) -- between 21st St. & 22nd St.
The May 9 teach-in is framed by the set of demands approved by San Francisco Labor Council delegates in mid-January and by the Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign. They are as follows:
- Money for jobs and social services, not for war
- Tax the rich/progressive taxation
- Single payer healthcare for all
- Pass the Employee Free Choice Act
- Immediate moratorium on foreclosures and evictions
- No more bailouts for Wall Street -- bail out working people
- Stop the ICE raids and deportations
These demands were recently endorsed by the California Federation of Teachers at their convention. They are widely supported by labor and community organizations across the country.
It is our desire that the teach-in provide a forum that will reflect the needs and concerns of all of those being negatively impacted by the crisis. To this end, the planning meeting is being convened as a space for us to come together, share ideas, and begin to forge a common action program for moving forward. Within the overall framework of developing a progressive response to the crisis, and the conviction that any stimulus and bailout must serve working people, not Wall Street, our intention is for the agenda for May 9th to be decided through a process of open discussion and identification of common points of concern.
We hope to come out of May 9th with a set of agreed actions, including a mass mobilization, and the establishment of joint labor-community committees to build an ongoing and pro-active response to the crisis.
It is imperative that we unite in this moment of deepening crisis. We sincerely hope you can join us to plan for the May 9th event -- which will be held at the Plumbers Hall in San Francisco: 1621 Market St. @ Franklin St. from 1 to 5 p.m.
Please let us know ASAP if you can attend the April 11 teach-in organizing meeting. We are asking folks to please RSVP by replying to
In solidarity,
Alan Benjamin, Conny Ford, Fred Hirsch, Bill Leumer, Denis Mosgofian and Tim Paulson
On behalf of the Teach-in Planning Committee
Initial List of invited groups, individuals, and organizations:
All Bay Area Labor Councils and their affiliated unions, all unions affiliated with San Francisco Labor Council, and all Council community-based allies that have partnered with the SF Labor Council in joint political campaigns.
Also:
Council of Community Housing Organizations
Community Housing Partnership
Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center
Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation
Chinatown Community Development Corporation
South of Market Community Action Network
St. Peter's Housing Committee
Mission Economic Development Agenda
La Raza Centro Legal
San Francisco Day Laborers
Dolores Street Community Services
Chinese Progressive Association
POWER
San Francisco Tenants Union
Housing Rights Committee
Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth
San Francisco Child Care Providers Association
Harvey Milk Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Democratic Club
Bernal Heights Democratic Club
PODER
ACORN
San Francisco Organizing Project
Women of Color Resource Center
East Bay Housing Organizations
Just Cause
Representatives from the offices of Supervisors Avalos, Daly, Mar, Campos,
Mirkarimi, and Chiu
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Celebrate the release of the new book by Mumia Abu-Jamal:
"Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners vs. the USA"
Friday, April 24th (Mumia's birthday!), 6:30 P.M.
Humanist Hall
411 - 28th Street, Oakland
$25.00 donation or what you can afford.
Featuring:
Angely Y. Davis
Mistah F.A.B.
Lynne Stewart
Tory Serra
Avotcja
Kiilu Nyasha
JR Minister of Information POCC
Ed Mead
Tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia
Molotov Mouths
Prison Radio, 415-648-4505
www.prisonradio.org
www.mumia.org
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4/26/2009 SF Speak-out and Video With UE Chicago Republic Workers And Screening
Sunday April 26, 2006 2:00 PM
ILWU Local 34
2nd St and Embarcadero on the left side of AT&T Park
The UE Republic workers of Chicago who occupied their factory to demand their pay and compensation as a result of their factories closure will be speaking and screening a labor film of their occupation on Sunday April 26, 2009 at 2:00 PM in San Francisco at ILWU Local 34 next to AT&T at 2nd St & Embarcadero St. in San Francisco.
The meeting which is being hosted by ILWU Local 34 and also sponsored by Laborfest.net, UPWA.info, Transport Workers Solidarity Committee and other unions and organizations will be the first eye witness report of this important event which electrified the US labor movement. As a result of protests throughout the country including San Francisco at the Bank Of America, the workers won their demands. Bay area workers who are in struggle will also speak at this forum.
To endorse, support or to get more information about this labor solidarity event contact
(415)282-1908 or lvpsf@labornet.org
YouTube - Angry Laid-off Workers Occupy Factory in Chicago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNIQ1-ghsPs
http://www.ueunion.org/uerepublic.html
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Write a letter to Congress today!
'Right to Travel to Cuba' bills introduced in Congress
Thousands of people are writing to tell Congress: End the travel ban to Cuba. A "Right to Travel to Cuba" bill has been introduced in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The bill is simple and self-explanatory: it would end all restrictions on travel from the United States to Cuba. The bill has received bipartisan support, and already has 123 co-sponsors in the House, and 20 in the Senate.
President Obama has proposed lifting travel restrictions on Cuban-Americans. These bills call for the lifting of travel restrictions for all people in the United States. The travel restrictions are part of the larger economic blockade of Cuba. The blockade, which uses food and medicine as a weapon against the Cuban people, must be brought to an end as well.
Please take a moment right now to write members and Congress and tell them you support these important bills. We suggest the following letter, but by clicking this link, you can customize it however you like.
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=239
I fully support the Right to Travel to Cuba bills, H.R.874 and S.428, that were introduced in Congress, Feb. 2009. Polls show a strong majority of Americans support a lifting of the travel ban.
It is time that this policy--which harms those in Cuba as well as those in the United States--come to an end.
It is a welcome development that President Obama is lifting restrictions on travel to Cuba for Cuban-Americans, as well as the right to send remittances to their loved ones in Cuba.
Now Congress has the opportunity, and responsibility, to extend that right to all citizens and residents of the United States.
Please act today and become a co-sponsor of H.R.874 or S.428. If you have already done so, I appreciate your positive and just action on behalf of my right to travel to Cuba.
Please take a moment right now and forward this email to your friends and family members and on social networking sites. Thank you!
In Solidarity,
ANSWER Coalition
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ARTICLES IN FULL:
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1) U.S. GOVERNMENT SPENT 37.3 CENTS OF EVERY 2008 FEDERAL TAX DOLLAR
ON MILITARY; ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY AND SCIENCE SPLIT 2.8 CENTS
For Immediate Release
Contact: Jo Comerford, Executive Director
413.584.9556 (o); 413.559.1649 (c)
http://www.nationalpriorities.org/taxday2009
2) Police Shoved Man Who Died During G-20 Protests
By MATTHEW SALTMARSH
April 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/world/europe/09protest.html?ref=world
3) Fidel Castro Meets 3 U.S. Lawmakers
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 7, 2009
Filed at 9:26 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/04/07/world/AP-CB-Cuba-US.html?ref=world
4) Too Old for Foster Care, and Facing the Recession
By JULIE BOSMAN
April 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/nyregion/08foster.html?ref=nyregion
5) Contractors Reach Deal on Destroyer
By CHRISTOPHER DREW
"Pentagon officials had estimated that the first of the new destroyers, also known as the Zumwalt class, would cost $3.3 billion, with additional ships costing at least $2.5 billion each if the Navy had built the 10 that were originally planned. But if only the three are built, independent analysts said, various economies of scale would be lost, and the average cost could rise to $5 billion or more."
April 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/business/09defense.html?ref=business
6) The seven Congress members who are visiting us
By Fidel Castro Ruz
Granma.cu, "Reflections of Fidel,"
April 6, 2009
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2009/april/mar7/Reflections-6april.html
7) Thousands flee bomb attacks by US drones
Daud Khattakin and Christina Lamb
From The Sunday Times
April 5, 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middleeast/article6036512.ece
8) Obama to seek $83.4 billion for Iraq, Afghan wars
By ANDREW TAYLOR - 10 minutes ago
April 9, 2009
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gTwALhA-6u9xoToe67OlHgdxXsfQD97F6AJG1
9) Texas: New Charges for Cuban Militant
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Southwest
April 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/us/09brfs-NEWCHARGESFOBRF.html?ref=world
10) 'Avoiding defeat' in Afghanistan: Old strategy, new warPentagon save-face efforts come at expense of Afghan people, U.S. soldiers
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org
http://www.answersf.organswer@answersf.org
2489 Mission St. Rm. 24
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
11) Tesla Motors CEO Unplugged
By David Needle
April 9, 2009
www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3814526
12) In a Downturn, More People Act as Their Own Lawyers
By JONATHAN D. GLATER
April 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/business/10lawyer.html?_r=1&hp
13) Police Storm New School Building and Arrest 19
By Colin Moynihan AND Sewell Chan
April 10, 2009, 10:05 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/students-occupy-new-school-building-again/?hp
14) With Advocates' Help, Squatters Call Foreclosures Home
By JOHN LELAND
April 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/us/10squatter.html?hp
15) Obama Seeks Quick Approval of More Money for Overseas Military Operations
"...White House officials said one final supplemental war bill was necessary because the legislation passed under the Bush administration provided only enough money to pay for the conflicts [Iraq and Afghanistan] through mid-year. 'The alternative to the supplemental is a sudden and precipitous withdrawal of the United States from both places,' Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said at a news conference with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. 'And I don't know anybody who thinks that's a good idea.'"
By CARL HULSE
April 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/us/politics/10military.html?ref=world
16) Campus Still Split After Jury Sides With Professor
[Readers should read the following article to get the truth about Mr. Churchill's so-called academic misconduct at:
Ward Churchill Redux
April 5, 2009, 10:00 pm
By Stanley Fish
http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/ward-churchill-redux/ ]
By DAN FROSCH
April 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/education/10churchill.html?ref=education
17) Obama, Who Vowed Rapid Action on Climate Change, Turns More Cautious
By JOHN M. BRODER
April 11, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/11/us/politics/11climate.html?ref=us
18) Besieged Detroit Schools Face Closings and Layoffs
By NICK BUNKLEY
April 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/us/10detroit.html?ref=education
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1) U.S. GOVERNMENT SPENT 37.3 CENTS OF EVERY 2008 FEDERAL TAX DOLLAR
ON MILITARY; ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY AND SCIENCE SPLIT 2.8 CENTS
For Immediate Release
Contact: Jo Comerford, Executive Director
413.584.9556 (o); 413.559.1649 (c)
http://www.nationalpriorities.org/taxday2009
U.S. GOVERNMENT SPENT 37.3 CENTS OF EVERY 2008 FEDERAL TAX DOLLAR
ON MILITARY; ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY AND SCIENCE SPLIT 2.8 CENTS
The United States can do better! It's time to "close the spigot" of defense spending.
NORTHAMPTON, MA - As taxes come due on April 15, taxpayers can take stock of how the federal government spent each 2008 income tax dollar: 37.3 cents went towards military-related spending, while environment, energy and science-related projects split 2.8 cents, according to a new analysis released by National Priorities Project (NPP).
In its annual release, Where Do Your Tax Dollars Go?, NPP offers a breakdown of how the federal government spent the median income family's 2008 tax payments in each state and 200 cities.
According to National Priorities Project, 37.3 cents for military-related spending breaks down as follows: 29.4 cents for current military and war spending coupled with 7.9 cents for military-related debt. At 3.8 cents of each dollar, veterans' benefits receive similar proportions of a federal tax dollar as housing and community programs and food-related programs.
"The first page of our tax publication offers a look at Bush-era spending. The second page - focused on the environment, energy and science - looks forward to promising Obama administration shifts," notes Jo Comerford, Executive Director of National Priorities Project. "Funding for the environment, energy and science decreased relative to budget spending as a whole during the Bush presidency, while President Obama's February overview of his first budget indicates these priorities are likely to change."
Comerford continues, "Secretary Gates has begun ringing in 'the new day for defense spending' heralded by President Obama by cutting Cold War weapons systems, putting others on hold for further review and promising greater budget oversight. Yet, the total U.S. military budget continues to exceed $600 billion annually, making it imperative that we take a closer look at Pentagon spending in the months ahead - especially now as Congress and the Obama administration begin preparing for the Quadrennial Defense Review."
National Priorities Project is the leading source for the cost of the Iraq War, offering breakdowns of the cost by state, city and congressional district. Spring 2009 releases include a calculation of war costs for Afghanistan and Iraq and associated trade-offs based on analyses of the $75.5 billion FY2009 war supplemental and the $130 billion allocated for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars allocated in the FY2010 defense budget. Visit www.nationalpriorities.org for more information.
The National Priorities Project (NPP) is a 501(c)(3) research organization that analyzes and clarifies federal data so that people can understand and influence how their tax dollars are spent. Located in Northampton, MA, since 1983, NPP focuses on the impact of federal spending and other policies at the national, state, congressional district and local levels. For more information, go to http://nationalpriorities.org.
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2) Police Shoved Man Who Died During G-20 Protests
By MATTHEW SALTMARSH
April 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/world/europe/09protest.html?ref=world
A video released on the Internet on Tuesday showed that a man who died of a heart attack during protests in London last week had been pushed aggressively to the ground by a police officer.
The release of the video sparked immediate reaction from politicians, and the home secretary said a criminal investigation might be warranted.
The man, Ian Tomlinson, 47, a newspaper vendor, had been present during the protests against the Group of 20 meeting in London last week. A police statement released soon after the episode on April 1 had made no mention of any police contact with him.
In a statement Wednesday, London's highest ranking police officer, the commissioner for the Metropolitan Police, Sir Paul Stephenson, said: "The images that have now been released raise obvious concerns and it is absolutely right and proper that there is a full investigation into this matter, which the Met will fully support."
The investigation is now in the hands of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, or I.P.C.C., which investigates complaints about police conduct.
The I.P.C.C. confirmed Wednesday that it had received the footage, originally obtained by The Guardian newspaper. The Guardian said the video had been shot by a bystander during the protests.
"We are now in the process of analyzing it, along with the other evidence we have obtained on the case," it said in a statement. "We continue to call for witnesses to the incident."
A spokesman for the I.P.C.C. declined to elaborate on the timetable of the investigation.
The home secretary, Jacqui Smith, called for the inquiry to be completed "as quickly as possible." She said a criminal investigation could follow if the I.P.C.C. thought one was needed, The Press Association reported.
The video has been posted on YouTube. It shows Mr. Tomlinson walking in front of a police line, with his hands in his pockets; he does not speak to the police. It then shows him being shoved from behind by a police officer in riot gear and falling to the ground.
Mr. Tomlinson then sits up, looking dazed. After the incident, he suffered a heart attack and died.
Mr. Tomlinson's stepson, Paul King, 27, told the B.B.C. that the family wanted "justice." He said his father, who sold copies of the London Evening Standard newspaper for a living, had not been a protester and had merely been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Mr. Tomlinson's death has stoked anger about police heavy-handedness among protest groups that were present at the demonstration.
The conduct of London's police force has been closely scrutinized since the death of Jean Charles De Menezes, a Brazilian bystander who was shot dead by the police during a counterterrorism operation at the Stockwell subway station in 2005.
"This video clearly shows an unprovoked attack by a police officer on a passer-by. It is sickening," David Howarth, who represents the opposition Liberal Democrats on justice issues, said in a statement Wednesday.
Mr. Howarth had attended the protests to monitor police behavior.
"There must be a full-scale criminal investigation," he added. "The officer concerned and the other officers shown in the video must immediately come forward."
"Questions must also be asked about the hyping up of the prospect of violence in the run up to the demonstrations. An atmosphere was created in which this sort of conduct became more likely."
Chris Grayling, the Conservative Party's domestic affairs spokesman, said the revelations were "extremely alarming and leave big questions to be answered by the police."
"The inquiry must be completed quickly so that any further appropriate action can be taken."
The Guardian said it had a dossier including a sequence of photographs and witness statements from people in the area at the time, some of whom said they saw police officers attack Tomlinson. It said it had handed the documents to the police complaints commission.
The police deployed approximately 5,000 officers on April 1, the day before the G-20 meeting, and a similar number on April 2, the day of the gathering, which centered around the ExCel center near Canary Wharf in east London.
In the build-up to the gathering, protesters smashed the windows of a Royal Bank of Scotland building in London.
The police cited "isolated incidents of violence and disruption" on April 1 and arrested 86 people that day, with 32 arrests the following day.
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3) Fidel Castro Meets 3 U.S. Lawmakers
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 7, 2009
Filed at 9:26 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/04/07/world/AP-CB-Cuba-US.html?ref=world
HAVANA (AP) -- Signaling its willingness to discuss improved relations with the U.S., Cuba on Tuesday granted three visiting members of the Congressional Black Caucus the first meeting with Fidel Castro by American officials since he fell ill in 2006.
Caucus leader Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., said she found Castro ''very healthy, very energetic, very clear thinking'' during his nearly two-hour session with the lawmakers. She said caucus members also visited his home and met his wife.
The surprise encounter came a day after the full delegation of six representatives spent more than four hours talking privately with Cuban President Raul Castro, his first encounter with U.S. officials since formally replacing his brother as head of state nearly 14 months ago.
And it comes as Washington discusses whether to warm up long-chilly relations with Cuba. President Barack Obama has ordered an assessment of U.S. policy toward the communist nation and some members of Congress are pushing to lift a ban on Americans visiting the island.
''We believe it is time to open dialogue and discussion with Cuba,'' Lee told a news conference in Washington upon the caucus members' return. ''Cubans do want dialogue. They do want talks. They do want normal relations.''
Lee said the group would present its findings to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D.-Calif., and White House and State Department officials.
Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Calif., who also met Fidel with Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., said Castro ''looked directly into our eyes'' and asked how Cuba could help Obama in his efforts to change the course of U.S. foreign policy. Richardson said she had the impression that 82-year-old Fidel wants to see changes in U.S.-Cuba relations in his lifetime.
Fidel Castro has not been seen in public since undergoing emergency intestinal surgery in July 2006 and it was his first meeting in several years with American officials. Although he gave up his presidential duties after becoming ill, he remains an influential force in Cuba.
Among the last U.S. officials to see him face-to-face were state governors visiting the island separately on farm trade missions in 2005: Dave Heineman of Nebraska and Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana.
Lee's group was in Cuba five days on a trip meant to encourage dialogue between the United States and Cuba.
Jeffrey Davidow, the White House adviser for this month's Summit of the Americas, which Obama will attend, says the U.S. president has no plans to lift the 47-year-old trade embargo against Cuba. But he says Obama will soon ease travel and financial restrictions affecting the island as his administration reviews its Cuban policy.
Lee's delegation is sympathetic to Cuba, with most of its members openly praising the country's communist government while decrying U.S. policy.
Before the meeting with Fidel Castro was revealed, Lee said her group's talks with Raul Castro left lawmakers ''convinced that President Castro sees normalization of relations and an end to the embargo as a benefit to both countries.''
Raul Castro ''said everything was on the table,'' Lee added.
In commentaries Monday in state news media, Fidel Castro said that Cuba is not afraid to talk directly to the United States and that the Cuban government does not thrive on confrontation as its detractors have long claimed. He also welcomed the visit by the U.S. lawmakers.
Opponents of the Castro government have long argued that while Cuban officials publicly call for an end to the trade embargo, they strive to antagonize Washington so it will keep the sanctions in place. The critics say Cuban leaders want to be able to blame the country's problems -- from restricted public Internet access to chronic food shortages -- on trade sanctions.
A member of the visiting U.S. delegation, Rush of Illinois, said he found the 77-year-old Raul Castro ''to be just the opposite of what is being portrayed in the media.''
''I think that what really surprised me, but also endeared me to him, was his keen sense of humor, his sense of history and his basic human qualities,'' Rush said, adding that they talked about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and promised to send Fidel a book on the late civil rights leader.
''They want to have the kind of relationship they had prior to the blockade. They deserve that,'' Rush said of the Castros.
The American lawmakers were ''in conversation with him as though we were old family members,'' said Rush, who was once a Black Panther.
''I intend to do everything that I can when we get back to the States to make sure that normalization with our relationship with Cuba is given proper consideration both within the House of Representatives and the neighborhoods of America,'' Rush added.
Bills in both houses of the U.S. Congress would effectively bar any president from prohibiting Americans from traveling to Cuba except in extreme cases such as war.
Lee predicted the measures will be approved, but said that will not spell the end of the trade embargo.
''This would be a wonderful step, allowing American citizens the right to travel to Cuba, but much would follow after that,'' she said in an interview.
The lawmakers' meeting with Raul Castro touched on few specific issues, especially thorny ones like Cuba's checkered human rights record.
''We did not come to negotiate, we came to associate and cultivate,'' said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri.
Lee said the legislators would use their visit to prepare a report for Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the situation in Cuba.
''Our basic message back to our country would be, it's time to talk to Cuba,'' Lee said. ''The time is now.''
Asked about the lawmakers' trip, before the session with Fidel Castro was reported, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said members of Congress are free to go where they want and to discuss issues with world leaders.
''And I'm sure that the members of that delegation will be raising some of the concerns that the U.S. government has with Cuba in terms of allowing Cubans to have the same rights and freedoms as (citizens of) other countries in the hemisphere,'' Wood said.
Associated Press Writer Jim Abrams in Washington contributed to this report.
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4) Too Old for Foster Care, and Facing the Recession
By JULIE BOSMAN
April 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/nyregion/08foster.html?ref=nyregion
Even in boom times, young people who become too old for the foster-care system often struggle to make it on their own, lacking families, job skills or adequate educations. Now, the recession has made the challenges of life after foster care even more formidable, especially for those seeking federal housing vouchers, which are contingent on having an income.
Since the beginning of this year, the city's Administration for Children s Services has been providing letters to those about to leave the foster care system, certifying that they are likely to be eligible for public assistance and thus easing the application process when they are ready. Yet, many child-welfare advocates worry that a growing number will still end up homeless.
They get a lot of resources until they re 21, and then essentially none, said James J. Golden, the executive director of the Edwin Gould Academy in East Harlem, which provides housing exclusively to former foster children. It s like falling off a cliff for some of them.
In New York, foster children are allowed to leave the system when they turn 18 but can stay until 21; last year, 407 wards turned 21, while 547 opted out early 375 at age 18, and 172 at 19 or 20.
Once discharged from the system, some move in with family or friends, get jobs or go to college. Others apply for welfare as their sole source of income, and often end up homeless.
Administrators at the Chelsea Foyer at the Christopher, which houses dozens of former and current foster youths, said that typically, 90 percent of their residents were employed, but that in February only 70 percent had jobs.
They are the low man on the totem pole for jobs anyway, said Jerome Kilbane, the executive director of Covenant House New York, a nonprofit that operates shelters for young people. Now they are even more at a disadvantage.
Michael Smith, 20, said he was increasingly anxious as he approached the day in August that he will have to leave his foster home in Brooklyn. He has been searching for work since October, leaving rÈsumÈs at places like McDonald s and the clothing stores Express and H & M.
Mr. Smith graduated from high school in Queens in 2006 and went to Kingsborough Community College, but he dropped out after his sickle-cell anemia caused him to miss class frequently.
I m coming up to my 21st birthday, when I m no longer going to be supported, Mr. Smith said. I feel overlooked all the times I do go apply for these jobs. But I have to do this, or else I ll be out on the street.
Officials at the Administration for Children s Services say they do everything possible to avert that, including the letters that help smooth the application process for public assistance.
The child-welfare agency and the 36 foster-care groups with which it contracts begin to prepare children for independence as early as age 14. There are workshops on budgeting, job hunting, how to sign up for health insurance and how to negotiate with a landlord over rent.
At age 19, foster youths begin to talk to caseworkers about housing options, which commonly include Section 8 vouchers, public housing projects and supportive housing, where counseling and job training might be available on site.
The Administration for Children s Services provides a one-time stipend of $750 as a cushion to foster youths when they exit the system. They are also eligible for a monthly payment of $300 from the city, from the time the leave foster care until they are 21 Ω, if they are not receiving any other public housing subsidy, such as Section 8.
Most of those leaving foster care are entitled to Section 8, which typically allows tenants to rent apartments for one-third of their monthly income. But that means they need income to qualify. And with unemployment rates in New York rising precipitously, foster-care workers are worried.
To be honest, I m afraid that our youth are really going to be unable to secure housing, said Jane Feyder, the assistant director at the New York Foundling Fontana Center for Child Protection. They don t have the work experience that other people have who are looking for jobs right now. They re competing with so many other people who have advantages over them.
Even advocates for foster youth acknowledge that they are a particularly difficult group to employ.
Many lack high school diplomas, having spent adolescence being shuttled from home to home. The responsibilities of a first job can come as a shock, and many quit out of frustration.
A year ago, if they d lose one $9- an-hour job, there was usually another one that we could find them, Mr. Golden said. Now it s a little more costly to become unemployed.
One of the former foster children in his care, Jessica Molina, landed a job in January 2008, working in computer technology at Merrill Lynch. She was laid off in June when the company downsized, and has been working at temporary jobs since.
Like everyone else, I have my fingers crossed that I ll find something, Ms. Molina, 22, said. But looking at the gaps in her rÈsumÈ, she is often reminded of the constant moves between group homes she endured during her teenage years. Sometimes you re looked at as a castaway, she said. It s like coming from a totally different place.
Brenda Tully, the program director for Chelsea Foyer at the Christopher, said residents have been laid off or seen their hours reduced at jobs in gyms, nightclubs and clothing stores.
There s a much greater fear among the young people about what to expect, Ms. Tully said. They are very, very concerned that they re not going to be able to find housing that s affordable.
Stephany Diaz, a housing specialist for New York Foundling, one of the city's largest foster-care agencies, said she has begun prodding youths to apply for public assistance once they are officially discharged from care.
I used to discourage them to go down that route, she said. But now we almost have to.
Since 2002, the Administration for Children s Services has tried to move teenagers out of group homes and into foster care, hoping that when the time comes to leave, the children would have families to turn to.
We want children to leave care with a loving, caring and supportive adult who s going to continue to work with them long past their 21st birthday, said Lorraine Stephens, a deputy commissioner at the Administration for Children s Services. We don t want any kid to leave without someone connected to them.
But many children have tenuous connections to foster families, at best.
Mr. Smith, whose aunt is his foster parent, said staying with her after his 21st birthday is not an option. She s moving in with her boyfriend, he said.
Melissa Diaz, 19, left the foster care system more than a year ago, shortly after her foster mother died. Ms. Diaz later moved to Covenant House, and after nearly three months of searching found a job stocking shelves at Duane Reade.
She is training to become a nursing assistant and trying to earn enough money to become independent and afford housing on her own. That would be great, she said. It would be a blessing from God.
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5) Contractors Reach Deal on Destroyer
By CHRISTOPHER DREW
"Pentagon officials had estimated that the first of the new destroyers, also known as the Zumwalt class, would cost $3.3 billion, with additional ships costing at least $2.5 billion each if the Navy had built the 10 that were originally planned. But if only the three are built, independent analysts said, various economies of scale would be lost, and the average cost could rise to $5 billion or more."
April 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/business/09defense.html?ref=business
Two military contractors, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman, agreed on Wednesday to a Pentagon deal that would clear the way for the Navy's multibillion-dollar stealth destroyers to be built at General Dynamics' shipyard in Maine, Pentagon officials said.
Northrop Grumman, which had expected to build one of the DDG-1000 destroyers at its shipyard in Mississippi, will contribute major components for all three vessels. It will also receive contracts for two other destroyers as the Navy restarts production of an earlier model.
Stock analysts said the deal, pushed by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, appeared to be to the benefit of both contractors.
"Mr. Gates delivered a gift to the shipbuilders," said Loren B. Thompson, a military consultant and the chief operating officer of the Lexington Institute, a research group.
Military officials said the precise financial arrangements still needed to be worked out.
Pentagon officials had estimated that the first of the new destroyers, also known as the Zumwalt class, would cost $3.3 billion, with additional ships costing at least $2.5 billion each if the Navy had built the 10 that were originally planned.
But if only the three are built, independent analysts said, various economies of scale would be lost, and the average cost could rise to $5 billion or more.
Still, in proposing a range of cuts in arms programs on Monday, Mr. Gates said he would build only one of the destroyers if General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman did not agree to have all three built at Bath Iron Works in Maine.
Mr. Gates said it would have been far too costly and inefficient to have both shipyards gear up to be the lead contractor.
Representative Gene Taylor, a Democrat from Mississippi and the chairman of a House seapower subcommittee, said the deal was also good for Northrop Grumman because it ensured that the company was "aligned with where the Navy sees its future."
Under the plan, Northrop Grumman will restart production of the DDG-51, also known as the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, at its Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., and build the first two vessels. General Dynamics will build the third once it completes work on the DDG-1000s at the Bath Iron Works, and the companies would split any subsequent orders.
Military analysts have estimated that the DDG-51s could cost an average of $1.5 billion to $2 billion each, depending on how many are eventually built.
Navy officials had originally embraced the shift to the DDG-1000, in part because it will have new types of radars, designed by Raytheon, that allow it to make precise scans in relatively cluttered areas near coastlines as well as at sea. That capability was designed to fit the Navy's increasing emphasis on operating in shallower, coastal waters.
But as the cost estimates rose, Navy officials began backing away from the new ship last year, saying they could no longer afford it.
Still, the DDG-1000 had substantial political support from Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat from Massachusetts, where Raytheon is based, and other legislators from New England who were concerned about losing jobs at the Maine shipyard.
Mr. Gates also said on Monday that the Navy would gradually slow the production of aircraft carriers, with the number dropping to 10, from 11, after 2040. His proposals included advance money for expanding construction of the Virginia-class submarines to two each year, starting in fiscal 2011, from one now.
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6) The seven Congress members who are visiting us
By Fidel Castro Ruz
Granma.cu, "Reflections of Fidel,"
April 6, 2009
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2009/april/mar7/Reflections-6april.html
AN important US political delegation is visiting us right now. Its members belong to the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) which, in practice, has functioned as the most progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
The Congressional Black Caucus was founded in January 1969 by the 12 African-American legislators who were members of the U.S. Congress at that moment. During the first 50 years of the 20th century only four African Americans were elected to Congress.
Presently, as a result of the struggles they have waged, the CBC has 42 members. Several of its representatives have maintained very active and constructive positions on Cuba-related topics.
The first Caucus delegation visited us in February 1999 and was headed by Maxine Waters; the second came in January 2000.
Influential members of that Congressional group publicly expressed their positions and carried out other positive actions during the battle for the return of young Elián to his homeland.
In May 2000, another Caucus delegation visited us. It was presided over by the then Caucus President James Clyburn, from North Carolina, and was made up of Bennie Thompson from Mississippi and Gregory Meeks from New York. These congressmen were the first to learn from me of Cuba's disposition to grant a number of scholarships to low-income youths, to be selected by the Congressional Black Caucus, so that they could come to Cuba and study medicine. We made a similar offer to the "Pastors for Peace" NGO, which is presided over by Reverend Lucius Walker, who sent the first students to the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM).
When the anti-Cuban pressures and activities of the Bush administration were intensified with respect to travel and the presence in Cuba of persons under U.S. jurisdiction, Black Caucus legislators addressed Secretary of State Colin Powell and managed to secure a license that legally allowed American youths to continue their medical studies - which they had already begun - in Cuba.
Powell, a military chief of great authority and prestige, could possibly have become the first black president of the United States, but he turned down the nomination out of respect for his family who, on account of the assassination of Martin Luther King, strongly opposed his nomination.
The Black Caucus delegation visiting Cuba this time is headed by Barbara Lee, the representative of the state of California. She first traveled to Cuba accompanying the then black Congressman Ronald Dellums. She was his assistant and afterwards occupied his seat when he retired. On that occasion I had the honor of meeting her and admiring her combative spirit and capacity for struggle.
The group she is presiding over right now is made up by seven members of Congress. The other members of the delegation are: Melvin Luther Watt, from North Carolina; Michael Makoto Honda, from California; Laura Richardson, also from California; Bobby Rush, from Illinois; Marcia L. Fudge, from Ohio; and Emanuel Cleaver II, from Missouri.
Patrice Willoughby, executive assistant of the Congressional Black Caucus, plus four military personnel from the Congressional Liaison Office under the orders of Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Wolf, are accompanying the delegation.
I value the gesture of this legislative group. They have been strictly adhering to the program they requested. The aura of Luther King is accompanying them. Our press has given broad coverage of their visit. They are exceptional witnesses to the respect that U.S. citizens visiting our homeland always receive. It is unlikely that they have seen any face displaying a look of hatred, and perhaps they admire the total absence of illiterate people or children shining shoes on the streets. The swarms of children, teenagers and youths attending schools and universities; the day-care centers, senior citizens homes, hospitals and polyclinics run by highly skilled medical staff offering assistance to all citizens will not be lost to a critical eye. In the midst of this international economic crisis there are no citizens queuing in search of jobs. People walking through the streets, active and almost always happy, do not conform to the stereotyped images of Cuba that are often shown abroad.
Our homeland demonstrates that a small Third World country, which has been besieged, attacked and blockaded for decades, can bear its poverty with dignity. Many citizens in the world's richest nation do not receive the same kind of treatment and a considerable number of them do not even vote. However, that right is exercised by more than 90% of our population, who know how to read and write and who have acquired a significant level of culture and political knowledge.
Within the delegation, there are opinions which are shared by all; others are personal points of view. Generally speaking, its members believe that 68% of the U.S. population favors a change of policy toward Cuba.
One of them expressed the need to take advantage of this historical moment, when the presence of an African-American president in the White House coincides with a current of opinion that favors the normalization of relations.
When Alarcón commented that removing Cuba from the list of terrorist states -on which it is arbitrarily included - was a moral duty, he was reminded that both Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress were labeled as terrorists by the U.S. Congress.
Another member of the delegation thanked the Cuban authorities and the presidency of the Black Caucus for organizing the trip and maintaining this kind of exchange.
Another representative explained Obama's tremendous significance for the United States and the need for him to be reelected. He said that the president sees himself as a political leader who should govern all social sectors of the country. Nevertheless, he said he was sure that Obama would change Cuba policy, but that Cuba should also help him.
A fourth member of the Caucus said that despite Obama's electoral victory, U.S. society is still racist. He added that Obama represents the only opportunity that nation has to move forward and leave behind all the wrongdoings accumulated by former governments. He said that the president cannot go beyond lifting travel restrictions and allowing remittances by Cuban-Americans, because announcing an end to the blockade or the full normalization of bilateral relations would mean that he would never be reelected. He also confirmed that the anti-Cuban right wing still has enough power to attack him and prevent his reelection.
Finally, speaking frankly during a visit to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, another legislator stated that the United States should not waste the opportunity of acknowledging that its Cuba policy has been a total failure. He added that his government should apologize to Cuba for all these years of hostility and for the blockade, because only then will we be in a position to move on together towards resolving the bilateral dispute. He affirmed that he would do whatever is possible to eliminate the blockade.
During a visit to the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center, one CBC member, expressing the sentiments of the others, described Cuba's results in the field of biotechnology as "excellent," and said that, at this moment in time, the political atmosphere was favorable for building bridges of understanding and communication between the scientific communities of our respective countries. He recommended that we should be careful to patent everything, in line with international copyright standards, to prevent us being robbed of the efforts that led to such wonderful work.
All of them expressed how greatly impressed they were during the visit to the center, where the minister of science, technology and the environment, together with the directors of several scientific institutions, explained to them the work being undertaken by our country in that field.
The main activity on April 4, the day that marked the 41st anniversary of the death of the human rights martyr, was a visit to the park in the Cuban capital named after Martin Luther King, where there is a black-veined dark green marble monolith bearing the bronze embossed image of the great black combatant who was assassinated by racists. Barbara Lee, Laura Richardson, Emanuel Cleaver II and Bobby Rush spoke at the event. The four of them publicly emphasized the positive impact of the meetings they had had.
Yesterday Sunday, at 13:20, Congresswoman Barbara Lee arrived at the Ebenezer Church of the Martin Luther King Center's Ebenezer Church, where she was welcomed by Raúl Suárez and other leaders of the Cuban National Council of Churches. Also present were Alarcón and other officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Prior to that, Barbara visited two other churches in Vedado. She addressed the congregations, reiterating certain previous public statements and stating her intention to take certain steps with the administration in order to promote a change in Cuba policy and the reactivation of exchanges between the churches of both countries.
I have summarized the exchanges that have taken place. I have been careful not to disclose the names of those who have made certain statements, because I do not know whether they are interested in making them public.
I simply wished to offer the necessary details so that our population may have as much information as possible on the sensitive subject of relations between Cuba and the United States under Obama's presidency and the visit of the Black Caucus delegation to Cuba.
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7) Thousands flee bomb attacks by US drones
Daud Khattakin and Christina Lamb
From The Sunday Times
April 5, 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middleeast/article6036512.ece
AMERICAN drone attacks on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan are causing a massive humanitarian emergency, Pakistani officials claimed after a new attack yesterday killed 13 people.
The dead and injured included foreign militants, but women and children were also killed when two missiles hit a house in the village of Data Khel, near the Afghan border, according to local officials.
As many as 1m people have fled their homes in the Tribal Areas to escape attacks by the unmanned spy planes as well as bombings by the Pakistani army. In Bajaur agency entire villages have been flattened by Pakistani troops under growing American pressure to act against Al-Qaeda militants, who have made the area their base.
Kacha Garhi is one of 11 tented camps across Pakistan's frontier province once used by Afghan refugees and now inhabited by hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis made homeless in their own land.
So far 546,000 have registered as internally displaced people (IDPs) according to figures provided by Rabia Ali, spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and Maqbool Shah Roghani, administrator for IDPs at the Commission for Afghan Refugees.
The commissioner's office says there are thousands more unregistered people who have taken refuge with relatives and friends or who are in rented accommodation.
Jamil Amjad, the commissioner in charge of the refugees, says the government is running short of resources to feed and shelter such large numbers. A fortnight ago two refugees were killed and six injured in clashes with police during protests over shortages of water, food and tents.
On the road outside Kacha Garhi camp, eight-year-old Zafarullah and his little brother are among a number of children begging for coins and scraps. "I want to go back to my village and school," he said.
With the attacks increasing, refugees have little hope of returning home and conditions in the camps will worsen as summer approaches and the temperatures soar.
Many have terrible stories. Baksha Zeb lost everything when his village, Anayat Kalay in Bajaur, was demolished by Pakistani forces. His eight-year-old son is a kidney patient needing dialysis and he has been left with no means to pay.
"Our houses have been flattened, our cattle killed and our farms and crops destroyed," he complained. "There is not a single structure in my village still standing. There is no way we can go back."
He sold his taxi to pay for food for his family and treatment for his son but the money has almost run out. "God bestowed me with a son after 15 years of marriage," he said. "Now I have no job and I don't know how we will survive."
Pakistani forces say they have killed 1,500 militants since launching antiTaliban operations in Bajaur in August. Locals who fled claim that only civilians were killed.
Zeb said he saw dozens of his friends and relatives killed. Villagers were forced to leave bodies unburied as they fled.
Pakistani officials say drone attacks have been stepped up since President Barack Obama took office in Washington, killing at least 81 people. A suicide attacker blew himself up inside a paramilitary base in Islamabad, killing six soldiers and wounding five yesterday.
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8) Obama to seek $83.4 billion for Iraq, Afghan wars
By ANDREW TAYLOR - 10 minutes ago
April 9, 2009
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gTwALhA-6u9xoToe67OlHgdxXsfQD97F6AJG1
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama is seeking $83.4 billion for U.S. military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, pressing for special troop funding that he opposed two years ago when he was senator and George W. Bush was president.
Obama's request, including money to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan, would push the costs of the two wars to almost $1 trillion since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to the Congressional Research Service. The additional money would cover operations into the fall.
Obama is also requesting $400 million to upgrade security along the U.S.-Mexico border and to combat narcoterrorists.
Budget office spokesman Tom Gavin said the White House would send an official request to Congress late Thursday.
Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, acknowledged that Obama has been critical of Bush's use of similar special legislation to pay for the wars. He said it was needed this time because the money will be required by summer, before Congress is likely to complete its normal appropriations process.
"This will be the last supplemental for Iraq and Afghanistan. The process by which this has been funded over the course of the past many years, the president has discussed and will change," Gibbs said.
The request is likely to win easy approval from the Democratic-controlled Congress, despite frustration among some liberals over the pace of troop withdrawals and Obama's plans for a large residual force of up to 50,000 troops - about one-third of the force now there - who will train Iraqis, protect U.S. assets and personnel and conduct anti-terror operations.
The outlines of the request were provided in documents presented at a closed-door congressional briefing.
According to the documents, obtained by The Associated Press, the request would fund an average force level in Iraq of 140,000 U.S. troops. It would also finance Obama's initiative to boost troop levels in Afghanistan to more than 60,000 from the current 39,000. And it would provide $2.2 billion to accelerate the Pentagon's plans to increase the overall size of the U.S. military, including a 547,400-person active-duty Army.
Some Democrats were not pleased.
"This funding will do two things - it will prolong our occupation of Iraq through at least the end of 2011, and it will deepen and expand our military presence in Afghanistan indefinitely," said anti-war Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif. "Instead of attempting to find military solutions to the problems we face in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Obama must fundamentally change the mission in both countries to focus on promoting reconciliation, economic development, humanitarian aid, and regional diplomatic efforts."
But House GOP Leader John Boehner of Ohio predicted Republicans would overwhelmingly support the request, provided congressional Democrats don't seek to "micromanage" the war by adding a timeline or other restrictions on the ability of military officials to carry on the fight.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a holdover from the Bush administration, said, "The reality is the alternative to the supplemental is a sudden and precipitous withdrawal of the United States from both places, and I don't know anybody who thinks that's a good idea." He said, "The reality is it would put everything we have achieved in Iraq at tremendous risk, and I believe it would greatly endanger our troops."
Obama was a harsh critic of the Iraq war as a presidential candidate, a stance that attracted support from the Democratic Party's liberal base and helped him secure his party's nomination. He opposed an infusion of war funding in 2007 after Bush used a veto to force Congress to remove a withdrawal timeline from the $99 billion measure.
But he supported a war funding bill last year that also included about $25 billion for domestic programs. Obama also voted for war funding in 2006, before he announced his candidacy for president.
The upcoming request will include $75.8 billion for the military and more than $7 billion in foreign aid. Pakistan, a key ally in the fight against al-Qaida, will receive $400 million in aid to combat insurgents.
The upcoming debate in Congress is likely to provide an early test of Obama's efforts to remake the Pentagon and its much-criticized weapons procurement system. He is requesting four F-22 fighter jets costing about $600 million as part of the war funding package but wants to shut the F-22 program down after that.
The special measure would include $3.6 billion for the Afghanistan National Army.
The White House wants the bill for the president's signature by Memorial Day, said a House Democratic aide.
Obama announced plans in February to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq on a 19-month timetable.
His new request would push the war money approved for 2009 to about $150 billion. The totals were $171 billion for 2007 and $188 billion for 2008, the year Bush increased the tempo of military operations in a generally successful effort to quell the Iraq insurgency.
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9) Texas: New Charges for Cuban Militant
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
National Briefing | Southwest
April 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/us/09brfs-NEWCHARGESFOBRF.html?ref=world
An anti-Castro Cuban militant has been accused in a federal indictment of lying about his involvement in a series of 1997 bombings that targeted tourist spots in Cuba. The man, Luis Posada Carriles, a former operative for the Central Intelligence Agency and United States Army soldier, was indicted on 11 counts, including perjury and obstruction of a federal proceeding. Mr. Posada, 81, had previously been indicted on six counts, including immigration fraud and lying to federal authorities in a bid to become a naturalized American citizen. The indictment, which was filed in El Paso, is the first time he has been accused in the United States of being involved in the bombings. Cuban authorities have long accused Mr. Posada of orchestrating the bombings as well as a deadly 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner. Felipe Millan, a lawyer for Mr. Posada, said his client maintained his innocence. The new indictment charges that Mr. Posada, who is wanted in Venezuela and Cuba in the airline bombing, lied about being involving in "soliciting other individuals to carry out ... bombings in Cuba."
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10) 'Avoiding defeat' in Afghanistan: Old strategy, new warPentagon save-face efforts come at expense of Afghan people, U.S. soldiers
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org
http://www.answersf.organswer@answersf.org
2489 Mission St. Rm. 24
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
The statement below was issued by the ANSWER Coalition
(Act Now to Stop War and End Racism).
The war against the Afghan people has been a catastrophe.
Now the Pentagon's goal-one embraced by President
Obama-is to avoid the appearance of defeat.
The ANSWER Coalition opposes President Obama's decision to send tens of thousands more troops to occupy Afghanistan. This number is likely to grow.
All U.S. forces must be immediately withdrawn from Afghanistan. Afghanistan is a sovereign country and has the right to determine its own destiny. Its people are proud, with a history of resistance to colonial-type occupation going back centuries. The idea that the Afghan people can be brought to heel by the armies of invading foreigners is a fantasy. Although they have been invaded by U.S. and NATO armies and bombed relentlessly for nearly eight years, the people of Afghanistan have never attacked the United States. In the first three months of the invasion, the U.S. Air Force dropped thousands of cluster bombs and used other high-tech weapons against a people so poor that their average life expectancy was 43 years and annual income was less than $300.From October to December 2001 alone, more than 3,500 Afghan civilians were killed in the onslaught-most of them poor farmers who had probably never heard of the World Trade Center.
The Pentagon now says that the war must go on until the resistance is defeated. At the same time as it sends more troops, there are strong hints that the United States is now seeking a new relationship with sectors of the Taliban leadership. Before Sept. 11, 2001, Washington gave tens of millions of dollars in aid to the Taliban government. Although the Taliban was formed in 1994, that group's top leaders fought in a CIA-financed war in Afghanistan that started decades earlier. In the late 1990s, the Taliban gave refuge to Osama Bin Laden and U.S. aid kept flowing. After the Sept. 11 attacks, the Taliban government told the Bush administration that they would consider turning over Bin Laden, but they wanted proof that it was his forces that carried out the attacks.
Instead of providing proof, Bush responded with his "no negotiations" mantra and launched a full-scale invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001. The invasion of Iraq came only 18 months later. Sept. 11 provided a pretext for the Bush team's neoconservative strategy of endless war. War was the preferred option to carry out their fantasy of total American power in all areas of the globe. As with the Iraq invasion, the Bush administration desired the opportunity to militarily smash the existing government in Afghanistan, so as to replace it with a U.S. puppet regime. Control and access to oil and natural gas and other energy resources have far more to do with the U.S. occupations in the Middle East and Central Asia than concern about democracy, women's rights or fighting "terrorism."
The Bush fantasy has been a catastrophe for millions of people, and there is no light at the end of this tunnel. The resistance controls most of the country. Now the Pentagon's goal-one embraced unfortunately by President Obama-is to avoid the appearance of being defeated.
"Avoiding defeat" was the same rationale Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger used to justify the continued war in Vietnam from 1969-1973. Their slogan then was "Peace With Honor." What a sham! Tens of thousands of GI's were sent to their graves and an even larger number of Vietnamese died during this time period so that the politicians and generals would not have to admit that they were wrong.
Thousands more soldiers and marines are being sent now to kill and be killed so the U.S. government and the Pentagon brass can avoid the perception that they "failed to win" the war against the Afghanistan resistance. Thousand more people will go to an early grave so the political elites-in the military and in the civilian government-can avoid the public relations fiasco of having "not won the war." That is neither a good reason to die nor a good reason to keep killing Afghan farmers who only wish to be left alone.
We call on all people in the United States-workers, veterans, active-duty service-members-to stand united against the occupation of Afghanistan. We have nothing to gain from this war-and it comes at our expense. Money for jobs and education, not for war and occupation!
Background to the current conflict
When Afghanistan's 1978 revolution ushered in a new, secular and reform-oriented government, the U.S. government sought to overthrow it in the largest and most expensive covert operation in CIA history.
It was that government in Afghanistan that legalized women's rights, undertook mass literacy programs-including those for girls-and legalized trade unions. But because it called itself "socialist" and had good relations with the USSR (they shared a 1,000-mile-long border), the Afghan government became the focus of an all-out coordinated assault by the CIA and Pentagon starting in 1978. The reason for the murderous covert war against Afghanistan's government was the same as the massive covert war against Nicaragua's Sandinista government that came to power only a year later. Both governments were considered "socialist" and targeted for destruction as part of the U.S. Cold War strategy.
In Nicaragua, the CIA employed the former armies and thugs of the hated Somoza dictatorship to fight against the Sandinistas. In Afghanistan, the CIA and Pentagon employed pro-feudal elements who assassinated thousands of literacy workers and young socialists. Those targeted were going to villages with the message that girls should go to school, and that the centuries-old feudal custom of bride-price should be eliminated. It was during this covert CIA war that Osama Bin Laden and his fighters went onto the CIA payroll. In the popular propaganda presentation in the western corporate media, the CIA's employment, training and supply for pro-feudal elements in Afghanistan, like Osama Bin Laden and others, was in response to the Soviet military intervention into Afghanistan in December 1979. In fact, the real scenario was just the opposite. The Soviets sent in their army to support a socialist government that was likely to be toppled by the CIA-funded war.
The architect of the covert war against Afghanistan was Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's hawkish national security advisor. Brzezinski, in a moment of boastfulness and extreme imperial arrogance, revealed the truth in a 1998 interview that it was the United States' covert war that drew in the Soviet invasion not the other way around. Their goal was to use Afghanistan as a pawn in a larger geo-strategic chessboard. The following is the interview of Brzezinski with the French periodical Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris, 15-21 January 1998:Question: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs ["From the Shadows"], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct? Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec. 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise. Indeed, it was July 3, 1979, that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.
Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke it?
B: It isn't quite that. We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.
Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn't believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don't regret anything today?
B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.
Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?
B: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war? As far as cynicism goes, Washington's feigned concern for the people of Afghanistan, and especially for Afghan women, is hard to top.
The Veterans and Service Members Task Force of the ANSWER Coalition put the escalating war in Afghanistan into the right perspective. They wrote:
"We who have served, or are currently serving, or have had family members in the U.S. military have an obligation to tell the truth and expose the lies that are promoted to win popular support for the Pentagon's varied operations.
"We have served during or fought in its various wars, from World War II to Korea, to Vietnam, to Panama, to the first Iraq war, to Somalia, to Yugoslavia, to the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"Through our individual experiences, we have recognized that the U.S. military interventions today are in the service of imperialism rather than a defense of the people of this country."
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11) Tesla Motors CEO Unplugged
By David Needle
April 9, 2009
www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3814526
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - For a guy who designs and drives cars that go zero to 60 miles-per hour in less than four seconds, Elon Musk is a soft-spoken, thoughtful speaker.
The CEO of Tesla Motors gave a wide-ranging onstage interview here at the Microsoft Research campus, touching on his electric car business and his other "little" venture, Space Explorations Technologies (SpaceX), which develops rockets and spacecraft for missions to Earth's orbit and beyond.
Oh and guess which business is profitable? SpaceX, by a long shot.
"It's doing really well," Musk told moderator Michael Malone at the Churchill Club event. "It's profitable and been cash flow positive for the past two and half years." SpaceX beat out Boeing and Lockheed Martin late last year to land a $1.6 billion contract to resupply the international space station. Musk said he spends about half his time on average between Tesla Motors and SpaceX.
A co-founder of PayPal, Musk made hundreds of millions of dollars when the company was sold to eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) back in 2002 for $1.5 billion. That money was instrumental in funding startups Tesla and SpaceX.
But Musk admitted steering Tesla on the road to success has been a challenge. A few years ago, "Tesla was in a real dire situation," he said. "We'd been selling for $92,000 each and the car was costing $140,000 to make."
A new co-CEO was brought in and, after other changes, he said the company is back on the right track. Musk said Tesla is sold out through October for orders on the Tesla Roadster, an all-electric vehicle that sells for around $100,000 after tax rebates. Production is limited though to about 25 cars a week that are assembled at the company's Menlo Park, Calif. facility which is also a showroom and sales office. He said the company performs high speed tests at nearby Moffet airfield. Tesla will be profitable by mid-year, according to a recent blog post by the CEO.
But Musk is particularly enthusiastic about the Model S that's still in development. The five-passenger sedan will sell for under $50,000. Two back-facing seats in the rear of the all-electric vehicle offers additional sitting for two children. Tesla claims it already has over 500 reservations to buy.
"The Roadster's a good car, the S is a great car," said Musk. He said the company is on track to make the S the first mass-produced electric car. "That will be very historic."
The car is powered by what Musk said is the equivalent of a half a ton of laptop batteries strapped together. He also detailed safety features that prevent the batteries from overheating (including a liquid cooling system) and ensure continued operation.
"It's tricky -- we need a lot of processors," he said.
The Model S will be marketed as an alternative to SUVs. Musk said the cars will be "arguably safer than SUVs" because they have a lower center of gravity with the battery weight down low reducing the chance of the car tipping over.
"It will have a five-star safety rating, which means it has to be built like a Sherman tank," he said. "I'll have my kids in the car. The challenge is to be super safe but not super heavy."
Like an iPhone inside
Musk compared the interior of the Model S to a giant iPhone complete with 3G wireless connectivity. A 17-inch touchscreen in the center console will include standard stereo controls, but also a Linux-based Web browser for accessing YouTube videos and other Web content. "There are some interesting ideas of what we could do like having the system [speak] your e-mail messages while you're driving and respond to voice commands," he said. "Maybe other people will develop applications for it."
By mass-produced, Musk is projecting Tesla will make about 20,000 cars a year and half of those are likely to be sold outside the U.S. "We're not going to kill anything, but we might impinge on the sales of companies like Lexus, Mercedes, Audi," he said.
The Model S will run up to 160 miles without a recharge, though an optional upgrade bumps the range up to 300 miles. Musk said Tesla is considering making the upgrade available for rent for long trips.
Contrary to rumors, Musk said Tesla is not trying to get federal bailout money. "We've taken no government at all so far." He did say Tesla is seeking loans from a federal government program that encourages development of alternative energy vehicles, but he said it has nothing to do with bailout funds.
Fly me to the moon -- and beyond
Musk said he started SpaceX because he's always been interested in "the extension of life beyond Earth," which he compared in importance to creatures leaving the sea for land hundreds of millions years ago.
His first goal is sending a person to Mars by 2020, but admitted there's always risk. Every time a big rocket goes up it's "a $100 million bet when you light the fuse."
Musk is also the chairman and principal shareholder in solar provider SolarCity, but says that business is being well run and he doesn't spend much time on it.
In his rare free time (the 37-year old Musk also has five children), he's considered possible future projects. While it's nothing he's developed or started a business plan on, Musk said he thinks he has some interesting ideas for an electric supersonic plane and construction of a new kind of pre-fabricated highway. With all those ideas percolating in his head, it's surprising the generally low-profile Musk made time for the interview. "When you're in the car business, you have to sell cars," he joked. "Though we have people that do it a lot better than me."
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12) In a Downturn, More People Act as Their Own Lawyers
By JONATHAN D. GLATER
April 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/business/10lawyer.html?_r=1&hp
SAN FRANCISCO - Elise Barros made her way to the front of the courtroom, convinced that the lawsuit against her was a mistake and would be quickly dismissed.
"I don't understand why I'm even here," said Ms. Barros, who was challenging a lender's claim that she owed it more than $7,000. She had repaid the loan, she told the judge in state court in March. "I have proof - documents."
What she did not have was a lawyer.
So the judge sent her and the lender's lawyer into a mediation session, where it became clear that Ms. Barros actually did not have the documents, at least not the right ones. When the judge returned to her case later in the day, he ordered her to come back in three weeks, when the process would begin again.
Financially pressed people like Ms. Barros are representing themselves more and more in court, according to judges, lawyers and courthouse officials across the country, raising questions of how just the outcomes are and clogging courthouses already facing their own budget woes as clerks spend more time helping people unfamiliar with forms, filings and fees.
"We all know that the numbers are through the roof," said James K. Borbely, a circuit court judge in Vermilion County, Ill. "You just look at the courtrooms."
Judges complain that people miss deadlines, fail to bring the right documents or evidence and are simply unprepared for legal proceedings. Such mistakes make it more likely they will fare poorly - no matter the merit of their cases.
Reliable numbers for people representing themselves in noncriminal cases are hard to come by. Nationally there is no tracking system, and each state's court system follows its own rules. Many people hire a lawyer for one phase of a proceeding but then drop them later. (In criminal cases, of course, defendants have a right to an appointed lawyer.)
Records of New York's family courts, in which a vast majority of people appear without a lawyer, are imperfect. But in the first six weeks of this year, nearly 95 percent of litigants in paternity and support cases did not have a lawyer, compared with 88 percent in all of 2008.
Preliminary reports in California, where the total number of nonfamily civil suits for more than $25,000 declined by 8 percent last year, the portion of plaintiffs without a lawyer rose by 22 percent, while defendants representing themselves rose by 36 percent, according to Ronald M. George, the chief justice of California's Supreme Court.
Even though the number of disputes may be on the rise in the economic downturn as people clash with their landlords, creditors and others, Judge George perceives a reluctance to go to court because of the expense.
"People aren't going to court as much anyway because they can't afford counsel," he said. "But those that are proceeding are more likely to represent themselves."
The best evidence of the increase in self-representation could come from individual courthouses, where the shift is evident in growing lines at self-help centers like the one in Superior Court in San Francisco. Tracy Penny, who was filing for divorce, waited there on a bench in the hallway last week to get help with her paperwork.
"I didn't think I would need" a lawyer, Ms. Penny said. But, "money was a factor."
In Travis County, Tex., which includes Austin, the number of unrepresented people seeking help from lawyers on the courthouse staff jumped more than 10 percent in 2008. And in Superior Court in Atlanta, the number of people calling the court's family law information center for help with their cases rose by nearly 1,500 in 2008, to 22,590.
Ms. Barros, who used to work at a call center before she was laid off in September, got some help from a San Francisco bar association program that offers advice on coping with debt collection. She did not try to hire a lawyer; too costly, she said, and not necessary.
This is her second legal tangle with the lender, Household Finance; last year the company sued her over a different $7,000 loan and she ignored the complaint. The lender won a default judgment against her and took more than $10,000 (with interest and fees) out of her bank account. When Household sued her again this summer - over the same loan, she thought - she paid more attention. She said she forgot that she had taken a second $7,000 loan around the same time she took the first one. She collected proof that the money had been taken from her account and filed a handwritten response with the court.
Elizabeth A. MacDonald, Household's lawyer, said that the company filed the second lawsuit because Ms. Barros had taken out another loan by signing a subsequent check she received from the lender in the mail. Ms. Barros did not think that the money from that second check was ever deposited in her bank account and so she did not owe Household anything. But she did not have paperwork to show that.
After the unsuccessful mediation effort, Ms. Barros returned to court this week and was at last prepared to concede that she had received a second check. But in the meantime, she also had at last consulted with a lawyer and concluded that she would file for bankruptcy.
Even people with much higher incomes than Ms. Barros's are going it alone in court, according to courthouse staff.
James M. Mize, presiding judge in Superior Court in Sacramento, recalled receiving a request for a waiver of court fees from a man who earned $4,000 to $5,000 a month. "He's caught in this subprime problem," Judge Mize said of the man, who claimed to be a victim of mortgage-related fraud.
"He had a large mortgage that exploded" and took up 90 percent of his income, Judge Mize said. The judge granted the fee waiver. "He doesn't have the money to pay the filing fee, let alone hire a lawyer."
Courthouse workers also say that people are representing themselves in more complicated cases, involving divisions of complex assets, home foreclosures, houses worth less than a mortgage balance and combinations of these and other problems. Such cases in the past were more likely to involve a lawyer.
Overseeing a proceeding where one or both sides lack lawyers puts a judge in a difficult position: The judge is supposed to be neutral but also has an interest in moving things along.
"If you see a person making a terrible mistake, you can't always jump in and save them," said Judge Borbely, the circuit court judge in Vermilion County, Ill. "You cannot take the role of an advocate."
To ensure fair outcomes, courts must do more to help people navigate the courts, said John T. Broderick, the chief justice of New Hampshire. "If you and I went to the hospital and they said, 'Do you have insurance?' and we don't, and they said, 'There are some textbooks over there with some really good illustrations,' " Judge Broderick said, "we would think that was immoral."
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13) Police Storm New School Building and Arrest 19
By Colin Moynihan AND Sewell Chan
April 10, 2009, 10:05 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/students-occupy-new-school-building-again/?hp
Updated, 12:32 p.m. | Scores of police officers wearing helmets and carrying riot gear stormed a New School building at 65 Fifth Avenue around 11 a.m. Friday, arresting 19 protesters who had occupied the building as part a determined protest aimed at the university's president, Bob Kerrey.
"The Police Department was asked to arrest individuals trespassing on the property," said Paul J. Browne, the department's chief spokesman, who said the operation "was done in a very organized, orderly fashion."
However, students at the scene described a tumultuous situation in which protesters were pepper-sprayed before being placed in handcuffs and loaded by police officers into the back of a white van, around 11:30 a.m.
Witnesses said that the protesters had sought to leave the building by a side door, but were pushed back and pepper sprayed. The witnesses said that several students pushed open a door that exited onto 14th Street, and that police officers stationed outside that door applied pepper spray onto the students in the corridor and slammed the door shut.
"The students tried to open the door," said Kristina Monllose, a sophomore at Eugene Lang College, part of the New School, and a reporter covering the scene for the New School Free Press. "When the students pushed the door open, the police sprayed pepper spray inside and pushed the door closed."
A videotape shot by a freelancer, Brandon Jordan, showed about half a dozen police officers standing near the door on 14th Street when it was pushed open from inside. The footage then shows officers shaking cans of pepper spray as they hold the door back, spraying inside the corridor, and then slamming the door shut. The footage showed an officer, a few moments later, lunging toward Mr. Jordan's camera, before swerving toward a young man standing on the street shouting. In the footage, the officer pushed the man's face and knocked him to the ground before arresting him.
As senior police officials, firefighters and emergency medical technicians looked on, the police officers surged into the building around 11 a.m., carrying bunches of white plastic handcuffs attached to their belts. Moments later, several were seen leaning over the parapet; the banners that the three dozen or so students occupying the building had hung were removed.
"The New School contacted the Police Department and asked us to eject these individuals for trespassing," said Mr. Browne.
He said the New School had asked the Police Department "to arrest the individuals who had trespassed there." Whoever stole the radio might also face robbery charges, he said.
Officers from the Emergency Service Unit cut the chains and then officers from the Manhattan South Task Force entered the building around 11 a.m., and "began to make arrests in an orderly fashion," Mr. Browne said. He added: "Reports that the police used tear gas or mace are false."
He did not, however, immediately address the use of the pepper spray.
Mr. Browne said that the 19 people arrested were to be charged with trespassing; he could not immediately say if they were New School students or not.
The students had occupied the building around 5:30 a.m., planning to stage a takeover similar to one carried out at the university in December. A graduate student who spoke to a reporter at 5:55 a.m. from the outside of the building said, "The students just entered the building, and the police are already here."
Mr. Browne, the police spokesman, said the people who occupied the building ejected a maintenance worker, stole his radio and chained the doors locked.
Around 7 a.m. several dozen students, standing on the sidewalk on Fifth Avenue, erupted into cheers when several masked people appeared on the roof of 65 Fifth Avenue, waving red and black flags and lifting clenched fists in the air. The students on the roof, draped banners over the side of the building that read, "Kerrey and Murtha resign now!"
Police officers were already on hand, and as the morning went on, the numbers increased until dozens of officers stood on all sides of the building and the streets surrounding the building held mazes of metal barricades and yellow police tape. Students on the sidewalks outside the building said they were members of various groups - all of whom were disgruntled with the administration.
A woman who identified herself as Alex Johnson, a fourth-year politics major, said she was a spokeswoman for the students inside, and spoke to a reporter by phone from what she said was an undisclosed location. Asked how long the students intended to remain inside the building she said, "As long as they can."
Asked what it would take to make the students to leave voluntarily, she replied, "It would take Kerrey and Murtha resigning."
Among the students watching from across the street was Andy Folk, 21, a junior at Eugene Lang College, studying fiction and philosophy. "I'm here to show solidarity and support," he said. "We and much of the faculty continue to have no confidence in Bob Kerrey." Mr Folk added that he thought Mr. Kerrey wanted to soften the radical legacy of the school.
As senior police officers and fire official arrived on the scene the masked students on the roof used a megaphone to address the crowd below. One of the masked figures read a lengthy critique of capitalism and contemporary life, which a student below identified as an essay, "On the Poverty of Student Life," that originated at the University of Strasbourg.
By 10:30, the part of Fifth Avenue below 14th Street, as well as adjoining side streets, were filled with city vehicles. There were police vans, an emergency services unit truck and a mobile fire department command center and fire department ambulance. Paramedics stood at the ready and police officers, holding what appeared to be blue prints of the building plans huddled together.
A group of police officers, one holding a sledge hammer, then walked toward the building.
Elsewhere, tensions rose shortly before 11, when a crowd of people rallying in support of the students dashed east on 14th Street, pursued by police. Police officers and about 40 protesters faced off on the south side of 14th street. A line of officers advanced toward the protesters, who retreated towards Union Square, some shouting at the officers.
At the same time, on Fifth Avenue, about 70 police officers wearing visor helmets and carrying long plastic shields lined up in front of the main entrance to 65 Fifth Avenue. An officer made a announcement through a megaphone that police officials said was designed to let students know that officers were about to enter the school.
Other officers on horseback patrolled surrounding blocks where, by 11 a.m., more than 100 police vehicles were parked.
The December takeover lasted about 30 hours. Then, students barricaded themselves inside a ground-floor cafeteria at the building, protesting a host of issues, many connected to the administration of the university's president, Bob Kerrey.
The students adopted a list of eight demands including a greater student voice in university affairs and the resignations of Mr. Kerrey, a former senator from Nebraska; James Murtha, the executive vice president; and Robert Millard, treasurer of the board of trustees, who students said was connected to a private security company working in Iraq.
That action ended after negotiations, but a students group calling itself the New School in Exile promised further disruptions if Mr. Kerrey did not accede to their demand to resign by April 1.
"With their demand still unmet as of this date, students have once again reclaimed this neglected, symbolic building which housed the New School for Social Research," student organizers said in a news release on Friday. "On the 75th anniversary of the University in Exile, New School students are reclaiming the tradition of protest and political action that birthed the university and gave it meaning for generations to come."
Al Baker contributed reporting.
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14) With Advocates' Help, Squatters Call Foreclosures Home
By JOHN LELAND
April 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/us/10squatter.html?hp
MIAMI - When the woman who calls herself Queen Omega moved into a three-bedroom house here last December, she introduced herself to the neighbors, signed contracts for electricity and water and ordered an Internet connection.
What she did not tell anyone was that she had no legal right to be in the home.
Ms. Omega, 48, is one of the beneficiaries of the foreclosure crisis. Through a small advocacy group of local volunteers called Take Back the Land, she moved from a friend's couch into a newly empty house that sold just a few years ago for more than $400,000.
Michael Stoops, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said about a dozen advocacy groups around the country were actively moving homeless people into vacant homes - some working in secret, others, like Take Back the Land, operating openly.
In addition to squatting, some advocacy groups have organized civil disobedience actions in which borrowers or renters refuse to leave homes after foreclosure.
The groups say that they have sometimes received support from neighbors and that beleaguered police departments have not aggressively gone after squatters.
"We're seeing sheriffs' departments who are reluctant to move fast on foreclosures or evictions," said Bill Faith, director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, which is not engaged in squatting. "They're up to their eyeballs in this stuff. Everyone's overwhelmed."
On a recent afternoon, Ms. Omega sat on the tiled floor of her unfurnished living room and described plans to use the space to tie-dye clothing and sell it on the Internet, hoping to save some money before she is inevitably forced to leave.
"It's a beautiful castle, and it's temporary for me," she said, "and if I can be here 24 hours, I'm thankful." In the meantime, she said, she has instructed her adult son not to make noise, to be a good neighbor.
In Minnesota, a group called the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign recently moved families into 13 empty homes; in Philadelphia, the Kensington Welfare Rights Union maintains seven "human rights houses" shared by 13 families. Cheri Honkala, who is the national organizer for the Minnesota group and was homeless herself once, likened the group's work to "a modern-day underground railroad," and said squatters could last up to a year in a house before eviction.
Other groups, including Women in Transition in Louisville, Ky., are looking for properties to occupy, especially as they become frustrated with the lack of affordable housing and the oversupply of empty homes.
Anita Beaty, executive director of the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, said her group had been looking into asking banks to give it abandoned buildings to renovate and occupy legally. Ms. Honkala, who was a squatter in the 1980s, said the biggest difference now was that the neighbors were often more supportive. "People who used to say, 'That's breaking the law,' now that they're living on a block with three or four empty houses, they're very interested in helping out, bringing over mattresses or food for the families," she said.
Ben Burton, executive director of the Miami Coalition for the Homeless, said squatting was still relatively rare in the city.
But Take Back the Land has had to compete with less organized squatters, said Max Rameau, the group's director.
"We had a move-in that we were going to do one day at noon," he said. "At 10 o'clock in the morning, I went over to the house just to make sure everything was O.K., and squatters took over our squat. Then we went to another place nearby, and squatters were in that place also."
Mr. Rameau said his group differed from ad hoc squatters by operating openly, screening potential residents for mental illness and drug addiction, and requiring that they earn "sweat equity" by cleaning or doing repairs around the house and that they keep up with the utility bills.
"We change the locks," he said. "We pull up with a truck and move in through the front door. The families get a key to the front door." Most of the houses are in poor neighborhoods, where the neighbors are less likely to object.
Kelly Penton, director of communications for the City of Miami, said police officers needed a signed affidavit from a property's owner - usually a bank - to evict squatters. Representatives from the city's homeless assistance program then help the squatters find shelter.
To find properties, Mr. Rameau and his colleagues check foreclosure listings, then scout out the houses for damage. On a recent afternoon, Mr. Rameau walked around to the unlocked metal gate of an abandoned bungalow in the Liberty City neighborhood.
"Let the record reflect that there was no lock on the door," Mr. Rameau said. "I'm not breaking in."
Inside, the wiring and sinks had been stripped out, and there was a pile of ashes on the linoleum floor where someone had burned a telephone book - probably during a cold spell the previous week, Mr. Rameau said.
"Two or three weeks ago, this house was in good condition," Mr. Rameau said. "Now we wouldn't move a family in here."
So far the group has moved 10 families into empty houses, and Mr. Rameau said the group could not afford to help any more people. "It costs us $200 per move-in," he said.
Mary Trody hopes not to leave again. On Feb. 20, Ms. Trody and her family of 12 - including her mother, siblings and children - were evicted from their modest blue house northwest of the city, which the family had lived in for 22 years, because her mother had not paid the mortgage.
After a weekend of sleeping in a paneled truck, however, the family, with the help of Take Back the Land, moved back in.
"This home is what you call a real home," Ms. Trody said. "We had all family events - Christmas parties, deaths, funerals, weddings - all in this house."
On a splendid Florida afternoon, Ms. Trody's dog played in the water from a hose on the front lawn. The house had mattresses on the floors, but most belongings were in storage, in case they had to leave again.
"I don't think it's fair living in a house and not paying," Ms. Trody said.
She said the mortgage lender had offered the family $1,500 to leave but was unwilling to negotiate minimal payments that would allow them to stay. She said she and her husband had been looking for work since he lost his delivery job with The Miami Herald.
In the meantime, she said, "I still got knots in my stomach, because I don't know when they're going to come yank it back from me, when they're going to put me back on the streets."
The block was dotted with foreclosed homes.
Three of her neighbors said they knew she was squatting and supported her. One is Joanna Jean Pierre, 32, who affectionately refers to Ms. Trody as Momma.
Ms. Pierre said Ms. Trody was a good neighbor and should be let alone. "That's her house," Ms. Pierre said. "She should be here."
Ms. Trody said that living here before, "I felt secure; I felt this is my home."
"This is where I know I'm safe," she added. "Now it's like, this is a stranger. What's going to happen?"
Even without furniture or homey touches, she talked about the house as if it were a member of her family.
"I know it's not permanently, but we still have these couple days left," she said. "It's like a person that you're losing, and you know you still have a few more days with them."
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15) Obama Seeks Quick Approval of More Money for Overseas Military Operations
"...White House officials said one final supplemental war bill was necessary because the legislation passed under the Bush administration provided only enough money to pay for the conflicts [Iraq and Afghanistan] through mid-year. 'The alternative to the supplemental is a sudden and precipitous withdrawal of the United States from both places,' Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said at a news conference with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. 'And I don't know anybody who thinks that's a good idea.'"
By CARL HULSE
April 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/us/politics/10military.html?ref=world
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration on Thursday asked Congress for quick approval of $83.4 billion to pay for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and other overseas initiatives through Sept. 30.
President Obama has pledged to end the Bush administration's practice of paying for the two wars through special so-called supplemental funding requests instead of including the costs in the annual budget. But White House officials said one final supplemental war bill was necessary because the legislation passed under the Bush administration provided only enough money to pay for the conflicts through mid-year.
"The alternative to the supplemental is a sudden and precipitous withdrawal of the United States from both places," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said at a news conference with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. "And I don't know anybody who thinks that's a good idea."
Senior Congressional officials said the administration was seeking nearly $76 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and to bolster security in Pakistan and an additional $7 billion for diplomatic activities and foreign aid.
Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, said the money was needed for the administration's plan to bolster the United States military presence in Afghanistan and to begin the process in Iraq that will lead to a withdrawal of American combat forces. Administration officials told Congress they would like the money to be approved by Memorial Day.
Though Congress is likely to be receptive to Mr. Obama's request, some Democrats are uneasy about spending significantly more money in Iraq and others worry about getting bogged down in Afghanistan.
Acknowledging heavy Democratic criticism of the Bush administration's exclusion of the supplemental war spending from annual military budgets, Mr. Gibbs said that this request was unavoidable and that it would be the last outside the normal budget process.
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16) Campus Still Split After Jury Sides With Professor
[Readers should read the following article to get the truth about Mr. Churchill's so-called academic misconduct at:
Ward Churchill Redux
April 5, 2009, 10:00 pm
By Stanley Fish
http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/ward-churchill-redux/ ]
By DAN FROSCH
April 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/education/10churchill.html?ref=education
BOULDER, Colo. - A judge has yet to decide whether Ward L. Churchill, the controversial former University of Colorado professor, will get his job back, but on the campus here, some have already made up their minds.
"I don't think he should come back," said Marissa Jaross, a senior anthropology major. Though Ms. Jaross said she believed the university was looking for a way to get rid of him, she added: "I think he's kind of a shoddy academic. I wouldn't look at his work as great, or even worthy of my time."
Barbara Bintliff, a law professor and former chairwoman of the faculty assembly, shared that view.
"Everyone is just aghast at the prospect that he would be back on the faculty," Professor Bintliff said. "I can't imagine how he would function normally or what kind of relationship he could possibly have with the faculty."
Mr. Churchill, the former chairman of the ethnic studies department, caused a national uproar after it came to light in 2005 that he had written an essay referring to some victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as "little Eichmanns." He was fired two years later when a faculty committee concluded that he had plagiarized and falsified parts of his scholarly work on the persecution of American Indians.
Last week, a Denver jury determined that he had been wrongfully dismissed because of his political views, though he was awarded only $1 in damages.
Sometime in the coming months, Judge Larry J. Naves of Denver District Court will either reinstate Mr. Churchill to his tenured position, as his lawyer is requesting, or order the university to pay Mr. Churchill an annual salary for a period of time.
While faculty members initially leapt to defend Mr. Churchill's right to free speech after his essay came to light, support for him eroded after the faculty report.
"The guy is a liar," said Elizabeth Dunn, an associate professor of geography and international affairs. "It is really hard to conceive of working collaboratively with somebody that doesn't share the fundamental values of honesty and truthfulness in scholarship."
Still, there are those who feel that Mr. Churchill deserves to be back in the lecture hall.
"I would welcome his return to campus," said Margaret LeCompte, an education professor who said she had always thought the university wanted to get rid of Mr. Churchill because of his comments about Sept. 11.
"He is a well-respected teacher, even by students who disagree with him - the kind of a person who should be at a university, where a dialogue of controversial ideas can be held in a safe environment," Professor LeCompte said.
Among students, many of whom were not enrolled when the controversy first exploded, there is less familiarity with the nuances of the case but strong feelings nonetheless.
"I really hope for his presence back on campus," said Vince Amezcua, a junior ethnic studies and psychology major. "I've heard a lot of good things about him, and I know he has a ton of good ideas he could bring forth."
But Rachel Kimmel, a senior international affairs and psychology major, countered: "I definitely don't want him to come back. What he said was terrible and egregious, but the plagiarism alone is reason enough for him not to be a faculty member."
David Lane, Mr. Churchill's lawyer, said reinstatement was more important than any financial settlement.
"The symbolism of Ward Churchill walking back into the classroom after having his civil rights violated in a McCarthy-like manner is overwhelmingly powerful," Mr. Lane said.
Ken McConnellogue, a university spokesman, said Thursday that the institution was "strongly opposed" to Mr. Churchill's returning and would fight to keep him from doing so.
"The things he was found to have engaged in by his faculty peers is behavior that we can't have from our faculty or our students," Mr. McConnellogue said.
Mr. Churchill remains as defiant as ever. In an interview, he said he was not looking for money, despite an article in The Daily Camera, a Boulder newspaper, which reported his saying he would settle for $1 million.
Mr. Churchill said that he was speaking hypothetically, and that his goal was to get his job back.
"Being restored to the position not only signals pretty clearly that the findings of the so-called jury of my peers were fraudulent," Mr. Churchill said, referring to the faculty committee's report. "It also restores me to the implied integrity and dignity of my rank."
As for the possibility of being ostracized by some faculty members, Mr. Churchill said, "If somebody is uncomfortable with my being in that environment, they are free to leave."
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17) Obama, Who Vowed Rapid Action on Climate Change, Turns More Cautious
By JOHN M. BRODER
April 11, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/11/us/politics/11climate.html?ref=us
WASHINGTON — President Obama came to office promising swift and comprehensive action to combat global climate change, and the topic remains a surefire applause line in his speeches here and abroad.
Yet the administration has taken a cautious and rather passive role on the issue, proclaiming broad goals while remaining aloof from details of climate legislation now in Congress.
The president’s budget initially included roughly $650 billion in revenue over 10 years from a cap-and-trade emissions plan that he wants adopted. But the administration, while insisting that its health care initiative be protected, did not fight to keep cap-and-trade in the budget resolutions that Congress passed last week, and it wound up in neither the House’s version nor the Senate’s.
Overseas, American officials are telling their counterparts that they need time to gauge the American public’s appetite for an ambitious carbon reduction scheme before leading any international effort.
Has the administration scaled back its global-warming goals, at least for this year, or is it engaged in sophisticated misdirection?
Maybe some of both. While addressing climate change appears to be slipping down the president’s list of priorities for the year, he is holding in reserve a powerful club to regulate carbon dioxide emissions through executive authority.
That club takes the form of Environmental Protection Agency regulation of the gases blamed for the warming of the planet, an authority granted the agency by the Supreme Court’s reading of the Clean Air Act. Administration officials consistently say they would much prefer that Congress write new legislation to pre-empt the E.P.A. regulatory power, but they are clearly holding it in reserve as a prod to reluctant lawmakers and recalcitrant industries and as evidence of good faith to other nations.
Industry lobbyists and members of Congress who are engaged in writing energy and global warming bills say they are well aware of the E.P.A. process bearing down on them.
“Once the Supreme Court declared carbon dioxide to be a pollutant under the Clean Air Act, E.P.A. had no choice but to act,” said Representative Rick Boucher, a moderate Democrat from a coal-producing region of Virginia. “Most people would rather have Congress act. We can be more balanced; we can take into account the effects on the economy. But if we don’t undertake this, E.P.A. certainly will.”
Still, the agency’s regulations would take months to write and years to become fully effective. Meanwhile, Congress is already starting work on energy and climate legislation, though without significant guidance from the White House, at least in public.
Carol M. Browner, the White House coordinator of energy and climate policy, issued a surprisingly bland statement last week when two top House Democrats unveiled a far-reaching plan to cap greenhouse gases and move the nation toward an economy less dependent on carbon-rich fuels like coal and oil.
Ms. Browner stopped short of endorsing that plan, issued by Representatives Henry A. Waxman of California and Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, saying instead that Mr. Obama “looks forward to working with members of Congress in both chambers to pass a bill that would transition the nation to a clean-energy economy.” She gave little clue as to what she and the president believe such a measure should say.
At an international climate conference in Germany that ended Wednesday, some delegates said they were disappointed in the Obama administration’s lack of robust leadership. The explanation offered by Jonathan Pershing, a leader of the American delegation, was that the administration was waiting to measure the American technological and political capacity to address climate change and was looking to Congress to set specific targets for reducing carbon pollution.
Business lobbyists welcome the White House’s go-slow approach, saying the issue is too complicated and too costly to be rushed, especially in a recession.
“We have not until now had a national debate on a climate change proposal, period,” said Karen A. Harbert, a former senior Energy Department official who now heads the United States Chamber of Commerce’s energy institute. “That has to happen for any piece of legislation to achieve broad support across the country.”
Ms. Harbert and other business lobbyists also welcomed the administration’s hesitancy to undertake regulation of climate-altering gases under E.P.A. authority, saying the matter should be fully aired before Congress so that all interests and regions could be heard.
Keith McCoy, vice president for energy and resources policy at the National Association of Manufacturers, said his organization was “strongly opposed to an E.P.A. regulatory process for greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.”
Mr. McCoy said his members would prefer a binding international treaty that would cover all nations, particularly those whose industries compete with energy-intensive American manufacturers. “Absent that,” he said, “we would prefer a robust and transparent debate within Congress.”
The administration’s caution leaves many environmental advocates frustrated, although most are reluctant to speak on the record for fear of alienating their allies inside government.
One environmental and energy lobbyist with close ties to the White House said the administration had been inhibited by a number of factors, including vacancies in many top policy jobs, an intense early focus on the financial and economic crises, and an unwillingness to alienate business and Congressional leaders with a heavy-handed approach.
“With those realities, coupled with the fact that the president himself realizes this is harder to do in the midst of recession, they are basically content to see what Congress will do,” this lobbyist said. “Plus, Henry Waxman has put together a very serious piece of legislation, and that in my mind justifies their lack of forceful intervention. That’s just where they are now.”
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18) Besieged Detroit Schools Face Closings and Layoffs
By NICK BUNKLEY
April 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/us/10detroit.html?ref=education
DETROIT — The state-appointed official overseeing the finances of Detroit’s impoverished school district said Thursday that in an effort to close a $303 million budget deficit, he planned to shut more than a quarter of its 194 schools and eliminate the jobs of more than 10 percent of its teachers.
The plan calls for 23 schools to be permanently shut over the summer, leaving more than 7,500 students to be transferred to other schools, said the official, Robert C. Bobb, whom Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm appointed last month to address the district’s rapidly growing deficit.
An additional 30 to 40 schools will close next year, Mr. Bobb said, and as many as 600 teachers will be laid off this year.
Mr. Bobb said big changes were needed to turn around one of the nation’s most distressed school districts.
“We will have to grow smaller to grow larger,” he said in a telephone interview after his announcement. “We cannot make these changes incrementally. We need a complete reform of this entire school system.”
He said that to pay for improvements to the Detroit schools, he had asked the state for $200 million of Michigan’s $1.5 billion in federal stimulus money. He proposes spending $25 million of that amount on safety and security measures, and $81 million to repair and expand buildings that will accommodate those students whose schools will close.
“These are shovel-ready projects that will create jobs for Michigan residents,” Mr. Bobb said, “and they will improve the quality of life for students.”
The district has already closed about 70 schools over the last decade because of enrollment that has been falling by about 10,000 students a year. It currently has about 95,000 students, the fewest since the city’s population boom began around World War I, and 5,700 teachers.
Fewer than 900,000 people now live in Detroit, compared with more than two million half a century ago, but the district has not shrunk proportionally over the years. At the same time, the city’s high poverty rate results in little tax revenue for the district, and years of mismanagement have compounded its problems.
Since arriving in Detroit, Mr. Bobb, former president of the District of Columbia Board of Education, has discovered that the budget deficit is twice as large as officials previously thought, and he has brought in auditors and criminal investigators to root out fraud and corruption.
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