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Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.
C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
D. ARTICLES IN FULL
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A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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No New Korean War!
Emergency Protest at the White House -- Saturday, Nov. 27 at 12 Noon
Show your support for the rally by signing this statement!
Stop the Provocations - U.S. Military Out of Asia Now!
http://www2.answercoalition.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=75801.0&dlv_id=67721
Korea war threats
The Obama administration and its South Korean client government led by the rabidly anti-communist President Kim Myung-bak are blaming the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) for the latest escalation of hostilities in the Korean Peninsula.
But in reality the crisis there is the result of a policy of deliberate provocation by the U.S. and South Korea over the past several months. These provocations are targeting both the DPRK and the People's Republic of China, countries where the often-concealed but very real aim of U.S. leaders -- Democrats and Republicans alike - is "regime change." They could also lead to a new Korean war, one that could expand to wider regional, and potentially nuclear, conflict.
While hypocritically calling for "calm" in words, Washington is escalating the crisis by its actions. A U.S. naval group led by the nuclear "super-carrier" USS George Washington is on its way to carry out joint military maneuvers with South Korean warships in the Yellow Sea, menacing both China and the DPRK. By moving this huge aircraft carrier into the Yellow Sea the Pentagon and White House are sending a direct, threatening message of escalation since China considers these waters to be part of its sovereign territory.
On November 24, an unnamed "senior administration official" confirmed that the U.S. is escalating pressure on China: "China clearly does not like to see U.S aircraft carriers, for example, in the Yellow Sea." (NY Times, Nov. 25, 2010)
What's needed to resolve the crisis
The DPRK wants direct talks with the United States, a formal Peace Treaty ending the Korean War, and a normalization of relations with the United States. This seemed like a realizable goal in the last months of the Bill Clinton administration in 1999 and 2000. George W. Bush scuttled these efforts shortly after taking office in 2001. The Obama administration continued this policy with new sanctions and endless war games simulating the invasion and bombing of North Korea.
The anti-war movement and all progressive people and organizations should stand against any new war, and demand an end to the U.S.-South Korean provocations.
In the latest incident, the North and South Korean armies exchanged artillery fire on November 23. Two South Korean soldiers and two civilians were reported killed and others wounded. Casualties on the North Korean side have not been reported. As in all such previous incidents, U.S. and South Korean leaders condemned the DPRK. But, as even a close reading of the universally anti-North corporate media here reveals, the first shells were fired by the South during military exercises staged in a disputed sea area close to the west coast of North Korea.
The North Korean government stated that it was "reacting to the military provocation of the puppet group with a prompt powerful physical strike," and accused Seoul of starting the skirmish with its "reckless military provocation as firing dozens of shells inside the territorial waters of the" North.
The roots of the crisis
The western sea border between the North and South is not recognized as legitimate by the DPRK. It was unilaterally created by the United States, using the mantle of the United Nations as a fig leaf and cover for its actions, at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. The U.S. and allied forces fought the DPRK under the UN flag, slaughtering millions of Korean people and leveling the northern half of the country by massive bombing. That war further divided a historically unified society into competing states. While an armistice was signed in July 1953, the U.S. has refused the demands of the DPRK to sign a Peace Treaty formally bringing the war to an end.U.S.
"War Games" = Preparation for Real War
In recent years there have been at least three clashes in the same area as the November 23 incident. The DPRK had repeatedly warned South Korea against carrying out the latest "war games" the area. In fact, the term "war games" is a misnomer -- these maneuvers should correctly be called dress rehearsals for war. No one knows, moreover, whether any particular military exercises is practice or the real thing, until it is over and done with. This is especially true when the "war games" take place in extremely close proximity to an enemy state.
The U.S. and South Korea annually stage such exercises close to both China and the DPRK. The latest and largest joint drills were held this past summer despite strong protests from both the PRC and DPRK. Those "games," labeled "Invincible Spirit," included a simulated invasion of the North.
China's defense ministry especially objected to the presence of a U.S. aircraft carrier close to its coast. In typical arrogant fashion, a U.S. Defense Department spokesperson responded: "Where we exercise, when we exercise, with whom and how, using what assets and so forth, are determinations made by the U.S. Navy, the Department of Defense, by the United States government." (Agence France Presse, July 15, 2010)
Imagine for a moment the reaction in Washington if the Chinese navy announced that it was planning to hold similar maneuvers right off-shore of New York or Los Angeles.
The Number 1 Provocation - U.S. Military Presence
The biggest provocation of all is the massive presence of U.S. military bases, troop, nuclear and conventional weapons in the region. In 2010, 65 years after the end of World War II, there are scores of U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine bases in Korea, Okinawa, and all across Japan. The U.S. has provided high tech weaponry of all kinds to Taiwan. Trident submarines, each of which can launch hundreds of nuclear warheads, and nuclear-armed aircraft carriers prowl the eastern Pacific round-the-clock.
This vast deployment of military power halfway around the world far exceeds that of any other country. It and the tens of billions of dollars it burns up every year is justified to the people here as being for "defensive purposes." But that is just another Big Lie.
The real purpose of this monstrous military machine is to secure and further the interests of the U.S. corporate power and strategic domination in Asia and around the world. It is the enemy of the people of Korea, China, Japan and the people of the United States.
There will be an emergency anti-war rally on Saturday, Nov. 27 at 12 Noon in front of the White House. If you live too far away or can't make it, please take a moment to sign an anti-war statement in support of the rally.
Please help the ANSWER Coalition continue this vital work.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.AnswerCoalition.org/
info@AnswerCoalition.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-265-1948
Boston: 857-334-5084 | New York City: 212-694-8720 | Los Angeles: 213-251-1025
San Francisco: 415-821-6545 | Chicago: 773-463-0311
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PALESTINE, AMERICAN WARS AND ISLAMOPHOBIA IN AMERICA
Bay Area Teach-In
Tuesday, November 30, 7:00 P.M.
East Pauley Ballroom (MLK Student Union UC Berkeley, corner of Bancroft and Telegraph)
Speakers: Hatgem Bazian, UCB; Michael Shehader, LA8; Ziad Abbas, MECA; Barbara Lubin, MECA; Jeff Mackler, UNAC; Masao Suzuki, Committee to Stop FBI Repression; Blanca Misse, UCB Student Worker Action Team; Rep., Cal Students for Justice in Palestine; Rep., UCB Muslim Student Assoc.
Billions for Education, Not Wars and Occupations! End U.S. Aid to Israel--Military, Economic, Diplomatic! Defend Civil Liberties and End the FBI Raids!
Sponsors: United National Antiwar Committee (UNAC); Cal Students for Justice in Palestine; UCB Muslim Student Association; Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA).
Donations Suggested, No one turned away for lack of funds.
For more information: 510-268-9429, teachinnov30@gmail.com, teachinnov30.wordpress.com, ASUC Sponsored, ADA Accessible
Endorsers (partial list): November 30 UC Berkeley Teach-in
USPCN - US Palestinian Community Network - SF Bay • Alliance for South Asians Taking Action (ASATA) • Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) • Code Pink, Golden Gate Chapter • Code Pink Women for Peace, East Bay Chapter • Peninsula Peace and Justice Center •Boalt Alliance to Abolish Torture • California Peace and Freedom Party • Socialist Action • Voz de los Trabajadores • International Socialist Organization • Solidarity • Youth for Socialist Action • Committee to Stop FBI Repression • Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal • Lynne Stewart Defense Committee • Haiti Action Committee • Bail Out the People Movement • Workers World Party • Berkeley Alliance Against Torture • Law Students for Justice in Palestine (UCB) • International Action Center • Socialist Organizer • One Struggle One Fight • Bay Area Labor for Peace and Justice • Freedom Road Socialist Organization • Bay Area Social Justice Committee of the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian-Universalists • Bay Area United Against War Newsletter • Cafe Intifada • Socialist Viewpoint Magazine • Palestine Labor Solidarity Committee, Los Angeles
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FREE LEONARD PELTIER!
Community Panel Discussion & Album Listening Party
Tuesday, November 30 · 7:30pm - 9:30pm
Black Dot Cafe
1195 Pine Street
West Oakland, CA
Created By: Block Report Radio
The album features M1 of dead prez, Talib Kweli, T-Kash, Immortal Technique and many other talented artists. Be the first to hear this dope "Free Leonard Peltier" fundraising album.
Proceeds from album purchases will help pay the significant legal expenses associated with Leonard's case-filing and cost recovery fees and attorney travel, for example-as well as community outreach and public education efforts conducted on his behalf.
Visit Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee's website at : http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/index1.htm to educate yourself about this case!
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B. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.:
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20 November 2010 Afghanistan: Time to Go
On 20 November 2010, as the Nato leaders met in Lisbon to discuss war strategy thousands of anti-war protesters marched through London calling for all British troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan now.
The march from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square was led by military families who have lost loved ones in the war, or who have relatives serving there now, and by Joe Glenton, the soldier who was jailed and court martialled for refusing to fight a war that he believed to be unjustified.
These videos capture the spirit of the day on which the cry was Afghanistan: Time to Go and Cut War Not Welfare.
Watch the great video's of this demonstration at this site:
http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/2170/246/
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The New Normal Recovery
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z87XBKNto4Q&feature=player_embedded
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Don't Touch My Junk (the TSA Hustle) song + video by Michael Adams
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhEMRSp7vaY&feature=player_embedded
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Coal Ash: One Valley's Tale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E7h-DNvwx4&feature=player_embedded
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Bird's Eye View: You've Got To See This
Blog - BPs Oil Drilling Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico
Wednesday, 24 November 2010 11:22
http://healthygulf.org/201011241558/blog/bps-oil-drilling-disaster-in-the-gulf-of-mexico/birds-eye-view-you-ve-got-to-see-this
Yesterday's monitoring trip took me down to an isolated area on the eastern edge of Bay Ronquille on Louisiana's coast. Bay Ronquille is to the southeast of Barataria Bay. I went to this area after being informed by a source that there are stretches of beach near Ronquille that are "completely covered in oil "and "untouched "by any clean-up crew.
Our journey began in Myrtle Grove, LA aboard a boat with Captain Zach Mouton. On board this day was Jo Billups, GRN sponsor and member of the band Sassafrass, Randy Perez, a videographer from New Orleans, and my brother Jason Henderson, a Geography Professor visiting from San Francisco.
My source was correct in that there are miles long stretches of beach that are caked with huge mats of oil. There are enormous mats of tar that stretch from the shore to the water. In some spots, the tide covers the mats as it washes in only to reveal them as it washes back out. In other areas, the mats are so huge that they stretch from the sea bed all the way to the beach. It's impossible to tell how far out underwater they stretch. There are areas where you think you are standing on sand or mud only to realize that you are standing on huge blankets of weathered oil. There are tidal pools in the middle of the island that are filled with oil. The smell of oil is everywhere. Skulls and bones from dead birds and fish litter the sand and coyote tracks are all around. What a pity.
Whether BP has sent anyone to attempt to clean this area anytime in that last few months was hard to discern just by looking at the sand and soil. There were no usual tell-tell signs like tire tracks from four wheelers or left behind plastic bags., water bottles, and gloves. BP is aware of the area because as soon as we got onto the beach, a boat carrying BP workers saw us and sent someone to chase after us. Having been through this song and dance so many times with BP "supervisors", I decided to let my brother run interference while I foraged ahead to document the disaster. According to Jason, the BP contractor was cordial but did ask a lot of questions about who we were and what we were doing. The man explained that BP will be cleaning this area starting Monday, complete with heavy equipment and all. I am planning another trip next week to see if his claim is accurate. I've heard it all before.
By the way, on the way down to Bay Ronquille, we made a pass through Bay Jimmy. While the marsh is still covered in oil, there was not one clean up worker to be found anywhere in the Bay. That's funny considering I know of thousands of struggling out of work Gulf coast residents that would love a job cleaning up BP's mess.
Jonathan Henderson is the Coastal Resiliency Organizer for GRN
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Flashmob: Cape Town Opera say NO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wElyrFOnKPk
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Quantitative Easing Explained
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTUY16CkS-k&feature=player_embedded#
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Report: "Tar balls and black oily plumes" wash up in Apalachicola Bay, FL - 70 miles EAST of Panama City (VIDEO)
November 12th, 2010 at 09:02 AM Email Post
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Seattle Cop: 'I'll Beat the F--ing Mexican Piss Out of You Homey'
http://colorlines.com/archives/2010/05/seattle_cop_ill_beat_the_f---ing_mexican_piss_out_of_you_homey.html
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Burning Desperation
Self-immolation has become a common form of suicide for Afghan women. Photographer Lynsey Addario speaks with women who survived their suicide attempts.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/11/07/world/1248069290784/burning-desperation.html?ref=world
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Anonymous BP cleanup worker: The oil "really hasn't even been touched"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vegVKrg84HI&feature=player_embedded
http://allhiphop.com/stories/editorial/archive/2010/11/09/22476630.aspx
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Tag-Team Wrestling
"We have Learned who is For Real and who is Frontin'."
Glen Ford speaks in West Haven, CT just before the Oct. 2010 "One Nation Working Together" DC demo. See his scathing comments about the speakers from the main stage at the actual demo at blackagendareport.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAIuTM3cK9I
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Video of massive French protest -- inspiring!
http://www.dailymotion.com/Talenceagauchevraiment
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UAW Workers Picket The UAW Over Two-Tier
http://rustbeltradical.wordpress.com/2010/10/18/uaw-workers-picket-the-uaw/
Rally To End Two-Tier & Stand in Solidarity with GM Lake Orion | UAW HQ, Detroit MI (1 of 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bST5aTYZa00&feature=player_embedded
Rally To End Two-Tier & Stand in Solidarity with GM Lake Orion | UAW HQ, Detroit MI (2 of 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHLb-KMXD9c&feature=player_embedded
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BP Contract Worker "Trenches Dug To Bury Oil On Beaches"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0qop9xbGv4&feature=player_embedded
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RETHINK Afghanistan: The 10th Year: Afghanistan Veterans Speak Out
http://rethinkafghanistan.com/
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Firefighters Watch As Home Burns:
Gene Cranick's House Destroyed In Tennessee Over $75 Fee
By Adam J. Rose
The Huffington Post -- videos
10- 5-10 12:12 AM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/04/firefighters-watch-as-hom_n_750272.html
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Soldier Describes Murder of Afghan for Sport in Leaked Tape
By ROBERT MACKEY
September 27, 2010, 6:43 pm
http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/soldier-describes-murder-of-afghan-for-sport-in-leaked-tape/?ref=world
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"Don't F*** With Our Activists" - Mobilizing Against FBI Raid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyG3dIUGQvQ
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Stephen Colbert's statement before Congress
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/39343087#39343087
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C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
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AN ATTACK AGAINST ONE IS AN ATTACK AGAINST ALL! WE ARE ONLY AS STRONG AS OUR WEAKEST LINK! UNITY AND SOLIDARITY AGAINST THESE ATTACKS IS OUR MOST POWERFUL DEFENSE!
THIS JUST IN: NEW GRAND JURY INVESTIGATIONS; AND ATTACK AGAINST JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE ACTIVISTS:
FBI Raid Victims Get New Grand Jury Subpoenas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIlMwbkIo2E
APNewsBreak: Activists called back to grand jury
By AMY FORLITI
The Associated Press
Wednesday, November 17, 2010; 6:10 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/17/AR2010111705560.html
MINNEAPOLIS -- Three Minnesota anti-war activists who refused to testify before a federal grand jury in Chicago after their homes were raided in a terrorism investigation have been told they'll be called again, an attorney told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
In late September, authorities searched seven homes and an office in Minneapolis and Chicago in what the FBI said was an investigation into material support of terrorism. Fourteen activists in the two states were summoned to testify, but they refused and their subpoenas were postponed.
None of the activists have been charged. Warrants suggest agents were looking for connections between them and terrorist groups in Colombia and the Middle East.
Bruce Nestor, an attorney who represents some of the activists, said Wednesday that three of them have been told they'll be called back to the grand jury, but it's not clear when. Individual attorneys for those activists are working out details with prosecutors, Nestor said.
"They don't have a specific date, but they are being told that basically they will be called back in front of the grand jury," Nestor said. "They all have individual counsel, and those individual counsel are in the process of discussing with the U.S. attorney the details as to how proceed."
Randall Samborn, a spokesman with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago, declined to comment about the case, saying he could neither confirm nor deny anything involving a federal grand jury because such proceedings are confidential.
Nestor said activists Anh Pham, Sarah Martin and Tracy Molm - whose homes were raided in September - have been told they'll be called again before the grand jury.
"These three are being called back, and within a matter of weeks will be facing the decision of testifying or facing contempt," Nestor said.
Pham said Wednesday she knew little about the situation and declined comment until she had a chance to talk to her attorney. Messages left for Martin were not immediately returned, and a phone number for Molm was not immediately available.
The activists said previously that they wouldn't appear before a grand jury because they felt grand juries had historically been used to harass activists and that testifying in secret would stifle free speech.
The government has not revealed the target of its investigation, but the activists have said they felt singled out because of their work in the anti-war movement.
"The government is not saying much, and they kind of hold all the cards at the moment," Nestor said.
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NOTE TO READERS:
The BAUAW Newsletter stands squarely opposed to the Grand Jury investigation of antiwar and social justice activists. An injury to one is an injury to all. We are all under attack now! We must stand united in defense of our fellow activists!
We have a right to fight injustice wherever it occurs in the world! Justice is an inalienable human right for everyone!
We are also alarmed and outraged about the recent pepper-spray attack against Jewish Voice for Peace activists at their own meeting carried out by Zionist thugs:
Right-wing Israel advocacy group San Francisco Voice for Israel/StandWithUs
Member Pepper Sprays Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) members
at Bay Area JVP Chapter Meeting. Wraps self in Israeli flag.
Group well known in Bay Area for harassing and intimidating peace activists
Contact: Jesse AT Jvp.org
[Oakland, CA November 15, 2010]
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/blog/right-wing-israel-advocacy-group-pepper-sprays-jewish-voice-peace-jvp-members
Sunday night, November 14, 2010, up to a dozen members of San Francisco Voice for Israel/StandWithUs, a right-wing Israeli advocacy group with a documented track record of aggressively taunting and intimidating grassroots peace activists, attended a Bay Area Jewish Voice for Peace community meeting at a South Berkeley Senior Center.
Jewish Voice for Peace is the largest U.S. Jewish peace group dedicated to a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on democracy and full equality --- the Bay Area chapter is the founding chapter of the organization. Approximately 50 to 60 people were at the meeting, and numerous witnesses are available to corroborate the events.
Watch video of some of the disruptions and the victims and perpetrator of attacks here:
StandWithUs/SF Voice for Israel Pepper-sprays peace activists
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLO2xKcYDwc
Eyewitness testimonies are here:
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/blog/eyewitness-testimony-jvp-member-about-stand-us-swu-attacks
and here:
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/blog/eyewitness-report-stand-us-attacks-jvp-meeting
Article by a Berkeley Daily Planet reporter here:
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/blog/eyewitness-testimony-berekeley-daily-planet-reporter-about-swu-attacks
Americans for Peace Now condemned the attack here:
http://peacenow.org/entries/post_25
and Meretz USA called it not a legitimate part of Jewish communal discourse here.
http://meretzusa.blogspot.com/2010/11/meretz-usa-violence-not-legitimate-part.html
Wrapped in an Israeli flag, San Francisco Voice for Israel/StandWithUs (SFVI/SWU) member Robin Dubner, an Oakland based attorney, pepper-sprayed two JVP members in the eyes and face after they attempted to nonviolently block her ability to aggressively videotape the faces of JVP meeting attendees against their will. The members, Alexei Folger and Glen Hauer, were careful to make no physical contact with her or her camera prior to the attack.
Folger said, "I did not see it coming and all of a sudden there was gooey stuff all over my head and hand. I have never been pepper-sprayed before, my whole head felt like it was on fire."
JVP had earlier this year filed a police report about a June SFVI/SWU protest at which JVP and (peace group) Women in Black members were intimidatingly videotaped and threatened by a StandWithUs supporter after being taunted with chants like "Nazi, Nazi, Nazi" or "Kapo,Kapo,Kapo".
Caught on a widely seen videotape was a SFVI/SWU supporter pointing his camera to the faces of silent peace vigil participants while saying "You're all being identified, every last one of you...we will find out where you live. We're going to make your lives difficult. We will disrupt your families..."
For that reason, JVP members were particularly concerned about protecting the safety of meeting attendees and preventing the videotaping.
Hauer, a retired attorney and member of San Francisco's Congregation Sha'har Zahav who was treated for pepper spray explained, "When one of the intruders [Dubner] continued standing and filming people despite the facilitator and facility manager repeatedly telling her that she could not, I first asked her politely to please put away the video camera, then several times told her to put away the camera, and then tried nonviolently to stay in front of the camera with my body, even when she shoved me. I could have taken the camera but decided instead to talk to the woman and to try to be the only person she photographed."
Hauer, who also leads groups on healing from WWII & the Holocaust, and speaks to churches about anti-Semitism as it relates to the movement for peace in the Middle East, went on:
"In my mind was the history of targeting of Jewish peace activists by the right wing of the Jewish community--the posting of our photos on internet hate sites, for example, followed by acts of vandalism at our homes and places of work. There were many in the room for whom I care deeply. I could also see that many at the meeting were new to the work we were doing, and I did not want them to be scared away."
Dubner was accompanied by up to a dozen other StandWithUs members--including Dan Spitzer, Susan Meyers, Mike Harris, Bea Lieberman, Faith Meltzer, and Ross Meltzer--who repeatedly disrupted and aggressively videotaped the JVP meeting and JVP members against their will, wielding the cameras in an intimidating and belligerent manner. Despite repeated requests from the JVP meeting facilitator and other JVP activists to desist from recording and put away their videocameras, the SFVI/SWU activists - who had spread themselves throughout the room - continued to record and launch lengthy monologues while the presenters attempted to speak.
They were explicitly invited by the JVP facilitator to stay in the meeting and participate without videotaping but they refused. They also refused offers for floor time by the presenters. The manager of the facility asked the SFVI/SWU members to abide by JVP's rules or face the police, and when SFVI/SWU refused to comply with JVP's protocol, the police were called.
At one point, JVP members and presenters worked to restore calm and de-escalate by singing the Hebrew peace song, Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu (Peace will come to us) while waiting for the police to arrive. Most meeting attendees did not know until later that 2 people had been attacked with pepper spray.
When police arrived, Dubner was temporarily placed in handcuffs while other members of San Francisco Voice for Israel/StandWithUs remained inside the meeting blowing loud whistles, using videocameras to intimidate meeting attendees.
Dubner refused repeated requests by JVP members or the police to identify the substance she sprayed. A police officer later identified it as pepper spray and paramedics were called to help treat the victims of the attack. One of them, Alexei Folger, looked visibly red and swollen, as though she had been burned on more than half her face.
Immediately following the attack, Ms. Folger, not knowing the nature of the substance on her face, rubbed some of it on Ms. Dubner's shirtsleeve at which point Ms.Dubner, who is a large woman, started physically shoving the petite Ms. Folger. A Jewish Voice for Peace staff member stood between them to prevent further escalation or physical contact between Ms Dubner and the shocked and injured Ms. Folger.
This deliberate confrontation is part of a pattern of escalating intimidation and attacks against peace activists in the Bay Area. Earlier this year, the home of Tikkun Magazine editor Michael Lerner was covered in threatening posters. In addition to the videotaped harassment of Women in Black and JVP members, several months ago someone placed threatening graffiti outside of the JVP offices.
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These actions cannot be tolerated by the peace and justice movement--anywhere! We have a right to meet and protest injustice without being harassed, videotaped, pepper-sprayed, disrupted or summoned by the FBI for Grand Jury questioning!
In solidarity,
Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War Newsletter. bauaw.org
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FREE THE SCOTT SISTERS
http://mije.org/node/1343
freethescottsisters.blogspot.com/
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Courage to Resist needs your support
By Jeff Paterson, Courage to Resist.
It's been quite a ride the last four months since we took up the defense of accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower Bradley Manning. Since then, we helped form the Bradley Manning Support Network, established a defense fund, and have already paid over half of Bradley's total $100,000 in estimated legal expenses.
Now, I'm asking for your support of Courage to Resist so that we can continue to support not only Bradley, but the scores of other troops who are coming into conflict with military authorities due to reasons of conscience.
Please donate today:
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
"Soldiers sworn oath is to defend and support the Constitution. Bradley Manning has been defending and supporting our Constitution."
-Dan Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistle-blower
Iraq War over? Afghanistan occupation winding down? Not from what we see. Please take a look at, "Soldier Jeff Hanks refuses deployment, seeks PTSD help" in our December newsletter. Jeff's situation is not isolated. Actually, his story is only unique in that he has chosen to share it with us in the hopes that it may result in some change. Jeff's case also illustrates the importance of Iraq Veterans Against the War's new "Operation Recovery" campaign which calls for an end to the deployment of traumatized troops.
Most of the folks who call us for help continue to be effected by Stoploss, a program that involuntarily extends enlistments (despite Army promises of its demise), or the Individual Ready Reserve which recalls thousands of former Soldiers and Marines quarterly from civilian life.
Another example of our efforts is Kyle Wesolowski. After returning from Iraq, Kyle submitted an application for a conscientious objector discharge based on his Buddhist faith. Kyle explains, "My experience of physical threats, religious persecution, and general abuse seems to speak of a system that appears to be broken.... It appears that I have no other recourse but to now refuse all duties that prepare myself for war or aid in any way shape or form to other soldiers in conditioning them to go to war." We believe he shouldn't have to walk this path alone.
Sincerely,
Jeff Paterson
Project Director, Courage to Resist
First US military service member to refuse to fight in Iraq
Please donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
P.S. I'm asking that you consider a contribution of $50 or more, or possibly becoming a sustainer at $15 a month. Of course, now is also a perfect time to make a end of year tax-deductible donation. Thanks again for your support!
Please click here to forward this to a friend who might
also be interested in supporting GI resisters.
http://ymlp.com/forward.php?id=lS3tR&e=bonnieweinstein@yahoo.com
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San Francisco Labor Council Resolution Adopted unanimously on Nov. 8, 2010
Resolution Condemning Police Attack on Free Speech & Assembly following Oscar Grant Rally
Whereas, on Friday November 5, former BART cop Johannes Mehserle was given a jail sentence of 2 years for the 'involuntary manslaughter' of Oscar Grant. Subtracting time served and 'good behavior', Mehserle may be back on the streets in as little as 7 months; and
Whereas, the organizers of a November 5th Rally and Gathering in Frank Ogawa Plaza to honor Oscar Grant and Respond to the sentencing of Johannes Mehserle, were refused a permit for an organized march after the rally to an indoor gathering at DeFremery Park; and
Whereas, after the rally many hundreds of community members spontaneously started marching toward Fruitvale BART, the site of Oscar Grant's murder, and after the cops sealed off an entire city block, police did not allow people to disperse, called it a 'crime scene', and arrested 152 people, including San Francisco Labor Council Delegate Dave Welsh, resulting in more arrests than at any other Oscar Grant-related protest; and
Whereas, most arrestees have been cited on misdemeanor charges, held for 24 hours and have mass arraignments in the first week of December at Wiley Manuel Courthouse, 661 Washington Street in Oakland.
Therefore be It Resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council condemns this assault on freedom of speech and assembly and demands that all these misdemeanor assembly charges be dropped.
Presented by Marcus Holder, delegate from ILWU Local 10, and adopted unanimously at the regular delegates meeting of the San Francisco Labor Council held Nov. 8, 2010 in San Francisco, California.
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Add your name! We stand with Bradley Manning.
"We stand for truth, for government transparency, and for an end to our tax-dollars funding endless occupation abroad... We stand with accused whistle-blower US Army Pfc. Bradley Manning."
Dear All,
The Bradley Manning Support Network and Courage to Resist are launching a new campaign, and we wanted to give you a chance to be among the first to add your name to this international effort. If you sign the letter online, we'll print out and mail two letters to Army officials on your behalf. With your permission, we may also use your name on the online petition and in upcoming media ads.
Read the complete public letter and add your name at:
http://standwithbrad.org/
Courage to Resist (http://couragetoresist.org)
on behalf of the Bradley Manning Support Network (http://bradleymanning.org)
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
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Committee to Stop FBI Repression
P.O. Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414
Dear Friend,
On Friday, September 24th, the FBI raided homes in Chicago and Minneapolis, and turned the Anti-War Committee office upside down. We were shocked. Our response was strong however and we jumped into action holding emergency protests. When the FBI seized activists' personal computers, cell phones, and papers claiming they were investigating "material support for terrorism", they had no idea there would be such an outpouring of support from the anti-war movement across this country! Over 61 cities protested, with crowds of 500 in Minneapolis and Chicago. Activists distributed 12,000 leaflets at the One Nation Rally in Washington D.C. Supporters made thousands of calls to President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder. Solidarity statements from community organizations, unions, and other groups come in every day. By organizing against the attacks, the movement grows stronger.
At the same time, trusted lawyers stepped up to form a legal team and mount a defense. All fourteen activists signed letters refusing to testify. So Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Fox withdrew the subpoenas, but this is far from over. In fact, the repression is just starting. The FBI continues to question activists at their homes and work places. The U.S. government is trying to put people in jail for anti-war and international solidarity activism and there is no indication they are backing off. The U.S. Attorney has many options and a lot of power-he may re-issue subpoenas, attempt to force people to testify under threat of imprisonment, or make arrests.
To be successful in pushing back this attack, we need your donation. We need you to make substantial contributions like $1000, $500, and $200. We understand many of you are like us, and can only afford $50, $20, or $10, but we ask you to dig deep. The legal bills can easily run into the hundreds of thousands. We are all united to defend a movement for peace and justice that seeks friendship with people in other countries. These fourteen anti-war activists have done nothing wrong, yet their freedom is at stake.
It is essential that we defend our sisters and brothers who are facing FBI repression and the Grand Jury process. With each of your contributions, the movement grows stronger.
Please make a donation today at stopfbi.net (PayPal) on the right side of your screen. Also you can write to:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
P.O. Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414
This is a critical time for us to stand together, defend free speech, and defend those who help to organize for peace and justice, both at home and abroad!
Thank you for your generosity! Tom Burke
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Deafening Silence, Chuck Africa (MOVE 9)
Check out other art and poetry by prisoners at:
Shujaas!: Prisoners Resisting Through Art
...we banging hard, yes, very hard, on this system...
http://shujaas.wordpress.com/
Peace People,
This poem is from Chuck Africa, one of the MOVE 9, who is currently serving 30-100 years on trump up charges of killing a police officer. After 32 years in prison, the MOVE 9 are repeatly denied parole, after serving their minimum sentence. Chuck wanted me to share this with the people, so that we can see how our silence in demanding the MOVE 9's freedom is inherently an invitation to their death behind prison walls.
Deafening Silence
Don't ya'll hear cries of anguish?
In the climate of pain come joining voices?
But voices become unheard and strained by inactions
Of dead brains
How long will thou Philly soul remain in the pit of agonizing apathy?
Indifference seems to greet you like the morning mirror
Look closely in the mirror and realize it's a period of mourning....
My Sistas, mothers, daughters, wives and warriors
Languish in prisons obscurity like a distant star in the galaxies as does their brothers
We need to be free....
How loud can you stay silence?
Have the courage to stand up and have a say,
Choose resistance and let go of your fears.
The history of injustice to MOVE; we all know so well
But your deafening silence could be my DEATH KNELL.
Chuck Africa
Please share, inform people and get involve in demanding the MOVE 9's freedom! www.MOVE9parole.blogspot.com
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Say No to Islamophobia!
Defend Mosques and Community Centers!
The Fight for Peace and Social Justice Requires Defense of All Under Attack!
http://www.petitiononline.com/nophobia/petition.html
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Kevin Keith Update: Good News! Death sentence commuted!
Ohio may execute an innocent man unless you take action.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-kevin-keith
Ohio's Governor Spares Life of a Death Row Inmate Kevin Keith
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/us/03ohio.html?ref=us
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Please sign the petition to release Bradley Manning
http://www.petitiononline.com/manning1/petition.html (Click to sign here)
To: US Department of Defense; US Department of Justice
We, the Undersigned, call for justice for US Army PFC Bradley Manning, incarcerated without charge (as of 18 June 2010) at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait.
Media accounts state that Mr. Manning was arrested in late May for leaking the video of US Apache helicopter pilots killing innocent people and seriously wounding two children in Baghdad, including those who arrived to help the wounded, as well as potentially other material. The video was released by WikiLeaks under the name "Collateral Murder".
If these allegations are untrue, we call upon the US Department of Defense to release Mr. Manning immediately.
If these allegations ARE true, we ALSO call upon the US Department of Defense to release Mr. Manning immediately.
Simultaneously, we express our support for Mr. Manning in any case, and our admiration for his courage if he is, in fact, the person who disclosed the video. Like in the cases of Daniel Ellsberg, W. Mark Felt, Frank Serpico and countless other whistleblowers before, government demands for secrecy must yield to public knowledge and justice when government crime and corruption are being kept hidden.
Justice for Bradley Manning!
Sincerely,
The Undersigned:
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?manning1
--
Zaineb Alani
http://www.thewordsthatcomeout.blogspot.com
http://www.tigresssmiles.blogspot.com
"Yesterday I lost a country. / I was in a hurry, / and didn't notice when it fell from me / like a broken branch from a forgetful tree. / Please, if anyone passes by / and stumbles across it, / perhaps in a suitcase / open to the sky, / or engraved on a rock / like a gaping wound, / ... / If anyone stumbles across it, / return it to me please. / Please return it, sir. / Please return it, madam. / It is my country . . . / I was in a hurry / when I lost it yesterday." -Dunya Mikhail, Iraqi poet
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Please forward widely...
HELP LYNNE STEWART -- SUPPORT THESE BILLS
These two bills are now in Congress and need your support. Either or both bills would drastically decrease Lynne's and other federal sentences substantially.
H.R. 1475 "Federal Prison Work Incentive Act Amended 2009," Congressman Danny Davis, Democrat, Illinois
This bill will restore and amend the former federal B.O.P. good time allowances. It will let all federal prisoners, except lifers, earn significant reductions to their sentences. Second, earn monthly good time days by working prison jobs. Third, allowances for performing outstanding services or duties in connection with institutional operations. In addition, part of this bill is to bring back parole to federal long term prisoners.
Go to: www.FedCURE.org and www.FAMM.org
At this time, federal prisoners only earn 47 days per year good time. If H.R. 1475 passes, Lynne Stewart would earn 120-180 days per year good time!
H.R. 61 "45 And Older," Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee (18th Congressional District, Texas)
This bill provides early release from federal prison after serving half of a violent crime or violent conduct in prison.
Please write, call, email your Representatives and Senators. Demand their votes!
This information is brought to you by Diane E. Schindelwig, a federal prisoner #36582-177 and friend and supporter of Lynne Stewart.
Write to Lynne at:
Lynne Stewart 53504-054
MCC-NY 2-S
150 Park Row
New York, NY 10007
For further information call Lynne's husband, Ralph Poynter, leader of the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
718-789-0558 or 917-853-9759
Send contributions payable to:
Lynne Stewart Organization
1070 Dean Street
Brooklyn, New York, 11216
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Listen to Lynne Stewart event, that took place July 8, 2010 at Judson Memorial Church
Excerpts include: Mumia Abu Jamal, Ralph Poynter, Ramsey Clark, Juanita
Young, Fred Hampton Jr., Raging Grannies, Ralph Schoenman
http://www.takingaimradio.com/shows/audio.html
And check out this article (link) too!
http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/2010/062210Lendman.shtml
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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL GRAVELY CONCERNED THAT RULING PUTS TROY DAVIS ON TRACK FOR EXECUTION; CITES PERSISTING DOUBTS ABOUT HIS GUILT
"Judge William T. Moore, Jr. ruled that while executing an innocent person would violate the United States Constitution, Davis didn't meet the extraordinarily high legal bar to prove his innocence."
Amnesty International Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Contact: Wende Gozan Brown at 212-633-4247, wgozan@aiusa.org.
(Washington, D.C.) - Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) today expressed deep concern that a federal district court decision puts Georgia death-row inmate Troy Anthony Davis back on track for execution, despite doubts about his guilt that were raised during a June evidentiary hearing. Judge William T. Moore, Jr. ruled that while executing an innocent person would violate the United States Constitution, Davis didn't meet the extraordinarily high legal bar to prove his innocence.
"Nobody walking out of that hearing could view this as an open-and-shut case," said Larry Cox, executive director of AIUSA. "The testimony that came to light demonstrates that doubt still exists, but the legal bar for proving innocence was set so high it was virtually insurmountable. It would be utterly unconscionable to proceed with this execution, plain and simple."
Amnesty International representatives, including Cox, attended the hearing in Savannah, Ga. The organization noted that evidence continues to cast doubt over the case:
· Four witnesses admitted in court that they lied at trial when they implicated Troy Davis and that they did not know who shot Officer Mark MacPhail.
· Four witnesses implicated another man as the one who killed the officer - including a man who says he saw the shooting and could clearly identify the alternative suspect, who is a family member.
· Three original state witnesses described police coercion during questioning, including one man who was 16 years old at the time of the murder and was questioned by several police officers without his parents or other adults present.
"The Troy Davis case is emblematic of everything that is wrong with capital punishment," said Laura Moye, director of AIUSA's Death Penalty Abolition Campaign. "In a system rife with error, mistakes can be made. There are no do-overs when it comes to death. Lawmakers across the country should scrutinize this case carefully, not only because of its unprecedented nature, but because it clearly indicates the need to abolish the death penalty in the United States."
Since the launch of its February 2007 report, Where Is the Justice for Me? The Case of Troy Davis, Facing Execution in Georgia, Amnesty International has campaigned intensively for a new evidentiary hearing or trial and clemency for Davis, collecting hundreds of thousands of clemency petition signatures and letters from across the United States and around the world. To date, internationally known figures such as Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter have all joined the call for clemency, as well as lawmakers from within and outside of Georgia.
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 2.8 million supporters, activists and volunteers who campaign for universal human rights from more than 150 countries. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.
# # #
For more information visit www.amnestyusa.org/troydavis.
Wende Gozan Brown
Media Relations Director
Amnesty International USA
212/633-4247 (o)
347/526-5520 (c)
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Please sign the petition to stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal and
and forward it to all your lists.
"Mumia Abu-Jamal and The Global Abolition of the Death Penalty"
http://www.petitiononline.com/Mumialaw/petition.html
(A Life In the Balance - The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, at 34, Amnesty Int'l, 2000; www. Amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/001/2000.)
[Note: This petition is approved by Mumia Abu-Jamal and his lead attorney, Robert R. Bryan, San Francisco (E-mail: MumiaLegalDefense@gmail.com; Website: www.MumiaLegalDefense.org).]
Committee To Save Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 2012
New York, NY 10159-2012
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Donations for Mumia's Legal Defense in the U.S. Our legal effort is the front line of the battle for Mumia's freedom and life. His legal defense needs help. The costs are substantial for our litigation in the U.S. Supreme Court and at the state level. To help, please make your checks payable to the National Lawyers Guild Foundation indicate "Mumia" on the bottom left). All donations are tax deductible under the Internal Revenue Code, section 501c)3), and should be mailed to:
It is outrageous and a violation of human rights that Mumia remains in prison and on death row. His life hangs in the balance. My career has been marked by successfully representing people facing death in murder cases. I will not rest until we win Mumia's case. Justice requires no less.
With best wishes,
Robert R. Bryan
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
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Short Video About Al-Awda's Work
The following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's work since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown on Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l Al-Awda Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected over the past nine years.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial support to carry out its work.
To submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the simple instructions.
Thank you for your generosity!
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KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT!
FLASHPOINTS Interview with Innocent San Quentin Death Row Inmate
Kevin Cooper -- Aired Monday, May 18,2009
http://www.flashpoints.net/#GOOGLE_SEARCH_ENGINE
To learn more about Kevin Cooper go to:
savekevincooper.org
LINKS
San Francisco Chronicle article on the recent ruling:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/13/BAM517J8T3.DTL
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling and dissent:
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/05/11/05-99004o.pdf
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COURAGE TO RESIST!
Support the troops who refuse to fight!
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/
Donate:
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/21/57/
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D. ARTICLES IN FULL
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1) For Russia's Poor, Blond Hair Is Snippet of Gold
By ANDREW E. KRAMER
[Today's "THE GIFT OF THE MAGI" by O. Henry. Read it at:
http://www.auburn.edu/~vestmon/Gift_of_the_Magi.html...bw]
November 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/business/global/22blond.html?ref=world
2) TSA Pat-Down Leaves Mich. Man Covered in Urine
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 22, 2010
Filed at 11:02 a.m. EST
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/11/22/business/AP-US-Airport-Security-Pat-Down.html?src=busln
3) Former Medill Students Protest Prosecution of Innocence Project
By DAVID CARR
November 22, 2010, 10:59 am
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/former-medill-students-protest-prosecution-of-innocence-project/?src=busln
4) APNewsBreak: Activists called back to grand jury
By AMY FORLITI
The Associated Press
Wednesday, November 17, 2010; 6:10 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/17/AR2010111705560.html
FBI Raid Victims Get New Grand Jury Subpoenas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIlMwbkIo2E
5) Message to the Baltimore Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild from Lynne Stewart∞
VIA Email
6) Corporate Profits Were the Highest on Record Last Quarter
"American businesses earned profits at an annual rate of $1.66 trillion in the third quarter, according to a Commerce Department report released Tuesday. That is the highest figure recorded since the government began keeping track over 60 years ago..."
By CATHERINE RAMPELL
November 23, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/business/economy/24econ.html?hp
7) Irish Debt Crisis Forces Collapse of Government
By LANDON THOMAS Jr.
November 22, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/world/europe/23ireland.html?ref=world
8) Unemployment Rates in Each State, at a Glance
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 1:14 p.m. EST
November 23, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/11/23/business/AP-US-State-Unemployment-Glance.html?src=busln
9) Ireland Unveils Austerity Plan to Help Secure Bailout
"The budget calls for cuts of nearly 15 percent in Ireland's social welfare budget, one of Europe's most generous, saving 3 billion euros a year. Some 24,750 public jobs - a huge number in a country of about 4 million people - would be eliminated, cutting state payrolls down to about what they were in 2006 and saving about 1.2 billion euros a year. Child benefits other social welfare payments would be reduced, and the nation's minimum wage, now 8.65 euros ($11.59) an hour, would be cut by 1 euro in the hope of promoting job creation.... The country's tax net would be widened to take in some low-income workers who currently pay no tax, and a series of new taxes would be imposed on certain residential properties, as well as on 120,000 people who receive public sector pensions...But the budget plan does not touch Ireland's very low corporate tax rate of 12.5 percent, which has helped to lured companies like Microsoft, Intel and Pfizer to set up operations in the country."
By LIZ ALDERMAN
November 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/world/europe/25ireland.html?hp
10) Portuguese Unions Strike Over Budget
"It's the workers who are paying for the crisis, not the bankers nor the shareholders of big companies," said Leandro Martins, a 65-year old retiree. "This is a strike against rightist policies, to demand new policies serving the Portuguese people."
By REUTERS
November 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/business/global/25iht-strike.html?hp
11) Britain Students Protest Plan to Raise Fees
By SARAH LYALL
November 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/world/europe/25britain.html?ref=world
12) U.S. to Send Carrier for Joint Exercises Off Korea
By DAVID E. SANGER and MARK McDONALD
November 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/world/asia/25korea.html?ref=world
13) Aggrieved Fliers Ask, 'What Now?'
By JAD MOUAWAD
November 23, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/business/24travel.html?ref=us
14) A Spanish Bailout Would Test Europe's Strained Finances
By RAPHAEL MINDER
November 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/business/global/25spainecon.html?hp
15) An Argument Against a Two-Tier Pay System
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
November 25, 2010, 9:57 am
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/an-argument-against-a-two-tier-pay-system/?hp
16) Colorado: Professor's Firing Upheld
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/us/25brfs-PROFESSORSFI_BRF.html?ref=us
17) Friends of Peltier
http://www.FreePeltierNow.org
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives.org Questions and comments may be sent to claude@freedomarchives.org
VIA Email
18) Eating the Irish
By PAUL KRUGMAN
November 25, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/26/opinion/26krugman.html?hp
19) Front-Line City in Virginia Tackles Rise in Sea
By LESLIE KAUFMAN
November 25, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/26/science/earth/26norfolk.html?h
20) Cities Are at Odds With California Over Beach Curfews
By IAN LOVETT
November 25, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/26/us/26curfew.html?ref=us
21) SOA Speaking Truth to Power
David Omondi and Father Louis Vitale Sentenced to Six Months in Federal Prison -- Incarcerated in Georgia Jail
www.SOAW.org
22) Demonstrators in Ireland Protest Austerity Plan
By JOHN F. BURNS
November 27, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/world/europe/28dublin.html?hp
23) Oregon Teen Arrested in Plot to Bomb Holiday Event
By LIZ ROBBINS and EDWARD WYATT
November 27, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/us/28portland.html?hp
24) Winning the Class War
By BOB HERBERT
November 26, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/27/opinion/27herbert.html?hp
25) Iraq's Troubles Drive Out Refugees Who Came Back
By JOHN LELAND
November 26, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/27/world/middleeast/27refugees.html?hp
26) Don't Just Tell Us. Show Us That You Can Foreclose.
"For years, the trustee would always take the creditors' side," Mr. Rothbloom said. "My strong opinion is the U.S. trustee's perspective is that they exist to stop borrowers from cheating banks. Perhaps they are coming to the realization that banks can also cheat borrowers."
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON
November 27, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/business/28gret.html?src=busln
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1) For Russia's Poor, Blond Hair Is Snippet of Gold
By ANDREW E. KRAMER
[Today's "THE GIFT OF THE MAGI" by O. Henry. Read it at:
http://www.auburn.edu/~vestmon/Gift_of_the_Magi.html...bw]
November 21, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/business/global/22blond.html?ref=world
MOSALSK, Russia - The road into town is a potholed track, passing villages of log cabins and fallow fields that speak to the poverty that has gripped this part of central Russia for as long as anyone can remember.
But on a lane where geese waddle through muddy puddles, a brick building holds crate upon crate of this region's one precious harvestable commodity: human hair, much of it naturally blond.
For the global beauty industry, this is golden treasure.
"Nobody else has this, nobody in the world," said Aleksei N. Kuznetsov, the building's owner. "Russian hair is the best in the world."
Buyers of human hair, most of them small-scale Russian and Ukrainian itinerant operators who sell to hair processors like Mr. Kuznetsov, flock to poor regions like this. Cash in hand, they pay small sums for a head's worth of tresses sheared from women who often have few economic alternatives.
Long sought for wigs and toupees, human hair is now in particularly high demand for hair extension procedures in more affluent countries. Dark hair from India and China is more plentiful, but blond and other light shades are valued for their relative scarcity and because they are easier to dye to match almost any woman's natural color.
The largest market is the United States, where tens of thousands of beauty salons offer hair extensions. African-American women have long worn hair extensions, but the trend among women with lighter hair has been popularized by celebrity endorsements from the likes of Jessica Simpson and Paris Hilton.
Great Lengths, an Italian company and major supplier to the United States, has estimated the American retail market for hair extensions at $250 million annually, or about 3 percent of the entire hair care products market. The average price for extensions is $439, according to a 2009 survey by American Salon Magazine, although the procedure can cost several thousand dollars at elite salons.
The extension business is also growing in Europe.
An estimated 20 percent of Russian hair is used domestically, by the well coiffed of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The blond harvest is not necessarily new, having followed an economic development path in recent decades, moving from Western Europe in the 1960s and '70s, through Poland in the '80s and to Ukraine and Russia after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. But as more of the world's light-haired woman have climbed the economic ladder, the search for poor blondes willing to part with their locks has become ever more difficult.
"It's not hard to understand why people in Ukraine sell their hair a hundred times more often than people in Sweden," David Elman, a co-owner of Raw Virgin Hair Company, an importer based in Kiev, Ukraine, said in a telephone interview. "They are not doing it for fun. Usually, only people who have temporary financial difficulties in depressed regions sell their hair."
Here in Mosalsk, a 16-inch braid, the shortest length a buyer will consider, fetches about $50.
Natalya N. Vinokurova, 26, grew up nearby in Yukhnov, a town where half the homes lack indoor plumbing and the average monthly wage is about $300. What little cash-crop agriculture there once was collapsed with the Soviet Union.
But Ms. Vinokurova cultivated something with market value: strawberry blond hair that hung to her waist before she sold it.
"I wore it in a braid, a ponytail, different ways," she said. "But I got sick of it, and all the other girls have short hair, so I cut it," and then sold it, she said with a shrug. She now wears a bob and has no immediate plans to grow it to a marketable length, which she said would take years.
Mr. Kuznetsov's company here, Belli Capelli, which processes human hair into extension kits, is the largest business of its type in Russia, with annual revenue of about $16 million.
Kicking mud from his boots, he clambered into a Land Rover to tour the buildings here and in a neighboring town where a few dozen employees wash, dye and comb hair, then sort it by hue and length. At one sorting table, where about 500 braids were laid out, he stopped to extol the quality of his product. The best hair, he said, is honey-hued, changes color in the light and is soft to the touch.
"This is capitalism," he said. "The people with money want to distinguish themselves from the people with no money. Why does one woman sell her hair to another? The person with money wants to look better than the person without money."
American customers are typically unconcerned about the origins of extensions, other than to ask if they are hygienic, said Ron Landzaat, founder of Hair Extensions Guide, a trade group in Santa Rosa, Calif., who said the hair was sterilized by boiling it.
"They are concerned about their looks more than anything else," Mr. Landzaat said by telephone.
Obtaining adequate supplies is the industry's biggest challenge.
Great Lengths, the Italian supplier to the American market, obtains hair that women have ritualistically donated to temples in India, and says it can be dyed to match most hair types. Others in the business, including Mr. Kuznetsov, say European hair is a better option for women with light hair, and so is prized.
Russian factory towns in the Ural Mountains, about 900 miles east of Mosalsk, became such contested territory among hair buyers that in 2006 one was shot in a dispute with another, suggesting Russian organized crime involvement, the newspaper Kommersant reported.
Although Mr. Kuznetsov has no local rivals that he knows of, he keeps a security guard posted at the entrance to his storeroom. The milk crates, filled with the hair of thousands of women and sorted by categories including "Southern Russian" and "Russian Gold," might make an alluring target for a heist.
Most hair comes from buyers who roam the rougher parts of Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet states, posting fliers on utility poles offering money for hair. In Belarus, President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, a staunch nationalist, has placed such tight controls on small entrepreneurs that the trade is all but impossible, to the regret of those in the business, because the country is poor and has an abundance of blond women.
Generally, about 70 percent of the hair bought in Russia comes from locks kept at home from previous haircuts. Some Ukrainian and Russian women, for example, traditionally cut their hair after the birth of their first child, and may decide only years later to sell it. In areas of dire poverty, it is a final resource to tap in times of desperation.
The rest is bought, often after some haggling, directly from the head of the seller, who then gets a haircut on the spot. As a courtesy, in Russia, the deal is nearly always done in a salon so a hairdresser can cut carefully.
"Some women cut their hair to change their style, others need the money," said Sergei V. Kotlubi, a buyer who plies the blighted industrial regions near the city of Novosibirsk in Siberia. "It's like fishing. You never know what you will catch."
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2) TSA Pat-Down Leaves Mich. Man Covered in Urine
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 22, 2010
Filed at 11:02 a.m. EST
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/11/22/business/AP-US-Airport-Security-Pat-Down.html?src=busln
ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) - A bladder cancer survivor from Michigan who wears a bag that collects his urine says he was patted down roughly by a security agent at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, causing the bag to spill its contents on his clothing.
Tom Sawyer told MSNBC.com the experience earlier this month left the 61-year-old retired special education teacher humiliated and in tears before catching a flight to Orlando, Fla.
Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole said on CBS' "The Early Show" on Monday he had "great concern" for people such as Sawyer who feel "like they have not been treated properly."
Sawyer tells the Detroit Free Press that once he went through security, he changed his bag, but didn't have time to change his clothing and had to board the plane soaked in urine.
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3) Former Medill Students Protest Prosecution of Innocence Project
By DAVID CARR
November 22, 2010, 10:59 am
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/former-medill-students-protest-prosecution-of-innocence-project/?src=busln
The Medill Innocence Project, part of the school of journalism at Northwestern University, has spent years investigating suspicious prosecutions by the Cook County Attorney's office. Now former students of the program say the project and its leader, David Protess, may be the target of one.
Cook County prosecutors alleged in court last Wednesday that students working for the Innocence Project secretly recorded a witness in violation of Illinois law. But in an open letter sent on Sunday to university officials, former students of the project said that the school was failing to back Mr. Protess and the Innocence Project from a politically motivated investigation. (The Innocence Project trains student journalists in investigating potential wrongful convictions as part of their course of study.)
We have watched with increasing dismay as Northwestern has turned over hundreds of our private memos to the State's Attorney's Office and appears to be distancing itself from the Innocence Project. Since unveiling an unprecedented subpoena against David and his former students, prosecutors have consistently distorted our work, imputed false motives and sought to undermine the credibility of the Innocence Project. We expected Northwestern to relentlessly fight back against these falsehoods, defending a program that has literally saved lives and earned the university international acclaim.
In May 2009, prosecutors issued subpoenas for documents related to the Innocence Project's investigation of the case of Anthony McKinney, who was convicted of murdering a security guard in 1981. The university originally fought the subpoena, but earlier this month decided to give prosecutors access to 800 pages of documents. A memo in those documents noted the recording, which prompted prosecutors to open up an investigation.
The Medill Innocence Project has received significant notice over the years, helping free 10 innocent men and playing a role in the decision of then Governor George Ryan's decision in 2000 to suspend executions in the state because of flaws in the process.
The state's Attorney, Anita Alvarez, said in a written statement that the recording, which Mr. Protess said was an effort to ensure the safety of student investigators, raised "serious legal and ethical questions about the methods that the professor and his students employed during their investigation.".
Mr. Protess has hired his own lawyer. Attorney Richard O'Brien had been representing both the university and Mr. Protess, but withdrew telling the judge that his representation that Mr. Protess had submitted all requested documents was "not completely accurate."
The letter, signed by 15 students, many of whom who now work in journalism, said that the prosecution was an attempt to save face and avoid scrutiny in the future.
The letter claimed that prosecutors would rather "stall, delay and make baseless accusations than admit that the State of Illinois made a horrible mistake in the McKinney case and swiftly try to right a terrible wrong. They are out to destroy the Medill Innocence Project, so that no future McKinney cases come across their desk, and added, "David and his former students are being attacked precisely because they've been so successful."
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4) APNewsBreak: Activists called back to grand jury
By AMY FORLITI
The Associated Press
Wednesday, November 17, 2010; 6:10 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/17/AR2010111705560.html
FBI Raid Victims Get New Grand Jury Subpoenas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIlMwbkIo2E
MINNEAPOLIS -- Three Minnesota anti-war activists who refused to testify before a federal grand jury in Chicago after their homes were raided in a terrorism investigation have been told they'll be called again, an attorney told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
In late September, authorities searched seven homes and an office in Minneapolis and Chicago in what the FBI said was an investigation into material support of terrorism. Fourteen activists in the two states were summoned to testify, but they refused and their subpoenas were postponed.
None of the activists have been charged. Warrants suggest agents were looking for connections between them and terrorist groups in Colombia and the Middle East.
Bruce Nestor, an attorney who represents some of the activists, said Wednesday that three of them have been told they'll be called back to the grand jury, but it's not clear when. Individual attorneys for those activists are working out details with prosecutors, Nestor said.
"They don't have a specific date, but they are being told that basically they will be called back in front of the grand jury," Nestor said. "They all have individual counsel, and those individual counsel are in the process of discussing with the U.S. attorney the details as to how proceed."
Randall Samborn, a spokesman with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago, declined to comment about the case, saying he could neither confirm nor deny anything involving a federal grand jury because such proceedings are confidential.
Nestor said activists Anh Pham, Sarah Martin and Tracy Molm - whose homes were raided in September - have been told they'll be called again before the grand jury.
"These three are being called back, and within a matter of weeks will be facing the decision of testifying or facing contempt," Nestor said.
Pham said Wednesday she knew little about the situation and declined comment until she had a chance to talk to her attorney. Messages left for Martin were not immediately returned, and a phone number for Molm was not immediately available.
The activists said previously that they wouldn't appear before a grand jury because they felt grand juries had historically been used to harass activists and that testifying in secret would stifle free speech.
The government has not revealed the target of its investigation, but the activists have said they felt singled out because of their work in the anti-war movement.
"The government is not saying much, and they kind of hold all the cards at the moment," Nestor said.
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5) Message to the Baltimore Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild from Lynne Stewart∞
VIA Email
MY FRIENDS, COLLEAGUES, BROTHERS, AND SISTERS:
My message to you today is neither upbeat nor optimistic. We are living in dangerous times for our movement and it is getting worse as this insatiable government flexes the law to enable its nets to ensnare more people and further shred the body politic.
This past week's FBI raids on the support groups for various political causes, international, anti-imperialist, peace, animal rights--make it appear that anyone who opposes government policy and speaks or acts on behalf of that belief is now to be denoted a Terrorist and have his privacy invaded or be subjected to a subpoena or potential arrest. There has been a robust response from the movement with rallies and protests in many cities, the largest in Chicago and Minneapolis, where the most widespread raids occurred.
This is most excellent but unfortunately it may be too little too late as the law enforcement community licks its chops at the prospect of distracting, occupying and ultimately destroying all vestiges of resistance in this country.
Once when I spoke I said that I thought I thought my case was the canary in the mine shaft. A test of the expansion of the Law on Material Support of Terrorism. If they can label me (and) convict me behind their smokescreen of fear and intimidation and put me behind bars for a lengthy time, then they are ready to do it to the movement, to all of us. As some General said of Vietnam, "It's not much of a war but it's all {they} got." We too must ready ourselves to defend not only our clients, who will come to us victimized by this outrageous, overreaching assault, but also ourselves as attorneys. As shown in my case, they will not be readily distinguished between the two. It is the worst of times and we must ready ourselves for the onslaught.
As I said, the Law under which the FBI is operating is the prohibition of Material Aid to Terrorism, enacted during the Clinton Administration, and embraced by federal law enforcement ever since. The Secretary of State denotes certain countries and organizations as Terrorists. (There is no realistic opportunity to contest this in any court of Law.) Thereafter any kind of material aid is criminal per se. In my case it was a press release to Reuters. In the Holy Land case it was money donated to Palestinian charity. And in the Parliamentarian case, decided by the Supremes, it was counseling about methods to bring about peaceful resolution of disputes. These were the starting bell, indicating that anything, even speech, could be considered illegal and then loosing the hounds to discover (manufacture?) evidence.
Only time can tell what will be the outcome of this affront to the Constitution. Will people end up in jail or taking a principled stand, as I did, against these charges? Will there be the kind of overwhelming support for them that will convince the government that it reveals too much of their underlying desire to be rid of any criticism? Will resistance to subpoenas by not testifying fill the jails, as Maryland's own Dan Berrigan suggested, and block the evil attempt? I, from my perspective, have seen this before --when they rounded up supporters in the 1970's and 80's of the Puerto Rican freedom fighters and also anyone who had any relationship with the Black Liberation Army. There was spirited resistance then inside and outside the jails and Courthouse.
Right now, we must take the same responsibility against a much stronger and more vicious government. Resist, Resist, and turn the tide that threatens Civil Liberties and the fabric of the Constitution.
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6) Corporate Profits Were the Highest on Record Last Quarter
"American businesses earned profits at an annual rate of $1.66 trillion in the third quarter, according to a Commerce Department report released Tuesday. That is the highest figure recorded since the government began keeping track over 60 years ago..."
By CATHERINE RAMPELL
November 23, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/business/economy/24econ.html?hp
The nation's workers may be struggling, but American companies just had their best quarter ever.
American businesses earned profits at an annual rate of $1.66 trillion in the third quarter, according to a Commerce Department report released Tuesday. That is the highest figure recorded since the government began keeping track over 60 years ago, at least in nominal or non-inflation-adjusted terms.
Corporate profits have been going gangbusters for a while. Since their cyclical low in the fourth quarter of 2008, profits have grown for seven consecutive quarters, at some of the fastest rates in history.
This breakneck pace can be partly attributed to strong productivity growth - which means companies have been able to make more with less - as well as the fact that some of the profits of American companies come from abroad. Economic conditions in the United States may still be sluggish, but many emerging markets like India and China are expanding rapidly.
Tuesday's Commerce Department report also showed that the nation's output grew at a slightly faster pace than originally estimated last quarter. Its growth rate, of 2.5 percent a year in inflation-adjusted terms, is higher than the initial estimate of 2 percent. The economy grew at 1.7 percent annual rate in the second quarter.
Still, most economists say the current growth rate is far too slow to recover the considerable ground lost during the recession.
"The economy is not growing fast enough to reduce significantly the unemployment rate or to prevent a slide into deflation," Paul Dales, a United States economist for Capital Economics, wrote in a note to clients. "This is unlikely to change in 2011 or 2012."
The increase in output in the third quarter was driven primarily by stronger consumer spending. Wages and salaries also rose in the third quarter, which might help bolster holiday spending in the final months of 2010.
Private inventory investment, nonresidential fixed investment, exports and federal government also contributed to higher output. These sources of growth were partially offset by a rise in imports, which are subtracted from the total output numbers the government calculates, and a decline in housing and other residential fixed investments.
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7) Irish Debt Crisis Forces Collapse of Government
By LANDON THOMAS Jr.
November 22, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/world/europe/23ireland.html?ref=world
DUBLIN - The Irish government faced imminent collapse on Monday, only a day after it signed off on a $100 billion bailout, setting the stage for a new election early next year and injecting the threat of political instability into a European financial crisis that already has markets on edge.
Confronted with high-level defections from his governing coalition, Prime Minister Brian Cowen said he would dissolve the government after passage of the country's crucial 2011 budget early in December.
His announcement capped a grim day for Ireland, as protesters tried to storm the Parliament building in Dublin, and Moody's Investors Service, the ratings agency, lowered the rating on Irish debt by several notches.
In agreeing to new elections, Mr. Cowen seemed sure to become the first political casualty of the debt crisis in the 16-member euro zone.
The developments sent a chill through financial markets and political circles in the euro zone, where the severe austerity measures imposed to keep the currency union from fracturing have yet to be tested in general elections.
The impending collapse of the Irish government after an expensive bailout seemed only to reconfirm fears that the financial crisis was far from contained.
Analysts warned that deeply indebted countries like Portugal and Spain that are pushing through unpopular budget cuts may soon face an uncomfortable choice: punishment by financial markets that will hammer any laxity in deficit-cutting with exorbitant interest rates, or by an angry electorate annoyed by prolonged economic hardship.
"It will be the same story with all these countries - Ireland is just ahead of the game," said Desmond Lachman, a former policy executive from the International Monetary Fund who is now with the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "They all have a fixed exchange rate and have to make these massive adjustments, so people are asking whether they are on the right path."
Mr. Cowen's political skills helped keep him in office as he presided over three consecutive years of a shrinking economy, the biggest bank collapse outside of Iceland and a humiliating bailout. But his hand was forced by a coalition partner, the Green Party, which announced that it would pull out of the government once a series of fiscal packages and budgets were in place next month, and by backbenchers in his own party, Fianna Fail.
"There are occasions when the imperative of serving the national interest transcends other concerns, including party political and personal concerns," Mr. Cowen said in a statement. "This is one such occasion."
In his statement, Mr. Cowen said his government would present a four-year plan to reduce the deficit to 3 percent of gross domestic product by 2014, from 32 percent, and preside over the 2011 budget to be voted on Dec. 7.
Passage of the budget, which will call for $8.2 billion in savings, will be the first major hurdle the government faces to ensure receipt of the $100 billion it desperately needs to remain solvent. The Green Party defection came as a shock even to Mr. Cowen, who huddled with its leaders for five hours on Sunday and had no idea they were on the verge of calling for a new election.
Whatever the case, it is now almost certain that a general election will be held early next year.
"The mood in the country is for an election, and the people want a new mandate - that much is clear," said Joan Burton, deputy leader for the opposition Labour Party.
Ms. Burton, who is also the financial spokeswoman for Labour, said that party leaders would need to see more details on the budget proposed by Mr. Cowen, and that until they did, they were not inclined to recommend it.
But the leader of the Green Party, John Gormley, made clear in a statement that he would not jeopardize the country's financial bailout by challenging the budget, even though it is likely to call for such harsh measures as a sharp decrease in the minimum wage (currently one of the highest in Europe) and reductions to universal child benefits - payments the country makes to parents with children regardless of their income level.
In capitulating to a chorus of calls for new elections and his resignation, Mr. Cowen said, "The interests of the electorate, of all our people, will not be served by delaying, or worse still casting into doubt, the steps which are necessary to secure our economy and financial stability."
For Mr. Cowen and his Fianna Fail party, which has been in power since 1997, this represents a stunningly rapid fall from grace - but one that arguably might have occurred sooner. Mr. Cowen, before he became party leader in 2008, was finance minister as the seeds of the Irish real estate boom were being sowed in the early part of this decade.
That he has lasted this long is a testament to his undisputed skills as a cagey political infighter.
But the time for backroom dealing is done in Ireland - as it may well be in other European countries, facing the growing strains of high unemployment and stagnating growth (Portugal and Spain are expected to have no growth this year, while Ireland is hoping for just over 1 percent).
The intervention of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, while expected, has come as a shock to Irish citizens who are deeply disturbed by the prospect that the fund will force even deeper cuts on a populace battered by recession.
Over the past four days the International Monetary Fund team has been holed up in a luxury hotel in Dublin, trailed by photographers whenever they take the short taxi ride to the Central Bank or the Finance Ministry.
The chief of the team, Ajai Chopra, is referred to in the tabloids as "Ajai the Chopper," and the hottest-selling clothing item in Dublin is a T-shirt that says, "The I.M.F. took me coat."
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: November 23, 2010
An earlier version of this article erroneuosly stated that the Fianna Fail party has been in power since 1987.
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8) Unemployment Rates in Each State, at a Glance
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 1:14 p.m. EST
November 23, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/11/23/business/AP-US-State-Unemployment-Glance.html?src=busln
Employers in 41 states added jobs in October, the Labor Department said Tuesday, the best showing in 5 months. But the unemployment rate fell in only 19 states, because the additional jobs weren't always enough to absorb increases in the number of people looking for work. The rate rose in 14 states and remained the same in 17 states. Below are the unemployment rates for each state last month, compared to the previous month and a year ago.
Oct. Sept. Oct.
2009 2010 2010
Alabama 10.8 8.9 8.9
Alaska 8.4 7.7 7.9
Arizona 9.3 9.7 9.5
Arkansas 7.5 7.7 7.8
California 12.2 12.4 12.4
Colorado 7.5 8.2 8.4
Connecticut 8.7 9.1 9.1
Delaware 8.5 8.3 8.3
DC 11.4 9.8 9.7
Florida 11.4 11.9 11.9
Georgia 10.2 9.9 9.9
Hawaii 6.9 6.4 6.4
Idaho 8.8 9 9.1
Illinois 10.9 9.9 9.8
Indiana 9.9 10.1 9.9
Iowa 6.5 6.7 6.7
Kansas 6.8 6.6 6.7
Kentucky 10.7 10.1 10
Louisiana 7.3 7.8 8.1
Maine 8.1 7.7 7.4
Maryland 7.3 7.4 7.4
Massachusetts 9.1 8.4 8.1
Michigan 14.4 13 12.8
Minnesota 7.7 7 7.1
Mississippi 10.2 9.8 9.7
Missouri 9.7 9.3 9.4
Montana 6.6 7.4 7.3
Nebraska 4.7 4.6 4.7
Nevada 12.9 14.4 14.2
New Hampshire 6.8 5.5 5.4
New Jersey 9.9 9.4 9.2
New Mexico 8 8.2 8.4
New York 8.9 8.3 8.3
North Carolina 10.9 9.7 9.6
North Dakota 4.3 3.7 3.8
Ohio 10.8 10 9.9
Oklahoma 6.9 6.9 6.9
Oregon 10.9 10.5 10.5
Pennsylvania 8.6 9 8.8
Rhode Island 12.3 11.5 11.4
South Carolina 12.2 11 10.7
South Dakota 4.7 4.4 4.5
Tennessee 10.8 9.4 9.4
Texas 8.1 8.1 8.1
Utah 6.7 7.5 7.6
Vermont 6.7 5.8 5.7
Virginia 6.8 6.8 6.8
Washington 9.2 9.1 9.1
West Virginia 8.8 9.1 9.3
Wisconsin 8.7 7.8 7.8
Wyoming 7.4 6.8 6.7
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9) Ireland Unveils Austerity Plan to Help Secure Bailout
"The budget calls for cuts of nearly 15 percent in Ireland's social welfare budget, one of Europe's most generous, saving 3 billion euros a year. Some 24,750 public jobs - a huge number in a country of about 4 million people - would be eliminated, cutting state payrolls down to about what they were in 2006 and saving about 1.2 billion euros a year. Child benefits other social welfare payments would be reduced, and the nation's minimum wage, now 8.65 euros ($11.59) an hour, would be cut by 1 euro in the hope of promoting job creation.... The country's tax net would be widened to take in some low-income workers who currently pay no tax, and a series of new taxes would be imposed on certain residential properties, as well as on 120,000 people who receive public sector pensions...But the budget plan does not touch Ireland's very low corporate tax rate of 12.5 percent, which has helped to lured companies like Microsoft, Intel and Pfizer to set up operations in the country."
By LIZ ALDERMAN
November 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/world/europe/25ireland.html?hp
DUBLIN - The Irish government announced plans for steep tax increases and sharp cutbacks in its social welfare state and public spending on Wednesday. The austerity measures are meant to help secure an international bailout and to pay for a severe banking crisis that has depleted the country's finances.
The plan, which would slash public spending by 15 billion euros ($20 billion) over four years came as the embattled government prepared to effectively nationalize two troubled banks that have bled the state of money, and Standard & Poor's lowered Ireland's credit rating, citing concerns about the how much the government was borrowing and about the vast amounts needed to shore up the country's banking system.
Throngs of protestors shouted outside Prime Minister Brian Cowen's office as he unveiled details of how the government planned to reduce its budget deficit to the equivalent of 3 percent of gross domestic product by 2014, from about 32 percent now. In an energetic speech aimed at bolstering national morale, Mr. Cowen urged Ireland to "pull together as a people to confront this challenge, and do so in a united way." He said the budget would raise money mainly by taxing those who earn more, while going softer on those who have less, but he cautioned that the "size of the crisis means no one can be sheltered."
The International Monetary Fund and Ireland's partners in the European Union insisted on an austerity budget as a condition for the country obtaining assistance totaling 85 billion euros ($114 billion), money the country badly needs after it stepped in to rescue its banks. During the economic boom years before 2008, Irish banks borrowed cheaply and pumped out loans on houses and construction projects, helping to fuel an American-style housing bubble that went bust, ravaging their balance sheets.
The budget calls for cuts of nearly 15 percent in Ireland's social welfare budget, one of Europe's most generous, saving 3 billion euros a year. Some 24,750 public jobs - a huge number in a country of about 4 million people - would be eliminated, cutting state payrolls down to about what they were in 2006 and saving about 1.2 billion euros a year. Child benefits other social welfare payments would be reduced, and the nation's minimum wage, now 8.65 euros ($11.59) an hour, would be cut by 1 euro in the hope of promoting job creation.
The country's tax net would be widened to take in some low-income workers who currently pay no tax, and a series of new taxes would be imposed on certain residential properties, as well as on 120,000 people who receive public sector pensions.
But the budget plan does not touch Ireland's very low corporate tax rate of 12.5 percent, which has helped to lured companies like Microsoft, Intel and Pfizer to set up operations in the country. Though the country's political parties are bitterly divided over many aspects of economic policy, they all agree that the low corporate tax rate is one of the few pillars that can allow Ireland to return to economic health. Multinational companies employ about 1 out of 7 working people in Ireland, and their businesses are stoking export growth, even as the latest austerity program is expected to depress consumer demand and touch off a wave of retrenchment and job losses.
The government is expected within days to take over effective control of the two largest banks in the country, AIB and the Bank of Ireland, following plunges in their share price.
Officials from the European Union and the monetary fund have been in Dublin since last week, talking with the government about the financial crisis. They will spend the next several days poring over the details of the budget plan.
Boisterous protestors gathered outside the hotel rooms where IMF officials have been staying before moving on to the government building. The finance ministry did not announce the location of where the budget would be unveiled until nearly noon Wednesday, citing security concerns and the likelihood that protest crowds could grow throughout the day.
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10) Portuguese Unions Strike Over Budget
"It's the workers who are paying for the crisis, not the bankers nor the shareholders of big companies," said Leandro Martins, a 65-year old retiree. "This is a strike against rightist policies, to demand new policies serving the Portuguese people."
By REUTERS
November 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/business/global/25iht-strike.html?hp
LISBON - Portugal's biggest unions went on their first joint general strike since 1988 on Wednesday, hoping to weaken the Socialist government's resolve on implementing austerity measures meant to tackle a debt crisis.
Now that Ireland has announced its intention to seek assistance from the E.U. and I.M.F., investors are turning their attention to other financially weak euro nations like Portugal, which faces acute pressure to restore confidence in its economy. Any wavering in the government's commitment to new austerity measures could push up Portugal's borrowing costs in the same vicious spiral that forced Athens and Dublin to seek rescues.
As the country's two biggest unions stopped trains and buses, grounded planes and halted services from healthcare to banking, the spreads of 10-year Portuguese bonds over German benchmarks hit a euro lifetime high.
Lisbon was relatively quiet as many workers were prevented from going to work but roads in around the capital were choked with heavy traffic as commuters opted to use their cars. Cafes and shops were open and vans delivered goods as usual.
"What's coming for the new generation is very sad. I don't see a solution for them aside from emigrating to other countries where they may have new opprtunities," said Madalena Costa, 66, a retired school teacher as she passed a train station emptied by the strike.
Others were angered by the protest, saying the country could not afford the stoppage, the first general strike by the country's top two unions since 1988.
"This strike is completely absurd," said Pedro Silva, 36, a biology teacher at a private school, who was forced to take a taxi to work. "The Portuguese have to understand that there is no money and if there is no money people have to work to get it."
As the one-day strike kicked off, Portugal's largest exporter, Volkswagen's Autoeuropa plant, halted production altogether. The plant produces up to 500 cars on an average day.
"The production line is completely shut, so we expect that no cars will be produced today," said Autoeuropa union coordinator Calros Chora, adding that only a small part of the plant dealing with repairs would be open.
"There is a picket line outside, but they are letting people in and out," he said.
Lisbon has been plastered with banners for weeks urging workers to join the strike, although no mass protest march was planned.
The CGTP union said all ports were shut, and check-in counters at Lisbon's main airport was empty. National airline TAP cancelled most flights.
Roads in and around the capital Lisbon were choked with heavy traffic as many people chose to commute by car. Cafes and shops were open and vans delivered goods as usual.
The unions hope to tap into the growing dissatisfaction with the minority Socialist government's austerity measures, which also include across the board spending cuts in public services.
"It's the workers who are paying for the crisis, not the bankers nor the shareholders of big companies," said Leandro Martins, a 65-year old retiree. "This is a strike against rightist policies, to demand new policies serving the Portuguese people."
Portugal has suffered from years of low growth - unlike other weak euro economies such as Ireland and Spain that went from boom to bust - and waning competitiveness which economists say undermines its ability to ride out the debt crisis.
"Maybe the strike will not provoke radical changes in the austerity course the government has chosen, but it does represent an additional element of uncertainty in the already unstable setting in the country," said Elisio Estanque, a sociology researcher at the University of Coimbra.
The country's risk premium - or spreads on its bonds over safer German Bunds - hit a euro lifetime high on Nov. 11 and was close to that level on Wednesday, at 460 basis points.
Even though the economy is growing this year, economists fear it will slide back into recession in 2011 as higher taxes and civil servant wage cuts of five percent bite into consumption.
Unemployment, already at its highest since the 1980s at 10.9 percent, could rise further.
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11) Britain Students Protest Plan to Raise Fees
By SARAH LYALL
November 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/world/europe/25britain.html?ref=world
LONDON - Thousands of students in cities across Britain walked out of classes on Wednesday and marched in protest of the government's plans to cut education spending and steeply increase university tuition. It was the second such protest this month.
As of early afternoon here, the demonstrations had been mostly peaceful. In central London, though, a crowd surrounded and vandalized a police van, breaking its windows, scrawling graffiti on it and trying to tip it over. A group of protesters repeatedly tried to break through a police cordon in front of Whitehall, which houses many government buildings, even as officers held them back with night sticks.
In other cities, including Nottingham, Leeds, Bristol, Sheffield, Warwick and Manchester, university students - in some cases joined by students from secondary schools who also walked out of class - marched through town centers or tried to occupy university buildings.
The demonstrators were angry at government proposals to help reduce the country's budget deficit by giving less money in direct grants to universities, and allowing the universities in turn to charge tuition of up to $14,400, a year, from the current cap of $5,624.
The number of protesters in London was much smaller than it was two weeks ago, when 52,000 marched through the streets and the demonstrations turned violent as the day wore on. The police, sensitive to criticism that they were ill prepared the last time, deployed many more officers and managed to confine the protesters to an area between Parliament Square and Whitehall.
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12) U.S. to Send Carrier for Joint Exercises Off Korea
By DAVID E. SANGER and MARK McDONALD
November 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/world/asia/25korea.html?ref=world
WASHINGTON - President Obama and South Korea's president agreed Tuesday night to hold joint military exercises as a first response to North Korea's deadly shelling of a South Korean military installation, as both countries struggled for the second time this year to keep a North Korean provocation from escalating into war.
The exercise will include sending the aircraft carrier George Washington and a number of accompanying ships into the region, both to deter further attacks by the North and to signal to China that unless it reins in its unruly ally it will see an even larger American presence in the vicinity.
The decision came after Mr. Obama attended the end of an emergency session in the White House Situation Room and then emerged to call President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea to express American solidarity and talk about a coordinated response.
But as a former national security official who dealt frequently with North Korea in the Bush administration, Victor Cha, said just a few hours before the attack began, North Korea is "the land of lousy options."
Mr. Obama is once again forced to choose among unpalatable choices: responding with verbal condemnations and a modest tightening of sanctions, which has done little to halt new attacks; starting military exercises that are largely symbolic; or reacting strongly, which could risk a broad war in which South Korea's capital, Seoul, would be the first target.
The decision to send the aircraft carrier came as the South Korean military went into what it termed "crisis status." President Lee said he would order strikes on a North Korean base if there were indications of new attacks.
North Korea's artillery shells fell on Yeonpyeong Island, a fishing village whose residents fled by ferry to the mainland city of Inchon - where Gen. Douglas MacArthur's troops landed 60 years ago this fall, three months after the outbreak of the Korean War.
Today, Inchon is the site of South Korea's main international airport, symbolizing the vulnerability of one of the world's most vibrant economies to the artillery of one of the world's poorest and most isolated nations.
A senior American official said that an early American assessment indicated that a total of about 175 artillery shells were fired by the North and by the South in response on Tuesday.
But an American official who had looked at satellite images said there was no visible evidence of preparations for a general war. Historically, the North's attacks have been lightning raids, after which the North Koreans have backed off to watch the world's reaction. This one came just hours after the South Koreans had completed a long-planned set of military exercises, suggesting that the North Korean attack was "premeditated," a senior American official said.
Television reports showed large plumes of black smoke spiraling from the island, as dozens of houses caught fire. The shelling killed two marines and two civilians who lived on the island and whose burned bodies were discovered as damage from the shelling was being cleared away. The South put its fighter planes on alert - but, tellingly, did not put them in the air or strike at the North's artillery bases. Mr. Obama was awakened at 3:55 a.m. by his new national security adviser, Thomas E. Donilon, who told him of the attack.
John Delury, a professor at Yonsei University in Seoul, said he heard strong reactions Wednesday afternoon to the news of the civilian deaths, the first in decades of skirmishes between the two countries. "This is extremely serious," he said.
Just 11 days before, North Korea had invited a Stanford nuclear scientist to Yongbyon, its primary nuclear site, and showed him what was described as a just-completed centrifuge plant that, if it becomes fully operational, should enable North Korea to enrich uranium into nuclear fuel and add to its arsenal of 8 to 12 nuclear weapons.
Taken together, the nuclear demonstration and the attack were widely interpreted as an effort to bolster the credentials of Kim Jong-un, the heir apparent as the country's leader, and the son and grandson of the only two men who have run the country. When his father, Kim Jong-il, North Korea's ailing leader, was establishing his credentials, the North conducted a similar series of attacks.
"They have a 60-year history of military provocations - it's in their DNA," said a senior administration official. "What we are trying to do is break the cycle," a cycle, he said, that has North Korea's bad behavior rewarded with "talks, inducements and rewards." He said that the shelling would delay any effort to resume the six-nation talks about the North's nuclear program.
While Mr. Obama was elected on a promise of diplomatic engagement, his strategy toward the North for the past two years, called "strategic patience," has been to demonstrate that Washington would not engage until the North ceased provocations and demonstrated that it was living up to past commitments to dismantle, and ultimately give up, its nuclear capacity.
The provocations have now increased markedly, and it is not clear what new options are available. Beijing's first reaction on Tuesday was to call for a resumption of the six-nation talks involving North and South Korea, Russia, Japan, China and the United States. The last meeting was two years ago, at the end of the Bush administration.
Mr. Obama's aides made it clear in interviews that the United States had no intention of returning to those talks soon. But its leverage is limited.
When North Korea set off a nuclear test last year just months after Mr. Obama took office, the United States won passage of a United Nations Security Council resolution that imposed far harsher sanctions. The sanctions gave countries the right, and responsibility, to board North Korean ships and planes that landed at ports around the world and to inspect them for weapons. The effort seemed partly successful - but the equipment in the centrifuge plant is so new that it is clear that the trade restrictions did not stop the North from building what Siegfried S. Hecker, the visiting scientist, called an "ultramodern" nuclear complex.
By far the biggest recent disruption of relations came in March, when a sudden explosion sank a South Korean warship, killing 46 sailors. South Korean and international investigators said the blast was caused by a North Korean torpedo. The North has vehemently denied it. If the North was responsible for the sinking, it would be the most lethal military attack since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
President Lee of South Korea decided not to respond militarily to the sinking and was praised by Washington for his restraint. To make North Korea pay a price, he imposed new food restrictions on the North and ended trade worth several hundred million dollars that had been intended to induce the desperately poor North Koreans to choose income over military strikes. But some analysts believe that the cutoff in food aid was an excuse, if not a motivation, for Tuesday's attack.
Choi Jin-wook, a North Korea expert at the Korea Institute for National Unification, a research institute in Seoul, said, "It's a sign of North Korea's increasing frustration."
"Washington has turned a deaf ear to Pyongyang, and North Korea is saying: 'Look here. We're still alive. We can cause trouble. You can't ignore us.'"
Yet for Mr. Obama, much stronger responses, including a naval quarantine of the North, carry huge risks. A face-off on the Korean Peninsula would require tens of thousands of troops, air power and the possibility of a resumption of the Korean War, a battle that American officials believe would not last long, but might end in the destruction of Seoul if the North unleashed artillery batteries near the border.
Pressing against a precipitous reaction is that the North's attacks have a choreographed character, even a back-to-the-future feel. The last time North Korea engaged in acts this destructive was in the 1980s, when it blew up a South Korean airliner and also detonated a bomb in Myanmar in a botched attempt to assassinate the visiting South Korean president. Both attacks were said to be ordered by Kim Jong-il, who was then the heir to Kim Il-sung, his father and North Korea's founder.
Now Mr. Kim's youngest son, Kim Jong-un, is in that position. He was promoted on Sept. 28 to the rank of four-star general, a prerequisite for his ascendancy to power. Many see these attacks as the effort of a man the Chinese now say is 25 years old to establish his military credentials.
David E. Sanger reported from Washington, and Mark McDonald from Seoul, South Korea. Mark Landler and Thom Shanker contributed reporting from Washington, and Martin Fackler from Tokyo.
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13) Aggrieved Fliers Ask, 'What Now?'
By JAD MOUAWAD
November 23, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/business/24travel.html?ref=us
As if air travel could get any worse.
The airlines have already taken away the free meals and the pillows. They have been charging for checked bags and extra legroom and raising fares whenever they can get away with it. They have been packing more people onto planes as they slashed the number of flights scheduled each day. And passengers now have fewer options if bad weather cancels or delays their flights.
Now, just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday - traditionally the busiest time of the year - the Transportation Security Administration has imposed tough new security measures.
And that may have been the last straw for many travelers.
Judy Dugan, the research director at Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group, argues that the anger that has welled up against the new security procedures is an expression of fliers' overall attitude toward air travel.
"Passengers are angry and frustrated about most of the flying experience - the whole 'shut up and sit down' experience of flying," Ms. Dugan said. "But unless they're professional travelers, they can't pin the frustration on individual airlines. It's easy, though, to focus on the T.S.A., which is a big and omnipresent part of every flight for everyone."
And don't expect any change for the better anytime soon. While many travelers may complain about their travel experience, the industry for the first time in years has found a way back to profitability by holding the line on the number of flights they offer.
United States airlines scheduled 526,000 flights in September, according to the Air Consumer Travel Report, down from more than 600,000 in September 2007. And each flight is now fuller. Load factors, which measure how many seats are filled by paying customers, have risen above 80 percent on average at most airlines and will probably be 90 percent or more over the holidays. Only a few years ago, airlines were achieving load factors of 70 percent.
Just between Chicago O'Hare International Airport and La Guardia Airport in New York, American Airlines and United Airlines scheduled 1,400 fewer flights in the first nine months of this year compared with the same period three years ago, a drop of 17 percent.
Fees are also piling up. Bag fees, for instance, brought in $1.7 billion in extra revenue in the first half of the year. In many cases, passengers are paying for services that were once free. Changing a ticket on US Airways, for instance, now costs $150 to $250; sending an unaccompanied minor on a Delta Air Lines flight, $100. Pet charge on Southwest, $75; an alcoholic drink on United, as much as $9.
"Air travel used to be glamorous and exciting - and now, it's just a pain," said Mary C. Gilly, a professor of marketing at the University of California, Irvine. "Airlines have become very cost-oriented as opposed to service-oriented. They are catering to their investors, not their customers."
More problems may be on the horizon, some experts say. New federal rules have pretty much abolished instances of planes sitting on the tarmac for more than three hours. But the rule, which went into effect in May, may have had the unintended effect of forcing more flights to be canceled, some airline experts say.
Airlines said they have a strong incentive to comply with the tarmac rule given that the potential fines of $27,500 per passenger could end up costing around $3 million per delayed flight. But as a result, airlines have been canceling flights that they expect may face a long delay. When a plane returns to the gate to avoid the three-hour penalty, there is also an extra chance it will get canceled.
From May to September, the last month for which data is publicly available, only 12 flights remained on the tarmac more than three hours. That compares with 535 in the same period last year. But more flights were canceled in the same period, even as airlines reduced their overall capacity. Even so, airline experts say it is too early to determine whether the rule has benefited customers.
"We haven't gone through a big winter yet," said Brett Snyder, the author of the Cranky Flyer blog and the president of Cranky Concierge, an air travel assistance Web site. "We need those long snowstorms that mess things up to know the impact of the rule. I think we need to wait."
With fewer flights, though, travelers could end up waiting for hours at the airport, or even spend the night there, without any compensation for the inconvenience if bad weather delays operations.
Weather, in fact, more than security checkpoint delays, may turn into the bigger headache of the holiday period.
Airlines certainly anticipate full flights for the next week. The Air Transportation Association predicted that the number of passengers over this Thanksgiving holiday - which is defined as a 12-day period that began on Nov. 19 and ends on Tuesday - will rise 3.5 percent from last year, to 24 million people.
To help ease travel delays, the Federal Aviation Administration, as it has done in previous years, said it would clear the way for some commercial planes to fly in airspace normally reserved for the military. Airlines have also taken steps to meet the crowds. At many airports, extra airline employees will be on hand to help direct passengers to their gates, or help them move to the head of security lines if they are running late.
Southwest, the largest domestic carrier, said it would strive to accommodate every passenger, especially Wednesday and Sunday, traditionally among the busiest days, adding extra flights if needed.
"We do everything we can do to make sure you can get to your destination," said Greg Wells, the vice president for operations at Southwest Airlines.
Continental and United, which recently merged, have several measures in place to handle the influx of holiday travelers, according to Christen David, a spokeswoman for both airlines. The carriers have brought in additional customer service agents, gate agents and bag handlers. They are also asking managers and clerical personnel to work on the front lines on the day before Thanksgiving.
"It's all hands on deck," she said.
Upset with the security measures, Rachelle Desrochers, a health insurance analyst who works in Providence, R.I., said she rarely flew these days, preferring to drive or take the train instead. "I may never get to the West Coast again," she said, half-jokingly.
Other travelers appeared more stoic about the current state of the airline business.
"We want cheap airline tickets but we don't want to accept the fact that airlines are turning into Greyhound buses," said Christopher F. Childres, a managing partner at Edgewater Capital Partners, a private equity firm. "But if we pay Greyhound bus prices, we should expect Greyhound bus service."
He said that his worst experiences were generally not with the airlines but with other passengers, "whether it is a person walking through security with all the jewelry they own, or the person that doesn't buy two seats but lifts the armrest and takes up half your seat."
But, he added, "If you're paying $200 to fly 800 miles in two hours, there has to be an economic reason it's that cheap. You can't have a customer experience for $200."
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14) A Spanish Bailout Would Test Europe's Strained Finances
By RAPHAEL MINDER
November 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/business/global/25spainecon.html?hp
MADRID - Europe so far has survived the bailout of Greece. The financial rescue of Ireland also is manageable. Even if Portugal becomes the third country to succumb and seek aid, as many people widely predict, it is unlikely to push Europe to the financial brink.
But any bailout of Spain - with an economy twice the size of the other three combined - could severely stress the ability of Europe's stronger countries to help the financially weaker ones, and spell deep trouble for the euro, Europe's common currency. Even though Spain, like Ireland, has adopted an austerity plan to help it avoid the need for a bailout, it still could need aid if its banking system proves frailer than the government thinks it is, as was the case in Ireland.
This troubling possibility has unnerved lenders, with Spain's borrowing costs rising even though Madrid has cut its deficit and the country's banks maintain they have sufficient strength to absorb their bad real estate loans. "Europe can afford the collapse of Ireland, even perhaps that of Portugal, but not that of Spain, so Spain's ultimate line of defense is in fact this knowledge that it's too big to fail and that it represents a systemic risk for the euro," said Pablo Vázquez, an economist at the Fundación de Estudios de Economía Aplicada, a research institute here.
Reflecting the worries of investors, the yield spread between Spanish 10-year government bonds and those of Germany continued to widen on Wednesday - to as high as 2.59 percentage points, the biggest gap since the introduction of the euro. Spreads typically widen when investors perceive greater risk of not being repaid.
The problem for Spain is one of "self-fulfilling expectations," said Jordi Galí, director of the Center for Research in International Economics at Barcelona's Pompeu Fabra university. "If investors expect Spain to have trouble refinancing its debt, now or somewhere down the road, then Spain will have trouble," he added. "This is only aggravated by the fact that the reluctance of investors to purchase the country's public debt leads to an increase in the interest rate it has to pay and thus in the budget deficit and the amount of debt it has to issue."
Elena Salgado, Spain's finance minister, insisted on Wednesday that Spain would not need rescuing. She told Spanish radio that "we are in the best position to resist against these speculative attacks." Indeed, some say that one of Spain's relative strengths is that a large amount of its government debt - 203.3 billion euros ($271.1 billion) - is owed to its own banks, rather than foreign lenders. If the government's financial condition worsens, the thinking goes, Spanish banks would have a greater incentive to help out by easing terms on the loans than would foreign banks, which might take a harder line.
Of course, it is a bit of a double-edged sword; if the Spanish banks need to ease terms to help the government, they could be forced to swallow steep losses, hurting their balance sheets.
The likelihood of entering such a vicious circle could also rise next year, when Spain is due to repay lenders 192 billion euros, or about a fifth of the total debt. As a result of increasing interest it would have to pay for new borrowing, Spain faces a rise of 18 percent in the cost of financing its debt, according to the government's budgetary plan.
Investor nervousness is mounting just as Madrid is reining in a budget deficit that reached 11.1 percent of gross domestic product last year. Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, initially slow to recognize the crisis, narrowly pushed through Parliament last May an austerity package that included 15 billion euros of spending cuts. As a result, Spain's central government deficit fell 47 percent in the first 10 months of this year, according to government figures released on Tuesday.
Ireland also made steep spending cuts, but still needed a bailout. The main reason is that its banks were a lot more troubled than the government realized, and it could not afford the cost of supporting them without help from Europe.
The looming question is whether Spanish banks are really as healthy as the government and the banks say they are.
Last July, Spanish banks emerged relatively unscathed from stress tests carried out across Europe, which showed that only five Spanish entities might have insufficient capital. All of them, however, were among the weaker cajas, or savings banks, that were already due to tap into a 99-billion-euro state restructuring fund and get absorbed in a consolidation round aimed at cutting the number of cajas to about 20 from 45.
But the credibility of the stress tests has since been undermined by the collapse of Irish banks. Spanish banks avoided the catastrophic subprime investments made by Irish and many other European financial institutions, but Spanish banks nonetheless had a "problematic exposure" of 180.8 billion euros to real estate and Spain's collapsed construction sector, like substandard and repossessed assets, according to a study by the Bank of Spain. The bank has gradually been tightening the provisioning requirements for repossessed assets.
Moreover, Spanish banks could suffer if Portugal's financial problems worsen. Spain is not only Portugal's biggest trade partner, it is also its biggest creditor, with Spanish banks holding $78 billion of Portuguese debt, according to the Bank for International Settlements.
"Spain's banks already have enough problems, but the exposure to Portugal could just turn into the wild cart which upturns the whole apple cart," said Edward Hugh, an independent economist based in Barcelona. Ireland's near collapse has revived concerns about Spanish banks, resulting in a plunge in their stock prices this week.
Spain's vulnerability would rise, warned Ralph Solveen, an economist covering Spain at Germany's Commerzbank, should the government veer away from its deficit-cutting objectives or Spanish banks show further signs of fragility. "One clear risk factor is the banking system and possible bad news from there, because then many people would start to draw parallels with the situation in Ireland, whether justified or not," Mr. Solveen said.
Another concern is that the central government's cost-cutting zeal might not be matched by regional and local authorities, which accounted for 57 percent of public spending last year. Coming regional elections, starting with Catalonia this Sunday, could persuade politicians to make some unsustainable spending pledges, in particular in regions like Andalusia, where some municipalities have already fallen behind in paying staff salaries.
The central government, however, appears determined to force greater fiscal discipline even on Spain's capital city. Last week, Mr. Zapatero rejected an appeal from the mayor of Madrid, which has debt of 7.15 billion euros, to relax recent restrictions on municipal debt issuance.
"Saying 'no' to the most powerful municipality in this country does send a very strong signal," said Antonio Fernández, head of restructuring and insolvency at Garrigues, a Spanish law firm.
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15) An Argument Against a Two-Tier Pay System
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
November 25, 2010, 9:57 am
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/an-argument-against-a-two-tier-pay-system/?hp
In Milwaukee, a city of famous manufacturing companies scrambling to cut labor costs, Bucyrus International, maker of giant coal mining machinery, stands out as an exception.
The scramble involves two-tier wages. Should newly hired factory workers spend their working lives at a lower wage scale than the generation they are gradually replacing? Tim Sullivan, chief executive of Bucyrus, says no. In his view, a single, relatively high tier - one that starts at $22 an hour in the case of Bucyrus and rises to $35 an hour over a worker's career - lifts morale and raises productivity, thus increasing revenue and paying for itself.
"I don't believe in two-tier systems," Mr. Sullivan said in an interview. "It does not support the teamwork that you are trying to achieve and therefore the efficiencies."
But Mr. Sullivan is an outrider. Two other giants in the Greater Milwaukee area - Harley-Davidson, the motorcycle manufacturer, and Mercury Marine, which makes outboard motors and marine engines and is a unit of the Brunswick Corporation - have signed contracts with their unions that embed the two-tier system. And the Kohler Company, famed for its bathroom and kitchen fixtures, is en route to signing a contract that is almost certain to include two wage tiers.
Beyond Greater Milwaukee, two-tier pay systems are spreading. Initially they appeared at companies that were losing money and sought temporary relief from unions. Gradually, however, the approach spread to profitable companies, like Harley-Davidson, Mercury Marine and Kohler, and were incorporated into multiyear contracts. The top tier in most cases starts at $20 an hour or so and the lower tier tops out at about that level.
Caterpillar, the manufacturer of big tractors and earth-moving equipment, was a pioneer among profitable companies in negotiating a two-tier wage system for its factory workers, doing so with the United Auto Workers in 2005.
Now, Caterpillar has reached an agreement with Bucyrus to buy the latter company.
The purchase agreement was announced on Nov. 15 - five days after the interview with Mr. Sullivan in Milwaukee. "My belief is that I want to pay the highest wages that I can," Mr. Sullivan said in the interview, "and what I want in return are flexible and efficient work practices."
The blue collar wage scale at Bucyrus, embodied in a contract with Local 1343 of the United Steelworkers, specifies a range of $22 to $35 an hour for the company's 825 workers. The average is $30 an hour.
In a telephone interview after the Caterpillar announcement, Mr. Sullivan noted that the five-year contract at Bacyrus did not expire until 2013. "Cat will take its time to see how we do things," he said, "and then make a decision down the road."
A Caterpillar spokesman, James Dugan, noted that the Bucyrus purchase - for $8.6 billion - would not close until the middle of next year. "It is premature for us to discuss such issues now," Mr. Dugan said of the labor agreement.
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16) Colorado: Professor's Firing Upheld
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/us/25brfs-PROFESSORSFI_BRF.html?ref=us
A former University of Colorado professor who compared some Sept. 11 victims to a Nazi has lost an appeal challenging his firing. Ward L. Churchill was fired in 2007 after a faculty committee said he had committed academic fraud. Mr. Churchill, an ethnic studies professor, caused an uproar when he referred in an essay to some victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as "little Eichmanns," and argued that that was the true reason he was terminated. The Colorado Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a lower court ruling rejecting Mr. Churchill's claim. A three-judge panel agreed that the university was entitled to "quasi-judicial immunity."
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17) Friends of Peltier
http://www.FreePeltierNow.org
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives.org Questions and comments may be sent to claude@freedomarchives.org
Greetings, my relatives.
It seems another year has gone by since the last time we gathered like
this. I say we, although I am not there with you in body, my spirit
certainly is. We have coined this day, a day of mourning, as opposed
to a day of thanksgiving. It's a shame that for the most part
thanksgiving is relegated to only one day. And mourning is something
that relates to unhappy circumstances that have taken place. We
certainly can't change what has happened. This very day is ours and
tomorrow hasn't happened yet and, is uncertain. I really don't like
to dwell on the mourning aspects of life but instead, on what we can
do to prevent those unhappy and sometimes terrible times in our
history. I may have mentioned it once before but I once read about a
union organizer named Joe Hill that was framed by the copper mine
owners to be executed. And I believe he said what really needs to be
said upon his death. His words were "don't mourn, organize". And
those are also my sentiments.
There are a lot of things that happened in the past that can be
prevented in the future. There are losses that can be regained. But
we must organize to do it. We must find it within ourselves to be in
touch with the Creator for I can tell you from a heartfelt fact that
when they've pushed you away, into a dark corner, not just your body,
but your mind, your soul, your spirit, there is no one that can
sustain you but the Creator himself. Dark moments come and go in all
our lifetimes. And there are those in political office, who will try
to turn your head away from the obvious truths. They will lie to you
about what they believe. They will try to get you to follow what they
consider politically correct while ignoring the truth, such as
protests against the Mosque being built within blocks of the fallen
Trade towers, which incidentally was a monument to wealth and wealth
seekers. I am not trying to demean the innocent people whose only
cause of their death was seeking a place of employment to feed their
families. While they protest the Mosque, no one mentions the Native
American sacred places that by treaty are seriously violated daily.
Our Sacred Black Hills of South Dakota, sacred to many tribes, have
the faces of many of our oppressors carved on them. The place of
vision seeking, Bear Butte in South Dakota, sacred to us for
millennia, has a bar built at the foot of it and there is talk of
having helicopter flights around it to attract tourism. And, there is
even talk of drilling for oil and gas.
Every time I have to write or I should say dictate, one of these
statements, I try to think of what I would say if this was the last
time I got to speak. The thing that comes to mind in some of our
sacred ceremonies and that is thoughts of our relationships with the
ones we love and the Creator of all life. Not to take away from the
theme of this day, but if you can hold the person you love, be
thankful. If you can walk on green grass, touch a tree, be thankful.
If you can breathe air that didn't come through a ventilation system,
or a window with bars, be thankful. If you can stand in an open field
or some other place at night and look up at the heavens, be thankful.
No one appreciates the simple things as much as a man or woman locked
away. I know sometimes some of my friends may have thought I had
become institutionalized and there may be some element of my thinking
behavior that has become calloused from this continued imprisonment.
But I have not for a moment forgotten the needs of my people and the
atrocities committed against them or the circumstances that all the
poor and impoverished face in this world at the hands of those who
take more than they need and exploit for gain, the futures of our
children. I paint pictures of them sometimes, people I've known,
people I've met, places I've seen, and places I've only seen in my
minds eye. And if my paintbrush was magical, rest assured I would
paint for myself one open door.
I wrestle with what to say to you and words are sometimes so
inadequate. So if you are free today, un-imprisoned, be thankful.
Give the person next to you a hug for me. May the Great Spirit bless
you always in all ways with the things you need. May you find joy in
doing what is right and righting what is wrong and seek to be the best
example of what a human should be in our lifetime.
In the Spirit of those we mourn, those who gave their lives and those
whose lives were taken from them.
I really don't know what else to say because in writing this, my heart
has become heavy with the emotions of this time.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, who gave his life for what was right and
tried to right what was wrong.
Your Brother,
Leonard Peltier
----
Time to set him free... Because it is the RIGHT thing to do.
Friends of Peltier
http://www.FreePeltierNow.org
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives.org Questions and comments may be sent to claude@freedomarchives.org
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18) Eating the Irish
By PAUL KRUGMAN
November 25, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/26/opinion/26krugman.html?hp
What we need now is another Jonathan Swift.
Most people know Swift as the author of "Gulliver's Travels." But recent events have me thinking of his 1729 essay "A Modest Proposal," in which he observed the dire poverty of the Irish, and offered a solution: sell the children as food. "I grant this food will be somewhat dear," he admitted, but this would make it "very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children."
O.K., these days it's not the landlords, it's the bankers - and they're just impoverishing the populace, not eating it. But only a satirist - and one with a very savage pen - could do justice to what's happening to Ireland now.
The Irish story began with a genuine economic miracle. But eventually this gave way to a speculative frenzy driven by runaway banks and real estate developers, all in a cozy relationship with leading politicians. The frenzy was financed with huge borrowing on the part of Irish banks, largely from banks in other European nations.
Then the bubble burst, and those banks faced huge losses. You might have expected those who lent money to the banks to share in the losses. After all, they were consenting adults, and if they failed to understand the risks they were taking that was nobody's fault but their own. But, no, the Irish government stepped in to guarantee the banks' debt, turning private losses into public obligations.
Before the bank bust, Ireland had little public debt. But with taxpayers suddenly on the hook for gigantic bank losses, even as revenues plunged, the nation's creditworthiness was put in doubt. So Ireland tried to reassure the markets with a harsh program of spending cuts.
Step back for a minute and think about that. These debts were incurred, not to pay for public programs, but by private wheeler-dealers seeking nothing but their own profit. Yet ordinary Irish citizens are now bearing the burden of those debts.
Or to be more accurate, they're bearing a burden much larger than the debt - because those spending cuts have caused a severe recession so that in addition to taking on the banks' debts, the Irish are suffering from plunging incomes and high unemployment.
But there is no alternative, say the serious people: all of this is necessary to restore confidence.
Strange to say, however, confidence is not improving. On the contrary: investors have noticed that all those austerity measures are depressing the Irish economy - and are fleeing Irish debt because of that economic weakness.
Now what? Last weekend Ireland and its neighbors put together what has been widely described as a "bailout." But what really happened was that the Irish government promised to impose even more pain, in return for a credit line - a credit line that would presumably give Ireland more time to, um, restore confidence. Markets, understandably, were not impressed: interest rates on Irish bonds have risen even further.
Does it really have to be this way?
In early 2009, a joke was making the rounds: "What's the difference between Iceland and Ireland? Answer: One letter and about six months." This was supposed to be gallows humor. No matter how bad the Irish situation, it couldn't be compared with the utter disaster that was Iceland.
But at this point Iceland seems, if anything, to be doing better than its near-namesake. Its economic slump was no deeper than Ireland's, its job losses were less severe and it seems better positioned for recovery. In fact, investors now appear to consider Iceland's debt safer than Ireland's. How is that possible?
Part of the answer is that Iceland let foreign lenders to its runaway banks pay the price of their poor judgment, rather than putting its own taxpayers on the line to guarantee bad private debts. As the International Monetary Fund notes - approvingly! - "private sector bankruptcies have led to a marked decline in external debt." Meanwhile, Iceland helped avoid a financial panic in part by imposing temporary capital controls - that is, by limiting the ability of residents to pull funds out of the country.
And Iceland has also benefited from the fact that, unlike Ireland, it still has its own currency; devaluation of the krona, which has made Iceland's exports more competitive, has been an important factor in limiting the depth of Iceland's slump.
None of these heterodox options are available to Ireland, say the wise heads. Ireland, they say, must continue to inflict pain on its citizens - because to do anything else would fatally undermine confidence.
But Ireland is now in its third year of austerity, and confidence just keeps draining away. And you have to wonder what it will take for serious people to realize that punishing the populace for the bankers' sins is worse than a crime; it's a mistake.
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19) Front-Line City in Virginia Tackles Rise in Sea
By LESLIE KAUFMAN
November 25, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/26/science/earth/26norfolk.html?hp
NORFOLK, Va. - In this section of the Larchmont neighborhood, built in a sharp "u" around a bay off the Lafayette River, residents pay close attention to the lunar calendar, much as other suburbanites might attend to the daily flow of commuter traffic.
If the moon is going to be full the night before Hazel Peck needs her car, for example, she parks it on a parallel block, away from the river. The next morning, she walks through a neighbor's backyard to avoid the two-to-three-foot-deep puddle that routinely accumulates on her street after high tides.
For Ms. Peck and her neighbors, it is the only way to live with the encroaching sea.
As sea levels rise, tidal flooding is increasingly disrupting life here and all along the East Coast, a development many climate scientists link to global warming.
But Norfolk is worse off. Situated just west of the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, it is bordered on three sides by water, including several rivers, like the Lafayette, that are actually long tidal streams that feed into the bay and eventually the ocean.
Like many other cities, Norfolk was built on filled-in marsh. Now that fill is settling and compacting. In addition, the city is in an area where significant natural sinking of land is occurring. The result is that Norfolk has experienced the highest relative increase in sea level on the East Coast - 14.5 inches since 1930, according to readings by the Sewells Point naval station here.
Climate change is a subject of friction in Virginia. The state's attorney general, Ken T. Cuccinelli II, is trying to prove that a prominent climate scientist engaged in fraud when he was a researcher at the University of Virginia. But the residents of coastal neighborhoods here are less interested in the debate than in the real-time consequences of a rise in sea level.
When Ms. Peck, now 75 and a caretaker to her husband, moved here 40 years ago, tidal flooding was an occasional hazard.
"Last month," she said recently, "there were eight or nine days the tide was so doggone high it was difficult to drive."
Larchmont residents have relentlessly lobbied the city to address the problem, and last summer it broke ground on a project to raise the street around the "u" by 18 inches and to readjust the angle of the storm drains so that when the river rises, the water does not back up into the street. The city will also turn a park at the edge of the river back into wetlands - it is now too saline for lawn grass to grow anyway. The cost for the work on this one short stretch is $1.25 million.
The expensive reclamation project is popular in Larchmont, but it is already drawing critics who argue that cities just cannot handle flooding in such a one-off fashion. To William Stiles, executive director of Wetlands Watch, a local conservation group, the project is well meaning but absurd. Mr. Stiles points out that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has already spent $144,000 in recent years to raise each of six houses on the block.
At this pace of spending, he argues, there is no way taxpayers will recoup their investment.
"If sea level is a constant, your coastal infrastructure is your most valuable real estate, and it makes sense to invest in it," Mr. Stiles said, "but with sea level rising, it becomes a money pit."
Many Norfolk residents hope their problems will serve as a warning.
"We are the front lines of climate change," said Jim Schultz, a science and technology writer who lives on Richmond Crescent near Ms. Peck. "No one who has a house here is a skeptic."
Politics aside, the city of Norfolk is tackling the sea-rise problem head on. In August, the Public Works Department briefed the City Council on the seriousness of the situation, and Mayor Paul D. Fraim has acknowledged that if the sea continues rising, the city might actually have to create "retreat" zones.
Kristen Lentz, the acting director of public works, prefers to think of these contingency plans as new zoning opportunities.
"If we plan land use in a way that understands certain areas are prone to flooding," Ms. Lentz said, "we can put parks in those areas. It would make the areas adjacent to the coast available to more people. It could be a win-win for the environment and community at large and makes smart use of our coastline."
Ms. Lentz believes that if Norfolk can manage the flooding well, it will have a first-mover advantage and be able to market its expertise to other communities as they face similar problems.
But she also acknowledges that for the businesses and homes entrenched on the coast, such a step could be costly, and that the city has no money yet to pay them to move.
In the short run, the city's goal is just to pick its flood-mitigation projects more strategically. "We need to look broadly and not just act piecemeal," Ms. Lentz said, referring to Larchmont.
To this end, Norfolk has hired the Dutch firm Fugro to evaluate options like inflatable dams and storm-surge floodgates at the entrances to waterways.
But to judge by the strong preference in Larchmont for action at any cost, it may not be easy for the city to choose which neighborhoods might be passed over for projects.
Neighborhood residents lobbied hard for the 18-inch lifting of their roadway, even though they know it will offer not much protection from storms, which are also becoming more frequent and fearsome. Many say that housing values in the neighborhood have plummeted and that this is the only way to stabilize them.
Others like Mr. Schultz support the construction, even though they think the results will be very temporary indeed.
"The fact is that there is not enough engineering to go around to mitigate the rising sea," he said. "For us, it is the bitter reality of trying to live in a world that is getting warmer and wetter."
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20) Cities Are at Odds With California Over Beach Curfews
By IAN LOVETT
November 25, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/26/us/26curfew.html?ref=us
LOS ANGELES - Like many other coastal California cities, Los Angeles has a nighttime beach curfew.
For most of the day, Venice Beach teems with people: tourists swim in the ocean, fortunetellers read palms on the Boardwalk, homeless youths panhandle, rappers hawk their CDs, addicts buy drugs. Around 10 p.m., police S.U.V.'s start rolling across the sand, clearing people off. From midnight to 5 a.m., the beach is supposed to be closed.
But the decades-old curfew is now at the center of a confrontation over who controls the beach, with the California dream of beaches that are free and open to the public at all hours pitted against city efforts to combat urban problems like gang violence and homelessness.
The California Coastal Commission, a state agency, is demanding changes to the Los Angeles curfew, insisting that the law illegally denies the public access to the waterfront, which it says people should be able to enjoy at any time.
Los Angeles officials have shown little intention of tampering with the curfew, which they say has helped reduce late-night crime. The city has refused to recognize the Coastal Commission's jurisdiction, which means that a court may ultimately decide what restrictions cities can place on access to their beaches.
Los Angeles implemented its curfew in 1988, and the policy began to spread through Southern California in the early 1990s in response to concerns about increasing crime. After a string of violent encounters, including a stabbing and an episode in which a lifeguard was doused with gasoline and almost set on fire, Huntington Beach moved its curfew to 10 p.m. from midnight.
"We found that crowds at the beach were getting more and more rowdy," said Jim Engle, the community services director in Huntington Beach. "Since we went to the earlier curfew, they don't have as much time to get rowdy and intoxicated, and we haven't had as many problems. It's a friendlier place to come for everyone now."
The Coastal Commission, which is charged with ensuring coastal access for the public, first took aim at the curfews in 1993, when it sent out a letter warning that beach closings were illegal without the commission's approval. Members of the State Legislature accused the commission of overstepping its mandate and talked about restricting its power over curfews, though no bill was ever passed.
Since then, the commission has tried to find solutions that address public safety concerns but make it possible for fishermen and surfers to use the ocean at night, or for couples to take a moonlit walk on the sand.
In Laguna Beach, for instance, people may now walk across the beach to the ocean and along the waterfront, but they cannot linger higher up, where homeless people had been sleeping.
"I've seen a big increase in demand for use of the coast over the past 40 years," said Peter Douglas, the commission's president. "There is a way to craft these closures that addresses the local government's concerns without painting with such a broad brush that people are being denied their constitutional rights to access the waterfront."
Los Angeles, however, faces distinct challenges. While gang activity in Venice has been greatly reduced in recent years, the beach remains difficult for the police to control. Despite the curfew, dozens of people still sleep on the beach and the Boardwalk, and assaults remain relatively common. A police sergeant, Patricia Suarez, said crime would "blow up" if the curfew were lifted.
City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, whose district includes Venice, complained that the commission was insensitive to urban issues. Twice, it vetoed plans for parking restrictions in Venice, which Mr. Rosendahl had hoped would reduce the presence of people living in R.V.'s in the area.
"I say to the Coastal Commission, understand Los Angeles," Mr. Rosendahl said. "Los Angeles is the homeless capital of the West Coast. In Venice, there are gangs, and issues sometimes spill onto the beach. The police have been very clear over the last few decades that this curfew gives them a breather."
According to Mr. Douglas, the commission opened an investigation into the Los Angeles curfew after a spike in complaints about the policy earlier this year. The commission contends that the curfew requires a permit, because it affects the intensity of use and access to state waters.
While other cities have traditionally worked with the Coastal Commission to reach a compromise, the Los Angeles city attorney's office, in a letter to the commission, argued that it had no power over city ordinances. It suggested that the commission sue the city if it believed the curfew to be illegal.
George Lefcoe, a professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law who specializes in land-use issues, said it would be difficult for the city to win in court on the question of jurisdiction over curfews. Instead, he thought the city could try to curb the commission's authority through the Legislature.
"If the Legislature created boundaries, for example, that cities can have curfews after midnight, I think a lot of judges would see that as balance, preserving beaches for the people without creating a lot of issues for local government," Professor Lefcoe said.
Still, the battle may end up in court. While Mr. Rosendahl has not ruled out trying to compromise, he hopes to wait until Governor-elect Jerry Brown has appointed new commissioners.
"I can't speak for the whole city, but as far as I'm concerned, sue us," Mr. Rosendahl said. "Hopefully, with the new governor coming into office, his appointees will be people who are more sensitive to urban issues."
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21) SOA Speaking Truth to Power
David Omondi and Father Louis Vitale Sentenced to Six Months in Federal Prison -- Incarcerated in Georgia Jail
www.SOAW.org
Four human rights activists were in court on Tuesday, November 23 after being arrested and charged with federal trespassing at Ft. Benning, Georgia on November 20 and 21. During their arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Hyles, Nancy Smith and Christopher Spicer pled not guilty. Their trial is set for January 5. Franciscan priest Fr. Louis Vitale, OFM and David Omondi of the Los Angeles Catholic Worker Community pled no contest and put the SOA on trial through their statements in court. Fr. Louis and David were sentenced to the maximum 6 months in jail. While nonviolent resisters are being sent to prison, those responsible for the use of torture manuals at the SOA have never even been charged for their crimes. Father Louis and David are presently in a Georgia county jail.
Write to the prisoners:
Because they may be transferred at any time, cards and letters to David may be sent to his community for forwarding: David Omondi, c/o The Los Angeles Catholic Worker, 632 N. Brittania St., Los Angeles, CA 90033. Louis' mail may be sent to the Nuclear Resister for forwarding at P.O. Box 43383, Tucson, AZ 85733.
Click here to read the letter that vigil speaker Father Alberto Franco wrote to all the prisoners of conscience from the November vigil and please feel free to ad your own message to the prisoners in the comment section below the letter text!
On Saturday, November 20, twenty-two others were arrested on city and state charges, including unlawful assembly, failure to disperse, and parading without a permit. Two were charged but not taken into custody. Some were blockading the highway leading into Fort Benning with a sign that read, "Stop: This is the End of the Road for the SOA". Many of those arrested were not intending to risk arrest but were swept up as they walked back to their cars after they left the permitted protest following the vigil on Saturday. These included journalists and a Columbus, Georgia resident who came out of a barber shop to take a photo of the protest. The SOA Watch Legal Collective is collecting testimony and photos of the indiscriminate arrests that took place on Saturday afternoon. Stay tuned!
On Sunday, November 21, Columbus Recorder's Court Judge Michael Cielinski found 21 of the 24 who were arrested by the city guilty on all charges. Two were convicted in a state court the next day. All were released from jail by Monday, with fines and bonds as high as $4,152.50. The SOA Watch community stepped up in a big way, supporters maxed out their credit cards at ATMs to ensure that no one had to stay another day in the Muscogee County Jail. Those who were arrested still have to answer state charges, and expect to be arraigned in January.
For more information about the Ft. Benning protest, visit www.SOAW.org.
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22) Demonstrators in Ireland Protest Austerity Plan
By JOHN F. BURNS
November 27, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/world/europe/28dublin.html?hp
DUBLIN - After a week that brought Ireland a pledge of an $114 billion international rescue package and the toughest austerity program of any country in Europe, thousands of demonstrators took to Dublin's streets on Saturday to protest wide cuts in the country's welfare programs and in public-sector jobs.
The protests centered on a milelong march along the banks of the Liffey river in central Dublin to the General Post Office building on O'Connell Street, site of the battle between Irish republican rebels and British troops in the Easter Uprising in 1916 - an iconic event that many in Ireland regard as the tipping point in Ireland's long struggle for independence.
The choice of venue for the protests by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, coordinating the march through the city, reflected the mood of anger, dismay and recrimination in the wake of the economic shocks of the past 10 days. Those shocks have been the culmination of two years in which the Irish economy has shrunk by about 15 percent, faster than any other European economy.
Before that, Ireland enjoyed more than a decade of unprecedented prosperity, so the rescue package being worked out by the International Monetary Fund and the European Union and the austerity program the Dublin government has been forced to adopt to secure the bailout loans have come as a deep shock.
Among other things, the austerity package will involve the loss of about 25,000 public-sector jobs, equivalent to 10 percent of the government work force, as well as a four-year, $20 billion program of tax increases and spending cuts like sharp reductions in state pensions and the minimum wage. One Dublin newspaper, the Irish Independent, estimated that the cost of the measures for a typical middle-class family earning $67,000 a year would be about $5,800 a year.
The ensuing political turmoil has raised questions about the ability of the government of Prime Minister Brian Cowell to secure backing for the austerity package when it is presented to Parliament on Dec. 7. The coalition government was weakened last week by a split between the Fianna Fail party, which Mr. Cowen leads, and its main coalition partner, the Green Party, and a stunning loss by Fianna Fail in an election Friday for a parliamentary seat that reduced the government majority to two.
The peaceful and restrained nature of the protests on Saturday was one indication that the unrest may not lead to confrontations in the streets, as some have feared. On a bitterly cold day, turnout appeared to have fallen far short of the 50,000 that organizers had forecast.
Organizers had called for a "family friendly" demonstration, and that appeared to be what they got. With a police helicopter hovering overhead, speeches at the post office building drew cheers and shouts of support, and the detonation of some fireworks, but there were no reports of arrests. Protesters waved banners that depicted the austerity measures as an attack on the country's poor, and told reporters that they feared for their futures, and the country's.
"Everything's collapsing," one woman said.
"We can't afford it," a father with a young child said of the spending cuts. "I don't know how we're ever going to come out of it."
The anger of many speakers, and among the protesters, appeared to fall about equally on the Cowen government and on the international financial institutions working out the details of the rescue package. Officials in Brussels, where European finance ministers were meeting on Saturday to discuss the package, said it could be confirmed with an announcement on Sunday.
One of the O'Connell Street speakers, typical of others, urged the country "not to allow a government with no mandate, bowing to people in Europe who are not elected, to determine our future."
But if the government could take some encouragement from the relative quiescence of the demonstrators, its wider political prospects remained deeply uncertain. Fianna Fail's share of the vote in the election last week, in Donegal, fell to 21 percent from 51 percent in the general election of 2007. The seat was won by Sinn Fein, a historical rival of Fianna Fail dating from the struggle for independence a century ago, but a marginal force in the republic's politics in recent decades.
Although by-elections are regarded as unreliable bellwethers of voting patterns in general elections, the Donegal result was a further pointer to what many Irish political commentators expect to be a harsh loss for Fianna Fail in a general election that Mr. Cowen has indicated he will call for February or March.
In the meantime, the prime minister has rejected calls for his or the government's resignation. He has said he intends to see the rescue package and the austerity program approved by Parliament before calling an election, the reverse of the pattern that Sinn Fein, among other groups, has demanded.
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23) Oregon Teen Arrested in Plot to Bomb Holiday Event
By LIZ ROBBINS and EDWARD WYATT
November 27, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/us/28portland.html?hp
A Somali-born teenager attempting to detonate what he believed was a car bomb at a packed Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in downtown Portland, Ore., was arrested by the authorities on Friday night. They had spent nearly six months tracking him and setting up a sting operation, officials in Oregon said.
The bomb, which was in a van parked off Pioneer Courthouse Square, was a fake - planted by F.B.I. agents as part of the elaborate sting - but "the threat was very real," said Arthur Balizan, the F.B.I.'s special agent in charge in Oregon. An estimated 10,000 people were at the ceremony on Friday night, the Portland police said.
Mr. Balizan identified the suspect as Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, a naturalized United States citizen who lived in Corvallis, Ore. He was charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.
"Our investigation shows that Mohamud was absolutely committed to carrying out an attack on a very grand scale," Mr. Balizan said in a statement released by the Department of Justice.
"At the same time, I want to reassure the people of this community that, at every turn, we denied him the ability to actually carry out the attack," he added.
The foiled terrorism plot was the latest aimed at a mass gathering in the United States, including an attempted car bombing in Times Square in May. In that case, a Pakistani-born American citizen was arrested and pleaded guilty.
But unlike that plan, which the authorities learned about only at the last minute, an affidavit filed in the Oregon case indicates that the F.B.I. learned early on of Mr. Mohamud's desire to plot violence. His planning unfolded under the scrutiny and even assistance of undercover agents, officials said.
The arrest also marks another episode in which a Somali-American has been accused of being drawn into radical attempts at violence. In 2009, after a sweeping federal investigation of more than 20 young Americans believed to have joined the Shabaab, a militant Islamist group in Somalia that is affiliated with Al Qaeda, the authorities charged two of the men with providing material support for terrorism. In 2008, another man under investigation blew himself up in an attack in Somalia, becoming the first known American suicide bomber.
But in this case, according to the affidavit, Mr. Mohamud was in e-mail contact with an unnamed associate in Pakistan in August 2009, who referred him to another an associate overseas.
The F.B.I. said that during the sting operation, Mr. Mohamud repeatedly expressed his desire to kill Americans. Reminded by F.B.I. agents posing as accomplices that many children and families would be at the Christmas tree-lighting ceremony, Mr. Mohamed said that he was looking for "a huge mass" that could "be attacked in their own element with their families celebrating the holidays," according to the F.B.I.
Federal agents also said that Mr. Mohamud thought Portland would be a good target because Americans "don't see it as a place where anything will happen."
"It's in Oregon, and Oregon, like, you know, nobody ever thinks about it," the affidavit quotes him as saying.
Dwight C. Holton, the United States attorney for Oregon, said, "This defendant's chilling determination is a stark reminder that there are people - even here in Oregon - who are determined to kill Americans."
The authorities arrested Mr. Mohamud around 5:40 p.m. on Friday, 20 minutes before the tree-lighting ceremony was planned to start. As he was taken into custody, he kicked and screamed at the agents and yelled, "Allahu akbar," an Arabic phrase for "God is Great," the authorities said.
Undercover agents F.B.I. first came into contact with Mr. Mohamud in June, and repeatedly asked him if he was prepared to go through with the bombing at Pioneer Courthouse Square.
"I want whoever is attending that event to leave, to leave either dead or injured," Mr. Mohamud told the agents, according to the affidavit.
He referred to the Sept. 11 attacks, calling the destruction "awesome."
At the end of September, Mr. Mohamud mailed bomb components to agents he thought were fellow operatives who would assemble the device. On Nov. 4, the agents traveled with Mr. Mohamud to a remote location in Lincoln County, Ore., where they detonated a bomb as a trial run.
Mr. Mohamud, who had told undercover agents that he had thought about committing a terrorist act since he was 15, taped a statement that included a goodbye to his family and an explanation for his actions, the authorities said.
As the clock ticked down on Friday afternoon, Mr. Mohamud again met with the undercover agents and prepared to detonate the bomb. When he dialed a number from his cellphone, thinking it would activate the bomb, he was instead arrested.
Mr. Mohamud is scheduled to appear in federal court in Portland on Monday and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Defense attorneys in such cases often accuse the F.B.I. of entrapment. Anticipating such claims, undercover agents in Mr. Mohamud case offered him several nonfatal ways that he could serve his cause, including mere prayer. But he told the agents he wanted to be "operational."
Colin Miner contributed reporting.
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24) Winning the Class War
By BOB HERBERT
November 26, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/27/opinion/27herbert.html?hp
The class war that no one wants to talk about continues unabated.
Even as millions of out-of-work and otherwise struggling Americans are tightening their belts for the holidays, the nation's elite are lacing up their dancing shoes and partying like royalty as the millions and billions keep rolling in.
Recessions are for the little people, not for the corporate chiefs and the titans of Wall Street who are at the heart of the American aristocracy. They have waged economic warfare against everybody else and are winning big time.
The ranks of the poor may be swelling and families forced out of their foreclosed homes may be enduring a nightmarish holiday season, but American companies have just experienced their most profitable quarter ever. As The Times reported this week, U.S. firms earned profits at an annual rate of $1.659 trillion in the third quarter - the highest total since the government began keeping track more than six decades ago.
The corporate fat cats are becoming alarmingly rotund. Their profits have surged over the past seven quarters at a pace that is among the fastest ever seen, and they can barely contain their glee. On the same day that The Times ran its article about the third-quarter surge in profits, it ran a piece on the front page that carried the headline: "With a Swagger, Wallets Out, Wall Street Dares to Celebrate."
Anyone who thinks there is something beneficial in this vast disconnect between the fortunes of the American elite and those of the struggling masses is just silly. It's not even good for the elite.
There is no way to bring America's consumer economy back to robust health if unemployment is chronically high, wages remain stagnant and the jobs that are created are poor ones. Without ordinary Americans spending their earnings from good jobs, any hope of a meaningful, long-term recovery is doomed.
Beyond that, extreme economic inequality is a recipe for social instability. Families on the wrong side of the divide find themselves under increasing pressure to just hold things together: to find the money to pay rent or the mortgage, to fend off bill collectors, to cope with illness and emergencies, and deal with the daily doses of extreme anxiety.
Societal conflicts metastasize as resentments fester and scapegoats are sought. Demagogues inevitably emerge to feast on the poisonous stew of such an environment. The rich may think that the public won't ever turn against them. But to hold that belief, you have to ignore the turbulent history of the 1930s.
A stark example of the potential for real conflict is being played out in New York City, where the multibillionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has selected a glittering example of the American aristocracy to be the city's schools chancellor. Cathleen Black, chairwoman of Hearst Magazines, has a reputation as a crackerjack corporate executive but absolutely no background in education.
Ms. Black travels in the rarefied environs of the very rich. Her own children went to private boarding schools. She owns a penthouse on Park Avenue and a $4 million home in Southampton. She was able to loan a $47,600 Bulgari bracelet to a museum for an exhibit showing off the baubles of the city's most successful women.
Ms. Black will be peering across an almost unbridgeable gap between her and the largely poor and working-class parents and students she will be expected to serve. Worse, Mr. Bloomberg, heralding Ms. Black as a "superstar manager," has made it clear that because of budget shortfalls she will be focused on managing cutbacks to the school system.
So here we have the billionaire and the millionaire telling the poor and the struggling - the little people - that they will just have to make do with less. You can almost feel the bitterness rising.
Extreme inequality is already contributing mightily to political and other forms of polarization in the U.S. And it is a major force undermining the idea that as citizens we should try to face the nation's problems, economic and otherwise, in a reasonably united fashion. When so many people are tumbling toward the bottom, the tendency is to fight among each other for increasingly scarce resources.
What's really needed is for working Americans to form alliances and try, in a spirit of good will, to work out equitable solutions to the myriad problems facing so many ordinary individuals and families. Strong leaders are needed to develop such alliances and fight back against the forces that nearly destroyed the economy and have left working Americans in the lurch.
Aristocrats were supposed to be anathema to Americans. Now, while much of the rest of the nation is suffering, they are the only ones who can afford to smile.
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25) Iraq's Troubles Drive Out Refugees Who Came Back
By JOHN LELAND
November 26, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/27/world/middleeast/27refugees.html?hp
BAGHDAD - A second exodus has begun here, of Iraqis who returned after fleeing the carnage of the height of the war, but now find that violence and the nation's severe lack of jobs are pulling them away from home once again.
Since the American invasion in 2003, refugees have been a measure of the country's precarious condition, flooding outward during periods of violence and trickling back as Iraq seemed to stabilize. This new migration shows how far the nation remains from being stable and secure.
Abu Maream left Iraq after a mortar round killed his brother-in-law in 2005. Amar al-Obeidi left when insurgents threatened to kill him and raided his shops. Hazim Hadi Mohammed al-Tameemi left because the doctors who treated his wife's ovarian cancer had fled the country.
All three joined the flow of refugees who returned as violence here ebbed. But now they want to leave again.
"The only thing that's stopping me is I don't have the money," said Mr. Maream, who gave only a partial name - literally, father of Maream - because he feared reprisal from extremists in his neighborhood. "We are Iraqis in name only."
Nearly 100,000 refugees have returned since 2008, out of more than two million who left since the invasion, according to the Iraqi government and the United Nations high commissioner for refugees.
But as they return, pulled by improved security in Iraq or pushed by a lack of work abroad, many are finding that their homeland is still not ready - their houses are gone or occupied, their neighborhoods unsafe, their opportunities minimal.
In a recent survey by the United Nations refugee office, 61 percent of those who returned to Baghdad said they regretted coming back, most saying they did not feel safe. The majority, 87 percent, said they could not make enough money here to support their families. Applications for asylum in Syria have risen more than 50 percent since May.
As Iraq struggles toward a return to stability, these returnees risk becoming people without a country, displaced both at home and abroad. And though departures have ebbed since 2008, a wave of recent attacks on Christians has prompted a new exodus.
Mr. Obeidi, who used his tribe's name instead of his father's name as a surname, left for Syria in 2006 after an improvised bomb exploded near his nephew, terrifying the boy, and insurgents threatened to kill Mr. Obeidi. On a recent evening in Baghdad, he had trouble controlling his breathing as he talked about the daily blasts in his neighborhood.
"There's no security here," he said, ticking off his close encounters with guns and bombs. "I was near a female suicide bomber a couple months ago. Then I was in my brother's truck when insurgents opened fire on a bridge. My friend was killed in front of me with a knife. I've been destroyed. My mother needs an operation for her eyes, and I don't have money. We need someone to help us."
"Feel my stomach," he said. "It's like a rock. It's going to blow out."
Before insurgents robbed his tool shops in 2006, he said, he earned about $1,000 a month and was planning to marry. But during several trips abroad he was unable to find work. Since returning to Baghdad he has struggled to find day labor, earning about $6 a day. The woman he had intended to marry is now with another man.
He has twice paid smugglers, to take him to Austria on one occasion and to Italy on another, but each time the men took his money without helping him.
"Life was better in Syria, but I can't work there," said Mr. Obeidi, who is a Sunni. "Jordan was the same. Turkey was the same. And it was expensive to live there. That's why I had to come back. But our country is not our country. It's Iran's country. We need someone to help us."
The United Nations provides some transportation costs and a small stipend for families that come back, but fewer than 4 percent of returnees take advantage of the program. Most either do not know about it or think they may still want to return to their asylum country and will want the agency to help them as refugees, not as returnees.
For Abu Maream and his family, who left for Syria in 2005 and came back last year, life has come down to a choice between bad options. Syria seemed safe, he said, but he felt "humiliated" as an unemployed foreigner seeking work, selling off his possessions to keep the family afloat. Back here, he has been unable to find work, and neighbors who used to respect the family now "look down on us," he said.
On a recent afternoon he sat in a two-room apartment with only a mattress on the floor and a few possessions in boxes. He had no refrigerator and received only a few hours of electricity a day.
"Before, we had Shiite neighbors, and there were no problems at all," said Mr. Maream, who is Sunni. "The government created the sectarian thing," he said, meaning that the political parties formed along ethnic or religious lines, formalizing the division. Now his neighborhood has become a stronghold for Sunni extremists.
He sat on the edge of the mattress, his mother sitting behind him. In the coming months, he said, he will send his sisters and mother back to Syria for their safety, and he and his wife and three children will move in with an uncle in Iraq, splitting up the family. When the family would be reunited in Syria he could not say.
"It's over; that's it," he said. "I'm not coming back. How can I come back? I don't believe Iraq will have a chance again."
Mr. Tameemi, who fought in the bloody eight-year war with Iran, said he hated leaving Iraq in 2006. "I love my country," he said. But after years of sanctions and the American-led invasion, doctors and medicines were scarce in the country - one of the many toxic effects of displacement in Iraq.
In Jordan he found doctors to treat his wife's cancer, but he could not find work. "They don't treat us well," he said.
Now, after two months back in Iraq, Mr. Tameemi is ready to leave again. Despite improvements in security, medical care here - once a model for the region - is still inadequate, and doctors have not returned. "Even if I have to sleep in the road, I want to take care of my wife," he said.
His next plan is to apply for asylum in the United States, but he knows that the odds are against him. In the meantime, his experience has soured him on the country he can no longer call home.
"I regret coming back, but financial problems pushed me to do it," he said. "The Iraqis don't help the Iraqis."
Duraid Adnan contributed reporting.
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26) Don't Just Tell Us. Show Us That You Can Foreclose.
"For years, the trustee would always take the creditors' side," Mr. Rothbloom said. "My strong opinion is the U.S. trustee's perspective is that they exist to stop borrowers from cheating banks. Perhaps they are coming to the realization that banks can also cheat borrowers."
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON
November 27, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/business/28gret.html?src=busln
AFTER examining their foreclosure practices for flaws in mortgage documentation and other procedures, many of the nation's largest banks have resumed - or will soon resume - trying to evict defaulted borrowers.
JPMorgan Chase, for example, told investors this month that it had extensively reviewed its foreclosure controls, trained personnel in the unit and started new procedures to ensure that all legal requirements would be met when it moves to seize a property in default.
"If we find any foreclosures in error, we will fix them," JPMorgan Chase said.
But while banks may have booted a few robo-signers and tightened up some lax procedures, one question at the heart of the foreclosure mess refuses to go away: whether institutions trying to take back a property can prove they even have the right to foreclose at all.
Some in the industry believe that questions about this issue - known as "legal standing" - are trivial. They say it's just a gambit by borrowers' lawyers to throw sand in the foreclosure machine. Nine times out of 10, bankers say, the right institutions are foreclosing on the right borrowers.
Maybe so. But the United States Trustee Program, the unit of the Justice Department charged with overseeing the integrity of the nation's bankruptcy courts, is taking a different view. The unit is stepping up its scrutiny of the veracity of banks' claims against borrowers, and its approach is evident in two cases in federal bankruptcy court in Atlanta.
In both cases, Donald F. Walton, the United States trustee for the region, has intervened, filing motions contending that the banks trying to foreclose have not shown they have the right to do so.
The matters involve borrowers operating under Chapter 13 bankruptcy plans overseen by the court in the Northern District of Georgia. In both cases, the banks have filed motions with the bankruptcy court to remove the automatic foreclosure stay that results when a court confirms a debtor's Chapter 13 repayment plan. If the stay is removed, the banks can foreclose.
In one case, the borrower had her Chapter 13 plan confirmed by the court early last month. About two weeks later, Wells Fargo asked the court for relief from the stay so that it could foreclose.
Responding on Nov. 16, Mr. Walton asked the court to deny the bank's request because it had failed to produce any facts showing that it was entitled to foreclose - either as the holder of the underlying note or as the agent for the holder.
The other case involves a couple who had their Chapter 13 plan confirmed by the court in March 2009. A month ago, Chase Home Finance, a unit of JPMorgan Chase, asked the court for relief from the automatic stay so that it could start foreclosure proceedings.
Again, Mr. Walton objected, asking the court to deny the request on the same grounds as argued in the Wells Fargo matter - in this case, that Chase hadn't proved that it controlled the note on the property.
Jane Limprecht, a spokeswoman for the trustee program, confirmed that it was ratcheting up its scrutiny on banks' foreclosure practices.
"The United States Trustee Program is engaged in an enhanced review of mortgage servicer filings in bankruptcy cases to help ensure the accuracy of the claim to repayment," she said. She declined to comment on specific filings.
A Chase spokesman said the bank is the holder of the note in the Georgia case, giving it standing to file the motion.
A spokeswoman for Wells Fargo said that in its case, it is the trustee of a mortgage security that contains the loan, not the servicer. In its capacity as the trustee for mortgage loans serviced by others, it says it expects those servicers to abide by all required laws, processes and procedures.
Howard D. Rothbloom, a lawyer in Atlanta who represents borrowers in bankruptcy, welcomed the actions by Mr. Walton and said he believes they show a sea change in the United States trustee's thinking on the foreclosure mess.
"Until now, what we had was homeowners complaining about a lack of due process," Mr. Rothbloom said. "Now you have the federal government complaining about the abuse of the judicial process. That's really what was missing before."
The judges overseeing these matters have not yet ruled on the banks' or the trustee's requests. And Wells Fargo and Chase may indeed be able to persuade the trustee that their filings were proper.
But the trustee's intervention in these matters indicates that it wants banks to show the courts that they have the right to foreclose, rather than simply telling them they do. That had been the custom, after all. Now, Mr. Walton's motions may serve as a warning to banks that they need to be better prepared if they want to foreclose on a borrower.
"For years, the trustee would always take the creditors' side," Mr. Rothbloom said. "My strong opinion is the U.S. trustee's perspective is that they exist to stop borrowers from cheating banks. Perhaps they are coming to the realization that banks can also cheat borrowers."
FEDERAL trustees in other parts of the country have also intervened in borrower cases, but many of these actions have been related to questionable foreclosure fees or to dubious legal or documentation practices. The shift to a broader focus on the issue of standing suggests that the courts may no longer accept at face value the banks' arguments that they have the right to foreclose or represent the institution that does.
David Shaev, a lawyer in New York who works with troubled borrowers, says the United States trustee there has also intervened in one of his cases, taking up the issue of a bank's right to foreclose.
In his experience, Mr. Shaev said: "The attorneys who represent the banks invariably state that they will get the collateral file for us and prove that the banks had possession of the documents at the appropriate time. But then when we review the file it doesn't show that at all."
As many large banks renew their foreclosure efforts, Mr. Rothbloom says he hopes that the United States trustee will bring about a comprehensive change in bank practices.
"I've gotten resolutions for clients in individual cases, but I'm just a flea on the tail of an elephant," he said. "Resolutions of individual cases don't bring about systemic change."
And systemic change is precisely what's needed.
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