*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS ALERT:
San Francisco Health Center/PLANNED PARENTHOOD - San Francisco, CA
1650 Valencia St
San Francisco, CA 94110
IS BEING PICKETED DAILY BY RIGHT TO LIFE DEMONSTRATORS CARRYING GIANT SIGNS RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE CLINIC INTIMIDATING PATIENTS!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
SAVE THE DATE! APRIL 4, 2011
WE ARE ONE APRIL 4
END THE $$$ GREED
RALLY AND MARCH:
3:00 P.M., MEET AT UNION SQUARE
6:00 P.M., JUSTIN HERMAN PLAZA
Organized by San Francisco Labor Council.
For more information call: 415-440-4809
Visit: Visit www.we-r-1.org/
Details to follow.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FREE BRADLEY MANNING! HANDS OFF JULIAN ASSANGE!
In a recent New York Daily News Poll the question was asked:
Should Army pfc Bradley Manning face charges for allegedly stealing classified documents and providing them for WikiLeaks?
New York Daily News Poll Results:
Yes, he's a traitor for selling out his country! ...... 28%
No, he's a hero for standing up for what's right! ..... 62%
We need to see more evidence before passing judgment.. 10%
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/03/05/2011-03-05_wikileaks_private_loses_his_underwear.html?r=news
Sign the Petition:
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
Stand with Bradley!
A 23-year-old Army intelligence analyst, Pfc. Manning faces decades in prison for allegedly leaking a video of a US helicopter attack that killed at least eleven Iraqi civilians to the website Wikileaks. Among the dead were two working Reuters reporters. Two children were also severely wounded in the attack.
In addition to this "Collateral Murder" video, Pfc. Manning is suspected of leaking the "Afghan War Diaries" - tens of thousands of battlefield reports that explicitly describe civilian deaths and cover-ups, corrupt officials, collusion with warlords, and a failing US/NATO war effort.
"We only know these crimes took place because insiders blew the whistle at great personal risk ... Government whistleblowers are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisal," noted Barack Obama while on the campaign trail in 2008. While the President was referring to the Bush Administration's use of phone companies to illegally spy on Americans, Pfc. Manning's alleged actions are just as noteworthy. If the military charges against him are accurate, they show that he had a reasonable belief that war crimes were being covered up, and that he took action based on a crisis of conscience.
After nearly a decade of war and occupation waged in our name, it is odd that it apparently fell on a young Army private to provide critical answers to the questions, "What have we purchased with well over a trillion tax dollars and the deaths of hundreds of thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan?" However, history is replete with unlikely heroes.
If Bradley Manning is indeed the source of these materials, the nation owes him our gratitude. We ask Secretary of the Army, the Honorable John M. McHugh, and Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, General George W. Casey, Jr., to release Pfc. Manning from pre-trial confinement and drop the charges against him.
http://standwithbrad.org/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
U.S./NATO HANDS OFF MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA! END ALL AID TO ISRAEL! STOP FUNDING DICTATORS ACROSS THE GLOBE! MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT FOR WAR AND OCCUPATION! LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE HERE AND EVERYWHERE!
TAX THE RICH! LEAVE WORKERS AND THEIR UNIONS ALONE! DON'T AGONIZE, ORGANIZE!...BW
RALLY AGAINST THE WARS AGAINST WORKING PEOPLE AT HOME AND ABROAD! BACK TO THE STREETS! BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 2011
ASSEMBLE AT DOLORES PARK AT 11:00 A.M.
NOON RALLY
MARCH AT 1:30 P.M.
THEY are the government, corporate, and financial powers that wage war, ravage the environment and the economy and trample on our democratic rights and liberties.
WE are the vast majority of humanity who want peace, a healty planet and a society that prioritizes human needs, democracy and civil liberties for all.
WE DEMAND Bring U.S. Troops, Mercenaries and War Contractors Home Now: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan! End the sanctions and stop the threats of war against the people of Iran, North Korea and Yemen. No to war and plunder of the people of Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa! End U.S. Aid to Israel! End U.S. Support to the Israeli Occupation of Palestine and the Siege of Gaza! End support of dictators in North Africa!
WE DEMAND an end to FBI raids on antiwar, social justice, and international solidarity activists, an end to the racist persecution and prosecutions that ravage Muslim communities, an end to police terror in Black and Latino communities, full rights and legality for immigrants and an end to all efforts to repress and punish Wikileaks and its contributors and founders.
WE DEMAND the immediate end to torture, rendition, secret trials, drone bombings and death squads.
WE DEMAND trillions for jobs, education, social services, an end to all foreclosures, quality single-payer healthcare for ail, a massive conversion to sustainable and planet-saving energy systems and public transportation and reparations to the victims of U.S. terror at home and abroad.
Sponsored by the United National Antiwar Committee (UNAC)
www.unacpeace.org
unacnortherncalifornia@gmail.com
415-49-NO-WAR
Facebook.com/EndTheWars
Twitter.com/UNACPeace
TRADUCCION:
Marcha en contra de las guerras: en casa y en el exterior
Ellos son el gobierno y las corporaciones que financian las guerras, destruyen el medio ambiente, la economía y pisotean nuestras libertades y derechos democráticos.
Nosotros, somos la gran mayoría de la humanidad y queremos paz. Un planeta saludable y una sociedad que priorice en las necesidades humanas, la democracia y las libertades civiles para todos.
Nosotros, demandamos que las tropas militares, los mercenarios y los contratistas de guerra que enviaron a Irak, Afganistán, y Paquistán sean traídas de regreso a los Estados Unidos ¡Ahora! Que paren con las sanciones y las amenazas de guerra en contra de los pueblos de Irán, Corea del Norte y Yemen; y que los Estados Unidos deje de colaborar con Israel en la invasión y acoso a Palestina y Gaza. No al saqueo de los pueblos de América Latina, el Caribe y África; que paren la persecución racista que amenaza las comunidades musulmanas y que paren el terror policiaco en contra de las comunidades negras y latinas; derechos totales y legalización para los emigrantes.
Nosotros, demandamos que el FBI pare de inmediato la persecución a los luchadores por la justicia social y la solidaridad internacional; como también pongan un alto a todos los esfuerzos que reprimen y castigan a los contribuidores y fundadores de Wikileaks.
Nosotros, demandamos trillones de dólares para trabajos, educación y servicios sociales; que cesen todos los embargos de viviendas y desalojos; un programa de salud gratuito y de calidad para todos; un programa energético de conversión masiva que salve al planeta y buen el sistema de transporte público. Y reparaciones para las víctimas del terror de estados unidos aquí en casa y en el exterior.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Demonstrate March 26 for an Alternative to cuts -- UK
The March for the Alternative is taking place in central London on Saturday 26 March. The march will form up from 11am on the Victoria Embankment between Waterloo and Blackfriars bridges and proceed through central London until reaching Hyde Park, where the rally will start from around 1.30pm. This site provides more information and resources for the day.
http://marchforthealternative.org.uk/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
UNITED NATIONAL ANTIWAR COMMITTEE (UNAC) NEXT MEETING TO BUILD APRIL 10TH
SUNDAY, MARCH 27, 2011, 11:00 A.M.
Centro del Pueblo
474 Valencia Street
(Between 15th and 16th Streets, San Francisco)
The demonstration Saturday, March 19 marking the eighth anniversary of the war on Iraq at U.N. Plaza, sponsored by ANSWER, in San Francisco, took place in spite of the pouring rain. It was amazing to see so many people brave this torrent of wet weather--about 1800 people in all--who gathered to protest the wars at home and abroad.
We have to continue our fight and keep the pressure ongoing and building. Please come to the UNAC meeting Sunday, March 27 at 11L00 A.M. to build for another bi-coastal demonstration on April 10th in San Francisco and April 9th in New York. Our goal is to build an ongoing movement to oppose the wars and plan more actions against them. Please join us.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
SAVE THE DATE! APRIL 4, 2011
WE ARE ONE APRIL 4
END THE $$$ GREED
RALLY AND MARCH:
3:00 P.M., MEET AT UNION SQUARE
6:00 P.M., JUSTIN HERMAN PLAZA
Organized by San Francisco Labor Council.
For more information call: 415-440-4809
Visit: Visit www.we-r-1.org/
Details to follow.
San Francisco Labor Council Resolution - Unanimously adopted 3/14/2011
Resolution in Support of April 4, 2011
No Business as Usual
Solidarity Actions
Whereas, the San Francisco Labor Council Executive Committee is calling for a mobilization in San Francisco on April 4, 2011 against union-busting and the budget cuts;
Therefore be it Resolved, that in the event that a Council affiliate votes to engage in an industrial action on April 4, the San Francisco Labor Council will call on all its affiliates with fax blast, e-mail, phone etc. to support such action by engaging, wherever possible, in work stoppages, sick-outs and any other solidarity actions.
Resolution adopted March 14, 2011 by unanimous vote of the regular Delegates Meeting of the Council, meeting in San Francisco, California.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
CWA ANNOUNCES NATIONWIDE DAY OF ACTION APRIL 4
http://www.cwa-union.org/news/entry/cohen_announces_nationwide_day_of_action_april_4
'We Have the Opportunity to Plan and Build Something Enormous'
The voice of the labor movement and its allies will roar louder than ever on April 4, the anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when "it will not be business as usual at workplaces and communities across this nation," CWA President Larry Cohen said Wednesday.
Speaking to 10,000 CWA members on a nationwide phone call, Cohen said the AFL-CIO Executive Board had adopted his proposal for "movement-wide dramatic action" to honor King and the workers fighting for their rights today.
King was shot to death while he was in Memphis to support 1,300 striking city sanitation workers. "Their fight was about recognition, respect and dignity," Cohen said. "Dr. King called it a moral struggle for an economic outcome, much like the fights in the states and at the bargaining table and in every one of our organizing drives."
Cohen urged CWA locals and members to begin brainstorming ideas and making plans for April 4, challenging them and all Americans to "create events at every workplace in America."
It could be as simple as everyone wearing red that day, having workers meet outside and march into work together or standing up at noon and shouting, "Workers rights are human rights!" Cohen said.
Other ideas include candlelight vigils in parks, meetings of church congregations, rallies at statehouses and protests in front of corporate offices. Cohen said CWA locals and activists will receive an e-mail shortly asking them to submit their ideas and plans, and another town hall-style phone call will be held in advance of the events.
King's murder while fighting for city workers spurred public organizing drives across the United States. Cohen said there is no better way to honor that and King than by doing what he would do, "create a new movement for economic justice."
"We need to combine offense and defense," Cohen said. "We need to take it to every workplace, union and non union, private and public sector. We have an opportunity to plan and build something enormous."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Are you joining us on April 8 at the Pentagon in a climate chaos protest codenamed "Operation Disarmageddon?" It has been decided that affinity groups will engage in nonviolent autonomous actions. Do you have an affinity group? Do you have an idea for an action?
So far these are some of the suggested actions:
Send a letter to Sec. of War Robert Gates demanding a meeting to disclose the Pentagon's role in destroying the planet. He will ignore the letter, so a delegation would then go to the Metro Entrance to demand a meeting.
Use crime tape around some area of the Pentagon. The idea of crime/danger taping off the building could be done just outside the main Pentagon reservation entrance (intersection of Army/Navy) making the Alexandria PD the arresting authority (if needed) and where there is no ban on photography. Hazmat suits, a 'converted' truck (or other vehicle) could be part of the street theater. The area where I am thinking is also almost directly below I-95 and there is a bridge over the intersection - making a banner drop possible. Perhaps with the hazmat/street closure at ground level with a banner from above. If possible a coordinated action could be done at other Pentagon entrances and / or other war making institutions.
A procession onto the Pentagon reservation, without reservations, and set up a camp on one of the lawns surrounding The Pentagon. This contingent would reclaim the space in the name of peace and Mother Earth. This contingent would plan to stay there until The Pentagon is turned into a 100% green building using sustainable energy employing people who work for peace and the abolishment of war and life-affirming endeavors.
Bring a potted tree to be placed on the Pentagon's property to symbolize the need to radically reduce its environmental destructiveness.
Since the Pentagon is failing to return to the taxpayers the money it has misappropriated, "Foreclose on the Pentagon."
Banner hanging from a bridge.
Hand out copies of David Swanson's book WAR IS A LIE. Try to deliver a copy to Secretary of War Robert Gates.
Have short speeches in park between Pentagon and river; nice photo with Pentagon in background.
Die-in and chalk or paint outlines of victim's bodies everywhere that remain after the arrest to point to where real crimes are really being committed.
Establish command center, Peacecom? Paxcom? Put several people in white shirts and ties plus a few generals directing their armies for "Operation Disarmageddon."
Make the linkage between the tax dollars going to the Pentagon and war tax resistance. Use the WRL pie chart and carry banners "foreclose on war" and "money for green jobs not war jobs."
Hold a rally with representative speakers before going to the Pentagon Reservation. This would be an opportunity to speak out against warmongering and the Pentagon's role in destroying the environment.
As part of "Operation Disarmageddon," we will take a tree and plant it on the reservation. Our sign reads, "Plant trees not landmines."
Use crime tape on Army/Navy Drive to declare the Pentagon a crime scene. Do street theater there as well. Other affinity groups could go to selected entrances.
Establish a Peace Command Center at the Pentagon. Hold solidarity actions at federal buildings and corporate offices.
What groups have you contacted to suggest joining us at the Pentagon? See below for those who plan to be at the Pentagon on April 8 and for what groups have been contacted.
Kagiso,
Max
April 8, 2011 participants
Beth Adams
Ellen Barfield
Tim Chadwick
Joy First
Jeffrey Halperin
Malachy Kilbride
Max Obuszewski
David Swanson
April 8 Outreach
Beth Adams -- Earth First, Puppet Underground, Emma's Revolution, Joe Gerson-AFSC Cambridge, Code Pink(national via Lisa Savage in Maine), Vets for Peace, FOR, UCC Justice & Witness Ministries, Traprock, Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist Order, (National-INt'l) Vets for Peace and WILPF, Pace e Bene, Christian Peace Witness & UCC Justice & Witness (Cleveland).
Tim Chadwick -- Brandywine, Lepoco, Witness against Torture, Vets for Peace (Thomas Paine Chapter Lehigh Valley PA), and Witness for Peace DC.
Jeffrey Halperin -- peace groups in Saratoga Spring, NY
Jack Lombardo - UNAC will add April 8 2011 to the Future Actions page on our blog, and make note in upcoming E-bulletins, but would appreciate a bit of descriptive text from the organizers and contact point to include when we do - so please advise ASAP! Also, we'll want to have such an announcement for our next print newsletter, which will be coming out in mid-December.
Max Obuszewski - Jonah House & Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore
Bonnie Urfer notified 351 individuals and groups on the Nukewatch list
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Atomic Mom at the Los Angeles Women's International Film Festival
Atomic Mom, a feature length documentary by M.T. Silvia, will screen on Saturday, April 9th @ 7:30pm at the Roxie Theater at 3117 16th Street San Francisco, CA 94103 in the San Francisco International Women's Film Festival.
Media Contact:
M.T. Silvia
mtsilvia@atomicmom.org
510-541-0413
- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -
Atomic Mom weaves an intimate portrait of a complex mother-daughter relationship within an obscure - but important - moment in American history.
As the only female scientist present during atomic detonations in the Nevada desert, Pauline Silvia, the filmmaker's mother, undergoes a crisis of conscience. After a long silence and prompted by her daughter, she finally reveals grim secrets of working in the U.S. atomic testing program.
In our present moment of Wikileaks, Pauline is a similar whistle-blower having been cowed by the silencing machine of the US military for decades. In an attempt to reconcile with her own mother's past, her daughter, filmmaker M.T. Silvia, meets Emiko Okada, a Hiroshima survivor trying to reconcile her own history in Japan. The film follows these survivors, each on a different end of atomic warfare, as they "meet" through the filmmaking process, and as they, with startling honestly, attempt to understand the other.
With the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the footage of the devastation is hauntingly familiar to the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As Japan experiences its second nuclear crisis, Atomic Mom illustrates how we are all downwind of this story.
Atomic Mom invites viewers to confront American nuclear history in a completely new way and will inspire dialogue about human rights, personal responsibility, and the possibility - and hope - of peace.
More info at http://www.atomicmom.org
M.T. Silvia is an independent filmmaker. Her first documentary Picardy Drive (2002, Documentary, 57min) aired on KQED's ImageMaker series, FreeSpeechTV and airs yearly during the holidays on Oakland's KTOP. She has worked professionally in the film industry for over twenty years at both Skywalker Sound and Pixar Animation Studios. Among many mainstream film and CD credits, she has also worked on several independent films.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
RALLY AGAINST THE WARS AGAINST WORKING PEOPLE AT HOME AND ABROAD! BACK TO THE STREETS! BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 2011
ASSEMBLE AT DOLORES PARK AT 11:00 A.M.
NOON RALLY
MARCH AT 1:30 P.M.
THEY are the government, corporate, and financial powers that wage war, ravage the environment and the economy and trample on our democratic rights and liberties.
WE are the vast majority of humanity who want peace, a healty planet and a society that prioritizes human needs, democracy and civil liberties for all.
WE DEMAND Bring U.S. Troops, Mercenaries and War Contractors Home Now: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan! End the sanctions and stop the threats of war against the people of Iran, North Korea and Yemen. No to war and plunder of the people of Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa! End U.S. Aid to Israel! End U.S. Support to the Israeli Occupation of Palestine and the Siege of Gaza! End support of dictators in North Africa!
WE DEMAND an end to FBI raids on antiwar, social justice, and international solidarity activists, an end to the racist persecution and prosecutions that ravage Muslim communities, an end to police terror in Black and Latino communities, full rights and legality for immigrants and an end to all efforts to repress and punish Wikileaks and its contributors and founders.
WE DEMAND the immediate end to torture, rendition, secret trials, drone bombings and death squads.
WE DEMAND trillions for jobs, education, social services, an end to all foreclosures, quality single-payer healthcare for ail, a massive conversion to sustainable and planet-saving energy systems and public transportation and reparations to the victims of U.S. terror at home and abroad.
Next organizing meeting Sunday, February 20, 1:00 P.M., Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia Street (between 15th and 16th Streets, San Francisco)
Sponsored by the United National Antiwar Committee (UNAC)
www.unacpeace.org
unacnortherncalifornia@gmail.com
415-49-NO-WAR
Facebook.com/EndTheWars
Twitter.com/UNACPeace
TRADUCCION:
Marcha en contra de las guerras: en casa y en el exterior
Ellos son el gobierno y las corporaciones que financian las guerras, destruyen el medio ambiente, la economía y pisotean nuestras libertades y derechos democráticos.
Nosotros, somos la gran mayoría de la humanidad y queremos paz. Un planeta saludable y una sociedad que priorice en las necesidades humanas, la democracia y las libertades civiles para todos.
Nosotros, demandamos que las tropas militares, los mercenarios y los contratistas de guerra que enviaron a Irak, Afganistán, y Paquistán sean traídas de regreso a los Estados Unidos ¡Ahora! Que paren con las sanciones y las amenazas de guerra en contra de los pueblos de Irán, Corea del Norte y Yemen; y que los Estados Unidos deje de colaborar con Israel en la invasión y acoso a Palestina y Gaza. No al saqueo de los pueblos de América Latina, el Caribe y África; que paren la persecución racista que amenaza las comunidades musulmanas y que paren el terror policiaco en contra de las comunidades negras y latinas; derechos totales y legalización para los emigrantes.
Nosotros, demandamos que el FBI pare de inmediato la persecución a los luchadores por la justicia social y la solidaridad internacional; como también pongan un alto a todos los esfuerzos que reprimen y castigan a los contribuidores y fundadores de Wikileaks.
Nosotros, demandamos trillones de dólares para trabajos, educación y servicios sociales; que cesen todos los embargos de viviendas y desalojos; un programa de salud gratuito y de calidad para todos; un programa energético de conversión masiva que salve al planeta y buen el sistema de transporte público. Y reparaciones para las víctimas del terror de estados unidos aquí en casa y en el exterior.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
B. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.:
[Some of these videos are embeded on the BAUAW website:
http://bauaw.blogspot.com/ or bauaw.org ...bw]
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Chernobyl 25 years on -- The Big Cover-Up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9URUQvGE9g&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Dropkick Murphys - Worker's Song (with lyrics)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTafZRecy2k&feature=email&tracker=False
Worker's Song Lyrics
Artist(Band):Dropkick Murphys
Yeh, this one's for the workers who toil night and day
By hand and by brain to earn your pay
Who for centuries long past for no more than your bread
Have bled for your countries and counted your dead
In the factories and mills, in the shipyards and mines
We've often been told to keep up with the times
For our skills are not needed, they've streamlined the job
And with sliderule and stopwatch our pride they have robbed
[Chorus:]
We're the first ones to starve, we're the first ones to die
The first ones in line for that pie-in-the-sky
And we're always the last when the cream is shared out
For the worker is working when the fat cat's about
And when the sky darkens and the prospect is war
Who's given a gun and then pushed to the fore
And expected to die for the land of our birth
Though we've never owned one lousy handful of earth?
[Chorus x3]
All of these things the worker has done
From tilling the fields to carrying the gun
We've been yoked to the plough since time first began
And always expected to carry the can
Which Side Are You On - Dropkick Murphys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKWfnO7fhQM&feature=email&tracker=False
Lyrics :
Our father was a union man
some day i'll be one too.
The bosses fired daddy
what's our family gonna do?
Come all you good workers,
Good news to you I'll tell
Of how the good old union
Has come in here to dwell.
CHORUS:
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on? (x2)
My dady was a miner,
And I'm a miner's son,
And I'll stick with the union
'Til every battle's won.
They say in Harlan County
There are no neutrals there.
You'll either be a union man
Or a thug for J. H. Blair.
Oh workers can you stand it?
Oh tell me how you can?
Will you be a lousy scab
Or will you be a man?
Don't scab for the bosses,
Don't listen to their lies.
Us poor folks haven't got a chance
Unless we organize !
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
'America Is NOT Broke': Michael Moore Speaks in Madison, WI -- March 5, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgNuSEZ8CDw&feature=player_embedded
Answer to Michael Moore: We ain't Gonna Play the Game No More!
By Bonnie Weinstein
info@socialistviewpoint.org
socialistviewpoint.org
The problem with Michael Moore's speech in Wisconsin March 5, 2011 is that the 14 Democratic emigres have already given away the economic security of the workers--their pay; their benefits; their vacations; their sick-days; their overtime. They have even convinced organized labor to accept the pay cuts, shorter hours--anything but unemployment, starvation and homelessness!
What noble choices the good Democrats have given to the masses of struggling working people in Wisconsin and everywhere!
In the prelude to his speech, Moore lauds those "heroic 14 Democratic" émigrés that have already given away the workers hard-won benefits and conditions for holding firm and staying away--"not one has come back!" he cheers.
Where are the rest of the Democratic politicians around the country? Where's Obama when masses of workers are being sold down the river? What about all the Democratic governors and mayors who are doing the same thing in their respective states and cities across the country. There isn't one state or city that's lavishing more on social services; on schools; on community medical centers; on healthcare--everyone everywhere EXCEPT THE TOP ONE PERCENT is being asked to give back and give up and surrender to the new middle ages--with the Democrats pretending and promising to steal a little less from workers than the Republicans! Workers can't depend upon any party that claims to represent both workers and the bosses. The jig is up!
Working people need to make democratic decisions based upon our own needs and wants and what is good for us and our families; like whether to spend trillions of OUR dollars on wars based upon lies; or on massive bailouts to corporations who have stolen and hoarded the wealth for themselves; or whether to use the fruits of our labor to pay for healthcare; schools; housing; all the things people need to live healthy, free and happy lives.
Working people produce the wealth; working people should have democratic control over that wealth and the means of production they operate to produce it.
The game of voting for one capitalist liar over another is over. It's like plea-bargaining when you are innocent. It's a lose/lose situation and certainly, the workers of the world are losing the game!
No, America is not broke. But telling workers to depend upon the capitalist electoral process, which only allows workers to vote for one capitalist representative over another, is preposterous and makes workers broke!
We workers must take that wealth that we, and we alone create, into our own hands. We can. We are the majority. And it's the only hope for creating a happy and healthy future for all of us, our children and the world. As Rosa Luxemburg said, the only choice for workers is Socialism; or else, we will continue the plunge into Barbarism!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
BP Oil Spill Scientist Bob Naman: Seafood Still Not Safe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3VdxvMnDls
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Exclusive: Flow Rate Scientist : How Much Oil Is Really Out There?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsHl3kn63ZA&NR=1
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Labor Beat: No Concessions Emergency Meeting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaFrWNi2gM0
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Iraq Veterans Against the War in Occupied Capitol, Madison, WI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7K0wn73uJU
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
A joke:
A unionized public employee, a member of the Tea Party, and a CEO are
sitting at a table. In the middle of the table there is a plate with a
dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches across and takes 11 cookies,
looks at the tea partier and says,"watch out for that union guy, he
wants a piece of your cookie."
Marc Luzietti
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
18th dead baby dolphin washes ashore in Northern Gulf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybFeuSNszSg&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
[This is a great video. Kipp Dawson, the school teacher in the video, is an old friend...bw]
Middle Class Revolution
Hundreds packed USW headquarters Feb. 24. 2011, to rally for the middle class and stand up against attacks on workers in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and elsewhere. Check out highlights here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_UmZYlSyC5U
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
solidarity
'We Stand With You as You Stood With Us': Statement to Workers of Wisconsin by Kamal Abbas of Egypt's Centre for Trade Unions and Workers Services
February 20th, 2011 3:45 PM
About Kamal Abbas and the Centre for Trade Unions and Workers Services:
Kamal Abbas is General Coordinator of the CTUWS, an umbrella advocacy organization for independent unions in Egypt. The CTUWS, which was awarded the 1999 French Republic's Human Rights Prize, suffered repeated harassment and attack by the Mubarak regime, and played a leading role in its overthrow. Abbas, who witnessed friends killed by the regime during the 1989 Helwan steel strike and was himself arrested and threatened numerous times, has received extensive international recognition for his union and civil society leadership.
KAMAL ABBAS: I am speaking to you from a place very close to Tahrir Square in Cairo, "Liberation Square", which was the heart of the Revolution in Egypt. This is the place were many of our youth paid with their lives and blood in the struggle for our just rights.
From this place, I want you to know that we stand with you as you stood with us.
I want you to know that no power can challenge the will of the people when they believe in their rights. When they raise their voices loud and clear and struggle against exploitation.
No one believed that our revolution could succeed against the strongest dictatorship in the region. But in 18 days the revolution achieved the victory of the people. When the working class of Egypt joined the revolution on 9 and 10 February, the dictatorship was doomed and the victory of the people became inevitable.
We want you to know that we stand on your side. Stand firm and don't waiver. Don't give up on your rights. Victory always belongs to the people who stand firm and demand their just rights.
We and all the people of the world stand on your side and give you our full support.
As our just struggle for freedom, democracy and justice succeeded, your struggle will succeed. Victory belongs to you when you stand firm and remain steadfast in demanding your just rights.
We support you. we support the struggle of the peoples of Libya, Bahrain and Algeria, who are fighting for their just rights and falling martyrs in the face of the autocratic regimes. The peoples are determined to succeed no matter the sacrifices and they will be victorious.
Today is the day of the American workers. We salute you American workers! You will be victorious. Victory belongs to all the people of the world, who are fighting against exploitation, and for their just rights.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Stop LAPD Stealing of Immigrant's Cars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0lf4kENkxo
On Februrary 19, 2011 Members of the Southern California Immigration Coalition (SCIC) organized and engaged in direct action to defend the people of Los Angeles, CA from the racist LAPD "Sobriety" Checkpoints that are a poorly disguised trap to legally steal the cars from working class people in general and undocumented people in particular. Please disseminate this link widely.
Venceremos,
SCIC
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
WikiLeaks Mirrors
Wikileaks is currently under heavy attack.
In order to make it impossible to ever fully remove Wikileaks from the Internet, you will find below a list of mirrors of Wikileaks website and CableGate pages.
Go to
http://wikileaks.ch/Mirrors.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Labor Beat: Labor Stands with Subpoenaed Activists Against FBI Raids and Grand Jury Investigation of antiwar and social justice activists.
"If trouble is not at your door. It's on it's way, or it just left."
"Investigate the Billionaires...Full investigation into Wall Street..." Jesse Sharkey, Vice President, Chicago Teachers Union
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSNUSIGZCMQ
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Oil Spill Commission Final Report: Catfish Responds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3ZRdsccMsM
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The Most Heroic Word in All Languages is Revolution
By Eugene Debs
Eugene Debs, that greatest son of the Middle American west, wrote this in 1907 in celebration of that year's May Day events. It retains all of its vibrancy and vitality as events breathe new life into the global struggle for emancipation. "Revolution" remains the most heroic word in every language. -The Rustbelt Radical
Today the slaves of all the world are taking a fresh breath in the long and weary march; pausing a moment to clear their lungs and shout for joy; celebrating in festal fellowship their coming Freedom.
All hail the Labor Day of May!
The day of the proletarian protest;
The day of stern resolve;
The day of noble aspiration.
Raise high this day the blood-red Standard of the Revolution!
The banner of the Workingman;
The flag, the only flag, of Freedom.
Slavery, even the most abject-dumb and despairing as it may seem-has yet its inspiration. Crushed it may be, but extinguished never. Chain the slave as you will, O Masters, brutalize him as you may, yet in his soul, though dead, he yearns for freedom still.
The great discovery the modern slaves have made is that they themselves must achieve. This is the secret of their solidarity; the heart of their hope; the inspiration that nerves them all with sinews of steel.
They are still in bondage, but no longer cower;
No longer grovel in the dust,
But stand erect like men.
Conscious of their growing power the future holds up to them her outstretched hands.
As the slavery of the working class is international, so the movement for its emancipation.
The salutation of slave to slave this day is repeated in every human tongue as it goes ringing round the world.
The many millions are at last awakening. For countless ages they have suffered; drained to the dregs the bitter cup of misery and woe.
At last, at last the historic limitation has been reached, and soon a new sun will light the world.
Red is the life-tide of our common humanity and red our symbol of universal kinship.
Tyrants deny it; fear it; tremble with rage and terror when they behold it.
We reaffirm it and on this day pledge anew our fidelity-come life or death-to the blood-red Banner of the Revolution.
Socialist greetings this day to all our fellow-workers! To the god-like souls in Russia marching grimly, sublimely into the jaws of hell with the Song of the Revolution in their death-rattle; to the Orient, the Occident and all the Isles of the Sea!
VIVA LA REVOLUTION!
The most heroic word in all languages is REVOLUTION.
It thrills and vibrates; cheers and inspires. Tyrants and time-servers fear it, but the oppressed hail it with joy.
The throne trembles when this throbbing word is lisped, but to the hovel it is food for the famishing and hope for the victims of despair.
Let us glorify today the revolutions of the past and hail the Greater Revolution yet to come before Emancipation shall make all the days of the year May Days of peace and plenty for the sons and daughters of toil.
It was with Revolution as his theme that Mark Twain's soul drank deep from the fount of inspiration. His immortality will rest at last upon this royal tribute to the French Revolution:
"The ever memorable and blessed revolution, which swept a thousand years of villainy away in one swift tidal wave of blood-one: a settlement of that hoary debt in the proportion of half a drop of blood for each hogshead of it that had been pressed by slow tortures out of that people in the weary stretch of ten centuries of wrong and shame and misery the like of which was not to be mated but in hell. There were two Reigns of Terror, if we would but remember it and consider it: the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death on ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the horrors of the minor Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty and heartbreak? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror, which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over, but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves."
-The Rustbelt Radical, February 25, 2011
http://rustbeltradical.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/the-most-heroic-word-in-all-languages-is-revolution/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
New music video by tommi avicolli mecca of the song "stick and stones," which is about bullying in high school, is finished and up on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of_twpu3-Nw
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
New antiwar song that's bound to be a classic:
box
http://www.youtube.com/user/avimecca
by tommi avicolli mecca
(c) 2009
Credits are:
Tommi Avicolli Mecca, guitar/vocals
John Radogno, lead guitar
Diana Hartman, vocals, kazoo
Chris Weir, upright bass
Produced and recorded by Khalil Sullivan
I'm the recruiter and if truth be told/ I can lure the young and old
what I do you won't see/ til your kid's in JROTC
CHO ooh, put them in a box drape it with a flag and send them off to mom and dad
send them with a card from good ol' uncle sam, gee it's really just so sad
I'm the general and what I do/ is to teach them to be true
to god and country flag and oil/ by shedding their blood on foreign soil
CHO
I'm the corporate boss and well I know/ war is lots of dough dough dough
you won't find me over there/ they just ship the money right back here
CHO
last of all it's me the holy priest/ my part is not the least
I assure them it's god's will/ to go on out and kill kill kill
CHO
it's really just so sad
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Free Bradley Manning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4eNzokgRIw&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Did You Know?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Domestic Espionage Alert - Houston PD to use surveillance drone in America!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpstrc15Ogg
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVGqE726OAo&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
LOWKEY - TERRORIST? (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmBnvajSfWU
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Coal Ash: One Valley's Tale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E7h-DNvwx4&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Flashmob: Cape Town Opera say NO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wElyrFOnKPk
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
"Don't F*** With Our Activists" - Mobilizing Against FBI Raid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyG3dIUGQvQ
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The Arab Revolutions:
Guiding Principles for Peace and Justice Organizations in the US
Please email endorsement to ekishawi@yahoo.com
We, the undersigned, support the guiding principles and demands listed in this statement. We call on groups who want to express solidarity with the Arab revolutions to join our growing movement by signing this statement or keeping with the demands put forward herewith.
Background
The long-awaited Arab revolution has come. Like a geologic event with the reverberations of an earthquake, the timing and circumstances were unpredictable. In one Arab country after another, people are taking to the street demanding the fall of monarchies established during European colonial times. They are also calling to bring down dictatorships supported and manifested by neo-colonial policies. Although some of these autocratic regimes rose to power with popular support, the subsequent division and subjugation of the Arab World led to a uniform repressive political order across the region. The Arab masses in different Arab countries are therefore raising a uniform demand: "The People Want to Topple the Regimes!"
For the past two decades, the Arab people witnessed the invasion and occupation of Iraq with millions killed under blockade and occupation, Palestinians massacred with the aim to crush the anti-Zionist resistance, and Lebanon repeatedly invaded with the purposeful targeting of civilians. These actions all served to crush resistance movements longing for freedom, development, and self-determination. Meanwhile, despotic dictatorships, some going back 50 years, entrenched themselves by building police states, or fighting wars on behalf of imperialist interests.
Most Arab regimes systematically destroyed the social fabric of civil society, stifled social development, repressed all forms of political dissent and democratic expression, mortgaged their countries' wealth to foreign interests and enriched themselves and their cronies at the expense of impoverishing their populations. After pushing the Arab people to the brink, populations erupted.
The spark began in Tunisia where a police officer slapped and spat on Mohammad Bou Azizi, flipping over his produce cart for not delivering a bribe on time. . Unable to have his complaint heard, he self-immolated in protest, igniting the conscience of the Tunisian people and that of 300 million Arabs. In less than a month, the dictator, Zine El Abedine Ben Ali, was forced into exile by a Tunisian revolution. On its way out, the regime sealed its legacy by shooting at unarmed protestors and burning detention centers filled with political prisoners. Ben Ali was supported by the US and Europe in the fight against Islamic forces and organized labor.
Hosni Mubarak's brutal dictatorship fell less than a month after Tunisia's. The revolution erupted at a time when one half of the Egyptian population was living on less than $2/day while Mubarak's family amassed billions of dollars. The largest population recorded in Egyptian history was living in graveyards and raising their children among the dead while transportation and residential infrastructure was crumbling. Natural gas was supplied to Israel at 15% of the market price while the Rafah border was closed with an underground steel wall to complete the suffocation of the Palestinians in Gaza. Those who were deemed a threat swiftly met the fate of Khalid Said. 350 martyrs fell and 2,000 people were injured.
After Egypt and Tunisia, Yemen, Bahrain, Oman, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan exploded in protest. Some governments quickly reshuffled faces and ranks without any tangible change. Some, like Bahrain and Yemen, sent out their security forces to massacre civilians. Oman and Yemen represent strategic assets for the US as they are situated on the straits of Hormuz and Aden, respectively. Bahrain is an oil country that hosts a US military base, situated in the Persian Gulf. A new round of US funded blood-letting of Arab civilians has begun!
Libyan dictator Qaddafi did not prove to be an exception. He historically took anti-imperialist positions for a united Arab World and worked for an African Union. He later transformed his regime to a subservient state and opened Libya to British Petroleum and Italian interests, working diligently on privatization and political repression. He amassed more wealth than that of Mubarak. In the face of the Libyan revolution, Qaddafi exceeded the brutality of Ben Ali and Mubarak blind-folding and executing opponents, surrounding cities with tanks, and bombing his own country. Death toll is expected to be in the thousands.
Qaddafi's history makes Libya an easy target for imperialist interests. The Obama administration followed the Iraq cookbook by freezing Libyan assets amounting to 30% of the annual GDP. The White House, with the help of European governments, rapidly implemented sanctions and called for no-fly zones. These positions were precipitated shortly after the US vetoed a resolution condemning the illegal Israeli colonization of the West Bank. Special operations personnel from the UK were captured by the revolutionary commanders in Ben Ghazi and sent back. The Libyan revolutionary leadership, the National Council clearly stated: "We are completely against foreign intervention. The rest of Libya will be liberated by the people ... and Gaddafi's security forces will be eliminated by the people of Libya."
Demands of the Solidarity Movement with Arab Revolutions
1. We demand a stop to US support, financing and trade with Arab dictatorships. We oppose US policy that has favored Israeli expansionism, war, US oil interest and strategic shipping routes at the expense of Arab people's freedom and dignified living.
2. We support the people of Tunisia and Egypt as well as soon-to-be liberated nations to rid themselves of lingering remnants of the deposed dictatorships.
3. We support the Arab people's right to sovereignty and self-determination. We demand that the US government stop its interference in the internal affairs of all Arab countries and end subsidies to wars and occupation.
4. We support the Arab people's demands for political, civil and economic rights. The Arab people's movement is calling for:
a. Deposing the unelected regimes and all of its institutional remnants
b. Constitutional reform guaranteeing freedom of organizing, speech and press
c. Free and fair elections
d. Independent judiciary
e. National self-determination.
5. We oppose all forms of US and European military intervention with or without the legitimacy of the UN. Standing in solidarity with the revolution against Qaddafi, or any other dictator, does not equate to supporting direct or indirect colonization of an Arab country, its oil or its people. We therefore call for:
a. Absolute rejection of military blockades, no-fly zones and interventions.
b. Lifting all economic sanctions placed against Libya and allowing for the formation of an independent judiciary to prosecute Qaddafi and deposed dictators for their crimes.
c. Immediately withdrawing the US and NATO troops from the Arab region.
6. We support Iraq's right to sovereignty and self determination and call on the US to immediately withdraw all occupation personnel from Iraq.
7. We recognize that the borders separating Arab nations were imposed on the Arab people by the colonial agreements of Sykes-Picot and the Berlin Conference on Africa. As such, we support the anti-Zionist nature of this revolution in its call for:
a. Ending the siege and starvation of the Palestinian people in Gaza
b. Supporting the right of the Palestinian people to choose their own representation, independent of Israeli and US dictates
c. Supporting the right of the Lebanese people to defend their country from Israeli violations and their call to end vestiges of the colonial constitution constructed on the basis of sectarian representation
d. Supporting the right of the Jordanian people to rid themselves of their repressive monarchy
e. Ending all US aid to Israel.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
NATIONAL CALL-IN DAY -- ANY DAY
to Fitzgerald, Holder and Obama
The Grand Jury is still on its witch hunt and the FBI is still
harassing activists. This must stop.
Please make these calls:
1. Call U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald at 312-353-5300 . Then dial 0
(zero) for operator and ask to leave a message with the Duty Clerk.
2. Call U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder 202-353-1555
3. Call President Obama at 202-456-1111
Suggested text: "My name is __________, I am from _______(city), in
______(state). I am calling _____ to demand he call off the Grand Jury
and stop FBI repression against the anti-war and Palestine solidarity
movements. I oppose U.S. government political repression and support
the right to free speech and the right to assembly of the 23 activists
subpoenaed. We will not be criminalized. Tell him to stop this
McCarthy-type witch hunt against international solidarity activists!"
If your call doesn't go through, try again later.
Update: 800 anti-war and international solidarity activists
participated in four regional conferences, in Chicago, IL; Oakland,
CA; Chapel Hill, NC and New York City to stop U.S. Attorney Patrick
Fitzgerald's Grand Jury repression.
Still, in the last few weeks, the FBI has continued to call and harass
anti-war organizers, repressing free speech and the right to organize.
However, all of their intimidation tactics are bringing a movement
closer together to stop war and demand peace.
We demand:
-- Call Off the Grand Jury Witch-hunt Against International Solidarity
Activists!
-- Support Free Speech!
-- Support the Right to Organize!
-- Stop FBI Repression!
-- International Solidarity Is Not a Crime!
-- Stop the Criminalization of Arab and Muslim Communities!
Background: Fitzgerald ordered FBI raids on anti-war and solidarity
activists' homes and subpoenaed fourteen activists in Chicago,
Minneapolis, and Michigan on September 24, 2010. All 14 refused to
speak before the Grand Jury in October. Then, 9 more Palestine
solidarity activists, most Arab-Americans, were subpoenaed to appear
at the Grand Jury on January 25, 2011, launching renewed protests.
There are now 23 who assert their right to not participate in
Fitzgerald's witch-hunt.
The Grand Jury is a secret and closed inquisition, with no judge, and
no press. The U.S. Attorney controls the entire proceedings and hand
picks the jurors, and the solidarity activists are not allowed a
lawyer. Even the date when the Grand Jury ends is a secret.
So please make these calls to those in charge of the repression aimed
against anti-war leaders and the growing Palestine solidarity
movement.
Email us to let us know your results. Send to info@StopFBI.net
**Please sign and circulate our 2011 petition at http://www.stopfbi.net/petition
In Struggle,
Tom Burke,
for the Committee to Stop FBI Repression
FFI: Visit www.StopFBI.net or email info@StopFBI.net or call
612-379-3585 .
Copyright (c) 2011 Committee to Stop FBI Repression, All rights
reserved.
Our mailing address is:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
PO Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55415
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Call for EMERGENCY RESPONSE Action if Assange Indicted,
Dear Friends:
We write in haste, trying to reach as many of you as possible although the holiday break has begun.......This plan for an urgent "The Day After" demonstration is one we hope you and many, many more organizations will take up as your own, and mobilize for. World Can't Wait asks you to do all you can to spread it through list serves, Facebook, twitter, holiday gatherings.
Our proposal is very very simple, and you can use the following announcement to mobilize - or write your own....
ANY DAY NOW . . . IN THE EVENT THAT THE U.S. INDICTS JULIAN ASSANGE
An emergency public demonstration THE DAY AFTER any U.S. criminal indictment is announced against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Spread the word and call people to come out, across the whole range of movements and groups: anti-war, human rights, freedom of information/freedom of the press, peace, anti-torture, environmental, students and youth, radicals and revolutionaries, religious, civil liberties, teachers and educators, journalists, anti-imperialists, anti-censorship, anti-police state......
At the Federal Building in San Francisco, we'll form ourselves into a human chain "surrounding" the government that meets the Wikileaked truth with repression and wants to imprison and silence leakers, whistleblowers and truthtellers - when, in fact, these people are heroes. We'll say:
HANDS OFF WIKILEAKS! FREE JULIAN ASSANGE! FREE BRADLEY MANNING!
Join the HUMAN CHAIN AROUND THE FEDERAL BUILDING!
New Federal Building, 7th and Mission, San Francisco (nearest BART: Civic Center)
4:00-6:00 PM on The Day FOLLOWING U.S. indictment of Assange
Bring all your friends - signs and banners - bullhorns.
Those who dare at great risk to themselves to put the truth in the hands of the people - and others who might at this moment be thinking about doing more of this themselves -- need to see how much they are supported, and that despite harsh repression from the government and total spin by the mainstream media, the people do want the truth told.
Brad Manning's Christmas Eve statement was just released by his lawyer: "Pvt. Bradley Manning, the lone soldier who stands accused of stealing millions of pages secret US government documents and handing them over to secrets outlet WikiLeaks, wants his supporters to know that they've meant a lot to him. 'I greatly appreciate everyone's support and well wishes during this time,' he said in a Christmas Eve statement released by his lawyer...." Read more here:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/mannings-message-christmas-eve-i-gr/
Demonstrations defending Wikileaks and Assange, and Brad Manning, have already been flowering around the world. Make it happen here too.
Especially here . . .
To join into this action plan, or with questions, contact World Can't Wait or whichever organization or listserve you received this message from.
World Can't Wait, SF Bay
415-864-5153
sf@worldcantwait.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Email received from Lynne Stewart:
12/19/10; 12:03pm
Dear Folks:
Some nuts and bolts and trivia,
1. New Address
Lynne Stewart #53504 - 054
Unit 2N
Federal Medical Center, Carswell
P.O. Box 27137
Fort Worth, TEXAS 76127
2. Visiting is very liberal but first I have to get people on my visiting list Wait til I or the lawyers let you know. The visits are FRI, SAT, SUN AND MON for 4 hours and on weekends 8 to 3. Bring clear plastic change purse with lots of change to buy from the machines. Brief Kiss upon arrival and departure, no touching or holding during visit (!!) On visiting forms it may be required that you knew me before I came to prison. Not a problem for most of you.
3. One hour time difference
4. Commissary Money is always welcome It is how I pay for the phone and for email. Also need it for a lot that prison doesn't supply in terms of food and "sundries" (pens!) A very big list that includes Raisins, Salad Dressing , ankle sox, mozzarella (definitely not from Antonys--more like a white cheddar, Sanitas Corn Chips but no Salsa etc. To add money, you do this by using Western Union and a credit card by phone or you can send a USPO money order or Business or Govt Check. The negotiable instruments (PAPER!) need to be sent to Federal Bureau of Prisons , 53504-054, Lynne Stewart, PO Box 474701, Des Moines Iowa 50947-001 (Payable to Lynne Stewart, 53504-054) They hold the mo or checks for 15 days. Western Union costs $10 but is within 2 hours. If you mail, your return address must be on the envelope. Unnecessarily complicated ? Of course, it's the BOP !)
5. Food is vastly improved. Just had Sunday Brunch real scrambled eggs, PORK sausage, Baked or home fried potatoes, Butter(sweet whipped M'God !!) Grapefruit juice Toast , orange. I will probably regain the weight I lost at MCC! Weighing against that is the fact that to eat we need to walk to another building (about at far as from my house to the F Train) Also included is 3 flights of stairs up and down. May try to get an elevator pass and try NOT to use it.
6. In a room with 4 bunks(small) about two tiers of rooms with same with "atrium" in middle with tv sets and tables and chairs. Estimate about 500 on Unit 2N and there are 4 units. Population Black, Mexicano and other spanish speaking (all of whom iron their underwear, Marta), White, Native Americans (few), no orientals or foreign speaking caucasians--lots are doing long bits, victims of drugs (meth etc) and boyfriends. We wear army style (khaki) pants with pockets tee shirts and dress shirts long sleeved and short sleeved. When one of the women heard that I hadn't ironed in 40 years, they offered to do the shirts for me. (This is typical of the help I get--escorted to meals and every other protection, explanations, supplies, etc. Mostly from white women.) One drawback is not having a bathroom in the room---have to go about 75 yards at all hours of the day and night --clean though.
7. Final Note--the sunsets and sunrises are gorgeous, the place is very open and outdoors there are pecan trees and birds galore (I need books for trees and birds (west) The full moon last night gladdened my heart as I realized it was shining on all of you I hold dear.
Love Struggle
Lynne
The address of her Defense Committee is:
Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
1070 Dean Street
Brooklyn, New York 11216
For further information:
718-789-0558 or 917-853-9759
Please make a generous contribution to her defense.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Help end the inhumane treatment of Bradley Manning!
Bradley Manning Support Network. December 22, 2010
The Marine Brig at Quantico, Virginia is using "injury prevention" as a vehicle to inflict extreme pre-trial punishment on accused Wikileaks whistleblower Army PFC Bradley Manning (photo right). These "maximum conditions" are not unheard-of during an inmate's first week at a military confinement facility, but when applied continuously for months and with no end in sight they amount to a form of torture. Bradley, who just turned 23-years-old last week, has been held in solitary confinement since his arrest in late May. We're now turning to Bradley's supporters worldwide to directly protest, and help bring a halt to, the extremely punitive conditions of Bradley's pre-trial detention.
We need your help in pressing the following demands:
End the inhumane, degrading conditions of pre-trial confinement and respect Bradley's human rights. Specifically, lift the "Prevention of Injury (POI) watch order". This would allow Bradley meaningful physical exercise, uninterrupted sleep during the night, and a release from isolation. We are not asking for "special treatment". In fact, we are demanding an immediate end to the special treatment.
Quantico Base Commander
Colonel Daniel Choike
3250 Catlin Ave, Quantico VA 22134
+1-703-784-2707 (phone)
Quantico Brig Commanding Officer
CWO4 James Averhart
3247 Elrod Ave, Quantico VA 22134
+1-703-784-4242 (fax)
Background
In the wake of an investigative report last week by Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com giving evidence that Bradley Manning was subject to "detention conditions likely to create long-term psychological injuries", Bradley's attorney, David Coombs, published an article at his website on Saturday entitled "A Typical Day for PFC Bradley Manning". Mr. Coombs details the maximum custody conditions that Bradley is subject to at the Quantico Confinement Facility and highlights an additional set of restrictions imposed upon him under a Prevention of Injury (POI) watch order.
Usually enforced only through a detainee's first week at a confinement facility, or in cases of violent and/or suicidal inmates, the standing POI order has severely limited Manning's access to exercise, daylight and human contact for the past five months. The military's own psychologists assigned to Quantico have recommended that the POI order and the extra restrictions imposed on Bradley be lifted.
Despite not having been convicted of any crime or even yet formally indicted, the confinement regime Bradley lives under includes pronounced social isolation and a complete lack of opportunities for meaningful exercise. Additionally, Bradley's sleep is regularly interrupted. Coombs writes: "The guards are required to check on Manning every five minutes [...] At night, if the guards cannot see PFC Manning clearly, because he has a blanket over his head or is curled up towards the wall, they will wake him in order to ensure he is okay."
Denver Nicks writes in The Daily Beast that "[Bradley Manning's] attorney [...] says the extended isolation - now more than seven months of solitary confinement - is weighing on his client's psyche. [...] Both Coombs and Manning's psychologist, Coombs says, are sure Manning is mentally healthy, that there is no evidence he's a threat to himself, and shouldn't be held in such severe conditions under the artifice of his own protection."
In an article to be published at Firedoglake.com later today, David House, a friend of Bradley's who visits him regularly at Quantico, says that Bradley "has not been outside or into the brig yard for either recreation or exercise in four full weeks. He related that visits to the outdoors have been infrequent and sporadic for the past several months."
In an average military court martial situation, a defense attorney would be able to bring these issues of pre-trial punishment to the military judge assigned to the case (known as an Article 13 hearing). However, the military is unlikely to assign a judge to Bradley's case until the pre-trial Article 32 hearing is held (similar to an arraignment in civilian court), and that is not expected until February, March, or later-followed by the actual court martial trial months after that. In short, you are Bradley's best and most immediate hope.
What can you do?
Contact the Marine Corps officers above and respectfully, but firmly, ask that they lift the extreme pre-trial confinement conditions against Army PFC Bradley Manning.
Forward this urgent appeal for action widely.
Sign the "Stand with Brad" public petition and letter campaign at www.standwithbrad.org - Sign online, and we'll mail out two letters on your behalf to Army officials.
Donate to Bradley's defense fund at www.couragetoresist.org/bradley
References:
"The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning's detention", by Glenn Greenwald for Salon.com, 15 December 2010
"A Typical Day for PFC Bradley Manning", by attorney David E. Coombs, 18 December 2010
"Bradley Manning's Life Behind Bars", by Denver Nicks for the Daily Beast, 17 December 2010
Bradley Manning Support Network
Courage To Resist
484 Lake Park Ave. #41
Oakland, CA 94610
510-488-3559
couragetoresist.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
KOREA: Emergency Response Actions Needed
The United National Antiwar Committee urges the antiwar movement to begin to plan now for Emergency 5pm Day-of or Day-after demonstrations, should fighting break out on the Korean Peninsula or its surrounding waters.
As in past war crisis and U.S. attacks we propose:
NYC -- Times Square, Washington, D.C. -- the White House
In Many Cities - Federal Buildings
Many tens of thousands of U.S., Japanese and South Korean troops are mobilized on land and on hundreds of warships and aircraft carriers. The danger of a general war in Asia is acute.
China and Russia have made it clear that the scheduled military maneuvers and live-fire war "exercises" from an island right off the coast of north Korea (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) by South Korea are very dangerous. The DPRK has made it clear that they consider these live-fire war exercises to be an act of war and they will again respond if they are again fired on.
The U.S. deployment of thousands of troops, ships, and aircraft in the area while South Korea is firing thousands of rounds of live ammunition and missiles is an enormously dangerous provocation, not only to the DPRK but to China. The Yellow Sea also borders China. The island and the waters where the war maneuvers are taking place are north of the Korean Demilitarized Zone and only eight miles from the coast of the DPRK.
On Sunday, December 19 in a day-long emergency session, the U.S. blocked in the UN Security Council any actions to resolve the crisis.
UNAC action program passed in Albany at the United National Antiwar Conference, July 2010 of over 800 antiwar, social justice and community organizations included the following Resolution on Korea:
15. In solidarity with the antiwar movements of Japan and Korea, each calling for U.S. Troops to Get Out Now, and given the great increase in U.S. military preparations against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, National Peace Conference participants will organize immediate protests following any attack by the U.S. on Korea. U.S. war preparations include stockpiling hundreds of bunker-busters and conducting major war games near the territorial waters of China and Korea. In keeping with our stand for the right of self-determination and our demand of Out Now, the National Peace Conference calls for Bringing All U.S. Troops Home Now!
UNAC urges the whole antiwar movement to begin to circulate messages alerts now in preparation. Together let's join together and demand: Bring all U.S. Troops Home Now! Stop the Wars and the Threats of War.
The United National Antiwar Committee, www.UNACpeace.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
In earnest support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange:
http://readersupportednews.org/julian-assange-petition
rsn:Petition
We here undersigned express our support for the work and integrity of Julian Assange. We express concern that the charges against the WikiLeaks founder appear too convenient both in terms of timing and the novelty of their nature.
We call for this modern media innovator, and fighter for human rights extraordinaire, to be afforded the same rights to defend himself before Swedish justice that all others similarly charged might expect, and that his liberty not be compromised as a courtesy to those governments whose truths he has revealed have embarrassed.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
GAP Inc: End Your Relationship with Supplier that Allows Workers to be Burned Alive
http://humanrights.change.org/blog/view/workers_burned_alive_making_clothes_for_the_gap
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT! FREE KEVIN COOPER!
Reasonable doubts about executing Kevin Cooper
Chronicle Editorial
Monday, December 13, 2010
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/13/EDG81GP0I7.DTL
Death penalty -- Kevin Cooper is Innocent! Help save his life from San Quentin's death row!
http://www.savekevincooper.org/
http://www.savekevincooper.org/pages/essays_content.html?ID=255
URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
17 December 2010
Click here to take action online:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=15084
To learn about recent Urgent Action successes and updates, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/iar/success
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa25910.pdf
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Free the Children of Palestine!
Sign Petition:
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/41467.html
Published by Al-Awda, Palestine Right to Return Coalition on Dec 16, 2010
Category: Children's Rights
Region: GLOBAL
Target: President Obama
Web site: http://www.al-awda.org
Background (Preamble):
According to Israeli police, 1200 Palestinian children have been arrested, interrogated and imprisoned in the occupied city of Jerusalem alone this year. The youngest of these children was seven-years old.
Children and teen-agers were often dragged out of their beds in the middle of the night, taken in handcuffs for questioning, threatened, humiliated and many were subjected to physical violence while under arrest as part of an ongoing campaign against the children of Palestine. Since the year 2000, more than 8000 have been arrested by Israel, and reports of mistreatment are commonplace.
Further, based on sworn affidavits collected in 2009 from 100 of these children, lawyers working in the occupied West Bank with Defense Children International, a Geneva-based non governmental organization, found that 69% were beaten and kicked, 49% were threatened, 14% were held in solitary confinement, 12% were threatened with sexual assault, including rape, and 32% were forced to sign confessions written in Hebrew, a language they do not understand.
Minors were often asked to give names and incriminate friends and relatives as a condition of their release. Such institutionalized and systematic mistreatment of Palestinian children by the state of Israel is a violation international law and specifically contravenes the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which Israel is supposedly a signatory.
Petition:
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/41467.html
We, the undersigned call on US President Obama to direct Israel to
1. Stop all the night raids and arrests of Palestinian Children forthwith.
2. Immediately release all Palestinian children detained in its prisons and detention centers.
3. End all forms of systematic and institutionalized abuse against all Palestinian children.
4. Implement the full restoration of Palestinian children's rights in accordance with international law including, but not limited to, their right to return to their homes of origin, to education, to medical and psychological care, and to freedom of movement and expression.
The US government, which supports Israel to the tune of billions of taxpayer dollars a year while most ordinary Americans are suffering in a very bad economy, is bound by its laws and international conventions to cut off all aid to Israel until it ends all of its violations of human rights and basic freedoms in a verifiable manner.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
"Secret diplomacy is a necessary tool for a propertied minority, which is compelled to deceive the majority in order to subject it to its interests."..."Publishing State Secrets" By Leon Trotsky
Documents on Soviet Policy, Trotsky, iii, 2 p. 64
November 22, 1917
http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/government/foreign-relations/1917/November/22.htm
FREE JULIAN ASSANGE! FREE BRADLEY MANNING! STOP THE FBI RAIDS NOW!
MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!
To understand how much a trillion dollars is, consider looking at it in terms of time:
A million seconds would be about eleven-and-one-half days; a billion seconds would be 31 years; and a trillion seconds would be 31,000 years!
From the novel "A Dark Tide," by Andrew Gross
Now think of it in terms of U.S. war dollars and bankster bailouts!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
For Immediate Release
Antiwar movement supports Wikileaks and calls for and independent, international investigation of the crimes that have been exposed. We call for the release of Bradley Manning and the end to the harassment of Julian Assange.
12/2/2010
For more information: Joe Lombardo, 518-281-1968,
UNACpeace@gmail.org, NationalPeaceConference.org
Antiwar movement supports Wikileaks and calls for and independent, international investigation of the crimes that have been exposed. We call for the release of Bradley Manning and the end to the harassment of Julian Assange.
The United National Antiwar Committee (UNAC) calls for the release of Bradley Manning who is awaiting trial accused of leaking the material to Wikileaks that has been released over the past several months. We also call for an end to the harassment of Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks and we call for an independent, international investigation of the illegal activity exposed through the material released by Wikileaks.
Before sending the material to Wikileaks, Bradley Manning tried to get his superiors in the military to do something about what he understood to be clear violations of international law. His superiors told him to keep quiet so Manning did the right thing; he exposed the illegal activity to the world.
The Afghan material leaked earlier shows military higher-ups telling soldiers to kill enemy combatants who were trying to surrender. The Iraq Wikileaks video from 2007 shows the US military killing civilians and news reporters from a helicopter while laughing about it. The widespread corruption among U.S. allies has been exposed by the most recent leaks of diplomatic cables. Yet, instead of calling for change in these policies, we hear only a call to suppress further leaks.
At the national antiwar conference held in Albany in July, 2010, at which UNAC was founded, we heard from Ethan McCord, one of the soldiers on the ground during the helicopter attack on the civilians in Iraq exposed by Wikileaks (see: http://www.mediasanctuary.org/movie/1810 ). He talked about removing wounded children from a civilian vehicle that the US military had shot up. It affected him so powerfully that he and another soldier who witnessed the massacre wrote a letter of apology to the families of the civilians who were killed.
We ask why this material was classified in the first place. There were no state secrets in the material, only evidence of illegal and immoral activity by the US military, the US government and its allies. To try to cover this up by classifying the material is a violation of our right to know the truth about these wars. In this respect, Bradley Manning and Julian Assange should be held up as heroes, not hounded for exposing the truth.
UNAC calls for an end to the illegal and immoral policies exposed by Wikileaks and an immediate end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and an end to threats against Iran and North Korea.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
D. ARTICLES IN FULL (Unless otherwise noted)
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Extreme Exposure
The Danger of Spent Nuclear Fuel
By ROBERT ALVAREZ
March 21, 2011
http://counterpunch.org/alvarez03212011.html
2) Safeguarding Spent Fuel Pools in the United States
A drained spent fuel pool in the U.S. could lead to a catastrophic fire that would result in long-term land contamination substantially worse than what the Chernobyl accident unleashed.
by Robert Alvarez
Published on Monday, March 21, 2011 by Institute for Policy Studies
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/21-2
3) Shell moves closer on new drilling plans for Gulf
Associated Press
March 21, 2011 4:54 PM ET
http://www.kalb.com/global/story.asp?s=14292516
4) U.S./UN/NATO Hands Off Libya!
Stop the Bombing!
NO to "No fly zones!"
Self-determination for the people of Libya!
Emergency demonstration, Wednesday March 23
Federal Bldg., 7th and Mission 5:00 pm
****** Please circulate widely ******
Two statements on Libya issued by National UNAC
5) The Normal of War
By John Cory, Reader Supported News
March 22, 2011
Reader Supported News | Perspective
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/265-34/5370-the-normal-of-war
6) Bombing Libya Costs $100M a Week. Obama Community Block Grant Cut: $300M for FY2012
by laurenburke007
Tue Mar 22, 2011 at 03:07 PM EDT
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/22/959046/-Bombing-Libya-Costs-$100M-a-Week-Obama-Community-Block-Grant-Cut:-$300M-for-FY2012
7) Duke guaranteeing $10M line of credit for DNC
by Jim Morrill / Charlotte Observer
Posted on March 12, 2011 at 9:45 AM
http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/Duke-guaranteeing-10M-line-of-credit-for-DNC-117850699.html
8) The Corporate Conquest of America
By Thom Hartmann
Tuesday 22 March 2011
http://www.truth-out.org/unequal-protections-from-birth-american-democracy-through-birth-corporate-personhood68647
9) Japan nuclear firm admits missing safety checks at disaster-hit plant
Documents show operator failed to carry out mandatory checks at Fukushima Daiichi and allowed fuel rods to pile up
Justin McCurry in Osaka
guardian.co.uk
Tuesday 22 March 2011 13.42 GMT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/22/japan-nuclear-power-plant-checks-missed
10) Tokyo Says Radiation in Water Puts Infants at Risk
By DAVID JOLLY and KEVIN DREW
March 23, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/world/asia/24japan.html?hp
11) Marines Face Questions About Rescue of Officers in Libya
"Channel 4 News in Britain reported that six villagers were shot by American troops in rescuing one of the two airmen. None of the villagers - who were interviewed by a reporter in a nearby hospital - were killed, although a small boy may need to have a leg amputated."
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
March 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/world/africa/23plane.html?ref=world
12) Six Protesters Killed in Syria
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
March 23, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/world/middleeast/24syria.html?ref=world
13) Detroit Census Confirms a Desertion Like No Other
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
March 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/us/23detroit.html?ref=us
14) Women Seeking Abortions in South Dakota to Get Anti-Abortion Advice
By A. G. SULZBERGER
March 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/us/23sdakota.html?ref=us
15) Race Issues Rise for Miami Police
By DON VAN NATTA Jr.
March 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/us/23miami.html?ref=us
16) Nuclear Power Loses Support in New Poll
By MICHAEL COOPER and DALIA SUSSMAN
March 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/us/23poll.html?ref=us
17) U.S. Returns Young Girl, a Citizen, to Guatemala
By SAM DOLNICK
March 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/nyregion/23citizen.html?ref=us
18) Obama's Imperial Twist: 'Humanitarian' Regime Change in Libya
By BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Black Agenda Report (BAR), March 23, 2011
http://blackagendareport.com/content/obama%E2%80%99s-imperial-twist-%E2%80%9Chumanitarian%E2%80%9D-regime-change-libya
19) Nuclear Cover Up: World's Largest Movable Structure to Seal the Wrecked Chernobyl Reactor
To safely enclose and robotically dismantle the 25-year-old makeshift confinement sarcophagus at Chernobyl, contractors are now erecting a massive steel structure weighing more than 29,000 metric tons
By Charles Q. Choi | Thursday, March 17, 2011 | 12
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=worlds-largest-movable-structure-seal-chernobyl-reactor&print=true
20) 8 Unemployed for Every Job Opening: What Are They Supposed to Do Once Their Benefits Run Out?
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Posted on March 23, 2011, Printed on March 24, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/150358/
21) Egyptian women protesters forced to take 'virginity tests'
Women were often at the forefront of the recent demonstrations in Egypt
Amnesty International
March 23, 2011
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/egyptian-women-protesters-forced-take-%E2%80%98virginity-tests%E2%80%99-2011-03-23
22) Thousands March in Syria Amid Violent Crackdown
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
March 24, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/world/middleeast/25syria.html?hp
23) NATO Airstrike Accidentally Kills 2 Civilians
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 24, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/03/24/world/asia/AP-AS-Afghanistan.html?hp
24) Yemen's Youth Leaders Set Out Their Demands
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 24, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/03/24/world/middleeast/AP-ML-Yemen.html?ref=world
25) States Pass Budget Pain to Cities
"And it is not only Republicans who are cutting aid to cities: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, a Democrat, decided not to restore $302 million in aid to New York City that was cut last year, while Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, another Democrat, has called for cutting local aid to Boston and other cities by some $65 million."
By MICHAEL COOPER
March 23, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/us/24cities.html?ref=us
26) Soldier Gets 24 Years for Killing 3 Afghan Civilians
By WILLIAM YARDLEY
March 23, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/us/24morlock.html?ref=us
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Extreme Exposure
The Danger of Spent Nuclear Fuel
By ROBERT ALVAREZ
March 21, 2011
http://counterpunch.org/alvarez03212011.html
The spent fuel pools at Units 3 and 4 at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex are exposed to the open sky and might be draining. The radioactive dose rates coming off the pools appear to be life-threatening. Lead-shielded helicopters trying to dump water over the pools/reactors could not get close enough to make much difference because of the dangerous levels of radiation.
If the spent fuel is exposed, the zirconium cladding encasi ng the spent fuel can catch fire releasing potentially catastrophic amounts of radiation, particularly cesium-137 (Here's an article I wrote in January 2002 in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists about spent fuel pool dangers.)
In October 2002, Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire, serving at that time as her state's attorney general, organized a group letter to Congress signed by her and 26 of her counterparts across the nation. In it, they requested greater safeguards for reactor spent-fuel pools. The letter urged "enhanced protections for one of the most vulnerable components of a nuclear power plant its spent fuel pools." It was met with silence.
In January 2003, my colleagues and I warned that a drained spent fuel pool in the U.S. could lead to a catastrophic fire that would result in long-term land contamination substantially worse than what the Chernobyl accident unleashed. An area around the Chernobyl site roughly half the size of New Jersey continues to be considered uninhabitable.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the nuclear energy industry strongly disagreed. Congress then asked the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to referee this dispute.
In 2004, after the NRC tried unsuccessfully to suppress its report, the NAS panel agreed with our findings. The Academy panel stated that a "partially or completely drained pool could lead to a propagating zirconium cladding fire and release large quantities of radioactive materials to the environment."
Over the past 15 years, NRC has become too co-dependent on the industry it regulates. This has a lot to do with Congress, the nuclear industry lobby and its large amounts of money, which successfully rolled back the post Three Mile Island regulatory reforms of the early 19080s.. NRC is now much more dependent on industry self-reporting, much like what happened with the SEC and the banking industry before the economic collapse.
U.S. reactors are each holding at least four times as much spent fuel as the individual pools at the wrecked Daiichi nuclear complex in Fukushima. According to the Energy Department, about 63,000 metric tons of spent fuel has been generated as of this year, containing approximately 12.4 billion curies. These pools contain some of the largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet. Merely 14 percent of U.S. spent fuel is in dry storage.
At this stage it's critical that:
* The NRC hold off on renewing operating licenses for nuclear reactors, given our newfound certainty that many sites in earthquake zones could experience greater destruction than previously assumed.
* The NRC promptly require reactor owners to end the dense compaction of spent fuel, and ensure that at least 75 percent of the spent fuel in pools operating above their capacity be removed and placed into dry, hardened storage containers on site, which are more likely to withstand earthquakes.
In our 2003 study, we estimated that it would take about 10 years to do this with existing technology, at an expense of $3.5 to $7 billion.
Robert Alvarez, an Institute for Policy Studies senior scholar, served as senior policy adviser to the Energy Department's secretary from 1993 to 1999. www.ips-dc.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Safeguarding Spent Fuel Pools in the United States
A drained spent fuel pool in the U.S. could lead to a catastrophic fire that would result in long-term land contamination substantially worse than what the Chernobyl accident unleashed.
by Robert Alvarez
Published on Monday, March 21, 2011 by Institute for Policy Studies
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/21-2
As this photograph shows, the spent fuel pools at Units 3 and 4 at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex are exposed to the open sky and might be draining. The radioactive dose rates coming off the pools appear to be life-threatening. Lead-shielded helicopters trying to dump water over the pools/reactors could not get close enough to make much difference because of the dangerous levels of radiation.
If the spent fuel is exposed, the zirconium cladding encasing the spent fuel can catch fire - releasing potentially catastrophic amounts of radiation, particularly cesium-137. Here's an article I wrote in January 2002 in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists about spent fuel pool dangers.
In October 2002, Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire - serving at that time as her state's attorney general-organized a group letter to Congress signed by her and 26 of her counterparts across the nation. In it, they requested greater safeguards for reactor spent-fuel pools. The letter urged "enhanced protections for one of the most vulnerable components of a nuclear power plant - its spent fuel pools." It was met with silence.
In January 2003, my colleagues and I warned that a drained spent fuel pool in the U.S. could lead to a catastrophic fire that would result in long-term land contamination substantially worse than what the Chernobyl accident unleashed. An area around the Chernobyl site roughly half the size of New Jersey continues to be considered uninhabitable.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the nuclear energy industry strongly disagreed. Congress then asked the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to referee this dispute.
In 2004, after the NRC tried unsuccessfully to suppress its report, the NAS panel agreed with our findings. The Academy panel stated that a "partially or completely drained pool could lead to a propagating zirconium cladding fire and release large quantities of radioactive materials to the environment."
U.S. reactors are each holding at least four times as much spent fuel as the individual pools at the wrecked Daiichi nuclear complex in Fukushima. According to the Energy Department, about 63,000 metric tons of spent fuel has been generated as of this year, containing approximately 12.4 billion curies. These pools contain some of the largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet. Merely 14 percent of U.S. spent fuel is in dry storage.
At this stage it's critical that:
* The NRC hold off on renewing operating licenses for nuclear reactors, given our newfound certainty that many sites in earthquake zones could experience greater destruction than previously assumed.
* The NRC promptly require reactor owners to end the dense compaction of spent fuel, and ensure that at least 75 percent of the spent fuel in pools operating above their capacity be removed and placed into dry, hardened storage containers on site, which are more likely to withstand earthquakes.
In our 2003 study, we estimated that it would take about 10 years to do this with existing technology, at an expense of $3.5 to $7 billion.
(c) 2011 Institute for Policy Studies
Robert Alvarez
Robert Alvarez, an Institute for Policy Studies senior scholar, served as senior policy adviser to the Energy Department's secretary and deputy assistant secretary for national security and the environment from 1993 to 1999.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) Shell moves closer on new drilling plans for Gulf
Associated Press
March 21, 2011 4:54 PM ET
http://www.kalb.com/global/story.asp?s=14292516
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Federal regulators have put oil giant Shell one step closer to final approval to drill three new exploratory deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says the project 130 miles off the Louisiana coast meets strict safety and environmental requirements.
Shell Offshore Inc., a unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, proposes to drill three exploratory wells in roughly 2,950 feet of water.
What was announced Monday was an intermediate step and not final approval to drill. A drilling permit will be required for that.
A moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf imposed after last year's BP oil spill was lifted Oct. 12, but the government has only recently begun issuing permits again for previously suspended activities.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) U.S./UN/NATO Hands Off Libya!
Stop the Bombing!
NO to "No fly zones!"
Self-determination for the people of Libya!
Emergency demonstration, Wednesday March 23
Federal Bldg., 7th and Mission 5:00 pm
****** Please circulate widely ******
Two statements on Libya issued by National UNAC
Protest demonstrations in cities around the world to demand an immediate end to the U.S./UN/NATO war against Libya have been called by the United National Antiwar Committee (UNAC) and other coalitions. Northern California UNAC urges everyone to attend the emergency demonstration initiated by the ANSWER Coalition on Wednesday, March 23 at 5:00 pm at the new Federal Building, 7th Street and Mission in San Francisco.
Save the Date!!!
All Out Against U.S. Wars Abroad and at Home!
April 10, Dolores Park, 18th and Dolores, SF
Assemble: 11 am. Rally: 12 Noon March: 1:30 pm
(See pdf flyer below.)
Two statements on Libya issued by National UNAC
Issued Thursday evening, March 17, 2011
The United National Antiwar Committee (UNACpeace.org) calls for emergency day-after demonstrations in every location in the US tomorrow, Friday, March 18th, and Saturday, March 19, to protest the UN Security Council vote (10 for and 0 against, 6 abstentions) authorizing military action against Libya.
France has indicated it is ready to launch air strikes within hours, and all day media reports have said the US and Britain as well as other powers could strike as soon.
Obama has made clear his strategy now is not primarily imposition of a no fly zone but rather air strikes on Libyan government forces and personnel, which will inevitably claim many civilian casualties.
The utter hypocrisy and cynicism of this declaration of war is best seen by the lack of any response to the U.S.-equipped Saudi attack on Bahrain and the brutal repression of the unarmed movement that is underway now.
It is important to note that the U.S. Government stopped all action, even a UN resolution, against the massive Israeli bombardment of Gaza in 2008 or the bombardment and attempted invasion of Lebanon in 2006.
Therefore, we are sure that the US-promoted UN Security Council resolution will not be used to defend the movement for democracy and dignity in the Arab world, but to establish a military presence antagonistic to genuine self-determination in all the nations in which the masses are mobilizing.
UNAC says NO air strikes!
NO no-fly zone!
NO imperialist military intervention of any kind against Libya!
US/UN/NATO hands off Libya and Bahrain!
Forward to building massive antiwar demonstrations on April 9 &10.
UNAC's original (February 24, 2011) statement on U.S. threat to bomb Libya
United National Antiwar Committee, UNACpeace.org Statement on Libya
At great risks to their lives, activists organizing to oppose oppressive, dictatorial regimes in the Middle East and North Africa have inspired us by their courage and determination. We ruefully acknowledge past and continuing U.S. support for dictatorships and military rule in the region. We recognize that the U.S. has been directly involved in supplying weapons and other forms of support to regimes that have committed atrocious human rights abuses against civilians.
Conscious of our responsibility to stop the United States from further manipulations that would interfere with movements on behalf of true democratic developments in other countries, UNAC calls for an immediate halt to U.S. intervention in regions and countries where mass mobilizations are challenging oppressive regimes.
We have seen the horrific consequences of U.S./UN imposed economic sanctions against Iraq, as well as the consequences of U.S./UN operation of "no-fly zones" over northern and southern Iraq, prior to the U.S. Shock and Awe attacks and invasion.
We therefore oppose any form of U.S. military or economic intervention in Libya, Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia and other countries where movements are rising in opposition to dictatorships and military rule.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) The Normal of War
By John Cory, Reader Supported News
March 22, 2011
Reader Supported News | Perspective
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/265-34/5370-the-normal-of-war
So here we are.
The 8-year anniversary of shock-and-awe and the invasion of Iraq. 10 years into Afghanistan.
War is so normal, so mundane, that we just accept it - like checking the daily weather report - cloudy, with a chance of gloom and death.
I read a poll that said 60 percent of Americans want out of Afghanistan, but only 2 percent thought about war during the 2010 elections.
No mention of Iraq.
Does anyone else see the irony of the new Operation Odyssey Dawn against Libya on this weekend anniversary of the war in Iraq? Or the inkblot spread of the war in Afghanistan into Pakistan? Or the re-appearance of retired generals on MSNBC and CNN explaining how this new operation is necessary and will lead to good old-fashioned democracy in the Middle East? It all sounds so very familiar.
Wild Eddie once told me, "History is just an old martini with a fresh twist."
The words and phrases spill across the airwaves: Our brave men and women - justified action in defense of freedom - the full backing of the United Nations - neutralize assets - broad coalition - UN Resolution - force is not our first choice - overwhelming airpower with precision targeting.
And so it goes. A new war made of the same old flesh and bombs.
As Obama spoke from Brazil I heard the echoes of Bush and Reagan. The news talkers and analysts have already begun the spin that this sterile war will involve only US weapon technology and logistics without ground forces in order to show us how clean Operation Odyssey Dawn will be. And they warn the public that this guy, this despicable despot Qaddafi, will no doubt trot out footage of "innocent civilians" killed by these attacks but we do not need to pay attention to that stuff because we are in the right and he is evil. He left us no choice.
No worries though, this will be a short intervention. A matter of days and then it will be handed off to NATO supervision. A few missiles, a few bombs on carefully selected targets and it will all be over. Clean. Distant. Uninvolved. Death by technology. No muss, no fuss.
Long war, short war, and in-between war. One size fits all. Step right up.
War is our new normal.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) Bombing Libya Costs $100M a Week. Obama Community Block Grant Cut: $300M for FY2012
by laurenburke007
Tue Mar 22, 2011 at 03:07 PM EDT
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/22/959046/-Bombing-Libya-Costs-$100M-a-Week-Obama-Community-Block-Grant-Cut:-$300M-for-FY2012
The cost of bombing Libya. The U.S. operation in Libya could cost the U.S. between $400 million and $800 million, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Really? So, you guessed it, we could be paying for so many of the things President Obama and the House GOP has proposed to cut. The President is proposing a cut in his budget of $300 million from Community Development Block Grants. The operation in Libya is likely to cost more than that. President Obama is proposing to cut $100 billion cut in Pell Grants over 10 years. That could easily be paid for. The numbers are still coming in. One thing is for sure: The total will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
As Rep. Barbara Lee likes to say, "it's about priorities." That is, when it comes to budget cuts, it's about what you think is vital and important and what you believe can fall by the waste side. University of Virginia Prof. Larry Sabato tweeted on the day the U.S. bombed Libya that "100 cruise missiles at $1 million dollars each = $110 million. Just baseline expense."
Community Block Grants, $300 million for fiscal year FY2012
Already estimates are coming in that the cost of the Libya operation could be over $1 billion dollars. The Cost of War in Afghanistan $377,025,390,632. Cost of War in Iraq $773,698,442,965. Total Cost of Wars Since 2001 $1,150,723,833,597. National Journal reports that the Pentagon is asking for $708.3 billion for this year, including another $159.3 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Now let's think about those numbers and let's go over some of the proposed cuts in President Obama budget and the cuts the House GOP is proposing. Remember what you hear Speaker John "we're broke" Boehner says about his support of the Libya operation - if he does support it...
1 ••• President Obama is proposing to cut $2.5 billion in heating assistance for low-income people (LIHEAP).
2 ••• President Obama is proposing to cut $300 million from Community Development Block Grants, which the CBC is strongly opposed to.
3 ••• President Obama is proposing to cut $100 billion cut in Pell Grants over 10 years.
HOUSE GOP BUDGET CUS PROPOSALS
4 ••• The House GOP is proposing a $758 million cut in a program for the poor known as WIC. The Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants & Children and provides food assistance to low-income women and their infants.
5 ••• A $1.125 billion cut in state and local law enforcement and COPS hiring.
6 ••• The House GOP is proposing to cut $1.6 billion cut in job training and employment grants.
7 ••• The House GOP is proposing a $1.3 billion cut in community health centers.
8 ••• The House GOP is proposing a cut of $210 million from Maternal and Child Health Block Grants. This would chop the program by 30%. Like the WIC program, the grants assist low-income pregnant women and their children in accessing health care.
Senate Foreign Relations ranking member Sen. Richard Lugar said Congress should have weighed-in beforehand, on "a very expensive operation, even in a limited way." Sunday on Meet the Press Lugar sais,"It's a strange time in which almost all of our congressional days are spent talking about budget, deficits, outrageous problems and yet [at the] same time, all of this passes."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) Duke guaranteeing $10M line of credit for DNC
by Jim Morrill / Charlotte Observer
Posted on March 12, 2011 at 9:45 AM
http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/Duke-guaranteeing-10M-line-of-credit-for-DNC-117850699.html
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Duke Energy Corp., whose CEO is leading the fundraising for the Democratic National Convention, is guaranteeing a $10 million line of credit for the event.
The credit line from Fifth Third Bank is apparently the first time such an arrangement has been used by any Democratic convention organizers.
A Duke spokesman said stockholders, not rate-payers, would be on the line if the convention's host committee defaults. But the head of the committee said it may never have to draw on the money.
"It is just security in the event of a cash shortfall," Will Miller, acting executive director of the Charlotte organizing committee, said Friday. "The host committee is obligated to pay it back, and the host committee will pay it back."
Some suggest the arrangement is tantamount to a large corporate contribution at a time when the party is touting new rules that bar corporate cash and individual contributions over $100,000. Democrats have pledged "a people's convention" and say the line of credit doesn't violate the new rules.
The credit line was required by the Democratic National Committee. The bank's proposal for extending it was part of a detailed set of contracts involving the party, the host committee, the city, the Charlotte Bobcats and the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority. The agreements were made final on Friday.
The contract calls for the host committee to raise $36.6 million. That would cover millions in upfits to Time Warner Cable Arena, other production costs and transportation for an expected 30,000 delegates and media members.
Miller, who compared the organizing effort to "a start-up business," said fundraising is still in the planning stages.
A financing anomaly
The changes are a departure from the way other party conventions have been financed. Some companies gave $1 million or more in 2008 to help Democrats and Republicans stage conventions in Denver and St. Paul.
Corporations, however, will still be able to give in-kind contributions such as equipment, office space and technology.
Republicans have called the new restrictions "sleight of hand." They say Duke's loan guarantee is more of the same.
"We said it then and we'll say it again, this rule isn't worth the paper it's written on," said party spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski. "It proves the 'policy' was nothing more than a PR move from the very beginning."
Democratic spokesman Brad Woodhouse dismisses that notion. "No one is giving us anything," he said. "This is a line of credit."
Duke CEO Jim Rogers is leading fundraising efforts for the convention. As for the loan guarantee, spokesman Tom Williams said, "The DNC asked, and we were able to provide it."
"We stepped in to do it as a way to land this convention and support this community. When our region is successful, Duke is more successful."
The agreement, he added, "would have no impact on rate-payers or our electric customers at all."
Duke 'currying favor'
Duke faces increasingly heavy costs from federal environmental rules, and will shutter some of its old coal-fired power plants rather than upgrade them. The utility also plans to build an $11 billion nuclear plant in South Carolina that has to be approved by state and federal regulators.
UNC Charlotte public policy expert David Swindell has said Rogers' involvement can only help Duke in seeking energy subsidies from the Obama administration. Others say the company could at least expect goodwill from the party that controls the White House.
"Duke may not be angling for a particular payback, but certainly they are currying favor with the Democratic Party," said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of Washington's Center for Responsive Politics. "If it buys goodwill without having to spend a dime, Duke will feel it's been a good deal for them. Their shareholders may not like the risks."
Organizers of the 2012 Republican National Convention haven't sought a credit line.
"We received all individual money to this point. We do not anticipate having a line of credit," said Ken Jones, president and CEO of the 2012 Tampa Bay Host Committee.
Fifth Third, a bank that entered the Charlotte market in 2008, agreed to the letter of credit on Jan. 19, according to a letter included in the final contract. That was the same day the bank announced a public stock offering to repay its federal bailout, or TARP money.
The convention contract prohibits the host committee from accepting in-kind corporate contributions from TARP recipients "unless those funds have been repaid in full."
Woodhouse, the Democratic spokesman, said a credit line from Fifth Third "would be consistent with the spirit of all our rules."
Staff writers Bruce Henderson and Fred Clasen-Kelly contributed.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) The Corporate Conquest of America
By Thom Hartmann
Tuesday 22 March 2011
http://www.truth-out.org/unequal-protections-from-birth-american-democracy-through-birth-corporate-personhood68647
The legal rights of the...defendant, Loan Company, although it be a corporation, soulless and speechless, rise as high in the scales of law and justice as those of the most obscure and poverty-stricken subject of the state.
- Excerpt from the judge's ruling in Brannan v. Schartzer, 25 Ohio Dec. 491 (1915)
While corporations can live forever, exist in several different places at the same time, change their identities at will, and even chop off parts of themselves or sprout new parts, the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, according to its reporter, had said that they are "persons" under the Constitution, with constitutional rights and protections as accorded to human beings. Once given this key, corporations began to assert the powers that came with their newfound rights.
* First Amendment. Claiming the First Amendment right of all "persons" to free speech, corporate lawsuits against the government successfully struck down laws that prevented corporations from lobbying or giving money to politicians and political candidates.1
* Fourth Amendment. Earlier laws had said that a corporation had to open all its records and facilities to our governments as a condition of being chartered. But now, claiming the Fourth Amendment right of privacy, corporate lawsuits successfully struck down such laws. In later years they also sued to block Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) laws allowing for surprise safety inspections of the workplace and stopped Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) inspections of chemical factories.2
* Fourteenth Amendment: Claiming Fourteenth Amendment protection against discrimination (granting persons equal protection), the J. C. Penney chain store successfully sued the state of Florida, ending a law designed to help small, local business by charging chain stores a higher business license fee than that for locally owned stores.3
Women Ask, "Can I Be a 'Person,' Too?"
Interestingly, during the era of the Santa Clara decision granting corporations the full protections of persons under the Constitution, two other groups also brought cases to the Supreme Court, asking for similar protections. The first group was women. This was a movement with a fascinating history, its roots in the American Revolution itself.
In March 1776 thirty-two-year-old Abigail Adams sat at her writing table in her home in Braintree, Massachusetts, a small town a few hours' ride south of Boston. The war between the American colonists and their opponents-the governors and the soldiers of the East India Company and its British protectors-had been going on for about a year. A small group of the colonists gathered in Philadelphia to edit Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence for the new nation they were certain was about to be born, and Abigail's husband, John Adams, was among the men editing that document.
Abigail had a specific concern. With pen in hand, she carefully considered her words. Assuring her husband of her love and concern for his well-being, she then shifted to the topic of the documents being drafted, asking John to be sure to "remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than [were] your ancestors."4
Abigail knew that the men drafting the Declaration and other documents leading to a new republic would explicitly define and extol the rights of men, but not of women, and she and several other well-bred women were lobbying for the Constitution to refer instead to persons, people, humans, or "men and women." Her words are well-preserved, and her husband later became president of the United States, so her story is better known than those of most of her peers.
By late April, Abigail had received a response from John, but it wasn't what she was hoping for. "Depend upon it," the future president wrote to his wife, "[that] we know better than to repeal our Masculine systems."
Furious, Abigail wrote back to her husband, saying, "If perticular [sic] care and attention is not paid to the Ladies, we are determined to foment a Rebellion..."
All of Abigail's efforts were ultimately for nothing. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced on June 7, 1776, a resolution that the colonies be free and independent states governed solely by free men, based on a document written by Thomas Jefferson and edited by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. Adams played a strong role in the heated debate over the following month, which concluded with a vote to adopt the gender-specific language of Lee's resolution on July 2, 1776. Congress formalized it two days later as the Declaration of Independence.
Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, and the other men of the assembly explicitly demanded rights for male citizens-and not for female citizens-when they crafted the Declaration. "Men" was not a generic reference to humans; the authors meant humans of the male gender. They wrote: "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness-That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed..."
The men had won. Among the earliest laws of the Colonies were several legislating that men had power over women:5
* A married woman was not allowed to make out a will because she was not allowed to own land or legally control anything else worthy of willing to another person.
* Any property a woman brought into the marriage became her husband's at the moment of marriage, and would revert to her only if he died and she did not remarry. But even then, she would get only one-third of her husband's property, and what third that was and how she could use it were determined by a male, court-appointed executor, who would supervise for the rest of her life (or until she remarried) how she used the third of her husband's estate she "inherited."
* When a widow died, the executor would either take the property for himself or decide to whom it would pass; the woman had no say in the matter because she had no right to sign a will. Women could not sue in a court of law except under the same weak procedures allowed for the mentally ill and children, supervised by men.
* If the man of a family household died, the executor would decide who would raise the wife's children and in what religion. She had no right to make those decisions and no say in such matters. If the woman was poor, it was a virtual certainty that her children would be taken from her.
* It was impossible in the new United States of America for a married woman to have legal responsibility for her children, control of her own property, own slaves, buy or sell land, or even obtain an ordinary license.
Women Work for, Then Against, the Fourteenth Amendment
After the American Revolution, educated women picked up Abigail Adams's chant and began to quietly foment her "rebellion." They wrote poems and seemingly innocuous letters to the editors of newspapers, speaking indirectly about their demands for equal rights. Word spread. By the early 1800s, women's voices were getting louder, and many were demanding an amendment to the Constitution to give equal rights to women or prohibit discrimination against women.
But women didn't gain any legislative successes until 1868, and that turned out to be a Pyrrhic victory. It was the Fourteenth Amendment, passed after the Civil War, which guaranteed due process of law to all "persons." Oddly, when it was being drafted in 1866, suffragettes Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had argued strongly against it because it was the first time the word male was used in the Constitution or any constitutional amendments.
The Fourteenth Amendment has two provisions, one guaranteeing due process of law to all persons and the other defining how lines would be drawn to decide how representation was to be apportioned in the House of Representatives. Section 2 includes the phrase "the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens."
Stanton wrote in 1866, "If the word 'male' be inserted [in this amendment] it will take a century to get it out again."6
Despite Stanton's objections to its sexually discriminatory language, the Fourteenth Amendment was passed and ratified by enough states to become law. And Stanton was off in her prediction by only two years: the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 required equal pay for women and men and prohibited discrimination against women by any company with more than twenty-four employees.
Women Test the Fourteenth Amendment
In an attempt to test the Fourteenth Amendment, Susan B. Anthony went to her local polling station and cast a vote on November 1, 1872. Justifying her vote on the grounds of the Fourteenth Amendment, on November 12 Anthony wrote, "All persons are citizens-and no state shall deny or abridge the citizen rights..."
Six days later, however, she was arrested for voting illegally. The judge, noting that she was female, refused to allow her to testify, dismissed the jury, and found her guilty. Lacking the resources available to huge corporations, she was unable to repeatedly carry her cause to the Supreme Court as the railroads customarily did, and that judge's decision stood.
One year later, in the 1873 Bradwell v. Illinois decision, the Supreme Court ruled that women were not entitled to the full protection of persons under the Fourteenth Amendment. Justice Joseph P. Bradley wrote the Court's concurring opinion, which minced no words: "The family institution is repugnant to the idea of a woman adopting a distinct and independent career from that of her husband. So firmly fixed was this sentiment in the founders of the common law that it became a maxim of that system of jurisprudence that a woman had no legal existence separate from her husband, who was regarded as her head and representative in the social state..."
Corporations had full legal existence and the constitutional rights of persons, but women could derive these rights only through their husbands. They didn't even exist as legal entities separate from their husbands. And the Supreme Court said that the Fourteenth Amendment didn't apply to them, even though the amendment explicitly said "persons."
Women didn't get the vote until 1920, and the Equal Rights Amendment that says, simply and entirely, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex," has been introduced into Congress every year since 1923 but has never passed, blocked in every case by male legislators.
Freed Slaves Ask, "Can I Be a 'Person,' Too?"
The second group to petition the Supreme Court to be recognized as persons under the Fourteenth Amendment were the people for whom it was passed: freed slaves and their descendants. But ten years after giving corporations full rights of personhood, the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that any person more than "1⁄8th Negro" was not legally entitled to full interactions with white "persons."
Justice Henry B. Brown delivered the near-unanimous (one dissenter) opinion of the Court, which established nearly a century of Jim Crow laws, saying, "Gauged by this standard we cannot say that a law which authorizes or even requires the separation of the two races in public conveyances is unreasonable, or more obnoxious to the Fourteenth Amendment than the acts of Congress requiring separate schools for colored children in the District of Columbia, the constitutionality of which does not seem to have been questioned, or the corresponding acts of state legislatures."7
Court reporter J. C. Bancroft Davis, in the headnote he wrote as commentary to the Plessy v. Ferguson case, said that the case had come about when Plessy, "being a passenger between two stations within the State of Louisiana, was assigned by the officers of the [railroad] company to the coach used for the race to which he belonged, but he insisted upon going into a coach used by the race to which he did not belong."
Davis then quotes the Fourteenth Amendment and says afterward, "The object of the amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law, but in the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either."
This institutionalization of segregation by the 1896 Plessy case prompted U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black to note in 1938, "Of the cases in this Court in which the Fourteenth Amendment was applied during the first fifty years after its adoption, less than one-half of one percent invoked it in protection of the Negro race, and more than fifty percent asked that its benefits be extended to corporations."8
Notes:
1. First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, 435 U.S. 765 (1978).
2. Marshall v. Barlow's, Inc., 436 U.S. 307 (1978).
3. Liggett v. Lee, 288 U.S. 517 (1933).
4. The correspondence between Abigail Adams and John Adams is available at http:// www.masshist.org/digitaladams/aea/letter.
5. For more on this subject see http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/awlaw3/prop erty_law.html.
6. Quoted in Sharada Rath, Women in Public Administration of the American States: A Study of their Administrative Values (New Delhi: M.D. Publications, 1998), 41.
7. Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896).
8. Connecticut General Co. v. Johnson, 303 U.S. 77 (1938).
Thom Hartmann is America's No. 1 progressive radio host, as well as the New York Times bestselling, four-time Project Censored Award-winning author of 21 books in print, in 17 languages on 5 continents.
Want a copy of the book? Receive "Unequal Protection: How Corporations Became 'People' - And How You Can Fight Back" as a thank-you gift with a donation of $35 or more to Truthout.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) Japan nuclear firm admits missing safety checks at disaster-hit plant
Documents show operator failed to carry out mandatory checks at Fukushima Daiichi and allowed fuel rods to pile up
Justin McCurry in Osaka
guardian.co.uk
Tuesday 22 March 2011 13.42 GMT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/22/japan-nuclear-power-plant-checks-missed
The power plant at the centre of the biggest civilian nuclear crisis in Japan's history contained far more spent fuel rods than it was designed to store, while its technicians repeatedly failed to carry out mandatory safety checks, according to documents from the reactor's operator.
The risk that used fuel rods present to efforts to avert disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant was underlined on Tuesday when nuclear safety officials said the No 2 reactor's storage pool had heated to around boiling point, raising the risk of a leakage of radioactive steam.
"We cannot leave this alone and we must take care of it as quickly as possible," Hidehiko Nishiyama, of the nuclear and industrial safety agency, said.
According to documents from Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), the company repeatedly missed safety checks over a 10-year period up to two weeks before the 11 March disaster, and allowed uranium fuel rods to pile up inside the 40-year-old facility.
When the plant was struck by a huge earthquake and tsunami, its reactors, designed by US scientists 50 years ago, contained the equivalent of almost six years of highly radioactive uranium fuel produced by the facility, according to a presentation Tepco gave to the International Atomic Energy Agency and later posted on the company's website.
The revelations will add to pressure on Tepco to explain why, under its cost-cutting chief executive Masataka Shimizu, it opted to save money by storing the spent fuel on site rather than invest in safer storage options.
The firm already faces scrutiny over why it waited so long to pump seawater into the stricken reactors and, according to a report in the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper last week, turned down US offers of help to cool the reactors shortly after the disaster.
Critics of Japan's nuclear power programme say the industry's patchy safety record and close ties to regulating authorities will have to change if it is to regain public trust.
"I've long thought the whole system is a mess," Taro Kono, a Liberal Democratic party MP, told Reuters. "We have to go through our whole nuclear strategy after this.
"Now, no one is going to accept nuclear waste in their backyards. You can have an earthquake and have radioactive material under your house. We're going to have a real debate on this."
Kono wants to see the government lead a fundamental reform of the industry's structure, which he says has encouraged collusion between plant operators and the people who are supposed to regulate them.
Reports said safety lapses at the plant continued up to two weeks before the tsunami disabled cooling systems in its reactors and sparked the biggest nuclear power emergency the world has seen since Chernobyl in 1986.
One month before the tsunami, government regulators approved a Tepco request to prolong the life of one of its six reactors by another decade, despite warnings that its backup power generator contained stress cracks, making them more vulnerable to water damage.
Weeks later, Tepco admitted it had failed to inspect 33 pieces of equipment inside the plant's cooling systems, including water pumps, according to the nuclear safety agency's website.
Regulators have been accused of uncritically backing industry moves to prolong the life of ageing nuclear power plants such as Fukushima Daiichi amid mounting local opposition to the construction of new facilities.
A regulatory committee reviewing the reactor's stay of execution said maintenance management was "inadequate", and the quality of inspection "insufficient," according to reports.
When disaster struck earlier this month, the plant contained almost 4,000 uranium fuel assemblies kept in pools of circulating water - the equivalent of more than three times the amount of radioactive material usually kept in the active cores of the plant's reactors.
The drop-in water levels in some of those pools after the tsunami has caused fuel rods to overheat, raising the risk of a full meltdown and the release of dangerous levels of radioactivity into the atmosphere.
Tepco workers, troops and firefighters have been working around the clock to keep the storage pools replenished by dumping water from helicopters and via high-pressure hoses from the ground.
The No 4 reactor, which suffered two explosions last week, contained 548 fuel assemblies cooling in a water pool on its upper floor.
Japanese plans to store radioactive nuclear fuel after it has been used have made little headway.
A medium-term storage site in Mutsu, northern Japan, is not due to open until next year, and the construction of an enrichment and reprocessing plant in Rokkasho has been hit by technical glitches and other delays.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
10) Tokyo Says Radiation in Water Puts Infants at Risk
By DAVID JOLLY and KEVIN DREW
March 23, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/world/asia/24japan.html?hp
TOKYO - Radioactive iodine detected in the capital's water supply spurred a warning for infants on Wednesday and the government issued a stark new estimate about the costs of rebuilding from the earthquake and tsunami that slammed into the northeast of Japan this month.
Ei Yoshida, head of water purification for the Tokyo water department, said at a televised news conference that infants in Tokyo and surrounding areas should not drink tap water. He said iodine-131 had been detected in water samples at a level of 210 becquerels per liter, about a quart. The recommended limit for infants is 100 becquerels per liter. For adults, the recommended limit is 300 becquerels. (The measurement unit is named for Henri Becquerel, one of the discoverers of radioactivity.)
The announcement added to the growing anxiety about public safety posed by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, which was severely damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Prime Minister Naoto Kan said earlier Wednesday that the public should avoid additional farm produce from areas near the power station because of contamination, according to the Japanese news media.
The Health Ministry said in a statement that it was unlikely that there would be negative consequences to infants who did drink the water, but that it should be avoided if possible and not be used to make infant formula. The warning applied to the 23 wards of Tokyo, as well as the towns of Mitaka, Tama, Musashino, Machida and Inagi to the west of the city.
"It's unfortunate, but the radiation is clearly being carried on the air from the Fukushima plant," said Yukio Edano, the chief cabinet secretary. "Because it's raining, it's possible that a lot of places will be affected. Even if people consume the water a few times, there should be no long-term ill effects." There has been frequent rain in recent days and the watershed for Tokyo's tap water lies almost entirely to the north and northeast of the city; the nuclear plant is about 140 miles to the north.
But it was not entirely clear why the levels of iodine were so high, said a senior Western nuclear executive, noting that the prevailing breezes seem to be pushing radiation out to sea.
"The contamination levels are well beyond what you'd expect from what is in the public domain," said the executive, who insisted on anonymity and has broad contacts in Japan. "There is no way that stored fuel did not burn in a very significant way."
The Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun cited the Health Ministry as saying that drinking the water would hurt neither a pregnant woman nor her fetus, and that it was safe for bathing and other everyday activities.
But experts say that pregnant women, nursing mothers and fetuses, as well as children, face the greatest danger from radioactive iodine, which is taken in by the thryoid gland and can cause thyroid cancer. Children are at much higher risk than adults because they are growing, and their thyroid glands are more active and in need of iodine. In addition, the gland is smaller in children than in adults, so there is less tissue to share the radiation, and a given amount of iodine-131 will deliver a higher dose of radiation to the thyroid and potentially do more harm in a child.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, if an adult and a child ingest the same amount of radioactive iodine the thyroid dose to a newborn will be 16 times higher than to an adult; for children under 1 year, 8 times the adult dose; for a 5-year-old, 4 times the adult dose.
Pregnant women also take up more iodine-131 in the thyroid, especially during the first trimester. The iodine also crosses the placenta and reaches the fetus, and the fetal thyroid takes up more and more iodine as pregnancy progresses. During the first week after birth a baby's thyroid activity increases up to fourfold and stays at that level for a few days so newborns are especially vulnerable. Women who are breastfeeding will secrete about a quarter of the iodine they ingest into their milk.
The compound potassium iodide can protect the thyroid by saturating it with normal iodine so it will have no need to soak up the radioactive form. People in Japan have been advised to take it. Scientists say that if it is in short supply and must be rationed the pills should go first to pregnant women and children.
The accident at Chernobyl caused an epidemic of thyroid cancer - 6,000 cases so far - in people who were exposed as children. The risk in that group has not decreased over time, and many more cases are expected. The culprit was milk produced by cows that had grazed on grass that was heavily carpeted by fallout. The epidemic could probably have been prevented if people in the region had been told not to drink milk and if they had been given potassium iodide.
After the announcement Wednesday, at the Lawson's convenience store in the Tsukiji neighborhood of central Tokyo the shelves were about half-stocked with water. But a clerk said he had just restocked them an hour before.
"People came in and cleared us out in the first hour after the announcement," he said, saying he didn't want to be identified because he didn't want to anger his boss. "They were taking 20 or 30 bottles at a time."
Outside the store a man struggling to load more than 30 half-liter bottles onto his bicycle said he had bought the water for his wife, who is seven months' pregnant.
"We're going to stay in Tokyo for now," Mr. Takahashi, 31, said, "unless the reactor problem gets worse."
Around the corner at the AM/PM convenience store the bottled water section of the shelves was bare but for nine half-liter bottles of sparkling lemon-flavored water.
With water disappearing from the shelves the Tokyo city government acted to calm fears, saying it would begin distributing 240,000 bottles of water Thursday to families with children younger than 1 year, the broadcaster NHK reported. There are about 80,000 such children in the affected zone, NHK said.
Outside Tokyo the government said it had found radioactive materials at levels exceeding legal limits in 11 vegetables in Fukushima Prefecture, the Kyodo news agency reported. Shipments of the affected vegetables from there ended on Monday.
On Wednesday Prime Minister Kan also suspended shipment of raw milk and parsley from neighboring Ibaraki Prefecture, Kyodo reported.
The United States Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday that it would prohibit imports of dairy goods and produce from the affected region. Hong Kong also banned food and milk imports from the area.
The spread of at least a small amount of radiation is inevitable, considering the steam that is generated as emergency workers spray water on damaged reactors and cooling pools at the Fukushima complex. Government and power company officials were nonetheless expressing growing optimism that the crisis was closer to being brought under control.
But in a new problem at the plant the cooling system for the No. 5 reactor stopped working Wednesday afternoon, said Hiro Hasegawa, a spokesman for the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates the plant.
"When we switched from the temporary pump, it automatically switched off," he said. "We'll try again with a new pump in the morning."
Of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi facility only the No. 5 and No. 6 units were considered to be under control. They, along with No. 4, were offline before the quake and while they have pools of spent fuel rods, like the other reactors, they have been of less concern.
All of the facilities have electrical power, a crucial step toward getting cooling systems restarted.
Officials said earlier Wednesday that they hoped to have the cooling pumps at the No. 3 and No. 4 units operating by as early as Thursday. They had been planning to test Reactor No. 3's cooling system later Wednesday. That reactor is considered one of the most dangerous because of its fuel - mixed oxides, or mox, which contains a mixture of uranium and plutonium and can produce a more dangerous radioactive plume if scattered by fire or explosions.
But the effort was set back when the No. 3 facility began belching black smoke late in the afternoon, leading Tokyo Electric to evacuate workers from the area. No flames were visible and the cause of the smoke was unknown, the company said. Later it said the smoke had stopped after about an hour.
Water also was sprayed on the No. 1 and No. 2 units on Wednesday.
Rebuilding after the 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami, which ravaged the northeastern coast of the main Japanese island of Honshu, will cost up to $309 billion, Mr. Kan's office said Wednesday. The World Bank, citing private estimates, said on Monday that the figure could reach $250 billion.
The economic cost of the disaster has hit Tokyo Electric, which is in negotiations with its bankers for loans of as much as about $24 billion, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation who asked not to be identified.
Japan's three megabanks - Sumitomo Mitsui, Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ and Mizuho - and a number of second-tier banks were discussing the company's needs, according to the person. There has been no talk of government guarantees for any such loans, said the person, who was not authorized to discuss the issue.
The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that the official death toll from the disaster had been raised to more than 9,500 with more than 16,000 people missing, although officials said there could be overlap between the figures.
Meanwhile, strong earthquakes hit the northeast coast on Wednesday. A 6.0-magnitude quake shook Fukushima Prefecture in the morning, according to the Japanese Meteorological Agency. That was followed by a 5.8-magnitude tremor about 20 minutes later.
Scientists have warned of aftershocks from the March 11 quake continuing for weeks, possibly months.
David Jolly reported from Tokyo, and Kevin Drew from Hong Kong.
Denise Grady contributed reporting from New York.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
11) Marines Face Questions About Rescue of Officers in Libya
"Channel 4 News in Britain reported that six villagers were shot by American troops in rescuing one of the two airmen. None of the villagers - who were interviewed by a reporter in a nearby hospital - were killed, although a small boy may need to have a leg amputated."
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
March 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/world/africa/23plane.html?ref=world
WASHINGTON - An American pilot and a weapons officer were safely rescued in Libya on Tuesday after their warplane crashed near Benghazi, but the United States Marine Corps dropped two 500-pound bombs during the recovery and faced questions about whether Marines had fired on villagers.
In an episode that reflected the unpredictability of an air campaign designed to keep American troops off the ground, the United States military said that an equipment malfunction rather than enemy fire brought down the plane. A Marine Corps officer in the Mediterranean strongly denied that any shots were fired at civilians during the rescue, but Marine Corps officers at the Pentagon said they did not know what happened or whether any civilians were killed or injured when the bombs exploded.
United States military officials said the pilot was recovered by a Marine rescue team and was now aboard an American ship in the Mediterranean, the Kearsarge. The weapons officer was found on the ground by "the people of Libya," said Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III, the tactical commander of the United States-led effort in the country. At a Pentagon briefing, Admiral Locklear did not describe them as rebels but made clear that they were not forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
Admiral Locklear said the people treated the weapons officer "with dignity and respect." The officer is now in American custody, but the admiral declined to say more.
United States military officers said the plane took off from Aviano Air Base in northeastern Italy late Monday on an airstrike mission to Libya. At some point over Benghazi, the jet experienced what military officials called an "equipment malfunction," and at about 11:30 p.m. local time on Monday (about 5:30 p.m. Eastern time on Monday), both the pilot and the weapons officer ejected.
Their parachutes opened but landed them some distance apart near Benghazi, the military said. Although details remained murky on Tuesday, the Marine Corps said a rescue team that took off from the Kearsarge quickly located the pilot.
A Marine Corps officer said that the grounded pilot, who was in contact with rescue crews in the air, asked for bombs to be dropped as a precaution before the crews landed to pick him up. "My understanding is he asked for the ordnance to be delivered between where he was located and where he saw people coming toward him," the officer said, adding that the pilot evidently made the request "to keep what he thought was a force closing in on him from closing in on him."
In response, two Harrier attack jets that were part of the rescue team dropped two 500-pound bombs before a Marine Osprey helicopter landed to pick up the pilot, at about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday local time. The Marine officer said he did not know if the people approaching the pilot were friendly or hostile or what damage the bombs had caused.
Channel 4 News in Britain reported that six villagers were shot by American troops in rescuing one of the two airmen. None of the villagers - who were interviewed by a reporter in a nearby hospital - were killed, although a small boy may need to have a leg amputated.
"No shots were fired," said Capt. Richard Ulsh, a Marine spokesman aboard the Kearsarge. "The Osprey is not armed, and the Marines barely got off the aircraft. I was in the landing center the whole time, where we were monitoring what was going on, and firing was never reported."
Neither he nor other Marine officials said specifically whether any shots were fired from the Harrier attack jets.
The military is investigating.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
12) Six Protesters Killed in Syria
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
March 23, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/world/middleeast/24syria.html?ref=world
DAMASCUS, Syria - At least six people were killed early Wednesday when Syrian security forces attacked protesters who had taken refuge in a mosque in the center of the southern city of Dara'a, news agencies reported. The Associated Press said security forces killed another three people during protests later in the day.
Syrian state television early on Wednesday described a different scene at the Omari mosque, showing guns, grenades and ammunition that it said had been taken from inside the mosque after a police raid. The television report acknowledged four dead, but said they had been killed when "an armed gang" attacked an ambulance.
Why the accounts of violence and the number killed differed was not immediately clear.
It was also unclear whether security forces had succeeded in flushing protesters from the Omari mosque, a center of demonstrations with thousands gathering there in recent days and erecting tents on its grounds. Hundreds of security forces had surrounded the mosque, a witness told The A.P.
Despite emergency laws that have banned public gatherings for nearly 50 years, protests have grown in the last week in several cities around Syria. The largest have been in Dara'a, with thousands taking to the streets on Friday and again on Sunday, when protesters burned government buildings and clashed with the police. Several people were reported to have died.
A witness in Dara'a said the army was preventing people from nearby towns and villages from entering the city on Wednesday.
There were reports of fresh violence around the Omari mosque on Wednesday as security forces opened fire on mourners leaving the funeral of those killed in clashes the day before and attempting to march towards the mosque, a witness said.
The violence early Wednesday morning followed antigovernment protests in Dara'a on Tuesday. Hundreds of demonstrators calling for political freedoms and an end to corruption sought protection from attacks in the Omari mosque, Reuters reported. The protesters said they would remain in the mosque until their demands were met.
"They are shooting," a person at the mosque said by telephone, referring to the soldiers and other security forces. "Killing and killing and more killing."
A doctor at the city's main hospital, Ali Nassab al-Mahameed, was shot and killed as he was trying to rescue others, the witness said. It was not known how many people were wounded.
"It seems that security forces may be trying to storm the complex," a resident told Reuters. "It is not clear because electricity has been cut off. Tear gas is also being used."
The Dara'a protests, now in their sixth day, stemmed from outrage over the arrest of more than a dozen schoolchildren earlier this month for writing graffiti that called for greater freedoms.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
13) Detroit Census Confirms a Desertion Like No Other
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
March 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/us/23detroit.html?ref=us
Laying bare the country's most startling example of modern urban collapse, census data on Tuesday showed that Detroit's population had plunged by 25 percent over the last decade. It was dramatic testimony to the crumbling industrial base of the Midwest, black flight to the suburbs and the tenuous future of what was once a thriving metropolis.
It was the largest percentage drop in history for any American city with more than 100,000 residents, apart from the unique situation of New Orleans, where the population dropped by 29 percent after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said Andrew A. Beveridge, a sociologist at Queens College.
The number of people who vanished from Detroit - 237,500 - was bigger than the 140,000 who left New Orleans.
The loss in Detroit seemed to further demoralize some residents who said they already had little hope for the city's future.
"Even if we had depressing issues before, the decline makes it so much harder to deal with," said Samantha Howell, 32, who was getting gas on Tuesday on the city's blighted East Side. "Yes, the city feels empty physically, empty of people, empty of ambition, drive. It feels empty."
Detroit's population fell to 713,777 in 2010, the lowest since 1910, when it was 466,000. In a shift that was unthinkable 20 years ago, Detroit is now smaller than Austin, Tex., Charlotte, N.C., and Jacksonville, Fla.
"It's a major city in free-fall," said L. Brooks Patterson, the county executive of neighboring Oakland County, which was also hit by the implosion of the automobile industry but whose population rose by almost 1 percent, thanks to an influx of black residents. "Detroit's tax base is eroding, its citizens are fleeing and its school system is in the hands of a financial manager."
Nearly a century ago, the expansion of the auto industry fueled a growth spurt that made Detroit the fourth-largest city in the country by 1920, a place it held until 1950, when the population peaked at almost two million. By 2000, Detroit had fallen to 10th place.
Depending on final numbers from all cities, Detroit now may have dropped to 18th place, said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution.
City officials, cognizant of the negative political and financial consequences of such a decline in population, said they intended to challenge the census. It probably missed tens of thousands of residents, they said.
"While we expected a decline in population, we are confident these figures will be revised," Mayor David Bing said in a statement. He told reporters that if the city could account for a total of 750,000 people, it would meet a threshold for receiving more federal and state money.
Detroit is the only city in the United States where the population has climbed above one million but also fallen below one million, Mr. Beveridge said. And because of the magnitude of Detroit's population drain, Michigan is the only state to register a net population loss since 2000. Michigan's population fell by 0.6 percent while the nation's as a whole grew by 9.7 percent.
The reasons for Detroit's losses over the last decade include the travails of the auto industry and the collapse of the industrial-based economy.
"There's been an erosion of the nation's industrial base, and this is the most dramatic evidence of it," Mr. Beveridge said.
But a major factor, too, has been the exodus of black residents to the suburbs, which followed the white flight that started in the 1960s. Detroit lost 185,393 black residents in the last decade.
"This is the biggest loss of blacks the city has shown, and that's tied to the foreclosures in the city's housing," Mr. Frey said. Because of the Great Migration - when blacks flowed from the South to the North - and the loss of whites, he said, "Detroit has been the most segregated city in the country and it is still pretty segregated, but not as much." At one point, the city was 83 percent black.
Many blacks moved to nearby suburbs, but census data shows that even those suburbs have barely held their own against population loss.
The staggering loss over the past decade surprised even demographers who track Detroit's out-migration patterns.
"I never thought it would go this low," said Kurt Metzger, an urban affairs expert and demographer who analyzes data about the city.
"This is the biggest percentage loss that Detroit has ever seen," he said, noting that the city suffered a higher numerical loss, 300,000, from 1970 to 1980. Still, that accounted for only 20 percent of the population, which had been 1.5 million in 1970.
The question now is the degree to which the most recent census figures will discourage those who have invested in Detroit and continue to try to make a go of it.
"Obviously it's going to be a blow," Mr. Metzger said. "All of us are kind of shocked, but it means we have to work that much harder."
With more than 20 percent of the lots in the 139-square-mile city vacant, the mayor is in the midst of a program to demolish 10,000 empty residential buildings. But for many, the city already seems hollowed out.
"You can just see the emptiness driving in," said Joel Dellario, a student at the College for Creative Studies. "I've been in and out of this city my whole life, and it's just really apparent."
Jacob Smilovitz contributed reporting.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
14) Women Seeking Abortions in South Dakota to Get Anti-Abortion Advice
By A. G. SULZBERGER
March 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/us/23sdakota.html?ref=us
The sign out front advertises free pregnancy tests, information about abortion and testing for sexually transmitted diseases. But it is not an abortion clinic - it is home to the Alpha Center, an organization in Sioux Falls, S.D., dedicated to encouraging women to bring their babies to term.
A law signed by Gov. Dennis Daugaard on Tuesday makes the state the first to require women who are seeking abortions to first attend a consultation at such "pregnancy help centers," to learn what assistance is available "to help the mother keep and care for her child."
The legislation, which passed easily in a state Legislature where Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than 3 to 1, also establishes the nation's longest waiting period - three days - after an initial visit with an abortion provider before the procedure can be done. It makes exceptions for medical emergencies, but not for rape or incest.
Many states require counseling from doctors or other clinic staff members before an abortion to cover topics like health risks. What makes the new South Dakota law different is that the mandated counseling will come from people whose central qualification is that they are opposed to abortion.
"I think everyone agrees with the goal of reducing abortion by encouraging consideration of other alternatives," Mr. Daugaard, a Republican, said in a statement Tuesday.
The law has provoked vehement opposition from supporters of abortion rights, both locally and nationally, who describe the requirements as unconstitutional obstacles for women seeking to have an abortion. Planned Parenthood said it would challenge the law in court; it is scheduled to take effect July 1.
Peggy Gibson, a Democratic state representative who voted against the measure, said the law amounted to "government intrusion into people's medical decisions."
"South Dakota women should not need to submit to an in-person lecture from an unqualified, noncertified, faith-based counselor or volunteer at an anti-choice crisis pregnancy center," Ms. Gibson said.
In statehouses around the country, Republicans have used their success in the midterm elections in November to push bills aimed at reducing abortions.
More than half the states have introduced such legislation, including bills restricting health insurance coverage for abortion, requiring women to receive an ultrasound before an abortion, and banning abortion after 20 weeks, said Elizabeth Nash, who tracks abortion legislation for the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization.
South Dakota's is the most far-reaching of the bills to become law, Ms. Nash said. Despite an abortion rate that is among the lowest in the nation, the state has become a battleground over the issue in recent years, with the Legislature passing a number of laws aimed at curbing abortions, some of which have been overturned by the courts and by voters in two referendums.
Those laws that remain are already restrictive by national standards. The state, for example, requires a one-day waiting period and some counseling, mandating that women be told that an abortion "will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique living human being."
Requiring visits to pregnancy help centers, which have been growing nationwide in recent years, is a significant tactical shift by opponents of abortion.
Such centers - both secular and religiously affiliated - can provide counseling under the law as long as their main mission is to "educate, counsel and otherwise assist women to help them maintain their relationship with their unborn children."
"There's greater assurance that a woman considering an abortion is going to be fully informed about all the risks and about all the options," said Roger Hunt, a Republican legislator who wrote the bill. "That's not being done at the current time."
The law appears likely to escalate the tensions between abortion providers and the pregnancy help centers, which often operate in close proximity and are listed alongside each other in the phone book under abortion (the Alpha Center even used to be in a space that was once a Planned Parenthood clinic). Each side regularly accuses the other of manipulating and coercing women.
Leslee Unruh, the founder of the Alpha Center and a leader of anti-abortion efforts, said that counseling sessions at her clinic would be carried out only by medical professionals and would ensure that women were not being pressured by a boyfriend, husband or parents. The center already provides counseling sessions to women who regret the decision to have an abortion.
She was dismissive of any opposition to the law, saying that women remained free to have an abortion if they chose to.
"What are they so afraid of?" Ms. Unruh asked. "That women might change their minds?"
The nearby Planned Parenthood clinic is the sole provider of nonemergency abortions in the state. It has no local doctors willing to perform them, so doctors fly in each week from Minnesota.
Patients often have to drive hours across the state to seek an abortion, so under the new law they would need to make several trips or find a place to stay for the three-day waiting period.
Sarah Stoesz, president of the local Planned Parenthood chapter, said the clinic was careful to ensure that patients were making the decision themselves, sometimes turning away a woman who appeared to be making the decision under pressure.
In contrast, she said, employees at the pregnancy help centers have a record of providing misinformation about the physical and psychological risks associated with the procedure and use tactics like displaying graphic photos or quoting scripture to influence a woman's decision.
"They're not licensed, they're not regulated, they're not accredited and they're openly ideological," Ms. Stoesz said.
She added that the idea that pregnant women were now "legally mandated to be coerced by people who aren't even medical professionals - not that they should be coerced by anyone - is really beyond the pale."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
15) Race Issues Rise for Miami Police
By DON VAN NATTA Jr.
March 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/us/23miami.html?ref=us
MIAMI - The video, shot with a hand-held camera, shows brawny Miami police officers breaking down doors and hauling handcuffed African-American suspects off some of the city's toughest streets. "We hunt," one officer says in the five-and-a-half-minute clip. "I like to hunt."
But it was not a source of embarrassment for Miami's police chief, Miguel A. Exposito. The video was part of a reality television pilot, "Miami's Finest SOS," a project with the enthusiastic backing of Chief Exposito. "Our guys were proactively going out there, like predators," he says during his cameo in the video, which surfaced online in January.
A few weeks later, a Miami police officer shot and killed a black man during a traffic stop at North Miami Avenue and 75th Street in the Little Haiti neighborhood. The man, Travis McNeil, 28, was unarmed and never left the driver's seat of his rental car when he was shot once in the chest, members of his family said.
Mr. McNeil was the seventh African-American man to be shot and killed by Miami police officers in eight months. The shootings in this racially polarized city have led to marches on the Police Department's headquarters and calls for a Justice Department investigation, and the city manager has initiated an investigation into the chief's record.
After pushing for action for weeks, the families of the seven shooting victims will speak at a City Commission meeting on Thursday. Some families are demanding that Chief Exposito be dismissed.
"I don't understand how the powers that be can allow these things to keep happening," Sheila McNeil, the mother of Mr. McNeil, said of the Feb. 10 shooting death of her son. "Something is drastically wrong."
Chief Exposito, a burly 37-year veteran who became chief in November 2009, defended his leadership. "We don't have a violent police department," he said in an interview last week. "You'll find our officers are very compassionate with the people they deal with. They will try to de-escalate situations rather than resorting to deadly force."
The officer who shot Mr. McNeil is Reinaldo Goyo, a member of the city's elite gang unit who appeared in the "Miami's Finest SOS" video. (The TV show has since been shelved.)
Saying on the video: "I've got some style. I've got some flavor" while wearing a hoodie emblazoned with the words "The Punisher," Detective Goyo says he and his partner inherited the nicknames Crockett and Tubbs after the lead characters in the 1980s TV show "Miami Vice." "It's got a nice little ring to it," he says.
Detective Goyo would not comment, a police spokesman said. A lawyer for Detective Goyo did not respond to phone messages.
Chief Exposito said he thought the video was "excellent," although in an e-mail to the production company in December, he acknowledged that he regretted using the word "predator" and asked that his quotation be changed. In another e-mail to one of his assistants, he wrote: "This statement would add fuel to the fire. They need to soften it!"
In an interview last week, Chief Exposito said the video was not supposed to be for public consumption. "I had a problem with the production company - it was not supposed to be on YouTube or anywhere else."
The chief also defended the officer who said, "I like to hunt."
"Hunting doesn't mean you go kill people," the chief said. "Hunting means you go out there and capture people."
Miami has a long history of racially charged police shootings, some of which combusted into deadly riots and Justice Department inquiries that ended with police officers in prison. The pattern this time is familiar: All seven men who were fatally shot by the police were African-American; the police officers who shot them are all Hispanic.
"There is a wide range of growing concern in the community regarding the apparent lack of communication and response to these incidents by the City of Miami Police Department," Representative Frederica S. Wilson, a Democrat from Miami, wrote in a recent letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., asking the Justice Department to investigate.
Questions about Chief Exposito's leadership have galvanized some leaders of the African-American community, who say that two of the men shot by the police were unarmed. Police officials would not describe details, but they have said that during both shootings, the officers had reason to believe their lives were in danger.
Community leaders also expressed outrage that a 12-year veteran of the city's gang unit, Ricardo Martinez, shot and killed two men within nine days last August. Officer Martinez returned to his job six days after fatally shooting one man, then shot and killed another three days later. Before the shootings, he was under investigation for allegedly selling seized phones.
One officer being responsible for two fatal shootings in such a short period of time is highly unusual, national experts on police forces say. Typically, officers are assigned to desk duty after a shooting pending an inquiry.
"What does that tell you about the chief's judgment?" said the Rev. Anthony Tate, president of the civil rights organization Pulse and pastor of New Resurrection Community Church in the Liberty City neighborhood.
Chief Exposito said that the inquiry had been initiated by his department, and that it would have been inappropriate to keep Officer Martinez off the street because of an allegation of wrongdoing. In December, Officer Martinez was charged with selling stolen Bluetooth phone headsets. He has been dismissed.
Mr. Tate, two Miami city commissioners and other community leaders have repeatedly called for the chief's dismissal. Chief Exposito was a major in the property room and in charge of a compliance task force before being elevated two years ago to police chief by Mayor Tomas P. Regalado. Since then, the chief and the mayor have feuded bitterly over a variety of issues.
City Commissioner Richard P. Dunn II was the first on the commission to call for the chief's dismissal. "It's not personal. He's just not competent to be a chief, that's all," said Mr. Dunn, whose district includes the neighborhoods where all seven fatal shootings occurred.
"These shootings have us sitting on a time bomb," he said. "Everyone wonders: When is the next one going to happen? And the fact the chief is still here just makes Miami look like a banana republic."
Chief Exposito said that after the first of the fatal shootings, last July, he invited the F.B.I. to attend the department's internal inquiry, a gesture his predecessors had not offered, he said. "This is not something I was forced to do," he said.
The chief's critics say his leadership is markedly different from that of his predecessor, John F. Timoney, a deputy police commissioner in New York in the Giuliani administration.
During Mr. Timoney's seven-year tenure, the department once went 22 months without having a police officer fire a weapon. When Mr. Exposito succeeded Mr. Timoney in November 2009, he assigned more than 100 officers to "tactical units" to try to curb violent crime.
The tactical units, including the gang unit whose officers have been responsible for the majority of the most recent shootings, have arrested hundreds of suspects and removed 400 more guns from the street in 2010 than in 2009, the chief said.
During those sweeps, "seven people decided they were not going to obey the law and not adhere to the police orders," said Armando Aguilar, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, the police union, "and they ended up getting shot."
The chief's fate is in the hands of the city manager, Tony E. Crapp Jr. In late February, Mr. Crapp hired a former senior F.B.I. agent, Paul R. Philip, to assess the department's record.
Mr. Philip, who headed the F.B.I.'s Miami field office, said in an interview that he compared the number of police shootings in 2009, the last year of Mr. Timoney's leadership, with the first 15 months of Chief Exposito's tenure. During Mr. Timoney's final year as chief, seven officers shot at suspects, killing four and missing three others. Under Chief Exposito, there have been 10 shootings, with seven fatalities.
"It seemed to be a concern that the department was engaged in an accelerated rate of shootings, but there doesn't appear to be," Mr. Philip said. "The data seems to support the chief."
Mr. Philip said his review did not include interviewing police officers who fired their weapons, witnesses or the family members of victims. Determining whether each of the shootings was justified is the state attorney's job.
The chief said he was gratified that "someone with the stature of Paul Philip is agreeing with me." He added: "I've been saying all along, we're trying to get violent crime under control in that community. Unfortunately when you do that, you will be confronted by people who are armed and dangerous."
Community leaders said they were upset about the pace of the Police Department's own inquiries. They complained that police investigators had not taken a statement from Kareem Williams, 31, who is Mr. McNeil's cousin and was shot three times as he sat with Mr. McNeil in the rental car last month. Mr. Williams, who left the hospital two days later, told his family that the officer began shooting without saying a single word, Mrs. McNeil said.
Not long ago, Mrs. McNeil met with Chief Exposito, who spoke about police procedures on the use of deadly force, she said. She added that the "impersonal" nature of the discussion had left her frustrated and sad.
"When your son has been shot," she said, "you don't want to hear about policies."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
16) Nuclear Power Loses Support in New Poll
By MICHAEL COOPER and DALIA SUSSMAN
March 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/us/23poll.html?ref=us
What had been growing acceptance of nuclear power in the United States has eroded sharply in the wake of the nuclear crisis in Japan, with support for building nuclear power plants dropping slightly lower than it was immediately after the accident at the Three Mile Island plant in 1979, according to a CBS News poll released on Tuesday evening.
Only 43 percent of those polled after the failure of the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan said they would approve building such new facilities in the United States to generate electricity. That is a steep decline from the 57 percent who said in 2008 that they approved of new plants. That poll was taken at a time of soaring gas prices and mounting concerns about global warming that led to calls for a new national energy policy and that drove popular support for nuclear power to its highest level in three decades.
Support for nuclear power has waxed and waned over the decades, going up as the power-hungry nation looked for ways to meet demand and driven down by nuclear accidents at home and abroad. Support for more nuclear power plants was 69 percent in 1977, the highest level ever recorded in a poll by The New York Times or CBS News. But two years later, it plummeted to 46 percent after the Three Mile Island accident near Harrisburg, Pa. After the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, in 1986, support dropped to 34 percent in a CBS News poll.
The new poll found that nearly 7 in 10 Americans think that nuclear power plants in the United States are generally safe. But nearly two-thirds of those polled said they were concerned that a major nuclear accident might occur in this country - including 3 in 10 who said they were "very concerned" by such a possibility. Fifty-eight percent of those polled said they did not think the federal government was adequately prepared to deal with a major nuclear accident.
Still, 47 percent of those polled said that, over all, the benefits of nuclear power outweighed the risks; 38 percent said they did not.
The nationwide telephone poll was conducted March 18-21 among 1,022 adults, and it has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.
The unfolding crisis in Japan occurred just as many Americans believed that nuclear power was poised to make a comeback in the United States, more than three decades after the Three Mile Island accident.
President Obama has spoken in his past two State of the Union addresses of the need to build more nuclear plants, and he has called for billions of dollars in federal loan guarantees for construction. Some environmental groups, and many members of Congress in both parties, have also increasingly come to consider nuclear power as a steady energy source that, since it does not emit carbon, could play an important role as the nation seeks to address concerns about climate change.
But even before the Japan crisis, there were tremendous financial challenges for any new construction, and the number of plants that was expected to be built in the near future was small.
Finding places to build new plants could also prove difficult: more than 6 in 10 of those polled said they would not approve of a nuclear plant in their community. Support was highest in the South, where plans are under way for new plants in South Carolina and Georgia, and in the Midwest.
Attitudes toward nuclear power varied along partisan and gender lines, the poll found.
A slim majority of Republicans said they approved of building more nuclear plants, while majorities of Democrats and independents disapproved. Republicans were also more likely to see the existing nuclear power plants as safe, and were more likely to say that the federal government was prepared to handle an accident, though most still said the government was not ready for such an emergency.
And Republicans were less likely to disapprove of new nuclear plants in their areas: 50 percent of them said they did not want new nuclear plants nearby, compared with 69 percent of Democrats and 65 percent of independents.
There was also a gender divide: while a majority of men said they approved of new nuclear plants, most women disapproved. Women were also significantly less likely than men to say that the benefits of nuclear power outweighed the risks, more likely to say that they were "very" concerned about a major accident and more likely to say that the events in Japan made them more afraid that a nuclear accident could occur in the United States.
Mr. Obama received high marks for his handling of the crisis from all political groups. Nearly half of those polled said they were concerned that radiation from Japan could harm people in the United States, with the results similar across all regions. But their concern did not run very deep: only 17 percent said they were "very concerned" about the possibility, including just 13 percent of those who live in the West.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
17) U.S. Returns Young Girl, a Citizen, to Guatemala
By SAM DOLNICK
March 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/nyregion/23citizen.html?ref=us
Leonel Ruiz, a landscaper in Brentwood, N.Y., was waiting at Kennedy International Airport on the early morning of March 11 for his 4-year-old daughter, Emily, to arrive home from a trip to Guatemala. The plane arrived hours late, but Emily was not on it, and neither was her grandfather, who was supposed to be escorting her back.
It took several hours for Mr. Ruiz to learn what had happened. Emily, a United States citizen, and her grandfather, a Guatemalan traveling with a valid work visa, had been detained by immigration authorities at Dulles International Airport near Washington, where the plane had been diverted because of bad weather. The officials had told Emily's grandfather that because of an immigration infraction two decades ago, he would not be allowed to stay in the country.
That has left Emily, a pigtailed native of Long Island, in an unusual limbo. As a citizen, she has the right to re-enter her country. But her parents are illegal immigrants, which has complicated the prospect of a reunion.
Today, Emily is in Guatemala, her parents are struggling to bring her home, and lawyers and federal officials are arguing over parental responsibility and citizenship rights. The Ruizes find themselves on the front lines of a heated immigration debate: how to treat families in which the parents are here illegally, while their children, born in the United States, are citizens.
The case comes as elected officials across the country have pushed for bills to end automatic citizenship for children, born here, who are sometimes referred to pejoratively as anchor babies. Immigrant advocates say the proposals are antithetical to American ideals.
There are two conflicting versions of the Ruiz story. Officials at Customs and Border Protection say they offered Mr. Ruiz the chance to pick up Emily at the airport, but he "elected to have her return to Guatemala with her grandfather." The customs agency "strives to reunite U.S. citizen children with their parents," Lloyd M. Easterling, a spokesman, said Tuesday.
But such a meeting could have put Mr. Ruiz at risk of detention, and he said he was never offered that option. In an interview conducted in Spanish, Mr. Ruiz, who speaks little English, said that an agent spoke to him over the telephone in English and laid out two choices: Emily could enter the custody of the State of Virginia, or she could return to Guatemala with her grandfather.
Terrified that she would be given up for adoption if she entered state custody, Mr. Ruiz said, he agreed to put her on a plane back to Guatemala. "We were very worried, and my wife was crying and crying at what was happening," Mr. Ruiz said.
He said he would have gone to pick up Emily, and was in fact preparing to do so, but was not given the chance. "If we had to go there, we would have gone there," he said.
The family's lawyer, David M. Sperling, is planning to travel to Guatemala next week to escort Emily back to Long Island.
"She was treated like a second-class citizen or worse," Mr. Sperling said. "She's a U.S. citizen, and she's entitled to the same rights as any other U.S. citizen."
Immigrant advocates have seized on the Ruiz case as a sign of what may come if new legislation curtails the citizenship rights of illegal immigrants' children.
"The case is alarming because it shows what can happen once you start treating kids who are born here whose parents are undocumented with less rights than a full-blown citizen," said Jeanne A. Butterfield, a former executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association who has been acting as an informal adviser to Mr. Ruiz's lawyers.
Last week, Arizona, which has become a national flash point in the immigration debate, rejected a measure aimed at pushing the Supreme Court to rule against automatic citizenship for American-born children of illegal immigrants. But elected officials in other states, like Kansas and California, have also signaled a desire to change the law to make it harder for such children to stay in the country.
The Ruizes embody the difficulties of a family divided by citizenship. Mr. Ruiz, 32, was born and raised in a small village outside Guatemala City. He came to the United States illegally in 1996 because, he said, "we were in a very poor situation in my country."
He settled on Long Island, finding work tending lawns. He eventually married another Guatemalan, Brenda Dubon, and they had two children: Emily and Christopher, 3.
Mr. Ruiz said he and his wife sent Emily to Guatemala for the winter because they worried that the cold weather in New York would aggravate her asthma. They are distraught, he said, that the family has been kept apart.
"This is very unfair because she is a citizen," he said, "and she is a very little girl."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
18) Obama's Imperial Twist: 'Humanitarian' Regime Change in Libya
By BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Black Agenda Report (BAR), March 23, 2011
http://blackagendareport.com/content/obama%E2%80%99s-imperial-twist-%E2%80%9Chumanitarian%E2%80%9D-regime-change-libya
Rudyard Kipling must have been roused from his grave by the sights and sounds of the Euro-American Co-Imperial Sphere lifting high the White Man's Burden, then smashing it down with thunderous force on Muamar Khadafi's Libya. In Benghazi, the opposition stronghold, young men of unknown political and religious persuasion cheered the foreign warplanes as they incinerated fellow young Libyans in armored columns that had been poised to enter the city. "One, two, three-Thank you, Sarkozy!" they chanted, in praise of the French president whose countrymen killed one million Algerian Arabs three generations ago, and who won the top job in France on the strength of white fear and resentment of French North Africans. France has "decided to assume its role, its role before history," Nicolas Sarkozy said on Saturday, apparently oblivious to the monstrous implications of his threat. Was "history" calling on France and the rest of the white colonialist world to reclaim lost territories?
The same white-accented voice of history informed Britain and Italy (former colonial overlord of Libya) of their duties to preserve the imperial prerogative to do what they deem is best for the subject peoples, for whose supposed benefit Operation Odyssey Dawn was launched. The United Nations Security Council's "humanitarian" mandate was broad enough to be interpreted as allowing "the coalition" to act as air support for the rebel armed forces, as the French did at Benghazi. That was fine with the anti-Khadafi Libyans, who have shown little skill at soldiering and seem to prefer to have their "revolution" handed to them by the imperial powers. "The Libyan free forces seem to be allowing the coalition to clear the road ahead of heavy artillery and military forces which were planning to attack civilian populated areas," a member of the opposition national council told Al Jazeera. "They're holding back until the roads are cleared out and then the advance of the volunteers takes place."
So, this is what humanitarian warfare is like in the former colonies. The most advanced air and sea weapons platforms in existence are privileged to snuff out men and machines of the targeted government, transferring military advantage to opposition forces that will eventually allow them to win the war, despite their failings as fighters and organizers. Yet the imperial coalition partners are not required to declare themselves at war with the people they have just slaughtered. Rather, they are a high-flying, missile-packing, all-destroying "humanitarian" rescue squad-at a cost of as much as $300 million-a-week.
One suspects Sarkozy believes the voice of history is whispering of a more substantial role for France, something befitting a once-and-future empire. Britain, by far the greatest enslaver of humanity on the planet not so long ago, still seeks to justify its own opinion of itself through conquest of somebody, even if the glory must be shared with the likes of Italy under the shade of the American umbrella, where all can drink in Libya's "sweet" black crude.
The Europeans, although reeking with the stench of five centuries of mass murder and mega-theft, are nevertheless more honest than the Americans about their intentions in Libya and elsewhere in the Arab world. President Obama, easily the phoniest man alive today, pretends to be the most reluctant member of the imperial pack, who is eager to relinquish coalition leadership within "days." His Africa Command chief, General Carter F. Ham, the nominal leader of U.S. forces in the region, stresses his adherence to the narrowest interpretation of the UN mandate. "We have no mission to support opposition forces if they should engage in offensive actions" against Libyan forces, Ham says. His only mission under the UN mandate is to protect civilians. Under those rules, the French massacre of retreating Libyan Army columns was a violation of the mandate, and the rebels should be waiting forever for the Euro-Americans to burn and smash Khadafi's forces off the roads, so the opposition can mount its offensive to the west. Given the rebels' military and organizational weaknesses, and unless Khadafi quickly collapses from internal schisms, General Ham's version of the mandate would likely lead to a stalemate lasting who knows how long? It is impossible to believe that's what Obama-or war-mongering Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and murderous-minded UN Ambassador Susan Rice-are planning for Libya. White House noises about handing over leadership of the coalition within days strongly militate against restraint that could lead to stalemate, and towards decisive resolution of the Khadafi "problem."
Obama relies, more than Bush, on deceptive propaganda and semantic trickery, although he is just as willing to use brute force and bald-faced lies. The President will have to employ all of his tricks to accomplish his current political project, which is to make "humanitarian" warfare the signature aspect of an Obama Doctrine. The Libya "crisis" is Obama's opportunity to raise R2P-"Responsibility to Protect"-from a shaky and highly controversial legal construct, to a broadly recognized justification for superpower intervention, a doctrine that expands, rather than restrains, American military options.
In the midst of a fluid international crisis, Obama's challenge is to usher in his signature R2P Doctrine while distancing himself from the vocabulary of "regime change" that has been so closely associated with George Bush-without actually forswearing regime change.
Obama's real policy on Libya is regime change, as it must be for an imperial superpower. More than three weeks ago, he entered the arena of regime change when he declared that "Colonel Khaddafi needs to step down from power, and leave." The U.S. military immediately began to facilitate Khaddafi's involuntary exit in coordination with its allies in Europe. Obama is dancing away from the vocabulary-but not the reality-of regime change to establish a new Doctrine that will widen the parameters of imperial action and augment his own presidential legacy.
So, pay no attention to Obama's words, only to his deeds. The U.S. is the leader of the aggression against Libya because it is the only power that can sustain the action. Of the 128 cruise missiles fired in the opening volley of Operation Odyssey Dawn, the U.S. launched 126. The coalition was brought together by the U.S., and will remain a creature of the United States for as long as it is useful to Washington.
With the collaboration of the Europeans, and building on the current UN mandate, Washington may well seek to establish a kind of UN protectorate over Libya, as was inflicted on Haiti. (I am assuming that the Euro-Americans are fully capable of destroying Khadafi's government apparatus through airpower, alone, if they are willing to bear the political costs involved.) The U.S. has no desire to see an independent Libya under the unknown quantities in Benghazi, or a Libyan government based on bourgeois, representational democracy, either. A Libyan protectorate that engages fat and nervous Persian Gulf regimes as Arab "handlers" and interlocutors would be greatly appealing to the imperial partners.
However, none of the advantages that the U.S. and its allies may snatch from their aggression against Libya will prove sustainable over time. The "rebels" in Benghazi have tainted and compromised their own struggle by their invitations to imperial intervention, the consequences of which will disrupt and distort Libyan social development and undermine attempts at forging national unity-while also hampering imperialism's efforts to pacify the country. The Americans, under different circumstances, might actually prefer a somewhat insecure Libya in order to justify military occupation under some kind of international condominium or protectorate. But the larger Arab world has changed in ways that only greater self-determination-from the West!-can satisfy. The Americans and their allies can destroy Khadafi's regime, but they cannot subdue or co-opt the larger Arab nation for very much longer.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
19) Nuclear Cover Up: World's Largest Movable Structure to Seal the Wrecked Chernobyl Reactor
To safely enclose and robotically dismantle the 25-year-old makeshift confinement sarcophagus at Chernobyl, contractors are now erecting a massive steel structure weighing more than 29,000 metric tons
By Charles Q. Choi | Thursday, March 17, 2011 | 12
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=worlds-largest-movable-structure-seal-chernobyl-reactor&print=true
CHERNOBYL, Ukraine-Imagine a metal arch taller than the Statue of Liberty. Now picture it sliding a distance of roughly three football fields, making it the largest movable structure ever . Under this steel rainbow engineers are planning to entomb the site of the worst nuclear accident in history, the destroyed reactor at the Chernobyl power plant, using robotic cranes to dismantle the ruins and keep its deadly remains from poisoning the rest of the planet.
After reactor No. 4 exploded at Chernobyl in 1986 due to errors in both design and operation it sent plumes of radioactive dust as far away as Japan and the U.S. To contain the fallout, the Soviet Union constructed a metal and concrete structure commonly known as the sarcophagus over the wreckage.
"It was really quite a remarkable feat, but after 25 years, it's in danger of collapse," civil and environmental engineer Eric Schmieman of Battelle Memorial Institute explains in an interview in Kiev.
The sarcophagus, technically known as the Shelter Object, was made of more than 7,000 metric tons of metal and 400,000 cubic meters of concrete. It was erected as quickly as possible to limit worker exposure to radiation, and was never meant to last forever. In many ways it was designed "like a house of cards," Schmieman says, with pieces of metal essentially leaning against each other and hooked together. "There are no welded joints or bolted joints-it wouldn't take much of a seismic event to knock it down."
At the same time, when the sarcophagus was completed, "there were over 1,000 square meters of openings in the roof where joints didn't match up," Schmieman says. These holes allowed water in, resulting in corrosion that is hastening the structure's decline. Since then, workers have patched many of these holes, but 100 square meters of gaps remain. To help keep radioactive matter from leaking , a dust- suppression system inside relies on sprinklers that periodically spray a watery solution to prevent it from becoming airborne.
Now, to safely enclose the ailing sarcophagus, the French consortium Novarka is working on a replacement: the New Safe Confinement, a steel structure 110 meters high at its tallest point, 164 meters wide, spanning across 257 meters and weighing more than 29,000 metric tons. In comparison, the Statue of Liberty from the ground to the tip of its torch is about 93 meters high, says Schmieman, who helped lead New Safe Confinement's conceptual design .
Because the destroyed reactor is still highly radioactive, to protect workers, the arch will not be constructed over the sarcophagus. R ather, it will be assembled nearby from prefabricated segments each about 25 meters high and weighing an average of 300 metric tons. Once complete, hydraulic jacks will then slide the arch approximately 300 meters on Teflon bearings during the course of a week to enclose the sarcophagus. Walls on either side of the structure, making it resemble an aircraft hangar, will help isolate debris. "All told, it has a design life of 100 years," Schmieman says.
Inside the structure, three robotic cranes capable of lifting up to 50 metric tons each will be equipped with tools to help dismantle the sarcophagus, using drills, manipulator arms and concrete crushers, along with vacuum cleaners that can suck up to 10 metric tons of dust. The cranes will also employ radioactivity monitors as well as cameras to help remotely operate the tools . Once the sarcophagus and its contents are dismantled , it remains to be seen where the most radioactive material will be buried, but there are facilities to store the less radioactive remains.
During the first week of March, I saw deep trenches and large steel piles here meant for the foundation of the arch. Currently, the goal is to finish the New Safe Confinement by 2014, although contractors are giving themselves a year leeway. "Keep in mind, this is a one-of-a-kind structure, and nothing like this has ever been attempted," Schmieman cautions. "Further, Chernobyl is one of the most hazardous working sites in the world, and we frequently discover unexpected radiological hazards in excavation works. The combination of these factors introduces many uncertainties into any schedule."
In addition, some of the money needed to complete the project has yet to be raised. Twenty-nine countries have pledged funds to the Shelter Implementation Plan creating the New Safe Confinement, but so far another $835 million are needed; also, the storage facility designed to hold spent nuclear fuel from reactor Nos. 1 to 3 still requires funding to the tune of $195 million . Fundraising events to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the disaster in April are now underway, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which is managing these efforts.
"I am fully aware that this is a considerable amount of money which is particularly difficult to raise at a time of universal fiscal constraints," Thomas Mirow, president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, said in a statement. "Nevertheless, we must not forget that it is in the best interest of Ukraine and the international community to bring to a successful conclusion the important work we have started in Chernobyl."
The sacrifices made by the clean up workers immediately after the Chernobyl tragedy are driving those at the project to work to a much higher standard, says structural engineer Randy Jorissen , deputy manager for technical direction for the New Safe Confinement. "All they did to limit the extreme disaster, giving their lives for the task-I just hope we learned our lesson and that it never happens again," he says. "It's very satisfying to me to be part of a very significant effort to bring to a conclusion what those heroes started 25 years ago."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
20) 8 Unemployed for Every Job Opening: What Are They Supposed to Do Once Their Benefits Run Out?
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Posted on March 23, 2011, Printed on March 24, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/150358/
There are now approximately 14 million Americans who want a job and can't find one. According to the National Employment Law Project (NELP), if they stood side by side, they'd stretch from Bangor, Maine to Los Angeles, California and back.
While plenty of ink has been dedicated to distant crises in the Middle East and Japan, and a wholly trumped up "deficit crisis" that haunts the sleep of the Beltway media, this disaster occurring right here at home has received far less attention than it should.
Those who have been out of work for an extended period of time face not only extreme economic suffering, but also unique barriers to getting back into the workforce. Yet the political establishment has all but ignored the pain being felt by this broad swath of working America. Economist Paul Krugman called them the "forgotten millions," and warned that "we're well on the way to creating a permanent underclass of the jobless."
That disconnect has left a gap that some individuals and grassroots organizations have attempted to fill. Their efforts are commendable, and at times innovative, but a number of activists interviewed by AlterNet said that absent a serious effort by the federal government, they are merely tinkering around the edges of a deep and avoidable catastrophe.
36 Weeks
In February, the average length of joblessness for all unemployed workers was a record 36 weeks. Many of those people relied on their unemployment insurance to get by until it ran out and still haven't found work -- they've come to be known as "99ers," as extended unemployment benefits in many states last a maximum of 99 weeks. NELP researchers estimate there were 3.9 million 99ers out of work last year, and project a similar number for 2011.
"It's pretty tragic out there for a lot of people," says Mike Thornton, a writer and activist who runs a Web site dedicated to providing information and resources for the jobless called the LayoffList. "The long-term unemployed are discriminated against for being long-term unemployed," he said. Employers are hesitant to hire those who have been out of work for a lengthy period of time because they think there must be something wrong with workers who haven't been picked up by another firm by now, but the reality is that there are now five unemployed people for each job opening. According to NELP, when you include people who are working part-time while looking for a full-time gig, that ratio jumps to eight to one.
Making matters worse, extended periods of unemployment crush people's sense of self-worth. "There are a lot of self-esteem issues there," says John Dodds, director of the Philadelphia Unemployment Project. "There are obviously issues of maintaining the basic necessities - people are losing their homes. It's a very depressing situation for the long-term unemployed - they have to worry about their benefits running out, and many of them have."
"It's not easy on anyone," says Mitchell Hirsch, who was out of work for more than six months after being laid off from his retail job of over 20 years and has since become an organizer with NELP. "The first thing that hit me," Hirsch said, "is just the loss of the place to go. Whether people have worked in an office or a factory or a store or a restaurant, most working people go to work at a place, and when that place no longer exists, it's like a part of your soul is removed," he said, adding, "You find yourself very much alone." Despite the number of Americans who don't have a job, "people unemployed these days feel virtually invisible."
"Age is another factor," Thornton told AlterNet. "You know, people over 45 years old seem to have a more difficult time finding positions the longer they've been out of work." That claim is born out by the numbers - the average length of unemployment is 44.1 weeks for those between 55 and 64 years of age, compared with 29.2 weeks for those 20 to 24.
Many people who have been out of work for a lengthy period of time - especially those whose unemployment benefits have expired - have had to max out their credit cards to keep afloat, or have missed mortgage payments or other bills. "I can speak for myself here," said Nicole Sandler, a talk-radio host who started the Web site HelpThe99ers.com and who has herself been "underemployed" for over a year. "I've basically lost my house. I stopped paying my mortgage and moved in with my boyfriend six months ago." Sandler says she's found a buyer and will do a "short sale" - getting less than she paid for the property - but, she adds, "my credit is shot, and we know that potential employers can check your credit, and if you have bad credit that's another reason for employers not to hire you. And once you're in this vicious cycle, it's very hard to get out of it."
The unemployment crisis also has an impact on those who are able find work after being laid off. In an employers' market, over half of all full-time workers laid off after three years at the same job return to the workforce with lower wages. According to the Wall Street Journal, more than a third of them lose 20 percent or more of their previous income.
What many don't understand about the grim reality of the American labor market is that its impact on workers who have faced extended unemployment can reverberate for decades - long after the economy has recovered. Columbia University labor economist Till von Wachter studied the fortunes of workers who faced sudden lay-offs during the 1981-1982 recession in the period since that time. He found that even after 15 to 20 years, those workers' wages were still 20 percent lower than comparable workers who had held onto their jobs in the early 1980s downturn.
According to the Journal, the impact of this kind of joblessness can span generations:
Research shows that children of workers who lose jobs and go back to work at lower wages appear to suffer from lower wages, too. In a 2008 study, a group of economists tracked the wages of 60,000 father-child pairs from 1978 to 1999. Children whose fathers went through mass layoffs in the 1982 recession ended up with 9% lower earnings than similar children whose fathers didn't experience the job cuts.
Into the Chasm
Joe Carbone heads Workplace Inc., a non-profit that does research on the labor market and provides services to struggling workers in Connecticut. He told AlterNet the organization judges success "not just by people getting a job, but really getting empowered through credentials and knowledge so that they can traverse the system and make their way into the middle class."
Carbone says that since the recession began he's seen a surge in demand for his organization's services. "What it's done is completely stressed out the capacity of our system," he said. The stimulus package helped, but, says Carbone, "we had that funding for two years, but now that's gone. So, we've got the same numbers in terms of the people who have a need for our system, but we've gone back to the 2009 funding levels that we had before the worst of the recession."
Carbone's organization is launching a project, in tandem with the private sector, to ease 99ers back into the grind of the workplace and overcome the discrimination they face among employers. "We're developing an instrument whereby for $6,000 per person, these 99ers would be given an opportunity to work for a business for eight weeks while they were officially employed by Workplace, Inc.," he said. "There would be no liability, no risk on the part of business - it would be an eight-week trial period to see if we could establish a good comfort level between that person and whatever company we assign them to."
Carbone says he "doesn't expect a federal response to this," and is going to foundations and various family trusts in order to launch a pilot program for the first 100 workers this summer.
Radio host Sandler says she was inspired to start Helpthe99ers.com after getting an email from a listener whose benefits had just expired begging her to report on their plight. "It was right around the time that Obama negotiated with the GOP to extend the Bush tax cuts, and yet so little was being done for the 99ers," she says. "And here was this group, growing in numbers and being ignored."
Sandler describes Helpthe99ers.com as a "message board to put people who have needs - who are out of work, have exhausted their benefits and have nowhere else to turn - to put out their stories, and a place where people who have the means and compassion to help can get in touch with them directly. There's no middle-man involved, no foundation that people have to go through." She says the project has been slow to take off, but some connections have been made, including a man who sent a space heater to a woman in upstate New York who was unable to pay her heating bill. "I know that some people have gotten help with rent - a couple of people got their rent paid for a month or more - at least a handful of people have gotten help."
Like Workplace, Inc., the Philadelphia Unemployment Project (PUP) has been around for a while - since 1975 - but has seen a surge in its clientele. "We do have a lot more people around," says John Dodd. "We have a computer lab for job searches that is always packed. We have about a dozen computers that are always taken by people looking for work."
Dodd says his organization offers "housing counselors, a job developer, a jobs club, a health-care navigator - helps people access health care - and we help people with unemployment appeals." PUP has also organized to help people threatened with foreclosure stay in their homes.
"The fact that people are organized and working together is something that makes people feel better," Dodd told AlterNet. "We have regular committees that meet on the unemployment issue, on the foreclosure issue, so in a way we provide some support so people don't feel all alone."
According to Mitchell Hirsch of NELP, 40 percent of eligible workers don't file for benefits. NELP, in addition to its political advocacy on behalf of working America, runs UnemployedWorkers.org, which Hirsch describes as a place "to get information about benefits availability, a resource that allows you to speak out and tell your story and a resource of news and information" for the jobless, "all of which is ultimately a way for us to organize unemployed workers and their supporters on behalf of things that matter for working people." The site gathered over 100,000 signatures for a petition urging Congress to re-authorize the extended unemployment benefits program.
These efforts, and others that have popped up across the country, provide valuable assistance to the relatively small number of jobless workers who take advantage of them, but all of those interviewed by AlterNet agreed that the depth of the jobs crisis plaguing the U.S. merits a massive response from policy-makers. They lamented the fact that a second stimulus package, direct, WPA-style job programs like those established during the Great Depression and much more help transitioning the long-term unemployed back into the workforce had never been on the table in any serious way.
Some members of Congress have taken a few small steps. Reps. Barbara Lee, D-California, and Bobby Scott, D-Virginia, introduced legislation that would extend benefits for 14 more weeks, and Rep Hank Johnson, D-Georgia, has a (difficult to enforce) bill that would make it illegal to discriminate against workers for being unemployed.
But both bills face a steep hill in the GOP-controlled legislature. A previous effort to get an additional extension of benefits was killed when it faced opposition from Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats last year. Meanwhile, Missouri lawmakers are filibustering an extension in federal benefits that wouldn't cost the state a dime - they're willing to sacrifice the well-being of 23,000 Missourians in order to "send a message to Washington" about the deficit. And in Michigan, conservatives are opposing a technical fix to the extended benefits program that, if defeated, would leave 150,000 state residents without eligibility for federal benefits.
Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer at AlterNet. He is the author of The 15 Biggest Lies About the Economy (and Everything else the Right Doesn't Want You to Know About Taxes, Jobs and Corporate America). Drop him an email or follow him on Twitter.
(c) 2011 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/150358/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
21) Egyptian women protesters forced to take 'virginity tests'
Women were often at the forefront of the recent demonstrations in Egypt
Amnesty International
March 23, 2011
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/egyptian-women-protesters-forced-take-%E2%80%98virginity-tests%E2%80%99-2011-03-23
Amnesty International has today called on the Egyptian authorities to investigate serious allegations of torture, including forced 'virginity tests', inflicted by the army on women protesters arrested in Tahrir Square earlier this month.
After army officers violently cleared the square of protesters on 9 March, at least 18 women were held in military detention. Amnesty International has been told by women protesters that they were beaten, given electric shocks, subjected to strip searches while being photographed by male soldiers, then forced to submit to 'virginity checks' and threatened with prostitution charges.
'Virginity tests' are a form of torture when they are forced or coerced.
"Forcing women to have 'virginity tests' is utterly unacceptable. Its purpose is to degrade women because they are women," said Amnesty International. "All members of the medical profession must refuse to take part in such so-called 'tests'."
20-year-old Salwa Hosseini told Amnesty International that after she was arrested and taken to a military prison in Heikstep, she was made, with the other women, to take off all her clothes to be searched by a female prison guard, in a room with two open doors and a window. During the strip search, Salwa Hosseini said male soldiers were looking into the room and taking pictures of the naked women.
The women were then subjected to 'virginity tests' in a different room by a man in a white coat. They were threatened that "those not found to be virgins" would be charged with prostitution.
According to information received by Amnesty International, one woman who said she was a virgin but whose test supposedly proved otherwise was beaten and given electric shocks.
"Women and girls must be able to express their views on the future of Egypt and protest against the government without being detained, tortured, or subjected to profoundly degrading and discriminatory treatment," said Amnesty International.
"The army officers tried to further humiliate the women by allowing men to watch and photograph what was happening, with the implicit threat that the women could be at further risk of harm if the photographs were made public."
Journalist Rasha Azeb was also detained in Tahrir Square and told Amnesty International that she was handcuffed, beaten and insulted.
Following their arrest, the 18 women were initially taken to a Cairo Museum annex where they were reportedly handcuffed, beaten with sticks and hoses, given electric shocks in the chest and legs, and called "prostitutes".
Rasha Azeb could see and hear the other detained women being tortured by being given electric shocks throughout their detention at the museum. She was released several hours later with four other men who were also journalists, but 17 other women were transferred to the military prison in Heikstep
Testimonies of other women detained at the same time collected by the El Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence are consistent with Rasha Azeb and Salwa Hosseini's accounts of beatings, electrocution and 'virginity tests'.
"The Egyptian authorities must halt the shocking and degrading treatment of women protesters. Women fully participated in bringing change in Egypt and should not be punished for their activism," said Amnesty International.
"All security and army forces must be clearly instructed that torture and other ill-treatment, including forced 'virginity tests', will no longer be tolerated, and will be fully investigated. Those found responsible for such acts must be brought to justice and the courageous women who denounced such abuses be protected from reprisals."
All 17 women detained in the military prison were brought before a military court on 11 March and released on 13 March. Several received one-year suspended prison sentences.
Salwa Hosseini was convicted of disorderly conduct, destroying private and public property, obstructing traffic and carrying weapons.
Amnesty International opposes the trial of civilians before military courts in Egypt, which have a track record of unfair trials and where the right to appeal is severely restricted.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
22) Thousands March in Syria Amid Violent Crackdown
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
March 24, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/world/middleeast/25syria.html?hp
DAMASCUS, Syria - Thousands of demonstrators marched in the southern city of Dara'a on Thursday, despite a major crackdown by Syrian security forces suggesting that leaders here would not tolerate pro-democracy protests like those that have swept other Arab nations.
No violence was reported in the huge marches following the funerals on Thursday. But an assault on the central mosque there early Wednesday, and subsequent attacks by security forces, left an unknown number deaths, some of which appeared to be documented in bloody videos posted on YouTube. An American official who would speak only on background about intelligence reporting said that "about 15 people" were killed by forces of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. Reuters quoted an unnamed hospital official in the city as putting the death toll at 37. Various Web sites were collecting names of those believed to be killed.
Information has trickled out slowly and incompletely from Syria, one of the most closed and repressive nations in the Middle East. But as the death toll from Dara'a crackdown rose, Mr. Assad faced growing international criticism, with Britain, France, Germany and the United Nations condemning the violence.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, speaking during a visit to the Mideast, said the Syrian government should learn from the example of Egypt, where the military played the role of broker during the popular uprising there that toppled the Mubarak government.
"What the Syrian government is confronting is in fact the same challenge that faces so many governments across the region - and that is the unmet political and economic grievances of their people," Mr. Gates said during a news conference at the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
Mr. Assad has worked to tamp down the rising anger as protests spread from Dara'a to other towns in the south. On Thursday, a day after the regional governor was fired, Bouthaina Shaaban, an aide to Mr. Assad called the demands of the protesters "justified" and said that "the coming period will witness important decisions on all levels." Ms. Shaaban, speaking to reporters in Damascus, gave to further details.
The crackdown began early on Wednesday after the Syrian Army reinforced the police presence in the city, near the Jordanian border, and confronted a group of protesters who had gathered in and around the Omari mosque in the city center. Activists and news reports said five or six people were killed after the forces tried to disperse the crowd with tear gas and then live ammunition.
Among the dead was Ali al-Mahameed, a doctor, who witnesses said was shot while tending to the injured. At least one person was killed after Dr. Mahameed's funeral on Wednesday afternoon, attended by thousands of people, some of whom tried to return to the city center.
Syrian state television said Wednesday that it was not security forces who that had killed people at the mosque but rather an "armed gang." The broadcast showed guns, grenades, ammunition and money that was said to have been taken from the mosque after a police raid. The report acknowledged four dead.
The official SANA news agency reported that the "gang" had killed a doctor, a medical worker and a driver in an ambulance and "security forces faced down those aggressors and managed to shoot and wound a few of them."
Despite emergency laws that have banned public gatherings for nearly 50 years, protests have grown in the last week in several cities around Syria, one of the most oppressive Arab states. The largest have been in Dara'a, with thousands taking to the streets on Friday and again on Sunday, when protesters burned government buildings and clashed with the police. Several people were reported to have died.
The mosque's imam, Ahmed al-Sayasna, told the news channel Al Arabiya that there were no weapons in the mosque, which he said was under police control.
A video posted on YouTube showed the mosque with a voice coming from the loudspeakers addressing the police: "Who would kill his own people? You are our sons, you are our brother." Armed security forces could be seen running at a distance, amid gun shots and cries for help.
"Streets are full of scores of wounded and many dead, and no one can go to their rescue," a witness said.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
23) NATO Airstrike Accidentally Kills 2 Civilians
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 24, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/03/24/world/asia/AP-AS-Afghanistan.html?hp
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A NATO helicopter gunship inadvertently killed two civilians while attacking suspected insurgents in the eastern province of Khost, NATO announced Thursday.
The attack killed a suspected Haqqani network leader and two other insurgents in Tere Zayi district on Wednesday, according to NATO.
"At the time of the strike, two civilians were walking near the moving targeted vehicle," NATO said. "They were previously unseen by coalition forces prior to the initiation of the airstrike. Unfortunately both were killed as an unintended result of the strike."
Khost provincial police chief Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai said at least one of the civilians was a child.
NATO's initial description of Wednesday's attack said a "precision airstrike" killed the Haqqani leader and two other insurgents while they were driving in a vehicle. That announcement also described how NATO troops nearly missed civilians near the site of the attack.
"Just prior to the weapon impact, an unassociated civilian vehicle and two pedestrians walking in a wadi appeared, next to the target vehicle," NATO said. A wadi is a dry riverbed.
Afghan forces determined that the occupants of the vehicle close to the targeted one were unharmed, NATO said.
Accidental deaths of civilians due to coalition military operations in Afghanistan are a major source of tensions between Afghans and NATO. U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates personally apologized to Afghan President Hamid Karzai after NATO troops in a helicopter gunship misidentified nine children gathering firewood for insurgents and killed them. The killing sparked protests throughout the country and calls for the international force to cease airstrikes and night raids.
At least 2,777 civilians were killed in Afghanistan in 2010, a 15 percent increase over the prior year, according to a recent United Nations report. The insurgency was blamed for most of those deaths, and while civilian deaths attributed to NATO troops declined 21 percent in 2010, Afghan leaders say the number remains too high.
Also Thursday, Britain's defense ministry said two soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Defense said the soldiers had just completed an operation with the Afghan National Army and the Danish Battle Group to disrupt insurgent activity and search compounds in the Nahr-e Saraj District of Helmand province.
The soldiers were returning to their own camp when their vehicle was hit by an explosion Wednesday. Both members of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards were due to return home in six days.
The soldiers were not identified but the ministry said their families had been informed.
The deaths bring to 362 the number of British forces and civilian defense workers killed in Afghanistan since 2001.
International forces have been fighting pitched battles for control of the southern part of the country, which is a key Taliban stronghold.
The latest deaths also bring to 25 the number of coalition service members who have died in Afghanistan so far this month.
(This version CORRECTS the number of NATO service members killed so far this month to 25.)
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
24) Yemen's Youth Leaders Set Out Their Demands
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 24, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/03/24/world/middleeast/AP-ML-Yemen.html?ref=world
SANAA, Yemen (AP) - The youth groups who began a monthlong uprising said Thursday that they wanted a new constitution and the dissolution of parliament, local councils and Yemen's notorious security agencies in addition to the immediate ouster of the president.
The widening demands appear to reflect the perception that President Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime has been badly weakened by weeks of unrelenting protests, and the defection to the opposition of a string of powerful officials including members of the president's inner circle.
The organizers say they are hoping that several million people will turn out for Friday prayers in public squares and follow them with demonstrators against Saleh.
The leaders of the "Civil Coalition for Peaceful Revolution" - an umbrella group for several pro-reform organizations - told a news conference they also wanted to limit future presidents to two, four-year terms in office, and the creation of an interim presidential council of nine civilians to run the country until legislative and presidential elections are held.
The leader of Yemen's largest tribe sided with Saleh's opponents, calling on him to step down immediately and refrain from further violence against protesters.
The decision by the widely respected Sheik Sinan Abu Lohoum, 80, was announced in a statement issued from the United States, where he is receiving medical treatment. It was read to protesters gathered at a central Sanaa square that has become the epicenter of the protests.
Members of Abu Lohoum's immediate family confirmed the authenticity of the statement.
Abu Lohoum's Baqeel tribe is the larger of two that follow the Zaidi offshoot of Shiite Islam. The other - Saleh's own Hashid tribe - has already backed the opposition.
Several senior military commanders, lawmakers, Cabinet ministers, diplomats and provincial governors have also defected to the opposition over the last week.
"Those from the security and military institutions who have joined the youth revolution are most welcome," said one of the youth leaders, Nizar al-Jeneid. "We call on others to follow their example," he added before he warned that anyone among them found to have been corrupt should be held accountable.
Saleh has repeatedly sought to appease the protesters, to no avail.
Over the past month, he has offered not to run again when his current term ends in 2013, then offered this week to step down by the end of the year and open a dialogue with the leaders of the demonstrators.
At the same time, he has stepped up the use of violence. His security forces shot dead more than 40 demonstrators in Sanaa on Friday, but the bloodshed only escalated the defections and hardened the protesters' rejection of anything but his immediate departure.
Yemen's legislature granted Saleh's request for a 30-day state of emergency on Wednesday in a vote the opposition called illegal.
The state of emergency declaration appeared to signal that Saleh intends to dig in and try to crush his opponents. The decree allows media censorship, gives wide powers to censor mail, tap phone lines, search homes and arrest and detain suspects without judicial process.
Opposition parties allied with the youth groups in the protests said Saleh in part wanted the state of emergency as a legal cover for further crackdowns on the protests. Opposition and independent legislators stayed away from Wednesday's parliamentary session along with dozens of lawmakers from Saleh's own ruling party.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
25) States Pass Budget Pain to Cities
"And it is not only Republicans who are cutting aid to cities: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, a Democrat, decided not to restore $302 million in aid to New York City that was cut last year, while Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, another Democrat, has called for cutting local aid to Boston and other cities by some $65 million."
By MICHAEL COOPER
March 23, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/us/24cities.html?ref=us
The state budget squeeze is fast becoming a city budget squeeze, as struggling states around the nation plan deep cuts in aid to cities and local governments that will almost certainly result in more service cuts, layoffs and local tax increases.
The cuts are widespread. Ohio plans to slash aid to Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati and other cities and local governments by more than a half-billion dollars over the next two years under the budget proposed last week by its new Republican governor, John R. Kasich. Nebraska passed a law this month eliminating direct state aid to Omaha and other municipalities. The governors of Wisconsin and Michigan have called for sending less money to Milwaukee, Detroit and other local governments.
And it is not only Republicans who are cutting aid to cities: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, a Democrat, decided not to restore $302 million in aid to New York City that was cut last year, while Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, another Democrat, has called for cutting local aid to Boston and other cities by some $65 million.
Some mayors said the proposed cuts could force them to raise local property taxes, even as many homeowners complain that they are already overtaxed. Many are combing through their budgets, looking to wring out more savings where they can. Libraries may close. Garbage collection could be curtailed. Potholes might linger a bit longer. Some warned that they could be forced to lay off more city workers, including police officers and firefighters.
For cities like Cleveland, the proposed cuts in state aid mean that the light at the end of the budgetary tunnel is that much farther off.
"We weathered the storm pretty good when other cities were having huge layoffs, and eliminating or reducing services," Mayor Frank G. Jackson of Cleveland said in an interview. "But the impact of this will force us into that mode."
Mr. Jackson said the city had anticipated a reduction in state aid, estimating a 20 percent dip in its most recent budget. But Governor Kasich's budget proposal would go even deeper: it calls for cutting aid to local governments by a quarter next year, and in half the year after that.
For Cleveland, Mr. Jackson said, that would translate into deficits of $16 million next year and $24 million, or 5 percent of the city's operating budget, the following year. Having spent down the city's reserves to get through the recession, and used up several one-time deals to balance its budgets, Cleveland will have to come up with more money or savings elsewhere.
Other cities in Ohio are struggling as well. In Akron, Mayor Donald L. Plusquellic said the cuts would erode the third-largest source of revenue for the city's general fund. "I fear that, as a result of this reduction, Akron will have no choice but to once again look at layoffs in the biggest part of our budget: police and fire salaries," he said in a statement.
The reductions in state aid, along with falling property tax revenues that are finally catching up with lower home values, are major sources of fiscal stress for many cities. Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, said in a speech this month that "many localities have been hard hit by reductions in state aid, which in 2008 accounted for about 30 percent of local revenues." And Moody's Investors Service, the ratings agency, said in a report last week that many states "are increasingly pushing down their problems to their local governments." The Moody's report warned that this would be "the toughest year for local governments since the economic downturn began."
The cuts are a vivid illustration of a fact of fiscal life: budgetary pain flows downhill. Although state tax collections are finally improving again after the longest and deepest decline on record, they remain well below their prerecession levels. Stimulus money from Washington, which helped keep many states afloat over the last two years, is drying up. So states facing large deficits are proposing cuts in local aid. Ohio's deficit is projected to be $8 billion over the course of its two-year budget - hence Governor Kasich's proposed cuts.
Nebraska did not just reduce local aid, it eliminated it. Much less money was at stake - the law is estimated to save the state $22 million a year - but cities are nonetheless worried about the effects of the cuts. "This year, instead of cutting us all a certain percent, they went after the state aid totally, all 100 percent of it," said Chris Beutler, the mayor of Lincoln. Mr. Beutler said that the cut would cost the city $1.8 million a year and force it to raise property taxes or cut services.
Direct aid represents only a fraction of the money flowing from states to local governments. When Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York went to Albany last month, he said that by his count the budget Mr. Cuomo had proposed would reduce aid to the city by $2.1 billion, of which only around $300 million was in the form of direct municipal aid. The rest included a reduction of $1.4 billion to the city's public schools, which in New York City are under the control of the mayor, and $380 million in cuts and cost shifts in social services. Mr. Bloomberg warned that the city would be forced to lay off more workers if the cuts went through.
Chris Hoene, the director of research for the National League of Cities, said that many states eliminated direct aid to cities - used to keep property taxes low, ease disparities among localities and help pay for general government services - after past recessions. Now, he said, most of the coming state cuts will be in the form of cuts to specific programs. Cuts to child health care, mental health programs, libraries or transportation will all have an impact on cities. On top of that, many states also have complex revenue-sharing programs with local governments, and a number of them are proposing to keep more of the money for themselves.
Mr. Hoene said the coming cuts were "a big, scary question mark" hanging over local governments. "Cities have made their estimates, and made cuts based on revenue projections," he said. "The factor that they can't control, and that's concerning for them, is what's going to happen in the deliberations in state legislatures over the next three months."
Local aid cuts can be like squeezing a balloon: states reduce their spending and hold down their taxes, but cities can be forced to increase their spending and raise their taxes. That is one argument being made in Minnesota, where a new Democratic governor, Mark Dayton, has been fighting cuts to local aid proposed by Republican lawmakers. The governor said aid to Minnesota's cities had dropped by 24 percent since 2003 - and that two-thirds of the cuts were passed on to local residents in the form of higher property taxes.
Many governors say they plan to give cities and local governments tools to balance their budgets, some by reducing costly state mandates, some by weakening union protections in their states, some by encouraging cities to consolidate duplicative services. Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan, a Republican, is cutting aid to cities, villages and towns for a net savings of $92 million. But he said he would also make $200 million available to cities and towns that "adopt best practices." Detroit and other hard-hit cities are worried about the proposal, though.
"No city in the state has taken such an aggressive approach to such serious structural problems as Detroit," Mayor Dave Bing of Detroit said of the proposal in a recent speech. "Yet no city would be hit harder than us. It threatens the concrete but fragile gains we have made, and we simply cannot afford it."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
26) Soldier Gets 24 Years for Killing 3 Afghan Civilians
By WILLIAM YARDLEY
March 23, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/us/24morlock.html?ref=us
JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. - A soldier accused of killing Afghan civilians for sport was sentenced Wednesday to 24 years in prison after he pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against other defendants in the case.
Specialist Jeremy N. Morlock, one of five soldiers from an Army Stryker brigade based here who are accused of staging combat situations to kill three civilians in Afghanistan last year, told the military judge presiding over the case, Lt. Col. Kwasi L. Hawks, that the deaths were neither justified nor accidental.
"The plan was to kill people, sir," Specialist Morlock told the judge at the start of a court-martial.
The sentence, plea and agreement to testify followed a deal Specialist Morlock and his lawyers negotiated with prosecutors in January. The military sentencing guidelines for the charges to which he pleaded guilty - including three counts of premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit murder and assault - recommend life in prison, with or without the possibility of parole. His lawyers say he could be eligible for parole in about seven years.
Specialist Morlock, 22, of Wasilla, Alaska, is the first of the five to face a court-martial.
Few new details emerged in the proceeding. Specialist Morlock had already given several interviews to investigators in which he described how members of his unit used grenades and rifles to fake combat situations so they could kill civilians who he said posed no threat.
As part of his plea on Wednesday, Specialist Morlock reasserted claims he had made earlier that another of the accused, a superior, Staff Sgt. Calvin R. Gibbs, was the ringleader in the killings. A lawyer for Sergeant Gibbs has said all the killings were in justified combat situations.
The two rows of public seating in the small military courtroom were filled with family and friends of Specialist Morlock's. The hearing included testimony from several of his supporters, including his high school hockey coach, who recalled Specialist Morlock leading his team to the state championship while serving as its captain his senior year.
Specialist Morlock also spoke. He apologized to families of the victims, to "the people of Afghanistan themselves" and to fellow soldiers. He and others referred to his close relationship to his father, a former Army paratrooper who died in a boating accident in Alaska in 2007.
"I violated not only the law but the Army core values, and I also violated the principles my father instilled in me," he said, adding that he had "lost my moral compass."
A lawyer for Specialist Morlock called to the witness stand a sociologist who had reviewed an internal investigation of the Stryker brigade and its former commander, Col. Harry D. Tunnell. The sociologist, Stjepan Mestrovic, said the documents portrayed a "dysfunctional" brigade and command structure that "created an environment that led to these crimes."
Colonel Tunnell was removed from his position last summer, after the investigation into the killings was under way. He could not be reached late Wednesday; he has refused to respond to questions about the brigade in the past. Neither he nor other officers in the brigade have been charged in the killings.
Some soldiers in the case are accused of posing with dead Afghans in photographs and then sharing the pictures with others. The Army, worried the pictures could complicate its efforts in Afghanistan, has put tight restrictions on the images. But this week, the German magazine Der Spiegel published three photographs, including one that appears to show Specialist Morlock smiling as he holds a dead man up by the hair on his head.
Referring to other soldiers in combat zones, Frank Spinner, a lawyer for Specialist Morlock, told reporters, "To the extent his actions have placed their lives in jeopardy, he can only express regret."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
No comments:
Post a Comment