Franco - Mario (a little african music while you read)
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Official Apathy
The Gaza Ghetto and Western Cant
By TARIQ ALI
The assault on the Gaza Ghetto, planned over six months and executed with perfect timing was designed largely to help the incumbent parties triumph in the forthcoming Israeli elections. The dead Palestinians are little more than election fodder in a cynical contest between the Right and the Far Right in Israel. Washington and its EU allies, perfectly aware that Gaza was about to be assaulted, as in the case of Lebanon a few years, sit back and watch. Washington, as is its wont, blames the pro-Hamas Palestinians, with Obama and Bush singing from the same AIPAC hymn sheet.
The EU politicians, having observed the build-up, the siege, the collective punishment inflicted on Gaza, the targeting of civilians, etc [See Harvard scholar Sara Roy’s chilling essay in the latest LRB] were convinced that it was the rocket attacks that had ‘provoked’ Israel but called on both sides to end the violence, with nil effect. The moth-eaten Mubarik dictatorship in Egypt and NATO’s favourite Islamists in Ankara, failed to even register a symbolic protest by recalling their Ambassadors from Israel. China and Russia did not convene a meeting of the UNSC to discuss the crisis.
As result of official apathy, one outcome of this latest attack will be to inflame Muslim communities throughout the world and swell the ranks of those very organisations that the West claims it is combating in the ‘war against terror’.
Link to con.
The Gaza Ghetto and Western Cant
By TARIQ ALI
The assault on the Gaza Ghetto, planned over six months and executed with perfect timing was designed largely to help the incumbent parties triumph in the forthcoming Israeli elections. The dead Palestinians are little more than election fodder in a cynical contest between the Right and the Far Right in Israel. Washington and its EU allies, perfectly aware that Gaza was about to be assaulted, as in the case of Lebanon a few years, sit back and watch. Washington, as is its wont, blames the pro-Hamas Palestinians, with Obama and Bush singing from the same AIPAC hymn sheet.
The EU politicians, having observed the build-up, the siege, the collective punishment inflicted on Gaza, the targeting of civilians, etc [See Harvard scholar Sara Roy’s chilling essay in the latest LRB] were convinced that it was the rocket attacks that had ‘provoked’ Israel but called on both sides to end the violence, with nil effect. The moth-eaten Mubarik dictatorship in Egypt and NATO’s favourite Islamists in Ankara, failed to even register a symbolic protest by recalling their Ambassadors from Israel. China and Russia did not convene a meeting of the UNSC to discuss the crisis.
As result of official apathy, one outcome of this latest attack will be to inflame Muslim communities throughout the world and swell the ranks of those very organisations that the West claims it is combating in the ‘war against terror’.
Link to con.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Bush's Final F.U.
The administration is rushing to enact a host of last-minute regulations that will screw America for years to come
TIM DICKINSON
With president-elect Barack Obama already taking command of the financial crisis, it's tempting to think that regime change in America is a done deal. But if George Bush has his way, the country will be ruled by his slash-and-burn ideology for a long time to come.
In its final days, the administration is rushing to implement a sweeping array of "midnight regulations" — de facto laws issued by the executive branch — designed to lock in Bush's legacy. Under the last- minute rules, which can be extremely difficult to overturn, loaded firearms would be allowed in national parks, uranium mining would be permitted near the Grand Canyon and many injured consumers would no longer be able to sue negligent manufacturers in state courts. Other rules would gut the Endangered Species Act, open millions of acres of wild lands to mining, restrict access to birth control and put local cops to work spying for the federal government.
"It's what we've seen for Bush's whole tenure, only accelerated," says Gary Bass, executive director of the nonpartisan group OMB Watch. "They're using regulation to cement their deregulatory mind-set, which puts corporate interests above public interests."
While every modern president has implemented last-minute regulations, Bush is rolling them out at a record pace — nearly twice as many as Clinton, and five times more than Reagan. "The administration is handing out final favors to its friends," says Véronique de Rugy, a scholar at George Mason University who has tracked six decades of midnight regulations. "They couldn't do it earlier — there would have been too many political repercussions. But with the Republicans having lost seats in Congress and the presidency changing parties, Bush has nothing left to lose."
Link to con.
The administration is rushing to enact a host of last-minute regulations that will screw America for years to come
TIM DICKINSON
With president-elect Barack Obama already taking command of the financial crisis, it's tempting to think that regime change in America is a done deal. But if George Bush has his way, the country will be ruled by his slash-and-burn ideology for a long time to come.
In its final days, the administration is rushing to implement a sweeping array of "midnight regulations" — de facto laws issued by the executive branch — designed to lock in Bush's legacy. Under the last- minute rules, which can be extremely difficult to overturn, loaded firearms would be allowed in national parks, uranium mining would be permitted near the Grand Canyon and many injured consumers would no longer be able to sue negligent manufacturers in state courts. Other rules would gut the Endangered Species Act, open millions of acres of wild lands to mining, restrict access to birth control and put local cops to work spying for the federal government.
"It's what we've seen for Bush's whole tenure, only accelerated," says Gary Bass, executive director of the nonpartisan group OMB Watch. "They're using regulation to cement their deregulatory mind-set, which puts corporate interests above public interests."
While every modern president has implemented last-minute regulations, Bush is rolling them out at a record pace — nearly twice as many as Clinton, and five times more than Reagan. "The administration is handing out final favors to its friends," says Véronique de Rugy, a scholar at George Mason University who has tracked six decades of midnight regulations. "They couldn't do it earlier — there would have been too many political repercussions. But with the Republicans having lost seats in Congress and the presidency changing parties, Bush has nothing left to lose."
Link to con.
Washington bears guilt for Gaza war crimes
The Israeli massacre of Palestinians in Gaza is a war crime for which not only the government of Israel but also that of the United States bears full responsibility.
The relentless bombing campaign, which in its first 48 hours has left at least 300 dead and 1,000 wounded, is a deliberate slaughter of innocent civilians and an act of state terror. The toll of casualties, many of them women and children, is certain to rise. As Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenaz put it, "This is only the beginning."
The pretense that this assault is an act of retaliation for the recent scattered rocket attacks that have been carried out against Israeli territory from inside Gaza is preposterous. Israel, with the collaboration of Washington, has been preparing the current bombing campaign and threatened ground assault for months, under the cover of the supposed cease-fire with Gaza's Hamas-led administration.
"These people are nothing but thugs," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe, who insisted that Israel was only acting to "defend itself" against "terrorists." This is the official story that is largely echoed by the mass media and endorsed by the leadership of the Democratic Party
Link to con.
The Israeli massacre of Palestinians in Gaza is a war crime for which not only the government of Israel but also that of the United States bears full responsibility.
The relentless bombing campaign, which in its first 48 hours has left at least 300 dead and 1,000 wounded, is a deliberate slaughter of innocent civilians and an act of state terror. The toll of casualties, many of them women and children, is certain to rise. As Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenaz put it, "This is only the beginning."
The pretense that this assault is an act of retaliation for the recent scattered rocket attacks that have been carried out against Israeli territory from inside Gaza is preposterous. Israel, with the collaboration of Washington, has been preparing the current bombing campaign and threatened ground assault for months, under the cover of the supposed cease-fire with Gaza's Hamas-led administration.
"These people are nothing but thugs," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe, who insisted that Israel was only acting to "defend itself" against "terrorists." This is the official story that is largely echoed by the mass media and endorsed by the leadership of the Democratic Party
Link to con.
Barack Obama on Siege, Killings in Gaza
By Joshua Frank
As President-Elect Barack Obama vacationed in Hawaii on December 26, stopping off to watch a dolphin show with his family at Sea Life Park, an Israeli air raid besieged the impoverished Gaza Strip, killing at least 285 people and injuring over 800 more.
It was the single deadliest attack on Gaza in over 20 years and Obama’s initial reaction on what could be his first real test as president was “no comment”. Meanwhile, Israel has readied itself for a land invasion, amassing tanks along the border and calling up 6,500 reserve troops.
On Sunday’s Face the Nation, Obama’s Senior Adviser David Axelrod explained to guest cost Chip Reid how an Obama administration would handle the situation, even if it turns for the worst.
“Well, certainly, the president-elect recognizes the special relationship between United States and Israel. It’s an important bond, an important relationship. He’s going to honor it ... And obviously, this situation has become even more complicated in the last couple of days and weeks. As Hamas began its shelling, Israel responded. But it’s something that he’s committed to.”
Reiterating the rationale that Israel’s bombing of Gaza was an act of retaliation and not of aggression, Axelrod, on behalf of the Obama administration, continued to spread the same misinformation as President Bush: that Hamas was the first to break the ceasefire agreement, which ended over a week ago, and Israel was simply responding judiciously.
Link to con.
By Joshua Frank
As President-Elect Barack Obama vacationed in Hawaii on December 26, stopping off to watch a dolphin show with his family at Sea Life Park, an Israeli air raid besieged the impoverished Gaza Strip, killing at least 285 people and injuring over 800 more.
It was the single deadliest attack on Gaza in over 20 years and Obama’s initial reaction on what could be his first real test as president was “no comment”. Meanwhile, Israel has readied itself for a land invasion, amassing tanks along the border and calling up 6,500 reserve troops.
On Sunday’s Face the Nation, Obama’s Senior Adviser David Axelrod explained to guest cost Chip Reid how an Obama administration would handle the situation, even if it turns for the worst.
“Well, certainly, the president-elect recognizes the special relationship between United States and Israel. It’s an important bond, an important relationship. He’s going to honor it ... And obviously, this situation has become even more complicated in the last couple of days and weeks. As Hamas began its shelling, Israel responded. But it’s something that he’s committed to.”
Reiterating the rationale that Israel’s bombing of Gaza was an act of retaliation and not of aggression, Axelrod, on behalf of the Obama administration, continued to spread the same misinformation as President Bush: that Hamas was the first to break the ceasefire agreement, which ended over a week ago, and Israel was simply responding judiciously.
Link to con.
Was the 'Credit Crunch' a Myth Used to Sell a Trillion-Dollar Scam?
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet.
There is something approaching a consensus that the Paulson Plan -- also known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP -- was a boondoggle of an intervention that's flailed from one approach to the next, with little oversight and less effect on the financial meltdown.
But perhaps even more troubling than the ad hoc nature of its implementation is the suspicion that has recently emerged that TARP -- hundreds of billions of dollars worth so far -- was sold to Congress and the public based on a Big Lie.
President George W. Bush, fabulist-in-chief, articulated the rationale for the program in that trademark way of his -- as if addressing a nation of slow-witted 12-year-olds -- on Sept. 24: "Major financial institutions have teetered on the edge of collapse ... [and] began holding onto their money, and lending dried up, and the gears of the American financial system began grinding to a halt." Bush said that if Congress didn't give Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson the trillion dollars (give or take) for which he was asking, the results would be disastrous: "Even if you have good credit history, it would be more difficult for you to get the loans you need to buy a car or send your children to college. And ultimately, our country could experience a long and painful recession."
Link to con.
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet.
There is something approaching a consensus that the Paulson Plan -- also known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP -- was a boondoggle of an intervention that's flailed from one approach to the next, with little oversight and less effect on the financial meltdown.
But perhaps even more troubling than the ad hoc nature of its implementation is the suspicion that has recently emerged that TARP -- hundreds of billions of dollars worth so far -- was sold to Congress and the public based on a Big Lie.
President George W. Bush, fabulist-in-chief, articulated the rationale for the program in that trademark way of his -- as if addressing a nation of slow-witted 12-year-olds -- on Sept. 24: "Major financial institutions have teetered on the edge of collapse ... [and] began holding onto their money, and lending dried up, and the gears of the American financial system began grinding to a halt." Bush said that if Congress didn't give Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson the trillion dollars (give or take) for which he was asking, the results would be disastrous: "Even if you have good credit history, it would be more difficult for you to get the loans you need to buy a car or send your children to college. And ultimately, our country could experience a long and painful recession."
Link to con.
How Israeli Leaders Kill for their People's Votes
In order to grasp the latest devastating murderous Israeli expedition in Gaza one must deeply comprehend the Israeli identity and its inherent hatred towards anyone who fails to be Jewish and a hatred against Arabs in particular. This hatred is imbued in the Israeli curriculum, it is preached by political leaders and implied by their acts, it is conveyed by cultural figures, even within the so-called ‘Israeli Left’.
I grew up in Israel in the 1970’s people of my generation are nowadays the leaders of the Israeli army, politics, economy, academia and the arts. We were trained to believe that ‘a good Arab is a dead one’. A few weeks before I joined the IDF in the early 1980’s, General Rafael Eitan, the Chief of Staff at the time announced that the “Arabs were stoned cockroaches in a bottle”. He got away with it, he also got away with the murder of many thousands of Lebanese civilians in the 1st Lebanon war. In a word, Israelis manage to get away with murder.
Luckily enough, and for reasons that are still far beyond my comprehension, at a certain stage I woke up out of that Hebraic lethal dream. At one point I left the Jewish state, I evaded the Jewish hate mongering, I had become an opponent of the Jewish state and any other form of Jewish politics. However, I am utterly convinced that it is my primary duty to inform every being that is willing to listen about that which are we up against.
Link to con.
In order to grasp the latest devastating murderous Israeli expedition in Gaza one must deeply comprehend the Israeli identity and its inherent hatred towards anyone who fails to be Jewish and a hatred against Arabs in particular. This hatred is imbued in the Israeli curriculum, it is preached by political leaders and implied by their acts, it is conveyed by cultural figures, even within the so-called ‘Israeli Left’.
I grew up in Israel in the 1970’s people of my generation are nowadays the leaders of the Israeli army, politics, economy, academia and the arts. We were trained to believe that ‘a good Arab is a dead one’. A few weeks before I joined the IDF in the early 1980’s, General Rafael Eitan, the Chief of Staff at the time announced that the “Arabs were stoned cockroaches in a bottle”. He got away with it, he also got away with the murder of many thousands of Lebanese civilians in the 1st Lebanon war. In a word, Israelis manage to get away with murder.
Luckily enough, and for reasons that are still far beyond my comprehension, at a certain stage I woke up out of that Hebraic lethal dream. At one point I left the Jewish state, I evaded the Jewish hate mongering, I had become an opponent of the Jewish state and any other form of Jewish politics. However, I am utterly convinced that it is my primary duty to inform every being that is willing to listen about that which are we up against.
Link to con.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Bush's Farewell Gift to Peabody Coal
High Noon at Black Mesa
By ELSA JOHNSON
Two days before Christmas, officials from the U.S. Office of Surface Mining (OSM) have granted a permit to Peabody Coal Company to expand their mining operations on Navajo and Hopi lands, despite opposition from local communities and problems with the permitting process including lack of adequate time for public comment on a significant revision to the permit, insufficient environmental review, and instability in the Hopi government preventing their legitimate participation in the process. OSM's "Record of Decision" (ROD) is the final stage of the permitting process for the proposed "Black Mesa Project," which would grant Peabody Coal Company a life-of-mine permit for the "Black Mesa Complex" in northern Arizona.
Black Mesa Water Coalition, a Navajo and Hopi citizens organization working on indigenous sovereignty and environmental protection, has vowed to stop Peabody from causing further harm to Black Mesa. "We are looking into our options for how to stop this process from moving forward, including legal action. The permitting process was flawed and clearly rushed through before President Bush leaves office," said Enei Begaye, Co-Director of Black Mesa Water Coalition.
Wahleah Johns, Co-Director of Black Mesa Water Coalition said, "This decision will uproot the sacred connection that we have to land, water, and all living things on Black Mesa. Black Mesa is a female mountain, sacred to the Navajo people, and has been brutally scarred from over 30 years of coal mining activity and the resulting loss of 60 percent of our only source of drinking water. Our ancestors fought hard to retain our homelands, but even now in 2008 we are up against the same battle to protect our homelands. The abuse to mother earth needs to stop."
Link to con.
High Noon at Black Mesa
By ELSA JOHNSON
Two days before Christmas, officials from the U.S. Office of Surface Mining (OSM) have granted a permit to Peabody Coal Company to expand their mining operations on Navajo and Hopi lands, despite opposition from local communities and problems with the permitting process including lack of adequate time for public comment on a significant revision to the permit, insufficient environmental review, and instability in the Hopi government preventing their legitimate participation in the process. OSM's "Record of Decision" (ROD) is the final stage of the permitting process for the proposed "Black Mesa Project," which would grant Peabody Coal Company a life-of-mine permit for the "Black Mesa Complex" in northern Arizona.
Black Mesa Water Coalition, a Navajo and Hopi citizens organization working on indigenous sovereignty and environmental protection, has vowed to stop Peabody from causing further harm to Black Mesa. "We are looking into our options for how to stop this process from moving forward, including legal action. The permitting process was flawed and clearly rushed through before President Bush leaves office," said Enei Begaye, Co-Director of Black Mesa Water Coalition.
Wahleah Johns, Co-Director of Black Mesa Water Coalition said, "This decision will uproot the sacred connection that we have to land, water, and all living things on Black Mesa. Black Mesa is a female mountain, sacred to the Navajo people, and has been brutally scarred from over 30 years of coal mining activity and the resulting loss of 60 percent of our only source of drinking water. Our ancestors fought hard to retain our homelands, but even now in 2008 we are up against the same battle to protect our homelands. The abuse to mother earth needs to stop."
Link to con.
Before Our Very Eyes
Israel's Attempted Endgame in Gaza
By JENNIFER LOEWENSTEIN
The intensity of the bombings on Saturday, which left over 230 people dead and 800 wounded, many seriously, was what struck one witness, R., who claimed never to have heard so many explosions so close together and for such an uninterrupted period of time inside the Gaza Strip. One after another, the explosions sounded, most of them near heavily populated areas; and in one case only 30 meters away from his daughter’s elementary school.
The bombings were timed to cause the maximum number of “enemy” casualties. They occurred at approximately 11:20am on a bustling Saturday morning, just as schools were changing shifts and many children were either leaving for home or coming to afternoon classes; when offices were filled with their employees, and streets busy with the late morning crowds out getting lunch or on quick errands of one sort or another. The day before, Israel had opened some of the crossings into Gaza to let in another trickle of humanitarian aid. ‘See how generous we are to our enemy!’ they exclaim with straight faces to the international media. Each time Gaza reaches the brink of starvation and ruin, they let in just enough food and supplies to silence potential critics. Then the next round begins. It is hardly surprising. After all, this policy was outlined publicly by Dov Weisglass not so long ago when he promised that Israel would put Gaza on a punishing “starvation diet” until it saw reason and evicted its democratically elected government. Many people, including members of the Hamas government, believed that reopening the crossings to international aid signaled another brief lull in military activity, as it usually had, while the IDF General staff prepared its next offensive. In this way were the people and government of Gaza unprepared for the next day’s slaughter
Link to con.
Israel's Attempted Endgame in Gaza
By JENNIFER LOEWENSTEIN
The intensity of the bombings on Saturday, which left over 230 people dead and 800 wounded, many seriously, was what struck one witness, R., who claimed never to have heard so many explosions so close together and for such an uninterrupted period of time inside the Gaza Strip. One after another, the explosions sounded, most of them near heavily populated areas; and in one case only 30 meters away from his daughter’s elementary school.
The bombings were timed to cause the maximum number of “enemy” casualties. They occurred at approximately 11:20am on a bustling Saturday morning, just as schools were changing shifts and many children were either leaving for home or coming to afternoon classes; when offices were filled with their employees, and streets busy with the late morning crowds out getting lunch or on quick errands of one sort or another. The day before, Israel had opened some of the crossings into Gaza to let in another trickle of humanitarian aid. ‘See how generous we are to our enemy!’ they exclaim with straight faces to the international media. Each time Gaza reaches the brink of starvation and ruin, they let in just enough food and supplies to silence potential critics. Then the next round begins. It is hardly surprising. After all, this policy was outlined publicly by Dov Weisglass not so long ago when he promised that Israel would put Gaza on a punishing “starvation diet” until it saw reason and evicted its democratically elected government. Many people, including members of the Hamas government, believed that reopening the crossings to international aid signaled another brief lull in military activity, as it usually had, while the IDF General staff prepared its next offensive. In this way were the people and government of Gaza unprepared for the next day’s slaughter
Link to con.
Obama, the military and the threat of dictatorship
With his choice of Admiral Dennis Blair as director of national intelligence, President-elect Barack Obama has now named three recently retired four-star military officers to serve in his cabinet. This unprecedented representation of the senior officer corps within the incoming Democratic administration is indicative of a growth in the political power of the US military that poses a serious threat to basic democratic rights.
As head of the US military’s Pacific command in 1999-2000, Blair was distinguished by his efforts to solidarize the Pentagon with the military of Indonesia as it carried out butchery in East Timor, effectively vetoing the half-hearted human rights concerns voiced by the Clinton administration.
Before tapping Blair, Obama named former Marine Gen. James Jones as his national security adviser and former Army chief of staff Gen. Erik Shinseki as secretary of veterans affairs. It is also reported that the incoming administration may ask retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden to stay on as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Link to con.
With his choice of Admiral Dennis Blair as director of national intelligence, President-elect Barack Obama has now named three recently retired four-star military officers to serve in his cabinet. This unprecedented representation of the senior officer corps within the incoming Democratic administration is indicative of a growth in the political power of the US military that poses a serious threat to basic democratic rights.
As head of the US military’s Pacific command in 1999-2000, Blair was distinguished by his efforts to solidarize the Pentagon with the military of Indonesia as it carried out butchery in East Timor, effectively vetoing the half-hearted human rights concerns voiced by the Clinton administration.
Before tapping Blair, Obama named former Marine Gen. James Jones as his national security adviser and former Army chief of staff Gen. Erik Shinseki as secretary of veterans affairs. It is also reported that the incoming administration may ask retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden to stay on as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Link to con.
KUCINICH CALLS FOR INDEPENDENT UNITED NATIONS INQUIRY ON GAZA
Israeli government attacks civilians in violation of international law
WASHINGTON, D.C. (December 29, 2008) — U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich today released the following statement as Israeli attacks on Gaza have gone into a third day with a pending ground invasion of Gaza by Israel:
"Today I sent a letter to Secretary General Ban ki-Moon urging the United Nations to establish an independent inquiry of Israel's war against Gaza. The attacks on civilians represent collective punishment, which is a violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm). The perpetrators of attacks against Israel must also be brought to justice, but Israel cannot create a war against an entire people in order to attempt to bring to justice the few who are responsible. The Israeli leaders know better. The world community, which has been very supportive of Israel's right to security and its right to survive, also has a right to expect Israel to conduct itself in adherence to the very laws which support the survival of Israel and every other nation," Kucinich said.
"Israel is leveling Gaza to strike at Hamas, just as they pulverized south Lebanon to strike at Hezbollah. Yet in both cases civilian populations were attacked, countless innocents killed or injured, infrastructure targeted and destroyed, and civil law enforcement negated. All this was, and is, disproportionate, indiscriminate mass violence in violation of international law. Israel is not exempt from international law and must be held accountable. It is time for the UN to not just call for a cease-fire, but for an inquiry as to Israel's actions.
Since the commencement of aerial strikes, over 300 Palestinians have been killed and approximately 1,400 have been wounded. The dead include 20 children under the age of 16--nearly half of them killed while on a school bus, according to the United Nations--and 9 women. The attack aggravated a humanitarian crisis wrought by the Israeli-imposed blockade of food, fuel, and medical supplies. With a population of 1.5 million people, the Gaza Strip is among the most densely populated territories in the world.
Kucinich repeated: "Palestinians in Gaza should not be punished for the actions of a limited number of militants--doing so contravenes Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibiting collective punishment.
"While Israel has a right to defend itself from Hamas's mortar and rocket attacks, it has no right to aggress against innocent people. Its disproportionate and indiscriminate assault against the people of Gaza must result in the government of Israel being held accountable under the law," Kucinich concluded.
Read more here:
http://kucinich.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2657&Itemid=76
Israeli government attacks civilians in violation of international law
WASHINGTON, D.C. (December 29, 2008) — U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich today released the following statement as Israeli attacks on Gaza have gone into a third day with a pending ground invasion of Gaza by Israel:
"Today I sent a letter to Secretary General Ban ki-Moon urging the United Nations to establish an independent inquiry of Israel's war against Gaza. The attacks on civilians represent collective punishment, which is a violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm). The perpetrators of attacks against Israel must also be brought to justice, but Israel cannot create a war against an entire people in order to attempt to bring to justice the few who are responsible. The Israeli leaders know better. The world community, which has been very supportive of Israel's right to security and its right to survive, also has a right to expect Israel to conduct itself in adherence to the very laws which support the survival of Israel and every other nation," Kucinich said.
"Israel is leveling Gaza to strike at Hamas, just as they pulverized south Lebanon to strike at Hezbollah. Yet in both cases civilian populations were attacked, countless innocents killed or injured, infrastructure targeted and destroyed, and civil law enforcement negated. All this was, and is, disproportionate, indiscriminate mass violence in violation of international law. Israel is not exempt from international law and must be held accountable. It is time for the UN to not just call for a cease-fire, but for an inquiry as to Israel's actions.
Since the commencement of aerial strikes, over 300 Palestinians have been killed and approximately 1,400 have been wounded. The dead include 20 children under the age of 16--nearly half of them killed while on a school bus, according to the United Nations--and 9 women. The attack aggravated a humanitarian crisis wrought by the Israeli-imposed blockade of food, fuel, and medical supplies. With a population of 1.5 million people, the Gaza Strip is among the most densely populated territories in the world.
Kucinich repeated: "Palestinians in Gaza should not be punished for the actions of a limited number of militants--doing so contravenes Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibiting collective punishment.
"While Israel has a right to defend itself from Hamas's mortar and rocket attacks, it has no right to aggress against innocent people. Its disproportionate and indiscriminate assault against the people of Gaza must result in the government of Israel being held accountable under the law," Kucinich concluded.
Read more here:
http://kucinich.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2657&Itemid=76
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Born Under a Bad Sky
Cancerous Air
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
This is what it has come to: the air in LA is so toxic that a child born in the city of angels will inhale more cancer-causing pollutants in the first two weeks of life than the EPA (not known for understating risks) considers safe for a lifetime.
This risk never goes away. It comes with the first breaths a child takes. Being born in urban California now means that life expectancy is reduced, chances of getting cancer are elevated. All this before you’ve inflicted any damage on yourself through smoking, drinking booze, eating fast food, or watching CNN.
The situation is spelled out in a report released by the National Environmental Trust titled “Toxic Beginnings.” The report pins much of the blame for this situation on so-called TACs, or Toxic Air Contaminants. These are poisons spewed into the atmosphere from cars, trucks, heavy equipment, and factories. Studies by the EPA and other agencies link TAC-exposure to cancer, birth defects, and other illnesses, such as asthma.
The National Environmental Trust report examined air quality and exposure to TACs in California’s five most populous basins: Los Angeles, the San Joaquin Valley, the Sacramento Valley, the San Francisco Bay Area, and San Diego.
Link to con.
Cancerous Air
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
This is what it has come to: the air in LA is so toxic that a child born in the city of angels will inhale more cancer-causing pollutants in the first two weeks of life than the EPA (not known for understating risks) considers safe for a lifetime.
This risk never goes away. It comes with the first breaths a child takes. Being born in urban California now means that life expectancy is reduced, chances of getting cancer are elevated. All this before you’ve inflicted any damage on yourself through smoking, drinking booze, eating fast food, or watching CNN.
The situation is spelled out in a report released by the National Environmental Trust titled “Toxic Beginnings.” The report pins much of the blame for this situation on so-called TACs, or Toxic Air Contaminants. These are poisons spewed into the atmosphere from cars, trucks, heavy equipment, and factories. Studies by the EPA and other agencies link TAC-exposure to cancer, birth defects, and other illnesses, such as asthma.
The National Environmental Trust report examined air quality and exposure to TACs in California’s five most populous basins: Los Angeles, the San Joaquin Valley, the Sacramento Valley, the San Francisco Bay Area, and San Diego.
Link to con.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Mercenaries Playing Increasingly Prominent Role in Latin America
By Gustavo Capdevila
Mercenaries hired by private military and security companies are playing an increasingly broad range of roles in Latin America, such as guarding mines, borders, prisons, and now humanitarian aid, said the members of the United Nations Working Group on the use of mercenaries at a meeting in this Swiss city.
At the same time, some 3,000 Latin Americans, mainly Chileans, Peruvians, Colombians and Hondurans, are serving as mercenaries in conflict zones in Iraq.
Assistance provided by a commando made up of former Israeli military intelligence experts has also helped the Colombian government deal heavy blows to the left-wing guerrillas, said Amada Benavídes de Pérez from Colombia, one of the five members of the U.N. Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination.
The Working Group, created in 2005 by the U.N. Human Rights Commission (subsequently replaced by the U.N. Council on Human Rights), discussed the possibility of drawing up new international legal instruments to regulate the growing activities of private military and security companies, at their meeting last week.
Link to con.
By Gustavo Capdevila
Mercenaries hired by private military and security companies are playing an increasingly broad range of roles in Latin America, such as guarding mines, borders, prisons, and now humanitarian aid, said the members of the United Nations Working Group on the use of mercenaries at a meeting in this Swiss city.
At the same time, some 3,000 Latin Americans, mainly Chileans, Peruvians, Colombians and Hondurans, are serving as mercenaries in conflict zones in Iraq.
Assistance provided by a commando made up of former Israeli military intelligence experts has also helped the Colombian government deal heavy blows to the left-wing guerrillas, said Amada Benavídes de Pérez from Colombia, one of the five members of the U.N. Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination.
The Working Group, created in 2005 by the U.N. Human Rights Commission (subsequently replaced by the U.N. Council on Human Rights), discussed the possibility of drawing up new international legal instruments to regulate the growing activities of private military and security companies, at their meeting last week.
Link to con.
The US Has 761 Military Bases Across the Planet, and We Simply Never Talk About It
By Tom Engelhardt
Here it is, as simply as I can put it: In the course of any year, there must be relatively few countries on this planet on which U.S. soldiers do not set foot, whether with guns blazing, humanitarian aid in hand, or just for a friendly visit. In startling numbers of countries, our soldiers not only arrive, but stay interminably, if not indefinitely. Sometimes they live on military bases built to the tune of billions of dollars that amount to sizeable American towns (with accompanying amenities), sometimes on stripped down forward operating bases that may not even have showers. When those troops don't stay, often American equipment does -- carefully stored for further use at tiny "cooperative security locations," known informally as "lily pads" (from which U.S. troops, like so many frogs, could assumedly leap quickly into a region in crisis).
At the height of the Roman Empire, the Romans had an estimated 37 major military bases scattered around their dominions. At the height of the British Empire, the British had 36 of them planetwide. Depending on just who you listen to and how you count, we have hundreds of bases. According to Pentagon records, in fact, there are 761 active military "sites" abroad.
The fact is: We garrison the planet north to south, east to west, and even on the seven seas, thanks to our various fleets and our massive aircraft carriers which, with 5,000-6,000 personnel aboard -- that is, the population of an American town -- are functionally floating bases.
Link to con.
By Tom Engelhardt
Here it is, as simply as I can put it: In the course of any year, there must be relatively few countries on this planet on which U.S. soldiers do not set foot, whether with guns blazing, humanitarian aid in hand, or just for a friendly visit. In startling numbers of countries, our soldiers not only arrive, but stay interminably, if not indefinitely. Sometimes they live on military bases built to the tune of billions of dollars that amount to sizeable American towns (with accompanying amenities), sometimes on stripped down forward operating bases that may not even have showers. When those troops don't stay, often American equipment does -- carefully stored for further use at tiny "cooperative security locations," known informally as "lily pads" (from which U.S. troops, like so many frogs, could assumedly leap quickly into a region in crisis).
At the height of the Roman Empire, the Romans had an estimated 37 major military bases scattered around their dominions. At the height of the British Empire, the British had 36 of them planetwide. Depending on just who you listen to and how you count, we have hundreds of bases. According to Pentagon records, in fact, there are 761 active military "sites" abroad.
The fact is: We garrison the planet north to south, east to west, and even on the seven seas, thanks to our various fleets and our massive aircraft carriers which, with 5,000-6,000 personnel aboard -- that is, the population of an American town -- are functionally floating bases.
Link to con.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
In his first interview since the world financial crisis, Gao Xiqing, the man who oversees $200 billion of China’s $2 trillion in dollar holdings, explains why he’s betting against the dollar, praises American pragmatism, and wonders about enormous Wall Street paychecks. And he has a friendly piece of advice:
“Be Nice to the Countries That Lend You Money”
by James Fallows
Americans know that China has financed much of their nation’s public and private debt. During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama and John McCain generally agreed on the peril of borrowing so heavily from this one foreign source. For instance, in their final debate, McCain warned about the “$10 trillion debt we’re giving to our kids, a half a trillion dollars we owe China,” and Obama said, “Nothing is more important than us no longer borrowing $700billion or more from China and sending it to Saudi Arabia.” Their numbers on the debt differed, and both were way low. One year ago, when I wrote about China’s U.S. dollar holdings, the article was called “The $1.4 trillion Question.” When Barack Obama takes office, the figure will be well over $2 trillion.
During the late stages of this year’s campaign, I had several chances to talk with the man who oversees many of China’s American holdings. He is Gao Xiqing, president of the China Investment Corporation, which manages “only” about $200billion of the country’s foreign assets but makes most of the high-visibility investments, like buying stakes in Blackstone and Morgan Stanley, as opposed to just holding Treasury notes.
Gao, whom I mentioned in my article, would fit no American’s preexisting idea of a Communist Chinese official. He speaks accented but fully colloquial and very high-speed English. He has a law degree from Duke, which he earned in the 1980s after working as a lawyer and professor in China, and he was an associate in Richard Nixon’s former Wall Street law firm. His office, in one of the more tasteful new glass-walled high-rises in Beijing, itself seems less Chinese than internationally “fusion”-minded in its aesthetic and furnishings. Bonsai trees in large pots, elegant Japanese-looking arrangements of individual smooth stones on display shelves, Chinese and Western financial textbooks behind the desk, with a photo of Martin Luther King Jr. perched among the books. Two very large, very thin desktop monitors read out financial data from around the world. As we spoke, Western classical music played softly from a good sound system.
Link to con.
“Be Nice to the Countries That Lend You Money”
by James Fallows
Americans know that China has financed much of their nation’s public and private debt. During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama and John McCain generally agreed on the peril of borrowing so heavily from this one foreign source. For instance, in their final debate, McCain warned about the “$10 trillion debt we’re giving to our kids, a half a trillion dollars we owe China,” and Obama said, “Nothing is more important than us no longer borrowing $700billion or more from China and sending it to Saudi Arabia.” Their numbers on the debt differed, and both were way low. One year ago, when I wrote about China’s U.S. dollar holdings, the article was called “The $1.4 trillion Question.” When Barack Obama takes office, the figure will be well over $2 trillion.
During the late stages of this year’s campaign, I had several chances to talk with the man who oversees many of China’s American holdings. He is Gao Xiqing, president of the China Investment Corporation, which manages “only” about $200billion of the country’s foreign assets but makes most of the high-visibility investments, like buying stakes in Blackstone and Morgan Stanley, as opposed to just holding Treasury notes.
Gao, whom I mentioned in my article, would fit no American’s preexisting idea of a Communist Chinese official. He speaks accented but fully colloquial and very high-speed English. He has a law degree from Duke, which he earned in the 1980s after working as a lawyer and professor in China, and he was an associate in Richard Nixon’s former Wall Street law firm. His office, in one of the more tasteful new glass-walled high-rises in Beijing, itself seems less Chinese than internationally “fusion”-minded in its aesthetic and furnishings. Bonsai trees in large pots, elegant Japanese-looking arrangements of individual smooth stones on display shelves, Chinese and Western financial textbooks behind the desk, with a photo of Martin Luther King Jr. perched among the books. Two very large, very thin desktop monitors read out financial data from around the world. As we spoke, Western classical music played softly from a good sound system.
Link to con.
Glitch in the System
Ecuador's Conscientious Default
By NEIL WATKINS and SARAH ANDERSON
When the government of Ecuador failed to make a scheduled interest payment on private bonds this month, it was hardly the first time a country had defaulted in the middle of a financial crisis. In fact, it wasn't even the first time for Ecuador. The small South American country did so just 10 years ago, at a time when the economy was reeling from natural disasters and a drop in oil prices.
But this default is different. For the first time in history, the government's defense isn't based on an inability to pay. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa explained rather that he was unwilling to continue to pay debts that are "obviously immoral and illegitimate."
Like many of the victims of the U.S. subprime mortgage mess, the Ecuadorian people were the targets of predatory lending. In the 1970s, unscrupulous international lenders facilitated some $3 billion in borrowing by Ecuadorian dictators who blew most of the money on the military. After the transition to democracy, the Ecuadorian people got stuck holding the bag.
Over the years, the country has made debt payments that exceed the value of the principal it borrowed, plus significant interest and penalties. But after multiple reschedulings, conversions, and some further borrowing, Ecuador's debt has risen to more than $10 billion today.
Link to con.
Ecuador's Conscientious Default
By NEIL WATKINS and SARAH ANDERSON
When the government of Ecuador failed to make a scheduled interest payment on private bonds this month, it was hardly the first time a country had defaulted in the middle of a financial crisis. In fact, it wasn't even the first time for Ecuador. The small South American country did so just 10 years ago, at a time when the economy was reeling from natural disasters and a drop in oil prices.
But this default is different. For the first time in history, the government's defense isn't based on an inability to pay. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa explained rather that he was unwilling to continue to pay debts that are "obviously immoral and illegitimate."
Like many of the victims of the U.S. subprime mortgage mess, the Ecuadorian people were the targets of predatory lending. In the 1970s, unscrupulous international lenders facilitated some $3 billion in borrowing by Ecuadorian dictators who blew most of the money on the military. After the transition to democracy, the Ecuadorian people got stuck holding the bag.
Over the years, the country has made debt payments that exceed the value of the principal it borrowed, plus significant interest and penalties. But after multiple reschedulings, conversions, and some further borrowing, Ecuador's debt has risen to more than $10 billion today.
Link to con.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
With economy in shambles, Congress gets a raise
By Jordy Yager
A crumbling economy, more than 2 million constituents who have lost their jobs this year, and congressional demands of CEOs to work for free did not convince lawmakers to freeze their own pay.
Instead, they will get a $4,700 pay increase, amounting to an additional $2.5 million that taxpayers will spend on congressional salaries, and watchdog groups are not happy about it.
“As lawmakers make a big show of forcing auto executives to accept just $1 a year in salary, they are quietly raiding the vault for their own personal gain,” said Daniel O’Connell, chairman of The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), a non-partisan group. “This money would be much better spent helping the millions of seniors who are living below the poverty line and struggling to keep their heat on this winter.”
However, at 2.8 percent, the automatic raise that lawmakers receive is only half as large as the 2009 cost of living adjustment of Social Security recipients.
Link to con.
By Jordy Yager
A crumbling economy, more than 2 million constituents who have lost their jobs this year, and congressional demands of CEOs to work for free did not convince lawmakers to freeze their own pay.
Instead, they will get a $4,700 pay increase, amounting to an additional $2.5 million that taxpayers will spend on congressional salaries, and watchdog groups are not happy about it.
“As lawmakers make a big show of forcing auto executives to accept just $1 a year in salary, they are quietly raiding the vault for their own personal gain,” said Daniel O’Connell, chairman of The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), a non-partisan group. “This money would be much better spent helping the millions of seniors who are living below the poverty line and struggling to keep their heat on this winter.”
However, at 2.8 percent, the automatic raise that lawmakers receive is only half as large as the 2009 cost of living adjustment of Social Security recipients.
Link to con.
Pay cuts, layoffs mount in US
By Tom Eley
The US government loans to the auto industry, conditioned on a massive attack on the wages and jobs of auto workers, are being used as a spearhead for broader attacks on the working class throughout the country. This attack has already begun, with numerous companies recently announcing pay cuts and layoffs for the coming year in response to the deepening economic crisis.
Many of the new pay cuts affect salaried positions. While cuts to the pay packages of top executives are largely designed to lend the impression of “shared sacrifice,” the salaries and pensions of wider layers of managerial and professional personnel—a large component of the US “middle class”—are being significantly reduced.
On December 18, FedEx Corp., one of the largest US parcel delivery services, announced plans to cut pay for more than 35,000 salaried employees. It will also indefinitely freeze its contributions to over 140,000 employee 401(k) retirement accounts. In announcing the pay cuts, Frederick W. Smith, FedEx founder and CEO, said that the corporation was “being challenged by some of the worst economic conditions in the company’s 35-year history.” Only one month ago the third largest US parcel delivery service, German-owned DHL, announced the suspension of its US operations and layoffs totaling 9,500 workers.
Link to con.
By Tom Eley
The US government loans to the auto industry, conditioned on a massive attack on the wages and jobs of auto workers, are being used as a spearhead for broader attacks on the working class throughout the country. This attack has already begun, with numerous companies recently announcing pay cuts and layoffs for the coming year in response to the deepening economic crisis.
Many of the new pay cuts affect salaried positions. While cuts to the pay packages of top executives are largely designed to lend the impression of “shared sacrifice,” the salaries and pensions of wider layers of managerial and professional personnel—a large component of the US “middle class”—are being significantly reduced.
On December 18, FedEx Corp., one of the largest US parcel delivery services, announced plans to cut pay for more than 35,000 salaried employees. It will also indefinitely freeze its contributions to over 140,000 employee 401(k) retirement accounts. In announcing the pay cuts, Frederick W. Smith, FedEx founder and CEO, said that the corporation was “being challenged by some of the worst economic conditions in the company’s 35-year history.” Only one month ago the third largest US parcel delivery service, German-owned DHL, announced the suspension of its US operations and layoffs totaling 9,500 workers.
Link to con.
The case for a socialist alternative
In a world of war, oppression and economic crisis, the need for fundamental change has never seemed more urgent. Todd Chretien examines the choices we have to make a new future.
THE CURRENT economic crisis has debunked the fiction that there is some sort of iron wall between politics and economics.
For decades, the partisans of the free market fought to liberate their system from the "meddling" of governments and bureaucrats. But when the blue chips were down, Wall Street and its friends in Washington dropped their anti-government ideal like a hot potato. Treasury Secretary and ex-Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson led the charge by demanding the power to disburse $700 billion in taxpayers' money to try to manage the disaster.
This about-face destroyed the last vestiges of the consensus in favor of an unfettered free market among large sections of the business and political elite. No less than ex-Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan--once called "the maestro" by his adoring fans for his supposed genius in orchestrating the economy--admitted in October that he had found a "flaw" in his ultra-libertarian, free-market faith that had led to the housing bubble and subsequent crash.
Link to con.
In a world of war, oppression and economic crisis, the need for fundamental change has never seemed more urgent. Todd Chretien examines the choices we have to make a new future.
THE CURRENT economic crisis has debunked the fiction that there is some sort of iron wall between politics and economics.
For decades, the partisans of the free market fought to liberate their system from the "meddling" of governments and bureaucrats. But when the blue chips were down, Wall Street and its friends in Washington dropped their anti-government ideal like a hot potato. Treasury Secretary and ex-Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson led the charge by demanding the power to disburse $700 billion in taxpayers' money to try to manage the disaster.
This about-face destroyed the last vestiges of the consensus in favor of an unfettered free market among large sections of the business and political elite. No less than ex-Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan--once called "the maestro" by his adoring fans for his supposed genius in orchestrating the economy--admitted in October that he had found a "flaw" in his ultra-libertarian, free-market faith that had led to the housing bubble and subsequent crash.
Link to con.
Monday, December 22, 2008
A union in name only
Some of the more astute and honest commentators on the “bailout” of the American auto companies announced Friday by President Bush have pointed to a critical aspect of the plan to shut plants, wipe out jobs and bring the wages, benefits and work rules of United Auto Workers members in line with those of workers at nonunion foreign-owned companies in the US.
“The result,” writes Warren Brown in Saturday’s Washington Post, “will be a smaller General Motors and Ford in America, a bigger and more robust GM and Ford overseas, and barring the birth of a truly international labor union, a United Auto Workers that is a union in name only.”
Brown goes on to say that the “restructure-or-perish talk” from all sections of the political establishment, from Bush and Obama to congressional Democrats as well as Republicans, is “justification for helping the car companies continue doing what they have been doing all along—downsizing and, in the process, hastening the effective demise of the UAW.”
The same issue of the newspaper carries an article by Peter Whoriskey, who writes of the wage-and-benefit-cutting provisions of the bailout plan: “Those and other concessions would essentially erase the significant distinctions between union and nonunion auto workers, and the lack of such union worker advantages would render moot the union’s fundamental purpose, some industry analysts and labor experts said.”
Link to con.
Some of the more astute and honest commentators on the “bailout” of the American auto companies announced Friday by President Bush have pointed to a critical aspect of the plan to shut plants, wipe out jobs and bring the wages, benefits and work rules of United Auto Workers members in line with those of workers at nonunion foreign-owned companies in the US.
“The result,” writes Warren Brown in Saturday’s Washington Post, “will be a smaller General Motors and Ford in America, a bigger and more robust GM and Ford overseas, and barring the birth of a truly international labor union, a United Auto Workers that is a union in name only.”
Brown goes on to say that the “restructure-or-perish talk” from all sections of the political establishment, from Bush and Obama to congressional Democrats as well as Republicans, is “justification for helping the car companies continue doing what they have been doing all along—downsizing and, in the process, hastening the effective demise of the UAW.”
The same issue of the newspaper carries an article by Peter Whoriskey, who writes of the wage-and-benefit-cutting provisions of the bailout plan: “Those and other concessions would essentially erase the significant distinctions between union and nonunion auto workers, and the lack of such union worker advantages would render moot the union’s fundamental purpose, some industry analysts and labor experts said.”
Link to con.
Capitalism and the auto crisis
The US government intervened directly into the crisis of the American auto industry on Friday, pledging temporary loans to General Motors and Chrysler in exchange for massive concessions from auto workers and the destruction of tens of thousands more jobs.
The $17.4 billion in loans announced by the Bush administration amounts essentially to a three-month lifeline, providing the companies time to impose new concessions on their workers, make plans to become "viable," or else make preparations for an "orderly" bankruptcy.
In his public announcement Friday morning, Bush made clear that in providing loans, the government was insisting on certain conditions: above all, that workers would have to accept a drastic decline in living standards.
"Automakers must meet conditions that experts agree are necessary for long-term viability, including putting their retirement plans on a sustainable footing, persuading bond holders to convert their debt into capital ... and making their compensation competitive with foreign automakers who have major operations in the Untied States."
Link to con.
The US government intervened directly into the crisis of the American auto industry on Friday, pledging temporary loans to General Motors and Chrysler in exchange for massive concessions from auto workers and the destruction of tens of thousands more jobs.
The $17.4 billion in loans announced by the Bush administration amounts essentially to a three-month lifeline, providing the companies time to impose new concessions on their workers, make plans to become "viable," or else make preparations for an "orderly" bankruptcy.
In his public announcement Friday morning, Bush made clear that in providing loans, the government was insisting on certain conditions: above all, that workers would have to accept a drastic decline in living standards.
"Automakers must meet conditions that experts agree are necessary for long-term viability, including putting their retirement plans on a sustainable footing, persuading bond holders to convert their debt into capital ... and making their compensation competitive with foreign automakers who have major operations in the Untied States."
Link to con.
Friday, December 19, 2008
No School Left Unsold
Arne Duncan's Privatization Agenda
By JESSE SHARKEY
Teachers in Chicago are sorry to see that the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), Arne Duncan, is getting a promotion. Barack Obama has selected Duncan to be his Education Secretary.
In the past couple years, Duncan has been turning public schools over to private operators--mainly in the form of charter and contract schools--at a rate of about 20 per year. Duncan has also resuscitated some of the worst "school reform" ideas of the 1990s, like firing all the teachers in low-performing schools (called "turnarounds"). At the same time, he's eliminated many Local School Councils and made crucial decisions without public input.
Charter schools and test-score driven school "choice" have been the watchwords of Duncan's rule in Chicago. Expect more of the same in Washington, D.C.
To me, the thing that made Duncan's role clear came after three months of organizing at Senn High School, the community school where I teach, against the Chicago Board of Education's proposal to install a Naval Academy.
After an inspiring campaign that involved literally hundreds of people in the biggest education organizing effort in the area in decades, we forced Duncan to come up to our neighborhood to listen to our case for keeping the military out of our school. More than 300 of us--parents, teachers, and community supporters--held a big meeting in a local church and, at the end of the meeting, we asked Duncan to postpone the decision to put the military school at Senn.
Link to con.
Arne Duncan's Privatization Agenda
By JESSE SHARKEY
Teachers in Chicago are sorry to see that the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), Arne Duncan, is getting a promotion. Barack Obama has selected Duncan to be his Education Secretary.
In the past couple years, Duncan has been turning public schools over to private operators--mainly in the form of charter and contract schools--at a rate of about 20 per year. Duncan has also resuscitated some of the worst "school reform" ideas of the 1990s, like firing all the teachers in low-performing schools (called "turnarounds"). At the same time, he's eliminated many Local School Councils and made crucial decisions without public input.
Charter schools and test-score driven school "choice" have been the watchwords of Duncan's rule in Chicago. Expect more of the same in Washington, D.C.
To me, the thing that made Duncan's role clear came after three months of organizing at Senn High School, the community school where I teach, against the Chicago Board of Education's proposal to install a Naval Academy.
After an inspiring campaign that involved literally hundreds of people in the biggest education organizing effort in the area in decades, we forced Duncan to come up to our neighborhood to listen to our case for keeping the military out of our school. More than 300 of us--parents, teachers, and community supporters--held a big meeting in a local church and, at the end of the meeting, we asked Duncan to postpone the decision to put the military school at Senn.
Link to con.
Tom Vilsack's Kind of Agriculture
Another Shill for Monsanto
By RONNIE CUMMINS
Yesterday's announcement that former Iowa Governor, Tom Vilsack, has been selected as the new Secretary of Agriculture sent a chill through the sustainable food and farming community who have been lobbying for a champion in the new administration.
"Vilsack's nomination sends the message that dangerous, untested, unlabeled genetically engineered crops will be the norm in the Obama Administration," said Ronnie Cummins, Executive Director of Organic Consumers Association. "Our nation's future depends on crafting a forward-thinking strategy to promote organic and sustainable food and farming, and address the related crises of climate change, diminishing energy supplies, deteriorating public health, and economic depression.”
The Department of Agriculture during the Bush Administration failed to promote a sustainable vision for food and farming and did not protect consumers from the chemical-intensive toxic practices inherent to industrial agriculture. While factory farms and junk food have been subsidized with billions of tax dollars, the US industrial farm system has released massive amounts of climate-destabilizing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and increased our dependence on foreign oil.
The Secretary of Agriculture is responsible for directing the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its $97 billion annual budget, including the National Organic Program, food stamp and nutrition programs, agriculture subsidies, and the Forest Service.
While Vilsack has worked to restrain livestock monopolies, his overall record is one of aiding and abetting Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs, also known as factory farms). Vilsack’s support for unsustainable industrial ethanol production has already caused global corn and grain prices to skyrocket, literally taking food off the table for a billion people in the developing world.
Link to con.
Another Shill for Monsanto
By RONNIE CUMMINS
Yesterday's announcement that former Iowa Governor, Tom Vilsack, has been selected as the new Secretary of Agriculture sent a chill through the sustainable food and farming community who have been lobbying for a champion in the new administration.
"Vilsack's nomination sends the message that dangerous, untested, unlabeled genetically engineered crops will be the norm in the Obama Administration," said Ronnie Cummins, Executive Director of Organic Consumers Association. "Our nation's future depends on crafting a forward-thinking strategy to promote organic and sustainable food and farming, and address the related crises of climate change, diminishing energy supplies, deteriorating public health, and economic depression.”
The Department of Agriculture during the Bush Administration failed to promote a sustainable vision for food and farming and did not protect consumers from the chemical-intensive toxic practices inherent to industrial agriculture. While factory farms and junk food have been subsidized with billions of tax dollars, the US industrial farm system has released massive amounts of climate-destabilizing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and increased our dependence on foreign oil.
The Secretary of Agriculture is responsible for directing the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its $97 billion annual budget, including the National Organic Program, food stamp and nutrition programs, agriculture subsidies, and the Forest Service.
While Vilsack has worked to restrain livestock monopolies, his overall record is one of aiding and abetting Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs, also known as factory farms). Vilsack’s support for unsustainable industrial ethanol production has already caused global corn and grain prices to skyrocket, literally taking food off the table for a billion people in the developing world.
Link to con.
How to Make Bruce Babbitt Look Like Ed Abbey
Salazar and the Tragedy of the Common Ground
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
Although America’s greatest Interior Secretary, Harold Ickes, who had the post for nearly a decade under FDR, was from Chicago, the playbook for presidential transitions calls for picking a Westerner for Interior, as long as the nominee isn’t a Californian. Pick someone from Arizona or New Mexico or Colorado. Of course, Colorado has produced two of the worst recent Interior Secretaries: James Watt and Gale Norton. Ken Salazar may make it three.
And why not? After all, Salazar was one of the first to endorse Gale Norton’s nomination as Bush’s Interior Secretary.
By almost any standard, it’s hard to imagine a more uninspired or uninspiring choice for the job than professional middle-of-the-roader Ken Salazar, the conservative Democrat from Colorado. This pal of Alberto Gonzalez is a meek politician, who has never demonstrated the stomach for confronting the corporate bullies of the west: the mining, timber and oil companies who have been feasting on Interior Department handouts for the past eight years. Even as attorney general of Colorado, Salazar built a record of timidity when it came to going after renegade mining companies.
The editorial pages of western papers have largely hailed Salazar’s nomination. The common theme seems to be that Salazar will be “an honest broker.” But broker of what? Mining claims and oil leases, most likely.
Link to con.
Salazar and the Tragedy of the Common Ground
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
Although America’s greatest Interior Secretary, Harold Ickes, who had the post for nearly a decade under FDR, was from Chicago, the playbook for presidential transitions calls for picking a Westerner for Interior, as long as the nominee isn’t a Californian. Pick someone from Arizona or New Mexico or Colorado. Of course, Colorado has produced two of the worst recent Interior Secretaries: James Watt and Gale Norton. Ken Salazar may make it three.
And why not? After all, Salazar was one of the first to endorse Gale Norton’s nomination as Bush’s Interior Secretary.
By almost any standard, it’s hard to imagine a more uninspired or uninspiring choice for the job than professional middle-of-the-roader Ken Salazar, the conservative Democrat from Colorado. This pal of Alberto Gonzalez is a meek politician, who has never demonstrated the stomach for confronting the corporate bullies of the west: the mining, timber and oil companies who have been feasting on Interior Department handouts for the past eight years. Even as attorney general of Colorado, Salazar built a record of timidity when it came to going after renegade mining companies.
The editorial pages of western papers have largely hailed Salazar’s nomination. The common theme seems to be that Salazar will be “an honest broker.” But broker of what? Mining claims and oil leases, most likely.
Link to con.
Why Atheism May Be the Best Way to Understand God
By Larry Beinhart
Religion -- at least on the face of things -- is the primary source of violent conflict in the world today. It is also the point of division in much of the world's politics. Obviously, there have been conflicts over ideology, class, race, between tribes and nations, for territory, property and plunder. However, at the moment, religion leads the pack. At least as a way to rally the troops.
It is, therefore, important to understand what religion is and why it is so vital. As a rough, utilitarian generalization, there are four classes of religion: nontheistic, deism, polytheism and monotheism. Nontheistic religions include some forms of Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shinto, animism, Wicca and the like.
They have ethical systems, support social and family networks, have spiritual practices, but do not claim, for the most part, divine revelations -- instructions from external entities who watch to see if they are carried out. Classical deism believes in God, the Button Pusher, aka, the First Cause. He pushed the universe's "Go" button, then walked off, never to be heard from again.
Link to con.
By Larry Beinhart
Religion -- at least on the face of things -- is the primary source of violent conflict in the world today. It is also the point of division in much of the world's politics. Obviously, there have been conflicts over ideology, class, race, between tribes and nations, for territory, property and plunder. However, at the moment, religion leads the pack. At least as a way to rally the troops.
It is, therefore, important to understand what religion is and why it is so vital. As a rough, utilitarian generalization, there are four classes of religion: nontheistic, deism, polytheism and monotheism. Nontheistic religions include some forms of Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shinto, animism, Wicca and the like.
They have ethical systems, support social and family networks, have spiritual practices, but do not claim, for the most part, divine revelations -- instructions from external entities who watch to see if they are carried out. Classical deism believes in God, the Button Pusher, aka, the First Cause. He pushed the universe's "Go" button, then walked off, never to be heard from again.
Link to con.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
What Does Vilsack's Appointment Mean for the Future of Organic Food and Public Lands?
By Ari LeVaux, AlterNet.
When former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack's name first surfaced as a possible Secretary of Agriculture, it triggered an outcry among progressive foodies. The Organic Consumers Association organized a massive campaign in which 20,000 emails opposing Vilsack were sent to the transition team.
The OCA prematurely declared this campaign a success, when Vilsack's name appeared to have been dropped from consideration. High on hope, hype, and the smell of big-ag blood, a swarm of foodies rushed in to suggest reform-minded alternatives. But these hopes were tossed under the bus on Wednesday, December 17, when Obama formally announced Vilsack as his choice after all.
Obama said his former rival for the White House has "led with vision, promoting biotech to strengthen our farmers and fostering an agricultural economy of the future that not only grows the food we eat, but the energy we use…Tom understands that the solution to our energy crisis will be found not in oil fields abroad but in our farm fields here at home."
Link to con.
By Ari LeVaux, AlterNet.
When former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack's name first surfaced as a possible Secretary of Agriculture, it triggered an outcry among progressive foodies. The Organic Consumers Association organized a massive campaign in which 20,000 emails opposing Vilsack were sent to the transition team.
The OCA prematurely declared this campaign a success, when Vilsack's name appeared to have been dropped from consideration. High on hope, hype, and the smell of big-ag blood, a swarm of foodies rushed in to suggest reform-minded alternatives. But these hopes were tossed under the bus on Wednesday, December 17, when Obama formally announced Vilsack as his choice after all.
Obama said his former rival for the White House has "led with vision, promoting biotech to strengthen our farmers and fostering an agricultural economy of the future that not only grows the food we eat, but the energy we use…Tom understands that the solution to our energy crisis will be found not in oil fields abroad but in our farm fields here at home."
Link to con.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
The Case of Spain
A Forgotten Genocide
By VICENTE NAVARRO
A social movement has been growing in Spain, breaking the 30-year pact of silence on the enormous atrocities and genocide carried out during and after the fascist coup led by General Franco. The coup took place in 1936 with the active support of the Catholic Church and the Spanish Army, and made possible by the assistance of Hitler and Mussolini and the cowardice of the western democracies, including the U.S., which at that time did not dare to offend Hitler and Mussolini by sending arms to the democratically elected Spanish government. The coup was resisted, however, by the majority of Spain’s population, which is why it took three years for the fascists to succeed. They won by imposing extremely repressive measures on the population. Terror became an explicit policy of the new regime. General Franco and other generals spoke frequently of the need to kill everyone who had supported the Popular Front, the alliance of left-wing and center parties that had won by large majorities in the last elections in Spain. As part of that repression, more than 200,000 men and women were executed by the fascist regime, and another 200,000 died in the Army’s concentration camps and in the villages, subjected to hunger, disease, and other circumstances. And 114,266 people simply disappeared. They were killed by the Army and the fascist party, la Falange, and their bodies were abandoned or buried without being identified. These bodies were never found.
When democracy returned in 1978, an informal pact of silence was made – an agreement to cover over the enormous repression that had existed under the fascist dictator. The democratic transition took place under conditions that were highly favorable to the conservative forces that had controlled Francoist Spain. It became obvious to the leadership of the former fascist state, led by King Juan Carlos (appointed by General Franco), and Suarez, the head of the fascist movement (Movimiento Nacional), that the fascist regime could not continue as a dictatorship. It was a corrupt and highly unpopular apparatus, facing the largest labor agitation in Europe. In 1976, a critical year after the death of the dictator (the day he died, the country ran out of champagne), 2,085 workdays per 1,000 workers were lost to strikes (the average in Europe was 595 days). The dictator died in his bed, but the dictatorship died in the streets. The level of social agitation reached such a point that Franco’s appointed monarchy was in trouble, and the state leadership was forced to open itself up and establish a limited democracy, under the watchful eye of the Army (and the Church). The left was strong enough to force that opening, but it was not strong enough to break with the old state. The Amnesty Law was passed in 1977, which protected those who had committed politically motivated crimes (a law that was of much greater benefit to the right-wing than to the left-wing forces). The repression during the Franco years was enormous. Even in his bed just before he died (1975), Franco was signing death warrants for political prisoners.
Link to con.
A Forgotten Genocide
By VICENTE NAVARRO
A social movement has been growing in Spain, breaking the 30-year pact of silence on the enormous atrocities and genocide carried out during and after the fascist coup led by General Franco. The coup took place in 1936 with the active support of the Catholic Church and the Spanish Army, and made possible by the assistance of Hitler and Mussolini and the cowardice of the western democracies, including the U.S., which at that time did not dare to offend Hitler and Mussolini by sending arms to the democratically elected Spanish government. The coup was resisted, however, by the majority of Spain’s population, which is why it took three years for the fascists to succeed. They won by imposing extremely repressive measures on the population. Terror became an explicit policy of the new regime. General Franco and other generals spoke frequently of the need to kill everyone who had supported the Popular Front, the alliance of left-wing and center parties that had won by large majorities in the last elections in Spain. As part of that repression, more than 200,000 men and women were executed by the fascist regime, and another 200,000 died in the Army’s concentration camps and in the villages, subjected to hunger, disease, and other circumstances. And 114,266 people simply disappeared. They were killed by the Army and the fascist party, la Falange, and their bodies were abandoned or buried without being identified. These bodies were never found.
When democracy returned in 1978, an informal pact of silence was made – an agreement to cover over the enormous repression that had existed under the fascist dictator. The democratic transition took place under conditions that were highly favorable to the conservative forces that had controlled Francoist Spain. It became obvious to the leadership of the former fascist state, led by King Juan Carlos (appointed by General Franco), and Suarez, the head of the fascist movement (Movimiento Nacional), that the fascist regime could not continue as a dictatorship. It was a corrupt and highly unpopular apparatus, facing the largest labor agitation in Europe. In 1976, a critical year after the death of the dictator (the day he died, the country ran out of champagne), 2,085 workdays per 1,000 workers were lost to strikes (the average in Europe was 595 days). The dictator died in his bed, but the dictatorship died in the streets. The level of social agitation reached such a point that Franco’s appointed monarchy was in trouble, and the state leadership was forced to open itself up and establish a limited democracy, under the watchful eye of the Army (and the Church). The left was strong enough to force that opening, but it was not strong enough to break with the old state. The Amnesty Law was passed in 1977, which protected those who had committed politically motivated crimes (a law that was of much greater benefit to the right-wing than to the left-wing forces). The repression during the Franco years was enormous. Even in his bed just before he died (1975), Franco was signing death warrants for political prisoners.
Link to con.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
The Half-Life of the Lesser Evil
Dr. Chu's Nuclear Prescription
By KARL GROSSMAN
The reaction from safe-energy advocates is mixed to the proposed appointment of Steven Chu as U.S. energy secretary by President-Elect Barak Obama. Mixed is a charitable response to the prospects of Chu being in charge of the U.S. Department of Energy. Although he has a keen interest in energy efficiency and solar power and other clean forms of renewable energy, Chu is a staunch advocate of nuclear power.
“Nuclear has to be a necessary part of the portfolio,” declared Chu, the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, at an economic gathering last March in Palo Alto, California organized by Stanford University.” http://news.cnet.com/8301-10787_3-9888608-60.html
“The fear of radiation shouldn’t even enter into this,” he said in comparing nuclear and coal. “Coal is very, very bad.” Chu, a physicist, repeated a claim of nuclear proponents that coal plants produce more radioactivity than nuclear plants—a contention based on coal containing trace amounts of uranium and thorium. But the claim—and Chu—ignore the huge amount of radioactive products created by fission or atom-splitting in nuclear plants, the gaseous ones routinely released, and the many tons that are left, classified as nuclear waste and needing to be isolated, some virtually forever. The claim—and Chu—also ignore the potential of a catastrophic nuclear plant accident discharging much or all of these lethal radioactive fission products into the environment as occurred in the Chernobyl nuclear plant accident, a potential for which there is no comparison with coal.
Moreover, why compare life-threatening nuclear power to dirty coal? Why not compare it to the safe, clean renewable energy technologies that Chu insists he also backs.
Link to con.
Dr. Chu's Nuclear Prescription
By KARL GROSSMAN
The reaction from safe-energy advocates is mixed to the proposed appointment of Steven Chu as U.S. energy secretary by President-Elect Barak Obama. Mixed is a charitable response to the prospects of Chu being in charge of the U.S. Department of Energy. Although he has a keen interest in energy efficiency and solar power and other clean forms of renewable energy, Chu is a staunch advocate of nuclear power.
“Nuclear has to be a necessary part of the portfolio,” declared Chu, the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, at an economic gathering last March in Palo Alto, California organized by Stanford University.” http://news.cnet.com/8301-10787_3-9888608-60.html
“The fear of radiation shouldn’t even enter into this,” he said in comparing nuclear and coal. “Coal is very, very bad.” Chu, a physicist, repeated a claim of nuclear proponents that coal plants produce more radioactivity than nuclear plants—a contention based on coal containing trace amounts of uranium and thorium. But the claim—and Chu—ignore the huge amount of radioactive products created by fission or atom-splitting in nuclear plants, the gaseous ones routinely released, and the many tons that are left, classified as nuclear waste and needing to be isolated, some virtually forever. The claim—and Chu—also ignore the potential of a catastrophic nuclear plant accident discharging much or all of these lethal radioactive fission products into the environment as occurred in the Chernobyl nuclear plant accident, a potential for which there is no comparison with coal.
Moreover, why compare life-threatening nuclear power to dirty coal? Why not compare it to the safe, clean renewable energy technologies that Chu insists he also backs.
Link to con.
US government bailouts: poverty wages for auto workers, trillions for bankers
By Jerry White
In the debate over federal assistance to the failing Detroit automakers, the clear consensus has emerged within the corporate, political and media establishment that auto workers must accept sharply lower wages and benefits as part of any industry bailout.
The White House, Congress and the incoming Obama administration all insist that substantial sacrifices are needed. The United Auto Workers union, which last year negotiated a fifty percent reduction in the wages of new hires, has pledged to reopen contracts with General Motors, Ford and Chrysler and make pay and benefits "fully competitive" with the non-union factories operated by their international competitors in the southern US states.
Such a course of action would result in a historic reversal for auto workers who would then be earning some $14 an hour—or, adjusting for inflation, about half what their counterparts made in the 1960s. The Democrats and Republicans made no similar demand for sacrifices from the banking executives and financial speculators who were handed $700 billion in last September's bailout of the Wall Street banks.
Link to con.
By Jerry White
In the debate over federal assistance to the failing Detroit automakers, the clear consensus has emerged within the corporate, political and media establishment that auto workers must accept sharply lower wages and benefits as part of any industry bailout.
The White House, Congress and the incoming Obama administration all insist that substantial sacrifices are needed. The United Auto Workers union, which last year negotiated a fifty percent reduction in the wages of new hires, has pledged to reopen contracts with General Motors, Ford and Chrysler and make pay and benefits "fully competitive" with the non-union factories operated by their international competitors in the southern US states.
Such a course of action would result in a historic reversal for auto workers who would then be earning some $14 an hour—or, adjusting for inflation, about half what their counterparts made in the 1960s. The Democrats and Republicans made no similar demand for sacrifices from the banking executives and financial speculators who were handed $700 billion in last September's bailout of the Wall Street banks.
Link to con.
Europe’s ruling elite fear the “contagion” from Greece
It is necessary for working people, especially the young, to consider the broader implications of the past week’s events in Greece. It is, after all, a question that is occupying the thoughts of senior figures within the ruling elites of Europe and the United States.
The rioting that has engulfed Greece had its spark in the police killing of a 15-year-old boy, Alexis Grigoropoulos. But this ignited a seething mass of discontent, especially amongst Greece’s youth and its student population. Despite the efforts of the New Democracy government and its nominal opponents on the official left to blame anarchist agitators, only this social opposition can account for the sustained character of the protests and their spread throughout the country, even in the face of brutal repression.
Numerous reports have drawn attention to the dire situation facing the younger generation in Greece, even those who have graduated from university. Unemployment affects one in four 15-to-24-year-olds, even in advance of the full impact of the slump in the world economy. Post-graduates are routinely forced to take minimum wage jobs at just €600 a month, if they are lucky. Some work two jobs in order to survive.
Andre Gerolymatos wrote in Canada’s Globe and Mail that “the predominant factor for the actions of such young people is a sense of hopelessness,” noting that unemployment for those between 15 and 20 is “just over 22 per cent.” He continued: “It’s no coincidence that most of the rioters fall within that age group. In effect, one in four young men and women face a future of low-paying jobs and poverty.”
LINK to con.
It is necessary for working people, especially the young, to consider the broader implications of the past week’s events in Greece. It is, after all, a question that is occupying the thoughts of senior figures within the ruling elites of Europe and the United States.
The rioting that has engulfed Greece had its spark in the police killing of a 15-year-old boy, Alexis Grigoropoulos. But this ignited a seething mass of discontent, especially amongst Greece’s youth and its student population. Despite the efforts of the New Democracy government and its nominal opponents on the official left to blame anarchist agitators, only this social opposition can account for the sustained character of the protests and their spread throughout the country, even in the face of brutal repression.
Numerous reports have drawn attention to the dire situation facing the younger generation in Greece, even those who have graduated from university. Unemployment affects one in four 15-to-24-year-olds, even in advance of the full impact of the slump in the world economy. Post-graduates are routinely forced to take minimum wage jobs at just €600 a month, if they are lucky. Some work two jobs in order to survive.
Andre Gerolymatos wrote in Canada’s Globe and Mail that “the predominant factor for the actions of such young people is a sense of hopelessness,” noting that unemployment for those between 15 and 20 is “just over 22 per cent.” He continued: “It’s no coincidence that most of the rioters fall within that age group. In effect, one in four young men and women face a future of low-paying jobs and poverty.”
LINK to con.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich on His Battle With the Banks
By Rep. Dennis Kucinich
Once they were as gods, but the deities of the American banking system are now in ruins, plunged from their pedestals into the maw of taxpayer largesse. Congress voted to give the banks $700 billion, lifting them temporarily out of their sepulcher of debt, while revealing a deep truth about the condition of America’s financial powers:
They never had the money they said they had as they constructed their debt-based monetary system which now lies in ruins. Their decisions on behalf of depositors, shareholders and investors were lacking in basic integrity and common sense. Green gods bailing out with their golden parachutes. There was a time when their power was real. Come with me to Cleveland 30 years ago today.
Dec. 15, 1978, Cleveland, Ohio
I awoke to find a curt payment demand that was dropped on my front step by a grandfatherly man who supplemented his Social Security delivering the morning newspaper. The headline plastered across the front page:
Cleveland Trust: Pay Up. Bank would relent if Muny Light were sold, Forbes believes.
One of America’s largest banks, Cleveland Trust, led local banks in demanding immediate payment from the city by midnight, Dec. 15, of $14.5 million in short-term loans.
I regarded the headline skeptically. Having lived in 21 different places by the time I was 17, including a couple of cars, I had come to an encyclopedic knowledge of dun letters, sent to my parents by battalions of bill collectors seeking immediate payment for televisions, cars and a variety of household appliances that never seemed to work. I first came to regard these credit alarms with trepidation, later with impassiveness, with the expectation that as our family grew to two adults and seven children it would soon be on the move again, incurring new delinquencies with each new address. Lack of access to money, housing and credit seemed to be a permanent condition.
Link to con.
By Rep. Dennis Kucinich
Once they were as gods, but the deities of the American banking system are now in ruins, plunged from their pedestals into the maw of taxpayer largesse. Congress voted to give the banks $700 billion, lifting them temporarily out of their sepulcher of debt, while revealing a deep truth about the condition of America’s financial powers:
They never had the money they said they had as they constructed their debt-based monetary system which now lies in ruins. Their decisions on behalf of depositors, shareholders and investors were lacking in basic integrity and common sense. Green gods bailing out with their golden parachutes. There was a time when their power was real. Come with me to Cleveland 30 years ago today.
Dec. 15, 1978, Cleveland, Ohio
I awoke to find a curt payment demand that was dropped on my front step by a grandfatherly man who supplemented his Social Security delivering the morning newspaper. The headline plastered across the front page:
Cleveland Trust: Pay Up. Bank would relent if Muny Light were sold, Forbes believes.
One of America’s largest banks, Cleveland Trust, led local banks in demanding immediate payment from the city by midnight, Dec. 15, of $14.5 million in short-term loans.
I regarded the headline skeptically. Having lived in 21 different places by the time I was 17, including a couple of cars, I had come to an encyclopedic knowledge of dun letters, sent to my parents by battalions of bill collectors seeking immediate payment for televisions, cars and a variety of household appliances that never seemed to work. I first came to regard these credit alarms with trepidation, later with impassiveness, with the expectation that as our family grew to two adults and seven children it would soon be on the move again, incurring new delinquencies with each new address. Lack of access to money, housing and credit seemed to be a permanent condition.
Link to con.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Bolivian President Evo Morales: 20 Ways to Save Mother Earth and Prevent Environmental Disaster
By Evo Morales, International Journal of Socialist Renewal.
Sisters and brothers, today our Mother Earth is ill. From the beginning of the 21st century we have lived the hottest years of the last thousand years.
Global warming is generating abrupt changes in the weather: the retreat of glaciers and the decrease of the polar ice caps; the increase of the sea level and the flooding of coastal areas, where approximately 60% of the world population live; the increase in the processes of desertification and the decrease of fresh water sources; a higher frequency in natural disasters that the communities of the earth suffer[1]; the extinction of animal and plant species; and the spread of diseases in areas that before were free from those diseases.
One of the most tragic consequences of the climate change is that some nations and territories are the condemned to disappear by the increase of the sea level.
Everything began with the industrial revolution in 1750, which gave birth to the capitalist system. In two and a half centuries, the so called “developed” countries have consumed a large part of the fossil fuels created over five million centuries.
Capitalism
Link to con.
By Evo Morales, International Journal of Socialist Renewal.
Sisters and brothers, today our Mother Earth is ill. From the beginning of the 21st century we have lived the hottest years of the last thousand years.
Global warming is generating abrupt changes in the weather: the retreat of glaciers and the decrease of the polar ice caps; the increase of the sea level and the flooding of coastal areas, where approximately 60% of the world population live; the increase in the processes of desertification and the decrease of fresh water sources; a higher frequency in natural disasters that the communities of the earth suffer[1]; the extinction of animal and plant species; and the spread of diseases in areas that before were free from those diseases.
One of the most tragic consequences of the climate change is that some nations and territories are the condemned to disappear by the increase of the sea level.
Everything began with the industrial revolution in 1750, which gave birth to the capitalist system. In two and a half centuries, the so called “developed” countries have consumed a large part of the fossil fuels created over five million centuries.
Capitalism
Link to con.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Also a "Red Flag" at Home
Mexico's Immigration Problem
By LAURA CARLSEN
In the first two years of the Felipe Calderon administration, Mexico has become a focal point in the violation of the human rights of immigrants even as it criticizes the treatment of Mexican migrants in the United States. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants Jorge Bustamante states the problem in no uncertain terms: "We are responsible for violations of the rights of Central Americans passing through Mexico, the same or worse as those of Mexicans in the United States."
The analogy between the treatment of Central Americans by the Mexican government and Mexicans by the U.S. government is particularly relevant. President Calderon came to office with two seemingly different challenges: to find a solution to U.S. treatment of Mexican migrants on the northern border, and to deal fairly and efficiently with a burgeoning flow of immigrants and trans-migrants crossing over his southern border.
Neither challenge has been met. The contrast between the mostly rhetorical defense of Mexican migrants and the violations of migrant rights here demonstrates not only hypocrisy, but more importantly, the absence of a coherent rights-based immigration policy that would apply the standards developed in UN declarations on migrant rights, and other conventions.
Link to con.
Mexico's Immigration Problem
By LAURA CARLSEN
In the first two years of the Felipe Calderon administration, Mexico has become a focal point in the violation of the human rights of immigrants even as it criticizes the treatment of Mexican migrants in the United States. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants Jorge Bustamante states the problem in no uncertain terms: "We are responsible for violations of the rights of Central Americans passing through Mexico, the same or worse as those of Mexicans in the United States."
The analogy between the treatment of Central Americans by the Mexican government and Mexicans by the U.S. government is particularly relevant. President Calderon came to office with two seemingly different challenges: to find a solution to U.S. treatment of Mexican migrants on the northern border, and to deal fairly and efficiently with a burgeoning flow of immigrants and trans-migrants crossing over his southern border.
Neither challenge has been met. The contrast between the mostly rhetorical defense of Mexican migrants and the violations of migrant rights here demonstrates not only hypocrisy, but more importantly, the absence of a coherent rights-based immigration policy that would apply the standards developed in UN declarations on migrant rights, and other conventions.
Link to con.
A Dagger the Heart of Organized Labor
Killing the Auto Bailout
By DAVID MACARAY
So the proposed bailout of the auto industry is off the table. . . at least until after the Christmas recess, which, given the grave condition of the industry, could be a death sentence. The Republican Senate killed the proposal. Now we all get to wait around and see what happens next. General Motors has already announced that without the injection of needed cash, it will very possibly face bankruptcy, and Chrysler could be close behind.
The real reason Senate Republicans were so committed to wrecking any rescue plan for the Big Three automakers, despite what they preached, had little to do with their concern for the American taxpayer. Obviously, their continued willingness to support the unconscionably expensive and wasteful Iraq war, and to say yes to every new-fangled weapons system that comes down the pike, shows what they think about assigning financial burdens to the American taxpayer.
No, this defeat had little to do with fiduciary integrity. Rather, the Republicans’ torpedoing of this proposal was done because they despise labor unions. They despise everything unions stand for. Southern Republicans despise organized labor for the same reason Southern Republicans despised the civil rights legislation of the 1960s—because it interferes with their “right to choose.”
Link to con.
Killing the Auto Bailout
By DAVID MACARAY
So the proposed bailout of the auto industry is off the table. . . at least until after the Christmas recess, which, given the grave condition of the industry, could be a death sentence. The Republican Senate killed the proposal. Now we all get to wait around and see what happens next. General Motors has already announced that without the injection of needed cash, it will very possibly face bankruptcy, and Chrysler could be close behind.
The real reason Senate Republicans were so committed to wrecking any rescue plan for the Big Three automakers, despite what they preached, had little to do with their concern for the American taxpayer. Obviously, their continued willingness to support the unconscionably expensive and wasteful Iraq war, and to say yes to every new-fangled weapons system that comes down the pike, shows what they think about assigning financial burdens to the American taxpayer.
No, this defeat had little to do with fiduciary integrity. Rather, the Republicans’ torpedoing of this proposal was done because they despise labor unions. They despise everything unions stand for. Southern Republicans despise organized labor for the same reason Southern Republicans despised the civil rights legislation of the 1960s—because it interferes with their “right to choose.”
Link to con.
Nukes Up the Hudson
Bad Days at Indian Point
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
These are desperate days for Entergy, the big Arkansas-based power conglomerate that owns the frail Indian Point nuclear plant, located on the east bank of the Hudson River outside Buchanan, New York—just twenty-two miles from Manhattan.
First, a scathing report issued in 2005 by a nuclear engineer fingered Indian Point as one of the five worst nuclear plants in the United States, and predicted that its emergency cooling system “is virtually certain to fail.”
This disclosure was hotly followed by the release of a study conducted by the Los Alamos National Laboratory for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that ominously concluded that the chances of a reactor meltdown increased by a factor of nearly 100 at Indian Point, because the plant’s drainage pits (also known as containment sumps) are “almost certain” to be blocked with debris during an accident.
“The NRC has known about the containment sump problem at Indian Point since September 1996,” said David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists. “The NRC cannot take more than a decade to fix a safety problem that places millions of Americans at undue risk.”
Link to con.
Bad Days at Indian Point
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
These are desperate days for Entergy, the big Arkansas-based power conglomerate that owns the frail Indian Point nuclear plant, located on the east bank of the Hudson River outside Buchanan, New York—just twenty-two miles from Manhattan.
First, a scathing report issued in 2005 by a nuclear engineer fingered Indian Point as one of the five worst nuclear plants in the United States, and predicted that its emergency cooling system “is virtually certain to fail.”
This disclosure was hotly followed by the release of a study conducted by the Los Alamos National Laboratory for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that ominously concluded that the chances of a reactor meltdown increased by a factor of nearly 100 at Indian Point, because the plant’s drainage pits (also known as containment sumps) are “almost certain” to be blocked with debris during an accident.
“The NRC has known about the containment sump problem at Indian Point since September 1996,” said David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists. “The NRC cannot take more than a decade to fix a safety problem that places millions of Americans at undue risk.”
Link to con.
Senate torture report confirms Bush, top officials guilty of war crimes
By Bill Van Auken
A report issued Thursday by the Senate Armed Services Committee has provided official and bipartisan confirmation that the infamous acts of torture carried out by US personnel at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo were planned, ordered and orchestrated by the highest-ranking officials in the US government. Based on the Senate's own conclusions, those named in the document, including President George W. Bush, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, are guilty of war crimes.
The key findings of the Senate panel's report on "Treatment of Detainees in US Custody" [PDF] are summed up in the introduction to its 29-page executive summary:
"The abuse of detainees in US custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of ‘a few bad apples' acting on their own. The fact is that senior US officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees."
Link to con.
By Bill Van Auken
A report issued Thursday by the Senate Armed Services Committee has provided official and bipartisan confirmation that the infamous acts of torture carried out by US personnel at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo were planned, ordered and orchestrated by the highest-ranking officials in the US government. Based on the Senate's own conclusions, those named in the document, including President George W. Bush, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, are guilty of war crimes.
The key findings of the Senate panel's report on "Treatment of Detainees in US Custody" [PDF] are summed up in the introduction to its 29-page executive summary:
"The abuse of detainees in US custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of ‘a few bad apples' acting on their own. The fact is that senior US officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees."
Link to con.
WSWS speaks with Greek protesters in Berlin
Protests by students and school pupils continued in Greece on Thursday. In Athens, students have occupied the polytechnic; another 15 university buildings have been occupied in the capital city and in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city. According to police estimates, around 100 schools have also been occupied by pupils in both cities. At the same time, solidarity demonstrations outside Greek embassies have spread across Europe. Clashes between police and groups of protesters took place in Rome, Madrid and Copenhagen on Wednesday evening, with a number of arrests made. Protests have also taken place in Turkey.
The WSWS spoke to demonstrators who had gathered in Berlin on Tuesday—the day of the burial of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, the young man gunned down by Greek police last Saturday. The demonstrators had gathered outside the Greek consulate in Berlin to protest against police violence and the policies of the Karamanlis government. In a peaceful rally, the demonstrators called upon the German public to express its solidarity with the Greek protests and stressed the significance of the events in Greece for Germany and Europe as a whole.
Link to con.
Protests by students and school pupils continued in Greece on Thursday. In Athens, students have occupied the polytechnic; another 15 university buildings have been occupied in the capital city and in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city. According to police estimates, around 100 schools have also been occupied by pupils in both cities. At the same time, solidarity demonstrations outside Greek embassies have spread across Europe. Clashes between police and groups of protesters took place in Rome, Madrid and Copenhagen on Wednesday evening, with a number of arrests made. Protests have also taken place in Turkey.
The WSWS spoke to demonstrators who had gathered in Berlin on Tuesday—the day of the burial of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, the young man gunned down by Greek police last Saturday. The demonstrators had gathered outside the Greek consulate in Berlin to protest against police violence and the policies of the Karamanlis government. In a peaceful rally, the demonstrators called upon the German public to express its solidarity with the Greek protests and stressed the significance of the events in Greece for Germany and Europe as a whole.
Link to con.
Auto Bailout: Republicans Want to Screw the Unions
Republican opposition to a bail-out for the Big Three automakers is part of its campaign to gut US unions. Republican senators want extreme cuts to union wages and avoid stringent environmental promises in exchange for receiving the cash infusion.
The Bush administration said today it is willing to consider using funds from other sources to provide emergency aid to the nation's Big Three car companies following the Senate's rejection Thursday night of a congressional bailout plan. The statement from White House spokeswoman Dana Perino marks a shift in tone for the administration, which has so far rejected the idea of using money from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program or other sources under its control to help the auto industry survive.
After the collapse of negotiations in Congress, however, the White House said all options are on the table to help keep the automakers in business. On Thursday evening the US Senate failed to negotiate its way around the fine print of a short-term bail-out of the Big Three automakers, and we now face the very real prospect of General Motors and Chrysler declaring bankruptcy. Why the political stalemate? Well, it sure wasn't over the money itself. A year ago, $14bn, the amount asked for by the CEOs of the Big Three, might have seemed a big deal.
In the era of the trillion-dollar bail-out package, it's chump change. The money represents a mere 2% of the sum put aside to rescue banks, only 9% of the money handed over to the insurance giant AIG. The auto bail-out failed because of a clash of visions regarding America's industrial future, or lack thereof.
Link to con.
Republican opposition to a bail-out for the Big Three automakers is part of its campaign to gut US unions. Republican senators want extreme cuts to union wages and avoid stringent environmental promises in exchange for receiving the cash infusion.
The Bush administration said today it is willing to consider using funds from other sources to provide emergency aid to the nation's Big Three car companies following the Senate's rejection Thursday night of a congressional bailout plan. The statement from White House spokeswoman Dana Perino marks a shift in tone for the administration, which has so far rejected the idea of using money from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program or other sources under its control to help the auto industry survive.
After the collapse of negotiations in Congress, however, the White House said all options are on the table to help keep the automakers in business. On Thursday evening the US Senate failed to negotiate its way around the fine print of a short-term bail-out of the Big Three automakers, and we now face the very real prospect of General Motors and Chrysler declaring bankruptcy. Why the political stalemate? Well, it sure wasn't over the money itself. A year ago, $14bn, the amount asked for by the CEOs of the Big Three, might have seemed a big deal.
In the era of the trillion-dollar bail-out package, it's chump change. The money represents a mere 2% of the sum put aside to rescue banks, only 9% of the money handed over to the insurance giant AIG. The auto bail-out failed because of a clash of visions regarding America's industrial future, or lack thereof.
Link to con.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Two years after its launch, Mexicans question President Calderón's drug war
Drug-trafficking deaths have skyrocketed by more than 117 percent in 2008.
By Sara Miller Llana
Five thousand, three hundred, and seventy-six people have been killed in Mexico's drug war so far this year, double the number from last year and more than all the US troops killed in Iraq. Is this what victory looks like?
That's the question Mexico is grappling with two years after President Felipe Calderón took office announcing a massive military effort to dismantle drug trafficking organizations. Thursday marks two years since Mr. Calderón announced "Operation Michoacán," the first of a sustained series of high-profile deployments of soldiers across the country.
Since then, federal authorities have disarmed scores of police departments, boasted of bundles of cash and caches of weapons confiscated, and heralded arrests of some of the highest-profile traffickers as proof of success. But the effort's first year, 2007, also turned out to be the nation's deadliest in modern history; and the death toll for 2008 has, as of Dec. 2, far exceeded that, spiking by 117 percent, according to Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora. Authorities at the highest ranks have been arrested for colluding with traffickers, and a strategy that has been a political boon could turn into a liability for Calderón in next year's mid-term elections.
Link to con.
Drug-trafficking deaths have skyrocketed by more than 117 percent in 2008.
By Sara Miller Llana
Five thousand, three hundred, and seventy-six people have been killed in Mexico's drug war so far this year, double the number from last year and more than all the US troops killed in Iraq. Is this what victory looks like?
That's the question Mexico is grappling with two years after President Felipe Calderón took office announcing a massive military effort to dismantle drug trafficking organizations. Thursday marks two years since Mr. Calderón announced "Operation Michoacán," the first of a sustained series of high-profile deployments of soldiers across the country.
Since then, federal authorities have disarmed scores of police departments, boasted of bundles of cash and caches of weapons confiscated, and heralded arrests of some of the highest-profile traffickers as proof of success. But the effort's first year, 2007, also turned out to be the nation's deadliest in modern history; and the death toll for 2008 has, as of Dec. 2, far exceeded that, spiking by 117 percent, according to Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora. Authorities at the highest ranks have been arrested for colluding with traffickers, and a strategy that has been a political boon could turn into a liability for Calderón in next year's mid-term elections.
Link to con.
Making a New New Deal: Sitdown Strike in Chicago
by John Nichols
Much has been made about the prospect that Barack Obama's presidency might, due to economic necessity and the president-elect's interventionist inclinations, be a reprise of the New Deal era.
But there will be no "new New Deal" if Americans simply look to Obama to lead them out of the domestic quagmire into which Bill Clinton and George Bush led the country with a toxic blend of free-trade absolutism, banking deregulation and disdain for industrial policy. Just as Roosevelt needed mass movements and militancy as an excuse to talk Washington stalwarts into accepting radical shifts in the economic order, so Obama will need to be able to point to some turbulence at the grassroots.
And so he may have it. After the Bank of America -- a $25-billion recipient of Bailout Czar Hank Paulson's "Wall Street First" largesse -- cut off operating credit to the Republic Windows and Doors company, executives of the firm announced Friday that they were shutting its factory in Chicago.
Instead of going home to a dismal Holiday season like hundreds of thousands of other working Americans who have fallen victim to the corporate "reduction-in-force" frenzy of recent weeks -- which has seen suddenly-secure banks pocket federal dollars rather than loosen up credit -- the Republic workers occupied the factory where many of them had worked for decades.
Link to con.
by John Nichols
Much has been made about the prospect that Barack Obama's presidency might, due to economic necessity and the president-elect's interventionist inclinations, be a reprise of the New Deal era.
But there will be no "new New Deal" if Americans simply look to Obama to lead them out of the domestic quagmire into which Bill Clinton and George Bush led the country with a toxic blend of free-trade absolutism, banking deregulation and disdain for industrial policy. Just as Roosevelt needed mass movements and militancy as an excuse to talk Washington stalwarts into accepting radical shifts in the economic order, so Obama will need to be able to point to some turbulence at the grassroots.
And so he may have it. After the Bank of America -- a $25-billion recipient of Bailout Czar Hank Paulson's "Wall Street First" largesse -- cut off operating credit to the Republic Windows and Doors company, executives of the firm announced Friday that they were shutting its factory in Chicago.
Instead of going home to a dismal Holiday season like hundreds of thousands of other working Americans who have fallen victim to the corporate "reduction-in-force" frenzy of recent weeks -- which has seen suddenly-secure banks pocket federal dollars rather than loosen up credit -- the Republic workers occupied the factory where many of them had worked for decades.
Link to con.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
From Canned Goods to Fresh, Food Banks Adapt
December 9, 2008 by Katie Zezima
MADISON, Wis. — Vanessa Rosales comes to the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry here rather than others for one reason: She can choose what food she brings home, rather than being handed a bag filled with random groceries.
December 9, 2008 by Katie Zezima
MADISON, Wis. — Vanessa Rosales comes to the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry here rather than others for one reason: She can choose what food she brings home, rather than being handed a bag filled with random groceries.
The pantry, which looks like a small grocery store, is indicative of broad changes going on at the nation’s food banks and food pantries.
No longer simply the domain of canned corn and peanut butter, food banks are preparing ready-to-eat meals, opening their own farms and partnering with institutions as varied as local supermarkets and state prisons to help gather and process food. They are also handling much more fresh produce, which requires overhauling the way they store and distribute food.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Back at Junk Value, Recyclables Are Piling Up
By MATT RICHTEL and KATE GALBRAITH, NY TIMES
Trash has crashed. The economic downturn has decimated the market for recycled materials like cardboard, plastic, newspaper and metals. Across the country, this junk is accumulating by the ton in the yards and warehouses of recycling contractors, which are unable to find buyers or are unwilling to sell at rock-bottom prices.
Ordinarily the material would be turned into products like car parts, book covers and boxes for electronics. But with the slump in the scrap market, a trickle is starting to head for landfills instead of a second life.
“It’s awful,” said Briana Sternberg, education and outreach coordinator for Sedona Recycles, a nonprofit group in Arizona that recently stopped taking certain types of cardboard, like old cereal, rice and pasta boxes. There is no market for these, and the organization’s quarter-acre yard is already packed fence to fence.
“Either it goes to landfill or it begins to cost us money,” Ms. Sternberg said.
In West Virginia, an official of Kanawha County, which includes Charleston, the state capital, has called on residents to stockpile their own plastic and metals, which the county mostly stopped taking on Friday. In eastern Pennsylvania, the small town of Frackville recently suspended its recycling program when it became cheaper to dump than to recycle. In Montana, a recycler near Yellowstone National Park no longer takes anything but cardboard.
Link to con.
By MATT RICHTEL and KATE GALBRAITH, NY TIMES
Trash has crashed. The economic downturn has decimated the market for recycled materials like cardboard, plastic, newspaper and metals. Across the country, this junk is accumulating by the ton in the yards and warehouses of recycling contractors, which are unable to find buyers or are unwilling to sell at rock-bottom prices.
Ordinarily the material would be turned into products like car parts, book covers and boxes for electronics. But with the slump in the scrap market, a trickle is starting to head for landfills instead of a second life.
“It’s awful,” said Briana Sternberg, education and outreach coordinator for Sedona Recycles, a nonprofit group in Arizona that recently stopped taking certain types of cardboard, like old cereal, rice and pasta boxes. There is no market for these, and the organization’s quarter-acre yard is already packed fence to fence.
“Either it goes to landfill or it begins to cost us money,” Ms. Sternberg said.
In West Virginia, an official of Kanawha County, which includes Charleston, the state capital, has called on residents to stockpile their own plastic and metals, which the county mostly stopped taking on Friday. In eastern Pennsylvania, the small town of Frackville recently suspended its recycling program when it became cheaper to dump than to recycle. In Montana, a recycler near Yellowstone National Park no longer takes anything but cardboard.
Link to con.
This Toxic Life
Our world is awash with petro-chemicals. From plastics to pesticides
they are integral to modern life. Wayne Ellwood argues that we are all
paying the price for the release of these hazardous substances.
By Wayne Ellwood
New Internationalist
‘Every time I come here my body gets sad and angry at the same time,’
says Ron Plain. ‘You can’t put into words what it means to me.’
We’ve just tumbled out of Ron’s jeep near the end of a three-hour tour
of Sarnia, Ontario’s ‘chemical valley’. Ron calls it his ‘toxic tour’.
He’s done it dozens of times so the patter is easy and familiar.
Sarnia is a gritty blue-collar community of 70,000 people at the top
of the St Clair River, on the Canadian side, about a 100 kilometres
north of Detroit. The river is wide and fast-flowing here, a natural
link from Lake Huron, south to Lake Erie and east to Lake Ontario.
Ron is a member of the Chippewa First Nation of Aamjiwnaang and we’ve
stopped at his community’s cemetery, a quiet patch of land ringed by a
high steel fence. He’s 46 years old but tells me he doesn’t expect to
make it to 60. Ron points out the graves of his parents, his
grandparents and great grandparents, his aunts and uncles. Carbon
dating shows his ancestors have been living in this area of southern
Ontario for 6,000 years. It’s a warm day in early spring and the trees
are just starting to leaf out. But nothing can hide the looming petro-
chemical plant which abuts the graveyard. A tall chimney burns with an
orange flame in the bright sun. To the east, a few hundred yards away,
is a parking lot and another chemical complex. The cemetery is a
microcosm of the whole reserve. Aamjiwnaang is literally surrounded by
dozens of chemical plants. The community of 900 souls on the southern
edge of Sarnia sits in the middle of the densest collection of petro-
chemical industries in Canada and one of the densest in North America.
There are 62 plants within a 25-kilometre radius, 40 per cent of the
country’s total. The players include some of the word’s biggest and
most powerful corporations — Dow, Shell, Nova, Bayer and Imperial Oil
(Exxon) all operate within five kilometres of the reserve, most of
them 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Gender bending
Link to con.
Our world is awash with petro-chemicals. From plastics to pesticides
they are integral to modern life. Wayne Ellwood argues that we are all
paying the price for the release of these hazardous substances.
By Wayne Ellwood
New Internationalist
‘Every time I come here my body gets sad and angry at the same time,’
says Ron Plain. ‘You can’t put into words what it means to me.’
We’ve just tumbled out of Ron’s jeep near the end of a three-hour tour
of Sarnia, Ontario’s ‘chemical valley’. Ron calls it his ‘toxic tour’.
He’s done it dozens of times so the patter is easy and familiar.
Sarnia is a gritty blue-collar community of 70,000 people at the top
of the St Clair River, on the Canadian side, about a 100 kilometres
north of Detroit. The river is wide and fast-flowing here, a natural
link from Lake Huron, south to Lake Erie and east to Lake Ontario.
Ron is a member of the Chippewa First Nation of Aamjiwnaang and we’ve
stopped at his community’s cemetery, a quiet patch of land ringed by a
high steel fence. He’s 46 years old but tells me he doesn’t expect to
make it to 60. Ron points out the graves of his parents, his
grandparents and great grandparents, his aunts and uncles. Carbon
dating shows his ancestors have been living in this area of southern
Ontario for 6,000 years. It’s a warm day in early spring and the trees
are just starting to leaf out. But nothing can hide the looming petro-
chemical plant which abuts the graveyard. A tall chimney burns with an
orange flame in the bright sun. To the east, a few hundred yards away,
is a parking lot and another chemical complex. The cemetery is a
microcosm of the whole reserve. Aamjiwnaang is literally surrounded by
dozens of chemical plants. The community of 900 souls on the southern
edge of Sarnia sits in the middle of the densest collection of petro-
chemical industries in Canada and one of the densest in North America.
There are 62 plants within a 25-kilometre radius, 40 per cent of the
country’s total. The players include some of the word’s biggest and
most powerful corporations — Dow, Shell, Nova, Bayer and Imperial Oil
(Exxon) all operate within five kilometres of the reserve, most of
them 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Gender bending
Link to con.
In New Era, Timber’s Struggles Stir Broad Concern and Support
By KIRK JOHNSON, NY TIMES
A scramble is under way here in Montana to save the historically important, culturally resonant timber industry — once a pillar of the state’s identity, now under siege as demand for housing and wood products has plummeted in the national economic downturn.
But what makes this debate different from those about saving automobile makers or banks and whoever else is in line for a bailout are the multiple layers of connection to things that might seem to have nothing to do with two-by-fours, plywood or even jobs.
Climate change, for example — how to manage state and federal forest lands as new diseases and insects threaten them in a warmer future — and the soaring costs of fighting wildfires in the West have both become part of the discussion. If the state loses its base of roughly 200 interconnected sawmills, pulp buyers and family-owned tree-cutting contractors, advocates say, who will be left to work in the woods to make them usable, beautiful and safe, and at what cost?
“Our fear is that we could lose our infrastructure — the base of knowledge and experience of working in the forest,” said Mary Sexton, the director of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. “Once it’s gone, it’s gone.”
Link to con.
By KIRK JOHNSON, NY TIMES
A scramble is under way here in Montana to save the historically important, culturally resonant timber industry — once a pillar of the state’s identity, now under siege as demand for housing and wood products has plummeted in the national economic downturn.
But what makes this debate different from those about saving automobile makers or banks and whoever else is in line for a bailout are the multiple layers of connection to things that might seem to have nothing to do with two-by-fours, plywood or even jobs.
Climate change, for example — how to manage state and federal forest lands as new diseases and insects threaten them in a warmer future — and the soaring costs of fighting wildfires in the West have both become part of the discussion. If the state loses its base of roughly 200 interconnected sawmills, pulp buyers and family-owned tree-cutting contractors, advocates say, who will be left to work in the woods to make them usable, beautiful and safe, and at what cost?
“Our fear is that we could lose our infrastructure — the base of knowledge and experience of working in the forest,” said Mary Sexton, the director of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. “Once it’s gone, it’s gone.”
Link to con.
Monday, December 08, 2008
Attacking Alzheimer's with Red Wine and Marijuana
By Tom Jacobs, Miller-McCune.com.
Two new studies suggest that substances usually associated with dulling the mind -- marijuana and red wine -- may help ward off Alzheimer's disease and other forms of age-related memory loss. Their addition comes as another study dethrones folk remedy ginkgo biloba as proof against the disease.
At a November meeting of the Society of Neuroscience in Washington, D.C., researchers from Ohio State University reported that THC, the main psychoactive substance in the cannabis plant, may reduce inflammation in the brain and even stimulate the formation of new brain cells.
Meanwhile, in the Nov. 21 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, neurologist David Teplow of the University of California, Los Angeles reported that polyphenols -- naturally occurring components of red wine -- block the formation of proteins that build the toxic plaques thought to destroy brain cells. In addition, these substances can reduce the toxicity of existing plaques, thus reducing cognitive deterioration.
Together, the studies suggest scientists are gaining a clearer understanding of the mechanics of memory deterioration and discovering some promising approaches to prevention.
Link to con.
By Tom Jacobs, Miller-McCune.com.
Two new studies suggest that substances usually associated with dulling the mind -- marijuana and red wine -- may help ward off Alzheimer's disease and other forms of age-related memory loss. Their addition comes as another study dethrones folk remedy ginkgo biloba as proof against the disease.
At a November meeting of the Society of Neuroscience in Washington, D.C., researchers from Ohio State University reported that THC, the main psychoactive substance in the cannabis plant, may reduce inflammation in the brain and even stimulate the formation of new brain cells.
Meanwhile, in the Nov. 21 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, neurologist David Teplow of the University of California, Los Angeles reported that polyphenols -- naturally occurring components of red wine -- block the formation of proteins that build the toxic plaques thought to destroy brain cells. In addition, these substances can reduce the toxicity of existing plaques, thus reducing cognitive deterioration.
Together, the studies suggest scientists are gaining a clearer understanding of the mechanics of memory deterioration and discovering some promising approaches to prevention.
Link to con.
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Workers’ Revolution in America: Approaching Zero Hour
McCamy Taylor
Today I read a little gem written in 1926 by Heinz Neuman, called Marx and Engels on Revolution in America . In the journal below, I will quote from this text which quotes liberally from the writings of Engels, but I encourage you to read the whole work (which is quite short) yourself. Here is a link:
http://www.archive.org/stream/marxengelsonrevo00neum/ma...
If you have ever wondered why the United States has lagged behind Western Europe in work hours, health care, maternity leave and other issues affecting workers, Engels provided some thought provoking answers back in the 19th century. He also spelled out the conditions under which the workers of the United States would stop being complacent and start their own revolution.
From the looks of things, we are fast approaching the right combination of conditions.
“When the Americans once
begin, they will do so with an energy and virulence,
in comparison with which we in Europe will be chil-
dren."
Engels letter to Schlueter, dated March 30,
1892
I. Whose Fault Is It When You Lose Your Job? Your Fault or the Job’s Fault?
Link to con.
McCamy Taylor
Today I read a little gem written in 1926 by Heinz Neuman, called Marx and Engels on Revolution in America . In the journal below, I will quote from this text which quotes liberally from the writings of Engels, but I encourage you to read the whole work (which is quite short) yourself. Here is a link:
http://www.archive.org/stream/marxengelsonrevo00neum/ma...
If you have ever wondered why the United States has lagged behind Western Europe in work hours, health care, maternity leave and other issues affecting workers, Engels provided some thought provoking answers back in the 19th century. He also spelled out the conditions under which the workers of the United States would stop being complacent and start their own revolution.
From the looks of things, we are fast approaching the right combination of conditions.
“When the Americans once
begin, they will do so with an energy and virulence,
in comparison with which we in Europe will be chil-
dren."
Engels letter to Schlueter, dated March 30,
1892
I. Whose Fault Is It When You Lose Your Job? Your Fault or the Job’s Fault?
Link to con.
The Pre-Inaugural Bash
by Ed Naha
Remember the good old days, like a month ago, when Obama was seen as the bringer of hope? These days, according to the pundit pooh-poohers and the blogger banshees, the guy can't do anything right.
He talks too much. He's not saying enough. He's not doing enough. He's hogging the spotlight. He's not strong enough. And, forget about his Cabinet-to-be. It's not liberal enough. It's too Republican. It's not Republican enough. There's only one Hispanic and, of course, it's the one that Chinese-Americans don't like. Clinton's too risky. Gates is a Bush mole. There are too many old faces. Where are the new ideas? Where's Howard Dean? Where's Wesley Clark? Where's Dennis Kucinich? Where's Michael Moore? Where's Waldo?
Not too bad, considering the guy can't legally even order a tuna melt at the White House for another six weeks and change. Still it goes on. Frustrated by the fact that the "real" President, one George W. Bush, is too busy giving mind-numbing "exit" interviews (White Out at the ready!) to pay attention to the daily chaos known as the American life style, everyone is lobbing grenades at Obama for not taking charge of our foundering ship of state.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) gave voice to this frustration when he stated: "He's (Obama's) going to have to be more assertive than he's been. At a time of great crisis with mortgage foreclosures and autos, he says we only have one president at a time. I'm afraid that he overstates the number of presidents we have. He's got to remedy that situation."
Link to con.
by Ed Naha
Remember the good old days, like a month ago, when Obama was seen as the bringer of hope? These days, according to the pundit pooh-poohers and the blogger banshees, the guy can't do anything right.
He talks too much. He's not saying enough. He's not doing enough. He's hogging the spotlight. He's not strong enough. And, forget about his Cabinet-to-be. It's not liberal enough. It's too Republican. It's not Republican enough. There's only one Hispanic and, of course, it's the one that Chinese-Americans don't like. Clinton's too risky. Gates is a Bush mole. There are too many old faces. Where are the new ideas? Where's Howard Dean? Where's Wesley Clark? Where's Dennis Kucinich? Where's Michael Moore? Where's Waldo?
Not too bad, considering the guy can't legally even order a tuna melt at the White House for another six weeks and change. Still it goes on. Frustrated by the fact that the "real" President, one George W. Bush, is too busy giving mind-numbing "exit" interviews (White Out at the ready!) to pay attention to the daily chaos known as the American life style, everyone is lobbing grenades at Obama for not taking charge of our foundering ship of state.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) gave voice to this frustration when he stated: "He's (Obama's) going to have to be more assertive than he's been. At a time of great crisis with mortgage foreclosures and autos, he says we only have one president at a time. I'm afraid that he overstates the number of presidents we have. He's got to remedy that situation."
Link to con.
Free Mumia documentary, looks pretty interesting!
http://www.inprisonmywholelife.com/Trailer.seam?cid=49939
http://www.inprisonmywholelife.com/Trailer.seam?cid=49939
O Say Can You Buy?
By Nicole McClelland
i had been cursing up and down the aisles at the grocery store for half an hour when I finally found a can of black beans claiming to be "100% usa family farm organically grown." I was on a weeklong mission to buy only American-made goods, and my very first shopping trip had turned into a debacle. I'd been forced to put back the bananas, cherries, coconut, and chipotle peppers, and I was about to blow $15 on a tiny bottle of US-made olive oil.
I was hoisting the beans triumphantly above my head when my roommate approached. "What about the packaging?" she asked. I scowled at her. More of the world's aluminum comes from China than from anywhere else; the only way to know the origins of this particular can was to call the company—and it was Saturday. "Buying American is such a pain in the ass!" I wailed.
In 1990, when I was in grade school, I watched a union-sponsored commercial in which a mother told her little boy that they would have to move because Dad had lost his job—too many people were buying imports. As union jobs dried up, so did that campaign; now, 14 years into nafta, buying local is hot, but buying American is, at best, a joke (though in August Barack Obama dusted off the sentiment with his "Buy American, Vote Obama" slogan). When I told Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, that I was going to buy only American for a week, he laughed. "I'm very sorry to hear that.
Link to con.
By Nicole McClelland
i had been cursing up and down the aisles at the grocery store for half an hour when I finally found a can of black beans claiming to be "100% usa family farm organically grown." I was on a weeklong mission to buy only American-made goods, and my very first shopping trip had turned into a debacle. I'd been forced to put back the bananas, cherries, coconut, and chipotle peppers, and I was about to blow $15 on a tiny bottle of US-made olive oil.
I was hoisting the beans triumphantly above my head when my roommate approached. "What about the packaging?" she asked. I scowled at her. More of the world's aluminum comes from China than from anywhere else; the only way to know the origins of this particular can was to call the company—and it was Saturday. "Buying American is such a pain in the ass!" I wailed.
In 1990, when I was in grade school, I watched a union-sponsored commercial in which a mother told her little boy that they would have to move because Dad had lost his job—too many people were buying imports. As union jobs dried up, so did that campaign; now, 14 years into nafta, buying local is hot, but buying American is, at best, a joke (though in August Barack Obama dusted off the sentiment with his "Buy American, Vote Obama" slogan). When I told Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, that I was going to buy only American for a week, he laughed. "I'm very sorry to hear that.
Link to con.
Follow The Money Deep Underground
By Shadi Rahimi
Link
By Shadi Rahimi
December 2, 2008
News: New Mexico Dispatch: For Navajo activist Elouise Brown, there's no such thing as "clean coal."
The morning after a prayer vigil at Elouise Brown's desert camp, I was awakened by the shaking of my tent. "Get up," one of her supporters whispered. "They're blasting again." Goat stew bubbled by the campfire as billowy gray clouds rose from a dynamited pit at a nearby surface mine. Trucks roared past the camp, disappearing down a road dividing the desolate landscape. Groggy activists hopped in a pickup and followed. Their report back: Multinational company Sithe Global Power was drilling again to test for water sources deep beneath Navajo land, on a site where they hope to erect a controversial clean coal" power plant, called Desert Rock.
Link
The Blue Marble: Making Iraq Fertile
Iraq is flushing salinity out of millions of acres of land. The process should breathe new life into dirty rivers and dying soils. The idea is to restore "fertile" to the Fertile Crescent. You remember: the swath of once-fecund land arching from the Mediterranean across Iraq and down to the Persian Gulf—aka, the Garden of Eden.
Iraq is flushing salinity out of millions of acres of land. The process should breathe new life into dirty rivers and dying soils. The idea is to restore "fertile" to the Fertile Crescent. You remember: the swath of once-fecund land arching from the Mediterranean across Iraq and down to the Persian Gulf—aka, the Garden of Eden.
But centuries of irrigation and overuse have turned the farmlands of southern and central Iraq saline—aka, the Garden of Apocalypse. The problem derives from salt collecting in soil when farmers irrigate it with salty water or don't drain it properly. The end result is that Iraq is now so fallow the country imports virtually all its food, paying with oil profits. Much of the government's current budget is spent on food rations, reports Reuters. Making Iraq fertile suggests there might actually be a post-oil future for that nation.
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Two (Radical?) Thoughts on Infrastructure
By Yochai Benkler
We hear a lot about infrastructure investment today: roads and bridges, mostly. But we live in an information society and an information economy. We need investment in information infrastructure, and that, in the near term that is relevant for a recovery package, means massive public investment in Fiber To The Home (FTTH) and creating a fundamentally new system for adult education and its conversion into greater local involvement in education programs at local public schools.
Fiber to the Home
Sometimes, in the context of the need for infrastructure investment, we hear about communications infrastructure and broadband. Up to this point, however, this has meant some forms of subsidy or tax relief to current firms in the broadband business, and an increase in what the United States defines as "broadband" so that within two years we will define broadband as 10 megabits per second downstream to the home. To get a sense of how ambitious this is for the world's largest economy, consider that Japanese consumers have already been enjoying 100 megabits per second service for a few years. Future to the Back, I guess, more than Back to the Future.
The fundamental mistake is to take as given that communications infrastructure must be produced, from the ditch digging up, by private firms. No one imagines that we will privatize highway and bridge construction in order to update them. They are shared core infrastructure, that is run as a commons, and are maintained at public expense by private companies that employ workers, foremen, and managers, and whose employment fuels the economy. Why can't communications infrastructure be the same?
Link to con.
By Yochai Benkler
We hear a lot about infrastructure investment today: roads and bridges, mostly. But we live in an information society and an information economy. We need investment in information infrastructure, and that, in the near term that is relevant for a recovery package, means massive public investment in Fiber To The Home (FTTH) and creating a fundamentally new system for adult education and its conversion into greater local involvement in education programs at local public schools.
Fiber to the Home
Sometimes, in the context of the need for infrastructure investment, we hear about communications infrastructure and broadband. Up to this point, however, this has meant some forms of subsidy or tax relief to current firms in the broadband business, and an increase in what the United States defines as "broadband" so that within two years we will define broadband as 10 megabits per second downstream to the home. To get a sense of how ambitious this is for the world's largest economy, consider that Japanese consumers have already been enjoying 100 megabits per second service for a few years. Future to the Back, I guess, more than Back to the Future.
The fundamental mistake is to take as given that communications infrastructure must be produced, from the ditch digging up, by private firms. No one imagines that we will privatize highway and bridge construction in order to update them. They are shared core infrastructure, that is run as a commons, and are maintained at public expense by private companies that employ workers, foremen, and managers, and whose employment fuels the economy. Why can't communications infrastructure be the same?
Link to con.
Friday, December 05, 2008
Monsanto Beets Down Opposition
Environmental and public health groups are suing the USDA to stop the planting of Roundup Ready-proof GMO sugar beets
By Kari LydersenWILLAMETTE VALLEY, Ore.—The sugar beets growing in farmer Tim Winn’s fields do not look menacing. But other farmers in Oregon’s fertile Willamette Valley fear the beets could devastate their crops.
Winn’s sugar beets have been genetically modified to allow them to survive application of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready herbicide. The modification allows Winn to kill weeds in his field with two sprayings of Roundup, rather than the multiple applications of various herbicides he used to use.
Winn and other sugar beet farmers across the country say Roundup Ready sugar beet—which are being grown on a commercial scale for the first time this year—make farmers’ work easier and more profitable. And, they claim, there will be environmental benefits because farmers will make fewer passes through fields with a tractor—a point that was made in a 2003 British study published in New Scientist magazine.
Link(Monsanto's power scares the hell out of me...more fiddling while Rome burns! K)
Thursday, December 04, 2008
In Turnabout, EPA Allows Mining Debris Near Streams
ProPublica - December 4, 2008
Ignoring its own scientific study, the Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday that dumping debris from coal mining into mountain streams doesn't conflict with the Clean Water Act -- a reversal that clears the way for a new Bush administration rule that critics call a gift to mining interests.
ProPublica - December 4, 2008
Ignoring its own scientific study, the Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday that dumping debris from coal mining into mountain streams doesn't conflict with the Clean Water Act -- a reversal that clears the way for a new Bush administration rule that critics call a gift to mining interests.
In its waning days, the administration is rushing to approve scores of rule changes to leave its stamp on government. The controversy over environmental damage from mountaintop mining -- blasting off the tops of mountains to more easily get at coal -- has raged for years, with environmentalists and the EPA at odds with the industry about the dangers to water quality from dumping debris nearby.
GOP Senator Wants More God In Government Visitor Center
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Showing once again that whenever a transformational leader like Barack Obama comes along to lead the nation into the future, the Republican party is always there to drag us backwards, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) tried to delay the grand opening of the new Capitol Visitor Center in Washington because he thinks there just isn't enough mention of God in the facility.Saying that the $621 million historical exhibit is "left-leaning" and leaves out America's "history of faith," DeMint tried to use his Senatorial clout to delay the center's opening on Tuesday and, among other things, wanted the original national motto of "E. Pluribus Unum" -- "from many, one" in Latin -- replaced with "In God We Trust."
“The Capitol Visitor Center is designed to tell the history and purpose of our nation's Capitol, but it fails to appropriately honor our religious heritage that has been critical to America’s success,” said DeMint.
Link
The pitfalls of Africa's aid addiction
By Sorious Samura
Video
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/7742426.stm
Where I come from in West Africa, we have a saying: "A fool at 40 is a fool forever", and most African countries have now been independent for over 40 years. Most are blessed with all the elements to help compete on a global stage - abundant natural resources, a young population and the climate and conditions to be a major agricultural force.
And yet today, my continent, which is home to 10% of the world's population, represents just 1% of global trade. I have no doubt we have to take responsibility for our failures. We can't afford to keep playing the blame game. But when 50 years of foreign aid has failed to lift Africa out of poverty, could corruption be the reason?
Could that really be all there is to it? Causes of corruption. The symptoms of corruption are easy to spot.
Teachers demand bribes from their students because they cannot get by on their wages. Government officials, doctors and nurses steal drugs meant for their patients to sell on the black market. African leaders have property portfolios across the globe, while their citizens live on $1 a day or less.
Link to con.
By Sorious Samura
Video
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/7742426.stm
Where I come from in West Africa, we have a saying: "A fool at 40 is a fool forever", and most African countries have now been independent for over 40 years. Most are blessed with all the elements to help compete on a global stage - abundant natural resources, a young population and the climate and conditions to be a major agricultural force.
And yet today, my continent, which is home to 10% of the world's population, represents just 1% of global trade. I have no doubt we have to take responsibility for our failures. We can't afford to keep playing the blame game. But when 50 years of foreign aid has failed to lift Africa out of poverty, could corruption be the reason?
Could that really be all there is to it? Causes of corruption. The symptoms of corruption are easy to spot.
Teachers demand bribes from their students because they cannot get by on their wages. Government officials, doctors and nurses steal drugs meant for their patients to sell on the black market. African leaders have property portfolios across the globe, while their citizens live on $1 a day or less.
Link to con.
Countering the Lies
Nationalize GM (Or At Least Think About It)
By ROBERT WEISSMAN
With the U.S. government offering trillions of dollars in supports for the financial sector, it is startling to witness the casual way in which many policy makers and opinion leaders suggest the U.S. auto companies should be allowed to go bankrupt.
In considerable part, this attitude reflects an anti-union and anti-blue collar animus. It also reflects the diminished economic power of what was formerly known as the Big Three (General Motors, Ford, Chrysler).
The stakes are too high for policy to be influenced by misinformation and ideological bias. The auto companies need to be saved, on terms that protect workers and communities, and advance public objectives. Congress and the country should be debating those terms, not dithering with unrealistic discussions of bankruptcy or demands to reduce already shrunken union wages and benefits.
How can we look at these issues sensibly?
First, one must note the awesome disparity in treatment for the auto industry and Wall Street. Government agencies have thrown literally trillions of dollars at the financial sector, with very light conditions, and virtually no discussion of industry salary structures (aside from limited restraints on top executive compensation). By contrast, there has been endless fulmination about supposedly excessively generous wages for unionized auto workers, and much more severe financial and oversight conditions proposed for an industry bailout.
Link to con.
Nationalize GM (Or At Least Think About It)
By ROBERT WEISSMAN
With the U.S. government offering trillions of dollars in supports for the financial sector, it is startling to witness the casual way in which many policy makers and opinion leaders suggest the U.S. auto companies should be allowed to go bankrupt.
In considerable part, this attitude reflects an anti-union and anti-blue collar animus. It also reflects the diminished economic power of what was formerly known as the Big Three (General Motors, Ford, Chrysler).
The stakes are too high for policy to be influenced by misinformation and ideological bias. The auto companies need to be saved, on terms that protect workers and communities, and advance public objectives. Congress and the country should be debating those terms, not dithering with unrealistic discussions of bankruptcy or demands to reduce already shrunken union wages and benefits.
How can we look at these issues sensibly?
First, one must note the awesome disparity in treatment for the auto industry and Wall Street. Government agencies have thrown literally trillions of dollars at the financial sector, with very light conditions, and virtually no discussion of industry salary structures (aside from limited restraints on top executive compensation). By contrast, there has been endless fulmination about supposedly excessively generous wages for unionized auto workers, and much more severe financial and oversight conditions proposed for an industry bailout.
Link to con.
Saving the Big 3 for You and Me ...a message from Michael Moore
Friends,
I drive an American car. It's a Chrysler. That's not an endorsement. It's more like a cry for pity. And now for a decades-old story, retold ad infinitum by tens of millions of Americans, a third of whom have had to desert their country to simply find a damn way to get to work in something that won't break down:
My Chrysler is four years old. I bought it because of its smooth and comfortable ride. Daimler-Benz owned the company then and had the good grace to place the Chrysler chassis on a Mercedes axle and, man, was that a sweet ride!
When it would start.
More than a dozen times in these years, the car has simply died. Batteries have been replaced, but that wasn't the problem. My dad drives the same model. His car has died many times, too. Just won't start, for no reason at all.
A few weeks ago, I took my Chrysler in to the Chrysler dealer here in northern Michigan -- and the latest fixes cost me $1,400. The next day, the vehicle wouldn't start. When I got it going, the brake warning light came on. And on and on.
You might assume from this that I couldn't give a rat's ass about these miserably inept crapmobile makers down the road in Detroit city. But I do care. I care about the millions whose lives and livelihoods depend on these car companies. I care about the security and defense of this country because the world is running out of oil -- and when it runs out, the calamity and collapse that will take place will make the current recession/depression look like a Tommy Tune musical.
Link to con.
Raising the World’s I.Q.
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, NY TIMES
Travelers to Africa and Asia all have their favorite forms of foreign aid to “make a difference.” One of mine is a miracle substance that is cheap and actually makes people smarter.
Unfortunately, it has one appalling side effect. No, it doesn’t make you sterile, but it is just about the least sexy substance in the world. Indeed, because it’s so numbingly boring, few people pay attention to it or invest in it. (Or dare write about it!)
It’s iodized salt.
Almost one-third of the world’s people don’t get enough iodine from food and water. The result in extreme cases is large goiters that swell their necks, or other obvious impairments such as dwarfism or cretinism. But far more common is mental slowness.
When a pregnant woman doesn’t have enough iodine in her body, her child may suffer irreversible brain damage and could have an I.Q. that is 10 to 15 points lower than it would otherwise be. An educated guess is that iodine deficiency results in a needless loss of more than 1 billion I.Q. points around the world.
Link to con.
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, NY TIMES
Travelers to Africa and Asia all have their favorite forms of foreign aid to “make a difference.” One of mine is a miracle substance that is cheap and actually makes people smarter.
Unfortunately, it has one appalling side effect. No, it doesn’t make you sterile, but it is just about the least sexy substance in the world. Indeed, because it’s so numbingly boring, few people pay attention to it or invest in it. (Or dare write about it!)
It’s iodized salt.
Almost one-third of the world’s people don’t get enough iodine from food and water. The result in extreme cases is large goiters that swell their necks, or other obvious impairments such as dwarfism or cretinism. But far more common is mental slowness.
When a pregnant woman doesn’t have enough iodine in her body, her child may suffer irreversible brain damage and could have an I.Q. that is 10 to 15 points lower than it would otherwise be. An educated guess is that iodine deficiency results in a needless loss of more than 1 billion I.Q. points around the world.
Link to con.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Somalia: Another CIA-Backed Coup Blows Up
By Mike Whitney
Up until a month ago, no one in the Bush administration showed the least bit of interest in the incidents of piracy off the coast of Somalia. Now that's all changed and there's talk of sending in the Navy to patrol the waters off the Horn of Africa and clean up the pirates hideouts. Why the sudden about-face? Could it have something to do with the fact that the Ethiopian army is planning to withdrawal all of its troops from Mogadishu by the end of the year, thus, ending the failed two year US-backed occupation of Somalia?
The United States has lost the ground war in Somalia, but that doesn't mean its geopolitical objectives have changed one iota. The US intends to stay in the region for years to come and use its naval power to control the critical shipping lanes from the Gulf of Aden. The growing strength of the Somali national resistance is a set-back, but it doesn't change the basic game-plan. The pirates are actually a blessing in disguise. They provide an excuse for the administration to beef up it's military presence and put down roots. Every crisis is an opportunity.
There's an interesting subtext to the pirate story that hasn't appeared in the western media. According to Simon Assaf of the Socialist Worker:
"Many European, US and Asian shipping firms – notably Switzerland's Achair Partners and Italy's Progresso – signed dumping deals in the early 1990s with Somalia's politicians and militia leaders. This meant they could use the coast as a toxic dumping ground. This practice became widespread as the country descended into civil war.
Link to con.
By Mike Whitney
Up until a month ago, no one in the Bush administration showed the least bit of interest in the incidents of piracy off the coast of Somalia. Now that's all changed and there's talk of sending in the Navy to patrol the waters off the Horn of Africa and clean up the pirates hideouts. Why the sudden about-face? Could it have something to do with the fact that the Ethiopian army is planning to withdrawal all of its troops from Mogadishu by the end of the year, thus, ending the failed two year US-backed occupation of Somalia?
The United States has lost the ground war in Somalia, but that doesn't mean its geopolitical objectives have changed one iota. The US intends to stay in the region for years to come and use its naval power to control the critical shipping lanes from the Gulf of Aden. The growing strength of the Somali national resistance is a set-back, but it doesn't change the basic game-plan. The pirates are actually a blessing in disguise. They provide an excuse for the administration to beef up it's military presence and put down roots. Every crisis is an opportunity.
There's an interesting subtext to the pirate story that hasn't appeared in the western media. According to Simon Assaf of the Socialist Worker:
"Many European, US and Asian shipping firms – notably Switzerland's Achair Partners and Italy's Progresso – signed dumping deals in the early 1990s with Somalia's politicians and militia leaders. This meant they could use the coast as a toxic dumping ground. This practice became widespread as the country descended into civil war.
Link to con.
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