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March 2006 Articles
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DV Articles
November 2003
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When
the late Alabama Governor George Wallace -- surrounded by armed guards --
stood on the steps of the University of Alabama to prevent a young Black
woman from entering the University of Alabama, he declared, “Segregation
today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!” He also inspired a man
who would later stand at the US/Mexican border, armed to the teeth, to
prevent other brown skinned people from entering someplace he didn’t want
them to enter -- the United States.....(full
article)
Better Under Saddam Saddam Hussein is a bad man. As a 22-year-old he worked with the CIA on a botched effort to assassinate Iraqi President Abd al-Karim Qasim. The CIA and Egyptian intelligence got him out of Iraq and to Lebanon, where the CIA paid for his Beirut apartment, and then to Cairo. In 1963, under the new government headed by President ‘Abd as-Salam ‘Arif, he was placed in charge of the interrogation, torture and execution of communists whose names the CIA happily provided the new regime. He rose in the Baathist party ranks, and although jailed between 1964 and 1966, grabbed power in 1979. The Reagan administration cozied up to him after he attacked Iran; Donald Rumsfeld met with him twice and provided his regime with invaluable intelligence abetting his aggressive war on Iran in the ‘80s, which took a million lives. A bad man and bad regime. The propaganda of the occupiers requires that we believe things have improved since his fall. But the evidence suggests otherwise.....(full article)
The American Civil Liberties Union seems to believe that not only does money talk, it has a First Amendment right to do so. In keeping with that highly dubious notion, the ACLU is attacking a Vermont law that limits contributions to political candidates and candidate spending in state elections. In a case now being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court, (Randall v. Sorrell) the ACLU argued the law conflicts with the infamous “money equals speech” doctrine first promulgated by the Court in its 1975 Buckley v. Valeo ruling. Although Buckley did allow restrictions on individual contributions, the Court struck down a law limiting the funds a candidate could spend on a national political campaign. Many critics think this decision has hamstrung serious attempts to keep wealth from being a dominant factor in elections.....(full article)
Back in the 1990s, when I was part of a union organizing effort at the University of Vermont, one of the assumptions expressed by the school's administration was the inevitability of the university's continuing corporatization. This assumption was also shared by many of the workers that we were attempting to organize. Furthermore, the assumption was not one specific to the university. Indeed, it was actually usually expressed as part of a larger reality that assumed that the world was going to continue down a path that would result in the ultimate supremacy of the world's largest corporations and banks running everything. Most of these businesses were naturally US-owned, even if they had their offices overseas. Now, the aspect of this whole series of assumptions that irked me the most wasn't that the corporations (and, locally, the university's administration and trustees) told us that this was a good thing. Nor was it that they acted like this scenario was a natural thing, because, according to the laws of capitalist accumulation, it was. No, what irked me the most (and still irks me) is the attempt to portray this form of monopoly capitalism and corporate takeover of every part of our lives as something over which no one has any control.....(full article)
Each Palestinian has a special place in their heart for Rachel Corrie. She symbolized strength, perseverance, and self-assuredness. Conversely, she was labeled an enemy of Israel, a nuisance by the American government and a target of ridicule by pro-Israeli propagandists. 58 years ago, my grandparents were dispossessed from their land in Palestine and this energetic little white girl from Olympia, Washington traveled half the world to try to fulfill their dream: the fruition of justice in Palestine. On March 22, a congregation of ardent supporters gathered to commemorate Rachel’s life and spread her words in the very church Martin Luther King, Jr. first chastised the war in Vietnam. This event came out of controversy. The critically acclaimed play My Name is Rachel Corrie, which chronicled Rachel Corrie’s work with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in Palestine through email and letters (and had two sellout runs in London), was canceled by the New York Theater Workshop (NYTW). Just weeks after the cartoon controversy and the mass trumpeting of free speech worldwide, Rachel Corrie was being silenced. The New York Theater Workshop attempted to crush her memory but her words live on. Other theaters have already expressed interest in putting on the show.....(full article)
Dear George,
In New Orleans, seven months after Katrina, senior citizens are living in their cars. WWL-TV introduced us to Korean War veteran Paul Morris, 74, and his wife Yvonne, 66. They have been sleeping in their two-door sedan since January. They have been waiting that long for FEMA contractors to unlock the 240 square foot trailer in their yard and connect the power so they can sleep inside it in front of their devastated home. This tale of lunacy does not begin to stop there. Their 240 square foot trailer may well cost more than their house. While FEMA flat out refuses to say how much the government is paying for trailers, reliable estimates by the New York Times and others place the cost at over $60,000 each. How could these tiny FEMA trailers cost so much? (full article)
Describing fentanyl as a "very strong narcotic," on July 15, 2005 the FDA issued a Public Health Advisory regarding the safe use of transdermal fentanyl patches in response to reports of 120 deaths in patients using the patch for pain management, stating that some patients and doctors might not be fully aware of its dangers. A cursory investigation of drug deaths listed in various databanks around the country indicates a severe math deficiency in officials within the nation's safety agency because the number of deaths attributed to fentanyl is far larger than the mere 120 cited by the FDA.....(full article)
Voicing what the Associated Press termed “now largely a consensus view,” Mr. Ben Bernanke, the new chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, has said low inflation is the key to growth of the U.S. economy and job market. OK, but how does this policy apply to the nation’s inflationary market for housing? (full article)
It’s nearly springtime and technology too is ready to be reborn. Thanks in large part to Alan Greenspan's retirement from the Fed, and the departure of “irrational exuberance” along with him, we can officially declare the dot-com winter over. So-called Web 2.0, the latest round of interactive, Internet-based tools and services, is to be our salvation. Raising their ipod-clutching fists to the sky, the technorati are demanding we take note of a new, golden era, where we can be online everywhere and in every way. Our happiness, like cable TV and satellite radio, is to be on-demand.....(full article)
On March 20, the
twits at FrontPageMag.com interviewed Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney, a
retired U.S. Air Force pilot, who stated without a doubt that Saddam
shipped WMD off to Syria on the eve of the Iraq invasion. McInerney was
referring to documents he believes prove that Saddam was hiding his
horrible weapons. Of the 600 documents that have been released to the
public thus far, none, I repeat none, say that Saddam shipped off
his WMD to secret hiding spots. It is clear that McInerney, a Fox News
[sic] commentator, and the FrontPage conspiracy nuts are desperate
to find evidence that WMD existed in Iraq prior to the invasion three
years ago. They are also hoping to uncover ties between bin Laden and
Saddam. Many of the documents they hope will uncover these claims contain
forgeries, rumors, and disinformation. In short, they aren't the most
reliable sources.....
One of the major developments in yesterday’s
Israeli elections was the sudden rise of Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael
Beiteinu party which became the fourth largest Israeli party. Yisrael
Beiteinu advocates transferring a number of Palestinian towns in Israel to
Palestinian Authority control, thus revoking the Israeli citizenship of
hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. The popularity of this proposal
fits with the results of a poll released last week which showed that 68
percent of Israeli Jews would refuse to live in the same apartment
building as a Palestinian citizen of Israel, and forty percent of Israeli
Jews believe the state needs to support the emigration of Palestinian
citizens. However, because of the way Israel is portrayed in the
mainstream US media, such blatant discrimination would likely surprise the
US public. Israel’s obfuscation of the second-class status and even of the
very existence of Palestinian citizens, 20% of Israel’s population, is a
crucial component of a broader Israeli strategy of presenting the public
face of a liberal democracy while simultaneously repressing Palestinians.
The US mainstream media, with the New York Times in a leading role,
collaborates with this strategy. The US media emphasizes the Israeli
narrative and focuses coverage on Palestinian terrorism, while minimizing
the central Palestinian experiences of Israeli occupation and seizure of
Palestinian land, Israeli state terrorism, and systematic Israeli
discrimination against Palestinians living in Israel, the Occupied
Territories and the diaspora.....
As the US military has difficulties recruiting and retaining soldiers for its never-ending war of occupation in Iraq, the armed services are resorting to increasingly desperate means of coping. The Stop-Loss option in soldiers' contracts has allowed soldiers to be kept in uniform months or years after their term of service has expired. The National Guard has been sent overseas to a previously unprecedented extent. And military standards have been lowered, so that drug or alcohol abuse, pregnancy, and poor fitness no longer necessarily lead to dismissal of new recruits. Now word comes that "mentally ill" troops are being sent back to Iraq.....(full article)
Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Los Angeles
Catholic diocese is taking a leading stand on an issue that will be
pivotal in determining whether democracy survives in the United States. As
racist legislation advances in Congress to harshly repress “illegal
aliens,” Mahony says American Catholics should disobey provisions within
the pending bill that would forbid helping undocumented immigrants in a
humanitarian manner. As anyone who’s watched CNN’s Lou Dobbs can attest,
vicious hysteria regarding undocumented foreign workers is being generated
especially by Republicans who recognize the key role that scapegoats can
play in consolidating their own, reactionary rule. In fact, with fascistic
attitudes emanating from the White House, progressives should appreciate
that “aliens” could be the divide-and-conquer contrivance that so dupes
the masses that unequivocal authoritarianism might actually be realized
here.....(full article)
The Hamdan Case:
Ball in the Supremes' Court This week the U.S. Supreme Court will hear what will almost certainly be one of the landmark cases of the past fifty years. Their decision will determine whether the Supreme Court will continue to assert its authority to review and check the executive’s power to detain and try individuals caught up in the “war on terror.” The case is called Hamdan v Rumsfeld. The Hamdan is Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who has been a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2002. The Rumsfeld is Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, whose department has jurisdiction over all detainees held at U.S.-controlled military prisons. Since the Court agreed to hear Hamdan’s case, the Bush administration filed an extraordinary motion to dismiss it. The government argues that a law passed by Congress late last year was intended to deny the right of habeas corpus to all prisoners in U.S. custody -- including not only new cases, but those that were pending at the time Congress acted. The Bush administration contends that Congress intended to strip the high court of its jurisdiction to hear any challenge arising out of the detentions at Guantanamo Bay.....(full article)
After years of advocacy for progressive causes, I am used to angry mail -- often from fellow Christians -- when I take a political or theological position that challenges conservative or fundamentalist views. So, I wasn’t surprised when many were unhappy about the decision of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, TX, where I am the pastor, to let a self-professed atheist become a member. But the intensity and tone of the condemnations were surprising; this wave of mail feels different, more desperate, like people have been backed against a wall. Ironically, the new member, a longtime leftist political activist and professor in Austin, has been getting mail from fellow atheists skeptical of his decision. “How can you do this?” both sides are asking. To me they ask, “How can you let someone join the church who cannot affirm the divinity of Christ? Does nothing matter to you liberals?” To Robert Jensen they ask, “How, as an atheist, can you surrender your mind to a superstitious institution that birthed the inquisition and the crusades?” (full article)
Within the last six years in Latin America
numerous social movements have gained momentum in the fight for human
rights, better living and working conditions and an end to corporate
exploitation and military violence. Recently, left of center leaders have
been elected in Bolivia, Uruguay, Chile and Venezuela.
These political
leaders, whose victory in office is due largely to these social movements
in the streets, have pledged to fight poverty and prioritize the needs of
the people over the interests of Washington and international
corporations. This resistance is connected to centuries of organizing
among indigenous groups and unions in Latin America. I'd like to discuss
some reasons why this leftist shift is happening right now and about a few
key moments and events in this movement's recent history.....
When a soldier no longer wants to fight, when his conscience tells him that he can no longer believe in the mission and commanders order that soldier back to combat against his will, there is something wrong. There is something very wrong when commanders send that soldier to jail simply because they cannot control what he believes, and what he believes scares them. In Afghanistan, we are witnessing a tragic violation of basic human rights -- rights given to all people simply for being alive. A man has made a choice -- a personal choice -- and he is being threatened with death because of his choice. Our government officials have stepped in and offered their thoughts on how the Afghan government should proceed in their treatment of this man. Members of our administration have publicly stated that freedom of religion is a personal choice, one afforded all human beings; the man should be set free and allowed to practice his religion as he chooses. This is the same administration that allowed my husband to go to jail for making a choice -- a personal, moral choice based on his ethical beliefs.....(full article)
According to a report released last week by the Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) violated procedures for wiretapping and other methods of obtaining intelligence more than 100 times in the last two years. The department’s inspector general regarded some of the violations as “significant,” including wiretaps that were broader than what a court had approved, and wiretaps that were allowed to go on for weeks, even months, longer than had been authorized. Given the bureau’s history, this shouldn’t be surprising. The FBI was created for partisan political purposes, and has blatantly violated civil liberties since its inception.....(full article)
A bill recently introduced in the Senate
would legalize warrantless wiretapping at the President's discretion.
Senator Mike DeWine (R-OH) introduced the bill, popularly named the
Terrorist Surveillance Act of 2006, on March 16, 2006. The bill was
co-sponsored by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Chuck Hagel (R-NE), and
Olympia Snowe (R-ME). According to a press release by Senator DeWine, the
bill would allow the President to authorize wiretapping on international
communications by American citizens suspected of being affiliated with a
terrorist organization. All the President has to have is probable cause
and a belief that surveillance of the individual is necessary to protect
national security.....(full article)
Harvard Study Critical of Israel Lobby
Unjustly Lambasted The furious barrage of unjustified and vituperative criticism leveled at John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt over the recent publication of “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” is the latest and arguably the most troubling in a series of recent events which indicate that it has become extremely difficult for any critical views of Israeli government policy to receive a fair and calm hearing in the United States. There has been an almost complete disappearance of the Palestinian point of view from the mainstream media reporting of the Middle East within the past two years. The intense public display of disapproval for Stephen Spielberg’s film, Munich, the organized protests against the nomination of the Palestinian film, Paradise Now at the Academy Awards, and the indefinite postponement of the New York City staging of the critically acclaimed play, Rachel’s Words, are all recent instances where expression of unfavorable opinion in regard to Israeli policy have met with inordinate and orchestrated criticism.....(full article)
At the Chicago-Kent College of Law, Dr.
Rashad Zayadan spoke about the situation in Iraq since the US-led invasion
over three years ago. She asked a group of lawyers and law students to
inform their families and friends about Iraqi suffering because of the
war. She talked about justice and peace by ending the military occupation
in Iraq. “We do not want the war to continue,” Zayadan said. “The Iraqi
people still suffering and this will not end until all of the good people
with hand-in-hand trying hard because it’s just not suffering for my
people but suffering for your people.” Zayadan is a pharmacist in Baghdad,
a mother of four children and the head manageress of the
Knowledge for Iraqi
Women Society. On tour in the US for three weeks, she is a part of
an Iraqi women’s delegation promoting the
Women’s Call for Peace, which has been signed by more than five
million women around the globe. Their call urges that the strategy in Iraq
change from a military model to a conflict resolution model by withdrawing
all foreign troops from Iraq. Their belief is that women will play an
integral role in the peacemaking process. The lawyers and law students
attended Zayadan’s lecture for the
National Lawyers Guild
Annual Midwest Regional Conference. This year’s theme: “Rising to
the Challenge: Pursuing Justice in Dangerous Times.”.....(full
article)
First They Came for Abdul Rahman This week we witnessed America and Europe at their very best -- rallying in unison against the unjustifiable trial and possible execution of a man whose only crime was that he freely chose to become a Christian. What is especially heartening about this case is the West’s concern over the plight of a single individual Afghan. This could be or should be the start of a very beautiful thing. Every freedom lover in the world should be encouraged by this very new and very powerful phenomenon. The conscience of Europe has been stirred by the unfathomable tribulation facing one solitary convert -- over there......(full article)
President George W. Bush said in a press conference on March 21, 2006 that U.S. troops will still be in Iraq after his presidency ends in 2009. Asked when all U.S. forces would finally pull out of Iraq, Bush told a White House news conference: “That will be decided by future presidents and future governments of Iraq.” The silence from Congress in reaction to this pledge was deafening.....(full article)
Wheelchair-bound multiple sclerosis patient Richard Paey is serving 25 years in a Florida prison for “trafficking” 1/2 gram of OxyContin, even though the prosecutor concedes that Paey never sold any of his medications. In prison, he now receives more pain-killing drugs than he was convicted of having. Dr. William Hurwitz, a pioneering pain physician, was tried and convicted of violating the Controlled Substances Act -- which is intended to curb the illicit use of drugs -- and is serving a 25-year term in federal prison. He was also fined $2 million. These are but two of hundreds of cases in which, in its zeal to stamp out the illegal drug use, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is cracking down on doctors who prescribe medications to relieve chronic pain, and the patients who depend on these drugs to live normal lives......(full article)
Psychological torture, sleep deprivation, brutality, severe sexual humiliation, and murder summon visions of a dank dungeon in a remote region of pre-invasion Iraq, Iran, or North Korea, replete with evil inquisitors and hooded executioners. However, those manifestations of horror did not spring forth from the Axis of Evil. They are actually drawn from official post-9/11 US policy. Despite its fabled commitment to human rights, the United States government has been committing and enabling acts of torture for half a century. Not even Superman had the power to snatch “Truth, Justice and the American Way” from the crushing jaws of imperialistic ambition and avarice. Ironically titled, Albert McCoy’s A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror probes and exposes the extent of “the Land of the Free’s” involvement in human torture over the years.....(full article)
An interview with Enrique Morones, founder of the Border Angels Project, an all-volunteer group that sets up rescue stations for migrants forced to cross the U.S.-Mexico border in remote and dangerous areas, and a leader of Gente Unida, an immigrant rights coalition in southern California, about the fight for immigrant rights today.....(full article)
Following a death-to-gays fatwa issued last October by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, death squads of the Badr Corps have been systematically targeting gay Iraqis for persecution and execution, gay Iraqis say. But when they ask for help and protection from U.S. occupying authorities in the “Green Zone,” gay Iraqis are met with indifference and derision.....(full article)
Two weeks ago, CBS 60 Minutes ran a segment called “Tal Afar: Al Qaida’s Town.” The story focused on an Iraqi city on the Syrian border that was allegedly “taken over by Al Qaida” and turned into a terrorist “base to train insurgents and launch attacks around Iraq.” (60 Minute’s transcript) According to “America’s most popular news magazine,” the city of 200,000 was controlled by a few hundred “terrorists” who kept the townspeople imprisoned in their own homes until American forces invaded the city and set them free.....(full article)
Waving the banner of "global competitiveness," corporate and government policymakers are running the U.S. economy into the ground. We are becoming a nation of Scrooge-Marts and outsourcers -- with an increasingly low-wage workforce instead of a growing middle class. We are living the American Dream in reverse.....(full article)
If you want to understand what is concerning ordinary Israelis as they prepare to cast their ballots next week, the most revealing poll is also the one that has received least attention. A few weeks after Ariel Sharon broke up his Likud party to form a new “centrist” faction, Kadima, his advisers conducted a poll to find out how potential voters would respond if its list of candidates included an Arab. The results were unequivocal: Kadima would lose votes equivalent to between five and seven seats in the 120-member Knesset from Israeli Jews worried that they might be helping to elect an Arab. Even allowing for a potential increase in Kadima’s support from the country’s Arab minority (a fifth of the population), the party decided the gamble was not worth it. Ahmad Dabah, an Arab mayor, was placed 51st on the list, with no hope of being elected. Sharon established his new party late last year as an escape chute from Likud before its drift rightward became terminal. Kadima promised instead to occupy the center ground of politics, representing the Israeli “consensus”. But that consensus is looking increasingly like a Jewish, not an Israeli, one. The country’s one million Arabs are not being invited to join the party in every possible sense.....(full article)
David Ben-Gurion, the mass-murdering war criminal, tool of U.S. imperial designs on Arab oil and first Prime Minister of the "State of Israel," ominously described this result as “the establishment, in the western part of ‘Eretz Israel’” of a “state based on dynamic expansion.” And Canada, as America’s best little buddy, was in the thick of it. Six months earlier, members of the UN General Assembly -- bribed behind the scenes by the U.S. and cajoled especially by its chief agent there, Canadian diplomat and future prime minister Lester Pearson -- passed the Partition Resolution 181 which pulled the trigger. Acknowledging Pearson’s historic role as the Wrench of Reaction tossed into the spokes of history’s forward-moving wheel, the Zionist movement dubbed him “the Canadian Balfour.” What overall meaning is to be gleaned, then, from Canadian government votes on UN resolutions affecting Palestine? And, what in particular to make of the allegedly contradictory recent evidence of some of its more brazenly, and some of its minutely less brazenly, pro-State-of-Israel positions? Not much. Careful always to proclaim the highest ideals of Humanity as its own, no Canadian government ever failed to toss in its own kick at the Palestinians when they were down -- and Ottawa was confident about averting discovery or retaliation.....(full article)
Who will save us from the pessimistic, do-nothing "realism" of the privileged and elitist "liberal left"? Paul Street surveys and challenges the tired phrases of the liberal-left do-nothing intellectuals (full article)
I recently offered a critique of the decision by the New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) to cancel a planned production of the play My Name is Rachel Corrie. My effort in that essay was to contextualize this controversy so that we won’t fail to comprehend the large issues it raises. The present essay supplements that one with an argument that will surprise many readers of the earlier piece. The Corrie controversy continues but it has now largely become an example of how easily we get trapped by ideology in simple alternatives, false dichotomies and fatal assumptions. Many of them are illustrated by the current rallying around this play and the lionizing of it as a model of progressive theatre; and exemplar, to the shame of the NYTW of the “exploration of political and historical events and institutions that shape contemporary life.”.....(full article)
While whining about Christians being under
attack has been a standard operating tool of the religious right, Vision
America has taken it to a new level, organizing the first full-fledged
conference devoted to presenting evidence that there's a "war on
Christians" in the United States. The conference, called "The War on
Christians and the Values Voter in 2006," will be held on March 27 and 28,
at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. In full martyr mode, Pastor
Rick Scarborough, the President of Vision America, recently said that he
expected "attacks" on "our 'War On Christians' conference" would
"accelerate" as conference time "approaches".....
Peter Kurth's open letter to Homeland
Security chief Michael Chertoff, in response to Chertoff's warning last
week about the bird flu threat.....
Some of the
top-selling drugs of all time are those prescribed to treat attention
deficit disorders. Drug companies have physicians in every field of
medicine pushing these medications and dole out millions of dollars worth
of free samples each year to make sure they are passed out like candy. A
new ADHD drug is set to come on the market that supposedly can keep people
awake for days at a time with no problems. Just what we needed, especially
for hyper little kids. I wonder if this means they will remain calm as
they sit wide-awake watching TV and playing video games for days while the
rest of the family sleeps.....(full article)
The One and Only Answer: Two Cappuccinos
Please The corporate world now owns the federal government. Billions from its coffers fund the campaigns of legislators who therefore allow its lobbyists, of which there are now some 65 per legislator, to write the legislation itself. Congress then votes on that legislation without having actually read it. Anyone finding this acceptable does not deserve to live in a democracy much less be a legislator in one. It really is that simple. Today, the U.S. Census Bureau’s “Population Clock” has the U.S. at 298,192,000 citizens. Say that each year, an amount is set aside from the federal budget for each citizen, in an amount equal to two large cups of cappuccino, for the expressed purpose of funding federal election campaigns. Here in Madison, WI Starbucks charges $3.69 for a large cappuccino, $7.38 for two. That would amount to $2.2 billion at year’s end.....(full article)
Those of us who are at middle age or beyond have lived through a revolution in political and economic theory and practice, a revolution so profound that few of us can even begin to appreciate its significance, much less its peril. Future historians, however, will understand and appreciate this revolution and will wonder at the passivity of the public today and the ease with which those who instituted this upheaval achieved their success. The same historians, I would venture, will be equally or more amazed at how this moment played out. But this we cannot know, for their past is our immediate future. We are the agents of that still-to-be written history. The United States of America, in this year of 2006, is at a hinge of history. Our fate, and that of our successors, rests directly in the hands of all of us who are politically alert and active today. As Edward R. Murrow famously said, “we can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result.".....(full article)
If a national movement calling for the impeachment of the President is rapidly emerging and the corporate media are not covering it, is there really a national movement for the impeachment of the President? (full article)
As I write, the US Senate is debating legislation that would make migrant peoples a felonized, legally scapegoated racial and cultural under-caste, a move with deeply dangerous implications for us all. Maybe it wasn't such a lie, what the German people said after Hitler -- "we didn't know." Certainly the mainstream media isn't telling you. But many Mexicans, Central Americans, and immigrant groups like the Poles and Irish know. As many as 300,000 of them marched together in Chicago recently to oppose these new laws. 20,000 marched in Washington DC. People in Los Angeles know; over half a million people in LA are expected to march against these anti-migrant laws on March 25th. The march is being promoted on all the Spanish language media. This essay is both a plea and a demand: you must march with us on the 25th; somehow you must take action....(full article)
How has mainstream media covered the subject of U.S. working mothers leaving the labor force to stay at home and rear children? First, let us define our terms. By working mothers, I mean adult females with kids who labor for paychecks away from their households. Of course stay-at-home moms work. It is noteworthy that their labor is not counted in the official measure of the economy, or the gross domestic product, the prices of the output of goods and services (Associated Press, 1-28-06). The GDP can go up, go down or stay flat, but the daily work of women who change diapers, cook meals and clean house is hidden in plain sight when mainstream journalists report on the economy.....(full article)
Turn off the propaganda “business channel” and do some independent research. If you’ve already figured out that the Bush administration is fudging the numbers to make them look good, you’re right. Walter J. Williams (Dartmouth, BA in Economics and an MBA; economic consultant for Fortune 500 companies) has compiled the data and found that “real unemployment is running at 12%, real CPI (Consumer Price Index) is running at 8%, and real GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is in contraction. Most people know intuitively that things are bad, they just can’t see passed the government smokescreen. No one with half a brain believes this can go on forever. The Bush administration has racked up another $3 trillion in debt in just six years, most of it going to Bush’s well-heeled friends via the “tax cuts.” Now, the Congress has voted to make the tax cuts “permanent” even though they are certain to increase deficits by $400 to $500 billion per year. Deficit spending has become a permanent function of government . . . but why? (full article)
Corporate industry interests gain another victory and once more the welfare of American citizens will be jeopardized in the face of corporate agendas. For years, lobbyists for the grocery and food industries have been mounting an assault on the ability of states to dictate policies it sees fit to ensure the public health. The House has finally capitulated to the relentless industry campaign -- leaving the National Uniformity of Food Act in its wake. The bill, if passed by the Senate, will create a national standard for food safety, food labeling, and warning notifications. A national standard essentially means that only the federal government has the ultimate authority to dictate what food substances are hazardous to people or the environment. State laws dealing with these issues will be preempted, and their rights once more trampled on by the federal government.....(full article)
Taiwan -- As fallout from the August Thai workers’ riot in Kaohsiung continues to settle, details of another case of abuse against migrant laborers working at a CTCI (中鼎工程股份有限公司) chemical factory in Mailiao, Yunlin County are starting to come to light. On Aug. 2, at least four Filipino laborers at the plant were severely beaten at a highway rest stop near Hsinchu. According to the workers, this was done to coerce them and 12 others into signing agreements nullifying their contracts and allowing for immediate repatriation to the Philippines. After the beatings, the workers were taken directly to the airport, where at least one, Gil Lebria, was carried through customs and onto the plane in a semi-conscious and in need of medical attention. A month earlier, these workers had been involved in a strike, protesting illegal side agreements and other highly questionable fees deducted from their pay. Protests in Taipei last weekend elicited a promise from Council of Labor Affairs Chairman Lee Ying-yuan to investigate the case. Officials at Formosa Plastics Group (to whom the workers were originally contracted), the Mailiao factory, and CTCI would not comment on the incident or would not return calls when contacted by POTS. The Asian Pacific Mission for Migrants claims that CTCI has not denied the beatings, in separate contradictory statements saying the workers fought amongst themselves or tried to escape. The question also remains as to how a severely beaten individual could be carried through Immigration and onto an airplane at Chiang Kai Shek International Airport. Here is Gil Lebria’s story....(full article)
The New York Times Week in Review recently had a fascinating article “Children, the Littlest Politicians," Feb. 19, 2006) on gender differences in political allegiances. No, this isn't the well-known gender gap whereby women lean Democratic and men Republican. Rather, parents of boys tend to vote more conservatively than parents of girls. Most of the research conducted so far has been in Europe. For example....(full article)
President Bush used the occasion of International Women’s Day to tout his administration’s commitment to women. He spoke in glowing terms of how bringing democracy to the Middle East had improved the lives of women in Afghanistan and Iraq. Both the President and Mrs. Bush (this was a day for women after all) talked enthusiastically about girls going to school and women participating in government in both countries. Neither however mentioned the continuing pandemic of sexual violence against women that was highlighted in the State Department’s report on Afghanistan’s continuing poor record on human rights that was released the following day. Nor was anything said about the continuing low literacy rates for women in Afghanistan (less than 20%) or that 50% of marriages in that country take place before girls reach the age of sixteen.....(full article)
Hamas should not recognize Israel until Israel recognizes the human rights of its own citizens -- other than Jewish Nationals. Recently at the urging of Nobel “Peace” Prize winner Shimon Peres who wants the Negev for Jews only, the Knesset voted to ethnically cleanse 40,000 of its own Israeli citizens, Arab Bedouins from their ancient homelands. The illegal land grabs in East Jerusalem and the West Bank are also justified under Israel's racist laws. Despite our best intentions, we Internationals accomplish little because we do not challenge Israel's right to exist in its present form. The new mantra need not echo Hamas in its call for Israel to be destroyed, but rather to change. Hamas is correct to assert that under international law they have a Right to Resist as well as a Right to Return. Of course, by demanding their Right to Resist Hamas must also look into what is covered by that right -- and attacking innocent civilians, including children, is clearly not -- despite the fact that Israel does it day in and day out and a 1,000 times more effectively and viciously.....(full article)
On January 3, 2006, Global Exchange, the international advocacy group for human rights, released a report naming the top fourteen "Worst Corporate Evildoers" in the world for the year 2005. Pfizer, one of the most profitable drug companies on earth, with sales over $52 billion in 2004, made the list. Pfizer’s participation in the cover-up of the deadly side effects of Bextra surely contributed to its membership. Because the drug was promoted and sold off-label for so many unapproved uses, the company made hundreds of millions of dollars in pure profits during Bextra’s short life on the market. However, experts predict that when all is said and done, the total amount of the drug’s damage to consumers will be in the billions.....(full article)
The war lovers I have known in real wars have usually been harmless, except to themselves. They were attracted to Vietnam and Cambodia, where drugs were plentiful. Bosnia, with its roulette of death, was another favorite. A few would say they were there "to tell the world"; the honest ones would say they loved it. "War is fun!" one of them had scratched on his arm. He stood on a landmine. I sometimes remember these almost endearing fools when I find myself faced with another kind of war lover -- the kind that has not seen war and has often done everything possible not to see it. The passion of these war lovers is a phenomenon; it never dims, regardless of the distance from the object of their desire. Pick up the Sunday papers and there they are, egocentrics of little harsh experience, other than a Saturday in the shopping mall. Turn on the television and there they are again, night after night, intoning not so much their love of war as their sales pitch for it on behalf of the court to which they are assigned. "There's no doubt," said Matt Frei, the BBC's man in America, "that the desire to bring good, to bring American values to the rest of the world, and especially now to the Middle East . . . is now increasingly tied up with military power.".....(full article)
I'm often told by readers of their encounters with Americans who support the outrages of US foreign policy no matter what facts are presented to them, no matter what arguments are made, no matter how much the government's statements are shown to be false. If these Americans have no other defense of the policies they will declare how glad they are that the United States rules and polices the world; better America than someone else. They include amongst their number those who still believe that Iraq had a direct involvement in the events of September 11, that Saddam Hussein had close ties to al Qaeda, and/or that weapons of mass destruction were indeed found in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. My advice is to forget such people. They would support the outrages even if the government came to their homes, seized their first born, and hauled them away screaming, as long as the government assured them it was essential to fighting terrorism (or communism). My (very) rough guess is that they constitute no more than 15 percent of the population. I suggest that we concentrate on the rest, who are reachable.....(full article)
President Bush likes to talk about an "ownership society." There are many steps that can be taken to create an ownership society, one critical step is to continue to expand employee-owned businesses. The Zeese for Senate Campaign presented a “Ways that Work” Award to the Maryland Brush Company on March 21 as part of our Solutions Tour of Maryland. The award was presented to the board and 27 employee-owners of the Maryland Brush Company in order to highlight the importance of supporting employee-ownership of corporations.....(full article)
In
case you missed it, the U.S. is giving Indonesia $157 million to improve
education there. This in itself may seem ironic to you, in light of the
condition of our own educational system. But it’s not ironic at all, at
least by comparison with the overall US–Indonesia story. Ever since the
Gerald Ford days, when Henry Kissinger brought them a large sack of money
and a green light to mass-murder, Indonesia has been hard at work killing,
torturing, and rendering homeless several hundred thousand of its own
citizens. Or possibly millions, depending on whose estimates you prefer.
The carnage has been especially severe on the islands of East Timor, Aceh,
and Papua.....
One of the many serious dangers arising from the Bush administration's persistent record of lies and distortions is that, for many, whatever visceral faith they had that the government would attempt to deal sensibly with emergencies has dissipated. United States governments are well-known to deceive when foreign policy is at stake. But, in general, when domestic emergencies loom, we have been able to assume a basic level of honesty and competence. But no longer. The lies and incompetence that surrounded the Hurricane Katrina response and reconstruction, in conjunction with the Medicare prescription drug disaster, have focused attention on the overwhelming incompetence and duplicitous nature of this administration in dealing with domestic problems. Given the administration's record, it is no surprise that cries of alarm are met with skepticism. Thus, when President Bush finally acknowledged the risk of an avian flu pandemic and proposed strategies to deal with it, a certain amount of skepticism is appropriate. However, misjudging the extent and nature of the threat can lead to bad policies and these poor judgments can be a serious menace. Progressives must be careful not to let their skepticism about this administration and its actions obscure their ability to perceive real risks.....(full article)
I’ve always loved baseball. I even wanted to be a major leaguer one day. (Only one thing stopped me: a complete lack of talent.) Baseball’s not the same anymore, though, mainly due to agency. Free agency’s not evil. For one thing, it’s not named Karl Rove. For another, it resulted from the spiking of the odious reserve clause that had kept athletes contractually bound to club owners for years. I don’t begrudge players becoming wealthy enough to purchase, say, their very own oppressive Middle Eastern kingdoms, but, geez, come on! They’re filthy rich, the owners are filthy rich, yet apparently it’d be un-American or something for the two filthy rich groups to get together and decide to quit milking the game (and fans) dry.....(full article)
As the
new Hamas government is sworn into power in the Palestinian Authority, we
might ask: What would bring a people, the most secular of Arab populations
with little history of religious fundamentalism, to vote Hamas? Mere
protest at Fatah ineffectualness in negotiations and internal corruption
doesn't go far enough. While warning Hamas that their vote did not
constitute a mandate for imposing an Iran-like theocracy on Palestine, the
Palestinians took the only option left to a powerless people when all
other avenues of redress have been closed to them: non-cooperation.....
Americans are the most polled people in the world, but not the most shafted. The most shafted surely include the Iraqi people. In January 2003, Mark Manning, ex-deep sea diver turned filmmaker, began interviewing Americans in a heartfelt attempt to understand the move toward war. Almost two years later, his interviews led to Iraq. The result is two documentaries, American Voices and Caught in the Crossfire: The Untold Story in Falluja.....(full review)
Even as the intelligent design controversy
rages on, California recently witnessed a concerted push by a coalition of
three Hindutva (Hindu supremacist) groups -- Hindu Education Foundation,
Vedic Foundation and the Hindu American Foundation -- to doctor sixth
grade social science textbooks. Their strong ideological and
organizational links with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in India
makes them all the more dangerous, for any success here would provide a
much-needed fillip to the RSS family of organizations in India.
Fortunately, interventions by a group of Indologists led by Professor
Michael Witzel and strong mobilizations by the South Asian community
resulted in a resounding defeat for the Hindutva groups.....
The notion that Iraq is now consumed by civil war depends on a number of assumptions that are inherently false. First of all, it assumes that the Pentagon is ignoring the fundamental principle that underscores all wars: “Know your enemy.” In this case, there’s no doubt about who the enemy is: it is the 87% of the Iraqi people who want to see an immediate end to the American occupation. Therefore, the greatest threat to American objectives of permanent bases and occupation is the camaraderie that manifests itself in the form of Arab solidarity or Iraqi nationalism. To this end, the Pentagon, through its surrogates in the media, has created a “self-fulfilling” narrative that civil war is already under way. Most of the war coverage now makes it appear as though the violence is generated from ethnic tensions and sectarian hatred. But is it? Some of the more astute observers have noticed that other parts of the propaganda war, (like references to the “imaginary” al-Zarqawi) have completely vanished from the newspapers, as government spin-doctors are now devoting 100% of their time to promoting their latest product line: civil war....(full article)
On 15 February 2003, I joined the largest worldwide protest in history on the streets of San Francisco. I carried a simple sign reading: BUSH/ENRON/WWIII. 33 days later, without United Nations approval, our president christened the invasion of Iraq with the infamous Shock & Awe campaign. Three years later, we are more shocked than awed. The president issues yet another call for perseverance in the war effort. As yet another offensive is unleashed upon the inhabitants of the Sunni triangle, he asks for American patience and Iraqi unity against the resistance. The truth is the Iraqi resistance is the only cause that can unite the Iraqi people....(full article)
Three years on, it is clear that the case for war against Iraq was based on lies. Despite the cover-ups, insider compromise and silence, there can be no serious doubt that the lies were conscious and carefully planned. The real target of Western “intelligence” was not Iraq, but the British and American public -- the goal was to frighten and deceive us to support a war fought for elite interests. It was to persuade us to send our troops to kill and die for profits. It was to persuade us to ignore clear warnings that, in all likelihood, we would be subject to terrorist reprisals. Such risks were clearly deemed a small price to pay for the prize that mattered -- control of Iraqi oil and enhanced influence in the region and beyond. This is the ugly reality behind “patriotic” governments “supporting our boys” and protecting “national security.” Iraq, of course, never posed any kind of threat to the West. Even if portions of Saddam’s WMD had been retained, they would have been no danger to America, Britain and Israel bristling with veritable doomsday weapons. Saddam Hussein may be an animal, but he is a political animal -- a survivor, not someone who would have committed national suicide by launching WMD at the West. An honest press would be hyper-sensitive to these issues -- it would be keenly aware that Bush and Blair had lied, and would be re-evaluating earlier wars, earlier claims of “humanitarian intervention”, in light of what they now know. Given this context, something truly astonishing is revealed by media coverage of the death of Slobodan Milosevic....(full article)
One of the lesser-known administration justifications for wholesale, illegal NSA spying is the argument that the domestic United States became a theater of war after 9/11. The fact that this is a dream come true for rightwing interests is merely a coincidence -- in the same way and to the same degree that the culture war is merely a metaphor. Unfortunately, fundamentalists are noted for their literalism. As far as Jerry Falwell was concerned on September 14, 2001, the people who deserved the blame for the attacks on America were “the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make them an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way” -- that is to say, all the religious right’s domestic political enemies. Ridiculous as that sounded at the time -- bringing condemnation from both GWB and Chuck Hagel -- the list of traitors is only growing.....(full article)
As our ears prick to the drumbeat of Bush v. Iran, a highly respected researcher from the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) warns that Washington is edging toward a policy of nuclear preemption, and Teheran knows it. Although the post 9/11 doctrine of USA military strategy known as “Global Strike” is often promoted as a post nuclear plan, Hans M. Kristensen finds documentary evidence that a “nuclear option” is included.....(full article)
Last August I wrote of the Bush administration, “They’ve opened up a Pandora’s box by their criminal invasion, and they’re not going to close it so easily.” I make no claim to originality in using the metaphor, which has been used by other critics of the war. But now I see even the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, acknowledging “We have opened the Pandora’s box,” adding, “the question is, what is the way forward?” (full article)
An enlightening article by Pratyush Chandra on the Maoist movement in Nepal and the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela....(full article)
Several months ago during a casual conversation, I was described by someone as being a radical. When he first said it I didn't know whether I should laugh or be offended. It never quite dawned on me until then that my standing up against spiritual homophobia, writing a gay spiritual book and producing and hosting a national black gay TV talk show would qualify me for radical status, but apparently in the minds of some it has. Prior to this particular conversation, my mental concept of radicalism or the word radical represented outdated images of white women burning their bras in protest of anything male dominated or people chaining themselves to century’s-old oak trees. So now I asked myself, what exactly is a radical? (full article)
The following is my vague recollection of a fictional interview with POTUS. While I never got to personally ask these questions, his answers have been reconstructed from previous Bush speeches. Q: Mr. President. Let’s not beat around the bush. We all know you’d rather visit a back alley dentist than show up for a mano-a-mano interview with the alternative press. So, let me warn you upfront that some of my questions are going to seem like the dental equivalent of a triple bypass root canal by a blind intern. President Bush: Bring it on.....(full interview)
“Crash” is a white-supremacist movie.The Oscar-winning best picture -- widely heralded, especially by white liberals, for advancing an honest discussion of race in the United States -- is, in fact, a setback in the crucial project of forcing white America to come to terms the reality of race and racism, white supremacy and white privilege.....(full article)
In the looking-glass world of Middle East politics, it is easy to forget that Ahmad Saadat, the imprisoned Palestinian leader Israel summarily arrested in Jericho late last Tuesday, is wanted for masterminding the killing of the Jewish state's most notorious racist politician-general.....(full article)
It is questionable whether or not responding to the neocons’ assault on sanity is worth the energy. They don’t take well to reason and they certainly aren’t capable of dealing with truth. In fact, the reality in which they dwell is a manifestation of propaganda and isolated conspiracy theories. Yeah, they think we are out to get them and that we’ll destroy their comfortable way of life. And what seems to be driving their delusional tendencies is the teaming up of traditional conservatives, libertarians and lefties -- all of whom oppose the neocon wars....(full article)
In the reception area at a doctor’s office I heard: “Can’t believe it . . . now he’s selling our ports to Arabs . . . . look at them, they are killing each other in Iraq.” It is not uncommon to hear negative associations with Arabs, even when such slurs are a public faux pas for other ethnic groups. In fact, I’m not alone in hearing these stereotypes. A recent poll by the Washington Post shows that at least four in ten Americans (43%) have heard other people say prejudiced things about Arabs and one in four, or approximately 52 million, report that they have “at least some feelings of prejudice about Arabs.” More disturbing than the prevalence of Arab stereotypes is how politicians, both Republican and Democrat alike, manipulated these stereotypes and played on public fears to score political goals. This article briefly examines some of the language and rhetoric used to sink the Dubai Ports deal, a discourse that implicitly and explicitly played on fear mongering and exploited the “Other” for political gains while sending some disturbing messages to the public....(full article)
As things now stand, it is difficult to predict how things will eventually turn out in Iraq. Anything is possible including eventual partition -- the outcome most favored by the neo-cons. On the other hand, we might end up with a failed state where nihilistic ethnic and sectarian militias confront each other in an orgy of violence to settle old and new grievances. The most likely scenario is the emergence of a Shia dominated theocracy tied at the hip to the clerical regime in Tehran. One can always hope for a rapid Anglo-American withdrawal followed by a broad effort at national reconciliation. But that possibility is becoming more remote with every new spasm of inter-communal mayhem. . . . . Despite the best efforts by the alternative press, the vast majority of Americans, including anti-war activists, have failed to decipher the secret American agenda in Iraq -- propping up the almighty dollar, enhancing Israel’s strategic position and protecting the Gulf monarchies and their oil plantations. So, as we approach the third anniversary of this war of choice, it is instructive to review the pre-invasion blue prints.....(full article)
Sometimes the injustices here in New Orleans leave me numb. But the continuing debacle of our criminal justice system inspires in me a sense of indignation I thought was lost to cynicism long ago. Ursula Price, a staff investigator for the indigent defense organization A Fighting Chance, has met with several thousand hurricane survivors who were imprisoned at the time of the hurricane, and her stories chill me. “I grew up in small town Mississippi,” she tells me. “We had the Klan marching down our main street. But still, I’ve never seen anything like this.” Safe Streets, Strong Communities, a New Orleans-based criminal justice reform coalition that Price also works with, has just released a report based on more than a hundred recent interviews with prisoners who have been locked up since pre-Katrina and are currently spread across thirteen prisons and hundreds of miles. They found the average number of days people had been locked up without a trial was 385 days. One person had been locked up for 1,289 days. None of them have been convicted of any crime.....(full article)
Standing Clausewitz
on his head may be the best way to understand the controversy provoked by
Jyllands-Posten. This is no first amendment issue at all. The rash
decision to publish the cartoons of Mohammed cannot be defended as freedom
of speech for a simple reason -- these cartoons are not speech but acts.
Acts of provocation and belligerence. They are the opening -- or perhaps
continuing -- rounds of war. How so? Don’t the cartoons express an idea
and isn’t expression of our thoughts the most fundamental freedom of our
western selves? Perhaps. But even if we concede this, the fact is that
even under our own Constitution, there have always been time, place, and
manner restrictions to freedom of expression. You cannot yell fire in a
crowded theater and plead artistic license; you cannot burn a cross in the
backyard of a fellow American and claim that inquiring minds want to know.
In both cases, the context gives the game away; it tells us that the right
being claimed is not the freedom to speak but the license to injure.....(full
article)
“We Have No Choice” “The problem of the Iranian regime has become entrenched over the course of an entire generation,” Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns told the House International Relations Committee March 8. “It may require a generational struggle to address it, but we have no choice but to do so.” As the International Atomic Energy Agency -- heavily pressured by the U.S. to condemn Iran -- was meeting to finalize a report to the UN Security Council about the country’s nuclear program, Burns (the number three man in the State Department) left little doubt as to Washington’s ultimate intentions. “We must defeat Iran in its pursuit of nuclear weapons and its sponsorship of terrorism and its subjugation of the people of Iran.” He might as well have just said, “We must defeat Iran” and left it at that. The nuclear weapons, terrorism and repression issues are all pretexts for regime change, just as they were with Iraq. If Burns were more candid, less Straussian, he might say something like the following.....(full article)
John Bolton’s tenure at the United Nations has been relatively unsurprising. He was shoehorned into his position by presidential edict although the Senate openly opposed his appointment. Since then, he has lived up to his reputation as a “loose cannon” by routinely blasting the “alleged” waste and ineffectiveness of the world body. Bolton is the new face of the UN; a blustery huckster whose primary task is to promote the interests of big business and Israel. He is not a diplomat at all, but an uber-lobbyist whose mission is to take a wrecking ball to the foundations of international accord. As chief weapons-inspector, Scott Ritter sagely noted, “Bolton was sent to destroy the UN.”.....(full article) | |
