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<p>Courtesy &lt;em&gt;The Colbert Report&lt;/em&gt;</p>
<p />
<p>In January, viewers catching the morning shows on CNN, Fox, or MSNBC met Heidi Ganahl, the bubbly founder and CEO of a national doggy day care chain called Camp Bow Wow.</p>
<p>“I’ve worked hard and played by the rules to make my franchise business a success,” Ganahl said in an ad that ran on all three networks, as video showed her fawning over a golden retriever. “Now, unelected bureaucrats at the National Labor Relations Board want to change the rules. As Americans, we deserve better. Tell Washington, ‘No.'”</p>
<p>Bankrolled by a free-market advocacy group called the Job Creators Network, the ad painted a sympathetic picture of a business owner struggling against onerous regulations imposed by the NLRB, the agency that enforces labor law and has long been a conservative target. But lurking behind the anti-NLRB campaign is a notorious PR operative and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing" type="external">astroturf</a> pioneer who encourages his corporate clients to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/us/politics/pr-executives-western-energy-alliance-speech-taped.html?_r=1" type="external">“win ugly or lose pretty”</a> and who says he wakes up each morning trying “to figure out how to screw with the labor unions.”&#160;</p>
<p>The consultant, Rick Berman, is well known in political circles for funneling anonymous corporate money into vicious ad campaigns attacking various advocacy groups, such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Humane Society of the United States, which he has accused of spending a minuscule amount of their donations on their stated missions. Berman, who heads the DC-based communications firm Berman and Company, typically launches his offensives through <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_nature/2011/08/mad_at_madd.html" type="external">a network of front groups.</a> He has used these organizations to fight regulations governing food safety, animal cruelty, workplace safety, secondhand smoke, and even tanning beds, and in the process keeps his corporate funders anonymous.</p>
<p>“We run all of this stuff through nonprofit organizations that are insulated from having to disclose donors,” Berman bragged in an October speech that was <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/us/politics/pr-executives-western-energy-alliance-speech-taped.html?_r=1" type="external">secretly taped</a> and shared with the New York Times. “There is total anonymity.” His brash M.O. has earned him a nickname—Dr. Evil—that Berman appears to relish.</p>
<p>The Job Creators Network, however, represents a different way of doing business for Berman: He has guided the group’s media strategy behind the scenes, while <a href="https://www.jobcreatorsnetwork.com/ceo/" type="external">more than three dozen CEOs</a> have publicly signed on to support the organization’s mission. Its signatories include such corporate titans as Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson, Staples founder and onetime CEO Tom Stemberg, and Home Depot cofounder Bernie Marcus. Possible 2016 GOP contender and ex-Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina co-chairs the Job Creators Network’s women’s coalition. But the group also features executives from lesser-known but successful companies, such as Ganahl and Stephen Salis, cofounder and CEO of the &amp;Pizza chain. It’s unclear how many of the Job Creators Network’s corporate members are aware the controversial Berman is a strategist for the network and its anti-NLRB campaign. As Berman himself has <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/us/politics/pr-executives-western-energy-alliance-speech-taped.html?_r=1" type="external">noted</a>, companies are often squeamish about publicly associating themselves with him, hence the emphasis on anonymity.</p>
<p>But there are key clues linking Berman and his firm to the Job Creators Network. The network’s media contact, Ted Peterson, notes on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/theodorelpeterson" type="external">his LinkedIn page</a> that he is employed as a digital-media strategist at Berman and Company. Berman and Company’s in-house web developer, <a href="http://chrisgherbert.com/" type="external">Chris Herbert</a>, included the web site of the Job Creators Network’s latest campaign, a project called <a href="https://defendmainstreet.com/" type="external">Defend Main Street</a>, in his <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1691856-chris-hebert-portfolio-before.html" type="external">online portfolio</a> as an example of his work. An executive associated with the Job Creators Network confirmed Berman’s longtime involvement with the group.</p>
<p />
<p>After Mother Jones asked Peterson about these connections, his LinkedIn page was briefly taken offline and republished without his photograph. Herbert’s website and <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1691858-chris-hebert-linkedin-before.html#document/p1" type="external">his LinkedIn page</a> were <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1691854-chris-hebert-linkedin-after.html#document/p1" type="external">scrubbed</a> <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1692988-chris-hebert-portfolio-after.html#document/p1" type="external">of references</a> to Defend Main Street, other Berman projects—such as UnionFacts.com—and Berman and Company. Before his site was updated, Herbert had <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1691856-chris-hebert-portfolio-before.html" type="external">billed himself</a> as “the main web developer for the infamous Washington, DC public relations firm Berman &amp; Company.” Peterson, Berman, and Alfredo Ortiz, the president and CEO of the Job Creators Network, did not reply to requests for comment.</p>
<p>The ad starring Camp Bow Wow’s Ganahl was part of the Job Creators Network’s ongoing assault on the National Labor Relations Board. In July, the NLRB released a nonbinding legal opinion saying that employees could name McDonald’s corporate headquarters in lawsuits they file against local franchise owners. (The NLRB has also filed a complaint against a McDonald’s franchise, for interfering with union activity, and it names the McDonald’s headquarters as a defendant.) Business owners who use a franchise model to expand worry that the NLRB’s moves <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/lawsuit-against-mcdonalds-to-test-nlrb-decision-on-franchisee-relationship-1421955168" type="external">could lead to</a> increased legal liability. That’s why the Job Creators Network has made the NLRB a main target of its advocacy.</p>
<p>Unlike other Berman projects, such as the Center for Union Facts (which specializes in anti-union advocacy), the Job Creators Network was not founded by Berman, and his company does not control the group. Herman Cain and Home Depot’s Marcus <a href="http://www.restaurantleadership.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=&amp;nm=&amp;type=ESpotlight&amp;mod=Directories%3A%3ASpotlight&amp;mid=4E252702EFD2424696DA9A2FBD4DDA31&amp;tier=3&amp;id=CD4F25E015704F61B8BE45F3B8B66B16&amp;AudID=0CD81EA36DB646579255C27DEFD951AB" type="external">started</a> the group shortly after Cain dropped out of the 2012 Republican presidential primaries. The organization’s goal was to provide employers with ostensibly nonpartisan materials to distribute to their workers describing how government regulations could hurt their employment. (Cain later left the group.)</p>
<p>But the political leanings of the Job Creators Network are clear. The group has disseminated videos aimed at convincing workers that Obamacare is harmful to them; one features CEOs denouncing the health care law on Fox News. In another clip, Ortiz, the group’s president, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37ngtySytlI" type="external">rails against</a> a Michigan law that raised wages for construction workers. The group has also produced a cartoonish <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A4NuyNNPcw" type="external">video</a> deriding government regulations, in which a sock puppet watches helplessly as a gaggle of federal inspectors tear apart the pizza he just ordered in the name of food safety.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>The Job Creators Network has raised and spent millions to promote this conservative agenda. In 2013, the last year for which there is public data, it hauled in nearly $4 million in donations and spent $4.5 million on marketing and events. The group hosts lavish business summits to recruit new CEOs as supporters, and it has attracted high-profile politicians and donors. Last year, Jeb Bush <a href="https://www.jobcreatorsnetwork.com/events/jcn-ceo-leadership-summit/" type="external">keynoted</a> a Latino business leaders summit that the group held in Florida. “I hope that you get other people to join this cause,” he told the audience.</p>
<p>Berman’s work for the Job Creators Network has led to some inconvenient optics, particularly when it comes to Ganahl. Camp Bow Wow and its philanthropic foundation regularly <a href="http://blogs.denverpost.com/fetch/2010/08/22/saving-dogs-from-going-kennel-crazy/1580/" type="external">work</a> with local Humane Society chapters to <a href="http://www.campbowwow.com/news/franchise-news/284-camp-bow-wow-detroit-and-michigan-humane-society-host-annual-telethon" type="external">host</a> <a href="https://www.causes.com/posts/400877-the-bow-wow-buddies-foundations-on-our-way-home-project-please-help-us-raise-funds-for-the-winner-of-our-shelter-extreme-makeover" type="external">charity</a> <a href="http://www.campbowwow.com/us/il/oakpark/foster-pets" type="external">events</a>. Ganahl’s company has also made at least one <a href="http://www.campbowwowusa.com/news-254/press-releases/399-camp-bow-wow-provides-extreme-makeover-to-western-pennsylvania-humane-society" type="external">donation, of $50,000</a>, to a Humane Society animal shelter. Berman, though, is known for his crusade against the Humane Society on behalf of groups that oppose animal welfare regulation. His company has spent <a href="" type="internal">millions of dollars</a> running <a href="" type="internal">deceptive attack ads</a> against the group.</p>
<p>Yet Ganahl is the face of the Job Creators Network’s Berman-guided venture. In addition to starring in the 31-second ad that aired <a href="http://thehill.com/regulation/230377-tv-ads-targets-nlrb-joint-employer-status" type="external">during the morning shows</a> on the major cable news networks, Ganahl appeared in a <a href="https://www.jobcreatorsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/DFMST_Politico.pdf" type="external">full page ad</a> in <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/job-creators-network-places-full-page-print-ad-in-politico-to-coincide-with-senate-help-committee-hearing-on-nlrb-joint-employer-franchise-recommendation-300030815.html" type="external">Politico</a>, the <a href="http://thehill.com/regulation/230377-tv-ads-targets-nlrb-joint-employer-status" type="external">Wall Street Journal</a>, and Roll Call.</p>
<p>She declined to discuss Berman’s involvement with the Job Creators Network and whether his anti-Humane Society advocacy conflicts with her company’s philosophy and mission. “I support the Job Creators Network and their campaign to defend small businesses,” Ganahl wrote in an email. “I can’t speak to any relationships the organization has with vendors.”</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | courtesy ltemgtthe colbert reportltemgt january viewers catching morning shows cnn fox msnbc met heidi ganahl bubbly founder ceo national doggy day care chain called camp bow wow ive worked hard played rules make franchise business success ganahl said ad ran three networks video showed fawning golden retriever unelected bureaucrats national labor relations board want change rules americans deserve better tell washington bankrolled freemarket advocacy group called job creators network ad painted sympathetic picture business owner struggling onerous regulations imposed nlrb agency enforces labor law long conservative target lurking behind antinlrb campaign notorious pr operative astroturf pioneer encourages corporate clients win ugly lose pretty says wakes morning trying figure screw labor unions160 consultant rick berman well known political circles funneling anonymous corporate money vicious ad campaigns attacking various advocacy groups mothers drunk driving humane society united states accused spending minuscule amount donations stated missions berman heads dcbased communications firm berman company typically launches offensives network front groups used organizations fight regulations governing food safety animal cruelty workplace safety secondhand smoke even tanning beds process keeps corporate funders anonymous run stuff nonprofit organizations insulated disclose donors berman bragged october speech secretly taped shared new york times total anonymity brash mo earned nicknamedr evilthat berman appears relish job creators network however represents different way business berman guided groups media strategy behind scenes three dozen ceos publicly signed support organizations mission signatories include corporate titans best buy ceo brad anderson staples founder onetime ceo tom stemberg home depot cofounder bernie marcus possible 2016 gop contender exhewlett packard ceo carly fiorina cochairs job creators networks womens coalition group also features executives lesserknown successful companies ganahl stephen salis cofounder ceo amppizza chain unclear many job creators networks corporate members aware controversial berman strategist network antinlrb campaign berman noted companies often squeamish publicly associating hence emphasis anonymity key clues linking berman firm job creators network networks media contact ted peterson notes linkedin page employed digitalmedia strategist berman company berman companys inhouse web developer chris herbert included web site job creators networks latest campaign project called defend main street online portfolio example work executive associated job creators network confirmed bermans longtime involvement group mother jones asked peterson connections linkedin page briefly taken offline republished without photograph herberts website linkedin page scrubbed references defend main street berman projectssuch unionfactscomand berman company site updated herbert billed main web developer infamous washington dc public relations firm berman amp company peterson berman alfredo ortiz president ceo job creators network reply requests comment ad starring camp bow wows ganahl part job creators networks ongoing assault national labor relations board july nlrb released nonbinding legal opinion saying employees could name mcdonalds corporate headquarters lawsuits file local franchise owners nlrb also filed complaint mcdonalds franchise interfering union activity names mcdonalds headquarters defendant business owners use franchise model expand worry nlrbs moves could lead increased legal liability thats job creators network made nlrb main target advocacy unlike berman projects center union facts specializes antiunion advocacy job creators network founded berman company control group herman cain home depots marcus started group shortly cain dropped 2012 republican presidential primaries organizations goal provide employers ostensibly nonpartisan materials distribute workers describing government regulations could hurt employment cain later left group political leanings job creators network clear group disseminated videos aimed convincing workers obamacare harmful one features ceos denouncing health care law fox news another clip ortiz groups president rails michigan law raised wages construction workers group also produced cartoonish video deriding government regulations sock puppet watches helplessly gaggle federal inspectors tear apart pizza ordered name food safety job creators network raised spent millions promote conservative agenda 2013 last year public data hauled nearly 4 million donations spent 45 million marketing events group hosts lavish business summits recruit new ceos supporters attracted highprofile politicians donors last year jeb bush keynoted latino business leaders summit group held florida hope get people join cause told audience bermans work job creators network led inconvenient optics particularly comes ganahl camp bow wow philanthropic foundation regularly work local humane society chapters host charity events ganahls company also made least one donation 50000 humane society animal shelter berman though known crusade humane society behalf groups oppose animal welfare regulation company spent millions dollars running deceptive attack ads group yet ganahl face job creators networks bermanguided venture addition starring 31second ad aired morning shows major cable news networks ganahl appeared full page ad politico wall street journal roll call declined discuss bermans involvement job creators network whether antihumane society advocacy conflicts companys philosophy mission support job creators network campaign defend small businesses ganahl wrote email cant speak relationships organization vendors | 762 |
<p>One year after the mass marches for immigrant rights that challenged repressive legislation proposed by congressional Republicans, the Bush administration is set to unveil harsh new proposals to supply Corporate America with cheap and vulnerable immigrant labor, ratchet up enforcement, and make it extremely difficult for undocumented workers to become U.S. citizens.</p>
<p>According to Ben Feller of the Associated Press, Bush’s plan “would grant work visas to undocumented immigrants, but require them to return home and pay hefty fines to become legal U.S. residents. They could apply for three-year work visas, dubbed ‘Z’ visas, which would be renewable indefinitely but cost $3,500 each time…</p>
<p>“The undocumented workers would have legal status with the visas, but to become legal permanent residents with a green card, they’d have to return to their home country, apply at a U.S. embassy or consulate to re-enter legally and pay a $10,000 fine. That’s far more restrictive than the bipartisan bill the Senate approved last year.”</p>
<p>The Bush proposals would break up of immigrant families, too, according to the Washington Post: “In a new twist, more green cards would be made available to skilled workers by limiting visas for parents, children and siblings of U.S. citizens. Temporary workers could not bring their families into the country.”</p>
<p>Many in the immigrant rights movement have looked to the new Democratic Congress to provide an alternative to Bush and the hardliners. Instead, the Democrats are seeking a compromise palatable to the ultra-conservatives in the Republican Party.</p>
<p>The result is a bill–co-authored by two House members, liberal Democrat Luis Gutiérrez and conservative Republican Jeff Flake–known as the Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy, or STRIVE Act. It combines a guest-worker program with resuscitated elements from last year’s effort to criminalize undocumented workers led by Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.)</p>
<p>Top-heavy with punitive measures, the STRIVE Act is designed to be an offer the right wing can’t refuse. That’s why it’s urgent that the immigrant rights movement separates the myths about the STRIVE Act from the reality.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>MYTH</p>
<p>The STRIVE Act would give undocumented immigrants amnesty.</p>
<p>REALITY</p>
<p>Despite the right wing’s overheated rhetoric decrying the act’s “amnesty clause,” its architects ensured that the path to legalization is constricted, tenuous and subject to forces beyond the control of the immigrant population.</p>
<p>First, the majority of the nation’s 11-13 million undocumented people (those between ages 21 to 65, and not in the military, disabled or a single head of household) will have to leave the country within 90 days of the application process.</p>
<p>Second, they must pay a minimum $2,000 fine and back taxes, and show proof of presence and consistent employment before and since June 1, 2006. Current law makes those who use fraudulent documents for employment (roughly 75 percent of all current undocumented workers) inadmissible for legalization.</p>
<p>While the STRIVE Act would grant immigration officials the right to override this provision, it doesn’t make this mandatory. It further precludes any legalization for those convicted of a felony or three misdemeanors.</p>
<p>These measures would undoubtedly exclude a significant portion of undocumented workers, including those who fear losing their job while undertaking the process. Many would be unable to afford lost pay and the thousands of dollars of fees and transportation and housing costs in order to “touch back” to their country of origin.</p>
<p>Also ineligible would be those who entered the country after the June 1 deadline, or who temporarily left the country after that period, or were unemployed (or unable to prove employment) during that period.</p>
<p>Ultimately, individual immigration agents, who are trained to find reasons for denial of application, would have the authority to determine compliance.</p>
<p>Those able to satisfy the bill’s requirements would not get a green card (permanent residence). Instead, they would receive “conditional non-immigrant status,” a six-year waiting period during which time they would have to maintain consistent employment, learn fluent English and be placed in “the back of the line” behind millions of existing backlogged petitions (Waiting lists today are estimated at 5 to 7 years, although the STRIVE Act does contain clauses to expedite the process. Current law requires at least a five-year residency before attaining citizenship).</p>
<p>If an undocumented immigrant worker does manage to complete all steps in the STRIVE Act, she or he can become a citizen only after at least 15 years–a fact that bill co-sponsor Jeff Flake has used as a selling point to conservatives.</p>
<p>While some of the undocumented could gain legal status over time, many–perhaps millions–would fall by the wayside.</p>
<p>Moreover, “conditional non-immigrant” status will make workers dependent on their jobs–and thus more compliant with poor working conditions and lower wages, as employers could hold the threat of termination over their heads.</p>
<p>Coupled with the annual infusions of immigrants in a “new worker” program, the process will create a large and permanent tier of non-citizen workers bound to and dependent on employers.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>MYTH The STRIVE Act’s “new worker” program gives more protections than traditional guest-worker programs.</p>
<p>REALITY The “new worker” program in the STRIVE Act repackages the discredited guest-worker programs of the past and present.</p>
<p>Under the proposal, migrant laborers could find temporary employment in the U.S. for two three-year terms. Each year, 400,000 (up to a cap of 600,000 in succeeding years) potential workers would be selected after paying a contracting fee of up to $1,500 and passing a health exam.</p>
<p>While these workers would be entitled to “prevailing wages,” the proposal is suspiciously vague about enforcement mechanisms to prevent employer abuse, the hallmark of previous guest-worker proposals.</p>
<p>Guest workers would be bound to a single employer and required to work for the duration of the contract. Any cessation of employment could be determined a breach of contract, allowing the employer to have the worker ejected from the country.</p>
<p>While workers would be able to leave an abusive employer, they could do so only if they can secure another job in advance with another employer, who must officially offer them work and be registered with the government to participate in the program.</p>
<p>If a worker were to leave a worksite without notification, they would be deemed “illegal” and subject to deportation if they are not reintegrated into a registered worksite within 60 days. All temporary workers would be tracked through an “Alien Employment Management System,” so they will be identifiable if they leave a worksite.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the proposal doesn’t expressly guarantee the right to join a union or engage in collective bargaining. This, too, would leave workers vulnerable to employers that violate the provisions of the agreement.</p>
<p>It is this denial of the freedom of movement and assembly, and the right to engage in genuine collective bargaining by immigrant guest workers that make this proposal so appealing for employers.</p>
<p>Unlike the old bracero system and current guest-worker programs, the STRIVE Act would deliver workers into virtually every sector of the economy. Employers hope to leverage their control over guest workers to lower wages across the economy–and to reduce the presence of unions in their worksites.</p>
<p>Moreover, the STRIVE Act doesn’t guarantee a path to citizenship for guest workers. They would first have to work continuously for two three-year terms to apply. They would then be required to leave the country, pay a $2,000 fee and provide evidence of a job in order to return to the U.S.</p>
<p>If approved, they would then receive a two-year “conditional nonimmigrant status,” during which they would have to learn fluent English and work consistently in order to petition for legal permanent residence (which could then take several more years, depending on the backlog).</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>MYTH The STRIVE Act is a humane alternative to the enforcement-only provisions of the Sensenbrenner bill.</p>
<p>REALITY The text of the STRIVE Act states that the measure would “achieve operational control of the international borders of the United States.” In other words, both external and internal aspects of immigration policy are to be further militarized as a precondition for the legalization of undocumented immigrants.</p>
<p>The plan for external militarization includes doubling the number of Border Patrol agents (to about 24,000) by 2012, emphasizing the recruitment of former military personnel with experience in border enforcement in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill would further add 1,200 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to investigate “immigration crimes.”</p>
<p>The STRIVE Act would also provide more equipment to militarize the border–100 more helicopters, 250 additional power boats, unmanned aerial vehicles, tethered aerostat radars, cameras, sensors, satellites and radar coverage. New border control facilities would include monitoring posts, housing for agents and additional vehicle barriers.</p>
<p>The emphasis on militarization would extend into the U.S. The proposal includes the development of a national biometric database to track all immigrants, as well as an “Electronic Employment Verification System” to identify the undocumented.</p>
<p>The legislation would create at least 20 new federal detention facilities with space to house at least an additional 20,000 detainees.</p>
<p>ICE would receive funding for 2,200 agents specifically for “workplace enforcement,” as well as computer databases for each agent, new radios, GPS systems, night-vision equipment, body armor and more patrol vehicles.</p>
<p>Penalties for the undocumented would also become more severe. Those who cross the border without papers will be criminalized and subject to six months in prison for a first offense; two years for a second offense, and five years for a third offense. The use of forged passports or false visas could result in 15 years in jail.</p>
<p>Employers would face greater sanctions, too. Those that knowingly hire an undocumented worker would be subject to a fine of $5,000 and three years in prison.</p>
<p>Local law enforcement would be increasingly enlisted in immigration law enforcement. The STRIVE Act would allow the federal government to “deputize” local law enforcement agencies to work with immigration agents in conducting operations in areas within 100 miles from the border and in “high impact areas”–that is, any community across the nation where immigrants are concentrated.</p>
<p>The bill would also grant state governors in the Southern border regions the right to dispatch state National Guard troops to play a supporting role in border enforcement.</p>
<p>As if this weren’t enough, the STRIVE Act allows local police to act as de facto ICE agents, declaring that the “law enforcement personnel of a state, or a political subdivision of a state, have the inherent authority of a sovereign entity to investigate, apprehend, arrest, detain or transfer to federal custody (including the transportation across state lines to detention centers) an alien for the purpose of assisting in the enforcement of the criminal provisions of the immigration laws of the United States in the normal course of carrying out the law enforcement duties of such personnel.”</p>
<p>The bipartisan support for the STRIVE Act reveals how central “comprehensive immigration reform” is to Corporate America’s goal of disempowering labor in the U.S. While the Republican Party was defeated by the mass immigrant rights movement last spring, the baton has since passed to a Democratic Congress to salvage Corporate America’s vision.</p>
<p>For those committed to a different vision–one based on full legalization for all, democratization of society and the empowerment of working families–the struggle continues in the streets and workplaces across the U.S.</p>
<p>JUSTIN AKERS CHACÓN, coauthor with Mike Davis of No One Is Illegal: Racism and State Violence on the U.S.-Mexico Border.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | one year mass marches immigrant rights challenged repressive legislation proposed congressional republicans bush administration set unveil harsh new proposals supply corporate america cheap vulnerable immigrant labor ratchet enforcement make extremely difficult undocumented workers become us citizens according ben feller associated press bushs plan would grant work visas undocumented immigrants require return home pay hefty fines become legal us residents could apply threeyear work visas dubbed z visas would renewable indefinitely cost 3500 time undocumented workers would legal status visas become legal permanent residents green card theyd return home country apply us embassy consulate reenter legally pay 10000 fine thats far restrictive bipartisan bill senate approved last year bush proposals would break immigrant families according washington post new twist green cards would made available skilled workers limiting visas parents children siblings us citizens temporary workers could bring families country many immigrant rights movement looked new democratic congress provide alternative bush hardliners instead democrats seeking compromise palatable ultraconservatives republican party result billcoauthored two house members liberal democrat luis gutiérrez conservative republican jeff flakeknown security regularized immigration vibrant economy strive act combines guestworker program resuscitated elements last years effort criminalize undocumented workers led rep james sensenbrenner rwis topheavy punitive measures strive act designed offer right wing cant refuse thats urgent immigrant rights movement separates myths strive act reality myth strive act would give undocumented immigrants amnesty reality despite right wings overheated rhetoric decrying acts amnesty clause architects ensured path legalization constricted tenuous subject forces beyond control immigrant population first majority nations 1113 million undocumented people ages 21 65 military disabled single head household leave country within 90 days application process second must pay minimum 2000 fine back taxes show proof presence consistent employment since june 1 2006 current law makes use fraudulent documents employment roughly 75 percent current undocumented workers inadmissible legalization strive act would grant immigration officials right override provision doesnt make mandatory precludes legalization convicted felony three misdemeanors measures would undoubtedly exclude significant portion undocumented workers including fear losing job undertaking process many would unable afford lost pay thousands dollars fees transportation housing costs order touch back country origin also ineligible would entered country june 1 deadline temporarily left country period unemployed unable prove employment period ultimately individual immigration agents trained find reasons denial application would authority determine compliance able satisfy bills requirements would get green card permanent residence instead would receive conditional nonimmigrant status sixyear waiting period time would maintain consistent employment learn fluent english placed back line behind millions existing backlogged petitions waiting lists today estimated 5 7 years although strive act contain clauses expedite process current law requires least fiveyear residency attaining citizenship undocumented immigrant worker manage complete steps strive act become citizen least 15 yearsa fact bill cosponsor jeff flake used selling point conservatives undocumented could gain legal status time manyperhaps millionswould fall wayside moreover conditional nonimmigrant status make workers dependent jobsand thus compliant poor working conditions lower wages employers could hold threat termination heads coupled annual infusions immigrants new worker program process create large permanent tier noncitizen workers bound dependent employers myth strive acts new worker program gives protections traditional guestworker programs reality new worker program strive act repackages discredited guestworker programs past present proposal migrant laborers could find temporary employment us two threeyear terms year 400000 cap 600000 succeeding years potential workers would selected paying contracting fee 1500 passing health exam workers would entitled prevailing wages proposal suspiciously vague enforcement mechanisms prevent employer abuse hallmark previous guestworker proposals guest workers would bound single employer required work duration contract cessation employment could determined breach contract allowing employer worker ejected country workers would able leave abusive employer could secure another job advance another employer must officially offer work registered government participate program worker leave worksite without notification would deemed illegal subject deportation reintegrated registered worksite within 60 days temporary workers would tracked alien employment management system identifiable leave worksite furthermore proposal doesnt expressly guarantee right join union engage collective bargaining would leave workers vulnerable employers violate provisions agreement denial freedom movement assembly right engage genuine collective bargaining immigrant guest workers make proposal appealing employers unlike old bracero system current guestworker programs strive act would deliver workers virtually every sector economy employers hope leverage control guest workers lower wages across economyand reduce presence unions worksites moreover strive act doesnt guarantee path citizenship guest workers would first work continuously two threeyear terms apply would required leave country pay 2000 fee provide evidence job order return us approved would receive twoyear conditional nonimmigrant status would learn fluent english work consistently order petition legal permanent residence could take several years depending backlog myth strive act humane alternative enforcementonly provisions sensenbrenner bill reality text strive act states measure would achieve operational control international borders united states words external internal aspects immigration policy militarized precondition legalization undocumented immigrants plan external militarization includes doubling number border patrol agents 24000 2012 emphasizing recruitment former military personnel experience border enforcement iraq afghanistan bill would add 1200 immigration customs enforcement ice agents investigate immigration crimes strive act would also provide equipment militarize border100 helicopters 250 additional power boats unmanned aerial vehicles tethered aerostat radars cameras sensors satellites radar coverage new border control facilities would include monitoring posts housing agents additional vehicle barriers emphasis militarization would extend us proposal includes development national biometric database track immigrants well electronic employment verification system identify undocumented legislation would create least 20 new federal detention facilities space house least additional 20000 detainees ice would receive funding 2200 agents specifically workplace enforcement well computer databases agent new radios gps systems nightvision equipment body armor patrol vehicles penalties undocumented would also become severe cross border without papers criminalized subject six months prison first offense two years second offense five years third offense use forged passports false visas could result 15 years jail employers would face greater sanctions knowingly hire undocumented worker would subject fine 5000 three years prison local law enforcement would increasingly enlisted immigration law enforcement strive act would allow federal government deputize local law enforcement agencies work immigration agents conducting operations areas within 100 miles border high impact areasthat community across nation immigrants concentrated bill would also grant state governors southern border regions right dispatch state national guard troops play supporting role border enforcement werent enough strive act allows local police act de facto ice agents declaring law enforcement personnel state political subdivision state inherent authority sovereign entity investigate apprehend arrest detain transfer federal custody including transportation across state lines detention centers alien purpose assisting enforcement criminal provisions immigration laws united states normal course carrying law enforcement duties personnel bipartisan support strive act reveals central comprehensive immigration reform corporate americas goal disempowering labor us republican party defeated mass immigrant rights movement last spring baton since passed democratic congress salvage corporate americas vision committed different visionone based full legalization democratization society empowerment working familiesthe struggle continues streets workplaces across us justin akers chacÓn coauthor mike davis one illegal racism state violence usmexico border 160 160 | 1,152 |
<p>&lt;a href=http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-242875126/stock-photo-wooden-judges-gavel-with-soundboard-and-medical-injection-syringe-on-grunge-wooden-table.html'src=LkB4wAq5B1QWl6EDySP_PA-1-0&gt;AVN Photo Lab&lt;/a&gt;/Shutterstock</p>
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<p>“You’re not going to give me a lethal injection, are you?”</p>
<p>This was a few weeks ago, and I was joking—nervously—with a nurse who had just plopped down a vial of midazolam on the table next to me, prompting a minor freak-out on my part. Midazolam is the drug implicated in the recent string of botched executions by lethal injection—debacles I’ve spent much of the <a href="" type="internal">last year writing about</a>. It’s also at the heart of this week’s <a href="" type="internal">Supreme Court decision</a> allowing those questionable executions to continue. As I was about to undergo minor outpatient surgery in the hospital, receiving a drug that’s regularly employed by states to help kill people felt horrifyingly wrong.</p>
<p>Death penalty abolitionists and many medical groups have decried the medicalization of capital punishment—that is, using healing tools to kill people through lethal injection. I was on the flip side of that equation: a patient getting an execution drug as a healing tool. It felt absurd and scary, even though I knew objectively midazolam wasn’t going to kill me. Midazolam is a sedative, and as the anesthesiologist told me, it is highly effective for minor surgical procedures because it wears off fast and yields few side effects. Those same properties that made midazolam beneficial to me are precisely the reasons it doesn’t work so well in executions: The drug (also sold as Versed) doesn’t put you in a coma-like state, where you’re impervious to all pain, and the mild unconsciousness it does prompt doesn’t last very long. For major surgery, and even minor surgery, doctors have to use additional drugs to keep you under.</p>
<p>Midazolam worked well for me. I was out for an hour while under the knife. When I woke up, I remembered nothing, and my head was clear. But I couldn’t help wondering if that pleasant sleep I’d just had would have been so pleasant if it had been followed by an injection of pancuronium bromide, which states use to paralyze an inmate and suffocate him. Or what about a shot of potassium chloride, the third drug in most states’ three-drug execution cocktail? Potassium chloride stops the heart, but its administration can be excruciatingly painful. In her dissent this week in the lethal injection case, Justice Sonia Sotomayor called it “the chemical equivalent of being burned at the stake.”</p>
<p>I didn’t want to think too long about this. But that was the task handed to the Supreme Court: considering whether the sedative effect from midazolam was enough to protect an inmate from the pain of being killed with other painful drugs. In the <a href="" type="internal">2014 execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma</a>, a dose of 100 milligrams of midazolam—more than 10 times what I received—wasn’t enough to keep him from waking up while the executioners pumped potassium chloride into his veins. (It didn’t help that his incompetent executioners screwed up the catheter insertion and punctured his vein.)</p>
<p>Oklahoma now p <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/oklahoma-execution-death-penalty-114266.html" type="external">romises to use 500 milligrams</a> of the drug, claiming that this dosage should do the job of knocking a man out. But the state really can’t say for sure. There isn’t any scientific research on how much midazolam is required to dull the pain of a chemically induced death. The drug is designed to keep people alive. One of its most common uses is as a light anesthetic during a colonoscopy, which can be done without anesthesia at all. Midazolam’s surgical dosing is calibrated on a patient’s height and weight and other individual factors. State execution protocols are a one-size-fits-all sort of scheme; they don’t account for variations in weight, health, or past drug abuse history—all of which can alter how midazolam might affect a person.</p>
<p>After Oklahoma botched Lockett’s execution, lawyers for other death row inmates tried to find out how the state came up with this particular dosing scheme, but the officials refused to say. For all we know, they took their cues from Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson’s personal physician.</p>
<p>After my operation, my surgeon, a Los Angeles native, told me that Murray had used midazolam on the King of Pop before he died in 2009. It turns out there are some similarities between Jackson’s treatment and state execution procedures. Based on law-enforcement records, <a href="http://www.people.com/people/package/article/0,,20287787_20300182,00.html" type="external">People magazine published</a> the whole timeline of the days before Jackson’s death, showing how Murray experimented on him with increasing doses of midazolam, along with other drugs, to try to help him sleep. The midazolam, though, didn’t work. Jackson remained wired. Ultimately, he died from a massive dose of propofol, a commonly used surgical anesthetic, and Murray went to jail for involuntary manslaughter.</p>
<p>Not long after Jackson died, death penalty states began struggling to obtain the drugs they’ve historically used to render an inmate unconscious before killing him. The manufacturer of sodium thiopental, a powerful anesthetic long used in executions, <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/22/local/la-me-execution-drug-20110122" type="external">stopped making it so it couldn’t be used in executions</a>. In 2010, the United Kingdom banned its export, and the European Union soon followed suit. The European manufacturer of pentobarbital, a drug substituted for thiopental, has <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/02/can-europe-end-the-death-penalty-in-america/283790/" type="external">refused to sell it to American corrections officials</a> for executions. Since then, states’ efforts to find suitable replacement drugs look like they could have come straight out of People.</p>
<p>In 2012, state corrections departments <a href="https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2015/jan/13/drug-makers-refuse-sell-propofol-death-row-executions/" type="external">announced plans to use propofol</a>, the same drug that killed Jackson. But when Missouri attempted the first lethal injection with propofol, the drug manufacturer <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/09/us-usa-execution-drug-idUSBRE9981DH20131009" type="external">threatened to stop exporting</a> it to the United States, which would have caused a national health care crisis because there are no domestic sources of propofol. So <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/missouri-gov-halts-1st-us-execution-by-propofol/2013/10/11/559e6af6-32d9-11e3-8627-c5d7de0a046b_story.html" type="external">the states had to turn to something else</a>. That something else was midazolam, a fast-acting anti-anxiety medication in the same family as Valium, which doesn’t produce the deep unconsciousness that thiopental did. It also has a ceiling effect: Larger doses don’t necessarily produce more sedation, as Murray saw with Jackson.</p>
<p>The midazolam packaging doesn’t say how much of the drug would satisfy prohibitions on cruel and unusual punishment in an execution. Like Murray, state corrections officials seem to have been guessing wildly about an effective dosage. When <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/01/09/ohio-drops-controversial-lethal-injection-drug-postpones-upcoming-execution/" type="external">Ohio first used midazolam in January 2014</a>, it gave <a href="http://uclawreview.org/2014/05/13/experimenting-with-death-baze-v-rees-the-execution-of-dennis-mcguire-and-the-constitutionality-of-experimenting-with-lethal-injection-drugs/" type="external">10 milligrams</a> to Dennis McGuire, who proceeded not to die for 24 minutes, during which he made snorting and snoring noises and gasped for air, suggesting he wasn’t unconscious. So the state decided next time <a href="http://http://time.com/80092/ohio-lethal-injection-dosages-execution/" type="external">it would try 50 milligrams</a>. &#160;</p>
<p>But in July of last year, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/12/23/report-arizona-execution-change-drugs/20796903/" type="external">Arizona gave the 50-milligram dose to inmate Joseph Wood</a>, in a drug cocktail that included the painkiller hydromorphone. Executioners had to <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/lethal-injection/arizona-needed-15-drug-doses-execute-joseph-wood-n171071" type="external">inject him 15 times</a>, for a total of 750 milligrams of midazolam, over the course of two hours, during which he moved around and gasped for air before he finally died. Florida, the <a href="http://deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/FLExecProtocol.pdf" type="external">first state to try midazolam in an execution</a>, has consistently used 500 milligrams. But its first use of the drug led to a drawn-out execution in 2013. Other states have now adopted Florida’s dosage, including Oklahoma, and that’s what the Supreme Court evaluated in the decision this week.</p>
<p>In upholding the use of midazolam, the court discounted the botched executions—nothing cruel and unusual here—and found that the use of a massive dose of the drug (without any real scientific guidance) is perfectly fine. It essentially allowed the long history of human experimentation by corrections officials to continue. Moreover, the court let stand the perverse practice of mixing medicine with murder, ensuring that all Americans can experience a little taste of the death penalty when they have their colons scoped.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | lta hrefhttpwwwshutterstockcompic242875126stockphotowoodenjudgesgavelwithsoundboardandmedicalinjectionsyringeongrungewoodentablehtmlsrclkb4waq5b1qwl6edysp_pa10gtavn photo labltagtshutterstock youre going give lethal injection weeks ago jokingnervouslywith nurse plopped vial midazolam table next prompting minor freakout part midazolam drug implicated recent string botched executions lethal injectiondebacles ive spent much last year writing also heart weeks supreme court decision allowing questionable executions continue undergo minor outpatient surgery hospital receiving drug thats regularly employed states help kill people felt horrifyingly wrong death penalty abolitionists many medical groups decried medicalization capital punishmentthat using healing tools kill people lethal injection flip side equation patient getting execution drug healing tool felt absurd scary even though knew objectively midazolam wasnt going kill midazolam sedative anesthesiologist told highly effective minor surgical procedures wears fast yields side effects properties made midazolam beneficial precisely reasons doesnt work well executions drug also sold versed doesnt put comalike state youre impervious pain mild unconsciousness prompt doesnt last long major surgery even minor surgery doctors use additional drugs keep midazolam worked well hour knife woke remembered nothing head clear couldnt help wondering pleasant sleep id would pleasant followed injection pancuronium bromide states use paralyze inmate suffocate shot potassium chloride third drug states threedrug execution cocktail potassium chloride stops heart administration excruciatingly painful dissent week lethal injection case justice sonia sotomayor called chemical equivalent burned stake didnt want think long task handed supreme court considering whether sedative effect midazolam enough protect inmate pain killed painful drugs 2014 execution clayton lockett oklahoma dose 100 milligrams midazolammore 10 times receivedwasnt enough keep waking executioners pumped potassium chloride veins didnt help incompetent executioners screwed catheter insertion punctured vein oklahoma p romises use 500 milligrams drug claiming dosage job knocking man state really cant say sure isnt scientific research much midazolam required dull pain chemically induced death drug designed keep people alive one common uses light anesthetic colonoscopy done without anesthesia midazolams surgical dosing calibrated patients height weight individual factors state execution protocols onesizefitsall sort scheme dont account variations weight health past drug abuse historyall alter midazolam might affect person oklahoma botched locketts execution lawyers death row inmates tried find state came particular dosing scheme officials refused say know took cues conrad murray michael jacksons personal physician operation surgeon los angeles native told murray used midazolam king pop died 2009 turns similarities jacksons treatment state execution procedures based lawenforcement records people magazine published whole timeline days jacksons death showing murray experimented increasing doses midazolam along drugs try help sleep midazolam though didnt work jackson remained wired ultimately died massive dose propofol commonly used surgical anesthetic murray went jail involuntary manslaughter long jackson died death penalty states began struggling obtain drugs theyve historically used render inmate unconscious killing manufacturer sodium thiopental powerful anesthetic long used executions stopped making couldnt used executions 2010 united kingdom banned export european union soon followed suit european manufacturer pentobarbital drug substituted thiopental refused sell american corrections officials executions since states efforts find suitable replacement drugs look like could come straight people 2012 state corrections departments announced plans use propofol drug killed jackson missouri attempted first lethal injection propofol drug manufacturer threatened stop exporting united states would caused national health care crisis domestic sources propofol states turn something else something else midazolam fastacting antianxiety medication family valium doesnt produce deep unconsciousness thiopental also ceiling effect larger doses dont necessarily produce sedation murray saw jackson midazolam packaging doesnt say much drug would satisfy prohibitions cruel unusual punishment execution like murray state corrections officials seem guessing wildly effective dosage ohio first used midazolam january 2014 gave 10 milligrams dennis mcguire proceeded die 24 minutes made snorting snoring noises gasped air suggesting wasnt unconscious state decided next time would try 50 milligrams 160 july last year arizona gave 50milligram dose inmate joseph wood drug cocktail included painkiller hydromorphone executioners inject 15 times total 750 milligrams midazolam course two hours moved around gasped air finally died florida first state try midazolam execution consistently used 500 milligrams first use drug led drawnout execution 2013 states adopted floridas dosage including oklahoma thats supreme court evaluated decision week upholding use midazolam court discounted botched executionsnothing cruel unusual hereand found use massive dose drug without real scientific guidance perfectly fine essentially allowed long history human experimentation corrections officials continue moreover court let stand perverse practice mixing medicine murder ensuring americans experience little taste death penalty colons scoped | 710 |
<p>William K. Black, author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One, teaches economics and law at the University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC). He was the Executive Director of the Institute for Fraud Prevention from 2005-2007. He has taught previously at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and at Santa Clara University, where he was also the distinguished scholar in residence for insurance law and a visiting scholar at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.</p>
<p>Black was litigation director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, deputy director of the FSLIC, SVP and general counsel of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and senior deputy chief counsel, Office of Thrift Supervision. He was deputy director of the National Commission on Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement.</p>
<p>Black developed the concept of "control fraud" frauds in which the CEO or head of state uses the entity as a "weapon." Control frauds cause greater financial losses than all other forms of property crime combined. He recently helped the World Bank develop anti-corruption initiatives and served as an expert for OFHEO in its enforcement action against Fannie Mae's former senior management.</p>
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<p /> SHARMINI PERIES, EXEC. PRODUCER, TRNN: It's The Real News Network. I'm Sharmini Peries, coming to you from Baltimore. This is the Bill Black report on The Real News Network.
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<p />Bill Black is an associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is a white-collar criminologist and former financial regulator. He's the author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One and a regular contributor to The Real News Network.
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<p />So thanks for joining us today, Bill.
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<p />BILL BLACK, ASSOC. PROF. ECONOMICS AND LAW, UMKC: Good to be back.
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<p />PERIES: So, Bill, you're coming from Kansas City today. I understand you have some recommendations to our attorney general Eric Holder and the DOJ.
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<p />BLACK: Right. Indeed, I'm going to have a series of them. But the first column I've written is about the fact that they're engaging in ethnic profiling in their prosecution of mortgage fraud, which is extraordinarily bizarre. And this came when I testified as an expert witness for the defense in this case in Sacramento and learned that the U.S. attorney there who is the most active in bringing these prosecutions is now prosecuting almost entirely Russian Americans. And that was pretty disturbing in itself, but then I did some research, and it turns out the FBI, in its annual report on mortgage fraud, in both 2008 and 2009, says that mortgage fraud is heavily committed by particular ethnic groups, like Russians and Armenians and such and Eurasians, and also by some gangs, you know, like, biker gangs and such.
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<p />PERIES: Bill, just tell us what mortgage frauds are.
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<p />BLACK: Well, that's the question, right? So mortgage fraud is supposed to be one of the three big fraud schemes. One was inflating the appraisal, which was done almost entirely by lenders. That's in the loan origination process--in other words, making the loan. And the second one is through liar's loans, and that was done primarily by lenders, according to the investigators, who primarily put the lies in liar's loans. And then the third, there's no fraud exorcist, so if you originate, make these fraudulent loans, you can only sell them to the secondary market--and overwhelmingly these loans were sold to the secondary market--by making false representations and warranties, or reps and warranties, for short, which is the third kind of fraud. And, again, that was--that type of fraud was--.
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<p />PERIES: And now getting back to why the FBI targeted the Russians and the Armenians.
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<p />BLACK: Well, there's no reason. It's purely insane. So if anything, of course, Russian Americans and Armenian Americans and gangs, biker gangs and such, are particularly unlikely to be the senior officers of a bank and such, who are the folks committing these kinds of frauds.
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<p />So it's a double-wackiness out of the FBI and the Justice Department. First, they're not prosecuting the lenders at all. And that includes both the institutions that made the fraudulent loans and the officers, who, of course, controlled it and became wealthy through it. And second, they're saying, don't look at the senior people that are leading these massive fraud epidemics; look at those little disfavored folks. And, of course, they can only list certain minorities for this to work. Just as a thought exercise, think if they put the word Jew into that list. Right? The list would last less than 24 hours because people would go berserk. But Russians aren't terribly popular: Armenians, first, there are not many of them; second, they're not all that popular: etc., so they can get away with this kind of just really crude ethnic profiling.
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<p />Anyway, we've called the Justice Department on it now. It's utterly indefensible. The practice of ignoring the elite bankers is indefensible. The practice about prosecuting primarily disfavored minorities--which include American blacks, by the way--is outrageous. And Holder is the guy that claims that he's the big person against profiling on the basis of ethnicity and race and such. So let him prove it.
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<p />PERIES: And have you brought this to the attention of the DOJ? And are they responding to it?
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<p />BLACK: Well, we've written it and we went right to the belly of the beast in the Eastern District of California, where the U.S. attorney, Mr. Wagner, is the most senior prosecutor on the nationwide mortgage fraud task force. You know, his reaction to losing the cases: we won't be deterred in bringing mortgage fraud cases. We're not trying to deter him from bringing mortgage fraud cases; we're trying to get him to bring the mortgage fraud cases against the elite banksters who caused the crisis and led these fraud epidemics, and stop this obscene, bigoted mythology that it's a bunch of Russian immigrants or Armenian immigrants or some weird biker gang, you know, like this is Sons of Anarchy somehow made real. This is all fictional nonsense, and it's crude bigotry, and Holder should stop it tomorrow.
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<p />PERIES: So, Bill, I look forward to the DOJ reply. When you hear from them, let us know.
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<p />BLACK: Looking forward to it.
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<p />PERIES: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
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<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | true | 4 | william k black author best way rob bank one teaches economics law university missouri kansas city umkc executive director institute fraud prevention 20052007 taught previously lbj school public affairs university texas austin santa clara university also distinguished scholar residence insurance law visiting scholar markkula center applied ethics black litigation director federal home loan bank board deputy director fslic svp general counsel federal home loan bank san francisco senior deputy chief counsel office thrift supervision deputy director national commission financial institution reform recovery enforcement black developed concept control fraud frauds ceo head state uses entity weapon control frauds cause greater financial losses forms property crime combined recently helped world bank develop anticorruption initiatives served expert ofheo enforcement action fannie maes former senior management sharmini peries exec producer trnn real news network im sharmini peries coming baltimore bill black report real news network bill black associate professor economics law university missourikansas city whitecollar criminologist former financial regulator hes author best way rob bank one regular contributor real news network thanks joining us today bill bill black assoc prof economics law umkc good back peries bill youre coming kansas city today understand recommendations attorney general eric holder doj black right indeed im going series first column ive written fact theyre engaging ethnic profiling prosecution mortgage fraud extraordinarily bizarre came testified expert witness defense case sacramento learned us attorney active bringing prosecutions prosecuting almost entirely russian americans pretty disturbing research turns fbi annual report mortgage fraud 2008 2009 says mortgage fraud heavily committed particular ethnic groups like russians armenians eurasians also gangs know like biker gangs peries bill tell us mortgage frauds black well thats question right mortgage fraud supposed one three big fraud schemes one inflating appraisal done almost entirely lenders thats loan origination processin words making loan second one liars loans done primarily lenders according investigators primarily put lies liars loans third theres fraud exorcist originate make fraudulent loans sell secondary marketand overwhelmingly loans sold secondary marketby making false representations warranties reps warranties short third kind fraud wasthat type fraud peries getting back fbi targeted russians armenians black well theres reason purely insane anything course russian americans armenian americans gangs biker gangs particularly unlikely senior officers bank folks committing kinds frauds doublewackiness fbi justice department first theyre prosecuting lenders includes institutions made fraudulent loans officers course controlled became wealthy second theyre saying dont look senior people leading massive fraud epidemics look little disfavored folks course list certain minorities work thought exercise think put word jew list right list would last less 24 hours people would go berserk russians arent terribly popular armenians first many second theyre popular etc get away kind really crude ethnic profiling anyway weve called justice department utterly indefensible practice ignoring elite bankers indefensible practice prosecuting primarily disfavored minoritieswhich include american blacks wayis outrageous holder guy claims hes big person profiling basis ethnicity race let prove peries brought attention doj responding black well weve written went right belly beast eastern district california us attorney mr wagner senior prosecutor nationwide mortgage fraud task force know reaction losing cases wont deterred bringing mortgage fraud cases trying deter bringing mortgage fraud cases trying get bring mortgage fraud cases elite banksters caused crisis led fraud epidemics stop obscene bigoted mythology bunch russian immigrants armenian immigrants weird biker gang know like sons anarchy somehow made real fictional nonsense crude bigotry holder stop tomorrow peries bill look forward doj reply hear let us know black looking forward peries thank joining us real news network end disclaimer please note transcripts real news network typed recording program trnn guarantee complete accuracy | 594 |
<p>Goldman Sachs is about to take over Europe, but you wouldn’t know it by reading the papers.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, G-Sax alum, Mario Draghi, will take the helm at the European Central Bank replacing retiring ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet. The appointment has slipped by the media virtually unnoticed even though the ECB is the most powerful institution in the EU and is likely to play a critical role in solving the debt crisis.</p>
<p>Draghi was formally a Managing Director at Goldman. He also served as an advisor to the Bank of Italy in 1990, chairman of the Italian Committee for Privatisations, and was an Executive Director of The World Bank from 1984 to 1990. His bio. affirms his globalist pedigree which makes him the perfect candidate to replace the curmudgeonly Trichet who failed to comply with all of Big Finance’s demands. That’s not likely to be the case with Draghi.</p>
<p>The new ECB chief faces the difficult task of trying to pacify Germany while implementing policies that are opposed by the German political class as well as the German people. It won’t be easy, even for a skilled diplomat like Draghi. But Draghi will move forward with his bank-centric agenda, because it may be the last chance to keep the 17-member monetary union from disintegrating.</p>
<p>First, he will lower interest rates by .50 basis pts (from 1.5% to 1.%) at&#160;the ECB meeting on November 3 even though headline inflation in the eurozone is presently 3 percent and even though the move is bound to raise eyebrows in Berlin. Then he will announce that the ECB will step up its controversial bond buying program (already 170 billion euros) in order to push yields on soaring Italian debt below 6 percent. The Italian 10-year bond has zoomed to over 6.15 percent since the EU leaders announced their “breakthrough” agreement last Thursday. That means that bondholders do not believe the deal will solve the crisis. Draghi will act quickly to address the situation despite German opposition. Italy has 1.9 trillion euros in debt, 200 billion of which&#160;will come-due next year. Rising yields pose an existential threat for the faltering country.</p>
<p>In exchange for ECB support, Draghi will demand that Prime Minister&#160;Silvio Berlusconi (Bunga-bunga) push through unpopular reforms that target the unions and pensions. Italy will also be required to privatize more of its public assets and services. At the same time, the bank bailouts will continue mainly through easing new capital requirements and by underwriting bank debt so banks can issue bonds that are guaranteed by the ECB. Here’s the scoop from Bloomberg:</p>
<p>“European banks, which need to refinance more than $1 trillion of debt next year, may struggle to fund themselves until policy makers follow through on a pledge to guarantee their bond sales.</p>
<p>European Union leaders promised this week to “urgently” look at ways to guarantee bank debt in a bid to thaw funding markets frozen by the sovereign debt crisis. Lenders have found it hard to sell bonds for the past two years and have increasingly turned to the European Central Bank for unlimited short-term emergency financing…</p>
<p>In the U.S., the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program allowed banks to issue bonds with backing from the FDIC for as long as three years…</p>
<p>European governments including France, Spain, the U.K. and Germany guaranteed some bonds issued by their banks to reassure investors after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008. In May 2010, the EU ended the program when it said banks that relied on the pledges would face a review of their long-term viability.” (“European Bank Debt-Guarantee Proposals May Struggle to Thaw Funding Market”, Bloomberg)</p>
<p>Guarantees on bank debt is a direct subsidy to big finance, which is why we think that a former G-Sax exec. will support the policy.</p>
<p>Draghi is no fool, he knows that&#160;the German plan that was announced last week is more of the same “extend and pretend”. It has no chance of ending the crisis. Regardless of the stock market’s (positive) reaction, borrowing costs are still rising, the credit markets are in turmoil, and the clock is ticking. It’s now or never. Either the ECB takes the&#160;initiative and acts&#160;as lender of last resort or the eurozone is toast.</p>
<p>50 percent haircuts on Greek debt won’t put Greece on a sustainable growth-path anymore than a $1.4 trillion pile of money will ward off the bond vigilantes. It’s all just more “arranging the dect chairs”. Draghi’s job is to return to first principles, that is, When you are in a hole, stop digging.</p>
<p>The new ECB president is not so obtuse that he will solicit China to support the eurozone either. (Talk about muddled thinking?!?)&#160;The eurozone doesn’t need China; it can support itself, and it can do so without its two powerhouse nations being needlessly downgraded because policymakers can’t figure out how the monetary system works. Draghi knows how it works. Paper goes in one end and comes out money on the other. That money makes all the difference in the world. It can boost economic activity, recapitalize underwater financial institutions, and lower borrowing costs.</p>
<p>The central bank’s new approach will put the ECB on a collision course with Germany. This is a clash that can no longer be avoided. Draghi’s job is to save the union for the financial elites who benefit from it. Ultimately, their interests will prevail over Germany’s. You can bet on it.</p>
<p>Naturally, no one cares about the public’s interest. The EU’s working people don’t count.</p>
<p>Exclusively in the new print issue of CounterPunch</p>
<p>One of the Greatest Descriptions of Farm Work Ever Written— Don’t miss Frank Bardacke’s marvelous account from the California fields. ALSO Linn Washington Jr. on the “Black Backlash Against Obama.”</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | goldman sachs take europe wouldnt know reading papers tuesday gsax alum mario draghi take helm european central bank replacing retiring ecb president jeanclaude trichet appointment slipped media virtually unnoticed even though ecb powerful institution eu likely play critical role solving debt crisis draghi formally managing director goldman also served advisor bank italy 1990 chairman italian committee privatisations executive director world bank 1984 1990 bio affirms globalist pedigree makes perfect candidate replace curmudgeonly trichet failed comply big finances demands thats likely case draghi new ecb chief faces difficult task trying pacify germany implementing policies opposed german political class well german people wont easy even skilled diplomat like draghi draghi move forward bankcentric agenda may last chance keep 17member monetary union disintegrating first lower interest rates 50 basis pts 15 1 at160the ecb meeting november 3 even though headline inflation eurozone presently 3 percent even though move bound raise eyebrows berlin announce ecb step controversial bond buying program already 170 billion euros order push yields soaring italian debt 6 percent italian 10year bond zoomed 615 percent since eu leaders announced breakthrough agreement last thursday means bondholders believe deal solve crisis draghi act quickly address situation despite german opposition italy 19 trillion euros debt 200 billion which160will comedue next year rising yields pose existential threat faltering country exchange ecb support draghi demand prime minister160silvio berlusconi bungabunga push unpopular reforms target unions pensions italy also required privatize public assets services time bank bailouts continue mainly easing new capital requirements underwriting bank debt banks issue bonds guaranteed ecb heres scoop bloomberg european banks need refinance 1 trillion debt next year may struggle fund policy makers follow pledge guarantee bond sales european union leaders promised week urgently look ways guarantee bank debt bid thaw funding markets frozen sovereign debt crisis lenders found hard sell bonds past two years increasingly turned european central bank unlimited shortterm emergency financing us temporary liquidity guarantee program allowed banks issue bonds backing fdic long three years european governments including france spain uk germany guaranteed bonds issued banks reassure investors collapse lehman brothers holdings inc september 2008 may 2010 eu ended program said banks relied pledges would face review longterm viability european bank debtguarantee proposals may struggle thaw funding market bloomberg guarantees bank debt direct subsidy big finance think former gsax exec support policy draghi fool knows that160the german plan announced last week extend pretend chance ending crisis regardless stock markets positive reaction borrowing costs still rising credit markets turmoil clock ticking never either ecb takes the160initiative acts160as lender last resort eurozone toast 50 percent haircuts greek debt wont put greece sustainable growthpath anymore 14 trillion pile money ward bond vigilantes arranging dect chairs draghis job return first principles hole stop digging new ecb president obtuse solicit china support eurozone either talk muddled thinking160the eurozone doesnt need china support without two powerhouse nations needlessly downgraded policymakers cant figure monetary system works draghi knows works paper goes one end comes money money makes difference world boost economic activity recapitalize underwater financial institutions lower borrowing costs central banks new approach put ecb collision course germany clash longer avoided draghis job save union financial elites benefit ultimately interests prevail germanys bet naturally one cares publics interest eus working people dont count exclusively new print issue counterpunch one greatest descriptions farm work ever written dont miss frank bardackes marvelous account california fields also linn washington jr black backlash obama order subscription today get counterpunch email 35 per year 160 | 573 |
<p>There’s a perplexing question associated with the prohibition of cannabis by Congress in 1937. Why would U.S. doctors and pharmacists -and we, the people- allow a medically useful herb to be outlawed? Part of the answer, obviously, is that the American people are not the ultimate decision-makers, the government enforces the will of the corporations. But why wasn’t there more resistance from doctors and pharmacists?</p>
<p>A succinct, plausible explanation can be found in the 1926 edition of the Dispensatory of the United States of America. We scored a copy of this authoritative 1,792 page compendium for $2 at a garage sale last weekend. The authors of the article on Cannabis didn’t question its medical efficacy. Doctors were loath to prescribe it and druggists loath to dispense it due to inconsistent potency.</p>
<p>“Cannabis is used in medicine to relieve pain, to encourage sleep, and to soothe restlessness. Its action upon the nerve centers resembles opium, although much less certain, but it does not have the deleterious effect on the secretions. As a somnifacient it is rarely sufficient by itself, but may at times aid the hypnotic effect of other drugs. For its analgesic action it is used especially in pains of neuralgic origin, such as migraine, but is occasionally of service in other types. As a general nerve sedative it is useful in hysteria, mental depression, neurasthenia, and the like. It has also been used in other conditions such as tetanus and uterine hemorrhage, but with less evidence of benefit…</p>
<p>“One of the great hindrances to the wider use of this drug is its extreme variability. We are inclined to the opinion that one of the important reasons for the lack of confidence in this drug has been insufficiency in dosage. Because of the great variability in the potency of different samples of cannabis it is well nigh impossible to approximate the proper dose of any individual sample except by clinical trial. Because of occasional unpleasant symptoms from unusually potent preparations, physicians have generally been overcautious in the quantities administered.</p>
<p>“While the inclusion of a physiological assay in the Pharmacopoeia has somewhat improved the quality of drug upon the market, it must be remembered that the present method of standardization is not quantitatively accurate; all that can be hoped from this assay is the exclusion of inert samples. The only way of determining the dose of an individual preparation is to give it in ascending quantities until some effect is produced. The fluid extract is perhaps as useful a preparation as any; one may start with two or three minims of this three times a day increasing one minim every dose until some effect is produced.</p>
<p>The key point is repeated:</p>
<p>“No means have been suggested for determining, with even approximate accuracy, the relative potency of different samples of Cannabis indica, the physiological test simply demonstrating that the drug possesses a certain indefinite amount of physiological action. The official test is based on the degree of inco-ordination produced in the dog in comparison with that produced by a standard preparation.”</p>
<p>In other words, in the era before the active ingredient(s) were identified and assays developed to determine uniform potency, cannabis products were frequently too weak or too strong. No wonder doctors were reluctant to prescribe them. Some patients would get inadequate doses, others would overdose on unexpectedly strong tinctures. As the Rockefeller Foundation and the academic medical centers promoted “scientific medicine,” the cannabis plant seemed increasingly crude. Smoking was not recognized as a proper delivery method except in the treatment of asthma. Not until the early 1990s, when Tod Mikuriya, MD, started advocating vaporization as the ideal ingestion technique in treating a wide range of conditions, was delivery via the respiratory system appreciated from a clinician’s perspective.</p>
<p>Implications of Pill Splitting</p>
<p>“Scientific medicine” promotes a myth of precise dosage -as if the curative process is understood in such detail by doctors that they (and only they) can prescribe proper treatment. The myth of precise dosage is exposed by the widespread phenomenon of patients cutting their prescription meds in half. Insurance companies are now encouraging the practice. UnitedHealth Group’s “Half Tablet Plan” was described in a May 30 S.F.\ Chronicle article by Victoria Colliver. “UnitedHealth is taking advantage of the fact that drug manufacturers typically charge the same amount for, say, 10-milligram and 20-milligram doses of the same medication. Patients who need a 10-milligram dose can purchase a 30-day supply of 20-miligram tablets, cut the pills in half and pay just one co-payment for a two-month supply.”</p>
<p>The V.A. system, according to Colliver, “saved $46.5 million in 2003 by having eligible patients halve a popular cholesterol-lowering drug sold under the brand name Zocor. Department researchers found no difference in cholesterol levels or liver functions between those who split pills and those who took the equivalent doses in the form of single pills in a 1999 study of 3,787 patients in Florida, Puerto Rico and Georgia.”</p>
<p>The drug companies don’t like pill-splitting, of course. “Healthcare professionals have noted that this practice can be dangerous, unsafe, and should not be encouraged,” says Ken Johnson of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (who could have split “dangerous” and “unsafe” without loss of efficacy). But studies have never established that patients who split their pills suffered adverse effects. Plaintiffs led by a doctor named Philips sued Kaiser Permanente in 2000, citing a study showing that patients often split pills imprecisely. But there was no evidence of resultant har, and Kaiser prevailed.</p>
<p>Expect the drug companies to start charging more for the higher doses (even though they cost, at most, pennies more to manufacture).</p>
<p>Garage Scale Scores</p>
<p>Bruce Anderson once observed that the minute you walk into a used bookstore you can tell if it’s a good one. The same goes for garage and estate sales. The nature of the inventory is immediately apparent, and the first item you price reveals whether the sellers’ goal is to make money or to free up space. The estate sale in Alameda at which I scored the 1926 Dispensatory was a good one. The owner of the house had played the organ, and there was a stack of sheet music selling for $1/per, that included “As Time Goes By,” with pictures of Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Heinreid on the cover. The words and music were written by Herman Hupfeld. I didn’t know that, and I’m not sure I’d ever heard the lead-in to the familiar refrain, which goes:</p>
<p>This day and age we’re living in Gives cause for apprehension With speed and new invention And things like third dimension Yet we get a trifle weary With Mr. Einstein’s theory So we must get down to earth at times, Relax, relieve the tension. No matter what the progress, or what may yet be proved The simple facts of life are such They cannot be removed.</p>
<p>You must remember this, a kiss is still a kiss…</p>
<p>My other scores included “La Cucaracha, The Cockroach Song, with ukelele, guitar, and special Hawaiian Guitar Chords. Introduced by Don Pedro and His Orchestra.” A photo of a handsome bandleader in a tux adorns the cover. The lyrics are in Spanish and English -“American lyrics by Carl Field… Copyright in 1935 by Calumet Music, Chicago.” The famous chorus:</p>
<p>La Cucaracha, La Cucaracha, ya no puede caminar, Por que no tiene, por que le falta, Marijuana que fumar</p>
<p>Is translated thus (with Prohibition looming):</p>
<p>La Cucaracha, La Cucaracha, Your love’s sweetest melody, La Cucaracha, La Cucaracha, Soon our wedding march you’ll be.</p>
<p>Ugh.</p>
<p>FRED GARDNER is the editor of <a href="http://www.ccrmg.org/journal/" type="external">O’Shaughnessy’s</a> Journal of the California Cannabis Research Medical Group. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:fred@plebesite.com" type="external">fred@plebesite.com</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | theres perplexing question associated prohibition cannabis congress 1937 would us doctors pharmacists people allow medically useful herb outlawed part answer obviously american people ultimate decisionmakers government enforces corporations wasnt resistance doctors pharmacists succinct plausible explanation found 1926 edition dispensatory united states america scored copy authoritative 1792 page compendium 2 garage sale last weekend authors article cannabis didnt question medical efficacy doctors loath prescribe druggists loath dispense due inconsistent potency cannabis used medicine relieve pain encourage sleep soothe restlessness action upon nerve centers resembles opium although much less certain deleterious effect secretions somnifacient rarely sufficient may times aid hypnotic effect drugs analgesic action used especially pains neuralgic origin migraine occasionally service types general nerve sedative useful hysteria mental depression neurasthenia like also used conditions tetanus uterine hemorrhage less evidence benefit one great hindrances wider use drug extreme variability inclined opinion one important reasons lack confidence drug insufficiency dosage great variability potency different samples cannabis well nigh impossible approximate proper dose individual sample except clinical trial occasional unpleasant symptoms unusually potent preparations physicians generally overcautious quantities administered inclusion physiological assay pharmacopoeia somewhat improved quality drug upon market must remembered present method standardization quantitatively accurate hoped assay exclusion inert samples way determining dose individual preparation give ascending quantities effect produced fluid extract perhaps useful preparation one may start two three minims three times day increasing one minim every dose effect produced key point repeated means suggested determining even approximate accuracy relative potency different samples cannabis indica physiological test simply demonstrating drug possesses certain indefinite amount physiological action official test based degree incoordination produced dog comparison produced standard preparation words era active ingredients identified assays developed determine uniform potency cannabis products frequently weak strong wonder doctors reluctant prescribe patients would get inadequate doses others would overdose unexpectedly strong tinctures rockefeller foundation academic medical centers promoted scientific medicine cannabis plant seemed increasingly crude smoking recognized proper delivery method except treatment asthma early 1990s tod mikuriya md started advocating vaporization ideal ingestion technique treating wide range conditions delivery via respiratory system appreciated clinicians perspective implications pill splitting scientific medicine promotes myth precise dosage curative process understood detail doctors prescribe proper treatment myth precise dosage exposed widespread phenomenon patients cutting prescription meds half insurance companies encouraging practice unitedhealth groups half tablet plan described may 30 sf chronicle article victoria colliver unitedhealth taking advantage fact drug manufacturers typically charge amount say 10milligram 20milligram doses medication patients need 10milligram dose purchase 30day supply 20miligram tablets cut pills half pay one copayment twomonth supply va system according colliver saved 465 million 2003 eligible patients halve popular cholesterollowering drug sold brand name zocor department researchers found difference cholesterol levels liver functions split pills took equivalent doses form single pills 1999 study 3787 patients florida puerto rico georgia drug companies dont like pillsplitting course healthcare professionals noted practice dangerous unsafe encouraged says ken johnson pharmaceutical research manufacturers america could split dangerous unsafe without loss efficacy studies never established patients split pills suffered adverse effects plaintiffs led doctor named philips sued kaiser permanente 2000 citing study showing patients often split pills imprecisely evidence resultant har kaiser prevailed expect drug companies start charging higher doses even though cost pennies manufacture garage scale scores bruce anderson observed minute walk used bookstore tell good one goes garage estate sales nature inventory immediately apparent first item price reveals whether sellers goal make money free space estate sale alameda scored 1926 dispensatory good one owner house played organ stack sheet music selling 1per included time goes pictures humphrey bogart ingrid bergman paul heinreid cover words music written herman hupfeld didnt know im sure id ever heard leadin familiar refrain goes day age living gives cause apprehension speed new invention things like third dimension yet get trifle weary mr einsteins theory must get earth times relax relieve tension matter progress may yet proved simple facts life removed must remember kiss still kiss scores included la cucaracha cockroach song ukelele guitar special hawaiian guitar chords introduced pedro orchestra photo handsome bandleader tux adorns cover lyrics spanish english american lyrics carl field copyright 1935 calumet music chicago famous chorus la cucaracha la cucaracha ya puede caminar por que tiene por que le falta marijuana que fumar translated thus prohibition looming la cucaracha la cucaracha loves sweetest melody la cucaracha la cucaracha soon wedding march youll ugh fred gardner editor oshaughnessys journal california cannabis research medical group reached fredplebesitecom 160 160 | 729 |
<p>Dr. Sami Al-Arian, one of the earliest victims of the “war on terror” within the U.S. itself, continues to languish in jail, where he has been since his February 2003 arrest for the “crime” of speaking out on behalf of the Palestinian struggle against Israel’s apartheid.</p>
<p>Al-Arian’s daughter, Laila Al-Arian, is the author, with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges, of <a href="/dp/1568583737/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Collateral Damage: America’s War Against Iraqi Civilians</a> [1]. A graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism, she recently joined Al-Jazeera English as a producer.</p>
<p>I spoke with Laila on her recent visit to Burlington, Vt., where she sought a meeting with Sen. Patrick Leahy, a leading Democrat and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. So far, Leahy has refused to investigate the circumstances and conditions under which Dr. Al-Arian is being held.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>IN 2006, after a Florida jury refused to return a guilty verdict on any of the charges that the Bush Justice department had brought against him, your father signed a plea agreement with federal prosecutors to secure his release from prison. Why wasn’t your father released and deported as agreed? What’s happened since?</p>
<p>MY FATHER signed a plea agreement, and we thought that was that, and he would be released just a few months later. Then, this federal prosecutor, Gordon Kromberg, tried to bring him to Virginia. Kromberg has been on a six- or seven-year witch-hunt against Muslim organizations in the Northern Virginia area.</p>
<p>To describe where he’s coming from, he’s blogged about trips he’s taken to Israel and his fear of Palestinians. He’s made anti-Arab and anti-Muslim statements on the record that he’s never apologized for. During one trial in Virginia, he said “all Arabs lie”–that’s what he told the jury–and he said “don’t believe anything they tell you.”</p>
<p>This is a person with a lot of power and authority. Not to say that he’s the only one driving the ship–I think his bosses are supporting what he’s doing. But we know Kromberg wasn’t happy with the Florida jury’s verdict, and this was his way of trying to retry the case in Virginia.</p>
<p>Kromberg succeeded in getting my father moved to a Virginia jail, and for the next 18 months and more, he brought my father to the grand jury and tried to force him to testify. But had my dad testified, they would have charged him with perjury, maybe even obstruction of justice.</p>
<p>So he was held in civil contempt. During the 12 months my dad spent in civil contempt, he went on two different hunger strikes. He was trying to make a point that “I’m not going to testify. It’s against my principles, it’s against my plea agreement.”</p>
<p>Finally, when my dad was removed from contempt, there was a period where his sentence had run out. He had been removed from contempt, and yet he still wasn’t being deported, when one of the promises the government made in the plea agreement was to deport him expeditiously. They used that language, which is very important in this case. But of course, that never happened, and it’s been more than two years.</p>
<p>WHAT HAVE those two years been like for him, and how has he endured?</p>
<p>I WOULD say the completely lowest point was when he was in Hampton Roads Regional Jail in Portsmouth, Virginia. He was on a hunger strike, and the authorities there went completely ballistic. They put him on suicide watch. They took away all his clothes and put him in a paper-thin white gown. They took away his pillows, blankets, even his water–his cup of water.</p>
<p>We had a huge campaign at the time to call the prison and demand that he be treated with humanity and respect. A few days later, they removed him from isolation, and they started treating him better. I think that’s a really good example of the power of the people. It’s heartening to see that it actually does work.</p>
<p>WHAT ARE the most recent developments?</p>
<p>IN LATE June, my dad was indicted on two counts of criminal contempt. Now we’re awaiting the trial, which will take place August 13. A lot of lawyers have said it’s really unusual for someone to be placed in civil contempt, and then be charged with criminal contempt, because you’ve already punished the person for not testifying.</p>
<p>The scary thing about the criminal contempt charge is that it’s the only so-called crime on the American law books that has no minimum or maximum sentence–so it could range from less than five years to 10, 20, 30 years. We really have no idea.</p>
<p>The other thing–and this is a law that was passed post-9/11–is that the government can ask for terrorist-enhancement charges, which they tack on to charges to increase the prison time.</p>
<p>A JUDGE recently granted bail for your father. Why wasn’t he been released?</p>
<p>THE BAIL hearing for my father took place after my father finished his sentence, which ended on April 7, and before his indictment, which came down on June 24. So at the time of the bail hearing, he was in jail illegally–because you’re not allowed to just hold someone indefinitely for no reason. I think that’s still not allowed in this country.</p>
<p>But at that time, he was being taken from one ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] prison to the next. He was under ICE custody. At the bail hearing, when the judge decided to grant him bail, it was a really good day for us. She said on the record that he was neither a flight risk, nor a threat to any community. She did impose some restrictions, which we were okay with, so long as it meant that my father would be released.</p>
<p>But everything in my dad’s case is always the exception to every rule. Even if something good happens, somehow the government always finds a way to prevail. In this case, because he’s not a citizen, even though he was granted bail, ICE can detain him. The judge even said during the bail hearing, “I don’t have the authority to order ICE to release him. It’s going to be up to them.”</p>
<p>My brother and I went to the courthouse the following week–my brother had to sign some paperwork because he was the custodian if my father were released–and the woman at the courthouse who works in the clerk’s office told us, “Oh yeah, whenever the court says for a person to be released on bail, ICE 99 percent of the time will release a person.”</p>
<p>Of course, we’re that 1 percent exception.</p>
<p>WHERE IS your father now?</p>
<p>I JUST found out this morning that my dad has been moved from the U.S. marshal’s custody to ICE, and he’s now 75 miles away from Arlington, Virginia. He’s now in Winchester, Virginia, in ICE custody. It’s obvious they’re not planning on releasing him.</p>
<p>YOU CAME to Vermont hoping to meet in person with Patrick Leahy. What reason did the senator give for refusing to meet with you?</p>
<p>FROM WHAT I understand, his response is that it’s illegal for a representative or a senator to get involved in pending litigation. Well, we’ve been asking him to get involved way before there was any pending litigation.</p>
<p>The pending litigation [on the charge of criminal contempt] only happened last month, so Leahy had a chance for almost the past two years to get involved, and he didn’t. We know for a fact that he’s received hundreds of letters, faxes, e-mails and phone calls from people all over the world who are concerned about what’s happened to my father, and unfortunately, he hasn’t responded to any of these calls, including calls from his own constituents here in Vermont who I know are very concerned about the case.</p>
<p>There was a big window of time when he really could have taken the initiative to investigate the abuses going on in this case–and there are grave abuses. I think that as head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he has the responsibility to oversee what the Bush Justice Department is doing.</p>
<p>Leahy’s committee has taken the right step of investigating the politicization of the Justice Department under [former Attorney General Alberto] Gonzales, but what’s the flip side of that coin? They’re looking into the issue of attorneys being fired during that time when Gonzales was ordering attorneys he didn’t agree with to be fired, but they should also be looking at who was being promoted. It’s people like Gordon Kromberg.</p>
<p>YOU’VE DEDICATED <a href="/dp/1568583737/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Collateral Damage</a>, featuring interviews with more than 50 U.S. soldiers about the wretched treatment of Iraqi civilians under occupation, to your father. What are the connections between how your father is being treated and what the Iraqi people are being subjected to?</p>
<p>I THINK it’s just the same policies of this Bush administration. Bush went out of his way to say that this isn’t a war on Islam and Muslims, but I think the past almost eight years have shown otherwise.</p>
<p>They targeted someone like my father, who was an activist who just spoke his mind. I know that’s what the jury in Florida concluded, because that’s what they’ve told us, and that’s what they’ve told journalists on the record: that my father’s only so-called crime was exercising his First Amendment rights.</p>
<p>It’s the same in Iraq–this whole misguided notion of who Arabs and Muslims are, invading a country based on lies, lying to the American people just like they lied to the jury about my father’s case. Except, thankfully, the jury saw through that.</p>
<p>HOW DO you respond to Barack Obama’s recent arguments for reducing troops in Iraq to boost troop levels in Afghanistan?</p>
<p>I THINK you just need to look at the recent incidents in Afghanistan–we bombed civilians, there was an air strike on a wedding. But I also think few American people know about the effects of the war on Afghan civilians.</p>
<p>I met a veteran of the Afghanistan war, and he told me about one experience where he actually gave the people who were about to [conduct an] air strike in Afghanistan the wrong coordinates because the metal in the vehicle next to him interfered with his [Global Positioning System]. He said they bombed a village of Afghan civilians, and then they went to the village and told them, “We’re sorry the Taliban did this to you.” It’s really telling of how failed our policies are, how destructive occupation is to the people.</p>
<p>I think sending more troops to Afghanistan will also hurt our own military and our own troops who don’t want to be there. From what they’ve told me, they want to be back home here with their families; they’ve already served years in Iraq–enough is enough.</p>
<p>It’s also going to have long-term consequences on our own country when we’ve had all these young men and women serving in all these war zones, and under extremely difficulty circumstances.</p>
<p>OBAMA HAS also reaffirmed the U.S.’s “special relationship” with Israel while suggesting he would negotiate an agreement between the Israeli state and the Palestinians. What do you think of the prospects for peace under an Obama presidency?</p>
<p>I THINK the only way to be a credible peace-broker, if you will, in the Middle East is to actually consider both sides, and that’s never happened. Even at the Camp David Accords, the only thing the American negotiating team was doing was copying and pasting Israeli demands, and offering them to the Palestinians.</p>
<p>So if it’s just a matter of repeating that history, then no, I don’t think we’ll get very far. I think America does have a very important role as being one of Israel’s staunchest allies, and for that reason, I hope more Americans will inform themselves about the conflict and really dig deep and learn both sides of the narrative, because right now, the media is only offering one side. You very rarely get a glimpse of the actual history. They’ve done polls where a majority of Americans think it’s the Palestinians who are occupying the Israelis.</p>
<p>There’s such little depth to the coverage of this conflict, and yet seeing how much of our tax money goes to sustaining Israel, I think people really have a responsibility to learn as much as possible.</p>
<p>RECENTLY, HUNDREDS of Vermonters turned out to protest the attempt by Burlington’s municipal cable company to drop Al-Jazeera English from its offerings. What’s the significance of people rallying to keep Al-Jazeera on the air?</p>
<p>FIRST, I should say I’m not a spokesperson for Al-Jazeera, but I work there, and I obviously have tremendous respect and regard for the network. Al-Jazeera English is a refreshing change from what we’re offered here in this country, and it’s really encouraging to be in the one city in the United States that actually offers the network.</p>
<p>I think it’s great that people turned out in support of it–in support of free speech and also the opportunity to be exposed to more than one perspective. I hope that more cities in the U.S. follow that lead and insist that their cable companies provide Al-Jazeera, because how can we say we live in a democracy when we can’t even get a TV station?</p>
<p>HOW SERIOUSLY should we take right-wing, anti-Muslim groups like the “Vermont’s Defenders Council,” which has very few members but almost succeeded in suppressing Al-Jazeera?</p>
<p>I THINK we should take them very seriously. Even though they’re small in number, they’re very vocal, and they have a lot of influence. In Burlington, free speech and dialogue triumphed, but all over the country, suppression, censorship and fear-mongering have triumphed more often than anyone would like.</p>
<p>When I was in southern California recently, a theater agreed to screen a documentary about my father’s case called USA vs. Al-Arian, and they came under a heavy campaign by a right-wing group in the area and the theater decided to cancel it at the last minute. Thankfully, another theater stepped up to screen the film and didn’t capitulate to this fear-mongering campaign, but the first theater did, and that’s an example of where these groups do triumph.</p>
<p>We have to make sure our voices are louder than theirs. We have to stand up against them.</p>
<p>YOUR FATHER has been imprisoned for more than five years. What has been the impact on him and on your family, and what can people do to continue to stand up for him?</p>
<p>THERE HAVE been so many times when we thought this nightmare was finally over, and it wasn’t. It just continues.</p>
<p>It’s been devastating for our whole family–to see our father imprisoned, to see the sustained campaign by the U.S. government to put him through as much psychological–and sometimes even physical–torture as possible.</p>
<p>Being placed in complete isolation–that would drive anyone to a breaking point. Being cursed out and subjected to racist comments by prison guards and the marshals who transport him from prison to prison. Being taken from prison to prison. This is something that’s really a deliberate attempt to try to break someone, by constantly isolating them from their loved ones and their families. And for what? What did my father do to deserve the treatment he’s gotten?</p>
<p>Throughout this experience, we’ve learned so much more about the prison system than we ever imagined learning: just the way families themselves are humiliated; the way that guards talk to regular people visiting their families, yelling at them, turning people away who have driven 15 or 20 hours to visit their loved one, just because they’re wearing the wrong thing. It’s really heart-breaking. It’s terrible, too, seeing that the vast majority of prisoners in this country are minorities–Blacks and Latinos–the disproportionate numbers and the selective enforcement of laws.</p>
<p>But along the way, we’ve also had so much support from people, all over the country, all over the world, especially with the documentary [USA vs. Al-Arian]. It raised so much awareness throughout Europe, especially the Scandinavian countries, because it’s a Norwegian-produced documentary. In the Middle East, it screened on both Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, the two Arab networks.</p>
<p>It’s been tremendous. I think that without all of the support from people, this would have been a much more difficult experience to go through than it already is.</p>
<p>Locally, in Florida, the Arab and Muslim community were so terrified. They were scared of the government. A lot of them were being visited by the FBI in this campaign of intimidation. So a lot of them really wanted nothing to do with us and shied away, and we felt very isolated–like our family had to deal with this whole thing by ourselves.</p>
<p>But–and this is probably one of the most beautiful parts of this whole nightmare–there’s this progressive Christian community and this community of local Tampa residents that stood by us. They would hold signs every single Monday during the trial saying, “Charity to orphans and widows is not a crime” and “Free Sami!”</p>
<p>And the jurors saw these people who looked just like them, just average Americans supporting the rights of this stateless Palestinian professor, and I’m sure that had a big effect on them.</p>
<p>NANCY WELCH writes for the <a href="http://www.socialistworker.org" type="external">Socialist Worker</a>.</p>
<p>What you can do</p>
<p>The Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace is asking Dr. Al-Arian’s supporters to call Pamunkey Regional Jail to protest the further unjust treatment–a 23-hour lockdown, held in complete isolation–that Dr. Al-Arian is being subjected to. Call 804-365-6400, press 4, then 3001, and ask to speak to the superintendent’s office; press 0 after business hours.</p>
<p>Visit the <a href="http://www.freesamialarian.com/home.htm" type="external">Free Sami Al-Arian Web site</a> to get regular updates about his case and learn more about what you can do to protest his continued imprisonment.</p>
<p>You can send donations to help the Al-Arian family defray the costs of more than five years of legal defense to: Liberty Defense Fund, P.O. Box 1211, 24525 E. Welches Road, Welches, OR 97067.</p>
<p>Laila Al-Arian’s book, co-authored with Chris Hedges, <a href="/dp/1568583737/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Collateral Damage: America’s War Against Iraqi Civilians</a>], exposes the patterns of the U.S. occupation of Iraq through interviews with 50 American veterans of the war.</p>
<p>The documentary film USA v. Al-Arian can be viewed on the Internet at the LinkTV Web site.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | dr sami alarian one earliest victims war terror within us continues languish jail since february 2003 arrest crime speaking behalf palestinian struggle israels apartheid alarians daughter laila alarian author pulitzer prizewinning journalist chris hedges collateral damage americas war iraqi civilians 1 graduate columbia school journalism recently joined aljazeera english producer spoke laila recent visit burlington vt sought meeting sen patrick leahy leading democrat chair senate judiciary committee far leahy refused investigate circumstances conditions dr alarian held 2006 florida jury refused return guilty verdict charges bush justice department brought father signed plea agreement federal prosecutors secure release prison wasnt father released deported agreed whats happened since father signed plea agreement thought would released months later federal prosecutor gordon kromberg tried bring virginia kromberg six sevenyear witchhunt muslim organizations northern virginia area describe hes coming hes blogged trips hes taken israel fear palestinians hes made antiarab antimuslim statements record hes never apologized one trial virginia said arabs liethats told juryand said dont believe anything tell person lot power authority say hes one driving shipi think bosses supporting hes know kromberg wasnt happy florida jurys verdict way trying retry case virginia kromberg succeeded getting father moved virginia jail next 18 months brought father grand jury tried force testify dad testified would charged perjury maybe even obstruction justice held civil contempt 12 months dad spent civil contempt went two different hunger strikes trying make point im going testify principles plea agreement finally dad removed contempt period sentence run removed contempt yet still wasnt deported one promises government made plea agreement deport expeditiously used language important case course never happened two years two years like endured would say completely lowest point hampton roads regional jail portsmouth virginia hunger strike authorities went completely ballistic put suicide watch took away clothes put paperthin white gown took away pillows blankets even waterhis cup water huge campaign time call prison demand treated humanity respect days later removed isolation started treating better think thats really good example power people heartening see actually work recent developments late june dad indicted two counts criminal contempt awaiting trial take place august 13 lot lawyers said really unusual someone placed civil contempt charged criminal contempt youve already punished person testifying scary thing criminal contempt charge socalled crime american law books minimum maximum sentenceso could range less five years 10 20 30 years really idea thingand law passed post911is government ask terroristenhancement charges tack charges increase prison time judge recently granted bail father wasnt released bail hearing father took place father finished sentence ended april 7 indictment came june 24 time bail hearing jail illegallybecause youre allowed hold someone indefinitely reason think thats still allowed country time taken one ice immigration customs enforcement prison next ice custody bail hearing judge decided grant bail really good day us said record neither flight risk threat community impose restrictions okay long meant father would released everything dads case always exception every rule even something good happens somehow government always finds way prevail case hes citizen even though granted bail ice detain judge even said bail hearing dont authority order ice release going brother went courthouse following weekmy brother sign paperwork custodian father releasedand woman courthouse works clerks office told us oh yeah whenever court says person released bail ice 99 percent time release person course 1 percent exception father found morning dad moved us marshals custody ice hes 75 miles away arlington virginia hes winchester virginia ice custody obvious theyre planning releasing came vermont hoping meet person patrick leahy reason senator give refusing meet understand response illegal representative senator get involved pending litigation well weve asking get involved way pending litigation pending litigation charge criminal contempt happened last month leahy chance almost past two years get involved didnt know fact hes received hundreds letters faxes emails phone calls people world concerned whats happened father unfortunately hasnt responded calls including calls constituents vermont know concerned case big window time really could taken initiative investigate abuses going caseand grave abuses think head senate judiciary committee responsibility oversee bush justice department leahys committee taken right step investigating politicization justice department former attorney general alberto gonzales whats flip side coin theyre looking issue attorneys fired time gonzales ordering attorneys didnt agree fired also looking promoted people like gordon kromberg youve dedicated collateral damage featuring interviews 50 us soldiers wretched treatment iraqi civilians occupation father connections father treated iraqi people subjected think policies bush administration bush went way say isnt war islam muslims think past almost eight years shown otherwise targeted someone like father activist spoke mind know thats jury florida concluded thats theyve told us thats theyve told journalists record fathers socalled crime exercising first amendment rights iraqthis whole misguided notion arabs muslims invading country based lies lying american people like lied jury fathers case except thankfully jury saw respond barack obamas recent arguments reducing troops iraq boost troop levels afghanistan think need look recent incidents afghanistanwe bombed civilians air strike wedding also think american people know effects war afghan civilians met veteran afghanistan war told one experience actually gave people conduct air strike afghanistan wrong coordinates metal vehicle next interfered global positioning system said bombed village afghan civilians went village told sorry taliban really telling failed policies destructive occupation people think sending troops afghanistan also hurt military troops dont want theyve told want back home families theyve already served years iraqenough enough also going longterm consequences country weve young men women serving war zones extremely difficulty circumstances obama also reaffirmed uss special relationship israel suggesting would negotiate agreement israeli state palestinians think prospects peace obama presidency think way credible peacebroker middle east actually consider sides thats never happened even camp david accords thing american negotiating team copying pasting israeli demands offering palestinians matter repeating history dont think well get far think america important role one israels staunchest allies reason hope americans inform conflict really dig deep learn sides narrative right media offering one side rarely get glimpse actual history theyve done polls majority americans think palestinians occupying israelis theres little depth coverage conflict yet seeing much tax money goes sustaining israel think people really responsibility learn much possible recently hundreds vermonters turned protest attempt burlingtons municipal cable company drop aljazeera english offerings whats significance people rallying keep aljazeera air first say im spokesperson aljazeera work obviously tremendous respect regard network aljazeera english refreshing change offered country really encouraging one city united states actually offers network think great people turned support itin support free speech also opportunity exposed one perspective hope cities us follow lead insist cable companies provide aljazeera say live democracy cant even get tv station seriously take rightwing antimuslim groups like vermonts defenders council members almost succeeded suppressing aljazeera think take seriously even though theyre small number theyre vocal lot influence burlington free speech dialogue triumphed country suppression censorship fearmongering triumphed often anyone would like southern california recently theater agreed screen documentary fathers case called usa vs alarian came heavy campaign rightwing group area theater decided cancel last minute thankfully another theater stepped screen film didnt capitulate fearmongering campaign first theater thats example groups triumph make sure voices louder stand father imprisoned five years impact family people continue stand many times thought nightmare finally wasnt continues devastating whole familyto see father imprisoned see sustained campaign us government put much psychologicaland sometimes even physicaltorture possible placed complete isolationthat would drive anyone breaking point cursed subjected racist comments prison guards marshals transport prison prison taken prison prison something thats really deliberate attempt try break someone constantly isolating loved ones families father deserve treatment hes gotten throughout experience weve learned much prison system ever imagined learning way families humiliated way guards talk regular people visiting families yelling turning people away driven 15 20 hours visit loved one theyre wearing wrong thing really heartbreaking terrible seeing vast majority prisoners country minoritiesblacks latinosthe disproportionate numbers selective enforcement laws along way weve also much support people country world especially documentary usa vs alarian raised much awareness throughout europe especially scandinavian countries norwegianproduced documentary middle east screened aljazeera alarabiya two arab networks tremendous think without support people would much difficult experience go already locally florida arab muslim community terrified scared government lot visited fbi campaign intimidation lot really wanted nothing us shied away felt isolatedlike family deal whole thing butand probably one beautiful parts whole nightmaretheres progressive christian community community local tampa residents stood us would hold signs every single monday trial saying charity orphans widows crime free sami jurors saw people looked like average americans supporting rights stateless palestinian professor im sure big effect nancy welch writes socialist worker tampa bay coalition justice peace asking dr alarians supporters call pamunkey regional jail protest unjust treatmenta 23hour lockdown held complete isolationthat dr alarian subjected call 8043656400 press 4 3001 ask speak superintendents office press 0 business hours visit free sami alarian web site get regular updates case learn protest continued imprisonment send donations help alarian family defray costs five years legal defense liberty defense fund po box 1211 24525 e welches road welches 97067 laila alarians book coauthored chris hedges collateral damage americas war iraqi civilians exposes patterns us occupation iraq interviews 50 american veterans war documentary film usa v alarian viewed internet linktv web site 160 160 160 160 | 1,534 |
<p>On Tuesday, September 11, 2001 I was in Washington D.C. after arriving from Atlanta, Georgia the evening of September 10. I was there for an agriculture meeting. On that fateful day I met colleagues from Arkansas and South Carolina for a breakfast meeting at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill. It was to be the start of a daylong session on sustainable agriculture with agriculture advocates and members of Congress. As we walked into Rayburn on the morning of 9/11 our world was transformed. It was a time when the best and worst in America rose to the surface.</p>
<p>Coming into Rayburn we passed guards whose eyes were transfixed on the television. We asked what was happening. “A plane flew into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York” they said. We thought it was a fluke–an error of some sort by a misguided plane. We looked briefly at the television and then continued to the cafeteria in the basement where we met two of our friends. There were not a lot of people in the cafeteria at the time, but those who were there already seemed rather bleak. People were on their cell phones and not looking directly at anyone. Then we heard that the second world trade tower had been struck and we knew that something orchestrated and sinister was at play. I called my son in Atlanta to ask what he knew and he couldn’t provide additional information at that point except that both towers had been attacked. (It was at 8:46 AM that American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston Logan Airport crashed into the North Tower and at 9:03 AM that United Airlines Flight 175 also from Logan flew into the South Tower.)</p>
<p>At the table next to ours four men, who I assumed were civil servants (one said he was an attorney), were suddenly talking anxiously and I asked them about what. They said they’d heard that the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (close to the White House on 17th Street) that houses the Vice President’s office had been hit and was on fire. They sounded convincing. We found out later that this, in fact, was a rumor. I wondered where they got this misleading information! Ultimately, we learned there was a hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark International headed either for the White House or Capitol Hill. It was downed in Pennsylvania at 10:03 AM due either to a passenger revolt or, as speculated by some, shot down by the U.S. Air Force under orders from Dick Cheney. But how, I wondered, did these fellows know in advance what seemed a notion of the scheme? I still wonder about this. At 9:37 AM, the western side of the Pentagon was also attacked that day by the hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 from Washington Dulles.</p>
<p>Suddenly there was an announcement in the cafeteria that Rayburn was being evacuated. We joined the throng of employees who rushed out of Rayburn and the surrounding buildings. A few hundred yards from Rayburn we heard what sounded like a bomb – everyone around me bolted and then ran faster from the scene. I looked back to see that the sound was likely from military jets that were already flying over the city and breaking the sound barrier as they flew close to the buildings.</p>
<p>Everyone seemed to be leaving Capitol Hill. As we walked rather frantically away we met residents and employees who, wisely, wanted to be a considerable distance from the U.S. government buildings. Finally, the five of us stopped at a pub blocks away from Rayburn where, for a few hours, we drank, talked, watched television and played pool. What else is there to do in a crisis? While there I called Attorney J.L. Chestnut in Alabama to suggest that we could expect the U.S. government would become more fascistic, basically a war on civil liberties, in response to this attack. He agreed. Ultimately, we ended up at the Irish pub across from the Union Station where we and everyone else in Washington, it seemed, were crowded in to eat and discuss the tragic loss of life in New York and what it all meant. Nobody knew, of course.</p>
<p>Then the post 9/11 week began. Planes in the U.S. were grounded for a week. I stayed with friends while trying find a way back to Atlanta. When tiring of exploring my exit options, I began visiting countless progressive non-governmental and religious organizations in Washington–primarily in the Methodist Building across from the Supreme Court. I wanted to read organizational statements about the week’s events. I talked briefly with David Corn, The Nation’s Washington correspondent. He was visibly upset about the attacks but couldn’t offer much except his anger. I guess I expected more. On the whole the Methodists, Catholics and other groups were calling for restraint rather than a violent response, which they expected from a heavily armed U.S. with wounded pride. I started interviewing folks at Union Station and in other parts of the city to hear what they were thinking/feeling at the time. People couldn’t offer much. It was too soon and everyone seemed to be struggling to make sense of it all. I drove by the Pentagon to observe the damage first hand. I couldn’t get close, however, as the area was fenced in. I could only drive by in a taxi, but from a distance the gaping hole was visible. I talked with people in some of the local restaurants a short distance from the Pentagon who told me they had heard the low flying plane before it flew into the Pentagon</p>
<p>Finally, toward the end of the week the planes were still grounded and Greyhound buses were filled to the brim but I managed to get a seat on an Amtrak train to Atlanta. So here I was on Saturday, September 15 headed to Atlanta with other southern refugees who’d been stranded in Washington, New York and Boston and headed for points South. The stories started to flow from everyone around me. Some of the New York refugees were direct witnesses of the tragedy and had helped evacuees from the Twin Towers; one woman from South Carolina said she’d witnessed the appalling deaths of people jumping from the Towers. Most passengers, however, were simply stunned by the events the past week. I overheard one man say that we could expect an impressive and aggressive response from the United States–but I wondered at the time where, against whom?</p>
<p>The U.S. response began on October 7, 2001 when the U.S. and Britain began their bombing attack against Afghanistan–everyone tragically abuses and victimizes Afghanistan, both the east and the west. Little did I think that within two years we would also witness the utter destruction of the beautiful ancient Baghdad and the deaths of thousands of Iraqis (77,272 according the independent Iraq Body Count) and of thousands of American youth (3,733 – Iraq Body Count). What a catastrophe of yet untold proportions! Reliable figures of Iraqi losses are not available through U.S. records–as General Tommy Franks, who led the U.S. invasion, said, “We don’t do body counts.” If we talk about American “hubris” Franks’ comment much less the policy itself has to be front and center!</p>
<p>Once back in Atlanta, I wrote a letter to friends and relatives about my experience in Washington on 9/11 and attempted to place the events that week in context. Not as a justification for violence but rather to understand that it should not be surprising to Americans if the aggressive and arrogant U.S. policies in Asia, South America and in the Middle East would be met with resistance and reactions. How could it be otherwise? And furthermore, since after World War II the U.S. has tragically meddled in the Middle East – particularly in the oil producing countries of Iran and Iraq–to make sure they had dictators who could be manipulated (i.e. Saddam Hussein, the Shah of Iran) and this sadly continues. One of my relatives immediately responded by calling me a traitor–I used the opportunity to elaborate further on it all.</p>
<p>But never has there been found anything to link Iraq with the 9/11 incident. In a twisted fashion, Iraqis are now blamed by the U.S. for destabilization of their own country that was, in fact, caused by the U.S. invasion and historic manipulation by the west. What we are witnessing is a classic “blame the victim” scenario.</p>
<p>When Bush said he was going after terrorists, I thought “great–maybe he’ll consider going after the Ku Klux Klan”. It, in fact, has done far more on-going damage to Americans since it’s founding after the Civil War in 1865 than any entity in the Middle East.</p>
<p>Then began the next phase of the 9/11-post period. For the first 6 months or so there was that feel of oppressive stagnation that seems to envelope the very air we breathe prior to war. As the Bush administration began rattling its sabers against Iraq and false accusations began to fly about weapons of mass destruction and other lies in much of 2002, people were afraid to speak out. It was a God and Country mindset, which is usually a time in America with corresponding racism on the rise. I frequently witnessed during this period a white fellow with a huge confederate flag waving on the back of his truck as he would weave in and out the black residential area of East Point, Georgia that I drive through almost every day.</p>
<p>Then finally in the summer of 2002 in Atlanta’s rather sedate Druid Hills neighborhood there was a sign that read “Say NO to War”–it lasted for a week. It was the first public display I’d seen. In the latter part of 2002, thanks to the local Quaker meeting, we began to see signs stating, “War is Not the Answer” around the cities of Atlanta and Decatur. One of my friends in Atlanta’s Virginia-Highland area who insisted on keeping the sign in her yard replaced it about four times, as people kept destroying it while walking by her house. She was and remains determined.</p>
<p>On February 5, 2003 Colin Powell made his infamous argument for war against Iraq in a sea of lies at the United Nations–lies that Iraq held caches of weapons of mass destruction. He later said the speech was a “blot” on his record. Indeed!</p>
<p>And while Powell spoke, Pablo Picasso’s painting “Guernica” in the background was shrouded, apparently at the request of the Bush administration. Guernica, in the Basque area of Spain, was bombed relentlessly on April 26, 1937 by 24 Nazi bombers during the Spanish Civil War. Guernica was the most ancient of Basque towns and center of Basque culture. It was utterly destroyed. The bombers also flew low to kill, with machine guns, people who took refuge in fields. The London Times said of the attack “In the form of its execution and the scale of the destruction it wrought, no less than the selection of its objective, the raid on Guernica is unparalleled in military history.” As Picasso said in Paris one week after the bombing “In the panel on which I am working, which I shall call Guernica, and in all my recent works of art, I clearly express my abhorrence of the military caste which has sunk Spain in an ocean of pain and death.”</p>
<p>The Guernica in the United Nations is a tapestry of Picasso’s work and placed there as a statement of the barbarity of war. The hypocrisy of it being covered, as Powell spoke of war and lied to the world, speaks for itself.</p>
<p>As the pressure kept building and while Bush was clearly preparing for pre-emptive war against Iraq – a country that did nothing to us – impressively large demonstrations against the likely invasion took place all over the world. In fact, on the weekend of February 15 and 16, 2003 there were estimates of anywhere from 8 million to 30 million protesters against war in Iraq in approximately 800 cities. It was considered the largest anti-war rally in history. What amazed me is that Bush, his cohorts and the unquestioning and complicit major media in the U.S. didn’t seem to blink an eye to the millions of protestors at home and abroad.</p>
<p>In fact, in a March 13, 2003 editorial, the Black Commentator wrote, “White America sees the world through the eyes of the mass murderer and slaveholder. Were it not so, there would not exist the grotesque disconnect between white American public opinion and the opinions of mankind, shared generally by Black America. Bush would not be possible.”</p>
<p>A couple of days prior to the March 20, 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq I called Reverend Joseph Lowery, the renowned civil rights leader and former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference here in Atlanta, to ask if he would send a last minute letter to the Reverend Billy Graham who Bush does apparently listen to–or so we assumed. He agreed to it. So we did exactly that. We first called Graham’s assistant to see if he would deliver a letter to Graham and he said he would. We then drafted a letter and faxed it.</p>
<p>During the Vietnam War Lowery had contacted Graham to alert him about the increasing racism during that period. Sometime later after his appeal to Graham, Lowery said the Reverend came to visit him because Lowery had criticized his lack of response. Nothing positive came out of the visit.</p>
<p>From my own experience, I’ve found that conservative southern white pastors tend not to focus on the social gospel. There is a distinction to be drawn between being evangelical and applying the social gospel of seeking justice for the poor and the exploited. Even now after centuries of slavery, the advent of Jim Crow in the south and racism as its legacy, these pastors will not rock the boat. Unfortunately, they also see the world the “through the eyes of the mass murderer and slaveholder.”</p>
<p>Graham was not helpful during the Vietnam era and Lowery was rather skeptical about anything he might do now. In any case, in the 2003 letter Reverend Lowery essentially asked Graham to appeal to Bush to not go to war. He wrote that war would lead only to the senseless loss of life and a spiral of violence, and that serious and genuine diplomacy was needed. We assume Graham’s assistant gave the letter to him, but Lowery never heard back from the Reverend. So all of this was to no avail, but we tried.</p>
<p>HEATHER GRAY produces “Just Peace” on WRFG-Atlanta 89.3 FM covering local, regional, national and international news. She can be reached at <a href="mailto:hmcgray@earthlink.net" type="external">hmcgray@earthlink.net</a>. &#160;</p> | true | 4 | tuesday september 11 2001 washington dc arriving atlanta georgia evening september 10 agriculture meeting fateful day met colleagues arkansas south carolina breakfast meeting rayburn house office building capitol hill start daylong session sustainable agriculture agriculture advocates members congress walked rayburn morning 911 world transformed time best worst america rose surface coming rayburn passed guards whose eyes transfixed television asked happening plane flew north tower world trade center new york said thought flukean error sort misguided plane looked briefly television continued cafeteria basement met two friends lot people cafeteria time already seemed rather bleak people cell phones looking directly anyone heard second world trade tower struck knew something orchestrated sinister play called son atlanta ask knew couldnt provide additional information point except towers attacked 846 american airlines flight 11 boston logan airport crashed north tower 903 united airlines flight 175 also logan flew south tower table next four men assumed civil servants one said attorney suddenly talking anxiously asked said theyd heard eisenhower executive office building close white house 17th street houses vice presidents office hit fire sounded convincing found later fact rumor wondered got misleading information ultimately learned hijacked united airlines flight 93 newark international headed either white house capitol hill downed pennsylvania 1003 due either passenger revolt speculated shot us air force orders dick cheney wondered fellows know advance seemed notion scheme still wonder 937 western side pentagon also attacked day hijacked american airlines flight 77 washington dulles suddenly announcement cafeteria rayburn evacuated joined throng employees rushed rayburn surrounding buildings hundred yards rayburn heard sounded like bomb everyone around bolted ran faster scene looked back see sound likely military jets already flying city breaking sound barrier flew close buildings everyone seemed leaving capitol hill walked rather frantically away met residents employees wisely wanted considerable distance us government buildings finally five us stopped pub blocks away rayburn hours drank talked watched television played pool else crisis called attorney jl chestnut alabama suggest could expect us government would become fascistic basically war civil liberties response attack agreed ultimately ended irish pub across union station everyone else washington seemed crowded eat discuss tragic loss life new york meant nobody knew course post 911 week began planes us grounded week stayed friends trying find way back atlanta tiring exploring exit options began visiting countless progressive nongovernmental religious organizations washingtonprimarily methodist building across supreme court wanted read organizational statements weeks events talked briefly david corn nations washington correspondent visibly upset attacks couldnt offer much except anger guess expected whole methodists catholics groups calling restraint rather violent response expected heavily armed us wounded pride started interviewing folks union station parts city hear thinkingfeeling time people couldnt offer much soon everyone seemed struggling make sense drove pentagon observe damage first hand couldnt get close however area fenced could drive taxi distance gaping hole visible talked people local restaurants short distance pentagon told heard low flying plane flew pentagon finally toward end week planes still grounded greyhound buses filled brim managed get seat amtrak train atlanta saturday september 15 headed atlanta southern refugees whod stranded washington new york boston headed points south stories started flow everyone around new york refugees direct witnesses tragedy helped evacuees twin towers one woman south carolina said shed witnessed appalling deaths people jumping towers passengers however simply stunned events past week overheard one man say could expect impressive aggressive response united statesbut wondered time us response began october 7 2001 us britain began bombing attack afghanistaneveryone tragically abuses victimizes afghanistan east west little think within two years would also witness utter destruction beautiful ancient baghdad deaths thousands iraqis 77272 according independent iraq body count thousands american youth 3733 iraq body count catastrophe yet untold proportions reliable figures iraqi losses available us recordsas general tommy franks led us invasion said dont body counts talk american hubris franks comment much less policy front center back atlanta wrote letter friends relatives experience washington 911 attempted place events week context justification violence rather understand surprising americans aggressive arrogant us policies asia south america middle east would met resistance reactions could otherwise furthermore since world war ii us tragically meddled middle east particularly oil producing countries iran iraqto make sure dictators could manipulated ie saddam hussein shah iran sadly continues one relatives immediately responded calling traitori used opportunity elaborate never found anything link iraq 911 incident twisted fashion iraqis blamed us destabilization country fact caused us invasion historic manipulation west witnessing classic blame victim scenario bush said going terrorists thought greatmaybe hell consider going ku klux klan fact done far ongoing damage americans since founding civil war 1865 entity middle east began next phase 911post period first 6 months feel oppressive stagnation seems envelope air breathe prior war bush administration began rattling sabers iraq false accusations began fly weapons mass destruction lies much 2002 people afraid speak god country mindset usually time america corresponding racism rise frequently witnessed period white fellow huge confederate flag waving back truck would weave black residential area east point georgia drive almost every day finally summer 2002 atlantas rather sedate druid hills neighborhood sign read say warit lasted week first public display id seen latter part 2002 thanks local quaker meeting began see signs stating war answer around cities atlanta decatur one friends atlantas virginiahighland area insisted keeping sign yard replaced four times people kept destroying walking house remains determined february 5 2003 colin powell made infamous argument war iraq sea lies united nationslies iraq held caches weapons mass destruction later said speech blot record indeed powell spoke pablo picassos painting guernica background shrouded apparently request bush administration guernica basque area spain bombed relentlessly april 26 1937 24 nazi bombers spanish civil war guernica ancient basque towns center basque culture utterly destroyed bombers also flew low kill machine guns people took refuge fields london times said attack form execution scale destruction wrought less selection objective raid guernica unparalleled military history picasso said paris one week bombing panel working shall call guernica recent works art clearly express abhorrence military caste sunk spain ocean pain death guernica united nations tapestry picassos work placed statement barbarity war hypocrisy covered powell spoke war lied world speaks pressure kept building bush clearly preparing preemptive war iraq country nothing us impressively large demonstrations likely invasion took place world fact weekend february 15 16 2003 estimates anywhere 8 million 30 million protesters war iraq approximately 800 cities considered largest antiwar rally history amazed bush cohorts unquestioning complicit major media us didnt seem blink eye millions protestors home abroad fact march 13 2003 editorial black commentator wrote white america sees world eyes mass murderer slaveholder would exist grotesque disconnect white american public opinion opinions mankind shared generally black america bush would possible couple days prior march 20 2003 us invasion iraq called reverend joseph lowery renowned civil rights leader former president southern christian leadership conference atlanta ask would send last minute letter reverend billy graham bush apparently listen toor assumed agreed exactly first called grahams assistant see would deliver letter graham said would drafted letter faxed vietnam war lowery contacted graham alert increasing racism period sometime later appeal graham lowery said reverend came visit lowery criticized lack response nothing positive came visit experience ive found conservative southern white pastors tend focus social gospel distinction drawn evangelical applying social gospel seeking justice poor exploited even centuries slavery advent jim crow south racism legacy pastors rock boat unfortunately also see world eyes mass murderer slaveholder graham helpful vietnam era lowery rather skeptical anything might case 2003 letter reverend lowery essentially asked graham appeal bush go war wrote war would lead senseless loss life spiral violence serious genuine diplomacy needed assume grahams assistant gave letter lowery never heard back reverend avail tried heather gray produces peace wrfgatlanta 893 fm covering local regional national international news reached hmcgrayearthlinknet 160 | 1,295 |
<p>It’s not unusual for an activist, focused on one of the millions of worthy causes out there, to try to recruit other activists to that particular cause. That’s not exactly what I want to do. For one thing, if we are going to succeed we are going to have to recruit millions of new people into activism who are not now active at all.</p>
<p>Of course I do favor types of activism that eliminate the need for more activism, such as campaigns to make voter registration automatic or to index the minimum wage to the cost of living. But for the most part I want everyone to keep doing what inspires them. Only, I think I know a way to shift our emphases and unite out movements, a way that doesn’t usually occur to us.</p>
<p>It’s not unusual for an activist to think that their particular field is the unifying top priority.</p>
<p>For example:</p>
<p>If we don’t get the money out of politics how can we enact or enforce any laws not favored by money? We’ve legalized bribery for godsake! What else matters until we fix that?</p>
<p>Or:</p>
<p>If we don’t create credible democratic independent media, we can’t communicate. Door knocking can’t defeat television. We only know that Cindy Sheehan went to Crawford or Occupyers went to Wall Street because corporate television chose to tell us. Why have elections if we can’t tell the truth about the candidates?</p>
<p>Or:</p>
<p>Excuse me, the earth is cooking. Our species and many others are losing their habitats. If it’s not already too late, now is the time to decide whether we will have great grandchildren at all. If we don’t have any, what will it matter what kind of elections or television networks they have?</p>
<p>One can go on and on in this vein, as well as in claiming that one societal evil precedes and causes another. Racism or militarism or extreme materialism is the disease and the others are the symptoms.</p>
<p>All of this is also not exactly what I want to do. I want us to work on everything and use every means of unifying. I want us to recognize how each problem contributes to others and vice versa. Hungry scared people can’t end climate change. A culture that puts a trillion dollars a year into mass-killing of distant dark-skinned people can’t build schools or end racism. Unless we redistribute wealth, we cannot redistribute power. We can’t create media unless we have something important to say. We can’t protect the earth’s climate while steadfastly ignoring the top consumer of petroleum on earth because criticizing the military would be inappropriate. But we will go on ignoring it if we don’t create good media. We have to do it all, and there are various ways in which we can become more united, more strategic, and potentially more effective.</p>
<p>The way that I think we don’t pay enough attention to lies in developing a focus on complete and total war abolition, elimination of all weapons and militaries, all bases, all aircraft carriers, missiles, armed drones, generals, colonels, and if necessary all senators from Arizona.</p>
<p>Why war abolition? I’ll give you 10 reasons.</p>
<p>1. It actually makes sense. The reasonable position of opposing some wars and cheering for others, but cheering for the troops even in the bad wars doesn’t attract a lot of energy because it doesn’t make any sense. Jeremy Corbyn just won votes by pointing out that wars generate terrorism, they are counter-productive on their own terms, endangering us rather than protecting us. They need to be replaced with diplomacy, aid, cooperation, the rule of law, the tools of nonviolence, the skills of de-escalation of conflict. Claiming that wars are sort of good but shouldn’t be overdone makes no sense at all — what is the point of them if not to win them? And if wars make murder OK, why is torture so unacceptable? And if bombs dropped by piloted planes are OK, what’s wrong with drones? And if Anthrax is barbaric, why are White Phosphrous and Napalm civilized? None of it makes any sense, which is one reason the top killer of U.S. troops is suicide. You know how to properly love the troops, end all war and give them life options that don’t make them want to kill themselves.</p>
<p>2. Nuclear apocalypse is a growing danger on a par with climate chaos and will continue to grow unless war abolition succeeds.</p>
<p>3. The biggest destroyer of water, air, land, and atmosphere that we have is militarism. It’s war or planet. Time to choose.</p>
<p>4. War kills first and foremost by removing resources from where they are needed, including from famines and disease epidemics created by war. Any activism that seeks funding for any human or environmental needs has to look to ending war. It is where all the money is, more money every single year than could be taken once and only once from the billionaires.</p>
<p>5. War creates secrecy, surveillance, classification of public business, warrantless spying on activists, patriotic lying, and illegal actions by secret agencies.</p>
<p>6. War militarizes local police, making the public into an enemy.</p>
<p>7. War fuels, just as it is fueled by, racism, sexism, bigotry, hatred, and domestic violence. It teaches people to solve problems by shooting guns.</p>
<p>8. War divides humanity at a time when we must unite on major projects if we are to survive or prosper.</p>
<p>9. A movement to abolish all war, all weapons, and all atrocities that flow out of war can unite opponents of the crimes of one government or group with the opponents of the crimes of another. Without equating all crimes with each other, we can unite as opponents of war rather than of each other.</p>
<p>10. War is the primary thing our society does, it sucks down the majority of federal discretionary spending, its promotion permeates our culture. It is the very foundation of the belief that ends can justify evil means. Taking on the myths that sell us war as necessary or inevitable or glorious is an ideal way of opening our minds to rethinking what we’re doing on this little planet.</p>
<p>So let’s not work for an environmentally sensitive military into which women have the equal right to be drafted against their will. Let’s not oppose the weapons that are wasteful or don’t kill well enough. Let’s build a broad multi-issue movement in which one of the unifying factors is the cause of eliminating in its entirety the institution of organized mass murder.</p> | true | 4 | unusual activist focused one millions worthy causes try recruit activists particular cause thats exactly want one thing going succeed going recruit millions new people activism active course favor types activism eliminate need activism campaigns make voter registration automatic index minimum wage cost living part want everyone keep inspires think know way shift emphases unite movements way doesnt usually occur us unusual activist think particular field unifying top priority example dont get money politics enact enforce laws favored money weve legalized bribery godsake else matters fix dont create credible democratic independent media cant communicate door knocking cant defeat television know cindy sheehan went crawford occupyers went wall street corporate television chose tell us elections cant tell truth candidates excuse earth cooking species many others losing habitats already late time decide whether great grandchildren dont matter kind elections television networks one go vein well claiming one societal evil precedes causes another racism militarism extreme materialism disease others symptoms also exactly want want us work everything use every means unifying want us recognize problem contributes others vice versa hungry scared people cant end climate change culture puts trillion dollars year masskilling distant darkskinned people cant build schools end racism unless redistribute wealth redistribute power cant create media unless something important say cant protect earths climate steadfastly ignoring top consumer petroleum earth criticizing military would inappropriate go ignoring dont create good media various ways become united strategic potentially effective way think dont pay enough attention lies developing focus complete total war abolition elimination weapons militaries bases aircraft carriers missiles armed drones generals colonels necessary senators arizona war abolition ill give 10 reasons 1 actually makes sense reasonable position opposing wars cheering others cheering troops even bad wars doesnt attract lot energy doesnt make sense jeremy corbyn votes pointing wars generate terrorism counterproductive terms endangering us rather protecting us need replaced diplomacy aid cooperation rule law tools nonviolence skills deescalation conflict claiming wars sort good shouldnt overdone makes sense point win wars make murder ok torture unacceptable bombs dropped piloted planes ok whats wrong drones anthrax barbaric white phosphrous napalm civilized none makes sense one reason top killer us troops suicide know properly love troops end war give life options dont make want kill 2 nuclear apocalypse growing danger par climate chaos continue grow unless war abolition succeeds 3 biggest destroyer water air land atmosphere militarism war planet time choose 4 war kills first foremost removing resources needed including famines disease epidemics created war activism seeks funding human environmental needs look ending war money money every single year could taken billionaires 5 war creates secrecy surveillance classification public business warrantless spying activists patriotic lying illegal actions secret agencies 6 war militarizes local police making public enemy 7 war fuels fueled racism sexism bigotry hatred domestic violence teaches people solve problems shooting guns 8 war divides humanity time must unite major projects survive prosper 9 movement abolish war weapons atrocities flow war unite opponents crimes one government group opponents crimes another without equating crimes unite opponents war rather 10 war primary thing society sucks majority federal discretionary spending promotion permeates culture foundation belief ends justify evil means taking myths sell us war necessary inevitable glorious ideal way opening minds rethinking little planet lets work environmentally sensitive military women equal right drafted lets oppose weapons wasteful dont kill well enough lets build broad multiissue movement one unifying factors cause eliminating entirety institution organized mass murder | 568 |
<p>Photo: Merrick For a Change</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.merrickforachange.com/" type="external">Merrick Alpert</a>, the&#160;only Democratic primary challenger to Connecticut’s&#160; <a href="/mojo/2009/12/chris-dodds-charity-backtrack" type="external">embattled Senator</a> <a href="/politics/2009/04/chris-dodds-personal-bailout" type="external">Chris Dodd</a>, sounds like a career politician. He is comfortable spinning a yarn about the hands of working class people, the importance of small business, and his staunchly moral lifestyle.&#160;</p>
<p>But Alpert, who has been critized as <a href="http://blogs.courant.com/capitol_watch/2009/05/pelto-to-former-intern-dont-ch.html" type="external">unqualified</a>&#160;and <a href="http://www.myleftnutmeg.com/diary/11383/merrick-alpert-running-at-dodd-from-the-right" type="external">too conservative</a>,&#160;embraces his outsider status and says he’s the only Democrat who can win Dodd’s seat in November. Although he trails the five-term Senator by more than 30 points according to a recent <a href="http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1296.xml?ReleaseID=1395" type="external">Quinnipiac poll</a>,&#160;Alpert notes that he currently has only one or two percent name recognition in Connecticut, compared to Dodd, who “has been around for longer than the Israelites wandered in the desert.” &#160;</p>
<p>This could be Alpert’s moment to surge against Dodd, who was recently deemed “ <a href="/mojo/2009/12/connecticut-sen-race-leans-republican-7-dems-replace-dodd" type="external">unelectable</a>” by the respected elections predictor the Cook Political Report.&#160;Read his conversation with Mother Jones (below the jump) for more on Alpert’s policy stances, Chris Dodd’s failures, and the state’s&#160; <a href="/mojo/2009/09/wwe-ceo-linda-mcmahon-slam-dodd" type="external">Republican primary throw down</a>.</p>
<p>Mother Jones: So far, you are the only Democrat who has announced a primary challenge to Dodd. Why did you first decide to launch your campaign?</p>
<p>Merrick Alpert:&#160;I was raised by a single working class mom who worked her whole life as a school teacher. If you come from working class people you know what their hands look like, that they’re never completely clean. When I visited her that day, holding her retirement account, she said “Merrick, half of everything I’ve worked for is gone.” That night, [my wife] Alex and I put our children to bed and went into the bedroom to watch TV. And there was the AIG scandal. I watched Chris Dodd, who I have voted for as long as I can remember, do what I teach my kids not to do and I was struck by it. I believe that we’re on the wrong track and we need uncorrupt government. I also believe that term limits are part of clean government.</p>
<p>MJ: Have you promised to set term limits for yourself?</p>
<p>MA: Yes, but it’s presumptuous right now to answer for anything more than one 6-year term. I believe that the maximum I should serve is two terms, 12 years. If you’re down in DC as many days a week as you have to be, and then when you’re back in the state you’re traveling every night, this is a hard job. If you want to stay in Washington and have lobbyists wine and dine you, it’s an easy job. But if you do the job right, it’s tough.</p>
<p>A couple of weeks back, I walked 117 miles across the state of Connecticut to protest the war in Afghanistan, which is wrong from a national security and economic perspective. You see a lot of things when you’re moving at three miles per hour. What I didn’t see was a lot of hope. People said they felt forgotten. In their minds, people link Dodd and Lieberman: two peas in a pod who have been in office too long and are out of touch.</p>
<p>MJ: In just 2006, you were a top contributor to Dodd’s campaign. What changed in the last four years? And why does Dodd need to be removed in 2010?</p>
<p>MA:&#160;The&#160; <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/" type="external">Center for Responsive Politics</a> shows that Dodd has taken about <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=Career&amp;cid=N00000581&amp;type=I" type="external">$14 million</a> from the financial services industry since 1989. I started seeing massive infusions from AIG and the others. When I looked deeper into it, the trend was even more troubling. In 1999 he voted for the repeal of the <a href="/mojo/2009/12/glass-steagall-resurrected" type="external">Glass-Steagall Act</a>. Then you look at the credit card bill, which was a farce. There’s a huge amount of money flowing into Dodd from the people he’s supposed to protect us from. Why is it that these industries are working so hard to keep this guy in power? They are protecting their investment.</p>
<p>Dodd is also not standing up for his constituents on health care reform. There needs to be a meaningful discussion about a single payer system and at the very minimum, there should be a public option that covers the uninsured. I cannot fathom that we would settle for anything less than that.</p>
<p>MJ: Your former boss Jon Pelto suggested earlier this year that you are <a href="http://blogs.courant.com/capitol_watch/2009/05/pelto-to-former-intern-dont-ch.html" type="external">unqualified for the Senate</a>. How do you respond?</p>
<p>MA: He hasn’t seen me in 25 years, so he doesn’t know me very well. If he knew me, he would know that I’ve been out there, working on the Clinton/Gore effort, working for Al Gore when he was Vice President, I’ve served in the military, I’ve traveled to 30 countries, and I’ve put a small business together, including a significant international component of that business. You also have to look at ethics and morality. Judge me as a husband and father. I have three kids and&#160;I’m married to a Hispanic immigrant from the nation of Colombia.</p>
<p>One thing that Dodd is certainly not and I am, is electable. The recent <a href="http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1296.xml?ReleaseID=1395" type="external">Quinnipiac poll</a> was shocking from a Democratic perspective. There is 1-2 percent name recognition for me, but nearly 25% of the Democratic party already wants me. Dodd has been around for longer than the Israelites wandered in the desert and people in Connecticut either don’t want Dodd or won’t commit. The people who know him the best want him the least. Right now, people don’t want a career politician. People want someone like themselves, who will come in and bring a fresh perspective.</p>
<p>MJ: Which Republican candidate would you most like to face in 2010?</p>
<p>MA: I’d be happy to go after any of them. They’re taking turns seeing who can be further right. They stand up saying Afghanistan is a good idea and health care reform is a bad idea. As far as I’m concerned, you can pair them all together and I’ll run against them all.</p>
<p>I would have told you 2 months ago that former congressman <a href="/mojo/2009/10/wwes-linda-mcmahon-attracts-scorn-simmons-caligiuri" type="external">Rob Simmons</a> would be the nominee, but <a href="/mojo/2009/09/dodd-rival-wwe-ceo-linda-mcmahon-shows-past-support-dems" type="external">Linda McMahon</a> is spending such an obscene amount of money. Whether you’re trying to buy an election with your own money or with money from special interests, you’re trying to buy an election. Whoever wins that cage match, I’m happy to take on.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | photo merrick change merrick alpert the160only democratic primary challenger connecticuts160 embattled senator chris dodd sounds like career politician comfortable spinning yarn hands working class people importance small business staunchly moral lifestyle160 alpert critized unqualified160and conservative160embraces outsider status says hes democrat win dodds seat november although trails fiveterm senator 30 points according recent quinnipiac poll160alpert notes currently one two percent name recognition connecticut compared dodd around longer israelites wandered desert 160 could alperts moment surge dodd recently deemed unelectable respected elections predictor cook political report160read conversation mother jones jump alperts policy stances chris dodds failures states160 republican primary throw mother jones far democrat announced primary challenge dodd first decide launch campaign merrick alpert160i raised single working class mom worked whole life school teacher come working class people know hands look like theyre never completely clean visited day holding retirement account said merrick half everything ive worked gone night wife alex put children bed went bedroom watch tv aig scandal watched chris dodd voted long remember teach kids struck believe wrong track need uncorrupt government also believe term limits part clean government mj promised set term limits yes presumptuous right answer anything one 6year term believe maximum serve two terms 12 years youre dc many days week youre back state youre traveling every night hard job want stay washington lobbyists wine dine easy job job right tough couple weeks back walked 117 miles across state connecticut protest war afghanistan wrong national security economic perspective see lot things youre moving three miles per hour didnt see lot hope people said felt forgotten minds people link dodd lieberman two peas pod office long touch mj 2006 top contributor dodds campaign changed last four years dodd need removed 2010 ma160the160 center responsive politics shows dodd taken 14 million financial services industry since 1989 started seeing massive infusions aig others looked deeper trend even troubling 1999 voted repeal glasssteagall act look credit card bill farce theres huge amount money flowing dodd people hes supposed protect us industries working hard keep guy power protecting investment dodd also standing constituents health care reform needs meaningful discussion single payer system minimum public option covers uninsured fathom would settle anything less mj former boss jon pelto suggested earlier year unqualified senate respond hasnt seen 25 years doesnt know well knew would know ive working clintongore effort working al gore vice president ive served military ive traveled 30 countries ive put small business together including significant international component business also look ethics morality judge husband father three kids and160im married hispanic immigrant nation colombia one thing dodd certainly electable recent quinnipiac poll shocking democratic perspective 12 percent name recognition nearly 25 democratic party already wants dodd around longer israelites wandered desert people connecticut either dont want dodd wont commit people know best want least right people dont want career politician people want someone like come bring fresh perspective mj republican candidate would like face 2010 id happy go theyre taking turns seeing right stand saying afghanistan good idea health care reform bad idea far im concerned pair together ill run would told 2 months ago former congressman rob simmons would nominee linda mcmahon spending obscene amount money whether youre trying buy election money money special interests youre trying buy election whoever wins cage match im happy take | 546 |
<p>We first began to realize something was wrong when teams of teams of men with suits and clipboards began walking through the halls of our high school during the first week of classes. We had heard that the U.S. Navy was planning to open a “Naval Academy” on Chicago’s North Side, but it never occurred to us that they would try to put it in our building. After all, we were already using our building!</p>
<p>Nonetheless, it became clear that the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) was in fact targeting our school after we crashed a meeting at the 48th ward alderman’s office–and discovered that CPS was planning a “community forum” at Senn to sell the idea.</p>
<p>In some ways, Senn High School is a pretty typical “inner-city” school. Ninety-two percent of our students are poor. We don’t have lots of resources, our building needs paint, and our students are not the ones who test into the fancy magnet programs.</p>
<p>But in other ways, our school is a remarkable community resource, with plenty of morale. Our students come from 70 nationalities, speak 57 different languages and still maintain a sense of unity and mutual respect. Senn students have performed 70,000 hours of community service over the past five years and have been recognized with a national service award. Senn has also developed some of the city’s most successful academic programs for at-risk kids.</p>
<p>So instead of waiting for the ax to fall, we began to fight back. We researched the effect that the military takeover would have on our school and community, and wrote fact sheets. We made flyers about our concerns and put up 3,500 of them, with another 500 in Spanish. We reached out and met with community organizations, launched a Web site, wrote press releases and organized to get people out to support us. On October 5, we brought about 700 people out to the CPS forum at our school.</p>
<p>The mood in the room was electric. Students had been preparing all week–they had written speeches, drawn dozens of handmade signs and brought along many of their parents. When CPS officials tried to show us a slick promotional video about the Navy ROTC program, the room rebelled. The entire audience stood up and turned its back to the presentation.</p>
<p>David Pickens, the deputy chief of staff for schools CEO Arne Duncan, glared at the angry crowd for the next five minutes in a dramatic standoff, while the heckling grew louder. Then someone in the audience started to chant “We say no,” and soon, the whole crowd was booming its opposition.</p>
<p>Pickens and his team promptly ran from the auditorium and left the school, leaving us to conduct a real community meeting.</p>
<p>It’s clear that Pickens and his crew will be back. The plan for Senn High School is part of a much larger agenda–an agenda to militarize much more of the public education system. Chicago currently has some 10,600 students enrolled in Junior ROTC programs–and the military plans to increase that number to 15,000 by 2007, according to Col. Rick Mills, who earns $115,000 as CPS’s ROTC director.</p>
<p>Junior ROTC enrolls students as young as 11. Members wear uniforms, drill with fake rifles, learn about military history and are encouraged to continue with a military career.</p>
<p>This outcome isn’t left to chance. An Army memo directs JROTC staff to “actively assist cadets who want to enlist in the military [and] emphasize service in the U.S. Army; facilitate recruiter access to cadets in JROTC program and to the entire student body;…[and] work closely with high school guidance counselors to sell the Army story.”</p>
<p>At the exact time when the U.S. military is running short of troops for its bloody occupation for oil and empire in Iraq, they are targeting students at home–not, of course, students in the wealthy, predominantly white suburban schools outside Chicago, but inner-city students at schools like Senn.</p>
<p>Preying on high school students</p>
<p>IN THE fall of 2002, Garrett Jones was a high school junior, just coming off a difficult two years and feeling like he needed to turn his life around.</p>
<p>And the armed forces were right there to prey on him. “Military recruiters were always around, calling me, coming by my house,” Garrett told Socialist Worker. “They would call me and say, why don’t you come down [to the recruiting office]?”</p>
<p>Eventually, Jones did go by the recruiting office, located across the street from Chicago’s largest high school, Lane Tech. Once inside, Garrett received a high-pressure sales job. “There were like four guys there, and they were all telling me how great it was, what an opportunity it was,” Jones recounted. “They were saying, ‘Just sign it,’ but I asked what would happen if I wanted to go to college?” Garrett said the recruiter told him, “Oh yeah, you can get out of this.” So he signed.</p>
<p>A year-and-a-half later, Garrett had done a lot of growing up. He started on the Senn football team his senior year, improved his grades and been accepted into Southern Illinois University (SIU), where he had plans to attend in the fall.</p>
<p>Early in July, he woke up to a knock on his door. His parents were at work. Garrett says that he was greeted by an army recruiter and two police officers. “They had been calling me for weeks, saying I had to come enroll, but I kept telling them, ‘I’m going to school,'” he said. “Now they said, ‘If you don’t come with us right now, you are going to jail.'”</p>
<p>Garrett packed a few things and was taken to a hotel in the suburbs. The next morning, he was flown to basic training in Missouri, and it was only then that he was able to phone home.</p>
<p>Garrett found basic training to be hellish and full of racism. “One officer yelled at me, ‘You’re not in Chicago anymore, you’re not a drug dealer anymore,'” he recounted. Garrett also suffered a medical condition–severe migraines–that should have kept him out of the military. It wasn’t until he collapsed and spent five days in the hospital that he was released.</p>
<p>Garrett spent two months fighting to get out of the service, during which time he lost his job and his place in SIU’s freshman class. “It messed up the whole course of my life,” he said.</p>
<p>But he wants his story to serve as a warning to other young men and women who are thinking about signing up. “Read what you sign,” Garrett warns, “and don’t believe what they say.”</p>
<p>JESSE SHARKEY is a teacher at Senn High School, a Chicago Teachers Union delegate and a contributor to the <a href="http://www.socialistworker.org/" type="external">Socialist Worker</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | first began realize something wrong teams teams men suits clipboards began walking halls high school first week classes heard us navy planning open naval academy chicagos north side never occurred us would try put building already using building nonetheless became clear chicago public schools cps fact targeting school crashed meeting 48th ward aldermans officeand discovered cps planning community forum senn sell idea ways senn high school pretty typical innercity school ninetytwo percent students poor dont lots resources building needs paint students ones test fancy magnet programs ways school remarkable community resource plenty morale students come 70 nationalities speak 57 different languages still maintain sense unity mutual respect senn students performed 70000 hours community service past five years recognized national service award senn also developed citys successful academic programs atrisk kids instead waiting ax fall began fight back researched effect military takeover would school community wrote fact sheets made flyers concerns put 3500 another 500 spanish reached met community organizations launched web site wrote press releases organized get people support us october 5 brought 700 people cps forum school mood room electric students preparing weekthey written speeches drawn dozens handmade signs brought along many parents cps officials tried show us slick promotional video navy rotc program room rebelled entire audience stood turned back presentation david pickens deputy chief staff schools ceo arne duncan glared angry crowd next five minutes dramatic standoff heckling grew louder someone audience started chant say soon whole crowd booming opposition pickens team promptly ran auditorium left school leaving us conduct real community meeting clear pickens crew back plan senn high school part much larger agendaan agenda militarize much public education system chicago currently 10600 students enrolled junior rotc programsand military plans increase number 15000 2007 according col rick mills earns 115000 cpss rotc director junior rotc enrolls students young 11 members wear uniforms drill fake rifles learn military history encouraged continue military career outcome isnt left chance army memo directs jrotc staff actively assist cadets want enlist military emphasize service us army facilitate recruiter access cadets jrotc program entire student bodyand work closely high school guidance counselors sell army story exact time us military running short troops bloody occupation oil empire iraq targeting students homenot course students wealthy predominantly white suburban schools outside chicago innercity students schools like senn preying high school students fall 2002 garrett jones high school junior coming difficult two years feeling like needed turn life around armed forces right prey military recruiters always around calling coming house garrett told socialist worker would call say dont come recruiting office eventually jones go recruiting office located across street chicagos largest high school lane tech inside garrett received highpressure sales job like four guys telling great opportunity jones recounted saying sign asked would happen wanted go college garrett said recruiter told oh yeah get signed yearandahalf later garrett done lot growing started senn football team senior year improved grades accepted southern illinois university siu plans attend fall early july woke knock door parents work garrett says greeted army recruiter two police officers calling weeks saying come enroll kept telling im going school said said dont come us right going jail garrett packed things taken hotel suburbs next morning flown basic training missouri able phone home garrett found basic training hellish full racism one officer yelled youre chicago anymore youre drug dealer anymore recounted garrett also suffered medical conditionsevere migrainesthat kept military wasnt collapsed spent five days hospital released garrett spent two months fighting get service time lost job place sius freshman class messed whole course life said wants story serve warning young men women thinking signing read sign garrett warns dont believe say jesse sharkey teacher senn high school chicago teachers union delegate contributor socialist worker 160 | 621 |
<p>Frank Lloyd Wright once boasted that he didn’t design his buildings to last for more than a century. It’s not something you hear from many architects. But that doesn’t mean Wright was being humble. Indeed, there’s a hefty element of hubris to this admission. With Wright, you always get the sense that the conception, as realized in his beautiful drawings, was more important than the structures themselves.</p>
<p>Then again it was true. While most of Wright’s homes have stood up pretty well over the years, a few of his better designs began to crack and crumble soon after they were erected. Usually, this was a result of Wright trying to build on the cheap, often by using local sand as a source for the reinforced concrete that became a signature of his later buildings, such as La Miniatura, the house in the Hollywood Hills that looks like a compact Mayan temple. (Of course, it took the giant temples of Tikal 600 years to acquire the characteristics of a ruin and La Miniatura only a decade.)</p>
<p>It’s also an idea that Wright swiped from the Japanese, whose traditional houses were temporal structures, built to last for only for a few years. Characteristically, Wright didn’t credit them, though he did admit to a fondness for Japanese art, especially the woodblock prints of Hiroshige and Hokusai.</p>
<p>More fundamentally, Wright held to the theory that a house should be designed to reflect the specific needs and personality of its occupants. It was a tenet of his notion of “organic architecture”. According to this mode of thinking, there was no reason for a building to outlive its owners. Houses should be constructed to function well for forty years or so and then torn down to make way for new structures for new owners.</p>
<p>This was a way to keep architecture moving forward, to keep on, as Wright said, “breaking out of the box”. It was also an attitude that may have grown out of some his personal peeves. Wright hated the English and described most of their architecture (Edwin Lutyens, the Walter Scott of English architecture–was a notable exception) as monuments to British imperialism. He so thoroughly despised the old Victorians that loomed near his house in Oak Park, Illinois that he built a wall around his home and studio and designed that house’s curious windows so that he wouldn’t have to look at the hulking outlines of the older structures.</p>
<p>Even so, Wright spent most of his first 20 years as an architect drafting up homes as sturdy and immutable as anything conjured up by Antonio Palladio or Christopher Wren. The justly famous prairie designs of the early 1900s weren’t houses so much as striking horizontal mansions for millionaires, equipped with parlors, music rooms and discreetly hidden quarters for servants.</p>
<p>These days, of course, the super-rich couldn’t care less about Wright’s houses, except as they are portrayed in coffee table books, and they cringe at the prospect of actually living in them. It’s mega-square footage and techno-wiring that matters now. Wright’s houses (even the big ones such as Hollyhock House and the Frank Thomas House) are too small to contain the accumulated trappings of today’s millionaires. And they are downright impossible to re-decorate, intentionally so, since Wright didn’t trust anyone’s taste over his own. Most of his houses didn’t even have closets, where would all the shoes go? Plus people (often of the most noisome disposition) are always showing up at the door wanting a peek at the structure. Much better to buy up the land, then hold the house for ransom with a wrecking ball and wait for a buy out.</p>
<p>That’s exactly what happened to the Gordon house, the only structure Wright designed for construction in Oregon. Wright drafted plans for the house in 1957 and it was constructed on a bend in the Willamette River near Wilsonville in 1963, four years after his death, for Conrad and Evelyn Gordon. After the Gordons died, the house fell into disrepair following the predictable familial spat over whether or not to subdivide the homestead.</p>
<p>In 1999, the property was bought by David Smith for $1.1 million dollars. Smith had no plans to live in the house, a t-shaped two-storied structure made of cinderblocks and Oregon cedar. Instead, he announced his intention to bulldoze it and build on its grave a sprawling mansion to rival the other executive monstrosities that line the Willamette River these days. Apparently, Smith and his wife Carey had no idea who Wright was and didn’t much give a damn after they found out. They had good reason to be smug. Within the past couple of years, the Portland area (supposedly home to the most progressive zoning and historical preservation laws on the continent) has seen houses by three of its most notable local architects, John Yeon, Walter Gordon and Pietro Belluschi destroyed, with barely a squawk of protest.</p>
<p>But Yeon–Oregon’s version of California’s Bernard Maybeck, doesn’t’ enjoy Wright’s cult following and once word leaked about the Smith’s plans, an international crusade was launched to save the structure. It is a testament to the power of the Wright name and the influence of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy that not one of the remaining 350 structures designed by Wright has been demolished in the last 12 years.</p>
<p>The Smiths offered to give the house to anyone who’d take it (they weren’t keen to pay for the demolition), as long as they removed it within 105 days or they’d flatten it themselves. Ultimately the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy and the Oregon Chapter of the Institute of American Architects stepped forward to claim the house. It was dismantled, moved to a botanical garden 30 miles away in the tourist town of Silverton and reassembled, under the supervision of architect Burton Goodrich, who apprenticed with Wright in the 1950s. The Smith’s walked away with a nice tax deduction and a shiny new McMansion looming over the Willamette.</p>
<p>Wright would surely be bemused at the effort and expense that has gone into saving his buildings from the wrecking ball. After all, the Gordon House was one of his “low-cost” Usonian homes and was built for less than $10,000. Before it was over, the project ended up costing more than $1.2 million to relocate and restore the house. This is architecture as a kind of cultural fetish object.</p>
<p>A half-century after his death, Frank Lloyd Wright remains something of a brand name. And it’s been that way since nearly the beginning of his career. Brendan Gill, writing in Many Masks: a Life of Frank Lloyd Wright, suggests that many of Wright’s clients didn’t want a Wrightian solution to their architectural needs so much as they simply craved the Wright name attached to their house, thus inaugurating the birth of name brand architecture. During the early days of Wright’s fame, there’s little doubt that his older contemporaries, Daniel “Uncle Dan” Burnham, John Wellborn Root and Louis Sullivan, were equally, if not more, accomplished. But, among his many other talents, Wright was a genius at the game of self-promotion. He was the first architect as celebrity.</p>
<p>Wright was both a Utopian and a narcissist. He could jive talk his way through almost any crisis and there were many of them, usually of a financial nature. Wright was especially adept at snowing corporate titans, such as Herbert “Hib” Johnson, CEO of the Johnson Wax.</p>
<p>The Wright style with CEO’s was unique, a full-frontal assault more than pandering. “He insulted me about everything,” Johnson said of his first encounter with Wright. “And I insulted him. But he did a better job. I showed him pictures of the old office, and he said it was awful. He had a Lincoln-Zephyr, and I had one, it was the only thing we agreed on. On all other matters we were at each other’s throats. If a guy can talk like that, he must have something.”</p>
<p>Although they became very close friends, Wright didn’t trust Johnson to present his plans before the Johnson Wax board. Hib Johnson agreed to let Wright attend the meeting, but warned him: “Please, Frank, don’t scold me in front of my own board of directors.”</p>
<p>Like most narcissists, Wright was an unrepentant mamma’s boy, pampered and coddled by an attentive mother who told him he was a genius when he was three years old. Anna Lloyd-Jones Wright trained her son to be an architect almost from the crib, giving him the famous Freobel blocks that he continued to play with his entire life. Indeed, the floating planes of the Usonian designs seem directly traceable to simple structures made from wooden blocks that Wright would assemble in a matter of seconds on his desk to dazzle prospective clients.</p>
<p>The crypto-fascist Philip Johnson famously dismissed Wright as the greatest architect of the 19th Century. [Perhaps, architects who build glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.] There’s a certain grain of truth about this, though not, certainly, in the sense that Johnson, who embodied the worst strains of modernism (and post-modernism), meant to convey.</p>
<p>Wright was a utopian, in the grand romantic tradition. He was grounded in Rousseau and often let slip that his favorite poets were Walt Whitman and the dreamy Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Along with fellow poet (and snitch) Robert Southey, Coleridge cooked up an idea for a utopian community in western Pennsylvania they called, somewhat clumsily for two poets capable of stunning lyricism, the Pantisocracy. They were going to pay for the land on the proceeds of a long poem chronicling the life and death of Robespierre. But the plan ultimately fell apart over violent disagreements between the two on sexual freedom (which Coleridge advocated) and slavery (which Coleridge abhorred). Interestingly, the Pantisocracy, charted out only on maps in Coleridge’s house in Keswick, was to have been located not far from where Wright built his most famous house, Fallingwater.</p>
<p>Wright also pored over Robert Owen’s experiments in socialist communities, most notably in New Harmony, Indiana, where, as fate would have it, Wright’s rival Johnson later built his open-aired church shaped like death’s cap mushroom. But the class divisions and authoritarianism of Owens’ community proved anathema to Wright’s innate egalitarianism. He was more drawn to the Modern Times commune in Brentwood on Long Island, established in 1851 by the American anarchist Josiah Warren. Among other things, Warren’s community was organized on the principles of “no police” and “free love”, earning it the unyielding animosity of the snobs of New England who disgustedly referred to it as the “Sodom of the Pine Barrens.”</p>
<p>The early half of the 19th century was a time of incredible optimism and radicalism in the United States. In the 1840s, there were 100,000 people living in more than 150 socialist/utopian communities across the country. “Those towns stood for everything eccentric: for abolition, short skirts, whole-wheat bread, hypnotism, phonetic spelling, phrenology, free love and the common ownership of property,” wrote the journalist Helen Beal Woodward in 1945 article on utopian communities. The Civil War largely put an end to all that, but the utopian spirit continued to thrive after the war, particularly in the prairie states, through the rise of the populist parties and the Wisconsin progressives.</p>
<p>But it was good old Rousseau, perhaps more than anyone else, who seems to have shaped Wright’s thinking the most. In one of his notebooks, Wright highlighted this passage from Emile: “Men are not made to be crowded together in ant hills, but scattered over the earth to till it.” Throw in a free car (Wright preferred fast ones, such as Jaguars) and you’ve got the basis of Wright’s utopian community, Broad Acre City.</p>
<p>Broad Acre City wasn’t a design for a single community, as much as a kind of organic zoning plan for the entire country: a kind of motor-age update of Jefferson’s vision of rural America. Wright believed each American family should be entitled to an acre of land and a car. The property lines and building sites would conform to the contours of the landscape, not the rigid grid system proposed by Jefferson and his followers and enacted in gthe famous survey whose consequences can be seen from any plane flying over the plains states. There would also be a pattern of greenspaces, community gardens, walking trails, parks and wildlands, concepts that he adapted from the English garden cities designed by William Morris . Wright’s idea was that each town would be self-sufficient, with growth limited by available water supplies and arable land.</p>
<p>It wasn’t until the 1910s that Wright began to think seriously about designing low-cost housing for working class people. But World War I and then the depression intervened. Then followed a real dry spell. Between 1928 and 1935, only two structures designed by Wright (other than his own house and studio at Taliesin) were constructed.</p>
<p>Then in 1935 Wright received a visit from Herbert Jacobs and his wife Katherine. Jacobs was a columnist with the Madison Capital Times, the city’s most progressive newspaper. He was an admirer of Wright’s work and wanted the great man to design their house. The problem was Jacobs was far from wealthy. Wright had little else on his plate and agreed to design a house that would cost $5,500, including his customary 10 percent fee. He called the design: Usonian.</p>
<p>What does Usonian mean? Who knows? Some suggest that Wright came up with the name during his first trip to Europe in 1910, when there was some discussion about referring to the USA as “Usona” in order to distinguish it from the new Union of South Africa. (In those days, as for much of the century, it’s easy to see how the two nations could be confused.) Wright once said he took the name from Samuel Butler’s utopian novel Erewhon. But no one’s been able to track it down there. (I did a word search of the online edition of Erewhon and couldn’t find it.) Most likely it was a joke. After all, read in a mirror the title of Butler’s novel is Nowhere.</p>
<p>Even so what Wright produced was little short of a revolution in American architecture: a beautiful structure, efficiently designed to sit on an odd (and cheap) lot, at a price affordable for lower income families. But the Jacobs House, and the dozens of Usonian designs that would follow, did more than that. It was truly one of the first environmentally-conscious designs, utilizing passive solar heating, natural cooling and lighting with his signature clerestory windows, native materials, radiant floor heating, and L-shaped floorplan that anchored the house around a garden terrace.</p>
<p>The Jacobs house was an immediate hit in Madison, nearly as popular an attraction as the Johnson Wax Building, which was under construction at the same time further east, in Racine. On weekends so many people showed up at the door, the Jacobs began selling sold tickets to tour their new house. At fifty cents a pop, they quickly recaptured enough money to pay Wright’s fee.</p>
<p>Over the next 30 years, Wright produced hundreds of Usonian designs, never wavering far from the original concept. “We can never make the living room big enough, the fireplace important enough, or the sense of relationship between exterior, interior and environment close enough, or get enough of these good things I’ve just mentioned,” Wright wrote in a 1948 issue of Architectural Forum. “A Usonian house is always hungry for the ground, lives by it, becoming an integral feature of it.”</p>
<p>The Usonian homes inspired great loyalty in their original owners. In 1975, John Sergeant did an inventory of the homes and found that over 50 percent were still owned by the original families, more than 35 years after construction. The same thing can’t be said for his larger projects. The beautiful Robey House, near the University of Chicago, was inhabited for less than a full year, while Fallingwater served as little more than a weekend retreat.</p>
<p>So what happened? Why didn’t the Usonian design take off? Why are we left only with the barest elements of the design, the cookie-cutter ranch houses that came to dominate the lots of suburban America?</p>
<p>There’s no simple explanation. But one thing is clear. Wright’s plans to revolutionize the American residential living space ran afoul of interests of the federal government. Think about this: in his 70-year career Wright didn’t win one contract for a federal building. Not even during the heyday of the New Deal.</p>
<p>It all came down to politics. Wright’s politics were vastly more complicated and honorable than that embodied by Howard Roark, Ayn Rand’s self-serving portrait of Wright in her novel The Fountainhead. Sure there was a libertarian strain to Wright, which Rand seized on and distorted to her own perverse ends. But he also was drawn to the prairie populism espoused by the likes of the great Ignatius Donnelly. It’s this version of Wright that makes an appearance in John dos Passos’ USA trilogy.</p>
<p>Wright was a pacifist and his i outright opposition to war cost him government commissions, the great lifeline of the professional architect, especially during the Depression and World War II. Thus it’s no accident that Wright was down and out most of his career. The high points came at the beginning and the end. He made more than 50 percent of his designs after he turned 70, and these weren’t hack work, but some of the most innovative plans of any architect then working.</p>
<p>John Sergeant, in his excellent book on Wright’s Usonian houses, argues that there’s a mutual admiration between Wright and the noted anarchist, Peter Kropotkin. In 1899, Kropotkin moved to Chicago, living in the Hull House commune, set up by radical social reformer Jane Addams, where Wright often lectured, including a reading of his famous essay the Arts and Crafts Machine.</p>
<p>But, in those crucial decades of the 20s and 30s, Wright’s political views seemed to align most snugly with Wisconsin progressives, as personified by the LaFollettes. In fact, Philip LaFollette served as Wright’s attorney and sat on the board of Wright’s corporation.</p>
<p>None of this escaped the attention of the authorities. From World War I to his final days, Wright found himself the subject of a campaign of surveillance, harassment and intimidation by the federal government. In 1941, 26 members of Wright’s Taliesin fellowship signed a petition objecting to the draft and calling the war effort futile and immoral. The draft board sent the letter to the FBI, where it immediately came to the attention of J. Edgar Hoover, who already loathed Wright.</p>
<p>Twice Hoover himself demanded that the Justice Department bring sedition charges against Wright. He was rebuffed both times by the attorney general, but, typically, that only drove Hoover to expand the surveillance and harassment by his goons.</p>
<p>But, as a review of Wright’s FBI file reveals, the Fed’s interest in the architect extended far beyond his pacifism. Hoover’s men recorded his dalliances with the Wobblies, his continuing attempts to combat the US government’s dehumanization of the Japanese during and after the war, his rabble-rousing speeches on college campuses, his work for international socialists and third world governments, including Iraq, and his rather unorthodox views on sexual relations (the Feds noted that Wright seemed to have a particular obsession with Marlene Dietrich).</p>
<p>It could be more sinister than ironic, then, that Carter H. Manny, one of Wright’s apprentices at Taliesin West during the years when the architect and his cohorts were under the most intense scrutiny by the Feds, would go on to design the FBI headquarters (1963). The building, as conceived by Manny, exudes a bureaucratic brutalism that is far removed from anything that ever came off Wright’s pen. Unlike most Taliesin fellows, Manny spent less than a year under the Master’s tutelage, instead of the normal three. Some Wright devotees believe his tenure there had a more nefarious purpose.</p>
<p>The FBI wasn’t the only federal agency giving Wright a hard time. Indeed, Hoover’s snoops were only a minor irritant compared to the real damage that was done by the Federal Housing Authority, which routinely denied financing to Wright’s projects. There’s no surer way to crush the career of an architect, particularly one trying to revolutionize the housing of working class people, than to cut off his clients’ access to mortgages.</p>
<p>The Federal Home Loan Association also refused to underwrite mortgages for Wright’s houses, often citing Wright’s signature flat roofs as a lending code violation. Here’s a paragraph from one of the rejection letters: “The walls will not support the roof; floor heating is impractical; the unusual design makes subsequent sales a hazard.” All bullshit, of course. But if there’s anyway to kill architecture for working class people, it’s to deny them loans.</p>
<p>A disgusted Wright wrote in his autobiography that the federal government had “repudiated” his Usonian designs. In truth, it wasn’t so much repudiation as flat-out sabotage. No paper trail has yet been discovered linking the FBI’s harassment of Wright with the FHA’s refusal to issue mortgages for his houses. But it has all the hallmarks of a Hoover black bag job.</p>
<p>There were other attacks on Wright. In 1926, the State Department even tried to get Wright’s third wife, Olgivanna, deported as an undesirable alien. They were once again saved by the fast legal footwork of Phil LaFollette.</p>
<p>The IRS began harassing the architect in 1940, socking him with back taxes, penalties and interest dating back at least a decade. It was the kind of bill that can never be paid off and it haunted Wright for the rest of his life. Even after he died, the Agency kept after him. In 1959, the IRS audited the Wright Foundation, which was the main funding source for Wright’s troublesome colleagues at Taliesin. The Feds saw the Taliesin Fellowship as troublespot and wanted to extinguish it. It was after all a kind of commune, where the architecture students not only designed structures, but grew their own food, milled timber and ran a private school. {Not to mention the rampant bed-hopping.] Eventually, the tax agency forced the Foundation to sell off many of its most prized assets, including what remained after two awful fires at Taliesin of Wright’s remarkable stash of Japanese prints, perhaps the best private collection in the United States.</p>
<p>Wright’s plans to put portions of his Broadacre City model into reality ran into other problems with federally-connected lenders. Several of Wright’s cooperative communities, including one in Michigan and another in Pennsylvania, came to nothing because banks refused to back the plan. The reason? Wright and his clients refused to include restrictions prohibiting houses from being owned by blacks and Jews.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Kimberly and I visited the Gordon house on a hot and muggy June afternoon. Hot for Oregon anyway. The house is now the feature attraction of The Oregon Garden, which bills itself as a world-class botanical garden. It’s nothing of the sort. Indeed, it’s little more than a permanent dog-and-pony show for the chemical agricultural industry and the timber lobby. There are better gardens in any old neighborhood in Portland or Eugene than you’ll find here.</p>
<p>It was close to 90 outside, but inside the house remained cool, breezy, shaded by the jutting roofline. Wright detested air conditioning almost as much as contractors and academics. Even his home at Taliesen West, in the frying pan of Scottsdale, Arizona, uses natural features and architectural tricks to keep the building livable.</p>
<p>The Gordon House, like most of the Usonian designs, is a collage of Wright’s influences: Japan, Central America, the curves, angles and tones of the American landscape itself. It is a beautiful mix of visual puns and little tricks of light as subtle and deceptive as a painting by Wright’s contemporary, Eduard Vuillard.</p>
<p>The shape of the house is fairly simple. Wright called it a polliwog design, a t-shape with the kitchen and bedrooms massed in one section of the house, with the living room jutting out like the tail of a tadpole.</p>
<p>Even the design was political, reflecting Wright’s disdain for contractors, those middlemen of the construction trade who do so little work but pocket so much cash, consequently driving prices through the roof. Wright wanted to do away with them, particularly at the level of the American home. In fact, Wright wanted the Usonian houses to be so simple to put together that they could largely (and ideally) be constructed by the owner of the house. The prefabricated home becomes an extension of the Emersonian tradition.</p>
<p>One of Wright’s dictum’s for the Usonian designs is that the houses should “spring from the ground and into the light.” By and large they do.</p>
<p>That’s one of the most frustrating things about the migration of the Gordon house. It was originally designed to sit on a small bluff, with a view of the Willamette River to one side and the glacier-clad pyramid of Mt. Hood on the other. Each Usonian was different, fine-tuned to the site. The uprooted Gordon house seems alien to me, like a snow leopard I saw many years ago in the Cincinnati Zoo.</p>
<p>Once you take one step out of place, it’s so much easier to take the next one. The restored Gordon House now sits over a basement. Wright hated basements and they certainly weren’t part of the Usonian plan, which used a concrete floor mat laid over gravel and hot-water pipes as a source of radiant heating. The addition of a basement (in order to serve as an office for the docents) destroys the very nature of the house.</p>
<p>So what remains is really little more than a shell, a kind of exoskeleton of Wright’s original house. Instead of being a low-cost home, it’s now been transformed into a mauled museum piece, a model home for the path not taken in American residential architecture.</p>
<p>J. Edgar Hoover must be laughing as he roasts in Hell.</p>
<p>Jeffrey St. Clair&#160;is the author of&#160; <a href="http://www.easycartsecure.com/CounterPunch/CounterPunch_Books.html" type="external">Born Under a Bad Sky</a>&#160;and&#160;the co-editor with Joshua Frank of&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion</a>, published by AK Press. Hopeless is now available in&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Kindle format</a>.&#160;He can be reached at:&#160; <a href="mailto:sitka@comcast.net" type="external">sitka@comcast.net</a>.</p> | true | 4 | frank lloyd wright boasted didnt design buildings last century something hear many architects doesnt mean wright humble indeed theres hefty element hubris admission wright always get sense conception realized beautiful drawings important structures true wrights homes stood pretty well years better designs began crack crumble soon erected usually result wright trying build cheap often using local sand source reinforced concrete became signature later buildings la miniatura house hollywood hills looks like compact mayan temple course took giant temples tikal 600 years acquire characteristics ruin la miniatura decade also idea wright swiped japanese whose traditional houses temporal structures built last years characteristically wright didnt credit though admit fondness japanese art especially woodblock prints hiroshige hokusai fundamentally wright held theory house designed reflect specific needs personality occupants tenet notion organic architecture according mode thinking reason building outlive owners houses constructed function well forty years torn make way new structures new owners way keep architecture moving forward keep wright said breaking box also attitude may grown personal peeves wright hated english described architecture edwin lutyens walter scott english architecturewas notable exception monuments british imperialism thoroughly despised old victorians loomed near house oak park illinois built wall around home studio designed houses curious windows wouldnt look hulking outlines older structures even wright spent first 20 years architect drafting homes sturdy immutable anything conjured antonio palladio christopher wren justly famous prairie designs early 1900s werent houses much striking horizontal mansions millionaires equipped parlors music rooms discreetly hidden quarters servants days course superrich couldnt care less wrights houses except portrayed coffee table books cringe prospect actually living megasquare footage technowiring matters wrights houses even big ones hollyhock house frank thomas house small contain accumulated trappings todays millionaires downright impossible redecorate intentionally since wright didnt trust anyones taste houses didnt even closets would shoes go plus people often noisome disposition always showing door wanting peek structure much better buy land hold house ransom wrecking ball wait buy thats exactly happened gordon house structure wright designed construction oregon wright drafted plans house 1957 constructed bend willamette river near wilsonville 1963 four years death conrad evelyn gordon gordons died house fell disrepair following predictable familial spat whether subdivide homestead 1999 property bought david smith 11 million dollars smith plans live house tshaped twostoried structure made cinderblocks oregon cedar instead announced intention bulldoze build grave sprawling mansion rival executive monstrosities line willamette river days apparently smith wife carey idea wright didnt much give damn found good reason smug within past couple years portland area supposedly home progressive zoning historical preservation laws continent seen houses three notable local architects john yeon walter gordon pietro belluschi destroyed barely squawk protest yeonoregons version californias bernard maybeck doesnt enjoy wrights cult following word leaked smiths plans international crusade launched save structure testament power wright name influence frank lloyd wright building conservancy one remaining 350 structures designed wright demolished last 12 years smiths offered give house anyone whod take werent keen pay demolition long removed within 105 days theyd flatten ultimately frank lloyd wright building conservancy oregon chapter institute american architects stepped forward claim house dismantled moved botanical garden 30 miles away tourist town silverton reassembled supervision architect burton goodrich apprenticed wright 1950s smiths walked away nice tax deduction shiny new mcmansion looming willamette wright would surely bemused effort expense gone saving buildings wrecking ball gordon house one lowcost usonian homes built less 10000 project ended costing 12 million relocate restore house architecture kind cultural fetish object halfcentury death frank lloyd wright remains something brand name way since nearly beginning career brendan gill writing many masks life frank lloyd wright suggests many wrights clients didnt want wrightian solution architectural needs much simply craved wright name attached house thus inaugurating birth name brand architecture early days wrights fame theres little doubt older contemporaries daniel uncle dan burnham john wellborn root louis sullivan equally accomplished among many talents wright genius game selfpromotion first architect celebrity wright utopian narcissist could jive talk way almost crisis many usually financial nature wright especially adept snowing corporate titans herbert hib johnson ceo johnson wax wright style ceos unique fullfrontal assault pandering insulted everything johnson said first encounter wright insulted better job showed pictures old office said awful lincolnzephyr one thing agreed matters others throats guy talk like must something although became close friends wright didnt trust johnson present plans johnson wax board hib johnson agreed let wright attend meeting warned please frank dont scold front board directors like narcissists wright unrepentant mammas boy pampered coddled attentive mother told genius three years old anna lloydjones wright trained son architect almost crib giving famous freobel blocks continued play entire life indeed floating planes usonian designs seem directly traceable simple structures made wooden blocks wright would assemble matter seconds desk dazzle prospective clients cryptofascist philip johnson famously dismissed wright greatest architect 19th century perhaps architects build glass houses shouldnt throw stones theres certain grain truth though certainly sense johnson embodied worst strains modernism postmodernism meant convey wright utopian grand romantic tradition grounded rousseau often let slip favorite poets walt whitman dreamy samuel taylor coleridge along fellow poet snitch robert southey coleridge cooked idea utopian community western pennsylvania called somewhat clumsily two poets capable stunning lyricism pantisocracy going pay land proceeds long poem chronicling life death robespierre plan ultimately fell apart violent disagreements two sexual freedom coleridge advocated slavery coleridge abhorred interestingly pantisocracy charted maps coleridges house keswick located far wright built famous house fallingwater wright also pored robert owens experiments socialist communities notably new harmony indiana fate would wrights rival johnson later built openaired church shaped like deaths cap mushroom class divisions authoritarianism owens community proved anathema wrights innate egalitarianism drawn modern times commune brentwood long island established 1851 american anarchist josiah warren among things warrens community organized principles police free love earning unyielding animosity snobs new england disgustedly referred sodom pine barrens early half 19th century time incredible optimism radicalism united states 1840s 100000 people living 150 socialistutopian communities across country towns stood everything eccentric abolition short skirts wholewheat bread hypnotism phonetic spelling phrenology free love common ownership property wrote journalist helen beal woodward 1945 article utopian communities civil war largely put end utopian spirit continued thrive war particularly prairie states rise populist parties wisconsin progressives good old rousseau perhaps anyone else seems shaped wrights thinking one notebooks wright highlighted passage emile men made crowded together ant hills scattered earth till throw free car wright preferred fast ones jaguars youve got basis wrights utopian community broad acre city broad acre city wasnt design single community much kind organic zoning plan entire country kind motorage update jeffersons vision rural america wright believed american family entitled acre land car property lines building sites would conform contours landscape rigid grid system proposed jefferson followers enacted gthe famous survey whose consequences seen plane flying plains states would also pattern greenspaces community gardens walking trails parks wildlands concepts adapted english garden cities designed william morris wrights idea town would selfsufficient growth limited available water supplies arable land wasnt 1910s wright began think seriously designing lowcost housing working class people world war depression intervened followed real dry spell 1928 1935 two structures designed wright house studio taliesin constructed 1935 wright received visit herbert jacobs wife katherine jacobs columnist madison capital times citys progressive newspaper admirer wrights work wanted great man design house problem jacobs far wealthy wright little else plate agreed design house would cost 5500 including customary 10 percent fee called design usonian usonian mean knows suggest wright came name first trip europe 1910 discussion referring usa usona order distinguish new union south africa days much century easy see two nations could confused wright said took name samuel butlers utopian novel erewhon ones able track word search online edition erewhon couldnt find likely joke read mirror title butlers novel nowhere even wright produced little short revolution american architecture beautiful structure efficiently designed sit odd cheap lot price affordable lower income families jacobs house dozens usonian designs would follow truly one first environmentallyconscious designs utilizing passive solar heating natural cooling lighting signature clerestory windows native materials radiant floor heating lshaped floorplan anchored house around garden terrace jacobs house immediate hit madison nearly popular attraction johnson wax building construction time east racine weekends many people showed door jacobs began selling sold tickets tour new house fifty cents pop quickly recaptured enough money pay wrights fee next 30 years wright produced hundreds usonian designs never wavering far original concept never make living room big enough fireplace important enough sense relationship exterior interior environment close enough get enough good things ive mentioned wright wrote 1948 issue architectural forum usonian house always hungry ground lives becoming integral feature usonian homes inspired great loyalty original owners 1975 john sergeant inventory homes found 50 percent still owned original families 35 years construction thing cant said larger projects beautiful robey house near university chicago inhabited less full year fallingwater served little weekend retreat happened didnt usonian design take left barest elements design cookiecutter ranch houses came dominate lots suburban america theres simple explanation one thing clear wrights plans revolutionize american residential living space ran afoul interests federal government think 70year career wright didnt win one contract federal building even heyday new deal came politics wrights politics vastly complicated honorable embodied howard roark ayn rands selfserving portrait wright novel fountainhead sure libertarian strain wright rand seized distorted perverse ends also drawn prairie populism espoused likes great ignatius donnelly version wright makes appearance john dos passos usa trilogy wright pacifist outright opposition war cost government commissions great lifeline professional architect especially depression world war ii thus accident wright career high points came beginning end made 50 percent designs turned 70 werent hack work innovative plans architect working john sergeant excellent book wrights usonian houses argues theres mutual admiration wright noted anarchist peter kropotkin 1899 kropotkin moved chicago living hull house commune set radical social reformer jane addams wright often lectured including reading famous essay arts crafts machine crucial decades 20s 30s wrights political views seemed align snugly wisconsin progressives personified lafollettes fact philip lafollette served wrights attorney sat board wrights corporation none escaped attention authorities world war final days wright found subject campaign surveillance harassment intimidation federal government 1941 26 members wrights taliesin fellowship signed petition objecting draft calling war effort futile immoral draft board sent letter fbi immediately came attention j edgar hoover already loathed wright twice hoover demanded justice department bring sedition charges wright rebuffed times attorney general typically drove hoover expand surveillance harassment goons review wrights fbi file reveals feds interest architect extended far beyond pacifism hoovers men recorded dalliances wobblies continuing attempts combat us governments dehumanization japanese war rabblerousing speeches college campuses work international socialists third world governments including iraq rather unorthodox views sexual relations feds noted wright seemed particular obsession marlene dietrich could sinister ironic carter h manny one wrights apprentices taliesin west years architect cohorts intense scrutiny feds would go design fbi headquarters 1963 building conceived manny exudes bureaucratic brutalism far removed anything ever came wrights pen unlike taliesin fellows manny spent less year masters tutelage instead normal three wright devotees believe tenure nefarious purpose fbi wasnt federal agency giving wright hard time indeed hoovers snoops minor irritant compared real damage done federal housing authority routinely denied financing wrights projects theres surer way crush career architect particularly one trying revolutionize housing working class people cut clients access mortgages federal home loan association also refused underwrite mortgages wrights houses often citing wrights signature flat roofs lending code violation heres paragraph one rejection letters walls support roof floor heating impractical unusual design makes subsequent sales hazard bullshit course theres anyway kill architecture working class people deny loans disgusted wright wrote autobiography federal government repudiated usonian designs truth wasnt much repudiation flatout sabotage paper trail yet discovered linking fbis harassment wright fhas refusal issue mortgages houses hallmarks hoover black bag job attacks wright 1926 state department even tried get wrights third wife olgivanna deported undesirable alien saved fast legal footwork phil lafollette irs began harassing architect 1940 socking back taxes penalties interest dating back least decade kind bill never paid haunted wright rest life even died agency kept 1959 irs audited wright foundation main funding source wrights troublesome colleagues taliesin feds saw taliesin fellowship troublespot wanted extinguish kind commune architecture students designed structures grew food milled timber ran private school mention rampant bedhopping eventually tax agency forced foundation sell many prized assets including remained two awful fires taliesin wrights remarkable stash japanese prints perhaps best private collection united states wrights plans put portions broadacre city model reality ran problems federallyconnected lenders several wrights cooperative communities including one michigan another pennsylvania came nothing banks refused back plan reason wright clients refused include restrictions prohibiting houses owned blacks jews kimberly visited gordon house hot muggy june afternoon hot oregon anyway house feature attraction oregon garden bills worldclass botanical garden nothing sort indeed little permanent dogandpony show chemical agricultural industry timber lobby better gardens old neighborhood portland eugene youll find close 90 outside inside house remained cool breezy shaded jutting roofline wright detested air conditioning almost much contractors academics even home taliesen west frying pan scottsdale arizona uses natural features architectural tricks keep building livable gordon house like usonian designs collage wrights influences japan central america curves angles tones american landscape beautiful mix visual puns little tricks light subtle deceptive painting wrights contemporary eduard vuillard shape house fairly simple wright called polliwog design tshape kitchen bedrooms massed one section house living room jutting like tail tadpole even design political reflecting wrights disdain contractors middlemen construction trade little work pocket much cash consequently driving prices roof wright wanted away particularly level american home fact wright wanted usonian houses simple put together could largely ideally constructed owner house prefabricated home becomes extension emersonian tradition one wrights dictums usonian designs houses spring ground light large thats one frustrating things migration gordon house originally designed sit small bluff view willamette river one side glacierclad pyramid mt hood usonian different finetuned site uprooted gordon house seems alien like snow leopard saw many years ago cincinnati zoo take one step place much easier take next one restored gordon house sits basement wright hated basements certainly werent part usonian plan used concrete floor mat laid gravel hotwater pipes source radiant heating addition basement order serve office docents destroys nature house remains really little shell kind exoskeleton wrights original house instead lowcost home transformed mauled museum piece model home path taken american residential architecture j edgar hoover must laughing roasts hell jeffrey st clair160is author of160 born bad sky160and160the coeditor joshua frank of160 hopeless barack obama politics illusion published ak press hopeless available in160 kindle format160he reached at160 sitkacomcastnet | 2,433 |
<p>After a glorious birth in the 18th-century, the concept of the amateur became tarnished by connotations of dilettantism: if the market didn’t recognize and reward one’s artistic inclinations then they literally weren’t worth anything.</p>
<p>The entry on “amateur” in Diderot and d’Alembert’s Encylopédie evokes the golden youth of the term. Here it is defined as someone with a “decided taste” for art (usually painting), and concludes with the observation that “we [the French] have our amateurs, the Italians their virtuosos.” In this final phrase we in turn get a sense how the word virtuoso—now implying astonishing technical skill at a musical instrument, and one that usually brings with it substantial remuneration—projects the sense of moral probity with which aesthetic feeling should be imbued, unattached to rewards.&#160; Appreciation is not only an essential talent to be cultivated, but also an ethical posture to be nurtured.</p>
<p>The parallel Encyclopédie article on “connoisseur” raises the stakes, arguing that only those who themselves practice the art can offer truly accurate judgments about it. To claim connoisseurly credentials, the excitement of the amateur must be refined by study. But the flood of 18th-century music publications directed at both Amateurs and Connoisseurs (Kenner und Liebhaber in German) document that the two categories could share a love for the same body of art.</p>
<p>The title of J. C. Bach and C. F. Abel’s Professional Concerts begun in 1769 in London confirm the move away from the mixed events involving paid musicians and amateurs that had dominated the city’s musical salons. With this rather pompous title the German émigré organizers — themselves both products of the guild-like family system that trained so many great 18th-before being largely supplanted by professional-staffed and professionally minded conservatories in the 19th — meant to guarantee their customers that the admission price ensured high standards of execution. But Professionalism is a chilling word, one which puts a price on the moral impulse of the amateur. Salary and tips become the carrots and sticks for aesthetic motivation; professional advancements and industry merely distract from true artistic advance.</p>
<p>One of the most energetic, expert, and wide-ranging musicians of our time, Jean Ferrard is both amateur and connoisseur. A lover of the arts and of life — as Horace reminded us, the first is long, the second short — Ferrard retires next month at the age of 65 from his post as Professor of Organ at the Royal Conservatory of Music.&#160; Meeting him you would have a hard time learning that he has occupied this position, one of the most prestigious in the organ world, since 1992, or that he counts figures like Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens, founder of the school of modern organ playing in francophone Europe, among his predecessors. Though ascended to the top of his profession, Ferrard is too much of an amateur in the best sense word — too interested in music and others — to be bothered much with self-promotion.</p>
<p>An indefatigable teacher and performer, who, before he shed the encumbrances of his car last year for the pleasures of train-travel, would cover vast expanses of Europe behind the wheel, GPS mounted on his dash,&#160; to play ingeniously conceived and compellingly executed concerts from Trieste to Copenhagen, from the low lands of Flanders to the Swiss Alps, on monuments to the instrument’s history both great and small, from the late Gothic to the just-completed.</p>
<p>His own encyclopedic knowledge of the organ’s long history and its current, sometimes flagging, health in withstanding the centrifugal forces of modern culture derives not just from endless hours of youthful practice and countless concerts at dozens of instruments built over the last half-millennium, but from his training in and subsequent dedication to musical scholarship. Holder of a degree in musicology from the Free University of Brussels, he has editing important editions of organ music, several of them devoted to composers active in what is now modern-day Belgium, a transitional zone, often a battleground,&#160; between Protestant and Catholic Europe. The Low Countries forged musical gold in the crucible of the Reformation, and used it to produce gleaming alloys that combine erudite counterpoint worthy of the Sistine chapel and austere Calvinist psalm settings animated by the virtuosic style imported by recusant English organists.</p>
<p>Ferrard’s edition of the music of Peeter Cornet, the early 17th-century organist at the sumptuous Hapsburg archducal court in Brussels, is a testament to the rigors of modern scholarship animated by the desire to have the best music of the past available for the best purposes of the present. To hear Ferrard play Cornet, his long-distant predecessor in Brussels, on one of the more recent of his many recordings—Four Centuries of Belgian Organ Music —on the splendid modern organ in the city’s Gothic Cathedral is to encounter a rare performer who has the ability to make the learned style as astonishing as the flamboyant passagework. Ferrard turns what many players are deceived into thinking is reserved polyphony into a provocation, a challenge to a game of wits.</p>
<p>Ferrard’s edition of Cornet’s music levels the playing field: the editor of the first modern print of Cornet’s great fantasies, masterpieces of the 17th-century and indeed of the entire corpus of keyboard music, failed to see that in one of these magisterial works the original manuscript had switched two of the scribe’s pages in the binding process, so that the contrapuntal argument of the piece was hopelessly jumbled at critical junctures. As he puzzled over the piece, rehearsing it in his head, Ferrard suddenly heard and saw Cornet’s discourse unfold before him.</p>
<p>There’s little or no money in such musical forensic work, and not much, for that matter, in organ concerts: amateur’s zeal and expert eyes and ears make it all happen.</p>
<p>As if all this performing, teaching, and scholarship isn’t enough, Ferrard is one of our times great music journalists, and it is here that the real force of his amateur spirit can be felt. From 1965 until 1985 he worked for the French-speaking wing of Belgian National Radio (RTBF), rising to become the head of music and continuing through his tenure to offer daily commentary on current musical events. Beginning in 1975 he produced the program “Magazine de l’Orgue” with a new installment every week even after he had left his job at RTBF to dedicate himself more fully to teaching and playing. In 1996 he ended his radio days, and turned to print journalism, publishing the Magazine de l’Orgue ( <a href="http://www.lemagazinedel.org/" type="external">http://www.lemagazinedel.org/</a>) three times a year for the past decade.</p>
<p>Now closing in on its 90th number, this journal is always 64 pages and always full of free-wheeling, often humorous. and always trenchant commentary on the organ and related topics in music and culture. As with the best music criticism, one learns as much about the editor—his tastes and passions, his variable moods and the shadings of his observational wit, and his perennial dislikes and favorite targets — as about the vibrant musical cultural he chronicles. Ferrard’s unbuttoned, always engaging, style retains the spontaneity of radio. Given his many duties and interests, Ferrard doesn’t have time to ponder.&#160; He tells you what he thinks, but always with a real flair never weighed down by his profound knowledge of music.</p>
<p>As a practicing musician who also has talent and dynamism (and never enough time!) to serve as an indefatigable commentator on contemporary musical life, at the organ and elsewhere, Ferrard follows in the tradition of François-Joseph Fétis, himself an organist, journalist, and historian and the 19th-century founding director of the conservatory from which Ferrard is set to retire. From that other predecessor at the conservatory, Lemmens, and no doubt from other more immediate sources as well, Ferrard inherited his love and fascination for the organ music of J. S. Bach.&#160; Trained by a student of a student of Bach, Lemmens brought Bach’s organ music to francophone Europe, where it is nurtured by his successor, Ferrard, both as a teacher and performer. Even Bach’s supposed penchant for number symbolism informs Ferrard’s journalism:&#160; because the letters of Bach’s name add up to fourteen, the famous Magazine de l’Orgue interview is always composed of fourteen questions. But the amateur in Ferrard cannot stop there: his elegant 19th-century terraced house in the center of Brussels boasts a fascinating and hilarious collection of busts of the composer, which ranging in style from austere Teutonicism to goofy experimentalism and span the spectrum of emotional registers from religious veneration to crass exploitation.</p>
<p>Ferrard’s recent CDs, like the one mentioned above, are published under the auspices of Ferrard’s non-profit organization, [Sic], whose ingenious name reflects the man’s irreverent and irrepressible humor. [Sic] also appears on other Ferrard projects like his gorgeous little book of observations on and grainy black-and-white photos of the organ, entitled Le plus impressionannt dans l’orgue est son silence …&#160; This collector’s item comes with an even smaller English version without the photos, which translates the title as Most Impressive in the Organ is its Silence … The observations are in prose and poetry; presented in various formats, these pieces range in tone from the arch to the elegiac, and consider topics as diverse as the organist’s shoes and instrument’s soul. The opening number is a poem:</p>
<p>From the forest it took the strongest trees, Earth gave tin and lead, Sheep offered their fleece, And man, the wind …</p>
<p>Perhaps my most lasting impression of Jean is from&#160; Bruges in the summer of 2005, when we served together on the jury for the organ competition in the famous early musical festival that takes place each year in that perfectly preserved late Gothic city. After dinner my family and I were hopped up on moules and pommes frites and otherwise giddy after watching a Euro-trash street performer escape from a straitjacket in front of throngs of tourists in the town square.&#160; As we headed back to our hotel, one of my daughters tripped on the cobblestones and broke-off a recently grown adult front tooth right in the shadow of magnificent 13th-century Belfry.&#160; Never was a more postcard-perfect backdrop found for a vacation mishap that terrifies the parents and shocks the kids.</p>
<p>It was a Friday night in August when the vast majority of European dentists are at the beach. I picked up the fragment of the tooth, and we made it back to the hotel.&#160; A taxi trip to the hospital on the other side of the canal that encircles the city—amazingly, the Gothic hospital on the island of Bruges with its Memling paintings had been in use until the middle of the 1970s—provided no help, though the kind staff admitted us and had a doctor take a look. But no dentist was available or on call—but neither were we charged a cent for the visit.</p>
<p>Back at the hotel and desperate, I knocked on Ferrard’s room around 10pm.&#160; I told him what had happened. “Bummer!” came his idiomatic response.&#160; Fluent in four languages, his linguistic gifts were sparked by the bilingual educational reforms that taught French-speaking school children Flemish in the more optimistic post-wars years of the bi-ethnic (tri-ethnic if you count the small German-speaking minority) years of the Belgian state.&#160; (Since abandoning these reforms in francophone Belgian it is very difficult to find a Belgian who knows even rudimentary Flemish.)</p>
<p>Ferrard had headphones around his neck and a glass of cognac in his hand. He beckoned me into the room.&#160; His computer was open on the desk next to a wooden box containing a few dozen CDs. After a numbing eight-hour day of listening to organists in the competition, he was busy reviewing the latest influx of recordings for Magazine d l’Orgue. This amateurism is not to be confused the workaholism: the joy in the task was written all over Ferrard’s face.</p>
<p>Ferrard got the Director of the Festival on the phone and by Saturday morning the tooth was back together, the one remaining dentist in town agreeing to see my daughter in his office and charging his normal rate of forty Euros for a procedure that would have been two or three hundred dollars in the USA.</p>
<p>And also by the following morning Ferrard was back at the jury table, the next issue of the Magazine de l’Orgue sent off and ready to be printed.</p>
<p>DAVID YEARSLEY teaches at Cornell University. A long-time contributor to the Anderson Valley Advertiser, he is author of <a href="" type="internal">Bach and the Meanings of Counterpoint</a>His latest CD, “All Your Cares Beguile: Songs and Sonatas from Baroque London”, has just been released by <a href="http://www.musicaomnia.org/index2.htm" type="external">Musica Omnia</a>. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:dgy2@cornell.edu" type="external">dgy2@cornell.edu</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | glorious birth 18thcentury concept amateur became tarnished connotations dilettantism market didnt recognize reward ones artistic inclinations literally werent worth anything entry amateur diderot dalemberts encylopédie evokes golden youth term defined someone decided taste art usually painting concludes observation french amateurs italians virtuosos final phrase turn get sense word virtuosonow implying astonishing technical skill musical instrument one usually brings substantial remunerationprojects sense moral probity aesthetic feeling imbued unattached rewards160 appreciation essential talent cultivated also ethical posture nurtured parallel encyclopédie article connoisseur raises stakes arguing practice art offer truly accurate judgments claim connoisseurly credentials excitement amateur must refined study flood 18thcentury music publications directed amateurs connoisseurs kenner und liebhaber german document two categories could share love body art title j c bach c f abels professional concerts begun 1769 london confirm move away mixed events involving paid musicians amateurs dominated citys musical salons rather pompous title german émigré organizers products guildlike family system trained many great 18thbefore largely supplanted professionalstaffed professionally minded conservatories 19th meant guarantee customers admission price ensured high standards execution professionalism chilling word one puts price moral impulse amateur salary tips become carrots sticks aesthetic motivation professional advancements industry merely distract true artistic advance one energetic expert wideranging musicians time jean ferrard amateur connoisseur lover arts life horace reminded us first long second short ferrard retires next month age 65 post professor organ royal conservatory music160 meeting would hard time learning occupied position one prestigious organ world since 1992 counts figures like jacquesnicolas lemmens founder school modern organ playing francophone europe among predecessors though ascended top profession ferrard much amateur best sense word interested music others bothered much selfpromotion indefatigable teacher performer shed encumbrances car last year pleasures traintravel would cover vast expanses europe behind wheel gps mounted dash160 play ingeniously conceived compellingly executed concerts trieste copenhagen low lands flanders swiss alps monuments instruments history great small late gothic justcompleted encyclopedic knowledge organs long history current sometimes flagging health withstanding centrifugal forces modern culture derives endless hours youthful practice countless concerts dozens instruments built last halfmillennium training subsequent dedication musical scholarship holder degree musicology free university brussels editing important editions organ music several devoted composers active modernday belgium transitional zone often battleground160 protestant catholic europe low countries forged musical gold crucible reformation used produce gleaming alloys combine erudite counterpoint worthy sistine chapel austere calvinist psalm settings animated virtuosic style imported recusant english organists ferrards edition music peeter cornet early 17thcentury organist sumptuous hapsburg archducal court brussels testament rigors modern scholarship animated desire best music past available best purposes present hear ferrard play cornet longdistant predecessor brussels one recent many recordingsfour centuries belgian organ music splendid modern organ citys gothic cathedral encounter rare performer ability make learned style astonishing flamboyant passagework ferrard turns many players deceived thinking reserved polyphony provocation challenge game wits ferrards edition cornets music levels playing field editor first modern print cornets great fantasies masterpieces 17thcentury indeed entire corpus keyboard music failed see one magisterial works original manuscript switched two scribes pages binding process contrapuntal argument piece hopelessly jumbled critical junctures puzzled piece rehearsing head ferrard suddenly heard saw cornets discourse unfold theres little money musical forensic work much matter organ concerts amateurs zeal expert eyes ears make happen performing teaching scholarship isnt enough ferrard one times great music journalists real force amateur spirit felt 1965 1985 worked frenchspeaking wing belgian national radio rtbf rising become head music continuing tenure offer daily commentary current musical events beginning 1975 produced program magazine de lorgue new installment every week even left job rtbf dedicate fully teaching playing 1996 ended radio days turned print journalism publishing magazine de lorgue httpwwwlemagazinedelorg three times year past decade closing 90th number journal always 64 pages always full freewheeling often humorous always trenchant commentary organ related topics music culture best music criticism one learns much editorhis tastes passions variable moods shadings observational wit perennial dislikes favorite targets vibrant musical cultural chronicles ferrards unbuttoned always engaging style retains spontaneity radio given many duties interests ferrard doesnt time ponder160 tells thinks always real flair never weighed profound knowledge music practicing musician also talent dynamism never enough time serve indefatigable commentator contemporary musical life organ elsewhere ferrard follows tradition françoisjoseph fétis organist journalist historian 19thcentury founding director conservatory ferrard set retire predecessor conservatory lemmens doubt immediate sources well ferrard inherited love fascination organ music j bach160 trained student student bach lemmens brought bachs organ music francophone europe nurtured successor ferrard teacher performer even bachs supposed penchant number symbolism informs ferrards journalism160 letters bachs name add fourteen famous magazine de lorgue interview always composed fourteen questions amateur ferrard stop elegant 19thcentury terraced house center brussels boasts fascinating hilarious collection busts composer ranging style austere teutonicism goofy experimentalism span spectrum emotional registers religious veneration crass exploitation ferrards recent cds like one mentioned published auspices ferrards nonprofit organization sic whose ingenious name reflects mans irreverent irrepressible humor sic also appears ferrard projects like gorgeous little book observations grainy blackandwhite photos organ entitled le plus impressionannt dans lorgue est son silence 160 collectors item comes even smaller english version without photos translates title impressive organ silence observations prose poetry presented various formats pieces range tone arch elegiac consider topics diverse organists shoes instruments soul opening number poem forest took strongest trees earth gave tin lead sheep offered fleece man wind perhaps lasting impression jean from160 bruges summer 2005 served together jury organ competition famous early musical festival takes place year perfectly preserved late gothic city dinner family hopped moules pommes frites otherwise giddy watching eurotrash street performer escape straitjacket front throngs tourists town square160 headed back hotel one daughters tripped cobblestones brokeoff recently grown adult front tooth right shadow magnificent 13thcentury belfry160 never postcardperfect backdrop found vacation mishap terrifies parents shocks kids friday night august vast majority european dentists beach picked fragment tooth made back hotel160 taxi trip hospital side canal encircles cityamazingly gothic hospital island bruges memling paintings use middle 1970sprovided help though kind staff admitted us doctor take look dentist available callbut neither charged cent visit back hotel desperate knocked ferrards room around 10pm160 told happened bummer came idiomatic response160 fluent four languages linguistic gifts sparked bilingual educational reforms taught frenchspeaking school children flemish optimistic postwars years biethnic triethnic count small germanspeaking minority years belgian state160 since abandoning reforms francophone belgian difficult find belgian knows even rudimentary flemish ferrard headphones around neck glass cognac hand beckoned room160 computer open desk next wooden box containing dozen cds numbing eighthour day listening organists competition busy reviewing latest influx recordings magazine lorgue amateurism confused workaholism joy task written ferrards face ferrard got director festival phone saturday morning tooth back together one remaining dentist town agreeing see daughter office charging normal rate forty euros procedure would two three hundred dollars usa also following morning ferrard back jury table next issue magazine de lorgue sent ready printed david yearsley teaches cornell university longtime contributor anderson valley advertiser author bach meanings counterpointhis latest cd cares beguile songs sonatas baroque london released musica omnia reached dgy2cornelledu 160 | 1,161 |
<p>Here is a story that has never been told before:</p>
<p>When the Titanic was well out into the Atlantic, its crew mutinied.</p>
<p>They demanded higher wages, less cramped quarters, better food. They assembled on the lower decks and refused to budge from there.</p>
<p>A few old hands from the engine room tried to extend the scope of the protest. They claimed that the captain was grossly incompetent, that the officers were nincompoops and that the voyage was bound to end in disaster.</p>
<p>But the leaders of the protest resisted. “Let’s not go beyond our practical demands,” they said. “The course of the ship is none of our business. Whatever some of us may think about the captain and the officers on the bridge, we must not mix matters. That would only split the protest.”</p>
<p>The passengers did not interfere. Many of them sympathized with the protest, but did not want to get involved.</p>
<p>It is said that one drunken English lady was standing on deck, a glass of whisky in her hand, when she saw the huge iceberg looming. “I asked for some ice,” she murmured, “but this is ridiculous!”</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>FOR A WEEK, or so, all the Israeli media were riveted to the goings on at the UN.</p>
<p>Ehud Barak had warned of a “tsunami”. Avigdor Lieberman foresaw a “bloodbath”.&#160; The army was prepared for huge demonstrations that were certain to end in unprecedented violence. No one could think of anything else.</p>
<p>And then, overnight, the bloody tsunami faded like a mirage, and the social protest reappeared. State of war Out, welfare state In.</p>
<p>Why? The commission appointed by Binyamin Netanyahu to examine the roots of the protest and propose reforms had finished its work in record time and laid a thick volume of proposals on the table. All very good ones. Free education from the age of 3, higher taxes for the very rich, more money for housing, and so on.</p>
<p>All very nice, but far short of what the protesters had demanded. The almost half a million demonstrators some weeks ago did not go out into the streets for that. Economics professors attacked, other economics professors defended. A lively debate ensued.</p>
<p>This can go on for a few days. But then something is bound to happen – perhaps a border incident, or a settlers’ pogrom against a Palestinian village, or a pro-Palestinian resolution at the UN – and the whole media pack will veer around, forget about the reforms and return to the good old scares.</p>
<p>In the meantime, the military budget will serve as a bone of contention. The government commission has proposed reducing this budget by 3 billion shekels – less than a billion dollars – in order to finance its modest reforms. Netanyahu has voiced agreement.</p>
<p>No one took this very seriously. The slightest incident will enable the army to demand a special budget, and instead of the suggested tiny reduction, there will be another big increase.</p>
<p>But the army has already raised hell – quite literally – describing the disasters that will surely befall us if the diabolical reduction is not choked in its cradle. We face defeat in the next war, many soldiers will be killed, the future investigation committee will blame the present ministers. They are already shaking in their shoes.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>ALL THIS goes to show how quickly national attention can swing from “protest mode” to “security mode”. One day we are shaking our fists in the street, the next we are manning the national ramparts, resolved to sell our lives dearly.</p>
<p>This could lead to the idea that the two problems are really one, and can only be solved together. But this conclusion meets with resolute resistance.</p>
<p>The young leaders of the protest insist that the demand for reform unites all Israelis – male and female, young and old, leftist and rightist, religious and secular, Jew and Arab, Ashkenazi and Oriental. Therein lies its power. The moment the question of national policy comes up, the movement will break apart. End of protest.</p>
<p>Difficult to argue with that.</p>
<p>True, even so the rightists accuse the protesters of being leftists in disguise. Very few national-religious people appear at the demonstrations, and no orthodox at all. Oriental Jews, traditional voters for the Likud, are underrepresented, though not altogether absent. People speak of a movement of the “White Tribe” – Jews of European descent.</p>
<p>Still, the movement has succeeded in avoiding an open split. The hundreds of thousands of demonstrators have not been called upon to identify themselves with any particular political party or creed. The leaders can rightly claim that their tactic – if it is a tactic – has worked up to now.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>THIS CONVICTION has been reinforced by recent events in the Labor Party.</p>
<p>This moribund congregation, down in the polls to a mere 7% of the votes, has suddenly sprung to new life. A lively primary election for the party leadership has restored some color to its cheeks. In a surprise victory, Shelly Yacimovich has been elected party chairwoman.</p>
<p>Shelly (I dislike these&#160; long foreign surnames) was in the past an assertive, abrasive radio journalist with very pronounced feminist and social-democratic views. Six years ago she joined Labor and was elected to the Knesset under the wing of Amir Peretz, the then leader, who she has now soundly beaten.</p>
<p>In the Knesset, Shelly has distinguished herself as a diligent and relentless militant on social issues. She is a girlish-looking 51, a lone she-wolf, disliked by her colleagues, devoid of charisma, not at all the hail-fellow-well-met type. Yet the party rank and file, perhaps out of sheer desperation, preferred her to the members of the bankrupt old guard. The atmosphere in the country produced by the social protest movement certainly contributed to her success.</p>
<p>In all her years in the Knesset, she has not mentioned any of the national problems – war and peace, occupation, settlements. She has concentrated exclusively on social issues. On the eve of the primary, she shocked many members of her party by publicly embracing the settlers. “The settlements are no sins or crimes,” she asserted, they were put there by Labor Party governments and are a part of the national consensus.</p>
<p>Shelly may really believe this or she may consider it good tactics – the fact is that she has adopted the same line as the protest movement: that social affairs should be separated from “national” affairs. Seems you can be rightist on the occupation and leftist on taxing the rich.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>BUT CAN YOU?</p>
<p>On the morrow of the Labor primaries, something amazing happened. In a respected opinion poll, Labor rose from 8 to 22 Knesset seats, overtaking Tzipi Livni’s Kadima, which sank from 28 to 18.</p>
<p>A revolution? Not quite. All the new Labor votes came from Kadima. But a move from Kadima to Labor, while interesting in itself”, is not important. The Knesset is divided into two blocs – the nationalist-religious and the center-left-Arab. As long as the rightist bloc has a 5% edge, there will be no change. To effect change, enough voters must jump from one side of the scales to the other.</p>
<p>Shelly believes that by shunning national issues and concentrating on social matters, voters can be moved to make the jump. Some say: that’s all that counts. What’s the use of putting forward a program of peace, if you can’t change the government? Let’s first come to power, by whatever means, and than see to peace.</p>
<p>Against this logical argument, there is the contrary contention: that if you start to embrace the settlers and ignore the occupation, you will end up as a minor partner in a right-wing government, as has happened before. Ask Shimon Peres. Ask Ehud Barak.</p>
<p>And then there is the moral question: can you really chant “the People Demand Social Justice” and ignore the daily oppression of four million Palestinians in the occupied territories? When you abandon your principles on the way to power, what are you likely to do with that power?</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>THE JEWISH High Holidays, which started the day before yesterday, provide a pause for reflection. Politics are at a standstill. The protest leaders promise another huge demonstration, restricted to the social demands, in a month’s time.</p>
<p>In the meantime, the Titanic, this beautiful masterpiece of naval architecture, is riding the waves.</p>
<p>Uri Avnery&#160;is an Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom. He is a contributor to CounterPunch’s book&#160; <a href="http://www.easycartsecure.com/CounterPunch/CounterPunch_Books.html" type="external">The Politics of Anti-Semitism</a>.</p> | true | 4 | story never told titanic well atlantic crew mutinied demanded higher wages less cramped quarters better food assembled lower decks refused budge old hands engine room tried extend scope protest claimed captain grossly incompetent officers nincompoops voyage bound end disaster leaders protest resisted lets go beyond practical demands said course ship none business whatever us may think captain officers bridge must mix matters would split protest passengers interfere many sympathized protest want get involved said one drunken english lady standing deck glass whisky hand saw huge iceberg looming asked ice murmured ridiculous week israeli media riveted goings un ehud barak warned tsunami avigdor lieberman foresaw bloodbath160 army prepared huge demonstrations certain end unprecedented violence one could think anything else overnight bloody tsunami faded like mirage social protest reappeared state war welfare state commission appointed binyamin netanyahu examine roots protest propose reforms finished work record time laid thick volume proposals table good ones free education age 3 higher taxes rich money housing nice far short protesters demanded almost half million demonstrators weeks ago go streets economics professors attacked economics professors defended lively debate ensued go days something bound happen perhaps border incident settlers pogrom palestinian village propalestinian resolution un whole media pack veer around forget reforms return good old scares meantime military budget serve bone contention government commission proposed reducing budget 3 billion shekels less billion dollars order finance modest reforms netanyahu voiced agreement one took seriously slightest incident enable army demand special budget instead suggested tiny reduction another big increase army already raised hell quite literally describing disasters surely befall us diabolical reduction choked cradle face defeat next war many soldiers killed future investigation committee blame present ministers already shaking shoes goes show quickly national attention swing protest mode security mode one day shaking fists street next manning national ramparts resolved sell lives dearly could lead idea two problems really one solved together conclusion meets resolute resistance young leaders protest insist demand reform unites israelis male female young old leftist rightist religious secular jew arab ashkenazi oriental therein lies power moment question national policy comes movement break apart end protest difficult argue true even rightists accuse protesters leftists disguise nationalreligious people appear demonstrations orthodox oriental jews traditional voters likud underrepresented though altogether absent people speak movement white tribe jews european descent still movement succeeded avoiding open split hundreds thousands demonstrators called upon identify particular political party creed leaders rightly claim tactic tactic worked conviction reinforced recent events labor party moribund congregation polls mere 7 votes suddenly sprung new life lively primary election party leadership restored color cheeks surprise victory shelly yacimovich elected party chairwoman shelly dislike these160 long foreign surnames past assertive abrasive radio journalist pronounced feminist socialdemocratic views six years ago joined labor elected knesset wing amir peretz leader soundly beaten knesset shelly distinguished diligent relentless militant social issues girlishlooking 51 lone shewolf disliked colleagues devoid charisma hailfellowwellmet type yet party rank file perhaps sheer desperation preferred members bankrupt old guard atmosphere country produced social protest movement certainly contributed success years knesset mentioned national problems war peace occupation settlements concentrated exclusively social issues eve primary shocked many members party publicly embracing settlers settlements sins crimes asserted put labor party governments part national consensus shelly may really believe may consider good tactics fact adopted line protest movement social affairs separated national affairs seems rightist occupation leftist taxing rich morrow labor primaries something amazing happened respected opinion poll labor rose 8 22 knesset seats overtaking tzipi livnis kadima sank 28 18 revolution quite new labor votes came kadima move kadima labor interesting important knesset divided two blocs nationalistreligious centerleftarab long rightist bloc 5 edge change effect change enough voters must jump one side scales shelly believes shunning national issues concentrating social matters voters moved make jump say thats counts whats use putting forward program peace cant change government lets first come power whatever means see peace logical argument contrary contention start embrace settlers ignore occupation end minor partner rightwing government happened ask shimon peres ask ehud barak moral question really chant people demand social justice ignore daily oppression four million palestinians occupied territories abandon principles way power likely power jewish high holidays started day yesterday provide pause reflection politics standstill protest leaders promise another huge demonstration restricted social demands months time meantime titanic beautiful masterpiece naval architecture riding waves uri avnery160is israeli writer peace activist gush shalom contributor counterpunchs book160 politics antisemitism | 730 |
<p>By Neal Gabler / <a href="http://billmoyers.com/story/obamacare-repeal-effort-will-not-die/" type="external">Moyers &amp; Company</a></p>
<p>A sign urging the repeal of the Affordable Care Act during a tea party protest in 2010. (Flickr / CC 2.0)</p>
<p>If you want to calibrate just how bad the Senate Republican health care bill is, you don’t need the Congressional Budget Office telling you that 22 million Americans would lose their insurance. Look no further than Susan Collins. The bill is so god-awful that the Republican senator from Maine, <a href="" type="internal">whom I lacerated last week</a> for always fretting and dithering over her party’s initiatives only to support them in the end, wouldn’t even vote to bring it to the floor.</p>
<p />
<p>Of course, Collins being Collins, she says she is open to negotiations, and I suspect Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will make a concession on Collins’ precious Health Savings Accounts. Whether the opposition of Collins and others ultimately sinks the bill remains to be seen, though I wouldn’t count on it. The vote postponement notwithstanding, Republicans being Republicans are going to resurrect it with nips and tucks for many more go-rounds, since Republicans are absolutely determined to savage Medicaid and ultimately destroy it. Stay tuned.</p>
<p>Since the vast majority of the public loathe the GOP bill, and since it has been universally panned in the media and by just about every stakeholder, you have to wonder how the GOP can keep flogging it. The answer is that they clearly feel there will be no political consequences for doing so, and they may be right. Republican Dean Heller, who came out against it this week, represents Nevada, a blue state with a heavy Medicaid enrollment, so he is unlikely to be wooed, but among Republicans running in 2018, he is virtually alone. (He was not spared, however, from <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/27/trump-senate-majority-2018-240028" type="external">attacks from a Trump super PAC</a>, and he is almost certain to be primaried from the right.) No one else in the party seems to fear retribution as much as they fear bucking conservative ideology.</p>
<p>Take West Virginia. Thirty percent of West Virginians — <a href="http://www.theintelligencer.net/news/top-headlines/2017/01/30-percent-of-w-va-families-on-medicaid/" type="external">some 554,000 people</a> — are dependent on Medicaid, which the Republican Senate bill will effectively decimate, and the state has a serious opioid problem, which Obamacare addresses. Still, West Virginia gave Trump, who campaigned on the promise to repeal Obamacare, a whopping 42-point margin of victory, and there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that it will vote for a Democratic presidential candidate in my lifetime.</p>
<p>Or take Kentucky. Out of a population of 4.5 million, <a href="http://chfs.ky.gov/NR/rdonlyres/853431AF-E8E4-4511-96E6-0440EACC6509/0/KYDataWarehouseMonthlyMembershipCountsbyCounty20170501204613.pdf" type="external">1.3 million are on Medicaid</a>. And yet its senior senator, McConnell, is the architect of the plan to reduce Medicaid, and the state’s other senator, Rand Paul, has no qualms about saying he wants to destroy Medicaid altogether. Once again, there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that either McConnell or Paul will lose re-election.</p>
<p>Politics is supposed to operate on the principle that if an officeholder works against the interest of his or her constituents, those constituents will take revenge by booting him or her out of office. That’s just common sense. And it’s also common sense that health care should be a prime consideration for those constituents. When Republicans propose huge tax cuts for the wealthy while simultaneously cutting health benefits for the poor and the working and middle classes, or when they propose a bill that drives up premiums and deductibles while shredding the safety net, the logical result would be a revolt. Instead, these folks keep coming back to the party, which is why the GOP can keep coming back to its Draconian health care plan.</p>
<p>How do you parse this? You could say that people don’t understand their self-interest very well, and there is certainly some truth to that. A <a href="http://www.kff.org/health-reform/poll-finding/kaiser-health-tracking-poll-june-2017-aca-replacement-plan-and-medicaid/" type="external">Kaiser Health poll</a> shows that a bare 51 percent of Americans now support Obamacare, which is a high-water mark, while 74 percent have a favorable view of Medicaid, the very linchpin of Obamacare. That suggests they don’t understand how inextricably Obamacare and Medicaid are bound.</p>
<p>Or you can say, as I wrote here, that many of these folks believe in <a href="http://billmoyers.com/story/has-the-trump-budget-blown-republicans-cover/" type="external">stripping government benefits from the seemingly undeserving</a>, even if doing so hurts themselves.</p>
<p>Yet it isn’t the economy, stupid, or health care reform that drives these voters to Republicanism. It is their perception of the march of history. They have come to believe that they are a persecuted white majority, and that grievance supersedes everything else, including their own health insurance. Republicans count on that.</p>
<p>Three recent surveys support this explanation. One, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-attitudes-about-immigration-race-and-religion-contributed-to-trump-victory/2017/06/13/6c2c1892-506f-11e7-b064-828ba60fbb98_story.html" type="external">a recent post-mortem of the 2016 election</a> by the non-partisan Democracy Fund Voter Study Group, reports that Trump’s vote, especially among whites, had far less to do with economic distress than with nativism, racism, sexism and Islamophobia — what you might call cultural distress.</p>
<p>Another analysis <a href="https://www.prri.org/research/white-working-class-attitudes-economy-trade-immigration-election-donald-trump/" type="external">conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and The Atlantic magazine</a> also found that economic distress did not correlate with Trump support. In fact, it was the opposite: “Those who reported being in fair or poor financial shape were 1.7 times more likely to support Clinton, compared to those who were in better financial shape.” But those who felt culturally dispossessed and felt that the country needed to be safeguarded against immigrant invasion were 3.5 times as likely to support Trump as those who felt differently.</p>
<p>If you still don’t think that lots of working-class white Americans feel culturally aggrieved, consider another survey in February by PRRI finding that <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/perceptions-discrimination-muslims-christians/519135/" type="external">white evangelicals believe Christians are more discriminated against in America</a> than Muslims, with 57 percent asserting “a lot” of discrimination against Christians.</p>
<p>This jibes with an earlier study from Michael Norton of the Harvard Business School and Samuel Sommers of Tufts that showed <a href="http://www.people.hbs.edu/mnorton/norton%20sommers.pdf" type="external">deep white belief in “reverse racism”</a> coupled with the belief that African-American gains come at the expense of white losses.</p>
<p>On its face, of course, this is absurd. There is virtually no metric — be it education, wages, wealth, social mobility or health — in which African-Americans have it better than whites. (I won’t even address Islamophobia versus an animus against Christianity because it is beyond absurd.) But we now generally accept that many whites, especially older, uneducated and religious whites, believe — not entirely without justification — that they are on the wrong side of history. Everything seems to be moving against them and against the dominance they once asserted, and to them, America seems cleaved between a halcyon past and a foreboding future, which may be the real division in America that subsumes so many others.</p>
<p>This sense of dispossession is the what sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild calls the “deep story” — the story told by one’s feelings as opposed to the story told by the facts. In her book, “ <a href="http://thenewpress.com/books/strangers-their-own-land" type="external">Strangers in Their Own Land</a>,” Hochschild writes that working-class Republicans’ deep story is one of betrayal, neglect, disrespect, suspicion and unfairness.</p>
<p>Such cultural disaffection is what our ahistorical president preys upon. He promised that he would push back history, that he would rescue whites from immigrants and minorities and women and intellectuals and homosexuals. He promised that he would restore the America they believed they had lost.</p>
<p>“Make America Great Again” is a euphemism for “Make America White Again.” It is no coincidence that Trump’s most enthusiastic supporters are <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/behind-trumps-victory-divisions-by-race-gender-education/" type="external">white, male, uneducated and evangelical</a> — people for whom history is moving in the wrong direction. They are Trump’s political superfecta.</p>
<p>Which brings me back to the health care bill. The Obamacare repeal effort has always functioned on two levels: the practical and the symbolic. On a practical policy level, Obamacare repeal was never particularly realistic. The original bill had been compromised and jiggered about as much as one could possibly do in an effort to build a government/market hybrid, so the idea of jiggering it any more without just scrapping it for single payer was highly unlikely to make it more effective. After seven years, the only thing Republicans can seem to come up with is undoing Obamacare without really replacing it.</p>
<p>But you could only let it lapse and throw those 22 million off insurance if you were confident the symbolism would supplant the practicality, that it was more important for those beneficiaries of Obamacare to score a victory against the encroaching forces of cultural liberalism than to get decent health care. Symbolically, Obamacare represented change, government interference, social engineering by pointy heads and uncertainty. It was yet one more thing that would push the glorious past farther away.</p>
<p>There is a strange poignancy in this. People will continue to vote enthusiastically for the party that will strip them of their health care so long as that party promises to turn back the clock. So we will get another GOP health care bill and another and another until one finally passes, as I am fairly certain it will. And when it does, the congressional Republicans and their addled president can rejoice because whatever price their constituents pay, they themselves will pay none.</p> | true | 4 | neal gabler moyers amp company sign urging repeal affordable care act tea party protest 2010 flickr cc 20 want calibrate bad senate republican health care bill dont need congressional budget office telling 22 million americans would lose insurance look susan collins bill godawful republican senator maine lacerated last week always fretting dithering partys initiatives support end wouldnt even vote bring floor course collins collins says open negotiations suspect senate majority leader mitch mcconnell make concession collins precious health savings accounts whether opposition collins others ultimately sinks bill remains seen though wouldnt count vote postponement notwithstanding republicans republicans going resurrect nips tucks many gorounds since republicans absolutely determined savage medicaid ultimately destroy stay tuned since vast majority public loathe gop bill since universally panned media every stakeholder wonder gop keep flogging answer clearly feel political consequences may right republican dean heller came week represents nevada blue state heavy medicaid enrollment unlikely wooed among republicans running 2018 virtually alone spared however attacks trump super pac almost certain primaried right one else party seems fear retribution much fear bucking conservative ideology take west virginia thirty percent west virginians 554000 people dependent medicaid republican senate bill effectively decimate state serious opioid problem obamacare addresses still west virginia gave trump campaigned promise repeal obamacare whopping 42point margin victory isnt snowballs chance hell vote democratic presidential candidate lifetime take kentucky population 45 million 13 million medicaid yet senior senator mcconnell architect plan reduce medicaid states senator rand paul qualms saying wants destroy medicaid altogether isnt snowballs chance hell either mcconnell paul lose reelection politics supposed operate principle officeholder works interest constituents constituents take revenge booting office thats common sense also common sense health care prime consideration constituents republicans propose huge tax cuts wealthy simultaneously cutting health benefits poor working middle classes propose bill drives premiums deductibles shredding safety net logical result would revolt instead folks keep coming back party gop keep coming back draconian health care plan parse could say people dont understand selfinterest well certainly truth kaiser health poll shows bare 51 percent americans support obamacare highwater mark 74 percent favorable view medicaid linchpin obamacare suggests dont understand inextricably obamacare medicaid bound say wrote many folks believe stripping government benefits seemingly undeserving even hurts yet isnt economy stupid health care reform drives voters republicanism perception march history come believe persecuted white majority grievance supersedes everything else including health insurance republicans count three recent surveys support explanation one recent postmortem 2016 election nonpartisan democracy fund voter study group reports trumps vote especially among whites far less economic distress nativism racism sexism islamophobia might call cultural distress another analysis conducted public religion research institute prri atlantic magazine also found economic distress correlate trump support fact opposite reported fair poor financial shape 17 times likely support clinton compared better financial shape felt culturally dispossessed felt country needed safeguarded immigrant invasion 35 times likely support trump felt differently still dont think lots workingclass white americans feel culturally aggrieved consider another survey february prri finding white evangelicals believe christians discriminated america muslims 57 percent asserting lot discrimination christians jibes earlier study michael norton harvard business school samuel sommers tufts showed deep white belief reverse racism coupled belief africanamerican gains come expense white losses face course absurd virtually metric education wages wealth social mobility health africanamericans better whites wont even address islamophobia versus animus christianity beyond absurd generally accept many whites especially older uneducated religious whites believe entirely without justification wrong side history everything seems moving dominance asserted america seems cleaved halcyon past foreboding future may real division america subsumes many others sense dispossession sociologist arlie russell hochschild calls deep story story told ones feelings opposed story told facts book strangers land hochschild writes workingclass republicans deep story one betrayal neglect disrespect suspicion unfairness cultural disaffection ahistorical president preys upon promised would push back history would rescue whites immigrants minorities women intellectuals homosexuals promised would restore america believed lost make america great euphemism make america white coincidence trumps enthusiastic supporters white male uneducated evangelical people history moving wrong direction trumps political superfecta brings back health care bill obamacare repeal effort always functioned two levels practical symbolic practical policy level obamacare repeal never particularly realistic original bill compromised jiggered much one could possibly effort build governmentmarket hybrid idea jiggering without scrapping single payer highly unlikely make effective seven years thing republicans seem come undoing obamacare without really replacing could let lapse throw 22 million insurance confident symbolism would supplant practicality important beneficiaries obamacare score victory encroaching forces cultural liberalism get decent health care symbolically obamacare represented change government interference social engineering pointy heads uncertainty yet one thing would push glorious past farther away strange poignancy people continue vote enthusiastically party strip health care long party promises turn back clock get another gop health care bill another another one finally passes fairly certain congressional republicans addled president rejoice whatever price constituents pay pay none | 811 |
<p>Man: &lt;a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-164154434/stock-photo-murderer-isolated-over-white-background.html?src=KTslWHE--sY3b7ZFjCEL8Q-1-76"&gt;Patrick Foto&lt;/a&gt;/Shutterstock; Notebook: &lt;a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-143657890/stock-photo-open-blank-page-notebook.html?src=D7cqYqxs1Ppg8BuLoLJngQ-1-8"&gt;Tibet Saisema&lt;/a&gt;/Shutterstock; Writing: &lt;a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-107742284/stock-vector-abstract-seamless-hand-write-pattern.html?src=jAkUgb3UMym9L76MbFQYiw-1-8"&gt;Nina_Susik&lt;/a&gt;/Shutterstock. Photoillustration by &lt;a href="http://www.motherjones.com/authors/matt-connolly"&gt;Matt Connolly&lt;/a&gt;.</p>
<p />
<p>Next month, the Supreme Court of New Jersey will hear arguments about whether rap lyrics written by a defendant are fair game in criminal proceedings—in a case that advocates say could have major First Amendment implications.</p>
<p>In 2008, a New Jersey jury convicted Vonte Skinner of the attempted murder of his associate Lamont Peterson, who was left partially paralyzed after being shot multiple times at close range. During the trial, the prosecutor was permitted to read 13 pages of violent rap lyrics written by Skinner. These lyrics were found in the backseat of his girlfriend’s car at the time of his arrest, and they were written between two months and four years before the crime. None of his raps relate to the particular shooting for which he was convicted, and there was no indication that any of the acts described in the lyrics ever occurred. Prosecutors argued that the lyrics, which depict gun violence in gory detail, showed motive and intent. An appellate court overturned the conviction in 2012, noting that there was no justification for using the lyrics in the case and that there was “ <a href="http://www.leagle.com/decision/In%20NJCO%2020120831288" type="external">significant doubt</a>” that Skinner would&#160;have been convicted otherwise. Now it’s up to the state’s highest court to decide.</p>
<p>“We’re arguing to the New Jersey Supreme Court that it needs to provide guidance to the courts in New Jersey that this is artistic and political expression and you need to do a more searching review when you’re seeking to use this kind of expression against someone,” says Jeanne LoCicero,&#160;Deputy Legal Director of the ACLU of New Jersey (ACLU-NJ), which filed an <a href="http://www.aclu-nj.org/legaldocket/state-v-skinner/" type="external">amicus brief</a> in support of the defendant. She says there must be a direct link between the artistic expression and the crime (as opposed to a description of violent acts with no relation to the crime) for such material to be cited during a trial, and that rap lyrics should be treated with the same protections as other artistic expressions and social and political commentary.</p>
<p>“That a rap artist wrote lyrics seemingly embracing the world of violence is no more reason to ascribe to him a motive and intent to commit violent acts than to saddle Dostoevsky with Raskolnikov’s motives or to indict Johnny Cash for having ‘shot a man in Reno just to watch him die,'” ACLU-NJ attorneys wrote in the brief. (The Burlington County prosecutors office, which is arguing for the state, declined to comment.)</p>
<p>The introduction of rap lyrics in Skinner’s case is not unique. Experts say that it’s common for prosecutors to use wannabe rappers’ lyrics against them in criminal proceedings, leaving the songs up to interpretation by people with little knowledge or understanding of the art form.</p>
<p>An ACLU-NJ study completed last year found 18 cases around the country in which prosecutors tried to cite rap lyrics as evidence. Prosecutors won the argument most of the time. In 14 of the cases ACLU-NJ examined, defendants’ rap lyrics were admitted into evidence. But the use of rap lyrics in criminal proceedings isn’t limited to the 14 examples ACLU-NJ dug up, says Erik Nielson, a professor at the University of Richmond who studies rap lyrics and criminal proceedings and who has served as an expert witness for defendants in these cases. “We know they’re also being used in less formal ways,” he explains. “Perhaps a prosecutor may be using rap lyrics as leverage to compel somebody to take a plea agreement or something like that. It’s really difficult to get a sense of it. My guess is that we’re looking in the hundreds.”</p>
<p>Defense attorneys fight like crazy to keep their defendants’ lyrics out of court because they know that rap lyrics can be “devastating” to a defense, Nielson says. But defense attorneys usually lose the argument. “The problem is that prosecutors are able to capitalize on the ignorance and perhaps even preconceived notions of judges,” he says. “They’re able to convince them that unlike any other fictional form out there, this can be presented as legitimate evidence either of confession or of somebody’s motive or intent.”</p>
<p>In his memoir Decoded, hip-hop star Jay-Z wrote, “The art of rap is deceptive. It seems so straightforward and personal and real that people read it completely literally, as raw testimony or autobiography.” As Nielson and his research partner Charis Kubrin note in their paper, “ <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2363057" type="external">Rap on Trial</a>,” “If rap lyrics are treated as mere diaries or journals, no special skill or training is necessary to analyze them, and consequently juries may hear false or misleading testimony about rap from witnesses…who lack the basic qualifications to offer it.”</p>
<p>Judges and juries across the country are unable to see these amateur rap lyrics as the young men writing them see them, says Nielson—as fictional work imbued with social and political commentary, and a possible pathway into an industry with a number of legitimate job opportunities. Instead, the often-reprehensible lyrics serve only to affirm stereotypes about the pathology of young black or Latino defendants.</p>
<p>“When you put the lyrics in front of the jury or even worse when you play a video for the jury, you present the jury with an image of some sort of remorseless vicious thug,” he says, noting that it’s common for young men of color to write rhymes and aspire to become rappers. “What you don’t see is that same kid in glasses sitting at his desk with crumpled paper all around, who has just spent hours trying to write just one of the lyrics that’s in one of the dozens of notebooks that he has.”</p>
<p>Some First Amendment advocates contend that using rap lyrics in court is a slippery slope to eroding the overall protections given to all types of artistic work and social commentary. Nielson doesn’t buy that. He points to a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1996.tb01791.x/abstract" type="external">1996 study</a> by researcher Carrie Fried, who took violent song lyrics and told one group they were from a country song, one group they were from a folk song, and one group they were from a rap song. The group that thought they were looking at rap lyrics found the song to be more offensive and a greater threat to society than the folk and country groups. The study is old, but the stereotypes remain. “I’m just not convinced that using traditionally white forms, for example country music, or using novels against white authors would work,” Nielson says. “There is something about rap music that gives it this special treatment. It’s been negated as an art form.”</p>
<p>It’s obvious to Nielson that rap gets this special treatment because it’s part of a larger problem. “It’s hard to divorce these conversations from the fact that the justice system has proven itself to be incredibly good at finding ways to lock up young men of color,” he says. “It’s not just about society’s antipathy toward hip hop. It’s about society’s antipathy toward young black and brown men.”</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | man lta hrefhttpwwwshutterstockcompic164154434stockphotomurdererisolatedoverwhitebackgroundhtmlsrcktslwhesy3b7zfjcel8q176gtpatrick fotoltagtshutterstock notebook lta hrefhttpwwwshutterstockcompic143657890stockphotoopenblankpagenotebookhtmlsrcd7cqyqxs1ppg8buloljngq18gttibet saisemaltagtshutterstock writing lta hrefhttpwwwshutterstockcompic107742284stockvectorabstractseamlesshandwritepatternhtmlsrcjakugb3umym9l76mbfqyiw18gtnina_susikltagtshutterstock photoillustration lta hrefhttpwwwmotherjonescomauthorsmattconnollygtmatt connollyltagt next month supreme court new jersey hear arguments whether rap lyrics written defendant fair game criminal proceedingsin case advocates say could major first amendment implications 2008 new jersey jury convicted vonte skinner attempted murder associate lamont peterson left partially paralyzed shot multiple times close range trial prosecutor permitted read 13 pages violent rap lyrics written skinner lyrics found backseat girlfriends car time arrest written two months four years crime none raps relate particular shooting convicted indication acts described lyrics ever occurred prosecutors argued lyrics depict gun violence gory detail showed motive intent appellate court overturned conviction 2012 noting justification using lyrics case significant doubt skinner would160have convicted otherwise states highest court decide arguing new jersey supreme court needs provide guidance courts new jersey artistic political expression need searching review youre seeking use kind expression someone says jeanne locicero160deputy legal director aclu new jersey aclunj filed amicus brief support defendant says must direct link artistic expression crime opposed description violent acts relation crime material cited trial rap lyrics treated protections artistic expressions social political commentary rap artist wrote lyrics seemingly embracing world violence reason ascribe motive intent commit violent acts saddle dostoevsky raskolnikovs motives indict johnny cash shot man reno watch die aclunj attorneys wrote brief burlington county prosecutors office arguing state declined comment introduction rap lyrics skinners case unique experts say common prosecutors use wannabe rappers lyrics criminal proceedings leaving songs interpretation people little knowledge understanding art form aclunj study completed last year found 18 cases around country prosecutors tried cite rap lyrics evidence prosecutors argument time 14 cases aclunj examined defendants rap lyrics admitted evidence use rap lyrics criminal proceedings isnt limited 14 examples aclunj dug says erik nielson professor university richmond studies rap lyrics criminal proceedings served expert witness defendants cases know theyre also used less formal ways explains perhaps prosecutor may using rap lyrics leverage compel somebody take plea agreement something like really difficult get sense guess looking hundreds defense attorneys fight like crazy keep defendants lyrics court know rap lyrics devastating defense nielson says defense attorneys usually lose argument problem prosecutors able capitalize ignorance perhaps even preconceived notions judges says theyre able convince unlike fictional form presented legitimate evidence either confession somebodys motive intent memoir decoded hiphop star jayz wrote art rap deceptive seems straightforward personal real people read completely literally raw testimony autobiography nielson research partner charis kubrin note paper rap trial rap lyrics treated mere diaries journals special skill training necessary analyze consequently juries may hear false misleading testimony rap witnesseswho lack basic qualifications offer judges juries across country unable see amateur rap lyrics young men writing see says nielsonas fictional work imbued social political commentary possible pathway industry number legitimate job opportunities instead oftenreprehensible lyrics serve affirm stereotypes pathology young black latino defendants put lyrics front jury even worse play video jury present jury image sort remorseless vicious thug says noting common young men color write rhymes aspire become rappers dont see kid glasses sitting desk crumpled paper around spent hours trying write one lyrics thats one dozens notebooks first amendment advocates contend using rap lyrics court slippery slope eroding overall protections given types artistic work social commentary nielson doesnt buy points 1996 study researcher carrie fried took violent song lyrics told one group country song one group folk song one group rap song group thought looking rap lyrics found song offensive greater threat society folk country groups study old stereotypes remain im convinced using traditionally white forms example country music using novels white authors would work nielson says something rap music gives special treatment negated art form obvious nielson rap gets special treatment part larger problem hard divorce conversations fact justice system proven incredibly good finding ways lock young men color says societys antipathy toward hip hop societys antipathy toward young black brown men | 647 |
<p>Most accounts of the long roller-coaster ride of the idea of universal national service see William James as the father of the idea. After delivering an influential address at Stanford University in 1906, the popular philosopher elaborated his proposal in 1910 in a long, widely read essay titled “The Moral Equivalent of War.”</p>
<p>“This is my idea,” James wrote. “Instead of military conscription, a conscription of the whole youthful population to form for a certain number of years a part of the army enlisted against Nature.” Through such service, he asserted, “injustice would tend to be evened out” and “numerous other goods to the commonwealth” would result. “Our gilded youths” would “get the childishness knocked out of them” and “come back into society with healthier sympathies and soberer ideas.” He predicted: “It is only a question of blowing on the spark until the whole population gets incandescent.”</p>
<p>In the decades since, there has been a continuing discussion over James’s idea—whether it should be mandatory or voluntary, and, if voluntary, whether it could become as common an expectation as finishing high school is now. There have been high and low points for national service. The question today remains: Can blowing on the spark succeed in making enough Americans incandescent about the idea so that it becomes an accepted part of our culture?</p>
<p>James’s ideas were first turned into reality when Franklin D. Roosevelt became President in 1933. As governor of New York, he had taken steps to engage the state’s jobless young men in conservation work. On his desk in the Oval Office was a report showing that half a million young men were out of school and out of work.</p>
<p>During his first days in office, he told the secretaries of Labor, Agriculture, the Interior, and the Army that he wanted to create a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to get those unemployed young men into the woods—off the streets and into hard work in our national parks, forests, and public lands that had been ignored far too long. Labor would find and enlist the jobless youth, Interior and Agriculture would select the projects most in need, and the Army would build the camps and supply trained military staff to supervise the CCC men.</p>
<p>It was part voluntary national service, part jobs bill, designed to provide aid during a time of massive unemployment. Within a few weeks of taking office, FDR sent a message to Congress with a very short bill authorizing the creation of a Civilian Conservation Corps with up to 275,000 young men who were between the ages of 18 and 25, unmarried, and unemployed. (A somber fact is that it was open only to men, and the young black men who were enlisted did so in segregated camps.) Signing the bill on March 31, FDR said he wanted a quarter-million CCC men at work by the end of summer. By July 1, the Cabinet team, including Army Colonel (later General) George C. Marshall, reported that more than 275,000 corps members were in some 1,300 camps.</p>
<p>By 1942, when most of the men of the CCC graduated into military service in World War II, more than three million of them had planted three billion trees, cleared 125,000 miles of trails, and developed 800 state parks. For many, the experience helped turn their lives around for the better. One of the last camps to be organized was initiated by Dartmouth College faculty and students, and named Camp William James. To this day, the speed and success of the launching of the CCC constitute achievements that made FDR’s “first hundred days” a standard many presidents seek to match.</p>
<p>A personal note: In 1947, on a former troop ship converted to a student ship heading to Europe, I was stirred to embrace the idea of national service. In my case, the source of that inspiration was not William James but a group of young men, singing night and day. I cornered one and asked what they were up to. He said they were Mormons, and explained, “When a Mormon man comes of age, the question is not, ‘Will I serve?’ but ‘Where will I serve a year or more?’ as a missionary.” Their group chose to help in devastated Europe.</p>
<p>On the ship’s deck, I thought to myself, That’s what ought to happen for all Americans as they become full adults. I may have read James’s essay in college, but the sea change in my thinking came aboard that ship sailing to Europe.</p>
<p>The rest of this backward glance is within the memory of many readers. In the 1960 presidential campaign, when John F. Kennedy proposed a Peace Corps—in which full-time volunteers, most of them young, would serve for two years—President Eisenhower derided it as “a juvenile experiment.” Vice President and presidential candidate Richard Nixon likened it to “draft evasion.” Others called it a “Kiddie Corps.”</p>
<p>Countering that was the surprising enthusiasm of college students, whose generation had been dubbed silent and apathetic. Without waiting for Congress, the young President created a “temporary Peace Corps,” appointed Sargent Shriver to organize and direct it, and sent the first Peace Corps volunteers to Ghana. Four months later, the bill passed after Shriver and his deputy, Bill Moyers, visited every member of Congress.</p>
<p>By the fall of 1962, all signs indicated that the “experiment” was going to be a success. On the White House lawn, after sending forth volunteers who had trained at Georgetown and Howard Universities, President Kennedy showed his high hopes. Among the 600 there that day were 300 about to fly (with me) to Addis Ababa (where I was headed to become the Peace Corps Special Representative to Africa and director of the Ethiopia program). Emperor Haile Selassie had asked Kennedy for 500 Peace Corps teachers in order to double the number of secondary-school teachers in the country, a goal that was achieved in the years that followed.</p>
<p>Walking back to the Oval Office, a happy Kennedy said to me, “This will be serious when there are 100,000 volunteers a year—one million each decade, who serve in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.” Then, he predicted, “at last there’ll be a large constituency for an informed foreign policy.”</p>
<p>When Shriver left the Peace Corps in 1966, there were 16,000 volunteers serving in 55 countries, including those in training. Vice President Hubert Humphrey talked of the 50,000 he expected would come in that decade. President Johnson had as vice president been the first chairman of the Peace Corps Advisory Council and was a strong champion of its expansion. Kennedy’s speechwriter, Ted Sorensen, called the Peace Corps “one of John F. Kennedy’s proudest achievements, the epitome of his call for service and sacrifice.”</p>
<p>Yet the enlarged Peace Corps Kennedy imagined never came to pass. Blamed on the growing demands of the Vietnam War, appropriation cuts began in 1967 and continued during the Nixon Administration until the number of recruits fell to fewer than 5,000 a year. In the twenty-first century, the number has risen modestly, up to about 8,000 a year.</p>
<p>The same fate blocked the bold ideas for national service that President Johnson advanced for the War on Poverty. He appointed Shriver to be the director of this major domestic program. Along with the Job Corps, Head Start, and Community Action, Shriver created VISTA, the Volunteers in Service to America, to be “the ground troops” for the assault on poverty. He wanted full-time VISTA volunteers to soon match, in numbers, the several hundred thousand corpsmen of the CCC.</p>
<p>On George Washington’s birthday in 1965, at the University of Kentucky, President Johnson urged the nation to “search for new ways” through which “every young American will have the opportunity—and feel the obligation—to give at least a few years of his or her life to the service of others in this nation and the world.” That was a high point for the idea of national service becoming a common expectation for all young Americans coming of age. A year later, in his tug of war between the cost of the growing struggle in Vietnam and the ambitious plans for the War on Poverty, Johnson told Shriver he could not fund the crucial next steps toward overcoming poverty. VISTA would never reach even 10,000 volunteers.</p>
<p>The search for new ways and means for full-time youth service continued in the 1970s and ’80s. Some cities and states formed different kinds of youth corps. Many followed the model of the CCC of old, rather than the Peace Corps and VISTA, and drew mainly those who were poor and unemployed. The largest was the California Conservation Corps, organized in 1976 by Governor Jerry Brown. It grew to 3,000 participants per year, continued through Republican and Democratic state administrations, and is still operating today. Its motto, “Hard work, low pay, and miserable conditions,” resembled the Peace Corps’s best recruiting poster, “The Toughest Job You’ve Ever Loved.”</p>
<p>In 1979, the Potomac Institute’s “Report of the Committee for the Study of National Service” concluded “that the nation’s social, economic, educational, environmental, and military needs, including the need of young people to serve and be productive, and the need of our society to regain a sense of service, together make a compelling case for moving toward universal service for American youth.” It called for “the country to move towards such universal service by stages and by incentives but without compulsion.”</p>
<p>President Ronald Reagan began the 1980s with his own version of citizen service: “Let us pledge to restore, in our time, the American spirit of volunteer service, of cooperation, of private and community initiative, a spirit that flows like a deep and mighty river through the history of our nation.” Yet for those campaigning for all young Americans to have the opportunity to do full-time national service, the river seemed more like many separate streams.</p>
<p>The latter part of the decade saw a burst of new calls for national youth service. In 1986, a major study by Richard Danzig and Peter Szanton, National Service: What Would It Mean?, was published with considerable impact. In 1988, the Democratic Leadership Council, including Governor Bill Clinton and Senator Sam Nunn, released its landmark report, “Citizenship and National Service,” calling for all young people to serve, and proposing that federal college student aid be conditioned on such service.</p>
<p>Senator Ted Kennedy opposed that proposed big stick, but he framed an alternative bill based on the carrot of new student aid for service. Kennedy’s bill was combined with President George H.W. Bush’s proposed legislation supporting the Points of Light initiative to increase traditional unpaid volunteering. This led in 1990 to the first National Service Act, which included a commission with authority to test different approaches to full-time national service. The President appointed the first special assistant for national service, Gregg Petersmeyer, who helped bring both parties together for a truly bipartisan bill.</p>
<p>In his 1992 presidential campaign, Clinton found that his most popular campaign promise was offering that carrot of additional college aid to all who served a year or more in the community. When he visited the new City Year program in Boston, funded in part by the 1990 bill, he said a light bulb went off in his head: “Something like this is what I want for all American young people.”</p>
<p>As President, Clinton asked Congress to enact the quantum leap he had proposed in the campaign. Senators Kennedy and Barbara Mikulski took the lead in framing and passing the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993. The President appointed Eli Segal CEO of the new Corporation for National and Community Service in order to manage the new national-service program, which was named AmeriCorps and launched with fanfare. Almost all governors formed the bipartisan state commissions the act required for the allocation of AmeriCorps positions. But there was a cloud over this progress—only six Senate Republicans had voted to pass the national-service bill.</p>
<p>After the 1994 Republican sweep of Congress (of which I was one of the casualties, losing to Rick Santorum), one of the first acts of the new House of Representatives was to defund AmeriCorps. In response to this challenge, the President asked me to become CEO of the new corporation, to help him save AmeriCorps. The AmeriCorps budget was significantly cut, but thereafter, despite the opposition of House Republicans, appropriations for the Corporation and for AmeriCorps positions increased each year in Clinton’s second term, with the number of positions reaching 50,000 by 2000.</p>
<p>Just before his death in 1995, former Michigan Governor George Romney—whose son, Mitt, was a strong supporter of national service and especially of City Year—set in motion a plan that led to additional Republican support. Romney (who was called “Mr. Volunteer Service”) enlisted the Corporation and the Points of Light Foundation to realize his dream of a summit at which all living presidents and leaders from all sectors of society would gather to support citizen service and show it was not a partisan issue.</p>
<p>In 1997, President Clinton and former President George H.W. Bush convened the Presidents’ Summit for America’s Future in Philadelphia, with four out of the five living presidents, and Nancy Reagan representing her husband, along with some 30 governors, 100 mayors, and 2,000 other leaders. Gen. Colin Powell chaired the summit and launched America’s Promise Alliance, which included national youth service as one of its main aims.</p>
<p>After the summit, Republican Senator Dan Coats of Indiana, who had voted against AmeriCorps, published a persuasive opinion piece, “Why I Changed My Mind about AmeriCorps.” Ohio Representative John Kasich, chairman of the House Budget Committee, also changed his mind and gave his backing. In 2000, when he first ran for President, John McCain announced his support, and said, “I was wrong about AmeriCorps.”</p>
<p>By the turn of the twenty-first century, it seemed to be widely accepted that national service by young Americans had become a lasting dimension of volunteering in the United States. Forty-nine governors signed a letter to Congress supporting the reauthorization and strengthening of AmeriCorps.</p>
<p>The September 11 attacks ushered in a period of patriotic nonpartisanship and additional momentum for national service. In his 2002 State of the Union address, President Bush called for 4,000 hours of service—or two years—by every American, the doubling of the Peace Corps, and an increase in AmeriCorps positions from 50,000 to 75,000. He created the USA Freedom Corps White House Council to coordinate federal support for national service and appointed John Bridgeland to lead it.</p>
<p>At that point, with the Republican President asking Congress for a 50-percent increase in national-service positions, and the chairman of the Republican Party, former Governor Marc Racicot of Montana, strongly in agreement, there was reason for supporters of national service to believe that the Republican Party was starting on a new journey toward a national consensus for large-scale national service. But while AmeriCorps did grow, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan divided the nation on political lines, and momentum stalled.</p>
<p>During his 2008 presidential campaign, Senator Obama proposed a goal of 250,000 national-service positions. That idea and the bill that made it reality—the 2009 Serve America Act, sponsored by Senators Kennedy and Hatch, and supported by Senators McCain and Clinton—was the most recent high point for the idea of national service. Obama signed the bill into law with strong bipartisan support during his first hundred days. Once again, the road forward seemed clear. But yet again, events intervened. The 2010 midterm elections changed the political landscape. As in 1995, the House of Representatives voted to eliminate funding for AmeriCorps. At this writing, the new budget proposed by the House leadership would terminate not only AmeriCorps but all the programs of the Corporation for National and Community Service, including the Senior Corps.</p>
<p>In the current political stalemate, President Obama has done what he can to stave off a quantum leap backward for national service. His limited power for executive action is already being tapped by the White House Task Force on Expanding National Service, which asks all federal departments and appropriate agencies to explore and report how the engagement of national service volunteers can help them accomplish their missions.</p>
<p>With the fifth anniversary of the Serve America Act this spring, it seems clear that further expansion of full-time national service through major new appropriations from Congress is unlikely. Indeed, the continuation of federal support for national service may be in danger, despite the support of the hundreds of nonprofit organizations benefitting from the service of AmeriCorps members, and the work of the outstanding new CEO of the corporation, Wendy Spencer, a Republican and longtime leader on the issue of national service.</p>
<p>While Congress stalls, there is an opportunity to give new life to the idea of national service. Gen. Stanley McChrystal and a group of former generals, veterans of all ranks, and like-minded civic leaders are stepping forth with a new initiative, focused on the independent sector, to make a service year at home or abroad an opportunity for all young Americans. They foresee a time when the numbers of young Americans in civilian service years will equal the one million volunteers in military service. Then the “goods to the commonwealth” that William James envisioned will become an integral part of the education of Americans as self-governing citizens.</p> | true | 4 | accounts long rollercoaster ride idea universal national service see william james father idea delivering influential address stanford university 1906 popular philosopher elaborated proposal 1910 long widely read essay titled moral equivalent war idea james wrote instead military conscription conscription whole youthful population form certain number years part army enlisted nature service asserted injustice would tend evened numerous goods commonwealth would result gilded youths would get childishness knocked come back society healthier sympathies soberer ideas predicted question blowing spark whole population gets incandescent decades since continuing discussion jamess ideawhether mandatory voluntary voluntary whether could become common expectation finishing high school high low points national service question today remains blowing spark succeed making enough americans incandescent idea becomes accepted part culture jamess ideas first turned reality franklin roosevelt became president 1933 governor new york taken steps engage states jobless young men conservation work desk oval office report showing half million young men school work first days office told secretaries labor agriculture interior army wanted create civilian conservation corps ccc get unemployed young men woodsoff streets hard work national parks forests public lands ignored far long labor would find enlist jobless youth interior agriculture would select projects need army would build camps supply trained military staff supervise ccc men part voluntary national service part jobs bill designed provide aid time massive unemployment within weeks taking office fdr sent message congress short bill authorizing creation civilian conservation corps 275000 young men ages 18 25 unmarried unemployed somber fact open men young black men enlisted segregated camps signing bill march 31 fdr said wanted quartermillion ccc men work end summer july 1 cabinet team including army colonel later general george c marshall reported 275000 corps members 1300 camps 1942 men ccc graduated military service world war ii three million planted three billion trees cleared 125000 miles trails developed 800 state parks many experience helped turn lives around better one last camps organized initiated dartmouth college faculty students named camp william james day speed success launching ccc constitute achievements made fdrs first hundred days standard many presidents seek match personal note 1947 former troop ship converted student ship heading europe stirred embrace idea national service case source inspiration william james group young men singing night day cornered one asked said mormons explained mormon man comes age question serve serve year missionary group chose help devastated europe ships deck thought thats ought happen americans become full adults may read jamess essay college sea change thinking came aboard ship sailing europe rest backward glance within memory many readers 1960 presidential campaign john f kennedy proposed peace corpsin fulltime volunteers young would serve two yearspresident eisenhower derided juvenile experiment vice president presidential candidate richard nixon likened draft evasion others called kiddie corps countering surprising enthusiasm college students whose generation dubbed silent apathetic without waiting congress young president created temporary peace corps appointed sargent shriver organize direct sent first peace corps volunteers ghana four months later bill passed shriver deputy bill moyers visited every member congress fall 1962 signs indicated experiment going success white house lawn sending forth volunteers trained georgetown howard universities president kennedy showed high hopes among 600 day 300 fly addis ababa headed become peace corps special representative africa director ethiopia program emperor haile selassie asked kennedy 500 peace corps teachers order double number secondaryschool teachers country goal achieved years followed walking back oval office happy kennedy said serious 100000 volunteers yearone million decade serve africa asia latin america predicted last therell large constituency informed foreign policy shriver left peace corps 1966 16000 volunteers serving 55 countries including training vice president hubert humphrey talked 50000 expected would come decade president johnson vice president first chairman peace corps advisory council strong champion expansion kennedys speechwriter ted sorensen called peace corps one john f kennedys proudest achievements epitome call service sacrifice yet enlarged peace corps kennedy imagined never came pass blamed growing demands vietnam war appropriation cuts began 1967 continued nixon administration number recruits fell fewer 5000 year twentyfirst century number risen modestly 8000 year fate blocked bold ideas national service president johnson advanced war poverty appointed shriver director major domestic program along job corps head start community action shriver created vista volunteers service america ground troops assault poverty wanted fulltime vista volunteers soon match numbers several hundred thousand corpsmen ccc george washingtons birthday 1965 university kentucky president johnson urged nation search new ways every young american opportunityand feel obligationto give least years life service others nation world high point idea national service becoming common expectation young americans coming age year later tug war cost growing struggle vietnam ambitious plans war poverty johnson told shriver could fund crucial next steps toward overcoming poverty vista would never reach even 10000 volunteers search new ways means fulltime youth service continued 1970s 80s cities states formed different kinds youth corps many followed model ccc old rather peace corps vista drew mainly poor unemployed largest california conservation corps organized 1976 governor jerry brown grew 3000 participants per year continued republican democratic state administrations still operating today motto hard work low pay miserable conditions resembled peace corpss best recruiting poster toughest job youve ever loved 1979 potomac institutes report committee study national service concluded nations social economic educational environmental military needs including need young people serve productive need society regain sense service together make compelling case moving toward universal service american youth called country move towards universal service stages incentives without compulsion president ronald reagan began 1980s version citizen service let us pledge restore time american spirit volunteer service cooperation private community initiative spirit flows like deep mighty river history nation yet campaigning young americans opportunity fulltime national service river seemed like many separate streams latter part decade saw burst new calls national youth service 1986 major study richard danzig peter szanton national service would mean published considerable impact 1988 democratic leadership council including governor bill clinton senator sam nunn released landmark report citizenship national service calling young people serve proposing federal college student aid conditioned service senator ted kennedy opposed proposed big stick framed alternative bill based carrot new student aid service kennedys bill combined president george hw bushs proposed legislation supporting points light initiative increase traditional unpaid volunteering led 1990 first national service act included commission authority test different approaches fulltime national service president appointed first special assistant national service gregg petersmeyer helped bring parties together truly bipartisan bill 1992 presidential campaign clinton found popular campaign promise offering carrot additional college aid served year community visited new city year program boston funded part 1990 bill said light bulb went head something like want american young people president clinton asked congress enact quantum leap proposed campaign senators kennedy barbara mikulski took lead framing passing national community service trust act 1993 president appointed eli segal ceo new corporation national community service order manage new nationalservice program named americorps launched fanfare almost governors formed bipartisan state commissions act required allocation americorps positions cloud progressonly six senate republicans voted pass nationalservice bill 1994 republican sweep congress one casualties losing rick santorum one first acts new house representatives defund americorps response challenge president asked become ceo new corporation help save americorps americorps budget significantly cut thereafter despite opposition house republicans appropriations corporation americorps positions increased year clintons second term number positions reaching 50000 2000 death 1995 former michigan governor george romneywhose son mitt strong supporter national service especially city yearset motion plan led additional republican support romney called mr volunteer service enlisted corporation points light foundation realize dream summit living presidents leaders sectors society would gather support citizen service show partisan issue 1997 president clinton former president george hw bush convened presidents summit americas future philadelphia four five living presidents nancy reagan representing husband along 30 governors 100 mayors 2000 leaders gen colin powell chaired summit launched americas promise alliance included national youth service one main aims summit republican senator dan coats indiana voted americorps published persuasive opinion piece changed mind americorps ohio representative john kasich chairman house budget committee also changed mind gave backing 2000 first ran president john mccain announced support said wrong americorps turn twentyfirst century seemed widely accepted national service young americans become lasting dimension volunteering united states fortynine governors signed letter congress supporting reauthorization strengthening americorps september 11 attacks ushered period patriotic nonpartisanship additional momentum national service 2002 state union address president bush called 4000 hours serviceor two yearsby every american doubling peace corps increase americorps positions 50000 75000 created usa freedom corps white house council coordinate federal support national service appointed john bridgeland lead point republican president asking congress 50percent increase nationalservice positions chairman republican party former governor marc racicot montana strongly agreement reason supporters national service believe republican party starting new journey toward national consensus largescale national service americorps grow wars iraq afghanistan divided nation political lines momentum stalled 2008 presidential campaign senator obama proposed goal 250000 nationalservice positions idea bill made realitythe 2009 serve america act sponsored senators kennedy hatch supported senators mccain clintonwas recent high point idea national service obama signed bill law strong bipartisan support first hundred days road forward seemed clear yet events intervened 2010 midterm elections changed political landscape 1995 house representatives voted eliminate funding americorps writing new budget proposed house leadership would terminate americorps programs corporation national community service including senior corps current political stalemate president obama done stave quantum leap backward national service limited power executive action already tapped white house task force expanding national service asks federal departments appropriate agencies explore report engagement national service volunteers help accomplish missions fifth anniversary serve america act spring seems clear expansion fulltime national service major new appropriations congress unlikely indeed continuation federal support national service may danger despite support hundreds nonprofit organizations benefitting service americorps members work outstanding new ceo corporation wendy spencer republican longtime leader issue national service congress stalls opportunity give new life idea national service gen stanley mcchrystal group former generals veterans ranks likeminded civic leaders stepping forth new initiative focused independent sector make service year home abroad opportunity young americans foresee time numbers young americans civilian service years equal one million volunteers military service goods commonwealth william james envisioned become integral part education americans selfgoverning citizens | 1,685 |
<p>Image: Chuck Kennedy/KRT</p>
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<p>As the nation’s premier research center, the National Institutes of Health is supposed to be insulated from politics. The agency has long appointed respected health professionals — regardless of their political beliefs — to advisory councils that help direct the nation’s medical research on everything from genetic disorders to the common cold. “The NIH casts a broad net and deliberately creates a diverse council that can give them input,” says Steven Hayes, a University of Nevada professor who sits on the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse at the NIH.</p>
<p>But the Bush administration has been screening candidates about their political views — an unprecedented move intended to make sure that conservatives get seats on NIH advisory councils. In some cases, Mother Jones has learned, a White House liaison with the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the NIH, has called candidates and asked detailed questions about their political leanings.</p>
<p>One candidate screened by the White House was William Miller, a widely respected researcher and professor at the University of New Mexico who was nominated to serve on the advisory council on drug abuse. Miller says he’s never been secretive about his politics. “If somebody started digging, they wouldn’t have to dig too far to find out I’m a lifelong liberal,” he says. “I’ve never been arrested or joined the Communist Party — I’m just what Garrison Keillor calls a ‘museum quality’ liberal Democrat.”</p>
<p>That apparently was enough to trigger alarm bells at the White House. Last January 15, a liaison staffer interviewed Miller by phone. According to Miller, the staffer told him that he needed to determine whether Miller held “any views that might be embarrassing to the president.” He began by asking Miller’s views on drug legalization and needle exchange; when Miller responded that he was opposed to the former and in favor of the latter, the staffer replied, “You’re one for two.” The staffer then asked a series of questions that had no apparent relevance to Miller’s qualifications to serve on the council: Did he favor capital punishment for drug kingpins? (No.) Was he opposed to abortion? (No.) Had he voted for Bush? When Miller replied that he had not, the staffer asked him to explain why he “hadn’t supported the president.”</p>
<p>Miller says he was “surprised and aghast” by the questions. After the interview ended, the staffer told Miller that he would get back to him after checking to see if his views were “acceptable.” Miller never received a second call.</p>
<p>Several prominent conservatives had no such difficulty, however. Among those named to the drug-abuse advisory council was Robert Woodson, whose National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise provides training to faith-based organizations. The organization is heavily funded by the Bradley Foundation, which also bankrolls the Clinton-bashing American Spectator. Another member of the panel is Peggy Sapp, who sits on a drug-abuse advisory council in Florida appointed by Governor Jeb Bush. Sapp, who directs a national network of parenting organizations, is the only member of the 18-member council without an advanced degree. Several conservatives, including a college friend of the president, were also appointed to the NIH’s National Mental Health Advisory Council.</p>
<p>Bill Pierce, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, insists that it is accepted practice to select scientific panelists based on their politics. “Every president does it,” he says. “It goes back to George Washington. I can’t say that past administrations have asked the same questions, but the end result is the same — you put people on boards that you want.”</p>
<p>But current NIH staffers and former top officials say the political screening represents a marked departure from past practice. “That’s absolutely unusual — are you kidding?” says Steven Hyman, former director of the National Institute of Mental Health and now provost of Harvard University. “Politics should be irrelevant to science.”</p>
<p>Others familiar with the process agree. “No one around here has ever heard about this type of questioning,” says an NIH official who asked not to be identified. “I don’t see how it’s supposed to help further our scientific research.”</p>
<p>The NIH’s advisory councils are designed to provide the government with impartial, professional expertise on a wide range of medical research. Panel members are often asked to make recommendations on policies and funding involving controversial issues — including aids treatment, medical marijuana, and drug testing on human subjects. Some involved in the process say that screening candidates threatens to place the president’s views over scientific evidence. Miller, for example, says the White House liaison told him that his support for reducing the spread of HIV by providing clean syringes to drug addicts was a strike against him because the president is “morally opposed to needle exchange.”</p>
<p>Not every candidate was screened, and health professionals with liberal views were appointed to NIH advisory councils. But even those who were not questioned about their politics express concern about the practice. “It sounds intimidating to the candidate — and it’s intimidating just to hear about it,” says David Vlahov, who was nominated to the drug-abuse council under Clinton and approved under Bush.</p>
<p>For their part, some NIH staffers say that the screening has made them reluctant to consult the advisory councils. “You have to be worried about what their politics are,” says one staff member. “You want to ask them their opinion, but you need to keep them at arm’s length because they might be pushing a particular agenda.”</p>
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<p /> | true | 4 | image chuck kennedykrt nations premier research center national institutes health supposed insulated politics agency long appointed respected health professionals regardless political beliefs advisory councils help direct nations medical research everything genetic disorders common cold nih casts broad net deliberately creates diverse council give input says steven hayes university nevada professor sits national advisory council drug abuse nih bush administration screening candidates political views unprecedented move intended make sure conservatives get seats nih advisory councils cases mother jones learned white house liaison department health human services oversees nih called candidates asked detailed questions political leanings one candidate screened white house william miller widely respected researcher professor university new mexico nominated serve advisory council drug abuse miller says hes never secretive politics somebody started digging wouldnt dig far find im lifelong liberal says ive never arrested joined communist party im garrison keillor calls museum quality liberal democrat apparently enough trigger alarm bells white house last january 15 liaison staffer interviewed miller phone according miller staffer told needed determine whether miller held views might embarrassing president began asking millers views drug legalization needle exchange miller responded opposed former favor latter staffer replied youre one two staffer asked series questions apparent relevance millers qualifications serve council favor capital punishment drug kingpins opposed abortion voted bush miller replied staffer asked explain hadnt supported president miller says surprised aghast questions interview ended staffer told miller would get back checking see views acceptable miller never received second call several prominent conservatives difficulty however among named drugabuse advisory council robert woodson whose national center neighborhood enterprise provides training faithbased organizations organization heavily funded bradley foundation also bankrolls clintonbashing american spectator another member panel peggy sapp sits drugabuse advisory council florida appointed governor jeb bush sapp directs national network parenting organizations member 18member council without advanced degree several conservatives including college friend president also appointed nihs national mental health advisory council bill pierce spokesman department health human services insists accepted practice select scientific panelists based politics every president says goes back george washington cant say past administrations asked questions end result put people boards want current nih staffers former top officials say political screening represents marked departure past practice thats absolutely unusual kidding says steven hyman former director national institute mental health provost harvard university politics irrelevant science others familiar process agree one around ever heard type questioning says nih official asked identified dont see supposed help scientific research nihs advisory councils designed provide government impartial professional expertise wide range medical research panel members often asked make recommendations policies funding involving controversial issues including aids treatment medical marijuana drug testing human subjects involved process say screening candidates threatens place presidents views scientific evidence miller example says white house liaison told support reducing spread hiv providing clean syringes drug addicts strike president morally opposed needle exchange every candidate screened health professionals liberal views appointed nih advisory councils even questioned politics express concern practice sounds intimidating candidate intimidating hear says david vlahov nominated drugabuse council clinton approved bush part nih staffers say screening made reluctant consult advisory councils worried politics says one staff member want ask opinion need keep arms length might pushing particular agenda | 524 |
<p><a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/gill-v-whitford/" type="external">Gill v. Whitford</a> is the most important case the Supreme Court has heard in years. As Paul Smith, the attorney arguing against Wisconsin’s gerrymandered maps in&#160;Whitford, told the Court, if the justices allow such aggressive gerrymanders to persist, “the country is going to lose faith in democracy.”</p>
<p>Whitford involves the Wisconsin state assembly maps — maps that were drawn to make it virtually impossible for Republicans to lose their majority. As the lower court, which struck down those maps, explained, “in 2012, the Republican Party received 48.6% of the two-party statewide vote share for Assembly candidates and won 60 of the 99 seats in the Wisconsin Assembly. In 2014, the Republican Party received 52% of the two-party statewide vote share and won 63 assembly seats.”</p>
<p>The question in&#160;Whitford is fundamental: whether the state of Wisconsin will once again become a democracy, or whether only one party is allowed to make laws in that state.</p>
<p>The good news for Smith, and for other opponents of partisan gerrymanders, is that there appear to be five votes to strike down Wisconsin’s maps. Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Court’s “swing” vote in this case, asked a number of critical questions of the lawyers defending the gerrymandered maps and literally no questions of Smith. At one point, he appeared to grow angry with an attorney defending the maps for not answering one of his questions.</p>
<p>Though it is up in the air how deeply the Court will cut into the practice of partisan gerrymandering, a smart gambler would bet on Wisconsin’s maps going down.</p>
<p>The conservative flank of the Court’s defense of the map can be summarized in four words: “John Roberts hates math.” What makes&#160;Whitford such an interesting case is that the plaintiffs do not simply point to the partisan results achieved by the state assembly map and demand that it be struck down; they offer several mathematical formulas that can be used to sort out maps that are likely to be partisan gerrymanders. These formulas answer an important question that Kennedy asked in a previous case — what kind of “ <a href="" type="internal">workable standard</a>” can lower courts use to sort out which maps must be struck down?</p>
<p>Roberts, however, recoiled at the very idea that courts would play around with something so vulgar as maps and social science. In an especially candid moment, he told Smith that his primary concern is that, should Smith prevail, multiple partisan gerrymandering cases will be brought to the Court in the future, and the justices will have to explain why they side with a particular party in each case. If the Court’s response is a mathematical equation, Roberts feared, voters will find that answer unsatisfying, and the Court’s reputation will suffer.</p>
<p>This concern with the Court’s reputation is what sparked Smith’s comment that “if you let this go . . . the country is going to lose faith in democracy.” It also triggered an especially passionate response from liberal Justice Stephen Breyer.</p>
<p>Rather than showing the people an equation and telling them that that is the reason why a map was struck down, Breyer offered a much simpler explanation. “If party A wins a majority of the vote, it controls the legislature. That seems fair!”</p>
<p>Kennedy was fairly silent for most of the argument — and the fact that he did not challenge a single one of Smith’s claims is a good sign for Smith. Early in the argument, Kennedy appeared to signal that he thought partisan gerrymanders violate the First Amendment, a view he also <a href="" type="internal">hinted at in a 2004 opinion</a>. When Erin Murphy, one of two attorneys defending Wisconsin’s maps, suggested that the state’s maps are acceptable because the districts are not weirdly shaped, Kennedy pushed her on whether that was enough to save the maps. Later in the argument, after Murphy had moved on to another topic, Kennedy brought her back to this question, testily insisting that she didn’t answer it the first time.</p>
<p>While Kennedy was mostly quiet, his presence loomed over the entire case. Conservative Justice Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, who occupies the seat that Senate Republicans held open until Donald Trump could fill it, spent much of the argument poking holes in Smith’s claim that there is a “workable standard” that can be used to assess gerrymanders. Liberal Justices Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan spent much of the argument trying to construct a standard that would win Kennedy’s vote.</p>
<p>If a single standard did emerge, it will probably resemble a multi-part test proposed by Justice Breyer, which asks questions like whether a single party controlled the map-drawing process, whether the maps give an asymmetrical advantage to one party, and whether that advantage is likely to persist over many elections. But there is no certainty whether the ultimate standard will be robust enough to catch more subtle gerrymanders, or even if Kennedy won’t ultimately flip back to the conservatives.</p>
<p>In the end, though, a majority of the Court appeared to understand the gravity of this moment and the threat facing American democracy — one fact that came up several times is that computers and data analysis have grown so sophisticated that gerrymanders are only going to get more and more effective in entrenching one-party rule. As Justice Ginsburg warned, “if you can stack a legislature in this way, what incentive is there” to vote?</p>
<p>Justice Kennedy looks inclined to restore that incentive to voters. We will most likely know in June whether the Court’s right flank managed to pull him back into their fold.</p> | true | 4 | gill v whitford important case supreme court heard years paul smith attorney arguing wisconsins gerrymandered maps in160whitford told court justices allow aggressive gerrymanders persist country going lose faith democracy whitford involves wisconsin state assembly maps maps drawn make virtually impossible republicans lose majority lower court struck maps explained 2012 republican party received 486 twoparty statewide vote share assembly candidates 60 99 seats wisconsin assembly 2014 republican party received 52 twoparty statewide vote share 63 assembly seats question in160whitford fundamental whether state wisconsin become democracy whether one party allowed make laws state good news smith opponents partisan gerrymanders appear five votes strike wisconsins maps justice anthony kennedy courts swing vote case asked number critical questions lawyers defending gerrymandered maps literally questions smith one point appeared grow angry attorney defending maps answering one questions though air deeply court cut practice partisan gerrymandering smart gambler would bet wisconsins maps going conservative flank courts defense map summarized four words john roberts hates math makes160whitford interesting case plaintiffs simply point partisan results achieved state assembly map demand struck offer several mathematical formulas used sort maps likely partisan gerrymanders formulas answer important question kennedy asked previous case kind workable standard lower courts use sort maps must struck roberts however recoiled idea courts would play around something vulgar maps social science especially candid moment told smith primary concern smith prevail multiple partisan gerrymandering cases brought court future justices explain side particular party case courts response mathematical equation roberts feared voters find answer unsatisfying courts reputation suffer concern courts reputation sparked smiths comment let go country going lose faith democracy also triggered especially passionate response liberal justice stephen breyer rather showing people equation telling reason map struck breyer offered much simpler explanation party wins majority vote controls legislature seems fair kennedy fairly silent argument fact challenge single one smiths claims good sign smith early argument kennedy appeared signal thought partisan gerrymanders violate first amendment view also hinted 2004 opinion erin murphy one two attorneys defending wisconsins maps suggested states maps acceptable districts weirdly shaped kennedy pushed whether enough save maps later argument murphy moved another topic kennedy brought back question testily insisting didnt answer first time kennedy mostly quiet presence loomed entire case conservative justice samuel alito neil gorsuch occupies seat senate republicans held open donald trump could fill spent much argument poking holes smiths claim workable standard used assess gerrymanders liberal justices breyer ruth bader ginsburg elena kagan spent much argument trying construct standard would win kennedys vote single standard emerge probably resemble multipart test proposed justice breyer asks questions like whether single party controlled mapdrawing process whether maps give asymmetrical advantage one party whether advantage likely persist many elections certainty whether ultimate standard robust enough catch subtle gerrymanders even kennedy wont ultimately flip back conservatives end though majority court appeared understand gravity moment threat facing american democracy one fact came several times computers data analysis grown sophisticated gerrymanders going get effective entrenching oneparty rule justice ginsburg warned stack legislature way incentive vote justice kennedy looks inclined restore incentive voters likely know june whether courts right flank managed pull back fold | 514 |
<p>This article was originally published by <a href="http://www.philly.com/inquirer/" type="external">The Philadelphia Inquirer</a>.</p>
<p>I am tired of living in a country where 16-year-old girls die because insurance company profits are more important than human life.</p>
<p>I am tired of a government that runs offshore penal colonies where the detained are tortured and denied the basic protections of the Geneva Convention.</p>
<p>I am tired of living in a state that makes war against countries that do not threaten us.</p>
<p />
<p>I am tired of watching basic constitutional rights, such as the right to privacy, taken away from citizens.</p>
<p>Most of all, I am tired of being told every four years that I must vote for candidates who do nothing to stop the brutal and callous assault by corporations on the American working class, sending their jobs overseas and stripping workers of benefits and human dignity.</p>
<p>And so — to be sure that this year my vote goes to someone who does more than pay lip service to the moral and physical deterioration of the nation — I will pull the lever for Dennis Kucinich.</p>
<p>I can hear the collective groan. He won’t win. He has no real following. It is a wasted vote.</p>
<p>But this is the groan of the comfortable, those who have health insurance and a decent job. This is the groan of those who can send their kids to expensive colleges and probably went to one. The groans of the poor in this country, including the increasingly impoverished working class, are no longer audible to most of us. Their lives have been rendered invisible, of little interest to the advertisers who sell us products on television or take out full-page color ads in the newspapers and glossy magazines. And when the corporations write you off in America, everyone else does, too.</p>
<p>Any vote is wasted that does not address the terrible injustices being done to tens of millions of people who have lost the opportunity to earn a living wage. Any vote is wasted that does not, even if it ends up being a protest vote, attempt to halt our transformation into an oligarchic state where a tiny, privileged elite controls our money and our politics.</p>
<p>The irony and tragedy of the Kucinich candidacy is that, in many ways, he is proclaiming the failure of his own party. Again and again, he says what his party should be, but no longer is. He has championed democratic freedoms and defended the interests of the working class, from which he comes, for decades. He was alone among the major candidates to vote against the Patriot Act, against authorizing the war in Iraq, and he wants to repeal the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and withdraw from the World Trade Organization (WTO).</p>
<p>He has called for the impeachment of the vice president and public financing for elections. If you compare his voting record with that of any of the other major candidates, he is the only one who has steadfastly remained free from corporate control.</p>
<p>I went to see Kucinich in Washington. I asked him during a two-hour <a href="" type="internal">interview</a> why the Democratic Party has failed so badly. Why did the party, despite the midterm elections, refuse to cut funding for a war that is probably the worst foreign-policy blunder in U.S. history?</p>
<p>“Lack of commitment to democratic principles,” he said after a long pause. He then began to list the reasons: “No understanding of the period of history we are in … unwillingness to assert congressional authority in key areas which makes the people’s house paramount to protecting democracy; the institutionalized influence of corporate America through the Democratic Leadership Council.</p>
<p>“Oil runs our politics, corrupt Wall Street interests run our politics, insurance companies run our politics, arms manufacturers run our politics, and the public’s interests are being strangled,” he added.</p>
<p>He stands as a maverick within the party, denouncing the series of trade agreements, many put in place by Bill Clinton, which have devastated U.S. workers.</p>
<p>“What I see is that the Democratic Party abandoned working people and paradoxically they are the ones who hoist the flag of workers every two and four years, only to engender excitement and then turn around and abandon the same constituency. This is now on a level of a practiced ritual.”</p>
<p>Kucinich advocates a full-employment economy, calling for a new version of the 1930s Works Progress Administration (WPA), which employed millions of Americans. He wants to put people to work to rebuild the country’s crumbling infrastructure, from its roads and bridges to its dams, levies, sewer systems, libraries and mass transit. He has introduced, along with Republican Rep. Steven LaTourette of Ohio, a bill, H.R. 3400, that would provide federal funds for this jobs program. He has called for the government to invest in wind and solar technologies to be retrofitted into tens of millions of U.S. homes and businesses.</p>
<p>Kucinich is the only candidate in the race who advocates a single, not-for-profit health-care system for all citizens, in essence a national Medicare. He coauthored H.R. 676, which would provide universal health coverage. This coverage would, he said, not only assure that people will not suffer or die from lack of medical care, but would also stem the epidemic of personal bankruptcies, half of which are attributed to people who cannot pay their medical bills.</p>
<p>He rails against his party’s refusal to end the war, blaming the Democrats’ decision to continue funding the war on “an implicit understanding of the power of those interests that profit from war and the power of war as an idea.”</p>
<p>I asked him if he was ever frustrated, given his lonely status as an outsider. He was excluded from a Dec. 13 Democratic debate in Iowa sponsored by the Des Moines Register. His lack of corporate money has seen his campaign subsist on $2 million while Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama each raised $100 million in 2007 for their presidential bids.</p>
<p>“What you do in life is you stand up and fight for those things you believe in,” he said, “and you do it without question or pause, to take a phrase in one of my favorite songs. I don’t have any complaints.”</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | article originally published philadelphia inquirer tired living country 16yearold girls die insurance company profits important human life tired government runs offshore penal colonies detained tortured denied basic protections geneva convention tired living state makes war countries threaten us tired watching basic constitutional rights right privacy taken away citizens tired told every four years must vote candidates nothing stop brutal callous assault corporations american working class sending jobs overseas stripping workers benefits human dignity sure year vote goes someone pay lip service moral physical deterioration nation pull lever dennis kucinich hear collective groan wont win real following wasted vote groan comfortable health insurance decent job groan send kids expensive colleges probably went one groans poor country including increasingly impoverished working class longer audible us lives rendered invisible little interest advertisers sell us products television take fullpage color ads newspapers glossy magazines corporations write america everyone else vote wasted address terrible injustices done tens millions people lost opportunity earn living wage vote wasted even ends protest vote attempt halt transformation oligarchic state tiny privileged elite controls money politics irony tragedy kucinich candidacy many ways proclaiming failure party says party longer championed democratic freedoms defended interests working class comes decades alone among major candidates vote patriot act authorizing war iraq wants repeal north american free trade agreement nafta withdraw world trade organization wto called impeachment vice president public financing elections compare voting record major candidates one steadfastly remained free corporate control went see kucinich washington asked twohour interview democratic party failed badly party despite midterm elections refuse cut funding war probably worst foreignpolicy blunder us history lack commitment democratic principles said long pause began list reasons understanding period history unwillingness assert congressional authority key areas makes peoples house paramount protecting democracy institutionalized influence corporate america democratic leadership council oil runs politics corrupt wall street interests run politics insurance companies run politics arms manufacturers run politics publics interests strangled added stands maverick within party denouncing series trade agreements many put place bill clinton devastated us workers see democratic party abandoned working people paradoxically ones hoist flag workers every two four years engender excitement turn around abandon constituency level practiced ritual kucinich advocates fullemployment economy calling new version 1930s works progress administration wpa employed millions americans wants put people work rebuild countrys crumbling infrastructure roads bridges dams levies sewer systems libraries mass transit introduced along republican rep steven latourette ohio bill hr 3400 would provide federal funds jobs program called government invest wind solar technologies retrofitted tens millions us homes businesses kucinich candidate race advocates single notforprofit healthcare system citizens essence national medicare coauthored hr 676 would provide universal health coverage coverage would said assure people suffer die lack medical care would also stem epidemic personal bankruptcies half attributed people pay medical bills rails partys refusal end war blaming democrats decision continue funding war implicit understanding power interests profit war power war idea asked ever frustrated given lonely status outsider excluded dec 13 democratic debate iowa sponsored des moines register lack corporate money seen campaign subsist 2 million hillary rodham clinton barack obama raised 100 million 2007 presidential bids life stand fight things believe said without question pause take phrase one favorite songs dont complaints | 530 |
<p>Finally, some honesty. But mounting problems for the White House.</p>
<p>The CIA’s chief weapons inspector, David Kay, has driven the final nail into the coffin where rests the Bush administration’s policy of preemptive war. It turns out that there was nothing to preempt.</p>
<p>Which calls into question why more than 500 U.S. troops have been killed and at least 6,000 severely wounded–and why untold thousands of Iraqi army conscripts and civilians have also been killed. (Precise figures are impossible to come by since U.S. casualties are flown back to the United States in the dead of night, and proconsul Paul Bremer has instructed Iraqi authorities to stop counting civilian casualties.)</p>
<p>Nothing to preempt also means that the U.S./UK attack on Iraq last March falls into the category of “preventive war” explicitly condemned by international law. Which also means that the British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s political career is in jeopard, as is the political future of other gullible leaders of the “coalition of the willing”–in Australia, for example, and in even in Denmark.</p>
<p>You will not have heard this on FOX news, but the Australian Senate has already formally censured Prime Minister John Howard for misleading the country on Iraqi “weapons of mass destruction” (WMD) and for suppressing a key report from Australian intelligence warning that still more widespread terrorism could be expected to follow any attack on Iraq.</p>
<p>The fact that Kay came up empty-handed also means that the transparently disingenuous remarks of President George W. Bush and his senior aides in attempting to justify the invasion and occupation of Iraq will fall far short of what the White House needs in order to defend the most misguided and destructive U.S. foreign policy decision since Vietnam.</p>
<p>Announcing last week that he was leaving his job as searcher-in-chief for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq, Kay dared not say “Mission Accomplished.” Rather, he said he believed that “probably 85 percent of the significant things” have now been found–but no WMD. He dutifully urged that the other 15 percent be pursued under his successor, Charles Duelfer, but Duelfer is openly skeptical that he will have any better luck.</p>
<p>Deulfer told the press on Jan. 9 “the prospect of finding chemical weapons, biological weapons is close to nil at this point.” He noted that the inspectors have debriefed many knowledgeable Iraqi scientists, who “have every incentive to show them where the WMD are, and they have come up with nothing.”</p>
<p>Nevertheless, senior administration officials are still putting up a hopeful front. One told the press on Saturday that until “all” the Iraqis involved in WMD programs are interviewed, the “jury is still out” on the accuracy of U.S. intelligence. Another said yesterday that it would be premature to make any definitive judgment until “millions and millions of pages” of documents have been translated from the Arabic.</p>
<p>To his credit, Kay is having none of that. “Why could we all be so wrong?” he asks; and his lament is all too reminiscent of Robert McNamara’s “We were wrong, terribly wrong” on Vietnam. Kay initially had been a strong supporter of the attack on Iraq and, when appointed chief inspector, he exuded confidence that he would find the weapons.</p>
<p>Most of the answer is to be found in a novel, faith-based approach to intelligence analysis–an approach that applies the theorem propounded by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld: “The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” Secretary of State Colin Powell rang a change on that theme last week when he provided this explanation: “What we demanded of Iraq was that they prove the negative of our hypothesis.”</p>
<p>Vice President Dick Cheney and the true believers working in the sizable intelligence apparat in his office have kept faith with the Rumsfeld theorem–Kay’s and Duelfer’s apostate comments notwithstanding. In an interview with National Public Radio last week, Cheney insisted that inspectors in Iraq may still find WMD. This expression of faith was accompanied by a litany of other assertions discredited by Kay and others; for example, that trailers found in Iraq posed “conclusive evidence” that Saddam Hussein “did in fact have programs for WMD.”</p>
<p>Kay made short shrift of that lingering canard when he alluded to a new intelligence community consensus that the trailers were actually designed to produce hydrogen for weather balloons, or perhaps rocket fuel.</p>
<p>For good measure, Cheney threw in the old saw about a link between one of the 9/11 hijackers and Iraq, and cited the compendium of unconfirmed reports on such links that was prepared by Rumsfeld disciple Douglas Feith, sent to the Senate, and then leaked immediately to the right-wing Weekly Standard. Powell, however, recently admitted there is no concrete evidence of such ties, despite his conjuring up a “sinister nexus” in his UN speech on Feb. 5, 2003. And, in a highly unusual move, the Defense Department disavowed Feith’s litany when it hit the press.</p>
<p>On WMD Cheney insisted, “It’s going to take some additional considerable period of time in order to look in all the cubbyholes (sic) and ammo dumps… where you’d expect to find something like that.” This is not the first hint that Cheney has dropped that he would like to string out the quest for WMD until after the November election, while asking the American people in the interim to keep faith.</p>
<p>Other senior officials appear to be hedging their faith in the gullibility of American voters. They are urging the president to say, “The CIA made me do it.”</p>
<p>Quizzed on WMD by reporters last week, Powell explained that his UN speech was based on “what our intelligence community believed was credible.” (This is a far cry from the “solid sources” he earlier said were the underpinning of that speech.) Powell complained to the reporters, “If they (the Iraqis) didn’t have any (WMD), then why wasn’t that known beforehand?” Why indeed?</p>
<p>Whom to Blame?</p>
<p>Were not a campaign for the presidency in full swing, FOX and other U.S. media that serve as dummies for administration ventriloquists might succeed in cutting off the legs of this major story. But, clearly, that will not be possible. It appears likely that Karl Rove and the president’s other political advisers are now telling Bush that Cheney’s tough-it-out attitude has run its course.</p>
<p>Do we have a volunteer to take the fall? Yes–CIA Director Tenet, who for months has been telling intimates that he intends to leave his post soon anyway. President Bush’s gratuitous accolades for the CIA yesterday, however, suggest that he has not yet been persuaded to jettison him. So it appears possible that the CIA director (widely referred to in Washington as “Teflon Tenet”) may survive to serve another day.</p>
<p>Why? Because he is useful. He has done what he has been told to do–even when this meant scandalizing his analysts by acquiescing in Secretary Powell’s request that Tenet sit directly behind him at the UN in an obvious attempt to give CIA’s imprimatur to “intelligence” his analysts knew to be highly dubious. Besides, Tenet knows far too much about what Bush had been told before 9/11.</p>
<p>Tenet might even agree to stay on and cooperate in a campaign to blame the administration’s misguided decisions on Iraq on the intelligence community. This even though he knows better than anyone that those decisions predated by at least several months the National Intelligence Estimate conjured up quickly in the fall of 2002. The draft of that estimate was not to inform policy decisions; rather, it was used to persuade Congress to cede to the president its constitutional power to declare war.</p>
<p>That the malleable Tenet will comply with just about anything was clear in his acquiescence in Rumsfeld’s cynical request early last year to keep track of how good the intelligence would prove to be regarding WMD–chutzpah of the highest order, since it was the “mini-CIA” Rumsfeld created in the Pentagon that fed Bush the lion’s share of adulterated “intelligence” on those putative weapons.</p>
<p>So most signs point to Tenet being a willing scapegoat, if that is what the White House decides. Kay has already said that fundamental errors in pre-war intelligence assessments were so serious that the intelligence community should overhaul its collection and analysis efforts. In response, an intelligence official said lamely, “it is premature to say that the intelligence community’s judgments were completely wrong or largely wrong–there are still a lot of answers we need.”</p>
<p>RAY McGOVERN, a 27-year career analyst with the CIA, is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity and co-director of the Servant Leadership School, an outreach ministry in the inner city of Washington, DC. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:rmcgovern@slschool.org" type="external">rmcgovern@slschool.org</a></p>
<p>This article first appeared on <a href="http://tompaine.com/" type="external">tompaine.com</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | finally honesty mounting problems white house cias chief weapons inspector david kay driven final nail coffin rests bush administrations policy preemptive war turns nothing preempt calls question 500 us troops killed least 6000 severely woundedand untold thousands iraqi army conscripts civilians also killed precise figures impossible come since us casualties flown back united states dead night proconsul paul bremer instructed iraqi authorities stop counting civilian casualties nothing preempt also means usuk attack iraq last march falls category preventive war explicitly condemned international law also means british prime minister tony blairs political career jeopard political future gullible leaders coalition willingin australia example even denmark heard fox news australian senate already formally censured prime minister john howard misleading country iraqi weapons mass destruction wmd suppressing key report australian intelligence warning still widespread terrorism could expected follow attack iraq fact kay came emptyhanded also means transparently disingenuous remarks president george w bush senior aides attempting justify invasion occupation iraq fall far short white house needs order defend misguided destructive us foreign policy decision since vietnam announcing last week leaving job searcherinchief weapons mass destruction wmd iraq kay dared say mission accomplished rather said believed probably 85 percent significant things foundbut wmd dutifully urged 15 percent pursued successor charles duelfer duelfer openly skeptical better luck deulfer told press jan 9 prospect finding chemical weapons biological weapons close nil point noted inspectors debriefed many knowledgeable iraqi scientists every incentive show wmd come nothing nevertheless senior administration officials still putting hopeful front one told press saturday iraqis involved wmd programs interviewed jury still accuracy us intelligence another said yesterday would premature make definitive judgment millions millions pages documents translated arabic credit kay none could wrong asks lament reminiscent robert mcnamaras wrong terribly wrong vietnam kay initially strong supporter attack iraq appointed chief inspector exuded confidence would find weapons answer found novel faithbased approach intelligence analysisan approach applies theorem propounded defense secretary donald rumsfeld absence evidence evidence absence secretary state colin powell rang change theme last week provided explanation demanded iraq prove negative hypothesis vice president dick cheney true believers working sizable intelligence apparat office kept faith rumsfeld theoremkays duelfers apostate comments notwithstanding interview national public radio last week cheney insisted inspectors iraq may still find wmd expression faith accompanied litany assertions discredited kay others example trailers found iraq posed conclusive evidence saddam hussein fact programs wmd kay made short shrift lingering canard alluded new intelligence community consensus trailers actually designed produce hydrogen weather balloons perhaps rocket fuel good measure cheney threw old saw link one 911 hijackers iraq cited compendium unconfirmed reports links prepared rumsfeld disciple douglas feith sent senate leaked immediately rightwing weekly standard powell however recently admitted concrete evidence ties despite conjuring sinister nexus un speech feb 5 2003 highly unusual move defense department disavowed feiths litany hit press wmd cheney insisted going take additional considerable period time order look cubbyholes sic ammo dumps youd expect find something like first hint cheney dropped would like string quest wmd november election asking american people interim keep faith senior officials appear hedging faith gullibility american voters urging president say cia made quizzed wmd reporters last week powell explained un speech based intelligence community believed credible far cry solid sources earlier said underpinning speech powell complained reporters iraqis didnt wmd wasnt known beforehand indeed blame campaign presidency full swing fox us media serve dummies administration ventriloquists might succeed cutting legs major story clearly possible appears likely karl rove presidents political advisers telling bush cheneys toughitout attitude run course volunteer take fall yescia director tenet months telling intimates intends leave post soon anyway president bushs gratuitous accolades cia yesterday however suggest yet persuaded jettison appears possible cia director widely referred washington teflon tenet may survive serve another day useful done told doeven meant scandalizing analysts acquiescing secretary powells request tenet sit directly behind un obvious attempt give cias imprimatur intelligence analysts knew highly dubious besides tenet knows far much bush told 911 tenet might even agree stay cooperate campaign blame administrations misguided decisions iraq intelligence community even though knows better anyone decisions predated least several months national intelligence estimate conjured quickly fall 2002 draft estimate inform policy decisions rather used persuade congress cede president constitutional power declare war malleable tenet comply anything clear acquiescence rumsfelds cynical request early last year keep track good intelligence would prove regarding wmdchutzpah highest order since minicia rumsfeld created pentagon fed bush lions share adulterated intelligence putative weapons signs point tenet willing scapegoat white house decides kay already said fundamental errors prewar intelligence assessments serious intelligence community overhaul collection analysis efforts response intelligence official said lamely premature say intelligence communitys judgments completely wrong largely wrongthere still lot answers need ray mcgovern 27year career analyst cia cofounder veteran intelligence professionals sanity codirector servant leadership school outreach ministry inner city washington dc reached rmcgovernslschoolorg article first appeared tompainecom 160 | 804 |
<p>Still from “Chesire, Ohio.”</p>
<p>The village of Cheshire, Ohio was aptly named. It was a place of gradual disappearances, small erosions of land and people and old songs, of ways of living and doing. Above its remnants, in the form of an immense smokestack, hangs the large and profitable smirk of the American Electric Power Corporation; the grin is surrounded by synthetic clouds that give off a stench of sulfur and leave behind dead birds. Eve Morgenstern’s excellent new documentary <a href="http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/chesh.html" type="external">Cheshire, Ohio</a> is a horror film in every respect: a portrait of a village of the damned in opaque daylight, replete with entities demanding sacrifice to their dark towers, the games of Count Zaroff, and conspiracies out of Ira Levin. And the riddle-cat in its name.</p>
<p>“The story of Cheshire is just… they just scared everybody out” – Gladys Rife, one of its last residents. Denn der Todten reiten schnell.</p>
<p>Ms. Morgenstern’s film opens à la Errol Morris with the voices of the villagers over 8mm films flickering like old nitrate prints, phantasms pressed into a rectangular future. A roving camera picks up the evidence of very common crimes: ruined walls, contamination, greed. Cheshire is slow-killing and removal, not just singular people but also of kinds – which is genocide, which is our patrimony. In 1971, the American Electric Power Corp. (AEP) built its titanic Gavin Power Plant right next to this modest riverside village (the power plant was named after General James Gavin, whom you may remember as Robert Ryan in The Longest Day, and who once liaised with Marlene Dietrich). The village is just upriver from Point Pleasant, where John Keel <a href="https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/cienciareal/mothman_prophecies/mothman.htm" type="external">investigated</a> the apparition of the infamous ‘Mothman’. But Cheshire’s hauntings are purely terrestrial and subject to the strictest logic, or at least to the gray lady of industrial capital.</p>
<p>AEP had picked the perfect site for the plant. There was a coal mine nearby and a natural cooling agent in the form of the Ohio River. The old problem of living bodies on valuable land – traditionally an Indian Problem – was solved by soft power in the form of a buyout. In 2002, AEP gave the citizens of Cheshire $20 million to leave ($4 alone went to lawyers), which worked out to about $150,000 per household. The other head of Cerberus bit Cheshire when many lost even this hardly-princely sum after the 2008 crash (the third head is named Cancer, and we’ll get to that). Residents over 70 were allowed to stay on and take the money, the morbid result being several elderly people waiting to die in the shadow of the flue-gas stacks, walking down evaporated streets or leafing through old scrapbooks, pea-soupers passing by their windows. One of them refuses to sell at all: the unforgettable Boots Hern, who asks for the impossible sum of $1 million to vacate the premises, tends to her beloved husband’s grave, and stands with her shotgun in her little front room like a partisan (Sadly, Mrs. Hern passed in 2006; her house is still defiant in the mists). Throughout the film, abandoned houses fall as houses of cards before the AEP mechagodzillas, making way for a vast fake lawn which looks resembles a golf course for the dead. We eavesdrop on a very moving final Sunday party in the small village gazebo, with an Elvis impersonator and more old stories and group prayer. Perhaps like the Yezidi, they should have addressed their supplications to the Devil, as he clearly holds sway in the lands around Cheshire, his fuming mouths demanding human offerings. “There’s something going on… I don’t know what it is”, as Gladys Rife says.</p>
<p>Sulfur Trioxide; 7 ½ million tons of coal burned yearly. Blisters on the arms and legs; burnt outlines of birds’ feet on the roof (an image out of Them! or an insect Night &amp; Fog); acid rain, and the serpentine ‘Plume Touchdown’ (the latter, with its cute Knute Rockne nickname, happens when clouds of unburned coal-waste descend to street level, as they did memorably on July 6 2001). This circus of horrors was actually the product of AEP’s botched pollution control project, a racket of malicious indifference and fatal corner-cutting in the face of pesky federal mandates. One of the lawyers defending the residents claims that she overheard an AEP operative declare that ‘we’re doing experiments on these people’. Who would doubt it? The vivid unreality of Never-Never Cheshire is the expression of privatized science in industrial research. There are always treatment and control groups, independent variables notwithstanding.</p>
<p>The environs were also ruined by AEP. Excluded from the buyout, people put up ironic signs reading ‘Left Behind’ along the highway, as well as slogans stating outright the real gift the coal industry has given this part of Ohio. AEP had gotten its buffer zone around the plant and it was also able to draw much of its labor force from the area, unionized and well-paid and quite expendable. It is true that ‘good’ jobs were indeed created, but the corporation will probably not have to worry about paying out extended pensions. Smokestacks have emitted over 100 times the amount of smog the EPA declared to be potentially toxic, not to mention the hazardous waste-dumping and malign landfills, which only came to light due to a local Citizens Against Pollution class-action lawsuit. AEP settled in 2006 and now must report its excesses. But to whom? And who will be told about it? Varieties of cancer as complex as they are virulent have invaded a great number of former employees; many of them have since died. Naturally, AEP refuses to admit that its byproducts, flash refuse, black dust, bottom ash and arsenic have anything to do with this (the corporation contributes liberally to both the Democratic and Republican parties and was especially generous to the weepy former Speaker of the House, John Boehner; its bonds are underwritten by Morgan-Stanley, Citibank, Chase, Barclays and Wells Fargo, as might be expected).</p>
<p>The leveling of mountaintops to dump coal slag has produced strange mutations around Cheshire. A half-mock wooded hill looks fine from one side, but it is a match-stick wasteland when seen from the other. Acrid flash seeps into the mineral deposits and ground water, forming new strata of mercury, chromium and nickel sludge. As they shifted FGD dust and circled white ashy craters year after year, workers were told by AEP that there would be no detrimental effects from coal-waste disposal. They were not even given the pitiful protection of small respirators. In order to eat, they were forced to poison themselves, as one former employee says succinctly – a dialectic whose resolution is the synthesis of thyroid, breast and prostate cancer with local full employment. Toxins clinging to work clothes also made their way into the house, spread out by vacuum cleaners and washing machines, so everyone takes their work home with them. Gavin spits out some 15 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air per annum; unlike the Soul, carbon dioxide does possess a tiny fraction of weight.</p>
<p>Speaking of souls, the pitiful EPA drones we see addressing a citizens’ meeting sold theirs long ago. At one point, they ask a man to describe the smell which permeates the area – sulfur, he says – which shows the sort of in-depth investigation carried out by the agency. After the EPA (its acronym an anagram of the AEP) reveals that it had scheduled the hearing months in advance, a young man wonders why the community had only been given 24 hours to prepare and submit their complaints which of course left them no time to gather uncompromised scientific data and commission their own expert witnesses. As if she were fulfilling dire Reaganite warnings of government ineptitude, an EPA hack blames it all on the bureaucracy.</p>
<p>Cheshire Ohio shows that the ruthlessness of power may be more lethargic in Ohio than in Sana’a, but the product is the same, differing only in matters of industry and scale. The lesson here is quiet brutality, deregulation and eminent domain. Little details in the pestilent mists of internal Manifest Destiny, where avariciousness and the reduction of bodies to cloacae are syndicated episodes in a twilight zone down by the riverside. The verses of the Banks of the Ohio play out on the Cheshire elderly in polyrhythms of multiplying dead cells, rising vapors that kill the lowly extractor and anyone else in the way, while the Man at the top continues his course along the major thoroughfares and whistles past petrified trees.</p>
<p>Memories – only a few left anyhow – are fugitives along with those who might have lived them. At the end of the film, Gladys Rife is asked what she recalls of the birth of her village so long ago. “To tell you the truth, I can’t remember”, she says, after trying. I am legend.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | still chesire ohio village cheshire ohio aptly named place gradual disappearances small erosions land people old songs ways living remnants form immense smokestack hangs large profitable smirk american electric power corporation grin surrounded synthetic clouds give stench sulfur leave behind dead birds eve morgensterns excellent new documentary cheshire ohio horror film every respect portrait village damned opaque daylight replete entities demanding sacrifice dark towers games count zaroff conspiracies ira levin riddlecat name story cheshire scared everybody gladys rife one last residents denn der todten reiten schnell ms morgensterns film opens à la errol morris voices villagers 8mm films flickering like old nitrate prints phantasms pressed rectangular future roving camera picks evidence common crimes ruined walls contamination greed cheshire slowkilling removal singular people also kinds genocide patrimony 1971 american electric power corp aep built titanic gavin power plant right next modest riverside village power plant named general james gavin may remember robert ryan longest day liaised marlene dietrich village upriver point pleasant john keel investigated apparition infamous mothman cheshires hauntings purely terrestrial subject strictest logic least gray lady industrial capital aep picked perfect site plant coal mine nearby natural cooling agent form ohio river old problem living bodies valuable land traditionally indian problem solved soft power form buyout 2002 aep gave citizens cheshire 20 million leave 4 alone went lawyers worked 150000 per household head cerberus bit cheshire many lost even hardlyprincely sum 2008 crash third head named cancer well get residents 70 allowed stay take money morbid result several elderly people waiting die shadow fluegas stacks walking evaporated streets leafing old scrapbooks peasoupers passing windows one refuses sell unforgettable boots hern asks impossible sum 1 million vacate premises tends beloved husbands grave stands shotgun little front room like partisan sadly mrs hern passed 2006 house still defiant mists throughout film abandoned houses fall houses cards aep mechagodzillas making way vast fake lawn looks resembles golf course dead eavesdrop moving final sunday party small village gazebo elvis impersonator old stories group prayer perhaps like yezidi addressed supplications devil clearly holds sway lands around cheshire fuming mouths demanding human offerings theres something going dont know gladys rife says sulfur trioxide 7 ½ million tons coal burned yearly blisters arms legs burnt outlines birds feet roof image insect night amp fog acid rain serpentine plume touchdown latter cute knute rockne nickname happens clouds unburned coalwaste descend street level memorably july 6 2001 circus horrors actually product aeps botched pollution control project racket malicious indifference fatal cornercutting face pesky federal mandates one lawyers defending residents claims overheard aep operative declare experiments people would doubt vivid unreality nevernever cheshire expression privatized science industrial research always treatment control groups independent variables notwithstanding environs also ruined aep excluded buyout people put ironic signs reading left behind along highway well slogans stating outright real gift coal industry given part ohio aep gotten buffer zone around plant also able draw much labor force area unionized wellpaid quite expendable true good jobs indeed created corporation probably worry paying extended pensions smokestacks emitted 100 times amount smog epa declared potentially toxic mention hazardous wastedumping malign landfills came light due local citizens pollution classaction lawsuit aep settled 2006 must report excesses told varieties cancer complex virulent invaded great number former employees many since died naturally aep refuses admit byproducts flash refuse black dust bottom ash arsenic anything corporation contributes liberally democratic republican parties especially generous weepy former speaker house john boehner bonds underwritten morganstanley citibank chase barclays wells fargo might expected leveling mountaintops dump coal slag produced strange mutations around cheshire halfmock wooded hill looks fine one side matchstick wasteland seen acrid flash seeps mineral deposits ground water forming new strata mercury chromium nickel sludge shifted fgd dust circled white ashy craters year year workers told aep would detrimental effects coalwaste disposal even given pitiful protection small respirators order eat forced poison one former employee says succinctly dialectic whose resolution synthesis thyroid breast prostate cancer local full employment toxins clinging work clothes also made way house spread vacuum cleaners washing machines everyone takes work home gavin spits 15 million tons carbon dioxide air per annum unlike soul carbon dioxide possess tiny fraction weight speaking souls pitiful epa drones see addressing citizens meeting sold long ago one point ask man describe smell permeates area sulfur says shows sort indepth investigation carried agency epa acronym anagram aep reveals scheduled hearing months advance young man wonders community given 24 hours prepare submit complaints course left time gather uncompromised scientific data commission expert witnesses fulfilling dire reaganite warnings government ineptitude epa hack blames bureaucracy cheshire ohio shows ruthlessness power may lethargic ohio sanaa product differing matters industry scale lesson quiet brutality deregulation eminent domain little details pestilent mists internal manifest destiny avariciousness reduction bodies cloacae syndicated episodes twilight zone riverside verses banks ohio play cheshire elderly polyrhythms multiplying dead cells rising vapors kill lowly extractor anyone else way man top continues course along major thoroughfares whistles past petrified trees memories left anyhow fugitives along might lived end film gladys rife asked recalls birth village long ago tell truth cant remember says trying legend 160 | 848 |
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Now that their long-cherished war has started, Bush and Blair feel they no longer need to spit and polish their carefully fabricated moral arguments any more.</p>
<p>The boys have gone in. The ‘shock and awe’ is being delivered after the surgical strikes. The battleground has been prepared to Pentagon’s satisfaction. So why bother with arguments?</p>
<p>Jingoism will have its own momentum, as banners carried in counter-demonstrations against the anti-war activists in San Fransisco showed yesterday –“Support the US or Shut up”. Here in Britain, I watched a veteran of WW2 being heckled as a traitor as he spoke about why he was against this war. As my students occupied the centre of Newcastle yesterday, I saw their fellow students abuse them and proclaim “How do you think Britain got to where it is now? We need war to show them who is boss.”</p>
<p>Misinformation, fear and a potent mix of racist supremacism have been stoked carefully. No wonder the aggressors have abandoned the arguments for a while. Instead, they gloat openly about their true aims.</p>
<p>Take the US defence analyst assessing the action on BBC on the morning of March 21. He ended by saying he couldn’t see how Iraq’s army could stop the Anglo-American, sorry,‘coalition’ troops from taking Basra and Baghdad shortly. The Iraqi force, he said, was mediocre and had been cut off from military technology for 12 years while the US had invested more than any country in the world in hardware for the new millennium. It could not be a contest.</p>
<p>So true, and everything that the anti-war activists have been saying all along. That Iraq is not a military threat to its own neighbours, let alone Britain and the US. But did we see the analyst in the countless debates held on television and radio in the six-month build up to war? No. then we were treated with the spectacle of sometime-historians like Andrew Roberts in Britain who said on Newsnight programme that Iraq was a greater military threat to the West than Soviet Union ever been (admittedly to guffaws by Jeremy Paxman and British army officials).</p>
<p>So, if Iraq is not a military threat, then maybe it had to be attacked to uphold the authority of the UN? Have we not been told, till we were sick, that Tony Blair had tried to drag the US down the UN route? If only it weren’t for those cheese-eaters across the channel? Now we must support the US attack because it was in the interest of the UN and resolution 1441? But here comes Richard Perle in the Guardian on March 21st with 20 point bold headline above his article –‘Thank God the UN is dead’.</p>
<p>Perle, to his credit, has never hidden the fact that one of the aims of this American war is to kill the UN in its current form. In the article he gives a succinct summing of the views of this American administration –that it refuses to be bound by international treaties, to tolerate any rivalry from ‘friendly powers’, that it will use military might and initiate regime change whenever it feels like, that it will use its position to buy off nations to construct the figment of coalitions of the willing.</p>
<p>All this, of course, has been public knowledge and clearly outlined on the website of the Project for the New American Century –the think-tank of which Perle and most of Bush’s inner circle were founding members. It fell to poor Tony Blair to try and sell it to the rest of the world that US and Britain were attacking Iraq to uphold UN authority. Within a week, first Rumsfeld and now Perle has not even pretended to be aware of Blair’s lies.</p>
<p>So, not about military threat and not about the UN. Perhaps the war is about ‘liberating’ and restructuring Iraq then? Handing over the administration of the country to its people? Affirming Kurdish autonomy? Along comes the vote in Turkish parliament on the 20th . The long-awaited agreement to let US aircrafts use Turkish airspace is achieved. Now the B-52s taking off from Britain don’t have to go over Africa and mess up their lethal timetable. In exchange, of course, the Turkish troops get ready to move into northern Iraq to secure the Kurdish autonomous area against disturbances. The Pentagon has initiated ‘surrender talks’ that will spare the Iraqi regular army and the Generals, as well as key members of the Ba’ath party. They will be needed as the new collaborators who will assist General Tommy Franks in his occupation of the country. Dick Cheney’s brazen lies about his company Halliburton’s trade with Iraq from 1998-2001 have recently been exposed in Counterpunch and other US newspapers. Surprise, surprise, the company is now at the forefront of the foreign company’s rushing in to ‘hold the oilfields of Iraq in custody for its people’. Tony is still trying, of course.</p>
<p>In last night’s laughable and irrelevant declaration of war (the war had started the night before with the US ‘surgical’ strikes, and Blair was awakened from his sleep after being alerted by a ITV reporter), he gave us his solemn word that the oil revenues of a free Iraq would be held in a UN trust fund for its people. Listen to your American controllers, Prime Minister, the UN is dead.</p>
<p>Tony has also promised the Iraqis, those who can still hear after tonight’s episode of ‘shock and awe’, that they will have democracy. Just like Afghanistan, where since yesterday, the US stepped up its air campaign of bombing ‘suspected Taliban villages’ on behalf of the extremely popular and freely elected leader Hamid Karzai.</p>
<p>One by one, the empty shells of Bush and Blair’s moral arguments are being casually ejected from their smoking guns. The calculation is they need not bother anymore. The lies now shine bright. And they wonder why the protests show no sign of ending!</p>
<p>PABLO MUKHERJEE teaches at the University of Newcastle. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:Pablo.mukherjee@ncl.ac.uk" type="external">Pablo.mukherjee@ncl.ac.uk</a></p>
<p>Today’s Features</p>
<p>Gary Leupp <a href="" type="internal">What Democracy Looks Like: the Streets of Cairo</a></p>
<p>Bill and Kathleen Christison <a href="" type="internal">An Interview with Hanan Ashrawi</a></p>
<p>Bruce Jackson <a href="" type="internal">Why Protest? Why Write?</a></p>
<p>Uri Avnery <a href="" type="internal">Bitter Rice: Thoughts and Warnings on the War</a></p>
<p>Jason Leopold <a href="" type="internal">Blood Indicator: Casualties and the Stock Market</a></p>
<p>Jeffrey St. Clair <a href="" type="internal">Life During Wartime</a></p>
<p>Gilad Atzmon <a href="" type="internal">Strategic Blunders by American Generals</a></p>
<p>Ralph Nader <a href="" type="internal">A Pre-emptive War on a Defenseless Country</a></p>
<p>Website of the War <a href="http://www.iraqbodycount.net/" type="external">Iraq Body Count</a></p>
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<p><a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/" type="external">home</a> / <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CounterPunch_Subscriptions.html" type="external">subscribe</a> / <a href="aboutus.html" type="external">about us</a> / <a href="books.html" type="external">books</a> / <a href="archive.html" type="external">archives</a> / <a href="search.html" type="external">search</a> / <a href="links.html" type="external">links</a> /</p> | true | 4 | 160 longcherished war started bush blair feel longer need spit polish carefully fabricated moral arguments boys gone shock awe delivered surgical strikes battleground prepared pentagons satisfaction bother arguments jingoism momentum banners carried counterdemonstrations antiwar activists san fransisco showed yesterday support us shut britain watched veteran ww2 heckled traitor spoke war students occupied centre newcastle yesterday saw fellow students abuse proclaim think britain got need war show boss misinformation fear potent mix racist supremacism stoked carefully wonder aggressors abandoned arguments instead gloat openly true aims take us defence analyst assessing action bbc morning march 21 ended saying couldnt see iraqs army could stop angloamerican sorrycoalition troops taking basra baghdad shortly iraqi force said mediocre cut military technology 12 years us invested country world hardware new millennium could contest true everything antiwar activists saying along iraq military threat neighbours let alone britain us see analyst countless debates held television radio sixmonth build war treated spectacle sometimehistorians like andrew roberts britain said newsnight programme iraq greater military threat west soviet union ever admittedly guffaws jeremy paxman british army officials iraq military threat maybe attacked uphold authority un told till sick tony blair tried drag us un route werent cheeseeaters across channel must support us attack interest un resolution 1441 comes richard perle guardian march 21st 20 point bold headline article thank god un dead perle credit never hidden fact one aims american war kill un current form article gives succinct summing views american administration refuses bound international treaties tolerate rivalry friendly powers use military might initiate regime change whenever feels like use position buy nations construct figment coalitions willing course public knowledge clearly outlined website project new american century thinktank perle bushs inner circle founding members fell poor tony blair try sell rest world us britain attacking iraq uphold un authority within week first rumsfeld perle even pretended aware blairs lies military threat un perhaps war liberating restructuring iraq handing administration country people affirming kurdish autonomy along comes vote turkish parliament 20th longawaited agreement let us aircrafts use turkish airspace achieved b52s taking britain dont go africa mess lethal timetable exchange course turkish troops get ready move northern iraq secure kurdish autonomous area disturbances pentagon initiated surrender talks spare iraqi regular army generals well key members baath party needed new collaborators assist general tommy franks occupation country dick cheneys brazen lies company halliburtons trade iraq 19982001 recently exposed counterpunch us newspapers surprise surprise company forefront foreign companys rushing hold oilfields iraq custody people tony still trying course last nights laughable irrelevant declaration war war started night us surgical strikes blair awakened sleep alerted itv reporter gave us solemn word oil revenues free iraq would held un trust fund people listen american controllers prime minister un dead tony also promised iraqis still hear tonights episode shock awe democracy like afghanistan since yesterday us stepped air campaign bombing suspected taliban villages behalf extremely popular freely elected leader hamid karzai one one empty shells bush blairs moral arguments casually ejected smoking guns calculation need bother anymore lies shine bright wonder protests show sign ending pablo mukherjee teaches university newcastle reached pablomukherjeenclacuk todays features gary leupp democracy looks like streets cairo bill kathleen christison interview hanan ashrawi bruce jackson protest write uri avnery bitter rice thoughts warnings war jason leopold blood indicator casualties stock market jeffrey st clair life wartime gilad atzmon strategic blunders american generals ralph nader preemptive war defenseless country website war iraq body count keep counterpunch alive make taxdeductible donation today online home subscribe us books archives search links | 585 |
<p>The bombing of an Israeli embassy car in Delhi threatens India’s diplomatic maneuvers between Israel and Iran, and has put India’s discreetly nurtured ties with Israel since 1992 through a severe test. Those who are attracted to Israel’s depiction of Iran as a terrorist threat to world peace would do well to read historian Mark Perry’s account ( <a href="" type="internal">Mondoweiss</a>, February 17, 2012) revealing that Israel is recruiting, and collaborating with, terrorist groups in a secret war with Iran. That low-level conflict is spreading. Israel’s latest reaction should be seen in the light of Perry’s revelations. 

The Israeli government’s hasty and aggressive posture following the Delhi bombing has caused offense in the Indian capital. Officials in Delhi have made plain that India will not be recruited into the anti-Iran alliance under Israeli–U.S. pressure. India will not allow “Washington, the Jewish lobby and much of Europe to push the country into a corner” over Iran. How India conducts its ties with that country dating back to ancient times is its business. Furthermore, police investigations into the bombing cannot be rushed to suit external interests. The law of the land must take its course. 

What particularly irked Indian officials was that immediately after the Delhi bomb (another device was defused by Georgian police in Tbilisi on the same day), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel sought to upstage India’s police investigations into the incident. Netanyahu described the Iranian government as the world’s “largest terror exporter” and Hezbollah in Lebanon as Iran’s “protégé.” Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman went further saying, “We know exactly who is responsible for the attack and who planned it, and we’re not going to take it lying down.”</p>
<p>As if that was not enough. Israel’s Energy and Water Resources Minister Uri Landau intervened with his own comment, calling “India’s support for the Palestinians at the UN a mistake,” and that he intended to “persuade” the Indians to change their stand. And Israel reportedly asked India to help sponsor a resolution against Iran in the UN Security Council, of which India is an elected member at present.</p>
<p>A full-scale Israeli offensive to force a complete overhaul of Indian foreign policy was under way. In the unlikely scenario of it happening, such an event would be a geopolitical earthquake. India’s reliance on oil producers who are firmly in the U.S. camp would be dangerously high. There would <a href="" type="internal" />be other consequences in the short run. An audacious attack by Israel on Iran, with or without U.S. support, could be nearer, and so would the prospects of a wider Middle East conflict. For these reasons, India now stands between the present and the worst case scenario.</p>
<p>Police investigations were only beginning in Delhi when Israeli ministers spoke with such shocking certainly––the worst kind of megaphone diplomacy. For those sitting in the Indian capital, certain inferences were difficult to avoid. India had recently announced that it would abide by the UN sanctions against Iran, but would not obey additional sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union. India would continue to buy oil from Iran, and an Indian trade delegation would visit Tehran in coming weeks.</p>
<p>Delhi was by no means alone in asserting an independent stance. Other countries, too, have been resisting what they consider to be strong-arm tactics by the anti-Iran bloc of nations to force reluctant governments to toe the line. The United States, the European Union and Israel are far from happy about this.</p>
<p>That the affair threatened India’s massive trade with Iran, and could derail India’s capacity to formulate its foreign policy, was not lost in Delhi. A number of Indian politicians and senior officials made the government’s position clear. Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said that terrorism and trade were “separate issues,” and that business with Iran would continue. A former diplomat of India and now a leading commentator, M. K. Bhadrakumar, described the Israeli offensive as a “smear campaign” that “Tehran’s agents had been going about placing bombs in New Delhi, Tbilisi and Bangkok.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, police investigations, and a visit by an Israeli Mossad team to Delhi, were continuing. Indian officials insisted that there was no “conclusive evidence” to link the attack to any particular group or country. And a senior police officer was categorical in saying that there was no link between the Delhi bomb and explosions that occurred in Bangkok the day after.</p>
<p>The Indians are normally too polite to engage in crude public diplomacy. But when ministers of a country of under 8 million, albeit advanced and heavily militarized, try to dictate policy to a nation of 1.2 billion people, it is perhaps too much for the Indian sensitivities.</p>
<p>I am on record as saying that, in the challenging 1990s decade when the Soviet Union collapsed, India was hasty and ill-advised to build a “flyover” to Israel, and from Israel straight on to the United States. Over the years, Israel’s multi-billion dollar sales of weapons based on American and Russian technologies, and intelligence sharing, have given India easy access to arms bazaar. But there is a cost. India can be vulnerable to pressure, and has ignored its interests in the Muslim world. In other words, successive Indian governments put too many eggs in the (Israeli–U.S.) basket.</p>
<p>Now that India asserts its strategic interests independent of the United States and Israel, with the other members of the group called BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), it faces a trial of strength. The outcome will depend on whether Delhi can establish its capacity to turn away from what look like instant gains, and promises for future, to secure its long-term interests that are essential for India’s place on the world stage.</p>
<p>DEEPAK TRIPATHI&#160;is the author of&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Breeding Ground: Afghanistan and the Origins of Islamist Terrorism</a>&#160;(Potomac Books, Incorporated, Washington, D.C., 2011) and&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Overcoming the Bush Legacy in Iraq and Afghanistan</a>&#160;(also Potomac, 2010). His works can be found at:&#160; <a href="http://deepaktripathi.wordpress.com/" type="external">http://deepaktripathi.wordpress.com</a>&#160;and he can be reached at: <a href="mailto:dandatripathi@gmail.com" type="external">dandatripathi@gmail.com</a>.&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | bombing israeli embassy car delhi threatens indias diplomatic maneuvers israel iran put indias discreetly nurtured ties israel since 1992 severe test attracted israels depiction iran terrorist threat world peace would well read historian mark perrys account mondoweiss february 17 2012 revealing israel recruiting collaborating terrorist groups secret war iran lowlevel conflict spreading israels latest reaction seen light perrys revelations israeli governments hasty aggressive posture following delhi bombing caused offense indian capital officials delhi made plain india recruited antiiran alliance israelius pressure india allow washington jewish lobby much europe push country corner iran india conducts ties country dating back ancient times business furthermore police investigations bombing rushed suit external interests law land must take course particularly irked indian officials immediately delhi bomb another device defused georgian police tbilisi day prime minister benjamin netanyahu israel sought upstage indias police investigations incident netanyahu described iranian government worlds largest terror exporter hezbollah lebanon irans protégé foreign minister avigdor lieberman went saying know exactly responsible attack planned going take lying enough israels energy water resources minister uri landau intervened comment calling indias support palestinians un mistake intended persuade indians change stand israel reportedly asked india help sponsor resolution iran un security council india elected member present fullscale israeli offensive force complete overhaul indian foreign policy way unlikely scenario happening event would geopolitical earthquake indias reliance oil producers firmly us camp would dangerously high would consequences short run audacious attack israel iran without us support could nearer would prospects wider middle east conflict reasons india stands present worst case scenario police investigations beginning delhi israeli ministers spoke shocking certainlythe worst kind megaphone diplomacy sitting indian capital certain inferences difficult avoid india recently announced would abide un sanctions iran would obey additional sanctions imposed united states european union india would continue buy oil iran indian trade delegation would visit tehran coming weeks delhi means alone asserting independent stance countries resisting consider strongarm tactics antiiran bloc nations force reluctant governments toe line united states european union israel far happy affair threatened indias massive trade iran could derail indias capacity formulate foreign policy lost delhi number indian politicians senior officials made governments position clear commerce minister anand sharma said terrorism trade separate issues business iran would continue former diplomat india leading commentator k bhadrakumar described israeli offensive smear campaign tehrans agents going placing bombs new delhi tbilisi bangkok meanwhile police investigations visit israeli mossad team delhi continuing indian officials insisted conclusive evidence link attack particular group country senior police officer categorical saying link delhi bomb explosions occurred bangkok day indians normally polite engage crude public diplomacy ministers country 8 million albeit advanced heavily militarized try dictate policy nation 12 billion people perhaps much indian sensitivities record saying challenging 1990s decade soviet union collapsed india hasty illadvised build flyover israel israel straight united states years israels multibillion dollar sales weapons based american russian technologies intelligence sharing given india easy access arms bazaar cost india vulnerable pressure ignored interests muslim world words successive indian governments put many eggs israelius basket india asserts strategic interests independent united states israel members group called brics brazil russia india china south africa faces trial strength outcome depend whether delhi establish capacity turn away look like instant gains promises future secure longterm interests essential indias place world stage deepak tripathi160is author of160 breeding ground afghanistan origins islamist terrorism160potomac books incorporated washington dc 2011 and160 overcoming bush legacy iraq afghanistan160also potomac 2010 works found at160 httpdeepaktripathiwordpresscom160and reached dandatripathigmailcom160160 160 | 572 |
<p>Mother Jones illustration</p>
<p>For almost a decade, Dr. Graham Chelius has worked as a family physician and an obstetrician in western Hawaii, one of the most progressive but far-flung and isolated regions in the country. He has <a href="https://acluhawaii.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/filed-chelius-v-wright-1.pdf" type="external">delivered</a> 800 babies&#160;on Kauai, where he works as the chief medical officer for the Kauai region of the state’s largest hospital network. But though he would like to provide abortions, Chelius has never terminated a pregnancy on the island, and the hospital where he works doesn’t offer the procedure. And despite the state’s strong legal protections for the procedure, there are no abortion providers at all on Kauai, an&#160;island of almost&#160;67,000&#160;people. But&#160;that’s not for lack of demand.</p>
<p>In fact, only two of Hawaii’s eight major islands have at least one publicly advertised abortion provider,&#160;forcing thousands of women&#160;in one of the country’s most reliably blue states to either buy plane tickets or carry their pregnancies to term.&#160;</p>
<p>“Hawaii is in the small group of states that have legally protected abortion rights. You do not see the kinds of restrictions you see in other states,” says Elizabeth Nash, a senior state issue manager at the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive policy research organization. “But that’s different than access. Because of the state’s geography and other factors, the right to choose is a right in name only.”&#160;</p>
<p>Hawaii has long&#160;been at the forefront of efforts to protect and expand access to reproductive health care. In <a href="http://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/biblio/articles/1961to1999/1971-abortion.html" type="external">March 1970</a>, it became the first state in the country to pass an expansive law protecting a woman’s right to end her pregnancy—three years before&#160;the Supreme Court’s&#160;Roe v. Wade&#160;decision legalized abortion nationwide.&#160;Since then,&#160;Hawaii’s consistently&#160;Democratic Legislature&#160;has enacted some of the country’s most&#160;progressive&#160;reproductive rights policies: It’s one of only a <a href="https://www.aclu.org/issues/reproductive-freedom/abortion/public-funding-abortion?redirect=node%2F24455" type="external">handful</a>&#160;of states that voluntarily use public money to pay for abortions; it requires even <a href="http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/politics/2017/july/new-hawaii-law-forces-pro-life-pregnancy-centers-to-tell-women-about-abortion-nbsp" type="external">pro-life pregnancy center</a>s to give abortion information to clients; and in 2006, it codified into law a woman’s “ <a href="http://cca.hawaii.gov/pvl/files/2013/08/hrs_pvl_453.pdf" type="external">right to choose</a>” abortion, should&#160;Roe&#160;ever be overturned.&#160;The state&#160;has only a few legal restrictions on access: a requirement&#160;that abortions be performed only by physicians in licensed clinics, and a caveat that no physician or hospital can become liable for declining to provide the procedure.</p>
<p>As a result, on paper, Hawaii&#160;is one of the best states in the country for abortion rights. The reproductive rights advocacy group NARAL <a href="https://www.prochoiceamerica.org/laws-policy/state-government/" type="external">consistently ranks</a>&#160;the Hawaii Legislature among the most pro-choice in the country, along with that of California, Oregon, Washington, and Connecticut.&#160;“Our state Legislature is very supportive of family planning,” says Laurie Field, <a href="%E2%80%9D#correction%E2%80%9D" type="external">*</a> the legislative director of Planned Parenthood’s lobbying arm in the state, “and so we’ve been fortunate to have them be our champions and help us push through legislation that expands reproductive access.”</p>
<p>But on the ground, many Hawaii residents still struggle to find abortions providers. Their obstacles mirror those of women in other states—abortion clinics, mostly concentrated in urban areas, are largely absent in rural communities—but the state’s geography makes traveling far more difficult. Hawaii’s three clinics are located on just two islands, Oahu and Maui, meaning at least a fifth of the state’s residents live on islands without one.</p>
<p>It’s impossible to pinpoint exactly why&#160;there aren’t any abortion providers on the state’s other islands, say experts like Patricia Steinhoff and Meda Chesney-Lind, both professors at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. Steinhoff, who helped conduct the country’s&#160; <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1530585/pdf/amjph00738-0055.pdf" type="external">first-ever study</a> of legalized abortion in 1971, emphasizes that there is a shortage of doctors across medical fields in the state. Adding to that, says Steinhoff, in the small, rural communities on the islands where conservatism and moral objection to abortion are more pronounced than in dense cities, being an abortion provider is highly stigmatized. As a result, physicians who are qualified to provide abortions might choose not to.</p>
<p>Take Chelius’s practice. The Kauai Veterans Memorial Hospital where Chelius works does not offer any kind of abortion service because some of his colleagues, he says, have moral objections to the procedure. Under state law, any physician or hospital can refuse to offer abortion services without fear of legal retribution. (In contrast, a physician who refuses to prescribe birth control to a patient, for example, could be sued.) Though Chelius says that he would like to provide medication abortions—the cheapest and least invasive method of terminating a pregnancy—and that he’s qualified to do so, he has decided not to press the issue to avoid enraging his colleagues.&#160;And because of an obscure Food and Drug Administration rule, Chelius also can’t provide medication abortions&#160;at the hospital without involving his colleagues.</p>
<p>The rule, which is the subject of a <a href="https://acluhawaii.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/filed-chelius-v-wright-1.pdf" type="external">lawsuit</a> Chelius&#160;brought against the FDA in October, requires that physicians dispense the abortion pill Mifeprex in person. Under the rule, providers must first register with the drug’s manufacturer to stock the drug. As result, Chelius’s hospital doesn’t stock Mifeprex, and his patients,&#160;most of whom live in the most remote parts of an already remote island,&#160;are forced to travel more than 100 miles east to the nearest provider on Oahu.</p>
<p>The stigma that comes with being an abortion provider is also present on the islands where abortion is available. At the Queen’s Medical Center, the largest private hospital in the state, located on Oahu, only two&#160;OB-GYNs out of nearly 100 provide abortion services. But, according to one employee,&#160;they don’t advertise their services publicly so that their communities don’t know what they do. Reni Soon, an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii’s medical school and an abortion provider on Oahu, says that&#160;being known as an abortion provider can lead to harassment, especially in communities where “everyone knows everyone,” as is the case in many rural areas of the state. “Being the target of that kind of opposition and sometimes hostility can be very isolating.”</p>
<p>The costs quickly add up for patients forced to travel to another island for health care services. In addition to the abortion itself, which can reach up to $1,000, and the cost of travel—at times more than $300—women on Hawaii’s most remote islands have to arrange at least a day’s worth of travel and accommodation in order to access abortion services. And when a follow-up appointment is needed, so is a night at the hotel.&#160;That’s in addition to the other obstacles—like arranging childcare and finding time to take off work—that all women face before an abortion. Overall,&#160;at least 260,000 Hawaii residents, or almost 20 percent of people in the state, live in areas so rural they would have to book a flight to even access abortion services.</p>
<p>The women most affected by the lack of abortion providers tend to be young, low-income women of color. And though Kauai has a relatively low poverty rate compared with other islands lacking abortion providers, Chelius points out that “even for a woman who has means, it’s still difficult.”&#160;Chelius told me about one of his middle-class patients at the Kauai Veterans Memorial Hospital&#160;in&#160;Waimea, Kauai, a town with a population of just fewer than 2,000 people. The woman, who already had several children when she recently became pregnant, was unable to fly to Oahu. She couldn’t take time off work or find childcare for the day-long trip, and as a result she was forced to carry her pregnancy to term.</p>
<p>Reni Soon provides nearly 30 abortions&#160;a&#160;week at the Oahu-based&#160;Women’s Option Center&#160;and the&#160;island’s Planned Parenthood. Around a third of her patients fly in from other islands specifically for abortion services,but she believes there would be more if they could afford the plane trip. “I’m sure there are patients I’m not seeing because they can’t get over,” says&#160;Soon. “That’s absolutely a problem.”</p>
<p>Making matters worse, abortion clinics in the state have been closing in recent years. Since 2011, the number of clinics throughout Hawaii decreased from six to three. That drop is rivaled only in a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1363/psrh.12015/full" type="external">handful of&#160;red states,</a> including Missouri, Texas, Utah, and Arizona, where conservative legislatures have passed one abortion restriction after another for decades.&#160;The disparity in abortion access is also caused by a broader doctor shortage in rural parts of Hawaii, according to Steinhoff and Chesney-Lind.&#160;Large swaths of the state are designated “medically underserved areas” by the US Department of Health, as determined by the number of primary care providers and the poverty rate, among other factors, and abortion care is no exception.</p>
<p>Chelius says many of his patients who can’t afford the time and money it takes to travel for abortion services are forced to carry their pregnancies to term. The situation is even more dire on some of the state’s smaller islands, like Molokai and Lanai—population 7,345 and 3,135, respectively—which also don’t&#160;have childbirth and maternity care services, meaning that women who carry pregnancies to term will still have to travel for prenatal services.&#160;Many of the prenatal clinics that do exist in the state’s remote areas&#160;are funded by federal Title X grant money, which has been under siege during the&#160;Trump administration.&#160;According to Chesney-Lind, the lack of reproductive health care access&#160;“is just adding one more burden to already challenged communities in those islands.”</p>
<p>The solution to Hawaii’s lack of services problem, says Chesney-Lind, is to shift the state’s energy away from&#160;the law and towards actual access. “There’s always a focus on keeping abortion legal, and women’s access has kind of taken a backseat to that issue,” she says. “I wish there was a similar kind of push to make sure that the services are provided on all the islands. That’s just missing.”</p>
<p>Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Laurie Field as Laurie Graham.</p>
<p>Image credit: 4×6/Getty</p> | true | 4 | mother jones illustration almost decade dr graham chelius worked family physician obstetrician western hawaii one progressive farflung isolated regions country delivered 800 babies160on kauai works chief medical officer kauai region states largest hospital network though would like provide abortions chelius never terminated pregnancy island hospital works doesnt offer procedure despite states strong legal protections procedure abortion providers kauai an160island almost16067000160people but160thats lack demand fact two hawaiis eight major islands least one publicly advertised abortion provider160forcing thousands women160in one countrys reliably blue states either buy plane tickets carry pregnancies term160 hawaii small group states legally protected abortion rights see kinds restrictions see states says elizabeth nash senior state issue manager guttmacher institute reproductive policy research organization thats different access states geography factors right choose right name only160 hawaii long160been forefront efforts protect expand access reproductive health care march 1970 became first state country pass expansive law protecting womans right end pregnancythree years before160the supreme courts160roe v wade160decision legalized abortion nationwide160since then160hawaiis consistently160democratic legislature160has enacted countrys most160progressive160reproductive rights policies one handful160of states voluntarily use public money pay abortions requires even prolife pregnancy centers give abortion information clients 2006 codified law womans right choose abortion should160roe160ever overturned160the state160has legal restrictions access requirement160that abortions performed physicians licensed clinics caveat physician hospital become liable declining provide procedure result paper hawaii160is one best states country abortion rights reproductive rights advocacy group naral consistently ranks160the hawaii legislature among prochoice country along california oregon washington connecticut160our state legislature supportive family planning says laurie field legislative director planned parenthoods lobbying arm state weve fortunate champions help us push legislation expands reproductive access ground many hawaii residents still struggle find abortions providers obstacles mirror women statesabortion clinics mostly concentrated urban areas largely absent rural communitiesbut states geography makes traveling far difficult hawaiis three clinics located two islands oahu maui meaning least fifth states residents live islands without one impossible pinpoint exactly why160there arent abortion providers states islands say experts like patricia steinhoff meda chesneylind professors university hawaiimanoa steinhoff helped conduct countrys160 firstever study legalized abortion 1971 emphasizes shortage doctors across medical fields state adding says steinhoff small rural communities islands conservatism moral objection abortion pronounced dense cities abortion provider highly stigmatized result physicians qualified provide abortions might choose take cheliuss practice kauai veterans memorial hospital chelius works offer kind abortion service colleagues says moral objections procedure state law physician hospital refuse offer abortion services without fear legal retribution contrast physician refuses prescribe birth control patient example could sued though chelius says would like provide medication abortionsthe cheapest least invasive method terminating pregnancyand hes qualified decided press issue avoid enraging colleagues160and obscure food drug administration rule chelius also cant provide medication abortions160at hospital without involving colleagues rule subject lawsuit chelius160brought fda october requires physicians dispense abortion pill mifeprex person rule providers must first register drugs manufacturer stock drug result cheliuss hospital doesnt stock mifeprex patients160most live remote parts already remote island160are forced travel 100 miles east nearest provider oahu stigma comes abortion provider also present islands abortion available queens medical center largest private hospital state located oahu two160obgyns nearly 100 provide abortion services according one employee160they dont advertise services publicly communities dont know reni soon assistant professor university hawaiis medical school abortion provider oahu says that160being known abortion provider lead harassment especially communities everyone knows everyone case many rural areas state target kind opposition sometimes hostility isolating costs quickly add patients forced travel another island health care services addition abortion reach 1000 cost travelat times 300women hawaiis remote islands arrange least days worth travel accommodation order access abortion services followup appointment needed night hotel160thats addition obstacleslike arranging childcare finding time take workthat women face abortion overall160at least 260000 hawaii residents almost 20 percent people state live areas rural would book flight even access abortion services women affected lack abortion providers tend young lowincome women color though kauai relatively low poverty rate compared islands lacking abortion providers chelius points even woman means still difficult160chelius told one middleclass patients kauai veterans memorial hospital160in160waimea kauai town population fewer 2000 people woman already several children recently became pregnant unable fly oahu couldnt take time work find childcare daylong trip result forced carry pregnancy term reni soon provides nearly 30 abortions160a160week oahubased160womens option center160and the160islands planned parenthood around third patients fly islands specifically abortion servicesbut believes would could afford plane trip im sure patients im seeing cant get says160soon thats absolutely problem making matters worse abortion clinics state closing recent years since 2011 number clinics throughout hawaii decreased six three drop rivaled handful of160red states including missouri texas utah arizona conservative legislatures passed one abortion restriction another decades160the disparity abortion access also caused broader doctor shortage rural parts hawaii according steinhoff chesneylind160large swaths state designated medically underserved areas us department health determined number primary care providers poverty rate among factors abortion care exception chelius says many patients cant afford time money takes travel abortion services forced carry pregnancies term situation even dire states smaller islands like molokai lanaipopulation 7345 3135 respectivelywhich also dont160have childbirth maternity care services meaning women carry pregnancies term still travel prenatal services160many prenatal clinics exist states remote areas160are funded federal title x grant money siege the160trump administration160according chesneylind lack reproductive health care access160is adding one burden already challenged communities islands solution hawaiis lack services problem says chesneylind shift states energy away from160the law towards actual access theres always focus keeping abortion legal womens access kind taken backseat issue says wish similar kind push make sure services provided islands thats missing correction earlier version article incorrectly identified laurie field laurie graham image credit 46getty | 921 |
<p>While the water shutoffs in Detroit have been the most publicized aspect of the Michigan water crisis, activists explained that access to water is problem plaguing the entire state of Michigan.</p>
<p>On July 3, dozens of Michigan activists convened in Detroit to begin a march to demand water justice in the state. The six-day march covered 70 miles as organizers walked from Detroit to Flint and continued by bus to the state capitol in Lansing, stopping in five other Michigan cities along the way. The action was called by&#160; <a href="http://www.peopleswaterboard.org/p/members.html" type="external">The Peoples' Water Board</a>, a coalition of 30 community organizations including labor unions, racial justice organizations, religious congregations, human rights groups and environmental activists.&#160;</p>
<p>Activists gave rousing testimonies at a speak-out that opened the week-long event. Clergy from both Christian and Jewish faiths gave opening blessings to the marchers. Rabbi Alana Alpert of Detroit Jews for Justice hoped that the action would bring “not just a trickle, but a downpour” of clean, affordable water to the residents of Michigan. A spiritual ritual was lead by representatives of Indigenous Water Women, who noted the importance of water not only to urban residents but to struggles for indigenous rights.</p>
<p />
<p>Holding signs that read “Water is a Human Right,” protesters called attention to the dire situation facing those who lack consistent access to clean water.&#160;Last year, the United Nations found that the Detroit water shutoffs constituted a violation of human rights and urged policy makers to cease and desist immediately. “Disconnection of water services because of failure to pay due to lack of means constitutes a violation of the human right to water and other international human rights,” U.N. officials Catarina de Albuquerque, Leilani Farha and Philip Alston&#160; <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=14777" type="external">wrote</a>.</p>
<p>Mayor Mike Duggan is&#160; <a href="http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2015/05/24/detroit-water-shutoffs-poverty-unpaid-bills/27852135/" type="external">proceeding</a>&#160;with the shutoff orders over the wishes of city council members, who voted on May 12 to freeze the shutoff until an assistance plan to help affected residents was enacted. As of May, 64,769 were at risk for water shutoffs.</p>
<p>Maureen Taylor, of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, reminded the crowd&#160;&#160;that the Detroit City Council passed an income-based payment plan in 2006; the plan would set water rates at 2%-3% of residents' income. Nearly a decade later, the Water Affordability Plan still has yet to be implemented.&#160;</p>
<p>While the water shutoffs in Detroit have been the most publicized aspect of the Michigan water crisis, activists explained that access to water is problem plaguing the entire state of Michigan. “The purpose of this walk really is to call for clean and affordable water for all of Michigan,” Kim Redigan,&#160;one of the organizers of the event, said.&#160;</p>
<p>Organizers from Flint held up bottles containing brown and yellow water that city and state officials insist is safe for human consumption. Residents of Flint have received repeated notices over the last year that the water coming from the Flint River was in violation of the Safe Water Drinking Act. A&#160; <a href="http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2015/06/flints_water_tests_ok_but_city.html" type="external">new round of tests</a>&#160;concluded on June 1, 2015, that the city of Flint was currently safe, but that levels of trihalomethanes in the water were so high in 2014 that the city was still in violation of the Act.</p>
<p>Members of nurses union National Nurses United were present at the rally, describing the health complications that have arisen from Michigan residents' contact with contaminated water. They relayed accounts of residents contracting autoimmune disorders, skin lesions, copper and lead poisoning, among other ailments. Consuming&#160; <a href="http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/disinfectionbyproducts.cfm" type="external">increased levels of trihalomethanes</a>&#160;can lead to liver, kidney, and central nervous system problems, as well as increasing the risk of various forms of cancer, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.&#160;</p>
<p>Activist and student Nadia Gaber said that the struggle over water was not limited to Michigan. “Water is emerging as a national terrain of struggle” she said, drawing comparisons between the situation in Detroit to the drought in California and the water shutoffs in Baltimore.</p>
<p>Chants of “Whose Water? Our Water!” were interspersed with discussions about potential plans to privatize water in the state, which protesters from both Detroit and Flint repeatedly critiqued. Activists made frequent reference to a&#160; <a href="http://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/TroubledWatersReport" type="external">report</a>&#160;released last year by Corporate Accountability International that shows that, on average, privatization leads to higher costs and lower efficiency. “Privatization is not the solution,” Redigan said.</p>
<p>In the UN report cited above, Farha drew attention to the racial politics of the water shutoffs, writing “If these water disconnections disproportionately affect African Americans, they may be discriminatory, in violation of treaties the U.S. has ratified.” A year later, the racial politics of the water shutoffs was at the forefront of many activists' comments.&#160;</p>
<p>Monica Lewis-Patrick, one of the co-founders of We the People of Detroit, a coalition member of the People's Water Board, said “the historical racial divide between Detroit and the rest of the state has lead to a narrative of us, the residents of Detroit, of being irresponsible governors, of being lazy, of being incapable of leading ourselves—all of that has been displaced onto the struggle over water.”</p>
<p>Despite the severity of the crisis, activists remained hopeful about the waves of protest and community action that has cropped up around the state over the last year. Speakers recounted instances of community solidarity in response to the water shutoffs that have plagued the city for over a year. Many told stories of neighbors allowing others to use their showers, routing hoses between houses and doing each others' laundry.&#160;</p>
<p>Lewis-Patrick said that activists' hope stemmed from “the extreme diversity of our coalition, the volume of the voices of progressive thinkers that understand that water is a human right. The exciting part amidst these austerity laws [is that] you are still seeing the belovedness of Detroit, the love of people playing out by helping each other, seeing ourselves as part of the global struggle for the protection of the human right to water.”</p>
<p>Like what you’ve read? <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/itt-subscription-offer?refcode=WS_ITT_Article_Footer&amp;noskip=true" type="external">Subscribe to In These Times magazine</a>, or <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/support-in-these-times?refcode=WS_ITT_Article_Footer&amp;noskip=true" type="external">make a tax-deductible donation to fund this reporting</a>.</p>
<p>Ashley Bohrer is an academic and activist based in Chicago. She is a member of the HYSTERIA editorial collective, a contributing editor for Red Wedge Magazine and has published at Truthout and Al Jazeera America.</p> | true | 4 | water shutoffs detroit publicized aspect michigan water crisis activists explained access water problem plaguing entire state michigan july 3 dozens michigan activists convened detroit begin march demand water justice state sixday march covered 70 miles organizers walked detroit flint continued bus state capitol lansing stopping five michigan cities along way action called by160 peoples water board coalition 30 community organizations including labor unions racial justice organizations religious congregations human rights groups environmental activists160 activists gave rousing testimonies speakout opened weeklong event clergy christian jewish faiths gave opening blessings marchers rabbi alana alpert detroit jews justice hoped action would bring trickle downpour clean affordable water residents michigan spiritual ritual lead representatives indigenous water women noted importance water urban residents struggles indigenous rights holding signs read water human right protesters called attention dire situation facing lack consistent access clean water160last year united nations found detroit water shutoffs constituted violation human rights urged policy makers cease desist immediately disconnection water services failure pay due lack means constitutes violation human right water international human rights un officials catarina de albuquerque leilani farha philip alston160 wrote mayor mike duggan is160 proceeding160with shutoff orders wishes city council members voted may 12 freeze shutoff assistance plan help affected residents enacted may 64769 risk water shutoffs maureen taylor michigan welfare rights organization reminded crowd160160that detroit city council passed incomebased payment plan 2006 plan would set water rates 23 residents income nearly decade later water affordability plan still yet implemented160 water shutoffs detroit publicized aspect michigan water crisis activists explained access water problem plaguing entire state michigan purpose walk really call clean affordable water michigan kim redigan160one organizers event said160 organizers flint held bottles containing brown yellow water city state officials insist safe human consumption residents flint received repeated notices last year water coming flint river violation safe water drinking act a160 new round tests160concluded june 1 2015 city flint currently safe levels trihalomethanes water high 2014 city still violation act members nurses union national nurses united present rally describing health complications arisen michigan residents contact contaminated water relayed accounts residents contracting autoimmune disorders skin lesions copper lead poisoning among ailments consuming160 increased levels trihalomethanes160can lead liver kidney central nervous system problems well increasing risk various forms cancer according environmental protection agency160 activist student nadia gaber said struggle water limited michigan water emerging national terrain struggle said drawing comparisons situation detroit drought california water shutoffs baltimore chants whose water water interspersed discussions potential plans privatize water state protesters detroit flint repeatedly critiqued activists made frequent reference a160 report160released last year corporate accountability international shows average privatization leads higher costs lower efficiency privatization solution redigan said un report cited farha drew attention racial politics water shutoffs writing water disconnections disproportionately affect african americans may discriminatory violation treaties us ratified year later racial politics water shutoffs forefront many activists comments160 monica lewispatrick one cofounders people detroit coalition member peoples water board said historical racial divide detroit rest state lead narrative us residents detroit irresponsible governors lazy incapable leading ourselvesall displaced onto struggle water despite severity crisis activists remained hopeful waves protest community action cropped around state last year speakers recounted instances community solidarity response water shutoffs plagued city year many told stories neighbors allowing others use showers routing hoses houses others laundry160 lewispatrick said activists hope stemmed extreme diversity coalition volume voices progressive thinkers understand water human right exciting part amidst austerity laws still seeing belovedness detroit love people playing helping seeing part global struggle protection human right water like youve read subscribe times magazine make taxdeductible donation fund reporting ashley bohrer academic activist based chicago member hysteria editorial collective contributing editor red wedge magazine published truthout al jazeera america | 609 |
<p>At the White House, when <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2011/01/16/michelle-obama-47th-birthday-see-photos.html" type="external">Michelle Obama</a> unveiled her second major initiative as first lady—this one in support of military families—the East Room, with its sparkling chandeliers and potted ferns, was particularly thick with dignitaries. For the sweeping project, Obama partnered with vice-presidential spouse Jill Biden, who has been a longtime advocate for service members and whose son Beau was deployed to Iraq.</p>
<p>Veterans from the various branches of the military, bigwigs from the worlds of business and communications, and an array of Cabinet members also were perched on gilded chairs for an announcement that was years in the making. From the beginning of her husband’s administration, Mrs. Obama made it clear that she would focus on military families and <a href="/content/dailybeast/cheats/2011/03/16/michelle-obama-inks-book-deal.html" type="external">childhood obesity</a>. With the launch of “Joining Forces,” she has now made good on the second part of that promise—“the moment we’ve been working for, for such a long time,” Mrs. Obama said.</p>
<p>The first lady and Dr. Biden were each introduced by their respective husband and so the afternoon event had the added firepower of both Vice President Biden and President Obama.</p>
<p>“The vice president and I are the warmup acts today,” the president joked.</p>
<p>But even the far-reaching, high-level support Mrs. Obama has mustered for military families and the righteousness of her call for empathy and gratitude are unlikely to divert the public’s and the media’s attention from her belts and bangles, sheaths and ball gowns.</p>
<p>At least not for very long.</p>
<p>During her more than two years in the White House, the first lady has offered the public ample topics for debate and dissection beyond her wardrobe. And for a while, attention was almost solely focused on “ <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2011/03/16/michelle-obamas-childhood-obesity-lets-move-campaign-helps-bullies.html" type="external">Let’s Move</a>,” her garden, and the fight against childhood obesity. But as the garden matured and her anti-obesity initiative became a story of incremental developments and political debates, the talk returned to her clothes because that conversation provided something that all the other ones did not.</p>
<p>Gallery: <a href="/content/dailybeast/galleries/2010/05/07/first-lady-fashion.html" type="external">First Lady Fashion</a></p>
<p>The choices Mrs. Obama makes about her attire are inherently personal—and by her own admission are driven by nothing more than her own mood, preferences, and sensibilities. As she has said so often, she is motivated solely by what she likes. And those choices are often surprising and unconventional. The clothes offer the most human, nonpolitical glimpse of the first lady.</p>
<p>While the unwritten rule for the issues the East Wing takes on is to first do no harm to the administration’s political standing, her clothes remain her most uncensored form of communication. Whether it is her sexy over-the-knee Jimmy Choo boots, her informal hiking shorts upon deplaning from Air Force One, or all those sleeveless dresses, the choices are symbolic, but not political. Most important: They are not safe.</p>
<p>When she wore an <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2011/01/19/michelle-obama-in-alexander-mcqueen-lady-in-red-at-white-house-state-dinner.html" type="external">Alexander McQueen dress to the China state dinner</a>, the decision was given outsize attention. Were people really that concerned that the first lady might have insulted the entire American fashion industry by that choice? Or were they simply astonished that she had the audacity to choose a dress based on personal preference and without regard to political ramifications? Observers obsess about her clothes in the same way that the president’s basketball and golfing habits are painstakingly examined. (Where were the women during those presidential pickup games?) It’s all a hunt for some unvarnished, unexpected truth.</p>
<p>Should the first lady finally retire that wide <a href="/content/dailybeast/cheats/2009/04/14/azzedine-alaiumla-defends-michelle-o-disses-oscar.html" type="external">Azzedine Alaïa</a> belt—the one the president refers to as her “Star Trek” belt? In the blogosphere, over cocktails and even in the White House press room, the fashion talk rages on. Not simply because it is light-hearted and entertaining, but also because it’s instructive. It fills a void and feeds a hunger for something that is not shrouded in statistics, task forces, and synergistic partnerships.</p>
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<p>“Joining Forces” will include a series of public service announcements featuring the likes of Tom Hanks and Oprah Winfrey highlighting all that military families deal with on a daily basis. Educators will be coached on how best to support students who struggle with the absence of parents who have been deployed once, twice, three times, or more. And employers have been asked to make a commitment to ensure that spouses don’t lose their jobs when they are forced to relocate because of the demands of military service.</p>
<p>The initiative aims to deal with everything from encouraging parent-teacher conferences via Skype to improving mental health services for members of the military and their family. In essence, the first lady is attempting to teach empathy to school districts, corporations, and individuals. If an overwhelmed parent whose spouse is deployed can’t mow the lawn, lend a helping hand, for goodness’ sake!</p>
<p>Whether it is her sexy over-the-knee Jimmy Choo boots or all those sleeveless dresses, the choices are symbolic, but not political. Most important: They are not safe.</p>
<p>With the launch of “Joining Forces,” there’s plenty to discuss. And if Mrs. Obama’s campaign against childhood obesity is any indication, public attention will turn to the travails of military families, neighborhood organizations will soon announce grassroots shows of support, more celebrities will sign on as spokespeople, corporations will be drawn into service—whether by moral obligation or the lure of the spotlight.</p>
<p>Eventually, though, “Joining Forces” will become a story of incremental developments and political debates. And the conversation will come back around to the first lady’s clothes. Not because folks have ceased to care about the families of those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. But because the power of those clothes to communicate something unvetted and uncensored is irresistible.</p>
<p>Plus: <a href="" type="internal">Check out more of the latest entertainment, fashion, and culture coverage on Sexy Beast—photos, videos, features, and Tweets</a>.</p>
<p>Robin Givhan is a special correspondent for style and culture for Newsweek and The Daily Beast. In 1995 she became the fashion editor of The Washington Post where she covered the news, trends and business of the international fashion industry. She contributed to Runway Madness, No Sweat: Fashion, Free Trade and the Rights of Garment Workers, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001O9CGP8/thedaibea-20/" type="external">Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary: Reflections by Women Writers</a>. She is the author, along with The Washington Post photo staff, of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1600783112/thedaibea-20/" type="external">Michelle: Her First Year as First Lady</a>. In 2006, she won the Pulitzer Prize in criticism for her fashion coverage. She lives and works in Washington, DC.</p> | true | 4 | white house michelle obama unveiled second major initiative first ladythis one support military familiesthe east room sparkling chandeliers potted ferns particularly thick dignitaries sweeping project obama partnered vicepresidential spouse jill biden longtime advocate service members whose son beau deployed iraq veterans various branches military bigwigs worlds business communications array cabinet members also perched gilded chairs announcement years making beginning husbands administration mrs obama made clear would focus military families childhood obesity launch joining forces made good second part promisethe moment weve working long time mrs obama said first lady dr biden introduced respective husband afternoon event added firepower vice president biden president obama vice president warmup acts today president joked even farreaching highlevel support mrs obama mustered military families righteousness call empathy gratitude unlikely divert publics medias attention belts bangles sheaths ball gowns least long two years white house first lady offered public ample topics debate dissection beyond wardrobe attention almost solely focused lets move garden fight childhood obesity garden matured antiobesity initiative became story incremental developments political debates talk returned clothes conversation provided something ones gallery first lady fashion choices mrs obama makes attire inherently personaland admission driven nothing mood preferences sensibilities said often motivated solely likes choices often surprising unconventional clothes offer human nonpolitical glimpse first lady unwritten rule issues east wing takes first harm administrations political standing clothes remain uncensored form communication whether sexy overtheknee jimmy choo boots informal hiking shorts upon deplaning air force one sleeveless dresses choices symbolic political important safe wore alexander mcqueen dress china state dinner decision given outsize attention people really concerned first lady might insulted entire american fashion industry choice simply astonished audacity choose dress based personal preference without regard political ramifications observers obsess clothes way presidents basketball golfing habits painstakingly examined women presidential pickup games hunt unvarnished unexpected truth first lady finally retire wide azzedine alaïa beltthe one president refers star trek belt blogosphere cocktails even white house press room fashion talk rages simply lighthearted entertaining also instructive fills void feeds hunger something shrouded statistics task forces synergistic partnerships start finish day top stories daily beast speedy smart summary news need know nothing dont joining forces include series public service announcements featuring likes tom hanks oprah winfrey highlighting military families deal daily basis educators coached best support students struggle absence parents deployed twice three times employers asked make commitment ensure spouses dont lose jobs forced relocate demands military service initiative aims deal everything encouraging parentteacher conferences via skype improving mental health services members military family essence first lady attempting teach empathy school districts corporations individuals overwhelmed parent whose spouse deployed cant mow lawn lend helping hand goodness sake whether sexy overtheknee jimmy choo boots sleeveless dresses choices symbolic political important safe launch joining forces theres plenty discuss mrs obamas campaign childhood obesity indication public attention turn travails military families neighborhood organizations soon announce grassroots shows support celebrities sign spokespeople corporations drawn servicewhether moral obligation lure spotlight eventually though joining forces become story incremental developments political debates conversation come back around first ladys clothes folks ceased care families serving iraq afghanistan power clothes communicate something unvetted uncensored irresistible plus check latest entertainment fashion culture coverage sexy beastphotos videos features tweets robin givhan special correspondent style culture newsweek daily beast 1995 became fashion editor washington post covered news trends business international fashion industry contributed runway madness sweat fashion free trade rights garment workers thirty ways looking hillary reflections women writers author along washington post photo staff michelle first year first lady 2006 pulitzer prize criticism fashion coverage lives works washington dc | 589 |
<p>Today is the anniversary of the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor by the Imperial Japanese Navy. For the individuals who died, for their families, it was a day in which the personal worlds of thousands were suddenly turned upside down. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war, the entire country’s political, economic, and social worlds turned upside down as 12 million men and women donned uniforms and women entered new jobs on the home front.</p>
<p>As I write this Thursday morning, December 6, it has been about 100 hours since excerpts from the latest U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s nuclear capabilities became public knowledge around the world.</p>
<p>It is also about 75 hours since President Bush’s news conference on December 3 during which he declared the NIE’s findings changed nothing. Quite the contrary, Bush insisted that the NIE reinforced the administration’s approach: hold low-level discussions in Bagdad between the U.S. and Iranian ambassadors to Iraq; insist that Iran comply with UN Security Council demands that Tehran halt uranium enrichment as a precondition for any high-level direct negotiations with Washington; and impose another round of stiff international sanctions on Tehran.</p>
<p>And it is roughly 50 hours since President Bush arrived in Omaha, Nebraska Tuesday and declared that Tehran must “come clean” about its nuclear weapons ambitions and programs.</p>
<p>The phrase “come clean” recalled to mind two essays written in July and September 2003. Unbeknownst to the public, press, and pundits at the time, this was the transitional period for the invading forces. In these three months, the foreign soldiers lost the image of liberators and were saddled with the stigma of occupiers – their world turned upside down. It was also the period during which the full extent of the administration’s tampering with intelligence began to be apparent to all but the most doctrinaire observers.</p>
<p>Next door in Iran, the ayatollahs saw new instability in an already instable region of the world. Afghanistan and Iraq, two neighbors, had been invaded by U.S. forces, their governments overthrown and replaced by pro-western regimes, and now hosted 160,000 U.S. troops.. And while the Afghanistan venture was obviously retaliation for the al-Qaeda terror attacks on September 11, 2001, the March 2003 assault on Iraq was an example of the “Bush Doctrine” of “preventive war” applied to regimes that, in addition to secretly pursuing nuclear technology and knowledge, were deemed by Washington to be unfriendly.</p>
<p>The challenge for the ayatollahs in 2007 is in many ways the same one that Saddam had faced in 2003: how to prove a negative – that there were no weapons or programs to acquire weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. government incessantly insisted that there were. The only way to do this was to expose the manipulation of intelligence by the Bush White House as it sought congressional support against first Iraq and now against Iran.</p>
<p>All the ayatollahs can offer in defense are the lessons of the Iraq confrontation. In the four months before the invasion, UN inspectors had found no weapons and no programs for acquiring weapons of mass destruction – facts that at least denied the administration any official UN backing for attacking Iraq. Similarly, during the six months after the invasion, the 1,400 hand-picked inspectors of the U.S. Iraq Survey Team also failed to find any of the nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons the Bush administration alleged Saddam possessed.</p>
<p>So it seems that Saddam had been playing an elaborate shell game right up to the end. His nuclear weapons ploy not only kept regional enemies at bay but was convincing enough to fool western analysts that Iraq’s nuclear program remained potentially active. Analysts succumbed to classic mirror imaging because they simply could not imagine why Saddam would endure harsh UN sanctions and scores of foreigners running around his country unless he had a hidden program he planned to restart after inspections ended.</p>
<p>Whether it’s about Iraq in 2003 or Iran in 2007, the Middle East is a rough neighborhood. Any perception of weakness risks another country taking advantage of the situation. Thus the best defense is the appearance of a strong offense, which Saddam tried to portray – and did until his son-in-law, Hussein Kemal, “betrayed” him to western and UN intelligence agents. These, unfortunately, simply did not believe that the weapons of mass destruction had been destroyed in 1991 and programs stopped.</p>
<p>As is clearly evident with this new NIE on Iran, the intelligence professionals have relearned something about their craft: when everyone agrees on everything, start over and find the contradiction or the omission that, if pursued, “turns the world upside down.”</p>
<p>That is the message of the key findings of the NIE: the Intelligence Community finds with “high confidence” that Tehran “halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003” and further finds with “moderate confidence” that this program has not been restarted.” The question remaining is for how long Tehran will sustain this hiatus – especially if the Bush administration refuses to change its stance.</p>
<p>The other fact — highly dangerous — the ayatollahs must weigh is Bush’s insistence that Iran “come clean,” a demand that indicates that Bush, unlike the Intelligence Community, still has learned nothing of the psychology of the Middle East. In the end, it is the political professionals, not the intelligence analysts, who make policy and implement programs. When the politicians let ideology override the facts, the mistakes of the past inevitably become the mistakes of the future. How else can one explain the efforts by conservative fear-mongering pundits to embrace a tortured interpretation of the latest report of the IAEA on Iran’s nuclear programs?</p>
<p>The moral is simple. If one believes in witches and warlocks, one will be able to find evidence they exist and eventually the actual beings. The administration and the world believed Saddam had weapons, and he obliged by dropping hints and acting as if he were hiding something.</p>
<p>The White House is trying to convince the public that Iran is another Iraq and is an imminent danger to the world. But this time, the world is not buying. The administration’s ploy this time will not turn anyone’s world upside down.</p>
<p>Col. DAN SMITH, a retired U.S. Army colonel, is a senior fellow on military affairs at the Friends Committee on National Legislation. Email at <a href="mailto:dan@fcnl.org" type="external">dan@fcnl.org</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | today anniversary december 7 1941 attack pearl harbor imperial japanese navy individuals died families day personal worlds thousands suddenly turned upside president franklin delano roosevelt asked congress declaration war entire countrys political economic social worlds turned upside 12 million men women donned uniforms women entered new jobs home front write thursday morning december 6 100 hours since excerpts latest us national intelligence estimate nie irans nuclear capabilities became public knowledge around world also 75 hours since president bushs news conference december 3 declared nies findings changed nothing quite contrary bush insisted nie reinforced administrations approach hold lowlevel discussions bagdad us iranian ambassadors iraq insist iran comply un security council demands tehran halt uranium enrichment precondition highlevel direct negotiations washington impose another round stiff international sanctions tehran roughly 50 hours since president bush arrived omaha nebraska tuesday declared tehran must come clean nuclear weapons ambitions programs phrase come clean recalled mind two essays written july september 2003 unbeknownst public press pundits time transitional period invading forces three months foreign soldiers lost image liberators saddled stigma occupiers world turned upside also period full extent administrations tampering intelligence began apparent doctrinaire observers next door iran ayatollahs saw new instability already instable region world afghanistan iraq two neighbors invaded us forces governments overthrown replaced prowestern regimes hosted 160000 us troops afghanistan venture obviously retaliation alqaeda terror attacks september 11 2001 march 2003 assault iraq example bush doctrine preventive war applied regimes addition secretly pursuing nuclear technology knowledge deemed washington unfriendly challenge ayatollahs 2007 many ways one saddam faced 2003 prove negative weapons programs acquire weapons mass destruction us government incessantly insisted way expose manipulation intelligence bush white house sought congressional support first iraq iran ayatollahs offer defense lessons iraq confrontation four months invasion un inspectors found weapons programs acquiring weapons mass destruction facts least denied administration official un backing attacking iraq similarly six months invasion 1400 handpicked inspectors us iraq survey team also failed find nuclear biological chemical weapons bush administration alleged saddam possessed seems saddam playing elaborate shell game right end nuclear weapons ploy kept regional enemies bay convincing enough fool western analysts iraqs nuclear program remained potentially active analysts succumbed classic mirror imaging simply could imagine saddam would endure harsh un sanctions scores foreigners running around country unless hidden program planned restart inspections ended whether iraq 2003 iran 2007 middle east rough neighborhood perception weakness risks another country taking advantage situation thus best defense appearance strong offense saddam tried portray soninlaw hussein kemal betrayed western un intelligence agents unfortunately simply believe weapons mass destruction destroyed 1991 programs stopped clearly evident new nie iran intelligence professionals relearned something craft everyone agrees everything start find contradiction omission pursued turns world upside message key findings nie intelligence community finds high confidence tehran halted nuclear weapons program 2003 finds moderate confidence program restarted question remaining long tehran sustain hiatus especially bush administration refuses change stance fact highly dangerous ayatollahs must weigh bushs insistence iran come clean demand indicates bush unlike intelligence community still learned nothing psychology middle east end political professionals intelligence analysts make policy implement programs politicians let ideology override facts mistakes past inevitably become mistakes future else one explain efforts conservative fearmongering pundits embrace tortured interpretation latest report iaea irans nuclear programs moral simple one believes witches warlocks one able find evidence exist eventually actual beings administration world believed saddam weapons obliged dropping hints acting hiding something white house trying convince public iran another iraq imminent danger world time world buying administrations ploy time turn anyones world upside col dan smith retired us army colonel senior fellow military affairs friends committee national legislation email danfcnlorg 160 | 602 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/37313543@N05/5841043355/"&gt;Michael C&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/remember-stuxnet-why-the-u.s.-is-still-vulnerable" type="external">story</a> first appeared on the <a href="http://www.propublica.org/" type="external">ProPublica</a> website.</p>
<p>Last week, the Department of Homeland Security revealed a rash of cyber attacks on natural gas pipeline companies. Just as with previous cyber attacks on infrastructure, there was no known physical damage. But security experts worry it may only be a matter of time.</p>
<p>Efforts to protect pipelines and other critical systems have been halting despite broad agreement that they’re vulnerable to viruses like <a href="http://vimeo.com/25118844" type="external">Stuxnet</a>—the mysterious worm that caused havoc to Iran’s nuclear program two years ago.</p>
<p>The Frankenstein-like virus infected a type of industrial controller that is ubiquitous—used around the world on everything from pipelines to the electric grid.</p>
<p>Experts say manufacturers haven’t fixed security flaws in these essential but obscure devices.</p>
<p>Why hasn’t more been done? Here’s why Stuxnet remains a top national security risk.</p>
<p>Q. What is Stuxnet, anyway?</p>
<p>Stuxnet first made headlines when it burrowed into computers that controlled uranium centrifuges in Iran’s renegade nuclear program. Its self-replicating computer code is usually transmitted on flash drives anyone can stick into a computer. Once activated, the virus made Iran’s centrifuges spin out of control while making technicians think everything was working normally—think of a scene in a bank heist movie where the robbers loop old security camera footage while they sneak into the vault.</p>
<p>Q. Who created it?</p>
<p>Whoever knows the answer to this isn’t telling—but if cybersecurity researchers, the Iranian government and vocal Internet users are to be believed, the two prime suspects are the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/world/middleeast/16stuxnet.html?_r=1&amp;pagewanted=1" type="external">US and Israeli governments</a>.</p>
<p>Q. How does it work?</p>
<p>Stuxnet seeks out little gray computers called programmable logic controllers, or PLCs. The size and shape of a carton of cigarettes, PLCs are used in industrial settings from pretzel factories to nuclear power plants. Unfortunately, security researchers say the password requirements for the devices are often weak, creating openings that Stuxnet (or other viruses) can exploit. Siemens made the PLCs that ran Iran’s centrifuges; other makers include Modicon and Allen Bradley. Once introduced via computers running Microsoft Windows, Stuxnet <a href="http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/exploring-stuxnet-s-plc-infection-process" type="external">looks for a PLC it can control</a>.</p>
<p>Q. How big is the problem?</p>
<p>Millions of PLCs are in use all over the world, and Siemens is one of the top five vendors.</p>
<p>Q. After Iran, did Siemens fix its devices?</p>
<p>Siemens released a software tool for users to detect and remove the Stuxnet virus, and encourages its customers to install fixes Microsoft put out for its Windows system soon after the Iran attack became public (most PLCs are programmed from computers running Windows.) It is also planning to release a new piece of hardware for its PLCs, called a <a href="https://www.industry.siemens.com/topics/global/en/fairs/hannover-messe/industry/news-videos/Pages/16-news.aspx?HTTPS=REDIR" type="external">communications processor</a>, to make them more secure—though it’s unclear whether the new processor will fix the specific problems Stuxnet exploited. Meanwhile, the firm acknowledges its PLCs remain vulnerable— in a <a href="https://www.propublica.org/documents/item/356902-siemens-statement" type="external">statement to ProPublica</a>, Siemens said it was impossible to guard against every possible attack.</p>
<p>Q. Is Siemens alone?</p>
<p>Logic controllers made by other companies also have flaws, as researchers from <a href="https://www.nsslabs.com/" type="external">NSS labs</a>, a security research firm, <a href="http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/view/18107/siemens-plc-vulnerability-part-of-larger-problem-says-nss-labs-head/" type="external">have pointed out</a>. Researchers at a consulting firm called <a href="http://www.digitalbond.com/" type="external">Digital Bond</a> drew more attention to the problem earlier this year when they released code targeting commonly used PLCs using some of Stuxnet’s techniques. A key vulnerability is password strength—PLCs connected to corporate networks or the Internet are frequently left wide open, Digital Bond CEO Dale Peterson says.</p>
<p>Q. What makes these systems so tough to protect?</p>
<p>Like any computer product, industrial control systems have bugs that programmers can’t foresee. Government officials and security researchers say critical systems should never be connected to the Internet—though they frequently are. But having Internet access is convenient and saves money for companies that operate water, power, transit and other systems.</p>
<p>Q. Is cost an issue?</p>
<p>System manufacturers are reluctant to patch older versions of their products, government and private sector researchers said. Utility companies and other operators don’t want to shell out money to replace systems that seem to be working fine. Dan Auerbach of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, formerly a security engineer at Google, says the pressure on tech companies to quickly release products sometimes trumps security. “There’s an incentive problem,” he said.</p>
<p>Q. What’s the government doing?</p>
<p>The Department of Energy and the Department of Homeland Security’s Computer Emergency Readiness Team, or CERT, work with infrastructure owners, operators and vendors to prevent and respond to cyber threats. Researchers at government-funded labs also assess threats and recommend fixes. But government agencies cannot—and do not attempt to—compel systems vendors to fix bugs.</p>
<p>The only national cybersecurity regulation is a set of eight standards approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission—but these only apply to producers of high-voltage electricity. A Department of Energy <a href="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2011/02/DoE-IG-Report-on-Grid-Security.pdf" type="external">audit</a> last year concluded the standards were weak and not well implemented.</p>
<p>Q. So is Congress weighing in?</p>
<p>Cybersecurity has been a much-debated issue. Leading bills, including the <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/is-cipsa-sopa-20-we-explain-the-cybersecurity-bill" type="external">Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act</a>, would enable government and the private sector to share more threat information. But while CISPA and other bills give the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies more power to monitor problems, they all take voluntary approaches.</p>
<p>“Some of my colleagues have said nothing will change until something really bad happens,” said Peterson, whose consulting firm exposed vulnerabilities. “I’m hoping that’s not true.”</p>
<p>Q. What does the Obama administration want?</p>
<p>The White House has called for legislation that encourages private companies to notify government agencies after they’ve faced cyber intrusions, and recommends private companies secure their own systems against hackers. But the White House stops short of calling for mandatory cybersecurity standards for the private sector.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | lta hrefhttpwwwflickrcomphotos37313543n055841043355gtmichael cltagtflickr story first appeared propublica website last week department homeland security revealed rash cyber attacks natural gas pipeline companies previous cyber attacks infrastructure known physical damage security experts worry may matter time efforts protect pipelines critical systems halting despite broad agreement theyre vulnerable viruses like stuxnetthe mysterious worm caused havoc irans nuclear program two years ago frankensteinlike virus infected type industrial controller ubiquitousused around world everything pipelines electric grid experts say manufacturers havent fixed security flaws essential obscure devices hasnt done heres stuxnet remains top national security risk q stuxnet anyway stuxnet first made headlines burrowed computers controlled uranium centrifuges irans renegade nuclear program selfreplicating computer code usually transmitted flash drives anyone stick computer activated virus made irans centrifuges spin control making technicians think everything working normallythink scene bank heist movie robbers loop old security camera footage sneak vault q created whoever knows answer isnt tellingbut cybersecurity researchers iranian government vocal internet users believed two prime suspects us israeli governments q work stuxnet seeks little gray computers called programmable logic controllers plcs size shape carton cigarettes plcs used industrial settings pretzel factories nuclear power plants unfortunately security researchers say password requirements devices often weak creating openings stuxnet viruses exploit siemens made plcs ran irans centrifuges makers include modicon allen bradley introduced via computers running microsoft windows stuxnet looks plc control q big problem millions plcs use world siemens one top five vendors q iran siemens fix devices siemens released software tool users detect remove stuxnet virus encourages customers install fixes microsoft put windows system soon iran attack became public plcs programmed computers running windows also planning release new piece hardware plcs called communications processor make securethough unclear whether new processor fix specific problems stuxnet exploited meanwhile firm acknowledges plcs remain vulnerable statement propublica siemens said impossible guard every possible attack q siemens alone logic controllers made companies also flaws researchers nss labs security research firm pointed researchers consulting firm called digital bond drew attention problem earlier year released code targeting commonly used plcs using stuxnets techniques key vulnerability password strengthplcs connected corporate networks internet frequently left wide open digital bond ceo dale peterson says q makes systems tough protect like computer product industrial control systems bugs programmers cant foresee government officials security researchers say critical systems never connected internetthough frequently internet access convenient saves money companies operate water power transit systems q cost issue system manufacturers reluctant patch older versions products government private sector researchers said utility companies operators dont want shell money replace systems seem working fine dan auerbach electronic frontier foundation formerly security engineer google says pressure tech companies quickly release products sometimes trumps security theres incentive problem said q whats government department energy department homeland securitys computer emergency readiness team cert work infrastructure owners operators vendors prevent respond cyber threats researchers governmentfunded labs also assess threats recommend fixes government agencies cannotand attempt tocompel systems vendors fix bugs national cybersecurity regulation set eight standards approved federal energy regulatory commissionbut apply producers highvoltage electricity department energy audit last year concluded standards weak well implemented q congress weighing cybersecurity muchdebated issue leading bills including cyber intelligence sharing protection act would enable government private sector share threat information cispa bills give department homeland security agencies power monitor problems take voluntary approaches colleagues said nothing change something really bad happens said peterson whose consulting firm exposed vulnerabilities im hoping thats true q obama administration want white house called legislation encourages private companies notify government agencies theyve faced cyber intrusions recommends private companies secure systems hackers white house stops short calling mandatory cybersecurity standards private sector | 595 |
<p>A majority of the U.S. citizens get zero political representation for the taxes they pay. Of the 49 percent of the population that does vote in the general elections (with the advisory that as low as 20-25 percent may vote in mid-term elections, and less in local elections), another significant majority is barely remotely, and in highly mediated form, represented. Time allowing, of course; the Senators’ and Representatives’ time is excruciatingly precious and by necessity only a significantly small minority of it shall be spent with lesser voters.</p>
<p>Only a minority of the total population has any real political representation, and of that minority a tiny segment, as we all know, owns the politicians.</p>
<p>One would be amiss to suggest that we cannot build a movement around the very slogan that drove the American colonies to revolt and kick out the British overlords; that slogan being: No Taxation without Representation. So, let us call them on this. Let us serve them what they once dished out.</p>
<p>For out times, though, we reverse the formula and demand: Direct Representation for Taxation!</p>
<p>The current taxation system assumes people are imbeciles. We declare that people know very well how they want their money spent!</p>
<p>Let us start with a basic question: Who pays the taxes and who takes the cake?</p>
<p>While the percentages of taxes paid by the rich have been shrinking progressively over the decades, the amount extracted out of the majority of the population (the non-rich) has been kept pretty steady since the 1940s; the non-rich have always paid most of the taxes.</p>
<p>In newspaper articles published back in 2004, it was reported that: “[A Government Accounting Office] report showed that 61 percent of US corporations paid no federal income taxes from 1996 through 2000, a period of rapid economic growth and rising corporate profits,” (Boston Globe, April 11, 2004; emphasis added).</p>
<p>In the same article: “The percentage of federal tax collections paid by corporations has tumbled from a high of 39.8 percent in 1943 to a low of 7.4 percent last year [2003] But since World War II, the share paid by individual income tax filers has remained relatively stable, bouncing between 40 percent and 50 percent.”</p>
<p>In short, individuals like you and me have been paying the same amount of taxes steadily (i.e. most of the taxes), but those most able to pay have been getting non-stop tax breaks, and most, whenever they can, pay none.</p>
<p>Another basic question: What happens to our taxes? These days, taxes are spent mostly on tax cuts for the rich, on prisons, imperialist covert designs and open wars.</p>
<p>As reported in a December 11, 2005 New York Times article, “The price tag for protection against a Category 5 hurricane [for New Orleans], which would involve not just stronger and higher levees but also new drainage canals and environmental restoration, would very likely run to well over $32 billion That starting point represents just 1.2 percent of this year’s estimated $2.6 trillion in federal spending, which actually overstates the case, since the cost would be spread over many years. And it is barely one-third the cost of the $95 billion in tax cuts passed just last week by the House of Representatives.” To put it in another frame, the $32 billion cost to rebuild New Orleans’ levees equals roughly the money spent in a 16-week period to rape and pillage Iraq.</p>
<p>The rebuilding of New Orleans’ levees is merely one example among hundreds of cases where our taxes are expropriated, without any of us having any say over the criteria for spending it. There are colossal misappropriations as pertains to healthcare, education, infrastructural needs of all kinds, not to mention the environmental cleanups needed in cities across the U.S., and investment in local communities.</p>
<p>Has the reduction of taxes for these corporations, sixty percent of whom, again, may pay no taxes, created a better economy? Not by a long shot. More than 45 million U.S. citizens and millions of undocumented immigrants have no access to any healthcare. More than two million citizens are in prisons. More than 12 million families go hungry. Close to 18 percent of children under-18 live in poverty.</p>
<p>Adjusted against the real buying power of the dollar in 2006, the minimum wages for workers back in 1968 were $9.27 an hour, the highest ever since. With the new legislation passed in January of this year, minimum wages are to stand at $5.85 an hour now (and ‘raised’ to $7.25 by 2009). Meaning, today’s minimum wages get you 40 percent less stuff than it did nearly forty years ago!</p>
<p>In other words, the tax cuts for the rich have been good only for the economy of the rich people, and disastrous for the economy of the rest of us.</p>
<p>A modest proposal</p>
<p>In the 2006 Congressional elections, people of the United States, outraged at the direction of the foreign policy dictated supposedly merely by the Republicans occupying two of the three branches of the government, expressed their outrage by giving the Democrats a majority in both houses of the Congress, in the vain hope that things may change. What was the result? No change at all in the direction of the foreign policy, as relates to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.</p>
<p>Let us look at an alternative situation. What if, instead of the Congressional representatives, the people themselves had the power of the purse? If such a mechanism existed, those millions of U.S. citizens who are sick and tired of the lies told them by the politicians could have used that mechanism long before the 2006 Congressional elections to start cutting off the funding for the war.</p>
<p>This, of course, would not have stopped those who do support the war party from continuing to fund the pillaging and the raping of Iraq. However, with direct representation for taxation the anti-war party too would have been represented in the collective decision making process. As the political situation stands now, even when the people do vote anti-war, for example, their wishes are completely ignored; except when those wishes are taken into account for rhetorical fine-tuning to create a semblance that the people’s voices have been heard and people should just relax and leave everything to the politicians.</p>
<p>In a previous article, I suggested a re-conceptualization of the taxation system, proposing the following:</p>
<p>“We can demand a new system of taxation to be instituted, whereby every year, as people file their taxes they also file a ‘Priority List’, submitting to the government their instructions for spending their money. In other words, at the same time as they hand over their money they dictate to the government the order of priorities for the expenditure of their money. So, for example, when I hand over my money to the IRS, I likewise hand over my instructions to the effect that of the taxes I have paid, the government must spend 25% of it on education for immigrants who are not documented; 25% on the health of the same population; 20% on environmental clean up efforts in poor neighborhoods and towns; 10% on infrastructure building in poor neighborhoods and towns; 10% on research into diseases; and 10% on the proliferation of artistic activities among the children in all neighborhoods. Individuals can choose any number of priorities, and rank them in any percentage they deem necessary. If individuals so wished, they could even give any desirable percentage of their taxes to the victims of imperialism,” (Taxation or Racketeering, Online Journal, September17, 2005).</p>
<p>Those wishing to transfer fiscal decision-making powers to their Congressional representatives may do so. However, those who are more vigilant and wish to exercise a more intelligent form of political power by controlling how their money is spent may also wield their political power, and have a say in the political running of things.</p>
<p>What would be some of the consequences of such a system? First and foremost, we would transform the legislative representatives from masters they assume themselves to be, dictating to us how our money should be spent, to the public servants that they, theoretically, are supposed to be.</p>
<p>Second, such a system creates an electorate who is more involved, hence more intelligent, since more empowered to decide on questions regarding the expenditure of their taxes.</p>
<p>Third, such a system of taxation reflects more truthfully the collective and aggregate will of the people, and is a first step toward direct democracy; a system which is possible and, given our state of statistical sciences as well as technological capabilities, can be practically implemented.</p>
<p>Fourth, there will be an end to the fatalistic mentality encouraged by the ruling classes, who love to say, ‘There is no alternative!’ With the re-conceptualized taxation proposed above, people will have an actual mechanism to express their outrage and set things right, according to their own judgment and understanding as well as their ethics and morality. When, for example, people realize that they have been lied to and cheated in order send their sons and daughters as well as their money to start a war against an innocent population just so as to loot their resources, they can immediately stop their taxes from being used to fund such murderous projects. In short, there will be an end to “There Is No Alternative” mentality. People can indeed start to institute another world that is possible.</p>
<p>Plague on both their houses!</p>
<p>Next year we will see yet another round of buffoonery showcased by the Democrats who, in spite of the fact that they have been funding the sadistic aggression against the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan, not to forget the support for total and unconditional subjugation of the Palestinian people; in spite of all that, they will no doubt come out accusing the Republicans of lying to the people and ‘mishandling’ the ‘war on terror’, positioning themselves as better managers for the same policies as are pursued by the current administration.</p>
<p>The choice facing the true left is clear. The Left (with capital L) in the US, if it means business beyond remaining reactive forever, needs to create a unified, pluralistic, de-centralized political party for social justice that can present a realistic alternative to the business as usual. Such a party, I would argue modestly, can realistically present the idea of ‘Direct Representation for Taxation’, as a plank of its much larger platform.</p>
<p>Further, a party of the left that does mean business can become a mass party. The fact that more than half of the electorate does not vote is not a sign of their apathy but a sign of their intelligence, seeing the lie for what it is, and knowing that the ruling parties do not represent the interests of the people. So, let’s connect!</p>
<p>The question of taxation is one that every man and woman can relate to. The current taxation system is the equivalent of a shopping situation, in which the shopkeeper demanded and got whatever he thought he could get out of you, and in exchange gave whatever he cared to give you!</p>
<p>The move for a tax reform for direct representation can start at the ballot-initiative level, state by state, building at the grassroots; a grassroots that can slowly, yet with a growing and realistic confidence, demand a new taxation as a practical necessity; this can in turn transform the way political power is wielded: dispersed yet more representative.</p>
<p>This re-conceptualization of taxation can unite single-issue activists and organizations with those who aim for deep-structural, socio-economic change, as well as libertarians from both ends of the spectrum.</p>
<p>We need to change the terms of the debate. In this spirit, we can face the Establishment with a real challenge for real reform. Posed the right way, a platform based on taxation reform re-casts politics in a light that is avoided by all corrupt politicians and their direct or adjacent allies and lackeys in the media and the academia, since it brings back the economic dimension into the most political of all questions; the question of who decides where my money goes, after it’s collected in the form of taxes.</p>
<p>REZA FIYOUZAT can be reached at: <a href="mailto:rfiyouzat@yahoo.com" type="external">rfiyouzat@yahoo.com</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | majority us citizens get zero political representation taxes pay 49 percent population vote general elections advisory low 2025 percent may vote midterm elections less local elections another significant majority barely remotely highly mediated form represented time allowing course senators representatives time excruciatingly precious necessity significantly small minority shall spent lesser voters minority total population real political representation minority tiny segment know owns politicians one would amiss suggest build movement around slogan drove american colonies revolt kick british overlords slogan taxation without representation let us call let us serve dished times though reverse formula demand direct representation taxation current taxation system assumes people imbeciles declare people know well want money spent let us start basic question pays taxes takes cake percentages taxes paid rich shrinking progressively decades amount extracted majority population nonrich kept pretty steady since 1940s nonrich always paid taxes newspaper articles published back 2004 reported government accounting office report showed 61 percent us corporations paid federal income taxes 1996 2000 period rapid economic growth rising corporate profits boston globe april 11 2004 emphasis added article percentage federal tax collections paid corporations tumbled high 398 percent 1943 low 74 percent last year 2003 since world war ii share paid individual income tax filers remained relatively stable bouncing 40 percent 50 percent short individuals like paying amount taxes steadily ie taxes able pay getting nonstop tax breaks whenever pay none another basic question happens taxes days taxes spent mostly tax cuts rich prisons imperialist covert designs open wars reported december 11 2005 new york times article price tag protection category 5 hurricane new orleans would involve stronger higher levees also new drainage canals environmental restoration would likely run well 32 billion starting point represents 12 percent years estimated 26 trillion federal spending actually overstates case since cost would spread many years barely onethird cost 95 billion tax cuts passed last week house representatives put another frame 32 billion cost rebuild new orleans levees equals roughly money spent 16week period rape pillage iraq rebuilding new orleans levees merely one example among hundreds cases taxes expropriated without us say criteria spending colossal misappropriations pertains healthcare education infrastructural needs kinds mention environmental cleanups needed cities across us investment local communities reduction taxes corporations sixty percent may pay taxes created better economy long shot 45 million us citizens millions undocumented immigrants access healthcare two million citizens prisons 12 million families go hungry close 18 percent children under18 live poverty adjusted real buying power dollar 2006 minimum wages workers back 1968 927 hour highest ever since new legislation passed january year minimum wages stand 585 hour raised 725 2009 meaning todays minimum wages get 40 percent less stuff nearly forty years ago words tax cuts rich good economy rich people disastrous economy rest us modest proposal 2006 congressional elections people united states outraged direction foreign policy dictated supposedly merely republicans occupying two three branches government expressed outrage giving democrats majority houses congress vain hope things may change result change direction foreign policy relates wars iraq afghanistan let us look alternative situation instead congressional representatives people power purse mechanism existed millions us citizens sick tired lies told politicians could used mechanism long 2006 congressional elections start cutting funding war course would stopped support war party continuing fund pillaging raping iraq however direct representation taxation antiwar party would represented collective decision making process political situation stands even people vote antiwar example wishes completely ignored except wishes taken account rhetorical finetuning create semblance peoples voices heard people relax leave everything politicians previous article suggested reconceptualization taxation system proposing following demand new system taxation instituted whereby every year people file taxes also file priority list submitting government instructions spending money words time hand money dictate government order priorities expenditure money example hand money irs likewise hand instructions effect taxes paid government must spend 25 education immigrants documented 25 health population 20 environmental clean efforts poor neighborhoods towns 10 infrastructure building poor neighborhoods towns 10 research diseases 10 proliferation artistic activities among children neighborhoods individuals choose number priorities rank percentage deem necessary individuals wished could even give desirable percentage taxes victims imperialism taxation racketeering online journal september17 2005 wishing transfer fiscal decisionmaking powers congressional representatives may however vigilant wish exercise intelligent form political power controlling money spent may also wield political power say political running things would consequences system first foremost would transform legislative representatives masters assume dictating us money spent public servants theoretically supposed second system creates electorate involved hence intelligent since empowered decide questions regarding expenditure taxes third system taxation reflects truthfully collective aggregate people first step toward direct democracy system possible given state statistical sciences well technological capabilities practically implemented fourth end fatalistic mentality encouraged ruling classes love say alternative reconceptualized taxation proposed people actual mechanism express outrage set things right according judgment understanding well ethics morality example people realize lied cheated order send sons daughters well money start war innocent population loot resources immediately stop taxes used fund murderous projects short end alternative mentality people indeed start institute another world possible plague houses next year see yet another round buffoonery showcased democrats spite fact funding sadistic aggression peoples iraq afghanistan forget support total unconditional subjugation palestinian people spite doubt come accusing republicans lying people mishandling war terror positioning better managers policies pursued current administration choice facing true left clear left capital l us means business beyond remaining reactive forever needs create unified pluralistic decentralized political party social justice present realistic alternative business usual party would argue modestly realistically present idea direct representation taxation plank much larger platform party left mean business become mass party fact half electorate vote sign apathy sign intelligence seeing lie knowing ruling parties represent interests people lets connect question taxation one every man woman relate current taxation system equivalent shopping situation shopkeeper demanded got whatever thought could get exchange gave whatever cared give move tax reform direct representation start ballotinitiative level state state building grassroots grassroots slowly yet growing realistic confidence demand new taxation practical necessity turn transform way political power wielded dispersed yet representative reconceptualization taxation unite singleissue activists organizations aim deepstructural socioeconomic change well libertarians ends spectrum need change terms debate spirit face establishment real challenge real reform posed right way platform based taxation reform recasts politics light avoided corrupt politicians direct adjacent allies lackeys media academia since brings back economic dimension political questions question decides money goes collected form taxes reza fiyouzat reached rfiyouzatyahoocom 160 160 | 1,066 |
<p>After a high-profile police killing and scathing Department of Justice investigation into its practices, the Baltimore Police Department is back in the news for the most unsavory reasons: an officer’s body camera footage that appears to show him planting drugs at the scene of an arrest.</p>
<p>The city’s troubled police force is still struggling to put aside the controversy over the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/freddie-gray-trial-problems_us_5798feb1e4b02d5d5ed3ed67" type="external">April 2015 death of Freddie Gray</a>. In that awful incident, the 25-year-old black man died in police custody after being arrested. The case sparked outrage among activists, largely because video footage showed aggressive police handling of Gray before he died a week later of spinal cord injuries.</p>
<p>Six officers faced charges in connection with his death. None of the officers were convicted, as their trials ended either in a hung jury, not guilty verdicts or being dropped after state’s attorneys were unable to proceed with prosecutions. Through it all, however, the entire episode sparked days of rioting, drew negative international attention to the city, and focused a harsh spotlight on a police force with <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-freddie-gray-police-brutality-20150503-story.html" type="external">a history of abusive behavior directed toward black Baltimore residents.</a></p>
<p>Worse, an Obama administration investigation found last year that Baltimore police disproportionately targeted African Americans for criminal activity. Justice Department officials released a <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3009376/BPD-Findings-Report-FINAL.pdf" type="external">harsh 163-page report</a>, showing the “pattern and practices” of racial differences in stops, searches, and arrests in Charm City were so prevalent as to be “intentional discrimination.”</p>
<p>Of all the places in the United States, Baltimore is last one that anyone should suspect of fresh police misbehavior. Wrong.</p>
<p>Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis <a href="https://www.pscp.tv/w/1OdKrorLOPvGX" type="external">said earlier this week during a news conference</a> that his internal affairs department is looking to what appears to be video footage captured on January 24 of an officer planting illicit drugs at a crime scene.</p>
<p>“This is a serious allegation of police misconduct,” Davis said. “There is nothing that deteriorates the trust of any community more than thinking for one second that uniformed police officers, or police officers in general, would plant evidence of crimes on citizens.”</p>
<p>Indeed, no one might have known anything other than the Baltimore officers’ cinema verite of their drug bust, if the <a href="http://www.opd.state.md.us/Portals/0/Downloads/articles/OPD%20police%20misconduct%20video%20press%20release%207-19-17.pdf" type="external">public defenders’ office</a> hadn’t turned over the uncut version to state authorities. Lawyers representing the unnamed Baltimore man, who had been held in jail since his arrest at the time of the purported drug bust, used the whole video to have their client released last week.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/opi1nq800bfw636/Pinheiro%2C%20Richard_8170110147_2200_Ea%20gle_St_Cds_Arrest.mp4?dl=0" type="external">In the video</a>, Officer Richard Pinheiro can be seen standing in the debris-filled backyard of a row house with two other police officers. At the start of the footage, Pinheiro holds a soup can with a clear plastic bag stuffed into it. He puts the can under some of the trash and leads his partners away from the spot through a narrow access alley to the sidewalk on the front of the house. Pinheiro, then, turns on his his body-cam and shouts to his fellow officers that he’s going to inspect the backyard.</p>
<p>“I’m gonna go check here, hold on,” the officer is heard to say. Once in the backyard, he’s seen picking up the soup can, pulling out the plastic baggie and showing it to the camera. “Yo,” he shouts to the other officers. “Hold up.”</p>
<p>What appeared to be good police work was undone by the officer apparently forgetting or being unaware that the body cam had recorded his earlier actions — the initial placement of the drugs in the soup can. According to a <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-body-camera-footage-20170719-story.html" type="external">report in the Baltimore Sun</a>, “police cameras have a feature that saves the 30 seconds of video before activation, but without audio.”</p>
<p>Busted. Or so it seems. Pinheiro has been suspended and two of his partners are on administrative duty, police said, as the incident is being investigated.</p>
<p>“I’m not saying that there was a re-creation of the discovery of the drugs,” Davis said. “But it’s certainly a possibility that we’re looking into, to see if the officers in fact replaced drugs that they had already discovered, in order to document their discovery with their body-worn cameras on.”</p>
<p>A culture of racism, violence, and cover-ups is flourishing.</p>
<p>A critical takeaway from this sordid example of shoddy police work is that high-tech policing — specifically body cameras — will keep police honest as they go about their dangerous duties.</p>
<p>Wrong, again.</p>
<p>If used properly, body cameras offer a window into the rigorous procedures citizens expect of those sworn to protect and serve. Indeed, the ACLU has led the fight to expand police use of the devices, going so far as to herald their use in a <a href="https://www.aclu.org/other/police-body-mounted-cameras-right-policies-place-win-all" type="external">2015 repor</a>t that called them “a win-win, helping protect the public against police misconduct, and at the same time helping protect police against false accusations of abuse.”</p>
<p>But that’s only true if they’re used properly. In fact, all too often the cameras aren’t functioning when they’re most needed. Last year, a Charlotte, North Carolina police officer turned on his body-cam after only <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/09/26/charlotte-officer-did-not-activate-body-camera-until-after-keith-scott-had-been-shot-2/?utm_term=.caa5baa82d35" type="external">after his fatal shooting of Keith Scott</a>, a violation of department procedures that call for switching on the camera as soon as an officer responds to a call.</p>
<p>More recently, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/07/20/minneapolis-mayor-says-its-unacceptable-no-police-body-camera-captured-an-officer-fatally-shooting-justine-damond/?utm_term=.8f257176d330" type="external">Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges complained in a blog post</a> that it was “unacceptable” that there’s no body camera footage of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/07/19/australian-woman-fatally-shot-by-minneapolis-police-called-911-twice-to-report-hearing-a-possible-rape/?utm_term=.b0a0e4d23537" type="external">fatal police shooting of an Australian woman</a> in her city last weekend, another case that has drawn <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/07/17/an-australian-family-tries-to-understand-why-an-american-police-officer-killed-their-daughter/?tid=a_inl&amp;utm_term=.3e68feefd64a" type="external">international scrutiny</a> and criticism.</p>
<p>As each of these incidents painfully demonstrate, in the hands of unscrupulous or careless officers, body cameras aren’t magic bullets to guarantee police accountability. Video can be manipulated to tell a lie. Technology is a tool; it will never be as effective a substitute for solid, reputable and honest policing.</p> | true | 4 | highprofile police killing scathing department justice investigation practices baltimore police department back news unsavory reasons officers body camera footage appears show planting drugs scene arrest citys troubled police force still struggling put aside controversy april 2015 death freddie gray awful incident 25yearold black man died police custody arrested case sparked outrage among activists largely video footage showed aggressive police handling gray died week later spinal cord injuries six officers faced charges connection death none officers convicted trials ended either hung jury guilty verdicts dropped states attorneys unable proceed prosecutions however entire episode sparked days rioting drew negative international attention city focused harsh spotlight police force history abusive behavior directed toward black baltimore residents worse obama administration investigation found last year baltimore police disproportionately targeted african americans criminal activity justice department officials released harsh 163page report showing pattern practices racial differences stops searches arrests charm city prevalent intentional discrimination places united states baltimore last one anyone suspect fresh police misbehavior wrong baltimore police commissioner kevin davis said earlier week news conference internal affairs department looking appears video footage captured january 24 officer planting illicit drugs crime scene serious allegation police misconduct davis said nothing deteriorates trust community thinking one second uniformed police officers police officers general would plant evidence crimes citizens indeed one might known anything baltimore officers cinema verite drug bust public defenders office hadnt turned uncut version state authorities lawyers representing unnamed baltimore man held jail since arrest time purported drug bust used whole video client released last week video officer richard pinheiro seen standing debrisfilled backyard row house two police officers start footage pinheiro holds soup clear plastic bag stuffed puts trash leads partners away spot narrow access alley sidewalk front house pinheiro turns bodycam shouts fellow officers hes going inspect backyard im gon na go check hold officer heard say backyard hes seen picking soup pulling plastic baggie showing camera yo shouts officers hold appeared good police work undone officer apparently forgetting unaware body cam recorded earlier actions initial placement drugs soup according report baltimore sun police cameras feature saves 30 seconds video activation without audio busted seems pinheiro suspended two partners administrative duty police said incident investigated im saying recreation discovery drugs davis said certainly possibility looking see officers fact replaced drugs already discovered order document discovery bodyworn cameras culture racism violence coverups flourishing critical takeaway sordid example shoddy police work hightech policing specifically body cameras keep police honest go dangerous duties wrong used properly body cameras offer window rigorous procedures citizens expect sworn protect serve indeed aclu led fight expand police use devices going far herald use 2015 report called winwin helping protect public police misconduct time helping protect police false accusations abuse thats true theyre used properly fact often cameras arent functioning theyre needed last year charlotte north carolina police officer turned bodycam fatal shooting keith scott violation department procedures call switching camera soon officer responds call recently minneapolis mayor betsy hodges complained blog post unacceptable theres body camera footage fatal police shooting australian woman city last weekend another case drawn international scrutiny criticism incidents painfully demonstrate hands unscrupulous careless officers body cameras arent magic bullets guarantee police accountability video manipulated tell lie technology tool never effective substitute solid reputable honest policing | 538 |
<p>From USA Today (8/13/13): Turns out the skeptics were right.</p>
<p>Skeptics said it wouldn’t last, and they were right.</p>
<p>Al Jazeera America launched in the summer of 2013, a spin-off of the Doha-based channel’s English version to specifically target a United States audience. For the last decade, Al Jazeera had built what some might consider the one of the most coveted of journalistic reputations: It was considered anti-American and anti-Zionist in the US, while Arab governments saw its stories as pure Western propaganda. By the time of the Arab Spring, Al Jazeera English became indispensable for anyone in the United States who wanted to know what was going on.</p>
<p>Having poached English language talent from other news providers, English-language service could no longer be ignored in North America. In a market where television news is saturated with screaming pundits and websites that spend more time on aggregation and the click-hungry hot takes, a new channel dedicated to covering US issues and the world with a cold and serious eye seemed like a worthy gamble. Al Jazeera America would soon close. And while some employees could migrate into the network’s expanded digital operations, many will spend the coming days and weeks looking for new work.</p>
<p>The news comes as Al Jazeera primary patron, the Qatari government, enters a financial downturn; it will have its first budget deficit in 15 years. AJAM always struggled with low ratings; as the New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/06/business/media/al-jazeera-network-in-turmoil-is-now-the-news.html?_r=0" type="external">reported</a> last May, “The station has been a nonfactor in news, drawing about 30,000 viewers a night.” And while its online presence has been expansive, that still isn’t what brings home the proverbial bacon. Al Jazeera English always struggled to get onto US cable service, and so too was it difficult for AJAM—not to mention that especially for younger viewers, more and more news is consumed online rather than through traditional cable. People aren’t sitting at home waiting for the nightly news anymore—they’re getting their information on their phones throughout the day.</p>
<p>(cc image: Mike Licht via <a href="http://www.freepress.net/blog/2013/08/22/good-luck-trying-watch-al-jazeera-america" type="external">Free Press</a>)</p>
<p>All news organizations have their institutional problems, their insufferable office politics where reporters have to battle favoritism and petty bean counters, and according to many who work there and who worked there in the past, Al Jazeera America was no different. There’s no sense lamenting it as some angelic institution that couldn’t hack it a septic American media market.</p>
<p>But if AJAM gave us one thing in its brief life in the United States, it was a dedication to covering economic inequality and the growing opposition to it in the wake of Occupy Wall Street. It seems contradictory that a news organization made possible almost entirely by a petrol monarchy would be the go-to source for economic progressives, but its editors, especially opinion editor David Johnson (formerly of the Boston Review), focused almost laser-like on a mission to promote stories about the widening wealth gap in the United States and the monopolistic grip American tycoons had on political power.</p>
<p>This gave it the ability to lift voices large and small, from former New York Times reporter <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/profiles/j/david-cay-johnston.html" type="external">David Cay Johnston</a> and economist <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/profiles/b/dean-baker.html" type="external">Dean Baker</a> to labor reporters like <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/profiles/r/ned-resnikoff.html" type="external">Ned Resnikoff</a>, who came from MSNBC, and <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/profiles/a/paul-abowd.html" type="external">Paul Abowd</a>, an associate producer at AJAM’s show Fault Lines, who got his start at Labor Notes, the scrappy radical journal that reports from the perspective of rank-and-file workers demanding more militancy and democracy in their unions. <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/profiles/p/ari-paul.html" type="external">Yours truly</a> has been a frequent contributor; in fact, my last article ( <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2016/1/a-grim-day-for-unions-could-come-with-opportunities.html" type="external">1/12/16</a>), about a Supreme Court case affecting public sector unions, was published the day before news of the channel’s demise was announced. In a media-scape where its still difficult to mention class consciousness, this was indeed a radical development.</p>
<p />
<p>It’s easy to dismiss that by saying not many Americans outside of educated, worldly circles in big cities and university towns tuned in. But it’s not that simple. Al Jazeera America’s presence never went unnoticed by other news organizations like MSNBC or even the New York Times, eager to expand its digital presence, giving AJAM competitive influence in the American media world. More than that, it provided real jobs for journalists with class consciousness and a critical eye when it came to US foreign policy. A decade ago, many of these writers would have real job options. Now, in a world where even the venerable McClatchy family of newspapers is <a href="http://www.poynter.org/2015/mcclatchy-to-shutter-foreign-bureaus-in-reorganization-of-d-c-operation/378166/" type="external">shuttering</a> its foreign bureaus, hope seems far off.</p>
<p />
<p>The fall is also a major setback for media unions in what has been widely seen as their renaissance in the digital age. The NewsGuild of New York, a Communications Workers of America affiliate, organized the shop last year, which along with new bargaining units at Salon and Gawker seemed to show that media unions were growing with the changing landscape. Alas, one of the Guild’s landmark shops will close down before it even had the chance to settle a contract. That also means the union means little to those facing layoffs. The union gave few specifics of what it could do for those facing unemployment, other than that it will “vigorously advocate for them in the coming months.”</p>
<p>Perhaps there’s a little bit of hope that American news consumers will have more access to the digital output of Al Jazeera English, which also has many talented journalists. But, again, it will feel a bit more like an imported product, a service produced overseas because we Americans can’t create something sophisticated as that on our own.</p>
<p />
<p>In a sense, that’s what made Al Jazeera America so special. It was American. And that will be missed, because it was so necessary.</p>
<p>Ari Paul has reported for the Nation, the Guardian, the Forward, the Brooklyn Rail, Vice News, In These Times, Jacobin and many other outlets.&#160;</p> | true | 4 | usa today 81313 turns skeptics right skeptics said wouldnt last right al jazeera america launched summer 2013 spinoff dohabased channels english version specifically target united states audience last decade al jazeera built might consider one coveted journalistic reputations considered antiamerican antizionist us arab governments saw stories pure western propaganda time arab spring al jazeera english became indispensable anyone united states wanted know going poached english language talent news providers englishlanguage service could longer ignored north america market television news saturated screaming pundits websites spend time aggregation clickhungry hot takes new channel dedicated covering us issues world cold serious eye seemed like worthy gamble al jazeera america would soon close employees could migrate networks expanded digital operations many spend coming days weeks looking new work news comes al jazeera primary patron qatari government enters financial downturn first budget deficit 15 years ajam always struggled low ratings new york times reported last may station nonfactor news drawing 30000 viewers night online presence expansive still isnt brings home proverbial bacon al jazeera english always struggled get onto us cable service difficult ajamnot mention especially younger viewers news consumed online rather traditional cable people arent sitting home waiting nightly news anymoretheyre getting information phones throughout day cc image mike licht via free press news organizations institutional problems insufferable office politics reporters battle favoritism petty bean counters according many work worked past al jazeera america different theres sense lamenting angelic institution couldnt hack septic american media market ajam gave us one thing brief life united states dedication covering economic inequality growing opposition wake occupy wall street seems contradictory news organization made possible almost entirely petrol monarchy would goto source economic progressives editors especially opinion editor david johnson formerly boston review focused almost laserlike mission promote stories widening wealth gap united states monopolistic grip american tycoons political power gave ability lift voices large small former new york times reporter david cay johnston economist dean baker labor reporters like ned resnikoff came msnbc paul abowd associate producer ajams show fault lines got start labor notes scrappy radical journal reports perspective rankandfile workers demanding militancy democracy unions truly frequent contributor fact last article 11216 supreme court case affecting public sector unions published day news channels demise announced mediascape still difficult mention class consciousness indeed radical development easy dismiss saying many americans outside educated worldly circles big cities university towns tuned simple al jazeera americas presence never went unnoticed news organizations like msnbc even new york times eager expand digital presence giving ajam competitive influence american media world provided real jobs journalists class consciousness critical eye came us foreign policy decade ago many writers would real job options world even venerable mcclatchy family newspapers shuttering foreign bureaus hope seems far fall also major setback media unions widely seen renaissance digital age newsguild new york communications workers america affiliate organized shop last year along new bargaining units salon gawker seemed show media unions growing changing landscape alas one guilds landmark shops close even chance settle contract also means union means little facing layoffs union gave specifics could facing unemployment vigorously advocate coming months perhaps theres little bit hope american news consumers access digital output al jazeera english also many talented journalists feel bit like imported product service produced overseas americans cant create something sophisticated sense thats made al jazeera america special american missed necessary ari paul reported nation guardian forward brooklyn rail vice news times jacobin many outlets160 | 568 |
<p>Building the largest possible movement to not only tackle the immense, and intensifying, problems facing humanity and the environment but to overcome these problems is our urgent task. Given the position the Left finds itself in today, serious discussions inevitably include a variety of perspectives, and that is healthy.</p>
<p>But sometimes these discussions can veer too far into an “either/or” dynamic. These debates center on who should be the subject(s) of a mass movement that can begin to reverse the European and North American slide toward the right, a direction that, at least for now, appears to be sweeping across Latin America as well. In the United States, following the <a href="" type="internal">shock election of Donald Trump</a>, an “either/or” debate has taken shape in the form of “identity politics” versus “class politics.” But do we really have to pick a side here?</p>
<p>An example of an activist arguing that there has been too much focus in the U.S. on “identity politics,” Bruce Lerro, writing for the Planning Beyond Capitalism web site, argues that both the Democratic Party and the Left ignored working class concerns, catastrophically leaving an opening for a right-wing demagogue like President-elect Trump to fill a vacuum. Critical of what he calls a capitulation to “long-standing liberal ideology [that] all ethnicities and genders will be able to compete for a piece of the capitalist pie,” <a href="http://planningbeyondcapitalism.org/anti-trump-new-left-continues-crypto-identity-politics/" type="external">Professor Lerro writes</a>:</p>
<p>“Calling people into the streets on the basis of attacks on ethnic minorities or anti-Islamic remarks alone ignores the results of the election. It reveals the left’s inadequacy in having next to no influence over all the working class people who voted for Trump as well as the 47% of the people who didn’t bother to vote at all. It continues the same 45 year history of identity politics which has failed to make things better for its constituents, except for all upper middle class minorities and women in law and university professors who benefit most from identity politics and who moralistically preside over politically correct vocabulary.”</p>
<p>It is true that liberal ideology tends to fight for the ability of minorities and women to be able to obtain elite jobs as ends to themselves rather than orient toward a larger struggle against systemic inequality and oppression. Leaving capitalism untouched leaves behind all but a handful of people who ascend to elite jobs. Barack Obama’s eight years as U.S. president didn’t end racism, did it? Nor would have a successful Hillary Clinton campaign have brought an end to sexism. A movement serious about change fights structural discrimination; it doesn’t fight for a few individuals to have a career.</p>
<p>“In criticizing identity politics I am not proposing that race and gender issues should not be discussed or that they don’t matter. My criticism of identity politics is that it has historically excluded social class. From an anti-capitalist and socialist perspective, race and gender are most importantly discussed at the location where capitalists produce surplus labor — on the job. So where there is white privilege over wages or the quality of jobs offered, this issue should be discussed openly by workers in and out of a union setting. At the same time, when we are organizing against capitalism and developing a socialist political practice, race and gender issues as they affect socialist organizing, need to be confronted. But the further away discussions of race and gender get from social class, the workplace and efforts to organize against capitalism and for socialism, the more they becomes discussions for liberals — not socialists.”</p>
<p>Racism and sexism in our own movements</p>
<p>Racism and sexism, however, are found outside the workplace, and have not been eradicated from social struggles. Certainly there can not be any going back to the open sexism of 1960s movements. There was a prominent demonstration of that era in which no women were invited to speak, and a group of women in response confronted men organizing the event about this, insisting that their demands be included. In response, one of the men told them that there was already a women’s resolution, which was simply a general plea for peace. Demanding that issues specific to women’s oppression be included, the male activist not only refused further discussion, but actually patted Shulamith Firestone, soon to be the author of The Dialectic of Sex, on the head!</p>
<p>Such degrading behavior would not be tolerated in a Left movement today, but it can hardly be argued that sexism (or racism) has been overcome once and for all in Left movements, never mind in larger society. The days when a Left movement can tell a member of an oppressed group to “wait your turn, it’ll all be better after we have the revolution,” really should be behind us.</p>
<p>Even after a revolution, these issues have to be worked on. Women, for example, made serious advances in the 20th century’s socialist revolutions but <a href="" type="internal">never sufficient advances</a>, and there was often backsliding. The Sandinistas banned the display of women’s bodies in commercial advertising after coming to power in Nicaragua, but near the end of their first 11 years in power sponsored a beauty contest, nor did they legalize abortion. No woman sat on the Sandinistas’ highest body, the nine-member National Directorate, during those 11 years despite their fighting in large numbers, and even commanding, during the hard struggle against the Somoza dictatorship. No woman ever sat on the Politburo during the Soviet Union’s 74-year history.</p>
<p>Working people are oppressed, but not all to the same degree</p>
<p>The world’s advanced capitalist countries are far from a revolution, so all the more is it necessary to seriously make structural discrimination a component part of Left struggles, without forgetting the class dimension any such struggle must contain. In a typically thoughtful article in CounterPunch, Henry Giroux, while not losing sight of class issues, and the overall repression of working people under neoliberal regimes, refused to downplay the extra repression that rains down on minority communities. <a href="" type="internal">He wrote</a>:</p>
<p>“Large segments of the American public, especially minorities of class and color, have been written out of politics over what they view as a failed state and the inability of the basic machinery of government to serve their interests. As market mentalities and moralities tighten their grip on all aspects of society, democratic institutions and public spheres are being downsized, if not altogether disappearing.</p>
<p>As these institutions vanish—from public schools to health care centers– there is also a serious erosion of the discourses of community, justice, equality, public values, and the common good. With the election of Donald Trump, the savagery of neoliberalism has been intensified with the emergence at the highest levels of power of a toxic mix of anti-intellectualism, religious fundamentalism, nativism, and a renewed notion of American exceptionalism.”</p>
<p>Professor Giroux argues against a focus on what he calls “single-issue movements” but not in the sense of dismissing liberation movements based on specific oppressions, but rather argues for a joining together of struggles through drawing the connections among various social movements. He writes:</p>
<p>“Central to viable notion of ideological and structural transformation is a refusal of the mainstream politics of disconnect. In its place is a plea for broader social movements and a more comprehensive understanding of politics in order to connect the dots between, for instance, police brutality and mass incarceration, on the one hand, and the diverse crises producing massive poverty, the destruction of the welfare state, and the assaults on the environment, workers, young people and women. …</p>
<p>Crucial to rethinking the space and meaning of the political imaginary is the need to reach across specific identities and to move beyond around single-issue movements and their specific agendas. This is not a matter of dismissing such movements, but creating new alliances that allow them to become stronger in the fight to not only succeed in advancing their specific concerns but also enlarging the possibility of developing a radical democracy that benefits not just specific but general interests.”</p>
<p>Economic issues aren’t separate from other issues</p>
<p>All working people are exploited under capitalism. It would be the height of folly to sideline this fundamental commonality. But the levels of exploitation, and the intensity of direct oppression, varies widely and it would be folly to ignore this as well. Those subject to higher (often far higher) levels of discrimination have every right to focus on their own emancipation, and those in more privileged positions have an obligation to support those emancipations. Further, the perpetuation of class oppression central to capitalism depends on deep divisions within the working class, not only in terms of setting different groups at each other’s throats but in providing relatively better pay and conditions to some so that the more privileged set themselves apart from the less privileged, reinforcing hierarchies that maintain divisions among working peoples.</p>
<p>Therefore it is self-defeating to attempt to downplay racial, sexual and other divisions in an effort to “concentrate” on economic issues, as if these are somehow separate from other issues. In a very thoughtful essay dealing with the roles of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in dampening activism and propping up the system they purport to critique, Sophia Burns goes on to argue that no fight against capitalist exploitation can succeed without women and People of Color playing central roles. If they are playing central roles, then the fight for their specific emancipations is central to the struggle.</p>
<p>Her discussion merits being quoted at length. Writing in The North Star, <a href="" type="internal">she argues</a>:</p>
<p>“There’s an implicit notion that members of more privileged groups (men, whites, straights, etc) do not meaningfully stand to benefit from doing away with racism, sexism, etc. That underlies the moralistic connotations of ‘allyship’ — you support struggles in which you yourself have no personal stake, because that’s what an ethical person would do. Now, if you’re middle-class, that assumption is basically true. You aren’t part of the ruling class, but you have a degree of security, comfort, and control over your life. If you’re middle-class and white male, then pro-male or pro-white inequalities are&#160;pretty unambiguously good for you. So, the only reason you’d oppose them would have to be ethics, not self-interest.</p>
<p>But the working class has neither power nor security under capitalism. The fact that different parts of the working class are treated comparatively better or worse along racial, gender, etc lines does not change the fact that the whole class is&#160;exploited, oppressed, and ultimately powerless. However, white workers, male workers, and straight workers could not possibly defeat the ruling class alone. After all, it’s the middle class that is disproportionately white, male, etc — the working class has more people of color, women, and social minorities in general than other classes do. White men are only around 1/3 of the total US population, and an even smaller portion of the working class. So, because racism, sexism, etc exist within the class system and (combined together) directly oppress the large bulk of the working class, no working-class politics that rejects or ignores them has the ability to succeed. They’re components of the operation of the class system in practice, serving both to allow extra-high exploitation of female and non-white workers and to undercut the political potential of the class as a whole, which deepens all workers’ exploitation.</p>
<p>Racism and sexism are components of capitalism, and all ‘capitalism’ means is the exploitation by business owners of everyone else. So, when a white male worker understands capitalism as a class system that exploits the class of which he is&#160;part,&#160;it’s only through externally-imposed propaganda that he’s convinced that he has no stake in getting rid of racism and sexism. Economics is not a separate issue floating alongside others. Nothing that exists in capitalism is outside of capitalism.”</p>
<p>From the standpoint of the relationship to the means of production, white-collar middle class employees, as commonly defined, are of the same class as a blue-collar assembly-line laborer. Both are exploited economically in the same way, being paid a small fraction of the value of they produce. Nonetheless, it is indisputable that such middle-class workers (even if more properly understood as a strata within a working class that includes the vast majority of humanity) are privileged compared to other workers, and that their composition will be more heavily weighted toward dominant racial, ethnic or other groups in a given capitalist society, with the nastier and lower-paid jobs disproportionally held by disadvantaged groups.</p>
<p>Struggles against chauvinism are not an adjunct</p>
<p>The pervasive propaganda that denies that capitalism is exploitative or even refuses to acknowledge the different opportunities among different groups “is not a class-free worldview, but rather a worldview that’s natural for the middle class and that gets promoted because it serves the ruling class,” Ms. Burns writes. Thus, she argues, a false opposition is created between economics and other issues.</p>
<p>“Of course, because sexist and racist&#160;ideas receive the massive institutional sponsorship&#160;they do, working-class whites do have deep-seated racist notions and working-class men are often profoundly chauvinistic. The struggle against such beliefs and practices, even (in fact, especially) when they manifest within the working class, is not an adjunct to class struggle. It’s a central and necessary part of it. But when activist nonprofits and their supporters use an exaggerated account of working-class bigotry to dismiss working-class politics and a class struggle worldview entirely, they aren’t benevolently defending the marginalized. They are playing a useful role for&#160;the system that brings bigotry and privilege&#160;into being.</p>
<p>Neighborhood and workplace organizing, inside&#160;the working class and outside of the activist subculture, must include breaking down racism and sexism, within the class and everywhere else. But the self-interest&#160;of each part of a class is in the ultimate self-interest of the entire class. Even white male workers have a material stake in abolishing white and male privilege, despite the fact that it’s a long-term interest&#160;that isn’t acknowledged by mainstream ideas. Middle-class white men, of course, do not have that same stake. If a socialist movement is healthy, it’s not a middle-class affair.”</p>
<p>Let’s take this discussion a step further. Should we even use the term “identity politics”? Susan Cox, speaking on the <a href="https://twitter.com/joyofresistance" type="external">Joy of Resistance: Multicultural Feminist Radio</a> program on December 4, argued that being female is not an identity but rather is a material reality, and one of the most foundational realities that define the world’s social organization. She pointed out that women’s unpaid domestic labor props up the entire capitalist economic system. Defining feminism as a movement with a goal of global resistance wrenches it from the idea that it is an individualistic, lifestyle choice.</p>
<p>Further discussing this issue in an article in Feminist Current, <a href="" type="internal">Ms. Cox wrote:</a></p>
<p>“One would think being half of the damn population would make us more than some minor, divisive concern.</p>
<p>Women’s issues have been labelled “identity politics” for decades in order to belittle the feminist cause as politically unsubstantial/unimportant. In fact, the term first became prominent in American academia during its anti-Marxist ’80s in order to describe women as a fragmented group of individuals, rather than a class of persons with common class interests.”</p>
<p>It is reasonable to dispute the use of the term “class” in this context, but it should be indisputable that women face a particular oppression, one that although predating capitalism has long been an essential prop for maintaining capitalism. Racism is also necessary to maintain capitalism, and thus fighting it can never be an adjunct to a broad struggle for a better world.</p>
<p>Dismissing all those who voted for Donald Trump as bigots, “deplorables” or ignorant is not only simplistic and mistaken, it is bad practice. Some who voted for him can be described in such terms, but plenty voted for him, <a href="" type="internal">however mistakenly</a>, out of a belief that he would bring back their jobs and because he represented, in their minds, “change.” Some Trump voters previously voted for Barack Obama — such folks can hardly be described as racists. Similarly, in France, many now supporting the National Front formerly supported the Socialist Party or the Communist Party. The United Kingdom Independence Party, however ridiculous we might find its name, is peeling off supporters from Labour.</p>
<p>Again, those trends do not mean there is no racism in such movements; that plenty of such exists is obvious. But economic insecurity is driving the rise of far right movements on more than one continent. Establishment politics has failed working people, and working people, including those without higher education, know it. They live it. At the same time, the far right movements that are gaining support among working people tap into the racism, nationalism, sexism and anti-Semitism that both exists within working classes (reflecting the whole of society) and is an inculcated weapon of division launched by elites who have every interest in our not uniting.</p>
<p>To “choose” between class politics and identity politics is a false choice. We are defeating ourselves if we decide to separate interrelated struggles and then debate which is the “proper” one. A multitude of tactics are just as necessary as fighting on multiple fronts, taking on the multiplicity of interconnected issues.</p> | true | 4 | building largest possible movement tackle immense intensifying problems facing humanity environment overcome problems urgent task given position left finds today serious discussions inevitably include variety perspectives healthy sometimes discussions veer far eitheror dynamic debates center subjects mass movement begin reverse european north american slide toward right direction least appears sweeping across latin america well united states following shock election donald trump eitheror debate taken shape form identity politics versus class politics really pick side example activist arguing much focus us identity politics bruce lerro writing planning beyond capitalism web site argues democratic party left ignored working class concerns catastrophically leaving opening rightwing demagogue like presidentelect trump fill vacuum critical calls capitulation longstanding liberal ideology ethnicities genders able compete piece capitalist pie professor lerro writes calling people streets basis attacks ethnic minorities antiislamic remarks alone ignores results election reveals lefts inadequacy next influence working class people voted trump well 47 people didnt bother vote continues 45 year history identity politics failed make things better constituents except upper middle class minorities women law university professors benefit identity politics moralistically preside politically correct vocabulary true liberal ideology tends fight ability minorities women able obtain elite jobs ends rather orient toward larger struggle systemic inequality oppression leaving capitalism untouched leaves behind handful people ascend elite jobs barack obamas eight years us president didnt end racism would successful hillary clinton campaign brought end sexism movement serious change fights structural discrimination doesnt fight individuals career criticizing identity politics proposing race gender issues discussed dont matter criticism identity politics historically excluded social class anticapitalist socialist perspective race gender importantly discussed location capitalists produce surplus labor job white privilege wages quality jobs offered issue discussed openly workers union setting time organizing capitalism developing socialist political practice race gender issues affect socialist organizing need confronted away discussions race gender get social class workplace efforts organize capitalism socialism becomes discussions liberals socialists racism sexism movements racism sexism however found outside workplace eradicated social struggles certainly going back open sexism 1960s movements prominent demonstration era women invited speak group women response confronted men organizing event insisting demands included response one men told already womens resolution simply general plea peace demanding issues specific womens oppression included male activist refused discussion actually patted shulamith firestone soon author dialectic sex head degrading behavior would tolerated left movement today hardly argued sexism racism overcome left movements never mind larger society days left movement tell member oppressed group wait turn itll better revolution really behind us even revolution issues worked women example made serious advances 20th centurys socialist revolutions never sufficient advances often backsliding sandinistas banned display womens bodies commercial advertising coming power nicaragua near end first 11 years power sponsored beauty contest legalize abortion woman sat sandinistas highest body ninemember national directorate 11 years despite fighting large numbers even commanding hard struggle somoza dictatorship woman ever sat politburo soviet unions 74year history working people oppressed degree worlds advanced capitalist countries far revolution necessary seriously make structural discrimination component part left struggles without forgetting class dimension struggle must contain typically thoughtful article counterpunch henry giroux losing sight class issues overall repression working people neoliberal regimes refused downplay extra repression rains minority communities wrote large segments american public especially minorities class color written politics view failed state inability basic machinery government serve interests market mentalities moralities tighten grip aspects society democratic institutions public spheres downsized altogether disappearing institutions vanishfrom public schools health care centers also serious erosion discourses community justice equality public values common good election donald trump savagery neoliberalism intensified emergence highest levels power toxic mix antiintellectualism religious fundamentalism nativism renewed notion american exceptionalism professor giroux argues focus calls singleissue movements sense dismissing liberation movements based specific oppressions rather argues joining together struggles drawing connections among various social movements writes central viable notion ideological structural transformation refusal mainstream politics disconnect place plea broader social movements comprehensive understanding politics order connect dots instance police brutality mass incarceration one hand diverse crises producing massive poverty destruction welfare state assaults environment workers young people women crucial rethinking space meaning political imaginary need reach across specific identities move beyond around singleissue movements specific agendas matter dismissing movements creating new alliances allow become stronger fight succeed advancing specific concerns also enlarging possibility developing radical democracy benefits specific general interests economic issues arent separate issues working people exploited capitalism would height folly sideline fundamental commonality levels exploitation intensity direct oppression varies widely would folly ignore well subject higher often far higher levels discrimination every right focus emancipation privileged positions obligation support emancipations perpetuation class oppression central capitalism depends deep divisions within working class terms setting different groups others throats providing relatively better pay conditions privileged set apart less privileged reinforcing hierarchies maintain divisions among working peoples therefore selfdefeating attempt downplay racial sexual divisions effort concentrate economic issues somehow separate issues thoughtful essay dealing roles nongovernmental organizations ngos dampening activism propping system purport critique sophia burns goes argue fight capitalist exploitation succeed without women people color playing central roles playing central roles fight specific emancipations central struggle discussion merits quoted length writing north star argues theres implicit notion members privileged groups men whites straights etc meaningfully stand benefit away racism sexism etc underlies moralistic connotations allyship support struggles personal stake thats ethical person would youre middleclass assumption basically true arent part ruling class degree security comfort control life youre middleclass white male promale prowhite inequalities are160pretty unambiguously good reason youd oppose would ethics selfinterest working class neither power security capitalism fact different parts working class treated comparatively better worse along racial gender etc lines change fact whole class is160exploited oppressed ultimately powerless however white workers male workers straight workers could possibly defeat ruling class alone middle class disproportionately white male etc working class people color women social minorities general classes white men around 13 total us population even smaller portion working class racism sexism etc exist within class system combined together directly oppress large bulk working class workingclass politics rejects ignores ability succeed theyre components operation class system practice serving allow extrahigh exploitation female nonwhite workers undercut political potential class whole deepens workers exploitation racism sexism components capitalism capitalism means exploitation business owners everyone else white male worker understands capitalism class system exploits class is160part160its externallyimposed propaganda hes convinced stake getting rid racism sexism economics separate issue floating alongside others nothing exists capitalism outside capitalism standpoint relationship means production whitecollar middle class employees commonly defined class bluecollar assemblyline laborer exploited economically way paid small fraction value produce nonetheless indisputable middleclass workers even properly understood strata within working class includes vast majority humanity privileged compared workers composition heavily weighted toward dominant racial ethnic groups given capitalist society nastier lowerpaid jobs disproportionally held disadvantaged groups struggles chauvinism adjunct pervasive propaganda denies capitalism exploitative even refuses acknowledge different opportunities among different groups classfree worldview rather worldview thats natural middle class gets promoted serves ruling class ms burns writes thus argues false opposition created economics issues course sexist racist160ideas receive massive institutional sponsorship160they workingclass whites deepseated racist notions workingclass men often profoundly chauvinistic struggle beliefs practices even fact especially manifest within working class adjunct class struggle central necessary part activist nonprofits supporters use exaggerated account workingclass bigotry dismiss workingclass politics class struggle worldview entirely arent benevolently defending marginalized playing useful role for160the system brings bigotry privilege160into neighborhood workplace organizing inside160the working class outside activist subculture must include breaking racism sexism within class everywhere else selfinterest160of part class ultimate selfinterest entire class even white male workers material stake abolishing white male privilege despite fact longterm interest160that isnt acknowledged mainstream ideas middleclass white men course stake socialist movement healthy middleclass affair lets take discussion step even use term identity politics susan cox speaking joy resistance multicultural feminist radio program december 4 argued female identity rather material reality one foundational realities define worlds social organization pointed womens unpaid domestic labor props entire capitalist economic system defining feminism movement goal global resistance wrenches idea individualistic lifestyle choice discussing issue article feminist current ms cox wrote one would think half damn population would make us minor divisive concern womens issues labelled identity politics decades order belittle feminist cause politically unsubstantialunimportant fact term first became prominent american academia antimarxist 80s order describe women fragmented group individuals rather class persons common class interests reasonable dispute use term class context indisputable women face particular oppression one although predating capitalism long essential prop maintaining capitalism racism also necessary maintain capitalism thus fighting never adjunct broad struggle better world dismissing voted donald trump bigots deplorables ignorant simplistic mistaken bad practice voted described terms plenty voted however mistakenly belief would bring back jobs represented minds change trump voters previously voted barack obama folks hardly described racists similarly france many supporting national front formerly supported socialist party communist party united kingdom independence party however ridiculous might find name peeling supporters labour trends mean racism movements plenty exists obvious economic insecurity driving rise far right movements one continent establishment politics failed working people working people including without higher education know live time far right movements gaining support among working people tap racism nationalism sexism antisemitism exists within working classes reflecting whole society inculcated weapon division launched elites every interest uniting choose class politics identity politics false choice defeating decide separate interrelated struggles debate proper one multitude tactics necessary fighting multiple fronts taking multiplicity interconnected issues | 1,545 |
<p>The late 1950s were great years for black-and-white movies in France:&#160; I’m referring specifically to those with white people on screen, and black musicians invisible on the soundtrack.</p>
<p>The most famous of these films is Louis Malle’s 1958 Elevator to the Gallows (Ascenseur pour ‘l’échafaud), with its soundtrack by Miles Davis. After watching a rough cut while on tour in Paris, the trumpeter developed a loose collection of sparse musical ideas on a hotel room piano. For each cue, Davis would sketch out a few chords for his French bandmates. The musicians then played together while watching the scenes screened in the recording studio. It’s not a little unsettling to watch and listen as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW-SxgZViuk" type="external">Davis’s trumpet stalks Jeanne Moreau</a> as she strolls forlornly down the Champs-Élysées at night.</p>
<p>Coming the year before the watershed, million-selling <a href="" type="internal">Kind of Blue</a>, the soundtrack to <a href="" type="internal">Elevator to the Gallows</a> set the course for the minimalist turn in Davis’s style. The combination of melancholy and menace crying from his horn captured the onscreen mélange of composure and mayhem. Whether heard in in breathy eloquence of his Harmon mute or in the unaccessorized plaints and feints, the shape and texture of Davis’s melodies and fragments conveyed more powerfully than the action could the desperate claustrophobia of the assassin trapped in the lift as he tries to get away from the murder, or the carefree criminality of youths in a stolen car that seemed to have squealed around the corner from one of the American crime movies of the 1940s and 50s that the French New Wave Directors were so besotted by.</p>
<p>Nicknamed Inky for the dark color of his skin, Davis was blacker than film noir: he was the coolest guy you never saw on screen.</p>
<p>The same can be said of Thelonius Monk and his invisible, but essential role in Roger Vadim’s Les liaisons dangereuses 1960, an updating of Choderlos de Laclos’ amoral tale of sexual dissipation in the ancien régime first published in 1782. In 2014 the studio recordings of the soundtrack, long feared lost, were rediscovered in <a href="" type="internal" />the archive of the French jazz enthusiast and impresario, Marcel Romano, who had been the driving force in enlisting Monk to do the film’s music. A double album from the 1959 New York session, including both the tunes heard on the soundtrack as well as alternate takes and fascinating studio talk and practice have just been issued by <a href="" type="internal">Sam Records</a>. Aside from the priceless audio tapes, the box stored by Romano contained color photos showing Monk in his conical Chinese hat with his beloved wife Nellie, in the control room with the producers, and at the piano with the other musicians on the date: Sam Jones on bass; Art Taylor on drums; and a pair of tenor saxophonists—stalwart Charlie Rouse and the visiting French-American saxophonist and arranger Barney Wilen, a vital presence in many jazz soundtracks of French New Wave films of those years, including Elevator to the Gallows. The two cosmopolitan tenors made for a combination unique in Monk’s recorded oeuvre.</p>
<p>The double CD just published goes for $25—an absolute bargain considering the importance of the discovery, the richness of the visual materials and the illuminating accompanying essays, the longest of which is by the noted Monk biographer Robin D. G. Kelly. A collector’s LP album will also soon be available in the USA; it’s a sumptuous work of art that can be had for <a href="" type="internal">a mere 65 Euros</a>.</p>
<p>The original tapes were well preserved by Romano, and the outstanding restoration allows listeners intimate access to Monk’s unique creativity as soloist, composer, and ensemble player. The fourteen-minute closing track of the second disc offers a riveting portrait of Monk at work, full of convivial patience, irreverent humor, and disarming authenticity as he teaches Taylor and Jones his tune Light Blue. This material alone makes the album a must for Monk devotees, jazz enthusiasts, and those fascinated more by music as process than as product.</p>
<p>A lawsuit by the French writers’ association (with future French president François Mitterand representing the movie-makers’ interests) forced the producers to add “1960” to the title, a move that dates Vadim’s movie in both senses—stamping its vintage on the marquee (and the marquis) and shackling it to its time. Yet, for all their cynicism and apparent eagerness to shock, the novel and film are sentimental affairs, odes to real affection as opposed to the gratifications of the flesh. Far from a bodice-ripping assault on the buttoned-up 1950s, the story ends up as praying at the altar of monogamy.</p>
<p>It’s an opportunistic message close to the heart of the erotic conquistador Vadim. The filmmaker cut a wide swath through the ranks of international female movie stars, even while his film retains a soft spot in his heart for the idea of finding one true love. By 1960 Vadim had divorced Brigitte Bardot and married Annette Stroyberg; in Les liaisons dangereuses 1960 she plays Madame Tourvel, for whom the rakish Valmont strays from the path of libertinage, compelled by love to plot an ill-fated escape from his contradictory open mariage blanc to Jeanne Moreau’s, controlling Juliette. The director was about to embark on an affair with the teenage Catherine Deneuve and father a child by her, before moving on to a union with Jane Fonda (whom he directed in Barbarella) and then to two other marriages to glamorous actresses.&#160; These adventures are at least as entangled as the boudoir machinations of the Valmonts of the 1780s and 1960s.</p>
<p>To carry his movie over the threshold of the swinging sixties, the swinging Vadim yearned for some of that American cool. &#160;Then at the highpoint of his form and fame, Monk was his man.</p>
<p>Thus in the movie’s opening party scene in which the decadent, but seemingly prim guests whisper maliciously about the notorious dallying of their hosts, the Valmonts, we are treated to Monk’s Well, You Needn’t. The tune’s angular melody queries and quips as the harmony oscillates between adjacents chords a half-step apart, before rising quickly and chromatically upward at the bridge, like surging, solipsistic gossip. Rouse and Wilen are fleet and crisp: mellifluous, but as nimble as any of the great boppers. Monk’s commentary, with its dissonant jabs and free-swinging chimes, seems casually unconcerned with the beat briskly curated by bassist Jones and drummer Taylor: the pianist calls in as from another time zone, lagging magnificently even if he’s tuned in exactly to the second hand of the prevailing global swing.</p>
<p>A movie lover and inveterate television watcher who’d heard Fats Waller play silent films in the Harlem of his youth, Monk watched the print of Les liaisons dangereuses that Romano had brought with him from Paris. The moving images inspired Monk: what he sent back to Vadim with Romano ran to three hours, twice as long as the film itself.</p>
<p>Given the expansiveness of the improvisations, the Well, You Needn’t cue had to be cut down. Thanks to the archival materials recently unearthed we can now be treated to the unabridged version, and thus compare and contrast the needs of the extemporaneous phrase and the in-the-moment urge to pursue one more additional chorus, as opposed to the imperatives of the sound and film editors’ razor blades.</p>
<p>Monk had been planning to make the soundtrack on a return trip to Paris in 1959 some five years after a successful trip there five years earlier. But in 1958 he had been brutalized by racist police in Delaware and lost his New York cabaret card for the second time, thus making it virtually impossible for him to earn a living in his hometown. The death of Billie Holiday in July of 1959 sent him further into depression. Erratic behavior on a swing to Boston eventually landed Monk in a mental hospital that began his long thrall to thorazine. Monk was in no shape to travel to France nor compose new music for Vadim’s film.</p>
<p>Monk drew therefore on his standard repertory, which nonetheless yields fascinating oppositions and confluences with the movie’s action.&#160; These are brought into still clearer, more affecting relief in the restored audio of the Sam Records production, as when, Valmont falls on his skis in front of a married women (played by Vadim’s then-wife, Stroyberg) and falls immediately and fatally in love with her to the solo strains of Monk’s lyrical and lovely Pannonica. Monk’s devout but not-uncritical ruminations on the gospel hymn “By and By” impart an admonitory message as Valmont closes in on his female prey near a snowbound church. The song turns ever-so-slightly ominous even in its apparent purity when heard again after the pursuer beds his prey. It will be the last notch on the seducer’s alligator belt.</p>
<p>Valmont’s hunt takes place at a ski resort near Mont Blanc, the whiteness of the landscape making for a film blanc, tonalities even farther from the color of Monk’s skin.&#160; Nothing is rarer at an upscale ski resort in the Alps, especially in 1960, than an African-American. Rarer still is jazz.</p>
<p>Musicians are seen on screen if fleetingly in a scene shot late by Vadim at the club Chez Miguel: Wilen appears, but also American trumpeter Kenny Dorham , and long-time American expatriate and bebop founding father, drummer Kenny Clarke.&#160; But the music we hear is, with the exception of Wilen’s tenor, not played by these onscreen musicians. They’re just hip staffage decorating the Parisian interior. The music actually belongs to Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers with Wilen along for the ride. (Trumpeter Lee Morgan’s opening solo on the tune <a href="" type="internal">Miguel’s Party</a> &#160;is one of the great, most emphatic minor blues sermons on record, its opening chorus of half-valved shouts and shimmies perhaps an ode to—and an attempt to outdo—Davis’s elegiac Elevator improvisations so marked by cracking and caressing. The firebrand Morgan buffets these effects with ecstatic fervor.) The Blakey ensemble’s music for the film (much less a part of the soundtrack than was Monk’s contribution) was released in 1960 and has long been available.&#160; Now, thanks to Sam Records, we’ve got the movie’s main jazz course.</p>
<p>Monk’s music is often thought of as an eccentric exercise in irony: the seemingly detached and sardonic qualities heard by many can, in this interpretation, serve as a perfect parallel to the amoral antics on screen. Indeed, Les liaisons dangereuses 1960 could make one think at first that Monk cared as little about love as did the melodrama’s characters. But what the coupling of Vadim’s shallow film and Monk’s music shows is that the latter’s is an art of sincerity and truth very different from the posture and pretense of the movie and its maker. It seems almost impossible that these eerily optimistic, life-affirming musical creations came from a Monk plagued by racist America, and lionized in France. But even across the Atlantic and on the silver screen, Monk’s art cannot be confounded by cynicism. This much the just-released soundtrack and captivating additional materials confirm with the clarity of a jubilant and jarring Monkish chord, his fingers flat, hands extending to either end of the eighty-eight black-and-whites.</p> | true | 4 | late 1950s great years blackandwhite movies france160 im referring specifically white people screen black musicians invisible soundtrack famous films louis malles 1958 elevator gallows ascenseur pour léchafaud soundtrack miles davis watching rough cut tour paris trumpeter developed loose collection sparse musical ideas hotel room piano cue davis would sketch chords french bandmates musicians played together watching scenes screened recording studio little unsettling watch listen daviss trumpet stalks jeanne moreau strolls forlornly champsÉlysées night coming year watershed millionselling kind blue soundtrack elevator gallows set course minimalist turn daviss style combination melancholy menace crying horn captured onscreen mélange composure mayhem whether heard breathy eloquence harmon mute unaccessorized plaints feints shape texture daviss melodies fragments conveyed powerfully action could desperate claustrophobia assassin trapped lift tries get away murder carefree criminality youths stolen car seemed squealed around corner one american crime movies 1940s 50s french new wave directors besotted nicknamed inky dark color skin davis blacker film noir coolest guy never saw screen said thelonius monk invisible essential role roger vadims les liaisons dangereuses 1960 updating choderlos de laclos amoral tale sexual dissipation ancien régime first published 1782 2014 studio recordings soundtrack long feared lost rediscovered archive french jazz enthusiast impresario marcel romano driving force enlisting monk films music double album 1959 new york session including tunes heard soundtrack well alternate takes fascinating studio talk practice issued sam records aside priceless audio tapes box stored romano contained color photos showing monk conical chinese hat beloved wife nellie control room producers piano musicians date sam jones bass art taylor drums pair tenor saxophonistsstalwart charlie rouse visiting frenchamerican saxophonist arranger barney wilen vital presence many jazz soundtracks french new wave films years including elevator gallows two cosmopolitan tenors made combination unique monks recorded oeuvre double cd published goes 25an absolute bargain considering importance discovery richness visual materials illuminating accompanying essays longest noted monk biographer robin g kelly collectors lp album also soon available usa sumptuous work art mere 65 euros original tapes well preserved romano outstanding restoration allows listeners intimate access monks unique creativity soloist composer ensemble player fourteenminute closing track second disc offers riveting portrait monk work full convivial patience irreverent humor disarming authenticity teaches taylor jones tune light blue material alone makes album must monk devotees jazz enthusiasts fascinated music process product lawsuit french writers association future french president françois mitterand representing moviemakers interests forced producers add 1960 title move dates vadims movie sensesstamping vintage marquee marquis shackling time yet cynicism apparent eagerness shock novel film sentimental affairs odes real affection opposed gratifications flesh far bodiceripping assault buttonedup 1950s story ends praying altar monogamy opportunistic message close heart erotic conquistador vadim filmmaker cut wide swath ranks international female movie stars even film retains soft spot heart idea finding one true love 1960 vadim divorced brigitte bardot married annette stroyberg les liaisons dangereuses 1960 plays madame tourvel rakish valmont strays path libertinage compelled love plot illfated escape contradictory open mariage blanc jeanne moreaus controlling juliette director embark affair teenage catherine deneuve father child moving union jane fonda directed barbarella two marriages glamorous actresses160 adventures least entangled boudoir machinations valmonts 1780s 1960s carry movie threshold swinging sixties swinging vadim yearned american cool 160then highpoint form fame monk man thus movies opening party scene decadent seemingly prim guests whisper maliciously notorious dallying hosts valmonts treated monks well neednt tunes angular melody queries quips harmony oscillates adjacents chords halfstep apart rising quickly chromatically upward bridge like surging solipsistic gossip rouse wilen fleet crisp mellifluous nimble great boppers monks commentary dissonant jabs freeswinging chimes seems casually unconcerned beat briskly curated bassist jones drummer taylor pianist calls another time zone lagging magnificently even hes tuned exactly second hand prevailing global swing movie lover inveterate television watcher whod heard fats waller play silent films harlem youth monk watched print les liaisons dangereuses romano brought paris moving images inspired monk sent back vadim romano ran three hours twice long film given expansiveness improvisations well neednt cue cut thanks archival materials recently unearthed treated unabridged version thus compare contrast needs extemporaneous phrase inthemoment urge pursue one additional chorus opposed imperatives sound film editors razor blades monk planning make soundtrack return trip paris 1959 five years successful trip five years earlier 1958 brutalized racist police delaware lost new york cabaret card second time thus making virtually impossible earn living hometown death billie holiday july 1959 sent depression erratic behavior swing boston eventually landed monk mental hospital began long thrall thorazine monk shape travel france compose new music vadims film monk drew therefore standard repertory nonetheless yields fascinating oppositions confluences movies action160 brought still clearer affecting relief restored audio sam records production valmont falls skis front married women played vadims thenwife stroyberg falls immediately fatally love solo strains monks lyrical lovely pannonica monks devout notuncritical ruminations gospel hymn impart admonitory message valmont closes female prey near snowbound church song turns eversoslightly ominous even apparent purity heard pursuer beds prey last notch seducers alligator belt valmonts hunt takes place ski resort near mont blanc whiteness landscape making film blanc tonalities even farther color monks skin160 nothing rarer upscale ski resort alps especially 1960 africanamerican rarer still jazz musicians seen screen fleetingly scene shot late vadim club chez miguel wilen appears also american trumpeter kenny dorham longtime american expatriate bebop founding father drummer kenny clarke160 music hear exception wilens tenor played onscreen musicians theyre hip staffage decorating parisian interior music actually belongs art blakeys jazz messengers wilen along ride trumpeter lee morgans opening solo tune miguels party 160is one great emphatic minor blues sermons record opening chorus halfvalved shouts shimmies perhaps ode toand attempt outdodaviss elegiac elevator improvisations marked cracking caressing firebrand morgan buffets effects ecstatic fervor blakey ensembles music film much less part soundtrack monks contribution released 1960 long available160 thanks sam records weve got movies main jazz course monks music often thought eccentric exercise irony seemingly detached sardonic qualities heard many interpretation serve perfect parallel amoral antics screen indeed les liaisons dangereuses 1960 could make one think first monk cared little love melodramas characters coupling vadims shallow film monks music shows latters art sincerity truth different posture pretense movie maker seems almost impossible eerily optimistic lifeaffirming musical creations came monk plagued racist america lionized france even across atlantic silver screen monks art confounded cynicism much justreleased soundtrack captivating additional materials confirm clarity jubilant jarring monkish chord fingers flat hands extending either end eightyeight blackandwhites | 1,059 |
<p>By Henry A. Giroux, CounterPunchThis article first appeared at <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/02/murder-usa-why-politicians-have-blood-on-their-hands/" type="external">CounterPunch</a>. Editor’s note: The death toll includes the gunman.</p>
<p>Ten people were killed and seven wounded recently in a mass shooting at a community college in Roseburg, Oregon. Such shootings are more than another tragic expression of unchecked violence in the United States, they are symptomatic of a society engulfed in fear, militarism, a survival-of-the-fittest ethos, and a growing disdain for human life. Sadly, this shooting is not an isolated incident. Over 270 mass shootings have taken place in the US this year alone, proving once again that the economic, political, and social conditions that underlie such violence are not being addressed.</p>
<p>State repression, unbridled self-interest, an empty consumerist ethos, and war-like values have become the organizing principles of American society producing an indifference to the common good, compassion, a concern for others, and equality. As the public collapses into the individualized values of a banal consumer culture and the lure of private obsessions, American society flirts with forms of irrationality that are at the heart of every-day aggression and the withering of public life. American society is driven by unrestrained market values in which economic actions and financial exchanges are divorced from social costs, further undermining any sense of social responsibility.</p>
<p>In addition, a wasteful giant military-industrial-surveillance complex fueled by the war on terror along with America’s endless consumption of violence as entertainment and its celebration of a pervasive gun culture normalizes the everyday violence waged against black youth, immigrants, children fed into the school to prison pipeline, and others considered disposable. American politicians now attempt to govern the effects of systemic violence while ignoring its underlying causes. Under such circumstances, a society saturated in violence gains credence when its political leaders have given up on the notion of the common good, social justice, and equality, all of which appear to have become relics of history in the United States.</p>
<p />
<p>In the face of mass shootings, the public relations disimagination machine goes into overdrive claiming that guns are not the problem, and that the causes of such violence can be largely attributed to the mentally ill. When in actuality, as two Vanderbilt University researchers, Dr. Jonathan Metzl and Kenneth T. MacLeish, publishing in the American Journal of Public Health observed that “Fewer than 6 percent of the 120,000 gun-related killings in the United States between 2001 and 2010 were perpetrated by people diagnosed with mental illness.”</p>
<p>It may not be an exaggeration to claim that the American government has blood on its hands because of the refusal of Congress to rein-in a gun lobby that produces a growing militarism that sanctions a love affair with the unbridled corporate institutions, financial interests, and mass produced cultures of violence. The Oregon community college shooting is the 41st school shooting this year while there have been 142 incidents of violence on school properties since 2012. Yet, the violence continues unchecked, all the while legitimated by the cowardly acts of politicians who refuse to enact legislation to curb the proliferation of guns and support legislation as elementary as background checks–which 88 percent of the American people support.</p>
<p>Americans are obsessed with violence. They not only own nearly 300 million firearms, but also have a love affair with powerful weaponry such as 9MM Glock semi-automatic pistols and AR15 assault rifles. Collective anger, frustration, fear, and resentment increasingly characterizes a society in which people are out of work, young people cannot imagine a decent future, everyday behaviours are criminalized, inequality in wealth and income are soaring, and the police are viewed as occupying armies. This is not only a recipe for both random violence and mass shootings; it makes such acts appear routine and commonplace.</p>
<p>President Obama is right is stating that the violence we see in the United States is “a political choice we make that allows this to happen.” While taking aim at the gun lobby, especially the National Rifle Association, what Obama fails to address is that extreme violence is systemic in American society and has become the foundation of politics and must be understood within a broader historical, economic, cultural, and political context. To be precise, politics has become an extension of violence driven by a culture of fear, cruelty, and hatred legitimated by the politicians bought and sold by the gun lobby and other related militaristic interests. Moreover, violence is now treated as a sport, a pleasure-producing industry, a source of major profits for the defense industries, and a corrosive influence upon American democracy. And as such it is an expression of a deeper political and ethical corruption in American society.</p>
<p>As the United States moves from a welfare state to a warfare state, state violence becomes normalized. America’s moral compass and its highest democratic ideals have begun to wither, and the institutions that were once designed to help people now serve to largely suppress them. Gun laws matter, social responsibility matters, a government responsive to its people matters. At the same time gun lobbyists should not matter, money controlling politics should not matter, the mad proliferation of mad violence in the popular culture should not matter, and the ongoing militarization of American society should not matter either.</p>
<p>Gun violence in America is inextricably tied to economic violence and the violence reproduced by politicians who would rather support the military-industrial-gun complex than address the most basic needs and social problems faced by the American people. When violence becomes an organizing principle of society, the fabric of a democracy begins to unravel suggesting that America is at war with itself. When politicians refuse out of narrow self and financial interests to confront the conditions that create such violence, they have blood on their hands.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | henry giroux counterpunchthis article first appeared counterpunch editors note death toll includes gunman ten people killed seven wounded recently mass shooting community college roseburg oregon shootings another tragic expression unchecked violence united states symptomatic society engulfed fear militarism survivalofthefittest ethos growing disdain human life sadly shooting isolated incident 270 mass shootings taken place us year alone proving economic political social conditions underlie violence addressed state repression unbridled selfinterest empty consumerist ethos warlike values become organizing principles american society producing indifference common good compassion concern others equality public collapses individualized values banal consumer culture lure private obsessions american society flirts forms irrationality heart everyday aggression withering public life american society driven unrestrained market values economic actions financial exchanges divorced social costs undermining sense social responsibility addition wasteful giant militaryindustrialsurveillance complex fueled war terror along americas endless consumption violence entertainment celebration pervasive gun culture normalizes everyday violence waged black youth immigrants children fed school prison pipeline others considered disposable american politicians attempt govern effects systemic violence ignoring underlying causes circumstances society saturated violence gains credence political leaders given notion common good social justice equality appear become relics history united states face mass shootings public relations disimagination machine goes overdrive claiming guns problem causes violence largely attributed mentally ill actuality two vanderbilt university researchers dr jonathan metzl kenneth macleish publishing american journal public health observed fewer 6 percent 120000 gunrelated killings united states 2001 2010 perpetrated people diagnosed mental illness may exaggeration claim american government blood hands refusal congress reinin gun lobby produces growing militarism sanctions love affair unbridled corporate institutions financial interests mass produced cultures violence oregon community college shooting 41st school shooting year 142 incidents violence school properties since 2012 yet violence continues unchecked legitimated cowardly acts politicians refuse enact legislation curb proliferation guns support legislation elementary background checkswhich 88 percent american people support americans obsessed violence nearly 300 million firearms also love affair powerful weaponry 9mm glock semiautomatic pistols ar15 assault rifles collective anger frustration fear resentment increasingly characterizes society people work young people imagine decent future everyday behaviours criminalized inequality wealth income soaring police viewed occupying armies recipe random violence mass shootings makes acts appear routine commonplace president obama right stating violence see united states political choice make allows happen taking aim gun lobby especially national rifle association obama fails address extreme violence systemic american society become foundation politics must understood within broader historical economic cultural political context precise politics become extension violence driven culture fear cruelty hatred legitimated politicians bought sold gun lobby related militaristic interests moreover violence treated sport pleasureproducing industry source major profits defense industries corrosive influence upon american democracy expression deeper political ethical corruption american society united states moves welfare state warfare state state violence becomes normalized americas moral compass highest democratic ideals begun wither institutions designed help people serve largely suppress gun laws matter social responsibility matters government responsive people matters time gun lobbyists matter money controlling politics matter mad proliferation mad violence popular culture matter ongoing militarization american society matter either gun violence america inextricably tied economic violence violence reproduced politicians would rather support militaryindustrialgun complex address basic needs social problems faced american people violence becomes organizing principle society fabric democracy begins unravel suggesting america war politicians refuse narrow self financial interests confront conditions create violence blood hands | 545 |
<p>I want to apologize upfront if this report strikes anyone as being cold and objective. The reason is that we all deal with traumatic events differently, not that I am considering applying for a job with the RAND Corporation. I spent much of Tuesday, September 11, 2001 reviewing years of files upon electronic files and filling the holes in the knowledge base through Internet searches. Incidentally, the Internet was running quite normal all day outside of the major network sites.</p>
<p>US Terrorism Policy: What is It?</p>
<p>In its haste to point fingers, the media was largely remiss in its knowledge of the fundamentals of this issue–which are available at the tip of their fingers. The defining directives appear to be PDD-39, The United States Policy on Counterterrorism (no link available, but try &lt; <a href="http://www.terrorism.com/" type="external">http://www.terrorism.com</a>&gt;) PDD-62, and PDD-63, The Clinton Administration’s Policy on Critical Infrastructure Protection, May 22, 1998, the latter is available at</p>
<p>&lt; <a href="http://www.terrorism.com/homeland/PDD-63.pdf" type="external">http://www.terrorism.com/homeland/PDD-63.pdf</a>&gt;</p>
<p>The defining document for Government Operations appears to be: “United States Government Interagency Domestic Terrorism Concept of Operations Plan (CONPLAN)”, which “represents a concerted effort by a number of Federal departments and agencies to work together to achieve a common goal, to provide overall guidance to Federal, State and local agencies concerning how the Federal government would respond to a potential or actual terrorist threat or incident that occurs in the United States, particularly one involving Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). The CONPLAN outlines an organized and unified capability for a timely, coordinated response by Federal agencies to a terrorist threat or act.”</p>
<p>These threats are broken out at four levels:</p>
<p>1. Level #4 – Minimal Threat: Received threats do not warrant actions beyond normal liaison notifications or placing assets or resources on a heightened alert (agencies are operating under normal day-to-day conditions).</p>
<p>2. Level #3 – Potential Threat: Intelligence or an articulated threat indicates a potential for a terrorist incident. However, this threat has not yet been assessed as credible.</p>
<p>3. Level #2 – Credible Threat: A threat assessment indicates that the potential threat is credible, and confirms the involvement of WMD in the developing terrorist incident.</p>
<p>4. Level #1 – WMD [Weapon of Mass Destruction] Incident: A WMD terrorism incident has occurred which requires an immediate process to identify, acquire, and plan the use of Federal resources to augment State and local authorities in response to limited or major consequences of a terrorist use or employment of WMD. This incident has resulted in mass casualties.</p>
<p>The Federal response is primarily available via the following route: &lt; <a href="http://www.fbi.gov/publications/terror/terroris.htm" type="external">http://www.fbi.gov/publications/terror/terroris.htm</a>&gt; where the FBI’s Annual Reports on Terrorism from 1996-1999 are kept, and then just hit the link to Publications. Does it appear that somehow they missed a level, as this was not a weapon of mass destruction event but a mass casualty event in which innovation was used to create massive destruction and high casualties? If the scenes that haunt everyone now are bad, keep in mind that a nuclear explosive “fizzle” can still create a 1 kiloton blast, a blast equal to 1,000 metric tonnes of high explosives and coupled with intensely radioactive fission products. Keep in mind that the responders were spared the greater horror of having to enter a biological, chemical, and/or radiological/nuclear contamination zone. The Presidential Panel Undoubtedly anyone listening to the news heard several members of terrorist review panels offering insights.</p>
<p>&lt; <a href="http://www.rand.org/organization/nsrd/terrpanel" type="external">http://www.rand.org/organization/nsrd/terrpanel</a>&gt; is where you can find: First Annual Report to The President and The Congress of the ADVISORY PANEL TO ASSESS DOMESTIC RESPONSE CAPABILITIES FOR TERRORISM INVOLVING WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTIOn. A few quotes are relevant, because this panel, which included consultants like Brian Jenkins of RAND Corporation (one of the few level headed speakers I witnessed, along with Senator John Kerry and Rudolph Giuliani), considered the threat of WMD events to be over-emphasized. “The Panel concludes that the Nation must be prepared for the entire spectrum of potential terrorist threats both the unprecedented higher- consequence attack, as well as the historically more frequent, lesser-consequence terrorist attack, which the Panel believes is more likely in the near term. Conventional explosives, traditionally a favorite tool of the terrorist, will likely remain the terrorist weapon of choice in the near term as well.”</p>
<p>“By continuing a policy that emphasizes high-end threats, there is a very real danger of failing to optimize state and local response capabilities to deal with the more probable terrorist threats confronting the United States today.”</p>
<p>“Indeed, of the more than 9,000 incidents since 1968, fewer than 100 evidence any indication of terrorists plotting or attempting to use chemical, biological or radiological weapons, or to steal or otherwise fabricate nuclear devices on their own.”</p>
<p>Nuclear Terrorism and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission</p>
<p>One of the first emails I saw asked whether the jets were in the vicinity of a nuclear power plant. Obviously they were if they were in the East where the majority of the nations 103 operating nuclear reactors are kept. So are they ready?</p>
<p>From “05/07/01 Responses to Preliminary Questions for 05/08/01 Senate Appropriations Committee on U.S. Federal Efforts to Combat Terror” (NRC document available upon request) The NRC is responsible for regulating the safety of “103 nuclear power reactors, 39 nonpower reactors, 8 fuel cycle facilities, 2 gaseous diffusion enrichment plants, and approximately 5,300 licensees authorized to use nuclear and radiological material in the private sector.” “Based on current threat projections, the NRC’s funding level for its safeguards and security programs is both realistic and proportional to the perceived threat to licensed facilities and materials. While the consensus in the U.S. government is that the threat of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction worldwide has increased, threats to NRC-licensed facilities and materials have been low.”</p>
<p>From “06/15/01 Letter to Vice President Cheney concerns NRC’s role in combating terrorism” by NRC Chairman Richard Meserve. “The NRC also imposes obligations to prevent or control a terrorist incident. The NRC requires that power reactors and certain sensitive fuel facilities have the capacity to defend against a Design Basis Threat (DBT). We assume for this purpose that the adversaries will consist of several well-trained and dedicated individuals with knowledge of the facility and possessing weapons (up to and including automatic weapons) and specialized equipment, such as incapacitating agents and explosives. See 10 . sec 73.1(a).” A jet crash is not considered a DBT.</p>
<p>A very good link to the situation is: &lt; <a href="http://www.tmia.com/sabter.html" type="external">http://www.tmia.com/sabter.html</a>&gt;,</p>
<p>Sabotage and Terrorism at Nuke Plants Anther useful one is <a href="http://www.stimson.org/policy/peace-cv.htm" type="external">http://www.stimson.org/policy/peace-cv.htm</a> Containing Nuclear Terrorism with Andrew and Leslie Cockburn authors of One Point Safe 9/27/01 And always be sure to check &lt; <a href="http://www.nci.org/" type="external">http://www.nci.org</a>&gt;, the Nuclear Control Institute.</p>
<p>30 Tonnes of Plutonium at Pantex. Don’t Put More There</p>
<p>The Department of Energy is responsible for the nation’s nuclear weapons complex, which includes about 55 tonnes of plutonium in various forms and an unholy amount of dangerous radioactive wastes. On the day of the attack, Secretary of Energy Abraham issued the following statement: “Yesterday, I ordered that all DOE facilities be placed in high security status. All non-essential DOE personnel were evacuated and sent home. All shipments of nuclear materials were halted. Nuclear operations around the country were ceased, and nuclear material was secured. We monitored key energy infrastructure measures, and we especially heightened security at nuclear plants, and at refineries, pipelines, distribution points, and along the electricity transmission grid.”</p>
<p>&lt; <a href="" type="internal">http://www.energy.gov/HQPress/ releases01/seppr/pr01155.htm</a>&gt;</p>
<p>By far the most vulnerable place in the country to this kind of attack is the Pantex Nuclear Weapons plant near Amarillo, Texas, where more than 12,000 plutonium triggers called pits (containing more than 30 tonnes of Pu total) are stored in 1940’s and 1960’s designed above ground bunkers a mere five miles from the Amarillo International Airport. Air Force touch and go training flights are still a common site above the 21 square mile plant, sometimes flying just a few hundred feet above the plutonium. No more plutonium should go to Pantex, and unannounced contingency plans by the DOE to use Pantex facilities to store Rocky Flats plutonium should be canceled immediately. Links from the Pantex area: &lt; <a href="" type="internal">http://www.amarillonet.com/stories/ 091301/new_burnedwhen.shtml</a>&gt; describes a bomb going off in Clovis New Mexico.</p>
<p>&lt; <a href="" type="internal">http://www.amarillonet.com/stories/ 091201/ter_aresenthome.s html</a>&gt; is about “Pantex Response: Nonessential Pantex employees were sent home Tuesday and normal operations shut down in response to the terrorist attacks.”</p>
<p>&lt; <a href="" type="internal">http://www.amarillonet.com/stories/091101/ ter_cropdusting.shtml</a>&gt; is about “Cropduster Cancels Flight,” which gives a sense of how vulnerable the place is.</p>
<p>A Long List of Links Nuclear Smuggling Sources &lt; <a href="http://www-safeguards.lanl.gov/nis7_projects/nuc_smug.html" type="external">http://www-safeguards.lanl.gov/ nis7_projects/nuc_smug.html</a>&gt; Los Alamos Safeguards and Security Program Quarterly Reports: &lt; <a href="http://www.lanl.gov/ossquarterly/" type="external">http://www.lanl.gov/ossquarterly/</a>&gt;</p>
<p>US Dept of Transportation Security and Intelligence Page <a href="" type="internal">http://152.122.41.10/</a> &lt; <a href="" type="internal">http://152.122.41.10/library_OIS.html</a>&gt;</p>
<p>Others: &lt; <a href="http://nsi.org/Terrorism.html" type="external">http://nsi.org/Terrorism.html</a>&gt; &lt; <a href="http://www.st-and.ac.uk/academic/intrel/research/cstpv/publications1a.htm" type="external">http://www.st-and.ac.uk/academic/ intrel/research/cstpv/publications1a.htm</a>&gt; &lt; <a href="http://www.st-and.ac.uk/academic/intrel/research/cstpv/publications.htm" type="external">http://www.st-and.ac.uk/academic/intrel/ research/cstpv/publications.htm</a>&gt; &lt; <a href="http://www.rand.org/hot/newslinks.html" type="external">http://www.rand.org/hot/newslinks.html</a>&gt; &lt; <a href="http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR989/" type="external">http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR989/</a>&gt;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | want apologize upfront report strikes anyone cold objective reason deal traumatic events differently considering applying job rand corporation spent much tuesday september 11 2001 reviewing years files upon electronic files filling holes knowledge base internet searches incidentally internet running quite normal day outside major network sites us terrorism policy haste point fingers media largely remiss knowledge fundamentals issuewhich available tip fingers defining directives appear pdd39 united states policy counterterrorism link available try lt httpwwwterrorismcomgt pdd62 pdd63 clinton administrations policy critical infrastructure protection may 22 1998 latter available lt httpwwwterrorismcomhomelandpdd63pdfgt defining document government operations appears united states government interagency domestic terrorism concept operations plan conplan represents concerted effort number federal departments agencies work together achieve common goal provide overall guidance federal state local agencies concerning federal government would respond potential actual terrorist threat incident occurs united states particularly one involving weapons mass destruction wmd conplan outlines organized unified capability timely coordinated response federal agencies terrorist threat act threats broken four levels 1 level 4 minimal threat received threats warrant actions beyond normal liaison notifications placing assets resources heightened alert agencies operating normal daytoday conditions 2 level 3 potential threat intelligence articulated threat indicates potential terrorist incident however threat yet assessed credible 3 level 2 credible threat threat assessment indicates potential threat credible confirms involvement wmd developing terrorist incident 4 level 1 wmd weapon mass destruction incident wmd terrorism incident occurred requires immediate process identify acquire plan use federal resources augment state local authorities response limited major consequences terrorist use employment wmd incident resulted mass casualties federal response primarily available via following route lt httpwwwfbigovpublicationsterrorterrorishtmgt fbis annual reports terrorism 19961999 kept hit link publications appear somehow missed level weapon mass destruction event mass casualty event innovation used create massive destruction high casualties scenes haunt everyone bad keep mind nuclear explosive fizzle still create 1 kiloton blast blast equal 1000 metric tonnes high explosives coupled intensely radioactive fission products keep mind responders spared greater horror enter biological chemical andor radiologicalnuclear contamination zone presidential panel undoubtedly anyone listening news heard several members terrorist review panels offering insights lt httpwwwrandorgorganizationnsrdterrpanelgt find first annual report president congress advisory panel assess domestic response capabilities terrorism involving weapons mass destruction quotes relevant panel included consultants like brian jenkins rand corporation one level headed speakers witnessed along senator john kerry rudolph giuliani considered threat wmd events overemphasized panel concludes nation must prepared entire spectrum potential terrorist threats unprecedented higher consequence attack well historically frequent lesserconsequence terrorist attack panel believes likely near term conventional explosives traditionally favorite tool terrorist likely remain terrorist weapon choice near term well continuing policy emphasizes highend threats real danger failing optimize state local response capabilities deal probable terrorist threats confronting united states today indeed 9000 incidents since 1968 fewer 100 evidence indication terrorists plotting attempting use chemical biological radiological weapons steal otherwise fabricate nuclear devices nuclear terrorism nuclear regulatory commission one first emails saw asked whether jets vicinity nuclear power plant obviously east majority nations 103 operating nuclear reactors kept ready 050701 responses preliminary questions 050801 senate appropriations committee us federal efforts combat terror nrc document available upon request nrc responsible regulating safety 103 nuclear power reactors 39 nonpower reactors 8 fuel cycle facilities 2 gaseous diffusion enrichment plants approximately 5300 licensees authorized use nuclear radiological material private sector based current threat projections nrcs funding level safeguards security programs realistic proportional perceived threat licensed facilities materials consensus us government threat terrorism weapons mass destruction worldwide increased threats nrclicensed facilities materials low 061501 letter vice president cheney concerns nrcs role combating terrorism nrc chairman richard meserve nrc also imposes obligations prevent control terrorist incident nrc requires power reactors certain sensitive fuel facilities capacity defend design basis threat dbt assume purpose adversaries consist several welltrained dedicated individuals knowledge facility possessing weapons including automatic weapons specialized equipment incapacitating agents explosives see 10 sec 731a jet crash considered dbt good link situation lt httpwwwtmiacomsabterhtmlgt sabotage terrorism nuke plants anther useful one httpwwwstimsonorgpolicypeacecvhtm containing nuclear terrorism andrew leslie cockburn authors one point safe 92701 always sure check lt httpwwwnciorggt nuclear control institute 30 tonnes plutonium pantex dont put department energy responsible nations nuclear weapons complex includes 55 tonnes plutonium various forms unholy amount dangerous radioactive wastes day attack secretary energy abraham issued following statement yesterday ordered doe facilities placed high security status nonessential doe personnel evacuated sent home shipments nuclear materials halted nuclear operations around country ceased nuclear material secured monitored key energy infrastructure measures especially heightened security nuclear plants refineries pipelines distribution points along electricity transmission grid lt httpwwwenergygovhqpress releases01sepprpr01155htmgt far vulnerable place country kind attack pantex nuclear weapons plant near amarillo texas 12000 plutonium triggers called pits containing 30 tonnes pu total stored 1940s 1960s designed ground bunkers mere five miles amarillo international airport air force touch go training flights still common site 21 square mile plant sometimes flying hundred feet plutonium plutonium go pantex unannounced contingency plans doe use pantex facilities store rocky flats plutonium canceled immediately links pantex area lt httpwwwamarillonetcomstories 091301new_burnedwhenshtmlgt describes bomb going clovis new mexico lt httpwwwamarillonetcomstories 091201ter_aresenthomes htmlgt pantex response nonessential pantex employees sent home tuesday normal operations shut response terrorist attacks lt httpwwwamarillonetcomstories091101 ter_cropdustingshtmlgt cropduster cancels flight gives sense vulnerable place long list links nuclear smuggling sources lt httpwwwsafeguardslanlgov nis7_projectsnuc_smughtmlgt los alamos safeguards security program quarterly reports lt httpwwwlanlgovossquarterlygt us dept transportation security intelligence page http1521224110 lt http1521224110library_oishtmlgt others lt httpnsiorgterrorismhtmlgt lt httpwwwstandacukacademic intrelresearchcstpvpublications1ahtmgt lt httpwwwstandacukacademicintrel researchcstpvpublicationshtmgt lt httpwwwrandorghotnewslinkshtmlgt lt httpwwwrandorgpublicationsmrmr989gt 160 | 901 |
<p>Antoinette Konikow was born Antoinette Bucholz in Orenburg, Russia, on the Volga River, near Kazakhstan, of ethnic Jewish parents, both of whom were socialists. She went to secondary school in Odessa. At 19, she went to university in Zurich, Switzerland, and studied medicine. She joined George Plekhanov's Emancipation of Labor Group, the first Russian Marxist group and the predecessor of the organization that later split into the Bolshevik and Menshevik factions. Bryan Palmer, in his book James Cannon and the Origins of the American Revolutionary Left, 1890-1928, mentions that Konikow abruptly left Zurich after an incident involving explosives at a boarding house that she was staying at with fellow radicals. Konikow immigrated to the U.S. with her husband in 1893 and completed her medical education at Tufts University, then Tufts College, near Boston, graduating with honors.</p>
<p>In the U.S., Konikow remained involved in the socialist movement. The same year she emigrated to America she became an organizer with unemployed immigrant workers and then joined the DeLeonist Socialist Labor Party. She was very active in the Workers Circle, a Jewish mutual aid society, and learned Yiddish (which she did not speak in Russia) to aid in her work with immigrants. Konikow left the SLP in 1897 over its bureaucratism and dogmatism. She worked with Eugene Debs and Victor Berger and was active in several short-lived socialist groups they organized. At one point, she worked with a dissident group that split from the SLP and attempted to convince them to join Debs' and Berger's organization. She then became a founding member of the Socialist Party of America and was a delegate to their first convention in 1901. She worked with Eugene Debs and became a leader of the Socialist Sunday School movement, a socialist youth education project designed as an alternative to Sunday religious instruction for young people. Under her influence, this movement was renamed the "Socialist Schools of Science." Konikow also served on the Socialist Party's five-person Women's Commission. She became known as a passionate speaker and was a tireless advocate for women's rights in a repressive era.</p>
<p>Antoinette Konikow had two children. She divorced her husband, Moses Konikow, in 1910, at a time when divorce was difficult. Her divorce was reported in the New York Times, which called her a "prominent Socialist orator." A year later, Konikow spoke out in defense of Meta Fuller, who had been widely criticized after divorcing the socialist novelist Upton Sinclair. The New York Times again mentioned her, quoting her letter of solidarity to Fuller, which said, "Many thousands are throwing mud at you and speaking with bitterness for the simple reason that they all envy your display of courage, open-heartedness, and your love for truthfulness."</p>
<p>After the First World War began in Europe in 1914, Konikow toured the U.S., speaking against the war. She was inspired by the German socialist Karl Liebknecht, who, at much risk to himself, spoke out against social patriotism in Germany. Konikow was a big supporter of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.</p>
<p>In 1919, when the Socialist Party's left wings split in the wake of the Russian Revolution, Konikow joined the radical immigrant-dominated Communist Party of America, one of the two main Communist factions to split from the SP in that year. After the factions unified, she became active in the Workers? Party, the above-ground branch of the then-partly-underground Communist Party of America.</p>
<p>She served as chair of the New England division of the Communist Party's National Defense Committee, a CP organization dedicated to raising money to cover the party's legal defense needs. In 1924, she was the Workers? Party candidate for the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts.</p>
<p>As a doctor,Konikow served working-class and immigrant women at her clinic in the Boston area for many years. The late 19th and early 20th century was a sexually very repressive era in the U.S.. From the mid-19th century onwards, women's reproductive choices had been increasingly medicalized and taken out of their hands. The 1873 Comstock Law banned the sale of contraceptives and the dissemination of abortion and birth control information though the U.S. mail. By 1900, some form of abortion was a felony in every U.S. state. In challenging this, Konikow became one of the pioneers of the U.S. birth control movement. Konikow frequently performed abortions and provided contraceptive information to her patients, often writing her medical notes in code to protect both herself and her clients from the police raids she had been subject to. In 1923, she published Voluntary Motherhood, the first birth control manual by an American doctor, primarily oriented towards immigrant women. In 1928, she was arrested for teaching contraceptive use at a private home during a meeting of the Birth Control Society of Massachusetts. This organization worked to defend her, and she was acquitted. In 1931, she wrote the Physician's Manual of Birth Control to fight the ignorance of this issue within the medical profession.</p>
<p>In 1926, Konikow visited the Soviet Union with her son-in-law John Vanzler (who sometimes used the name John Wright), also a socialist, a chemist, and later a translator of Trotsky, to demonstrate a cheap spermicidal jelly they had jointly developed. Her visit to the USSR solidified her growing disillusionment with the direction the Soviet Union was taking, and she developed sympathies with Trotsky and the Left Opposition. By this time, the U.S. Communist Party, long beset by feuding factions, had come increasingly under the influence of Stalin. The Soviet-led Comintern had placed the unpopular and authoritarian Jay Lovestone as CP leader. In 1928, a group of U.S. sympathizers of Trotsky and the Left Opposition, James Cannon, Max Shachtman, and Martin Abern, were expelled from the Party. After Konikow expressed sympathies for Trotsky, Lovestone abruptly summoned her to New York to appear before the Party's Political Committee to account for her views, placing her in a difficult situation. Konikow's reply to Lovestone revealed Lovestone's underhanded bureaucratic maneuvers and the degeneration of the CP:</p>
<p>"You know well that going to New York from Boston means quite an expense and that leaving my medical practice for several days involves a big financial lost. Why can't a local committee consider my case?... According to the latest decision of the Comintern we should have full inner party democracy. Why does this not apply to the Trotsky Opposition?"</p>
<p>In reaction to Konikow's letter, Lovestone reportedly said, "It is obvious from her letter that she is the worst kind of a Trotskyite biologically as well as politically. The sooner we throw her out the better for the party." Konikow was expelled shortly thereafter. Interestingly, six months after he expelled the Trotskyists, Lovestone himself was expelled from the Party. He politically drifted to the right, and by the early 1960s, he was working with the CIA in Latin America, collaborating with the Kennedy Administration to overthrow governments in Latin America.</p>
<p>After her expulsion Konikow formed a small Trotskyist organization in Boston, the Independent Communist League, which merged with James Cannon's Communist League, the predecessor of the Socialist Workers? Party, in 1929. In 1938, she was made an honorary member of the then Trotskyist SWP's governing National Committee at its founding convention. Konikow provided an important socialist feminist voice in the early U.S. American Trotskyist movement, and in her 1941 article "Birth Control Is No Panecea But It Deserves Labor's Aid Against Reaction," published in the SWP's The Militant, eloquently argued for the fight for women's reproductive freedom.</p>
<p>In November of 1938, the SWP held a commemoration of Konikow's 50 years as a revolutionary socialist. Trotsky wrote to her for the occasion, saying, "We are proud, my dear Antoinette, to have you in our ranks. You are a beautiful example of energy and devotion for our youth. I embrace you with the wish: Long live Antoinette Konikow." Konikow said to the young people who had come to the commemoration, "We place in your hands a banner unsoiled. Many times it was dragged into the mud. We lifted it up and lovingly cleansed it to give it to you. Under the red banner of Marx, Lenin and Trotsky, you will conquer".</p>
<p>Antoinette Konikow passed away in 1946 in Boston while writing her memoirs.</p>
<p>Related</p>
<p><a href="reproductive-justice" type="external">Reproductive Justice</a>&#160;&#160;&#160;/&#160;&#160;&#160; <a href="HISTORY" type="external">History</a>&#160;&#160;&#160;/&#160;&#160;&#160; <a href="Women" type="external">Women</a>&#160;&#160;&#160;/&#160;&#160;&#160; <a href="Womens-Rights-445" type="external">Womens? Rights</a>&#160;&#160;&#160;/&#160;&#160;&#160; <a href="Gender-Sexuality-192" type="external">Gender &amp; Sexuality</a></p> | true | 4 | antoinette konikow born antoinette bucholz orenburg russia volga river near kazakhstan ethnic jewish parents socialists went secondary school odessa 19 went university zurich switzerland studied medicine joined george plekhanovs emancipation labor group first russian marxist group predecessor organization later split bolshevik menshevik factions bryan palmer book james cannon origins american revolutionary left 18901928 mentions konikow abruptly left zurich incident involving explosives boarding house staying fellow radicals konikow immigrated us husband 1893 completed medical education tufts university tufts college near boston graduating honors us konikow remained involved socialist movement year emigrated america became organizer unemployed immigrant workers joined deleonist socialist labor party active workers circle jewish mutual aid society learned yiddish speak russia aid work immigrants konikow left slp 1897 bureaucratism dogmatism worked eugene debs victor berger active several shortlived socialist groups organized one point worked dissident group split slp attempted convince join debs bergers organization became founding member socialist party america delegate first convention 1901 worked eugene debs became leader socialist sunday school movement socialist youth education project designed alternative sunday religious instruction young people influence movement renamed socialist schools science konikow also served socialist partys fiveperson womens commission became known passionate speaker tireless advocate womens rights repressive era antoinette konikow two children divorced husband moses konikow 1910 time divorce difficult divorce reported new york times called prominent socialist orator year later konikow spoke defense meta fuller widely criticized divorcing socialist novelist upton sinclair new york times mentioned quoting letter solidarity fuller said many thousands throwing mud speaking bitterness simple reason envy display courage openheartedness love truthfulness first world war began europe 1914 konikow toured us speaking war inspired german socialist karl liebknecht much risk spoke social patriotism germany konikow big supporter 1917 bolshevik revolution 1919 socialist partys left wings split wake russian revolution konikow joined radical immigrantdominated communist party america one two main communist factions split sp year factions unified became active workers party aboveground branch thenpartlyunderground communist party america served chair new england division communist partys national defense committee cp organization dedicated raising money cover partys legal defense needs 1924 workers party candidate us senate massachusetts doctorkonikow served workingclass immigrant women clinic boston area many years late 19th early 20th century sexually repressive era us mid19th century onwards womens reproductive choices increasingly medicalized taken hands 1873 comstock law banned sale contraceptives dissemination abortion birth control information though us mail 1900 form abortion felony every us state challenging konikow became one pioneers us birth control movement konikow frequently performed abortions provided contraceptive information patients often writing medical notes code protect clients police raids subject 1923 published voluntary motherhood first birth control manual american doctor primarily oriented towards immigrant women 1928 arrested teaching contraceptive use private home meeting birth control society massachusetts organization worked defend acquitted 1931 wrote physicians manual birth control fight ignorance issue within medical profession 1926 konikow visited soviet union soninlaw john vanzler sometimes used name john wright also socialist chemist later translator trotsky demonstrate cheap spermicidal jelly jointly developed visit ussr solidified growing disillusionment direction soviet union taking developed sympathies trotsky left opposition time us communist party long beset feuding factions come increasingly influence stalin sovietled comintern placed unpopular authoritarian jay lovestone cp leader 1928 group us sympathizers trotsky left opposition james cannon max shachtman martin abern expelled party konikow expressed sympathies trotsky lovestone abruptly summoned new york appear partys political committee account views placing difficult situation konikows reply lovestone revealed lovestones underhanded bureaucratic maneuvers degeneration cp know well going new york boston means quite expense leaving medical practice several days involves big financial lost cant local committee consider case according latest decision comintern full inner party democracy apply trotsky opposition reaction konikows letter lovestone reportedly said obvious letter worst kind trotskyite biologically well politically sooner throw better party konikow expelled shortly thereafter interestingly six months expelled trotskyists lovestone expelled party politically drifted right early 1960s working cia latin america collaborating kennedy administration overthrow governments latin america expulsion konikow formed small trotskyist organization boston independent communist league merged james cannons communist league predecessor socialist workers party 1929 1938 made honorary member trotskyist swps governing national committee founding convention konikow provided important socialist feminist voice early us american trotskyist movement 1941 article birth control panecea deserves labors aid reaction published swps militant eloquently argued fight womens reproductive freedom november 1938 swp held commemoration konikows 50 years revolutionary socialist trotsky wrote occasion saying proud dear antoinette ranks beautiful example energy devotion youth embrace wish long live antoinette konikow konikow said young people come commemoration place hands banner unsoiled many times dragged mud lifted lovingly cleansed give red banner marx lenin trotsky conquer antoinette konikow passed away 1946 boston writing memoirs related reproductive justice160160160160160160 history160160160160160160 women160160160160160160 womens rights160160160160160160 gender amp sexuality | 782 |
<p>Amid the whining about Obamacare, women, men and children are signing up for what will be a transformation in health care and, to some extent, American society.</p>
<p>There are many complaints about the law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Unions say it threatens their health care plans. Republicans charge it will bankrupt the nation. Consumers worry about a doctor shortage. Advocates of a stronger federal health insurance plan accuse President Barack Obama of surrendering to the insurance companies.</p>
<p>The nation, of course, would have experienced a much bigger transformation if Obama had approved the only plan that would have truly cured the country’s sick health care system — Medicare for all. That would have extended to everyone the benefits that are now available to those 65 and older.</p>
<p>But enough mourning for what should have been. The Affordable Care Act is here. Some provisions are already in effect. The exchanges through which people will buy health insurance are scheduled to begin sign-ups Oct. 1. By Jan. 1, they and other Obamacare provisions will be operating. One of the most important will be the expansion of Medicaid for the poor in 28 states. The rest, mostly in the South and parts of the Midwest and West and run by Republicans, have refused to take part.</p>
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<p>California has been preparing for months and is a good place to see what is happening on the ground. Last week, I visited a community care clinic to check how the Affordable Care Act is affecting the working poor.</p>
<p>There are more than 1,200 of these centers in the United States, providing care to more than 20 million people, most of them poor and a substantial number of them uninsured. Predating Obamacare, they are financed by a combination of government funds, donations and payments for care from Medicaid (known as Medi-Cal in California), which serves the poor. I chose the St. John’s Well Child &amp; Family Center, located in densely populated South Los Angeles, home of about a million, with high unemployment and poverty rates.</p>
<p>Pablo Barrios, a St. John’s community outreach worker, said there are about 700,000 people in Los Angeles now eligible for Medi-Cal under Obamacare’s expansion of the program to include more of the working poor. A family of five with an income of $36,668 would be eligible.</p>
<p>I talked to Barrios, Maria Naranjo and Gary Poe about their efforts to enroll Latinos and African-Americans, who comprise the overwhelming majority of South L.A.’s population. Most will be eligible for Medi-Cal, while others, with higher incomes, are steered to the exchanges from which they can buy health insurance policies subsidized by the federal government. The three workers manned sign-up tables outside St. John’s new building, the result of an Affordable Care Act grant, one of several given to such community centers around the country.</p>
<p>They recruit in churches, schools and workers’ centers. The centers have been organized in the past several years as vehicles for fast food and retail workers, car washers, sweatshop employees and other low-paid people to fight for higher wages and better working conditions in places like Walmart that are resistant to union organization.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, some people hesitate to sign up. Some potential patients, even though they are here legally, worry that enrolling will somehow bring them into contact with the dreaded immigration authorities. Others don’t want to break their years-long habit of going to hospital emergency rooms or pharmacies. Some are busy juggling three jobs, too exhausted to figure out the paperwork involved in Obamacare. Others, among them the young, don’t think they need protection or know little about the law.</p>
<p>“We’ve got to be persistent,” Barrios said. “We go out every day.” They hand out leaflets, with this at the top in big, bold letters: “Recibe Servicios de Salud Ahora! Get Health Care Now.”</p>
<p>The goal of this effort extends beyond getting people into a medical office. That is clear from the garden boxes of vegetables, herbs and flowers growing next to the curb on West 58th Street, site of the St. John’s office. South L.A. is short of markets. Liquor stores and small groceries sell unhealthy food to people without the time, energy or know-how to search out something healthier. The small gardens are designed to show St. John’s patients what can be done. The center is enlisting high school students to search for and map food stands and community urban gardens where people can buy fresh food — badly needed in this community hard hit by diabetes, obesity and other chronic ailments related to diet. St. John’s patients and their families are encouraged to plant gardens of their own.</p>
<p>This is “attacking the basic social ills that cause ill health,” said Lisa Hubbard, who is in charge of strategic initiatives and public affairs at St. John’s.</p>
<p>Consider a list of services available to St. John’s patients — immunizations, primary care, prescriptions, birth control, prenatal care, vision and hearing care, physical exams, nutritional advice, dental exams, parenting workshops and more.</p>
<p>None of this is extraordinary. Americans covered by health insurance policies or Medicare expect it, as do those on Medicaid. But without such care, the poor and the low-paid workers who are classified as the working poor are deprived of the health and energy that gives them a fighting chance to move up the economic ladder.</p>
<p>There are many other obstacles to such movement, including a cruel economic structure and poorly performing schools. But we too often forget to list health among them. How can someone find a job, much less hold one, with aching teeth, a sore gut, diabetes, depression, substance addiction, bad vision, asthma, headaches and the other ailments that go untreated in poor neighborhoods? “This is the most dramatic opportunity that has existed to help people improve their lives,” Hubbard said.</p>
<p>With all its imperfections, its maddening loopholes and limitations, Obamacare is a step toward improving the health of the overlooked poor and transforming our society into something beginning to approach fairness.</p> | true | 4 | amid whining obamacare women men children signing transformation health care extent american society many complaints law patient protection affordable care act unions say threatens health care plans republicans charge bankrupt nation consumers worry doctor shortage advocates stronger federal health insurance plan accuse president barack obama surrendering insurance companies nation course would experienced much bigger transformation obama approved plan would truly cured countrys sick health care system medicare would extended everyone benefits available 65 older enough mourning affordable care act provisions already effect exchanges people buy health insurance scheduled begin signups oct 1 jan 1 obamacare provisions operating one important expansion medicaid poor 28 states rest mostly south parts midwest west run republicans refused take part california preparing months good place see happening ground last week visited community care clinic check affordable care act affecting working poor 1200 centers united states providing care 20 million people poor substantial number uninsured predating obamacare financed combination government funds donations payments care medicaid known medical california serves poor chose st johns well child amp family center located densely populated south los angeles home million high unemployment poverty rates pablo barrios st johns community outreach worker said 700000 people los angeles eligible medical obamacares expansion program include working poor family five income 36668 would eligible talked barrios maria naranjo gary poe efforts enroll latinos africanamericans comprise overwhelming majority south las population eligible medical others higher incomes steered exchanges buy health insurance policies subsidized federal government three workers manned signup tables outside st johns new building result affordable care act grant one several given community centers around country recruit churches schools workers centers centers organized past several years vehicles fast food retail workers car washers sweatshop employees lowpaid people fight higher wages better working conditions places like walmart resistant union organization surprisingly people hesitate sign potential patients even though legally worry enrolling somehow bring contact dreaded immigration authorities others dont want break yearslong habit going hospital emergency rooms pharmacies busy juggling three jobs exhausted figure paperwork involved obamacare others among young dont think need protection know little law weve got persistent barrios said go every day hand leaflets top big bold letters recibe servicios de salud ahora get health care goal effort extends beyond getting people medical office clear garden boxes vegetables herbs flowers growing next curb west 58th street site st johns office south la short markets liquor stores small groceries sell unhealthy food people without time energy knowhow search something healthier small gardens designed show st johns patients done center enlisting high school students search map food stands community urban gardens people buy fresh food badly needed community hard hit diabetes obesity chronic ailments related diet st johns patients families encouraged plant gardens attacking basic social ills cause ill health said lisa hubbard charge strategic initiatives public affairs st johns consider list services available st johns patients immunizations primary care prescriptions birth control prenatal care vision hearing care physical exams nutritional advice dental exams parenting workshops none extraordinary americans covered health insurance policies medicare expect medicaid without care poor lowpaid workers classified working poor deprived health energy gives fighting chance move economic ladder many obstacles movement including cruel economic structure poorly performing schools often forget list health among someone find job much less hold one aching teeth sore gut diabetes depression substance addiction bad vision asthma headaches ailments go untreated poor neighborhoods dramatic opportunity existed help people improve lives hubbard said imperfections maddening loopholes limitations obamacare step toward improving health overlooked poor transforming society something beginning approach fairness | 584 |
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<p>there hasn’t yet been a tin or copper war, but there once was a nitrate war, and in the past decade Bolivia has seen both a water war and a gas war—the latest struggles over the nation’s only real riches, the lucrative resources granted by God and geology. In this country nearly twice the size of France, where Amazonian jungles butt against 12,000-foot plateaus, the winners have always come from elsewhere. The Inca royalty of Cuzco (in modern-day Peru) took power from the local Aymara; the Spanish took gold and silver; the British took tin; recently, multinationals Bechtel and Suez tried to privatize the water supplies of Cochabamba and El Alto, while other foreign companies fought for control of Bolivia’s prodigious supply of natural gas; cartels continue to take the coca and its profits. Bolivia’s losers have always been the same: the disenfranchised indigenous. With an annual income of just $1,150 per capita, Bolivia is the poorest country in South America. But it is a deeply organized, socially coherent poverty, rooted in centuries of survival through communal politics and labor cooperation. Even today, long columns of Aymara men can be seen stepping backward through the fields with foot plows, opening the ground as chanting women follow, seeding potatoes. And for the first time in history, the piratical outsiders have been stymied by a homegrown revolution and its thin but consoling power.</p>
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<p>In Bolivia’s mines, men and as many as 8,000 young children endure horrific conditions to feed the world metal market; chewing on coca leaves offers the miners a traditional analgesic and appetite suppressant.</p>
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<p>But these leaves in the Eterazama coca market are too bitter to be chewed—they are destined instead for the cocaine market.</p>
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<p>In a clash between miners and Bolivian soldiers (top) , Nolberto Mamani Apaza (bottom) lost his hand. His 9-year-old son will have to take his place in the mines.</p>
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<p>Along the Bolivian front of the war on drugs, buyers tape packs of cocaine to children (top) for transport to the city, while men work for hours stomping coca leaves with water, gasoline, and chemicals to create cocaine paste (bottom).</p>
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<p>Trained and funded by the United States, Bolivian police do take out small labs (top) and arrest low-level traffickers (bottom), but interdiction efforts don’t do much to stanch the flow of cocaine.</p>
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<p>It was the gas war of 2003 as well as dissatisfaction with the American-led war on drugs that led the brown masses to march on La Paz and usher out the last of Bolivia’s white-led, semi-colonial governments. Real, broad elections summoned for the first time an indigenous leader, Evo Morales, to the Palacio Quemado, or “burned palace,” so named for being repeatedly torched during the more than 150 ruling-class coup d’etats that have marked Bolivian history. With its mixture of idealism and limited but sharp violence, this latest uprising was more like the Ukranian Orange Revolution than the Castro-style putsch feared by K and Wall streets. The alpaca-sweater-wearing Evo celebrated his inauguration at the ancient city of Tiahuanaco, at the ruins of a pre-Columbian site of sun worship. In accordance with mass demands for democracy and transparency, his administration struck a populist tone, signing trade deals with Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, nationalizing foreign-controlled oil and gas industries, paying students to attend school, and updating the face of nationalism, evidenced by the endless television programs in which indigenous people present their grievances and are, for the first time in Bolivian history, actually heard. The revolution is by no means perfect. Corruption persists, and Evo has not hesitated to toss the race card back in the face of the white elite who exploited it during the last century. Still, there is no turning back the clock on the rise of a new majority.</p>
<p>But having asserted their power, Bolivia’s indigenous people—a clear majority in a nation of just 9 million, but divided into many language groups—face the challenge of forging a movement larger than identity politics. Increasingly the Aymara are fleeing altiplano poverty for the tropical promise of the lowland coca business, uprooting their ancient way of life for a risky, marginally profitable role as peons in the international drug trade. Urbanized “Indians” are in reality sharply divided between established cholos, a bowler-hatted business class with longtime roots in La Paz and other cities, and the ever-swelling ranks of newcomer refugees who crowd into El Alto and other chaotic, emerging neighborhoods, scratching out a living as porters, gardeners, and ditchdiggers. Regionalism is spinning the country apart, pitting the national government high in La Paz against the economic powerhouse of lowland Santa Cruz. Fresh, angry slogans in La Paz cry out eliminate private property, less a practical demand than a warning of the impossible expectations that await reformers.</p>
<p>Many who remain in the mountains resort to the pittance earned by mining for gold, silver, and tin. Under Spanish rule, these same mines cost the lives of millions of indigenous and African laborers. Thanks to the global boom in metal prices, mines previously considered exhausted tempt a new generation of boys who descend into impossibly dark, narrow, unventilated veins of the Andes, chewing coca to suppress their appetite, fatigue, and fear.</p>
<p>Coca has always been a palliative for Bolivia’s poor, but only recently has the country become central to the global cocaine market. As Washington squeezed the coca balloon in Colombia, it has bulged out in southern Bolivia, where production has increased, even as the United States now pours $66 million a year into interdiction, military and police training, and dare anti-drug classes for 28,000 Bolivian students. America has focused on crop eradication, and efforts to help Bolivians cultivate replacement crops have mostly failed.</p>
<p>A former coca farmer and coca-union leader who railed against American-led programs, Evo Morales ran on a Coca Sí! Cocaína No! platform. He keeps a portrait of Che Guevara made entirely from coca leaves on his office wall and never misses a chance to serve coca tea to visiting politicians. But the leaf traditionally grown at high altitude and chewed by indigenous Bolivians has become a Trojan horse for the broader cultivation of a more bitter, unchewable, low-growing leaf useful only to narcotraffickers. Washington tabulates successes like body counts, claiming that in 2007, precisely 3,093 labs and maceration pits (often little more than plastic-lined ruts where cocaine paste is mixed) were destroyed, 13.8 metric tons of cocaine base were seized, and Bolivia’s anti-narcotics police carried out 8,269 operations. The real gains are ephemeral. Armed and trained by the United States, Bolivian commandos chase low-level producers through Evo’s Chapare region; meanwhile major traffickers sometimes walk out of jail, as pure and cheap cocaine floods onto world markets. On a fundamental level, the war on drugs is like all the other commodities wars Bolivia has endured: Rural peasants take all the risk—going so far as transporting coca by strapping it to the bodies of their young children—while outside traffickers take most of the profits.</p>
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<p /> | true | 4 | hasnt yet tin copper war nitrate war past decade bolivia seen water war gas warthe latest struggles nations real riches lucrative resources granted god geology country nearly twice size france amazonian jungles butt 12000foot plateaus winners always come elsewhere inca royalty cuzco modernday peru took power local aymara spanish took gold silver british took tin recently multinationals bechtel suez tried privatize water supplies cochabamba el alto foreign companies fought control bolivias prodigious supply natural gas cartels continue take coca profits bolivias losers always disenfranchised indigenous annual income 1150 per capita bolivia poorest country south america deeply organized socially coherent poverty rooted centuries survival communal politics labor cooperation even today long columns aymara men seen stepping backward fields foot plows opening ground chanting women follow seeding potatoes first time history piratical outsiders stymied homegrown revolution thin consoling power bolivias mines men many 8000 young children endure horrific conditions feed world metal market chewing coca leaves offers miners traditional analgesic appetite suppressant leaves eterazama coca market bitter chewedthey destined instead cocaine market clash miners bolivian soldiers top nolberto mamani apaza bottom lost hand 9yearold son take place mines along bolivian front war drugs buyers tape packs cocaine children top transport city men work hours stomping coca leaves water gasoline chemicals create cocaine paste bottom trained funded united states bolivian police take small labs top arrest lowlevel traffickers bottom interdiction efforts dont much stanch flow cocaine gas war 2003 well dissatisfaction americanled war drugs led brown masses march la paz usher last bolivias whiteled semicolonial governments real broad elections summoned first time indigenous leader evo morales palacio quemado burned palace named repeatedly torched 150 rulingclass coup detats marked bolivian history mixture idealism limited sharp violence latest uprising like ukranian orange revolution castrostyle putsch feared k wall streets alpacasweaterwearing evo celebrated inauguration ancient city tiahuanaco ruins precolumbian site sun worship accordance mass demands democracy transparency administration struck populist tone signing trade deals venezuelas hugo chávez nationalizing foreigncontrolled oil gas industries paying students attend school updating face nationalism evidenced endless television programs indigenous people present grievances first time bolivian history actually heard revolution means perfect corruption persists evo hesitated toss race card back face white elite exploited last century still turning back clock rise new majority asserted power bolivias indigenous peoplea clear majority nation 9 million divided many language groupsface challenge forging movement larger identity politics increasingly aymara fleeing altiplano poverty tropical promise lowland coca business uprooting ancient way life risky marginally profitable role peons international drug trade urbanized indians reality sharply divided established cholos bowlerhatted business class longtime roots la paz cities everswelling ranks newcomer refugees crowd el alto chaotic emerging neighborhoods scratching living porters gardeners ditchdiggers regionalism spinning country apart pitting national government high la paz economic powerhouse lowland santa cruz fresh angry slogans la paz cry eliminate private property less practical demand warning impossible expectations await reformers many remain mountains resort pittance earned mining gold silver tin spanish rule mines cost lives millions indigenous african laborers thanks global boom metal prices mines previously considered exhausted tempt new generation boys descend impossibly dark narrow unventilated veins andes chewing coca suppress appetite fatigue fear coca always palliative bolivias poor recently country become central global cocaine market washington squeezed coca balloon colombia bulged southern bolivia production increased even united states pours 66 million year interdiction military police training dare antidrug classes 28000 bolivian students america focused crop eradication efforts help bolivians cultivate replacement crops mostly failed former coca farmer cocaunion leader railed americanled programs evo morales ran coca sí cocaína platform keeps portrait che guevara made entirely coca leaves office wall never misses chance serve coca tea visiting politicians leaf traditionally grown high altitude chewed indigenous bolivians become trojan horse broader cultivation bitter unchewable lowgrowing leaf useful narcotraffickers washington tabulates successes like body counts claiming 2007 precisely 3093 labs maceration pits often little plasticlined ruts cocaine paste mixed destroyed 138 metric tons cocaine base seized bolivias antinarcotics police carried 8269 operations real gains ephemeral armed trained united states bolivian commandos chase lowlevel producers evos chapare region meanwhile major traffickers sometimes walk jail pure cheap cocaine floods onto world markets fundamental level war drugs like commodities wars bolivia endured rural peasants take riskgoing far transporting coca strapping bodies young childrenwhile outside traffickers take profits 160 | 709 |
<p>Residents and volunteers form a barricade at Riverdale Mobile Homes Park in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania.Image courtesy of &lt;a href="http://www.ragingchickenpress.org/2012/06/14/the-snipers-of-jersey-shore"&gt;Wendy Lynne Lee&lt;/a&gt;/Raging Chicken Press</p>
<p />
<p>When the 32 families of the Riverdale Mobile Home Park in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, found out that they were losing their homes to the state’s latest fracking operation, the news didn’t come from their landlord, or an eviction notice in the mail—they read about it in their morning paper.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sungazette.com/page/content.detail/id/574772/Planners-approve-3-natural-gas-projects.html" type="external">The February 18 article</a>, published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, nonchalantly detailed the approval of three natural gas projects in Lycoming County, PA, including a water withdrawal station that would pipe millions of gallons of water from the Susquehanna River to fracking stations in the mountains further north. The article noted that an “added benefit” of the plans was “the removal of mobile homes,” which were located in a potential flood plain.</p>
<p>Later that afternoon, Riverdale’s landlord came by and confirmed what residents had already read in the paper: The property had been sold to Aqua America, a water company <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/video/91956415-ceo-says-aqua-america-aims-to-grow-fracking-sales.html" type="external">dedicated to fracking</a>. The full magnitude of the blow came days later, when the eviction notices arrived, informing the residents that they had until May 1 to relocate so that work on the site could begin in June. <a href="http://www.sungazette.com/page/content.detail/id/575944/32-unit-village-no-more.html?nav=5019" type="external">Each family was offered</a> $2,500 if they got off the property by April 1; $1,500 if they moved by May 1; and zero compensation after that. It wasn’t nearly enough; lawyers for Riverdale residents later estimated that the cost of moving each trailer was, on average, between $8,000 to $10,000.</p>
<p>For communities on the Rust Belt, it’s one of the oldest stories in the book: A new industry comes in and needs to build roadways or pipelines, and poor communities have to get out of its way. “This happens all the time in Pennsylvania,” said Alex Lotorto, a Pennsylvania activist and delegate for the union group Industrial Workers of the World. “Industry comes in and uses our skilled labor. Then both government and industry end up abusing us because honestly, nobody even thinks about the people north of I-80.”</p>
<p>But in Riverdale, something unexpected happened: People decided they weren’t going to go quietly.</p>
<p>It started with a single post in the comments section of the Sun-Gazette, when Riverdale resident Kevin June posted his contact information and a plea for outside help. “I live in this park and pray everyday that God will give some of us an answer,” he wrote. “Would everyone that reads this contact all the news media so the ones that have no where to go or the money to move or that there homes are to old to move into another park can have some answers as to what we do next.”</p>
<p>Lotorto was one of the first to respond. For months, he worked with Riverdale residents to lawyer up in order to fight the eviction and to pressure Aqua America into negotiations.</p>
<p>But by the end of May, with several families still on site who had been unwilling or physically and financially unable to move, Riverdale was running low on options. With construction due to begin June 1, Riverdale residents, volunteers, and activists took a final stand: They built a blockade and said they wouldn’t move until they were forced to.</p>
<p>The blockade lasted almost two weeks. <a href="http://democraticunderground.com/12522949" type="external">Activists from Occupy Cleveland</a>&#160;arrived on the scene on June 4, driving across the state line to respond to&#160;Riverdale’s <a href="http://www.saveriverdale.com/2012/06/help-us-keep-river-in-riverdale-day-of.html" type="external">open call for volunteers</a> to help them hold the site. Volunteers began coming, and a modest flow of monetary donations trickled in. On June 11,&#160;Riverdale sent out an emergency call&#160;after being <a href="http://www.saveriverdale.com/2012/06/support-needed.html" type="external">told by a utility worker</a> that Aqua America’s construction crew would arrive to begin excavations the following day.</p>
<p>But at noon on June 12, a private security company contracted by Aqua America arrived on the scene and began dismantling the blockade (watch a video <a href="http://www.saveriverdale.com/2012/06/video-volunteers-forced-to-leave.html" type="external">here</a>.) Nonresident protesters were told to leave or risk arrest for trespassing. When some resisted, the Pennsylvania State Police were called to the scene. Riverdale residents stepped in before any arrests were made, requesting that all volunteers leave in compliance with the police.</p>
<p>Over the past 10 days, construction has begun on the former trailer park. Seven families remain on the premises and are in negotiations with Aqua America for financial compensation.</p>
<p>Lotorto noted that they are also banned from having guests, a measure originally meant to prevent additional barricades and protesters that may have gotten out of hand. “There are three private security guards at all times and floodlights on the place all night,” he said. “They can’t get their mail; the mailman isn’t allowed in there. They can’t get anyone to come help them move their things. It’s like they’re incarcerated.”</p>
<p>But former Riverdale resident Eric Daniels, a truck driver in the natural gas industry, wants everyone in the country to know this: “We were a small group of people who stood up against this injustice.”</p>
<p>And it looks like Riverdale won’t be the last Pennsylvania community that gets fracked. <a href="http://wnep.com/2012/06/20/who-should-pay/" type="external">Just yesterday</a>, residents of nearby Bucknell View Mobile Home Park received notice that they would have to pay thousands of dollars to raise their trailers to higher ground—or get out by August 1. “The issues in our area are out of control,” Daniels said.&#160;</p>
<p>Nor are community fights over fracking damages by any means isolated to the Susquehanna area. In upstate New York, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/nyregion/hydrofracking-under-cuomo-plan-would-be-restricted-to-a-few-counties.html?_r=2" type="external">five underserved counties</a> are about to get fracked, and communities are split between their need for income and their fears of water contamination and other health risks. In California, <a href="http://www.alternet.org/fracking/155829/fracking_los_angeles%3A_what_life_is_like_on_the_country%27s_biggest_urban_oilfield" type="external">600 unregulated wells</a> were fracked in 2011, and upset citizens <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/06/protesters-take-to-culver-city-streets-to-decry-fracking-.html" type="external">have allied</a> with national environmental nonprofits to coordinate protests.&#160;</p>
<p>“Fracking is always going to have to be fought largely at the local and state level because that’s where the controlling government jurisdictions mostly are,” said environmental activist and author <a href="" type="internal">Bill McKibben</a>, whose organization 350.org used its clout to pass Riverdale’s call to action on to its regional supporters&#160; <a href="http://twitter.com/350/status/212596684780355584" type="external">via Twitter</a>&#160;and email.&#160;“It makes it hard, but powerful.”</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | residents volunteers form barricade riverdale mobile homes park jersey shore pennsylvaniaimage courtesy lta hrefhttpwwwragingchickenpressorg20120614thesnipersofjerseyshoregtwendy lynne leeltagtraging chicken press 32 families riverdale mobile home park jersey shore pennsylvania found losing homes states latest fracking operation news didnt come landlord eviction notice mailthey read morning paper february 18 article published williamsport sungazette nonchalantly detailed approval three natural gas projects lycoming county pa including water withdrawal station would pipe millions gallons water susquehanna river fracking stations mountains north article noted added benefit plans removal mobile homes located potential flood plain later afternoon riverdales landlord came confirmed residents already read paper property sold aqua america water company dedicated fracking full magnitude blow came days later eviction notices arrived informing residents may 1 relocate work site could begin june family offered 2500 got property april 1 1500 moved may 1 zero compensation wasnt nearly enough lawyers riverdale residents later estimated cost moving trailer average 8000 10000 communities rust belt one oldest stories book new industry comes needs build roadways pipelines poor communities get way happens time pennsylvania said alex lotorto pennsylvania activist delegate union group industrial workers world industry comes uses skilled labor government industry end abusing us honestly nobody even thinks people north i80 riverdale something unexpected happened people decided werent going go quietly started single post comments section sungazette riverdale resident kevin june posted contact information plea outside help live park pray everyday god give us answer wrote would everyone reads contact news media ones go money move homes old move another park answers next lotorto one first respond months worked riverdale residents lawyer order fight eviction pressure aqua america negotiations end may several families still site unwilling physically financially unable move riverdale running low options construction due begin june 1 riverdale residents volunteers activists took final stand built blockade said wouldnt move forced blockade lasted almost two weeks activists occupy cleveland160arrived scene june 4 driving across state line respond to160riverdales open call volunteers help hold site volunteers began coming modest flow monetary donations trickled june 11160riverdale sent emergency call160after told utility worker aqua americas construction crew would arrive begin excavations following day noon june 12 private security company contracted aqua america arrived scene began dismantling blockade watch video nonresident protesters told leave risk arrest trespassing resisted pennsylvania state police called scene riverdale residents stepped arrests made requesting volunteers leave compliance police past 10 days construction begun former trailer park seven families remain premises negotiations aqua america financial compensation lotorto noted also banned guests measure originally meant prevent additional barricades protesters may gotten hand three private security guards times floodlights place night said cant get mail mailman isnt allowed cant get anyone come help move things like theyre incarcerated former riverdale resident eric daniels truck driver natural gas industry wants everyone country know small group people stood injustice looks like riverdale wont last pennsylvania community gets fracked yesterday residents nearby bucknell view mobile home park received notice would pay thousands dollars raise trailers higher groundor get august 1 issues area control daniels said160 community fights fracking damages means isolated susquehanna area upstate new york five underserved counties get fracked communities split need income fears water contamination health risks california 600 unregulated wells fracked 2011 upset citizens allied national environmental nonprofits coordinate protests160 fracking always going fought largely local state level thats controlling government jurisdictions mostly said environmental activist author bill mckibben whose organization 350org used clout pass riverdales call action regional supporters160 via twitter160and email160it makes hard powerful | 575 |
<p>Throughout its thousands of years of history, Akko has never been an Israelite town.</p>
<p>Even according to the mythological story of the Bible, the Israelites did not conquer the city, which was already an ancient port. The first chapter of the Book of Judges, which contradicts much of the description given in the Book of Joshua, states unequivocally: “Neither did [the tribe of] Asher drive out the inhabitants of Akko. (Judges 1:31)</p>
<p>Only a few of the world’s cities can boast such a stormy and checkered history as Akko (Akka in Arabic, Acre in French and English), the main port of the country. It was a Canaanite-Phoenician town, traded with Egypt, rebelled against Assyria, confronted the Jewish Hasmoneans, was conquered by the Crusaders, served as a battle-ground for the legendary Saladin and the no less legendary Richard the Lion-Hearted, was the capital of the semi-independent Arab state of the Galilee under Daher al-Omar and withstood the siege of Napoleon. All these periods have left their traces in Akko, in the form of buildings and walls. A fascinating town, perhaps the most beautiful – and surely the most interesting – after Jerusalem.</p>
<p>During some of these periods, there existed in Akko a small Jewish community, but it never was a Jewish town. On the contrary: among the rabbis there was an ongoing discussion whether Akko, from the point of view of religious law (Halacha), belonged to Eretz Israel at all. This was important, because certain commandments apply only to the Land of Israel. Some rabbis believed that Akko did not belong, while others asserted that at least a part of the town did. (That did not prevent us in our youth from singing “Akko, too, belongs to Eretz Israel” – meaning the old Crusaders’ fortress on the sea-shore, where the British held prisoners from the Jewish underground organizations.)</p>
<p>In the 1948 war, Akko was occupied by the Israeli forces, and since then it has lived under Israeli rule: 60 years out of a history of 5000 years and more.</p>
<p>This is the background of last week’s events in Akko. The Arab inhabitants consider Akko as the town of their forefathers, which was forcibly occupied by the Jews. The Jewish inhabitants consider it a Jewish town, in which the Arabs are a tolerated minority – at most.</p>
<p>For years the town was covered by a thin blanket of hypocrisy. Everybody praised and celebrated the wonderful co-existence there. Until the blanket was torn, and the naked truth was exposed. I am a very secular person. I have always advocated a complete separation between state and religion, even in the days when that sounded like a crazy idea. But it has never entered my mind to drive on Yom Kippur. There is no law forbidding it, no law is necessary.</p>
<p>For a traditional Jew, Yom Kippur is a day like no other. Even if one does not really believe that on this day God makes the final decision about the life or death of every human being for the next year and writes it all down in a large book, one senses that one has to respect the feelings of those who do believe. I would not drive on Yom Kippur in a Jewish neighborhood, just as I would not eat in public during Ramadan in an Arab neighborhood.</p>
<p>It is difficult to know what the Arab driver Tawfiq Jamal was thinking of when he entered a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in his car on Yom Kippur. It is reasonable to assume that he did not do it out of malice, as a provocation, but rather out of stupidity or carelessness.</p>
<p>The reaction was predictable. An angry Jewish crowd chased him into an Arab house and besieged him there. In a distant Arab neighborhood the loudspeakers of the mosques blared out that Arabs had been killed and that an Arab was in mortal danger. Excited Arab youngsters tried to reach the house of the besieged Arab family but were blocked by the police. They gave vent to their feelings by wrecking Jewish shops and cars. Jewish youths, reinforced by members of the extreme right, burned down the homes of Arab inhabitants, who became refugees in their own town. In a few minutes, 60 years of “co-existence” were wiped out – proof that in the “mixed” town there is no real co-existence, only two communities who hate each other’s guts.</p>
<p>It is easy to understand this hatred. As in other “mixed” towns, indeed as in the whole of Israel, the Arab public is discriminated against by the state and municipal authorities. Smaller budgets, inferior education facilities, poorer housing, crowded neighborhoods.</p>
<p>The Arab citizens are the victims of a vicious circle. They live in crowded towns and neighborhoods that have turned into neglected ghettos. When the standard of living of the inhabitants rises, there is a desperate demand for a better environment and better housing. Young couples leave the neglected and underfunded Arab neighborhoods and move into Jewish areas, something that immediately arouses opposition and resentment. The same has happened to African Americans in the USA, and before them to the Jews there and elsewhere.</p>
<p>All the talk about equality, good neighborliness and co-existence goes up in smoke when Arab families live in a hostile Jewish environment. Reasons are always to be found, and the incursion of Tawfiq Jamal was only an especially grievous example.</p>
<p>Such a situation can be found in many places on earth. Religious, nationalistic, ethnic or community sensitivities can explode at any time. It took a hundred years after the emancipation of the slaves in the US until the civil rights laws were enacted, and during those years there were regular lynchings. Another 40 years passed before a black candidate could come near the White House. The police in London is notorious for their racism, citizens of Turkish origin are discriminated against in Berlin, an African can play football for the French national team but has no chance of becoming president.</p>
<p>In these respects, Akko is no different from the rest of the world.</p>
<p>Jean-Paul Sartre said that each of us contains a little racist. The only difference is between those who recognize and try to overcome it and those who give in.</p>
<p>As chance would have it, I spent Yom Kippur, while the riots were shaking Akko, reading the fascinating book by William Polk, “Neighbors and Strangers”, which deals with the origins of racism. Like other animals, ancient man lived from hunting and gathering. He roamed around with his extended family, a group of no more than fifty people, in an area that was barely sufficient for their subsistence. Every stranger who entered his territory was a mortal threat, while he tried to invade his neighbor’s territory in order to increase his chances of survival. In other words: the fear of the stranger and the urge to drive him out are deeply embedded in our biological heritage and have been for millions of years.</p>
<p>Racism can be overcome, or at least reined in, but that needs conscious, systematic and consistent treatment. In Akko – as in other places in the country – there has been no such treatment. In this country the racism is, of course, connected with the national conflict which has been going on already for five generations. The Akko events are just another episode in the war between the two peoples of this country.</p>
<p>The Jewish extreme right, including the hard core of the settlers, does not hide its intention of driving out all the Arabs and turning the entire country into a purely Jewish state. Meaning: ethnic cleansing. It looks like the dream of a small minority, but public opinion research shows that this tendency is gnawing at a much wider public, even if only in a half-conscious way, hidden and denied.</p>
<p>In the Arab community, there are probably some who dream about the good old days, before the Jews came to this country and took it by force.</p>
<p>When Jews carry out a pogrom in Akko, whatever the immediate reason, it becomes a national event. The burning of Arab homes in a Jewish neighborhood at once arouses fear of ethnic cleansing. When the Arab young people storm into a Jewish neighborhood in order to save an endangered Arab brother, it immediately evokes memories of the 1929 massacre of the Jews in Hebron – which, at the time, was also a “mixed” town.</p>
<p>There is reasonable hope that at some future time we shall end the national conflict and reach a peaceful solution that both peoples will accept (if only because there is no alternative.) A Palestinian state will come into being side by side with Israel, and both peoples will understand that this is the best possible solution. (The Akko events should give rise to second thoughts in the mind of anyone who believes in the “One-State solution”‘ where Jews and Arabs would live in brotherhood and equality. Such a “solution” would turn the entire country into one big Akko.)</p>
<p>But peace, based on two states living side by side, will not automatically solve the problem of the Arab citizens in Israel, a state that defines itself as “Jewish”. We must be ready for a long, consistent fight over the character of our state.</p>
<p>The extreme rightist Avigdor Liberman has proposed that the Arab villages on the Israeli side of the Green Line should be attached to the Palestinian state, in return for the Jewish settlement blocs beyond the Green Line that would be attached to Israel. That would not affect, of course, the Arab inhabitants of Akko, Haifa, Jaffa, Nazareth and the Galilee villages. But even in the villages near the Green Line, no Arab agrees to this idea. Although Liberman proposes to turn over the entire villages to the Palestinian state together with all their lands and properties, not a single Arab voice has been raised in agreement.</p>
<p>Why? The million and a half Arab citizens in Israel do not like the government’s policies, the flag and the national anthem, not to mention the treatment of the population in the occupied territories. But they prefer the Israeli democracy, the social progress, the National Insurance system and the social services. They are rooted in the life and mores of Israel much more deeply than they themselves recognize. They want to be citizens in this state, but on terms of equality and mutual respect.</p>
<p>The Jews who dream of ethnic cleansing do not understand how large a contribution the Arab community makes to Israel. Like the other inhabitants of Israel, they work here, they contribute to the GNP, they pay their taxes like everybody else. Like all of us, they have no alternative – they pay value-added tax on everything they buy and they, too, get their salaries only after income tax is deducted.</p>
<p>There are many questions that have to be recognized and discussed, and from which conclusions must be drawn. Is it desirable or not desirable, at this stage, for Arabs to live in Jewish neighborhoods and Jews in Arab neighborhoods? How can the Arab neighborhoods be elevated economically to the level of Jewish neighborhoods, in practice and not only in talk? Should every Jewish child learn Arabic and every Arab child learn Hebrew, as the mayor of Haifa proposed this week? Should Arab education receive the same status and the same budgets as, for example, the independent but government-funded Jewish Orthodox education system? Should autonomous Arab institutions be established? Finding solutions to these problems, or at least to some of them, is a vital part of the fight against racism – attacking its roots, and not only its symptoms.</p>
<p>Actually, there is no alternative: the citizens of Israel, Jews and Arabs, are “condemned” to live together, whether they like it or not. But, as the Akko events have shown again, the joint fabric is still weak. In order to change this, we must all have the courage to look the problem in the eye, to see it as it is, without hypocrisy or falsification. This is the only way we can find solutions.</p>
<p>URI AVNERY is an Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom. He is a contributor to CounterPunch’s book <a href="http://www.easycartsecure.com/CounterPunch/CounterPunch_Books.html" type="external">The Politics of Anti-Semitism</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | throughout thousands years history akko never israelite town even according mythological story bible israelites conquer city already ancient port first chapter book judges contradicts much description given book joshua states unequivocally neither tribe asher drive inhabitants akko judges 131 worlds cities boast stormy checkered history akko akka arabic acre french english main port country canaanitephoenician town traded egypt rebelled assyria confronted jewish hasmoneans conquered crusaders served battleground legendary saladin less legendary richard lionhearted capital semiindependent arab state galilee daher alomar withstood siege napoleon periods left traces akko form buildings walls fascinating town perhaps beautiful surely interesting jerusalem periods existed akko small jewish community never jewish town contrary among rabbis ongoing discussion whether akko point view religious law halacha belonged eretz israel important certain commandments apply land israel rabbis believed akko belong others asserted least part town prevent us youth singing akko belongs eretz israel meaning old crusaders fortress seashore british held prisoners jewish underground organizations 1948 war akko occupied israeli forces since lived israeli rule 60 years history 5000 years background last weeks events akko arab inhabitants consider akko town forefathers forcibly occupied jews jewish inhabitants consider jewish town arabs tolerated minority years town covered thin blanket hypocrisy everybody praised celebrated wonderful coexistence blanket torn naked truth exposed secular person always advocated complete separation state religion even days sounded like crazy idea never entered mind drive yom kippur law forbidding law necessary traditional jew yom kippur day like even one really believe day god makes final decision life death every human next year writes large book one senses one respect feelings believe would drive yom kippur jewish neighborhood would eat public ramadan arab neighborhood difficult know arab driver tawfiq jamal thinking entered predominantly jewish neighborhood car yom kippur reasonable assume malice provocation rather stupidity carelessness reaction predictable angry jewish crowd chased arab house besieged distant arab neighborhood loudspeakers mosques blared arabs killed arab mortal danger excited arab youngsters tried reach house besieged arab family blocked police gave vent feelings wrecking jewish shops cars jewish youths reinforced members extreme right burned homes arab inhabitants became refugees town minutes 60 years coexistence wiped proof mixed town real coexistence two communities hate others guts easy understand hatred mixed towns indeed whole israel arab public discriminated state municipal authorities smaller budgets inferior education facilities poorer housing crowded neighborhoods arab citizens victims vicious circle live crowded towns neighborhoods turned neglected ghettos standard living inhabitants rises desperate demand better environment better housing young couples leave neglected underfunded arab neighborhoods move jewish areas something immediately arouses opposition resentment happened african americans usa jews elsewhere talk equality good neighborliness coexistence goes smoke arab families live hostile jewish environment reasons always found incursion tawfiq jamal especially grievous example situation found many places earth religious nationalistic ethnic community sensitivities explode time took hundred years emancipation slaves us civil rights laws enacted years regular lynchings another 40 years passed black candidate could come near white house police london notorious racism citizens turkish origin discriminated berlin african play football french national team chance becoming president respects akko different rest world jeanpaul sartre said us contains little racist difference recognize try overcome give chance would spent yom kippur riots shaking akko reading fascinating book william polk neighbors strangers deals origins racism like animals ancient man lived hunting gathering roamed around extended family group fifty people area barely sufficient subsistence every stranger entered territory mortal threat tried invade neighbors territory order increase chances survival words fear stranger urge drive deeply embedded biological heritage millions years racism overcome least reined needs conscious systematic consistent treatment akko places country treatment country racism course connected national conflict going already five generations akko events another episode war two peoples country jewish extreme right including hard core settlers hide intention driving arabs turning entire country purely jewish state meaning ethnic cleansing looks like dream small minority public opinion research shows tendency gnawing much wider public even halfconscious way hidden denied arab community probably dream good old days jews came country took force jews carry pogrom akko whatever immediate reason becomes national event burning arab homes jewish neighborhood arouses fear ethnic cleansing arab young people storm jewish neighborhood order save endangered arab brother immediately evokes memories 1929 massacre jews hebron time also mixed town reasonable hope future time shall end national conflict reach peaceful solution peoples accept alternative palestinian state come side side israel peoples understand best possible solution akko events give rise second thoughts mind anyone believes onestate solution jews arabs would live brotherhood equality solution would turn entire country one big akko peace based two states living side side automatically solve problem arab citizens israel state defines jewish must ready long consistent fight character state extreme rightist avigdor liberman proposed arab villages israeli side green line attached palestinian state return jewish settlement blocs beyond green line would attached israel would affect course arab inhabitants akko haifa jaffa nazareth galilee villages even villages near green line arab agrees idea although liberman proposes turn entire villages palestinian state together lands properties single arab voice raised agreement million half arab citizens israel like governments policies flag national anthem mention treatment population occupied territories prefer israeli democracy social progress national insurance system social services rooted life mores israel much deeply recognize want citizens state terms equality mutual respect jews dream ethnic cleansing understand large contribution arab community makes israel like inhabitants israel work contribute gnp pay taxes like everybody else like us alternative pay valueadded tax everything buy get salaries income tax deducted many questions recognized discussed conclusions must drawn desirable desirable stage arabs live jewish neighborhoods jews arab neighborhoods arab neighborhoods elevated economically level jewish neighborhoods practice talk every jewish child learn arabic every arab child learn hebrew mayor haifa proposed week arab education receive status budgets example independent governmentfunded jewish orthodox education system autonomous arab institutions established finding solutions problems least vital part fight racism attacking roots symptoms actually alternative citizens israel jews arabs condemned live together whether like akko events shown joint fabric still weak order change must courage look problem eye see without hypocrisy falsification way find solutions uri avnery israeli writer peace activist gush shalom contributor counterpunchs book politics antisemitism 160 ad 160 160 160 160 | 1,029 |
<p>Republicans are happier than Democrats, according to the report “Are We Happy Yet?” recently released by the Pew Research Center. Based on a nationally representative, random sample in the United States, 45% of Republicans report being “very happy,” compared with just 30% of Democrats and 19% of Independents.</p>
<p>What is particularly striking about this finding is that it is not simply a reflection of the current political environment. Rather, as the Pew report notes, Republicans have been consistently happier than Democrats throughout the entire period since 1972, when the General Social Survey (GSS) began measuring happiness in the US.</p>
<p>What’s more, Republicans are happier than Democrats even after controlling for other factors. For instance, among individuals making less than $30,000 per year, 28% of Republicans report being “very happy,” versus 23% of Democrats. Among individuals making over $75,000 per year, 52% of Republicans report being very happy versus 41% of Democrats.</p>
<p>So how can these consistent differences in happiness be explained? Three types of causal relationships that may be invoked to explain this association between party affiliation and happiness. Being a Republican may cause greater happiness. Or it may be that happier people are more likely to become Republican. Or, perhaps both happiness and party affiliation are related because both are determined by some other causal factor.</p>
<p>To better understand how these causal relationships might operate let’s look at some potential sources of happiness, or subjective well being, at a more general level.</p>
<p>Part of individual happiness is likely determined by complex psychological dispositions, from more stable elements such as personality traits and attitudes to more transitory elements like emotional states or moods. However, there is no apparent reason to assume that these psychological characteristics vary systematically with political affiliation. That is, it’s hard to imagine any reason why, if there are individuals that are genetically or psychologically predisposed to be happier, they are also are more likely to become Republicans.</p>
<p>What seems more probable is that, if some individuals are more genetically or psychologically predisposed to be happy than others, then such characteristics are randomly distributed in the population. Turning from purely psychological sources of happiness, then, let’s look at some more social psychological and sociological sources. The scholarly literature on subjective well-being, particularly research on job satisfaction, suggests another place to look: how individuals interpret and evaluate objective situations and how successful they are in achieving their goals and aspirations.</p>
<p>One potential source of happiness, then, is individual interpretations and evaluations of objective conditions. Is a given individual satisfied with a particular state of affairs in which they find themselves, with their job or their community? What about the economic and social situations of their country and/or the world?</p>
<p>It may be that for most individuals, happiness is based on evaluations of such objective circumstances. But people tend to selectively perceive and emphasize aspects their “objective situation” ­ any two individuals in the same circumstances may perceive, and hence understand the same situation differently. A further complication is that happiness likely depends not only on how the objective situation is perceived and defined, but also on what are an individual’s goals and aspirations, and how successful one is in achieving these.</p>
<p>Even if most people define subjective well-being in broadly comparable terms, such as “economic concerns,” individuals may vary in the specific criteria by which such broad concerns are evaluated and how they prioritize goals and aspirations. Thus, individual happiness may primarily be determined by what an individual defines as important in terms of her objective situation, what her goals are and how successful she is in achieving them.</p>
<p>These social psychological sources of happiness, particularly in terms of what goals are prioritized and how one identifies with others, may vary systematically with party affiliation. That is, it may be that Republicans are happier than non-Republicans because they actually interpret the world differently, prioritizing different goals and identifying with different groups of people.</p>
<p>This explanation is similar to a theory of job satisfaction offered by sociologist Randy Hodson, who makes a distinction between different types of workers: “smooth operators” and “good soldiers.” Smooth operators advance their own goals in the workplace as a first priority and thus are likely to be satisfied, but they may or may not advance organizational goals. In contrast, good soldiers are likely to identify with their employer and thus be committed to the organization, but may be unsatisfied, for example, if they observe less effort on the part of smooth operators.</p>
<p>A similar difference in goal prioritization and identification may be related to party affiliation. I hypothesize that Republicans, as a group, may be happier because, on average, they prioritize personal goals and largely identify with people similar to them. Compared with Democrats and Independents, their main goals are narrower and more selfish, and thus more easily obtained. Despite having had to endure some political defeats, including the Carter and Clinton administrations, over the last 30 years, the economic situations of Republicans and the people they care about most have remained relatively good.</p>
<p>This is not to say that all Republicans are selfish and unconcerned with the welfare of others. But, as a group, the data on happiness are consistent with the argument that they are more self-centered and less concerned with social problems than Democrats or Independents. Republicans certainly have opinions on social problems such as growing inequality and war, but these problems may not enter into their definitions of subjective well-being, or at least not as much as non-Republicans.</p>
<p>In contrast, Democrats and Independents may be less happy because, on average, they define their personal goals more broadly and they identify with less fortunate groups of people. Thus, they are less happy, as a group, because they are more concerned with growing problems in their communities, in the US and the world.</p>
<p>If the foregoing interpretation is correct, then it is neither happiness that leads to political affiliation nor a particular political affiliation that determines happiness. Rather, it is how one interprets the world, the goals one prioritizes and the groups that one identifies with that determine both party affiliation and happiness. This makes sense intuitively. In short, it appears that Republicans are happier, on average, than non-Republicans because they are more likely to be individuals that selectively perceive their objective circumstances so that they do not get overly concerned with the misery and poverty of the world, and they more selfishly define their own role in the world.</p>
<p>MATT VIDAL is pursuing his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:mvidal@ssc.wisc.edu" type="external">mvidal@ssc.wisc.edu</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | republicans happier democrats according report happy yet recently released pew research center based nationally representative random sample united states 45 republicans report happy compared 30 democrats 19 independents particularly striking finding simply reflection current political environment rather pew report notes republicans consistently happier democrats throughout entire period since 1972 general social survey gss began measuring happiness us whats republicans happier democrats even controlling factors instance among individuals making less 30000 per year 28 republicans report happy versus 23 democrats among individuals making 75000 per year 52 republicans report happy versus 41 democrats consistent differences happiness explained three types causal relationships may invoked explain association party affiliation happiness republican may cause greater happiness may happier people likely become republican perhaps happiness party affiliation related determined causal factor better understand causal relationships might operate lets look potential sources happiness subjective well general level part individual happiness likely determined complex psychological dispositions stable elements personality traits attitudes transitory elements like emotional states moods however apparent reason assume psychological characteristics vary systematically political affiliation hard imagine reason individuals genetically psychologically predisposed happier also likely become republicans seems probable individuals genetically psychologically predisposed happy others characteristics randomly distributed population turning purely psychological sources happiness lets look social psychological sociological sources scholarly literature subjective wellbeing particularly research job satisfaction suggests another place look individuals interpret evaluate objective situations successful achieving goals aspirations one potential source happiness individual interpretations evaluations objective conditions given individual satisfied particular state affairs find job community economic social situations country andor world may individuals happiness based evaluations objective circumstances people tend selectively perceive emphasize aspects objective situation two individuals circumstances may perceive hence understand situation differently complication happiness likely depends objective situation perceived defined also individuals goals aspirations successful one achieving even people define subjective wellbeing broadly comparable terms economic concerns individuals may vary specific criteria broad concerns evaluated prioritize goals aspirations thus individual happiness may primarily determined individual defines important terms objective situation goals successful achieving social psychological sources happiness particularly terms goals prioritized one identifies others may vary systematically party affiliation may republicans happier nonrepublicans actually interpret world differently prioritizing different goals identifying different groups people explanation similar theory job satisfaction offered sociologist randy hodson makes distinction different types workers smooth operators good soldiers smooth operators advance goals workplace first priority thus likely satisfied may may advance organizational goals contrast good soldiers likely identify employer thus committed organization may unsatisfied example observe less effort part smooth operators similar difference goal prioritization identification may related party affiliation hypothesize republicans group may happier average prioritize personal goals largely identify people similar compared democrats independents main goals narrower selfish thus easily obtained despite endure political defeats including carter clinton administrations last 30 years economic situations republicans people care remained relatively good say republicans selfish unconcerned welfare others group data happiness consistent argument selfcentered less concerned social problems democrats independents republicans certainly opinions social problems growing inequality war problems may enter definitions subjective wellbeing least much nonrepublicans contrast democrats independents may less happy average define personal goals broadly identify less fortunate groups people thus less happy group concerned growing problems communities us world foregoing interpretation correct neither happiness leads political affiliation particular political affiliation determines happiness rather one interprets world goals one prioritizes groups one identifies determine party affiliation happiness makes sense intuitively short appears republicans happier average nonrepublicans likely individuals selectively perceive objective circumstances get overly concerned misery poverty world selfishly define role world matt vidal pursuing doctorate university wisconsin madison reached mvidalsscwiscedu 160 160 | 582 |
<p>Did you ever sense, for just a moment, that an unseen someone or something was watching you? Well, often the feeling is just a feeling, nothing more, but that doesn’t mean there never are eyes trained on you from a distance. In an era of rapidly expanding technology, government and others are finding new ways to surreptitiously observe traffic, and one day your own automobile license plate will probably become their accomplice by sending out a radio signal.</p>
<p>Civil libertarians worry that in coming years more and more so-called radio frequency identification (RFID) data will be gathered from highways and streets as Americans take trips or go about their daily business. What underlies the concern is the widespread technology that currently is following the movements of countless animals, humans and inanimate objects.</p>
<p>The uneasiness was fed more fuel this year by a controversy over California legislation calling for a feasibility study of “smart” license plates. Although the digital system cited in the legislation differs from RFID and wouldn’t be intended to track motorists, many Californians feared that a first use of electronics in auto plates would open the door to mandatory devices that would allow government agents to follow cars and trucks via signals transmitted from the vehicles. Public uncertainty surrounding the system and its capabilities helped drive the argument against it.</p>
<p><a href="http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/sen/sb_1451-1500/sb_1453_cfa_20100625_162501_asm_comm.html%20" type="external">Senate Bill 1453</a>, which would empower the California Department of Motor Vehicles to have the study done, hit <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/2010/08/13/2956074/california-assembly-panel-blocks.html%20" type="external">a dead end</a> in the Assembly Appropriations Committee in August, but nevertheless in the minds of privacy advocates it remains a bad omen. Even without the bill, the notion of high-tech plates is alive and thriving: It is being nurtured by the many police officers, elected officials and bureaucrats in California and elsewhere who are locked in a love affair with the potential of the technology.</p>
<p />
<p>If present trends are borne out, you will have a smart plate of some kind on your car in the next 10 years or so. Already, smart plates are in use abroad, and the U.S. federal government has disclosed its interest in the possibility of having such an apparatus on motorcycles as well as cars and trucks.</p>
<p>In the system outlined in SB 1453, a series of scrolling advertisements would appear electronically on your back license plate, in order to be viewed by the driver and passengers behind your vehicle. If your car was moving, only the plate number would be shown, but when the vehicle was motionless for more than four seconds, an ad would materialize; a commercial image (or maybe a public service announcement or a personal message) would be displayed until the car started to move again. The images would resemble those on computer monitors, and the plates, in the words of the legislation, “would access messages from a ‘computing cloud’ or other wireless network. …”</p>
<p>Thousands of print publications and websites had a good laugh, or a racking cry, over the now-moribund proposal, and in July the Los Angeles Times <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/09/opinion/la-ed-license-20100709%20" type="external">put on</a> its brass knucks and proceeded to beat the stuffing out of the measure. The newspaper denounced it as a “low-brow” scheme to raise money by selling ads and declared “it would be ugly and cheapening to fill California’s streets and neighborhoods with millions of mini marketing ploys. California might as well change its official nickname to the Sellout State and its official motto from ‘Eureka’ to ‘This space for rent.’&#160;”</p>
<p>Among the Times’ allegations: The devices would be road hazards because they would distract drivers. Hackers could invade the wireless system and exhibit pornography or rogue messages. The system would theoretically open the way to tracking vehicles and perhaps taxing them on the basis of miles driven. Repugnant organizations like the Ku Klux Klan might have the legal right to advertise from the back of your car.</p>
<p>The author of SB 1453, state Sen. Curren D. Price Jr., who represents a diverse swath of the Los Angeles area, <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/19/opinion/la-oew-price-20100720%20" type="external">replied</a> in the L.A. Times to the newspaper’s criticism, starting by quoting writer Victor Hugo “as saying that there is ‘nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come.’&#160;” He countered the editorial on several points, factual and otherwise, and argued:</p>
<p>California should not be late to the discussion of this emerging technology, whether it is used for public service or commercial messages.</p>
<p>… [T]his technology is coming of age, whether or not the government gets involved, and we are obligated to test it to see if it is appropriate for use on our roads. After all, California is the nation’s hub for technological innovation. …</p>
<p>In effect he was saying: This is the future, people—get used to it.</p>
<p>The possibility of such a future leaves many Californians and other Americans upset even though they know Price’s bill will not advance this time around. They fear a day when voluntary, “opt-in” electronic displays on license plates will have evolved into mandatory requirements for digital ads on all vehicles or for RFID devices that would subject every driver to souped-up tracking.</p>
<p>In 2009 the U.S. Department of Transportation <a href="http://www.rfidjournal.com/blog/entry/5285/%20" type="external">solicited</a> bids for study and development of an RFID license plate system. (Government posting <a href="http://www.volpe.dot.gov/sbir/sol10/topicsfull.html%20" type="external">here</a>.) The primary purpose stated was to help police cope with motorcyclists who were too fast for pursuing officers. A microchip in a motorcycle’s plate would transmit identifying information to police, who then, presumably, could take their own sweet time in dealing with the speeder. (Some civil libertarians would claim that mandating license plate RFID in response to such a relatively small problem would be a case of killing a gnat with a nuke.)</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2005/08/68429%20" type="external">2005 article</a> in Wired magazine, headlined “British License Plates Get Chipped,” said that the U.K. government was “preparing to test new high-tech license plates containing microchips capable of transmitting unique vehicle identification numbers and other data to readers [electronic reading devices] more than 300 feet away.” It added: “Officials in the United States say they’ll be closely watching the British trial as they contemplate initiating their own tests of the plates, which incorporate radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags to make vehicles electronically trackable.”</p>
<p>Wired said further:</p>
<p>Proponents argue that making such RFID tags mandatory and ubiquitous is a logical move to counter the threat of terrorists using the roadways, and that it will scoop up insurance and registration scofflaws in the process.</p>
<p>… Privacy advocates are less enthusiastic about the technology.</p>
<p>“It’s too easy for (RFID license plates) to become a back-door surveillance tool,” said Jim Harper, director of information studies at libertarian think tank the Cato Institute and a member of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee.</p>
<p>… The point of the [British] test is to see whether microchips will make number plates harder to tamper with and clone, said U.K. Department for Transport spokesman Ian Weller-Skitt.</p>
<p>According to one Internet site, the British government was “tight-lipped about the details” of the test, and indeed no findings seem to have been publicized. What’s important here is that smart-plate technology has been in the wind internationally for a number of years and is of sharp interest to law enforcement and other governmental agencies in foreign countries as well as the U.S.</p>
<p>“RFID is all the rage these days,” said one American lawyer who fears “this use of the technology is tracking at its worst.” RFID chips are now embedded in many license plates in <a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2006/12/malaysia_to_use/%20" type="external">Malaysia</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_South_Africa%20" type="external">South Africa</a>. In May, <a href="http://www.theportugalnews.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?id=1064-1%20" type="external">Portugal</a> found itself facing a privacy-propelled outcry against a national law requiring that all vehicles have microchip license plates by July of next year.</p>
<p>RFID chips aren’t in standard license plates in the U.S., but the technology has a substantial presence on American thoroughfares. It is now used in automated collection of highway or bridge tolls and for a number of other traffic-related purposes.</p>
<p>Worldwide, RFID tracking chips have been embedded in millions of animals, including pets, and in a relatively small number of humans. Proposals for implanting them in children as a safeguard against their being kidnapped or becoming lost have generated much controversy. Merchandise, charge cards, driver’s licenses and passports are among the many objects being followed electronically. In recent days the leading U.S. mountain resort company <a href="http://www.bnet.com/blog/mobile-internet/in-two-years-facebook-places-will-look-like-this-app/515%20" type="external">announced</a> it is now using chips in tickets and passes in a sophisticated system that tracks the runs of skiers at five Colorado and California resorts.</p>
<p>The active RFID that is made possible by embedded microchips is a major advance over using optical character recognition to read license plates. It is much more accurate than the optical method, which currently is employed by police in a number of localities. In the optical systems, the equipment is entirely on the scanner end and doesn’t depend on anything being embedded in license plates or attached to the vehicles being targeted.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/south_king/aub/news/79454107.html%20" type="external">news report</a> from Auburn, Calif., last December described how a system works in that town of 13,000. Three cameras atop a patrol car scan license plates in nearby traffic and then the numbers are sent to a database.</p>
<p>“&#160;‘Thousands of plates an hour is a lot more than the usual one at a time, and a lot more than I can do just entering manually,’ said an appreciative [Officer Stan] Sedillo. … The cameras work in all weather conditions, with infrared for night work. They also can take pictures at high [vehicular] speeds,” the article said. “… [In a period of about 10 months] the system has run more than 400,000 plates in Auburn and has recovered 22 stolen vehicles resulting in five different arrests.”</p>
<p>Kansas City has seven of the optical readers and consequently a civil liberties dust-up, according to a Kansas City Star <a href="http://yoursun.com/sunnews/englewood/1379797-281/sunnewspapershigh-techpolicesurveillanceraisesflags.html.csp" type="external">article</a> published last month. An executive of the American Civil Liberties Union protested the recording of the locations of people “as we go about our daily lives.” Dan Winter said: “All people in America are presumed innocent and law-abiding unless the evidence indicates otherwise. The very nature of these surveillance cameras turns that presumption of innocence on its head—into a presumption that we are all guilty.” The article continued:</p>
<p>Over time, as more information is collected, [a database attached to a scanning system] is more likely to reveal a particular vehicle’s movements, according to a privacy study released last year by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which supports police use of the license plate readers.</p>
<p>The study noted that residents may worry that cameras would collect their license plate numbers at places with which they may not prefer to be linked, such as addiction counseling meetings, doctors’ offices or staging areas for political protests.</p>
<p>Kansas City police officers, like officers in California’s Auburn, praise the optical system as a crime-fighting tool. Certainly, police departments would not be displeased if state governments demanded smart plates on all vehicles, opening the way to RFID systems that would far outperform the optical readers.</p>
<p>Among civil libertarians, apart from their fear of governmental abuse, there are forebodings that location, tracking and identification data will be improperly exploited for commercial reasons. A business might have a wealth of information on each customer who drove into its parking lot. Although some high-minded companies might employ collected data to better serve their customers, many others would use the information as a tool of manipulation to dig deeper into wallets, and the line between help and manipulation surely would be wavy and indistinct.</p>
<p>In London last fall, the British wing of the Castrol motor oil company <a href="http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/uk-billboards-equipped-with-license-plate-spy-cameras/%20" type="external">unveiled a system</a> that used optical reading of license plates to enable five roadside billboards to tell individual drivers what oil they should be using. When a Jaguar approached one of the signs, a message appeared saying, “The right oil for your car is: Castrol Magnatec 5W-30 A1.” The system knew the auto was a Jag because a nearby scanner was connected to a database of the governmental Vehicle Licensing Agency, which matched up the license number with the kind of car to which it was issued. Castrol maintained that no information on vehicles passing the signs was retained.</p>
<p>The British website reporting on the billboard system noted: “ANPR [automated number plate recognition] cameras are used by law enforcement and private companies throughout the US and the UK with no established legal framework limiting their use.”</p>
<p>Public opinion about tracking traffic with optical readers or RFID, and about smart plates capable of showing ads, covers a wide spectrum.</p>
<p>Some think that any high-tech tracking that has not received permission from the targeted drivers is a gross violation of privacy rights. Some also vigorously oppose any system that would force motorists to have digital plates on their cars, and even if ad-displaying plates were optional, many Americans would object to the devices being on the vehicles of others, on the grounds of safety, aesthetics or taste.</p>
<p>On the other hand, there is a set of contrary attitudes that could be summed up as follows: “I’m law-abiding and have nothing to hide. I don’t mind being tracked if tracking helps police keep me safe in traffic or keep criminals from harming society.” At least some who hold these attitudes would see a comprehensive RFID system as a wonderful convenience and timesaver that might permit them to pay for highway and bridge tolls, meter parking, garage parking, valet service, parking fines, car washing, roadside repair, towing and many other things in one single action every month.</p>
<p>Clearly these are complex issues on which reasonable people may disagree and argue; in many cases the questions will be decided ultimately by our legislatures and our courts. One thing is sure: In a brave new world where license plates can display advertisements or transmit signals to databases and nearby police officers, citizens must be earnestly involved in related matters of aesthetics, safety and rights.</p>
<p>Even in a present society awash in complaints that “there is no more privacy,” we should not glumly accept every new reduction in our ability to keep some things to ourselves. The utmost vigilance must be exercised in the face of sometimes bewildering technological change. Government officials and companies must be held to account for what they propose and do. If the public fails to engage, if it fails to resist in an organized way when necessary, if it uncritically accepts government and corporate initiatives, we invite major losses in rights and quality of life.</p>
<p>Increasingly, technology will expand human capability, but at the same time it will pose risks that cannot be ignored. Citizens must insist that there be a thorough, honest and deep-reaching dialogue about any proposed law or practice that might infringe on the public good. That dialogue should be deliberately and heavily biased toward civil liberties and the public’s long-term well-being, as opposed to favoring self-interested governments and businesses that are all too likely to try to use their riches and other resources to gain the upper hand. Every new electronic advance should be accompanied by public protection that has the sharpest of teeth, and existing technology-related practices should be rolled back or eliminated if courts find them to be abusive.</p>
<p>We cannot drop our guard as new technology comes into play. If we doze off, we will wake up stripped and shivering in a world that is mercilessly crass and where privacy is only a quaint memory from another time.</p>
<p>T.L. Caswell was on the Los Angeles Times editing staff for more than 25 years and now edits and writes for Truthdig.</p> | true | 4 | ever sense moment unseen someone something watching well often feeling feeling nothing doesnt mean never eyes trained distance era rapidly expanding technology government others finding new ways surreptitiously observe traffic one day automobile license plate probably become accomplice sending radio signal civil libertarians worry coming years socalled radio frequency identification rfid data gathered highways streets americans take trips go daily business underlies concern widespread technology currently following movements countless animals humans inanimate objects uneasiness fed fuel year controversy california legislation calling feasibility study smart license plates although digital system cited legislation differs rfid wouldnt intended track motorists many californians feared first use electronics auto plates would open door mandatory devices would allow government agents follow cars trucks via signals transmitted vehicles public uncertainty surrounding system capabilities helped drive argument senate bill 1453 would empower california department motor vehicles study done hit dead end assembly appropriations committee august nevertheless minds privacy advocates remains bad omen even without bill notion hightech plates alive thriving nurtured many police officers elected officials bureaucrats california elsewhere locked love affair potential technology present trends borne smart plate kind car next 10 years already smart plates use abroad us federal government disclosed interest possibility apparatus motorcycles well cars trucks system outlined sb 1453 series scrolling advertisements would appear electronically back license plate order viewed driver passengers behind vehicle car moving plate number would shown vehicle motionless four seconds ad would materialize commercial image maybe public service announcement personal message would displayed car started move images would resemble computer monitors plates words legislation would access messages computing cloud wireless network thousands print publications websites good laugh racking cry nowmoribund proposal july los angeles times put brass knucks proceeded beat stuffing measure newspaper denounced lowbrow scheme raise money selling ads declared would ugly cheapening fill californias streets neighborhoods millions mini marketing ploys california might well change official nickname sellout state official motto eureka space rent160 among times allegations devices would road hazards would distract drivers hackers could invade wireless system exhibit pornography rogue messages system would theoretically open way tracking vehicles perhaps taxing basis miles driven repugnant organizations like ku klux klan might legal right advertise back car author sb 1453 state sen curren price jr represents diverse swath los angeles area replied la times newspapers criticism starting quoting writer victor hugo saying nothing powerful idea whose time come160 countered editorial several points factual otherwise argued california late discussion emerging technology whether used public service commercial messages technology coming age whether government gets involved obligated test see appropriate use roads california nations hub technological innovation effect saying future peopleget used possibility future leaves many californians americans upset even though know prices bill advance time around fear day voluntary optin electronic displays license plates evolved mandatory requirements digital ads vehicles rfid devices would subject every driver soupedup tracking 2009 us department transportation solicited bids study development rfid license plate system government posting primary purpose stated help police cope motorcyclists fast pursuing officers microchip motorcycles plate would transmit identifying information police presumably could take sweet time dealing speeder civil libertarians would claim mandating license plate rfid response relatively small problem would case killing gnat nuke 2005 article wired magazine headlined british license plates get chipped said uk government preparing test new hightech license plates containing microchips capable transmitting unique vehicle identification numbers data readers electronic reading devices 300 feet away added officials united states say theyll closely watching british trial contemplate initiating tests plates incorporate radio frequency identification rfid tags make vehicles electronically trackable wired said proponents argue making rfid tags mandatory ubiquitous logical move counter threat terrorists using roadways scoop insurance registration scofflaws process privacy advocates less enthusiastic technology easy rfid license plates become backdoor surveillance tool said jim harper director information studies libertarian think tank cato institute member us department homeland securitys data privacy integrity advisory committee point british test see whether microchips make number plates harder tamper clone said uk department transport spokesman ian wellerskitt according one internet site british government tightlipped details test indeed findings seem publicized whats important smartplate technology wind internationally number years sharp interest law enforcement governmental agencies foreign countries well us rfid rage days said one american lawyer fears use technology tracking worst rfid chips embedded many license plates malaysia south africa may portugal found facing privacypropelled outcry national law requiring vehicles microchip license plates july next year rfid chips arent standard license plates us technology substantial presence american thoroughfares used automated collection highway bridge tolls number trafficrelated purposes worldwide rfid tracking chips embedded millions animals including pets relatively small number humans proposals implanting children safeguard kidnapped becoming lost generated much controversy merchandise charge cards drivers licenses passports among many objects followed electronically recent days leading us mountain resort company announced using chips tickets passes sophisticated system tracks runs skiers five colorado california resorts active rfid made possible embedded microchips major advance using optical character recognition read license plates much accurate optical method currently employed police number localities optical systems equipment entirely scanner end doesnt depend anything embedded license plates attached vehicles targeted news report auburn calif last december described system works town 13000 three cameras atop patrol car scan license plates nearby traffic numbers sent database 160thousands plates hour lot usual one time lot entering manually said appreciative officer stan sedillo cameras work weather conditions infrared night work also take pictures high vehicular speeds article said period 10 months system run 400000 plates auburn recovered 22 stolen vehicles resulting five different arrests kansas city seven optical readers consequently civil liberties dustup according kansas city star article published last month executive american civil liberties union protested recording locations people go daily lives dan winter said people america presumed innocent lawabiding unless evidence indicates otherwise nature surveillance cameras turns presumption innocence headinto presumption guilty article continued time information collected database attached scanning system likely reveal particular vehicles movements according privacy study released last year international association chiefs police supports police use license plate readers study noted residents may worry cameras would collect license plate numbers places may prefer linked addiction counseling meetings doctors offices staging areas political protests kansas city police officers like officers californias auburn praise optical system crimefighting tool certainly police departments would displeased state governments demanded smart plates vehicles opening way rfid systems would far outperform optical readers among civil libertarians apart fear governmental abuse forebodings location tracking identification data improperly exploited commercial reasons business might wealth information customer drove parking lot although highminded companies might employ collected data better serve customers many others would use information tool manipulation dig deeper wallets line help manipulation surely would wavy indistinct london last fall british wing castrol motor oil company unveiled system used optical reading license plates enable five roadside billboards tell individual drivers oil using jaguar approached one signs message appeared saying right oil car castrol magnatec 5w30 a1 system knew auto jag nearby scanner connected database governmental vehicle licensing agency matched license number kind car issued castrol maintained information vehicles passing signs retained british website reporting billboard system noted anpr automated number plate recognition cameras used law enforcement private companies throughout us uk established legal framework limiting use public opinion tracking traffic optical readers rfid smart plates capable showing ads covers wide spectrum think hightech tracking received permission targeted drivers gross violation privacy rights also vigorously oppose system would force motorists digital plates cars even addisplaying plates optional many americans would object devices vehicles others grounds safety aesthetics taste hand set contrary attitudes could summed follows im lawabiding nothing hide dont mind tracked tracking helps police keep safe traffic keep criminals harming society least hold attitudes would see comprehensive rfid system wonderful convenience timesaver might permit pay highway bridge tolls meter parking garage parking valet service parking fines car washing roadside repair towing many things one single action every month clearly complex issues reasonable people may disagree argue many cases questions decided ultimately legislatures courts one thing sure brave new world license plates display advertisements transmit signals databases nearby police officers citizens must earnestly involved related matters aesthetics safety rights even present society awash complaints privacy glumly accept every new reduction ability keep things utmost vigilance must exercised face sometimes bewildering technological change government officials companies must held account propose public fails engage fails resist organized way necessary uncritically accepts government corporate initiatives invite major losses rights quality life increasingly technology expand human capability time pose risks ignored citizens must insist thorough honest deepreaching dialogue proposed law practice might infringe public good dialogue deliberately heavily biased toward civil liberties publics longterm wellbeing opposed favoring selfinterested governments businesses likely try use riches resources gain upper hand every new electronic advance accompanied public protection sharpest teeth existing technologyrelated practices rolled back eliminated courts find abusive drop guard new technology comes play doze wake stripped shivering world mercilessly crass privacy quaint memory another time tl caswell los angeles times editing staff 25 years edits writes truthdig | 1,482 |
<p>Introduction by Tom Engelhardt</p>
<p>Imagine if, on the day in early April when Jiverly Voong walked into the American Civic Association Building in Binghamton, New York, and gunned down 13 people, you read <a href="http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/04/building_cleared_after_a_day_o.html" type="external">this headline</a> in the news: “Binghamton in shock as police investigate what some critics call ‘mass murder.'” If American newspapers, as well as the TV and radio news were to adopt that as a form, we would, of course, find it absurd. Until proven guilty, a man with a gun may be called “a suspect,” but we know mass murder when we see it. And yet, in one of the Bush administration’s lingering linguistic triumphs, even as information on torture programs pours out, the word “torture” has generally suffered a similar fate.</p>
<p>The agents of that administration, for instance, used what, in the Middle Ages, used to be known bluntly as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_cure" type="external">“the water torture”</a>—we call it “waterboarding”— <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/20/world/20detain.html" type="external">183 times</a> in a single month on a single prisoner and yet the other morning I woke up to this formulation on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition: “…harsh interrogations that some consider torture.” And here’s how Gwen Ifill of the News Hour <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june09/memosreport_04-21.html" type="external">put it</a> the other night: “A tough Senate report out today raised new questions about drastic interrogations of terror suspects in the Bush years.” Or as USA Today typically <a href="http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2009/04/65857279/1" type="external">had it</a>: “Obama opened the door for possible investigation and prosecution of former Bush administration officials who authorized the ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ that critics call torture.” Or, for that matter, the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/us/politics/24cong.html" type="external">New York Times</a>: “…the Bush administration’s use of waterboarding and other techniques that critiques say crossed the line into torture…”</p>
<p>Torture, as a word, except in documents or in the mouths of other people—those “critics”—has evidently lost its descriptive powers in our news world where almost any other formulation is preferred. Often these days the word of choice is “harsh,” or even <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/opinion/26pubed.html" type="external">“brutal,”</a> both substitutes for the anodyne “enhanced” in the Bush administration’s own description of the package of torture “techniques” it institutionalized and justified after the fact in <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/16/bush-torture-memos-releas_n_187867.html" type="external">those legal memos</a>. The phrase was, of course, meant to be law-evading, since torture is a crime, not just in international law, but <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-bromwich/follow-the-evidence_b_190750.html" type="external">in this country</a>. The fact is that, if you can’t call something what it is, you’re going to have a tough time facing what you’ve done, no less prosecuting crimes committed not quite in its name.</p>
<p>What we call things, the names we use, matters. How, for instance, we imagine our past affects how we see the present and future, as Andrew Bacevich makes clear below. It’s little wonder that Bacevich’s book, The Limits of Power, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0805090169/ref=nosim/?tag=nationbooks08-20" type="external">officially published</a> in paperback today, became a bestseller. He has a way of hacking through the verbiage of our world, always heading for reality; he also has a way, as the Chinese used to put it, of “rectifying names”—that is, bringing reality and naming practices back into sync. Here, for instance, is how, at the end of Limits, he frames Washington’s consensus urge to respond to two failed wars and a failing global mission by expanding the U.S. military:</p>
<p>“America doesn’t need a bigger army. It needs a smaller—that is, more modest—foreign policy, one that assigns soldiers missions that are consistent with their capabilities. Modesty implies giving up on the illusions of grandeur to which the end of the Cold War and then 9/11 gave rise.”</p>
<p>Now, let him go to work in the same fashion on our truncated “American Century” (and catch a video of him discussing the subject as well). Tom</p>
<p>Rewriting the Past by Adding In What’s Been Left Out By Andrew J. Bacevich</p>
<p>In a recent column, the Washington Post’s Richard Cohen wrote, “What Henry Luce called ‘the American Century’ is over.” Cohen is right. All that remains is to drive a stake through the heart of Luce’s pernicious creation, lest it come back to life. This promises to take some doing.</p>
<p>When the Time-Life publisher coined his famous phrase, his intent was to prod his fellow citizens into action. Appearing in the February 7, 1941 issue of Life, his essay, “The American Century,” hit the newsstands at a moment when the world was in the throes of a vast crisis. A war in Europe had gone disastrously awry. A second almost equally dangerous conflict was unfolding in the Far East. Aggressors were on the march.</p>
<p>With the fate of democracy hanging in the balance, Americans diddled. Luce urged them to get off the dime. More than that, he summoned them to “accept wholeheartedly our duty and our opportunity as the most powerful and vital nation in the world… to exert upon the world the full impact of our influence, for such purposes as we see fit and by such means as we see fit.”</p>
<p>Read today, Luce’s essay, with its strange mix of chauvinism, religiosity, and bombast (“We must now undertake to be the Good Samaritan to the entire world…”), does not stand up well. Yet the phrase “American Century” stuck and has enjoyed a remarkable run. It stands in relation to the contemporary era much as “Victorian Age” does to the nineteenth century. In one pithy phrase, it captures (or at least seems to capture) the essence of some defining truth: America as alpha and omega, source of salvation and sustenance, vanguard of history, guiding spirit and inspiration for all humankind.</p>
<p>In its classic formulation, the central theme of the American Century has been one of righteousness overcoming evil. The United States (above all the U.S. military) made that triumph possible. When, having been given a final nudge on December 7, 1941, Americans finally accepted their duty to lead, they saved the world from successive diabolical totalitarianisms. In doing so, the U.S. not only preserved the possibility of human freedom but modeled what freedom ought to look like.</p>
<p>Thank You, Comrades</p>
<p>So goes the preferred narrative of the American Century, as recounted by its celebrants.</p>
<p>The problems with this account are two-fold. First, it claims for the United States excessive credit. Second, it excludes, ignores, or trivializes matters at odds with the triumphal story-line.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0805090169/ref=nosim/?tag=nationbooks08-20" type="external" />The net effect is to perpetuate an array of illusions that, whatever their value in prior decades, have long since outlived their usefulness. In short, the persistence of this self-congratulatory account deprives Americans of self-awareness, hindering our efforts to navigate the treacherous waters in which the country finds itself at present. Bluntly, we are perpetuating a mythic version of the past that never even approximated reality and today has become downright malignant. Although Richard Cohen may be right in declaring the American Century over, the American people—and especially the American political class—still remain in its thrall.</p>
<p>Constructing a past usable to the present requires a willingness to include much that the American Century leaves out.</p>
<p>For example, to the extent that the demolition of totalitarianism deserves to be seen as a prominent theme of contemporary history (and it does), the primary credit for that achievement surely belongs to the Soviet Union. When it came to defeating the Third Reich, the Soviets bore by far the preponderant burden, sustaining 65% of all Allied deaths in World War II.</p>
<p>By comparison, the United States suffered 2% of those losses, for which any American whose father or grandfather served in and survived that war should be saying: Thank you, Comrade Stalin.</p>
<p>For the United States to claim credit for destroying the Wehrmacht is the equivalent of Toyota claiming credit for inventing the automobile. We entered the game late and then shrewdly scooped up more than our fair share of the winnings. The true “Greatest Generation” is the one that willingly expended millions of their fellow Russians while killing millions of German soldiers.</p>
<p>Hard on the heels of World War II came the Cold War, during which erstwhile allies became rivals. Once again, after a decades-long struggle, the United States came out on top.</p>
<p>Yet in determining that outcome, the brilliance of American statesmen was far less important than the ineptitude of those who presided over the Kremlin. Ham-handed Soviet leaders so mismanaged their empire that it eventually imploded, permanently discrediting Marxism-Leninism as a plausible alternative to liberal democratic capitalism. The Soviet dragon managed to slay itself. So thank you, Comrades Malenkov, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko, and Gorbachev.</p>
<p>Screwing the Pooch</p>
<p>What flag-wavers tend to leave out of their account of the American Century is not only the contributions of others, but the various missteps perpetrated by the United States—missteps, it should be noted, that spawned many of the problems bedeviling us today.</p>
<p>The instances of folly and criminality bearing the label “made-in-Washington” may not rank up there with the Armenian genocide, the Bolshevik Revolution, the appeasement of Adolf Hitler, or the Holocaust, but they sure don’t qualify as small change. To give them their due is necessarily to render the standard account of the American Century untenable.</p>
<p>Here are several examples, each one familiar, even if its implications for the problems we face today are studiously ignored:</p>
<p>Cuba. In 1898, the United States went to war with Spain for the proclaimed purpose of liberating the so-called Pearl of the Antilles. When that brief war ended, Washington reneged on its promise. If there actually has been an American Century, it begins here, with the U.S. government breaking a solemn commitment, while baldly insisting otherwise. By converting Cuba into a protectorate, the United States set in motion a long train of events leading eventually to the rise of Fidel Castro, the Bay of Pigs, Operation Mongoose, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and even today’s Guantanamo Bay prison camp. The line connecting these various developments may not be a straight one, given the many twists and turns along the way, but the dots do connect.</p>
<p>The Bomb. Nuclear weapons imperil our existence. Used on a large scale, they could destroy civilization itself. Even now, the prospect of a lesser power like North Korea or Iran acquiring nukes sends jitters around the world. American presidents—Barack Obama is only the latest in a long line—declare the abolition of these weapons to be an imperative. What they are less inclined to acknowledge is the role the United States played in afflicting humankind with this scourge.</p>
<p>The United States invented the bomb. The United States—alone among members of the nuclear club—actually employed it as a weapon of war. The U.S. led the way in defining nuclear-strike capacity as the benchmark of power in the postwar world, leaving other powers like the Soviet Union, Great Britain, France, and China scrambling to catch up. Today, the U.S. still maintains an enormous nuclear arsenal at the ready and adamantly refuses to commit itself to a no-first-use policy, even as it professes its horror at the prospect of some other nation doing as the United States itself has done.</p>
<p>Iran. Extending his hand to Tehran, President Obama has invited those who govern the Islamic republic to “unclench their fists.” Yet to a considerable degree, those clenched fists are of our own making. For most Americans, the discovery of Iran dates from the time of the notorious hostage crisis of 1979-1981 when Iranian students occupied the U.S. embassy in Tehran, detained several dozen U.S. diplomats and military officers, and subjected the administration of Jimmy Carter to a 444-day-long lesson in abject humiliation.</p>
<p>For most Iranians, the story of U.S.-Iranian relations begins somewhat earlier. It starts in 1953, when CIA agents collaborated with their British counterparts to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Mohammed Mossadegh and return the Shah of Iran to his throne. The plot succeeded. The Shah regained power. The Americans got oil, along with a lucrative market for exporting arms. The people of Iran pretty much got screwed. Freedom and democracy did not prosper. The antagonism that expressed itself in November 1979 with the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran was not entirely without cause.</p>
<p>Afghanistan. President Obama has wasted little time in making the Afghanistan War his own. Like his predecessor he vows to defeat the Taliban. Also like his predecessor he has yet to confront the role played by the United States in creating the Taliban in the first place. Washington once took pride in the success it enjoyed funneling arms and assistance to fundamentalist Afghans waging jihad against foreign occupiers. During the administrations of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, this was considered to represent the very acme of clever statecraft. U.S. support for the Afghan mujahideen caused the Soviets fits. Yet it also fed a cancer that, in time, exacted a most grievous toll on Americans themselves—and has U.S. forces today bogged down in a seemingly endless war.</p>
<p>Watch the video:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Act of Contrition</p>
<p>Had the United States acted otherwise, would Cuba have evolved into a stable and prosperous democracy, a beacon of hope for the rest of Latin America? Would the world have avoided the blight of nuclear weapons? Would Iran today be an ally of the United States, a beacon of liberalism in the Islamic world, rather than a charter member of the “axis of evil?” Would Afghanistan be a quiet, pastoral land at peace with its neighbors? No one, of course, can say what might have been. All we know for sure is that policies concocted in Washington by reputedly savvy statesmen now look exceedingly ill-advised.</p>
<p>What are we to make of these blunders? The temptation may be to avert our gaze, thereby preserving the reassuring tale of the American Century. We should avoid that temptation and take the opposite course, acknowledging openly, freely, and unabashedly where we have gone wrong. We should carve such acknowledgments into the face of a new monument smack in the middle of the Mall in Washington: We blew it. We screwed the pooch. We caught a case of the stupids. We got it ass-backwards.</p>
<p>Only through the exercise of candor might we avoid replicating such mistakes.</p>
<p>Indeed, we ought to apologize. When it comes to avoiding the repetition of sin, nothing works like abject contrition. We should, therefore, tell the people of Cuba that we are sorry for having made such a hash of U.S.-Cuban relations for so long. President Obama should speak on our behalf in asking the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for forgiveness. He should express our deep collective regret to Iranians and Afghans for what past U.S. interventionism has wrought.</p>
<p>The United States should do these things without any expectations of reciprocity. Regardless of what U.S. officials may say or do, Castro won’t fess up to having made his own share of mistakes. The Japanese won’t liken Hiroshima to Pearl Harbor and call it a wash. Iran’s mullahs and Afghanistan’s jihadists won’t be offering to a chastened Washington to let bygones be bygones.</p>
<p>No, we apologize to them, but for our own good—to free ourselves from the accumulated conceits of the American Century and to acknowledge that the United States participated fully in the barbarism, folly, and tragedy that defines our time. For those sins, we must hold ourselves accountable.</p>
<p>To solve our problems requires that we see ourselves as we really are. And that requires shedding, once and for all, the illusions embodied in the American Century.</p>
<p>Andrew J. Bacevich is a professor of history and international relations at Boston University. His most recent book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0805090169/ref=nosim/?tag=nationbooks08-20" type="external">The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism</a>, is just out in paperback.</p>
<p>Copyright 2009 Andrew J. Bacevich</p> | true | 4 | introduction tom engelhardt imagine day early april jiverly voong walked american civic association building binghamton new york gunned 13 people read headline news binghamton shock police investigate critics call mass murder american newspapers well tv radio news adopt form would course find absurd proven guilty man gun may called suspect know mass murder see yet one bush administrations lingering linguistic triumphs even information torture programs pours word torture generally suffered similar fate agents administration instance used middle ages used known bluntly water torturewe call waterboarding 183 times single month single prisoner yet morning woke formulation national public radios morning edition harsh interrogations consider torture heres gwen ifill news hour put night tough senate report today raised new questions drastic interrogations terror suspects bush years usa today typically obama opened door possible investigation prosecution former bush administration officials authorized enhanced interrogation techniques critics call torture matter new york times bush administrations use waterboarding techniques critiques say crossed line torture torture word except documents mouths peoplethose criticshas evidently lost descriptive powers news world almost formulation preferred often days word choice harsh even brutal substitutes anodyne enhanced bush administrations description package torture techniques institutionalized justified fact legal memos phrase course meant lawevading since torture crime international law country fact cant call something youre going tough time facing youve done less prosecuting crimes committed quite name call things names use matters instance imagine past affects see present future andrew bacevich makes clear little wonder bacevichs book limits power officially published paperback today became bestseller way hacking verbiage world always heading reality also way chinese used put rectifying namesthat bringing reality naming practices back sync instance end limits frames washingtons consensus urge respond two failed wars failing global mission expanding us military america doesnt need bigger army needs smallerthat modestforeign policy one assigns soldiers missions consistent capabilities modesty implies giving illusions grandeur end cold war 911 gave rise let go work fashion truncated american century catch video discussing subject well tom rewriting past adding whats left andrew j bacevich recent column washington posts richard cohen wrote henry luce called american century cohen right remains drive stake heart luces pernicious creation lest come back life promises take timelife publisher coined famous phrase intent prod fellow citizens action appearing february 7 1941 issue life essay american century hit newsstands moment world throes vast crisis war europe gone disastrously awry second almost equally dangerous conflict unfolding far east aggressors march fate democracy hanging balance americans diddled luce urged get dime summoned accept wholeheartedly duty opportunity powerful vital nation world exert upon world full impact influence purposes see fit means see fit read today luces essay strange mix chauvinism religiosity bombast must undertake good samaritan entire world stand well yet phrase american century stuck enjoyed remarkable run stands relation contemporary era much victorian age nineteenth century one pithy phrase captures least seems capture essence defining truth america alpha omega source salvation sustenance vanguard history guiding spirit inspiration humankind classic formulation central theme american century one righteousness overcoming evil united states us military made triumph possible given final nudge december 7 1941 americans finally accepted duty lead saved world successive diabolical totalitarianisms us preserved possibility human freedom modeled freedom ought look like thank comrades goes preferred narrative american century recounted celebrants problems account twofold first claims united states excessive credit second excludes ignores trivializes matters odds triumphal storyline net effect perpetuate array illusions whatever value prior decades long since outlived usefulness short persistence selfcongratulatory account deprives americans selfawareness hindering efforts navigate treacherous waters country finds present bluntly perpetuating mythic version past never even approximated reality today become downright malignant although richard cohen may right declaring american century american peopleand especially american political classstill remain thrall constructing past usable present requires willingness include much american century leaves example extent demolition totalitarianism deserves seen prominent theme contemporary history primary credit achievement surely belongs soviet union came defeating third reich soviets bore far preponderant burden sustaining 65 allied deaths world war ii comparison united states suffered 2 losses american whose father grandfather served survived war saying thank comrade stalin united states claim credit destroying wehrmacht equivalent toyota claiming credit inventing automobile entered game late shrewdly scooped fair share winnings true greatest generation one willingly expended millions fellow russians killing millions german soldiers hard heels world war ii came cold war erstwhile allies became rivals decadeslong struggle united states came top yet determining outcome brilliance american statesmen far less important ineptitude presided kremlin hamhanded soviet leaders mismanaged empire eventually imploded permanently discrediting marxismleninism plausible alternative liberal democratic capitalism soviet dragon managed slay thank comrades malenkov khrushchev brezhnev andropov chernenko gorbachev screwing pooch flagwavers tend leave account american century contributions others various missteps perpetrated united statesmissteps noted spawned many problems bedeviling us today instances folly criminality bearing label madeinwashington may rank armenian genocide bolshevik revolution appeasement adolf hitler holocaust sure dont qualify small change give due necessarily render standard account american century untenable several examples one familiar even implications problems face today studiously ignored cuba 1898 united states went war spain proclaimed purpose liberating socalled pearl antilles brief war ended washington reneged promise actually american century begins us government breaking solemn commitment baldly insisting otherwise converting cuba protectorate united states set motion long train events leading eventually rise fidel castro bay pigs operation mongoose cuban missile crisis even todays guantanamo bay prison camp line connecting various developments may straight one given many twists turns along way dots connect bomb nuclear weapons imperil existence used large scale could destroy civilization even prospect lesser power like north korea iran acquiring nukes sends jitters around world american presidentsbarack obama latest long linedeclare abolition weapons imperative less inclined acknowledge role united states played afflicting humankind scourge united states invented bomb united statesalone among members nuclear clubactually employed weapon war us led way defining nuclearstrike capacity benchmark power postwar world leaving powers like soviet union great britain france china scrambling catch today us still maintains enormous nuclear arsenal ready adamantly refuses commit nofirstuse policy even professes horror prospect nation united states done iran extending hand tehran president obama invited govern islamic republic unclench fists yet considerable degree clenched fists making americans discovery iran dates time notorious hostage crisis 19791981 iranian students occupied us embassy tehran detained several dozen us diplomats military officers subjected administration jimmy carter 444daylong lesson abject humiliation iranians story usiranian relations begins somewhat earlier starts 1953 cia agents collaborated british counterparts overthrow democraticallyelected government mohammed mossadegh return shah iran throne plot succeeded shah regained power americans got oil along lucrative market exporting arms people iran pretty much got screwed freedom democracy prosper antagonism expressed november 1979 takeover us embassy tehran entirely without cause afghanistan president obama wasted little time making afghanistan war like predecessor vows defeat taliban also like predecessor yet confront role played united states creating taliban first place washington took pride success enjoyed funneling arms assistance fundamentalist afghans waging jihad foreign occupiers administrations jimmy carter ronald reagan considered represent acme clever statecraft us support afghan mujahideen caused soviets fits yet also fed cancer time exacted grievous toll americans themselvesand us forces today bogged seemingly endless war watch video act contrition united states acted otherwise would cuba evolved stable prosperous democracy beacon hope rest latin america would world avoided blight nuclear weapons would iran today ally united states beacon liberalism islamic world rather charter member axis evil would afghanistan quiet pastoral land peace neighbors one course say might know sure policies concocted washington reputedly savvy statesmen look exceedingly illadvised make blunders temptation may avert gaze thereby preserving reassuring tale american century avoid temptation take opposite course acknowledging openly freely unabashedly gone wrong carve acknowledgments face new monument smack middle mall washington blew screwed pooch caught case stupids got assbackwards exercise candor might avoid replicating mistakes indeed ought apologize comes avoiding repetition sin nothing works like abject contrition therefore tell people cuba sorry made hash uscuban relations long president obama speak behalf asking people hiroshima nagasaki forgiveness express deep collective regret iranians afghans past us interventionism wrought united states things without expectations reciprocity regardless us officials may say castro wont fess made share mistakes japanese wont liken hiroshima pearl harbor call wash irans mullahs afghanistans jihadists wont offering chastened washington let bygones bygones apologize goodto free accumulated conceits american century acknowledge united states participated fully barbarism folly tragedy defines time sins must hold accountable solve problems requires see really requires shedding illusions embodied american century andrew j bacevich professor history international relations boston university recent book limits power end american exceptionalism paperback copyright 2009 andrew j bacevich | 1,420 |
<p>In the wake of nation-wide demonstrations calling for stronger government regulation of banks and investment firms, draft legislation was introduced in the House on Tuesday that targets a less conspicuous multi-billion dollar industry that still affects everyday Americans: the collection and distribution of personal information. At a time when everyone from Tea Partiers to Progressives is complaining that the government isn’t looking out for the people, US Representatives Rick Boucher (D-VA) and Cliff Stearns (R-FL) offered their proposal for meaningful privacy protection legislation.</p>
<p>The long-awaited bill, which many privacy experts assumed would only cover online data collection, is broader than expected. It applies to any non-governmental entity that collects personal information (including names, numbers and addresses) from more than 5,000 people a year, whether online or off. They would be required to provide “a clearly-written, understandable privacy policy that explains how information about individuals is collected, used and disclosed.” The bill would also allow individuals to opt out of data collection for purposes such as behavioral marketing, and would require opt-in consent for the collection of sensitive personal information such as medical or financial records, sexual orientation, Social Security number, or precise geographic location.</p>
<p>From a regulatory standpoint, this discussion draft is a significant move because it begins to close the gap between the US and countries with omnibus data protection laws. Commenting on the bill’s comprehensive requirements and the new obligations it would impose, Lisa J. Sotto, head of the privacy and information management practice at the law firm of Hunton &amp; Williams, noted that “outside the US, we are perceived as lagging behind the EU when it comes to providing data privacy protections for individuals.”</p>
<p>This bill should also resonate on a personal level. Despite Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s claim that people don’t really care about privacy anymore, there is no shortage of outrage when users feel their privacy had been violated. In March, a federal judge approved a $9.5 million settlement in a class-action suit over Facebook’s “Beacon” program. The program tracked online activities not related to Facebook, such as video rentals or purchases, and added them to the users’ “news feeds,” making them visible to their Facebook friends. The ACLU spearheaded a campaign that successfully led to a change in Facebook’s privacy policy. Unfortunately, while the change did increase protection for some types of information, it relaxed it for others. The ACLU continues to petition for more user control over Facebook profiles.</p>
<p>Marketers and social networking sites claim the data they collect helps them select ads and suggest products tailored to consumers, which enhances the user experience and benefits retailers. Data collectors argue that people want this kind of personalized service. However, a study conducted by a group of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley titled Americans Reject Tailored Advertising indicates otherwise. According to the 2009 study, “most adult Americans (66%) do not want marketers to tailor advertisements to their interests. Moreover, when Americans are informed of three common ways that marketers gather data about people in order to tailor ads, even higher percentages–between 73% and 86%–say they would not want such advertising.” Although Zuckerberg would like us to believe that it’s nothing more than a generation gap, and the social norm of privacy is “just something that has evolved over time,” the research tells a different story. The study also found that “86% of young adults say they don’t want tailored advertising if it is the result of following their behavior on websites other than one they are visiting, and 90% of them reject it if it is the result of following what they do offline.”</p>
<p>The statistics show that the vast majority of Americans feel there should be laws giving them the right to know everything that a website knows about them, and require websites to delete all personal information upon request. In light of these opinions, it seems surprising that there is not more public awareness of the proposed legislation. The authors of the UPenn/UC Berkeley study may have an answer. As they write, “Whatever the reasons explaining Americans’ dislike of behavioral targeting, our findings indicate that they expect companies to take privacy rules extremely seriously. Our results show that American consumers believe (albeit mistakenly) that an array of strong laws prohibit companies from the sharing or selling of data about them.” Unlike the debate over health care reform, which was fueled by hope and fear of change, it seems people aren’t concerned with this legislation because they believe it already exists. The unfortunate reality is that, even if the bill passed, Americans’ assumptions about regulation would still exceed the reality of the law. The bill was also drafted with business in mind. Rep. Boucher carefully reassured advertisers that the bill would not present a threat to their profits. Recognizing the importance that advertising plays in the financing of free online content, he said, “Online advertising supports much of the commercial content, applications and services that are available on the Internet today without charge, and this legislation will not disrupt this well-established and successful business model.”</p>
<p>In the end, a lack of public interest may lead to legislation in the public’s interest. There was little fanfare when Obama signed his landmark crackdown on credit card companies, but mercifully there was little or no public opposition. With a relatively new FCC chair, a Democratically-controlled FTC, a bi-partisan draft before the House, and no reactionaries yelling “keep your government hands off my Internet,” the administration may be able to follow up credit card and health care reform with an overhaul of online policy.</p>
<p>TIMOTHY MacBAIN currently works for The Nation magazine, and produces podcasts for TomDispatch.com and Lapham’s Quarterly. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:timothymacbain@gmail.com" type="external">timothymacbain@gmail.com</a></p>
<p><a href="http://greentags.bigcartel.com/" type="external">WORDS THAT STICK</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | wake nationwide demonstrations calling stronger government regulation banks investment firms draft legislation introduced house tuesday targets less conspicuous multibillion dollar industry still affects everyday americans collection distribution personal information time everyone tea partiers progressives complaining government isnt looking people us representatives rick boucher dva cliff stearns rfl offered proposal meaningful privacy protection legislation longawaited bill many privacy experts assumed would cover online data collection broader expected applies nongovernmental entity collects personal information including names numbers addresses 5000 people year whether online would required provide clearlywritten understandable privacy policy explains information individuals collected used disclosed bill would also allow individuals opt data collection purposes behavioral marketing would require optin consent collection sensitive personal information medical financial records sexual orientation social security number precise geographic location regulatory standpoint discussion draft significant move begins close gap us countries omnibus data protection laws commenting bills comprehensive requirements new obligations would impose lisa j sotto head privacy information management practice law firm hunton amp williams noted outside us perceived lagging behind eu comes providing data privacy protections individuals bill also resonate personal level despite facebook ceo mark zuckerbergs claim people dont really care privacy anymore shortage outrage users feel privacy violated march federal judge approved 95 million settlement classaction suit facebooks beacon program program tracked online activities related facebook video rentals purchases added users news feeds making visible facebook friends aclu spearheaded campaign successfully led change facebooks privacy policy unfortunately change increase protection types information relaxed others aclu continues petition user control facebook profiles marketers social networking sites claim data collect helps select ads suggest products tailored consumers enhances user experience benefits retailers data collectors argue people want kind personalized service however study conducted group researchers university pennsylvania university california berkeley titled americans reject tailored advertising indicates otherwise according 2009 study adult americans 66 want marketers tailor advertisements interests moreover americans informed three common ways marketers gather data people order tailor ads even higher percentagesbetween 73 86say would want advertising although zuckerberg would like us believe nothing generation gap social norm privacy something evolved time research tells different story study also found 86 young adults say dont want tailored advertising result following behavior websites one visiting 90 reject result following offline statistics show vast majority americans feel laws giving right know everything website knows require websites delete personal information upon request light opinions seems surprising public awareness proposed legislation authors upennuc berkeley study may answer write whatever reasons explaining americans dislike behavioral targeting findings indicate expect companies take privacy rules extremely seriously results show american consumers believe albeit mistakenly array strong laws prohibit companies sharing selling data unlike debate health care reform fueled hope fear change seems people arent concerned legislation believe already exists unfortunate reality even bill passed americans assumptions regulation would still exceed reality law bill also drafted business mind rep boucher carefully reassured advertisers bill would present threat profits recognizing importance advertising plays financing free online content said online advertising supports much commercial content applications services available internet today without charge legislation disrupt wellestablished successful business model end lack public interest may lead legislation publics interest little fanfare obama signed landmark crackdown credit card companies mercifully little public opposition relatively new fcc chair democraticallycontrolled ftc bipartisan draft house reactionaries yelling keep government hands internet administration may able follow credit card health care reform overhaul online policy timothy macbain currently works nation magazine produces podcasts tomdispatchcom laphams quarterly reached timothymacbaingmailcom words stick 160 | 570 |
<p>NATO headquarters shares with the caves of al-Qaeda the error of hubris. The jihadis believe that it was their rag-tag mujahideen that chased the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan. Nothing in their world-view allows them to share the glory with the United States, the Saudis and the Pakistanis, nor yet with the infestation of economic termites inside the heart of the Soviet industrial base. In much the same way, the NATO war planners believe that it was their seventy-eight day bombing campaign that freed Kosovo from the clutches of Slobodan Milosevic’s forces. Nothing in the Brussels briefing books underlines the crucial step taken by the Russians, when theywithdrew their support of Milosevic and left him, “looking at the stars,” as he put it in his famous invocation of the 1389 Battle of Kosovo. Neither the mujihideen nor the NATO aircraft are themselves capable of military victories that have a political impact. A skirmish here and a bombing campaign there, but not the decisive blow that overturns a political dispensation.</p>
<p>Outgoing U. S. Defense Chief Robert Gates complains that the Europeans are not bearing enough responsibility for the NATO campaign. France’s Sarkozy replies that Gates’ retirement causes him to use “bitter words.” It is only when they are set to retire or do retire that sensible custodians of the hierarchical world order speak the truth: Eisenhower warned the U. S. about the military industrial complex in his farewell address of 1961, World Bank heads Robert McNamara and James Wolfensohn snubbed their own certainties only when the door of the Bank shut behind them. Gates indicates that the U. S. can no longer use its military power to sustain its flagging hegemony. It has to turn things over to partners. The European ship falters, as the Greek sinkhole widens. It does not have the fortitude.</p>
<p>Gates’ criticism came as Congress sent the White House a confused verdict: no authorization for the Libyan adventure, no allowance for more U. S. participation in the NATO operation, and yet, no cut-off for thefunds needed for the operation. The U. S. drones can continue to work with other NATO warplanes to cut a swath through the civilian districts of Tripoli. The fears of some in Congress is that despite the stalemate in Libya, pressure mounts from the humanitarian interventionist clique around Obama (Samantha Powers, Susan Rice) and from Tel Aviv to stiffen the U. S. stand vis-?-vis Syria, and perhaps Iran. “We don’t have enough wars going on?” asked Dennis Kucinich (Democrat, Ohio). “We have to wage war against another nation which did not attack us?”</p>
<p>The technical discussions about the War Powers Act are of little consequence. Few U. S. presidents have honored the Act. More significant is the crack in the consensus on the doctrine of perpetual war that governs the political economy of the United States: taxpayer spending on warfare provides whatever long-term government stimulus to the economy is allowed, whereas any money spent on the social side of the ledger is sniffed at. Into this breach comes Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, with “How China Plans to Reinforce the Global Recovery” (Financial Times, June 23). Wen calls the bet. China is at ready, but not yet to take on the political challenges alone. It will seek to work through the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) formation.</p>
<p>A Beggar’s Banquet.</p>
<p>The twelve thousand sorties and the two thousand five hundred targets have done little to stop the Qaddafi regime from trying to assert itself. The Libyan army continues to push against Misrata, the city of perpetual dread. The frontline between east and west remains stagnant. The regime of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad is more likely to collapse sooner than that of Qaddafi. Qaddafi’s daughter, Aisha, filed papers in Brussels to sue NATO for its killing of her daughter, Mastoura, her brother and Qaddafi’s two other grandchildren. After this April 30 attack, the Russian Foreign Ministry pointed out that the “physical destruction of Qaddafi and members of his family raise serious doubts.” U. S. Navy Admiral Samuel Locklear told Congressman Mike Turner in May that the NATO forces were trying to kill Qaddafi (or in his more measured language, as reported via Turner, “the scope of civil protection was being interpreted to permit the removal of the chain of command of Qaddafi’s military, which includesQaddafi”). Qaddafi’s resolve is hardened. With everything to lose, he is determined to fight on.</p>
<p>Time is Qaddafi’s friend. As each day goes by, more and more of NATO’s propaganda ploys unravel. Donatella Rovera (Amnesty International) spent three months in Libya, investigating the various claims. She now reports that many of them are figments of the imagination, not the least of which is the one about Libyan troops given Viagra to conduct the mass rape of women (this was repeated as fact by the International CriminalCourt’s Luis Moreno-Ocampo). Other crimes are certainly in evidence, such as the bombardment of civilian areas, but these now seem to have been conducted by both the Libyan army and by the NATO warplanes. There is no moral high ground.</p>
<p>The NATO war in Libya is far off from the UN Resolution 1973, and its philosophical underpinning (the Responsibility to Protect Civilians). The International Crisis Group’s June 6 report (Making Sense of Libya) points out that no-one seems concerned with civilians, as the refugee crisis explodes without care and the civilian deaths increase. No one has created a humanitarian corridor out of the two sides of the country, to allow war refugees to leave what is plainly a civil war. It is a shameful situation.</p>
<p>The stalemate affects the morale in Benghazi. Handouts from the Atlantic powers and the Gulf States do not amount to much, leaving the Transitional Council on a tight leash. The Council’s vice chair, Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, sang a different tune on June 25, expecting Qaddafi to make another political offer. “We want to preserve life, so we want to end the war as soon as possible. We have always left [Qaddafi] some room for anexit.” The latter is not the case, but the sentiment is what is important: there is no exit room for Qaddafi, who is boxed in by the bombs and Ocampo’s indictment. Idi Amin’s old abode on the top two floors of the Novotel Hotel in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) is no longer for rent, and Venezuela’s Chavez has already declined to make a new bed in the Miraflores Palace. But Ghoga indicates that even the Benghazi leadership, despite its close ties to Paris and Langley, know that Libya is being presented with a beggar’s banquet of unsavory things.</p>
<p>Even the International Crisis Group has come to the view that “a political breakthrough is by far the best way out of the costly situation created by the military impasse.” Both sides must agree to an immediate ceasefire, to be monitored by on-the-ground UN peacekeepers. Negotiations cannot take place directly between Benghazi and Tripoli, but must be run through a third party. No one thinks this third party can be from the Atlantic powers. They have no credibility on both sides. According to the Crisis Group, “A joint political initiative by the Arab League and the African Union — the former viewed more favorably by the opposition, the latter preferred by theregime — is one possibility to lead to such an agreement.” There is a basis for this dialogue, built up by the visits of the African Union’s Libya panel to Tripoli and Benghazi and by the work of the UN Special Envoy to Libya, the Jordanian politician Abdul Ilah Khatib (who once famously said of the Atlantic powers, “Only when there is a crisis do they realize that they have to do something”). All this is of no consequence, the Crisis Group reports without “the leadership of the revolt and NATO rethinking their current stance.”</p>
<p>The African Union will meet in Equatorial Guinea on June 30. The AU Libya panel’s chair, Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz has already gone on record that Qaddafi “can no longer lead Libya.” But the AU, unlike NATO and Benghazi, will not make Qaddafi’s departure a precondition for negotiation. That is a recipe for no dialogue at all, as the Crisis Group recognizes. It is likely that the negotiations will result in Qaddafi’s removal from power, but that is a possible outcome of the discussion between the two sides. A preparatory meeting of the AU panel on June 26 did not suggest anything new. That is not the point. They have a roadmap, but require NATO to stand-down.</p>
<p>Will NATO and the Atlantic powers allow the AU and the BRICS countries to take charge of the dynamic? The Cold War ended at the same time as the Third World project ran out of steam. During the 1990s, the countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America tried to develop a new set of institutions to push against the economic and political domination of the Atlantic powers. The Non-Aligned Movement formed the Group of Fifteen (G15), which narrowed into the IBSA (India-Brazil-South Africa) bloc, and then finally to the BRICS. They have made their claim to planetary governance, with a platform that is far more multipolar and polycentric than that of the Atlantic powers. The African Union would act as more of an agent of the BRICS than of Washington and Paris. Libya is a test case for the transfer of power from the moribund G7 to the more robust BRICS formation. But the Atlantic powers are not going to allow this, and that is the undoing of Libya.</p>
<p>Vijay Prashad is the George and Martha Kellner Chair of South Asian History and Director of International Studies at Trinity College, Hartford, CT His most recent book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1565847857/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World,</a> won the Muzaffar Ahmad Book Prize for 2009. The Swedish and French editions are just out. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:vijay.prashad@trincoll.edu" type="external">vijay.prashad@trincoll.edu</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | nato headquarters shares caves alqaeda error hubris jihadis believe ragtag mujahideen chased soviet union afghanistan nothing worldview allows share glory united states saudis pakistanis yet infestation economic termites inside heart soviet industrial base much way nato war planners believe seventyeight day bombing campaign freed kosovo clutches slobodan milosevics forces nothing brussels briefing books underlines crucial step taken russians theywithdrew support milosevic left looking stars put famous invocation 1389 battle kosovo neither mujihideen nato aircraft capable military victories political impact skirmish bombing campaign decisive blow overturns political dispensation outgoing u defense chief robert gates complains europeans bearing enough responsibility nato campaign frances sarkozy replies gates retirement causes use bitter words set retire retire sensible custodians hierarchical world order speak truth eisenhower warned u military industrial complex farewell address 1961 world bank heads robert mcnamara james wolfensohn snubbed certainties door bank shut behind gates indicates u longer use military power sustain flagging hegemony turn things partners european ship falters greek sinkhole widens fortitude gates criticism came congress sent white house confused verdict authorization libyan adventure allowance u participation nato operation yet cutoff thefunds needed operation u drones continue work nato warplanes cut swath civilian districts tripoli fears congress despite stalemate libya pressure mounts humanitarian interventionist clique around obama samantha powers susan rice tel aviv stiffen u stand visvis syria perhaps iran dont enough wars going asked dennis kucinich democrat ohio wage war another nation attack us technical discussions war powers act little consequence u presidents honored act significant crack consensus doctrine perpetual war governs political economy united states taxpayer spending warfare provides whatever longterm government stimulus economy allowed whereas money spent social side ledger sniffed breach comes wen jiabao chinese premier china plans reinforce global recovery financial times june 23 wen calls bet china ready yet take political challenges alone seek work brics brazilrussiaindiachinasouth africa formation beggars banquet twelve thousand sorties two thousand five hundred targets done little stop qaddafi regime trying assert libyan army continues push misrata city perpetual dread frontline east west remains stagnant regime syrias bashar alassad likely collapse sooner qaddafi qaddafis daughter aisha filed papers brussels sue nato killing daughter mastoura brother qaddafis two grandchildren april 30 attack russian foreign ministry pointed physical destruction qaddafi members family raise serious doubts u navy admiral samuel locklear told congressman mike turner may nato forces trying kill qaddafi measured language reported via turner scope civil protection interpreted permit removal chain command qaddafis military includesqaddafi qaddafis resolve hardened everything lose determined fight time qaddafis friend day goes natos propaganda ploys unravel donatella rovera amnesty international spent three months libya investigating various claims reports many figments imagination least one libyan troops given viagra conduct mass rape women repeated fact international criminalcourts luis morenoocampo crimes certainly evidence bombardment civilian areas seem conducted libyan army nato warplanes moral high ground nato war libya far un resolution 1973 philosophical underpinning responsibility protect civilians international crisis groups june 6 report making sense libya points noone seems concerned civilians refugee crisis explodes without care civilian deaths increase one created humanitarian corridor two sides country allow war refugees leave plainly civil war shameful situation stalemate affects morale benghazi handouts atlantic powers gulf states amount much leaving transitional council tight leash councils vice chair abdel hafiz ghoga sang different tune june 25 expecting qaddafi make another political offer want preserve life want end war soon possible always left qaddafi room anexit latter case sentiment important exit room qaddafi boxed bombs ocampos indictment idi amins old abode top two floors novotel hotel jeddah saudi arabia longer rent venezuelas chavez already declined make new bed miraflores palace ghoga indicates even benghazi leadership despite close ties paris langley know libya presented beggars banquet unsavory things even international crisis group come view political breakthrough far best way costly situation created military impasse sides must agree immediate ceasefire monitored ontheground un peacekeepers negotiations take place directly benghazi tripoli must run third party one thinks third party atlantic powers credibility sides according crisis group joint political initiative arab league african union former viewed favorably opposition latter preferred theregime one possibility lead agreement basis dialogue built visits african unions libya panel tripoli benghazi work un special envoy libya jordanian politician abdul ilah khatib famously said atlantic powers crisis realize something consequence crisis group reports without leadership revolt nato rethinking current stance african union meet equatorial guinea june 30 au libya panels chair mauritanias president mohamed ould abdel aziz already gone record qaddafi longer lead libya au unlike nato benghazi make qaddafis departure precondition negotiation recipe dialogue crisis group recognizes likely negotiations result qaddafis removal power possible outcome discussion two sides preparatory meeting au panel june 26 suggest anything new point roadmap require nato standdown nato atlantic powers allow au brics countries take charge dynamic cold war ended time third world project ran steam 1990s countries africa asia latin america tried develop new set institutions push economic political domination atlantic powers nonaligned movement formed group fifteen g15 narrowed ibsa indiabrazilsouth africa bloc finally brics made claim planetary governance platform far multipolar polycentric atlantic powers african union would act agent brics washington paris libya test case transfer power moribund g7 robust brics formation atlantic powers going allow undoing libya vijay prashad george martha kellner chair south asian history director international studies trinity college hartford ct recent book darker nations peoples history third world muzaffar ahmad book prize 2009 swedish french editions reached vijayprashadtrincolledu 160 160 | 896 |
<p>BEIRUT—Three years ago, the Army of Islam, one of Syria’s most powerful armed opposition groups, held a massive military parade that included thousands of opposition fighters marching in formation and a striking display of tanks and armored vehicles at the doors of the Syrian capital.</p>
<p>The parade, held in the town of Douma in the spring of 2015, demonstrated the Saudi-backed group’s growing clout in the eastern Ghouta suburbs, which for years were seen as a potential launch pad for a ground attack on Damascus, seat of President Bashar Assad’s power.</p>
<p>The Army of Islam now stands alone in eastern Ghouta, its fighters facing a stark choice: Surrender or die.</p>
<p>Haitham Bakkar, a Douma-based opposition activist, said the situation in Douma is very tense because it is unclear what will happen next. He said it was a question of existence for the Army of Islam fighters, most of whom are from Douma.</p>
<p />
<p>“If the Army of Islam goes to northern Syria it will be its end,” he said.</p>
<p>Douma, on the northeastern edge of Damascus, is the last rebel holdout in the eastern Ghouta region after thousands of fighters from the Ahrar al-Sham and Faylaq al-Rahman groups ceded their towns to government control under a deal brokered by Russia, a key ally of Assad.</p>
<p>For days, their fighters have been exiting from the southernmost pockets of eastern Ghouta, leaving in a fleet of buses, including the lime-green municipal buses that have come to symbolize defeat for the Syrian opposition as the government takes back control of cities around the country.</p>
<p>The Ghouta fighters join tens of thousands of rebels from other areas of Syria, including Aleppo and Homs, who were driven out in the past few years following similar deals with the government that granted them safe passage to the north in return for abandoning the rebellion.</p>
<p>With the help of Russian airstrikes, the army has waged a crushing air and ground offensive to recapture eastern Ghouta, killing more than 1,600 people since Feb. 18, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Five weeks later, the eastern Ghouta region, once a cluster of around 15 rebel-held towns spread east of Damascus, has been overtaken by government forces, except for Douma, where the Army of Islam is headquartered.</p>
<p>Rebels who have left eastern Ghouta so far have all gone to Idlib, an insurgent-held region dominated by al-Qaida-affiliated fighters near the Turkish border, where they either have a presence or good relations with Turkey.</p>
<p>By contrast, the Army of Islam, called Jaysh al-Islam in Arabic, is home-grown and has no other strongholds in the country.</p>
<p>“Jaysh al-Islam is a very local phenomenon, emerging from the specific social fabric and Salafi school of thought of the Damascus countryside,” said Faysal Itani, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Atlantic Council.</p>
<p>“More precisely, Jaysh al-Islam is a creature of Douma, and I don’t know how it would survive outside it,” especially in Idlib, where there is rebel rivalry, he said.</p>
<p>It is a resounding defeat for the powerful group that once briefly overran parts of Damascus and showered the capital with mortar shells. It is also a reflection of the diminished role of Saudi Arabia, once a major supporter of Syrian rebels.</p>
<p>Thousands of Army of Islam fighters — some estimates say around 10,000 — are now encircled in Douma, a densely populated town with a huge number of civilians who are terrified of what they see as a looming army offensive if the rebels don’t exit. One resident said there are currently about 150,000 civilians in Douma, many of them internally displaced from other towns in eastern Ghouta, some of them staying out in the open or in destroyed buildings.</p>
<p>This civilian pressure is weighing on the group as it negotiates with the government and its Russian backers. Several opposition activists have said that the Russians have given the Army of Islam 48 hours as of early Tuesday to leave Douma for northern Syria or face an all-out offensive.</p>
<p>But the group’s military spokesman, Hamza Bayraqdar, denied the reports and said Army of Islam fighters would never leave, describing the evacuations to the north as forced displacement.</p>
<p>“We are negotiating to stay, not to depart,” he told Al-Arabiya TV on Tuesday. “The people who will leave eastern Ghouta will never dream of returning to their homes.”</p>
<p>The group has no good choices. Going to Idlib would put its fighters in an area dominated by al-Qaida, against whom it has fought pitched battles in the past. The Britain-based Observatory reported this week that the Russians rejected a request by some Army of Islam members to head to the southern province of Daraa. Such a move would bring the militants close to the Jordanian border, from where they would likely get assistance from Saudi Arabia.</p>
<p>The rebels, meanwhile, are bitterly blaming each other for their defeat in Ghouta.</p>
<p>After Faylaq al-Rahman began withdrawing from eastern Ghouta, Army of Islam members blasted their former allies, accusing them of helping government forces by drying out artificial swamps set up by insurgents to slow down the army’s offensive.</p>
<p>“We had defensive plans prepared, but regrettably Faylaq al-Rahman cut the water that was brought from Barada River,” Bayraqdar said. “This sped up the regime’s advance.”</p>
<p>Asked about the charges, Faylaq al-Rahman spokesman Wael Olwan said: “I don’t want to respond because we are trying to avoid their irresponsible statements.”</p>
<p>Olwan told The Associated Press that it is still not clear whether Faylaq al-Rahman’s members will end up in Idlib or in areas controlled by Turkish troops. “I still don’t know what our role will be,” he said.</p> | true | 4 | beirutthree years ago army islam one syrias powerful armed opposition groups held massive military parade included thousands opposition fighters marching formation striking display tanks armored vehicles doors syrian capital parade held town douma spring 2015 demonstrated saudibacked groups growing clout eastern ghouta suburbs years seen potential launch pad ground attack damascus seat president bashar assads power army islam stands alone eastern ghouta fighters facing stark choice surrender die haitham bakkar doumabased opposition activist said situation douma tense unclear happen next said question existence army islam fighters douma army islam goes northern syria end said douma northeastern edge damascus last rebel holdout eastern ghouta region thousands fighters ahrar alsham faylaq alrahman groups ceded towns government control deal brokered russia key ally assad days fighters exiting southernmost pockets eastern ghouta leaving fleet buses including limegreen municipal buses come symbolize defeat syrian opposition government takes back control cities around country ghouta fighters join tens thousands rebels areas syria including aleppo homs driven past years following similar deals government granted safe passage north return abandoning rebellion help russian airstrikes army waged crushing air ground offensive recapture eastern ghouta killing 1600 people since feb 18 according syrian observatory human rights five weeks later eastern ghouta region cluster around 15 rebelheld towns spread east damascus overtaken government forces except douma army islam headquartered rebels left eastern ghouta far gone idlib insurgentheld region dominated alqaidaaffiliated fighters near turkish border either presence good relations turkey contrast army islam called jaysh alislam arabic homegrown strongholds country jaysh alislam local phenomenon emerging specific social fabric salafi school thought damascus countryside said faysal itani senior fellow washingtonbased atlantic council precisely jaysh alislam creature douma dont know would survive outside especially idlib rebel rivalry said resounding defeat powerful group briefly overran parts damascus showered capital mortar shells also reflection diminished role saudi arabia major supporter syrian rebels thousands army islam fighters estimates say around 10000 encircled douma densely populated town huge number civilians terrified see looming army offensive rebels dont exit one resident said currently 150000 civilians douma many internally displaced towns eastern ghouta staying open destroyed buildings civilian pressure weighing group negotiates government russian backers several opposition activists said russians given army islam 48 hours early tuesday leave douma northern syria face allout offensive groups military spokesman hamza bayraqdar denied reports said army islam fighters would never leave describing evacuations north forced displacement negotiating stay depart told alarabiya tv tuesday people leave eastern ghouta never dream returning homes group good choices going idlib would put fighters area dominated alqaida fought pitched battles past britainbased observatory reported week russians rejected request army islam members head southern province daraa move would bring militants close jordanian border would likely get assistance saudi arabia rebels meanwhile bitterly blaming defeat ghouta faylaq alrahman began withdrawing eastern ghouta army islam members blasted former allies accusing helping government forces drying artificial swamps set insurgents slow armys offensive defensive plans prepared regrettably faylaq alrahman cut water brought barada river bayraqdar said sped regimes advance asked charges faylaq alrahman spokesman wael olwan said dont want respond trying avoid irresponsible statements olwan told associated press still clear whether faylaq alrahmans members end idlib areas controlled turkish troops still dont know role said | 531 |
<p>If he is alive, Osama bin Laden surely is enjoying some hearty laughter. Nothing he could imagine, short of the virtually-impossible task of obtaining a tactical nuclear weapon and detonating it in an American city, compares to the damage just inflicted upon the United States by its own President. Ten thousand dead is the estimate of New Orleans’ mayor. A morticians’ emergency measures organization is ready for forty thousand corpses. We won’t know for weeks, maybe months, as attics, basements, sewers, canals, and dumpsters are searched. The economic damage is nothing less than colossal.</p>
<p>Columnist Paul Krugman repeated Monday, September 5, a Chicago Tribune report that the U.S.S. Bataan, a military ship with six operating rooms, hundreds of hospital beds, and the machinery to produce 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day, sat off the Gulf Coast since Monday (August 29, when Katrina struck) without any patients.</p>
<p>On September 2, Krugman repeated the following from an editorial in Biloxi, Mississippi’s Sun Herald:</p>
<p>“On Wednesday, reporters listening to horrific stories of death and survival at the Biloxi Junior High School shelter looked north across Irish Hill Road and saw Air Force personnel playing basketball and performing calisthenics. Playing basketball and performing calisthenics!”</p>
<p>Germany only just before these events experienced horrible floods, but that country’s government acted decisively and promptly to limit human suffering and damage. Britain, despite my reservations about some measures taken, acted with remarkable speed after the London Underground bombings. One of the world’s great cities in crisis was quickly managed, with emergency organizations and police immediately deployed.</p>
<p>The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, bravely rode the Underground the next day to reassure citizens. By comparison, the Mayor of New Orleans and the President of Jefferson Parish were reduced to screams and tears on television by the lack of response from Washington.</p>
<p>When Bush got around to visiting – incidentally, holding up the urgent delivery of food supplies by planes grounded for his security – what we got were photo-ops like the staged start to repairing a damaged levee. In safely-selected meetings with a few area residents, Bush, suddenly appeared in a checkered shirt instead of his usual silk suit with overly-padded shoulders. He exchanged such fascinating anecdotes as the fact that Trent Lott had also lost a home (one of several) and that he, Bush, looked forward to sitting with Trent on the porch of his new, better house.</p>
<p>How would Trent’s new house be a better one, I wondered reading these words? Because Trent would have no trouble more than replacing his loss through manipulating the bounty of one Federal program or another? Because Trent had already got the President’s ear on his personal misfortune? Few of the desperate people clinging to roofs or the relatives of others floating face-down in filthy tides while Bush spoke could anticipate such bounty.</p>
<p>No one in the press, so far as I am aware, seems to have caught the fact that Bush, in his pathetic effort to say something comforting, referred to a man who was pushed from his high position in the Senate because of a history of associations and words that can only be called Klan-friendly. Compassionate Bush was offering this anecdote in a place where most of the dead and truly hopeless are poor blacks. Also unnoticed by the press was just how Bush would be aware of so insignificant a matter as Trent’s loss when the desperate Mayor of New Orleans couldn’t reach him on the phone.</p>
<p>Brains and character do count in leadership, and it has long been obvious to much of the world that George Bush possesses neither. Why did you re-elect this wretched man, America? There is almost nothing ghastly enough to say about his performance in a catastrophe. It is a virtual repeat of what he did to Iraq, but you really don’t seem to care about the horrors he has inflicted abroad. Perhaps, now, finally, you will care.</p>
<p>I do not believe, as some do, that George Bush is a racist. George Bush doesn’t have enough common human feeling to be a racist. He is a dull, droning, unfeeling man who has always enjoyed immense privileges while avoiding all responsibility and genuine work.</p>
<p>I do not believe, although the metaphor is tempting, that George Bush is Nero, for Nero, despite utter corruptness, actually had some intelligence. The appropriate Roman metaphor for Bush is the horse, Incitatus, which the ghoulish monster Caligula kept in the Imperial Palace and was reported to have appointed a Roman Consul. In this analogy, Caligula represents America’s insatiably-greedy Right Wing who put Bush where he is.</p>
<p>What so many Americans still do not appreciate is that Bush’s criminally negligent behavior concerning a hurricane in New Orleans closely parallels his and other Republican behavior before 9/11. Such simple, relatively inexpensive measures as secure cockpit doors and improved standards of security at airports would have made 9/11 impossible (just as improved levees and proper evacuation plans would have made the losses of New Orleans impossible). These were sensible measures being advocated then, not just in view of potential terrorism, but owing to the then considerable threat of hijacking, and they would have cost a tiny fraction of war in Afghanistan (I don’t include the cost of the bloody horror in Iraq since it has literally nothing to do with terror).</p>
<p>So, too, the total failure of the CIA under George Tenet to anticipate what was happening with some of its own human assets from the Middle East, while Israeli agents, arrested in the United States and expelled afterwards, seem to have been totally on to Atta and the boys. Reportedly, Tenet has written a twenty-page response he intends to publish if the draft of the report on CIA negligence is published in its existing form. Tenet’s piece apparently implicates Bush and his people in the failure.</p>
<p>If we must stick to comparisons with historical people rather than the horse of a Roman Emperor, Bush resembles the ne’er-do-well son of one of those putridly corrupt dukes in France’s Ancien Regime who would kill a servant in a fit of rage or ride over a peasant in his path. Such a person, in the rare event his deed was brought to the king’s attention, also pretended some vague, unaccountable mistake had been made and routinely was let go.</p>
<p>My God, look at the words of this man’s mother, a woman everyone who knows the family says closely resembles him both in intelligence and attitudes. Barbara just may have surpassed Marie Antoinette’s fabled (Marie never said it), “Let them eat cake!” Here is a quote from Mother Barbara on a tour of the Astrodome relief center:</p>
<p>“What I’m hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality.</p>
<p>“And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this–this (chuckling slightly) is working very well for them.”</p>
<p>Although her earlier comment on deaths in Iraq, made on national television, would be hard to beat for words devoid of human feeling:</p>
<p>“Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? It’s not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?”</p>
<p>The apple does not fall far from the tree.</p>
<p>JOHN CHUCKMAN lives in Canada.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>CLARIFICATION</p>
<p>ALEXANDER COCKBURN, JEFFREY ST CLAIR, BECKY GRANT AND THE INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF JOURNALISTIC CLARITY, COUNTERPUNCH</p>
<p>We published an article entitled “A Saudiless Arabia” by Wayne Madsen dated October 22, 2002 (the “Article”), on the website of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity, CounterPunch, www.counterpunch.org (the “Website”).</p>
<p>Although it was not our intention, counsel for Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi has advised us the Article suggests, or could be read as suggesting, that Mr Al Amoudi has funded, supported, or is in some way associated with, the terrorist activities of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist network.</p>
<p>We do not have any evidence connecting Mr Al Amoudi with terrorism.</p>
<p>As a result of an exchange of communications with Mr Al Amoudi’s lawyers, we have removed the Article from the Website.</p>
<p>We are pleased to clarify the position.</p>
<p>August 17, 2005</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | alive osama bin laden surely enjoying hearty laughter nothing could imagine short virtuallyimpossible task obtaining tactical nuclear weapon detonating american city compares damage inflicted upon united states president ten thousand dead estimate new orleans mayor morticians emergency measures organization ready forty thousand corpses wont know weeks maybe months attics basements sewers canals dumpsters searched economic damage nothing less colossal columnist paul krugman repeated monday september 5 chicago tribune report uss bataan military ship six operating rooms hundreds hospital beds machinery produce 100000 gallons fresh water day sat gulf coast since monday august 29 katrina struck without patients september 2 krugman repeated following editorial biloxi mississippis sun herald wednesday reporters listening horrific stories death survival biloxi junior high school shelter looked north across irish hill road saw air force personnel playing basketball performing calisthenics playing basketball performing calisthenics germany events experienced horrible floods countrys government acted decisively promptly limit human suffering damage britain despite reservations measures taken acted remarkable speed london underground bombings one worlds great cities crisis quickly managed emergency organizations police immediately deployed mayor london ken livingstone bravely rode underground next day reassure citizens comparison mayor new orleans president jefferson parish reduced screams tears television lack response washington bush got around visiting incidentally holding urgent delivery food supplies planes grounded security got photoops like staged start repairing damaged levee safelyselected meetings area residents bush suddenly appeared checkered shirt instead usual silk suit overlypadded shoulders exchanged fascinating anecdotes fact trent lott also lost home one several bush looked forward sitting trent porch new better house would trents new house better one wondered reading words trent would trouble replacing loss manipulating bounty one federal program another trent already got presidents ear personal misfortune desperate people clinging roofs relatives others floating facedown filthy tides bush spoke could anticipate bounty one press far aware seems caught fact bush pathetic effort say something comforting referred man pushed high position senate history associations words called klanfriendly compassionate bush offering anecdote place dead truly hopeless poor blacks also unnoticed press bush would aware insignificant matter trents loss desperate mayor new orleans couldnt reach phone brains character count leadership long obvious much world george bush possesses neither reelect wretched man america almost nothing ghastly enough say performance catastrophe virtual repeat iraq really dont seem care horrors inflicted abroad perhaps finally care believe george bush racist george bush doesnt enough common human feeling racist dull droning unfeeling man always enjoyed immense privileges avoiding responsibility genuine work believe although metaphor tempting george bush nero nero despite utter corruptness actually intelligence appropriate roman metaphor bush horse incitatus ghoulish monster caligula kept imperial palace reported appointed roman consul analogy caligula represents americas insatiablygreedy right wing put bush many americans still appreciate bushs criminally negligent behavior concerning hurricane new orleans closely parallels republican behavior 911 simple relatively inexpensive measures secure cockpit doors improved standards security airports would made 911 impossible improved levees proper evacuation plans would made losses new orleans impossible sensible measures advocated view potential terrorism owing considerable threat hijacking would cost tiny fraction war afghanistan dont include cost bloody horror iraq since literally nothing terror total failure cia george tenet anticipate happening human assets middle east israeli agents arrested united states expelled afterwards seem totally atta boys reportedly tenet written twentypage response intends publish draft report cia negligence published existing form tenets piece apparently implicates bush people failure must stick comparisons historical people rather horse roman emperor bush resembles neerdowell son one putridly corrupt dukes frances ancien regime would kill servant fit rage ride peasant path person rare event deed brought kings attention also pretended vague unaccountable mistake made routinely let go god look words mans mother woman everyone knows family says closely resembles intelligence attitudes barbara may surpassed marie antoinettes fabled marie never said let eat cake quote mother barbara tour astrodome relief center im hearing sort scary want stay texas everyone overwhelmed hospitality many people arena know underprivileged anyway thisthis chuckling slightly working well although earlier comment deaths iraq made national television would hard beat words devoid human feeling hear body bags deaths relevant waste beautiful mind something like apple fall far tree john chuckman lives canada 160 160 clarification alexander cockburn jeffrey st clair becky grant institute advancement journalistic clarity counterpunch published article entitled saudiless arabia wayne madsen dated october 22 2002 article website institute advancement journalistic clarity counterpunch wwwcounterpunchorg website although intention counsel mohammed hussein al amoudi advised us article suggests could read suggesting mr al amoudi funded supported way associated terrorist activities osama bin laden al qaeda terrorist network evidence connecting mr al amoudi terrorism result exchange communications mr al amoudis lawyers removed article website pleased clarify position august 17 2005 160 | 777 |
<p>Image: Lina Katz</p>
<p />
<p>EJIDO MERIDA, Mexico —</p>
<p>In the dusty yard outside her home in this small farming community, Marina Martinez washes clothes in a plastic bucket, with water drawn from an outdoor spigot that is her family’s only plumbing. Beyond their small house, on the other side of a listing picket fence, lie the cotton and wheat fields where her husband works.</p>
<p>Ten miles north, just across the US-Mexico border, water rushes through the All-American Canal from the Colorado River to California’s Imperial Valley, one of the most productive agricultural regions of the United States. For decades, water from the canal has also irrigated the fields and filled the washtubs of thousands of Mexicans like Martinez who live in Baja’s arid north. But soon, that water will run dry.</p>
<p>Every year, according to the federal Interior Department, 67,700 acre-feet of water — enough to satisfy the demands of about 135,000 California families — seeps through the dirt bottom of the All-American Canal. (An acre-foot is the amount of water required to cover an acre of land one foot deep.) Underground, between layers of rock and dirt, it percolates south into Mexico, where it is pumped from wells. Farm communities like Martinez’s have relied on the water for decades since the canal was built in 1940.</p>
<p>But now, with urban growth in the southwestern US making water ever scarcer, California has launched a conservation plan that includes lining the leaky All-American Canal and an ancillary canal with concrete. The $200 million project will ensure that the water saved from leaking out flows instead to Los Angeles, San Diego and other southern California cities — and away from the more than 30,000 people across the border who have come to depend on it.</p>
<p>In Ejido Merida, people rely almost entirely on well water for irrigation, bathing, washing, and even drinking. If there were no water, and no work in the fields, Martinez says she and her husband would have to try to moving to the nearby border city of Mexicali. “I could clean houses and my husband could be a security guard,” she guesses. “But we would rather stay here. There’s nothing like being at home.”</p>
<p>Ejido president Miguel Bañuelos, however, is afraid that a time may come when there is no choice but to leave. “Without the water, all agricultural activity could be over for this ejido,” he says. And farming is the valley’s only source of employment.</p>
<p>Seepage from the All-American Canal accounts for 10 to 12 percent of the supply to the Mexicali Valley aquifer, but it is by far the purest source, diluting the saltier reserves of groundwater. No one yet knows whether losing the canal seepage will make the water too salty to use, or pumping too expensive to continue. But in 1998 Alfonso Andrés Cortez-Lara, a researcher from Mexicali’s Colegio de la Frontera Norte, surveyed farmers in the valley and found 90 percent expected their expenses to rise with the canal lining. Eighty-six percent said they would yield fewer crops and earn less money. In addition, concludes Cortez-Lara, the lining could cut from 10 to 20 percent of the arable land out of the valley’s approximately $230 million farm industry.</p>
<p>The Mexican farmers have no legal right to the water they stand to lose. The aptly named All-American Canal cuts west just before the Colorado River crosses the border into Mexico, taking with it a fifth of the river’s water. What seeps out from the canal is Colorado River water allocated to California by the Treaty of 1944. As guaranteed by the same treaty, Mexico still gets its share of the river’s surface water — 1.5 million acre-feet per year compared to 4.4 million for California and millions more for other states.</p>
<p>The seepage from the All-American Canal, therefore, has been a 60-year bonus to Mexico, so lining it does not violate the treaty, say officials from the International Boundary and Water Commission, the binational agency that settles water disputes between the US and Mexico.</p>
<p>Still, the Mexican government objects to the project. “It will be very harmful for Mexico,” says Moisés Domínguez, a representative from Mexico’s National Water Commission. The government has filed a complaint with IBWC.</p>
<p>The commission, however, is not trying to stop the project, says Robert Ybarra, secretary of foreign affairs for the American branch of IBWC. “There is no difference of opinion. Those waters are US waters. The issue is one of impact to Mexico.”</p>
<p>To offset damages there, Ybarra says American and Mexican members of the commission are discussing “goodwill offers,” such as delivering some of Mexico’s Colorado River water through a turnout in the All-American Canal. With less distance to travel and the benefit of the canal’s de-silting process, the water would be of better quality than what Mexico gets now. But that won’t necessarily help the Mexicali Valley farmers.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Imperial Irrigation District, which operates the canal and will build the lining, is moving forward, says IID’s water department manager Michael King. Construction can begin as soon as California and the IID work out final details, and the state releases the funding, says Charles Keene, a water management chief with California’s Department of Water Resources. If all goes according to plan, that should be in early 2003.</p>
<p>Keene says he’s aware of the impact the project will have on the Mexicali Valley, but says California’s dwindling water supplies leave the state no choice. Since the federal government won’t allow California to take any more Colorado River water, he says, “we have to be able to conserve where appropriate, put it to the best use, and use it more efficiently.”</p>
<p>Across the border in Mexicali, Cortez-Lara says, “We understand these tensions in California. But we have another problem: There is only one source for both sides.”</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | image lina katz ejido merida mexico dusty yard outside home small farming community marina martinez washes clothes plastic bucket water drawn outdoor spigot familys plumbing beyond small house side listing picket fence lie cotton wheat fields husband works ten miles north across usmexico border water rushes allamerican canal colorado river californias imperial valley one productive agricultural regions united states decades water canal also irrigated fields filled washtubs thousands mexicans like martinez live bajas arid north soon water run dry every year according federal interior department 67700 acrefeet water enough satisfy demands 135000 california families seeps dirt bottom allamerican canal acrefoot amount water required cover acre land one foot deep underground layers rock dirt percolates south mexico pumped wells farm communities like martinezs relied water decades since canal built 1940 urban growth southwestern us making water ever scarcer california launched conservation plan includes lining leaky allamerican canal ancillary canal concrete 200 million project ensure water saved leaking flows instead los angeles san diego southern california cities away 30000 people across border come depend ejido merida people rely almost entirely well water irrigation bathing washing even drinking water work fields martinez says husband would try moving nearby border city mexicali could clean houses husband could security guard guesses would rather stay theres nothing like home ejido president miguel bañuelos however afraid time may come choice leave without water agricultural activity could ejido says farming valleys source employment seepage allamerican canal accounts 10 12 percent supply mexicali valley aquifer far purest source diluting saltier reserves groundwater one yet knows whether losing canal seepage make water salty use pumping expensive continue 1998 alfonso andrés cortezlara researcher mexicalis colegio de la frontera norte surveyed farmers valley found 90 percent expected expenses rise canal lining eightysix percent said would yield fewer crops earn less money addition concludes cortezlara lining could cut 10 20 percent arable land valleys approximately 230 million farm industry mexican farmers legal right water stand lose aptly named allamerican canal cuts west colorado river crosses border mexico taking fifth rivers water seeps canal colorado river water allocated california treaty 1944 guaranteed treaty mexico still gets share rivers surface water 15 million acrefeet per year compared 44 million california millions states seepage allamerican canal therefore 60year bonus mexico lining violate treaty say officials international boundary water commission binational agency settles water disputes us mexico still mexican government objects project harmful mexico says moisés domínguez representative mexicos national water commission government filed complaint ibwc commission however trying stop project says robert ybarra secretary foreign affairs american branch ibwc difference opinion waters us waters issue one impact mexico offset damages ybarra says american mexican members commission discussing goodwill offers delivering mexicos colorado river water turnout allamerican canal less distance travel benefit canals desilting process water would better quality mexico gets wont necessarily help mexicali valley farmers meanwhile imperial irrigation district operates canal build lining moving forward says iids water department manager michael king construction begin soon california iid work final details state releases funding says charles keene water management chief californias department water resources goes according plan early 2003 keene says hes aware impact project mexicali valley says californias dwindling water supplies leave state choice since federal government wont allow california take colorado river water says able conserve appropriate put best use use efficiently across border mexicali cortezlara says understand tensions california another problem one source sides | 561 |
<p>Let me paint a word picture. An unarmed, wounded American soldier is lying helpless, bleeding and barely conscious on the floor of a church in a country with which the US is at war. An armed soldier of that country walks up to the wounded American. It so happens that a TV cameraman is present. He films the foreign soldier shouting, “He’s fucking faking he’s dead!” One of his comrades says “And he’s breathing”. The first soldier again yells “He’s faking he’s fucking dead!” He then kills the helpless, wounded man with a burst of fire that blows his head off and spatters the room with blood and tiny bits of flesh and bone. One of the foreign soldiers says “He’s dead, now.”</p>
<p>Question One: What do you think the reaction of most of the American people would be to the murder of a wounded, unarmed US soldier lying helpless and barely conscious on the floor of a church in a foreign land?</p>
<p>Question Two: What was the reaction of most of the American people to the murder of a wounded, unarmed Iraqi lying helpless and barely conscious on the floor of a mosque in his own country?</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>First Answer: Shrieking outrage and demands for the foreigner to be tried and executed, whichever came first.</p>
<p>Second Answer: Unconcern.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>The dialogue about faking it came from a CBS tape of a US soldier killing an Iraqi prisoner. The whole thing was recorded. It is undeniable that the crime was committed. The clips of the murder were played worldwide on television – except for the actual killing, because that was thought too vile, even for a television audience accustomed to the most explicitly horrible murder scenes. And nobody has dared take a poll as to how many Americans approve of the murder. Most TV reports called it “an incident”, and it has dropped out of sight because, to put it bluntly, an American life is considered to be worth more than an Iraqi life. To many millions of Americans, the marine who murdered the helpless man is a hero. If you doubt this, please read on.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Think about another ‘incident’, when a squad of US soldiers opened fire on a car travelling along the Baghdad-Airport road on March 4, killing an Italian official. The lies began at once, and there is no point in describing what happened because the truth as told by eyewitnesses has already been denied by the military, and the official version will be accepted by much of the US media. It is not surprising that the media will toe the official line, as most of their readers and viewers automatically doubt what they are told by foreign or independent US sources (not that there are many of the latter, these days), and are uncomfortable with anything that smacks of criticism of US soldiers. This is because such criticism is considered unpatriotic and unforgivable, even if it is justified by first-hand evidence of brutality or murder. And if audiences are unhappy about what appears in the media, advertisers will be even more unhappy and will withdraw their business. In short: mainstream news cover in the US is directed by two major factors: advertising revenue and its precursor, audience prejudice. And advertisers get their financial messages from some very unpleasant bigots.</p>
<p>These are people like the beauty who commented on the killing of the Italian official and the wounding of the Italian journalist he was escorting to freedom (that’s Bush freedom: it comes with free shrapnel wounds) as follows:</p>
<p>“Too bad the US troops didn’t shoot her in the head and been done with trouble making people like her . . . Posted by bpb901 March 5.”</p>
<p>We only have to look at the deranged outpourings on right wing blogs to realize there are millions of Americans who feel exactly the same way as bpb901. He or she is not in any way unusual. Unhinged and demented, yes ; badly in need of urgent mental treatment, certainly ; but out of the ordinary: no. (Bear in mind that The Economist of March 5-11 noted the uncomfortable statistic that “about one in five Americans now suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder”.)</p>
<p>Think back to the ‘incident’ in January at Tal Afar in which US soldiers killed the mother and father of six kids. Getty Images photographer Chris Hondros was there. He described the shambles like this:</p>
<p>“We have a car coming,” someone called out as we entered an intersection. We could see the car about a 100 meters away. The car continued coming; I couldn’t see it anymore from my perch but could hear its engine now, a high whine that sounded more like acceleration than slowing down. It was maybe 50 yards away now. “Stop that car!” someone shouted out, seemingly simultaneously with someone firing what sounded like warning shots — a staccato, measured burst. The car continued coming. And then, perhaps less than a second later, a cacophony of fire, shots rattling off in a chaotic, overlapping din . . . . From the sidewalk I could see into the bullet-mottled windshield more clearly. The driver of the car, a man, was penetrated by so many bullets that his skull had collapsed, leaving his body grotesquely disfigured. A woman also lay dead in the front . . . the children continued to wail and scream, huddled against a wall, sandwiched between soldiers either binding their wounds or trying to comfort them . . . the teenaged girl kept shouting, “Why did they shoot us? We have no weapons! We were just going home!”</p>
<p>We know about the killing of the father and mother of six kids because a photographer was there and we’ve seen his evidence. Same for the murder of the wounded prisoner. And we know about the killing of the Italian official because there is a high-profile former hostage still alive to tell us what really happened. But if these ‘incidents’ had not involved independent witnesses we would have been told nothing about them. They would have gone unrecorded, as have unknown numbers of similar atrocities in and around many cities. The Washington Post of 7 March says US officials “have declined to estimate how many civilians . . . have been killed accidentally by US forces at checkpoints or elsewhere in Iraq” This is no surprise, because although countless Iraqis have been killed by being sprayed with bullets by delinquent troops, the stories recounted by Iraqi witnesses of these terrible events are ignored. There are many people with the mentality of the moron who wrote “Too bad the US troops didn’t shoot her in the head and been done with trouble making people like her . . .”, and none of them would for an instant condemn the murder of a helpless prisoner by a heroic marine. Neither would they be critical of the gallant troops who wiped out the parents of six children. It is a terrible thing to say, but it must be said: there are millions of Americans who would and do applaud these murders. In the case of the Italian murder, however, they seem to be a bit out of step with their hero, the deranged Bush.</p>
<p>Bush and Rumsfeld have grovelled to Italy’s crooked prime minister, Berlusconi, because their troops murdered an Italian citizen and wounded another. There was a phone call of apology from Air Force One to Rome the moment the news broke, and the Bush media machine trotted out the usual garbage about the car being attacked “by coalition forces”. (This phrase is used by the Bush people to try to avoid acknowledgement that US troops have been criminally incompetent yet again.) Bush spoke to Berlusconi “to express his regret about the incident that occurred earlier today,” and to assure “prime minister Berlusconi that the incident will be fully investigated.” But there is never an investigation of the murder of Iraqis. To the US military and to millions of tragically disturbed Americans they are non-persons.</p>
<p>Iraqi lives do not matter. Just as in Hitler’s Germany the Nazis referred to various sections of the population (Jews, gypsies and other ‘antisocial elements’) as the “untermenschen” — the sub-humans — so do US troops and the crazed bigots who bay for blood refer to Iraqis as “ragheads” — the sub-humans. The Nazi regime was founded and fostered by people who thought along the lines of “Too bad the US troops didn’t shoot her in the head and been done with trouble making people like her . . .”. If people are trouble-makers, well, don’t try to live with them ; don’t try to understand them ; don’t try to treat them as human beings: just shoot them. Or torture them. Or both. What the hell? The reasoning is that they are different to the superior people and therefore they should not be allowed to exist.</p>
<p>The attitude of millions of Americans is exactly that of the German supporters of fascism in the 1930s and early 1940s. They were encouraged to think of themselves as the Master Race and there were whole nations whose populations could be treated as inferiors, and they took pride in doing just that. The present wave of hysterical intolerance in the US makes the McCarthy years of persecution look benign, because the idea has been planted by Bush and his people that US citizens are superior in every possible way. There can be no admission of frailty, and no acceptance of equality. International law and treaties are ignored or treated with contempt, and human dignity has become irrelevant. Hysterical ultra-nationalism is thriving and gathering pace.</p>
<p>The director of the slippery slope to totalitarianism has beckoned his citizens, and they are responding with enthusiasm to his encouragement. War crimes are being committed by US troops and spooks on an extraordinary scale all round the world, but the biggest war crime is taking place in Washington: it is the twisting of the minds of the American people.</p>
<p>BRIAN CLOUGHLEY writes on military and political affairs. He can be reached through his website <a href="http://www.briancloughley.com/" type="external">www.briancloughley.com</a></p> | true | 4 | let paint word picture unarmed wounded american soldier lying helpless bleeding barely conscious floor church country us war armed soldier country walks wounded american happens tv cameraman present films foreign soldier shouting hes fucking faking hes dead one comrades says hes breathing first soldier yells hes faking hes fucking dead kills helpless wounded man burst fire blows head spatters room blood tiny bits flesh bone one foreign soldiers says hes dead question one think reaction american people would murder wounded unarmed us soldier lying helpless barely conscious floor church foreign land question two reaction american people murder wounded unarmed iraqi lying helpless barely conscious floor mosque country first answer shrieking outrage demands foreigner tried executed whichever came first second answer unconcern dialogue faking came cbs tape us soldier killing iraqi prisoner whole thing recorded undeniable crime committed clips murder played worldwide television except actual killing thought vile even television audience accustomed explicitly horrible murder scenes nobody dared take poll many americans approve murder tv reports called incident dropped sight put bluntly american life considered worth iraqi life many millions americans marine murdered helpless man hero doubt please read 160 think another incident squad us soldiers opened fire car travelling along baghdadairport road march 4 killing italian official lies began point describing happened truth told eyewitnesses already denied military official version accepted much us media surprising media toe official line readers viewers automatically doubt told foreign independent us sources many latter days uncomfortable anything smacks criticism us soldiers criticism considered unpatriotic unforgivable even justified firsthand evidence brutality murder audiences unhappy appears media advertisers even unhappy withdraw business short mainstream news cover us directed two major factors advertising revenue precursor audience prejudice advertisers get financial messages unpleasant bigots people like beauty commented killing italian official wounding italian journalist escorting freedom thats bush freedom comes free shrapnel wounds follows bad us troops didnt shoot head done trouble making people like posted bpb901 march 5 look deranged outpourings right wing blogs realize millions americans feel exactly way bpb901 way unusual unhinged demented yes badly need urgent mental treatment certainly ordinary bear mind economist march 511 noted uncomfortable statistic one five americans suffer diagnosable mental disorder think back incident january tal afar us soldiers killed mother father six kids getty images photographer chris hondros described shambles like car coming someone called entered intersection could see car 100 meters away car continued coming couldnt see anymore perch could hear engine high whine sounded like acceleration slowing maybe 50 yards away stop car someone shouted seemingly simultaneously someone firing sounded like warning shots staccato measured burst car continued coming perhaps less second later cacophony fire shots rattling chaotic overlapping din sidewalk could see bulletmottled windshield clearly driver car man penetrated many bullets skull collapsed leaving body grotesquely disfigured woman also lay dead front children continued wail scream huddled wall sandwiched soldiers either binding wounds trying comfort teenaged girl kept shouting shoot us weapons going home know killing father mother six kids photographer weve seen evidence murder wounded prisoner know killing italian official highprofile former hostage still alive tell us really happened incidents involved independent witnesses would told nothing would gone unrecorded unknown numbers similar atrocities around many cities washington post 7 march says us officials declined estimate many civilians killed accidentally us forces checkpoints elsewhere iraq surprise although countless iraqis killed sprayed bullets delinquent troops stories recounted iraqi witnesses terrible events ignored many people mentality moron wrote bad us troops didnt shoot head done trouble making people like none would instant condemn murder helpless prisoner heroic marine neither would critical gallant troops wiped parents six children terrible thing say must said millions americans would applaud murders case italian murder however seem bit step hero deranged bush bush rumsfeld grovelled italys crooked prime minister berlusconi troops murdered italian citizen wounded another phone call apology air force one rome moment news broke bush media machine trotted usual garbage car attacked coalition forces phrase used bush people try avoid acknowledgement us troops criminally incompetent yet bush spoke berlusconi express regret incident occurred earlier today assure prime minister berlusconi incident fully investigated never investigation murder iraqis us military millions tragically disturbed americans nonpersons iraqi lives matter hitlers germany nazis referred various sections population jews gypsies antisocial elements untermenschen subhumans us troops crazed bigots bay blood refer iraqis ragheads subhumans nazi regime founded fostered people thought along lines bad us troops didnt shoot head done trouble making people like people troublemakers well dont try live dont try understand dont try treat human beings shoot torture hell reasoning different superior people therefore allowed exist attitude millions americans exactly german supporters fascism 1930s early 1940s encouraged think master race whole nations whose populations could treated inferiors took pride present wave hysterical intolerance us makes mccarthy years persecution look benign idea planted bush people us citizens superior every possible way admission frailty acceptance equality international law treaties ignored treated contempt human dignity become irrelevant hysterical ultranationalism thriving gathering pace director slippery slope totalitarianism beckoned citizens responding enthusiasm encouragement war crimes committed us troops spooks extraordinary scale round world biggest war crime taking place washington twisting minds american people brian cloughley writes military political affairs reached website wwwbriancloughleycom | 862 |
<p>&lt;a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/5844354288/in/photolist-oAQ3p3-h5afPL-oTiEq6-gb3cqB-av6umx-gHYFC3-rAnv1C-f2Veuo-gNF8L3-fmjviZ-9bvh7X-9UrQV7-qacmJh-fyjqEN-ehqPY1-myp9DR-q8eEc8-qTskgB-fmzuvA-ehqQfW-rKw7pS-ehk63T-ppGRvp-fmzrZb-nG7paW-bEXejf-bTRZU2-qBswDA-e4rMFU-av6uxZ-dcmShJ-g6RiAt-e4rLrw-bEWKuN-bEWGgy-fmjJnc-ryoZz5-av6uvr-rsAB6z-fmztg9-e4m9QZ-fmjVmR-e4m9nD-e4rNaC-e4mbDK-9DR8Et-e4rKnC-e4m8Zg-e4mcJV-qJCWSH"&gt;Gage Skidmore&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p />
<p>In his bio on his presidential campaign <a href="http://www.tedcruz.org/about/" type="external">website</a>, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) boasts of what he did as Texas solicitor general to defend the Second Amendment, the Pledge of Allegiance, and US sovereignty—all conservative causes. But Cruz does not detail another important chapter in his legal career: his work as a well-paid private attorney who helped corporations found guilty of wrongdoing.</p>
<p>After serving over five years as the state of Texas’ top lawyer, Cruz in 2008 <a href="http://www.morganlewis.com/news/texas-solicitor-general-r-ted-cruz-to-join-morgan-lewis-to-help-lead-us-supreme-court-and-national-appellate-practice" type="external">joined</a> the Houston office of the high-powered international law firm Morgan Lewis to lead its Supreme Court and national appellate practice. He stepped down as a partner in the firm after being elected a US senator in 2012. During his stint at Morgan Lewis, Cruz, who casts himself as a politician who stands on principle, handled several cases that cut against his political stances. He twice worked on cases in New Mexico <a href="" type="internal">to secure $50-million-plus jury awards</a> (though, as a politician, he has called for tort reform that would prevent these sorts of awards). He <a href="" type="internal">assisted</a> a lawsuit filed by a man who was wrongfully convicted of murder and nearly executed (though, as a politician, he has insisted the criminal-justice system functions just fine when it comes to capital punishment). And in one case, he filed a brief <a href="" type="internal">supporting</a> President Barack Obama’s stimulus (though, as a politician, Cruz has slammed this Obama initiative).</p>
<p>But much of the time, Cruz represented corporate clients. He was a lawyer for Kraft in a major lawsuit against Starbucks. He represented Pfizer when a California county accused the drug manufacturer and other pharmaceutical firms of overcharging. (In a win for Big Pharma, the Supreme Court tossed out the case.) He defended Eagle Freight Systems when drivers sued the company seeking unpaid overtime wages and expenses. (Cruz lost a bid to uphold a lower court ruling that shut down the drivers’ suit. Two years later, when Cruz was no longer involved in the case, the trucking company <a href="http://www.law360.com/articles/376608/ceva-freight-beats-class-cert-in-truckers-ot-suit" type="external">prevailed</a>.) In a controversial move, he <a href="http://www.factcheck.org/2012/07/texas-size-mudballs-in-gop-senate-runoff/" type="external">represented</a> a Pennsylvania developer who was a central player in a corruption scandal that exploited juveniles, handling a dispute this crooked developer had with his insurance company.</p>
<p>Cruz, a tea party favorite who calls himself a “courageous conservative,” has <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/ted-cruz-wall-street-heidi-cruz-goldman-sachs-116381.html" type="external">railed against</a> “crony capitalism” and <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/ted-cruz-is-running-for-president-and-hes-running-against-corporate-welfare-like-ex-im-and-ethanol/article/2561881" type="external">decried</a> “corporate welfare.” He has boasted that he authored “legislation to end federal dollars subsidizing corporate fat cats.” Yet as a private legal gun for hire—who billed at least $695 per hour—Cruz sometimes defended corporations that engaged in sleazy practices to screw the little guy or gal. Here’s a look at two of those cases.</p>
<p>Tire Engineering and Distribution v. Shandong Linglong Rubber Company and Al Dobowi Ltd.: In this case, Jordan Fishman, a Florida-based businessman whose company designed and developed specialized mining tires, claimed that a former employee conspired with competitors in China and the United Arab Emirates to steal his designs and trade secrets, including his customer lists and pricing information. Fishman contended that his company lost $36 million after Shandong Linglong, a Chinese manufacturer, and Al Dobowi, a Dubai distributor, began marketing versions of his tires that were based on his stolen blueprints. A jury found in favor of Fishman’s claim and <a href="http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100728/ARTICLE/7281018" type="external">awarded him $26 million</a>, a finding upheld by a federal judge in 2010. Fishman’s lawyers called this “one of the largest individual copyright infringement awards in US history,” and one of his attorneys, August Matteis Jr., noted, “This case should serve as a bellwether for foreign multinational corporations who believe they can act with impunity, stealing intellectual property from a small US business and then avoid the reach of our judicial system.”</p>
<p>But the case was not over: Shandong Linglong and Dobowi appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, claiming that the district court in Virginia that had overseen the case did not have jurisdiction over these companies and that the jury’s verdict had been wrong. The two firms contended that US copyright law did not cover their overseas actions. Cruz did not argue the case before the appeals court, but he worked on the appeals brief filed by Shandong Linglong.</p>
<p>His side did not triumph. <a href="http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-4th-circuit/1602454.html" type="external">In a June 2012 ruling</a>, the appeals court noted it was not persuaded by the foreign companies’ “creative interpretation of applicable case law,” and it affirmed the jury’s award. By that time, Cruz was running for the Senate and in a hotly contested Republican primary against David Dewhurst, Texas’ lieutenant governor. Dewhurst’s campaign pounced on the case, <a href="http://keranews.org/post/businessman-dewhurst-ad-questions-cruzs-patriotism" type="external">running ads</a> that assailed Cruz for defending a Chinese company that had plotted to wipe out an American small businessman. The ads questioned Cruz’s patriotism. (PolitiFact rated Dewhurst’s contention that Cruz had represented a Chinese company found guilty of stealing the tire blueprints <a href="http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2012/apr/19/david-dewhurst/david-dewhurst-says-ted-cruz-represents-chinese-co/" type="external">“mostly true.”</a>) In response to the Dewhurst attack, Cruz <a href="http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/tag/jordan-fishman/" type="external">maintained</a> that he had merely worked on the brief, and he <a href="http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2012/05/has-cruz-told-you-dewhurst-lie.html/" type="external">claimed</a> not a single American manufacturing job had been lost to China as a result of the case. That was accurate, but Fishman <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/headlines/20120516-dewhurst-cruz-continue-to-battle-over-chinese-tire-case.ece" type="external">noted</a> he had been forced to lay off 40 employees in sales, design, and distribution. Cruz’s work for a Chinese firm that pilfered secrets from an American did not cost him the Senate election, but it could become an issue for him in the 2016 presidential race.</p>
<p>Lynn Morrison v. B. Braun Medical: Morrison was a medical sales representative for B. Braun Medical Inc., a Pennsylvania-based company that manufactured and sold pharmaceutical and medical products. From 1998 until she was fired in 2007, she sold pain control products to hospitals in Michigan. Some years, she was one of the top sales reps for B. Braun. But she also caused a problem for the company. She repeatedly informed officials at the firm that she would not promote the “off-label” use of the company’s medical products—this is the practice, often illegal, of encouraging medical professionals to use a drug or medical product in ways other than those approved by the Food and Drug Administration. She also told supervisors she would not participate in any illegal kickback actions.</p>
<p>Several times Morrison raised concerns within the company that B. Braun was engaged in shady practices. At a company training session in 2000, she later testified, trainers instructed sales reps to push off-label uses of Pentaspan, a blood volume expander. At a 2003 sales meeting, Morrison noted, a sales rep told her and others how to circumvent anti-kickback laws. At another sales meeting in 2006 that Morrison attended, B. Braun managers and sales reps were told to promote off-label uses of Accufuser, a pain control pump. After Morrison expressed objections to company practices, she maintained, B. Braun imposed upon her sales quotas she considered unattainable. She was dismissed when she did not meet these goals.</p>
<p>Morrison sued the company, contending that B. Braun had fired her because she had refused to violate the law. “This was essentially a whistleblower case,” says Deborah Gordon, Morrison’s attorney. “She was willing to stand up for not having her company break the law. It was clear they were breaking the law.”</p>
<p>B. Braun did not respond to requests for comment.</p>
<p>After a trial, a jury sided with Morrison and awarded her $880,000. B. Braun appealed and hired Ted Cruz to argue the case in 2011, <a href="http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-6th-circuit/1587694.html" type="external">before the US Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit</a>. Cruz had two parts to his attack on Morrison. First, he asserted that she had failed to prove that B. Braun had directed her to violate the law and that a claim of wrongful discharge required proof that an employer had instructed the employee to break the law. Second, Cruz argued that Morrison had not presented sufficient evidence that her refusal to violate the law was why she had been canned.</p>
<p>According to Gordon, Cruz called her following the oral arguments and offered to settle the lawsuit. “He started telling me that oral arguments went well for him,” she says. “But that was not what I remembered. ‘Well,’ he said. ‘I got the transcript.'” Cruz offered to send Gordon a copy. “Sure,” she recalls thinking, “since he paid for it.” When Gordon received the transcript, she reviewed it and concluded that the judges on the appeals court had been tough on Cruz’s arguments. She decided not to settle.</p>
<p>Cruz’s Senate office did not respond to requests for comment.</p>
<p>The appeals court soon reached a decision and soundly rejected Cruz’s argument. “B. Braun’s proposed definition of wrongful discharge…is an inaccurate statement of the law,” the court declared. It also noted, “Morrison introduced sufficient evidence from which a reasonable juror could have concluded that one of the reasons that made a difference in B. Braun’s decision to fire Morrison was her refusal or failure to violate the law.” Cruz lost; the $880,000 award for Morrison was affirmed. As with the Shandong Linglong case, Cruz was not able to get a corporate wrongdoer off the hook.</p>
<p>To Gordon, Cruz—who had already established a reputation as one of the nation’s leading appellate attorneys—had not come across as impressive or unusual. “He was a run-of-the-mill corporate defense attorney,” she says, “who’d defend anything anytime a corporation wants to defend something.”</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | lta hrefhttpswwwflickrcomphotosgageskidmore5844354288inphotolistoaq3p3h5afplotieq6gb3cqbav6umxghyfc3ranv1cf2veuognf8l3fmjviz9bvh7x9urqv7qacmjhfyjqenehqpy1myp9drq8eec8qtskgbfmzuvaehqqfwrkw7psehk63tppgrvpfmzrzbng7pawbexejfbtrzu2qbswdae4rmfuav6uxzdcmshjg6riate4rlrwbewkunbewggyfmjjncryozz5av6uvrrsab6zfmztg9e4m9qzfmjvmre4m9nde4rnace4mbdk9dr8ete4rknce4m8zge4mcjvqjcwshgtgage skidmoreltagtflickr bio presidential campaign website sen ted cruz rtexas boasts texas solicitor general defend second amendment pledge allegiance us sovereigntyall conservative causes cruz detail another important chapter legal career work wellpaid private attorney helped corporations found guilty wrongdoing serving five years state texas top lawyer cruz 2008 joined houston office highpowered international law firm morgan lewis lead supreme court national appellate practice stepped partner firm elected us senator 2012 stint morgan lewis cruz casts politician stands principle handled several cases cut political stances twice worked cases new mexico secure 50millionplus jury awards though politician called tort reform would prevent sorts awards assisted lawsuit filed man wrongfully convicted murder nearly executed though politician insisted criminaljustice system functions fine comes capital punishment one case filed brief supporting president barack obamas stimulus though politician cruz slammed obama initiative much time cruz represented corporate clients lawyer kraft major lawsuit starbucks represented pfizer california county accused drug manufacturer pharmaceutical firms overcharging win big pharma supreme court tossed case defended eagle freight systems drivers sued company seeking unpaid overtime wages expenses cruz lost bid uphold lower court ruling shut drivers suit two years later cruz longer involved case trucking company prevailed controversial move represented pennsylvania developer central player corruption scandal exploited juveniles handling dispute crooked developer insurance company cruz tea party favorite calls courageous conservative railed crony capitalism decried corporate welfare boasted authored legislation end federal dollars subsidizing corporate fat cats yet private legal gun hirewho billed least 695 per hourcruz sometimes defended corporations engaged sleazy practices screw little guy gal heres look two cases tire engineering distribution v shandong linglong rubber company al dobowi ltd case jordan fishman floridabased businessman whose company designed developed specialized mining tires claimed former employee conspired competitors china united arab emirates steal designs trade secrets including customer lists pricing information fishman contended company lost 36 million shandong linglong chinese manufacturer al dobowi dubai distributor began marketing versions tires based stolen blueprints jury found favor fishmans claim awarded 26 million finding upheld federal judge 2010 fishmans lawyers called one largest individual copyright infringement awards us history one attorneys august matteis jr noted case serve bellwether foreign multinational corporations believe act impunity stealing intellectual property small us business avoid reach judicial system case shandong linglong dobowi appealed us court appeals 4th circuit claiming district court virginia overseen case jurisdiction companies jurys verdict wrong two firms contended us copyright law cover overseas actions cruz argue case appeals court worked appeals brief filed shandong linglong side triumph june 2012 ruling appeals court noted persuaded foreign companies creative interpretation applicable case law affirmed jurys award time cruz running senate hotly contested republican primary david dewhurst texas lieutenant governor dewhursts campaign pounced case running ads assailed cruz defending chinese company plotted wipe american small businessman ads questioned cruzs patriotism politifact rated dewhursts contention cruz represented chinese company found guilty stealing tire blueprints mostly true response dewhurst attack cruz maintained merely worked brief claimed single american manufacturing job lost china result case accurate fishman noted forced lay 40 employees sales design distribution cruzs work chinese firm pilfered secrets american cost senate election could become issue 2016 presidential race lynn morrison v b braun medical morrison medical sales representative b braun medical inc pennsylvaniabased company manufactured sold pharmaceutical medical products 1998 fired 2007 sold pain control products hospitals michigan years one top sales reps b braun also caused problem company repeatedly informed officials firm would promote offlabel use companys medical productsthis practice often illegal encouraging medical professionals use drug medical product ways approved food drug administration also told supervisors would participate illegal kickback actions several times morrison raised concerns within company b braun engaged shady practices company training session 2000 later testified trainers instructed sales reps push offlabel uses pentaspan blood volume expander 2003 sales meeting morrison noted sales rep told others circumvent antikickback laws another sales meeting 2006 morrison attended b braun managers sales reps told promote offlabel uses accufuser pain control pump morrison expressed objections company practices maintained b braun imposed upon sales quotas considered unattainable dismissed meet goals morrison sued company contending b braun fired refused violate law essentially whistleblower case says deborah gordon morrisons attorney willing stand company break law clear breaking law b braun respond requests comment trial jury sided morrison awarded 880000 b braun appealed hired ted cruz argue case 2011 us court appeals 6th circuit cruz two parts attack morrison first asserted failed prove b braun directed violate law claim wrongful discharge required proof employer instructed employee break law second cruz argued morrison presented sufficient evidence refusal violate law canned according gordon cruz called following oral arguments offered settle lawsuit started telling oral arguments went well says remembered well said got transcript cruz offered send gordon copy sure recalls thinking since paid gordon received transcript reviewed concluded judges appeals court tough cruzs arguments decided settle cruzs senate office respond requests comment appeals court soon reached decision soundly rejected cruzs argument b brauns proposed definition wrongful dischargeis inaccurate statement law court declared also noted morrison introduced sufficient evidence reasonable juror could concluded one reasons made difference b brauns decision fire morrison refusal failure violate law cruz lost 880000 award morrison affirmed shandong linglong case cruz able get corporate wrongdoer hook gordon cruzwho already established reputation one nations leading appellate attorneyshad come across impressive unusual runofthemill corporate defense attorney says whod defend anything anytime corporation wants defend something | 897 |
<p>The more I watch and read the rhetoric of Donald Trump, the more I find myself at times unexpectedly reflecting on some lessons I learned in the Central European country of Slovakia when I was a Fulbright Fellow there in 2002, and had as my host a man who was a member of the Slovak parliament and a prominent politician in that nation’s right wing, fascist-leaning political party. The similarities between Trump’s rhetoric and that of my host and his right wing platform are striking. It is unlikely this shared rhetoric is another case of plagiarism by the Trump campaign, since I suspect Trump is no student of post-communist politics, but there is no doubt the similarity stands as an example of how those with authoritarian interests gravitate to the same themes and attempt to tap the same anger and the same common fears among those they hope to control. While he is trying to soften some of his rhetoric now in order to gain credibility for a general election, the fact remains that Trump’s interests are authoritarian, and his previous tactics were successful because he followed the authoritarian playbook for mobilizing anger and fear. Having witnessed up-close how such characters justify their authoritarian motives, the only thing I have found surprising about Trump’s rise is not that it could happen in the U.S., but that it could happen to a person who lacks what I thought was a requisite charisma to bear forth such rhetoric. My host in Slovakia had such charisma, and while I was never mesmerized by it or lost my bearings in relationship to it, I did get to glimpse how such a person with such beliefs gains support.</p>
<p>One might wonder why a right wing Member of Parliament would choose to host an American Fulbright Fellow, since right wingers tend not to be dedicated to international relations and cross-cultural exchange. But I came to realize over time that it was the criticism his party was receiving from the West as isolationist and authoritarian that compelled him to offer himself as a Fulbright host and demonstrate his party’s capacity for warmth and goodwill towards all. In other words, I unwittingly was to serve as window dressing in a political charade of rather shallow impression-management. I was also matched with this guy because he was, in addition to being an MP, the chair of a clinical department at one of his country’s three medical schools, and there was a genuine interest among those schools in American brain injury programs like one I had developed previously, so from an administrative perspective, it must have seemed reasonable.</p>
<p>I knew almost immediately upon meeting my host, however, that something was definitely not well with my Fulbright assignment. I arrived in the small town that held the medical school after a long, winding drive from Bratislava with a wonderful pair of physicians, a couple that became my true Slovak soulmates during the coming months and who were the very kind and generous parents of a former international student of mine in the U.S. After my drop-off, I entered the first meeting with my host in his office at the medical school, a high-ceilinged room featuring a huge liquor collection gained over the years as gifts or “tips” from patients, a common custom in the health care settings there. Giving me something that tasted like peach Schnapps, he immediately began to ask me questions about my perspectives on political issues, ethnic and racial matters, gay rights in America, and the role of women in society. I might not have found him so disorienting had I not felt utterly foreign and alone in the dusk of this small, remote Slovak town, but I recall thinking at the time that I was trapped in there with a real nut and had no easy escape, since my Slovak friends were already back on the long road to Bratislava. After deflecting much prying into my beliefs and personal life, I finally looked around and tried to change the subject, curiously asking why the doors into his office were covered in button-tufted leather padding, resembling the back of a fancy leather sofa. He paused and then said it was because, during the communist period, the town was known for being a center for Russian military tank production, and spies, American ones too, were always trying to listen to the conversations occurring behind closed doors. The button-tufted leather was sound proofing. I responded that we had padded rooms in the U.S. too, but for different reasons, at which point which he stood up, frowned, and looking at me sideways, signaling the first meeting was over.</p>
<p>Over the coming months I came to know much more about my host through our meetings. I didn’t live with him, fortunately, because I had accommodations on campus, but we did get together for discussions when he was back in town from parliamentary meetings in Bratislava or important gatherings elsewhere. What I came to learn was that he was much more pro-fascist than even my first impressions. He was deeply anti-Semitic, anti- Gypsy, anti-Black, anti-Muslim, and felt strongly that gay people could be made straight with proper psychological treatment. He despised George Soros, whose Open Society people I was meeting with in various locations to study their approaches to disability rights and de-institutionalization. He found America a backwards country where we turn every social conflict into a “legal” issue (meaning a civil rights matter) when often it was simply a problem of inferior types of people behaving inferiorly and better dealt with through segregation. Power, in his mind, was to be concentrated in those who ruled the populace, not scattered about and wasted in the hands of the average citizen. Democratic civil society was a sign of weakness, because only official government figures have the competency, and therefore should have the power, to influence the public appropriately, and any governing system that would abdicate such influence was a sign that a nation lacked a strong, courageous leadership. Certain people were entitled to lead, and others were meant to follow. These ideas were noted by him to exist outside his country, too, and were seen as successful. He had been a friend of Milosevic and admired Putin.</p>
<p>The appeal of my host’s right wing positions was based on a small number of common, poorly informed beliefs that were then highlighted and boldly articulated by his party as a political platform. One belief purported that the past was better than the present and could be returned to under the right leadership. Widespread economic insecurities since the fall of communism were the fault of a new and permissive government that disfavored Slovakia’s own people and instead allowed foreigners and ethnic minorities to siphon away the jobs and resources that were previously protected by an authoritarian leadership, a leadership that was nostalgically portrayed as benign with its own people but one that knew how to draw a hardline with outsiders, like a tough patriarch protecting his own family. A return to the values of “before” would therefore be a return to a sense of paternalistic and nationalistic security, where current hardships didn’t exist and current ethnic and foreign intruders, portrayed as the bullies or free-loaders, were driven back to where they came from. Another vague impression that was given voice and trumpeted aloud by his party was the idea that the nation was under threat of dissolution and decay, and there was an urgent need to reverse this terrible trend before all was lost. Clowns were portrayed to be at the controls, while what the public needed was a strong, competent, no-nonsense boss to wrestle back the nation’s moral authority and direction. Submit to the benign dictator and return to those golden years. Stand behind the tough protector who will shield you from harm at the hands of dark or foreign people who don’t respect our ways.</p>
<p>These beliefs in the supremacy of some groups over others, and the problems posed by democratic ideals, were not expressed in frothy rantings or desk-pounding fits. He was quite matter of fact, sometimes even genteel, in relating the truth of his world to me. In fact, he was typically quite patient in his explanations and defenses, apparently figuring he was dealing with a reasonably polite American idiot, long immersed in the folly of democratic fantasies and pursuit of equal rights back home. But what was most notable, and unsettling for me to recognize in myself, was how this despot could express redeeming qualities that allowed him to appear more human. He was often humorous, and made casual observations about life that could be funny. For example, he once explained “So you have gay friends. It’s ok. Let’s be honest, most male figure skaters are homosexuals. I have no problem with that. Talent is talent. Who is to say if they were not that way, would they skate so well? I find them very friendly.” He was also irreverent in ways that seemed intended to entertain his company. I recall once, when we were driving to visit a rehabilitation hospital in another town, he avoided traffic by jumping the curb and driving down the sidewalk, honking for the pedestrians to get out of the way. He explained “Ah, I have nothing to worry about. I am an official member of the Slovak parliament, after all”. Later on that same trip, we needed to part ways as he headed to the capital for meetings and I was to return to the medical school. He handed me a first class ticket on the train platform and called to a porter to see me to a seat. I reached for my wallet and he waved it away: “Of course not. I only wish we could drive back together and have more discussions”. There was frequently a sense of propriety and kindness tangled up with his hatred. I remember he once approached a young woman in the hospital strapped to a standing platform for support, because she had a recent spinal cord injury, offering her encouragement and commenting on her high spirits, then soon after turning to me and commenting “Very difficult injury. She’s Gypsy, you know”. But it was this occasional likeableness and complexity that I realized made him so dangerous, because if someone like me, coming at his world with radically opposing values, could see some good, I realized those with less drastic differences might be won over quite readily.</p>
<p>Trump lacks the charisma of my Slovak host, but he represents much of the same rhetoric and taps many of the same fears and wishes found in a portion of a public that is seeking paternalistic security and the angry scapegoating of minorities. That portion of the public is able to find whatever good qualities they need to find in order to admire him, and even like him. Possibly similar to my host, Trump is able, at times, if fleetingly, to appear like a human being who shares human concerns.</p>
<p>There are estimates that Hillary Clinton will win the election in a landslide, but even if that occurs, even if Trump’s supporters are the minority of voters as estimated, it remains a fact that a sizeable number of Americans are eager to support an authoritarian menace to be their leader, eager to seek their own benefit at the extreme expense of their neighbors who are perceived as different from them. The politics of Slovakia have vacillated since my time in that country, and there is now an autocratic president there cut from the same cloth as my host. I would also say, however, Trump too is cut from that cloth. One need not go to a small and struggling country in post-communist Central Europe to encounter a despot, or travel back in time to a place in history when there may have been less discomfiting precedent: We have our own autocrat right here and now and he is popular. These characters, whether here in the U.S. or somewhere else we rarely hear about, are not unique or new. They have a rather predictable modus operandi that is executed again and again, even as people insist “never again”. What I find most troubling and, yet, a validation of those who have long warned us of the banality of such evil, is the confirmation that America is not at all immune from an attraction to such characters. What may be the most valuable lesson from the rise of Trump is the realization that our citizenry shares the same vulnerabilities and same selfish motives as those that have catapulted such figures into power elsewhere, in out-of-the-way places that were never our place, or previous times that were never our time. This lesson is valuable, however, only if going forward we acknowledge this same frightful potential in ourselves as Americans, honestly and painfully address the anger and need for vengeance such characters thrive on in our own country, and take the precautions necessary to make sure such a figure posing such dangers never rises this high again. If we fail to do this, the emergence of Trump will serve not as just a critical lesson, a brief reminder of our own vulnerabilities along the course of our history, but the first glimpse of what was to become a recurrent theme in our future.</p>
<p>Daniel Holland is a clinical psychologist and professor. &#160;His work has focused on disability rights and disability activism in developing and transitioning parts of the world. &#160;He has been a two-time Fulbright Fellow, a Fellow of the Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict at the University of Pennsylvania, a Research Scholar at the Wilson International Center, and a Mary E. Switzer Distinguished Fellow with the U.S. Department of Education. &#160;He lives in Minneapolis. &#160;&#160;&#160;</p> | true | 4 | watch read rhetoric donald trump find times unexpectedly reflecting lessons learned central european country slovakia fulbright fellow 2002 host man member slovak parliament prominent politician nations right wing fascistleaning political party similarities trumps rhetoric host right wing platform striking unlikely shared rhetoric another case plagiarism trump campaign since suspect trump student postcommunist politics doubt similarity stands example authoritarian interests gravitate themes attempt tap anger common fears among hope control trying soften rhetoric order gain credibility general election fact remains trumps interests authoritarian previous tactics successful followed authoritarian playbook mobilizing anger fear witnessed upclose characters justify authoritarian motives thing found surprising trumps rise could happen us could happen person lacks thought requisite charisma bear forth rhetoric host slovakia charisma never mesmerized lost bearings relationship get glimpse person beliefs gains support one might wonder right wing member parliament would choose host american fulbright fellow since right wingers tend dedicated international relations crosscultural exchange came realize time criticism party receiving west isolationist authoritarian compelled offer fulbright host demonstrate partys capacity warmth goodwill towards words unwittingly serve window dressing political charade rather shallow impressionmanagement also matched guy addition mp chair clinical department one countrys three medical schools genuine interest among schools american brain injury programs like one developed previously administrative perspective must seemed reasonable knew almost immediately upon meeting host however something definitely well fulbright assignment arrived small town held medical school long winding drive bratislava wonderful pair physicians couple became true slovak soulmates coming months kind generous parents former international student mine us dropoff entered first meeting host office medical school highceilinged room featuring huge liquor collection gained years gifts tips patients common custom health care settings giving something tasted like peach schnapps immediately began ask questions perspectives political issues ethnic racial matters gay rights america role women society might found disorienting felt utterly foreign alone dusk small remote slovak town recall thinking time trapped real nut easy escape since slovak friends already back long road bratislava deflecting much prying beliefs personal life finally looked around tried change subject curiously asking doors office covered buttontufted leather padding resembling back fancy leather sofa paused said communist period town known center russian military tank production spies american ones always trying listen conversations occurring behind closed doors buttontufted leather sound proofing responded padded rooms us different reasons point stood frowned looking sideways signaling first meeting coming months came know much host meetings didnt live fortunately accommodations campus get together discussions back town parliamentary meetings bratislava important gatherings elsewhere came learn much profascist even first impressions deeply antisemitic anti gypsy antiblack antimuslim felt strongly gay people could made straight proper psychological treatment despised george soros whose open society people meeting various locations study approaches disability rights deinstitutionalization found america backwards country turn every social conflict legal issue meaning civil rights matter often simply problem inferior types people behaving inferiorly better dealt segregation power mind concentrated ruled populace scattered wasted hands average citizen democratic civil society sign weakness official government figures competency therefore power influence public appropriately governing system would abdicate influence sign nation lacked strong courageous leadership certain people entitled lead others meant follow ideas noted exist outside country seen successful friend milosevic admired putin appeal hosts right wing positions based small number common poorly informed beliefs highlighted boldly articulated party political platform one belief purported past better present could returned right leadership widespread economic insecurities since fall communism fault new permissive government disfavored slovakias people instead allowed foreigners ethnic minorities siphon away jobs resources previously protected authoritarian leadership leadership nostalgically portrayed benign people one knew draw hardline outsiders like tough patriarch protecting family return values would therefore return sense paternalistic nationalistic security current hardships didnt exist current ethnic foreign intruders portrayed bullies freeloaders driven back came another vague impression given voice trumpeted aloud party idea nation threat dissolution decay urgent need reverse terrible trend lost clowns portrayed controls public needed strong competent nononsense boss wrestle back nations moral authority direction submit benign dictator return golden years stand behind tough protector shield harm hands dark foreign people dont respect ways beliefs supremacy groups others problems posed democratic ideals expressed frothy rantings deskpounding fits quite matter fact sometimes even genteel relating truth world fact typically quite patient explanations defenses apparently figuring dealing reasonably polite american idiot long immersed folly democratic fantasies pursuit equal rights back home notable unsettling recognize despot could express redeeming qualities allowed appear human often humorous made casual observations life could funny example explained gay friends ok lets honest male figure skaters homosexuals problem talent talent say way would skate well find friendly also irreverent ways seemed intended entertain company recall driving visit rehabilitation hospital another town avoided traffic jumping curb driving sidewalk honking pedestrians get way explained ah nothing worry official member slovak parliament later trip needed part ways headed capital meetings return medical school handed first class ticket train platform called porter see seat reached wallet waved away course wish could drive back together discussions frequently sense propriety kindness tangled hatred remember approached young woman hospital strapped standing platform support recent spinal cord injury offering encouragement commenting high spirits soon turning commenting difficult injury shes gypsy know occasional likeableness complexity realized made dangerous someone like coming world radically opposing values could see good realized less drastic differences might quite readily trump lacks charisma slovak host represents much rhetoric taps many fears wishes found portion public seeking paternalistic security angry scapegoating minorities portion public able find whatever good qualities need find order admire even like possibly similar host trump able times fleetingly appear like human shares human concerns estimates hillary clinton win election landslide even occurs even trumps supporters minority voters estimated remains fact sizeable number americans eager support authoritarian menace leader eager seek benefit extreme expense neighbors perceived different politics slovakia vacillated since time country autocratic president cut cloth host would also say however trump cut cloth one need go small struggling country postcommunist central europe encounter despot travel back time place history may less discomfiting precedent autocrat right popular characters whether us somewhere else rarely hear unique new rather predictable modus operandi executed even people insist never find troubling yet validation long warned us banality evil confirmation america immune attraction characters may valuable lesson rise trump realization citizenry shares vulnerabilities selfish motives catapulted figures power elsewhere outoftheway places never place previous times never time lesson valuable however going forward acknowledge frightful potential americans honestly painfully address anger need vengeance characters thrive country take precautions necessary make sure figure posing dangers never rises high fail emergence trump serve critical lesson brief reminder vulnerabilities along course history first glimpse become recurrent theme future daniel holland clinical psychologist professor 160his work focused disability rights disability activism developing transitioning parts world 160he twotime fulbright fellow fellow solomon asch center study ethnopolitical conflict university pennsylvania research scholar wilson international center mary e switzer distinguished fellow us department education 160he lives minneapolis 160160160 | 1,145 |
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<p>The following is the text of a news conference with RALPH NADER at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., as transcribed by Federal News Service Inc.</p>
<p>Today I enter the 2004 elections as an independent candidate for the presidency of the United States, to join with all Americans who wish to declare their independence from corporate rule and its domination. The exercised sovereignty of the people in our history has brought forth solutions to the people, the justice they created and the futures they desired for their children.</p>
<p>In times past, the naysayers were organized commercial powers, whose unbridled greed and authoritarian structures were denounced by Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt in quite memorable statements.</p>
<p>It took a strengthened populace against the malefactors of great wealth to overcome these corporate naysayers and abolish slavery, open the vote to women, the unions to workers, the cooperatives to farmers,</p>
<p>to temper the large mine owners, industrialists, railroads and bankers. In this manner, American history surged forward and upward.</p>
<p>Today there is a compelling necessity for a new strengthening of the people to reform and recover their public elections from the grip of private financing, to rescue our public authorities from the corporate government of big business that prevails today in Washington, D.C.</p>
<p>These mass concentrations of power, privilege, wealth, technology and corporate immunity have placed their rampaging global quest for maximum profits in the way of progress, justice and opportunity for the very millions of American workers who made possible these corporate profits but who are falling behind, both excluded and expendable. Their labors have gone unrequited as these unpatriotic corporations abandon our country and shift industries abroad — along with what is left of their allegiance to our country and our community.</p>
<p>The dreaded supremacy of corporatism over civil institutions, stomping both conservative and liberal values alike, has broken through any remaining barriers by the two major political parties, the two-party duopolies.</p>
<p>Corporatism has turned federal and state departments and agencies into indentured servants for taxpayer funded subsidies, budget-busting contracts of great lucrative scope, and dwindling law and order against the widely publicized corporate crime wave. This resistant corporate crime wave has looted and drained trillions of dollars from millions of workers, their pensions, and from small investors. There has been ample media publicity and documentation of such crimes, abuses and frauds of these unprecedented self-enrichments of top executives at the expense of their fiduciary duties to both their own companies and their shareholder owners. Has the president supplied the required law enforcement resources for action? Scarcely. He has, as in so many other domestic matters, otherwise preoccupied — very few of these corporate bosses have been brought to justice and jailed.</p>
<p>Lincoln’s new birth of freedom and government of the people by the people for the people, in his memorable Gettysburg Address, must indeed not perish from this land. Only an organized, self-confident people lifting their expectation levels and applying their time, energy and talent can achieve Lincoln’s foreshadowed horizons, where freedom from fear, shift of power and just solutions can become realities in everyday life for Americans. Comparing the Republican Lincoln’s assurance in a period of great peril and daily destruction in those years in the 1860s — contrast with the costly politics of fear peddled daily by the obsessive Republican incumbent of today, George W. Bush, playing politics with national security.</p>
<p>Elections should place aspirations in motion.</p>
<p>Only in this way will they have meaning for people’s lives. Movements for change come from more voices and choices, more debates and proposals, more organizing and more respect for the voters in the electoral arena, so they have a broader opportunity to vote for whom they choose to vote for.</p>
<p>At the same time, there ought to be higher levels of responsibility by voters themselves for their own governments. The civil liberties and their exercise by a pluralistic, not a duopolistic, system of political parties and candidates, regenerate, reanimate a passive electorate accustomed to betrayal and in large numbers not even voting.</p>
<p>Movements for change also come from the perceived neglected necessities of the American people in a land of skewed plenty, where the rich have so much and the rest of America is denied the just rewards for their labors.</p>
<p>These movements embrace the long overdue abolition of cruel poverty in America; the provision of genuine, efficient, honest health care; the illumination of civically inspired education; and the shift in the burden and uses of taxes away from corporate plunder, corporate tax havens and cost transfers to individual taxpayers. Taxpayers always end up with the bill for this corporate plunder and corporate tax escapes.</p>
<p>These initiatives for change embrace the conversion as well to breathable air and clean water; renewable energy; detoxified agriculture; decongesting transportation technologies on the highway and in plans — and in public transit; the affordability of decent shelter; and the enabling of workers, consumers and communities to organize and shape their own political economy. We need more organization among these constituencies.</p>
<p>Presently, global corporations are bent on strategically planning our future, our politics, our economy, our military expenditures, our education, our environment, our culture, even our genetic inheritance. They’re all subject to corporate strategic planning. Is it not our responsibility together, as individuals, as real people, to shape our futures within our own deliberative democratic process?</p>
<p>The unceasing enlightenment of humankind requires sensitive humans to enlist in a marathon, not a sprint. May there be a decent tolerance for the release of these creative individual and community entities inside an electoral system sadly known more for its straitjackets than for its wings, more for its routines than its aspirations.</p>
<p>The focus on the fundamental requirement for broader distribution of power, initiative and opportunity to forge a resourceful society should be the touchstone of this election year and its campaigns. We owe at least the prospect of possibilities to the generations that follow us. We owe the same to the young people of America as they ponder and prepare for their leadership obligations. This campaign will reach out to the young people and to all people who wish to volunteer for our efforts in 50 states, who wish to contribute to our efforts in 50 states, who wish to highlight their own creative solutions in community after community, that are almost never highlighted by political campaigns; who wish to communicate to us at our website, &lt;votenader.org&gt;.</p>
<p>I urge the liberal establishment to relax and rejoice. This is a campaign that strives to displace the present corporate regime of the Bush administration. This is a campaign that will have many purposes and many functions in a political system that’s rigged from beginning to end, from state-access barriers to exclusionary debates against third parties and independent candidates whose hopes and rights we hope to carry throughout these campaigns at the national state and local level. This campaign can also be a trim tab factor turning the rudder of these giant political parties toward a more dedicated concern for government of, by and for the people.</p>
<p>We hope to show that increasingly corporations are trampling conservative values, as we notice increasing conservative fury with the Bush administration on matters such as massive, useless deficits due to wealthy tax cuts; on matters due to the big brother Patriot Act; corporate subsidies to major corporations paid for by taxpayers; on matters involving NAFTA and the WTO, undermining our nation’s sovereignty at all three levels of government; on matters of promise by the Bush administration to do something regarding corporate pornography and violence beamed to children at a very impressionable age, undermining parental authority.</p>
<p>We mean to focus on many local issues as well, which most presidential candidates dutifully ignore. Local issues like what’s going on in South Central Los Angeles; what’s going on Weirton, West Virginia; what’s going on in Anniston, Alabama; what’s going on among our forests and among our littoral shores; what’s going on in terms of the stratosphere and global warming; what’s going on in terms of what’s going on in our great oceans and streams and rivers and lakes.</p>
<p>We mean to initiate a liberation movement for the Democratic Party, whose liberals have allowed it to slip away, year after year, since about 1980, into the hands of corporate interests too often bought and sold dialing for dollars.</p>
<p>We hope to break the grip of the Commission on Presidential Debates, a cynical canard against the right of the American people to hear more voices and choices, and elevate publicity for the Citizen’s Debate Commission that has now been formed, a truly nonprofit institution controlled by no candidates and no parties.</p>
<p>We hope to highlight Bush’s war on the Bill of Rights and on civil liberties and on the egregious stereotyping and violations of due process to people of minority status, recent immigrants or long- time immigrants, bearing the brunt of the violations of our civil liberties, especially Muslim-Americans and Arab-Americans.</p>
<p>We hope also to focus on the assets of America, where there are solutions for almost all our major widespread problems, working in one town and community after another, by not having an engine of diffusion behind them. That’s what politics and elections should be about. Our country has so many problems it doesn’t deserve and so many solutions it doesn’t apply.</p>
<p>We hope to show that jobs can be kept here in the United States, good-paying local jobs, by a massive “repair America” campaign, a public works or infrastructure mission by the federal government paid for by a repeal of those taxes for the wealthy which the Democrats opposed but didn’t bother to stop when they could have in the U.S. Senate.</p>
<p>And finally, we hope to sensitize the media to the growing desertion of corporations from the country where they were born, the country where they were raised to the heights of their profit and power on the backs of workers, on the backs of taxpayers who were asked to subsidize them, on the backs of American military forces who were asked to rescue them when they got our country and themselves in trouble cutting deals with dictators around the world.</p>
<p>Finally, I’d like to make a personal statement to Terry McAuliffe, John Kerry, John Edwards, Al Sharpton and ex-governor Dean: Relax. (Laughter.) Rejoice that you have another front carrying the ancient but unfulfilled pretensions and aspirations of the Democratic Party. Do not deny millions of voters the opportunity to vote for this candidacy. Everyone should have a chance. Everyone should argue on the merits, not on the money.</p>
<p>I also urge you, when you analyze this political campaign of 2004, to at least have the sophistication that is revealed by sports fans when they analyze their sports teams. Look at the dynamics before Election Day. Focus on what is being done. Analyze carefully the polls in 2000 before you start scapegoating the Greens for an election that Al Gore won but had stolen from him and had Democratic Party blunders fail to rescue it in Florida.</p>
<p>And lastly, please try to extend some of the finest rhetoric of John Kerry and John Edwards on the overwhelming dominance of corporate party — corporate power in our country and on the need to reassert popular sovereignty, the sovereignty of the people, over the sovereignty of giant business; the sovereignty of real people over the sovereignty of artificial entities called corporations.</p>
<p>For those of you who want more evidence about the statements made in this few moments, I not only urge you to contact our website, <a href="http://www.votenader.org/" type="external">votenader.org</a>; I urge you to read back issues of Barron’s Financial Weekly, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Dallas Morning News, The Boston Globe, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, The San Francisco Examiner, The Los Angeles Times, Reuters, AP and many other wire services for constant documentation of these corporate crimes, abuses of power, across the entire continuum of our political economy.</p>
<p>I have read these news reports. I have watched “Dateline.” I have watched “60 Minutes.” And I take them all seriously. They all add up to something, don’t they — something larger than their parts. They add up to a massive challenge to our democracy, to our systems of justice, to our civil liberties and our civil rights, and to the ability of people to pursue liberty, justice and happiness.</p>
<p>Thank you. (Scattered applause.)</p>
<p>Can have questions now. Can you identify yourselves, first? Yes, sir?</p>
<p>Q Hi. I’m Darrin Garner (sp) for the PBS Democracy Project. Despite your plans to run as an independent, there’s a strong faction within the Green Party to still nominate you at their convention. Would you accept the Green nomination? And if not, can you get on the ballot in Texas and California without their help?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Well, they are not on the ballot in Texas. They are on the ballot in California.</p>
<p>The problem is one of timing. The Green Party convention is in June, and the decision as to whether they will have a presidential candidate and under what conditions will be made then. And that is too late for meeting the ballot access deadlines of many states.</p>
<p>So we have to pursue our independent course of action, elicit many volunteers — young, middle-aged, older people — who will learn if they don’t know now how to get signatures that are verifiable on their clipboards in shopping centers and street corners in order to meet the deadlines that you mentioned.</p>
<p>And the first deadline and most insistent one is Texas, which requires over 66,000 signatures verified, which means you got to get more, in a 60-day period, and no Texan who votes in a primary is allowed by Texas law to sign a petition to put our candidacy on the ballot. That’s just one of many types of obstacles that we may have to litigate against and we certainly have to surmount. So we do expect to get on the 50 states, and it won’t be easy.</p>
<p>Yes?</p>
<p>Q Torrado (sp) — (name inaudible) — Azteca Television. What would you propose as a migratory policy if you became president? And also, what are your proposals for the fastest-growing minority, which is the Latino community?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: I didn’t hear. Migratory policy?</p>
<p>Q Mm-hmm. Yeah, and what do you propose for the Latino community as the fastest-growing minority in the country?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Yes, I think — did you mean migrant labor, or did you say —</p>
<p>Q In general.</p>
<p>MR. NADER: In general. One of my first articles in the 1950s was on the atrocious treatment of migratory labor, many of them from Mexico. This treatment continues because we basically have an anarchy within which corporate employers are seriously mistreating the rights of these workers. I’ve always believed that if workers in this country — whether they enter legally or not — are employed by employers, they should be given the same, fair standards, the same minimum wage, the same treatment as other workers. Having said that, I support the following policies.</p>
<p>I don’t think this country should be engaged in a brain drain, luring scientists, engineers, doctors and many other talented people to this country when they should be building their own countries. And if they have trouble building their own countries because of oppression, it would be a good idea for the United States to change its foreign policy and not continue to support the oligarchs and the dictatorships and the authoritarian regimes, from Mexico to Central America to South America and to other countries in other continents, which drive people to our shores. Most people don’t like to leave their native lands.</p>
<p>Moreover, there needs to be a legal permiting system so — for work that has to be done in this country which can’t be done by American workers can be done by temporary entries by workers who will be well treated.</p>
<p>But if we raised our minimum wage, if we had a minimum wage of $10 an hour, I think a lot of the work that people say will not be done by American workers will be done by American workers.</p>
<p>Yes?</p>
<p>Q Yes, sir. I’m sure you were asked this question before. If you are so critical of President Bush, why are you helping him again win another term?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: I don’t think this is going to be viewed as an assistance to President Bush. You see, there’s a whole myth that has to be overturned here. Some of you saw on NBC yesterday the description of how the Nader-LaDuke Green Party ticket allegedly cost Bush New Hampshire. What they didn’t say was the exit polls showed that I got more Republican votes in New Hampshire than Democrat votes. You see, so they’ve got to be much more careful in their reporting.</p>
<p>Now, having said that, John Kerry said the other day — and he’s quite correct — that the Democratic members will come back into the fold. Why? Because the party that’s out of power finds that its members come back into the fold. So this candidacy is not going to get many Democratic Party votes. On the other hand, the party that’s in power is the party that we are going to focus on retiring. And conservatives and independents who are very upset with Bush administration policies are left with two options: vote for the Democrats, which is unlikely, or vote for an independent ticket.</p>
<p>Contrary to popular impression, even in the year 2000 — and it will be more pronounced — 25 percent of my votes came from Bush voters, 38 percent came from Gore voters, and the rest came from people who would never have voted. I think there’s going to be lower Democratic votes this year and more from the other sources. I might add, that was an exit poll. There was another exit poll that had it about 21 percent Bush, 41 percent Gore, and the rest would not have voted.</p>
<p>Yes?</p>
<p>Q Mr. Nader, you spoke of Terry McAuliffe. And yesterday, after he appeared on “Face the Nation,” he did come out and talk at length with the reporters who were staked out there. If I could read a couple of the things he said about you and the meetings that he held with you.</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Yes.</p>
<p>Q And I’ll pause in between one of them. He did say, “I spoke to RALPH NADER several times myself because I didn’t want RALPH NADER to use the argument used in 2000, which was that no one in the party would talk with him. I spent time with him. He did say to me, in a long lunch that we had, he said, `Terry, I want to beat George Bush more than you do,’ which I don’t find plausible.” And that’s the first quote.</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Yes. First of all, I’m the one who called Terry McAuliffe, he didn’t call me. I’m the one who called Nancy Pelosi and Tom Daschle and other leaders of the Democratic Party to have extended meetings with them. The Democratic Party scapegoating the Greens in 2000, has never reached out to the Greens. For heaven’s sake, you would think that, as in Western Europe, if they think the Greens are a challenge to them, they’d sit down and say: Well, where can we come together on certain issues which you, the Greens, think we have ignored, and how can we collaborate against the Bush regime? So let’s clarify that.</p>
<p>The second is that I do hope that Terry McAuliffe will be as astute a political analyst as he is as a sports fan. Again, I repeat that point.</p>
<p>You want to add?</p>
<p>Q Let me just ask you then, he went on to say about your being an independent, “In many states he will not be on the ballot, and he actually said to me, quote, ‘Terry, if you have some key target states, maybe I won’t campaign in those states.’ So he wants to beat George Bush but he wanted to get out there, get his voice known. So I am hoping that when he gets out there and campaigns that he’s not going to be in certain states.”</p>
<p>MR. NADER: I think on that score he’s a bit imaginative and a bit clairvoyant. I admire him for his latter attribute, but I never said what he said I said. What I said was that this is going to be, if I run, and it was all exploratory at that time, a 50-state campaign that I would help deserving congressional candidates in key swing districts, because I wanted the Democrats to recover the House or the Senate or both; in part because the senior Democrats in the House represent the finest Democratic traditions and will be the heads of the committees, like George Miller, Henry Waxman, independent Bernie Sanders, Ed Markey and John Conyers. That’s what I said. Now, I’m going to call Terry McAuliffe and talk to him so we can clarify the situation.</p>
<p>Yes?</p>
<p>Q Al Milliken affiliated with Washington Independent Writers. Are you as confused or as indecisive as George W. Bush and John Kerry appear to be regarding marriage? Do you see any inconsistency with the vote and stand John Kerry took in 1996 opposing the Defense of Marriage Act and the clarity with which George W. Bush defined marriage in the 2000 presidential debates, and the retreats they both seem to have resorted to recently? Are you willing to take leadership on this important issue?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Well, I think the leadership’s going to come from gay-lesbians and their leaders. I think this is a social movement that can’t be stopped. I think you can see over the years increasing number of people in the polls who support equal rights for same-sex unions, or they want to call it marriage. I think that this should not become a major issue in the campaign because none of the candidates should be boorish enough to oppose love and commitment under stable relationships. What undermines marriage is divorce, as Mayor Daley put it very well a few days ago.</p>
<p>Yes? Right in back there.</p>
<p>Q Les Krepman (ph) with NBC News. You’ve characterized many of those who labeled you as possibly being a spoiler as being contemptuous. Why are they contemptuous and why do you regard yourself as being anything more than having the potential for being a spoiler in this election?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Because they restrict that word to my candidacy. If they called everyone spoilers, because every candidate for political office tries to spoil the prospect of his or her opponents winning, tries to take votes from them, I wouldn’t have any problem with it.</p>
<p>But the fact that they single out third parties and independent candidates for that term, “spoiler,” means that what they’re really saying, what their real agenda is that you shouldn’t run, you should just sit on the sidelines and watch our country being taken down and taken apart by corporate politics and two parties who are dialing for the same dollars and are converging with more and more similarities towering over the dwindling real differences that they’re willing to struggle over.</p>
<p>I think those who use the word “spoiler” need to reexamine their otherwise steadfast commitment to civil liberties, to choice, to freedom. I’m really amused by — some of the groups who are pro- choice on the abortion issue are against candidate choice on the ballot. And there will be similar ironies transmitted to their tender conscience in the coming months.</p>
<p>Yes?</p>
<p>Q Sarah Powell, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. You mentioned the targeting of immigrants, especially Muslims and Arabs. How would your foreign policy and your policy toward immigrants, especially regarding the Middle East, differ from the other candidates?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Well, there’s no particular policy toward immigrants from the Middle East compared to other Third World countries that are in deep turmoil. So you may be asking me about the conflicts there. Is that what you want to ask me?</p>
<p>Q Well, okay. If you would rather answer the question on the conflict in the Middle East, that’s fine.</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Yeah. Well, I’m not aware that there’s a unique immigration policy. Do you want to illustrate it for me?</p>
<p>Q Not that there’s an immigration policy, other than the finger pointing and the US-VISIT, all that sort of thing.</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Oh, I’m sorry. Yes. I understand what you mean now. Yes. The singling out of visitors and immigrants from the Middle East raises interesting law enforcement questions. I think that dragnet law enforcement where you stereotype ethnic groups is, A, inefficient, B, wasteful of taxpayer dollars, and C, not just smart ways to apprehend violent offenders. It’s too much of a giant embrace.</p>
<p>If you want legitimate people to inform on violent offenders, you don’t stereotype them, you don’t harass them, you don’t rummage through their belongings in an impolite manner as if they are criminals when they have not been suspected of anything like that, singling them out compared to other passenger or other entries into our company — our country.</p>
<p>I think that more and more of these cases ending up in the courts, ending up in the Supreme Court, will either demonstrate whether our Constitution’s going to hold firm here in terms of our Bill of Rights or whether our Constitution’s going to be perforated by the “Patriot-less Act” and its presumed renewal and further enlargement next year from the White House to the Congress.</p>
<p>Q Tom Curry, MSNBC. Both Senator Kerry and Senator Edwards voted for the Iraq war resolution. Both of them voted for the Patriot Act. You just said a few minutes ago you don’t expect that your candidacy will get many Democratic votes, but will you criticize the Democratic nominee for votes for those two acts, or will you focus more of your — most of your criticism on President Bush?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Well, there’s limited media time, isn’t there, for an independent candidate. That media time will be focused on the giant corporation in the White House masquerading as a human being, George W. Bush. If the Democrats want to assail our positions or the exercise of our entry into this campaign, our candidacy will reply. If the Democratic candidates persist in supporting the Patriot Act, which they’re showing serious signs of not supporting the act that they voted for in the renewal battle next year, they will be — they will be criticized.</p>
<p>If they persist in supporting a further quagmire war in Iraq without end, an unconstitutional war that President Bush got us into based on a platoon of fabrications and misleading information, well documented now — if they side with President Bush, they will be criticized, but I don’t think they’re going to. I think they’re going to realize that a major, well-funded U.N. peacekeeping troop replacement, properly-supervised elections with a decent respect for the autonomy of Kurds, Shi’ites and Sunnis while they work toward a unified Iraq, and extended humanitarian assistance because we owe Iraqis a responsibility for all our years of supporting their brutal dictator from 1979 to 1991, all of these are a proper pathway for the Democrats in this coming campaign.</p>
<p>Yes?</p>
<p>Q Tom Gallagher with Traffic World magazine. You mentioned that your candidacy is primarily focused on taking votes from President Bush and removing the Bush regime. The Democrats seem to be motivated by the same thing, not so much in terms of “we want to be in and we want the other guys out,” but by a tremendous anger that seems to be abroad in the nation about some of their policies; that this is more important than partisan politics.</p>
<p>Some organizations, like &lt;MoveOn.org&gt; and so forth, have been organized primarily to remove the Bush regime.</p>
<p>What’s the difference between your organization and an organization like that, that intends to remove Bush? But how would you do it in a different way?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Well, the difference is this: that I recognize, as — 10 years of amazing losses at the local, state and national election levels by the Democratic Party, against an extreme Republican Party. This is extraordinary. The Democrats, because of their internal decay, repeatedly described by former Department of Labor Secretary Robert Reich, even James Carville, Paul Begala, in articles that they’ve written, not to mention to Gene — Eugene McCarthy — the Democrats are so decayed — and we hope they’re rising again — that they have been very good at electing very bad Republicans. And that is a sobering thought, that the extreme wing that now has taken over, the corporatist wing that’s against conservative values, has taken over the Republican Party, keeps winning elections against the Democrats.</p>
<p>One might assume modestly that the Democratic Party needs some help. They need additional strategies, additional issues, additional reports against the Bush regime that they’re too cautious, they’re too indentured to think of themselves. And if they want to appropriate what we do, fine. There’s no intellectual property on the ways to take apart the Bush administration that comes from this candidacy.</p>
<p>I think the mistake the Democrats are making when they use the mantra “anybody but Bush” is, first of all, it closes their mind to any alternative strategies or any creative thinking, which is not good for a political party. And second, it gives their ultimate nominee no mandate, no constituency, no policies, if the ultimate nominee goes into the White House.</p>
<p>And then they’ll be back to us. I guarantee you the Democrats, the liberal groups, the liberal intelligentsia, the civic groups that are now whining and complaining, even though they know they’re being shut out increasingly, year after year, from trying to improve their country when they go to work every day. And they’ll be saying, “Oh, you can’t believe — we were betrayed. The Democrats are succumbing to the corporate interests in the environment, consumer protection.” How many cycles do we have to go through here? How long is the learning curve before we recognize that political parties are the problem? They’re the problem! They’re the ones who have turned our government over to the corporations, so they can say no to universal health insurance and no to a living wage and no to environmental sanity and no to renewable energy and no to a whole range of issues that corporations were never allowed to say no to 30, 40, 50 years ago. Things really have changed.</p>
<p>Yes?</p>
<p>Q You say you will be reluctant to criticize the Democrats. How, then, are you different from Senator Edwards and Senator Kerry? What do you offer that they don’t offer? Why should a Democrat or an independent vote for you instead of one of them?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Oh, first of all, I’m not going to be reluctant, I said I’m going to focus on the Bush administration. They’re the incumbents, they’re the ones that have the record. In 2000, it was Clinton-Gore that had the record, and we focused attention on them.</p>
<p>Why anybody should vote for us? One, because our record for 40 years represents dedicated, steadfast defense of American liberties, justice, health and safety, access to government, access to the legislature, to the courts, freedom of information, and a whole variety of reforms that we have been proud to initiate and be part of.</p>
<p>Second, we believe, unlike the Democrats, that public financing of campaigns should be expeditiously pursued. The first meeting that Speaker Tom Foley and Majority Leader Senator Mitchell had with the Clinton administration was to urge Mr. Clinton not to propose campaign finance reform in early 1993 to the U.S. Congress.</p>
<p>Second (sic), we really believe in labor law reforms and the repeal of Taft-Hartley. I only hear Dennis Kucinich talking about that. We believe that there should be many more unions in places like Wal-Mart and McDonald’s, and among the 45 million Americans who are not earning a living wage at $5.50, $6, $7, $8, $9, $10 gross an hour. We believe that NAFTA and GATT should be withdrawn from. I haven’t heard Kerry and Edwards say that. There’s a six-month withdrawal option by all signatory nations, so that we renegotiate these trade agreements, A, to stick to trade; B, to be open and democratic; and C, not to pull down standards in this country, for labor, environmental and consumer standards have no business being subordinated to the supremacy of international trade. They should be subject to independent agreements between nations — environmental, labor, consumer agreements.</p>
<p>We also are going to engage in modes of campaigning that the Democrats will not engage in. They avoid local issues like the plague at the presidential level. We’re going to work with the people, with the neighborhood groups, with the citizen groups to do that.</p>
<p>And of course, most prominently, they don’t come close to our position on corporate power. I believe in federal chartering of corporations above a certain size, taking it away from Delaware and Nevada and their race to the bottom.</p>
<p>I believe in strengthening aggressively the rights of shareholder owners to control the company that they control. And I believe that corporations should not be viewed as persons under our Constitution; that they are artificial entities, they should never have the rights that real human beings have.</p>
<p>And I fully agree with this wonderful editorial in Business Week in September 2000 which, after documenting that there’s too much corporate power; after reporting on an extensive poll of the American people, 72 percent of whom said corporations had too much control over their lives; had an editorial with the singular phrase, quote, “Corporations should get out of politics.” End quote. And I might add that not long after, British Petroleum, the third-largest oil company in the world, announced that it would no longer, as a corporation, give any campaign contributions to any political campaigns anywhere in the world. A modest step, but an important one nonetheless.</p>
<p>Yes?</p>
<p>Q I’d like you just to clarify some of the statements that you have made. Sam Husseini from &lt;VotePact.com&gt;. You’ve said simultaneously that you expect to help the Democrats in a certain respect, and you have also said that you got substantial Republican support in the 2000 election. Can you, A, clarify that and comment on efforts such as &lt;VotePact.com&gt;, which seeks to pair up disenchanted Republicans with disenchanted Democrats and together, by trusting each other, both vote for a third party that they truly believe in?</p>
<p>One further point, if I might. You’ve said that George Bush is a human being disguised — is a corporation disguised as a human being, and you’ve also talked about the spiritual impoverishment in this country. Don’t you think that statements like that, which in effect dehumanize someone who you may disagree with tremendously, impoverish our world spiritually?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Well, first of all, a corporation is still a person under our constitutional regime. (Scattered laughter.) So if they want it to be a person, let’s give it personal characterization, plus or minus.</p>
<p>There will be extensive use of the Internet. For example, one proposal is that, in a close state, someone who might want to vote for our candidacy would pair off with someone in Texas who might want to vote for our candidacy. So they get someone in Texas to vote for our candidacy, where it doesn’t matter under the antiquated electoral law, because Bush is presumed to take Texas, and the person in Wisconsin who might want to vote for me would vote for the Democratic candidate.</p>
<p>There’s another version of that, which is quite unique, which is that Republicans who don’t like Republican candidates and Democrats who don’t like Democratic candidates cancel each other’s vote out over the Internet by voting for our candidacy. I would encourage that. And that may spread quite widely.</p>
<p>Now, when you hear me talk about Democrats, votes, Republicans, it’s because the fourth estate and reporters, such as yourselves, are so insistent in describing collateral benefits or collateral deficits of this candidacy. So sometimes I have to put myself arguendo in responding to you in the shoes of the Democratic Party or in the shoes of conservatives.</p>
<p>But I want to point out that we have reached out to both parties with a 35-page agenda inquiry, which is in your press kit, that in a very relaxed way, rather than a kind of accusatory way, puts forth a number of major, thoughtful policy changes in tax, in environment, in consumer protection and election reform and international trade, and so on, and asked them, in late November, to give us their views. And both of them said that they would respond — the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee. Well, later on, the RNC, through Mr. Gillespie, stated that — his response was a simple sentence, that the response to our agenda inquiry was the Bush administration’s policies. So that finished that. The Democratic response was a little more fertile. Mr. McAuliffe said that he had read it on the train to Philadelphia, these 35 pages. But then came a response, not too long ago, a two-page response criticizing the Republicans for a number of policies that were mentioned and raised in this agenda inquiry.</p>
<p>But here you go; you see, they were given all kinds of time. They had their own complaints against third-party challenges. Someone reaches out to them, they have a research capability, it would probably make their day less daily to ponder these issues, like shifting the incidence of our tax burden away from work as much as possible, earnings from work, to wealth; and then shifting it away from things we like — like books, furniture, clothing and food — shifting the tax burden to things we least like, like pollution, stock speculation, gambling or the addictive industries. One would think they’d have some play with that, but they weren’t interested. Another documentation as to why we need broader public debate, broader public dialogue, and more voices and choices for the American people.</p>
<p>Q Mr. Nader?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Yes?</p>
<p>Q Two issues. (Name and affiliation inaudible.) Two issues. One, you’re a resident of the District of Columbia. Do you support statehood or voting enfranchisement for the District of Columbia? And a second, perhaps more challenging issue, you mentioned John Conyers for singular praise. Since 1989, he’s sponsored H.R. 40, which is a bill to set up a commission to study reparations, payments for — reparations as a solution to the dilemma of slavery. Would you, as president, encourage Congress to adopt H.R. 40? And do you support remedying the voteless status of the District of Columbia?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Well, of course, in the year 2000 we took a very strong stand for statehood for the District of Columbia. We’re going to do it again. And we’ll see how supportive the other two parties are against the colony called the District of Columbia, where people who are drafted or taken off to war and people who pay taxes do not have the right to be represented by a voting representative and two senators in the U.S. Senate. So that’s going to be very clearly delineated. And I hope that there will even be strategies to implement that delineation, one of which you will be very intrigued by when it is announced, as a number of other innovative proposals we’re going to have that’s going to make what could become, by August, a rather dim and dreary two-party campaign, as they dwindle the number of issues that they disagree on and repeat ad infinitum.</p>
<p>As far as John Conyers, I think there should be a commission to study it.</p>
<p>I think a lot of Americans aren’t aware that there are corporations today, pursuant to mergers or even actual corporations, that were profiting from slavery, such as the Aetna Corporation, before the Civil War, and there’s a payback there. I think if white people had great grandparents who were slaves, they would be very concerned about that. There’s got to be justice here. And all John Conyers is asking is a national commission to inquire into it to see what the responsibilities of governments are.</p>
<p>After all, slaves built a good part of the U.S. Capitol. They built a lot of public buildings. And I think the money is not designed to go to individuals; it’s designed to amplify the budgets that are now being squeezed to rebuild the lower-income areas in our cities, for example; to expand health care to African American children, to reduce their exposure to sources of deadly asthma and lead poisoning. That is something that we should all discuss.</p>
<p>After all, you know, there were other genocidal or vicious treatments of ethnic minorities that have gotten some justice in recent years. And of course the tragedy of slavery in this country is one of the two worst tragedies in North American history, the other being the genocidal annihilation of the first Native Americans. And we should always remember.</p>
<p>Q Mr. Nader?</p>
<p>Q Mr. Nader?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Yes?</p>
<p>Q (Name off mike) — from NBC Newschannel. In 2000, the state that you did best in was Alaska. You got more than 10 percent of the vote there. How do you think you’ll do in that state again? Can you reiterate your position on drilling in ANWR? And thirdly, how do you think that you will affect the Senate race there, because the idea is that because you’ll bring in Green Party members, independents, that will ultimately help the Democrats in Alaska. Could you respond to all those?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: I think there will be a spillover vote helping the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate from Alaska. I doubt whether there’s going to be a challenge from any other party.</p>
<p>I did very well in Alaska. It was actually 20 percent at one time, but we lost a good portion of our votes near the end, as a lot of third parties do. When people go into the voting booth, they want to be with what they call as a winner.</p>
<p>No drilling in ANWR, the Arctic refuge. What we should do is nail the corporate executives in Detroit to liberate their engineers so they can improve fuel efficiency. One mile per gallon over the entire range of motor vehicle production will save more fuel than anything that can be gotten five, 10 years from now from the Arctic refuge.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, under Clinton, among others, a lot of the northern slope was opened up for exploration, and the oil companies haven’t really done as much as they’re permitted to do outside of ANWR. That’s important to do. And I think the oil companies owe the Alaskan people more taxes. I think they owe them more revenues for cleaning up their environmental messes. And also, native Alaskan tribes now organized in a corporate fashion need to be compensated for the damage that’s been done to their habitat.</p>
<p>Yes?</p>
<p>Q I just wondered, did you ever consider running in the Democratic primary? I mean, we live in an electoral system that is not a European parliamentary system. We have a winner-take-all, as you know, and that’s a system that has produced two parties except, I think, for 1860. There’s no realistic chance of a third party actually getting majority power, except the 1860 example where slavery completely blew apart the Whigs.</p>
<p>What’s wrong with — where would you be right now if you had run in the primary in 2000? Arguably — a lot of your friends say you’d be in a lot better position, and then there’s something inherently wrong where you have the Left divided against itself by your candidacy.</p>
<p>MR. NADER: The simple answer to your question is I don’t choose to run in wealth primaries. I don’t choose to run in a party that plays the for-sale game with their Republicans, dialing for commercial dollars in order to gain a nomination. You can’t abide by the clean politics rules that we are abiding by — refusing to take corporate money and PAC money and other forms of special interest money — playing inside the Democratic Party, I’m sorry to say.</p>
<p>Quite apart from that, I don’t think they’d have me. You know that under the rules of both parties they can take away your registration as a party member, if you think that you are — if they think that you are there as a Trojan horse, for example. So apart from those curlicues, they don’t practice election politics the way I want to practice election politics.</p>
<p>Did you have another? What was the other point?</p>
<p>Q If there’s a problem with the Democratic Party, which, you know, a lot of people certainly think there are, what’s wrong with going in there to the belly of the beast and changing it? Because the alternative is what we see happening, is progressives fighting amongst themselves and any analogy to a European parliamentary system just don’t apply, because we don’t live in that system.</p>
<p>MR. NADER: First of all, you can’t compete, following our rules, in wealth primary that starts in Iowa. I mean, Dean spent $10 million in Iowa, for example.</p>
<p>Q And he brought a lot of Democrats — (off mike).</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Yes. Well, fine. But you simply can’t compete on a clean slate. I mean, let me put it more boldly. You cannot compete on a clean slate in a commercially ridden party, number one.</p>
<p>Number two, give serendipity a chance. Jesse Ventura started out running for the governorship of Minnesota at 9 percent, and then he got on 10 debates in Minnesota, and he got $350,000 in state public financing, and he is in a state with same-day voter registration.</p>
<p>So there’s always a chance of a breakthrough, with the blissful permission of the mass media, through which you campaign. I mean, you can reach 2 percent of the people even if you speak before the largest rallies in the biggest arenas of America on campaign in 50 states, as I did in the year 2000, but the only way you can reach lots of people is through the presidential debate — debates and through a more resourceful recognition by the media that small starts with long successful records in the civic community deserve more than three and a half minutes of face time on the three networks between September 1st and Election Day, year 2000, which is what I received.</p>
<p>Q Mr. Nader, would you talk to the aspect —</p>
<p>STAFF: Identify —</p>
<p>Q I’m Joel Wishengrad of World Media Reports. Would you talk to the aspect of conservative versus liberal? We’ve seen these talk shows in the last 10, 12 years, such Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and others, that you would say were skewing the political landscape with their rhetoric.</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Yes.</p>
<p>Q Why hasn’t your particular advocacy-type career caught on, not just in the Green Party, but through maybe the Democratic Party and elsewhere? And why may be there only one radio network, Pacifica, as opposed to the other radio networks and television commentary?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Well, if I understand your question correctly, the answer is pretty simple. Corporations advertise on radio, and governments very rarely do. So the vast amount of revenues — he who pays the piper plays the tune.</p>
<p>And one of the reasons why 90 percent of talk show hosts are corporatists — sometimes they think they’re conservative, but more often they’re corporatist — is that they can go after government and not lose advertising revenue, they can go after liberal groups and not lose advertising revenue, but Rush Limbaugh is not going to go after his corporate paymasters, because he will lose advertising revenue.</p>
<p>And until we have access to the public media and the public airwaves — which belong to the people, after all, and are licensed for free by the FCC to radio and TV stations — unless we have a certain amount of time as a people — not just liberals, as a people — to have our own radio stations and television stations and audience networks, as we have proposed to Congress over 10 years ago with a detailed statute, then it’s going to be more of the same.</p>
<p>Yes?</p>
<p>Q John Gallagher, Traffic World Magazine. What is your take on the status of the transportation infrastructure in this country, both for freight as well as for passengers? And the $247 billion bill that’s being considered by Congress, is that enough or not enough?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: It’s not enough for modern public transit, which is spectacular and ready to go. It’s not just buses and trains in the old-fashioned sense. We’re going to try to highlight some of this modern public transit technology and what is available. There’s still a huge bias toward highway building, huge congestion on the highways, which can be decongested with a broader elaboration of our railway system and broader utilization of cross-transport modal containerization, as well as a number of ways where highways can be made less congested in terms of staggering work shifts and things like that that have been proposed.</p>
<p>Yes?</p>
<p>Q Hi. I’m Janice D’Arcy from the Hartford Courant. I have a question, but before I ask it, I want to clarify. Are you supportive of the Internet vote trading that you mentioned earlier, where someone in Texas would trade their vote with someone in Connecticut?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: That is a choice of the voter. I support the choice of the voter. I don’t deny voters opportunity to make choices, whether over the Internet in exchanges or for third-party candidates and independent candidates.</p>
<p>Q Then my question is, why you waited so long to announce. Does it have anything to do with Howard Dean’s departure from the race?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Well, first of all, we were in an exploratory mode since October. We were testing the waters. And our findings can be transferred over into the campaign. So it isn’t that we were totally inactive. We were reaching out trying to see what kind of volunteers can be recruited; what kind of money can come in — now to our website, &lt;votenader.org&gt;; what kind of ideas.</p>
<p>The second is that there was an overwhelming opposition by the liberal intelligentsia that absorbed some of our time. I think this may be the only candidacy in our memory that is opposed overwhelmingly by people who agree with us on the issues.</p>
<p>So we’ve got a lot of communion here to work out, and I keep saying just relax and rejoice, wait until the months unfold. You may see pleasant opportunities to amplify your opposition to the incumbent Bush regime.</p>
<p>Yes?</p>
<p>Q Yeah, I — (name inaudible) — health issues —</p>
<p>MR. NADER: What is your —</p>
<p>Q I write on health issues.</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Yes.</p>
<p>Q On the issue of corporate branding of children in public schools, you’ve written far more extensively than any of the other candidates and acted on it. However, in the last election you failed to really raise it as a major issue. Since then, there’s been what’s been described as an obesity and the issue of overweight and obese children and adults. I wonder if you will focus on the issue a bit more this time?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Well, there’s a lot more data on obesity. The number of obese children under 12 has doubled since 1980, and now there are — 31 percent of adults in this country, according to health statistics, are obese. Coupled with overweight, the total is over 60 percent; very sharp increases, and certainly people should restrain some of their fat food intake. And certainly corporations that have, from age two to three, seduced children to turn their tongues against their brain, undermine parental authority, and sold them junk food; essentially sugar and fat pumps into their stomachs to the detriment of their present and future health.</p>
<p>I beg to differ, though, on 2000. There was almost nobody making as many points as I — they just weren’t reported — about the commercialization of childhood, the commercial exploitation of childhood. And rest assured, you’ll hear a lot about the subject you just raised.</p>
<p>Q (Off mike) — Green Party —</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Yes?</p>
<p>Q Mr. Nader, Terry Campbell (sp) — (inaudible) — the Green Party. I want to urge you and ask you if you’re going to work out and reach out to conservatives during this campaign. There are many conservatives across the country that are very upset at the largest federal spending in the history of the country, the largest deficit in the history of the country, no accountable accounting system — auditable accounting system at the Pentagon. You talked about more trains, less traffic. We have collected thousands of petition signatures to put these candidates on the ballot here: Joe Odo (ph) for Congress, a Green, and Brad Blanton (ph).</p>
<p>So the question is, more trains, less traffic — are you going to focus on that, reaching out to conservatives and calling for candidates all across the country? Forty percent of all races have no one, no opposition. Today you can reach out across the country with this big platform and urge people to step forward and do their patriotic responsibility to participate in our democracy. Will you do that?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Yes, sir. I’m enthused by your enthusiasm. (Laughter.) I might make the point that if you want to see a distinct evidence of the cleavage between conservative Republicans and corporate Bush Republicans, on our website, &lt;votenader.org&gt;, is my letter to President Bush, in October, outlining over 20 positions of the Texas State Republican Party platform of 2002 — his own party — diametrically opposed to the Bush administration’s policy, including the policies by the state party to get out of NAFTA and WTO, including the severe criticism of the Patriot Act and the violation of civil liberties as what those conservative Republicans believe, quote, was “the main threat to our domestic liberties.” End quote. You might want to look into that and explore.</p>
<p>I might add this nice point that you might be interested in. A few months ago, Ross Perot sent a private prospectus to New York publishing circles for a book that he presumably wanted to write, heavily attacking the deficit policies of the Bush administration. For some reason, it was pulled back. Now, Ross Perot made his mark in 1992 excoriating deficit spending and excoriating the exported jobs incident to NAFTA. The WTO hadn’t been passed then. He’s been right on both scores. I urge all Americans to urge Ross Perot in Dallas, Texas, to go public with his criticisms of the Bush regime’s devastating deficits, so devastating that the head of the General Accounting Office described the budget, as I mentioned earlier, as, quote, “Enron-type accounting,” end quote, and talked about the enormous burden on the children in this country who are going to inherit not just the deficit, they’re going to inherit huge interest payments diverted from the necessities of our country, and suffer enormous budget cuts, which always start with the poor and with the minorities and with the children; it never starts at the top with the gold-plated weapon systems that were designed for a Soviet Union-era of hostility.</p>
<p>Q Mr. Nader, you mentioned that — Sarah Schweitzer from the Boston Globe. You mentioned that you were looking for — how many volunteers that you were going to get and how much money you’ve raised. How much have you raised? How many volunteers do you have?</p>
<p>And then secondly, in terms of just practical electoral results, if this time around you’re going to get fewer Democratic votes, and if you’re also not running with a third party and thereby not putting that party in the position of getting federal funding next time around, what practical electoral result do you hope to get out of this?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: What practical votes or —</p>
<p>Q Electoral outcome. What do you hope to get in terms of —</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Well, you don’t need to get electoral votes in a winner-take-all-system to qualify for federal funding.</p>
<p>MORE If you get 5 percent of the total votes you qualify —</p>
<p>Q (Off mike) — the party?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: No, no. It also accrues to independent candidates. John Anderson, for example, actually got 7 percent or so in 1980 and he qualified for federal funding; he chose not to take it in 1984. As far as the — does that answer that part of your question? And the other part?</p>
<p>Q How much money have you raised and how many volunteers do you have?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Yes, okay. In an exploratory mode you can’t really raise big money, because then it will be viewed as not an exploratory mode. So we raised about $175,000 in the exploratory mode. But the funds have been increasing; contributions from all over the country have been flowing in, especially in the last 24 hours to our website, &lt;votenader.org&gt;. We’re getting floods of volunteers, resumes from people. We particularly want people who are good organizers, good signature gatherers, good in graphic arts, good in computer software and Web design, and good at all kinds of creative ideas on how to advance justice in our country based on what they’re doing back home to advance justice in our country.</p>
<p>Yes? Could you identify yourself?</p>
<p>Q Yeah, Amanda Debenen (sp), Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs. And I’m curious about —</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Did you ask before?</p>
<p>Q I do not believe —</p>
<p>Q (Off mike.)</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Okay, because — are you together? Because I’m sorry, you know, we have to give someone else a chance.</p>
<p>Q Okay.</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Yes, hello?</p>
<p>Q Louisa Savage (sp) from The New York Times. Could you elaborate —</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Could you speak a little lot louder?</p>
<p>Q Sorry. Louisa Savage (sp) from The New York Times. Could you elaborate on — (audio break) — and will you be arguing that Iraq would have been better off if Saddam Hussein was still in power? How do you feel about Republican and conservative voters?</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Yes, well I think there are a lot of conservative voters who thought the Iraq invasion and its unconstitutional authorization by the Congress was inappropriate, to put it mildly. And as more casualties come back, fatalities, injuries, diseases from sand flies — sand-fly disease has already afflicted 1,200 soldiers; it’s hardly reported in the press. They’re going to be more upset when 130,000 soldiers are rotated back home; that’s going to mean a lot of communication with millions of families, including conservative families.</p>
<p>Would Iraq had been better off under Saddam Hussein or under the present situation? The question should be, would an American government-entrenched Saddam Iraq had been better off if the Bush administration in 1991 had overthrown Saddam Hussein after he illegally invaded Kuwait, and after the “Bush I” administration had the entire international community around them. That’s where the problem should have been resolved. Instead, the first George Bush urged the Shi’ites and the Sunnis to rise up and overthrow the tyrant, and they did and they had control over about 75 percent of Iraq when Saddam Hussein got the okay to slaughter them with helicopter gunships, and put down the rebellion with U.S. F-16s being held back from doing anything about it.</p>
<p>So I refuse to be put in a situation where you ask a question now without discussing history then.</p>
<p>And now there of course is more free newspapers; there, I’m sure — some small businesses starting. But on the other hand, the health care system has declined to even worse levels because of the war and lack of facilities. And to put it another way, dictators are terrible, but they provide security in the streets. And as one Iraqi said, “We despise Saddam Hussein, but we have less food, less electricity and less security now.” That’s not the kind of comparison we want to make. We — the comparison we wanted to make is, why do we keep supporting dictators and oligarchs, instead of workers and peasants fostering democratic societies?</p>
<p>In the Middle East, the answer is oil. That’s the answer.</p>
<p>Yes?</p>
<p>Q Brad Blanton, Radical Honesty Rag.</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Radical Honesty Rag?</p>
<p>Q Radical Honesty Rag. I’m the editor. (Laughter.)</p>
<p>I’m interested in secrecy, and it seems to me that a lot of American policy has been dogged by the 36 separate and secret agencies of the United States government that our taxes pay for. They seem to have made a lot of those policies without any review by the American people. I’d like for you just to say something about secrecy and the dishonesty that’s implicit in the hiding out in this most secretive administration in the history of the country.</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Well, democracy dies in the backrooms of government and their corporate and other allies. We have long been advocates and were significant promoters of the Freedom of Information Act of 1974, which the press takes constant and proper advantage of.</p>
<p>The Bush administration is one of the most secretive. They also have a Homeland Security Department that can easily exempt itself from Freedom of Information Act requests, without judicial review. And of course you get more misspending by the federal government, you get bad policies that aren’t exposed in time by the federal government when there’s secrecy. Information is the currency of democracy, and sunlight is the best disinfectant, as Justice Brandeis pointed out many, many years ago.</p>
<p>And we will make this a major issue. We will make government secrecy, a major adversary of democratic processes and public participation in their government, a major issue in this campaign.</p>
<p>Can we have just one more or two more, please. Yes?</p>
<p>Q (Name off mike) — American Prospect Magazine. I know that you’ve rejected running with the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. I’m wondering why you’ve rejected running with the Green Party, and what you think they’re doing wrong that makes them a party you don’t want to be part of.</p>
<p>MR. NADER: Well, they’re doing nothing wrong. The Green Party has a good platform. It keeps getting better. It’s very broad, not just the environment, although that’s important; it’s labor, it’s tax reform, it’s corporate accountability, it’s civic involvement.</p>
<p>I had to withdraw from consideration for the Green Party nomination because, as I said earlier, they are going to decide whether they’re going to have a candidate and under what restrictions — stay out of X states or Y state — in June. That’s too late to hazard a candidacy that should be busily collecting signatures to get on the ballot and surmount the two-party exclusionary statutes that we hope someday will be removed by one federal statute for federal elections instead of 50 state statutes varying wildly, from 300 signatures to get on the ballot in Tennessee, to 100,000 signatures in North Carolina for an independent candidate. There’s no rhyme or reason for that. They can have their own state election standards; for federal elections, there should be one federal standard, and that’s going to be one of the policies of our campaign.</p>
<p>Remember, if I just may end it in this, I do beseech you — as the media — to focus more and more on broader and broader issues and not allow the candidates of both parties to narrow the issues to four or five which become very repetitive and bore the heck out of all of you who follow these campaigns. Toward that end, I hope you will look with some measure of devotion to reading the 35-page agenda inquiry that I sent to the Republican and Democratic Committees, and perhaps look into some of those in order to flavor and elaborate the intensity and the diversity of an election campaign in a presidential year, when public debate should reach its optimum level.</p>
<p>Again, those who are interested in volunteering and contributing to our campaign, our new website is &lt;votenader.org&gt;.</p>
<p>Thank you very much. (Applause.)</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | 160 following text news conference ralph nader national press club washington dc transcribed federal news service inc today enter 2004 elections independent candidate presidency united states join americans wish declare independence corporate rule domination exercised sovereignty people history brought forth solutions people justice created futures desired children times past naysayers organized commercial powers whose unbridled greed authoritarian structures denounced jefferson jackson lincoln teddy roosevelt wilson franklin delano roosevelt quite memorable statements took strengthened populace malefactors great wealth overcome corporate naysayers abolish slavery open vote women unions workers cooperatives farmers temper large mine owners industrialists railroads bankers manner american history surged forward upward today compelling necessity new strengthening people reform recover public elections grip private financing rescue public authorities corporate government big business prevails today washington dc mass concentrations power privilege wealth technology corporate immunity placed rampaging global quest maximum profits way progress justice opportunity millions american workers made possible corporate profits falling behind excluded expendable labors gone unrequited unpatriotic corporations abandon country shift industries abroad along left allegiance country community dreaded supremacy corporatism civil institutions stomping conservative liberal values alike broken remaining barriers two major political parties twoparty duopolies corporatism turned federal state departments agencies indentured servants taxpayer funded subsidies budgetbusting contracts great lucrative scope dwindling law order widely publicized corporate crime wave resistant corporate crime wave looted drained trillions dollars millions workers pensions small investors ample media publicity documentation crimes abuses frauds unprecedented selfenrichments top executives expense fiduciary duties companies shareholder owners president supplied required law enforcement resources action scarcely many domestic matters otherwise preoccupied corporate bosses brought justice jailed lincolns new birth freedom government people people people memorable gettysburg address must indeed perish land organized selfconfident people lifting expectation levels applying time energy talent achieve lincolns foreshadowed horizons freedom fear shift power solutions become realities everyday life americans comparing republican lincolns assurance period great peril daily destruction years 1860s contrast costly politics fear peddled daily obsessive republican incumbent today george w bush playing politics national security elections place aspirations motion way meaning peoples lives movements change come voices choices debates proposals organizing respect voters electoral arena broader opportunity vote choose vote time ought higher levels responsibility voters governments civil liberties exercise pluralistic duopolistic system political parties candidates regenerate reanimate passive electorate accustomed betrayal large numbers even voting movements change also come perceived neglected necessities american people land skewed plenty rich much rest america denied rewards labors movements embrace long overdue abolition cruel poverty america provision genuine efficient honest health care illumination civically inspired education shift burden uses taxes away corporate plunder corporate tax havens cost transfers individual taxpayers taxpayers always end bill corporate plunder corporate tax escapes initiatives change embrace conversion well breathable air clean water renewable energy detoxified agriculture decongesting transportation technologies highway plans public transit affordability decent shelter enabling workers consumers communities organize shape political economy need organization among constituencies presently global corporations bent strategically planning future politics economy military expenditures education environment culture even genetic inheritance theyre subject corporate strategic planning responsibility together individuals real people shape futures within deliberative democratic process unceasing enlightenment humankind requires sensitive humans enlist marathon sprint may decent tolerance release creative individual community entities inside electoral system sadly known straitjackets wings routines aspirations focus fundamental requirement broader distribution power initiative opportunity forge resourceful society touchstone election year campaigns owe least prospect possibilities generations follow us owe young people america ponder prepare leadership obligations campaign reach young people people wish volunteer efforts 50 states wish contribute efforts 50 states wish highlight creative solutions community community almost never highlighted political campaigns wish communicate us website ltvotenaderorggt urge liberal establishment relax rejoice campaign strives displace present corporate regime bush administration campaign many purposes many functions political system thats rigged beginning end stateaccess barriers exclusionary debates third parties independent candidates whose hopes rights hope carry throughout campaigns national state local level campaign also trim tab factor turning rudder giant political parties toward dedicated concern government people hope show increasingly corporations trampling conservative values notice increasing conservative fury bush administration matters massive useless deficits due wealthy tax cuts matters due big brother patriot act corporate subsidies major corporations paid taxpayers matters involving nafta wto undermining nations sovereignty three levels government matters promise bush administration something regarding corporate pornography violence beamed children impressionable age undermining parental authority mean focus many local issues well presidential candidates dutifully ignore local issues like whats going south central los angeles whats going weirton west virginia whats going anniston alabama whats going among forests among littoral shores whats going terms stratosphere global warming whats going terms whats going great oceans streams rivers lakes mean initiate liberation movement democratic party whose liberals allowed slip away year year since 1980 hands corporate interests often bought sold dialing dollars hope break grip commission presidential debates cynical canard right american people hear voices choices elevate publicity citizens debate commission formed truly nonprofit institution controlled candidates parties hope highlight bushs war bill rights civil liberties egregious stereotyping violations due process people minority status recent immigrants long time immigrants bearing brunt violations civil liberties especially muslimamericans arabamericans hope also focus assets america solutions almost major widespread problems working one town community another engine diffusion behind thats politics elections country many problems doesnt deserve many solutions doesnt apply hope show jobs kept united states goodpaying local jobs massive repair america campaign public works infrastructure mission federal government paid repeal taxes wealthy democrats opposed didnt bother stop could us senate finally hope sensitize media growing desertion corporations country born country raised heights profit power backs workers backs taxpayers asked subsidize backs american military forces asked rescue got country trouble cutting deals dictators around world finally id like make personal statement terry mcauliffe john kerry john edwards al sharpton exgovernor dean relax laughter rejoice another front carrying ancient unfulfilled pretensions aspirations democratic party deny millions voters opportunity vote candidacy everyone chance everyone argue merits money also urge analyze political campaign 2004 least sophistication revealed sports fans analyze sports teams look dynamics election day focus done analyze carefully polls 2000 start scapegoating greens election al gore stolen democratic party blunders fail rescue florida lastly please try extend finest rhetoric john kerry john edwards overwhelming dominance corporate party corporate power country need reassert popular sovereignty sovereignty people sovereignty giant business sovereignty real people sovereignty artificial entities called corporations want evidence statements made moments urge contact website votenaderorg urge read back issues barrons financial weekly wall street journal new york times washington post st louis postdispatch dallas morning news boston globe cleveland plain dealer san francisco examiner los angeles times reuters ap many wire services constant documentation corporate crimes abuses power across entire continuum political economy read news reports watched dateline watched 60 minutes take seriously add something dont something larger parts add massive challenge democracy systems justice civil liberties civil rights ability people pursue liberty justice happiness thank scattered applause questions identify first yes sir q hi im darrin garner sp pbs democracy project despite plans run independent theres strong faction within green party still nominate convention would accept green nomination get ballot texas california without help mr nader well ballot texas ballot california problem one timing green party convention june decision whether presidential candidate conditions made late meeting ballot access deadlines many states pursue independent course action elicit many volunteers young middleaged older people learn dont know get signatures verifiable clipboards shopping centers street corners order meet deadlines mentioned first deadline insistent one texas requires 66000 signatures verified means got get 60day period texan votes primary allowed texas law sign petition put candidacy ballot thats one many types obstacles may litigate certainly surmount expect get 50 states wont easy yes q torrado sp name inaudible azteca television would propose migratory policy became president also proposals fastestgrowing minority latino community mr nader didnt hear migratory policy q mmhmm yeah propose latino community fastestgrowing minority country mr nader yes think mean migrant labor say q general mr nader general one first articles 1950s atrocious treatment migratory labor many mexico treatment continues basically anarchy within corporate employers seriously mistreating rights workers ive always believed workers country whether enter legally employed employers given fair standards minimum wage treatment workers said support following policies dont think country engaged brain drain luring scientists engineers doctors many talented people country building countries trouble building countries oppression would good idea united states change foreign policy continue support oligarchs dictatorships authoritarian regimes mexico central america south america countries continents drive people shores people dont like leave native lands moreover needs legal permiting system work done country cant done american workers done temporary entries workers well treated raised minimum wage minimum wage 10 hour think lot work people say done american workers done american workers yes q yes sir im sure asked question critical president bush helping win another term mr nader dont think going viewed assistance president bush see theres whole myth overturned saw nbc yesterday description naderladuke green party ticket allegedly cost bush new hampshire didnt say exit polls showed got republican votes new hampshire democrat votes see theyve got much careful reporting said john kerry said day hes quite correct democratic members come back fold party thats power finds members come back fold candidacy going get many democratic party votes hand party thats power party going focus retiring conservatives independents upset bush administration policies left two options vote democrats unlikely vote independent ticket contrary popular impression even year 2000 pronounced 25 percent votes came bush voters 38 percent came gore voters rest came people would never voted think theres going lower democratic votes year sources might add exit poll another exit poll 21 percent bush 41 percent gore rest would voted yes q mr nader spoke terry mcauliffe yesterday appeared face nation come talk length reporters staked could read couple things said meetings held mr nader yes q ill pause one say spoke ralph nader several times didnt want ralph nader use argument used 2000 one party would talk spent time say long lunch said terry want beat george bush dont find plausible thats first quote mr nader yes first im one called terry mcauliffe didnt call im one called nancy pelosi tom daschle leaders democratic party extended meetings democratic party scapegoating greens 2000 never reached greens heavens sake would think western europe think greens challenge theyd sit say well come together certain issues greens think ignored collaborate bush regime lets clarify second hope terry mcauliffe astute political analyst sports fan repeat point want add q let ask went say independent many states ballot actually said quote terry key target states maybe wont campaign states wants beat george bush wanted get get voice known hoping gets campaigns hes going certain states mr nader think score hes bit imaginative bit clairvoyant admire latter attribute never said said said said going run exploratory time 50state campaign would help deserving congressional candidates key swing districts wanted democrats recover house senate part senior democrats house represent finest democratic traditions heads committees like george miller henry waxman independent bernie sanders ed markey john conyers thats said im going call terry mcauliffe talk clarify situation yes q al milliken affiliated washington independent writers confused indecisive george w bush john kerry appear regarding marriage see inconsistency vote stand john kerry took 1996 opposing defense marriage act clarity george w bush defined marriage 2000 presidential debates retreats seem resorted recently willing take leadership important issue mr nader well think leaderships going come gaylesbians leaders think social movement cant stopped think see years increasing number people polls support equal rights samesex unions want call marriage think become major issue campaign none candidates boorish enough oppose love commitment stable relationships undermines marriage divorce mayor daley put well days ago yes right back q les krepman ph nbc news youve characterized many labeled possibly spoiler contemptuous contemptuous regard anything potential spoiler election mr nader restrict word candidacy called everyone spoilers every candidate political office tries spoil prospect opponents winning tries take votes wouldnt problem fact single third parties independent candidates term spoiler means theyre really saying real agenda shouldnt run sit sidelines watch country taken taken apart corporate politics two parties dialing dollars converging similarities towering dwindling real differences theyre willing struggle think use word spoiler need reexamine otherwise steadfast commitment civil liberties choice freedom im really amused groups pro choice abortion issue candidate choice ballot similar ironies transmitted tender conscience coming months yes q sarah powell washington report middle east affairs mentioned targeting immigrants especially muslims arabs would foreign policy policy toward immigrants especially regarding middle east differ candidates mr nader well theres particular policy toward immigrants middle east compared third world countries deep turmoil may asking conflicts want ask q well okay would rather answer question conflict middle east thats fine mr nader yeah well im aware theres unique immigration policy want illustrate q theres immigration policy finger pointing usvisit sort thing mr nader oh im sorry yes understand mean yes singling visitors immigrants middle east raises interesting law enforcement questions think dragnet law enforcement stereotype ethnic groups inefficient b wasteful taxpayer dollars c smart ways apprehend violent offenders much giant embrace want legitimate people inform violent offenders dont stereotype dont harass dont rummage belongings impolite manner criminals suspected anything like singling compared passenger entries company country think cases ending courts ending supreme court either demonstrate whether constitutions going hold firm terms bill rights whether constitutions going perforated patriotless act presumed renewal enlargement next year white house congress q tom curry msnbc senator kerry senator edwards voted iraq war resolution voted patriot act said minutes ago dont expect candidacy get many democratic votes criticize democratic nominee votes two acts focus criticism president bush mr nader well theres limited media time isnt independent candidate media time focused giant corporation white house masquerading human george w bush democrats want assail positions exercise entry campaign candidacy reply democratic candidates persist supporting patriot act theyre showing serious signs supporting act voted renewal battle next year criticized persist supporting quagmire war iraq without end unconstitutional war president bush got us based platoon fabrications misleading information well documented side president bush criticized dont think theyre going think theyre going realize major wellfunded un peacekeeping troop replacement properlysupervised elections decent respect autonomy kurds shiites sunnis work toward unified iraq extended humanitarian assistance owe iraqis responsibility years supporting brutal dictator 1979 1991 proper pathway democrats coming campaign yes q tom gallagher traffic world magazine mentioned candidacy primarily focused taking votes president bush removing bush regime democrats seem motivated thing much terms want want guys tremendous anger seems abroad nation policies important partisan politics organizations like ltmoveonorggt forth organized primarily remove bush regime whats difference organization organization like intends remove bush would different way mr nader well difference recognize 10 years amazing losses local state national election levels democratic party extreme republican party extraordinary democrats internal decay repeatedly described former department labor secretary robert reich even james carville paul begala articles theyve written mention gene eugene mccarthy democrats decayed hope theyre rising good electing bad republicans sobering thought extreme wing taken corporatist wing thats conservative values taken republican party keeps winning elections democrats one might assume modestly democratic party needs help need additional strategies additional issues additional reports bush regime theyre cautious theyre indentured think want appropriate fine theres intellectual property ways take apart bush administration comes candidacy think mistake democrats making use mantra anybody bush first closes mind alternative strategies creative thinking good political party second gives ultimate nominee mandate constituency policies ultimate nominee goes white house theyll back us guarantee democrats liberal groups liberal intelligentsia civic groups whining complaining even though know theyre shut increasingly year year trying improve country go work every day theyll saying oh cant believe betrayed democrats succumbing corporate interests environment consumer protection many cycles go long learning curve recognize political parties problem theyre problem theyre ones turned government corporations say universal health insurance living wage environmental sanity renewable energy whole range issues corporations never allowed say 30 40 50 years ago things really changed yes q say reluctant criticize democrats different senator edwards senator kerry offer dont offer democrat independent vote instead one mr nader oh first im going reluctant said im going focus bush administration theyre incumbents theyre ones record 2000 clintongore record focused attention anybody vote us one record 40 years represents dedicated steadfast defense american liberties justice health safety access government access legislature courts freedom information whole variety reforms proud initiate part second believe unlike democrats public financing campaigns expeditiously pursued first meeting speaker tom foley majority leader senator mitchell clinton administration urge mr clinton propose campaign finance reform early 1993 us congress second sic really believe labor law reforms repeal tafthartley hear dennis kucinich talking believe many unions places like walmart mcdonalds among 45 million americans earning living wage 550 6 7 8 9 10 gross hour believe nafta gatt withdrawn havent heard kerry edwards say theres sixmonth withdrawal option signatory nations renegotiate trade agreements stick trade b open democratic c pull standards country labor environmental consumer standards business subordinated supremacy international trade subject independent agreements nations environmental labor consumer agreements also going engage modes campaigning democrats engage avoid local issues like plague presidential level going work people neighborhood groups citizen groups course prominently dont come close position corporate power believe federal chartering corporations certain size taking away delaware nevada race bottom believe strengthening aggressively rights shareholder owners control company control believe corporations viewed persons constitution artificial entities never rights real human beings fully agree wonderful editorial business week september 2000 documenting theres much corporate power reporting extensive poll american people 72 percent said corporations much control lives editorial singular phrase quote corporations get politics end quote might add long british petroleum thirdlargest oil company world announced would longer corporation give campaign contributions political campaigns anywhere world modest step important one nonetheless yes q id like clarify statements made sam husseini ltvotepactcomgt youve said simultaneously expect help democrats certain respect also said got substantial republican support 2000 election clarify comment efforts ltvotepactcomgt seeks pair disenchanted republicans disenchanted democrats together trusting vote third party truly believe one point might youve said george bush human disguised corporation disguised human youve also talked spiritual impoverishment country dont think statements like effect dehumanize someone may disagree tremendously impoverish world spiritually mr nader well first corporation still person constitutional regime scattered laughter want person lets give personal characterization plus minus extensive use internet example one proposal close state someone might want vote candidacy would pair someone texas might want vote candidacy get someone texas vote candidacy doesnt matter antiquated electoral law bush presumed take texas person wisconsin might want vote would vote democratic candidate theres another version quite unique republicans dont like republican candidates democrats dont like democratic candidates cancel others vote internet voting candidacy would encourage may spread quite widely hear talk democrats votes republicans fourth estate reporters insistent describing collateral benefits collateral deficits candidacy sometimes put arguendo responding shoes democratic party shoes conservatives want point reached parties 35page agenda inquiry press kit relaxed way rather kind accusatory way puts forth number major thoughtful policy changes tax environment consumer protection election reform international trade asked late november give us views said would respond republican national committee democratic national committee well later rnc mr gillespie stated response simple sentence response agenda inquiry bush administrations policies finished democratic response little fertile mr mcauliffe said read train philadelphia 35 pages came response long ago twopage response criticizing republicans number policies mentioned raised agenda inquiry go see given kinds time complaints thirdparty challenges someone reaches research capability would probably make day less daily ponder issues like shifting incidence tax burden away work much possible earnings work wealth shifting away things like like books furniture clothing food shifting tax burden things least like like pollution stock speculation gambling addictive industries one would think theyd play werent interested another documentation need broader public debate broader public dialogue voices choices american people q mr nader mr nader yes q two issues name affiliation inaudible two issues one youre resident district columbia support statehood voting enfranchisement district columbia second perhaps challenging issue mentioned john conyers singular praise since 1989 hes sponsored hr 40 bill set commission study reparations payments reparations solution dilemma slavery would president encourage congress adopt hr 40 support remedying voteless status district columbia mr nader well course year 2000 took strong stand statehood district columbia going well see supportive two parties colony called district columbia people drafted taken war people pay taxes right represented voting representative two senators us senate thats going clearly delineated hope even strategies implement delineation one intrigued announced number innovative proposals going thats going make could become august rather dim dreary twoparty campaign dwindle number issues disagree repeat ad infinitum far john conyers think commission study think lot americans arent aware corporations today pursuant mergers even actual corporations profiting slavery aetna corporation civil war theres payback think white people great grandparents slaves would concerned theres got justice john conyers asking national commission inquire see responsibilities governments slaves built good part us capitol built lot public buildings think money designed go individuals designed amplify budgets squeezed rebuild lowerincome areas cities example expand health care african american children reduce exposure sources deadly asthma lead poisoning something discuss know genocidal vicious treatments ethnic minorities gotten justice recent years course tragedy slavery country one two worst tragedies north american history genocidal annihilation first native americans always remember q mr nader q mr nader mr nader yes q name mike nbc newschannel 2000 state best alaska got 10 percent vote think youll state reiterate position drilling anwr thirdly think affect senate race idea youll bring green party members independents ultimately help democrats alaska could respond mr nader think spillover vote helping democratic nominee us senate alaska doubt whether theres going challenge party well alaska actually 20 percent one time lost good portion votes near end lot third parties people go voting booth want call winner drilling anwr arctic refuge nail corporate executives detroit liberate engineers improve fuel efficiency one mile per gallon entire range motor vehicle production save fuel anything gotten five 10 years arctic refuge unfortunately clinton among others lot northern slope opened exploration oil companies havent really done much theyre permitted outside anwr thats important think oil companies owe alaskan people taxes think owe revenues cleaning environmental messes also native alaskan tribes organized corporate fashion need compensated damage thats done habitat yes q wondered ever consider running democratic primary mean live electoral system european parliamentary system winnertakeall know thats system produced two parties except think 1860 theres realistic chance third party actually getting majority power except 1860 example slavery completely blew apart whigs whats wrong would right run primary 2000 arguably lot friends say youd lot better position theres something inherently wrong left divided candidacy mr nader simple answer question dont choose run wealth primaries dont choose run party plays forsale game republicans dialing commercial dollars order gain nomination cant abide clean politics rules abiding refusing take corporate money pac money forms special interest money playing inside democratic party im sorry say quite apart dont think theyd know rules parties take away registration party member think think trojan horse example apart curlicues dont practice election politics way want practice election politics another point q theres problem democratic party know lot people certainly think whats wrong going belly beast changing alternative see happening progressives fighting amongst analogy european parliamentary system dont apply dont live system mr nader first cant compete following rules wealth primary starts iowa mean dean spent 10 million iowa example q brought lot democrats mike mr nader yes well fine simply cant compete clean slate mean let put boldly compete clean slate commercially ridden party number one number two give serendipity chance jesse ventura started running governorship minnesota 9 percent got 10 debates minnesota got 350000 state public financing state sameday voter registration theres always chance breakthrough blissful permission mass media campaign mean reach 2 percent people even speak largest rallies biggest arenas america campaign 50 states year 2000 way reach lots people presidential debate debates resourceful recognition media small starts long successful records civic community deserve three half minutes face time three networks september 1st election day year 2000 received q mr nader would talk aspect staff identify q im joel wishengrad world media reports would talk aspect conservative versus liberal weve seen talk shows last 10 12 years rush limbaugh sean hannity others would say skewing political landscape rhetoric mr nader yes q hasnt particular advocacytype career caught green party maybe democratic party elsewhere may one radio network pacifica opposed radio networks television commentary mr nader well understand question correctly answer pretty simple corporations advertise radio governments rarely vast amount revenues pays piper plays tune one reasons 90 percent talk show hosts corporatists sometimes think theyre conservative often theyre corporatist go government lose advertising revenue go liberal groups lose advertising revenue rush limbaugh going go corporate paymasters lose advertising revenue access public media public airwaves belong people licensed free fcc radio tv stations unless certain amount time people liberals people radio stations television stations audience networks proposed congress 10 years ago detailed statute going yes q john gallagher traffic world magazine take status transportation infrastructure country freight well passengers 247 billion bill thats considered congress enough enough mr nader enough modern public transit spectacular ready go buses trains oldfashioned sense going try highlight modern public transit technology available theres still huge bias toward highway building huge congestion highways decongested broader elaboration railway system broader utilization crosstransport modal containerization well number ways highways made less congested terms staggering work shifts things like proposed yes q hi im janice darcy hartford courant question ask want clarify supportive internet vote trading mentioned earlier someone texas would trade vote someone connecticut mr nader choice voter support choice voter dont deny voters opportunity make choices whether internet exchanges thirdparty candidates independent candidates q question waited long announce anything howard deans departure race mr nader well first exploratory mode since october testing waters findings transferred campaign isnt totally inactive reaching trying see kind volunteers recruited kind money come website ltvotenaderorggt kind ideas second overwhelming opposition liberal intelligentsia absorbed time think may candidacy memory opposed overwhelmingly people agree us issues weve got lot communion work keep saying relax rejoice wait months unfold may see pleasant opportunities amplify opposition incumbent bush regime yes q yeah name inaudible health issues mr nader q write health issues mr nader yes q issue corporate branding children public schools youve written far extensively candidates acted however last election failed really raise major issue since theres whats described obesity issue overweight obese children adults wonder focus issue bit time mr nader well theres lot data obesity number obese children 12 doubled since 1980 31 percent adults country according health statistics obese coupled overweight total 60 percent sharp increases certainly people restrain fat food intake certainly corporations age two three seduced children turn tongues brain undermine parental authority sold junk food essentially sugar fat pumps stomachs detriment present future health beg differ though 2000 almost nobody making many points werent reported commercialization childhood commercial exploitation childhood rest assured youll hear lot subject raised q mike green party mr nader yes q mr nader terry campbell sp inaudible green party want urge ask youre going work reach conservatives campaign many conservatives across country upset largest federal spending history country largest deficit history country accountable accounting system auditable accounting system pentagon talked trains less traffic collected thousands petition signatures put candidates ballot joe odo ph congress green brad blanton ph question trains less traffic going focus reaching conservatives calling candidates across country forty percent races one opposition today reach across country big platform urge people step forward patriotic responsibility participate democracy mr nader yes sir im enthused enthusiasm laughter might make point want see distinct evidence cleavage conservative republicans corporate bush republicans website ltvotenaderorggt letter president bush october outlining 20 positions texas state republican party platform 2002 party diametrically opposed bush administrations policy including policies state party get nafta wto including severe criticism patriot act violation civil liberties conservative republicans believe quote main threat domestic liberties end quote might want look explore might add nice point might interested months ago ross perot sent private prospectus new york publishing circles book presumably wanted write heavily attacking deficit policies bush administration reason pulled back ross perot made mark 1992 excoriating deficit spending excoriating exported jobs incident nafta wto hadnt passed hes right scores urge americans urge ross perot dallas texas go public criticisms bush regimes devastating deficits devastating head general accounting office described budget mentioned earlier quote enrontype accounting end quote talked enormous burden children country going inherit deficit theyre going inherit huge interest payments diverted necessities country suffer enormous budget cuts always start poor minorities children never starts top goldplated weapon systems designed soviet unionera hostility q mr nader mentioned sarah schweitzer boston globe mentioned looking many volunteers going get much money youve raised much raised many volunteers secondly terms practical electoral results time around youre going get fewer democratic votes youre also running third party thereby putting party position getting federal funding next time around practical electoral result hope get mr nader practical votes q electoral outcome hope get terms mr nader well dont need get electoral votes winnertakeallsystem qualify federal funding get 5 percent total votes qualify q mike party mr nader also accrues independent candidates john anderson example actually got 7 percent 1980 qualified federal funding chose take 1984 far answer part question part q much money raised many volunteers mr nader yes okay exploratory mode cant really raise big money viewed exploratory mode raised 175000 exploratory mode funds increasing contributions country flowing especially last 24 hours website ltvotenaderorggt getting floods volunteers resumes people particularly want people good organizers good signature gatherers good graphic arts good computer software web design good kinds creative ideas advance justice country based theyre back home advance justice country yes could identify q yeah amanda debenen sp washington report middle eastern affairs im curious mr nader ask q believe q mike mr nader okay together im sorry know give someone else chance q okay mr nader yes hello q louisa savage sp new york times could elaborate mr nader could speak little lot louder q sorry louisa savage sp new york times could elaborate audio break arguing iraq would better saddam hussein still power feel republican conservative voters mr nader yes well think lot conservative voters thought iraq invasion unconstitutional authorization congress inappropriate put mildly casualties come back fatalities injuries diseases sand flies sandfly disease already afflicted 1200 soldiers hardly reported press theyre going upset 130000 soldiers rotated back home thats going mean lot communication millions families including conservative families would iraq better saddam hussein present situation question would american governmententrenched saddam iraq better bush administration 1991 overthrown saddam hussein illegally invaded kuwait bush administration entire international community around thats problem resolved instead first george bush urged shiites sunnis rise overthrow tyrant control 75 percent iraq saddam hussein got okay slaughter helicopter gunships put rebellion us f16s held back anything refuse put situation ask question without discussing history course free newspapers im sure small businesses starting hand health care system declined even worse levels war lack facilities put another way dictators terrible provide security streets one iraqi said despise saddam hussein less food less electricity less security thats kind comparison want make comparison wanted make keep supporting dictators oligarchs instead workers peasants fostering democratic societies middle east answer oil thats answer yes q brad blanton radical honesty rag mr nader radical honesty rag q radical honesty rag im editor laughter im interested secrecy seems lot american policy dogged 36 separate secret agencies united states government taxes pay seem made lot policies without review american people id like say something secrecy dishonesty thats implicit hiding secretive administration history country mr nader well democracy dies backrooms government corporate allies long advocates significant promoters freedom information act 1974 press takes constant proper advantage bush administration one secretive also homeland security department easily exempt freedom information act requests without judicial review course get misspending federal government get bad policies arent exposed time federal government theres secrecy information currency democracy sunlight best disinfectant justice brandeis pointed many many years ago make major issue make government secrecy major adversary democratic processes public participation government major issue campaign one two please yes q name mike american prospect magazine know youve rejected running democratic party republican party im wondering youve rejected running green party think theyre wrong makes party dont want part mr nader well theyre nothing wrong green party good platform keeps getting better broad environment although thats important labor tax reform corporate accountability civic involvement withdraw consideration green party nomination said earlier going decide whether theyre going candidate restrictions stay x states state june thats late hazard candidacy busily collecting signatures get ballot surmount twoparty exclusionary statutes hope someday removed one federal statute federal elections instead 50 state statutes varying wildly 300 signatures get ballot tennessee 100000 signatures north carolina independent candidate theres rhyme reason state election standards federal elections one federal standard thats going one policies campaign remember may end beseech media focus broader broader issues allow candidates parties narrow issues four five become repetitive bore heck follow campaigns toward end hope look measure devotion reading 35page agenda inquiry sent republican democratic committees perhaps look order flavor elaborate intensity diversity election campaign presidential year public debate reach optimum level interested volunteering contributing campaign new website ltvotenaderorggt thank much applause 160 | 5,567 |
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<p>To see long excerpts from “The Chain” at Google Books, <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Xu5zAwAAQBAJ&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;dq=The+Chain:+Farm,+Factory,+and+the+Fate+of+Our+Food+by+Ted+Genoways&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=BL10VOGCLpD1iQKwlYGYBw&amp;ved=0CCIQuwUwAA#v=onepage&amp;q=The%20Chain%3A%20Farm%2C%20Factory%2C%20and%20the%20Fate%20of%20Our%20Food%20by%20Ted%20Genoways&amp;f=false" type="external">click here</a>.</p>
<p>“The Chain: Farm, Factory, and the Fate of Our Food” A book by Ted Genoways</p>
<p>How is Spam made? The butt of countless “mystery meat” jokes, the basic ingredients of Spam aren’t all that mysterious: pig shoulder and rear, along with spices, salt and sodium nitrite. What remains a closely guarded secret is the technological side of production, which involves a combination of “vacuum mixing, quick sealing, and pressure cooking,” resulting in a jiggly block covered in gelatinous muck that, when sliced, resembles giant pink erasers. Invented in 1937, Spam was soon a mainstay in the American diet, going on to conquer the planet after World War II. It was cheap meat that never went bad, though never tasted all that good to begin with. “I’ll even confess to a few unkind remarks about it,” admitted Dwight D. Eisenhower, “uttered during the strain of battle, you understand.”</p>
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<p>Space age food technology aside, how did Spam actually come into the world? And what does it leave in its wake? Those are the questions Ted Genoways set out to discover in “The Chain: Farm, Factory, and the Fate of Our Food,” using the explosive growth of the Hormel Food Corporation to serve up a cautionary tale about cheap meat for our time. He spends much of his time hanging around two towns transformed by Hormel — Austin, Minn., and Fremont, Neb. — interviewing slaughterhouse workers, union leaders and public health officials to chronicle the impact of Big Pig. Though Genoways is a dogged investigator and a crisp writer, the risk of this sort of book is that it provides plenty of gore but little surprise. Is there really anything new to say about meatpacking since Upton Sinclair went into the Chicago stockyards, notebook in hand, and returned with “The Jungle”?</p>
<p>Yes, as it turns out. And that new story begins in the mid-1990s, when the American Meat Institute — the successor of the American Meat Packers Association formed, in 1906, to counter Sinclair’s claims — proposed a new food inspection program that would allow companies to run their lines at far greater speeds. After a series of legal challenges and bureaucratic delays, the federal government adopted the measure at five pork plants, including three that are operated by Hormel. For more than a decade, in a story that has been woefully underreported, already-beleaguered workers at these plants have been told to work faster and longer. (The speedup also applied to a number of poultry and turkey plants). Greater line speeds helped meet a surge in demand for Spam caused by the Great Recession, doing wonders for Hormel’s bottom line. For workers on the plant floor, as Genoways discovers, it’s another story entirely.</p>
<p>Take what happened to those unfortunate enough to operate the “brain machine.” After a pig’s skull is scraped clean, workers use a high-pressure hose to blast the brain, creating a pink slurry that resembles Pepto-Bismol, which drains into barrels to be shipped to Korea for use in stir-fry. But as the Hormel plant in Austin ramped up its line speed, workers at the brain machine struggled to keep pace. One solution was to automate the hoses. Previously, workers triggered the blast by stepping on a pedal. The new machines, which fired automatically once a worker inserted a hose into the brain cavity, saved a valuable fraction of a second. Unfortunately, these machines also tended to misfire, sending pink spurts of brain into the air. A Plexiglas barrier was installed to protect from such misfires, but so many skulls piled up that they jammed the line and cracked the glass. Individuals began to complain of fevers and back pains. “It was like a flu,” a worker tells Genoways. One morning, that same worker woke up to find that he couldn’t move his legs. Medical investigators eventually identified the grisly culprit: Workers were inhaling aerosolized pig brains, causing their confused immune systems to produce antibodies that began to destroy their own (human) nerve cells. Many people would struggle for years to regain their strength. As for the cause of this sudden illness — the plant had been “blowing brains” for years without incident — the Mayo Clinic cited the faster line speed.</p>
<p>Genoways leads with the brain machine, and for good reason. Gruesome and upsetting, it serves as an allegory for an industrial meat system that is efficient, profitable and, if left unfettered, will surely poison us. He ranges wide to count the ways. A frustrated and overworked farmhand, who spends his days “thumping” unwanted piglets by smashing their skulls against the floor — a completely legal practice, it turns out — tells an undercover PETA investigator to “take out your frustrations on ’em!” In Iowa, where a relaxation of laws to protect small farmers led to an explosion of industrial pig farms, the Raccoon River, which cuts through Des Moines, is so inundated with manure that it needs to reduce its E. coli levels by 99 percent. The heavy use of antibiotics in factory farms has public health officials worried about the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, with some infections already having jumped from pig to human. And then, at the end of all this madness, there is Spam itself, heavily processed and brimming with fat and salt.</p>
<p>These accounts can make for grim reading. At times it can also be a challenge to follow the action. Much of the book originally appeared in magazine form, and as tends to happen in such cases, certain sections can feel tacked on or repetitive. Workers come and go, making it hard to generate narrative momentum. I found myself occasionally flipping through the pages, trying to figure out the year. But such criticisms aside, there is much in the book that is fresh and captivating. Over the last several years, Genoways has been an indispensable guide for anyone interested in the ways Big Agriculture — pork in particular — is remaking the land. One of the most compelling sections in the book follows the immigrant-driven transformation of Fremont, located 50 miles north of Genoways’ home in Lincoln. Fremont first gained national attention in 2010, when residents upset by their new Latino neighbors passed an ordinance banning undocumented immigrants from renting homes. Genoways has followed the story from the beginning, often in the pages of Harpers, and gets beneath the surface of the uproar, affording sympathy both to Mexican immigrants and the whites who see their presence as a threat.</p>
<p>This tension drives deep wedges between old friends. The complaints are familiar — the failure of immigrants to learn English, their reliance on welfare — and for the most part, the complaints don’t hold up. The children of immigrants arrive at school in Fremont not speaking English, but soon outpace their peers. And undocumented immigrants are, in fact, banned from receiving most public benefits. Many locals look back nostalgically at the town’s glory days, when wages were good and the union strong. But the transformation of the job began well before immigrants arrived. Back in 1985, during a contentious contract fight, Hormel threatened to close the plant if the union didn’t accept deep wage cuts. The local affiliate of the United Food and Commercial Workers was eager to fight, but it didn’t receive support from union headquarters, and soon gave in. There are plenty of reasons to be angry about low wages and an ever-faster line speed that has little regard for worker safety. But it’s not the Spanish-speaking newcomers who are calling the shots.</p>
<p>If you are looking for a concluding chapter of uplift — or even some vaguely hopeful sign that change is in the future — “The Chain” will leave you disappointed. This is not an industry that will change easily, if at all. That point is driven home when Genoways covers the emergence of the so-called Ag-Gag bills. In recent years, a number of undercover investigations have exposed vicious abuse suffered by animals on factory farms, including videos shot in 2007 by the Humane Society of the United States, of a California slaughterhouse run by Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company. Hallmark supplied ground beef for the National School Lunch Program; the videos resulted in the largest beef recall in U.S. history. In response to such exposes, the industry pulled together to finally confront the crisis. Not, as one might hope, by cracking down on such abuses, but by introducing a slew of laws — the Ag-Gag bills — that criminalize whistle-blowers and advocates who tape such abuses. To date, seven states have passed such laws, including Iowa.</p>
<p>Hormel and other gigantic meat conglomerates are part of an industry, Genoways writes, that appears to have “grown too large and gained too much momentum to ever stop or even slow down.” Indeed, earlier this year, Hormel revealed that it was building a new facility for Spam production — the first such expansion since 1947. For all the hoopla about artisanal bacon and grass fed beef, Spam, and its industrial meat cousins, are still what’s for dinner.</p>
<p>Gabriel Thompson has written for The New York Times, New York, The Nation and Mother Jones. His most recent book is “Working in the Shadows: A Year of Doing the Jobs (Most) Americans Won’t Do.”</p> | true | 4 | image harper see long excerpts chain google books click chain farm factory fate food book ted genoways spam made butt countless mystery meat jokes basic ingredients spam arent mysterious pig shoulder rear along spices salt sodium nitrite remains closely guarded secret technological side production involves combination vacuum mixing quick sealing pressure cooking resulting jiggly block covered gelatinous muck sliced resembles giant pink erasers invented 1937 spam soon mainstay american diet going conquer planet world war ii cheap meat never went bad though never tasted good begin ill even confess unkind remarks admitted dwight eisenhower uttered strain battle understand space age food technology aside spam actually come world leave wake questions ted genoways set discover chain farm factory fate food using explosive growth hormel food corporation serve cautionary tale cheap meat time spends much time hanging around two towns transformed hormel austin minn fremont neb interviewing slaughterhouse workers union leaders public health officials chronicle impact big pig though genoways dogged investigator crisp writer risk sort book provides plenty gore little surprise really anything new say meatpacking since upton sinclair went chicago stockyards notebook hand returned jungle yes turns new story begins mid1990s american meat institute successor american meat packers association formed 1906 counter sinclairs claims proposed new food inspection program would allow companies run lines far greater speeds series legal challenges bureaucratic delays federal government adopted measure five pork plants including three operated hormel decade story woefully underreported alreadybeleaguered workers plants told work faster longer speedup also applied number poultry turkey plants greater line speeds helped meet surge demand spam caused great recession wonders hormels bottom line workers plant floor genoways discovers another story entirely take happened unfortunate enough operate brain machine pigs skull scraped clean workers use highpressure hose blast brain creating pink slurry resembles peptobismol drains barrels shipped korea use stirfry hormel plant austin ramped line speed workers brain machine struggled keep pace one solution automate hoses previously workers triggered blast stepping pedal new machines fired automatically worker inserted hose brain cavity saved valuable fraction second unfortunately machines also tended misfire sending pink spurts brain air plexiglas barrier installed protect misfires many skulls piled jammed line cracked glass individuals began complain fevers back pains like flu worker tells genoways one morning worker woke find couldnt move legs medical investigators eventually identified grisly culprit workers inhaling aerosolized pig brains causing confused immune systems produce antibodies began destroy human nerve cells many people would struggle years regain strength cause sudden illness plant blowing brains years without incident mayo clinic cited faster line speed genoways leads brain machine good reason gruesome upsetting serves allegory industrial meat system efficient profitable left unfettered surely poison us ranges wide count ways frustrated overworked farmhand spends days thumping unwanted piglets smashing skulls floor completely legal practice turns tells undercover peta investigator take frustrations em iowa relaxation laws protect small farmers led explosion industrial pig farms raccoon river cuts des moines inundated manure needs reduce e coli levels 99 percent heavy use antibiotics factory farms public health officials worried growth antibioticresistant bacteria infections already jumped pig human end madness spam heavily processed brimming fat salt accounts make grim reading times also challenge follow action much book originally appeared magazine form tends happen cases certain sections feel tacked repetitive workers come go making hard generate narrative momentum found occasionally flipping pages trying figure year criticisms aside much book fresh captivating last several years genoways indispensable guide anyone interested ways big agriculture pork particular remaking land one compelling sections book follows immigrantdriven transformation fremont located 50 miles north genoways home lincoln fremont first gained national attention 2010 residents upset new latino neighbors passed ordinance banning undocumented immigrants renting homes genoways followed story beginning often pages harpers gets beneath surface uproar affording sympathy mexican immigrants whites see presence threat tension drives deep wedges old friends complaints familiar failure immigrants learn english reliance welfare part complaints dont hold children immigrants arrive school fremont speaking english soon outpace peers undocumented immigrants fact banned receiving public benefits many locals look back nostalgically towns glory days wages good union strong transformation job began well immigrants arrived back 1985 contentious contract fight hormel threatened close plant union didnt accept deep wage cuts local affiliate united food commercial workers eager fight didnt receive support union headquarters soon gave plenty reasons angry low wages everfaster line speed little regard worker safety spanishspeaking newcomers calling shots looking concluding chapter uplift even vaguely hopeful sign change future chain leave disappointed industry change easily point driven home genoways covers emergence socalled aggag bills recent years number undercover investigations exposed vicious abuse suffered animals factory farms including videos shot 2007 humane society united states california slaughterhouse run hallmarkwestland meat packing company hallmark supplied ground beef national school lunch program videos resulted largest beef recall us history response exposes industry pulled together finally confront crisis one might hope cracking abuses introducing slew laws aggag bills criminalize whistleblowers advocates tape abuses date seven states passed laws including iowa hormel gigantic meat conglomerates part industry genoways writes appears grown large gained much momentum ever stop even slow indeed earlier year hormel revealed building new facility spam production first expansion since 1947 hoopla artisanal bacon grass fed beef spam industrial meat cousins still whats dinner gabriel thompson written new york times new york nation mother jones recent book working shadows year jobs americans wont | 889 |
<p>In just a few weeks the Democratic National Convention will be held in Denver, Colorado, where I live. For the past few months leading up to it I have been organizing with Alliance for Real Democracy (ARD), one of the local formations that is building towards a week of protests, teach-ins, and concerts at this event.</p>
<p>It has occurred to me that the reasons for protesting the Democratic Convention are not clear to everyone. As usual, much of the mainstream press coverage has centered on speculations about “Seattle, ’99- style” confrontations, and this has served well the purpose of burying the actual issues involved. Coverage on local TV, in the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News have all vied for our attention with competing headlines, ranging from the benign to the absurd.&#160; But the general “theme” has been established as “multi-million dollar security appropriations” versus “the masked Spectre of anarchism.”</p>
<p>But what are&#160; the fundamental issues addressed. Is the Democratic Party an inept opposition that is out of touch with its constituency? Don’t citizens have a right to assemble publicly and air their grievances? Isn’t a&#160;&#160; country that welcomes debate and dissent, even when it is “civilly disobedient”, preferable to a National Security State where all dissent as attacked for even existing as such?</p>
<p>The reason why most in ARD are protesting is to call this party to account for its record, and to make sure that progressive, and specifically antiwar politics, are heard loud and clear.</p>
<p>In every election, w are told to vote Democrat because the Republicans are worse. It’s as basic and ingrained as the colors of a stoplight. Whether it’s done with bright eyes and high hopes, or with gritted teeth and muttered cynicism, almost the entire American left accepts the logic to some extent: If we want to end the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, if we want environmental justice, if we want to challenge the racist criminal justice system, if we want to support immigrant rights, if we want equality for the LGBT community, if we want to truly support a woman’s right to choose, and if we want to build real progressive social movements in the United States, then, we’re told, the first step is to get Democratic politicians into office.</p>
<p>The problem today with this argument is that Democrats have had a majority in congress since the 2006 elections. Since then, they have taken an overwhelmingly antiwar, anti-Bush mandate, and used it to:</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160; * Pass “non-binding” resolutions expressing “disagreement” with the Iraq war, while simultaneously voting for hundreds of billions more in funding for it.</p>
<p>* Declare that “Impeachment is off the table”.</p>
<p>* Join Republicans to gut civil liberties and allow the government to spy on anyone, at any time, without a warrant.</p>
<p>On broader social justice issues the record is just as lukewarm.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160; * Abortion remains unavailable in most counties in the United States and access to it continues to be restricted.</p>
<p>* Education today is more racially segregated and unequally funded than it was decades ago, and college itself is increasingly unaffordable.</p>
<p>* While productive industries crumble into recession and outsourcing, there is a “bipartisan” consensus on the need to expand both prison construction as well as military recruitment in schools.</p>
<p>Voting Democratic hasn’t brought the rosy results that were promised. A lot of hopes were raised as the returns came in two Novembers ago, and what has (or more importantly, what hasn’t) happened sense then has significantly changed the political landscape.</p>
<p>There is no more post-2004 “awe” of mythical “red state” domination. Farmers in Kansas aren’t keeping the war going. Democratic votes in Congress are. The period of “wait and see” has come puttering to its inevitable end, and the leadership of the Democratic party has failed to live up to the mandate of its voters.&#160; Barack Obama, whose early opposition to the war and community organizing background inspired many liberals to support him in the primaries, is bunkered down in right-wing positions on a wide range of issues (much to the concern of those to whom he owes his victory).</p>
<p>Tragically, many social movements have tended to demobilize in election years. For the antiwar movement, this was quite obvious in 2004, happened again in 2006, and is going on this year as well. The political effects of this have been to leave the movement, and most antiwar activists, confused, disorganized, demoralized, and unsure of how to proceed.</p>
<p>This has occurred at a time when a confident, progressive voice in the streets has been more important (and conspicuously absent!) than ever.</p>
<p>This is most clear today in the interaction between the war in Iraq and the new war on Immigrants. Very few people were concerned about immigration before 2006. But in that year, with the war going horribly, many Republicans found out they could still win elections by appealing to anti-immigrant phobias. The way this rhetoric has been articulated since then would have been confined to far-right hate groups, and the extreme fringe of the Republicans, at any time before the war on terror. But now, with the acceptability of racial profiling, with a public already taught to view brown and foreign people as enemies first, racist language has found a new acceptability. As the economy slides into a war-related recession millions of Americans are looking for someone to blame. The Republican Party offers to the outraged citizenry a sacrificial lamb. Meanwhile hundreds die crossing a desert border every year, and families are destroyed as ICE raids workplaces. The legacy of the civil rights movement seems to be forgotten.</p>
<p>Meanwhile in Iraq over the past year and a half exactly two major policy developments have occurred. The first is that George Bush is marketing a “surge” in troop levels as the solution to help stabilize things (under firm US control). The second is that the Democratic Party has decided that possibly sending some troops home within 18 months is really the same thing as ending a war.</p>
<p>Among the many less reported developments are quite a few “inconvenient truths”. One is the invisible (to the American media) crisis of over 4 million Iraqi refugees- almost none of whom have been granted asylum by the US. Another is the completely overwhelmed VA that can’t respond to the overload of physically and mentally wounded veterans. A third is the scam of “reconstruction” that costs billions of dollars, generates super-profits for American companies, yet does not actually reconstruct!</p>
<p>That’s the short list.</p>
<p>Every country but ours has massive protests on the anniversary of the war, as citizens around the world pressure their governments to stand up to Bush’s aggression. Yet we’re supposed to rest?</p>
<p>If Democrats know they have our votes in their pocket without having to even promise us anything, they’re going to be spending their time making promises to everyone else to get their votes too. The result is a political establishment that lurches ever-rightward. The voices of the left, minorities, women, immigrants, veterans, students, and pretty much anyone else who isn’t independently wealthy or politically connected, are left out in the cold.</p>
<p>These are the costly lessons of recent experience. They teach us that unless we organize our own communities, keep our movements politically independent, and actively pressure ALL politicians- whatever their party affiliation- no progressive agenda will be moving forward any time soon in the United States.</p>
<p>The Alliance For Real Democracy is a coalition representing some of the most insistent voices&#160; of protest from Colorado and the nation. Member groups include Iraq Veterans Against the War, CODEPINK, United for Peace and Justice, Veterans for Peace, the Colorado Green Party, Students for a Democratic Society, Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, the International Socialist Organization, Progressive Democrats of America, Jobs with Justice, and many others. ARD is a model. The fact that it can even exist, bringing together such diverse constituencies, is a testament to just how deep the credibility gap of the Dems has become.</p>
<p>Its s members not only tolerate- but welcome- debates on our attitude to the Democratic Party and that’s inspiring in and of itself.&#160; I don’t think I’ve ever been in a meeting where members of PDA, the Greens, Anarchists, and third-party Socialists are all working collaboratively on something, and where there is (in spite of media and police-induced paranoia) such a general level of goodwill among people of diverse ideological backgrounds.</p>
<p>We are a non-partisan organization. We’re not in ARD because we like long, endless meetings, or haggling with a wary city over permit details, or because we enjoy insurmountable fundraising challenges. There’s certainly not a lot of NGO- political career advancement out there for people who are really good at protesting the Democrats!</p>
<p>ARD exists for the simple fact that we’re tired of the war and people we know getting killed. We’re tired of watching our nation descend descend ever deeper into a national security state, where the government is above the people, and no one knows if anything they write or say is private anymore. We’re tired of seeing racism and ignorance become acceptable.</p>
<p>I remember in 1999 after the Columbine shootings when the whole country was up in arms about the need to get counseling to the weird kids before they get so frustrated they try to resolve their problems with violence (I myself was sent by my school for such counseling). Today military recruiters are more often seen than college recruiters by a lot of kids. At least one Colorado high school has an Apache Helicopter mounted proudly on its front lawn* . I can’t think of a more fitting irony, or tragic confession, of just how upside down our country has become.</p>
<p>It’s time to take it back. People’s lives are more important than any election, or any politician’s career. We’re going to speak truth to power this August and judge the actions of all politicians by the same, “non-partisan” standards.</p>
<p>We hope you’ll join us. If you can not make it, but you agree with our aims and would like to support ARD, we ask that you still help us to get this message heard. We are planning numerous events, including large-scale marches, innovative workshops, teach-ins, non-violence trainings, and concerts featuring major musical acts.</p>
<p>To support us contact <a href="" type="internal">www.realdemocracy2008</a>.</p>
<p>West Grand High School in Kremmling, Grand County, has an Apache Helicopter mounted in its front lawn. A picture I took of it on my camera phone can be seen at: <a href="http://www.noisenobodys.com/xian/laugh/attack2.jpg" type="external">http://www.noisenobodys.com/xian/laugh/attack2.jpg</a></p>
<p>CHRISTIAN WRIGHT lives in Denver and can be reached at <a href="" type="internal">cawright2007@yahoo.com</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | weeks democratic national convention held denver colorado live past months leading organizing alliance real democracy ard one local formations building towards week protests teachins concerts event occurred reasons protesting democratic convention clear everyone usual much mainstream press coverage centered speculations seattle 99 style confrontations served well purpose burying actual issues involved coverage local tv denver post rocky mountain news vied attention competing headlines ranging benign absurd160 general theme established multimillion dollar security appropriations versus masked spectre anarchism are160 fundamental issues addressed democratic party inept opposition touch constituency dont citizens right assemble publicly air grievances isnt a160160 country welcomes debate dissent even civilly disobedient preferable national security state dissent attacked even existing reason ard protesting call party account record make sure progressive specifically antiwar politics heard loud clear every election w told vote democrat republicans worse basic ingrained colors stoplight whether done bright eyes high hopes gritted teeth muttered cynicism almost entire american left accepts logic extent want end war iraq afghanistan want environmental justice want challenge racist criminal justice system want support immigrant rights want equality lgbt community want truly support womans right choose want build real progressive social movements united states told first step get democratic politicians office problem today argument democrats majority congress since 2006 elections since taken overwhelmingly antiwar antibush mandate used 160160160 pass nonbinding resolutions expressing disagreement iraq war simultaneously voting hundreds billions funding declare impeachment table join republicans gut civil liberties allow government spy anyone time without warrant broader social justice issues record lukewarm 160160160 abortion remains unavailable counties united states access continues restricted education today racially segregated unequally funded decades ago college increasingly unaffordable productive industries crumble recession outsourcing bipartisan consensus need expand prison construction well military recruitment schools voting democratic hasnt brought rosy results promised lot hopes raised returns came two novembers ago importantly hasnt happened sense significantly changed political landscape post2004 awe mythical red state domination farmers kansas arent keeping war going democratic votes congress period wait see come puttering inevitable end leadership democratic party failed live mandate voters160 barack obama whose early opposition war community organizing background inspired many liberals support primaries bunkered rightwing positions wide range issues much concern owes victory tragically many social movements tended demobilize election years antiwar movement quite obvious 2004 happened 2006 going year well political effects leave movement antiwar activists confused disorganized demoralized unsure proceed occurred time confident progressive voice streets important conspicuously absent ever clear today interaction war iraq new war immigrants people concerned immigration 2006 year war going horribly many republicans found could still win elections appealing antiimmigrant phobias way rhetoric articulated since would confined farright hate groups extreme fringe republicans time war terror acceptability racial profiling public already taught view brown foreign people enemies first racist language found new acceptability economy slides warrelated recession millions americans looking someone blame republican party offers outraged citizenry sacrificial lamb meanwhile hundreds die crossing desert border every year families destroyed ice raids workplaces legacy civil rights movement seems forgotten meanwhile iraq past year half exactly two major policy developments occurred first george bush marketing surge troop levels solution help stabilize things firm us control second democratic party decided possibly sending troops home within 18 months really thing ending war among many less reported developments quite inconvenient truths one invisible american media crisis 4 million iraqi refugees almost none granted asylum us another completely overwhelmed va cant respond overload physically mentally wounded veterans third scam reconstruction costs billions dollars generates superprofits american companies yet actually reconstruct thats short list every country massive protests anniversary war citizens around world pressure governments stand bushs aggression yet supposed rest democrats know votes pocket without even promise us anything theyre going spending time making promises everyone else get votes result political establishment lurches everrightward voices left minorities women immigrants veterans students pretty much anyone else isnt independently wealthy politically connected left cold costly lessons recent experience teach us unless organize communities keep movements politically independent actively pressure politicians whatever party affiliation progressive agenda moving forward time soon united states alliance real democracy coalition representing insistent voices160 protest colorado nation member groups include iraq veterans war codepink united peace justice veterans peace colorado green party students democratic society rocky mountain peace justice center international socialist organization progressive democrats america jobs justice many others ard model fact even exist bringing together diverse constituencies testament deep credibility gap dems become members tolerate welcome debates attitude democratic party thats inspiring itself160 dont think ive ever meeting members pda greens anarchists thirdparty socialists working collaboratively something spite media policeinduced paranoia general level goodwill among people diverse ideological backgrounds nonpartisan organization ard like long endless meetings haggling wary city permit details enjoy insurmountable fundraising challenges theres certainly lot ngo political career advancement people really good protesting democrats ard exists simple fact tired war people know getting killed tired watching nation descend descend ever deeper national security state government people one knows anything write say private anymore tired seeing racism ignorance become acceptable remember 1999 columbine shootings whole country arms need get counseling weird kids get frustrated try resolve problems violence sent school counseling today military recruiters often seen college recruiters lot kids least one colorado high school apache helicopter mounted proudly front lawn cant think fitting irony tragic confession upside country become time take back peoples lives important election politicians career going speak truth power august judge actions politicians nonpartisan standards hope youll join us make agree aims would like support ard ask still help us get message heard planning numerous events including largescale marches innovative workshops teachins nonviolence trainings concerts featuring major musical acts support us contact wwwrealdemocracy2008 west grand high school kremmling grand county apache helicopter mounted front lawn picture took camera phone seen httpwwwnoisenobodyscomxianlaughattack2jpg christian wright lives denver reached cawright2007yahoocom 160 160 160 160 | 960 |
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<p>How lion-like the Democrats sound as they circle around Social Security, roaring their defiance! After years of servility some of them even dare to shake their fists at Alan Greenspan and hurl insults at the man.</p>
<p>When the chairman of the Federal Reserve put in a decorous word for Social Security “reform” last month, House minority leader Harry Reid of Nevada made so bold as to call Greenspan a “hack”. Paul Krugman, who primly chastised Ralph Nader back in 2000 for wanting to “re-educate” Greenspan, now pelts the chairman with rotten cabbages on an almost weekly basis in his New York Times column.</p>
<p>Presumably enough Democrats realize that if they can’t be seen as putting up a fight on Social Security, then the last supposed major reason for anyone to support their party will have disappeared. (To anyone claiming choice to have an abortion is as powerful a reason, I offer the obvious, which is that the Republicans will never formally move to rescind the legality of abortions. They will merely continue in the enterprise, in which countless Democrats have colluded, of making it harder and harder for poor women to get one.)</p>
<p>The etiquette of substantive one-party rule in America requires us to overlook the facts that the preliminary salvoes advertising the need for “reform” were launched by the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan and that under Bill Clinton social security privatization was so far advanced that the secret team under the supervision of assistant Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers was discussing how to number the individual retirement accounts. Fortunately Monica Lewinsky caught Clinton’s eye and before long he had impeachment and the need for liberal support at the front of his mind.</p>
<p>So the Democrats get to boast in the midterm elections next year that they fought Bush to a standstill on the key plank in the president’s domestic agenda. Meanwhile the Republicans, many of whom have no desire to have Social Security reform hung round their necks, roll two long cherished bills through Congress, both with crucial Democratic support.</p>
<p>Near the end of February many Democrats in the House okayed a Republican bill to transfer large class action suits from state to federal courts. It’s the state courts that have awarded the big settlements against the tobacco and asbestos companies. Federal judges have consistently cut back the big awards. Transfer of the suits is a huge victory for the business lobby. Earlier in February the Senate passed the same bill 72 to 26. Among Democrats voting for a bill written by the Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers were such supposed bright hopes as Obama of Illinois, Salazar of Colorado, Bayh of Indiana, along with possible aspirants for the 2008 nomination as Dodd of Connecticut.</p>
<p>Then in early March no less than 18 Democratic senators joined the Republicans in voting through a bill the banks and credit card companies have touting for years, a rewrite of the bankruptcy laws to mandate lifetime debt peonage for ordinary Americans. The House will soon follow suit.</p>
<p>The bill just passed by the Senate will require many people filing for bankruptcy court protection to repay a portion of their debt under Chapter 13 of the bankruptcy code rather than allowing them to wipe most of it out under Chapter 7. I’ve seen estimates that this change could force 30,000 to 100,000 additional filers a year into Chapter 13.</p>
<p>Maybe we should multiply those numbers. Many Americans have virtually no leeway on their monthly budgets. A co-pay on some relatively minor health emergency sends them scrambling to the loanshops. If interest rates start to move upwards many households on flexible mortgage rates will default, and plummet into bankruptcy and debt peonage for the rest of their lives.</p>
<p>If the current trend among countries such as China, Japan and India to reduce their dollar holdings continues, the dollar’s status will plummet, and eventually its role as the world’s reserve currency will come to an end. No longer will the Asian nations subsidize America’s debt, and in consequence the cost of living for ordinary Americans will start to soar, pushing even more over the edge.</p>
<p>And as the dollar tumbles, so does one of the keystones of what in the 1950s used to be termed reverently, the American Way of Life, meaning in coarse material terms a civilization that guaranteed its middle class affordable higher education and the decent jobs consequent upon same.</p>
<p>But one-party America voted for those jobs to leave. All through the 1990s enough Democrats and Republicans voted for the free trade pacts and agreements that saw blue collar jobs and now white collar jobs flow south and east. The US Department of Labor reported in March that 373,000 discouraged college graduates dropped out of the labor force in February, a far higher number than the number of new jobs created.</p>
<p>“So far in the 21st century,” Reagan’s former assistant Treasury Secretary (and fierce Bush critic) Paul Craig Roberts writes on this website, “there is scant sign of the American ‘new economy.’ The promised knowledge-based jobs have not appeared. To the contrary, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a net loss of 221,000 jobs in six major engineering job classifications.”</p>
<p>So it’s fair to say this revamp of the bankruptcy laws is as sinister and menacing portent of the shape of things to come as would be the physical construction of a new debtors’ prison for the middle classes in every American town to match the prisons for the poor already planted in the outback.</p>
<p>And as Jude Wanniski points out:</p>
<p>“To make it more difficult for households and businesses to declare bankruptcy to get relief from the deflation only will cause the national crime rate to rise more quickly and sharply. It of course will affect society in other ways, with an increase in the number of divorces and abortions that quickly add up when households are under this kind of economic stress.”</p>
<p>What a dismal pass we have reached in one-party America. These days there are more auto manufacturing jobs in Ontario, Canada, than in Michigan, USA. Why? Canada has a national health plan. Tacitly and sometimes openly, both GM and Ford favor one here in the US, since health is the biggest item on their budgets. Both US senators from Michigan oppose a national health plan. Both are Democrats. That’s the reality of one-party America.</p>
<p>The Republican Senate whip, Mitch McConnell and senior Republicans on the Hill have remarked gleefully that Bush’s social security reform is like three-card monte. While the Democrats circle round in dramatic defensive postured round the old New Deal program, the Republicans drive through the corporate agenda on tort reform and bankruptcy and on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. Enough Democrats were with them on that too, with both Hawaiian senators, Inouye and Akaka, throwing their votes in the oil can as usual with the Alaska delegation.</p>
<p>And then in 2010 a Democrat can “fix” Social Security. Nepal, the King and the Maoists</p>
<p>Dear editors of CounterPunch,</p>
<p>I am deeply shocked and saddened that CounterPunch has published such a grossly royalist interpretation of events in Nepal in Bhisma Karki’s recent piece in <a href="" type="internal">https://www.counterpunch.org/</a></p>
<p>Under the garb of being a pro-democracy writer, the author of this piece has basically justified the anti-democratic coup by Nepal’s king Gyanendra.</p>
<p>I am not a Nepali, neither have i ever been or am at present, the member of any Nepali political or other organisation. I am an Indian journalist and write on the basis of my experiences while on a recent visit to Nepal.</p>
<p>At that time i managed to visit some areas with significant Maoist presence, both military and political. I also stayed in Kathmandu for many days and met a whole cross section of its civil society.</p>
<p>At no place in Nepal did I find one person who spoke well of the King. Well, to correct myself, except for the superintendent of police in a Maoist-controlled district and the press secretary to the King, NOT ONE person had a good word to say about the Nepal king. That included a range of people from top journalists, leaders of democratic political parties to taxi drivers, unorganized workers, human rights activists and people on the street.</p>
<p>The number and extent of human rights abuses committed by the king’s armed forces (using guns given by the U.S. and Indian governments to fight the Maoists) could fill many many of your webpages. No one who has visited Nepal and not kept his/her eyes firmly shut could ever support what the king has done/is doing, as your author does.</p>
<p>While many people I met greatly disliked the Maoists’ cavalier attitude towards democracy and democratic processes and disagreed with their strategy and tactics, very very few put them on the same scale of comparison as the king. In fact the regular opinion I heard in Nepal was that the democratic parties and the Maoists shared much in common and should unite to oust the king. and all this before the king’s coup!</p>
<p>How on earth does Mr. Karki say that the democratic parties and the king are on one side and the Maoists on the other!!</p>
<p>Just look up the www.insn.org website and you will see how active is the democracy movement in Nepal and what actually the situation is, as compared to Mr. Karki’s fairy tale.</p>
<p>Fraternally, Lala Popat Lal On Muslim Practices</p>
<p>Jenna Orkin writes to us about the responses to her “ <a href="" type="internal">Memories of a Kawaggi (Westerner) in Saudi Arabia</a>” <a href="" type="internal">www.counterpunch.com/orkin03052005.html</a></p>
<p>Many protested the explanation someone gave me as to why Muslim women don’t take their husband’s name there. To correct the record on that, below is an excerpt from one letter by Ann Ronayne, a Muslim woman living in the Gulf:</p>
<p>“In this region, when a child (girl or boy) is born, only a first name is chosen for them, because the rest of their name is automatically determined. The second name is their father’s first name, the third name is the grandfather’s first name, etc., with the family name at the end. Ms. Orkin is certainly not alone in misunderstanding this; most of the Western media seems unaware of what these names represent. For example, the name “Saddam Hussein” indicates that Saddam’s father’s first name was Hussein; Hussein is not Saddam’s last name… so his sons were Uday Saddam Hussein and Qusay Saddam Hussein.</p>
<p>Anyway, ties of kinship are very important to Muslims, and these ties can be traced back simply by looking at someone’s name. It wouldn’t make sense for a woman to change her last name, since she would then be attributing fatherhood to her father-in-law. Muslim women find it strange that American women change their identities again and again when they marry and divorce.</p>
<p>The idea that the wife is not “worthy” of her husband’s name isn’t even logical. After all, she has the same last name as her male relatives. And her husband’s female relatives have the same last name as he does. As a matter of fact, many Saudis marry within their tribes, so the man and woman often have the same last names anyway……”</p>
<p>After reading Ms. Ronayne’s letter I realized that it would be reasonable to say that in the West, until recently, a woman has not been considered worthy of passing on her own name to her children.</p>
<p>Ms. Ronayne also provided an enlightening and humbling explanation of Muslim hygiene:</p>
<p>“…. it’s true that Muslims don’t urinate standing up. It’s a matter of cleanliness; one must be pure of filth – for example, urine – before every prayer. If they urinated while standing, there’s a good chance that some urine would drip on them or their clothes. We also wash their private parts with water after urinating, and bathrooms typically have bidets, hoses near the toilet, or water jugs. From what I understand, squatting to use the toilet is much better for us anyway, as is done with Arabic toilets (and many styles of toilets around the world). Since I was a 35-year-old American woman when I became Muslim, I have tried both ways and I can confirm that washing with water is much more hygienic.</p>
<p>“Muslims are sometimes surprised to find out that Americans don’t use water. They also are amazed when they see scenes in films where men stand next to each other at urinals. For one thing, a practicing Muslim wouldn’t uncover his private parts in front of others, except his wife. The other thing is that the men in the movies usually just zip up, and walk out of the bathroom without eve washing their hands, which is quite shocking).”</p>
<p>Footnote: My initial observations on the three-card monte game being played on Capitol Hill first appeared in The print edition of The Nation that went to press last Wednesday. Unlike my attack on Arnold Schwarzenegger two weeks earlier <a href="nurses.html" type="external">www.counterpunch.org/nurses.html</a>, my thoughts on the one-party state was not featured on The Nation’s cover.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | 160 lionlike democrats sound circle around social security roaring defiance years servility even dare shake fists alan greenspan hurl insults man chairman federal reserve put decorous word social security reform last month house minority leader harry reid nevada made bold call greenspan hack paul krugman primly chastised ralph nader back 2000 wanting reeducate greenspan pelts chairman rotten cabbages almost weekly basis new york times column presumably enough democrats realize cant seen putting fight social security last supposed major reason anyone support party disappeared anyone claiming choice abortion powerful reason offer obvious republicans never formally move rescind legality abortions merely continue enterprise countless democrats colluded making harder harder poor women get one etiquette substantive oneparty rule america requires us overlook facts preliminary salvoes advertising need reform launched late daniel patrick moynihan bill clinton social security privatization far advanced secret team supervision assistant treasury secretary lawrence summers discussing number individual retirement accounts fortunately monica lewinsky caught clintons eye long impeachment need liberal support front mind democrats get boast midterm elections next year fought bush standstill key plank presidents domestic agenda meanwhile republicans many desire social security reform hung round necks roll two long cherished bills congress crucial democratic support near end february many democrats house okayed republican bill transfer large class action suits state federal courts state courts awarded big settlements tobacco asbestos companies federal judges consistently cut back big awards transfer suits huge victory business lobby earlier february senate passed bill 72 26 among democrats voting bill written chamber commerce national association manufacturers supposed bright hopes obama illinois salazar colorado bayh indiana along possible aspirants 2008 nomination dodd connecticut early march less 18 democratic senators joined republicans voting bill banks credit card companies touting years rewrite bankruptcy laws mandate lifetime debt peonage ordinary americans house soon follow suit bill passed senate require many people filing bankruptcy court protection repay portion debt chapter 13 bankruptcy code rather allowing wipe chapter 7 ive seen estimates change could force 30000 100000 additional filers year chapter 13 maybe multiply numbers many americans virtually leeway monthly budgets copay relatively minor health emergency sends scrambling loanshops interest rates start move upwards many households flexible mortgage rates default plummet bankruptcy debt peonage rest lives current trend among countries china japan india reduce dollar holdings continues dollars status plummet eventually role worlds reserve currency come end longer asian nations subsidize americas debt consequence cost living ordinary americans start soar pushing even edge dollar tumbles one keystones 1950s used termed reverently american way life meaning coarse material terms civilization guaranteed middle class affordable higher education decent jobs consequent upon oneparty america voted jobs leave 1990s enough democrats republicans voted free trade pacts agreements saw blue collar jobs white collar jobs flow south east us department labor reported march 373000 discouraged college graduates dropped labor force february far higher number number new jobs created far 21st century reagans former assistant treasury secretary fierce bush critic paul craig roberts writes website scant sign american new economy promised knowledgebased jobs appeared contrary bureau labor statistics reports net loss 221000 jobs six major engineering job classifications fair say revamp bankruptcy laws sinister menacing portent shape things come would physical construction new debtors prison middle classes every american town match prisons poor already planted outback jude wanniski points make difficult households businesses declare bankruptcy get relief deflation cause national crime rate rise quickly sharply course affect society ways increase number divorces abortions quickly add households kind economic stress dismal pass reached oneparty america days auto manufacturing jobs ontario canada michigan usa canada national health plan tacitly sometimes openly gm ford favor one us since health biggest item budgets us senators michigan oppose national health plan democrats thats reality oneparty america republican senate whip mitch mcconnell senior republicans hill remarked gleefully bushs social security reform like threecard monte democrats circle round dramatic defensive postured round old new deal program republicans drive corporate agenda tort reform bankruptcy drilling arctic national wildlife reserve enough democrats hawaiian senators inouye akaka throwing votes oil usual alaska delegation 2010 democrat fix social security nepal king maoists dear editors counterpunch deeply shocked saddened counterpunch published grossly royalist interpretation events nepal bhisma karkis recent piece httpswwwcounterpunchorg garb prodemocracy writer author piece basically justified antidemocratic coup nepals king gyanendra nepali neither ever present member nepali political organisation indian journalist write basis experiences recent visit nepal time managed visit areas significant maoist presence military political also stayed kathmandu many days met whole cross section civil society place nepal find one person spoke well king well correct except superintendent police maoistcontrolled district press secretary king one person good word say nepal king included range people top journalists leaders democratic political parties taxi drivers unorganized workers human rights activists people street number extent human rights abuses committed kings armed forces using guns given us indian governments fight maoists could fill many many webpages one visited nepal kept hisher eyes firmly shut could ever support king doneis author many people met greatly disliked maoists cavalier attitude towards democracy democratic processes disagreed strategy tactics put scale comparison king fact regular opinion heard nepal democratic parties maoists shared much common unite oust king kings coup earth mr karki say democratic parties king one side maoists look wwwinsnorg website see active democracy movement nepal actually situation compared mr karkis fairy tale fraternally lala popat lal muslim practices jenna orkin writes us responses memories kawaggi westerner saudi arabia wwwcounterpunchcomorkin03052005html many protested explanation someone gave muslim women dont take husbands name correct record excerpt one letter ann ronayne muslim woman living gulf region child girl boy born first name chosen rest name automatically determined second name fathers first name third name grandfathers first name etc family name end ms orkin certainly alone misunderstanding western media seems unaware names represent example name saddam hussein indicates saddams fathers first name hussein hussein saddams last name sons uday saddam hussein qusay saddam hussein anyway ties kinship important muslims ties traced back simply looking someones name wouldnt make sense woman change last name since would attributing fatherhood fatherinlaw muslim women find strange american women change identities marry divorce idea wife worthy husbands name isnt even logical last name male relatives husbands female relatives last name matter fact many saudis marry within tribes man woman often last names anyway reading ms ronaynes letter realized would reasonable say west recently woman considered worthy passing name children ms ronayne also provided enlightening humbling explanation muslim hygiene true muslims dont urinate standing matter cleanliness one must pure filth example urine every prayer urinated standing theres good chance urine would drip clothes also wash private parts water urinating bathrooms typically bidets hoses near toilet water jugs understand squatting use toilet much better us anyway done arabic toilets many styles toilets around world since 35yearold american woman became muslim tried ways confirm washing water much hygienic muslims sometimes surprised find americans dont use water also amazed see scenes films men stand next urinals one thing practicing muslim wouldnt uncover private parts front others except wife thing men movies usually zip walk bathroom without eve washing hands quite shocking footnote initial observations threecard monte game played capitol hill first appeared print edition nation went press last wednesday unlike attack arnold schwarzenegger two weeks earlier wwwcounterpunchorgnurseshtml thoughts oneparty state featured nations cover 160 160 160 160 160 | 1,212 |
<p>Last Tuesday’s elections have spawned many myths, some half-truths and a few truths. The first myth is that the Republican Party swept the elections. Americans remain split evenly between Democrats and Republicans. Of the 78 million votes that were cast, only 41,000 votes in just two states determined who ultimately gained control of the Senate. As expected, voter turn out was low, at 39%. In California, the most populous state, it was 32%.</p>
<p>The second myth is that anyone who voted against the “Attack Iraq” resolution was defeated. Congresswoman Nancy Pilosi of San Francisco, who had opposed the resolution, won hands down with more than 80% of the vote. She is about to become the first woman House Minority Whip, with the departure of Richard Gephardt from that position. Across the Bay, in Oakland, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who not only voted against the “Attack Iraq” resolution-but who had also cast the single negative vote in the entire House of Representatives against the “Attack Afghanistan” resolution-won with more than 80% of the vote. At the same time, Democratic incumbents Max Cleland of Georgia and Jean Carnahan of Missouri, who had voted in favor of the resolution, were defeated.</p>
<p>The third myth is that George W. Bush is invincible. The Republicans did indeed gain control of both Houses of Congress, but their majorities are small. As noted by the Economist, “The next race for the presidency could be just as close as the last one.” With his poor syntax and strident tone, President Bush comes across as a bumbling if indignant simpleton to many Americans who believe he is simply a front man for right-wing hawks in the Republican Party. Bush has neither the intellect of Bill Clinton nor the charisma of John F. Kennedy. He has none of the story telling ability of Ronald Reagan. And he lacks the humanism of Jimmy Carter.</p>
<p>The first half-truth is that President Bush pulled off a feat that had only happened a century ago under President Theodore Roosevelt. While it is indeed true that he is the first Republican president since Teddy Roosevelt to have gained control over both houses in a mid-term election, two other Democrats have performed the same feat. Franklin D. Roosevelt picked up seats after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and John F. Kennedy picked up seats after the Cuban missile crisis.</p>
<p>The first truth is that the Republicans ran on a single-point agenda that capitalized on the tragic events of September 11. Karl Rove, who sits in the West Wing of the White House, masterminded the election strategy. He helped to refine part of Bush’s stump speech that drew some of the biggest applause during the campaign trail. He insisted that the president make a reference to acts of terrorism against civilian Americans, and vow to “hunt down these cold-blooded killers one by one.” This phrase capitalized on a psychology of fear that had been triggered by the horrific events of 9/11. It rekindled concerns about future dangers, by reminding voters of the imminent threat posed by Saddam’s use of weapons of mass destruction. The threat, in an unexpected way, became very tangible as two snipers went on a three-week rampage of serial killings in the vicinity of Washington, DC.</p>
<p>The second truth is the president’s blitz campaign during the last five days before the elections-in which he went on a ten thousand mile tour, visiting seventeen cities in fifteen states-made a major impact. Ken Duberstein, a former chief of staff to President Reagan, said, “It took the oxygen out of other issues. When the president comes into a state, all the news is dominated by the president and Air Force One.” The president’s decision to visit Minnesota, and campaign on behalf of the Republican Senate candidate, may well be the primary reason why former vice president Walter Mondale was defeated in the Senate race. The Democratic incumbent, Senator Paul Wellstone, was widely expected to have been re-elected, had he not been killed in a plane crash a few days prior to the election. He had voted against the Attack Iraq resolution.</p>
<p>The third truth is that the Democrats did not offer a credible alternative on domestic policy, especially on how to fix the ailing the economy. They failed to exploit the obvious opportunities that such a situation presents to the opposition party in any country. Examples of overlooked facts include the following. Consumer confidence is at its lowest level in nine years. Corporate scandals continue unabated. The National Bureau of Economic Research has not announced that the recession that began in March 2001 is over, and economists expect the GDP to grow at an anemic rate of 1% in the fourth quarter. To jump-start a stalled economy, a nervous Federal Reserve Bank has cut the federal funds rate by half a percentage point to 1.25%. The rate, which was 6.5% just a year ago, has been cut 11 times so far. The US budget has a deficit of $159 billion, and it is still expected to be in the red next year by $145 billion, prior to counting the cost of a war against Iraq. If current trends continue, the deficit is likely to rise to the $200-300 billion range by the year 2005.</p>
<p>The fourth truth is that the Democrats lined up behind the president on foreign policy, and were anxious to not be seen as wimps, appeasers or unpatriotic. Thus, they joined the Republicans in supporting the White House’s Attack Iraq resolution. When it passed with a two-third majority in the House and a three-quarter’s majority in the Senate, they simply conceded leadership to President Bush who is now “as strong as potash” according to Democratic Senator Zell Miller of Georgia.</p>
<p>In summary, the Republicans are indeed victorious, and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi has said, “we’ll go on the offensive now.” The most visible trend will be the continued militarization of US foreign policy. A Department of Home Security will be established, and the Attorney General will continue to curtail civil liberties by prosecuting Americans under the PARIOT act. There will be more targeted killings of alleged al-Qaida leaders using Hellfire missiles. War against Iraq is a virtual certainty, and will most likely occur in January of February. Washington under the Republicans will continue to pursue a strategy for remaking the entire Muslim world, beginning with the Middle East and proceeding on to Central Asia. All of this may herald victory for the Democrats in 2004.</p>
<p>AHMAD FARUQUI, an economist, is a fellow with the American Institute of International Studies and the author of <a href="" type="internal">Rethinking the National Security of Pakistan</a>. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:faruqui@pacbell.net" type="external">faruqui@pacbell.net</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | last tuesdays elections spawned many myths halftruths truths first myth republican party swept elections americans remain split evenly democrats republicans 78 million votes cast 41000 votes two states determined ultimately gained control senate expected voter turn low 39 california populous state 32 second myth anyone voted attack iraq resolution defeated congresswoman nancy pilosi san francisco opposed resolution hands 80 vote become first woman house minority whip departure richard gephardt position across bay oakland congresswoman barbara lee voted attack iraq resolutionbut also cast single negative vote entire house representatives attack afghanistan resolutionwon 80 vote time democratic incumbents max cleland georgia jean carnahan missouri voted favor resolution defeated third myth george w bush invincible republicans indeed gain control houses congress majorities small noted economist next race presidency could close last one poor syntax strident tone president bush comes across bumbling indignant simpleton many americans believe simply front man rightwing hawks republican party bush neither intellect bill clinton charisma john f kennedy none story telling ability ronald reagan lacks humanism jimmy carter first halftruth president bush pulled feat happened century ago president theodore roosevelt indeed true first republican president since teddy roosevelt gained control houses midterm election two democrats performed feat franklin roosevelt picked seats japanese attack pearl harbor john f kennedy picked seats cuban missile crisis first truth republicans ran singlepoint agenda capitalized tragic events september 11 karl rove sits west wing white house masterminded election strategy helped refine part bushs stump speech drew biggest applause campaign trail insisted president make reference acts terrorism civilian americans vow hunt coldblooded killers one one phrase capitalized psychology fear triggered horrific events 911 rekindled concerns future dangers reminding voters imminent threat posed saddams use weapons mass destruction threat unexpected way became tangible two snipers went threeweek rampage serial killings vicinity washington dc second truth presidents blitz campaign last five days electionsin went ten thousand mile tour visiting seventeen cities fifteen statesmade major impact ken duberstein former chief staff president reagan said took oxygen issues president comes state news dominated president air force one presidents decision visit minnesota campaign behalf republican senate candidate may well primary reason former vice president walter mondale defeated senate race democratic incumbent senator paul wellstone widely expected reelected killed plane crash days prior election voted attack iraq resolution third truth democrats offer credible alternative domestic policy especially fix ailing economy failed exploit obvious opportunities situation presents opposition party country examples overlooked facts include following consumer confidence lowest level nine years corporate scandals continue unabated national bureau economic research announced recession began march 2001 economists expect gdp grow anemic rate 1 fourth quarter jumpstart stalled economy nervous federal reserve bank cut federal funds rate half percentage point 125 rate 65 year ago cut 11 times far us budget deficit 159 billion still expected red next year 145 billion prior counting cost war iraq current trends continue deficit likely rise 200300 billion range year 2005 fourth truth democrats lined behind president foreign policy anxious seen wimps appeasers unpatriotic thus joined republicans supporting white houses attack iraq resolution passed twothird majority house threequarters majority senate simply conceded leadership president bush strong potash according democratic senator zell miller georgia summary republicans indeed victorious senate majority leader trent lott mississippi said well go offensive visible trend continued militarization us foreign policy department home security established attorney general continue curtail civil liberties prosecuting americans pariot act targeted killings alleged alqaida leaders using hellfire missiles war iraq virtual certainty likely occur january february washington republicans continue pursue strategy remaking entire muslim world beginning middle east proceeding central asia may herald victory democrats 2004 ahmad faruqui economist fellow american institute international studies author rethinking national security pakistan reached faruquipacbellnet 160 | 611 |
<p>“Your government thanks you for your participation.” &#160;– PSA from ‘The Purge: Election Year’</p>
<p>Shawn Helton <a href="http://wp.me/p3bwni-j2Y" type="external">21st Century Wire</a></p>
<p>A hyper-real vision of America serves as a stark backdrop for Hollywood’s&#160;social science fiction horror&#160;film,&#160; <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4094724/" type="external">The Purge: Election Year</a>.</p>
<p>The Purge: Election Year (2016)&#160;is the&#160;third installment of the ‘Purge’ film franchise,&#160;arriving on&#160;screen just in time for the hotly contested 2016 presidential election between presumptive nominees Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.</p>
<p>The film’s recent release also hit theaters prior to a wave of bizarre shootings and street protests now gripping the nation, something which we’ll discuss in greater detail later on in this article.</p>
<p>The timing of this film’s release in relation to current events cannot be overstated, and readers would not be amiss in questioning whether this is merely a coincidence, or if there is a deeper social engineering agenda at play here.</p>
<p>‘DIVIDE &amp; RULE’ – Gangs and counter gangs take center stage in “The Purge: Election Year.”</p>
<p>Election Year‘s action picks up in 2028, on the eve of the ’25th sanctioned purge’, where from dusk til dawn&#160;(for one day a year on March 21st – 22nd), America “purges” itself &#160;– suspending state emergency response and police protection as all&#160;crime is legalized – including murder.</p>
<p>The 12 hour ‘civic duty’ instituted by&#160;the cloaked governmental cabal known as the New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA) is an event enacted after the&#160;country plunged into economic ruin and soaring round-the-clock crime rates. The purge is a type of pressure release valve and the&#160;NFFA’s answer to America’s growing desire for class warfare and social decay.</p>
<p>Though a more complete background about the true origins of NFFA are scant, there’s no doubt the group represents a right-wing political faction on the surface (think neoconservatives on steroids). However, as we’ll discover in this often strongly violent, sometimes campy, if not revelatory creation, not everything is entirely as it seems in the&#160;powder-keg of this seemingly alternate reality set in a not-too-distant future.</p>
<p>Over the course of this analysis, we’ll touch on key political aspects observed in the film, while also examining the violent fiction that often bleeds over into reality…</p>
<p><a href="http://static.srcdn.com/slir/w1000-h500-q90-c1000:500/wp-content/uploads/Lincoln-Memorial-in-The-Purge-Election-Year.jpg" type="external" /> ‘NIGHT OF RAGE’ – A subliminal purging of American history.&#160;</p>
<p>Understanding The Purge: Election Year</p>
<p>The Purge: Election Year, was written and directed by&#160;James DeMonaco, and is full of contradictions.</p>
<p>On one hand, the film artificially critiques the violent world cast by NFFA head Caleb Warren (played by actor Raymond J. Barry), while at the same time overlooking the mayhem caused by ‘anti-purge’ revolutionaries seeking social change.</p>
<p>In essence, Election Year creates a&#160;duplicitous platform which carefully presents only two sides, or choices, for the audience – fascist savagery which is not excused, and social justice savagery which is excusable.</p>
<p>This is where Election Year seems to subtly direct the viewer to believe that the ‘activist’ violence depicted in the film is a&#160;necessary evil in the pursuit of social justice, when in reality the anti-purge resistance group of leftist radicals (resembling Black Lives Matter and the Black Panthers) led by Dante Bishop (Edwin Hodge), in many ways functions similarly to that of the far-right NFFA – using brute force to carry out its own political and social reform agenda.</p>
<p>It should also be noted here that both opposing sides of this political divide will happily deploy (cynically of otherwise) their own violent street mobs to enforce their particular political agenda.</p>
<p>Within the framework of this story’s rigid political dialectic, and with irreconcilable polar opposite sides at odds, the film appears to be making another point: that civil war is not only inevitable, it’s necessary in order for the political and social ‘evolution’ to take place.</p>
<p><a href="http://fullact.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/the-purge-election-year-wants-you-to-think-its-about-donald-trump-and-bernie-sanders-8" type="external" /> ‘ANTI-PURGE-PANTHERS’ – A pivotal scene where anti-purge leader Dante Bishop seeks to assassinate NFFA rulers.&#160;</p>
<p>Although the film appears to reflect some emerging aspects of today’s real politik, there is an underlying political perspective that isn’t often discussed present in the film. Think of the merging neoliberal and&#160;neoconservative factions in <a href="http://blog.nj.com/njv_paul_mulshine/2012/04/good_piece_on_the_trotskyite_r.html" type="external">real-life politics</a>, where many fascist views and radical ideologies have become blurred, with the popular 20th century left-wing ideology rooted in its connection to&#160;Leon Trotsky‘s theory of Marxism called&#160; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trotskyism" type="external">Trotskyism</a> – a&#160;theory where world-wide socialism is achieved only through ongoing revolution.</p>
<p>Going back to Election Year, we know that the NFFA’s ‘evolution/revolution’ overthrew the United States government as an answer to many social ills and in a similar way ‘anti-purge’ rebels are seeking to disband the NFFA in favor of their own system of social justice.</p>
<p>Although not addressed by the film’s writers, acknowledging political reality should leave viewers with another fundamental question: how long before the anti-purge rebels take the place of the NFFA as the next Junta?</p>
<p>Let’s rewind for a moment, and briefly review Election Year’s plot, before returning to the political analysis…</p>
<p>CASTING: Blonde, middle aged Charlie Roan is running for president in The Purge.</p>
<p>Election Year‘s main plot sees the return of&#160;Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo) from The Purge: Anarchy, and&#160;this time he’s heading security for fictional woman (with more than a passing resemblance to US presidential Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Senator Charlie Roan&#160;(Elizabeth Mitchell), who is running for president against NFFA rival&#160;Minister Edwidge Owen (Kyle Secor). We learn the Roan herself was once a victim of a purge eighteen years earlier, resulting in the death of her family.&#160;The Purge itself, was the impetus for Roan’s political evolution.</p>
<p>Flash forward to the presidential primaries, as Roan lays out a plan to eradicate America’s new brutal pastime, much to the chagrin of the filmmaker’s preferred villains, the NFFA.&#160;This then caused the NFFA to lift a purge ban on targeting politicians, putting Roan on the NFFA’s proxy hit-list.</p>
<p>Roan attempts to wait out the 25th purge under a 12 hour watch at home. Barnes quickly realizes that the Senator has been betrayed by her staff and an assassination attempt is carried out by the NFFA&#160;directed ‘Neo-Nazi’&#160;mercenaries&#160;led by Earl Danzinger (Terry Serpico) who is seen with a Confederate flag patch, while also sporting nazi symbols.</p>
<p>The mercenaries in the film immediately remind one of the 2014&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Odessa clashes</a> and subsequent <a href="" type="internal">Massacre there</a> which was exacerbated by US-backed paramilitary Neo-Nazi thugs who were also used in Kiev’s color revolution coup d’etat centered in Maidan Square. It was later revealed that the political turmoil was being run by Hillary Clinton’s Asst. Secretary of State Victoria Nuland who effectively <a href="" type="internal">engineered ‘regime change’ in the Ukraine</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.trbimg.com/img-573e0d4e/turbine/os-trailer-the-purge-election-year-20160519/1050/1050x591" type="external" /> ‘RADICAL REWRITE’ – Hellish images of murdering tourists dressed like original ‘Founding Fathers’ comes across as heavy-handed politics.&#160;</p>
<p>After surviving the attempt on their lives, Barnes and Roan escape the coup and take to the streets in a quasi eugenics-themed “survival of the fittest” chase-filled scene, where the heroes are fighting off murdering tourists who’ve traveled to America for a murder vacation, along with fascist mercenary contractors, and also dealing with&#160;a pack of devilishly dolled up teenagers.</p>
<p><a href="http://horrorfuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/purge-ey-3.jpg" type="external" /> ‘GLITTER &amp; DEATH’ – A teenage brigade of banshees target a shop owner on purge night after not being able to steal from him.</p>
<p>While Barnes and Roan race through the streets of downtown DC they get help from a spirited deli shop owner&#160;Joe Dixon&#160;(Mykelti Williamson) who has been forced to protect what he owns because his insurance coverage was dropped (a nod to Obamacare?), alongside&#160;his shop assistant&#160;Marcos (Joseph Julian Soria) who immigrated to America.</p>
<p>‘AMERICAN TERROR’:&#160; Bill Ayers was the brain-child of 1960’s domestic radical group the Weather Underground. (Image Source: <a href="" type="internal">21WIRE</a>)</p>
<p>Agitprop &amp; Government Control</p>
<p>Hollywood often twists real world chaos into a muddled cocktail for audiences to consume.</p>
<p>As&#160;Election Year&#160;pits a leftist&#160;radical activist group against the&#160;neocon-like NFFA (along with their fascist paramilitary thugs) we see perhaps the film’s true intentions, as it presents a&#160; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left%E2%80%93right_paradigm" type="external">false left-right paradigm</a>&#160;from which to choose from.</p>
<p>When Election Year progresses, issues over race and immigration weave their way into the film’s character development. This, along with other indicators mentioned previously, reveals a communitarian ethos as part of the film’s core narrative.</p>
<p>Although subtle, the film’s most shocking mission seems to be a rather preposterous attempt to present a rigid dialectic, where ultra-violence is used to implement the anti-violent political narrative dispensed by Senator Roan and her supporters. The implied conclusion: violence is not only inevitable, it’s necessary in order to achieve political and social evolution, also referred to as change.</p>
<p>Incredulously, Roan and those closest to her, later employ the notorious CRIPs street gang to fend off the NFFA’s fascist Gladio-like operators to survive the final hours of Election Year‘s purge.</p>
<p>The film’s use of known street gangs in this story brings up some interesting points. Historically speaking, the CRIPs <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crips" type="external">were spawned</a> in 1969, a few years after the militant black rights group the Black Panthers Party (BBP) was built up and steered into armed militancy by the FBI through the use of a confidential informant <a href="https://www.revealnews.org/article/new-fbi-files-show-wide-range-of-black-panther-informants-activities/" type="external">Richard Aoki</a>. In this way, the FBI, aided by the media, helped to stir-up racial tension in America. It is also widely known that the&#160; <a href="http://www.pbs.org/hueypnewton/actions/actions_cointelpro.html" type="external">FBI created the counter-intelligence program</a>&#160;(COINTELPRO) to influence and disrupt political factions from the inside out. Between 1956 and 1971 (including the Socialist Workers party in 1973), the FBI’s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1975/10/06/archives/fbi-checking-of-radicals-went-on-beyond-deadline-check-of-radicals.html?_r=0" type="external">controversial program</a> infiltrated and radicalized hundreds of left-wing and right-wing groups&#160;to control and neutralize political dissidents across America. Moreover, during the Days of Rage in 1969, the FBI was said to have been “tracking specific members” of the&#160;Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).&#160;The SDS was heavily connected to 60’s political agitators turned domestic terrorists, ‘The Weather Underground’. Many concluded that the group’s leader, Bill Ayers, was also an <a href="" type="internal">interloper looking for new recruits</a>&#160;who could be easily manipulated into hostile action.</p>
<p>Election Year‘s use of the CRIPs gang seems ironic, <a href="https://www.policeone.com/gangs/articles/6336534-Book-Excerpt-How-a-white-cop-infiltrated-the-crips/" type="external">considering how police are on record</a> as having also infiltrated gangs like the CRIPs, as well as likely having had direct influence on the group since the 1960’s. So what appears to be a street gang rising up against a group of paramilitary mercenaries&#160;in the film – in reality would really be a form of controlled opposition directed and steered by government infiltrators on either side. This is a reality which is routinely omitted from most TV and film narratives pretending to depict real world gangs and terrorist organizations.</p>
<p>Similarly, the “anti-purge rebels,” led by Bishop, resemble an amalgam of the George Soros <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/14/george-soros-funds-ferguson-protests-hopes-to-spur/" type="external">funded</a> Black Lives Matter ‘movement’, as well as other 1960’s radical militant organizations.</p>
<p>Operation CHAOS</p>
<p>Also during the 1960’s and the 1970’s the CIA’s Operation CHAOS “collected substantial amounts of information on domestic dissidents from 1967 to 1973,” as <a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol20no2/html/v20i2a01p_0001.htm" type="external">admitted by the CIA</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348786526l/157258.jpg" type="external" />Over 40 years ago, a horrific crime spree took place sometime between&#160;1972 -1974 that was dubbed the Zebra Murders. It was a shocking crime spree that shook the San Francisco area to the core.</p>
<p>The murders were supposedly&#160;refered to as Zebra, because the radio communications channel that police talked over was channel Z. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Zebra-Murders-Season-Killing-Madness/dp/1611450438" type="external">Reportedly</a>, four Black Muslim men calling themselves the ‘Death Angels’&#160;were spawned from a known cointelpro hangout, Nation of Islam.</p>
<p>The Death Angels were said to have shot future Mayor of San Francisco Art Angos. Some researchers on the subject have suggested that the Death Angels were trained counter-intelligence assassins tasked with fomenting a race war in America.</p>
<p>Predictive Programming &amp; Agent Provocateurs</p>
<p>There are many overlapping political memes present in The Purge: Election Year –&#160;you have the idea of a political&#160;assassination, disenfranchised militant groups, a faux anti-violent message masked as gun control, and fascist&#160;overlords. So while Election Year, comes across as a sometimes silly socio-political horror action film, its purpose may be to <a href="http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_mediacontrol66.htm" type="external">condition the public</a> in accepting certain ideas and perhaps even certain political outcomes domestically in the US – something which already&#160;seems to be happening.</p>
<p>Election Year echoes the apparent ‘strategy of tension’ we are seeing today during America’s present 2016 presidential election campaign. <a href="" type="internal">Earlier this year</a>, we outlined how certain political game changers were targeting the Trump campaign, as the George Soros-funded Democrat Party-oriented advocacy group <a href="http://front.moveon.org/moveon-trumps-hate-filled-rhetoric-on-notice-after-tonights-event/#.VuSd8_krLIU" type="external">MoveOn.org</a> and&#160;host of other splinter groups associated with Black Lives Matter, played a large role in&#160;the Chicago University student-organized shutdown at a Trump campaign rally. Since then, numerous protests and violent confrontations have been organized, serving as a disruptive force in what would normally be normal US election cycle. Left-wing critics routinely cite Donald Trump as the reason for the all the high-profile confrontations, trying to rationalize how he is somehow attracting the flash mob – when in reality the flash mobs are being organized via a few foundation-funded ‘community organizing’ portals like MoveOn.org.</p>
<p><a href="http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/da/aa/daaa802a3103ac1c552889d85156d532.jpg?itok=BrfMP4kW" type="external" /> ‘BLACK BLOC’ –&#160;Black bloc provocateurs,&#160;have violently escalated protest movements since the 1980’s, including 2011’s Occupy Wall Street Movement (Image Source:&#160; <a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/union-s-mafiaso-rights" type="external">examiner</a>)</p>
<p>The echoes have still been felt from the partly <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2913625/Billionaire-George-Soros-spent-33MILLION-bankrolling-Ferguson-demonstrators-create-echo-chamber-drive-national-protests.html" type="external">Soros-funded protests</a> in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, and the Baltimore Riots of 2015, something which immediately recalls the misguided machinations of The Occupy Movement (aka OWS) in 2011, an event that&#160;turned out to be a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/nov/15/occupy-global-elite" type="external">think-tank-spun</a> divide and conquer stratagem designed to&#160;push naive&#160;participants into violent action.</p>
<p><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CdTwVLYWwAEBnn0.jpg:large" type="external" /> ‘CHICAGO CHAOS’ – Bernie Sanders supporters join Black Lives Matter linked groups to shutdown Trump rally (Image Source:&#160; <a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CdTwVLYWwAEBnn0.jpg:large" type="external">twitter</a>)</p>
<p>The Dallas Agenda</p>
<p>Just days after the release of Election Year, two controversial <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/world/world-news/dallas-the-turbulent-days-that-led-to-the-killing-of-police-officers-2901024/" type="external">officer involved shootings</a>&#160;in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and also in St. Paul, Minnesota, led to a highly coordinated protest march in downtown Dallas that erupted into chaos after a <a href="" type="internal">‘sniper’ ambush</a> targeted police.</p>
<p>Shortly after the attacks, The Daily Star <a href="http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/528591/Dallas-shootings-claim-responsibility-for-attack-that-killed-5-cops" type="external">first reported</a> a group claiming responsibility, “A group named ‘Black Power Political Organization – BPPO’ posted to its Facebook page this morning claiming there would be more attacks in the coming days,” but this narrative quickly shifted after the report connected the&#160;Black Men Entrepreneurship Foundation as being linked to BPPO through the same number, as reporters reached an unidentified Jamaican, “…When asked if he was directly involved in the attack, he responded saying: “maybe.”</p>
<p>The overtly conspiracy-tinged aspect witnessed in mainstream media is one that conjures many Hollywood or government tales of murder, deception and intrigue throughout history. The introduction of any new ‘hate group’ on the scene only enhances the drive by media voyeurism and fear seen after many Daily Shooter events.</p>
<p><a href="https://img.rt.com/files/2016.07/original/577f970cc36188f1098b4591.jpg" type="external" /> ‘MEDIA MISDIRECTION’ – Is BPPO a real entity – or a social media invention to stir the masses? (Image Source:&#160; <a href="https://img.rt.com/files/2016.07/original/577f970cc36188f1098b4591.jpg" type="external">rt</a>)</p>
<p>According to Dallas officials, 5 police officers were shot and killed with another 7 wounded (injured only two civilians). Initially, it believed that 3 or 4 other armed militants were involved – but in less than 24 hours, authorities stated it was a lone gunman, Micah Xavier Johnson.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="" type="internal">Here at 21WIRE</a>, we’ve outlined many of the main anomalies supporters concerning the recent Dallas Sniper shooting, while also examining the&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Gladio-style</a>&#160;aspects of the event and so far, it appears that the heavily choreographed and emotionally driven incident has left another&#160; <a href="http://ethics.wikia.com/wiki/Problem_Reaction_Solution" type="external">problem, reaction, solution</a>&#160;in its wake.</p>
<p>Notice the Dallas Police Department tweet (left side) where members of the DPD are seen smiling beside a “No justice, No Peace,” supporter, just hours before the sniper ambush.</p>
<p>Here’s an interesting analysis from YouTube&#160;Redsilverj, who makes many historical comparisons while breaking down the so-called Dallas ‘sniper’ shooting…</p>
<p>Recently, 21WIRE’s Patrick Henningsen&#160; <a href="" type="internal">outlined the political fallout</a> seen after The Dallas Deception. Something&#160;which&#160;perpetuates the established narrative concerning socio-political concerns:</p>
<p>“The Dallas Shooting is significant on a number of levels.</p>
<p>Firstly, Dallas will further accentuate the artificial divide between what Americans perceive as the ‘Left’ or liberal wing of political society, and the what is sold as America’s ‘Right’ or conservative wing. In this dialectic, Democrat is set against Republican, young against old, black is pitted against white, wealthy against poor, upper class against middle class, and even middle class against lower class. In the run-up to the Presidential election in November, this division will be important in order to polarize America along a prefabricated dialectical line and thus keeping the national discourse down at a base, or emotional level – and through this binary process avoid any real examination of America’s fundamental issues, policy flaws and the federal government’s unsustainable bloated borrow &amp; spend habit – effectively kicking the can down the road another 4 years (which seems to be the norm). Ultimately, this serves the state, its bureaucratic stakeholders and the power structure as a whole.”</p>
<p>Gangs, Counter Gangs &amp; Dupes</p>
<p>It should also be noted again that&#160; <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/opinion/sunday/terrorist-plots-helped-along-by-the-fbi.html" type="external">the FBI have a long record of inventing terror plots</a> which are then used by western media outlets to promote the public terror theater, including but not limited to ‘would be suicide bomber on his way to Washington DC, a plot to bomb synagogues in New Jersey, a stinger missile-airliner plot, and a toy drone explosives plot against the Pentagon – all contrived through FBI cointel pro operations in the US. Said one expert:</p>
<p>“… all these dramas were facilitated by the F.B.I., whose undercover agents and informers posed as terrorists offering a dummy missile, fake C-4 explosives, a disarmed suicide vest and rudimentary training. Suspects naïvely played their parts until they were arrested.” (see full report <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/opinion/sunday/terrorist-plots-helped-along-by-the-fbi.html" type="external">here</a>)</p>
<p>In a 2007 article by Nafeez Ahmed, entitled “ <a href="http://www.nafeezahmed.com/2007/05/strategy-of-tension.html" type="external">The Strategy of Tension</a>,” we discover the existence of many stay-behind operations under the Gladio umbrella setup by the CIA and other Western intelligence agencies:</p>
<p>“The existence of this secret operation exploded into public controversy when in August 1990 upon the admissions in parliament by Italian Prime Minister <a href="http://www.threemonkeysonline.com/article_nato_gladio_terrorism_strategy_of_tension.htm" type="external">Giulio Andreotti</a>, the existence of ‘Gladio’ was exposed as a secret sub-section of Italian military-intelligence services, responsible for domestic bombings blamed on Italian Communists.”</p>
<p>Jay Dyer of Jay’s analysis&#160;(21WIRE contributor) delves into the Gladio phenomena in the <a href="" type="internal">passage below</a>:</p>
<p>“Like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio" type="external">Operation&#160;Gladio</a> where&#160;from the 50s to the 80s, left-wing “radicals” were blamed for Euro-terror completely engineered and staged&#160;by a covert branch of NATO intelligence and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_Due" type="external">P-2</a> affiliated masonry lodge, similar patterns are seen in today’s “terror cells” and “lone wolf shooters.”</p>
<p>Continuing, Dyer states:</p>
<p>“Indeed, it is the same pattern mentioned above domestically,&#160;with the FBI-hatched terror plots. Terror in these instances functions to exacerbate a “strategy of tension” to smear opposition, promote undue fear, and cajole the populace into accepting more surveillance and security theater.&#160; Dallas saw a similarly implausible story last year of “conspiracy theorist” James Boulware, a “lone wolf shooter” who purportedly shot at police after incoherent online ramblings (which are quite clearly manufactured), and now we are told Micah X has a “manifesto” – a must have for your daily shooter starter pack.”</p>
<p />
<p>Here’s another look at an engaging and insightful interview with author Daniele Ganser, who has painstakingly documented the terror activities of security services through operation GLADIO in his book, “ <a href="http://libcom.org/history/natos-secret-armies-daniele-ganser" type="external">NATO’s Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe</a>.”</p>
<p>Watch Ganser examine the historical evidence of ‘stay-behind’ armies that appear to mirror much of the terror atrocities occurring today…</p>
<p />
<p>In the propaganda war, the government has certain objectives — including movement and maneuver, utilizing intelligence and firing against an enemy — which is the new “ <a href="" type="internal">Inform and Influence Activities</a>” (IIA). As their manual states, IIA “is critical to understanding, visualizing, describing, directing, assessing, and leading operations toward attaining the desired end state.”</p>
<p>It is important to note that psyops are designed to proffer widespread disappointment and fatigue by design, to deliberately cause apathy. They can also be used in other more nefarious ways.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/ccManager/clips/gabrielWhiteHouseMartialLaw.mp4/thumbnailImage" type="external" /> ‘Gabriel Over the White House’ – &#160;An 1933 American film that also blends fascism and socialism.</p>
<p>The Purge’s Social Problem</p>
<p>Though Election Year’s darkly satirical&#160;content is largely geared for a base emotional reaction, it cannot be denied that certain political groups represented in the film appear to reference much of what we’ve outlined above, including a NATO-like stay-behind-army, as discussed in&#160;Daniele Ganser’s research.</p>
<p>Election Year’s climatic scene depicts a devout group of NFFA faithful within a church, all of the congregation appear to be white caucasian&#160;supporters decked out in a Egyptian winged sun emblem that reminds one of the Freemasons square and compass symbol. Here, the NFFA attempt to kill&#160;Senator Roan in a ritual sacrifice but anti-purge rebels intervene, storming the church, killing nearly everyone except Roan’s political rival Minister Edwidge Owen – who she wants spared for their election match-up. The scene is obviously over-the-top, conjuring the&#160;tragic and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJl9iqnvkOE" type="external">suspicious shooting in Charleston</a> last summer through&#160;racially and emotionally charged imagery.&#160;Interestingly, what appears to be absent from Election Year, is the existence of “black-on-black” crime in America – it’s as if every death is meant to polarize the viewer over race.</p>
<p>Months after the 25th purge, the sound of fictional news reports are heard declaring mass riots across the nation following Roan’s victory as president.</p>
<p>Election Year, like other ghoulish Hollywood imaginings, emerges to distort public perception over race, guns, immigration and other socio-political concerns – while tapping into the cultural zeitgeist of America.</p>
<p>Is this a case of Hollywood playing the role of socio-political provocateur in a real American election year?</p>
<p>READ MORE ALTERNATIVE HOLLYWOOD NEWS AT:&#160; <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire Hollywood Files</a></p>
<p>Support our work by subscribing and becoming a member <a href="https://21wire.tv/membership/plans/" type="external">@21WIRE.TV</a></p> | true | 4 | government thanks participation 160 psa purge election year shawn helton 21st century wire hyperreal vision america serves stark backdrop hollywoods160social science fiction horror160film160 purge election year purge election year 2016160is the160third installment purge film franchise160arriving on160screen time hotly contested 2016 presidential election presumptive nominees donald trump hillary clinton films recent release also hit theaters prior wave bizarre shootings street protests gripping nation something well discuss greater detail later article timing films release relation current events overstated readers would amiss questioning whether merely coincidence deeper social engineering agenda play divide amp rule gangs counter gangs take center stage purge election year election years action picks 2028 eve 25th sanctioned purge dusk til dawn160for one day year march 21st 22nd america purges 160 suspending state emergency response police protection all160crime legalized including murder 12 hour civic duty instituted by160the cloaked governmental cabal known new founding fathers america nffa event enacted the160country plunged economic ruin soaring roundtheclock crime rates purge type pressure release valve the160nffas answer americas growing desire class warfare social decay though complete background true origins nffa scant theres doubt group represents rightwing political faction surface think neoconservatives steroids however well discover often strongly violent sometimes campy revelatory creation everything entirely seems the160powderkeg seemingly alternate reality set nottoodistant future course analysis well touch key political aspects observed film also examining violent fiction often bleeds reality night rage subliminal purging american history160 understanding purge election year purge election year written directed by160james demonaco full contradictions one hand film artificially critiques violent world cast nffa head caleb warren played actor raymond j barry time overlooking mayhem caused antipurge revolutionaries seeking social change essence election year creates a160duplicitous platform carefully presents two sides choices audience fascist savagery excused social justice savagery excusable election year seems subtly direct viewer believe activist violence depicted film a160necessary evil pursuit social justice reality antipurge resistance group leftist radicals resembling black lives matter black panthers led dante bishop edwin hodge many ways functions similarly farright nffa using brute force carry political social reform agenda also noted opposing sides political divide happily deploy cynically otherwise violent street mobs enforce particular political agenda within framework storys rigid political dialectic irreconcilable polar opposite sides odds film appears making another point civil war inevitable necessary order political social evolution take place antipurgepanthers pivotal scene antipurge leader dante bishop seeks assassinate nffa rulers160 although film appears reflect emerging aspects todays real politik underlying political perspective isnt often discussed present film think merging neoliberal and160neoconservative factions reallife politics many fascist views radical ideologies become blurred popular 20th century leftwing ideology rooted connection to160leon trotskys theory marxism called160 trotskyism a160theory worldwide socialism achieved ongoing revolution going back election year know nffas evolutionrevolution overthrew united states government answer many social ills similar way antipurge rebels seeking disband nffa favor system social justice although addressed films writers acknowledging political reality leave viewers another fundamental question long antipurge rebels take place nffa next junta lets rewind moment briefly review election years plot returning political analysis casting blonde middle aged charlie roan running president purge election years main plot sees return of160leo barnes frank grillo purge anarchy and160this time hes heading security fictional woman passing resemblance us presidential democratic candidate hillary clinton senator charlie roan160elizabeth mitchell running president nffa rival160minister edwidge owen kyle secor learn roan victim purge eighteen years earlier resulting death family160the purge impetus roans political evolution flash forward presidential primaries roan lays plan eradicate americas new brutal pastime much chagrin filmmakers preferred villains nffa160this caused nffa lift purge ban targeting politicians putting roan nffas proxy hitlist roan attempts wait 25th purge 12 hour watch home barnes quickly realizes senator betrayed staff assassination attempt carried nffa160directed neonazi160mercenaries160led earl danzinger terry serpico seen confederate flag patch also sporting nazi symbols mercenaries film immediately remind one 2014160 odessa clashes subsequent massacre exacerbated usbacked paramilitary neonazi thugs also used kievs color revolution coup detat centered maidan square later revealed political turmoil run hillary clintons asst secretary state victoria nuland effectively engineered regime change ukraine radical rewrite hellish images murdering tourists dressed like original founding fathers comes across heavyhanded politics160 surviving attempt lives barnes roan escape coup take streets quasi eugenicsthemed survival fittest chasefilled scene heroes fighting murdering tourists whove traveled america murder vacation along fascist mercenary contractors also dealing with160a pack devilishly dolled teenagers glitter amp death teenage brigade banshees target shop owner purge night able steal barnes roan race streets downtown dc get help spirited deli shop owner160joe dixon160mykelti williamson forced protect owns insurance coverage dropped nod obamacare alongside160his shop assistant160marcos joseph julian soria immigrated america american terror160 bill ayers brainchild 1960s domestic radical group weather underground image source 21wire agitprop amp government control hollywood often twists real world chaos muddled cocktail audiences consume as160election year160pits leftist160radical activist group the160neoconlike nffa along fascist paramilitary thugs see perhaps films true intentions presents a160 false leftright paradigm160from choose election year progresses issues race immigration weave way films character development along indicators mentioned previously reveals communitarian ethos part films core narrative although subtle films shocking mission seems rather preposterous attempt present rigid dialectic ultraviolence used implement antiviolent political narrative dispensed senator roan supporters implied conclusion violence inevitable necessary order achieve political social evolution also referred change incredulously roan closest later employ notorious crips street gang fend nffas fascist gladiolike operators survive final hours election years purge films use known street gangs story brings interesting points historically speaking crips spawned 1969 years militant black rights group black panthers party bbp built steered armed militancy fbi use confidential informant richard aoki way fbi aided media helped stirup racial tension america also widely known the160 fbi created counterintelligence program160cointelpro influence disrupt political factions inside 1956 1971 including socialist workers party 1973 fbis controversial program infiltrated radicalized hundreds leftwing rightwing groups160to control neutralize political dissidents across america moreover days rage 1969 fbi said tracking specific members the160students democratic society sds160the sds heavily connected 60s political agitators turned domestic terrorists weather underground many concluded groups leader bill ayers also interloper looking new recruits160who could easily manipulated hostile action election years use crips gang seems ironic considering police record also infiltrated gangs like crips well likely direct influence group since 1960s appears street gang rising group paramilitary mercenaries160in film reality would really form controlled opposition directed steered government infiltrators either side reality routinely omitted tv film narratives pretending depict real world gangs terrorist organizations similarly antipurge rebels led bishop resemble amalgam george soros funded black lives matter movement well 1960s radical militant organizations operation chaos also 1960s 1970s cias operation chaos collected substantial amounts information domestic dissidents 1967 1973 admitted cia 40 years ago horrific crime spree took place sometime between1601972 1974 dubbed zebra murders shocking crime spree shook san francisco area core murders supposedly160refered zebra radio communications channel police talked channel z reportedly four black muslim men calling death angels160were spawned known cointelpro hangout nation islam death angels said shot future mayor san francisco art angos researchers subject suggested death angels trained counterintelligence assassins tasked fomenting race war america predictive programming amp agent provocateurs many overlapping political memes present purge election year 160you idea political160assassination disenfranchised militant groups faux antiviolent message masked gun control fascist160overlords election year comes across sometimes silly sociopolitical horror action film purpose may condition public accepting certain ideas perhaps even certain political outcomes domestically us something already160seems happening election year echoes apparent strategy tension seeing today americas present 2016 presidential election campaign earlier year outlined certain political game changers targeting trump campaign george sorosfunded democrat partyoriented advocacy group moveonorg and160host splinter groups associated black lives matter played large role in160the chicago university studentorganized shutdown trump campaign rally since numerous protests violent confrontations organized serving disruptive force would normally normal us election cycle leftwing critics routinely cite donald trump reason highprofile confrontations trying rationalize somehow attracting flash mob reality flash mobs organized via foundationfunded community organizing portals like moveonorg black bloc 160black bloc provocateurs160have violently escalated protest movements since 1980s including 2011s occupy wall street movement image source160 examiner echoes still felt partly sorosfunded protests ferguson missouri 2014 baltimore riots 2015 something immediately recalls misguided machinations occupy movement aka ows 2011 event that160turned thinktankspun divide conquer stratagem designed to160push naive160participants violent action chicago chaos bernie sanders supporters join black lives matter linked groups shutdown trump rally image source160 twitter dallas agenda days release election year two controversial officer involved shootings160in baton rouge louisiana also st paul minnesota led highly coordinated protest march downtown dallas erupted chaos sniper ambush targeted police shortly attacks daily star first reported group claiming responsibility group named black power political organization bppo posted facebook page morning claiming would attacks coming days narrative quickly shifted report connected the160black men entrepreneurship foundation linked bppo number reporters reached unidentified jamaican asked directly involved attack responded saying maybe overtly conspiracytinged aspect witnessed mainstream media one conjures many hollywood government tales murder deception intrigue throughout history introduction new hate group scene enhances drive media voyeurism fear seen many daily shooter events media misdirection bppo real entity social media invention stir masses image source160 rt according dallas officials 5 police officers shot killed another 7 wounded injured two civilians initially believed 3 4 armed militants involved less 24 hours authorities stated lone gunman micah xavier johnson 21wire weve outlined many main anomalies supporters concerning recent dallas sniper shooting also examining the160 gladiostyle160aspects event far appears heavily choreographed emotionally driven incident left another160 problem reaction solution160in wake notice dallas police department tweet left side members dpd seen smiling beside justice peace supporter hours sniper ambush heres interesting analysis youtube160redsilverj makes many historical comparisons breaking socalled dallas sniper shooting recently 21wires patrick henningsen160 outlined political fallout seen dallas deception something160which160perpetuates established narrative concerning sociopolitical concerns dallas shooting significant number levels firstly dallas accentuate artificial divide americans perceive left liberal wing political society sold americas right conservative wing dialectic democrat set republican young old black pitted white wealthy poor upper class middle class even middle class lower class runup presidential election november division important order polarize america along prefabricated dialectical line thus keeping national discourse base emotional level binary process avoid real examination americas fundamental issues policy flaws federal governments unsustainable bloated borrow amp spend habit effectively kicking road another 4 years seems norm ultimately serves state bureaucratic stakeholders power structure whole gangs counter gangs amp dupes also noted that160 fbi long record inventing terror plots used western media outlets promote public terror theater including limited would suicide bomber way washington dc plot bomb synagogues new jersey stinger missileairliner plot toy drone explosives plot pentagon contrived fbi cointel pro operations us said one expert dramas facilitated fbi whose undercover agents informers posed terrorists offering dummy missile fake c4 explosives disarmed suicide vest rudimentary training suspects naïvely played parts arrested see full report 2007 article nafeez ahmed entitled strategy tension discover existence many staybehind operations gladio umbrella setup cia western intelligence agencies existence secret operation exploded public controversy august 1990 upon admissions parliament italian prime minister giulio andreotti existence gladio exposed secret subsection italian militaryintelligence services responsible domestic bombings blamed italian communists jay dyer jays analysis16021wire contributor delves gladio phenomena passage like operation160gladio where160from 50s 80s leftwing radicals blamed euroterror completely engineered staged160by covert branch nato intelligence p2 affiliated masonry lodge similar patterns seen todays terror cells lone wolf shooters continuing dyer states indeed pattern mentioned domestically160with fbihatched terror plots terror instances functions exacerbate strategy tension smear opposition promote undue fear cajole populace accepting surveillance security theater160 dallas saw similarly implausible story last year conspiracy theorist james boulware lone wolf shooter purportedly shot police incoherent online ramblings quite clearly manufactured told micah x manifesto must daily shooter starter pack heres another look engaging insightful interview author daniele ganser painstakingly documented terror activities security services operation gladio book natos secret armies operation gladio terrorism western europe watch ganser examine historical evidence staybehind armies appear mirror much terror atrocities occurring today propaganda war government certain objectives including movement maneuver utilizing intelligence firing enemy new inform influence activities iia manual states iia critical 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<p>Iran, between its burgeoning nuclear program, its active support for terrorism, and its reported meddling in the Iraqi elections, is headed for a showdown with the Bush administration. But what to do about it? In his new book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1400063159?v=glance" type="external">The Persian Puzzle</a>, Kenneth Pollack argues that regime change is not the answer to dealing with Iran—instead, the Bush administration is going to have to flex some diplomatic muscle. It certainly won’t be easy: the U.S. and Iran have built up a lot of animosity over the past few decades, and overcoming this distrust will be difficult, requiring a series of carrots and sticks from both the United States and her allies.</p>
<p>Pollack, a veteran of both the CIA and the National Security Council, recently sat down with MotherJones.com over the phone to talk about Tehran’s long, bloody relationship with the West, its nuclear program, the prospects for regime change, and most critically, the future of America’s Iran policy.</p>
<p>MotherJones.com: Going through the history of Iran, as you do in your book, is really useful. It seems that the conflict between Iran and the U.S. isn’t so much about a geostrategic rivalry, or even necessarily about an ideological conflict per se, so much as a lot of bad blood built up between the two over the past few decades.</p>
<p>Kenneth Pollack: Absolutely. I think if you could remove all of the baggage—all of the ideology, the history, whatever else—and look in purely geostrategic terms, I think it’s hard to figure out why the US and Iran would necessarily be in conflict. In fact during the shah’s era, before 1979—recognizing that there were all kinds of other problems—the US and Iran worked together splendidly at the strategic level.</p>
<p>But the source of the problem is this history—our support for the Shah, the CIA coup in 1953—has become infused into the Iranian political discourse. The regime that came to power in 1979 during the Iranian revolution actually defined itself as anti-American, and that’s now a critical ingredient in the Iranian domestic political debate. That really is the source of our problems—the regime in Tehran continues to see itself as opposing the US. In their eyes, everything the US does is directed at them in a very malevolent way, and therefore they have to fight back against it.</p>
<p>MJ.com: So that’s the Iranian side. On our side, why has the U.S. failed to engage the Iranian regime over the years?</p>
<p>KP: Two reasons. The less important reason is that, in the United States, Iran is nothing but a whipping-boy. Few Americans have any real use for Iran. Most of us, what we know and remember about Iran are things like the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_hostage_crisis" type="external">hostage crisis</a> in 1980, or they think about the Iranian attacks in <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/05/30/iran.barracks.bombing/" type="external">Lebanon</a>, or on the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6581-2004Jun25.html" type="external">Khobar Towers</a>. So you don’t get a whole lot of political mileage in the United States by going out and advocating better relations with the Iranians.</p>
<p>Second reason, and I ultimately think the bigger source of our problems, has actually just been neglect. It’s one of the most consistent patterns that I found in U.S. foreign policy—both in my research, and also from my 17 years in government and in the policy community. The US has just consistently tried to ignore Iran. And this is ironic because the Iranians believe that the United States is as obsessed about them as they are about us.</p>
<p>MJ.com: Now the most pressing Iran issue right now is their nuclear program. Take me through the “Triple-Track” approach you outline in your book for dealing with this issue.</p>
<p>KP: Sure. The first track is to say the Iranians, “Look, we think there is a deal to be cut here. You give up your nuclear program, put it under the sort of inspection and monitoring regime that we had in Iraq, give up your support for terrorism, and stop opposing the Middle East peace process. In return, we’ll lift our sanctions, we’ll settle all the claims dating back to the shah’s era, we’ll bring you into the World Trade Organization, we’ll give you security guarantees, and we’ll create a security structure in the Persian Gulf that benefits you.”</p>
<p>The problem, of course, is that we’ve been offering this deal to the Iranians for the past 20 years, and they’ve never been able to pick it up, often for domestic political reasons. So here you fall back to the second track: a true carrot-and-stick approach, where we work with Europe and Japan to persuade the Iranians that they’re going to have to make a choice. One of the problems we had in the 1990s was that we and the Europeans were on different sheets of music on Iran. We were only interested in sticks: just hit the Iranians and hit ’em harder with sanctions. The Europeans, meanwhile, were only interested in carrots—no matter what the Iranians did, they would turn a blind eye and still offer trade, investment, and foreign aid.</p>
<p>MJ.com: But Europe’s starting to change their approach?</p>
<p>KP: The Europeans are starting to show that they’re finally serious about the Iranian nuclear program, and they appear to be willing to use sticks against Iran. So I think it is imperative that as part of the second track, the United States sit down with the Europeans and say, “Let’s make this very clear to the Iranians. Either they can give up their nuclear program and their support for terrorism, in which case we’ll given them all kinds of benefits. Otherwise, we’ll join in comprehensive, multilateral sanctions that will cripple their very fragile economy.”</p>
<p>MJ.com: And do you think this would really work?</p>
<p>KP: What we’ve seen from the Iranians over the last 15 years is that any time they thought they really were going to get multilateral sanctions, they jumped out of their socks, and reversed course immediately. They’re very vulnerable on the economic front.</p>
<p>MJ.com: So what if we can’t get Europe and Japan on board?</p>
<p>KP: Exactly. I’m not convinced that the second track is going to work. I’ve seen the Europeans sound tough before and not willing to come through. If that’s the case, the Iranians will find it out very quickly. So you have to have the third track: pure containment. Laying down “red lines” for the Iranians, so they know what is and is not permissible. Working harder to shut down the flow of nuclear technology to Iran. Setting up some kind of security structure in the Persian Gulf that will hopefully make other countries feel less anxious about their own security. We need to make Iran understand that they are not able to act aggressively in the Persian Gulf, and that they are paying some kind of price for this continued intransigence.</p>
<p>MJ.com: Now many people have suggested that regime change or some sort of military strike might be better options for dealing with Iran’s nuclear program. What do you think about these options?</p>
<p>KP: Let’s start with the disarming strike. I think here it’s a matter of weighing the costs and benefits. We just don’t know a great deal about the Iranian nuclear program, especially where all of the key Iranian nuclear sites are. I mean, in 2002 we suddenly found about <a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2003/20439.htm" type="external">Arak and Natanz</a>, to our surprise. So it’s just unclear. This would be a very big effort, we’re talking about days of air-strikes, maybe even weeks, and we wouldn’t know what, if anything, we’d accomplished. Meanwhile, we would also pay some very high prices for a strike. We’d set back regime change, because the people would rally around the government. It would preclude any further diplomacy. And beyond all that, the Iranians are very skilled terrorist, and we’d have to expect that they’d hit back at us as hard as they could. Especially in Iraq, where they have a great deal of power and influence. If they wanted to, they could wage a clandestine war against us in Iraq that would be truly horrific. So it just doesn’t look like the costs and befits add up, at least not until a) we have a much better intelligence picture of the nuclear program, b) we’re much less vulnerable in Iraq, and c) not until we’ve exhausted all of our other options. You don’t want to go down this path unless we’ve at least tried all the diplomatic options.</p>
<p>As far as regime change, I think you need to look back at Iran’s history. First off, regime change is coming—it’s clear that the Iranian people generally want a very different form of government. It’s coming very slowly. Most Iranians are sick and tired of revolutions. They’ve had one for the last 25 years, and they don’t want another one. Those who’ve tried to spark another revolution have failed time and again. I don’t think there’s any evidence that somehow, if the U.S. gave these guys the high sign, it would make regime change somehow more likely. Every time the U.S. has tried to interfere in Iranian affairs to help a particular group of Iranians, it’s backfired on us, and hurt the group we tried to help. Look, regime change will eventually happen, but this isn’t an answer to the very short-term problem of the nuclear program.</p>
<p>MJ.com: So now how does the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4054069.stm" type="external">current deal</a> that Iran struck with the Europeans fit into your triple-track approach?</p>
<p>KP: I think that the European deal is a perfectly fine first step towards the second track. There are still big holes in that agreement—there is no threat of sanctions if Iran reneges, and there isn’t a viable inspections program to actually monitor the deal. There’s also nothing about terrorism. But I think if the United States were willing to get involved, we could take the deal and make it a lot better. Unfortunately, right now we are wasting a terrific opportunity. Standing on the sidelines and simply criticizing Europe when we have no viable alternative, that’s not helping anyone. Time is passing. Iran’s at least three—and probably more like 8 or 10—years off from having a nuclear weapon. But we do have a fairly narrow window—probably a year or two—to deal with this problem at the diplomatic level.</p>
<p>MJ.com: Now you’ve been a big critic of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), arguing that it’s inadequate to deal with states like Iran. Especially since it allows these countries to build a civilian nuclear program, and then pull out at the last minute when they have everything they need to build a nuclear bomb. So how should we go about updating the NPT?</p>
<p>KP: The basic problem with the NPT is there’s no teeth in it, no penalties for countries that don’t comply. Worse, as you say, the very naïve structure of the NPT has actually made it helpful for countries who want to acquire nuclear weapons. Iraq, North Korea, Iran, all used the NPT to build up their nuclear programs. Unfortunately I don’t think you can solve the problem by calling a meeting of all NPT signatories and renegotiate the treaty. That’s too difficult to do. What we could do, though, is call together a group of countries outside of the framework of the NPT, all of whom have an interest in squelching nonproliferation. We could ask them to adopt, on a multilateral basis, a series of sanctions that would be applied to states that do violate a more rigorous version of the NPT. Because of the importance of trade from the U.S., Europe, Japan, etc., I think the potential nuclear wannabes would take this very seriously. We’ve seen this historically—there have been several dozen countries that pursued nuclear weapons, and then discontinued their programs out of fear of sanctions they would incur by doing so. So this would just formalize the process.</p>
<p>MJ.com: Now what if all of this fails? What happens if Iran does get nuclear weapons anyways—what do we need to worry about then?</p>
<p>KP: What people normally think about is the possibility that Iran will give nuclear weapons to terrorists—to Hizbullah or some similar group. I think that fear is mostly groundless. Iran has had WMDs—chemical and biological weapons—for at least 15 years, they’ve supported terrorist groups for 25 years, and they’ve never mixed the two. Iran uses terrorism very instrumentally as an element of foreign policy; they are not just intent on just killing as many people as possible, like al Qaeda. There’s no reason to believe that would change.</p>
<p>The real concern is that Iran would do what Pakistan did. Pakistan wanted nuclear weapons, like Iran, purely for defensive reasons—to defend itself against India. The problem was that once Pakistan acquired the weapons, it allowed the country to be more aggressive. So they stepped up their support for the Kashmiri terrorists, and it led very quickly to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kargil" type="external">Kargil crisis</a> in 2000, which almost sparked a nuclear war between India and Pakistan. That’s the greater concern with Iran. What we saw in the last 8 years, Iran moderated its aggressive behavior largely out of fear of a U.S. conventional military response or a European economic response. Once Iran gets nuclear weapons, they may believe that they are no longer vulnerable to either.</p>
<p>MJ.com: So how do we learn to live with a nuclear Iran?</p>
<p>KP: It’s not going to be easy, and I’d like to avoid doing it if we can. But what I’ve seen from Iranian behavior over the past 15 years, since the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, really does convince me that it will be possible to live with a nuclear Iran. This is not a reckless regime like Saddam Hussein’s was—it’s nasty, aggressive, and ruthless, but it’s also very pragmatic. That suggests that we could approach Iran like we approached the Soviet Union—laying down “red lines”, making clear that things like destabilizing Saudi Arabia would be beyond the pale. We would also need to set up the kind of cooperative security arrangements in the Persian Gulf that we used in Europe during the Cold War, maybe even moving towards arms control. I think all of those things should allow us to work out a cold peace between ourselves and the Iranians.</p>
<p>MJ.com: Is it possible that a nuclear Iran could be a positive thing in some respects? For instance, might the <a href="http://www.sheikhmohammed.co.ae/english/history/history_arabia.asp" type="external">GCC countries</a> start huddling closer to the United States, thus giving us more of an ability to push for political and social reforms on the Arabian peninsula? Or is that crazy?</p>
<p>KP: I don’t think that’s crazy. But it’s just unclear which direction the GCC would go in. There’s an equally plausible case that they would go in the opposite direction. Perhaps they’d decide that the US couldn’t prevent Iran from going nuclear and therefore they either have to find their own means of deterring Iran, maybe by getting their own nuclear weapons, or else accommodate Iran entirely. On the other hand, if they saw the US being responsible and determined in response—if we made clear to the Iranians that they couldn’t just come across the Gulf and do whatever they wanted to—then I think we’d have a much greater likelihood of getting the GCC to move in a more positive direction.</p>
<p>MJ.com: Now what’s your take on Iran’s <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5479438/site/newsweek/" type="external">apparent support</a> for al-Qaeda?</p>
<p>KP: Yeah, Iran is constantly doing this to us, where you shake your head and say, “What on earth are you guys doing?” I think that leaders in Tehran, for whatever reasons, were trying to keep their options open with al-Qaeda, especially since they didn’t know what the U.S. was going to do after we got through with Iraq. I think they were also <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/08/01/us.iran.qaeda/" type="external">hoping to trade</a> the al-Qaeda leadership they had in Iran for the MEK people we had in custody.</p>
<p>More likely, there were probably some real divisions within the Iranian government—some groups wanted to ally with al Qaeda against us, others didn’t want to have anything to do with that. So I think that debate resulted in no decision being made for awhile. The problem was they left the al-Qaeda folks in Iran in the hands of their intelligence services and Revolutionary Guard, who didn’t really keep an eye on them—and may not have kept an eye on them on purpose. As a result, al-Qaeda used Iran as a base to participate in the May 2003 <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/18/world/main554415.shtml" type="external">Riyadh attacks</a>. But I think the fact that Iran clamped down on them so quickly afterwards, and are now claiming to put these guys <a href="http://dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&amp;categ_id=2&amp;article_id=10774" type="external">on trial</a>, suggests that Tehran recognizes that they were way too lax with them.</p>
<p>MJ.com: Now how about Iraq? You suggest in the book that there’s a lot of common ground to work with between the U.S. and Iran over Iraq—that both want a stable Iraq. But what if this isn’t true? There’s a lot of reporting out there indicating that the adherents of Khomeini are afraid of the Iraqi Shia school in Najaf emerging to challenge the Iranian model of clerical rule. Is it possible that Iran might see some benefits in a relatively unstable and weak Iraq?</p>
<p>KP: Well, yes and no. I do not think they want a completely destabilized Iraq. Yes, I hear Americans talking about how the Iranians don’t want Najaf to rival the Iranian clergy in Qom. But I’ve never heard an Iraqi or an Iranian suggest that as being something meaningful to them. In fact, if you were Khamane’i, it would be quite good for you to have Najaf eclipse Qom. The clerics in Qom are all against Khamene’i, they think he’s completely illegitimate and untrained. So I don’t think this is a factor.</p>
<p>That said, it is true that the Iranians are wary of us building too strong an Iraq, especially an Iraq that’s very pro-Aemrican. But I don’t think the Iranians are very afraid of that right now, because that doesn’t seem to be terribly likely. More pressingly, the senior leadership in Iran is very concerned about chaos in Iraq. In their heart of hearts they would probably love to have an Iraq that’s completely subservient to Tehran, but they know that’s not going to happen. The experience of the Iran-Iraq war demonstrated that—Khomeini invaded Iraq in 1982 because he thought the Iraqi Shia would rise up against Saddam and join him, and they didn’t. Instead they fought Iran tooth and nail. So the Iranians are under no illusions that the Iraqi Shia will be subservient to them. So they’ll settle for a stable, pluralistic Iraq, dominated by Shi’a—they can live with that.</p>
<p>However, the problem is that some elements of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are wild-eyed ideologues, some of whom really do believe in spreading the revolution, others of whom simply want to fight the United States. Those groups are in Iraq, trying to stir up trouble. But so far Tehran has mostly kept the yahoos under control, under a tight leash. By and large, most of what’s going on in Iraq from the Iranian side is still good for us—they continue to tell <a href="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1007871,00.html" type="external">SCIRI and Da’wa</a> and other pro-Iranian groups to go along with the Americans. Are they trying to influence the elections? Of course they are—it’s the Middle East. What did we expect? Are they doing it more than the Syrians or the Saudis? I doubt it. To some extent they have more influence so they might be doing it better, but this isn’t somehow unique to Iran or uniquely dangerous.</p>
<p>MJ.com: So what about <a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1279894/posts" type="external">reports</a> that Iran is behind Sunni insurgent groups like Ansar al-Islam, or behind the al-Sadr insurgency?</p>
<p>KP: Yeah, I think that was wildly overblown. Again, this is a problem we’ve got—the neo-conservatives in the administration are doing with the Iran intelligence what they did in Iraq—cherry-picking. We’re talking to all these Iraqis, who will tell us whatever they think we want to hear. For many Iraqis, it’s very convenient to blame all of the insurgency problems on Iran, because they don’t want to admit they have a problem with the Sunnis.</p>
<p>MJ.com: Now your contention is that there are pragmatic elements of the Iranian leadership—Supreme Leader <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Khamenei" type="external">Ali Khamene’I</a> and former president <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akbar_Hashemi_Rafsanjani" type="external">Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani</a> especially—but that they’re limited by the radical elements in the regime. Doesn’t it seem, though, that the hardliners are increasing their control in the government, and there’s not much room for engagement any more?</p>
<p>KP: Well, I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. Iranians are going to have a big decision to make in 2005 when they elect a new president. This time around Mohammed Khatami is not going to be a candidate, the reformist movement has effectively been completely disqualified, and so Iranians are going to have to choose among different brands of hardliners. But the differences between hardliners matters. We’re all expecting that Khamene’i is going to pick the candidate who will likely win the election. So who will he pick? You’ve got everyone from Rafsanjani—who is the ultimate technocratic pragmatist, though completely unscrupulous of course—all the way to people like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Larijani" type="external">Ali Larijani</a> or Ahmad Janati, who are basically Iranian versions of the neocons. So who Khamene’i picks I think will give us a good sense of where he wants to take the country.</p>
<p>MJ.com: Even if the Iranians do come around, what about the Bush administration? Thus far, they seem to be wholly focused on regime change, and have shown no interest in negotiating. Is that going to change anytime soon?</p>
<p>KP: Yeah, I agree. My sense is that they remain so committed to regime change, even though I think they recognize that there is very little likelihood that it will succeed anytime soon. So they’re unwilling to participate in the carrot and stick approach that I’ve outlined, because they believe that that will mean compromising on regime change. They may well be right about that. But to my way of thinking, it’s foolish, making perfect the enemy of the good. What is important right now is stop Iran’s nuclear program, their support for terrorism, their opposition to Middle East peace process. And there’s a likelihood that we can do so. I wouldn’t squander that very real chance to pursue what is something of a will-o-wisp.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | iran burgeoning nuclear program active support terrorism reported meddling iraqi elections headed showdown bush administration new book persian puzzle kenneth pollack argues regime change answer dealing iraninstead bush administration going flex diplomatic muscle certainly wont easy us iran built lot animosity past decades overcoming distrust difficult requiring series carrots sticks united states allies pollack veteran cia national security council recently sat motherjonescom phone talk tehrans long bloody relationship west nuclear program prospects regime change critically future americas iran policy motherjonescom going history iran book really useful seems conflict iran us isnt much geostrategic rivalry even necessarily ideological conflict per se much lot bad blood built two past decades kenneth pollack absolutely think could remove baggageall ideology history whatever elseand look purely geostrategic terms think hard figure us iran would necessarily conflict fact shahs era 1979recognizing kinds problemsthe us iran worked together splendidly strategic level source problem historyour support shah cia coup 1953has become infused iranian political discourse regime came power 1979 iranian revolution actually defined antiamerican thats critical ingredient iranian domestic political debate really source problemsthe regime tehran continues see opposing us eyes everything us directed malevolent way therefore fight back mjcom thats iranian side side us failed engage iranian regime years kp two reasons less important reason united states iran nothing whippingboy americans real use iran us know remember iran things like hostage crisis 1980 think iranian attacks lebanon khobar towers dont get whole lot political mileage united states going advocating better relations iranians second reason ultimately think bigger source problems actually neglect one consistent patterns found us foreign policyboth research also 17 years government policy community us consistently tried ignore iran ironic iranians believe united states obsessed us mjcom pressing iran issue right nuclear program take tripletrack approach outline book dealing issue kp sure first track say iranians look think deal cut give nuclear program put sort inspection monitoring regime iraq give support terrorism stop opposing middle east peace process return well lift sanctions well settle claims dating back shahs era well bring world trade organization well give security guarantees well create security structure persian gulf benefits problem course weve offering deal iranians past 20 years theyve never able pick often domestic political reasons fall back second track true carrotandstick approach work europe japan persuade iranians theyre going make choice one problems 1990s europeans different sheets music iran interested sticks hit iranians hit em harder sanctions europeans meanwhile interested carrotsno matter iranians would turn blind eye still offer trade investment foreign aid mjcom europes starting change approach kp europeans starting show theyre finally serious iranian nuclear program appear willing use sticks iran think imperative part second track united states sit europeans say lets make clear iranians either give nuclear program support terrorism case well given kinds benefits otherwise well join comprehensive multilateral sanctions cripple fragile economy mjcom think would really work kp weve seen iranians last 15 years time thought really going get multilateral sanctions jumped socks reversed course immediately theyre vulnerable economic front mjcom cant get europe japan board kp exactly im convinced second track going work ive seen europeans sound tough willing come thats case iranians find quickly third track pure containment laying red lines iranians know permissible working harder shut flow nuclear technology iran setting kind security structure persian gulf hopefully make countries feel less anxious security need make iran understand able act aggressively persian gulf paying kind price continued intransigence mjcom many people suggested regime change sort military strike might better options dealing irans nuclear program think options kp lets start disarming strike think matter weighing costs benefits dont know great deal iranian nuclear program especially key iranian nuclear sites mean 2002 suddenly found arak natanz surprise unclear would big effort talking days airstrikes maybe even weeks wouldnt know anything wed accomplished meanwhile would also pay high prices strike wed set back regime change people would rally around government would preclude diplomacy beyond iranians skilled terrorist wed expect theyd hit back us hard could especially iraq great deal power influence wanted could wage clandestine war us iraq would truly horrific doesnt look like costs befits add least much better intelligence picture nuclear program b much less vulnerable iraq c weve exhausted options dont want go path unless weve least tried diplomatic options far regime change think need look back irans history first regime change comingits clear iranian people generally want different form government coming slowly iranians sick tired revolutions theyve one last 25 years dont want another one whove tried spark another revolution failed time dont think theres evidence somehow us gave guys high sign would make regime change somehow likely every time us tried interfere iranian affairs help particular group iranians backfired us hurt group tried help look regime change eventually happen isnt answer shortterm problem nuclear program mjcom current deal iran struck europeans fit tripletrack approach kp think european deal perfectly fine first step towards second track still big holes agreementthere threat sanctions iran reneges isnt viable inspections program actually monitor deal theres also nothing terrorism think united states willing get involved could take deal make lot better unfortunately right wasting terrific opportunity standing sidelines simply criticizing europe viable alternative thats helping anyone time passing irans least threeand probably like 8 10years nuclear weapon fairly narrow windowprobably year twoto deal problem diplomatic level mjcom youve big critic nonproliferation treaty npt arguing inadequate deal states like iran especially since allows countries build civilian nuclear program pull last minute everything need build nuclear bomb go updating npt kp basic problem npt theres teeth penalties countries dont comply worse say naïve structure npt actually made helpful countries want acquire nuclear weapons iraq north korea iran used npt build nuclear programs unfortunately dont think solve problem calling meeting npt signatories renegotiate treaty thats difficult could though call together group countries outside framework npt interest squelching nonproliferation could ask adopt multilateral basis series sanctions would applied states violate rigorous version npt importance trade us europe japan etc think potential nuclear wannabes would take seriously weve seen historicallythere several dozen countries pursued nuclear weapons discontinued programs fear sanctions would incur would formalize process mjcom fails happens iran get nuclear weapons anywayswhat need worry kp people normally think possibility iran give nuclear weapons terroriststo hizbullah similar group think fear mostly groundless iran wmdschemical biological weaponsfor least 15 years theyve supported terrorist groups 25 years theyve never mixed two iran uses terrorism instrumentally element foreign policy intent killing many people possible like al qaeda theres reason believe would change real concern iran would pakistan pakistan wanted nuclear weapons like iran purely defensive reasonsto defend india problem pakistan acquired weapons allowed country aggressive stepped support kashmiri terrorists led quickly kargil crisis 2000 almost sparked nuclear war india pakistan thats greater concern iran saw last 8 years iran moderated aggressive behavior largely fear us conventional military response european economic response iran gets nuclear weapons may believe longer vulnerable either mjcom learn live nuclear iran kp going easy id like avoid ive seen iranian behavior past 15 years since death ayatollah khomeini really convince possible live nuclear iran reckless regime like saddam husseins wasits nasty aggressive ruthless also pragmatic suggests could approach iran like approached soviet unionlaying red lines making clear things like destabilizing saudi arabia would beyond pale would also need set kind cooperative security arrangements persian gulf used europe cold war maybe even moving towards arms control think things allow us work cold peace iranians mjcom possible nuclear iran could positive thing respects instance might gcc countries start huddling closer united states thus giving us ability push political social reforms arabian peninsula crazy kp dont think thats crazy unclear direction gcc would go theres equally plausible case would go opposite direction perhaps theyd decide us couldnt prevent iran going nuclear therefore either find means deterring iran maybe getting nuclear weapons else accommodate iran entirely hand saw us responsible determined responseif made clear iranians couldnt come across gulf whatever wanted tothen think wed much greater likelihood getting gcc move positive direction mjcom whats take irans apparent support alqaeda kp yeah iran constantly us shake head say earth guys think leaders tehran whatever reasons trying keep options open alqaeda especially since didnt know us going got iraq think also hoping trade alqaeda leadership iran mek people custody likely probably real divisions within iranian governmentsome groups wanted ally al qaeda us others didnt want anything think debate resulted decision made awhile problem left alqaeda folks iran hands intelligence services revolutionary guard didnt really keep eye themand may kept eye purpose result alqaeda used iran base participate may 2003 riyadh attacks think fact iran clamped quickly afterwards claiming put guys trial suggests tehran recognizes way lax mjcom iraq suggest book theres lot common ground work us iran iraqthat want stable iraq isnt true theres lot reporting indicating adherents khomeini afraid iraqi shia school najaf emerging challenge iranian model clerical rule possible iran might see benefits relatively unstable weak iraq kp well yes think want completely destabilized iraq yes hear americans talking iranians dont want najaf rival iranian clergy qom ive never heard iraqi iranian suggest something meaningful fact khamanei would quite good najaf eclipse qom clerics qom khamenei think hes completely illegitimate untrained dont think factor said true iranians wary us building strong iraq especially iraq thats proaemrican dont think iranians afraid right doesnt seem terribly likely pressingly senior leadership iran concerned chaos iraq heart hearts would probably love iraq thats completely subservient tehran know thats going happen experience iraniraq war demonstrated thatkhomeini invaded iraq 1982 thought iraqi shia would rise saddam join didnt instead fought iran tooth nail iranians illusions iraqi shia subservient theyll settle stable pluralistic iraq dominated shiathey live however problem elements iranian revolutionary guard wildeyed ideologues really believe spreading revolution others simply want fight united states groups iraq trying stir trouble far tehran mostly kept yahoos control tight leash large whats going iraq iranian side still good usthey continue tell sciri dawa proiranian groups go along americans trying influence elections course areits middle east expect syrians saudis doubt extent influence might better isnt somehow unique iran uniquely dangerous mjcom reports iran behind sunni insurgent groups like ansar alislam behind alsadr insurgency kp yeah think wildly overblown problem weve gotthe neoconservatives administration iran intelligence iraqcherrypicking talking iraqis tell us whatever think want hear many iraqis convenient blame insurgency problems iran dont want admit problem sunnis mjcom contention pragmatic elements iranian leadershipsupreme leader ali khamenei former president akbar hashemi rafsanjani especiallybut theyre limited radical elements regime doesnt seem though hardliners increasing control government theres much room engagement kp well dont think thats necessarily case iranians going big decision make 2005 elect new president time around mohammed khatami going candidate reformist movement effectively completely disqualified iranians going choose among different brands hardliners differences hardliners matters expecting khamenei going pick candidate likely win election pick youve got everyone rafsanjaniwho ultimate technocratic pragmatist though completely unscrupulous courseall way people like ali larijani ahmad janati basically iranian versions neocons khamenei picks think give us good sense wants take country mjcom even iranians come around bush administration thus far seem wholly focused regime change shown interest negotiating going change anytime soon kp yeah agree sense remain committed regime change even though think recognize little likelihood succeed anytime soon theyre unwilling participate carrot stick approach ive outlined believe mean compromising regime change may well right way thinking foolish making perfect enemy good important right stop irans nuclear program support terrorism opposition middle east peace process theres likelihood wouldnt squander real chance pursue something willowisp | 1,915 |
<p>Photo by Joshua Black Wilkins</p>
<p />
<p>“The first day I stepped forth in this fair country,” <a href="http://www.abigailwashburn.com/website/" type="external">Abigail Washburn</a>‘s breathy voice wafted down over the grass, “border man took my paper, told me I would be free.” A slight figure dressed in black gossamer, Washburn looked rather elegant when I caught her live at San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival. The crowd below lay drowsy and peaceful in the mid-morning sunshine, ready to be transported to wherever the singer wanted to take them.</p>
<p>And transport them she did. While the clawhammer banjo queen can fit right in at a hoedown like Hardly Strictly, she’s become just as comfortable entertaining crowds on the other side of the globe. A Mandarin speaker and self-declared Sinophile, she’s made a career out of bringing bluegrass to the far corners of China—and by the same token <a href="http://www.npr.org/2011/01/04/132439510/abigail-washburn-tiny-desk-concert" type="external">making Chinese folk music accessible</a> to American bluegrass fans. Themes of migration and boundary-crossing pop up in her songs, as with the abovementioned tune, “Dreams of Nectar.”</p>
<p>Washburn first found herself in China during college as part of an intensive language program, but was overwhelmed by the severe pollution and the masses of people trying to sell her goods or practice their English on her. But back in the states “I just couldn’t handle myself,” she recalls. “I was disenchanted with 1.3 billion people on the face of the planet. Not okay.&#160;Not okay.”</p>
<p>So she vowed to give China another try, and this time she fell in love. Fate directed her to Nashville for the time being, though, where she delved into learning the banjo. While jamming at a bluegrass conference, she drew attention and was offered a record deal right away. After making a name for herself in Nashville, Washburn began touring China as often as she could, playing at festivals and collaborating with Chinese instrumentalists from Shanghai to Tibet.&#160;She played at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, worked on a pop electronica record called&#160; <a href="http://www.afterquakemusic.com/index.php" type="external">Afterquake</a>&#160;in Sichuan,&#160;and frequently picks with three female musicians at the Chinese Conservatory. In November, she’ll embark on a State Department-sponsored “Silk Road Tour” along with several other American musicians.&#160;</p>
<p>Washburn—who’s married to (and frequently performs with) banjo maestro Béla Fleck—has a unique way of making old-timey tunes suddenly contemporary. For the title track of her latest album,&#160; <a href="http://www.theconnextion.com/abigailwashburn/abigail_cat.cfm?CatID=84" type="external">City of Refuge</a>, she initially drew inspiration from a folk song called “Hot Pie.” The lyrics, which she sang to me over tea backstage at Hardly Strictly, remind me of some Western town in the early 20th century: “Where do you get them high top shoes, and the dress you know you wear so fine? I got these shoes from a railroadin’ man, and the dress is from a rider in the mine. Oh, hot pie, hot pie, hot pie, my loo, loo girl.”</p>
<p>“If you heard the banjo going along with those words, it’s a bit minor, a bit modally,” she says. “So I was like, I just need to write something with this tuning.” She discovered her own words for the song after listening to Blind Willy Johnson’s “City of Refuge,” and pondering her own paradise. The result, a climactic folky pop song, alludes to a place of refuge, but Washburn is purposefully vague about whether such a city exists for her. “The search itself is sacred,” she tells me placidly. “If you can find refuge in every moment, then there it is.”</p>
<p>Her songwriting style also stems from merging old and new, East and West. On “Dreams of Nectar” Washburn drew her opening line out of old ballads from the British Isles, many of which begin with, “The first day I set foot in this country.” And the melody for this stripped-down, haunting tune “is very connected to an old British folk song called ‘Cherry Tree Carol.'” In this case, the words came to Washburn after an experience she had with a Chinese immigrant in Montpelier, Vermont. Her years of struggling to learn Mandarin made her empathize with immigrants in the local China Star restaurant, so she threw herself into giving them English lessons a couple times a week. “I got to know their stories,” she says. “They all came to America looking for something better. They were hoping some day to bring their families over. And it just didn’t happen for them.”</p>
<p>One older man, who found English especially troublesome, came to Washburn one day crying with a letter from his wife in hand. “She wrote, ‘You’ve been in America four years, and I don’t think you’re coming home; we’re going to start a new life without you,'” she recalls. “And the whole reason he was in the states was for them. That story was heavy on my mind when I wrote this song.”&#160;The song’s last line, drawn from the Chinese writer Ha Jin, evokes the desire to reach a place of refuge: “Before I die grant me one thing, don’t let me dream of nectar, make me the fruit on the tree.”</p>
<p>As Washburn continues to straddle two nations with entirely different mentalities and musical traditions, she has eased into the role of crooning diplomat. She serves as a distinctive voice reminding both cultures of the other. For example, she recently tweeted: “Suggestions for famous Tibetan or Uighur songs that our band should learn for our Silk Road Tour?”</p>
<p>But she’s also made peace with the fact that she can only do so much to spread cross-cultural awareness. “I spent all of my twenties feeling very angsty about trying to make a difference,” Washburn admits. “I wanted to establish a touring circuit that would revolutionize the way subculture music was received in China. But now I’m older, and I don’t feel as strongly about having a distinct mission. There’s a lot at play in this world, and I know I’m a tool of some sort.”</p>
<p>Click <a href="" type="internal">here</a> for more music features from Mother Jones.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | photo joshua black wilkins first day stepped forth fair country abigail washburns breathy voice wafted grass border man took paper told would free slight figure dressed black gossamer washburn looked rather elegant caught live san franciscos hardly strictly bluegrass festival crowd lay drowsy peaceful midmorning sunshine ready transported wherever singer wanted take transport clawhammer banjo queen fit right hoedown like hardly strictly shes become comfortable entertaining crowds side globe mandarin speaker selfdeclared sinophile shes made career bringing bluegrass far corners chinaand token making chinese folk music accessible american bluegrass fans themes migration boundarycrossing pop songs abovementioned tune dreams nectar washburn first found china college part intensive language program overwhelmed severe pollution masses people trying sell goods practice english back states couldnt handle recalls disenchanted 13 billion people face planet okay160not okay vowed give china another try time fell love fate directed nashville time though delved learning banjo jamming bluegrass conference drew attention offered record deal right away making name nashville washburn began touring china often could playing festivals collaborating chinese instrumentalists shanghai tibet160she played 2008 olympics beijing worked pop electronica record called160 afterquake160in sichuan160and frequently picks three female musicians chinese conservatory november shell embark state departmentsponsored silk road tour along several american musicians160 washburnwhos married frequently performs banjo maestro béla fleckhas unique way making oldtimey tunes suddenly contemporary title track latest album160 city refuge initially drew inspiration folk song called hot pie lyrics sang tea backstage hardly strictly remind western town early 20th century get high top shoes dress know wear fine got shoes railroadin man dress rider mine oh hot pie hot pie hot pie loo loo girl heard banjo going along words bit minor bit modally says like need write something tuning discovered words song listening blind willy johnsons city refuge pondering paradise result climactic folky pop song alludes place refuge washburn purposefully vague whether city exists search sacred tells placidly find refuge every moment songwriting style also stems merging old new east west dreams nectar washburn drew opening line old ballads british isles many begin first day set foot country melody strippeddown haunting tune connected old british folk song called cherry tree carol case words came washburn experience chinese immigrant montpelier vermont years struggling learn mandarin made empathize immigrants local china star restaurant threw giving english lessons couple times week got know stories says came america looking something better hoping day bring families didnt happen one older man found english especially troublesome came washburn one day crying letter wife hand wrote youve america four years dont think youre coming home going start new life without recalls whole reason states story heavy mind wrote song160the songs last line drawn chinese writer ha jin evokes desire reach place refuge die grant one thing dont let dream nectar make fruit tree washburn continues straddle two nations entirely different mentalities musical traditions eased role crooning diplomat serves distinctive voice reminding cultures example recently tweeted suggestions famous tibetan uighur songs band learn silk road tour shes also made peace fact much spread crosscultural awareness spent twenties feeling angsty trying make difference washburn admits wanted establish touring circuit would revolutionize way subculture music received china im older dont feel strongly distinct mission theres lot play world know im tool sort click music features mother jones | 542 |
<p>The DPRK’s recent missile test is a “provocation” according to US state sources. A provocation indeed. Firing things into the air that go bang is clearly not a nice thing to do. People really should ease up on things that explode. I mean somebody could get hurt.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for the Americans, when it comes to making things explode they themselves are hardly innocent. Trump’s recent bombardment of Afghanistan and Syria is a case in point. Maintaining considerable armed forces on the Korean peninsula and making a lot of threatening noise about an “armada” is another. To thus accuse the North Koreans of “provocation” is akin to me objecting to foul language after donning a t-shirt with “I like violence” written across the front and brandishing a knife at complete strangers. It simply makes no sense.</p>
<p>You’ll be lucky to find much in US foreign policy that makes sense, however. The popular media doesn’t help. Spurning any semblance of objectivity at every turn, much of the western press would have you believe that the DPRK is populated by people who are simply insane, all marching in unison to the whims of their stereotypical Bond villain of a leader. The at times racist narrative, so eagerly lapped up by swathes of the freedom loving public, is simplistic to the point of being painful. All the same it persists.</p>
<p>Let’s get a few things out in the open. The DPRK is not the aggressor here. Their nuclear program is hardly in the final stages, and given the recent news of yet another failed test it seems unlikely Pyongyang will be able to develop a reliable mid-range ICBM for some time. Their conventional forces, although sizeable, are also generally in possession of somewhat antiquated technology. Aside from a few outbreaks along the border with the south, the DPRK has never actually engaged in open conflict with any power, at all, since the signing of the armistice that ended the Korean War. All in all this is not a country that’s looking for a brawl for the pure sake of it.</p>
<p>The same cannot be said for others. Since the birth of the DPRK the US has attacked numerous countries across the globe, killing literally millions of people, including fighting a major conflict on Korean soil just five years after using WMDs on Japanese cities. Ever eager to safeguard democracy, the US currently has well over a hundred thousand troops stationed in myriad parts of the world, with over twenty thousand in South Korea itself. American nuclear weapons are able to decimate entire nations at will, with the “progressive” President Obama having pouring over a trillion dollars into their <a href="" type="internal">redevelopment and enhancement</a>. All in all this is a nation well accustomed to violence.</p>
<p>The hard truth is that the DPRK has been under <a href="https://towardfreedom.com/archives/asia-archives/us-uses-food-as-a-political-weapon-from-north-korea-to-gaza/" type="external">myriad sanctions</a> by the US for the vast bulk of its existence, with the fixation on the recent nuclear issue being a sideshow to gloss over an ongoing policy to ostracise, isolate and generally defame the DPRK as a habitual, indeed pantomime, villain. The fact that Korea has been divided by an invading force is rarely scrutinised, nor are the frequent attempts to intimidate Koreans into obedience, from incessant military drills to proposals to <a href="" type="internal">withhold</a> food aid and potentially starve millions of people. The current tensions can only be understood within the context of this very unequal, very predatory, context.</p>
<p>A Troubled Past</p>
<p>History matters. The standard narrative on the Korean War of 1950-53 is that the United Nations was forced to commit military forces only after the malevolent Kim Il Sung ordered an entirely unprovoked assault on the south. Like so much else when it comes to both politics and history, the mainstream perspective is convoluted, if not just entirely wrong. The truth of the matter is that, after initial division between north and south in the wake of the defeat of the Japanese occupation, skirmishes between Seoul and Pyongyang had been going on for some time, with the former having carried out several notable (and distinctly hostile) incursions.</p>
<p>For historians such as <a href="" type="internal">David Reynolds</a>, some one hundred thousand Koreans had already been killed in border fighting and uprisings in the south prior to the outbreak of formal hostilities. Indeed, analysts have gone as far as to <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2615722" type="external">hypothesise</a> that the situation in 1950 degraded so rapidly precisely due to the ROK assault on the north Korean town of Haeju, something that prompted the DPRK to consider redoubled measures against an increasingly aggressive neighbour.</p>
<p>The US were also not about to let a golden opportunity slip by. After losing influence across much of East Asia with the defeat of the pro-US Kuomintang in ’49 (itself a deeply corrupt and authoritarian entity with a propensity for <a href="http://alphahistory.com/chineserevolution/shanghai-massacre/" type="external">massacring</a> its own people) Washington found itself looking for opportunities to regain lost ground. A reunified Korea under western influence seemed like an eminently desirable scenario. Korea could not be allowed to unite on its own terms, given US fears of left-wing success in national elections. The outbreak of hostilities on the peninsula were too good an opportunity to pass up.</p>
<p>The Americans moved fast. Refusing to wait for authorisation from an already <a href="" type="internal">fractured UN Security Council</a>, the US committed itself to an extensive and protracted campaign, ultimately overrunning much of northern Korea before being driven back by the intervention of substantial Chinese forces. In the process, the US inflicted numerous war crimes against the general population, with the air force targeting civilian and military centres with well over <a href="http://towardfreedom.com/archives/asia-archives/u-s-bigger-threat-north-korea/" type="external">six hundred thousand tons worth of bombs and thirty thousand tons of napalm</a>.</p>
<p>By the end of the war, General MacArthur’s order to “destroy every means of communication and every installation, and factories and cities and villages” had been carried out. Much of the DPRK, alongside swathes of the ROK, were in ruins, with US aerial bombardment ensuring the vast majority of urban areas were <a href="" type="internal">decimated</a> and their populations either dead or displaced.</p>
<p>Pyongyang was <a href="" type="internal">effectively levelled</a>, having gone from being home to some half a million citizens in 1950 to having just two structures left intact three years later. In the south, Seoul changed hands a total of four times in just nine months, with its “liberation” ensuring only the capital building and a railway station were left intact. Over <a href="" type="internal">twenty percent</a> of the northern population is believe to have been killed, many of them civilians blown to pieces or immolated in napalm during the incessant pulverisation of their homes. Well over a million southerners also lost their lives.</p>
<p>“We burned down just about every city in North Korea and South Korea both,” claimed one young American officer, Curtis LeMay, “we killed off over a million Korean civilians and drove several million more from their homes”. This was no idle boast. In ’52, William Douglas, himself Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court, visited the war-torn nation to see such sights first-hand, remarking “”I had seen the war-battered cities of Europe; but I had not seen devastation until I had seen Korea”.</p>
<p>Massacre at No Gun Ri</p>
<p>Death from above was only one side to the punishment inflicted upon the troubled nation. On the ground, American soldiers soon developed a sense of brazen contempt for the indigenous population, engaging in myriad acts of thuggery against civilians unlucky enough to get in the way.</p>
<p>Those suspected of harbouring political sentiments out of style with the southern authorities found themselves in hot water, with some one hundred thousand <a href="" type="internal">potential dissidents</a> being murdered over the course of the conflict. Mass killings and the <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/id/24695113/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/t/thousand-koreans-executed-early-war/#.WQRkI4WcHIU" type="external">wholesale slaughter</a> of entire prison populations by ROK security forces were not unknown.</p>
<p>The plight of war refugees was unsurprisingly harsh. In fact it was here that US ground forces carried out one of their most notorious actions of the entire war, slaughtering several hundred civilians being forcibly driven from their homes around the village of No Gun Ri.</p>
<p>Many of the inhabitants of this region had already found their homes set alight, with one particular group being “evacuated” by American troops also in the habit of beating up and occasionally shooting individual Koreans for presumed infractions. Aside from the casual murderousness of the GIs, the refugee’s journey south was uneventful until the middle of the next day when, finding themselves bereft of their gracious escorts, they were suddenly attacked by US aircraft.</p>
<p>The villagers, dazed and frightened, attempted to flee the bombs and bullets only to inadvertently approach positions manned by US soldiers. The response from the troops was to open fire, apparently being ordered to remain on alert for “civilian clad” infiltrators attempting to pass through American lines. Whatever their reasons, the soldiers hosed the panicked column with machine gun, rifle and mortar rounds, killing a sizeable amount of civilians and causing others to flee.</p>
<p>Seemingly not content, US soldiers then rounded up survivors and herded them under a nearby bridge, in the process shooting several deemed too badly hurt to be moved. After forcing some three hundred persons into confinement in this way, the Americans opened fire yet again, ripping in to the Koreans from both sides of the bridge with small arms and artillery.</p>
<p>“We was holding that rail-road bridge to keep them from coming across that,” claimed one Melvin Durham of F Company, 7th Cavalry, himself cited in the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Bridge_at_No_Gun_Ri.html?id=P14UHAAACAAJ&amp;redir_esc=y" type="external">seminal text</a>, The Bridge at No Gun Ri. “But those people – there was women, children, old people – we had to eliminate them…our orders was to start opening fire and when we did, there wasn’t nothing standing but a couple of cows. We fired for about an hour, an hour and a half.”</p>
<p>Durham and company weren’t messing around. Few of those trapped under the bridge survived the onslaught, with entire families, infants and elderly included, dying among the detritus of shattered masonry and pulverised flesh. One strapping young patriot, clearly with a mind for America’s glorious colonial roots, claimed “it was like an Indian raid, back in the old days. We just annihilated them”. Another, this time a staff sergeant, likened the action to a “feeding frenzy…guys were shooting because they hadn’t shot before, and they had permission to shoot…it’s like ‘Hey, shoot at anything that moves out there.’”</p>
<p>This wasn’t an isolated incident. Additional orders issued to other US army and air units were clear enough. One such memo, detailed in the 2002 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybUQNT-yuY4" type="external">documentary</a> “Kill ‘Em All”, declared officers had “complete authority in your zone to stop all civilian traffic. Responsibility to place fire on them (and) to include bombing rests with you”. Another more direct order instructed units that &#160;“all refugees are fair game. Refugees will be considered (the) enemy and dispersed by all available fire including artillery.”</p>
<p>One reluctant soldier, having the temerity to display something of a conscience when it came to such directives, recalled an unusual morale boosting technique from his commanding officer. Rather than grappling with the ethical complexities of murdering innocent people, the officer in question instead held a gun to the soldier’s head, demanding that he “kill ’em…or I will kill you myself” and begrudging him for “disobeying a direct order”.</p>
<p>Others were not so restrained. “There was a lieutenant screaming like a mad man to fire on everything,” recalled one Joe Jackman, himself a war vet present at No Gun Ri. “Kids, there was kids out there, it didn’t matter what it was. Eight to eighty, blind, crippled or crazy, they shot ’em.”</p>
<p>In addition to mass bombardment and repeat atrocities, the US had other joys in store for Korea. After the Chinese had crossed the border in late 1950 and defeated the US Eighth Army in open battle, the use of atomic weapons became a serious possibility. Clearly irked by the audacity of the Chinese, General MacArthur entertained an ambitious plan to target both Korean and Chinese cities with WMDs, in the process ideally creating a belt of irradiated wasteland between the two nations that would deter any further meddling from Beijing.</p>
<p>He wasn’t <a href="" type="internal">playing games</a>. “I would have dropped thirty or so atomic bombs…strung across the neck of Manchuria,” claimed the General, in an interview published after his death. “(I’d) spread behind us, from the Sea of Japan to the Yellow Sea, a belt of radioactive cobalt…it has an active life of between sixty and one twenty years. For at least sixty years there could have been no land invasion of Korea from the north. My plan was a cinch.”</p>
<p>He was probably right. Fortunately his scheme was never approved. Yet such heroics were not to be confined to east Asia. Just three years after the end of hostilities in Korea, the Cold War was still heating up, with the US preparing an extensive list of targets for <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-intended-to-destroy-civilian-populations-in-enemy-cities-during-cold-war-according-to-a6784756.html" type="external">nuclear bombardment</a> in multiple countries. Ranging from locales as disparate as Warsaw and Beijing, the Americans cited major urban zones as priority targets for destruction, with the total elimination of their high civilian populations the desired outcome.</p>
<p>One small problem presented itself. Given the nature of the weapons to be deployed, the possibility of collateral damage in allied states was a sizeable possibility. Such a scenario doesn’t appear to have caused too much worry for US strategic planners, however, with East Berlin soon being targeted by over ninety atomic weapons as part of a policy of <a href="" type="internal">“systematic destruction”</a> that would have also wiped out allied West Berlin and devastated swathes of Europe. The well-being of their own partners, not to mention the lives of millions of men, women and children in multiple nations, from Germany to China, were eminently expendable in the face of US interests.</p>
<p>A cheap shot would be to argue that this is all “ancient history”. Of course, those making such a claim are almost certainly safely ensconced within the US itself, always way out of the line of fire and comfortable in the precedent that catastrophic violence is something that Americans inflict on foreigners rather than the other way around.</p>
<p>Claims that such matters are “history” also make the crass assumption that there is a point of sudden disconnect between US policy then and now, itself a rather clumsy notion that ignores the reality of American aggression over the past several decades. Planning to murder (and in the case of Korea actually doing so) millions of people isn’t something that can be conveniently dismissed by uttering tired maxims such as “forgive and forget”. The current belligerence directed towards Korea highlight this.</p>
<p>Again, history matters. DPRK citizens today make frequent mention of the Korean War. In some instances many families will yet retain a living link to that conflict, with scenes of horrific suffering and sweeping destruction a yet present memory. Even those without relatives around to recall the 1950s will be reminded of the tender touch of US foreign policy every time they go outside, with the near total levelling of many urban centres ensuring that most buildings in modernity are merely decades rather than centuries old.</p>
<p>It would be a serious mistake to assume this finds no echo in Korean politics. Every time news hits of the latest US offensive abroad, from Iraq to Afghanistan to Libya and Syria, Koreans will be further reminded of their own painful past. The continued presence of sizeable American military forces on the Korean peninsula won’t help. Washington’s redoubled threats and moronic macho talk about “looking for trouble” won’t help either.</p>
<p>Declarations from Pyongyang as to sovereignty, retaliation, self-reliance and military prowess will, however, make sense to a people long accustomed to either being the underdog or facing outright annihilation. There is nothing “crazy” about this. Only the most deluded of western cynics could claim Koreans resent the western powers purely because of “state propaganda”. The reality is right there for them to experience. It’s been there for decades. It’s about time this was fully understood.</p> | true | 4 | dprks recent missile test provocation according us state sources provocation indeed firing things air go bang clearly nice thing people really ease things explode mean somebody could get hurt unfortunately americans comes making things explode hardly innocent trumps recent bombardment afghanistan syria case point maintaining considerable armed forces korean peninsula making lot threatening noise armada another thus accuse north koreans provocation akin objecting foul language donning tshirt like violence written across front brandishing knife complete strangers simply makes sense youll lucky find much us foreign policy makes sense however popular media doesnt help spurning semblance objectivity every turn much western press would believe dprk populated people simply insane marching unison whims stereotypical bond villain leader times racist narrative eagerly lapped swathes freedom loving public simplistic point painful persists lets get things open dprk aggressor nuclear program hardly final stages given recent news yet another failed test seems unlikely pyongyang able develop reliable midrange icbm time conventional forces although sizeable also generally possession somewhat antiquated technology aside outbreaks along border south dprk never actually engaged open conflict power since signing armistice ended korean war country thats looking brawl pure sake said others since birth dprk us attacked numerous countries across globe killing literally millions people including fighting major conflict korean soil five years using wmds japanese cities ever eager safeguard democracy us currently well hundred thousand troops stationed myriad parts world twenty thousand south korea american nuclear weapons able decimate entire nations progressive president obama pouring trillion dollars redevelopment enhancement nation well accustomed violence hard truth dprk myriad sanctions us vast bulk existence fixation recent nuclear issue sideshow gloss ongoing policy ostracise isolate generally defame dprk habitual indeed pantomime villain fact korea divided invading force rarely scrutinised frequent attempts intimidate koreans obedience incessant military drills proposals withhold food aid potentially starve millions people current tensions understood within context unequal predatory context troubled past history matters standard narrative korean war 195053 united nations forced commit military forces malevolent kim il sung ordered entirely unprovoked assault south like much else comes politics history mainstream perspective convoluted entirely wrong truth matter initial division north south wake defeat japanese occupation skirmishes seoul pyongyang going time former carried several notable distinctly hostile incursions historians david reynolds one hundred thousand koreans already killed border fighting uprisings south prior outbreak formal hostilities indeed analysts gone far hypothesise situation 1950 degraded rapidly precisely due rok assault north korean town haeju something prompted dprk consider redoubled measures increasingly aggressive neighbour us also let golden opportunity slip losing influence across much east asia defeat prous kuomintang 49 deeply corrupt authoritarian entity propensity massacring people washington found looking opportunities regain lost ground reunified korea western influence seemed like eminently desirable scenario korea could allowed unite terms given us fears leftwing success national elections outbreak hostilities peninsula good opportunity pass americans moved fast refusing wait authorisation already fractured un security council us committed extensive protracted campaign ultimately overrunning much northern korea driven back intervention substantial chinese forces process us inflicted numerous war crimes general population air force targeting civilian military centres well six hundred thousand tons worth bombs thirty thousand tons napalm end war general macarthurs order destroy every means communication every installation factories cities villages carried much dprk alongside swathes rok ruins us aerial bombardment ensuring vast majority urban areas decimated populations either dead displaced pyongyang effectively levelled gone home half million citizens 1950 two structures left intact three years later south seoul changed hands total four times nine months liberation ensuring capital building railway station left intact twenty percent northern population believe killed many civilians blown pieces immolated napalm incessant pulverisation homes well million southerners also lost lives burned every city north korea south korea claimed one young american officer curtis lemay killed million korean civilians drove several million homes idle boast 52 william douglas associate justice us supreme court visited wartorn nation see sights firsthand remarking seen warbattered cities europe seen devastation seen korea massacre gun ri death one side punishment inflicted upon troubled nation ground american soldiers soon developed sense brazen contempt indigenous population engaging myriad acts thuggery civilians unlucky enough get way suspected harbouring political sentiments style southern authorities found hot water one hundred thousand potential dissidents murdered course conflict mass killings wholesale slaughter entire prison populations rok security forces unknown plight war refugees unsurprisingly harsh fact us ground forces carried one notorious actions entire war slaughtering several hundred civilians forcibly driven homes around village gun ri many inhabitants region already found homes set alight one particular group evacuated american troops also habit beating occasionally shooting individual koreans presumed infractions aside casual murderousness gis refugees journey south uneventful middle next day finding bereft gracious escorts suddenly attacked us aircraft villagers dazed frightened attempted flee bombs bullets inadvertently approach positions manned us soldiers response troops open fire apparently ordered remain alert civilian clad infiltrators attempting pass american lines whatever reasons soldiers hosed panicked column machine gun rifle mortar rounds killing sizeable amount civilians causing others flee seemingly content us soldiers rounded survivors herded nearby bridge process shooting several deemed badly hurt moved forcing three hundred persons confinement way americans opened fire yet ripping koreans sides bridge small arms artillery holding railroad bridge keep coming across claimed one melvin durham f company 7th cavalry cited seminal text bridge gun ri people women children old people eliminate themour orders start opening fire wasnt nothing standing couple cows fired hour hour half durham company werent messing around trapped bridge survived onslaught entire families infants elderly included dying among detritus shattered masonry pulverised flesh one strapping young patriot clearly mind americas glorious colonial roots claimed like indian raid back old days annihilated another time staff sergeant likened action feeding frenzyguys shooting hadnt shot permission shootits like hey shoot anything moves wasnt isolated incident additional orders issued us army air units clear enough one memo detailed 2002 documentary kill em declared officers complete authority zone stop civilian traffic responsibility place fire include bombing rests another direct order instructed units 160all refugees fair game refugees considered enemy dispersed available fire including artillery one reluctant soldier temerity display something conscience came directives recalled unusual morale boosting technique commanding officer rather grappling ethical complexities murdering innocent people officer question instead held gun soldiers head demanding kill emor kill begrudging disobeying direct order others restrained lieutenant screaming like mad man fire everything recalled one joe jackman war vet present gun ri kids kids didnt matter eight eighty blind crippled crazy shot em addition mass bombardment repeat atrocities us joys store korea chinese crossed border late 1950 defeated us eighth army open battle use atomic weapons became serious possibility clearly irked audacity chinese general macarthur entertained ambitious plan target korean chinese cities wmds process ideally creating belt irradiated wasteland two nations would deter meddling beijing wasnt playing games would dropped thirty atomic bombsstrung across neck manchuria claimed general interview published death id spread behind us sea japan yellow sea belt radioactive cobaltit active life sixty one twenty years least sixty years could land invasion korea north plan cinch probably right fortunately scheme never approved yet heroics confined east asia three years end hostilities korea cold war still heating us preparing extensive list targets nuclear bombardment multiple countries ranging locales disparate warsaw beijing americans cited major urban zones priority targets destruction total elimination high civilian populations desired outcome one small problem presented given nature weapons deployed possibility collateral damage allied states sizeable possibility scenario doesnt appear caused much worry us strategic planners however east berlin soon targeted ninety atomic weapons part policy systematic destruction would also wiped allied west berlin devastated swathes europe wellbeing partners mention lives millions men women children multiple nations germany china eminently expendable face us interests cheap shot would argue ancient history course making claim almost certainly safely ensconced within us always way line fire comfortable precedent catastrophic violence something americans inflict foreigners rather way around claims matters history also make crass assumption point sudden disconnect us policy rather clumsy notion ignores reality american aggression past several decades planning murder case korea actually millions people isnt something conveniently dismissed uttering tired maxims forgive forget current belligerence directed towards korea highlight history matters dprk citizens today make frequent mention korean war instances many families yet retain living link conflict scenes horrific suffering sweeping destruction yet present memory even without relatives around recall 1950s reminded tender touch us foreign policy every time go outside near total levelling many urban centres ensuring buildings modernity merely decades rather centuries old would serious mistake assume finds echo korean politics every time news hits latest us offensive abroad iraq afghanistan libya syria koreans reminded painful past continued presence sizeable american military forces korean peninsula wont help washingtons redoubled threats moronic macho talk looking trouble wont help either declarations pyongyang sovereignty retaliation selfreliance military prowess however make sense people long accustomed either underdog facing outright annihilation nothing crazy deluded western cynics could claim koreans resent western powers purely state propaganda reality right experience decades time fully understood | 1,494 |
<p>Few would oppose a robust U.S. response to Ebola, but the Obama administration’s deployment of 3,000 troops to Liberia comes amid a broader U.S.-led militarization in West Africa.</p>
<p>Joeva Rock</p>
<p>Six months into West Africa’s Ebola crisis, the international community is finally heading calls for substantial intervention in the region.</p>
<p>On September 16, President Obama <a href="http://m.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/16/fact-sheet-us-response-ebola-epidemic-west-africa" type="external">announced</a> a multimillion-dollar U.S. response to the spreading contagion. The crisis, which began in March 2014, has <a href="http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKBN0HD1I720140918" type="external">killed over 2,600 people</a>, an alarming figure that <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/ebola-could-infect-500000-by-end-of-january-according-to-tentative-cdc-projection/2014/09/19/c7585bf8-402e-11e4-b0ea-8141703bbf6f_story.html" type="external">experts say will rise quickly</a> if the disease is not contained. Obama’s announcement comes on the heels of growing international impatience with what critics have called the U.S. government’s “ <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2014/09/12/americas-infuriating-response-to-the-ebola-crisis/" type="external">infuriatingly</a>” slow response to the outbreak.</p>
<p>Assistance efforts have already stoked controversy, with a noticeable privilege of care being afforded to foreign healthcare workers over Africans.</p>
<p>After two infected American missionaries were administered Zmapp, a life-saving experimental drug, controversy exploded when reports emerged that Doctors Without Borders had previously decided not to administer it to the Sierra Leonean doctor <a href="http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/08/24/health-ebola-khan-idINKBN0GO07C20140824" type="external">Sheik Umar Khan</a>, who succumbed to Ebola after helping to lead the country’s fight against the disease. The World Health Organization similarly refused to evacuate the prominent Sierra Leonean doctor <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/15/ebola-doctor-death-olivet-buck-sierra-leone?CMP=twt_gu" type="external">Olivet Buck</a>, who later died of the disease as well. The Pentagon provoked its own controversy when it announced plans to deploy a $22 million, 25-bed U.S. military field hospital–reportedly <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/jinamoore/us-military-builds-ebola-hospital-in-liberia-mdas#2ji4s87" type="external">for foreign health workers only</a>.</p>
<p>One particular component of the latest assistance package promises to be controversial as well: namely, the deployment of 3,000 U.S. troops to Liberia, where the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) will establish a joint command operations base to serve as a logistics and training center for medical responders.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/09/16/3567892/what-3000-american-troops-will-be-doing-to-fight-ebola/" type="external">Think Progress</a>, this number represents “nearly two-thirds of AFRICOM’s 4,800 assigned personnel” who will coordinate with civilian organizations to distribute supplies and construct up to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/world/africa/obama-to-announce-expanded-effort-against-ebola.html?emc=edit_th_20140916&amp;nl=todaysheadlines&amp;nlid=59529960" type="external">17 treatment centers</a>. It’s unclear whether any U.S. healthcare personnel will actually treat patients, but <a href="http://m.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/16/fact-sheet-us-response-ebola-epidemic-west-africa" type="external">according to the White House</a>, “the U.S. Government will help recruit and organize medical personnel to staff” the centers and “establish a site to train up to 500 health care providers per week.” The latter begs the question of practicality, and where these would-be health workers will be recruited from.</p>
<p>According to the Obama administration, the package was requested directly by Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. (Notably, Liberia was the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7251648.stm" type="external">only African nation</a> to offer to host AFRICOM’s headquarters in 2008, an offer AFRICOM declined and decided to set up in Germany instead). But in a country still recovering from decades of civil war, this move was not welcomed by all. “Every Liberian I speak with is having acute anxiety attacks,” said Liberian writer <a href="https://twitter.com/ducorwriter/status/511917026588516352" type="external">Stephanie C. Horton</a>. “We knew this was coming but the sense of mounting doom is emotional devastation.”</p>
<p>Few would oppose a robust U.S. response to the Ebola crisis, but the militarized nature of the White House plan comes in the context of a broader U.S.-led militarization of the region. The soldiers in Liberia, after all, will not be the only American troops on the African continent. In the six years of AFRICOM’s existence, the U.S. military has <a href="http://fpif.org/africom-goes-war-sly/" type="external">steadily and quietly</a> been building its presence on the continent through drone bases and partnerships with local militaries. This is what’s known as the “ <a href="https://news.vice.com/article/the-us-and-france-are-teaming-up-to-fight-a-sprawling-war-on-terror-in-africa" type="external">new normal</a>”: drone strikes, partnerships to train and equip African troops (including those with troubled human rights records), reconnaissance missions, and multinational training operations.</p>
<p>To build PR for its military exercises, AFRICOM relies on soft-power tactics: vibrant social media pages, <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/201406251012.html" type="external">academic symposia</a>, and humanitarian programming. But such <a href="http://fpif.org/militarized-humanitarianism-africa/" type="external">militarized humanitarianism</a>–such as building schools and hospitals and responding to disease outbreaks–also plays more strategic, practical purpose: it allows military personnel to train in new environments, gather local experience and tactical data, and build diplomatic relations with host countries and communities.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175891/" type="external">TomDispatch’s Nick Turse</a>, one of the foremost reporters on the militarization of Africa, noted that a recent report from the U.S. Department of Defense “found failures in planning, executing, tracking, and documenting such projects,” leaving big questions about their efficacy.</p>
<p>Perhaps more importantly, experts have warned that the provision of humanitarian assistance by uniformed soldiers could have dangerous, <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/09/11/347666891/can-the-u-s-military-turn-the-tide-in-the-ebola-outbreak" type="external">destabilizing</a> effects, especially in countries with long histories of civil conflict, such as Liberia and Sierra Leone. At the outset of the crisis, for example, efforts by Liberian troops to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/22/world/africa/liberian-boy-dies-after-being-shot-during-clash-over-ebola-quarantine.html" type="external">forcefully quarantine the residents of West Point</a>, a community in the capital of Monrovia, led to deadly clashes. Some public health advocates worry that the presence of armed troops could provoke similar incidents.</p>
<p>The U.S. operation in Liberia warrants many questions. Will military contractors be used in the construction of facilities and execution of programs? Will the U.S.-built treatment centers be temporary or permanent? Will the treatment centers double as research labs? What is the timeline for exiting the country? And perhaps most significantly for the long term, will the Liberian operation base serve as a staging ground for non-Ebola related military operations?</p>
<p>The use of the U.S. military in this operation should raise red flags for the American public as well. After all, if the military truly is the governmental institution best equipped to handle this outbreak, it speaks worlds about the neglect of civilian programs at home as well as abroad.</p>
<p>Joeva Rock is a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology at American University in Washington, DC focusing on colonial legacies in West Africa. Follow her on Twitter: @ <a href="http://twitter.com/southsidetrees" type="external">southsidetrees</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://fpif.org/militarizing-ebola-crisis/" type="external">This piece</a> was reprinted by <a href="" type="internal">RINF Alternative News</a> with permission or license.&#160;</p> | true | 4 | would oppose robust us response ebola obama administrations deployment 3000 troops liberia comes amid broader usled militarization west africa joeva rock six months west africas ebola crisis international community finally heading calls substantial intervention region september 16 president obama announced multimilliondollar us response spreading contagion crisis began march 2014 killed 2600 people alarming figure experts say rise quickly disease contained obamas announcement comes heels growing international impatience critics called us governments infuriatingly slow response outbreak assistance efforts already stoked controversy noticeable privilege care afforded foreign healthcare workers africans two infected american missionaries administered zmapp lifesaving experimental drug controversy exploded reports emerged doctors without borders previously decided administer sierra leonean doctor sheik umar khan succumbed ebola helping lead countrys fight disease world health organization similarly refused evacuate prominent sierra leonean doctor olivet buck later died disease well pentagon provoked controversy announced plans deploy 22 million 25bed us military field hospitalreportedly foreign health workers one particular component latest assistance package promises controversial well namely deployment 3000 us troops liberia us africa command africom establish joint command operations base serve logistics training center medical responders according think progress number represents nearly twothirds africoms 4800 assigned personnel coordinate civilian organizations distribute supplies construct 17 treatment centers unclear whether us healthcare personnel actually treat patients according white house us government help recruit organize medical personnel staff centers establish site train 500 health care providers per week latter begs question practicality wouldbe health workers recruited according obama administration package requested directly liberian president ellen johnson sirleaf notably liberia african nation offer host africoms headquarters 2008 offer africom declined decided set germany instead country still recovering decades civil war move welcomed every liberian speak acute anxiety attacks said liberian writer stephanie c horton knew coming sense mounting doom emotional devastation would oppose robust us response ebola crisis militarized nature white house plan comes context broader usled militarization region soldiers liberia american troops african continent six years africoms existence us military steadily quietly building presence continent drone bases partnerships local militaries whats known new normal drone strikes partnerships train equip african troops including troubled human rights records reconnaissance missions multinational training operations build pr military exercises africom relies softpower tactics vibrant social media pages academic symposia humanitarian programming militarized humanitarianismsuch building schools hospitals responding disease outbreaksalso plays strategic practical purpose allows military personnel train new environments gather local experience tactical data build diplomatic relations host countries communities tomdispatchs nick turse one foremost reporters militarization africa noted recent report us department defense found failures planning executing tracking documenting projects leaving big questions efficacy perhaps importantly experts warned provision humanitarian assistance uniformed soldiers could dangerous destabilizing effects especially countries long histories civil conflict liberia sierra leone outset crisis example efforts liberian troops forcefully quarantine residents west point community capital monrovia led deadly clashes public health advocates worry presence armed troops could provoke similar incidents us operation liberia warrants many questions military contractors used construction facilities execution programs usbuilt treatment centers temporary permanent treatment centers double research labs timeline exiting country perhaps significantly long term liberian operation base serve staging ground nonebola related military operations use us military operation raise red flags american public well military truly governmental institution best equipped handle outbreak speaks worlds neglect civilian programs home well abroad joeva rock graduate student department anthropology american university washington dc focusing colonial legacies west africa follow twitter southsidetrees piece reprinted rinf alternative news permission license160 | 565 |
<p>The full-court press on the FTAs represents a reversal for a president elected on a trade reform platform. During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama proclaimed his opposition to the NAFTA-style FTAs and boasted of his stance against the devastating North American and Central American agreements. As candidate Obama, he carefully distanced himself from the open-market, pro-corporate policies of his predecessor, calling for significant changes to the NAFTA model, including enforceable labor and environmental standards, and consumer protections.</p>
<p>The Global Crisis</p>
<p>In the three years since Obama wooed voters with talk of bold changes in trade policy, the need for reforms has reached crisis proportions. The global economic crisis left the United States with skyrocketing un- and under-employment rates. The government paid billions of dollars in bailout money to the corporations who caused the crisis. These corporations then turned around to post record profits and hand out astronomical executive pay bonuses. The evidence that FTA-fueled outsourcing benefits those corporations while putting Americans out of work has piled up, and polls show that a majority of U.S. citizens oppose NAFTA-style FTAs.</p>
<p>Abroad, labor violations and increasing inequality have exacerbated the plight of poor and working people in FTA countries, while creating a new class of mega-rich that often control national economies.</p>
<p>This would seem to be precisely the moment to make good on the promises to fix trade and investment policy, and to give workers everywhere a fair shake in a globalized economy that has been severely skewed toward the interests of powerful corporations - to devastating effect.</p>
<p>Instead, the Obama administration has gone from the audacity of hope to the audacity of presenting three pro-corporate trade agreements to a public suffering from a nearly 10 percent unemployment rate. As United Steel Workers President Leo Gerard concludes in a letter to Congress opposing the trade agreements, “Trade deals force working Americans to assume all the risk and encourage big multinationals to reap all the rewards.”</p>
<p>NAFTA Look-alikes</p>
<p>The new agreements look nearly identical to the NAFTA model, despite some tweaks and promises of advances that are mostly left outside the actual text of the agreements. Some of the most noxious elements that persist in the FTAs before Congress are: prohibitions on financial sector regulation and capital controls, foreign investment incentives that encourage off-shoring, separate legal regimes in which corporations can sue governments in specialized tribunals, weak environmental standards, vague and toothless labor standards, and intellectual property rules that monopolize knowledge needed for the public good.</p>
<p>The Economic Policy Institute calculates that the South Korean FTA alone will cost 159,000 U.S. jobs. Department of Commerce data shows that over the past decade of free trade policy multinational corporations cut their U.S. workforce by 2.9 million and increased overseas employment by 2.4 million. Under these trade and investment regimes, U.S. workers clearly suffer, which is why voters have supported candidates critical of NAFTA-style free trade. Although job displacement is frequently viewed as a zero-sum system where workers of different nations compete, the reality is that decent jobs - with dignified working conditions and real labor rights - are lost everywhere. FTAs turn the world into a global labor bazaar for corporations to bargain-hunt.</p>
<p>Labor unions in the countries purportedly hungering for a U.S. FTA overwhelmingly oppose them. Colombian labor organizations have consistently taken a stand against the Colombia FTA, asserting that it creates binding terms between two vastly unequal economies; would negatively affect agriculture, manufacturing, medicines and other vital sectors; would generate few if any net jobs; and would place thousands of local businesses in jeopardy. Agroup of Korean unions, farmers, and civil society groups traveled to Washington last January to “prevent the negative consequences that the Korea-US FTA will have on both of our countries.”</p>
<p>Both groups have presented their testimony to the U.S. Congress, exploding another myth: that FTAs are a “reward” to be bestowed on deserving allies. Powerful economic interests in these nations - typically over-represented by their governments - have brought tremendous pressure to bear in favor of the agreements. Meanwhile, the poor, workers, small farmers, the displaced, and indigenous and ethnic organizations nearly unanimously oppose them.</p>
<p>Colombians Against the FTA</p>
<p>A letter to the U.S. Congress signed by 431 U.S. and Colombian organizations urges members to reject the U.S.-Colombia FTA, citing “serious labor, human rights, Afro-Colombian, indigenous, and environmental concerns in Colombia.” The letter points out that Colombia continues to be “the most dangerous country in the world for trade union activists” and cites a 94 percent impunity rate for assassins of labor leaders. Fifty-one trade unionists were killed in 2010, and killings continue unabated in 2011.</p>
<p>An Action Plan developed between the U.S. and Colombian governments to assuage concerns does not form part of the binding text of the agreement. At this stage, the plan amounts to good intentions without establishing a firm basis for collective bargaining for cooperative members, or clear benchmarks for reducing violence, abuses, and impunity.</p>
<p>Promoters have countered criticisms of the Colombian government’s labor practices by asserting that increased U.S. investment can serve as a positive force in upholding workers’ rights. This argument has not been borne out in practice. In Guatemala, unionist murders increased following passage of CAFTA. The logic is simple. With more powerful economic interests in the country competing in a globalized economy, companies too often view workers’ rights as economic liabilities.</p>
<p>The debate on the Colombian FTA has also ignored the need to assess the effects of increased foreign investment on the continued armed conflict in Colombia. NAFTA proved that FTAs have much more to do with revamping investment regimes for multinational corporations than with the exchange of goods and services.</p>
<p>These investments also direct money into paramilitaries involved in drug export, money-laundering, and other crimes. There is ample evidence of these shady relations in the past, most notably the recent case of Chiquita’s payoffs to paramilitary organizations as part of “doing business” in Colombia. Such investments, associated with huge agricultural projects and mining ventures, often go hand in hand with violence and displacement. A report on Inter-American Development Bank megaprojects by the Americas Program and the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities showed the correlation between the expansion of palm oil mono-crops and forced displacement. At a recent prayer breakfast, Lisa Haugaard of the Latin American Working Group spoke of her experience gathering evidence of landowners expanding cattle ranching or mining operations at the point of a gun.</p>
<p>The many attacks on Afro-Colombian populations as part of this process led 24 members of Congress to writePresident Obama on July 6 stating, “We are concerned that the FTA would stimulate business development in Colombia at the expense of these vulnerable populations.” The congressional members also note that an estimated 5.2 million people in the country are already displaced - more than one out of nine Colombians. .</p>
<p>Jobs First</p>
<p>The Colombia FTA provides the clearest case of why free trade in the context of inequity and violence not only does not help but exacerbates the problems. The question of whether Colombia “deserves” the FTA can be easily answered. No population deserves an international agreement that directly or indirectly promotes displacement, violence, targeted murder, and the continued violation of the rights of indigenous and Afro-American populations.</p>
<p>Labor, human rights, and faith-based organizations are pushing back hard against the FTA onslaught, and offer toolsfor citizens to make their voices heard over the din of corporate lobbies.</p>
<p>For Congress to turn a deaf ear to those at greatest risk and in greatest need - both in the United States, and in the countries affected by the toxic trio of FTAs now making the rounds - would contradict U.S. values and U.S. public opinion. Especially now, as the U.S. economy still struggles to regain its footing, the best way to rebuild stability is to learn from mistakes of the past and strive for more fairness. A necessary step is to reject the Colombia, South Korea, and Panama Free Trade Agreements.</p>
<p>Laura Carlsen is director of the Americas Program of the Center for International Policy in Mexico City at <a href="http://www.cipamericas.org" type="external">www.cipamericas.org</a>.</p>
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<p /> | true | 4 | fullcourt press ftas represents reversal president elected trade reform platform presidential campaign barack obama proclaimed opposition naftastyle ftas boasted stance devastating north american central american agreements candidate obama carefully distanced openmarket procorporate policies predecessor calling significant changes nafta model including enforceable labor environmental standards consumer protections global crisis three years since obama wooed voters talk bold changes trade policy need reforms reached crisis proportions global economic crisis left united states skyrocketing un underemployment rates government paid billions dollars bailout money corporations caused crisis corporations turned around post record profits hand astronomical executive pay bonuses evidence ftafueled outsourcing benefits corporations putting americans work piled polls show majority us citizens oppose naftastyle ftas abroad labor violations increasing inequality exacerbated plight poor working people fta countries creating new class megarich often control national economies would seem precisely moment make good promises fix trade investment policy give workers everywhere fair shake globalized economy severely skewed toward interests powerful corporations devastating effect instead obama administration gone audacity hope audacity presenting three procorporate trade agreements public suffering nearly 10 percent unemployment rate united steel workers president leo gerard concludes letter congress opposing trade agreements trade deals force working americans assume risk encourage big multinationals reap rewards nafta lookalikes new agreements look nearly identical nafta model despite tweaks promises advances mostly left outside actual text agreements noxious elements persist ftas congress prohibitions financial sector regulation capital controls foreign investment incentives encourage offshoring separate legal regimes corporations sue governments specialized tribunals weak environmental standards vague toothless labor standards intellectual property rules monopolize knowledge needed public good economic policy institute calculates south korean fta alone cost 159000 us jobs department commerce data shows past decade free trade policy multinational corporations cut us workforce 29 million increased overseas employment 24 million trade investment regimes us workers clearly suffer voters supported candidates critical naftastyle free trade although job displacement frequently viewed zerosum system workers different nations compete reality decent jobs dignified working conditions real labor rights lost everywhere ftas turn world global labor bazaar corporations bargainhunt labor unions countries purportedly hungering us fta overwhelmingly oppose colombian labor organizations consistently taken stand colombia fta asserting creates binding terms two vastly unequal economies would negatively affect agriculture manufacturing medicines vital sectors would generate net jobs would place thousands local businesses jeopardy agroup korean unions farmers civil society groups traveled washington last january prevent negative consequences koreaus fta countries groups presented testimony us congress exploding another myth ftas reward bestowed deserving allies powerful economic interests nations typically overrepresented governments brought tremendous pressure bear favor agreements meanwhile poor workers small farmers displaced indigenous ethnic organizations nearly unanimously oppose colombians fta letter us congress signed 431 us colombian organizations urges members reject uscolombia fta citing serious labor human rights afrocolombian indigenous environmental concerns colombia letter points colombia continues dangerous country world trade union activists cites 94 percent impunity rate assassins labor leaders fiftyone trade unionists killed 2010 killings continue unabated 2011 action plan developed us colombian governments assuage concerns form part binding text agreement stage plan amounts good intentions without establishing firm basis collective bargaining cooperative members clear benchmarks reducing violence abuses impunity promoters countered criticisms colombian governments labor practices asserting increased us investment serve positive force upholding workers rights argument borne practice guatemala unionist murders increased following passage cafta logic simple powerful economic interests country competing globalized economy companies often view workers rights economic liabilities debate colombian fta also ignored need assess effects increased foreign investment continued armed conflict colombia nafta proved ftas much revamping investment regimes multinational corporations exchange goods services investments also direct money paramilitaries involved drug export moneylaundering crimes ample evidence shady relations past notably recent case chiquitas payoffs paramilitary organizations part business colombia investments associated huge agricultural projects mining ventures often go hand hand violence displacement report interamerican development bank megaprojects americas program national alliance latin american caribbean communities showed correlation expansion palm oil monocrops forced displacement recent prayer breakfast lisa haugaard latin american working group spoke experience gathering evidence landowners expanding cattle ranching mining operations point gun many attacks afrocolombian populations part process led 24 members congress writepresident obama july 6 stating concerned fta would stimulate business development colombia expense vulnerable populations congressional members also note estimated 52 million people country already displaced one nine colombians jobs first colombia fta provides clearest case free trade context inequity violence help exacerbates problems question whether colombia deserves fta easily answered population deserves international agreement directly indirectly promotes displacement violence targeted murder continued violation rights indigenous afroamerican populations labor human rights faithbased organizations pushing back hard fta onslaught offer toolsfor citizens make voices heard din corporate lobbies congress turn deaf ear greatest risk greatest need united states countries affected toxic trio ftas making rounds would contradict us values us public opinion especially us economy still struggles regain footing best way rebuild stability learn mistakes past strive fairness necessary step reject colombia south korea panama free trade agreements laura carlsen director americas program center international policy mexico city wwwcipamericasorg 160 | 826 |
<p>The Sacramento River fall run chinook salmon population, now in a state of unprecedented collapse, encountered another blow when 75,000 juvenile salmon in a truck died en route to&#160;acclimation pens in San Pablo Bay</p>
<p>The fish were part of an experimental program to truck salmon smolts from the federal government’s Coleman National Fish Hatchery on Battle Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento, to the pens to maximize salmon survival. The trucking program is designed&#160; to get the fish past obstacles to their survival posed by water diversions, predators and the massive fish-killing state and federal water export pumps on the California Delta.</p>
<p>The salmon smolts perished on Monday, May 19, because of oxygen depletion in the tank of one of the two trucks that traveled to Carquinez Strait that day, according to Scott Hamelburg, hatchery manager&#160;“The fish deaths were caused by poor circulation of oxygen in the tank,” he said. “The pump did not appear to be sufficiently mixing the water.”</p>
<p>Of the total load of 100,000 fish in one truck, only 25,000 survived. The other truck delivered 70,000 fish successfully to the pens.</p>
<p>A total of 1.4 million smolts out of a total of 12.6 million slated for release will be released into the net pens in Carquinez Strait rather than on site into Battle Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento River. Fortunately, it appears that the problems with trucking have been corrected, as the rest of the fish put in trucks since then have reached the pens in good and healthy condition.</p>
<p>The fish are being released into pens operated by the Fishery Foundation of California, rather than directly into the bay, to acclimate them to the bay water. Rather than being stunned and disorented upon release into salt water, where they are subject to predation by birds and predatory fish, the salmon are able to adjust better to their new home.</p>
<p>“Our driver was upset, as was the entire crew here after the fish died on Monday,” emphasized Hamelburg. “We put a lot of time and effort into raising and transporting those fish and we hate seeing fish lost for any reason.”</p>
<p>To make sure that more fish didn’t die on following trips to the bay, the hatchery staff installed a different pump to provide more oxygen. In addition, they also reduced the truck’s load to 81,000 fish the following day and doubled the amount of ice from 300 to 600 pounds to make sure the fish arrived in healthy condition.</p>
<p>The change in procedures seemed to do the job. “The 150,000 fish arrived at the pens in fine shape without a hitch on Tuesday,” said Hamelburg. “There was no mortality to speak of.”</p>
<p>This is the first time since 1992 that salmon smolts from the hatchery have been trucked downriver rather than released into Battle Creek.</p>
<p>“We only did this for five years in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s during the drought,” said Hamelburg. “The trucking of fish was very much justified because of the low, warm water conditions on the river.”</p>
<p>This year the trucking program was prodded by the collapse of Central Valley&#160; fall chinook salmon, a disaster that has resulted in the closure of ocean salmon fisheries off Oregon and California and a zero bag limit for Sacramento River system salmon until a small stretch of river opens November 1 to allow fishing for late fall chinooks.</p>
<p>A number of organizations, including the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Allied Fishing Groups, Water4Fish, the Coastside Fishing Club, the Golden Gate Fishermen’s Association and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and Representative Wally Herger are supporting Coleman Hatchery’s experimental salmon release program.</p>
<p>“This was an unfortunate incident,” said Dick Pool, owner of Pro Troll, who led the charge to get Coleman Hatchery to begin the experimental program. “I feel bad for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service because of all of the hard work they’ve done, I feel bad for the fish that died, and I feel bad for the fishermen that are counting heavily on the trucking program to bring back our salmon runs so we can fish for chinooks again in 2010.”</p>
<p>However, he was glad that the problems in trucking fish appear to have been resolved and that the program is proceeding forward.</p>
<p>Trevor Kennedy, executive of the Fishery Foundation of California, said, “It’s too bad that this happened, but this is the risk you take when you move truck fish 300 miles.”</p>
<p>DFG To Release All Salmon Smolts Into Acclimation Pens</p>
<p>The Department of Fish and Game is planning to put all of its 21 million salmon smolts into the acclimation pens in Carquinez Strait this spring. The Department has already trucked 11 million to the pens and plans to truck another 9 to 10 million fish to the pens by June 27.</p>
<p>That state has usually dumped roughly 14 million smolts directly in the bay, while towing another 9 million in net pens, according to Nels Johson, outdoor columnist for the Marin Independent Journal, who spurred an investigation by Assemblyman Jared Huffman into the DFG’s salmon smolt release practices.</p>
<p>The placement of all of the smolts into the pens this year is largely a result of the investigation and increasing political pressure by angling groups to increase salmon smolt survival.</p>
<p>“The survival rate of fish released into the pens increases significantly by anywhere from 200 to 500 percent,” said Trevor Kennedy. “This is the largest acclimation program we’ve ever handled – our previous largest amount of fish released into the pens was 14 million. Last year we released 10 million salmon smolts into the strait.”</p>
<p>Kennedy predicts that both the federal and state program will help to restore the salmon fishery. “This program has been a huge success – it should be phenomenal – you just do the math and it’s a pretty big boost to our fishery,” he stated.</p>
<p>One difference this year is that the DFG is switching back and forth between several release sites. By doing this, they are preventing predatory birds and fish, such as striped bass, from keying in on the release of salmon smolts from the pens.</p>
<p>“We will release at one site for a only few days, because if we don’t, the fish will get smart to the fact that we’re releasing fish at that location,” said Kennedy.</p>
<p>“The DFG has responded real well, with the drivers delivering fish at different times every day,” he added. “They realized how important this is considering that the fishery is in collapse.”</p>
<p>The Foundation this year is using a new system for acclimating the fish, a big aluminum pontoon boat on loan from the Bodega Bay Fish Marketing Association that was used for kelp and herring fishing. The boat can fit five nets, including six truckloads of salmon from the DFG or Coleman Hatchery. The boat is also a much more stable work platform than the previous operation</p>
<p>Nels Johnson was cautiously optimistic about the program.</p>
<p>“The current program is a mega leap ahead of last year’s,” said Johnson. “Although a predator problem still plagues the program, it’s better than last year when the state was essentially feeding striped bass with direct bay dumps of smolts.”</p>
<p>He quipped, “There are much cheaper ways to feed stripers that spending $3.2 million on releasing salmon smolts. The $3.2 million was not supposed to be used as a dinner bell for the stripers. It’s supposed to maximize salmon survival.”</p>
<p>Johnson believes that much more needs to be done – such as using more release sites at different times of the day, consideration of a night release program if crew safety concerns can be resolved, and enacting new regulations making it illegal to fish nearby when fingerlings are being released.</p>
<p>Like Johnson, I’m encouraged by the fact the federal government has embraced an experimental program to release smolts into the bay, while the DFG will be releasing smolts into the pens, rather than directly into the bay this year. However, anglers and fishing groups need to keep intense pressure on the DFG and NOAA Fisheries to make sure that they do everything to maximize salmon survival.</p>
<p>The pen acclimation program originated from the striped bass pen-rearing program, a program of the foundation conceived by United Anglers of California in 1991. The program successfully raised wild striped bass salvaged from the state and federal Delta pumps to a larger size that could evade birds and other predatory fish.</p>
<p>The program was an overwhelming success, as evidenced by the increase in the striped bass population to over 1.5 million by 1997-98. Unfortunately, NOAA Fisheries decided that the pen rearing program was ‘too successful” and refused to grant the foundation the needed “Section 10” permit under the Endangered Species Act because the stripers, event though they had successfully coexisted with winter run chinook salmon for over a hundred years, were supposedly ravaging the protected salmon.</p>
<p>Tom Hampson, who designed and constructed the original pens for the striper project, then contracted with the DFG to acclimate the salmon released from DFG. Unfortunately, the DFG apparently dropped the ball and didn’t release the salmon into the pens in 2005 and 2006 – years where poor ocean conditions for salmon prevailed and state and federal water exports from the California reached record levels.</p>
<p>The combination of record water exports, poor ocean conditions and the lack of the pen rearing program in 2005 and 2006, along with other freshwater factors such as water pollution, combined to produce the salmon collapse that has resulted in ocean and river closures to salmon fishing.</p>
<p>DAN BACHER can be reached at: <a href="mailto:Danielbacher@fishsniffer.com" type="external">Danielbacher@fishsniffer.com</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | sacramento river fall run chinook salmon population state unprecedented collapse encountered another blow 75000 juvenile salmon truck died en route to160acclimation pens san pablo bay fish part experimental program truck salmon smolts federal governments coleman national fish hatchery battle creek tributary sacramento pens maximize salmon survival trucking program designed160 get fish past obstacles survival posed water diversions predators massive fishkilling state federal water export pumps california delta salmon smolts perished monday may 19 oxygen depletion tank one two trucks traveled carquinez strait day according scott hamelburg hatchery manager160the fish deaths caused poor circulation oxygen tank said pump appear sufficiently mixing water total load 100000 fish one truck 25000 survived truck delivered 70000 fish successfully pens total 14 million smolts total 126 million slated release released net pens carquinez strait rather site battle creek tributary sacramento river fortunately appears problems trucking corrected rest fish put trucks since reached pens good healthy condition fish released pens operated fishery foundation california rather directly bay acclimate bay water rather stunned disorented upon release salt water subject predation birds predatory fish salmon able adjust better new home driver upset entire crew fish died monday emphasized hamelburg put lot time effort raising transporting fish hate seeing fish lost reason make sure fish didnt die following trips bay hatchery staff installed different pump provide oxygen addition also reduced trucks load 81000 fish following day doubled amount ice 300 600 pounds make sure fish arrived healthy condition change procedures seemed job 150000 fish arrived pens fine shape without hitch tuesday said hamelburg mortality speak first time since 1992 salmon smolts hatchery trucked downriver rather released battle creek five years late 1980s early 1990s drought said hamelburg trucking fish much justified low warm water conditions river year trucking program prodded collapse central valley160 fall chinook salmon disaster resulted closure ocean salmon fisheries oregon california zero bag limit sacramento river system salmon small stretch river opens november 1 allow fishing late fall chinooks number organizations including california sportfishing protection alliance allied fishing groups water4fish coastside fishing club golden gate fishermens association pacific coast federation fishermens associations representative wally herger supporting coleman hatcherys experimental salmon release program unfortunate incident said dick pool owner pro troll led charge get coleman hatchery begin experimental program feel bad us fish wildlife service hard work theyve done feel bad fish died feel bad fishermen counting heavily trucking program bring back salmon runs fish chinooks 2010 however glad problems trucking fish appear resolved program proceeding forward trevor kennedy executive fishery foundation california said bad happened risk take move truck fish 300 miles dfg release salmon smolts acclimation pens department fish game planning put 21 million salmon smolts acclimation pens carquinez strait spring department already trucked 11 million pens plans truck another 9 10 million fish pens june 27 state usually dumped roughly 14 million smolts directly bay towing another 9 million net pens according nels johson outdoor columnist marin independent journal spurred investigation assemblyman jared huffman dfgs salmon smolt release practices placement smolts pens year largely result investigation increasing political pressure angling groups increase salmon smolt survival survival rate fish released pens increases significantly anywhere 200 500 percent said trevor kennedy largest acclimation program weve ever handled previous largest amount fish released pens 14 million last year released 10 million salmon smolts strait kennedy predicts federal state program help restore salmon fishery program huge success phenomenal math pretty big boost fishery stated one difference year dfg switching back forth several release sites preventing predatory birds fish striped bass keying release salmon smolts pens release one site days dont fish get smart fact releasing fish location said kennedy dfg responded real well drivers delivering fish different times every day added realized important considering fishery collapse foundation year using new system acclimating fish big aluminum pontoon boat loan bodega bay fish marketing association used kelp herring fishing boat fit five nets including six truckloads salmon dfg coleman hatchery boat also much stable work platform previous operation nels johnson cautiously optimistic program current program mega leap ahead last years said johnson although predator problem still plagues program better last year state essentially feeding striped bass direct bay dumps smolts quipped much cheaper ways feed stripers spending 32 million releasing salmon smolts 32 million supposed used dinner bell stripers supposed maximize salmon survival johnson believes much needs done using release sites different times day consideration night release program crew safety concerns resolved enacting new regulations making illegal fish nearby fingerlings released like johnson im encouraged fact federal government embraced experimental program release smolts bay dfg releasing smolts pens rather directly bay year however anglers fishing groups need keep intense pressure dfg noaa fisheries make sure everything maximize salmon survival pen acclimation program originated striped bass penrearing program program foundation conceived united anglers california 1991 program successfully raised wild striped bass salvaged state federal delta pumps larger size could evade birds predatory fish program overwhelming success evidenced increase striped bass population 15 million 199798 unfortunately noaa fisheries decided pen rearing program successful refused grant foundation needed section 10 permit endangered species act stripers event though successfully coexisted winter run chinook salmon hundred years supposedly ravaging protected salmon tom hampson designed constructed original pens striper project contracted dfg acclimate salmon released dfg unfortunately dfg apparently dropped ball didnt release salmon pens 2005 2006 years poor ocean conditions salmon prevailed state federal water exports california reached record levels combination record water exports poor ocean conditions lack pen rearing program 2005 2006 along freshwater factors water pollution combined produce salmon collapse resulted ocean river closures salmon fishing dan bacher reached danielbacherfishsniffercom 160 | 928 |
<p>This is what it must feel like to be on Death Row, to be waiting for the moment when the iron door clangs open for the last time and four burly guards escort you arm-in-arm to the room where your life will be extinguished. That same sense of dread hangs over the presidential election of 2016.</p>
<p>No one is happy about the election and no one anticipates better days ahead. America’s ‘glory days” appear to be in the rearview mirror while the steady downward slide seems to be gaining pace. This year’s presidential campaign has brought all the anger, anxiety and frustration bubbling to the surface. Nerves are raw, people are on edge, and the trepidation is so thick you could cut it with a knife. All the recent surveys tell the same story: Americans are sick of the mudslinging, sick of the scandals, sick of the recriminations, sick of the two party duopoly, and sick of the two candidates, the two most distrusted and reviled candidates in the country’s 230 year history. This is from the New York Times:</p>
<p>“An overwhelming majority of voters are disgusted by the state of American politics, and many harbor doubts that either major-party nominee can unite the country after a historically ugly presidential campaign, according to the final pre-election New York Times/CBS News Poll…</p>
<p>With more than eight in 10 voters saying the campaign has left them repulsed rather than excited, the rising toxicity threatens the ultimate victor. Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic candidate, and Mr. Trump, the Republican nominee, are seen as dishonest and viewed unfavorably by a majority of voters…</p>
<p>After weeks of Mr. Trump’s accusations that the election is “rigged,” a little more than six in 10 of his supporters say they will accept the results as legitimate if he loses. More than a quarter of Mr. Trump’s supporters say they will probably not accept the outcome if Mrs. Clinton is declared the winner, and nearly 40 percent of them say they have little or no confidence that Americans’ votes will be counted properly.” ( <a href="" type="internal">Voters Express Disgust Over U.S. Politics in New Times</a>/CBS Poll, New York Times)</p>
<p>The growing sense of desperation in America today is palpable and it goes far beyond this one, isolated election cycle. The steady erosion of confidence in the nation’s&#160;main institutions is evident in Congress’s public approval ratings which&#160;seem to be stuck in&#160;single-digit territory.&#160;The&#160;public probably feels&#160;equal contempt for the Loretta Lynch Justice Department&#160;which is loaded with Clinton toadies that have done their best to quash any investigation into the illicit pay-to-play machinations at&#160;the Clinton Foundation. And, let’s not forget the media which has lost whatever shred of credibility it managed to salvage after its myriad of war-promoting lies about WMD, mobile weapons labs, aluminum tubes and Assad’s imaginary chemical weapons attacks, attacks that were invented from whole cloth at one of Washington’s many neocon think tanks where these fake ideas are typically hatched. The Forth Estate’s latest gambit is an idiotic attempt to prove that Vladimir Putin is trying to hack our thoroughly-corrupted Third World voting system &#160;to achieve some nebulous political gain. What a joke.</p>
<p>No, Hillary, Putin is not gaming the system like you did in the primaries with Bernie Sanders, nor did he put a gun to your head and force you to delete the 33,000 missing emails from your private server.&#160;That was your handiwork Ms. Clinton, although you have a done a masterful job in deflecting attention&#160; from yourself and &#160;passing the buck for your own sleazy, criminal activities onto Moscow.</p>
<p>But, back to the media. This from Gallup:</p>
<p>“Americans’ trust and confidence in the mass media “to report the news fully, accurately and fairly” has dropped to its lowest level in Gallup polling history, with 32% saying they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media. This is down eight percentage points from last year.</p>
<p>Gallup began asking this question in 1972, and on a yearly basis since 1997. Over the history of the entire trend, Americans’ trust and confidence hit its highest point in 1976, at 72%, in the wake of widely lauded examples of investigative journalism regarding Vietnam and the Watergate scandal. After staying in the low to mid-50s through the late 1990s and into the early years of the new century, Americans’ trust in the media has fallen slowly and steadily. It has consistently been below a majority level since 2007…</p>
<p>Bottom Line:…the slide in media trust has been happening for the past decade. Before 2004, it was common for a majority of Americans to profess at least some trust in the mass media, but since then, less than half of Americans feel that way. Now, only about a third of the U.S. has any trust in the Fourth Estate, a stunning development for an institution designed to inform the public.” ( <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/195542/americans-trust-mass-media-sinks-new-low.aspx" type="external">Americans’ Trust in Mass Media Sinks to New Low</a>, Gallup)</p>
<p>“Designed to inform the public”???</p>
<p>You gotta be kidding?&#160;Droopy confidence in the media is a triumph for ordinary working people who have begun to see through the charade of “unbiased coverage” and realize that the corporate owners of the press manipulate the news to shape perceptions and maintain their stranglehold on power. That’s what’s really going on, and that’s why a growing number of people have swarmed to Donald Trump’s campaign. They see Trump’s&#160;lack of political correctness&#160;as a sign that he is not owned by the&#160;Washington oligarchy&#160;of&#160;racketeers who invent teleprompter candidates like Obama and Clinton who are never certain what they&#160;actually&#160;believe until they see it printed in bold letters on the&#160;screen in front of them.</p>
<p>To large extent, Trump owes his shocking rise to the top of the GOP ticket to the fact that he shoots from the hip and that the media hates him. What was once a liability, has become an asset as trust for the despised media has plunged to depths never seen before.</p>
<p>But&#160;that doesn’t explain what’s&#160;really driving this election and why are the American people so overcome by&#160;desperation?</p>
<p>It’s all about economic insecurity.&#160; It’s all about the fact&#160;that standards of living are slipping, that an entire generation is bogged down&#160;with student debt, that all the good-paying jobs have been&#160;shipped to other countries, that family incomes are shriveling, that a good portion of the population feel threatened by immigration, that health care costs have skyrocketed,&#160;that retirement plans have been postponed, and that the great bulk of the nation’s wealth has been transferred to the&#160;1 percent plutocrats and Wall Street landsharks who dictate policy through their Congressional lackeys and their allies at the Federal Reserve.&#160;&#160;That’s what the election is really all about.</p>
<p>People are waking up to the fact that the&#160;American dream is dead, that the US is no longer the land of opportunity, and that the lives of their children&#160;are going to be&#160;worse than their own, far worse. This is why everyone is so upset, so frustrated, so hopeless. &#160;They are looking for a political ally who will address their needs, and instead they get bromides on transgender bathrooms or “glass ceilings” or any of the other soothing slogans the Democrats use to pacify the masses and to keep them in the flock. Only now it’s not working as well. Now a sizable portion of the blue collar vote has shifted &#160;into Trump’s camp mainly because they see through the phony Democrat rhetoric and all the job-eviscerating free trade deals they’ve pushed for years. Trump&#160;has skillfully tapped&#160;into the collective psyche of millions of working people who&#160;feel the Democratic Party&#160;tossed them under the track-hoe 30 years ago and never looked back. &#160; And, he’s right, too. The Dems&#160;have sold out their supporters, and it’s only going to&#160;get worse under Clinton, or should we say, Madame TPP. Here’s how Nile Bowie summed it up in a recent&#160;article at CounterPunch:</p>
<p>“Economic disempowerment and political disenfranchisement have accelerated under President Obama, to the detriment of the American middle class. White, blue-collar Americans have witnessed the offshoring of their jobs and the erosion of their status in society, and Trump has masterfully stroked their resentment and discontent by playing on their fears of Muslims, immigrants and minorities…</p>
<p>Trump’s real problem with the Washington establishment is that he isn’t part of it. His campaign represents an insurgent faction of the oligarchical class that aims to displace and replace the standing political elites. Bipartisan opposition to Trump is grounded in the belief that he would be an unreliable proxy and a liability, someone too narrow and unpredictable to manage the common affairs of the ruling class and the US deep state.</p>
<p>Moreover, the US establishment is not interested in being led by such a contentious figure, who would draw protest and public opposition in a way that more conventional establishment candidates largely do not. For example, Trump’s rhetoric on immigration seems to engender more public outrage than the immigration policy under Obama, who has deported more people than any other president in history.” ( <a href="" type="internal">Election 2016: A Political System In Crisis</a>, Nile Bowie, CounterPunch)</p>
<p>The big money guys don’t like Trump, and they make no bones about it. But Trump isn’t going away and neither are his followers, a vast number&#160;of whom will not respect the results of the election if Hillary wins. That’s a big problem for elites who like to manage the population through the popular election sham. Now all&#160;that’s at risk.</p>
<p>And it’s not like Trump hasn’t bent over backwards&#160;to ingratiate himself with the deep-state powerbrokers either. He has. His first olive branch to the elites was the selection of Mike Pence as his running mate. Pence is a died-in-the-wool&#160;&#160;establishment Republican neocon who can be trusted to pursue the same extremist agenda the GOP has followed since the Gingrich revolution.&#160; But there was another big move that Trump made that escaped the notice of the media and which&#160;really underscores&#160;his willingness to &#160;“play&#160;by to the rules.” Here’s the story from Zero Hedge:</p>
<p>“Six months ago, Steven Mnuchin became finance chair for the Trump campaign. Having successfully helped to raise 10s of millions of dollars for the campaign, the former Goldman Sachs partner and Soros Fund management employee is now positioned for something much larger as Donald Trump reportedly told his aides today that he wants Mnuchin to serve as his Treasury Secretary.</p>
<p>Ironically, Trump has often criticized Clinton (and his former competitor Ted Cruz) for their links to the big banks: “I know the guys at Goldman Sachs. They have total, total control over him. Just like they have total control over Hillary Clinton,” Trump said in one debate. But as we noted previously, he had no qualms, however, in hiring one of the most prominent Goldman alums to raise money for him. …for Trump, a self-professed “anti-establishment” candidate, who has repeatedly stated he is not “for sale to special interest groups”, his sudden call for the seemingly most “Wall Street” of Wall-Streeters to become Treasury Secretary may come as a big surprise to some and will leave many of his supporters demanding an explanation.”&#160; ( <a href="" type="internal">Trump Wants Former Goldman Partner And Soros Employee To Serve As Treasury Secretary</a>, Zero Hedge)</p>
<p>Another head of Treasury from G-Sax?</p>
<p>That figures.</p>
<p>Trump is great with the rabble-rousing&#160;“take back your country”&#160;tirades and all the gibberish about the “rigged” system. But he also knows&#160;how to cave in when it suits his interests.&#160;He knows he’s not going to be president without Wall Street’s nod, so he’s enlisted a trusted insider&#160;to&#160;take care of business at Treasury. It’s a signal to&#160;the bigwigs&#160;that they don’t have to worry about&#160;the&#160;Donald&#160;going&#160;off the reservation. (wink, wink)&#160; So much for Trump’s independence, eh?</p>
<p>And what can we say about Hillary Clinton that hasn’t been said a million times before?</p>
<p>Clinton, who still holds a slim lead in most of the polls, is clearly the establishment candidate in a year when hatred for the corrupt Washington oligarchy, has reached levels not seen in the last hundred years. The fact that Hillary can run for the nation’s highest office while being investigated by the FBI, while being savaged by the daily releases of new, incriminating emails (from WikiLeaks), and while promoting a hawkish, neocon-driven foreign policy that portends a direct military confrontation with Russia, speaks to the fact that traditional liberal Democrats are either still&#160;hoodwinked by the Democratic Party’s manipulation of identity politics or simply terrified of the alternative, Donald Trump.</p>
<p>And that’s why everyone is so utterly dejected and depressed about the election,&#160;because instead of voting for&#160;a candidate they really want or admire, most people are simply voting&#160;for&#160;the candidate that either disgusts or scares&#160;the hell out of&#160;them the least. What kind of&#160;choice is that?</p>
<p>In less than 24 hours, the&#160;most agonizingly-wretched&#160;campaign of all times will be over, the ballots will be counted, and the new president will be named. The only thing that is certain is that, whoever wins,&#160;we lose.</p> | true | 4 | must feel like death row waiting moment iron door clangs open last time four burly guards escort arminarm room life extinguished sense dread hangs presidential election 2016 one happy election one anticipates better days ahead americas glory days appear rearview mirror steady downward slide seems gaining pace years presidential campaign brought anger anxiety frustration bubbling surface nerves raw people edge trepidation thick could cut knife recent surveys tell story americans sick mudslinging sick scandals sick recriminations sick two party duopoly sick two candidates two distrusted reviled candidates countrys 230 year history new york times overwhelming majority voters disgusted state american politics many harbor doubts either majorparty nominee unite country historically ugly presidential campaign according final preelection new york timescbs news poll eight 10 voters saying campaign left repulsed rather excited rising toxicity threatens ultimate victor mrs clinton democratic candidate mr trump republican nominee seen dishonest viewed unfavorably majority voters weeks mr trumps accusations election rigged little six 10 supporters say accept results legitimate loses quarter mr trumps supporters say probably accept outcome mrs clinton declared winner nearly 40 percent say little confidence americans votes counted properly voters express disgust us politics new timescbs poll new york times growing sense desperation america today palpable goes far beyond one isolated election cycle steady erosion confidence nations160main institutions evident congresss public approval ratings which160seem stuck in160singledigit territory160the160public probably feels160equal contempt loretta lynch justice department160which loaded clinton toadies done best quash investigation illicit paytoplay machinations at160the clinton foundation lets forget media lost whatever shred credibility managed salvage myriad warpromoting lies wmd mobile weapons labs aluminum tubes assads imaginary chemical weapons attacks attacks invented whole cloth one washingtons many neocon think tanks fake ideas typically hatched forth estates latest gambit idiotic attempt prove vladimir putin trying hack thoroughlycorrupted third world voting system 160to achieve nebulous political gain joke hillary putin gaming system like primaries bernie sanders put gun head force delete 33000 missing emails private server160that handiwork ms clinton although done masterful job deflecting attention160 160passing buck sleazy criminal activities onto moscow back media gallup americans trust confidence mass media report news fully accurately fairly dropped lowest level gallup polling history 32 saying great deal fair amount trust media eight percentage points last year gallup began asking question 1972 yearly basis since 1997 history entire trend americans trust confidence hit highest point 1976 72 wake widely lauded examples investigative journalism regarding vietnam watergate scandal staying low mid50s late 1990s early years new century americans trust media fallen slowly steadily consistently majority level since 2007 bottom linethe slide media trust happening past decade 2004 common majority americans profess least trust mass media since less half americans feel way third us trust fourth estate stunning development institution designed inform public americans trust mass media sinks new low gallup designed inform public got ta kidding160droopy confidence media triumph ordinary working people begun see charade unbiased coverage realize corporate owners press manipulate news shape perceptions maintain stranglehold power thats whats really going thats growing number people swarmed donald trumps campaign see trumps160lack political correctness160as sign owned the160washington oligarchy160of160racketeers invent teleprompter candidates like obama clinton never certain they160actually160believe see printed bold letters the160screen front large extent trump owes shocking rise top gop ticket fact shoots hip media hates liability become asset trust despised media plunged depths never seen but160that doesnt explain whats160really driving election american people overcome by160desperation economic insecurity160 fact160that standards living slipping entire generation bogged down160with student debt goodpaying jobs been160shipped countries family incomes shriveling good portion population feel threatened immigration health care costs skyrocketed160that retirement plans postponed great bulk nations wealth transferred the1601 percent plutocrats wall street landsharks dictate policy congressional lackeys allies federal reserve160160thats election really people waking fact the160american dream dead us longer land opportunity lives children160are going be160worse far worse everyone upset frustrated hopeless 160they looking political ally address needs instead get bromides transgender bathrooms glass ceilings soothing slogans democrats use pacify masses keep flock working well sizable portion blue collar vote shifted 160into trumps camp mainly see phony democrat rhetoric jobeviscerating free trade deals theyve pushed years trump160has skillfully tapped160into collective psyche millions working people who160feel democratic party160tossed trackhoe 30 years ago never looked back 160 hes right dems160have sold supporters going to160get worse clinton say madame tpp heres nile bowie summed recent160article counterpunch economic disempowerment political disenfranchisement accelerated president obama detriment american middle class white bluecollar americans witnessed offshoring jobs erosion status society trump masterfully stroked resentment discontent playing fears muslims immigrants minorities trumps real problem washington establishment isnt part campaign represents insurgent faction oligarchical class aims displace replace standing political elites bipartisan opposition trump grounded belief would unreliable proxy liability someone narrow unpredictable manage common affairs ruling class us deep state moreover us establishment interested led contentious figure would draw protest public opposition way conventional establishment candidates largely example trumps rhetoric immigration seems engender public outrage immigration policy obama deported people president history election 2016 political system crisis nile bowie counterpunch big money guys dont like trump make bones trump isnt going away neither followers vast number160of respect results election hillary wins thats big problem elites like manage population popular election sham all160thats risk like trump hasnt bent backwards160to ingratiate deepstate powerbrokers either first olive branch elites selection mike pence running mate pence diedinthewool160160establishment republican neocon trusted pursue extremist agenda gop followed since gingrich revolution160 another big move trump made escaped notice media which160really underscores160his willingness 160play160by rules heres story zero hedge six months ago steven mnuchin became finance chair trump campaign successfully helped raise 10s millions dollars campaign former goldman sachs partner soros fund management employee positioned something much larger donald trump reportedly told aides today wants mnuchin serve treasury secretary ironically trump often criticized clinton former competitor ted cruz links big banks know guys goldman sachs total total control like total control hillary clinton trump said one debate noted previously qualms however hiring one prominent goldman alums raise money trump selfprofessed antiestablishment candidate repeatedly stated sale special interest groups sudden call seemingly wall street wallstreeters become treasury secretary may come big surprise leave many supporters demanding explanation160 trump wants former goldman partner soros employee serve treasury secretary zero hedge another head treasury gsax figures trump great rabblerousing160take back country160tirades gibberish rigged system also knows160how cave suits interests160he knows hes going president without wall streets nod hes enlisted trusted insider160to160take care business treasury signal to160the bigwigs160that dont worry about160the160donald160going160off reservation wink wink160 much trumps independence eh say hillary clinton hasnt said million times clinton still holds slim lead polls clearly establishment candidate year hatred corrupt washington oligarchy reached levels seen last hundred years fact hillary run nations highest office investigated fbi savaged daily releases new incriminating emails wikileaks promoting hawkish neocondriven foreign policy portends direct military confrontation russia speaks fact traditional liberal democrats either still160hoodwinked democratic partys manipulation identity politics simply terrified alternative donald trump thats everyone utterly dejected depressed election160because instead voting for160a candidate really want admire people simply voting160for160the candidate either disgusts scares160the hell of160them least kind of160choice less 24 hours the160most agonizinglywretched160campaign times ballots counted new president named thing certain whoever wins160we lose | 1,176 |
<p>Oprah Winfrey won’t make it official until Friday morning, but the literary world’s worst-kept secret is out: Her <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100916/ap_on_en_ot/us_books_winfrey_franzen" type="external">64th Book Club pick</a> is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374158460/thedaibea-20" type="external">Freedom</a>, Jonathan Franzen’s first novel in nine years and the most talked-about new book of recent weeks. On face value, it’s a selection that might catch many off guard, since Oprah famously discouraged Franzen from appearing on her show nine years ago this month after he expressed serious discomfort with the idea of her selecting <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312421273/thedaibea-20" type="external">The Corrections</a> on the grounds that it might inhibit the book from reaching a wider male audience. Scratch that surface ever so slightly and it’s all too clear that <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374158460/thedaibea-2" type="external">Freedom</a> was the smart and obvious move on Oprah’s part—especially if you’re a sucker for an epic narrative of the kind that Franzen writes.</p>
<p>Gallery: <a href="/content/dailybeast/galleries/2010/09/16/oprah-feuds.html" type="external">Oprah’s Famous Feuds</a></p>
<p>This time, Franzen will not flub his move. This time, he’ll appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show some days or weeks from now, ready to be grilled (à la <a href="http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Oprahs-Questions-for-James" type="external">James Frey</a>) or, more likely, ready for Oprah to declare why she felt <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374158460/thedaibea-20" type="external">Freedom</a> deserved her special attention. The hatchet, real or perceived, will be buried once and for all, and a key karmic blip in the feel-good narrative that is Oprah’s daytime talk show will be sanded over, with big ratings to boot for what’s certain to be a performance that will keep both parties in the headlines for weeks to come.</p>
<p>Oprah’s choice is all the more dramatic because it’s widely believed to be her last. After more than 25 years as a daytime network staple, her show will be going off the air in September 2011. She’s just moving to pay-TV, as half-owner (with Discovery Communications) of <a href="http://www.oprah.com/own" type="external">The Oprah Winfrey Network</a> (OWN), which launches in January and will eventually feature a new prime-time show from the current “queen of daytime.” This season is a farewell tour to the sort of mass audience Oprah cultivated during her years of timeslot and format dominance.</p>
<p>Oprah’s ratings have eroded along with the frequency of Oprah’s book picks, which trickled down from one a month during the club’s heyday to a few per year when she was telling her audience to read classic novels (like Anna Karenina) to just one—Uwem Akpan’s moving but grim short story collection <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316086371/thedaibea-20" type="external">Say You’re One of Them</a>—in 2009. While Akpan’s collection has sold steadily since Oprah’s anointment, it was nowhere near the huge sales of the early days or even David Wroblewski’s The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, which sold more than half a million copies post-Oprah. Its subject matter, too, was more in keeping with Oprah’s sensibility for Book Club 2.0: dark, depressing titles by men (18 of her last 20 picks) instead of issue-driven books by women.</p>
<p>But Oprah’s pick this time is a return to form—and, most likely, sales, too. “Now Oprah will be remembered for both supporting popular fiction and championing literature, all in the same book club pick,” said Jason Boog, publishing editor for <a href="http://www.mediabistro.com/" type="external">mediabistro.com</a>. And no matter what the publishing world might hope can happen when Oprah moves on to her so-called Next Chapter on pay TV, all that counts is what’s on the minds of Americans right now—a canny and calculated rearrangement of Oprah’s brand-new network.</p>
<p>With ratings down and literary taste-making abilities curtailed, why not jump on the very crowded Jonathan Franzen bandwagon? <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374158460/thedaibea-20" type="external">Freedom</a>, after all, helped Franzen get <a href="http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/11/jonathan-franzen-on-the-cover-of-time-magazine/" type="external">anointed by Time</a> as our current “Great American Novelist.” <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2010/08/31/jonathan-franzen-freedom-backlash.html" type="external">Weeks of controversy</a> ensued thanks to the “Franzenfreude” Twitter hashtag launched by Jennifer Weiner and parallel criticism by Jodi Picoult about how The New York Times devotes more space and energy to novels by men while neglecting similar fare by women. The book has generally received rapturous reviews and its chief detractor—B.R. Meyers in <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/10/smaller-than-life/8212/" type="external">The Atlantic</a>—sounded as convincing in his arguments as one trolling the Internet for amusement.</p>
<p>In choosing <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374158460/thedaibea-20" type="external">Freedom</a>, she’s both dared Franzen to try to reject her again and opened her arms, however cynically, to his finally appearing on her show.</p>
<p>In other words, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374158460/thedaibea-20" type="external">Freedom</a> is not just a throwback to the once mighty post-World War II-esque social novel in terms of content and style, it is also a reminder of how the book world used to operate and still pretends to: a top-down approach, where publishers and critics decide what the masses should read, instead of the niche-driven bottom-up approach spurred by what trusted friends recommend on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and other social media. There’s more than a whiff of fin-de-siècle about <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374158460/thedaibea-20" type="external">Freedom</a>, and so it makes perfect sense that Oprah, experiencing her own extended goodbye to traditional mainstream media, would reach out and add the proverbial cherry on top to what may be the last literary bestseller decided the old-fashioned way.</p>
<p>“Neither of these people has anything to prove, or all that much to gain,” said Kathleen Rooney, author of Reading With Oprah: The Book Club That Changed America. It’s less an opportunity for them to bury the hatchet—no doubt that happened years ago—than to clear up some unfinished business, and to have the public conversation they should have had back in 2002.”</p>
<p>For a No. 1 bestselling novel, that would be one thing. But picking <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374158460/thedaibea-20" type="external">Freedom</a> comes with that tortured backstory of discomfort and controversy. Franzen, with his comments, essentially rejected Oprah, a woman wholly unused to public rebuffing. But what she is used to, and traffics in expertly, is redemption and forgiveness. In choosing <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374158460/thedaibea-20" type="external">Freedom</a>, she’s both dared Franzen to try to reject her again and opened her arms, however cynically, to his finally appearing on her show.</p>
<p>Plus: <a href="" type="internal">Check out Book Beast, for more news on hot titles and authors and excerpts from the latest books</a>.</p>
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<p>Sarah Weinman contributes to the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun, the New York Post and many other print and online publications, and blogs about books and the publishing industry at <a href="http://www.sarahweinman.com/" type="external">Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind</a>.</p> | true | 4 | oprah winfrey wont make official friday morning literary worlds worstkept secret 64th book club pick freedom jonathan franzens first novel nine years talkedabout new book recent weeks face value selection might catch many guard since oprah famously discouraged franzen appearing show nine years ago month expressed serious discomfort idea selecting corrections grounds might inhibit book reaching wider male audience scratch surface ever slightly clear freedom smart obvious move oprahs partespecially youre sucker epic narrative kind franzen writes gallery oprahs famous feuds time franzen flub move time hell appear oprah winfrey show days weeks ready grilled à la james frey likely ready oprah declare felt freedom deserved special attention hatchet real perceived buried key karmic blip feelgood narrative oprahs daytime talk show sanded big ratings boot whats certain performance keep parties headlines weeks come oprahs choice dramatic widely believed last 25 years daytime network staple show going air september 2011 shes moving paytv halfowner discovery communications oprah winfrey network launches january eventually feature new primetime show current queen daytime season farewell tour sort mass audience oprah cultivated years timeslot format dominance oprahs ratings eroded along frequency oprahs book picks trickled one month clubs heyday per year telling audience read classic novels like anna karenina oneuwem akpans moving grim short story collection say youre one themin 2009 akpans collection sold steadily since oprahs anointment nowhere near huge sales early days even david wroblewskis story edgar sawtelle sold half million copies postoprah subject matter keeping oprahs sensibility book club 20 dark depressing titles men 18 last 20 picks instead issuedriven books women oprahs pick time return formand likely sales oprah remembered supporting popular fiction championing literature book club pick said jason boog publishing editor mediabistrocom matter publishing world might hope happen oprah moves socalled next chapter pay tv counts whats minds americans right nowa canny calculated rearrangement oprahs brandnew network ratings literary tastemaking abilities curtailed jump crowded jonathan franzen bandwagon freedom helped franzen get anointed time current great american novelist weeks controversy ensued thanks franzenfreude twitter hashtag launched jennifer weiner parallel criticism jodi picoult new york times devotes space energy novels men neglecting similar fare women book generally received rapturous reviews chief detractorbr meyers atlanticsounded convincing arguments one trolling internet amusement choosing freedom shes dared franzen try reject opened arms however cynically finally appearing show words freedom throwback mighty postworld war iiesque social novel terms content style also reminder book world used operate still pretends topdown approach publishers critics decide masses read instead nichedriven bottomup approach spurred trusted friends recommend facebook twitter goodreads social media theres whiff findesiècle freedom makes perfect sense oprah experiencing extended goodbye traditional mainstream media would reach add proverbial cherry top may last literary bestseller decided oldfashioned way neither people anything prove much gain said kathleen rooney author reading oprah book club changed america less opportunity bury hatchetno doubt happened years agothan clear unfinished business public conversation back 2002 1 bestselling novel would one thing picking freedom comes tortured backstory discomfort controversy franzen comments essentially rejected oprah woman wholly unused public rebuffing used traffics expertly redemption forgiveness choosing freedom shes dared franzen try reject opened arms however cynically finally appearing show plus check book beast news hot titles authors excerpts latest books start finish day top stories daily beast speedy smart summary news need know nothing dont sarah weinman contributes los angeles times baltimore sun new york post many print online publications blogs books publishing industry confessions idiosyncratic mind | 570 |
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<p>Theodore W. “Ted” Allen (1919-2005) was an anti-white supremacist, working class intellectual and activist. He developed his pioneering class struggle-based analysis of “white skin privilege” beginning in the mid-1960s; authored the seminal two-volume&#160;The Invention of the White Race&#160;in the 1990s; and consistently maintained that the struggle against white supremacy was central to efforts at radical social change in the United States.&#160; Born on August 23, 1919, in Indianapolis, Indiana, he grew up in Paintsville, Kentucky and Huntington, West Virginia and, after moving to New York City, lived his last fifty-plus years in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.</p>
<p>Allen's two-volume&#160;The Invention of the White Race&#160;(1994, 1997: Verso Books, new expanded edition 2012) with its focus on racial oppression and social control is one of the twentieth-century's major contributions to historical understanding. It presents a full-scale challenge to what he refers to as "The Great White Assumption" -- the unquestioning acceptance of the "white race" and "white" identity as skin color-based and natural attributes rather than as social and political constructions. Its thesis on the origin, nature, and maintenance of the "white race" and its understanding that slavery in the Anglo-American plantation colonies was capitalist and enslaved Black laborers were proletarians, contain the basis of a revolutionary approach to United States labor history.</p>
<p>On the back cover of the 1994 edition of Volume 1, subtitled&#160;Racial Oppression and Social Control, Allen boldly asserted "When the first Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619, there were no 'white' people there; nor, according to the colonial records, would there be for another sixty years." That statement, based on 20-plus years of primary research in Virginia's colonial records, reflected the fact that Allen found no instance of the official use of the word "white" as a token of social status prior to its appearance in a Virginia law passed in 1691. As he later explained, "Others living in the colony at that&#160;time&#160;were English; they had been English when they left England, and naturally they and their Virginia-born children were English, they were not 'white.' White identity had to be carefully taught, and it would be only after the passage of some six crucial decades" that the word "would appear as a synonym for European-American."</p>
<p>In this context he offers his major thesis -- that the "white race" was invented as a ruling class social control formation in response to labor solidarity as manifested in the latter (civil war) stages of Bacon's Rebellion (1676-77). To this he adds two important corollaries: 1) the ruling elite deliberately instituted a system of racial privileges to define and maintain the "white race" and to implement a system of racial oppression, and 2) the consequence was not only ruinous to the interest of African Americans, it was also disastrous for European-American workers.</p>
<p>In Volume II, on&#160;The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America, Allen tells the story of the invention of the “white race” and the development of the system of racial oppression in the late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Anglo-American plantation colonies. His primary focus is on the pattern-setting Virginia colony, and he pays special attention to the reduction of tenants and wage-laborers in the majority English labor force to chattel bond-servants in the 1620s. In so doing, he emphasizes that this was a qualitative break from the condition of laborers in England and from long established English labor law, that it was not a feudal carryover, that it was imposed under capitalism, and that it was an essential precondition of the emergence of the lifetime hereditary chattel bond-servitude imposed upon African-American laborers under the system of racial slavery.</p>
<p>Allen describes how, throughout much of the seventeenth century, the status of African-Americans was indeterminate (because it was still being fought out) and he details the similarity of conditions for African-American and European-American laborers and bond-servants. He also documents many significant instances of labor solidarity and unrest, especially during the 1660s and 1670s. Of great significance is his analysis of the civil war stage of Bacon’s Rebellion&#160;when thousands of laboring people took up arms against the ruling plantation elite, the capital (Jamestown) was burned to the ground, rebels controlled six-sevenths of the Virginia colony, and Afro- and Euro-American bond-servants fought side-by-side demanding an end to their bondage.</p>
<p>It was in the period after Bacon's Rebellion that the “white race” was invented as a ruling-class social control formation. Allen describes systematic ruling-class policies, which conferred “white race” privileges on European-Americans while imposing harsher disabilities on African-Americans resulting in a system of racial slavery, a form of racial oppression that also imposed severe racial proscriptions on free African-Americans. He emphasizes that when free African-Americans were deprived of their long-held right to vote in Virginia and Governor William Gooch explained in 1735 that the Virginia Assembly had decided upon this curtailment of the franchise in order "to fix a perpetual Brand upon Free Negros &amp; Mulattos," it was not an "unthinking decision." Rather, it was a deliberate act by the plantation bourgeoisie and was a conscious decision in the process of establishing a system of racial oppression, even though it entailed repealing an electoral principle that had existed in Virginia for more than a century.</p>
<p>Key to understanding the virulent racial oppression that develops in Virginia, Allen argues, is the formation of the intermediate social control buffer stratum, which serves the interests of the ruling class. In Virginia, any persons of discernible non-European ancestry after Bacon's Rebellion were denied a role in the social control buffer group, the bulk of which was made up of laboring-class "whites." In the Anglo-Caribbean, by contrast, under a similar Anglo- ruling elite, "mulattos" were included in the social control stratum and were promoted into middle-class status. This difference was rooted in a number of social control-related factors, one of the most important of which was that in the Anglo-Caribbean there were “too few” poor and laboring-class Europeans to embody an adequate petit bourgeoisie, while in the continental colonies there were '’too many’' to be accommodated in the ranks of that class.</p>
<p>In&#160;The Invention of the White Race&#160;Allen challenges what he considers to be two main ideological props of white supremacy -- the argument that "racism" is innate (and it is therefore useless to challenge it) and the argument that European-American workers “benefit” from "white race" privileges and white supremacy (and that it is therefore not in their interest to oppose them).&#160;These two arguments, opposed by Allen, are related to two master historical narratives rooted in writings on the colonial period. The first argument is associated with the “unthinking decision” explanation for the development of racial slavery offered by historian Winthrop D. Jordan in his influential&#160;White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550-1812. The second argument is associated with historian Edmund S. Morgan’s influential&#160;American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia,&#160;which maintains that in Virginia, as slavery developed in the eighteenth century, “there were too few free poor [European-Americans] on hand to matter.” Allen points out that what Morgan said about “too few” free poor was true in the eighteenth century Anglo-Caribbean, but not in Virginia.</p>
<p>"The Developing Conjuncture and Some Insights From Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen on the Centrality of the Fight Against White Supremacy" (Cultural Logic, 2010) describes key components of Allen's analysis of "white race" privilege.&#160;The article explains that&#160;as he developed the "white race" privilege concept, Allen emphasized that these privileges were a "poison bait" (like a shot of “heroin”) and he explained that they "do not permit" the masses of European American workers nor their children "to escape" from that class. "It is not that the ordinary white worker gets more than he must have to support himself," but "the Black worker gets less than the white worker." By, thus "inducing, reinforcing and perpetuating racist attitudes on the part of the white workers, the present-day power masters get the political support of the rank-and-file of the white workers in critical situations, and without having to share with them their super profits in the slightest measure."</p>
<p>As one example, to support his position, Allen provided statistics showing that in the South where race privilege "has always been most emphasized . . . the white workers have fared worse than the white workers in the rest of the country."</p>
<p>Probing more deeply, Allen offered additional important insights into why these race privileges are conferred by the ruling class. He pointed out that "the ideology of white racism" is "not appropriate to the white workers" because it is "contrary to their class interests." Because of this "the bourgeoisie could not long have maintained this ideological influence over the white proletarians by mere racist ideology." Under these circumstances white supremacist thought is "given a material basis in the form of the deliberately contrived system of race privileges for white workers." Thus, writes Allen, "history has shown that the white-skin privilege does not serve the real interests of the white workers, it also shows that the concomitant racist ideology has blinded them to that fact."</p>
<p>Allen added, "the white supremacist system that had originally been designed in around 1700 by the plantation bourgeoisie to protect the base, the chattel bond labor relation of production" also served "as a part of the 'legal and political' superstructure of the United States government that, until the Civil War, was dominated by the slaveholders with the complicity of the majority of the European-American workers." Then, after emancipation, "the industrial and financial bourgeoisie found that it could be serviceable to their program of social control, anachronistic as it was, and incorporated it into their own 'legal and political' superstructure."</p>
<p>Allen felt that two essential points must be kept in mind. First, "the race-privilege policy is deliberate bourgeois class policy." Second, "the race-privilege policy is, contrary to surface appearance, contrary to the interests, short range as well as long range interests of not only the Black workers but of the white workers as well." He repeatedly emphasized that "the day-to-day real interests" of the European-American worker "is not the white skin privileges, but in the development of an ever-expanding union of class conscious workers." He emphasized, "'Solidarity forever!' means 'Privileges never!'" He elsewhere pointed out, "The Wobblies [the Industrial Workers of the World] caught the essence of it in their slogan: 'An injury to one is an injury to all.'"</p>
<p>Throughout his work Allen stresses that "the initiator and the ultimate guarantor of the white skin privileges of the white worker is not the white worker, but the white worker's masters" and the masters do this because it is "an indispensable necessity for their continued class rule." He describes how "an all-pervasive system of racial privileges was conferred on laboring-class European-Americans, rural and urban, exploited and insecure though they themselves were" and how "its threads, woven into the fabric of every aspect of daily life, of family, church, and state, have constituted the main historical guarantee of the rule of the 'Titans,' damping down anti-capitalist pressures, by making 'race, and not class, the distinction in social life.'" That, "more than any other factor," he argues, "has shaped the contours of American history -- from the Constitutional Convention of 1787 to the Civil War, to the overthrow of Reconstruction, to the Populist Revolt of the 1890s, to the Great Depression, to the civil rights struggle and 'white backlash' of our own day."</p>
<p>Allen also addressed the issue of strategy for social change. He emphasized, “The most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck against bourgeois rule in the United States is white supremacy.” He considered “white supremacy” to be “both the keystone and the Achilles heel of U.S. bourgeois democracy.” Based on this analysis Allen maintained, “the first main strategic blow must be aimed at the most vulnerable point at which a decisive blow can be struck, namely, white supremacism.” This, he argued, was the conclusion to be drawn from a study of three great social crises in U.S. history – “the Civil War and Reconstruction, the Populist Revolt of the 1890s, and the Great Depression of the 1930s.” In each of these cases “the prospects for a stable broad front against capital has foundered on the shoals of white supremacism, most specifically on the corruption of the European-American workers by racial privilege.”</p>
<p>Ted Allen died&#160;on January 19, 2005, and a memorial service was held for him at the Brooklyn Public Library where he had worked. Then on October 8, 2005, his ashes, as per his request, were spread in the York&#160;River (near West Point, Virginia)&#160;close to its convergence with the Pamunkey and Mattaponi Rivers – the location where the final armed holdouts, "Eighty Negroes and Twenty English," refused to surrender in the last stages of Bacon’s Rebellion.</p>
<p>Allen’s historical work has&#160;profound implications for American History, African-American History, Labor History, Left History, American Studies, and “Whiteness” Studies and it offers important insights in the areas of Caribbean History, Irish History, and African Diaspora Studies. With its meticulous primary research, equalitarian motif, emphasis on the class struggle dimension of history, and groundbreaking analysis his work continues to grow in influence and importance.</p>
<p>For writings, audios, and videos by and about Theodore W. Allen and his work see&#160; <a href="http://www.jeffreybperry.net/_center__font_size__3__font_color__sepia___b_4__theodore_w__allen_br___font_size_86151.htm" type="external">http://www.jeffreybperry.net/_center__font_size__3__font_color__sepia___b_4__theodore_w__allen_br___font_size_86151.htm</a></p>
<p>For information on&#160;The Invention of the White Race&#160;Vol. I:&#160;Racial Oppression and Social Control&#160;[Verso Books] (including comments from scholars and activists and Table of Contents) see&#160; <a href="http://www.jeffreybperry.net/_center__i__font_size__3__font_color__sepia___b_5__the_invention_of_the_br_white_116386.htm" type="external">http://www.jeffreybperry.net/_center__i__font_size__3__font_color__sepia___b_5__the_invention_of_the_br_white_116386.htm</a></p>
<p>For information on&#160;The Invention of the White Race&#160;Vol. II:&#160;The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo America&#160;(including comments from scholars and activists and Table of Contents) see&#160; <a href="http://www.jeffreybperry.net/_center__i__font_size__3__font_color__sepia___b_6__the_invention_of_the_br_white_116387.htm" type="external">http://www.jeffreybperry.net/_center__i__font_size__3__font_color__sepia___b_6__the_invention_of_the_br_white_116387.htm</a></p>
<p>For the fullest treatment of the development of Theodore W. Allen’s thought see&#160;“The Developing Conjuncture and Some Insights from Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen on the Centrality of the Fight Against White Supremacy” at</p>
<p><a href="http://www.jeffreybperry.net/files/Perry.pdf" type="external">http://www.jeffreybperry.net/files/Perry.pdf</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="/filter/tips" type="external">More information about formatting options</a></p> | true | 4 | theodore w ted allen 19192005 antiwhite supremacist working class intellectual activist developed pioneering class strugglebased analysis white skin privilege beginning mid1960s authored seminal twovolume160the invention white race160in 1990s consistently maintained struggle white supremacy central efforts radical social change united states160 born august 23 1919 indianapolis indiana grew paintsville kentucky huntington west virginia moving new york city lived last fiftyplus years crown heights section brooklyn allens twovolume160the invention white race1601994 1997 verso books new expanded edition 2012 focus racial oppression social control one twentiethcenturys major contributions historical understanding presents fullscale challenge refers great white assumption unquestioning acceptance white race white identity skin colorbased natural attributes rather social political constructions thesis origin nature maintenance white race understanding slavery angloamerican plantation colonies capitalist enslaved black laborers proletarians contain basis revolutionary approach united states labor history back cover 1994 edition volume 1 subtitled160racial oppression social control allen boldly asserted first africans arrived virginia 1619 white people according colonial records would another sixty years statement based 20plus years primary research virginias colonial records reflected fact allen found instance official use word white token social status prior appearance virginia law passed 1691 later explained others living colony that160time160were english english left england naturally virginiaborn children english white white identity carefully taught would passage six crucial decades word would appear synonym europeanamerican context offers major thesis white race invented ruling class social control formation response labor solidarity manifested latter civil war stages bacons rebellion 167677 adds two important corollaries 1 ruling elite deliberately instituted system racial privileges define maintain white race implement system racial oppression 2 consequence ruinous interest african americans also disastrous europeanamerican workers volume ii on160the origin racial oppression angloamerica allen tells story invention white race development system racial oppression late seventeenth early eighteenthcentury angloamerican plantation colonies primary focus patternsetting virginia colony pays special attention reduction tenants wagelaborers majority english labor force chattel bondservants 1620s emphasizes qualitative break condition laborers england long established english labor law feudal carryover imposed capitalism essential precondition emergence lifetime hereditary chattel bondservitude imposed upon africanamerican laborers system racial slavery allen describes throughout much seventeenth century status africanamericans indeterminate still fought details similarity conditions africanamerican europeanamerican laborers bondservants also documents many significant instances labor solidarity unrest especially 1660s 1670s great significance analysis civil war stage bacons rebellion160when thousands laboring people took arms ruling plantation elite capital jamestown burned ground rebels controlled sixsevenths virginia colony afro euroamerican bondservants fought sidebyside demanding end bondage period bacons rebellion white race invented rulingclass social control formation allen describes systematic rulingclass policies conferred white race privileges europeanamericans imposing harsher disabilities africanamericans resulting system racial slavery form racial oppression also imposed severe racial proscriptions free africanamericans emphasizes free africanamericans deprived longheld right vote virginia governor william gooch explained 1735 virginia assembly decided upon curtailment franchise order fix perpetual brand upon free negros amp mulattos unthinking decision rather deliberate act plantation bourgeoisie conscious decision process establishing system racial oppression even though entailed repealing electoral principle existed virginia century key understanding virulent racial oppression develops virginia allen argues formation intermediate social control buffer stratum serves interests ruling class virginia persons discernible noneuropean ancestry bacons rebellion denied role social control buffer group bulk made laboringclass whites anglocaribbean contrast similar anglo ruling elite mulattos included social control stratum promoted middleclass status difference rooted number social controlrelated factors one important anglocaribbean poor laboringclass europeans embody adequate petit bourgeoisie continental colonies many accommodated ranks class in160the invention white race160allen challenges considers two main ideological props white supremacy argument racism innate therefore useless challenge argument europeanamerican workers benefit white race privileges white supremacy therefore interest oppose them160these two arguments opposed allen related two master historical narratives rooted writings colonial period first argument associated unthinking decision explanation development racial slavery offered historian winthrop jordan influential160white black american attitudes toward negro 15501812 second argument associated historian edmund morgans influential160american slavery american freedom ordeal colonial virginia160which maintains virginia slavery developed eighteenth century free poor europeanamericans hand matter allen points morgan said free poor true eighteenth century anglocaribbean virginia developing conjuncture insights hubert harrison theodore w allen centrality fight white supremacy cultural logic 2010 describes key components allens analysis white race privilege160the article explains that160as developed white race privilege concept allen emphasized privileges poison bait like shot heroin explained permit masses european american workers children escape class ordinary white worker gets must support black worker gets less white worker thus inducing reinforcing perpetuating racist attitudes part white workers presentday power masters get political support rankandfile white workers critical situations without share super profits slightest measure one example support position allen provided statistics showing south race privilege always emphasized white workers fared worse white workers rest country probing deeply allen offered additional important insights race privileges conferred ruling class pointed ideology white racism appropriate white workers contrary class interests bourgeoisie could long maintained ideological influence white proletarians mere racist ideology circumstances white supremacist thought given material basis form deliberately contrived system race privileges white workers thus writes allen history shown whiteskin privilege serve real interests white workers also shows concomitant racist ideology blinded fact allen added white supremacist system originally designed around 1700 plantation bourgeoisie protect base chattel bond labor relation production also served part legal political superstructure united states government civil war dominated slaveholders complicity majority europeanamerican workers emancipation industrial financial bourgeoisie found could serviceable program social control anachronistic incorporated legal political superstructure allen felt two essential points must kept mind first raceprivilege policy deliberate bourgeois class policy second raceprivilege policy contrary surface appearance contrary interests short range well long range interests black workers white workers well repeatedly emphasized daytoday real interests europeanamerican worker white skin privileges development everexpanding union class conscious workers emphasized solidarity forever means privileges never elsewhere pointed wobblies industrial workers world caught essence slogan injury one injury throughout work allen stresses initiator ultimate guarantor white skin privileges white worker white worker white workers masters masters indispensable necessity continued class rule describes allpervasive system racial privileges conferred laboringclass europeanamericans rural urban exploited insecure though threads woven fabric every aspect daily life family church state constituted main historical guarantee rule titans damping anticapitalist pressures making race class distinction social life factor argues shaped contours american history constitutional convention 1787 civil war overthrow reconstruction populist revolt 1890s great depression civil rights struggle white backlash day allen also addressed issue strategy social change emphasized vulnerable point decisive blow struck bourgeois rule united states white supremacy considered white supremacy keystone achilles heel us bourgeois democracy based analysis allen maintained first main strategic blow must aimed vulnerable point decisive blow struck namely white supremacism argued conclusion drawn study three great social crises us history civil war reconstruction populist revolt 1890s great depression 1930s cases prospects stable broad front capital foundered shoals white supremacism specifically corruption europeanamerican workers racial privilege ted allen died160on january 19 2005 memorial service held brooklyn public library worked october 8 2005 ashes per request spread york160river near west point virginia160close convergence pamunkey mattaponi rivers location final armed holdouts eighty negroes twenty english refused surrender last stages bacons rebellion allens historical work has160profound implications american history africanamerican history labor history left history american studies whiteness studies offers important insights areas caribbean history irish history african diaspora studies meticulous primary research equalitarian motif emphasis class struggle dimension history groundbreaking analysis work continues grow influence importance writings audios videos theodore w allen work see160 httpwwwjeffreybperrynet_center__font_size__3__font_color__sepia___b_4__theodore_w__allen_br___font_size_86151htm information on160the invention white race160vol i160racial oppression social control160verso books including comments scholars activists table contents see160 httpwwwjeffreybperrynet_center__i__font_size__3__font_color__sepia___b_5__the_invention_of_the_br_white_116386htm information on160the invention white race160vol ii160the origin racial oppression anglo america160including comments scholars activists table contents see160 httpwwwjeffreybperrynet_center__i__font_size__3__font_color__sepia___b_6__the_invention_of_the_br_white_116387htm fullest treatment development theodore w allens thought see160the developing conjuncture insights hubert harrison theodore w allen centrality fight white supremacy httpwwwjeffreybperrynetfilesperrypdf 160 information formatting options | 1,277 |
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<p>Early in the evening during which Donald Trump’s election as president unfolded, I talked to a union activist friend in Wisconsin about something unrelated. In signing off, he said he expected to stay up late seeing if the Democrats regained a Senate seat in the state, Hillary Clinton’s victory being assured. A few hours later, it became clear that Donald Trump had instead carried Wisconsin by a razor-thin margin. Who, MSNBCers wondered, were these hidden Trump voters that delivered in Wisconsin one of the three Rust Belt victories paving Trump’s road to the White House?</p>
<p>Coming myself from a “sundown town”—that is, one which for most of the twentieth century remained whites-only, in part by disallowing even visits by African Americans after nightfall—I had read the work of the sociologist James Loewen on such places with great care. In the massive volume, <a href="" type="internal">Sundown Towns</a>, and on the website accompanying and updating it, Loewen paid special attention to Wisconsin. Partly this was because, proportionately, so many of its towns fit into the sundown category and partly because their histories were so typical. Many had an early Black presence that was removed over time or in a hot moment. Some featured billboards warning of their policies. They included small towns, but also growing industrial ones, whose good, sometimes union, jobs became the property of whites.</p>
<p>Did sundown towns elect Trump in Wisconsin? My research assistant, Kathryn Robinson, and I tried to find out. Since it is much easier to get county-level election returns than municipal ones, we concentrated on “sundown counties,” those having a county seat that could be established as a sundown town or likely sundown town in Loewen’s mapping. An incredible 58 of the state’s 72 counties fit into such a category. Of the 58 sundown counties 31 are 1% or less African American (and only eight more than 2%), suggesting that the proxy of the county seat works in identifying sundown areas at the county level.</p>
<p>The simple answer on Trump and sundown towns in Wisconsin is: “Clearly they elected him.” Sundown counties gave Trump almost 935,000 votes to Clinton’s just over 678,000. <a href="" type="internal" /> His margin in the sundown areas exceeded 256,000 votes. That Clinton won the fifteen non-sundown counties by almost 230,000 votes could not make up for Trump’s 58% to 42% margin in the sundown ones. Just short of two/thirds of all Trump voters in Wisconsin came from sundown counties. Only nine sundown counties chose Clinton with 49 for Trump.</p>
<p>If anything, these hard facts understate sundown support for Trump’s candidacy. Three relatively large counties that went for the Democratic candidate by a margin of about 18,000 votes are perhaps the most questionably sundown counties in the state. Two of the three are counties hosting significant state universities (Eau Claire and La Crosse Counties), and the third (Rock County) is a long-time, though now lapsed, place of auto production with considerable United Automobile Workers (UAW) union strength. Each has a significant nonwhite population, and Rock County is the lone example of a county with a sundown seat of government but also a Black population of more than 5%. If totals from these questionable sundown counties are removed, Trump’s margin in sundown counties verges on 60% to 40%.</p>
<p>However, the Rock County example ought to remind us of how much more than aggregate vote totals in the presidential race matter in indexing the sad influence of sundown social relations. In 2012, during the last meal I had with the late UAW oppositional leader, Jerry Tucker, he reflected gloomily on the closure of the big GM production facility in Janesville, the sundown county seat in Rock County and a textbook example of sundown job discrimination. We talked about how the politics of race and taxes kept the UAW from defeating Janesville’s Republican congressman, Paul Ryan. By the 2016 election, Ryan, as the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, kept Trump tenuously tethered to mainstream conservatives and therefore electable. Rock County delivered a comfortable majority to Clinton in 2016, but likewise afforded one to Ryan, who lives in Janesville’s downtown.</p>
<p>The sundown foundations of Trump’s victory in Wisconsin ought not to be minimized. At the very least, it is worth reminding ourselves of how little racist politics in the U.S. are based on lived contact and how much and tragically that they rest on talk radio, imagination, rumor, representation, and whitelore. Such is probably the case even when we move beyond Black and white. Wall Street Journal reporters Janey Adamy and Paul Overberg have stressed lived experience in a Wisconsin sundown county in a pair of stories on Trump and immigration, one written just before and one just after the election. They filed the first story from Arcadia in Trempealeau County, which is still far less than 1% black but suddenly 5% Latina/Hispanic after the expansion of chicken processing and furniture manufacture. Arcadia itself had gone from being an almost all-white “dairy farming hamlet” in 2000 to now being one-third Latino/a with schools that are 73% non-white.</p>
<p>Whatever the merits of Adamy and Overberg’s general argument that rapid influxes of Latinos/as into the rural upper Midwest greatly strengthened Trump’s appeals, rural Wisconsin is a weak example, still only 6.3% Hispanic, and that population is highly concentrated in Democratic Milwaukee and Madison and in surrounding counties. Much of the transformation in Arcadia had occurred by 2010, but Obama handily carried the 2012 election in Trempealeau County. Trump did so in 2016, the first GOP victory there since Reagan, but with only 54% of the vote. The national map accompanying the second Journal story colored areas changing votes dramatically in light of very rapid immigrant influxes. On that map Wisconsin remains colorless. Of the five sundown counties with significant minority indigenous populations, two voted for Clinton in 2016.</p>
<p>More generally, the too-easy analysis that supposes, ala Hillary Clinton, that white rural “deplorables” are always and especially in the service of white supremacist reaction is challenged if we look more closely at the 2016 returns, and devastated if we take an historical approach. Among the 58 sundown counties in Wisconsin, there are 15 that are especially small and isolated, with total populations of less than 20,000. One is 2.1% Black, one 1.1%, and the others quite less even than that. Their votes split 58.2% for Trump and 41.4% for Clinton, mirroring the sundown counties in general almost exactly. In contrast, the three populous suburban counties in the Milwaukee metropolitan area—two sundown counties and one not—delivered a 107,000-vote majority for Trump, favoring him roughly by a 2 to 1 margin. The suburbs, not the hinterlands, constituted the strongest base of Trump’s support.</p>
<p>Our appreciation of the critically important historical dimension to sundown voting—both Robinson and I are trained in that discipline—ironically came through a sociologist. That is, when I contacted Loewen to outline the project to him, he mentioned having recently been to Calhoun County, a tiny sundown county in Illinois near where I grew up. That county, he told me, had voted for Obama in the same proportions as the rest of the country in 2008. I then looked up its 2016 vote, a landslide for Trump. Robinson and I had reason to wonder if a similar swing from Obama to Trump characterized the 2008 to 2016 trajectory of sundown county voters in Wisconsin.</p>
<p>The pattern could hardly been more striking. In 2008, Barack Obama defeated John McCain in all but eight of Wisconsin’s sundown counties. These virtually all-white counties delivered to the African American candidate a majority of nearly 143,000 votes. The fifteen very small sundown counties discussed above supported Obama in 2008 by 57.4% to 42.6%. The countervailing continuity lay in the metro Milwaukee suburbancounties, where the vote went to the conservative candidate in both 2008 and 2016, by overwhelming margins in both cases. The intervening 2012 election proved a halfway house, with the Milwaukee suburban counties solidly for Romney but Obama splitting the other sundown counties with the Republican ticket. By 2016, just under 400,000 votes had switched from the Democratic to the Republican candidate in sundown Wisconsin.&#160;Outside of the sundown counties the pro-Republican swing from 2008 to 2016 was just 17,000 votes.</p>
<p>Such evidence of fluidity hardly suggest that sundown counties present no difficulties for centrist Democratic candidates, especially if those candidates are female. Even as we note that the sundown vote is unpredictable, it is necessary to acknowledge that it is capable of moving rapidly to the right, as it just did.&#160; The disaster, economic and otherwise, of the presidency of the second George Bush’s terms as president surely shaped Obama’s 2008 successes more than an incipient anti-racism. The decline of rural areas under Obama hurt his own sundown county appeal in 2012 and Clinton’s in 2016. In a system in which so little is at issue in the political economy between the two parties beyond the pace of retrenchment—some Wisconsin radicals would emphasize the Bernie Sanders won the Democratic primary over Clinton and would have defeated Trump by offering modest class-based demands–wild swings and serial disaffections are likely to be the order of the day. It is constricted miserabilist policy debates, far more than the voters, which are deplorable. The white supremacist past and present lived in sundown towns, and especially in sundown suburbs, continues to provide oxygen for reaction and to extinguish possibilities for transformation.</p> | true | 4 | early evening donald trumps election president unfolded talked union activist friend wisconsin something unrelated signing said expected stay late seeing democrats regained senate seat state hillary clintons victory assured hours later became clear donald trump instead carried wisconsin razorthin margin msnbcers wondered hidden trump voters delivered wisconsin one three rust belt victories paving trumps road white house coming sundown townthat one twentieth century remained whitesonly part disallowing even visits african americans nightfalli read work sociologist james loewen places great care massive volume sundown towns website accompanying updating loewen paid special attention wisconsin partly proportionately many towns fit sundown category partly histories typical many early black presence removed time hot moment featured billboards warning policies included small towns also growing industrial ones whose good sometimes union jobs became property whites sundown towns elect trump wisconsin research assistant kathryn robinson tried find since much easier get countylevel election returns municipal ones concentrated sundown counties county seat could established sundown town likely sundown town loewens mapping incredible 58 states 72 counties fit category 58 sundown counties 31 1 less african american eight 2 suggesting proxy county seat works identifying sundown areas county level simple answer trump sundown towns wisconsin clearly elected sundown counties gave trump almost 935000 votes clintons 678000 margin sundown areas exceeded 256000 votes clinton fifteen nonsundown counties almost 230000 votes could make trumps 58 42 margin sundown ones short twothirds trump voters wisconsin came sundown counties nine sundown counties chose clinton 49 trump anything hard facts understate sundown support trumps candidacy three relatively large counties went democratic candidate margin 18000 votes perhaps questionably sundown counties state two three counties hosting significant state universities eau claire la crosse counties third rock county longtime though lapsed place auto production considerable united automobile workers uaw union strength significant nonwhite population rock county lone example county sundown seat government also black population 5 totals questionable sundown counties removed trumps margin sundown counties verges 60 40 however rock county example ought remind us much aggregate vote totals presidential race matter indexing sad influence sundown social relations 2012 last meal late uaw oppositional leader jerry tucker reflected gloomily closure big gm production facility janesville sundown county seat rock county textbook example sundown job discrimination talked politics race taxes kept uaw defeating janesvilles republican congressman paul ryan 2016 election ryan speaker us house representatives kept trump tenuously tethered mainstream conservatives therefore electable rock county delivered comfortable majority clinton 2016 likewise afforded one ryan lives janesvilles downtown sundown foundations trumps victory wisconsin ought minimized least worth reminding little racist politics us based lived contact much tragically rest talk radio imagination rumor representation whitelore probably case even move beyond black white wall street journal reporters janey adamy paul overberg stressed lived experience wisconsin sundown county pair stories trump immigration one written one election filed first story arcadia trempealeau county still far less 1 black suddenly 5 latinahispanic expansion chicken processing furniture manufacture arcadia gone almost allwhite dairy farming hamlet 2000 onethird latinoa schools 73 nonwhite whatever merits adamy overbergs general argument rapid influxes latinosas rural upper midwest greatly strengthened trumps appeals rural wisconsin weak example still 63 hispanic population highly concentrated democratic milwaukee madison surrounding counties much transformation arcadia occurred 2010 obama handily carried 2012 election trempealeau county trump 2016 first gop victory since reagan 54 vote national map accompanying second journal story colored areas changing votes dramatically light rapid immigrant influxes map wisconsin remains colorless five sundown counties significant minority indigenous populations two voted clinton 2016 generally tooeasy analysis supposes ala hillary clinton white rural deplorables always especially service white supremacist reaction challenged look closely 2016 returns devastated take historical approach among 58 sundown counties wisconsin 15 especially small isolated total populations less 20000 one 21 black one 11 others quite less even votes split 582 trump 414 clinton mirroring sundown counties general almost exactly contrast three populous suburban counties milwaukee metropolitan areatwo sundown counties one notdelivered 107000vote majority trump favoring roughly 2 1 margin suburbs hinterlands constituted strongest base trumps support appreciation critically important historical dimension sundown votingboth robinson trained disciplineironically came sociologist contacted loewen outline project mentioned recently calhoun county tiny sundown county illinois near grew county told voted obama proportions rest country 2008 looked 2016 vote landslide trump robinson reason wonder similar swing obama trump characterized 2008 2016 trajectory sundown county voters wisconsin pattern could hardly striking 2008 barack obama defeated john mccain eight wisconsins sundown counties virtually allwhite counties delivered african american candidate majority nearly 143000 votes fifteen small sundown counties discussed supported obama 2008 574 426 countervailing continuity lay metro milwaukee suburbancounties vote went conservative candidate 2008 2016 overwhelming margins cases intervening 2012 election proved halfway house milwaukee suburban counties solidly romney obama splitting sundown counties republican ticket 2016 400000 votes switched democratic republican candidate sundown wisconsin160outside sundown counties prorepublican swing 2008 2016 17000 votes evidence fluidity hardly suggest sundown counties present difficulties centrist democratic candidates especially candidates female even note sundown vote unpredictable necessary acknowledge capable moving rapidly right did160 disaster economic otherwise presidency second george bushs terms president surely shaped obamas 2008 successes incipient antiracism decline rural areas obama hurt sundown county appeal 2012 clintons 2016 system little issue political economy two parties beyond pace retrenchmentsome wisconsin radicals would emphasize bernie sanders democratic primary clinton would defeated trump offering modest classbased demandswild swings serial disaffections likely order day constricted miserabilist policy debates far voters deplorable white supremacist past present lived sundown towns especially sundown suburbs continues provide oxygen reaction extinguish possibilities transformation | 911 |
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<p>After eight years of countenancing welfare repeal, stagnant social spending, commercial logging in national forests, a forced mass march into managed health care, 10 million more without health insurance, and a doubling of the number of Americans behind bars, Democratic liberals finally found something to get outraged over: Ralph Nader.</p>
<p>A week after this bizarre election, I am blue in the face from arguing that Al Gore’s predicament is exclusively his own fault. I find it curious that Democrats have dispatched Jesse Jackson and an army of Democratic National Committee lawyers to Florida to crusade for the sanctity of each individual ballot while, at the same time, continuing to demonize Nader supporters for voting their consciences. My only personal regret is that I had but one ballot to cast for Ralph.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the roasting of Nader continues unabated. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney went as far as to call Nader’s campaign “reprehensible.” So regardless of who eventually triumphs in the Florida micro-count, it seems inevitable that the ugly breach opened this season between Naderites and Democratic “progressives” is bound to be a factor in the next phase of domestic oppositional politics.</p>
<p>This, then, is a good moment to try and sum up what was won by the Green campaign, where it goes from here, and what is to be done about the Big Split.</p>
<p>First the good news: The Nader campaign was able to present a reform, anti-corporate agenda to a couple of hundred thousand Americans. Yes, the Greens fell two points short of the 5 percent total they needed for federal matching funds, but a full 2.5 million voters did respond to Nader’s radical call. And Nader must be credited for engaging unknown numbers of otherwise cynical young activists and newly minted voters.</p>
<p>Before the vote, Green parties had ballot access in 24 states. After the vote, that number may go as high as 40. Further, there are now dozens, perhaps scores, of congressional and legislative districts coast to coast in which the newly emerged Green margin will loom as the swing vote — forcing Democrats to accommodate and negotiate. This is only positive. The hysterical moanings that the Greens will now run against and spoil the chances for such stalwart liberal Democrats as Minnesota’s Sen. Paul Wellstone or Wisconsin’s Sen. Russell Feingold can be discounted. Green strategists know that campaigns in those districts would be nothing short of suicide.</p>
<p>The challenge for Nader now is how to most effectively use the network he has assembled into the sort of “watchdog party” that he promised in the final days of the campaign. He’s got a funding base of 75,000 campaign donors and a database of thousands of volunteers and organizers. He’s got several hundred new campus-based groups that supported him. And with either Gore or Bush in the White House, Nader will have a juicy menu of issues before him, ranging from campaign finance reform to media reform to fair trade.</p>
<p>The bad news is that the obstacles in Nader’s path are formidable. The biggest problem is probably the Green Party itself — which is actually multiple decentralized parties scattered throughout the states. Some of its newer incarnations, such as in Texas, show promising signs of broad outreach. But too many of the Green enclaves are insular, marginal echo chambers for a progressive-to-radical fringe.</p>
<p>I have spent a lot of time reporting among the Greens and I always come away with equal amounts of admiration and horror: admiration for the serious and thoughtful activists among their ranks, and stone cold horror for the collection of wingnuts and goofballs all around them. The menu of litmus tests for becoming a Green — ranging from a marked counterculturalism to a sympathy for vegan cuisine — is currently too demanding and too narrow to be viable and effective.</p>
<p>What America needs is not a small party to the left of the Democrats, but a big party that goes around and over both the Democrats and the Republicans. A party whose emphasis is on what we have in common in the fight against a corporate-dominated system rather than on what divides us. I am not arguing for the suppression of radical or identity-based politics. But in a winner-take-all political system it makes absolutely no sense to invest in a third party unless you want to build it into a majoritarian party. Leftists, so often obsessed with their personal political purity, are going to have to learn that the art of politics is in combining forces and building coalitions, not purging the infidels.</p>
<p>Building a broad-based alternative electoral front means checking your personal agenda at the front door and coming together on perhaps three or four basic issues that resonate from the left into the radical center. It is no accident that Nader — even as he speaks today of accepting the role of “leader” in the new movement he is trying to fashion — has not made any plans to actually join the Green Party.</p>
<p>That reticence is the clearest indication that Nader would favor a cleansing transformation of the Green infrastructure. And that is perhaps his most serious challenge. He will be bumping up against not only the loopier party regulars, but also against every leftist sect with its sights now set on “penetrating” the Greens. (With the collapse of the Reform Party, how long can it be before <a href="http://www.salon.com/politics2000/feature/2000/05/09/keyes/" type="external">Lenora Fulani</a> discovers her Green-ness?)</p>
<p>The other challenge before the Naderites is the very real rift that has opened up with progressive Democrats. There’s an emerging line inside the AFL-CIO that Nader is now persona non grata and that, thanks to him, the tenuous one-year-old Seattle Coalition is now over. There’s a history of low-level tension between Nader and some of the AFL brass. And the outcome of Campaign 2000 has given the most anti-Nader minority of the Federation a disproportionately loud voice in the postelection debate.</p>
<p>The word in DC, meanwhile, is that not only some unions but also some key environmental NGOs are rethinking their working alliance with Nader-founded groups like <a href="http://www.citizen.org" type="external">Public Citizen</a> (whose <a href="http://www.citizen.org/pctrade/tradehome.html" type="external">Global Trade Watch</a> subsidiary played perhaps the key strategic role in making Seattle happen). It’s a bum rap, because whatever one thinks of Nader’s presidential run, organizations like Public Citizen had nothing to do with it. Indeed, none of Public Citizen’s staff even took leave to work on Nader’s campaign.</p>
<p>Just how or if this breach gets healed will haunt the left in the months to come. For whatever remains of the blue-green coalition, it will face its next crucial test this coming spring, no matter who is inaugurated. Either administration is expected to come out of the box asking once again for “fast-track” authority to negotiate an expanded version of NAFTA. The battle will be joined.</p>
<p>There will be two major venues in which this battle will be waged: Capitol Hill and the streets. If there will ever be a moment when we need a united rather than a divided blue-green front it will be then. With only a one-vote Republican majority in the Senate, the focus of this next globalization skirmish will be for the first time in the upper house. In the street, plans are afoot to rock an April conference on the Free Trade Area of the Americas in Quebec with simultaneous demonstrations reaching from Santiago to San Diego and beyond.</p>
<p>But if the Seattle coalition crumbles, both of these objectives could become long shots. Teamsters and Turtles, Labor Democrats and Naderite Greens must find some way to once again come together on this front.</p>
<p>Neither side of the blue-green alliance can go it alone. On the labor side, the recriminations and rhetoric must be tamped down and there must be a halt to the scapegoating of the only presidential candidate who unflinchingly championed the full union agenda. There’s plenty of blame to go around for Gore’s weakness; labor must assume its quota. If the AFL had not given its absurdly early endorsement to Gore way back in October 1999, it might have been able to eventually nudge the Democratic candidate far enough to the left to have made the Green option less attractive to voters.</p>
<p>Labor has been building up its own anti-globalization organizing infrastructure, and there are some in the Federation who believe they can move forward while severing their links with the Green component. They are wrong. The future of the movement — the young, tireless college radicals — are attracted into the fight not by labor but by the greenish NGOs. And when it comes to going to the Hill and slugging it out on the most crucial issues to labor — from NAFTA to the WTO — there are no more effective, reliable, and tenacious advocates and fighters than those like Lori Wallach, leader of Nader’s Global Trade Watch.</p>
<p>On the other side, the Greens also better catch their breath before plowing ahead. It’s great that Nader got two million-plus votes — but that is still only a tiny fraction of the electorate. It’s also true that in the closing days of the campaign we saw the emergence of a “Labor for Nader” group. While heartening, that is also a very small piece of organized labor.</p>
<p>From the <a href="/news/feature/2000/04/a17.html" type="external">anti-IMF demos</a> last spring in Washington to this past summer’s Republican and Democratic convention protests, we saw a progressive weakening of the street movement coming out of <a href="/news/special_reports/wto/benner.html" type="external">Seattle</a>. By the time it hit <a href="/news/feature/2000/08/dnc.html" type="external">LA in mid-August</a> it had become so unfocussed that it bordered on self-caricature. All three of those episodes had something in common: Labor had not been brought on board. Indeed, in Los Angeles, the bulk of labor sat inside the Staples Center with the DNC and the young people in the streets found themselves in opposition.</p>
<p>Once this mess gets settled in Florida, let’s get on with our real work.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | eight years countenancing welfare repeal stagnant social spending commercial logging national forests forced mass march managed health care 10 million without health insurance doubling number americans behind bars democratic liberals finally found something get outraged ralph nader week bizarre election blue face arguing al gores predicament exclusively fault find curious democrats dispatched jesse jackson army democratic national committee lawyers florida crusade sanctity individual ballot time continuing demonize nader supporters voting consciences personal regret one ballot cast ralph meanwhile roasting nader continues unabated aflcio president john sweeney went far call naders campaign reprehensible regardless eventually triumphs florida microcount seems inevitable ugly breach opened season naderites democratic progressives bound factor next phase domestic oppositional politics good moment try sum green campaign goes done big split first good news nader campaign able present reform anticorporate agenda couple hundred thousand americans yes greens fell two points short 5 percent total needed federal matching funds full 25 million voters respond naders radical call nader must credited engaging unknown numbers otherwise cynical young activists newly minted voters vote green parties ballot access 24 states vote number may go high 40 dozens perhaps scores congressional legislative districts coast coast newly emerged green margin loom swing vote forcing democrats accommodate negotiate positive hysterical moanings greens run spoil chances stalwart liberal democrats minnesotas sen paul wellstone wisconsins sen russell feingold discounted green strategists know campaigns districts would nothing short suicide challenge nader effectively use network assembled sort watchdog party promised final days campaign hes got funding base 75000 campaign donors database thousands volunteers organizers hes got several hundred new campusbased groups supported either gore bush white house nader juicy menu issues ranging campaign finance reform media reform fair trade bad news obstacles naders path formidable biggest problem probably green party actually multiple decentralized parties scattered throughout states newer incarnations texas show promising signs broad outreach many green enclaves insular marginal echo chambers progressivetoradical fringe spent lot time reporting among greens always come away equal amounts admiration horror admiration serious thoughtful activists among ranks stone cold horror collection wingnuts goofballs around menu litmus tests becoming green ranging marked counterculturalism sympathy vegan cuisine currently demanding narrow viable effective america needs small party left democrats big party goes around democrats republicans party whose emphasis common fight corporatedominated system rather divides us arguing suppression radical identitybased politics winnertakeall political system makes absolutely sense invest third party unless want build majoritarian party leftists often obsessed personal political purity going learn art politics combining forces building coalitions purging infidels building broadbased alternative electoral front means checking personal agenda front door coming together perhaps three four basic issues resonate left radical center accident nader even speaks today accepting role leader new movement trying fashion made plans actually join green party reticence clearest indication nader would favor cleansing transformation green infrastructure perhaps serious challenge bumping loopier party regulars also every leftist sect sights set penetrating greens collapse reform party long lenora fulani discovers greenness challenge naderites real rift opened progressive democrats theres emerging line inside aflcio nader persona non grata thanks tenuous oneyearold seattle coalition theres history lowlevel tension nader afl brass outcome campaign 2000 given antinader minority federation disproportionately loud voice postelection debate word dc meanwhile unions also key environmental ngos rethinking working alliance naderfounded groups like public citizen whose global trade watch subsidiary played perhaps key strategic role making seattle happen bum rap whatever one thinks naders presidential run organizations like public citizen nothing indeed none public citizens staff even took leave work naders campaign breach gets healed haunt left months come whatever remains bluegreen coalition face next crucial test coming spring matter inaugurated either administration expected come box asking fasttrack authority negotiate expanded version nafta battle joined two major venues battle waged capitol hill streets ever moment need united rather divided bluegreen front onevote republican majority senate focus next globalization skirmish first time upper house street plans afoot rock april conference free trade area americas quebec simultaneous demonstrations reaching santiago san diego beyond seattle coalition crumbles objectives could become long shots teamsters turtles labor democrats naderite greens must find way come together front neither side bluegreen alliance go alone labor side recriminations rhetoric must tamped must halt scapegoating presidential candidate unflinchingly championed full union agenda theres plenty blame go around gores weakness labor must assume quota afl given absurdly early endorsement gore way back october 1999 might able eventually nudge democratic candidate far enough left made green option less attractive voters labor building antiglobalization organizing infrastructure federation believe move forward severing links green component wrong future movement young tireless college radicals attracted fight labor greenish ngos comes going hill slugging crucial issues labor nafta wto effective reliable tenacious advocates fighters like lori wallach leader naders global trade watch side greens also better catch breath plowing ahead great nader got two millionplus votes still tiny fraction electorate also true closing days campaign saw emergence labor nader group heartening also small piece organized labor antiimf demos last spring washington past summers republican democratic convention protests saw progressive weakening street movement coming seattle time hit la midaugust become unfocussed bordered selfcaricature three episodes something common labor brought board indeed los angeles bulk labor sat inside staples center dnc young people streets found opposition mess gets settled florida lets get real work | 874 |
<p>Since President Obama was inaugurated, there have been over two thousand six hundred arrests of activists protesting in the US.&#160;&#160; Research shows over 670 people have been arrested in protests inside the US already in 2011, over 1290 were arrested in 2010, and 665 arrested in 2009.&#160;&#160; These figures certainly underestimate the number actually arrested as arrests in US protests are rarely covered by the mainstream media outlets which focus so intently on arrests of protestors in other countries.</p>
<p>Arrests at protest have been increasing each year since 2009.&#160; Those arrested include people protesting US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Guantanamo, strip mining, home foreclosures, nuclear weapons, immigration policies, police brutality, mistreatment of hotel workers, budget cutbacks, Blackwater, the mistreatment of Bradley Manning, and right wing efforts to cut back collective bargaining.</p>
<p>These arrests illustrate that resistance to the injustices in and committed by the US is alive and well.&#160; Certainly there could and should be more, but it is important to recognize that people are fighting back against injustice.</p>
<p>Information on these arrests has been taken primarily from the newsletter The Nuclear Resister, which has been publishing reports of anti-nuclear resistance arrests since 1980, and anti-war actions since 1990.</p>
<p>Jack Cohen-Joppa, who with his partner Felice, edits The Nuclear Resister, told me “Over the last&#160;three decades, in the course of chronicling more than 100,000 arrests for nonviolent protest and resistance to nuclear power, nuclear weapons, torture, and war, we’ve noted a quadrennial decline as support for protest and resistance gets swallowed up by Presidential politicking. It has taken a couple of years, but the Hopeian addicts of 2008 are finally getting into recovery. We’re again reporting a steady if slow rise in the numbers willing to risk arrest and imprisonment for acts of&#160;civil resistance. Today, for instance, there are more Americans serving time in prison for nuclear weapons protest than at any time in more than a decade.”</p>
<p>In the list below I give the date of the protest arrest and a brief summary of the reason for the protest.&#160; &#160;After each date I have included the name of the organization which sponsored the protest. &#160;Check them out.&#160; Remember, they can jail the resisters but they cannot jail the resistance!</p>
<p>2011</p>
<p>January 1, 2011.&#160; Nine women, ages 40 to 91, who brought solar panels to the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor were arrested for blocking the driveway at Entergy Corporation.&#160; Shut It Down.</p>
<p>January 5, 2011 and February 2, 2011.&#160; Five arrests were made of peace activists protesting at Vandenberg Air Force base, including a veteran of WWII.&#160; Vandenberg Witness.</p>
<p>January 11, 2011.&#160; Ten people protesting against the continued human rights violation of Guantanamo prison trying to deliver a letter to a federal judge were arrested at the federal building in Chicago, Illinois.</p>
<p>January 11, 2011.&#160; A sixty one year old grandmother protesting against excessive radiation was arrested for blocking the path of a utility truck in Sonoma County, California.</p>
<p>January 15, 2011.&#160; Twelve people protesting against Trident nuclear weapons at the Kitsap-Bangor naval base outside of Seattle, Washington were arrested - six on state charges of blocking the highway and six others on federal charges of trespass for crossing onto the base.&#160; Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action.</p>
<p>January 17, 2011.&#160; Marking the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, people protested outside the Lockheed Martin Valley Forge Pennsylvania office where eight people were arrested.&#160; Brandywine Peace Community.</p>
<p>January 17, 2011.&#160; Three people protesting the US use of armed drones and depleted uranium were arrested at the Davis-Monthan air force base near Tucson Arizona.</p>
<p>January 29, 2011.&#160; Eight peace activists marking the 60th anniversary of the testing of the atom bomb were arrested at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site.&#160;&#160; Nevada Desert Experience.</p>
<p>February 10, 2011.&#160; Twenty three hotel workers were arrested after protesting management abuses at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco.&#160; UNITE Here Local 2.</p>
<p>February 15, 2011.&#160; A former CIA agent turned whistleblower was arrested and battered by police for standing silently and turning his back during a speech on the need for human rights in Egypt delivered by the US Secretary of State.&#160;&#160; Veterans for Peace.</p>
<p>February 17, 2011.&#160; Nine people protesting against the attack on collective bargaining in Wisconsin were arrested at the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison.</p>
<p>February 25, 2011.&#160; Eleven people protesting federal budget cuts against the poor, including one person in a wheelchair were arrested charged with blocking traffic in Chicago.</p>
<p>March 4, 2011.&#160; Three people were arrested in Seattle after a protest against police abuse.</p>
<p>March 4, 2011.&#160; Sixteen people were arrested at a protest against tuition increases at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.</p>
<p>March 10, 2011.&#160; Fifty people protesting the removal of collective bargaining rights were arrested after being carried out of the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison.</p>
<p>March 16, 2011.&#160; Seven union supporters protesting proposals to strip collective bargaining from teachers were arrested in Nashville Tennessee.</p>
<p>March 19, 2011.&#160; One hundred thirteen people protesting the eighth anniversary of the war in Iraq, lead by Veterans for Peace, were arrested at White House. Veterans for Peace.</p>
<p>March 19, 2011.&#160; Eleven military family members and veterans were arrested in Hollywood California after staging a sit protesting the 8th anniversary of the war in Iraq.&#160; Veterans for Peace.</p>
<p>March 20, 2011.&#160; Thirty five people were arrested protesting outside the Quantico brig where Bradley Manning was being held.&#160; Bradley Manning Support Network.</p>
<p>March 28, 2011. Seven people defending a family against eviction and protesting home foreclosures were arrested in Rochester, NY, including a 70 year old neighbor in her pajamas.&#160; Take Back the Land.</p>
<p>April 4, 2011.&#160; Seven people protesting against unjust immigration legislation barring undocumented immigrants from Georgia colleges were arrested for blocking traffic in Atlanta Georgia.</p>
<p>April 7, 2011. Seventeen people were arrested protesting budget cuts in assistance for the poor and elderly and calling for an end to corporate tax exemptions in Olympia Washington.</p>
<p>April 10, 2011.&#160; Twenty seven people calling attention to the thousands of murders of people in Latin America by graduates of the US Army School of the Americas/WHINSEC were arrested outside the White House. School of Americas Watch.</p>
<p>April 11, 2011.&#160; Forty one people, including the Mayor and many of the members of the District of Columbia city council, protesting Congressional action limiting how the District of Columbia could spend its own money were arrested in Washington DC.</p>
<p>April 15, 2011.&#160; Eight teenage girl students, some as young as fourteen, were arrested after they refused to leave their public school Catherine Ferguson Academy, which is specially designated for pregnant and mothering teens in Detroit.&#160; Also with the young women were children and teachers.&#160; The school is targeted for closure due to budget cutbacks.</p>
<p>April 22, 2011.&#160; Thirty seven people were arrested protesting the use of drones outside the Hancock Air Force base near Syracuse New York.&#160; Syracuse Peace Council.&#160; Ithaca Catholic Worker.</p>
<p>April 22, 2011.&#160; Eleven women chained and locked the gate at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon Vermont before being arrested.</p>
<p>April 22, 2011.&#160; Thirty three people protesting at the Livermore Lab which designs nuclear weapons at an interfaith peace service were arrested for trespassing in California.</p>
<p>April 22, 2011.&#160; Four people were arrested at the Pentagon after they held up a banner and read from a leaflet outside of the designated protest zone.&#160; Dorothy Day Catholic Worker.</p>
<p>April 24, 2011.&#160; Sixteen protestors against nuclear weapons at the Nevada National Security Site were arrested after a sixty mile sacred walk from Las Vegas.&#160; Nevada Desert Experience.&#160; Pace e Bene.</p>
<p>May 2, 2011.&#160; Fifty two protestors against a nuclear weapons plant in Kansas City Missouri were arrested after blocking a gate to the construction site.&#160; Holy Family Catholic Worker.</p>
<p>May 9, 2011.&#160; Five people protesting against draconian immigration laws were arrested in the governor’s office in Indianapolis, Indiana.</p>
<p>May 7, 2011.&#160; Seven people celebrating Mothers Day and protesting nuclear weapons were arrested outside the Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor twenty miles from Seattle.&#160; Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action.</p>
<p>May 9, 2011.&#160; Sixty five people protesting cutbacks in education funding were arrested in Sacramento California.</p>
<p>2010</p>
<p>January 6, 2010.&#160; Over one hundred people protesting for union recognition of hotel workers at Hyatt San Francisco were arrested.&#160; UNITE Here Local 2.</p>
<p>January 15, 2010.&#160; A man who served nearly six months in jail and who was still on probation for hammering windows at a military recruiting center in Lancaster Pennsylvania was arrested at the recruiting center after insisting that recruiters and recruits to leave the army.</p>
<p>January 18, 2010.&#160; Seven people commemorating Martin Luther King’s birthday wore sandwich board messages saying “Make War No More,” “It’s about Justice,” and “its About Peace,” outside of Lockheed Martin’s main entrance in Merion Pennsylvania until they were arrested.&#160; Brandywine Peace Community.</p>
<p>January 21, 2010.&#160; Forty-two people protesting the ongoing human rights violations of Guantanamo prison were arrested at the US Capitol building.&#160; Twenty-eight were arrested on the steps of the Capitol and fourteen inside the rotunda.&#160; Witness Against Torture.</p>
<p>January 26, 2010.&#160; Thirteen people from Minnesota lobbying to stop funding for war were arrested after holding a die-in on the sidewalk in front of the White House.&#160; Voices for Creative Nonviolence.</p>
<p>January 31, 2010.&#160; Eight people were arrested trying to protest at Vandenberg Air Force base in California, one of those arrested, an octogenarian, was brought to the hospital for injuries suffered in the arrest.&#160; A few days later, seven protestors were arrested at the same spot.&#160;&#160; A month later, four more protestors were arrested.&#160; Vandenberg Witness.</p>
<p>February 22, 2010.&#160; Five people protesting against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were arrested inside US Senators’ offices in the Des Moines Iowa federal building.&#160; Voices for Creative Nonviolence.&#160; Des Moines Catholic Worker.</p>
<p>March 4, 2010.&#160; Four students protesting against rape were arrested after they refused to leave the administration building at Michigan State University in East Lansing Michigan.</p>
<p>March 20, 2010.&#160; Nine peace activists were arrested in Washington DC for lying down beside mock coffins outside the White House.</p>
<p>March 21, 2010.&#160; Two people protesting at the Aerospace and Arizona Days air show at Monthan Air Force base held a banner declaring “War is not a Show” in front of a Predator Unmanned Air Vehicle (drone) were arrested.</p>
<p>March 30, 2010.&#160; Eight protestors were arrested during a march against police brutality in Portland Oregon.</p>
<p>April 2, 2010.&#160; Eleven people on a Good Friday walk for peace and justice were arrested outside the USS Intrepid in New York city after they began reading the names of 250 Iraqi, American and Afghan war dead.&#160; Pax Christi New York.</p>
<p>April 2, 2010. Nine people carrying a banner “Lockheed Martin Weapons + War = The Crucifixion Today” in the 34th annual Good Friday protest at Lockheed Martin were arrested in Valley Forge Pennsylvania.&#160; Brandywine Peace Community.</p>
<p>April 4, 2010. Twenty two people protesting against nuclear weapons after the Sacred Walk from Las Vegas to the Nevada Nuclear Test Site were arrested after the Western Shoshone sunrise ceremony and Easter Mass.&#160; Nevada Desert Experience.</p>
<p>April 7, 2010.&#160; Three people, including a 12 year old girl, were arrested inside a US Senators office in Des Moines, Iowa with a banner “No More $$$ For War.”&#160; The mother of the 12 year old girl was called into the police station and issued a citation the next day for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.&#160; Voices for Creative Nonviolence and Des Moines Catholic Worker.</p>
<p>April 15, 2010.&#160; A man protesting nuclear weapons was arrested inside the security fence of a nuclear missile silo near Parshall, North Dakota.</p>
<p>April 16, 2010.&#160; Twelve people protesting against Sodexho mistreatment of workers were arrested in Montgomery County Maryland.&#160; Service Employees International Union.</p>
<p>April 20, 2010.&#160; A woman was arrested for standing in the path of a bulldozer to try to prevent mining in Marquette County, Michigan.</p>
<p>April 26, 2010.&#160; Seventeen people protesting war and poverty inside and outside the federal building in Chicago were arrested.&#160; Midwest Catholic Worker.</p>
<p>April 26, 2010.&#160; Boulder Colorado police arrested five people protesting at Valmont coal power plant.</p>
<p>May 3, 2010.&#160; Three people protesting nuclear weapons were arrested at Bangor Naval Base outside of Seattle Washington.&#160; Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action.</p>
<p>May 3, 2010.&#160; Twenty two people protesting nuclear weapons were arrested at Grand Central Station in New York city after unfurling banners saying “Nuclear Weapons = Terrorism,” and “Talk Less, Disarm More.” War Resisters League.</p>
<p>May 9, 2010.&#160; Seven people trying to stop a foreclosure-driven eviction were arrested in Toledo Ohio.&#160; Take Back the Land.</p>
<p>May 15, 2010.&#160; Thirty four people protesting against Arizona’s draconian immigration laws were arrested outside the White House.</p>
<p>May 17, 2010.&#160; Sixteen people were arrested in NYC protesting against unjust immigration policies.</p>
<p>May 20, 2010.&#160; A woman US Army specialist who served as a Military Police applied for conscientious objector status while serving in Iraq and who later left her unit was sentenced to 30 days in jail.</p>
<p>May 24, 2010.&#160; Thirty seven people protesting against unjust immigration policies were arrests in New York City.</p>
<p>June 1, 2010.&#160; Fifty six people protesting against unjust immigration policies were arrested in NYC.</p>
<p>June 8, 2010.&#160; Six peace advocates were arraigned in federal court in Des Moines, Iowa for numerous actions protesting in US Senators offices for the previous several months.&#160; One activist, a grandmother and hog farmer, held weekly die-ins in Senators’ offices and was arrested frequently.&#160; Once, when police asked her to leave, she replied that she was dead and couldn’t leave.&#160; Voices for Creative Nonviolence.</p>
<p>June 15, 2010.&#160; Several people protesting against evictions caused by bank foreclosure were arrested in Miami Florida.&#160; Take Back the Land.</p>
<p>June 23, 2010.&#160; Twenty two people protesting in favor of immigration reform singing “America the Beautiful” and “This Land is Your Land,” were arrested and charged with blocking traffic in Seattle.</p>
<p>July 5, 2010.&#160; Thirty six people protesting for a nuclear free future were arrested at the Y12 Nuclear Weapons Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee - thirteen of federal trespass charges and twenty-three on state charges for blocking a highway.&#160; Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance.</p>
<p>July 6, 2010.&#160; Seventy eight people protesting against police brutality in Oakland California and the trial involving a shooting by a BART police office.</p>
<p>July 23, 2010.&#160; One hundred fifty two hotel workers protesting against management at the Grand Hyatt San Francisco were arrested.&#160; UNITE Here Local 2.</p>
<p>July 29, 2010.&#160; Thirteen people were arrested in Tucson Arizona protesting against the state’s illegal immigration laws.</p>
<p>August 9, 2010.&#160; On Nagasaki day, three people protesting against the US commitment to nuclear weapons were arrested outside the US Strategic Air Command in Omaha Nebraska.&#160; Omaha Catholic Worker.</p>
<p>August 15, 2010.&#160;&#160; A twenty two year old female student at Michigan State University who pitched an apple pie at a US Senator during an anti-war protest was arrested and charged with federal felony charges of forcible assault on a federal officer.&#160; Another anti-war activist was also arrested and charged with the same crime.</p>
<p>September 9, 2010.&#160; Twelve people protesting for equality for gay people in the workplace were arrested in San Francisco.</p>
<p>September 27, 2010.&#160; One hundred fourteen people protesting mountaintop removal coal mining were arrested at the White House after a conference of people from West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee.&#160; Prior to this protest, forty-nine activists in the Climate Ground Zero Campaign have served jail time for taking action against strip-mining in Appalachia.&#160; Climate Ground Zero.</p>
<p>November 5, 2010.&#160; One hundred fifty two people protesting police killings were arrested in Oakland, California.</p>
<p>November 8, 2010.&#160; Five people protesting wind turbines in Lincoln, Maine were arrested including an 82 year old native of Maine.</p>
<p>November 21, 2010.&#160; Three people were arrested on federal charges and twenty-four more on state charges at the School of Americas/WHINSEC protest in Columbus Georgia outside the gates of Fort Benning. &#160;Six others were arrested at a protest against a private prison housing immigrants in rural Georgia. &#160;School of Americas Watch. ACLU Immigrant Rights Project.</p>
<p>December 1, 2010.&#160; Three people protesting against unjust immigration policies were arrested at the office of a Congress rep in Racine Wisconsin.&#160; Voces de la Frontera.</p>
<p>December 16, 2010. &#160;One hundred thirty one protestors, including numerous veterans, gathered in the snow outside the White House challenging the war in Afghanistan, the cover-up of war crimes and the prosecution of Bradley Manning and Wikileaks were arrested for failing to clear the sidewalk.&#160; In a parallel New York City protest, several others were also arrested.&#160; Veterans for Peace.</p>
<p>December 17, 2010.&#160; Twenty two people protesting against unfair home foreclosures were arrested when they blocked an entrance to a Chase bank branch in Los Angeles.&#160;&#160; Alliance Californians for Community Empowerment.</p>
<p>December 20, 2010.&#160; Six people were arrested after protesting at Bank of America against the foreclosure of an elderly couple in South Saint Louis.&#160; Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment.</p>
<p>December 28, 2010.&#160; Three parents asking for the abolition of all nuclear weapons were arrested for leafleting at the Pentagon.&#160; Dorothy Day Catholic Worker.</p>
<p>2009</p>
<p>January 2009, seventeen people, clad in black mourning clothes and white masks, were arrested in the US Senate Building for reading the names of the dead in ongoing US wars and unfurling banners stating “The Audacity of War Crimes,” “Iraq,” “Afghanistan,” “Palestine,” and “We Will Not Be Silent.”</p>
<p>January 26, 2009, six human rights advocates were sentenced to two to six months of federal prison or home arrest in federal court in Columbus Georgia for challenging training of Latin American human rights abusers at the US Army School of the Americas (SOA/WHINSEC) by walking onto Fort Benning. School of Americas Watch.</p>
<p>January 2009, a former Army specialist who refused to graduate with his Airborne Division because he realized he could not kill anybody was arrested and jailed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.&#160; The former soldier had been ordered home in May 2002 to await discharge papers.&#160; Courage to Resist.</p>
<p>February 2009.&#160; There were fifteen arrests of activists protesting mountain top removal by Massey in West Virginia.&#160; Climate Ground Zero.</p>
<p>February 2009, five peace activists in Salem Oregon fasting on the steps of the state capitol building so that National Guard soldiers would not be sent to Iraq and Afghanistan were cited for trespass by state police.</p>
<p>March 1, 2009, six anti-nuclear activists protesting the 55th anniversary of the US nuclear&#160; bomb detonation at Bikini Atoll were arrested at the Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in Kitsap, Washington after they knelt in the roadway.&#160; Ground Zero Community and Pacific Life Community.</p>
<p>March 4, 2009, nine people seeking to present a letter to CEO of Alliant Technologies outlining how weapons manufacturers were prosecuted as war criminals at the end of WWII were arrested in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.&#160; Alliant Action.</p>
<p>March 12, 2009, four people who were arrested during a protest at Vandenberg Air Force base were fined between $500 and $2500 by federal authorities.&#160; California Peace Action.</p>
<p>March 17, 2009, seven people seeking a meeting with US Defense Secretary to challenge the legality of the war in Iraq were arrested at the Pentagon.&#160; National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance.</p>
<p>March 18, 2009, seven women, ranging in ages from 65 to 89, some in wheelchairs and walkers, were arrested protesting the war in Iraq after wrapping yellow crime scene tape around a military recruiting center and blocking the entrance for an hour in New York City.&#160; Grannie Peace Brigade.</p>
<p>March 19, 2009, three people protesting the war in Iraq were arrested in Washington DC.&#160; In one instance a US Army veteran scaled the front of the Veterans Administration building and unfurled a banner saying “Veterans Say NO to War and Occupation.”&#160; Protests against the war in Iraq in Chicago resulted in an arrest there after banner drop.</p>
<p>March 19-21, 2009, protests against the war in Iraq in San Francisco resulted in twenty-two arrests at a die-in in the financial district, eleven more for blocking a street outside the Civic Center, and ten more at the Saturday march when Palestinian marchers were confronted by pro-Israel counter protestors resulting in police using batons and tear gas.</p>
<p>March 31, 2009, four people were arrested in Brattleboro, Vermont, for standing in silent opposition to the Vermont Yankee nuclear power reactor.</p>
<p>March 31, 2009, an anti-nuclear protestor was convicted of trespassing at the Los Alamos nuclear weapons facility and sentenced to two days in jail, community service and probation.&#160; Trinity House Catholic Worker.</p>
<p>April 3, 2009, four people protesting injustices on Wall Street and in Afghanistan and Iraq were arrested in New York, NY, for marching down the center of the street.&#160; Bail Out the People Movement.</p>
<p>April 9, 2009, fourteen people were arrested at Creech Air Force outside Las Vegas Nevada base protesting against the US use of drones in lethal attacks in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq.&#160; Nevada Desert Experience.</p>
<p>April 10, 2009, eight people were arrested while kneeling and praying for peace at the Pentagon.&#160; Another, clad in an orange jumpsuit and black hood, was arrested at the White House where he was chained to the fence protesting the human rights abuses of Guantanamo.&#160;&#160; Jonah House.</p>
<p>April 10, 2009, sixteen people were arrested while protesting the war profiteer Lockheed Martin in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.&#160; Brandywine Peace Community.</p>
<p>April 12, 2009, twenty one people were arrested while protesting the use of nuclear weapons at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site on Western Shoshone tribal lands.&#160; Nevada Desert Experience.</p>
<p>April 17, 2009.&#160; A man protesting US polices of violence, racism and poverty-production was sentenced to six months in prison for hammering out some windows in the US Military Recruiting Center in Lancaster Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>April 23, 2009, four people protesting lies by military recruiters were arrested after locking themselves to the door at the military recruiting center in Minnesota.&#160; Three others were arrested at the Knollwood Plaza&#160; after disrupting the recruitment center so much it had to be closed.&#160; Another woman was arrested near a recruiting center after placing a “Don’t Enlist” sticker on a police car.&#160; Antiwar committee.</p>
<p>April 24, 2009, a woman calling for the return of the National Guard from Iraq was arrested in the US House Appropriations during testimony by US Generals in Washington DC. Code Pink.</p>
<p>April 28, 2009, a US Army veteran who refused to fight in Iraq was court-martialed in Fort Stewart, Georgia and sentenced to one year in prison.&#160; Courage to Resist.</p>
<p>April 29, 2009, twenty-two people were arrested after trying to serve a Notice of Foreclosure for Moral Bankruptcy on Blackwater/Xe, the mercenary company responsible for so many deaths in Iraq, at its compound in Mount Carmel, Illinois.&#160; Des Moines Catholic Worker Community.</p>
<p>April 30, 2009, sixty three people were arrested at the White House protesting against illegal detention and torture at Guantanamo prison.&#160;&#160; Witness Against Torture.</p>
<p>May 20, 2009.&#160; Twenty one people protesting against the war in Iraq were arrested outside a military recruiting center in Milwaukee Wisconsin.</p>
<p>July 22, 2009, four people protesting against Boeing’s role in the production of drones, which have killed more than 700 people in Afghanistan and Pakistan, were arrested inside the Boeing lobby in Chicago, Illinois.&#160; Christian Peacemaker Teams.</p>
<p>August 4, 2009, four shareholders who sought to speak at the shareholders meeting of depleted uranium munitions producer Alliant Techsystems were arrested when they approached the microphone in Eden Prairie Minnesota.&#160; Alliant Action.</p>
<p>August 5, 2009, a US Army specialist who refused to deploy to Afghanistan was sentenced to 30 days in jail and given a less than honorable discharge in Killeen Texas.&#160; Courage to Resist.</p>
<p>August 6, 2009, a 75 year old priest, protesting the 64th anniversary of the US dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima, was arrested outside of Greeley Colorado where he cut the fence around a nuclear missile silo, hung peace banners, prayed and tried to break open the hatch on the silo.</p>
<p>August 6, 2009, nine antiwar activists were arrested at Fort McCoy Wisconsin after a three day peace walk protesting against US nuclear weapons and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.&#160; Nuke Watch.</p>
<p>August 6, 2009, two people were arrested at the Pentagon entrance on the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing carrying a banner stating “Remember the Pain, Remember the Sin, Reclaim the Future.” Jonah House.</p>
<p>August 6, 2009, twenty two people protesting the horror of Hiroshima were arrested in Livermore California when they blocked the entrance to the Lawrence Livermore weapons lab. Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment.</p>
<p>August 6, 2009, nine people at a vigil for peace and nonviolence were arrested for walking onto Lockheed Martin property at Valley Forge Pennsylvania and spreading sunflower seeds, an international symbol for the abolition of nuclear weapons.&#160; Brandywine Peace Community.</p>
<p>August 6, 2009, two people were arrested when they refused to stop praying at the gates of the Davis-Monthan Air Force base in Tucson Arizona.&#160; Rose of the Desert Catholic Worker.</p>
<p>August 10, 2009, nine persons calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons were arrested at Bangor Naval base, home to the Trident submarine, twenty miles from Seattle Washington.&#160; Ground Zero Community.</p>
<p>August 14, 2009, a US Army Sergeant who refused to go to Afghanistan and who asked for conscientious objector status was found guilty of disobeying lawful orders and going AWOL at a trial in Fort Hood.&#160; He was sentenced to one year in prison and given a bad conduct discharge.</p>
<p>August 17, 2009.&#160; Four people were arrested outside the Boalt Hall classroom where they were protesting John Yoo, who coauthored the memos authorizing torture on people in Guantanamo during the Bush administration.</p>
<p>August 22, 2009, two people protesting against nuclear missile testing were arrested at Vandenberg Air Force base and cited for trespass.</p>
<p>September 9, 2009.&#160; Four people protesting against Massey Energy mountain top removal were arrested in Madison West Virginia.&#160; Climate Ground Zero.</p>
<p>September 12, 2009, seven people who were protesting against the use of the high-tech bloodless arcade Army Experience Center in Philadelphia were arrested.&#160; Seven other protestors were arrested there earlier in the year.&#160; Shut Down the AEC.</p>
<p>September 24, 2009, ninety two people protesting management disregard for union rights of hotel workers were arrested at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in San Francisco.&#160; UNITE Here Local 2.</p>
<p>September 27, 2009, twenty one people protesting against the Nevada Test Site were arrested at the Mercury gate.&#160; At an action to “Ground the Drones” protesting the increasing use of lethal drones in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, another eleven people were arrested.&#160; Code Pink.&#160; Pace e Bene.&#160; Nevada Desert Experience.</p>
<p>September 28, 2009, four women, ages 66 to 90, walked past security guards at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant protesting inadequate safety at the plant.&#160; Carrying signs saying “Yom Kippur, September 28, Time to Atone, Shut Down Vermont Yankee,” this was the seventh set of arrests at the nuclear plant or its corporate headquarters since 2005.</p>
<p>September, 2009, the US Army accepted the resignation of Lieutenant, who refused to fight in Iraq because he believed the war violates international law, and gave him a discharge under other than honorable conditions.&#160;&#160; Courage to Resist.</p>
<p>October 1, 2009.&#160; A well known mixed martial arts fighter was sentenced to 90 days of work release and a fine of $28,000 for spraying symbols on an Army recruiting center and the Washington State Capitol building to help raise consciousness about the illegal war in Iraq.</p>
<p>October 2, 2009.&#160; Four people trying to deliver a document titled “Employee Liabilities of Weapons Manufacturers under International Law” to the weapons manufacturer Alliant Technologies were arrested in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.&#160; Alliant Action.</p>
<p>October 5, 2009, a couple, who married the day before and who were carrying a banner saying “Just Married; Love Disarms,” were arrested during a peace protest at Lockheed-Martin in Sunnyvale California.&#160; A priest was also arrested as the three gave out leaflets to workers entering the war contractor work site.&#160; Albuquerque New Mexico Catholic Worker.</p>
<p>October 5, 2009, sixty one people were arrested while protesting the ninth year of the US war in Afghanistan in front of the White House.&#160; Some of the arrested were in orange jumpsuits and chained to the fence.&#160; Secret Service officers assaulted other protestors, pushing and pulling them away from the protest site, bruising some.&#160; No Good War and Jonah House.</p>
<p>October 7, 2009, twelve protestors against the war in Afghanistan were arrested in Rochester, NY.&#160; Some of the arrested were treated at the hospital after being struck by police.&#160; Rochester Students for a Democratic Society.</p>
<p>October 7, 2009.&#160; Two people were arrested in Grand Central Station after unfurling banners which said “Afghanistan Enough!”&#160; War Resisters League.</p>
<p>October 11, 2009.&#160; Two women who held up banners when Tiger Woods was ready to putt, saying “President Obama - End Bush’s War,” and “End the Afghan Quagmire,” were handcuffed and escorted away from the President’s Cup golf tournament in San Francisco.</p>
<p>November 2, 2009.&#160; Five people calling for nuclear disarmament cut through the fence around the Naval Base Kitsap which houses the Trident nuclear submarines and nuclear warheads outside of Seattle Washington.&#160; The five walked through the base until they found the storage area for nuclear weapons and cut two more fences to get inside where they put up banners and spread sunflower seeds until they were arrested.&#160; Disarm Now Plowshares.</p>
<p>November 4, 2009.&#160; Two people were arrested while protesting outside Vandenberg Air Force base in California.&#160; Vandenberg Witness.</p>
<p>November 4, 2009.&#160; Eight protestors, including one who was 91 years old, were arrested at the Strategic Space Symposium in Omaha Nebraska while holding a “Space Weapons=Death” banner.&#160; Des Moines and Omaha Catholic Worker.</p>
<p>November 15, 2009.&#160; Five people protesting against US torture practices at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, where military interrogators are trained were arrested.&#160; Torture on Trial.</p>
<p>November 22, 2009.&#160; Four people protesting the training of human rights abusers by the US Army at their School of Americas/WHINSEC were arrested in Columbus, Georgia.&#160; School of Americas Watch.</p>
<p>November 23, 2009.&#160; A longtime war tax resister pled guilty to avoiding paying taxes for war at court in Bangor Maine.&#160; National War Tax Resistance Coordination Committee.</p>
<p>December 1, 2009.&#160; Protestors at 100 cities across the country challenged President Obama’s talk at West Point to escalate the war in Afghanistan.&#160; Six were arrested at West Point, eleven in Minneapolis, and three in Madison Wisconsin.</p>
<p>December 9, 2009.&#160; Six people protesting that President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize were arrested outside the federal building in Los Angeles.&#160; Los Angeles Catholic Worker.</p>
<p>December 10, 2009.&#160; Six people protesting the use of lethal drones were forcibly escorted out of the 11th Annual Unmanned Aerial Systems Conference outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico.&#160; Trinity Nuclear Abolition and Code Pink.</p>
<p>December 29, 2009.&#160; Twelve people leafleting and praying for peace at the Pentagon were arrested.&#160; Dorothy Day Catholic Worker and Jonah House.</p>
<p>Bill Quigley is a professor of law at Loyola University New Orleans and Associate Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights.&#160; More information about many of these arrests can be found at <a href="http://www.nukeresister.org/" type="external">www.nukeresister.org</a>.&#160;&#160; Bill can be reached at <a href="mailto:Quigley77@gmail.com" type="external">Quigley77@gmail.com</a></p>
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<p /> | true | 4 | since president obama inaugurated two thousand six hundred arrests activists protesting us160160 research shows 670 people arrested protests inside us already 2011 1290 arrested 2010 665 arrested 2009160160 figures certainly underestimate number actually arrested arrests us protests rarely covered mainstream media outlets focus intently arrests protestors countries arrests protest increasing year since 2009160 arrested include people protesting us wars afghanistan iraq guantanamo strip mining home foreclosures nuclear weapons immigration policies police brutality mistreatment hotel workers budget cutbacks blackwater mistreatment bradley manning right wing efforts cut back collective bargaining arrests illustrate resistance injustices committed us alive well160 certainly could important recognize people fighting back injustice information arrests taken primarily newsletter nuclear resister publishing reports antinuclear resistance arrests since 1980 antiwar actions since 1990 jack cohenjoppa partner felice edits nuclear resister told last160three decades course chronicling 100000 arrests nonviolent protest resistance nuclear power nuclear weapons torture war weve noted quadrennial decline support protest resistance gets swallowed presidential politicking taken couple years hopeian addicts 2008 finally getting recovery reporting steady slow rise numbers willing risk arrest imprisonment acts of160civil resistance today instance americans serving time prison nuclear weapons protest time decade list give date protest arrest brief summary reason protest160 160after date included name organization sponsored protest 160check out160 remember jail resisters jail resistance 2011 january 1 2011160 nine women ages 40 91 brought solar panels vermont yankee nuclear reactor arrested blocking driveway entergy corporation160 shut january 5 2011 february 2 2011160 five arrests made peace activists protesting vandenberg air force base including veteran wwii160 vandenberg witness january 11 2011160 ten people protesting continued human rights violation guantanamo prison trying deliver letter federal judge arrested federal building chicago illinois january 11 2011160 sixty one year old grandmother protesting excessive radiation arrested blocking path utility truck sonoma county california january 15 2011160 twelve people protesting trident nuclear weapons kitsapbangor naval base outside seattle washington arrested six state charges blocking highway six others federal charges trespass crossing onto base160 ground zero center nonviolent action january 17 2011160 marking anniversary martin luther king jrs birthday people protested outside lockheed martin valley forge pennsylvania office eight people arrested160 brandywine peace community january 17 2011160 three people protesting us use armed drones depleted uranium arrested davismonthan air force base near tucson arizona january 29 2011160 eight peace activists marking 60th anniversary testing atom bomb arrested nevada nuclear test site160160 nevada desert experience february 10 2011160 twenty three hotel workers arrested protesting management abuses hyatt regency san francisco160 unite local 2 february 15 2011160 former cia agent turned whistleblower arrested battered police standing silently turning back speech need human rights egypt delivered us secretary state160160 veterans peace february 17 2011160 nine people protesting attack collective bargaining wisconsin arrested wisconsin capitol madison february 25 2011160 eleven people protesting federal budget cuts poor including one person wheelchair arrested charged blocking traffic chicago march 4 2011160 three people arrested seattle protest police abuse march 4 2011160 sixteen people arrested protest tuition increases university wisconsin milwaukee march 10 2011160 fifty people protesting removal collective bargaining rights arrested carried wisconsin capitol madison march 16 2011160 seven union supporters protesting proposals strip collective bargaining teachers arrested nashville tennessee march 19 2011160 one hundred thirteen people protesting eighth anniversary war iraq lead veterans peace arrested white house veterans peace march 19 2011160 eleven military family members veterans arrested hollywood california staging sit protesting 8th anniversary war iraq160 veterans peace march 20 2011160 thirty five people arrested protesting outside quantico brig bradley manning held160 bradley manning support network march 28 2011 seven people defending family eviction protesting home foreclosures arrested rochester ny including 70 year old neighbor pajamas160 take back land april 4 2011160 seven people protesting unjust immigration legislation barring undocumented immigrants georgia colleges arrested blocking traffic atlanta georgia april 7 2011 seventeen people arrested protesting budget cuts assistance poor elderly calling end corporate tax exemptions olympia washington april 10 2011160 twenty seven people calling attention thousands murders people latin america graduates us army school americaswhinsec arrested outside white house school americas watch april 11 2011160 forty one people including mayor many members district columbia city council protesting congressional action limiting district columbia could spend money arrested washington dc april 15 2011160 eight teenage girl students young fourteen arrested refused leave public school catherine ferguson academy specially designated pregnant mothering teens detroit160 also young women children teachers160 school targeted closure due budget cutbacks april 22 2011160 thirty seven people arrested protesting use drones outside hancock air force base near syracuse new york160 syracuse peace council160 ithaca catholic worker april 22 2011160 eleven women chained locked gate vermont yankee nuclear power plant vernon vermont arrested april 22 2011160 thirty three people protesting livermore lab designs nuclear weapons interfaith peace service arrested trespassing california april 22 2011160 four people arrested pentagon held banner read leaflet outside designated protest zone160 dorothy day catholic worker april 24 2011160 sixteen protestors nuclear weapons nevada national security site arrested sixty mile sacred walk las vegas160 nevada desert experience160 pace e bene may 2 2011160 fifty two protestors nuclear weapons plant kansas city missouri arrested blocking gate construction site160 holy family catholic worker may 9 2011160 five people protesting draconian immigration laws arrested governors office indianapolis indiana may 7 2011160 seven people celebrating mothers day protesting nuclear weapons arrested outside naval base kitsapbangor twenty miles seattle160 ground zero center nonviolent action may 9 2011160 sixty five people protesting cutbacks education funding arrested sacramento california 2010 january 6 2010160 one hundred people protesting union recognition hotel workers hyatt san francisco arrested160 unite local 2 january 15 2010160 man served nearly six months jail still probation hammering windows military recruiting center lancaster pennsylvania arrested recruiting center insisting recruiters recruits leave army january 18 2010160 seven people commemorating martin luther kings birthday wore sandwich board messages saying make war justice peace outside lockheed martins main entrance merion pennsylvania arrested160 brandywine peace community january 21 2010160 fortytwo people protesting ongoing human rights violations guantanamo prison arrested us capitol building160 twentyeight arrested steps capitol fourteen inside rotunda160 witness torture january 26 2010160 thirteen people minnesota lobbying stop funding war arrested holding diein sidewalk front white house160 voices creative nonviolence january 31 2010160 eight people arrested trying protest vandenberg air force base california one arrested octogenarian brought hospital injuries suffered arrest160 days later seven protestors arrested spot160160 month later four protestors arrested160 vandenberg witness february 22 2010160 five people protesting wars iraq afghanistan arrested inside us senators offices des moines iowa federal building160 voices creative nonviolence160 des moines catholic worker march 4 2010160 four students protesting rape arrested refused leave administration building michigan state university east lansing michigan march 20 2010160 nine peace activists arrested washington dc lying beside mock coffins outside white house march 21 2010160 two people protesting aerospace arizona days air show monthan air force base held banner declaring war show front predator unmanned air vehicle drone arrested march 30 2010160 eight protestors arrested march police brutality portland oregon april 2 2010160 eleven people good friday walk peace justice arrested outside uss intrepid new york city began reading names 250 iraqi american afghan war dead160 pax christi new york april 2 2010 nine people carrying banner lockheed martin weapons war crucifixion today 34th annual good friday protest lockheed martin arrested valley forge pennsylvania160 brandywine peace community april 4 2010 twenty two people protesting nuclear weapons sacred walk las vegas nevada nuclear test site arrested western shoshone sunrise ceremony easter mass160 nevada desert experience april 7 2010160 three people including 12 year old girl arrested inside us senators office des moines iowa banner war160 mother 12 year old girl called police station issued citation next day contributing delinquency minor160 voices creative nonviolence des moines catholic worker april 15 2010160 man protesting nuclear weapons arrested inside security fence nuclear missile silo near parshall north dakota april 16 2010160 twelve people protesting sodexho mistreatment workers arrested montgomery county maryland160 service employees international union april 20 2010160 woman arrested standing path bulldozer try prevent mining marquette county michigan april 26 2010160 seventeen people protesting war poverty inside outside federal building chicago arrested160 midwest catholic worker april 26 2010160 boulder colorado police arrested five people protesting valmont coal power plant may 3 2010160 three people protesting nuclear weapons arrested bangor naval base outside seattle washington160 ground zero center nonviolent action may 3 2010160 twenty two people protesting nuclear weapons arrested grand central station new york city unfurling banners saying nuclear weapons terrorism talk less disarm war resisters league may 9 2010160 seven people trying stop foreclosuredriven eviction arrested toledo ohio160 take back land may 15 2010160 thirty four people protesting arizonas draconian immigration laws arrested outside white house may 17 2010160 sixteen people arrested nyc protesting unjust immigration policies may 20 2010160 woman us army specialist served military police applied conscientious objector status serving iraq later left unit sentenced 30 days jail may 24 2010160 thirty seven people protesting unjust immigration policies arrests new york city june 1 2010160 fifty six people protesting unjust immigration policies arrested nyc june 8 2010160 six peace advocates arraigned federal court des moines iowa numerous actions protesting us senators offices previous several months160 one activist grandmother hog farmer held weekly dieins senators offices arrested frequently160 police asked leave replied dead couldnt leave160 voices creative nonviolence june 15 2010160 several people protesting evictions caused bank foreclosure arrested miami florida160 take back land june 23 2010160 twenty two people protesting favor immigration reform singing america beautiful land land arrested charged blocking traffic seattle july 5 2010160 thirty six people protesting nuclear free future arrested y12 nuclear weapons complex oak ridge tennessee thirteen federal trespass charges twentythree state charges blocking highway160 oak ridge environmental peace alliance july 6 2010160 seventy eight people protesting police brutality oakland california trial involving shooting bart police office july 23 2010160 one hundred fifty two hotel workers protesting management grand hyatt san francisco arrested160 unite local 2 july 29 2010160 thirteen people arrested tucson arizona protesting states illegal immigration laws august 9 2010160 nagasaki day three people protesting us commitment nuclear weapons arrested outside us strategic air command omaha nebraska160 omaha catholic worker august 15 2010160160 twenty two year old female student michigan state university pitched apple pie us senator antiwar protest arrested charged federal felony charges forcible assault federal officer160 another antiwar activist also arrested charged crime september 9 2010160 twelve people protesting equality gay people workplace arrested san francisco september 27 2010160 one hundred fourteen people protesting mountaintop removal coal mining arrested white house conference people west virginia virginia kentucky tennessee160 prior protest fortynine activists climate ground zero campaign served jail time taking action stripmining appalachia160 climate ground zero november 5 2010160 one hundred fifty two people protesting police killings arrested oakland california november 8 2010160 five people protesting wind turbines lincoln maine arrested including 82 year old native maine november 21 2010160 three people arrested federal charges twentyfour state charges school americaswhinsec protest columbus georgia outside gates fort benning 160six others arrested protest private prison housing immigrants rural georgia 160school americas watch aclu immigrant rights project december 1 2010160 three people protesting unjust immigration policies arrested office congress rep racine wisconsin160 voces de la frontera december 16 2010 160one hundred thirty one protestors including numerous veterans gathered snow outside white house challenging war afghanistan coverup war crimes prosecution bradley manning wikileaks arrested failing clear sidewalk160 parallel new york city protest several others also arrested160 veterans peace december 17 2010160 twenty two people protesting unfair home foreclosures arrested blocked entrance chase bank branch los angeles160160 alliance californians community empowerment december 20 2010160 six people arrested protesting bank america foreclosure elderly couple south saint louis160 missourians organizing reform empowerment december 28 2010160 three parents asking abolition nuclear weapons arrested leafleting pentagon160 dorothy day catholic worker 2009 january 2009 seventeen people clad black mourning clothes white masks arrested us senate building reading names dead ongoing us wars unfurling banners stating audacity war crimes iraq afghanistan palestine silent january 26 2009 six human rights advocates sentenced two six months federal prison home arrest federal court columbus georgia challenging training latin american human rights abusers us army school americas soawhinsec walking onto fort benning school americas watch january 2009 former army specialist refused graduate airborne division realized could kill anybody arrested jailed fort bragg north carolina160 former soldier ordered home may 2002 await discharge papers160 courage resist february 2009160 fifteen arrests activists protesting mountain top removal massey west virginia160 climate ground zero february 2009 five peace activists salem oregon fasting steps state capitol building national guard soldiers would sent iraq afghanistan cited trespass state police march 1 2009 six antinuclear activists protesting 55th anniversary us nuclear160 bomb detonation bikini atoll arrested naval base kitsapbangor kitsap washington knelt roadway160 ground zero community pacific life community march 4 2009 nine people seeking present letter ceo alliant technologies outlining weapons manufacturers prosecuted war criminals end wwii arrested eden prairie minnesota160 alliant action march 12 2009 four people arrested protest vandenberg air force base fined 500 2500 federal authorities160 california peace action march 17 2009 seven people seeking meeting us defense secretary challenge legality war iraq arrested pentagon160 national campaign nonviolent resistance march 18 2009 seven women ranging ages 65 89 wheelchairs walkers arrested protesting war iraq wrapping yellow crime scene tape around military recruiting center blocking entrance hour new york city160 grannie peace brigade march 19 2009 three people protesting war iraq arrested washington dc160 one instance us army veteran scaled front veterans administration building unfurled banner saying veterans say war occupation160 protests war iraq chicago resulted arrest banner drop march 1921 2009 protests war iraq san francisco resulted twentytwo arrests diein financial district eleven blocking street outside civic center ten saturday march palestinian marchers confronted proisrael counter protestors resulting police using batons tear gas march 31 2009 four people arrested brattleboro vermont standing silent opposition vermont yankee nuclear power reactor march 31 2009 antinuclear protestor convicted trespassing los alamos nuclear weapons facility sentenced two days jail community service probation160 trinity house catholic worker april 3 2009 four people protesting injustices wall street afghanistan iraq arrested new york ny marching center street160 bail people movement april 9 2009 fourteen people arrested creech air force outside las vegas nevada base protesting us use drones lethal attacks pakistan afghanistan iraq160 nevada desert experience april 10 2009 eight people arrested kneeling praying peace pentagon160 another clad orange jumpsuit black hood arrested white house chained fence protesting human rights abuses guantanamo160160 jonah house april 10 2009 sixteen people arrested protesting war profiteer lockheed martin valley forge pennsylvania160 brandywine peace community april 12 2009 twenty one people arrested protesting use nuclear weapons nevada nuclear test site western shoshone tribal lands160 nevada desert experience april 17 2009160 man protesting us polices violence racism povertyproduction sentenced six months prison hammering windows us military recruiting center lancaster pennsylvania april 23 2009 four people protesting lies military recruiters arrested locking door military recruiting center minnesota160 three others arrested knollwood plaza160 disrupting recruitment center much closed160 another woman arrested near recruiting center placing dont enlist sticker police car160 antiwar committee april 24 2009 woman calling return national guard iraq arrested us house appropriations testimony us generals washington dc code pink april 28 2009 us army veteran refused fight iraq courtmartialed fort stewart georgia sentenced one year prison160 courage resist april 29 2009 twentytwo people arrested trying serve notice foreclosure moral bankruptcy blackwaterxe mercenary company responsible many deaths iraq compound mount carmel illinois160 des moines catholic worker community april 30 2009 sixty three people arrested white house protesting illegal detention torture guantanamo prison160160 witness torture may 20 2009160 twenty one people protesting war iraq arrested outside military recruiting center milwaukee wisconsin july 22 2009 four people protesting boeings role production drones killed 700 people afghanistan pakistan arrested inside boeing lobby chicago illinois160 christian peacemaker teams august 4 2009 four shareholders sought speak shareholders meeting depleted uranium munitions producer alliant techsystems arrested approached microphone eden prairie minnesota160 alliant action august 5 2009 us army specialist refused deploy afghanistan sentenced 30 days jail given less honorable discharge killeen texas160 courage resist august 6 2009 75 year old priest protesting 64th anniversary us dropping atomic bombs hiroshima arrested outside greeley colorado cut fence around nuclear missile silo hung peace banners prayed tried break open hatch silo august 6 2009 nine antiwar activists arrested fort mccoy wisconsin three day peace walk protesting us nuclear weapons wars afghanistan iraq160 nuke watch august 6 2009 two people arrested pentagon entrance anniversary hiroshima bombing carrying banner stating remember pain remember sin reclaim future jonah house august 6 2009 twenty two people protesting horror hiroshima arrested livermore california blocked entrance lawrence livermore weapons lab trivalley communities radioactive environment august 6 2009 nine people vigil peace nonviolence arrested walking onto lockheed martin property valley forge pennsylvania spreading sunflower seeds international symbol abolition nuclear weapons160 brandywine peace community august 6 2009 two people arrested refused stop praying gates davismonthan air force base tucson arizona160 rose desert catholic worker august 10 2009 nine persons calling abolition nuclear weapons arrested bangor naval base home trident submarine twenty miles seattle washington160 ground zero community august 14 2009 us army sergeant refused go afghanistan asked conscientious objector status found guilty disobeying lawful orders going awol trial fort hood160 sentenced one year prison given bad conduct discharge august 17 2009160 four people arrested outside boalt hall classroom protesting john yoo coauthored memos authorizing torture people guantanamo bush administration august 22 2009 two people protesting nuclear missile testing arrested vandenberg air force base cited trespass september 9 2009160 four people protesting massey energy mountain top removal arrested madison west virginia160 climate ground zero september 12 2009 seven people protesting use hightech bloodless arcade army experience center philadelphia arrested160 seven protestors arrested earlier year160 shut aec september 24 2009 ninety two people protesting management disregard union rights hotel workers arrested grand hyatt hotel san francisco160 unite local 2 september 27 2009 twenty one people protesting nevada test site arrested mercury gate160 action ground drones protesting increasing use lethal drones afghanistan iraq pakistan another eleven people arrested160 code pink160 pace e bene160 nevada desert experience september 28 2009 four women ages 66 90 walked past security guards vermont yankee nuclear plant protesting inadequate safety plant160 carrying signs saying yom kippur september 28 time atone shut vermont yankee seventh set arrests nuclear plant corporate headquarters since 2005 september 2009 us army accepted resignation lieutenant refused fight iraq believed war violates international law gave discharge honorable conditions160160 courage resist october 1 2009160 well known mixed martial arts fighter sentenced 90 days work release fine 28000 spraying symbols army recruiting center washington state capitol building help raise consciousness illegal war iraq october 2 2009160 four people trying deliver document titled employee liabilities weapons manufacturers international law weapons manufacturer alliant technologies arrested eden prairie minnesota160 alliant action october 5 2009 couple married day carrying banner saying married love disarms arrested peace protest lockheedmartin sunnyvale california160 priest also arrested three gave leaflets workers entering war contractor work site160 albuquerque new mexico catholic worker october 5 2009 sixty one people arrested protesting ninth year us war afghanistan front white house160 arrested orange jumpsuits chained fence160 secret service officers assaulted protestors pushing pulling away protest site bruising some160 good war jonah house october 7 2009 twelve protestors war afghanistan arrested rochester ny160 arrested treated hospital struck police160 rochester students democratic society october 7 2009160 two people arrested grand central station unfurling banners said afghanistan enough160 war resisters league october 11 2009160 two women held banners tiger woods ready putt saying president obama end bushs war end afghan quagmire handcuffed escorted away presidents cup golf tournament san francisco november 2 2009160 five people calling nuclear disarmament cut fence around naval base kitsap houses trident nuclear submarines nuclear warheads outside seattle washington160 five walked base found storage area nuclear weapons cut two fences get inside put banners spread sunflower seeds arrested160 disarm plowshares november 4 2009160 two people arrested protesting outside vandenberg air force base california160 vandenberg witness november 4 2009160 eight protestors including one 91 years old arrested strategic space symposium omaha nebraska holding space weaponsdeath banner160 des moines omaha catholic worker november 15 2009160 five people protesting us torture practices fort huachuca arizona military interrogators trained arrested160 torture trial november 22 2009160 four people protesting training human rights abusers us army school americaswhinsec arrested columbus georgia160 school americas watch november 23 2009160 longtime war tax resister pled guilty avoiding paying taxes war court bangor maine160 national war tax resistance coordination committee december 1 2009160 protestors 100 cities across country challenged president obamas talk west point escalate war afghanistan160 six arrested west point eleven minneapolis three madison wisconsin december 9 2009160 six people protesting president obama awarded nobel peace prize arrested outside federal building los angeles160 los angeles catholic worker december 10 2009160 six people protesting use lethal drones forcibly escorted 11th annual unmanned aerial systems conference outside albuquerque new mexico160 trinity nuclear abolition code pink december 29 2009160 twelve people leafleting praying peace pentagon arrested160 dorothy day catholic worker jonah house bill quigley professor law loyola university new orleans associate legal director center constitutional rights160 information many arrests found wwwnukeresisterorg160160 bill reached quigley77gmailcom 160 160 | 3,521 |
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<p>Photo by Marc Nozell | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
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<p>On January 20, 2017, Donald Trump and Mike Pence will be inaugurated as President and Vice President, respectively.&#160; Recent comments by ideologues associated within the Trump circle suggest that after the new administration takes office there might be a move by Congressional conservatives to resurrect a 21st century version of the long-dead House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).</p>
<p>Recently, right-wing radio host Michael Savage called for Trump to restore HUAC or a similar committee to focus on “hunting down subversives.”&#160; “We need a new HUAC but you can’t call it HUAC,” he declared, “but we have to unmask the traitors within because we’re facing grave danger from these traitors.”&#160; Among the groups he identified as “subversive” and needed to be investigated are People for the American Way, the American Civil Liberties Union, MoveOn, Center for American Progress, Black Lives Matter, Media Matters and the National Council of Churches.</p>
<p>He even proposed leading the inquiry.</p>
<p>Savage picked up on a similar chant made earlier by Newt Gingrich.&#160; “We originally created HUAC to after Nazis,” Gingrich said.&#160; “We passed several laws in 1938 and 1939 to go after Nazis and we made it illegal to help the Nazis. We’re going to presently have to go take the similar steps here.”</p>
<p>Once taking office, Trump and Pence, together with the continuing Republican control of both Houses of Congress, will relaunch a new round in the culture wars.&#160; Among the first acts of the new administration will be the appointment of a staunch conservative to the Supreme Court and an attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Court’s 1973 decision granting women the right to an abortion.</p>
<p>It’s unclear whether the call to establish a committee to investigate “subversives” will gain sufficient traction in Congress to be implemented.&#160; Others have raised calls for a registry of Muslims akin to the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System implemented in the wake of 9/11 attacks and to implement something similar to the forced relocation and internment of more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans during WW-II.</p>
<p>HUAC operated from 1938-1975 – and the Senate’s parallel Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS) operated from 1957-1977 – and was a rightwing effort to suppress critical challenges to America’s mounting Cold War orthodoxy.&#160; Against the restructuring of global power between the U.S.’s ostensible “free market” capitalism and the Soviet Union ostensible “anti-imperialist” socialism, HUAC sought enforce ideological hegemony.&#160; HUAC destroyed the lives of many Americans who represent little threats to state or corporate power and the possible establishment of a HUAC-like Congressional committee to investigate “subversives” speaks less to the existence of a real threat to national security as it does to the vengeance of those who seek to defend the unfolding Trump agenda.</p>
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<p>HUAC’s ostensible purpose was to investigate disloyalty and, in the postwar era, singled out prominent celebrities (i.e., entertainers), artists (e.g., screenwriters), public employees (e.g., teachers), organizers (e.g., labor leaders), and African-American and Puerto Rican nationalists.&#160; Those who testified before it fell into two groups – “friendly” and “unfriendly” witnesses.&#160; Many friendly witnesses were former CP members who, like sinners at an old-fashion religious revival meeting, genuflected before the public tribunal in an act of contrition for a past moral failing.&#160; Unfriendly witnessed faced far-graver consequences.</p>
<p>Among the first to be investigated by HUAC was the popular writer Howard Fast, author of Spartacus.&#160; In ’46, he was subpoenaed to testify regarding the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee (JAFRC), a CP-affiliated group, and he refused to provide financial information or name names. He was found in contempt of Congress and in 1950 served a three-month prison sentence at the Mill Point, WV, federal penitentiary.</p>
<p>In May ‘47, HUAC Congressmen settled into Los Angeles’ Biltmore Hotel for a showdown with the movie industry.&#160; The first to appear before the Committee were friendly witnesses, including actors Robert Taylor, Richard Arlen and Adolphe Menjou who named names.&#160; Among others who named names were Hollywood notables Lee J. Cobb, Clifford Odets, David Raskin and Robert Rossen.&#160; Studio head Jack Warner went so far as to identifying studio personnel (often union members) he suspected of being subversives.</p>
<p>In September ‘47, HUAC served subpoenas to 43 film-industry personnel.&#160; On November 25th, ten witnesses appeared at the hearings and refused to name names.&#160; They became known as “The Hollywood Ten” and included: Alvah Bessie, screenwriter who served in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish civil war; Herbert Biberman, directed, Salt of the Earth (1954); Lester Cole, screenwriter, If I Had a Million (1932); Edward Dmytryk, director, The Caine Mutiny (1954); Ring Lardner Jr., director, Woman of the Year (1942); John Howard Lawson, screenwriter, Counter Attack (1945); Albert Maltz, director, documentary, The House I Live In, won an Academy Award (1945); Samuel Ornitz, organizer, Screen Actors Guild; Adrian Scott, producer, Crossfire (1947), who won four Academy Awards; and Dalton Trumbo, screenwriter, who won two Academy Awards while on the blacklist.&#160; They were convicted and went to federal prison.&#160; Hollywood’s principle craft unions — the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), the Screen Writers Guild (SWG) and the Screen Directors Guild, (SDG) — put up little resistance.</p>
<p>Also in September ’47, the Committee issued a study, “Report on Civil Rights Congress as a Communist Front Organization,” that singled out Paul Robeson for special rebuke.&#160; “Paul Robeson will be remembered as one who has been outspoken in his defense of the Communist Party on numerous occasions …,” it argued.&#160; It went on to acknowledge, “He has defended Gerhart Eisler and Leon Josephson, active international Communist agents.”&#160; Most troubling, it noted, “he [Robeson] refuses to affirm or deny membership in the Communist Party, [although] he has participated in official Communist gatherings on March 17, 1941, March 17, 1947, and on May 8, 1947.”&#160; It concluded, “He has long been an ardent apologist for the Soviet Union, where his son was resided and was educated.”</p>
<p>On August 5, 1948, HUAC convened a special hearing, “Regarding Communist Espionage in the U.S. Government,” at the Federal Courthouse in Foley Square, New York, presided over by Rep. Richard Nixon.&#160; At the hearing, Nixon grilled Alger Hiss as to his alleged communist sympathies.&#160; Hiss was the classic New Deal “brain truster,” a Harvard Law School graduate who had clerked for Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, an associate to Dean Acheson and John Foster Dulles, an adviser to Pres. Roosevelt at Yalta and who served as Secretary General at the 1945 San Francisco meeting at which the U.N. was founded.</p>
<p>Hiss categorically denied the he had ever known, Whittaker Chambers, Nixon’s principle witness against him.&#160; Chambers was a senior Time editor and a former CP member from 1925 to 1937 who became a leading anticommunist witness and writer. &#160;On August 25th, a showdown between Chambers and Hiss took place at a televised HUAC hearing at the Cannon Caucus Room in Washington, DC, with Nixon as ringmaster, one of the most combative trials of the Cold War era.</p>
<p>Under oath, Hiss denied he knew Chambers, that he was a communist or that he passed State Department documents to Chambers.&#160; But based on Chamber’s testimony and “evidence” (including the infamous Pumpkin Papers microfilm), Hiss was indicted for perjury by a grand jury.&#160; His first trial ran from May to July ’49 ending in a hung jury; a second trial ran from November ’49 to January ’50 and he was found guilty.&#160; He was sentenced to five years in prison; Hiss always maintained his innocence</p>
<p>In July 1949, HUAC called a special hearing on Paul Robeson’s speech misquoted in an Associated Press (AP) dispatch made before the Soviet Union-sponsored Paris Peace Conference.&#160; The Committee invited several African-Americans to testify, most notably Jackie Robinson.&#160; Robinson was the hearing’s star attraction, but was far less forceful in his denunciation of Robeson, calling his comments “silly.” “He has a right to his to his personal views, and if he wants to sound silly when he expresses them in public, that is his business and not mine.”&#160; He went on to praise U.S. liberties, especially religious freedom, and argued that Negroes could win the battle against racial discrimination “without the Communists and we don’t want their help.”</p>
<p>In April 1952, HUAC returned to Hollywood, this time subpoenaing Larry Parks, Zero Mostel and Sam Jaffe; Budd Schulberg and Elia Kazan were “friendly” witnesses, who named names.&#160; Kazan admitted being in the CP for about a year-and-a-half, between 1934-1936, and named eight party members, including playwright Clifford Odets.</p>
<p>Arthur Miller’s The Crucible opened at Broadway’s Martin Beck Theatre on January 22, 1953 — the same week Eisenhower was inaugurated president.&#160; The play recalls the witch trials that gripped Salem, Massachusetts, in the 1690s, and explores how religious hysteria breads repression, including the hanging of women (and some men) deemed to be witches.&#160; Critics and the audience recognized Salem as a metaphor for the postwar Red Scare and the anticommunism hysteria fueled by HUAC and McCarthy.&#160; Three years after the play’s premier, HUAC subpoenaed Miller to testify.&#160; The date picked for his appearance, June 21, 1956, was eight days before his well-publicized and long-scheduled wedding with Marilyn Monroe on the 29th.&#160; According to Miller, HUAC Chairman Francis Walter (D-PA) offered to dismiss the playwright’s testimony if he could pose with the actress.</p>
<p>Miller was considered an unfriendly HUAC witness and refused to name names.&#160; He insisted, “I could not use the name of another person and bring trouble on him.”&#160; In May ’57, he was found guilty of contempt of Congress and sentenced to a $500 fine or 30 days prison term and the loss of his passport; his conviction was reversed in ’58.&#160; He was also blacklisted, barred from working in movies and television, but not on Broadway. A U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately overturned the conviction.</p>
<p>Between 1953-’55, HUAC held a series of hearings on “communist activities” that focused on the CP and “Negros” in New York.&#160; The first round took place on March 16, May 6 and June 15, 1953; a second round took place two years later, on July 28 and 29 and August 1, 1955.&#160; Dozens of alleged former CP members testified, many staunchly anticommunist.&#160; On January 13 and 18, 1954, it held separate hearings on what it identified as “Communist methods of infiltration (entertainment)”; Robeson is mentioned only in passing.</p>
<p>In ’55, HUAC finally subpoenaed folksinger Pete Seeger, David Alman (of the Rosenberg support committee) and the actress Lucille Ball; Zero Mostel, famous for The Producers, refused to name names and was blacklisted.&#160; However, bandleader Artie Shaw, director Robert Rossen, actor Lee Jay Cobb and choreographer Jerome Robbins appeared as “friendly” witnesses.</p>
<p>In ’56, HUAC subpoenaed Robeson to testify and the interchange with Richard Arens, chief counsel, often got very bitter, reflecting Robeson’s resolute principles.&#160; As to the primary question, his communist affiliation, the opening exchange set the tone for the day’s session.</p>
<p>Arnens: Are you now a member of the Communist Party?</p>
<p>Robeson: Oh please, please, please.</p>
<p>Scherer: Please answer, will you, Mr. Robeson?</p>
<p>Robeson: What is the Communist Party? What do you mean by that?</p>
<p>After six grueling hours, Robeson was excused.&#160; He was never indicted, but was blacklisted and lost his passport, prevented even from traveling to Canada.</p>
<p>In July 1959, HUAC held hearings in New York and San Juan on “Communist activities among Puerto Ricans in New York City and Puerto Rico.”&#160; More than a dozen witnesses were subpoenaed; most of the alleged communist witnesses refused to testify.&#160; An NYPD BOSS officer, Mildred Blauvelt, testified.&#160; “I became a member of the New York City Police Department in December of 1942, and upon entrance into the department was assigned by them to infiltrate the Communist Party as an undercover agent,” she revealed.&#160; Her actual infiltration of the party is a bit unclear: “I succeeded in doing so by becoming a member of the Communist Party in April of 1948. I was expelled from the Communist Party in September 1943, but gained reentrance into the party once again in April of 1944, and stayed in the Communist Party until my expulsion in November of 1951.”</p>
<p>In ’54, the liberal Sen. Hubert Humphrey (D-MN), who had backed the 1950 Internal Security Act, introduced the Communist Control Act of 1954 that sought to suppress the party.&#160; HUAC lost its moral bite as the anticommunist hysteria peaked during the late-‘50s as McCarthy’s influence waned. In 1967, it subpoenaed Yippie leaders Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin to testify.</p>
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<p>The spirit the post-WW-II Red Scare has resurfaced in a new form of the “blacklist.”&#160; Turning Point USA was set up in 2012 by a staunch reactionary, Charlie Kirk, and its ostensible purpose is to “identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote fiscal responsibility, free markets and limited government.”&#160; It recently launched a new campaign, dubbed “Professor Watchlist,” with a mission to “expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students, promote anti-American values, and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.”&#160; To date, some <a href="http://www.professorwatchlist.org" type="external">97 academics</a> are on the list, including Peter Singer (Princeton), Norman Markowitz&#160;(Rutgers), Brittney Cooper (Rutgers), Julio C. Pino (Kent State) and Robert Jensen (University of Texas).</p>
<p>One of the consequences of HUAC was the establishment of a formal blacklist, a list of people blocked from employment because of their political beliefs or affiliations, notably in the entertainment fields and various unions.&#160; In September 1942, in an illegal but effective action, HUAC’s chairman Martin Dies leaked a 2,000-page list, “Communist Front Organizations”, to the Congressional Record that officially published it in 1944.&#160; It identified approximately 250 groups as Communist front organizations and an index of 22,000 suspected individuals.&#160; In the face of strong opposition, the full committee ordered all copies removed from the Library of Congress and destroyed.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the list was quickly adopted by a wide variety of public and private groups to deny employment to or discriminate against those listed.&#160; Those adopting – and modifying – the list included the Treasury Department (e.g., tax-exemption determinations), the State Department (e.g., passport and deportation decisions) and the U.S. military (e.g., command structure) as well as state and local governments.&#160; In addition, a growing number of civilian business sectors – e.g., federal contractors, hotel businesses and the entertainment industries – denied employment to or discriminated against those listed.</p>
<p>By December ’46, 449 organizations were identified on the “Attorney General’s List of Subversive Organizations” (AGLOSO). In 1951, HUAC came up with yet another list of subversives that included many CP-front groups like the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee, the American Relief for Greek Democracy and the Peace Information Center, an anti-Cold War group headed by W.E.B DuBois.&#160; He, and four other officials, were arrested and indicted in 1950 for failing to register as communists under the Smith Act.&#160; Most remarkable, a federal judge, James McQuire, acquitted the five defendants.</p>
<p>For a decade-and-a-half, from 1947 to 1961, the Red Scare terrorized the nation, especially the entertainment fields and, most notably, Hollywood. Howard Rushmore, an anticommunist investigative who had worked for William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal-American and had earlier been a CP member and regular contributor to the Daily Worker.&#160; He had testified before HUAC, naming Edward G. Robinson, Charlie Chaplin, Clifford Odets and Trumbo as Communists.&#160; Many entertainers were blacklisted.</p>
<p>Often overlooked, HUAC also targeted numerous radio commentators.&#160; One of those singled out was Lisa Sergio, a now all-but-forgotten ‘40s radio personality, who was listed on the FBI’s Custodial Detention Index (CDI) and, in 1950, Red Channels, the Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television, an anti-communist tract, listed her among 151 actors, radio commentators, musicians and other broadcast-industry personalities — and the New York Times radio show.&#160; Other radio personalities also blackmailed were Cecil Brown, William S. Gailmore, Hans Jacob, Johannes Steel, Raymond Gram Swing, J. Raymond Walsh and Sidney Walton.</p>
<p>As postwar anti-communist hysteria mounted, the Senate picked up the chant and, in September ‘52, the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS) held hearings at the federal court building in Foley Square, New York, to expose communists in the city’s public schools and colleges.&#160; Senators interrogating current and former Brooklyn College faculty, among others, who had been earlier called by the state’s Rapp-Coudert Committee or otherwise identified as communists.</p>
<p>A decade earlier, New York State legislature held hearings through the Joint Legislative Committee to Investigate the Educational System, aka Rapp-Coudert Committee, to investigate the city’s public universities, especially City and Brooklyn colleges.&#160; Approximately 500 faculty, staff, teachers and student were subpoenaed and interrogated about their political beliefs, required to name names of subversives.</p>
<p>Now, as a threats of a reestablished HUAC, Muslim registration lists and a blacklist are renewed, it’s going to a long next four years.</p> | true | 4 | photo marc nozell cc 20 january 20 2017 donald trump mike pence inaugurated president vice president respectively160 recent comments ideologues associated within trump circle suggest new administration takes office might move congressional conservatives resurrect 21st century version longdead house unamerican activities committee huac recently rightwing radio host michael savage called trump restore huac similar committee focus hunting subversives160 need new huac cant call huac declared unmask traitors within facing grave danger traitors160 among groups identified subversive needed investigated people american way american civil liberties union moveon center american progress black lives matter media matters national council churches even proposed leading inquiry savage picked similar chant made earlier newt gingrich160 originally created huac nazis gingrich said160 passed several laws 1938 1939 go nazis made illegal help nazis going presently go take similar steps taking office trump pence together continuing republican control houses congress relaunch new round culture wars160 among first acts new administration appointment staunch conservative supreme court attempt overturn roe v wade courts 1973 decision granting women right abortion unclear whether call establish committee investigate subversives gain sufficient traction congress implemented160 others raised calls registry muslims akin national security entryexit registration system implemented wake 911 attacks implement something similar forced relocation internment 100000 japaneseamericans wwii huac operated 19381975 senates parallel senate internal security subcommittee siss operated 19571977 rightwing effort suppress critical challenges americas mounting cold war orthodoxy160 restructuring global power uss ostensible free market capitalism soviet union ostensible antiimperialist socialism huac sought enforce ideological hegemony160 huac destroyed lives many americans represent little threats state corporate power possible establishment huaclike congressional committee investigate subversives speaks less existence real threat national security vengeance seek defend unfolding trump agenda huacs ostensible purpose investigate disloyalty postwar era singled prominent celebrities ie entertainers artists eg screenwriters public employees eg teachers organizers eg labor leaders africanamerican puerto rican nationalists160 testified fell two groups friendly unfriendly witnesses160 many friendly witnesses former cp members like sinners oldfashion religious revival meeting genuflected public tribunal act contrition past moral failing160 unfriendly witnessed faced fargraver consequences among first investigated huac popular writer howard fast author spartacus160 46 subpoenaed testify regarding joint antifascist refugee committee jafrc cpaffiliated group refused provide financial information name names found contempt congress 1950 served threemonth prison sentence mill point wv federal penitentiary may 47 huac congressmen settled los angeles biltmore hotel showdown movie industry160 first appear committee friendly witnesses including actors robert taylor richard arlen adolphe menjou named names160 among others named names hollywood notables lee j cobb clifford odets david raskin robert rossen160 studio head jack warner went far identifying studio personnel often union members suspected subversives september 47 huac served subpoenas 43 filmindustry personnel160 november 25th ten witnesses appeared hearings refused name names160 became known hollywood ten included alvah bessie screenwriter served abraham lincoln brigade spanish civil war herbert biberman directed salt earth 1954 lester cole screenwriter million 1932 edward dmytryk director caine mutiny 1954 ring lardner jr director woman year 1942 john howard lawson screenwriter counter attack 1945 albert maltz director documentary house live academy award 1945 samuel ornitz organizer screen actors guild adrian scott producer crossfire 1947 four academy awards dalton trumbo screenwriter two academy awards blacklist160 convicted went federal prison160 hollywoods principle craft unions screen actors guild sag screen writers guild swg screen directors guild sdg put little resistance also september 47 committee issued study report civil rights congress communist front organization singled paul robeson special rebuke160 paul robeson remembered one outspoken defense communist party numerous occasions argued160 went acknowledge defended gerhart eisler leon josephson active international communist agents160 troubling noted robeson refuses affirm deny membership communist party although participated official communist gatherings march 17 1941 march 17 1947 may 8 1947160 concluded long ardent apologist soviet union son resided educated august 5 1948 huac convened special hearing regarding communist espionage us government federal courthouse foley square new york presided rep richard nixon160 hearing nixon grilled alger hiss alleged communist sympathies160 hiss classic new deal brain truster harvard law school graduate clerked justice oliver wendell holmes associate dean acheson john foster dulles adviser pres roosevelt yalta served secretary general 1945 san francisco meeting un founded hiss categorically denied ever known whittaker chambers nixons principle witness him160 chambers senior time editor former cp member 1925 1937 became leading anticommunist witness writer 160on august 25th showdown chambers hiss took place televised huac hearing cannon caucus room washington dc nixon ringmaster one combative trials cold war era oath hiss denied knew chambers communist passed state department documents chambers160 based chambers testimony evidence including infamous pumpkin papers microfilm hiss indicted perjury grand jury160 first trial ran may july 49 ending hung jury second trial ran november 49 january 50 found guilty160 sentenced five years prison hiss always maintained innocence july 1949 huac called special hearing paul robesons speech misquoted associated press ap dispatch made soviet unionsponsored paris peace conference160 committee invited several africanamericans testify notably jackie robinson160 robinson hearings star attraction far less forceful denunciation robeson calling comments silly right personal views wants sound silly expresses public business mine160 went praise us liberties especially religious freedom argued negroes could win battle racial discrimination without communists dont want help april 1952 huac returned hollywood time subpoenaing larry parks zero mostel sam jaffe budd schulberg elia kazan friendly witnesses named names160 kazan admitted cp yearandahalf 19341936 named eight party members including playwright clifford odets arthur millers crucible opened broadways martin beck theatre january 22 1953 week eisenhower inaugurated president160 play recalls witch trials gripped salem massachusetts 1690s explores religious hysteria breads repression including hanging women men deemed witches160 critics audience recognized salem metaphor postwar red scare anticommunism hysteria fueled huac mccarthy160 three years plays premier huac subpoenaed miller testify160 date picked appearance june 21 1956 eight days wellpublicized longscheduled wedding marilyn monroe 29th160 according miller huac chairman francis walter dpa offered dismiss playwrights testimony could pose actress miller considered unfriendly huac witness refused name names160 insisted could use name another person bring trouble him160 may 57 found guilty contempt congress sentenced 500 fine 30 days prison term loss passport conviction reversed 58160 also blacklisted barred working movies television broadway us circuit court appeals ultimately overturned conviction 195355 huac held series hearings communist activities focused cp negros new york160 first round took place march 16 may 6 june 15 1953 second round took place two years later july 28 29 august 1 1955160 dozens alleged former cp members testified many staunchly anticommunist160 january 13 18 1954 held separate hearings identified communist methods infiltration entertainment robeson mentioned passing 55 huac finally subpoenaed folksinger pete seeger david alman rosenberg support committee actress lucille ball zero mostel famous producers refused name names blacklisted160 however bandleader artie shaw director robert rossen actor lee jay cobb choreographer jerome robbins appeared friendly witnesses 56 huac subpoenaed robeson testify interchange richard arens chief counsel often got bitter reflecting robesons resolute principles160 primary question communist affiliation opening exchange set tone days session arnens member communist party robeson oh please please please scherer please answer mr robeson robeson communist party mean six grueling hours robeson excused160 never indicted blacklisted lost passport prevented even traveling canada july 1959 huac held hearings new york san juan communist activities among puerto ricans new york city puerto rico160 dozen witnesses subpoenaed alleged communist witnesses refused testify160 nypd boss officer mildred blauvelt testified160 became member new york city police department december 1942 upon entrance department assigned infiltrate communist party undercover agent revealed160 actual infiltration party bit unclear succeeded becoming member communist party april 1948 expelled communist party september 1943 gained reentrance party april 1944 stayed communist party expulsion november 1951 54 liberal sen hubert humphrey dmn backed 1950 internal security act introduced communist control act 1954 sought suppress party160 huac lost moral bite anticommunist hysteria peaked late50s mccarthys influence waned 1967 subpoenaed yippie leaders abbie hoffman jerry rubin testify spirit postwwii red scare resurfaced new form blacklist160 turning point usa set 2012 staunch reactionary charlie kirk ostensible purpose identify educate train organize students promote fiscal responsibility free markets limited government160 recently launched new campaign dubbed professor watchlist mission expose document college professors discriminate conservative students promote antiamerican values advance leftist propaganda classroom160 date 97 academics list including peter singer princeton norman markowitz160rutgers brittney cooper rutgers julio c pino kent state robert jensen university texas one consequences huac establishment formal blacklist list people blocked employment political beliefs affiliations notably entertainment fields various unions160 september 1942 illegal effective action huacs chairman martin dies leaked 2000page list communist front organizations congressional record officially published 1944160 identified approximately 250 groups communist front organizations index 22000 suspected individuals160 face strong opposition full committee ordered copies removed library congress destroyed nevertheless list quickly adopted wide variety public private groups deny employment discriminate listed160 adopting modifying list included treasury department eg taxexemption determinations state department eg passport deportation decisions us military eg command structure well state local governments160 addition growing number civilian business sectors eg federal contractors hotel businesses entertainment industries denied employment discriminated listed december 46 449 organizations identified attorney generals list subversive organizations agloso 1951 huac came yet another list subversives included many cpfront groups like national council americansoviet friendship joint antifascist refugee committee american relief greek democracy peace information center anticold war group headed web dubois160 four officials arrested indicted 1950 failing register communists smith act160 remarkable federal judge james mcquire acquitted five defendants decadeandahalf 1947 1961 red scare terrorized nation especially entertainment fields notably hollywood howard rushmore anticommunist investigative worked william randolph hearsts new york journalamerican earlier cp member regular contributor daily worker160 testified huac naming edward g robinson charlie chaplin clifford odets trumbo communists160 many entertainers blacklisted often overlooked huac also targeted numerous radio commentators160 one singled lisa sergio allbutforgotten 40s radio personality listed fbis custodial detention index cdi 1950 red channels report communist influence radio television anticommunist tract listed among 151 actors radio commentators musicians broadcastindustry personalities new york times radio show160 radio personalities also blackmailed cecil brown william gailmore hans jacob johannes steel raymond gram swing j raymond walsh sidney walton postwar anticommunist hysteria mounted senate picked chant september 52 senate internal security subcommittee siss held hearings federal court building foley square new york expose communists citys public schools colleges160 senators interrogating current former brooklyn college faculty among others earlier called states rappcoudert committee otherwise identified communists decade earlier new york state legislature held hearings joint legislative committee investigate educational system aka rappcoudert committee investigate citys public universities especially city brooklyn colleges160 approximately 500 faculty staff teachers student subpoenaed interrogated political beliefs required name names subversives threats reestablished huac muslim registration lists blacklist renewed going long next four years | 1,756 |
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<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome back to Reality Asserts Itself on The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay.
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<p />On March 2 in Portugal, a million and a half people protested against austerity. That was the biggest protest in--I guess in modern times, but it was also the last, 'cause since then there hasn't been such an upsurge in the movement, and the left party right now is doing about 5 percent in the polls.
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<p />So how did we get from there to here? And in many ways Catarina Príncipe's life kind of was--intertwined all of these ups and downs in the Portuguese mass movement. And she joins us again now to tell us the story.
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<p />Thanks for joining us again.
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<p />So just one more time, Catarina is a social activist from Portugal. She organizes with the Left Bloc in Portugal and Die Linke in Germany, and she writes and works with Jacobin magazine.
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<p />So you join the high school movement, as we found out in the last episode, and you're 15, and you become an activist, and this is in between 2000, 2001 and this big upsurge in 2012, 2013. Talk a bit about sort of the ups and downs of the movement, and then why--we'll get to this question, but we're heading towards why wasn't it able to sustain itself with--a million and a half people in the streets is pretty big. But take us through how we get to there, and then--.
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<p />CATARINA PRÍNCIPE, SOCIAL ACTIVIST: Take us through how we get from 2002 to 2012.
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<p />JAY: Yeah, just sort of a few big beats. A few big beats.
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<p />PRÍNCIPE: Okay. So I would say there is an important--there is a very--okay, there's a couple of important things that happened. Like, so, in '99, just to go a couple of years back, the broad left party Left Bloc forms. This is a kind of a new--it's a new broad left, like, colorful, young party in the Portuguese political landscape, which attracts a lot of people that were not organized in politics, and also a lot of young people. And I think this is a crucial development in Portuguese politics. And the Left Bloc grows steadily until 2011. So in 2009 it reaches the peak. We get, like, around 10 percent.
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<p />JAY: In the elections.
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<p />PRÍNCIPE: In the national elections.
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<p />JAY: Which gives you what? About 16 seats in the parliament. Yeah.
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<p />PRÍNCIPE: Sixteen seats, yes, exactly 16. And yeah. And so there is, like, a rise of Bloco, a continuous rise, like, slowly but steady, until 2009. There are important moments, I would say. Maybe just I'll mention a couple of them.
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<p />There's a very, very important social movement in 2007, 2006, 2007, for the legalization or the depenalization, decriminalization of abortion in Portugal, which had to be done through a national referendum. We won. That's a very important victory for and also a learning process for a lot of activists, how to work together with many different associations and so on.
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<p />Also in 2007, we started--and I was active there--we start in 2007 the anti-precarity movement in Portugal. So our analysis is that precarity is, like--.
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<p />JAY: Now, this is not a word we use that much here, but this is people that have precarious jobs. For example part-time--
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<p />PRÍNCIPE: Yes, part-time.
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<p />JAY: --or contract or freelance.
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<p />PRÍNCIPE: Yes.
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<p />JAY: And the word--I mean, it is an English word, but we don't use it that much--precarity movement meaning people in these precarious jobs.
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<p />PRÍNCIPE: Exactly.
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<p />JAY: Go on.
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<p />PRÍNCIPE: There's also a particular form of precarious employment in Portugal which we call the green receipt, which is, like, supposedly to--it exists to be used by freelancers, but actually a lot of companies and the state as a primary employer uses these sort of, like, receipts to make contracts with workers so that they don't have to pay them Social Security, unemployment money, and so on and so forth. So that is a very particular form that precarious employment takes in Portugal. So we started--so our analysis is basically that precarity is on the rise.
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<p />JAY: And we're seeing a great deal of that in the United States.
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<p />PRÍNCIPE: Yes.
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<p />JAY: An enormous amount.
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<p />PRÍNCIPE: Exactly.
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<p />JAY: In fact, most of the job growth in the United States, I think, has been in this sort of precarious segment, part-time jobs and not enough hours to actually get benefits and things.
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<p />PRÍNCIPE: Yeah, or, like, subcontracting companies, for example, which also exists too. I mean, it's not new for you, but it was, it's new for us, so to say. It was a very big shift on the composition or in the structuring of the labor market that had been slowly happening since the '80s.
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<p />JAY: Same thing in Canada, too.
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<p />PRÍNCIPE: Exactly. Same thing in--I mean, same thing more or less all over. The question in Portugal was, I think, also, like, the speed of it. It was very fast. The changes were very fast. So in 2007--.
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<p />JAY: Let me just interrupt just for a sec for people. Just in case you didn't watch part one--and you really should watch part one, 'cause it kind of contextualizes all of this, but we're dealing with a Portugal that had emerged from a revolution with a lot of social safety net, a lot of labor protection rights and free education and free health care and all kinds of things. So as we're talking the period from 2000 forward, it's a real intensification on the part of the elites to undo a lot of those victories.
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<p />PRÍNCIPE: It's true, just basically to completely dismantle the structures on how, like, labor was organized. And the problem was, according to our analysis, the anti-precarity movement analysis, was that--and I think it is correct--the trade unions were not capable of giving a satisfactory answer to this reality, because one of the important questions is that people in Portugal can only organize into sectorial trade unions, so they can only organize when they're--you know, you have a workplace, you have a contract, and then you can organize in the trade union that organizes your workplace. And because most of precarious jobs last six months, one year, you change sectors all the time and you cannot be a member of the trade union as a whole, because the structure of the trade unions is different--or I don't know how exactly how it is here. I think it's maybe similar, but it's different in other parts of Europe. A lot of--most of these people were not organized.
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<p />And there was also a sort of a scapegoating happening in the unions. So unionized older workers were saying that this was the fault of the young workers, they were accepting to work in these conditions, instead of understanding that they didn't have any other choice, because in--I think these numbers are from 2010, '09, of--how do you say this? Nine in each ten jobs.
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<p />JAY: Nine out of ten. Yeah.
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<p />PRÍNCIPE: Nine out of ten jobs, new jobs that were created were precarious. So nine of--in--nine in--
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<p />JAY: Nine out of jobs.
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<p />PRÍNCIPE: --nine out of ten young people that start working were precarious. So 90 percent of the young people were basically working under precarious conditions. And so, because the trade unions could not give an answer to this, we needed something, and we needed a movement against this. And so this movement takes up a kind of a structure that was developing in Europe that started in Milan in Italy in 2001, which were called the Euro May Day parades, which is a kind of, like, young, colorful way of, like, engaging especially young people, young workers, and trying to organize away from the point of production, so away from the place where you actually work, because you cannot organize there, but try to create a collective narrative and a collective identity around this idea.
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<p />JAY: How big a role does social media play in this?
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<p />PRÍNCIPE: Not much in the beginning. It wasn't that big. But it--or it did play one important role, I think. When we started, we started talking about precarity, and no one recognized the word. Like, we had, like, people in the government saying precarity shouldn't be used, it doesn't make any sense, because tendentially all jobs are going to be precarious anyway, so why are you using that definition? And, like, no one recognized themselves under this, you know, labor identity, so to say.
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<p />And I think this is something that we have achieved. Like, precarity is a word that is used every day in newspapers and TV in Portugal. Everyone knows what it means, and people can identify their labor condition as precarious or not. So this is something that we actually have managed to do.
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<p />And because we were, like, kind of a novelty in the Portuguese political landscape as a movement that--and this is the reason why also we--why we were a novelty was because we decided to organize with the idea that we call precarity in life, so understanding that precarious working conditions affect different segments of the population differently. They affect women in a particular way, young people in a particular way, migrants in a particular way. So we were managed to create--we managed to create a platform where the feminists, the anti-racists, the LGBT queer movement came together to discuss precarity together and organize together. So it was a very vibrant movement.
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<p />JAY: And what kind of demands were coming in?
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: We had--this was a very big discussion for many years. We decided because we could not agree fully on--we had some demands, like, for example, end the green receipts.
<p />
<p />JAY: What does that mean, end green receipts?
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: What I was telling you, that it's, like, this freelance--.
<p />
<p />JAY: Yeah, but I didn't understand it.
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: It's kind of hard to explain. It's a sort of--it's--so, when you're a freelancer, right, you do a job for someone, you make a job for someone, like, you're an architect and someone asks you to make the planning of a house, you can make the planning of a house, and in the end you write the receipt to this person and this person pays you. Right? And you write this receipt. So it means you're a freelancer, you're an independent worker. You decide your own schedules, you decide how much you're going to charge--more or less, of course, but you decide how much you're going to charge. You don't have a boss. And you decide also how much--from that money that you get, how much you're going to pay for your Social Security, for your unemployment, for your pension money, whatever.
<p />
<p />What is happening in Portugal is that instead of making, like, regular contracts with the workers, both the state, as private companies, are using this form of contracting to contract workers. This means that collective bargaining is being lost. So there's no collective contracts anymore.
<p />
<p />JAY: So when you say end the green receipt, then what's the alternative that was supposed to take place? Like,--
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: Like, contracts.
<p />
<p />JAY: --like, a full-time job.
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: Well, full-time jobs, where everyone in the same company that does the same job gets the same money, not individualized contracts, and where the employer pays for your Social Security or for part of it, for your pension and so on and so forth, as it was before. So this is one of the demands.
<p />
<p />But because our platform was composed by many different people and different people with different ideological backgrounds, we decided that we were going to do more of a critique and less of a demand, so to say, like, so focus on what is wrong and less on how it should be, because we would not get consensus around that. So that's how we worked.
<p />
<p />So we were small until--or we were small and big at the same time. So in terms of numbers, the demonstrations and so on, we were never very big, but we reached a lot of people, also through the social media. And 12 March 2011, there's the first big, like, demonstration against precarity and against the cuts that were already happening, even [crosstalk]
<p />
<p />JAY: And what was the attitude of the unions to these protests?
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: Very skeptical. Okay, more than skeptical. They were very--I'm looking for a good term.
<p />
<p />JAY: Opposed.
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: Yeah. They didn't like us.
<p />
<p />One of the things that we did also was we always said we don't want to substitute the traditional, like, unions, we don't want to work against the unions; we want to add struggles to the struggle, so to say. So always our demonstrations, we would do, like, a part of the way. We still do this.
<p />
<p />JAY: But why would the unions be opposed to this? The more you regularize employment, the more members they get.
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: For this we need to talk about the politics of the unions in Portugal. The biggest union confederation in Portugal is very close to the Portuguese Communist Party, which is good. They're a fairly struggling and active union. But they're also extremely bureaucratic and extremely skeptical of anything that comes from outside of their structures or that they cannot control.
<p />
<p />JAY: And what was their attitude overall to the austerity measures that were coming in?
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: They are against austerity. They organize strikes and protests against austerity. But in general they have a very--like, I call it, like, calendar protests. So every year, once a year, we do a general strike. Every six months we do something like a march. But it's just this kind of--.
<p />
<p />JAY: So they didn't like this new movement, 'cause it wasn't theirs.
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: Exactly. And they couldn't control it, because the people who were leading it were outside of--some people were part of the Communist Party, and that's all fine, but they were outside of the normal way that they function, right? So they didn't like us at all.
<p />
<p />JAY: Now, it may be jumping too far ahead, but in 2012 there is a broad front, is there not? Like, the movement you're talking about, the precarious movement, and the unions--.
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: Comes--.
<p />
<p />JAY: They do come together.
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: No. No, not with the unions. No.
<p />
<p />JAY: I thought when the big protest takes place, the unions finally come on board.
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: In 2012, the first protests, the first big protest against austerity, so when we already have--like, when we are already under the Troika situation--.
<p />
<p />JAY: Let's just quickly explain what that is.
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: Okay. The Troika is--so the Portuguese government signed an agreement with three institutions--the European Central Bank, the European Union, and the IMF (the International Monetary Fund)--saying because Portugal supposedly has a very big debt, that they would lend us money for us to be able to then in the end pay back the debt. Basically this is the deal. But this lending of the money comes with a very particular and strict political program. That's what we call austerity.
<p />
<p />JAY: Conditionality.
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: Yes. And that's what we call austerity, means end of public spending, end of free education, free schools, complete deregulation, complete deregulation of the labor market, full precaritization, and--yeah, and in the end impoverishment and so on.
<p />
<p />JAY: And what year did they sign this?
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: Two thousand eleven.
<p />
<p />JAY: Two thousand eleven.
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: Yeah. And in 2012, in the big, the first--there was a front, a kind of a new platform front that was created. The anti-precarity movement had, the people that were still involved there had a role to play, but also many other people and many other groups that came together, like, also, like, important public figures, like singers and musicians and theatre actors and so on, that came and formed this, like, new platform. It was called Screw the Troika. And in 2012 there was a very big demonstration, 1 million people on the streets. It was the first--it was the biggest demonstrations since the Portuguese revolution. And then what you mentioned in 2013, one and a half million people.
<p />
<p />In the first demonstration, the leader of the trade union said the day before he was going to be there on a personal level. In 2013, they gave their support rhetorically, but not in practice. So they did not organize, for example.
<p />
<p />JAY: So a million and a half people came out on the streets without the organization of the big unions.
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: Without the leadership. The question is, like, of course a lot of the rank-and-file members of unions were there since the beginning; the people that are rank-and-file member unions that organize in their schools or in their small workplaces or in the big workplaces, they were there. But they were--just, like, the unions structures were never part of the anti-precarity organization and anti-austerity organization.
<p />
<p />JAY: Yeah, 'cause by 2013 it's broader than just precarity. It's about--.
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: Yeah, it's austerity, it's against the crisis.
<p />
<p />JAY: It's anti-austerity.
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: Yes.
<p />
<p />JAY: So how could the union leadership stay out of that? I don't understand. They say they're against it, against austerity.
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: They do their own things. You know. So we make a big--we have a big protest, and one month later they make a strike or a protest of their own that they call for, where they decide the slogans, where they organize their own buses. And that's--you know, it's--that's how it is to work with an highly orthodox, bureaucratized union structure.
<p />
<p />JAY: But it must be political as well, in terms of--
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: Yeah, of course it is political.
<p />
<p />JAY: --what's happening in terms of the parties.
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: Yes.
<p />
<p />JAY: I mean, you had Left Bloc, which is, I guess, a competitive party, electorally, with the Communist Party. And also, are the unions also quasi-supporting the socialist party or not?
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: So the big confederation of the trade unions, which is the one that I've been talking about, is close to the Communist Party politically or Communist Party-dominated politically, and not only, but its, like, broader basis is in the public sector. It still has some of the traditional big industries, the ones that did not disappear, because there's not much left anyway. And the Socialist Party has its own confederation. It's another one. And it's basically private sector workers. They're much smaller.
<p />
<p />JAY: Which is bigger. Oh, they're smaller.
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: Much, much smaller. Yeah.
<p />
<p />JAY: But what kind of percentage of the vote does the Communist Party get?
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: Eleven to 12. Well, 8 to 12 always. They don't win much, but they also never lose much.
<p />
<p />JAY: But their trade union essentially is the bigger one, even though they get not much vote, I mean, 11, 12.
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: Yes. But you also have to see that there's more unemployed people in Portugal today than unionized people. So union density has been dropping like crazy because of precarity, precisely.
<p />
<p />JAY: And austerity.
<p />
<p />PRÍNCIPE: And austerity and so on.
<p />
<p />JAY: Okay. In the next segment of our interview, we're going to talk a little bit about what happened after 2012, 2013, why wasn't it sustained; a little bit about the Portuguese media, which is kind of interesting, 'cause there's still a place for the left in mainstream media in Portugal, but in spite of that, the movement has certainly ebbed; and also why, in terms of Podemos in Spain and SYRIZA in Greece, there seems to be more sustainability to the movement there. So we're going to try to unwrap all of that, and still with the underlying question, which again activists like here in Baltimore are asking: how do we sustain what was happening here?
<p />
<p />So join us, please, on Reality Asserts Itself on The Real News Network.
<p />
<p />End
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | true | 4 | paul jay senior editor trnn welcome back reality asserts real news network im paul jay march 2 portugal million half people protested austerity biggest protest ini guess modern times also last cause since hasnt upsurge movement left party right 5 percent polls get many ways catarina príncipes life kind wasintertwined ups downs portuguese mass movement joins us tell us story thanks joining us one time catarina social activist portugal organizes left bloc portugal die linke germany writes works jacobin magazine join high school movement found last episode youre 15 become activist 2000 2001 big upsurge 2012 2013 talk bit sort ups downs movement whywell get question heading towards wasnt able sustain witha million half people streets pretty big take us get catarina prÍncipe social activist take us get 2002 2012 jay yeah sort big beats big beats prÍncipe okay would say importantthere veryokay theres couple important things happened like 99 go couple years back broad left party left bloc forms kind newits new broad left like colorful young party portuguese political landscape attracts lot people organized politics also lot young people think crucial development portuguese politics left bloc grows steadily 2011 2009 reaches peak get like around 10 percent jay elections prÍncipe national elections jay gives 16 seats parliament yeah prÍncipe sixteen seats yes exactly 16 yeah like rise bloco continuous rise like slowly steady 2009 important moments would say maybe ill mention couple theres important social movement 2007 2006 2007 legalization depenalization decriminalization abortion portugal done national referendum thats important victory also learning process lot activists work together many different associations also 2007 startedand active therewe start 2007 antiprecarity movement portugal analysis precarity like jay word use much people precarious jobs example parttime prÍncipe yes parttime jay contract freelance prÍncipe yes jay wordi mean english word dont use muchprecarity movement meaning people precarious jobs prÍncipe exactly jay go prÍncipe theres also particular form precarious employment portugal call green receipt like supposedly toit exists used freelancers actually lot companies state primary employer uses sort like receipts make contracts workers dont pay social security unemployment money forth particular form precarious employment takes portugal startedso analysis basically precarity rise jay seeing great deal united states prÍncipe yes jay enormous amount prÍncipe exactly jay fact job growth united states think sort precarious segment parttime jobs enough hours actually get benefits things prÍncipe yeah like subcontracting companies example also exists mean new new us say big shift composition structuring labor market slowly happening since 80s jay thing canada prÍncipe exactly thing ini mean thing less question portugal think also like speed fast changes fast 2007 jay let interrupt sec people case didnt watch part oneand really watch part one cause kind contextualizes dealing portugal emerged revolution lot social safety net lot labor protection rights free education free health care kinds things talking period 2000 forward real intensification part elites undo lot victories prÍncipe true basically completely dismantle structures like labor organized problem according analysis antiprecarity movement analysis thatand think correctthe trade unions capable giving satisfactory answer reality one important questions people portugal organize sectorial trade unions organize theyreyou know workplace contract organize trade union organizes workplace precarious jobs last six months one year change sectors time member trade union whole structure trade unions differentor dont know exactly think maybe similar different parts europe lot ofmost people organized also sort scapegoating happening unions unionized older workers saying fault young workers accepting work conditions instead understanding didnt choice ini think numbers 2010 09 ofhow say nine ten jobs jay nine ten yeah prÍncipe nine ten jobs new jobs created precarious nine ofinnine jay nine jobs prÍncipe nine ten young people start working precarious 90 percent young people basically working precarious conditions trade unions could give answer needed something needed movement movement takes kind structure developing europe started milan italy 2001 called euro may day parades kind like young colorful way like engaging especially young people young workers trying organize away point production away place actually work organize try create collective narrative collective identity around idea jay big role social media play prÍncipe much beginning wasnt big itor play one important role think started started talking precarity one recognized word like like people government saying precarity shouldnt used doesnt make sense tendentially jobs going precarious anyway using definition like one recognized know labor identity say think something achieved like precarity word used every day newspapers tv portugal everyone knows means people identify labor condition precarious something actually managed like kind novelty portuguese political landscape movement thatand reason also wewhy novelty decided organize idea call precarity life understanding precarious working conditions affect different segments population differently affect women particular way young people particular way migrants particular way managed createwe managed create platform feminists antiracists lgbt queer movement came together discuss precarity together organize together vibrant movement jay kind demands coming prÍncipe hadthis big discussion many years decided could agree fully onwe demands like example end green receipts jay mean end green receipts prÍncipe telling like freelance jay yeah didnt understand prÍncipe kind hard explain sort ofitsso youre freelancer right job someone make job someone like youre architect someone asks make planning house make planning house end write receipt person person pays right write receipt means youre freelancer youre independent worker decide schedules decide much youre going chargemore less course decide much youre going charge dont boss decide also muchfrom money get much youre going pay social security unemployment pension money whatever happening portugal instead making like regular contracts workers state private companies using form contracting contract workers means collective bargaining lost theres collective contracts anymore jay say end green receipt whats alternative supposed take place like prÍncipe like contracts jay like fulltime job prÍncipe well fulltime jobs everyone company job gets money individualized contracts employer pays social security part pension forth one demands platform composed many different people different people different ideological backgrounds decided going critique less demand say like focus wrong less would get consensus around thats worked small untilor small big time terms numbers demonstrations never big reached lot people also social media 12 march 2011 theres first big like demonstration precarity cuts already happening even crosstalk jay attitude unions protests prÍncipe skeptical okay skeptical veryim looking good term jay opposed prÍncipe yeah didnt like us one things also always said dont want substitute traditional like unions dont want work unions want add struggles struggle say always demonstrations would like part way still jay would unions opposed regularize employment members get prÍncipe need talk politics unions portugal biggest union confederation portugal close portuguese communist party good theyre fairly struggling active union theyre also extremely bureaucratic extremely skeptical anything comes outside structures control jay attitude overall austerity measures coming prÍncipe austerity organize strikes protests austerity general verylike call like calendar protests every year year general strike every six months something like march kind jay didnt like new movement cause wasnt prÍncipe exactly couldnt control people leading outside ofsome people part communist party thats fine outside normal way function right didnt like us jay may jumping far ahead 2012 broad front like movement youre talking precarious movement unions prÍncipe comes jay come together prÍncipe unions jay thought big protest takes place unions finally come board prÍncipe 2012 first protests first big protest austerity already havelike already troika situation jay lets quickly explain prÍncipe okay troika isso portuguese government signed agreement three institutionsthe european central bank european union imf international monetary fundsaying portugal supposedly big debt would lend us money us able end pay back debt basically deal lending money comes particular strict political program thats call austerity jay conditionality prÍncipe yes thats call austerity means end public spending end free education free schools complete deregulation complete deregulation labor market full precaritization andyeah end impoverishment jay year sign prÍncipe two thousand eleven jay two thousand eleven prÍncipe yeah 2012 big firstthere front kind new platform front created antiprecarity movement people still involved role play also many people many groups came together like also like important public figures like singers musicians theatre actors came formed like new platform called screw troika 2012 big demonstration 1 million people streets firstit biggest demonstrations since portuguese revolution mentioned 2013 one half million people first demonstration leader trade union said day going personal level 2013 gave support rhetorically practice organize example jay million half people came streets without organization big unions prÍncipe without leadership question like course lot rankandfile members unions since beginning people rankandfile member unions organize schools small workplaces big workplaces werejust like unions structures never part antiprecarity organization antiausterity organization jay yeah cause 2013 broader precarity prÍncipe yeah austerity crisis jay antiausterity prÍncipe yes jay could union leadership stay dont understand say theyre austerity prÍncipe things know make bigwe big protest one month later make strike protest call decide slogans organize buses thatsyou know itsthats work highly orthodox bureaucratized union structure jay must political well terms prÍncipe yeah course political jay whats happening terms parties prÍncipe yes jay mean left bloc guess competitive party electorally communist party also unions also quasisupporting socialist party prÍncipe big confederation trade unions one ive talking close communist party politically communist partydominated politically like broader basis public sector still traditional big industries ones disappear theres much left anyway socialist party confederation another one basically private sector workers theyre much smaller jay bigger oh theyre smaller prÍncipe much much smaller yeah jay kind percentage vote communist party get prÍncipe eleven 12 well 8 12 always dont win much also never lose much jay trade union essentially bigger one even though get much vote mean 11 12 prÍncipe yes also see theres unemployed people portugal today unionized people union density dropping like crazy precarity precisely jay austerity prÍncipe austerity jay okay next segment interview going talk little bit happened 2012 2013 wasnt sustained little bit portuguese media kind interesting cause theres still place left mainstream media portugal spite movement certainly ebbed also terms podemos spain syriza greece seems sustainability movement going try unwrap still underlying question activists like baltimore asking sustain happening join us please reality asserts real news network end disclaimer please note transcripts real news network typed recording program trnn guarantee complete accuracy | 1,687 |
<p>Speaker of the House Paul Ryan slyly removed himself to the Heartland for the congressional recess and the outbreak of this week’s political firestorm in Washington. In truth, this latest chapter in political dysfunction is less the leveling blaze so many yearn for, than it is an anemic flicker limply fueled by off-gassing from the capital cesspool. Nonetheless, it was an opportune time for the Speaker’s white flight back to his People.</p>
<p>While the nation and the world debated the sacking of the tiresome James Comey, Ryan was gripping and grinning and flapping his muscular jaws about cutting taxes and dismantling regulation at a packaging plant in New Albany, Ohio, then touting job creation at an InSinkerator plant in Racine, Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Michigan. This swing through the Rust Belt in praise of stainless steel garbage disposals, soap labels, and innovations in fish bait speaks of simmering presidential ambitions that are now far more likely to be realized than they were when Ryan was Mitt Romney’s running mate back in 2012.&#160; As Speaker of the House, Ryan is second in the line of presidential succession in the event (hardly unlikely) that Trump has a heart attack, gets assassinated or impeached, and Mike Pence chokes on a Big Ag chicken bone. The wily Ryan then becomes the CEO of the USA without all the trouble of an election.</p>
<p>Ryan’s discourse is already presidential—in the sense it is coherent—in comparison to Trump’s. Yesterday’s Milwaukee Business Journal quoted Ryan as saying, “Manufacturers like InSinkErator are the backbone of our economy. I truly believe there is no better place to do business in America than the Badger State.” Unless, of course, you happen to be an actual endangered badger. Perhaps some climes of China would be more conducive to the renewed growth of the beleaguered species.</p>
<p>For the <a href="" type="internal">InSinkErator photo-op Ryan</a> wore a crisply pressed shirt and tie, but kept his factory-issue earplugs-on-a-string draped around his toned shoulders. He wanted to make sure future voters knew that he was helping real people use real machines to manufacture other real machines in his very own Wisconsin district.</p>
<p>These noise-reduction necessities should be handed out at his own speeches, and even more urgently, at those of his current boss, Donald Trump, whose own intercourse with the English language bears a striking resemblance to the InSinkErator’s approach to the syntax of kitchen waste.</p>
<p>Ryan’s day-glow earplugs also reminded me that he’s an earbud politician.</p>
<p>Back in 2012 when he was Mitt Romney’s running it emerged that the Wisconsin Congressman was a devotee of the rock band Rage Against the Machine.&#160; Patrolling the corridors of the Capitol or pumping iron at the Congressional gym, Ryan was and is plugged in, likely at high decibel.&#160; Probably his hearing loss will rival that of the factory workers of yore.</p>
<p>That Ryan could turn a deaf ear to some of Rage Against the Machine’s politically radical lyrics and to its penchant for obscenity—as in the chanting repetitions of “Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me” at the close of their signature tune from the early 1990s “ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWXazVhlyxQ" type="external">Killing in the Name</a>”&#160;—means that, like so many others, he is skilled at hearing what he wants to hear. Ryan’s gifts for ignoring angry words directed at the establishment he represents means only that his listening practice hardly deviates from the norm. The skill of selective hearing is one ever more necessary out in an increasingly hostile America.</p>
<p>Such is the general haughtiness of most of pop culture princes that it was also unsurprising that the band’s guitarist Tony Morello rounded on Ryan in&#160;Rolling Stone soon after the disclosures about the politician’s listening practices. Morello claimed that the Rage ethos is diametrically opposed to the Wisconsin Republican’s credo: “Paul Ryan’s love of&#160;Rage Against the Machine&#160;is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades.”</p>
<p>Two years after the 2012 election, Ryan told the New York Times that Rage Against the Machine “was never my favorite band. I hate the lyrics, but I like the sound. Led Zeppelin has always been my favorite band.”</p>
<p>But if Ryan’s aesthetic pronouncements are to be taken at face value, rather than as the bitter grapes of a stilted admirer, these views follow on from the vibrant strain of German Idealist thought that brought as the concept of Absolute Music.&#160; That Ryan would praise the sound even given the name of band is itself testament to a weirdly admirably aesthetic consistency: the sonic qualities appeal to Ryan, even if he is at pains to get more machines made in his own state and, should he become President through the front door or the back, across this Great Land. His is a rage against the lack of machines.</p>
<p>Unwittingly perhaps, Ryan recognizes that among all the arts, music’s meaning is the most elusive. The fact that it lacks the power of unambiguous signification is both its greatest advantage and its greatest curse. This paradox explains, for example, how the unparalleled erudition, flamboyance, and pathos of Bach’s Goldberg Variations could be transformed into a cinematic symbol of calculating mass murder in the form of Hannibal Lecter in Jonathan Demme’s film&#160;Silence of the Lambs. In the nineteenth century, instrumental music became the highest form of expression precisely because, lacking words, the meaning of musical sound could be freed from any semantic connection and concern itself with the conjuring of eternal truths. One could hear in a piece what one wanted to hear: from images of blonde heroes and buxom heroines to tableaux as sublime as the architecture of heaven.</p>
<p>Yet even for vocal music with a clearly conceived and delivered text, the meaning of a work can be mangled beyond recognition. When Wilhelm Furtwängler led a performance of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2itdv1aEpG4" type="external">Beethoven’s Ninth</a> &#160;on the occasion of Hitler’s birthday in 1942, the joyful utopian vision of universal brotherhood that erupts in the symphony’s finale after the entry of the voices had been fully disfigured long before the performance concluded and Furtwängler sealed the crime with a handshake with the Führer.</p>
<p>When a composer lets music out into the world he or she relinquishes control over how it will be interpreted by those who enjoy and exploit it for purposes ranging from the humanitarian to the evil.</p>
<p>Morello acknowledged that Ryan’s affection for his band’s music could be explained by the fact that the politician has plenty of rage in him, but this anger was, in Morello’s view, wrongly directed at victims (women; immigrants; the poor) rather than the victimizers (Ryan himself and his Republican cronies).</p>
<p>Ryan’s enthusiasm for the band harmonic rants and his ability to ignore those words inimical to his own political vision shows how seductive even the most brutal of musical sound can be: love is nowhere more blind than in the realm of music. It can be very deaf, too. Even if Morello once felt justified in criticizing his one-time most prominent fan’s taste for his creative efforts he cannot control what was purchased fairly on the open market, especially when these raging riffs seem like the perfect aural stimulant for Ryan’s brand of mayhem.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, Morello and others must accept the fact that once one’s musical progeny has left hearth and home and is out in the world, it can consort with the most unlikely of pals—even rabid Republicans. Would Morello and Rage Against the Machine have been happier if Ryan were known to hustle into the House of Representatives listening to Beethoven’s Ninth?&#160; Let Ryan have his rage and enjoy it.&#160; Maybe it will eat him up—or InSinkErate him.</p> | true | 4 | speaker house paul ryan slyly removed heartland congressional recess outbreak weeks political firestorm washington truth latest chapter political dysfunction less leveling blaze many yearn anemic flicker limply fueled offgassing capital cesspool nonetheless opportune time speakers white flight back people nation world debated sacking tiresome james comey ryan gripping grinning flapping muscular jaws cutting taxes dismantling regulation packaging plant new albany ohio touting job creation insinkerator plant racine wisconsin shores lake michigan swing rust belt praise stainless steel garbage disposals soap labels innovations fish bait speaks simmering presidential ambitions far likely realized ryan mitt romneys running mate back 2012160 speaker house ryan second line presidential succession event hardly unlikely trump heart attack gets assassinated impeached mike pence chokes big ag chicken bone wily ryan becomes ceo usa without trouble election ryans discourse already presidentialin sense coherentin comparison trumps yesterdays milwaukee business journal quoted ryan saying manufacturers like insinkerator backbone economy truly believe better place business america badger state unless course happen actual endangered badger perhaps climes china would conducive renewed growth beleaguered species insinkerator photoop ryan wore crisply pressed shirt tie kept factoryissue earplugsonastring draped around toned shoulders wanted make sure future voters knew helping real people use real machines manufacture real machines wisconsin district noisereduction necessities handed speeches even urgently current boss donald trump whose intercourse english language bears striking resemblance insinkerators approach syntax kitchen waste ryans dayglow earplugs also reminded hes earbud politician back 2012 mitt romneys running emerged wisconsin congressman devotee rock band rage machine160 patrolling corridors capitol pumping iron congressional gym ryan plugged likely high decibel160 probably hearing loss rival factory workers yore ryan could turn deaf ear rage machines politically radical lyrics penchant obscenityas chanting repetitions fuck wont tell close signature tune early 1990s killing name160means like many others skilled hearing wants hear ryans gifts ignoring angry words directed establishment represents means listening practice hardly deviates norm skill selective hearing one ever necessary increasingly hostile america general haughtiness pop culture princes also unsurprising bands guitarist tony morello rounded ryan in160rolling stone soon disclosures politicians listening practices morello claimed rage ethos diametrically opposed wisconsin republicans credo paul ryans love of160rage machine160is amusing embodiment machine music raging two decades two years 2012 election ryan told new york times rage machine never favorite band hate lyrics like sound led zeppelin always favorite band ryans aesthetic pronouncements taken face value rather bitter grapes stilted admirer views follow vibrant strain german idealist thought brought concept absolute music160 ryan would praise sound even given name band testament weirdly admirably aesthetic consistency sonic qualities appeal ryan even pains get machines made state become president front door back across great land rage lack machines unwittingly perhaps ryan recognizes among arts musics meaning elusive fact lacks power unambiguous signification greatest advantage greatest curse paradox explains example unparalleled erudition flamboyance pathos bachs goldberg variations could transformed cinematic symbol calculating mass murder form hannibal lecter jonathan demmes film160silence lambs nineteenth century instrumental music became highest form expression precisely lacking words meaning musical sound could freed semantic connection concern conjuring eternal truths one could hear piece one wanted hear images blonde heroes buxom heroines tableaux sublime architecture heaven yet even vocal music clearly conceived delivered text meaning work mangled beyond recognition wilhelm furtwängler led performance beethovens ninth 160on occasion hitlers birthday 1942 joyful utopian vision universal brotherhood erupts symphonys finale entry voices fully disfigured long performance concluded furtwängler sealed crime handshake führer composer lets music world relinquishes control interpreted enjoy exploit purposes ranging humanitarian evil morello acknowledged ryans affection bands music could explained fact politician plenty rage anger morellos view wrongly directed victims women immigrants poor rather victimizers ryan republican cronies ryans enthusiasm band harmonic rants ability ignore words inimical political vision shows seductive even brutal musical sound love nowhere blind realm music deaf even morello felt justified criticizing onetime prominent fans taste creative efforts control purchased fairly open market especially raging riffs seem like perfect aural stimulant ryans brand mayhem nonetheless morello others must accept fact ones musical progeny left hearth home world consort unlikely palseven rabid republicans would morello rage machine happier ryan known hustle house representatives listening beethovens ninth160 let ryan rage enjoy it160 maybe eat upor insinkerate | 693 |
<p>“Where the hell is he?” the General barked, jumping out of the all-terrain vehicle, as he rejected the advice of his security and walked ahead of the pack to scope out the situation. There had been 18 grueling and painful skirmishes up to this point, and the General, enraged, wanted to see for himself. So, with my step-dad at his side, Ike led the small heavily-armed detachment up the ridge toward the huge odd-columned building, searching with his keen eyes. Was the mysterious man missing-in-action or a turncoat?</p>
<p>Suddenly, he saw the man he was looking for, hunkered down, wearing sunglasses. The General was outraged. My step-dad was incredulous that it had come to this, that the General had been double-crossed to such a degree. Had something happened to the missing mystery man, or was he just out of his mind?</p>
<p>The European Theatre, 1944? No, Augusta, Georgia, mid-1950s. The General, now President, had just butchered 18 holes at the Augusta National Golf Club. The man he was looking for? The man America most loved to kick around. Read on.</p>
<p>My step-dad was Eisenhower’s golf teacher during his presidency, when Ike had a winter home-away-from-home at the National, staying at “Mamie’s Cabin”. Gene Stout was head golf pro at the National for 15 years, and assistant pro for awhile prior. He was well-liked in the PGA and the golf world. My mom also worked at the National.for a short time.</p>
<p>Augusta’s been in the news as it has become embroiled in a brouhaha between Club Chairman Hootie Johnson and Martha Burk of the National Council of Women’s Organizations. Burk had asked the Club to accept women as members, and organized a demonstration during the Tournament in April on a muddy lot the City contentiously assigned her, away from the main gate. Assorted other demonstrators joined with her, creating a carnival atmosphere.</p>
<p>What with Annika Sorenstam breaking through and playing at the Colonial in Fort Worth in May, it seems Hootie and the men have their hands full keeping a horde of hysterical she-devils with seven irons from breaching the hallowed walls of golfdom.</p>
<p>As hard-ass as Hootie appears, he is but a mugwump from Rae’s Creek, which meanders through the course, compared to the infamous Cliff Roberts. Roberts was the stiff New York investment banker who co-founded the Augusta National with the golf god from Atlanta, Bobby Jones, Jr. My step-dad knew the wrath of Roberts first hand. My mom was Roberts’ secretary for awhile in the ’50s.</p>
<p>The current drama being played out runs up against the trademarked National “tradition” that is packaged for millions of TV viewers every year, as deep-voiced hosts invite the viewer into the cozy, wood-paneled Butler Cabin to talk about the tournament, to a pleasant and prozac-inspired soundtrack.</p>
<p>You feel a part of some homey, green-jacket pageantry. I love it.</p>
<p>But it’s important to see behind the Magnolia Curtain. I witnessed a bit of that “tradition” first hand, working on the course one year and watching from the galleries for many, and hearing some great stories regarding the General and the mystery man, and other interesting tales from my family.</p>
<p>In the Shadow of the National</p>
<p>Augusta sits along a shallow, rocky stretch of the Savannah River, down-river from Clark’s Hill Lake, scraped from the red clay where the river was dammed decades ago. Downtown, Broad Street still struggles from decades of white flight and suburban malls, like many nondescript southern towns. At the top of “the Hill”, as it’s known, the former Bon Aire Hotel still stands, majestically with huge magnolias surrounding it, her beauty long frayed at the edges. Many of the golf stars and sports reporters from the old days used to stay at the Bon Aire. It’s been a nursing home for decades.</p>
<p>Augusta was a strange town, a mix of rich enclaves like the National and ivy’d suburbs with little black lawn jockeys in the front yard, but also the real Tobacco Road, not far from a sprawling run-down army post, and pockets of abject poverty, black and white. Or, as my Mom used to put it, “Augusta is damned near three hundred years of history unblemished by progress.”</p>
<p>For much of my early life, Augusta was my hometown. I grew up in Berchmans Hills, a half-mile or so away from the course. In the early 1930s, Jones, a famous amateur golfer and the then-unknown stockbroker chopped up a hilly fruit orchard called Berckmans nursery and founded the Augusta National Golf Club. The first few years of the Masters Tournament were not very successful, and the club nearly fell apart during the depression. The initial investors were ripped off by the founders, according to a recent book on the history of the Club. Yet the Club survived the tournament becoming one of the world’s premier sports events, and one-fourth of the fabled Grand Slam.</p>
<p>The National has long been part of the lifeblood of Augusta. I used to attend the tournament when I was a teenager, when tickets were plentiful, easily becoming a member of Arnie’s Army.</p>
<p>The course is bordered by a busy stretch of Washington Road, and also Berckmans Road, which passes through hilly, suburban neighborhoods. As kids, we would hike to Rae’s Creek, deep in the woods that used to blanket the area, before it vanished onto the course grounds, hidden behind ominous fences. We always heard stories that guards with shotguns and rabid German shepherds awaited the foolish boy that dared to scale the walls.</p>
<p>Waiting for Masters Week, and the Gates Finally Open</p>
<p>When I was growing up, there was something truly mystical about that week. Hotels, motels, restaurants and bars, and even plumbing supply services were named after the Masters, its influence on the other 51 weeks of the year wholly beyond any explanation. For 51 weeks of the year, the high fences, trees and thick bushes sequestered her as some pharaoh would his plump virgin daughter. As the fall and winter droned on, everyone waited for the return of the week that made the town famous again.</p>
<p>The build-up culminated in a great big Masters’ Parade “week”, with Spring Socials and cotillions warming up the Augusta crowd for the big upcoming event. With high school marching bands and festooned floats of golf greens and fareways, the golfers on display, and accompanied by beautiful belles dressed in antebellum ballgowns, Miss Golf Augusta, sitting on the back seat of a large open white Cadillac, would slowly make her way down Broad waving white-gloved hands.</p>
<p>Finally, in April, as the Spring heated up, the huge gates would swing open at the beginning of Masters’ Week for the Par Three Tourney, and thousands would stream down Magnolia Lane carrying umbrellas, collapsible chairs, blankets, picnic baskets, binoculars, water bottles, suntan lotion, hats, sunglasses, insect repellant, transistor radios, flasks, etc., etc.</p>
<p>The beauty of the course was overwhelming, covered in azalea and dogwood, with magnolia trees hugging the white-columned clubhouse. Big green scoreboards and concession stands blended in with the grass, trees and shrubs. The tall pines shaded the long hilly paths along the fairways, dropping straw during the inevitable windy golf days.</p>
<p>The galleries were colorful, respectful at the beginning of the week. Beautiful high school belle-ettes would show up in full bloom, wearing shorts, peddle-pushers and culottes, and sporting the first of the season’s tans. It was as important to be seen as it ever was to actually watch a single ball being struck.</p>
<p>But then again, if you worshipped the game, as I did as a teen, Masters Week was the “second coming”, and the National was Mecca. Standing around the clubhouse, we would gawk as golf giants walked out toward the first hole Arnie, Ken Ventura, Billy Casper, Nicklas, Gary Player, Doug Ford, Tommy Aaron, Lee Trevino, Chi Chi, and legends Sam Snead, Hogan, Demarest, Nelson, Sarazen. Golf Nirvana.</p>
<p>Sixteen Deep on Sixteen</p>
<p>One year, I worked at the tournament, along with my high school buddies Sumner, Hanger and one of their pals, Pat Wiley. Sumner and Hanger were wild enough. Wiley was a maniac, a high school drunk. We worked in the concession stand that faced the 16th green and the adjacent lake, one of the most dramatic holes on the course. We could watch the golfers putt out. The 16th is where the crowds were their rowdiest, on blankets and chairs on a hill behind the green and by the lake.</p>
<p>As the week moved on, the concession stand would draw lines of customers 16 or 20 deep, waiting for a Pabst Blue Ribbon, Cokes, hot dogs, etc. Kegs of beer flowed like the Savannah. One particularly steaming day, Wiley laid on his back on the floor so that the beer tap cascaded PBR down into his open mouth. He drank what seemed like a couple of gallons one day, one of us keeping the tap pouring during the rush of customers. He finally finished, sat up and wiped his face, looked around for a second with this shit-eating grin he was famous for, then fell backward, passed out. We dragged his no-count ass to a dark part of the back of the stand, and shoved him beneath a shelf. He slept the rest of the day, a sleep of pure bliss, dreaming of sticking a two-wood second shot across the pond to the green on the par 5 15th, two feet from the hole.</p>
<p>More Tales from the National</p>
<p>My parents divorced in 1964. In 1967, when I was 16, my mom suddenly re-married, hooking up with Gene. A year or so before they married, Gene had resigned from the National due to a run-in with Roberts. My family moved to the Bahamas, where he became the pro at a new course (and I became a young redneck in Paradise).</p>
<p>Gene had made a name for himself at the National in its glory years. He was close to Bob Jones, many of the golfers, and Palmer when he made his famous “charges” in the 1960s. He seemed to know everyone. At the time, I didn’t completely understand why he left Augusta. As time went on, and I got older, he told me a number of stories about the club, the golfers, Jones and Roberts and, especially, Ike.</p>
<p>The first stories I ever heard about the National came from my Mom, who worked as a secretary to Cliff Roberts in 1955. She told me that long before the Tournament, she would have to accompany Roberts in a golf cart, along with an entourage of the greens committee, as Roberts conducted his annual review of the course. My mom took dictation as Roberts stopped at every hole, suggesting changes.</p>
<p>“It was like a parade,” my mom said, quoted in The Masters, by Curt Sampson, a juicy little book on the history of the course (subtitled, “Golf, Money and Power in Augusta, Georgia”). “He was very nice, but he was a strange man. The absolute king. When he spoke, everyone jumped, even the members.”</p>
<p>Gene used to talk about wild parties at the National. At one party in the off-season, the main drink was Chatham Artillery Punch. It was named after a punch created by the Savannah-based Chatham Artillery, in existence prior to 1775. This “suave and deceitful brew” was served to President James Monroe in Savannah in 1819 for the launching of the USS Savannah. Supposedly, genteel ladies made up the beverage, as, one by one, officers would sneak in, adding this and that.</p>
<p>Recipe for Chatham Artillery Punch</p>
<p>1 1/2 gallons Catawba wine 1 1/2 quarts Rye Whiskey 1/2 gallon Rum 1 1/2 gallons strong tea 1 quart Gin 1 quart Brandy 1/2 pint Benedictine 2 1/2 pounds brown sugar</p>
<p>Juice,1 1/2 doz. oranges Juice, 1 1/2 doz. lemons 1 bottle Marachino cherries Make stock with above from 36 – 48 hours before time for serving. Just prior to serving, add 1 case of Champagne. (careful with those cherries)</p>
<p>Gene said that the next morning, some of Augusta National’s finest were found asleep on the 18th green, and some in the deep, deep rough.</p>
<p>Augusta and Ike</p>
<p>My step-dad spoke often about Eisenhower. By Gene’s accounts, Ike was a great guy. Gene would have breakfast with Ike every morning Ike was in town, at the President’s office above the clubhouse. I have a great framed picture of Gene and Ike standing together on the course, both holding irons, all smiles, 1950’s era, signed by the general.</p>
<p>There’s an interesting discussion in The Masters about the National’s relationship to Ike, dating to when Ike was President at Columbia. In 1948, Roberts responded to the General’s entreaties to become a member by putting together a “gang” of the club’s top members. Joining in an excursion to play a round with Ike were Bob Jones, eventual campaign supporters like Pete Jones, who sent $1 million to Ike’s ’52 campaign, and R.W. Woodruff, the Atlanta Coca-Cola king. This gang grew over the next twelve years, becoming a mutual support club for the President.</p>
<p>Roberts and Jones had formed Jororoberts, Inc. after the war to build Coke bottling plants in South America and elsewhere. Ike’s ambassadors in South America provided protection and helped the Jororoberts plants. And, while Ike was President, he would often walk the grounds with an open bottle of coke and a straw. The sports and news reporters who would come to town, holed up in the Bon Aire, took pictures by the hundreds, free ads for Coke.</p>
<p>For several years, Vice President Nixon had wanted to join Ike in Augusta and play the National. Ike didn’t want him there. Evidently, Augusta didn’t either, and even lobbied with Ike to take him off the ticket during the re-election. According to the book, Tricky Dick pumped Pepsi in his international travels, pissing off the Coke-heads at Augusta. But Sampson missed it that Nixon was never invited to the course (more to come).</p>
<p>The End of an Era</p>
<p>After 15 years at Augusta, Gene had a falling out with Roberts, after winning a group tournament in Ireland at St. Andrews. Gene had registered the group as being from the National; Roberts forced him to return the trophy, and Gene resigned. It greatly upset Jones, who was in ill-health at the time. Gene’s only consolation was that Jones demanded an open invitation for Gene to return to play anytime. “Cliff didn’t always fire people, he’d just make it so continuing to work there became intolerable,” Gene was quoted as saying. He and my mom married a short time later.</p>
<p>Years later, Roberts, mimicking his own father, shot himself in the head, on the 3rd hole on the Par Three Course, by Mamie’s Lake. He took a drop, as one sports reporter put it. His ashes were supposedly scattered at the lake on 15.</p>
<p>When my step-dad passed away after a horrible brain tumor, in 1990, the last person from his world to visit him was Arnold Palmer. Sometimes friends avoid people who are extremely sick. Not Palmer. My family will never forget Arnie’s gracious and beautiful gesture.</p>
<p>Oh Yeah, the “Controversy”</p>
<p>The Augusta Chronicle has been a thing of beauty to read, with editorials, articles and letters to the editors taking virulent positions against Martha Burk that have cast her as a man-hating, abortion-loving hell’s ambassador (and worse). Attitudes similar to when Blacks “got out of line.” The threatened demonstrations attracted an odd collection of mossbacks and carnival hawkers, especially after Reverend Jackson announced he was coming to the rescue. It became, you might say, a tad embarrassing. There were also a lot of yucks in town about the so-called demonstrations, picked up by the national press:</p>
<p>“The Elvis impersonator roamed the weedy field, dropping clunky pick-up lines on feminists in bright pink T-shirts. A bearded man dressed as a star-spangled nun pranced around with a stream of television cameras in hot pursuit. And an angry guy, who calls himself the One Man Klan Group, traded insults with a big-time sports columnist. It was a sideshow like nothing they have seen in this staid town, an often loony display.” (Washington Post, 4/12/03).</p>
<p>But, as Christine Brennan of USA Today put it, “The fact that it has taken 12 years for golf to move from Shoal Creek to Martha Burk speaks volumes about how the game of golf really feels about women: Namely, that it’s of course no longer acceptable to discriminate against African-Americans, but it’s still appropriate, and even encouraged in some circles, to discriminate against women. ”</p>
<p>The Alabama Shoal Creek Club situation was reportedly settled after members opened their doors to a black executive to defuse a controversy that erupted when the PGA had been jumpy about bringing a tournament to to the club a decade ago.</p>
<p>The connection between the Augusta Club’s gender and racial policies is real. The club’s relationship to African Americans was, as might be expected, right out of Gone with the Wind.</p>
<p>For most of its history, Blacks had to enter the “big” house from the rear. In the thirties, the members would dress up and watch barbaric, club-sponsored “battle royales” at the Bon Aire, boxing free-for-alls involving six young Blacks who were blindfolded and let loose at each other in the ring, often with one arm tied behind their back. One young man who competed was James Brown, who had grown up in the “Terry”, a rough black neighborhood, according to Sampson. Still a big yuck?</p>
<p>Later, Lee Elder broke through the “Magnolia Curtain” and started playing in the 1970s, and the first African-American to join the club did so only in 1990. A short time later, Tiger won his first jacket.</p>
<p>There’s Clubs..and then there’s Clubs</p>
<p>Augusta is no Shoal Creek.</p>
<p>It is more like the Bohemian Grove, which Newsweek once described as the world’s most prestigious summer camp. “The fiercely guarded, 2,700 acre retreat is the country extension of San Francisco’s all-male ultra-exclusive Bohemian Club to which every Republican President since Herbert Hoover has belonged. With its high-powered clientele, coveted privacy and cabalistic rituals, the Bohemian Grove has prompted considerable suspicion.”</p>
<p>So, who is the typical member of Augusta? Most of Bobby Jones’ Atlanta friends left the scene long ago, as Jones became more disabled, and the more “worldly” corporate leaders recruited by Roberts eventually took over. Jones’ good old boys might even feel out of place today.</p>
<p>USA Today recently exposed the long-secret membership list, pregnant with CEO and corporate members. The 300 members-average age 72– are worth hundreds of billions. The National “Club” includes a sizable clavern from Wall Street that was recently fined $1.4 billion for having defrauded billions of dollars in the new corporate corruption scandals, hurting millions of Americans over the last couple of years. It includes a large contingent of oil company executives, and a number of members of the industrial-military complex (that so discomforted Ike).</p>
<p>There’s revolving-door government figures like the current Treasury Secretary, whose previous employer–CSX-was a deadbeat on tens of millions in taxes owed. Former Reaganite George Shultz’s employer, Bechtel, was intimately implicated in oil business with Saddam and Iraq, pre-war, and, along with Halliburton, just won massive contracts for post-war rebuilding and oil industry management. Corporate CEOs from firms that have been guilty of industrial accidents on a huge scale (remember Bhopal?), pollution, human rights violations, labor law abuses, and so on. Real sweethearts.</p>
<p>If some rich gal wants to be part of this gang of high-jinx-playing geriatric playboys, so that she, too, can get drunk, piss on the azaleas and pass out on the lawn; so that she, too, can hang out ’till the wee hours playing cards and real world monopoly (“I’ll take Tajikistan”); so that she, too, can sell her wares like Woodruff, then, more power to her. A giant step towards women’s equality? Maybe, maybe not. But it sure would be fun to watch. And if the National is more of a “corporation” than a club, as Burk attests, then it’s time to open the doors.</p>
<p>As The Masters pointed out, privacy at golf clubs is a uniquely American obsession. At St. Andrews, anyone can play. Why not Augusta?</p>
<p>And, a second question that begs to be asked would Bobby Jones and Ike feel as though they still “belong”?</p>
<p>Dick Gets the Big Invite</p>
<p>As I heard it around the kitchen table, Ike finally gave in, and Nixon flew down to join him. Ike pointedly informed Nixon to be on the tee at 7 AM. As the morning came, Ike, my step-dad, the gang and the Secret Service, etc., arrived at the first tee. Waiting a few minutes only, Ike looked around, saw no Nixon, and ordered the column to move forward, like Patton through Normandy. Ike played quickly, if sloppily, as was his habit. Finishing the first nine, Ike sent someone to the clubhouse to see if Nixon was waiting to join the group. Still no Dick. WHERE THE HELL?.</p>
<p>As they rounded the second nine, Gene and Ike and the rest walked to the clubhouse. The VP was sitting in a wrought iron chair under a magnolia tree, wearing sunglasses. He was nursing a hangover. Ike was furious. Nixon was never invited back.</p>
<p>THOMAS CROFT is Director of the <a href="http://www.heartlandnetwork.org/" type="external">Heartland Network</a>. Visit for further information. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:t.w.croft@worldnet.att.net" type="external">t.w.croft@worldnet.att.net</a></p>
<p>Copyright T.W. Croft , 2003</p> | true | 4 | hell general barked jumping allterrain vehicle rejected advice security walked ahead pack scope situation 18 grueling painful skirmishes point general enraged wanted see stepdad side ike led small heavilyarmed detachment ridge toward huge oddcolumned building searching keen eyes mysterious man missinginaction turncoat suddenly saw man looking hunkered wearing sunglasses general outraged stepdad incredulous come general doublecrossed degree something happened missing mystery man mind european theatre 1944 augusta georgia mid1950s general president butchered 18 holes augusta national golf club man looking man america loved kick around read stepdad eisenhowers golf teacher presidency ike winter homeawayfromhome national staying mamies cabin gene stout head golf pro national 15 years assistant pro awhile prior wellliked pga golf world mom also worked nationalfor short time augustas news become embroiled brouhaha club chairman hootie johnson martha burk national council womens organizations burk asked club accept women members organized demonstration tournament april muddy lot city contentiously assigned away main gate assorted demonstrators joined creating carnival atmosphere annika sorenstam breaking playing colonial fort worth may seems hootie men hands full keeping horde hysterical shedevils seven irons breaching hallowed walls golfdom hardass hootie appears mugwump raes creek meanders course compared infamous cliff roberts roberts stiff new york investment banker cofounded augusta national golf god atlanta bobby jones jr stepdad knew wrath roberts first hand mom roberts secretary awhile 50s current drama played runs trademarked national tradition packaged millions tv viewers every year deepvoiced hosts invite viewer cozy woodpaneled butler cabin talk tournament pleasant prozacinspired soundtrack feel part homey greenjacket pageantry love important see behind magnolia curtain witnessed bit tradition first hand working course one year watching galleries many hearing great stories regarding general mystery man interesting tales family shadow national augusta sits along shallow rocky stretch savannah river downriver clarks hill lake scraped red clay river dammed decades ago downtown broad street still struggles decades white flight suburban malls like many nondescript southern towns top hill known former bon aire hotel still stands majestically huge magnolias surrounding beauty long frayed edges many golf stars sports reporters old days used stay bon aire nursing home decades augusta strange town mix rich enclaves like national ivyd suburbs little black lawn jockeys front yard also real tobacco road far sprawling rundown army post pockets abject poverty black white mom used put augusta damned near three hundred years history unblemished progress much early life augusta hometown grew berchmans hills halfmile away course early 1930s jones famous amateur golfer thenunknown stockbroker chopped hilly fruit orchard called berckmans nursery founded augusta national golf club first years masters tournament successful club nearly fell apart depression initial investors ripped founders according recent book history club yet club survived tournament becoming one worlds premier sports events onefourth fabled grand slam national long part lifeblood augusta used attend tournament teenager tickets plentiful easily becoming member arnies army course bordered busy stretch washington road also berckmans road passes hilly suburban neighborhoods kids would hike raes creek deep woods used blanket area vanished onto course grounds hidden behind ominous fences always heard stories guards shotguns rabid german shepherds awaited foolish boy dared scale walls waiting masters week gates finally open growing something truly mystical week hotels motels restaurants bars even plumbing supply services named masters influence 51 weeks year wholly beyond explanation 51 weeks year high fences trees thick bushes sequestered pharaoh would plump virgin daughter fall winter droned everyone waited return week made town famous buildup culminated great big masters parade week spring socials cotillions warming augusta crowd big upcoming event high school marching bands festooned floats golf greens fareways golfers display accompanied beautiful belles dressed antebellum ballgowns miss golf augusta sitting back seat large open white cadillac would slowly make way broad waving whitegloved hands finally april spring heated huge gates would swing open beginning masters week par three tourney thousands would stream magnolia lane carrying umbrellas collapsible chairs blankets picnic baskets binoculars water bottles suntan lotion hats sunglasses insect repellant transistor radios flasks etc etc beauty course overwhelming covered azalea dogwood magnolia trees hugging whitecolumned clubhouse big green scoreboards concession stands blended grass trees shrubs tall pines shaded long hilly paths along fairways dropping straw inevitable windy golf days galleries colorful respectful beginning week beautiful high school belleettes would show full bloom wearing shorts peddlepushers culottes sporting first seasons tans important seen ever actually watch single ball struck worshipped game teen masters week second coming national mecca standing around clubhouse would gawk golf giants walked toward first hole arnie ken ventura billy casper nicklas gary player doug ford tommy aaron lee trevino chi chi legends sam snead hogan demarest nelson sarazen golf nirvana sixteen deep sixteen one year worked tournament along high school buddies sumner hanger one pals pat wiley sumner hanger wild enough wiley maniac high school drunk worked concession stand faced 16th green adjacent lake one dramatic holes course could watch golfers putt 16th crowds rowdiest blankets chairs hill behind green lake week moved concession stand would draw lines customers 16 20 deep waiting pabst blue ribbon cokes hot dogs etc kegs beer flowed like savannah one particularly steaming day wiley laid back floor beer tap cascaded pbr open mouth drank seemed like couple gallons one day one us keeping tap pouring rush customers finally finished sat wiped face looked around second shiteating grin famous fell backward passed dragged nocount ass dark part back stand shoved beneath shelf slept rest day sleep pure bliss dreaming sticking twowood second shot across pond green par 5 15th two feet hole tales national parents divorced 1964 1967 16 mom suddenly remarried hooking gene year married gene resigned national due runin roberts family moved bahamas became pro new course became young redneck paradise gene made name national glory years close bob jones many golfers palmer made famous charges 1960s seemed know everyone time didnt completely understand left augusta time went got older told number stories club golfers jones roberts especially ike first stories ever heard national came mom worked secretary cliff roberts 1955 told long tournament would accompany roberts golf cart along entourage greens committee roberts conducted annual review course mom took dictation roberts stopped every hole suggesting changes like parade mom said quoted masters curt sampson juicy little book history course subtitled golf money power augusta georgia nice strange man absolute king spoke everyone jumped even members gene used talk wild parties national one party offseason main drink chatham artillery punch named punch created savannahbased chatham artillery existence prior 1775 suave deceitful brew served president james monroe savannah 1819 launching uss savannah supposedly genteel ladies made beverage one one officers would sneak adding recipe chatham artillery punch 1 12 gallons catawba wine 1 12 quarts rye whiskey 12 gallon rum 1 12 gallons strong tea 1 quart gin 1 quart brandy 12 pint benedictine 2 12 pounds brown sugar juice1 12 doz oranges juice 1 12 doz lemons 1 bottle marachino cherries make stock 36 48 hours time serving prior serving add 1 case champagne careful cherries gene said next morning augusta nationals finest found asleep 18th green deep deep rough augusta ike stepdad spoke often eisenhower genes accounts ike great guy gene would breakfast ike every morning ike town presidents office clubhouse great framed picture gene ike standing together course holding irons smiles 1950s era signed general theres interesting discussion masters nationals relationship ike dating ike president columbia 1948 roberts responded generals entreaties become member putting together gang clubs top members joining excursion play round ike bob jones eventual campaign supporters like pete jones sent 1 million ikes 52 campaign rw woodruff atlanta cocacola king gang grew next twelve years becoming mutual support club president roberts jones formed jororoberts inc war build coke bottling plants south america elsewhere ikes ambassadors south america provided protection helped jororoberts plants ike president would often walk grounds open bottle coke straw sports news reporters would come town holed bon aire took pictures hundreds free ads coke several years vice president nixon wanted join ike augusta play national ike didnt want evidently augusta didnt either even lobbied ike take ticket reelection according book tricky dick pumped pepsi international travels pissing cokeheads augusta sampson missed nixon never invited course come end era 15 years augusta gene falling roberts winning group tournament ireland st andrews gene registered group national roberts forced return trophy gene resigned greatly upset jones illhealth time genes consolation jones demanded open invitation gene return play anytime cliff didnt always fire people hed make continuing work became intolerable gene quoted saying mom married short time later years later roberts mimicking father shot head 3rd hole par three course mamies lake took drop one sports reporter put ashes supposedly scattered lake 15 stepdad passed away horrible brain tumor 1990 last person world visit arnold palmer sometimes friends avoid people extremely sick palmer family never forget arnies gracious beautiful gesture oh yeah controversy augusta chronicle thing beauty read editorials articles letters editors taking virulent positions martha burk cast manhating abortionloving hells ambassador worse attitudes similar blacks got line threatened demonstrations attracted odd collection mossbacks carnival hawkers especially reverend jackson announced coming rescue became might say tad embarrassing also lot yucks town socalled demonstrations picked national press elvis impersonator roamed weedy field dropping clunky pickup lines feminists bright pink tshirts bearded man dressed starspangled nun pranced around stream television cameras hot pursuit angry guy calls one man klan group traded insults bigtime sports columnist sideshow like nothing seen staid town often loony display washington post 41203 christine brennan usa today put fact taken 12 years golf move shoal creek martha burk speaks volumes game golf really feels women namely course longer acceptable discriminate africanamericans still appropriate even encouraged circles discriminate women alabama shoal creek club situation reportedly settled members opened doors black executive defuse controversy erupted pga jumpy bringing tournament club decade ago connection augusta clubs gender racial policies real clubs relationship african americans might expected right gone wind history blacks enter big house rear thirties members would dress watch barbaric clubsponsored battle royales bon aire boxing freeforalls involving six young blacks blindfolded let loose ring often one arm tied behind back one young man competed james brown grown terry rough black neighborhood according sampson still big yuck later lee elder broke magnolia curtain started playing 1970s first africanamerican join club 1990 short time later tiger first jacket theres clubsand theres clubs augusta shoal creek like bohemian grove newsweek described worlds prestigious summer camp fiercely guarded 2700 acre retreat country extension san franciscos allmale ultraexclusive bohemian club every republican president since herbert hoover belonged highpowered clientele coveted privacy cabalistic rituals bohemian grove prompted considerable suspicion typical member augusta bobby jones atlanta friends left scene long ago jones became disabled worldly corporate leaders recruited roberts eventually took jones good old boys might even feel place today usa today recently exposed longsecret membership list pregnant ceo corporate members 300 membersaverage age 72 worth hundreds billions national club includes sizable clavern wall street recently fined 14 billion defrauded billions dollars new corporate corruption scandals hurting millions americans last couple years includes large contingent oil company executives number members industrialmilitary complex discomforted ike theres revolvingdoor government figures like current treasury secretary whose previous employercsxwas deadbeat tens millions taxes owed former reaganite george shultzs employer bechtel intimately implicated oil business saddam iraq prewar along halliburton massive contracts postwar rebuilding oil industry management corporate ceos firms guilty industrial accidents huge scale remember bhopal pollution human rights violations labor law abuses real sweethearts rich gal wants part gang highjinxplaying geriatric playboys get drunk piss azaleas pass lawn hang till wee hours playing cards real world monopoly ill take tajikistan sell wares like woodruff power giant step towards womens equality maybe maybe sure would fun watch national corporation club burk attests time open doors masters pointed privacy golf clubs uniquely american obsession st andrews anyone play augusta second question begs asked would bobby jones ike feel though still belong dick gets big invite heard around kitchen table ike finally gave nixon flew join ike pointedly informed nixon tee 7 morning came ike stepdad gang secret service etc arrived first tee waiting minutes ike looked around saw nixon ordered column move forward like patton normandy ike played quickly sloppily habit finishing first nine ike sent someone clubhouse see nixon waiting join group still dick hell rounded second nine gene ike rest walked clubhouse vp sitting wrought iron chair magnolia tree wearing sunglasses nursing hangover ike furious nixon never invited back thomas croft director heartland network visit information reached twcroftworldnetattnet copyright tw croft 2003 | 2,079 |
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<p>The NAACP, after years of ducking taking a public stand on the case of Pennsylvania death row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, voted on an “emergency resolution” near the end of its annual convention in Philadelphia Thursday to call for a new trial for the black journalist/activist, and to urge local NAACP chapters to work toward that goal.</p>
<p>The resolution didn’t come easily. Mumia supporters found that delegates who had hoped to introduce the measure had been decertified and barred from the convention, which met in the Philadelphia Convention Center. They also found that a planned panel on the death penalty, at which they had intended to raise Abu-Jamal’s case, had been unexplainably cancelled. Only when MOVE activist Pam Africa and some other MOVE supporters threatened to picket the convention and even attempt to crash the delegates assembly, holding a white flag, did the organization-the nation’s oldest civil rights group–relent. Even then, a behind-the-scenes bureaucratic effort was made to water down a draft resolution of support by removing the specific call for a new trial and making it a call for a review of all death penalty cases. Finally, with the help of several delegates, including David Graham Du Bois (a descendent of W.E.B. Du Bois) and Mayor John Street’s son Sharif, NAACP Chair Julian Bond was persuaded to endorse and sign a resolution draft that made the specific call for a new trial.</p>
<p>The NAACP’s endorsement of the call for a new trial is an important victory for Abu-Jamal, whose 23-year-old case is moving forward into the last stages of his appeal–this time in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. For while the venerable civil rights organization has supported Abu-Jamal in the courtroom-it filed an amicus brief in 2000 in support of his federal appeal-it had not until now put the organization on record as demanding for a new trial.</p>
<p>Abu-Jamal, though his attorney, noted the support which the NAACP has offered in his case over the years, and said, “I am humbled by and very grateful for the NAACP1s support. The NAACP has taken stands through the years on behalf of so many people who have been victimized in society because of their race. I hope this resolution will help many others in situations similar to mine.”</p>
<p>His lead attorney, Robert R. Bryan, added, “I think to have the support of the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the U.S. is of enormous importance to this case. Along with my client, I am very grateful to the NAACP for taking this stand.”</p>
<p>In fact, while support for the resolution on the floor-it passed with one dissenting vote–was overwhelming, the NAACP leadership had to be dragged kicking and screaming into taking such a public position on this case. This despite the fact that this case was so cruelly and obviously contaminated by racism (the presiding judge was overheard, on day one of the trial, saying he would “help them fry that nigger” as he left the courtroom, and 11 qualified black jurors were barred from serving by the prosecution’s use of peremptory challenges, ultimately leaving Abu-Jamal facing a jury with only two black members in a city that was 40 percent black).</p>
<p>Perhaps more important, this episode is also evidence of how weakened Abu-Jamal’s support organization has become. Only Pam Africa’s tactical skill at holding NAACP leaders’ feet to the fire by threatening them with an embarrassing incident on the day Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry was speaking to the gathering managed to win the day and get the resolution to the floor.</p>
<p>Back in the mid to late 1990s, whenever there was a Mumia demonstration in Philadelphia, organizers could count on bringing out thousands, even tens of thousands of supporters, both local and bussed in from around the country. Today, Free Mumia demonstrations in Philadelphia-like the rally and march on Abu-Jamal’s birthday back in April–are lucky to attract a few hundred people, half of them pulled in from New York and elsewhere.</p>
<p>What has happened?</p>
<p>The case, certainly, is as outrageous and compelling as ever. Abu-Jamal, who always has and continues to maintain his innocence, was convicted on the basis of the testimony of two key witnesses, a white taxi driver and a black prostitute, neither of whom was seen at the scene of the crime by any other witnesses (no one even recalled seeing the taxi, which was supposedly parked directly at the scene of the 1981 shootings of police officer Daniel Faulkner and Abu-Jamalexcept for the prostitute, who said she saw it after the shooting, but not before). Both of those witnesses had grave credibility problems, too. Robert Chobert, the taxi driver, had been driving his cab on a suspended license, and unknown to the defense, had asked the prosecutor if he could help him get his license back–a request for a favor that makes his entire testimony seriously suspect. Cynthia White, the prostitute and star prosecution witness, had been repeatedly arrested and questioned–or coached–by detectives, in the weeks following the shooting of police officer Daniel Faulkner, and her story of what happened had evolved over those weeks to conform with the story ultimately presented by the prosecution. Suspiciously, of all the witnesses picked up at the scene on Dec. 9, 1981, only White, supposedly the prosecution’s key eyewitness, was not brought to the paddy wagon to identify Abu-Jamal as the shooter, suggesting that police knew she probably couldn’t.</p>
<p>The other evidence that played a key role in convincing the jury to convict was testimony by a hospital security guard and a police officer that they had allegedly heard Abu-Jamal confess to killing Faulkner in the Jefferson Hospital emergency room–but both had waited two months to report this stunning alleged confession to detectives. Neither said a thing about what would have been dramatic evidence of guilt to police investigators at the time of the shooting investigation. In fact, the police officer who was guarding Abu-Jamal at the time the alleged confession occurred told investigators the day of the shooting that Abu-Jamal had made “no comment” during his entire time in the ER.</p>
<p>Some “open and shut” case!</p>
<p>As I wrote in my book, Killing Time, the prosecutor, Joseph McGill, also managed to purge 75 percent of the qualified black jurors from consideration during jury selection–exactly the percentage of black jurors he routinely managed to keep off juries during six other murder trials he handled as an assistant DA. That’s a record of unconstitutional racial bias in jury selection that the NAACP should have been damned upset about, especially since it was ignored by the federal judge who considered Abu-Jamal’s appeal in 2001. It’s also the main basis for his appeal of his conviction before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, currently pending.</p>
<p>Why has there been so little public pressure for a new trial? Why weren’t masses of people outside the NAACP demanding that the organization support Abu-Jamal? Because there’s almost no one left to do it.</p>
<p>The throngs of people who used to come out to demand a new trial for Abu-Jamal have faded away as his case, over the past several years, was taken over by ideological lawyers and others who managed to convince Abu-Jamal to make his case a political attack on the entire legal system, instead of dealing with the key issues in his trial that offered the best chance to get him a new hearing.</p>
<p>They dredged up a whacked-out “witness,” Arnold Beverly, who claimed he, and not Abu-Jamal, had shot Faulkner. Though Beverly’s story was incredible, sounded coached, though no other witnesses had seen him at the scene, and though his story conflicted with the evidence presented in court by Abu-Jamal’s own witnesses in key ways, Jamal’s then attorneys, Eliot Grossman and Marlene Kamish, ploughed ahead, sowing dissension in their wake, viciously maligning anyone in or out of the movement who questioned the strategy or their tactics, libeling Abu-Jamal’s prior attorney Leonard Weinglass (about whom they sketched wild and unfounded conspiracy theories), making factual errors in their filings, and needlessly annoying judges before whom they needed to plead his case. In the end, Abu-Jamal’s defense fund dried up as key supporters like Ossie Davis and Michael Farrell backed away from this train wreck.</p>
<p>In the past year, Abu-Jamal has finally seen the light. Dropping his flakey and woefully inexperienced legal duo (neither attorney had any federal death penalty appellate experience at all), he has hired the San Francisco-based Bryan, an acknowledged death penalty litigator and appellate pro, for his lead attorney.</p>
<p>He has also dropped the Arnold Beverly appeal, though many of his more ardent backers seem still to have missed-or ignored–this important development.</p>
<p>For his part, attorney Bryan has been reaching out to people and groups that had backed away from the movement in recent years. “I’m convinced that Mumia is innocent. Not everyone agrees with that, but this movement is open to anyone who feels that there has been a miscarriage of justice and that Mumia deserves a new, fair trial,” he says.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Abu-Jamal has not yet spoken out publicly against the sectarianism and personal ego-tripping that have poisoned his splintered movement, so it remains in ruins, as the latest campaign to persuade the NAACP to support him, and the small turnout at the April demonstration, amply demonstrate.</p>
<p>Meanwhile there is still a massive, unified government and law-enforcement campaign to see Abu-Jamal executed. The Fraternal Order of Police, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office, and even Governor Ed Rendell, who was D.A.-and McGill’s boss-when Abu-Jamal was prosecuted in 1982, are all committed to seeing him die.</p>
<p>Until Abu-Jamal himself insists on seeking to rebuild a broader coalition, and openly condemns the sniping and character assassination that has been going on in his name outside the prison, he will pretty much be fighting his legal battles alone, with his attorneys and a few highly energetic supporters, but without any mass base.</p>
<p>Which is pretty unfortunate for him, and also for the many thousands of others on death row and in prison, for whom his case could be a clarion call for reform of a criminally corrupted justice system.</p>
<p>DAVE LINDORFF is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567512283/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Killing Time: an Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal</a>. His new book of CounterPunch columns titled “ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567512984/counterpunchmaga" type="external">This Can’t be Happening!</a>” to be published this fall by Common Courage Press. Information about both books and other work by Lindorff can be found at <a href="http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/" type="external">www.thiscantbehappening.net</a>.</p>
<p>He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:dlindorff@yahoo.com" type="external">dlindorff@yahoo.com</a></p> | true | 4 | 160 naacp years ducking taking public stand case pennsylvania death row prisoner mumia abujamal voted emergency resolution near end annual convention philadelphia thursday call new trial black journalistactivist urge local naacp chapters work toward goal resolution didnt come easily mumia supporters found delegates hoped introduce measure decertified barred convention met philadelphia convention center also found planned panel death penalty intended raise abujamals case unexplainably cancelled move activist pam africa move supporters threatened picket convention even attempt crash delegates assembly holding white flag organizationthe nations oldest civil rights grouprelent even behindthescenes bureaucratic effort made water draft resolution support removing specific call new trial making call review death penalty cases finally help several delegates including david graham du bois descendent web du bois mayor john streets son sharif naacp chair julian bond persuaded endorse sign resolution draft made specific call new trial naacps endorsement call new trial important victory abujamal whose 23yearold case moving forward last stages appealthis time third circuit court appeals venerable civil rights organization supported abujamal courtroomit filed amicus brief 2000 support federal appealit put organization record demanding new trial abujamal though attorney noted support naacp offered case years said humbled grateful naacp1s support naacp taken stands years behalf many people victimized society race hope resolution help many others situations similar mine lead attorney robert r bryan added think support oldest largest civil rights organization us enormous importance case along client grateful naacp taking stand fact support resolution floorit passed one dissenting votewas overwhelming naacp leadership dragged kicking screaming taking public position case despite fact case cruelly obviously contaminated racism presiding judge overheard day one trial saying would help fry nigger left courtroom 11 qualified black jurors barred serving prosecutions use peremptory challenges ultimately leaving abujamal facing jury two black members city 40 percent black perhaps important episode also evidence weakened abujamals support organization become pam africas tactical skill holding naacp leaders feet fire threatening embarrassing incident day democratic presidential candidate john kerry speaking gathering managed win day get resolution floor back mid late 1990s whenever mumia demonstration philadelphia organizers could count bringing thousands even tens thousands supporters local bussed around country today free mumia demonstrations philadelphialike rally march abujamals birthday back aprilare lucky attract hundred people half pulled new york elsewhere happened case certainly outrageous compelling ever abujamal always continues maintain innocence convicted basis testimony two key witnesses white taxi driver black prostitute neither seen scene crime witnesses one even recalled seeing taxi supposedly parked directly scene 1981 shootings police officer daniel faulkner abujamalexcept prostitute said saw shooting witnesses grave credibility problems robert chobert taxi driver driving cab suspended license unknown defense asked prosecutor could help get license backa request favor makes entire testimony seriously suspect cynthia white prostitute star prosecution witness repeatedly arrested questionedor coachedby detectives weeks following shooting police officer daniel faulkner story happened evolved weeks conform story ultimately presented prosecution suspiciously witnesses picked scene dec 9 1981 white supposedly prosecutions key eyewitness brought paddy wagon identify abujamal shooter suggesting police knew probably couldnt evidence played key role convincing jury convict testimony hospital security guard police officer allegedly heard abujamal confess killing faulkner jefferson hospital emergency roombut waited two months report stunning alleged confession detectives neither said thing would dramatic evidence guilt police investigators time shooting investigation fact police officer guarding abujamal time alleged confession occurred told investigators day shooting abujamal made comment entire time er open shut case wrote book killing time prosecutor joseph mcgill also managed purge 75 percent qualified black jurors consideration jury selectionexactly percentage black jurors routinely managed keep juries six murder trials handled assistant da thats record unconstitutional racial bias jury selection naacp damned upset especially since ignored federal judge considered abujamals appeal 2001 also main basis appeal conviction third circuit court appeals currently pending little public pressure new trial werent masses people outside naacp demanding organization support abujamal theres almost one left throngs people used come demand new trial abujamal faded away case past several years taken ideological lawyers others managed convince abujamal make case political attack entire legal system instead dealing key issues trial offered best chance get new hearing dredged whackedout witness arnold beverly claimed abujamal shot faulkner though beverlys story incredible sounded coached though witnesses seen scene though story conflicted evidence presented court abujamals witnesses key ways jamals attorneys eliot grossman marlene kamish ploughed ahead sowing dissension wake viciously maligning anyone movement questioned strategy tactics libeling abujamals prior attorney leonard weinglass sketched wild unfounded conspiracy theories making factual errors filings needlessly annoying judges needed plead case end abujamals defense fund dried key supporters like ossie davis michael farrell backed away train wreck past year abujamal finally seen light dropping flakey woefully inexperienced legal duo neither attorney federal death penalty appellate experience hired san franciscobased bryan acknowledged death penalty litigator appellate pro lead attorney also dropped arnold beverly appeal though many ardent backers seem still missedor ignoredthis important development part attorney bryan reaching people groups backed away movement recent years im convinced mumia innocent everyone agrees movement open anyone feels miscarriage justice mumia deserves new fair trial says unfortunately abujamal yet spoken publicly sectarianism personal egotripping poisoned splintered movement remains ruins latest campaign persuade naacp support small turnout april demonstration amply demonstrate meanwhile still massive unified government lawenforcement campaign see abujamal executed fraternal order police philadelphia district attorneys office even governor ed rendell daand mcgills bosswhen abujamal prosecuted 1982 committed seeing die abujamal insists seeking rebuild broader coalition openly condemns sniping character assassination going name outside prison pretty much fighting legal battles alone attorneys highly energetic supporters without mass base pretty unfortunate also many thousands others death row prison case could clarion call reform criminally corrupted justice system dave lindorff author killing time investigation death row case mumia abujamal new book counterpunch columns titled cant happening published fall common courage press information books work lindorff found wwwthiscantbehappeningnet reached dlindorffyahoocom | 971 |
<p>The Western corporate media have been fixated on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s hold on power, speculating on if he will follow the Communist Party’s tradition of leaders stepping down after two five-year terms. The larger story, however, is that there appears there will be no change in course, at least for now, for China.</p>
<p>Perhaps the fixation on President Xi is due to the corporate media’s tendency to focus on personalities over issues, or perhaps because it could be presumed in advance that China would not become a poster child for the International Monetary Fund or World Bank. To be fair, Chinese institutions have strongly emphasized President Xi’s leadership, continually referring to him as the “core” of the party’s central committee and celebrating that “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” has been enshrined in the party constitution.</p>
<p>The way in which “Xi Jinping Thought” has been enshrined, however, indicates that the party and state leader is stressing continuity with his predecessors.&#160; <a href="" type="internal">The resolution by</a>&#160;the 19th Chinese Communist Party Congress adopting the report of the outgoing central committee said this in the first paragraph:</p>
<p>“The Congress holds high the banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics and is guided by Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development, and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.”</p>
<p>Looking past the ritualistic style, what is noteworthy about the above paragraph is that every Chinese leader is mentioned. The “ <a href="" type="internal">Scientific Outlook on Development</a>” is the product of President Xi’s predecessor, Hu Jintao, who declared that China must end its reliance on cheap labor and invest more in science and technology. The “Theory of Three Represents,” laid down by former President Hu’s predecessor, Jiang Jemin, declares that the party should represent the most advanced productive forces, the most advanced culture and the broadest layers of the people. That is an assertion that the interests of different classes are not in conflict and that the party can harmoniously represent all classes simultaneously.</p>
<p>On the surface, that lineup of leaders seems unremarkable, but it represents a change from four years ago, when the party did not formally mention the “Scientific Outlook on Development” and attached the adjective “important” to the “Three Represents.” Combined with the announcement four years ago that the party declared “the role of the market” in China to be “decisive,” a switch from “basic,” this was a strong indication that&#160; <a href="" type="internal">China would further its integration</a>&#160;into the world capitalist system, albeit on its own terms.</p>
<p>A continuing commitment to the capitalist road</p>
<p>The lines laid down by presidents Jiang and Hu, following the turn toward capitalism by Deng Xiaoping, would seem quite contradictory to “Mao Zedong Thought” or, for that matter, Marxism-Leninism. What can be reasonably inferred here is that the party will continue to use Mao as one source of its authority. That all post-revolutionary rulers are included in the list of enshrined theories, with none elevated above any other, indicates that the party is stressing continuity.</p>
<p>If there are to be any significant changes, particularly to economic policy, they are unlikely to be revealed before next autumn, when the third plenum of the new central committee will likely be held. Third plenums, generally held about a year after a congress, are often the&#160; <a href="https://www.uschina.org/sites/default/files/LeadershipReport.pdf#4" type="external">occasions for major announcements</a>, as was the case in 2013, when the above switch to making the market “decisive” was announced. (A plenum is a meeting of the entire central committee, generally scheduled at precise intervals.)</p>
<p>Also noteworthy in the congress’ resolution of October 24 was an acknowledgment that the party has to give greater priority to consumer interests and the environment:</p>
<p>“[T]he Congress forms the major political judgments that socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era and the principal contradiction in Chinese society has evolved into one between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life.”</p>
<p>The party, despite the heavy stress on “Xi Jinping Thought,” also sought to dampen hopes that the growth in living standards would be rapid:</p>
<p>“The Congress elaborates on the Party’s historic mission in the new era and establishes the historical position of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. It sets forth the basic policy for upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, and establishes the goal of securing a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and then embarking on a journey to fully build a modern socialist China.”</p>
<p>The resolution, which repeatedly referred to the goal of a “moderately prosperous society,” also stressed the party will firmly hold onto its leading role, uphold the unity of China and strengthen its military. As to the direction in which the party intends to lead, the list of goals in the resolution give a strong hint. Among the listed goals are “pursue supply-side structural reform as our main task” and “endeavor to develop an economy with more effective market mechanisms.”</p>
<p>Although “supply-side” in this context certainly is not meant in precisely the same way that “supply-side” was meant during the Reagan administration in the United States, is not without content, either. The Chinese business magazine&#160;Caixin, in a&#160; <a href="" type="internal">commentary about the congress</a>, had this to say:</p>
<p>“The report said that ‘in resource allocation, the market plays the decisive role and the government plays its role better.’ This line shows unwavering determination to move toward market reform. But we should remain vigilant about how, under China’s current system, in terms of specific administration, the government plays a decisive role, while the market is in a subordinate role. Supply-side reform needs to accomplish five tasks — cutting overcapacity, lowering inventory, deleveraging, lowering costs, and improving economic weak spots. ‘Government failure’ cannot be entirely absolved in causing these problems.”</p>
<p>Party acknowledges “unbalanced and inadequate development”</p>
<p>So, again, more capitalism for the Chinese Communist Party despite its insistence that “socialism” is its guiding ideology. A commentary by the official Chinese press agency, Xinhua,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">offered these passages</a>:</p>
<p>“The genesis of China’s development miracle is socialism, not other ‘-isms.’ The country succeeds not by rigidly copying the original ideas of scientific socialism, but by adapting it to China’s reality. Xi Jinping’s thought will be China’s signature ideology and the new communism. … China is now strong enough, willing, and able to contribute more for mankind. The new world order cannot be just dominated by capitalism and the West, and the time will come for a change.”</p>
<p>The reality is that China is ever more integrated into the world capitalist system, and has built its economy on being the world’s sweatshop — rendering it highly dependent on exports, particularly to the West. The party would like to follow the path of Japan, which started out making cheap consumer products before moving up the value chain to become a producer of high-end electronics and other technological products. Traveling such a path is a necessity if the party is to fulfill its goal of raising Chinese living standards and making China an undisputed global power.</p>
<p>The reference to the “principal contradiction” of China being “between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life” is an acknowledgment that China has made insufficient progress. A few numbers will illustrate that.</p>
<p>Household consumption in China remains far below the level of advanced capitalist countries. According to World Bank data, household consumption&#160; <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NE.CON.PETC.ZS?locations=CN" type="external">accounted for 37 percent</a>&#160;of China’s gross domestic product in 2015, barely improved from 36 percent in 2007. (Household consumption is all the things that people buy for personal use from toothbrushes to automobiles.) To put that number in perspective, household consumption was as high as 71 percent during the Mao era and above 50 percent as recently as the early 1980s. In comparison, household consumption in advanced capitalist countries tends to be between 58 and 72 percent of GDP.</p>
<p>China’s rapid growth has been overly dependent on investment, and given the overcapacity of many Chinese basic industries and the rash of ghost cities constructed, the ability to continue driving growth through investment is questionable. Here again, data from 2015 is the latest available, when&#160; <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NE.GDI.TOTL.ZS?locations=CN-1W" type="external">investment accounted for 45 percent</a>&#160;of Chinese GDP, down only slightly from a high of 48 percent in 2011. To put that in perspective, the world average is 24 percent.</p>
<p>Wages rising but are still very low</p>
<p>Concurrent with the over-reliance on investment is an ongoing real estate bubble and increasing debt. For the period 2007 to 2014, only four countries saw their&#160; <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/employment-and-growth/debt-and-not-much-deleveraging" type="external">debt increase faster</a>&#160;than China. A 2016&#160;Financial Times&#160;report said that more than 60 percent of Chinese bank loans were directly or indirectly&#160; <a href="" type="internal">tied to real estate</a>. That any downturn or stagnation remains well into the future is demonstrated in a sudden and pronounced drop in the Shanghai stock market in 2015, ending a stock bubble, not having much of a dampening effect on the economy. Nonetheless, a stock-market bubble is&#160; <a href="" type="internal">no panacea for low wages</a>&#160;or a shredded social safety net.</p>
<p>And wages remain low in China, despite the gains of recent years. The minimum wage in Shanghai, the highest in China, more than doubled from 2010 to 2016, but was still the equivalent of&#160; <a href="http://clb.org.hk/content/wages-and-employment" type="external">US$327 per month</a>. The minimum wage in most major cities is US$239 and in poorer provinces can lower still. These increases, the product of labor struggle,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">may be coming to an end</a>&#160;for the near future, however, reports the&#160;China Labour Bulletin:</p>
<p>“Current central government policy was clearly stated by Vice Minister for Human Relations and Social Security, Xin Changxing, in July 2016 when he said that because: ‘Our advantage in labour costs is no longer as clear-cut as before; we should ease the frequency and scale of wage increases so as to preserve our competitive advantage.’ ”</p>
<p>Garment manufacturers are relocating to Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam, where wages are even lower. The&#160;Bulletin&#160;reports that Chinese minimum wages (which are set locally) should be between 40 and 60 percent of the local average wage, but in most cities it is less than 30 percent. The gap between low-paid workers and those earning the average wage&#160; <a href="" type="internal">has been growing</a>, nor are overtime rules enforced.</p>
<p>The&#160;Bulletin&#160;concludes its report on Chinese working conditions in sobering terms:</p>
<p>“A superficial look at China’s major cities seems to show a reasonably affluent society: young, hard-working middle class families, determined to make a better life for themselves. Look beneath the surface however and you soon realize that the goods, services and lifestyle products that these middle class families aspire to are all produced, marketed, and delivered to their homes by an army of over-worked and under-paid working class labourers.”</p>
<p>Socialism or sweatshops?</p>
<p>If socialism is defined as a system of political and economic democracy in which industry and agriculture are brought under popular control so that production is oriented toward human, community and social need rather than private accumulation of capital, and all human beings have a say in decisions that affect their lives and communities, integration into the world capitalist system on the basis of low-paid sweatshop labor allowing massive profits for foreign multi-national corporations is not socialism, whether or not with “Chinese characteristics.”</p>
<p>Western corporations, led by Wal-Mart, are&#160; <a href="" type="internal">responsible for production being moved</a>&#160;to China. China did not “take” anybody’s job; it became the favored destination of the transfer of production by taking advantage of capital’s relentless desire to relocate to locations with the lowest wages and most permissive regulations. Japan and South Korea were able to move up the value chain, develop industry and become new members of the Global North. China’s intention is to do this, but it is by no means certain that&#160; <a href="" type="internal">there is room for it to do so</a>.</p>
<p>China, because of its size, is able to extract concessions from foreign capital and assert more control than other developing countries, and thus is in the unique position of entering the capitalist system on its own terms. But the market has its own “logic,” one that no country is able to escape.</p>
<p>There is considerable speculation that Chinese leaders are playing a long game, using the capitalist system to develop with the intention of later nationalizing and moving again to a socialist system. A healthy skepticism toward such scenarios is more than warranted. Wealth is being accumulated. The power the concentration of capital inevitably builds, and the commonality of interests of capital across borders, are not something that can removed via a decree.</p>
<p>However much China’s leadership might believe it can control and harness the market, there are always interests at stake. Capitalist markets are nothing more than the aggregate interests of the largest industrialists and financiers, and, in the absence of sustained, organized resistance, those interests are decisive, with all the attendant exploitation.</p>
<p>The rapid minting of billionaires in China, the party’s welcoming of those with wealth, and the wealth acquired by those related to party officials, means that the material interests of the Chinese Communist Party is more capitalism.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | western corporate media fixated chinese president xi jinpings hold power speculating follow communist partys tradition leaders stepping two fiveyear terms larger story however appears change course least china perhaps fixation president xi due corporate medias tendency focus personalities issues perhaps could presumed advance china would become poster child international monetary fund world bank fair chinese institutions strongly emphasized president xis leadership continually referring core partys central committee celebrating xi jinping thought socialism chinese characteristics new era enshrined party constitution way xi jinping thought enshrined however indicates party state leader stressing continuity predecessors160 resolution by160the 19th chinese communist party congress adopting report outgoing central committee said first paragraph congress holds high banner socialism chinese characteristics guided marxismleninism mao zedong thought deng xiaoping theory theory three represents scientific outlook development xi jinping thought socialism chinese characteristics new era looking past ritualistic style noteworthy paragraph every chinese leader mentioned scientific outlook development product president xis predecessor hu jintao declared china must end reliance cheap labor invest science technology theory three represents laid former president hus predecessor jiang jemin declares party represent advanced productive forces advanced culture broadest layers people assertion interests different classes conflict party harmoniously represent classes simultaneously surface lineup leaders seems unremarkable represents change four years ago party formally mention scientific outlook development attached adjective important three represents combined announcement four years ago party declared role market china decisive switch basic strong indication that160 china would integration160into world capitalist system albeit terms continuing commitment capitalist road lines laid presidents jiang hu following turn toward capitalism deng xiaoping would seem quite contradictory mao zedong thought matter marxismleninism reasonably inferred party continue use mao one source authority postrevolutionary rulers included list enshrined theories none elevated indicates party stressing continuity significant changes particularly economic policy unlikely revealed next autumn third plenum new central committee likely held third plenums generally held year congress often the160 occasions major announcements case 2013 switch making market decisive announced plenum meeting entire central committee generally scheduled precise intervals also noteworthy congress resolution october 24 acknowledgment party give greater priority consumer interests environment congress forms major political judgments socialism chinese characteristics entered new era principal contradiction chinese society evolved one unbalanced inadequate development peoples evergrowing needs better life party despite heavy stress xi jinping thought also sought dampen hopes growth living standards would rapid congress elaborates partys historic mission new era establishes historical position xi jinping thought socialism chinese characteristics new era sets forth basic policy upholding developing socialism chinese characteristics new era establishes goal securing decisive victory building moderately prosperous society respects embarking journey fully build modern socialist china resolution repeatedly referred goal moderately prosperous society also stressed party firmly hold onto leading role uphold unity china strengthen military direction party intends lead list goals resolution give strong hint among listed goals pursue supplyside structural reform main task endeavor develop economy effective market mechanisms although supplyside context certainly meant precisely way supplyside meant reagan administration united states without content either chinese business magazine160caixin a160 commentary congress say report said resource allocation market plays decisive role government plays role better line shows unwavering determination move toward market reform remain vigilant chinas current system terms specific administration government plays decisive role market subordinate role supplyside reform needs accomplish five tasks cutting overcapacity lowering inventory deleveraging lowering costs improving economic weak spots government failure entirely absolved causing problems party acknowledges unbalanced inadequate development capitalism chinese communist party despite insistence socialism guiding ideology commentary official chinese press agency xinhua160 offered passages genesis chinas development miracle socialism isms country succeeds rigidly copying original ideas scientific socialism adapting chinas reality xi jinpings thought chinas signature ideology new communism china strong enough willing able contribute mankind new world order dominated capitalism west time come change reality china ever integrated world capitalist system built economy worlds sweatshop rendering highly dependent exports particularly west party would like follow path japan started making cheap consumer products moving value chain become producer highend electronics technological products traveling path necessity party fulfill goal raising chinese living standards making china undisputed global power reference principal contradiction china unbalanced inadequate development peoples evergrowing needs better life acknowledgment china made insufficient progress numbers illustrate household consumption china remains far level advanced capitalist countries according world bank data household consumption160 accounted 37 percent160of chinas gross domestic product 2015 barely improved 36 percent 2007 household consumption things people buy personal use toothbrushes automobiles put number perspective household consumption high 71 percent mao era 50 percent recently early 1980s comparison household consumption advanced capitalist countries tends 58 72 percent gdp chinas rapid growth overly dependent investment given overcapacity many chinese basic industries rash ghost cities constructed ability continue driving growth investment questionable data 2015 latest available when160 investment accounted 45 percent160of chinese gdp slightly high 48 percent 2011 put perspective world average 24 percent wages rising still low concurrent overreliance investment ongoing real estate bubble increasing debt period 2007 2014 four countries saw their160 debt increase faster160than china 2016160financial times160report said 60 percent chinese bank loans directly indirectly160 tied real estate downturn stagnation remains well future demonstrated sudden pronounced drop shanghai stock market 2015 ending stock bubble much dampening effect economy nonetheless stockmarket bubble is160 panacea low wages160or shredded social safety net wages remain low china despite gains recent years minimum wage shanghai highest china doubled 2010 2016 still equivalent of160 us327 per month minimum wage major cities us239 poorer provinces lower still increases product labor struggle160 may coming end160for near future however reports the160china labour bulletin current central government policy clearly stated vice minister human relations social security xin changxing july 2016 said advantage labour costs longer clearcut ease frequency scale wage increases preserve competitive advantage garment manufacturers relocating bangladesh cambodia vietnam wages even lower the160bulletin160reports chinese minimum wages set locally 40 60 percent local average wage cities less 30 percent gap lowpaid workers earning average wage160 growing overtime rules enforced the160bulletin160concludes report chinese working conditions sobering terms superficial look chinas major cities seems show reasonably affluent society young hardworking middle class families determined make better life look beneath surface however soon realize goods services lifestyle products middle class families aspire produced marketed delivered homes army overworked underpaid working class labourers socialism sweatshops socialism defined system political economic democracy industry agriculture brought popular control production oriented toward human community social need rather private accumulation capital human beings say decisions affect lives communities integration world capitalist system basis lowpaid sweatshop labor allowing massive profits foreign multinational corporations socialism whether chinese characteristics western corporations led walmart are160 responsible production moved160to china china take anybodys job became favored destination transfer production taking advantage capitals relentless desire relocate locations lowest wages permissive regulations japan south korea able move value chain develop industry become new members global north chinas intention means certain that160 room china size able extract concessions foreign capital assert control developing countries thus unique position entering capitalist system terms market logic one country able escape considerable speculation chinese leaders playing long game using capitalist system develop intention later nationalizing moving socialist system healthy skepticism toward scenarios warranted wealth accumulated power concentration capital inevitably builds commonality interests capital across borders something removed via decree however much chinas leadership might believe control harness market always interests stake capitalist markets nothing aggregate interests largest industrialists financiers absence sustained organized resistance interests decisive attendant exploitation rapid minting billionaires china partys welcoming wealth wealth acquired related party officials means material interests chinese communist party capitalism 160 | 1,233 |
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<p>I watch too much TV drama, so I can say this with a degree of certainty: It’s rare that climate change comes up. (Television news programs also contain “tepid” coverage, in general, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/16/climate-change-tv-news_n_4606313.html" type="external">according to watchdog group Media Matters</a>). That’s why it was so weird/exciting for this climate reporter when global warming received its very own subplot on Aaron Sorkin’s HBO drama The Newsroom over the last two episodes.</p>
<p>First, a little context: Maggie Jordan (Alison Pill) is the show’s once daffy news producer whose role this season seems exclusively designed to reverse earlier <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jul/02/aaron-sorkin-the-newsroom-sexism" type="external">charges of sexism against Sorkin</a>. She’s now good at her job! During a convoluted scene on a train from Boston to New York, Maggie overhears and records a top EPA official talking shit on the phone about President Obama to another journalist, off-the-record. Even though that agreement of confidentiality doesn’t extend to the other Amtrak passengers, she eventually tells the official she won’t use his juicy Obama-dissing quotes. So impressed by her ethics, the official, Richard Westbrook (Paul Lieberstein), rewards her with a scoop: an embargoed EPA report. WHOA! WHAT A SCOOOOOP! (For the uninitiated, while a heads-up about a study is great to get a jump on your competition, reports are circulated and embargoed all the time). Anyway… Maggie also gets an exclusive interview with the official, the deputy assistant administrator of the EPA (WHAT A GET!) and in the most recent episode, she produces a segment for host Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) about the report’s dire warnings.</p>
<p>The scene is odd for a number of reasons. The Newsroom packages its drama based on last year’s events, and at that time, the news that the world was approaching 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere had been publicly anticipated for weeks. So, not a scoop in any way, or anything that anyone following the science didn’t already know.</p>
<p>But putting that aside, let’s take a look at Sorkin’s&#160;“facts”, as presented in the episode. How do they measure up? Let’s go line-by-line through the scene above.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>In the weird parallel universe of The Newsroom, I’m not sure&#160;when these “latest measurements” were meant to have been taken. But he’s right. <a href="" type="internal">We covered this at the time</a>: The world passed that 400 ppm threshold&#160;for the first meaningful way in May 2013, when the&#160;daily mean concentration of carbon dioxide was higher than at any time in human history, according to&#160;the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The measurements are indeed taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii; you can follow what’s known as the “Keeling Curve”—a measurement of atmospheric concentration of CO2— <a href="https://twitter.com/keeling_curve" type="external">on Twitter</a>, naturally, thanks to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Depends what you’re defining as catastrophic failure, I suppose.&#160; Say you were born last year, when I assume this episode was meant to be set. If we follow along current emissions trends, the planet will be 3.96°F-8.64°F (2.2°C–4.8°C) hotter than preindustrial times by your retirement. (You can type your birth year <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/interactive/2013/sep/27/climate-change-how-hot-lifetime-interactive" type="external">into this cool interactive</a>, driven by data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to check how hot it will be when you’re old). That’s above temperatures recommended to be in the supposedly “safe” zone by the IPCC, and could definitely result in a variety of “catastrophes” and “failures”. As deaths increase due to things like extreme weather, droughts and wildfires, this statement seems true enough when applied to individual episodes of calamity, which will surely increase. (The number of annual deaths in the UK due to heat, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/feb/04/heat-related-deaths-climate-change" type="external">for example</a>, is predicted to rise by 257 per cent by 2050.) The EPA official is right, in one sense. But it’s also arguable that deaths are already and will continue to be linked to climate change events. The line in the script infers the failure of the planet as a whole, which I think is artful flourish to illustrate just how glum this fellow is feeling.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Yup. That’s what the science says. The last time the atmosphere clocked 400 ppm it was 3 million years ago—the “Mid-Pliocene”—when sea levels were as much as 80 feet higher than today (see this 2007 <a href="http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/docs/2007/2007_Hansen_etal_2.pdf" type="external">research</a> paper authored by a group led by NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia University.) I’d probably add an “around” or “about” before the “80 feet higher” in the above statement; the studies leave a margin of error. But this statement checks out.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>His point is sound, but I’d like to see the writers’ sourcing—these numbers seem to date to <a href="http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/websites/retiredsites/natdia_pdf/ctrends_proceed.pdf" type="external">around the late 1990s</a>. According to a more recent <a href="http://www.erh.noaa.gov/ilm/AllHazards/pdf/NCCOS%20HML%20Natural%20Resource%20Hazard%20Response_SNW%20Nov2_2011_pdf.pdf" type="external">2011 NOAA report</a>, 55 percent of the world’s population lives within 50 miles of the coast. The UN has a slightly different number: Over 40 percent of the world’s population, or 3.1 billion, lives within 60 miles of the “ocean or sea in about 150 coastal and island nations.” In the US, 39 percent of the nation’s population lived in counties directly on the shoreline <a href="http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/population.html" type="external">in 2010</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>That seems right.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">There’s consensus amongst 97 percent of climate scientists that global warming is happening and that’s it’s a manmade disaster</a>. And I’ve heard climate scientists use this analogy before. (For what it’s worth, there are other things that can influence the boiling point of water, including altitude.)</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>He’s talking about the “carbon budget”, and again this is sound, despite Newsman Will’s growing anguish at a pretty devastating interview. The 565 gigaton number was popularized by Bill McKibben in a <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719" type="external">2012 Rolling Stone article</a> that Newsroom writers seem to have read. The number is “derived from one of the most sophisticated computer-simulation models that have been built by climate scientists around the world over the past few decades” (done by financial analysis firm Carbon Tracker) and is what we can add into the atmosphere by mid-century and still have a reasonable chance of success of staying below that safe two degrees warming threshold. Our grumpy scientist is so despondent because, yes, 2,795 is the number of gigatons of carbon already contained in the proven coal and oil and gas reserves in the hands of fossil-fuel companies and petrostates. In short, it’s the fossil fuel we’re currently planning to burn, writes McKibben. Carbon Tracker says <a href="http://www.carbontracker.org/report/carbon-bubble/" type="external">80 percent of these assets need to remain unburned</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>All of these things are predicted by the IPCC—I mean, not the permanent darkness thing, I don’t think that’s meant to be scientific. But yes, <a href="" type="internal">as we reported in May this year</a>, Europe faces freshwater shortages; Asia can expect more severe flooding from extreme storms; North America will see increased heat waves and wildfires, which can cause death and damage to ecosystems and property. Especially in poor countries, diminished crop yields will likely lead to increased malnutrition, which already affects nearly 900 million people worldwide.</p>
<p>So, in all, well done Newsroom. Informative, accurate, if a little heavy-handed on the doom and gloom.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | watch much tv drama say degree certainty rare climate change comes television news programs also contain tepid coverage general according watchdog group media matters thats weirdexciting climate reporter global warming received subplot aaron sorkins hbo drama newsroom last two episodes first little context maggie jordan alison pill shows daffy news producer whose role season seems exclusively designed reverse earlier charges sexism sorkin shes good job convoluted scene train boston new york maggie overhears records top epa official talking shit phone president obama another journalist offtherecord even though agreement confidentiality doesnt extend amtrak passengers eventually tells official wont use juicy obamadissing quotes impressed ethics official richard westbrook paul lieberstein rewards scoop embargoed epa report whoa scooooop uninitiated headsup study great get jump competition reports circulated embargoed time anyway maggie also gets exclusive interview official deputy assistant administrator epa get recent episode produces segment host mcavoy jeff daniels reports dire warnings scene odd number reasons newsroom packages drama based last years events time news world approaching 400 parts per million carbon dioxide atmosphere publicly anticipated weeks scoop way anything anyone following science didnt already know putting aside lets take look sorkins160facts presented episode measure lets go linebyline scene 160 weird parallel universe newsroom im sure160when latest measurements meant taken hes right covered time world passed 400 ppm threshold160for first meaningful way may 2013 the160daily mean concentration carbon dioxide higher time human history according to160the national oceanic atmospheric administration noaa measurements indeed taken mauna loa observatory hawaii follow whats known keeling curvea measurement atmospheric concentration co2 twitter naturally thanks scripps institution oceanography 160 depends youre defining catastrophic failure suppose160 say born last year assume episode meant set follow along current emissions trends planet 396f864f 22c48c hotter preindustrial times retirement type birth year cool interactive driven data intergovernmental panel climate change check hot youre old thats temperatures recommended supposedly safe zone ipcc could definitely result variety catastrophes failures deaths increase due things like extreme weather droughts wildfires statement seems true enough applied individual episodes calamity surely increase number annual deaths uk due heat example predicted rise 257 per cent 2050 epa official right one sense also arguable deaths already continue linked climate change events line script infers failure planet whole think artful flourish illustrate glum fellow feeling 160 yup thats science says last time atmosphere clocked 400 ppm 3 million years agothe midpliocenewhen sea levels much 80 feet higher today see 2007 research paper authored group led nasa goddard institute space studies columbia university id probably add around 80 feet higher statement studies leave margin error statement checks 160 point sound id like see writers sourcingthese numbers seem date around late 1990s according recent 2011 noaa report 55 percent worlds population lives within 50 miles coast un slightly different number 40 percent worlds population 31 billion lives within 60 miles ocean sea 150 coastal island nations us 39 percent nations population lived counties directly shoreline 2010 160 seems right 160 theres consensus amongst 97 percent climate scientists global warming happening thats manmade disaster ive heard climate scientists use analogy worth things influence boiling point water including altitude 160 hes talking carbon budget sound despite newsman wills growing anguish pretty devastating interview 565 gigaton number popularized bill mckibben 2012 rolling stone article newsroom writers seem read number derived one sophisticated computersimulation models built climate scientists around world past decades done financial analysis firm carbon tracker add atmosphere midcentury still reasonable chance success staying safe two degrees warming threshold grumpy scientist despondent yes 2795 number gigatons carbon already contained proven coal oil gas reserves hands fossilfuel companies petrostates short fossil fuel currently planning burn writes mckibben carbon tracker says 80 percent assets need remain unburned 160 things predicted ipcci mean permanent darkness thing dont think thats meant scientific yes reported may year europe faces freshwater shortages asia expect severe flooding extreme storms north america see increased heat waves wildfires cause death damage ecosystems property especially poor countries diminished crop yields likely lead increased malnutrition already affects nearly 900 million people worldwide well done newsroom informative accurate little heavyhanded doom gloom | 674 |
<p>Pick almost any date on the calendar and it’ll turn out that the US either started a war, ended a war, perpetrated a massacre or sent its UN Ambassador into the Security Council to declare to issue an ultimatum. It’s like driving across the American West. “Historic marker, 1 mile”, the sign says. A minute later you pull over and find yourself standing on dead Indians. “On this spot, in 1879 Major T and a troop of US cavalry ”</p>
<p>It’s three o’clock in the afternoon, Sunday March 18, one day short of the anniversary of US planes embarking on an aerial hunt of Pancho Villa in 1916;of the day the U.S. Senate rejected (for the second time) the Treaty of Versailles in 1920; of the end of the active phase of the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2002; of the 10 pm broadcast March 19, 2003, by President G.W. Bush announcing that aerial operations against Iraq had commenced.</p>
<p>This was the attack on Dora Farms outside Baghdad where some Iraqi whispered into his phone that Saddam Hussein was visiting his children. Down hurtled four 2000-pound bunker-busters and 40 cruise missiles. There were high fives in the White House situation room at news of a mangled Saddam being hauled from the rubble. It all turned out to be nonsense, like most military bulletins out of Iraq. The bunker busters all missed the compound. Saddam Hussein wasn’t there. Uday and Qusay weren’t there. Fifteen civilians died, including nine women and a child.</p>
<p>Here I was, a couple of days shy of four years later, in a used paperback store in a mall in Olympia, Washington, flicking through Tina Turner’s side of the story on life with Ike. My cell phone rang. It was my brother Patrick, calling from Sulaimaniyah, three hours drive east through the mountains from the Kurdish capital of Arbil, in northern Iraq. He gave me a brisk précis of the piece he’d file the next day. Every road was lethally dangerous; every Iraqi he met had a ghastly tale to tell of murder, kidnappings, terror-stricken flights, searches for missing relatives. Life was measurably far, far worse for the vast majority of Iraqis than it had been before the 2003 onslaught. He’d talked that day to Kassim Naji Salaman, a truck driver replacing his murdered brother at the wheel of an oil tanker. Salaman was now the sole bread earner for 18 women and children because so many of his male relatives had been killed “I can’t even visit the village where they live,” he told Patrick. “Soldiers or militia or just men in masks might kill me. I don’t even know how to send them money”.</p>
<p>I’ve had many such phone calls from Patrick since March 2003, as he returned time after time to Iraq, either to Baghdad or to the north. Unlike the embedded reporters he’s never felt moved to announce a “turning point”, as when they blew away Uday and Qusay on July 22,2003. CNN’s studio generals said on the news that night it was a big blow to the Iraqi resistance. Then Saddam was hauled out of a hole on December 15, 2003, just in time for Christmas. Maybe the death knell of the resistance, the studio generals exulted. Then came one “new dawn” for Iraq after another: the handback of Iraqi sovereignty in June 2004, the two elections and the new constitution in 2005. Now we have the “surge” into Baghdad, designed to whip the Shi’a back into line.</p>
<p>Contemptuous of all such bulletins, right from the start Patrick has relentlessly described the disintegration of Iraq, by measurements large and small. Remember that 13 years of sanctions ­- a horrible international onslaught of the health and well-being of a civilian population, enthusiatically supported by liberals in the US and Europe ­- Iraq’s plight was already dire. When the war began, Baghdad had 20 hours of power a day. Now it’s down to 2. Not thousands, not tens of thousands, but hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died. Not hundreds of thousands but two million have fled the country, mostly to Syria and Jordan. It’s the largest upheaval of a population in the Middle East since the Palestinian Naqba of 1948. Dawn after dawn rises over Iraq to reveal tortured corpses in the river beds, on the rubbish dumps, by the side of the road: bodies riddled with bullets, punctured by drills, whipped with wire cable, blown apart.</p>
<p>The U.N. says that in the two months before this last Christmas 5,000 Iraqi civilians were killed. The months since have probably been as bad. Saddam dragged his country into ruin. Then the US took it from ruin to the graveyard, plundering the corpse as it did so.</p>
<p>There’s plenty of blame to go round. You’d think these days that the cheerleaders for war were limited to a platoon of neocons, as potent in historical influence as were supposedly the Knights Templar. But it was not so. The coalition of the enablers spread far beyond Cheney’s team and the extended family of Norman Podhoretz. Atop mainstream corporate journalism perch the New York Times and the New Yorker, two prime disseminators of pro-invasion propaganda, written at the NYT by Judith Miller, Michael Gordon and, on the op ed page, by Thomas Friedman. The New Yorker put forth the voluminous lies of Jeffrey Goldberg and has remained impenitent till this day.</p>
<p>The war party virtually monopolized television. AM radio poured out a filthy torrent of war bluster. The laptop bombardiers such as Salman Rushdie were in full war paint. Among the progressives the liberal interventionists thumped their tin drums, often by writing pompous pieces attacking the antiwar “hard left”. Mini-pundits Todd Gitlin and Michael Berube played this game eagerly. Berube lavished abuse on Noam Chomsky and other clear opponents of the war, mumbling about the therapeutic potential of great power interventionism, piously invoking the tradition of “left internationalism”. Others, like Ian Williams, played supportive roles in instilling the idea that the upcoming war was negotiable, instead of an irreversible intent of the Bush administration, no matter what Saddam Hussein did. “The ball will be very much in Saddam Hussein’s court,” Williams wrote in November, 2002. “The question is whether he will cooperate and disarm, or dissimulate and bring about his own downfall at the hands of the U.S. military.” (In fact Saddam had already “disarmed”, as disclosed in Hussein Kamel’s debriefings by the UNSCOM inspectors, the CIA and MI6 in the summer of 1995 when Kamel told them all, with corroboration from aides who had also defected, that on Saddam Hussein’s orders his son-in-law had destroyed all of Iraq’s WMDs years earlier, right after the Gulf War. This was not a secret. In February 2003 John Barry reported it in Newsweek.Anyone privy to the UNSCOM, CIA and MI6 debriefs knew it from 1995 on.)</p>
<p>As Iraq began to plunge ever more rapidly into the abyss not long after the March, 2003 attack, this crowd stubbornly mostly stayed the course with Bush. “Thumpingly blind to the war’s virtues” was the head on a Paul Berman op ed piece in February, 2004.Christopher Hitchens lurched regularly onto Hardball to hurl abuse at critics of the war.</p>
<p>But today, amid Iraq’s dreadful death throes, where are the parlor warriors? Have those Iraqi exiles reconsidered their illusions, that all it would take was a brisk invasion and a new constitution, to put Iraq to rights? Have any of them, from Makiya through Hitchens to Berman and Berube had dark nights, asking themselves just how much responsibility they have for the heaps of dead in Iraq, for a plundered nation, for the American soldiers who died or were crippled in Iraq at their urging - Sometimes I dream of them, — Friedman, Hitchens, Berman — like characters in a Beckett play, buried up to their necks in a rubbish dump on the edge of Baghdad, reciting their columns to each other as the local women turn over the corpses to see if one of them is her husband or her son.</p>
<p>Post coldwar Liberal interventionism came of age with the onslaught on Serbia. Liberal support for the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq were the afterglows. Now that night has descended and illusions about the great crusade shattered for ever, let us tip our hats to those who opposed this war from the start ­ the real left, the libertarians and those without illusions about the “civilizing mission” of the great powers.</p>
<p>A Memory of Tanya Reinhart</p>
<p>Amid the shock of Tanya Reinhart’s sudden death from a stroke in New York, CounterPuncher Vanessa Jones reminded us of a little description she’d done of Reinhart, giving a talk at ANU in Canberra, late last year. It’s a nice vignette of a woman who gave her all for the struggle for justice for Palestinians.</p>
<p>She was: calm, thoughtful, down to earth, unpretentious, clear speaking, practical, not bitter, accessible, no need to smile, comfortable with her own seriousness. All the books sold out the hour before, lecture hall three quarters full, audience sympathized and laughed, but mainly listened. Over half the audience was grey or white haired- a third youngish- i.e. around 30 or 40 years old. It was easier to listen to her than read her- the content of her political writing I find depressing, with any writer. Coming from her, I found it simple and easy to digest- when you can see the sincere humanness of where she is coming from. She had the only map published in Israel before the Oslo deal- the one before the Camp David meeting. It was projected up onto the large screen. She was given a lecturer’s pointing stick to point up at the slide projected map, after her pen seemed inadequate, and Tanya laughed at the huge size of it, which seemed double her height, and hid it, until it was useful for pointing out areas.</p>
<p>Didn’t stay for her to sign my book. She looked like she’d be looked after for the evening. She wore short, suede-type lace up black boots, long tailored khaki skirt, with rear low slit, and black long sleeved stretch shirt, with a leather satchel on her back. When she walked down the stairs to the lecture area, she walked past, next to where I was seated, and I noticed she had a spring to her step. She had a certain vitality to her, and had that Israeli type of dress sense- slightly European and slightly hippy- or maybe I’ve only met hippyish Israelis. Sad that her view is a minority view amongst Israelis and Jews worldwide. Can’t see why her views are a minority- they seem perfect sense to me. Reminded me of an Israeli woman I met long ago- same outlook, and openness. So, I will try and read her book, but I would much rather sit and hear her read out a chapter each 2 hours. That would be easier, as it makes the situation seem as I see it- simply human, and not academic. But it’s not everyday that we can sit and hear people talk about things they would normally write about, so writing is a way to link the ideas with other minds. Communicate. I like seeing the writer/ thinker in the flesh- always comes across as normal and human, compared to the print, which at times can seem academic. Tanya Reinhart was quietly spoken and modest in her approach, with people asking for the volume up. Lots of questions at the end- they had to be limited.</p>
<p>ALEXANDER COCKBURN’s new book, <a href="http://www.easycartsecure.com/CounterPunch/CounterPunch_Books.html" type="external">End Times: the Death of the Fourth Estate,</a> is now available.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | pick almost date calendar itll turn us either started war ended war perpetrated massacre sent un ambassador security council declare issue ultimatum like driving across american west historic marker 1 mile sign says minute later pull find standing dead indians spot 1879 major troop us cavalry three oclock afternoon sunday march 18 one day short anniversary us planes embarking aerial hunt pancho villa 1916of day us senate rejected second time treaty versailles 1920 end active phase us invasion afghanistan 2002 10 pm broadcast march 19 2003 president gw bush announcing aerial operations iraq commenced attack dora farms outside baghdad iraqi whispered phone saddam hussein visiting children hurtled four 2000pound bunkerbusters 40 cruise missiles high fives white house situation room news mangled saddam hauled rubble turned nonsense like military bulletins iraq bunker busters missed compound saddam hussein wasnt uday qusay werent fifteen civilians died including nine women child couple days shy four years later used paperback store mall olympia washington flicking tina turners side story life ike cell phone rang brother patrick calling sulaimaniyah three hours drive east mountains kurdish capital arbil northern iraq gave brisk précis piece hed file next day every road lethally dangerous every iraqi met ghastly tale tell murder kidnappings terrorstricken flights searches missing relatives life measurably far far worse vast majority iraqis 2003 onslaught hed talked day kassim naji salaman truck driver replacing murdered brother wheel oil tanker salaman sole bread earner 18 women children many male relatives killed cant even visit village live told patrick soldiers militia men masks might kill dont even know send money ive many phone calls patrick since march 2003 returned time time iraq either baghdad north unlike embedded reporters hes never felt moved announce turning point blew away uday qusay july 222003 cnns studio generals said news night big blow iraqi resistance saddam hauled hole december 15 2003 time christmas maybe death knell resistance studio generals exulted came one new dawn iraq another handback iraqi sovereignty june 2004 two elections new constitution 2005 surge baghdad designed whip shia back line contemptuous bulletins right start patrick relentlessly described disintegration iraq measurements large small remember 13 years sanctions horrible international onslaught health wellbeing civilian population enthusiatically supported liberals us europe iraqs plight already dire war began baghdad 20 hours power day 2 thousands tens thousands hundreds thousands iraqis died hundreds thousands two million fled country mostly syria jordan largest upheaval population middle east since palestinian naqba 1948 dawn dawn rises iraq reveal tortured corpses river beds rubbish dumps side road bodies riddled bullets punctured drills whipped wire cable blown apart un says two months last christmas 5000 iraqi civilians killed months since probably bad saddam dragged country ruin us took ruin graveyard plundering corpse theres plenty blame go round youd think days cheerleaders war limited platoon neocons potent historical influence supposedly knights templar coalition enablers spread far beyond cheneys team extended family norman podhoretz atop mainstream corporate journalism perch new york times new yorker two prime disseminators proinvasion propaganda written nyt judith miller michael gordon op ed page thomas friedman new yorker put forth voluminous lies jeffrey goldberg remained impenitent till day war party virtually monopolized television radio poured filthy torrent war bluster laptop bombardiers salman rushdie full war paint among progressives liberal interventionists thumped tin drums often writing pompous pieces attacking antiwar hard left minipundits todd gitlin michael berube played game eagerly berube lavished abuse noam chomsky clear opponents war mumbling therapeutic potential great power interventionism piously invoking tradition left internationalism others like ian williams played supportive roles instilling idea upcoming war negotiable instead irreversible intent bush administration matter saddam hussein ball much saddam husseins court williams wrote november 2002 question whether cooperate disarm dissimulate bring downfall hands us military fact saddam already disarmed disclosed hussein kamels debriefings unscom inspectors cia mi6 summer 1995 kamel told corroboration aides also defected saddam husseins orders soninlaw destroyed iraqs wmds years earlier right gulf war secret february 2003 john barry reported newsweekanyone privy unscom cia mi6 debriefs knew 1995 iraq began plunge ever rapidly abyss long march 2003 attack crowd stubbornly mostly stayed course bush thumpingly blind wars virtues head paul berman op ed piece february 2004christopher hitchens lurched regularly onto hardball hurl abuse critics war today amid iraqs dreadful death throes parlor warriors iraqi exiles reconsidered illusions would take brisk invasion new constitution put iraq rights makiya hitchens berman berube dark nights asking much responsibility heaps dead iraq plundered nation american soldiers died crippled iraq urging sometimes dream friedman hitchens berman like characters beckett play buried necks rubbish dump edge baghdad reciting columns local women turn corpses see one husband son post coldwar liberal interventionism came age onslaught serbia liberal support attacks afghanistan iraq afterglows night descended illusions great crusade shattered ever let us tip hats opposed war start real left libertarians without illusions civilizing mission great powers memory tanya reinhart amid shock tanya reinharts sudden death stroke new york counterpuncher vanessa jones reminded us little description shed done reinhart giving talk anu canberra late last year nice vignette woman gave struggle justice palestinians calm thoughtful earth unpretentious clear speaking practical bitter accessible need smile comfortable seriousness books sold hour lecture hall three quarters full audience sympathized laughed mainly listened half audience grey white haired third youngish ie around 30 40 years old easier listen read content political writing find depressing writer coming found simple easy digest see sincere humanness coming map published israel oslo deal one camp david meeting projected onto large screen given lecturers pointing stick point slide projected map pen seemed inadequate tanya laughed huge size seemed double height hid useful pointing areas didnt stay sign book looked like shed looked evening wore short suedetype lace black boots long tailored khaki skirt rear low slit black long sleeved stretch shirt leather satchel back walked stairs lecture area walked past next seated noticed spring step certain vitality israeli type dress sense slightly european slightly hippy maybe ive met hippyish israelis sad view minority view amongst israelis jews worldwide cant see views minority seem perfect sense reminded israeli woman met long ago outlook openness try read book would much rather sit hear read chapter 2 hours would easier makes situation seem see simply human academic everyday sit hear people talk things would normally write writing way link ideas minds communicate like seeing writer thinker flesh always comes across normal human compared print times seem academic tanya reinhart quietly spoken modest approach people asking volume lots questions end limited alexander cockburns new book end times death fourth estate available 160 | 1,087 |
<p>Dublin.</p>
<p>His predecessor Charlie Haughey called Bertie Ahern “the most skilful, the most devious, the most cunning of them all”, no mean compliment coming from such a notorious source.</p>
<p>But today Bertie Ahern has had to quit as Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) under a cloud of scandal: he’ll stay in office for another five weeks, just long enough to make an ‘historic’ address to the US Congress on April 30th.</p>
<p>Although no one was quite sure of its impact until today, it seems the killer blow came just before Easter when his former constituency secretary, Grainne Carruth, admitted tearfully to a corruption enquiry that money she deposited for Ahern back in the mid-1990s must have been in British sterling currency–and so could not have been, as Ahern had claimed, his salary checks.</p>
<p>Bertie is an accountant by profession, but his cunning did not extend to hiding mysterious sums of money with sufficient care. For the last two years, a tribunal investigating Ireland’s thoroughly bent planning process has been turning up odd transactions and deposits, along with Ahern’s unlikely stories of huge piles of cash from his salary kept in an office safe, pricy home renovations and ‘dig-outs’ from pals who wanted to help him out with the cost of his marital separation. There were ‘gifts’, and ‘loans’ that were never paid off, and increasingly a sense that the taxman could be closing in.</p>
<p>It started to really look terminal with the recent revelation that his then-girlfriend, Celia Larkin, scooped £30,000 in money from Fianna Fail party funds, allegedly a loan to help elderly relatives who were in financial trouble. Despite a well-proven history of corruption, Ahern’s Fianna Fail party sees itself as a populist organization with deep grassroots, raising cash with pub gigs and church-gate collections, and some local members didn’t like the idea of their money being tossed around that way.</p>
<p>An analysis last week by the Ahern-chasing Irish Times concluded that the tribunal has so far queried Ahern’s lodgments and transactions from the period 1988 to 1997 to a total of £452,000. That’s in the old, pre-euro Irish pounds, and would be well over $1 million in today’s money. It’s a lot of cash given Ahern’s conspicuously modest lifestyle, but would have been chump-change to the late Haughey, who collected tens of millions in political tribute and lived like royalty.</p>
<p>That contrast in ‘lifestyle’, and the fact that Ahern has presided over unprecedented prosperity as well as a political settlement in Northern Ireland, has brought forth immense sympathy for him today, in the media and on the streets. At his press conference he was flanked by supportive cabinet colleagues, and he declared emotionally: “I know in my heart of hearts that I have done no wrong and wronged no one.”</p>
<p>The media are being blamed for hounding him from office: “There is blood on the printing presses today,” declared one emotional caller to a radio program. But actually Ahern has had largely sympathetic press during his years in office. The tabloids loved his pint-drinking ‘man of the people’ act, and his social-democratic rhetoric matched with ruthlessly neoliberal practice made him the perfect front-man for the Celtic Tiger. He kept on the right side of Ireland’s most powerful media mogul, Tony O’Reilly, and enjoyed warm relations too with the invading Murdoch empire: by happy coincidence, his daughter Cecelia’s multi-million-euro book contract for chick-lit novels is with Murdoch’s HarperCollins.</p>
<p>It’s true that the Irish Times has lost patience with Ahern, and the English-based Daily Mail has tried to build a profile for its Irish version by attacking Bertie ceaselessly. But by and large the media pursuit of the Taoiseach has been lackluster, and he is the author of his own misfortune.</p>
<p>Not that he acknowledges as much. Admitting that the tribunal, where he has been frequently called as a witness, is a distraction, he said today only a “simplistic analysis” would attribute his departure to its work. He insisted again that the investigation will ultimately vindicate him, and whined: “I have provided more detail about my personal finances than any person in public life who has ever held office.”</p>
<p>Perhaps this self-pitying hyperbole was meant to make us think, plausibly, that almost any politician subjected to such scrutiny would harbor some hard-to-explain funds. But it was also a reminder of how investigators keep turning up accounts that Ahern has failed to mention. His announcement today came a few hours before he was to face parliamentary questions about the latest revelations.</p>
<p>Whatever his ultimate legacy, he is trying manfully to go out on a high note. The address to America’s joint Houses of Congress, allegedly only the fourth ever by a foreign leader, will be, as always, awkwardly delivered by the verbally stumbling Bertie, but also another chance to mark himself down as a man at the very centre of his nation’s history, and of its new place in the world order. It comes almost exactly 10 years after the Good Friday Agreement, which pointed the way to power-sharing in Northern Ireland, and which undoubtedly owes something to Ahern’s negotiating prowess.</p>
<p>Indeed, leading the government of what is sometimes regarded as the ultimate neoliberal success story, Ahern has embodied the technocratic aspect of neoliberal ideology. A superficially likeable but entirely uninspiring man, he’s seen as a problem-solver, a fixer, able to remove the obstacles that lie in the way of people seeing their common interests–workers and bosses, nationalists and unionists. After the Good Friday Agreement, he easily persuaded the Republic of Ireland’s electorate to scrap articles 2 and 3 of Eamon de Valera’s 1937 Constitution, which claimed Northern Ireland as part of the national territory, skillfully transforming a potentially emotional issue into a merely technical one.</p>
<p>Before today he was regarded as having a real chance at getting a big EU job when he stepped down from office here, which he was committed to do in the next two or three years anyway.</p>
<p>Among his biggest political failures, however, was the defeat in a referendum of the EU’s Nice Treaty in 2001 (it got through in a re-run in 2002), and the Europhile elite here was worried that Bertie’s tribunal travails might weaken the campaign for the new Lisbon Treaty in this June’s referendum. (The peculiarities of Ireland’s constitution have made it necessary to hold public referenda on EU treaties: the Irish people are the only Europeans who will go to the polls on this latest restructuring of EU institutions.)</p>
<p>The sentimentality has come thick and fast and implausible in the hours since Ahern’s announcement. But everyone knows politics is a vicious game, and must have noticed that Fianna Fail public support for him was getting weaker in the last week, with the increasingly conspicuous exception of his brother, also a politician.</p>
<p>After today’s outward sorrow and inward giddiness, attention turns to Bertie’s likely and anointed successor, Brian Cowen, a man who as foreign minister smashed Irish neutrality on the altar of the War on Terror, and one whom Ahern might easily have called “the most skilful, the most devious, the most cunning of them all”.</p>
<p>HARRY BROWNE lectures at Dublin Institute of Technology and writes for Village magazine. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:harry.browne@gmail.com" type="external">harry.browne@gmail.com</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | dublin predecessor charlie haughey called bertie ahern skilful devious cunning mean compliment coming notorious source today bertie ahern quit irish taoiseach prime minister cloud scandal hell stay office another five weeks long enough make historic address us congress april 30th although one quite sure impact today seems killer blow came easter former constituency secretary grainne carruth admitted tearfully corruption enquiry money deposited ahern back mid1990s must british sterling currencyand could ahern claimed salary checks bertie accountant profession cunning extend hiding mysterious sums money sufficient care last two years tribunal investigating irelands thoroughly bent planning process turning odd transactions deposits along aherns unlikely stories huge piles cash salary kept office safe pricy home renovations digouts pals wanted help cost marital separation gifts loans never paid increasingly sense taxman could closing started really look terminal recent revelation thengirlfriend celia larkin scooped 30000 money fianna fail party funds allegedly loan help elderly relatives financial trouble despite wellproven history corruption aherns fianna fail party sees populist organization deep grassroots raising cash pub gigs churchgate collections local members didnt like idea money tossed around way analysis last week ahernchasing irish times concluded tribunal far queried aherns lodgments transactions period 1988 1997 total 452000 thats old preeuro irish pounds would well 1 million todays money lot cash given aherns conspicuously modest lifestyle would chumpchange late haughey collected tens millions political tribute lived like royalty contrast lifestyle fact ahern presided unprecedented prosperity well political settlement northern ireland brought forth immense sympathy today media streets press conference flanked supportive cabinet colleagues declared emotionally know heart hearts done wrong wronged one media blamed hounding office blood printing presses today declared one emotional caller radio program actually ahern largely sympathetic press years office tabloids loved pintdrinking man people act socialdemocratic rhetoric matched ruthlessly neoliberal practice made perfect frontman celtic tiger kept right side irelands powerful media mogul tony oreilly enjoyed warm relations invading murdoch empire happy coincidence daughter cecelias multimillioneuro book contract chicklit novels murdochs harpercollins true irish times lost patience ahern englishbased daily mail tried build profile irish version attacking bertie ceaselessly large media pursuit taoiseach lackluster author misfortune acknowledges much admitting tribunal frequently called witness distraction said today simplistic analysis would attribute departure work insisted investigation ultimately vindicate whined provided detail personal finances person public life ever held office perhaps selfpitying hyperbole meant make us think plausibly almost politician subjected scrutiny would harbor hardtoexplain funds also reminder investigators keep turning accounts ahern failed mention announcement today came hours face parliamentary questions latest revelations whatever ultimate legacy trying manfully go high note address americas joint houses congress allegedly fourth ever foreign leader always awkwardly delivered verbally stumbling bertie also another chance mark man centre nations history new place world order comes almost exactly 10 years good friday agreement pointed way powersharing northern ireland undoubtedly owes something aherns negotiating prowess indeed leading government sometimes regarded ultimate neoliberal success story ahern embodied technocratic aspect neoliberal ideology superficially likeable entirely uninspiring man hes seen problemsolver fixer able remove obstacles lie way people seeing common interestsworkers bosses nationalists unionists good friday agreement easily persuaded republic irelands electorate scrap articles 2 3 eamon de valeras 1937 constitution claimed northern ireland part national territory skillfully transforming potentially emotional issue merely technical one today regarded real chance getting big eu job stepped office committed next two three years anyway among biggest political failures however defeat referendum eus nice treaty 2001 got rerun 2002 europhile elite worried berties tribunal travails might weaken campaign new lisbon treaty junes referendum peculiarities irelands constitution made necessary hold public referenda eu treaties irish people europeans go polls latest restructuring eu institutions sentimentality come thick fast implausible hours since aherns announcement everyone knows politics vicious game must noticed fianna fail public support getting weaker last week increasingly conspicuous exception brother also politician todays outward sorrow inward giddiness attention turns berties likely anointed successor brian cowen man foreign minister smashed irish neutrality altar war terror one ahern might easily called skilful devious cunning harry browne lectures dublin institute technology writes village magazine reached harrybrownegmailcom 160 160 160 160 160 | 676 |
<p>On September 20, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that two Oregon statutes that had criminalized giving sexually-explicit material to minors violated the First Amendment.</p>
<p>In theory, these statutes were intended to target the reprehensible practices of “luring” and “grooming,” by which adults expose minors to sexually-explicit material as part of their attempt to have sex with the minors. And of course, no party to the case has contested the point that an adult’s having sex with — or attempting to have sex with — a minor is wrong and should be illegal.</p>
<p>However, the Oregon statutes at issue did not criminalize the combination of luring or grooming and sex with a minor, whether achieved or attempted. Instead, the statutes allowed prosecutions to occur when no sex by an adult with a minor had occurred, had been attempted, or had been intended.</p>
<p>Indeed, the core of the offenses at issue was not any sex act; it was the provision of the sexually-explicit material. And, as the Ninth Circuit panel concluded, the Oregon statutes defined what counted as sexually-explicit material under the statutes in a way that swept in a significant swathe of First-Amendment-protected speech. Accordingly, the panel struck down the two statutes.</p>
<p>In this column, I’ll further explain why the statutes violated the First Amendment. I’ll also explain why I believe that the Ninth Circuit panel made the right choice in declining to grant the State of Oregon’s request that the panel rewrite or reinterpret the statutes in a way that would have rendered them constitutional.</p>
<p>The Statutes Swept in Works of Serious Value, and Reached Not Just Child Predators But Also Respectable Bookstores</p>
<p>The first statute at issue criminalized providing children under the age of thirteen with sexually-explicit material. The second statute criminalized providing minors under the age of eighteen with visual, verbal, or narrative descriptions of sexual conduct for the purpose of sexually arousing the minor or the person providing the material, or inducing the minor to engage in sexual conduct. (The statute sets out some defenses, but they are limited.)</p>
<p>Neither statute required that the material at issue must meet the Supreme Court’s classic First Amendment test for when material is deemed “obscene as to minors” — a lower standard than the standard for when material is simply deemed obscene. Nor did either statute include the Court’s classic “serious value” exception for worthy works.</p>
<p>Because of the statutes’ lack of any such standard or exception, the Ninth Circuit panel concluded that the statutes could reach, for example, eminent novelist Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale; beloved teen writer Judy Blume’s explicit tale of a teen romance, Forever; and a number of commonly-used sex-education books that explain in factual but child-appropriate terms “where babies come from.”</p>
<p>The statutes also lacked any exception for booksellers, although there was one for libraries. Thus, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging the statutes on First-Amendment grounds was Powell’s Books — a Portland bookstore best known as a hyper-intellectual hipster haven. The fact that the statutes gave even Powell’s good reason to fear criminal prosecution illustrates just how widely they swept, and why the Ninth Circuit panel was right to strike them down.</p>
<p>In addition to ignoring classic First Amendment tests set forth in Supreme Court precedent, the statutes were also dangerously vague. Consider the second statute, which is triggered if an adult intends to sexually arouse a minor using the explicit material. If a 21-year-old chooses a movie because he knows that his 17-year-old girlfriend will find it sexy, is he suddenly a criminal? He did, after all, expose a minor to sexually-explicit visual material with the hope she would be aroused. (The statutes give the would-be defendant a pass when he or she is only 3 years older than the minor, but not if he or she is any older than that.)</p>
<p>Similarly, even a 21-year-old bookstore clerk’s completing a sale to a young customer of a book that the customer has chosen could be illegal, if the clerk knows and intends that the customer will find the book sexy. For customers under 13, moreover, the first statute ensures that a bookstore clerk’s simply handing the wrong book over, or forgetting to “card”a bookstore’s customer to see if she is old enough to read it, could be enough for the clerk to go to jail.</p>
<p>As a result, Powell’s Books had a genuine reason to fear prosecution if it did not both “card” its young purchasers before selling to them, and also act as a private censor, guessing which books would be deemed to run afoul of the law.</p>
<p>The Ninth Circuit Was Right In Refusing to Narrow the Statutes in Order to Save Them</p>
<p>In court, the State of Oregon argued that these two statutes, in practice, are only applied when the material at issue is hardcore pornography, or could be deemed “obscene as to minors.” The State also claimed that the Oregon legislature had never intended that the statues should ever be applied outside these bounds. And, it asked the court to narrowly construe the two statutes in a way that would make them constitutional — rather than striking them down.</p>
<p>Under First Amendment doctrine, an overbroad statute must be “readily susceptible” to this kind of narrowing for the court to have the option to narrow it, rather than strike it down. This test is designed to help out legislatures when their statutory drafting just barely missed the mark. In this case, however, the Oregon legislature totally flouted clear Supreme Court precedent that set forth mandatory limits on how far this kind of statute could reach.</p>
<p>Thus, if the Ninth Circuit panel had rewarded that approach with a narrowing construction, it would have invited the Oregon legislature, in future First-Amendment contexts, to continue to “Legislate first, and ask questions later.” Legislators have their own legal counsel; they need to consult them, and not turn a blind eye to obvious legal constraints that should affect the way they draft legislation.</p>
<p>Such a devil-may-care approach to legislating should be condemned no matter what legal issues a proposed law raises. Moreover, such an approach presents a special problem in the First Amendment context, where courts recognize the serious constitutional cost that is paid when laws exert a “chilling effect” on speech. When courts simply “fix”such statutes, years after they are passed, in order to make them constitutional, they essentially give their blessing to the interim First Amendment violations that occurred.</p>
<p>Rewarding the legislature by saving the law would only have encouraged legislative misbehavior and cavalier law-drafting. Powell’s and other booksellers should not have been forced to live in fear until and unless they tested this law.</p>
<p>Thus, the Ninth Circuit panel did the right thing by requiring the Oregon legislature to understand and honor basic First Amendment precedents, or else watch its laws be struck down. These weren’t subtle points that were missed; to the contrary, crystal-clear Supreme Court precedents were ignored. In such a situation, the legislature should be apologizing to the court, not asking it for favors.</p>
<p>JULIE HILDEN practiced First Amendment law at the D.C. law firm of Williams &amp; Connolly from 1996-99. She is the author of a memoir, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1565121856/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Bad Daughter</a> and a novel <a href="" type="internal">Three</a>. She can be reached through her <a href="http://www.juliehilden.com/" type="external">website</a>.</p>
<p>This column originally appeared on <a href="http://writ.news.findlaw.com/" type="external">Findlaw’s Writ</a>.</p> | true | 4 | september 20 threejudge panel us court appeals ninth circuit held two oregon statutes criminalized giving sexuallyexplicit material minors violated first amendment theory statutes intended target reprehensible practices luring grooming adults expose minors sexuallyexplicit material part attempt sex minors course party case contested point adults sex attempting sex minor wrong illegal however oregon statutes issue criminalize combination luring grooming sex minor whether achieved attempted instead statutes allowed prosecutions occur sex adult minor occurred attempted intended indeed core offenses issue sex act provision sexuallyexplicit material ninth circuit panel concluded oregon statutes defined counted sexuallyexplicit material statutes way swept significant swathe firstamendmentprotected speech accordingly panel struck two statutes column ill explain statutes violated first amendment ill also explain believe ninth circuit panel made right choice declining grant state oregons request panel rewrite reinterpret statutes way would rendered constitutional statutes swept works serious value reached child predators also respectable bookstores first statute issue criminalized providing children age thirteen sexuallyexplicit material second statute criminalized providing minors age eighteen visual verbal narrative descriptions sexual conduct purpose sexually arousing minor person providing material inducing minor engage sexual conduct statute sets defenses limited neither statute required material issue must meet supreme courts classic first amendment test material deemed obscene minors lower standard standard material simply deemed obscene either statute include courts classic serious value exception worthy works statutes lack standard exception ninth circuit panel concluded statutes could reach example eminent novelist margaret atwoods handmaids tale beloved teen writer judy blumes explicit tale teen romance forever number commonlyused sexeducation books explain factual childappropriate terms babies come statutes also lacked exception booksellers although one libraries thus one plaintiffs lawsuit challenging statutes firstamendment grounds powells books portland bookstore best known hyperintellectual hipster fact statutes gave even powells good reason fear criminal prosecution illustrates widely swept ninth circuit panel right strike addition ignoring classic first amendment tests set forth supreme court precedent statutes also dangerously vague consider second statute triggered adult intends sexually arouse minor using explicit material 21yearold chooses movie knows 17yearold girlfriend find sexy suddenly criminal expose minor sexuallyexplicit visual material hope would aroused statutes give wouldbe defendant pass 3 years older minor older similarly even 21yearold bookstore clerks completing sale young customer book customer chosen could illegal clerk knows intends customer find book sexy customers 13 moreover first statute ensures bookstore clerks simply handing wrong book forgetting carda bookstores customer see old enough read could enough clerk go jail result powells books genuine reason fear prosecution card young purchasers selling also act private censor guessing books would deemed run afoul law ninth circuit right refusing narrow statutes order save court state oregon argued two statutes practice applied material issue hardcore pornography could deemed obscene minors state also claimed oregon legislature never intended statues ever applied outside bounds asked court narrowly construe two statutes way would make constitutional rather striking first amendment doctrine overbroad statute must readily susceptible kind narrowing court option narrow rather strike test designed help legislatures statutory drafting barely missed mark case however oregon legislature totally flouted clear supreme court precedent set forth mandatory limits far kind statute could reach thus ninth circuit panel rewarded approach narrowing construction would invited oregon legislature future firstamendment contexts continue legislate first ask questions later legislators legal counsel need consult turn blind eye obvious legal constraints affect way draft legislation devilmaycare approach legislating condemned matter legal issues proposed law raises moreover approach presents special problem first amendment context courts recognize serious constitutional cost paid laws exert chilling effect speech courts simply fixsuch statutes years passed order make constitutional essentially give blessing interim first amendment violations occurred rewarding legislature saving law would encouraged legislative misbehavior cavalier lawdrafting powells booksellers forced live fear unless tested law thus ninth circuit panel right thing requiring oregon legislature understand honor basic first amendment precedents else watch laws struck werent subtle points missed contrary crystalclear supreme court precedents ignored situation legislature apologizing court asking favors julie hilden practiced first amendment law dc law firm williams amp connolly 199699 author memoir bad daughter novel three reached website column originally appeared findlaws writ | 674 |
<p>The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia always knows when it’s onto a good thing. That particular “thing”, in the few days left before the UK elections, is the May government. That same government that has done so much to make a distinction between policy and values, notably when it comes to dealing with Riyadh.</p>
<p>The United Kingdom has been a firm, even obsequious backer of Saudi Arabia’s war against Yemen.&#160; In the traditional spoiling nature of British foreign policy, what is good for the UK wallet can also be good in keeping Middle Eastern politics brutal and divided. The obscurantist despots of the House of Saud have profited, as a result.</p>
<p>The Saudi bribery machine tends to function all hours, a measure of its gratitude and its tenacity.&#160; According to the register of financial interests disclosed by the UK Parliament, conservative members of the government received almost £100 thousand pounds in terms of travel expenses, gifts, and consulting fees since the Yemen conflict began.</p>
<p>The Saudi sponsors certainly know which side their bread is buttered on.&#160; Those involved in debates on Middle Eastern policy have been the specific targets of such largesse.&#160; Tory MP Charlotte Leslie was one, and received a food basket totalling £500.</p>
<p>Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond is another keen target of the Kingdom’s deep pockets, having shown a willingness to defend mass executions in the past. “Let us be clear, first of all,” he insisted after consuming the Kingdom’s gruel on why 47 people were executed in January 2016, “that these people are convicted terrorists.”&#160; Four of them, including Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, were political protesters as well, but terrorists come in all shades.</p>
<p>Hammond, instead of going red on the issue, found another Islamic regime of comparable worth to point the finger at. Iran, for instance, “executes far more people than Saudi Arabia”. Best, then, to drop the matter and do such things as accept a watch from the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the value of £1,950.</p>
<p>Such a sweetly disposed attitude stands in the annals of the British approach, a matter not so much of sentiment and institution.&#160; The Blair government of New Labour fluff was similarly keen to smooth the pathway for the British arms market, while making sure that Riyadh, whatever its policies, was courted.</p>
<p>Attempts to shine a strong, searing spotlight on corrupt practices, notably those linked to BAE, have been scotched, blocked or stalled.&#160; One such example, a chilling one given the recent spate of attacks on civilians in the UK, involved a disgruntled Prince Bandar, head of Saudi Arabia’s national security council, threaten Prime Minister Tony Blair with “another 7/7” should a fraud investigation into BAE-Riyadh transactions continue.</p>
<p>High Court documents in February 2008 hearings insisted that the Prince had flown to London in December 2006 to give Blair a personal savaging laced with ominous promise: stop the Serious Fraud Office investigation, or expect London to witness a terrorist inflicted bloodbath. <a href="#_ftn1" type="external">[1]</a></p>
<p>Blair complied, leaving Robert Wardle, the SFO’s director, stunned.&#160; “The idea of discontinuing the investigation went against my every instinct as a prosecutor. I wanted to see where the evidence led.” Not, however, obliging Tony and the happy executioners in Riyadh.</p>
<p>In yet another interesting turn ahead of the June 8 election, Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn has decided to bring the Saudi role behind that policy into full view.&#160; Corbyn’s rebranded Labour approach is more hard-nosed on the issue of UK arms sales to the Kingdom.&#160; Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry wished for a return (was there every one?) to an “ethical foreign policy”, one fashioned on the approach taken by former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook.</p>
<p>Cook’s ethical thrust, if it could be termed that, came to view in 2003 when he resigned over the Iraq War.&#160; “Labour does not accept that political values can be left behind when we check in our passports.”</p>
<p>Not so, according to Blair, whose sense of ethics was always muddled by a contaminating mix of evangelism and fakery. But times are different from Corbyn’s perspective.&#160; This is Labour rebooted on Cook’s original objectives: “We will strive,” promised Thornberry, “to reduce not increase global tensions, and give new momentum to talks on non-proliferation and disarmament.” <a href="#_ftn2" type="external">[2]</a></p>
<p>Thornberry’s words would have sent a true tingling through the Saudi security establishment. In line with the Labour party manifesto, the shadow foreign secretary promised to pursue an independent UN investigation into alleged war crimes in Yemen.&#160; Arms sales to the Saudi coalition engaged in that conflict would be suspended.</p>
<p>The picture is not a pretty one when shoved into the electoral process. But then again, the May wobble and turn may well justify such a relationship on terms that Saudi security and power is preferable to other authoritarian regimes. These big bad Sunnis are the good Muslims of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office.</p>
<p>Such splitting of hairs doesn’t tend to fly well from the stump and the Tories might well attempt to keep things as quiet as possible. The Saudis, on the other hand, will be wishing for business as usual, praying that the threat of a Corbyn government passes into the shadows of back slapping Realpolitik.</p>
<p>Notes.</p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref1" type="external">[1]</a> <a href="" type="internal">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/feb/15/bae.armstrade</a></p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref2" type="external">[2]</a> <a href="" type="internal">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/11/labour-britain-foreign-policy-donald-trump</a></p> | true | 4 | kingdom saudi arabia always knows onto good thing particular thing days left uk elections may government government done much make distinction policy values notably comes dealing riyadh united kingdom firm even obsequious backer saudi arabias war yemen160 traditional spoiling nature british foreign policy good uk wallet also good keeping middle eastern politics brutal divided obscurantist despots house saud profited result saudi bribery machine tends function hours measure gratitude tenacity160 according register financial interests disclosed uk parliament conservative members government received almost 100 thousand pounds terms travel expenses gifts consulting fees since yemen conflict began saudi sponsors certainly know side bread buttered on160 involved debates middle eastern policy specific targets largesse160 tory mp charlotte leslie one received food basket totalling 500 foreign secretary philip hammond another keen target kingdoms deep pockets shown willingness defend mass executions past let us clear first insisted consuming kingdoms gruel 47 people executed january 2016 people convicted terrorists160 four including sheikh nimr alnimr political protesters well terrorists come shades hammond instead going red issue found another islamic regime comparable worth point finger iran instance executes far people saudi arabia best drop matter things accept watch saudi arabian ambassador value 1950 sweetly disposed attitude stands annals british approach matter much sentiment institution160 blair government new labour fluff similarly keen smooth pathway british arms market making sure riyadh whatever policies courted attempts shine strong searing spotlight corrupt practices notably linked bae scotched blocked stalled160 one example chilling one given recent spate attacks civilians uk involved disgruntled prince bandar head saudi arabias national security council threaten prime minister tony blair another 77 fraud investigation baeriyadh transactions continue high court documents february 2008 hearings insisted prince flown london december 2006 give blair personal savaging laced ominous promise stop serious fraud office investigation expect london witness terrorist inflicted bloodbath 1 blair complied leaving robert wardle sfos director stunned160 idea discontinuing investigation went every instinct prosecutor wanted see evidence led however obliging tony happy executioners riyadh yet another interesting turn ahead june 8 election labours jeremy corbyn decided bring saudi role behind policy full view160 corbyns rebranded labour approach hardnosed issue uk arms sales kingdom160 shadow foreign secretary emily thornberry wished return every one ethical foreign policy one fashioned approach taken former foreign secretary robin cook cooks ethical thrust could termed came view 2003 resigned iraq war160 labour accept political values left behind check passports according blair whose sense ethics always muddled contaminating mix evangelism fakery times different corbyns perspective160 labour rebooted cooks original objectives strive promised thornberry reduce increase global tensions give new momentum talks nonproliferation disarmament 2 thornberrys words would sent true tingling saudi security establishment line labour party manifesto shadow foreign secretary promised pursue independent un investigation alleged war crimes yemen160 arms sales saudi coalition engaged conflict would suspended picture pretty one shoved electoral process may wobble turn may well justify relationship terms saudi security power preferable authoritarian regimes big bad sunnis good muslims british foreign commonwealth office splitting hairs doesnt tend fly well stump tories might well attempt keep things quiet possible saudis hand wishing business usual praying threat corbyn government passes shadows back slapping realpolitik notes 1 httpswwwtheguardiancomworld2008feb15baearmstrade 2 httpswwwtheguardiancomcommentisfree2017may11labourbritainforeignpolicydonaldtrump | 523 |
<p>On December 13, 2001, President George W. Bush gave notice that the United States was going to withdraw from the ABM Treaty in six months.</p>
<p>There are several issues to be dealt with.</p>
<p>1 Does a President of the United States have the Constitutional power to terminate a treaty without the advice and consent of the Senate or the approval of the Congress?</p>
<p>2 Has the United States satisfied the necessary conditions for withdrawal from the ABM Treaty as specified in the Treaty itself?</p>
<p>3 Is it necessary to withdraw from the ABM Treaty at this time to pursue the development of ballistic missile defenses?</p>
<p>4 Are effective defenses against ballistic missiles accompanied by likely countermeasures and decoys technologically achievable in the foreseeable future?</p>
<p>5 Is there a ballistic missile threat which justifies the development of ballistic missile defenses?</p>
<p>6 Are the envisioned ballistic missile defenses survivable against preemptive attack by entities possessing the technology for both intercontinental ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction?</p>
<p>7 Are ballistic missile defenses more effective and less costly than other means of dealing with the existing and forecast ballistic missile threats (such as buying them out)?</p>
<p>8 Taking into account the likely responses of both our allies and our adversaries to our withdrawal from the ABM Treaty and development of ballistic missile defenses, is the net effect of such actions such as to enhance our national security?</p>
<p>9 Considering the fact that ballistic missile defenses would be useless against aircraft, small boats, rental trucks, and all the other delivery means that the CIA and DOD say are far more likely to be used against us than missiles, and that withdrawal from the ABM Treaty will increase the fear and hatred which makes us the target of terrorists, is the potential utility of defenses against hypothetical rogue nation missiles sufficient to offset the increase in the terrorist threat they will cause?</p>
<p>10 Is it in the interest of the people of the United States of America to withdraw from the ABM Treaty?</p>
<p>These ten questions are interrelated, of course, but each of them can be addressed independently of the others. For President George W. Bush’s actions to be appropriate, the answer to all ten questions would have to be “Yes.” For the members of Congress to be justified in continuing their inaction with respect to the President’s planned withdrawal from the ABM Treaty, the answer to all ten questions would have to be “Yes.” If the answer to even one of the above ten questions is “No,” then Congress has to challenge the President’s actions, and (if necessary) take him to court.</p>
<p>Ironically, in my considered opinion, the answer to every single one of the ten questions is “NO.”</p>
<p>The purpose of this article [link] is to address the first three questions.</p>
<p>(In previous articles, I have explained why “No” is the proper answer to each of the last seven questions. These questions are addressed in some detail on <a href="http://rmbowman.com/ssn/" type="external">our web site</a> and in past issues of Space &amp; Security News as well as my 1984 book “Star Wars: Defense or Death Star.” (And no, the answers haven’t changed.)</p>
<p>Constitutionality of Unilateral Treaty Withdrawal by the President</p>
<p>The Congress is acting like there’s nothing they can do about President Bush withdrawing from the ABM Treaty. But that’s only their cowardice talking. They are afraid to challenge a popular wartime president.</p>
<p>The ABM Treaty is important. I believe that its demise will greatly harm our national security. But there’s even more at stake. Letting Bush get away with this will destroy the balance of powers carefully crafted in our Constitution. The President pretends that the Constitution gives him the sole responsibility for conducting foreign policy. It does no such thing. It assigns the president only three duties with respect to foreign policy: (1) to be Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, (2) to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur, and (3) to appoint ambassadors. The latter two powers are subject to the “advice and consent of the Senate,” but only the power to make treaties is constrained additionally by the requirement to obtain the concurrence of two-thirds of the Senators present. The president is given no power whatsoever to “make foreign policy.” As Judge Oliver Gasch of the District of Columbia District Court said in 1979, “While the President may be the sole organ of communication with foreign governments, he is clearly not the sole maker of foreign policy. In short, the conduct of foreign relations is not a plenary executive power.” Judge Gasch went on to say, “He alone cannot effect the repeal of a law of the land which was formed by joint action of the executive and legislative branches, whether that law be a statute or a treaty.”</p>
<p>The Constitution itself doesn’t mention withdrawal from treaties. But historical precedents are heavily on the side of Congressional involvement. The first time the United States withdrew from a treaty was in 1798, when a pair of treaties with France were ended by an act passed by a majority of both houses of Congress and then signed by President John Adams. Since then, three quarters of the treaty terminations have been accomplished jointly by Congress and the president. Sometimes the president would ask Congress to make the decision by a vote of both houses. On other occasions the president would ask the Senate for their “advice and consent.” A number of historical precedents are described in an article by Walter C. Clemens, Jr. (professor of political science at Boston University) in the November/December 2001 issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.</p>
<p>Those defending unilateral presidential action point to President Jimmy Carter’s termination of the mutual defense treaty with Taiwan, an action he took in order to recognize the People’s Republic of China. Twenty-four members of Congress sued the president in an attempt to stop his withdrawal from the treaty. The case eventually wound up in the Supreme Court, which refused to order Carter to desist. But it is important to recognize that the Supreme Court never decided the Constitutional case on its merits. It simply refused to act because Congress as a body had not yet taken action.</p>
<p>Goldwater vs. Carter had first gone to Judge Gasch, who ruled against the president. He ruled that “The great majority of the historical precedents involve some form of mutual action, whereby the President’s notice of termination receives the affirmative approval of the Senate or the entire Congress.” As a result he concluded that “the President’s notice of termination must receive the approval of two-thirds of the United States Senate or a majority of both houses of Congress for it to be effective under our Constitution.”</p>
<p>Carter, however, appealed, and the Court of Appeals reversed the Circuit Court’s decision. They noted that the Senate had not “since the giving of the notice of termination, purported to take any final or decisive action with respect to it, either by way of approval or disapproval.” Chief Judge Wright and Judge Tamm concluded that “if Congress wants to participate directly in a treaty termination, it can find the means to do so.” There was a clear inference that if Congress or the Senate had taken clear action, their decision would have been different. The other justice, Judge McKinnon filed an impassioned dissent. He felt that the District Court decision should have been upheld even though Congress as a body had not acted. He quoted Chief Justice Marshall’s statement that a treaty is “to be regarded in courts of justice as equivalent to an act of the legislature.” (And of course a president may not do away with a law.)</p>
<p>Finally, the Supreme Court ordered the judgment of the Court of Appeals to be vacated and the case to be remanded to the District Court with directions to dismiss the complaint. Note that they did not uphold the Court of Appeals, which sided with Carter. Four of the justices (Burger, Rehnquist, Stewart, and Stevens) said that it was a political issue that should be decided between the President and the Congress. Justice Powell disagreed but voted with them because he considered the case not “ripe” for judgment since Congress had not officially taken a position.</p>
<p>The net result was to allow Carter to withdraw from the treaty, but it is important to note that the Supreme Court never ruled on the merits of the case. They by no means said that a president has the unilateral power to end a treaty. They were just unwilling to do what they considered Congress’s work for them. (And, of course, a majority of those on the Court agreed with Carter’s desire to recognize China, and therefore were probably happy to find a way not to stop him.) A more detailed exposition of the journey of Goldwater vs. Carter through the courts was written by Peter Weiss, president of the Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear Policy.</p>
<p>Ironically, the challenge to Carter came from the conservatives, three of whom are still in Congress — Orrin Hatch, Jesse Helms, and Strom Thurmond. This is what they had to say at the time: allowing Carter to withdraw from the treaty without the permission and participation of Congress would be “a dangerous precedent for executive usurpation of Congress’s constitutionally based powers.” If they believed that then, why do they not believe the same is true of Bush’s withdrawal from the ABM Treaty? (Of course, they hate the ABM Treaty and the limits it places on US absolute military supremacy, but that shouldn’t affect the constitutional issue. Bruce Ackerman, professor of constitutional law at Yale, raised the issue in an August 29, 2001 op-ed piece in the New York Times. He called for these conservative Republicans to join with Democrats in passing a joint resolution declaring that Congress claims the constitutional right to have a say in any treaty withdrawal.)</p>
<p>It would seem that the clear intent of the framers of the Constitution, the historical precedent, the judicial record of Goldwater vs. Carter, and common sense all agree that no president has the authority to withdraw from a treaty without the consent of Congress. The answer to question (1) is “No.”</p>
<p>Satisfaction of Withdrawal Conditions</p>
<p>The ABM Treaty of 1972 provides for withdrawal in Article XV, paragraph 2, which states that either nation may withdraw giving six months’ notice “if extraordinary events related to the subject matter of this treaty have jeopardized its supreme interests.” It is the responsibility of the US government (and therefore of President Bush) to state what the extraordinary events are, to demonstrate that they are related to the subject matter of the treaty, and that they jeopardize the supreme interests of the United States. He cannot. There have been no such events. In its diplomatic notes to Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and the Ukraine announcing its intention to withdraw, the US made vague references to states and non-state entities seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction. It also noted that a number of (unnamed) states are developing ballistic missiles. Finally, it concluded that “These events pose a direct threat to the territory and security of the Unites States and jeopardize its supreme interests.” This is patently untrue. The only nations capable of hitting the United States with ballistic missiles are Russia, China, France, and the United Kingdom. This situation hasn’t changed in decades and is unlikely to change for decades to come.</p>
<p>The only thing remotely like an “extraordinary event” that has happened is that several years ago North Korea tested a ballistic missile, firing it across the tip of Japan into the Pacific Ocean. The test missile was nothing like an ICBM. If the test program had continued and led to the successful development of a missile, it would have been incapable of reaching any populated area in the United States. (An improved missile based on that design could theoretically reach a tiny unmanned atoll which belongs to the State of Hawaii, but is 3,000 miles NW of Oahu.) But the program was halted, thanks to negotiations by the Clinton Administration, and has not been restarted.</p>
<p>There have been extraordinary events (9/11 comes to mind), and some of them threaten the security of the United States. But none of them involve ballistic missiles, and none of them are in any way related to the subject matter of the ABM Treaty.</p>
<p>Bush’s attempt to withdraw from the ABM Treaty not only violates the US Constitution. It also violates international law and Article XV of the ABM Treaty itself.</p>
<p>Ironically, the withdrawal requirements of Article XV were put in at the insistence of the United States to tie the hands of the Soviets, so that they could not withdraw without good reason. In 1972 we did not trust the Russians. Now that we are becoming the first nation to withdraw from a treaty since World War II, the question now is, “Will any nation ever trust the United States again?” If we allow Bush to have his way, I’m afraid the answer to this, like the answer to question (2), will be “No.”</p>
<p>Necessity of Withdrawal to Pursue NMD</p>
<p>According to Lisbeth Gronlund, senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, none of the tests that the Pentagon is ready to perform for development of missile defenses are constrained by the ABM Treaty. As a matter of fact, it will be several years before the program requires tests prohibited by the Treaty. John Rhinelander, an international lawyer who actually was involved in advising our negotiators for SALT I and the ABM Treaty, agrees.</p>
<p>The Bush Administration says it needs to get rid of the ABM Treaty so it can test the SPY radar on the Aegis cruisers against ICBMs and so that it can build a new test facility at Fort Greely, Alaska.</p>
<p>The Aegis radar system is designed to work against aircraft fairly close to the cruiser. As Gronlund has pointed out, the Defense Department itself has already concluded that the Aegis radar is not suitable for the missile defense mission. But that was in 1998 and 1999, when the mission (in the Clinton Administration) was tracking incoming warheads. The Bush team want to see if it can be used to track outgoing boosters in a boost-phase intercept scheme. But you don’t have to run a special test to find that out. As Rhinelander points out, all you have to do is station the cruiser 300 miles off the coast of Florida and see how well it can track satellite launchers. The Aegis tests are not designed to help develop a missile defense system, but to violate the ABM Treaty.</p>
<p>As things stand now, the Fort Greely site would violate the ABM Treaty, but all the Administration would have to do, according to Rhinelander, is notify Russia that, pursuant to Article IV of the Treaty and paragraph 5 of the 1978 agreed statement, it intends to establish a new test range in Alaska. That way the Fort Greely site becomes perfectly legal.</p>
<p>The ABM Treaty specifically prohibits the development of mobile ABM systems, and Bush is pushing for laser weapons on 747 aircraft, interceptors on those Aegis cruisers, and space-based laser battle stations, all of which will violate the Treaty. But it will be several years before their development gets to the stage where the ABM Treaty becomes a barrier.</p>
<p>The truth of the matter is that even if one wanted to develop a missile defense system (and I don’t), one doesn’t have to withdraw from the Treaty now — probably not until after the 2004 elections. But of course Bush doesn’t want to wait. He wants to (as Rhinelander puts it) throw some “red meat” to the right wing. He campaigned on a platform of getting rid of the ABM Treaty, and he intends to deliver while the post-9/11 political climate lasts — and national security be damned. The answer to question (3) is “No.”</p>
<p>Why Do the Conservatives Hate the ABM Treaty?</p>
<p>So why do the conservatives hate this Treaty that was negotiated by one of their own (Richard Nixon)? The answer is that it stands in the way of a “Star Wars” missile defense system which is their only public excuse for putting weapons in space.</p>
<p>According to “Battlefield Space” (an article by Jack Hitt in The New York Times Magazine August 5, 2001, starting on page 30), the use of space for weaponry directed back at earth or guided from space is pretty much at hand. “War planners have conceived scores of new and exciting weapons. Talking about them is not a conversation the military wants to have in public, given the gnarly debate over the missile shield, but it is one they have been having in private for some time.” According to a recent Pentagon study, a laser cannon in space could “successfully attack ground or airborne targets by melting or cracking cockpit canopies, burning through control cables, exploding fuel tanks, melting or burning sensor assemblies and antenna arrays, exploding or melting munitions pods, destroying ground communications and power grids, and melting or burning a large variety of strategic targets (e.g. dams, industrial and defense facilities and munitions factories) — all in a fraction of a second.” Another study included in Air Force 2025 describes small metal projectiles fired at the earth from space. These “flechettes” could penetrate the earth to a depth of a half mile, destroying targets like underground bunkers.</p>
<p>If the above sounds like what I have been saying for almost twenty years in my “Star Wars” speech, there’s a good reason. These recent studies mirror the results of studies we performed in the 1970s and early 80s. The difference is that then we considered the results sufficient reason to continue our national policy of keeping weapons out of space, while now they entice the hawks into discarding treaty constraints and pursuing a still more total form of absolute military superiority. Bush’s first budget quadrupled the spending on laser battle stations. In his new budget, he gives the space warriors an essentially blank check. Now he has once again renamed and reorganized the Pentagon office doing “Star Wars.” Under Reagan and Bush I, it was the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO). Under Clinton, it became the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO). Now Bush II has made it the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and given it the freedom from oversight and audit previously enjoyed only by the black programs. If Congress doesn’t act soon, this new independent agency may take their essentially unlimited budget and spend it outside of public and Congressional scrutiny on weapons that we won’t know anything about until they’re in space. In theory, then, the space warriors would rule the world, able to destroy any target on earth without warning. (Of course, they still won’t know where Osama bin Laden is!)</p>
<p>Will these new super weapons bring the American people security? Hardly. But they will (according to a government study) enable our government to maintain the growing gap between rich and poor in the world. This is the real reason the billionaire “country-club conservatives” and oil-company hirelings want to get rid of the ABM Treaty.</p>
<p>So What Can We Do About All This?</p>
<p>Of course, Congress could vote not to withdraw from the ABM Treaty. Then the courts would have to deal with the issue. This is by far the most desirable course of events. Unfortunately, that’s unlikely to happen. The Democrats (who never would have withdrawn from the treaty if it were up to them) are running scared of Bush’s apparent popularity, and are unlikely to mount such a challenge until the 9/11 honeymoon is over. By then it will be too late. They would also be unlikely to gather enough Republican support to get such a resolution through the House of Representatives.</p>
<p>Alternatively, a coalition of Democrats and conservative Republicans could pass a joint resolution saying that they insist on their Constitutional right to be involved in any withdrawal (without committing to which way they would vote). Such a measure has a better chance of passage than an outright vote against withdrawal. In the face of such a challenge, President Bush might well request a joint resolution of Congress enabling him to withdraw from the treaty. Then, the Democratic majority in the Senate might be able to prevent the resolution from passing, and the ABM Treaty would be saved.</p>
<p>There is a third option. If a joint resolution insisting on a Congressional vote was unable to pass in the House, it might still be possible to pass a Senate resolution asking the President to submit any treaty withdrawal to them for their advice and consent. A simple majority would be sufficient to pass such a resolution. The President would be likely to refuse, knowing that he could never get 2/3 of the Senate to vote for withdrawal. At that point the courts would have to get involved. Even though the Supreme Court leans toward the Republicans (as evidenced by their appointment of Bush as president), they might have a hard time justifying denying the Senate a voice. A court decision in favor of Senate involvement would again save the ABM Treaty.</p>
<p>Once again, however, the Democrats in the Senate might well chicken out and refuse to insist on a role in the withdrawal process. In that event, the United States will officially withdraw from the ABM Treaty on June 13, 2002.</p>
<p>Even then, all is not lost. It is possible to avoid the worst effects of withdrawal even after it happens. All that is required is for the Congress, through its power of the purse strings, to refuse to fund activities that would violate the ABM Treaty were it still in effect. There is precedent for this. Congress did it to President Reagan more than once. For example, after the Reagan Administration officially adopted a loose interpretation of the ABM Treaty, Congress refused to fund any activities in violation of the strict interpretation. The loose interpretation eventually was abandoned. Congress also used its budget authorization power to prevent the Reagan Administration from violating a joint US/USSR ban on anti-satellite tests that it had never agreed to. Congress also used the same tactic during the first Bush presidency to force the Administration to abide by a Comprehensive Test Ban that it had refused to sign.</p>
<p>With the Republicans in control of the House, it is unlikely that a straightforward ban on spending in violation of the ABM Treaty could pass. But the Senate can simply refuse to pass any defense authorization or appropriation bill which funds such activities. Then, if the 2002 elections result in both houses being in Democratic/Independent control, subsequent defense spending bills can contain language such as the following:</p>
<p>“No funds authorized by this or any other Act may be used for any activity which would be in violation of the ABM Treaty, were that Treaty still in effect.”</p>
<p>If there is strong control in both houses, and Bush’s popularity drops, then it would also be possible to pass a Joint Resolution such as the following:</p>
<p>“The Congress of the United States of America finds that withdrawal from the ABM Treaty was unlawful, unnecessary, and unwise. This Congress will therefore conduct its business as if the Treaty were still in effect. We appeal to the Russian Federation to do likewise.”</p>
<p>Russia is unlikely now to react strongly to our withdrawal from the ABM Treaty. But if our government proceeds to deploy weapons in space, then not only Russia, but China, and many nations we consider our allies are likely to respond very strongly indeed. The end result would be a world even less secure than the one we have today. We must do all we can to prevent that from happening.</p>
<p>Lt. Col. Robert M. Bowman, Ph.D. (USAF, ret.), had directed all the “Star Wars” programs under Presidents Ford and Carter.</p> | true | 4 | december 13 2001 president george w bush gave notice united states going withdraw abm treaty six months several issues dealt 1 president united states constitutional power terminate treaty without advice consent senate approval congress 2 united states satisfied necessary conditions withdrawal abm treaty specified treaty 3 necessary withdraw abm treaty time pursue development ballistic missile defenses 4 effective defenses ballistic missiles accompanied likely countermeasures decoys technologically achievable foreseeable future 5 ballistic missile threat justifies development ballistic missile defenses 6 envisioned ballistic missile defenses survivable preemptive attack entities possessing technology intercontinental ballistic missiles weapons mass destruction 7 ballistic missile defenses effective less costly means dealing existing forecast ballistic missile threats buying 8 taking account likely responses allies adversaries withdrawal abm treaty development ballistic missile defenses net effect actions enhance national security 9 considering fact ballistic missile defenses would useless aircraft small boats rental trucks delivery means cia dod say far likely used us missiles withdrawal abm treaty increase fear hatred makes us target terrorists potential utility defenses hypothetical rogue nation missiles sufficient offset increase terrorist threat cause 10 interest people united states america withdraw abm treaty ten questions interrelated course addressed independently others president george w bushs actions appropriate answer ten questions would yes members congress justified continuing inaction respect presidents planned withdrawal abm treaty answer ten questions would yes answer even one ten questions congress challenge presidents actions necessary take court ironically considered opinion answer every single one ten questions purpose article link address first three questions previous articles explained proper answer last seven questions questions addressed detail web site past issues space amp security news well 1984 book star wars defense death star answers havent changed constitutionality unilateral treaty withdrawal president congress acting like theres nothing president bush withdrawing abm treaty thats cowardice talking afraid challenge popular wartime president abm treaty important believe demise greatly harm national security theres even stake letting bush get away destroy balance powers carefully crafted constitution president pretends constitution gives sole responsibility conducting foreign policy thing assigns president three duties respect foreign policy 1 commanderinchief armed forces 2 make treaties provided twothirds senators present concur 3 appoint ambassadors latter two powers subject advice consent senate power make treaties constrained additionally requirement obtain concurrence twothirds senators present president given power whatsoever make foreign policy judge oliver gasch district columbia district court said 1979 president may sole organ communication foreign governments clearly sole maker foreign policy short conduct foreign relations plenary executive power judge gasch went say alone effect repeal law land formed joint action executive legislative branches whether law statute treaty constitution doesnt mention withdrawal treaties historical precedents heavily side congressional involvement first time united states withdrew treaty 1798 pair treaties france ended act passed majority houses congress signed president john adams since three quarters treaty terminations accomplished jointly congress president sometimes president would ask congress make decision vote houses occasions president would ask senate advice consent number historical precedents described article walter c clemens jr professor political science boston university novemberdecember 2001 issue bulletin atomic scientists defending unilateral presidential action point president jimmy carters termination mutual defense treaty taiwan action took order recognize peoples republic china twentyfour members congress sued president attempt stop withdrawal treaty case eventually wound supreme court refused order carter desist important recognize supreme court never decided constitutional case merits simply refused act congress body yet taken action goldwater vs carter first gone judge gasch ruled president ruled great majority historical precedents involve form mutual action whereby presidents notice termination receives affirmative approval senate entire congress result concluded presidents notice termination must receive approval twothirds united states senate majority houses congress effective constitution carter however appealed court appeals reversed circuit courts decision noted senate since giving notice termination purported take final decisive action respect either way approval disapproval chief judge wright judge tamm concluded congress wants participate directly treaty termination find means clear inference congress senate taken clear action decision would different justice judge mckinnon filed impassioned dissent felt district court decision upheld even though congress body acted quoted chief justice marshalls statement treaty regarded courts justice equivalent act legislature course president may away law finally supreme court ordered judgment court appeals vacated case remanded district court directions dismiss complaint note uphold court appeals sided carter four justices burger rehnquist stewart stevens said political issue decided president congress justice powell disagreed voted considered case ripe judgment since congress officially taken position net result allow carter withdraw treaty important note supreme court never ruled merits case means said president unilateral power end treaty unwilling considered congresss work course majority court agreed carters desire recognize china therefore probably happy find way stop detailed exposition journey goldwater vs carter courts written peter weiss president lawyers committee nuclear policy ironically challenge carter came conservatives three still congress orrin hatch jesse helms strom thurmond say time allowing carter withdraw treaty without permission participation congress would dangerous precedent executive usurpation congresss constitutionally based powers believed believe true bushs withdrawal abm treaty course hate abm treaty limits places us absolute military supremacy shouldnt affect constitutional issue bruce ackerman professor constitutional law yale raised issue august 29 2001 oped piece new york times called conservative republicans join democrats passing joint resolution declaring congress claims constitutional right say treaty withdrawal would seem clear intent framers constitution historical precedent judicial record goldwater vs carter common sense agree president authority withdraw treaty without consent congress answer question 1 satisfaction withdrawal conditions abm treaty 1972 provides withdrawal article xv paragraph 2 states either nation may withdraw giving six months notice extraordinary events related subject matter treaty jeopardized supreme interests responsibility us government therefore president bush state extraordinary events demonstrate related subject matter treaty jeopardize supreme interests united states events diplomatic notes russia belarus kazakhstan ukraine announcing intention withdraw us made vague references states nonstate entities seeking acquire weapons mass destruction also noted number unnamed states developing ballistic missiles finally concluded events pose direct threat territory security unites states jeopardize supreme interests patently untrue nations capable hitting united states ballistic missiles russia china france united kingdom situation hasnt changed decades unlikely change decades come thing remotely like extraordinary event happened several years ago north korea tested ballistic missile firing across tip japan pacific ocean test missile nothing like icbm test program continued led successful development missile would incapable reaching populated area united states improved missile based design could theoretically reach tiny unmanned atoll belongs state hawaii 3000 miles nw oahu program halted thanks negotiations clinton administration restarted extraordinary events 911 comes mind threaten security united states none involve ballistic missiles none way related subject matter abm treaty bushs attempt withdraw abm treaty violates us constitution also violates international law article xv abm treaty ironically withdrawal requirements article xv put insistence united states tie hands soviets could withdraw without good reason 1972 trust russians becoming first nation withdraw treaty since world war ii question nation ever trust united states allow bush way im afraid answer like answer question 2 necessity withdrawal pursue nmd according lisbeth gronlund senior scientist union concerned scientists none tests pentagon ready perform development missile defenses constrained abm treaty matter fact several years program requires tests prohibited treaty john rhinelander international lawyer actually involved advising negotiators salt abm treaty agrees bush administration says needs get rid abm treaty test spy radar aegis cruisers icbms build new test facility fort greely alaska aegis radar system designed work aircraft fairly close cruiser gronlund pointed defense department already concluded aegis radar suitable missile defense mission 1998 1999 mission clinton administration tracking incoming warheads bush team want see used track outgoing boosters boostphase intercept scheme dont run special test find rhinelander points station cruiser 300 miles coast florida see well track satellite launchers aegis tests designed help develop missile defense system violate abm treaty things stand fort greely site would violate abm treaty administration would according rhinelander notify russia pursuant article iv treaty paragraph 5 1978 agreed statement intends establish new test range alaska way fort greely site becomes perfectly legal abm treaty specifically prohibits development mobile abm systems bush pushing laser weapons 747 aircraft interceptors aegis cruisers spacebased laser battle stations violate treaty several years development gets stage abm treaty becomes barrier truth matter even one wanted develop missile defense system dont one doesnt withdraw treaty probably 2004 elections course bush doesnt want wait wants rhinelander puts throw red meat right wing campaigned platform getting rid abm treaty intends deliver post911 political climate lasts national security damned answer question 3 conservatives hate abm treaty conservatives hate treaty negotiated one richard nixon answer stands way star wars missile defense system public excuse putting weapons space according battlefield space article jack hitt new york times magazine august 5 2001 starting page 30 use space weaponry directed back earth guided space pretty much hand war planners conceived scores new exciting weapons talking conversation military wants public given gnarly debate missile shield one private time according recent pentagon study laser cannon space could successfully attack ground airborne targets melting cracking cockpit canopies burning control cables exploding fuel tanks melting burning sensor assemblies antenna arrays exploding melting munitions pods destroying ground communications power grids melting burning large variety strategic targets eg dams industrial defense facilities munitions factories fraction second another study included air force 2025 describes small metal projectiles fired earth space flechettes could penetrate earth depth half mile destroying targets like underground bunkers sounds like saying almost twenty years star wars speech theres good reason recent studies mirror results studies performed 1970s early 80s difference considered results sufficient reason continue national policy keeping weapons space entice hawks discarding treaty constraints pursuing still total form absolute military superiority bushs first budget quadrupled spending laser battle stations new budget gives space warriors essentially blank check renamed reorganized pentagon office star wars reagan bush strategic defense initiative organization sdio clinton became ballistic missile defense organization bmdo bush ii made missile defense agency mda given freedom oversight audit previously enjoyed black programs congress doesnt act soon new independent agency may take essentially unlimited budget spend outside public congressional scrutiny weapons wont know anything theyre space theory space warriors would rule world able destroy target earth without warning course still wont know osama bin laden new super weapons bring american people security hardly according government study enable government maintain growing gap rich poor world real reason billionaire countryclub conservatives oilcompany hirelings want get rid abm treaty course congress could vote withdraw abm treaty courts would deal issue far desirable course events unfortunately thats unlikely happen democrats never would withdrawn treaty running scared bushs apparent popularity unlikely mount challenge 911 honeymoon late would also unlikely gather enough republican support get resolution house representatives alternatively coalition democrats conservative republicans could pass joint resolution saying insist constitutional right involved withdrawal without committing way would vote measure better chance passage outright vote withdrawal face challenge president bush might well request joint resolution congress enabling withdraw treaty democratic majority senate might able prevent resolution passing abm treaty would saved third option joint resolution insisting congressional vote unable pass house might still possible pass senate resolution asking president submit treaty withdrawal advice consent simple majority would sufficient pass resolution president would likely refuse knowing could never get 23 senate vote withdrawal point courts would get involved even though supreme court leans toward republicans evidenced appointment bush president might hard time justifying denying senate voice court decision favor senate involvement would save abm treaty however democrats senate might well chicken refuse insist role withdrawal process event united states officially withdraw abm treaty june 13 2002 even lost possible avoid worst effects withdrawal even happens required congress power purse strings refuse fund activities would violate abm treaty still effect precedent congress president reagan example reagan administration officially adopted loose interpretation abm treaty congress refused fund activities violation strict interpretation loose interpretation eventually abandoned congress also used budget authorization power prevent reagan administration violating joint usussr ban antisatellite tests never agreed congress also used tactic first bush presidency force administration abide comprehensive test ban refused sign republicans control house unlikely straightforward ban spending violation abm treaty could pass senate simply refuse pass defense authorization appropriation bill funds activities 2002 elections result houses democraticindependent control subsequent defense spending bills contain language following funds authorized act may used activity would violation abm treaty treaty still effect strong control houses bushs popularity drops would also possible pass joint resolution following congress united states america finds withdrawal abm treaty unlawful unnecessary unwise congress therefore conduct business treaty still effect appeal russian federation likewise russia unlikely react strongly withdrawal abm treaty government proceeds deploy weapons space russia china many nations consider allies likely respond strongly indeed end result would world even less secure one today must prevent happening lt col robert bowman phd usaf ret directed star wars programs presidents ford carter | 2,124 |
<p>STOP ME if I have told you this joke before:</p>
<p>Somewhere in the US, a demonstration takes place. The police arrive and beat the protesters mercilessly.</p>
<p>“Don’t hit me,” someone shouts, “I am an anti-communist!”</p>
<p>“I couldn’t give a damn what kind of a communist you are!” a policeman answers as he raises his baton.</p>
<p>THE FIRST time I told this joke was when a German group visited the Knesset and met with German-born members, including me.</p>
<p>They went out of their way to praise Israel, lauding everything we had been doing, condemning every bit of criticism, however harmless it might be. It became downright embarrassing, since some of us in the Knesset were very critical of our government’s policy in the occupied territories.</p>
<p>For me, this extreme kind of pro-Semitism is just disguised anti-Semitism. Both have a basic belief in common: that Jews – and therefore Israel – are something apart, not to be measured by the standards applied to everybody else.</p>
<p>What is an anti-Semite? Somebody who hates a Jew because he is a Jew. He does not hate him for what he is as a human being, but for his origin. A Hebrew or a Shebrew (to quote a joke from Ambrose Bierce) may be good or bad, nice or nasty, rich or poor – for being Jewish, they must be hated.</p>
<p>This is of course true for any kind of prejudice, including sexism, Islamophobia, chauvinism and whatever.</p>
<p>Germans, as is their wont, are a bit more thorough here than others. The term “Antisemitismus” was invented by a German (a few years before the terms Zionism and Feminism), and anti-Semitism was the official ideology of Germany during the Nazi years. Now the official German ideology is pro-Semitism, again going to extremes.</p>
<p>Another Nazi word was “Sonderbehandlung”, meaning ‘”special treatment”. It was an euphemism for something abhorrent: the killing of prisoners. But special treatment can also mean the opposite: according people and countries especially nice treatment, not because of what they do, but because of what they are – Jewish, say.</p>
<p>Well, I don’t like it, even when I am on the receiving end. I like to be praised when I have done something good, I am ready to be blamed when I have done something bad. I don’t like to be praised (or blamed, for that matter) because I happen to have been born a Jew.</p>
<p>THIS BRINGS us, of course, to Günter Grass.</p>
<p>Disclosure: I met him only once, when we were both invited to a conference of the German PEN Club in Berlin. During an interval I met him in a very good restaurant. I told him, quite truthfully, that I like his books very much, especial the anti-Nazi novel “The Tin Drum”, and that I like his later political activity. That was all.</p>
<p>I did not meet him during his many visits to Israel. On at least one of them he acquired a girl-friend, a well-known writer.</p>
<p>Now Grass has done the unthinkable: he has openly criticized the State of Israel! And he a German!!!</p>
<p>The reaction was automatic. He was at once branded as an anti-Semite. Not just a run-of-the-mill anti-Semite, but as a crypto-Nazi, who could easily have served as a henchman of Adolf Eichmann! This was shown by the fact that at age 17, near the end of World War II, he was recruited to the Waffen-SS like tens of thousands of others and then – oddly enough – kept the fact hidden for many years. So there you are.</p>
<p>Israeli and German politicians and commentators vied with each other in cursing the writer, with the Germans easily trumping the Israelis. Though our Interior Minister, Eli Yishai, may have garnered the individual championship by declaring Grass persona non grata and banning him from entering Israel for all eternity (at least).</p>
<p>Yishai is a political hack, who has never written a line worth remembering. He is the leader of the Orthodox Shas party, not by virtue of being elected, but as a sidekick of the party’s strongman, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. The powerful State Comptroller is accusing him of gross incompetence in connection with a giant fire on Mount Carmel and so his career is in danger. Grass came just at the right time to save his skin.</p>
<p>SO WHAT did Grass actually say? In a poem of 69 lines – actually a polemic in the guise of a poem – under the headline “What Has To Be Said”, Grass attacks Israeli policy concerning the atom bomb.</p>
<p>The ferocious counter-attack was focused almost completely on the axiom that a German has no right to criticize Israel, under any circumstances.</p>
<p>Let’s ignore this “argument” and look at the poem itself, not necessarily as a literary masterpiece.</p>
<p>Grass’ basic theme is that Israel already has a “nuclear potential”, and that it is therefore hypocrisy to blame Iran for perhaps wanting to acquire one, too. In particular he denounced the German government for supplying another submarine to Israel.</p>
<p>Looked at rationally, do his arguments make sense?</p>
<p>Grass assumes that Israel is planning a “first strike” preventive war against Iran, in which the Iranian people could be “wiped out”. This possibility only makes sense if Grass assumes that the Israeli “first strike” would be an attack with nuclear bombs. Indeed, the term “first strike” belongs solely to the lexicon of nuclear war.</p>
<p>It is in this context that he condemns the German government for giving Israel another (sixth) submarine with the capability of launching nuclear bombs. Such submarines are designed for delivering a “second strike” by a nation hit in the “first strike”. It is basically a weapon of deterrence.</p>
<p>He deplores the fact that nobody in Germany (and in the Western world) dares even to mention Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons, and that it is practically forbidden to “call that particular country by name” in this context.</p>
<p>He then asserts that “the Atomic Power Israel endangers the fragile peace of the world”.</p>
<p>To avert this danger, he proposes that “Israel’s atomic potential and Iran’s atomic installations” be put under an unfettered and permanent international inspection regime with the agreement of both governments.</p>
<p>At the end, he also mentions the Palestinians. Only this way, he says, can the Israelis and the Palestinians, and all the other inhabitants of this “region occupied by madness”, be helped.</p>
<p>WELL, I did not fall off my chair when I read this. The text can and must be criticized, but there is nothing there that demands stern condemnation.</p>
<p>As I said before, I see no reason for Germans to abstain from criticizing Israel. There is nothing in this text that de-legitimizes the State of Israel, On the contrary, he declares his solidarity with Israel. He explicitly mentions the Holocaust as an indelible crime. He also calls the Iranians “a people enslaved by a “bigmouth”.</p>
<p>That said, Grass’ idea that Israel might “wipe out” the Iranian people in a preventive “first strike” is wildly exaggerated.</p>
<p>I have already stated several times that all the Israeli and American blabbering about an Israeli attack on Iran is a part of the US-led psychological warfare to press the Iranian leaders to give up their (presumed) nuclear ambitions. It is totally impossible for Israel to attack Iran without express prior American agreement, and it is totally impossible for America to attack – or let Israel attack – because of the catastrophic consequences – a collapse of the world economy and a long and costly war.</p>
<p>Let’s assume, for argument’s sake, that the Israeli government indeed decides to attack Iran’s nuclear installations. This would not “wipe out” the Iranian people, or even a part of it. Only madmen would use nuclear bombs for this purpose. Israeli leaders, whatever one may think of them, are not mad.</p>
<p>Even if Israel had (or obtained from the US) tactical nuclear bombs with limited power and radius, the world reaction to their use would be catastrophic.</p>
<p>By the way, it is not by their own choice that Israeli governments have a policy of nuclear non-transparency. If they could, our leaders would brag about our nuclear might from the rooftops. It’s the US that insists on opaqueness, so as not to be obliged to do something about it.</p>
<p>Grass’ contention that Israel endangers “world peace” is, therefore, a bit of an overstatement.</p>
<p>As for Glass’ practical proposal to subject both Israeli and Iranian nuclear installations to international inspection – I think this merits serious consideration. If both our countries freeze the nuclear status quo, it may not be a bad idea at all.</p>
<p>In the end, though, we need a nuclear-free region as part of a general regional peace that will include Israel, Palestine, the Arab League, Turkey and Iran.</p>
<p>AS FOR Günter Grass, I shall be happy to meet him again, this time for a good meal in Tel Aviv.</p>
<p>URI AVNERY&#160;is an Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom. He is a contributor to CounterPunch’s book&#160; <a href="http://www.easycartsecure.com/CounterPunch/CounterPunch_Books.html" type="external">The Politics of Anti-Semitism</a>.</p> | true | 4 | stop told joke somewhere us demonstration takes place police arrive beat protesters mercilessly dont hit someone shouts anticommunist couldnt give damn kind communist policeman answers raises baton first time told joke german group visited knesset met germanborn members including went way praise israel lauding everything condemning every bit criticism however harmless might became downright embarrassing since us knesset critical governments policy occupied territories extreme kind prosemitism disguised antisemitism basic belief common jews therefore israel something apart measured standards applied everybody else antisemite somebody hates jew jew hate human origin hebrew shebrew quote joke ambrose bierce may good bad nice nasty rich poor jewish must hated course true kind prejudice including sexism islamophobia chauvinism whatever germans wont bit thorough others term antisemitismus invented german years terms zionism feminism antisemitism official ideology germany nazi years official german ideology prosemitism going extremes another nazi word sonderbehandlung meaning special treatment euphemism something abhorrent killing prisoners special treatment also mean opposite according people countries especially nice treatment jewish say well dont like even receiving end like praised done something good ready blamed done something bad dont like praised blamed matter happen born jew brings us course günter grass disclosure met invited conference german pen club berlin interval met good restaurant told quite truthfully like books much especial antinazi novel tin drum like later political activity meet many visits israel least one acquired girlfriend wellknown writer grass done unthinkable openly criticized state israel german reaction automatic branded antisemite runofthemill antisemite cryptonazi could easily served henchman adolf eichmann shown fact age 17 near end world war ii recruited waffenss like tens thousands others oddly enough kept fact hidden many years israeli german politicians commentators vied cursing writer germans easily trumping israelis though interior minister eli yishai may garnered individual championship declaring grass persona non grata banning entering israel eternity least yishai political hack never written line worth remembering leader orthodox shas party virtue elected sidekick partys strongman rabbi ovadia yosef powerful state comptroller accusing gross incompetence connection giant fire mount carmel career danger grass came right time save skin grass actually say poem 69 lines actually polemic guise poem headline said grass attacks israeli policy concerning atom bomb ferocious counterattack focused almost completely axiom german right criticize israel circumstances lets ignore argument look poem necessarily literary masterpiece grass basic theme israel already nuclear potential therefore hypocrisy blame iran perhaps wanting acquire one particular denounced german government supplying another submarine israel looked rationally arguments make sense grass assumes israel planning first strike preventive war iran iranian people could wiped possibility makes sense grass assumes israeli first strike would attack nuclear bombs indeed term first strike belongs solely lexicon nuclear war context condemns german government giving israel another sixth submarine capability launching nuclear bombs submarines designed delivering second strike nation hit first strike basically weapon deterrence deplores fact nobody germany western world dares even mention israels possession nuclear weapons practically forbidden call particular country name context asserts atomic power israel endangers fragile peace world avert danger proposes israels atomic potential irans atomic installations put unfettered permanent international inspection regime agreement governments end also mentions palestinians way says israelis palestinians inhabitants region occupied madness helped well fall chair read text must criticized nothing demands stern condemnation said see reason germans abstain criticizing israel nothing text delegitimizes state israel contrary declares solidarity israel explicitly mentions holocaust indelible crime also calls iranians people enslaved bigmouth said grass idea israel might wipe iranian people preventive first strike wildly exaggerated already stated several times israeli american blabbering israeli attack iran part usled psychological warfare press iranian leaders give presumed nuclear ambitions totally impossible israel attack iran without express prior american agreement totally impossible america attack let israel attack catastrophic consequences collapse world economy long costly war lets assume arguments sake israeli government indeed decides attack irans nuclear installations would wipe iranian people even part madmen would use nuclear bombs purpose israeli leaders whatever one may think mad even israel obtained us tactical nuclear bombs limited power radius world reaction use would catastrophic way choice israeli governments policy nuclear nontransparency could leaders would brag nuclear might rooftops us insists opaqueness obliged something grass contention israel endangers world peace therefore bit overstatement glass practical proposal subject israeli iranian nuclear installations international inspection think merits serious consideration countries freeze nuclear status quo may bad idea end though need nuclearfree region part general regional peace include israel palestine arab league turkey iran günter grass shall happy meet time good meal tel aviv uri avnery160is israeli writer peace activist gush shalom contributor counterpunchs book160 politics antisemitism | 757 |
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Arbil, Iraq.</p>
<p>A failed US attempt to abduct two senior Iranian security officers on an official visit to northern Iraq was the starting pistol for a crisis that ten weeks later led to Iranians seizing 15 British sailors and marines.</p>
<p>Early in the morning of 11 January helicopter-born US forces launched a surprise raid on a long-established Iranian liaison office in the city of Arbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. They captured five relatively junior Iranian officials whom the US accuses of being intelligence agents and still holds.</p>
<p>In reality the US attack had a far more ambitious objective The Independent has learned. The aim of the raid, launched without informing the Kurdish authorities, was to seize two men at the very heart of the Iranian security establishment.</p>
<p>Better understanding of the seriousness of the US action in Arbil — and the angry Iranian response to it — should have led Downing Street and the Ministry of Defence to realise that Iran was likely to retaliate against American or British forces such as highly vulnerable navy search parties in the Gulf.</p>
<p>The two senior Iranian officers the US sought to capture were Mohammed Jafari, the powerful deputy head of the Iranian National Security Council, and General Minojahar Frouzanda, the chief of intelligence of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, according to Kurdish officials.</p>
<p>The two men were in Kurdistan on an official visit during which they met the Iraqi President Jalal Talabani at his house beside Dokan lake and later saw Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, at his mountain headquarters at Salahudin overlooking Arbil.</p>
<p>“They were after Jafari,” Fuad Hussein, the chief of staff of Massoud Barzani, told The Independent. He confirmed that the Iranian office had been established in Arbil for a long time and was often visited by Kurds obtaining documents to visit Iran. “The Americans thought he (Jafari) was there,” said Mr Hussein.</p>
<p>Mr Jafari was accompanied by a second very senior Iranian official. “His name was General Minojahar Frouzanda, the head of intelligence of the Pasdaran (Iranian Revolutionary Guard),” said Sadi Ahmed Pire, now head of the Diwan (office) of President Talabani in Baghdad, in a separate interview. Mr Pire previously lived in Arbil where he headed the Patriotic Union of Kurdisan (PUK), Mr Talabani’s political party.</p>
<p>The attempt by the US to seize two senior Iranian security officers openly meeting with Iraqi leaders is somewhat as if Iran had tried to kidnap the heads of the CIA and MI6 while they were on an official visit to a country neighbouring Iran such as Pakistan or Afghanistan.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that Iran believes that Mr Jafari and Mr Frouzanda were targeted by the Americans. Mr Jafari confirmed to the official Iranian newsagency IRNA that he was in Arbil at the time of the raid. In a little noticed remark Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told the agency: “The objective of the Americans was to arrest Iranian security officials who had gone to Iraq to develop cooperation in the area of bilateral security.”</p>
<p>US officials in Washington subsequently claimed that the five Iranian officials they did seize, and have not been seen since, were “suspected of being closely tied to activities targeting Iraq and coalition forces.” This explanation never made much sense. No member of the US-led coalition has been killed in Arbil and there vare no Sunni Arab insurgents or Shia militiamen there.</p>
<p>The raid on Arbil took place within hours of President Bush making an Address to the Nation on 10 January in which he claimed: “Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops.” He identified Iran and Syria as America’s main enemies in Iraq though the four-year old guerrilla war against US-led forces is being conducted by the strongly anti-Iranian Sunni Arab community. Mr Jafari himself later complained about US allegations asking: “So far has there been a single Iranian among suicide bombers in the war-battered country? Almost all who involved in the suicide attacks are from Arab countries in the region.”</p>
<p>It seemed strange at the time that the US would so openly flaunt the authority of both the Iraqi President Mr Talabani and the head of the KRG Mr Barzani simply to raid an Iranian liaison office that was being upgraded to a consulate, though this had not yet happened on 11 January. US officials, who must have been privy to the White House’s new anti-Iranian stance, may have thought that bruised Kurdish pride was a small price to pay if the US could grab such senior Iranian officials as Mr Jafari and Gen Frouzanda.</p>
<p>For over a year the US and its allies have been trying to put pressure on Iran. Security sources in Iraqi Kurdistan have long said that the US is backing Iranian Kurdish guerrillas in Iran. The US is also reportedly backing Sunni Arab dissidents in Khuzestan in southern Iran who are opposed to the government in Tehran. On 4 February soldiers from the Iraqi army 36th Commando battalion in Baghdad, considered to be under American control, seized Jalal Sharafi, an Iranian diplomat.</p>
<p>But the raid on Arbil and the attempt to capture two such senior Iranian officials was a far more serious and aggressive act by the US than in any of these cases. Unlike them it was not carried out by proxies but by US forces directly. The abortive raid Arbil raid provokd a dangerous escalation in the confrontation between US and Iran which ultimately led to the capture of the 15 British sailors and marines.</p>
<p>PATRICK COCKBURN is the author of ‘ <a href="" type="internal">The Occupation: War, resistance and daily life in Iraq</a>‘, a finalist for the National Book Critics’ Circle Award for best non-fiction book of 2006.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | 160 arbil iraq failed us attempt abduct two senior iranian security officers official visit northern iraq starting pistol crisis ten weeks later led iranians seizing 15 british sailors marines early morning 11 january helicopterborn us forces launched surprise raid longestablished iranian liaison office city arbil iraqi kurdistan captured five relatively junior iranian officials us accuses intelligence agents still holds reality us attack far ambitious objective independent learned aim raid launched without informing kurdish authorities seize two men heart iranian security establishment better understanding seriousness us action arbil angry iranian response led downing street ministry defence realise iran likely retaliate american british forces highly vulnerable navy search parties gulf two senior iranian officers us sought capture mohammed jafari powerful deputy head iranian national security council general minojahar frouzanda chief intelligence iranian revolutionary guard according kurdish officials two men kurdistan official visit met iraqi president jalal talabani house beside dokan lake later saw massoud barzani president kurdistan regional government mountain headquarters salahudin overlooking arbil jafari fuad hussein chief staff massoud barzani told independent confirmed iranian office established arbil long time often visited kurds obtaining documents visit iran americans thought jafari said mr hussein mr jafari accompanied second senior iranian official name general minojahar frouzanda head intelligence pasdaran iranian revolutionary guard said sadi ahmed pire head diwan office president talabani baghdad separate interview mr pire previously lived arbil headed patriotic union kurdisan puk mr talabanis political party attempt us seize two senior iranian security officers openly meeting iraqi leaders somewhat iran tried kidnap heads cia mi6 official visit country neighbouring iran pakistan afghanistan doubt iran believes mr jafari mr frouzanda targeted americans mr jafari confirmed official iranian newsagency irna arbil time raid little noticed remark iranian foreign minister manouchehr mottaki told agency objective americans arrest iranian security officials gone iraq develop cooperation area bilateral security us officials washington subsequently claimed five iranian officials seize seen since suspected closely tied activities targeting iraq coalition forces explanation never made much sense member usled coalition killed arbil vare sunni arab insurgents shia militiamen raid arbil took place within hours president bush making address nation 10 january claimed iran providing material support attacks american troops identified iran syria americas main enemies iraq though fouryear old guerrilla war usled forces conducted strongly antiiranian sunni arab community mr jafari later complained us allegations asking far single iranian among suicide bombers warbattered country almost involved suicide attacks arab countries region seemed strange time us would openly flaunt authority iraqi president mr talabani head krg mr barzani simply raid iranian liaison office upgraded consulate though yet happened 11 january us officials must privy white houses new antiiranian stance may thought bruised kurdish pride small price pay us could grab senior iranian officials mr jafari gen frouzanda year us allies trying put pressure iran security sources iraqi kurdistan long said us backing iranian kurdish guerrillas iran us also reportedly backing sunni arab dissidents khuzestan southern iran opposed government tehran 4 february soldiers iraqi army 36th commando battalion baghdad considered american control seized jalal sharafi iranian diplomat raid arbil attempt capture two senior iranian officials far serious aggressive act us cases unlike carried proxies us forces directly abortive raid arbil raid provokd dangerous escalation confrontation us iran ultimately led capture 15 british sailors marines patrick cockburn author occupation war resistance daily life iraq finalist national book critics circle award best nonfiction book 2006 160 | 561 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> Young internally displaced boy in Jaramanah, Damascus suburbs. He dreams of going home when the SAA has routed Nusra Front from his home town in the Damascus countryside. (Photo: Vanessa Beeley). August 2017</p>
<p>Vanessa Beeley <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire</a></p>
<p>My latest trip to Syria was spent in Aleppo and Damascus. During my time in East Aleppo I was struck by the hive of activity, pockets of industry, rebuilding the stricken neighborhoods, stone by stone. Despite lack of electricity and water, in each street and alleyway, the sound of welders and the beat of hammers, rang out.</p>
<p>The sparks from a trio of welders spilled onto the pavement where we sat and drank coffee with residents, returning to their communities that had been so fractured by the almost 5 year occupation of these districts of East Aleppo, by Nusra Front-led extremist brigades.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> Residents rebuilding in the Alsh’ar district of East Aleppo. (Photo: Vanessa Beeley). August 2017</p>
<p>In Jaramanah, Damascus we met with many internally displaced people. The estimated <a href="https://www.stripes.com/vast-majority-of-internally-displaced-syrians-chose-government-side-officials-say-1.414085#.WZLJAlGg9PY" type="external">6.4 million IDPs</a> in Syria have almost invariably, fled to Syrian government controlled areas for refuge from the US Coalition extremist factions who have driven them from their hometowns and villages across Syria.</p>
<p>This area had historically been Druze and Christian populated. Now it has been crowded with Syrians from all walks of life, backgrounds and regions. All spoke to me of their hardship under the US Coalition armed &amp; funded extremist &amp; terrorist factions. Many had been driven from their homes by the armed mercenary forces, suffering hideous wounds in the process.</p>
<p>One old man from Talbiseh in Homs had lost one leg, been shot in the spine and had his remaining foot crushed by the Nusra Front brigades who had invaded his village and driven inhabitants from their homes by force. He was selling bread on the street, provided by his wife, to pay for an apartment with no roof. He “spat” on the “freedom and democracy” that his attackers have brought to his life, according to the western corporate media.</p>
<p>I asked him what he wishes to happen now. He fixed me with a direct gaze and simply said, ” I want to go home”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> Old man from Talbiseh taking refuge in Jaramanah, Damascus after being driven out of his home by Nusra Front. (Photo: Vanessa Beeley) August 2017</p>
<p>Everyone we spoke to from Raqqa, Homs, East Ghouta, Daraa – all said the same thing. They dreamed of going home, back to the lives they had before the “conflict”, back to their pre-war, peaceful lives. Many of the women did not want to be photographed, their husbands were fighting in the Syrian Arab Army and their lives would be in danger if their image were to be made public. One such woman, from East Ghouta, Hadia, told me:</p>
<p>“We had “freedom” before the crisis. These so called “freedom fighters” brought nothing but suffering, they drove us from our homes. They brought nothing but weariness, loneliness, death and poverty”.&#160;</p>
<p>Another woman told us that her two brothers had been kidnapped when the US Coalition extremist factions had invaded her home town in Northern Syria. For the last six years, she has had no information regarding their whereabouts. She clings to the hope that they are still alive. She has a son fighting in the Syrian Arab Army and she prays they are victorious so she can return to her home, after 6 years selling fresh mint &amp; vegetables on the streets of Damascus to eke out a living and to provide for her family. When we asked her about the “freedom fighters”, she laughed, “they are losers – thanks to them I am here and paying for my accommodation while they live in my house”&#160;</p>
<p>The daughter of one of these women also spoke to us. Shyly she explained that she missed her home, she missed her school and she wanted, more than anything, to go back, “when it was safe“.</p>
<p>“Nothing is the same here, nothing is like my home”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> Young girl among the IDPs in Jaramanah, Damascus, dreaming of “going home” (Photo: Vanessa Beeley). August 2017&#160;</p>
<p>Aleppo</p>
<p>During my time in Aleppo, we visited the Sid Al’Ose street and square in the Alsh’ar district. In this area, Nusra Front and associated extremist brigades such as the Turkish funded, Abu Amara, had executed civilians accused of being “shabiha” – loyal to the Syrian government or simply refusing to adhere to the extremist ideology of the occupying forces. Forces backed, promoted and armed by the western and Gulf state nations working to destabilize Syria and enforce “regime change”.</p>
<p>Life had returned to quasi-normalcy in this vibrant street. We spoke to shopkeepers and residents, all of whom shied away from talking about the horrors they had witnessed, preferring to erase such memories from their psyche.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> Bayan hospital (on right) in the Alsh’ar district of East Aleppo. (Photo: Vanessa Beeley). August 2017</p>
<p>One shopkeeper, however, did tell us that the area next to his shop was where the terrorists had brought the bodies of 7 civilians who had been murdered at the Bayan hospital (see above photo), close by. They had been shot multiple times and one had been flung from the multi-storey roof of the Bayan hospital. Their bodies had then been dumped outside the lock-up, in the street, as a warning to residents to stay where they were and not to attempt to escape East Aleppo for the safety of West Aleppo.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> Sid Al’Ose returns to “normal” after the liberation of East Aleppo from Nusra Front dominated occupation, by the SAA and allies. (Photo: Vanessa Beeley). August 2017</p>
<p>Everywhere in Aleppo, people are returning to normal…</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> Young boy carrying baby in Alsh’ar neigborhood. (Photo: Vanessa Beeley). August 2017</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> Drinking coffee in the Jibb Al Qubbeh district of East Aleppo. (Photo: Vanessa Beeley). August 2017</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> Kids in the Alsh’ar district. This street was occupied by over 1500 foreign and Syrian mercenaries, operating as Abu Amara brigade and Nusra Front, according to residents. (Photo: Vanessa Beeley). August 2017</p>
<p>The following report from <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/399414-syria-refugees-return-home/" type="external">Russia Today</a> further demonstrates the reality (admitted by the UN) that over 600,000 external refugees have returned to Syria, since the SAA and allies have advanced militarily and cleansed entire swathes of Syrian territory of the US Coalition-armed and funded, terrorist-led insurgents.</p>
<p>“Aleppo, a city retaken by Damascus from rebels in December last year, has become a major destination for displaced Syrian returning home in 2017 as numbers of returnees to Syria spills over 600,000, according to the UN.</p>
<p>Over the first seven months of 2017, over 600,000 displaced Syrians returned home, the International Organization for Migration (IOM)&#160; <a href="https://www.iom.int/news/over-600000-displaced-syrians-returned-home-first-7-months-2017" type="external">said</a>&#160;Friday, citing its own figures as well as those of the UN Migration Agency and partners on the ground. The returnees are overwhelmingly internally-displaced people, but 16 percent returned to Syria from other nations, primarily Turkey. The number almost matched that recorded in the whole of 2016.</p>
<p>An estimated 67 percent of returnees went to government-controlled Aleppo Governorate, with the provincial capital itself being the primary destination.</p>
<p>The city of Aleppo – the largest in Syria prior to the conflict – was retaken by the government army last year, aided by Russia, with hostilities ending in mid-December. For years before that, it was divided between two parts, held respectively by government forces and by a disjointed collection of militant groups, including hardcore jihadists. The battle for the city ended with a ceasefire deal, which allowed remaining rebel forces and their families leave Aleppo and go to Idlib governorate, which currently remains a rebel stronghold.</p>
<p>Earlier an increasing number of refugees returning to their homes in Syria was&#160; <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing/2017/6/595612454/unhcr-seeing-significant-returns-internally-displaced-amid-syrias-continuing.html" type="external">reported</a>&#160;by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), which said more than 440,000 internally-displaced persons and 31,000 refugees in other countries had done so over the first six months of 2016. Aleppo and other government-controlled governorates like Hama, Homs and Damascus were mentioned as destinations for the returnees.</p>
<p>“Given the returns witnessed so far this year and in light of a progressively-increased number of returns of internally displaced people and, in time, refugees, UNHCR has started scaling up its operational capacity inside Syria,”&#160;the agency said.”</p>
<p>Despite its deep wounds and scars, Syria will rebuild and it will emerge, renewed, stronger, and more resilient than ever before. From out of the fire of neocolonialism, will be born a new more powerful Syria, wiser and reinforced by new alliances, the much strengthened historical alliances and expanded geopolitical savvy.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Children playing next door to Bana Alabed’s deserted house in the midst of 20 Ex-Nusra Front military centres. (Photo: Vanessa Beeley). August 2017</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>SEE MORE SYRIA NEWS AT:&#160; <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire Syria Files</a></p>
<p>SUPPORT 21WIRE –&#160;SUBSCRIBE &amp; BECOME A MEMBER @&#160; <a href="https://21wire.tv/membership/plans/" type="external">21WIRE.TV</a></p> | true | 4 | young internally displaced boy jaramanah damascus suburbs dreams going home saa routed nusra front home town damascus countryside photo vanessa beeley august 2017 vanessa beeley 21st century wire latest trip syria spent aleppo damascus time east aleppo struck hive activity pockets industry rebuilding stricken neighborhoods stone stone despite lack electricity water street alleyway sound welders beat hammers rang sparks trio welders spilled onto pavement sat drank coffee residents returning communities fractured almost 5 year occupation districts east aleppo nusra frontled extremist brigades residents rebuilding alshar district east aleppo photo vanessa beeley august 2017 jaramanah damascus met many internally displaced people estimated 64 million idps syria almost invariably fled syrian government controlled areas refuge us coalition extremist factions driven hometowns villages across syria area historically druze christian populated crowded syrians walks life backgrounds regions spoke hardship us coalition armed amp funded extremist amp terrorist factions many driven homes armed mercenary forces suffering hideous wounds process one old man talbiseh homs lost one leg shot spine remaining foot crushed nusra front brigades invaded village driven inhabitants homes force selling bread street provided wife pay apartment roof spat freedom democracy attackers brought life according western corporate media asked wishes happen fixed direct gaze simply said want go home old man talbiseh taking refuge jaramanah damascus driven home nusra front photo vanessa beeley august 2017 everyone spoke raqqa homs east ghouta daraa said thing dreamed going home back lives conflict back prewar peaceful lives many women want photographed husbands fighting syrian arab army lives would danger image made public one woman east ghouta hadia told freedom crisis called freedom fighters brought nothing suffering drove us homes brought nothing weariness loneliness death poverty160 another woman told us two brothers kidnapped us coalition extremist factions invaded home town northern syria last six years information regarding whereabouts clings hope still alive son fighting syrian arab army prays victorious return home 6 years selling fresh mint amp vegetables streets damascus eke living provide family asked freedom fighters laughed losers thanks paying accommodation live house160 daughter one women also spoke us shyly explained missed home missed school wanted anything go back safe nothing nothing like home young girl among idps jaramanah damascus dreaming going home photo vanessa beeley august 2017160 aleppo time aleppo visited sid alose street square alshar district area nusra front associated extremist brigades turkish funded abu amara executed civilians accused shabiha loyal syrian government simply refusing adhere extremist ideology occupying forces forces backed promoted armed western gulf state nations working destabilize syria enforce regime change life returned quasinormalcy vibrant street spoke shopkeepers residents shied away talking horrors witnessed preferring erase memories psyche bayan hospital right alshar district east aleppo photo vanessa beeley august 2017 one shopkeeper however tell us area next shop terrorists brought bodies 7 civilians murdered bayan hospital see photo close shot multiple times one flung multistorey roof bayan hospital bodies dumped outside lockup street warning residents stay attempt escape east aleppo safety west aleppo sid alose returns normal liberation east aleppo nusra front dominated occupation saa allies photo vanessa beeley august 2017 everywhere aleppo people returning normal young boy carrying baby alshar neigborhood photo vanessa beeley august 2017 drinking coffee jibb al qubbeh district east aleppo photo vanessa beeley august 2017 kids alshar district street occupied 1500 foreign syrian mercenaries operating abu amara brigade nusra front according residents photo vanessa beeley august 2017 following report russia today demonstrates reality admitted un 600000 external refugees returned syria since saa allies advanced militarily cleansed entire swathes syrian territory us coalitionarmed funded terroristled insurgents aleppo city retaken damascus rebels december last year become major destination displaced syrian returning home 2017 numbers returnees syria spills 600000 according un first seven months 2017 600000 displaced syrians returned home international organization migration iom160 said160friday citing figures well un migration agency partners ground returnees overwhelmingly internallydisplaced people 16 percent returned syria nations primarily turkey number almost matched recorded whole 2016 estimated 67 percent returnees went governmentcontrolled aleppo governorate provincial capital primary destination city aleppo largest syria prior conflict retaken government army last year aided russia hostilities ending middecember years divided two parts held respectively government forces disjointed collection militant groups including hardcore jihadists battle city ended ceasefire deal allowed remaining rebel forces families leave aleppo go idlib governorate currently remains rebel stronghold earlier increasing number refugees returning homes syria was160 reported160by un refugee agency unhcr said 440000 internallydisplaced persons 31000 refugees countries done first six months 2016 aleppo governmentcontrolled governorates like hama homs damascus mentioned destinations returnees given returns witnessed far year light progressivelyincreased number returns internally displaced people time refugees unhcr started scaling operational capacity inside syria160the agency said despite deep wounds scars syria rebuild emerge renewed stronger resilient ever fire neocolonialism born new powerful syria wiser reinforced new alliances much strengthened historical alliances expanded geopolitical savvy children playing next door bana alabeds deserted house midst 20 exnusra front military centres photo vanessa beeley august 2017 see syria news at160 21st century wire syria files support 21wire 160subscribe amp become member 160 21wiretv | 834 |
<p>Last month saw a spate of tributes to the passing of an English workplace trade union militant, Kevin Halpin. Britain’s left wing daily, the Morning Star, carried the articles recalling factory struggles, personal reminiscences and campaigns he helped lead over many decades of activity.</p>
<p>One of the articles mentioned his friendship with James Klugmann. Both men were at one time in the Communist Party of Great Britain.&#160; Biographical work on&#160; &#160;Klugmann written by Dr Geof Andrews, makes reference to Klugmann as a “complicated communist” and “shadow man.” Kevin Halpin penned his own biography with a contrasting title, Memoirs of a Militant: Sharply and to the Point.</p>
<p>But the contrast doesn’t end there. Klugmann came from a well off Jewish family in London’s leafy Hampstead. Halpin grew up in the grinding poverty of industrial Lancashire in northern England.</p>
<p>It would be hard not to be friendly with Kevin, his wit and laughter was infectious. James Klugmann was friendly but serious; a product of the English public school system, Cambridge University and much that went along with left politics there during the 1930s. Their meeting point was education.</p>
<p>As one article states, Kevin, “valued James’s stress on explaining the imperative process for Communists of changing militants into revolutionaries.”</p>
<p>That imperative process was a problem in the post WW2 years. How much more is there a problem in today’s north Atlantic countries where industry is not as dominant as it once was?</p>
<p>One approach of those going bye, if not totally bye gone, times was a sharp and to the point focus on ideas associated with the tendency for &#160;the &#160;rate of profit to fall. That was something industrial workers could readily relate to.</p>
<p>For the owners of capital to accumulate more capital and maximize profits they had to compete. First they would compete against the workers.</p>
<p>Screw you. Keep wages, conditions and entitlements to a minimum. If you guys win improvements my profits will fall.</p>
<p>We must have more flexibility in the workforce, say the owners. Do two jobs at the same time. Better still, here’s a machine that can do even more than you can. You see, this investment comes at an extra cost to me.</p>
<p>Then in this world of accumulation and maximization of all that they touch the owners of capital have to compete with each other.</p>
<p>Let’s get some new equipment in so we can make our goods and services even cheaper.</p>
<p>No we can’t pay you more just now; we spent all our readies on investments. You’ll have to wait.</p>
<p>OK say the workers, we waited, we’ve produced more and it’s cheaper.</p>
<p>Sorry, no can do, say the owners. Our competitors have done the same.</p>
<p>We’re back to square one.</p>
<p>The idea of the falling rate of profit has been about for centuries. But in terms of political education it was an open door into the works of John Maynard Keynes and Karl Marx. A worker might be encouraged to read Marx’s Communist Manifesto. From there paths led to historical, sociological and cultural perspectives. Other writers and speakers were accessible; on colonialism, the arts, feminism.</p>
<p>But society is changing more rapidly now. The industrial proletariat that Marx clearly focused on is not so visible today, at least not so much in the north Atlantic countries. But it is increasingly visible in the emerging economies of the global south.</p>
<p>So it is probably time to reconsider the meaning of the term proletariat. We have the ricos preaching austerity in Europe and greatness in the USA. But those outside that narrow band are increasing and in a more fragmented, even disordered formation. Now we talk about the 99 percenters.</p>
<p>Falling rates of profit will resonate with blue and white collar union activists in traditional manufacturing, extraction and transport industries. Much less so with&#160; third generation unemployed, the many youth feeling under threat by the police, single parent families having difficulty in budgeting for health and essential services bills.</p>
<p>Other tools of inquiry and liberation from these tyrannies are required. Something that can reach out to specific sectors, meet the diversity that exists in the 99%. These groups have their activists too; in the environment, housing, gender and ethnicity rights. Moving from militant activism to revolutionary struggle is not as simple as flicking an on/off switch.</p>
<p>The falling rate of profit tendency had to – still has to – be studied. The leap combining knowing what-is-to-be-done and&#160;&#160; knowing how-to-do-it is a revolutionary one. So too, it is with Marx’s concept of alienation. It has to be understood and brought to bear on the issues faced by the new proletariat.</p>
<p>Traditionally alienation – call it estrangement, separation, being set apart – had &#160;four dominate&#160;&#160; aspects. Some contemporary writers are promoting a fifth; afeeling of helplessness about situations far away or beyond our influence.</p>
<p>The first type of alienation appears as the worker is distanced from the product he or she produces. Bakers have to go to the supermarket to buy the bread they produced. The ship builders can’t afford a cruise to the Caribbean islands for summer holiday. The cost is beyond them.</p>
<p>The second type of alienation occurs because the worker does what he or she does as means of survival. Something they work at for someone else, the owner of capital. Yes, it’s possible to enjoy your work and the company of the people you work with. But the economic power and control of work place practices rests with the owner of capital.</p>
<p>Work is at the core of being a human being, it’s part of what gives us human identity. And that is where the third category of alienation comes into play for most of us.</p>
<p>The queen of England’s job is meeting other heads of state, attending various “royal” functions and signing official documents. She is also expected to produce the next head of the British state.</p>
<p>Fortunately for her the royal blood line has ensured that she has inherited considerable wealth. So she has plenty of time on hand to pursue her personal interests. Corgi dogs and thorough bred horses, by all accounts.</p>
<p>Most of us work in the production of goods and delivery of services. Some are lifters and carriers. Others, at various levels, function as administrators and managers of these productive and delivery systems. They’re the lucky ones.</p>
<p>The unemployed are assigned lesser identity. Not being part of the survival system, except as a reserve labour force, kept at a distance until the system needs topping up. They are doubly alienated. Not allowed a worker identity in an economy which is built around accumulation and profit maximization, they must stand apart from the existing work force.</p>
<p>The fourth form of alienation is the estrangement of the worker from the human society to which he or she belongs. That doesn’t mean we wander around in lonely paranoia. The productive system to which the (employed) worker belongs is distant from the accumulative, profit maximizing world of privately owned property, natural resources, places of production and wealth creation.</p>
<p>You may own a car and the house you live in. As many have recently found out to their cost, as the system giveth so it taketh away. The real capital stays in the hand of the bankers and other big business.</p>
<p>So an understanding of alienation is crucial to turning a militant community activist into one struggling for a revolutionary change in society. The falling rate of profit has a relatively narrow focus, on the relationship between the worker, the product and the owners of capital.</p>
<p>A study of alienation offers a wide scope of individuals and groups of people to consider. At the same time it presents an opportunity to focus on one’s particular interest. That may be affordable and descent housing, child care, pollution control or whatever.</p>
<p>A housing issues activist doesn’t need to be told that cost is a major obstacle to accessing good housing. Others obstacles are access to those with power; economic power, political power, power to influence others, power to make contact with others.</p>
<p>Property developers don’t get rich building accommodation at affordable prices for the poorly paid bakery worker or the unemployed. The struggling mother of a young family can’t afford utility costs and health charges. The system doesn’t’ allow it. It’s got other priorities in mind.</p>
<p>Tackling these and similar problems requires a variety of responses, which may be local, national or global. But the revolutionary imperative increases when the environmental activist shares a common struggle with, say, Black Lives Matter.</p>
<p>That way the distance between different social groupings is shortened. So are the odds on bringing about change.</p>
<p>Sharing information and having a conversation is admirable. Connecting for collaboration over tactics and strategy, where both parties feel comfortable in their own skins and to a suitable degree, with each other, makes for a powerful fusion.</p>
<p>Deliberate attempts to set apart particular ethnic communities form the unemployed, who are already alienated from the productive process, puts an even greater distance between these two groups.</p>
<p>Meanwhile the owners of capital are strengthened by this division and are enabled to carry on maximizing their profits an accumulation even more capital.</p>
<p>Who says the markets don’t like uncertainty? Big business thrives on divisions caused by alienation.</p> | true | 4 | last month saw spate tributes passing english workplace trade union militant kevin halpin britains left wing daily morning star carried articles recalling factory struggles personal reminiscences campaigns helped lead many decades activity one articles mentioned friendship james klugmann men one time communist party great britain160 biographical work on160 160klugmann written dr geof andrews makes reference klugmann complicated communist shadow man kevin halpin penned biography contrasting title memoirs militant sharply point contrast doesnt end klugmann came well jewish family londons leafy hampstead halpin grew grinding poverty industrial lancashire northern england would hard friendly kevin wit laughter infectious james klugmann friendly serious product english public school system cambridge university much went along left politics 1930s meeting point education one article states kevin valued jamess stress explaining imperative process communists changing militants revolutionaries imperative process problem post ww2 years much problem todays north atlantic countries industry dominant one approach going bye totally bye gone times sharp point focus ideas associated tendency 160the 160rate profit fall something industrial workers could readily relate owners capital accumulate capital maximize profits compete first would compete workers screw keep wages conditions entitlements minimum guys win improvements profits fall must flexibility workforce say owners two jobs time better still heres machine even see investment comes extra cost world accumulation maximization touch owners capital compete lets get new equipment make goods services even cheaper cant pay spent readies investments youll wait ok say workers waited weve produced cheaper sorry say owners competitors done back square one idea falling rate profit centuries terms political education open door works john maynard keynes karl marx worker might encouraged read marxs communist manifesto paths led historical sociological cultural perspectives writers speakers accessible colonialism arts feminism society changing rapidly industrial proletariat marx clearly focused visible today least much north atlantic countries increasingly visible emerging economies global south probably time reconsider meaning term proletariat ricos preaching austerity europe greatness usa outside narrow band increasing fragmented even disordered formation talk 99 percenters falling rates profit resonate blue white collar union activists traditional manufacturing extraction transport industries much less with160 third generation unemployed many youth feeling threat police single parent families difficulty budgeting health essential services bills tools inquiry liberation tyrannies required something reach specific sectors meet diversity exists 99 groups activists environment housing gender ethnicity rights moving militant activism revolutionary struggle simple flicking onoff switch falling rate profit tendency still studied leap combining knowing whatistobedone and160160 knowing howtodoit revolutionary one marxs concept alienation understood brought bear issues faced new proletariat traditionally alienation call estrangement separation set apart 160four dominate160160 aspects contemporary writers promoting fifth afeeling helplessness situations far away beyond influence first type alienation appears worker distanced product produces bakers go supermarket buy bread produced ship builders cant afford cruise caribbean islands summer holiday cost beyond second type alienation occurs worker means survival something work someone else owner capital yes possible enjoy work company people work economic power control work place practices rests owner capital work core human part gives us human identity third category alienation comes play us queen englands job meeting heads state attending various royal functions signing official documents also expected produce next head british state fortunately royal blood line ensured inherited considerable wealth plenty time hand pursue personal interests corgi dogs thorough bred horses accounts us work production goods delivery services lifters carriers others various levels function administrators managers productive delivery systems theyre lucky ones unemployed assigned lesser identity part survival system except reserve labour force kept distance system needs topping doubly alienated allowed worker identity economy built around accumulation profit maximization must stand apart existing work force fourth form alienation estrangement worker human society belongs doesnt mean wander around lonely paranoia productive system employed worker belongs distant accumulative profit maximizing world privately owned property natural resources places production wealth creation may car house live many recently found cost system giveth taketh away real capital stays hand bankers big business understanding alienation crucial turning militant community activist one struggling revolutionary change society falling rate profit relatively narrow focus relationship worker product owners capital study alienation offers wide scope individuals groups people consider time presents opportunity focus ones particular interest may affordable descent housing child care pollution control whatever housing issues activist doesnt need told cost major obstacle accessing good housing others obstacles access power economic power political power power influence others power make contact others property developers dont get rich building accommodation affordable prices poorly paid bakery worker unemployed struggling mother young family cant afford utility costs health charges system doesnt allow got priorities mind tackling similar problems requires variety responses may local national global revolutionary imperative increases environmental activist shares common struggle say black lives matter way distance different social groupings shortened odds bringing change sharing information conversation admirable connecting collaboration tactics strategy parties feel comfortable skins suitable degree makes powerful fusion deliberate attempts set apart particular ethnic communities form unemployed already alienated productive process puts even greater distance two groups meanwhile owners capital strengthened division enabled carry maximizing profits accumulation even capital says markets dont like uncertainty big business thrives divisions caused alienation | 842 |
<p />
<p>Berlin.</p>
<p>The “War on Terror,” which former President George W. Bush officially launched in late-September 2001, and which President Obama officially rebranded as “The Series of Persistent Targeted Efforts to Dismantle Specific Networks of Violent Extremists That Threaten America” in May 2013, has, at this point (i.e. fifteen years into it), become our official consensus reality … or in other words, “just the way things are.” An entire generation has come of age during the “National State of Emergency With Respect to Certain Terrorist Attacks,” which President Obama recently extended. For most of this unfortunate generation (which some are calling “Generation Homeland”), the sight of soldiers in body armor, rifles held in the sling-ready position, patrolling the streets of their towns or cities, the absurd “security procedures” at the airport, the hysteria pumped out by the mainstream media, the sanctimonious memorialization of anything even remotely connected to the “Certain Terrorist Attacks” in question, and all the rest of it, is entirely normal, the way their world has always been.</p>
<p>Of course, this is also the first generation for whom the attacks in New York and Washington on September 11, 2001 are nothing but hazy childhood memories, or historical events they learned about in school, or on television, or the Internet. Odds are, what they learned about them was that “America” was attacked that day by a group of Islamic fundamentalist terrorists, for no apparent logical reason, other than that “they hate our freedom.” Chances are they also learned that the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the bombing and destabilizing of numerous other countries (i.e. Libya, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, and any others I’ve forgotten to mention), the indefinite detentions, the assassinations, the torture, the illegal mass surveillance, the militarization of society generally, and all the other familiar features of the “state of emergency” that has been in effect for as long as anyone their age can remember … that all of this has something to do with “protecting Americans” or “America’s interests.”</p>
<p>My heart goes out to this generation … or at least to all those in their early twenties who have been bombarded with this official narrative since more or less the day they were born and yet somehow have managed to maintain their sanity (and who continue to struggle on a daily basis to recognize, analyze, deconstruct, and otherwise fend off the relentless barrage of ideological bullshit aimed at their heads). Resisting the force of the official narrative is exhausting, and usually unrewarding, at least in professional and financial terms (unless, of course, one enjoys being marginalized). It’s so much easier to do like the king in The Parable of the King and the Poisoned Well, drink the Kool-Aid, and embrace the madness. Never mind that the official narrative doesn’t actually make much sense, or have anything to do with … well … history … or facts, or other stuff like that.</p>
<p>According to this official narrative, these Islamic terrorists who hate our freedom are waging some kind of fanatical holy war, the aim of which is to destroy the West, seize control of the entire world, and impose Sharia law on everyone. They launched this war on 9/11. They did this by dispatching a group of fifteen Saudi Arabian terrorists (and four others from Egypt, the Emirates and Lebanon) to hijack airplanes with three-dollar box cutters and fly them into iconic buildings, murdering as many people as possible. These attacks were meant to provoke “America,” and presumably the rest of the infidel West, into bombing the Middle East into oblivion, and rounding up Muslims throughout the world, which would trigger some kind of global Jihad that would wipe out Western Civilization, at which point the terrorists would pour out of their hidey holes and take over everything.</p>
<p>According to this same official narrative, these Islamic terrorists who hate our freedom magically appeared, more or less fully-formed, out of nowhere, just prior to 2001. The entire modern history of the Middle East, the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, Western colonialism, two world wars, the Cold War chess game, and the end thereof, not to mention the now unimpeded spread of global Capitalism throughout the world … none of this has anything to do with anything. No, according to our official narrative, these terrorists materialized out of the ether. They took a look around, spotted America sitting there peacefully minding its business, and enjoying its cherished values, and so on, were overcome with fanatical hatred, and started strapping on their suicide vests.</p>
<p>The only way to stop these terrorists (most of whom were Saudis, remember) from taking over the entire world was to accidentally invade Iraq, which didn’t have anything to do with anything, and kill and torture a lot of Iraqis, and decommission its entire military, so they could go form terrorist groups that would terrorize the entire region, and France, and help destabilize Syria, which at that point we could also bomb. Also, we needed to invade Afghanistan, because the terrorists had their hidey holes there, so we could sort of half-way justify that one. Oh, and Libya. We needed to bomb Libya too, to do away with the evil Gaddafi, because … uh … I don’t quite remember. Something to do with the Arab Spring, which had something to with Al Qaeda, or ISIS … or whatever … I think you get the idea.</p>
<p>Now, before my conspiracy theorist friends get all excited about where I’m going with this, I’m not suggesting that the 9/11 attacks were some kind of US government plot, or extraterrestrial reptilian plot, or that any of the terrorist attacks that have followed — the actual terrorist attacks, that is, not the ones by deranged individuals who swore allegiance to ISIS on Facebook — have not occurred more or less as reported. (Frankly, it doesn’t really matter if they didn’t. The overall effect remains the same.) What I’m calling into question, or examining, or ridiculing, is the ideological narrative surrounding these attacks, and Terrorism, and the War on Terror, or whatever it is we’re calling it this week, and the sanctimony surrounding this narrative, which the “Homeland Generation” has grown up with.</p>
<p>Those of us who are a little older (or, all right, let’s face it, a whole lot older, and yes, I’m referring to the “baby boomers,” which generation I am technically part of, having just turned 55 last month) were indoctrinated with a different narrative. The “reality” we were born into, and that was shoved down our throats at school when we were kids, and then reinforced by virtually every aspect of our lives as adults, was Communism versus Democracy. It went a little something like this …</p>
<p>America, having recently saved the world from the Nazis and the Nipponese Empire, was engaged in an eternal struggle against the Commies, and the Commie sympathizers, who wanted to conquer the entire planet, and … basically, take away all our stuff. This eternal struggle, or Orwellian stand-off, was either going to go on forever or until the Commies launched their nukes, or we did, which was going to be the end of everything. Then we were going to go hang with Jesus (we Americans, that is … not the Commies). In the course of waging this eternal struggle (which former President Ronald Reagan finally ended, in 1987, by ordering Gorbachev to “tear down this wall”), America and its freedom-loving allies, and the Godless Commies and their ruthless proxies, exterminated countless millions of people, mostly in exotic, faraway places (e.g. Indochina, Korea, Viet Nam, Burma, Algeria, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Palestine … and the list goes on).</p>
<p>So nothing has really changed all that much, in terms of everyone exterminating everyone. What has changed, however, is our official narrative (a/k/a consensus reality). Those of us who are old enough to remember the pre-9/11 “reality” have watched this official narrative changeover more or less as Orwell’s protagonist, Winston, in 1984, watches Ingsoc make the switch from the War with Eurasia to the War with Eastasia right in the middle of that Hate Week rally … or, all right, it didn’t happen quite that abruptly. Still, it’s been pretty impressive to watch. In the fifteen years since 9/11 (which isn’t that long in historical time) the Specter of Communism has been seamlessly replaced by the Specter of Islamic Terrorism, and the Cold War supplanted by the War on Terror.</p>
<p>Following the collapse of the U.S.S.R. in 1991, this was inevitable. Capitalism (not “America”), having vanquished, or outlived, its one and only adversary (i.e. Despotism, not “Communism” or “Socialism”), was finally free to restructure, privatize and exploit those markets it had been denied throughout the 50-year Cold War stalemate. The global capitalist ruling classes (who have no real loyalty to any nation) were now also free to start doing away with the trappings of Socialism they had maintained in the West to keep Western workers from growing dissatisfied with working their entire lives away so that the capitalist ruling classes do not have to. This Privatization of Virtually Everything, although occurring more gradually in Western Europe (apart from the busting-out of Greece, of course), has been going gangbusters in the US and UK, which are pretty much outright plutocracies at this point. As is Russia, and the former Eastern Bloc countries, and China, and most of the rest of the world.</p>
<p>And then there is the Middle East … which after the end of the Cold War stalemate was just sitting there, vulnerable, swimming in oil, and radiating strategic significance, and potential markets, and investment, and so on. The only little problem was those Ba’athists in Iraq and Syria, and Gaddafi, and his brand of Arab Nationalism, and those Wahhabists the US had been supporting to resist the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, and everyone else who wasn’t playing ball.</p>
<p>So the global capitalist ruling classes needed to get in there and restructure all that, which is what we’ve been witnessing since the end of the Cold War … but that isn’t a very good official narrative. For one thing, it’s way too complicated, and these official narratives need to be simple. Also, there wasn’t any evil adversary, which, in the story-telling biz, is a major problem. You’ve got to have an evil adversary. How else are you going to dupe the masses into sending their kids off to fight your wars, or into swarming onto the Mall in D.C., and into Times Square, waving flags and fanatically shouting “USA, USA!,” when your Seal Teams kill some terrorist bogeyman?</p>
<p>Fortunately, for the global capitalist ruling classes, the Islamic terrorists stepped right up and took over the role of evil adversary. There wasn’t really anyone else to do it. With the disappearance of the Communist Threat, they (i.e. global capitalist ruling classes) had lost their last external enemy. What they needed, and got, was an internal enemy, an internal enemy that can never be defeated.</p>
<p>Terrorism is that enemy. In our brave new unipolar age (an age in which transnational Capitalism, and not “America,” or Russia, or China, or any other nation state, dominates the entire planet and determines what is and is not “reality”), there can be no more external enemies, because there isn’t any “outside” anymore. We’re all in here together now … in our global capitalist consensus reality, which the majority of people throughout the world are doing their best to accept and conform to.</p>
<p>The problem with these Islamic terrorists (and with any other religious fanatics, socialist fanatics, environmentalist fanatics, and any other type of fanatical persons holding or espousing “extremist views”) is they haven’t yet accepted this “reality.” I’m having trouble doing that myself, as I assume is fairly obvious at this point. From what I understand, though, the pharmaceutical industry offers a variety of remedies for that … or maybe it would help if I made a pilgrimage back to New York to pray at the Holy Shrine of the Martyrs of September 11, and picked up one of those souvenir hats, or NYPD water bottles, and tried to forget about all this crazy consensus reality and history stuff.</p> | true | 4 | berlin war terror former president george w bush officially launched lateseptember 2001 president obama officially rebranded series persistent targeted efforts dismantle specific networks violent extremists threaten america may 2013 point ie fifteen years become official consensus reality words way things entire generation come age national state emergency respect certain terrorist attacks president obama recently extended unfortunate generation calling generation homeland sight soldiers body armor rifles held slingready position patrolling streets towns cities absurd security procedures airport hysteria pumped mainstream media sanctimonious memorialization anything even remotely connected certain terrorist attacks question rest entirely normal way world always course also first generation attacks new york washington september 11 2001 nothing hazy childhood memories historical events learned school television internet odds learned america attacked day group islamic fundamentalist terrorists apparent logical reason hate freedom chances also learned us invasions iraq afghanistan bombing destabilizing numerous countries ie libya pakistan syria yemen others ive forgotten mention indefinite detentions assassinations torture illegal mass surveillance militarization society generally familiar features state emergency effect long anyone age remember something protecting americans americas interests heart goes generation least early twenties bombarded official narrative since less day born yet somehow managed maintain sanity continue struggle daily basis recognize analyze deconstruct otherwise fend relentless barrage ideological bullshit aimed heads resisting force official narrative exhausting usually unrewarding least professional financial terms unless course one enjoys marginalized much easier like king parable king poisoned well drink koolaid embrace madness never mind official narrative doesnt actually make much sense anything well history facts stuff like according official narrative islamic terrorists hate freedom waging kind fanatical holy war aim destroy west seize control entire world impose sharia law everyone launched war 911 dispatching group fifteen saudi arabian terrorists four others egypt emirates lebanon hijack airplanes threedollar box cutters fly iconic buildings murdering many people possible attacks meant provoke america presumably rest infidel west bombing middle east oblivion rounding muslims throughout world would trigger kind global jihad would wipe western civilization point terrorists would pour hidey holes take everything according official narrative islamic terrorists hate freedom magically appeared less fullyformed nowhere prior 2001 entire modern history middle east partitioning ottoman empire western colonialism two world wars cold war chess game end thereof mention unimpeded spread global capitalism throughout world none anything anything according official narrative terrorists materialized ether took look around spotted america sitting peacefully minding business enjoying cherished values overcome fanatical hatred started strapping suicide vests way stop terrorists saudis remember taking entire world accidentally invade iraq didnt anything anything kill torture lot iraqis decommission entire military could go form terrorist groups would terrorize entire region france help destabilize syria point could also bomb also needed invade afghanistan terrorists hidey holes could sort halfway justify one oh libya needed bomb libya away evil gaddafi uh dont quite remember something arab spring something al qaeda isis whatever think get idea conspiracy theorist friends get excited im going im suggesting 911 attacks kind us government plot extraterrestrial reptilian plot terrorist attacks followed actual terrorist attacks ones deranged individuals swore allegiance isis facebook occurred less reported frankly doesnt really matter didnt overall effect remains im calling question examining ridiculing ideological narrative surrounding attacks terrorism war terror whatever calling week sanctimony surrounding narrative homeland generation grown us little older right lets face whole lot older yes im referring baby boomers generation technically part turned 55 last month indoctrinated different narrative reality born shoved throats school kids reinforced virtually every aspect lives adults communism versus democracy went little something like america recently saved world nazis nipponese empire engaged eternal struggle commies commie sympathizers wanted conquer entire planet basically take away stuff eternal struggle orwellian standoff either going go forever commies launched nukes going end everything going go hang jesus americans commies course waging eternal struggle former president ronald reagan finally ended 1987 ordering gorbachev tear wall america freedomloving allies godless commies ruthless proxies exterminated countless millions people mostly exotic faraway places eg indochina korea viet nam burma algeria nicaragua el salvador honduras palestine list goes nothing really changed much terms everyone exterminating everyone changed however official narrative aka consensus reality us old enough remember pre911 reality watched official narrative changeover less orwells protagonist winston 1984 watches ingsoc make switch war eurasia war eastasia right middle hate week rally right didnt happen quite abruptly still pretty impressive watch fifteen years since 911 isnt long historical time specter communism seamlessly replaced specter islamic terrorism cold war supplanted war terror following collapse ussr 1991 inevitable capitalism america vanquished outlived one adversary ie despotism communism socialism finally free restructure privatize exploit markets denied throughout 50year cold war stalemate global capitalist ruling classes real loyalty nation also free start away trappings socialism maintained west keep western workers growing dissatisfied working entire lives away capitalist ruling classes privatization virtually everything although occurring gradually western europe apart bustingout greece course going gangbusters us uk pretty much outright plutocracies point russia former eastern bloc countries china rest world middle east end cold war stalemate sitting vulnerable swimming oil radiating strategic significance potential markets investment little problem baathists iraq syria gaddafi brand arab nationalism wahhabists us supporting resist soviet occupation afghanistan everyone else wasnt playing ball global capitalist ruling classes needed get restructure weve witnessing since end cold war isnt good official narrative one thing way complicated official narratives need simple also wasnt evil adversary storytelling biz major problem youve got evil adversary else going dupe masses sending kids fight wars swarming onto mall dc times square waving flags fanatically shouting usa usa seal teams kill terrorist bogeyman fortunately global capitalist ruling classes islamic terrorists stepped right took role evil adversary wasnt really anyone else disappearance communist threat ie global capitalist ruling classes lost last external enemy needed got internal enemy internal enemy never defeated terrorism enemy brave new unipolar age age transnational capitalism america russia china nation state dominates entire planet determines reality external enemies isnt outside anymore together global capitalist consensus reality majority people throughout world best accept conform problem islamic terrorists religious fanatics socialist fanatics environmentalist fanatics type fanatical persons holding espousing extremist views havent yet accepted reality im trouble assume fairly obvious point understand though pharmaceutical industry offers variety remedies maybe would help made pilgrimage back new york pray holy shrine martyrs september 11 picked one souvenir hats nypd water bottles tried forget crazy consensus reality history stuff | 1,053 |
<p>Those <a href="" type="external">ratings that castigate Afghanistan and some other poor countries as hopelessly “corrupt” always imply</a> that the United States is not corrupt.</p>
<p><a href="http://youtu.be/scWltZ0Upwk" type="external">VOA reports</a>:</p>
<p>While it is true that you don’t typically have to bribe your postman to deliver the mail in the US, in many key ways America’s political and financial practices make it in absolute terms far more corrupt than the usual global South suspects. After all, the US economy is worth over $16 trillion a year, so in our corruption a lot more money changes hands.</p>
<p>1. Instead of having short, publicly-funded political campaigns with limited and/or free advertising (as a number of Western European countries do), the US has long political campaigns in which candidates are dunned big bucks for advertising. They are therefore forced to spend much of their time fundraising, which is to say, seeking bribes. All American politicians are basically on the take, though many are honorable people. They are forced into it by the system. House Majority leader John Boehner has actually just handed out cash on the floor of the House from the tobacco industry to other representatives.</p>
<p>When French President Nicolas Sarkozy was defeated in 2012, soon thereafter <a href="" type="external">French police actually went into his private residence</a> searching for an alleged $50,000 in illicit campaign contributions from the L’Oreale heiress. I thought to myself, seriously? $50,000 in a presidential campaign? Our presidential campaigns cost a billion dollars each! $50,000 is a rounding error, not a basis for police action. Why, George W. Bush took millions from arms manufacturers and then ginned up a war for them, and the police haven’t been anywhere near his house.</p>
<p>American politicians don’t represent “the people.” With a few honorable exceptions, they represent the the 1%. American democracy is being corrupted out of existence.</p>
<p>2. That politicians can be bribed to reduce regulation of industries like banking (what is called “regulatory capture”) means that they will be so bribed. <a href="" type="external">Billions were spent and 3,000 lobbyists employed by bankers to remove cumbersome rules</a>in the zeroes. Thus, political corruption enabled financial corruption (in some cases legalizing it!) Without regulations and government auditing, the finance sector went wild and engaged in corrupt practices that caused the 2008 crash. Too bad the poor Afghans can’t just legislate their corruption out of existence by regularizing it, the way Wall street did.</p>
<p>3. That the chief villains of the 2008 meltdown (from which 90% of Americans have not recovered) have not been prosecuted is itself <a href="" type="external">a form of corruption.</a></p>
<p>4. The US military budget is bloated and enormous, bigger than the military budgets of the next twelve major states. What isn’t usually realized is that perhaps half of it is spent on outsourced services, not on the military. <a href="" type="external">It is corporate welfare on a cosmic scale.</a> I’ve seen with my own eyes how officers in the military get out and then form companies to sell things to their former colleagues still on the inside.</p>
<p>5. The US has a vast gulag of 2.2 million prisoners in jail and penitentiary. <a href="" type="external">There is an increasing tendency for prisons to be privatized, and this tendency is corrupting the system.</a> It is wrong for people to profit from putting and keeping human beings behind bars. This troubling trend is made all the more troubling by the move to give extra-long sentences for minor crimes, to deny parole and to imprison people for life for e,g, three small thefts.</p>
<p>6. The rich are well placed to bribe our politicians to reduce taxes on the rich. This and other government policies has produced a situation <a href="" type="external">where 400 American billionaires are worth $2 trillion, as much as the bottom 150 million Americans.</a> That kind of wealth inequality hasn’t been seen in the US since the age of the robber barons in the nineteenth century. Both eras are marked by extreme corruption.</p>
<p>7. The National Security Agency’s domestic spying is a form of corruption in itself, and lends itself to corruption. With some 4 million government employees and private contractors engaged in this surveillance, it is highly unlikely that various forms of insider trading and other corrupt practices are not being committed. If you knew who Warren Buffett and George Soros were calling every day, that alone could make you a killing. The American political class wouldn’t be defending this indefensible invasion of citizens’ privacy so vigorously if someone somewhere weren’t making money on it.</p>
<p>8. As for insider trading, it turns out <a href="" type="external">Congress undid much of the law it hastily passed</a> forbidding members, rather belatedly, to engage in insider trading (buying and selling stock based on their privileged knowledge of future government policy). That this practice only became an issue recently is another sign of how corrupt the system is.</p>
<p>9. <a href="" type="external">Asset forfeiture</a> in the ‘drug war’ is corrupting police departments and the judiciary.</p>
<p>10. Money and corruption have seeped so far into our media system that people can with a straight face assert that scientists aren’t sure human carbon emissions are causing global warming. Fox Cable News is among the more corrupt institutions in American society, purveying outright lies for the benefit of the billionaire class. The US is so corrupt that it is resisting the obvious urgency to slash carbon production. Even our relatively progressive president talks about exploiting all sources of energy, as though hydrocarbons were just as valuable as green energy and as though hydrocarbons weren’t poisoning the earth.</p>
<p>Even Qatar, its economy based on natural gas, freely admits the challenge of human-induced climate change. American politicians like Jim Inhofe are openly ridiculed when they travel to Europe for their know-nothingism on climate.</p>
<p>So don’t tell the Philippines or the other victims of American corruption how corrupt they are for taking a few petty bribes. Americans are not seen as corrupt because we only deal in the big denominations. Steal $2 trillion and you aren’t corrupt, you’re respectable.</p> | true | 4 | ratings castigate afghanistan poor countries hopelessly corrupt always imply united states corrupt voa reports true dont typically bribe postman deliver mail us many key ways americas political financial practices make absolute terms far corrupt usual global south suspects us economy worth 16 trillion year corruption lot money changes hands 1 instead short publiclyfunded political campaigns limited andor free advertising number western european countries us long political campaigns candidates dunned big bucks advertising therefore forced spend much time fundraising say seeking bribes american politicians basically take though many honorable people forced system house majority leader john boehner actually handed cash floor house tobacco industry representatives french president nicolas sarkozy defeated 2012 soon thereafter french police actually went private residence searching alleged 50000 illicit campaign contributions loreale heiress thought seriously 50000 presidential campaign presidential campaigns cost billion dollars 50000 rounding error basis police action george w bush took millions arms manufacturers ginned war police havent anywhere near house american politicians dont represent people honorable exceptions represent 1 american democracy corrupted existence 2 politicians bribed reduce regulation industries like banking called regulatory capture means bribed billions spent 3000 lobbyists employed bankers remove cumbersome rulesin zeroes thus political corruption enabled financial corruption cases legalizing without regulations government auditing finance sector went wild engaged corrupt practices caused 2008 crash bad poor afghans cant legislate corruption existence regularizing way wall street 3 chief villains 2008 meltdown 90 americans recovered prosecuted form corruption 4 us military budget bloated enormous bigger military budgets next twelve major states isnt usually realized perhaps half spent outsourced services military corporate welfare cosmic scale ive seen eyes officers military get form companies sell things former colleagues still inside 5 us vast gulag 22 million prisoners jail penitentiary increasing tendency prisons privatized tendency corrupting system wrong people profit putting keeping human beings behind bars troubling trend made troubling move give extralong sentences minor crimes deny parole imprison people life eg three small thefts 6 rich well placed bribe politicians reduce taxes rich government policies produced situation 400 american billionaires worth 2 trillion much bottom 150 million americans kind wealth inequality hasnt seen us since age robber barons nineteenth century eras marked extreme corruption 7 national security agencys domestic spying form corruption lends corruption 4 million government employees private contractors engaged surveillance highly unlikely various forms insider trading corrupt practices committed knew warren buffett george soros calling every day alone could make killing american political class wouldnt defending indefensible invasion citizens privacy vigorously someone somewhere werent making money 8 insider trading turns congress undid much law hastily passed forbidding members rather belatedly engage insider trading buying selling stock based privileged knowledge future government policy practice became issue recently another sign corrupt system 9 asset forfeiture drug war corrupting police departments judiciary 10 money corruption seeped far media system people straight face assert scientists arent sure human carbon emissions causing global warming fox cable news among corrupt institutions american society purveying outright lies benefit billionaire class us corrupt resisting obvious urgency slash carbon production even relatively progressive president talks exploiting sources energy though hydrocarbons valuable green energy though hydrocarbons werent poisoning earth even qatar economy based natural gas freely admits challenge humaninduced climate change american politicians like jim inhofe openly ridiculed travel europe knownothingism climate dont tell philippines victims american corruption corrupt taking petty bribes americans seen corrupt deal big denominations steal 2 trillion arent corrupt youre respectable | 563 |
<p>Photo by <a href="http://www.howtostartablogonline.net" type="external">howtostartablogonline.net</a> | <a href="" type="internal">CC by 2.0</a></p>
<p>The&#160;Senate Intelligence Committee has&#160;made it clear that it is not conducting an open and independent investigation of alleged Russian hacking, but making a determined effort to support&#160;a theory that was presented in the January 6, 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment. Committee Chairman Senator Richard Burr (R-N.C.)&#160;admitted as much&#160;in a press conference last Wednesday when he said:</p>
<p>We feel very confident that the ICA’s&#160;accuracy is going to be supported by our committee.</p>
<p>Burr’s statement is an example of “confirmation bias”&#160; which is the tendency to interpret information in a way that confirms one’s own preexisting beliefs.&#160; In this case, Burr and his co-chair, Senator Mark Warner have already accepted the findings of a hastily slapped-together Intelligence&#160;report that was the work of “hand-picked” analysts who were likely chosen to produce conclusions that jibed with a particular political agenda.&#160; In other words, the intelligence was fixed to fit the policy. Burr of course has tried to conceal his prejudice by pointing to the number of witnesses the Committee has&#160;interviewed and the volume of work that’s been produced. This is from an article at The Nation:</p>
<p>Since January 23,… the committee and its staff have conducted more than 100 interviews, comprising 250 hours of testimony and resulting in 4,000 pages of transcripts, and reviewed more than 100,000 documents relevant to Russiagate. The staff, said Warner, has collectively spent a total of 57 hours per day, seven days a week, since the committee opened its inquiry, going through documents and transcripts, interviewing witnesses, and analyzing both classified and unclassified material.</p>
<p>It all sounds very impressive, but if the&#160;goal is merely to lend credibility to unverified assumptions, then what’s the point?</p>
<p>Let’s take a look at a few excerpts from the report and see&#160;whether&#160;Burr and Warner are justified&#160;in “feeling confident” in the ICA’s accuracy.</p>
<p>From the&#160;Intelligence Community Assessment:</p>
<p>&#160;We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election.&#160; Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency.&#160; We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump.&#160; We have high confidence in these judgments.</p>
<p>This is the basic claim of Russia meddling that has yet to be proved. As you can see, the charge is mixed with liberal doses of mind-reading mumbo-jumbo&#160;that reveal the authors’ lack of objectivity. There’s a considerable amount of speculation about Putin’s motives and preferences which are based on pure conjecture. It’s a bit shocking that professional analysts– who are charged with providing our leaders with rock-solid intelligence related to matters of national security– would&#160;indulge in&#160;this type of opinionated blather and psycho-babble. It’s also shocking that Burr and Warner&#160;think&#160;this gibberish should be taken seriously.</p>
<p>Here’s more from the ICA:</p>
<p>Putin most likely wanted to discredit Secretary Clinton because he has publicly blamed her since 2011 for inciting mass protests against his regime in late 2011 and early 2012, and because he holds a grudge for comments he almost certainly saw as disparaging him.</p>
<p>More mind-reading, more groundless speculation, more guessing what Putin thinks or doesn’t think.&#160;The ICA reads more like the&#160;text from a morning talk show than an Intelligence report.&#160; And what is it about this report that Burr finds so persuasive? It’s beyond me. The report’s greatest strength seems to be that no one has ever read it. If they had, they’d realize that it’s nonsense. Also, it would have been better&#160;if the ICA’s authors had avoided the amateur psychoanalysis and stuck to the point,&#160;Russia hacking.&#160;&#160;Dabbling in the former seriously impacts the&#160;report’s credibility.</p>
<p>To their credit, however, Burr and Warner have questioned all of the analysts who contributed to the report.&#160;Check out this&#160;excerpt from&#160;The Nation:</p>
<p>“We have interviewed everybody who had a hand or a voice in the creation of the ICA,” said Burr. “We’ve spent nine times the amount of time that the IC [intelligence community] spent putting the ICA together.… We have reviewed all the supporting evidence that went into it and, in addition to that, the things that went on the cutting-room floor that they may not have found appropriate for the ICA, but we may have found relevant to our investigation.” Burr added that the committee’s review included “highly classified intelligence reporting,” and they’ve interviewed every official in the Obama administration who had anything to do with putting it together. (“Democrats and Republicans in Congress Agree: Russia Did It”, The Nation)</p>
<p>That’s great, but where’ the beef?&#160; How can the committee&#160;conduct “100 interviews, comprising 250 hours of testimony and resulting in 4,000 pages of transcripts” without producing a shred of evidence that Russia meddled in the elections?&#160; How is that possible? The Committee’s job is to prove its case not to merely pour over the minutia related to the investigation. No one really cares how many people testified or how much paperwork was involved.&#160;What people want is&#160;proof that Russia interfered with the elections or that members of the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow. That’s the whole point of this exercise. And, on the collusion matter, at least we have something new to report. In a rare moment of candor, Burr blurted&#160;out this gem:</p>
<p>“There are concerns that we continue to pursue. Collusion?&#160; The committee continues to look into all evidence to see if there was any hint of collusion. Now, I’m not going to even discuss any initial findings because we haven’t any.”</p>
<p>Think about that.&#160; After “100 interviews, 250 hours of testimony, and 4000 transcript pages” there’s not the slightest hint of collusion. It’s mindboggling. Why isn’t this front page news? Why haven’t the New York Times or Washington Post run this in their headlines, after all, they’ve hyped every other&#160;part of this story?</p>
<p>Could it be that Burr’s admission doesn’t mesh with the media’s “Russia did it” narrative so they decided to scrub the story altogether?</p>
<p>But it’s not just collusion we’re talking about here, there’s also the broader issue of Russia meddling. And what was striking about the press conference is that –after all the interviews,&#160;all the&#160;testimony, and&#160;all the&#160;stacks of transcripts– the Committee has come up with nothing; no eyewitness testimony supporting the original claims, no smoking gun, no proof of domestic espionage, no evidence of Russian complicity, nothing. One big goose egg.</p>
<p>So here’s a question for critical minded readers:</p>
<p>If the Senate Intelligence Committee has not found any proof that Russia hacked the 2016 elections, then why do senators’ Burr and Warner still believe the ICA is reliable? It doesn’t really make sense, does it? &#160;Don’t they require evidence to draw their conclusions? And doesn’t the burden of truth fall on the prosecution (or the investigators in this case)? Isn’t a man innocent until proven guilty or doesn’t that rule apply to Russia?</p>
<p>Let’s cut to the chase: The committee is not getting to the bottom of the Russia hacking matter, because they don’t want to get to the bottom of it. It’s that simple. That’s why they have&#160;excluded any witnesses that may upset their preconceived theory of what happened. Why, for example, would the committee chose to interview former CIA Director John Brennan rather than WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange? Brennan not only helped select the hand-picked analysts who authored the ICA, he also clearly has an animus towards Russia due to his frustrated attempt to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al Assad which was thwarted by Putin. In other words, Brennan has a motive to mislead the Committee. He’s biased. He has an ax to grind. In contrast, Assange has firsthand knowledge of what actually transpired with the DNC emails because he was the recipient of those emails.&#160;Has Assange been contacted by the Committee&#160;or asked to testify via Skype?</p>
<p>Don’t bet on it.</p>
<p>What about former UK ambassador Craig Murray, a WikiLeaks colleague, who has repeatedly admitted that he knows the source of the DNC emails. Murray hasn’t been asked to testify nor has he even been contacted by the FBI on the matter. Apparently, the FBI has no interest in a credible witness who can disprove the politically-motivated theory expounded in the ICA.</p>
<p>Then there’s 30-year CIA analyst Ray McGovern and his group of&#160; Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS). McGovern has done extensive research on the topic and has produced solid evidence that the DNC emails were “leaked” by an insider, not “hacked” by a foreign government. McGovern’s work squares with Assange and Murray’s claim that Russia did not hack the 2016 elections.&#160;Has McGovern been invited to testify?</p>
<p>How about Skip Folden,&#160;retired IBM Program Manager&#160;and Information Technology&#160;expert, whose excellent report titled “Non-Existent Foundation for Russian Hacking Charge” also disproves the hacking theory, as does The Nation’s Patrick Lawrence whose riveting article at The Nation titled “A New Report Raises Big Questions About Last Year’s DNC Hack” which&#160;thoroughly obliterates the central claims of the ICA.</p>
<p>Finally, there’s California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher who met with Assange in August at the Ecuadorian embassy in London and who was assured that Assange would provide hard evidence (in the form of “a computer drive or other data-storage device”) that the Russians were not involved in the DNC email scandal.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t you think that senate investigators would want to talk to a trusted colleague and credible witness like Rohrabacher who said he could produce solid proof&#160; that the scandal, that has dominated the headlines and roiled Washington for the better part of a year, was bogus?</p>
<p>Apparently not. Apparently Burr and his colleagues would rather avoid any witness or evidence that conflicts with their increasingly-threadbare thesis.</p>
<p>So what conclusions can we draw from the Committee’s behavior? Are Burr and Warner really conducting&#160;an open and independent investigation of alleged Russia hacking or is this just a witch hunt?</p>
<p>It should be&#160;obvious by now that the real intention of the briefing was not to provide the public with more information, facts or evidence&#160;of Russian hacking, but to use the prestigious setting as a platform for disseminating more disinformation aimed at vilifying an emerging rival (Russia)&#160;that has blocked Washington’s aggression in Ukraine and Syria, and threatens to unite the most populous and prosperous region in the world (Eurasia) into one massive free trade zone spanning from Lisbon to Vladivostok. Reasonable people&#160;must now consider the possibility that the Russia hacking narrative is an Information Operation (IO)&#160; devoid of any real substance which is designed to poison the publics perception of Russia. It is a domestic propaganda campaign that&#160;fits perfectly with the “Full Spectrum Dominance” theory of weaponizing media in a way that best achieves one’s geopolitical objectives. The American people are again being manipulated so that powerful elites can lead the country to war.</p>
<p>Notes.</p>
<p>1/&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Senate Intelligence Committee briefing on Russia investigation</a>, CSPAN</p>
<p>2/&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Intelligence Community Assessment</a>, January 6, 2017</p>
<p>3/ <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/a-new-report-raises-big-questions-about-last-years-dnc-hack/" type="external">A&#160;New Report Raises Big Questions About Last Year’s DNC Hack</a>, Patrick Lawrence, The Nation.</p>
<p>4/ <a href="" type="internal">Intel Vets Challenge ‘Russia Hack’ Evidence</a></p>
<p>5/ <a href="https://nef4rhc.wordpress.com/" type="external">Non-Existent Foundation for Russian Hacking Charge</a>, Skip Folden</p> | true | 4 | photo howtostartablogonlinenet cc 20 the160senate intelligence committee has160made clear conducting open independent investigation alleged russian hacking making determined effort support160a theory presented january 6 2017 intelligence community assessment committee chairman senator richard burr rnc160admitted much160in press conference last wednesday said feel confident icas160accuracy going supported committee burrs statement example confirmation bias160 tendency interpret information way confirms ones preexisting beliefs160 case burr cochair senator mark warner already accepted findings hastily slappedtogether intelligence160report work handpicked analysts likely chosen produce conclusions jibed particular political agenda160 words intelligence fixed fit policy burr course tried conceal prejudice pointing number witnesses committee has160interviewed volume work thats produced article nation since january 23 committee staff conducted 100 interviews comprising 250 hours testimony resulting 4000 pages transcripts reviewed 100000 documents relevant russiagate staff said warner collectively spent total 57 hours per day seven days week since committee opened inquiry going documents transcripts interviewing witnesses analyzing classified unclassified material sounds impressive the160goal merely lend credibility unverified assumptions whats point lets take look excerpts report see160whether160burr warner justified160in feeling confident icas accuracy the160intelligence community assessment 160we assess russian president vladimir putin ordered influence campaign 2016 aimed us presidential election160 russias goals undermine public faith us democratic process denigrate secretary clinton harm electability potential presidency160 assess putin russian government developed clear preference presidentelect trump160 high confidence judgments basic claim russia meddling yet proved see charge mixed liberal doses mindreading mumbojumbo160that reveal authors lack objectivity theres considerable amount speculation putins motives preferences based pure conjecture bit shocking professional analysts charged providing leaders rocksolid intelligence related matters national security would160indulge in160this type opinionated blather psychobabble also shocking burr warner160think160this gibberish taken seriously heres ica putin likely wanted discredit secretary clinton publicly blamed since 2011 inciting mass protests regime late 2011 early 2012 holds grudge comments almost certainly saw disparaging mindreading groundless speculation guessing putin thinks doesnt think160the ica reads like the160text morning talk show intelligence report160 report burr finds persuasive beyond reports greatest strength seems one ever read theyd realize nonsense also would better160if icas authors avoided amateur psychoanalysis stuck point160russia hacking160160dabbling former seriously impacts the160reports credibility credit however burr warner questioned analysts contributed report160check this160excerpt from160the nation interviewed everybody hand voice creation ica said burr weve spent nine times amount time ic intelligence community spent putting ica together reviewed supporting evidence went addition things went cuttingroom floor may found appropriate ica may found relevant investigation burr added committees review included highly classified intelligence reporting theyve interviewed every official obama administration anything putting together democrats republicans congress agree russia nation thats great beef160 committee160conduct 100 interviews comprising 250 hours testimony resulting 4000 pages transcripts without producing shred evidence russia meddled elections160 possible committees job prove case merely pour minutia related investigation one really cares many people testified much paperwork involved160what people want is160proof russia interfered elections members trump campaign colluded moscow thats whole point exercise collusion matter least something new report rare moment candor burr blurted160out gem concerns continue pursue collusion160 committee continues look evidence see hint collusion im going even discuss initial findings havent think that160 100 interviews 250 hours testimony 4000 transcript pages theres slightest hint collusion mindboggling isnt front page news havent new york times washington post run headlines theyve hyped every other160part story could burrs admission doesnt mesh medias russia narrative decided scrub story altogether collusion talking theres also broader issue russia meddling striking press conference interviews160all the160testimony and160all the160stacks transcripts committee come nothing eyewitness testimony supporting original claims smoking gun proof domestic espionage evidence russian complicity nothing one big goose egg heres question critical minded readers senate intelligence committee found proof russia hacked 2016 elections senators burr warner still believe ica reliable doesnt really make sense 160dont require evidence draw conclusions doesnt burden truth fall prosecution investigators case isnt man innocent proven guilty doesnt rule apply russia lets cut chase committee getting bottom russia hacking matter dont want get bottom simple thats have160excluded witnesses may upset preconceived theory happened example would committee chose interview former cia director john brennan rather wikileaks founder julian assange brennan helped select handpicked analysts authored ica also clearly animus towards russia due frustrated attempt overthrow syrian president bashar al assad thwarted putin words brennan motive mislead committee hes biased ax grind contrast assange firsthand knowledge actually transpired dnc emails recipient emails160has assange contacted committee160or asked testify via skype dont bet former uk ambassador craig murray wikileaks colleague repeatedly admitted knows source dnc emails murray hasnt asked testify even contacted fbi matter apparently fbi interest credible witness disprove politicallymotivated theory expounded ica theres 30year cia analyst ray mcgovern group of160 veteran intelligence professionals sanity vips mcgovern done extensive research topic produced solid evidence dnc emails leaked insider hacked foreign government mcgoverns work squares assange murrays claim russia hack 2016 elections160has mcgovern invited testify skip folden160retired ibm program manager160and information technology160expert whose excellent report titled nonexistent foundation russian hacking charge also disproves hacking theory nations patrick lawrence whose riveting article nation titled new report raises big questions last years dnc hack which160thoroughly obliterates central claims ica finally theres california congressman dana rohrabacher met assange august ecuadorian embassy london assured assange would provide hard evidence form computer drive datastorage device russians involved dnc email scandal wouldnt think senate investigators would want talk trusted colleague credible witness like rohrabacher said could produce solid proof160 scandal dominated headlines roiled washington better part year bogus apparently apparently burr colleagues would rather avoid witness evidence conflicts increasinglythreadbare thesis conclusions draw committees behavior burr warner really conducting160an open independent investigation alleged russia hacking witch hunt be160obvious real intention briefing provide public information facts evidence160of russian hacking use prestigious setting platform disseminating disinformation aimed vilifying emerging rival russia160that blocked washingtons aggression ukraine syria threatens unite populous prosperous region world eurasia one massive free trade zone spanning lisbon vladivostok reasonable people160must consider possibility russia hacking narrative information operation io160 devoid real substance designed poison publics perception russia domestic propaganda campaign that160fits perfectly full spectrum dominance theory weaponizing media way best achieves ones geopolitical objectives american people manipulated powerful elites lead country war notes 1160 senate intelligence committee briefing russia investigation cspan 2160 intelligence community assessment january 6 2017 3 a160new report raises big questions last years dnc hack patrick lawrence nation 4 intel vets challenge russia hack evidence 5 nonexistent foundation russian hacking charge skip folden | 1,043 |
<p>Japan is marching back to military power, or more precisely, “is being marched” by the United States toward a new militarism, as its neo-nationalist prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, who like many hawks has never served in the military, acts as eager drill sergeant. Meanwhile the putative army, the Japanese people, remains unenthusiastic.</p>
<p>The nation and its population are unique in the world, having honored 60 years of official pacifism since their disastrous imperialist wars from 1931-45. These ended in defeat with three million Japanese dead, and a US occupation force writing a new constitution that renounced war “forever.” That was then. Now, despite opinion polls still showing a pacifist public in the high 60s percentage, Japan’s warmongers exert their influence. The new militarism is not trumpeted, even the Pentagon’s drums are muffled, but almost every week an event occurs to push six decades of peace further into history.</p>
<p>In January, for instance, the Ground Self-Defense Force, the name Japan must give its well-equipped and powerful army, was for the first time ever exercising jointly with US military for three weeks at the giant Pendleton Marine base in southern California, north of San Diego, staging amphibian operations against an “armed guerrilla occupation” of Japanese islands. Why?</p>
<p>It so happens that a nasty dispute exists between Japan, China, and Taiwan, over five desolate little outcrops in the East China Sea the Japanese call Senkaku, from the original British-named Pinnacle Rocks, and the Chinese, Diaoyu islands. Controlled by Japan since its 1895 annexation of Taiwan (an earlier Japanese imperialist adventure), both the People’s Republic and Taiwan now claim the isles for a predictable reason. Oil deposits lie around a “median line” drawn by Japan, which has already protested drilling on the Chinese side. Fishing rights are disputed too, and Taiwan dispatched a frigate last June as Japanese patrol boats harassed Chinese vessels.</p>
<p>Yet it’s hardly guerrilla territory. Occasional Chinese protesters have landed, to be promptly ousted by Japanese coastguards. Amphibious commando ops — as well as Tokyo’s development of new shallow-water torpedoes — pose a graver threat, from Japan. Presumably that is the combative point to be taken. It certainly fits Japan’s chauvinistic foreign minister Taro Aso’s explosive Christmas week assertion that China’s military defense budget (less than Japan, the world’s third highest) was a “considerable threat.” Beijing denounced this remark as “highly irresponsible,” ending the year’s Sino-Japanese relations at the lowest point in decades.</p>
<p>In Tokyo other militarist steps have been taken. In the last two years Japan has passed over 10 new laws and introduced fundamental bureaucratic “reforms” that promote the means to war or make it easier. One is the forthcoming promotion of the SDF agency to a full Ministry of Defense; another is closer technical collaboration with US missile defense projects, contrary to Japan’s ban on such ventures. More momentous events are due shortly. The main one will modify the anti-war constitution. A draft has already been published and enactment could begin this year.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the GSDF is also for the first time serving in a war zone, the Iraqi town of Samawa, where its mission of “reconstruction and humanitarian assistance” was recently extended for another year. (Its 500 troops, protected by Australian soldiers, are almost as unpopular as Americans, and reportedly have failed their requirement to provide reliable electricity and water.)</p>
<p>But the main move that threatens a new and potentially dangerous alliance between Japan’s neo-militarists and Washington jingoists, was the joint declaration in October titled “US-Japan Alliance: Transformation and Realignment for the Future.” It extended Japan’s previous defense-only stance to “develop options and adapt the alliance to the changing regional and global security environment.”</p>
<p>The inclusion of the key word “global” can be taken to mean what the title implied: a militant new Japan-US pact to transform and structurally alter their joint military position in the world. An interesting analogy with Britain exists here: like its role in the Atlantic, Japan is to become America’s new unsinkable aircraft carrier in the north-east Pacific, something the Pentagon has longed for. As if to seal this promise at last, the US further announced that despite a previous Japanese port ban on nuclear warships, America’s replacement in Japan for the ageing USS Kitty Hawk conventional carrier will be the atomic-powered USS George Washington, but not the originally drafted USS Harry Truman, because of that president’s A-bomb attack on Hiroshima.</p>
<p>October’s brothers-in-arms pact was further enhanced by the vision of Japan as a base for US intervention anywhere. This would come by increasing Tokyo’s logistic support; combining command centers at the massive Yokota US air force base in Tokyo’s suburbs; the naval SDF’s acquisition and deployment of fast transport ships; a commitment against “terrorism” (even if not directed against Japan) with a combined Rapid Reaction Force based south-west of Tokyo; and most important, integrating both nations’ forces in fortress Okinawa. Here, Japan’s southern island has long accommodated — unwillingly — three quarters of the US military’s 45,000 Japanese complement spread over 90 bases and installations.</p>
<p>Okinawa makes an odd but useful comparison to Hawaii. Both these annexed islands in the Pacific were forced to act as militarized colonies under their mainland masters, and bear the brunt of foreign attacks against them: Hawaii at Pearl Harbor and Okinawa in the Pacific War’s final battle. That lasted nearly three months and killed 240,000 on both sides, a quarter of them Okinawa civilians. The victorious US remained in control there until 1972, when the former Pacific kingdom (as was Hawaii) became just another Japanese prefecture.</p>
<p>Under the new brothers-in-arms arrangement, US and Japanese SDF forces in Okinawa would be upgraded and consolidated. But could the grand military-imperial aspirations of Washington and Tokyo founder upon its shores? Okinawa’s ordinary people have maintained a strong 10-year protest over military plans for the island, particularly against replacement of the 50-year old US Marine and air base at Futenma in the south, now occupying a cramped urban area. The US and Japan decreed its expansion and removal northwards to the coast, with a huge floating runway extension. Yet not even the foundations were laid after public opposition supported by local politicians defeated two plans.</p>
<p>Now, under the October alliance, and with no local consultation, a new base with even bigger runway would run across a seaside cape to create a single giant US military complex. Foreign minister Aso immediately exercised his unfailing arrogance by declaring this proposal final and beyond review. President George Bush called it “positive.”</p>
<p>Okinawans derided it as postively disgraceful and even the governor, a political ally of Japan’s ruling (conservative) Liberal Democratic Party, denounced it as “totally unacceptable.” Now, bribes of improved rail and air links are being offered, but in an island increasingly talking about autonomy, if not independence, the outcome is uncertain.</p>
<p>Could the US and Japan be about to receive another unwanted lesson in the perils of imperialism? They represent massive force, but their military plans can be discredited historically, politically and morally.</p>
<p>The historical perspective, usually lacking in the mainstream media’s jargon-stuffed “defense” reporting, concerns a region where three wars involving dozens of nations, including the US, the then-Soviet Union, China, Australia, France, and in two instances Britain, occurred within the 20-odd years from World War II closure through the Korean conflict and Vietnam. Even today, Japan has yet to sign a Pacific war peace treaty with the former Soviet Union or today’s Russia. North Korea claims nuclear weaponry; China and Taiwan confront Beijing’s continued insistence that the island remains part of the People’s Republic. Above all, the astonishingly rapid advance of China’s economy renders previous regional assumptions invalid, but not irreplaceable.</p>
<p>The dean of Asian scholarship, Chalmers Johnson, former professor at the University of California at San Diego and Berkeley, and now head of the Japan Policy Research Institute, offers this perspective: “The major question for the 21st century is whether this fateful inability to adjust to changes in the global power-structure can be overcome. Thus far the signs are negative … Is China’s ascendancy to be marked by yet another world war, when the pretensions of European civilization in its US and Japanese projections would be finally put to rest? That is what is at stake.”</p>
<p>He sees Bush’s encouragement of Japan’s re-armament as “dangerous” and adds: “Such a development promotes hostility between China and Japan, sabotages possible peaceful solutions in those two problem areas, Taiwan and North Korea, that were left over from the Chinese and Korean civil wars, and lays the foundation for a possible future Sino-American conflict that the US would almost surely lose. It is unclear whether these Washington ideologues understand what they are unleashing: a possible confrontation between the world’s fastest growing industrial economy, China, and the world’s second most productive … Japan; a confrontation the United States would have caused.”</p>
<p>Politically, it is China’s advance that lies behind Washington’s push of Japanese leaders’ emerging militarism. Although deflected by Iraq, US neo-cons always regarded “containment” of China a logical sequence to that old Cold War attitude. Last February they launched it afresh with the first declaration of closer “security” ties between the US and Japan. In June came defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s aggressive speech on China, when he asked why it rearms when “no nation threatens it.” This statement ignored even his own actions in supporting constant US warship patrols of China’s coast and aiming nuclear missiles at its mainland.</p>
<p>Uncle Sam’s motive here is appallingly simple: today’s Washington ideology that the US must remain the world’s overwhelming sole super-power, by “pre-emptive force” if necessary. Victorian Britain’s Lord “send-a-gunboat” Palmerston would understand instantly. Japan’s neo-nationalist politicians, who still regularly appear in coat-tails, seem to agree too. Certainly they see US dominance as a vehicle on which to ride again into a new “co-prosperity sphere” — the wartime fascist slogan — and toward military regional hegemony as well.</p>
<p>This is not only impossible, but immoral. Japan’s neo-militarism, having already thrust it into an illegal war in Iraq, must trade on historically discredited national animosities with no contemporary relevance. Yet its ruling politicians will not even discuss it. Debate does not exist. Opinion polls from Okinawa and other prefectures hosting US and Japanese troops, consistently report majorities opposed to military activity, as do national polls. Democratic process is ignored while relations with China and South Korea decline to where foreign ministers cannot even meet.</p>
<p>One poll shows disturbing figures. Only 32 percent of Japanese now feel friendly toward China, a drop from 50 percent 10 years ago. In one respect, nationalist talk is working. Meanwhile Koizumi and his cabinet cronies continue to provoke their two neighbors by justifying visits to the militarist Yasukuni shrine honoring Japan’s worst war criminals, including generals in charge during the 1937 Rape of Nanking where Japanese slaughtered over 300,000 Chinese. Japan’s leaders also decline to atone for other atrocities in the war and China since 1931.</p>
<p>Why do Japanese politicians behave like this? Have they not yet abandoned the racist supremacy of the fascist era? Apparently not — yet the subject is never discussed. Koizumi and his cabinet seem blind to the implications of what they are fostering. A possible result of their stupidity might be an incredible irony. Could their actions lead Japan once more to wartime obliteration by the world’s biggest economy — this time not America’s, but China’s?</p>
<p>CHRISTOPHER REED is a journalist who lives in Japan. His email <a href="mailto:christopherreed@earthlink.net" type="external">christopherreed@earthlink.net</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | japan marching back military power precisely marched united states toward new militarism neonationalist prime minister junichiro koizumi like many hawks never served military acts eager drill sergeant meanwhile putative army japanese people remains unenthusiastic nation population unique world honored 60 years official pacifism since disastrous imperialist wars 193145 ended defeat three million japanese dead us occupation force writing new constitution renounced war forever despite opinion polls still showing pacifist public high 60s percentage japans warmongers exert influence new militarism trumpeted even pentagons drums muffled almost every week event occurs push six decades peace history january instance ground selfdefense force name japan must give wellequipped powerful army first time ever exercising jointly us military three weeks giant pendleton marine base southern california north san diego staging amphibian operations armed guerrilla occupation japanese islands happens nasty dispute exists japan china taiwan five desolate little outcrops east china sea japanese call senkaku original britishnamed pinnacle rocks chinese diaoyu islands controlled japan since 1895 annexation taiwan earlier japanese imperialist adventure peoples republic taiwan claim isles predictable reason oil deposits lie around median line drawn japan already protested drilling chinese side fishing rights disputed taiwan dispatched frigate last june japanese patrol boats harassed chinese vessels yet hardly guerrilla territory occasional chinese protesters landed promptly ousted japanese coastguards amphibious commando ops well tokyos development new shallowwater torpedoes pose graver threat japan presumably combative point taken certainly fits japans chauvinistic foreign minister taro asos explosive christmas week assertion chinas military defense budget less japan worlds third highest considerable threat beijing denounced remark highly irresponsible ending years sinojapanese relations lowest point decades tokyo militarist steps taken last two years japan passed 10 new laws introduced fundamental bureaucratic reforms promote means war make easier one forthcoming promotion sdf agency full ministry defense another closer technical collaboration us missile defense projects contrary japans ban ventures momentous events due shortly main one modify antiwar constitution draft already published enactment could begin year meanwhile gsdf also first time serving war zone iraqi town samawa mission reconstruction humanitarian assistance recently extended another year 500 troops protected australian soldiers almost unpopular americans reportedly failed requirement provide reliable electricity water main move threatens new potentially dangerous alliance japans neomilitarists washington jingoists joint declaration october titled usjapan alliance transformation realignment future extended japans previous defenseonly stance develop options adapt alliance changing regional global security environment inclusion key word global taken mean title implied militant new japanus pact transform structurally alter joint military position world interesting analogy britain exists like role atlantic japan become americas new unsinkable aircraft carrier northeast pacific something pentagon longed seal promise last us announced despite previous japanese port ban nuclear warships americas replacement japan ageing uss kitty hawk conventional carrier atomicpowered uss george washington originally drafted uss harry truman presidents abomb attack hiroshima octobers brothersinarms pact enhanced vision japan base us intervention anywhere would come increasing tokyos logistic support combining command centers massive yokota us air force base tokyos suburbs naval sdfs acquisition deployment fast transport ships commitment terrorism even directed japan combined rapid reaction force based southwest tokyo important integrating nations forces fortress okinawa japans southern island long accommodated unwillingly three quarters us militarys 45000 japanese complement spread 90 bases installations okinawa makes odd useful comparison hawaii annexed islands pacific forced act militarized colonies mainland masters bear brunt foreign attacks hawaii pearl harbor okinawa pacific wars final battle lasted nearly three months killed 240000 sides quarter okinawa civilians victorious us remained control 1972 former pacific kingdom hawaii became another japanese prefecture new brothersinarms arrangement us japanese sdf forces okinawa would upgraded consolidated could grand militaryimperial aspirations washington tokyo founder upon shores okinawas ordinary people maintained strong 10year protest military plans island particularly replacement 50year old us marine air base futenma south occupying cramped urban area us japan decreed expansion removal northwards coast huge floating runway extension yet even foundations laid public opposition supported local politicians defeated two plans october alliance local consultation new base even bigger runway would run across seaside cape create single giant us military complex foreign minister aso immediately exercised unfailing arrogance declaring proposal final beyond review president george bush called positive okinawans derided postively disgraceful even governor political ally japans ruling conservative liberal democratic party denounced totally unacceptable bribes improved rail air links offered island increasingly talking autonomy independence outcome uncertain could us japan receive another unwanted lesson perils imperialism represent massive force military plans discredited historically politically morally historical perspective usually lacking mainstream medias jargonstuffed defense reporting concerns region three wars involving dozens nations including us thensoviet union china australia france two instances britain occurred within 20odd years world war ii closure korean conflict vietnam even today japan yet sign pacific war peace treaty former soviet union todays russia north korea claims nuclear weaponry china taiwan confront beijings continued insistence island remains part peoples republic astonishingly rapid advance chinas economy renders previous regional assumptions invalid irreplaceable dean asian scholarship chalmers johnson former professor university california san diego berkeley head japan policy research institute offers perspective major question 21st century whether fateful inability adjust changes global powerstructure overcome thus far signs negative chinas ascendancy marked yet another world war pretensions european civilization us japanese projections would finally put rest stake sees bushs encouragement japans rearmament dangerous adds development promotes hostility china japan sabotages possible peaceful solutions two problem areas taiwan north korea left chinese korean civil wars lays foundation possible future sinoamerican conflict us would almost surely lose unclear whether washington ideologues understand unleashing possible confrontation worlds fastest growing industrial economy china worlds second productive japan confrontation united states would caused politically chinas advance lies behind washingtons push japanese leaders emerging militarism although deflected iraq us neocons always regarded containment china logical sequence old cold war attitude last february launched afresh first declaration closer security ties us japan june came defense secretary donald rumsfelds aggressive speech china asked rearms nation threatens statement ignored even actions supporting constant us warship patrols chinas coast aiming nuclear missiles mainland uncle sams motive appallingly simple todays washington ideology us must remain worlds overwhelming sole superpower preemptive force necessary victorian britains lord sendagunboat palmerston would understand instantly japans neonationalist politicians still regularly appear coattails seem agree certainly see us dominance vehicle ride new coprosperity sphere wartime fascist slogan toward military regional hegemony well impossible immoral japans neomilitarism already thrust illegal war iraq must trade historically discredited national animosities contemporary relevance yet ruling politicians even discuss debate exist opinion polls okinawa prefectures hosting us japanese troops consistently report majorities opposed military activity national polls democratic process ignored relations china south korea decline foreign ministers even meet one poll shows disturbing figures 32 percent japanese feel friendly toward china drop 50 percent 10 years ago one respect nationalist talk working meanwhile koizumi cabinet cronies continue provoke two neighbors justifying visits militarist yasukuni shrine honoring japans worst war criminals including generals charge 1937 rape nanking japanese slaughtered 300000 chinese japans leaders also decline atone atrocities war china since 1931 japanese politicians behave like yet abandoned racist supremacy fascist era apparently yet subject never discussed koizumi cabinet seem blind implications fostering possible result stupidity might incredible irony could actions lead japan wartime obliteration worlds biggest economy time americas chinas christopher reed journalist lives japan email christopherreedearthlinknet 160 160 160 | 1,203 |
<p>Saul Landau received this report from a janitor at The Heritage Foundation:</p>
<p>“I’m absolutely positive history will be kind to this president, who made the right decisions in a difficult time for this nation.” -Karl Rove, 5/7/08</p>
<p>George W. Bush received warnings before 9/11 from foreign intelligence sources and his hyperactive national security official Richard Clarke even wrote a memo to National Security Adviser Condi Rice about bad Muslims planning to stage a terrorist attack. Like Harry Truman from Missouri, Bush’s motto was also “show me.” That’s truly American.</p>
<p>After Bin Laden’s gang struck, Bush made two wise decisions. On October 4, 2001, he told the public to go shopping and take their families to Disneyworld instead of discussing the terrible event. Bush would “counter the shockwave of the evildoer” by offering more tax cuts and rebates. Bush followed his gut not the supposed “intelligence.” Like all great Presidents, he went to war with Afghanistan and then Iraq.</p>
<p>5,000 plus dead GIs and tens of thousands wounded and hundreds of thousands with post traumatic stress disorders: that’s nothing compared to the potential damage of terrorist attacks on major US cities. The dead, wounded and displaced Iraqis all paid the price for freedom. US taxpayers have shelled out $1 trillion or more for Bush’s wars, peanuts if you think how it afforded us possible security.</p>
<p>Bush leveled with the public. He thought Iraq possessed large quantities of anthrax and other poisons along with missiles to deliver the chemical and biological weapons. He believed Saddam Hussein had connections to Al-Qaeda and was planning to buy uranium from Niger to make nuclear weapons program. Later, when he discovered the exaggeration of his claims, Bush had the aplomb to joke at a press correspondents’ dinner about not finding the weapons of mass destruction.</p>
<p>This kind of self-confidence helps Presidents set difficult spending priorities. For example, Bush took $70 plus billion out of the Army Corps of Engineers budget for repair and maintenance of levee systems in Louisiana and invested it in Iraq. That meant putting national security before the needs of a few thousand insignificant people (no racial intentions) in New Orleans. Some bleeding hearts still berate Bush for sitting around his ranch and playing video golf while Hurricane Katrina destroyed lives and property in New Orleans and other Gulf Coast centers; or they fault him for his absence of leadership in the rebuilding effort there. What good would Bush’s presence have done in New Orleans? Why expect a president to stand up to the mighty force of Nature’s hurricanes and then assume responsibility for people losing their lives? That’s what’s wrong with liberals: they don’t understand that the Katrina victims have to assume responsibility for their own lives and future, the ones who survived anyhow. And President’s need time for relaxation!</p>
<p>Another typical assault on the good President relates to his apparent penchant for helping the rich. Why did Ronald Reagan get praised for his trickle-down economics and poor W get blamed? What’s wrong with helping the rich get richer?</p>
<p>Sentimentalists complain that “the middle class” (a euphemism for all who aren’t rich) must confront rising prices, get tossed out of their houses and suffer daily fear about impending job loss and the parade of horrors that follows the notorious pink slip. As if the President could do anything about this!</p>
<p>The Democrats fault Bush for favoring the insurance companies and giant pharmaceutical corporations rather than forcing socialism down the throats of the public. He explained on several occasions that hospital emergency rooms continue to take people in need of care. My God, the pinkos act as if we’re a nation of wusses instead of a strong, proud people capable of bearing a little pain from time to time.</p>
<p>One of the most pitiful complaints relates to the breakthrough G.W.B made in reforming our broken educational system. He made “No Child Left Behind” into a national slogan. And Congress didn’t adequately fund it and the partisans blamed the White House. W deserves credit. “Rarely is the question asked,” he told a Florence, South Carolina audience, “Is our children learning?” (January 11, 2000). Four years later, he followed up on that insight. On January 23, 2004 he said, “The illiteracy level of our children are appalling.”</p>
<p>He was right, as he was on the environment. On June 8, 2005, he informed the heads of the G8 countries: “See, there’s a lot of things we’re doing in America, and I believe that not only can we solve a greenhouse gas, I believe we will… I look forward to sharing that which we know here in America with not only the G8 members, but equally importantly, with developing countries.”</p>
<p>Almost a year later, on May 22, 2006, he addressed “the environmental debate.” He said: “My answer to the energy question also is an answer to how you deal with, you know, the greenhouse gas issue. And that is new technologies will change how we live and how we drive our cars, which all will have the beneficial effect of improving the environment.” It’s not the syntax, but the sentiment that counts. He continued: “And in my judgment, we need to set aside whether or not greenhouse gases have been caused by mankind or because of natural effects, and focus on the technologies that will enable us to live better lives and, at the same time, protect the environment.”</p>
<p>Could anyone have said it with greater clarity? Yet his detractors accuse him of ignoring science and impeding the protection of the air, water and soil. Socialistically inclined elements even imply that Bush obstructed environmental protection to allow his oil company buddies to make more money. When W found out that Ken Lay, CEO of ENRON, might have overstepped the windy side of the law, he refused to call him Kenny Boy any more, just to show he had lost affection.</p>
<p>Most important, Bush left a democracy legacy in the Middle East. Iraqis may suffer the suicide bombings, epidemics, corruption, and religious and ethnic squabbles, but they have freedom. Iraqis may not have adequate drinking water, or proper sewage systems – shock and awe did their job –but freedom doesn’t come cheap. Sure, Iraqis experience high levels of unemployment and several million have fled the country. During our revolution 100,000 Tory supporters fled to Canada. And we only had some 3 million people at the time.</p>
<p>Loyalty is the Bush family’s key virtue. Loyal supporters got rewarded with high offices in the Justice Department, for example. Bush didn’t care if they were competent. Loyalty for Bush trumped even the sacred cause of democracy. To reward our loyal ally, Israel, Bush pushed free and fair elections in Gaza in 2006. He didn’t think the terrorists, Hamas, would win against the well-behaved, albeit corrupt and thuggish Fatah. W logically blamed Hamas for the 600 plus deaths they’ve thus far suffered from our brave Israeli allies’ rocket and missile attacks. Indeed, these terrorists have the nerve to actually live in the same places as their wives and children.</p>
<p>Bush, a typical and rightfully stubborn American, defied world opinion by invading Iraq. He didn’t flinch when the costs rose over a trillion dollars by asking if we could really afford to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq while simultaneously offering the best of our citizens – after all, God allowed them to accumulate wealth — a substantial tax break.</p>
<p>ACLU types derided Bush for letting NSA spy on citizens and condoning torture at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. Should he have coddled terrorists and ignored security threats? Not George W. Bush!</p>
<p>Some have already compared W with great Presidents like Millard Fillmore and James Buchanan. Time will tell whether W equaled or surpassed their performances. Fillmore presided over the Compromise of 1850, which included the Fugitive Slave Act, requiring the federal government to help return runaway slaves. Support for the Compromise cost him the Whig Party nomination for the presidency, but in 1856 he courageously ran again on the Know-Nothing Party platform, featuring mainly anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant planks.</p>
<p>James Buchanan, a northern Democrat who sympathized with the South, beat him. Southern states began declaring secession in those pre Civil War years. Buchanan, also a decider, declared secession illegal. He also opposed using force to stop it. He won great praise from the national association of handwringers.</p>
<p>George W. Bush will get no such award. He declared “Mission Accomplished” soon after his war mission had begun. His verbally premature ejaculation will win him eternal kudos for chutzpah. Mexicans in Texas refer to people with that trait as “huevones.” Sounds like a compliment!</p>
<p>SAUL LANDAU received the Bernardo O’Higgins award from the Republic of Chile for his work on human rights. His latest book is <a href="http://www.easycartsecure.com/CounterPunch/CounterPunch_Books.html" type="external">A Bush and Botox World</a> (AK/CounterPunch Press).</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | saul landau received report janitor heritage foundation im absolutely positive history kind president made right decisions difficult time nation karl rove 5708 george w bush received warnings 911 foreign intelligence sources hyperactive national security official richard clarke even wrote memo national security adviser condi rice bad muslims planning stage terrorist attack like harry truman missouri bushs motto also show thats truly american bin ladens gang struck bush made two wise decisions october 4 2001 told public go shopping take families disneyworld instead discussing terrible event bush would counter shockwave evildoer offering tax cuts rebates bush followed gut supposed intelligence like great presidents went war afghanistan iraq 5000 plus dead gis tens thousands wounded hundreds thousands post traumatic stress disorders thats nothing compared potential damage terrorist attacks major us cities dead wounded displaced iraqis paid price freedom us taxpayers shelled 1 trillion bushs wars peanuts think afforded us possible security bush leveled public thought iraq possessed large quantities anthrax poisons along missiles deliver chemical biological weapons believed saddam hussein connections alqaeda planning buy uranium niger make nuclear weapons program later discovered exaggeration claims bush aplomb joke press correspondents dinner finding weapons mass destruction kind selfconfidence helps presidents set difficult spending priorities example bush took 70 plus billion army corps engineers budget repair maintenance levee systems louisiana invested iraq meant putting national security needs thousand insignificant people racial intentions new orleans bleeding hearts still berate bush sitting around ranch playing video golf hurricane katrina destroyed lives property new orleans gulf coast centers fault absence leadership rebuilding effort good would bushs presence done new orleans expect president stand mighty force natures hurricanes assume responsibility people losing lives thats whats wrong liberals dont understand katrina victims assume responsibility lives future ones survived anyhow presidents need time relaxation another typical assault good president relates apparent penchant helping rich ronald reagan get praised trickledown economics poor w get blamed whats wrong helping rich get richer sentimentalists complain middle class euphemism arent rich must confront rising prices get tossed houses suffer daily fear impending job loss parade horrors follows notorious pink slip president could anything democrats fault bush favoring insurance companies giant pharmaceutical corporations rather forcing socialism throats public explained several occasions hospital emergency rooms continue take people need care god pinkos act nation wusses instead strong proud people capable bearing little pain time time one pitiful complaints relates breakthrough gwb made reforming broken educational system made child left behind national slogan congress didnt adequately fund partisans blamed white house w deserves credit rarely question asked told florence south carolina audience children learning january 11 2000 four years later followed insight january 23 2004 said illiteracy level children appalling right environment june 8 2005 informed heads g8 countries see theres lot things america believe solve greenhouse gas believe look forward sharing know america g8 members equally importantly developing countries almost year later may 22 2006 addressed environmental debate said answer energy question also answer deal know greenhouse gas issue new technologies change live drive cars beneficial effect improving environment syntax sentiment counts continued judgment need set aside whether greenhouse gases caused mankind natural effects focus technologies enable us live better lives time protect environment could anyone said greater clarity yet detractors accuse ignoring science impeding protection air water soil socialistically inclined elements even imply bush obstructed environmental protection allow oil company buddies make money w found ken lay ceo enron might overstepped windy side law refused call kenny boy show lost affection important bush left democracy legacy middle east iraqis may suffer suicide bombings epidemics corruption religious ethnic squabbles freedom iraqis may adequate drinking water proper sewage systems shock awe job freedom doesnt come cheap sure iraqis experience high levels unemployment several million fled country revolution 100000 tory supporters fled canada 3 million people time loyalty bush familys key virtue loyal supporters got rewarded high offices justice department example bush didnt care competent loyalty bush trumped even sacred cause democracy reward loyal ally israel bush pushed free fair elections gaza 2006 didnt think terrorists hamas would win wellbehaved albeit corrupt thuggish fatah w logically blamed hamas 600 plus deaths theyve thus far suffered brave israeli allies rocket missile attacks indeed terrorists nerve actually live places wives children bush typical rightfully stubborn american defied world opinion invading iraq didnt flinch costs rose trillion dollars asking could really afford fight afghanistan iraq simultaneously offering best citizens god allowed accumulate wealth substantial tax break aclu types derided bush letting nsa spy citizens condoning torture guantanamo abu ghraib coddled terrorists ignored security threats george w bush already compared w great presidents like millard fillmore james buchanan time tell whether w equaled surpassed performances fillmore presided compromise 1850 included fugitive slave act requiring federal government help return runaway slaves support compromise cost whig party nomination presidency 1856 courageously ran knownothing party platform featuring mainly anticatholic antiimmigrant planks james buchanan northern democrat sympathized south beat southern states began declaring secession pre civil war years buchanan also decider declared secession illegal also opposed using force stop great praise national association handwringers george w bush get award declared mission accomplished soon war mission begun verbally premature ejaculation win eternal kudos chutzpah mexicans texas refer people trait huevones sounds like compliment saul landau received bernardo ohiggins award republic chile work human rights latest book bush botox world akcounterpunch press 160 160 160 | 886 |
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<p>Some biographies are great histories. Others are lively and interesting discussions of the subject’s life. Very few are both. Even fewer are not only both of the above, but also inspirational. Ray Ginger’s biography of Eugene Debs, <a href="" type="internal">The Bending Cross</a>, is one of those few. At once a history of the early US labor and socialist movements, The Bending Cross is an intricate look at the life of the man who is probably most identified with both of those movements’ early history.</p>
<p>The Debs we are introduced to in the early pages of Ginger’s work is a man whose commitment to social justice is already apparent. Not yet a socialist in name, Debs the railway worker applies his understanding of Christ’s social justice message to the plight of his fellow workers. Knowing almost by instinct that it would be foolish to expect the men who own the railroads to improve the lives of their workers, Debs joins one of the railway brotherhoods and almost immediately begins pushing the mission of the organization away from cooperation with ownership and towards organizing workers to demand a fair wage and a life with dignity. After it becomes apparent that the leadership of the brotherhoods have too much to lose in confronting the ownership, Debs and his cohorts form another more radical association. This pattern continues throughout Debs’ life as an organizer. As he observes the pursuit of profits over human existence by corporate capitalism and its justification for the desolation and despair it causes, Debs searches for understanding of the nature of the economic system he finds himself in. This quest leads him to Marxism.</p>
<p>Yet, even his fiercest enemies find it impossible to pigeonhole Debs and caricature him as some kind of crazed revolutionist. Indeed, some are even forced to acknowledge the man’s kindness and purity of motivation–something one would be hard put to attribute to any of the robber barons no matter how great their philanthropy. Ginger attributes Debs’ incredible popularity to this purity of motivation and, without mawkishness, creates an image of an almost mythical human being in his text. Debs would probably not have appreciated the romanticized version of his life, but biographies are not written for the subject, but for those who live other lives.</p>
<p>The romanticized nature of Ginger’s biography does not detract from the story being told nor does it lessen the history lesson within its pages. One reason for this is that Debs’ life was a life that reads like a movie script. His presence and involvement in some of history’s most exciting moments insured that any telling of his life would be, at the least, captivating on each and every page. The difference with The Bending Cross is that it goes beyond a good story and becomes an inspirational tale that everyone and anyone hoping to improve the world they live in by ending capitalism should read. In fact, not only should they read it, but they should keep it nearby in order to reach for it during those moments when that struggle seems hopeless.</p>
<p>During his life, Debs was many things–a railway worker, a clerk, a labor organizer and speaker, and a journalist. In fact, journalism was the only constant in the list of roles he played. The subject of another biography recently completed was also a journalist by trade. Unlike Debs, who wrote primarily for labor and socialist periodicals, Pham Xuan An was a correspondent for the mainstream Time magazine during the US war on Vietnam. Unlike Debs, who mostly wrote essays and opinion columns, An was a reporter who worked with some of the better known US journalists covering that imperial adventure. At the same time, An was a master spy for the revolutionary nationalist struggle of the Vietnamese.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">The Perfect Spy</a> by Larry Berman, a political science professor at the University of California’s Davis campus, is a fascinating account of An’s life during the Vietnamese war with the US. Like Ginger’s biography of Debs, Berman’s work presents the reader with a man whose life is more than the sum of its parts. An, who died a hero of the Vietnamese struggle for independence in 2006, lived two lives as a spy and a journalist. Berman’s many interviews with An help him provide a picture of how An managed this while simultaneously keeping his allegiance to Americans he befriended and to the Vietnamese revolution. It’s not 007 stuff that is related here, but intrigue exists, especially in the recounting of An’s work prior to the Tet offensive in 1968 and in his efforts to get friends from the losing side out of Vietnam during the final days of the southern Vietnamese government in 1975.</p>
<p>Equally interesting to today’s reader is the contextual information Berman provides throughout the book. As the United States edges closer to the fifth year of its war in Iraq, the descriptions of US tactics during the war in Vietnam make it clear that not only was the US involvement in Vietnam a combination of imperial hubris and human pride, it was very much a policy and not a mistake. As one analyzes US actions in that war forty years ago in light of the current one, it’s quite apparent that many of the strategies that failed in Vietnam are being attempted again in Iraq and Afghanistan with minimal variation. Likewise, it becomes ever more apparent that , like the Vietnamese war, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not mistakes or blunders (as today’s Democrats are so fond of saying),but essential parts of US geopolitical strategy. Even though it is clear by now that there are several differences between the US war on Vietnam and its current adventure in Iraq, there are similarities that can not be denied. One example came to me as I read Berman’s description of the various factions in southern Vietnam and Washington’s attempts to sort them out through bribery, political chicanery and murder. The description of these manipulations are reminiscent of the ongoing situation in Iraq, where multiple factions are struggling for control and US intelligence and other forces seem to shift their alliances every few months, seemingly without reason.</p>
<p>In the same manner that the US reader will see similarities between the way the war in Vietnam was waged in Vietnam and in the US media and political arena, so might the Iraqi or Afghani reader. Indeed, if I were a member of the resistance in those countries, I might even draw some useful lessons from An’s insights and analysis as it was applied to the situation of the Vietnamese national liberation struggle by its fighters. Likewise, the astute reader of An’s biography can not help but see how many of today’s arguments used to justify the continued US presence in Iraq and Afghanistan are nothing but rehashed rationales from its debacle in Vietnam.</p>
<p>Eugene Debs is the more famous of these two men, for his unbending opposition to imperial war, no matter what the rationales provided by the war makers and those who profit from it. From the so-called liberation of Cuba from the Spanish by Teddy Roosevelt and his rough riding army to the war to make the world safe for democracy organized under Democrat Woodrow Wilson’s administration, Debs never wavered from the perception that war under capitalism is always a war of conquest. It’s not that he was a pacifist, by any means. Indeed, although he hoped for a world where profit ceased to exist, he knew from his experience and observation that such a world would only come via revolution.</p>
<p>Pham Xuan An’s life as a revolutionary patriot of Vietnam and the war he fought in only serves to prove Debs’ perceptions of capitalist wars. Their lives together prove the virtue of resistance to those wars.</p>
<p>RON JACOBS is author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859841678/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground</a>, which is just republished by Verso. Jacobs’ essay on Big Bill Broonzy is featured in CounterPunch’s collection on music, art and sex, <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html" type="external">Serpents in the Garden</a>. His first novel, <a href="" type="internal">Short Order Frame Up,</a> is published by Mainstay Press. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:rjacobs3625@charter.net" type="external">rjacobs3625@charter.net</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | 160 biographies great histories others lively interesting discussions subjects life even fewer also inspirational ray gingers biography eugene debs bending cross one history early us labor socialist movements bending cross intricate look life man probably identified movements early history debs introduced early pages gingers work man whose commitment social justice already apparent yet socialist name debs railway worker applies understanding christs social justice message plight fellow workers knowing almost instinct would foolish expect men railroads improve lives workers debs joins one railway brotherhoods almost immediately begins pushing mission organization away cooperation ownership towards organizing workers demand fair wage life dignity becomes apparent leadership brotherhoods much lose confronting ownership debs cohorts form another radical association pattern continues throughout debs life organizer observes pursuit profits human existence corporate capitalism justification desolation despair causes debs searches understanding nature economic system finds quest leads marxism yet even fiercest enemies find impossible pigeonhole debs caricature kind crazed revolutionist indeed even forced acknowledge mans kindness purity motivationsomething one would hard put attribute robber barons matter great philanthropy ginger attributes debs incredible popularity purity motivation without mawkishness creates image almost mythical human text debs would probably appreciated romanticized version life biographies written subject live lives romanticized nature gingers biography detract story told lessen history lesson within pages one reason debs life life reads like movie script presence involvement historys exciting moments insured telling life would least captivating every page difference bending cross goes beyond good story becomes inspirational tale everyone anyone hoping improve world live ending capitalism read fact read keep nearby order reach moments struggle seems hopeless life debs many thingsa railway worker clerk labor organizer speaker journalist fact journalism constant list roles played subject another biography recently completed also journalist trade unlike debs wrote primarily labor socialist periodicals pham xuan correspondent mainstream time magazine us war vietnam unlike debs mostly wrote essays opinion columns reporter worked better known us journalists covering imperial adventure time master spy revolutionary nationalist struggle vietnamese perfect spy larry berman political science professor university californias davis campus fascinating account ans life vietnamese war us like gingers biography debs bermans work presents reader man whose life sum parts died hero vietnamese struggle independence 2006 lived two lives spy journalist bermans many interviews help provide picture managed simultaneously keeping allegiance americans befriended vietnamese revolution 007 stuff related intrigue exists especially recounting ans work prior tet offensive 1968 efforts get friends losing side vietnam final days southern vietnamese government 1975 equally interesting todays reader contextual information berman provides throughout book united states edges closer fifth year war iraq descriptions us tactics war vietnam make clear us involvement vietnam combination imperial hubris human pride much policy mistake one analyzes us actions war forty years ago light current one quite apparent many strategies failed vietnam attempted iraq afghanistan minimal variation likewise becomes ever apparent like vietnamese war wars iraq afghanistan mistakes blunders todays democrats fond sayingbut essential parts us geopolitical strategy even though clear several differences us war vietnam current adventure iraq similarities denied one example came read bermans description various factions southern vietnam washingtons attempts sort bribery political chicanery murder description manipulations reminiscent ongoing situation iraq multiple factions struggling control us intelligence forces seem shift alliances every months seemingly without reason manner us reader see similarities way war vietnam waged vietnam us media political arena might iraqi afghani reader indeed member resistance countries might even draw useful lessons ans insights analysis applied situation vietnamese national liberation struggle fighters likewise astute reader ans biography help see many todays arguments used justify continued us presence iraq afghanistan nothing rehashed rationales debacle vietnam eugene debs famous two men unbending opposition imperial war matter rationales provided war makers profit socalled liberation cuba spanish teddy roosevelt rough riding army war make world safe democracy organized democrat woodrow wilsons administration debs never wavered perception war capitalism always war conquest pacifist means indeed although hoped world profit ceased exist knew experience observation world would come via revolution pham xuan ans life revolutionary patriot vietnam war fought serves prove debs perceptions capitalist wars lives together prove virtue resistance wars ron jacobs author way wind blew history weather underground republished verso jacobs essay big bill broonzy featured counterpunchs collection music art sex serpents garden first novel short order frame published mainstay press reached rjacobs3625charternet 160 | 711 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/7453915544/in/photostream/"&gt;The U.S. Army&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175563/" type="external">story</a> first appeared on the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a> website.</p>
<p>“PTSD is going to color everything you write,” came the warning from a stepmother of a Marine, a woman who keeps track of such things. That was in 2005, when post-traumatic stress disorder, a.k.a. PTSD, wasn’t getting much attention, but soon it was pretty much all anyone wrote about. Story upon story about the damage done to our guys in uniform— drinking, divorce, depression, destitution—a laundry list of miseries and victimhood. When it comes to veterans, it seems like the only response we can imagine is to feel sorry for them.</p>
<p>Victim is one of the two roles we allow our soldiers and veterans (the other is, of course, hero), but most don’t have PTSD, and this isn’t one of those stories.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external" /></p>
<p>Civilian to the core, I’ve escaped any firsthand experience of war, but I’ve spent the past seven years talking with current GIs and recent veterans, and among the many things they’ve taught me is that nobody gets out of war unmarked. That’s especially true when your war turns out to be a shadowy, relentless occupation of a distant land, which requires you to do things that you regret and that continue to haunt you.</p>
<p>Theoretically, whole countries go to war, not just their soldiers, but not this time. Civilian sympathy for “the troops” may be just one more way for us to avoid a real reckoning with our last decade-plus of war, when the hostilities in Iraq and Afghanistan have shown up on the average American’s radar only if somebody screws up or noticeable numbers of Americans get killed. The veterans at the heart of this story—victims, heroes, it doesn’t matter— <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/for-veterans-is-thank-you-for-your-service-enough/2011/11/03/gIQA67hZmM_story.html" type="external">struggle to reconcile</a> what they did in those countries with the “service” we keep thanking them for. We can see them as sick, with all the stigma, neediness, and expense that entails, or we can recognize them as human beings, confronting the morality of what they’ve done in our name and what they’ve seen and come to know—even as they try to move on.</p>
<p>Sacred Wounds, Moral Injuries</p>
<p>Former Army staff sergeant Andy Sapp spent a year at Forward Operating Base Speicher near Tikrit, Iraq, and has lived for the past six years with PTSD. Seven if you count the year he refused to admit that he had it because he never left the base or fired his weapon, and who was he to suffer when others had it so much worse? Nearly 50 when he deployed, he was much older than most of his National Guard unit. He had put in 17 years in various branches of the military, had a stable family, strong religious ties, a good education, and a satisfying career as a high-school English teacher. He expected all that to insulate him, so it took a while to realize that the whole time he was in Iraq, he was numb. In the end, he would be diagnosed with PTSD and given an 80% disability rating, which, among <a href="http://www.military.com/benefits/veterans-health-care/va-disability-compensation-rates.html" type="external">other benefits</a>, entitles him to sessions with a Veterans Administration psychologist, whom he credits with saving his life.</p>
<p>Andy recalls a 1985 BBC series called “Soldiers” in which a Marine commander says, “It’s not that we can’t take a man who’s 45 years old and turn him into a good soldier. It’s that we can’t make him love it.” Like many soldiers, Andy had assumed that his role would be to protect his country when it was threatened. Instead, he now considers himself part of “something evil.” So at a point when his therapy stalled and his therapist suggested that his spiritual pain was exacerbating his psychological pain, it suddenly clicked. The spiritual part he now calls his sacred wound. Others call it “moral injury.”</p>
<p>It’s a concept in progress, defined as the result of taking part in or witnessing something of consequence that you find wrong, something which violates your deeply held beliefs about yourself and your role in the world. For a moment, at least, you become what you never wanted to be. While the symptoms and causes may overlap with PTSD, moral injury arises from what you did or failed to do, rather than from what was done to you. It’s a sickness of the heart more than the head. Or, possibly, moral injury is what comes first and, if left unattended, can congeal into PTSD.</p>
<p>What we now call PTSD goes way back. In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/074321157X/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">Odysseus in America</a>, psychiatrist (and MacArthur “genius” grantee) Jonathan Shay has traced similar symptoms to Homer’s account of Odysseus’s homecoming from the Trojan War. The idea that a soldier may continue to be haunted by his wartime life has had a name since at least the Civil War. It was called “soldier’s heart” then, a lovely name for a terrible affliction.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0086EF89K/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=tomdispatch-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B0086EF89K" type="external" />In World War I, it went by the names “shell shock” and “war neurosis” and was so widespread that Britain devoted 19 hospitals solely to treating soldiers who suffered from it. During WWII, it was called “battle fatigue,” “combat neurosis,” or “gross stress reaction,” and the problem was severe enough in the US Army that, at one point, psychiatric discharges outpaced new recruits. The Vietnam War gave us the term “post-Vietnam syndrome,” which in time evolved into PTSD, and eventually the insight that, whatever its name, it is probably neurologically based.</p>
<p>PTSD’s status as an anxiety disorder—and as the only mental health condition officially defined as caused by a single, external event—was established in 1980, when it was enshrined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the bible of psychiatry. The <a href="http://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/pages/dsm-iv-tr-ptsd.asp" type="external">diagnostic criteria</a> have expanded since then and will probably be altered again in next year’s version of the DSM. That troubles many therapists treating the ailment; some don’t think PTSD is a disease, others argue that the symptoms are just a natural response to being at war or that, in labeling it a disorder, political and cultural norms are being invoked to reinforce what is considered orderly. As Katherine Boone, <a href="http://www.wilsonquarterly.com/article.cfm?AID=2010" type="external">writing</a> in the Wilson Quarterly, put it, “If you react normally to trauma, you have a disorder; if you act abnormally, you don’t.”</p>
<p>Most PTSD is short term, but perhaps one-third of cases become chronic, and those are the ones we keep hearing about, in part because it costs a lot to treat them. For a variety of reasons, no one seems to have an exact number of recent combat veterans with PTSD. The Veterans Administration <a href="http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/pages/how-common-is-ptsd.asp" type="external">estimates</a> that between 11% and 20% of the 2.3 million troops who have cycled through Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from it, and the Congressional Budget Office <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/wp-content/uploads/cbofiles/attachments/02-09-PTSD.pdf" type="external">calculates</a> a cost of $8,300 per patient for the first year of treatment. Do the math, and you could be talking about as much as $3.8 billion a year. (What we’re not talking about nearly enough is the best way to prevent PTSD and other war-caused psychic distress, which is not to put soldiers in such untenable situations in the first place.)</p>
<p>Since the early days of diagnosis—when you were either sick with PTSD or you were fine—the medical response to it has gained in nuance and depth, which has brought beneficial funding for research and treatment. In the public mind, though, PTSD still scoops up everything from risky behavior and aggression to substance abuse and suicide—kind of the way “Alzheimer’s” as a catch-all label stands in for forgetfulness over 50—and that does a disservice to veterans who aren’t sick, but aren’t fine either.</p>
<p>“What you come into the war with will dictate how you come out of war,” Joshua Casteel testified about a soldier’s conscience at the Truth Commission on Conscience and War, which convened in New York in March 2010. He had spent five months as an interrogator at Abu Ghraib shortly after the prisoner abuse scandal broke there. He later left the Army as a conscientious objector after an impassioned conversation about faith and duty with a young Saudi jihadist, whom he was supposed to be questioning, led him to conclude that he could no longer do his job. Casting a soldier’s experience as unfathomable to anyone else was not only inaccurate, but also damaging, he said; he had never felt lonelier than when people were afraid to ask about his life during the war.</p>
<p>Our warriors today are all volunteers who signed up and are apparently supposed to put up with whatever comes their way. As professionals, they’re supposed to be ready to fight, but as counterinsurgents they’re supposed to be tender-hearted and understanding—at least to kids, those village elders they’re fated to drink endless cross-cultural cups of tea with, and their buddies. (Every veteran has a kid story, and mourning lost friends with tattoos, rituals, and drunken sorrow are among the few ways they’re allowed to grieve publicly.) They’re supposed to be anguished when they hear about the “bad apples” who <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/10/AR2006071000614.html" type="external">gang-raped</a>, then murdered and set fire to a 15-year-old girl near Mahmoudiya, Iraq, or the “kill team” that <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/murder-in-afghanistan-spiegel-tv-s-kill-team-documentary-a-754554.html" type="external">hunted</a> Afghan civilians “for sport.”</p>
<p>Maybe it’s the confusion of these mixed signals that makes us treat our soldiers as if they’re tainted by some special, unwanted knowledge, something that should drive them over the edge with grief and guilt and remorse. Maybe we think our soldiers are supposed to suffer.</p>
<p>The Right to Miss</p>
<p>A couple of decades ago, Dave Grossman, a professor of psychology and former Army Ranger, wrote an eye-opening, bone-chilling book called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0316040932/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">On Killing</a>. It begins with the premise that people have an inherent resistance to killing other people and goes on to examine how the military overcomes that inhibition.</p>
<p>On Killing examines the concerted effort of the military to increase firing rates among frontline riflemen. Reportedly only about 15%-20% of them pulled the trigger during World War II. Grossman suggests that many who did fire “exercised the soldier’s right to miss.” Displeased, the US Army set out to redesign its combat training to make firing your weapon a more reflexive action. The military (and most police forces) switched to realistic, human-shaped silhouettes, which pop up and fall down when hit, and later added video simulators for the most recent generation of soldiers raised on virtual reality.</p>
<p>This kind of Skinnerian conditioning—Grossman calls it “modern battleproofing”—upped the firing rate steadily to 55% in Korea, 90% in Vietnam, and somewhere near 100% in Iraq. Soldiers are trained to shoot first and evaluate later, but as Grossman observes, “Killing comes with a price, and societies must learn that their soldiers will have to spend the rest of their lives living with what they have done.”</p>
<p>That price could be called moral injury.</p>
<p>The term may have come from Jonathan Shay, though he demurs. Whatever its origin, it wasn’t until the end of 2009 that it began to resonate in therapeutic communities. That was when Brett Litz, the Associate Director of the National Center for PTSD in Boston, and several colleagues involved in a pilot study for the Marines published “Moral injury and moral repair in war veterans,” a paper aimed at other clinicians. Their stated aim was not to create a new diagnostic category, nor to pathologize moral discomfort, but to encourage discussion and research into the lingering effects on soldiers of their moral transgressions in war.</p>
<p>The authors found that emotional distress was caused less by fear of personal harm than by the dissonance between what soldiers had done or seen and what they had previously held to be right. This echoes Grossman, who concludes that the greatest cause of psychological injury to soldiers is the realization that there are people out there who really want to hurt you.</p>
<p>Moral injury seems to be widespread, but the concept is something of an orphan. If it’s an injury, then it needs treatment, which puts it in the realm of medicine, but its overtones of sin and redemption also place it in the realm of the spiritual and so, religion. Chaplains, however, are no better trained to deal with it than clinicians, since their essential job is to patch up soldiers, albeit spiritually, to fight another day.</p>
<p>Yet the idea that many soldiers suffer from a kind of heartsickness is gaining traction. The military began to consider moral injury as a war wound and possible forerunner of PTSD when Litz presented his research at the Navy’s Combat Operational Stress Control conference in 2010. The American Psychiatric Association is also thinking about adding guilt and shame to its diagnostic criteria for PTSD. A small preliminary survey of chaplains, mental health clinicians, and researchers found unanimous support for including some version of moral injury in the description of the consequences of war, though they weren’t all enamored of the term. As if to mark the start of a new era in considering the true costs of war, a new institution, the <a href="http://www.brite.edu/programs.asp?BriteProgram=soulrepair" type="external">Soul Repair Center</a> has just been launched at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas, with a $650,000 grant from the Lilly Foundation to conduct research and education about moral injury in combat veterans.</p>
<p>Of course, to have a moral injury, you have to have a moral code, and to have a moral code, you have to believe, on some level, that the world is a place where justice will ultimately prevail. Faith in a rightly ordered world must be hard for anyone who has been through war; it’s particularly elusive for soldiers mired in a war that makes little sense to them, one they’ve come, actively or passively, to resent and oppose.</p>
<p>When your job requires you to pull sleeping families from their beds at midnight thousands of miles from your home, or to shoot at oncoming cars without knowing who’s driving them, or to refuse medical care to decrepit old men, you begin to question what doing your job means. When the reasons keep shifting for what you’re supposed to be doing in a country where most of the population wants you to go home even more than you want to, it’s hard to maintain any sense of innocence. When someone going about his daily life is regularly mistaken for someone who means to kill you—as has repetitively been the case in our occupations of both Iraq and Afghanistan—everyone becomes the enemy. And when you try—and fail—to do the right thing in a chaotic and threatening situation, which nothing could have trained you for, the enemy can move inside you and stay there for a very long time.</p>
<p>In trying to heal from a moral injury, people struggle to restore a sense of themselves as decent human beings, but the stumbling block for many veterans of recent US wars is that their judgment about the immorality of their actions may well be correct. Obviously, suffering which can be avoided should be, but it’s not clear what’s gained by robbing soldiers of a moral compass, save a salve to civilian conscience. And despite all the gauzy glory we swath soldiers in when we wave them off to battle, nations need their veterans to remember how horrible war is, if only to remind us not to launch them as heedlessly as the US has done over these last years.</p>
<p>When you’ve done irreparable harm, feeling bad about your acts—haunted, sorrowful, distraught, diminished, unhinged by them—is human. Taking responsibility for them, however, is a step toward maturity. Maybe that’s the way the Army makes a man of you, after all.</p>
<p>Two final observations from veterans who went to war, then committed themselves to waging peace, apparently a much harder task: Dave Cline began his lifetime of antiwar work as a G.I. in the Vietnam War. A few years into the Iraq War, when he was president of Veterans For Peace, he told me, “Returning soldiers always try to make it not a waste.” The second observation comes from Drew Cameron in a preface to a book of poems by a fellow veteran, published by his <a href="http://www.combatpaper.org/cppress.html" type="external">Combat Paper Press</a>: “To know war, to understand conflict, to respond to it is not an individual act, nor one of courage. It is rather a very fair and necessary thing.”</p>
<p>Recognizing moral injury isn’t a panacea, but it opens up multiple possibilities. It offers veterans a way to understand themselves, not as mad or bad, but as justifiably sad, and it allows the rest of us a way to avoid reducing their wartime experiences to a sickness or a smiley face. Most important, moral repair is linked to moral restitution. In an effort to waste neither their past nor their future, many veterans work to help heal their fellow veterans or the civilians in the countries they once occupied. Others work for peace so the next generations of soldiers won’t have to know the heartache of moral injury.</p>
<p>Nan Levinson, a Boston-based journalist, reports on civil liberties, politics, and culture. Her next book, War Is Not a Game, is about the recent G.I. antiwar movement. She is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0520249976/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">Outspoken: Free Speech Stories</a>, was the US correspondent for Index on Censorship, and teaches journalism and fiction writing at Tufts University. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch, join us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/tomdispatch" type="external">Facebook</a>, and check out the latest TD book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0086EF89K/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=tomdispatch-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B0086EF89K" type="external">Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050</a>.</p> | true | 4 | lta hrefhttpwwwflickrcomphotossoldiersmediacenter7453915544inphotostreamgtthe us armyltagtflickr story first appeared tomdispatch website ptsd going color everything write came warning stepmother marine woman keeps track things 2005 posttraumatic stress disorder aka ptsd wasnt getting much attention soon pretty much anyone wrote story upon story damage done guys uniform drinking divorce depression destitutiona laundry list miseries victimhood comes veterans seems like response imagine feel sorry victim one two roles allow soldiers veterans course hero dont ptsd isnt one stories civilian core ive escaped firsthand experience war ive spent past seven years talking current gis recent veterans among many things theyve taught nobody gets war unmarked thats especially true war turns shadowy relentless occupation distant land requires things regret continue haunt theoretically whole countries go war soldiers time civilian sympathy troops may one way us avoid real reckoning last decadeplus war hostilities iraq afghanistan shown average americans radar somebody screws noticeable numbers americans get killed veterans heart storyvictims heroes doesnt matter struggle reconcile countries service keep thanking see sick stigma neediness expense entails recognize human beings confronting morality theyve done name theyve seen come knoweven try move sacred wounds moral injuries former army staff sergeant andy sapp spent year forward operating base speicher near tikrit iraq lived past six years ptsd seven count year refused admit never left base fired weapon suffer others much worse nearly 50 deployed much older national guard unit put 17 years various branches military stable family strong religious ties good education satisfying career highschool english teacher expected insulate took realize whole time iraq numb end would diagnosed ptsd given 80 disability rating among benefits entitles sessions veterans administration psychologist credits saving life andy recalls 1985 bbc series called soldiers marine commander says cant take man whos 45 years old turn good soldier cant make love like many soldiers andy assumed role would protect country threatened instead considers part something evil point therapy stalled therapist suggested spiritual pain exacerbating psychological pain suddenly clicked spiritual part calls sacred wound others call moral injury concept progress defined result taking part witnessing something consequence find wrong something violates deeply held beliefs role world moment least become never wanted symptoms causes may overlap ptsd moral injury arises failed rather done sickness heart head possibly moral injury comes first left unattended congeal ptsd call ptsd goes way back odysseus america psychiatrist macarthur genius grantee jonathan shay traced similar symptoms homers account odysseuss homecoming trojan war idea soldier may continue haunted wartime life name since least civil war called soldiers heart lovely name terrible affliction world war went names shell shock war neurosis widespread britain devoted 19 hospitals solely treating soldiers suffered wwii called battle fatigue combat neurosis gross stress reaction problem severe enough us army one point psychiatric discharges outpaced new recruits vietnam war gave us term postvietnam syndrome time evolved ptsd eventually insight whatever name probably neurologically based ptsds status anxiety disorderand mental health condition officially defined caused single external eventwas established 1980 enshrined diagnostic statistical manual mental disorders dsm bible psychiatry diagnostic criteria expanded since probably altered next years version dsm troubles many therapists treating ailment dont think ptsd disease others argue symptoms natural response war labeling disorder political cultural norms invoked reinforce considered orderly katherine boone writing wilson quarterly put react normally trauma disorder act abnormally dont ptsd short term perhaps onethird cases become chronic ones keep hearing part costs lot treat variety reasons one seems exact number recent combat veterans ptsd veterans administration estimates 11 20 23 million troops cycled iraq afghanistan suffer congressional budget office calculates cost 8300 per patient first year treatment math could talking much 38 billion year talking nearly enough best way prevent ptsd warcaused psychic distress put soldiers untenable situations first place since early days diagnosiswhen either sick ptsd finethe medical response gained nuance depth brought beneficial funding research treatment public mind though ptsd still scoops everything risky behavior aggression substance abuse suicidekind way alzheimers catchall label stands forgetfulness 50and disservice veterans arent sick arent fine either come war dictate come war joshua casteel testified soldiers conscience truth commission conscience war convened new york march 2010 spent five months interrogator abu ghraib shortly prisoner abuse scandal broke later left army conscientious objector impassioned conversation faith duty young saudi jihadist supposed questioning led conclude could longer job casting soldiers experience unfathomable anyone else inaccurate also damaging said never felt lonelier people afraid ask life war warriors today volunteers signed apparently supposed put whatever comes way professionals theyre supposed ready fight counterinsurgents theyre supposed tenderhearted understandingat least kids village elders theyre fated drink endless crosscultural cups tea buddies every veteran kid story mourning lost friends tattoos rituals drunken sorrow among ways theyre allowed grieve publicly theyre supposed anguished hear bad apples gangraped murdered set fire 15yearold girl near mahmoudiya iraq kill team hunted afghan civilians sport maybe confusion mixed signals makes us treat soldiers theyre tainted special unwanted knowledge something drive edge grief guilt remorse maybe think soldiers supposed suffer right miss couple decades ago dave grossman professor psychology former army ranger wrote eyeopening bonechilling book called killing begins premise people inherent resistance killing people goes examine military overcomes inhibition killing examines concerted effort military increase firing rates among frontline riflemen reportedly 1520 pulled trigger world war ii grossman suggests many fire exercised soldiers right miss displeased us army set redesign combat training make firing weapon reflexive action military police forces switched realistic humanshaped silhouettes pop fall hit later added video simulators recent generation soldiers raised virtual reality kind skinnerian conditioninggrossman calls modern battleproofingupped firing rate steadily 55 korea 90 vietnam somewhere near 100 iraq soldiers trained shoot first evaluate later grossman observes killing comes price societies must learn soldiers spend rest lives living done price could called moral injury term may come jonathan shay though demurs whatever origin wasnt end 2009 began resonate therapeutic communities brett litz associate director national center ptsd boston several colleagues involved pilot study marines published moral injury moral repair war veterans paper aimed clinicians stated aim create new diagnostic category pathologize moral discomfort encourage discussion research lingering effects soldiers moral transgressions war authors found emotional distress caused less fear personal harm dissonance soldiers done seen previously held right echoes grossman concludes greatest cause psychological injury soldiers realization people really want hurt moral injury seems widespread concept something orphan injury needs treatment puts realm medicine overtones sin redemption also place realm spiritual religion chaplains however better trained deal clinicians since essential job patch soldiers albeit spiritually fight another day yet idea many soldiers suffer kind heartsickness gaining traction military began consider moral injury war wound possible forerunner ptsd litz presented research navys combat operational stress control conference 2010 american psychiatric association also thinking adding guilt shame diagnostic criteria ptsd small preliminary survey chaplains mental health clinicians researchers found unanimous support including version moral injury description consequences war though werent enamored term mark start new era considering true costs war new institution soul repair center launched brite divinity school fort worth texas 650000 grant lilly foundation conduct research education moral injury combat veterans course moral injury moral code moral code believe level world place justice ultimately prevail faith rightly ordered world must hard anyone war particularly elusive soldiers mired war makes little sense one theyve come actively passively resent oppose job requires pull sleeping families beds midnight thousands miles home shoot oncoming cars without knowing whos driving refuse medical care decrepit old men begin question job means reasons keep shifting youre supposed country population wants go home even want hard maintain sense innocence someone going daily life regularly mistaken someone means kill youas repetitively case occupations iraq afghanistaneveryone becomes enemy tryand failto right thing chaotic threatening situation nothing could trained enemy move inside stay long time trying heal moral injury people struggle restore sense decent human beings stumbling block many veterans recent us wars judgment immorality actions may well correct obviously suffering avoided clear whats gained robbing soldiers moral compass save salve civilian conscience despite gauzy glory swath soldiers wave battle nations need veterans remember horrible war remind us launch heedlessly us done last years youve done irreparable harm feeling bad actshaunted sorrowful distraught diminished unhinged themis human taking responsibility however step toward maturity maybe thats way army makes man two final observations veterans went war committed waging peace apparently much harder task dave cline began lifetime antiwar work gi vietnam war years iraq war president veterans peace told returning soldiers always try make waste second observation comes drew cameron preface book poems fellow veteran published combat paper press know war understand conflict respond individual act one courage rather fair necessary thing recognizing moral injury isnt panacea opens multiple possibilities offers veterans way understand mad bad justifiably sad allows rest us way avoid reducing wartime experiences sickness smiley face important moral repair linked moral restitution effort waste neither past future many veterans work help heal fellow veterans civilians countries occupied others work peace next generations soldiers wont know heartache moral injury nan levinson bostonbased journalist reports civil liberties politics culture next book war game recent gi antiwar movement author outspoken free speech stories us correspondent index censorship teaches journalism fiction writing tufts university follow tomdispatch twitter tomdispatch join us facebook check latest td book terminator planet first history drone warfare 20012050 | 1,535 |
<p>Ever noticed that just when you think events are as bad as they can possibly get, they sink to even greater depths? That is just what happened in Israel last week. However, there may be a glimmer of hope on the horizon now that Ariel Sharon has been forced to call for an early election, set to take place in February.</p>
<p>Palestinians were alarmed at the announcement of Iranian-born Shaul Mofaz accepting the post of defence minister vacated by Labor Party leader Binyamin Ben-Eliezer. He is a hardline dinosaur, advocating the expulsion of the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and, during his stint as Chief of Staff, led the charge to re-occupy West Bank cities.</p>
<p>Mofaz is, in fact, being investigated by Britain’s Scotland Yard for alleged warcrimes committed by the IDF while under his control. These crimes include using Palestinian civilians as human shields, extra-judicial assassinations, the torture of detainees and the wanton demolition of homes.</p>
<p>We can only imagine the horrors which would have awaited the Palestinian people if Sharon and Mofaz were allowed to go their merry way for any length of time. Sharon was accused by an Israeli commission of being indirectly responsible for the massacre of Palestinians in the Lebanese refugee camps Sabra and Shatilla, and Mofaz displayed his brutal methods in Jenin earlier this year.</p>
<p>There was worse. Benyamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu tentatively agreed to become one of Sharon’s cohorts in the position of foreign minister. He has spent his years since his ouster from the post of prime minister travelling the world lecturing on the “evils of Yasser Arafat and the PNA (Palestinian National Authority)” to pro-Israel groups.</p>
<p>The egotistical and power hungry Netanyahu probably thought long and hard whether or not to play second fiddle to Sharon but deigned to offer his services on condition that early elections are called.</p>
<p>On November 5, Sharon announced his failure to form a new right-wing coalition government, saying that ‘his desire to maintain the special relationship with Washington’ was his main concern and that he would not give in to political arm-twisting. No doubt, the Palestinian leadership breathed a sigh of relief.</p>
<p>At a time when Israel and the world commemorates the demise of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin, Arafat’s partner in the Oslo peace process, the Israel people now have a chance to re-evaluate Israel under Sharon’s leadership and to choose peace or war.</p>
<p>Tributes</p>
<p>As up to 100,000 Israelis gathered in a Tel Aviv square last Saturday to pay their respects on this seventh anniversary of Rabin’s death, King Abdullah of Jordan and Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak conveyed pre-televised tributes to the former Israeli leader who was genuinely committed to peace.</p>
<p>Former American President Bill Clinton said that Yitzhak Rabin had been his friend, and the fact that “peace seems so far away” should not be understood that “Rabin’s life had been in vain”.</p>
<p>Clinton continued: “His death did not bring the end of his cause. The troubles in the Middle East and other parts of the world remind us how important it is to follow the example of Yitzhak Rabin, and never, ever lose hope even in the face of the greatest tragedies.”</p>
<p>A recent statement by the PLO’s legal adviser Diana Buttu could indicate that the Palestinian leadership is, in fact, losing hope. Buttu indicated that the PLO might be forced to rethink its support for a two-state solution. Her proposed alternative is to incorporate the Palestinians into the State of Israel and offer them citizenship.</p>
<p>Buttu said: “The leadership is going to have to start reassessing whether it should be pushing for a two-state solution, or whether we should start pushing for equal citizenship and an anti-apartheid campaign along the same lines as South Africa”.</p>
<p>Such a course is extremely unlikely to be hailed by either the Palestinians or the Israelis and is just as unattainable as a two-state solution in this climate of mutual hatred. Far too much blood has been shed on both sides with the death toll standing at approximately 1,700 Palestinians and 600 Israelis killed since September 2000.</p>
<p>Palestinians are fiercely proud of their nationhood, protective of their rights and determined to have their own state with Jerusalem as its capital. Sharon and other right-wingers are just as committed to safeguarding Israel’s Jewish identity and concerned at the demographic time bomb when, by 2020, Palestinians and Palestinians in 1948 areas will outnumber the country’s Jewish population.</p>
<p>It’s no secret these days that Sharon’s ideology demands a Greater Israel. He doesn’t want Israeli-passport carrying Palestinians. He wants them gone, one way or another.</p>
<p>Sharon isn’t the only one. An advertisement recently featured in a Palestinian newspaper offering free help and advice to anyone wanting to emigrate from the West Bank and Gaza. A right-wing Israeli party called Moledet paid for the advertisement. Its motives are far from being altruistic. It wants the Palestinian territories ethnically cleansed.</p>
<p>Deprived of basics</p>
<p>America, under the leadership of George W. Bush, has shown itself to be unconcerned that illegal settlements on the West Bank are expanding, Palestinian towns and cities are under occupation, and Palestinians are being deprived of life’s basics: shelter, food, and security.</p>
<p>Instead the Bush administration has a one-track policy: fighting its so-called War on Terrorism and effecting a regime change in Iraq. Anything, which interferes with these aims is a mere annoying irritation. Bush and his Washington hawks want the Arab world on board if and when the U.S. attacks Baghdad, an extremely tall order while Arabs watch their Palestinian brethren struggling to survive against all odds.</p>
<p>A dazed Arab world is gradually coming to the conclusion that the U.S. is no impartial friend to both sides of the dispute and is currently re-evaluating its individual and collective positions vis-a-vis both Israel and America.</p>
<p>Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi’s recent threat to pull out of the Arab League spurred that erstwhile union to adopt a more unified and decisive stance. We have yet to witness the result of this new resolve.</p>
<p>Yet while the world looks on askance at Israel’s ongoing crimes, Sharon’s popularity grows among Israelis, who tend to equate any criticism of their leadership with anti-Semitism. They don’t view their government as riddled with possible war criminals. Instead, they perceive Sharon and Mofaz as the guardians of their security.</p>
<p>Israelis have somehow forgotten that it was Sharon who led the Israeli army into a protracted invasion of southern Lebanon decimating their economy; they ignore the fact it was Sharon’s calculated visit to Al Haram Al Quds Al Sharif, which triggered the second Intifada.</p>
<p>Most ordinary Israelis refuse to acknowledge that since Sharon came to power, more Israelis have lost their lives than ever before in a similar period, or to lay that death toll at Sharon’s feet.</p>
<p>Israelis also seem to manage to brush aside studies from human rights groups, such as the one recently published by Amnesty International, which suggest that Israeli officials could be responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Instead of studying and addressing the findings of such reports, the Israeli government attempts to discredit their authors.</p>
<p>Thanks to their beloved leader’s bellicose attitudes towards the Arab world, Israelis may soon have a lot more to worry about than the attentions of Palestinian militants.</p>
<p>Sharon has been threatening Lebanon with another war if it doesn’t stop pumping water for irrigation purposes from its own Wazzani River, which flows onward into Israel.</p>
<p>In reply, Hezbollah has begun to stockpile rockets, missiles and other artillery near the Israeli border, while its leader Hassan Nasrallah has more than hinted that this time around the Lebanese group is well-placed militarily to inflict maximum damage on its belligerent neighbour.</p>
<p>Israeli experts believe that the two sides are destined to clash sooner or later and predict that Hezbollah might launch attacks while America wages war on Iraq and restrains Israel’s military arm.</p>
<p>Ticket to purgatory</p>
<p>With a disinterested self-absorbed U.S., a politically ineffective Europe when it comes to the region, a weakened PNA and a new extremist Israeli government, the only people who can influence the future of the Middle East right now are the Israelis themselves.</p>
<p>Instead of commemorating the death of Rabin, the Israeli people would do better to celebrate his life and work to further his life’s mission – peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East. Applauding Sharon and his warmongering ilk is a one-way ticket to purgatory. Israelis now have the chance to stand up to be counted. They must set aside their fears and get Israel back on the path of peace.</p>
<p>LINDA HEARD is a writer, editor and Arabist, who has lived and worked for most of her life in the Middle East.</p>
<p>She can be reached at: <a href="mailto:freenewsreport@yahoo.com" type="external">freenewsreport@yahoo.com</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | ever noticed think events bad possibly get sink even greater depths happened israel last week however may glimmer hope horizon ariel sharon forced call early election set take place february palestinians alarmed announcement iranianborn shaul mofaz accepting post defence minister vacated labor party leader binyamin beneliezer hardline dinosaur advocating expulsion palestinian president yasser arafat stint chief staff led charge reoccupy west bank cities mofaz fact investigated britains scotland yard alleged warcrimes committed idf control crimes include using palestinian civilians human shields extrajudicial assassinations torture detainees wanton demolition homes imagine horrors would awaited palestinian people sharon mofaz allowed go merry way length time sharon accused israeli commission indirectly responsible massacre palestinians lebanese refugee camps sabra shatilla mofaz displayed brutal methods jenin earlier year worse benyamin bibi netanyahu tentatively agreed become one sharons cohorts position foreign minister spent years since ouster post prime minister travelling world lecturing evils yasser arafat pna palestinian national authority proisrael groups egotistical power hungry netanyahu probably thought long hard whether play second fiddle sharon deigned offer services condition early elections called november 5 sharon announced failure form new rightwing coalition government saying desire maintain special relationship washington main concern would give political armtwisting doubt palestinian leadership breathed sigh relief time israel world commemorates demise assassinated israeli prime minister yitzak rabin arafats partner oslo peace process israel people chance reevaluate israel sharons leadership choose peace war tributes 100000 israelis gathered tel aviv square last saturday pay respects seventh anniversary rabins death king abdullah jordan egypts president hosni mubarak conveyed pretelevised tributes former israeli leader genuinely committed peace former american president bill clinton said yitzhak rabin friend fact peace seems far away understood rabins life vain clinton continued death bring end cause troubles middle east parts world remind us important follow example yitzhak rabin never ever lose hope even face greatest tragedies recent statement plos legal adviser diana buttu could indicate palestinian leadership fact losing hope buttu indicated plo might forced rethink support twostate solution proposed alternative incorporate palestinians state israel offer citizenship buttu said leadership going start reassessing whether pushing twostate solution whether start pushing equal citizenship antiapartheid campaign along lines south africa course extremely unlikely hailed either palestinians israelis unattainable twostate solution climate mutual hatred far much blood shed sides death toll standing approximately 1700 palestinians 600 israelis killed since september 2000 palestinians fiercely proud nationhood protective rights determined state jerusalem capital sharon rightwingers committed safeguarding israels jewish identity concerned demographic time bomb 2020 palestinians palestinians 1948 areas outnumber countrys jewish population secret days sharons ideology demands greater israel doesnt want israelipassport carrying palestinians wants gone one way another sharon isnt one advertisement recently featured palestinian newspaper offering free help advice anyone wanting emigrate west bank gaza rightwing israeli party called moledet paid advertisement motives far altruistic wants palestinian territories ethnically cleansed deprived basics america leadership george w bush shown unconcerned illegal settlements west bank expanding palestinian towns cities occupation palestinians deprived lifes basics shelter food security instead bush administration onetrack policy fighting socalled war terrorism effecting regime change iraq anything interferes aims mere annoying irritation bush washington hawks want arab world board us attacks baghdad extremely tall order arabs watch palestinian brethren struggling survive odds dazed arab world gradually coming conclusion us impartial friend sides dispute currently reevaluating individual collective positions visavis israel america libyan president muammar gaddafis recent threat pull arab league spurred erstwhile union adopt unified decisive stance yet witness result new resolve yet world looks askance israels ongoing crimes sharons popularity grows among israelis tend equate criticism leadership antisemitism dont view government riddled possible war criminals instead perceive sharon mofaz guardians security israelis somehow forgotten sharon led israeli army protracted invasion southern lebanon decimating economy ignore fact sharons calculated visit al haram al quds al sharif triggered second intifada ordinary israelis refuse acknowledge since sharon came power israelis lost lives ever similar period lay death toll sharons feet israelis also seem manage brush aside studies human rights groups one recently published amnesty international suggest israeli officials could responsible war crimes crimes humanity instead studying addressing findings reports israeli government attempts discredit authors thanks beloved leaders bellicose attitudes towards arab world israelis may soon lot worry attentions palestinian militants sharon threatening lebanon another war doesnt stop pumping water irrigation purposes wazzani river flows onward israel reply hezbollah begun stockpile rockets missiles artillery near israeli border leader hassan nasrallah hinted time around lebanese group wellplaced militarily inflict maximum damage belligerent neighbour israeli experts believe two sides destined clash sooner later predict hezbollah might launch attacks america wages war iraq restrains israels military arm ticket purgatory disinterested selfabsorbed us politically ineffective europe comes region weakened pna new extremist israeli government people influence future middle east right israelis instead commemorating death rabin israeli people would better celebrate life work lifes mission peace prosperity entire middle east applauding sharon warmongering ilk oneway ticket purgatory israelis chance stand counted must set aside fears get israel back path peace linda heard writer editor arabist lived worked life middle east reached freenewsreportyahoocom 160 | 832 |
<p>Elizabeth Warren was born in Oklahoma in 1949, professes law at Harvard Law School and is currently chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel to investigate the banking bailout, formally known as the Troubled Assets Relief Program.&#160; She’s also the prime advocate for the creation of a new <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Consumer_Financial_Protection_Agency&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1" type="external">Consumer Financial Protection Agency</a>, which Congress is now considering, but which may well be suffocated in the embrace of the Federal Reserve. Warren’s has been cited as among names being considered as Supreme Court nominees to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens.and in <a href="" type="internal">the opinion</a> of the editors of CounterPunch would be the best choice. AC/JSC</p>
<p>Kreisler: Where were you born and raised?</p>
<p>Elizabeth Warren: Born and raised in Oklahoma.</p>
<p>Looking back, how do you think your parents shaped your thinking about the world?</p>
<p>Well, my parents were from Depression-era, dust-bowl Oklahoma, and that shapes your life growing up. I was the last of four children—I have three much older brothers—and by the time I came along I was really kind of the second family for my parents. They hadn’t recovered from the Depression, and I guess in many ways they never did. Those were the stories that permeated my childhood: what it was like to have seven years of drought, what it was like when nobody had any money, what it was like when all your neighbors left to go to California or someplace where they thought there might be jobs. My parents hung on, they stayed, and my father worked a series of different jobs. He was a maintenance man in an apartment house—it was his last job—but they always saw themselves as middle-class people. For them the distinction was that they used good English and they didn’t say “ain’t.” Those were important indicia of middle-classness for my folks. They believed in education and were very proud of this lit-tle daughter they had.</p>
<p>Around the dinner table was there a discussion of politics, of law, or did that all come to you later?</p>
<p>Oh, no. Not around the dinner table. Mostly around the dinner table it was discussion of cars, or rodeos and dogs and cows and horses, and a little discussion of worry about others in the family. There was always a big sense of trying to look out for each other, but nobody in the family really had much of anything.</p>
<p>A theme that you pursue in your work is what’s happening to the family. From what you’re saying now I get the sense that the family was very important as a last resort for survival in the context of those very harsh times.</p>
<p>That’s exactly right. People who didn’t have family or people who broke from their family—they were the true poor, they were the ones with nothing. As long as you had family, you had people who would make sure that you got fed one way or another. Family was about canning peaches, and canning peaches was about making sure that there’d at least be something come next November, when it was cold outside and there were no more crops coming in. Family is the heart of what it’s about.</p>
<p>When you were young, did you have any teachers as a young person who shaped your thinking about the kind of career you might take?</p>
<p>I’m of that generation where there were only two things that a woman could do, if she wanted to do something other than stay home: she could become a nurse, or she could become a teacher. And so, there were some amazing women who taught me from grade school on, and what they opened me up to was the possibility that I, too, could be a teacher. When I went off to college, that’s what I wanted to do. I just didn’t quite know what kind of teacher I would end up becoming.</p>
<p>At college what did you major in, and what was the focus of your interest?</p>
<p>I was sixteen years old when I graduated from high school, and I got a full scholarship in debate that was room, board, tuition, books, and a little spending money. It was a fabulous scholarship at George Washington University, if I would debate for them. It was sort of the equivalent of an athletic scholarship, only this was one that actually a girl could get, even though there weren’t very many girls in debate either. I got my degree in speech pathology and audiology, which meant that I would be able to work with children who had head trauma and other kinds of brain injuries. And that’s what I did.</p>
<p>I was married at nineteen while I was still in college. My first year post-graduation I worked in a public school system with children with disabilities. I didn’t have the education courses and was on an “emergency certificate,” so I went back to graduate school and took a couple of courses in education and said, “I don’t think this is going to work out for me.” I was pregnant with my first baby, so I had a baby and stayed home for a couple of years, and I was really casting about, thinking, “What am I going to do?” My husband’s view of it was, “Stay home. We have children, we’ll have more children, you’ll love this.” And I was very restless about it.</p>
<p>By this point we were living in New Jersey because of his job, so I went back home to Oklahoma for Christmas and saw a bunch of the boys from high school debate. They’d all gone on to law school, and they said, “You should go to law school. You’ll love it.” I said, “You really think so?” And they said, “Of all of us, you should have gone to law school. You’re the one who should’ve gone to law school.” So, I took the tests, applied to law school, and the day my daughter, who later became my co-author, turned two, I started law school at Rutgers Law School in New Jersey.</p>
<p>At that point, I’d never met a lawyer. I mean, I’d never—I didn’t travel in those circles, but I took to law school like a pig takes to mud. I loved law school. And then in my third, final year in law school, I got pregnant again, and I didn’t take a job. Alex was born about three weeks after I graduated, and it was the hardest moment in my life, because I thought, this world that had opened up to me, this world of ideas, and law was a tool you could use to make things happen—and I thought, because I didn’t take a job right out of law school, it was all over. I just kissed it all good-bye. I’d stepped off the train and would never have a chance to get back on it. But I took the bar, hung out a shingle in northern Jersey, did real estate closings and little incorporations and law-suits, all on the civil side, and raised my two babies.</p>
<p>And then Rutgers called and said, “Somebody didn’t show up to teach a class. Would you like to come and teach it, and start Thursday?” And I said, “Sure! How hard could it be?” And so, I started teaching.</p>
<p>What do you see in your background that made you able to seize these opportunities?</p>
<p>Partly my mother always said that I was just contrary, that some kids are just born that way. Families tell stories, and those stories both reflect what the children are and shape what the children become. The story that was always told is that when I was about two and a half I would be allowed to play in the front yard but my mother would tell me, “Don’t go into the street.” And I would look at her and wait until she turned her back and step right on the street, and I would just stand in the street, just a little bit, just near the curb, but I would stand in the street. And my mother was big on switches. She’d pull a switch off a tree and just switch the backs of my legs. And I’d cry, but I’d step right back in the street. Finally my mother realized I was going to go in the street anyway, so she said, “Okay, here are the rules. You look this way and you look that way, and this is how you safely go in the street.” She gave me all the rules for the street, and I was perfectly happy.</p>
<p>I think partly that I always had my neck bowed, I was always going to do something else. When we were able to pick an elective in junior high school and all the girls picked drama, I, of course, had to pick debate. I said I was going to take physics, you know, just because. So, there was a little bit of the “just because,” and it was a moment when Gloria Steinem was out there talking. Did I think I was going to be one of those “women’s libbers”? Heavens, no. I wanted children, I wanted a family, and I some-how thought those were either/or choices. And yet, I also wanted to do things.</p>
<p>I once was at a friend’s house and I saw that they had wallpaper in their bathroom, and I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. So, I went to Sears and saw this brochure on how to do wallpaper, and I took my babysitting money and bought enough to wallpaper our bathroom. Two weeks later when it came, I announced at the dinner table, “I’ve bought wallpaper so we can wallpaper the bathroom.” And my daddy said—because it was always a family thing—“Nobody in our family knows how to wallpaper. What are you doing?” I said, “How hard could it be? People dumber than us do it every day.” So, I’ve thought that way—you know, you get out there and try it. The worst that hap-pens is you make a mess out of it and have to throw it away.</p>
<p>You started in commercial law, but then you moved to the public realm. How did that transition come about?</p>
<p>I did my very first empirical study looking at the families who were going into bankruptcy back in the early ’80s, and I’ll tell you, I set out to prove they were all a bunch of cheaters. I was going to expose these people who were taking advantage of the rest of us by hauling off to bankruptcy and just charging off debts that they really could repay, or who’d been irresponsible in run-ning up debts.</p>
<p>I did the research, and the data took me to a totally different place. These were hardworking middle-class families who by and large had lost jobs, gotten sick, had family breakups, and that’s what was driving them over the edge financially. Most of them were in complete economic collapse when they filed for bankruptcy. They would never pay these debts off. Realizing this changed my vision. But it certainly didn’t make me want to talk about it in any public sense, until, in 1994, Congress passed a law saying they were going to have a commission on bankruptcy, and I was recruited to work on it. And that’s when I waded into the thick of it and started taking much of my research and translating it much more into public policy.</p>
<p>Without this public policy component, the work would have been so sterile by comparison with what it turned out to be. Oh, yeah, I’d have had great ideas for how 11 USC 1326(b)(2) should be modified in order to achieve a more harmonious result, but, oddly enough, the political part ultimately enriched my understanding of the scope of the problems. It took me far beyond bankruptcy and much more into questions about what’s happening to the middle class. Often, it was other people who would ask me the big questions. “Why are families in so much debt?” “Who are these people who are filing for bankruptcy?” Or sometimes it would simply be their allegations of fact. “Well, we know it’s just the poor and the profligate.” That would cause me to say, “Oh, I’ve got to go back and study this some more.” And so, it enriched and in many ways transformed the work that interested me as a scholar.</p>
<p>You mentioned that your initial attitude about these people who had gone bankrupt was that it was their fault, that they had failed, that they had been spenders, that they had been whatever negative values we associate with them. Do you think it serves a political purpose to believe those kinds of statements?</p>
<p>Absolutely. I began to see that there were a lot of people who really just didn’t care one way or another who was in bankruptcy. The banks and credit card companies wanted this new legislation. In a democratically elected Congress how on earth are you going to pass legislation to benefit two dozen already powerful multibillion-dollar corporations at the expense of all the families filing for bankruptcy every year? This was straight wealth transfer.</p>
<p>So, policy makers and the media would make assertions about who these people were, and at first I believed these were assertions made out of ignorance. And so, I’d come in with the data and say, “Well, actually, let me show you how this works,” and, “Here’s a random sample of 1,250 families and here’s how they were chosen and here’s what we know about them, and look at what happened to them.” And people just didn’t want to hear it.</p>
<p>Finally, it was senators themselves who said, “Professor, you don’t understand. So-and-so over here has taken $300,000 from credit card companies over the last so many years and this is something that industry wants; I see two lobbyists in here a day from the financial services industry to make this happen.” The credit card companies wanted a piece of legislation to cut their losses and boost their profits. And so, the reality of these families’ lives had to be reshaped to tell a politically acceptable story: that this is the fault of these families who are in financial trouble. But you know, the data are just overwhelming on this question, and that is just simply not the truth.</p>
<p>This is part of a larger story. For example, “We don’t have to provide health insurance for folks, because decent people who worked hard and got an education and therefore got good jobs already have health insurance.” There’s an undertone that those who don’t have it have made other bad life choices that caused them to be in a place where they don’t get it.</p>
<p>Bankruptcy is a case in which literally, the lobbyists wrote the bill. I’m not being metaphoric here. The lobbyists wrote the bill, the credit industry paid for it, the campaign contributions then paved the highway for the bill to get passed, and ordinary families just lost out.</p>
<p>We reached a point in America a few years ago where more people went through bankruptcy than graduated from college in a single year! More people filed for bankruptcy than had a heart attack. More children lived in homes that were filing for bankruptcy than in homes that were filing for divorce.</p>
<p>To step beyond bankruptcy, we’re on target now to see 1.4 million families thrown out of their houses this year [2007] in mortgage foreclosures. One in every seven Americans, right now, is dealing with a debt collector. We hear the word from [the Bush administration], “Oh, it’s all about personal responsibility,” over and over and over, but at some point the families themselves start to say, “Uh-uh, no good. This answer doesn’t work.” Indeed, I should point out, some of the family-oriented groups that have aligned themselves politically with conservatives have backed off and said on bankruptcy issues, on credit card issues, on payday loan issues, on home mortgage issues, Congress has got to go a different way. The cracks in the dominant story are starting to appear.</p>
<p>Let’s go back and talk about this bigger picture where the middle class finds itself, both from your own personal experience and from what you were experiencing as a lawyer/aca demic studying these issues. What we’re witnessing beginning in the seventies is a major economic transition in this country affecting the family, and&#160; everybody’s running to catch up. Talk a little about it. Give us that big picture.</p>
<p>Starting in about 1970 a fully employed male’s wages completely flattened out, and in fact, a fully employed male today, on average, earns about $800 less than his dad earned a generation ago. Unlike the first seventy years of the twentieth century when wages grew as the economy grew, now the family does better only if they can put two people in the workforce. Millions of mothers poured back into the workforce, and the norm switched from a one-earner family to a two-earner family, for those who are lucky enough to have it. Expenses in the same thirty-year period far outstripped what families were spending, and I’m not talking about consumer price index.</p>
<p>Start with the consumption. This is what everyone in the popular media [supposes] is the reason for people getting in trouble: too many GameBoys, too many iPods, too many $200 sneakers. In fact, families today, adjusted for inflation, spend less on clothing, less on food (including eating out), less on furniture, and less on appliances than they spent a generation ago. Where they spend more is for the three-bedroom, one-bath house. The median family is spending 80 percent more on mortgage payments, adjusted for inflation, than they spent a generation ago. They’re spending about 75 percent more for health insurance than they spent a generation ago. Because today they need two cars instead of one, they’re spending about 60 percent more on cars. They’re paying for child care, which, of course, they didn’t a generation ago, because the mother was home.</p>
<p>Today the median two-income family is spending 75 percent of their income on those five basic expenses, and with two&#160; people in the workforce they actually have fewer dollars left over than their one-income parents had a generation ago to cover everything. So, what we have today is two people working full-time, flat-out, hard-bore, and they actually have less money to spend than one person working full-time just one generation ago.</p>
<p>Today’s family is already running full out. They’ve got both people in the workforce full-time, and that creates its own vulnerabilities. They have double the risk someone will get laid off or that somebody will get too sick to go to work. Today if a child gets sick, or if Grandma falls and breaks a hip, someone’s got to take off work to be with them. A generation ago, you already had someone at home to be able to fill that other role. Today someone’s got to take off, and for most jobs that means they lose income.</p>
<p>People are more likely to lose jobs than they were before; jobs are going abroad. When they lose jobs, statistically the odds that they’ll get a new one that pays as well as the job they lost has gone down, compared with a generation ago. These are families that are losing health insurance, losing retirement, so what we’re really watching here is a family unit that’s getting more and more economically vulnerable. They’re working harder than ever, they’ve got two people in the workforce, they’re trying to do homework at night with the kids and hold it all together, and yet economically every part of the game is loaded against them.</p>
<p>You point out in your book — <a href="" type="internal">The Two-Income Trap</a> — and in your writings that the focus on the family, the concern about education of one’s children, impacts this very vulnerable situation to a greater extent over time, and it’s all about “I want my kids to have the best education.”</p>
<p>“I want my kids to have a shot of making it in the middle class.” This is what it’s about for parents. And so, what does that mean in America today, because of our peculiar way of fi nancing education? It means you’ve got to get to the right zip code, because the right zip code will determine the school assignment for your child. But the prices have shifted upward for those zip codes.</p>
<p>Families with children have seen a 100 per cent increase in housing costs since 1983. Why? Not because families with children have a bigger need for granite countertops or spa bath-rooms, but because housing is the substitute way to buy into a decent school system. This is white families, African American families, Hispanic families, Asian families, it’s across&#160; every spectrum. Families with children are tightening the belt one more notch, are working extra hours, are sending both people into the workforce, to try to get into the best possible school district for their children. Families are in financial trouble not because they’re irresponsible but because they’re too responsible. They’re trying to do it for the kids.</p>
<p>All the literature in comparative politics, writings about democracy, democratization, point to the importance of the middle class as the foundation of a working democratic system. What are the long-term implications of what you’re saying?</p>
<p>A strong middle class gives us a strong democracy and a strong economy; it’s what makes us flexible and able to compete in the world; it’s what makes us who we are. Here’s what I fear. I think these data point toward a somewhat larger upper class, with the rest as just one big underclass. The old middle class is now comprised of families who are living paycheck to paycheck, who are dealing this week with debt collectors and next week with late fees and 29 per cent interest on the credit card, who are on a treadmill that they can never get out of debt, never put anything aside in the way of savings. They have better moments and worse moments, but the differentiation between the poor and the middle class is no longer so clear. Now the differentiation is between the upper class and everybody else, because everybody else lives on a financial cliff. Some are getting pushed off, and some are just going to hang on the edge of the cliff. I fear we are moving toward a two-tier society and that government policies have pushed us in that direction, encouraged that division, and made it more comfortable for those who are well-to-do and much more dangerous for those who are part of the growing underclass in America.</p>
<p>HARRY KREISLER’s interview with Elizabeth Warren is taken from his new book <a href="" type="internal">Political Awakenings, just published by the New Press, printed here by permission</a> of the publisher.</p>
<p>Copyright 2010 HARRY KREISLER.</p>
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<p><a href="http://greentags.bigcartel.com/" type="external">WORDS THAT STICK</a></p>
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<p /> | true | 4 | elizabeth warren born oklahoma 1949 professes law harvard law school currently chair congressional oversight panel investigate banking bailout formally known troubled assets relief program160 shes also prime advocate creation new consumer financial protection agency congress considering may well suffocated embrace federal reserve warrens cited among names considered supreme court nominees replace retiring justice john paul stevensand opinion editors counterpunch would best choice acjsc kreisler born raised elizabeth warren born raised oklahoma looking back think parents shaped thinking world well parents depressionera dustbowl oklahoma shapes life growing last four childreni three much older brothersand time came along really kind second family parents hadnt recovered depression guess many ways never stories permeated childhood like seven years drought like nobody money like neighbors left go california someplace thought might jobs parents hung stayed father worked series different jobs maintenance man apartment houseit last jobbut always saw middleclass people distinction used good english didnt say aint important indicia middleclassness folks believed education proud little daughter around dinner table discussion politics law come later oh around dinner table mostly around dinner table discussion cars rodeos dogs cows horses little discussion worry others family always big sense trying look nobody family really much anything theme pursue work whats happening family youre saying get sense family important last resort survival context harsh times thats exactly right people didnt family people broke familythey true poor ones nothing long family people would make sure got fed one way another family canning peaches canning peaches making sure thered least something come next november cold outside crops coming family heart young teachers young person shaped thinking kind career might take im generation two things woman could wanted something stay home could become nurse could become teacher amazing women taught grade school opened possibility could teacher went college thats wanted didnt quite know kind teacher would end becoming college major focus interest sixteen years old graduated high school got full scholarship debate room board tuition books little spending money fabulous scholarship george washington university would debate sort equivalent athletic scholarship one actually girl could get even though werent many girls debate either got degree speech pathology audiology meant would able work children head trauma kinds brain injuries thats married nineteen still college first year postgraduation worked public school system children disabilities didnt education courses emergency certificate went back graduate school took couple courses education said dont think going work pregnant first baby baby stayed home couple years really casting thinking going husbands view stay home children well children youll love restless point living new jersey job went back home oklahoma christmas saw bunch boys high school debate theyd gone law school said go law school youll love said really think said us gone law school youre one shouldve gone law school took tests applied law school day daughter later became coauthor turned two started law school rutgers law school new jersey point id never met lawyer mean id neveri didnt travel circles took law school like pig takes mud loved law school third final year law school got pregnant didnt take job alex born three weeks graduated hardest moment life thought world opened world ideas law tool could use make things happenand thought didnt take job right law school kissed goodbye id stepped train would never chance get back took bar hung shingle northern jersey real estate closings little incorporations lawsuits civil side raised two babies rutgers called said somebody didnt show teach class would like come teach start thursday said sure hard could started teaching see background made able seize opportunities partly mother always said contrary kids born way families tell stories stories reflect children shape children become story always told two half would allowed play front yard mother would tell dont go street would look wait turned back step right street would stand street little bit near curb would stand street mother big switches shed pull switch tree switch backs legs id cry id step right back street finally mother realized going go street anyway said okay rules look way look way safely go street gave rules street perfectly happy think partly always neck bowed always going something else able pick elective junior high school girls picked drama course pick debate said going take physics know little bit moment gloria steinem talking think going one womens libbers heavens wanted children wanted family somehow thought eitheror choices yet also wanted things friends house saw wallpaper bathroom thought coolest thing id ever seen went sears saw brochure wallpaper took babysitting money bought enough wallpaper bathroom two weeks later came announced dinner table ive bought wallpaper wallpaper bathroom daddy saidbecause always family thingnobody family knows wallpaper said hard could people dumber us every day ive thought wayyou know get try worst happens make mess throw away started commercial law moved public realm transition come first empirical study looking families going bankruptcy back early 80s ill tell set prove bunch cheaters going expose people taking advantage rest us hauling bankruptcy charging debts really could repay whod irresponsible running debts research data took totally different place hardworking middleclass families large lost jobs gotten sick family breakups thats driving edge financially complete economic collapse filed bankruptcy would never pay debts realizing changed vision certainly didnt make want talk public sense 1994 congress passed law saying going commission bankruptcy recruited work thats waded thick started taking much research translating much public policy without public policy component work would sterile comparison turned oh yeah id great ideas 11 usc 1326b2 modified order achieve harmonious result oddly enough political part ultimately enriched understanding scope problems took far beyond bankruptcy much questions whats happening middle class often people would ask big questions families much debt people filing bankruptcy sometimes would simply allegations fact well know poor profligate would cause say oh ive got go back study enriched many ways transformed work interested scholar mentioned initial attitude people gone bankrupt fault failed spenders whatever negative values associate think serves political purpose believe kinds statements absolutely began see lot people really didnt care one way another bankruptcy banks credit card companies wanted new legislation democratically elected congress earth going pass legislation benefit two dozen already powerful multibilliondollar corporations expense families filing bankruptcy every year straight wealth transfer policy makers media would make assertions people first believed assertions made ignorance id come data say well actually let show works heres random sample 1250 families heres chosen heres know look happened people didnt want hear finally senators said professor dont understand soandso taken 300000 credit card companies last many years something industry wants see two lobbyists day financial services industry make happen credit card companies wanted piece legislation cut losses boost profits reality families lives reshaped tell politically acceptable story fault families financial trouble know data overwhelming question simply truth part larger story example dont provide health insurance folks decent people worked hard got education therefore got good jobs already health insurance theres undertone dont made bad life choices caused place dont get bankruptcy case literally lobbyists wrote bill im metaphoric lobbyists wrote bill credit industry paid campaign contributions paved highway bill get passed ordinary families lost reached point america years ago people went bankruptcy graduated college single year people filed bankruptcy heart attack children lived homes filing bankruptcy homes filing divorce step beyond bankruptcy target see 14 million families thrown houses year 2007 mortgage foreclosures one every seven americans right dealing debt collector hear word bush administration oh personal responsibility point families start say uhuh good answer doesnt work indeed point familyoriented groups aligned politically conservatives backed said bankruptcy issues credit card issues payday loan issues home mortgage issues congress got go different way cracks dominant story starting appear lets go back talk bigger picture middle class finds personal experience experiencing lawyeraca demic studying issues witnessing beginning seventies major economic transition country affecting family and160 everybodys running catch talk little give us big picture starting 1970 fully employed males wages completely flattened fact fully employed male today average earns 800 less dad earned generation ago unlike first seventy years twentieth century wages grew economy grew family better put two people workforce millions mothers poured back workforce norm switched oneearner family twoearner family lucky enough expenses thirtyyear period far outstripped families spending im talking consumer price index start consumption everyone popular media supposes reason people getting trouble many gameboys many ipods many 200 sneakers fact families today adjusted inflation spend less clothing less food including eating less furniture less appliances spent generation ago spend threebedroom onebath house median family spending 80 percent mortgage payments adjusted inflation spent generation ago theyre spending 75 percent health insurance spent generation ago today need two cars instead one theyre spending 60 percent cars theyre paying child care course didnt generation ago mother home today median twoincome family spending 75 percent income five basic expenses two160 people workforce actually fewer dollars left oneincome parents generation ago cover everything today two people working fulltime flatout hardbore actually less money spend one person working fulltime one generation ago todays family already running full theyve got people workforce fulltime creates vulnerabilities double risk someone get laid somebody get sick go work today child gets sick grandma falls breaks hip someones got take work generation ago already someone home able fill role today someones got take jobs means lose income people likely lose jobs jobs going abroad lose jobs statistically odds theyll get new one pays well job lost gone compared generation ago families losing health insurance losing retirement really watching family unit thats getting economically vulnerable theyre working harder ever theyve got two people workforce theyre trying homework night kids hold together yet economically every part game loaded point book twoincome trap writings focus family concern education ones children impacts vulnerable situation greater extent time want kids best education want kids shot making middle class parents mean america today peculiar way fi nancing education means youve got get right zip code right zip code determine school assignment child prices shifted upward zip codes families children seen 100 per cent increase housing costs since 1983 families children bigger need granite countertops spa bathrooms housing substitute way buy decent school system white families african american families hispanic families asian families across160 every spectrum families children tightening belt one notch working extra hours sending people workforce try get best possible school district children families financial trouble theyre irresponsible theyre responsible theyre trying kids literature comparative politics writings democracy democratization point importance middle class foundation working democratic system longterm implications youre saying strong middle class gives us strong democracy strong economy makes us flexible able compete world makes us heres fear think data point toward somewhat larger upper class rest one big underclass old middle class comprised families living paycheck paycheck dealing week debt collectors next week late fees 29 per cent interest credit card treadmill never get debt never put anything aside way savings better moments worse moments differentiation poor middle class longer clear differentiation upper class everybody else everybody else lives financial cliff getting pushed going hang edge cliff fear moving toward twotier society government policies pushed us direction encouraged division made comfortable welltodo much dangerous part growing underclass america harry kreislers interview elizabeth warren taken new book political awakenings published new press printed permission publisher copyright 2010 harry kreisler words stick 160 | 1,879 |
<p>Photo by Chief National Guard Bure | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>Puerto Rico is not large enough to stand alone. We must govern it wisely and well, primarily in the interest of its own people.</p>
<p>–Theodore Roosevelt</p>
<p>Puerto Rico is dying.</p>
<p>Let those words sink in.</p>
<p>Three and a half million people are without power, water, fuel, food, and support. This isn’t some uninhabited atoll. This is where I grew up. This is where my family lives. This is my home.</p>
<p>And my home is dying.</p>
<p>I have been desperately trying to come up with the right words to express what I feel and what I think for the better part of a day. My social media has as of late provided me with a space to write my remarks, observations, and more often than not, rants about the situation on Puerto Rico. I shared my anxieties when hours, then days passed without a word from my family. I cried in silent sobs at the pictures that slowly started to come out of the island. Despair began to unite the large Puerto Rican diaspora as we comforted each other, and waited as the absolute silence became more and more unbearable.</p>
<p>“Have you heard from…”</p>
<p>“Does anyone have any information about my hometown…”</p>
<p>“My mom, she’s not well, I can’t reach her…”</p>
<p>“I can’t find my partner…”</p>
<p>It was only last Friday when I had proof of life from my family in my hometown of Arecibo. And it was on Sunday that I was finally able to speak to them over the phone. Speak… more like share moments of absolute joy and tears of happiness. Of feeling born again. And with that memory fresh in my mind, I sat down to write.</p>
<p>Nothing came except tears. I’m crying as I write this.</p>
<p>How can one put into words how it feels to be completely powerless as the world I’ve always known slowly turns into Hell for those that I love the most? How can one fully express in words that could convey, in any way, the overwhelming sense of constant pain, of horrible uncertainty, the fear of loss, and the fury over what is, in the end, an unnatural disaster? And how can I live with myself for not being there?</p>
<p>How can I explain to people that Puerto Rico, my home, my island, my heart and soul, is dying?</p>
<p>The fear of death is an eternal companion in these situations. So as my country slowly agonizes, would it be appropriate for me to write a eulogy for its seemingly inevitable death? Perhaps some choice words as a send-off to the oldest colony in the world?&#160; As Donald Trump, the biggest psychopath to occupy the Oval Office so far, finally relents to growing public pressure and announces that federal funds will be made available in full to Puerto Rico, and as more aid slowly makes its way to the island, could I dare hope for a stay of its execution? Or is this just another delay in its pre-ordained death-by-empire?</p>
<p>President Trump’s message to Puerto Rico was clear: pay up and drop dead. The island is expected to pay its imaginary debt for the dubious “privilege” of being an imperial colony in the way it’s always done so: in blood. Wall Street’s interests have priority over securing the very survival of nearly four million people. God forbid that millionaire Wall Street bondholders suffer the horror of payment forfeiture over a minor inconvenience like Hurricane María, only the worst storm in eighty years!</p>
<p>The president initially denied full federal assistance to the island and refused to suspend the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, or Jones Act, that has for nearly a century strangled commerce to and from Puerto Rico. Because of this stubbornness an obviously colonial World War One-vintage piece of legal protectionism continues to choke the island as its inhabitants are left to fend for themselves. Colonialism is a self-perpetuating state of exception that thrives on crises precisely because the beneficiaries are always the colonizers and their local flunkies who maintain and benefit from the illusion of “self-governance.”</p>
<p>While Homeland Security steadfastly holds on to its refusal to wave the Jones Act, Herr Trump was later forced by public pressure to amend his remarks on aid, and the USNS Comfort hospital ship is now scheduled to arrive on the island in three to five days (as will our bloviating commander-in-chief himself at some point) any help received from the American imperial mainland now carries with it a stigma, a sense of being a discarded, second-hand lifeline. This is extremely revealing. It’s been over a week since Hurricane María cut a path of destruction in Puerto Rico nearly beyond the scope of living memory, a week that passed before Trump made any remarks at all. It was a week filled by hysterics over kneeling, Russia and North Korea, a week of forgetting that Puerto Rico even existed.</p>
<p>American colonialism is not just confined to its territories or its Native American population. A successful empire can choose to either exalt itself to its population, thereby becoming an object of national pride, or hide itself by dulling that population’s senses and intelligence, negating that it has an empire in the first place. The United States pursued the second path. Successfully, I might add. Puerto Rico’s imperial masters also relied on their own profoundly ignorant population on the mainland that, fueled by the systemic racism on which the United States is built on, and a blinding allegiance to patriotism, considered Puerto Ricans to be just another group of Hispanic vermin. To this day nearly half of Americans do not even know that Puerto Ricans are “fellow citizens”, at least in name. And make no mistake. The white supremacist regime that attacks NFL players and Black Lives Matter activists for having the nerve to protest is the same regime that established the fiscal control board, the biggest killer in Hurricane María’s wake. These things are directly related, and the fiscal control board’s austerity measures ensured that it has blood on its hands.</p>
<p>The United States has perfected its colonialism on the island of Puerto Rico to such a degree that when it decided to take away the island’s limited self-rule, the vaunted “commonwealth”, and instead installed a fiscal control board, it did so with the applause of many islanders. Many Puerto Ricans, conditioned by school, church, political party, and kin to accept their inferiority to the gringo as natural law, felt unfit to govern themselves. We so desired to be our masters that we welcomed punishment for engineered transgressions tailor-made by vulture capitalists in the metropole and on the island itself.</p>
<p>And then came María. The other killer phenomenon to approximate María’s devastation and raw power was Hurricane San Felipe II, in 1928. Yet María’s devastation attacked an island that, in many ways, was in worse shape than the relatively pre-industrial Puerto Rico of the 1920’s. Hurricane San Felipe was nature’s killer. Hurricane María, however, has only exposed colonialism’s murderous true self. There is nothing natural about this killer.</p>
<p>María found the perfect target: an island whose infrastructure was crippled by decades of colonial neglect, the product of an idled and corrupt political class that blindly follows orders from Wall Street and Washington. These quisling parasites, like the island’s cravenly telegenic current governor Ricardo Rosselló, coasted to power on the artificiality of petty political partisanship fostered by the main political parties on the people for decades in order to divide and lord over a population lulled by consumerism, Christian conservatism, and Cold War-era paranoia.</p>
<p>Now that same political apparatus has fallen apart. Long lines await supplies and fuel that are not being delivered. Two deaths were reported at an ICU when its generator failed, drained bone-dry as its diesel fuel never arrived. Governor Rosselló has been busy with a nonstop photo op tour since the hurricane passed. His Facebook page and Twitter account are filled with photos of his smiling face. But it is all smoke and mirrors. More and more mayors are voicing their rage at the lack of supplies. Whole shipments of supplies and fuel await distribution.</p>
<p>The situation has laid bare the reality that there was never a plan put into place. It has also revealed that FEMA has utterly failed in its role. San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, acting in every way much more responsibly than our delusional governor, has denounced that FEMA has done the impossible to tie up any aid effort with red tape, asking for interminable memos and paralyzing aid distribution. It is quite telling that at one point in an interview journalist David Begnaud, who’s done a commendable job covering Puerto Rico, briefly mistakenly calls Mayor Yulín “governor”. Deep down, though, I’m sure that when he caught his slip and corrected himself he wished that his momentary lapse would have indeed been fact.</p>
<p>This official paralysis and complete disregard for reality often leaves first responders and National Guardsmen mobilized to help with distribution literally empty-handed. And this crass stupidity is not limited to help on the national level. Cuba has offered help in the form of doctors and a brigade of electrical workers to help shore up and rebuild the island’s ravaged infrastructure. Cuba! Yet cruelly, but predictably, the American government denied them entry on political grounds.</p>
<p>FEMA’s (in)actions border on being criminally negligent, even going as far as kicking roughly 400 refugees out of the San Juan Convention Center in order to conveniently take it over as their center of operations alongside the Puerto Rican central government. Federal and local agencies have become shining examples of feckless inaction, fetid bureaucracy, and unfettered bullshit. In typical Trumpist fashion, FEMA’s response has been to accuse the media of biased reporting, but the true bias is self-evident.</p>
<p>Puerto Rico is dying, yes. It is a victim of the stupidity of its political class and the racist vindictiveness of its colonial masters. Colonialism will always be a humanitarian crisis.</p>
<p>But Puerto Rico isn’t dead yet.</p>
<p>In fact, something seems to be happening. The lack of governmental aid, the realization that American aid is essentially a fantasy, the uncalled-for curfew that’s tailor made to pacify anxious shareholders stateside and not help the citizenry, and the need to rediscover communal bonds of mutual aid have done something to Puerto Ricans. I confess to standing in awe of the newly found resilience, the furious indignation turned into action, and the unbreakable bonds of basic humanity that have returned with a vengeance. And with it comes a growing sense of indignation, of anger towards our colonial masters. Anger, blessed anger, the engine of political and social change par excellence.</p>
<p>Puerto Rico is dying, but if it survives this and rises once again, it may do so inoculated from the diseased colonial mentality that has crushed its collective spirit for so long. It’s a long shot, but it’s worth thinking about now more than ever. This national tragedy has made Boricuas remember that they can, in fact, do things on their own together. That the often-remarked bravery of Puerto Ricans that many feared lost by colonialism’s savage indoctrination (I confess to being amongst those that felt this way) was always there. That fury and indignation lead to freedom. Like many fellow Puerto Ricans that live in exile, we have come forward to join that life-and-death struggle for our homeland, and we do so together, always loyal.</p>
<p>As the white imperialist invader revels in his pettiness and apathy it becomes clear that the Puerto Rican people must resist and fight back in the best way possible: by surviving and thriving together. Then maybe, just maybe, we’ll rid Puerto Rico of the American flag’s stagnating shadow over our island and reduce it to a simple funerary shroud wrapped around the corpse of American colonialism, breaking away from that dying empire once and for all.</p> | true | 4 | photo chief national guard bure cc 20 puerto rico large enough stand alone must govern wisely well primarily interest people theodore roosevelt puerto rico dying let words sink three half million people without power water fuel food support isnt uninhabited atoll grew family lives home home dying desperately trying come right words express feel think better part day social media late provided space write remarks observations often rants situation puerto rico shared anxieties hours days passed without word family cried silent sobs pictures slowly started come island despair began unite large puerto rican diaspora comforted waited absolute silence became unbearable heard anyone information hometown mom shes well cant reach cant find partner last friday proof life family hometown arecibo sunday finally able speak phone speak like share moments absolute joy tears happiness feeling born memory fresh mind sat write nothing came except tears im crying write one put words feels completely powerless world ive always known slowly turns hell love one fully express words could convey way overwhelming sense constant pain horrible uncertainty fear loss fury end unnatural disaster live explain people puerto rico home island heart soul dying fear death eternal companion situations country slowly agonizes would appropriate write eulogy seemingly inevitable death perhaps choice words sendoff oldest colony world160 donald trump biggest psychopath occupy oval office far finally relents growing public pressure announces federal funds made available full puerto rico aid slowly makes way island could dare hope stay execution another delay preordained deathbyempire president trumps message puerto rico clear pay drop dead island expected pay imaginary debt dubious privilege imperial colony way always done blood wall streets interests priority securing survival nearly four million people god forbid millionaire wall street bondholders suffer horror payment forfeiture minor inconvenience like hurricane maría worst storm eighty years president initially denied full federal assistance island refused suspend merchant marine act 1920 jones act nearly century strangled commerce puerto rico stubbornness obviously colonial world war onevintage piece legal protectionism continues choke island inhabitants left fend colonialism selfperpetuating state exception thrives crises precisely beneficiaries always colonizers local flunkies maintain benefit illusion selfgovernance homeland security steadfastly holds refusal wave jones act herr trump later forced public pressure amend remarks aid usns comfort hospital ship scheduled arrive island three five days bloviating commanderinchief point help received american imperial mainland carries stigma sense discarded secondhand lifeline extremely revealing week since hurricane maría cut path destruction puerto rico nearly beyond scope living memory week passed trump made remarks week filled hysterics kneeling russia north korea week forgetting puerto rico even existed american colonialism confined territories native american population successful empire choose either exalt population thereby becoming object national pride hide dulling populations senses intelligence negating empire first place united states pursued second path successfully might add puerto ricos imperial masters also relied profoundly ignorant population mainland fueled systemic racism united states built blinding allegiance patriotism considered puerto ricans another group hispanic vermin day nearly half americans even know puerto ricans fellow citizens least name make mistake white supremacist regime attacks nfl players black lives matter activists nerve protest regime established fiscal control board biggest killer hurricane marías wake things directly related fiscal control boards austerity measures ensured blood hands united states perfected colonialism island puerto rico degree decided take away islands limited selfrule vaunted commonwealth instead installed fiscal control board applause many islanders many puerto ricans conditioned school church political party kin accept inferiority gringo natural law felt unfit govern desired masters welcomed punishment engineered transgressions tailormade vulture capitalists metropole island came maría killer phenomenon approximate marías devastation raw power hurricane san felipe ii 1928 yet marías devastation attacked island many ways worse shape relatively preindustrial puerto rico 1920s hurricane san felipe natures killer hurricane maría however exposed colonialisms murderous true self nothing natural killer maría found perfect target island whose infrastructure crippled decades colonial neglect product idled corrupt political class blindly follows orders wall street washington quisling parasites like islands cravenly telegenic current governor ricardo rosselló coasted power artificiality petty political partisanship fostered main political parties people decades order divide lord population lulled consumerism christian conservatism cold warera paranoia political apparatus fallen apart long lines await supplies fuel delivered two deaths reported icu generator failed drained bonedry diesel fuel never arrived governor rosselló busy nonstop photo op tour since hurricane passed facebook page twitter account filled photos smiling face smoke mirrors mayors voicing rage lack supplies whole shipments supplies fuel await distribution situation laid bare reality never plan put place also revealed fema utterly failed role san juan mayor carmen yulín cruz acting every way much responsibly delusional governor denounced fema done impossible tie aid effort red tape asking interminable memos paralyzing aid distribution quite telling one point interview journalist david begnaud whos done commendable job covering puerto rico briefly mistakenly calls mayor yulín governor deep though im sure caught slip corrected wished momentary lapse would indeed fact official paralysis complete disregard reality often leaves first responders national guardsmen mobilized help distribution literally emptyhanded crass stupidity limited help national level cuba offered help form doctors brigade electrical workers help shore rebuild islands ravaged infrastructure cuba yet cruelly predictably american government denied entry political grounds femas inactions border criminally negligent even going far kicking roughly 400 refugees san juan convention center order conveniently take center operations alongside puerto rican central government federal local agencies become shining examples feckless inaction fetid bureaucracy unfettered bullshit typical trumpist fashion femas response accuse media biased reporting true bias selfevident puerto rico dying yes victim stupidity political class racist vindictiveness colonial masters colonialism always humanitarian crisis puerto rico isnt dead yet fact something seems happening lack governmental aid realization american aid essentially fantasy uncalledfor curfew thats tailor made pacify anxious shareholders stateside help citizenry need rediscover communal bonds mutual aid done something puerto ricans confess standing awe newly found resilience furious indignation turned action unbreakable bonds basic humanity returned vengeance comes growing sense indignation anger towards colonial masters anger blessed anger engine political social change par excellence puerto rico dying survives rises may inoculated diseased colonial mentality crushed collective spirit long long shot worth thinking ever national tragedy made boricuas remember fact things together oftenremarked bravery puerto ricans many feared lost colonialisms savage indoctrination confess amongst felt way always fury indignation lead freedom like many fellow puerto ricans live exile come forward join lifeanddeath struggle homeland together always loyal white imperialist invader revels pettiness apathy becomes clear puerto rican people must resist fight back best way possible surviving thriving together maybe maybe well rid puerto rico american flags stagnating shadow island reduce simple funerary shroud wrapped around corpse american colonialism breaking away dying empire | 1,102 |
<p />
<p>As the debates wind down, newspapers fire up their endorsements, and voters settle on their candidates, one thing is clear: The presidential race is still wide open. Even more uncertain, however, is the fate of the Senate. 13 states—Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and South Dakota—are up for grabs. Six of those are Democratic seats (FL, GA, LA, NC, SC, SD) and seven are Republican seats. Republicans currently have a 51-49 advantage in the Senate, since Jim Jeffords (I-VT) caucuses with the Democrats.</p>
<p>That means it’s an uphill climb for the Democrats in the Senate. At present, they will certainly take Illinois, while losing Georgia. They are also likely to take seats in Alaska, Colorado, and Oklahoma, while losing seats in North and South Carolina. In tha case, they will either have to maintain their holds on Florida, South Dakota and Louisiana, or else take a Senate seat or two elsewhere—Pennsylvania and Kentucky are the most likely targets—in order to gain control of the upper chamber. It’s not impossible, but it will be tough. Herewith is a rundown of the closest Senate races in the country:</p>
<p>Alaska: This red-state race is leaning blue, with recent <a href="http://www.ktuu.com/CMS/anmviewer.asp?a=6528&amp;z=4" type="external">tracking polls</a> showing Democrat Tony Knowles, a former state governor, with a slight but consistent lead over the Republican incumbent, Lisa Murkowski. Strangely enough, <a href="" type="internal">nepotism</a> has been the big issue in this race — Murkowski was appointed to the Senate by her father, Frank Murkowski, after he left the Senate to fill Alaska’s governor spot. Alaskans have never quite forgiven her for it.</p>
<p>The candidates had their <a href="http://www.adn.com/front/story/5671886p-5604522c.html" type="external">first debate</a> last Thursday, arguing mostly over a natural gas pipeline in Alaska and the best way to get ANWR drilling passed through Congress. Yet in many respects, the two candidates couldn’t be more different: Knowles supports gay rights and abortion rights in a state that favors neither, and has opposed the Bush tax cuts for those making over $200,000. These sorts of positions are why John Kerry won’t win Alaska anytime soon, but Knowles’ popularity within the state should help him squeak out a close victory — the most recent poll has him up 48-45.</p>
<p>Colorado: Colorado is quickly <a href="" type="internal">shifting away</a> from its traditional Republican tilt, and Democrat Ken Salazar, the state’s attorney general, might be the first to capitalize on that trend. The moderate Salazar polls well among both Latino voters and rural voters, who could decide this election. His opponent, beer magnate Pete Coors, has mostly run as Bush-lite — in favor of tax cuts, the Patriot Act, and the war in Iraq — although he did promise to lower the drinking age in Colorado if elected.</p>
<p>Salazar looks like the odds-on favorite here. The Denver Post recently <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%7E8382%7E2468565,00.html" type="external">endorsed</a> him, and polls show Salazar with a <a href="http://www.polstate.com/archives/006144.html#006144" type="external">slight edge</a> in the race. Voter registration groups like ACT have recently signed up a large number of voters in the Denver area, which could put Salazar over the top.</p>
<p>Florida: This is perhaps the closest Senate race this year, as former HUD Secretary Mel Martinez (R) and former state education commissioner Betty Castor (D) jockey for retiring Sen. Bob Graham’s seat. Martinez was picked to help Bush shore up Latino voters, especially Cuban-Americans, but his vicious attack ads have turned off some voters. In the Republican primaries, he <a href="" type="internal">accused</a> former Rep. Bill McCollum of siding with “the radical homosexual lobby.” More recently, Martinez <a href="" type="internal">ran an ad</a> attacking Castor for her associations with Sami Al-Arian, a university professor allegedly connected to terror financing. (Castor, to her credit, ran an ad showing President Bush hobnobbing with Al-Arian in 2000.)</p>
<p>The first debate will take place Monday, pitting the conservative Martinez—who opposes abortion rights and minimum wage increases, while supporting Bush on the war in Iraq and Social Security—against Castor, who closely resembles in her views. The latest Mason-Dixon poll shows a 45-45 tie, and this race could come down to turnout in Florida and whatever legal challenges affect the final outcome.</p>
<p>Georgia: With Zell Miller retiring, Georgia is a surefire Republican pickup. The latest Zogby poll gives Republican Congressman Johnny Isakson a 53-35 lead over Rep. Denise Majette. The big question in this state is whether Georgian Democrats can keep control of the State House (they currently lead 102-75), and possibly regain the Senate (they trail 30-26). Otherwise, this race is out of contention. For liberals, one bright spot in this race is that Isakson’s <a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-gop/1069700/posts" type="external">congressional record</a> suggests strong support for abortion rights.</p>
<p>Illinois: Barak Obama is a rock star in Illinois. He will bury Alan Keyes.</p>
<p>Kentucky: The biggest surprise in recent weeks has come from Kentucky, where Republican incumbent and former major league baseball player Jim Bunning was once thought to be untouchable. Early polls showed his challenger, state Sen. Daniel Mongiardo, easily 20 points behind. But in recent weeks, the Republican has acted increasingly bizarre: Storming away from reporters in news interviews, comparing the complexion of his Italian-American opponent to Saddam Hussein’s sons, accusing Mongiardo of beating up Bunning’s wife. In a debate last Monday, Bunning refused to participate in person, insisting on beaming in over satellite broadcast. His campaign later admitted that the candidate had read his opening and closing statements off a teleprompter.</p>
<p>As a result, Kentucky’s largest local paper, the Louisville Courier-Journal has questioned Bunning’s mental health, and on Sunday <a href="http://www.courier-journal.com/cjextra/editorials/2004/10/17/opin-top1017-7262.html" type="external">endorsed</a> Mongiardo in a rather unexpected move. The latest Garin-Hart-Young poll has Mongiardo <a href="http://www.fromtheroots.org/story/2004/10/18/132012/95" type="external">tied</a> with Bunning, 43-43, and the DSCC has decided to pour a good deal of money into this race. A Kentucky pick-up would be huge for the Democrats.</p>
<p>Louisiana: At present, there are three candidates in this race — Republican David Vitter, and Democrats Chris John and John Kennedy. If none of the candidates gets a majority, the race will be decided in a December runoff. Recent polls, however, have showed Vitter at 47 percent, and Republicans have <a href="http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=2444463&amp;nav=EyAzS6tS" type="external">urged him</a> to try to win the race outright on November 2. If he can’t pull that off, Congressman Chris John is a strong contender for the runoff –Louisiana has never sent a Republican to the Senate, and Democrat Mary Landrieu won the runoff in 2002 despite having the hugely popular President Bush personally campaign against her.</p>
<p>Missouri: The latest poll shows Republican incumbent Kit Bond with a 59-34 lead over Nancy Farmer. Farmer has raised only $2.3 million as of July, and Bond has managed to dominate the airwaves. Now that Kerry is planning to pull advertising out of Missouri, this one-time potential tossup will almost certainly stay Republican.</p>
<p>Oklahoma: By rights, Oklahoma shouldn’t be a battleground state for the Democrats. But their candidate, Rep. Brad Carson, has run a strong campaign. Even more significant, his opponent, former Republican Rep. Tom Coburn, has run a near-psychotic campaign. An Oklahoma woman has <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27269-2004Sep16.html" type="external">accused</a> Coburn, a former physician, of involuntarily sterilizing her while under anesthesia. It’s a serious charge, but hardly surprising for a guy who: calls treaties between the U.S. and Indian nations <a href="http://www.newsok.com/article/1318386/?template=home/main" type="external">“a joke”</a>, accused Oklahomans of being a <a href="http://www.newsok.com/electok/article/1313242/" type="external">“bunch of crapheads”</a>, decried <a href="http://atrios.blogspot.com/2004/10/rampant-lesbianism.html" type="external">“rampant”</a> lesbianism in Oklahoma public schools, and suggests the death penalty for abortion doctors. Seven <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/9/22/211421/940" type="external">local newspapers</a> have already called for Coburn to step down. If this were anywhere else but Oklahoma, Carson would be crushing him. As it is, the Democrat is leading by only a slim margin, 43-40 according to the latest Wilson poll.</p>
<p>North Carolina: Erskine Bowles, who served as head of the Small Business administration under Bill Clinton, is trying to keep hold of John Edwards’ seat for the Democrats. Bowles has established a reputation as a moderate, having backed the balance budget amendments during the 1990s, but that may not be enough to win over conservative voters in North Carolina. Bowles opponent, Republican Rep. Richard Burr, is currently leading 47-45 in the latest Rasmussen poll.</p>
<p>In recent debates, both candidates have been busy scuffling over who <a href="http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/politics/9904438.htm?1c" type="external">deserves credit</a> for the $10.1 billion tobacco buyout that just passed through Congress. (In the conference committee, Burr helped strip out FDA regulations for, among other things, cigarette advertising.) Burr’s support for free trade may hurt him in a state that has lost 80,000 jobs in import-heavy industries, but all signs are pointing to a Republican pickup here.</p>
<p>Pennsylvania: Senate analysts have largely ignored this race, but they shouldn’t. Incumbent Republican Arlen Specter was bloodied after a primary challenge from hard-right Rep. Pat Toomey, and reports indicate that all those disillusioned Toomey conservatives might stay home on election day. Specter, who spent around $15 million in the primaries, has always tried to cultivate a moderate image, but after the Bush era, he’s vulnerable among independents on two fronts: He voted in favor of the Federal Marriage Amendment (see <a href="" type="internal">here</a> for more), and he backed off from blocking the Labor Department’s scale-back of overtime pay, after pressure from the White House. Specter’s Democratic challenger, Rep. Joe Hoeffel, has the support of a few <a href="http://atrios.blogspot.com" type="external">prominent bloggers</a> and is a largely charismatic candidate — he was recently arrested for <a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/breaking/20040720hoeffelp6.asp" type="external">protesting against genocide</a> outside of Sudan’s embassy. If he can get his name ID up, he could well oust Specter. The latest Survey USA poll has Hoeffel within striking distance, 41-47.</p>
<p>One interesting twist to this race: The Philadelphia Inquirer, which backed John Kerry, <a href="http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/9937364.htm" type="external">has endorsed</a> Arlen Specter on the grounds that as chair of the Judiciary Committee he would be more likely to select moderate Supreme Court justices if the Republicans stay in power. Yet Specter <a href="http://www.hoeffelforsenate.com/press/pr100504.cfm" type="external">has publicly promised</a> to support Bush’s picks for the Supreme Court, and has backed pro-life justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas in the past. The Democrats should push hard to oust Specter.</p>
<p>South Carolina: Democrats choose state superintendent Inez Tenenbaum to run to replace retiring Sen. Fritz Hollings (D). Her opponent, Jim DeMint, is a radical conservative who supports replacing the income tax with a national sales tax, and has <a href="http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/9829635.htm" type="external">said</a> that gays and lesbians should not be allowed to teach in schools. (He later apologized for those comments, during the candidates’ <a href="http://www.fednews.com/transcript.htm?id=20041017t7810" type="external">Sunday debate</a> on Meet the Press.) Still, the latest Survey USA poll has DeMint up 46-43. The recent debates have focused on education (South Carolina was dead last in SAT scores under Tenenbaum), abortion rights (DeMint would outlaw abortion even in cases of rape or incest), and DeMint’s proposal for a national sales tax.</p>
<p>South Dakota: Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle is facing a tough fight against Republican challenger John Thune. The Republicans have thrown millions of dollars into this race, and Daschle’s only hope for survival has been to de-emphasize his relationship with John Kerry and focus on local issues—from all of the pork he’s brought home to South Dakota to his support for hunting the endangered white-tailed prairie dog. Recently, Daschle has <a href="" type="internal">worked hard</a> to appeal to American Indian voters, hoping that they’re support can make the difference. The race is certainly high stakes: Daschle has raised $18.3 million to Thune’s $12.8 million, but the latest Rasmussen poll has shown a 49-49 tie.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | debates wind newspapers fire endorsements voters settle candidates one thing clear presidential race still wide open even uncertain however fate senate 13 statesalaska colorado florida georgia illinois kentucky louisiana missouri oklahoma north carolina pennsylvania south carolina south dakotaare grabs six democratic seats fl ga la nc sc sd seven republican seats republicans currently 5149 advantage senate since jim jeffords ivt caucuses democrats means uphill climb democrats senate present certainly take illinois losing georgia also likely take seats alaska colorado oklahoma losing seats north south carolina tha case either maintain holds florida south dakota louisiana else take senate seat two elsewherepennsylvania kentucky likely targetsin order gain control upper chamber impossible tough herewith rundown closest senate races country alaska redstate race leaning blue recent tracking polls showing democrat tony knowles former state governor slight consistent lead republican incumbent lisa murkowski strangely enough nepotism big issue race murkowski appointed senate father frank murkowski left senate fill alaskas governor spot alaskans never quite forgiven candidates first debate last thursday arguing mostly natural gas pipeline alaska best way get anwr drilling passed congress yet many respects two candidates couldnt different knowles supports gay rights abortion rights state favors neither opposed bush tax cuts making 200000 sorts positions john kerry wont win alaska anytime soon knowles popularity within state help squeak close victory recent poll 4845 colorado colorado quickly shifting away traditional republican tilt democrat ken salazar states attorney general might first capitalize trend moderate salazar polls well among latino voters rural voters could decide election opponent beer magnate pete coors mostly run bushlite favor tax cuts patriot act war iraq although promise lower drinking age colorado elected salazar looks like oddson favorite denver post recently endorsed polls show salazar slight edge race voter registration groups like act recently signed large number voters denver area could put salazar top florida perhaps closest senate race year former hud secretary mel martinez r former state education commissioner betty castor jockey retiring sen bob grahams seat martinez picked help bush shore latino voters especially cubanamericans vicious attack ads turned voters republican primaries accused former rep bill mccollum siding radical homosexual lobby recently martinez ran ad attacking castor associations sami alarian university professor allegedly connected terror financing castor credit ran ad showing president bush hobnobbing alarian 2000 first debate take place monday pitting conservative martinezwho opposes abortion rights minimum wage increases supporting bush war iraq social securityagainst castor closely resembles views latest masondixon poll shows 4545 tie race could come turnout florida whatever legal challenges affect final outcome georgia zell miller retiring georgia surefire republican pickup latest zogby poll gives republican congressman johnny isakson 5335 lead rep denise majette big question state whether georgian democrats keep control state house currently lead 10275 possibly regain senate trail 3026 otherwise race contention liberals one bright spot race isaksons congressional record suggests strong support abortion rights illinois barak obama rock star illinois bury alan keyes kentucky biggest surprise recent weeks come kentucky republican incumbent former major league baseball player jim bunning thought untouchable early polls showed challenger state sen daniel mongiardo easily 20 points behind recent weeks republican acted increasingly bizarre storming away reporters news interviews comparing complexion italianamerican opponent saddam husseins sons accusing mongiardo beating bunnings wife debate last monday bunning refused participate person insisting beaming satellite broadcast campaign later admitted candidate read opening closing statements teleprompter result kentuckys largest local paper louisville courierjournal questioned bunnings mental health sunday endorsed mongiardo rather unexpected move latest garinhartyoung poll mongiardo tied bunning 4343 dscc decided pour good deal money race kentucky pickup would huge democrats louisiana present three candidates race republican david vitter democrats chris john john kennedy none candidates gets majority race decided december runoff recent polls however showed vitter 47 percent republicans urged try win race outright november 2 cant pull congressman chris john strong contender runoff louisiana never sent republican senate democrat mary landrieu runoff 2002 despite hugely popular president bush personally campaign missouri latest poll shows republican incumbent kit bond 5934 lead nancy farmer farmer raised 23 million july bond managed dominate airwaves kerry planning pull advertising missouri onetime potential tossup almost certainly stay republican oklahoma rights oklahoma shouldnt battleground state democrats candidate rep brad carson run strong campaign even significant opponent former republican rep tom coburn run nearpsychotic campaign oklahoma woman accused coburn former physician involuntarily sterilizing anesthesia serious charge hardly surprising guy calls treaties us indian nations joke accused oklahomans bunch crapheads decried rampant lesbianism oklahoma public schools suggests death penalty abortion doctors seven local newspapers already called coburn step anywhere else oklahoma carson would crushing democrat leading slim margin 4340 according latest wilson poll north carolina erskine bowles served head small business administration bill clinton trying keep hold john edwards seat democrats bowles established reputation moderate backed balance budget amendments 1990s may enough win conservative voters north carolina bowles opponent republican rep richard burr currently leading 4745 latest rasmussen poll recent debates candidates busy scuffling deserves credit 101 billion tobacco buyout passed congress conference committee burr helped strip fda regulations among things cigarette advertising burrs support free trade may hurt state lost 80000 jobs importheavy industries signs pointing republican pickup pennsylvania senate analysts largely ignored race shouldnt incumbent republican arlen specter bloodied primary challenge hardright rep pat toomey reports indicate disillusioned toomey conservatives might stay home election day specter spent around 15 million primaries always tried cultivate moderate image bush era hes vulnerable among independents two fronts voted favor federal marriage amendment see backed blocking labor departments scaleback overtime pay pressure white house specters democratic challenger rep joe hoeffel support prominent bloggers largely charismatic candidate recently arrested protesting genocide outside sudans embassy get name id could well oust specter latest survey usa poll hoeffel within striking distance 4147 one interesting twist race philadelphia inquirer backed john kerry endorsed arlen specter grounds chair judiciary committee would likely select moderate supreme court justices republicans stay power yet specter publicly promised support bushs picks supreme court backed prolife justices antonin scalia clarence thomas past democrats push hard oust specter south carolina democrats choose state superintendent inez tenenbaum run replace retiring sen fritz hollings opponent jim demint radical conservative supports replacing income tax national sales tax said gays lesbians allowed teach schools later apologized comments candidates sunday debate meet press still latest survey usa poll demint 4643 recent debates focused education south carolina dead last sat scores tenenbaum abortion rights demint would outlaw abortion even cases rape incest demints proposal national sales tax south dakota senate minority leader tom daschle facing tough fight republican challenger john thune republicans thrown millions dollars race daschles hope survival deemphasize relationship john kerry focus local issuesfrom pork hes brought home south dakota support hunting endangered whitetailed prairie dog recently daschle worked hard appeal american indian voters hoping theyre support make difference race certainly high stakes daschle raised 183 million thunes 128 million latest rasmussen poll shown 4949 tie | 1,143 |
<p>I am 56-years old, and began my working career as a cotton candy maker at the famous Scranton/Wilkes-Barre&#160; area amusement park, Rocky Glen, which currently closed, shall soon bear a blue &amp; gold State of Pennsylvania historical commemorative plaque.&#160;&#160; In my later High School years, I made an effort to get ahead, and became a gasoline station attendant, and pumped gas for hippies bound for a concert in Woodstock, New York.&#160; I remember one grateful person for whom I checked engine oil and washed windows.&#160; As proof of gratitude, he gave me a joint to supplement my hourly wage.&#160;&#160; These days, as a Hazardous Materials Response Supervisor, weed is verboten.&#160; I am subject to random U.S. D.O.T. Drug &amp; Alcohol Testing, and by a long intercontinental ballistic shot, I am&#160; engaged in a more profitable form of service work.</p>
<p>Typically, an emergency spill response manager must organize and implement worker Health &amp; Safety plans, and in concert with knowledgeable personnel, develop a professional clean up plan.&#160; Usually the crisis is a diesel fuel leak &#160;from damaged tractor-trailer saddle tanks, and migration of 200-gallons of volatile or ganic liquid into off-road soils and perhaps sources of water.&#160;&#160; Sometimes the crisis is a chlorine leak in a waste-water treatment plant; som etimes a “white powder” finding at a U.S. Post Office facility, which gives a worker like myself a chill, a shot of momentary adrenaline to the head.&#160;&#160; Other occasions, perhaps less publically known are emergency responses to suicides, and the need for cleaning up the potential bio-hazardous spray of residual blood, belonging to a “client” incapable of continuing another day in life.</p>
<p>So it was the Friday morning of August 29, 2008, the final work day before starting the last 3-day weekend of the summer. Anticipation of laying back, spending time with my children at a local tennis court, attending Scranton’s great annual Italian Festival at Courthouse, where Democrat V.P. nominee, Senator Joe Biden, the man of working class roots is scheduled to appear and vow to blow away, with one shot, an economy owned and operated by Wall Street and Corporations.&#160; At 7:30 a.m., having entered my workplace with the usual glee of “TGIF” and a paycheck that will not bounce, I checked my e-mail messages, and learned my task for the day was to supervise and clean up the aftermath of the suicide of Mr. Joe Midas, of Grandview Estates, Sugar Loaf, Pa.&#160; My colleague, 40-Hour OSHA trained Field Technician, Rob DeLayo (nicknamed Dobbs), was appointed to join the task. =0 A&#160; By 7:45 a.m., Dobbs and I “kicked into high gear,” and loaded our company response vehicle with the usual bio-hazardous equipment, consisting of specialized “Personal Protection Equipment” (coated Tyvek suits, respirators, nitrile gloves, ), Clorox, disinfectant Lemon 64, metal scrapers, chemical absorbent pads, red Bio-Bags, boxes, etcetera.&#160; “Everything’s loaded, and ready to go, Chuck,” said composed Dobbs.&#160;&#160; We were informed Mr. Joe Midas, Sr. had taken his life at home, while seated in a wheel chair, using either a Beretta or a .357 magnum.&#160;&#160; My e-mail message instruction specified, “blood on the floor and wheelchair. Body evacuated.&#160; not too bad.”</p>
<p>Dobbs and I took a lazy ride down Interstate 81 South to the Nanticoke exit.&#160; On the way, we listened to news on WARM radio – speculation about the Scranton Diocese Bishop Martino’s misgivings about giving abortion-supporting politicians the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Moments later, Dobbs and I made a left into Grandview Estates, an upscale 1980s development, and sought the residence of deceased Mr. Joe Midas.&#160; Beautiful homes and properties.&#160;&#160; For many years, Joe Midas, Sr. was the successful owner of a waste hauler (roll-off container) company, and as I understood, he owned a metal scrap yard.&#160;&#160; Joe was evidently a hard worker, determined to make his way.</p>
<p>When Dobbs and I arrived at Midas’s home driveway, we met Jo e’s son-in-law, Mr. Bart Davidson, who had the distinction of escorting us into the death scene and observing our clean up S.O.P.s and methods. In his mid-fifties, working class attitude and attire, a grief-less Bart Davidosn longed to get the job done, and later, shoot darts at a local&#160; bar.&#160; He insightfully commented that our line of work deserved a spot on the Discovery t.v. show, “America’s Dirtiest Jobs,” and I nodded in the affirmative.&#160;&#160; In the middle of his forehead, I noticed Bart had a rather disturbing indentation, as if hammered by the blunt end of a crow bar.&#160;&#160; We shook hands and introduced ourselves.&#160;&#160; I spared Bart the question of what had happened to his head.&#160;&#160; He seemed interested in our line of work, and I accommodated him with a couple unique post-suicide clean up stories.&#160; Afterwards, he unlocked the door to enter the Midas brown-brick home; impressively landscaped, un- manicured.&#160;&#160; Inside, we smelled a distinct fresh odor, like that of a sensual expensive perfume.&#160; Unsolicited, he began to talk about the life of deceased Joe Midas, Sr.&#160;&#160; Prologue to the tale, Bart informed us, ”It’s quiet in the Cul-de-sac, nobody comes around to see what happened.”</p>
<p>According to Bart, Joe Midas had a son, Joe, Jr.&#160; At 13-years old, Joe Jr. was apparently wild, “into guns and drugs.”&#160; One day, Joe Jr. went=2 0to work at the scrap yard with his father.&#160; He had a rifle, perhaps a .22 caliber, and occupied himself by shooting resident rats while his father operated a loader.&#160; Bart resolutely shook his head and said, “young Joe shot his father in the head,” while the latter moved scrap metal into a roll-off container.&#160; Of course, Joe Sr. survived, but doctors were unable to dislodge the bullet from his brain, and Joe Sr. spent the remainder of his life semi-paralyzed, unable to walk. Considered a juvenile, a Judge sentenced Joe Jr. to a “life knowing you shot your father in the head.”&#160;&#160; The Judge’s words fell on “deaf ears,” and things got worse for the Midas family.</p>
<p>Bart Davidson reminded us that last year (2007) Joe Jr. was the guy arrested in Wilkes-Barre, Pa, for piloting a 30-cubic roll-off container through city streets, and rampaging into police vehicles and property.&#160;&#160; For this joy ride, Joe Jr. resides in a Federal prison, while Dobbs and I had the business opportunity of cleaning up his father’s liquid remains in the elegant setting of the Midas home, which I will digress for a paragraph description.</p>
<p>We entered the house which might have impressed the late Nicole Simpson.&#160; Inside the room where Joe Sr. took his life, I noticed a 4’x4′ pool of blood on the room’s heated concrete floor (no basement).</p>
<p>Baseboard heaters were damaged as if having had frequently collided with an out-of-control wheel chair.&#160; Every wall had a series of light switches.&#160; The ceiling fan had translucent panels, laden with&#160; heavy dust.&#160; Two cob-webbed skylights (windows) were above Joe’s King-Size bed, with no apparent floor level crank to open the windows to fresh air.&#160;&#160; Joe Sr. had a universal weight machine, and someone constructed a “walking rail” for him,&#160; like the ones seen in physical therapy facilities.&#160; White walls were stained with nicotine smoke residual, cracks along the edges, and a big-screen television mounted in an oak cabinet on the wall.&#160; Behind Joe’s bed,&#160; Dobbs noticed a metal briefcase.&#160; Loose bullets of all sizes lay in a plastic tote container. &#160;Inside a dresser drawer, a bullet filled leather belt resembling the kind Bandeleros used to wear.&#160; East of Joe’s bed, bi-fold doors opened to an outdoor Yin&amp;Yang-shaped swimming pool, filter operational, clear water — looked as if people recently enjoyed its pleasures.</p>
<p>In awe of the blood stained environment, I asked Bart if I could use the bathroom “for a piss.”&#160; He obliged and pointed the way to the bathroom which was constructed as “a replica to the ones seen in Caesar’s&#160; Palace,” replete with marble floor, a walk-in shower, seat benches in all four corners, and a floor-based Jacuz zi hot tub with a steam20jet in the center.&#160; Joe Sr. apparently shared life with a cat, full food and water bowls lay on marble tile.&#160; Even&#160; now, I am mystified by the sight of Joe’s hot tub and sink handles.&#160; They were gold, bird heads with oversize wings, facing inward.&#160; (I recalled seeing similar handles on the Ark in the film “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”)</p>
<p>Eventually, I got on hands and knees to collect blood off floor and dresser areas, using combinations of scrapers, sand paper, and chemical absorbent pads.&#160; Beneath the bed’s foot board, I found a small, circular religious medallion, depicting a color photo of an Angel descending into hell to confront a dragon.&#160;&#160; Dobbs suggested it might be Saint George.&#160;&#160; I gave the medallion to Bart Davidson which he appreciated, and remarked, “it’s pretty appropriate.”&#160; After Dobbs and I disinfected all surfaces and packaged the blood contaminated waste material in a Bio-Hazardous box, we prepared to leave the Midas house. Standing in the garage, we loaded our pick truck, mindful of anything we left behind.&#160; I searched the back of our response vehicle, did inventory, and except for adhesive memories, found nothing left behind. &#160;Bart shook hands and thanked us for the “good job.”&#160; I sneaked one more look at Bart’s forehead indentation, and he asked us if we were interes ted in buying the WW II era bazooka which was stored on Joe’s garage floor.&#160;&#160; I told Bart, “not offhand,” but assured him I’d get word out to close friends.&#160; Bart assured us that the bazooka comes without shells, and a “good deal could be arranged.”</p>
<p>At Noon, we stored the Bio-Box containing remnants of Joe Midas in a corner of the garage where no one would notice it.&#160; (His pink blanket covered the box.)&#160; A weird one-truck funeral transportation and disposal procession would transpire perhaps next week.&#160; Of course, I informed Joe to be mindful of the Labor Day shortened four day work week, and Bart insisted we get rid of the Bio-Box as soon as possible, “for fear of a loved one seeing it.”&#160; He twisted his lips and “out of the blue” let it be known that the Midas family is deliberating about either personally telling Joe Jr. about the “incident,” or have a prison counselor “pop the news.”</p>
<p>On the way back to our company base,&#160; Dobbs and I were sorry for the loss and enjoyed cans of Coca Cola which Bart kindly gave us as refreshment.&#160; The cans were commemorative, Ethiopia, 2008 Beijing Olympics.&#160; Dobbs crushed an empty soda can, turned into I81 North’s passing lane, and said, “I hope something good comes of all this.”</p>
<p>CHARLES ORLOSKI lives in Taylor, PA. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:ccdjorlov@aol.com" type="external">ccdjorlov@aol.com</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | 56years old began working career cotton candy maker famous scrantonwilkesbarre160 area amusement park rocky glen currently closed shall soon bear blue amp gold state pennsylvania historical commemorative plaque160160 later high school years made effort get ahead became gasoline station attendant pumped gas hippies bound concert woodstock new york160 remember one grateful person checked engine oil washed windows160 proof gratitude gave joint supplement hourly wage160160 days hazardous materials response supervisor weed verboten160 subject random us dot drug amp alcohol testing long intercontinental ballistic shot am160 engaged profitable form service work typically emergency spill response manager must organize implement worker health amp safety plans concert knowledgeable personnel develop professional clean plan160 usually crisis diesel fuel leak 160from damaged tractortrailer saddle tanks migration 200gallons volatile ganic liquid offroad soils perhaps sources water160160 sometimes crisis chlorine leak wastewater treatment plant som etimes white powder finding us post office facility gives worker like chill shot momentary adrenaline head160160 occasions perhaps less publically known emergency responses suicides need cleaning potential biohazardous spray residual blood belonging client incapable continuing another day life friday morning august 29 2008 final work day starting last 3day weekend summer anticipation laying back spending time children local tennis court attending scrantons great annual italian festival courthouse democrat vp nominee senator joe biden man working class roots scheduled appear vow blow away one shot economy owned operated wall street corporations160 730 entered workplace usual glee tgif paycheck bounce checked email messages learned task day supervise clean aftermath suicide mr joe midas grandview estates sugar loaf pa160 colleague 40hour osha trained field technician rob delayo nicknamed dobbs appointed join task 0 a160 745 dobbs kicked high gear loaded company response vehicle usual biohazardous equipment consisting specialized personal protection equipment coated tyvek suits respirators nitrile gloves clorox disinfectant lemon 64 metal scrapers chemical absorbent pads red biobags boxes etcetera160 everythings loaded ready go chuck said composed dobbs160160 informed mr joe midas sr taken life home seated wheel chair using either beretta 357 magnum160160 email message instruction specified blood floor wheelchair body evacuated160 bad dobbs took lazy ride interstate 81 south nanticoke exit160 way listened news warm radio speculation scranton diocese bishop martinos misgivings giving abortionsupporting politicians body blood jesus christ moments later dobbs made left grandview estates upscale 1980s development sought residence deceased mr joe midas160 beautiful homes properties160160 many years joe midas sr successful owner waste hauler rolloff container company understood owned metal scrap yard160160 joe evidently hard worker determined make way dobbs arrived midass home driveway met jo es soninlaw mr bart davidson distinction escorting us death scene observing clean sops methods midfifties working class attitude attire griefless bart davidosn longed get job done later shoot darts local160 bar160 insightfully commented line work deserved spot discovery tv show americas dirtiest jobs nodded affirmative160160 middle forehead noticed bart rather disturbing indentation hammered blunt end crow bar160160 shook hands introduced ourselves160160 spared bart question happened head160160 seemed interested line work accommodated couple unique postsuicide clean stories160 afterwards unlocked door enter midas brownbrick home impressively landscaped un manicured160160 inside smelled distinct fresh odor like sensual expensive perfume160 unsolicited began talk life deceased joe midas sr160160 prologue tale bart informed us quiet culdesac nobody comes around see happened according bart joe midas son joe jr160 13years old joe jr apparently wild guns drugs160 one day joe jr went2 0to work scrap yard father160 rifle perhaps 22 caliber occupied shooting resident rats father operated loader160 bart resolutely shook head said young joe shot father head latter moved scrap metal rolloff container160 course joe sr survived doctors unable dislodge bullet brain joe sr spent remainder life semiparalyzed unable walk considered juvenile judge sentenced joe jr life knowing shot father head160160 judges words fell deaf ears things got worse midas family bart davidson reminded us last year 2007 joe jr guy arrested wilkesbarre pa piloting 30cubic rolloff container city streets rampaging police vehicles property160160 joy ride joe jr resides federal prison dobbs business opportunity cleaning fathers liquid remains elegant setting midas home digress paragraph description entered house might impressed late nicole simpson160 inside room joe sr took life noticed 4x4 pool blood rooms heated concrete floor basement baseboard heaters damaged frequently collided outofcontrol wheel chair160 every wall series light switches160 ceiling fan translucent panels laden with160 heavy dust160 two cobwebbed skylights windows joes kingsize bed apparent floor level crank open windows fresh air160160 joe sr universal weight machine someone constructed walking rail him160 like ones seen physical therapy facilities160 white walls stained nicotine smoke residual cracks along edges bigscreen television mounted oak cabinet wall160 behind joes bed160 dobbs noticed metal briefcase160 loose bullets sizes lay plastic tote container 160inside dresser drawer bullet filled leather belt resembling kind bandeleros used wear160 east joes bed bifold doors opened outdoor yinampyangshaped swimming pool filter operational clear water looked people recently enjoyed pleasures awe blood stained environment asked bart could use bathroom piss160 obliged pointed way bathroom constructed replica ones seen caesars160 palace replete marble floor walkin shower seat benches four corners floorbased jacuz zi hot tub steam20jet center160 joe sr apparently shared life cat full food water bowls lay marble tile160 even160 mystified sight joes hot tub sink handles160 gold bird heads oversize wings facing inward160 recalled seeing similar handles ark film raiders lost ark eventually got hands knees collect blood floor dresser areas using combinations scrapers sand paper chemical absorbent pads160 beneath beds foot board found small circular religious medallion depicting color photo angel descending hell confront dragon160160 dobbs suggested might saint george160160 gave medallion bart davidson appreciated remarked pretty appropriate160 dobbs disinfected surfaces packaged blood contaminated waste material biohazardous box prepared leave midas house standing garage loaded pick truck mindful anything left behind160 searched back response vehicle inventory except adhesive memories found nothing left behind 160bart shook hands thanked us good job160 sneaked one look barts forehead indentation asked us interes ted buying ww ii era bazooka stored joes garage floor160160 told bart offhand assured id get word close friends160 bart assured us bazooka comes without shells good deal could arranged noon stored biobox containing remnants joe midas corner garage one would notice it160 pink blanket covered box160 weird onetruck funeral transportation disposal procession would transpire perhaps next week160 course informed joe mindful labor day shortened four day work week bart insisted get rid biobox soon possible fear loved one seeing it160 twisted lips blue let known midas family deliberating either personally telling joe jr incident prison counselor pop news way back company base160 dobbs sorry loss enjoyed cans coca cola bart kindly gave us refreshment160 cans commemorative ethiopia 2008 beijing olympics160 dobbs crushed empty soda turned i81 norths passing lane said hope something good comes charles orloski lives taylor pa reached ccdjorlovaolcom 160 160 ad 160 160 160 160 | 1,119 |
<p>The books contained lessons that seemed to be about much more than how to decode words. One book, called “Lazy Lucy,” featured a young African girl who was often too lazy to clean her grass hut.</p>
<p>Community and education activists are claiming victory in Minneapolis after the city’s school board voted on October 13 to push Utah-based reading curriculum company, Reading Horizons, out of the Minneapolis schools.</p>
<p>Reading Horizons entered the district earlier in 2015 by securing a multi-year contract worth $1.2 million to supply the district’s K-2 teachers (and third grade teachers in “high needs” schools) with a phonics curriculum that it promised, if implemented “with fidelity,” would boost reading skills for all K-3 students, while also tackling test-based “achievement gaps” between white students and students of color.</p>
<p>What really made Reading Horizons’ sales pitch appealing, according to district sources, was that the company also promised to provide a set of classroom books, called “Little Books,” for students to use, as a way to practice the teacher-led phonics lessons they would be receiving. To resource-starved teachers, who have reportedly been asking for classroom books for years, this sounded like a great deal.</p>
<p>Until they saw the books in person.</p>
<p>Early in August, the first round of Minneapolis teachers went through a two-day <a href="http://www.readinghorizons.com/" type="external">Reading Horizons</a> training session. What first and second grade teachers Shana Dickson and Mandy Perna saw in the Little Books shocked them.</p>
<p>Each set of Little Books included 54 volumes, which matched the various phonics lessons contained in Reading Horizons’ curriculum. The books contained lessons that seemed to be about much more than how to decode words: One book, called “Lazy Lucy,” featured a young African girl who was often too lazy to clean her grass hut. Another, about the invention of the printing press, included images of Christopher Columbus pondering the globe. After reading a book about Marco Polo, the Little Book <a href="http://i0.wp.com/www.brightlightsmallcity.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Columbus-discovers-America.jpg" type="external">tells students</a>, Columbus was inspired to set off on his own worldly voyage, where he then “discovered America.”</p>
<p>The books also contained volumes about female characters cheerfully performing domestic duties, such as <a href="http://i2.wp.com/www.brightlightsmallcity.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Gilda.jpg" type="external">cooking all day</a> for their husbands. Also, there appeared to be only one Asian character in all 54 books—and that character seemed to have been adopted by a white family. Further, Dickson noted the books promoted only heterosexual families and depicted only white men as kings and only a white woman as a teacher.</p>
<p>Beyond the troubling racially charged, historically inaccurate and sexist images and stories in Reading Horizons’ collection of classroom books, Dickson and Perna reported many other problems:</p>
<p>And then came another shock: Reading Horizons operates with a very religious public profile. On the company’s website, “faith” is listed as the number one “ <a href="http://www.readinghorizons.com/core-values" type="external">Core Value</a>” for Reading Horizons employees: “We believe in a higher purpose to life. We seek to do His will and to achieve balance in our lives,” the site reads.</p>
<p>This raised a whole new set of questions regarding Reading Horizons: Why was the Minneapolis district giving money to an out-of-state company whose promotion materials contain strongly religious overtones and an apparently all-white board and staff? Could this company, with their deeply offensive “Little Books,” really help all Minneapolis public school kids—the majority of whom are not white—become successful readers?</p>
<p>In response to teacher protests over the Little Books, the school district compelled Reading Horizons to take the offensive materials back, and they were never used in any classroom in Minneapolis. But Michael Goar, interim superintendent for the district appeared to defend Reading Horizons in a <a href="https://cbsminnesota.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/reading-horizons-goar-letter.pdf" type="external">statement</a>. Though “[n]o children were ever exposed to the books, and only a small number of teachers were,”&#160;he also emphasized that the company had successfully boosted literacy rates in other districts. “Research shows this program has been successful in improving student outcomes across the country, including outcomes in diverse districts like ours.”&#160;And the district did move ahead with a full implementation of Reading Horizons’ phonics lessons, minus the Little Books.</p>
<p>Still, public unrest did not die down. A September 8 school board meeting saw a showdown between district supporters of Reading Horizons—including a handful of educators who testified to what they saw as the value of the company’s phonics curriculum—and a vocal group of protesters who were there to demand the district cut all ties with the company.</p>
<p>At the core of the opposition was Shana Dickson, along with fellow Minneapolis teacher David Boehnke, and Minneapolis parent and business owner Chaun Webster.</p>
<p>In late August, Dickson, Boehnke and Webster crafted an <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1JFx6kYtR2-XR8fcf854f0t_w6eHVFfKCYlkptLoQXls/viewform" type="external">open letter</a> to the Minneapolis Public Schools that outlined four demands. Beyond the call for the district to sever its relationship with Reading Horizons, these protesters also want a public review committee for all curriculum decisions, along with an end to the “purchasing of expensive scripted curriculum based on test scores.” Also, the letter calls for more training and resources for teachers so they can come up with their own lessons.</p>
<p>This letter quickly gathered hundreds of signatures, and became the backbone of a persistent, focused protest against the Minneapolis Public Schools’ decision to continue working with Reading Horizons.</p>
<p>The district, however, continued to back the company, and put together a list of talking points in defense of the company’s perceived ability to deliver a worthwhile phonics curriculum to district teachers. At the crux of their support was the idea that test scores show district students need “foundational skills” for reading.</p>
<p>The district’s talking points also <a href="https://cbsminnesota.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/reading-horizons-goar-letter.pdf" type="external">offered</a> a tacit admission of wrongdoing on the district’s part by giving a glimpse into how such a controversial decision was made in the first place: “Due to staffing shifts and the desire to get a program in place for the new school year, the books were not comprehensively vetted.”</p>
<p>Minneapolis’ Interim Superintendent Michael Goar had to then admit, at the September 8 school board meeting, that the selection process for Reading Horizons had been “rushed,” and that some who had helped choose the company were no longer working for the district, making it tough to find someone to answer for the mess the district had found itself in.</p>
<p>In fact, the Minneapolis Public Schools seemed unable to publicly handle the swell of opposition to Reading Horizons. After the contentious September 8 board meeting, and in the face of spiraling protest, the district declined to meet with protesters. Instead, Minneapolis officials offered to set up meetings between a Reading Horizons representative and those who had spoken out against MPS’s dealings with the company.</p>
<p>Rather than calm people’s ire, these tactical moves served to further cement opposition to Reading Horizons. This was clearly evident at a board meeting on September 29, when a group of protesters chanting “Whose schools? Our schools!” marched into the meeting and shut it down.</p>
<p>Still, the school district continued to defend Reading Horizons and the strength of its phonics curriculum. In a late September document put together by, among others, Eric Moore, Minneapolis’s director of research and evaluation, the district argued that Reading Horizons’ approach to phonics was adaptable and “ <a href="http://ela.mpls.k12.mn.us/uploads/reading_horizons_eval.pdf" type="external">multisensory</a>,” and a useful way for teachers to learn how to teach phonics.</p>
<p>The document also admits, however, that there is “limited research on Reading Horizons itself,” &#160;a subtle but important admission on MPS’s part. Up until this report was published, the district had been adamantly <a href="http://i2.wp.com/www.brightlightsmallcity.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/RH-Defense.jpg" type="external">insisting</a> that “[r]esearch shows this program has been successful in improving student outcomes across the country, including outcomes in diverse districts like ours.” (Twin Cities blogger Mary Turck took this argument apart in a <a href="http://maryturck.com/2015/09/11/reading-horizons-proves-that-reading-horizons-works/" type="external">September post</a> on her News Day blog, titled “Reading Horizons ‘proves’ that Reading Horizons works (and I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you).”)</p>
<p>Sustained local resistance to Reading Horizons, along with national media attention, continued to eat away at the district’s ability to defend its contract with the company. Although a corps of Minneapolis literacy specialists continued to stand by the phonics program, partially because the district had not provided access to one in recent memory, pressure continued to build. Finally, at the October 13 board meeting, close to 100 protesters gathered to fill the meeting room with a bevy of bright blue ribbons, to be waved in unison whenever Reading Horizons was mentioned—the idea of retired Minneapolis school teacher Teferi Fufa. Fufa, who emigrated to the United States from Ethopia in the early 1970’s, said he bought the blue fabric and cut it into strips as a way for protesters to show unity.&#160;</p>
<p>For Fufa, who taught in the district for 23 years, the decision to get involved in protesting Reading Horizons was not a difficult one. “When I saw the pictures of ‘Lazy Lucy,’ it reminded me of the old depictions of African Americans, and I thought, ‘We should be through all of this.’” Fufa spoke at the October 13 meeting and disputed the district’s insistence that Reading Horizons’ curriculum alone would help boost student achievement.</p>
<p>No curriculum is a “silver bullet,” Fufa said. And “if we put rotten stuff in front of our children, what does it to [their] engagement” in school?&#160;</p>
<p>“Instead of relying on outside consultants and corporations,” Fufa said later in an interview, “the district should start valuing the ideas and efforts everyone—teachers and students—is putting in.”</p>
<p>Also joining Fufa at the podium that night was Minneapolis parent Roxxanne O’Brien, who gave a blistering speech about the need to move away from teaching kids to “submit to a white, middle-class, male culture,” and instead implored the district to prioritize progressive values. “Why aren’t we teaching our community’s children to be sustainable and not dependent on corporations?” O’Brien asked, wondering where the lessons on environmental and food justice were, among others.</p>
<p>This time, instead of resisting the protesters’ efforts, the board seemed resigned to the fact that the Reading Horizons issue was not going to go away. Board member Nelson Inz, newly elected in 2014, wrote a resolution calling for the Minneapolis schools to cancel the Reading Horizons contract, on the grounds that it violated a slew of the district’s own policies around equity, diversity and proper procedure regarding how funds are spent.</p>
<p>Inz, who teaches social studies at a Montessori high school in St. Paul, said he wrote the resolution because he spends a lot of time “combating colonial myths” in the classroom: “You see the damage it does to our culture, when you have 16 year olds who believe Columbus discovered America.”</p>
<p>In a moment of calm at the board meeting, where a sense of the inevitable seemed to hang in the air, the resolution passed by a 7-2 vote. The details, regarding whether or not Reading Horizons will return any of the $1.2 million the cash-strapped district has sent them, have yet to be decided.</p>
<p>For teacher Shana Dickson, getting the board to cancel the contract is one small step forward, and part of the “bigger fight for justice and community engagement within the district.” But, she says, “We are still waiting for someone from the district to be held responsible for this decision.”</p>
<p>Like what you’ve read? <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/itt-subscription-offer?refcode=WS_ITT_Article_Footer&amp;noskip=true" type="external">Subscribe to In These Times magazine</a>, or <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/support-in-these-times?refcode=WS_ITT_Article_Footer&amp;noskip=true" type="external">make a tax-deductible donation to fund this reporting</a>.</p>
<p>Sarah Lahm is a Minneapolis-based writer and former English Instructor. She is a 2015 Progressive magazine Education Fellow and blogs about education at brightlightsmallcity.com.</p> | true | 4 | books contained lessons seemed much decode words one book called lazy lucy featured young african girl often lazy clean grass hut community education activists claiming victory minneapolis citys school board voted october 13 push utahbased reading curriculum company reading horizons minneapolis schools reading horizons entered district earlier 2015 securing multiyear contract worth 12 million supply districts k2 teachers third grade teachers high needs schools phonics curriculum promised implemented fidelity would boost reading skills k3 students also tackling testbased achievement gaps white students students color really made reading horizons sales pitch appealing according district sources company also promised provide set classroom books called little books students use way practice teacherled phonics lessons would receiving resourcestarved teachers reportedly asking classroom books years sounded like great deal saw books person early august first round minneapolis teachers went twoday reading horizons training session first second grade teachers shana dickson mandy perna saw little books shocked set little books included 54 volumes matched various phonics lessons contained reading horizons curriculum books contained lessons seemed much decode words one book called lazy lucy featured young african girl often lazy clean grass hut another invention printing press included images christopher columbus pondering globe reading book marco polo little book tells students columbus inspired set worldly voyage discovered america books also contained volumes female characters cheerfully performing domestic duties cooking day husbands also appeared one asian character 54 booksand character seemed adopted white family dickson noted books promoted heterosexual families depicted white men kings white woman teacher beyond troubling racially charged historically inaccurate sexist images stories reading horizons collection classroom books dickson perna reported many problems came another shock reading horizons operates religious public profile companys website faith listed number one core value reading horizons employees believe higher purpose life seek achieve balance lives site reads raised whole new set questions regarding reading horizons minneapolis district giving money outofstate company whose promotion materials contain strongly religious overtones apparently allwhite board staff could company deeply offensive little books really help minneapolis public school kidsthe majority whitebecome successful readers response teacher protests little books school district compelled reading horizons take offensive materials back never used classroom minneapolis michael goar interim superintendent district appeared defend reading horizons statement though children ever exposed books small number teachers were160he also emphasized company successfully boosted literacy rates districts research shows program successful improving student outcomes across country including outcomes diverse districts like ours160and district move ahead full implementation reading horizons phonics lessons minus little books still public unrest die september 8 school board meeting saw showdown district supporters reading horizonsincluding handful educators testified saw value companys phonics curriculumand vocal group protesters demand district cut ties company core opposition shana dickson along fellow minneapolis teacher david boehnke minneapolis parent business owner chaun webster late august dickson boehnke webster crafted open letter minneapolis public schools outlined four demands beyond call district sever relationship reading horizons protesters also want public review committee curriculum decisions along end purchasing expensive scripted curriculum based test scores also letter calls training resources teachers come lessons letter quickly gathered hundreds signatures became backbone persistent focused protest minneapolis public schools decision continue working reading horizons district however continued back company put together list talking points defense companys perceived ability deliver worthwhile phonics curriculum district teachers crux support idea test scores show district students need foundational skills reading districts talking points also offered tacit admission wrongdoing districts part giving glimpse controversial decision made first place due staffing shifts desire get program place new school year books comprehensively vetted minneapolis interim superintendent michael goar admit september 8 school board meeting selection process reading horizons rushed helped choose company longer working district making tough find someone answer mess district found fact minneapolis public schools seemed unable publicly handle swell opposition reading horizons contentious september 8 board meeting face spiraling protest district declined meet protesters instead minneapolis officials offered set meetings reading horizons representative spoken mpss dealings company rather calm peoples ire tactical moves served cement opposition reading horizons clearly evident board meeting september 29 group protesters chanting whose schools schools marched meeting shut still school district continued defend reading horizons strength phonics curriculum late september document put together among others eric moore minneapoliss director research evaluation district argued reading horizons approach phonics adaptable multisensory useful way teachers learn teach phonics document also admits however limited research reading horizons 160a subtle important admission mpss part report published district adamantly insisting research shows program successful improving student outcomes across country including outcomes diverse districts like twin cities blogger mary turck took argument apart september post news day blog titled reading horizons proves reading horizons works bridge brooklyn sell sustained local resistance reading horizons along national media attention continued eat away districts ability defend contract company although corps minneapolis literacy specialists continued stand phonics program partially district provided access one recent memory pressure continued build finally october 13 board meeting close 100 protesters gathered fill meeting room bevy bright blue ribbons waved unison whenever reading horizons mentionedthe idea retired minneapolis school teacher teferi fufa fufa emigrated united states ethopia early 1970s said bought blue fabric cut strips way protesters show unity160 fufa taught district 23 years decision get involved protesting reading horizons difficult one saw pictures lazy lucy reminded old depictions african americans thought fufa spoke october 13 meeting disputed districts insistence reading horizons curriculum alone would help boost student achievement curriculum silver bullet fufa said put rotten stuff front children engagement school160 instead relying outside consultants corporations fufa said later interview district start valuing ideas efforts everyoneteachers studentsis putting also joining fufa podium night minneapolis parent roxxanne obrien gave blistering speech need move away teaching kids submit white middleclass male culture instead implored district prioritize progressive values arent teaching communitys children sustainable dependent corporations obrien asked wondering lessons environmental food justice among others time instead resisting protesters efforts board seemed resigned fact reading horizons issue going go away board member nelson inz newly elected 2014 wrote resolution calling minneapolis schools cancel reading horizons contract grounds violated slew districts policies around equity diversity proper procedure regarding funds spent inz teaches social studies montessori high school st paul said wrote resolution spends lot time combating colonial myths classroom see damage culture 16 year olds believe columbus discovered america moment calm board meeting sense inevitable seemed hang air resolution passed 72 vote details regarding whether reading horizons return 12 million cashstrapped district sent yet decided teacher shana dickson getting board cancel contract one small step forward part bigger fight justice community engagement within district says still waiting someone district held responsible decision like youve read subscribe times magazine make taxdeductible donation fund reporting sarah lahm minneapolisbased writer former english instructor 2015 progressive magazine education fellow blogs education brightlightsmallcitycom | 1,117 |
<p>A pervading sense of awe seems to be engulfing Arab societies everywhere. What is underway in the Arab world is greater than simply revolution in a political or economic sense– it is, in fact, shifting the very self-definition of what it means to be Arab, both individually and collectively.</p>
<p>Hollywood has long caricatured and humiliated Arabs. American foreign policy in the Middle East has been aided by simplistic, degrading and at times racist depictions of Arabs in the mass media. A whole generation of pseudo-intellectuals have built their careers on the notion that they have a key understanding of Arabs and the seemingly predictable pattern of their behavior.</p>
<p>Now we see Libya – a society that had nothing by way of a civil society and which was under a protracted stage of siege – literally making history. The collective strength displayed by Libyan society is awe-inspiring to say the least. Equally praiseworthy is the way in which Libyans have responded to growing dangers and challenges. But most important is the spontaneous nature of their actions. Diplomatic efforts, political organization, structured revolutionary efforts and media outreach simply followed the path and demands of the people. Libyans led the fight, and everyone else either obliged or played the role of spectator.</p>
<p>There is something new and fascinating underway here – a phenomena of popular action that renders any historical comparisons inadequate. Western stereotypes have long served an important (and often violent) purpose: reducing the Arab, while propping up Israeli, British and American invasions in the name of ‘democracy’, ‘freedom’ and ‘liberation’. Those who held the ‘torch of civilization’ and allegedly commanded uncontested moral superiority gave themselves unhindered access to the lands of the Arabs, their resources, their history, and, most of all, their very dignity.</p>
<p>Yet those who chartered the prejudiced discourses, defining the Arabs to suit their colonial objectives – from Napoleon Bonaparte to George W. Bush – only showed themselves to be bad students of history. They tailored historical narratives to meet their own designs, always casting themselves as the liberators and saviors of all good things, civilization and democracy notwithstanding. In actual fact, they practiced the very opposite of what they preached, wreaking havoc, delaying reforms, co-opting democracy, and consistently leaving behind a trail of blood and destruction.</p>
<p>In the 1920s, Britain sliced up, then recomposed Iraq territorially and demographically to suit specific political and economic agenda. Oil wells were drilled in Kirkuk and Baghdad, then Mosul and Basra. Iraq’s cultural uniqueness was merely an opportunity to divide and conquer. Britain played out the ethno-religious-tribal mix to the point of mastery. But Arabs in Iraq rebelled repeatedly and Britain reacted the way it would to an army in a battle field. The Iraqi blood ran deep until the revolution of 1958, when the people obtained freedom from puppet kings and British colonizers. In 2003, British battalions returned carrying even deadlier arms and more dehumanizing discourses, imposing themselves as the new rulers of Iraq, with the US leading the way.</p>
<p>Palestinians – as Arabs from other societies – were not far behind in terms of their ability to mobilize around a decided and highly progressive political platform. Indeed, Palestine experienced its first open rebellion against the Zionist colonial drive in the country, and the complacent British role in espousing it and laboring to ensure its success decades ago (well before Facebook and Twitter made it to the revolutionary Arab scene). In April 1936, all five Palestinian political parties joined under the umbrella of the Arab Higher Committee (AHC), led by Haj Amin al-Husseini. One of the AHC’s first decisions was to assemble National Committees throughout Palestine. In May, al-Husseini summoned the first conference of the National Committees in Jerusalem, which collectively declared a general strike on May 8, 1936. The first joint Palestinian action to protest the Zionist-British designs in Palestine was non-violent. Employing means of civil disobedience, the 1936 uprising aimed to send a stern message to the British government that Palestinians were nationally unified and capable of acting as an assertive, self-assured society. The British administration in Palestine had thus far discounted the Palestinian demand for independence and paid little attention to their incessant complaints about the rising menace of Zionism and its colonial project.</p>
<p>Palestinian fury turned violent when the British government resorted to mass repression. It had wanted to send a message to Palestinians that her Majesty’s Government would not be intimidated by what it saw as insignificant fellahin, or peasants. The first six months of the uprising, which lasted under different manifestations and phases for three years, was characterized at the outset by a widely observed general strike which lasted from May to October 1936. Palestine was simply shut down in response to the call of the National Committees and al-Husseini. This irked the British, who saw the “non-Jewish residents of Palestine” as deplorable, troublesome peasants with untamed leadership. Within a few years, Palestinians managed to challenge the conventional wisdom of the British, whose narrow Orientalist grasp on the Arabs as lesser beings with fewer or no rights – a model to be borrowed later on by the Zionists and Israeli officials – left them unqualified to ponder any other response to a legitimate uprising than coercive measures.</p>
<p>The price of revolution is always very high. Then, thousands of Palestinians were killed. Today, Libyans are falling in intolerable numbers. But freedom is sweet and several generations of Arabs have demonstrated willingness to pay the high price it demands.</p>
<p>Arab society – whether the strikers of Palestine in 1936, the rebels of Baghdad of 1958, or the revolutionaries of Libya, Tunisia and Egypt of 2011 – remain, in a sense, unchanged, as determined as ever win freedom, equality and democracy. And their tormenters also remain unhinged, using the same language of political manipulation and brutal military tactics.</p>
<p>The studious neoconservatives at the Foreign Policy Initiative and elsewhere must be experiencing an intellectual ‘shock and awe’, even as they continue in their quest to control the wealth and destiny of Arabs. Arab societies, however, have risen with a unified call for freedom. And the call is now too strong to be muted.</p>
<p>RAMZY BAROUD is editor of <a href="http://www.PalestineChronicle.com" type="external">PalestineChronicle.com</a>. His work has been published in many newspapers and journals worldwide. His latest book is <a href="" type="internal">The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People’s Struggle</a> (Pluto Press, London). His newbook is, “ <a href="" type="internal">My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story</a>” (Pluto Press, London)</p>
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<p /> | true | 4 | pervading sense awe seems engulfing arab societies everywhere underway arab world greater simply revolution political economic sense fact shifting selfdefinition means arab individually collectively hollywood long caricatured humiliated arabs american foreign policy middle east aided simplistic degrading times racist depictions arabs mass media whole generation pseudointellectuals built careers notion key understanding arabs seemingly predictable pattern behavior see libya society nothing way civil society protracted stage siege literally making history collective strength displayed libyan society aweinspiring say least equally praiseworthy way libyans responded growing dangers challenges important spontaneous nature actions diplomatic efforts political organization structured revolutionary efforts media outreach simply followed path demands people libyans led fight everyone else either obliged played role spectator something new fascinating underway phenomena popular action renders historical comparisons inadequate western stereotypes long served important often violent purpose reducing arab propping israeli british american invasions name democracy freedom liberation held torch civilization allegedly commanded uncontested moral superiority gave unhindered access lands arabs resources history dignity yet chartered prejudiced discourses defining arabs suit colonial objectives napoleon bonaparte george w bush showed bad students history tailored historical narratives meet designs always casting liberators saviors good things civilization democracy notwithstanding actual fact practiced opposite preached wreaking havoc delaying reforms coopting democracy consistently leaving behind trail blood destruction 1920s britain sliced recomposed iraq territorially demographically suit specific political economic agenda oil wells drilled kirkuk baghdad mosul basra iraqs cultural uniqueness merely opportunity divide conquer britain played ethnoreligioustribal mix point mastery arabs iraq rebelled repeatedly britain reacted way would army battle field iraqi blood ran deep revolution 1958 people obtained freedom puppet kings british colonizers 2003 british battalions returned carrying even deadlier arms dehumanizing discourses imposing new rulers iraq us leading way palestinians arabs societies far behind terms ability mobilize around decided highly progressive political platform indeed palestine experienced first open rebellion zionist colonial drive country complacent british role espousing laboring ensure success decades ago well facebook twitter made revolutionary arab scene april 1936 five palestinian political parties joined umbrella arab higher committee ahc led haj amin alhusseini one ahcs first decisions assemble national committees throughout palestine may alhusseini summoned first conference national committees jerusalem collectively declared general strike may 8 1936 first joint palestinian action protest zionistbritish designs palestine nonviolent employing means civil disobedience 1936 uprising aimed send stern message british government palestinians nationally unified capable acting assertive selfassured society british administration palestine thus far discounted palestinian demand independence paid little attention incessant complaints rising menace zionism colonial project palestinian fury turned violent british government resorted mass repression wanted send message palestinians majestys government would intimidated saw insignificant fellahin peasants first six months uprising lasted different manifestations phases three years characterized outset widely observed general strike lasted may october 1936 palestine simply shut response call national committees alhusseini irked british saw nonjewish residents palestine deplorable troublesome peasants untamed leadership within years palestinians managed challenge conventional wisdom british whose narrow orientalist grasp arabs lesser beings fewer rights model borrowed later zionists israeli officials left unqualified ponder response legitimate uprising coercive measures price revolution always high thousands palestinians killed today libyans falling intolerable numbers freedom sweet several generations arabs demonstrated willingness pay high price demands arab society whether strikers palestine 1936 rebels baghdad 1958 revolutionaries libya tunisia egypt 2011 remain sense unchanged determined ever win freedom equality democracy tormenters also remain unhinged using language political manipulation brutal military tactics studious neoconservatives foreign policy initiative elsewhere must experiencing intellectual shock awe even continue quest control wealth destiny arabs arab societies however risen unified call freedom call strong muted ramzy baroud editor palestinechroniclecom work published many newspapers journals worldwide latest book second palestinian intifada chronicle peoples struggle pluto press london newbook father freedom fighter gazas untold story pluto press london 160 160 160 | 619 |
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