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The U.S. Role in Haiti’s Food Riots: 30 Years Ago Haiti Grew All the Rice It Needed. US. and other international financial bodies destroyed Haitian rice farmers to create a major market for the heavily subsidized rice from U.S. farmers. In order to get an IMF loan following expulsion of Baby Doc, Haiti was required to reduce tariff protections for their Haitian rice and other agricultural products and some industries to open up the country’s markets to competition from outside countries. Within less than two years, it became impossible for Haitian farmers to compete with ‘Miami rice. Still the international business community was not satisfied. (April 21, 200 
If you talk by phone with reporter who reported NSA wiretaps, you can get dragged into Federal Grand Jury: Federal prosecutors are combing through phone company records to see who had phone conversations with James Risen, the Times reporter who revealed the National Security Agency program of unauthorized wiretaps. Those people are being dragged before a federal Grand Jury, and risk imprisonment if they refuse to reveal the content of their conversation. The so-called free press is already mostly a creature of business and its government, but this is a giant step to preclude reporters from knowing information that risks the “national interest.” (April 12, 200
A Response to “Black men’s shorter life span may be attributable in part to the stresses of their position in society”: This article is very helpful, not just because we all want to live longer. The issue of an older man’s health being the result of what his younger years contributed to it, is a very valuable insight. I feel the need to speak up in behalf of young black males about the brutality of the system toward them. The occasional athlete, singer or comedian does not reflect the fate of most American blacks, especially if born poor. As young black men, they are prey for dope dealers, quick money schemes, murder, whatever…they aren’t seen as a meaningful factor in society or politics besides the “cost” of subduing them. I always notice the presence of extra cops in black frequented areas and I feel disgusted. (April 11, 200
Stuffed and Starved: World-wide food prices have increased 40% over the past year, leading to food riots in many countries. Raj Patel, author of “Stuffed and Staved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System” discusses causes: drought, free trade, WTO/IMF-imposed restructuring, diversion of food for bio-fuel, diversion of food to feed livestock for meat, and the increasing cost of oil for transport, fertilizer, and herbicides. Yet poverty produces both hunger and obesity, and farmers are killing themselves. (April 8, 200
Excerpts from Michael Parenti: Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth: In reality, old Tibet was not a Paradise Lost. It was a retrograde repressive theocracy of extreme privilege and poverty, a long way from Shangri-La. If Tibet’s future is to be positioned somewhere within China’s emerging free-market paradise, then this does not bode well for the Tibetans. China boasts a dazzling 8 percent economic growth rate and is emerging as one of the world’s greatest industrial powers. But with economic growth has come an ever deepening gulf between rich and poor. If China is the great success story of speedy free market development, and is to be the model and inspiration for Tibet’s future, then old feudal Tibet indeed may start looking a lot better than it actually was. (January 2007)
Lee siu Hin: What’s Going On In Tibet:: What happened in Tibet last week was part of a carefully planned ‘Tibetan Independence Movement’, with deep historical roots backed and financed by Western powers, most notably the United States and United Kingdom. “….Throughout the 1960s the Tibetan exile community secretly pocketed $1.7 million a year from the CIA, according to documents released by the State Department in 1998. Once this fact was publicized, the Dalai Lama’s organization itself issued a statement admitting that it had received millions of dollars from the CIA during the 1960s to send armed squads of exiles into Tibet to undermine the Maoist revolution.” (March 18, 200
New Deal Nostalgia: On the 75th anniversary of signing the New Deal, it is important to acknowledge that when the New Deal was over, as Zinn, notes, “capitalism remained intact. The rich still controlled the nation’s wealth, as well as its laws, courts, police, newspapers, churches, colleges. Enough help had been given to enough people to make Roosevelt a hero to millions, but the same system that had brought depression and crisis–the system of waste, of inequality, of concern for profit over human need–remained.” When we envisage the New Deal as our model for social change, we are accepting the permanence of capitalism and assuming it can be reformed, and we are separating the state from capitalism, rather than acknowledging that the US state is a plutocracy. I think it’s important, in the words of the 1960s French Situationists, that we “be realistic and imagine the impossible.” (April 1, 200
Obama: another mainstream Democrat. He told the Chicago Tribune in 2004: “There’s not that much difference between my position and George Bush’s position….” He voted to renew the PATRIOT Act, campaigned for Joe Lieberman in 2006, and wants to increase the size of the U.S. military. He supports Israel’s continuing torture of the Palestinians in Gaza. A Congressional Quarterly study found his Senate voting record virtually indistinguishable from Clinton’s. Well-off whites love to hear a black man say that racism has largely receded as a toxic force, though black households earn about 60% as much as whites, and where black men are incarcerated at more than six times the rate of white men. …Throughout the 1950s, left-liberals intellectuals thought that the national malaise was the fault of Eisenhower, and a Democrat would cure it. Well, they got JFK and everything still pretty much sucked, which is what gave rise to the rebellions of the 1960s (and all that excess that Obama wants to junk any remnant of). There’s great political potential in popular disillusionment with Democrats. (April 2, 200
Life Expectancy Gap Widens As Wealth Gap Widens: Between 1966 and 1980, a period of working class advancement with strikes, anti-racist rebellions, and anti-war demonstrations, gaps in life expectancy and infant mortality decreased, only to increase again in later years as corporations and the rich counter-attacked. Be sure to watch the upcoming PBS series “Unnatural Causes Is Inequality Making Us Sick?” (March 23, 200
Two Schools in Nablus, A Film: Teachers working for months without pay, a chronic overcrowding in the classrooms, and students at risk each day from imprisonment and perhaps worse - welcome to the typical education experience in a Palestinian school This series provides a rare glimpse into the daily lives of those trying to educate, and be educated, under occupation. (Dec. 10, 2007).
The Democratic Party, unless it faces a popular upsurge, will not move: The unprecedented policies of the New Deal—Social Security, unemployment insurance, job creation, minimum wage, subsidized housing—were not simply the result of FDR’s progressivism. In 1934, early in the Roosevelt Presidency, strikes broke out all over the country, including general strikes in Minneapolis and San Francisco, and hundreds of thousands on strike in the textile mills of the South. Unemployed councils defied the police to put back the furniture of evicted tenants, and creating self-help organizations with hundreds of thousands of members. Without a national crisis—economic destitution and rebellion—it is not likely the Roosevelt Administration would have instituted the bold reforms that it did. Nor will today’s Democratic party. (March, 200
Revealed: the US plan to start a Palestinian civil war: United States officials including President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice participated in a conspiracy to arm and train Contra-style Palestinian militias nominally loyal to the Fatah party to overthrow the democratically-elected Hamas government in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, an investigative article in the April 2008 issue of Vanity Fair has revealed. The plan was for “ ..forces led by Dahlan, and armed with new weapons supplied at America’s behest, to give Fatah the muscle it needed to remove the democratically-elected Hamas-led government from power.” (March 4, 200
Jewish Voice for Peace on the massacre in Gaza: It is hard to know where to begin talking about Gaza. We are awash in reports, information, photographs, even video of the onslaught on Gaza - the stepped up air and ground assault by Israeli forces onto the most crowded strip of land on earth. More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in the last few days, some half of them unarmed civilians and many of them children, including a number of babies. Calls for an end to the siege and direct negotiations with Hamas are getting stronger and stronger. (Mar. 2, 200
Private Medicare Advantage Plans are more expensive for us as well as for government: It’s been known for decades that private plans under Medicare cost the government 12% to 50% more than traditional Medicare would cost for equivalent patients. But private Medicare plans also cost many patients more, because the private plans’ caps on out-of-pocket costs, which are supposed to protect us, exclude such costs as cancer drugs, mental health services, and home health care. Using private health plans will cost Medicare an extra $54 billion over the next three years. (Feb. 28, 200
CMS proposed Medicaid/Medi-Cal changes giving states unprecedented flexibility … to offload costs onto patients in poverty: According to CMS, the rule changes are in line with the Bush administration’s “goals of aligning Medicaid more closely with private market insurance and giving states more control over their Medicaid benefits packages.” Cost sharing could increase for beneficiaries with incomes between 100% and 150% of the poverty level, and beneficiaries with incomes greater than 150% of the poverty level could be required to contribute copayments. (Feb. 26, 200
Job discrimination cases hit new opposition in Supreme Court: Many justices appear ready to retreat from the generous interpretation of retaliation coverage in a 2005 case. Justice Antonin Scalia referred to “the bad old days” when the court was broadly interpreting laws “all over the place” to permit lawsuits by workers and other individuals. “When do you think the bad old days ended?” Scalia quipped. “The bad old days ended when you got on the court, Mr. Justice Scalia,” shot back the counsel representing the black worker fired after complaining about his managers remarks. Black workers often use a Reconstruction-era law to supplement the employment-related provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which has strict time limits for the filings and restricts damages allowed. The broadly written 1866 law, enacted to ensure that former slaves and other blacks had the same right to make contracts as whites, has no such limitations. (Feb. 25, 200
US underreports Iraqi civilian deaths: British poll of Iraqi families puts civilian casualties above 1 million, in line with British medical journal Lancet’s estimate of 660,000, which was done 14 months ago, used death certificates, and which excluded Falujah. Yet US media attention constantly focuses on data purporting to show a small fraction of these casualty rates for political reasons, a trend also seen in Vietnam in Hiroshima. (Feb 24, 200
Obama: Where do you stand on Civil Liberties? Barack Obama sits on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which is presently hearing S. 1959, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. This bill is as dangerous to Civil Liberties as the Patriot Act. How will he vote? (Feb. 1, 200
Homegrown Terrorism bills are a move toward police state: HR 1955 and S 1959, The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act(s) of 2007, define homegrown terrorism as the use, planned use, or threatened use of force or violence to achieve political or social goals, which could encompass, for example, strikes, civil disobedience, or boycotts. The Acts then set up a Commission and university-based Center to investigate and hold hearings on suspected groups, and investigate the feasibility of infiltrating and disrupting suspect groups. HR 1955 passed the House almost unopposed, and S 1959 is in the Senate Homeland Security Committee, where Barack Obama sits.(Jan. 30, 200
Pioneering Blackwater Protesters Given Secret Trial: Seven activists protested Blackwater’s killing of 17 Iraqi civilians last September by re-enacting the murder scene in front of Blackwater’s gates in North Carolina, complete with fake-blood-stained clothes and cars with bullet holes. Six of the seven were tried in total secrecy: no spectators, no family members, no journalists, no defense witnesses, only prosecutors, sheriffs, government witnesses and a Blackwater official. ACLU lawyers said the secret trials were unprecedented in the state. On appeal, they were sentenced to time served for trespass, but Blackwater’s murders were barely mentioned. (Jan. 29, 200
Israel’s “Relief” Means Fuel Cuts of Up to 81% and new electricity cuts: Following a near-total ban on fuel to Gaza, international condemnation, and a continuing lawsuit by Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups, Israel announced resumption of fuel sales with an 81% cut and intention to reduce electricity on Feb. 7. Current shortages cause 10 million gallons of untreated sewage dumping per day, clean water is down 30%, and homes are unheated. More facts on Israel’s fuel cuts. (Jan. 29, 200
Recession in 2008 Will Lead to Grim Economic Realities for Millions in US: Based on historical data, the unemployment rate would continue to increase through 2010 (to 6.7 % for mild-to-moderate recession, such as early 1990s and 2000s) or through 2011 (to 8.4 % for more severe recession, such as the early 1980s,), causing 3 to 6 million to lose jobs, at least 4 million to lose health coverage, and 5 to 10 million more living in poverty. Unemployment for blacks would jump from 8% to 11-15% and for black teens it would jump from 29% to 37-41%. (Jan. 29, 2007)
No police to be indicted for killing 12 Arab citizens of Israel in 2000 demonstration: The demonstration was against racial discrimination and in solidarity with the recently-launched Palestinian Intifada. Police had used live ammunition. Lawyers for the victims’ family said “this is a black day for justice, human rights and the aspiration for equality and respect between peoples. Mazuz, with unprecedented inflexibility, legitimized the murder.” (Jan. 28, 200
Update – More on solidarity actions between Palestinians and Israelis on siege of Gaza. A Boston Globe article on Gaza by the Director of the Gaza Mental Health Program, a description of yesterday’s joint Israeli-Palestinian action from a former Bay Area justice activist now in Israel, and another first-hand description of the action.(Jan. 27, 200
Israeli Coalition Against the Siege organizes nation-wide relief convoy to Gaza border and simultaneous, cross-border demonstrations against the siege with Palestinians in Gaza and Ramallah. The Coalition states: “We’ll go to the Gaza border, in co-operation with Palestinian partners inside Gaza, to show there’s an alternative to siege and rocketfire – an alternative of ceasefire, peace and quiet, and the flourishing of Sderot and Gaza alike. Unlike what we have been made to believe, residents of Sderot and residents of Gaza are not to be seen as opponents: both are victims of a stupid and vicious policy of the Government of Israel.” (Jan. 26, 200
Worse than a Crime. It looked like the fall of the Berlin wall. It is impossible not to feel exhilaration when masses of oppressed and hungry people break down the wall that is shutting them in, their eyes radiant, embracing everybody they meet. Large areas of Gaza remained without electricity - incubators for premature babies, dialysis machines, pumps for water and sewage. Hundreds of thousands remained without heating in the severe cold, unable to cook, running out of food. It is hard to imagine a more stupid act. The launching of the Qassams could be stopped tomorrow morning. Several months ago Hamas proposed a cease-fire. It repeated the offer this week. Why doesn’t our government jump at this proposal? Simple: in order to make such a deal, we must speak with Hamas, directly or indirectly. (Jan. 16, 200
The People in Gaza Challenge Sham Peace Process. Tens of thousands of Gaza residents streamed across the Israeli-constructed iron wall which had been blown up, putting Egypt in a ticklish role. The Mubarak regime wants Hamas crushed, since it is an ally of the Muslim Brothers, Mubarak’s main opposition. But the Palestinian cause is too popular and emotional an issue in Egypt for Mubarak to appear to be assisting Israel in starving the people of Gaza. Moreover, some of the demonstrations in solidarity with Gaza also raised slogans against the drastic rise in the price of food in recent months and against Husni Mubarak himself. Ordinary people are definitely rocking the boat. (Jan. 24, 200
Charity Hospital Patients sue to restore services: The Art Deco landmark that flooded during the storm but was mucked out weeks afterward by doctors, including Moises, and military personnel and was ready to re-open several floors. But Charity’s owner, Louisiana State University had other plans. For years, they had wanted to replace Charity with a new facility more attractive to private patients, and Katrina was their chance. Like public housing and public schools, public healthcare has been blown out of the water by privatization forces, and as the police attacks on pro-housing advocates at recent hearings show, this is happeing in an atmosphere of near-fascism. (Jan. 18, 200
Book Review, The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950: In the 1920s and 1930s, Communists alone argued for complete equality between the races. Even as late as the 1940s, mainstream interracial groups like the Southern Regional Council “did not endorse desegregation. Had the N.A.A.C.P. been able to win desegregation decisions in World War II America, white Southerners would have had a more difficult time mounting massive resistance in the midst of a war against intolerance. Instead the legal confrontation took place in the 1950s, by a largely different Civil Rights movement, in the midst of an attack on Communism, particularly in labor. The earlier radicals may not have been able to take credit for that civil rights movement, but they knew in their hearts that they had helped pave the way for it. (Jan 4, 200
The Perfidy of Pakistan’s Rulers: The Bhutto assassination might force Pakistani rulers to reconsider supporting the war on terror that has been forced upon the entire Muslim world, and which will consume and destroy Pakistan. Pakistan has been a subservient but subversive US ally, enriching its corrupt rulers but a disaster to its people. (Dec. 31, 2007)
Robert Fisk:They Don’t Blame Al-Qa’ida. They Blame Musharraf: Of course we were asked to concentrate once more on those ” extremists” and “terrorists”, not on the questioning which many Pakistanis were feeling in the aftermath of Benazir’s assassination. (Dec. 29, 2007)
No holiday in Gaza: Instead of invading, Israel is stepping up its military incursions and air strikes. The reason given for this is the ongoing mortar and missile fire, but since the incursions do not stop the rockets, this must not be the real reason. 80% of the population is dependent on international food aid, medical services are all but non-existent, but people needing emergency care elsewhere cannot cross checkpoints, water pumps for half the population are broken, and imports are at 1/6 their previous levels. This is not increasing Israel’s security. (Dec. 2007)
California Blue Shield Admits it: Private Insurance Cannot Work: Blue Shield, who was cited in over half of last year’s complaints to the State over denied claims, responded that insurance companies must have the right to retroactive cancellations. They say the administrative cost of fully investigating applicants’ health records, in order to deny coverage to potentially sick or injured applicants, would make the insurance unaffordable. (Dec. 26, 2007)
FBI Chief Planned Mass Jailing: In 1950, the FBI planed to suspend habeas corpus and put “all individuals potentially dangerous to national security”, some 12,000 Americans whose names the FBI had been compiling for years, into permanent detention in military prisons to protect the country against treason, espionage, and sabotage. The Attorney General had given the FBI permission to compile its list in 1948. Habeas corpus, which allows individuals to challenge illegal detention, can be constitutionally suspended “when in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it.” After 9/11, a Bush order allowed holding suspects indefinitely without a hearing, lawyer, or formal charges. In September 2006, Congress passed the Military Commissions denying habeas corpus for “unlawful enemy combatants.” A Supreme Court de-cision is expected next summer. (Dec. 23,2007)
SF Supervisors: Don’t make Sleeping While Homeless a crime in 2008!: The Full Board will be voting on whether to amend the camping and sleeping code to make it easier to cite homeless people for sleeping, punishing people for being too poor to pay rent. The City tells us they’re offering housing and services to homeless people. Let them prove it before citing people! (Dec. 20, 2007)
U.S. Soldiers Stage Mutiny, Refuse Orders in Iraq Fearing They Would Commit Massacre in Revenge for IED Attack: . The 2nd Platoon had lost many men since deploying to Iraq eleven months before. After an IED attack killed five more members of Charlie 1-26, members of 2nd Platoon gathered for a meeting and determined they could no longer function professionally. Several platoon members were afraid their anger could set loose a massacre. They decided to stage a revolt against their commanders that they viewed as a life-or-death act of defiance. (Dec. 21, 2007)
Iraq’s Civil Resistance: There is an active civil resistance in Iraq that opposes the occupation, the torture regime it protects and the Islamist and Baathist insurgencies alike, and is leading labor struggles, opposing privatization and oil expropriation, supporting women’s rights, and demanding a secular government. But there is still little awareness in the United States of Iraq’s civil resistance–even on the antiwar left. (Dec. 6, 2007)
Barenboim criticizes Israel after musician blocked from Gaza: His group of about 20 musicians from England, the United States, France and Palestine had been authorized by Israeli authorities to travel to Gaza for a baroque music festival, but the Palestinian was stopped and informed he needed individual permission to enter. The group was held for seven hours at the border, then cancelled its concert in solidarity.
Union Leaders Pose No Defense Against ‘Outsourcing’ Despite Exodus of More Millions of U.S. Jobs: Leaders and their publications hardly mention outsourcing, much less offer a strategy to reduce if not eliminate it, yet it is causing workers around the world to compete with each other in “a race to the bottom.” (Dec. 16, 2007)
Naomi Klein: The Housing Battle, Shock Doctrine in Action in New Orleans: Readers of The Shock Doctrine know that one of the most shameless examples of disaster capitalism has been the attempt to exploit the disastrous flooding of New Orleans to close down that city’s public housing projects, some of the only affordable units in the city. Most of the buildings sustained minimal flood damage, but they happen to occupy valuable land that make for perfect condo developments and hotels. (Dec. 21, 2007)
New Orleans Police Attack Protesters Against Housing Demolitions With Mace, Tazers, to Keep Them Out of City Hall: Business and government decide to destroy 4,500 units of livable, affordable, public housing in a city that has a desperate need for places to live. Police attacks show that violence is the ultimate force behind free-market democracy. (Dec. 20, 2007)
Privatising Zionism: For less than four dollars an hour, the Jewish teenagers removed furniture, clothes, kitchenware and toys from the homes and loaded them on to trucks, and the Bedouin homes were then bulldozed to allow construction of two new Jewish villages. Increasingly, Israel is outsourcing its ‘Judaisation’ project to private firms. Land from which the Bedouins are expelled is sold at rock bottom prices to big real estate developers, who both plan and build settlements, bringing big profits. Checkpoints are also manned by private security firms. These private firms will be even less accountable for abuses than the government. (Dec. 14, 2007)
UN observer finds Israeli laws and practices incompatible with human rights: He presented his report on December 12 to the UN Human Rights Council following his July 2007 visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. He found serious incompatibilities between Israel’s counter- terrorism laws and practices and Israel’s international human rights obligations, including conflating resistance to military occupation with terrorism, illegal military orders, torture, rights to a trial, the wall, and illegal settlements. (Dec. 12, 2007)
See Gaza and weep: Gaza is just 365 sq km - 45 km long, up to12 km wide and entirely sealed from the outside world by an Israeli fence guarded by watchtowers, snipers and tanks. Israel controls Gaza’s airspace, coastal waters and airwaves. A vast prison with air-strikes, beach shelling, troops, tanks, armoured bulldozers, uncaring of civilian casualties. Stuart Littlewood went to Gaza on an unusual mission, bringing moral support to the Christian community and to its Muslim citizens, all suffering horribly under Israel’s collective punishment and cruel siege . (Dec. 10, 2007)
End the Siege on Gaza: All but 12 basic commodities have been blocked entry to the Gaza Strip, causing shortages in water, fuel, medications, essential equipment, raw materials and thousands of other essential commodities. In November alone, 13 patients died after Israeli authorities denied them access to medical care that is unavailable in Gaza. In November 2007, a group of Palestinian non-partisan human rights organizations and civil society leaders launched a call for a joint Palestinian-International-Israeli campaign to end the siege on Gaza. (Dec 11, 2007)
The Lou Dobbs Primary? Immigration more an issue for media than voters: Immigration more an issue for media than voters: Media coverage of the 2008 presidential election identifies immigration as a key issue for the US electorate–even though, according to most polling, it does not rank as a top priority for voters, often trailing the war by half. (Dec. 7, 2007)
What Sicko doesn’t tell you: Michael Moore’s film hails the British National Health Service and condemns US healthcare. But it portrays Britain’s and Europe’s universal healthcare as a triumph of democracy or a win-win agreement between government and citizens, leaving us unprepared for the attacks capital is making on socialized medical care in Britain. (Sept. 24, 2007)
Israeli civil rights group says Israel has reached new heights of racism: There is a 26% rise in racist incidents, 55% of Israeli Jews support emigration of Arab citizens, 78% oppose inclusion of Arab parties of Arab citizens from government, and 78% consider Arabs unclean. The group considered these attitudes the natural consequence of a racist campaign lead by political and military leaders. (Dec. 9, 2007)
A Party for Jews Only: Israel’s 60th birthday will be celebrated solely by Jewish citizens, despite tempting enticements blandished upon its Arab citizens, as though 6 decades of discrimination, being regarded as a threat, and having its leaders attacked means nothing. Lack of Arab citizen participation is a political blow. (Dec. 9, 2007)
Howard Zinn’s “People’s History .. “ to come to TV: Will be 4-hour minseries entitled “The People Speak” is intended to draw both from the book and music and voices relating to issues of women, war, class, and race. It has not been sold to a network. (Dec. 11, 2007)
New Orleans public housing supporters demonstrate in City Council against demolitions: Residents are desperate for affordable housing and rents have doubled, but the city is about to demolish over 4,000 units of livable undamaged public housing. Residents demonstrated at a City Council meeting. (Dec. 7, 2007)
Proposed SF ballot measure would give Lennar even more control of city: Feinstein, Willie Brown, Maxwell, and Newsom support ballot measure allowing Lennar to build thousands of more houses, create parks, and possibly build a new 49ers stadium. Besides exposing South East SF residents to asbestos dust, Lennar has done many other misdeeds in SF, including breaking an agreement to build rental housing in the Shipyard Parcel A. The City says it has the tools to force Lennar’s compliance, but using them would be premature. Lennar is also in financial trouble. Why should Lennar be trusted even more? (Nov. 28, 2007)
Chicago to pay $20 million to 4 men its police tortured into confessions and sent to death row. For years, Chicago police had used beatings, electrocution, Russian-roulette, and suffocation to force confessions from black prisoners and send them to death row. The police commander in charge is retired on his pension living in Florida. Meanwhile, police abuse continues. (Dec. 8, 2007)
The Mandate Muddle? No, the Krugman Muddle: Krugman supports the version of health restructuring proposed by Schwarzenegger, Mitt Romney, and all the Democratic candidates: everyone is forced to buy private health insurance, with virtually no assurances of affordability, quality of coverage, business sharing the burden, limits on insurers’ profits, or cost containment. Compare his praise of “individual mandate” restructuring with an on-the-ground assessment of the Massachusetts plan. (Dec. 7, 2007)
Removing homeless from sight doesn’t make them go away: As the federal and state governments abandoned all pretense of responsibility for the health and housing needs of people who may be poor and/or disabled, local governments increasingly turned to laws and policing programs to mitigate the damage. In response, jails are overflowing and municipal courts have established “special courts” along social, as opposed to criminal, lines to deal with this influx. Drug courts, mental health courts and homeless or community courts are all, at their core, manifestations of a criminal justice system overwhelmed by a society that attempts rid itself of poor people rather than attempting to rid itself of poverty. (Dec. 7, 2007)
Visiting Hani’s House: Words and drawings describe what a person goes through and thinks about while visiting a nearby friend in Hebron, the only city in occupied Palestine besides East Jerusalem where Israeli settlers occupy the city center. (Nov. 15, 2007)
Medicare Reduces Payout on Two Cancer Drugs: New Medicare reimbursement reductions for a promising class of cancer drugs may cause with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, the fifth-most-common cancer, to lose access to this treatment, sometimes the only available therapy. Many hospitals may discontinue the treatments, just as new data show they put the disease into remission for years in many patients. Medicare officials insist new payments are fair. (Dec. 7, 2007)
Budget Makers Plan Tradeoff for War Funds: Congressional leaders are assembling a $500 billion package to try to resolve an impasse by providing President Bush with unfettered money for the Iraq war in exchange for new spending on popular domestic programs, to possibly be voted on in House Tuesday. The House would consider $30 billion for the military in Afghanistan, the Senate would then add up to $40 billion for Iraq. (Dec. 8, 2007)
Annapolis, where the Roadmap is a one-way street: The vast majority of Israeli Jews, from liberal to conservative, share a broad consensus: for both security reasons and because of Israel’s “facts on the ground”, the Arabs (Palestinians) will have to settle for a truncated mini-state on no more than 15-20 per cent of the country between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. (Nov 28, 2007)
Israeli officials reject U.S. findings on Iran: Israeli officials, who’ve been warning that Iran would soon pose a nuclear threat to the world, reacted angrily Tuesday to a new U.S. intelligence finding that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons development program in 2003 and to date hasn’t resumed trying to produce nuclear weapons. Why is Israel doing this? (Dec. 4, 2007)
Intelligence Report Reveals Bush and Cheney’s Iran Warnings as Fraudulent: assessment that Iran’s nuclear weapons program halted in 2003 utterly contradicts White House. Ray McGovern is . He is now on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS). (Dec. 4, 2007)
The San Francisco Eight, Torture in America: The SF-8 are eight former Black Panthers tortured 34 years ago into confessions of killing a police officer. Charges based on the confession were dropped at the time, but they are being tried now in San Francisco. Harold Taylor, one of the SF-8 describes how he was tortured in New Orleans under supervision of San Francisco police inspectors (Nov. 30, 2007)
Israel Says Army Ready for large-scale Invasion of Gaza: Until the army gets government approval for an invasion, it will restrict itself to airstrikes and brief incursions on the ground, killing 30 in the past 10 days. A full-scale invasion of Gaza, the most densely crowded area in the world, would cause heavy losses of Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians. (Dec. 5, 2007)
Dec 6th “Today Show” to show Mumia’s lawyer and exculpatory photos: The December 6th “Today Show,” features right-wing radio broadcaster Michael Smercornish and Maurine Faulkner, wife of the policeman Mumia is accused of killing, and their new book “Murdered by Mumia, A Life Sentence of Loss, Pain, and Injustice.” The book, say Faulkner and Smerconish is “the first … to carefully and definitively lay out the case against Abu-Jamal, and those who’ve elevated him to the status of political prisoner.” In response, Journalists for Mumia have organized a nation-wide campaign of e-mails, letters, and faxes to the “Today Show” demanding a voice to demonstrate the need for a new trial based on palpable racism in the earlier trial and new evidence demonstrating his innocence. It now appears thatMumia’s lawyer Robert R. Bryan and new exculpatory photos will be show. (Nov. 5, 2007)
Medicare Drug Plans to cover fewer medications: The number of medications covered by drug plans of the 10 health insurers with the largest enrollment will decrease next year by 26%. Also, 2.1 million Medicare recipients receiving the Low Income Subsidy whose current plans raised premiums above a government benchmark will have their plans automatically changed, meaning, in Texas, an average of a 14% drop in the number of drugs covered. Low Income Subsidy Medicare patients will also need pre-approval from their new drug plans for many more medications. The decrease will occur “mainly because of changes made by Medicare,” which no longer will reimburse plans for treatments that FDA has removed from the market, are considered less than effective, have duplicative billing codes or are no longer manufactured. (Dec. 4, 2007)
New Orleans: Bulldozers for the poor, tax credits for the rich: HUD is preparing to demolish over 4600 units of low-income public housing in New Orleans, despite a desperate need for housing, and rents that have doubled and even tripled. FEMA is preparing to kick people out of their trailers. (Dec. 3, 2007)
Cholera crisis hits Baghdad: 100 cases in past 3 weeks. Iraqi capital fears an epidemic if stricken sewerage system collapses as the rainy season arrives. As Iraq’s rainy season nears, its ageing water pipes and sewerage systems, many damaged or destroyed by more than four years of war, pose a new threat to a population. One in three Iraqi children can rely on a safe water source. (Dec. 2. 2007)
It’s time to talk about Israel’s nukes, and ours, too: Estimates are up to 200 Israeli bombs, both atomic and hydrogen. What are the terms of the agreement the US and Israel must have? Why is it OK Israel has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty? Or India? or Pakistan? Why is the US developing new nuclear weapons if it signed the treaty? (Nov. 30, 2007)
Jewish Voice for Peace, After Anapolis, Reaction and Analysis: Restarting negotiations offers a hpe of slowing down violations of international law, but the basic requirements for just and sustainable peace were missing, and the immediate humanitarian disasters unfolding as the conference was proceeding were unaddressed. (Nov. 30, 2007)
Nobel Peace Prize laureates are calling for all charges to be dropped against eight former Black Panthers: Desmond Tutu, Mailread Maguire, Betty Williams, Darryl Jordan, and William Wardlaw sign a statement calling for end to torture in the criminal justice system, drop the current charges against the SF-8, investigate continued operation of COINTELPRO, release the two SF-8 members who have served over thirty years on similar charges based on COINTELPRO activity. (Nov. 30, 2007)
Democracy Now! Former Black Panther details brutal police torture to extract confession in 1971 murder case: Eight former Black Panthers or supporters: are now charged with the murder of Sergeant John Young in 1971 and conspiracy to commit murder for a string of attacks on other officers. Similar charges were tossed out in 1975 because the confessions on which the case was based had been tortured out of the defendents by police in New Orleans. Harold Taylor describes that torture. (Nov. 30, 2007)
As Medical Costs Soar, The Insured Face Huge Tab: California Pacific Medical Center called Jim Dawson as he returned home from five months in the hospital battling an infection that almost killed him. It was about his $1.2 million bill. His infection began as dry spots on his arm. By the time it was over … (November 29, 2007)
FEMA sets date for closing katrina trailor camps: Almost 3,000 families in New Orleans and across Louisiana will have to leave their government-supplied trailers over the next few months, while New Orleans prepares to demolish undamaged public housing. “We’re with them every step of the way,” said a FEMA spokeswoman. (Nov. 29, 2007)
Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal Vexed Nixon: Recently released documents indicate the Nixon White House, upon hearing of Isreal’s nuclear weapons, was afraid Isreal might use them. Should Washington insist that Israel rein in its development of nuclear weapons? What would the United States do if Israel refused? Perhaps the solution lay in deliberate ambiguity, or simply pretending that America did not know what Israel was up to. (Nov. 29, 2007)
Huge Palestinian demonstrations against fake Annapolis peace conference suppressed by Palestinian Authority police, journalists covering protests also attacked: Protests against Annapolis conference, which refuses to discuss Israel’s occupation, Palestinians’ right of return, the expanding Israeli settlements, the wall, and Jerusalem. Palestinian Authority determined to suppress outcry, PA police kill one demonstrator in Hebron, detain 50 in Bethlehem, injure 30 and detain 200 in Ramallah. Journalists also attacked for covering demonstrations. (Nov. 27-28, 2007)
Annapolis, when the Roadmap is a one-way street: The struggle among Jews of Israel is not between perhaps a quarter of Israeli Jews on the right, who want to maintain the settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank and the not more than 10 percent on the left who seek a two-state solution with the Palestinians and are thus willing to relinquish enough to allow aPalestinian state to emerge. The vast majority of Israeli Jews share a broad consensus: for both security reasons and because of Israel’s “facts on the ground”, the Arabs (as we [Israelis] call the Palestinians) will have to settle for a truncated mini-state on no more than 15-20 per cent of the country between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. (Nov. 28, 2007)
Pelosi promises to allow House to vote on impeaching Cheny if public shows enough support. Democrats Choose General linked to Prisoner Abuse for Radio Address: Every Saturday, the President gives a national radio address, followed by the Democratic response, usually given by a House or Senate Democrat. This past Saturday, the Democrats chose retired Army Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez to give their weekly radio address. According to the ACLU, Sanchez urged his troops to “go to the outer limits” to extract information from prisoners. Previously released documents have linked Sanchez to the use of army dogs during interrogations. (Nov. 26, 2007)
Annapolis Peace Conference: Shoring up Arab States’ support for the US war on Iran and Iraq: A draft of a joint document makes no mention of Gaza, settlements, borders, the wall, Palestinian refugees, or Jerusalem, and nothing about a just and comprehensive peace, or ending Israel’s occupation, apartheid, or discrimination. Most Arab regimes would be happy to jump into bed with the US in attacking Iran, but are afraid of being overthrown, because the Arab people do not see Iran as a major enemy. So the US is essentially throwing Arab regimes a bone, an Annapolis photo op to keep their credibility while joining the US wars. (Nov. 26, 2007)
Iran, War Is Peace, Sanctions Are Diplomacy: the Bush administration’s persistent refusal to take military options “off the table,” combined with its intensified rhetoric against Iran, has made sanctions palatable to allies, as well as to some of the most dovish members of Congress and the American public — but without addressing the political disputes that keep the US and Iran on a collision course. Congress, by and large, has merely greased the skids. (Nov. 23, 2007)Anti-racist
March to Justice circles ‘Justce’ Department: Thousands from around the country came to Washington, D.C., on Nov. 16, marching to demand an end to police brutality, racial profiling and hate crimes, citing the Jena 6, the Brooklyn police murder of Khiel Coppin, and increasing noose incidents. (Nov. 21, 2007
)FBI reports hate crimes rose 8 percent in 2006: 52% were race-based, and 58% of offenders were white. Beatings and murders by police were not included in the survey. (Nov. 19, 2007)
Ensure Fairness For Mumia Abu-Jamal on NBC’s The Today Show!: On Dec. 6, NBC’s The Today Show intends to air a show about Michael Smerconish and Maureen Faulkner’s new book “Murdered By Mumia,” featuring both Smerconish and Faulkner as guests. The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Journalists for Mumia, and Educators for Mumia have initiated a media-activist campaign urging people to write The Today Show to include speakers on police and judicial bias in the prosecution. (Nov. 20, 2007)
Media pundits ignore gathering storm of housing crisis: An economic tsunami is coming at us, the bursting of the housing bubble and a spreading credit squeeze: over a million homes in foreclosure this year, another two million threatened next year. Housing prices down generally. The inventory of unsold houses reaching near-record levels. But at the media-driven Democratic debate in Las Vegas, no questions on housing or the economy. (Nov. 20, 2007)
Ward Churchill, I am Indigenist: By this, I mean that I am one who not only takes the rights of indigenous peoples as the highest priority of my political life, but who draws upon the traditions—the bodies of knowledge and corresponding codes of value—evolved over many thousands of years by native peoples the world over. . This is the basis upon which I not only advance critiques of, but conceptualize alternatives to the present social, political, economic, and philosophical status quo. (1996)
More on the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act: Not since the “Patriot Act” of 2001 has any bill so threatened constitutionally guaranteed rights. “… we’re not only studying radical Islam, we’re studying the phenomenon of people with radical beliefs who turn into people who would use violence” to advance political, religious, or social change. “Studying” means setting up a university-based center to infiltrate and disrupt social movements, a new COINTELPRO program with academic credibility, brains, and close contact with students, where dissent often originates. (Nov. 20, 2007)
Bringing the War on Terrorism Home: Congress Considers How to ‘Disrupt’ Radical Movements in the United States: The “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007” (H.R. 1955), passed the US House in a 404-6 vote on Oct. 23. Civil liberties advocates say the bill broadens “terrorism” in include First Ammendment activity and civil disobedience. It establishes a National Commission on the prevention of violent radicalization and ideologically based violence” and a university-based “Center for Excellence” to “examine and report upon the facts and causes of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism and ideologically based violence in the United States” in order to develop policy for “prevention, disruption and mitigation.” The Senate is currently considering a companion bill, S. 1959. (Nov 20, 2007)
Israeli demolotions of Bedouin homes continues in Negev Desert: One man has been volunteering for the Israeli Border Patrol for years. He built his son a home, preparing for the upcoming wedding. Evidently, his contribution to The State is of no importance , as now all the rest of the village members know. During the Ramadan the government destroyed a well used by Bedouin shepherds by spilling gasoline and used oil into it. Last spring the Israel military filled the well with gravel. (Nov. 1, 2007)
24,000 Egyptian textile workers strike, occupy factory, for the second time in a year: winning a bonus payment, higher wages for hazardous work, challenging the economic policies and political legitimacy of Husni Mubarak, and keeping alive the 2004-2007 strike wave. The rapid reduction of workers’ already-low standard of living, is making many Egyptian workers look for radical solutions for their problems. (Sept. 29, 2007)
Many Iraqis say where there is calm, it is hardly for reassuring reasons : “All the Sunnis have been evicted from mixed areas in Baghdad.” “American air raids are increasing in a way that shows a total failure on the ground.” “Those American and government forces could not face the resistance fighters, so they arrest innocent people.” Under-reporting also cited. (Nov. 9, 2007)
Attacks against British, Iraqi forces have plunged by 90 percent in southern Iraq since London withdrew its troops from the main city of Basra: In mid-December, British forces will return control of Basra province back to Iraqi officials — officially ending Britain’s combat role in Iraq. British officials expected a spike in such intra-militia violence after they pulled back from the city’s center, and were surprised to find none, because the Sadrist militia is all powerful. This suggests the reduction of violence in Iraq is not due to military success of the surge, but to suspension of attacks by the Sadrists. (Nov. 15, 2007)
Thousands of Czechs to protest US Missle Shield in Prague: “No to the Bases” plans a national demonstration on Nov. 17, 2007 in Prague. 68% of Czechs oppose the US plan to install a US base as part of a US-dominated military umbrella extending across Eastern Europe, which purports to protect against missles. Many believe this system increases the nuclear threat rather than deminishing it. (Nov 11, 2007)
November 20 SF Gray Panthers Meeting: Injustice in the City
It’s not the one-state solution, it’s the one-state reality: It’s not a question of proposing a “one-state solution,” but of recognizing the “one-state reality” that has been brought about by Israel’s integration of East Jerusalem and the West Bank into the infrastructure and legal fabric of the Jewish state since 1967. There already is “one state” and the remaining question, and real debate, is over its character. Will different laws and rights continue to be afforded to people on the basis of their ethnicity? Will it be an exclusivist, apartheid state — or a democracy where Jews are no more privileged than Palestinians? Nov 13, 2007)
The path to peace in Palestine does not go through Annapolis: Fiasco at the US-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian meeting in Annapolis is looming, so what do the Palestinians do next? Neither diplomacy nor their version of armed struggle has worked. No major Israeli party is willing to contemplate a viable concept of Palestinian independence and the US is not about to help. A new book proposes mass unarmed civil disobedience against the occupation. (Nov. 16, 2007)
Israel’s economic blockade: Gazans go hungry while their cash crops rot: Israel’s absolute economic and commercial blockade of Gaza and total closure of Gaza’s main cargo crossing has made it impossible for Mr Hmaideh’s to sell his entire crop of strawberries abroad, an example of Isreal’s collective punishment of Gazans. (Nov. 16, 2007)
Defeat the landlord-sponsored initiative to abolish Rent Control in California: Landlords and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, who promoted the infamous Prop 13, are promoting a state ballot initiative claiming to protect property from eminent domain, but actually outlawing rent control, inclusionary housing regulations, and many land use regulations and environmental protections. The so-called “California Property Owners and Farmland Protection Act” is expected to be on the June ballot. Housing advocates are trying to gather enough signatures to qualify an alternative ballot proposition protecting low-cost housing by November 20, but whether the alternative measure succeeds or not, we must spread the truth about the landlord sponsored measure. (Nov. 16)
The uninvited guest: Chinese sub pops up in middle of U.S. Navy exercise, leaving military chiefs red-faced: A state-of-the-art Chinese Song class attack submarine sailed within torpedo range of the US super-carrier USS Kitty Hawk during recent US naval excercises off the Chinese coast, an event described as “as big a shock as the Russians launching Sputnik.” But is it? And what does it mean? (Nov. 10, 2007)
A Lot of Nooses, Not Enough Talk: Historically, over 4,700 people were murdered by lynch mobs. The number of noose sightings has increased to 50 incidents in September alone, from 6-12 per year. The Southern Poverty Law Center says “It is perfectly obvious that as a society we are re-segregating, residentially and especially educationally,” “In the last six years the number of hate groups in America by our count has gone up 40%.” Bush plans to veto legislation giving federal authorities greater ability to investigate hate crimes ignored by local authorities. (Nov. 9, 2007)
Medical Care and Rehab costs for vets could cost more than the combat operations: Physicians for Social Responsibility estimates costs could exceed $650 billion. It includes blast injuries to arms and legs from improvised explosive devices; the historically high instances of traumatic brain injuries; and post-traumatic stress disorder, which the VA believes affects at least one-third of soldiers serving there. Since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, at least 60,000 US service members have been wounded or become mentally ill from their battlefield experiences. (Nov. 9, 2007)
Rude shocks in Medicare Part D for 2008: Up to $1,915 in cost increases next year for premiums and five commonly used prescriptions — the equivalent of about two month’s worth of Social Security checks. While many plans are reducing monthly premiums for next year, they actually are increasing overall annual costs for a theoretical basket of five common prescription drugs monitored in the study. At least 82 percent of plans in New York, Illinois, California, Texas and Florida increased their overall costs, and out of the total 247 plans,16 percent, increased their costs by 25 percent or more. (Nov. 9, 2007)
Jewish settler outposts expanding by stealth on eve of US-sponsored roadmap talks: Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land is against international law, and even the US 2002 roadmap supposedly bans further settlements, yet settlement expansion is proceeding on the eve of US sponsored peace conference.
LA police plan to “map” muslims in area: LA PD counterterrorism bureau chief Downing revealed the plan to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental affairs. “We want to know where the Pakistanis, Iranians and Chechens are so we can reach out to those communities … (and) law enforcement agencies everywhere faced a vicious, amorphous and unfamiliar adversary on our land.” There are an estimated 500,000 Muslims in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties. Liberal Mayor Villaraigosa says police have good intentions. Anti-racists recalled the mass arrests of hundreds of muslims trying to comply with the special registration requirements forced on muslims and south Asians in the US following 9/11. (Nov. 9, 2007)
Gaza, A moment before the lights go out: Israel’s cutoff of electricity and fuel to Gaza makes water unsafe, and frequently unavailable at all, and sewage disposal is even more threatened. Water supply is Gaza’s biggest energy consumer, and it is regularly available only every other day, with 3-4 day delays occuring. Bad water exposes residents to diarrhea, infections, and kidney damage. The results of crippled sewage disposal would be worse. (Nov. 7, 2007)
Iraq’s Little-Known Humanitarian Crisis: Since the 2003 75,000 to 1.2 million Iraqis have been killed (depending on who’s counting), and 1 million Iraqis, half children under 5 died during the 1991-2003 economic sanctions. Over 4 million are displaced and half have fled the country, the largest Mid-East forced migration since 1948. 2/3 lack safe water. The list goes on. (Nov. 1, 2007)
Study: 2,002 Died in Police Custody in 3 Years: Deaths in custody are of course barely the tip of the iceberg of police killings, since many more take place in confrontations, chases, etc. (Oct 11, 2007)
The siege of Gaza is going to lead to a violent escalation: The collective punishment of 1.5 million in Gaza reached a new level, as Israel began to choke off essential fuel. Hamas itself has mostly avoided armed action against Israel for two years, though that may be about to change. This week Ehud Barak, declared that “every passing day brings us closer to a broad operation in Gaza”, while Hamas told a rally that the movement was now ready to “strike inside the heart of Israel, the occupation entity” if Israel did not stop its killings in Gaza. (Nov. 1, 2007)
Tutu on Hope versus Optimism in the Middle East: I am not optimistic. Optimism requires clear signs, meaningful words and unambiguous actions that point to real progress. Hope persists in the face of evidence to the contrary. Indeed, because of what I experienced in South Africa, I harbor a vast, unreasoning hope for Israel and the Palestinian territories. South Africans, after all, had no reason to suppose that the evil system and the cycles of violence that were sapping the soul of our nation would ever change. (Oct. 16, 2007)
San Francisco’s Homeless Policy: Matrix Redux: Newsom has issued 46,000 citations for homelessness at a cost of $7.8 million. No amount of punishment will lift people out of poverty. I didn’t work under Matrix, and it won’t work now. (Oct. 9, 2007)
SF mayor Newsom has created a private organization to coordinate City activities on homelessness, environment, familes and youth, and digital outreach: It’s an entirely new branch of city government that is private, funded by undisclosed corporate donations, staffed by volunteers who are often city employees or his campaign donors, and unaccountable to any internal controls or outside scrutiny. It represents a new scale of privatization from the top down, rather than the bottom up. (Oct 17, 2007)
US-IRAQ: Ill-Equipped Soldiers Opt for “Search and Avoid”: morale among U.S. soldiers is so poor that many are simply parking their Humvees and pretending to be on patrol. We decided the only way we wouldn’t be blown up was to avoid driving around all the time. The number of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans seeking treatment for PTSD increased nearly 70 percent in the 12 months ending on Jun. 30. (Oct.24, 2007)Mumia: ‘I spend my days preparing for life, not for death’: The former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal has spent 25 years on death row in the United States - despite strong evidence that he is innocent. In his first British interview, he talks to Laura Smith about life in solitary, how he has remained politically active, and why the Panthers are still relevant today. (Oct. 25, 2007)
New Joint Chiefs chairman wants to exit Iraq to prepare for future wars: Adm. Mike Mullen believes Iraq and Afghanistan have so consumed the military that the Army and Marine Corps may be unprepared for a high-intensity war against a major adversary. especially along the Pacific Rim and in Africa. He plans to press Congress and the public to sustain the current high levels of military spending — even after the Iraq war — arguing for money to repair and replace worn-out weapons and to restore American ground forces. (Oct 22, 2007)
Deadly effects of racism and lack of healthcare on Latin American immigrant workers: Mexican immigrants are almost 1/3 of the population but are 44% of immigrant worker deaths on the job or from job-related injuries because of dangerous jobs, and are uninsured. Latin American immigrants’ health declines the longer they reside in the US, most likely from inadequate access to services and lack prevention and treatment. (Oct. 23, 2007)
Torture & the San Francisco 8: Both in US prisons and secret prisons abroad, captured individuals are severely tortured, or subjected to “enhanced interrogation techniques.” The torture of some SF8 members 36 years ago is the prime example. The murder confessions police tortured out of SF8 members were soon dismissed, but the SF8 are now on trial with the same charges and the same evidence, and the judge has denied a motion to follow suit and disallow the confessions. He has left a door open for further argument on this issue. The next hearing is Monday morning, Dec. 3, at 9:30 AM and a courtroom full of supporters are important. (Oct 22, 2007)
Jewish Voice for Peace Report from Nablus: Jewish Voice for Peace’s Health and Human Rights Project delegation to Israel/Palestine landed in the West Bank on Saturday.The team of 13 is posting both photos and stories on their blog daily. This report: Two days ago in Naublus, Israeli soldiers repeatedly shot at and then evacuated a house, consisting of five one-family apartments, and an apartment inhabited by a seventy-year-old man – the man was shot in the heart that night when he opened his front door to the Israeli soldiers; he was unarmed, and he died. Today, our delegation visited the rebuilding site … (Oct. 21, 2007)
Candles for Gaza: Candles are a basic necessity in Gaza after an EU cutoff of generator fuel and Israeli airstrikes, but many can no longer afford them. Najwa Sheikh Ahmed and her husband began a campaign to help, asking friends and colleagues “on the outside” to bring candles, which they distribute in the camp. Fida Qishta began a programme to help over 400 of the traumatised children of the area; the dollar per month fee was more than many could afford. To get anything big running, we need help from the outside. (Oct. 15, 2007)
Letter from Iraqi refugee in Syria: There are at least 1.5 million Iraqis in Syria; some areas are almost totally Iraqi. There are difficult visa problems. We had a brilliant idea, we decided to go to one of the border crossings, cross into Iraq, and come back into Syria- everyone was doing it. It would buy us some time- at least 2 months. We chose a hot day … (Oct. 22, 2007)
Hollywood’s penchant for ugly stereotypes: Jack Shaheen’s book “Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People,” which chronicles a century of films that denigrate Arabs, took twenty years to get published in 2001. Over 900 films project Arabs as villains, over 20 have Arabs trying to rape or abduct western heroines, about 10 portray Arabs enslaving Africans, 11 show killing “evil Arabs.” He was led to investigating this by experiencing the Israel air war in 1974, and wondering how the devastation of Arabs was politically possible. He has given over 1,000 lectures since then. (July 19, 2001)
The FBI’s War on Black Liberation COINTELPRO and the Panthers: Few groups in US history experienced murder, beatings, lies and frame-ups more than the Black Panther Party. These frame-ups continue today in the cases of Mumia abu Jamal and the San Francisco 8. . In both, the prosecution is based on either flimsy or false evidence, and the politics of the defendants has been used to try to prejudice the case. (Oct. 20. 2007)
Mukasey a good fit for Justice Department intent on injustice: Mukasey believes presidential power to be robust, expansive and sometimes beyond the power of Congress to control. Despite the tense questioning of Mr. Mukasey on Thursday, there was no indication yesterday that any senators intended to oppose the nomination. (Oct. 20, 2007)
Iraqis Who Fled Homes In Fear Face New Terror As Turkey Targets PKK Rebels: Refugees from across the country found peace in the Kurdish north, but are now threatened by shelling and cross-border raids. Seven villages have been hit by artillery supposedly aimed at the PKK, which has conducted raids in Turkey. Turkish attacks could destabilize only secure area in Iraq. Local authorities fear 30,000 people may be displaced if Turkish troops enter. (Oct 20, 2007)
Robert Fisk: Secret armies pose sinister new threat to Lebanon: What worries the Lebanese authorities is the sheer scale of weaponry arriving and they might be from vast stock of 190,000 rifles and pistols which the US military “lost” when they handed them out to Iraqi police without registering their numbers or destination. “Such a situation could lead to a new civil war”, one minister said. (Oct 19, 2007)
Palestinians’ Lives Invisible to Israelis: Since 2000, the Israeli army has killed more than 4,000 Palestinians, the majority unarmed civilians, and thousands more are wounded or kidnapped, yet this is not reported in Israel or the US. Israel’s 25 foot high wall hides the fact that it grabs 80% of West Bank’s water for Israeli settlements, leaving Ramallah without running water 3-4 days per week. The wall also hides poverty, unemployment, and virtual imprisonment. To the US and Israel, Palestinian lives have less value. (Oct 19, 2007)
Clinton health plan not to cover undocumented immigrants: The New York senator said she supports basic health services for undocumented immigrants, including hospitalization and treatment of acute conditions. But the magnitude of the nation’s health care challenge means her universal coverage proposal would not cover people living in the country without documents. “She said. “These are hard choices.” Apparently it was easier for her to choose to use insurance companies than to cover 12 million needing healthcare. (Oct. 19, 2007)
Zionist pressure puts Pluto Press in jeopardy: For four years, the University of Michigan’s publishing house has distributed books of Pluto Press, but this relationship is endangered by pressure from an ultra-Zionist group, StandWithUs, that wants to suppress Prof. Joel Kovel’s book “Overcoming Zionism,” which Pluto publishes. Howard Zinn, of the Committee for an Open Discussion of Zionism, has written a letter urging the University of Michigan to not sever its relationship. (Oct. 18, 2007)
Numbers tricks mask declining wages and rising inequality: Not only is the public incapable of making sense of the nation’s cooked books, but Americans have no idea what “class” they belong to. The greatest damage the rich have done to American economic discourse and to the English vocabulary is their purposeful misuse of the term “middle class.” They discovered that keeping everybody else deluded and disoriented about the real structures of wealth and income allows them to do whatever they choose. Oct. 17, 2007)
“Middle East Peace Process”: The show goes on … and on: It’s like one of those Broadway extravaganzas; with each revival the cast changes, and it manages to remain fresh to the gullible throngs willing believe it can end the conflict caused by a century of western-supported Zionist colonisation in Palestine. As I have argued elsewhere and in my book, One Country, peace through partition is an unachievable fantasy. (Oct. 16, 2007)
House Oversight Committee report says Medicare drug plans wasted $15 billion in 2007: The report examined 12 insurers covering 18 million people, and cited excessive adminisrative costs, sales expenses, and profits of $1 billion. (Oct. 15, 2007)
Why is Uncle Sam so committed to reviving nuclear power?: In the 1950s. Investors were enticed by multi-billion-dollar subsidies, rapid write-offs, special limits on liability, and federal loan guarantees. Despite all this special help, by the 1970s the industry was in financial shambles. Now, with the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects 29 applications for reactors had has hired 400 new staff. The Act provides four kinds of subsidies. Is it all about nuclear weapons? (Sept 30, 2007)
In response to James Watson, racist Nobel-Prize winner: In recent interviews and a new book, Nobel-prizewinning scientists James Watson has made racist statements to the effect that blacks are less intelligent than whites and the like. Watson is not an isolated racist nut, but is the most recent of many academic racists called out when the whole working class is under attack. Two scientific essays are presented refuting Watson on intelligence, genetic determination, and ancestry. (Oct 19, 2007)
Elderly Medicare, Medicaid patients not receiving quality care: Using quality-of-care measurements researchers found that vulnerable elderly patients on both Medicare and Medicaid received only 65 percent of the tests and other diagnostic evaluations and treatments recommended for a variety of illnesses and conditions. For example, only 42 percent of patients with diabetes were tested to gauge their blood sugar control or received an eye examination during the one-year study period. Likewise, many patients who were newly diagnosed with heart failure did not receive recommended diagnostic evaluations or medications known to be effective. (Oct 16, 2007)
A letter from the Elizabeth (NJ) Immigrant Detention Center: This letter is on behalf of all the inmates at the Elizabeth (Immigrant) Detention Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey. This “prison” or “detention center” is run by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). We have written this letter because of the mistreatment treatment from CCA Officers and the problems that this center has. (Oct 16, 2007)
HUD Demolitions Draw Noose Tighter Around New Orleans: Renting is so hard in part because there is a noose closing around the housing opportunities of New Orleans African American renters displaced by Katrina. They have been openly and directly targeted by public and private actions designed to keep them away. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) just added their weight to the attack by approving the demolition of 2966 apartments in New Orleans. (Oct 16, 2007)
urors Never Saw Earliest Crime Scene Photos at Mumia Abu-Jamal’s 1982 Trial: German linguist Michael Schiffmann has disclosed his discovery of 26 photographs of the death scene of Officer Faukner, taken by press photographer Pedro Polakoff, which suggest more evidence that basic investigative protocol was violated by police from the earliest moments of the killing. (Oct 10, 2007)
Sickening portrayal of Israeli Army brutality and its brutalizing effect on soldiers: Israeli society has become brutalized and all manner of basic human values undermined as a result of the practices necessary to maintain the occupation. This report in ha-Aretz, which was not translated and did not appear in the English, reconfirms this on the basis of research by two psychologists. (Sept. 21, 2007)
US masks Mideast Apartheid as Peace Initiative: The US plans a regional meeting on peace, but from deciphering leaks and trial baloons, it’s about giving Israel a major piece of Palestine, consolidating Israeli control of all of historical Palestine while defusing the “demographic threat” by taking a large portion of the Palestinian population off Israel’s hands. (Oct. 13, 2007)
ICE sued for druging immigrant detainees while trying to deport them: Former detainees accuse the agency of forcibly injecting them with psychotropic drugs. An ACLU attorney representing two detainees said, “It would be torture to give a powerful anti-psychotic drug to somebody who isn’t even mentally ill. … But here, it’s happening on U.S. soil to an immigrant the government is trying to deport.” (Oct. 12, 2007)
Columbia University president sheds crocodile tears over noose, but pushes racist expansion into Harlem: It is really hypocritical to see Bollinger and the local politicians crying antiracist crocodile tears as they set out to destroy Harlem. Columbia is in the final stages of getting approval to take over 17 acres of Harlem, north of 125th St. Thousands of Harlem residents have already been forced to move. There is a very integrated community movement to oppose Columbia’s expansion, and there is a small group of students also in the opposition, who have done a great job of writing and speaking, but they have not sparked a larger movement. (Oct 12, 2007)
Nooses appear across US as racists crawl out of the woodwork: As word of the Jena case began circulating, reports of similar incidents arose. Some examples: in a black Coast Guard cadet’s bag, at a Long Island, NY, police locker room; on a Maryland college campus, in the office of a white officer conducting race-relations training, and at the office of a black professor at Columbia University. (Oct 11, 2007)
Tutu re-invited to University of St. Thomas: After over 2,700 letters of protest, the president of the University of St. Thomas acknowledged he made the wrong decision and invited Archbishop Tutu to campus. (Oct. 10, 2007)
Blackwater in Iraq, killing for profit: In Iraq, the mercenaries outnumber US troops, 180,000 to 160,000. They include former US special forces, Pinochet’s ex-kidnappers and torturers, Central and South American death squad members and South African apartheid thugs, and earn $500-$600 per day. US Mercenaries operate in at least 50 countries. As many as half the Abu Ghraib interrogators came from this sector. (Oct. 11, 2007)
Kids on private health insurance not getting needed care: Bush says he vetoed extending the State Children’s Health Insurance Program to millions of additional children because parents whose kids have private insurance might abandon it in favor of SCHIP. Let’s look at the private insurance they might abandon. (Oct. 11, 2007)
From the South African Shackdwellers: We are the Third Force: This is quite probably the most widely republished piece of journalism in post-apartheid South Africa. The term “Third Force” referred to apartheid security agents who offered covert military support to Zulu nationalists waging a war against the ANC in last years of apartheid. But the new government was formed based on market forces, leaving banks and international finance in control, and since that time poverty for many has actually increased. Those who are now fighting the ANC government’s neglect are being labeled “Third Force,” and this essay from the South African shackdwellers answers this charge.
Veterans Administration to withhold data on individual cancer patients: protecting patient privacy or coverup of war-related cancers to come?: It’s hard not to conclude that the government wants to hide data on the future course of Iraq combatants’ cancer cases. The VA isn’t objecting to disclosing the raw numbers of its cancer cases among vets, but is objecting to disclosing personal identifiers of cancer patients. While it’s understandable the VA wants to protect personal information, this personal information enables researchers to see what happens to these patients, for instance, how much care they are getting, and whether these cancers are spreading in the vets’ bodies unusually fast, both of which are big issues. (Oct 10, 2007)
Combatting Malaria in Africa: Mass distribution of free mosquito nets to everyone? Or use consultants, advertising and marketing techniques to sell them? She lost two of her six children, but since hundreds of free mosquito nets came to Maendeleo, in west-central Kenya, malaria epidemics have become rare. The WHO malaria program director says the only way is to hand out millons free. But the Bush and Clinton administrations favor “social marketing” where nets are sold and consultants are paid to produce brand names and advertising campaigns. Two years ago, USAID was spending 95% of malaria budget on consultants. (Oct. 09, 2007)
David Lazarus: Nation’s healthcare crisis gets personal: I write a lot about healthcare reform. I was diagnosed this past week with diabetes. I have about as much insurance coverage as anyone. What happens if I get fired tomorrow? I’m virtually uninsurable in the individual insurance market. Will diabetes leave my family destitute? (Oct. 7, 2007)
Scott Ritter: The Big Lie: ‘Iran Is a Threat’: Iran has never manifested itself as a serious threat to the national security of the United States, or by extension as a security threat to global security. At the height of Iran’s “exportation of the Islamic Revolution” phase, in the mid-1980’s, the Islamic Republic demonstrated a less-than-impressive ability to project its power beyond the immediate borders of Iran, and even then this projection was limited to war-torn Lebanon. (Oct. 8, 2007)
Democrats Seem Ready to Extend Wiretap Power: Two months after insisting that they would roll back broad eavesdropping powers won by the Bush administration, Democrats in Congress appear ready to make concessions that could extend some crucial powers given to the National Security Agency. (Oct. 9, 2007)
Struggle Is a School: The Rise of a Shack Dwellers’ Movement in Durban, South Africa: The promise of a decent life after the demise of the white-only South African government has turned sour. The new nation that kept the banks and financial structures in charge has made life even worse for the the working class, but resistance is forming. A prime example is the shackdweller’s movement that arose in the shantytowns. This video and article describe that movement.
As financial problems spread and state revenues decrease, Medicaid costs jump sharply: The housing market slump has dropped state tax collections growth to about 5% this year, down from 9% in 2005, while Medicaid costs have increased almost 11% in the first 6 months of 2007 alone. Earlier drops in Medicaid costs were one-time only reductions in patient services. Nowhere does the article say Medicaid costs are going up because more people are poor. (Oct 8, 2007)
Federal Medicare Audits Show Problems in Private Plans: Private Medicare plans, including the three largest, have deceptive sales tactics, improper drug and care denials and terminations, huge backlogs, and lack of phone support for patients, docs, and pharmacies. Violations included “imminent and serious threat” to 11,000 members of a Florida. Enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans for healthcare has increased sharply, to over 7.7 million, from 4.7 million in 2003. Auditors found the same types of violations in both drug-only and drug-plus-healthcare programs. (Oct. 7, 2007)
SCHIP Battle Foreshadows a Larger Health Care War: “This is only the first battle in this Congress over who will control health care in America,” Mr. Hensarling said. “Will it be parents, families and doctors? Or will it be Washington bureaucrats? That’s what this debate is all about.” Hensarling has it wrong on both accounts: Parents, families, and doctors certainly don’t control health care now. And under all the Democratic contenders’ plans, insurance companies would still hold the cards. But who would hold the cards under Single Payer? (Oct 6, 2007)
Almost 18% of US residents under age 65 are uninsured: 63% of the working uninsured are self-employed or private-sector workers with fewer than 100 employees. 33% had family incomes less than $20,000, while only 7% had family incomes of over $75,000. Erosion in employment-based coverage is not being offset by expansions in public programs. (Oct. 5, 2007)
Archbishop Tutu barred by U. of St Thomas, Minneapolis, because of criticism of Israel, head of program that invited him also demoted: Tutu was banned because of statements he made that some consider anti-Semitic. Winning the Nobel Peace Prize doesn’t protect you from charges of anti-Semitism if you criticize Israeli human rights violations. Neither, apparently, does being one of the most compelling voices for social justice in the world today, or even getting an honorary degree from and giving the commencement address at Brandeis.(Oct. 5, 2007)
In Massachusetts, where everyone must buy private health insurance, patients flock to community clinics providing services that private insurers don’t cover: Now that Massachusetts requires everyone to buy private insurance, many are turning to community health centers, the locally based, nonprofit, safety-net organizations that arose from the antipoverty movement of the 1960s, because the community health centers provide services not covered by private insurers. In fact, three of the four private insurers working with the state tend to direct subscribers to the community health centers. (Sept 28, 2007)
Blackwater: Are you scared yet? The third of the ten steps to close down democracy and produce a “facist shift” is to develop a paramilitary force, by which democracy can be drastically and quickly weakened. Blackwater’s overall plans are to do more and more of its armed and dangerous ‘security’ operations on US soil, in cases of natural disaster or ‘public emergency,’ where the President alone can decide what a ‘public emergency’ might be. Homeland Security hired these same Blackwater contractors to patrol the streets of New Orleans after Katrina. (Sept 27, 2007)
Ellsberg: Attacking Iran will complete the US conversion to a police state: “I think nothing has higher priority than averting an attack on Iran, which I think will be accompanied by a further change in our way of governing here that in effect will convert us into what I would call a police state. … And I would say after the Iranian retaliation to an American attack on Iran, you will then see an increased attack on Iran – an escalation – which will be also accompanied by a total suppression of dissent in this country, including detention camps.” (Sep. 26, 2007)
Shifting Targets, the Administration’s plan for Iran: The Administration has redefined Iraq as a battle between the US and Iran. It is redrawing attack plans away from bombing nuclear facilities and toward air strikes on Revolutionary Guard facilities, said to be the source of attacks on Americans in Iraq. It reflects US skepticism over Iran’s nuclear threat (at least 5 years away), and realization that Iran is winning in Iraq. Cheney is desperate to attack quickly, and there is a significant increase in attack planning. Bombing would be accompanied by “short, sharp incursions” by US Special Forces units into Iranian training sites. Experts say Iran has been making extensive preparation for an American bombing attack, strengthening their air-defense capabilities, and believe they will hit targets in Europe and in Latin America, though there is a lack of good information. Zbigniew Brzezinski said “We will be stuck in a regional war for twenty years.” (Oct 8, 2007)
Harvard prof says SF8 case proves racism lingers in US: In 1973, several former Black Panthers were arrested and tortured into confessing numerous crimes, including the police killing. Charges were eventually dropped because of coercion. 36 years later the state is pressing charges again, with no new evidence. The racial injustices that took place in the ’60s - police brutality, inadequate healthcare, inadequate schooling and an illegal and immoral war - are still going on. “We need to learn how to stand up and take action to things that are going on around us.” (Sept. 27, 2007)
Ellsberg Calls for Actions to Prevent War with Iran: He said that if a new 9/11 terrorist attack happens in the US the president would not hesitate to suspend and dismantle the Constitution and that hundreds of thousands of Middle Easterners and dissidents could end up in detention camps. He said the Senate resolution declaring Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization is an invitation for Bush to declare war on Iran, comparing it to the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. (Sept 28, 2007)
Stephen Zunes: My Meeting with Ahmadinejad: The Iranian president impressed me as sincerely devout in his religious faith, yet rather superficial in his understanding and inclined to twist his faith tradition in ways to correspond with his pre-conceived ideological positions. He was rather evasive when it came to specific questions and was not terribly coherent, relying more on platitudes than analysis, and would tend to get his facts wrong. In short, he reminded me in many respects of our president. (Sept. 29, 2007)
Revealed: Script for Bush’s Mangled Words at the UN: The President used his appearance to call for a “mission of liberation” to bring democracy and human rights to countries under dictatorship or repressive rule. The entire Cubandelegation upped and walked out midway through, later saying “Bush is responsible for the murder of over 600,000 civilians in Iraq… He is a criminal and has no moral authority or credibility to judge any other country. (Sept 26, 2007)
First youth, then hurricane evacuees were tortured by Jena prison guards: Jena used to be best known for its notorious prison which was closed after it was revealed that youth were regularly being raped, brutalized, beaten, and humiliated. Some youths slit their wrists on the razor wire. It was reopened in September 2005 to house Katrina evacueee prisoners and the abuse was repeated. All 23 detainees interviewed but one reported being hit or kicked by the prison staff, according to Human Rights Watch and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. (Sept. 19, 2007)
The justice that Jena demands: These are young Black men who have encountered Louisiana’s criminal justice system who I know because their mothers have become proud members of Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC), the organization I have worked for over the last 7 years. These stories are about young men who have experienced incredible injustice, not unlike the Jena 6, only the national spotlight has never shined on them. here are hundreds more. Thousands. (S