March 24, 2008 Volume VII, Number 12
Paul Stephens, Editor and Publisher 406.216.2711 greateco@3rivers.net
THIS BULLETIN IS NOT AN "OFFICIAL" PUBLICATION OF ANY GREEN PARTY (see
disclaimers and selected resources at end)
Much of the content of this Bulletin is now being posted at
http://greateco.blogspot.com/
and http://www.myspace.com/greateco
Table of Contents:
UPCOMING AND ONGOING EVENTS
FROM Climate Crisis Coalition
Action Alert: Meeting with members of Congress over spring break.
FROM MONTANA PEACESEEKERS http://www.MontanaPeaceSeekers.org
Guest Opinion: Delegation should stop funding Iraq War
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/03/19/opinion/guest/60-warfunding.txt
By CASEY ELDER and SHANE MUNDT
FROM MAZIN QUMSIYEH http://qumsiyeh.org http://justicewheels.org
Actions and articles on Palestinian issues
GREEN SOLUTIONS by Paul Stephens, CasCoGreens
Why I am not an academic
How to drop out of school and get a real education
Prostitution reconsidered
FROM WORLD CIVILIZATIONS WEBSITE, WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY Yin and Yang
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CHPHIL/YINYANG.HTM
FROM GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org
Kent Mesplay Considers Effects of Nader's Independent Run on Green Party
Convention By Babette Hogan, OpEdNews.com
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_babette__080321_kent_mesplay_conside.htm
A Discussion of Race Worth Having -- A Message from Cynthia McKinney
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2008/03/19/a-discussion-of-race-worth-having-by-cynthia-mckinney/
US-CANADA RELATIONS
War Dodgers
By BEN EHRENREICH
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/magazine/23wwln-essay-t.html?ref=magazine&pagewanted=print
FROM GREEN PARTY OF CANADA
Greens protest changes to Immigration Act
http://www.greenparty.ca/en/releases/03.19.2008
Green Pary celebrates bi-election results
http://www.greenparty.ca/en/releases/18.03.2008
FROM RABBLE.CA
CLINTON AND LEWINSKY - THE SEQUEL
by Rick Salutin > http://www.rabble.ca/columnists_full.shtml?x=68830
BRING IN THE POLICE
An offer of money to a member of parliament to influence his or her
actions... constitutes a criminal offence. > by Duncan Cameron
FROM DEMOCRACY NOW!
Reproductive Rights, the Role of Religion and the History of Abortion
Activism: A Roundtable Discussion Listen/Watch/Read
Teenage Peer Counselors Attending Annual Meeting of NY Family Planning
Advocates Listen/Watch/Read
NADER MORE POPULAR AMONG INDEPENDENTS AND REPUBLICANS
http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/032008_release_web.pdf
Nader on the Record - An interview with Ralph Nader about his presidential
platform on energy and the environment - By Amanda Griscom Little
http://www.grist.org/feature/2008/03/19/nader/index.html
An Election Without Meaning
By Peter Phillips, Project Censored
Top 25 Censored Stories of 2008
http://www.projectcensored.org/censored_2008/index.htm
FROM MAZIN QUMSIYEH http://www.qumsiyeh.org
On violent and nonviolent struggle: what about our personal responsibility?
http://www.qumsiyeh.org/thestruggle/
FROM ORGANIC BYTES http://www.organicconsumers.org/
The health care crisis in the U.S. is fast becoming a life or death
emergency. http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_10838.cfm
Heads Monsanto Wins, Tails We Lose; the Genetically Modified Food Gamble
By Robert Weissman
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2008/000278.html
ZNET COMMENTARIES
Duck and Cover
By Vijay Prashad
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2008-03/18prashad.cfm
A NOTE ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION
WEBSITES AND OTHER RESOURCES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE GREENS SUPPORT:
HEALTH CARE DOLLARS FOR HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS -- NOT INSURANCE COMPANIES AND
CORPORATE PROFITS http://www.pnhp.org
STOP THE WARS! BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW! WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION ARE
NOT A LOCAL GROWTH INDUSTRY!
COAL USE MUST BE MINIMIZED, NOT MAXIMIZED: GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL!
http://www.ipcc.ch/
END CORPORATE DOMINATION AND PREDATION: CORPORATIONS AREN'T PEOPLE, AND THEY
DON'T HAVE "PROPERTY" OR OTHER RIGHTS! http://reclaimdemocracy.org/
For an introduction to Green Party philosophy and programs, go to
http://www.gp.org/welcome.shtml
You can join the Montana Green Party at the NEW MONTANA GREEN PARTY
WEBSITE!! http://www.mtgreens.org
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
UPCOMING AND ONGOING EVENTS
GF Conservation Council meets at noon, Thursdays, at Penny's Gourmet
(Central Avenue between 8th and 9th Streets in Great Falls.)
====================
Kelpie Wilson: The Rising Price of Coal
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032108R.shtml
Truthout's Kelpie Wilson demystifies the "clean coal" myth and covers the realities of the "front and back ends of coal use: mining and waste disposal."
===============
FROM Climate Crisis Coalition
Friday, March 14, 2008
Action Alert: Meeting with members of Congress over spring break.
Dear CCC Supporters,
The Climate Crisis Coalition is collaborating with the
<1Sky"http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=zt2hwUUfhAZlfcA
5Tr17CZOMZ0itCrmg>1Sky
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=zt2hwUUfhAZlfcA5Tr17CZOMZ0itCrmg
Initiative in a push for Congressional climate action. We're emphasizing
three essential things that have to happen: millions of green jobs,
aggressive limits on green house gasses, and a moratorium new coal plants.
We're asking our supporters to arrange meetings with their members of
Congress, if at all possible, while they are home in their district offices
from March 14th-31st.
1Sky, with help from organizations like ours, already has over 400 committed
citizens from 46 states and 200 Congressional districts signed up to visit
their elected officials in district later this month. This encouraging
response shows that the movement for meaningful climate legislation is
gaining important momentum. (And it is about time!) We are now aiming to
have 500 visits lined up by next week. With help from concerned people like
you, we are hopeful of reaching this goal, and better!
Once you sign up, 1Sky will send you a packet of information that you can
leave with your Congresswoman or Congressman and a how-to guide to ensure a
productive meeting. Join the rising tide of Americans who are turning up the
heat on Congress, calling for bold solutions to stabilize our climate and to
green our economy! When you've set the appointment for your district visit,
please recruit friends and associates to go with you. It's time call upon
Congress to address the defining challenge of our time! Help us urge our
government to enact the following:
Green Jobs: Create 5 million new jobs with a sweeping national mobilization
for climate solutions, energy independence, and investment in a new energy
economy.
Firm Limits on Emissions: Do what science says is necessary -- reduce global
warming pollution at least 25% below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80% by 2050.
A Moratorium on New Coal Plants: Coal-fired coal plants available today are
simply not acceptable. Carbon sequestration is at best at least a decade in
the making and there are simply too many other problems associated with
coal. Our clean energy future should not
involve dependence on coal or nuclear energy.
Sign up today to visit your member of Congress in district:
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5075/t/1697/signUp.jsp?key=80
The climate crisis demands immediate action: a clean energy revolution.
We would also love to hear from you, by return email, that you agree to work
with us on this. Please answer with "will try" in the subject line. And
please feel free to contact us about any questions you
might have about the
Crisis Coalition
Many thanks,
Ezra Small and Tom Stokes
=============
$250 Million Settlement Over Asbestos Is Announced
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/031308HA.shtml
John M. Broder, The New York Times, says: "W. R. Grace & Company, a
worldwide chemical company driven into bankruptcy by hundreds of millions of
dollars in asbestos poisoning claims, has agreed to pay the federal
government $250 million for environmental cleanup around its mining
operations in Libby, Montana."
The Monstrous Monsanto Universe
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/031308EA.shtml
Le Monde's Dominique Dhombres reviews a new documentary, "Le Monde selon
Monsanto" ["The World According to Monsanto"] that first aired on French
television on Tuesday night: "The charge sheet is horrifying, inexorable and
convincing."
===============
FROM MONTANA PEACE SEEKERS
Editor, "The Missoulian:"
Your "Stories from the war" article today
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/03/19/news/local/news05.txt
reports three Montana cities asked last fall for withdrawal from occupation
of Iraq.
In fact, five did and were 100% successful by significant majorities.
In June 2007 after a six month community conversation, the Butte-Silver Bow
council of commissioners approved a resolution for withdrawal by 83%.
In August Hamilton's city council voted a resolution for withdrawal by 60%.
Missoula and Helena referenda were approved by 64% and 62% on November
ballots.
Bozeman's council resolution was approved by 60% in December.
Validity of these votes for use in policy-making was verified by statewide
polls.
In private meetings with Montana's two senators (Congressman Rehberg ignored
requests to meet), volunteers who brought the resolutions and referenda to
the five major cities requested our senators stop voting our taxes to fund
Iraq's occupation. They said no, but agreed to acknowledge publicly the
democratic processes used to give them the knowledge of what their
constituents wanted.
Yesterday on the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, in an action
ignored by Montana's corporate media, leaders of the Montana Peace Seekers
12-city network visited the Helena offices of Senators Tester and Baucus and
Congressman Rehberg, asking publicly that they honor the desires of the
majority and stop voting taxpayer dollars to the occupation. They were urged
to "change their tune," replacing U.S. gun-barrels with diplomatic
alternatives that involve other countries.
While the Bush Administration says it is exporting democracy to Iraq, the
democratically elected representatives of Montanans do not honor the
democratically achieved mandate of their constituents to stop the illegal,
immoral occupation of oil-rich Iraq. Help them out. Call Montana's U.S.
Congressmen and ask they vote to de-fund the Iraq occupation so combat
troops come home safely and soon.
Mary Kay Craig, 518 W. Granite St., Butte, MT 59701
406-723-385
Mary Kay Craig is a leader of the Butte TAPS peace and justice organization,
Taking Action for Peaceful Solutions, the local Butte affiliate of the
Montana Peace Seekers Network (MPSN),
---------------------------------------------------------
FROM BILLINGS GAZETTE
Guest Opinion: Delegation should stop funding Iraq War
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/03/19/opinion/guest/60-warfund
ing.txt
By CASEY ELDER and SHANE MUNDT
When we think of an anniversary, the first thing that comes to mind is
celebration. There is a big anniversary for our country today, but it is
nothing to celebrate. Five years ago, the United States invaded Iraq. A
majority of Americans supported the invasion, convinced of a connection
between Saddam Hussein and 9/11 and that Saddam had obtained weapons of mass
destruction. Today, a majority of Americans have long since shifted their
support toward withdrawal from Iraq.
Over these five long years, Montana's congressional delegation has voted to
hand over millions of taxpayer dollars for the war every single time
President Bush made a request. Yet, only one member of our delegation has
had the courage to fight the president for more accountability on how our
money is being spent. As soldiers who've served in Iraq, we're proud to see
Sen. Jon Tester calling for more daylight on the role of private contractors
during wartime. We urge Sen. Max Baucus and Rep. Denny Rehberg to join the
call for transparency.
Still, after five years, accountability for private contractors is not
nearly enough.
HORRORS OF WAR
Based on our personal experiences, we believe that no amount of daylight can
brighten the deep hole that the United States continues to dig in Iraq. The
president has denied the American people a proper accounting of our tax
dollars in Iraq. But the American people have seen the horrors brought on by
five years of full funding for the war. On this fifth anniversary, it's
important to examine some Department of Defense numbers that are easily
accessible:
~ 3,983 U.S. soldiers have been killed and at least 29,320 have been wounded
in Iraq. On average, last month, one American soldier and 23 Iraqis
(civilian and security personnel) were murdered each day in Iraq. In total,
674 Iraqis were murdered in February. This last number increased by more
than 100 when compared to the three previous months, yet military analysts
claim "the surge" is working.
~ 145 soldiers have died from self-inflicted wounds since the war began.
This means that on average, one soldier commits suicide in Iraq every 12
days.
~ According to the National Priorities Project, over $800 million tax
dollars have been channeled from Montana to Iraq. That's enough money to
provide health care to almost 200,000 children. Instead, that money has
funded five years of war that has killed 22 Montanans.
These numbers only begin to illustrate the tragedy of the Iraq War, because
hidden behind these numbers are actual names. Here listed are the names of
our fellow Montana soldiers who've lost their lives to this war:
Nicholas Bloem, Belgrade; Charles Komppa, Absarokee; Edward Saltz, Bigfork;
Travis Arndt, Bozeman; Travis Atkins, Bozeman; Jeremy Monroe, Chinook; Aaron
Holleyman, Glasgow; Matthew Zeimer, Glendive; Michael Frank, Great Falls;
Michael MacKinnon, Helena; Scott Dykman, Helena; Shane Becker, Helena;
Donald Young, Helena; Daren Smith, Helena; Yance T. Gray, Ismay; Robbie
McNary, Lewistown; Andrew Bedard, Missoula; Kyle Bohrnsen, Philipsburg; Owen
Witt, Sand Springs; Dean Pratt, Stevensville; Raleigh Smith, Troy; and
Philip Baucus, Wolf Creek.
CITIES TAKE A STAND
Many Montanans are working hard to make sure that this list does not grow.
Last year, five Montana cities - Butte, Missoula, Helena, Hamilton and
Bozeman - joined more than 300 cities nationwide to call for the safe
withdrawal of U.S. soldiers from Iraq. The last Montana city to take this
stand was Bozeman. On Dec. 17, a majority of city council members voted for
withdrawal from Iraq. One day later, on Dec. 18, Baucus, Tester and Rehberg
each voted yet again to send hundreds of millions of dollars to Iraq.
We express our gratitude to Sen. Tester for having the courage to follow the
money. He will earn more than the gratitude of Montana soldiers when he
finally decides to stop sending money to Iraq altogether. On that day, he
will earn our respect.
After five years, it is time for Montana's congressional delegation to deny
President Bush even one more dollar for war.
- Casey Elder works in Bozeman. She was disabled by injury from an explosion
during her service in Iraq with the Montana National Guard.
- Shane Mundt works in Helena after spending more than a year in Iraq with
the Army Reserves in the 172 Medical Brigade from Salt Lake City.
=====================
Some related articles/reports:
Voices for Creative Nonviolence. IRAQ WAR FUNDING ANALYSIS:
http://vcnv.org/
Assessing House Voting Records on Iraq War Funding - Feb 15, 2008
Assessments of Voting Records of Representatives on Iraq War Funding - Feb
15, 2008
Q & A: Iraq - Afghanistan War Supplemental, Feb 13, 2008
Q & A on the $102 billion war spending request still before Congress.
Written Feb 13, 2008.
Resource: House and Senate Voting Records on War Funding
House and Senate Voting Records - tables tracking key votes on funding of
the U.S. war in Iraq.
July 2007 Senate Votes on Iraq War Amendments
http://vcnv.org/july-2007-senate-votes-on-iraq-war-amendments
Tally and text of Senate votes on four amendments regarding the Iraq war.
The Terrible Reality of Iraq. A War of Lies. By PATRICK COCKBURN. March 19,
2008. http://www.counterpunch.org/
Timid Democrats Need to Stand Up or Get Lost: End It Now! By PAUL EDWARDS
(of Progressive Democrats of Montana). Counterpunch - July 4, 2007.
http://www.counterpunch.org/edwards07042007.html and
http://queencitynews.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=
7267 (Helena's Queen City News)
De-funding the US occupation of Iraq is mentioned in a March 19 Billings
Gazette article that features anti-war activists Tammara Rosenleaf (of
Helena, currently in Texas with her husband, soldier Sean Hefflin) and Carol
Marsh of Missoula who are arguing for de-funding the occupation -- the
articles also features Montana soldiers who are lobbying DC for the
occupation:
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/03/19/news/state/18-waropininion.txt
Five years of Iraq lies:How President Bush and his advisors have spent each
year of the war peddling mendacious tales about a mission accomplished. By
Juan Cole. http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/03/19/iraq_five/
War and Occupation in Iraq" - An NGO Report (June 2007)
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/occupation/report/full.pdf
> Since the March 2003 invasion, the US-UK occupation of Iraq has utterly
failed to bring peace, prosperity and democracy, as originally advertised.
This major report assesses conditions in the country and especially the
responsibility of the US-led Coalition for violations of international law.
In twelve detailed chapters, brimming with information, the authors provide
a unique and compelling analysis of the conflict, concluding with
recommendations for action. Among the topics covered are: destruction of
cultural heritage, killing of civilians, attacks on cities and long-term
military bases. The report has been written and produced by Global Policy
Forum and co-published by thirty NGOs.
BUYING THE WAR
2007 Bill Moyers Journal): Watch the Show -- on-line.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html
/\/\/\/\/\/\
FROM RICK GOLD
Dateline, St. Patrick's Day 3/17/2008
Yesterday, on the 5th anniversary of America's occupation of Iraq, a
coalition of Lane County Peace/Social Justice Groups put on a demonstration
that brought out up to 2,000 people, to demonstrate that Enough is Enough,
bring our troops home, Now! See Eugene PeaceWorks page:
Over one thousand people crowded the University of Oregon EMU fishbowl to
hear poets, musicians & speakers, before marching through downtown Eugene to
the Federal Building to a rally that a Register-Guard reporter said were
merely hundreds (see " Hundreds attend anti-war event" ...
Unfortunately, math is not a required subject for reporters.
It was a beautiful day to be outside in Eugene as the weather cooperated
perfectly with the peace presence, helping to "Sow the Seeds of Peace."
Also, in today's Register-Guard editorial: "A question of when: Human and
financial costs of war unsustainable"
Wednesday is the fifth anniversary of President Bush's invasion of Iraq.
Rather than reviewing the 935 false statements Bush and his top aides made
about the security risk posed by Iraq in the run-up to the 2003 invasion, or
recounting the heartbreaking casualty totals, it might be more useful to
contemplate some hard questions about what lies ahead.
peace,
Rick Gold
from Eugene, OR
==============
FROM MAZIN QUMSIYEH
Two videos, four good articles, and six action items for peace (How about
doing at least two of the six actions?)
(Video) US Bulldozers driven by Israeli occupation forces versus Human
Rights advocates engaged in nonviolent resistance
(Video) Bilin Nonviolent Demonstrations and repression by Israeli occupation
forces
Good Op-Ed by former Palestinian negotiation adviser Diana Buttu at NPR's
"this I believe"
(Short but excellent) This land was theirs. By Hannah Mermelstein writing in
the Jewish Advocate
"As an American Jew, I could move to Lajun/Megiddo tomorrow, gain full
citizenship rights, and live on the land that Adnan's family has tended for
centuries. Adnan, who lives just a few minutes away, is forbidden from doing
so."
http://www.thejewishadvocate.com/this_weeks_issue/opinions2/?content_id=4644
Rachel Corrie's Case For Justice By Tom Wright & Therese Saliba
http://www.countercurrents.org/saliba210308.htm
With friends like these... By Gideon Levy writing in Israeli paper Haaretz
The amount of support being shown for Israel these days is almost
embarrassing. The parade of highly-placed foreign guests and the warm
reception received by Israeli statesmen abroad have not been seen for quite
some time. Who hasn't come to visit lately? From the German chancellor to
the leading frontrunner for the American presidency. And the
secretary-general of the United Nations is on his way. A visit to Israel has
become de rigueur for foreign pols. If you haven't been here, you're nowhere.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/967055.html
ACTION 1: Tax Day Is Coming: Offset Your Tax Dollars to Israel
ACTION 2: Donate and join the ship to the free Gaza movement
ACTION 3: Newsletters of the Palestine Conference and needed support
ACTION 4 (For Jews): NO TIME TO CELEBRATE: Jews Remember the Nakba" is a
campaign organized by anti-Zionist Jews from around the U.S. and Canada to
coordinate and make visible Jewish response to Israeli Independence Day
celebrations and Jewish participation in commemoration of the Nakba. Sign
the NO TIME TO CELEBRATE statement and pledge of action (text below). Go to
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/notimetocelebrate/ to sign! All
signatories will be sent additional information about how to get involved in
the campaign.
ACTION 5: "Palestinian refugees living in the US, EU, Canada and Latin
America are requested to use their foreign passports to fly to the Israeli
Ben-Gurion Airport from May 14-16. The plan calls for the Palestinians to
hire dozens of boats flying UN flags that will converge on Israeli ports
simultaneously."
ACTION 6: "Dying to Live"- A Peoples Struggle, Gaza Fundraiser- Friday March
28th at 6pm at Rutgers University Newark NJ, 350 MLK Jr. Blvd. in the Paul
Robeson Campus Center in the MPR. Guest Speaker is Commissioner Ramsey
Abdallah, there will be dinner, poetry, auctions, debkah performece. Tickets
are $10 student and $15 General. Info: Manal Ramadan
manalramadan2023@yahoo.com Rutgers University
Mazin Qumsiyeh
=====================
David Corn | McCain's Spiritual Guide: Destroy Islam
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031908H.shtml
David Corn writes for Mother Jones, "Senator John McCain hailed as a
spiritual adviser an Ohio megachurch pastor who has called upon Christians
to wage a 'war' against the 'false religion' of Islam with the aim of
destroying it."
"War Made Easy": Media Lap Dogs Backed Iraq Mess
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031908I.shtml
Susan Donaldson James reports for ABC News, "Sean Penn, the actor-director-turned-political-activist, narrates a new anti-war documentary that alleges U.S. presidents since Kennedy have manipulated the public to wage wars."
VIDEO | Five Years Into War, Soldiers Speak
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031908J.shtml
Today marks the fifth anniversary of the day President Bush announced from
the Oval Office the "opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted
campaign" to invade Iraq. Five years later, more than 200 of those men and
women joined last week in Silver Spring, Maryland, to speak out against that
mission and to invest their government with the responsibility to end it.
The event was called "Winter Soldier." In the coming weeks, Truthout will
bring you in-depth video and written coverage of the issues raised in
testimony at Winter Soldier. Matt Renner interviews Winter Soldier
coordinator Perry O'Brien, while Maya Schenwar writes on the event's
significance.
US Pushed Allies on Iraq, Diplomat Writes
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032308A.shtml
Colum Lynch, writing for The Washington Post, reports, "In the months
leading up to the US-led invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration
threatened trade reprisals against friendly countries who withheld their
support, spied on its allies, and pressed for the recall of UN envoys that
resisted US pressure to endorse the war, according to an upcoming book by a
top Chilean diplomat."
/\/\/\/\/\
GREEN SOLUTIONS by Paul Stephens, CasCoGreens
Why I am not an academic
I was going to say "Why I hate the Academy", but I don't, really. I've spent
enough time in universities to know that most of it is phoney, and a waste
of time and money - especially in the so-called "liberal arts." Yet, this is
the knowledge and thinking which is most needed in the leadership,
decision-making class. A good liberal arts education - history, philosophy,
literature (especially biography, criticism, plays and poetry), and the sort
of journalism featured in The New Yorker, Harper's, and The New York Review
of Books - would pretty much ruin a candidate from ever being elected. Obama
obviously had such an education, but he is one of the very few leading
candidates in recent memory to have had it. (John F. Kennedy is another good
example). Even though Bill Clinton had the opportunity to immerse himself in
the liberal arts, he obviously wasn't interested, and retained the habits
and world-view of small-town Arkansas. Hillary was obviously better-read and
educated, but I'm beginning to think that law school and a political career
renders most humanistic studies void or irrelevant.
It was once the case that this sort of education was found among Cabinet
members, ambassadors, and other top appointed officials and advisors. But
they, too, are now largely chosen from among political cadres, major donors,
fundraisers, and the like. It's said that Madeleine Albright paid $10
million (in supporting various Democratic candidates and campaigns) to be
Secretary of State. The spectre of a Dick Cheney, Colin Powell (of Mai Lai
coverup infamy) or Donald Rumsfeld holding one of these positions which has
determined our foreign and military policy for the past 8 years (or 40
years, if we go back to the Nixon Administration) is something to consider.
And there is very little difference with a Kissinger, Friedman, Condoleeza
Rice or other "leading academics" when they hold such policy-making
appointments.
What I found most objectionable in Academia was the pretentiousness, the
lack (and suppression) of any independent thinking, the gross
competitiveness and one-upmanship, the "who do you know" mentality, the
reliance on authority and "received wisdom," and the intellectual apprentice
system of graduate school, where one's advisors and thesis committee expect
total conformity and obedience to their own views. This was precisely the
reason I dropped out of graduate study in Philosophy after only two
quarters. It is an elaborate, formalized game which, even in the physical or
biological sciences, has a lot more to do with salesmanship and
grant-seeking than it does with real intellectual or scientific inquiry.
Whole fields and approaches in various disciplines are rejected out of hand,
solely because they are politically (or commercially) unpopular. Most
American universities have already been purged of socialists, critics of
American corporate imperialism, Zionism, and the like, just as the Bush
Administration has censored and suppressed the science behind global
warming, the dangers of nuclear power, etc. The very concept of "academic
freedom" has all but been eliminated in our public schools and universities.
Dissidents and critics are summarily fired for "insubordination." The issues
of freedom of thought and publication don't even need to be addressed.
=================
How to drop out of school and get a real education
I was reading Barbara Tuchman's "The March of Folly" - the chapter about how
Britain lost the American colonies - and I came upon the name of Dr. Richard
Price. I once took a course in the History of Ethics from an Oxford grad,
and he restricted it to Hobbes and some 18th century moralists, including
Price. I remembered that, and still had the textbook (a Dover reprint
collection edited by Selby-Bigge), so I looked him up. There was nothing
there about his connections with the American Independence movement, so I
Googled him, and found very little there, either. Fortunately, I have the
MacMillan Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and there was a nice article about him
there.
Price was a friend of Joseph Priestly (the discoverer of oxygen), Ben
Franklin, and Pitt (PM who supported the American cause - Pittsburg is named
for him). With these associations, Dr. Price supported both the American and
French Revolutions (Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France" was
actually a response to something Price had written earlier in defense of
it), and was offered the position of finance director by the American
Continental Congress in about 1778, while the war was still going on. He
graciously declined. Price was also important in the history of financial
calculations and actuarial studies, having developed the first "sinking
fund" for the Pitt government to retire the national debt, and also devised
sophisticated mathematical models to calculate risk for insurance purposes
(nearly all insurance then was for shipping and other commercial purposes).
So, he is quite an important figure in a number of different ways, including
ethics and morality with a religious basis (apparently he was a Doctor of
Divinity, not medicine or philosophy).
In perusing the "British Moralists" volumes, which I had underlined and
annotated extensively, I couldn't help but remember how advanced my own
reading and study habits were compared with most other undergraduates. And
the irony was, I didn't even know that until, as a graduate student, I read
other student's exams and term papers. They were pathetic! (This was for an
upper division/graduate course in Medieval Philosophy - not something I was
particularly good at.) Only one, another graduate student's (which the
professor re-read, and marked up from my grade) was even competent. And here
I was, a C+ student from a high school in Montana, competing against the top
10% of California students. (Now, UCLA only admits the top 1% or less -
nearly all have 4.0 averages or better, and higher average test scores than
I had - which were good enough to get me into Mensa at the 98th percentile).
I often tell people that if I were graduating from high school this year, I
wouldn't even apply or go to college. That would be a mistake, of course,
but I would be too poor, too socially maladjusted, and simply uninterested
in "upward mobility" to even want to go to college. Instead, I would
probably join some activist or artist's commune, travel, or even join the
military. Or, perhaps I would do what I very nearly did after graduating
from UCLA - go to Las Vegas and work in a casino or drive a cab. There are
hundreds of people from Great Falls who are doing precisely that.
In past ages, someone like me (say, Hermann Hesse) would apprentice as a
book-binder or printer. Proudhon did that, and learned Greek, Latin, and
Hebrew in the process of setting type for a religious publishing house. Many
of the greatest minds in history never went to college. Remember the Matt
Damon character in "Good Will Hunting" working as a janitor at MIT?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119217/ There are thousands or millions of such
people, and our society does little or nothing to encourage them. All they
require is good libraries and the time, plus a few mentors or partners in
their endeavors, and they can do as much or more original and creative work
than those trained at the best universities. That is a secret which the
universities (and the political establishment) would like to keep hidden.
The Internet, which once promised free access to all the knowledge and
information in the universe, is being increasingly commercialized and made
into a "pay to play" domain. And the corporate establishment rarely, if
ever, finds a place for independent scholars and creative thinkers to earn a
living and work in their chosen field. Many public art museums now require
an MFA if one's work is to be exhibited there. And the same is true of most
academic literary magazines, as well as research or professional journals.
Academia Rules, and not in any good way.
There are many opportunities to simply go to some other part of the world,
learn a language, work as a waiter (or even an English language teacher,
tutor, au pair, etc.). If you have any skills like auto mechanic, carpenter,
sailor, or other useful trade, you can get a job anywhere. Half the people
working in London, it is said, are foreigners, many working "under the
table" and without proper papers. Apparently, the British don't have the
same phobias about "illegal aliens" which American voters and politicians
have developed.
The same was true of Canada in the 1960's and 70's. You could go there,
vote, and have all sorts of other rights even without declaring yourself a
"landed immigrant" (which means you were already there, not that you had or
wanted land.) However, that is no longer the case, and if it looks at all
like you intend to stay there, the border guards won't even allow you to
come in as a tourist. Canadians have long complained about the "brain
drain" - especially in health care, where Canadian doctors and nurses can
come to the States and make 2-5 times as much money, and are welcomed here,
since the Canadian taxpayers have already paid for their education. But they
should reciprocate.
These days, I'm sure, just as many U.S. citizens would prefer to live in a
country which has the higher cultural and education standards of Canada.
I've often regretted that I didn't stay in Vancouver when I spent most of
the winter there in 1973. However, from what I've seen lately, Canada no
longer has such advantages over the States. They are just as involved in
war, corporate imperialism, and the privatization of their once excellent
public education, media, health care, and other services as we are, and
under extreme pressure from American interests to conform to our culture of
declining expectations. But I've always enjoyed being in Canada (the last
time, about 6 years ago), and I was always treated very well there. Alberta
is the most like the U.S. and Montana, so what happens there is no real
measure of what the rest of Canada is doing. --Paul Stephens
============
Prostitution reconsidered
Last Friday, ABC's 20-20 program had a two-hour special on prostitution,
hosted by Diane Sawyer (Smith, Class of '67, if memory serves me correctly).
It summarized a two-year project to document the lives and changing fortunes
of prostitutes in Pennsylvania and Reno, Nevada, and included some content
on the recent Spitzer scandal in New York.
For me, it was very hard to watch. I drove a taxi for six years, and for
most of my life here in Great Falls, I have been on the streets, in the drug
scene, illegal gambling, and otherwise associated with the "underworld." So,
nearly all of these people were familiar types to me. My own luck in
rehabilitating drug addicts, prostitutes, etc. has been virtually nil. Some
would say I never tried, but in fact I was (and am) trying all the time to
improve the quality of life, thinking, and values of every individual I come
into contact with.
The poet William Blake had a lot to say about this subject. While blaming
prostitution on the poverty and exploitation of capitalism, he also warned
against "legalization" and the state becoming a partner in vice.
Prostitution is sometimes called "the oldest profession," and seems to have
existed in some form in nearly every urban society. People are always
willing to pay for sex, and not just those who couldn't get it for free. We
used to blame puritanism and all sorts of sexual repression for the
existence of prostitution, but the "sexual revolution" changed all that.
Suddenly (or not so suddenly), sex was freely available to almost anyone who
could behave in a civilized manner and follow the simplest course of meeting
and conversing with someone of the opposite sex who had the same interests
in a casual liaison, or hopes for a more meaningful relationship.
My father used to say that World War II was the most sexually liberated
period he had ever seen. In fact, this might have been the reason why wars
were so popular - at least for awhile, and to each successive generation.
Young men going overseas into battle were given the support of the young
women they were fighting for - unreservedly, in most cases. It seems to be a
kind of instinct. Some came home with foreign wives - another archetype of
the military life. You conquer the enemy and take his wives and daughters
home as booty. Or leave children (and genetic information) behind to
strengthen and renew the bloodlines of the conquered. It's animal behavior
at its best.
Prostitution once followed a similar logic. Every military base or large
work-camp had prostitutes. They were considered essential to protect the
wives and daughters of nearby civilian populations. When Fort Peck dam was
being built in the 1930's (Margaret Bourke White photographed it, along with
the lives of the workers, in the very first issue of Life Magazine), they
called the brothel established there "the Riding Academy." They also had
another occupation, called "taxi dancers" - girls who hung out in
dancehalls, and would dance with anyone for a dime - good money since the
prevailing wage at that time was about 40 cents an hour. These girls were a
cut above the prostitutes, but some of them free-lanced on the side.
According to the 20-20 show, most prostitutes are drug addicts and basically
enslaved by a pimp or madame who takes at least half of what they earn -
even in the legal, closely-regulated brothels of Nevada (the only state with
legalized brothels - although street prostitution is still illegal there).
So, it is not "free enterprise" or a way to get ahead economically for the
vast majority of "sex workers." And we know the type well who lives off of
and exploits them.
I've been thinking a lot about yin and yang, lately, and how women's
involvement in traditionally male occupations - especially combat and
political leadership - has seemed to make "la difference" so much less
relevant. Do women really want to be like men? Did feminists want to
"compete" more effectively with men, feminize men (and their male children),
or was there some other purpose to "the sexual revolution?" How does gender
identification work out in areas like commercialized sex? I've read that
most prostitutes are lesbians, for example. That didn't seem to be the case
with the ABC interviewees, and that was a dimension which wasn't discussed.
However, from my own anecdotal and street experience, it seems likely that
most prostitutes were (1) sexually abused as children or raped in their
first sexual encounters, and (2) are highly resistant to the usual passive
(or passive-aggressive) style of "femininitity" - what is called "yin" in
Chinese philosophy. One of the interviewees said, "I'll do any kind of sex,
any way, but not on my back." There is also a widespread aversion among
prostitutes to being kissed on the mouth. They resist the idea that their
work has anything to do with love. In the legal brothels, however, they have
all sorts of stylized "acts" - one of the most popular being
"boyfriend-girlfriend," where they talk, hold hands, and fake a real
romantic attachment.
What would Confucius (Kung Fu) think of the contemporary American political
scene? No doubt, he would see it as a corrupt and confused attempt to
disrupt and destroy the natural order of things. And prostitution is a
perfect example of the violations of "the Tao of sex." The real meanings and
effects of sexuality and sexual expression are endlessly distorted and
corrupted. Sex makes a very poor commodity, indeed, and in the prostitution
model, it is much more about power, dominance, and the exploitation of
women. Wealthy, powerful men have traditionally had access to as many
"concubines", harems, and other pools of desirable younger females as they
wanted and were able to command and support. Prostitution is merely a
vestige of this ancient fantasy, so that even a poor man can have "sex on
demand" without actually having to support a wife and family.
There was much discussion about why men like Gov. Spitzer and other
celebrities would degrade themselves and destroy their exalted reputations
by consorting with prostitutes. What's the point? Some of the interviewees
in the ABC show (as well as other sources) confirm that prostitution isn't
always considered a bad thing for family stability. There are websites, now,
where I could probably find a hundred couples in Cascade County who are
willing to "swing" - that is to say, trade partners for sexual purposes,
much as one would change partners at a country dance. Is this illegal or
immoral? I don't think so.
Many women feel oppressed by being restricted to a single partner -
especially if they had a lot of boyfriends and were "popular" when younger.
The need to feel sexually attractive is apparently of fundamental importance
in feminine psychology. There may often be a "quid pro quo" in which both
partners have affairs - not to destroy their own relationship, but to
maintain and strengthen it. For women, this was traditionally taboo because
of fears that the male bloodline would be disrupted - the husband would
become a "cuckhold." If that is not a concern, then there should be no
problem with using high-end prostitutes or other sex workers, either. And
this is a great argument for the legalization and regulation of sex workers,
as well as the drugs which presently enslave them. All could be included in
a unified system of socialized medicine. Once the mythology and taboos about
sexuality are dispensed with, anything that's voluntary, healthy, and
promotes good feelings and success in other things can and should be
encouraged. --PHS
====================
Samhita Mukhopadhyay | Reporting on STDs
Samhita Mukhopadhyay for The Nation comments on the reporting by The New
York Times that focused on the prevalence of STDs in young girls: "Dismal
stats just make us all feel helpless. Looking at racist and sexist policy
and how that influences the behavior of young men and women to see where key
interventions might be possible, might be a place to start."
===============
FROM WORLD CIVILIZATIONS WEBSITE, WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CHPHIL/YINYANG.HTM
The essentials of the yin-yang school are as follows: the universe is run by
a single principle, the Tao, or Great Ultimate. This principle is divided
into two opposite principles, or two principles which oppose one another in
their actions, yin and yang. All the opposites one perceives in the universe
can be reduced to one of the opposite forces. The yin and yang accomplish
changes in the universe through the five material agents, or wu hsing ,
which both produce one another and overcome one another. All change in the
universe can be explained by the workings of yin and yang and the progress
of the five material agents as they either produce one another or overcome
one another. Yin-yang and the five agents are, I need to stress, a universal
explanatory principle. All phenomena can be understood using yin-yang and
the five agents: the movements of the stars, the workings of the body, the
nature of foods, the qualities of music, the ethical qualities of humans,
the progress of time, the operations of government, and even the nature of
historical change. All things follow this order so that all things can be
related to one another in some way: one can use the stars to determine what
kind of policy to pursue in government, for instance.
The yin and yang represent all the opposite principles one finds in the
universe. Under yang are the principles of maleness, the sun, creation,
heat, light, Heaven, dominance, and so on, and under yin are the principles
of femaleness, the moon, completion, cold, darkness, material forms,
submission, and so on. Each of these opposites produce the other: Heaven
creates the ideas of things under yang, the earth produces their material
forms under yin, and vice versa; creation occurs under the principle of
yang, the completion of the created thing occurs under yin, and vice versa,
and so on. This production of yin from yang and yang from yin occurs
cyclically and constantly, so that no one principle continually dominates
the other or determines the other. All opposites that one experiences-health
and sickness, wealth and poverty, power and submission-can be explained in
reference to the temporary dominance of one principle over the other. Since
no one principle dominates eternally, that means that all conditions are
subject to change into their opposites.
This cyclical nature of yin and yang, the opposing forces of change in the
universe, mean several things. First, that all phenomena change into their
opposites in an eternal cycle of reversal. Second, since the one principle
produces the other, all phenomena have within them the seeds of their
opposite state, that is, sickness has the seeds of health, health contains
the seeds of sickness, wealth contains the seeds of poverty, etc. Third,
even though an opposite may not be seen to be present, since one principle
produces the other, no phenomenon is completely devoid of its opposite
state. One is never really healthy since health contains the principle of
its opposite, sickness. This is called "presence in absence." -- Richard
Hooker
/\/\/\/\/\
War Dodgers
By BEN EHRENREICH
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/magazine/23wwln-essay-t.html?ref=magazine&pagewanted=print
Next month, the Canadian House of Commons is slated to debate a resolution
that would allow conscientious objectors "who have refused or left military
service related to a war not sanctioned by the United Nations" to apply for
residency in Canada. The phrasing is vague but the intent is not. The war in
question is the Iraq war, and the resolution represents the culmination of a
four-year debate about what to do with the small but steady stream of
American soldiers who have fled across our northern border to avoid fighting
in Iraq.
It all began in Jan. 2004, when a young American with a long, serious face
walked into the Toronto law office of Jeffry House to ask for help with what
was at the time a highly unusual immigration case. The American turned out
to be a soldier named Jeremy Hinzman, an infantryman in the Army's 82nd
Airborne Division. He told House that his petition for
conscientious-objector status was denied while he was stationed in
Afghanistan. He crossed the border into Canada just days before his unit was
to be deployed to Iraq. Of the more than 25,000 American soldiers who,
according to the United States Department of Defense, have deserted since
2003, the Toronto-based War Resisters Support Campaign estimates that 225
have fled to Canada. (The D.O.D defines a deserter as anyone who has been
AWOL for 30 consecutive days or who seeks asylum in a foreign country;
desertion carries a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment)....
House would eventually represent between 30 and 35 American deserters. Most
of them, like Colby, say they joined the military in part out of patriotism.
"I thought Iraq had something to do with 9/11," Colby says, "that they were
the bad guys that attacked our country." But unlike Hinzman, most did not
apply for conscientious-objector status. They tend to say they aren't
opposed to all wars in principle - just to the one they were ordered to
fight. It wasn't until Colby arrived in Iraq that he started to see the
conflict as "a war of aggression, totally unprovoked," he says. "I was,
like, 'This is what my buddies are dying for?' " Midway through his tour, he
decided: "I'm never going to do this again." He went AWOL the day before his
unit left to train for a second deployment. House says that more than
two-thirds of his clients have been deployed to Iraq at least once. "One is
resisting a third deployment."
Tens of thousands of American draft dodgers and deserters took refuge in
Canada in the late 1960s and early '70s. House was one of them. He packed up
his car and left his home in Wisconsin 38 years ago to start a new life in
Canada. The process was simple. "I came to the border and said: 'I would
like to immigrate to Canada. I'm refusing to serve in Vietnam,' " he
recalls. Border officials had him type up an application for residency on
the spot. "Four weeks later, I got my permanent-resident status." But times
have changed since Pierre Trudeau, then the prime minister, declared Canada
"a refuge from militarism." While Canada is still a relative haven for
asylum-seekers, its immigration laws have tightened sharply, and Prime
Minister Stephen Harper has been a faithful ally of the Bush administration.
(Harper has kept 2,500 Canadian troops in Afghanistan, whose deployment the
House of Commons recently extended until 2011.) As a result, the new
generation of war resisters find themselves in an uncomfortable squeeze. In
today's Canada, deserters like Hinzman really have only one legal option: to
apply for residency as refugees.
"There's a very clear Canadian precedent for the idea that no soldier has to
participate in an illegal war," House says. That precedent, interestingly
enough, is a case in which an Iraqi Army soldier was granted asylum in
Canada after fleeing to avoid taking part in the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
But House's first task was to prove that the Iraq war is illegal. His
argument relied largely on his reading of international law. The United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees lays out a slender possibility for
relief. Mere disagreement with the "political justification for a particular
military action" is not sufficient. The action must be "condemned by the
international community as contrary to basic rules of human conduct." Only
in that case can punishment for desertion or draft evasion "be regarded as
persecution...."
The Iraq war has been immensely unpopular in Canada, and the leaders of the
Bloc Quebecois and the left-leaning New Democratic Party have both come out
in support of the resolution. But Canadian M.P.'s tend to vote with far more
party discipline than their American counterparts, and Stéphane Dion, the
head of the Liberal Party, has not yet taken a public stance on the bill.
Without his support, its fate is uncertain....
Undeterred by the Supreme Court ruling, new arrivals are still showing up.
Robidoux's group has added five to its roster in just the last three weeks.
For Colby, Hinzman and others, uncertainty in Canada apparently looks better
than combat in Iraq. "Every day that I'm here," Colby says, "I'm glad I'm
not in Baghdad."
Ben Ehrenreich is the author of a novel, "The Suitors," and has written for
L.A. Weekly, Men's Vogue and The Times Book Review.
==============
Legality of Guantanamo On Trial in Canada
Michelle Shephard reports for The Star, Canada: "The Supreme Court of Canada
has agreed to hear arguments about the legality of the US military prison at
Guantanamo, where Canadian Omar Khadr is being held."
================
FROM GREEN PARTY OF CANADA
Greens protest changes to Immigration Act
http://www.greenparty.ca/en/releases/03.19.2008
NEW GLASGOW - The Green Party is denouncing the Harper government's attempt
to push through a major change to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act
by hiding it in the Budget Implementation Act.
The amendment to Subsection 11 of the Act will mean that immigrants wishing
to enter Canada can still be refused a visa or other necessary documents
despite satisfying immigration officers and meeting other requirements of
the Act.
"This amendment essentially gives the government discretionary power over
who gets in and who is left out," said Green Party leader Elizabeth May.
"The Harper government is changing an immigration system ruled by law to one
ruled by lottery. This amendment means that qualified immigrants may never
be accepted into Canada and lose the $550 application fee."
Ms. May said the government's attempt to sneak in this drastic change by
concealing it in the Budget Implementation Act is underhanded and dishonest.
"This is a major alteration of the Act. Before any action is taken the
Citizenship and Immigration Committee should hold public hearings and report
to Parliament on this issue." she said....
=============
Green Pary celebrates bi-election results
http://www.greenparty.ca/en/releases/18.03.2008
OTTAWA - The Green Party is hailing a strong showing in yesterday's
by-elections as proof the Greens are competitive with the old-line parties.
Green campaigns in Toronto Centre and Vancouver Quadra both garnered over 13
percent of the vote, with Toronto Centre candidate Chris Tindal coming in
ahead of the Conservatives and virtually tied with the NDP and for a second
place finish. The Greens also finished ahead of the NDP in Willowdale in
third place.
"These results, along with the second place finish in 2006 in the London
North Centre by-election, establish we are a serious political party," said
Green Party leader Elizabeth May. "Despite being ignored by major media, we
made remarkable gains. The television networks must reconsider their view
that the televised leaders' debates exclude the Green Party."
Ms. May noted that Chris Tindal and Vancouver Quadra candidate Dan Grice
nearly tripled the Green vote from the 2006 election and that Lou Carcasole
in Willowdale and Robin Orr in Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River increased
the vote by about 50 percent from the last election.
==================
FROM RABBLE.CA
CLINTON AND LEWINSKY - THE SEQUEL
It turns out the Clinton-Lewinsky episode wasn't the final chapter in the
epic of American puritanism. You don't drop 400 years of public sexual
moralizing easily.
> by Rick Salutin
>
BRING IN THE POLICE
Section 119 of the Criminal Code of Canada could not be more precise. An
offer of money to a member of parliament to influence his or her actions in
an official capacity constitutes a criminal offence. The section specifies a
maximum prison sentence of 14 years. > by Duncan Cameron
>
VOTES THAT CONDONE TORTURE
Later this week, our two leading political parties are expected to join
forces and commit Canada to another three years of military intervention in
support of the Afghan government - which we know practises torture. > by
Linda McQuaig
>
THE CRAZE FOR NOTORIETY
"You've been lying so long you don't know what's real," Bruce Cockburn sang.
"You're a figment of your own imagination. And people see through you."
Well, take that, Conrad Black. > by Heather Mallick
>
NAFTA'S LEGACY: THE WORST AGREEMENT WE EVER SIGNED
In the aftermath of Barack Obama's and Hillary Clinton's threats to
"renegotiate" NAFTA the usual suspects have been activated to tell the world
how wonderful the deal has been for Canada and the United States. > by
Murray Dobbin
>
HOW TO DEAL WITH BEING CALLED SELF-HATING
A Jewish activist working against Israeli apartheid asks Ms. Communicate how
to handle public accusations of being a "traitor" and "self-hater". > Ms
Communicate >
ETHICAL BUYING GAINS STEAM AT YORK U.
York University signs on to ethical purchasing as activists pressure 2010
Olympics organizers. >by Tom Sandborn >The Tyee
>
================
FROM DEMOCRACY NOW!
Reproductive Rights, the Role of Religion and the History of Abortion
Activism: A Roundtable Discussion
We host a roundtable discussion on reproductive rights with Margaret
Roberts, co-president of Planned Parenthood Mohawk Hudson; Rabbi Dennis
Ross, the director of Concerned Clergy for Choice; Rev. Donna Schaper,
Senior Minister of the Judson Memorial Church; and Rev. Tom Davis, author of
the book Sacred Work: Planned Parenthood and Its Clergy Alliances.
Listen/Watch/Read
Teenage Peer Counselors Attending Annual Meeting of NY Family Planning
Advocates
We speak with two high school students who have traveled from Buffalo to
attend the annual meeting of the Family Planning Advocates of New York
State. They are both teenage peer counselors. Samantha Vuich is a senior at
McKinley High School in Buffalo, and Shabar Rouse is a junior at City Honors
High School in Buffalo.
Listen/Watch/Read
/\/\/\/\/\
NADER MORE POPULAR AMONG INDEPENDENTS AND REPUBLICANS
http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/032008_release_web.pdf
From Fox News poll, March 20, 2008
9. Do you think you would seriously consider voting for third-party
candidate
Ralph Nader over one of the major party candidates in November? 18-19 Mar 08
Yes No (Don't know)
All Voters 14% 77 9
Democrats 10% 81 9
Republicans 14% 79 8
Independents 21% 69 10
[I'm surprised at how low the Independent's number is (perhaps most of them
think he's a "socialist," which he obviously isn't), but this more or less
conclusively refutes the idea that Nader "siphons away voters from
Democrats". More about the "spoiler" factor in the interview, below. The
GPUS is in the process of purging all Nader materials from its lists and
websites, and demanding that delegates resign if they want to work in the
Nader campaign. Another faction still wants us to "endorse" Nader and let
him use our ballot lines - which he has already said he doesn't want and
won't do. I'm publishing this Nader material in the spirit of "more voices,
more choices." It's an excellent summary of Green environmental policies. --
PHS]
=====================
Nader on the Record http://www.grist.org/feature/2008/03/19/nader/index.html
An interview with Ralph Nader about his presidential platform on energy and
the environment
By Amanda Griscom Little
19 Mar 2008
This is part of a series of interviews
candidates.
Ralph Nader.
Photo: Sage Ross
He brought you the seat belt. He launched a consumer advocacy empire. He got
2,883,105 votes in the 2000 presidential election, which critics argue
helped put George W. Bush in the White House. Ralph Nader has earned fame --
and infamy -- for many doings over his 40-plus years as a firebrand
activist. Perhaps less well-known is his contribution to environmental
protection in the U.S.
Nader, who entered the 2008 presidential race in late February, was on the
frontlines of environmental advocacy in the 1970s. He went to bat for the
first auto fuel-economy regulations and was a major voice against
nuclear-power development. He fought for the passage of cornerstone
environmental laws including the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. In the
years since, he's pressed on with green advocacy, publishing numerous
studies, essays, and editorials decrying coal and nuke power and advocating
ultra-efficient cars and a solar-powered economy.
But for all his work in these areas, Nader has done little so far to flesh
out an environmental and energy platform for his presidential campaign. The
only specifics on his campaign website
are that he supports solar energy and a "carbon pollution tax" and opposes
nuclear power. To rustle up some particulars, I called Nader on his cell
phone as he journeyed from one campaign stop to the next.
For more info on his environmental stances and record, check out Grist's
Nader fact sheet
Why should voters consider you the strongest environmental candidate?
RN: I was a big advocate of renewable energy back in the '70s -- all forms,
from wind power to photovoltaic to solar thermal to passive solar
architecture. I was a very early opponent of nuclear power. As a lobbyist, I
was instrumental in the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency,
along with legislation to control air pollution and other toxic substances.
I was also involved in the passage of the first motor-vehicle efficiency
laws back in the '70s. So my words on this issue as a candidate reflect what
I've done, rather than what I hope to do.
Going forward, what sets your environmental platform apart from the other
candidates'?
RN: I'm basically promoting a massive conversion from a hydrocarbon-based
economy to a carbohydrate-based economy. I'm not talking about corn ethanol,
which has a very poor net energy- and water-usage characteristic. I'm
talking about industrial hemp. I'm talking about plant life that can be
efficiently converted to fuel -- like sugar cane, agricultural waste,
cellulosic grasses, and certain kinds of biomass that can be grown with a
spectacular ratio of energy inputs to outputs. I'm talking about a very
fundamental remodeling of our economy -- a conversion from industrial-age,
19th-century technologies like the internal combustion engine to renewable,
sustainable technologies of efficiency and production. We should have
vehicles that get well over 100 miles per gallon. As Amory Lovins and Paul
Hawken
we can create far greater efficiencies in the use of our natural resources,
whether it's copper, iron, oil, gas, timber, you name it.
Many argue that the U.S. shouldn't commit to a global greenhouse-gas
reduction target that doesn't involve China and India. Do you agree with
this? How would you bring them to the table?
RN:You bring them to the table by restricting imports of badly emitting
greenhouse-gas technologies. Then you devise an international treaty where
you analyze very carefully which countries really need aid in this area,
which countries don't need aid, and you proceed accordingly. You have a
deliberative process under an international body with a global goal of
restricting greenhouse gases and acid rain and other things.
What do you think is the most important environmental issue we face after
climate and energy?
RN: It's all about solar, in all its manifestations -- from passive solar to
active, including photovoltaics, solar thermal, and efficient biomass [plant
life fed by sunlight]. Wind is also a form of solar energy, because the sun
creates the earth's climate, including the winds within it. Solar is the
greatest universal solvent for environmental hazards.
What do you think of Al Gore's climate activism? Has he been an effective
agent of change?
RN: At last. Where was he when he was vice president? We couldn't get him to
make a speech on solar energy. But now, like Martin Luther King Jr. said,
he's "free at last, free at last," and he's made a major contribution.
Many have called George W. Bush America's worst environmental president, and
some critics have said that if you hadn't entered the 2000 race, Gore would
have been president, and therefore Bush's irreversible environmental damage
never would have happened.
RN: Well, tell those critics to take a course in elementary statistics and
engage all variables, each one of which would have put Gore in the White
House. Gore won, but the Republicans stole his victory in Florida. The
Electoral College stole his victory nationally after he won the popular
vote. The Supreme Court stole his victory. And 250,000 Democrats in Florida
voted for Bush. We've got to stop playing the spoiler game and treating
third-party candidates as second-class citizens. If you're going to blame me
for Gore's loss -- and Gore doesn't blame me, by the way -- then you've got
to credit me for Gore's Nobel Prize
world to global climate change, for all of his successes with books, and for
his millions of dollars of appreciating Google stock.
Maybe you should get an honorary percentage. On to another topic: Who is
your environmental hero?
RN: There are several. One is David Brower . Another is Barry Commoner
Making Peace With the Planet
great books on the environment. The third one is Amory Lovins.
http://www.rmi.org
/\/\/\/\/\/\
An Election Without Meaning
By Peter Phillips, Project Censored
Will November 2008 bring a meaningful change to America? Will getting rid of
George W. Bush and Richard Cheney without impeachment or indictment really
make a difference? Will a 600 billion dollar war/defense budget be cut in
half and used for desperately needed domestic spending? Will the
ninety-three billion dollars profits in the private health insurance
companies???those parasitic intermediates between you and your doctor?be
used instead for full health care coverage for all? Will Habeas Corpus and
Posse Comitatus be restored to the people? Will torture stop? Will all
students in public universities be able to enroll for free? Will the US
national security agencies stop mass spying on our personal communications?
Will the neo-conservative agenda of total military domination of the world
be reversed?
The answer to these questions in the context of the current billion dollar
presidential campaign is an absolute no. Instead we have a campaign of
personalities and platitudes. There is a race candidate, a gender candidate
and a tortured veteran candidate, each talking about change in America,
national security, freedom, and the American way. The candidates are running
with support of political parties so deeply embedded with the military
industrial complex, the health insurance companies, Wall Street, and
corporate media that it is undeterminable where the board rooms separate
from the state rooms.
The 2008 presidential race is a media entertainment spectacle with props,
gossip, accusations, and public relations. It is impression management from
a candidates? perspective. How can we fool the most people into believing
that we stand for something? It is billions of dollars of gravy for the
media folks and continued profit maximazation for the war machine, Wall
Street, and insurance companies no matter who is determined the winner in
November.
We must face the fact that the US government's primary mission is to protect
the wealthy and insure capital expansion worldwide. The US military -
spending more than the rest of the militaries of the world combined - is the
muscle behind this protect-capital-at-all-costs agenda, and will be used
against the American people if deemed necessary to support the mission.
Homeland Security, the North American Command, mass arrest practices with
the FALCON raids, new detentions centers, and broadened "terrorism" laws to
included interference with business profits are all now in place to insure
domestic tranquility through extra judicial means if needed.
The two party corporate political system is having a HOMELAND presidential
campaign?Hillary, Obama, McCain, Election, Lacking, Actual, National,
Debate. It is time for real change, but it will only come with a social
movement of reform in the tradition of the progressive, labor, civil rights,
anti-war movements of the last century. We need to use all of our activist,
legal, and political resources to reverse these threats to freedom. Naomi
Wolf says it is not too late to prevent totalitarianism, but we have to act
fast.
Peter Phillips is a Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University and
director of Project Censored. Access to verifying facts and analysis for the
issues mentioned above is available at
==================
Top 25 Censored Stories of 2008
#1 No Habeas Corpus for "Any Person"
With the approval of Congress and no outcry from corporate media, the
Military Commissions Act (MCA) signed by Bush on October 17, 2006, ushered
in military commission law for US citizens and non-citizens alike. While
media, including a lead editorial in the New York Times October 19, have
given false comfort that we, as American citizens, will not be the victims
of the draconian measures legalized by this Act-such as military roundups
and life-long detention with no rights or constitutional protections-Robert
Parry points to text in the MCA that allows for the institution of a
military alternative to the constitutional justice system for "any person"
regardless of American citizenship. The MCA effectively does away with
habeas corpus rights for "any person" arbitrarily deemed to be an "enemy of
the state." The judgment on who is deemed an "enemy combatant" is solely at
the discretion of the President.
The oldest human right defined in the history of English-speaking
civilization is the right to challenge governmental power of arrest and
detention through the use of habeas corpus laws, considered to be the most
critical parts of the Magna Carta which was signed by King John in 1215.
.....
#2 Bush Moves Toward Martial Law
The John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007, which was quietly signed
by Bush on October 17, 2006, the very same day that he signed the Military
Commissions Act, allows the president to station military troops anywhere in
the United States and take control of state-based National Guard units
without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to
"suppress public disorder."
By revising the two-century-old Insurrection Act, the law in effect repeals
the Posse Comitatus Act, which placed strict prohibitions on military
involvement in domestic law enforcement. The 1878 Act reads, "Whoever,
except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the
Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or Air
Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined
under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both." As the
only US criminal statute that outlaws military operations directed against
the American people, it has been our best protection against tyranny
enforced by martial law-the harsh system of rules that takes effect when the
military takes control of the normal administration of justice. Historically
martial law has been imposed by various governments during times of war or
occupation to intensify control of populations in spite of heightened
unrest. In modern times it is most commonly used by authoritarian
governments to enforce unpopular rule. .......
# 3 AFRICOM: US Military Control of Africa's Resources
In February 2007 the White House announced the formation of the US African
Command (AFRICOM), a new unified Pentagon command center in Africa, to be
established by September 2008. This military penetration of Africa is being
presented as a humanitarian guard in the Global War on Terror. The real
objective is, however, the procurement and control of Africa's oil and its
global delivery systems.
A context for the pending strategic role of AFRICOM can be gained from
observing CENTCOM in the Middle East. CENTCOM grew out of the Carter
Doctrine of 1980 which described the oil flow from the Persian Gulf as a
"vital interest" of the US, and affirmed that the US would employ "any means
necessary, including military force" to overcome an attempt by hostile
interests to block that flow.
It is in Western and Sub-Saharan Africa that the US military force is most
rapidly increasing, as this area is projected to become as important a
source of energy as the Middle East within the next decade. In this region,
challenge to US domination and exploitation is coming from the people of
Africa-most specifically in Nigeria, where seventy percent of Africa's oil
is contained. .....
# 4 Frenzy of Increasingly Destructive Trade Agreements
The Oxfam report, "Signing Away the Future," reveals that the US and
European Union (EU) are vigorously pursuing increasingly destructive
regional and bilateral trade and investment agreements outside the auspices
of the WTO. These agreements are requiring enormous irreversible concessions
from developing countries, while offering almost nothing in return. Faster
and deeper, the US and EU are demanding unprecedented tariff reductions,
sometimes to nothing, as the US and EU dump subsidized agricultural goods on
undeveloped countries (see story #21), plunging local farmers into desperate
poverty. Meanwhile the US and EU provide themselves with high tariffs and
stringent import quotas to protect their own producers. Unprecedented loss
of livelihood, displacement, slave labor, along with spiraling degradation
of human rights and environments are resulting as economic governance is
forced from governments of developing countries, and taken over by
unaccountable multinational firms.
During 2006, more than one hundred developing countries were involved in FTA
or Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) negotiations. "An average of two
treaties are signed every week," the report says, "Virtually no country,
however poor, has been left out."
#5 Human Traffic Builds US Embassy in Iraq
The enduring monument to US liberation and democracy in Iraq will be the
most expensive and heavily fortified embassy in the world-and is being built
by a Kuwait contractor repeatedly accused of using forced labor trafficked
from South Asia under US contracts. The $592 million, 104-acre fortress
equal in size to the Vatican City is scheduled to open in September 2007.
With a highly secretive contract awarded by the US State Department, First
Kuwaiti Trading & Contracting has joined the ranks of Halliburton/KBR in
Iraq by using bait-and-switch recruiting practices. Thousands of citizens
from countries that have banned travel or work in Iraq are being tricked,
smuggled into brutal and inhumane labor camps, and subjected to months of
forced servitude-all in the middle of the US-controlled Green Zone, "right
under the nose of the US State Department."
Though Associated Press reports that, "The 5,500 Americans and Iraqis
working at the embassy are far more numerous than at any other US mission
worldwide,"1 there is no mention in corporate media of the 3,000 South Asian
laborers working for contractors in dangerous and abysmal living and working
conditions.
#6 Operation FALCON Raids
Under the code name Operation FALCON (Federal and Local Cops Organized
Nationally) three federally coordinated mass arrests occurred between April
2005 and October 2006. In an unprecedented move, more than 30,000
"fugitives" were arrested in the largest dragnets in the nation's history.
The operations directly involved over 960 agencies (state, local, and
federal) and were the brainchild of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and US
Marshal's Director Ben Reyna. The DoJ supplied television networks
government-shot action videotape of Marshals and local cops raiding homes
and breaking down doors, "targeting the worst of the worst criminals on the
run," emphasizing suspected sex offenders. Yet less than ten percent of the
total 30,150 were suspected sex offenders and less than two percent owned
firearms. The press has not asked, "Who were the others?" And to date, the
US Marshal's office has issued no public statement as to whether the people
arrested in Operation Falcon have been processed or released. Author Mike
Whitney cautions that Attorney General Gonzales has little interest in the
petty offenders who were netted in this extraordinary crackdown. This action
is instead, he warns, a practice roundup in the move toward martial law.
......
The media played an essential role in concealing the important details of
the Operation. In fact, the non-critical "cookie cutter" articles which
appeared in newspapers across the country suggest that the media may have
collaborated directly with the Justice Department. (see Chapter 9, Fake
News) Whitney notes that nearly identical "news" segments and articles put
the best possible spin on a story that most Americans might find deeply
disturbing, and perhaps frightening....
#7 Behind Blackwater Inc.
The company that most embodies the privatization of the military industrial
complex-a primary part of the Project for a New American Century and the
neoconservative revolution is the private security firm Blackwater.
Blackwater is the most powerful mercenary firm in the world, with 20,000
soldiers, the world's largest private military base, a fleet of twenty
aircraft, including helicopter gunships, and a private intelligence
division. The firm is also manufacturing its own surveillance blimps and
target systems.
Blackwater is headed by a very right-wing Christian-supremist and ex-Navy
Seal named Erik Prince, whose family has had deep neo-conservative
connections. Bush's latest call for voluntary civilian military corps to
accommodate the "surge" will add to over half a billion dollars in federal
contracts with Blackwater, allowing Prince to create a private army to
defend Christendom around the world against Muslims and others. One of the
last things Dick Cheney did before leaving office as Defense Secretary under
George H. W. Bush was to commission a Halliburton study on how to privatize
the military bureaucracy. That study effectively created the groundwork for
a continuing war profiteer bonanza.
#8 KIA: The US Neoliberal Invasion of India
Farmers' cooperatives in India are defending the nation's food security and
the future of Indian farmers against the neoliberal invasion of genetically
modified (GM) seed. As many as 28,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide
over the last decade as a result of debt incurred from failed GM crops and
competition with subsidized US crops, yet when India's Prime Minister Singh
met with President Bush in March 2006 to finalize nuclear agreements, they
also signed the Indo-US Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture (KIA), backed by
Monsanto, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), and Wal-Mart. The KIA allows for the
grab of India's seed sector by Monsanto, of its trade sector by giant
agribusiness ADM and Cargill, and its retail sector by Wal-Mart. .......
A combination of physical access to India's gene banks and a possible new
intellectual property law that allows seed patents will in essence deliver
India's genetic wealth into US hands....
At the same time KIA has paved the way for Wal-Mart's plans to open five
hundred stores in India, starting in August 2007, which will compound the
outsourcing of India's food supply and threaten 14 million small family
venders with loss of livelihood.
#9 Privatization of America's Infrastructure
We will soon be paying Wall Street investors, Australian bankers, and
Spanish contractors for the privilege of driving on American roads, as more
than twenty states have enacted legislation allowing public-private
partnerships to build and run highways. Investment firms including Goldman
Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and the Carlyle Group are approaching state
politicians with advice to sell off public highway and transportation
infrastructure. When advising state officials on the future of this vital
public asset, these investment firms fail to mention that their sole purpose
is to pick up infrastructure at the lowest price possible in order to
maximize returns for their investors. Investors, most often foreign
companies, are charging tolls and insisting on "noncompete" clauses that
limit governments from expanding or improving nearby roads.
# 10 Vulture Funds Threaten Poor Nations' Debt Relief
Vulture funds, otherwise known as "distressed-debt investors," are
undermining UN and other global efforts to relieve impoverished Third World
nations of the debt that has burdened them for many decades. Vulture funds
are financial organizations that buy up debts that are near default or
bankruptcy. The vulture fund will pay the original investor pennies on the
dollar for the debt and then approach the debtor to arrange a better
repayment on the loan, or will go after the debtor in court. In the private
financial world, these funds, like the birds they are named for, provide a
useful function for investors who are unable to follow up on defaulted debts
and are themselves facing financial ruin if the debtor reneges entirely....
/\/\/\/\/\
FROM MAZIN QUMSIYEH http://www.qumsiyeh.org
On violent and nonviolent struggle: what about our personal responsibility?
(Written and distributed on the fifth anniversary of the last leg of the War
on Iraq: BTW the US/British-led war on Iraq started on 15 Jan 1991 and has
killed nearly 3 million people since then including nearly 1 million
children by sanctions alone )
[excerpts]
What is your position on Israeli violence? Palestinian violence? What do you
think Israelis and Palestinians should or should not do? What do you think
of Barak Obama? What makes Christian Zionists support Israel? These and many
other questions came during over 30 talks given over the past three
weeks....
Being a scientist and a medical professional, I always believe that we must
first objectively characterize the symptoms and from those infer the
etiology of the disease (the underlying cause) then design rational
treatments. In all of this we are always guided by study of history.
Knowledge accumulates whether some individuals chose to ignore it or to
learn from it. This is true in medicine as it is in politics. Of course
different issues and struggles have unique features but also many common
ones with previous struggles. But lessons from successes and failures can be
instructive. How can we judge conduct and plans of US occupation of Iraq if
we do not study what happened in Vietnam? How can we understand Israeli
Hafrada (Segregation) if we do not know about Afrikaaner Apartheid
(Segregation)? What was the role of violent and nonviolent resistance in
achieving civil rights or an end to slavery in America? How can we
understand why French colonial settlers were evicted from Algeria while
Spanish colonial settlers succeeded in South America? Each of these
struggles is worth studying carefully and applying relevant lessons learned
to today's struggles.
Lest I make this essay too long, I will try to focus on the issues of
violent and nonviolent resistance in Palestine and the personal
responsibility each of us have (especially those of us who live in states
that financially and diplomatically support occupation and oppression and
endless wars). The underlying etiology of the struggle here is actually not
very complicated (even though many gate keepers in the media and politics
want you to think it is). It can be summarized in a few sentences. Jews were
discriminated against especially in 19th century Europe when ethnocentric
nation states were created by Europeans (who are now abandoning the concept
for a European Union!). A minority of Western European Jews egged on and
supported by colonial powers of the time (primarily France and England)
created its own ethnocentric nationalistic paradigm called Zionism as a
response (originally supposedly to benefit Eastern European Jews). With the
support of primarily the British government (and other allies in WWI), they
planned and executed a strategy to establish a Jewish state in Palestine at
the expense of the native Christians and Muslims. Thus, 530 villages and
towns were completely depopulated between 1947-1950 and, in the six decades
that followed, most of the remaining land was taken over. Today, the
remaining Palestinians live as either 10th class citizens or under
occupation with no citizenship on the still shrinking reservations left for
us (less than 10% of historic Palestine). Of the 10 million Palestinians in
the world, 7 million are refugees or displaced people. Israel is now heavily
funded by our taxes (over $1 trillion spent so far per a study published in
the Christian Science Monitor) and protected by a US hegemony that prevents
the International community from forcing Israel to comply with human rights
and International law (Israel is in violations of 65 UN Security Council
Resolutions and over 200 UN General Assembly Resolution and shielded from
many others by use of 35 US Vetoes)....
Most Palestinian resistance has been nonviolent. I am now finishing a book
on the history of Palestinian nonviolent resistance going back 120 years. It
is a very rich history that testifies to the resilience and resourcefulness
of that society (a glimpse is at
http://qumsiyeh.org/palestiniannonviolentresistance/ ). These struggles
would not be covered in US mainstream media that are self-censoring to serve
their Israel-first agenda. Further,
"One of the reasons these [nonviolent] struggles are missing from the
history books or misrepresented is that it was never in the interests of the
oppressors to record or teach us that history. It is in the interest of
oppressors to teach that only violence is successful because the oppressors
usually have the superior capacity for violence. They will therefore have a
greater chance to maintain their oppression if the oppressed also believe in
violence. The oppressed need to learn that they do not need to fight with
the oppressor's best weapons. Instead of using violence, they have a greater
chance of mobilizing their power capacity by working and acting together
using psychological, social, political, and economic weapons-weapons that
enable them to become stronger."(p. 40, Afif Safieh: "Gene Sharp: Non
Violent Struggle", interview. Journal of Palestine Studies, Autumn, 1987 pp.
37-55).
Of course, doing nonviolent resistance is just as risky (and sometimes more
risky) than doing violent resistance. Countless Palestinians were killed
doing nonviolent resistance. Even an American student, Rachel Corrie was
killed standing in front of a bulldozer (that is an unusual event for
internationals, Palestinians are killed regularly). But in a colonial
occupation, people get killed, injured and jailed who are not resisting
(other than by being on the coveted land, which can be considered a form of
nonviolent resistance). Thousands of Palestinian civilians were killed and
tens of thousands injured over the past few decades for simply being
Palestinian in Palestine. Over 650,000 Palestinian males have gone through
Israeli detention at some point in their lives (Gideon Levy in Haaretz)....
(For a discussion of the issue of state and individual terrorism, please see
my earlier article
stay on the issue of violence generally in colonial systems)....
It is clear from any historical, legal, and moral examination that:
a) Violence and nonviolence occur in all colonial situations. How can one
steal someone else's land or natural resources without violence!
b) That violence and that theft generate resistance. Most of it nonviolent,
some of it violent and some of it extremely violent. That resistance is a
Bell shaped curve. As any statistician would tell you eliminating a portion
of the curve would cause it to renormalize in short order (whether what you
eliminate is those who engage in violence or nonviolence).
c) The violence of the occupiers/colonizers always kills many times more
natives than colonial settler populations. For example the ratio of
civilians killed was 10:1 (Palestinain:Israeli) and over >100:1 (European
settlers:Native Americans).
d) While resistance is sanctioned by International law, the native can and
do chose other forms of resistance and do frequently switch modes of
resistance.
e) It is rather useless for armchair theorists to lecture people thousands
of miles away about tactics and strategies. What will we do: engage in
personal struggle by violent or nonviolent resistance? Isn't it better for
people in Europe and North America to work to effect change in their own
governments and media (entities that are directly involved in perpetuating
the injustices)?
If we believe that we must wait for others to do something for us, we are
doomed to fail as humans (not as "Palestinians", as "Israeli", or as
"Americans"). In our respective traditions, we can find some useful
guidance. In the Arab-Islamic traditions we find the statement that "Wala
Yughayiur Allah Ma Biqaumen 3atta Yughaiyuru ma biAnfusihim" "Verily, God
does not change [condition of] a people until they change what is within
themselves." Similar commandments of self-reliance and choice exist in every
culture and tradition. Thus and as the old canard goes: do not ask for whom
the bells ring, they ring for thee.
Other relevant material
Azmi Bishara, the Right of Resistance, and the Palestinian Ordeal
See the book "Defending Civil Resistance Under International Law," Francis A
Boyle, Transnational Pub., 1987
Gilad Atzmon - The Right to Self-Determination - A Fake Exercise in
Universalism
"given the reality on the ground, instead of demanding some rhetorical
rights, we should fight for the Palestinian and Arab right to rebel against
the Jewish State and against global Zionist imperialism. Instead of wasting
our time on rhetorical fantasies and academic exchange, we better expose
Jewish tribal politics and praxis. To support Palestine is to be courageous
enough to say what we think and to admit what we see."
http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2008/03/gilad-atzmon-right-to-self.html
Mazin Qumsiyeh
/\/\/\/\/\/\
/\/\/\/\/\
FROM ORGANIC BYTES
ESSAY OF THE WEEK: OCA DIRECTOR RONNIE CUMMINS ON HOW TO SOLVE AMERICA'S
HEALTH CARE CRISIS The health care crisis in the U.S. is fast becoming a
life or death emergency. OCA Director Ronnie Cummins exposes the real roots
of this crisis and lays out what we can do about it in his latest article:
"Beyond Progressive Malpractice: Taking Down Big Pharma." Read the article
and press the politicians on this burning issue:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_10838.cfm
ALERT OF THE WEEK: FARM WORKERS AND ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS LOSE FREEDOM OF
SPEECH Despite massive opposition from public interest groups and civil
libertarians, the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, AETA, became law on
November 27, 2007 upon receiving President Bush's signature. Its stated
purpose is "to provide the Department of Justice the necessary authority to
apprehend, prosecute, and convict individuals committing animal enterprise
terror." But AETA is not limited to acts of violence or property
destruction. It extends to anyone who attempts to, or conspires to,
interfere with an animal enterprise. AETA offers no defense to activists who
expose illegal activities. Animal researchers and factory farms that are
operating illegally can use AETA to protect themselves from whistle blowers.
The effect of AETA is to label social justice activists as terrorists when
they work to expose animal cruelty, poor labor conditions, or environmental
violations in agribusiness or the biomedical industries. It's time to repeal
AETA. Learn more and take action:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_10859.cfm
=================
Heads Monsanto Wins, Tails We Lose; the Genetically Modified Food Gamble
By Robert Weissman
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2008/000278.html
March 18, 2008
There have been few experiments as reckless, overhyped and with as little
potential upside as the rapid rollout of genetically modified crops.
Last month, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech
Applications (ISAAA), a pro-biotech nonprofit, released a report
highlighting the proliferation of genetically modified crops. According to
ISAAA, biotech crop area grew 12 percent, or 12.3 million hectares, to reach
114.3 million hectares in 2007, the second highest area increase in the past
five years....
For all of the industry hype around biotech products, virtually all planted
genetically modified seed is for only four products -- soy, corn, cotton and
canola -- with just two engineered traits. Most of the crops are engineered
to be resistant to glyphosate, an herbicide sold by Monsanto under the
brand-name Round-up (these biotech seeds are known as RoundUp-Ready). Others
are engineered to include a naturally occurring pesticide, Bt.
Most of the genetically modified crops in developing countries are soy, says
Bill Freese, science policy analyst at the Center for Food Safety and
co-author of "Who Benefits from GM Crops," a report issued at the same time
as ISAAA's release. These crops are exported to rich countries, primarily as
animal feed. They do absolutely nothing to supply food to the hungry.
As used in developing countries, biotech crops are shifting power away from
small, poor farmers desperately trying to eke out livelihoods and maintain
their land tenure.
Glyphosate-resistance is supposed to enable earlier and less frequent
spraying, but, concludes "Who Benefits from GM Crops," these biotech seeds
"allow farmers to spray a particular herbicide more frequently and
indiscriminately without fear of damaging the crop." This requires
expenditures beyond the means of small farmers -- but reduces labor costs, a
major benefit for industrial farms.
ISAAA contends that Bt planting in India and China has substantially reduced
insecticide spraying, which it advances as the primary benefit of biotech
crops.
Bt crops may offer initial reductions in required spraying, says Freese, but
Bt is only effective against some pests, meaning farmers may have to use
pesticides to prevent other insects from eating their crops. Focusing on a
district in Punjab, "Who Benefits from GM Crops" shows how secondary pest
problems have offset whatever gains Bt crops might offer....
Strong evidence of pesticide resistance is rapidly accumulating, details
"Who Benefits from GM Crops," meaning that farmers will have to spray more
and more chemicals to less and less effect. Pesticide use is rising rapidly
in biotech-heavy countries. In the heaviest user of biotech seeds -- the
United States, which has half of all biotech seed planting --
glyphosate-resistant weeds are proliferating. Glyphosate use in the United
States rose by 15 times from 1994 to 2005, according to "Who Benefits from
GM Crops," and use of other and more toxic herbicides is rapidly rising. The
U.S. experience likely foreshadows what is to come for other countries more
recently adopting biotech crops.
Seed diversity is dropping, as Monsanto and its allies aim to eliminate seed
saving, and development of new crop varieties is slowing. Contamination from
neighboring fields using genetically modified seeds can destroy farmers'
ability to maintain biotech-free crops. Reliance on a narrow range of seed
varieties makes the food system very vulnerable, especially because of the
visible problems with the biotech seeds now in such widespread use.
For all the uncertainties about the long-term effects of biotech crops and
food, one might imagine that there were huge, identifiable short-term
benefits. But one would be wrong.
Instead, a narrowly based industry has managed to impose a risky technology
with short-term negatives and potentially dramatic downsides.
But while it is true, as ISAAA happily reports, that biotech planting is
rapidly growing, it remains heavily concentrated in just a few countries:
the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, India and China.
Europe and most of the developing world continue to resist Monsanto's seed
imperialism. The industry and its allies decry this stand as a senseless
response to fear-mongering. It actually reflects a rational assessment of
demonstrated costs and benefits -- and an appreciation for real but
incalculable risks of toying with the very nature of nature.
Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational
Monitor, <
Action <
(c) Robert Weissman
This article is posted at:
/\/\/\/\/\
J. Sri Raman | India as a Poll Issue in Nepal
J. Sri Raman, writing for Truthout, says: "India figures prominently as an
issue in Nepal's forthcoming elections. The Himalayan nation has always
figured in India's politics, too, and is likely to do so in a larger manner
over the next few months."
Judge Calls Immigration Officials' Decision "Beyond Cruel"
Henry Weinstein, reporting for The Los Angeles Times, writes, "In a stinging
ruling, a Los Angeles federal judge said immigration officials' alleged
decision to withhold a critical medical test and other treatment from a
detainee who later died of cancer was 'beyond cruel and unusual'
punishment."
Darrin Mortenson | Native Americans on "Longest Walk 2"
Darrin Mortenson, writing for Truthout, says: "When northwestern Arizona's
Hualapai Indians got in the way of the Anglos' westward expansion in the
1860's, US soldiers rounded them up, penned them in and forced survivors to
march some 100 miles across the desert to a reservation far from white
commerce. 'We became strangers to our own land,' said Loretta Jackson, the
tribe's current director of cultural resources, who says the tribe now
suffers a scourge of alcoholism and health issues, encroachment from rampant
development and invasions of their sacred sites."
/\/\/\/\/\
ZNet Commentary
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Duck and Cover
By Vijay Prashad
A fractured electorate cannot unite behind candidates. The Republicans have
their candidate (Boom, Boom McCain). The Democrats are divided by age,
gender and race. In the murky results and polls it is hard to fathom the
outcome. What is clear is that the Democratic race has mobilized vast
numbers of previously disenchanted people to the polls. Some of this is the
special charisma of Obama, but quite a lot of it is the general enthusiasm
to vote for the first woman or the first African American with a shot at
sitting behind the big desk in the Oval Office.
On Iraq, however, there is unity. The electorate stands firmly in opposition
to the war (64 percent), and a majority want withdrawal within the year (63
percent; 90 percent of registered Democrats). Yet, the three principle
candidates are far from this position. John McCain is one of the principle
architects of the Surge, and he has pledged to remain in Iraq for the next
hundred years (or 10,000). There is no question, to his mind, that the US
military will need to operate with permanent bases in Iraq. The small
minority of Republicans who stood behind Ron Paul, far and away the only
candidate who called for immediate withdrawal, will have no impact on the
GOP platform this Fall.
__________________________
Valuable websites and other resources:
Alternative Radio from Boulder, CO http://www.alternativeradio.org/ is
broadcast Mondays at 1:00 p.m. on KUFM/KGPR, 89.9 FM in Great Falls, and at
other frequencies in western Montana. Making Contact originated by Norman
Solomon can be heard Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on the same stations. You can
hear Pacifica radio on the internet at http://www.kpkf.org (that's the LA
station), or your favorite part of the country, linked from there. Great
Falls native Suzi Weissman's show, Beneath the Surface, airs Monday nights
at 6:00, Mountain time, and is archived at http://www.suziweissman.com
Pacifica's Democracy Now with Amy Goodman is available M-F and archived on
the net at http://www.democracynow.org .
Try other major stations by searching the web, or browsing (call
letters).org. Internet radio is coming to be a necessity here in Montana,
and is an excellent source of foreign language news and culture, as well.
You can also get KEMC, Billings public radio from
http://www.yellowstonepublicradio.org in various streaming formats.
http://reclaimdemocracy.org/ national Bozeman-based election/corporate law
reforms
http://www.greeninstitute.net/ non-profit educational institute for Green
values
http://www.wildrockies.org/ Alliance for the Wild Rockies member
organizations
http://www.meic.org website of the Montana Environmental Information Center
http://www.aeromt.org/ Alternative Energy Resource Organization, Helena
http://www.newworldwindpower.com/ Russ Doty's site for MT energy links, etc.
http://OrganicConsumers.org news and information about food safety
http://www.ippn.org links to just about every Green, peace, and justice
organization
http://www.montanapeaceseekers.org Montana peace seekers, local chapters
http://www.greencommons.org national website and discussion forum for Green
activists
http://www.chlorophyll.us/ another prominent Green blog
http://www.wagingpeace.org/ "Sunflowers" Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
http://www.native-voice.com Website for bi-weekly newspaper, The Native
Voice
http://www.IndianCountry.com Indian Country Today, daily national newspaper
http://www.missoulanews.com Missoula Independent weekly newspaper, online
http://www.billingsnews.com Billings Outpost independent weekly newspaper,
online
http://www.queencitynews.com Helena independent weekly newspaper, online
http://www.drugpolicy.org Website of the Lindesmith Center, Drug Policy
Foundation
http://www.fairvote.org/irv/ The Center for Voting and Democracy
http://www.rachel.org/ Great resource for health and environmental issues
http://nukeinfo.org/ Website by Missoula green Rick Gold -- all sorts of
nuclear links
http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml GP News links and blogs
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