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Posted May 10, 2002
U.S.
Mood Hits Low Point of Bush's Term, Bloomberg Poll Finds
Less Than Half Satisfied With the Nation's Direction
(David Morris, Bloomberg News, May 8, 2002)
Public satisfaction with the way things are going in the U.S.
is at its lowest point of George W. Bush's White House tenure,
giving Democrats an edge as they battle for control of Congress,
a Bloomberg News poll shows. . . . The number of voting-age
Americans saying they're satisfied with the country's direction
was 46 percent, down from 51 percent when Bush's term began
and 15 points below December's peak of 61 percent. . . . The
mood six months before congressional elections reflects concerns
about an uneven economic recovery, including a jump in the
unemployment rate to 6 percent, as well as violence in the
Middle East and the failure to capture accused terrorist leader
Osama bin Laden. . . . Women and older people are
most displeased. While 52 percent of men are satisfied with
the direction of the country, only 41 percent of women feel
that way. . . . If the election were held today, Democrats
would have a slight edge.
Lawmakers
Charge: CIA, DOJ Obstructing 911 Probes
(Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times, May 4 2002)
Lawmakers leading the investigation of intelligence agencies'
failures surrounding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are increasingly
concerned that tactics by the CIA and the Justice Department
are actively impeding their efforts, congressional sources
said Friday. . . . At the Justice Department, the intelligence
committees' requests for records take weeks to wind their
way through the department's bureaucracy and sometimes are
simply not acted upon, according to sources familiar with
the investigation. . . . The friction underscores the
stakes of an investigation that could yield embarrassing details
about what the nation's $30-billion intelligence community
knew or didn't know leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks on
the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. . . . The
congressional probe was launched in February. It aims to determine
whether the terrorist attacks could have been prevented, and
to consider ways to improve the nation's intelligence capabilities.
. . . All interviews with agency employees are supervised
by CIA officials who have prevented investigators even from
collecting business cards or phone numbers from interview
subjects . . . "In a sense, they've put a wall up so
no one can get to the investigators," a congressional
source said.
Posted May 9, 2002
[Editor's Note: Did you know that
it is against U.S. law to boycott Israel? At first we thought
this website was a hoax. Unfortunately it isn't.]
U.S.
Department of Commerce - Office of Antiboycott Compliance
U.S. companies continue to report receiving requests to engage
in activities that further or support the boycott of Israel.
U.S. companies may receive similar requests in the future.
Compliance with such requests may be prohibited by the Export
Administration Regulations and reportable to the Department.
. . . Conduct that may be penalized under the TRA and/or prohibited
under the EAR includes: Agreements to refuse or actual refusal
to do business with or in Israel or with blacklisted companies.
. . . The penalties imposed for each "knowing" violation
can be a fine of up to $50,000 or five times the value of
the exports involved, whichever is greater, and imprisonment
of up to five years. During periods when the EAR are continued
in effect by an Executive Order issued pursuant to the International
Emergency Economic Powers Act, the criminal penalties for
each "willful" violation can be a fine of up to
$50,000 and imprisonment for up to ten years. . . . The
Arab League boycott of Israel is the principal foreign economic
boycott that U.S. companies must be concerned with today.
Posted May 7, 2002
Bush's
Band-Aid Approach to healthcare for the poor
(Fran Smith, Salon, May 2, 2002)
African-American infants are more than twice as likely
as whites to die before turning 1. The average life expectancy
for black men is 66, eight years shorter than for white men.
Blacks of all ages suffer higher rates of illness and death
from just about every major disease, including diabetes, heart
disease, AIDS and a variety of cancers. . . . And the numbers
for treatment are just as bad. Inferior care occurs at every
step in the system . . . The Bush administration finally addressed
the issues in the institute's call to action -- part of a
chorus that has droned on for years -- with a gesture that
has some health experts reeling. The plan, announced by Tommy
Thompson, secretary of Health and Human Services, is "Take
a Loved One to the Doctor Day," . . . "It's
comedy," says Dr. Thomas LaVeist, associate professor
of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health. "Or it would be comedy if this
weren't such a serious problem. It's very depressing, actually.''
. . . "Take a Loved One to the Doctor Day" is a
crusade that essentially pins the problem of healthcare disparities
on the patients, as if they were somehow responsible for a
healthcare system that often gives them second-rate care or
shuts them out altogether. . . . But in the context of the
health gap, Thompson's message is weirdly patronizing, all
the more so because his "Day" is a twist on the
ever popular Take Our Daughters to Work Day. Is the subtext
here that blacks, like 8-year-olds, must be led by the parental
hand and shown what's good for them? . . . In Pittsburgh and
Tampa, black babies are three times as likely as white babies
to die before the age of 1; in San Diego, nearly four times
as likely; in San Francisco, nearly five times. Hauling
your sister to a health fair in September will not save black
infants anymore than trotting your daughter (and now your
son) through your cubicle in April will obliterate pay gaps
for women.
Congress
Attacks Human Rights
(Stephen Zunes, AlterNet, May 3, 2002)
On Thursday, both the House of Representative and the U.S.
Senate overwhelmingly passed resolutions defending the policies
of right-wing Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon in the occupied
territories. Human rights activists are alarmed, both at the
strong Congressional support for a repressive military occupation
as well as the fact that the resolutions are being widely
interpreted as an attack on the credibility of Amnesty International
and other human rights groups. . . . This not only puts
the House of Representatives in direct contradiction of reports
from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, but of
Israeli peace and human rights groups like B'Tselem, Gush
Shalom and Yesh G'vul. . . . That so many supposedly
progressive voices in the House of Representatives would take
the word of Tom DeLay over that of Amnesty International is
indicative of how little regard there is in Congress for the
Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization. . . . The huge majorities
in support of these resolutions can not be attributed to a
need to secure the "Jewish vote" in this election
year. American Jews are increasingly divided over the policies
of Israel's rightist prime minister and the vast majority
of the resolutions' Congressional backers are from states
or districts with only tiny Jewish populations. . . . perhaps
the biggest winner is the Green Party, that has long argued
that even on an issue as basic as human rights, there is no
difference between the two major parties. Already, there are
growing numbers of disaffected Democrats who are beginning
to realize they can not support human rights and support the
Democratic Party at the same time.
Posted May 5, 2002
Log
cabin to White House? Not any more - The aristocracy of wealth
in the U.S.
(The Observer, April 28, 2002)
America is the most unequal society in the industrialised
West. The richest 20 per cent of Americans earn nine times
more than the poorest 20 per cent, a scale of inequality half
as great again as in Japan, Germany and France. . . . the
richest 1 per cent of the population hold 38 per cent of its
wealth, a concentration more marked than in any comparable
country. . . . This inequality is the most brutal
fact of American life. . . . The sumptuousness and bleakness
of the respective lifestyles of rich and poor represent a
scale of difference in opportunity and wealth that is almost
medieval - and a standing offence to the American expectation
that everyone has the opportunity for life, liberty and happiness.
. . . As inequality grows, the grip of the wealthy on educational
advantage becomes ever more evident, for the cost of going
to university over the last 25 years has exploded. . . . Buffet's
argument is that the US is developing an aristocracy of the
wealthy. . . . Five generations of the Bushes, for example,
have been 'tapped' to become members of the Skull and Bones
Club at Yale, whose initiates retain a commitment to the lifelong
scratching of each other's backs while never acknowledging
they were members. In itself, there is nothing remarkable
about private clubs of privileged insiders in private universities;
it is just that the country that boasts them should be more
self-knowing about its pretensions to meritocracy.
. . . the US has the lowest share of workers moving from the
bottom fifth of workers into the second fifth, the lowest
share moving into the top 60 per cent and the highest share
of workers unable to sustain full-time employment. . . . Yet
it is the US, the country which has left so many of its citizens
barren and ill at ease with themselves, and which is riven
by internal concern and criticism, that is held up as a model
for the world. It is time for Europeans to recognise
the strength of their social outcomes and defend them.
Senior
Republican calls on Israel to expel West Bank Arabs
(Matthew Engel, The Guardian, May 4, 2002)
The most senior Republican in the House of Representatives
has called for Palestinians to be expelled from the West Bank,
which should be annexed in its entirety by the state of Israel.
. . . Dick Armey, majority leader in the House, shocked
a primetime television audience when he said in a chat-show
interview, that East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza - all
occupied by the Israeli army since the 1967 war - should be
considered a part of Israel proper. He was "content to
have a Palestinian state", but argued that such an entity
could be set up inside other Arab countries. . . .
Mr Armey's views have been scarcely reported in America. The
only mention was a passing reference in the deepest recesses
of yesterday's New York Times and Washington Post. . . . However,
Mr Armey's views were not far out of line with on Thursday
night's debate in the House, which overwhelmingly passed a
920-word resolution entirely in favour of Israel . . . Both
the House and the Senate voted for motions which started by
saying that "the US and Israel are now engaged in a common
struggle against terrorism".
Posted May 4, 2002
New
Emissions Limits for Ships Called a Sham
(Environment News Service, May 2, 2002)
Ocean going vessels represent the fastest growing, least regulated
sources of pollution in the United States. Each day in large
ports such as Long Beach, California, ships generate as much
pollution as one million cars. . . . The EPA has identified
domestic and foreign vessels as major contributors to U.S.
air pollution, but has previously declined to regulate ship
emissions. . . . The proposed new rules resulted from
a lawsuit settlement reached in 2001 by the Bluewater Network,
represented by Earthjustice, challenging EPA's failure to
set any standard for smog forming ship emissions under the
Clean Air Act. . . . On Wednesday, Bluewater Network called
the EPA's proposed regulations "a sham regulation that
will force public health and environmental groups back to
court." . . . "Oil tanker owners and the oil industry
have relentlessly lobbied the administration to weaken or
delay this regulation, and clearly they succeeded," said
Dr. Russell Long, director of Bluewater Network. "This
is terrible news for Americans living around coastal cities
because ships are the world's biggest polluters, poisoning
the air with smog, fine particles, and global warming gases."
. . . "These ships run on the dirtiest fuel available,"
said Martin Wagner, attorney for Earthjustice. "While
port communities from Los Angeles to Boston try to meet federal
clean air standards, their efforts can be thwarted by just
a few cargo ships a day belching the equivalent of the pollution
from thousands of unregulated vehicle and stationary source
emission."
Posted May 2, 2002
How
Wal-Mart is Remaking our World - Anatomy of a Truly Evil Empire
(Jim Hightower, Alternet.org, April 26, 2002)
Wal-Mart is now the world's biggest corporation, having passed
ExxonMobil for the top slot. It hauls off a stunning $220
billion a year from We the People (more in revenues than the
entire GDP of Israel and Ireland combined). . . . Behind its
soft homespun ads, however, is what one union leader calls
"this devouring beast" of a corporation that ruthlessly
stomps on workers, neighborhoods, competitors, and suppliers.
. . . Wal-Mart banks about $7 billion a year in profits, ranking
it among the most profitable entities on the planet. . . .
Of the 10 richest people in the world, five are Waltons-the
ruling family of the Wal-Mart empire. . . . Wal-Mart
and the Waltons got to the top the old-fashioned way-by roughing
people up. . . . this far-flung retailer is the country's
largest private employer, and it intends to remake the image
of the American workplace in its image-which is not pretty.
. . . the average employee makes only $15,000 a year for full-time
work. Most are denied even this poverty income, for they're
held to part-time work. While the company brags that 70% of
its workers are full-time, at Wal-Mart "full time"
is 28 hours a week, meaning they gross less than $11,000 a
year. . . . Health-care benefits? Only if you've been there
two years; then the plan hits you with such huge premiums
that few can afford it-only 38% of Wal-Marters are covered.
. . . Wal-Mart is in fact rabidly anti-union, deploying
teams of union-busters from Bentonville to any spot where
there's a whisper of organizing activity. . . . Wal-Mart
is an unrepentant and recidivist violator of employee rights,
drawing repeated convictions, fines, and the ire of judges
from coast to coast. . . . In "Toys of Misery,"
a shocking 58-page report that the establishment media ignored,
NLC describes . . . 13- to 16-hour days . . . production workers
are paid 13 cents an hour . . . Workers typically live in
squatter shacks, seven feet by seven feet, or jammed in company
dorms, with more than a dozen sharing a cubicle costing $1.95
a week for rent. . . . The work is literally sickening, since
there's no health and safety enforcement. . . . These
factories employ mostly young women and teenage girls. Wal-Mart
knows what goes on inside these places. . . . This
outfit operates with an avarice, arrogance, and ambition that
would make Enron blush. It hits a town or city neighborhood
like a retailing neutron bomb, sucking out the economic vitality
and all of the local character. . . . By crushing local businesses,
this giant eliminates three decent jobs for every two
Wal-Mart jobs that it creates-and a store full of part-time,
poorly paid employees hardly builds the family wealth necessary
to sustain a community's middle-class living standard.
. . . Tremendous victories have already been won as citizens
from Maine to Arizona, from the Puget Sound to the Gulf of
Mexico, have organized locally and even statewide to thwart
the expansionist march of the Wal-Mart juggernaut.
[Editor's Note: Members of the species Homo divinus
refuse to shop at Wal-Mart stores . . . no matter how much
money they might save.]
Toppling
the Corporate Aristocracy - Interview with Marjorie Kelly
(Robert Hinkley, CommonDreams.org, April 19, 2002)
Our current economic system is an aristocracy, according to
Marjorie Kelly. Think British rule of the American colonies.
It's based on the divine right of kings: The interests of
the king are paramount; the aristocracy alone has a say in
government. . . . The aristocracy's primary goal is
to pay shareholders as much as possible and pay employees
as little as possible. The public good is ignored.
. . . Just as we once democratized government, Kelly argues,
we must now democratize economics. To her this means, in part,
genuine empowerment of employees. "Corporate wealth belongs
to those who create it," . . . Today's corporations,
she adds, should be viewed as human communities, not just
pieces of property to be owned and traded by shareholders.
Employees should have a greater role in governing the corporation,
including participation in decisions regarding whether, and
to whom, the company will be sold. . . . When the interests
of capital are primary, it's wealth discrimination. Until
we turn and challenge this premise as illegitimate, and change
the institutions that support this premise, all our efforts
of social responsibility will fail. . . . The
Divine Right of Capital: Dethroning the Corporate Aristocracy
is about the good reasons to change the law of shareholder
primacy. At its heart, this doctrine is undemocratic. It's
aristocratic. It serves the interests of the wealthy at the
expense of everyone else. Ninety percent of all financial
wealth held by households in the U.S. is held by the wealthiest
10 percent. So serving shareholders means making the rich
richer at the expense of everyone else. It is a form
of government-sponsored discrimination. It's wealthism. Such
discrimination has no place in a democratic society, and it
is out of place in a free-market economy.
Posted May 1, 2002
Teenage
Cassandra - To be young, pacifist and living in Orange County
(Stephanie Grob, LA Weekly, April 26-May 2, 2002)
Since September 11, I've observed my fellow teenagers actively
participating in political discussions. What I have not seen,
however, is much dissent. . . . the lack of debate is
reminiscent of a McCarthy-era high school . . . My
principles: I believe that our new war is not justified, because
retaliation is never a suitable response to a national crisis.
As Gandhi once said, "An eye for an eye leaves the whole
world blind." . . . As an example of a monster, I brought
in the infamous photograph of General Loan Ngoc Nguyen, the
South Vietnamese officer who was caught on camera in the middle
of his public, spontaneous execution of an alleged Viet Cong
prisoner. . . . my teacher brought in an article written by
James Zumwalt, a retired Marine colonel, who glorified General
Nguyen for ridding the world of such a dangerous terrorist.
Zumwalt also likened the man Nguyen executed to Osama bin
Laden himself. . . . I had expected to explain my views about
the photo to the rest of the class, but the class's response
to my teacher's persuasive article, as well as my soft-spoken
nature, prevented any rebuttal on my part. . . . I left with
the feeling that I looked a complete idiot in front of my
fellow students. I was convinced they walked away thinking
that I was in league with al Qaeda. . . . I experience
the more subtle ways dissent gets shut down in the classroom,
by humiliation and name calling. What's worse, however, is
the fact that I, a progressive-minded teenager, am not heard
as an equal. . . . I'm old enough to know that freedom
of speech is essential to democracy, and it's been branded
into my skull through years of history classes that we do
live in a democracy. I exercise my right as an American
and as a citizen to express these views, and no one -- no
student, no teacher, no adult -- can dissuade me.
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