BAUAW NEWSLETTER - SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 2010
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
ALL OUT MARCH 20!
SAN FRANCISCO MARCH AND RALLY
SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 11:00 A.M., CIVIC CENTER
STOP SPENDING TRILLIONS ON THE WARS! BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
MONEY FOR EDUCATION, HOUSING, HEALTHCARE, AND JOBS -
NOT WARS, CORPORATE BAILOUTS FOR THE RICH AND JAILS FOR THE POOR!
U.S. OUT OF IRAQ & AFGHANISTAN!
FREE PALESTINE!
U.S. HANDS OFF IRAN, AFRICA AND LATIN AMERICA!
END US/UN MILITARY OCCUPATION OF HAITI! FOOD NOT GUNS IN HAITI!
GET THE WORD OUT ABOUT MARCH 20!
Volunteers Needed!
Postering and Flyering Work Sessions - JUST ONE WEEKEND LEFT!
Call 415-821-6545 for expanded leafleting and posting schedule.
Volunteers are needed to help put up posters, hand out leaflets. Call 415-821-6545 for more info and for office hours. Come by the office to pick up posters and flyers in English, Spanish or Chinese. Participate in an Outreach Work Session Tues. 7pm and Sat. 2pm, meeting at the ANSWER Coalition Office: 2489 Mission St. #24 (at 21st St.), San Francisco, near 24th St. BART/#14, #49 MUNI.
DONATIONS NEEDED:
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Donation?ACTION=SHOW_DONATION_OPTIONS&CAMPAIGN_ID=1443&JServSessionIdr004=nou1lpg115.app202a
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR DAY OF DEMONSTRATION:
Hi everyone,
We are asking organizations and individuals in the March 20 Coalition to help find volunteers for the following tasks at the demonstration. Please send us names of volunteers for each task or the number of volunteers you can provide from your organization.
Security - Security volunteers need to have prior experience doing security and need to be over 18 years of age. There will be a Security Orientation this Sat. Mar. 13, 5pm at the ANSWER office, 2489 Mission St., #28. Please send any security volunteers or a representative from your organization to this meeting. There will also be a brief orientation for security volunteers on Mar. 20 at 9:30am at the Civic Center.
Medical - There will be Medical Station set-up next to the stage on Mar. 20. ANSWER can supply a bag of medical supplies, but need trained medical volunteers (who are certified in CA) to staff the tent from 10am-4pm.
ASL - At the mass rallies in the past, we've had American Sign Language interpreters. If you have any contacts in the community, we still need coverage for the opening and closing rallies from approx. 11-12:30pm and 1:30-4pm. We have one volunteer already for each rally, but need at least 2 more if we are to have interpretation of the full program.
Collection - Volunteers are needed to hold donation barrels at a point in the march route (around 12-1:30pm) and also to go out in the crowd with donation buckets during the closing rally (sometime between 1:30 and 4pm).
Set-up and Take-down - Volunteers are needed to help with stage set-up at 9:30am and for clean-up and take-down at 4pm. The park permit requires the organizers to clean up all trash in Civic Center after the event.
Please reply with what task you or your organization can help on.
Thanks for you support,
Tina
ANSWER SF
415-821-6545
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
CIRCLE THESE DATES!!
Announcing...
A National Conference
To Bring the Troops Home Now!
JULY 23, 24, 25, 2010
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Albany, New York
www.nationalpeaceconference.org
Issued by the United National Antiwar Conference (UNAC) Planning Committee
For more information, write UNAC2010@aol.com, or UNAC at P.O. Box 21675, Cleveland, OH 44121 or call 518-227-6947 or visit our website at www.nationalpeaceconference.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
C. ARTICLES IN FULL
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Angela Davis, Linda Evans, Susan Rosenberg & Laura Whitehorn
invite you to:
SPARKS FLY 2010 -
An evening in celebration of Marilyn Buck and Women Political Prisoners
Saturday, March 13, 2010, 7 PM
10 PM Dance Party with DJ Kuttin Kandi
Uptown Body and Fender Garage
401 26th St., Oakland (Telegraph Ave)
Art Auction, Speakers & Music including, Maisha Quint, devorah major, Phavia Kujichagulia, Kayla Marin, Yuri Kochiyama, Graciela Perez-Trevisan & Bomberas de la Bahia Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba Plena
$10-50 (no one turned away)
Sparks Fly has honored women political prisoners for 20 years. Marilyn Buck is scheduled to get out of prison later this year after serving more than 25 years. Let's welcome her home! All money raised will go to the Release Fund for Marilyn Buck.
During this evening we also pay tribute to Safiya Bukhari on publication of her posthumous book, The War Before.
For book tour dates go to http://www.feministpress.org/books/safiya-bukhari/war.
Endorsed by: AK Press, All of Us or None, Arab Resource & Organizing Center, BACORR, California Coalition of Women Prisoners, Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Code Pink, East Bay Prisoners Support, East Side Arts Alliance, Freedom Archives, Free the SF 8 Comm. Friends of Marilyn Buck, Haiti Action Committee, Kevin Cooper Defense Comm, KPFA Women's Magazine, LAGAI, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, Long Haul, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, National Lawyers Guild/Bay Area, Out of Control, PM Press, Prison Activist Resource Center, Prison Radio Project, QUIT, Radical Women, SF Dyke March, SF Women In Black, Speak Out!, Stanley Tookie Williams Legacy Network
wheelchair accessible
for more information: sparksfly2010@gmail.com
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
LABOR'S STAKE IN ENDING THE WARS
Why are we in Afghanistan?
San Francisco
Saturday, March 20, 10:00 A.M.-12:00 Noon*
Plumbers Hall
1621 Market Street (Near Franklin)
U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq and its consequences.
Program Includes:
FEATURED SPEAKER: Daniel Ellsberg
--"Why Are We in Afghanistan" a short video.
--Stephen Zunes, USF Professor and Middle East specialist
--Afghanistan War Veteran
--Military Families Speak Out
--Labor Leaders
Speakers followed by Q&A and Audience Response
Followed by a Labor Contingent march to Civic Center to join antiwar rally and march in solidarity with Unite HERE Local 2 members at downtown hotels. (Bring union banners and colors)
*Coffee, bagels and music at 10:00 A.M., march to Civic Center at Noon. Park in lot next to building or exit Civic Center BART station, walk about 6 blocks west on Market to Franklin.
Sponsored by:
San Francisco Labor Council and Bay Area U.S. Labor Against the War
Endorsed by:
Alameda Labor Council; AFT Local 2121; Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace and Justice; ILWU Local 10; Oakland Education Association; OPEIU Local 3; Peralta Federation of Teachers; SEIU Local 1021; Unite HERE Local 2; United Educators of San Francisco.
This list is in formation. Additional endorsements are invited.
For more information: 510-263-5303
labor-for-peace-and-justice@igc.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
U.S. OUT OF IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN NOW!
FREE PALESTINE!
San Francisco March and Rally
on Saturday, March 20, 2010
11am, Civic Center Plaza
National March on Washington
on Saturday, March 20, 2010
Fri., March 19 Day of Action & Outreach in D.C.
People from all over the country are organizing to converge on Washington, D.C., to demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan and Iraq.
On Saturday, March 20, 2010, there will be a massive National March & Rally in D.C. A day of action and outreach in Washington, D.C., will take place on Friday, March 19, preceding the Saturday march.
There will be coinciding mass marches on March 20 in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The national actions are initiated by a large number of organizations and prominent individuals. see below)
Click here to become an endorser:
http://answer.pephost.org/site/Survey?SURVEY_ID=5940&ACTION_REQUIRED=URI_ACTION_USER_REQUESTS&autologin=true&link=endorse-body-1
Click here to make a donation:
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Donation?ACTION=SHOW_DONATION_OPTIONS&CAMPAIGN_ID=2302&autologin=true&donate=body-1&JServSessionIdr002=2yzk5fh8x2.app13b
We will march together to say "No Colonial-type Wars and Occupations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine!" We will march together to say "No War Against Iran!" We will march together to say "No War for Empire Anywhere!"
Instead of war, we will demand funds so that every person can have a job, free and universal health care, decent schools, and affordable housing.
March 20 is the seventh anniversary of the criminal war of aggression launched by Bush and Cheney against Iraq. One million or more Iraqis have died. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops have lost their lives or been maimed, and continue to suffer a whole host of enduring problems from this terrible war.
This is the time for united action. The slogans on banners may differ, but all those who carry them should be marching shoulder to shoulder.
Killing and dying to avoid the perception of defeat
Bush is gone, but the war and occupation in Iraq still go on. The Pentagon is demanding a widening of the war in Afghanistan. They project an endless war with shifting battlefields. And a "single-payer" war budget that only grows larger and larger each year. We must act.
Both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were predicated on the imperial fantasy that the U.S. could create stable, proxy colonial-type governments in both countries. They were to serve as an extension of "American" power in these strategic and resource-rich regions.
That fantasy has been destroyed. Now U.S. troops are being sent to kill or be killed so that the politicians in uniform "the generals and admirals") and those in three-piece suits "our elected officials") can avoid taking responsibility for a military setback in wars that should have never been started. Their military ambitions are now reduced to avoiding the appearance of defeat.
That is exactly what happened in Vietnam! Avoiding defeat, or the perception of defeat, was the goal Nixon and Kissinger set for themselves when they took office in 1969. For this noble cause, another 30,000 young GIs perished before the inevitable troop pullout from Vietnam in 1973. The number of Vietnamese killed between 1969 and 1973 was greater by many hundreds of thousands.
All of us can make the difference - progress and change comes from the streets and from the grassroots.
The people went to the polls in 2008, and the enthusiasm and desire for change after eight years of the Bush regime was the dominant cause that led to election of a big Democratic Party majority in both Houses of Congress and the election of Barack Obama to the White House.
But it should now be obvious to all that waiting for politicians to bring real change - on any front - is simply a prescription for passivity by progressives and an invitation to the array of corporate interests from military contractors to the banks, to big oil, to the health insurance giants that dominate the political life of the country. These corporate interests work around the clock to frustrate efforts for real change, and they are the guiding hand behind the recent street mobilizations of the ultra-right.
It is up to us to act. If people had waited for politicians to do the right thing, there would have never been a Civil Rights Act, or unions, women's rights, an end to the Vietnam war or any of the profound social achievements and basic rights that people cherish.
It is time to be back in the streets. Organizing centers are being set up in cities and towns throughout the country.
We must raise $50,000 immediately just to get started. Please make your contribution today. We need to reserve buses, which are expensive $1,800 from NYC, $5,000 from Chicago, etc.). We have to print 100,000 leaflets, posters and stickers. There will be other substantial expenses as March 20 draws closer.
Please become an endorser and active supporter of the March 20 National March on Washington.
Please make an urgently needed tax-deductible donation today. We can't do this without your active support.
The initiators of the March 20 National March on Washington preceded by the March 19 Day of Action and Outreach in D.C.) include: the ANSWER Coalition; Muslim American Society Freedom; National Council of Arab Americans; Cynthia McKinney; Malik Rahim, co-founder of Common Ground Collective; Ramsey Clark; Cindy Sheehan; Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK; Deborah Sweet, Director, World Can't Wait; Mike Ferner, President, Veterans for Peace; Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition; Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild; Ron Kovic, author of "Born on the 4th of July"; Juan Jose Gutierrez, Director, Latino Movement USA; Col. Ann Wright ret.); March Forward!; Partnership for Civil Justice; Palestinian American Women Association; Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines; Alliance for Global Justice; Claudia de la Cruz, Pastor, Iglesia San Romero de Las Americas-UCC; Phil Portluck, Social Justice Ministry, Covenant Baptist Church, D.C.; Blase & Theresa Bonpane, Office of the Americas; Coalition for Peace and Democracy in Honduras; Comite Pro-Democracia en Mexico; Frente Unido de los Pueblos Americanos; Comites de Base FMLN, Los Angeles; Free Palestine Alliance; GABRIELA Network; Justice for Filipino American Veterans; KmB Pro-People Youth; Students Fight Back; Jim Lafferty, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild - LA Chapter; LEF Foundation; National Coalition to Free the Angola 3; Community Futures Collective; Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival; Companeros del Barrio; Barrio Unido for Full and Unconditional Amnesty, Bay Area United Against War.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.answercoalition.org/
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-265-1948
New York City: 212-694-8720
Los Angeles: 213-251-1025
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
Chicago: 773-463-0311
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Lynching Then, Lynching Now
The Roots of Racism and the Death Penalty in America
Join us for a teach-in about the historic link between the death penalty and lynching in the United States.
Speakers:
Barbara Becnel, Founder, Stanley Tookie Williams Legacy Network
Lawrence Hayes, Former New York State death row prisoner
Jack Bryson, Justice for Oscar Grant Movement
Jabari Shaw, Laney Black Student Union
and
Kevin Cooper - an innocent man on death row - calling in from San Quentin for a question and answer period.
Wednesday, March 24th - 7 PM
Laney College - Room D200
Sponsored by: Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Kevin Cooper Defense Committee, Laney International Socialist Organization
more info: 510-333-7966/ email california@nodeathpenalty.org
This teach-in is part of a national Campaign to End the Death Penalty tour - visit www.nodeathpenalty.org for more information.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Defend Holly Works!
Monday April 5th 2010, 8 AM,
Alameda County Courthouse,
12th & Oak St, Oakland
8 AM demonstrate! 9 AM, attend trial.
(from 12th Street BART Station, walk down 12th St toward Lake Merritt.
Demonstrate/enter court at 12th and Oak St)
Holly Works is the now the last remaining defendant of the Oakland 100. Her trial was to start Monday, March 1st. But a defense motion for a postponement was granted, since Holly's chief witness is out of the country at this time.
A local musician and activist, Holly was arrested before she even arrived at the protest! Walking down the street with a friend, she was detained and fraudulently charged with... assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer!
This took place at least an hour before the protest was even to have started! Originally charged with assaulting a cop with a knife, Holly had no knife, and so that had to be changed. Since she had a screw driver in her purse, the cops accused her of using this "deadly weapon" to assault an officer. Once again, a total fabrication, made up by the police to tie up protesters with time-consuming prosecutions.
DROP ALL CHARGES AGAINST HOLLY WORKS!
Oscar Grant was a young black retail grocery worker and father of a young daughter. He was out with friends for New Years Eve when he was detained by BART police. He was shot in the back at point blank range by a BART cop as he lay face-down on the Fruitvale station platform early on New Years Day, 2009. Cell-phone videos taken of the incident by witnesses on the station platform were posted on the internet, and protests erupted in Oakland. Over a week later, the officer, Johannes Mehserle, was finally charged with murder. He was granted a change of venue, and is being tried in Los Angeles.
The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610 • 510 763-2347
www.laboractionmumia.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
MARCH 20 COALITION FOLLOW-UP MEETING:
SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 2010, 2:00 P.M.
CENTRO DEL PUEBLO
474 VALENCIA STREET
Between 16th and 15th Streets, SF)
For more information call: 415-821-6545
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The US Social Forum II
" June 22-26, 2010 "
Detroit, Michigan, USA
Another World Is Possible! Another US is Necessary!
http://www.ussf2010.org/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
CIRCLE THESE DATES!!
Announcing...
A National Conference
To Bring the Troops Home Now!
JULY 23, 24, 25, 2010
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Albany, New York
www.nationalpeaceconference.org
AN INVITATION FROM: After Downing Street, Arab American Union Members Council, Black Agenda Report, Campaign for Peace and Democracy, Campus Antiwar Network, Code Pink, Iraq Veterans Against the War, National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations, Peace of the Action, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Progressive Democrats of America, U.S. Labor Against the War, The Fellowship of Reconciliation, Veterans for Peace, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom [list in formation]
The purpose of this conference is to bring together antiwar and social justice activists from across the country to discuss and decide what we can do together to end the wars, occupations, bombing attacks, threats and interventions that are taking place in the Middle East and beyond, which the U.S. government is conducting and promoting. Attend and voice your opinion on where the antiwar movement is today and where we go from here.
In these deeply troubled times, Washington's two wars and occupations rage on, resulting in an ever increasing number of dead and wounded; more and more civilians killed in drone bombing attacks; misery, deprivation, dislocation and shattered lives for millions; and a suicide rate for U.S. service members soaring to unprecedented heights. At the same time, trillions are spent on these seemingly endless Pentagon conflicts waged in pursuit of profits and global domination while trillions more are lost by working people in the value of their homes, in the loss of their jobs, pensions and health care, and in cuts for public services and vitally needed social programs.
We are witness to the massive bailout of banks and corporations while union contracts are shredded, work is outsourced, jobs are shipped off-shore, workers are evicted from their homes, and our youth and students face a bleak future of rising tuition costs, an ever-declining quality of education, and diminishing employment opportunities. They are offered instead the opportunity to become cannon fodder as the military serves as the employer of last resort while prison awaits many others.
The poor and working people in the U.S. suffer the horrors of unemployment, foreclosures, homelessness, untreated illnesses and unavailable health insurance, crumbling infrastructure, and temporary and part time work at starvation wages. These multiple crises impact communities of color with disproportionate severity. Meanwhile people in a growing number of countries around the world are subjected to death and destruction by the world's most powerful military machine.
There is another dimension to this tragedy. The U.S. is at war to control and plunder the very fossil fuel resources whose continued use threatens the future of the human race.
We demand the immediate and total withdrawal of U.S. military forces, mercenaries and contractors from Afghanistan and Iraq. Moreover, we recognize that the Middle East cauldron today also encompasses Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, Palestine and Israel, while Haiti, Honduras, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba and other countries in Latin America are targeted for intervention, subversion, occupation and control as a consequence of a militarized U.S. foreign policy. Our challenge is not only to end wars and occupations, but to fundamentally change the aggressive policies that inevitably lead our country to militarism and war.
The fight for better times, for a world of peace, justice and freedom, requires that we join together to make it happen, that we fight for the broad unity within the antiwar movement and across all the movements for social justice that has to date escaped us and that we collaborate to engage the American people in massive and united mobilizations against the warmakers and for the justice we deserve.
We have not forgotten the lessons of the civil rights movement, the struggle against the Vietnam War, the feminist and gay rights movements, and the monumental struggles that paved the way to the organization of American trade unions. History has demonstrated time and again that all critical social change is a product of the direct and massive intervention of the people.
We seek an inclusive conference where antiwar individuals and organizations come together to democratically discuss, debate and approve a plan of action aimed at winning the support and allegiance of the majority who have the power to compel a fundamental re-ordering of priorities.
We announce in advance that our goal is to develop strategies that unite us in action - for mass mobilizations and a variety of other tactics that suit the agendas of the constituent groups and individuals who participate in the conference proceedings. Our method is democracy. One person, one vote! Our goal is unity in action while respecting our diversity and differences in political program and orientation.
Join us in Albany, New York, July 23-25, 2010!
Issued by the United National Antiwar Conference (UNAC) Planning Committee
For more information, write UNAC2010@aol.com, or UNAC at P.O. Box 21675, Cleveland, OH 44121 or call 518-227-6947 or visit our website at www.nationalpeaceconference.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
A message from Brian Becker: Urgent alert from ANSWER
March 10, 2010
ANSWER@AnswerCoalition.org
Dear All:
I am writing to let you know about a serious assault on free speech rights that we believe is intended to hamper and obstruct the mobilization for the March 20 anti-war demonstrations in Washington, D.C., and in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
On Sunday night, March 6, volunteers in Los Angeles were arrested for allegedly putting up three posters announcing the March 20th action. They were charged with felony vandalism and kept in jail on a $20,000 bail for each of them. Thanks to volunteers coming together, we were able to raise bail money and they are now out of jail.
The heavy felony charge and huge $20,000 bail in Los Angeles comes shortly after a nearly identical situation in San Francisco. Two ANSWER organizers were arrested on felony vandalism charges for allegedly putting up a political poster and also each given a $20,000 bail.
In Washington, D.C., the ANSWER Coalition has been hit with another wave of fines for March 20th political posters. These thousands of dollars of new fines are on top of an unprecedented $70,000 fines from the two most recent mobilizations. We are challenging the old and new fines. The posters conformed to lawful regulations-as they always have. No organization, corporate entity or politician has ever been hit with these massive fines.
Just today, we received another $1,300 fines on top of earlier fines.
Anti-war organizations and volunteers are also being hit with heavy fines in Chicago, New York City and elsewhere.
The stakes here are high.
The massive fines and felony arrests with extraordinarily high bail come just before what we believe will be the largest outpouring to date against the war in Afghanistan.
The large corporations, including the biggest war contractors and banks, have billions of dollars to advertise their message of war and profit. Grassroots organizations have always relied on leaflets and posters to build progressive movements for change.
The government and national and local law enforcement agencies are now engaged in a nationally coordinated effort to stamp out the exercise of classic grassroots organizing.
We will never surrender to this campaign that aims to intimidate and bankrupt the progressive movement.
We are fighting back. Most importantly, we are continuing to mobilize.
We ask you to show your support by coming to the March 20 demonstrations and by bringing your friends, families, co-workers and fellow students. We will not be silenced.
You can also support this movement by sending an urgently needed donation today.
We want to thank the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF), the public interest legal organization, which has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the ANSWER Coalition and Muslim American Society Freedom that challenges the constitutionality of the D.C. postering regulations. Their tireless pro bono legal effort has resulted in an important victory at the U.S. Court of Appeals, which allows the lawsuit to proceed. The government had tried to stop us from even having our day in court. In California, constitutional rights attorney Carol Sobel has waged a major legal battle against the government's efforts to target free speech postering activities.
In order to win this fight, we have to both defend our rights in the courts and to show solidarity with activists who are facing repression. And each and every one of us can do our part to help support the mobilization of the people against war and occupation. Basic rights were never a gift from politicians. Important change, including basic free speech rights were the result of the struggle by generation after generation.
Thank you for your support. And please, take action now. Together, we can make the difference.
All out March 20!
Brian Becker_National Coordinator, ANSWER Coalition
Please make an urgently needed donation!
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Donation?ACTION=SHOW_DONATION_OPTIONS&CAMPAIGN_ID=2302&donate=link1&JServSessionIdr004=q05kpaorf1.app10a
Please make your plans to come to Washington, D.C., now. If you cannot come, please make an urgently needed donation that can help others attend.
The March 20 National March on Washington depends on the support from thousands of others like you who are taking a stand against the expanding wars and occupations. Please make your contribution today.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Fault Lines - Haiti: The politics of rebuilding
[Very enlightening video. The people of Haiti are thinking clearly. They are just not allowed to govern themselves. They are under US/UN corporate-sponsored military occupation to prevent them from running their own country cooperatively....bw]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuUt12usDVs&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Mine - Story of a Sacred Mountain
[This is a stunningly beautiful film. It is the story of Avatar in real life today...bw]
http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi888603161/
India's Supreme Court recently approved the project, and mining could begin in a matter of months.
The Dongria remain united in their determination to stop Vedanta from turning their sacred mountain into an industrial wasteland.
One of the Court's conditions is that some of the mine's profits are put towards "tribal development."
But no "development" or "compensation" package could cure the problems that mining Niyamgiri will cause: the destruction of a unique environment and culture.
The Dongria have accused Vedanta of "trying to flood us out with money" and have made it clear that:
"Mining only makes profit for the rich. We will become beggars if the company destroys our mountain and our forest so that they can make money. We don't want the mine or any help at all from the company."
Vedanta was founded by Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal, who owns more than half the shares.
Under Siege
Vedanta is still waiting to clear the final red tape before they are able to begin mining. Meanwhile, the Dongria are being held siege in their hill range.
Non-tribal villagers, who do not farm the land but rely on wage labor to survive, have blocked the routes into the Niyamgiri hills.
Young men, sometimes armed with axes, are refusing to allow any outsiders, including journalists, to enter Niyamgiri and visit Dongria Kondh villages.
The reason is simple: they do not want the world to hear the Dongria's voice.
Act now to help the Dongria Kondh
Your support is vital if the Dongria Kondh are to survive. There are many ways you can help.
--Write to India's Minister of Environment and Forests asking him to safeguard the Dongria Kondh's rights:
http://www.survivalinternational.org/actnow/writealetter/dongria
--Donate to the Dongria Kondh campaign (and other Survival campaigns):
http://www.survivalinternational.org/donations
--Write to your MP or MEP (UK):
http://www.writetothem.com/
or Senators and members of Congress (US):
http://www.congress.org/
--Write to your local Indian high commission or embassy:
http://www.embassiesabroad.com/
--If you want to get more involved, contact Survival:
http://www.survivalinternational.org/info/contact
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
I AM SEAN BELL, black boys speak
by Stacey Muhammad plus
1 year ago 1 year ago: Thu, Jan 1, 2009 6:22pm EST (Eastern Standard Time)
http://vimeo.com/2691617
I AM SEAN BELL
black boys speak
A Short Form Documentary from Wildseed Films
Directed by Stacey Muhammad
Asst. Directed by Shomari Mason
Edited by: Stacey Muhammad & R.H. Bless
Principal Photography: May 17, 2008
Brooklyn, NY
Running Time 10:30
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
War veterans and resisters say "All Out for March 20th-National March on Washington!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwsLfG9JjF8
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Bilin Reenacts Avatar Film 12-02-2010 By Haitham Al Katib
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chw32qG-M7E
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Watch the video: "Haiti and the Devil's Curse" at:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
or
Haiti And The 'Devil's Curse' - The Truth About Haiti & Lies Of The Media PART 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWqgOe0-0xA
Haiti And The 'Devil's Curse' - The Truth About Haiti & Lies Of The Media PART 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9Qki6TrI7M&feature=related
It's a powerful and accurate history of Haiti--including historical film footage of French, U.S., Canadian, and UN invasions, mass murder and torture, exploitation and occupation of Haiti--featuring Danny Glover.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Gaza in Plain Language: a video by Anthony Lawson and Joe Mowrey
Anthony Lawson and Joe Mowrey have created an amazing video. The narrative is from an article published not long ago in Dissident Voice written by Mr. Mowrey. [See article with the same name. A warning, however. This video is very graphic and very brutal but this is a truth we must see!..bw] A video that narrates just what happened, without emotion... just the facts, ma'am! Share it with those you know! Now on PTT TV so Google and YouTube can't censor this information totally.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/02/video-gaza-in-plain-language/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Glen Ford on Black Delusion in the Age of Obama
[A speech delivered to the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations conference. This is a great speech full of information.]
blackisbackcoalition.org
http://blip.tv/file/3169123
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Security in an Insecure Land
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/01/30/world/americas/1247466794033/security-in-an-insecure-land.html?hp
Also see:
Haitian Law Enforcement Returns
The Haitian police are back on patrol in Port-au-Prince.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/playlist/world/americas/1194811622209/index.html#1247466794033
Haitians Scramble for Aid
France24 reports on desperate Haitians trying to get some aid food in the Cité Soleil district of Port-au-Prince.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/playlist/world/americas/1194811622209/index.html#1247466794033
HOW MANY CRIMES CAN THE U.S. COMMIT IN A CENTURY? EVIDENTLY THEIR PENCHANT FOR MORE AND MORE EGREGIOUS CRIMES ARE LIMITLESS! IT'S UP TO US TO STOP THEM! U.S. OUT OF HAITI NOW! LEAVE THE FOOD AND SUPPLIES AND GET THE HELL OUT! AND TAKE YOUR MARINES, GUNS AND TANKS WITH YOU!
U.S. Marines prevent the distribution of food to starving people due to "lack of security." They bring a truck full of supplies then, because their chain of command says they haven't enough men with guns, they drive away with the truckload of food leaving the starving Haitians running after the truck empty-handed! This is shown in detail in the video in the New York Times titled, "Confusion in Haitian Countryside." The Marines-the strong, the brave--turn tail and run! INCAPABLE, EVEN, OF DISTRIBUTING FOOD TO UNARMED, STARVING, MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN!
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/01/22/world/americas/1247466678828/confusion-in-the-haitian-countryside.html?ref=world
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Lost Generation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Please sign the petition to stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal and
and forward it to all your lists.
"Mumia Abu-Jamal and The Global Abolition of the Death Penalty"
http://www.petitiononline.com/Mumialaw/petition.html
(A Life In the Balance - The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, at 34, Amnesty Int'l, 2000; www. Amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/001/2000.)
[Note: This petition is approved by Mumia Abu-Jamal and his lead attorney, Robert R. Bryan, San Francisco (E-mail: MumiaLegalDefense@gmail.com; Website: www.MumiaLegalDefense.org).]
*********************************************************************
Alert! New Threat To Mumia's Life!
Supreme Court Set To Announce A Decision
On the State Appeal To Reinstate Mumia's Death Sentence
17 January 2010
The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 Oakland CA 94610
(510) 763-2347
Visit our newly-rebuilt and updated web site for background information on Mumia's innocence. See the "What You Can Do Now" page: www.laboractionmumia.org
- The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 Oakland CA 94610
(510) 763-2347
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The Pay at the Top
The compensation research firm Equilar compiled data reflecting pay for 200 chief executives at 198 public companies that filed their annual proxies by March 27 and had revenue of at least $6.3 billion. (Two companies, Motorola and Synnex, had co-C.E.O.'s.) | See a detailed description of the methodology.
http://projects.nytimes.com/executive_compensation?ref=business
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
AMAZING SPEECH BY WAR VETERAN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akm3nYN8aG8
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The Unemployment Game Show: Are You *Really* Unemployed? - From Mint.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulu3SCAmeBA
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Video: Gaza Lives On
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU5Wi2jhnW0
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
ASSESSMENT - "LEFT IN THE COLD"- CROW CREEK - 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmfue_pjwho&feature=PlayList&p=217F560F18109313&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=5
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FREE LYNNE STEWART NOW!
Lynne Stewart in Jail!
Mail tax free contributions payable to National Lawyers Guild Foundation. Write in memo box: "Lynne Stewart Defense." Mail to: Lynne Stewart Defense, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610.
SEND RESOLUTIONS AND STATEMENTS OF SUPPORT TO DEFENSE ATTORNEY JOSHUA L. DRATEL, ESQ. FAX: 212) 571 3792 AND EMAIL: jdratel@aol.com
SEND PROTESTS TO ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER:
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Department of Justice Main Switchboard - 202-514-2000
AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
Office of the Attorney General Public Comment Line - 202-353-1555
To send Lynne a letter, write:
Lynne Stewart
53504-054
MCC-NY
150 Park Row
New York, NY 10007
Lynne Stewart speaks in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOQ5_VKRf5k&feature=related
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
With a New Smile, 'Rage' Fades Away [SINGLE PAYER NOW!!!]
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/12/08/health/20091208_Clinic/index.html?ref=us
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FTA [F**k The Army] Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HlkgPCgU7g
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Buffy Sainte Marie - No No Keshagesh
[Keshagesh is the Cree word to describe a greedy puppy that wants to keep eating everything, a metaphor for corporate greed]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKmAb1gNN74&feature=player_embedded#
Buffy Sainte-Marie - No No Keshagesh lyrics:
http://www.lyricsmode.com/?i=print_lyrics&id=705368
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The Story of Mouseland: As told by Tommy Douglas in 1944
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqgOvzUeiAA
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The Communist Manifesto illustrated by Cartoons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KUl4yfABE4
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
HELP VFP PUT THIS BOOK IN YOUR HIGH SCHOOL OR PUBLIC LIBRARY
For a donation of only $18.95, we can put a copy of the book "10 Excellent Reasons Not to Join the Military" into a public or high school library of your choice. [Reason number 1: You may be killed]
A letter and bookplate will let readers know that your donation helped make this possible.
Putting a book in either a public or school library ensures that students, parents, and members of the community will have this valuable information when they need it.
Don't have a library you would like us to put it in? We'll find one for you!
https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/826/t/9311/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=4906
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
This is a must-see video about the life of Oscar Grant, a young man who loved his family and was loved by his family. It's important to watch to understand the tremendous loss felt by his whole family as a result of his cold-blooded murder by BART police officers--Johannes Mehserle being the shooter while the others held Oscar down and handcuffed him to aid Mehserle in the murder of Oscar Grant January 1, 2009.
The family wants to share this video here with you who support justice for Oscar Grant.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/07/21/18611878.php
WE DEMAND JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Troy Anthony Davis is an African American man who has spent the last 18 years on death row for a murder he did not commit. There is no physical evidence tying him to the crime and seven out of nine witnesses have recanted. New evidence and new testimony have been presented to the Georgia courts, but the justice system refuses to consider this evidence, which would prove Troy Davis' innocence once and for all.
Sign the petition and join the NAACP, Amnesty International USA, and other partners in demanding justice for Troy Davis!
http://www.iamtroy.com/
For Now, High Court Punts on Troy Davis, on Death Row for 18 Years
By Ashby Jones
Wall Street Journal Law Blog
June 30, 2009
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/06/30/for-now-high-court-punts-on-troy-davis-on-death-row-for-18-years/
Take action now:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&aid=12361&ICID=A0906A01&tr=y&auid=5030305
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Committee To Save Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 2012
New York, NY 10159-2012
New videos from April 24 Oakland Mumia event
http://abu-jamal-news.com/article?name=jlboak
Donations for Mumia's Legal Defense in the U.S. Our legal effort is the front line of the battle for Mumia's freedom and life. His legal defense needs help. The costs are substantial for our litigation in the U.S. Supreme Court and at the state level. To help, please make your checks payable to the National Lawyers Guild Foundation indicate "Mumia" on the bottom left). All donations are tax deductible under the Internal Revenue Code, section 501c)3), and should be mailed to:
It is outrageous and a violation of human rights that Mumia remains in prison and on death row. His life hangs in the balance. My career has been marked by successfully representing people facing death in murder cases. I will not rest until we win Mumia's case. Justice requires no less.
With best wishes,
Robert R. Bryan
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Short Video About Al-Awda's Work
The following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's work since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown on Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l Al-Awda Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected over the past nine years.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial support to carry out its work.
To submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the simple instructions.
Thank you for your generosity!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT!
FLASHPOINTS Interview with Innocent San Quentin Death Row Inmate
Kevin Cooper -- Aired Monday, May 18,2009
http://www.flashpoints.net/#GOOGLE_SEARCH_ENGINE
To learn more about Kevin Cooper go to:
savekevincooper.org
LINKS
San Francisco Chronicle article on the recent ruling:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/13/BAM517J8T3.DTL
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling and dissent:
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/05/11/05-99004o.pdf
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
COURAGE TO RESIST!
Support the troops who refuse to fight!
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/
Donate:
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/21/57/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
C. ARTICLES IN FULL
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Bloomberg Says a Soda Tax 'Makes Sense'
By A. G. SULZBERGER
March 7, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/nyregion/08soda.html?ref=nyregion
2) Program Will Pay Homeowners to Sell at a Loss
By DAVID STREITFELD
March 7, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/business/08short.html?ref=business
3) The Source of Obama's Trouble
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
March 9, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com//2010/03/09/opinion/09herbert.html
4) Public Pension Funds Are Adding Risk to Raise Returns
By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH
March 8, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/business/09pension.html?hp
5) Israel: Plans for 3rd Nuclear Reactor
By REUTERS
March 8, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/world/middleeast/09briefs-Israel.html?ref=world
6) In Jury Selection for Hate Crime, a Struggle to Find Tolerance
By MANNY FERNANDEZ
March 8, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/nyregion/09patchogue.html?ref=world
7) New Trial Granted in 5 Murders in New Orleans
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
March 8, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/us/09orleans.html?ref=us
8) Iraq War veteran Army Spc Marc Hall writes from jail
War objector with PTSD jailed and 'extradited' to Kuwait for secret trial
March 9, 2010
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/821/1/
9) An Eviction Stirs Old Ghosts in a Contested City
By ISABEL KERSHNER
March 9, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/world/middleeast/10jerusalem.html
10) Texas: Judge Takes Back Death Penalty Ruling
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 9, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/us/10brfs-JUDGETAKESBA_BRF.html?ref=us
11) Your Retirement Funds to Bail Out Failed Banks?
ladyjayne's blog
Commentary on the trials, tribulations, and quirks of these times.
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
http://ladyjaynestahl.blogspot.com/2010/03/public-retirement-funds-to-bail-out.html
12) New Strike Paralyzes Greece
By NIKI KITSANTONIS
March 11, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/world/europe/12greece.html?ref=world
13) House Rejects Plan to Leave Afghanistan by Year's End
By CARL HULSE
March 10, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/world/asia/11cong.html?ref=world
14) Kansas City to Close Nearly Half Its Schools
By SUSAN SAULNY
March 10, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/us/11kansascity.html?ref=us
15) Carlos Slim Tops Forbes List of Billionaires
By BLOOMBERG NEWS
March 10, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/business/11forbes.html?ref=business
16) Cost of F-35 Has Risen 60% to 90%, Military Says
By CHRISTOPHER DREW
March 11, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/business/12plane.html?ref=business
17) Big Brother in Blue
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
March 13, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/opinion/13herbert.html
18) New Fraud Cases Point to Lapses in Iraq Projects
By JAMES GLANZ
March 13, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/world/middleeast/14reconstruct.html?hp
19) As the Budget Ax Swings Again, There May Be No Way to Avoid the Pain
By SUSAN DOMINUS
March 12, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/nyregion/13bigcity.html?ref=nyregion
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Bloomberg Says a Soda Tax 'Makes Sense'
By A. G. SULZBERGER
March 7, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/nyregion/08soda.html?ref=nyregion
As the battle over the state budget and the looming multibillion-dollar gap becomes more intense, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has stepped up his call for the Legislature to pass a penny-per-ounce tax on soda to stave off major service cuts to education and health care.
During his weekly radio address on Sunday - a day before a symposium on the topic - Mr. Bloomberg noted research suggesting that such a tax would reduce consumption of the sugary drinks, driving down obesity rates and the accompanying medical costs. Yet his main thrust was on finding a quick source of revenue for a city in serious need of one.
"In these tough economic times, easy fixes to our problems are hard to come by," he said. "But the soda tax is a fix that just makes sense. It would save lives. It would cut rising health care costs. And it would keep thousands of teachers and nurses where they belong: in the classrooms and clinics."
The city's health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, and his predecessor, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, have advocated such a move, but the comments reinforce the mayor's newly public support of the controversial tax.
Last year, after Gov. David A. Paterson encountered such strong opposition that he eventually dropped the proposal, Mr. Bloomberg expressed support for it but noted the "enormous outcry" and said the idea was "just not one that we're going to be pursuing."
This year, Mr. Bloomberg is throwing his weight behind the proposed tax at a time when the governor has been weakened and distracted by scandal. During testimony about the budget before the Legislature in January, Mr. Bloomberg - whose history of using his office to tackle public health issues includes an anti-soda advertisement campaign and banning smoking in bars - called the proposal "far-sighted."
Dr. Richard F. Daines, the state health commissioner, said he had noticed a difference.
"What I think you're seeing is really a momentum shift in favor of doing it," he said.
Dr. Daines added that the new tax differed from the one proposed last year in that it would be levied directly on soda producers and the estimated $1 billion in annual revenue would be dedicated to the health care budget, rather than to the general fund. Mr. Bloomberg said the tax would also benefit education.
On Monday, Mr. Paterson was scheduled to headline a symposium about the beverage tax at the State Capitol, in Albany, with Dr. Daines and Dr. Farley attending.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Program Will Pay Homeowners to Sell at a Loss
By DAVID STREITFELD
March 7, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/business/08short.html?ref=business
In an effort to end the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration has been trying to keep defaulting owners in their homes. Now it will take a new approach: paying some of them to leave.
This latest program, which will allow owners to sell for less than they owe and will give them a little cash to speed them on their way, is one of the administration's most aggressive attempts to grapple with a problem that has defied solutions.
More than five million households are behind on their mortgages and risk foreclosure. The government's $75 billion mortgage modification plan has helped only a small slice of them. Consumer advocates, economists and even some banking industry representatives say much more needs to be done.
For the administration, there is also the concern that millions of foreclosures could delay or even reverse the economy's tentative recovery - the last thing it wants in an election year.
Taking effect on April 5, the program could encourage hundreds of thousands of delinquent borrowers who have not been rescued by the loan modification program to shed their houses through a process known as a short sale, in which property is sold for less than the balance of the mortgage. Lenders will be compelled to accept that arrangement, forgiving the difference between the market price of the property and what they are owed.
"We want to streamline and standardize the short sale process to make it much easier on the borrower and much easier on the lender," said Seth Wheeler, a Treasury senior adviser.
The problem is highlighted by a routine case in Phoenix. Chris Paul, a real estate agent, has a house he is trying to sell on behalf of its owner, who owes $150,000. Mr. Paul has an offer for $48,000, but the bank holding the mortgage says it wants at least $90,000. The frustrated owner is now contemplating foreclosure.
To bring the various parties to the table - the homeowner, the lender that services the loan, the investor that owns the loan, the bank that owns the second mortgage on the property - the government intends to spread its cash around.
Under the new program, the servicing bank, as with all modifications, will get $1,000. Another $1,000 can go toward a second loan, if there is one. And for the first time the government would give money to the distressed homeowners themselves. They will get $1,500 in "relocation assistance."
Should the incentives prove successful, the short sales program could have multiple benefits. For the investment pools that own many home loans, there is the prospect of getting more money with a sale than with a foreclosure.
For the borrowers, there is the likelihood of suffering less damage to credit ratings. And as part of the transaction, they will get the lender's assurance that they will not later be sued for an unpaid mortgage balance.
For communities, the plan will mean fewer empty foreclosed houses waiting to be sold by banks. By some estimates, as many as half of all foreclosed properties are ransacked by either the former owners or vandals, which depresses the value of the property further and pulls down the value of neighboring homes.
If short sales are about to have their moment, it has been a long time coming. At the beginning of the foreclosure crisis, lenders shunned short sales. They were not equipped to deal with the labor-intensive process and were suspicious of it.
The lenders' thinking, said the economist Thomas Lawler, went like this: "I lend someone $200,000 to buy a house. Then he says, 'Look, I have someone willing to pay $150,000 for it; otherwise I think I'm going to default.' Do I really believe the borrower can't pay it back? And is $150,000 a reasonable offer for the property?"
Short sales are "tailor-made for fraud," said Mr. Lawler, a former executive at the mortgage finance company Fannie Mae.
Last year, short sales started to increase, although they remain relatively uncommon. Fannie Mae said preforeclosure deals on loans in its portfolio more than tripled in 2009, to 36,968. But real estate agents say many lenders still seem to disapprove of short sales.
Under the new federal program, a lender will use real estate agents to determine the value of a home and thus the minimum to accept. This figure will not be shared with the owner, but if an offer comes in that is equal to or higher than this amount, the lender must take it.
Mr. Paul, the Phoenix agent, was skeptical. "In a perfect world, this would work," he said. "But because estimates of value are inherently subjective, it won't. The banks don't want to sell at a discount."
There are myriad other potential conflicts over short sales that may not be solved by the program, which was announced on Nov. 30 but whose details are still being fine-tuned. Many would-be short sellers have second and even third mortgages on their houses. Banks that own these loans are in a position to block any sale unless they get a piece of the deal.
"You have one loan, it's no sweat to get a short sale," said Howard Chase, a Miami Beach agent who says he does around 20 short sales a month. "But the second mortgage often is the obstacle."
Major lenders seem to be taking a cautious approach to the new initiative. In many cases, big banks do not actually own the mortgages; they simply administer them and collect payments. J. K. Huey, a Wells Fargo vice president, said a short sale, like a loan modification, would have to meet the requirements of the investor who owns the loan.
"This is not an opportunity for the customer to just walk away," Ms. Huey said. "If someone doesn't come to us saying, 'I've done everything I can, I used all my savings, I borrowed money and, by the way, I'm losing my job and moving to another city, and have all the documentation,' we're not going to do a short sale."
But even if lenders want to treat short sales as a last resort for desperate borrowers, in reality the standards seem to be looser.
Sree Reddy, a lawyer and commercial real estate investor who lives in Miami Beach, bought a one-bedroom condominium in 2005, spent about $30,000 on improvements and ended up owing $540,000. Three years later, the value had fallen by 40 percent.
Mr. Reddy wanted to get out from under his crushing monthly payments. He lost a lot of money in the crash but was not in default. Nevertheless, his bank let him sell the place for $360,000 last summer.
"A short sale provides peace of mind," said Mr. Reddy, 32. "If you're in foreclosure, you don't know when they're ultimately going to take the place away from you."
Mr. Reddy still lives in the apartment complex where he bought that condo, but is now a renter paying about half of his old mortgage payment. Another benefit, he said: "The place I'm in now is nicer and a little bigger."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) The Source of Obama's Trouble
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
March 9, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com//2010/03/09/opinion/09herbert.html
The Obama administration and Democrats in general are in trouble because they are not urgently and effectively addressing the issue that most Americans want them to: the frightening economic insecurity that has put a chokehold on millions of American families.
The economy shed 36,000 jobs last month, and that was trumpeted in the press as good news. Well, after your house has burned down I suppose it's good news that the flames may finally be flickering out. But once you realize that it will take 11 million or more new jobs to get us back to where we were when the recession began, you begin to understand that we're not really making any headway at all.
It's also widely known by now that the official employment statistics drastically understate the problem. Once we take off the statistical rose-colored glasses, we're left with the awful reality of millions upon millions of Americans who have lost - or are losing - their jobs, their homes, their small businesses, and their hopes for a brighter future.
Instead of focusing with unwavering intensity on this increasingly tragic situation, making it their top domestic priority, President Obama and the Democrats on Capitol Hill have spent astonishing amounts of time and energy, and most of their political capital, on an obsessive quest to pass a health care bill.
Health care reform is important. But what the public has wanted and still badly needs above all else from Mr. Obama and the Democrats are bold efforts to put people back to work. A major employment rebound is the only real way to alleviate the deep economic anxiety that has gripped so many Americans. Unaddressed, that anxiety inevitably evolves into dread and then anger.
But while the nation is desperate for jobs, jobs, jobs, the Democrats have spent most of the Obama era chanting health care, health care, health care.
The talk inside the Beltway, that super-incestuous, egomaniacal, reality-free zone, is that President Obama and the Democrats have a messaging or public relations problem. We're being told - and even worse, Mr. Obama and the Democrats are being told - that their narrative is not getting through. In other words, the wonderfulness of all that they've done is somehow not being recognized by the slow-to-catch-on masses.
That's just silly. People are upset because they are mired in economic distress and are losing faith that their elected representatives are looking out for their best interests. They've watched with increasing anger as their government has been hijacked by the economic elite. They know that the big banks that were bailed out by taxpayers can borrow money at an interest rate of near zero while at the same time charging credit-card holders usurious rates of 20 to 30 percent.
They know that the financial fat cats are fighting the creation of a truly independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency. They know that while ordinary Americans are kept out of the corridors of power, the elites with their lobbyists and lawyers and campaign contributions have a voice in every important decision that is made.
It's not the message that's a problem for Mr. Obama and the Democrats, it's the all-too-clear reality. People know that the government that is supposed to be looking out for ordinary people - for working people and the poor - is not doing nearly enough about an employment crisis that is lowering standards of living and hollowing out the American dream.
This is not just a short-term crisis. There are many communities across the country in which the effective jobless rate is higher than 50 percent. Many state and local governments are grappling with disastrous revenue shortfalls that are forcing cuts in services and layoffs, and threatening the viability of even a modest national economic recovery.
A University of Michigan survey of consumer sentiment in February found that 60 percent of American consumers expect to receive no income gains at all in the year ahead, the worst finding in that category in the history of the surveys.
The Republican Party has nothing in the way of solutions to Americans' economic plight. It is committed only to the demented policy of trying to ensure that President Obama and the Democrats fail.
But the fact that the Republicans are pathetic and destructive is no reason for the Democrats to shirk their obligation to fight powerfully and relentlessly for the economic well-being of all Americans. There are now six people in the employment market for every available job. There is a staggering backlog of discouraged workers who would show up tomorrow if there were a job to be had.
The many millions of new jobs needed to make a real dent in the employment crisis are not going to materialize by themselves. Mr. Obama and the Democrats don't seem to understand that.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) Public Pension Funds Are Adding Risk to Raise Returns
By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH
March 8, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/business/09pension.html?hp
States and companies have started investing very differently when it comes to the billions of dollars they are safeguarding for workers' retirement.
Companies are quietly and gradually moving their pension funds out of stocks. They want to reduce their investment risk and are buying more long-term bonds.
But states and other bodies of government are seeking higher returns for their pension funds, to make up for ground lost in the last couple of years and to pay all the benefits promised to present and future retirees. Higher returns come with more risk.
"In effect, they're going to Las Vegas," said Frederick E. Rowe, a Dallas investor and the former chairman of the Texas Pension Review Board, which oversees public plans in that state. "Double up to catch up."
Though they generally say that their strategies are aimed at diversification and are not riskier, public pension funds are trying a wide range of investments: commodity futures, junk bonds, foreign stocks, deeply discounted mortgage-backed securities and margin investing. And some states that previously shunned hedge funds are trying them now.
The Texas teachers' pension fund recently paid Chicago to receive a stream of payments from the money going into the city's parking meters in the coming years. The deal gave Chicago an upfront payment that it could use to help balance its budget. Alas, Chicago did not have enough money to contribute to its own pension fund, which has been stung by real estate deals that fizzled when the city lost out in the bidding for the 2016 Olympics.
A spokeswoman for the Texas teachers' fund said plan administrators believed that such alternative investments were the likeliest way to earn 8 percent average annual returns over time.
Pension funds rarely trumpet their intentions, partly to keep other big investors from trading against them. But some big corporations are unloading the stocks that have dominated pension portfolios for decades. General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, J. C. Penney, Boeing, Federal Express and Ashland are among those that have been shifting significant amounts of pension money out of stocks.
Other companies say they plan to follow suit, though more slowly. A poll of pension funds conducted by Pyramis Global Advisors last November found that more than half of corporate funds were reducing the portion they invested in United States equities.
Laggards tend to be companies with big shortfalls in their pension funds. Those moving the fastest are often mature companies with large pension funds, and who fear a big bear market could decimate the funds and the companies' own finances.
"The larger the pension plan, the lower-risk strategy you would like to employ," said Andrew T. Ward, the chief investment officer of Boeing, which shifted a big block of pension money out of stocks in 2007. That helped cushion Boeing's pension fund against the big losses of 2008.
Shedding stocks gave Boeing "material protection right when we needed it most," Mr. Ward said. By the time the markets had bottomed out last March, Boeing's pension fund had lost 14 percent of its value, while those of its equity-laden peers had lost 25 to 30 percent, he said.
"We estimated that the strategy saved our company in the short term right around $4 or $5 billion of funded status," he said.
Boeing and other companies seeking to reduce their investment risk are moving into fixed-income instruments, like bonds - but not just any bonds. They are buying and holding bonds scheduled to pay many years in the future, when their retirees expect their money.
The value of the bonds may fall in the meantime, just like the value of stocks. But declining bond prices are not such a worry, because the companies plan to hold the bonds for the accompanying interest payments that will in turn go to retirees, not sell them in the interim.
Towers Watson, a big benefits consulting firm, surveyed senior financial executives last year and found that two-thirds planned to decrease the stock portion of their companies' pension funds by the end of 2010. They typically said their stock allocations would shrink by 10 percentage points.
"That's 10 times the shift we might see in any given year," said Carl Hess, head of Towers Watson's investment consulting business. Economists have speculated that a truly seismic shift in pension investing away from stocks could be a drag on the market, but they say it would not be long-lasting.
Corporate America's change of heart is notable all on its own, after decades of resistance to anything other than returns like those of the stock markets. But it's even more startling when compared with governments' continued loyalty to stocks. When governments scale back on the domestic stocks in their pension portfolios these days, it is often just to make way for more foreign stocks or private equities, which are not publicly traded.
Government pension plans cannot beef up their bonds that mature many, many years from now without dashing their business models. They use long-range estimates that presume high investment returns will cover most of the cost of the benefits they must pay. And that, they say, allows them to make smaller contributions along the way.
Most have been assuming their investments will pay 8 percent a year on average, over the long term. This is based on an assumption that stocks will pay 9.5 percent on average, and bonds will pay about 5.75 percent, in roughly a 60-40 mix.
(Corporate plans do their calculations differently, and for them, investment returns are a less important factor.)
The problem now is that bond rates have been low for years, and stocks have been prone to such wild swings that a 60-40 mixture of stocks and bonds is not paying 8 percent. Many public pension funds have been averaging a little more than 3 percent a year for the last decade, so they have fallen behind where their planning models say they should be.
A growing number of experts say that governments need to lower the assumptions they make about rates of return, to reflect today's market conditions.
But plan officials say they cannot.
"Nobody wants to adjust the rate, because liabilities would explode," said Trent May, chief investment officer of Wyoming's state pension fund.
The $30 billion Colorado state pension fund is one of a tiny number of government plans to disclose how much difference even a slight change in its projected rate of return could make. Colorado has been assuming its investments will earn 8.5 percent annually, on average, and on that basis it reported a $17.9 billion shortfall in its most recent annual report.
But the state also disclosed what would happen if it lowered its investment assumption just half a percentage point, to 8 percent. Though it might be more likely to achieve that return, Colorado would earn less over time on its investments. So at 8 percent, the plan's shortfall would actually jump to $21.4 billion. Contributions would need to increase to keep pace.
Colorado cannot afford the contributions it owes, even at the current estimated rate of return. It has fallen behind by several billion dollars on its yearly contributions, and after a bruising battle the legislature recently passed a bill reducing retirees' cost-of-living adjustment, to 2 percent, from 3.5 percent. Public employees' unions are threatening to sue to have the law repealed.
If Colorado could somehow get 9 percent annual returns from its investments, though, its pension shortfall would shrink to a less daunting $15 billion, according to its annual report.
That explains why plan officials are looking everywhere for high-yielding investments.
Mr. May, in Wyoming, said many governments were "moving away from the perceived safety and liquidity of the investment-grade market" and investing money offshore, but he said he was aware of the risks. "There's a history of emerging markets kind of hitting the wall," he said.
Last year, the North Carolina Legislature enacted a measure to let the state pension fund invest 5 percent of its assets in "credit opportunities," like junk bonds and asset-backed securities from the Federal Reserve's Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, an emergency program created to thaw the frozen markets for such securities.
The law also lets North Carolina put 5 percent of its pension portfolio into commodities, real estate and other assets that the state sees as hedges against inflation. A summary of the bill issued by the state's treasurer and sole pension trustee, Janet Cowell, said it would provide "flexibility and the tools to increase portfolio return and better manage risk."
But some think they see new risks.
"It doesn't pass the smell test," said Edward Macheski, a retired money manager living in North Carolina. "North Carolina's assumption is 7.25 percent, and they haven't matched it in 10 years." He went to a recent meeting of the state treasurer's advisory board, armed with a list of questions about the investment policy. But the board voted not to permit any public discussion.
Wisconsin, meanwhile, has become one of the first states to adopt an investment strategy called "risk parity," which involves borrowing extra money for the pension portfolio and investing it in a type of Treasury bond that will pay higher interest if inflation rises.
Officials of the State of Wisconsin Investment Board declined to be interviewed but provided written descriptions of risk parity. The records show that Wisconsin wanted to reduce its exposure to the stock market, and shifting money into the inflation-proof Treasury bonds would do that. But Wisconsin also wanted to keep its assumed rate of return at 7.8 percent, and the Treasury bonds would not pay that much.
Wisconsin decided it could lower its equities but preserve its assumption if it also added a significant amount of leverage to its pension fund, by using a variety of derivative instruments, like swaps, futures or repurchase agreements.
It decided to start with a small amount of leverage and gradually increase it over time, but word of even a baby step into derivatives elicited howls of protest from around the state.
The big California pension fund, known as Calpers, was already under fire for losing billions of dollars on private equities and real estate in the last few years. So far it has stayed with those asset classes, while negotiating lower fees and writing off some of the most troubled real estate investments.
It announced in February that it had started looking into whether it should lower its expected rate of investment return, now 7.75 percent a year. It has embarked on a study, but a spokesman said that process would not be done until December, safely after the coming election.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) Israel: Plans for 3rd Nuclear Reactor
By REUTERS
March 8, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/world/middleeast/09briefs-Israel.html?ref=world
Israel will announce plans this week to build a new nuclear reactor to diversify its energy sector, officials said Monday. Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau has discussed the possibility of cooperating on building a nuclear plant with France and Jordan, the ministry said. The project would be overseen by France and use French technology. Israel already has two reactors, the Dimona reactor in the Negev desert, which is widely assumed to have produced nuclear weapons, and a research reactor at Nahal Soreq near Tel Aviv.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) In Jury Selection for Hate Crime, a Struggle to Find Tolerance
By MANNY FERNANDEZ
March 8, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/nyregion/09patchogue.html?ref=world
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. - Over the last several days, Justice Robert W. Doyle has heard the typical excuses from potential jurors. One woman mentioned her husband's medical problems. Another woman complained about her back.
But other prospective jurors, seeking to be excused, have brought up larger issues in the judge's Long Island courtroom.
A young woman said that her father, a mechanic, has a "huge opinion about illegal immigration," and that his views on the subject have "become my opinions as well." A man told Justice Doyle that his house was broken into by illegal immigrants while he was sleeping, a fact that he said would affect his ability to be fair and impartial.
And there were those who took a different view, like the bank worker who said that because her husband is of Mexican and Italian descent, she might have difficulty being fair. And the woman who explained that most of the clients in her job are illegal Latino immigrants.
"I don't think that because of that they should be killed," she told Justice Doyle.
The prospective jurors were being asked to sit in judgment in the case involving the killing of Marcelo Lucero, a 37-year-old Ecuadorean immigrant stabbed to death in November 2008 in Patchogue, more than an hour's drive from Manhattan.
Mr. Lucero was attacked by seven teenagers who, the police said, had made a sport out of assaulting Hispanic men, calling it "beaner hopping." Mr. Lucero's death prompted widespread outrage and exposed racial tensions in Patchogue, where a number of Latinos came forward after the attack to describe muggings and assaults that had them living in fear.
Now, as Jeffrey Conroy, 19, becomes the first defendant to go on trial in the case, jury selection has proven difficult, in part because of the views on Latino immigration held by some prospective jurors in Suffolk County.
Last week, after three days of jury selection, about 130 men and women were questioned by the judge, the prosecutor and Mr. Conroy's defense lawyer here in State Supreme Court. Only five were selected; the rest were excused. On Monday, jury selection continued as another roughly 130 were brought in, and more than a dozen were excused by the end of the day.
Once the jury is seated, Mr. Conroy's defense may be complicated by the fact that four of the seven teenagers have pleaded guilty and may testify against him. But something larger may be at play: the treatment of immigrants in Suffolk County and the allegations that have been raised that some residents there are biased against them.
At times, the jury selection had the feel of a call-in show on talk radio, as men and women sounded off on illegal immigration, hate crimes, their ethnic background and the American dream. Most of the comments made by potential jurors came in response to questions asked by Justice Doyle in a third-floor courtroom of the criminal courthouse in Riverhead, as Mr. Conroy sat motionless in a dark suit at a table next to his lawyer.
Mr. Conroy is accused of second-degree murder as a hate crime, among other charges, in Mr. Lucero's death, as well as attempted assault as a hate crime in episodes involving other Hispanic men. He has pleaded not guilty. The other two defendants have pleaded not guilty to a hate crime and other charges and are awaiting trial.
Justice Doyle has said that some of the witnesses who will testify in the trial are illegal immigrants, and the potential witnesses he has named in court include three Hispanic men whom prosecutors say some or all of the young men also attempted to attack. Mr. Lucero, who worked at a dry cleaning store, had lived in the United States for 16 years at the time he was stabbed.
Several potential jurors were let go because they said they had strong views on illegal immigration and would be unable to be fair and impartial. Others were excused because they said they had Hispanic family members, or were Hispanic themselves, and would side with the victim and his family. And still others said they had followed the case in the news, and had already formed an opinion about Mr. Conroy's guilt or innocence.
On Monday, a Riverhead man in his early 20s told the judge that he grew up in a racist environment in Pennsylvania and felt that he could not be fair. Another man said that a neighbor has been verbally abusing his son's family for several years because his daughter-in-law is Puerto Rican and Peruvian. Justice Doyle asked him if this would affect his ability to be fair.
"It could," said the man, who declined to elaborate after being excused.
Those who raised illegal immigration as a factor in their ability to serve chose their words carefully, so as not to condone the crimes for which Mr. Conroy stands accused.
One man, a school bus driver, said his Teamsters union had taken a stand on what he described as a lack of a federal immigration policy, and because some witnesses might be illegal immigrants, this would be a problem for him. Before he was released, the man said that what he has and what he has earned was gained legally, not illegally. "I'm the old-fashioned way," he told Justice Doyle.
The majority of potential jurors, including the school bus driver, have been white men and women of all ages. Only a handful have been Hispanic, black or Asian.
The economic and social impact that Latino immigration and Hispanic day laborers have had on communities in Suffolk County has long been a polarizing issue. A report released following the death of Mr. Lucero by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that monitors hate groups, found that an environment of racial intolerance fueled dozens of attacks on Latinos in the county in the past decade.
"It is a little bit of a glimpse into the soul of a community," Bruce Barket, a Long Island defense lawyer and a former Nassau County prosecutor, said of the comments being made in this case so far. "These kinds of issues and these kinds of tensions are always present in the courtroom. Race is probably the most dominant unspoken factor in almost every trial."
Advocates for immigrants and the brother of Mr. Lucero criticized those who said their feelings on illegal immigration prevented them from being impartial. "We're not talking about any issues about immigration," Mr. Lucero's brother, Joselo Lucero, 35, said in an interview. "We're talking about justice and human rights. This is totally different."
Several more days of jury selection are expected. Mr. Conroy's lawyer, William Keahon, said he was not concerned about how long it was taking to select a jury. "It's going to take us a couple days longer than unusual, but there's no doubt that the result will be a fair and impartial jury to both sides," he said.
There were times during the jury selection process when illegal immigration did not seem to be such a daunting issue. Last week, Megan O'Donnell, an assistant district attorney, asked prospective jurors sitting in the jury box if the victim's immigration status mattered to them, and all assured her that it did not matter.
Carla Panetta, 60, a Patchogue mother of four and grandmother of six, was among a large group of prospective jurors that Justice Doyle excused at the end of the day on Thursday. Outside the courthouse, she said that illegal immigration had no bearing on the case, and that even though her 14-year-old grandson is Hispanic, she would have had no problem being objective. She criticized those prospective jurors who said they could not be fair because of their views on illegal immigration.
"I don't care whether the man was legal, illegal, white, black, purple or green," she said outside the courthouse. "There was a murder. It almost seemed like the poor victim was the one going on trial."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) New Trial Granted in 5 Murders in New Orleans
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
March 8, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/us/09orleans.html?ref=us
NEW ORLEANS - Throwing out what had been a trophy verdict for the district attorney's office, a judge here on Monday granted a new trial for a man who was convicted last summer of killing five people in 2006.
The shooting deaths galvanized this city, which at the time was less than a year into its recovery from Hurricane Katrina, and led to intense political pressure on the district attorney's office to successfully prosecute the case.
But the judge, Lynda Van Davis, found that the prosecution had failed to turn over to the defense two key pieces of evidence for the trial of Michael Anderson. After his conviction, Mr. Anderson, 23, was sentenced to death, the first such sentence in the city in a dozen years.
One piece of withheld evidence was a videotaped interview with prosecutors in which the state's key witness contradicted crucial parts of her trial testimony, raising doubts about whether she had seen the murders. The tape, made in 2007, was given to the defense in January, five months after Mr. Anderson's conviction. A prosecutor said it had been found during an office move.
The judge also said the state had failed to tell the defense about a plea agreement with a jailhouse informant who had testified against Mr. Anderson.
The informant is serving time on state and federal charges of armed robbery. Prosecutors said an agreement that had been reached at the time of the informant's plea in 2003 prevented him from serving time in state prison when his federal sentence ended.
In exchange for his testimony at Mr. Anderson's trial, the informant had his federal sentence reduced by four and a half years. In February, he was allowed to withdraw his guilty plea in criminal court, erasing a 15-year state prison sentence so he could be free after his federal sentence. The judge called it "the deal of the century."
A new trial for Mr. Anderson is set for August, but the district attorney, Leon Cannizzaro, said he would appeal the decision.
Mr. Cannizzaro defended his office and the verdict on Monday at an afternoon news conference.
"Make no mistake about it, Michael Anderson is a murderer," he said.
He acknowledged that the office had "mishandled" the tape, but said that the failure to hand it to the defense had not been intentional. He added that the tape was not a piece of evidence so crucial that it would have changed the verdict. As for the informant, Mr. Cannizzaro said his office was bound by the terms of the deal the informant made at the time of his conviction, in 2003.
The development is only the latest in a troubled history of capital cases involving the district attorney's office in New Orleans. Five of the 36 people sentenced to death in Orleans Parish have been exonerated. One, who was on death row for 14 years, is suing the district attorney's office for $14 million.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) Iraq War veteran Army Spc Marc Hall writes from jail
War objector with PTSD jailed and 'extradited' to Kuwait for secret trial
March 9, 2010
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/821/1/
Donate to help defend Marc [https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=30624] - 86 people have given $2,686 of the $3,600 spent on legal fees so far. Because the Army kidnapped Marc to Kuwait for trial, we will need to raise at least $10,000 to provide a civilian defense lawyer. Critical expert witnesses to could be another $5,000. And all of this has to happen within a few weeks.
After filing an official complaint over inadequate mental health services at Ft. Stewart, Georgia, Army Spc Marc Hall was jailed on December 12, 2009 on the pretext of an angry song about "Stop-loss" he produced in July 2009. The Army has recently shipped Spc Hall to Kuwait where he remains jailed awaiting a virtually secret trial.
By Army Spc Marc Hall. February 20, 1010
I never thought that I would join the Army only to one day be incarcerated by the Army. I have never been to jail in my life, until now. The Army is charging me with Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, "communicating threats" towards my chain of command. Yet I was only communicating how I felt about what I have experienced in the Army and how I felt about the Army's "Stop-loss" policy. That policy meant that I could not leave the Army when I was supposed to, and after I had already served in Iraq for 14 months.
I guess this all started with a hard core "rap" song I made about the Army's very unpopular "Stop-loss" policy back in July 2009. Like any "rap" or rock song, I was expressing my freedom of expression under the US Constitution. Being that the Army's "Stop-loss" policy was a Pentagon decision from what I had heard on the news, I decided to send a copy of my song directly to the Pentagon.
I don't know if anyone at the Pentagon listened to my song, but somebody in Washington DC mailed the package back to my chain of command. My First Sergeant called me into his office to discuss it. I explained that the rap was a freedom of expression thing. It was not a physical threat, nor any kind of threat whatsoever. I explained that it was just hip hop. He told me that he kind of liked the song, that it sounded good.
1st Sgt Chrysler and Capt Cross, our company commander at B-CO 2-7 IN [Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment] at that time, just recommended me for mental counseling and evaluation. I attended mental counseling at the behavioral health clinic on Ft. Stewart from late July 2009 through November 2009. I had about four visits to the clinic, but I couldn't attend all the appointments because we were always training in the field. In the end this counseling still left me feeling the same way about Army life, "stop-loss" and war in general.
I spoke to our chaplain and told him my feelings, including all of the domestic things I had gone through with my estranged spouse and my three-year-old daughter over the last four years. I let him hear the "Stop-loss" song and I explained that he shouldn't take anything in the song personally. He said he liked the song but wished it was not "gangster".
Later, when we trained in the field in Georgia and at the National Training Center (NTC) in California, I was made to train without a weapon due to the song and my ongoing counseling. However, during that time of training without a weapon I felt a surprising sense of peace for the first time.
At NTC, in October 2009, I spoke again to our chaplain after attending services one night. I explained to him how I still felt hurt by the Army policies. He replied that my chain of command had already "forgiven" me about the song. But that didn't really help me with what I was going through and trying to deal with.
After we came back from NTC, in November 2009, I got to go on leave. I thought maybe two weeks leave would do me some good. But during my leave, from November 21 to December 7, a deep depression sunk into me. I just wanted to be alone. I did not want to be around people. I stayed at home alone. My friends and family were worried that I had turned my phone off. I did not feel like talking to people. I barely made it to my mother's house for Thanksgiving. I thought about all the depressing things that brought me to this state of mind. I thought about how it all pertained to war. I thought about the times I spoke to the chaplain at basic training at Ft. Knox, and the legal assistant at Ft. Stewart, about my divorce and the safety of my daughter and my rights as a father, and how neither of them could help me. I thought about "Stop-loss" more and more. I started drinking hard every day to help me forget the hurt and pain I was feeling. I thought about how war brought me to this war, and the war I would have to face to remove myself from the presence of war in order to keep my sanity.
When I returned to Ft. Stewart, on December 7, 2009, I really felt from that point on that I did not belong there. I realized that I was not fit for war anymore. I was burnt out and war was the cause of it. I was feeling a little unstable and shaky and I didn't know what to do about it. The very thought of holding and being around a loaded weapon again gave me the chills. I did not know who my enemies were anymore.
About a week later I spoke to my commanding officer, Captain Wynn of F-CO BSB, about how I am still feeling. I explained to him that I felt a little unstable, angry and depressed about war and how unfit I was for war. I said I did not want to get anybody hurt in this war-being that my battle buddies might have to depend on me. I did not want to be a misfortune to anybody. I explained that I had made an official I.G. complaint (with the Army Investigator General) about the treatment I felt I had not received from my last visit to behavioral health, and the unfair treatment and words that came from my direct NCOs. Behavioral health just rushed me out the door and left all decisions up to my chain of command to decide if I was fit or not.
I know my behavior health treatments were pushed aside so that 2-7 IN could have more bodies for this deployment. I believe that this was not fair to me, and it's not fair to my battle buddies to put a troubled solder on the battlefield knowing that I still have issues.
Capt. Wynn got me in to speak to the Lt. Colonel about my mental state. I tried to explain about the indirect way I might hurt other soldiers in uniform due to how I was burnt out. But he took it as a threat, basically read me my rights, and put me in the Liberty County Jail in Hinesville, Georgia.
I realize now how going to war can bring unwanted results. Now I sit in jail at the hands and mercy of our US Government vs. little old Marc A. Hall on a charge that was not a threat before, but all of a sudden became a threat now. I communicated an extended need for mental evaluation-not a threat.
The negative sworn statements used to jail me are false. One of the Soldiers who wrote a negative statement told me that same day that he did so because he thought it was a way to "help me out" as he knew what I was going through. Another Soldier who wrote a statement said that I was "his hero" because I stood up for what I believed. These negative statements were also the results of jokes that my battle buddies said about me-and I had played along with them at the time when the jokes were presented-while passing long boring hours at the NTC in California. I do appreciate the "help" guys, but the Army is now saying that talk were real threats, and now they have me in confinement awaiting court martial.
I have to say that I have never been so humiliated in my entire life. I'm in jail with and next to people who have committed real crimes, including murder. And I'm in here for trying to get real treatment, voicing my feelings, and for asserting freedom of expression through my art.
Sincerely,
Marc A Hall
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) An Eviction Stirs Old Ghosts in a Contested City
By ISABEL KERSHNER
March 9, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/world/middleeast/10jerusalem.html
JERUSALEM - Having been removed in favor of Israeli nationalist Jews, members of the Palestinian Ghawi family have been sheltering this winter in a tent on the sidewalk opposite their home of more than five decades in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
For those who want to see a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the eviction of the Ghawis has touched on two sensitive nerves: the fate of East Jerusalem, where Israel and the Palestinians vie for control, and the abiding grievances of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war.
The circumstances of the Palestinians' removal and the old ghosts it stirred have managed to arouse even Israel's long-dormant peace camp. About 2,500 Israelis and Palestinians attended a demonstration here on Saturday night. Young Israeli and foreign activists have rallied around the cause. Increasingly, veteran members of Israel's leftist establishment are also appearing at the weekly vigils held in Sheikh Jarrah every Friday afternoon.
"We are here to shout," said David Grossman, a prominent Israeli author and peace advocate, while attending a vigil near the disputed houses on a recent Friday in the pouring rain. The settlers, he said, are doing everything they can to preclude any future deal for a Palestinian state.
Being close to the Old City and its holy sites, the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood is coveted by both sides.
Last summer, 38 members of the Ghawi family were evicted by Israel from a two-story stone house in the mostly Palestinian neighborhood just north of the Old City walls. They were immediately replaced by a group of fervent Israeli nationalists after the Israeli courts, including the Supreme Court, upheld a 1970s ruling that the property had originally belonged to Jews.
Two other Sheikh Jarrah families have been removed by similar means in the past 16 months.
The Israeli government and municipal authorities say that they cannot intervene in the workings of the court and that they support the rights of Jews, like Muslims and Christians, to live in any part of the city they want.
For those who advocate dividing sovereignty over Jerusalem, however, the trickle of Jewish nationalists moving into predominantly Arab neighborhoods that were seized from Jordan in 1967 complicates the map. Moreover, reclaiming properties owned by Jews before 1948 in these areas, critics argue, invites counterclaims from Palestinian refugees who lost property in what is now Israel and undermines Israel's rejection of their demand for a right of return.
The Friday protests have been attended by Israeli-Arab lawmakers, legislators from the leftist Meretz party and some high-profile intellectuals like Moshe Halbertal, a professor of Jewish law and philosophy.
Mr. Halbertal said he supported Israel's policy against the right of return for Palestinian refugees - a position meant to ensure a Jewish majority in the Israeli state. But when it comes to Sheikh Jarrah, he added, Israel cannot have it both ways. He added that "the fabric of coexistence" in the city was delicate. Like others, he said he feared it could explode.
Heavy-handed police action against the demonstrators has only brought them more support. In January, 17 protesters were held for 36 hours after the police declared a rally illegal; a Jerusalem court later ruled that there was no basis for their arrest.
Accessibility is another draw. Unlike the relatively remote Palestinian villages where young Israeli leftists and anarchists join local residents and foreigners in protests against Israel's West Bank barrier, Sheikh Jarrah is a few minutes' drive from downtown Jerusalem.
Because of both the humanitarian and political aspects of the case, Israeli advocacy groups like Rabbis for Human Rights and Ir Amim, which focuses on Israeli-Palestinian relations in the city, have campaigned to bring it into the public eye.
Orly Noy, a spokeswoman for Ir Amim, said that by opening up the 1948 files, the Israeli authorities had crossed "a very dangerous red line."
Israel claims sovereignty over all of Jerusalem, including the annexed eastern part that it captured in the 1967 war. The Palestinians demand the eastern section, including Sheikh Jarrah, as the capital of a future state. They see the Jewish settlement there as part of a larger plan to cement Israeli control.
At the heart of the neighborhood lies a shrine held by Jews to be the ancient tomb of Shimon Hatzadik, or Simeon the Just, a Jewish high priest from the days of the Second Temple. A small Jewish community lived in the compound around the tomb from the late 19th century; the last remnants left during the hostilities leading up to the establishment of Israel in 1948, after which the area fell under Jordanian control.
In the 1950s, Jordan and the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees gave 28 refugee families homes there. The families say that Jordan promised them full ownership, but the houses were never formally registered in their names.
In the early 1970s, the Israeli courts awarded two Jewish associations ownership of the compound based on land deeds that were a century old. The Palestinian residents were allowed to stay on as protected tenants on the condition that they paid rent to the Jewish groups.
Rejecting the court ruling, many of the Palestinian families refused to pay rent, making them eligible for eviction. Their lawyer claimed that the Jewish land deeds were forged but was not able to convince the Israeli courts.
Now Maysoun and Nasser Ghawi and their five children, the youngest 2 years old, spend their days in a protest tent on the sidewalk. The Palestinian Authority has rented them a small apartment in the northeast of the city, but Ms. Ghawi says they have been sleeping there only to escape the bitter cold.
"We have to be planted here," Ms. Ghawi said one recent weekday, shortly after the protest tent had been confiscated by the Israeli police and rebuilt by neighbors and activists, as has happened several times. "I never thought we would be on the street," she added. "We have been living here for 53 years."
The Ghawis came to Jerusalem as refugees from the village of Sarafind, now Tzrifin, in central Israel. But they, like other Palestinians across the 1967 lines, cannot go to court to reclaim lost property because of what some describe as an asymmetry in the Israeli law.
In 1950, to protect the new Jewish state from the claims of the Palestinian refugees, Israel enacted the Absentees' Property Law. It essentially strips Palestinians of any rights to property left behind in what is now Israel if they were in enemy territory, including East Jerusalem, between November 1947 and May 1948.
Yossi Sarid, a former Meretz leader and minister, recently wrote in the newspaper Haaretz that when Nasser Ghawi sits in his tent with his family, "Sarafind calls to them."
The case of Sheikh Jarrah also presents a predicament for some mainstream Israelis.
Yossi Klein Halevi, a senior fellow at the Shalem Center, a research institution in West Jerusalem, said he opposed a Jewish "right of return" to properties lost in the 1948 war. But he noted that more and more Arabs were buying apartments in the predominantly Jewish neighborhood where he lives.
"It cannot go one way in Jerusalem," Mr. Klein Halevi said. "I am deeply torn."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
10) Texas: Judge Takes Back Death Penalty Ruling
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 9, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/us/10brfs-JUDGETAKESBA_BRF.html?ref=us
A Harris County judge who came under criticism for declaring the death penalty unconstitutional took back his decision on Tuesday. The judge, Kevin Fine of 177th Criminal Court, said he still wanted more information on whether the state's death penalty statute was unconstitutional because it allowed for the possible execution of an innocent person. In a ruling last week, Judge Fine said it was safe to assume that innocent people had been executed. A string of high-profile Texans, including Gov. Rick Perry, strongly criticized the decision. Judge Fine declined to say why he took back his ruling.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
11) Your Retirement Funds to Bail Out Failed Banks?
ladyjayne's blog
Commentary on the trials, tribulations, and quirks of these times.
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
http://ladyjaynestahl.blogspot.com/2010/03/public-retirement-funds-to-bail-out.html
With the recent spotlight on a runaway Prius, few are paying any attention to the latest government plan to bail out failing banks with retirement money.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., according to Bloomberg, now thinks it's a good idea for public retirement funds over about $2 trillion to "buy out all or part of failed lenders."
Last year alone, the FDIC reportedly shut down close to 150 banks, and it expects even more banks to fail this year. But, a quick look at how the largest companies, like General Motors, are currently investing their employees' pension funds is guaranteed to make a shiver up and down the spine of every working American. And, two things become clear: 1) your pension funds are at risk, and 2) any bank that depends upon your pension fund is also at risk.
It's not breaking news that the money we depend upon to be there in our retirement is invested by those corporations who hold it in trust for us just as it's common knowledge that money deposited into bank accounts doesn't sit there looking pretty until it's withdrawn.
But, what has changed is that corporations are now effectively "going to Las Vegas," as a Dallas investor recently told the New York Times, with our pensions. It's no longer about buying stocks, but investing has now expanded into junk bonds, commodity futures, and foreign stocks, too.
More importantly, companies may soon use public pension fund revenue that they're exposing to increasing risk to rescue failing banks and with FDIC blessing.
Okay, it breaks down quite simply like this: XYZ Corporation has a public pension fund in which John Jones' retirement savings are being kept. XYZ Corporation decides to take a bite of Jones' pension account and invest it in commodities with an eye to using the revenue from that investment to bail out Granny's Bank. XYZ can sleep easy knowing that whatever money it invests in Granny's Bank is federally insured, so if there is a loss, it will ultimately be the FDIC who will pick up the tab.
What a monstrous idea that the FDIC should be looking at retirement money as a safety net for failed lenders!
If the idea is to stabilize the lending industry by allowing corporations to gamble with their employees' savings and then, in effect, turn the pension funds over to a failing bank, who wins? It's simply risk multiplied exponentially. And, ultimately, it's not the banks, or the corporations, who are taking the risk, but John Jones because when the FDIC runs out of money, or decides to lower the amount it insures as is all but inevitable, it is the worker who will lose.
While the banks, and pension administrators, are traditionally reticent about their plans, some regulators are said to be debating whether or not letting private corporations take over failing banks is a good thing because they may not only be jeopardizing federally protected deposits, but may use the bank as collateral, or sell it for profit.
When the regulators get in bed with the risk takers, the only ones who win are the ones who hold the mortgage, and more and more it looks like, by 2050, the only question you may expect when applying for U.S. citizenship will be "Will that be Mandarin or Szechuan?"
What this plan is really about is having the FDIC bail out not banks but corporations who incur losses by making risky investments with your retirement money. Once again, it's "score one for the corporations!" Public pension funds becomes an extra layer of padding for fortune 500s in a financially cold climate, and essentially it's the individual, not the corporation, who is taking the risk.
No matter how you slice it, we're no longer living in a capitalist system, but a venture capitalist system.
Somebody seems to have gotten it backwards. The banks are supposed to bail us out in an emergency and not the other way around. Thomas Jefferson said it best two hundred years ago: "if the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency... the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of their prosperity until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
12) New Strike Paralyzes Greece
By NIKI KITSANTONIS
March 11, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/world/europe/12greece.html?ref=world
ATHENS - Most international travel was halted, and public services thrown into disarray on Thursday as thousands of Greek workers protesting austerity measures staged a general strike and joined demonstrations in the capital that turned violent.
Thursday's strike was the latest and most disruptive in a series of protests that have roiled Greece in recent weeks as the country grapples with a debt crisis that has fanned fears of spreading financial instability across the 16 countries that use the euro.
All scheduled flights into and out of the country were canceled, international trains were not operating, bus and subway service was suspended, and ferries remained in their ports. Tax offices and courts shut down, and hospitals were operating with emergency staff. The streets were littered with mounds of trash as a strike at the city's main landfill entered its sixth day.
The strike was called by the country's two main labor unions, which represent some 2.5 million workers and have led resistance to the new austerity measures raising taxes and slashing civil servants' vacation pay by 30 percent.
The measures, approved by Greek lawmakers on Friday, are expected to raise some $6.5 billion and help plug a budget deficit that stands at 12.7 percent of gross domestic product..
"They keep trying to make the workers pay the price for this crisis - that's not fair and we won't accept it," Yiannis Panagopoulos, the leader of the country's main labor union, said Thursday.
An estimated 20,000 demonstrators converged in central Athens, according to the police. Some chanted slogans taunting the European leaders who have pressed Greek authorities to push through unpopular measures: "Barroso, Merkel, Sarkozy, what's that you say? We say open-ended strike!" There were banners demanding, "How much longer will they make us pay?" and threatening, "We must become their crisis." Some demonstrators waved red and black flags and banged drums.
Tensions peaked in the early afternoon as dozens of self-styled anarchists, most wearing scarves or gas masks, squared off against riot police officers outside the main building of the Athens University. The anarchists pelted the police with beer bottles, stones and chunks of paving stone torn up from sidewalks. The police respond with several rounds of tear gas, leaving a thick acrid cloud of smoke that sent passers-by scurrying onto side streets, eyes streaming.
At least two policemen were injured, and a bystander was hit in the face with a rock. Elsewhere trash cans were set alight, cars torched and several store facades shattered by youths wielding sledgehammers.
The police said at least 10 people had been detained. In an attempt to avert similar unrest on Thursday, hundreds of riot police officers were stationed on central street corners. Police officers have been ordered to break up a weeklong blockade of a central Athens street that lies on one of the protest routes and, if necessary, arrest civil servants causing the disruption.
Greece's European Union partners and the global financial markets have welcomed the new measures, which come on top of an original austerity package worth $6.8 billion in late January and are expected to help the government reduce its budget deficit to 8.7 percent this year and appease fears of a debt crisis in the euro zone.
But public support is crucial if the measures are to be carried out, and, despite the strikes and demonstrations, some Greeks say they accept the necessity of austerity.
Daphne Christodoulou, a 42-year-old school teacher making her way through the crowds in Athens, said, "We're going to have to sit down and shut up at some point, there are some things that must change."
Another 24-hour strike, originally planned for Tuesday by the powerful civil servants' union, has been postponed until the second half of April, the union's leader, Spyros Papaspyros, said Thursday, explaining that his union would henceforth be coordinating protest action with the main labor union, G.S.E.E.
"We will continue our protests until the restoration of rights that workers have been unfairly deprived of," he said.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
13) House Rejects Plan to Leave Afghanistan by Year's End
By CARL HULSE
March 10, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/world/asia/11cong.html?ref=world
WASHINGTON - In a strong bipartisan endorsement of the Obama administration's policy in Afghanistan, the House of Representatives on Wednesday soundly rejected a call to withdraw American troops by the end of the year.
After a three-hour debate held to allow antiwar Democrats to air their dissent, the House voted 356 to 65 to reject the withdrawal proposal. Five Republicans joined 60 Democrats in support of pulling out; 189 Democrats and 167 Republicans were opposed.
Although the outcome was never in doubt, debate on the resolution written by Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, offered a preview of Congressional consideration later this year of the administration's request for money to pay for operations in Afghanistan.
Under the proposal, Mr. Kucinich would have invoked the War Powers Act to force the withdrawal of American troops within 30 days, or by the end of the year if the president judged that a more rapid departure would be unsafe.
The plan's supporters contended that the United States was aiding a corrupt government in Afghanistan and siphoning scarce resources for the sake of an unwinnable conflict when there were greater needs at home.
"Is the cost of this war worth it?" asked Representative Chellie Pingree, Democrat of Maine. "Can we afford to turn our backs on the challenges we face at home and continue to pursue failed policies abroad?"
But a broad coalition of Democrats and Republicans contended that American troops were making progress in Afghanistan and that an abrupt withdrawal would create an opening for the Taliban to return to power and allow Afghanistan to become a haven for terrorists again.
"Passing this resolution guarantees failure in Afghanistan and poses a serious risk that we will once again face the same situation that existed on Sept. 11," said Representative Ike Skelton, Democrat of Missouri and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
Others said that the timing of the resolution was inappropriate given the American offensive around Marja in southern Afghanistan and that it sent the wrong message to troops in the field as well as to their families in the United States.
"It is a resolution that is hurtful to our troops on the ground fighting and it is hurtful to their families," said Representative Duncan D. Hunter, a California Republican who served in Afghanistan as a Marine.
Democratic leaders said it was Congress's responsibility to allow lawmakers the chance to exchange views on the war because Congress provided the money for operations that have claimed the lives of slightly more than 1,000 American military members.
"This issue needs to be raised," said Representative Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland and the majority leader, who opposed the resolution.
The back-and-forth was the first opportunity for lawmakers to weigh in on Afghanistan policy since President Obama's December announcement of his plans to add 30,000 troops before a drawdown of forces in 2011.
The administration's decision has frustrated elements of Mr. Obama's own party who saw Democratic election victories in 2008 as a sign that the public wanted to wind down military operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite Wednesday's vote, Democrats are likely to give the administration's financing request careful scrutiny when it arrives sometime in the spring.
Showing the conflicting views over the war, even some Democrats who opposed the pullout suggested that the effort in Afghanistan was misguided, given centuries of failed interventions in Afghanistan by foreign powers. "History suggests we will not be successful in stabilizing Afghanistan with military force," said Representative Earl Blumenauer, Democrat of Oregon.
Opponents of the withdrawal said pulling out would lead to renewed oppression of the Afghan people by the Taliban. "It would mean the return of nightmarish tyranny to Afghanistan," said Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Republican of Florida.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
14) Kansas City to Close Nearly Half Its Schools
By SUSAN SAULNY
March 10, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/us/11kansascity.html?ref=us
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas City Board of Education voted Wednesday night to close almost half of the city's public schools, accepting a sweeping and contentious plan to shrink the system in the face of dwindling enrollment, budget cuts and a $50 million deficit.
In a 5-to-4 vote, the members endorsed the Right-Size plan, proposed by the schools superintendent, John Covington, to close 28 of the city's 61 schools and cut 700 of 3,000 jobs, including those of 285 teachers. The closings are expected to save $50 million, erasing the deficit from the $300 million budget.
"We must make sacrifices," said board member Joel Pelofsky, speaking in favor of the plan before the vote. "Unite in favor of our children."
Mr. Pelofsky and other supporters of the closures made their case with the district's data: enrollment has declined by half in the last 10 years alone, to 17,400 children, and the schools are only 48 percent full.
For decades, national education experts said, the Kansas City schools had not responded to changes in demographics that would have spared them such a drastic one-time cut. "Otherwise, this whole scenario would not be as wrenching as it now appears to be," Michael Casserly, the executive director of The Council of the Great City Schools, a research and advocacy organization, said in a telephone interview.
An auditorium packed with children's advocates and parents, some holding signs and screaming at board members, rejected that line of thinking.
"Where's my daughter going to go?" wondered a parent, Rasheedah Hazziez, 33, after the vote. "I don't have a car. What happened to the time when our schools had a future? I live in Midtown and we already had too many vacant buildings. Now we're going to have more? I guess we'll just keep falling."
Less than a third of elementary students in the city schools read at or above grade level. And in most of the schools, fewer than a quarter of students are proficient at their grade levels. District officials say the closings will improve achievement by allowing the system to focus its resources.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
15) Carlos Slim Tops Forbes List of Billionaires
By BLOOMBERG NEWS
March 10, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/business/11forbes.html?ref=business
Carlos Slim Helú of Mexico beat Bill Gates and Warren E. Buffett for the top spot on Forbes magazine's annual list of billionaires, becoming the first person from outside the United States to lead the rankings in 16 years.
The net worth of Mr. Slim, 70, who built a telecommunications empire after buying Mexico's state-run phone monopoly two decades ago, rose $18.5 billion, to $53.5 billion. Mr. Gates, 54, chairman of Microsoft, fell to second as his net worth increased $13 billion, to $53 billion. Mr. Buffett, 79, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, was third with $47 billion, a rise of $10 billion.
Mr. Slim, who holds a 7 percent stake in The New York Times Company, is the first person other than Mr. Gates or Mr. Buffett to top the list since 1994. That year was the last time a billionaire from outside the United States led the ranking - the Japanese real estate tycoon Yoshiaki Tsutsumi.
"We've been watching Slim for a while and kind of wondered when the stars would align and he would take over," Luisa Kroll, a senior editor at Forbes, said in an interview on Wednesday.
More than 80 percent of Mr. Slim's holdings are in five public stocks, she said.
Mexican shares of América Móvil, the wireless carrier controlled by Mr. Slim, have gained more than 56 percent in the last year, according to Bloomberg data.
Mr. Slim's holdings in Mexico include retail operations like the Sanborns department store chain as well as banking and construction.
The Forbes rankings are based on information including stakes in publicly traded and privately held companies; real estate holdings; and investments in items like art, gems and yachts.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
16) Cost of F-35 Has Risen 60% to 90%, Military Says
By CHRISTOPHER DREW
March 11, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/business/12plane.html?ref=business
The projected cost of Lockheed Martin's new Joint Strike Fighter has increased 60 to 90 percent in real terms since 2001, blowing well past a level requiring the program to be revamped, Pentagon officials said Thursday.
And even though the military is trying to deal with the problems, Congressional auditors said the program - the Pentagon's largest - was likely to continue to increase in cost and suffer more delays.
The assessments, released at a Senate hearing in Washington, provided a reminder of the extent of the cost overruns in major weapons programs and showed how hard they can be to resolve.
The latest estimates were embarrassing to Lockheed Martin, the largest military contractor, and to the defense secretary, Robert M. Gates.
Last summer, Mr. Gates promoted the new jet, called the F-35, when he urged Congress to halt production of the F-22 fighter plane. Some senators now say they might not have made that decision if they had known about the problems with the F-35.
Christine H. Fox, the Pentagon's top cost evaluator, said at Thursday's hearing that the estimated price of each F-35 had jumped to $80 million to $95 million, as measured in 2002 dollars, from $50 million when Lockheed Martin was awarded the contract in 2001.
She said her office was still refining the cost estimate, which equals $95 million to $113 million for each plane in current dollars.
Under a 15-year-old law, the Pentagon has to notify Congress when the cost of military equipment exceeds the original projection by more than 25 percent.
Ms. Fox's office warned top Pentagon officials about the problems last fall. Mr. Gates recently fired the general in charge of the program and announced other plans to get it back on track.
He added more planes to speed the flight testing and extended the development phase by 13 months. He also pushed back the purchases of 122 planes to help cover the extra $2.8 billion needed for the development work.
Ashton B. Carter, the Pentagon's top acquisition official, said at the hearing that the problems had been building for several years. He said the Pentagon was "beginning a process of aggressive management" to try to head off some of the worst problems.
The F-35, a single-engine stealth fighter designed primarily to attack ground targets, is supposed to become a mainstay of American and allied militaries over the next several decades.
The Air Force, the Navy and the Marines plan to buy 2,443 of the planes. Eight allied nations have also invested in the program and could buy hundreds of additional planes.
Mr. Carter said a substantial part of the cost increases occurred several years ago, when the version for the Marines, which will be able to take off vertically, came in substantially overweight.
Lockheed Martin had to make changes to reduce the weight. The company has said that these and other changes caused problems for its suppliers, slowed the construction of the first planes and delayed the flight testing program.
Company officials have said that they have been building planes more quickly and cheaply in recent months, and that they believe they can recover some of the lost time over the next year or so.
The Obama administration has pledged to improve the Pentagon's contracting record, and Congress passed a law last year tightening acquisition procedures. But most of those changes focus on how new programs are begun.
Mr. Carter said the F-35 was also an example of how the military tended to start building new systems before all the problems were worked out. He said the Marines still expected to begin using the planes in 2012. But the Air Force and Navy versions will probably not be ready for combat until 2016.
Michael Sullivan, an analyst at the Government Accountability Office, said the program could eventually cost $323 billion. And while the recent changes could help ease the problems, "further cost growth and schedule extensions are likely," he said.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
17) Big Brother in Blue
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
March 13, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/opinion/13herbert.html
The speaker of the New York City Council and the head of the Council's Public Safety Committee are calling on Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to get rid of his huge, noxious database of completely innocent New Yorkers who are stopped, questioned and often frisked by the police.
The stops themselves are an outrage and a continuing affront to black and Hispanic New Yorkers, who are the ones most frequently singled-out by the police for this public humiliation. But Speaker Christine Quinn and Council Member Peter Vallone Jr., the committee's chairman, are focusing on the computerized files that the Police Department is keeping on people who are stopped but found to have done nothing at all wrong.
This is not a small problem. The cops are making more than a half-million of these stops every year. A vast majority of the people targeted - close to 90 percent - are completely innocent. They are not arrested. They are not given a summons. After enduring a mortifying public encounter with the police - which frequently requires the targets to sprawl face down on the sidewalk or spread themselves against a wall or over the hood of a car to be searched - they are sent on their way.
What they've left behind, however, if they've shown their identification to the cops or answered any questions, is a permanent record of the encounter, which is promptly entered into the department's staggeringly huge computerized files. Why the Police Department should be keeping files on innocent people is a question with no legitimate answer. This is Big Brother in Blue, with Commissioner Kelly collecting more information than J. Edgar Hoover could ever have imagined compiling.
Ms. Quinn and Mr. Vallone believe it should stop. In a letter this week to Commissioner Kelly, they said that his intent to keep a permanent record of all the information gathered during the stops "raises significant privacy right concerns and suggests that these innocent people are more likely to be targeted in future criminal investigations."
They bluntly urged the commissioner "to end this policy."
In an interview on Friday, Ms. Quinn told me: "They should stop keeping the database on people who are not charged, who are not summonsed, and people who may be charged and then go through the judicial system and are found not guilty."
She said the idea that a permanent database would be kept on people who "basically just got asked some questions" by the police is "extraordinary."
Ms. Quinn does not oppose the tactic of stopping and frisking people, but said, "I have concerns that we have become overly aggressive in our use of it." She said additional guidelines or regulations are needed. "I wouldn't eliminate it from the Police Department toolbox," she said, "but I would like to find a way to better monitor it and limit its use."
It should be drastically limited. More than 575,000 stops were made last year, a record. But in 504,594 of those stops, the individuals had done absolutely nothing wrong. They had not violated any law but nevertheless were put through the anxiety and humiliation of a public encounter with the police.
From 2004 through 2009, according to Police Department statistics, an astounding 2,798,461 stops were made. In 2,467,150 of those encounters - 88.2 percent - the people were completely innocent of any wrongdoing.
Groups like the Center for Constitutional Rights and the New York Civil Liberties Union are fighting this wholesale mistreatment of innocent New Yorkers by the police. Blacks and Hispanics, and especially those who are young and those who are poor, are disproportionately singled-out for this peculiar form of police harassment. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Commissioner Kelly and other top leaders in this town would never tolerate this kind of systematic abuse of middle-class or wealthy, white New Yorkers.
The overwhelming majority of the stops yield no law-enforcement benefit whatsoever. An analysis of the stops in the first three quarters of 2009 showed that contraband, which usually means drugs, was found on just 1.6 percent of the blacks who were stopped, 1.5 percent of the Hispanics, and 2.2 percent of the whites (who are stopped far less often than the other groups).
The weapons yield was even lower. Weapons were found on just 1.1 percent of the blacks stopped, 1.4 percent of the Hispanics, and 1.7 percent of the whites.
The reasons given by the cops for deciding which unfortunate New Yorkers will be stopped are beyond bogus. A "furtive movement" is the most popular. Walking down the street in broad daylight qualifies. And then there is always the bulge in the pocket. A cellphone, maybe. Or an iPod.
The truth - and many police officers will tell you this privately - is that the stops are often made first and the justification is dreamed up later.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
18) New Fraud Cases Point to Lapses in Iraq Projects
By JAMES GLANZ
March 13, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/world/middleeast/14reconstruct.html?hp
Federal investigators looking into corruption involving reconstruction in Iraq say they have opened more than 50 new cases in the past six months by scrutinizing large cash transactions made by some of the Americans involved in the nearly $150 billion rebuilding program.
Some of the cases involve people who are suspected of having mailed tens of thousands of dollars to themselves from Iraq, or stuffed the money into duffel bags and suitcases when leaving the country, the investigators said. In other cases, millions of dollars were moved through wire transfers. Suspects then used cash to buy BMWs, Humvees, expensive jewelry and plastic surgery, or to pay off enormous casino debts.
Some suspects also tried to conceal foreign bank accounts in Ghana, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Britain, the investigators said, while in other cases, cash was simply found stacked in home safes.
There have already been dozens of indictments and convictions for corruption since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. But the new cases seem to confirm what investigators have long speculated: that the chaos, weak oversight and wide use of cash payments in the reconstruction program in Iraq allowed many more Americans who took bribes or stole money to get off scot-free.
"I've had a continuing sense that there is ongoing fraud that we have not been able to nail down," said Stuart W. Bowen Jr., who leads the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, an independent oversight agency. "This spate of new cases is evidence that that sense was reasonably well placed."
The cases were uncovered during the first phase of a new, systematic inquiry into financial activities, which investigators said began in earnest last summer. A related investigation of rebuilding funds for Afghanistan began in February.
Mr. Bowen's office agreed to answer general questions on the new inquiry but declined to divulge the names of the suspects, who include private contractors, military officers and civilian officials.
Developed in the Treasury Department, the financial monitoring effort goes by the generic name of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or Fincen, which continually generates data on suspicious financial transactions in support of more than 275 federal and state law enforcement agencies, according to a December report by the Government Accountability Office.
Stephen Hudak, a spokesman at the Treasury Department for Fincen, said that it generated 15 million to 16 million reports each year on suspicious financial activity or major currency transactions, including cash deposits of more than $10,000. He said that transactions in banks, check-cashing outlets, wire services, casinos, stockbrokers' offices and insurance companies were covered.
"Basically, we follow dirty money," Mr. Hudak said. "Authorized users can access Fincen's databases to make connections in criminal investigations."
Mr. Hudak confirmed that Fincen was being used to investigate reconstruction corruption in Iraq.
Because the investigation has covered only limited areas in the United States so far, Mr. Bowen said he estimated that dozens of additional cases would be opened by the end of the year. Mr. Bowen, who spoke by phone from Baghdad, described the effort as a "concerted, focused, forensic financial review involving all the Iraq reconstruction funds."
Congress has appropriated about $53 billion for reconstruction projects, and the rest of the money has come from Iraqi assets and international pledges. According to testimony before the Wartime Contracting Commission last month by Arnold Fields, who leads the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, Congress has appropriated $51 billion to rebuild that country since 2002.
John Brummet, the assistant inspector general for audits in that office, said that the office's staff members had been studying the Iraq investigation for nearly a year and that they had started a related effort last month.
"What we're trying to do is basically replicate what they've done without having to pay the price of the learning curve," Mr. Brummet said.
Investigations involving the inspector general's office for Iraq's reconstruction have led to 35 indictments and 27 convictions for fraud in numerous forms; the number of convictions rises to 58 when cases pursued by other government agencies are included, according to figures compiled by the Justice Department.
Mr. Bowen would not comment on whether indictments had yet been written up for the new cases, which numbered 52 by last week. But he said that at least 45 of those had come directly from the forensic effort.
Wayne White, who until 2005 was a senior intelligence official with the State Department focused on Iraq and is now a scholar with the Middle East Institute in Washington, said he was not surprised that new cases were still turning up.
Since Iraq's economy collapsed after the 1991 Persian Gulf war, the country's dealings with foreign companies and contractors have been laced with bribery, kickbacks and other fraud, Mr. White said, adding that weak oversight of the reconstruction efforts almost guaranteed that those problems would not be rooted out.
"That's been very disappointing, and we've seen it in Afghanistan as well," Mr. White said.
A senior federal official said that some of the new cases appeared to be closely linked to known networks of conspiracy and fraud and were likely to extend investigators' knowledge of cases that had already ended with convictions. Many other cases seem to be entirely new, the official said.
Mr. Bowen said that many of the new cases involved bribes and kickbacks for awarding lucrative work to contractors, and that in a number of cases, spouses or other relatives of the suspects are accused of setting up fraudulent companies to hide the illicit gains.
When people who turn up in the net are initially contacted by investigators, the reaction "runs the gamut," Mr. Bowen said. Some deny wrongdoing and others admit to accepting small bribes, which on further investigation rise into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
One suspect, he said, made the job especially easy on investigators who arrived at his door. "I've been waiting for you," the suspect said.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
19) As the Budget Ax Swings Again, There May Be No Way to Avoid the Pain
By SUSAN DOMINUS
March 12, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/nyregion/13bigcity.html?ref=nyregion
It is the job of New York's social services workers to insist that the sky is falling.
Every year, it seems, the politicians eliminate financing for services that tend to the youngest, the oldest, the poorest New Yorkers. And every year, after the various nonprofit do-gooders have urged, cajoled and done everything they could to make grown public servants weep, the City Council or the State Legislature or Congress reinstates much of the money, all of it part of a process known around town as the budget dance.
Disaster, like clockwork, is averted. Young people in public housing projects have a productive place to hang out after school. Low-income working parents have a safe place to leave their preschoolers. The frail and the elderly make their way to a free, healthful meal at a community center. The small mercies that make a teeming city livable - a place we can live in, a place we can live with - continue.
But this year, it seems all too clear that the boy really is eye to eye with the wolf. The beat of the budget dance is expected to feel more like that of a budget dirge, and the do-gooders are mystified and shell-shocked by the proposed state and city budgets.
"I don't know who's freaking out more: those of us in the social services world watching the dollars fly out the window, or elected officials," said Susan Stamler, the director of policy and advocacy at the United Neighborhood Houses of New York, a membership organization for the city's community centers. "If they could plug those holes, they would - but there's no way out. I can't tell them where to get the dollars."
No new federal stimulus package is coming to the rescue, as happened last year; there are only budget holes, more and more of which, at the state level in particular, keep opening or widening every day (witness the failed Aqueduct deal and the ill-fated soda tax).
New Yorkers might want to get out the earplugs: the sound of the other shoe dropping is about to reverberate throughout the city.
Wall Streeters may be rebounding nicely from the recession that their bad judgment sparked, but everyone else is bracing, with these cuts, for a whole new kind of pain. It's an old story that Main Street unemployment continues long after the banks start hiring again. What's new is that so many of the services that take the edge off of unemployment, poverty or standard-issue penny-pinching are about to dwindle, and noticeably so.
On the block are some valued city toys, as well as the crutches that keep things moving. Among the gems at risk of budget cuts are some prenatal care services in neighborhoods like East Harlem, via the Maternity and Early Childhood Foundation; morning hours at Riverbank State Park, at West 145th Street, that allow young people of every income level to participate in a rare public ice hockey program; two weeks of public pool time (tantamount to eliminating two weeks of summer itself); and affordable tickets to plays, concerts and museums, subsidized by the Department of Cultural Affairs.
"Whether it's a small children's theater in Brooklyn or a major arts institution, everyone's going to have to cut either programming or raise prices," said Norma Munn, chairwoman of the New York City Arts Coalition, an advocacy group. "I'm talking across the board."
Advocates are sweating the real possibility that close to 25 percent of the financing for shelters for single adults will be cut - which, they say, could flood the streets with homeless people or "transform service-providing shelters into people warehouses," as Mark Hurwitz of Project Renewal, which provides services to the homeless, put it.
Social services providers are also fighting to hold on to 17,000 after-school program slots and tens of thousands of summer jobs for disadvantaged youths who would otherwise go unemployed.
The Wall Street types resisting taxes on their bonuses, or a renewed stock-transfer tax, might think twice when they consider what a generation of underemployed and underoccupied young people, combined with the proposed significant cuts to the police force, could do to the already dwindling values of their classic sevens.
"Yes, we've cried wolf in the past, but this year you really have to believe us," said Greg Rideout, a deputy program officer at the Henry Street Settlement, a community center on the Lower East Side. But the challenge is not believing there's a problem; it's solving it.
E-mail: susan.dominus@nytimes.com
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
ALL OUT MARCH 20!
SAN FRANCISCO MARCH AND RALLY
SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 11:00 A.M., CIVIC CENTER
STOP SPENDING TRILLIONS ON THE WARS! BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
MONEY FOR EDUCATION, HOUSING, HEALTHCARE, AND JOBS -
NOT WARS, CORPORATE BAILOUTS FOR THE RICH AND JAILS FOR THE POOR!
U.S. OUT OF IRAQ & AFGHANISTAN!
FREE PALESTINE!
U.S. HANDS OFF IRAN, AFRICA AND LATIN AMERICA!
END US/UN MILITARY OCCUPATION OF HAITI! FOOD NOT GUNS IN HAITI!
GET THE WORD OUT ABOUT MARCH 20!
Volunteers Needed!
Postering and Flyering Work Sessions - JUST ONE WEEKEND LEFT!
Call 415-821-6545 for expanded leafleting and posting schedule.
Volunteers are needed to help put up posters, hand out leaflets. Call 415-821-6545 for more info and for office hours. Come by the office to pick up posters and flyers in English, Spanish or Chinese. Participate in an Outreach Work Session Tues. 7pm and Sat. 2pm, meeting at the ANSWER Coalition Office: 2489 Mission St. #24 (at 21st St.), San Francisco, near 24th St. BART/#14, #49 MUNI.
DONATIONS NEEDED:
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Donation?ACTION=SHOW_DONATION_OPTIONS&CAMPAIGN_ID=1443&JServSessionIdr004=nou1lpg115.app202a
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR DAY OF DEMONSTRATION:
Hi everyone,
We are asking organizations and individuals in the March 20 Coalition to help find volunteers for the following tasks at the demonstration. Please send us names of volunteers for each task or the number of volunteers you can provide from your organization.
Security - Security volunteers need to have prior experience doing security and need to be over 18 years of age. There will be a Security Orientation this Sat. Mar. 13, 5pm at the ANSWER office, 2489 Mission St., #28. Please send any security volunteers or a representative from your organization to this meeting. There will also be a brief orientation for security volunteers on Mar. 20 at 9:30am at the Civic Center.
Medical - There will be Medical Station set-up next to the stage on Mar. 20. ANSWER can supply a bag of medical supplies, but need trained medical volunteers (who are certified in CA) to staff the tent from 10am-4pm.
ASL - At the mass rallies in the past, we've had American Sign Language interpreters. If you have any contacts in the community, we still need coverage for the opening and closing rallies from approx. 11-12:30pm and 1:30-4pm. We have one volunteer already for each rally, but need at least 2 more if we are to have interpretation of the full program.
Collection - Volunteers are needed to hold donation barrels at a point in the march route (around 12-1:30pm) and also to go out in the crowd with donation buckets during the closing rally (sometime between 1:30 and 4pm).
Set-up and Take-down - Volunteers are needed to help with stage set-up at 9:30am and for clean-up and take-down at 4pm. The park permit requires the organizers to clean up all trash in Civic Center after the event.
Please reply with what task you or your organization can help on.
Thanks for you support,
Tina
ANSWER SF
415-821-6545
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
CIRCLE THESE DATES!!
Announcing...
A National Conference
To Bring the Troops Home Now!
JULY 23, 24, 25, 2010
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Albany, New York
www.nationalpeaceconference.org
Issued by the United National Antiwar Conference (UNAC) Planning Committee
For more information, write UNAC2010@aol.com, or UNAC at P.O. Box 21675, Cleveland, OH 44121 or call 518-227-6947 or visit our website at www.nationalpeaceconference.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
C. ARTICLES IN FULL
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Angela Davis, Linda Evans, Susan Rosenberg & Laura Whitehorn
invite you to:
SPARKS FLY 2010 -
An evening in celebration of Marilyn Buck and Women Political Prisoners
Saturday, March 13, 2010, 7 PM
10 PM Dance Party with DJ Kuttin Kandi
Uptown Body and Fender Garage
401 26th St., Oakland (Telegraph Ave)
Art Auction, Speakers & Music including, Maisha Quint, devorah major, Phavia Kujichagulia, Kayla Marin, Yuri Kochiyama, Graciela Perez-Trevisan & Bomberas de la Bahia Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba Plena
$10-50 (no one turned away)
Sparks Fly has honored women political prisoners for 20 years. Marilyn Buck is scheduled to get out of prison later this year after serving more than 25 years. Let's welcome her home! All money raised will go to the Release Fund for Marilyn Buck.
During this evening we also pay tribute to Safiya Bukhari on publication of her posthumous book, The War Before.
For book tour dates go to http://www.feministpress.org/books/safiya-bukhari/war.
Endorsed by: AK Press, All of Us or None, Arab Resource & Organizing Center, BACORR, California Coalition of Women Prisoners, Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Code Pink, East Bay Prisoners Support, East Side Arts Alliance, Freedom Archives, Free the SF 8 Comm. Friends of Marilyn Buck, Haiti Action Committee, Kevin Cooper Defense Comm, KPFA Women's Magazine, LAGAI, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, Long Haul, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, National Lawyers Guild/Bay Area, Out of Control, PM Press, Prison Activist Resource Center, Prison Radio Project, QUIT, Radical Women, SF Dyke March, SF Women In Black, Speak Out!, Stanley Tookie Williams Legacy Network
wheelchair accessible
for more information: sparksfly2010@gmail.com
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
LABOR'S STAKE IN ENDING THE WARS
Why are we in Afghanistan?
San Francisco
Saturday, March 20, 10:00 A.M.-12:00 Noon*
Plumbers Hall
1621 Market Street (Near Franklin)
U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq and its consequences.
Program Includes:
FEATURED SPEAKER: Daniel Ellsberg
--"Why Are We in Afghanistan" a short video.
--Stephen Zunes, USF Professor and Middle East specialist
--Afghanistan War Veteran
--Military Families Speak Out
--Labor Leaders
Speakers followed by Q&A and Audience Response
Followed by a Labor Contingent march to Civic Center to join antiwar rally and march in solidarity with Unite HERE Local 2 members at downtown hotels. (Bring union banners and colors)
*Coffee, bagels and music at 10:00 A.M., march to Civic Center at Noon. Park in lot next to building or exit Civic Center BART station, walk about 6 blocks west on Market to Franklin.
Sponsored by:
San Francisco Labor Council and Bay Area U.S. Labor Against the War
Endorsed by:
Alameda Labor Council; AFT Local 2121; Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace and Justice; ILWU Local 10; Oakland Education Association; OPEIU Local 3; Peralta Federation of Teachers; SEIU Local 1021; Unite HERE Local 2; United Educators of San Francisco.
This list is in formation. Additional endorsements are invited.
For more information: 510-263-5303
labor-for-peace-and-justice@igc.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
U.S. OUT OF IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN NOW!
FREE PALESTINE!
San Francisco March and Rally
on Saturday, March 20, 2010
11am, Civic Center Plaza
National March on Washington
on Saturday, March 20, 2010
Fri., March 19 Day of Action & Outreach in D.C.
People from all over the country are organizing to converge on Washington, D.C., to demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan and Iraq.
On Saturday, March 20, 2010, there will be a massive National March & Rally in D.C. A day of action and outreach in Washington, D.C., will take place on Friday, March 19, preceding the Saturday march.
There will be coinciding mass marches on March 20 in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The national actions are initiated by a large number of organizations and prominent individuals. see below)
Click here to become an endorser:
http://answer.pephost.org/site/Survey?SURVEY_ID=5940&ACTION_REQUIRED=URI_ACTION_USER_REQUESTS&autologin=true&link=endorse-body-1
Click here to make a donation:
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Donation?ACTION=SHOW_DONATION_OPTIONS&CAMPAIGN_ID=2302&autologin=true&donate=body-1&JServSessionIdr002=2yzk5fh8x2.app13b
We will march together to say "No Colonial-type Wars and Occupations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine!" We will march together to say "No War Against Iran!" We will march together to say "No War for Empire Anywhere!"
Instead of war, we will demand funds so that every person can have a job, free and universal health care, decent schools, and affordable housing.
March 20 is the seventh anniversary of the criminal war of aggression launched by Bush and Cheney against Iraq. One million or more Iraqis have died. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops have lost their lives or been maimed, and continue to suffer a whole host of enduring problems from this terrible war.
This is the time for united action. The slogans on banners may differ, but all those who carry them should be marching shoulder to shoulder.
Killing and dying to avoid the perception of defeat
Bush is gone, but the war and occupation in Iraq still go on. The Pentagon is demanding a widening of the war in Afghanistan. They project an endless war with shifting battlefields. And a "single-payer" war budget that only grows larger and larger each year. We must act.
Both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were predicated on the imperial fantasy that the U.S. could create stable, proxy colonial-type governments in both countries. They were to serve as an extension of "American" power in these strategic and resource-rich regions.
That fantasy has been destroyed. Now U.S. troops are being sent to kill or be killed so that the politicians in uniform "the generals and admirals") and those in three-piece suits "our elected officials") can avoid taking responsibility for a military setback in wars that should have never been started. Their military ambitions are now reduced to avoiding the appearance of defeat.
That is exactly what happened in Vietnam! Avoiding defeat, or the perception of defeat, was the goal Nixon and Kissinger set for themselves when they took office in 1969. For this noble cause, another 30,000 young GIs perished before the inevitable troop pullout from Vietnam in 1973. The number of Vietnamese killed between 1969 and 1973 was greater by many hundreds of thousands.
All of us can make the difference - progress and change comes from the streets and from the grassroots.
The people went to the polls in 2008, and the enthusiasm and desire for change after eight years of the Bush regime was the dominant cause that led to election of a big Democratic Party majority in both Houses of Congress and the election of Barack Obama to the White House.
But it should now be obvious to all that waiting for politicians to bring real change - on any front - is simply a prescription for passivity by progressives and an invitation to the array of corporate interests from military contractors to the banks, to big oil, to the health insurance giants that dominate the political life of the country. These corporate interests work around the clock to frustrate efforts for real change, and they are the guiding hand behind the recent street mobilizations of the ultra-right.
It is up to us to act. If people had waited for politicians to do the right thing, there would have never been a Civil Rights Act, or unions, women's rights, an end to the Vietnam war or any of the profound social achievements and basic rights that people cherish.
It is time to be back in the streets. Organizing centers are being set up in cities and towns throughout the country.
We must raise $50,000 immediately just to get started. Please make your contribution today. We need to reserve buses, which are expensive $1,800 from NYC, $5,000 from Chicago, etc.). We have to print 100,000 leaflets, posters and stickers. There will be other substantial expenses as March 20 draws closer.
Please become an endorser and active supporter of the March 20 National March on Washington.
Please make an urgently needed tax-deductible donation today. We can't do this without your active support.
The initiators of the March 20 National March on Washington preceded by the March 19 Day of Action and Outreach in D.C.) include: the ANSWER Coalition; Muslim American Society Freedom; National Council of Arab Americans; Cynthia McKinney; Malik Rahim, co-founder of Common Ground Collective; Ramsey Clark; Cindy Sheehan; Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK; Deborah Sweet, Director, World Can't Wait; Mike Ferner, President, Veterans for Peace; Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition; Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild; Ron Kovic, author of "Born on the 4th of July"; Juan Jose Gutierrez, Director, Latino Movement USA; Col. Ann Wright ret.); March Forward!; Partnership for Civil Justice; Palestinian American Women Association; Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines; Alliance for Global Justice; Claudia de la Cruz, Pastor, Iglesia San Romero de Las Americas-UCC; Phil Portluck, Social Justice Ministry, Covenant Baptist Church, D.C.; Blase & Theresa Bonpane, Office of the Americas; Coalition for Peace and Democracy in Honduras; Comite Pro-Democracia en Mexico; Frente Unido de los Pueblos Americanos; Comites de Base FMLN, Los Angeles; Free Palestine Alliance; GABRIELA Network; Justice for Filipino American Veterans; KmB Pro-People Youth; Students Fight Back; Jim Lafferty, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild - LA Chapter; LEF Foundation; National Coalition to Free the Angola 3; Community Futures Collective; Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival; Companeros del Barrio; Barrio Unido for Full and Unconditional Amnesty, Bay Area United Against War.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.answercoalition.org/
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-265-1948
New York City: 212-694-8720
Los Angeles: 213-251-1025
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
Chicago: 773-463-0311
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Lynching Then, Lynching Now
The Roots of Racism and the Death Penalty in America
Join us for a teach-in about the historic link between the death penalty and lynching in the United States.
Speakers:
Barbara Becnel, Founder, Stanley Tookie Williams Legacy Network
Lawrence Hayes, Former New York State death row prisoner
Jack Bryson, Justice for Oscar Grant Movement
Jabari Shaw, Laney Black Student Union
and
Kevin Cooper - an innocent man on death row - calling in from San Quentin for a question and answer period.
Wednesday, March 24th - 7 PM
Laney College - Room D200
Sponsored by: Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Kevin Cooper Defense Committee, Laney International Socialist Organization
more info: 510-333-7966/ email california@nodeathpenalty.org
This teach-in is part of a national Campaign to End the Death Penalty tour - visit www.nodeathpenalty.org for more information.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Defend Holly Works!
Monday April 5th 2010, 8 AM,
Alameda County Courthouse,
12th & Oak St, Oakland
8 AM demonstrate! 9 AM, attend trial.
(from 12th Street BART Station, walk down 12th St toward Lake Merritt.
Demonstrate/enter court at 12th and Oak St)
Holly Works is the now the last remaining defendant of the Oakland 100. Her trial was to start Monday, March 1st. But a defense motion for a postponement was granted, since Holly's chief witness is out of the country at this time.
A local musician and activist, Holly was arrested before she even arrived at the protest! Walking down the street with a friend, she was detained and fraudulently charged with... assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer!
This took place at least an hour before the protest was even to have started! Originally charged with assaulting a cop with a knife, Holly had no knife, and so that had to be changed. Since she had a screw driver in her purse, the cops accused her of using this "deadly weapon" to assault an officer. Once again, a total fabrication, made up by the police to tie up protesters with time-consuming prosecutions.
DROP ALL CHARGES AGAINST HOLLY WORKS!
Oscar Grant was a young black retail grocery worker and father of a young daughter. He was out with friends for New Years Eve when he was detained by BART police. He was shot in the back at point blank range by a BART cop as he lay face-down on the Fruitvale station platform early on New Years Day, 2009. Cell-phone videos taken of the incident by witnesses on the station platform were posted on the internet, and protests erupted in Oakland. Over a week later, the officer, Johannes Mehserle, was finally charged with murder. He was granted a change of venue, and is being tried in Los Angeles.
The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610 • 510 763-2347
www.laboractionmumia.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
MARCH 20 COALITION FOLLOW-UP MEETING:
SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 2010, 2:00 P.M.
CENTRO DEL PUEBLO
474 VALENCIA STREET
Between 16th and 15th Streets, SF)
For more information call: 415-821-6545
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The US Social Forum II
" June 22-26, 2010 "
Detroit, Michigan, USA
Another World Is Possible! Another US is Necessary!
http://www.ussf2010.org/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
CIRCLE THESE DATES!!
Announcing...
A National Conference
To Bring the Troops Home Now!
JULY 23, 24, 25, 2010
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Albany, New York
www.nationalpeaceconference.org
AN INVITATION FROM: After Downing Street, Arab American Union Members Council, Black Agenda Report, Campaign for Peace and Democracy, Campus Antiwar Network, Code Pink, Iraq Veterans Against the War, National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations, Peace of the Action, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Progressive Democrats of America, U.S. Labor Against the War, The Fellowship of Reconciliation, Veterans for Peace, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom [list in formation]
The purpose of this conference is to bring together antiwar and social justice activists from across the country to discuss and decide what we can do together to end the wars, occupations, bombing attacks, threats and interventions that are taking place in the Middle East and beyond, which the U.S. government is conducting and promoting. Attend and voice your opinion on where the antiwar movement is today and where we go from here.
In these deeply troubled times, Washington's two wars and occupations rage on, resulting in an ever increasing number of dead and wounded; more and more civilians killed in drone bombing attacks; misery, deprivation, dislocation and shattered lives for millions; and a suicide rate for U.S. service members soaring to unprecedented heights. At the same time, trillions are spent on these seemingly endless Pentagon conflicts waged in pursuit of profits and global domination while trillions more are lost by working people in the value of their homes, in the loss of their jobs, pensions and health care, and in cuts for public services and vitally needed social programs.
We are witness to the massive bailout of banks and corporations while union contracts are shredded, work is outsourced, jobs are shipped off-shore, workers are evicted from their homes, and our youth and students face a bleak future of rising tuition costs, an ever-declining quality of education, and diminishing employment opportunities. They are offered instead the opportunity to become cannon fodder as the military serves as the employer of last resort while prison awaits many others.
The poor and working people in the U.S. suffer the horrors of unemployment, foreclosures, homelessness, untreated illnesses and unavailable health insurance, crumbling infrastructure, and temporary and part time work at starvation wages. These multiple crises impact communities of color with disproportionate severity. Meanwhile people in a growing number of countries around the world are subjected to death and destruction by the world's most powerful military machine.
There is another dimension to this tragedy. The U.S. is at war to control and plunder the very fossil fuel resources whose continued use threatens the future of the human race.
We demand the immediate and total withdrawal of U.S. military forces, mercenaries and contractors from Afghanistan and Iraq. Moreover, we recognize that the Middle East cauldron today also encompasses Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, Palestine and Israel, while Haiti, Honduras, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba and other countries in Latin America are targeted for intervention, subversion, occupation and control as a consequence of a militarized U.S. foreign policy. Our challenge is not only to end wars and occupations, but to fundamentally change the aggressive policies that inevitably lead our country to militarism and war.
The fight for better times, for a world of peace, justice and freedom, requires that we join together to make it happen, that we fight for the broad unity within the antiwar movement and across all the movements for social justice that has to date escaped us and that we collaborate to engage the American people in massive and united mobilizations against the warmakers and for the justice we deserve.
We have not forgotten the lessons of the civil rights movement, the struggle against the Vietnam War, the feminist and gay rights movements, and the monumental struggles that paved the way to the organization of American trade unions. History has demonstrated time and again that all critical social change is a product of the direct and massive intervention of the people.
We seek an inclusive conference where antiwar individuals and organizations come together to democratically discuss, debate and approve a plan of action aimed at winning the support and allegiance of the majority who have the power to compel a fundamental re-ordering of priorities.
We announce in advance that our goal is to develop strategies that unite us in action - for mass mobilizations and a variety of other tactics that suit the agendas of the constituent groups and individuals who participate in the conference proceedings. Our method is democracy. One person, one vote! Our goal is unity in action while respecting our diversity and differences in political program and orientation.
Join us in Albany, New York, July 23-25, 2010!
Issued by the United National Antiwar Conference (UNAC) Planning Committee
For more information, write UNAC2010@aol.com, or UNAC at P.O. Box 21675, Cleveland, OH 44121 or call 518-227-6947 or visit our website at www.nationalpeaceconference.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
A message from Brian Becker: Urgent alert from ANSWER
March 10, 2010
ANSWER@AnswerCoalition.org
Dear All:
I am writing to let you know about a serious assault on free speech rights that we believe is intended to hamper and obstruct the mobilization for the March 20 anti-war demonstrations in Washington, D.C., and in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
On Sunday night, March 6, volunteers in Los Angeles were arrested for allegedly putting up three posters announcing the March 20th action. They were charged with felony vandalism and kept in jail on a $20,000 bail for each of them. Thanks to volunteers coming together, we were able to raise bail money and they are now out of jail.
The heavy felony charge and huge $20,000 bail in Los Angeles comes shortly after a nearly identical situation in San Francisco. Two ANSWER organizers were arrested on felony vandalism charges for allegedly putting up a political poster and also each given a $20,000 bail.
In Washington, D.C., the ANSWER Coalition has been hit with another wave of fines for March 20th political posters. These thousands of dollars of new fines are on top of an unprecedented $70,000 fines from the two most recent mobilizations. We are challenging the old and new fines. The posters conformed to lawful regulations-as they always have. No organization, corporate entity or politician has ever been hit with these massive fines.
Just today, we received another $1,300 fines on top of earlier fines.
Anti-war organizations and volunteers are also being hit with heavy fines in Chicago, New York City and elsewhere.
The stakes here are high.
The massive fines and felony arrests with extraordinarily high bail come just before what we believe will be the largest outpouring to date against the war in Afghanistan.
The large corporations, including the biggest war contractors and banks, have billions of dollars to advertise their message of war and profit. Grassroots organizations have always relied on leaflets and posters to build progressive movements for change.
The government and national and local law enforcement agencies are now engaged in a nationally coordinated effort to stamp out the exercise of classic grassroots organizing.
We will never surrender to this campaign that aims to intimidate and bankrupt the progressive movement.
We are fighting back. Most importantly, we are continuing to mobilize.
We ask you to show your support by coming to the March 20 demonstrations and by bringing your friends, families, co-workers and fellow students. We will not be silenced.
You can also support this movement by sending an urgently needed donation today.
We want to thank the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF), the public interest legal organization, which has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the ANSWER Coalition and Muslim American Society Freedom that challenges the constitutionality of the D.C. postering regulations. Their tireless pro bono legal effort has resulted in an important victory at the U.S. Court of Appeals, which allows the lawsuit to proceed. The government had tried to stop us from even having our day in court. In California, constitutional rights attorney Carol Sobel has waged a major legal battle against the government's efforts to target free speech postering activities.
In order to win this fight, we have to both defend our rights in the courts and to show solidarity with activists who are facing repression. And each and every one of us can do our part to help support the mobilization of the people against war and occupation. Basic rights were never a gift from politicians. Important change, including basic free speech rights were the result of the struggle by generation after generation.
Thank you for your support. And please, take action now. Together, we can make the difference.
All out March 20!
Brian Becker_National Coordinator, ANSWER Coalition
Please make an urgently needed donation!
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Donation?ACTION=SHOW_DONATION_OPTIONS&CAMPAIGN_ID=2302&donate=link1&JServSessionIdr004=q05kpaorf1.app10a
Please make your plans to come to Washington, D.C., now. If you cannot come, please make an urgently needed donation that can help others attend.
The March 20 National March on Washington depends on the support from thousands of others like you who are taking a stand against the expanding wars and occupations. Please make your contribution today.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Fault Lines - Haiti: The politics of rebuilding
[Very enlightening video. The people of Haiti are thinking clearly. They are just not allowed to govern themselves. They are under US/UN corporate-sponsored military occupation to prevent them from running their own country cooperatively....bw]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuUt12usDVs&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Mine - Story of a Sacred Mountain
[This is a stunningly beautiful film. It is the story of Avatar in real life today...bw]
http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi888603161/
India's Supreme Court recently approved the project, and mining could begin in a matter of months.
The Dongria remain united in their determination to stop Vedanta from turning their sacred mountain into an industrial wasteland.
One of the Court's conditions is that some of the mine's profits are put towards "tribal development."
But no "development" or "compensation" package could cure the problems that mining Niyamgiri will cause: the destruction of a unique environment and culture.
The Dongria have accused Vedanta of "trying to flood us out with money" and have made it clear that:
"Mining only makes profit for the rich. We will become beggars if the company destroys our mountain and our forest so that they can make money. We don't want the mine or any help at all from the company."
Vedanta was founded by Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal, who owns more than half the shares.
Under Siege
Vedanta is still waiting to clear the final red tape before they are able to begin mining. Meanwhile, the Dongria are being held siege in their hill range.
Non-tribal villagers, who do not farm the land but rely on wage labor to survive, have blocked the routes into the Niyamgiri hills.
Young men, sometimes armed with axes, are refusing to allow any outsiders, including journalists, to enter Niyamgiri and visit Dongria Kondh villages.
The reason is simple: they do not want the world to hear the Dongria's voice.
Act now to help the Dongria Kondh
Your support is vital if the Dongria Kondh are to survive. There are many ways you can help.
--Write to India's Minister of Environment and Forests asking him to safeguard the Dongria Kondh's rights:
http://www.survivalinternational.org/actnow/writealetter/dongria
--Donate to the Dongria Kondh campaign (and other Survival campaigns):
http://www.survivalinternational.org/donations
--Write to your MP or MEP (UK):
http://www.writetothem.com/
or Senators and members of Congress (US):
http://www.congress.org/
--Write to your local Indian high commission or embassy:
http://www.embassiesabroad.com/
--If you want to get more involved, contact Survival:
http://www.survivalinternational.org/info/contact
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
I AM SEAN BELL, black boys speak
by Stacey Muhammad plus
1 year ago 1 year ago: Thu, Jan 1, 2009 6:22pm EST (Eastern Standard Time)
http://vimeo.com/2691617
I AM SEAN BELL
black boys speak
A Short Form Documentary from Wildseed Films
Directed by Stacey Muhammad
Asst. Directed by Shomari Mason
Edited by: Stacey Muhammad & R.H. Bless
Principal Photography: May 17, 2008
Brooklyn, NY
Running Time 10:30
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
War veterans and resisters say "All Out for March 20th-National March on Washington!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwsLfG9JjF8
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Bilin Reenacts Avatar Film 12-02-2010 By Haitham Al Katib
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chw32qG-M7E
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Watch the video: "Haiti and the Devil's Curse" at:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
or
Haiti And The 'Devil's Curse' - The Truth About Haiti & Lies Of The Media PART 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWqgOe0-0xA
Haiti And The 'Devil's Curse' - The Truth About Haiti & Lies Of The Media PART 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9Qki6TrI7M&feature=related
It's a powerful and accurate history of Haiti--including historical film footage of French, U.S., Canadian, and UN invasions, mass murder and torture, exploitation and occupation of Haiti--featuring Danny Glover.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Gaza in Plain Language: a video by Anthony Lawson and Joe Mowrey
Anthony Lawson and Joe Mowrey have created an amazing video. The narrative is from an article published not long ago in Dissident Voice written by Mr. Mowrey. [See article with the same name. A warning, however. This video is very graphic and very brutal but this is a truth we must see!..bw] A video that narrates just what happened, without emotion... just the facts, ma'am! Share it with those you know! Now on PTT TV so Google and YouTube can't censor this information totally.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/02/video-gaza-in-plain-language/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Glen Ford on Black Delusion in the Age of Obama
[A speech delivered to the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations conference. This is a great speech full of information.]
blackisbackcoalition.org
http://blip.tv/file/3169123
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Security in an Insecure Land
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/01/30/world/americas/1247466794033/security-in-an-insecure-land.html?hp
Also see:
Haitian Law Enforcement Returns
The Haitian police are back on patrol in Port-au-Prince.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/playlist/world/americas/1194811622209/index.html#1247466794033
Haitians Scramble for Aid
France24 reports on desperate Haitians trying to get some aid food in the Cité Soleil district of Port-au-Prince.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/playlist/world/americas/1194811622209/index.html#1247466794033
HOW MANY CRIMES CAN THE U.S. COMMIT IN A CENTURY? EVIDENTLY THEIR PENCHANT FOR MORE AND MORE EGREGIOUS CRIMES ARE LIMITLESS! IT'S UP TO US TO STOP THEM! U.S. OUT OF HAITI NOW! LEAVE THE FOOD AND SUPPLIES AND GET THE HELL OUT! AND TAKE YOUR MARINES, GUNS AND TANKS WITH YOU!
U.S. Marines prevent the distribution of food to starving people due to "lack of security." They bring a truck full of supplies then, because their chain of command says they haven't enough men with guns, they drive away with the truckload of food leaving the starving Haitians running after the truck empty-handed! This is shown in detail in the video in the New York Times titled, "Confusion in Haitian Countryside." The Marines-the strong, the brave--turn tail and run! INCAPABLE, EVEN, OF DISTRIBUTING FOOD TO UNARMED, STARVING, MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN!
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/01/22/world/americas/1247466678828/confusion-in-the-haitian-countryside.html?ref=world
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Lost Generation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Please sign the petition to stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal and
and forward it to all your lists.
"Mumia Abu-Jamal and The Global Abolition of the Death Penalty"
http://www.petitiononline.com/Mumialaw/petition.html
(A Life In the Balance - The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, at 34, Amnesty Int'l, 2000; www. Amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/001/2000.)
[Note: This petition is approved by Mumia Abu-Jamal and his lead attorney, Robert R. Bryan, San Francisco (E-mail: MumiaLegalDefense@gmail.com; Website: www.MumiaLegalDefense.org).]
*********************************************************************
Alert! New Threat To Mumia's Life!
Supreme Court Set To Announce A Decision
On the State Appeal To Reinstate Mumia's Death Sentence
17 January 2010
The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 Oakland CA 94610
(510) 763-2347
Visit our newly-rebuilt and updated web site for background information on Mumia's innocence. See the "What You Can Do Now" page: www.laboractionmumia.org
- The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 Oakland CA 94610
(510) 763-2347
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The Pay at the Top
The compensation research firm Equilar compiled data reflecting pay for 200 chief executives at 198 public companies that filed their annual proxies by March 27 and had revenue of at least $6.3 billion. (Two companies, Motorola and Synnex, had co-C.E.O.'s.) | See a detailed description of the methodology.
http://projects.nytimes.com/executive_compensation?ref=business
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
AMAZING SPEECH BY WAR VETERAN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akm3nYN8aG8
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The Unemployment Game Show: Are You *Really* Unemployed? - From Mint.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulu3SCAmeBA
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Video: Gaza Lives On
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU5Wi2jhnW0
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
ASSESSMENT - "LEFT IN THE COLD"- CROW CREEK - 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmfue_pjwho&feature=PlayList&p=217F560F18109313&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=5
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FREE LYNNE STEWART NOW!
Lynne Stewart in Jail!
Mail tax free contributions payable to National Lawyers Guild Foundation. Write in memo box: "Lynne Stewart Defense." Mail to: Lynne Stewart Defense, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610.
SEND RESOLUTIONS AND STATEMENTS OF SUPPORT TO DEFENSE ATTORNEY JOSHUA L. DRATEL, ESQ. FAX: 212) 571 3792 AND EMAIL: jdratel@aol.com
SEND PROTESTS TO ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER:
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Department of Justice Main Switchboard - 202-514-2000
AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
Office of the Attorney General Public Comment Line - 202-353-1555
To send Lynne a letter, write:
Lynne Stewart
53504-054
MCC-NY
150 Park Row
New York, NY 10007
Lynne Stewart speaks in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOQ5_VKRf5k&feature=related
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
With a New Smile, 'Rage' Fades Away [SINGLE PAYER NOW!!!]
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/12/08/health/20091208_Clinic/index.html?ref=us
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FTA [F**k The Army] Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HlkgPCgU7g
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Buffy Sainte Marie - No No Keshagesh
[Keshagesh is the Cree word to describe a greedy puppy that wants to keep eating everything, a metaphor for corporate greed]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKmAb1gNN74&feature=player_embedded#
Buffy Sainte-Marie - No No Keshagesh lyrics:
http://www.lyricsmode.com/?i=print_lyrics&id=705368
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The Story of Mouseland: As told by Tommy Douglas in 1944
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqgOvzUeiAA
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The Communist Manifesto illustrated by Cartoons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KUl4yfABE4
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
HELP VFP PUT THIS BOOK IN YOUR HIGH SCHOOL OR PUBLIC LIBRARY
For a donation of only $18.95, we can put a copy of the book "10 Excellent Reasons Not to Join the Military" into a public or high school library of your choice. [Reason number 1: You may be killed]
A letter and bookplate will let readers know that your donation helped make this possible.
Putting a book in either a public or school library ensures that students, parents, and members of the community will have this valuable information when they need it.
Don't have a library you would like us to put it in? We'll find one for you!
https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/826/t/9311/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=4906
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
This is a must-see video about the life of Oscar Grant, a young man who loved his family and was loved by his family. It's important to watch to understand the tremendous loss felt by his whole family as a result of his cold-blooded murder by BART police officers--Johannes Mehserle being the shooter while the others held Oscar down and handcuffed him to aid Mehserle in the murder of Oscar Grant January 1, 2009.
The family wants to share this video here with you who support justice for Oscar Grant.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/07/21/18611878.php
WE DEMAND JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Troy Anthony Davis is an African American man who has spent the last 18 years on death row for a murder he did not commit. There is no physical evidence tying him to the crime and seven out of nine witnesses have recanted. New evidence and new testimony have been presented to the Georgia courts, but the justice system refuses to consider this evidence, which would prove Troy Davis' innocence once and for all.
Sign the petition and join the NAACP, Amnesty International USA, and other partners in demanding justice for Troy Davis!
http://www.iamtroy.com/
For Now, High Court Punts on Troy Davis, on Death Row for 18 Years
By Ashby Jones
Wall Street Journal Law Blog
June 30, 2009
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/06/30/for-now-high-court-punts-on-troy-davis-on-death-row-for-18-years/
Take action now:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&aid=12361&ICID=A0906A01&tr=y&auid=5030305
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Committee To Save Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 2012
New York, NY 10159-2012
New videos from April 24 Oakland Mumia event
http://abu-jamal-news.com/article?name=jlboak
Donations for Mumia's Legal Defense in the U.S. Our legal effort is the front line of the battle for Mumia's freedom and life. His legal defense needs help. The costs are substantial for our litigation in the U.S. Supreme Court and at the state level. To help, please make your checks payable to the National Lawyers Guild Foundation indicate "Mumia" on the bottom left). All donations are tax deductible under the Internal Revenue Code, section 501c)3), and should be mailed to:
It is outrageous and a violation of human rights that Mumia remains in prison and on death row. His life hangs in the balance. My career has been marked by successfully representing people facing death in murder cases. I will not rest until we win Mumia's case. Justice requires no less.
With best wishes,
Robert R. Bryan
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Short Video About Al-Awda's Work
The following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's work since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown on Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l Al-Awda Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected over the past nine years.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial support to carry out its work.
To submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the simple instructions.
Thank you for your generosity!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT!
FLASHPOINTS Interview with Innocent San Quentin Death Row Inmate
Kevin Cooper -- Aired Monday, May 18,2009
http://www.flashpoints.net/#GOOGLE_SEARCH_ENGINE
To learn more about Kevin Cooper go to:
savekevincooper.org
LINKS
San Francisco Chronicle article on the recent ruling:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/13/BAM517J8T3.DTL
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling and dissent:
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/05/11/05-99004o.pdf
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
COURAGE TO RESIST!
Support the troops who refuse to fight!
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/
Donate:
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/21/57/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
C. ARTICLES IN FULL
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Bloomberg Says a Soda Tax 'Makes Sense'
By A. G. SULZBERGER
March 7, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/nyregion/08soda.html?ref=nyregion
2) Program Will Pay Homeowners to Sell at a Loss
By DAVID STREITFELD
March 7, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/business/08short.html?ref=business
3) The Source of Obama's Trouble
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
March 9, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com//2010/03/09/opinion/09herbert.html
4) Public Pension Funds Are Adding Risk to Raise Returns
By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH
March 8, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/business/09pension.html?hp
5) Israel: Plans for 3rd Nuclear Reactor
By REUTERS
March 8, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/world/middleeast/09briefs-Israel.html?ref=world
6) In Jury Selection for Hate Crime, a Struggle to Find Tolerance
By MANNY FERNANDEZ
March 8, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/nyregion/09patchogue.html?ref=world
7) New Trial Granted in 5 Murders in New Orleans
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
March 8, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/us/09orleans.html?ref=us
8) Iraq War veteran Army Spc Marc Hall writes from jail
War objector with PTSD jailed and 'extradited' to Kuwait for secret trial
March 9, 2010
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/821/1/
9) An Eviction Stirs Old Ghosts in a Contested City
By ISABEL KERSHNER
March 9, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/world/middleeast/10jerusalem.html
10) Texas: Judge Takes Back Death Penalty Ruling
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 9, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/us/10brfs-JUDGETAKESBA_BRF.html?ref=us
11) Your Retirement Funds to Bail Out Failed Banks?
ladyjayne's blog
Commentary on the trials, tribulations, and quirks of these times.
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
http://ladyjaynestahl.blogspot.com/2010/03/public-retirement-funds-to-bail-out.html
12) New Strike Paralyzes Greece
By NIKI KITSANTONIS
March 11, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/world/europe/12greece.html?ref=world
13) House Rejects Plan to Leave Afghanistan by Year's End
By CARL HULSE
March 10, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/world/asia/11cong.html?ref=world
14) Kansas City to Close Nearly Half Its Schools
By SUSAN SAULNY
March 10, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/us/11kansascity.html?ref=us
15) Carlos Slim Tops Forbes List of Billionaires
By BLOOMBERG NEWS
March 10, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/business/11forbes.html?ref=business
16) Cost of F-35 Has Risen 60% to 90%, Military Says
By CHRISTOPHER DREW
March 11, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/business/12plane.html?ref=business
17) Big Brother in Blue
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
March 13, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/opinion/13herbert.html
18) New Fraud Cases Point to Lapses in Iraq Projects
By JAMES GLANZ
March 13, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/world/middleeast/14reconstruct.html?hp
19) As the Budget Ax Swings Again, There May Be No Way to Avoid the Pain
By SUSAN DOMINUS
March 12, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/nyregion/13bigcity.html?ref=nyregion
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Bloomberg Says a Soda Tax 'Makes Sense'
By A. G. SULZBERGER
March 7, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/nyregion/08soda.html?ref=nyregion
As the battle over the state budget and the looming multibillion-dollar gap becomes more intense, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has stepped up his call for the Legislature to pass a penny-per-ounce tax on soda to stave off major service cuts to education and health care.
During his weekly radio address on Sunday - a day before a symposium on the topic - Mr. Bloomberg noted research suggesting that such a tax would reduce consumption of the sugary drinks, driving down obesity rates and the accompanying medical costs. Yet his main thrust was on finding a quick source of revenue for a city in serious need of one.
"In these tough economic times, easy fixes to our problems are hard to come by," he said. "But the soda tax is a fix that just makes sense. It would save lives. It would cut rising health care costs. And it would keep thousands of teachers and nurses where they belong: in the classrooms and clinics."
The city's health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, and his predecessor, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, have advocated such a move, but the comments reinforce the mayor's newly public support of the controversial tax.
Last year, after Gov. David A. Paterson encountered such strong opposition that he eventually dropped the proposal, Mr. Bloomberg expressed support for it but noted the "enormous outcry" and said the idea was "just not one that we're going to be pursuing."
This year, Mr. Bloomberg is throwing his weight behind the proposed tax at a time when the governor has been weakened and distracted by scandal. During testimony about the budget before the Legislature in January, Mr. Bloomberg - whose history of using his office to tackle public health issues includes an anti-soda advertisement campaign and banning smoking in bars - called the proposal "far-sighted."
Dr. Richard F. Daines, the state health commissioner, said he had noticed a difference.
"What I think you're seeing is really a momentum shift in favor of doing it," he said.
Dr. Daines added that the new tax differed from the one proposed last year in that it would be levied directly on soda producers and the estimated $1 billion in annual revenue would be dedicated to the health care budget, rather than to the general fund. Mr. Bloomberg said the tax would also benefit education.
On Monday, Mr. Paterson was scheduled to headline a symposium about the beverage tax at the State Capitol, in Albany, with Dr. Daines and Dr. Farley attending.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Program Will Pay Homeowners to Sell at a Loss
By DAVID STREITFELD
March 7, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/business/08short.html?ref=business
In an effort to end the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration has been trying to keep defaulting owners in their homes. Now it will take a new approach: paying some of them to leave.
This latest program, which will allow owners to sell for less than they owe and will give them a little cash to speed them on their way, is one of the administration's most aggressive attempts to grapple with a problem that has defied solutions.
More than five million households are behind on their mortgages and risk foreclosure. The government's $75 billion mortgage modification plan has helped only a small slice of them. Consumer advocates, economists and even some banking industry representatives say much more needs to be done.
For the administration, there is also the concern that millions of foreclosures could delay or even reverse the economy's tentative recovery - the last thing it wants in an election year.
Taking effect on April 5, the program could encourage hundreds of thousands of delinquent borrowers who have not been rescued by the loan modification program to shed their houses through a process known as a short sale, in which property is sold for less than the balance of the mortgage. Lenders will be compelled to accept that arrangement, forgiving the difference between the market price of the property and what they are owed.
"We want to streamline and standardize the short sale process to make it much easier on the borrower and much easier on the lender," said Seth Wheeler, a Treasury senior adviser.
The problem is highlighted by a routine case in Phoenix. Chris Paul, a real estate agent, has a house he is trying to sell on behalf of its owner, who owes $150,000. Mr. Paul has an offer for $48,000, but the bank holding the mortgage says it wants at least $90,000. The frustrated owner is now contemplating foreclosure.
To bring the various parties to the table - the homeowner, the lender that services the loan, the investor that owns the loan, the bank that owns the second mortgage on the property - the government intends to spread its cash around.
Under the new program, the servicing bank, as with all modifications, will get $1,000. Another $1,000 can go toward a second loan, if there is one. And for the first time the government would give money to the distressed homeowners themselves. They will get $1,500 in "relocation assistance."
Should the incentives prove successful, the short sales program could have multiple benefits. For the investment pools that own many home loans, there is the prospect of getting more money with a sale than with a foreclosure.
For the borrowers, there is the likelihood of suffering less damage to credit ratings. And as part of the transaction, they will get the lender's assurance that they will not later be sued for an unpaid mortgage balance.
For communities, the plan will mean fewer empty foreclosed houses waiting to be sold by banks. By some estimates, as many as half of all foreclosed properties are ransacked by either the former owners or vandals, which depresses the value of the property further and pulls down the value of neighboring homes.
If short sales are about to have their moment, it has been a long time coming. At the beginning of the foreclosure crisis, lenders shunned short sales. They were not equipped to deal with the labor-intensive process and were suspicious of it.
The lenders' thinking, said the economist Thomas Lawler, went like this: "I lend someone $200,000 to buy a house. Then he says, 'Look, I have someone willing to pay $150,000 for it; otherwise I think I'm going to default.' Do I really believe the borrower can't pay it back? And is $150,000 a reasonable offer for the property?"
Short sales are "tailor-made for fraud," said Mr. Lawler, a former executive at the mortgage finance company Fannie Mae.
Last year, short sales started to increase, although they remain relatively uncommon. Fannie Mae said preforeclosure deals on loans in its portfolio more than tripled in 2009, to 36,968. But real estate agents say many lenders still seem to disapprove of short sales.
Under the new federal program, a lender will use real estate agents to determine the value of a home and thus the minimum to accept. This figure will not be shared with the owner, but if an offer comes in that is equal to or higher than this amount, the lender must take it.
Mr. Paul, the Phoenix agent, was skeptical. "In a perfect world, this would work," he said. "But because estimates of value are inherently subjective, it won't. The banks don't want to sell at a discount."
There are myriad other potential conflicts over short sales that may not be solved by the program, which was announced on Nov. 30 but whose details are still being fine-tuned. Many would-be short sellers have second and even third mortgages on their houses. Banks that own these loans are in a position to block any sale unless they get a piece of the deal.
"You have one loan, it's no sweat to get a short sale," said Howard Chase, a Miami Beach agent who says he does around 20 short sales a month. "But the second mortgage often is the obstacle."
Major lenders seem to be taking a cautious approach to the new initiative. In many cases, big banks do not actually own the mortgages; they simply administer them and collect payments. J. K. Huey, a Wells Fargo vice president, said a short sale, like a loan modification, would have to meet the requirements of the investor who owns the loan.
"This is not an opportunity for the customer to just walk away," Ms. Huey said. "If someone doesn't come to us saying, 'I've done everything I can, I used all my savings, I borrowed money and, by the way, I'm losing my job and moving to another city, and have all the documentation,' we're not going to do a short sale."
But even if lenders want to treat short sales as a last resort for desperate borrowers, in reality the standards seem to be looser.
Sree Reddy, a lawyer and commercial real estate investor who lives in Miami Beach, bought a one-bedroom condominium in 2005, spent about $30,000 on improvements and ended up owing $540,000. Three years later, the value had fallen by 40 percent.
Mr. Reddy wanted to get out from under his crushing monthly payments. He lost a lot of money in the crash but was not in default. Nevertheless, his bank let him sell the place for $360,000 last summer.
"A short sale provides peace of mind," said Mr. Reddy, 32. "If you're in foreclosure, you don't know when they're ultimately going to take the place away from you."
Mr. Reddy still lives in the apartment complex where he bought that condo, but is now a renter paying about half of his old mortgage payment. Another benefit, he said: "The place I'm in now is nicer and a little bigger."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) The Source of Obama's Trouble
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
March 9, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com//2010/03/09/opinion/09herbert.html
The Obama administration and Democrats in general are in trouble because they are not urgently and effectively addressing the issue that most Americans want them to: the frightening economic insecurity that has put a chokehold on millions of American families.
The economy shed 36,000 jobs last month, and that was trumpeted in the press as good news. Well, after your house has burned down I suppose it's good news that the flames may finally be flickering out. But once you realize that it will take 11 million or more new jobs to get us back to where we were when the recession began, you begin to understand that we're not really making any headway at all.
It's also widely known by now that the official employment statistics drastically understate the problem. Once we take off the statistical rose-colored glasses, we're left with the awful reality of millions upon millions of Americans who have lost - or are losing - their jobs, their homes, their small businesses, and their hopes for a brighter future.
Instead of focusing with unwavering intensity on this increasingly tragic situation, making it their top domestic priority, President Obama and the Democrats on Capitol Hill have spent astonishing amounts of time and energy, and most of their political capital, on an obsessive quest to pass a health care bill.
Health care reform is important. But what the public has wanted and still badly needs above all else from Mr. Obama and the Democrats are bold efforts to put people back to work. A major employment rebound is the only real way to alleviate the deep economic anxiety that has gripped so many Americans. Unaddressed, that anxiety inevitably evolves into dread and then anger.
But while the nation is desperate for jobs, jobs, jobs, the Democrats have spent most of the Obama era chanting health care, health care, health care.
The talk inside the Beltway, that super-incestuous, egomaniacal, reality-free zone, is that President Obama and the Democrats have a messaging or public relations problem. We're being told - and even worse, Mr. Obama and the Democrats are being told - that their narrative is not getting through. In other words, the wonderfulness of all that they've done is somehow not being recognized by the slow-to-catch-on masses.
That's just silly. People are upset because they are mired in economic distress and are losing faith that their elected representatives are looking out for their best interests. They've watched with increasing anger as their government has been hijacked by the economic elite. They know that the big banks that were bailed out by taxpayers can borrow money at an interest rate of near zero while at the same time charging credit-card holders usurious rates of 20 to 30 percent.
They know that the financial fat cats are fighting the creation of a truly independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency. They know that while ordinary Americans are kept out of the corridors of power, the elites with their lobbyists and lawyers and campaign contributions have a voice in every important decision that is made.
It's not the message that's a problem for Mr. Obama and the Democrats, it's the all-too-clear reality. People know that the government that is supposed to be looking out for ordinary people - for working people and the poor - is not doing nearly enough about an employment crisis that is lowering standards of living and hollowing out the American dream.
This is not just a short-term crisis. There are many communities across the country in which the effective jobless rate is higher than 50 percent. Many state and local governments are grappling with disastrous revenue shortfalls that are forcing cuts in services and layoffs, and threatening the viability of even a modest national economic recovery.
A University of Michigan survey of consumer sentiment in February found that 60 percent of American consumers expect to receive no income gains at all in the year ahead, the worst finding in that category in the history of the surveys.
The Republican Party has nothing in the way of solutions to Americans' economic plight. It is committed only to the demented policy of trying to ensure that President Obama and the Democrats fail.
But the fact that the Republicans are pathetic and destructive is no reason for the Democrats to shirk their obligation to fight powerfully and relentlessly for the economic well-being of all Americans. There are now six people in the employment market for every available job. There is a staggering backlog of discouraged workers who would show up tomorrow if there were a job to be had.
The many millions of new jobs needed to make a real dent in the employment crisis are not going to materialize by themselves. Mr. Obama and the Democrats don't seem to understand that.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) Public Pension Funds Are Adding Risk to Raise Returns
By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH
March 8, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/business/09pension.html?hp
States and companies have started investing very differently when it comes to the billions of dollars they are safeguarding for workers' retirement.
Companies are quietly and gradually moving their pension funds out of stocks. They want to reduce their investment risk and are buying more long-term bonds.
But states and other bodies of government are seeking higher returns for their pension funds, to make up for ground lost in the last couple of years and to pay all the benefits promised to present and future retirees. Higher returns come with more risk.
"In effect, they're going to Las Vegas," said Frederick E. Rowe, a Dallas investor and the former chairman of the Texas Pension Review Board, which oversees public plans in that state. "Double up to catch up."
Though they generally say that their strategies are aimed at diversification and are not riskier, public pension funds are trying a wide range of investments: commodity futures, junk bonds, foreign stocks, deeply discounted mortgage-backed securities and margin investing. And some states that previously shunned hedge funds are trying them now.
The Texas teachers' pension fund recently paid Chicago to receive a stream of payments from the money going into the city's parking meters in the coming years. The deal gave Chicago an upfront payment that it could use to help balance its budget. Alas, Chicago did not have enough money to contribute to its own pension fund, which has been stung by real estate deals that fizzled when the city lost out in the bidding for the 2016 Olympics.
A spokeswoman for the Texas teachers' fund said plan administrators believed that such alternative investments were the likeliest way to earn 8 percent average annual returns over time.
Pension funds rarely trumpet their intentions, partly to keep other big investors from trading against them. But some big corporations are unloading the stocks that have dominated pension portfolios for decades. General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, J. C. Penney, Boeing, Federal Express and Ashland are among those that have been shifting significant amounts of pension money out of stocks.
Other companies say they plan to follow suit, though more slowly. A poll of pension funds conducted by Pyramis Global Advisors last November found that more than half of corporate funds were reducing the portion they invested in United States equities.
Laggards tend to be companies with big shortfalls in their pension funds. Those moving the fastest are often mature companies with large pension funds, and who fear a big bear market could decimate the funds and the companies' own finances.
"The larger the pension plan, the lower-risk strategy you would like to employ," said Andrew T. Ward, the chief investment officer of Boeing, which shifted a big block of pension money out of stocks in 2007. That helped cushion Boeing's pension fund against the big losses of 2008.
Shedding stocks gave Boeing "material protection right when we needed it most," Mr. Ward said. By the time the markets had bottomed out last March, Boeing's pension fund had lost 14 percent of its value, while those of its equity-laden peers had lost 25 to 30 percent, he said.
"We estimated that the strategy saved our company in the short term right around $4 or $5 billion of funded status," he said.
Boeing and other companies seeking to reduce their investment risk are moving into fixed-income instruments, like bonds - but not just any bonds. They are buying and holding bonds scheduled to pay many years in the future, when their retirees expect their money.
The value of the bonds may fall in the meantime, just like the value of stocks. But declining bond prices are not such a worry, because the companies plan to hold the bonds for the accompanying interest payments that will in turn go to retirees, not sell them in the interim.
Towers Watson, a big benefits consulting firm, surveyed senior financial executives last year and found that two-thirds planned to decrease the stock portion of their companies' pension funds by the end of 2010. They typically said their stock allocations would shrink by 10 percentage points.
"That's 10 times the shift we might see in any given year," said Carl Hess, head of Towers Watson's investment consulting business. Economists have speculated that a truly seismic shift in pension investing away from stocks could be a drag on the market, but they say it would not be long-lasting.
Corporate America's change of heart is notable all on its own, after decades of resistance to anything other than returns like those of the stock markets. But it's even more startling when compared with governments' continued loyalty to stocks. When governments scale back on the domestic stocks in their pension portfolios these days, it is often just to make way for more foreign stocks or private equities, which are not publicly traded.
Government pension plans cannot beef up their bonds that mature many, many years from now without dashing their business models. They use long-range estimates that presume high investment returns will cover most of the cost of the benefits they must pay. And that, they say, allows them to make smaller contributions along the way.
Most have been assuming their investments will pay 8 percent a year on average, over the long term. This is based on an assumption that stocks will pay 9.5 percent on average, and bonds will pay about 5.75 percent, in roughly a 60-40 mix.
(Corporate plans do their calculations differently, and for them, investment returns are a less important factor.)
The problem now is that bond rates have been low for years, and stocks have been prone to such wild swings that a 60-40 mixture of stocks and bonds is not paying 8 percent. Many public pension funds have been averaging a little more than 3 percent a year for the last decade, so they have fallen behind where their planning models say they should be.
A growing number of experts say that governments need to lower the assumptions they make about rates of return, to reflect today's market conditions.
But plan officials say they cannot.
"Nobody wants to adjust the rate, because liabilities would explode," said Trent May, chief investment officer of Wyoming's state pension fund.
The $30 billion Colorado state pension fund is one of a tiny number of government plans to disclose how much difference even a slight change in its projected rate of return could make. Colorado has been assuming its investments will earn 8.5 percent annually, on average, and on that basis it reported a $17.9 billion shortfall in its most recent annual report.
But the state also disclosed what would happen if it lowered its investment assumption just half a percentage point, to 8 percent. Though it might be more likely to achieve that return, Colorado would earn less over time on its investments. So at 8 percent, the plan's shortfall would actually jump to $21.4 billion. Contributions would need to increase to keep pace.
Colorado cannot afford the contributions it owes, even at the current estimated rate of return. It has fallen behind by several billion dollars on its yearly contributions, and after a bruising battle the legislature recently passed a bill reducing retirees' cost-of-living adjustment, to 2 percent, from 3.5 percent. Public employees' unions are threatening to sue to have the law repealed.
If Colorado could somehow get 9 percent annual returns from its investments, though, its pension shortfall would shrink to a less daunting $15 billion, according to its annual report.
That explains why plan officials are looking everywhere for high-yielding investments.
Mr. May, in Wyoming, said many governments were "moving away from the perceived safety and liquidity of the investment-grade market" and investing money offshore, but he said he was aware of the risks. "There's a history of emerging markets kind of hitting the wall," he said.
Last year, the North Carolina Legislature enacted a measure to let the state pension fund invest 5 percent of its assets in "credit opportunities," like junk bonds and asset-backed securities from the Federal Reserve's Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, an emergency program created to thaw the frozen markets for such securities.
The law also lets North Carolina put 5 percent of its pension portfolio into commodities, real estate and other assets that the state sees as hedges against inflation. A summary of the bill issued by the state's treasurer and sole pension trustee, Janet Cowell, said it would provide "flexibility and the tools to increase portfolio return and better manage risk."
But some think they see new risks.
"It doesn't pass the smell test," said Edward Macheski, a retired money manager living in North Carolina. "North Carolina's assumption is 7.25 percent, and they haven't matched it in 10 years." He went to a recent meeting of the state treasurer's advisory board, armed with a list of questions about the investment policy. But the board voted not to permit any public discussion.
Wisconsin, meanwhile, has become one of the first states to adopt an investment strategy called "risk parity," which involves borrowing extra money for the pension portfolio and investing it in a type of Treasury bond that will pay higher interest if inflation rises.
Officials of the State of Wisconsin Investment Board declined to be interviewed but provided written descriptions of risk parity. The records show that Wisconsin wanted to reduce its exposure to the stock market, and shifting money into the inflation-proof Treasury bonds would do that. But Wisconsin also wanted to keep its assumed rate of return at 7.8 percent, and the Treasury bonds would not pay that much.
Wisconsin decided it could lower its equities but preserve its assumption if it also added a significant amount of leverage to its pension fund, by using a variety of derivative instruments, like swaps, futures or repurchase agreements.
It decided to start with a small amount of leverage and gradually increase it over time, but word of even a baby step into derivatives elicited howls of protest from around the state.
The big California pension fund, known as Calpers, was already under fire for losing billions of dollars on private equities and real estate in the last few years. So far it has stayed with those asset classes, while negotiating lower fees and writing off some of the most troubled real estate investments.
It announced in February that it had started looking into whether it should lower its expected rate of investment return, now 7.75 percent a year. It has embarked on a study, but a spokesman said that process would not be done until December, safely after the coming election.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) Israel: Plans for 3rd Nuclear Reactor
By REUTERS
March 8, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/world/middleeast/09briefs-Israel.html?ref=world
Israel will announce plans this week to build a new nuclear reactor to diversify its energy sector, officials said Monday. Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau has discussed the possibility of cooperating on building a nuclear plant with France and Jordan, the ministry said. The project would be overseen by France and use French technology. Israel already has two reactors, the Dimona reactor in the Negev desert, which is widely assumed to have produced nuclear weapons, and a research reactor at Nahal Soreq near Tel Aviv.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) In Jury Selection for Hate Crime, a Struggle to Find Tolerance
By MANNY FERNANDEZ
March 8, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/nyregion/09patchogue.html?ref=world
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. - Over the last several days, Justice Robert W. Doyle has heard the typical excuses from potential jurors. One woman mentioned her husband's medical problems. Another woman complained about her back.
But other prospective jurors, seeking to be excused, have brought up larger issues in the judge's Long Island courtroom.
A young woman said that her father, a mechanic, has a "huge opinion about illegal immigration," and that his views on the subject have "become my opinions as well." A man told Justice Doyle that his house was broken into by illegal immigrants while he was sleeping, a fact that he said would affect his ability to be fair and impartial.
And there were those who took a different view, like the bank worker who said that because her husband is of Mexican and Italian descent, she might have difficulty being fair. And the woman who explained that most of the clients in her job are illegal Latino immigrants.
"I don't think that because of that they should be killed," she told Justice Doyle.
The prospective jurors were being asked to sit in judgment in the case involving the killing of Marcelo Lucero, a 37-year-old Ecuadorean immigrant stabbed to death in November 2008 in Patchogue, more than an hour's drive from Manhattan.
Mr. Lucero was attacked by seven teenagers who, the police said, had made a sport out of assaulting Hispanic men, calling it "beaner hopping." Mr. Lucero's death prompted widespread outrage and exposed racial tensions in Patchogue, where a number of Latinos came forward after the attack to describe muggings and assaults that had them living in fear.
Now, as Jeffrey Conroy, 19, becomes the first defendant to go on trial in the case, jury selection has proven difficult, in part because of the views on Latino immigration held by some prospective jurors in Suffolk County.
Last week, after three days of jury selection, about 130 men and women were questioned by the judge, the prosecutor and Mr. Conroy's defense lawyer here in State Supreme Court. Only five were selected; the rest were excused. On Monday, jury selection continued as another roughly 130 were brought in, and more than a dozen were excused by the end of the day.
Once the jury is seated, Mr. Conroy's defense may be complicated by the fact that four of the seven teenagers have pleaded guilty and may testify against him. But something larger may be at play: the treatment of immigrants in Suffolk County and the allegations that have been raised that some residents there are biased against them.
At times, the jury selection had the feel of a call-in show on talk radio, as men and women sounded off on illegal immigration, hate crimes, their ethnic background and the American dream. Most of the comments made by potential jurors came in response to questions asked by Justice Doyle in a third-floor courtroom of the criminal courthouse in Riverhead, as Mr. Conroy sat motionless in a dark suit at a table next to his lawyer.
Mr. Conroy is accused of second-degree murder as a hate crime, among other charges, in Mr. Lucero's death, as well as attempted assault as a hate crime in episodes involving other Hispanic men. He has pleaded not guilty. The other two defendants have pleaded not guilty to a hate crime and other charges and are awaiting trial.
Justice Doyle has said that some of the witnesses who will testify in the trial are illegal immigrants, and the potential witnesses he has named in court include three Hispanic men whom prosecutors say some or all of the young men also attempted to attack. Mr. Lucero, who worked at a dry cleaning store, had lived in the United States for 16 years at the time he was stabbed.
Several potential jurors were let go because they said they had strong views on illegal immigration and would be unable to be fair and impartial. Others were excused because they said they had Hispanic family members, or were Hispanic themselves, and would side with the victim and his family. And still others said they had followed the case in the news, and had already formed an opinion about Mr. Conroy's guilt or innocence.
On Monday, a Riverhead man in his early 20s told the judge that he grew up in a racist environment in Pennsylvania and felt that he could not be fair. Another man said that a neighbor has been verbally abusing his son's family for several years because his daughter-in-law is Puerto Rican and Peruvian. Justice Doyle asked him if this would affect his ability to be fair.
"It could," said the man, who declined to elaborate after being excused.
Those who raised illegal immigration as a factor in their ability to serve chose their words carefully, so as not to condone the crimes for which Mr. Conroy stands accused.
One man, a school bus driver, said his Teamsters union had taken a stand on what he described as a lack of a federal immigration policy, and because some witnesses might be illegal immigrants, this would be a problem for him. Before he was released, the man said that what he has and what he has earned was gained legally, not illegally. "I'm the old-fashioned way," he told Justice Doyle.
The majority of potential jurors, including the school bus driver, have been white men and women of all ages. Only a handful have been Hispanic, black or Asian.
The economic and social impact that Latino immigration and Hispanic day laborers have had on communities in Suffolk County has long been a polarizing issue. A report released following the death of Mr. Lucero by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that monitors hate groups, found that an environment of racial intolerance fueled dozens of attacks on Latinos in the county in the past decade.
"It is a little bit of a glimpse into the soul of a community," Bruce Barket, a Long Island defense lawyer and a former Nassau County prosecutor, said of the comments being made in this case so far. "These kinds of issues and these kinds of tensions are always present in the courtroom. Race is probably the most dominant unspoken factor in almost every trial."
Advocates for immigrants and the brother of Mr. Lucero criticized those who said their feelings on illegal immigration prevented them from being impartial. "We're not talking about any issues about immigration," Mr. Lucero's brother, Joselo Lucero, 35, said in an interview. "We're talking about justice and human rights. This is totally different."
Several more days of jury selection are expected. Mr. Conroy's lawyer, William Keahon, said he was not concerned about how long it was taking to select a jury. "It's going to take us a couple days longer than unusual, but there's no doubt that the result will be a fair and impartial jury to both sides," he said.
There were times during the jury selection process when illegal immigration did not seem to be such a daunting issue. Last week, Megan O'Donnell, an assistant district attorney, asked prospective jurors sitting in the jury box if the victim's immigration status mattered to them, and all assured her that it did not matter.
Carla Panetta, 60, a Patchogue mother of four and grandmother of six, was among a large group of prospective jurors that Justice Doyle excused at the end of the day on Thursday. Outside the courthouse, she said that illegal immigration had no bearing on the case, and that even though her 14-year-old grandson is Hispanic, she would have had no problem being objective. She criticized those prospective jurors who said they could not be fair because of their views on illegal immigration.
"I don't care whether the man was legal, illegal, white, black, purple or green," she said outside the courthouse. "There was a murder. It almost seemed like the poor victim was the one going on trial."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) New Trial Granted in 5 Murders in New Orleans
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
March 8, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/us/09orleans.html?ref=us
NEW ORLEANS - Throwing out what had been a trophy verdict for the district attorney's office, a judge here on Monday granted a new trial for a man who was convicted last summer of killing five people in 2006.
The shooting deaths galvanized this city, which at the time was less than a year into its recovery from Hurricane Katrina, and led to intense political pressure on the district attorney's office to successfully prosecute the case.
But the judge, Lynda Van Davis, found that the prosecution had failed to turn over to the defense two key pieces of evidence for the trial of Michael Anderson. After his conviction, Mr. Anderson, 23, was sentenced to death, the first such sentence in the city in a dozen years.
One piece of withheld evidence was a videotaped interview with prosecutors in which the state's key witness contradicted crucial parts of her trial testimony, raising doubts about whether she had seen the murders. The tape, made in 2007, was given to the defense in January, five months after Mr. Anderson's conviction. A prosecutor said it had been found during an office move.
The judge also said the state had failed to tell the defense about a plea agreement with a jailhouse informant who had testified against Mr. Anderson.
The informant is serving time on state and federal charges of armed robbery. Prosecutors said an agreement that had been reached at the time of the informant's plea in 2003 prevented him from serving time in state prison when his federal sentence ended.
In exchange for his testimony at Mr. Anderson's trial, the informant had his federal sentence reduced by four and a half years. In February, he was allowed to withdraw his guilty plea in criminal court, erasing a 15-year state prison sentence so he could be free after his federal sentence. The judge called it "the deal of the century."
A new trial for Mr. Anderson is set for August, but the district attorney, Leon Cannizzaro, said he would appeal the decision.
Mr. Cannizzaro defended his office and the verdict on Monday at an afternoon news conference.
"Make no mistake about it, Michael Anderson is a murderer," he said.
He acknowledged that the office had "mishandled" the tape, but said that the failure to hand it to the defense had not been intentional. He added that the tape was not a piece of evidence so crucial that it would have changed the verdict. As for the informant, Mr. Cannizzaro said his office was bound by the terms of the deal the informant made at the time of his conviction, in 2003.
The development is only the latest in a troubled history of capital cases involving the district attorney's office in New Orleans. Five of the 36 people sentenced to death in Orleans Parish have been exonerated. One, who was on death row for 14 years, is suing the district attorney's office for $14 million.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) Iraq War veteran Army Spc Marc Hall writes from jail
War objector with PTSD jailed and 'extradited' to Kuwait for secret trial
March 9, 2010
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/821/1/
Donate to help defend Marc [https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=30624] - 86 people have given $2,686 of the $3,600 spent on legal fees so far. Because the Army kidnapped Marc to Kuwait for trial, we will need to raise at least $10,000 to provide a civilian defense lawyer. Critical expert witnesses to could be another $5,000. And all of this has to happen within a few weeks.
After filing an official complaint over inadequate mental health services at Ft. Stewart, Georgia, Army Spc Marc Hall was jailed on December 12, 2009 on the pretext of an angry song about "Stop-loss" he produced in July 2009. The Army has recently shipped Spc Hall to Kuwait where he remains jailed awaiting a virtually secret trial.
By Army Spc Marc Hall. February 20, 1010
I never thought that I would join the Army only to one day be incarcerated by the Army. I have never been to jail in my life, until now. The Army is charging me with Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, "communicating threats" towards my chain of command. Yet I was only communicating how I felt about what I have experienced in the Army and how I felt about the Army's "Stop-loss" policy. That policy meant that I could not leave the Army when I was supposed to, and after I had already served in Iraq for 14 months.
I guess this all started with a hard core "rap" song I made about the Army's very unpopular "Stop-loss" policy back in July 2009. Like any "rap" or rock song, I was expressing my freedom of expression under the US Constitution. Being that the Army's "Stop-loss" policy was a Pentagon decision from what I had heard on the news, I decided to send a copy of my song directly to the Pentagon.
I don't know if anyone at the Pentagon listened to my song, but somebody in Washington DC mailed the package back to my chain of command. My First Sergeant called me into his office to discuss it. I explained that the rap was a freedom of expression thing. It was not a physical threat, nor any kind of threat whatsoever. I explained that it was just hip hop. He told me that he kind of liked the song, that it sounded good.
1st Sgt Chrysler and Capt Cross, our company commander at B-CO 2-7 IN [Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment] at that time, just recommended me for mental counseling and evaluation. I attended mental counseling at the behavioral health clinic on Ft. Stewart from late July 2009 through November 2009. I had about four visits to the clinic, but I couldn't attend all the appointments because we were always training in the field. In the end this counseling still left me feeling the same way about Army life, "stop-loss" and war in general.
I spoke to our chaplain and told him my feelings, including all of the domestic things I had gone through with my estranged spouse and my three-year-old daughter over the last four years. I let him hear the "Stop-loss" song and I explained that he shouldn't take anything in the song personally. He said he liked the song but wished it was not "gangster".
Later, when we trained in the field in Georgia and at the National Training Center (NTC) in California, I was made to train without a weapon due to the song and my ongoing counseling. However, during that time of training without a weapon I felt a surprising sense of peace for the first time.
At NTC, in October 2009, I spoke again to our chaplain after attending services one night. I explained to him how I still felt hurt by the Army policies. He replied that my chain of command had already "forgiven" me about the song. But that didn't really help me with what I was going through and trying to deal with.
After we came back from NTC, in November 2009, I got to go on leave. I thought maybe two weeks leave would do me some good. But during my leave, from November 21 to December 7, a deep depression sunk into me. I just wanted to be alone. I did not want to be around people. I stayed at home alone. My friends and family were worried that I had turned my phone off. I did not feel like talking to people. I barely made it to my mother's house for Thanksgiving. I thought about all the depressing things that brought me to this state of mind. I thought about how it all pertained to war. I thought about the times I spoke to the chaplain at basic training at Ft. Knox, and the legal assistant at Ft. Stewart, about my divorce and the safety of my daughter and my rights as a father, and how neither of them could help me. I thought about "Stop-loss" more and more. I started drinking hard every day to help me forget the hurt and pain I was feeling. I thought about how war brought me to this war, and the war I would have to face to remove myself from the presence of war in order to keep my sanity.
When I returned to Ft. Stewart, on December 7, 2009, I really felt from that point on that I did not belong there. I realized that I was not fit for war anymore. I was burnt out and war was the cause of it. I was feeling a little unstable and shaky and I didn't know what to do about it. The very thought of holding and being around a loaded weapon again gave me the chills. I did not know who my enemies were anymore.
About a week later I spoke to my commanding officer, Captain Wynn of F-CO BSB, about how I am still feeling. I explained to him that I felt a little unstable, angry and depressed about war and how unfit I was for war. I said I did not want to get anybody hurt in this war-being that my battle buddies might have to depend on me. I did not want to be a misfortune to anybody. I explained that I had made an official I.G. complaint (with the Army Investigator General) about the treatment I felt I had not received from my last visit to behavioral health, and the unfair treatment and words that came from my direct NCOs. Behavioral health just rushed me out the door and left all decisions up to my chain of command to decide if I was fit or not.
I know my behavior health treatments were pushed aside so that 2-7 IN could have more bodies for this deployment. I believe that this was not fair to me, and it's not fair to my battle buddies to put a troubled solder on the battlefield knowing that I still have issues.
Capt. Wynn got me in to speak to the Lt. Colonel about my mental state. I tried to explain about the indirect way I might hurt other soldiers in uniform due to how I was burnt out. But he took it as a threat, basically read me my rights, and put me in the Liberty County Jail in Hinesville, Georgia.
I realize now how going to war can bring unwanted results. Now I sit in jail at the hands and mercy of our US Government vs. little old Marc A. Hall on a charge that was not a threat before, but all of a sudden became a threat now. I communicated an extended need for mental evaluation-not a threat.
The negative sworn statements used to jail me are false. One of the Soldiers who wrote a negative statement told me that same day that he did so because he thought it was a way to "help me out" as he knew what I was going through. Another Soldier who wrote a statement said that I was "his hero" because I stood up for what I believed. These negative statements were also the results of jokes that my battle buddies said about me-and I had played along with them at the time when the jokes were presented-while passing long boring hours at the NTC in California. I do appreciate the "help" guys, but the Army is now saying that talk were real threats, and now they have me in confinement awaiting court martial.
I have to say that I have never been so humiliated in my entire life. I'm in jail with and next to people who have committed real crimes, including murder. And I'm in here for trying to get real treatment, voicing my feelings, and for asserting freedom of expression through my art.
Sincerely,
Marc A Hall
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) An Eviction Stirs Old Ghosts in a Contested City
By ISABEL KERSHNER
March 9, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/world/middleeast/10jerusalem.html
JERUSALEM - Having been removed in favor of Israeli nationalist Jews, members of the Palestinian Ghawi family have been sheltering this winter in a tent on the sidewalk opposite their home of more than five decades in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
For those who want to see a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the eviction of the Ghawis has touched on two sensitive nerves: the fate of East Jerusalem, where Israel and the Palestinians vie for control, and the abiding grievances of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war.
The circumstances of the Palestinians' removal and the old ghosts it stirred have managed to arouse even Israel's long-dormant peace camp. About 2,500 Israelis and Palestinians attended a demonstration here on Saturday night. Young Israeli and foreign activists have rallied around the cause. Increasingly, veteran members of Israel's leftist establishment are also appearing at the weekly vigils held in Sheikh Jarrah every Friday afternoon.
"We are here to shout," said David Grossman, a prominent Israeli author and peace advocate, while attending a vigil near the disputed houses on a recent Friday in the pouring rain. The settlers, he said, are doing everything they can to preclude any future deal for a Palestinian state.
Being close to the Old City and its holy sites, the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood is coveted by both sides.
Last summer, 38 members of the Ghawi family were evicted by Israel from a two-story stone house in the mostly Palestinian neighborhood just north of the Old City walls. They were immediately replaced by a group of fervent Israeli nationalists after the Israeli courts, including the Supreme Court, upheld a 1970s ruling that the property had originally belonged to Jews.
Two other Sheikh Jarrah families have been removed by similar means in the past 16 months.
The Israeli government and municipal authorities say that they cannot intervene in the workings of the court and that they support the rights of Jews, like Muslims and Christians, to live in any part of the city they want.
For those who advocate dividing sovereignty over Jerusalem, however, the trickle of Jewish nationalists moving into predominantly Arab neighborhoods that were seized from Jordan in 1967 complicates the map. Moreover, reclaiming properties owned by Jews before 1948 in these areas, critics argue, invites counterclaims from Palestinian refugees who lost property in what is now Israel and undermines Israel's rejection of their demand for a right of return.
The Friday protests have been attended by Israeli-Arab lawmakers, legislators from the leftist Meretz party and some high-profile intellectuals like Moshe Halbertal, a professor of Jewish law and philosophy.
Mr. Halbertal said he supported Israel's policy against the right of return for Palestinian refugees - a position meant to ensure a Jewish majority in the Israeli state. But when it comes to Sheikh Jarrah, he added, Israel cannot have it both ways. He added that "the fabric of coexistence" in the city was delicate. Like others, he said he feared it could explode.
Heavy-handed police action against the demonstrators has only brought them more support. In January, 17 protesters were held for 36 hours after the police declared a rally illegal; a Jerusalem court later ruled that there was no basis for their arrest.
Accessibility is another draw. Unlike the relatively remote Palestinian villages where young Israeli leftists and anarchists join local residents and foreigners in protests against Israel's West Bank barrier, Sheikh Jarrah is a few minutes' drive from downtown Jerusalem.
Because of both the humanitarian and political aspects of the case, Israeli advocacy groups like Rabbis for Human Rights and Ir Amim, which focuses on Israeli-Palestinian relations in the city, have campaigned to bring it into the public eye.
Orly Noy, a spokeswoman for Ir Amim, said that by opening up the 1948 files, the Israeli authorities had crossed "a very dangerous red line."
Israel claims sovereignty over all of Jerusalem, including the annexed eastern part that it captured in the 1967 war. The Palestinians demand the eastern section, including Sheikh Jarrah, as the capital of a future state. They see the Jewish settlement there as part of a larger plan to cement Israeli control.
At the heart of the neighborhood lies a shrine held by Jews to be the ancient tomb of Shimon Hatzadik, or Simeon the Just, a Jewish high priest from the days of the Second Temple. A small Jewish community lived in the compound around the tomb from the late 19th century; the last remnants left during the hostilities leading up to the establishment of Israel in 1948, after which the area fell under Jordanian control.
In the 1950s, Jordan and the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees gave 28 refugee families homes there. The families say that Jordan promised them full ownership, but the houses were never formally registered in their names.
In the early 1970s, the Israeli courts awarded two Jewish associations ownership of the compound based on land deeds that were a century old. The Palestinian residents were allowed to stay on as protected tenants on the condition that they paid rent to the Jewish groups.
Rejecting the court ruling, many of the Palestinian families refused to pay rent, making them eligible for eviction. Their lawyer claimed that the Jewish land deeds were forged but was not able to convince the Israeli courts.
Now Maysoun and Nasser Ghawi and their five children, the youngest 2 years old, spend their days in a protest tent on the sidewalk. The Palestinian Authority has rented them a small apartment in the northeast of the city, but Ms. Ghawi says they have been sleeping there only to escape the bitter cold.
"We have to be planted here," Ms. Ghawi said one recent weekday, shortly after the protest tent had been confiscated by the Israeli police and rebuilt by neighbors and activists, as has happened several times. "I never thought we would be on the street," she added. "We have been living here for 53 years."
The Ghawis came to Jerusalem as refugees from the village of Sarafind, now Tzrifin, in central Israel. But they, like other Palestinians across the 1967 lines, cannot go to court to reclaim lost property because of what some describe as an asymmetry in the Israeli law.
In 1950, to protect the new Jewish state from the claims of the Palestinian refugees, Israel enacted the Absentees' Property Law. It essentially strips Palestinians of any rights to property left behind in what is now Israel if they were in enemy territory, including East Jerusalem, between November 1947 and May 1948.
Yossi Sarid, a former Meretz leader and minister, recently wrote in the newspaper Haaretz that when Nasser Ghawi sits in his tent with his family, "Sarafind calls to them."
The case of Sheikh Jarrah also presents a predicament for some mainstream Israelis.
Yossi Klein Halevi, a senior fellow at the Shalem Center, a research institution in West Jerusalem, said he opposed a Jewish "right of return" to properties lost in the 1948 war. But he noted that more and more Arabs were buying apartments in the predominantly Jewish neighborhood where he lives.
"It cannot go one way in Jerusalem," Mr. Klein Halevi said. "I am deeply torn."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
10) Texas: Judge Takes Back Death Penalty Ruling
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 9, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/us/10brfs-JUDGETAKESBA_BRF.html?ref=us
A Harris County judge who came under criticism for declaring the death penalty unconstitutional took back his decision on Tuesday. The judge, Kevin Fine of 177th Criminal Court, said he still wanted more information on whether the state's death penalty statute was unconstitutional because it allowed for the possible execution of an innocent person. In a ruling last week, Judge Fine said it was safe to assume that innocent people had been executed. A string of high-profile Texans, including Gov. Rick Perry, strongly criticized the decision. Judge Fine declined to say why he took back his ruling.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
11) Your Retirement Funds to Bail Out Failed Banks?
ladyjayne's blog
Commentary on the trials, tribulations, and quirks of these times.
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
http://ladyjaynestahl.blogspot.com/2010/03/public-retirement-funds-to-bail-out.html
With the recent spotlight on a runaway Prius, few are paying any attention to the latest government plan to bail out failing banks with retirement money.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., according to Bloomberg, now thinks it's a good idea for public retirement funds over about $2 trillion to "buy out all or part of failed lenders."
Last year alone, the FDIC reportedly shut down close to 150 banks, and it expects even more banks to fail this year. But, a quick look at how the largest companies, like General Motors, are currently investing their employees' pension funds is guaranteed to make a shiver up and down the spine of every working American. And, two things become clear: 1) your pension funds are at risk, and 2) any bank that depends upon your pension fund is also at risk.
It's not breaking news that the money we depend upon to be there in our retirement is invested by those corporations who hold it in trust for us just as it's common knowledge that money deposited into bank accounts doesn't sit there looking pretty until it's withdrawn.
But, what has changed is that corporations are now effectively "going to Las Vegas," as a Dallas investor recently told the New York Times, with our pensions. It's no longer about buying stocks, but investing has now expanded into junk bonds, commodity futures, and foreign stocks, too.
More importantly, companies may soon use public pension fund revenue that they're exposing to increasing risk to rescue failing banks and with FDIC blessing.
Okay, it breaks down quite simply like this: XYZ Corporation has a public pension fund in which John Jones' retirement savings are being kept. XYZ Corporation decides to take a bite of Jones' pension account and invest it in commodities with an eye to using the revenue from that investment to bail out Granny's Bank. XYZ can sleep easy knowing that whatever money it invests in Granny's Bank is federally insured, so if there is a loss, it will ultimately be the FDIC who will pick up the tab.
What a monstrous idea that the FDIC should be looking at retirement money as a safety net for failed lenders!
If the idea is to stabilize the lending industry by allowing corporations to gamble with their employees' savings and then, in effect, turn the pension funds over to a failing bank, who wins? It's simply risk multiplied exponentially. And, ultimately, it's not the banks, or the corporations, who are taking the risk, but John Jones because when the FDIC runs out of money, or decides to lower the amount it insures as is all but inevitable, it is the worker who will lose.
While the banks, and pension administrators, are traditionally reticent about their plans, some regulators are said to be debating whether or not letting private corporations take over failing banks is a good thing because they may not only be jeopardizing federally protected deposits, but may use the bank as collateral, or sell it for profit.
When the regulators get in bed with the risk takers, the only ones who win are the ones who hold the mortgage, and more and more it looks like, by 2050, the only question you may expect when applying for U.S. citizenship will be "Will that be Mandarin or Szechuan?"
What this plan is really about is having the FDIC bail out not banks but corporations who incur losses by making risky investments with your retirement money. Once again, it's "score one for the corporations!" Public pension funds becomes an extra layer of padding for fortune 500s in a financially cold climate, and essentially it's the individual, not the corporation, who is taking the risk.
No matter how you slice it, we're no longer living in a capitalist system, but a venture capitalist system.
Somebody seems to have gotten it backwards. The banks are supposed to bail us out in an emergency and not the other way around. Thomas Jefferson said it best two hundred years ago: "if the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency... the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of their prosperity until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
12) New Strike Paralyzes Greece
By NIKI KITSANTONIS
March 11, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/world/europe/12greece.html?ref=world
ATHENS - Most international travel was halted, and public services thrown into disarray on Thursday as thousands of Greek workers protesting austerity measures staged a general strike and joined demonstrations in the capital that turned violent.
Thursday's strike was the latest and most disruptive in a series of protests that have roiled Greece in recent weeks as the country grapples with a debt crisis that has fanned fears of spreading financial instability across the 16 countries that use the euro.
All scheduled flights into and out of the country were canceled, international trains were not operating, bus and subway service was suspended, and ferries remained in their ports. Tax offices and courts shut down, and hospitals were operating with emergency staff. The streets were littered with mounds of trash as a strike at the city's main landfill entered its sixth day.
The strike was called by the country's two main labor unions, which represent some 2.5 million workers and have led resistance to the new austerity measures raising taxes and slashing civil servants' vacation pay by 30 percent.
The measures, approved by Greek lawmakers on Friday, are expected to raise some $6.5 billion and help plug a budget deficit that stands at 12.7 percent of gross domestic product..
"They keep trying to make the workers pay the price for this crisis - that's not fair and we won't accept it," Yiannis Panagopoulos, the leader of the country's main labor union, said Thursday.
An estimated 20,000 demonstrators converged in central Athens, according to the police. Some chanted slogans taunting the European leaders who have pressed Greek authorities to push through unpopular measures: "Barroso, Merkel, Sarkozy, what's that you say? We say open-ended strike!" There were banners demanding, "How much longer will they make us pay?" and threatening, "We must become their crisis." Some demonstrators waved red and black flags and banged drums.
Tensions peaked in the early afternoon as dozens of self-styled anarchists, most wearing scarves or gas masks, squared off against riot police officers outside the main building of the Athens University. The anarchists pelted the police with beer bottles, stones and chunks of paving stone torn up from sidewalks. The police respond with several rounds of tear gas, leaving a thick acrid cloud of smoke that sent passers-by scurrying onto side streets, eyes streaming.
At least two policemen were injured, and a bystander was hit in the face with a rock. Elsewhere trash cans were set alight, cars torched and several store facades shattered by youths wielding sledgehammers.
The police said at least 10 people had been detained. In an attempt to avert similar unrest on Thursday, hundreds of riot police officers were stationed on central street corners. Police officers have been ordered to break up a weeklong blockade of a central Athens street that lies on one of the protest routes and, if necessary, arrest civil servants causing the disruption.
Greece's European Union partners and the global financial markets have welcomed the new measures, which come on top of an original austerity package worth $6.8 billion in late January and are expected to help the government reduce its budget deficit to 8.7 percent this year and appease fears of a debt crisis in the euro zone.
But public support is crucial if the measures are to be carried out, and, despite the strikes and demonstrations, some Greeks say they accept the necessity of austerity.
Daphne Christodoulou, a 42-year-old school teacher making her way through the crowds in Athens, said, "We're going to have to sit down and shut up at some point, there are some things that must change."
Another 24-hour strike, originally planned for Tuesday by the powerful civil servants' union, has been postponed until the second half of April, the union's leader, Spyros Papaspyros, said Thursday, explaining that his union would henceforth be coordinating protest action with the main labor union, G.S.E.E.
"We will continue our protests until the restoration of rights that workers have been unfairly deprived of," he said.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
13) House Rejects Plan to Leave Afghanistan by Year's End
By CARL HULSE
March 10, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/world/asia/11cong.html?ref=world
WASHINGTON - In a strong bipartisan endorsement of the Obama administration's policy in Afghanistan, the House of Representatives on Wednesday soundly rejected a call to withdraw American troops by the end of the year.
After a three-hour debate held to allow antiwar Democrats to air their dissent, the House voted 356 to 65 to reject the withdrawal proposal. Five Republicans joined 60 Democrats in support of pulling out; 189 Democrats and 167 Republicans were opposed.
Although the outcome was never in doubt, debate on the resolution written by Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, offered a preview of Congressional consideration later this year of the administration's request for money to pay for operations in Afghanistan.
Under the proposal, Mr. Kucinich would have invoked the War Powers Act to force the withdrawal of American troops within 30 days, or by the end of the year if the president judged that a more rapid departure would be unsafe.
The plan's supporters contended that the United States was aiding a corrupt government in Afghanistan and siphoning scarce resources for the sake of an unwinnable conflict when there were greater needs at home.
"Is the cost of this war worth it?" asked Representative Chellie Pingree, Democrat of Maine. "Can we afford to turn our backs on the challenges we face at home and continue to pursue failed policies abroad?"
But a broad coalition of Democrats and Republicans contended that American troops were making progress in Afghanistan and that an abrupt withdrawal would create an opening for the Taliban to return to power and allow Afghanistan to become a haven for terrorists again.
"Passing this resolution guarantees failure in Afghanistan and poses a serious risk that we will once again face the same situation that existed on Sept. 11," said Representative Ike Skelton, Democrat of Missouri and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
Others said that the timing of the resolution was inappropriate given the American offensive around Marja in southern Afghanistan and that it sent the wrong message to troops in the field as well as to their families in the United States.
"It is a resolution that is hurtful to our troops on the ground fighting and it is hurtful to their families," said Representative Duncan D. Hunter, a California Republican who served in Afghanistan as a Marine.
Democratic leaders said it was Congress's responsibility to allow lawmakers the chance to exchange views on the war because Congress provided the money for operations that have claimed the lives of slightly more than 1,000 American military members.
"This issue needs to be raised," said Representative Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland and the majority leader, who opposed the resolution.
The back-and-forth was the first opportunity for lawmakers to weigh in on Afghanistan policy since President Obama's December announcement of his plans to add 30,000 troops before a drawdown of forces in 2011.
The administration's decision has frustrated elements of Mr. Obama's own party who saw Democratic election victories in 2008 as a sign that the public wanted to wind down military operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite Wednesday's vote, Democrats are likely to give the administration's financing request careful scrutiny when it arrives sometime in the spring.
Showing the conflicting views over the war, even some Democrats who opposed the pullout suggested that the effort in Afghanistan was misguided, given centuries of failed interventions in Afghanistan by foreign powers. "History suggests we will not be successful in stabilizing Afghanistan with military force," said Representative Earl Blumenauer, Democrat of Oregon.
Opponents of the withdrawal said pulling out would lead to renewed oppression of the Afghan people by the Taliban. "It would mean the return of nightmarish tyranny to Afghanistan," said Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Republican of Florida.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
14) Kansas City to Close Nearly Half Its Schools
By SUSAN SAULNY
March 10, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/us/11kansascity.html?ref=us
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas City Board of Education voted Wednesday night to close almost half of the city's public schools, accepting a sweeping and contentious plan to shrink the system in the face of dwindling enrollment, budget cuts and a $50 million deficit.
In a 5-to-4 vote, the members endorsed the Right-Size plan, proposed by the schools superintendent, John Covington, to close 28 of the city's 61 schools and cut 700 of 3,000 jobs, including those of 285 teachers. The closings are expected to save $50 million, erasing the deficit from the $300 million budget.
"We must make sacrifices," said board member Joel Pelofsky, speaking in favor of the plan before the vote. "Unite in favor of our children."
Mr. Pelofsky and other supporters of the closures made their case with the district's data: enrollment has declined by half in the last 10 years alone, to 17,400 children, and the schools are only 48 percent full.
For decades, national education experts said, the Kansas City schools had not responded to changes in demographics that would have spared them such a drastic one-time cut. "Otherwise, this whole scenario would not be as wrenching as it now appears to be," Michael Casserly, the executive director of The Council of the Great City Schools, a research and advocacy organization, said in a telephone interview.
An auditorium packed with children's advocates and parents, some holding signs and screaming at board members, rejected that line of thinking.
"Where's my daughter going to go?" wondered a parent, Rasheedah Hazziez, 33, after the vote. "I don't have a car. What happened to the time when our schools had a future? I live in Midtown and we already had too many vacant buildings. Now we're going to have more? I guess we'll just keep falling."
Less than a third of elementary students in the city schools read at or above grade level. And in most of the schools, fewer than a quarter of students are proficient at their grade levels. District officials say the closings will improve achievement by allowing the system to focus its resources.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
15) Carlos Slim Tops Forbes List of Billionaires
By BLOOMBERG NEWS
March 10, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/business/11forbes.html?ref=business
Carlos Slim Helú of Mexico beat Bill Gates and Warren E. Buffett for the top spot on Forbes magazine's annual list of billionaires, becoming the first person from outside the United States to lead the rankings in 16 years.
The net worth of Mr. Slim, 70, who built a telecommunications empire after buying Mexico's state-run phone monopoly two decades ago, rose $18.5 billion, to $53.5 billion. Mr. Gates, 54, chairman of Microsoft, fell to second as his net worth increased $13 billion, to $53 billion. Mr. Buffett, 79, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, was third with $47 billion, a rise of $10 billion.
Mr. Slim, who holds a 7 percent stake in The New York Times Company, is the first person other than Mr. Gates or Mr. Buffett to top the list since 1994. That year was the last time a billionaire from outside the United States led the ranking - the Japanese real estate tycoon Yoshiaki Tsutsumi.
"We've been watching Slim for a while and kind of wondered when the stars would align and he would take over," Luisa Kroll, a senior editor at Forbes, said in an interview on Wednesday.
More than 80 percent of Mr. Slim's holdings are in five public stocks, she said.
Mexican shares of América Móvil, the wireless carrier controlled by Mr. Slim, have gained more than 56 percent in the last year, according to Bloomberg data.
Mr. Slim's holdings in Mexico include retail operations like the Sanborns department store chain as well as banking and construction.
The Forbes rankings are based on information including stakes in publicly traded and privately held companies; real estate holdings; and investments in items like art, gems and yachts.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
16) Cost of F-35 Has Risen 60% to 90%, Military Says
By CHRISTOPHER DREW
March 11, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/business/12plane.html?ref=business
The projected cost of Lockheed Martin's new Joint Strike Fighter has increased 60 to 90 percent in real terms since 2001, blowing well past a level requiring the program to be revamped, Pentagon officials said Thursday.
And even though the military is trying to deal with the problems, Congressional auditors said the program - the Pentagon's largest - was likely to continue to increase in cost and suffer more delays.
The assessments, released at a Senate hearing in Washington, provided a reminder of the extent of the cost overruns in major weapons programs and showed how hard they can be to resolve.
The latest estimates were embarrassing to Lockheed Martin, the largest military contractor, and to the defense secretary, Robert M. Gates.
Last summer, Mr. Gates promoted the new jet, called the F-35, when he urged Congress to halt production of the F-22 fighter plane. Some senators now say they might not have made that decision if they had known about the problems with the F-35.
Christine H. Fox, the Pentagon's top cost evaluator, said at Thursday's hearing that the estimated price of each F-35 had jumped to $80 million to $95 million, as measured in 2002 dollars, from $50 million when Lockheed Martin was awarded the contract in 2001.
She said her office was still refining the cost estimate, which equals $95 million to $113 million for each plane in current dollars.
Under a 15-year-old law, the Pentagon has to notify Congress when the cost of military equipment exceeds the original projection by more than 25 percent.
Ms. Fox's office warned top Pentagon officials about the problems last fall. Mr. Gates recently fired the general in charge of the program and announced other plans to get it back on track.
He added more planes to speed the flight testing and extended the development phase by 13 months. He also pushed back the purchases of 122 planes to help cover the extra $2.8 billion needed for the development work.
Ashton B. Carter, the Pentagon's top acquisition official, said at the hearing that the problems had been building for several years. He said the Pentagon was "beginning a process of aggressive management" to try to head off some of the worst problems.
The F-35, a single-engine stealth fighter designed primarily to attack ground targets, is supposed to become a mainstay of American and allied militaries over the next several decades.
The Air Force, the Navy and the Marines plan to buy 2,443 of the planes. Eight allied nations have also invested in the program and could buy hundreds of additional planes.
Mr. Carter said a substantial part of the cost increases occurred several years ago, when the version for the Marines, which will be able to take off vertically, came in substantially overweight.
Lockheed Martin had to make changes to reduce the weight. The company has said that these and other changes caused problems for its suppliers, slowed the construction of the first planes and delayed the flight testing program.
Company officials have said that they have been building planes more quickly and cheaply in recent months, and that they believe they can recover some of the lost time over the next year or so.
The Obama administration has pledged to improve the Pentagon's contracting record, and Congress passed a law last year tightening acquisition procedures. But most of those changes focus on how new programs are begun.
Mr. Carter said the F-35 was also an example of how the military tended to start building new systems before all the problems were worked out. He said the Marines still expected to begin using the planes in 2012. But the Air Force and Navy versions will probably not be ready for combat until 2016.
Michael Sullivan, an analyst at the Government Accountability Office, said the program could eventually cost $323 billion. And while the recent changes could help ease the problems, "further cost growth and schedule extensions are likely," he said.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
17) Big Brother in Blue
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
March 13, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/opinion/13herbert.html
The speaker of the New York City Council and the head of the Council's Public Safety Committee are calling on Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to get rid of his huge, noxious database of completely innocent New Yorkers who are stopped, questioned and often frisked by the police.
The stops themselves are an outrage and a continuing affront to black and Hispanic New Yorkers, who are the ones most frequently singled-out by the police for this public humiliation. But Speaker Christine Quinn and Council Member Peter Vallone Jr., the committee's chairman, are focusing on the computerized files that the Police Department is keeping on people who are stopped but found to have done nothing at all wrong.
This is not a small problem. The cops are making more than a half-million of these stops every year. A vast majority of the people targeted - close to 90 percent - are completely innocent. They are not arrested. They are not given a summons. After enduring a mortifying public encounter with the police - which frequently requires the targets to sprawl face down on the sidewalk or spread themselves against a wall or over the hood of a car to be searched - they are sent on their way.
What they've left behind, however, if they've shown their identification to the cops or answered any questions, is a permanent record of the encounter, which is promptly entered into the department's staggeringly huge computerized files. Why the Police Department should be keeping files on innocent people is a question with no legitimate answer. This is Big Brother in Blue, with Commissioner Kelly collecting more information than J. Edgar Hoover could ever have imagined compiling.
Ms. Quinn and Mr. Vallone believe it should stop. In a letter this week to Commissioner Kelly, they said that his intent to keep a permanent record of all the information gathered during the stops "raises significant privacy right concerns and suggests that these innocent people are more likely to be targeted in future criminal investigations."
They bluntly urged the commissioner "to end this policy."
In an interview on Friday, Ms. Quinn told me: "They should stop keeping the database on people who are not charged, who are not summonsed, and people who may be charged and then go through the judicial system and are found not guilty."
She said the idea that a permanent database would be kept on people who "basically just got asked some questions" by the police is "extraordinary."
Ms. Quinn does not oppose the tactic of stopping and frisking people, but said, "I have concerns that we have become overly aggressive in our use of it." She said additional guidelines or regulations are needed. "I wouldn't eliminate it from the Police Department toolbox," she said, "but I would like to find a way to better monitor it and limit its use."
It should be drastically limited. More than 575,000 stops were made last year, a record. But in 504,594 of those stops, the individuals had done absolutely nothing wrong. They had not violated any law but nevertheless were put through the anxiety and humiliation of a public encounter with the police.
From 2004 through 2009, according to Police Department statistics, an astounding 2,798,461 stops were made. In 2,467,150 of those encounters - 88.2 percent - the people were completely innocent of any wrongdoing.
Groups like the Center for Constitutional Rights and the New York Civil Liberties Union are fighting this wholesale mistreatment of innocent New Yorkers by the police. Blacks and Hispanics, and especially those who are young and those who are poor, are disproportionately singled-out for this peculiar form of police harassment. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Commissioner Kelly and other top leaders in this town would never tolerate this kind of systematic abuse of middle-class or wealthy, white New Yorkers.
The overwhelming majority of the stops yield no law-enforcement benefit whatsoever. An analysis of the stops in the first three quarters of 2009 showed that contraband, which usually means drugs, was found on just 1.6 percent of the blacks who were stopped, 1.5 percent of the Hispanics, and 2.2 percent of the whites (who are stopped far less often than the other groups).
The weapons yield was even lower. Weapons were found on just 1.1 percent of the blacks stopped, 1.4 percent of the Hispanics, and 1.7 percent of the whites.
The reasons given by the cops for deciding which unfortunate New Yorkers will be stopped are beyond bogus. A "furtive movement" is the most popular. Walking down the street in broad daylight qualifies. And then there is always the bulge in the pocket. A cellphone, maybe. Or an iPod.
The truth - and many police officers will tell you this privately - is that the stops are often made first and the justification is dreamed up later.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
18) New Fraud Cases Point to Lapses in Iraq Projects
By JAMES GLANZ
March 13, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/world/middleeast/14reconstruct.html?hp
Federal investigators looking into corruption involving reconstruction in Iraq say they have opened more than 50 new cases in the past six months by scrutinizing large cash transactions made by some of the Americans involved in the nearly $150 billion rebuilding program.
Some of the cases involve people who are suspected of having mailed tens of thousands of dollars to themselves from Iraq, or stuffed the money into duffel bags and suitcases when leaving the country, the investigators said. In other cases, millions of dollars were moved through wire transfers. Suspects then used cash to buy BMWs, Humvees, expensive jewelry and plastic surgery, or to pay off enormous casino debts.
Some suspects also tried to conceal foreign bank accounts in Ghana, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Britain, the investigators said, while in other cases, cash was simply found stacked in home safes.
There have already been dozens of indictments and convictions for corruption since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. But the new cases seem to confirm what investigators have long speculated: that the chaos, weak oversight and wide use of cash payments in the reconstruction program in Iraq allowed many more Americans who took bribes or stole money to get off scot-free.
"I've had a continuing sense that there is ongoing fraud that we have not been able to nail down," said Stuart W. Bowen Jr., who leads the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, an independent oversight agency. "This spate of new cases is evidence that that sense was reasonably well placed."
The cases were uncovered during the first phase of a new, systematic inquiry into financial activities, which investigators said began in earnest last summer. A related investigation of rebuilding funds for Afghanistan began in February.
Mr. Bowen's office agreed to answer general questions on the new inquiry but declined to divulge the names of the suspects, who include private contractors, military officers and civilian officials.
Developed in the Treasury Department, the financial monitoring effort goes by the generic name of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or Fincen, which continually generates data on suspicious financial transactions in support of more than 275 federal and state law enforcement agencies, according to a December report by the Government Accountability Office.
Stephen Hudak, a spokesman at the Treasury Department for Fincen, said that it generated 15 million to 16 million reports each year on suspicious financial activity or major currency transactions, including cash deposits of more than $10,000. He said that transactions in banks, check-cashing outlets, wire services, casinos, stockbrokers' offices and insurance companies were covered.
"Basically, we follow dirty money," Mr. Hudak said. "Authorized users can access Fincen's databases to make connections in criminal investigations."
Mr. Hudak confirmed that Fincen was being used to investigate reconstruction corruption in Iraq.
Because the investigation has covered only limited areas in the United States so far, Mr. Bowen said he estimated that dozens of additional cases would be opened by the end of the year. Mr. Bowen, who spoke by phone from Baghdad, described the effort as a "concerted, focused, forensic financial review involving all the Iraq reconstruction funds."
Congress has appropriated about $53 billion for reconstruction projects, and the rest of the money has come from Iraqi assets and international pledges. According to testimony before the Wartime Contracting Commission last month by Arnold Fields, who leads the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, Congress has appropriated $51 billion to rebuild that country since 2002.
John Brummet, the assistant inspector general for audits in that office, said that the office's staff members had been studying the Iraq investigation for nearly a year and that they had started a related effort last month.
"What we're trying to do is basically replicate what they've done without having to pay the price of the learning curve," Mr. Brummet said.
Investigations involving the inspector general's office for Iraq's reconstruction have led to 35 indictments and 27 convictions for fraud in numerous forms; the number of convictions rises to 58 when cases pursued by other government agencies are included, according to figures compiled by the Justice Department.
Mr. Bowen would not comment on whether indictments had yet been written up for the new cases, which numbered 52 by last week. But he said that at least 45 of those had come directly from the forensic effort.
Wayne White, who until 2005 was a senior intelligence official with the State Department focused on Iraq and is now a scholar with the Middle East Institute in Washington, said he was not surprised that new cases were still turning up.
Since Iraq's economy collapsed after the 1991 Persian Gulf war, the country's dealings with foreign companies and contractors have been laced with bribery, kickbacks and other fraud, Mr. White said, adding that weak oversight of the reconstruction efforts almost guaranteed that those problems would not be rooted out.
"That's been very disappointing, and we've seen it in Afghanistan as well," Mr. White said.
A senior federal official said that some of the new cases appeared to be closely linked to known networks of conspiracy and fraud and were likely to extend investigators' knowledge of cases that had already ended with convictions. Many other cases seem to be entirely new, the official said.
Mr. Bowen said that many of the new cases involved bribes and kickbacks for awarding lucrative work to contractors, and that in a number of cases, spouses or other relatives of the suspects are accused of setting up fraudulent companies to hide the illicit gains.
When people who turn up in the net are initially contacted by investigators, the reaction "runs the gamut," Mr. Bowen said. Some deny wrongdoing and others admit to accepting small bribes, which on further investigation rise into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
One suspect, he said, made the job especially easy on investigators who arrived at his door. "I've been waiting for you," the suspect said.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
19) As the Budget Ax Swings Again, There May Be No Way to Avoid the Pain
By SUSAN DOMINUS
March 12, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/nyregion/13bigcity.html?ref=nyregion
It is the job of New York's social services workers to insist that the sky is falling.
Every year, it seems, the politicians eliminate financing for services that tend to the youngest, the oldest, the poorest New Yorkers. And every year, after the various nonprofit do-gooders have urged, cajoled and done everything they could to make grown public servants weep, the City Council or the State Legislature or Congress reinstates much of the money, all of it part of a process known around town as the budget dance.
Disaster, like clockwork, is averted. Young people in public housing projects have a productive place to hang out after school. Low-income working parents have a safe place to leave their preschoolers. The frail and the elderly make their way to a free, healthful meal at a community center. The small mercies that make a teeming city livable - a place we can live in, a place we can live with - continue.
But this year, it seems all too clear that the boy really is eye to eye with the wolf. The beat of the budget dance is expected to feel more like that of a budget dirge, and the do-gooders are mystified and shell-shocked by the proposed state and city budgets.
"I don't know who's freaking out more: those of us in the social services world watching the dollars fly out the window, or elected officials," said Susan Stamler, the director of policy and advocacy at the United Neighborhood Houses of New York, a membership organization for the city's community centers. "If they could plug those holes, they would - but there's no way out. I can't tell them where to get the dollars."
No new federal stimulus package is coming to the rescue, as happened last year; there are only budget holes, more and more of which, at the state level in particular, keep opening or widening every day (witness the failed Aqueduct deal and the ill-fated soda tax).
New Yorkers might want to get out the earplugs: the sound of the other shoe dropping is about to reverberate throughout the city.
Wall Streeters may be rebounding nicely from the recession that their bad judgment sparked, but everyone else is bracing, with these cuts, for a whole new kind of pain. It's an old story that Main Street unemployment continues long after the banks start hiring again. What's new is that so many of the services that take the edge off of unemployment, poverty or standard-issue penny-pinching are about to dwindle, and noticeably so.
On the block are some valued city toys, as well as the crutches that keep things moving. Among the gems at risk of budget cuts are some prenatal care services in neighborhoods like East Harlem, via the Maternity and Early Childhood Foundation; morning hours at Riverbank State Park, at West 145th Street, that allow young people of every income level to participate in a rare public ice hockey program; two weeks of public pool time (tantamount to eliminating two weeks of summer itself); and affordable tickets to plays, concerts and museums, subsidized by the Department of Cultural Affairs.
"Whether it's a small children's theater in Brooklyn or a major arts institution, everyone's going to have to cut either programming or raise prices," said Norma Munn, chairwoman of the New York City Arts Coalition, an advocacy group. "I'm talking across the board."
Advocates are sweating the real possibility that close to 25 percent of the financing for shelters for single adults will be cut - which, they say, could flood the streets with homeless people or "transform service-providing shelters into people warehouses," as Mark Hurwitz of Project Renewal, which provides services to the homeless, put it.
Social services providers are also fighting to hold on to 17,000 after-school program slots and tens of thousands of summer jobs for disadvantaged youths who would otherwise go unemployed.
The Wall Street types resisting taxes on their bonuses, or a renewed stock-transfer tax, might think twice when they consider what a generation of underemployed and underoccupied young people, combined with the proposed significant cuts to the police force, could do to the already dwindling values of their classic sevens.
"Yes, we've cried wolf in the past, but this year you really have to believe us," said Greg Rideout, a deputy program officer at the Henry Street Settlement, a community center on the Lower East Side. But the challenge is not believing there's a problem; it's solving it.
E-mail: susan.dominus@nytimes.com
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
<< Home