Letter to the Editor of 'The State News'

Mixing Martin Luther King Jr.'s speeches into politics is wrong

Many liberals and conservatives use Martin Luther King Jr., or MLK, as the epitome of color-blind ideology. In fact, those same conservatives and liberals reference MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech so much that it is a wonder why he is so revered. In addition, MLK is used by those against affirmative action as a tool to discredit the entire black liberation struggle from the conception of this so-called democratic country. However, using MLK as a mechanism to support racial injustices is not only inaccurate but disrespectful. People need more education on the post-“I Have a Dream” MLK.

Could MLK support affirmative action and realize that it is a mechanism to remedy past and continued racial injustices? It is quite obvious that this is so. Moreover, MLK once stated “the vast majority of white Americans are racist.” Again, MLK did not say that we are all walking hand in hand, black and white; he stated that America is a racist country. So please, do not use King as an instrument to further faulty liberalism and conservative ideology.

Kyle Mays

Social relations and policy and history senior and member of the Young Democratic Socialists

as appearing in The State News, October 30, 2007

Fun Facts:

We have 13 million poor children in a 13.3 trillion economy

Federal and State governments currently spend three times more on prisons than schools.

49% of your income taxes go to the military

From Bernie Sanders (I-VT):

-Today, the richest one percent own more wealth than the bottom ninety-five percent, and the CEOs of large corporations earn more than 500 times what their average employees make. The nation's 13,000 wealthiest families, 1/100th of one percent of the population, receive almost as much income as the poorest 20 million families in America.

-Sixty-five years after the formal establishment of the 40-hour work week under the Fair Labor Standards Act, almost 40% of Americans now work more than 50 hours a week.

-The truth of the matter is that in the ''booming economy'' of this, the richest country on earth, 30 percent of American workers earn poverty or near-poverty wages because the minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation and we have lost millions of decent-paying manufacturing jobs. Low-wage American workers are now the lowest-paid in the industrialized world. In this nation of ''family values,'' more than 20 percent of our children live in poverty.

-With an explosion in the number of billionaires in recent years, and with the CEOs of major corporations now earning 419 times more than their employees, the United States has, by far, the most unfair distribution of wealth and income of any major nation. The richest 1 percent of the population now owns as much wealth as the bottom 95 percent of all Americans combined.
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Think about all that for second…..now try to tell me socialism is a bad idea.

How Many Days of the Iraq War Will Pay for Children's Health Care

originally posted at Michigan Class Notes

http://classwarnotes.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html

Bush's Threats Against Cuba Condemned Worldwide

By Cuban News Agency

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click here for related stories: Cuba solidarity

10-27-07, 9:52 am Havana, Oct 26 (acn) The General Secretary of the Venezuelan Workers Union, Orlando Chirino voiced in Caracas his strong rejection to the anti-Cuba speech pronounced by US President Bush on Wednesday and said if Cuba were attacked it would receive the unconditional support of Venezuela in defense of its people and revolution. Chirino said that the US policy towards Cuba on this occasion seems desperate, and as a result of its defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan, reports Granma newspaper. In the Dominican Republic, the Regional Coordinator for Solidarity with Cuba said the island is not alone. A similar stance was taken by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign of Great Britain and MPs from that country. The organization issued a press release underlying that Bush left open the possibility of a direct aggression against Cuba; an act it says will find Latin America and the world alongside the revolution. From Luanda, the Angola-Cuba Friendship Association called the US president out of line in his statements. "Bush is rowing against the tide," said Fernando Jaime, the group's secretary general, who noted that Angola will always support Cuba. Other pronouncements in support of Cuba and rejecting Bush's threats came from the Broad Front Party of Costa Rica, the Communist Refoundation Party of Puerto Rico and the Uruguayan Coordinator of Solidarity with the Cuban revolution. The groups spoke out against the US blockade on the island and other forms of aggression. The Communist Party of Spain called Bush's speech "one more affront to international law" and called on the European governments to respond to "this clear act of interference." The international press highlighted the new attacks against Cuba from President Bush and the immediate response from Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. The Peruvian daily La Primera said that "Cuba is an obsession for Bush." Likewise, the main Mexican newspapers, like La Jornada, and important Argentinean papers including Clarin and Pagina 12, allotted space for Cuba's response to the new hostility from George W. Bush. From Agencia Cubana de Noticias

Leak Reveals Cheney's Plan for Iran Attack

By Prensa Latina

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from Political Affairs Magazine: http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/6084/1/291/


click here for related stories: Peace/antiwar

10-27-07, 9:54 am Berlin, Oct 26 (Prensa Latina) An official close to US Vice President Richard Cheney leaked plans for an attack on Iran which have been made public Friday by the German news outlet Der Spiegel. In the scenario concocted by Cheney's strategists, Washington's first step would be to convince Israel to fire missiles at Iran's uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. Tehran would retaliate with its own strike, providing the US with an excuse to attack military targets and nuclear facilities in Iran. Democrats and Republicans alike have wondered what to make of the still mysterious Israeli bombing run in Syria on Sept. 6. Was it part of an existing war plan? A test run, perhaps? For days after the attack, one question dominated conversation at Washington receptions: How great is the risk of war, really?, says Der Spiegel. The Israeli strike, or something like it, could easily mark the beginning of the "World War III," which President Bush warned against last week. With his usual apocalyptic rhetoric, he said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could lead the region to a new world war if his nation builds a nuclear bomb. The war in Iraq continues to drag on without an end in sight or even an opportunity for US troops to withdraw in a way that doesn't smack of retreat. In Afghanistan, NATO troops are struggling to prevent a return of the Taliban and al-Qaida terrorists. The Palestinian conflict could still reignite on any front, comments the publication. President Bush has 15 months left in office, but he thinks of his legacy, while strategists at the Pentagon, apparently at Cheney's request, have developed detailed plans for an attack against Tehran. Despite America's many failures in Iraq, Washington hawks have urged the weakened president to act now, accusing him of having lost sight of his principal agenda and no longer daring to apply his own doctrine of pre-emptive strikes. The notion of war with Iran has spilled over into other circles, says Der Spiegel asking if this is not sheer lunacy. Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives and Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton haved adopted a hawkish stance, referring to the possibility of an attack on Iran. Because the catastrophic consequences of an attack on Iran are obvious, many in Washington have a fairly benign take on the current round of saber rattling and encourage hesitant members of the United Nations Security Council to take more decisive action, as it believes war is the only alternative, concludes Der Spiegel.

Time Magazine- Numbers

read the original here

Numbers

MONEY

48%

Percentage of Americans surveyed who say the country is divided along economic lines. The number was 26% in 1988

34%

Percentage who think they belong to the have-nots, double the percentage of 1988

HEALTH

41

U.S. rank, out of 171 countries, of women who die from complications in pregnancy or childbirth. The U.S. death rate--1 in 4,800 women--is far higher than the European average of 1 in 16,400

Rogue members of national group may cause bad local image--

From CNN.com:

ORANGE COUNTY, California (CNN) -- Radical Hispanic separatist organization MEChA ("Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan") is taking responsibility for setting the wildfires in California, confirmed Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

California officials received a letter earlier today containing photographs of individuals holding Molotov cocktails, then throwing them into dry brush. The faces of the individuals appeared to have been digitally distorted.

Also included was a rambling manifesto, stating that the reason for the act of arson was that "Aztlán belongs to indigenous people, the Chicanas and Chicanos of Aztlán. We are sovereign and not subject to a foreign culture."

Orange County Fire Battalion Chief Kris Concepcion told CNN that the pattern of wildfires definitely indicates arson.

"The reason we think it is [arson] is because we found multiple points of origin," Concepcion said. "... Our investigators have confirmed that this is, in fact, arson."

Concepcion said evidence indicated the arsonists wanted the fire to grow rapidly.

A $70,000 reward is being offered for any information leading to the arrest of those responsible for setting the fire. No suspects have been identified, though they are probably brown.

The state established a toll-free arson tip line at 800-540-7085. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said anyone convicted of arson would be dealt with harshly.

Concepcion said about 1,100 firefighters were working on controlling the blaze, which has destroyed at least 22 structures. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the fire was only 30 percent contained Thursday morning after being 50 percent contained the day before.

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Ok, first of all...what the HELL does this mean? "...No suspects have been identified, though they are probably brown." I'm sorry... but isn't that a tad RACIST? That wasn't even a quote by someone...that was part of the actual CNN report. Wow. Way to maintain ethical reporting, CNN.

After reading this, the only thing I can think of is how this will affect MSU's chapter of MECHa. I hope that other groups here at MSU will be mature and NOT compare MSU MECHa with the several rebellious people in California who claim responsibility for the fires under MECHa's name. I personally know some of the members of the local group, and I know they would not condone something as destructive as the actions of those in California.

What people need to realize is that you can't generalize a whole group because of the actions of a few renegade people who claim responsibility under one organization's name. It seems to be a hobby of the right on this campus to do so in order to rally public support, but I view it as uncalled for and extremely unfair. MECHa is NOT a violent group. Sure, some chapters may be a little be a bit louder or employ different protest tactics than others, but MECHa is generally NOT an advocate of destruction. For example, here's part of their mission statemment on their national website:

"Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) is a student organization that
promotes higher education, cultura, and historia.
MEChA was founded on the principles of self-determination for the liberation of our people.
We believe that political involvement and education is the avenue for change in our society."

That doesn't sound like a group that promotes the destructive and dangerous activity of the "MECHa" members in California. I'm pretty sure the national organization would be against the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars done in damage to people's homes, businesses, and not to mention the damage done to the land.

In short: MECHa does NOT equal reconquista.
Get it straight.

Brief on the Origins of Conservatism in Fear: A Message for MSUYDS Unity

A message from a fellow YDS member, RC Smith. He created a blog for YDS last year, but it has since been replaced with this one. I wanted his word to get out...so here it is:

Conservatism is born of fear. In many cases it is categorical, identifiable by an affinity for a specific fear. Take for example the xenophobia and homophobia that runs rampant amongst conservative idealists. The fear of something "new," "strange," "foreign," or "queer" all stems from the general fear of the unknown. How is it that our nation is to prosper and GROW if it does not consider, recognize, teach, or acknowledge differing opinions, ideals, or identities? This is a question that we, as members of MSUYDS, must seriously consider as we strive to introduce an alternate ideology that has been characteristically shunned because of its inaccurate portrayal, but which is ironically ripe with ideals embraced by many members of our university, community, state, country, and world. As members of MSUYDS, we are among the unknown and will undoubtedly be feared; feared not only because of our "differing" ideals, but also because of our potential strength. Any negative light shown our way will rise out of the same fear of the unknown that has plagued our nation for far too long. MSUYDS members; know thy enemy in order to know thyself. What do we fight against and more importantly, what is it that we fight for? Through a clear understanding of our opposition we will be able to determine the correct course of action to pursue, employing the talents that each of us has to offer, in order to achieve our place in history as a united front.

I have no doubt that the argument can be reversed to say that our movement is born of fear as well. In addition I don't doubt the reversal's merit. I AM afraid that if we refuse to acknowledge our nation's historical shortcomings we will be doomed to repeat them in the future. As cliche as the outlook may be it is no less true. Every day is a new day in history and worthy of the utmost scrutiny. Pay close attention though, the potential reversal of our argument will give our enemies the instant gratification that they seek; that first taste of blood in the water. I say enemies because they will search for flaws within each and every one of us in order to ultimately connect personality flaws to our supposedly "flawed" political and social philosophies. Simply stumbling on an untied shoelace captured in the correct lighting with a clever caption can provide enough ammunition to feed their ravenous appetite for self gratification. Undoubtedly, our enemies will consider it the cleverest of antics to carry out the scheme I have outlined, but no matter, let it be a lesson in disguise, an example of our perpetual tutelage. Brothers and sisters in solidarity, with each shoelace you tie, remember that every inch of you is a representation of our organization and each of its members. While we certainly differ from individual to individual, we are united under the banner of YDS, and as is the case of any organization, unity is strength. Do not be discouraged though, nor think of this reality as a dismal one, rather embrace it as an acknowledgement of the great power that resides within each of you that you are fully capable of wielding.

While we should be wary of seeking only instantaneous self-gratification, we must learn to appreciate any and all small victories and acknowledge them as stepping stones. It is important to measure our actions in relation to their contribution to the pursuits of YDS. This is a perfect way to integrate the organization's goal of praxis into our everyday lives. In this sense praxis is the acceptance nay, embrace of practicality as we strive to achieve our ideological goals. We must remember to think in terms of positives and negatives, steps forward and backward, for every action has a reaction that we must be prepared to meet or greet. It is all a matter of perception as to how we meet the challenges that we will certainly face. It is vital that our collective mindset be positive and driven so as to achieve the goals we set each and every day for ourselves and our organization. As the Black Panther Party brought with it its life affirming Ten-Point Program, MSUYDS must bring a sense of fulfillment, that its actions are for the greater good, for the betterment of society, for the growth of the organization, and for its members as individuals.

In solidarity,
RC Smith

Republican wins in Louisiana, exploits Jena 6

read the article here

Venezuela, Cuba deepen their many-sided ties

Author: W. T. Whitney Jr.

People's Weekly World Newspaper, 10/25/07 11:50

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s visit to Cuba Oct. 13-15 was distinguished by poetic homage to revolutionary Latin American heroes and by practical agreements aimed at strengthening both the Venezuelan-Cuban alliance and regional economic independence.

The visit roughly coincided with worldwide observances of the 40th anniversary of Che Guevara’s capture and murder by CIA-assisted Bolivian soldiers in October 1967. Chavez broadcast his weekly television program from the memorial and museum complex in Santa Clara dedicated to Cuba’s internationalist hero. The day before he talked for four hours with Cuban President Fidel Castro.

The program included another long conversation with Castro and lengthy exchanges with Che’s surviving family members and comrades.

In his conversation with Castro, Chavez noted that Che had thought about joining guerrilla struggles in Venezuela against the U.S.-backed regime during that period. He also recalled Castro’s 1991 prediction that “In just a few years the revolutionary forces will arise in Latin America again [and that] Bolívar’s great homeland will play a decisive role.”

Castro replied: “We are seeing Che’s prophecy come true in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador. There is an ever-increasing awakening of peoples’ consciousness in Latin America. This is part of the Bolivarian idea of regional brotherhood.”

Affirming Cuba’s commitment to the Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution, Castro quoted Jose Marti, the Cuban national hero: “Should Venezuela command me to do anything, she will find a son in me.”

Chavez extolled Castro as a “sower of awareness [and] the father of all revolutionaries in this continent.” He emphasized, “We have a commitment to sow again and to harvest in order to save humanity. Only socialism can save humanity.”

In Havana, on Oct. 15, Chavez and acting Cuban President Raul Castro signed 21 economic agreements, including the creation of joint ventures to build cement factories, develop commercial fishing, conduct petrochemical research, and exploit nickel and oil deposits. They also signed agreements to expand telecommunication capabilities, including Cuba’s Internet service, and to build a tourist hotel.

At the signing ceremony, Raul Castro said ties between Cuba and Venezuela have grown within the context of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), initiated by Cuba and Venezuela in 2001 and since joined by Nicaragua and Bolivia.

Raul Castro noted that the founding document declared, “Commerce and investment must not be ends in themselves, but instruments for achieving a just and sustainable development, since true Latin American integration can not be the blind creature of the market.”

The day before, Chavez had journeyed to Cienfuegos, on Cuba’s southern shore, to inaugurate a refinery and industrial complex being built by a Venezuelan-Cuban joint venture. He congratulated workers for nearly completing the Camilo Cienfuegos Refinery with its anticipated daily capacity of 65,000 barrels of crude oil.

Chavez pointed to the area’s refinery, petrochemical complex, and re-gasification plant (with Venezuela supplying the liquid natural gas) as examples of ALBA in action, adding, “The union of Cuba and Venezuela is demonstrating how to make a regional power.”

Manufacturing plans at the complex include the production of oil by-products, plastic goods, fertilizer, cosmetics and cleaning materials.

atwhit @megalink.net

A Message from Fidel to Bush

By GRANMA INTERNATIONAL

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click here for related stories: Cuba solidarity

10-23-07, 12:40 pm

Bush is obsessed with Cuba. Yesterday [October 20], the news was received that a White House spokesman announced the president would present new initiatives for the transition period now begun. Another spokesman from the State Department later confirmed the statement, reiterating Bush’s demanding and threatening tone.

As affirmed by Ricardo Alarcón, the president of our National Assembly, a comrade who is well-informed about Bush’s scheming and intentions, after that would come the firing squads of the Cuban-American mafia, with permission to kill everyone suspected of being a faithful member of the Party, the Youth or the mass organizations.

Mr. Bush: Your genocidal blockade, your support for terrorism, your murderous Cuban Adjustment Act, your wet-foot/dry-foot policy, your protection of the worst terrorists in this hemisphere, your unjust punishment of the five Cuban heroes who exposed the danger posed to U.S. citizens and those of other countries of dying in mid-flight, must all end.

Sovereignty is non-negotiable.

Likewise, the shameful torture being carried out in the occupied territory of Guantánamo must also end.

We were never intimidated by your threats of preemptive and surprise attacks on the 60 or more dark corners of the Earth. The outcome of that has now been seen in a single country: Iraq.

Do not attack others; do not threaten humanity with a nuclear war. The peoples will defend themselves, and all would perish in that inferno.

Thank you for your attention.

Fidel Castro Ruz

Noble laureate makes racist comments

By Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 26, 2007


Nobel laureate James D. Watson, the renowned co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, resigned Thursday as chancellor of the prestigious Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the aftermath of an uproar over racial comments he made recently.

The lab's board of directors suspended him last week after comments that he made in an interview appeared in the Oct. 14 Times of London.

The board said its members "vehemently disagree with these statements and are bewildered and saddened."

Watson, 79, said in an e-mail statement that the change in leadership was "overdue."

"The circumstances in which this transfer is occurring, however, are not those which I could ever have anticipated or desired," he continued.

Board Chairman Eduardo Mestre said: "For over 40 years, Dr. Watson has made immeasurable contributions to the laboratory's research and educational programs. The board respects his desire to retire at this point in his career."

Nobel laureate Thomas R. Cech of the University of Colorado said, "It is very unfortunate what has transpired." Watson transformed Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York from "a sleepy place" to what is now "a really remarkable institution, unique in the world both in terms of its impact on biomedical science and the way it brings together scientists from all over the world through its conference programs and workshops," Cech said.

Watson's "charisma and his intense focus and his scientific taste was impeccable," he added.

The controversy arose while he was in Europe to publicize his book "Avoid Boring People."

In the Oct. 14 article, his former protege Charlotte Hunt-Grubbe wrote: "He says that he is 'inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa' because 'all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours -- whereas all the testing says not really.' . . . He writes that 'there is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically.' "

A firestorm of criticism erupted, and London's Science Museum canceled a sold-out lecture he had scheduled.

Watson apologized "unreservedly," saying, "This is not what I meant." But the damage had been done. He was forced to cut his trip short and return home, where various groups issued highly critical statements.

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, said: "I am deeply saddened by the events of the last week, and understand and agree with Dr. Watson's undoubtedly painful decision to retire in the aftermath of a racist statement he made that was both profoundly offensive and utterly unsupported by scientific evidence."

The Federation of American Scientists said Watson was promoting "personal prejudices that are racist, vicious and unsupported by science."

Watson shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Francis Crick and Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins, both deceased, for identifying the double-helical structure of DNA.

He will be replaced as chancellor by Dr. Bruce Stillman, the laboratory president.

Bolivarian Revolution and the South Bronx

NY Times, October 21, 2007
Soft Spot for the South Bronx
By ANNE BARNARD

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/nyregion/21citgo.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=all

Blackwater and privatization

Author: PWW/NM Editorial Board

People's Weekly World Newspaper, 09/20/07 13:27

The impact of the privatization of U.S. military forces bubbled to the surface, again, when the Iraqi government announced it was revoking Blackwater USA’s operating license following an incident where eight Iraqi citizens were killed. Of course, Iraq is under heavy pressure from the U.S. occupiers to back off.

On the heels of those headlines, allegations have surfaced that Blackwater smuggled weapons into Iraq.

Congressional investigations into corruption and other outlaw activity by Blackwater and other private contractors are under way.

The question is not who are these guys, although Blackwater’s mercenary profile is the poster child for all the private security corporations that sprang up in the wake of 9/11. The question is how did they get to Iraq and Afghanistan? And should the U.S. military be privatized?

Privatization is not cheap. Blackwater’s contract with the State Department is reported to be $800 million for its “services” in Iraq. Its contract to ferry U.S. troops to Afghanistan is $38.4 million for one year.

When the federal government privatizes any agency — from the post office to the military — it is selling control. It is dispensing with accountability and oversight. Privatization does not just give opportunities for corruption — in fact, it’s embedded in its DNA. Perhaps a better description is giving a license to steal. “Performance” is not the driving force in privatization. It’s not even in the back seat. The driver is corporate cronyism and profits.

Private corporations feeding at the taxpayer-supported Pentagon trough is not new (remember those $100 hammers under Reagan? And can you say “military-industrial complex”?). But this administration has raised it to a new level with no-bid contracts and private contractors doing a host of things that troops used to do. According to the Brookings Institution, half the current Defense Department budget is going to no-bid contractors. “They are taking the taxpayers for many billions of dollars,” one of the institution’s scholars told the World.

Congress needs to not only challenge the privatization of public functions, including defense, but also closely scrutinize the military budget and cut the corporate-profit fat!

The truth about Blackwater

Author: Daniel Morales

From PWW: http://www.pww.org/article/view/11814/

Book review
Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army
By Jeremy Scahill
Nation Books, 2007
Hardcover, 452 pp., $26.95

On the surface, Jeremy Scahill’s “Blackwater” is a reflection of the visage of military privatization and its grounding in the Bush administration. Below the surface is the well-documented panoply of mechanisms and methods used to maintain class rule through disaster capitalism and government by surprise.

Hatched in a nest built by billionaire industrialists and nurtured by conservative religion, U.S. finance capital has raised the “world’s most powerful mercenary army.” By so doing, big business has sold out its commitment to community is pursuing its passion for military, political and religious domination.

The massive military privatization by then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney opened the door to large, privately held stockpiles of weapons. Reaction to Bill Clinton’s tax policies stoked a fire among the ultra-right. Contacts from the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush allowed the Blackwater company to develop a rational framework for its rise to power and avoid the pitfalls of “militias” in that period.

As if having learned from Jules Acher’s 1973 book “The Plot to Seize the White House,” the dictatorship of capital’s military arm lay in the weeds until the White House was seized by the scion of none other than Prescott Bush, a notorious fascist sympathizer.

The subtext to this first book by Scahill, an investigative journalist, is about power and wealth being consolidated in the hands of the capitalist class. Government privatization and outsourcing, no-bid, cost-plus contracts and voluntary standards are portrayed as being corrosive to the notion of public accountability for private enterprise.

The author goes deep in revealing the character and personages behind the business practices, cronyism, theft and violence of the current Bush regime. In doing so, he illuminates the bottom feeders in our so-called war on terror.

With Blackwater having been deployed in Iraq (where its “shoot first, ask questions later” policy is coming under heightened scrutiny) and in post-Katrina New Orleans, and with the company suggesting a “humanitarian” mission to Darfur and proposing a facility along the Mexican border, this book will send a chill up the spine of those who thinks about the future of democratic peoples and their movements.

The Collapse of the Middle Class

another must read by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), find it here.

Falling Behind In Boom Times

a must read by Bernie Sanders, an oldie, but a goodie. Read it here

Environmental Journalist Bill McKibben on the Links Between Global Warming & the California Wild Fires

Read the transcript here

House GOP upholds Bush veto on SCHIP, union leaders vow retribution

Author: PAI

http://www.pww.org/article/view/11926/ PWW Online eXtra

WASHINGTON (PAI) — Despite strong lobbying by unions, health care groups, children’s groups and their allies, House Republicans mustered enough votes on Oct. 18 to uphold anti-worker President George Bush’s veto of children’s health care. Union leaders vowed the Republicans would receive retribution at the election polls a year from now.

The 273-156 vote to override Bush’s veto of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) fell 13 votes short of the two-thirds majority of those present and voting needed to defeat Bush. The Senate did not vote, but had passed SCHIP by a veto-proof majority, 67-29, earlier this year. The prior House vote passing SCHIP was 265-159.

“No” votes, upholding Bush’s veto, came from 154 Republicans and two Democrats: Reps. Jim Marshall (D-Ga.) and Gene Taylor (D-Miss.). Four lawmakers — two from each party — were absent.

Democratic leaders promptly vowed to start work on a new SCHIP bill. Bush called the one he killed “socialism,” waving a red herring, because it would expand the program to cover at least 10 million poor children, rather than the 6.6 million it now covers, over the next five years. Labor, its allies and the Democrats wanted to add $35 billion to the program over that time to cover all the children. Bush wanted to add only $5 billion, which would not be enough to cover kids now in SCHIP.

But the battle over SCHIP was also the first shot in the AFL-CIO’s year-plus effort to make universal affordable health care, type unspecified, the No. 1 domestic issue in the 2008 election campaign. That led AFL-CIO President John Sweeney to predict that GOPers who backed Bush’s veto would suffer at election time.

“Make no mistake: Those who stood with the president and against our children and grandchildren took an extreme position far outside the mainstream values of both their colleagues in Congress and the people. Working men and women will hold them accountable at the voting booth,” he said.

Change to Win Executive Director Greg Tarpinian agreed.

“In failing to approve SCHIP, Bush and his Republican allies … callously placed ideology over the health and well-being of millions of children. Those members of Congress who voted to deny health coverage to poor children will face another override vote next November, except this time working families will have the vote,” Tarpinian predicted.

Sparks fly at Capitol Hill hearing on Jena 6

Author: Tim Wheeler

People's Weekly World Newspaper, 10/18/07 11:57

WASHINGTON — Witnesses in a Capitol Hill hearing Oct. 16 blasted the U.S. Justice Department for doing nothing as Jena, La., officials inflicted blatantly discriminatory punishment on six Black high school students while white students who committed violent racist acts were let off with a slap on the wrist.

LaSalle Parish Judge J.P. Mauffray last week sent 17-year-old Mychal Bell back to jail for 18 months, saying Bell violated his probation for a previous conviction. The judge took this action even though an appeals court overturned Bell’s conviction as an adult by an all-white jury on aggravated battery charges and the district attorney declined to retry Bell as a juvenile. Bell had already spent 10 months in jail.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), one of several Congressional Black Caucus members to visit Jena, told the hearing, “As a parent, I am almost in tears. Mychal Bell is back in jail” and “nooses have now proliferated around the country.”

Glaring at two Justice Department attorneys sitting at the witness table, she thundered, “I want you to tell me why you didn’t engage. Why didn’t you intervene?” Many in the crowded hearing room stood and applauded.

The witnesses and several Democratic lawmakers on the committee charged that the Jena Six had the book thrown at them for allegedly attacking a white classmate, Justin Barker, a year ago, yet white students who earlier attacked Robert Bailey, an African American student, with fists and beer bottles, screaming racist epithets, received a brief suspension. Bailey is now one of the Jena Six defendants.

Also treated with velvet gloves were three white students who hung Ku Klux Klan-type nooses from a tree on the school lawn after Black students dared to sit under the so-called “white tree.”

House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers (D-Mich.) convened the hearing with U.S. Attorney for Western Louisiana Donald Washington and Civil Rights Division attorney Lisa Krigsten among the witnesses.

Washington, the first African American U.S. attorney in that region, reversed his earlier position and told the hearing that hanging nooses is indeed a hate crime under U.S. law. He claimed he met with LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters, who has ramrodded the case against the six Black youths.

Krigsten claimed the Justice Department has launched an investigation of the LaSalle Parish judiciary to determine if they engaged in discriminatory law enforcement. She added, “We were concerned only that federal laws are applied uniformly, not Louisiana state law.”

Washington claimed his hands were tied and the Bush administration is powerless to act on prosecutorial misconduct in the re-imprisonment of Bell.

The Rev. Al Sharpton shook his head in disbelief at this cop-out. “They are telling us that Louisiana state law supersedes federal law. You have to ask: who won the Civil War?” He pointed out that federal law is the highest law in the land and that Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson sent Justice Department officials and federalized the National Guard to enforce that law in the face of segregationist “states’ rights” claims.

Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) read off a list of federal statutes, including the hate crimes law and civil rights laws. “If charging decisions were made in a racially discriminatory way, what actions can be taken against the prosecutor?” Scott demanded.

Washington conceded that, if it is proven that the Black and white youth were subject to two different standards, “Yes, that would be a violation of law.”

Dr. Charles Ogletree, director of the Harvard Law School Institute for Race and Justice, said the record in the Jena Six case “is replete with disparities” that open the door for prosecution of District Attorney Walters.

Calling hanging nooses a “powerful symbol of white supremacy,” Ogletree warned, “What happened in Jena is not an isolated incident. Lynching may seem historic but we can’t forget what happened to James Byrd in Jasper, Texas, or Emmett Till. There is a cancer in Jena and we try to treat it with aspirin and good wishes. When an adult tells Black youth that hanging a noose is a ‘prank,’ they are not addressing the underlying tensions in our communities.”

The Rev. Brian Moran, pastor of the Antioch Baptist Church in Jena and president of the newly-founded Jena branch of the NAACP, told the hearing that prosecutor Walters caused deep fear when he told Black students at a Jena High School assembly that he could “take away their lives ‘with a stroke of my pen.’” Moran said, “We know that justice can be done. The question is: why hasn’t justice been done? Right now, Jena is a town with two systems of justice. That is simply un-American.”

The two Justice Department attorneys had laid it on thick that the Bush administration is working for “reconciliation and healing” in Jena. Moran retorted that the “healing will not begin until there is justice” for the Jena Six.

greenerpastures21212 @yahoo.com


Click on link to see Tim Wheeler’s Online eXtra story Are the Jena 6 victims of GOP ‘dirty tricks’? http://pww.org/article/view/11884/