Bay . Area . United . Against . War                     
Local Actions and Campaigns:



Good Anti-War Calendars:

  • Next BAUAW Meeting:


    Recent BAUAW Newsletter Posts:
  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER - FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 2009
  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER - THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 2009
  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER - TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2009
  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER - MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2009
  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER - SUNDAY, JANUARY 18, 2009
  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER - SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 2009
  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER - FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 2009
  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER - THURSDAY, JANUARY 15, 2009
  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER - TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2009
  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER - MONDAY, JANUARY 12, 2009

    Archives:
    09/05/2004 - 09/12/2004 09/12/2004 - 09/19/2004 09/19/2004 - 09/26/2004 09/26/2004 - 10/03/2004 10/03/2004 - 10/10/2004 10/10/2004 - 10/17/2004 10/17/2004 - 10/24/2004 10/24/2004 - 10/31/2004 10/31/2004 - 11/07/2004 11/07/2004 - 11/14/2004 11/14/2004 - 11/21/2004 11/21/2004 - 11/28/2004 11/28/2004 - 12/05/2004 12/05/2004 - 12/12/2004 12/12/2004 - 12/19/2004 12/19/2004 - 12/26/2004 12/26/2004 - 01/02/2005 01/02/2005 - 01/09/2005 01/09/2005 - 01/16/2005 01/16/2005 - 01/23/2005 01/23/2005 - 01/30/2005 02/13/2005 - 02/20/2005 02/20/2005 - 02/27/2005 02/27/2005 - 03/06/2005 03/06/2005 - 03/13/2005 03/13/2005 - 03/20/2005 03/20/2005 - 03/27/2005 03/27/2005 - 04/03/2005 04/03/2005 - 04/10/2005 04/10/2005 - 04/17/2005 04/17/2005 - 04/24/2005 04/24/2005 - 05/01/2005 05/01/2005 - 05/08/2005 05/08/2005 - 05/15/2005 05/15/2005 - 05/22/2005 05/22/2005 - 05/29/2005 05/29/2005 - 06/05/2005 06/05/2005 - 06/12/2005 06/12/2005 - 06/19/2005 06/19/2005 - 06/26/2005 06/26/2005 - 07/03/2005 07/03/2005 - 07/10/2005 07/10/2005 - 07/17/2005 07/17/2005 - 07/24/2005 07/24/2005 - 07/31/2005 07/31/2005 - 08/07/2005 08/07/2005 - 08/14/2005 08/14/2005 - 08/21/2005 08/21/2005 - 08/28/2005 08/28/2005 - 09/04/2005 09/04/2005 - 09/11/2005 09/18/2005 - 09/25/2005 09/25/2005 - 10/02/2005 10/16/2005 - 10/23/2005 11/06/2005 - 11/13/2005 02/12/2006 - 02/19/2006 02/19/2006 - 02/26/2006 03/05/2006 - 03/12/2006 03/12/2006 - 03/19/2006 03/19/2006 - 03/26/2006 03/26/2006 - 04/02/2006 04/02/2006 - 04/09/2006 04/09/2006 - 04/16/2006 04/16/2006 - 04/23/2006 04/23/2006 - 04/30/2006 04/30/2006 - 05/07/2006 05/07/2006 - 05/14/2006 05/21/2006 - 05/28/2006 05/28/2006 - 06/04/2006 06/04/2006 - 06/11/2006 06/11/2006 - 06/18/2006 06/18/2006 - 06/25/2006 07/02/2006 - 07/09/2006 07/23/2006 - 07/30/2006 07/30/2006 - 08/06/2006 08/06/2006 - 08/13/2006 08/13/2006 - 08/20/2006 08/20/2006 - 08/27/2006 08/27/2006 - 09/03/2006 09/03/2006 - 09/10/2006 09/10/2006 - 09/17/2006 09/17/2006 - 09/24/2006 09/24/2006 - 10/01/2006 10/01/2006 - 10/08/2006 10/08/2006 - 10/15/2006 10/15/2006 - 10/22/2006 10/22/2006 - 10/29/2006 10/29/2006 - 11/05/2006 11/05/2006 - 11/12/2006 11/12/2006 - 11/19/2006 11/19/2006 - 11/26/2006 11/26/2006 - 12/03/2006 12/03/2006 - 12/10/2006 12/10/2006 - 12/17/2006 12/17/2006 - 12/24/2006 12/24/2006 - 12/31/2006 12/31/2006 - 01/07/2007 01/07/2007 - 01/14/2007 01/14/2007 - 01/21/2007 01/21/2007 - 01/28/2007 01/28/2007 - 02/04/2007 02/04/2007 - 02/11/2007 02/11/2007 - 02/18/2007 02/18/2007 - 02/25/2007 02/25/2007 - 03/04/2007 03/04/2007 - 03/11/2007 03/11/2007 - 03/18/2007 03/18/2007 - 03/25/2007 03/25/2007 - 04/01/2007 04/01/2007 - 04/08/2007 04/08/2007 - 04/15/2007 04/15/2007 - 04/22/2007 04/22/2007 - 04/29/2007 04/29/2007 - 05/06/2007 05/06/2007 - 05/13/2007 05/13/2007 - 05/20/2007 05/20/2007 - 05/27/2007 05/27/2007 - 06/03/2007 06/03/2007 - 06/10/2007 06/10/2007 - 06/17/2007 06/17/2007 - 06/24/2007 06/24/2007 - 07/01/2007 07/01/2007 - 07/08/2007 07/08/2007 - 07/15/2007 07/15/2007 - 07/22/2007 07/22/2007 - 07/29/2007 07/29/2007 - 08/05/2007 08/05/2007 - 08/12/2007 08/12/2007 - 08/19/2007 08/19/2007 - 08/26/2007 08/26/2007 - 09/02/2007 09/02/2007 - 09/09/2007 09/09/2007 - 09/16/2007 09/16/2007 - 09/23/2007 09/23/2007 - 09/30/2007 09/30/2007 - 10/07/2007 10/07/2007 - 10/14/2007 10/14/2007 - 10/21/2007 10/21/2007 - 10/28/2007 10/28/2007 - 11/04/2007 11/04/2007 - 11/11/2007 11/11/2007 - 11/18/2007 11/18/2007 - 11/25/2007 11/25/2007 - 12/02/2007 12/02/2007 - 12/09/2007 12/09/2007 - 12/16/2007 12/16/2007 - 12/23/2007 12/23/2007 - 12/30/2007 12/30/2007 - 01/06/2008 01/06/2008 - 01/13/2008 01/13/2008 - 01/20/2008 01/20/2008 - 01/27/2008 01/27/2008 - 02/03/2008 02/03/2008 - 02/10/2008 02/10/2008 - 02/17/2008 02/17/2008 - 02/24/2008 02/24/2008 - 03/02/2008 03/02/2008 - 03/09/2008 03/09/2008 - 03/16/2008 03/16/2008 - 03/23/2008 03/23/2008 - 03/30/2008 03/30/2008 - 04/06/2008 04/06/2008 - 04/13/2008 04/13/2008 - 04/20/2008 04/20/2008 - 04/27/2008 04/27/2008 - 05/04/2008 05/04/2008 - 05/11/2008 05/11/2008 - 05/18/2008 05/18/2008 - 05/25/2008 05/25/2008 - 06/01/2008 06/01/2008 - 06/08/2008 06/08/2008 - 06/15/2008 06/15/2008 - 06/22/2008 06/22/2008 - 06/29/2008 06/29/2008 - 07/06/2008 07/06/2008 - 07/13/2008 07/13/2008 - 07/20/2008 07/20/2008 - 07/27/2008 07/27/2008 - 08/03/2008 08/03/2008 - 08/10/2008 08/10/2008 - 08/17/2008 08/17/2008 - 08/24/2008 08/24/2008 - 08/31/2008 08/31/2008 - 09/07/2008 09/07/2008 - 09/14/2008 09/14/2008 - 09/21/2008 09/21/2008 - 09/28/2008 09/28/2008 - 10/05/2008 10/05/2008 - 10/12/2008 10/12/2008 - 10/19/2008 10/19/2008 - 10/26/2008 10/26/2008 - 11/02/2008 11/02/2008 - 11/09/2008 11/09/2008 - 11/16/2008 11/16/2008 - 11/23/2008 11/23/2008 - 11/30/2008 11/30/2008 - 12/07/2008 12/07/2008 - 12/14/2008 12/14/2008 - 12/21/2008 12/21/2008 - 12/28/2008 12/28/2008 - 01/04/2009 01/04/2009 - 01/11/2009 01/11/2009 - 01/18/2009 01/18/2009 - 01/25/2009

  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER
    Subscribe/Unsubscribe

    Thursday, February 16, 2006
     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2006

    SCROLL DOWN PAST ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR
    BAUAW NEWSLETTER
    -----------------------------------------

    Protest at San Quentin on the night of the
    scheduled execution of Michael Morales!!!!

    San Quentin East Gate Monday, February 20 8:00 pm
    You can park on E. Francisco Blvd but expect to walk
    1.2 miles to get to the prison. Please dress warmly
    and bring a flashlight.

    Contact: Stop Executions CA, 510-333-7966,
    stopexecutionscalifornia@yahoo.com

    For car pool information please call 650-271-2854

    California is on a Death Row Killing Spree_.
    Stanley Tookie Williams: Murdered Dec. 13th, 2005
    Clarence Ray Allen: Murdered Jan 17th, 2006
    Michael Morales: Death Date is set for Feb 21st, 2006

    The death penalty is dead wrong. Knowing that is only
    the beginning of stopping it. We have to organize.
    In 1972 the death penalty was temporarily abolished --
    mainly because the public climate had shifted against it.
    It isn't an accident that all this happened at the same
    time people were protesting for civil rights and fighting
    for social justice. Stopping the death penalty once and
    for all is going to take a lot of work -- but if we're going
    to do it, we have to start organizing now -- just like
    the social justice movements of the 1960s.

    Join the fight!

    More information about Michael Morales:

    Two men were responsible for the murder of young Terri Winchell. Only
    Michael Morales received a sentence of death. That sentence was passed
    because the jury believed that Morales was a cold-blooded killer who
    had planned the murder and shown no remorse for his crime.

    We now know that the jury's sentence was based on a lie. The jury was
    misled by the poisonous testimony of a jailhouse informant who was
    secretly rewarded by the prosecutor for the lies he told.

    The truth is that Morales never intended to kill Terri Winchell and
    expressed regret just hours after the murder. In the 25 years since,
    he has continued to accept responsibility, seek atonement for his
    actions, and affirm his sincere and unquestioned remorse for the
    anguish he caused the victim and her family.

    Now even the judge who passed sentence has stepped forward to say that
    executing Michael Morales would constitute "a grievous and freakish
    injustice." Had the informant's lies been exposed at trial, Judge
    Charles R. McGrath writes, he would have set the death sentence aside.

    Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has already denied clemency four times.
    Four times he has washed his hands and refused to intervene. This
    time, the courts are powerless to fix their mistake. And no excuse can
    conceal the shameful injustice that will take place if the Governor
    lets a lethal injection take the life of Michael Morales.

    CONTACT GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER: Call: 916-445-2841; Fax: 916-445-4633

    It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need,
    and the airforce has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.

    ...........................................................

    TELL BUSH AND CONGRESS: STOP THE WAR
    ON IRAN BEFORE IT STARTS!
    Please join the online campaign to
    STOP THE WAR ON IRAN BEFORE IT STARTS!
    YOUR EMERGENCY ACTION IS NEEDED NOW!
    Send emails to President Bush, Vice President
    Cheney, Secretary of State Rice, U.N. Secretary-
    General Annan, Congressional leaders and
    the media demanding NO WAR ON IRAN!
    http://stopwaroniran.org/

    ...........................................................


    Help Us Tell CYA's Chief Warner:
    Close Chad Now!!

    Join Books Not Bars, Escuelas Si, Pintas No,
    and Youth in Focus on February 22 for
    a press conference and picket at the office
    of CYA Chief Bernard Warner in Sacramento.
    We will call on Chief Warner to close Chad
    immediately -- our youth need action now!

    Please come and show your support!

    Press Conference and Picket to close Chad

    Wednesday, February 22, 2006, 4:30 p.m.

    Where: Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
    1515 S. Street
    Sacramento, CA
    RSVP: Contact David at: 510.428.3939 x243 or
    david@ellabakercenter.org

    ...........................................................

    WHY WE FIGHT
    A film by Eugene Jarecki
    [Check out the trailer about this new film.
    This looks like a very powerful film.]
    http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/

    ...........................................................

    Hear: CC Campbell-Rock
    'Venezuelans are getting their 40 acres
    and a mule, and more'
    Friday, February 24th, 7PM
    Centro Del Pueblo
    474 Valencia Street
    (near 16th Street one block west of
    16th & Mission Bart Station)
    CC Campbell-Rock, the new editor of the San Francisco
    Bay View newspaper, has just returned from Venezuela.
    Read her article, 'Venezuelans are getting their 40 acres
    and a mule, and more' at
    www.sfbayview.com/020806/eyewitness020806.shtml .
    Hear her report back as an eyewitness
    to the Bolivarian Revolution.
    She attended last week's World Social Forum and
    toured the Venezuelan countryside, with other
    delegates from Global Women's Strike, to meet
    the grassroots revolutionary leaders who are
    making the kind of miracles in education, health,
    housing, economic development, etc., that could
    revive and transform the inner cities of the United
    States. Prior to working for the SF Bay View, CC was
    a prominent pre-KATRINA journalist and activist
    in New Orleans.
    This meeting is jointly sponsored by the San
    Francisco Bay Area Hands Off Venezuela! committee
    and the San Francisco Bay View .
    San Francisco Bay View
    (www.sfbayview.com)
    San Francisco Bay Area Hands Off Venezuela!
    sfbay@ushov.org 415-786-1680
    Donation $5.00 (Students, unemployed, and Seniors $3.00)

    .......................................................

    ANTIWAR MEETING OPEN TO ALL
    THOSE WHO DEMAND:
    STOP THE WAR NOW! U.S. OUT OF IRAQ!
    BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
    MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!
    SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2006, 10:00 A.M.
    Local, 34, the ILWU Shipclerk's Hall
    4 Berry Street (behind the ballpark)

    .......................................................

    Please help spread the word:

    Counter Recruitment
    Presenters Mobilization!

    The military recruits in most Bay Area high schools,
    Let’s make sure students hear the other side!

    This will be a training/organizing kick off for:
    • youth to youth presentation teams,
    • veterans and non-veteran classroom presenters, and
    • anyone who wants to learn, share and help support this effort!

    Saturday, February 25th, 2-5pm
    War Veterans Memorial Building, Room 219
    401 Van Ness, San Francisco
    West of City Hall, near Civic Center BART
    Snacks will be provided, donations will be accepted.

    For more information, please contact
    Paul Cox (510) 528-1975
    or Susan Quinlan moos-bay@riseup.net

    This event is co-sponsored by Veterans for Peace and
    Alternatives to War Through Education/
    Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors

    .......................................................

    Welcome to BANG4CHANGE 2006 !

    Bang4Change 2006 !
    We Poor People are called "Gang Bangers" & "Thugs"
    Challenge the Hype ! Bang with Peace, Courage & Solidarity!

    End US War on Poor, Black & Brown, NOW !

    Saturday February 25th,
    Noon to 6 P.M.
    CIVIL RIGHTS REVIVAL FEST
    In front of SF City Hall
    iolmisha@cs.com
    (415) 595-8251

    .......................................................

    Postering for March 18 Anti-war Protest - Volunteer Now!
    A.N.S.W.E.R. ACTIVIST MEETING
    TUESDAYs, 7PM
    2489 Mission St. Room 24 (at 21st St.) SF,
    near 24th St. BART
    Now more than ever, the anti-war movement needs
    to reach out to the thousands of people who are turning
    against the war and occupation of Iraq. Your help is needed.
    Call the ANSWER office for the schedule to go out in teams to poster
    for an hour or two. Pick up flyers, posters and stickers
    at the ANSWER office at 2489 Mission St. Room 30. Join us
    for a political update on the recent election in Haiti and
    developments in the Middle East. Also, an eyewitness report
    back from the Atlanta appeal court hearing of the case
    of the Cuban Five. After the meeting, we will team up and
    go out postering for March 18. Your help is needed!
    Call 415-821-6545 for hours.


    ANSWER ANTI-WAR TEACH-IN:
    The expanding U.S. War Drive & the forces resisting it
    Sat, March 4, 1-4pm
    San Francisco Women’s Building
    3543 18th St. (btwn Valencia & Guerrero)
    near 16th St. BART station

    Topics Include:
    -Iraq, Iran and Syria: U.S. Strategy for Domination in the Middle East
    -The Elections in Palestine and the Struggle for Self-Determination
    -Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia: The Rising Tide in Latin America
    and Danger of U.S. Intervention
    -The War at Home, from New Orleans to Bayview-Hunter's Point
    -Washington Global Strategy and What It Means for the
    Anti-War Movement

    Speakers include:
    Mazda Majidi, ANSWER Coalition
    Nora Barrows-Friedman, Palestine correspondent,
    Flashpoints/KPFA
    Pablo Serrano, progressive photo journalist and
    Colombian human rights activist
    Gloria La Riva, Coordinator, National Committee
    to Free the Cuban Five
    Richard Becker, Western Region Coordinator,
    ANSWER Coalition
    Pierre Labossiere, Haiti Action Committee
    Representative, Free Palestine Alliance

    Hear first-hand reports from Palestine, Venezuela, Iran,
    Syria, Colombia and Haiti, and analysis of the growing U.S.
    war drive and the forces resisting it. Time for discussion
    will follow panel presentations.

    $3-10 donation (no one turned away for lack of funds)
    Wheelchair accessible. Call 415-821-6545 to reserve
    free childcare.

    Sponsored by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
    (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism)

    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
    Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
    http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org http://www.actionsf.org
    sf@internationalanswer.org
    2489 Mission St. Rm. 24
    San Francisco: 415-821-6545

    Make a tax-dedctible donation to A.N.S.W.E.R.
    by credit card over a secure server, 
    learn how to donate by check.

    ...........................................................

    PLEASE DISTRIBUTE FAR AND WIDE!! A CALL TO ACTION!!
    STOP EVICTIONS IN BAYVIEW-HUNTERS POINT
    TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 4:00 p.m.
    ROOM 416, CITY HALL, S.F.
    Companeros/companeras:
    Below please find an editorial by Willie Ratcliff,
    publisher of SF Bay View, about a March 7 hearing
    before Redevelopment Authority, which will seal the
    fate of Bayview Hunter's Point. Many of us have been
    saying for years that the Bayview will be the new
    Fillmore. March 7 is, as Ratcliff says, an eviction
    notice for the residents of Bayview Hunters Point. Not
    long after coming into office, Mayor Gavin Newsom did
    photo ops with young black men on a basketball court
    in Bayview (he was lavished with praise by our
    mindless media for that), but he knew damn well then
    that their displacement was imminent. It's all part of
    San Francisco's hypocrisy about racism and classism.
    "Oh, we're a liberal city, we oppose racism and
    classism..." people and politicians say, even as they
    stand idly by while more and more poor, working-class
    and people of color are pushed out of the city by
    Ellis Act evictions for TICs for the upper middle
    class and Redevelopment Authority's "negro removal,"
    as it was called by black activists in the 60s.

    Why is it that removing "urban blight" from our cities
    means giving poor, working-class and people of color a
    one-way ticket to another city? Why can't
    Redevelopment work on building communities from within
    (with no-interest business loans and subsidies to
    homeowners and landlords to fix up their properties,)
    instead of declaring "eminent domain" and stealing the
    land from folks who have nothing else? If
    Redevelopment wants to do some real cleaning of urban
    blight why not confiscate the mansions in Pacific
    Heights and do a little redistributing of the wealth!
    But that's not the game in America. Redevelopment is a
    tool of the real-estate interests that want to
    gentrify all of our neighborhoods. It's about removing
    poor folks so that middle-class and upper-class folks
    can have their homes. It's a time-honored American
    tradition. Native Americans were pushed from their
    land as wagon trains of settlers, driven by manifest
    destiny, spread westward. Similarly, the new Bayview
    is not for the folks who live there now. As former
    Mayor Willie Brown himself said before he left office,
    the new Bayview will be market-rate condos with the
    best views in town.

    Your help is desperately needed.

    Come to the hearing on March 7 at City Hall room 416,
    4pm. It is imperative that we stand with the residents
    of Bayview. It is imperative that people from all
    communities and struggles come together to oppose the
    annexing of 1300 acres of land next to the shipyard.
    No more Fillmores! No eviction notice for Bayview! No
    more gentrification! Redistribute the wealth, don't
    steal our homes! The land does not belong to the
    realtors or the rich! Nuestra tierra, nuestro mundo!
    Our land, our world!

    Estamos juntos en la lucha...we are together in the
    struggle--or we all go down separately!

    tommi avicolli mecca

    Read:

    Eviction notice served on Bayview Hunters Point
    Editorial by Willie Ratcliff
    http://www.sfbayview.com/020806/evictionnotice020806.shtml

    ...................................................................

    NATIONAL WEEK OF CAMPUS ACTION
    Week of March 13-17
    Students Say NO to War in Iraq!
    College Not Combat, Troops Out Now!

    (*Spring break alternative: Schools on spring
    break during March 13-17
    will hold events the week of March 20)

    Student week of action coordinated by the
    Campus Antiwar Network
    http://www.campusantiwar.net
    RecruitersOut@yahoo.com

    Charles Jenks
    Chair of Advisory Board and Web Manager
    Traprock Peace Center
    103A Keets Road
    Deerfield, MA 01342
    413-773-7427
    fax 413-773-7507
    http://www.traprockpeace.org

    ...........................................................

    Third Anniversary of "Shock and Awe"
    Saturday, March 18, 2006, 11:00 a.m.
    CIVIC CENTER
    San Francisco

    Monday, March 20, 2006
    Youth and Student Day
    of Resistance to Imperialism

    http://www.answercoalition.org/

    ...........................................................

    Major Mobilization Set for April 29th

    Dear Friends,

    We are pleased to announce the kick-off for the organizing
    of what promises to be a major national mobilization on
    Saturday, April 29th. Today, each of the initiating groups
    (see list below) is announcing this mobilization. Our
    organizations have agreed to work together on this
    project for several reasons:

    The April 29th mobilization will highlight our call for an
    immediate end to the war on Iraq. We are also raising
    several other critical issues that are directly connected
    to one another.

    It is time for our constituencies to work more closely:
    connecting the issues we work on by bringing diverse
    communities into a common project.

    It is important for our movements to help set the agenda
    for the Congressional elections later in the year. Our
    unified action in the streets is a vital part of that process.

    Please share the April 29th call widely, and please use
    the links at the end of the call to endorse this timely
    mobilization and to sign up for email updates.

    April 29th Initiating Organizations
    United for Peace and Justice
    Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
    National Organization for Women
    Friends of the Earth
    U.S. Labor Against the War
    Climate Crisis Coalition
    Peoples' Hurricane Relief Fund
    National Youth and Student Peace Coalition

    A war based on lies
    Spying, corruption and attacks on civil liberties
    Katrina survivors abandoned by government

    MARCH FOR PEACE,
    JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY

    End the war in Iraq -
    Bring all our troops home now!

    SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 2006
    NEW YORK CITY

    Unite for change - let's turn our country around!

    The times are urgent and we must act.

    Too much is too wrong in this country. We have a foreign
    policy that is foreign to our core values, and domestic
    policies wreaking havoc at home. It's time for a change.

    No more never-ending oil wars!
    Protect our civil liberties & immigrant rights. End illegal
    spying, government corruption and the subversion of
    our democracy.

    Rebuild our communities, starting with the Gulf Coast.
    Stop corporate subsidies and tax cuts for the wealthy
    while ignoring our basic needs.

    Act quickly to address the climate crisis and the
    accelerating destruction of our environment.

    Our message to the White House and to Congress
    is clear: either stand with us or stand aside!

    We are coming together to march, to vote, to speak
    out and to turn our country around!

    Join us in New York City on Saturday, April 29th

    Click here to endorse this mobilization:
    http://unitedforpeace.org/modinput4.php?modin=119
    Click here to sign up for email updates on plans for April 29th:
    http://www.unitedforpeace.org/email

    April 29th Initiating Organizations
    United for Peace and Justice
    Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
    National Organization for Women
    Friends of the Earth
    U.S. Labor Against the War
    Climate Crisis Coalition
    Peoples' Hurricane Relief Fund
    National Youth and Student Peace Coalition

    ......................................................................

    ANSWER Coalition: All Out for April 29 in New York City!
    End Occupation from Iraq to Palestine, to Haiti, and Everywhere!
    Fight for workers rights, civil rights and civil liberties - unite
    against racism!

    300,000 Came to Washington on Sept. 24

    In recent weeks the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has been in the final
    stages for planning a national demonstration in Washington DC on April
    29, 2006. This action was to follow the local and regional
    demonstrations for March 18-19 and youth and student actions scheduled
    on March 20 on the 3rd anniversary of the criminal bombing, invasion
    and occupation of Iraq.

    On September 24, 2005 more than 300,000 people surrounded the White
    House in the largest mobilization against the Iraq war and occupation
    since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. This demonstration was
    initiated by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition in May 2005 and we urged a
    united front with other major anti-war coalitions and communities. We
    marched demanding immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Iraq. We
    also stood in solidarity with the Palestinian and Haitian people and
    others who are suffering under and resisting occupation. Coming as it
    did following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we changed the demands of
    the September 24 protest to include the slogan "From Iraq to New
    Orleans, FundPeople's Needs not the War Machine."

    During the past several years, and as demonstrated in a powerful
    display on September 24, the anti-war movement has grown significantly
    in its breadth and depth as the leadership has included the Arab and
    Muslim community -- those who are among the primary targets of the
    Bush Administration's current war at home and abroad.

    The anti-war sentiment inside the United States is rapidly becoming a
    significant obstacle to the Bush Administration's war in Iraq. The
    anti-war movement has the potential to be a critical deterrent to the
    U.S. government's aspirations for Empire. At this moment the White
    House and Pentagon are issuing threats and making plans to move
    against other sovereign countries. Iran and Syria are being targeted
    as the U.S. seeks to consolidate power in the Middle East.

    Simultaneously the Bush administration is working to undermine the
    gains of the people of Latin America by working totopple the
    democratically elected president of Venezuela and destroy the
    revolutionary process for social change going on in that country.
    Likewise it is intensifying the economic war and CIA subversions
    against Cuba.

    We believe that our movement must weld together the broadest, most
    diverse coalition of various sectors and communities into an effective
    force for change. This requires the inclusion of targeted communities
    and political clarity. The war in Iraq is not simply an aberrational
    policy of the Bush neo-conservatives. Iraq is emblematic of a larger
    war for Empire. It is part of a multi-pronged attack against all those
    countries that refuse to follow the economic, political and military
    dictates of the Washington establishment and Wall Street.

    This is the foundation of the political program upon which the
    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has organized mass demonstrations in the recent
    years. The fact that many hundreds of thousands of people
    havedemonstrated in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, New
    York and other cities is a testament to the huge progress that has
    been made in building a new movement on this principled basis.
    The people of the United States have nothing to gain and everything to
    lose from the occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Haiti and
    the threats of new wars and intervention in Syria, Iran, Venezuela,
    Cuba, the Philippines, North Korea and elsewhere. It has been made
    crystal clear in recent weeks that Washington is aggressively
    prosecuting its strategy of total domination of the Middle East. U.S.
    leaders are seeking to crush all resistance to their colonial agenda,
    whether from states or popular movements in the region. The
    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition andthe anti-war movement is raising the demand,
    "U.S. Out of the Middle East."

    At its core, the war for Empire is supported by the Republican Party
    and Democratic Party alike, which constitute the twin parties of
    militarism and war, and this quest for global domination will continue
    regardless of the outcome of the 2006 election. In fact, leading
    Democrats are attacking Bush for being "soft" on Iran and North Korea.
    Real hope for turning the tide rests with building a powerful global
    movement of resistance in which the people of the United States stand
    with their sisters and brothers struggling against imperialism and the
    new colonialism.

    On the home front the Bush administration is involved in a
    far-reaching assault against working class communities as most
    glaringly evidenced by its criminal and racist negligence towards the
    people of New Orleans and throughout the hurricane ravaged Gulf
    States. While turning their backs on these communities in the moments
    ofgreatest need, the U.S. government is now working with the banks and
    developers who, like vultures, are exploiting mass suffering and
    dislocation to carry out racist gentrification that only benefits the
    wealthy. The administration is also working to eviscerate hard-fought
    civil rights and civil liberties, engaging in a widespread campaign of
    domestic spying and wiretapping against the people of the U.S. and
    other assaults against the First and Fourth Amendments.

    In early December 2005, the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition filed for permits
    for a national march in Washington DC on April 29, 2006. We were
    preparing to announce the April 29 action but in recent days we have
    heard from A.N.S.W.E.R. organizers in a number of unions that U.S.
    Labor Against the War was seeking union endorsements for a call for an
    anti-war demonstration on the same day in New York City. Having two
    demonstrations on April 29 in both Washington D.C. and New York City
    seems to us to be lessadvantageous than having the movement unite
    behind one single mobilization. As such, we decided to hold back our
    announcement. Subsequently, the New York City demonstration has been
    announced by a number of organizations. Underscoring the need to have
    the largest possible demonstration on April 29, the A.N.S.W.E.R.
    Coalition has decided to fully mobilize, in all of its chapters and
    organizing centers, to bring people to the New York City demonstration
    on April 29. The banners and slogans of different coalitions may not
    be the same, but it is in the interest of everyone to march
    shoulder-to-shoulder against the criminal war in Iraq and the Bush
    administration's War for Empire, including its racist, sexist and
    anti-worker domestic program.

    All out for a united, mass mobilization on April 29 in New York City!
    Click here to become a transportation center in your city or town for
    the April 29 demonstration.

    Click here to receive updates on A.N.S.W.E.R.'s mobilization for the
    April 29 NYC demonstration.
    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
    Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
    http://www.answercoalition.org/
    info@internationalanswer.org
    National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
    New York City: 212-694-8720
    Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
    San Francisco: 415-821-6545
    Click here to unsubscribe from the ANSWER e-mail list.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    Welcome to the Official Push for Peace Site!
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=
    The Push for Peace logo shows a Navy veteran in a wheelchair with
    a peace sign on the wheel, with people marching behind him.
    It can be seen at:
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=node/71
    Push For Peace is a collective of veterans, progressive activists, and
    everyday citizens working together through education, motivation,
    and truth to bring America’s troops home from the war in Iraq and
    to help bring healing and peace to our nation. The Push For Peace
    movement is geared to combine the efforts of able-bodied activists
    to those with special needs or challenges, so that all people can
    participate and be counted. The Push For Peace effort will include
    organized rallies and marches, as well as appearances and
    performances by high-profile speakers and entertainers,
    to rally the American people and show them we stand united
    with our fellow citizen and soldier. It is our goal to grow the
    base of participants each day resulting in a cross-country Push
    culminating at the gates of the White House on July 4, 2006.
    Events will be scheduled across the country leading up to the
    big Push in July. So keep checking the Push calendar for events
    near you.
    Mapping it all out...[Website shows map of stops in US en route
    to DC on July 4, 2006...bw]
    This is a tentative and unfinished P4P route and is only a work
    in progress. The Push is set to leave Golden Gate Park on
    Memorial Day 2006 (currently working on permits) and then
    we will Push our way across the country to arrive in DC across
    from the White House gathering at Lafayette Park (currently
    working on permits) on July 4th, 2006.
    Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California
    Las Vegas Nevada
    Phoenix, Arizona
    Denver, Colorado
    Crawford, Texas
    New Orleans, Louisiana
    more states pending...
    Pushing real Democracy!
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
    ARTICLES IN FULL:

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    1) UCSC Military Recruitment Debate Reportback
    by bob fitch (photos) & josh sonnenfeld (words)
    Saturday, Feb. 11, 2006 at 4:32 P
    http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1801777.php

    2) Outrage Spreads over New Images
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website
    Inter Press Service
    Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com

    3) Delphi, Passing Deadline, Will Continue to Seek Union Deal
    By MICHELINE MAYNARD
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/business/17cnd-delphi.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

    4) Welfare Agencies Seek Foster Children's Assets
    By ERIK ECKHOLM
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/national/17foster.html?hp&ex=1140238800&en=8cf8e9d6ee24846a&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    5) Citations for Mines Where Workers Died
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/national/17mines.html?pagewanted=all

    6) For Want of Money, Remains of Some Hurricane
    Victims Are Not Collected
    By SHAILA DEWAN
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/national/nationalspecial/17bodies.html?pagewanted=all

    7) The Shame of the Prisons
    NYT Editorial
    February 18, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/18/opinion/18sat1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

    8) American Davis Makes History at Speedskating Oval
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    February 18, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/sports/AP-OLY-SPE-Mens-1000-TR2.html?hp&ex=1140325200&en=62984900ae160546&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    9) Videotape Shows Camp Guards Hitting Teenager Who Later Died
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    February 18, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/18/national/18camp.html?pagewanted=all

    10) Recruiting Hispanics for Kentucky Coal Mines Raises Debate
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    February 19, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/national/19miners.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

    11) 21 Feet
    Patrick Doherty
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/02/17/21_feet.php

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    1) UCSC Military Recruitment Debate Reportback
    josh sonnenfeld
    Saturday, Feb. 11, 2006 at 4:32 P
    http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1801777.php

    On Wednesday, Feb. 8, UCSC's Colleges 9 and 10 hosted a tightly-
    controlled debate on the issue of military recruitment. The two
    speakers were William Griffin, in charge of Army recruitment for
    the Monterey Bay area, and Mario Ramirez Hardy, a long-time
    counter-recruitment organizer and GI Rights Hotline counselor.

    The issue of military recruitment at UC Santa Cruz and in the
    community as a whole has been prominent for years. Due to
    creative student protests, all branch of the military have been
    prevented from any form of recruiting on campus for more than
    a year. After multiple successful local campaigns, the majority
    of Santa Cruz County high school parents haveopted their
    children out of contact lists sent to recruiters. Santa Cruz
    County now has the lowest recruitment rate in the state
    of California.

    On Wednesday night, Colleges 9 and 10 organized a debate
    on the issue of military recruitment. William Griffin, the top
    dog for Army recruitment in the area, faced off against Mario
    Ramirez Hardy, who has been helping GIs get out of the
    military for over a decade, in addition to a wide array
    of counter-recruitment activities.

    The night was very tightly controlled by Colleges 9 and
    10 (c9/10) staff, headed by Wendy Baxter, and moderated
    by Professor Paul Roth. There were fears of protests from
    students, possibly by Students Against War (SAW), as military
    recruiters are known not to be welcome. Due to these fears,
    c9/10 staff taped a 'do not cross' line on the ground outside
    the Multi-Purpose Room, where the debate was held. Protesters
    and leafletters were not to cross the line. Nonetheless,
    important flyers found their way in the hands of almost
    all the student attendees. No protests were planned,
    as no military recruitment was to take place.

    During the debate, Mario Ramirez Hardy and William Griffin
    calmly answered a few questions that they had received before
    hand. Students with questions were asked to write them on
    cards, which Roth and Baxter screened. No questions relating
    to foreign policy were allowed. Due to all these restrictions,
    the debate wasn't overly exciting, although there was
    a good deal of information presented.

    Mario Ramirez Hardy systematically dispelled the myths
    about military recruitment - using facts provided from
    military or governmental sources. He spoke about how
    military recruiters, under the enlistment agreement
    (see: http://quakerhouse.org/documents/enlist.html)
    can change anything at any time, with or without notice
    to the enlistee (i.e. recruiters can't make any promises).
    He noted that 57% of enlistees don't get a dime for college,
    that 90% of women in the military reported harassment
    (1/3 of which were raped), the high rates of discrimination
    against people of color, and the violent heterosexism and
    homophobia of the military, seen by their 'Don't Ask, Don't
    Tell' policy and the consistent harassment of enlistees found
    to be queer. These statistics were backed up by more than
    a decade of personal experiences counseling GIs.

    William Griffin, the Army recruiter, attempted to claim that
    'statistics can be made to say anything,' although did not
    address the fact that these statistics were from the military
    and government themselves. He attempted to appeal to people's
    assumed nationalism - suggesting that the military is there
    to defend freedom. Many students rolled their eyes with these
    remarks, as the Pentagon was recently found to be spying
    on UCSC students, directly threatening these freedoms that
    they claim to protect. Griffin further claimed that the military
    'treats everyone the same' and protects enlistees from physical
    harm. However, he did not have any statistics to back his claims,
    except for the one time that he claimed over 100% of enlistees
    receive something.. making many students scratching their
    heads at how anyone could arrive at more than 100%. Overall
    though, Griffin was very calm and composed, with slick answers
    for all the questions - just like a recruitment commercial.

    On the hot topic of a possible military recruitment ban from
    campus, Griffin relied on the Solomon Amendment, a federal
    bill which threatens to take away university funding if they
    don't allow recruiters. He consistently claimed that the military
    just does what they're told - including discriminating against
    queers and women (as Hardy added). In contrast, Hardy
    suggested that students and communities should have the
    right to determine who visits their schools and that if they
    wanted to ban military recruiters, no one should stand
    in their way.

    Once the debate was over, students clapped (the first time
    they were allowed to all night - except for one impromptu
    clapping for Hardy) and a few milled around to talk to the
    speakers, but most walked home with some questions
    answered, but many more remaining.

    While the debate was not riddled with excitement, its
    existence signified the growth of UCSC's counter-recruitment
    movement and the prominance of the issue on campus,
    as the event was completely organized by college officials,
    not activists. It offered an opportunity for a wider audience
    to inform themselves on some of the issues related to military
    recruitment, which will hopefully transfer into more solidarity
    with counter-recruitment actions and campaigns in the future.
    It should also lead to a greater ability for student attendees
    (many of which were from SAW) to break down the fallacious
    arguments widely circulated by military recruiters -
    or 'salesmen' as Hardy called them.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    2) Outrage Spreads over New Images
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website
    Inter Press Service
    Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com

    *BASRA, Feb 16 (IPS) - New footage of British soldiers beating up young
    Iraqi men in Amarah city in 2003, and the release of more photographs of
    atrocities by U.S. soldiers against Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison
    has spread outrage across Iraq.*

    The timing of the new images is potent, in the wake of violence
    spreading through Iraq and much of the Muslim world over cartoons of
    Prophet Mohammed carried by a Danish newspaper and then other European
    publications.

    "We in Basra have decided not to cooperate in any way with the British
    troops," 43 year-old food merchant Ali Shehab Najim told IPS. "These
    occupiers of Basra are invaders and we will not sell them any of their
    requirements."

    Najim added, "None of us will work with them any longer either. My
    cousin used to work with them inside their base, but not any more. He
    refuses to go to work, and we have decided to show our contempt for them
    in every way possible."

    Najim said people are particularly angry over the Danish military
    presence in Iraq.

    He said he had first accepted the presence of occupation forces, but now
    "I think it's about time to tell them we do not respect them since they
    are behaving in a very bad way."

    After footage of British troops beating young Iraqis with fists and
    batons was aired earlier, the Governorate of Basra announced it has
    severed ties to the British military. This included cancellation of
    joint security patrols.

    "We condemn any of those actions by British and American troops in
    torturing our young people," former head city councillor of Basra
    governorate Qasim Atta Al-Joubori told IPS.

    "Iraqis suffered a lot during the past 35 years, but now they are
    tortured by foreigners who invaded our country," said Al-Joubori, who
    was a city councillor in Basra for 40 years. "We can't accept having
    them any more."

    Far from cooperating, people in Basra are now prepared to fight the
    occupation forces, he said. "What these beatings and torture show is
    that the occupiers are both assaulting and insulting all of the Iraqi
    people."

    Similar views are being echoed around Basra, a relatively quieter area
    in the south under charge of British troops.

    "We are looking to the day we see those bastards out of our country," 55
    year-old factory owner Abdullah Ibraheem told IPS. "Now they are
    torturing the citizens of Basra, Baghdad and Amarah, so they have not
    only lost the support of the Iraqi Sunnis but the Shias in this country
    as well."

    He said most Iraqis know someone who has been in a military detention
    centre, but said the new video footage and photographic evidence of
    torture have "demolished whatever credibility may have remained for the
    occupiers."

    The Australian television network Special Broadcasting Service (SBS)
    aired previously unpublished video footage and photographs Wednesday of
    abuse of Iraqis by U.S. soldiers inside the infamous Abu Ghraib prison
    in 2003.

    The images are similar to those published in 2004 that led to furore
    across the Middle East. But many of the new images show a brutality and
    extent of sexual humiliation that many news outlets found too shocking
    to carry.

    The American Civil Liberties Union had obtained the photographs from the
    U.S. government under a Freedom of Information request, but its members
    said they were not aware how the SBS came to air its new footage and the
    photographs.

    There could be yet more photographs to come. "I believe major newspapers
    in the U.S. like the Washington Post have scores more photos which are
    evidence of torture at Abu Ghraib, but they won't publish them due to
    pressure from the U.S. government," an attorney at the Centre for
    Constitutional Rights in New York City told IPS.

    In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters, "The
    abuses at Abu Ghraib have been fully investigated." He added, "When
    there have been abuses, this department has acted upon them promptly,
    investigated them thoroughly and where appropriate prosecuted individuals."

    He said the Pentagon believes that releasing of the new images would
    trigger greater violence, and endanger U.S. forces in Iraq.

    (c)2004, 2005 Dahr Jamail.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    3) Delphi, Passing Deadline, Will Continue to Seek Union Deal
    By MICHELINE MAYNARD
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/business/17cnd-delphi.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

    DETROIT, Feb. 17 — The Delphi Corporation, which is operating
    in bankruptcy, said today it would keep talking with its unions and
    General Motors in a bid to reach a deal on lower wage and benefit rates.

    But without a deal, Delphi, which is the country's biggest auto parts
    company, set a new deadline of March 31. If there were no deal
    by then, Delphi said it would ask a judge for permission to reject
    its labor contracts with its six unions, and also ask to terminate
    its employee pension plans.

    There had been extensive speculation in Detroit that Delphi might
    file those court motions today.

    "This deadline should provide us sufficient time to deal with the
    complexities inherent in fashioning practical and workable solutions,
    and an effective agreement that works for all of us," Delphi's chief
    executive, Robert S. Miller, said in a statement this morning.

    Delphi has twice delayed asking a bankruptcy court for the ability
    to void its contracts, in order to continue negotiations. It previously
    had said it would not file the motion any sooner than today.

    Delphi's biggest union, the United Automobile Workers, has
    threatened to strike the parts company if Delphi seeks
    to terminate its contracts. Other unions could follow suit.

    In its own statement, the U.A.W. said that there were "many
    significant issues" to be resolved in the negotiations between
    Delphi, G.M. and the union.

    But they said Delphi's decision not to file the court motions
    "provides the opportunity for that process to work and
    is certainly a positive action."

    Companies operating in bankruptcy can ask a judge to set
    aside their contracts and impose less-generous deals,
    if they can prove that the company's ability to operate
    is jeopardized by existing contracts.

    Generally, a judge requests that the two sides try to first
    reach a deal, but can convene a trial on the matter if no
    agreement can be reached. It takes up to 60 days after
    a company files a request to terminate contracts for
    a judge to rule.

    So if there is no deal by March 31, or during discussions
    after that, a judge could issue a ruling by May 31.

    Delphi, which was part of G.M. until 1999, filed for Chapter 11
    protection in October. Soon afterward, Mr. Miller, who joined
    Delphi in July after leading restructurings at a number
    of other companies, said Delphi could not survive without
    sharply lower wage and benefit rates.

    Initially, Mr. Miller said members of the U.A.W. should earn as
    little as $9.50 an hour, compared with the $27 an hour paid
    at U.A.W.-represented plants. Overall, U.A.W. members earn
    as much as $67 an hour in wages and benefits, the same as
    their counterparts at G.M.

    The union reacted angrily to Mr. Miller's initial proposal, which
    Delphi subsequently withdrew, and workers threatened to strike
    the company if it asked a judge for the ability to void its labor
    agreements.

    A strike at Delphi, which is G.M.'s biggest supplier, would
    probably cripple G.M. within days, and would come at a time
    when G.M. is struggling.

    G.M. lost $8.6 billion in 2005, and it announced a plan in
    November to close all of part of 12 plants, and cut 30,000 jobs.

    About 4,000 workers at Delphi have the right to return to G.M.
    if there were jobs for them, meaning G.M. would be liable for
    pension and health care payments. The company has estimated
    that Delphi's bankruptcy could cost it up to $12 billion.

    The new deadline would fall on the eve of the U.A.W.'s constitutional
    convention in June. The union's president, Ron Gettelfinger,
    is seeking re-election, and has vowed repeatedly to fight for
    Delphi workers' rights.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    4) Welfare Agencies Seek Foster Children's Assets
    By ERIK ECKHOLM
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/national/17foster.html?hp&ex=1140238800&en=8cf8e9d6ee24846a&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    GREENSBORO, N.C. — In 2004, at the age of 14 and at his own desperate
    request, John G. became a ward of North Carolina.

    His mother abandoned him for crack when he was 3, and his adoptive
    father died of cancer a year later. A succession of guardians beat him,
    made him sell drugs and refused to buy him toys.

    When he finally arrived at a county-financed group residence,
    he was wearing outgrown clothes. On the plus side, he was receiving
    Social Security survivor benefits and he held title to a modest house,
    willed to him by the adoptive father 10 years earlier and an asset
    that might give him traction, or at least a place to live, when he
    "ages out" of foster care at 18.

    Now, the fate of the house — and the insistence of Guilford County
    officials on taking all of John's Social Security benefits to help pay
    for his foster care — are at the center of a legal battle with
    potential repercussions around the country.

    The dispute is the latest in a continuing struggle between children's
    advocates and money-starved welfare agencies. They are wrestling
    over the proper use of more than $100 million in Social Security
    benefits that the states are taking on behalf of foster children
    with disabilities or a dead or disabled natural parent.

    Determined to extract as much federal aid for social programs
    as the law will permit, some state welfare agencies even hire
    private companies, working for contingency fees, to help them
    reap more federal money by identifying foster children who
    are eligible for Social Security benefits. The money is then
    routinely used to help offset the cost of foster care.

    Advocates for children question the wholesale takeover of money,
    accusing agencies of repaying themselves for care they are
    obligated to provide and of failing to use the windfall to meet
    children's individual needs, whether extra tutoring or counseling
    or, as in John's case, something more unusual.

    Guilford County officials refused to release any of John's money,
    even when they learned that his last guardian had stopped making
    the $221 monthly mortgage payments on his house and that he
    faced its imminent loss. A local court has ordered the county
    to make payments for now, but the county has appealed and
    said it might appeal to the United States Supreme Court
    if necessary.

    For John, who as a foster child may not be fully identified,
    it was clear as he visited the house recently that it represented
    not just money but also a precious link to his troubled past
    and an unknown future.

    "This is my childhood," John, now 15, said as he climbed through
    a broken window to explore the boarded-up structure for the
    first time since he fled it two years ago. On the floor of the
    bedroom, he found a brown teddy bear and clung to it, saying
    softly, "My mother gave this to me before she left."

    John has no idea how he will support himself, but he wants
    to live in the house he inherited, a property valued at $80,000.
    "It will be a good place to be," he said.

    John's court-appointed volunteer protector found out about
    the threat to his house and enlisted a Legal Aid lawyer to help
    him fight for it.

    "For the state to pocket a child's money and allow his home
    to go into foreclosure just doesn't make sense," said his Legal
    Aid lawyer, Lewis Pitts. "No one can say it's in the best interests
    of the child."

    The benefits that states routinely take include both Supplemental
    Security Income, or S.S.I., and other Social Security money for
    children whose parents have died or are disabled. The payments
    are often close to $600 a month, and usually end when children
    reach 18 or 21.

    "The practice is not the result of deliberative policy discussions
    regarding how to best serve children in foster care," said Daniel
    L. Hatcher, a law professor at the University of Baltimore who
    is the author of an article on the subject that is to be published
    in The Cardozo Law Review. "It is simply an ad hoc reaction
    by underfunded state agencies."

    "The Social Security benefits are treated as a funding stream,"
    Mr. Hatcher said, rather than as an opportunity to provide any
    special services or to give children savings for the perilous
    months after they turn 18, when many fall into crime
    or homelessness.

    A Supreme Court decision in 2003, overturning a decision
    by courts in Washington State, affirmed that states could legally
    use children's Social Security benefits to offset current "maintenance
    costs." But it did not address a deeper question: does that always
    serve the child's "best interests," as federal rules require,
    or the longer-term interests of the public for that matter?

    In the case of John G., a Guilford County district court ruled
    last Dec. 29 that the state must pay up the mortgage and cover
    repairs so the house could be saved for the youth. Reviewing
    John's rough history and uncertain prospects, Judge Susan E.
    Bray declared that "any reasonable person would see the fiscal
    wisdom" of helping him keep the property.

    The county has appealed to a higher state court, arguing that
    the state courts have no jurisdiction over the matter, that the
    county is legally entitled to use John's benefits to cover his
    care and that it has no responsibility to exhaust public
    resources so a child can own property.

    "The federal regulations say that the funds are to be used for
    current needs and expenses," said Lynne Shifton, an assistant
    county attorney. "His house payments are not, in our opinion,
    to meet his current needs."

    For now, the county must pay up the arrears on John's house
    and for needed repairs. A private group hopes to rent it as
    a transition home for foster children until John is able to move in.

    State governments around the country stoutly defend their
    use of foster children's benefits.

    Twenty-six states filed a supporting brief to the Supreme Court
    in the 2003 Washington case, noting that the practice had been
    approved by the Social Security Administration and arguing that
    barring it "could leave the states in a position of economic peril."

    If states cannot devote money to current care, the brief added,
    children will ultimately suffer because the states will not help
    eligible children sign up for benefits.

    Many advocates for children agree with that point: preserving
    an incentive to enroll more children is good for them because
    the benefits will continue if the child is adopted or returns
    to his birth family.

    "If you tinker seriously with incentives of the child welfare agency,
    you can wind up doing a lot of harm," said Bruce Boyer, director
    of the child law clinic at Loyola University in Chicago.

    Mr. Boyer led a lawsuit that stopped Illinois from using benefits
    to cover, in addition to direct care expenses, the overhead costs
    of foster agencies.

    Mr. Boyer said state governments had an inherent conflict
    of interest, serving as creditors trying to recoup the cost of
    their programs and also as trustees of children's money.
    As a first step, he said, agencies should try harder to find
    relatives or volunteers to serve as official recipients of benefits.

    A new law in California, passed with the support of advocates
    for children, requires counties to evaluate each foster child for
    Social Security eligibility. But it also demands new scrutiny
    of how benefits are used and modest savings to help aging-
    out children become independent.

    "We are moving toward an individualized system, requiring
    counties to stop and think about the child at every stage of
    the process — in choosing a payee, determining how to spend
    the money, and accounting for how the funds are spent," said
    Angie Schwartz, a lawyer at the National Center for Youth Law
    in Oakland, Calif.

    During John G.'s recent visit to his house, it became clear that
    the property may offer John more than shelter.

    Its yard overgrown, its front plastered with a "condemned" poster
    because the utilities were cut off, the vacant house is an eyesore
    in a tidy cul-de-sac of similar homes, all built by Habitat for Humanity.

    But neighbors poured forth with hugs and joy when John showed
    up unexpectedly and said that he hoped to move back.

    "He's had it real tough, but he's a good kid," said a mother
    from across the street.

    As he left to return to his foster home — he has recently moved from
    the group facility to a private home — John vowed that he would
    return to the house in a few weeks, to mow the lawn.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    5) Citations for Mines Where Workers Died
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/national/17mines.html?pagewanted=all

    CHARLESTON, W.Va., Feb. 16 (AP) — Federal regulators have issued
    safety citations at the West Virginia coal mines where 14 miners died
    last month, records show.

    The regulators, at the Mine Safety and Health Administration, cited
    the Sago Mine in Upshur County, where 12 men died after an explosion
    on Jan. 2. The mine's owner, International Coal Group, was cited
    on Jan. 19 and Feb. 6 for improperly testing and maintaining
    electrical equipment; failing to notify the agency within 30 days
    of a change in the legal entity operating the mine; and violating
    an order prohibiting entry into the mine without an inspector.

    International Coal plans to contest the latter two citations, said
    Roger L. Nicholson, the company's senior vice president and
    general counsel.

    The agency issued four citations at the Alma No. 1 mine in
    Melville, where two men died in a conveyor belt fire on Jan. 19.
    The citations, issued Feb. 2 and Feb. 9, said the mine owner, the
    Massey Energy Company, violated rules concerning ventilation
    and explosives. A spokesman for the company did not immediately
    return calls seeking comment.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    6) For Want of Money, Remains of Some Hurricane
    Victims Are Not Collected
    By SHAILA DEWAN
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/national/nationalspecial/17bodies.html?pagewanted=all

    NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 16 — There are no longer corpses in plain sight,
    as there were for days after Hurricane Katrina hit. But nearly six months
    after the storm, officials believe there are still dozens of unrecovered
    bodies in New Orleans. They even have a pretty good idea where they are.

    But no one is looking for them.

    Instead, they have been left in muck-filled houses or piles of debris
    for family members to stumble upon. Last Saturday, for example,
    Alicia and Herman Robertson found their nephew, Kendrick Smith,
    in the bedroom where he had lain face down since the storm.

    Family members, scattered to Houston, San Antonio and Ville Platte,
    La., said they had repeatedly asked the authorities to go by the house,
    at 2305 Flood Street, to look for Mr. Smith, 31. "The city never done
    nothing," Mr. Robertson said. "It was horrible to see one's loved
    one laid out like that."

    Based on reports from family members, officials have compiled
    a list of 225 addresses in the Ninth Ward whose residents are still
    missing. But the search has become snarled in yet another tangle
    over agency jurisdiction and cost.

    The New Orleans Fire Department's urban search and rescue
    team began combing the Ninth Ward in early October, but
    stopped two months later when money for overtime ran out,
    Steven P. Glynn, the chief of special operations for the department,
    said. "The superintendent had to decide whether to continue
    that operation or provide adequate fire protection," he said.

    The process of "clearing" a house from the list is not simple,
    Chief Glynn said. Even if the house is still standing, furniture
    must be removed and as much as two feet of mud shoveled out
    before searchers can be certain no body is there. For those houses
    that have collapsed, the current plan is to have a search-and-
    rescue team work alongside the Army Corps of Engineers, which
    is charged with debris clearance and cleanup.

    Chief Glynn said that he had explained the situation to at least
    half a dozen officials from the Federal Emergency Management
    Agency, but that he had yet to get a promise of money for
    more searches, which would cost about $400,000 for three
    months.

    Nicol Andrews, a spokeswoman for FEMA, said the Fire
    Department had not filled out a "formal project worksheet"
    requesting money. But, Ms. Andrews said, "by all accounts,
    this is something FEMA absolutely would pay for."

    The wait is maddening, said Chief Glynn, a third-generation
    New Orleans firefighter. "It's really not the dead, because you
    can't do much for those people," he said. "It's the families,
    who are living with this."

    Some of those families have given DNA samples to the state,
    called the police and tried to search themselves. Lamont Marrero,
    26, believes his mother, who was partly paralyzed, is still in her
    Ninth Ward home, but when he tried to enter, he found the iron
    security doors rusted shut.

    "We don't have any answers at all," Mr. Marrero said. "We don't
    know anything. That's the only thing left to do, is search the house."

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    7) The Shame of the Prisons
    NYT Editorial
    February 18, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/18/opinion/18sat1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

    Who needs sophomoric cartoons to inflame the Muslim world when
    you've got the Bush administration's prison system? One reason
    the White House is so helpless against the violence spawned by
    those Danish cartoons is that it has squandered so much of its
    moral standing at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. This week,
    the world got two chilling reminders of why both prisons must
    be closed.

    On Thursday, the United Nations Human Rights Commission
    issued a scathing report on the violations of democratic principles,
    human rights and the rule of law at Guantánamo Bay: indefinite
    arbitrary detentions, hearings that mock fair process and justice,
    coercive and violent interrogations, and other violations of laws
    and treaties.

    The Bush administration offered its usual weak response, that
    President Bush has decided there is a permanent state of war
    that puts him above the law. And that is exactly the problem:
    by creating Guantánamo outside the legal system for prisoners
    who, according to Mr. Bush, have no rights, the United States
    is stuck holding these 500 men in perpetuity. The handful who
    may be guilty of heinous crimes can never be tried in a real
    court because of their illegal detentions. A vast majority
    did nothing or were guilty only of fighting on a battlefield,
    but the administration refuses to sort them out.

    Some members of Congress tried to exert control over
    Guantánamo Bay late last year. But their efforts were hijacked
    by Bush loyalists, who made matters worse by stripping the
    prisoners there of the basic human right to challenge
    their detentions.

    Now the only solution is to close Guantánamo Bay and
    account for its prisoners fairly and openly. The United States
    then needs a prisons policy that conforms to the law and
    to democratic principles.

    The U.N. report followed a broadcast by an Australian
    television station of previously unpublicized photographs
    taken at Abu Ghraib in 2003. Many were similar to the pictures
    the world saw two years ago when the scandal of abuse,
    humiliation and torture first broke. Others show even worse
    abuses and degradation.

    All are a reminder that the Bush administration has yet
    to account for what happened at Abu Ghraib. No political
    appointee has been punished for the policies that led
    to the atrocities. Indeed, most have been rewarded.

    The prison was a symbol of the worst of the Hussein regime. Now
    it's a symbol of the worst of the American occupation. Congress
    should order it replaced. And perhaps John Warner, chairman
    of the Senate Armed Services Committee, could keep his
    promise to dig out the truth about Abu Ghraib.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    8) American Davis Makes History at Speedskating Oval
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    February 18, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/sports/AP-OLY-SPE-Mens-1000-TR2.html?hp&ex=1140325200&en=62984900ae160546&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    TURIN, Italy (AP) -- Shani Davis knew what he was doing.

    Davis became the first black to win an individual gold medal in Winter
    Olympic history on Saturday, capturing the men's 1,000-meter
    speedskating race. Joey Cheek made it a 1-2 American finish,
    adding a silver to his victory in the 500.

    Erben Wennemars of the Netherlands captured the bronze.

    Chad Hedrick, skating the weakest of his individual events,
    put up an early time that stood until Davis bested it in the
    19th of 21 pairs with a time of 1 minute, 8.89 seconds.

    Four other skaters passed Hedrick as well, leaving the Texan
    in sixth place -- still an impressive showing considering he
    was skating the 1,000 for only the seventh time in his career.

    Davis came under scrutiny for skipping the team pursuit --
    especially when the Hedrick-led squad was knocked out in
    the quarterfinals, doomed by a slow skater who might not
    have been on the ice if Davis was available.

    But Davis, world record holder in the 1,000, wanted to focus
    on his signature event. It certainly paid off.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    9) Videotape Shows Camp Guards Hitting Teenager Who Later Died
    [This is straight up murder of an already incarcerated
    fourteen-year-old!...bw]
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    February 18, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/18/national/18camp.html?pagewanted=all

    PANAMA CITY, Fla., Feb. 17 (AP) — A teenager who died a day
    after entering a juvenile-detention boot camp was kneed and hit
    by guards while being restrained the day before his death,
    a videotape released Friday showed.

    The scenes from the tape outraged the parents of the boy,
    Martin L. Anderson, 14. Martin's mother, Gina Jones, said the
    tape proved that the guards killed her son, despite a medical
    examiner's ruling that he died from internal bleeding unrelated
    to the confrontation.

    Martin, who entered the camp Jan. 5 because of a probation
    violation, complained of difficulty in breathing and collapsed
    during exercises that were part of the entry process.
    He died the next day at a hospital.

    The Bay County Sheriff's Department, which runs the camp,
    said Martin was restrained after he became uncooperative.

    On the surveillance videotape, which lasts 80 minutes and
    has no sound, as many as nine guards can be seen restraining
    Martin. Guards kneed him and wrestled him to the ground,
    where he was repeatedly hit by one guard. He was limp
    throughout most of the videotape.

    The videotape shows that a woman in a white coat was present
    while the guards restrained Martin and at one point used
    a stethoscope to check him. Near the end of the confrontation,
    guards appeared to become more concerned, and several began
    running in and out of the scene. Emergency medical personnel
    later arrived and took the boy away.

    Dr. Charles Siebert, medical examiner for the district that
    includes Bay County, said the boy's body had some bruises
    and abrasions, but he attributed them to efforts to resuscitate
    the youth. Dr. Siebert said Martin suffered internal bleeding
    because he had sickle cell trait, a disorder that caused his
    red blood cells to change shape and produce "a whole cascade
    of events" that led to hemorrhaging.

    Benjamin Crump, a lawyer for Martin's family, expressed doubt
    that the sickle cell trait, if it existed, could cause such extensive
    damage to the teenager's internal organs.

    The Justice Department has said it will investigate the case,
    along with the F.B.I. Federal officials planned to focus on whether
    camp guards violated Martin's rights through use of excessive
    force or indifference to serious medical need.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    10) Recruiting Hispanics for Kentucky Coal Mines Raises Debate
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    February 19, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/national/19miners.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

    COAL RUN, Ky., Feb. 18 (AP) — Charlie Bearse, the president of Sidney
    Coal, was expressing an opinion that many in these mountains secretly
    share. The problem was, he put that opinion in writing.

    "It is common knowledge that the work ethic of the Eastern Kentucky
    worker has declined from where it once was," Mr. Bearse wrote
    to the state mining board. Bad attitudes and drug abuse, he argued,
    were affecting attendance "and, ultimately, productivity."

    Mr. Bearse's appeal to the board: Relax an English-only policy in
    the mines so he could bring in Hispanic workers.

    American companies often say they need migrant workers
    to do low-paying, menial tasks that many Americans will not.
    But at $18 an hour and up, plus benefits, mining jobs are
    some of Appalachia's best.

    In a part of the country where Hispanics make up less than
    1 percent of most counties' populations, Mr. Bearse's comments
    caused a stir.

    Shannon Gibson, who recently took the state test for the
    "green card" that would allow him to work underground,
    said: "They're just looking for more workers who will work
    cheaper and work longer."

    Mr. Bearse has acknowledged that his choice of words could
    have been better. And his timing could not have been worse.

    Less than two weeks after he made his request in late
    December, 12 miners died in an accident in West Virginia.
    By the time his proposal became public this month, five
    more coal miners had died.

    A generation of layoffs and migration has left a suddenly
    booming industry with a shortage of experienced miners.
    Labor officials put that deficit at more than 6,000 miners
    in West Virginia and Kentucky. "For all kinds of reasons,
    the labor pool is smaller," said Bill Caylor, president
    of the Kentucky Coal Association.

    But Tim Miller, a United Mine Workers union organizer,
    said that was nonsense, calling the supposed miner
    shortage "the biggest farce out there right now."

    In the past two years, Kentucky has issued nearly 13,000
    work permits for inexperienced miners. In a recent week,
    state labor officials counted 7,187 people actively seeking
    coal mining work, 5,390 of whom claimed prior mining
    experience.

    Mr. Miller said there were 1,400 laid-off union miners
    in Western Kentucky alone who could go to work today.
    He echoed the sentiments of many who believe the industry
    was simply hoping to exploit Hispanics and drive down wages.

    "They want people who don't have the ability to protect
    themselves," Mr. Miller said. "If they can flood the market
    with Hispanic workers, if they can get away with paying
    a guy $8 an hour, the next guy will be willing to work for $7."

    Mr. Bearse said more than a third of his 800 employees
    had been hired in the past year. Sidney, a subsidiary of
    Massey Energy of Richmond, Va., has recruited miners
    from out West and advertised as far away as Charlotte,
    N.C., but still cannot fill its rosters, it says.

    So Mr. Bearse turned to Hispanic workers on his payroll
    and asked if they had relatives or friends who might consider
    taking part in a "pilot program." He emphasized they would
    get the same wages and benefits as the company's other miners.

    "It would be administered by qualified bilingual supervisors,"
    he said in a telephone interview. "They would need to have
    legal worker status."

    Mr. Miller said his objections were because of safety,
    not immigration.

    "What if that interpreter is the one who gets covered up in
    a rock fall?" he said. "I'm outside of the mine screaming
    they've got smoke coming their way and they don't have a
    ny idea what I'm trying to say. They're just sitting ducks."

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    11) 21 Feet
    Patrick Doherty
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/02/17/21_feet.php

    Diane Sawyer, anchoring ABC's " World News Tonight," simply
    repeated the most stark statistic from her network's report
    yesterday on the increasing melt rate of the Greenland ice
    sheet. "Twenty-one feet," she said. Twenty-one feet. That's
    how much the world's sea levels will rise when Greenland's
    ice fully melts.

    Catastrophic melting will do more than just inundate the
    nation's coastal cities. California's Imperial Valley will flood,
    as levees are overcome by the rising waters. That will mean
    the devastation of one of America's great agricultural
    breadbaskets and the loss of Southern California's main source
    of freshwater. California may both drown and dry up before
    the big earthquake ever hits.

    Melting will also change the world's weather patterns,
    especially in the northern hemisphere. Massive amounts
    of cold freshwater will likely shut down the Atlantic Ocean
    currents that bring the warm waters from the tropics up to
    heat Europe. Ironically, Northern Europe will get colder as
    a result of global warming, increasing its energy needs and
    devastating its agricultural cycles. For some powerful
    renderings of what that world will look like, visit:

    http://www.oriononline.org/pages/om/06-1om/McKibbenRockman.html

    But until now, politicians in Washington have preferred to
    ignore or reject the real threats posed by global warming.
    The reason is simple. The solutions to this problem are too
    disruptive to vested interests. Our communities must be
    redesigned to use far less energy. Our markets must value
    labor over resources. Our transportation patterns must
    increase mobility while decreasing vehicle miles traveled.
    Automakers, homebuilders, utilities, oil companies and
    many of the unions that provide the labor for these core
    components of the S&P 500 are resisting the calls for
    a major economic adaptation.

    Instead, these same groups have realized that it is much
    easier to build a consensus around a different energy-related
    threat: economic independence and gas prices. When addressed
    without consideration of global warming, the solutions to our
    energy security situation are much more palatable. Without
    the need to reduce carbon emissions drastically in terms
    of volume and timetable, solutions like more efficient cars
    and a shift to nuclear power are all that is needed. We can
    preserve the suburban American dream, trust us.

    But it's not only "21 feet" that puts the lie to that rear-guard
    action. It's also China. China's economy is growing at
    9.9 percent, increasing demand for every major industrial
    resource—especially energy. And that demand growth is
    happening with only 200 million people in its modern
    economy. More than 1 billion Chinese are still waiting to
    get their own bite of the apple. Oh, and then there are
    3.4 billion people in the rest of the developing world also
    waiting in line. We'd need many more planet Earths
    to satisfy them all.

    The big challenge in Washington, therefore, is to figure
    out how to make this stark economic reality politically
    advantageous. Two-thirds of Americans think the country
    is headed in the wrong direction. They're exactly right.
    The question is whether they will ever get a plan for the
    right direction before we lose cities, valleys and all the good options.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
    LINKS:
    --------*--------*---------*---------*---------*----------

    At a Scientific Gathering, U.S. Policies Are Lamented
    By CORNELIA DEAN
    February 19, 2006
    ST. LOUIS, Feb. 18 — David Baltimore, the Nobel Prize-winning
    biologist and president of the California Institute of Technology,
    is used to the Bush administration misrepresenting scientific
    findings to support its policy aims, he told an audience of fellow
    researchers Saturday. Each time it happens, he said, "I shrug and
    say, 'What do you expect?' "
    But then, Dr. Baltimore went on, he began to read about the
    administration's embrace of the theory of the unitary executive,
    the idea that the executive branch has the power or even the
    obligation to act without restraint from Congress. And he began
    to see in a new light widely reported episodes of government
    scientists being restricted in what they could say in public.
    "It's no accident that we are seeing such an extensive suppression
    of scientific freedom," he said. "It's part of the theory of
    government now, and it's a theory we need to vociferously oppose."
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/national/19science.html

    Mexico's Maritime Mystery: What's Killing All Those Whales?
    By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
    February 19, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/international/americas/19mexico.html

    Bush's Chat With Novelist Alarms Environmentalists
    By MICHAEL JANOFSKY
    February 19, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/national/19warming.html

    Drug Traffickers Find Haven in Shadows of Indian Country
    By SARAH KERSHAW
    February 19, 2006
    Investigators described Mr. Oakes as an intimidating trafficker who
    concentrated on stealing drugs and cash from a prosperous and
    growing cluster of criminals who, like Mr. Oakes, have built
    sprawling mansions near worn-down trailers on this reservation
    straddling the Canadian border.
    Law enforcement officials say Mr. Oakes and the drug lords he
    is accused of stealing from are part of a violent but largely
    overlooked wave of trafficking and crime that has swept through
    the nation's Indian reservations in recent years, as large-scale
    criminal organizations have found havens and allies in the
    wide-open and isolated regions of Indian country.
    Drug Traffickers Find Haven in Shadows of Indian Country
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/national/19smuggle.html?hp&ex=1140411600&en=69dc2430fac56f7d&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Rights Group Asks Government to Postpone New Orleans Elections
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    The Department of Justice should postpone coming elections
    in New Orleans until displaced voters have been located,
    N.A.A.C.P. officials said Saturday.
    February 19, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/national/nationalspecial/19naacp.html

    Glaciers Flow to Sea at a Faster Pace, Study Says
    By ANDREW C. REVKIN
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/science/17climate.html

    Clot Risk for Birth-Control Patch Is Found to Be Double That of Pill
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    February 18, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/18/health/18patch.html?pagewanted=all

    Report on Impact of Federal Benefits on
    Curbing Poverty Reignites a Debate
    By ERIK ECKHOLM
    "Yes, the E.I.T.C. means a family has more money, and that's good,"
    said Timothy Smeeding, an economist at the Maxwell School
    of Syracuse University, referring to the Earned-Income Tax Credit,
    which can pay thousands of dollars to a low-income worker.
    "But going to work can also mean high new expenses for travel
    and child care, for example, and these aren't included."
    "They've added in the extra benefits people get, but not the
    extra costs," Mr. Smeeding said of the Census Bureau, adding
    that the report gave an overly optimistic figure of living conditions
    on the bottom.
    The new Census Bureau report is online at
    www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/effect2004/effect2004.html .
    February 18, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/18/national/18poverty.html

    You Think 401(k)'s Are Hard to Manage? Try Health Accounts
    By DAMON DARLIN
    February 18, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/18/business/yourmoney/18money.html?pagewanted=all

    Tapping Fears of Big Business
    [John M. Perkins, Economic Hit Man...bw]
    By LANDON THOMAS Jr.
    Chicago
    February 19, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/business/yourmoney/19confess.html?hp&ex=1140325200&en=c8da2eac62ed9404&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Content of Soil Causes Concern in Levee Repair
    By JOHN SCHWARTZ
    February 19, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/national/nationalspecial/19dirt.html?hp&ex=1140325200&en=2a87cb6f34f9360b&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Drug Plan's Start May Imperil G.O.P.'s Grip on Older Voters
    By ROBIN TONER
    February 19, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/politics/19older.html?hp&ex=1140325200&en=ba570f76cbb36948&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    As Property Values Rise, Homeowners Feel Pinch
    By RICK LYMAN
    February 19, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/realestate/19property.html?hp&ex=1140325200&en=84f9d5c4af04e2dd&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    The "Teen Sex Slave" Scams
    ABC's Primetime Fakery
    By DEBBIE NATHAN
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.counterpunch.org/nathan02172006.html

    Diverging Views of Californian at Terror Trial
    By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
    SACRAMENTO, Feb. 16 — A federal terrorism trial opened here on
    Thursday with wildly diverging views of a 23-year-old Californian
    who traveled to Pakistan either for terrorism training, as the
    government contends, or to help his ailing mother, study religion
    and marry, as his lawyer asserts.
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/national/nationalspecial3/17trial.html?pagewanted=all

    On Private Web Site, Wal-Mart Chief Talks Tough
    By STEVEN GREENHOUSE and MICHAEL BARBARO
    February 17, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/business/17walmart.html?hp&ex=1140238800&en=6faf297fa60aec04&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    SOS: Why you need to join the Soldiers of Solidarity now!
    By Melodee Hagensen
    February 2006
    http://www.soldiersofsolidarity.com/id151.html

    Iraq 'Death Squad Caught in Act'
    Iraq has launched an investigation into claims by the US military that
    an Iraqi interior ministry "death squad" has been targeting Sunni Arab
    Iraqis. The probe comes after a US general revealed the arrest of 22
    policemen allegedly on a mission to kill a Sunni
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021606A.shtml

    The Torture Photos Congress Didn't Want You to See
    Pictures That Missed the Exhibition
    By LILA RAJIVA
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.counterpunch.org/rajiva02162006.html

    Iraq: the forgotten victims
    Military under fire for 'abandoning' more than
    1,000 veterans with mental problems
    By Kim Sengupta and Terri Judd
    Published: 16 February 2006
    http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article345709.ece

    A Deal Is Reached to Name a Victor in Haiti's Election
    By GINGER THOMPSON
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/international/americas/16cnd-haiti.html?hp&ex=1140152400&en=fc29068844f31494&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    British Clinic Is Allowed to Deny Medicine
    [The best life-saving drugs money can buy. Don't have money?
    Start saving for your funeral...bw]
    By SARAH LYALL
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/international/europe/16cancer.html

    U.N. Report Calls for End to Guantánamo Detentions
    By WARREN HOGE
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/international/16cnd-gitmo.html?hp&ex=1140152400&en=44f61e793b9e79a6&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Whistleblower Alleges Second Wiretap Program
    A former NSA employee said Tuesday there is another ongoing top-secret
    surveillance program that might have violated millions of Americans'
    Constitutional rights. Russell D. Tice told the House Government Reform
    Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International
    Relations he has concerns about a "special access" electronic
    surveillance program that he characterized as far more wide-ranging than the
    warrantless wiretapping.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021506A.shtml

    We Have Created the World’s First Truly Global Empire
    John Perkins, author of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," joins
    us in our firehouse studio to talk about his former work going into
    various countries to try to strongarm leaders into creating policy
    favorable to the U.S government and corporations. Perkins describes
    himself as an economic hit man.
    Democracy Now!!, February 15th, 2006
    http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/15/1436221

    2 Major Construction Unions Plan to Leave A.F.L.-C.I.O. Unit.
    By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
    February 15, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/national/15union.html?pagewanted=all

     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2006

    SCROLL DOWN PAST ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR
    BAUAW NEWSLETTER
    -----------------------------------------

    TELL BUSH AND CONGRESS: STOP THE WAR
    ON IRAN BEFORE IT STARTS!
    Please join the online campaign to
    STOP THE WAR ON IRAN BEFORE IT STARTS!
    YOUR EMERGENCY ACTION IS NEEDED NOW!
    Send emails to President Bush, Vice President
    Cheney, Secretary of State Rice, U.N. Secretary-
    General Annan, Congressional leaders and
    the media demanding NO WAR ON IRAN!
    http://stopwaroniran.org/

    ...........................................................


    Help Us Tell CYA's Chief Warner:
    Close Chad Now!!

    Join Books Not Bars, Escuelas Si, Pintas No,
    and Youth in Focus on February 22 for
    a press conference and picket at the office
    of CYA Chief Bernard Warner in Sacramento.
    We will call on Chief Warner to close Chad
    immediately -- our youth need action now!

    Please come and show your support!

    Press Conference and Picket to close Chad

    Wednesday, February 22, 2006, 4:30 p.m.

    Where: Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
    1515 S. Street
    Sacramento, CA
    RSVP: Contact David at: 510.428.3939 x243 or
    david@ellabakercenter.org

    ...........................................................

    WHY WE FIGHT
    A film by Eugene Jarecki
    [Check out the trailer about this new film.
    This looks like a very powerful film.]
    http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/

    ...........................................................

    Hear: CC Campbell-Rock
    'Venezuelans are getting their 40 acres
    and a mule, and more'
    Friday, February 24th, 7PM
    Centro Del Pueblo
    474 Valencia Street
    (near 16th Street one block west of
    16th & Mission Bart Station)
    CC Campbell-Rock, the new editor of the San Francisco
    Bay View newspaper, has just returned from Venezuela.
    Read her article, 'Venezuelans are getting their 40 acres
    and a mule, and more' at
    www.sfbayview.com/020806/eyewitness020806.shtml .
    Hear her report back as an eyewitness
    to the Bolivarian Revolution.
    She attended last week's World Social Forum and
    toured the Venezuelan countryside, with other
    delegates from Global Women's Strike, to meet
    the grassroots revolutionary leaders who are
    making the kind of miracles in education, health,
    housing, economic development, etc., that could
    revive and transform the inner cities of the United
    States. Prior to working for the SF Bay View, CC was
    a prominent pre-KATRINA journalist and activist
    in New Orleans.
    This meeting is jointly sponsored by the San
    Francisco Bay Area Hands Off Venezuela! committee
    and the San Francisco Bay View .
    San Francisco Bay View
    (www.sfbayview.com)
    San Francisco Bay Area Hands Off Venezuela!
    sfbay@ushov.org 415-786-1680
    Donation $5.00 (Students, unemployed, and Seniors $3.00)

    .......................................................

    ANTIWAR MEETING OPEN TO ALL
    THOSE WHO DEMAND:
    STOP THE WAR NOW! U.S. OUT OF IRAQ!
    BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
    MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!
    SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2006, 10:00 A.M.
    Local, 34, the ILWU Shipclerk's Hall
    4 Berry Street (behind the ballpark)

    .......................................................

    Please help spread the word:

    Counter Recruitment
    Presenters Mobilization!

    The military recruits in most Bay Area high schools,
    Let’s make sure students hear the other side!

    This will be a training/organizing kick off for:
    • youth to youth presentation teams,
    • veterans and non-veteran classroom presenters, and
    • anyone who wants to learn, share and help support this effort!

    Saturday, February 25th, 2-5pm
    War Veterans Memorial Building, Room 219
    401 Van Ness, San Francisco
    West of City Hall, near Civic Center BART
    Snacks will be provided, donations will be accepted.

    For more information, please contact
    Paul Cox (510) 528-1975
    or Susan Quinlan moos-bay@riseup.net

    This event is co-sponsored by Veterans for Peace and
    Alternatives to War Through Education/
    Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors

    .......................................................

    Welcome to BANG4CHANGE 2006 !

    Bang4Change 2006 !
    We Poor People are called "Gang Bangers" & "Thugs"
    Challenge the Hype ! Bang with Peace, Courage & Solidarity!

    End US War on Poor, Black & Brown, NOW !

    Saturday February 25th,
    Noon to 6 P.M.
    CIVIL RIGHTS REVIVAL FEST
    In front of SF City Hall
    iolmisha@cs.com
    (415) 595-8251

    .......................................................

    Postering for March 18 Anti-war Protest - Volunteer Now!
    A.N.S.W.E.R. ACTIVIST MEETING
    TUESDAYs, 7PM
    2489 Mission St. Room 24 (at 21st St.) SF,
    near 24th St. BART
    Now more than ever, the anti-war movement needs
    to reach out to the thousands of people who are turning
    against the war and occupation of Iraq. Your help is needed.
    Call the ANSWER office for the schedule to go out in teams to poster
    for an hour or two. Pick up flyers, posters and stickers
    at the ANSWER office at 2489 Mission St. Room 24.
    Call 415-821-6545 for hours.

    ...........................................................

    PLEASE DISTRIBUTE FAR AND WIDE!! A CALL TO ACTION!!
    STOP EVICTIONS IN BAYVIEW-HUNTERS POINT
    TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 4:00 p.m.
    ROOM 416, CITY HALL, S.F.
    Companeros/companeras:
    Below please find an editorial by Willie Ratcliff,
    publisher of SF Bay View, about a March 7 hearing
    before Redevelopment Authority, which will seal the
    fate of Bayview Hunter's Point. Many of us have been
    saying for years that the Bayview will be the new
    Fillmore. March 7 is, as Ratcliff says, an eviction
    notice for the residents of Bayview Hunters Point. Not
    long after coming into office, Mayor Gavin Newsom did
    photo ops with young black men on a basketball court
    in Bayview (he was lavished with praise by our
    mindless media for that), but he knew damn well then
    that their displacement was imminent. It's all part of
    San Francisco's hypocrisy about racism and classism.
    "Oh, we're a liberal city, we oppose racism and
    classism..." people and politicians say, even as they
    stand idly by while more and more poor, working-class
    and people of color are pushed out of the city by
    Ellis Act evictions for TICs for the upper middle
    class and Redevelopment Authority's "negro removal,"
    as it was called by black activists in the 60s.

    Why is it that removing "urban blight" from our cities
    means giving poor, working-class and people of color a
    one-way ticket to another city? Why can't
    Redevelopment work on building communities from within
    (with no-interest business loans and subsidies to
    homeowners and landlords to fix up their properties,)
    instead of declaring "eminent domain" and stealing the
    land from folks who have nothing else? If
    Redevelopment wants to do some real cleaning of urban
    blight why not confiscate the mansions in Pacific
    Heights and do a little redistributing of the wealth!
    But that's not the game in America. Redevelopment is a
    tool of the real-estate interests that want to
    gentrify all of our neighborhoods. It's about removing
    poor folks so that middle-class and upper-class folks
    can have their homes. It's a time-honored American
    tradition. Native Americans were pushed from their
    land as wagon trains of settlers, driven by manifest
    destiny, spread westward. Similarly, the new Bayview
    is not for the folks who live there now. As former
    Mayor Willie Brown himself said before he left office,
    the new Bayview will be market-rate condos with the
    best views in town.

    Your help is desperately needed.

    Come to the hearing on March 7 at City Hall room 416,
    4pm. It is imperative that we stand with the residents
    of Bayview. It is imperative that people from all
    communities and struggles come together to oppose the
    annexing of 1300 acres of land next to the shipyard.
    No more Fillmores! No eviction notice for Bayview! No
    more gentrification! Redistribute the wealth, don't
    steal our homes! The land does not belong to the
    realtors or the rich! Nuestra tierra, nuestro mundo!
    Our land, our world!

    Estamos juntos en la lucha...we are together in the
    struggle--or we all go down separately!

    tommi avicolli mecca

    Read:

    Eviction notice served on Bayview Hunters Point
    Editorial by Willie Ratcliff
    http://www.sfbayview.com/020806/evictionnotice020806.shtml

    ...................................................................

    NATIONAL WEEK OF CAMPUS ACTION
    Week of March 13-17
    Students Say NO to War in Iraq!
    College Not Combat, Troops Out Now!

    (*Spring break alternative: Schools on spring
    break during March 13-17
    will hold events the week of March 20)

    Student week of action coordinated by the
    Campus Antiwar Network
    http://www.campusantiwar.net
    RecruitersOut@yahoo.com

    Charles Jenks
    Chair of Advisory Board and Web Manager
    Traprock Peace Center
    103A Keets Road
    Deerfield, MA 01342
    413-773-7427
    fax 413-773-7507
    http://www.traprockpeace.org

    ...........................................................

    Third Anniversary of "Shock and Awe"
    Saturday, March 18, 2006, 11:00 a.m.
    CIVIC CENTER
    San Francisco

    Monday, March 20, 2006
    Youth and Student Day
    of Resistance to Imperialism

    http://www.answercoalition.org/

    ...........................................................

    Major Mobilization Set for April 29th

    Dear Friends,

    We are pleased to announce the kick-off for the organizing
    of what promises to be a major national mobilization on
    Saturday, April 29th. Today, each of the initiating groups
    (see list below) is announcing this mobilization. Our
    organizations have agreed to work together on this
    project for several reasons:

    The April 29th mobilization will highlight our call for an
    immediate end to the war on Iraq. We are also raising
    several other critical issues that are directly connected
    to one another.

    It is time for our constituencies to work more closely:
    connecting the issues we work on by bringing diverse
    communities into a common project.

    It is important for our movements to help set the agenda
    for the Congressional elections later in the year. Our
    unified action in the streets is a vital part of that process.

    Please share the April 29th call widely, and please use
    the links at the end of the call to endorse this timely
    mobilization and to sign up for email updates.

    April 29th Initiating Organizations
    United for Peace and Justice
    Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
    National Organization for Women
    Friends of the Earth
    U.S. Labor Against the War
    Climate Crisis Coalition
    Peoples' Hurricane Relief Fund
    National Youth and Student Peace Coalition

    A war based on lies
    Spying, corruption and attacks on civil liberties
    Katrina survivors abandoned by government

    MARCH FOR PEACE,
    JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY

    End the war in Iraq -
    Bring all our troops home now!

    SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 2006
    NEW YORK CITY

    Unite for change - let's turn our country around!

    The times are urgent and we must act.

    Too much is too wrong in this country. We have a foreign
    policy that is foreign to our core values, and domestic
    policies wreaking havoc at home. It's time for a change.

    No more never-ending oil wars!
    Protect our civil liberties & immigrant rights. End illegal
    spying, government corruption and the subversion of
    our democracy.

    Rebuild our communities, starting with the Gulf Coast.
    Stop corporate subsidies and tax cuts for the wealthy
    while ignoring our basic needs.

    Act quickly to address the climate crisis and the
    accelerating destruction of our environment.

    Our message to the White House and to Congress
    is clear: either stand with us or stand aside!

    We are coming together to march, to vote, to speak
    out and to turn our country around!

    Join us in New York City on Saturday, April 29th

    Click here to endorse this mobilization:
    http://unitedforpeace.org/modinput4.php?modin=119
    Click here to sign up for email updates on plans for April 29th:
    http://www.unitedforpeace.org/email

    April 29th Initiating Organizations
    United for Peace and Justice
    Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
    National Organization for Women
    Friends of the Earth
    U.S. Labor Against the War
    Climate Crisis Coalition
    Peoples' Hurricane Relief Fund
    National Youth and Student Peace Coalition

    ......................................................................

    ANSWER Coalition: All Out for April 29 in New York City!
    End Occupation from Iraq to Palestine, to Haiti, and Everywhere!
    Fight for workers rights, civil rights and civil liberties - unite
    against racism!

    300,000 Came to Washington on Sept. 24

    In recent weeks the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has been in the final
    stages for planning a national demonstration in Washington DC on April
    29, 2006. This action was to follow the local and regional
    demonstrations for March 18-19 and youth and student actions scheduled
    on March 20 on the 3rd anniversary of the criminal bombing, invasion
    and occupation of Iraq.

    On September 24, 2005 more than 300,000 people surrounded the White
    House in the largest mobilization against the Iraq war and occupation
    since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. This demonstration was
    initiated by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition in May 2005 and we urged a
    united front with other major anti-war coalitions and communities. We
    marched demanding immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Iraq. We
    also stood in solidarity with the Palestinian and Haitian people and
    others who are suffering under and resisting occupation. Coming as it
    did following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we changed the demands of
    the September 24 protest to include the slogan "From Iraq to New
    Orleans, FundPeople's Needs not the War Machine."

    During the past several years, and as demonstrated in a powerful
    display on September 24, the anti-war movement has grown significantly
    in its breadth and depth as the leadership has included the Arab and
    Muslim community -- those who are among the primary targets of the
    Bush Administration's current war at home and abroad.

    The anti-war sentiment inside the United States is rapidly becoming a
    significant obstacle to the Bush Administration's war in Iraq. The
    anti-war movement has the potential to be a critical deterrent to the
    U.S. government's aspirations for Empire. At this moment the White
    House and Pentagon are issuing threats and making plans to move
    against other sovereign countries. Iran and Syria are being targeted
    as the U.S. seeks to consolidate power in the Middle East.

    Simultaneously the Bush administration is working to undermine the
    gains of the people of Latin America by working totopple the
    democratically elected president of Venezuela and destroy the
    revolutionary process for social change going on in that country.
    Likewise it is intensifying the economic war and CIA subversions
    against Cuba.

    We believe that our movement must weld together the broadest, most
    diverse coalition of various sectors and communities into an effective
    force for change. This requires the inclusion of targeted communities
    and political clarity. The war in Iraq is not simply an aberrational
    policy of the Bush neo-conservatives. Iraq is emblematic of a larger
    war for Empire. It is part of a multi-pronged attack against all those
    countries that refuse to follow the economic, political and military
    dictates of the Washington establishment and Wall Street.

    This is the foundation of the political program upon which the
    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has organized mass demonstrations in the recent
    years. The fact that many hundreds of thousands of people
    havedemonstrated in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, New
    York and other cities is a testament to the huge progress that has
    been made in building a new movement on this principled basis.
    The people of the United States have nothing to gain and everything to
    lose from the occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Haiti and
    the threats of new wars and intervention in Syria, Iran, Venezuela,
    Cuba, the Philippines, North Korea and elsewhere. It has been made
    crystal clear in recent weeks that Washington is aggressively
    prosecuting its strategy of total domination of the Middle East. U.S.
    leaders are seeking to crush all resistance to their colonial agenda,
    whether from states or popular movements in the region. The
    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition andthe anti-war movement is raising the demand,
    "U.S. Out of the Middle East."

    At its core, the war for Empire is supported by the Republican Party
    and Democratic Party alike, which constitute the twin parties of
    militarism and war, and this quest for global domination will continue
    regardless of the outcome of the 2006 election. In fact, leading
    Democrats are attacking Bush for being "soft" on Iran and North Korea.
    Real hope for turning the tide rests with building a powerful global
    movement of resistance in which the people of the United States stand
    with their sisters and brothers struggling against imperialism and the
    new colonialism.

    On the home front the Bush administration is involved in a
    far-reaching assault against working class communities as most
    glaringly evidenced by its criminal and racist negligence towards the
    people of New Orleans and throughout the hurricane ravaged Gulf
    States. While turning their backs on these communities in the moments
    ofgreatest need, the U.S. government is now working with the banks and
    developers who, like vultures, are exploiting mass suffering and
    dislocation to carry out racist gentrification that only benefits the
    wealthy. The administration is also working to eviscerate hard-fought
    civil rights and civil liberties, engaging in a widespread campaign of
    domestic spying and wiretapping against the people of the U.S. and
    other assaults against the First and Fourth Amendments.

    In early December 2005, the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition filed for permits
    for a national march in Washington DC on April 29, 2006. We were
    preparing to announce the April 29 action but in recent days we have
    heard from A.N.S.W.E.R. organizers in a number of unions that U.S.
    Labor Against the War was seeking union endorsements for a call for an
    anti-war demonstration on the same day in New York City. Having two
    demonstrations on April 29 in both Washington D.C. and New York City
    seems to us to be lessadvantageous than having the movement unite
    behind one single mobilization. As such, we decided to hold back our
    announcement. Subsequently, the New York City demonstration has been
    announced by a number of organizations. Underscoring the need to have
    the largest possible demonstration on April 29, the A.N.S.W.E.R.
    Coalition has decided to fully mobilize, in all of its chapters and
    organizing centers, to bring people to the New York City demonstration
    on April 29. The banners and slogans of different coalitions may not
    be the same, but it is in the interest of everyone to march
    shoulder-to-shoulder against the criminal war in Iraq and the Bush
    administration's War for Empire, including its racist, sexist and
    anti-worker domestic program.

    All out for a united, mass mobilization on April 29 in New York City!
    Click here to become a transportation center in your city or town for
    the April 29 demonstration.

    Click here to receive updates on A.N.S.W.E.R.'s mobilization for the
    April 29 NYC demonstration.
    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
    Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
    http://www.answercoalition.org/
    info@internationalanswer.org
    National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
    New York City: 212-694-8720
    Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
    San Francisco: 415-821-6545
    Click here to unsubscribe from the ANSWER e-mail list.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    Welcome to the Official Push for Peace Site!
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=
    The Push for Peace logo shows a Navy veteran in a wheelchair with
    a peace sign on the wheel, with people marching behind him.
    It can be seen at:
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=node/71
    Push For Peace is a collective of veterans, progressive activists, and
    everyday citizens working together through education, motivation,
    and truth to bring America’s troops home from the war in Iraq and
    to help bring healing and peace to our nation. The Push For Peace
    movement is geared to combine the efforts of able-bodied activists
    to those with special needs or challenges, so that all people can
    participate and be counted. The Push For Peace effort will include
    organized rallies and marches, as well as appearances and
    performances by high-profile speakers and entertainers,
    to rally the American people and show them we stand united
    with our fellow citizen and soldier. It is our goal to grow the
    base of participants each day resulting in a cross-country Push
    culminating at the gates of the White House on July 4, 2006.
    Events will be scheduled across the country leading up to the
    big Push in July. So keep checking the Push calendar for events
    near you.
    Mapping it all out...[Website shows map of stops in US en route
    to DC on July 4, 2006...bw]
    This is a tentative and unfinished P4P route and is only a work
    in progress. The Push is set to leave Golden Gate Park on
    Memorial Day 2006 (currently working on permits) and then
    we will Push our way across the country to arrive in DC across
    from the White House gathering at Lafayette Park (currently
    working on permits) on July 4th, 2006.
    Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California
    Las Vegas Nevada
    Phoenix, Arizona
    Denver, Colorado
    Crawford, Texas
    New Orleans, Louisiana
    more states pending...
    Pushing real Democracy!
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
    ARTICLES IN FULL:

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    1) UCSC Military Recruitment Debate Reportback
    by bob fitch (photos) & josh sonnenfeld (words)
    Saturday, Feb. 11, 2006 at 4:32 P
    http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1801777.php

    2) Outrage Spreads over New Images
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website
    Inter Press Service
    Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com
    The recently aired photos depicting
    torturing of Iraqis by U.S. military
    personnel at Abu Ghraib prison are
    now posted for viewing at
    www.dahrjamailiraq.com
    Go here to view the photos:
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album42

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    1) UCSC Military Recruitment Debate Reportback
    josh sonnenfeld
    Saturday, Feb. 11, 2006 at 4:32 P
    http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1801777.php

    On Wednesday, Feb. 8, UCSC's Colleges 9 and 10 hosted a tightly-
    controlled debate on the issue of military recruitment. The two
    speakers were William Griffin, in charge of Army recruitment for
    the Monterey Bay area, and Mario Ramirez Hardy, a long-time
    counter-recruitment organizer and GI Rights Hotline counselor.

    The issue of military recruitment at UC Santa Cruz and in the
    community as a whole has been prominent for years. Due to
    creative student protests, all branch of the military have been
    prevented from any form of recruiting on campus for more than
    a year. After multiple successful local campaigns, the majority
    of Santa Cruz County high school parents haveopted their
    children out of contact lists sent to recruiters. Santa Cruz
    County now has the lowest recruitment rate in the state
    of California.

    On Wednesday night, Colleges 9 and 10 organized a debate
    on the issue of military recruitment. William Griffin, the top
    dog for Army recruitment in the area, faced off against Mario
    Ramirez Hardy, who has been helping GIs get out of the
    military for over a decade, in addition to a wide array
    of counter-recruitment activities.

    The night was very tightly controlled by Colleges 9 and
    10 (c9/10) staff, headed by Wendy Baxter, and moderated
    by Professor Paul Roth. There were fears of protests from
    students, possibly by Students Against War (SAW), as military
    recruiters are known not to be welcome. Due to these fears,
    c9/10 staff taped a 'do not cross' line on the ground outside
    the Multi-Purpose Room, where the debate was held. Protesters
    and leafletters were not to cross the line. Nonetheless,
    important flyers found their way in the hands of almost
    all the student attendees. No protests were planned,
    as no military recruitment was to take place.

    During the debate, Mario Ramirez Hardy and William Griffin
    calmly answered a few questions that they had received before
    hand. Students with questions were asked to write them on
    cards, which Roth and Baxter screened. No questions relating
    to foreign policy were allowed. Due to all these restrictions,
    the debate wasn't overly exciting, although there was
    a good deal of information presented.

    Mario Ramirez Hardy systematically dispelled the myths
    about military recruitment - using facts provided from
    military or governmental sources. He spoke about how
    military recruiters, under the enlistment agreement
    (see: http://quakerhouse.org/documents/enlist.html)
    can change anything at any time, with or without notice
    to the enlistee (i.e. recruiters can't make any promises).
    He noted that 57% of enlistees don't get a dime for college,
    that 90% of women in the military reported harassment
    (1/3 of which were raped), the high rates of discrimination
    against people of color, and the violent heterosexism and
    homophobia of the military, seen by their 'Don't Ask, Don't
    Tell' policy and the consistent harassment of enlistees found
    to be queer. These statistics were backed up by more than
    a decade of personal experiences counseling GIs.

    William Griffin, the Army recruiter, attempted to claim that
    'statistics can be made to say anything,' although did not
    address the fact that these statistics were from the military
    and government themselves. He attempted to appeal to people's
    assumed nationalism - suggesting that the military is there
    to defend freedom. Many students rolled their eyes with these
    remarks, as the Pentagon was recently found to be spying
    on UCSC students, directly threatening these freedoms that
    they claim to protect. Griffin further claimed that the military
    'treats everyone the same' and protects enlistees from physical
    harm. However, he did not have any statistics to back his claims,
    except for the one time that he claimed over 100% of enlistees
    receive something.. making many students scratching their
    heads at how anyone could arrive at more than 100%. Overall
    though, Griffin was very calm and composed, with slick answers
    for all the questions - just like a recruitment commercial.

    On the hot topic of a possible military recruitment ban from
    campus, Griffin relied on the Solomon Amendment, a federal
    bill which threatens to take away university funding if they
    don't allow recruiters. He consistently claimed that the military
    just does what they're told - including discriminating against
    queers and women (as Hardy added). In contrast, Hardy
    suggested that students and communities should have the
    right to determine who visits their schools and that if they
    wanted to ban military recruiters, no one should stand
    in their way.

    Once the debate was over, students clapped (the first time
    they were allowed to all night - except for one impromptu
    clapping for Hardy) and a few milled around to talk to the
    speakers, but most walked home with some questions
    answered, but many more remaining.

    While the debate was not riddled with excitement, its
    existence signified the growth of UCSC's counter-recruitment
    movement and the prominance of the issue on campus,
    as the event was completely organized by college officials,
    not activists. It offered an opportunity for a wider audience
    to inform themselves on some of the issues related to military
    recruitment, which will hopefully transfer into more solidarity
    with counter-recruitment actions and campaigns in the future.
    It should also lead to a greater ability for student attendees
    (many of which were from SAW) to break down the fallacious
    arguments widely circulated by military recruiters -
    or 'salesmen' as Hardy called them.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    2) Outrage Spreads over New Images
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website
    Inter Press Service
    Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com
    The recently aired photos depicting
    torturing of Iraqis by U.S. military
    personnel at Abu Ghraib prison are
    now posted for viewing at
    www.dahrjamailiraq.com
    Go here to view the photos:
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album42

    *BASRA, Feb 16 (IPS) - New footage of British soldiers beating up young
    Iraqi men in Amarah city in 2003, and the release of more photographs of
    atrocities by U.S. soldiers against Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison
    has spread outrage across Iraq.*

    The timing of the new images is potent, in the wake of violence
    spreading through Iraq and much of the Muslim world over cartoons of
    Prophet Mohammed carried by a Danish newspaper and then other European
    publications.

    "We in Basra have decided not to cooperate in any way with the British
    troops," 43 year-old food merchant Ali Shehab Najim told IPS. "These
    occupiers of Basra are invaders and we will not sell them any of their
    requirements."

    Najim added, "None of us will work with them any longer either. My
    cousin used to work with them inside their base, but not any more. He
    refuses to go to work, and we have decided to show our contempt for them
    in every way possible."

    Najim said people are particularly angry over the Danish military
    presence in Iraq.

    He said he had first accepted the presence of occupation forces, but now
    "I think it's about time to tell them we do not respect them since they
    are behaving in a very bad way."

    After footage of British troops beating young Iraqis with fists and
    batons was aired earlier, the Governorate of Basra announced it has
    severed ties to the British military. This included cancellation of
    joint security patrols.

    "We condemn any of those actions by British and American troops in
    torturing our young people," former head city councillor of Basra
    governorate Qasim Atta Al-Joubori told IPS.

    "Iraqis suffered a lot during the past 35 years, but now they are
    tortured by foreigners who invaded our country," said Al-Joubori, who
    was a city councillor in Basra for 40 years. "We can't accept having
    them any more."

    Far from cooperating, people in Basra are now prepared to fight the
    occupation forces, he said. "What these beatings and torture show is
    that the occupiers are both assaulting and insulting all of the Iraqi
    people."

    Similar views are being echoed around Basra, a relatively quieter area
    in the south under charge of British troops.

    "We are looking to the day we see those bastards out of our country," 55
    year-old factory owner Abdullah Ibraheem told IPS. "Now they are
    torturing the citizens of Basra, Baghdad and Amarah, so they have not
    only lost the support of the Iraqi Sunnis but the Shias in this country
    as well."

    He said most Iraqis know someone who has been in a military detention
    centre, but said the new video footage and photographic evidence of
    torture have "demolished whatever credibility may have remained for the
    occupiers."

    The Australian television network Special Broadcasting Service (SBS)
    aired previously unpublished video footage and photographs Wednesday of
    abuse of Iraqis by U.S. soldiers inside the infamous Abu Ghraib prison
    in 2003.

    The images are similar to those published in 2004 that led to furore
    across the Middle East. But many of the new images show a brutality and
    extent of sexual humiliation that many news outlets found too shocking
    to carry.

    The American Civil Liberties Union had obtained the photographs from the
    U.S. government under a Freedom of Information request, but its members
    said they were not aware how the SBS came to air its new footage and the
    photographs.

    There could be yet more photographs to come. "I believe major newspapers
    in the U.S. like the Washington Post have scores more photos which are
    evidence of torture at Abu Ghraib, but they won't publish them due to
    pressure from the U.S. government," an attorney at the Centre for
    Constitutional Rights in New York City told IPS.

    In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters, "The
    abuses at Abu Ghraib have been fully investigated." He added, "When
    there have been abuses, this department has acted upon them promptly,
    investigated them thoroughly and where appropriate prosecuted individuals."

    He said the Pentagon believes that releasing of the new images would
    trigger greater violence, and endanger U.S. forces in Iraq.

    (c)2004, 2005 Dahr Jamail.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
    LINKS:
    --------*--------*---------*---------*---------*----------

    The Torture Photos Congress Didn't Want You to See
    Pictures That Missed the Exhibition
    By LILA RAJIVA
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.counterpunch.org/rajiva02162006.html

    Iraq: the forgotten victims
    Military under fire for 'abandoning' more than
    1,000 veterans with mental problems
    By Kim Sengupta and Terri Judd
    Published: 16 February 2006
    http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article345709.ece

    A Deal Is Reached to Name a Victor in Haiti's Election
    By GINGER THOMPSON
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/international/americas/16cnd-haiti.html?hp&ex=1140152400&en=fc29068844f31494&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    British Clinic Is Allowed to Deny Medicine
    [The best life-saving drugs money can buy. Don't have money?
    Start saving for your funeral...bw]
    By SARAH LYALL
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/international/europe/16cancer.html

    U.N. Report Calls for End to Guantánamo Detentions
    By WARREN HOGE
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/international/16cnd-gitmo.html?hp&ex=1140152400&en=44f61e793b9e79a6&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Whistleblower Alleges Second Wiretap Program
    A former NSA employee said Tuesday there is another ongoing top-secret
    surveillance program that might have violated millions of Americans'
    Constitutional rights. Russell D. Tice told the House Government Reform
    Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International
    Relations he has concerns about a "special access" electronic
    surveillance program that he characterized as far more wide-ranging than the
    warrantless wiretapping.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021506A.shtml

    We Have Created the World’s First Truly Global Empire
    John Perkins, author of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," joins
    us in our firehouse studio to talk about his former work going into
    various countries to try to strongarm leaders into creating policy
    favorable to the U.S government and corporations. Perkins describes
    himself as an economic hit man.
    Democracy Now!!, February 15th, 2006
    http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/15/1436221

    2 Major Construction Unions Plan to Leave A.F.L.-C.I.O. Unit.
    By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
    February 15, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/national/15union.html?pagewanted=all

     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2006

    SCROLL DOWN PAST ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR
    BAUAW NEWSLETTER
    -----------------------------------------

    TELL BUSH AND CONGRESS: STOP THE WAR
    ON IRAN BEFORE IT STARTS!
    Please join the online campaign to
    STOP THE WAR ON IRAN BEFORE IT STARTS!
    YOUR EMERGENCY ACTION IS NEEDED NOW!
    Send emails to President Bush, Vice President
    Cheney, Secretary of State Rice, U.N. Secretary-
    General Annan, Congressional leaders and
    the media demanding NO WAR ON IRAN!
    http://stopwaroniran.org/

    ...........................................................


    Help Us Tell CYA's Chief Warner:
    Close Chad Now!!

    Join Books Not Bars, Escuelas Si, Pintas No,
    and Youth in Focus on February 22 for
    a press conference and picket at the office
    of CYA Chief Bernard Warner in Sacramento.
    We will call on Chief Warner to close Chad
    immediately -- our youth need action now!

    Please come and show your support!

    Press Conference and Picket to close Chad

    Wednesday, February 22, 2006, 4:30 p.m.

    Where: Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
    1515 S. Street
    Sacramento, CA
    RSVP: Contact David at: 510.428.3939 x243 or
    david@ellabakercenter.org

    ...........................................................

    WHY WE FIGHT
    A film by Eugene Jarecki
    [Check out the trailer about this new film.
    This looks like a very powerful film.]
    http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/

    ...........................................................

    Hear: CC Campbell-Rock
    'Venezuelans are getting their 40 acres
    and a mule, and more'
    Friday, February 24th, 7PM
    Centro Del Pueblo
    474 Valencia Street
    (near 16th Street one block west of
    16th & Mission Bart Station)
    CC Campbell-Rock, the new editor of the San Francisco
    Bay View newspaper, has just returned from Venezuela.
    Read her article, 'Venezuelans are getting their 40 acres
    and a mule, and more' at
    www.sfbayview.com/020806/eyewitness020806.shtml .
    Hear her report back as an eyewitness
    to the Bolivarian Revolution.
    She attended last week's World Social Forum and
    toured the Venezuelan countryside, with other
    delegates from Global Women's Strike, to meet
    the grassroots revolutionary leaders who are
    making the kind of miracles in education, health,
    housing, economic development, etc., that could
    revive and transform the inner cities of the United
    States. Prior to working for the SF Bay View, CC was
    a prominent pre-KATRINA journalist and activist
    in New Orleans.
    This meeting is jointly sponsored by the San
    Francisco Bay Area Hands Off Venezuela! committee
    and the San Francisco Bay View .
    San Francisco Bay View
    (www.sfbayview.com)
    San Francisco Bay Area Hands Off Venezuela!
    sfbay@ushov.org 415-786-1680
    Donation $5.00 (Students, unemployed, and Seniors $3.00)

    .......................................................

    ANTIWAR MEETING OPEN TO ALL
    THOSE WHO DEMAND:
    STOP THE WAR NOW! U.S. OUT OF IRAQ!
    BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
    MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!
    SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2006, 10:00 A.M.
    Local, 34, the ILWU Shipclerk's Hall
    4 Berry Street (behind the ballpark)

    .......................................................

    Please help spread the word:

    Counter Recruitment
    Presenters Mobilization!

    The military recruits in most Bay Area high schools,
    Let’s make sure students hear the other side!

    This will be a training/organizing kick off for:
    • youth to youth presentation teams,
    • veterans and non-veteran classroom presenters, and
    • anyone who wants to learn, share and help support this effort!

    Saturday, February 25th, 2-5pm
    War Veterans Memorial Building, Room 219
    401 Van Ness, San Francisco
    West of City Hall, near Civic Center BART
    Snacks will be provided, donations will be accepted.

    For more information, please contact
    Paul Cox (510) 528-1975
    or Susan Quinlan moos-bay@riseup.net

    This event is co-sponsored by Veterans for Peace and
    Alternatives to War Through Education/
    Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors

    .......................................................

    Welcome to BANG4CHANGE 2006 !

    Bang4Change 2006 !
    We Poor People are called "Gang Bangers" & "Thugs"
    Challenge the Hype ! Bang with Peace, Courage & Solidarity!

    End US War on Poor, Black & Brown, NOW !

    Saturday February 25th,
    Noon to 6 P.M.
    CIVIL RIGHTS REVIVAL FEST
    In front of SF City Hall
    iolmisha@cs.com
    (415) 595-8251

    .......................................................

    Postering for March 18 Anti-war Protest - Volunteer Now!
    A.N.S.W.E.R. ACTIVIST MEETING
    TUESDAYs, 7PM
    2489 Mission St. Room 24 (at 21st St.) SF,
    near 24th St. BART
    Now more than ever, the anti-war movement needs
    to reach out to the thousands of people who are turning
    against the war and occupation of Iraq. Your help is needed.
    Call the ANSWER office for the schedule to go out in teams to poster
    for an hour or two. Pick up flyers, posters and stickers
    at the ANSWER office at 2489 Mission St. Room 24.
    Call 415-821-6545 for hours.

    ...........................................................

    PLEASE DISTRIBUTE FAR AND WIDE!! A CALL TO ACTION!!
    STOP EVICTIONS IN BAYVIEW-HUNTERS POINT
    TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 4:00 p.m.
    ROOM 416, CITY HALL, S.F.
    Companeros/companeras:
    Below please find an editorial by Willie Ratcliff,
    publisher of SF Bay View, about a March 7 hearing
    before Redevelopment Authority, which will seal the
    fate of Bayview Hunter's Point. Many of us have been
    saying for years that the Bayview will be the new
    Fillmore. March 7 is, as Ratcliff says, an eviction
    notice for the residents of Bayview Hunters Point. Not
    long after coming into office, Mayor Gavin Newsom did
    photo ops with young black men on a basketball court
    in Bayview (he was lavished with praise by our
    mindless media for that), but he knew damn well then
    that their displacement was imminent. It's all part of
    San Francisco's hypocrisy about racism and classism.
    "Oh, we're a liberal city, we oppose racism and
    classism..." people and politicians say, even as they
    stand idly by while more and more poor, working-class
    and people of color are pushed out of the city by
    Ellis Act evictions for TICs for the upper middle
    class and Redevelopment Authority's "negro removal,"
    as it was called by black activists in the 60s.

    Why is it that removing "urban blight" from our cities
    means giving poor, working-class and people of color a
    one-way ticket to another city? Why can't
    Redevelopment work on building communities from within
    (with no-interest business loans and subsidies to
    homeowners and landlords to fix up their properties,)
    instead of declaring "eminent domain" and stealing the
    land from folks who have nothing else? If
    Redevelopment wants to do some real cleaning of urban
    blight why not confiscate the mansions in Pacific
    Heights and do a little redistributing of the wealth!
    But that's not the game in America. Redevelopment is a
    tool of the real-estate interests that want to
    gentrify all of our neighborhoods. It's about removing
    poor folks so that middle-class and upper-class folks
    can have their homes. It's a time-honored American
    tradition. Native Americans were pushed from their
    land as wagon trains of settlers, driven by manifest
    destiny, spread westward. Similarly, the new Bayview
    is not for the folks who live there now. As former
    Mayor Willie Brown himself said before he left office,
    the new Bayview will be market-rate condos with the
    best views in town.

    Your help is desperately needed.

    Come to the hearing on March 7 at City Hall room 416,
    4pm. It is imperative that we stand with the residents
    of Bayview. It is imperative that people from all
    communities and struggles come together to oppose the
    annexing of 1300 acres of land next to the shipyard.
    No more Fillmores! No eviction notice for Bayview! No
    more gentrification! Redistribute the wealth, don't
    steal our homes! The land does not belong to the
    realtors or the rich! Nuestra tierra, nuestro mundo!
    Our land, our world!

    Estamos juntos en la lucha...we are together in the
    struggle--or we all go down separately!

    tommi avicolli mecca

    Read:

    Eviction notice served on Bayview Hunters Point
    Editorial by Willie Ratcliff
    http://www.sfbayview.com/020806/evictionnotice020806.shtml

    ...................................................................

    NATIONAL WEEK OF CAMPUS ACTION
    Week of March 13-17
    Students Say NO to War in Iraq!
    College Not Combat, Troops Out Now!

    (*Spring break alternative: Schools on spring
    break during March 13-17
    will hold events the week of March 20)

    Student week of action coordinated by the
    Campus Antiwar Network
    http://www.campusantiwar.net
    RecruitersOut@yahoo.com

    Charles Jenks
    Chair of Advisory Board and Web Manager
    Traprock Peace Center
    103A Keets Road
    Deerfield, MA 01342
    413-773-7427
    fax 413-773-7507
    http://www.traprockpeace.org

    ...........................................................

    Third Anniversary of "Shock and Awe"
    Saturday, March 18, 2006, 11:00 a.m.
    CIVIC CENTER
    San Francisco

    Monday, March 20, 2006
    Youth and Student Day
    of Resistance to Imperialism

    http://www.answercoalition.org/

    ...........................................................

    Major Mobilization Set for April 29th

    Dear Friends,

    We are pleased to announce the kick-off for the organizing
    of what promises to be a major national mobilization on
    Saturday, April 29th. Today, each of the initiating groups
    (see list below) is announcing this mobilization. Our
    organizations have agreed to work together on this
    project for several reasons:

    The April 29th mobilization will highlight our call for an
    immediate end to the war on Iraq. We are also raising
    several other critical issues that are directly connected
    to one another.

    It is time for our constituencies to work more closely:
    connecting the issues we work on by bringing diverse
    communities into a common project.

    It is important for our movements to help set the agenda
    for the Congressional elections later in the year. Our
    unified action in the streets is a vital part of that process.

    Please share the April 29th call widely, and please use
    the links at the end of the call to endorse this timely
    mobilization and to sign up for email updates.

    April 29th Initiating Organizations
    United for Peace and Justice
    Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
    National Organization for Women
    Friends of the Earth
    U.S. Labor Against the War
    Climate Crisis Coalition
    Peoples' Hurricane Relief Fund
    National Youth and Student Peace Coalition

    A war based on lies
    Spying, corruption and attacks on civil liberties
    Katrina survivors abandoned by government

    MARCH FOR PEACE,
    JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY

    End the war in Iraq -
    Bring all our troops home now!

    SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 2006
    NEW YORK CITY

    Unite for change - let's turn our country around!

    The times are urgent and we must act.

    Too much is too wrong in this country. We have a foreign
    policy that is foreign to our core values, and domestic
    policies wreaking havoc at home. It's time for a change.

    No more never-ending oil wars!
    Protect our civil liberties & immigrant rights. End illegal
    spying, government corruption and the subversion of
    our democracy.

    Rebuild our communities, starting with the Gulf Coast.
    Stop corporate subsidies and tax cuts for the wealthy
    while ignoring our basic needs.

    Act quickly to address the climate crisis and the
    accelerating destruction of our environment.

    Our message to the White House and to Congress
    is clear: either stand with us or stand aside!

    We are coming together to march, to vote, to speak
    out and to turn our country around!

    Join us in New York City on Saturday, April 29th

    Click here to endorse this mobilization:
    http://unitedforpeace.org/modinput4.php?modin=119
    Click here to sign up for email updates on plans for April 29th:
    http://www.unitedforpeace.org/email

    April 29th Initiating Organizations
    United for Peace and Justice
    Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
    National Organization for Women
    Friends of the Earth
    U.S. Labor Against the War
    Climate Crisis Coalition
    Peoples' Hurricane Relief Fund
    National Youth and Student Peace Coalition

    ......................................................................

    ANSWER Coalition: All Out for April 29 in New York City!
    End Occupation from Iraq to Palestine, to Haiti, and Everywhere!
    Fight for workers rights, civil rights and civil liberties - unite
    against racism!

    300,000 Came to Washington on Sept. 24

    In recent weeks the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has been in the final
    stages for planning a national demonstration in Washington DC on April
    29, 2006. This action was to follow the local and regional
    demonstrations for March 18-19 and youth and student actions scheduled
    on March 20 on the 3rd anniversary of the criminal bombing, invasion
    and occupation of Iraq.

    On September 24, 2005 more than 300,000 people surrounded the White
    House in the largest mobilization against the Iraq war and occupation
    since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. This demonstration was
    initiated by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition in May 2005 and we urged a
    united front with other major anti-war coalitions and communities. We
    marched demanding immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Iraq. We
    also stood in solidarity with the Palestinian and Haitian people and
    others who are suffering under and resisting occupation. Coming as it
    did following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we changed the demands of
    the September 24 protest to include the slogan "From Iraq to New
    Orleans, FundPeople's Needs not the War Machine."

    During the past several years, and as demonstrated in a powerful
    display on September 24, the anti-war movement has grown significantly
    in its breadth and depth as the leadership has included the Arab and
    Muslim community -- those who are among the primary targets of the
    Bush Administration's current war at home and abroad.

    The anti-war sentiment inside the United States is rapidly becoming a
    significant obstacle to the Bush Administration's war in Iraq. The
    anti-war movement has the potential to be a critical deterrent to the
    U.S. government's aspirations for Empire. At this moment the White
    House and Pentagon are issuing threats and making plans to move
    against other sovereign countries. Iran and Syria are being targeted
    as the U.S. seeks to consolidate power in the Middle East.

    Simultaneously the Bush administration is working to undermine the
    gains of the people of Latin America by working totopple the
    democratically elected president of Venezuela and destroy the
    revolutionary process for social change going on in that country.
    Likewise it is intensifying the economic war and CIA subversions
    against Cuba.

    We believe that our movement must weld together the broadest, most
    diverse coalition of various sectors and communities into an effective
    force for change. This requires the inclusion of targeted communities
    and political clarity. The war in Iraq is not simply an aberrational
    policy of the Bush neo-conservatives. Iraq is emblematic of a larger
    war for Empire. It is part of a multi-pronged attack against all those
    countries that refuse to follow the economic, political and military
    dictates of the Washington establishment and Wall Street.

    This is the foundation of the political program upon which the
    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has organized mass demonstrations in the recent
    years. The fact that many hundreds of thousands of people
    havedemonstrated in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, New
    York and other cities is a testament to the huge progress that has
    been made in building a new movement on this principled basis.
    The people of the United States have nothing to gain and everything to
    lose from the occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Haiti and
    the threats of new wars and intervention in Syria, Iran, Venezuela,
    Cuba, the Philippines, North Korea and elsewhere. It has been made
    crystal clear in recent weeks that Washington is aggressively
    prosecuting its strategy of total domination of the Middle East. U.S.
    leaders are seeking to crush all resistance to their colonial agenda,
    whether from states or popular movements in the region. The
    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition andthe anti-war movement is raising the demand,
    "U.S. Out of the Middle East."

    At its core, the war for Empire is supported by the Republican Party
    and Democratic Party alike, which constitute the twin parties of
    militarism and war, and this quest for global domination will continue
    regardless of the outcome of the 2006 election. In fact, leading
    Democrats are attacking Bush for being "soft" on Iran and North Korea.
    Real hope for turning the tide rests with building a powerful global
    movement of resistance in which the people of the United States stand
    with their sisters and brothers struggling against imperialism and the
    new colonialism.

    On the home front the Bush administration is involved in a
    far-reaching assault against working class communities as most
    glaringly evidenced by its criminal and racist negligence towards the
    people of New Orleans and throughout the hurricane ravaged Gulf
    States. While turning their backs on these communities in the moments
    ofgreatest need, the U.S. government is now working with the banks and
    developers who, like vultures, are exploiting mass suffering and
    dislocation to carry out racist gentrification that only benefits the
    wealthy. The administration is also working to eviscerate hard-fought
    civil rights and civil liberties, engaging in a widespread campaign of
    domestic spying and wiretapping against the people of the U.S. and
    other assaults against the First and Fourth Amendments.

    In early December 2005, the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition filed for permits
    for a national march in Washington DC on April 29, 2006. We were
    preparing to announce the April 29 action but in recent days we have
    heard from A.N.S.W.E.R. organizers in a number of unions that U.S.
    Labor Against the War was seeking union endorsements for a call for an
    anti-war demonstration on the same day in New York City. Having two
    demonstrations on April 29 in both Washington D.C. and New York City
    seems to us to be lessadvantageous than having the movement unite
    behind one single mobilization. As such, we decided to hold back our
    announcement. Subsequently, the New York City demonstration has been
    announced by a number of organizations. Underscoring the need to have
    the largest possible demonstration on April 29, the A.N.S.W.E.R.
    Coalition has decided to fully mobilize, in all of its chapters and
    organizing centers, to bring people to the New York City demonstration
    on April 29. The banners and slogans of different coalitions may not
    be the same, but it is in the interest of everyone to march
    shoulder-to-shoulder against the criminal war in Iraq and the Bush
    administration's War for Empire, including its racist, sexist and
    anti-worker domestic program.

    All out for a united, mass mobilization on April 29 in New York City!
    Click here to become a transportation center in your city or town for
    the April 29 demonstration.

    Click here to receive updates on A.N.S.W.E.R.'s mobilization for the
    April 29 NYC demonstration.
    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
    Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
    http://www.answercoalition.org/
    info@internationalanswer.org
    National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
    New York City: 212-694-8720
    Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
    San Francisco: 415-821-6545
    Click here to unsubscribe from the ANSWER e-mail list.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    Welcome to the Official Push for Peace Site!
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=
    The Push for Peace logo shows a Navy veteran in a wheelchair with
    a peace sign on the wheel, with people marching behind him.
    It can be seen at:
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=node/71
    Push For Peace is a collective of veterans, progressive activists, and
    everyday citizens working together through education, motivation,
    and truth to bring America’s troops home from the war in Iraq and
    to help bring healing and peace to our nation. The Push For Peace
    movement is geared to combine the efforts of able-bodied activists
    to those with special needs or challenges, so that all people can
    participate and be counted. The Push For Peace effort will include
    organized rallies and marches, as well as appearances and
    performances by high-profile speakers and entertainers,
    to rally the American people and show them we stand united
    with our fellow citizen and soldier. It is our goal to grow the
    base of participants each day resulting in a cross-country Push
    culminating at the gates of the White House on July 4, 2006.
    Events will be scheduled across the country leading up to the
    big Push in July. So keep checking the Push calendar for events
    near you.
    Mapping it all out...[Website shows map of stops in US en route
    to DC on July 4, 2006...bw]
    This is a tentative and unfinished P4P route and is only a work
    in progress. The Push is set to leave Golden Gate Park on
    Memorial Day 2006 (currently working on permits) and then
    we will Push our way across the country to arrive in DC across
    from the White House gathering at Lafayette Park (currently
    working on permits) on July 4th, 2006.
    Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California
    Las Vegas Nevada
    Phoenix, Arizona
    Denver, Colorado
    Crawford, Texas
    New Orleans, Louisiana
    more states pending...
    Pushing real Democracy!
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
    ARTICLES IN FULL:

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    1) UCSC Military Recruitment Debate Reportback
    by bob fitch (photos) & josh sonnenfeld (words)
    Saturday, Feb. 11, 2006 at 4:32 P
    http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1801777.php

    2) Outrage Spreads over New Images
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website
    Inter Press Service
    Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com
    The recently aired photos depicting
    torturing of Iraqis by U.S. military
    personnel at Abu Ghraib prison are
    now posted for viewing at
    www.dahrjamailiraq.com
    Go here to view the photos:
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album42

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    1) UCSC Military Recruitment Debate Reportback
    josh sonnenfeld
    Saturday, Feb. 11, 2006 at 4:32 P
    http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1801777.php

    On Wednesday, Feb. 8, UCSC's Colleges 9 and 10 hosted a tightly-
    controlled debate on the issue of military recruitment. The two
    speakers were William Griffin, in charge of Army recruitment for
    the Monterey Bay area, and Mario Ramirez Hardy, a long-time
    counter-recruitment organizer and GI Rights Hotline counselor.

    The issue of military recruitment at UC Santa Cruz and in the
    community as a whole has been prominent for years. Due to
    creative student protests, all branch of the military have been
    prevented from any form of recruiting on campus for more than
    a year. After multiple successful local campaigns, the majority
    of Santa Cruz County high school parents haveopted their
    children out of contact lists sent to recruiters. Santa Cruz
    County now has the lowest recruitment rate in the state
    of California.

    On Wednesday night, Colleges 9 and 10 organized a debate
    on the issue of military recruitment. William Griffin, the top
    dog for Army recruitment in the area, faced off against Mario
    Ramirez Hardy, who has been helping GIs get out of the
    military for over a decade, in addition to a wide array
    of counter-recruitment activities.

    The night was very tightly controlled by Colleges 9 and
    10 (c9/10) staff, headed by Wendy Baxter, and moderated
    by Professor Paul Roth. There were fears of protests from
    students, possibly by Students Against War (SAW), as military
    recruiters are known not to be welcome. Due to these fears,
    c9/10 staff taped a 'do not cross' line on the ground outside
    the Multi-Purpose Room, where the debate was held. Protesters
    and leafletters were not to cross the line. Nonetheless,
    important flyers found their way in the hands of almost
    all the student attendees. No protests were planned,
    as no military recruitment was to take place.

    During the debate, Mario Ramirez Hardy and William Griffin
    calmly answered a few questions that they had received before
    hand. Students with questions were asked to write them on
    cards, which Roth and Baxter screened. No questions relating
    to foreign policy were allowed. Due to all these restrictions,
    the debate wasn't overly exciting, although there was
    a good deal of information presented.

    Mario Ramirez Hardy systematically dispelled the myths
    about military recruitment - using facts provided from
    military or governmental sources. He spoke about how
    military recruiters, under the enlistment agreement
    (see: http://quakerhouse.org/documents/enlist.html)
    can change anything at any time, with or without notice
    to the enlistee (i.e. recruiters can't make any promises).
    He noted that 57% of enlistees don't get a dime for college,
    that 90% of women in the military reported harassment
    (1/3 of which were raped), the high rates of discrimination
    against people of color, and the violent heterosexism and
    homophobia of the military, seen by their 'Don't Ask, Don't
    Tell' policy and the consistent harassment of enlistees found
    to be queer. These statistics were backed up by more than
    a decade of personal experiences counseling GIs.

    William Griffin, the Army recruiter, attempted to claim that
    'statistics can be made to say anything,' although did not
    address the fact that these statistics were from the military
    and government themselves. He attempted to appeal to people's
    assumed nationalism - suggesting that the military is there
    to defend freedom. Many students rolled their eyes with these
    remarks, as the Pentagon was recently found to be spying
    on UCSC students, directly threatening these freedoms that
    they claim to protect. Griffin further claimed that the military
    'treats everyone the same' and protects enlistees from physical
    harm. However, he did not have any statistics to back his claims,
    except for the one time that he claimed over 100% of enlistees
    receive something.. making many students scratching their
    heads at how anyone could arrive at more than 100%. Overall
    though, Griffin was very calm and composed, with slick answers
    for all the questions - just like a recruitment commercial.

    On the hot topic of a possible military recruitment ban from
    campus, Griffin relied on the Solomon Amendment, a federal
    bill which threatens to take away university funding if they
    don't allow recruiters. He consistently claimed that the military
    just does what they're told - including discriminating against
    queers and women (as Hardy added). In contrast, Hardy
    suggested that students and communities should have the
    right to determine who visits their schools and that if they
    wanted to ban military recruiters, no one should stand
    in their way.

    Once the debate was over, students clapped (the first time
    they were allowed to all night - except for one impromptu
    clapping for Hardy) and a few milled around to talk to the
    speakers, but most walked home with some questions
    answered, but many more remaining.

    While the debate was not riddled with excitement, its
    existence signified the growth of UCSC's counter-recruitment
    movement and the prominance of the issue on campus,
    as the event was completely organized by college officials,
    not activists. It offered an opportunity for a wider audience
    to inform themselves on some of the issues related to military
    recruitment, which will hopefully transfer into more solidarity
    with counter-recruitment actions and campaigns in the future.
    It should also lead to a greater ability for student attendees
    (many of which were from SAW) to break down the fallacious
    arguments widely circulated by military recruiters -
    or 'salesmen' as Hardy called them.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    2) Outrage Spreads over New Images
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website
    Inter Press Service
    Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com
    The recently aired photos depicting
    torturing of Iraqis by U.S. military
    personnel at Abu Ghraib prison are
    now posted for viewing at
    www.dahrjamailiraq.com
    Go here to view the photos:
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album42

    *BASRA, Feb 16 (IPS) - New footage of British soldiers beating up young
    Iraqi men in Amarah city in 2003, and the release of more photographs of
    atrocities by U.S. soldiers against Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison
    has spread outrage across Iraq.*

    The timing of the new images is potent, in the wake of violence
    spreading through Iraq and much of the Muslim world over cartoons of
    Prophet Mohammed carried by a Danish newspaper and then other European
    publications.

    "We in Basra have decided not to cooperate in any way with the British
    troops," 43 year-old food merchant Ali Shehab Najim told IPS. "These
    occupiers of Basra are invaders and we will not sell them any of their
    requirements."

    Najim added, "None of us will work with them any longer either. My
    cousin used to work with them inside their base, but not any more. He
    refuses to go to work, and we have decided to show our contempt for them
    in every way possible."

    Najim said people are particularly angry over the Danish military
    presence in Iraq.

    He said he had first accepted the presence of occupation forces, but now
    "I think it's about time to tell them we do not respect them since they
    are behaving in a very bad way."

    After footage of British troops beating young Iraqis with fists and
    batons was aired earlier, the Governorate of Basra announced it has
    severed ties to the British military. This included cancellation of
    joint security patrols.

    "We condemn any of those actions by British and American troops in
    torturing our young people," former head city councillor of Basra
    governorate Qasim Atta Al-Joubori told IPS.

    "Iraqis suffered a lot during the past 35 years, but now they are
    tortured by foreigners who invaded our country," said Al-Joubori, who
    was a city councillor in Basra for 40 years. "We can't accept having
    them any more."

    Far from cooperating, people in Basra are now prepared to fight the
    occupation forces, he said. "What these beatings and torture show is
    that the occupiers are both assaulting and insulting all of the Iraqi
    people."

    Similar views are being echoed around Basra, a relatively quieter area
    in the south under charge of British troops.

    "We are looking to the day we see those bastards out of our country," 55
    year-old factory owner Abdullah Ibraheem told IPS. "Now they are
    torturing the citizens of Basra, Baghdad and Amarah, so they have not
    only lost the support of the Iraqi Sunnis but the Shias in this country
    as well."

    He said most Iraqis know someone who has been in a military detention
    centre, but said the new video footage and photographic evidence of
    torture have "demolished whatever credibility may have remained for the
    occupiers."

    The Australian television network Special Broadcasting Service (SBS)
    aired previously unpublished video footage and photographs Wednesday of
    abuse of Iraqis by U.S. soldiers inside the infamous Abu Ghraib prison
    in 2003.

    The images are similar to those published in 2004 that led to furore
    across the Middle East. But many of the new images show a brutality and
    extent of sexual humiliation that many news outlets found too shocking
    to carry.

    The American Civil Liberties Union had obtained the photographs from the
    U.S. government under a Freedom of Information request, but its members
    said they were not aware how the SBS came to air its new footage and the
    photographs.

    There could be yet more photographs to come. "I believe major newspapers
    in the U.S. like the Washington Post have scores more photos which are
    evidence of torture at Abu Ghraib, but they won't publish them due to
    pressure from the U.S. government," an attorney at the Centre for
    Constitutional Rights in New York City told IPS.

    In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters, "The
    abuses at Abu Ghraib have been fully investigated." He added, "When
    there have been abuses, this department has acted upon them promptly,
    investigated them thoroughly and where appropriate prosecuted individuals."

    He said the Pentagon believes that releasing of the new images would
    trigger greater violence, and endanger U.S. forces in Iraq.

    (c)2004, 2005 Dahr Jamail.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
    LINKS:
    --------*--------*---------*---------*---------*----------

    The Torture Photos Congress Didn't Want You to See
    Pictures That Missed the Exhibition
    By LILA RAJIVA
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.counterpunch.org/rajiva02162006.html

    Iraq: the forgotten victims
    Military under fire for 'abandoning' more than
    1,000 veterans with mental problems
    By Kim Sengupta and Terri Judd
    Published: 16 February 2006
    http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article345709.ece

    A Deal Is Reached to Name a Victor in Haiti's Election
    By GINGER THOMPSON
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/international/americas/16cnd-haiti.html?hp&ex=1140152400&en=fc29068844f31494&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    British Clinic Is Allowed to Deny Medicine
    [The best life-saving drugs money can buy. Don't have money?
    Start saving for your funeral...bw]
    By SARAH LYALL
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/international/europe/16cancer.html

    U.N. Report Calls for End to Guantánamo Detentions
    By WARREN HOGE
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/international/16cnd-gitmo.html?hp&ex=1140152400&en=44f61e793b9e79a6&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Whistleblower Alleges Second Wiretap Program
    A former NSA employee said Tuesday there is another ongoing top-secret
    surveillance program that might have violated millions of Americans'
    Constitutional rights. Russell D. Tice told the House Government Reform
    Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International
    Relations he has concerns about a "special access" electronic
    surveillance program that he characterized as far more wide-ranging than the
    warrantless wiretapping.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021506A.shtml

    We Have Created the World’s First Truly Global Empire
    John Perkins, author of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," joins
    us in our firehouse studio to talk about his former work going into
    various countries to try to strongarm leaders into creating policy
    favorable to the U.S government and corporations. Perkins describes
    himself as an economic hit man.
    Democracy Now!!, February 15th, 2006
    http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/15/1436221

    2 Major Construction Unions Plan to Leave A.F.L.-C.I.O. Unit.
    By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
    February 15, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/national/15union.html?pagewanted=all

     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2006

    SCROLL DOWN PAST ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR
    BAUAW NEWSLETTER
    -----------------------------------------

    TELL BUSH AND CONGRESS: STOP THE WAR
    ON IRAN BEFORE IT STARTS!
    Please join the online campaign to
    STOP THE WAR ON IRAN BEFORE IT STARTS!
    YOUR EMERGENCY ACTION IS NEEDED NOW!
    Send emails to President Bush, Vice President
    Cheney, Secretary of State Rice, U.N. Secretary-
    General Annan, Congressional leaders and
    the media demanding NO WAR ON IRAN!
    http://stopwaroniran.org/

    ...........................................................


    Help Us Tell CYA's Chief Warner:
    Close Chad Now!!

    Join Books Not Bars, Escuelas Si, Pintas No,
    and Youth in Focus on February 22 for
    a press conference and picket at the office
    of CYA Chief Bernard Warner in Sacramento.
    We will call on Chief Warner to close Chad
    immediately -- our youth need action now!

    Please come and show your support!

    Press Conference and Picket to close Chad

    Wednesday, February 22, 2006, 4:30 p.m.

    Where: Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
    1515 S. Street
    Sacramento, CA
    RSVP: Contact David at: 510.428.3939 x243 or
    david@ellabakercenter.org

    ...........................................................

    WHY WE FIGHT
    A film by Eugene Jarecki
    [Check out the trailer about this new film.
    This looks like a very powerful film.]
    http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/

    ...........................................................

    Hear: CC Campbell-Rock
    'Venezuelans are getting their 40 acres
    and a mule, and more'
    Friday, February 24th, 7PM
    Centro Del Pueblo
    474 Valencia Street
    (near 16th Street one block west of
    16th & Mission Bart Station)
    CC Campbell-Rock, the new editor of the San Francisco
    Bay View newspaper, has just returned from Venezuela.
    Read her article, 'Venezuelans are getting their 40 acres
    and a mule, and more' at
    www.sfbayview.com/020806/eyewitness020806.shtml .
    Hear her report back as an eyewitness
    to the Bolivarian Revolution.
    She attended last week's World Social Forum and
    toured the Venezuelan countryside, with other
    delegates from Global Women's Strike, to meet
    the grassroots revolutionary leaders who are
    making the kind of miracles in education, health,
    housing, economic development, etc., that could
    revive and transform the inner cities of the United
    States. Prior to working for the SF Bay View, CC was
    a prominent pre-KATRINA journalist and activist
    in New Orleans.
    This meeting is jointly sponsored by the San
    Francisco Bay Area Hands Off Venezuela! committee
    and the San Francisco Bay View .
    San Francisco Bay View
    (www.sfbayview.com)
    San Francisco Bay Area Hands Off Venezuela!
    sfbay@ushov.org 415-786-1680
    Donation $5.00 (Students, unemployed, and Seniors $3.00)

    .......................................................

    ANTIWAR MEETING OPEN TO ALL
    THOSE WHO DEMAND:
    STOP THE WAR NOW! U.S. OUT OF IRAQ!
    BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
    MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!
    SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2006, 10:00 A.M.
    Local, 34, the ILWU Shipclerk's Hall
    4 Berry Street (behind the ballpark)

    .......................................................

    Please help spread the word:

    Counter Recruitment
    Presenters Mobilization!

    The military recruits in most Bay Area high schools,
    Let’s make sure students hear the other side!

    This will be a training/organizing kick off for:
    • youth to youth presentation teams,
    • veterans and non-veteran classroom presenters, and
    • anyone who wants to learn, share and help support this effort!

    Saturday, February 25th, 2-5pm
    War Veterans Memorial Building, Room 219
    401 Van Ness, San Francisco
    West of City Hall, near Civic Center BART
    Snacks will be provided, donations will be accepted.

    For more information, please contact
    Paul Cox (510) 528-1975
    or Susan Quinlan moos-bay@riseup.net

    This event is co-sponsored by Veterans for Peace and
    Alternatives to War Through Education/
    Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors

    .......................................................

    Welcome to BANG4CHANGE 2006 !

    Bang4Change 2006 !
    We Poor People are called "Gang Bangers" & "Thugs"
    Challenge the Hype ! Bang with Peace, Courage & Solidarity!

    End US War on Poor, Black & Brown, NOW !

    Saturday February 25th,
    Noon to 6 P.M.
    CIVIL RIGHTS REVIVAL FEST
    In front of SF City Hall
    iolmisha@cs.com
    (415) 595-8251

    .......................................................

    Postering for March 18 Anti-war Protest - Volunteer Now!
    A.N.S.W.E.R. ACTIVIST MEETING
    TUESDAYs, 7PM
    2489 Mission St. Room 24 (at 21st St.) SF,
    near 24th St. BART
    Now more than ever, the anti-war movement needs
    to reach out to the thousands of people who are turning
    against the war and occupation of Iraq. Your help is needed.
    Call the ANSWER office for the schedule to go out in teams to poster
    for an hour or two. Pick up flyers, posters and stickers
    at the ANSWER office at 2489 Mission St. Room 24.
    Call 415-821-6545 for hours.

    ...........................................................

    PLEASE DISTRIBUTE FAR AND WIDE!! A CALL TO ACTION!!
    STOP EVICTIONS IN BAYVIEW-HUNTERS POINT
    TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 4:00 p.m.
    ROOM 416, CITY HALL, S.F.
    Companeros/companeras:
    Below please find an editorial by Willie Ratcliff,
    publisher of SF Bay View, about a March 7 hearing
    before Redevelopment Authority, which will seal the
    fate of Bayview Hunter's Point. Many of us have been
    saying for years that the Bayview will be the new
    Fillmore. March 7 is, as Ratcliff says, an eviction
    notice for the residents of Bayview Hunters Point. Not
    long after coming into office, Mayor Gavin Newsom did
    photo ops with young black men on a basketball court
    in Bayview (he was lavished with praise by our
    mindless media for that), but he knew damn well then
    that their displacement was imminent. It's all part of
    San Francisco's hypocrisy about racism and classism.
    "Oh, we're a liberal city, we oppose racism and
    classism..." people and politicians say, even as they
    stand idly by while more and more poor, working-class
    and people of color are pushed out of the city by
    Ellis Act evictions for TICs for the upper middle
    class and Redevelopment Authority's "negro removal,"
    as it was called by black activists in the 60s.

    Why is it that removing "urban blight" from our cities
    means giving poor, working-class and people of color a
    one-way ticket to another city? Why can't
    Redevelopment work on building communities from within
    (with no-interest business loans and subsidies to
    homeowners and landlords to fix up their properties,)
    instead of declaring "eminent domain" and stealing the
    land from folks who have nothing else? If
    Redevelopment wants to do some real cleaning of urban
    blight why not confiscate the mansions in Pacific
    Heights and do a little redistributing of the wealth!
    But that's not the game in America. Redevelopment is a
    tool of the real-estate interests that want to
    gentrify all of our neighborhoods. It's about removing
    poor folks so that middle-class and upper-class folks
    can have their homes. It's a time-honored American
    tradition. Native Americans were pushed from their
    land as wagon trains of settlers, driven by manifest
    destiny, spread westward. Similarly, the new Bayview
    is not for the folks who live there now. As former
    Mayor Willie Brown himself said before he left office,
    the new Bayview will be market-rate condos with the
    best views in town.

    Your help is desperately needed.

    Come to the hearing on March 7 at City Hall room 416,
    4pm. It is imperative that we stand with the residents
    of Bayview. It is imperative that people from all
    communities and struggles come together to oppose the
    annexing of 1300 acres of land next to the shipyard.
    No more Fillmores! No eviction notice for Bayview! No
    more gentrification! Redistribute the wealth, don't
    steal our homes! The land does not belong to the
    realtors or the rich! Nuestra tierra, nuestro mundo!
    Our land, our world!

    Estamos juntos en la lucha...we are together in the
    struggle--or we all go down separately!

    tommi avicolli mecca

    Read:

    Eviction notice served on Bayview Hunters Point
    Editorial by Willie Ratcliff
    http://www.sfbayview.com/020806/evictionnotice020806.shtml

    ...................................................................

    NATIONAL WEEK OF CAMPUS ACTION
    Week of March 13-17
    Students Say NO to War in Iraq!
    College Not Combat, Troops Out Now!

    (*Spring break alternative: Schools on spring
    break during March 13-17
    will hold events the week of March 20)

    Student week of action coordinated by the
    Campus Antiwar Network
    http://www.campusantiwar.net
    RecruitersOut@yahoo.com

    Charles Jenks
    Chair of Advisory Board and Web Manager
    Traprock Peace Center
    103A Keets Road
    Deerfield, MA 01342
    413-773-7427
    fax 413-773-7507
    http://www.traprockpeace.org

    ...........................................................

    Third Anniversary of "Shock and Awe"
    Saturday, March 18, 2006, 11:00 a.m.
    CIVIC CENTER
    San Francisco

    Monday, March 20, 2006
    Youth and Student Day
    of Resistance to Imperialism

    http://www.answercoalition.org/

    ...........................................................

    Major Mobilization Set for April 29th

    Dear Friends,

    We are pleased to announce the kick-off for the organizing
    of what promises to be a major national mobilization on
    Saturday, April 29th. Today, each of the initiating groups
    (see list below) is announcing this mobilization. Our
    organizations have agreed to work together on this
    project for several reasons:

    The April 29th mobilization will highlight our call for an
    immediate end to the war on Iraq. We are also raising
    several other critical issues that are directly connected
    to one another.

    It is time for our constituencies to work more closely:
    connecting the issues we work on by bringing diverse
    communities into a common project.

    It is important for our movements to help set the agenda
    for the Congressional elections later in the year. Our
    unified action in the streets is a vital part of that process.

    Please share the April 29th call widely, and please use
    the links at the end of the call to endorse this timely
    mobilization and to sign up for email updates.

    April 29th Initiating Organizations
    United for Peace and Justice
    Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
    National Organization for Women
    Friends of the Earth
    U.S. Labor Against the War
    Climate Crisis Coalition
    Peoples' Hurricane Relief Fund
    National Youth and Student Peace Coalition

    A war based on lies
    Spying, corruption and attacks on civil liberties
    Katrina survivors abandoned by government

    MARCH FOR PEACE,
    JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY

    End the war in Iraq -
    Bring all our troops home now!

    SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 2006
    NEW YORK CITY

    Unite for change - let's turn our country around!

    The times are urgent and we must act.

    Too much is too wrong in this country. We have a foreign
    policy that is foreign to our core values, and domestic
    policies wreaking havoc at home. It's time for a change.

    No more never-ending oil wars!
    Protect our civil liberties & immigrant rights. End illegal
    spying, government corruption and the subversion of
    our democracy.

    Rebuild our communities, starting with the Gulf Coast.
    Stop corporate subsidies and tax cuts for the wealthy
    while ignoring our basic needs.

    Act quickly to address the climate crisis and the
    accelerating destruction of our environment.

    Our message to the White House and to Congress
    is clear: either stand with us or stand aside!

    We are coming together to march, to vote, to speak
    out and to turn our country around!

    Join us in New York City on Saturday, April 29th

    Click here to endorse this mobilization:
    http://unitedforpeace.org/modinput4.php?modin=119
    Click here to sign up for email updates on plans for April 29th:
    http://www.unitedforpeace.org/email

    April 29th Initiating Organizations
    United for Peace and Justice
    Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
    National Organization for Women
    Friends of the Earth
    U.S. Labor Against the War
    Climate Crisis Coalition
    Peoples' Hurricane Relief Fund
    National Youth and Student Peace Coalition

    ......................................................................

    ANSWER Coalition: All Out for April 29 in New York City!
    End Occupation from Iraq to Palestine, to Haiti, and Everywhere!
    Fight for workers rights, civil rights and civil liberties - unite
    against racism!

    300,000 Came to Washington on Sept. 24

    In recent weeks the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has been in the final
    stages for planning a national demonstration in Washington DC on April
    29, 2006. This action was to follow the local and regional
    demonstrations for March 18-19 and youth and student actions scheduled
    on March 20 on the 3rd anniversary of the criminal bombing, invasion
    and occupation of Iraq.

    On September 24, 2005 more than 300,000 people surrounded the White
    House in the largest mobilization against the Iraq war and occupation
    since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. This demonstration was
    initiated by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition in May 2005 and we urged a
    united front with other major anti-war coalitions and communities. We
    marched demanding immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Iraq. We
    also stood in solidarity with the Palestinian and Haitian people and
    others who are suffering under and resisting occupation. Coming as it
    did following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we changed the demands of
    the September 24 protest to include the slogan "From Iraq to New
    Orleans, FundPeople's Needs not the War Machine."

    During the past several years, and as demonstrated in a powerful
    display on September 24, the anti-war movement has grown significantly
    in its breadth and depth as the leadership has included the Arab and
    Muslim community -- those who are among the primary targets of the
    Bush Administration's current war at home and abroad.

    The anti-war sentiment inside the United States is rapidly becoming a
    significant obstacle to the Bush Administration's war in Iraq. The
    anti-war movement has the potential to be a critical deterrent to the
    U.S. government's aspirations for Empire. At this moment the White
    House and Pentagon are issuing threats and making plans to move
    against other sovereign countries. Iran and Syria are being targeted
    as the U.S. seeks to consolidate power in the Middle East.

    Simultaneously the Bush administration is working to undermine the
    gains of the people of Latin America by working totopple the
    democratically elected president of Venezuela and destroy the
    revolutionary process for social change going on in that country.
    Likewise it is intensifying the economic war and CIA subversions
    against Cuba.

    We believe that our movement must weld together the broadest, most
    diverse coalition of various sectors and communities into an effective
    force for change. This requires the inclusion of targeted communities
    and political clarity. The war in Iraq is not simply an aberrational
    policy of the Bush neo-conservatives. Iraq is emblematic of a larger
    war for Empire. It is part of a multi-pronged attack against all those
    countries that refuse to follow the economic, political and military
    dictates of the Washington establishment and Wall Street.

    This is the foundation of the political program upon which the
    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has organized mass demonstrations in the recent
    years. The fact that many hundreds of thousands of people
    havedemonstrated in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, New
    York and other cities is a testament to the huge progress that has
    been made in building a new movement on this principled basis.
    The people of the United States have nothing to gain and everything to
    lose from the occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Haiti and
    the threats of new wars and intervention in Syria, Iran, Venezuela,
    Cuba, the Philippines, North Korea and elsewhere. It has been made
    crystal clear in recent weeks that Washington is aggressively
    prosecuting its strategy of total domination of the Middle East. U.S.
    leaders are seeking to crush all resistance to their colonial agenda,
    whether from states or popular movements in the region. The
    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition andthe anti-war movement is raising the demand,
    "U.S. Out of the Middle East."

    At its core, the war for Empire is supported by the Republican Party
    and Democratic Party alike, which constitute the twin parties of
    militarism and war, and this quest for global domination will continue
    regardless of the outcome of the 2006 election. In fact, leading
    Democrats are attacking Bush for being "soft" on Iran and North Korea.
    Real hope for turning the tide rests with building a powerful global
    movement of resistance in which the people of the United States stand
    with their sisters and brothers struggling against imperialism and the
    new colonialism.

    On the home front the Bush administration is involved in a
    far-reaching assault against working class communities as most
    glaringly evidenced by its criminal and racist negligence towards the
    people of New Orleans and throughout the hurricane ravaged Gulf
    States. While turning their backs on these communities in the moments
    ofgreatest need, the U.S. government is now working with the banks and
    developers who, like vultures, are exploiting mass suffering and
    dislocation to carry out racist gentrification that only benefits the
    wealthy. The administration is also working to eviscerate hard-fought
    civil rights and civil liberties, engaging in a widespread campaign of
    domestic spying and wiretapping against the people of the U.S. and
    other assaults against the First and Fourth Amendments.

    In early December 2005, the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition filed for permits
    for a national march in Washington DC on April 29, 2006. We were
    preparing to announce the April 29 action but in recent days we have
    heard from A.N.S.W.E.R. organizers in a number of unions that U.S.
    Labor Against the War was seeking union endorsements for a call for an
    anti-war demonstration on the same day in New York City. Having two
    demonstrations on April 29 in both Washington D.C. and New York City
    seems to us to be lessadvantageous than having the movement unite
    behind one single mobilization. As such, we decided to hold back our
    announcement. Subsequently, the New York City demonstration has been
    announced by a number of organizations. Underscoring the need to have
    the largest possible demonstration on April 29, the A.N.S.W.E.R.
    Coalition has decided to fully mobilize, in all of its chapters and
    organizing centers, to bring people to the New York City demonstration
    on April 29. The banners and slogans of different coalitions may not
    be the same, but it is in the interest of everyone to march
    shoulder-to-shoulder against the criminal war in Iraq and the Bush
    administration's War for Empire, including its racist, sexist and
    anti-worker domestic program.

    All out for a united, mass mobilization on April 29 in New York City!
    Click here to become a transportation center in your city or town for
    the April 29 demonstration.

    Click here to receive updates on A.N.S.W.E.R.'s mobilization for the
    April 29 NYC demonstration.
    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
    Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
    http://www.answercoalition.org/
    info@internationalanswer.org
    National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
    New York City: 212-694-8720
    Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
    San Francisco: 415-821-6545
    Click here to unsubscribe from the ANSWER e-mail list.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    Welcome to the Official Push for Peace Site!
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=
    The Push for Peace logo shows a Navy veteran in a wheelchair with
    a peace sign on the wheel, with people marching behind him.
    It can be seen at:
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=node/71
    Push For Peace is a collective of veterans, progressive activists, and
    everyday citizens working together through education, motivation,
    and truth to bring America’s troops home from the war in Iraq and
    to help bring healing and peace to our nation. The Push For Peace
    movement is geared to combine the efforts of able-bodied activists
    to those with special needs or challenges, so that all people can
    participate and be counted. The Push For Peace effort will include
    organized rallies and marches, as well as appearances and
    performances by high-profile speakers and entertainers,
    to rally the American people and show them we stand united
    with our fellow citizen and soldier. It is our goal to grow the
    base of participants each day resulting in a cross-country Push
    culminating at the gates of the White House on July 4, 2006.
    Events will be scheduled across the country leading up to the
    big Push in July. So keep checking the Push calendar for events
    near you.
    Mapping it all out...[Website shows map of stops in US en route
    to DC on July 4, 2006...bw]
    This is a tentative and unfinished P4P route and is only a work
    in progress. The Push is set to leave Golden Gate Park on
    Memorial Day 2006 (currently working on permits) and then
    we will Push our way across the country to arrive in DC across
    from the White House gathering at Lafayette Park (currently
    working on permits) on July 4th, 2006.
    Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California
    Las Vegas Nevada
    Phoenix, Arizona
    Denver, Colorado
    Crawford, Texas
    New Orleans, Louisiana
    more states pending...
    Pushing real Democracy!
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
    ARTICLES IN FULL:
    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    1) THE FIGHT FOR OUR SURVIVAL
    From: David Johnson
    To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
    Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 1:48 PM

    2) Letter from: Joe Buckley - President, UAW Local 69

    3) The Trust Gap
    NYT Editorial
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/opinion/12sun1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

    4) The Count
    Iraq War’s Virtues May Be Debatable. The Profits Aren’t.
    By HUBERT B. HERRING
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/business/yourmoney/12count.html?pagewanted=all

    5) Everybody's Business
    New Front: Protecting America's Investors
    By BEN STEIN
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/business/yourmoney/12every.html?pagewanted=all

    6) The trouble with tough love
    Humiliating teen addicts can't cure them
    Maia Szalavitz
    Sunday, February 12, 2006
    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/02/12/INGHIH5N9M1.DTL

    7) Cheney Shoots Fellow Hunter in Mishap on a Texas Ranch
    By ANNE E. KORNBLUT
    [If you thought that if our leaders are not in the headlines
    they are quietly working, think again...bw]
    February 13, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/politics/13cheney.html?hp&ex=1139893200&en=ef5d2efe3efde24c&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    8) Debt and Denial
    By PAUL KRUGMAN
    February 13, 2006
    http://select.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/opinion/13krugman.html?hp

    9) Hawaii Agrees to Change Policies for Incarcerated Gay Youths
    By JANIS L. MAGIN
    February 13, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/national/13hawaii.html

    10) TREATY OF RELATIONS
    BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA,
    SIGNED MAY 29, 1934
    [Here's the text of the 1934 treaty with Cuba which the United States
    is violating by using the base as a prison/torture facility today.]
    http://www.walterlippmann.com/us-cuba-guantanamo-treaty-1934.html

    11) Out of Sight, Out of Mind
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    February 12, 2006
    Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com

    12) WHAT STATE? WHAT UNION?
    [Col. Writ. 2/1/06] Copyright 2006 Mumia Abu-Jamal

    13) Cuba Amateurs Face Millionaires in World Baseball Classic
    By Circles Robinson
    www.circlesonline.blogspot.com

    14) Group Starts Anti-Union Campaign
    By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
    February 14, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/business/14labor.html?pagewanted=all

    15) G.M. to Invest $500 Million in Michigan
    By MICHELINE MAYNARD
    February 14, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/business/14gm.html?pagewanted=all

    16) Hotel Aid Ends; Katrina Evacuees Seek Housing Again
    By SHAILA DEWAN
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/national/nationalspecial/14hotels.html

    17) UCSC Military Recruitment Debate Reportback
    by bob fitch (photos) & josh sonnenfeld (words)
    Saturday, Feb. 11, 2006 at 4:32 P
    http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1801777.php

    18) Outrage Spreads over New Images
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website
    Inter Press Service
    Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com
    The recently aired photos depicting
    torturing of Iraqis by U.S. military
    personnel at Abu Ghraib prison are
    now posted for viewing at
    www.dahrjamailiraq.com
    Go here to view the photos:
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album42

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    1) THE FIGHT FOR OUR SURVIVAL
    From: David Johnson
    To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
    Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 1:48 PM

    I would like to make an URGENT appeal to all of you,
    on behalf of a group of 150 brave men and women, who
    are in a desperate fight for their families and
    community.

    These brave men and women are being attacked by a
    transnational corporation, that has descended like a
    vulture upon their small community in western
    Illinois.

    The struggle I am referring to is the battle between
    Boilermakers local 484 in Merdosia Illinois, and the
    German based CELANESE corporation.

    I am well aware of the NUMEROUS attacks and
    struggles we all are facing world-wide by the New
    World Order Corporate class and their bought and
    paid for politicians,

    HOWEVER, I would like to state that the journey of a
    thousand miles begins with ONE relatively simple
    first step.

    The step I am referring to is WINNING !

    I don't know about the rest of you, but I am getting
    sick and tired of seeing one losing battle after
    another being fought by working people around the
    world, and the ever expanding corporate blitzkrieg
    getting bolder and more destructive with each
    victory.

    That is why we NEED to begin not just fighting back,
    but WINNING !

    In my opinion, the CELANESE Corp. / Boilermakers
    Local 484 is a winable fight.

    I have evidence to prove this, but instead of
    continuing with a lengthy explanation, I have one
    simple request.

    Contact me ( wherever you live worldwide ) and give
    me some contacts of people involved in ;

    Individual Unions, Labor Federations / Councils, and
    other citizen organizations, so that we can fight
    back EVERYWHERE GLOBALLY.

    I would ESPECIALLY like to hear from European
    brothers and sisters, who could find out more
    information about CELANESE Corp. ( based in Germany
    ) as to world-wide operations, subsideraries, etc,
    ANYTHING that could be useful to figtht these
    corporate bastards.

    In addition to the above, if each of you who read
    this, could afford to send at least U.S. $ 10.00, to
    help feed and house these brave men and women, so
    that they can continue to fight and WIN, you will
    ultimately be helping yourselves and others in your
    community, by begining to turn the tide against the
    corporate monolith that is systematically destroying
    our standard of living and our planet.

    PLEASE FORWARD THIS E-MAIL FAR AND WIDE !

    In Solidarity

    David Johnson
    Champaign, IL. USA
    unionyes@ameritech.net

    Send donations to ;

    Boilermakers 484
    P.O. Box 258
    Merdosia, IL. 62665
    USA
    To e-mail Community Labor Discussion: clnews@lists.clnews.org
    To unsubscribe, e-mail: clnews-unsubscribe@lists.clnews.org
    To subscribe, e-mail: clnews-subscribe@lists.clnews.org
    For additional commands, e-mail: clnews-help@lists.clnews.org
    www.CLNews.org - "educate, agitate, and organize,"

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    2) Letter from: Joe Buckley - President, UAW Local 69

    Delphi has a total of 160,000 workers worldwide. Out of that
    160,000, 24,000 are UAW workers and 8000 are made up of IUE,
    Steelworkers and CWA members. The remaining 128,000 workers
    are in foreign countries and are not a part of the chapter 11 filing.
    Delphi has $1.5 billion dollars in cash, yet finds it necessary to file
    bankruptcy only on its American operations. This is while they
    demand that their American workers take pay cuts in excess of
    63% and that each worker pay in excess of $5000 dollars per year
    for out of pocket medical expenses, not to mention general
    take-aways of everything our unions and members have fought
    for over the past 25 years.

    To add to the insult, these demands come after Delphi's hiring
    of Steve Miller as CEO, giving him a $3.5 million dollar signing
    bonus, a yearly salary of $1.5 million, and another bonus upon
    completion of Delphi's reorganization. Delphi also set aside
    $90 million dollars in retention bonuses for executives along
    with lucrative severance packages. Apparently, these are the
    rewards for the bad business decisions of Delphi and its
    executives.

    I'm sure you have all read that Miller yielded to the pressure
    from the media concerning his bonus and salary and that
    he stated his intentions to forego his $1.5 million dollar
    salary for the next year. I have tried to put into perspective
    the equality of his sacrifice. Just with his $3.5 million dollar
    signing bonus alone, he will make $87,000 per week, or
    $239.00 an hour every hour of every day, asleep or awake,
    24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Compare that to his
    proposal that we work for $10.00 an hour or $400.00 per
    week while we pay in excess of $5000.00 per year in health
    care. I just can't see the equality of sacrifice in those numbers.

    In closing, I would say this to Steven Miller and to Delphi;
    The working men and women of our unions are NOT going
    to mow your grass for $10.00 an hour. Maybe you should
    mow your own grass and let us run the business...
    Thanks again for your participation. SOLIDARITY FOREVER!
    Joe Buckley - President, UAW Local 69

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    3) The Trust Gap
    NYT Editorial
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/opinion/12sun1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

    We can't think of a president who has gone to the American people
    more often than George W. Bush has to ask them to forget about
    things like democracy, judicial process and the balance of powers
    — and just trust him. We also can't think of a president who has
    deserved that trust less.

    This has been a central flaw of Mr. Bush's presidency for a long time.
    But last week produced a flood of evidence that vividly drove home the point.

    DOMESTIC SPYING After 9/11, Mr. Bush authorized the National
    Security Agency to eavesdrop on the conversations and e-mail
    of Americans and others in the United States without obtaining
    a warrant or allowing Congress or the courts to review the operation.
    Lawmakers from both parties have raised considerable doubt
    about the legality of this program, but Attorney General Alberto
    Gonzales made it clear last Monday at a Senate hearing that
    Mr. Bush hasn't the slightest intention of changing it.

    According to Mr. Gonzales, the administration can be relied
    upon to police itself and hold the line between national security
    and civil liberties on its own. Set aside the rather huge problem
    that our democracy doesn't work that way. It's not clear that this
    administration knows where the line is, much less that it is capable
    of defending it. Mr. Gonzales's own dedication to the truth is
    in considerable doubt. In sworn testimony at his confirmation
    hearing last year, he dismissed as "hypothetical" a question about
    whether he believed the president had the authority to conduct
    warrantless surveillance. In fact, Mr. Gonzales knew Mr. Bush
    was doing just that, and had signed off on it as White House
    counsel.

    THE PRISON CAMPS It has been nearly two years since the Abu
    Ghraib scandal illuminated the violence, illegal detentions and
    other abuses at United States military prison camps. There have
    been Congressional hearings, court rulings imposing normal
    judicial procedures on the camps, and a law requiring prisoners
    to be treated humanely. Yet nothing has changed. Mr. Bush also
    made it clear that he intends to follow the new law on the treatment
    of prisoners when his internal moral compass tells him
    it is the right thing to do.

    On Thursday, Tim Golden of The Times reported that United
    States military authorities had taken to tying up and force-feeding
    the prisoners who had gone on hunger strikes by the dozens
    at Guantánamo Bay to protest being held without any semblance
    of justice. The article said administration officials were concerned
    that if a prisoner died, it could renew international criticism of Gitmo.
    They should be concerned. This is not some minor embarrassment.
    It is a lingering outrage that has undermined American credibility
    around the world.

    According to numerous news reports, the majority of the Gitmo
    detainees are neither members of Al Qaeda nor fighters captured
    on the battlefield in Afghanistan. The National Journal reported last
    week that many were handed over to the American forces for bounties
    by Pakistani and Afghan warlords. Others were just swept up.
    The military has charged only 10 prisoners with terrorism. Hearings
    for the rest were not held for three years and then were mostly
    sham proceedings.

    And yet the administration continues to claim that it can be trusted
    to run these prisons fairly, to decide in secret and on the president's
    whim who is to be jailed without charges, and to insist that Gitmo
    is filled with dangerous terrorists.

    THE WAR IN IRAQ One of Mr. Bush's biggest "trust me" moments
    was when he told Americans that the United States had to invade
    Iraq because it possessed dangerous weapons and posed an immediate
    threat to America. The White House has blocked a Congressional
    investigation into whether it exaggerated the intelligence on Iraq,
    and continues to insist that the decision to invade was based
    on the consensus of American intelligence agencies.

    But the next edition of the journal Foreign Affairs includes an article
    by the man in charge of intelligence on Iraq until last year, Paul Pillar,
    who said the administration cherry-picked intelligence to support
    a decision to invade that had already been made. He said Mr. Bush
    and Vice President Dick Cheney made it clear what results they
    wanted and heeded only the analysts who produced them.
    Incredibly, Mr. Pillar said, the president never asked for an
    assessment on the consequences of invading Iraq until a year
    after the invasion. He said the intelligence community did that
    analysis on its own and forecast a deeply divided society ripe
    for civil war.

    When the administration did finally ask for an intelligence
    assessment, Mr. Pillar led the effort, which concluded in
    August 2004 that Iraq was on the brink of disaster. Officials
    then leaked his authorship to the columnist Robert Novak and
    to The Washington Times. The idea was that Mr. Pillar was
    not to be trusted because he dissented from the party line.
    Somehow, this sounds like a story we have heard before.

    Like many other administrations before it, this one sometimes
    dissembles clumsily to avoid embarrassment. (We now know,
    for example, that the White House did not tell the truth about
    when it learned the levees in New Orleans had failed.)
    Spin-as-usual is one thing. Striking at the civil liberties,
    due process and balance of powers that are the heart
    of American democracy is another.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    4) The Count
    Iraq War’s Virtues May Be Debatable. The Profits Aren’t.
    By HUBERT B. HERRING
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/business/yourmoney/12count.html?pagewanted=all

    In his recent State of the Union address, President Bush called
    for the nation to back the war in Iraq and to "stand behind the
    American military in this vital mission."

    No matter how one feels about this particular conflict, war always
    has winners and losers — on both sides. There's the human toll,
    of course, which Mr. Bush acknowledged. Whether democracy
    and freedom will, over all, be winners, only history will divulge.

    But some indisputable winners are clear now: military contractors.
    Suppose an investor were endowed with that golden instinct for
    spotting bargains and bought 100 shares of each of the top six
    military contractors at their lows of the last six years — lows
    reached by four of them in March 2000, before the election,
    before Sept. 11 and before any hint of war. That basket
    of shares would have cost $12,731.50. On Friday, it would
    have been worth three and a half times that: $44,417.

    Little wonder. Just look at the money machines these
    contractors have become as the war drags on.

    HUBERT B. HERRING

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    5) Everybody's Business
    New Front: Protecting America's Investors
    By BEN STEIN
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/business/yourmoney/12every.html?pagewanted=all

    IN the tiny room where I am writing this missive, there are four little
    display cases and a framed diploma, among many other mementos.
    The diploma is for my father-in-law, Dale Denman Jr. of Arkansas,
    and it is from the United States Military Academy, dated June 6, 1944
    — a day when quite a lot was happening of military significance in France.

    Next to that is a display case with two little stars. One is a Silver Star
    that my father-in-law won in Europe several months after he graduated.
    It is for running along a road under heavy German machine-gun fire to
    call in artillery to save the company for which he was a forward artillery
    observer. Next to it is a Bronze Star that my father-in-law, then a colonel,
    won in Vietnam in 1966 for holding his unit together when it was
    ambushed by a Vietcong force and would have been cut to pieces
    without him.

    I have been thinking a lot lately about these heirlooms that Colonel
    Denman left to my wife and me. That's because of some mail I have
    been getting about my recent articles in this space about the way high
    executives have been treating their employees and stockholders. What
    I said two weeks ago about UAL, the parent company of United Airlines,
    prompted hundreds of e-mail messages. (I have still not even remotely
    caught up with all of them because I read them myself — no secretary here.)

    Several people sent clippings describing how UAL provided Glenn F. Tilton,
    who was living in San Francisco when it hired him as chairman and chief
    executive, with a suite in a luxury hotel when he spent time at its
    headquarters in Chicago. UAL was paying for the suite — which cost
    $18,000 a month, according to The San Francisco Chronicle — while
    it was reorganizing its finances under bankruptcy court protection
    and telling tens of thousands of workers that their jobs had been
    eliminated, their pay cut, their pensions terminated or all of the
    above because the company was broke.

    Some of the letter writers recalled how UAL spent an average of
    $10 million a month on lawyers, accountants and investment bankers
    for 37 months while UAL was in bankruptcy, and yet was unable
    to pay its employees their pensions.

    Now UAL has emerged from bankruptcy with a mighty flourish, and
    an allowance of hundreds of millions of dollars for its top executives.
    Some letters pointed out that one of UAL's board members is none
    other than our old friend Robert S. Miller, chief executive of Delphi,
    the auto parts maker.

    Delphi also recently entered bankruptcy — but proposed to the
    bankruptcy court a payment of well over $100 million to its top
    executives to keep them happy while it was in bankruptcy. Mr. Miller,
    who goes by Steve, a version of his middle name (not the one who
    sings "Fly Like an Eagle," but an artist of sorts nonetheless), has
    told Delphi's workers that they will have to take pay cuts of roughly
    two-thirds in order to save the business.

    But my favorite communication, the one that made me stay up nights,
    was from a United States Army sergeant who has done two combat
    tours in Iraq and two more in Afghanistan, and is now home in Georgia
    training others to serve in those wars. I have been pals with this man
    for a couple of years now, and we talk on the phone. He has been
    following my articles online, and he simply asked, "Was this what
    I was fighting for in Iraq?"

    The question haunts me, not only because of UAL and Delphi, but
    also because there is something deeply broken about the corporate
    system in America. Long ago, my pop was pals with Harlow H. Curtice,
    the president of General Motors in its glory days in the 1950's.
    Mr. Curtice presided over a spectacularly powerful and profitable G.M.

    For that, in his peak year as I recall from my youth, he was paid
    about $400,000 plus a special superbonus of $400,000, which made
    him one of the highest-paid executives in America. At that time,
    a line worker with overtime might have made $10,000 a year.
    In those days, that differential was considered very large — very
    roughly 40 times the assembly line worker's pay, without bonus;
    very roughly 80 times with bonus. A differential of more like
    10 to 20 times was more the norm.

    Now C.E.O.'s routinely take home hundreds of times what the
    average worker is paid, whether or not the company is doing well.
    The graph for the pay of C.E.O.'s is a vertical line in the last five years.
    The graph for workers' pay is a flat line — in every sense.

    Now, my fellow free-market fans may well say: "Hey, stop your
    whining. This is the free market at work." Only it isn't the free market
    at work. It's a kleptocracy at work. (I am indebted to another of my
    correspondents for the word.) What's happening here is that the
    governance system for many — by no means all — corporations
    has simply stopped working.

    For centuries, the idea has held that the stockholders own the
    company. They are the trustors. The trustors select directors who
    in turn hire a chief executive and other top officers and then keep
    an eye on them for the stockholders. They — the chief executive,
    other top officers and the directors — are all agents for the
    stockholders, many of whom are often the employees,
    as is the case at UAL.

    But what has happened is that — as in a corrupt, failed third-world
    state — the trustees in too many cases are captives of the C.E.O.
    and his colleagues; they owe both their places on the board and
    their emoluments to the chief executive, and they exercise no
    meaningful restraint at all on managers. The directors are instead
    a sort of praetorian guard, protecting management from its real
    bosses, the stockholders, as management sucks the blood out
    of the company.

    I am by no means saying this is the standard or the usual way
    business is done in this country. Most managements are still honest
    and hard-working, I believe. But far too many are simply in the
    catbird seat to take what is not decently theirs from people who
    cannot afford to be taken.

    Government, meanwhile, does nothing, or next to nothing. Courts,
    especially bankruptcy courts, do nothing. And the employees and
    stockholders and the whole society are looted. Maybe it's not
    looting in the legal sense, but something basic is removed from
    the society. In the capitalist society, the most basic foundation
    is trust. But in today's world, trust is abused, mocked, drained
    of meaning.

    Again, I am not talking everywhere, by any means. I work with many,
    many businessmen and businesswomen, and a huge majority are
    honest and amazingly hard-working. I am sure that this is true
    nationally. But enough are not so honest and hard-working that
    it takes a toll on the rest of us.

    Don't get me wrong. I am not a newborn. I know that looting is
    not new. Man is highly flawed when money is on the table and not
    guarded well. I saw it and wrote about it in great detail when
    Michael R. Milken and Drexel Burnham Lambert were ascendant,
    and in many other cases. It was terrible and dreadful, at least in
    my view, back then in the 1980's. It has always been terrible.

    But there is something new and unlovely that my pal in the Army
    brought up. Now, we are engaged in a war. More than 100,000
    Americans are fighting far from home. Many don't come back.
    Many come home crippled. They are fighting for a vision of a just
    and decent society back home in glorious, shining, blessed America.
    And back home, meanwhile, the looters are running wild, taking
    the meaning out of that vision of America, taking some — by no
    means all — of the beauty out of America as a land of justice and
    fairness.

    ONE of my correspondents wrote that she, a flight attendant at
    United Airlines, had played by the rules, believed what her bosses
    told her, trusted that the laws would protect her, believed that
    fairness would triumph in the end because it's America. "I guess
    that makes me a fool in today's world," she said, because now
    she is broke, with no job, barely any pension and no faith. While
    the soldiers are fighting to protect us from the terrorists with
    bombs, too few are at home protecting us from the terrorists
    with briefcases. There aren't a lot of such terrorists, but they
    do a lot of damage.

    Surely this is not what Colonel Denman won his medals for. Surely
    this is not the America that our best are fighting and dying for
    in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is something desperately wrong
    here, and if President Bush is searching for an issue, I might
    suggest this: common decency for the workers and the savers
    and investors of this country, and an end to the hideous
    breaches of trust that build great mansions in the Hamptons
    and wreck a free soci- ety.

    Ben Stein is a lawyer, writer, actor and economist. E-mail:
    ebiz@nytimes.com.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    6) The trouble with tough love
    Humiliating teen addicts can't cure them
    Maia Szalavitz
    Sunday, February 12, 2006
    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/02/12/INGHIH5N9M1.DTL

    It is the ultimate parental nightmare: Your affectionate child is
    transformed, seemingly overnight, into an out-of-control, drug-
    addicted, hostile teenager. Many parents blame themselves. "Where
    did we go wrong?" they ask. The kids, meanwhile, hurtle through
    their own bewildering adolescent nightmare.

    I know. My descent into drug addiction started in high school
    and now, as an adult, I have a much better understanding of my
    parents' anguish and of what I was going through. And, after
    devoting several years to researching treatment programs, I'm
    also aware of the traps that many parents fall into when they
    finally seek help for their kids.

    Many anguished parents put their faith in strict residential
    rehab programs. At first glance, these programs, which are
    commonly based on a philosophy of "tough love," seem to
    offer a safe respite from the streets -- promising reform
    through confrontational therapy in an isolated environment
    where kids cannot escape the need to change their behavior.
    During the '90s it became increasingly common for courts
    to sentence young delinquents to military-style boot camps
    as an alternative to incarceration.

    But lack of government oversight and regulation makes
    it impossible for parents to thoroughly investigate services
    provided by such behavior-modification centers, wilderness
    programs and "emotional-growth boarding schools."
    Moreover, the very notion of making kids who are already
    suffering go through more suffering is psychologically
    backward. And there is little data to support these
    institutions' claims of success.

    Nonetheless, a billion-dollar industry now promotes such
    tough-love treatment. There are several hundred public
    and private facilities -- both in the United States and outside
    the country -- but serving United States citizens almost
    exclusively.

    Although no one officially keeps track, my research suggests
    that about 10,000 to 20,000 teenagers are enrolled each year.
    A patchwork of lax and ineffective state regulations -- no
    federal rules apply -- is all that protects these young people
    from institutions that are regulated like ordinary boarding
    schools but that sometimes use more-severe methods of
    restraint and isolation than psychiatric centers. There are
    no special qualifications required of the people who oversee
    such facilities. Nor is any diagnosis required before enrollment.
    If a parent thinks a child needs help and can pay the $3,000-
    to $5,000-a-month fees, any teenager can be held in a private
    program, with infrequent contact with the outside world, until
    he or she turns 18.

    During the past three years, I have interviewed more than
    100 adolescents and parents with personal experience in both
    public and private programs and have read hundreds of media
    accounts, thousands of Internet postings and stacks of legal
    documents. I have also spoken with numerous psychiatrists,
    psychologists, sociologists and juvenile justice experts.

    Of course, there is a range of approaches at different institutions,
    but most of the people I spoke with agree that the industry
    is dominated by the idea that harsh rules and even brutal
    confrontation are necessary to help troubled teenagers.
    UC Berkeley sociologist Elliott Currie, who did a study of teen
    residential addiction treatment for the National Institute on
    Drug Abuse, told me that he could not think of a program
    that wasn't influenced by this philosophy.

    Unfortunately, tough treatments usually draw public scrutiny
    only when practitioners go too far. Dozens of deaths -- such
    as January's case of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson, who
    died hours after entering a juvenile boot camp that was under
    contract with Florida's juvenile justice system -- and cases of
    abuse have been documented since tough-love treatment was
    popularized in the '70s and '80s by programs such as Synanon
    and Straight Inc.

    Parents and teenagers have told me of beatings, sleep deprivation,
    use of stress positions, emotional abuse and public humiliation,
    such as making them dress as prostitutes or in drag.

    An important question -- whether tough love is the right
    approach -- is almost never broached. Advocates of these
    programs call the excesses tragic but isolated cases; they offer
    anecdotes of miraculous transformations to balance the horror
    stories; and they argue that tough love only seems brutal --
    saying that surgery seems violent, too, without an understanding
    of its vital purpose.

    What advocates don't take from their medical analogy, however,
    is the principle of "first, do no harm" and the associated requirement
    of scientific proof of safety and efficacy. Research conducted by the
    National Institutes of Health and the Department of Justice tells
    a very different story from the testimonials -- one that has been
    obscured by myths about why addicts take drugs and why troubled
    teenagers act out.

    As a former addict who began using cocaine and heroin in late
    adolescence, I have never understood the logic of tough love.
    I took drugs compulsively because I hated myself, because I felt
    as if no one -- not even my family -- would love me if they really
    knew me. Drugs allowed me to blot out that depressive self-focus
    and socialize as though I thought I was OK.

    How could being "confronted" about my bad behavior help me
    with that? Why would being humiliated, once I'd given up the only
    thing that allowed me to feel safe emotionally, make me better?
    My problem wasn't that I needed to be cut down to size; it was that
    I felt I didn't measure up.

    In fact, fear of cruel treatment kept me from seeking help long after
    I began to suspect I needed it. My addiction probably could have
    been shortened if I'd thought I could have found care that didn't
    conform to what I knew was (and sadly, still is) the dominant
    confrontational approach.

    Fortunately, the short-term residential treatment I underwent
    was relatively light on confrontation, but I still had to deal with
    a counselor who tried to humiliate me by disparaging my looks
    when I expressed insecurity about myself.

    The trouble with tough love is twofold. First, the underlying
    philosophy -- that pain produces growth -- lends itself to abuse
    of power. Second, and more important, toughness doesn't begin
    to address the real problem. Troubled teenagers aren't usually
    spoiled brats who "just need to be taught respect." Like me, they
    most often go wrong because they hurt, not because they don't
    want to do the right thing. That became all the more evident to
    me when I took a look at who goes to these schools.

    A surprisingly large number are sent away in the midst of
    a parental divorce; others are enrolled for depression or other
    serious mental illnesses. Many have lengthy histories of trauma
    and abuse. The last thing such kids need is another experience
    of powerlessness, humiliation and pain.

    Sadly, tough love often looks as if it works: For one thing,
    longitudinal studies find that most kids, even the most troubled,
    eventually grow out of bad behavior, so the magic of time can
    be mistaken for the magic of treatment. Second, the experience
    of being emotionally terrorized can produce compliance that looks
    like real change, at least initially.

    The bigger picture suggests that tough love tends to backfire.
    The Justice Department has released reports comparing boot
    camps with traditional correctional facilities for juvenile offenders,
    concluding in 2001 that neither facility "is more effective
    in reducing recidivism."

    In late 2004, the National Institutes of Health released a "state
    of the science" consensus statement, concluding that get-tough
    treatments "do not work and there is some evidence that they
    may make the problem worse." Indeed, some young people leave
    these programs with post-traumatic stress disorder and
    exacerbations of their original problems.

    These strict institutional settings work at cross-purposes
    with the developmental stages adolescents go through.
    According to psychiatrists, teenagers need to gain
    responsibility, begin to test romantic relationships and
    learn to think critically. But in tough programs, teenagers'
    choices of activities are overwhelmingly made for them:
    They are not allowed to date (in many, even eye contact
    with the opposite sex is punished), and they are punished
    if they dissent from a program's therapeutic prescriptions.
    All this despite evidence that a totally controlled
    environment delays maturation.

    Why is tough love still so prevalent? The acceptance
    of anecdote as evidence is one reason, as are the hurried
    decisions of desperate parents.

    But most significant is the lack of the equivalent of a Food
    and Drug Administration for behavioral health care, with
    the result that most people are unaware that these
    programs have never been proved safe or effective.

    Maia Szalavitz is the author of "Help at Any Cost: How the
    Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids"
    (Riverhead Books). This piece appeared in the Washington
    Post. Contact us at insight@sfchronicle.com.

    Page E - 4

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    7) Cheney Shoots Fellow Hunter in Mishap on a Texas Ranch
    By ANNE E. KORNBLUT
    [If you thought that if our leaders are not in the headlines
    they are quietly working, think again...bw]
    February 13, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/politics/13cheney.html?hp&ex=1139893200&en=ef5d2efe3efde24c&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 — Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally
    shot and wounded a prominent Austin, Tex., lawyer on Saturday
    while the two men were quail hunting in South Texas, firing a shotgun
    at the man while trying to aim for a bird, a member of the hunting
    party said.

    Mr. Cheney, a practiced hunter, shot the lawyer, Harry Whittington,
    on an outing at the Armstrong Ranch in South Texas. Mr. Whittington,
    78, was taken by helicopter to Christus Spohn Memorial Hospital,
    where he was listed in stable condition in the intensive care unit
    on Sunday, according to Michele Trevino, a hospital spokeswoman.

    White House officials did not release details of the accident. But
    Katharine Armstrong, who was with the hunting party at the time
    of the shooting, said that Mr. Cheney, 65, fired his shotgun without
    realizing that Mr. Whittington had approached the group, hitting him
    on his right side, on his cheek, neck and chest. The incident, which
    occurred at about 5:30 p.m., was first reported on the Web site
    of The Corpus Christi Caller-Times on Sunday.

    "It was accidental, a hunting accident," Sheriff Ramon Salinas III of
    Kenedy County said from his office in Sarita, Tex., adding that the
    Secret Service notified him Saturday of the episode. "They did what
    they had to according to law."

    The Armstrong Ranch is a familiar hunting venue for Republican
    politicians, including Mr. Cheney, who sometimes hunts there
    several times a year. Mr. Whittington is a friend of the Armstrong
    family and is a frequent visitor to the ranch, one of the largest
    private properties in Texas.

    Mr. Whittington is a former member of the Texas Board of
    Corrections, which runs the state's prisons, and he once led
    the Texas Public Finance Authority Board.

    In 1999, George W. Bush, then governor of Texas, named
    Mr. Whittington to head the Texas Funeral Service Commission,
    which licenses and regulates funeral directors and embalmers
    in the state. When he was named, a former executive director
    of the commission, Eliza May, was suing the state, saying that
    she had been fired because she investigated a funeral home
    chain that was owned by a friend of Mr. Bush.

    The suit was settled in 2001, but the details were not disclosed.
    Mr. Whittington still serves in the position.

    White House officials, who did not make public the shooting
    incident for nearly 24 hours, did not say how Mr. Whittington
    and Mr. Cheney were acquainted, although both have
    longstanding ties to the Armstrong family.

    Mr. Cheney often goes hunting with other political figures.
    Two years ago he went duck hunting with Justice Antonin Scalia
    in Louisiana, a trip that drew criticism because the Supreme
    Court had just agreed to hear a case involving Mr. Cheney's
    energy task force.

    Anne Armstrong, the matriarch of the family that owns the ranch,
    is a Republican Party stalwart who served in the Nixon and Ford
    administrations and also as ambassador to Great Britain. When
    her husband, Tobin Armstrong, died in October, Mr. Cheney and
    James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state, spoke at the funeral.

    The 50,000-acre ranch, which features Spanish-style cottages
    and usually has a full working staff, was settled in 1882 by
    a Texas Ranger named John Armstrong III, who passed the land
    on to the family. It sits near the King Ranch, the legendary
    property settled by the Kleberg family, also in South Texas.

    According to Katharine Armstrong, the daughter of Anne Armstrong,
    Mr. Whittington broke away from a line of three hunters, including
    Mr. Cheney, and failed to announce that he was returning to the
    group. When he approached, Mr. Cheney had already begun
    to shoot into a covey of quail that was taking off from the ground.

    "This all happened pretty quickly," Ms. Armstrong said in
    a telephone interview from her ranch. Mr. Whittington, she said,
    "did not announce — which would be protocol — 'Hey, it's me,
    I'm coming up,' " she said.

    "He didn't do what he was supposed to do," she added, referring
    to Mr. Whittington. "So when a bird flushed and the vice president
    swung in to shoot it, Harry was where the bird was."

    Mr. Whittington was "sprayed — peppered, is what we call it —
    on his right side, on part of his face, neck, shoulder and rib cage,"
    she said, noting that she, too, had been sprayed on her leg
    in a hunting accident.

    "A shotgun sprays a bunch of little bitty pellets; it's not a bullet
    involved," Ms. Armstrong said. She said she believed that Mr. Cheney
    was shooting a 28-gauge shotgun and added that guests typically
    bring their own firearms.

    Mr. Whittington was about 30 yards from the vice president when
    the shooting occurred, Ms. Armstrong said. Altogether, there were
    five people in the group. Ms. Armstrong declined to identify
    the other hunters.

    After the accident, Mr. Cheney's medical attendants helped
    Mr. Whittington, treating his wounds and covering him in blankets
    so he would not go into shock, Ms. Armstrong said. He did not lose
    consciousness. She described Mr. Cheney's immediate response
    to the shooting as "very appropriate."

    "He immediately went to Harry's side and was right there and
    made sure his detail was totally focused on him," she said.
    "Of course he's very concerned. He's been checking in almost
    on a minute-by-minute basis."

    Afterward, she said, her brother-in-law and another guest
    went to the hospital to check on Mr. Whittington. The rest of
    the party had dinner, and Mr. Cheney, who had flown to Texas
    on Friday night, departed on Sunday.

    "Mr. Whittington is fine," Ms. Armstrong said. "He's sitting up
    in bed, yakking and cracking jokes."

    Campaign finance records show that Mr. Whittington contributed
    $2,000 — the maximum personal amount allowed —
    to the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign.

    Mr. Whittington has been involved in a long-running dispute
    with the City of Austin, which is trying to condemn a block his
    family owns to build a parking garage. He has won several legal
    victories in the case, most recently last month in the Texas
    Supreme Court.

    Lea Anne McBride, Mr. Cheney's spokeswoman, said, "The vice
    president visited with Harry Whittington at the hospital today and
    was pleased to see that he's doing fine and in good spirits." Asked
    why the vice president's office had made no announcement about
    the accident, Ms. McBride said, "We deferred to the Armstrongs
    regarding what had taken place at their ranch."

    Ralph Blumenthal contributed reporting from Houston for this article.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    8) Debt and Denial
    By PAUL KRUGMAN
    February 13, 2006
    http://select.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/opinion/13krugman.html?hp

    Last year America spent 57 percent more than it earned on world
    markets. That is, our imports were 57 percent larger than our exports.

    How did we manage to live so far beyond our means? By running
    up debts to Japan, China and Middle Eastern oil producers. We're
    as addicted to imported money as we are to imported oil.

    Sometimes large-scale foreign borrowing makes sense. In the
    19th century the United States borrowed vast sums from Europe,
    using the funds to build railroads and other industrial infrastructure.
    That debt-financed wave of investment left America stronger,
    not weaker.

    But this time our overseas borrowing isn't financing an investment
    boom: adjusted for the size of the economy, business investment
    is actually low by historical standards. Instead, we're using borrowed
    money to build houses, buy consumer goods and, of course, finance
    the federal budget deficit.

    In 2005 spending on home construction as a percentage of G.D.P.
    reached its highest level in more than 50 years. People who already
    own houses are treating them like A.T.M.'s, converting home equity
    into spending money: last year the personal savings rate fell below
    zero for the first time since 1933. And it's a sign of our degraded
    fiscal state that the Bush administration actually boasted about
    a 2005 budget deficit of more than $300 billion, because it was
    a bit lower than the 2004 deficit.

    It all sounds unsustainable. And it is.

    Some people insist that the U.S. economy has hidden savings that
    official statistics fail to capture. I won't go into the technical debate
    about these claims, some of which resemble arguments used not
    long ago to justify dot-com stock prices, except to say that the
    more closely one looks at the facts, the less plausible the "don't
    worry, be happy" hypothesis looks.

    Denial takes a more systematic form within the federal government,
    where Dick Cheney is doing to budget analysis what he did
    to intelligence on Iraq. Last week Mr. Cheney announced that
    a newly created division within the Treasury Department would
    show that tax cuts increase, not reduce, federal revenue. That's
    the Bush-Cheney way: decide on your conclusions first, then
    demand that analysts produce evidence supporting those
    conclusions.

    But serious analysts know that America's borrowing binge
    is unsustainable. Sooner or later the trade deficit will have
    to come down, the housing boom will have to end, and both
    American consumers and the U.S. government will have
    to start living within their means.

    So how bad will it be? It depends on how the binge ends.
    If it tapers off gradually, the U.S. economy will be able to
    shift workers out of sectors that have benefited from the
    housing boom and the consumption spree into sectors that
    produce exports or replace imports. Given time, we could
    bring the trade deficit down and bring housing back to earth
    without a net loss in jobs.

    In practice, however, a "soft landing" looks unlikely, because
    too many economic players have unrealistic expectations.
    This is true of international investors, who are still snapping
    up U.S. bonds at low interest rates, seemingly oblivious both
    to the budget deficit and to the consensus view among trade
    experts that the dollar will eventually have to fall 30 percent
    or more to eliminate the trade deficit.

    It's equally true of American home buyers. Most Americans
    live in regions where housing remains affordable. But a detailed
    new study by HSBC, a multinational bank, confirms what I and
    others have been saying: most of the rise in housing values
    has taken place in a "bubble zone" along the coasts, where
    housing prices have risen far more than the economic
    fundamentals warrant. According to HSBC's estimates,
    houses in the bubble zone are overvalued by between
    35 and 40 percent, creating trillions of dollars of illusory
    wealth.

    So it seems all too likely that America's borrowing binge will
    end with a bang, not a whimper, that spending will suddenly
    drop off as both the bond market and the housing market
    experience rude awakenings. If that happens, the economic
    consequences will be ugly.

    All in all, Alan Greenspan, who helped create this situation,
    can consider himself lucky that he's safely out of office, giving
    briefings to hedge fund managers at $250,000 a pop. And
    his successor may be in for a rough ride. Best wishes and good
    luck, Ben; you may need it.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    9) Hawaii Agrees to Change Policies for Incarcerated Gay Youths
    By JANIS L. MAGIN
    February 13, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/national/13hawaii.html

    HONOLULU, Feb. 12 — Under a settlement with the federal
    government, the state has agreed to make sweeping improvements
    at Hawaii's troubled youth prison in the next three years, but
    a civil liberties group that sued over the problems says the
    agreement does not go far enough to protect gay wards from
    harassment, abuse and discrimination.

    The settlement with the Justice Department came last week
    as a federal district judge, J. Michael Seabright, issued a preliminary
    injunction in a lawsuit that was filed in September by the American
    Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii. The judge described conditions
    at the prison, the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility, as "chaotic"
    and called for the state to stop the abuse and harassment
    of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender wards.

    The lawsuit, coming after a Justice Department report last
    summer that described the 71-bed youth facility in Kailua
    as "existing in a state of chaos," was filed on behalf of an
    18-year-old lesbian, an 18-year-old boy perceived by guards
    and other teenage wards to be gay and a 17-year-old male-
    to-female transgender girl. It says the teenagers were physically
    and verbally abused by staff members at the facility as well
    as by other wards because of their sexual and gender orientation.

    "Everyone knew that the climate was pretty pervasive and
    nobody did anything about it," said Lois Perrin, legal director
    for the A.C.L.U. of Hawaii. Judge Seabright has scheduled
    a status conference on the case for Monday.

    Hawaii's attorney general, Mark J. Bennett, said on Friday that
    the state planned to develop specific policies to deal with lesbian,
    gay, bisexual and transgender wards, and that state officials
    would consult with the A.C.L.U. in doing so.

    Ms. Perrin, who delivered a list of proposed injunctions to the
    court on Friday, said the A.C.L.U. wanted the changes done
    under a court order and more quickly than the three years
    the state had to comply with the federal agreement.

    "We're asking that they are not allowed to discriminate, harass
    or abuse wards, based on actual or perceived sexual orientation,
    gender identity or sex," Ms. Perrin said. She said the A.C.L.U.
    also wanted the state to thoroughly investigate accusations
    of harassment and abuse, to stop using isolation to protect
    wards from abuse by other teens, and to provide a physically
    and psychologically safe environment.

    The state's settlement agreement with the Justice Department
    imposes dozens of conditions on the youth prison, including
    the development of suicide prevention and intervention procedures,
    the protection of young wards from physical and sexual abuse,
    and the employment of enough staff members to adequately
    supervise and care for the wards. An independent monitor
    will oversee the state's changes.

    The state also agreed to conduct criminal record checks within
    the next four months on all employees who worked directly
    with the youths.

    "It certainly indicates that we need to make sure that the
    individuals who are employed at the facility who come in
    contact with youth are the right people to be working there,"
    Mr. Bennett said.

    He said the agreement, the result of four months of negotiations,
    did not include an admission of constitutional violations or other
    wrongdoing by the state. The state has three years to comply,
    or the Justice Department may refile its lawsuit.

    "Obviously if we didn't think there were serious problems at the
    facility we wouldn't have entered into as comprehensive an
    agreement as this one was," Mr. Bennett said. "This agreement
    imposes substantial burdens on the state. It's going to be
    expensive and it's going to take time."

    A number of Hawaii institutions have had trouble with the
    federal government. Thirteen years of federal oversight at
    Hawaii State Hospital in Kaneohe, the state's mental health
    facility, ended a little over a year ago. The Oahu Community
    Correctional Center operated under federal supervision from
    1985 to 1999 under a consent decree that limited the number
    of inmates.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    10) TREATY OF RELATIONS
    BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA,
    SIGNED MAY 29, 1934
    [Here's the text of the 1934 treaty with Cuba which the United States
    is violating by using the base as a prison/torture facility today.]
    http://www.walterlippmann.com/us-cuba-guantanamo-treaty-1934.html

    Treaty Series No. 866

    Treaty of Relations between the United States of America and the
    Republic of Cuba, Signed at Washington, May 29, 1934

    The United States of America and the Republic of Cuba, being animated
    by the desire to fortify the relations of friendship between the two
    countries and to modify, with this purpose, the relations established
    between them by the Treaty of Relations signed at Habana, May 22,
    1903, have appointed, with this intention, as their
    Plenipotentiaries:

    The President of the United States of America; Mr. Cordell Hull,
    Secretary of State of the United States of America, and Mr. Sumner
    Welles, Assistant Secretary of state of the United States of America;
    and

    The Provisional President of the Republic of Cuba, Señor Dr. Manuel
    Márquez Sterling, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the
    Republic of Cuba to the United States of America;

    Who, after having communicated to each other their full powers which
    were found to be in good and due form, have agreed upon the following
    articles:

    Article I

    The Treaty of Relations which was concluded between the two
    contracting parties on May 22, 1903, shall cease to be in force, and
    is abrogated, from the date on which the present Treaty goes into
    effect.

    Article II

    All the acts effected in Cuba by the United States of America during
    its military occupation of the island, up to May 20, 1902, the date
    on which the Republic of Cuba was established, have been ratified and
    held as valid; and all the rights legally acquired by virtue of those
    acts shall be maintained and protected.

    Article III

    Until the two contracting patties agree to the modification or
    abrogation of the stipulations of the agreement in regard to the
    lease to the United States of America of lands in Cuba for coaling
    and naval stations signed by the President of the Republic of Cuba on
    February 16, 1903, and by the President of the United States of
    America on the 23d day of the same month and year, the stipulation of
    that agreement with regard to the naval station of Guantánamo shall
    continue in effect. The supplementary agreement in regard to naval or
    coaling stations signed between the two Governments on July 2, 1903,
    also shall continue in effect in the same form and on the same
    conditions with respect to the naval station at Guantánamo. So long
    as the United States of America shall not abandon the said naval
    station of Guantánamo or the two Governments shall not agree to a
    modification of its present limits, the station shall continue to
    have the territorial area that it now has, with the limits that it
    has on the date of the signature of the present Treaty.

    Article IV

    If at any time in the future a situation should arise that appears to
    point to an outbreak of contagious disease in the territory of either
    of the contracting parties, either of the two Governments shall, for
    its own protection, and without its act being considered unfriendly,
    exercise freely and at its discretion the right to suspend
    communications between those of its ports that it may designate and
    all or par of the territory of the other part, and for the period
    that it may consider to be advisable.

    Article V

    The present Treaty shall be ratified by the contracting parties in
    accordance with their respective constitutional methods; and shall go
    into effect on the date of the exchange of their ratifications, which
    shall take place in the city of Washington as soon as possible.

    IN FAITH WHEREOF, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the
    present Treaty and have affixed their seals hereto.

    DONE in duplicate, in the English and Spanish languages, at
    Washington on the twenty-ninth day of May, one thousand nine hundred
    and thirty-four.

    [Seal] CORDELL HULL

    [Seal] SUMNER WELLES

    [Seal]M. MARQUEZ STERLING

    [The records in the files of the Department of State regarding the
    negotiation of this treaty are fragmentary. In reply to an inquiry,
    Mr. Sumner Welles, who was Assistant Secretary of State in 1934,
    wrote on March 1, 1948, to Mr. Robert A. Lovett, Under Secretary of
    State, a letter containing the following statement:

    "It is, however hardly a matter of surprise to me that the
    Departmental files should contain little documentation with regard to
    the Treaty of 1934. When the President sent me to Cuba as Ambassador
    in the spring of 1933, it was agreed between us that one of the major
    objectives of my mission should be to prepare the way for the
    negotiation of a new treaty between Cuba and the United States by
    which the Platt Amendment might be abrogated. During the months I was
    in Cuba I discussed this objective with certain Cuban leaders, among
    them Dr. Cosme de la Torriente, who later became Secretary of State
    in the Mendieta Government and under whose direction the negotiations
    on the part of the Cuban Government for the Treaty of 1934 were
    carried on. There was no difference of opinion between the Cuban
    Government and ourselves at that time as to what the Treaty should
    contain, and there was actually very little disagreement as to the
    provisions to be included therein. I have a very clear recollection
    that Dr. Manuel Márquez Sterling, then Cuban Ambassador in
    Washington, and I sat down together in my office in the Department of
    State and agreed upon a text which later, with slight amendment,
    became the definitive test. I recollect further that the President
    approved without change the text agreed upon by the Cuban Ambassador
    and myself."(711.37/3-148)]

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    11) Out of Sight, Out of Mind
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    February 12, 2006
    Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com

    If one watches corporate media or listens to Cheney Administration
    propaganda, one is either not getting information about Iraq at all, or
    hearing that things are looking up as the U.S. approaches another
    “phase” in the occupation.

    Just taking a brief look at the “security incidents” reported by Reuters
    for today, 12 February, gives a little clue as to how the occupation of
    Iraq, aside from being immoral and unjust, is a dismal failure.

    *RAMADI - Six insurgents were killed and another wounded on Saturday
    when U.S forces conducted an air strike in the city of Ramadi, 110 km
    (68 miles) west of Baghdad, the U.S military said on Sunday.
    *MUQDADIYA - Clashes between insurgents and Iraqi army soldiers
    conducting a raid killed one rebel in Muqdadiya, 90 km (50 miles) north
    east of Baghdad. The army arrested 40 suspected insurgents in the same
    operation.
    *BAGHDAD - A 53-year-old male detainee at Abu Ghraib prison died on
    Saturday as a result of complications from an assault by an unknown
    number of detainees, the U.S military said in a statement.
    *MAHAWEEL - The bodies of three people, bound and shot in the head and
    chest, were found in Mahaweel, 75 km (50 miles) south of Baghdad, police
    said. The bodies showed signs of torture.
    *ISKANDARIYA - The bodies of two people, bound and shot in the head and
    chest, were found in Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad,
    police said. The bodies showed signs of torture.
    *BAGHDAD - Three police commandos and a civilian were killed and four
    commandos wounded when a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt blew
    himself up near a check point in southern Baghdad, police said.
    *KIRKUK - Gunmen killed four policemen while they were driving in a
    civilian car in the main road between Kirkuk and Tikrit, 175 km (110
    miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
    *KIFL - Gunmen wearing police uniforms killed a civilian on Saturday in
    Kifl, a town about 150 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.
    *NEAR LATIFIYA - Police retrieved the body of a dead person from the
    river on Saturday near Latifiya, south of Baghdad.
    *BAQUBA - A director of sport education of Diyala province was killed by
    gunmen in the city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police
    said.
    *YATHRIB - Gunmen kidnapped three truck drivers who were carrying
    equipment to a U.S military base on Saturday in Yathrib, a region near
    Balad, 90 km (55 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
    *BAIJI - Gunmen blew up a gas station on Saturday near the oil refinery
    city of Baiji, 180 km (112 miles) north of Baghdad.
    BAGHDAD - Twelve civilians were wounded when two roadside bombs exploded
    in quick succession near an Iraqi police patrol in central Baghdad,
    police said.
    SAMARRA - The Iraqi army found three Iranian Shi'ite pilgrims who were
    among a group of 12, including an Iraqi driver, kidnapped by gunmen in
    Samarra on Friday, Iraqi army officials said.
    HAWIJA - Gunmen shot dead a doctor and wounded an employee working in
    the main hospital in Hawija, 70 km south west of the northern city of
    Kirkuk, on Saturday, police said.
    KIRKUK - Four policemen were wounded when a roadside bomb went off near
    their patrol in the northern city of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of
    Baghdad, police said.
    KIRKUK - The corpse of a Kurdish contractor working with the U.S army
    was found on Saturday in Kirkuk, police said.
    KIRKUK - Two civilians were wounded by a roadside bomb near their patrol
    in Kirkuk, police said.
    BAGHDAD - Two civilians were killed, including a child, and three were
    wounded, when a roadside bomb targeting police commandos exploded in a
    northern district of the capital, police said.

    A brief glance at recent events in Iraq shows that violence only
    continues to escalate and the infrastructure which U.S. taxpayers
    supposedly paid billions of dollars to repair is in shambles.

    While the Cheney Administration blame Iraqi resistance attacks and
    sabotage for the lack of reconstruction, I would like to remind people
    that at least $8.8 Billion of the money meant for reconstruction efforts
    remains unaccounted for. Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for
    Iraq reconstruction, said this is because “oversight” on the part of the
    Coalition Provisional Authority “was relatively nonexistent.”

    Meanwhile, the U.S. military is over a quarter of the way towards having
    the 3,000th soldier killed in Iraq, as 2,267 have now been killed. 25 of
    those deaths have occurred this month.

    But as usual, it is the Iraqis who are paying the highest price.

    Looking at Arab media outlets, evidence of this abounds.

    According to Al-Sharqiyah television:

    “The head of the Al-Fallujah Municipal Council was killed by gunshots on
    February 7, Iraqi Al Sharqiyah TV reported that day. In its 1100 gmt
    newscast, the TV said: "Unidentified armed men this morning assassinated
    Shaykh Kamal Shakir Nizal, head of the Municipal Council of Al-Fallujah,
    western Iraq.”

    The U.S. backed puppet Iraqi government continues its state-sponsored
    civil war. Aside from the numerous bodies found in the aforementioned
    Reuters report, this past week Sharqiyah also reported:

    “Iraqi and US security forces raided the Iraqi Islamic Party’s
    headquarters in the Al-Amiriyah area in western Baghdad. The Islamic
    Party, which is one of the Iraqi entities operating under the banner of
    the Iraqi Al-Tawafuq Front, issued a press statement today saying that
    last night, Iraqi forces, backed by US troops, assaulted the
    headquarters’ guards and the party members who were there at the time,
    destroyed the headquarters’ furniture and contents, seized the licensed
    weapons carried by the guards, and confiscated sums of money belonging
    to the party.”

    Of course atrocities continue at the hands of occupation forces. Video
    has been released which shows a group of British soldiers brutally
    beating and kicking defenseless Iraqi teenagers inside a military
    compound, and Iraqis recently released from prisons like Abu Ghraib are
    reporting ongoing torture at the hands of U.S. forces. This, however,
    should come as no surprise since Secretary of “Defense” Donald Rumsfeld
    issued a memo over two years ago specifying which types of “harsh
    interrogation techniques” he wanted used in Iraq.

    This is just a brief overview of recent events in Iraq.

    When Israeli/U.S. warplanes begin dropping bombs on Iran, will Iraq fade
    to the back pages of the news as has Afghanistan? With the corporate
    media coverage of Iraq at this sorry state already, it’s difficult to
    imagine that not occurring.

    (c)2004, 2005 Dahr Jamail.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    12) WHAT STATE? WHAT UNION?
    [Col. Writ. 2/1/06] Copyright 2006 Mumia Abu-Jamal

    Every four years, U.S. presidents stroll into the halls of Congress,
    and announce, almost as if by rote, "The State of our Union is strong."

    This is statecraft (or should I say, stagecraft?); the use of
    illusions to keep the rabble in line.

    In biblical lore, the Pharaoh did the same thing when he ordered his
    priests to hurl down their staffs, to transform them into vipers.

    Princes, since antiquity, used stagecraft to calm the People, to
    reassure them of the power of the State.

    But, as ever, the view from the bottom is woefully different from
    that of those in the towers.

    There are tens of thousands of autoworkers reeling from news of job
    cuts in the industry. This, after GM (General Motors) announced in 2005
    that worldwide sales (of 9.17 million units) were the second highest in
    history! I wonder how *workers* feel about the 'state of the union?'

    Of the roiling Middle East, and America's lust for 'black gold',
    President George W. Bush launched into a subject that seemed absurd,
    saying, "America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from
    unstable parts of the world."

    "Unstable?" Like the Iraq war brought 'stability' to the region!
    His comments were like a crack addict, complaining about the drug wars
    raging in the neighborhoods.

    The Iraq War was a mad project doomed for failure from inception --
    the neocon dream of 'bringing democracy to the Middle East!'

    Hey -- if there was some *real* democracy in the U.S., the Iraq War
    would never have begun -- for the voices of the People -- those splendid
    millions who marched in February and March, 2003 -- would've been heeded
    by those in office.

    In time, we will look back to this age with incredulity and
    amazement -- and victories like Hamas in Israel will be the *best* of
    our memories.

    The present economic model, despite it's false boosting by the
    president, is fast failing in this tsunami of greed. Workers are being
    downsized, laid off, cut back, and told to produce more -- as executives
    are given bigger and better pieces of the corporate pie.

    What State? -- When the lives of so many slides deeper into debt and
    despair?

    What Union? -- When the government acts as a collection agency for
    the ruling corporate class?

    The Congress is for rent to the highest bidder. The Jack Abramoff
    scandal shows more corporate purchases of Congress than during the era
    of the Robber Barons of the last century.

    What is democracy when the executive can tap phones of Americans, in
    the thousands, without even the pretense of a court order?

    Nor is this new, for presidents have been wiretapping Americans
    since at least May 1940, when President Theodore Roosevelt ordered his
    Attorney General to wiretap people 'involving the defense of the
    nation.' Such taps continued from that time until it was sharply
    curtailed by President Johnson's Attorney General Ramsey Clark, in the
    latter years of the administration.

    The COINTELPRO era marked the high point of this illegal and
    unconstitutional practice, when anyone who dissented from government
    policy could find themselves spied on, phones tapped, homes broken into
    illegally, people hounded, by the state, into divorce, dissolution, and
    death. In its heyday, millions of people were targeted by the State,
    for daring to support social change!

    We live in the twilight of democracy, when votes are as chancy as
    lottery tickets; when the U.S. serves as the repressive era of globalist
    greed; when war is a machine, running on oil, blood and lies.

    State of the Union?

    What State? What Union?


    Copyright 2006 Mumia Abu-Jamal

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    13) Cuba Amateurs Face Millionaires in World Baseball Classic
    By Circles Robinson
    www.circlesonline.blogspot.com

    The best baseball players that money can buy and a small group that
    play for the sport of it will face off starting March 3rd in the
    World Baseball Classic.

    US Major League Baseball has always called its national championship
    the World Series, believing its ability to purchase the finest from
    each country has made it the unquestioned king. However, since many
    MLB players will be playing with the teams of their native countries
    in the Classic, the US team 's superiority is not totally guaranteed.

    The biggest question mark of the event is the underdog Cuban team,
    fresh off victories in the 2005 Baseball World Cup and the 2004
    Athens Olympics, but against weaker competition. Over the years some
    of Cuba's best have been lured by fat contracts to play in MLB but
    none of those players will be playing for the island, which prefers
    to continue its tradition of amateur-only sports.

    "Cuba will play well, even though they have stolen many of our good
    players," President Fidel Castro said recently.

    Organized by MLB and its Players Association, the Classic has
    pitching rules tailored to the liking of US baseball team owners and
    venues geared to help the US team redeem its country's poor showings
    in other international baseball events.

    For its US corporate sponsors, the World Baseball Classic is like any
    other commercial endeavor. Tickets, the majority already sold for the
    opening rounds, run from $12.50 to over $100 per game and advertising
    revenues will add to the profits. Hotel rooms run from $175 to $475
    per night. All teams except Cuba will take home a percentage of the
    revenues. The island offered to donate any funds to victims of
    hurricane Katrina.

    Sixteen teams play the first round in four pools between March 3-10
    with the top two teams in each group moving on to the quarter finals.
    The only team that could play all its qualifying rounds, semi-finals
    and finals to a home crowd is the USA, a significant advantage.

    A team must win at least six of eight games to be crowned the winner,
    two of three games in each of the first two rounds to qualify for the
    semifinals, a must win in the single-elimination semis, followed by a
    win in the one game finals.

    While baseball analysts alert that anything can happen in such a
    short series, the first round where the top two teams qualify is
    unlikely to produce any surprises.

    Group A, probably the most competitive of the pools, pits favored
    Japan, playing at home against rivals Taipei and Korea, all
    considered among the top 10 teams in the tournament. Their other
    rival China is ranked among the weakest.

    Pool B, the least competitive, pits the heavily favored United States
    team at home, with Canada and Mexico battling for the second
    qualifying position, and South Africa along for the ride.

    Pool C, is expected to be a match between favored Puerto Rico playing
    at home, with a slate of well-paid MLB players and Cuba, which will
    field an all amateur squad similar to its Olympic and World Cup
    Champion teams. The other rivals, The Netherlands and Panama are
    given little chance to qualify for the second round.

    Pool D, to be played in Orlando, Florida, is considered a foregone
    conclusion with the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, both loaded
    with top paid MLB players qualifying and Italy and Australia doing
    the best they can.

    Therefore, the second round will most likely include Japan and either
    Korea or Taipei from Pool A, the United States, and Canada or Mexico
    from Pool B, in one group, with Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican
    Republic and Venezuela in the other.

    Those in London and Las Vegas who take legal wagers on such sporting
    events predict that the semifinals will be between the United States
    and Japan in one match and Venezuela and the Dominican Republic in
    the other. They also consider it most likely that the finals will be
    played between the United States and the Dominican Republic because
    they have the most major leaguers on their squads.

    To accommodate the worries of Major League Baseball team owners that
    their star pitchers could get hurt before the MLB season opens in
    April, the WBC rules limit pitchers to 65 throws in the first round,
    80 in the quarterfinals and 95 in the semifinals and finals. Pitchers
    throwing more than 50 pitches are obliged to take 4 days rest before
    pitching again.

    Relief pitchers cannot work consecutive games if they exceed 30
    pitches and cannot appear in a third straight game independent of how
    few pitches they threw in the other two.

    These rules are considered to the detriment of the teams with less
    depth in their pitching and who would have otherwise used their best
    whenever ready and needed.

    In the amended tournament rules, the 16 teams' provisional 60-man
    rosters must be reduced down to 30 at least five days before their
    first game. The list must include at least 13 pitchers and 3
    catchers.

    Cuba has suspended its national league play from February 13 to March
    23 to allow the provisional roster players to train for the Classic.

    The last time Cuba played against a Major League team was back in
    1999 when it split a two game series with the Baltimore Orioles,
    losing 3-2 in an 11-inning thriller in Havana and winning easily 12-6
    in Baltimore.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    14) Group Starts Anti-Union Campaign
    By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
    February 14, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/business/14labor.html?pagewanted=all

    A new business-backed group is mounting a highly visible attack
    against organized labor, just as unions are trying to pick themselves
    up after suffering a schism and years of decline.

    The group, the Center for Union Facts, ran full-page advertisements
    in national newspapers yesterday and started a Web site,
    UnionFacts.com, asserting that many unions are corrupt and
    have hurt airlines, steel makers and automakers.

    "Obviously I'm putting out information that's not very flattering,"
    said Richard Berman, a longtime lobbyist for the restaurant and
    beverage industry who is executive director of the Center for
    Union Facts. "The average person today, including the average
    union member, doesn't have any idea how unions operate and
    what the realities are. Everybody knows what unions are good
    at, but not what they're bad at."

    The Center for Union Facts shot onto the public stage yesterday
    by running full-page ads in The New York Times, The Washington
    Post and The Wall Street Journal. The ads, which cost a total
    of $240,000, say "The New Union Label," and then show a sign
    with the word "Closed" in capital letters hanging from a plant
    gate. Then it adds, "Brought to you by the union 'leaders' who
    helped bankrupt steel, auto and airline companies."

    Mr. Berman said various companies and a foundation had
    contributed to his nonprofit group, but he refused to identify
    them. He said he hoped to spend more than $5 million a year
    on the campaign.

    A spokeswoman for the A.F.L.-C.I.O., Lane Windham, said:
    "It's clear that corporations are fighting back against workers'
    efforts to roll back corporate power. It's no accident that
    corporations are doing this against us when unions are trying
    to make sure that employers pay their fair share on heath care
    and when we're taking on giant corporations like Wal-Mart."

    Mr. Berman runs a public affairs firm in Washington and helped
    to create the American Beverage Institute and the Employment
    Policies Institute, which has helped the restaurant industry
    fight increases in the minimum wage.

    He has faced criticism in recent years for arguing on behalf
    of his clients that drinking a lot of soda does not contribute
    to diabetes and that Americans have been "force-fed a steady
    diet of obesity myths by the 'food police,' trial lawyers, and
    even our own government." Mr. Berman was also criticized
    for fighting a push by Mothers Against Drunk Driving to
    tighten rules on alcohol limits for drivers.

    "We do take edgy positions and they're all very legitimate,"
    Mr. Berman said yesterday.

    Ms. Windham of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. said Mr. Berman's attack
    on unions was another of his campaigns against those
    who clash with his corporate clients.

    The attack comes as organized labor is facing divisions
    that have caused five unions to quit the A.F.L.-C.I.O.
    over the past year.

    Unions have also struggled with declining membership,
    as the percentage of American workers in unions has sunk
    to 12.5 percent of the work force, down from 35 percent
    in the 1950's.

    A.F.L.-C.I.O. officials said the president of a state chamber
    of commerce told them that at a conference in Florida on
    Jan. 26, the state chambers had pledged several million
    dollars to back Mr. Berman's effort. But Mr. Berman said that
    when he spoke at the conference, he neither asked for nor
    received contributions. Rather, he said, he asked chamber
    officials to recommend that businesses in their states
    donate to his efforts.

    Randel Johnson, vice president for labor, immigration and
    employee benefits at the United States Chamber of Commerce,
    said that as far as he knew neither the United States Chamber
    nor any state chambers had contributed to the Center for
    Union Facts.

    Mr. Johnson said he had served as an adviser to the center.
    The center was founded as several unions had grown more
    aggressive about unionizing workers, often pressuring employers
    not to fight organizing drives. In addition, many unions are
    pressing companies to agree to recognize them, not through
    representation elections, but through a process known as
    card check, in which companies grant recognition as soon
    as a majority of workers sign cards saying they want a union.

    "In card check campaigns, unions tend to control the information
    that the workers hear," Mr. Johnson said. "We think the Center
    on Union Facts is useful for workers to have access to more
    information on unions."

    Mr. Berman said his center hoped to help enact a Republican-
    backed bill that would prohibit unions from organizing workers
    through card checks.

    For a dozen different unions, the center's Web site details the
    compensation of leaders, the amount of each union's political
    contributions and how often members have sued the union
    for not representing them properly.

    "Union leaders have abused the trust of their members," the
    center says on its Web site. "They've misspent member dues
    and harmed the very same people they promise to protect."

    Anna Burger, president of the Change to Win Federation,
    a group of unions that quit the A.F.L.-C.I.O., said, "These
    anti-union activists can name themselves whatever they like,
    but the fact is that unions help working families secure the
    American Dream and that's good for our country."

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    15) G.M. to Invest $500 Million in Michigan
    By MICHELINE MAYNARD
    February 14, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/business/14gm.html?pagewanted=all

    DETROIT, Feb. 13 — General Motors is set to announce Tuesday
    that it has made, or plans to make, investments totaling $500 million
    to help modernize five of its Michigan factories.

    The automaker said it had scheduled a news conference for Tuesday
    afternoon at its manufacturing headquarters in Pontiac, north of
    Detroit. On Monday night, a company spokesman declined to
    discuss the nature of the announcement.

    But people with direct knowledge of G.M.'s announcement, who
    requested anonymity, said that the investments began last summer
    at the plants, which include assembly and parts operations around
    the state.

    The modernizing programs will not create large numbers of new
    jobs, these people said. Any jobs that are created are likely to be
    filled by workers who are laid off from other G.M. factories, one
    of the people said.

    Nonetheless, Elizabeth Boyd, a spokeswoman for Gov. Jennifer
    M. Granholm, said the investments would be good news for the
    state, which has been hit hard by the auto industry slowdown.

    Any time jobs can be created, Ms. Boyd said, "That's something
    to celebrate."

    G.M. lost $8.6 billion in 2005 and is pushing to reduce its costs.
    It announced in November that it planned to close all or part of
    12 plants, including a small assembly plant in Lansing, Mich.
    The moves are expected to eliminate 30,000 jobs through 2008.

    Earlier this month, G.M. said it would invest $118 million at
    a factory outside Baltimore to build parts for hybrid-electric
    sport utility vehicles. That investment is expected to create
    about 87 jobs.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    16) Hotel Aid Ends; Katrina Evacuees Seek Housing Again
    By SHAILA DEWAN
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/national/nationalspecial/14hotels.html

    NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 13 — Thousands of evacuees from Hurricane
    Katrina became transients again on Monday, wheeling their entire
    lives onto the street on luggage carts or dragging bulging garbage
    bags through hotel lobbies, when the federal government stopped
    paying their hotel bills.

    In the largest single step in its phaseout of emergency housing
    assistance for victims of the hurricane, the Federal Emergency
    Management Agency ended the hotel payments for 12,000 families
    across the country, including 4,400 now living in New Orleans.

    Most will get apartment rental assistance or trailers. Federal officials
    acknowledged Monday that hundreds of millions of dollars worth of
    mobile homes might never be used to house hurricane victims.

    Many evacuees who have returned to New Orleans have begun
    to rebuild, enroll their children in school or, like Dominique
    Handy, get a job.

    Ms. Handy, a waitress, stood on the street outside the Royal St.
    Charles Hotel on Monday, her belongings in the trunk of a friend's
    car, her baby daughter, Amyrie, balanced on her hip. She had
    $1,800 from FEMA, which was supposed to pay for three months'
    rent — an impossibility in a city so strapped for housing that
    officials could not even find a place to serve as an emergency shelter.

    "Rent out here, it's like $1,800 a month itself," said Ms. Handy, 22.

    The phaseout of hotel rooms is the end of an aid program that cost
    more than a half-billion dollars and at its peak housed 85,000
    families on a single night. FEMA, which is ending the program over
    the strenuous protests of Louisiana officials, says it is time for families
    to find a more permanent situation. Of the 12,000 families whose
    benefit ended Monday, 10,500 have received rental assistance or
    a trailer, said Libby Turner, head of the Hurricane Katrina/Rita
    Transitional Housing Unit at FEMA.

    But none of the two dozen or so evacuees losing their hotel benefits
    who were interviewed in New Orleans in the past two days had
    a permanent place to go.

    Even on FEMA's housing Web site, the pickings were slim — only
    five two-bedroom apartments in the New Orleans area met the
    agency's budget of less than $800 a month. Several that were
    listed had been rented long ago, according to the landlords,
    or would not be ready for weeks.

    Mark Smith, the spokesman for the Louisiana Office of Homeland
    Security and Emergency Preparedness, said 15 families had already
    checked into an emergency shelter in Shreveport, a five-hour drive
    from New Orleans, and more than 100 people were on their way there.

    Houston, Atlanta and other cities with large populations of evacuees
    passed the deadline with little incident, but in New Orleans several
    hotels called private security squads armed with rifles after employees
    were threatened.

    Still, most people left peaceably, though many people lingered until
    noon, when a federal judge, asked by housing advocates to continue
    the hotel program, declined to do so. The judge, Stanwood R. Duval Jr.
    of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana,
    had extended the hotel program once before when FEMA announced
    it would end on Jan. 7.

    FEMA then gave people an extra month and asked those who wanted
    to stay even longer to call to receive an authorization code. Last week,
    some 5,000 people who did not call for the code lost their hotel rooms.
    Agency officials said that most of those people had made more
    permanent arrangements but that an undetermined number might
    have been unwilling to call in because they were misusing the program.

    FEMA had said repeatedly that no evacuees would be thrown out on
    the street, and several hotels reported that many guests had received
    a last-minute reprieve. At the Cotton Exchange Hotel in New Orleans,
    only 39 of 148 families scheduled to leave Monday actually did,
    a spokeswoman said.

    After Monday, 8,000 rooms were expected to remain in the program,
    said Nicol Andrews, a spokeswoman for FEMA. The agency will stop
    paying for almost all of those March 1.

    The agency's critics say it is unfair to ask destitute families to make
    long-term housing decisions when little progress has been made
    on restoring homes in New Orleans.

    "Evacuees shouldn't have to come up with a permanent housing plan,"
    said Bryan Mauldin, president of From the Lake to the River, a FEMA
    watchdog group that aids victims of Hurricane Katrina. "They already
    have homes. They need the right to return to their homes. It is FEMA
    that needs a permanent housing plan."

    Many evacuees Ping-Ponged from place to place after Hurricane Katrina.
    Some boarded buses without knowing where they were going. Lee Curry,
    30, said he was denied an extension of his hotel stay in New Orleans
    because he had been given a housing voucher in Houston. Those
    vouchers were good for a year.

    "It's not like that I chose to get that housing over there," Mr. Curry said.
    "I had no place else to go. If someone could give me a place to get my
    kids situated, I had to take that."

    Donna Lee, 44, said she had also taken an apartment in Houston, but
    on Christmas Eve someone knocked on the door. Her 28-year-old son,
    the one who had kicked a hole through the roof to pull her out of rising
    water in New Orleans East, answered it, and the caller fatally shot him.
    She returned to New Orleans to bury her son, bringing his children with her.

    "I just don't want to go back there," Ms. Lee said. But, she said, FEMA had
    denied her hotel extension.

    Gary Martin, who worked as a waiter for 27 years at the Fairmont Hotel,
    said his benefits had been denied because, he was told, someone else
    had used the same phone number as he did. He said he and another man
    had rented rooms in the same house before the storm. Mr. Martin said
    he could not seem to get the problem fixed. "I should go to Iraq or
    Afghanistan, so I could get some government money," he said.

    Mr. Martin said that in a few weeks he would have earned enough doing
    asbestos removal to get an apartment without help from FEMA — he
    just needed some more time at the hotel. "I'm not asking for
    a handout," he said.

    Brenda Goodman contributed reporting from Atlanta for this article.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    17) UCSC Military Recruitment Debate Reportback
    by bob fitch (photos) & josh sonnenfeld (words)
    Saturday, Feb. 11, 2006 at 4:32 P
    http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1801777.php

    On Wednesday, Feb. 8, UCSC's Colleges 9 and 10 hosted a tightly-
    controlled debate on the issue of military recruitment. The two
    speakers were William Griffin, in charge of Army recruitment for
    the Monterey Bay area, and Mario Ramirez Hardy, a long-time
    counter-recruitment organizer and GI Rights Hotline counselor.

    The issue of military recruitment at UC Santa Cruz and in the
    community as a whole has been prominent for years. Due to
    creative student protests, all branch of the military have been
    prevented from any form of recruiting on campus for more than
    a year. After multiple successful local campaigns, the majority
    of Santa Cruz County high school parents haveopted their
    children out of contact lists sent to recruiters. Santa Cruz
    County now has the lowest recruitment rate in the state
    of California.

    On Wednesday night, Colleges 9 and 10 organized a debate
    on the issue of military recruitment. William Griffin, the top
    dog for Army recruitment in the area, faced off against Mario
    Ramirez Hardy, who has been helping GIs get out of the
    military for over a decade, in addition to a wide array
    of counter-recruitment activities.

    The night was very tightly controlled by Colleges 9 and
    10 (c9/10) staff, headed by Wendy Baxter, and moderated
    by Professor Paul Roth. There were fears of protests from
    students, possibly by Students Against War (SAW), as military
    recruiters are known not to be welcome. Due to these fears,
    c9/10 staff taped a 'do not cross' line on the ground outside
    the Multi-Purpose Room, where the debate was held. Protesters
    and leafletters were not to cross the line. Nonetheless,
    important flyers found their way in the hands of almost
    all the student attendees. No protests were planned,
    as no military recruitment was to take place.

    During the debate, Mario Ramirez Hardy and William Griffin
    calmly answered a few questions that they had received before
    hand. Students with questions were asked to write them on
    cards, which Roth and Baxter screened. No questions relating
    to foreign policy were allowed. Due to all these restrictions,
    the debate wasn't overly exciting, although there was
    a good deal of information presented.

    Mario Ramirez Hardy systematically dispelled the myths
    about military recruitment - using facts provided from
    military or governmental sources. He spoke about how
    military recruiters, under the enlistment agreement
    (see: http://quakerhouse.org/documents/enlist.html)
    can change anything at any time, with or without notice
    to the enlistee (i.e. recruiters can't make any promises).
    He noted that 57% of enlistees don't get a dime for college,
    that 90% of women in the military reported harassment
    (1/3 of which were raped), the high rates of discrimination
    against people of color, and the violent heterosexism and
    homophobia of the military, seen by their 'Don't Ask, Don't
    Tell' policy and the consistent harassment of enlistees found
    to be queer. These statistics were backed up by more than
    a decade of personal experiences counseling GIs.

    William Griffin, the Army recruiter, attempted to claim that
    'statistics can be made to say anything,' although did not
    address the fact that these statistics were from the military
    and government themselves. He attempted to appeal to people's
    assumed nationalism - suggesting that the military is there
    to defend freedom. Many students rolled their eyes with these
    remarks, as the Pentagon was recently found to be spying
    on UCSC students, directly threatening these freedoms that
    they claim to protect. Griffin further claimed that the military
    'treats everyone the same' and protects enlistees from physical
    harm. However, he did not have any statistics to back his claims,
    except for the one time that he claimed over 100% of enlistees
    receive something.. making many students scratching their
    heads at how anyone could arrive at more than 100%. Overall
    though, Griffin was very calm and composed, with slick answers
    for all the questions - just like a recruitment commercial.

    On the hot topic of a possible military recruitment ban from
    campus, Griffin relied on the Solomon Amendment, a federal
    bill which threatens to take away university funding if they
    don't allow recruiters. He consistently claimed that the military
    just does what they're told - including discriminating against
    queers and women (as Hardy added). In contrast, Hardy
    suggested that students and communities should have the
    right to determine who visits their schools and that if they
    wanted to ban military recruiters, no one should stand
    in their way.

    Once the debate was over, students clapped (the first time
    they were allowed to all night - except for one impromptu
    clapping for Hardy) and a few milled around to talk to the
    speakers, but most walked home with some questions
    answered, but many more remaining.

    While the debate was not riddled with excitement, its
    existence signified the growth of UCSC's counter-recruitment
    movement and the prominance of the issue on campus,
    as the event was completely organized by college officials,
    not activists. It offered an opportunity for a wider audience
    to inform themselves on some of the issues related to military
    recruitment, which will hopefully transfer into more solidarity
    with counter-recruitment actions and campaigns in the future.
    It should also lead to a greater ability for student attendees
    (many of which were from SAW) to break down the fallacious
    arguments widely circulated by military recruiters -
    or 'salesmen' as Hardy called them.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    18) Outrage Spreads over New Images
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website
    Inter Press Service
    Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com
    The recently aired photos depicting
    torturing of Iraqis by U.S. military
    personnel at Abu Ghraib prison are
    now posted for viewing at
    www.dahrjamailiraq.com
    Go here to view the photos:
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album42

    *BASRA, Feb 16 (IPS) - New footage of British soldiers beating up young
    Iraqi men in Amarah city in 2003, and the release of more photographs of
    atrocities by U.S. soldiers against Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison
    has spread outrage across Iraq.*

    The timing of the new images is potent, in the wake of violence
    spreading through Iraq and much of the Muslim world over cartoons of
    Prophet Mohammed carried by a Danish newspaper and then other European
    publications.

    "We in Basra have decided not to cooperate in any way with the British
    troops," 43 year-old food merchant Ali Shehab Najim told IPS. "These
    occupiers of Basra are invaders and we will not sell them any of their
    requirements."

    Najim added, "None of us will work with them any longer either. My
    cousin used to work with them inside their base, but not any more. He
    refuses to go to work, and we have decided to show our contempt for them
    in every way possible."

    Najim said people are particularly angry over the Danish military
    presence in Iraq.

    He said he had first accepted the presence of occupation forces, but now
    "I think it's about time to tell them we do not respect them since they
    are behaving in a very bad way."

    After footage of British troops beating young Iraqis with fists and
    batons was aired earlier, the Governorate of Basra announced it has
    severed ties to the British military. This included cancellation of
    joint security patrols.

    "We condemn any of those actions by British and American troops in
    torturing our young people," former head city councillor of Basra
    governorate Qasim Atta Al-Joubori told IPS.

    "Iraqis suffered a lot during the past 35 years, but now they are
    tortured by foreigners who invaded our country," said Al-Joubori, who
    was a city councillor in Basra for 40 years. "We can't accept having
    them any more."

    Far from cooperating, people in Basra are now prepared to fight the
    occupation forces, he said. "What these beatings and torture show is
    that the occupiers are both assaulting and insulting all of the Iraqi
    people."

    Similar views are being echoed around Basra, a relatively quieter area
    in the south under charge of British troops.

    "We are looking to the day we see those bastards out of our country," 55
    year-old factory owner Abdullah Ibraheem told IPS. "Now they are
    torturing the citizens of Basra, Baghdad and Amarah, so they have not
    only lost the support of the Iraqi Sunnis but the Shias in this country
    as well."

    He said most Iraqis know someone who has been in a military detention
    centre, but said the new video footage and photographic evidence of
    torture have "demolished whatever credibility may have remained for the
    occupiers."

    The Australian television network Special Broadcasting Service (SBS)
    aired previously unpublished video footage and photographs Wednesday of
    abuse of Iraqis by U.S. soldiers inside the infamous Abu Ghraib prison
    in 2003.

    The images are similar to those published in 2004 that led to furore
    across the Middle East. But many of the new images show a brutality and
    extent of sexual humiliation that many news outlets found too shocking
    to carry.

    The American Civil Liberties Union had obtained the photographs from the
    U.S. government under a Freedom of Information request, but its members
    said they were not aware how the SBS came to air its new footage and the
    photographs.

    There could be yet more photographs to come. "I believe major newspapers
    in the U.S. like the Washington Post have scores more photos which are
    evidence of torture at Abu Ghraib, but they won't publish them due to
    pressure from the U.S. government," an attorney at the Centre for
    Constitutional Rights in New York City told IPS.

    In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters, "The
    abuses at Abu Ghraib have been fully investigated." He added, "When
    there have been abuses, this department has acted upon them promptly,
    investigated them thoroughly and where appropriate prosecuted individuals."

    He said the Pentagon believes that releasing of the new images would
    trigger greater violence, and endanger U.S. forces in Iraq.

    (c)2004, 2005 Dahr Jamail.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
    LINKS:
    --------*--------*---------*---------*---------*----------

    The Torture Photos Congress Didn't Want You to See
    Pictures That Missed the Exhibition
    By LILA RAJIVA
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.counterpunch.org/rajiva02162006.html

    Iraq: the forgotten victims
    Military under fire for 'abandoning' more than
    1,000 veterans with mental problems
    By Kim Sengupta and Terri Judd
    Published: 16 February 2006
    http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article345709.ece

    A Deal Is Reached to Name a Victor in Haiti's Election
    By GINGER THOMPSON
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/international/americas/16cnd-haiti.html?hp&ex=1140152400&en=fc29068844f31494&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    British Clinic Is Allowed to Deny Medicine
    [The best life-saving drugs money can buy. Don't have money?
    Start saving for your funeral...bw]
    By SARAH LYALL
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/international/europe/16cancer.html

    U.N. Report Calls for End to Guantánamo Detentions
    By WARREN HOGE
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/international/16cnd-gitmo.html?hp&ex=1140152400&en=44f61e793b9e79a6&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Whistleblower Alleges Second Wiretap Program
    A former NSA employee said Tuesday there is another ongoing top-secret
    surveillance program that might have violated millions of Americans'
    Constitutional rights. Russell D. Tice told the House Government Reform
    Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International
    Relations he has concerns about a "special access" electronic
    surveillance program that he characterized as far more wide-ranging than the
    warrantless wiretapping.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021506A.shtml

    We Have Created the World’s First Truly Global Empire
    John Perkins, author of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," joins
    us in our firehouse studio to talk about his former work going into
    various countries to try to strongarm leaders into creating policy
    favorable to the U.S government and corporations. Perkins describes
    himself as an economic hit man.
    Democracy Now!!, February 15th, 2006
    http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/15/1436221

    2 Major Construction Unions Plan to Leave A.F.L.-C.I.O. Unit.
    By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
    February 15, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/national/15union.html?pagewanted=all

    A Cancer Drug Shows Promise, at a Price That Many Can't Pay
    By ALEX BERENSON
    February 15, 2006
    Doctors are excited about the prospect of Avastin, a drug already
    widely used for colon cancer, as a crucial new treatment for breast
    and lung cancer, too. But doctors are cringing at the price the
    maker, Genentech, plans to charge for it: about $100,000 a year.
    That price, about double the current level as a colon cancer
    treatment, would raise Avastin to an annual cost typically found
    only for medicines used to treat rare diseases that affect small
    numbers of patients. But Avastin, already a billion-dollar drug,
    has a potential patient pool of hundreds of thousands of people
    — which is why analysts predict its United States sales could grow
    nearly sevenfold to $7 billion by 2009.
    Doctors, though, warn that some cancer patients are already
    being priced out of the Avastin market. Even some patients
    with insurance are thinking hard before agreeing to treatment,
    doctors say, because out-of-pocket co-payments for the drug
    could easily run $10,000 to $20,000 a year.
    Until now, drug makers have typically defended high prices by
    noting the cost of developing new medicines. But executives
    at Genentech and its majority owner, Roche, are now using
    a separate argument — citing the inherent value of life-
    sustaining therapies.
    If society wants the benefits, they say, it must be ready to
    spend more for treatments like Avastin and another of the
    company's cancer drugs, Herceptin, which sells for
    $40,000 a year.
    "As we look at Avastin and Herceptin pricing, right now
    the health economics hold up, and therefore I don't see
    any reason to be touching them," said William M. Burns,
    the chief executive of Roche's pharmaceutical division
    and a member of Genentech's board. "The pressure on
    society to use strong and good products is there.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/business/15drug.html?pagewanted=all

    New Images of Abu Ghraib Abuse Are Broadcast in Australia
    By DAVID STOUT
    February 15, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/international/middleeast/15cnd-abuse.html?hp&ex=1140066000&en=dac2c0262f96954a&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Rice to Ask for $75 Million to Promote Democracy in Iran
    By JOHN O'NEIL
    February 15, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/politics/15cnd-rice.html?ei=5094&en=371353db702a1646&hp=&ex=1140066000&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1140047021-4QL4N0CwZHiNYdGOOVkT9w

    U.S. Royalty Plan to Give Windfall to Oil Companies
    By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
    February 14, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/business/14oil.html?ei=5094&en=2895b151845e0dd6&hp=&ex=1139979600&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1139929897-a33oSWYX0nMSvpMmTtK14Q

    VA Nurse Investigated for "Sedition" for Criticizing Bush
    By Matthew Rothschild
    February 8, 2006
    Published on The Progressive
    (http://progressive.org)
    http://progressive.org/mag_mc020806

    Retirement plan trends don't favor workers
    Barbara Whelehan
    http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/BoomerBucks/20050202a1.asp

    The next retirement time bomb
    By Milt Freudenheim and Mary Williams Walsh
    The New York Times
    December 11, 2005
    http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/12/11/business/web.1211walsh.php

    SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2005
    US Prepares Military Blitz Against Iran's Nuclear Sites
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0212-04.htm

    Rebranded: 'War on Terror' Now 'The Long War'
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0212-01.htm

    Revealed: the terror prison US is helping build in Morocco
    Tom Walker Rabat and Sarah Baxter
    The Sunday Times
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2036185,00.html

    Union Takes New Tack in Organizing Effort at Pork-Processing Plant
    By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
    February 13, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/national/13labor.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

    FOCUS | UN Report: US Is Torturing Prisoners
    A draft United Nations report on the detainees at Guantanamo Bay
    concludes that the US treatment of them violates their rights to physical and
    mental health and, in some cases, constitutes torture.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021306Z.shtml

    Abramoff's Charity Began at Home
    Disgraced super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff engaged in many charitable
    endeavors over the course of his decade-long career as a Washington insider,
    and used the nonprofits to evade taxes, pad his pockets and bribe
    officials.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021106A.shtml

    FOCUS | Charlie Anderson: Can We Come Home Now?
    Charlie Anderson, a Navy Hospital Corpsman with the Marine Corps,
    details his feelings of betrayal by his government for sending him to a war
    without purpose, his destroyed marriage and Post Traumatic Stress
    Disorder.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021106X.shtml

    John Pilger | The Next War - Crossing the Rubicon
    Has Tony Blair, the minuscule Caesar, finally crossed his Rubicon?
    Having subverted the laws of the civilized world and brought carnage
    to a defenseless people and bloodshed to his own, having lied and
    lied and used the death of a hundredth British soldier in Iraq to
    indulge his profane self-pity, is he about to collude in one more
    crime before he goes, wonders John Pilger.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021006A.shtml

    Bolivia's Knot: No to Cocaine, but Yes to Coca
    By JUAN FORERO
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/international/americas/12bolivia.html?hp&ex=1139720400&en=af9ae51499569031&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Tutor Program Offered by Law Is Going Unused
    By SUSAN SAULNY
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/education/12tutor.html?hp&ex=1139720400&en=7acb50ec013ae6b2&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    The Wounded
    Replacing Limbs, Rebuilding Shattered Lives
    By JULIET MACUR
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/national/12WOUNDED.html?hp&ex=1139720400&en=9433185ff34d55ac&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    A New Black Power
    by WALTER MOSLEY
    http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060227/mosley

    [from the February 27, 2006 issue]
    More Injuries as Race Riots Disrupt Jails in Los Angeles
    By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
    LOS ANGELES, Feb. 9 — Five days of racial rioting have left one
    inmate dead and dozens injured at Los Angeles County jails
    as blacks and Latinos have taken their conflicts from the streets
    behind bars, the authorities said.
    February 10, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/10/national/10prison.html

     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2006

    SCROLL DOWN PAST ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR
    BAUAW NEWSLETTER
    -----------------------------------------

    TELL BUSH AND CONGRESS: STOP THE WAR
    ON IRAN BEFORE IT STARTS!
    Please join the online campaign to
    STOP THE WAR ON IRAN BEFORE IT STARTS!
    YOUR EMERGENCY ACTION IS NEEDED NOW!
    Send emails to President Bush, Vice President
    Cheney, Secretary of State Rice, U.N. Secretary-
    General Annan, Congressional leaders and
    the media demanding NO WAR ON IRAN!
    http://stopwaroniran.org/

    ...........................................................


    Help Us Tell CYA's Chief Warner:
    Close Chad Now!!

    Join Books Not Bars, Escuelas Si, Pintas No,
    and Youth in Focus on February 22 for
    a press conference and picket at the office
    of CYA Chief Bernard Warner in Sacramento.
    We will call on Chief Warner to close Chad
    immediately -- our youth need action now!

    Please come and show your support!

    Press Conference and Picket to close Chad

    Wednesday, February 22, 2006, 4:30 p.m.

    Where: Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
    1515 S. Street
    Sacramento, CA
    RSVP: Contact David at: 510.428.3939 x243 or
    david@ellabakercenter.org

    ...........................................................

    WHY WE FIGHT
    A film by Eugene Jarecki
    [Check out the trailer about this new film.
    This looks like a very powerful film.]
    http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/

    ...........................................................

    Hear: CC Campbell-Rock
    'Venezuelans are getting their 40 acres
    and a mule, and more'
    Friday, February 24th, 7PM
    Centro Del Pueblo
    474 Valencia Street
    (near 16th Street one block west of
    16th & Mission Bart Station)
    CC Campbell-Rock, the new editor of the San Francisco
    Bay View newspaper, has just returned from Venezuela.
    Read her article, 'Venezuelans are getting their 40 acres
    and a mule, and more' at
    www.sfbayview.com/020806/eyewitness020806.shtml .
    Hear her report back as an eyewitness
    to the Bolivarian Revolution.
    She attended last week's World Social Forum and
    toured the Venezuelan countryside, with other
    delegates from Global Women's Strike, to meet
    the grassroots revolutionary leaders who are
    making the kind of miracles in education, health,
    housing, economic development, etc., that could
    revive and transform the inner cities of the United
    States. Prior to working for the SF Bay View, CC was
    a prominent pre-KATRINA journalist and activist
    in New Orleans.
    This meeting is jointly sponsored by the San
    Francisco Bay Area Hands Off Venezuela! committee
    and the San Francisco Bay View .
    San Francisco Bay View
    (www.sfbayview.com)
    San Francisco Bay Area Hands Off Venezuela!
    sfbay@ushov.org 415-786-1680
    Donation $5.00 (Students, unemployed, and Seniors $3.00)

    .......................................................

    ANTIWAR MEETING OPEN TO ALL
    THOSE WHO DEMAND:
    STOP THE WAR NOW! U.S. OUT OF IRAQ!
    BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
    MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!
    SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2006, 10:00 A.M.
    Local, 34, the ILWU Shipclerk's Hall
    4 Berry Street (behind the ballpark)

    .......................................................

    Please help spread the word:

    Counter Recruitment
    Presenters Mobilization!

    The military recruits in most Bay Area high schools,
    Let’s make sure students hear the other side!

    This will be a training/organizing kick off for:
    • youth to youth presentation teams,
    • veterans and non-veteran classroom presenters, and
    • anyone who wants to learn, share and help support this effort!

    Saturday, February 25th, 2-5pm
    War Veterans Memorial Building, Room 219
    401 Van Ness, San Francisco
    West of City Hall, near Civic Center BART
    Snacks will be provided, donations will be accepted.

    For more information, please contact
    Paul Cox (510) 528-1975
    or Susan Quinlan moos-bay@riseup.net

    This event is co-sponsored by Veterans for Peace and
    Alternatives to War Through Education/
    Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors

    .......................................................

    Welcome to BANG4CHANGE 2006 !

    Bang4Change 2006 !
    We Poor People are called "Gang Bangers" & "Thugs"
    Challenge the Hype ! Bang with Peace, Courage & Solidarity!

    End US War on Poor, Black & Brown, NOW !

    Saturday February 25th,
    Noon to 6 P.M.
    CIVIL RIGHTS REVIVAL FEST
    In front of SF City Hall
    iolmisha@cs.com
    (415) 595-8251

    .......................................................

    Postering for March 18 Anti-war Protest - Volunteer Now!
    A.N.S.W.E.R. ACTIVIST MEETING
    TUESDAYs, 7PM
    2489 Mission St. Room 24 (at 21st St.) SF,
    near 24th St. BART
    Now more than ever, the anti-war movement needs
    to reach out to the thousands of people who are turning
    against the war and occupation of Iraq. Your help is needed.
    Call the ANSWER office for the schedule to go out in teams to poster
    for an hour or two. Pick up flyers, posters and stickers
    at the ANSWER office at 2489 Mission St. Room 24.
    Call 415-821-6545 for hours.

    ...........................................................

    PLEASE DISTRIBUTE FAR AND WIDE!! A CALL TO ACTION!!
    STOP EVICTIONS IN BAYVIEW-HUNTERS POINT
    TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 4:00 p.m.
    ROOM 416, CITY HALL, S.F.
    Companeros/companeras:
    Below please find an editorial by Willie Ratcliff,
    publisher of SF Bay View, about a March 7 hearing
    before Redevelopment Authority, which will seal the
    fate of Bayview Hunter's Point. Many of us have been
    saying for years that the Bayview will be the new
    Fillmore. March 7 is, as Ratcliff says, an eviction
    notice for the residents of Bayview Hunters Point. Not
    long after coming into office, Mayor Gavin Newsom did
    photo ops with young black men on a basketball court
    in Bayview (he was lavished with praise by our
    mindless media for that), but he knew damn well then
    that their displacement was imminent. It's all part of
    San Francisco's hypocrisy about racism and classism.
    "Oh, we're a liberal city, we oppose racism and
    classism..." people and politicians say, even as they
    stand idly by while more and more poor, working-class
    and people of color are pushed out of the city by
    Ellis Act evictions for TICs for the upper middle
    class and Redevelopment Authority's "negro removal,"
    as it was called by black activists in the 60s.

    Why is it that removing "urban blight" from our cities
    means giving poor, working-class and people of color a
    one-way ticket to another city? Why can't
    Redevelopment work on building communities from within
    (with no-interest business loans and subsidies to
    homeowners and landlords to fix up their properties,)
    instead of declaring "eminent domain" and stealing the
    land from folks who have nothing else? If
    Redevelopment wants to do some real cleaning of urban
    blight why not confiscate the mansions in Pacific
    Heights and do a little redistributing of the wealth!
    But that's not the game in America. Redevelopment is a
    tool of the real-estate interests that want to
    gentrify all of our neighborhoods. It's about removing
    poor folks so that middle-class and upper-class folks
    can have their homes. It's a time-honored American
    tradition. Native Americans were pushed from their
    land as wagon trains of settlers, driven by manifest
    destiny, spread westward. Similarly, the new Bayview
    is not for the folks who live there now. As former
    Mayor Willie Brown himself said before he left office,
    the new Bayview will be market-rate condos with the
    best views in town.

    Your help is desperately needed.

    Come to the hearing on March 7 at City Hall room 416,
    4pm. It is imperative that we stand with the residents
    of Bayview. It is imperative that people from all
    communities and struggles come together to oppose the
    annexing of 1300 acres of land next to the shipyard.
    No more Fillmores! No eviction notice for Bayview! No
    more gentrification! Redistribute the wealth, don't
    steal our homes! The land does not belong to the
    realtors or the rich! Nuestra tierra, nuestro mundo!
    Our land, our world!

    Estamos juntos en la lucha...we are together in the
    struggle--or we all go down separately!

    tommi avicolli mecca

    Read:

    Eviction notice served on Bayview Hunters Point
    Editorial by Willie Ratcliff
    http://www.sfbayview.com/020806/evictionnotice020806.shtml

    ...................................................................

    NATIONAL WEEK OF CAMPUS ACTION
    Week of March 13-17
    Students Say NO to War in Iraq!
    College Not Combat, Troops Out Now!

    (*Spring break alternative: Schools on spring
    break during March 13-17
    will hold events the week of March 20)

    Student week of action coordinated by the
    Campus Antiwar Network
    http://www.campusantiwar.net
    RecruitersOut@yahoo.com

    Charles Jenks
    Chair of Advisory Board and Web Manager
    Traprock Peace Center
    103A Keets Road
    Deerfield, MA 01342
    413-773-7427
    fax 413-773-7507
    http://www.traprockpeace.org

    ...........................................................

    Third Anniversary of "Shock and Awe"
    Saturday, March 18, 2006, 11:00 a.m.
    CIVIC CENTER
    San Francisco

    Monday, March 20, 2006
    Youth and Student Day
    of Resistance to Imperialism

    http://www.answercoalition.org/

    ...........................................................

    Major Mobilization Set for April 29th

    Dear Friends,

    We are pleased to announce the kick-off for the organizing
    of what promises to be a major national mobilization on
    Saturday, April 29th. Today, each of the initiating groups
    (see list below) is announcing this mobilization. Our
    organizations have agreed to work together on this
    project for several reasons:

    The April 29th mobilization will highlight our call for an
    immediate end to the war on Iraq. We are also raising
    several other critical issues that are directly connected
    to one another.

    It is time for our constituencies to work more closely:
    connecting the issues we work on by bringing diverse
    communities into a common project.

    It is important for our movements to help set the agenda
    for the Congressional elections later in the year. Our
    unified action in the streets is a vital part of that process.

    Please share the April 29th call widely, and please use
    the links at the end of the call to endorse this timely
    mobilization and to sign up for email updates.

    April 29th Initiating Organizations
    United for Peace and Justice
    Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
    National Organization for Women
    Friends of the Earth
    U.S. Labor Against the War
    Climate Crisis Coalition
    Peoples' Hurricane Relief Fund
    National Youth and Student Peace Coalition

    A war based on lies
    Spying, corruption and attacks on civil liberties
    Katrina survivors abandoned by government

    MARCH FOR PEACE,
    JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY

    End the war in Iraq -
    Bring all our troops home now!

    SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 2006
    NEW YORK CITY

    Unite for change - let's turn our country around!

    The times are urgent and we must act.

    Too much is too wrong in this country. We have a foreign
    policy that is foreign to our core values, and domestic
    policies wreaking havoc at home. It's time for a change.

    No more never-ending oil wars!
    Protect our civil liberties & immigrant rights. End illegal
    spying, government corruption and the subversion of
    our democracy.

    Rebuild our communities, starting with the Gulf Coast.
    Stop corporate subsidies and tax cuts for the wealthy
    while ignoring our basic needs.

    Act quickly to address the climate crisis and the
    accelerating destruction of our environment.

    Our message to the White House and to Congress
    is clear: either stand with us or stand aside!

    We are coming together to march, to vote, to speak
    out and to turn our country around!

    Join us in New York City on Saturday, April 29th

    Click here to endorse this mobilization:
    http://unitedforpeace.org/modinput4.php?modin=119
    Click here to sign up for email updates on plans for April 29th:
    http://www.unitedforpeace.org/email

    April 29th Initiating Organizations
    United for Peace and Justice
    Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
    National Organization for Women
    Friends of the Earth
    U.S. Labor Against the War
    Climate Crisis Coalition
    Peoples' Hurricane Relief Fund
    National Youth and Student Peace Coalition

    ......................................................................

    ANSWER Coalition: All Out for April 29 in New York City!
    End Occupation from Iraq to Palestine, to Haiti, and Everywhere!
    Fight for workers rights, civil rights and civil liberties - unite
    against racism!

    300,000 Came to Washington on Sept. 24

    In recent weeks the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has been in the final
    stages for planning a national demonstration in Washington DC on April
    29, 2006. This action was to follow the local and regional
    demonstrations for March 18-19 and youth and student actions scheduled
    on March 20 on the 3rd anniversary of the criminal bombing, invasion
    and occupation of Iraq.

    On September 24, 2005 more than 300,000 people surrounded the White
    House in the largest mobilization against the Iraq war and occupation
    since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. This demonstration was
    initiated by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition in May 2005 and we urged a
    united front with other major anti-war coalitions and communities. We
    marched demanding immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Iraq. We
    also stood in solidarity with the Palestinian and Haitian people and
    others who are suffering under and resisting occupation. Coming as it
    did following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we changed the demands of
    the September 24 protest to include the slogan "From Iraq to New
    Orleans, FundPeople's Needs not the War Machine."

    During the past several years, and as demonstrated in a powerful
    display on September 24, the anti-war movement has grown significantly
    in its breadth and depth as the leadership has included the Arab and
    Muslim community -- those who are among the primary targets of the
    Bush Administration's current war at home and abroad.

    The anti-war sentiment inside the United States is rapidly becoming a
    significant obstacle to the Bush Administration's war in Iraq. The
    anti-war movement has the potential to be a critical deterrent to the
    U.S. government's aspirations for Empire. At this moment the White
    House and Pentagon are issuing threats and making plans to move
    against other sovereign countries. Iran and Syria are being targeted
    as the U.S. seeks to consolidate power in the Middle East.

    Simultaneously the Bush administration is working to undermine the
    gains of the people of Latin America by working totopple the
    democratically elected president of Venezuela and destroy the
    revolutionary process for social change going on in that country.
    Likewise it is intensifying the economic war and CIA subversions
    against Cuba.

    We believe that our movement must weld together the broadest, most
    diverse coalition of various sectors and communities into an effective
    force for change. This requires the inclusion of targeted communities
    and political clarity. The war in Iraq is not simply an aberrational
    policy of the Bush neo-conservatives. Iraq is emblematic of a larger
    war for Empire. It is part of a multi-pronged attack against all those
    countries that refuse to follow the economic, political and military
    dictates of the Washington establishment and Wall Street.

    This is the foundation of the political program upon which the
    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has organized mass demonstrations in the recent
    years. The fact that many hundreds of thousands of people
    havedemonstrated in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, New
    York and other cities is a testament to the huge progress that has
    been made in building a new movement on this principled basis.
    The people of the United States have nothing to gain and everything to
    lose from the occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Haiti and
    the threats of new wars and intervention in Syria, Iran, Venezuela,
    Cuba, the Philippines, North Korea and elsewhere. It has been made
    crystal clear in recent weeks that Washington is aggressively
    prosecuting its strategy of total domination of the Middle East. U.S.
    leaders are seeking to crush all resistance to their colonial agenda,
    whether from states or popular movements in the region. The
    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition andthe anti-war movement is raising the demand,
    "U.S. Out of the Middle East."

    At its core, the war for Empire is supported by the Republican Party
    and Democratic Party alike, which constitute the twin parties of
    militarism and war, and this quest for global domination will continue
    regardless of the outcome of the 2006 election. In fact, leading
    Democrats are attacking Bush for being "soft" on Iran and North Korea.
    Real hope for turning the tide rests with building a powerful global
    movement of resistance in which the people of the United States stand
    with their sisters and brothers struggling against imperialism and the
    new colonialism.

    On the home front the Bush administration is involved in a
    far-reaching assault against working class communities as most
    glaringly evidenced by its criminal and racist negligence towards the
    people of New Orleans and throughout the hurricane ravaged Gulf
    States. While turning their backs on these communities in the moments
    ofgreatest need, the U.S. government is now working with the banks and
    developers who, like vultures, are exploiting mass suffering and
    dislocation to carry out racist gentrification that only benefits the
    wealthy. The administration is also working to eviscerate hard-fought
    civil rights and civil liberties, engaging in a widespread campaign of
    domestic spying and wiretapping against the people of the U.S. and
    other assaults against the First and Fourth Amendments.

    In early December 2005, the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition filed for permits
    for a national march in Washington DC on April 29, 2006. We were
    preparing to announce the April 29 action but in recent days we have
    heard from A.N.S.W.E.R. organizers in a number of unions that U.S.
    Labor Against the War was seeking union endorsements for a call for an
    anti-war demonstration on the same day in New York City. Having two
    demonstrations on April 29 in both Washington D.C. and New York City
    seems to us to be lessadvantageous than having the movement unite
    behind one single mobilization. As such, we decided to hold back our
    announcement. Subsequently, the New York City demonstration has been
    announced by a number of organizations. Underscoring the need to have
    the largest possible demonstration on April 29, the A.N.S.W.E.R.
    Coalition has decided to fully mobilize, in all of its chapters and
    organizing centers, to bring people to the New York City demonstration
    on April 29. The banners and slogans of different coalitions may not
    be the same, but it is in the interest of everyone to march
    shoulder-to-shoulder against the criminal war in Iraq and the Bush
    administration's War for Empire, including its racist, sexist and
    anti-worker domestic program.

    All out for a united, mass mobilization on April 29 in New York City!
    Click here to become a transportation center in your city or town for
    the April 29 demonstration.

    Click here to receive updates on A.N.S.W.E.R.'s mobilization for the
    April 29 NYC demonstration.
    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
    Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
    http://www.answercoalition.org/
    info@internationalanswer.org
    National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
    New York City: 212-694-8720
    Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
    San Francisco: 415-821-6545
    Click here to unsubscribe from the ANSWER e-mail list.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    Welcome to the Official Push for Peace Site!
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=
    The Push for Peace logo shows a Navy veteran in a wheelchair with
    a peace sign on the wheel, with people marching behind him.
    It can be seen at:
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=node/71
    Push For Peace is a collective of veterans, progressive activists, and
    everyday citizens working together through education, motivation,
    and truth to bring America’s troops home from the war in Iraq and
    to help bring healing and peace to our nation. The Push For Peace
    movement is geared to combine the efforts of able-bodied activists
    to those with special needs or challenges, so that all people can
    participate and be counted. The Push For Peace effort will include
    organized rallies and marches, as well as appearances and
    performances by high-profile speakers and entertainers,
    to rally the American people and show them we stand united
    with our fellow citizen and soldier. It is our goal to grow the
    base of participants each day resulting in a cross-country Push
    culminating at the gates of the White House on July 4, 2006.
    Events will be scheduled across the country leading up to the
    big Push in July. So keep checking the Push calendar for events
    near you.
    Mapping it all out...[Website shows map of stops in US en route
    to DC on July 4, 2006...bw]
    This is a tentative and unfinished P4P route and is only a work
    in progress. The Push is set to leave Golden Gate Park on
    Memorial Day 2006 (currently working on permits) and then
    we will Push our way across the country to arrive in DC across
    from the White House gathering at Lafayette Park (currently
    working on permits) on July 4th, 2006.
    Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California
    Las Vegas Nevada
    Phoenix, Arizona
    Denver, Colorado
    Crawford, Texas
    New Orleans, Louisiana
    more states pending...
    Pushing real Democracy!
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
    ARTICLES IN FULL:
    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    1) THE FIGHT FOR OUR SURVIVAL
    From: David Johnson
    To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
    Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 1:48 PM

    2) Letter from: Joe Buckley - President, UAW Local 69

    3) The Trust Gap
    NYT Editorial
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/opinion/12sun1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

    4) The Count
    Iraq War’s Virtues May Be Debatable. The Profits Aren’t.
    By HUBERT B. HERRING
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/business/yourmoney/12count.html?pagewanted=all

    5) Everybody's Business
    New Front: Protecting America's Investors
    By BEN STEIN
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/business/yourmoney/12every.html?pagewanted=all

    6) The trouble with tough love
    Humiliating teen addicts can't cure them
    Maia Szalavitz
    Sunday, February 12, 2006
    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/02/12/INGHIH5N9M1.DTL

    7) Cheney Shoots Fellow Hunter in Mishap on a Texas Ranch
    By ANNE E. KORNBLUT
    [If you thought that if our leaders are not in the headlines
    they are quietly working, think again...bw]
    February 13, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/politics/13cheney.html?hp&ex=1139893200&en=ef5d2efe3efde24c&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    8) Debt and Denial
    By PAUL KRUGMAN
    February 13, 2006
    http://select.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/opinion/13krugman.html?hp

    9) Hawaii Agrees to Change Policies for Incarcerated Gay Youths
    By JANIS L. MAGIN
    February 13, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/national/13hawaii.html

    10) TREATY OF RELATIONS
    BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA,
    SIGNED MAY 29, 1934
    [Here's the text of the 1934 treaty with Cuba which the United States
    is violating by using the base as a prison/torture facility today.]
    http://www.walterlippmann.com/us-cuba-guantanamo-treaty-1934.html

    11) Out of Sight, Out of Mind
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    February 12, 2006
    Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com

    12) WHAT STATE? WHAT UNION?
    [Col. Writ. 2/1/06] Copyright 2006 Mumia Abu-Jamal

    13) Cuba Amateurs Face Millionaires in World Baseball Classic
    By Circles Robinson
    www.circlesonline.blogspot.com

    14) Group Starts Anti-Union Campaign
    By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
    February 14, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/business/14labor.html?pagewanted=all

    15) G.M. to Invest $500 Million in Michigan
    By MICHELINE MAYNARD
    February 14, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/business/14gm.html?pagewanted=all

    16) Hotel Aid Ends; Katrina Evacuees Seek Housing Again
    By SHAILA DEWAN
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/national/nationalspecial/14hotels.html

    17) UCSC Military Recruitment Debate Reportback
    by bob fitch (photos) & josh sonnenfeld (words)
    Saturday, Feb. 11, 2006 at 4:32 P
    http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1801777.php

    18) Outrage Spreads over New Images
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website
    Inter Press Service
    Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com
    The recently aired photos depicting
    torturing of Iraqis by U.S. military
    personnel at Abu Ghraib prison are
    now posted for viewing at
    www.dahrjamailiraq.com
    Go here to view the photos:
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album42

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    1) THE FIGHT FOR OUR SURVIVAL
    From: David Johnson
    To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
    Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 1:48 PM

    I would like to make an URGENT appeal to all of you,
    on behalf of a group of 150 brave men and women, who
    are in a desperate fight for their families and
    community.

    These brave men and women are being attacked by a
    transnational corporation, that has descended like a
    vulture upon their small community in western
    Illinois.

    The struggle I am referring to is the battle between
    Boilermakers local 484 in Merdosia Illinois, and the
    German based CELANESE corporation.

    I am well aware of the NUMEROUS attacks and
    struggles we all are facing world-wide by the New
    World Order Corporate class and their bought and
    paid for politicians,

    HOWEVER, I would like to state that the journey of a
    thousand miles begins with ONE relatively simple
    first step.

    The step I am referring to is WINNING !

    I don't know about the rest of you, but I am getting
    sick and tired of seeing one losing battle after
    another being fought by working people around the
    world, and the ever expanding corporate blitzkrieg
    getting bolder and more destructive with each
    victory.

    That is why we NEED to begin not just fighting back,
    but WINNING !

    In my opinion, the CELANESE Corp. / Boilermakers
    Local 484 is a winable fight.

    I have evidence to prove this, but instead of
    continuing with a lengthy explanation, I have one
    simple request.

    Contact me ( wherever you live worldwide ) and give
    me some contacts of people involved in ;

    Individual Unions, Labor Federations / Councils, and
    other citizen organizations, so that we can fight
    back EVERYWHERE GLOBALLY.

    I would ESPECIALLY like to hear from European
    brothers and sisters, who could find out more
    information about CELANESE Corp. ( based in Germany
    ) as to world-wide operations, subsideraries, etc,
    ANYTHING that could be useful to figtht these
    corporate bastards.

    In addition to the above, if each of you who read
    this, could afford to send at least U.S. $ 10.00, to
    help feed and house these brave men and women, so
    that they can continue to fight and WIN, you will
    ultimately be helping yourselves and others in your
    community, by begining to turn the tide against the
    corporate monolith that is systematically destroying
    our standard of living and our planet.

    PLEASE FORWARD THIS E-MAIL FAR AND WIDE !

    In Solidarity

    David Johnson
    Champaign, IL. USA
    unionyes@ameritech.net

    Send donations to ;

    Boilermakers 484
    P.O. Box 258
    Merdosia, IL. 62665
    USA
    To e-mail Community Labor Discussion: clnews@lists.clnews.org
    To unsubscribe, e-mail: clnews-unsubscribe@lists.clnews.org
    To subscribe, e-mail: clnews-subscribe@lists.clnews.org
    For additional commands, e-mail: clnews-help@lists.clnews.org
    www.CLNews.org - "educate, agitate, and organize,"

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    2) Letter from: Joe Buckley - President, UAW Local 69

    Delphi has a total of 160,000 workers worldwide. Out of that
    160,000, 24,000 are UAW workers and 8000 are made up of IUE,
    Steelworkers and CWA members. The remaining 128,000 workers
    are in foreign countries and are not a part of the chapter 11 filing.
    Delphi has $1.5 billion dollars in cash, yet finds it necessary to file
    bankruptcy only on its American operations. This is while they
    demand that their American workers take pay cuts in excess of
    63% and that each worker pay in excess of $5000 dollars per year
    for out of pocket medical expenses, not to mention general
    take-aways of everything our unions and members have fought
    for over the past 25 years.

    To add to the insult, these demands come after Delphi's hiring
    of Steve Miller as CEO, giving him a $3.5 million dollar signing
    bonus, a yearly salary of $1.5 million, and another bonus upon
    completion of Delphi's reorganization. Delphi also set aside
    $90 million dollars in retention bonuses for executives along
    with lucrative severance packages. Apparently, these are the
    rewards for the bad business decisions of Delphi and its
    executives.

    I'm sure you have all read that Miller yielded to the pressure
    from the media concerning his bonus and salary and that
    he stated his intentions to forego his $1.5 million dollar
    salary for the next year. I have tried to put into perspective
    the equality of his sacrifice. Just with his $3.5 million dollar
    signing bonus alone, he will make $87,000 per week, or
    $239.00 an hour every hour of every day, asleep or awake,
    24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Compare that to his
    proposal that we work for $10.00 an hour or $400.00 per
    week while we pay in excess of $5000.00 per year in health
    care. I just can't see the equality of sacrifice in those numbers.

    In closing, I would say this to Steven Miller and to Delphi;
    The working men and women of our unions are NOT going
    to mow your grass for $10.00 an hour. Maybe you should
    mow your own grass and let us run the business...
    Thanks again for your participation. SOLIDARITY FOREVER!
    Joe Buckley - President, UAW Local 69

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    3) The Trust Gap
    NYT Editorial
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/opinion/12sun1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

    We can't think of a president who has gone to the American people
    more often than George W. Bush has to ask them to forget about
    things like democracy, judicial process and the balance of powers
    — and just trust him. We also can't think of a president who has
    deserved that trust less.

    This has been a central flaw of Mr. Bush's presidency for a long time.
    But last week produced a flood of evidence that vividly drove home the point.

    DOMESTIC SPYING After 9/11, Mr. Bush authorized the National
    Security Agency to eavesdrop on the conversations and e-mail
    of Americans and others in the United States without obtaining
    a warrant or allowing Congress or the courts to review the operation.
    Lawmakers from both parties have raised considerable doubt
    about the legality of this program, but Attorney General Alberto
    Gonzales made it clear last Monday at a Senate hearing that
    Mr. Bush hasn't the slightest intention of changing it.

    According to Mr. Gonzales, the administration can be relied
    upon to police itself and hold the line between national security
    and civil liberties on its own. Set aside the rather huge problem
    that our democracy doesn't work that way. It's not clear that this
    administration knows where the line is, much less that it is capable
    of defending it. Mr. Gonzales's own dedication to the truth is
    in considerable doubt. In sworn testimony at his confirmation
    hearing last year, he dismissed as "hypothetical" a question about
    whether he believed the president had the authority to conduct
    warrantless surveillance. In fact, Mr. Gonzales knew Mr. Bush
    was doing just that, and had signed off on it as White House
    counsel.

    THE PRISON CAMPS It has been nearly two years since the Abu
    Ghraib scandal illuminated the violence, illegal detentions and
    other abuses at United States military prison camps. There have
    been Congressional hearings, court rulings imposing normal
    judicial procedures on the camps, and a law requiring prisoners
    to be treated humanely. Yet nothing has changed. Mr. Bush also
    made it clear that he intends to follow the new law on the treatment
    of prisoners when his internal moral compass tells him
    it is the right thing to do.

    On Thursday, Tim Golden of The Times reported that United
    States military authorities had taken to tying up and force-feeding
    the prisoners who had gone on hunger strikes by the dozens
    at Guantánamo Bay to protest being held without any semblance
    of justice. The article said administration officials were concerned
    that if a prisoner died, it could renew international criticism of Gitmo.
    They should be concerned. This is not some minor embarrassment.
    It is a lingering outrage that has undermined American credibility
    around the world.

    According to numerous news reports, the majority of the Gitmo
    detainees are neither members of Al Qaeda nor fighters captured
    on the battlefield in Afghanistan. The National Journal reported last
    week that many were handed over to the American forces for bounties
    by Pakistani and Afghan warlords. Others were just swept up.
    The military has charged only 10 prisoners with terrorism. Hearings
    for the rest were not held for three years and then were mostly
    sham proceedings.

    And yet the administration continues to claim that it can be trusted
    to run these prisons fairly, to decide in secret and on the president's
    whim who is to be jailed without charges, and to insist that Gitmo
    is filled with dangerous terrorists.

    THE WAR IN IRAQ One of Mr. Bush's biggest "trust me" moments
    was when he told Americans that the United States had to invade
    Iraq because it possessed dangerous weapons and posed an immediate
    threat to America. The White House has blocked a Congressional
    investigation into whether it exaggerated the intelligence on Iraq,
    and continues to insist that the decision to invade was based
    on the consensus of American intelligence agencies.

    But the next edition of the journal Foreign Affairs includes an article
    by the man in charge of intelligence on Iraq until last year, Paul Pillar,
    who said the administration cherry-picked intelligence to support
    a decision to invade that had already been made. He said Mr. Bush
    and Vice President Dick Cheney made it clear what results they
    wanted and heeded only the analysts who produced them.
    Incredibly, Mr. Pillar said, the president never asked for an
    assessment on the consequences of invading Iraq until a year
    after the invasion. He said the intelligence community did that
    analysis on its own and forecast a deeply divided society ripe
    for civil war.

    When the administration did finally ask for an intelligence
    assessment, Mr. Pillar led the effort, which concluded in
    August 2004 that Iraq was on the brink of disaster. Officials
    then leaked his authorship to the columnist Robert Novak and
    to The Washington Times. The idea was that Mr. Pillar was
    not to be trusted because he dissented from the party line.
    Somehow, this sounds like a story we have heard before.

    Like many other administrations before it, this one sometimes
    dissembles clumsily to avoid embarrassment. (We now know,
    for example, that the White House did not tell the truth about
    when it learned the levees in New Orleans had failed.)
    Spin-as-usual is one thing. Striking at the civil liberties,
    due process and balance of powers that are the heart
    of American democracy is another.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    4) The Count
    Iraq War’s Virtues May Be Debatable. The Profits Aren’t.
    By HUBERT B. HERRING
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/business/yourmoney/12count.html?pagewanted=all

    In his recent State of the Union address, President Bush called
    for the nation to back the war in Iraq and to "stand behind the
    American military in this vital mission."

    No matter how one feels about this particular conflict, war always
    has winners and losers — on both sides. There's the human toll,
    of course, which Mr. Bush acknowledged. Whether democracy
    and freedom will, over all, be winners, only history will divulge.

    But some indisputable winners are clear now: military contractors.
    Suppose an investor were endowed with that golden instinct for
    spotting bargains and bought 100 shares of each of the top six
    military contractors at their lows of the last six years — lows
    reached by four of them in March 2000, before the election,
    before Sept. 11 and before any hint of war. That basket
    of shares would have cost $12,731.50. On Friday, it would
    have been worth three and a half times that: $44,417.

    Little wonder. Just look at the money machines these
    contractors have become as the war drags on.

    HUBERT B. HERRING

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    5) Everybody's Business
    New Front: Protecting America's Investors
    By BEN STEIN
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/business/yourmoney/12every.html?pagewanted=all

    IN the tiny room where I am writing this missive, there are four little
    display cases and a framed diploma, among many other mementos.
    The diploma is for my father-in-law, Dale Denman Jr. of Arkansas,
    and it is from the United States Military Academy, dated June 6, 1944
    — a day when quite a lot was happening of military significance in France.

    Next to that is a display case with two little stars. One is a Silver Star
    that my father-in-law won in Europe several months after he graduated.
    It is for running along a road under heavy German machine-gun fire to
    call in artillery to save the company for which he was a forward artillery
    observer. Next to it is a Bronze Star that my father-in-law, then a colonel,
    won in Vietnam in 1966 for holding his unit together when it was
    ambushed by a Vietcong force and would have been cut to pieces
    without him.

    I have been thinking a lot lately about these heirlooms that Colonel
    Denman left to my wife and me. That's because of some mail I have
    been getting about my recent articles in this space about the way high
    executives have been treating their employees and stockholders. What
    I said two weeks ago about UAL, the parent company of United Airlines,
    prompted hundreds of e-mail messages. (I have still not even remotely
    caught up with all of them because I read them myself — no secretary here.)

    Several people sent clippings describing how UAL provided Glenn F. Tilton,
    who was living in San Francisco when it hired him as chairman and chief
    executive, with a suite in a luxury hotel when he spent time at its
    headquarters in Chicago. UAL was paying for the suite — which cost
    $18,000 a month, according to The San Francisco Chronicle — while
    it was reorganizing its finances under bankruptcy court protection
    and telling tens of thousands of workers that their jobs had been
    eliminated, their pay cut, their pensions terminated or all of the
    above because the company was broke.

    Some of the letter writers recalled how UAL spent an average of
    $10 million a month on lawyers, accountants and investment bankers
    for 37 months while UAL was in bankruptcy, and yet was unable
    to pay its employees their pensions.

    Now UAL has emerged from bankruptcy with a mighty flourish, and
    an allowance of hundreds of millions of dollars for its top executives.
    Some letters pointed out that one of UAL's board members is none
    other than our old friend Robert S. Miller, chief executive of Delphi,
    the auto parts maker.

    Delphi also recently entered bankruptcy — but proposed to the
    bankruptcy court a payment of well over $100 million to its top
    executives to keep them happy while it was in bankruptcy. Mr. Miller,
    who goes by Steve, a version of his middle name (not the one who
    sings "Fly Like an Eagle," but an artist of sorts nonetheless), has
    told Delphi's workers that they will have to take pay cuts of roughly
    two-thirds in order to save the business.

    But my favorite communication, the one that made me stay up nights,
    was from a United States Army sergeant who has done two combat
    tours in Iraq and two more in Afghanistan, and is now home in Georgia
    training others to serve in those wars. I have been pals with this man
    for a couple of years now, and we talk on the phone. He has been
    following my articles online, and he simply asked, "Was this what
    I was fighting for in Iraq?"

    The question haunts me, not only because of UAL and Delphi, but
    also because there is something deeply broken about the corporate
    system in America. Long ago, my pop was pals with Harlow H. Curtice,
    the president of General Motors in its glory days in the 1950's.
    Mr. Curtice presided over a spectacularly powerful and profitable G.M.

    For that, in his peak year as I recall from my youth, he was paid
    about $400,000 plus a special superbonus of $400,000, which made
    him one of the highest-paid executives in America. At that time,
    a line worker with overtime might have made $10,000 a year.
    In those days, that differential was considered very large — very
    roughly 40 times the assembly line worker's pay, without bonus;
    very roughly 80 times with bonus. A differential of more like
    10 to 20 times was more the norm.

    Now C.E.O.'s routinely take home hundreds of times what the
    average worker is paid, whether or not the company is doing well.
    The graph for the pay of C.E.O.'s is a vertical line in the last five years.
    The graph for workers' pay is a flat line — in every sense.

    Now, my fellow free-market fans may well say: "Hey, stop your
    whining. This is the free market at work." Only it isn't the free market
    at work. It's a kleptocracy at work. (I am indebted to another of my
    correspondents for the word.) What's happening here is that the
    governance system for many — by no means all — corporations
    has simply stopped working.

    For centuries, the idea has held that the stockholders own the
    company. They are the trustors. The trustors select directors who
    in turn hire a chief executive and other top officers and then keep
    an eye on them for the stockholders. They — the chief executive,
    other top officers and the directors — are all agents for the
    stockholders, many of whom are often the employees,
    as is the case at UAL.

    But what has happened is that — as in a corrupt, failed third-world
    state — the trustees in too many cases are captives of the C.E.O.
    and his colleagues; they owe both their places on the board and
    their emoluments to the chief executive, and they exercise no
    meaningful restraint at all on managers. The directors are instead
    a sort of praetorian guard, protecting management from its real
    bosses, the stockholders, as management sucks the blood out
    of the company.

    I am by no means saying this is the standard or the usual way
    business is done in this country. Most managements are still honest
    and hard-working, I believe. But far too many are simply in the
    catbird seat to take what is not decently theirs from people who
    cannot afford to be taken.

    Government, meanwhile, does nothing, or next to nothing. Courts,
    especially bankruptcy courts, do nothing. And the employees and
    stockholders and the whole society are looted. Maybe it's not
    looting in the legal sense, but something basic is removed from
    the society. In the capitalist society, the most basic foundation
    is trust. But in today's world, trust is abused, mocked, drained
    of meaning.

    Again, I am not talking everywhere, by any means. I work with many,
    many businessmen and businesswomen, and a huge majority are
    honest and amazingly hard-working. I am sure that this is true
    nationally. But enough are not so honest and hard-working that
    it takes a toll on the rest of us.

    Don't get me wrong. I am not a newborn. I know that looting is
    not new. Man is highly flawed when money is on the table and not
    guarded well. I saw it and wrote about it in great detail when
    Michael R. Milken and Drexel Burnham Lambert were ascendant,
    and in many other cases. It was terrible and dreadful, at least in
    my view, back then in the 1980's. It has always been terrible.

    But there is something new and unlovely that my pal in the Army
    brought up. Now, we are engaged in a war. More than 100,000
    Americans are fighting far from home. Many don't come back.
    Many come home crippled. They are fighting for a vision of a just
    and decent society back home in glorious, shining, blessed America.
    And back home, meanwhile, the looters are running wild, taking
    the meaning out of that vision of America, taking some — by no
    means all — of the beauty out of America as a land of justice and
    fairness.

    ONE of my correspondents wrote that she, a flight attendant at
    United Airlines, had played by the rules, believed what her bosses
    told her, trusted that the laws would protect her, believed that
    fairness would triumph in the end because it's America. "I guess
    that makes me a fool in today's world," she said, because now
    she is broke, with no job, barely any pension and no faith. While
    the soldiers are fighting to protect us from the terrorists with
    bombs, too few are at home protecting us from the terrorists
    with briefcases. There aren't a lot of such terrorists, but they
    do a lot of damage.

    Surely this is not what Colonel Denman won his medals for. Surely
    this is not the America that our best are fighting and dying for
    in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is something desperately wrong
    here, and if President Bush is searching for an issue, I might
    suggest this: common decency for the workers and the savers
    and investors of this country, and an end to the hideous
    breaches of trust that build great mansions in the Hamptons
    and wreck a free soci- ety.

    Ben Stein is a lawyer, writer, actor and economist. E-mail:
    ebiz@nytimes.com.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    6) The trouble with tough love
    Humiliating teen addicts can't cure them
    Maia Szalavitz
    Sunday, February 12, 2006
    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/02/12/INGHIH5N9M1.DTL

    It is the ultimate parental nightmare: Your affectionate child is
    transformed, seemingly overnight, into an out-of-control, drug-
    addicted, hostile teenager. Many parents blame themselves. "Where
    did we go wrong?" they ask. The kids, meanwhile, hurtle through
    their own bewildering adolescent nightmare.

    I know. My descent into drug addiction started in high school
    and now, as an adult, I have a much better understanding of my
    parents' anguish and of what I was going through. And, after
    devoting several years to researching treatment programs, I'm
    also aware of the traps that many parents fall into when they
    finally seek help for their kids.

    Many anguished parents put their faith in strict residential
    rehab programs. At first glance, these programs, which are
    commonly based on a philosophy of "tough love," seem to
    offer a safe respite from the streets -- promising reform
    through confrontational therapy in an isolated environment
    where kids cannot escape the need to change their behavior.
    During the '90s it became increasingly common for courts
    to sentence young delinquents to military-style boot camps
    as an alternative to incarceration.

    But lack of government oversight and regulation makes
    it impossible for parents to thoroughly investigate services
    provided by such behavior-modification centers, wilderness
    programs and "emotional-growth boarding schools."
    Moreover, the very notion of making kids who are already
    suffering go through more suffering is psychologically
    backward. And there is little data to support these
    institutions' claims of success.

    Nonetheless, a billion-dollar industry now promotes such
    tough-love treatment. There are several hundred public
    and private facilities -- both in the United States and outside
    the country -- but serving United States citizens almost
    exclusively.

    Although no one officially keeps track, my research suggests
    that about 10,000 to 20,000 teenagers are enrolled each year.
    A patchwork of lax and ineffective state regulations -- no
    federal rules apply -- is all that protects these young people
    from institutions that are regulated like ordinary boarding
    schools but that sometimes use more-severe methods of
    restraint and isolation than psychiatric centers. There are
    no special qualifications required of the people who oversee
    such facilities. Nor is any diagnosis required before enrollment.
    If a parent thinks a child needs help and can pay the $3,000-
    to $5,000-a-month fees, any teenager can be held in a private
    program, with infrequent contact with the outside world, until
    he or she turns 18.

    During the past three years, I have interviewed more than
    100 adolescents and parents with personal experience in both
    public and private programs and have read hundreds of media
    accounts, thousands of Internet postings and stacks of legal
    documents. I have also spoken with numerous psychiatrists,
    psychologists, sociologists and juvenile justice experts.

    Of course, there is a range of approaches at different institutions,
    but most of the people I spoke with agree that the industry
    is dominated by the idea that harsh rules and even brutal
    confrontation are necessary to help troubled teenagers.
    UC Berkeley sociologist Elliott Currie, who did a study of teen
    residential addiction treatment for the National Institute on
    Drug Abuse, told me that he could not think of a program
    that wasn't influenced by this philosophy.

    Unfortunately, tough treatments usually draw public scrutiny
    only when practitioners go too far. Dozens of deaths -- such
    as January's case of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson, who
    died hours after entering a juvenile boot camp that was under
    contract with Florida's juvenile justice system -- and cases of
    abuse have been documented since tough-love treatment was
    popularized in the '70s and '80s by programs such as Synanon
    and Straight Inc.

    Parents and teenagers have told me of beatings, sleep deprivation,
    use of stress positions, emotional abuse and public humiliation,
    such as making them dress as prostitutes or in drag.

    An important question -- whether tough love is the right
    approach -- is almost never broached. Advocates of these
    programs call the excesses tragic but isolated cases; they offer
    anecdotes of miraculous transformations to balance the horror
    stories; and they argue that tough love only seems brutal --
    saying that surgery seems violent, too, without an understanding
    of its vital purpose.

    What advocates don't take from their medical analogy, however,
    is the principle of "first, do no harm" and the associated requirement
    of scientific proof of safety and efficacy. Research conducted by the
    National Institutes of Health and the Department of Justice tells
    a very different story from the testimonials -- one that has been
    obscured by myths about why addicts take drugs and why troubled
    teenagers act out.

    As a former addict who began using cocaine and heroin in late
    adolescence, I have never understood the logic of tough love.
    I took drugs compulsively because I hated myself, because I felt
    as if no one -- not even my family -- would love me if they really
    knew me. Drugs allowed me to blot out that depressive self-focus
    and socialize as though I thought I was OK.

    How could being "confronted" about my bad behavior help me
    with that? Why would being humiliated, once I'd given up the only
    thing that allowed me to feel safe emotionally, make me better?
    My problem wasn't that I needed to be cut down to size; it was that
    I felt I didn't measure up.

    In fact, fear of cruel treatment kept me from seeking help long after
    I began to suspect I needed it. My addiction probably could have
    been shortened if I'd thought I could have found care that didn't
    conform to what I knew was (and sadly, still is) the dominant
    confrontational approach.

    Fortunately, the short-term residential treatment I underwent
    was relatively light on confrontation, but I still had to deal with
    a counselor who tried to humiliate me by disparaging my looks
    when I expressed insecurity about myself.

    The trouble with tough love is twofold. First, the underlying
    philosophy -- that pain produces growth -- lends itself to abuse
    of power. Second, and more important, toughness doesn't begin
    to address the real problem. Troubled teenagers aren't usually
    spoiled brats who "just need to be taught respect." Like me, they
    most often go wrong because they hurt, not because they don't
    want to do the right thing. That became all the more evident to
    me when I took a look at who goes to these schools.

    A surprisingly large number are sent away in the midst of
    a parental divorce; others are enrolled for depression or other
    serious mental illnesses. Many have lengthy histories of trauma
    and abuse. The last thing such kids need is another experience
    of powerlessness, humiliation and pain.

    Sadly, tough love often looks as if it works: For one thing,
    longitudinal studies find that most kids, even the most troubled,
    eventually grow out of bad behavior, so the magic of time can
    be mistaken for the magic of treatment. Second, the experience
    of being emotionally terrorized can produce compliance that looks
    like real change, at least initially.

    The bigger picture suggests that tough love tends to backfire.
    The Justice Department has released reports comparing boot
    camps with traditional correctional facilities for juvenile offenders,
    concluding in 2001 that neither facility "is more effective
    in reducing recidivism."

    In late 2004, the National Institutes of Health released a "state
    of the science" consensus statement, concluding that get-tough
    treatments "do not work and there is some evidence that they
    may make the problem worse." Indeed, some young people leave
    these programs with post-traumatic stress disorder and
    exacerbations of their original problems.

    These strict institutional settings work at cross-purposes
    with the developmental stages adolescents go through.
    According to psychiatrists, teenagers need to gain
    responsibility, begin to test romantic relationships and
    learn to think critically. But in tough programs, teenagers'
    choices of activities are overwhelmingly made for them:
    They are not allowed to date (in many, even eye contact
    with the opposite sex is punished), and they are punished
    if they dissent from a program's therapeutic prescriptions.
    All this despite evidence that a totally controlled
    environment delays maturation.

    Why is tough love still so prevalent? The acceptance
    of anecdote as evidence is one reason, as are the hurried
    decisions of desperate parents.

    But most significant is the lack of the equivalent of a Food
    and Drug Administration for behavioral health care, with
    the result that most people are unaware that these
    programs have never been proved safe or effective.

    Maia Szalavitz is the author of "Help at Any Cost: How the
    Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids"
    (Riverhead Books). This piece appeared in the Washington
    Post. Contact us at insight@sfchronicle.com.

    Page E - 4

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    7) Cheney Shoots Fellow Hunter in Mishap on a Texas Ranch
    By ANNE E. KORNBLUT
    [If you thought that if our leaders are not in the headlines
    they are quietly working, think again...bw]
    February 13, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/politics/13cheney.html?hp&ex=1139893200&en=ef5d2efe3efde24c&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 — Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally
    shot and wounded a prominent Austin, Tex., lawyer on Saturday
    while the two men were quail hunting in South Texas, firing a shotgun
    at the man while trying to aim for a bird, a member of the hunting
    party said.

    Mr. Cheney, a practiced hunter, shot the lawyer, Harry Whittington,
    on an outing at the Armstrong Ranch in South Texas. Mr. Whittington,
    78, was taken by helicopter to Christus Spohn Memorial Hospital,
    where he was listed in stable condition in the intensive care unit
    on Sunday, according to Michele Trevino, a hospital spokeswoman.

    White House officials did not release details of the accident. But
    Katharine Armstrong, who was with the hunting party at the time
    of the shooting, said that Mr. Cheney, 65, fired his shotgun without
    realizing that Mr. Whittington had approached the group, hitting him
    on his right side, on his cheek, neck and chest. The incident, which
    occurred at about 5:30 p.m., was first reported on the Web site
    of The Corpus Christi Caller-Times on Sunday.

    "It was accidental, a hunting accident," Sheriff Ramon Salinas III of
    Kenedy County said from his office in Sarita, Tex., adding that the
    Secret Service notified him Saturday of the episode. "They did what
    they had to according to law."

    The Armstrong Ranch is a familiar hunting venue for Republican
    politicians, including Mr. Cheney, who sometimes hunts there
    several times a year. Mr. Whittington is a friend of the Armstrong
    family and is a frequent visitor to the ranch, one of the largest
    private properties in Texas.

    Mr. Whittington is a former member of the Texas Board of
    Corrections, which runs the state's prisons, and he once led
    the Texas Public Finance Authority Board.

    In 1999, George W. Bush, then governor of Texas, named
    Mr. Whittington to head the Texas Funeral Service Commission,
    which licenses and regulates funeral directors and embalmers
    in the state. When he was named, a former executive director
    of the commission, Eliza May, was suing the state, saying that
    she had been fired because she investigated a funeral home
    chain that was owned by a friend of Mr. Bush.

    The suit was settled in 2001, but the details were not disclosed.
    Mr. Whittington still serves in the position.

    White House officials, who did not make public the shooting
    incident for nearly 24 hours, did not say how Mr. Whittington
    and Mr. Cheney were acquainted, although both have
    longstanding ties to the Armstrong family.

    Mr. Cheney often goes hunting with other political figures.
    Two years ago he went duck hunting with Justice Antonin Scalia
    in Louisiana, a trip that drew criticism because the Supreme
    Court had just agreed to hear a case involving Mr. Cheney's
    energy task force.

    Anne Armstrong, the matriarch of the family that owns the ranch,
    is a Republican Party stalwart who served in the Nixon and Ford
    administrations and also as ambassador to Great Britain. When
    her husband, Tobin Armstrong, died in October, Mr. Cheney and
    James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state, spoke at the funeral.

    The 50,000-acre ranch, which features Spanish-style cottages
    and usually has a full working staff, was settled in 1882 by
    a Texas Ranger named John Armstrong III, who passed the land
    on to the family. It sits near the King Ranch, the legendary
    property settled by the Kleberg family, also in South Texas.

    According to Katharine Armstrong, the daughter of Anne Armstrong,
    Mr. Whittington broke away from a line of three hunters, including
    Mr. Cheney, and failed to announce that he was returning to the
    group. When he approached, Mr. Cheney had already begun
    to shoot into a covey of quail that was taking off from the ground.

    "This all happened pretty quickly," Ms. Armstrong said in
    a telephone interview from her ranch. Mr. Whittington, she said,
    "did not announce — which would be protocol — 'Hey, it's me,
    I'm coming up,' " she said.

    "He didn't do what he was supposed to do," she added, referring
    to Mr. Whittington. "So when a bird flushed and the vice president
    swung in to shoot it, Harry was where the bird was."

    Mr. Whittington was "sprayed — peppered, is what we call it —
    on his right side, on part of his face, neck, shoulder and rib cage,"
    she said, noting that she, too, had been sprayed on her leg
    in a hunting accident.

    "A shotgun sprays a bunch of little bitty pellets; it's not a bullet
    involved," Ms. Armstrong said. She said she believed that Mr. Cheney
    was shooting a 28-gauge shotgun and added that guests typically
    bring their own firearms.

    Mr. Whittington was about 30 yards from the vice president when
    the shooting occurred, Ms. Armstrong said. Altogether, there were
    five people in the group. Ms. Armstrong declined to identify
    the other hunters.

    After the accident, Mr. Cheney's medical attendants helped
    Mr. Whittington, treating his wounds and covering him in blankets
    so he would not go into shock, Ms. Armstrong said. He did not lose
    consciousness. She described Mr. Cheney's immediate response
    to the shooting as "very appropriate."

    "He immediately went to Harry's side and was right there and
    made sure his detail was totally focused on him," she said.
    "Of course he's very concerned. He's been checking in almost
    on a minute-by-minute basis."

    Afterward, she said, her brother-in-law and another guest
    went to the hospital to check on Mr. Whittington. The rest of
    the party had dinner, and Mr. Cheney, who had flown to Texas
    on Friday night, departed on Sunday.

    "Mr. Whittington is fine," Ms. Armstrong said. "He's sitting up
    in bed, yakking and cracking jokes."

    Campaign finance records show that Mr. Whittington contributed
    $2,000 — the maximum personal amount allowed —
    to the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign.

    Mr. Whittington has been involved in a long-running dispute
    with the City of Austin, which is trying to condemn a block his
    family owns to build a parking garage. He has won several legal
    victories in the case, most recently last month in the Texas
    Supreme Court.

    Lea Anne McBride, Mr. Cheney's spokeswoman, said, "The vice
    president visited with Harry Whittington at the hospital today and
    was pleased to see that he's doing fine and in good spirits." Asked
    why the vice president's office had made no announcement about
    the accident, Ms. McBride said, "We deferred to the Armstrongs
    regarding what had taken place at their ranch."

    Ralph Blumenthal contributed reporting from Houston for this article.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    8) Debt and Denial
    By PAUL KRUGMAN
    February 13, 2006
    http://select.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/opinion/13krugman.html?hp

    Last year America spent 57 percent more than it earned on world
    markets. That is, our imports were 57 percent larger than our exports.

    How did we manage to live so far beyond our means? By running
    up debts to Japan, China and Middle Eastern oil producers. We're
    as addicted to imported money as we are to imported oil.

    Sometimes large-scale foreign borrowing makes sense. In the
    19th century the United States borrowed vast sums from Europe,
    using the funds to build railroads and other industrial infrastructure.
    That debt-financed wave of investment left America stronger,
    not weaker.

    But this time our overseas borrowing isn't financing an investment
    boom: adjusted for the size of the economy, business investment
    is actually low by historical standards. Instead, we're using borrowed
    money to build houses, buy consumer goods and, of course, finance
    the federal budget deficit.

    In 2005 spending on home construction as a percentage of G.D.P.
    reached its highest level in more than 50 years. People who already
    own houses are treating them like A.T.M.'s, converting home equity
    into spending money: last year the personal savings rate fell below
    zero for the first time since 1933. And it's a sign of our degraded
    fiscal state that the Bush administration actually boasted about
    a 2005 budget deficit of more than $300 billion, because it was
    a bit lower than the 2004 deficit.

    It all sounds unsustainable. And it is.

    Some people insist that the U.S. economy has hidden savings that
    official statistics fail to capture. I won't go into the technical debate
    about these claims, some of which resemble arguments used not
    long ago to justify dot-com stock prices, except to say that the
    more closely one looks at the facts, the less plausible the "don't
    worry, be happy" hypothesis looks.

    Denial takes a more systematic form within the federal government,
    where Dick Cheney is doing to budget analysis what he did
    to intelligence on Iraq. Last week Mr. Cheney announced that
    a newly created division within the Treasury Department would
    show that tax cuts increase, not reduce, federal revenue. That's
    the Bush-Cheney way: decide on your conclusions first, then
    demand that analysts produce evidence supporting those
    conclusions.

    But serious analysts know that America's borrowing binge
    is unsustainable. Sooner or later the trade deficit will have
    to come down, the housing boom will have to end, and both
    American consumers and the U.S. government will have
    to start living within their means.

    So how bad will it be? It depends on how the binge ends.
    If it tapers off gradually, the U.S. economy will be able to
    shift workers out of sectors that have benefited from the
    housing boom and the consumption spree into sectors that
    produce exports or replace imports. Given time, we could
    bring the trade deficit down and bring housing back to earth
    without a net loss in jobs.

    In practice, however, a "soft landing" looks unlikely, because
    too many economic players have unrealistic expectations.
    This is true of international investors, who are still snapping
    up U.S. bonds at low interest rates, seemingly oblivious both
    to the budget deficit and to the consensus view among trade
    experts that the dollar will eventually have to fall 30 percent
    or more to eliminate the trade deficit.

    It's equally true of American home buyers. Most Americans
    live in regions where housing remains affordable. But a detailed
    new study by HSBC, a multinational bank, confirms what I and
    others have been saying: most of the rise in housing values
    has taken place in a "bubble zone" along the coasts, where
    housing prices have risen far more than the economic
    fundamentals warrant. According to HSBC's estimates,
    houses in the bubble zone are overvalued by between
    35 and 40 percent, creating trillions of dollars of illusory
    wealth.

    So it seems all too likely that America's borrowing binge will
    end with a bang, not a whimper, that spending will suddenly
    drop off as both the bond market and the housing market
    experience rude awakenings. If that happens, the economic
    consequences will be ugly.

    All in all, Alan Greenspan, who helped create this situation,
    can consider himself lucky that he's safely out of office, giving
    briefings to hedge fund managers at $250,000 a pop. And
    his successor may be in for a rough ride. Best wishes and good
    luck, Ben; you may need it.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    9) Hawaii Agrees to Change Policies for Incarcerated Gay Youths
    By JANIS L. MAGIN
    February 13, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/national/13hawaii.html

    HONOLULU, Feb. 12 — Under a settlement with the federal
    government, the state has agreed to make sweeping improvements
    at Hawaii's troubled youth prison in the next three years, but
    a civil liberties group that sued over the problems says the
    agreement does not go far enough to protect gay wards from
    harassment, abuse and discrimination.

    The settlement with the Justice Department came last week
    as a federal district judge, J. Michael Seabright, issued a preliminary
    injunction in a lawsuit that was filed in September by the American
    Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii. The judge described conditions
    at the prison, the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility, as "chaotic"
    and called for the state to stop the abuse and harassment
    of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender wards.

    The lawsuit, coming after a Justice Department report last
    summer that described the 71-bed youth facility in Kailua
    as "existing in a state of chaos," was filed on behalf of an
    18-year-old lesbian, an 18-year-old boy perceived by guards
    and other teenage wards to be gay and a 17-year-old male-
    to-female transgender girl. It says the teenagers were physically
    and verbally abused by staff members at the facility as well
    as by other wards because of their sexual and gender orientation.

    "Everyone knew that the climate was pretty pervasive and
    nobody did anything about it," said Lois Perrin, legal director
    for the A.C.L.U. of Hawaii. Judge Seabright has scheduled
    a status conference on the case for Monday.

    Hawaii's attorney general, Mark J. Bennett, said on Friday that
    the state planned to develop specific policies to deal with lesbian,
    gay, bisexual and transgender wards, and that state officials
    would consult with the A.C.L.U. in doing so.

    Ms. Perrin, who delivered a list of proposed injunctions to the
    court on Friday, said the A.C.L.U. wanted the changes done
    under a court order and more quickly than the three years
    the state had to comply with the federal agreement.

    "We're asking that they are not allowed to discriminate, harass
    or abuse wards, based on actual or perceived sexual orientation,
    gender identity or sex," Ms. Perrin said. She said the A.C.L.U.
    also wanted the state to thoroughly investigate accusations
    of harassment and abuse, to stop using isolation to protect
    wards from abuse by other teens, and to provide a physically
    and psychologically safe environment.

    The state's settlement agreement with the Justice Department
    imposes dozens of conditions on the youth prison, including
    the development of suicide prevention and intervention procedures,
    the protection of young wards from physical and sexual abuse,
    and the employment of enough staff members to adequately
    supervise and care for the wards. An independent monitor
    will oversee the state's changes.

    The state also agreed to conduct criminal record checks within
    the next four months on all employees who worked directly
    with the youths.

    "It certainly indicates that we need to make sure that the
    individuals who are employed at the facility who come in
    contact with youth are the right people to be working there,"
    Mr. Bennett said.

    He said the agreement, the result of four months of negotiations,
    did not include an admission of constitutional violations or other
    wrongdoing by the state. The state has three years to comply,
    or the Justice Department may refile its lawsuit.

    "Obviously if we didn't think there were serious problems at the
    facility we wouldn't have entered into as comprehensive an
    agreement as this one was," Mr. Bennett said. "This agreement
    imposes substantial burdens on the state. It's going to be
    expensive and it's going to take time."

    A number of Hawaii institutions have had trouble with the
    federal government. Thirteen years of federal oversight at
    Hawaii State Hospital in Kaneohe, the state's mental health
    facility, ended a little over a year ago. The Oahu Community
    Correctional Center operated under federal supervision from
    1985 to 1999 under a consent decree that limited the number
    of inmates.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    10) TREATY OF RELATIONS
    BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA,
    SIGNED MAY 29, 1934
    [Here's the text of the 1934 treaty with Cuba which the United States
    is violating by using the base as a prison/torture facility today.]
    http://www.walterlippmann.com/us-cuba-guantanamo-treaty-1934.html

    Treaty Series No. 866

    Treaty of Relations between the United States of America and the
    Republic of Cuba, Signed at Washington, May 29, 1934

    The United States of America and the Republic of Cuba, being animated
    by the desire to fortify the relations of friendship between the two
    countries and to modify, with this purpose, the relations established
    between them by the Treaty of Relations signed at Habana, May 22,
    1903, have appointed, with this intention, as their
    Plenipotentiaries:

    The President of the United States of America; Mr. Cordell Hull,
    Secretary of State of the United States of America, and Mr. Sumner
    Welles, Assistant Secretary of state of the United States of America;
    and

    The Provisional President of the Republic of Cuba, Señor Dr. Manuel
    Márquez Sterling, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the
    Republic of Cuba to the United States of America;

    Who, after having communicated to each other their full powers which
    were found to be in good and due form, have agreed upon the following
    articles:

    Article I

    The Treaty of Relations which was concluded between the two
    contracting parties on May 22, 1903, shall cease to be in force, and
    is abrogated, from the date on which the present Treaty goes into
    effect.

    Article II

    All the acts effected in Cuba by the United States of America during
    its military occupation of the island, up to May 20, 1902, the date
    on which the Republic of Cuba was established, have been ratified and
    held as valid; and all the rights legally acquired by virtue of those
    acts shall be maintained and protected.

    Article III

    Until the two contracting patties agree to the modification or
    abrogation of the stipulations of the agreement in regard to the
    lease to the United States of America of lands in Cuba for coaling
    and naval stations signed by the President of the Republic of Cuba on
    February 16, 1903, and by the President of the United States of
    America on the 23d day of the same month and year, the stipulation of
    that agreement with regard to the naval station of Guantánamo shall
    continue in effect. The supplementary agreement in regard to naval or
    coaling stations signed between the two Governments on July 2, 1903,
    also shall continue in effect in the same form and on the same
    conditions with respect to the naval station at Guantánamo. So long
    as the United States of America shall not abandon the said naval
    station of Guantánamo or the two Governments shall not agree to a
    modification of its present limits, the station shall continue to
    have the territorial area that it now has, with the limits that it
    has on the date of the signature of the present Treaty.

    Article IV

    If at any time in the future a situation should arise that appears to
    point to an outbreak of contagious disease in the territory of either
    of the contracting parties, either of the two Governments shall, for
    its own protection, and without its act being considered unfriendly,
    exercise freely and at its discretion the right to suspend
    communications between those of its ports that it may designate and
    all or par of the territory of the other part, and for the period
    that it may consider to be advisable.

    Article V

    The present Treaty shall be ratified by the contracting parties in
    accordance with their respective constitutional methods; and shall go
    into effect on the date of the exchange of their ratifications, which
    shall take place in the city of Washington as soon as possible.

    IN FAITH WHEREOF, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the
    present Treaty and have affixed their seals hereto.

    DONE in duplicate, in the English and Spanish languages, at
    Washington on the twenty-ninth day of May, one thousand nine hundred
    and thirty-four.

    [Seal] CORDELL HULL

    [Seal] SUMNER WELLES

    [Seal]M. MARQUEZ STERLING

    [The records in the files of the Department of State regarding the
    negotiation of this treaty are fragmentary. In reply to an inquiry,
    Mr. Sumner Welles, who was Assistant Secretary of State in 1934,
    wrote on March 1, 1948, to Mr. Robert A. Lovett, Under Secretary of
    State, a letter containing the following statement:

    "It is, however hardly a matter of surprise to me that the
    Departmental files should contain little documentation with regard to
    the Treaty of 1934. When the President sent me to Cuba as Ambassador
    in the spring of 1933, it was agreed between us that one of the major
    objectives of my mission should be to prepare the way for the
    negotiation of a new treaty between Cuba and the United States by
    which the Platt Amendment might be abrogated. During the months I was
    in Cuba I discussed this objective with certain Cuban leaders, among
    them Dr. Cosme de la Torriente, who later became Secretary of State
    in the Mendieta Government and under whose direction the negotiations
    on the part of the Cuban Government for the Treaty of 1934 were
    carried on. There was no difference of opinion between the Cuban
    Government and ourselves at that time as to what the Treaty should
    contain, and there was actually very little disagreement as to the
    provisions to be included therein. I have a very clear recollection
    that Dr. Manuel Márquez Sterling, then Cuban Ambassador in
    Washington, and I sat down together in my office in the Department of
    State and agreed upon a text which later, with slight amendment,
    became the definitive test. I recollect further that the President
    approved without change the text agreed upon by the Cuban Ambassador
    and myself."(711.37/3-148)]

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    11) Out of Sight, Out of Mind
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    February 12, 2006
    Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com

    If one watches corporate media or listens to Cheney Administration
    propaganda, one is either not getting information about Iraq at all, or
    hearing that things are looking up as the U.S. approaches another
    “phase” in the occupation.

    Just taking a brief look at the “security incidents” reported by Reuters
    for today, 12 February, gives a little clue as to how the occupation of
    Iraq, aside from being immoral and unjust, is a dismal failure.

    *RAMADI - Six insurgents were killed and another wounded on Saturday
    when U.S forces conducted an air strike in the city of Ramadi, 110 km
    (68 miles) west of Baghdad, the U.S military said on Sunday.
    *MUQDADIYA - Clashes between insurgents and Iraqi army soldiers
    conducting a raid killed one rebel in Muqdadiya, 90 km (50 miles) north
    east of Baghdad. The army arrested 40 suspected insurgents in the same
    operation.
    *BAGHDAD - A 53-year-old male detainee at Abu Ghraib prison died on
    Saturday as a result of complications from an assault by an unknown
    number of detainees, the U.S military said in a statement.
    *MAHAWEEL - The bodies of three people, bound and shot in the head and
    chest, were found in Mahaweel, 75 km (50 miles) south of Baghdad, police
    said. The bodies showed signs of torture.
    *ISKANDARIYA - The bodies of two people, bound and shot in the head and
    chest, were found in Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad,
    police said. The bodies showed signs of torture.
    *BAGHDAD - Three police commandos and a civilian were killed and four
    commandos wounded when a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt blew
    himself up near a check point in southern Baghdad, police said.
    *KIRKUK - Gunmen killed four policemen while they were driving in a
    civilian car in the main road between Kirkuk and Tikrit, 175 km (110
    miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
    *KIFL - Gunmen wearing police uniforms killed a civilian on Saturday in
    Kifl, a town about 150 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.
    *NEAR LATIFIYA - Police retrieved the body of a dead person from the
    river on Saturday near Latifiya, south of Baghdad.
    *BAQUBA - A director of sport education of Diyala province was killed by
    gunmen in the city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police
    said.
    *YATHRIB - Gunmen kidnapped three truck drivers who were carrying
    equipment to a U.S military base on Saturday in Yathrib, a region near
    Balad, 90 km (55 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
    *BAIJI - Gunmen blew up a gas station on Saturday near the oil refinery
    city of Baiji, 180 km (112 miles) north of Baghdad.
    BAGHDAD - Twelve civilians were wounded when two roadside bombs exploded
    in quick succession near an Iraqi police patrol in central Baghdad,
    police said.
    SAMARRA - The Iraqi army found three Iranian Shi'ite pilgrims who were
    among a group of 12, including an Iraqi driver, kidnapped by gunmen in
    Samarra on Friday, Iraqi army officials said.
    HAWIJA - Gunmen shot dead a doctor and wounded an employee working in
    the main hospital in Hawija, 70 km south west of the northern city of
    Kirkuk, on Saturday, police said.
    KIRKUK - Four policemen were wounded when a roadside bomb went off near
    their patrol in the northern city of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of
    Baghdad, police said.
    KIRKUK - The corpse of a Kurdish contractor working with the U.S army
    was found on Saturday in Kirkuk, police said.
    KIRKUK - Two civilians were wounded by a roadside bomb near their patrol
    in Kirkuk, police said.
    BAGHDAD - Two civilians were killed, including a child, and three were
    wounded, when a roadside bomb targeting police commandos exploded in a
    northern district of the capital, police said.

    A brief glance at recent events in Iraq shows that violence only
    continues to escalate and the infrastructure which U.S. taxpayers
    supposedly paid billions of dollars to repair is in shambles.

    While the Cheney Administration blame Iraqi resistance attacks and
    sabotage for the lack of reconstruction, I would like to remind people
    that at least $8.8 Billion of the money meant for reconstruction efforts
    remains unaccounted for. Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for
    Iraq reconstruction, said this is because “oversight” on the part of the
    Coalition Provisional Authority “was relatively nonexistent.”

    Meanwhile, the U.S. military is over a quarter of the way towards having
    the 3,000th soldier killed in Iraq, as 2,267 have now been killed. 25 of
    those deaths have occurred this month.

    But as usual, it is the Iraqis who are paying the highest price.

    Looking at Arab media outlets, evidence of this abounds.

    According to Al-Sharqiyah television:

    “The head of the Al-Fallujah Municipal Council was killed by gunshots on
    February 7, Iraqi Al Sharqiyah TV reported that day. In its 1100 gmt
    newscast, the TV said: "Unidentified armed men this morning assassinated
    Shaykh Kamal Shakir Nizal, head of the Municipal Council of Al-Fallujah,
    western Iraq.”

    The U.S. backed puppet Iraqi government continues its state-sponsored
    civil war. Aside from the numerous bodies found in the aforementioned
    Reuters report, this past week Sharqiyah also reported:

    “Iraqi and US security forces raided the Iraqi Islamic Party’s
    headquarters in the Al-Amiriyah area in western Baghdad. The Islamic
    Party, which is one of the Iraqi entities operating under the banner of
    the Iraqi Al-Tawafuq Front, issued a press statement today saying that
    last night, Iraqi forces, backed by US troops, assaulted the
    headquarters’ guards and the party members who were there at the time,
    destroyed the headquarters’ furniture and contents, seized the licensed
    weapons carried by the guards, and confiscated sums of money belonging
    to the party.”

    Of course atrocities continue at the hands of occupation forces. Video
    has been released which shows a group of British soldiers brutally
    beating and kicking defenseless Iraqi teenagers inside a military
    compound, and Iraqis recently released from prisons like Abu Ghraib are
    reporting ongoing torture at the hands of U.S. forces. This, however,
    should come as no surprise since Secretary of “Defense” Donald Rumsfeld
    issued a memo over two years ago specifying which types of “harsh
    interrogation techniques” he wanted used in Iraq.

    This is just a brief overview of recent events in Iraq.

    When Israeli/U.S. warplanes begin dropping bombs on Iran, will Iraq fade
    to the back pages of the news as has Afghanistan? With the corporate
    media coverage of Iraq at this sorry state already, it’s difficult to
    imagine that not occurring.

    (c)2004, 2005 Dahr Jamail.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    12) WHAT STATE? WHAT UNION?
    [Col. Writ. 2/1/06] Copyright 2006 Mumia Abu-Jamal

    Every four years, U.S. presidents stroll into the halls of Congress,
    and announce, almost as if by rote, "The State of our Union is strong."

    This is statecraft (or should I say, stagecraft?); the use of
    illusions to keep the rabble in line.

    In biblical lore, the Pharaoh did the same thing when he ordered his
    priests to hurl down their staffs, to transform them into vipers.

    Princes, since antiquity, used stagecraft to calm the People, to
    reassure them of the power of the State.

    But, as ever, the view from the bottom is woefully different from
    that of those in the towers.

    There are tens of thousands of autoworkers reeling from news of job
    cuts in the industry. This, after GM (General Motors) announced in 2005
    that worldwide sales (of 9.17 million units) were the second highest in
    history! I wonder how *workers* feel about the 'state of the union?'

    Of the roiling Middle East, and America's lust for 'black gold',
    President George W. Bush launched into a subject that seemed absurd,
    saying, "America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from
    unstable parts of the world."

    "Unstable?" Like the Iraq war brought 'stability' to the region!
    His comments were like a crack addict, complaining about the drug wars
    raging in the neighborhoods.

    The Iraq War was a mad project doomed for failure from inception --
    the neocon dream of 'bringing democracy to the Middle East!'

    Hey -- if there was some *real* democracy in the U.S., the Iraq War
    would never have begun -- for the voices of the People -- those splendid
    millions who marched in February and March, 2003 -- would've been heeded
    by those in office.

    In time, we will look back to this age with incredulity and
    amazement -- and victories like Hamas in Israel will be the *best* of
    our memories.

    The present economic model, despite it's false boosting by the
    president, is fast failing in this tsunami of greed. Workers are being
    downsized, laid off, cut back, and told to produce more -- as executives
    are given bigger and better pieces of the corporate pie.

    What State? -- When the lives of so many slides deeper into debt and
    despair?

    What Union? -- When the government acts as a collection agency for
    the ruling corporate class?

    The Congress is for rent to the highest bidder. The Jack Abramoff
    scandal shows more corporate purchases of Congress than during the era
    of the Robber Barons of the last century.

    What is democracy when the executive can tap phones of Americans, in
    the thousands, without even the pretense of a court order?

    Nor is this new, for presidents have been wiretapping Americans
    since at least May 1940, when President Theodore Roosevelt ordered his
    Attorney General to wiretap people 'involving the defense of the
    nation.' Such taps continued from that time until it was sharply
    curtailed by President Johnson's Attorney General Ramsey Clark, in the
    latter years of the administration.

    The COINTELPRO era marked the high point of this illegal and
    unconstitutional practice, when anyone who dissented from government
    policy could find themselves spied on, phones tapped, homes broken into
    illegally, people hounded, by the state, into divorce, dissolution, and
    death. In its heyday, millions of people were targeted by the State,
    for daring to support social change!

    We live in the twilight of democracy, when votes are as chancy as
    lottery tickets; when the U.S. serves as the repressive era of globalist
    greed; when war is a machine, running on oil, blood and lies.

    State of the Union?

    What State? What Union?


    Copyright 2006 Mumia Abu-Jamal

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    13) Cuba Amateurs Face Millionaires in World Baseball Classic
    By Circles Robinson
    www.circlesonline.blogspot.com

    The best baseball players that money can buy and a small group that
    play for the sport of it will face off starting March 3rd in the
    World Baseball Classic.

    US Major League Baseball has always called its national championship
    the World Series, believing its ability to purchase the finest from
    each country has made it the unquestioned king. However, since many
    MLB players will be playing with the teams of their native countries
    in the Classic, the US team 's superiority is not totally guaranteed.

    The biggest question mark of the event is the underdog Cuban team,
    fresh off victories in the 2005 Baseball World Cup and the 2004
    Athens Olympics, but against weaker competition. Over the years some
    of Cuba's best have been lured by fat contracts to play in MLB but
    none of those players will be playing for the island, which prefers
    to continue its tradition of amateur-only sports.

    "Cuba will play well, even though they have stolen many of our good
    players," President Fidel Castro said recently.

    Organized by MLB and its Players Association, the Classic has
    pitching rules tailored to the liking of US baseball team owners and
    venues geared to help the US team redeem its country's poor showings
    in other international baseball events.

    For its US corporate sponsors, the World Baseball Classic is like any
    other commercial endeavor. Tickets, the majority already sold for the
    opening rounds, run from $12.50 to over $100 per game and advertising
    revenues will add to the profits. Hotel rooms run from $175 to $475
    per night. All teams except Cuba will take home a percentage of the
    revenues. The island offered to donate any funds to victims of
    hurricane Katrina.

    Sixteen teams play the first round in four pools between March 3-10
    with the top two teams in each group moving on to the quarter finals.
    The only team that could play all its qualifying rounds, semi-finals
    and finals to a home crowd is the USA, a significant advantage.

    A team must win at least six of eight games to be crowned the winner,
    two of three games in each of the first two rounds to qualify for the
    semifinals, a must win in the single-elimination semis, followed by a
    win in the one game finals.

    While baseball analysts alert that anything can happen in such a
    short series, the first round where the top two teams qualify is
    unlikely to produce any surprises.

    Group A, probably the most competitive of the pools, pits favored
    Japan, playing at home against rivals Taipei and Korea, all
    considered among the top 10 teams in the tournament. Their other
    rival China is ranked among the weakest.

    Pool B, the least competitive, pits the heavily favored United States
    team at home, with Canada and Mexico battling for the second
    qualifying position, and South Africa along for the ride.

    Pool C, is expected to be a match between favored Puerto Rico playing
    at home, with a slate of well-paid MLB players and Cuba, which will
    field an all amateur squad similar to its Olympic and World Cup
    Champion teams. The other rivals, The Netherlands and Panama are
    given little chance to qualify for the second round.

    Pool D, to be played in Orlando, Florida, is considered a foregone
    conclusion with the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, both loaded
    with top paid MLB players qualifying and Italy and Australia doing
    the best they can.

    Therefore, the second round will most likely include Japan and either
    Korea or Taipei from Pool A, the United States, and Canada or Mexico
    from Pool B, in one group, with Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican
    Republic and Venezuela in the other.

    Those in London and Las Vegas who take legal wagers on such sporting
    events predict that the semifinals will be between the United States
    and Japan in one match and Venezuela and the Dominican Republic in
    the other. They also consider it most likely that the finals will be
    played between the United States and the Dominican Republic because
    they have the most major leaguers on their squads.

    To accommodate the worries of Major League Baseball team owners that
    their star pitchers could get hurt before the MLB season opens in
    April, the WBC rules limit pitchers to 65 throws in the first round,
    80 in the quarterfinals and 95 in the semifinals and finals. Pitchers
    throwing more than 50 pitches are obliged to take 4 days rest before
    pitching again.

    Relief pitchers cannot work consecutive games if they exceed 30
    pitches and cannot appear in a third straight game independent of how
    few pitches they threw in the other two.

    These rules are considered to the detriment of the teams with less
    depth in their pitching and who would have otherwise used their best
    whenever ready and needed.

    In the amended tournament rules, the 16 teams' provisional 60-man
    rosters must be reduced down to 30 at least five days before their
    first game. The list must include at least 13 pitchers and 3
    catchers.

    Cuba has suspended its national league play from February 13 to March
    23 to allow the provisional roster players to train for the Classic.

    The last time Cuba played against a Major League team was back in
    1999 when it split a two game series with the Baltimore Orioles,
    losing 3-2 in an 11-inning thriller in Havana and winning easily 12-6
    in Baltimore.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    14) Group Starts Anti-Union Campaign
    By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
    February 14, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/business/14labor.html?pagewanted=all

    A new business-backed group is mounting a highly visible attack
    against organized labor, just as unions are trying to pick themselves
    up after suffering a schism and years of decline.

    The group, the Center for Union Facts, ran full-page advertisements
    in national newspapers yesterday and started a Web site,
    UnionFacts.com, asserting that many unions are corrupt and
    have hurt airlines, steel makers and automakers.

    "Obviously I'm putting out information that's not very flattering,"
    said Richard Berman, a longtime lobbyist for the restaurant and
    beverage industry who is executive director of the Center for
    Union Facts. "The average person today, including the average
    union member, doesn't have any idea how unions operate and
    what the realities are. Everybody knows what unions are good
    at, but not what they're bad at."

    The Center for Union Facts shot onto the public stage yesterday
    by running full-page ads in The New York Times, The Washington
    Post and The Wall Street Journal. The ads, which cost a total
    of $240,000, say "The New Union Label," and then show a sign
    with the word "Closed" in capital letters hanging from a plant
    gate. Then it adds, "Brought to you by the union 'leaders' who
    helped bankrupt steel, auto and airline companies."

    Mr. Berman said various companies and a foundation had
    contributed to his nonprofit group, but he refused to identify
    them. He said he hoped to spend more than $5 million a year
    on the campaign.

    A spokeswoman for the A.F.L.-C.I.O., Lane Windham, said:
    "It's clear that corporations are fighting back against workers'
    efforts to roll back corporate power. It's no accident that
    corporations are doing this against us when unions are trying
    to make sure that employers pay their fair share on heath care
    and when we're taking on giant corporations like Wal-Mart."

    Mr. Berman runs a public affairs firm in Washington and helped
    to create the American Beverage Institute and the Employment
    Policies Institute, which has helped the restaurant industry
    fight increases in the minimum wage.

    He has faced criticism in recent years for arguing on behalf
    of his clients that drinking a lot of soda does not contribute
    to diabetes and that Americans have been "force-fed a steady
    diet of obesity myths by the 'food police,' trial lawyers, and
    even our own government." Mr. Berman was also criticized
    for fighting a push by Mothers Against Drunk Driving to
    tighten rules on alcohol limits for drivers.

    "We do take edgy positions and they're all very legitimate,"
    Mr. Berman said yesterday.

    Ms. Windham of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. said Mr. Berman's attack
    on unions was another of his campaigns against those
    who clash with his corporate clients.

    The attack comes as organized labor is facing divisions
    that have caused five unions to quit the A.F.L.-C.I.O.
    over the past year.

    Unions have also struggled with declining membership,
    as the percentage of American workers in unions has sunk
    to 12.5 percent of the work force, down from 35 percent
    in the 1950's.

    A.F.L.-C.I.O. officials said the president of a state chamber
    of commerce told them that at a conference in Florida on
    Jan. 26, the state chambers had pledged several million
    dollars to back Mr. Berman's effort. But Mr. Berman said that
    when he spoke at the conference, he neither asked for nor
    received contributions. Rather, he said, he asked chamber
    officials to recommend that businesses in their states
    donate to his efforts.

    Randel Johnson, vice president for labor, immigration and
    employee benefits at the United States Chamber of Commerce,
    said that as far as he knew neither the United States Chamber
    nor any state chambers had contributed to the Center for
    Union Facts.

    Mr. Johnson said he had served as an adviser to the center.
    The center was founded as several unions had grown more
    aggressive about unionizing workers, often pressuring employers
    not to fight organizing drives. In addition, many unions are
    pressing companies to agree to recognize them, not through
    representation elections, but through a process known as
    card check, in which companies grant recognition as soon
    as a majority of workers sign cards saying they want a union.

    "In card check campaigns, unions tend to control the information
    that the workers hear," Mr. Johnson said. "We think the Center
    on Union Facts is useful for workers to have access to more
    information on unions."

    Mr. Berman said his center hoped to help enact a Republican-
    backed bill that would prohibit unions from organizing workers
    through card checks.

    For a dozen different unions, the center's Web site details the
    compensation of leaders, the amount of each union's political
    contributions and how often members have sued the union
    for not representing them properly.

    "Union leaders have abused the trust of their members," the
    center says on its Web site. "They've misspent member dues
    and harmed the very same people they promise to protect."

    Anna Burger, president of the Change to Win Federation,
    a group of unions that quit the A.F.L.-C.I.O., said, "These
    anti-union activists can name themselves whatever they like,
    but the fact is that unions help working families secure the
    American Dream and that's good for our country."

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    15) G.M. to Invest $500 Million in Michigan
    By MICHELINE MAYNARD
    February 14, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/business/14gm.html?pagewanted=all

    DETROIT, Feb. 13 — General Motors is set to announce Tuesday
    that it has made, or plans to make, investments totaling $500 million
    to help modernize five of its Michigan factories.

    The automaker said it had scheduled a news conference for Tuesday
    afternoon at its manufacturing headquarters in Pontiac, north of
    Detroit. On Monday night, a company spokesman declined to
    discuss the nature of the announcement.

    But people with direct knowledge of G.M.'s announcement, who
    requested anonymity, said that the investments began last summer
    at the plants, which include assembly and parts operations around
    the state.

    The modernizing programs will not create large numbers of new
    jobs, these people said. Any jobs that are created are likely to be
    filled by workers who are laid off from other G.M. factories, one
    of the people said.

    Nonetheless, Elizabeth Boyd, a spokeswoman for Gov. Jennifer
    M. Granholm, said the investments would be good news for the
    state, which has been hit hard by the auto industry slowdown.

    Any time jobs can be created, Ms. Boyd said, "That's something
    to celebrate."

    G.M. lost $8.6 billion in 2005 and is pushing to reduce its costs.
    It announced in November that it planned to close all or part of
    12 plants, including a small assembly plant in Lansing, Mich.
    The moves are expected to eliminate 30,000 jobs through 2008.

    Earlier this month, G.M. said it would invest $118 million at
    a factory outside Baltimore to build parts for hybrid-electric
    sport utility vehicles. That investment is expected to create
    about 87 jobs.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    16) Hotel Aid Ends; Katrina Evacuees Seek Housing Again
    By SHAILA DEWAN
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/national/nationalspecial/14hotels.html

    NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 13 — Thousands of evacuees from Hurricane
    Katrina became transients again on Monday, wheeling their entire
    lives onto the street on luggage carts or dragging bulging garbage
    bags through hotel lobbies, when the federal government stopped
    paying their hotel bills.

    In the largest single step in its phaseout of emergency housing
    assistance for victims of the hurricane, the Federal Emergency
    Management Agency ended the hotel payments for 12,000 families
    across the country, including 4,400 now living in New Orleans.

    Most will get apartment rental assistance or trailers. Federal officials
    acknowledged Monday that hundreds of millions of dollars worth of
    mobile homes might never be used to house hurricane victims.

    Many evacuees who have returned to New Orleans have begun
    to rebuild, enroll their children in school or, like Dominique
    Handy, get a job.

    Ms. Handy, a waitress, stood on the street outside the Royal St.
    Charles Hotel on Monday, her belongings in the trunk of a friend's
    car, her baby daughter, Amyrie, balanced on her hip. She had
    $1,800 from FEMA, which was supposed to pay for three months'
    rent — an impossibility in a city so strapped for housing that
    officials could not even find a place to serve as an emergency shelter.

    "Rent out here, it's like $1,800 a month itself," said Ms. Handy, 22.

    The phaseout of hotel rooms is the end of an aid program that cost
    more than a half-billion dollars and at its peak housed 85,000
    families on a single night. FEMA, which is ending the program over
    the strenuous protests of Louisiana officials, says it is time for families
    to find a more permanent situation. Of the 12,000 families whose
    benefit ended Monday, 10,500 have received rental assistance or
    a trailer, said Libby Turner, head of the Hurricane Katrina/Rita
    Transitional Housing Unit at FEMA.

    But none of the two dozen or so evacuees losing their hotel benefits
    who were interviewed in New Orleans in the past two days had
    a permanent place to go.

    Even on FEMA's housing Web site, the pickings were slim — only
    five two-bedroom apartments in the New Orleans area met the
    agency's budget of less than $800 a month. Several that were
    listed had been rented long ago, according to the landlords,
    or would not be ready for weeks.

    Mark Smith, the spokesman for the Louisiana Office of Homeland
    Security and Emergency Preparedness, said 15 families had already
    checked into an emergency shelter in Shreveport, a five-hour drive
    from New Orleans, and more than 100 people were on their way there.

    Houston, Atlanta and other cities with large populations of evacuees
    passed the deadline with little incident, but in New Orleans several
    hotels called private security squads armed with rifles after employees
    were threatened.

    Still, most people left peaceably, though many people lingered until
    noon, when a federal judge, asked by housing advocates to continue
    the hotel program, declined to do so. The judge, Stanwood R. Duval Jr.
    of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana,
    had extended the hotel program once before when FEMA announced
    it would end on Jan. 7.

    FEMA then gave people an extra month and asked those who wanted
    to stay even longer to call to receive an authorization code. Last week,
    some 5,000 people who did not call for the code lost their hotel rooms.
    Agency officials said that most of those people had made more
    permanent arrangements but that an undetermined number might
    have been unwilling to call in because they were misusing the program.

    FEMA had said repeatedly that no evacuees would be thrown out on
    the street, and several hotels reported that many guests had received
    a last-minute reprieve. At the Cotton Exchange Hotel in New Orleans,
    only 39 of 148 families scheduled to leave Monday actually did,
    a spokeswoman said.

    After Monday, 8,000 rooms were expected to remain in the program,
    said Nicol Andrews, a spokeswoman for FEMA. The agency will stop
    paying for almost all of those March 1.

    The agency's critics say it is unfair to ask destitute families to make
    long-term housing decisions when little progress has been made
    on restoring homes in New Orleans.

    "Evacuees shouldn't have to come up with a permanent housing plan,"
    said Bryan Mauldin, president of From the Lake to the River, a FEMA
    watchdog group that aids victims of Hurricane Katrina. "They already
    have homes. They need the right to return to their homes. It is FEMA
    that needs a permanent housing plan."

    Many evacuees Ping-Ponged from place to place after Hurricane Katrina.
    Some boarded buses without knowing where they were going. Lee Curry,
    30, said he was denied an extension of his hotel stay in New Orleans
    because he had been given a housing voucher in Houston. Those
    vouchers were good for a year.

    "It's not like that I chose to get that housing over there," Mr. Curry said.
    "I had no place else to go. If someone could give me a place to get my
    kids situated, I had to take that."

    Donna Lee, 44, said she had also taken an apartment in Houston, but
    on Christmas Eve someone knocked on the door. Her 28-year-old son,
    the one who had kicked a hole through the roof to pull her out of rising
    water in New Orleans East, answered it, and the caller fatally shot him.
    She returned to New Orleans to bury her son, bringing his children with her.

    "I just don't want to go back there," Ms. Lee said. But, she said, FEMA had
    denied her hotel extension.

    Gary Martin, who worked as a waiter for 27 years at the Fairmont Hotel,
    said his benefits had been denied because, he was told, someone else
    had used the same phone number as he did. He said he and another man
    had rented rooms in the same house before the storm. Mr. Martin said
    he could not seem to get the problem fixed. "I should go to Iraq or
    Afghanistan, so I could get some government money," he said.

    Mr. Martin said that in a few weeks he would have earned enough doing
    asbestos removal to get an apartment without help from FEMA — he
    just needed some more time at the hotel. "I'm not asking for
    a handout," he said.

    Brenda Goodman contributed reporting from Atlanta for this article.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    17) UCSC Military Recruitment Debate Reportback
    by bob fitch (photos) & josh sonnenfeld (words)
    Saturday, Feb. 11, 2006 at 4:32 P
    http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1801777.php

    On Wednesday, Feb. 8, UCSC's Colleges 9 and 10 hosted a tightly-
    controlled debate on the issue of military recruitment. The two
    speakers were William Griffin, in charge of Army recruitment for
    the Monterey Bay area, and Mario Ramirez Hardy, a long-time
    counter-recruitment organizer and GI Rights Hotline counselor.

    The issue of military recruitment at UC Santa Cruz and in the
    community as a whole has been prominent for years. Due to
    creative student protests, all branch of the military have been
    prevented from any form of recruiting on campus for more than
    a year. After multiple successful local campaigns, the majority
    of Santa Cruz County high school parents haveopted their
    children out of contact lists sent to recruiters. Santa Cruz
    County now has the lowest recruitment rate in the state
    of California.

    On Wednesday night, Colleges 9 and 10 organized a debate
    on the issue of military recruitment. William Griffin, the top
    dog for Army recruitment in the area, faced off against Mario
    Ramirez Hardy, who has been helping GIs get out of the
    military for over a decade, in addition to a wide array
    of counter-recruitment activities.

    The night was very tightly controlled by Colleges 9 and
    10 (c9/10) staff, headed by Wendy Baxter, and moderated
    by Professor Paul Roth. There were fears of protests from
    students, possibly by Students Against War (SAW), as military
    recruiters are known not to be welcome. Due to these fears,
    c9/10 staff taped a 'do not cross' line on the ground outside
    the Multi-Purpose Room, where the debate was held. Protesters
    and leafletters were not to cross the line. Nonetheless,
    important flyers found their way in the hands of almost
    all the student attendees. No protests were planned,
    as no military recruitment was to take place.

    During the debate, Mario Ramirez Hardy and William Griffin
    calmly answered a few questions that they had received before
    hand. Students with questions were asked to write them on
    cards, which Roth and Baxter screened. No questions relating
    to foreign policy were allowed. Due to all these restrictions,
    the debate wasn't overly exciting, although there was
    a good deal of information presented.

    Mario Ramirez Hardy systematically dispelled the myths
    about military recruitment - using facts provided from
    military or governmental sources. He spoke about how
    military recruiters, under the enlistment agreement
    (see: http://quakerhouse.org/documents/enlist.html)
    can change anything at any time, with or without notice
    to the enlistee (i.e. recruiters can't make any promises).
    He noted that 57% of enlistees don't get a dime for college,
    that 90% of women in the military reported harassment
    (1/3 of which were raped), the high rates of discrimination
    against people of color, and the violent heterosexism and
    homophobia of the military, seen by their 'Don't Ask, Don't
    Tell' policy and the consistent harassment of enlistees found
    to be queer. These statistics were backed up by more than
    a decade of personal experiences counseling GIs.

    William Griffin, the Army recruiter, attempted to claim that
    'statistics can be made to say anything,' although did not
    address the fact that these statistics were from the military
    and government themselves. He attempted to appeal to people's
    assumed nationalism - suggesting that the military is there
    to defend freedom. Many students rolled their eyes with these
    remarks, as the Pentagon was recently found to be spying
    on UCSC students, directly threatening these freedoms that
    they claim to protect. Griffin further claimed that the military
    'treats everyone the same' and protects enlistees from physical
    harm. However, he did not have any statistics to back his claims,
    except for the one time that he claimed over 100% of enlistees
    receive something.. making many students scratching their
    heads at how anyone could arrive at more than 100%. Overall
    though, Griffin was very calm and composed, with slick answers
    for all the questions - just like a recruitment commercial.

    On the hot topic of a possible military recruitment ban from
    campus, Griffin relied on the Solomon Amendment, a federal
    bill which threatens to take away university funding if they
    don't allow recruiters. He consistently claimed that the military
    just does what they're told - including discriminating against
    queers and women (as Hardy added). In contrast, Hardy
    suggested that students and communities should have the
    right to determine who visits their schools and that if they
    wanted to ban military recruiters, no one should stand
    in their way.

    Once the debate was over, students clapped (the first time
    they were allowed to all night - except for one impromptu
    clapping for Hardy) and a few milled around to talk to the
    speakers, but most walked home with some questions
    answered, but many more remaining.

    While the debate was not riddled with excitement, its
    existence signified the growth of UCSC's counter-recruitment
    movement and the prominance of the issue on campus,
    as the event was completely organized by college officials,
    not activists. It offered an opportunity for a wider audience
    to inform themselves on some of the issues related to military
    recruitment, which will hopefully transfer into more solidarity
    with counter-recruitment actions and campaigns in the future.
    It should also lead to a greater ability for student attendees
    (many of which were from SAW) to break down the fallacious
    arguments widely circulated by military recruiters -
    or 'salesmen' as Hardy called them.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    18) Outrage Spreads over New Images
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website
    Inter Press Service
    Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com
    The recently aired photos depicting
    torturing of Iraqis by U.S. military
    personnel at Abu Ghraib prison are
    now posted for viewing at
    www.dahrjamailiraq.com
    Go here to view the photos:
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album42

    *BASRA, Feb 16 (IPS) - New footage of British soldiers beating up young
    Iraqi men in Amarah city in 2003, and the release of more photographs of
    atrocities by U.S. soldiers against Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison
    has spread outrage across Iraq.*

    The timing of the new images is potent, in the wake of violence
    spreading through Iraq and much of the Muslim world over cartoons of
    Prophet Mohammed carried by a Danish newspaper and then other European
    publications.

    "We in Basra have decided not to cooperate in any way with the British
    troops," 43 year-old food merchant Ali Shehab Najim told IPS. "These
    occupiers of Basra are invaders and we will not sell them any of their
    requirements."

    Najim added, "None of us will work with them any longer either. My
    cousin used to work with them inside their base, but not any more. He
    refuses to go to work, and we have decided to show our contempt for them
    in every way possible."

    Najim said people are particularly angry over the Danish military
    presence in Iraq.

    He said he had first accepted the presence of occupation forces, but now
    "I think it's about time to tell them we do not respect them since they
    are behaving in a very bad way."

    After footage of British troops beating young Iraqis with fists and
    batons was aired earlier, the Governorate of Basra announced it has
    severed ties to the British military. This included cancellation of
    joint security patrols.

    "We condemn any of those actions by British and American troops in
    torturing our young people," former head city councillor of Basra
    governorate Qasim Atta Al-Joubori told IPS.

    "Iraqis suffered a lot during the past 35 years, but now they are
    tortured by foreigners who invaded our country," said Al-Joubori, who
    was a city councillor in Basra for 40 years. "We can't accept having
    them any more."

    Far from cooperating, people in Basra are now prepared to fight the
    occupation forces, he said. "What these beatings and torture show is
    that the occupiers are both assaulting and insulting all of the Iraqi
    people."

    Similar views are being echoed around Basra, a relatively quieter area
    in the south under charge of British troops.

    "We are looking to the day we see those bastards out of our country," 55
    year-old factory owner Abdullah Ibraheem told IPS. "Now they are
    torturing the citizens of Basra, Baghdad and Amarah, so they have not
    only lost the support of the Iraqi Sunnis but the Shias in this country
    as well."

    He said most Iraqis know someone who has been in a military detention
    centre, but said the new video footage and photographic evidence of
    torture have "demolished whatever credibility may have remained for the
    occupiers."

    The Australian television network Special Broadcasting Service (SBS)
    aired previously unpublished video footage and photographs Wednesday of
    abuse of Iraqis by U.S. soldiers inside the infamous Abu Ghraib prison
    in 2003.

    The images are similar to those published in 2004 that led to furore
    across the Middle East. But many of the new images show a brutality and
    extent of sexual humiliation that many news outlets found too shocking
    to carry.

    The American Civil Liberties Union had obtained the photographs from the
    U.S. government under a Freedom of Information request, but its members
    said they were not aware how the SBS came to air its new footage and the
    photographs.

    There could be yet more photographs to come. "I believe major newspapers
    in the U.S. like the Washington Post have scores more photos which are
    evidence of torture at Abu Ghraib, but they won't publish them due to
    pressure from the U.S. government," an attorney at the Centre for
    Constitutional Rights in New York City told IPS.

    In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters, "The
    abuses at Abu Ghraib have been fully investigated." He added, "When
    there have been abuses, this department has acted upon them promptly,
    investigated them thoroughly and where appropriate prosecuted individuals."

    He said the Pentagon believes that releasing of the new images would
    trigger greater violence, and endanger U.S. forces in Iraq.

    (c)2004, 2005 Dahr Jamail.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
    LINKS:
    --------*--------*---------*---------*---------*----------

    The Torture Photos Congress Didn't Want You to See
    Pictures That Missed the Exhibition
    By LILA RAJIVA
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.counterpunch.org/rajiva02162006.html

    Iraq: the forgotten victims
    Military under fire for 'abandoning' more than
    1,000 veterans with mental problems
    By Kim Sengupta and Terri Judd
    Published: 16 February 2006
    http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article345709.ece

    A Deal Is Reached to Name a Victor in Haiti's Election
    By GINGER THOMPSON
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/international/americas/16cnd-haiti.html?hp&ex=1140152400&en=fc29068844f31494&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    British Clinic Is Allowed to Deny Medicine
    [The best life-saving drugs money can buy. Don't have money?
    Start saving for your funeral...bw]
    By SARAH LYALL
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/international/europe/16cancer.html

    U.N. Report Calls for End to Guantánamo Detentions
    By WARREN HOGE
    February 16, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/international/16cnd-gitmo.html?hp&ex=1140152400&en=44f61e793b9e79a6&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Whistleblower Alleges Second Wiretap Program
    A former NSA employee said Tuesday there is another ongoing top-secret
    surveillance program that might have violated millions of Americans'
    Constitutional rights. Russell D. Tice told the House Government Reform
    Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International
    Relations he has concerns about a "special access" electronic
    surveillance program that he characterized as far more wide-ranging than the
    warrantless wiretapping.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021506A.shtml

    We Have Created the World’s First Truly Global Empire
    John Perkins, author of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," joins
    us in our firehouse studio to talk about his former work going into
    various countries to try to strongarm leaders into creating policy
    favorable to the U.S government and corporations. Perkins describes
    himself as an economic hit man.
    Democracy Now!!, February 15th, 2006
    http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/15/1436221

    2 Major Construction Unions Plan to Leave A.F.L.-C.I.O. Unit.
    By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
    February 15, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/national/15union.html?pagewanted=all

    A Cancer Drug Shows Promise, at a Price That Many Can't Pay
    By ALEX BERENSON
    February 15, 2006
    Doctors are excited about the prospect of Avastin, a drug already
    widely used for colon cancer, as a crucial new treatment for breast
    and lung cancer, too. But doctors are cringing at the price the
    maker, Genentech, plans to charge for it: about $100,000 a year.
    That price, about double the current level as a colon cancer
    treatment, would raise Avastin to an annual cost typically found
    only for medicines used to treat rare diseases that affect small
    numbers of patients. But Avastin, already a billion-dollar drug,
    has a potential patient pool of hundreds of thousands of people
    — which is why analysts predict its United States sales could grow
    nearly sevenfold to $7 billion by 2009.
    Doctors, though, warn that some cancer patients are already
    being priced out of the Avastin market. Even some patients
    with insurance are thinking hard before agreeing to treatment,
    doctors say, because out-of-pocket co-payments for the drug
    could easily run $10,000 to $20,000 a year.
    Until now, drug makers have typically defended high prices by
    noting the cost of developing new medicines. But executives
    at Genentech and its majority owner, Roche, are now using
    a separate argument — citing the inherent value of life-
    sustaining therapies.
    If society wants the benefits, they say, it must be ready to
    spend more for treatments like Avastin and another of the
    company's cancer drugs, Herceptin, which sells for
    $40,000 a year.
    "As we look at Avastin and Herceptin pricing, right now
    the health economics hold up, and therefore I don't see
    any reason to be touching them," said William M. Burns,
    the chief executive of Roche's pharmaceutical division
    and a member of Genentech's board. "The pressure on
    society to use strong and good products is there.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/business/15drug.html?pagewanted=all

    New Images of Abu Ghraib Abuse Are Broadcast in Australia
    By DAVID STOUT
    February 15, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/international/middleeast/15cnd-abuse.html?hp&ex=1140066000&en=dac2c0262f96954a&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Rice to Ask for $75 Million to Promote Democracy in Iran
    By JOHN O'NEIL
    February 15, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/politics/15cnd-rice.html?ei=5094&en=371353db702a1646&hp=&ex=1140066000&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1140047021-4QL4N0CwZHiNYdGOOVkT9w

    U.S. Royalty Plan to Give Windfall to Oil Companies
    By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
    February 14, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/business/14oil.html?ei=5094&en=2895b151845e0dd6&hp=&ex=1139979600&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1139929897-a33oSWYX0nMSvpMmTtK14Q

    VA Nurse Investigated for "Sedition" for Criticizing Bush
    By Matthew Rothschild
    February 8, 2006
    Published on The Progressive
    (http://progressive.org)
    http://progressive.org/mag_mc020806

    Retirement plan trends don't favor workers
    Barbara Whelehan
    http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/BoomerBucks/20050202a1.asp

    The next retirement time bomb
    By Milt Freudenheim and Mary Williams Walsh
    The New York Times
    December 11, 2005
    http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/12/11/business/web.1211walsh.php

    SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2005
    US Prepares Military Blitz Against Iran's Nuclear Sites
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0212-04.htm

    Rebranded: 'War on Terror' Now 'The Long War'
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0212-01.htm

    Revealed: the terror prison US is helping build in Morocco
    Tom Walker Rabat and Sarah Baxter
    The Sunday Times
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2036185,00.html

    Union Takes New Tack in Organizing Effort at Pork-Processing Plant
    By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
    February 13, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/national/13labor.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

    FOCUS | UN Report: US Is Torturing Prisoners
    A draft United Nations report on the detainees at Guantanamo Bay
    concludes that the US treatment of them violates their rights to physical and
    mental health and, in some cases, constitutes torture.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021306Z.shtml

    Abramoff's Charity Began at Home
    Disgraced super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff engaged in many charitable
    endeavors over the course of his decade-long career as a Washington insider,
    and used the nonprofits to evade taxes, pad his pockets and bribe
    officials.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021106A.shtml

    FOCUS | Charlie Anderson: Can We Come Home Now?
    Charlie Anderson, a Navy Hospital Corpsman with the Marine Corps,
    details his feelings of betrayal by his government for sending him to a war
    without purpose, his destroyed marriage and Post Traumatic Stress
    Disorder.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021106X.shtml

    John Pilger | The Next War - Crossing the Rubicon
    Has Tony Blair, the minuscule Caesar, finally crossed his Rubicon?
    Having subverted the laws of the civilized world and brought carnage
    to a defenseless people and bloodshed to his own, having lied and
    lied and used the death of a hundredth British soldier in Iraq to
    indulge his profane self-pity, is he about to collude in one more
    crime before he goes, wonders John Pilger.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021006A.shtml

    Bolivia's Knot: No to Cocaine, but Yes to Coca
    By JUAN FORERO
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/international/americas/12bolivia.html?hp&ex=1139720400&en=af9ae51499569031&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    Tutor Program Offered by Law Is Going Unused
    By SUSAN SAULNY
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/education/12tutor.html?hp&ex=1139720400&en=7acb50ec013ae6b2&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    The Wounded
    Replacing Limbs, Rebuilding Shattered Lives
    By JULIET MACUR
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/national/12WOUNDED.html?hp&ex=1139720400&en=9433185ff34d55ac&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    A New Black Power
    by WALTER MOSLEY
    http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060227/mosley

    [from the February 27, 2006 issue]
    More Injuries as Race Riots Disrupt Jails in Los Angeles
    By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
    LOS ANGELES, Feb. 9 — Five days of racial rioting have left one
    inmate dead and dozens injured at Los Angeles County jails
    as blacks and Latinos have taken their conflicts from the streets
    behind bars, the authorities said.
    February 10, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/10/national/10prison.html

     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2006

    SCROLL DOWN PAST ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR
    BAUAW NEWSLETTER
    -----------------------------------------

    TELL BUSH AND CONGRESS: STOP THE WAR
    ON IRAN BEFORE IT STARTS!
    Please join the online campaign to
    STOP THE WAR ON IRAN BEFORE IT STARTS!
    YOUR EMERGENCY ACTION IS NEEDED NOW!
    Send emails to President Bush, Vice President
    Cheney, Secretary of State Rice, U.N. Secretary-
    General Annan, Congressional leaders and
    the media demanding NO WAR ON IRAN!
    http://stopwaroniran.org/

    ...........................................................


    Help Us Tell CYA's Chief Warner:
    Close Chad Now!!

    Join Books Not Bars, Escuelas Si, Pintas No,
    and Youth in Focus on February 22 for
    a press conference and picket at the office
    of CYA Chief Bernard Warner in Sacramento.
    We will call on Chief Warner to close Chad
    immediately -- our youth need action now!

    Please come and show your support!

    Press Conference and Picket to close Chad

    Wednesday, February 22, 2006, 4:30 p.m.

    Where: Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
    1515 S. Street
    Sacramento, CA
    RSVP: Contact David at: 510.428.3939 x243 or
    david@ellabakercenter.org

    ...........................................................

    WHY WE FIGHT
    A film by Eugene Jarecki
    [Check out the trailer about this new film.
    This looks like a very powerful film.]
    http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/

    ...........................................................

    Hear: CC Campbell-Rock
    'Venezuelans are getting their 40 acres
    and a mule, and more'
    Friday, February 24th, 7PM
    Centro Del Pueblo
    474 Valencia Street
    (near 16th Street one block west of
    16th & Mission Bart Station)
    CC Campbell-Rock, the new editor of the San Francisco
    Bay View newspaper, has just returned from Venezuela.
    Read her article, 'Venezuelans are getting their 40 acres
    and a mule, and more' at
    www.sfbayview.com/020806/eyewitness020806.shtml .
    Hear her report back as an eyewitness
    to the Bolivarian Revolution.
    She attended last week's World Social Forum and
    toured the Venezuelan countryside, with other
    delegates from Global Women's Strike, to meet
    the grassroots revolutionary leaders who are
    making the kind of miracles in education, health,
    housing, economic development, etc., that could
    revive and transform the inner cities of the United
    States. Prior to working for the SF Bay View, CC was
    a prominent pre-KATRINA journalist and activist
    in New Orleans.
    This meeting is jointly sponsored by the San
    Francisco Bay Area Hands Off Venezuela! committee
    and the San Francisco Bay View .
    San Francisco Bay View
    (www.sfbayview.com)
    San Francisco Bay Area Hands Off Venezuela!
    sfbay@ushov.org 415-786-1680
    Donation $5.00 (Students, unemployed, and Seniors $3.00)

    .......................................................

    ANTIWAR MEETING OPEN TO ALL
    THOSE WHO DEMAND:
    STOP THE WAR NOW! U.S. OUT OF IRAQ!
    BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
    MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!
    SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2006, 10:00 A.M.
    Local, 34, the ILWU Shipclerk's Hall
    4 Berry Street (behind the ballpark)

    .......................................................

    Please help spread the word:

    Counter Recruitment
    Presenters Mobilization!

    The military recruits in most Bay Area high schools,
    Let’s make sure students hear the other side!

    This will be a training/organizing kick off for:
    • youth to youth presentation teams,
    • veterans and non-veteran classroom presenters, and
    • anyone who wants to learn, share and help support this effort!

    Saturday, February 25th, 2-5pm
    War Veterans Memorial Building, Room 219
    401 Van Ness, San Francisco
    West of City Hall, near Civic Center BART
    Snacks will be provided, donations will be accepted.

    For more information, please contact
    Paul Cox (510) 528-1975
    or Susan Quinlan moos-bay@riseup.net

    This event is co-sponsored by Veterans for Peace and
    Alternatives to War Through Education/
    Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors

    .......................................................

    Welcome to BANG4CHANGE 2006 !

    Bang4Change 2006 !
    We Poor People are called "Gang Bangers" & "Thugs"
    Challenge the Hype ! Bang with Peace, Courage & Solidarity!

    End US War on Poor, Black & Brown, NOW !

    Saturday February 25th,
    Noon to 6 P.M.
    CIVIL RIGHTS REVIVAL FEST
    In front of SF City Hall
    iolmisha@cs.com
    (415) 595-8251

    .......................................................

    Postering for March 18 Anti-war Protest - Volunteer Now!
    A.N.S.W.E.R. ACTIVIST MEETING
    TUESDAYs, 7PM
    2489 Mission St. Room 24 (at 21st St.) SF,
    near 24th St. BART
    Now more than ever, the anti-war movement needs
    to reach out to the thousands of people who are turning
    against the war and occupation of Iraq. Your help is needed.
    Call the ANSWER office for the schedule to go out in teams to poster
    for an hour or two. Pick up flyers, posters and stickers
    at the ANSWER office at 2489 Mission St. Room 24.
    Call 415-821-6545 for hours.

    ...........................................................

    PLEASE DISTRIBUTE FAR AND WIDE!! A CALL TO ACTION!!
    STOP EVICTIONS IN BAYVIEW-HUNTERS POINT
    TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 4:00 p.m.
    ROOM 416, CITY HALL, S.F.
    Companeros/companeras:
    Below please find an editorial by Willie Ratcliff,
    publisher of SF Bay View, about a March 7 hearing
    before Redevelopment Authority, which will seal the
    fate of Bayview Hunter's Point. Many of us have been
    saying for years that the Bayview will be the new
    Fillmore. March 7 is, as Ratcliff says, an eviction
    notice for the residents of Bayview Hunters Point. Not
    long after coming into office, Mayor Gavin Newsom did
    photo ops with young black men on a basketball court
    in Bayview (he was lavished with praise by our
    mindless media for that), but he knew damn well then
    that their displacement was imminent. It's all part of
    San Francisco's hypocrisy about racism and classism.
    "Oh, we're a liberal city, we oppose racism and
    classism..." people and politicians say, even as they
    stand idly by while more and more poor, working-class
    and people of color are pushed out of the city by
    Ellis Act evictions for TICs for the upper middle
    class and Redevelopment Authority's "negro removal,"
    as it was called by black activists in the 60s.

    Why is it that removing "urban blight" from our cities
    means giving poor, working-class and people of color a
    one-way ticket to another city? Why can't
    Redevelopment work on building communities from within
    (with no-interest business loans and subsidies to
    homeowners and landlords to fix up their properties,)
    instead of declaring "eminent domain" and stealing the
    land from folks who have nothing else? If
    Redevelopment wants to do some real cleaning of urban
    blight why not confiscate the mansions in Pacific
    Heights and do a little redistributing of the wealth!
    But that's not the game in America. Redevelopment is a
    tool of the real-estate interests that want to
    gentrify all of our neighborhoods. It's about removing
    poor folks so that middle-class and upper-class folks
    can have their homes. It's a time-honored American
    tradition. Native Americans were pushed from their
    land as wagon trains of settlers, driven by manifest
    destiny, spread westward. Similarly, the new Bayview
    is not for the folks who live there now. As former
    Mayor Willie Brown himself said before he left office,
    the new Bayview will be market-rate condos with the
    best views in town.

    Your help is desperately needed.

    Come to the hearing on March 7 at City Hall room 416,
    4pm. It is imperative that we stand with the residents
    of Bayview. It is imperative that people from all
    communities and struggles come together to oppose the
    annexing of 1300 acres of land next to the shipyard.
    No more Fillmores! No eviction notice for Bayview! No
    more gentrification! Redistribute the wealth, don't
    steal our homes! The land does not belong to the
    realtors or the rich! Nuestra tierra, nuestro mundo!
    Our land, our world!

    Estamos juntos en la lucha...we are together in the
    struggle--or we all go down separately!

    tommi avicolli mecca

    Read:

    Eviction notice served on Bayview Hunters Point
    Editorial by Willie Ratcliff
    http://www.sfbayview.com/020806/evictionnotice020806.shtml

    ...................................................................

    NATIONAL WEEK OF CAMPUS ACTION
    Week of March 13-17
    Students Say NO to War in Iraq!
    College Not Combat, Troops Out Now!

    (*Spring break alternative: Schools on spring
    break during March 13-17
    will hold events the week of March 20)

    Student week of action coordinated by the
    Campus Antiwar Network
    http://www.campusantiwar.net
    RecruitersOut@yahoo.com

    Charles Jenks
    Chair of Advisory Board and Web Manager
    Traprock Peace Center
    103A Keets Road
    Deerfield, MA 01342
    413-773-7427
    fax 413-773-7507
    http://www.traprockpeace.org

    ...........................................................

    Third Anniversary of "Shock and Awe"
    Saturday, March 18, 2006, 11:00 a.m.
    CIVIC CENTER
    San Francisco

    Monday, March 20, 2006
    Youth and Student Day
    of Resistance to Imperialism

    http://www.answercoalition.org/

    ...........................................................

    Major Mobilization Set for April 29th

    Dear Friends,

    We are pleased to announce the kick-off for the organizing
    of what promises to be a major national mobilization on
    Saturday, April 29th. Today, each of the initiating groups
    (see list below) is announcing this mobilization. Our
    organizations have agreed to work together on this
    project for several reasons:

    The April 29th mobilization will highlight our call for an
    immediate end to the war on Iraq. We are also raising
    several other critical issues that are directly connected
    to one another.

    It is time for our constituencies to work more closely:
    connecting the issues we work on by bringing diverse
    communities into a common project.

    It is important for our movements to help set the agenda
    for the Congressional elections later in the year. Our
    unified action in the streets is a vital part of that process.

    Please share the April 29th call widely, and please use
    the links at the end of the call to endorse this timely
    mobilization and to sign up for email updates.

    April 29th Initiating Organizations
    United for Peace and Justice
    Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
    National Organization for Women
    Friends of the Earth
    U.S. Labor Against the War
    Climate Crisis Coalition
    Peoples' Hurricane Relief Fund
    National Youth and Student Peace Coalition

    A war based on lies
    Spying, corruption and attacks on civil liberties
    Katrina survivors abandoned by government

    MARCH FOR PEACE,
    JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY

    End the war in Iraq -
    Bring all our troops home now!

    SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 2006
    NEW YORK CITY

    Unite for change - let's turn our country around!

    The times are urgent and we must act.

    Too much is too wrong in this country. We have a foreign
    policy that is foreign to our core values, and domestic
    policies wreaking havoc at home. It's time for a change.

    No more never-ending oil wars!
    Protect our civil liberties & immigrant rights. End illegal
    spying, government corruption and the subversion of
    our democracy.

    Rebuild our communities, starting with the Gulf Coast.
    Stop corporate subsidies and tax cuts for the wealthy
    while ignoring our basic needs.

    Act quickly to address the climate crisis and the
    accelerating destruction of our environment.

    Our message to the White House and to Congress
    is clear: either stand with us or stand aside!

    We are coming together to march, to vote, to speak
    out and to turn our country around!

    Join us in New York City on Saturday, April 29th

    Click here to endorse this mobilization:
    http://unitedforpeace.org/modinput4.php?modin=119
    Click here to sign up for email updates on plans for April 29th:
    http://www.unitedforpeace.org/email

    April 29th Initiating Organizations
    United for Peace and Justice
    Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
    National Organization for Women
    Friends of the Earth
    U.S. Labor Against the War
    Climate Crisis Coalition
    Peoples' Hurricane Relief Fund
    National Youth and Student Peace Coalition

    ......................................................................

    ANSWER Coalition: All Out for April 29 in New York City!
    End Occupation from Iraq to Palestine, to Haiti, and Everywhere!
    Fight for workers rights, civil rights and civil liberties - unite
    against racism!

    300,000 Came to Washington on Sept. 24

    In recent weeks the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has been in the final
    stages for planning a national demonstration in Washington DC on April
    29, 2006. This action was to follow the local and regional
    demonstrations for March 18-19 and youth and student actions scheduled
    on March 20 on the 3rd anniversary of the criminal bombing, invasion
    and occupation of Iraq.

    On September 24, 2005 more than 300,000 people surrounded the White
    House in the largest mobilization against the Iraq war and occupation
    since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. This demonstration was
    initiated by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition in May 2005 and we urged a
    united front with other major anti-war coalitions and communities. We
    marched demanding immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Iraq. We
    also stood in solidarity with the Palestinian and Haitian people and
    others who are suffering under and resisting occupation. Coming as it
    did following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we changed the demands of
    the September 24 protest to include the slogan "From Iraq to New
    Orleans, FundPeople's Needs not the War Machine."

    During the past several years, and as demonstrated in a powerful
    display on September 24, the anti-war movement has grown significantly
    in its breadth and depth as the leadership has included the Arab and
    Muslim community -- those who are among the primary targets of the
    Bush Administration's current war at home and abroad.

    The anti-war sentiment inside the United States is rapidly becoming a
    significant obstacle to the Bush Administration's war in Iraq. The
    anti-war movement has the potential to be a critical deterrent to the
    U.S. government's aspirations for Empire. At this moment the White
    House and Pentagon are issuing threats and making plans to move
    against other sovereign countries. Iran and Syria are being targeted
    as the U.S. seeks to consolidate power in the Middle East.

    Simultaneously the Bush administration is working to undermine the
    gains of the people of Latin America by working totopple the
    democratically elected president of Venezuela and destroy the
    revolutionary process for social change going on in that country.
    Likewise it is intensifying the economic war and CIA subversions
    against Cuba.

    We believe that our movement must weld together the broadest, most
    diverse coalition of various sectors and communities into an effective
    force for change. This requires the inclusion of targeted communities
    and political clarity. The war in Iraq is not simply an aberrational
    policy of the Bush neo-conservatives. Iraq is emblematic of a larger
    war for Empire. It is part of a multi-pronged attack against all those
    countries that refuse to follow the economic, political and military
    dictates of the Washington establishment and Wall Street.

    This is the foundation of the political program upon which the
    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has organized mass demonstrations in the recent
    years. The fact that many hundreds of thousands of people
    havedemonstrated in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, New
    York and other cities is a testament to the huge progress that has
    been made in building a new movement on this principled basis.
    The people of the United States have nothing to gain and everything to
    lose from the occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Haiti and
    the threats of new wars and intervention in Syria, Iran, Venezuela,
    Cuba, the Philippines, North Korea and elsewhere. It has been made
    crystal clear in recent weeks that Washington is aggressively
    prosecuting its strategy of total domination of the Middle East. U.S.
    leaders are seeking to crush all resistance to their colonial agenda,
    whether from states or popular movements in the region. The
    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition andthe anti-war movement is raising the demand,
    "U.S. Out of the Middle East."

    At its core, the war for Empire is supported by the Republican Party
    and Democratic Party alike, which constitute the twin parties of
    militarism and war, and this quest for global domination will continue
    regardless of the outcome of the 2006 election. In fact, leading
    Democrats are attacking Bush for being "soft" on Iran and North Korea.
    Real hope for turning the tide rests with building a powerful global
    movement of resistance in which the people of the United States stand
    with their sisters and brothers struggling against imperialism and the
    new colonialism.

    On the home front the Bush administration is involved in a
    far-reaching assault against working class communities as most
    glaringly evidenced by its criminal and racist negligence towards the
    people of New Orleans and throughout the hurricane ravaged Gulf
    States. While turning their backs on these communities in the moments
    ofgreatest need, the U.S. government is now working with the banks and
    developers who, like vultures, are exploiting mass suffering and
    dislocation to carry out racist gentrification that only benefits the
    wealthy. The administration is also working to eviscerate hard-fought
    civil rights and civil liberties, engaging in a widespread campaign of
    domestic spying and wiretapping against the people of the U.S. and
    other assaults against the First and Fourth Amendments.

    In early December 2005, the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition filed for permits
    for a national march in Washington DC on April 29, 2006. We were
    preparing to announce the April 29 action but in recent days we have
    heard from A.N.S.W.E.R. organizers in a number of unions that U.S.
    Labor Against the War was seeking union endorsements for a call for an
    anti-war demonstration on the same day in New York City. Having two
    demonstrations on April 29 in both Washington D.C. and New York City
    seems to us to be lessadvantageous than having the movement unite
    behind one single mobilization. As such, we decided to hold back our
    announcement. Subsequently, the New York City demonstration has been
    announced by a number of organizations. Underscoring the need to have
    the largest possible demonstration on April 29, the A.N.S.W.E.R.
    Coalition has decided to fully mobilize, in all of its chapters and
    organizing centers, to bring people to the New York City demonstration
    on April 29. The banners and slogans of different coalitions may not
    be the same, but it is in the interest of everyone to march
    shoulder-to-shoulder against the criminal war in Iraq and the Bush
    administration's War for Empire, including its racist, sexist and
    anti-worker domestic program.

    All out for a united, mass mobilization on April 29 in New York City!
    Click here to become a transportation center in your city or town for
    the April 29 demonstration.

    Click here to receive updates on A.N.S.W.E.R.'s mobilization for the
    April 29 NYC demonstration.
    A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
    Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
    http://www.answercoalition.org/
    info@internationalanswer.org
    National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
    New York City: 212-694-8720
    Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
    San Francisco: 415-821-6545
    Click here to unsubscribe from the ANSWER e-mail list.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    Welcome to the Official Push for Peace Site!
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=
    The Push for Peace logo shows a Navy veteran in a wheelchair with
    a peace sign on the wheel, with people marching behind him.
    It can be seen at:
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=node/71
    Push For Peace is a collective of veterans, progressive activists, and
    everyday citizens working together through education, motivation,
    and truth to bring America’s troops home from the war in Iraq and
    to help bring healing and peace to our nation. The Push For Peace
    movement is geared to combine the efforts of able-bodied activists
    to those with special needs or challenges, so that all people can
    participate and be counted. The Push For Peace effort will include
    organized rallies and marches, as well as appearances and
    performances by high-profile speakers and entertainers,
    to rally the American people and show them we stand united
    with our fellow citizen and soldier. It is our goal to grow the
    base of participants each day resulting in a cross-country Push
    culminating at the gates of the White House on July 4, 2006.
    Events will be scheduled across the country leading up to the
    big Push in July. So keep checking the Push calendar for events
    near you.
    Mapping it all out...[Website shows map of stops in US en route
    to DC on July 4, 2006...bw]
    This is a tentative and unfinished P4P route and is only a work
    in progress. The Push is set to leave Golden Gate Park on
    Memorial Day 2006 (currently working on permits) and then
    we will Push our way across the country to arrive in DC across
    from the White House gathering at Lafayette Park (currently
    working on permits) on July 4th, 2006.
    Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California
    Las Vegas Nevada
    Phoenix, Arizona
    Denver, Colorado
    Crawford, Texas
    New Orleans, Louisiana
    more states pending...
    Pushing real Democracy!
    http://www.pushforpeace.us/civic/index.php?q=

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
    ARTICLES IN FULL:
    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    1) THE FIGHT FOR OUR SURVIVAL
    From: David Johnson
    To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
    Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 1:48 PM

    2) Letter from: Joe Buckley - President, UAW Local 69

    3) The Trust Gap
    NYT Editorial
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/opinion/12sun1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

    4) The Count
    Iraq War’s Virtues May Be Debatable. The Profits Aren’t.
    By HUBERT B. HERRING
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/business/yourmoney/12count.html?pagewanted=all

    5) Everybody's Business
    New Front: Protecting America's Investors
    By BEN STEIN
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/business/yourmoney/12every.html?pagewanted=all

    6) The trouble with tough love
    Humiliating teen addicts can't cure them
    Maia Szalavitz
    Sunday, February 12, 2006
    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/02/12/INGHIH5N9M1.DTL

    7) Cheney Shoots Fellow Hunter in Mishap on a Texas Ranch
    By ANNE E. KORNBLUT
    [If you thought that if our leaders are not in the headlines
    they are quietly working, think again...bw]
    February 13, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/politics/13cheney.html?hp&ex=1139893200&en=ef5d2efe3efde24c&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    8) Debt and Denial
    By PAUL KRUGMAN
    February 13, 2006
    http://select.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/opinion/13krugman.html?hp

    9) Hawaii Agrees to Change Policies for Incarcerated Gay Youths
    By JANIS L. MAGIN
    February 13, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/national/13hawaii.html

    10) TREATY OF RELATIONS
    BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA,
    SIGNED MAY 29, 1934
    [Here's the text of the 1934 treaty with Cuba which the United States
    is violating by using the base as a prison/torture facility today.]
    http://www.walterlippmann.com/us-cuba-guantanamo-treaty-1934.html

    11) Out of Sight, Out of Mind
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    February 12, 2006
    Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com

    12) WHAT STATE? WHAT UNION?
    [Col. Writ. 2/1/06] Copyright 2006 Mumia Abu-Jamal

    13) Cuba Amateurs Face Millionaires in World Baseball Classic
    By Circles Robinson
    www.circlesonline.blogspot.com

    14) Group Starts Anti-Union Campaign
    By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
    February 14, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/business/14labor.html?pagewanted=all

    15) G.M. to Invest $500 Million in Michigan
    By MICHELINE MAYNARD
    February 14, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/business/14gm.html?pagewanted=all

    16) Hotel Aid Ends; Katrina Evacuees Seek Housing Again
    By SHAILA DEWAN
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/national/nationalspecial/14hotels.html

    17) UCSC Military Recruitment Debate Reportback
    by bob fitch (photos) & josh sonnenfeld (words)
    Saturday, Feb. 11, 2006 at 4:32 P
    http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1801777.php

    18) Outrage Spreads over New Images
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website
    Inter Press Service
    Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com
    The recently aired photos depicting
    torturing of Iraqis by U.S. military
    personnel at Abu Ghraib prison are
    now posted for viewing at
    www.dahrjamailiraq.com
    Go here to view the photos:
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album42

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    1) THE FIGHT FOR OUR SURVIVAL
    From: David Johnson
    To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
    Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 1:48 PM

    I would like to make an URGENT appeal to all of you,
    on behalf of a group of 150 brave men and women, who
    are in a desperate fight for their families and
    community.

    These brave men and women are being attacked by a
    transnational corporation, that has descended like a
    vulture upon their small community in western
    Illinois.

    The struggle I am referring to is the battle between
    Boilermakers local 484 in Merdosia Illinois, and the
    German based CELANESE corporation.

    I am well aware of the NUMEROUS attacks and
    struggles we all are facing world-wide by the New
    World Order Corporate class and their bought and
    paid for politicians,

    HOWEVER, I would like to state that the journey of a
    thousand miles begins with ONE relatively simple
    first step.

    The step I am referring to is WINNING !

    I don't know about the rest of you, but I am getting
    sick and tired of seeing one losing battle after
    another being fought by working people around the
    world, and the ever expanding corporate blitzkrieg
    getting bolder and more destructive with each
    victory.

    That is why we NEED to begin not just fighting back,
    but WINNING !

    In my opinion, the CELANESE Corp. / Boilermakers
    Local 484 is a winable fight.

    I have evidence to prove this, but instead of
    continuing with a lengthy explanation, I have one
    simple request.

    Contact me ( wherever you live worldwide ) and give
    me some contacts of people involved in ;

    Individual Unions, Labor Federations / Councils, and
    other citizen organizations, so that we can fight
    back EVERYWHERE GLOBALLY.

    I would ESPECIALLY like to hear from European
    brothers and sisters, who could find out more
    information about CELANESE Corp. ( based in Germany
    ) as to world-wide operations, subsideraries, etc,
    ANYTHING that could be useful to figtht these
    corporate bastards.

    In addition to the above, if each of you who read
    this, could afford to send at least U.S. $ 10.00, to
    help feed and house these brave men and women, so
    that they can continue to fight and WIN, you will
    ultimately be helping yourselves and others in your
    community, by begining to turn the tide against the
    corporate monolith that is systematically destroying
    our standard of living and our planet.

    PLEASE FORWARD THIS E-MAIL FAR AND WIDE !

    In Solidarity

    David Johnson
    Champaign, IL. USA
    unionyes@ameritech.net

    Send donations to ;

    Boilermakers 484
    P.O. Box 258
    Merdosia, IL. 62665
    USA
    To e-mail Community Labor Discussion: clnews@lists.clnews.org
    To unsubscribe, e-mail: clnews-unsubscribe@lists.clnews.org
    To subscribe, e-mail: clnews-subscribe@lists.clnews.org
    For additional commands, e-mail: clnews-help@lists.clnews.org
    www.CLNews.org - "educate, agitate, and organize,"

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    2) Letter from: Joe Buckley - President, UAW Local 69

    Delphi has a total of 160,000 workers worldwide. Out of that
    160,000, 24,000 are UAW workers and 8000 are made up of IUE,
    Steelworkers and CWA members. The remaining 128,000 workers
    are in foreign countries and are not a part of the chapter 11 filing.
    Delphi has $1.5 billion dollars in cash, yet finds it necessary to file
    bankruptcy only on its American operations. This is while they
    demand that their American workers take pay cuts in excess of
    63% and that each worker pay in excess of $5000 dollars per year
    for out of pocket medical expenses, not to mention general
    take-aways of everything our unions and members have fought
    for over the past 25 years.

    To add to the insult, these demands come after Delphi's hiring
    of Steve Miller as CEO, giving him a $3.5 million dollar signing
    bonus, a yearly salary of $1.5 million, and another bonus upon
    completion of Delphi's reorganization. Delphi also set aside
    $90 million dollars in retention bonuses for executives along
    with lucrative severance packages. Apparently, these are the
    rewards for the bad business decisions of Delphi and its
    executives.

    I'm sure you have all read that Miller yielded to the pressure
    from the media concerning his bonus and salary and that
    he stated his intentions to forego his $1.5 million dollar
    salary for the next year. I have tried to put into perspective
    the equality of his sacrifice. Just with his $3.5 million dollar
    signing bonus alone, he will make $87,000 per week, or
    $239.00 an hour every hour of every day, asleep or awake,
    24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Compare that to his
    proposal that we work for $10.00 an hour or $400.00 per
    week while we pay in excess of $5000.00 per year in health
    care. I just can't see the equality of sacrifice in those numbers.

    In closing, I would say this to Steven Miller and to Delphi;
    The working men and women of our unions are NOT going
    to mow your grass for $10.00 an hour. Maybe you should
    mow your own grass and let us run the business...
    Thanks again for your participation. SOLIDARITY FOREVER!
    Joe Buckley - President, UAW Local 69

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    3) The Trust Gap
    NYT Editorial
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/opinion/12sun1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

    We can't think of a president who has gone to the American people
    more often than George W. Bush has to ask them to forget about
    things like democracy, judicial process and the balance of powers
    — and just trust him. We also can't think of a president who has
    deserved that trust less.

    This has been a central flaw of Mr. Bush's presidency for a long time.
    But last week produced a flood of evidence that vividly drove home the point.

    DOMESTIC SPYING After 9/11, Mr. Bush authorized the National
    Security Agency to eavesdrop on the conversations and e-mail
    of Americans and others in the United States without obtaining
    a warrant or allowing Congress or the courts to review the operation.
    Lawmakers from both parties have raised considerable doubt
    about the legality of this program, but Attorney General Alberto
    Gonzales made it clear last Monday at a Senate hearing that
    Mr. Bush hasn't the slightest intention of changing it.

    According to Mr. Gonzales, the administration can be relied
    upon to police itself and hold the line between national security
    and civil liberties on its own. Set aside the rather huge problem
    that our democracy doesn't work that way. It's not clear that this
    administration knows where the line is, much less that it is capable
    of defending it. Mr. Gonzales's own dedication to the truth is
    in considerable doubt. In sworn testimony at his confirmation
    hearing last year, he dismissed as "hypothetical" a question about
    whether he believed the president had the authority to conduct
    warrantless surveillance. In fact, Mr. Gonzales knew Mr. Bush
    was doing just that, and had signed off on it as White House
    counsel.

    THE PRISON CAMPS It has been nearly two years since the Abu
    Ghraib scandal illuminated the violence, illegal detentions and
    other abuses at United States military prison camps. There have
    been Congressional hearings, court rulings imposing normal
    judicial procedures on the camps, and a law requiring prisoners
    to be treated humanely. Yet nothing has changed. Mr. Bush also
    made it clear that he intends to follow the new law on the treatment
    of prisoners when his internal moral compass tells him
    it is the right thing to do.

    On Thursday, Tim Golden of The Times reported that United
    States military authorities had taken to tying up and force-feeding
    the prisoners who had gone on hunger strikes by the dozens
    at Guantánamo Bay to protest being held without any semblance
    of justice. The article said administration officials were concerned
    that if a prisoner died, it could renew international criticism of Gitmo.
    They should be concerned. This is not some minor embarrassment.
    It is a lingering outrage that has undermined American credibility
    around the world.

    According to numerous news reports, the majority of the Gitmo
    detainees are neither members of Al Qaeda nor fighters captured
    on the battlefield in Afghanistan. The National Journal reported last
    week that many were handed over to the American forces for bounties
    by Pakistani and Afghan warlords. Others were just swept up.
    The military has charged only 10 prisoners with terrorism. Hearings
    for the rest were not held for three years and then were mostly
    sham proceedings.

    And yet the administration continues to claim that it can be trusted
    to run these prisons fairly, to decide in secret and on the president's
    whim who is to be jailed without charges, and to insist that Gitmo
    is filled with dangerous terrorists.

    THE WAR IN IRAQ One of Mr. Bush's biggest "trust me" moments
    was when he told Americans that the United States had to invade
    Iraq because it possessed dangerous weapons and posed an immediate
    threat to America. The White House has blocked a Congressional
    investigation into whether it exaggerated the intelligence on Iraq,
    and continues to insist that the decision to invade was based
    on the consensus of American intelligence agencies.

    But the next edition of the journal Foreign Affairs includes an article
    by the man in charge of intelligence on Iraq until last year, Paul Pillar,
    who said the administration cherry-picked intelligence to support
    a decision to invade that had already been made. He said Mr. Bush
    and Vice President Dick Cheney made it clear what results they
    wanted and heeded only the analysts who produced them.
    Incredibly, Mr. Pillar said, the president never asked for an
    assessment on the consequences of invading Iraq until a year
    after the invasion. He said the intelligence community did that
    analysis on its own and forecast a deeply divided society ripe
    for civil war.

    When the administration did finally ask for an intelligence
    assessment, Mr. Pillar led the effort, which concluded in
    August 2004 that Iraq was on the brink of disaster. Officials
    then leaked his authorship to the columnist Robert Novak and
    to The Washington Times. The idea was that Mr. Pillar was
    not to be trusted because he dissented from the party line.
    Somehow, this sounds like a story we have heard before.

    Like many other administrations before it, this one sometimes
    dissembles clumsily to avoid embarrassment. (We now know,
    for example, that the White House did not tell the truth about
    when it learned the levees in New Orleans had failed.)
    Spin-as-usual is one thing. Striking at the civil liberties,
    due process and balance of powers that are the heart
    of American democracy is another.

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    4) The Count
    Iraq War’s Virtues May Be Debatable. The Profits Aren’t.
    By HUBERT B. HERRING
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/business/yourmoney/12count.html?pagewanted=all

    In his recent State of the Union address, President Bush called
    for the nation to back the war in Iraq and to "stand behind the
    American military in this vital mission."

    No matter how one feels about this particular conflict, war always
    has winners and losers — on both sides. There's the human toll,
    of course, which Mr. Bush acknowledged. Whether democracy
    and freedom will, over all, be winners, only history will divulge.

    But some indisputable winners are clear now: military contractors.
    Suppose an investor were endowed with that golden instinct for
    spotting bargains and bought 100 shares of each of the top six
    military contractors at their lows of the last six years — lows
    reached by four of them in March 2000, before the election,
    before Sept. 11 and before any hint of war. That basket
    of shares would have cost $12,731.50. On Friday, it would
    have been worth three and a half times that: $44,417.

    Little wonder. Just look at the money machines these
    contractors have become as the war drags on.

    HUBERT B. HERRING

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    5) Everybody's Business
    New Front: Protecting America's Investors
    By BEN STEIN
    February 12, 2006
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/business/yourmoney/12every.html?pagewanted=all

    IN the tiny room where I am writing this missive, there are four little
    display cases and a framed diploma, among many other mementos.
    The diploma is for my father-in-law, Dale Denman Jr. of Arkansas,
    and it is from the United States Military Academy, dated June 6, 1944
    — a day when quite a lot was happening of military significance in France.

    Next to that is a display case with two little stars. One is a Silver Star
    that my father-in-law won in Europe several months after he graduated.
    It is for running along a road under heavy German machine-gun fire to
    call in artillery to save the company for which he was a forward artillery
    observer. Next to it is a Bronze Star that my father-in-law, then a colonel,
    won in Vietnam in 1966 for holding his unit together when it was
    ambushed by a Vietcong force and would have been cut to pieces
    without him.

    I have been thinking a lot lately about these heirlooms that Colonel
    Denman left to my wife and me. That's because of some mail I have
    been getting about my recent articles in this space about the way high
    executives have been treating their employees and stockholders. What
    I said two weeks ago about UAL, the parent company of United Airlines,
    prompted hundreds of e-mail messages. (I have still not even remotely
    caught up with all of them because I read them myself — no secretary here.)

    Several people sent clippings describing how UAL provided Glenn F. Tilton,
    who was living in San Francisco when it hired him as chairman and chief
    executive, with a suite in a luxury hotel when he spent time at its
    headquarters in Chicago. UAL was paying for the suite — which cost
    $18,000 a month, according to The San Francisco Chronicle — while
    it was reorganizing its finances under bankruptcy court protection
    and telling tens of thousands of workers that their jobs had been
    eliminated, their pay cut, their pensions terminated or all of the
    above because the company was broke.

    Some of the letter writers recalled how UAL spent an average of
    $10 million a month on lawyers, accountants and investment bankers
    for 37 months while UAL was in bankruptcy, and yet was unable
    to pay its employees their pensions.

    Now UAL has emerged from bankruptcy with a mighty flourish, and
    an allowance of hundreds of millions of dollars for its top executives.
    Some letters pointed out that one of UAL's board members is none
    other than our old friend Robert S. Miller, chief executive of Delphi,
    the auto parts maker.

    Delphi also recently entered bankruptcy — but proposed to the
    bankruptcy court a payment of well over $100 million to its top
    executives to keep them happy while it was in bankruptcy. Mr. Miller,
    who goes by Steve, a version of his middle name (not the one who
    sings "Fly Like an Eagle," but an artist of sorts nonetheless), has
    told Delphi's workers that they will have to take pay cuts of roughly
    two-thirds in order to save the business.

    But my favorite communication, the one that made me stay up nights,
    was from a United States Army sergeant who has done two combat
    tours in Iraq and two more in Afghanistan, and is now home in Georgia
    training others to serve in those wars. I have been pals with this man
    for a couple of years now, and we talk on the phone. He has been
    following my articles online, and he simply asked, "Was this what
    I was fighting for in Iraq?"

    The question haunts me, not only because of UAL and Delphi, but
    also because there is something deeply broken about the corporate
    system in America. Long ago, my pop was pals with Harlow H.